# Aaron Bergman's complete tweet archive, all months in one file Generated 2026-10-09T23:37:13+00:00. Same content as the monthly pages at https://abergman.com/tweets, oldest month first. # Aaron Bergman's tweets, September 2019 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in September 2019 and has not deleted: 1 post, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Next month: [October 2019](https://abergman.com/tweets/2019-10). ## Sunday, September 29, 2019 ### [Reply to @CNLiberalism, 05:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1178178235684679680) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @CNLiberalism is no longer available.)_ Wait is this real --- End of September 2019. Next month: [October 2019](https://abergman.com/tweets/2019-10). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, October 2019 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in October 2019 and has not deleted: 2 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [September 2019](https://abergman.com/tweets/2019-09). Next month: [December 2019](https://abergman.com/tweets/2019-12). ## Saturday, October 19, 2019 ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 01:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1185368217168044032) · 2 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** What are two beliefs you hold that aren't usually held by the same person? > For example: > "I believe the moon landing was faked" > and "I believe the government is 100% honest about 9/11" > Or > "Racism is way overblown" > "But really pls check your privilege" Veganism is definitively the most ethical diet and probably a pretty unhealthy diet long term ## Monday, October 28, 2019 ### [Reply to @sentientist, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1188909113226530816) > **Diana S. Fleischman (@sentientist):** I can’t wait to have a “race reveal” cake when I’m pregnant. I agree with most of your tweets but this seems like you’re misunderstanding the claim. Obviously, if society X designates Jim and Pam “white” then it will designate their kid “white” too. But that doesn’t mean that race is a meaningful genetic category in the way sex is. --- End of October 2019. Previous month: [September 2019](https://abergman.com/tweets/2019-09). Next month: [December 2019](https://abergman.com/tweets/2019-12). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, December 2019 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in December 2019 and has not deleted: 2 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [October 2019](https://abergman.com/tweets/2019-10). Next month: [February 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-02). ## Monday, December 2, 2019 ### [Reply to @alexeyguzey, 04:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1201358868342816769) · 1 like > **Alexey Guzey (@alexeyguzey):** Is it just a coincidence that apparently Korea, China, and Japan all have very similar, grind-based education systems, strong deference to authority, etc. ??? > > https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/dtho66/korean_education_a_view_from_the_trenches/ Like a sort of neo-Malthusianism. The most successful cultures in modern economy will be those that degrade the individual wellbeing of their members. ## Monday, December 16, 2019 ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1206669105627054081) · 12 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ I believe “anchoring effect” is a more apt term than “Overton window” here. --- End of December 2019. Previous month: [October 2019](https://abergman.com/tweets/2019-10). Next month: [February 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-02). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, February 2020 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in February 2020 and has not deleted: 16 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [December 2019](https://abergman.com/tweets/2019-12). Next month: [March 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-03). ## Sunday, February 2, 2020 ### [Reply, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1223776505119092738) · 1 like This could be the picture that secured enough funding for AGI research such that we avoid a dystopian universe of infinite simulated suffering ## Monday, February 3, 2020 ### [Reply to @JButtafoucault, 15:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1224361208595275782) · 11 likes > **Joey ButtaFoucault ☭ (@JButtafoucault):** @ezraklein Three cheers for woke capitalism! Except this time the wokism is actually reducing a huge amount of suffering. ### [Reply to @Food4JS, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1224406364635779072) · 2 likes > **JSmith (@Food4JS):** @AaronBergman18 @IanJSchwartz @ezraklein Whose suffering? Yup, chickens’ ## Wednesday, February 5, 2020 ### [Reply, 17:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1225109236431998976) · 1 like Surprised about naltrexone ## Thursday, February 6, 2020 ### [Reply to @alexeyguzey, 17:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1225471566001078272) · 3 likes > **Alexey Guzey (@alexeyguzey):** given that depression is defined by the absence of motivation, anhedonia, loss of meaning, etc. why do so many people with depression seek psychological help, take antidepressants, etc? There’s a big gap between “losing enough motivation that your life becomes much worse” and “losing so much motivation that you literally can’t drag yourself to a doctor’s appointment.” ## Sunday, February 9, 2020 ### [Reply to @clairlemon, 04:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1226365823507259393) · 3 likes > **Claire Lehmann (@clairlemon):** Benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome is so serious I'm perplexed as to why anyone is ever prescribed this medication in the first place https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzodiazepine_withdrawal_syndrome Throw SSRIs in there too https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antidepressant_discontinuation_syndrome. ## Friday, February 14, 2020 ### [Reply, 04:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1228180999122518018) Why? She is almost certainly more savvy at using and willing to use the regulatory state/executive branch to go around congress. Even if you think her platform is worse than sanders’, this is really important. ## Sunday, February 16, 2020 ### [Reply to @robinhanson, 17:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1229093357110079489) · 5 likes > **Robin Hanson (@robinhanson):** .@RobynElyse: "Robin Hanson … suggested that a woman who 'cuckolds' a man should be punished more severely than a rapist who drugs & then rapes a woman while she is unconscious" NO, if cuckold makes kid, I ASKED why we don't punish those cases similarly https://www.wonkette.com/economist-suggests-infecting-a-ton-of-people-with-coronavirus-to-help-people-with-coronavirus Meta point: it’s crazy that so few tenured professors say things that are even 10% as controversial as any of these tweets. So few people have such a privilege - make use of it! ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 19:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1229129141779390465) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Data would be 2 numbers on an infographic. This has 4 so I think it qualifies as Big Data. ## Tuesday, February 18, 2020 ### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 20:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1229859347653701633) · 3 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** My first reaction to this snarky statement is that it's also just true. But I comprehend some things poorly. Does anyone know, say, a professional mathematician, who is a low decoupler? > > (quoting @gmiller: For 'high decoupler', also read 'capable of abstract thought'.) “Low decoupler” could mean either “propensity not to decouple but capable of decoupling” or “incapable of decoupling.” Seems that a mathematician could be of the first type but not the second. ## Wednesday, February 19, 2020 ### [Reply, 01:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1229946379000336384) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ This honestly fits best damn ### [Reply to @KaraRBrown, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1230011060712804353) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @KaraRBrown is no longer available.)_ I’m ashamed for not having thought of this. ## Friday, February 21, 2020 ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1230713233037643776) · 2 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** 1/Today's @bopinion post is about how poverty imposes impossible demands on poor people, making it harder for them to escape poverty. > > https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-02-20/poverty-is-all-about-personal-stress-not-laziness Fantastic thread. ### [Reply to @MichaelRStrain, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1230733833919614982) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @MichaelRStrain is no longer available.)_ I think Elizabeth Warren wrote a book about this or something idk ## Tuesday, February 25, 2020 ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 02:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1232134104336027649) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ 2 weeks later: “mainstream media downplaying Coronavirus to prevent immigration restrictions” ### [Reply to @ryharrin, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1232384195177189377) · 1 like > **Ryan Harrington (@ryharrin):** @AaronBergman18 @ezraklein Well, there's the possibility that Biden could be there nominee. That would drive Trump's percentage up. True, forgot to mention that Biden polls well against him too. Point is that prediction markets don’t match probability-weighted avg polls of democratic contenders vs Trump. --- End of February 2020. Previous month: [December 2019](https://abergman.com/tweets/2019-12). Next month: [March 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-03). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, March 2020 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in March 2020 and has not deleted: 14 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [February 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-02). Next month: [April 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-04). ## Sunday, March 1, 2020 ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 04:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1233965626940588032) · 2 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** More data to back up the notion that Millennials, more than previous generations, think about college in terms of what job it can get them. > > https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-29/most-college-graduates-wish-they-majored-in-something-different > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ER_r93SUUAAVY_O.png) Things are a lot more precarious for us, financially (well I’m Gen Z, but I predict the trend will continue). It’s no longer a ticket into the middle class. ## Monday, March 2, 2020 ### [Reply to @BadEconTakes, 03:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1234318436077096961) · 4 likes > **Bad Econ Takes (@BadEconTakes):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ESEbgV-UUAAYT0F.jpg) Currently majoring in Econ. To be charitable, I think there’s a case to be made that teaching perfect competition as the implicit default actually is sorta unfairly pro-free market. Like maybe oligopoly should be chapter 1 instead. ### [Reply, 06:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1234358380900356096) · 2 likes I agree, but I don’t think the avg person coming out of Econ 101 thinks of it that way. ## Wednesday, March 4, 2020 ### [Reply to @JimDMiller, 00:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1235005450942386177) > **James Miller (@JimDMiller):** @robertwiblin Amazon, as people want to avoid stores. Even with supply chain disruptions galore, limiting supplies of products? I think any physical detail will be harmed. ### [Reply, 04:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1235066326168805376) · 1 like Do you have a positive argument as to why consciousness doesn’t collapse the wave function? I can’t pretend to understand it but apparently David Chalmers thinks it’s plausible. ## Friday, March 6, 2020 ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1235972661454520321) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Best line: “The Federalist is extending the fight w/ a planned “1620 Project” about the anniversary of the Mayflower Landing at Plymouth Rock. (This plan is already inviting its own correction request, since Plymouth Rock is not actually the site of the Pilgrims’ first landing.)” ## Saturday, March 7, 2020 ### [Reply to @jbarro, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1236391375161012224) · 7 likes > **Josh Barro (@jbarro):** we should protect children, for example, by vaccinating them > > (quoting @marwilliamson: The point isn’t just to elect a woman per se as important as that is. The most important thing is a woman’s primary concerns: to protect children- which must mean everyone’s child & not just our own; and take care of our home- which today means the home we share, or earth itself.) These dunks on her are pretty unfair. Where does she argue against vaccination? It’s a meme that isn’t true. ## Monday, March 9, 2020 ### [Reply to @gmiller, 00:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1236806757265137664) > **Geoffrey Miller (@gmiller):** Not if investors have learned relevant new information over the weekend. Yeah that was dumb you’re right. ## Wednesday, March 11, 2020 ### [Reply to @auderdy, 23:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1237889814873001985) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @auderdy is no longer available.)_ It’s an interesting synthesis of quasi-mystical/spiritual language attempting to capture sensations that are not easily represented symbolically, and precise, kinda scientific sounding language to signal rigor and skepticism. ### [Reply, 23:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1237890959620227073) · 12 likes I predict a continued rise in the clout and legitimacy of online bloggers/intellectuals a la Slate Star Codex and Marginal Revolution ## Thursday, March 12, 2020 ### [Reply, 00:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1237901296520364038) · 1 like I think there’s an important distinction between being able to capture the monetary/prestige that one deserves from online work and being regarded as a legitimate resource. Your argument seems stronger against the former than the latter. 1/ ### [Reply to @nosilverv, 00:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1237901681469333505) > **Guy (@nosilverv):** @SamoBurja @AaronBergman18 Is legitimacy acquired only via entryism? Can't we all rep each other and overbroadcast other sourceS? Honestly I have no idea what this means. ## Thursday, March 26, 2020 ### [Reply to @WHOWPRO, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1243294063719329793) · 18 likes > **World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific (@WHOWPRO):** If you do not have any respiratory symptoms, such as fever, cough, or runny nose, you do not need to wear a medical mask. When used alone, masks can give you a false feeling of protection and can even be a source of infection when not used correctly. ➡️https://bit.ly/2QN3QOp > > [video attached](https://x.com/WHOWPRO/status/1243171683067777024/video/1) I mean it’s probably true that they should be reserved for doctors and nurses, but do you really have to just lie to the public? ## Saturday, March 28, 2020 ### [Reply to @delusionalcons, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1244007925124870145) · 2 likes > **Absurd Conservamemes (@delusionalcons):** you ever just... > > gesture with your hands? Hitler had hair, AOC has hair. Coincidence🤔🤔🤔 --- End of March 2020. Previous month: [February 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-02). Next month: [April 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-04). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, April 2020 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in April 2020 and has not deleted: 8 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [March 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-03). Next month: [May 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-05). ## Saturday, April 11, 2020 ### [Reply to @ESMcIntyre, 04:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1248835826450141186) · 2 likes > **Erin Siegal McIntyre (@ESMcIntyre):** Detainees at Otay Mesa Detention Center were offered masks, but only if they signed contracts - “When the women demanded masks, they were threatened w/pepper spray, according to the multiple accounts.” > > Excellent reporting by ⁦@bgirledukate⁩ https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/immigration/story/2020-04-10/otay-mesa-detention-center-gets-masks-but-asks-detainees-to-sign-contract-first Fucking dystopian ## Monday, April 13, 2020 ### [Reply, 01:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1249509643669422085) · 29 likes If you put your Venmo here odds are people would give you money ironically. ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 22:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1249823511792713729) · 2 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Are you autistic? || If you press the button, no person with autism is ever born again (or become autistic through other means), though existing people are left unchanged. Do you press the button? I legit don’t understand why people are angry about this tweet. ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1249823707880701952) · 1 like > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** People are mad at this, but I don't understand. The results feel like a great argument for (at least some level of) autism. If people \*with\* autism are much more likely to prefer it continue than people without, then this strikes me as a great pro-autism argument. > > (quoting @Aella_Girl: Are you autistic? || If you press the button, no person with autism is ever born again (or become autistic through other means), though existing people are left unchanged. Do you press the button?) Heavy selection bias: autists who follow you on Twitter are probably not a representative sample. ## Tuesday, April 14, 2020 ### [Reply to @peterboghossian, 04:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1249912852166725634) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @peterboghossian is no longer available.)_ Agree with the first two sentences but disagree with the last one. IMO it’s obvious signaling but is pretty benign. ### [Reply to @peterboghossian, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1250168920411119616) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @peterboghossian is no longer available.)_ Can’t tell for sure, but sounds like the argument is that any paper that passes review should be published, because the opinions of the authors don’t matter. Not 100% sure I agree, but sounds plausible. Like there should be a reason beyond “hoax” intentions to retract a paper. ## Friday, April 17, 2020 ### [Reply to @webdevMason, 06:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1251039801006055425) · 1 like > **Mason (@webdevMason):** It's rarely if ever noticed by pro-worker advocates that compulsory schooling produces, at high cost, totally fungible labor w/ zero leverage. There's no real reason that every grad doesn't have one of 100s of trainable trade skills to fall back on after 12 years in state schools Really interesting. I wonder why this type of idea hasn’t really permeated progressive thought. I could imaging a pretty compelling narrative about how billionaire CEOs love the current education system because it deprives workers of leverage. ## Sunday, April 19, 2020 ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 04:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1251726394159235072) · 1 like > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Can someone both be a kind person and also hold the exact opposite of your political views? Can someone be pro-slavery and also be a kind person? Why are most people voting yes? --- End of April 2020. Previous month: [March 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-03). Next month: [May 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-05). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, May 2020 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in May 2020 and has not deleted: 6 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [April 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-04). Next month: [June 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-06). ## Tuesday, May 5, 2020 ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 01:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1257488810524528643) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @robertwiblin is no longer available.)_ Agree for most but perhaps not all drugs. Might be worth restricting access to, say, fentanyl. ## Thursday, May 7, 2020 ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 01:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1258205449695956993) · 1 like > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** I ask a lot of questions but don't go into my beliefs too often. Here's a summary of my positions on some controversial things: > \* worker's unions are probably bad > \* body dysphoria is real and trans people should be able to transition as treatment > \*stereotypes are based on truth Why anti-union and minimum wage? My best guess is that they \*generally\* boost net and average human welfare. I would prefer UBI to minimum wage, but minimum wage in the amounts it is usually talked about is better than nothing ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 01:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1258207312155738116) · 9 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** As I've mentioned elsewhere, my general philosophy is anything that minimizes the use of force is good. If two consenting, informed adults want to make an exchange of money for work, I think this should be allowed. Alright, though I disagree because power and opportunity imbalances warrant the use of force by a third party. Unions can be formed voluntarily, too. Poverty and economic inequality can be just as coercive as the state. ## Saturday, May 9, 2020 ### [Reply to @SeloSlav, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1258974726187352065) · 1 like > **Babushka Enjoyer (@SeloSlav):** The legal requirements for something to be sold as olive oil in the United States allows for the product to be up to 90% seed oils by volume Source? ## Monday, May 11, 2020 ### [Reply to @hannahgais, 21:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1259966101519286272) · 2 likes > **hannah gais (@hannahgais):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EXw2k__WAAMFOwp.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EXw2mzZWkAM0OoS.jpg) It’s even worse. “Mission accomplished” is at least vague enough that it’s not trivially disprovable. Trump’s sign is just a flat-out lie. ## Tuesday, May 19, 2020 ### [Reply, 00:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1262537982529200129) · 1 like But is it pronounced “qual-ay” or “kwayl”? --- End of May 2020. Previous month: [April 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-04). Next month: [June 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-06). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, June 2020 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in June 2020 and has not deleted: 11 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [May 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-05). Next month: [September 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-09). ## Thursday, June 4, 2020 ### [Reply to @JeremyM72014840, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1268663167963598851) · 2 likes > **Play That Dead Band's Song (@JeremyM72014840):** @harryh @wesyang Seriously someone tell me what the hell is going on. Tired of all this cryptic shit lol Same here lol. Wtf happened? ## Thursday, June 11, 2020 ### [Reply to @davidgraeber, 09:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1271015502505279489) > **David Graeber (@davidgraeber):** Notice how when the #OWS camps were evicted in 2011 everyone in the media & across the political spectrum chanted "Occupy failed" because they didn't take an electoral approach. And have been ever since. When Bernie lost twice, do you hear anyone chanting "electoralism failed"? I don’t think this is correct. Bernie pushes the Democratic Party way left. Remains to be seen whether anything substantive will come of it, but it’s a simple fact that Biden’s platform is the most progressive of any nominee in history. ## Monday, June 15, 2020 ### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 00:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1272328235083345920) · 4 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** So I wrote up this 23-point agenda for a Comprehensive Reboot of Law Enforcement. #RebootThePolice. > > 1\. Completely disentangle punition from revenue, including outlawing forfeiture, by requiring all punitive revenues to be refunded to tax-filers yearly... > https://medium.com/@yudkowsky/a-comprehensive-reboot-of-law-enforcement-b76bfab850a3 Why the hell are these comments all negative? This is a well thought-out list. ## Tuesday, June 16, 2020 ### [Reply to @oldbayincense, 05:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1272760124218789890) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @oldbayincense is no longer available.)_ Thanks for explaining. I disagree because the level of citation rigor/expertise just shouldn’t be extraordinarily high to right a blog post and tweet about it, assuming one does everything in good faith. I’d guess that 99+% of people offering opinions on the matter on Twitter ### [Thread, continued, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1272760553287671808) · 2 likes are less knowledgeable on the subject than Yudkowsky. Doesn’t seem there is any specific claim he makes that you disagree with. ## Wednesday, June 17, 2020 ### [Reply to @SpencrGreenberg, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1273349897606094856) · 1 like > **Spencer Greenberg 🔍 (@SpencrGreenberg):** @lxrjl Yes, by my definition, could just be a semantic debate :) I’ve actually come around to giving a very small credence to me myself not being phenomenally conscious after reading about “illusionism.” The arguments in favor are weak IMO but not absurd. ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1273350455008034822) · 5 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** Today in "Robin Hanson is an ass": > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EavWrWNU8AAXvZh.png) Idk why he’d want to spend his offensiveness points on something like this. Much of what he talks about is socially unacceptable but important and/or interesting. ## Saturday, June 20, 2020 ### [Reply, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1274462221347758080) · 2 likes And it’s considered low status to defend people with those traits (perhaps unless you’re known to have a lot of the opposite, desirable trait) ## Monday, June 22, 2020 ### [Reply to @ericweinstein, 23:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1275214667464544256) · 18 likes > **Eric Weinstein (@ericweinstein):** What an incredible claim! Imagine: all you have to do is find out that someone is any anyway opposed to unrestricted high-skill immigration to know they are not only a villain but a pure one. > > Life is so much easier when you are fully coked-up on ideology in service to employers. > > (quoting @ZachWeiner: Restricting high-skill immigration is a pure form of villainy. It's not just hurting people. It's being willing to \*hurt yourself and everyone around you\* in order to hurt other people. It's like villainy with a strong honest signal of villainhood attached.) @ericweinstein - invite @ZachWeiner and @bryan_caplan on The Portal. I tend to agree with the latter on immigration, but would love to hear you hash it out. Having extremely smart, good faith, podcast-friendly people you strongly disagree with can’t come around all that often. ## Tuesday, June 23, 2020 ### [Reply to @RichardMCNgo, 09:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1275367112043880453) · 24 likes > **Richard Ngo (@RichardMCNgo):** @\_Wzard @patio11 Scott Alexander is a public figure. Victims of crime are not. I agree that NYT shouldn't do this, but it is not a clear-cut case where disagreement implies malice. > > (quoting @RichardMCNgo: As usual, Patrick gets it right. NYT planning to doxx Scott is bad by internet norms, not by classic news media norms. The former are the better norms to use here, but NYT using outdated norms isn't necessarily malicious - their norms do have some advantages. 1/3) Scott Alexander may be a public figure but the man behind Scott is not! ## Thursday, June 25, 2020 ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1275960358537252865) · 1 like > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Consciousness exists. > Conscious experience can be very complex, binding together aspects along various dimensions in intricate ways. > Positive valence conscious experience is intrinsically valuable. > Negative valence conscious experience is intrinsically negatively valuable. So much confused language around this point. Smart people like @Plinz and @DouthatNYT on recent podcasts refer to consciousness as an “illusion.” 99% sure they don’t mean it in the literal illusionist sense of “we are p-zombies,” but you won’t know it from their words alone. --- End of June 2020. Previous month: [May 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-05). Next month: [September 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-09). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, September 2020 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in September 2020 and has not deleted: 3 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [June 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-06). Next month: [October 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-10). ## Tuesday, September 1, 2020 ### [Reply to @jasoncrawford, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1300653438020321283) · 1 like > **Jason Crawford (@jasoncrawford):** My theory is that it's actually something that happened in the '40s. > > Not sure yet if it was the 1940s or 1840s Care to elaborate? Because people born then we’re reaching adulthood? ## Friday, September 18, 2020 ### [Reply, 10:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1306895928599732225) · 4 likes You’re looking for a METAfor ## Tuesday, September 29, 2020 ### [Reply to @freeshreeda, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1311064048948084737) · 2 likes > **shreeda (@freeshreeda):** @SpencrGreenberg I have to disagree; the semicolon is a long underutilized tool. Strong agree --- End of September 2020. Previous month: [June 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-06). Next month: [October 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-10). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, October 2020 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in October 2020 and has not deleted: 3 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [September 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-09). Next month: [April 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-04). ## Sunday, October 4, 2020 ### [Reply, 03:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1312594910986620930) · 2 likes I’ve definitely used standard deviations as a unit for causally describing how well or poorly something is going ## Thursday, October 15, 2020 ### [Reply to @dylanmatt, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1316782347526828033) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @dylanmatt is no longer available.)_ Horrifying ## Sunday, October 25, 2020 ### [Reply to @Mangan150, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1320497914511327238) · 3 likes > **P.D. Mangan Health and Freedom Maximalist 🇺🇸 (@Mangan150):** Exercise: weightlifters vote Trump, aerobics votes Biden. Lifting ✅ Biden ✅ --- End of October 2020. Previous month: [September 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-09). Next month: [April 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-04). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, April 2021 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in April 2021 and has not deleted: 2 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [October 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-10). Next month: [May 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-05). ## Monday, April 12, 2021 ### [Reply, 00:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1381405541516316675) · 11 likes This is pretty strawmanny ## Friday, April 30, 2021 ### [Reply to @bryan_caplan, 00:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1387931506501472263) · 7 likes > **Bryan Caplan (@bryan_caplan):** Anytime I start to think that one party is genuinely worse than the other, the “better” party gets in power and changes my mind. Hard disagree. Democrats aren’t perfect, but they’re orders of magnitude better than the alternative. --- End of April 2021. Previous month: [October 2020](https://abergman.com/tweets/2020-10). Next month: [May 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-05). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, May 2021 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in May 2021 and has not deleted: 3 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [April 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-04). Next month: [June 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-06). ## Thursday, May 13, 2021 ### [Reply, 11:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1392799430999519233) · 2 likes Kid you not, my family still has one of those for our 2001 Camry! Works with an iPhone 11! ## Saturday, May 22, 2021 ### [Reply, 11:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1396064380270387201) · 8 likes I think I’m too dumb to understand this ## Saturday, May 29, 2021 ### [Reply, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1398716876314845187) · 11 likes Maybe cringey, but this is actually good. Tort system shouldn’t be a privilege of those who can afford fancy law firms. Normal people should be able to do this kind of thing, good for her --- End of May 2021. Previous month: [April 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-04). Next month: [June 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-06). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, June 2021 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in June 2021 and has not deleted: 3 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [May 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-05). Next month: [July 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-07). ## Tuesday, June 29, 2021 ### [Reply to @andyroth, 15:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1409900269882724352) · 3 likes > **Andy Roth (@andyroth):** @robinhanson Housing, education, and healthcare. I don’t know about education. Public colleges are pretty successful, and even the evidence for charter schools isn’t as robust as I would like. ### [Reply to @BharatRamamurti, 15:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1409900675216052227) · 1 like > **Bharat Ramamurti (@BharatRamamurti):** Confronting the age-old question: is my laptop broken or is it because I have 118 tabs open? The former. 118 is nothing. ## Wednesday, June 30, 2021 ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1410352221015916556) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Grade school teachers out there, use this to demonstrate the dangers of passive voice --- End of June 2021. Previous month: [May 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-05). Next month: [July 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-07). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, July 2021 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in July 2021 and has not deleted: 4 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [June 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-06). Next month: [August 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-08). ## Friday, July 16, 2021 ### [Reply to @calebwatney, 01:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1415843873729961987) > **Caleb Watney (@calebwatney):** Billionaire philanthropy ranked: > 1\) EA/longtermist giving > \--- > 2\) Conventional international charities > 3\) ~Space~ exploration > 4\) Local charities > \--- > 5\) Yachts > 6\) Drugs > \--- > 7\) Giving more money to Harvard/Yale > \--- > \--- > \--- > n) Non-profits that disagree w/ my policy preferences 0\) animal welfare ## Thursday, July 22, 2021 ### [Reply, 00:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1418002039993405443) Relevant recent blog post I wrote: https://aaronbergman.substack.com/p/deficits-dont-matter-spending-does ## Friday, July 23, 2021 ### [Reply to @jazzplane, 05:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1418444373725954048) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @jazzplane is no longer available.)_ This but unironically ## Thursday, July 29, 2021 ### [Reply to @SpencrGreenberg, 19:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1420834130196156418) · 3 likes > **Spencer Greenberg 🔍 (@SpencrGreenberg):** Other than cost and a potentially very high probability of never being revived, what do you think the strongest arguments are AGAINST cryonics (i.e., having yourself frozen at very low temps upon death, with hopes future tech will be able to revive you and you can keep living) Money better used for altruistic purposes like preventing extinction and animal welfare --- End of July 2021. Previous month: [June 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-06). Next month: [August 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-08). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, August 2021 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in August 2021 and has not deleted: 3 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [July 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-07). Next month: [September 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-09). ## Tuesday, August 3, 2021 ### [Quote tweet, 05:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1422425246079012887) · 1 like Booster plz > **Quoting Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** A good post about the risks of Delta. > > Booster shots would be very useful here. > > https://www.mattbell.us/delta-and-long-covid/ ## Wednesday, August 11, 2021 ### [Reply, 00:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1425249802116341761) · 3 likes "Earning to give" may not be the most effective way to make the world a better place. Might be better to work on a problem/EA project directly. ## Wednesday, August 18, 2021 ### [Reply to @SpencrGreenberg, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1428118517791006728) · 2 likes > **Spencer Greenberg 🔍 (@SpencrGreenberg):** What’s something weird about you that you’re proud of? I saved a mouse that was literally climbing up a brick wall in middle school. Dude got like 20 feet up, and I got nervous so I held out my coat underneath. He fell but my coat was there to soften the landing. Hoping if I get reincarnated as a mouse someone does the same. --- End of August 2021. Previous month: [July 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-07). Next month: [September 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-09). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, September 2021 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in September 2021 and has not deleted: 14 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [August 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-08). Next month: [October 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-10). ## Saturday, September 4, 2021 ### [Reply to @PeacefulAutism, 02:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1433979168426012675) > **Carlotta 1.0 (@PeacefulAutism):** @AmandaAskell Is this the correct contrapositive? If one is against the killing of animals (ex: vegans), one should be against abortion. I don’t think so, since IRL the main issue with animal farming is suffering, not killing or death per se. ### [Reply to @albrgr, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1434234203017723908) _(The tweet being replied to by @albrgr is no longer available.)_ Hmm, I consider myself an EA and am low on both agreeableness and anxiety. Seems many EAs are disagreeable in a local interpersonal sense (i.e. don’t mind breaking norms, being contrarian) even though we care really care about the well-being of others. ## Sunday, September 5, 2021 ### [Tweet, 18:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1434580193318952967) · 33 likes Effective Altruism Georgetown will be interviewing @robertwiblin for our inaugural podcast episode this Friday! What should we ask him? ### [Reply to @JeremiahDJohns, 18:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1434582344187453441) · 2 likes > **Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** Hot take? Poetry has completely and utterly been surpassed as an art form, and 'Barren' is an appropriate name for a poetry mag. > > Liking poetry is like enjoying wooden figurines - sure, fine... but it's weird, no one cares and other art forms have objectively passed you by. > > (quoting @FCardamenis: Danielle Rose lost her job as Poetry Editor over this tweet. Complete BS. Totally outrageous.) Surpassed by what? Think I disagree with this ## Monday, September 6, 2021 ### [Reply, 00:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1434676098441392128) · 2 likes Oh don’t worry, that will be on the list ## Thursday, September 9, 2021 ### [Reply, 20:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1436057915148877831) · 5 likes Idea: host fake altruism game show to make money, donate profit to effective charities ### [Reply, 22:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1436097369079222274) · 29 likes 16.5 years of education, and this is the best and most memorable piece of feedback I’ve gotten ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E-4K7-pWQAQha9I.jpg) ## Tuesday, September 14, 2021 ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 22:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1437905339664539653) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Uh, I don’t think you commenting is helping to keep this on the DL ## Sunday, September 19, 2021 ### [Reply to @diviacaroline, 05:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1439468098709508100) · 2 likes > **Divia Eden 🔍 (@diviacaroline):** 45\. If you tune in to it, the constant invalidation of children can be deafening. > > “You don’t want that!” (He does.) > “You’re okay!” (She isn’t.) > “That doesn’t matter.” (It does to the kid.) > > Etc. https://aaronbergman.substack.com/p/kids-are-people-too ### [Reply, 07:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1439489769856176128) _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Love the changes in font ## Monday, September 20, 2021 ### [Reply to @DRMacIver, 12:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1439932207217397761) · 1 like > **David R. MacIver (@DRMacIver):** I feel like asking "Why?" is usually a category error. Most of the time stuff just happens. Interesting thought but I don’t think this is correct. What is an example of something that “just happens” without explanation? ## Tuesday, September 21, 2021 ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 16:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1440356224164196355) · 3 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** is the news covering her cause she's white, or is it cause she was attractive and had a vlog with a huge amount of material that makes it easy to humanize her? Those things are probably causally related ## Tuesday, September 28, 2021 ### [Reply to @AmandaAskell, 02:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1442679257654874114) · 12 likes > **Amanda Askell (@AmandaAskell):** Why not try to make the effective altruism movement as large as possible? One concern might be "idea dilution": as you get bigger, you need to appeal to more people so you weaken the claims. Yet it feels like EA ideas have actually become more concentrated as the movement grows. My experience organizing EA Georgetown: there are a ton of very smart, EA-aligned ppl at good but not Ivy universities who have never heard of EA, and who would be extremely receptive without dumbing down/diluting the ideas ## Wednesday, September 29, 2021 ### [Reply to @ckmcdona, 04:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1443075399227953152) · 1 like > **CON-AIR 🛫 (@ckmcdona):** @TylerAlterman Nicotine actually makes you process caffeine about twice as fast. Source? --- End of September 2021. Previous month: [August 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-08). Next month: [October 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-10). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, October 2021 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in October 2021 and has not deleted: 8 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [September 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-09). Next month: [November 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-11). ## Friday, October 8, 2021 ### [Tweet, 00:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1446268429036621829) · 5 likes This is a completely unoriginal observation, but there really is nothing like closing 16 tabs and 4 word documents after an exam ## Saturday, October 9, 2021 ### [Reply to @SpencrGreenberg, 04:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1446698706095443973) · 7 likes > **Spencer Greenberg 🔍 (@SpencrGreenberg):** I’m trying to follow all of the greatest English speaking intellectuals on Twitter (whether or not I agree with their views) with the plan of doing an analysis of their tweets. > > Who is a great Twitter intellectual that I may not yet be following? > > Thanks! Bet you’re not following @SpencrGreenberg! ## Saturday, October 23, 2021 ### [Reply to @RogerGrosse, 01:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1451720802265706499) · 2 likes > **Roger Grosse (@RogerGrosse):** Google has a significant fraction of the world's top AI talent, and yet Gmail has recently been marking as spam nearly every email from the undergraduates in my ML course. > > It sometimes even spam filters emails from my grad students or replies to messages I sent. Marked as spam an offer to interview for a job. Luckily, the sender followed up. Google almost cost me a job! ## Sunday, October 24, 2021 ### [Tweet, 00:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1452064228555296773) · 2 likes Might start tweeting (to all my approximately zero followers), so here is my first extremely cold take. It will be a miracle if even one person sees this… ### [Thread, continued, 00:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1452064229410971648) · 1 like How are there so many books? Like, college libraries are fuckin’ huge. No way someone actually wrote all those. ## Thursday, October 28, 2021 ### [Reply to @gmiller, 00:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1453521606039441421) · 6 likes > **Geoffrey Miller (@gmiller):** What are some beliefs that > (1) you think are factually, empirically wrong, > but that also > (2) lead you to feel more positive (warm, respectful, and/or trusting) towards the people who express that belief? Many of the comments here aren’t about factual, empirical claims ### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1453545863469490182) · 20 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** I'd say that I "don't understand" why the people who worry that chickens are sentient and suffering, don't also worry that GPT-3 is sentient and maybe suffering; but in fact I do understand, it's just not a charitable understanding. Anyway, they're both unsentient so no worries. How confident are you that chickens aren’t sentient? I think it’s plausible that both are, but think it’s more likely for chickens ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 15:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1453745795048480778) · 1 like > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** ruminating on diversity training from earlier > > im actually kinda shocked they put this figure in > > slightly modified, had "power" instead of "domination". otherwise unchanged > > like. this couldnt have possibly cleared legal right > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FCvlEGRVcAETeau.jpg) Uh, I think this picture is basically correct and not at all a good example of “absurd wokism” or something --- End of October 2021. Previous month: [September 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-09). Next month: [November 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-11). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, November 2021 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in November 2021 and has not deleted: 6 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [October 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-10). Next month: [December 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-12). ## Tuesday, November 2, 2021 ### [Reply to @poorlywhoorly, 09:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1455466497392979970) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @poorlywhoorly is no longer available.)_ Disagree, English needs a second person plural pronoun and may as well use the one we already have! ## Wednesday, November 10, 2021 ### [Reply to @alexeyguzey, 16:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1458466797007540235) · 1 like > **Alexey Guzey (@alexeyguzey):** imo it's extremely plausible that more housing leads to increased housing prices as the number of people who want to move to the city increased by more than one per each new resident Can we get more @alexeyguzey / @mattyglesias / @albrgr collab threads like this one plz ## Saturday, November 13, 2021 ### [Tweet, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1459376855404802048) · 1 like Six weeks till I get my math degree and they still out here still dropping new letters no one has ever seen. ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FEC-B9NVUAAPa5q.png) ## Wednesday, November 17, 2021 ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 22:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1461101124627447816) · 3 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** Product of the new atheist --> rationalist --> EA pipeline, though I'm considering doing another lap. There’s also a vegetarian—> vegan—>EA pipeline from a whole other direction ## Saturday, November 20, 2021 ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1461881128613208068) · 4 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** One time I dug into the gritty details of an MMT paper, and wrote a blog post breaking it down. > > Here is that post, plus some updated commentary. > > https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/examining-an-mmt-model-in-detail This is a long shot and probably not a good use of your time, but I’d love feedback on this post I wrote evaluating the importance of deficits https://aaronbergman.substack.com/p/deficits-dont-matter-spending-does ### [Quote tweet, 19:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1462142953535807491) · 2 likes EA/rationalism/neoliberalism (the good kind) situated among other lefty-ish frameworks and ideologies > **Quoting Liam Bright (@lastpositivist):** My sociological musings about different emerging leftwing traditions in anglo-American analytic philosophy. I identify three types that I think correspond to loosely identifiable groups, and reflect on what they do and what their differences are. > > https://sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2021/11/the-anglo-american-analytic-philosophy.html --- End of November 2021. Previous month: [October 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-10). Next month: [December 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-12). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, December 2021 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in December 2021 and has not deleted: 16 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [November 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-11). Next month: [January 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-01). ## Thursday, December 2, 2021 ### [Reply to @TheFrisc, 20:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1466509262197334016) · 1 like > **The Frisc (@TheFrisc):** brings up the organized retail thefts that have gotten so much attention. As early as next week he says he'll introduce a proposal to "formalize a permitting process" to disrupt street sales of potentially stolen items. Beyond parody ## Friday, December 3, 2021 ### [Reply, 01:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1466576801971380225) · 7 likes Lina Khan wrote one (very long) article, now she heads the FTC https://www.yalelawjournal.org/pdf/e.710.Khan.805_zuvfyyeh.pdf ## Sunday, December 5, 2021 ### [Tweet, 08:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1467417976106209280) · 6 likes Pretty funny (to me anyway lol) that the authors of one of the most influential development papers of all time, @DrDaronAcemoglu @baselinescene & James Robinson, have no idea which of 111 observations mysteriously vanished in their paper. ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FF1LaQ8UYAQwhk-.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 08:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1467417978186584065) Context: microeconometrics course final project is replication of existing paper + extension, and I may try to somehow combine this one with Nunn + Wantchekon's "The Slave Trade and the Origins of Mistrust in Africa" (https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/aer.101.7.3221) ### [Thread, continued, 08:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1467417982162784265) How influential is "The colonial origins of comparative development"? It has over 15,000 citations, it's own Wikipedia page, and enough response papers to fill a course syllabus. Paper: https://economics.mit.edu/faculty/acemoglu/data/ajr2001 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Origins_of_Comparative_Development ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FF1PM-DVQAMLQ3j.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 08:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1467417984503193605) · 2 likes More important than leaving out a lone data point, though, is the fact that full data and code to re-create results are public online! Social science would be in a much better place if this was a norm in every field! Not that it's universal in economics. cc: @StuartJRitchie ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 16:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1467533447375720451) · 3 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** I wish plastic surgery for men was more normalized! Most men never think at all about cosmetic procedures as an option, but you can just go \*make your jawline stronger\* if you want to. I feel like there's relatively low hanging fruit for strong quality of life increases. Basically zero sum, though ## Monday, December 6, 2021 ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 10:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1467809964450328580) · 1 like > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** The Environmental Kuznets Curve strikes again! > > Growth, not degrowth, is the key to rewilding our world. > > (quoting @MaxCRoser: The 'Living Planet Index' measures how the populations of the world's wild animals change over time. Globally the Index shows a large decline in the last 50 years. Broken down by income of the country, the Index shows an increase of wildlife in the high-income countries.) Wild animals probably suffer a ton and this is bad ## Wednesday, December 8, 2021 ### [Reply, 22:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1468704933352558595) The harm👏from tobacco 👏is not👏nicotine ## Thursday, December 9, 2021 ### [Reply, 14:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1468953639674855425) · 2 likes (Partially tongue in cheek) myself, as demonstrated by this norm-violating comment ## Monday, December 13, 2021 ### [Reply to @Austen, 02:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1470221172143009800) · 3 likes > **Austen Allred (@Austen):** What is your favorite podcast? > > Not podcast episode, but one that you listen to every time it comes out? @80000Hours no question ## Friday, December 17, 2021 ### [Reply, 03:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1471686952839753734) · 14 likes Brian Tomasik ## Tuesday, December 21, 2021 ### [Reply to @markhoro, 00:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1473091731457392642) · 2 likes > **Mark Horowitz @markhoro.bsky.social (@markhoro):** A classic RCT gem from Janssen for their 7th negative trial of esketamine on the trot : "implementing measures to minimize placebo response are warranted." Great captains generally say "the goalposts were too narrow - hand me a saw". Esketamine is just shitty ketamine. For gods sake, they could have at least chosen the better of \*TWO\* isomers to pretend is a special new drug. ## Thursday, December 23, 2021 ### [Reply, 20:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1474121321273454594) · 5 likes IMO big difference between “eat things with traces of milk powder” and “guzzle caged eggs every meal” ## Saturday, December 25, 2021 ### [Reply, 00:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1474544111449378817) · 3 likes Yeah but it’s an \*accurate\* virtue signal. Mask wearing (indoors, with others, etc.) is indeed virtuous! ## Monday, December 27, 2021 ### [Reply to @mellowfever, 04:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1475328852717019137) · 4 likes > **john mellow • wealth tax now (@mellowfever):** I’m real!!! Nice try, Turing Test competitor --- End of December 2021. Previous month: [November 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-11). Next month: [January 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-01). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, January 2022 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in January 2022 and has not deleted: 21 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [December 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-12). Next month: [February 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-02). ## Wednesday, January 5, 2022 ### [Reply, 19:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1478811464450273280) · 2 likes First time I might be right in the middle! ## Monday, January 10, 2022 ### [Reply to @LuiseWoehlke, 22:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1480674225413308420) · 1 like > **Luise Woehlke (@LuiseWoehlke):** @andzuck1 @AaronBergman18 @NonMurkyConsqnc Yeehaw 🤠 Who said a philosophy degree didn’t pay the bills 😤 ## Saturday, January 15, 2022 ### [Reply, 09:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1482286775179558912) · 1 like Ooh I’ve facilitated a few EA intro fellowships and am pretty sure I’m on the disagreeable/contrarian end of the spectrum. One think I think works well is explicitly telling everyone that respectfully playing devils advocate and the like (while noting that’s what you’re doing)… ### [Thread, continued, 09:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1482288682124156929) · 1 like And be the change you want to see! If someone makes a point that seems confused or mistaken, explain why you disagree (respectfully and politely obv) ### [Reply, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1482392243122098180) · 1 like It’s not at all clear to me why we should intrinsically value biodiversity ## Sunday, January 16, 2022 ### [Reply to @JEverettLearned, 00:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1482517264947683332) · 1 like > **Joseph Everett (WIL) (@JEverettLearned):** \#eatgoodfat > When picking your fats to eat, you want to avoid polyunsaturated fats (in orange) All fats do have \*some\* PUFA, that’s natural, you just want to minimize it. Saturated fat is the most oxidation resistant fatty acid, and monounsaturated comes next. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FJLxKukaAAEPIve.jpg) Source for the 80% figure? ### [Reply to @nosilverv, 02:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1482545240875622400) · 3 likes > **Guy (@nosilverv):** Are wordcels kiki or bouba? Are shape rotators kiki or bouba? These👏axes👏are👏orthogonal ### [Reply to @lxrjl, 11:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1482683137650225153) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @lxrjl is no longer available.)_ 🦌 ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 12:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1482695777818447875) · 2 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** @lxrjl @AaronBergman18 I think it's an ELK That was the goal lmao but it’s technically a deer. Was hoping no one would tell the difference ## Tuesday, January 18, 2022 ### [Reply to @5f31c0, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1483272273972899841) > **@5f31c0@mastodon.social (@5f31c0):** So, my problem is, all three of these seem like they have to be true, but only two can be true at the same time: > 1\. Qualia is real, and not reducible to computation > 2\. The universe is purely computational > 3\. Qualia must have causal efficacy to qualia reports I’d guess 3 is wrong. Qualia more likely the “intrinsic” side of causally-efficacious processes, but the qualia themselves need not have any causal power. ## Wednesday, January 19, 2022 ### [Reply to @depthsofwiki, 00:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1483593984907915267) · 6 likes > **depths of wikipedia! (@depthsofwiki):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FJa9yu1X0Ag2WD3.jpg) Based ### [Reply to @pkedrosky, 19:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1483880343207919617) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pkedrosky is no longer available.)_ What’s the explanation here? ## Thursday, January 20, 2022 ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 17:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1484222312283000836) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ 80k career advisor perhaps? ## Saturday, January 22, 2022 ### [Reply to @cheafofstaff, 00:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1484691807019618308) · 2 likes > **Chief of Staff (@cheafofstaff):** Best CTO is tardwrangler wordchad not shape rotator few understand I have absolutely no idea what this means ### [Reply to @CNLiberalism, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1484974726787256323) · 15 likes > **New Liberals (@CNLiberalism):** This but unironically > > (quoting @greg_price11: ) It’s almost like Mexico isn’t trying to annex the US🤔 ## Tuesday, January 25, 2022 ### [Reply to @AmandaAskell, 08:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1485886833296879617) · 2 likes > **Amanda Askell (@AmandaAskell):** I sometimes worry that the world’s best minds are hooked on what are essentially glorified crossword puzzles, since the interestingness of problems scales with features not very correlated with their importance. If there’s not a term for such problems, maybe “intelligence traps”? Most pure math beyond ~linear algebra, I think ## Saturday, January 29, 2022 ### [Reply to @algekalipso, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1487499880687980546) · 3 likes > **Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso):** Latest attempt at recreating a rose's scent from scratch. > > N7 is a descent "rose character impact without flavor" accord. > > 4 Phenylethylalcohol > 4 Fructone > 1 Citronellol > 3 Floralol > 2 Geranyl Acetate > 1 Peonile > 1 Zenolide > 48 Ethanol > > N9 works as a sweet rose with apple nuances 🌹🍏 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FKPLuAuUYAAuL1O.jpg) Ah yes, brute force de novo scent emulation, the great American pastime ### [Reply to @jtmonrad, 23:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1487563472036577280) · 4 likes > **Joshua Teperowski Monrad (@jtmonrad):** For @FHIOxford, I had 2 tests & an interview, didn’t receive feedback on either. (Successful app) > > For @open_phil, I had 2 tests & 3 interviews, received some verbal feedback on my overall candidacy (unsuccessful app). Btw, they compensated $ for tests. OpenPhil ‘rejected after multiple work samples and interviews’ gang…all of us should team up and form a B team called TranslucentPhil ### [Reply to @EAheadlines, 23:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1487563980650565640) · 4 likes > **EA Lifestyles (@EAheadlines):** @AaronBergman18 @jtmonrad @FHIOxford @open_phil Aaron did you get any feedback? Not on the work samples above and beyond getting invited back after the first and rejected after the second. Pay was nice though ## Sunday, January 30, 2022 ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 07:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1487691581104824325) > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Here we goooooo > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FKTfkngUUAMFenb.jpg) The juxtaposition of the two 🎃 answers is absolutely hilarious ## Monday, January 31, 2022 ### [Reply to @ctjlewis, 20:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1488245346287378437) · 2 likes > **Lewis 🇺🇸 (@ctjlewis):** never been an easier question to answer. it’s crypto Nah, @SBF_FTX makes up for everyone else --- End of January 2022. Previous month: [December 2021](https://abergman.com/tweets/2021-12). Next month: [February 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-02). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, February 2022 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in February 2022 and has not deleted: 31 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [January 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-01). Next month: [March 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-03). ## Thursday, February 3, 2022 ### [Reply to @KatjaGrace, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1489108565738536961) > **Katja Grace 🔍 (@KatjaGrace):** Is there a place you know of that does much better on this? (Could still be worth avoiding if nowhere does, but other places spend their time on entirely different valuable things) Came here to ask this too. I’d guess Oxford, are any other cities dominated by a single elite university? ### [Tweet, 18:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1489312148086046725) · 10 likes The type of serious grappling with longtermism and suffering that longtermist EAs should do more of https://qualiacomputing.com/2021/11/13/david-pearce-on-longtermism/ ### [Thread, continued, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1489312371063595008) · 1 like By @webmasterdave ### [Reply, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1489360591307354112) · 1 like Basically, yes. He begins the first quote with “in my view,” which takes most of the mystical/spooky edge off the term evil. And lots of the other claims are shockingly normal: ### [Reply, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1489360725533466626) · 1 like For example, “Well, on an (very) optimistic note, I wonder if both longtermist and near-termist effective altruists who are NUs and CUs could unite on a “traditional” EA agenda of effectively tackling existing sources of suffering.” ### [Thread, continued, 22:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1489361252061175812) · 1 like On the other hand, it’s hard to tell if I’d have the same interpretation if his views weren’t quite similar to mine ### [Reply to @mattparlmer, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1489386864851226626) · 1 like > **mattparlmer 🪐 🌷 (@mattparlmer):** Really obnoxious to see people taking Ezra Klein et al seriously Pretty sure this is wrong. You can’t peg every bad Vox take on Ezra. Is there an example of something he has \*actually said or written\* that you think is cynical/bad faith? FWIW, I take his coverage of animal welfare as evidence is his favor ## Friday, February 4, 2022 ### [Reply to @myhandle, 07:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1489504998228643843) · 2 likes > **Jakeup (@myhandle):** the "money printer go brrr" jokes hit different when even the local barbershop starts posting inflation explainers > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FKu6XDHX0AAjbc9.jpg) No they don’t, preventing high unemployment is worth this level of inflation. I don’t think monetary policy doves generally think printing more money comes with literally no downside ### [Tweet, 22:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1489725518933078016) · 2 likes Being taken by the Twitter zeitgeist, I wonder if this has implications for the capability limits of large language models like GPT. If you add enough parameters, will GPT-n be able to rotate shapes? I don’t have a strong intuition either way ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FKyRde4XwAI0BMT.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1489725521755783176) · 2 likes From, of course @tszzl’s https://roonscape.substack.com/p/a-song-of-shapes-and-words ## Monday, February 7, 2022 ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 23:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1490829619255480321) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @robertwiblin is no longer available.)_ Should he double down and try to become 2+ times wealthier? Why or why not? ## Tuesday, February 8, 2022 ### [Reply to @trevposts, 04:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1490902532474163200) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @trevposts is no longer available.)_ Do it ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FLC_85JXwAIE7ih.jpg) ## Wednesday, February 9, 2022 ### [Reply to @lymanstoneky, 17:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1491470148506730504) · 2 likes > **Lyman Stone 石來民 🦬🦬🦬 (@lymanstoneky):** it's actually crazy to me that many schools do \*not\* have riflery classes! Nah this is a bad idea. Strong correlation between firearm availability and gun deaths, and I don’t think most students would endorse the trade off upon reflection ## Thursday, February 10, 2022 ### [Reply to @DisneyDragon, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1491872510174011397) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @DisneyDragon is no longer available.)_ Somewhere a 22 year old consultant really said to himself “I know how to make Venn diagrams🤔” ### [Reply to @thisburneracct, 22:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1491900422721875970) · 6 likes > **This Burner Account (@thisburneracct):** @mattyglesias @alexeyguzey Another one that can be debunked with less than 5 secs of Googling Yeah but the whole point is that the top search results might be \*wrong\* ## Saturday, February 12, 2022 ### [Tweet, 17:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1492551230693990409) · 3 likes Idea: the “natural rate of homelessness” as a concept, analogous to the natural rate of unemployment. It’s what the homelessness rate would be if there were no land use restrictions or other related market failures. ## Monday, February 14, 2022 ### [Reply to @algekalipso, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1493248907337469956) · 1 like > **Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso):** It's psychedelic if it messes with the energy parameter in a broad spectrum way to the point non-linearities emerge, increases the dimensionality of experience, enhances association bandwidth, changes control dynamics (causing tracers), and has clear neural annealing effects. It’s psychedelic if it activates 5HT2A receptors ### [Reply to @nic_carter, 15:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1493249452370497536) · 1 like > **nic carter (@nic_carter):** me, seeing an ad for charles schwab on tv. wow. must be a bubble. these "stocks" are a risky business. if they were worth buying they wouldn't have to sell them to us with ads. reminds me of the south sea affair. This is not analogous lol. Advertising a company’s product is not the same as advertising it’s own equity ## Wednesday, February 16, 2022 ### [Reply to @bayeslord, 05:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1493825114248470535) · 4 likes > **bayes (@bayeslord):** I feel like the burst of openai ppl talking about alignment and conscious language models is a hint that they’ve cooked up something freaky as fuck Oh fuck ## Saturday, February 19, 2022 ### [Reply to @metakuna, 15:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1495062956710797323) · 2 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** new EA cause area: make vitalik ripped Get that man some soylent ### [Reply to @metakuna, 15:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1495064606502539266) · 2 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** @PradyuPrasad skeptical about the whole thing but keep about 5% of my money in it just in case Same, almost exactly ### [Tweet, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1495158826009604097) · 4 likes Is there any reason why we \*shouldn’t\* issue a Green Card to every Ukrainian citizen? Seems like that would eliminate most of the harm of a Russian invasion. ### [Thread, continued, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1495158826848460801) · 2 likes I mean I know it’s not going to happen, but it seems like the whole idea of decoupling a nation state as a geopolitical entity from the actual people who live there is unfairly neglected ### [Thread, continued, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1495158827662127106) · 2 likes Looks would take roughly 90,000 747 flights to evacuate the whole country so that would probably take a minute. At 12 hours/flight and $25k per flight-hour, we’re looking at $27 billion, which is a lot but only about 3% of our annual military budget… ## Sunday, February 20, 2022 ### [Reply to @RatOrthodox, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1495269149085474819) · 1 like > **Brangus🔍⏹️ (@RatOrthodox):** Why aren’t there opposite investors? People who bet you money that you will fail, and you are legally obligated to pay them back only if you do fail. This might be a good way to fund experiments and other research projects. It’s the opposite of insurance. People generally don’t like increasing risk/variance while keeping expected value the same ## Monday, February 21, 2022 ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1495838012604887055) · 4 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** gf: periods should be a cause area > > has anyone made an EA-like proposal for this? It seems credible to me The immediate question in my mind is why the market wouldn’t/hasn’t solve this problem in rich countries. Maybe because healthcare in general is a clusterfuck of market failures? ### [Reply to @Techgnostik, 19:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1495838348237324290) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @Techgnostik is no longer available.)_ “Rationally” is doing a lot of work here. Meth and heroin are already legal as prescription drugs. ## Wednesday, February 23, 2022 ### [Reply to @the_aiju, 22:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1496620226120663044) · 3 likes > **Emily - 🚂 Bristol Oct 6-9 (@the_aiju):** is it worth making a linkedin account for job hunting Yes. The best justification I’ve heard is that publicly outing your career history there serves as a check on lying on your resume, which is why employers value it ## Thursday, February 24, 2022 ### [Reply to @AlecStapp, 01:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1496658140896677891) · 1 like > **Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** Vision Zero to eliminate traffic deaths in DC… not going great > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FMUXjV5WQAIvJPG.jpg) Yes but maybe the counterfactual is that there would have been millions of traffic deaths these last six years. Causal inference is hard. ## Friday, February 25, 2022 ### [Reply to @tszzl, 00:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1497003148044603393) · 2 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** meeting some top tier AI/ML people tonight, what should I ask them? How much would someone have to pay you to switch into AI safety? ## Monday, February 28, 2022 ### [Reply to @micha_frazer, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1498372472835608581) · 7 likes > **micha (@micha_frazer):** do you remember how hyped the word "antidisestablishmentarianism" was when we were kids. it was all the rage. no one talks about antidisestablishmentarianism anymore I thought I was the only one. What emoji should we use for antidisestablishmentarianism Twitter? --- End of February 2022. Previous month: [January 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-01). Next month: [March 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-03). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, March 2022 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in March 2022 and has not deleted: 77 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [February 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-02). Next month: [April 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-04). ## Tuesday, March 1, 2022 ### [Reply to @ragipsoylu, 18:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1498727442227380224) · 1 like > **Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu):** ⚡️⚡️ Russian soldiers who lay down their weapons will be granted amnesty and money — Ukrainian Defense Minister Did @eigenrobot just win Ukraine the war? ### [Tweet, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1498766964096966656) · 7 likes You listen to podcasts at 2x? That’s cool, I listen at .02x to avoid hearing the sound of my own voice https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/80k-after-hours-philosophy-of-the-80000-hours-podcast/ ### [Thread, continued, 21:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1498767403462934529) · 7 likes Thanks @robertwiblin and @KeiranJHarris for speaking with us! ## Thursday, March 3, 2022 ### [Reply to @replyallguy, 19:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1499465021914558473) · 3 likes > **I take you seriously (@replyallguy):** People seem to consistently overestimate everything: > > https://www.tedsanders.com/do-not-expect-the-unexpected/ Almost 1% of us are murdered? That’s way higher than I would have guessed ## Friday, March 4, 2022 ### [Tweet, 05:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1499618488045998084) · 1 like Ferdinand de Saussure!" gang. Falsificationism and empiricism are overrated, fight me. https://www.qzzr.com/c/quiz/49304/17d1b70c-c863-4d2c-a5ed-4968c92773cf ## Saturday, March 5, 2022 ### [Reply to @metakuna, 00:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1499911813496029188) · 3 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** tell that to the Dutch tulip market Tulips are still worth \*something\* ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 19:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1500192293084663819) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Sir this is the one thing standing between us and panic/overwhelmed hospitals/societal collapse ## Sunday, March 6, 2022 ### [Reply to @notanastronomer, 16:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1500506696527106050) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @notanastronomer is no longer available.)_ Maybe it’s in rubles ## Monday, March 7, 2022 ### [Reply to @lee_kovarsky, 01:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1500644035563859973) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @lee_kovarsky is no longer available.)_ It’s literally completely possible lol ### [Tweet, 08:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1500745126880108546) · 12 likes After all this, it’s gonna be pretty funny if we go extinct bc the bees die out ### [Reply to @finmoorhouse, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1500933445723246599) · 2 likes > **Fin Moorhouse (@finmoorhouse):** Big news: @effective_ideas has officially launched the second golden age of blogging! > > https://effectiveideas.org/ Oh shit ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 20:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1500934885481107457) · 4 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** What’s the best way to start a blog these days? Is it just substack? Substack is the \*easiest\* afaik, which might mean it’s the best place to begin. The standardized aesthetic is both a blessing and a curse ## Tuesday, March 8, 2022 ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 00:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1500994719219912704) · 4 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** What the fuck > > (quoting @GeringTuvia: "Why has Ukraine become Jewified, and why has Israel put up with it? It's because Wall Street wanted to plant a quasi-Israel in this problematic European region" - Beihang University Professor Zhang Wenmu offers his take on Ukraine. 1/5) “We forced an AI to read the works of 10,000 midwit alt-right pseudo-intellectuals” ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 02:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1501014869675544576) · 4 likes > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** @Aella_Girl i think it probably depends alot on which wave you're talking about > > my guess is there's perhaps a generation gap What was the median age at vibecamp? Trying to figure out how much younger I am than y’all ### [Reply to @mattparlmer, 08:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1501113143975718920) · 2 likes > **mattparlmer 🪐 🌷 (@mattparlmer):** Evergreen tweet > > (quoting @random_scrub: YOU ARE HERE) Kinda, but only if you understand that physical limits stop the rice from accumulating after a few squares https://www.cold-takes.com/this-cant-go-on/ ### [Reply to @fronkonymous, 17:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1501253360606855172) · 4 likes > **frönk 🏳️‍⚧️⚧️🏳️‍🌈 (@fronkonymous):** Omg. Someone on Reddit asked the community there what VibeCamp was and it’s hilarious to read through how it seems to the outside world. https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/t60mc7/what_is_vibecamp/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf Lol I wouldn’t call r/slatestarcodex the “outside world” ## Thursday, March 10, 2022 ### [Tweet, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1501764911759777792) · 62 likes Did I solve the ELK challenge? No. But did I win an ELK prize for beating ARC's counterexamples? No. But did my proposal become an "honorable mention?" Also no. But did my proposal make it to the \*non\*-honorable mentions section of the post? Yes! https://www.alignmentforum.org/posts/zjMKpSB2Xccn9qi5t/elk-prize-results#Train_in_simulation ### [Thread, continued, 03:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1501765071688679430) · 4 likes If for some reason you want to see the actual proposal, DM me! ### [Reply, 15:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1501941817318670339) · 3 likes Ay congrats! That’s legit pretty impressive IMO ### [Reply to @economeager, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1502002203703267331) · 1 like > **Rafe Meager (they/them) (@economeager):** nothing will make me lose respect for you faster than if your study abstract says you have a gajillion observations but in fact the key variable you study only varies at a much, much higher level than these "observations" (so e.g. "treatment assignment" is at the cluster level) What if I like robbed a store and stole a kid’s ice cream cone, ### [Reply to @economeager, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1502002612731842562) · 2 likes > **Rafe Meager (they/them) (@economeager):** @AaronBergman18 nobody ever asks if the kid had bad vibes We’ll assign vibes randomly at the neighborhood level (n=100 million) ## Friday, March 11, 2022 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 00:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1502078508679536641) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Tooting my own horn here but I just found out I'm the third image search result for "vectors" honestly one of the things I'm most proud of in my career so far > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FNhTb1nXMAIZPE6.png) 👑 ### [Reply to @BDMurray, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1502123537104052227) · 2 likes > **Bennett Murray (@BDMurray):** Found a tank trap at a roadblock in Kyiv today with a plaque indicating that it's a WW2 antique brought out from a museum exhibit. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FNhFIyzWYAcO8Y-.jpg) If I had to pick one piece of “art” that goes hard, this would be it (the whole setup, including plaque and background) ### [Tweet, 04:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1502143522249613312) · 15 likes Holy shit, listening to @SBF_FTX on Cowen's podcast and realized that his story is an \*almost-perfect\* vignette to illustrate the dangers (and potential) of superintelligent AI. https://conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/sam-bankman-fried/ (1/4) ### [Thread, continued, 04:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1502143524057329664) · 12 likes Sam: \- Is super smart \- Acts rationally so as to achieve his goals \- Which involves accumulating resources \- Which he does by leveraging existing institutions/structures to extend his causal influence over the (financial) world (2/4) ### [Thread, continued, 04:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1502143525466648576) · 9 likes \- Which is successful (because he is so smart), leaving him with control over a ton of resources (quick calculation says ~.0014% of all wealth on earth) \- Which he deploys rationally so as to achieve his goals (3/4) ### [Thread, continued, 04:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1502143530101358593) · 7 likes The only differences are that 1\) He's <6 standard deviations above mean intelligence (no offense @SBF_FTX) 2\) He's aligned with human values, thereby also demonstrating how \*well\* transformative AI can conceivably go! (4/4) ## Saturday, March 12, 2022 ### [Reply to @reconfigurthing, 04:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1502504775937675268) · 4 likes > **Elias Schmied (@reconfigurthing):** @tszzl take a break see how it feels two types of people ### [Reply to @growing_daniel, 05:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1502511348428779522) · 2 likes > **Daniel (@growing_daniel):** This has been the most taxing part of watching Ukraine footage They’re into us ### [Reply to @TristanSevers, 17:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1502691657480916995) · 3 likes > **Azathoth Liberation Front (@TristanSevers):** @eigenrobot Donald Trump lol He said “effectively” ### [Reply to @alexeyguzey, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1502765580134367234) > **Alexey Guzey (@alexeyguzey):** people are waking up (literally) > > note how naturally these changes occur: you simply get out of the psyop, your expectations of what you are supposed to feel change--and then you simply start to feel differently. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FNrZ4P9XEAMvNjY.png) > (quoting @alexeyguzey: I used to sleep the normal 7.5 hours a day. Over the last 180 days I have slept an average of 5 hours 57 minutes per day. So, after 2 years of experimentation and occasional deep dives into the scientific literature, here are my theses on sleep: https://guzey.com/theses-on-sleep/) Not sure what your recommendation is specifically. I wouldn’t think that intentional sleep deprivation is adaptive in the same way that, say, fasting is because afaik there was no way to do wake oneself up before modern tech ### [Reply to @nominalthoughts, 23:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1502781494426750978) · 1 like > **Jason Harrison (@nominalthoughts):** Assigning presidents a grade just on how cool they are > > Biden: B- > Trump: B+/A- (funny) > Obama: A+ (funny + black) > Bush 43: C- > Clinton: C- > Bush 41: C+ > Reagan: A- > Carter: B- > Ford: D > Nixon: A > LBJ: A > Kennedy: B- I’d rather hang out with Biden than Trump ## Sunday, March 13, 2022 ### [Reply to @RichardMCNgo, 17:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1503061541800890369) · 2 likes > **Richard Ngo (@RichardMCNgo):** The EA/rationalist community has both the strongest transactional norms I've seen (willingness to assign monetary values to favours) and also the least concern for who has which money (it's used for the same causes regardless). > > Either is great. Both at once is weird... As long as the latter dial isn’t set to it’s maximum, I don’t think there’s any internal inconsistency. As other commenters mention, prices are a credible signal of how much you want something done - as long as you lose \*some\* utility by giving up your own ### [Reply to @tszzl, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1503062050448228355) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @tszzl is no longer available.)_ Best part is calling him “bro” ### [Reply to @finmoorhouse, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1503072193676296195) · 2 likes > **Fin Moorhouse (@finmoorhouse):** I wrote about some EA projects I'd like to see — > > https://www.finmoorhouse.com/writing/ea-projects/ Awesome! Only disagreement is that I think the s-process strongly dominates quadratic funding https://survivalandflourishing.fund/s-process ### [Reply, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1503089962778042373) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ I mean I think real source is “i \\equiv\\sqrt{-1}” ie you can define a constant to be whatever you want ## Monday, March 14, 2022 ### [Reply to @MWStory, 03:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1503217450778779652) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @MWStory is no longer available.)_ And the number who have time/energy to create ### [Reply to @calebwatney, 16:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1503410087163047936) · 8 likes > **Caleb Watney (@calebwatney):** 👀 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FN0tmN-XwAUO0s9.jpg) Depends who the “you” is! Emergent Ventures applicants aren’t like a slightly skewed sample of smart young people” - they’re a sample of the 10% most predisposed to be into EA. Id bet self-identified EAs would \*overestimate\* the % of smart young people who also identify as an EA ### [Tweet, 20:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1503471487038152704) · 5 likes Ok hear me out: Fight to federally legalize polyamorous marriage -> marry everyone in the developing world -> de facto immigration liberalization -> cut poverty and double the world economy 🌐🌐🌐 ## Tuesday, March 15, 2022 ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1503809863478087681) · 2 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** I want to be more pro gov and regulation and stuff than I am today, what should I read? The Entrepreneurial State https://smile.amazon.com/dp/0857282522/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_G2E4C221N3TMYGMBZP4G ## Wednesday, March 16, 2022 ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 01:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1503906969496834048) · 4 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** I need a good book on Chinese monetary policy and reserves management. Do you know of any? Dude you’re in high school, you don’t \*need\* a book on Chinese monetary policy lmao ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 02:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1503921061175472129) · 2 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** @AaronBergman18 I mean I'm in national service now... Right - now you \*definitely\* need this book ### [Reply to @TheBaltimoreSon, 19:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1504174783751233537) · 4 likes > **NACARA Delevigne (@TheBaltimoreSon):** @replyallguy @AaronBergman18 @StefanFSchubert I’m pretty sure the homicide rate in the US is not 70 per 100,000. In 2018 it was 5.0 per 100K. It has probably risen to 7 not 70. And 7 out of 100K is much lower than 1% Yeah, the 1% means that ~1% of deaths are caused by murder ### [Reply to @DogIsABot, 21:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1504208138651713538) · 7 likes > **DogBot (@DogIsABot):** @tszzl remember getting into intense political arguments with my grade 6 teacher. very cringe. No, based ## Thursday, March 17, 2022 ### [Reply to @IXianVernius, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1504531706983989250) · 1 like > **The IXian🥃🧭 (@IXianVernius):** This may not be a meme but it is absolutely a joke. U mean the reverse, no? ## Saturday, March 19, 2022 ### [Reply to @YIMBY_Princeton, 13:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1505173720645709827) · 3 likes > **Central NJ Yimby 🇺🇸🚲🏙 (@YIMBY_Princeton):** Was walking around my neighborhood tonight with some friends and my 5-yo daughter met a girl her own age who she quickly declared was “her best friend ever”. I met the kid’s dad and I asked him where they lived. He said “Avalon Bay”. i.e. the development I YIMBYed hard in 2013!! W ### [Reply to @fermatslibrary, 14:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1505195563142295556) · 18 likes > **Fermat's Library (@fermatslibrary):** Here's an interesting limit > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FOI9DP9WQAsWCnJ.png) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FOOHYr_XsAA_CKc.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1505264402932584454) · 1 like After too long a hiatus, new post about my experience making a podcast episode with @robertwiblin and @KeiranJHarris, which appeared on @80000Hours' new secondary feed a few weeks ago (linking below) https://aaronbergman.substack.com/p/rob-and-keiran-on-the-philosophy-3f7?s=w ## Sunday, March 20, 2022 ### [Reply to @thisisbenphelps, 00:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1505339569142743046) · 19 likes > **Ben Phelps (@thisisbenphelps):** Remember that time California judges ordered UC Berkeley to cut its enrollment for "environmental reasons" under CEQA and then like 2 days later the state changed the law to override them Hello, I don’t know who you are but thought you might appreciate that your profile pic is one of the first things I posted to Instagram almost nine years ago ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FOQKXBbXwAMoBOI.jpg) ### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 01:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1505350549838966784) · 2 likes > **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** The myth of the myth of the well read person > > https://dwarkeshpatel.com/well-read/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FOOgIYQXoAo2eI2.jpg) But do you think this gives the well read person a meaningful advantage above and beyond the traits that caused him/her to study so much? In other words, are there steeply diminishing marg returns to general knowledge? ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1505642596344999941) _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Lol, like asking “should people do the right thing or the wrong thing” and only 52% say “right” ## Monday, March 21, 2022 ### [Reply to @Scientific_Bird, 15:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1505924465443708932) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @Scientific_Bird is no longer available.)_ I mean linear extrapolation probably overestimates the true counterfactual. I assume even very overweight people eventually plateau ## Tuesday, March 22, 2022 ### [Reply to @JacobPeacock1, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1506310350416846853) · 2 likes > **Jacob Peacock 🔎 (@JacobPeacock1):** Highly ranked @Metaculus forecasters find "54% probability that less than 100,000 metric tons of cultured meat \[...\] sold at any price in a 12-month period before the end of 2051." New research by @NJDullaghan & @LinchZhang @RethinkPriors :( ## Wednesday, March 23, 2022 ### [Reply to @depthsofwiki, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1506458618702532613) · 2 likes > **depths of wikipedia! (@depthsofwiki):** career where you reject men and then tell the government > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FOfhV4UXEAEMpKR.jpg) Arbitrage finds a way ### [Reply to @AnonRetriever, 12:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1506610734414848005) · 2 likes > **retriever (@AnonRetriever):** @metakuna Well the consequence (reduced animal suffering) is still there so I think it should be encouraged :) If vegan than yes. But there are a bunch of people replacing beef with chicken bc climate which is just really bad for animal suffering ### [Reply to @keirbradwell, 12:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1506612140660211715) · 1 like > **Keir Bradwell (@keirbradwell):** my own personal beautiful iceberg > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FOebAjoWYAU0drc.jpg) Street artists - care to explain? ### [Reply to @xsphi, 12:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1506616141019598856) · 2 likes > **tess (@xsphi):** this, but unironically > > (quoting @plumnotes: Here's a cool thought experiment: what if killing gay people was really fun? whoa! hold your horses! it's just a philosophical exercise buddy, calm down. that mental resistance you feel means we've hit on an opportunity for growth. keep an open mind, you might learn something ;)) Also, this is a totally reasonable thought experiment because it implies that killing people is bad even if it’s fun. That’s the right lesson! ### [Thread, continued, 12:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1506616423506116611) · 2 likes Would be different (though not necessarily wrong to consider) if the thought exp was crafted in such a way to be ethically misleading ### [Reply to @keirbradwell, 13:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1506626610983800840) · 1 like > **Keir Bradwell (@keirbradwell):** take up lots of valuable public space without paying rent like anyone else would (see especially the ones who do giant chalk drawings and the like) Ya fair enough but not sure it deserves its place that far down lol ### [Reply, 13:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1506627045945757702) · 2 likes This is the answer right here ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 13:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1506631619083395091) · 24 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** my theory of genius in the internet age: a lot of young kids are very smart, but their time is taken away by school and other unproductive obligations. if you're a kid who can do 12th grade math at age 12, the best thing possible for you is that you self learn it on youtube Eh IQ isn’t highly correlated enough with conscientiousness to make this work, I think. Getting yourself to actually learn stuff online without social pressure externally-imposed expectations and deadlines requires a ton of executive function ### [Thread, continued, 13:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1506631828844785666) · 3 likes I mean it will for some of those 12 year olds, but genius or intelligence alone isn’t a sufficient condition ## Thursday, March 24, 2022 ### [Tweet, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1506782991586111493) · 3 likes (CW: shilling for trillion dollar corporation) Getting a new laptop after five yrs, and it's weird that the MacBook Pro's screen brightness is basically not advertised at all. It's literally 2.5 times brighter (per sq in) than the 2017 Air and 4 times brighter than some laptops. ### [Thread, continued, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1506782992714326021) · 1 like Like idc all that much how fancy or fast or modern all the hardware inside is. I want to be able to to fry my own irises with visible-spectrum radiation if I so choose! And basically no other laptop models come close in this regard ## Friday, March 25, 2022 ### [Reply to @prerat, 02:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1507186271302602759) · 7 likes > **prerat (@prerat):** a mysterious economist approaches you, offering a bet > > flip a coin > • if heads, you gain 50% > • if tails, you lose 40% > > assuming you're not particularly risk-averse or anti-betting in general, is this a good bet? > > what if you could play 100 times in a row? FYI the reason the second doesn’t hold up is because it’s implicitly telling you to consider the median result instead of the mean. Consider two consecutive flips starting with $1. Outcomes are: 2.25 with p=.25; .9 with p=.5; .36 with p=.25. ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 15:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1507373392672051205) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Often calling 1000 1 and 1 1000 is a more damaging error. > > It does more harm to mix up good and great good than small goods and evils. I’d argue mixing -1 and -1000 is worst of all ### [Reply to @keithwynroe, 19:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1507435494937927690) · 2 likes > **Keith Wynroe (@keithwynroe):** @AaronBergman18 @prerat Kelly Criterion maximises the median and it’s pretty popular and influential in finance, has a lot of nice properties. Wouldn’t say that line of thinking “doesn’t hold up” Yeah basically agree. I was taking “not particularly risk averse” to mean “totally risk neutral,” but admit it could mean instead “a typical degree of risk aversion” in which case median is a better proxy for utility ## Saturday, March 26, 2022 ### [Reply to @mechanical_monk, 00:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1507516710626156544) · 2 likes > **monk (@mechanical_monk):** dearth of alcohol > > no mixers > > too lazy to go convenience store > > wat do > > then, stroke of genius > > vodka + milk + maple syrup > > good shit > > cheers brothers > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FOucULRX0A0MIgr.jpg) These are linearly independent in the space of edible liquids ### [Reply to @Ben_Reinhardt, 17:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1507771279138566147) · 3 likes > **Ben Reinhardt (@Ben_Reinhardt):** I have a weirdly strong conviction that people consistently overestimate what can be achieved in five years but we underestimate what can be achieved in 20. > > Is this a real phenomena? Is there any evidence behind it? Don’t have empirical evidence, but I’m guessing it’s the result of a mental model in which people force a linear model on top of an exponential curve, so the line is above the curve until, say, t=10 years and then the order switches ### [Reply to @_fat_ugly_rat_, 17:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1507773954890555392) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @_fat_ugly_rat_ is no longer available.)_ Cool but this should probably include a scale/legend. Something tells me a big difference in color doesn’t correspond to that large of a quantitative difference ## Monday, March 28, 2022 ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 16:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1508478404408061956) · 6 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** schools should include a class called Truth Is Hard, where u get bombarded with examples of confused eyewitnesses, incorrect public outrages, studies that failed to replicate, super convincing arguments that fall apart with one additional fact u didn't expect, etc. And some of the reverse! Arguments/stories that sound literally unbelievable but are totally sound/true ## Tuesday, March 29, 2022 ### [Reply to @FTC, 16:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1508848162005565453) · 20 likes > **FTC (@FTC):** New: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive Turbotax “free” filing campaign. Commission seeks an immediate halt to Intuit’s deceptive ads for “free” products: https://bit.ly/3NGDVUm Get ‘em [![Supa Hot GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/FPCBZ1vXoAcNS9b.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1508848162005565453/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @tszzl, 20:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1508898000839622670) · 4 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** introduced myself yesterday as a “AI normie in the sam altman sense” What percent of the English-speaking world population would understand this sentence? ## Wednesday, March 30, 2022 ### [Tweet, 23:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1509307883896418307) · 14 likes Cool book but I mostly just want to know whether capitalizing the T was an intentional or strategic decision @willmacaskill https://www.amazon.com/dp/1541618629/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_2YM76XF6E492FNQ9B6D3 ### [Thread, continued, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1509308685444685833) · 4 likes Hmm ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FPIkP_QXEAsQ4ZA.jpg) ## Thursday, March 31, 2022 ### [Reply, 21:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1509647948933705729) · 3 likes This can and should be a meme format ### [Thread, continued, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1509650887215665157) · 10 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FPNbdtyXIAMKFks.jpg) --- End of March 2022. Previous month: [February 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-02). Next month: [April 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-04). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, April 2022 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in April 2022 and has not deleted: 56 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [March 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-03). Next month: [May 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-05). ## Friday, April 1, 2022 ### [Quote tweet, 00:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1509692993615314946) · 2 likes The saga continues https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/JfaF3DgwNN6itcmtm/announcing-what-we-owe-the-future?fbclid=IwAR37mUQfHl5eGnxFZ3BXgVBXg0leTHBboM0zczZwrov2AEzGe3iwOGvXDr4 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FPOBxmxWYAAt0kM.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Cool book but I mostly just want to know whether capitalizing the T was an intentional or strategic decision @willmacaskill https://www.amazon.com/dp/1541618629/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_2YM76XF6E492FNQ9B6D3 ### [Reply to @KaylaAncrum, 12:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1509875433730461700) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @KaylaAncrum is no longer available.)_ Well there are \*different\* edible salts. Sodium chloride, potassium chloride, potassium citrate, potassium iodide (for nuclear fallout lol), magnesium citrate, probably a hundred more ## Monday, April 4, 2022 ### [Reply to @tszzl, 18:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1511043254921347072) · 3 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** .@elonmusk please give me a seat on the twitter board ill do your bidding I think there’s like a 1% chance this actually works ## Tuesday, April 5, 2022 ### [Reply to @lukeprog, 10:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1511289832332574722) · 4 likes > **Luke Muehlhauser (@lukeprog):** Google's new 540B language model: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FPhrCFmXwAQiuT4.png) We’re screwed lol ### [Reply to @AbieRohrig, 10:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1511295569314172936) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AbieRohrig is no longer available.)_ Not this particular example, just the general trend of increasing model size leading to more impressive results with no signs of asymptotic or even diminishing returns ### [Reply, 11:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1511299123823132675) · 2 likes Ok if you’re serious - my $10 to your $1000, evaluated in 6 months? ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 12:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1511320570599780352) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @NathanpmYoung is no longer available.)_ \~12 y/o me to my first cousin: “c’mon man you can’t be ‘half Jewish, half Christian.’ Do you think he’s the son of God or not?!” ### [Quote tweet, 15:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1511371239180410890) · 3 likes I feel like right now is analogous to late March, 2020, when predicting COVID’s importance was trivially easy for anyone paying attention but still still kinda contrarian and rare. AI is gonna be a bfd! > **Quoting Dave White (@_Dave__White_):** google's new language model is capable of doing word problems and explaining jokes > > hard to overstate how shocking this is > > i'm bumping my estimate of AI achieving superintelligence within my lifetime to 33% > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FPhgVnxVsAALVIF.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FPhgXfsUcAM40yb.jpg) ### [Reply, 17:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1511392469010767873) · 3 likes @SBF_FTX new arbitrage opportunity for ya ## Wednesday, April 6, 2022 ### [Reply to @pickover, 03:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1511541552388227077) · 9 likes > **Cliff Pickover (@pickover):** Scream in ecstasy at the mysterious realm of mathematics. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FPm6vhPX0AkpQqX.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FPoTB9_XMAUdfkD.jpg) ## Thursday, April 7, 2022 ### [Reply, 15:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1512094152506413059) · 10 likes A serious chad move would be to go to a less prestigious but still good school without a thriving EA scene and make it happen there. Could be state school honors college ### [Reply to @juan_cambeiro, 19:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1512145875056922631) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @juan_cambeiro is no longer available.)_ Super general but I’m sympathetic to the category of “no you should actually act as though EA ideas are true” critiques. Most obvious example I can think of is that a bunch of 4-6 figure donors donate to charities they don’t think would actually make best use of their money ### [Reply, 21:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1512187409735299072) · 3 likes If you don’t think animals are sentient, why do you care about their experiencing cruelty? ## Friday, April 8, 2022 ### [Reply to @DisplayNom, 16:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1512466425092313090) · 2 likes > **display nom de plume (@DisplayNom):** People in EA way overestimate near term X-risk probability. Some of the numbers in The Precipice are ludicrously fanciful. I hope you’re right ## Saturday, April 9, 2022 ### [Reply to @ArmandDoma, 02:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1512617675410841610) · 5 likes > **Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma):** We're cancelling each other over data takes today. Post your cancellable data takes. The singular should be “dat” not “datum” ## Sunday, April 10, 2022 ### [Reply to @groundedsage, 00:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1512945601767428110) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @groundedsage is no longer available.)_ Statistics, people! Probably the smallest town in which one such person lives! One postrat in a town of 10k=~8500 in NYC ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 00:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1512947089097039872) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** i^i is a real number (not imaginary)... cool proof > > http://mathcentral.uregina.ca/QQ/database/QQ.09.08/h/randomness1.html > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FP7urJ4WUAAxBEl.jpg) Disagree. ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FP8RW9JXIA4a4Ex.jpg) ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 15:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1513173003252682758) · 6 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @JulianHazell Girl at the bar: I actually think animal lives are more mixed-to-happy than you’re allowing. Assuming that pain and pleasure have some evolutionary purpose it seems unlikely that pain would be maxed out in the wild and humans would be the only species whose lives are barely okay. Julian, meet Holly👩‍❤️‍👨 ### [Reply to @mickeyxfriedman, 15:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1513177700277575688) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mickeyxfriedman is no longer available.)_ I want some serious altruism points if this actually works ### [Reply to @conor64, 20:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1513247937052266504) · 7 likes > **Conor Friedersdorf (@conor64):** What are the most harmful beliefs that are more widely held than they would otherwise be because of disinformation? Most meat comes from animals that were not abused (though only if ag gag laws+advertising count as disinformation) ## Monday, April 11, 2022 ### [Reply, 14:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1513528467865972736) · 12 likes 1\) certain nutrients do cross the blood-brain barrier (e.g., tyrosine->L-dopa->dopamine) 2\) more importantly, there are a huge number of ways that diet can \*indirectly\* but importantly affect the brain, like inflammation ### [Tweet, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1513591428072493059) · 6 likes 🧵0 books to read in your 0s: ### [Reply to @QiaochuYuan, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1513592255281602562) · 20 likes > **QC (@QiaochuYuan):** when jorge luis borges was 19 his father arranged for him to lose his virginity to a prostitute. he apparently found the experience so scarring that he was unable to have sex for the rest of his life > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FQFUnjVWUAUlY9s.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FQFU7mLXsAcX3Sj.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FQFUp_YagAE-BoJ.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FQFUz-mWYAQ5W1I.jpg) We did not learn about this in AP Spanish Lit ### [Quote tweet, 22:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1513640480952758277) · 18 likes Hypothesis: Swapcard’s shitty quality is an intentional plot to unite EAG attendees in opposition to a common enemy and offer us plausible deniability and a scapegoat to blame when we miss a meeting or something goes wrong > **Quoting alex lawsen (@lxrjl):** Broke: suggesting how to fix swapcard > Woke: complaining about swapcard > Bespoke: referring to swapcard as rationalist tinder ## Tuesday, April 12, 2022 ### [Reply to @trevposts, 17:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1513934738486136835) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @trevposts is no longer available.)_ 👀 ## Wednesday, April 13, 2022 ### [Reply to @nosilverv, 15:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1514262299007238150) · 4 likes > **Guy (@nosilverv):** EA spending tons of money and man-hours to discover one of the most effective interventions is direct cash donations (giving money directly to the poor) is strong Mexican fisherman parable vibes It’s on the efficient frontier of a few relevant variables like certainty, quality of evidence, and theory of impact, but afaik no one thinks it’s one of the best or most effective interventions ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1514339978968543232) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Ya but like half of Americans believe in literal ghosts so let’s moderate our expectations ## Friday, April 15, 2022 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1514807178766401547) · 1 like > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Hit 1 million YouTube views today > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FQTyuf_VIAQAbc2.png) 👑 ### [Reply to @calebwatney, 03:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1514807579733475340) · 13 likes > **Caleb Watney (@calebwatney):** Normalize using reverse alphabetical order roughly half the time 😤 I attribute any success I may have in life to alphabetical privilege ## Saturday, April 16, 2022 ### [Reply to @nsztl, 10:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1515276313174630404) · 3 likes > **Noah (@nsztl):** Is there enough text to make this worthwhile? Ooh this is a good question. Are there estimates of the total number of digitized words/characters? Could that meaningfully limit LLMs in the future? ### [Reply, 10:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1515281332909363205) · 13 likes The fact that Google searches are free and easy suggests the marginal cost of their computation is ~0. If that’s true, what is stopping a service like Google from performing the same level of search quality on one’s own computer’s files? ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 10:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1515282664571510789) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ I wonder whether some of this is indeed caused by less use of recreational drugs that seem to legitimately work against depression, like ketamine, mdma, and lsd ### [Reply to @a_brisbanite, 11:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1515297202020757505) > **🌆 (@a_brisbanite):** It’s free because you’re not the customer, you’re the product. Sure, but the marginal ad revenue Google gets by inducing a single extra search is also basically zero ### [Reply to @depthsofwiki, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1515425588957351942) · 1,753 likes > **depths of wikipedia! (@depthsofwiki):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FQfPSEFWUAkmvpu.jpg) I will never stop tweeting this ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FQffioGXsAUkGTL.jpg) ### [Reply, 23:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1515470956499722248) · 7 likes Common misconception. You just need tinkering and memetic/cultural evolution ## Monday, April 18, 2022 ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 16:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1516089913082531841) · 3 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** If every EAG you go to is clearly worth it, then you’re not going to enough EAGs. At optimum, the marginal EAG you go to should be ex ante neutral, and ex post the least worthwhile EAG you go to should be negative. I think you’d have to subtract out the marginal labor+money cost if your having attended for this to work ## Tuesday, April 19, 2022 ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 11:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1516379298118217734) · 6 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Top tier utilitarianism: > > At my party, a guy lost a shoe. He was gonna leave in a sock. I offered him my sandal. He refused vehemently. I said they were very cheap. He took the sandal. Then: > > "You might as well give me the other one as well" > > He's not wrong! Hmm but giving the second shoe might create a moral hazard around being careless with shoes ### [Reply to @elidourado, 23:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1516557901866967041) · 3 likes > **Eli Dourado (@elidourado):** It is baffling to me that very few if any of you are freaked out by the likelihood of a global supply-side recession. > > /ht @mattparlmer > > (quoting @EricMertz_KC: Holy shit, China is even more fucked than I thought...) What’s the move if we think you’re right, and know better than the markets? Not being sardonic - I’ve become skeptical of efficient markets these last few years! ## Wednesday, April 20, 2022 ### [Reply to @MichaelTrazzi, 20:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1516874040480350216) · 25 likes > **Michaël Trazzi (@MichaelTrazzi):** who made this? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FQyHXTTXIAElhWL.jpg) Mega chad: sets out to make $1 trillion because we’re funding constrained at the ~$50B margin ## Thursday, April 21, 2022 ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 03:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1516979994752393216) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pli_cachete is no longer available.)_ Google how to solve your problem (it’s free) ### [Thread, continued, 03:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1516980492389781505) · 4 likes https://aaronbergman.substack.com/p/for-gods-sake-google-it?s=w ### [Reply to @chrislakin, 23:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1517290037288873985) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @chrislakin is no longer available.)_ Make👏it👏public 👏 (if u want to) ## Friday, April 22, 2022 ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 18:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1517577755407355906) · 3 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FQ9580NWUAMSw4y.jpg) Lol I don’t think the guy on the left exists ## Saturday, April 23, 2022 ### [Reply to @embryosophy, 07:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1517774388724224002) · 7 likes > **+ big buddhi + (@embryosophy):** @strangestloop > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FQ_DBMTVgAAV2OF.jpg) Yea if this is the least interesting, can you just link ur whole camera roll? ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 08:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1517778096493113346) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @PradyuPrasad is no longer available.)_ Lfg - can you tell who’s the account right next to me? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FRA7InrXIAAZ7m_.jpg) ## Sunday, April 24, 2022 ### [Reply to @RyanRadia, 17:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1518280934176530432) · 3 likes > **Ryan Radia (@RyanRadia):** @JosephPolitano Could be worse! ;) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FRICkloXoAIvxZ1.jpg) @JosephPolitano DESTROYED with FACTS and DATA ## Monday, April 25, 2022 ### [Reply to @tszzl, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1518413410060353537) · 4 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** what i'm learning is that the proceeds from crypto fund an endless global party like something out of a science fiction novel. amsterdam one week, miami the next, and on, with the same recurring cast of characters Yeah but then there’s @SBF_FTX making up for all this bullshit with earnest philanthropy lol. A few other smaller crypto donors too ## Tuesday, April 26, 2022 ### [Reply to @rmcwhorter99, 03:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1518792749142663168) · 1 like > **Ryan McWhorter (@rmcwhorter99):** @Tjdriii That’s really a 17-22 struggle Damn I got like 10 months to figure out my life ### [Reply, 13:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1518948133857804288) · 1 like Yea that one should be easy ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 15:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1518979349495656448) · 4 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** weird question > what are the places outside economics where economists have and can do the best work? > > \- nuclear strategy You should 100% apply for @80000Hours coaching. Basically guaranteed to be accepted ### [Reply to @rohn_jawls, 15:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1518981733751963650) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @rohn_jawls is no longer available.)_ Hate to be earnest here but most strength gains come from improved neuromuscular activation, not bigger muscles ## Friday, April 29, 2022 ### [Reply to @AlecStapp, 00:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1519833409337634819) · 4 likes > **Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** Tyler Cowen’s talent spotting skill is off the charts 🤯 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FRd1sRvXwAER_Ld.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FReIbmjWYAERSO-.jpg) ### [Reply to @benjamin_hilton, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1520111241745870848) · 48 likes > **Benjamin Hilton (@benjamin_hilton):** 2\) A sign that says "beware of the dog" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FRhebhEXoAEdFf0.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FRheb4WWUAUD1Tu.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FRhecSsXoAAwyC6.jpg) Ngl if I saw one of these signs I would 100% not break in to that house. Especially the second 💀 ### [Reply to @SeanMombo, 23:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1520190129557721088) · 3 likes > **sunshine ☀️ revival (@SeanMombo):** used a glue trap to catch a mouse and then realized i had to kill it myself still. > > then i got some mousetraps for the rest of them. two babies triggered one of the mouse traps and neither died and i had to kill them too Theyre quite literal torture. Seeing a glue trapped mouse slowly dying was probably one of the key events that “radicalized” me on animal welfare ## Saturday, April 30, 2022 ### [Tweet, 21:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1520511165859872772) · 7 likes I try not to be reactively cynical, but one true thing few people tell hs/early college students is that at least one of your majors should be chosen purely for signaling value, which generally means the hardest/most rigorous subject you can tolerate and do well in ### [Thread, continued, 21:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1520511167122358272) · 3 likes I was lucky enough to come across @bryan_caplan’s whole “education as signaling” thing in high school, and I’m glad that I did! I added a math major (alongside econ) ~100% for the signals, and in hindsight that was 100% the right call --- End of April 2022. Previous month: [March 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-03). Next month: [May 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-05). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, May 2022 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in May 2022 and has not deleted: 91 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [April 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-04). Next month: [June 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-06). ## Sunday, May 1, 2022 ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 23:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1520906239265366016) · 5 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** @daniel_eth I think it has been made as a good-faith error. I'm sure mockingly as well. I think it might also be literally correct lol ## Monday, May 2, 2022 ### [Reply, 01:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1520941509633261568) · 1 like Wait why lol? I am that guy btw ### [Reply, 01:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1520943130039697408) · 1 like Yup that’s me ### [Reply to @calebwatney, 01:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1520944432094355457) · 1 like > **Caleb Watney (@calebwatney):** The landed gentry is back baby > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FRsqJ9eXIAABDg9.jpg) 🪧Resurrect Henry George🪧 ### [Reply, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1521209408302325760) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Bro u came to the wrong corner of Twitter to try this on lol ### [Tweet, 21:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1521236388053766144) · 1 like Not sure how much of a difference it's made, but 10 points to the UK Government for putting out a whole (book-length) report explaining+encouraging so-called "red-teaming" https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1027158/20210625-Red_Teaming_Handbook.pdf ### [Tweet, 22:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1521257036901670913) · 8 likes Whitepill on Rogan is that he figured out how to get 11 million people (episode avg) to listen to in-depth, relatively intellectual+informative conversations and that this is a good thing ## Tuesday, May 3, 2022 ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 02:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1521309721881235456) · 2 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** Asking the important questions out loud that I'm sure everybody's thinking: > > "Are the birds sentient? Do they experience net pleasure or pain?" > > (quoting @Aella_Girl: If you push the button, for the next 5 yrs, every time you think someone is attractive, a lil invisible bird descends on their shoulder at a random point over the next week and says "\[name\] thinks ur cute". Birds likewise descend on ur shoulder when others think you're cute. You:) New wild animal suffering intervention just dropped ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 02:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1521311306934067201) · 2 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Your gender: Ngl one of the funnier of your poll/result combos ### [Thread, continued, 02:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1521311446994497538) · 2 likes Not because of the cis/trans dimension - just male vs female ### [Reply to @robbensinger, 03:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1521326358504353793) · 5 likes > **Rob Bensinger ⏹️ (@robbensinger):** The sweet spot for EA PR is something like: 'friendly, nuanced, patient, and totally unapologetic about being a fire hose of inflammatory hot takes'. 🙂 IMO @robertwiblin strikes this balance pretty well on the 80k podcast ### [Reply to @MichaelTrazzi, 15:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1521517341380644865) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @MichaelTrazzi is no longer available.)_ We’re fucked 🙃 ### [Tweet, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1521550997897818113) · 2 likes It's tempting to dismiss the benefits of rationalism when you spend time (online or IRL) in rat circles, but nothing affirms the virtue of the whole project like spending time with smart people who do dumb shit just bc they haven't been exposed to rationalist memes (1/3) ### [Thread, continued, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1521550999881908224) · 2 likes Just one example: someone I know well makes the salaried equivalent of >$100/hour, has plenty of savings, and regularly laments having little free time. But it didn't even cross his mind to consider hiring a handyman to fix a lightbulb part that was stuck in the ceiling (2/3) ## Wednesday, May 4, 2022 ### [Quote tweet, 08:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1521773964997107713) · 6 likes Might make this my personality > **Quoting void angel 𒌓 (@egregirls):** holy shit I need to become portable co2 meter guy so badly ### [Tweet, 14:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1521855751827992576) · 3 likes When a new social science-y book with an interesting thesis drops, every wonky podcast in existence drops what they’re doing and invites the very same author on to discuss. The authorship-podcasting-industrial complex must be stopped! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FR63vGJXwAArGVs.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FR63vGFXwAASo4K.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FR63vGGXEAI4rnD.jpg) ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1521934419665334275) · 3 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** the AI puts global poverty as a top cause area Bernie Madoff says violent crime is more concerning than white collar crime ## Thursday, May 5, 2022 ### [Reply to @GluskerMartin, 02:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1522033682978160642) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @GluskerMartin is no longer available.)_ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FR9ZjA_WUAAXCfh.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 02:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1522035562726764544) · 1 like 👀 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FR9bN03XEAEDC8P.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Might make this my personality ### [Reply to @BecomingCritter, 17:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1522265249910607875) · 2 likes > **critter (@BecomingCritter):** What do you really care about that most people don’t? Fish ## Friday, May 6, 2022 ### [Reply to @metakuna, 12:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1522553543546314760) · 5 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** @PradyuPrasad true racial equality will have been achieved only when I can make fun of indians 😤 True racial equality will be when I can like this Tweet ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 21:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1522695303584919558) · 108 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Me attempting to teach math to GPT3 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FSF7h4GWQAASKNt.jpg) Seems possible it’s being intentionally incorrect because of your prompt. Probably lots of instances online of students getting answers wrong while getting tutored! ### [Reply to @nat_sharpe_, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1522695918436470786) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @nat_sharpe_ is no longer available.)_ He should set prices higher - would you have \*not\* bought whatever you did for 2x or 5x the price? 50x? Test the limits, man! ### [Reply to @puheenix, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1522726538072182789) · 5 likes > **hart the phoenix (@puheenix):** @AaronBergman18 @nat_sharpe\_ imo the prices are cute (and cuteness is definitely core to his brand), and people will probably give him more anyway No toddler🔞should be dependent 😤on the arbitrary⁉️kindness of strangers🎗! He should charge🧾a living🌻wage💰🤑 ## Monday, May 9, 2022 ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1523453274744971267) · 2 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** What are some things you can buy or try in America (but not Britain)? MLB baseball game, American football. I mean I’m sure they have those in Britain, but not at nearly the same scale. Also peanut butter, double or triple majoring in college, smoke-free bars, some uncommon pharmaceuticals like aducanumab, all things Native American ### [Tweet, 01:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1523467904276066305) · 5 likes Incredibly unnerving to walk through a college town and notice that most people look younger than me. Guess I’m gettin’ old. Never consented to this ### [Reply to @GluskerMartin, 02:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1523493233602359298) · 3 likes > **Martin Glusker (@GluskerMartin):** Can I interest you in the following (lmao) https://www.amazon.com/Better-Never-Have-Been-Existence/dp/0199549265/ref=nodl_ Yeah but I would not have consented to not having been born either. Checkmate antinatalism ## Tuesday, May 10, 2022 ### [Tweet, 03:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1523869399987494912) · 2 likes If I was a doctor I would 100% be starting up http://GetSemaglitudeQuick.com or some shit. The drug is one of the best things to happen to rich Westerners’ quality of life in a long time and seems like the whole world is sleeping on it ### [Thread, continued, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1523874741941157888) · 3 likes First ever impulse investment. Just bought the domain http://semaglitude.com for $14/year. Selling for $10k starting now. It’ll be funny as hell if this works ### [Reply to @cabowlogy, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1523876793576562689) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @cabowlogy is no longer available.)_ Price has been lowered to $50 ### [Tweet, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1523877688938803207) · 4 likes Let this be a lesson to all: do not trust your financial intuitions during the four hour period after taking melatonin ## Wednesday, May 11, 2022 ### [Tweet, 04:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1524241699748384768) · 6 likes Turns out the random cardboard tube I’ve been using to open and close my vents for months has been holding my literal diploma this whole time 🙃 ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 17:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1524440156681474050) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @robertwiblin is no longer available.)_ Well they’re gonna be a killer Carrick Flynn episode either way the election goes ## Thursday, May 12, 2022 ### [Reply to @anquetil, 04:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1524608410464960514) · 4 likes > **Martin Anquetil (@anquetil):** guess I picked an interesting time to be an unemployed 23 year old Yo if you have “prev: @Google” in ur bio I think you’re gonna be ok ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1524609891243016193) · 1 like > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** Futures markets are usually run by them True, I’ll take 6 thousand lemons to be delivered Jan 1, 2063 ### [Quote tweet, 04:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1524614648863076353) · 3 likes Twitter leaking into the real world - my extremely offline parents have decided to buy $10k worth as a direct result of me sending them this Tweet. Guess it’s legit! > **Quoting Timothy B. Lee (@binarybits):** My piece today is about a savings vehicle with an interest rate so ludicrously high—9.6 percent—that I initially assumed there must be a catch. Series I savings bonds do require you to lock your money up for a year. But beyond that there's no catch! https://fullstackeconomics.com/a-little-known-government-savings-vehicle-pays-9-6-percent-interest/ ### [Reply to @cafedujord, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1524622916146679808) · 9 likes > **Jordan Grimes (on Bluesky @cafedujord) (@cafedujord):** California suburbanites on water restrictions: > > \- What about my pool? > \- Can I still wash my car once a week? > \- I just spent $8k on grass, what will happen to it? > \- Muh koi ponds! > > And my personal favorite: at least we won't have to build any low-income housing now, right?! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FSh8Lm1UcAAtpuy.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FSh8Lm2UcAAsBw_.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FSh8Lm3VsAAeiZd.jpg) Ah yes, the progressive dogma that we must divert water away from poor people and to koi ponds ### [Reply to @karakfa, 08:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1524667607277883393) · 5 likes > **karakfa (@karakfa):** and that's probably left over from the era where ships were used for cargo. And “ship” is left over from the days when they’d make a boat out of a hollowed-out tree https://www.etymonline.com/word/ship ### [Tweet, 15:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1524769623786283009) · 2 likes My new investment strategy is “buy a small amount of BTC every time >10% of my timeline is people roasting crypto bros for losing money” ### [Thread, continued, 15:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1524769624713318400) · 2 likes Yeah ik arguably I’m an idiot for investing at all and have indeed lost a bit of money, but don’t think it was the wrong call ex ante and don’t regret it ## Friday, May 13, 2022 ### [Tweet, 02:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1524937414367649811) · 5 likes App idea I'd pay $10 or $20 for: a Reddit-like interface for Twitter in which: \- Subreddits correspond to users and you can: 1\) Sort a single person's Tweets by New/Hot/Rising/Top/Controversial 2\) Select a time frame for the latter two (e.g., "Top Tweets of the past month") ### [Reply, 16:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1525150354639163392) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Factory farming seems worse, but this makes top ten ### [Tweet, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1525165592516259840) Inflation got me ordering the 12-and-under kids meal, hoping the principle-agent misalignment is large enough that the cashier doesn’t ask questions ### [Reply to @principle_agent, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1525165711412187136) · 2 likes > **Principle Agent (@principle_agent):** @AaronBergman18 Maybe you meant “principal–agent”? Why do u exist? ## Sunday, May 15, 2022 ### [Tweet, 15:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1525856190269227009) · 2 likes Hey #EconTwitter, can someone convince me that the solution to the Equity Premium Puzzle isn’t just that the appropriate comparison to stock returns is corporate bonds (which average >6%) rather than treasury bonds? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equity_premium_puzzle ## Tuesday, May 17, 2022 ### [Reply, 18:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1526625175772401664) · 1 like Yea maybe I phrased that wrong. More specifically, the proposition “if I was a turtle, I’d be better off” is neither true nor false ## Wednesday, May 18, 2022 ### [Tweet, 02:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1526757577370914816) · 3 likes A cold, hard truth is that the default Apple screensaver/background pictures are better than whatever different ones you're using, and deep down you know this to be true ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FTAhqs7UEAA2h7W.png) ## Thursday, May 19, 2022 ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 15:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527316914292539393) · 2 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** Starting a single-purpose political party to make cars quieter (or electric), kill music in restaurants and everywhere else you don’t dance, and abolish emergency vehicles that scream every five minutes all day through every major city injecting cortisol into millions of people Alternative: mail every resident 300mg capsules of phosphatidylserine to inhibit cortisol synthesis ### [Tweet, 16:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527320947845648385) · 3 likes This is the source to watch over coming weeks https://www.metaculus.com/questions/10973/total-estimated-monkeypox-infections-in-2022/ ### [Tweet, 17:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527333615763603456) · 548 likes Ok I’m like 50% sure I solved @tylercowen’s and @danielgross’s “why do top achievers all drink Diet Coke?” thing. 12oz Diet Coke contains 100mg phenylalanine, which is an indirect precursor to dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/conversations-with-tyler/id983795625?i=1000562226381 ### [Thread, continued, 17:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527333636386615296) · 75 likes Tyrosine and phenylalanine are old in supplement form at around this dose as mild stimulants for this very reason - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenylalanine … ### [Thread, continued, 17:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527333637808480256) · 93 likes but they only really work when ingested as isolates and without other amino acids! The aspartame in diet soda is probably the only widely available source of isolated phenylalanine! Hell yeah! ### [Quote tweet, 17:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527344026151636998) · 5 likes Update: standard nootropics dose is 500mg, but multiple bottles at 100mg each still seems like it should be a meaningful amount > **Quoting Dan Elton (@moreisdifferent):** This is a really great observation, but a can of Diet Coke only contains 104 mg of phenylalanine. > > The people on /r/nootropics seem to like to take 0.5 - 3 g for nootropic effect. > > My theory is the caffeine is in pure form, so you get more of a buzz, as with a caffeine pill... ### [Reply to @GluskerMartin, 18:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527361477195071488) · 3 likes > **Martin Glusker (@GluskerMartin):** Whoa that’s crazy, and regular coke doesn’t have this? Nah, corn syrup instead of aspartame! ### [Reply to @ns_whit, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527392005864685571) · 9 likes > **Nick Whitaker 🇺🇸 (@ns_whit):** @AaronBergman18 @tylercowen @danielgross If this were true, competitive tech companies would stock Diet Coke instead of weird flavored waters. Unless it would make the workforce too powerful… Eh not sure markets are \*that\* efficient. And fwiw one of the few tech-ish offices I've been in did indeed have diet coke stocked! ### [Reply to @finmoorhouse, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527427933111042049) · 21 likes > **Fin Moorhouse (@finmoorhouse):** Maybe a dumb q, but what's the claim here? That phenylalanine actually helps facilitate high achievement? That top achievers are disproportionately drawn to drinks with nootropic effects? Not dumb - my initial tweets didn't include a well specified claim! If this theory is true, my best guess is several causal chains: 1\. Phenylalanine -> black box of physiology -> improved energy and motivation -> “achievement”... ### [Thread, continued, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527428370912378880) · 12 likes 2\. Phenylalanine -> physiology black box -> improved energy and motivation -> associate DC with feeling well -> more DC, more phenylalanine; this feedback loop strongest for those who really like feeling energetic and motivated, who are likely successful through other channels ### [Thread, continued, 23:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527428454785892352) · 8 likes 3\. (1) and (2) -> people like Tyler notice that successful people drink DC and tell others -> aspiring high achievers know this (or more likely just have a slightly more positive association with DC than they otherwise would) -> they drink DC for the direct and signaling effects ### [Thread, continued, 23:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527428625301225488) · 9 likes 4\. DC seems “artificial” but plausibly isn’t unhealthy in a meaningful way -> people who like optimization/free lunches/engineering drink DC for the direct effect and signaling 5\. Memetics among a social community, of which the mega-rich/successful are one Maybe others too! ### [Thread, continued, 23:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527429294313639936) · 7 likes A few other things that seem plausibly good in DC: \* Small amount caffeine (46mg/12oz ~= 25%ish coffee) - maybe potentiated by phenylalanine? \* Carbonation/caffeine/water/sweetness -> satiety \* Acidity helps digestion(?) \* (unlikely) small amounts sodium, potassium, phosphorous ### [Reply to @JimmySteier, 23:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527429677010370568) · 7 likes > **Jimmy (@JimmySteier):** Well aspartame is actually a dipeptide of aspartic acid and phenylalanine, so there’s likely some synergistic effect as aspartate is an NMDA agonist. Subjectively, Diet Coke feels differently from equiv. dose of tyrosine Nice, thanks! NMDA is weird - I can't get a good handle on what it "does," but do know that antagonists tend to be sedatives. Ketamine, for instance! ### [Quote tweet, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527430647178051592) · 5 likes Good question, putting my reply as a thread below! > **Quoting Fin Moorhouse (@finmoorhouse):** @AaronBergman18 @tylercowen @danielgross Maybe a dumb q, but what's the claim here? That phenylalanine actually helps facilitate high achievement? That top achievers are disproportionately drawn to drinks with nootropic effects? ### [Thread, continued, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527430648377622528) · 2 likes Not dumb - my initial tweets didn't include a well specified claim! If this theory is true, my best guess is several causal chains: 1\. Phenylalanine -> black box of physiology -> improved energy and motivation -> “achievement” ### [Thread, continued, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527430649350606849) · 2 likes 2\. Phenylalanine -> black box of physiology -> improved energy and motivation -> associate DC with feeling well -> more DC+phenylalanine; this feedback loop is strongest for people who really like feeling energetic and motivated, who are likely successful through other channels ### [Thread, continued, 23:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527430650424442880) · 2 likes 3\. (1) and (2) -> people like Tyler notice that successful people drink DC and tell others -> aspiring high achievers know this (or more likely just have a slightly more positive association with DC than they otherwise would) -> they drink DC for the direct and signaling effects ### [Thread, continued, 23:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527430651355578386) · 2 likes 4\. DC seems “artificial” but plausibly isn’t really unhealthy -> people who like optimization/free lunches/engineering drink DC for direct effect and signaling 5\. Memetics among a social community, of which the mega-rich/successful are one And maybe others! ### [Thread, continued, 23:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527430652328656902) · 2 likes Also there are a few other things that seem plausibly good in DC: \* Small amount of caffeine (46mg/12 oz ~= 15-35% that of coffee per oz) - maybe complemented/potentiated by phenylalanine? ### [Thread, continued, 23:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527430653272375316) · 3 likes \* Sweetness/carbonation/caffeine/water promotes satiety -> eat less -> maybe good for cognition? \* Acidity helps digestion (?) \* (seems unlikely to matter) small amounts of sodium, potassium, phosphorous /end ## Friday, May 20, 2022 ### [Reply to @MTabarrok, 01:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527456700638416906) · 2 likes > **Maxwell Tabarrok (@MTabarrok):** I feel like the list of examples Daniel gave was way too small to justify believing that more high achievers drink diet coke than the average person. It's a very popular drink! The base rate is just high already. I'm def not certain this is legit, but I don't know if I'd call diet soda in general "very popular," particularly among, say, graduates of the top 50 US colleges (or any other reference demographic. \*I\* drink pretty often haha but I'm always the only one doing so!... ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 01:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527460094514024457) · 28 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 19, 2022:** Ok I’m like 50% sure I solved @tylercowen’s and @danielgross’s “why do top achievers all drink Diet Coke?” thing. 12oz Diet Coke contains 100mg phenylalanine,… On the off chance this makes it onto MR and gets some eyeballs: the Fish Welfare Initiative has a $250k funding gap for 2022. Extremely high altruistic impact IMO I'll match donations up to at least $1k (total of my own money, maybe somewhat more)! https://www.fishwelfareinitiative.org/donate ### [Thread, continued, 01:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527462138041847815) · 3 likes DM me a receipt to get the match going! ### [Quote tweet, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527463146302197764) · 6 likes Let's give this a try ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FTKjfDRWUAAgJd-.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Tyrosine and phenylalanine are old in supplement form at around this dose as mild stimulants for this very reason - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenylalanine … ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 01:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527464987974946816) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 20, 2022:** DM me a receipt to get the match going! To leverage whatever psychological bias the "bandwagon" effect refers to, I'll list whenever I match a donation. One already done, $100 from each of us! ### [Reply to @DooByte, 04:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527509908329046032) · 3 likes > **DooByte (@DooByte):** Any healthier alternative to achieve the same effect? Pure phenylalanine! Comes in higher doses in supplement form, so be careful, do your research, etc. https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00BQ1BDOY?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_T6867WY7BMSV98M100MY ### [Reply to @cafreiman, 13:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527637686093324288) · 24 likes > **Chris Freiman (@cafreiman):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FTMuPthWQAMbd28.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FTNCYNlX0AAmJL9.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 14:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527652828134748163) · 5 likes Guess this is a thing > **Quoting T.C.P. (@techceopepe):** In this thread we will post pictures of rich guys drinking Diet Coke ## Saturday, May 21, 2022 ### [Reply to @BroductManager, 04:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527861979695792128) · 2 likes > **rahul (@BroductManager):** (last contrarian voice) classic thielian lesson: value creation and value capture are independent variables @tszzl @BroductManager ask your crypto m/billionaire friends to spare some ETH for the fishies and show the aquatic world what shitpoasting can accomplish ### [Reply to @retttx, 04:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527865048328192007) · 3 likes > **Everett (@retttx):** I bring you into this reply thread and you shill some EA cause? 🙈 That would be correct 🤑 ### [Reply to @mattputz_, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527879826375331840) · 3 likes > **Matt Putz (@mattputz_):** What's your subjective probability that an otherwise healthy and productive person could improve their longterm productivity by drinking Diet Coke? > Or > Should I be doing this? Hmm given that the trend exists (65%) and that this explanation has something to do with it (50%), probably something like 70% in the short run (<6 weeks) and 20% in the long run? But I’d expect the effect size to be tiny other way ### [Thread, continued, 05:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527879996173430784) · 3 likes I’d say just get a pure phenylalanine supplement and see how that goes. Seems really unlikely DC \*per se\* is super helpful ## Sunday, May 22, 2022 ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 11:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1528335645176913922) · 14 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** I'm so confused how some people seem to hate me so much. I don't think I feel that way about anybody else except maybe senator warren One of the funniest tweets I’ve ever seen right here ## Monday, May 23, 2022 ### [Tweet, 15:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1528757026309955588) · 1 like Upper middle class Boomers will literally pay four years of private college tuition but take pride in saving $0.09 on store brand dental floss ## Tuesday, May 24, 2022 ### [Reply to @EAheadlines, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1529235590184677376) · 4 likes > **EA Lifestyles (@EAheadlines):** post your EA score. let's quantify our intuitions 👍👍👍 99.8% - I bite just about every bullet, am a hedonic utilitarian moral realist, and generally disagree with the EA consensus in the direction of “you should take your own ideas more seriously” ## Wednesday, May 25, 2022 ### [Tweet, 18:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1529526287538307077) · 3 likes This is possibly the least important issue of all time, but is there any reason we have to keep carrying around a physical drivers license? Like at all? ## Thursday, May 26, 2022 ### [Reply to @daniel_filan, 07:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1529724439239315456) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniel_filan is no longer available.)_ @ETVPod is near the efficient frontier of good faith x hard core leftiness ## Friday, May 27, 2022 ### [Tweet, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1530000781084172288) · 8 likes Dear wonky contrarians remarking on the empirical rarity of school and other mass shootings: The psychological distress these inflict on hundreds of millions of Americans is indirect and maybe even irrational but real nonetheless and so should factor into policymaking ### [Reply to @algekalipso, 04:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1530036763187679233) · 2 likes > **Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso):** Philosophers are the best people to work on many intellectual problems. > > In general, philosophers are smart, intellectually curious, and verbally capable. > > Yet, I don't trust philosophers with philosophy. > > Why is that? > > Simple: philosophy is way too hard for most philosophers. > > (quoting @AgnesCallard: Who do you trust most) Do you trust category of people with philosophy, then? ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 19:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1530272850933858304) · 3 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** This is an interesting paper with an arresting conclusion. > > I don't read papers much. I find them intimidating. This paper is 71 pages long. What specific steps would you take to decide if its conclusions were roughly as stated. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FTxfc_TWIAAFe6Z.jpg) > (quoting @AwayBerk: People stay in poverty because poverty is a shackle. https://economics.mit.edu/files/21191) Get a bigger account to tweet it out enthusiastically, watch all the science skeptic nerds tear the paper apart in the comments ## Saturday, May 28, 2022 ### [Tweet, 17:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1530605648555167751) · 5 likes I have never felt so understood ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FT3NuYPWQAMaiic.jpg) ### [Reply to @kennymcduck, 17:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1530606279135223811) · 2 likes > **Ken M (@kennymcduck):** Is there a massively untapped men's body positive market? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FT2WWtcWIAAu5JE.jpg) Nah we all look like that ## Sunday, May 29, 2022 ### [Quote tweet, 11:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1530867128928174080) · 2 likes This is the correct take > **Quoting Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** @jtlevy What’s interesting is that absolutely everyone seems to agree that there is some threshold of deadliness at which it’s fine to prohibit individual ownership … for all the fussing about 2A concepts the actual fight is just about where to draw the line. --- End of May 2022. Previous month: [April 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-04). Next month: [June 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-06). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, June 2022 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in June 2022 and has not deleted: 108 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [May 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-05). Next month: [July 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-07). ## Wednesday, June 1, 2022 ### [Tweet, 01:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1531810679828758531) · 6 likes Yet another “Stuff I buy and use” post live https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/fwtoEN5pZpDfQQLKz/stuff-i-buy-and-use-a-listicle-to-boost-your-consumer ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 03:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1531839620538851329) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I ride or die for corn bulbs Next mega-earning to give project: forming a company called “Illuminate” or something, renaming “corn bulb” to “ProductivityLight” or whatever, and watching the billions roll in ### [Tweet, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1532118048580288519) · 1 like Why haven’t cars gotten easier to purchase over time as TVs have? If I was a risk-neutral, entrepreneurial engineer with a surplus of hubris and unlimited access to capital (bonus for speaking Spanish or Mandarin) I might try to figure out how to make a good car sell for <$10k ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FUMtPlGX0AQB5sf.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1532118050992017408) A few hypotheses: 1\) labor is necessarily a big input to production, and I’d know this if I knew anything about cars 2\) regulatory capture by industry players 3\) other, non-capture regulation 4\) hidden quality improvements not captured in the data ### [Thread, continued, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1532118052183150606) · 1 like 5\) all the engineering talent and energy is going into electric cars/being hired by Tesla Not sure whether this is relevant, but FWIW Mexican cars appear to sell for around the same price as in the US, despite way lower median income there ### [Thread, continued, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1532118053265211392) · 2 likes Cc @ATabarrok @calebwatney @AlecStapp @PradyuPrasad @ anyone else who knows about heavy machinery manufacturing or relevant econ ## Friday, June 3, 2022 ### [Tweet, 03:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1532572638710796292) Thanks to the iPhone notes app, this no longer has to be a universal human experience. It might feel a little cringe but you gotta fight through that and put all the decent ideas in the Ideas Note (from @nathanwpyle on IG) [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1532572612613836815/pu/img/h1g0R4NyvOSQ5gRd.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1532572638710796292/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Thread, continued, 03:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1532572648286392323) · 2 likes Here’s a template to get you started ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FUTKsoiXoAASTax.jpg) ## Sunday, June 5, 2022 ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1533514905676128256) · 3 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** @depthsofwiki They really gotta get the fruit in there someone with dalle access get on this ## Tuesday, June 7, 2022 ### [Reply to @eslewhere, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1534259922975834113) · 11 likes > **eslewhere (@eslewhere):** One of the best Effective Altruism movement building strategies is for individual EAs be super cool, kind, and interesting so that people will want to be part of the movement \*gets excommunicated for not being cool\* ## Wednesday, June 8, 2022 ### [Reply to @TylerAlterman, 15:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1534557837455679489) · 5 likes > **Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply (@TylerAlterman):** Rationality is to Effective Altruism as Postrationality is to \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_? The heterodox Qualia Research Institute/“abolish suffering with DMT” view of EA ### [Reply to @cafreiman, 21:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1534642342950539264) · 2 likes > **Chris Freiman (@cafreiman):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FUu9DSaXoAAAUIz.jpg) Add another row with Tomasik ### [Reply to @MatthewJBar, 22:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1534661973295648770) · 2 likes > **Matthew Barnett (@MatthewJBar):** From @robbensinger: "This idea seems absurd, so I endorse it only grudgingly: it’s absurd, but less absurd than the two alternatives." > https://nothingismere.com/2017/02/23/phenomenal-consciousness-is-a-quasiperceptual-illusion-objections-and-replies/ I only skimmed the articles you posted, but just registering that I’ve thought about and engaged a lot with illusionism and think it’s coherent and plausible but less likely than some alternatives, particularly Russelian monism https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russellian-monism/ ### [Reply to @MatthewJBar, 22:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1534663919511404544) · 2 likes > **Matthew Barnett (@MatthewJBar):** @AaronBergman18 @robbensinger I consider Russellian monism deeply flawed, for reasons discussed here: https://reducing-suffering.org/not-type-f-monist/ Damn he really got an article for everything lol ## Saturday, June 11, 2022 ### [Quote tweet, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1535429908033376257) · 5 likes Dusting off the ol' R skills (zoomed in version below👀) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FU7whWJWYAEBkjT.jpg) > **Quoting Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** I just scraped the EA Forum in case anyone wants to do anything interesting with that data. Contains metadata too: authors, score, votes, date_published, text (post contents), comments. > > Here’s a link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XA71s2K4j89_N2x4EbTdVYANJ7X3P4ow/view?usp=drivesdk > > Have fun. :) ### [Thread, continued, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1535429914912083968) · 1 like ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FU7wxoUXoAA5i2P.png) ### [Thread, continued, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1535429917776789510) Code: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sD6GJT8AoWVIfkAWrWqV5ms9nmTMxfom/view?usp=sharing ### [Thread, continued, 01:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1535441302438944776) · 2 likes Forgot to tag the people on the graph! @AaronGertler @NunoSempere @peterwildeford @Michael90875807(I think?) @RichardMCNgo @davidnash @? @vaidehiagrwalla @? @lukefreeman @willmacaskill @ben_j_todd @LinchZhang @? @? @michelle_hutchi @? @juliadwise @MilanGriffes ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 02:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1535448336530030593) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18 @AaronGertler @NunoSempere @Michael90875807 @RichardMCNgo @davidnash @vaidehiagrwalla @lukefreeman @willmacaskill @ben_j_todd @LinchZhang @juliadwise @MilanGriffes cool! what is the karma metric here? uhh whatever the variable "score" refers to in the original data, summed over a certain user's posts. Generally very similar to "votes", often a bit higher or lower Assuming it includes "strong" votes but not certain. Should've clarified it doesn't count Karma from comments! ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 02:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1535448482173034496) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18 @AaronGertler @NunoSempere @Michael90875807 @RichardMCNgo @davidnash @vaidehiagrwalla @lukefreeman @willmacaskill @ben_j_todd @LinchZhang @juliadwise @MilanGriffes cool! what is the karma metric here? Will try to add/separate comment Karma later; these are important too of course! ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 06:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1535513122009653249) · 4 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** What are some examples of drugs that work but for which we don't know why they work? Modafinil, basically all antidepressants ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 07:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1535520165596745728) · 2 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** @AaronBergman18 Do you have a link by any chance? Source from Wikipedia on moda: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2654794/ “Interestingly, the therapeutic effects of SSRIs cannot be entirely summed up by simple inhibition of serotonin transporter (SERT), and as such further mechanisms of action must be at work…” from https://mdpi-res.com/d_attachment/neurolint/neurolint-13-00038/article_deploy/neurolint-13-00038-v2.pdf?version=1628662119 ## Sunday, June 12, 2022 ### [Tweet, 12:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1535968622081867777) · 1,615 likes Serious question for #YIMBYTwitter: where height restrictions per se are the issue, why haven’t developers started building vertically but \*down\*, underground? I mean windowless apartments don’t sound ideal, but probably less bad than unaffordability and homelessness ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FVDbUGTXEAAn6_Z.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 12:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1535968624019755008) · 264 likes Is it just too expensive? Even with median rents $4k+ in some places? Is it illegal for some other reason? Are there just random pipes everywhere? ### [Thread, continued, 12:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1535968625001103363) · 182 likes Idk I can imagine some pretty cool, hypermodern underground apartments Pic above from this article about rich people building bunkers https://www.businessinsider.com/luxury-doomsday-condos-2014-11?amp ### [Reply to @sentientlentils, 14:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1535988087385374720) · 50 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @sentientlentils is no longer available.)_ Agree with #2. Idk on 1 - people have diverse preferences! It doesn't seem "hellish" to me any more than a 200 sq ft one would be. Tbh assuming decent ventilation/air quality through other means. I would totally take a $1k/mo underground windowless appt in SF that would... ### [Thread, continued, 14:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1535988163835043840) · 4 likes otherwise go for $2.5k or $3k above ground ### [Tweet, 14:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1535999473586999297) · 13 likes POV: you've figured out why you're getting a double digit number of notifications To Mr. Buterin's 3.9M followers, hello! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FVD3JT2WUAE_bAP.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 15:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536000860588756992) · 237 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 12, 2022:** Idk I can imagine some pretty cool, hypermodern underground apartments Pic above from this article about rich people building bunkers… Since this is getting some attention, gonna shamelessly plug an excellent giving opportunity if you care about animal suffering🐠 The Fish Welfare Initiative has a $180k funding gap - super high altruistic return IMO! https://www.fishwelfareinitiative.org/donate ## Monday, June 13, 2022 ### [Reply to @ConnorTabarrok, 07:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536245161512079360) · 58 likes > **Connor J. Tabarrok 🏗🚀🌏 (@ConnorTabarrok):** Civil engineer here! There are some problems that emerge when we excavate deep underground, that increase costs significantly. I'll explain a couple of these in the thread below! Interesting, thanks! ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536416412591624192) · 219 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 12, 2022:** Since this is getting some attention, gonna shamelessly plug an excellent giving opportunity if you care about animal suffering🐠 The Fish Welfare Initiative… Guys the comments are closing in on the likes - dont let me get ratiooood😭😭😭 ### [Quote tweet, 23:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536488952613453825) · 24 likes Do I get a prize for getting ~.01% of people on Earth to read my quarter-baked random earnest question? Also, I concede that the homelessness bit was unwise bc some might think I'm proposing we force/coerce homeless people to live underground FWIW, I am not proposing this! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FVKwKsNWYAIS32g.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Serious question for #YIMBYTwitter: where height restrictions per se are the issue, why haven’t developers started building vertically but \*down\*, underground? > > I mean windowless apartments don’t sound ideal, but probably less bad than unaffordability and homelessness > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FVDbUGTXEAAn6_Z.jpg) ## Tuesday, June 14, 2022 ### [Reply to @noah_austin, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536517082082320387) · 1 like > **Noah Austin (@noah_austin):** This belongs in the Smart Replies to Dumb Tweets Hall of Fame ❤️ ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536526695704014848) _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ https://x.com/judeasspriest/status/1536464520146714626?s=20&t=CY3fYHbB70qI0y-c6LxjQA ### [Thread, continued, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536526697096527874) · 25 likes (Warning: earnest commentary) Suppose for a second that the underground building idea is bad-despicable, even. Isn't asking a question that invites people to explain \*why\* it's bad \*the right thing to do\*? ### [Thread, continued, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536526702163156994) · 9 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FVLT7kfXsAEORZ-.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536526704134565888) · 3 likes L ### [Thread, continued, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536526705803907072) · 2 likes oh shit they're on to me ### [Thread, continued, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536526707179536385) · 4 likes thank you for actually answering my non-rhetorical question! There at least might be ways to make this work (like the big atrium thing down the middle lol), but at least it's a plausible factor for why building underground isn't and shouldn't happen https://x.com/ToriGlass/status/1536438050632241153?s=20&t=CY3fYHbB70qI0y-c6LxjQA ### [Thread, continued, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536526708853071875) · 11 likes damn right - legalize normal building and y'all won't have to put up with my shitty takes! Win-win! https://x.com/UrbanistOrg/status/1536501069689532417?s=20&t=CY3fYHbB70qI0y-c6LxjQA ### [Thread, continued, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536526710555951105) · 2 likes https://x.com/nekoronogatari/status/1536429040986365953?s=20&t=CY3fYHbB70qI0y-c6LxjQA ### [Thread, continued, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536526712208498689) · 5 likes My brother, I ask with all due respect: do you prefer New Taylor or Old? https://x.com/freedompimp2012/status/1536478072563564544?s=20&t=CY3fYHbB70qI0y-c6LxjQA ### [Thread, continued, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536526713944948737) · 6 likes Fake! News! I have dug many, MANY holes at the beach ### [Thread, continued, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536526715312394242) · 2 likes These are all reasonable points ### [Thread, continued, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536526716885147649) · 2 likes 😂 ### [Thread, continued, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536526718390964225) · 3 likes Ngl the "Georgetown guy dumb" ones are definitely my favorite genre ### [Thread, continued, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536526719947001864) · 2 likes alright, enough Twitter for one day lol ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 02:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536536041569624064) · 190 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 13, 2022:** Guys the comments are closing in on the likes - dont let me get ratiooood😭😭😭 To clarify: 1\) I don't think we should make poor/homeless people live underground 2\) A project like this would be so expensive that it would only be profitable if the units could then be sold for a fortune! The economic incentives point completely in the opposite direction! ### [Thread, continued, 02:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536536042752430081) · 94 likes A more extreme, comical version of the same thing would be, like, having residential 747s circle around Manhattan. IRL this isn't profitable, ofc. But if it \*was\*, that would have to be because some people were willing to pay a lot of money for space onboard! ### [Reply to @itsjairusjames, 02:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536539691092217857) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @itsjairusjames is no longer available.)_ Yeah, which was a bad call but not literally wrong, because I \*do\* stand by the claim that building luxury housing indirectly decreases homelessness by alleviating supply constraints ### [Reply, 04:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536570903039029249) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Nah I’m gonna convince everyone on Twitter I’m both right and one of the good guys, just watch [![People Pit GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/FVL_Ft_XwAE4pqz.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536570903039029249/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @RichardMCNgo, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536575658851282946) · 6 likes > **Richard Ngo (@RichardMCNgo):** For what tasks does practice improve performance the least? > > (Excluding tasks where there's very little variance between people, like tic-tac-toe.) Sorta depends what you mean by “practice,” but I think relative performance at sports like bike racing is determined mostly by physiological factors with a smaller role for “practice” per se. I’d bet 95th percentile runners who rarely bike are almost all >90th percentile bikers ### [Thread, continued, 05:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536576366702903302) · 12 likes I used to rock climb competitively, and there was a near obsession with intentional practice/technique. But I think I remember a couple studies showed that 90%+ of variation in performance (or something like that) was explained by finger strength, and I’d bet that’s mostly causal ### [Reply, 05:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536577392327774208) · 158 likes I \*do\* identify as a random normal kid But really, thanks! It could have been phrased better, but the question was entirely earnest, not rhetorical. And some of the dunks are pretty funny tbh ### [Reply to @briannajegan, 15:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536735737323847681) · 18 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @briannajegan is no longer available.)_ Me at the bottom of the pile Jk I’m all good ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FVOVAgbWQAAWsL8.jpg) ## Wednesday, June 15, 2022 ### [Tweet, 05:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536937592507224065) · 458 likes Alignment chart, Twitter DMs edition ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FVRJoFFXEAId__U.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536937595078422531) · 57 likes If you see your message in the top six cells, I appreciate the thoughts and wish you a wonderful, enriching experience on Twitter dot com. If you see your message on the bottom, thanks for providing me material for this chart! ### [Thread, continued, 05:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1536937596651196416) · 19 likes In case you don't know what all those messages were referencing... ### [Reply to @SpencrGreenberg, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1537117086870380546) · 4 likes > **Spencer Greenberg 🔍 (@SpencrGreenberg):** Longtermism says we should aim much altruistic effort toward the long-term future (eg since there could be >100s of billions of future people affected & civilization could last millions of years or go extinct based on choices now). What's your strongest critique of Longtermism? There might be enough money committed to longtermist projects that, at the current margin, funding the best animal welfare initiatives is superior on simple expected value grounds. Very unsure of this tho ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1537157107992109058) · 12 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 15, 2022:** In case you don't know what all those messages were referencing... First bluecheck retweet. Quick, gotta shill the fish fund before anyone notices it wasn't originally in this thread https://www.fishwelfareinitiative.org/donate ### [Thread, continued, 19:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1537157109141450752) · 6 likes ^ If you QT'd, replied, or DMed something ~less than-admirable~, you might be interested in donating to the fish fund to cleanse your soul ### [Thread, continued, 19:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1537157110282199040) · 4 likes If you haven't, there's still time! Attach proof of donation to the Tweet/message, and I'll consider you fully inoculated against all ethical standards and norms of decency (only against me and only for like a week, it's not a lifetime supply) ### [Thread, continued, 19:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1537157111574061056) · 4 likes ^As long as we're talking normal roasts and not like actual death threats, y'all can really do this lol ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1537159145845039106) · 5 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** knowing how viral it went would you have tweeted it again? Selfishly, yeah haha. Probably but not sure overall. Plausibly the sloppy phrasing was bad for YIMBYism? But also maybe that would be good because YIMBYism causes AI progress or more chicken/fish consumption? And plausibly a million other nth order effects? lol ### [Reply to @trevposts, 19:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1537159682808242176) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @trevposts is no longer available.)_ I know 😂😂, almost as good as "some guy who deals with fish and wildlife" lmao ### [Reply to @besttrousers, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1537160455441068032) · 2 likes > **Matt Darling 🌐🏗️ (@besttrousers):** What a weird takeaway from "Parasite". Too bad that Boong Joon-ho isn't on Twitter to give his take :( ## Thursday, June 16, 2022 ### [Reply to @realBurhanAzeem, 01:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1537253114268491776) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @realBurhanAzeem is no longer available.)_ thanks again :) ### [Reply to @thatMikeBishop, 05:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1537299863905394688) · 3 likes > **Mike Bishop 🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@thatMikeBishop):** @AaronBergman18 How many followers did you get out of this though? Not sure I think 150ish. But before the Diet Coke one I think I was <200 lol ### [Tweet, 05:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1537311344311017473) · 29 likes Idk, the fact that ~all of my Twitter influence has come from a single (unintentionally) outrage-inducing Tweet seems like decent evidence that the old, very unoriginal "Twitter amplifies outrage" take is correct ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FVWbjzlWYAAz6Sl.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1537311346064252928) · 6 likes If you took all the times my 1,388 Tweets have been viewed and picked one at random, there's a ~90% chance you'd find someone reading the one people (mis!)interpreted as a call to make homeless people live underground. ### [Thread, continued, 05:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1537311346974408704) · 6 likes Showing my work: 1400 Tweets \* 200 impressions each (dragged down by a lot of very low-impression replies) +400k from the Coke thing=680k. The outrage one has 8M, and 8M/(8M+680k)=92%. Rounding down because there are probably a few replies with a couple thousand impressions. ### [Tweet, 08:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1537350563473543168) · 47 likes I hope all my new followers understand regression to the mean, because it’s downhill from here folks ### [Reply to @TaterTotient, 17:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1537486955575123968) · 2 likes > **mathematical potato (@TaterTotient):** > > (quoting @TaterTotient: if you enjoy someone's tweet and then follow them, you don't understand regression to the mean) But for fat tailed distributions like Tweet influence, seeing someone’s viral Tweet is good evidence that their mean Tweet vitality (if not quality) is high! Maybe in some situations, “regression to the median” is the real phenomenon? ## Friday, June 17, 2022 ### [Reply to @MichaelTrazzi, 00:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1537595171747004417) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @MichaelTrazzi is no longer available.)_ Lmao at altman upside down ### [Reply to @thatMikeBishop, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1537877494908432385) > **Mike Bishop 🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@thatMikeBishop):** @AaronBergman18 On an unrelated note... write up what you learned about building underground, or link me to the thread if you did already. Oof, the sad part is I didnt actually learn that much bc so much noise drowned out all the signal. Learned plenty about going viral on Twitter tho… Also am I the one being subtweeted? Lol ### [Reply to @trevposts, 19:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1537878392325947392) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @trevposts is no longer available.)_ That’s why QALY needs to be opt-out rather than opt-in. Make people who don’t want to see him check a box on their application ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1537904081288564736) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Gonna go ask FTX for $1B to make this happen :) ## Saturday, June 18, 2022 ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 02:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1537983048163086336) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ [![Futurama Reaction GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/FVgDbXDUUAAQQdu.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1537983048163086336/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ## Sunday, June 19, 2022 ### [Quote tweet, 05:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1538396596580360192) · 15 likes Did you know that if you say “yeah but I think it was the right call ex ante” any time you lose money, you transform from a stupid retail investor to a wise, econo-rationalist sage > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Yeah ik arguably I’m an idiot for investing at all and have indeed lost a bit of money, but don’t think it was the wrong call ex ante and don’t regret it ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1538601061350531072) · 3 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** "A real human being" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FVoumtNUYAElqYE.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FVovADOUUAAr0vR.jpg) I, Rex, who is not a robot nor an alien… ## Monday, June 20, 2022 ### [Tweet, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1538742950036914176) · 7 likes Wrote a response to @dynomight7's awesome red team of my Diet Coke theory (see below), updating my theory to something more plausible. Long story short, I now think the main story is phenylalanine→phenethylamine rather than phenylalanine→dopamine https://aaronbergman.substack.com/p/contra-dynomight-contra-me-but-also ### [Reply, 19:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1538973166214823939) · 11 likes Hypothesis: to guys, “want kids” means in some hypothetical future world, but to females it means something closer to “now or in the foreseeable future” ### [Reply to @reconfigurthing, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1539003433067466754) · 2 likes > **Elias Schmied (@reconfigurthing):** contrarianism isn't just a general personality trait. often it's also when someone sees that a narrative/framework is correct, but they themselves would be low status in it. so they can't fully agree with it, and hem and haw about pedantic details to see themselves as special Me trying to defend contrarianism in a non-contrarian way in response to this tweet [![Breakdown Stressed GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/FVujdpnXwAEmNup.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1539003433067466754/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ## Tuesday, June 21, 2022 ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 09:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1539181835581890560) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ New cause area get @reconfigurthing to delete this Tweet ## Wednesday, June 22, 2022 ### [Reply to @CRSegerie, 00:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1539400287202463744) · 9 likes > **Charbel-Raphael (@CRSegerie):** My intellectual journey in AI safety. > > Have a good day > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FVz_rLGXEAMJ6yj.jpg) Oh shit Clippy is above water, guess Ive got a long ways to go ### [Reply to @ModeledBehavior, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1539709487543631873) · 7 likes > **Adam Ozimek (@ModeledBehavior):** Question for YIMBY twitter, how do you feel about regulating the types of trees that are planted? I feel like developers go for trees that look good while young and grow fast, but then they end up being small because they are short-sighted. Big tall trees are better long run Be careful asking questions of YIMBY twitter 😅 ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1539730000055881732) · 2 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Introvert using the "what gives you energy vs taking energy" definition > > Ambivert by the "I can get really bubbly and social in the right circumstances but don't need much social interaction and \*do\* need to have alone time every day" definition Exactly the same for me ## Friday, June 24, 2022 ### [Tweet, 05:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1540202479614394368) · 6 likes After trying ~every permutation of 8 cables across 15 ports on 5 devices, my plan to make a widescreen curved monitor out of a normal one and two cheap portable ones from Alibaba can safely be deemed a failure Either side one will work. Both will not 😢 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FV_koP8WAAEBP12.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1540425609649741824) · 6 likes Bro it is absolute anarchy out here on Craigslist/FB Marketplace ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FWCw7B4XwAY-waR.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FWCw7CIXoAMDMIo.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FWCw7BwXkAMyJUy.jpg) ## Saturday, June 25, 2022 ### [Tweet, 21:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1540808675648053250) · 7 likes I might give my blog (currently http://aaronbergman.substack.com) a new name! If you'd like to help me choose, here's a ranked choice voting ballot - thanks! https://www.rcv123.org/ballot/5apMAiw2WjyS7CfVPvwfWC ### [Thread, continued, 21:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1540808676876894208) · 1 like Whichever domain I end up choosing, I'll pay Substack's $50 (one time) fee to make that the actual url In the mean time, http://halfbakedtakes.com redirects to it! ### [Thread, continued, 21:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1540808677933858820) · 2 likes A lot of good domains are surprisingly affordable, even with .com at the end. http://domains.google.com makes it easy to search. http://halfbakedtakes.com, for instance, is only $12/year. Might be worth considering if you have a substack or something like it! ### [Thread, continued, 22:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1540825642610167811) · 1 like http://duckemoji.com is not having a good day 😢 🦆 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FWIcdILWAAI7a5e.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1540825867311620096) · 1 like live results https://www.rcv123.org/results/5apMAiw2WjyS7CfVPvwfWC/gvccwUGDy1ERdpGjn8j2q2 ### [Reply to @MatthewJBar, 23:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1540832947590369280) · 1 like > **Matthew Barnett (@MatthewJBar):** Does anyone have any good book recommendations for learning about the history of modern China, especially after Mao? https://www.amazon.com/Party-Secret-China8217-Communist-Rulers/dp/0061708763 ### [Quote tweet, 23:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1540845430963113987) · 8 likes Remember to get feedback from people outside your intellectual bubble (from my sister, posted with permission) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FWIud5PXkAAkq42.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** live results > > https://www.rcv123.org/results/5apMAiw2WjyS7CfVPvwfWC/gvccwUGDy1ERdpGjn8j2q2 ## Sunday, June 26, 2022 ### [Thread, continued, 01:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1540867372357193730) · 4 likes On the bright side, if I choose this, the site will appeal to weed enthusiasts, cookie dough-infused ice cream fans, and rationalists alike ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1540871648022257664) · 1 like > **Aaron Bergman, June 25, 2022:** live results https://www.rcv123.org/results/5apMAiw2WjyS7CfVPvwfWC/gvccwUGDy1ERdpGjn8j2q2 The people have spoken and, assuming no Jan 6-level disruption to the election, Aaron's Blog will soon be named Half Baked Takes and hosted at http://halfbakedtakes.com! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FWJGFkMWIAEEhTD.png) ### [Thread, continued, 01:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1540872099388170243) · 1 like Glad I did this, because I was initially gonna go with http://bitethebullet.xyz lol ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 01:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1540876090620755971) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 @trevorjtweets Was also rooting for a bitethebullet variant should I storm the capitol and install an unelected url? ## Tuesday, June 28, 2022 ### [Reply to @MatthewJBar, 21:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1541897548071313409) · 10 likes > **Matthew Barnett (@MatthewJBar):** This post is from @natalia\_\_coelho If @natalia\_\_coelho ever comes for one of my theories, God help me and it had been nice knowing you all ## Wednesday, June 29, 2022 ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 13:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1542141895018778625) · 3 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** In what is one of the hottest takes I've ever seen, @bryan_caplan argues that human smugglers are morally good. > > Why is he wrong? > > https://betonit.substack.com/p/immigration-charities-should-blame?r=18mntl&utm_medium=ios > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FWZ6aL4WQAEBK5V.jpg) This…doesn’t seem like that hot of a take to me, simply because illegal immigration isn’t immoral and should not in fact be illegal ## Thursday, June 30, 2022 ### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1542613722149027841) · 2 likes > **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** 1/5 There will be many more effective altruist billionaires > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FWgT8IwUsAIbhSi.png) Sure hope you’re right ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1542615306836889600) · 3 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** I'd like peer review on the EA forum > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FWhv2UHXgAACi5E.jpg) I don’t even want peer review in academia. Seems to mostly be a mechanism for preserving status ordering (of both ideas and people) ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 23:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1542654720564756480) · 27 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pli_cachete is no longer available.)_ Snap a homie “chick no. 681” while she’s looking at ur phone ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 23:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1542655234744492037) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** But apparently by brain was effectively reset because I've just come much closer to solving the problem I've been working on for the past week > > (quoting @NathanB60857242: played civ 5 for nearly four hours straight and now my eyes hurt) New cause area ### [Reply to @robbensinger, 23:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1542655295222054912) · 3 likes > **Rob Bensinger ⏹️ (@robbensinger):** Be nicer and also ruder. That’s the 🔍 motto ### [Reply, 23:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1542656380447989761) · 19 likes I call bs. That’s a freshwater cow --- End of June 2022. Previous month: [May 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-05). Next month: [July 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-07). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, July 2022 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in July 2022 and has not deleted: 135 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [June 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-06). Next month: [August 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-08). ## Friday, July 1, 2022 ### [Reply to @algekalipso, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1542699063648329730) · 5 likes > **Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso):** I will not be satisfied with EA's Overtone Window until it recognizes 5-MeO-DMT therapy as a promising lead to solve both the problem of suffering and value alignment. > > Also on the horizon: better MDMA, DMT for clusters, kidney stone prevention, wireheading done right, and more. > > (quoting @nosilverv: @6Tiph @algekalipso The most EA intervention is understanding and shifting EA’s Overton Window 😂😂😂) In all seriousness, how would/could this help with AGI alignment, which argue will plausibly determine the fate of ~everything. Minimizing human suffering over the next decade is great, but kinda pales in comparison to AGI x/s risk ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 02:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1542702326305136646) · 5 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** If effective altruism was originally developed hundreds of years ago, lets say during the renaissance, what would cause areas look like? If they had the insight of longtermism, how would they go about trying to ensure the long run future? I think poverty and animal welfare would be top causes tbh ### [Tweet, 03:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1542715028910100481) · 20 likes I made it (though not for a particularly great reason lol) My limo is arriving, any further correspondence can be directed to my agent ✌️ https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/links-for-june-1e7 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FWjTJGSWYAATwsh.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1542715287505625093) · 1 like And no, I am never unmuting that tweet ### [Reply to @eviecottrell_, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1542721833358819330) · 13 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @eviecottrell_ is no longer available.)_ One of my endless hobbyhorses is that kids are way smarter and more mature (on average, and probably especially at the upper tail) than we give them credit for ### [Reply, 04:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1542722279251091457) · 4 likes Also, like what \*cant\* he learn? Is he into philosophy, history, math, physics, coding, computers, literature, …? ### [Reply to @reconfigurthing, 18:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1542936299379777537) · 2 likes > **Elias Schmied (@reconfigurthing):** anyway thanks to postrats for inoculating me against certain failure modes of (superficial) rationalism (disembodiment, totalizing). i think that's been very valuable > > (quoting @reconfigurthing: end of an era. it was fun while it lasted😔❤️still love you guys) You can start the post-post-rat movement ### [Reply to @eviecottrell_, 19:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1542947404378509314) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @eviecottrell_ is no longer available.)_ Structure of Scientific Revolutions seems good, plus a library card if he doesn't already have one and there's one nearby lol ### [Reply to @trevposts, 20:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1542968217303482368) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @trevposts is no longer available.)_ One of EAs biggest achievements is aligning importance and aesthetics (at least for some people’s tastes) ### [Reply to @mattparlmer, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1542968624058613764) · 2 likes > **mattparlmer 🪐 🌷 (@mattparlmer):** No alpha left in credentials > > (quoting @0_hipotezi: @NielsHoven @tjrwriting It looks like this) 105 avg for graduate degree frankly seems implausible ## Saturday, July 2, 2022 ### [Reply to @LowellDennings, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1543055773109993472) · 7 likes > **Lowell Dennings (@LowellDennings):** how about abstract algebra? no one needs that right? Unironically mostly correct. Last class in my math major. Mostly vocab (“ring”, “group” “ablelian” ) and as far as I can tell pretty much useless ### [Tweet, 05:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1543101585642999809) · 2 likes Who tf paying $80 for slides? Also, you can’t convince me that the bottom two dark ones aren’t the same shoe. Nice try, Rudy ## Sunday, July 3, 2022 ### [Tweet, 00:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1543393979529662465) · 9 likes As my inaugural "I am an adult now, I can go places for no particular reason if I want to goddamnit" trip, I will be in Berkeley the full days of July 5-8, basically just to hang out and talk to/meet people. Mutuals (or really anyone tbh), if you'd like to meet up, DM me! ### [Thread, continued, 00:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1543393980649455618) · 3 likes Also only now realizing that traveling for exactly the non-weekend part of the week is the reason my flights+AirBnB were particularly cheap lol ### [Tweet, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1543449027290845184) · 6 likes I don't get why the probably true "cops stopped doing their jobs in response (maybe even retaliation) to the protests, so more black people died" narrative is coded conservative instead of liberal (1/ https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/what-caused-the-2020-homicide-spike ### [Thread, continued, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1543449028586790912) · 2 likes IMO Scott writes in a misleading way by turning "my specific claim is that the protests caused police to do less policing in predominantly black areas" (his words) into "the homicide spike was because of the protests" (also his words)... ### [Thread, continued, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1543449029664727040) · 2 likes If his theory is right, the BLM protests caused police to pull back, which caused an increase in murders (under a common-sense understanding of causation)... ### [Thread, continued, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1543449030692405248) · 3 likes But since there are plausible mechanisms through which causation could have run \*directly\* from BLM protests to murders (say, violent clashes in the protests themselves), "the homicide spike was because of the protests" as a standalone phrase is pretty misleading ### [Thread, continued, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1543449031757762560) · 2 likes This relates to my first Tweet in that narrative disagreement can/should be over whether police are morally responsible for causally connecting the protests to the murder spike, and there's no reason for "respectable" liberal publications to avoid accepting the connection exists ### [Thread, continued, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1543449032965644294) · 2 likes Kinda reminds me of how (apparently, I can't verify firsthand) some media sources insinuated or claimed that the lab leak theory was more conducive to racism than the "some guy ate a bat" theory of COVID origins, whereas this doesn't seem obvious to me at all ### [Quote tweet, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1543735734942703618) · 8 likes A real critique of college that everyone is sleeping on is that professors simply don’t tell you that sci-hub is a thing that exists. My freshman year, I was really emailing random authors to get a copy of their paper lmao > **Quoting Flo 🌞 (@florencehinder):** @RafaRuizdeLira I had not used Sci-hub before, thanks for the suggestion!! :D ## Monday, July 4, 2022 ### [Tweet, 00:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1543756707272294402) · 120 likes Extremely funny (and good!) that this @ESYudkowsky quote has escaped the rationalist memetic circle and become the stuff of Etsy wall hangings ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FWyGgVmXoAEAOa6.jpg) ### [Reply to @Plinz, 05:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1543831870139514881) · 11 likes > **Joscha Bach (@Plinz):** Optimizing a mind-internal measure seems to be a futile direction for developing meaningful ethics. Hedonic states are an evolved solution that instrumentally regulates behavior towards multigenerational survival. I'd go towards maximizing total expected observed complexity. Nah man get valence-pilled. Only stuff with intrinsic value fr ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 16:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1543995790292549633) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 4, 2022:** Extremely funny (and good!) that this @ESYudkowsky quote has escaped the rationalist memetic circle and become the stuff of Etsy wall hangings It was RedBubble, not Etsy! https://www.redbubble.com/i/photographic-print/You-Are-Personally-Responsible-For-Becoming-More-Ethical-Than-The-Society-You-Grew-Up-In-by-danyneg/52550351.6Q0TX ## Tuesday, July 5, 2022 ### [Reply to @tyler_m_john, 01:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1544126130730459137) · 3 likes > **Tyler John (@tyler_m_john):** There's an EA-adjacent school of thought that's like > > 1\. Panpsychism is empirically verifiable + not dualism on stilts > 2\. Open individualism is science and not a non-cognitivist expression of my values > 3\. Suffering shows us moral realism is true > > And I am its sworn eternal enemy. I basically buy into a (slightly longer and more nuanced) version of 3 lol ### [Tweet, 01:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1544131116868698118) · 3 likes Thanks to @united for providing me a little bit of pre-boarding exercise and excitement! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FW3bDHBWYAYSuKP.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FW3bDHJXEAMYTTp.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1544131121113403393) · 3 likes Moral of the story is always sign up for corporate text alerts I guess ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 01:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1544132670359207938) · 3 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** This is an amazing diagram > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FW1yv1zVUAAkknA.jpg) In the climbing world, everything shown is “slab” and things only get fun after 90 degrees ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1544133021435035650) · 2 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Yes, every time I return from the US to Europe I feel "back to unfree soil". 🙄 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 01:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1544134116807000065) · 10 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 5, 2022:** Moral of the story is always sign up for corporate text alerts I guess For real though, airplanes are extremely fucking cool and I will never not be excited for takeoff. The 3 year olds are right about this one guys ### [Reply to @tyler_m_john, 02:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1544142507495284736) · 2 likes > **Tyler John (@tyler_m_john):** @NathanpmYoung I'm significantly more radical than most of my peers, but my metaphilosophy says that any hypothesis that couldn't \*in principle\* be confirmed or disconfirmed empirically is devoid of meaningful content If there were any way to bet on this (and I don’t think there is) I’d bet like at like 5:1 odds against it. qualia plausibly don’t have empirical causal power, and yet it still seems that they are “meaningful” ## Wednesday, July 6, 2022 ### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1544507418041675778) · 4 likes > **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** What should I ask @pmarca? > > Also relatedly, anyone got a couch in Menlo Park I can crash on the night of September 14? Idk if there’s a question here, but I came away from his interview with Cowen basically thinking he’s totally amoral if not a sociopath, in the most neutral/clinical/respectful sense. Does he agree with this? Is there anything he would give up money or “success” for? ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1544749506595418114) · 42 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** There's a trope that white women fuck dogs, so I asked 5k women their ethnicity, and if they were sexually aroused by dogs. > Here's the data (if ppl said they were into it = 1 point; if marked as fav out of similar options = 2; for reference, interest in 'spanking' scored 0.7) I’ve…never encountered this trope ### [Reply to @metakuna, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1544750112403886082) · 3 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** honestly just excited to see how far they will go with the bit now > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FXAEsb1XwAIxkH2.jpg) One of the funnier things I’ve seen online ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 18:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1544750477752954880) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ “I swear no one in this household looks at that TV. I didn’t even know it was there myself!” ## Thursday, July 7, 2022 ### [Reply to @depthsofwiki, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1544916224257114113) · 12 likes > **depths of wikipedia! (@depthsofwiki):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FXAs8CQX0AYa7CJ.jpg) ¿ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FXClHfcUEAEKfmn.jpg) ### [Reply to @cafreiman, 16:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1545084739605778432) · 4 likes > **Chris Freiman (@cafreiman):** Better yet—donate $20 billion to life-saving charities Idk this doesn’t seem obviously worse ### [Quote tweet, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1545140647778168832) · 2 likes I said insoluble, but I’m hoping it’s just hard! > **Quoting Jake Orthwein (@JakeOrthwein):** The hard problem of consciousness is: ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1545143472830656514) · 10 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** High-IQ guy: IQ doesn't matter as much as people think > > Mid-IQ guy: Shut up idiot I’m gonna do the low status thing and say that the mid guy is right on this one, ### [Reply to @KerryLVaughan, 22:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1545167971328221184) · 10 likes > **Kerry Vaughan-Rowe (@KerryLVaughan):** I spent 2014-2019 building the EA movement. I now see it as antithetical to much of what I care about. > > which really sucks. > > One criticism of the movement that has really crystalized for me lately is this: > > Effective Altruism is dehumanizing. Maybe this is obvious and it doesn’t at all contradict the claims you’re making, but IMO all of this is just less important that the actual effect EA has on the \*rest\* of the world. This is contingent, not necessarily true - namely if EA had only a small impact on the world ### [Reply to @CarsonJGale, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1545168412334166016) · 8 likes > **Carson Gale (@CarsonJGale):** I generally like this criticism, but it fails in two areas: (i) it doesn't offer an alternative, and (ii) it doesn't address the MASSIVE positives of the movement. E.g., saving / making better hundreds of thousands of lives (likely many more). Yeah, totally agree. It’s coherent and possible (though I think wrong) that EA is dehumanizing and bad for it’s “adherents” and yet massively good for the world ### [Tweet, 23:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1545181054142599168) · 3 likes I’d like to nominate this sign on the fence of the BERKELEY LAWN BOWING CLUB as the least necessary COVID protection measure of all time. ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FXGV-agUYAA46lV.jpg) ## Friday, July 8, 2022 ### [Reply to @daniel_filan, 00:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1545208873157398528) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniel_filan is no longer available.)_ Checks out ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FXGvR-XUUAAjidY.jpg) ### [Reply to @philoshua, 02:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1545227371967434752) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @philoshua is no longer available.)_ I chose 1889 for the same reason you should switch doors in the Monty Hall problem ### [Reply to @gmiller, 02:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1545228201449779200) · 3 likes > **Geoffrey Miller (@gmiller):** Far-Left wokeness has taken over most of psychology. > > Example: this chilling statement by the influential Society for Personality & Social Psychology (SPSP). > > If your research doesn't actively promote 'equity, inclusion, & anti-racism', it's not welcome. > > https://spsp.org/events/demonstrating-our-commitment-anti-racism-through-programming-and-events Unless I’m missing something, that’s not what the link says. It says you must \*evaluate\* whether it promotes equity, etc. Doesn’t claim it actually has to go get accepted ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 02:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1545233387350200320) · 3 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** Cooking up a hot take. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FXGFPVfX0AAKwPH.jpg) Yes but with the goal of increasing it to infinity by ending aging ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1545250013193728000) > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** I also like these things. I just feel like we can get them in post-publication review in better forms than in pre-publication review. Could one of the x-risk funds pay people to go through the Alignment forum and turn all the high quality posts into pdfs, submit them for publication, deal with feedback, etc.? ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1545270025451229184) · 12 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** Opioids are antidepressants with unacceptable side-effects. We are putting zero effort into fixing those side-effects bc we know how it would feel and it would feel really good All I want is an addiction-free, zero side effect combination of amphetamine and pharma-grade heroin. Is that too much to ask for? ### [Reply to @davidad, 16:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1545439226954625025) · 2 likes > **davidad 🎇 (@davidad):** Jason Matheny’s career be like— > 2007: econ PhD > 2008: research consultant @JHUAPL > 2009: research associate @FHIOxford > 2010: program manager @IARPAnews > 2015: Director of IARPA > 2019: Founding director @CSETGeorgetown > 2021: OSTP & National Security Council > 2022: CEO @RANDCorporation 🐐 ## Saturday, July 9, 2022 ### [Tweet, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1545596543654174721) · 6 likes Non-binary person who wants to signal lack of allegiance to cultural progressivism by not putting pronouns in bio, but legit wants other people to know what pronouns they go by ### [Reply to @makoConstruct, 03:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1545614685981904896) · 7 likes > **we're not allowed to say where faun has gone (@makoConstruct):** Interesting that deepmind's protein folding model trains itself on fictional datapoints that it has just guessed, but is confident of. Backprop can do ruminative inference. Does not result in overfitting. Toxic empiricists get wrecked, dreams are real. It’s extremely weird to me that this works; defies intuition ### [Tweet, 04:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1545626961929650176) · 3 likes The case against my case for suffering focused ethics ### [Reply to @MaxCRoser, 11:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1545736056800219136) · 13 likes > **Max Roser (@MaxCRoser):** I'm curious how you think about the limits of artificial intelligence. > > What is a task that you could ask a human to do right now which you think an AI won't be able to do within this century? Possibly accurately report on its own qualia? ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 12:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1545740626075045890) · 6 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** how do you falsify that? I don’t think you can ## Sunday, July 10, 2022 ### [Tweet, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1545974663565697024) · 39 likes At an event today I was reminded that ppl around my circles have taken the (largely correct) "social media is bad, use sparingly" critique to heart. Just want to say I (think) I've gotten real intellectual+social value out of Twitter & others can too with just a 🤏 of effort ### [Thread, continued, 09:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546063399389462528) · 5 likes Ah I don't think I have a huge amount of special insight, mostly since EA and rationalist (+adjacent) accounts tend to do super well at putting out interesting, important, good faith, low unnecessary drama content ### [Thread, continued, 09:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546070201271189504) · 5 likes But a few other things: \- Generally write nice, good faith stuff. I mean I make sarcastic comments and stuff sometimes, but I do try to avoid adopting an antagonistic position basically all the time. ### [Thread, continued, 09:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546070202370121728) · 3 likes One of the funny+interesting parts about going viral with my "build underground?" tweet was that sometimes (even just commenting like "lmao") on someone's funny dunk on me led like a dozen people to straight up apologize for being antagonistic at first ### [Thread, continued, 09:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546070203896938498) · 2 likes \- If you're interested in EA, the EA Community is very cool. (As long as people don't find me spammy), seems like a good place to write posts that are too short or half-baked for the Forum ### [Thread, continued, 09:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546070204932923397) · 1 like \- The Twitter algorithm is actually pretty good at finding things I find interesting, cool, or funny IMO. Not sure how contingent this is \- It's not much, but I've now met two people IRL through Twitter (s/o @GluskerMartin @hamzaiandafirst) and several more online ### [Thread, continued, 09:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546070205926981632) · 1 like \- I think the algorithm is also pretty decent at keeping me up to date on reasonably "common knowledge" things, which is nice and useful as a legit hardcore nerd ### [Thread, continued, 09:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546070206925180928) · 2 likes \- Probably as with any information source, the top like .01% of content can just be enormously useful. Like the Tweet I mention here basically earned me and my family a couple thousand almost risk-free dollars ### [Thread, continued, 09:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546070209022361601) · 5 likes Likewise, I'm 99% sure I ran across this article which basically directly caused me to text my family that they should prepare for COVID. Probably didn't matter much materially to us, but at least I got some ethos points lol https://virologydownunder.com/past-time-to-tell-the-public-it-will-probably-go-pandemic-and-we-should-all-prepare-now/ ### [Thread, continued, 09:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546070210347732994) · 5 likes \- Of course, the left tail exists too! I've lost ~$1,000 in crypto perhaps in part thanks to Twitter (tho not any single Tweet), which I don't think was a bad call ex ante but ### [Thread, continued, 09:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546070211304071169) · 3 likes \- To generalize from the EA Community thing above: I (and I think others) find that writing down ideas publicly helps to make them seem salient and real. But plenty of these ideas are too small or underdeveloped for a blog post, so Twitter to the rescue! ### [Thread, continued, 09:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546070212302217216) · 2 likes \- For whatever reason, Twitter seems to select for smart and influential people participating in "elite discourse." Kinda cool to be there for it, if you want to be. ### [Tweet, 09:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546070213271207936) · 1 like \- Similarly, it selects really hard (plenty of misses, but few false positives) for \*younger\* people who are very smart and insightful. Like I know of exactly two teenagers here, @PradyuPrasad and @MatthewAdelste1, both of whom are obviously brilliant ### [Thread, continued, 09:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546070214294519808) · 1 like \- For whatever reason I don't feel the need to mute, but I think other people find that very useful - so I encourage it for others if they think it would be good lol ### [Thread, continued, 09:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546070215347281922) · 1 like Eh getting tired so that's it for now, might add more later. On reflection that was less a thread of advice then just a list of things to notice or be aware of, oh well ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ ### [Quote tweet, 09:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546071108629176324) · 2 likes Made a super hasty but maybe useful ~Twitter appreciation thread~ below this lol 🧵🧵🧵 > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** At an event today I was reminded that ppl around my circles have taken the (largely correct) "social media is bad, use sparingly" critique to heart. > > Just want to say I (think) I've gotten real intellectual+social value out of Twitter & others can too with just a 🤏 of effort ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 10:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546073162521124864) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 10, 2022:** Eh getting tired so that's it for now, might add more later. On reflection that was less a thread of advice then just a list of things to notice or be aware… Ok one more. At the risk of getting too high-strung, maybe the most important thing I was getting at in my initial Tweet was just that: You're just, like, allowed to use Twitter (and FB, insta, etc) in a good way if you want to. Thanks at least to the EA+rat+post rat scene... ### [Thread, continued, 10:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546073163620139015) · 2 likes ...here, there's a critical mass of people who want the same. Like (if you want and are able to), just don't engage with bad faith people or consider (stereo)typical antagonistic behavior to be somehow inevitable or inescapable ### [Thread, continued, 10:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546073883157176322) · 1 like and people who are smart and conscientious enough to (1) learn about and (2) act on the "FB makes ppl miserable, Twitter mobs are mean" genre of critiques are \*exactly\* the type of people who can use Twitter well if they so choose! ### [Thread, continued, 10:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546075464602718210) · 2 likes Oh ya, and just wanna plug this banger of a DM from the "build underground?" fiasco as an encapsulation of several of the points above ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FXTDTiqXwAAoKS3.jpg) ## Monday, July 11, 2022 ### [Quote tweet, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546378402332135424) · 5 likes Sorry guys, but sometimes you gotta go with your gut... http://aaronbergman.net it is. ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FXWFX5cXEAAUH5O.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I might give my blog (currently http://aaronbergman.substack.com) a new name! If you'd like to help me choose, here's a ranked choice voting ballot - thanks! > https://www.rcv123.org/ballot/5apMAiw2WjyS7CfVPvwfWC ### [Reply to @panickssery, 11:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546461346719580160) · 2 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** Overheard at a rationality meetup: > > "YIMBY makes people richer through more development" > "But rich people eat more farmed animal meat so really it's bad" > "More importantly, development promotes climate change, which is bad" > "Actually, climate change reduces X risk, which is good" You (legit, these all really happened) forgot the layer with wild animal suffering, and how rich people will maybe spend resources on helping animals, and how YIMBYism has an indeterminate effect on AI x-risk because… ### [Thread, continued, 11:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546461447235960832) · 2 likes it would allow both more EAs and more AI capabilities people to move to the Bay lol ## Tuesday, July 12, 2022 ### [Tweet, 08:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546771646169636864) · 30 likes Has anyone tried modifying psilocin (or any other psychedelic) to selectively \*antagonize\* 5-HT2A receptors to act as an anti-hallucinogen in the hopes of creating a non-terrible antipsychotic? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FXc8nO1WYAAYRFg.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 08:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546771648065462274) · 2 likes A quick google turns up no selective 5-HT2A antagonists. If not, maybe someone should https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipsychotic ### [Thread, continued, 08:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546771649084661760) · 2 likes Antipsychotics mainly target dopamine receptors and can sometimes really fuck people up. Wikipedia for 5-HT2A: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/5-HT2A_receptor ### [Thread, continued, 08:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546771650171080704) · 2 likes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocin ### [Thread, continued, 08:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546771907168575495) · 2 likes Also, I meant “anyone” as like “any human ever,” but if anyone following me has tried this that would be super fuckin cool ### [Reply, 13:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546844039328186374) · 3 likes F ### [Reply to @alieninsect, 13:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546849327284424705) · 3 likes > **Andrew Gallimore (@alieninsect):** @AaronBergman18 @algekalipso Pimavanserin is actually a highly selective antagonist and inverse agonist at 5HT2A without affecting 5HT2B, 5HT2C, dopamine, muscarinic, etc, receptors — as well as being a rather beautiful molecule… > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FXdPMLcUYAASrZN.jpg) Oh this is awesome, thanks! And it’s already FDA approved for Parkinson’s psychosis, meaning (I think) it can be prescribed off-label by any MD It’s something I’d consider trying to get my hands on if I had to take APs for whatever reason but was struggling with side effects ### [Reply to @SpencrGreenberg, 14:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546861798707560448) · 3 likes > **Spencer Greenberg 🔍 (@SpencrGreenberg):** A question for Effective Altruists and aspiring Effective Altruists - what's something you think you disagree with at least 50% of EAs about? Also put on FB, but: “Under a form of utilitarianism that places happiness and suffering on the same moral axis and allows that the former can be traded off against the latter, one might nevertheless conclude that some instantiations of suffering cannot… ### [Quote tweet, 20:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1546960678690463755) · 14 likes I really lucked out running into @80000Hours in high school, whose content informed which majors I pursued gave me a decent enough understanding of EA to help start a uni group. This kind of thing can and should be more common, which is why I'm psyched to see this get started! > **Quoting Peter McIntyre (@pmcntyr):** I spent 7 years preparing to be a doctor before finally realising how much more I could help outside the hospital. > > So, I put together a team and built a course to help people avoid making the same mistake: https://non-trivial.org/courses/how-to-change-the-world > > Some stuff I really wish I’d known... (1/20) ## Wednesday, July 13, 2022 ### [Reply to @SpencrGreenberg, 13:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1547211303965663232) · 3 likes > **Spencer Greenberg 🔍 (@SpencrGreenberg):** What's your strongest argument against Longtermism (an ethical stance giving priority to improving the long-term future - saying future people matter as much as people today, but there may be vastly more future people than exist now, so the future may have most of what matters)? https://longtermrisk.org/charity-cost-effectiveness-in-an-uncertain-world/ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FXjMerMWQAMeYqY.jpg) ## Thursday, July 14, 2022 ### [Tweet, 03:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1547420209170063361) · 52 likes Started from the bottom 😤 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FXmKYn-XwAAaOmp.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1547420210986192896) · 9 likes Really though this was probably the right call given their resources at the time. And eventually @FreshMangoLassi at @80000Hours did speak with me, so thanks! ### [Reply to @sportquant, 15:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1547601282327711750) · 10 likes > **Vignesh (@sportquant):** What's the best way to gauge the effectiveness of a charity? Boy do I have a movement for you ### [Reply to @0x464D, 19:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1547667346491183104) > **Florian Magin (@0x464D):** That paper isn't on sci-hub, at least not on any of the domains I tried (and have integrated into Zotero). That's why I was so surprised that it was on research gate Huh fair enough, I spoke too soon! ### [Reply to @albrgr, 19:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1547668975873429504) · 2 likes > **Alexander Berger (@albrgr):** Interesting paper finding that air pollution reduces performance in chess, particularly under time pressure: https://www.dropbox.com/s/kagethk90m8az2j/Paper_1_MS_JobMarket.pdf?dl=0 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FXlDPmeVQAIy5DE.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FXlEEUWUYAA3Ad-.jpg) Everyone reading this should make owning an air purifier, air quality monitor, and co2 monitor a core part of their identity ### [Reply to @fogellxy, 21:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1547690831162724355) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @fogellxy is no longer available.)_ “Nonnegative” ## Friday, July 15, 2022 ### [Reply, 07:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1547842571027636225) · 1 like Price sensitive consumers are buying almost-free caffeine pills instead? ### [Reply to @TomChivers, 09:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1547875670688116741) · 12 likes > **Tom Chivers (@TomChivers):** “News is a nonrandom sample of the worst events on earth” is such a succinct way of explaining why everyone always thinks the world is worse than it is > > (quoting @sapinker: Good summary of points I've long made: Subjective risk is driven by available events, not reality; News is a nonrandom sample of the worst events on earth; Good developments are incremental trends or scarcity of bad events, neither reported; Data show massive global progress..) Nah they did the wrong math but got the right answer ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FXsotvsUEAApF7H.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 09:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1547881719138684930) · 27 likes All the smart, well-intentioned, Our World in Data-pilled “world good” guys are doing a big epistemic disservice by making claims about the overall state of the world instead of current human well-being, which is what they really mean > **Quoting Tom Chivers (@TomChivers):** “News is a nonrandom sample of the worst events on earth” is such a succinct way of explaining why everyone always thinks the world is worse than it is ### [Thread, continued, 09:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1547881721239969793) · 12 likes Like @TomChivers almost certainly knows about factory farming and thinks it’s bad, but then (I’m assuming) just kinda compartmentalizes that for no reason. Ik this sounds strawmanny, and maybe it is, but it’s my legit read of the situation atm ### [Reply to @TomChivers, 09:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1547882493910474755) · 4 likes > **Tom Chivers (@TomChivers):** @AaronBergman18 I go seriously back-and-forth on the moral value of chickens and how much that renders our world a dystopia. But that's why I'm a big FAKE MEAT backer, in all its forms Yeah fair enough and I’m rooting for cultured stuff too, but I do think there’s a tendency to think that negating a lie means the opposite is true, or something like that. Also put out a hopefully-not-too-nasty QT just a minute ago lol ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 09:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1547882941769850882) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 15, 2022:** Like @TomChivers almost certainly knows about factory farming and thinks it’s bad, but then (I’m assuming) just kinda compartmentalizes that for no reason. Ik… response from a minute before ## Saturday, July 16, 2022 ### [Quote tweet, 06:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1548188122172649476) · 7 likes I admit this is way less than I would have guessed and I probably should have looked into this before 🙃 Even still, as a quick BOTEC guess let's assume pigs and farmed fish also add .75% of human neuron count, and that only 1/3 of cows but 5/6 of other animals have... > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 @TomChivers Factory farming updates me very heavily against optimism, but one steelman for the simple Our World in Data view is that the total number of chickens alive at any time only have 0.7% of human neuron count > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FXwsRmyUsAA8Xx9.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1548188124160724993) · 3 likes terrible lives. Then we get about 2% of world population equivalent, or the equivalent of 150 million people living in (and, really, I don't say this lightly - just trying to be accurate) concentration camp-type conditions, and that's before we get to slaughter ### [Thread, continued, 06:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1548188125800779778) · 9 likes All of the following are true. This: 1\. shows (setting aside wild animal suffering) that I was wrong to assume humans would be a rounding error due to animal agriculture, 2\. Is "good news" in the sense that I now think there's less suffering than I previously thought.. ### [Tweet, 06:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1548188127226867712) · 4 likes 3\. is still something like the equivalent of 150 million people, well undergoing what chickens and cows undergo - you can look that up yourself. Absolute magnitudes matter! ... ### [Thread, continued, 06:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1548188128619311104) · 5 likes Asking myself "would I rather be born a random human in 1500 or a random human in 2022 but for 3% of the time (11 days/year) live like a farmed chicken, pig, or fish (albeit with my own capacity to suffer), I lean towards the former, though am super uncertain... ### [Thread, continued, 06:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1548188130087297031) · 5 likes I concede though that this thought experiment shows the relative magnitudes to be unclear. Also, I'll reiterate that I was wrong, and in the direction opposite direction than I was critiquing (cc @TomChivers) ### [Reply to @AviN102, 06:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1548189963891617798) · 2 likes > **Avi Norowitz (@AviN102):** I think wild animal welfare should be included in the discussion too. I think it's wrong to say "the world is getting better" while only presenting welfare metrics about humans, a tiny minority of the moral patients in the world. Also, a ton of miscommunication happens because we could be talking about any of: 1\) is the world good (levels) 2\) has the world gotten better? (avg dGood/dt) 3\) Has the world changed signs, from net good to net bad or vice versa? 3\) is the world getting better (current dGood/dt) ### [Thread, continued, 06:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1548190141444870144) · 1 like and I don't know of any compelling reasons to think that things have changed on net for wild animals over time (#2) though I'm certainly not an expert ## Sunday, July 17, 2022 ### [Reply to @DiracDeltaFunk, 12:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1548641562971734021) · 2 likes > **Ben Spitz (63/100 improv meals) (@DiracDeltaFunk):** As of today, my age is the unique integer n such that n-1 is a square and n+1 is a cube! > > How would you try to solve for n? Guess and check. Hey, it works ### [Reply to @contemplatonist, 22:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1548790193032937472) · 6 likes > **Amber Dawn (@contemplatonist):** What are your fave 'alternative' questions to ask people you've just met? > > (quoting @RichardMCNgo: Whenever I overhear someone at a party saying "so what do you do?" I feel a twinge of second-hand shame. Surely, as a society, we can just agree to ask each other better questions than that.) As of five seconds ago, "What are your fave 'alternative' questions to ask people you've just met?" ## Tuesday, July 19, 2022 ### [Tweet, 03:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1549236362158784512) · 19 likes I think I have found the single least necessary product out there ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FX_-L31WYAAaxsY.png) ### [Thread, continued, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1549236646092185600) · 5 likes Kinda want to spend the $2.81 to get it so I can look like I know something others don't https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Thunderbolt-Docking-Station-Colorii-DC2-Highly_1600515172616.html?spm=a2700.galleryofferlist.normal_offer.d_title.12897b27AQ9pTi&s=p ### [Reply to @MarkovMagnifico, 21:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1549511308730667009) · 3 likes > **Markov (@MarkovMagnifico):** I took a screenshot of my boarding pass and doctored the group number so I could board sooner. It worked > > They call me a modern day Frank Abagnale [![GIF thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/FYD4UdqWIAAEkF5.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1549511308730667009/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ## Thursday, July 21, 2022 ### [Tweet, 00:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1549919154727157760) · 18 likes Interesting and more than a little concerning that John von Neumann, probably the smartest person in history, asked to be baptized on his deathbed (purportedly) because of Pascal’s Wager https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/book-review-the-man-from-the-future ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FYJrQW3WQAEQOQI.jpg) ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 07:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1550027042372157443) · 6 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** I have handled requests for emotional labor and brain-picking by setting an hourly rate and letting people select times from a Calendly. It has been incredibly successful! The quality of interactions is higher, I have more control over the timing, and I’m not resentful. Guys PSA I will zoom with anyone for $10M/hour ### [Reply to @CineraVerinia, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1550215704753881090) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @CineraVerinia is no longer available.)_ I said more, but I’m not actually certain. But the main caveat is that this is only talking about current “levels,” not moral importance. Since humans are so causally powerful, in one sense more moral value runs through us/our behavior ## Friday, July 22, 2022 ### [Reply, 15:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1550508499796430850) · 1 like New cause area: don’t let people learn ML ### [Reply to @catehall, 23:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1550623093156102145) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @catehall is no longer available.)_ F🅰️CTS ## Tuesday, July 26, 2022 ### [Reply to @EAheadlines, 00:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1551723444382928898) · 5 likes > **EA Lifestyles (@EAheadlines):** EAs in London drink tea and think about the Queen EAs in Bethesda, MD think about whatever I’m thinking about because it’s literally just me ## Wednesday, July 27, 2022 ### [Reply to @ElectricKeyLime, 01:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1552098828739813376) · 2 likes > **Sunbeamzannah (@ElectricKeyLime):** @MarieClericia @gptbrooke @neallseth @panickssery And me? <3 Me pleeease (if it’s one I’m not in yet lol) ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1552099745031770113) · 3 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** @AaronBergman18 🐟 Monocausality 😤established 🐠 ## Thursday, July 28, 2022 ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 14:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1552664437416509440) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ I feel this in my soul ### [Tweet, 16:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1552688860957663238) · 2 likes .@dwarkesh_sp Great episode with @finmoorhouse , as always, and the discussion on podcasting is making me think about having another go at it How many hours goes in to an episode like this from your end, though? … https://podcasts.google.com?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hcGkuc3Vic3RhY2suY29tL2ZlZWQvcG9kY2FzdC82OTM0NS5yc3M%3D&episode=c3Vic3RhY2s6cG9zdDo2NTg0MzI3Ng%3D%3D ## Friday, July 29, 2022 ### [Tweet, 22:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1553146714021937153) · 17 likes Saw Rob's Tweet and assumed The Feeling of Value by @SharonRawlette had just come out. Turns out it's six years old and I've been living under a rock. Anyway here's a meme to commemorate ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FY3hZfRWAAAVaXm.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1553146715816992769) · 2 likes Book https://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Value-Grounded-Phenomenal-Consciousness/dp/1534768017 ### [Thread, continued, 22:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1553146716966322178) · 6 likes Also, new EA cause area: give @SharonRawlette (philosopher with correct opinions) more followers than @sharonhewitt (LA state legislator) ## Sunday, July 31, 2022 ### [Reply to @aaronsojourner, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1553531591443480576) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @aaronsojourner is no longer available.)_ Isn’t it the case that most people can only do about 3 hours of legit intensive knownledge work per day? ### [Quote tweet, 00:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1553540459456339968) · 2 likes I’m 2 hours in (4% done) > **Quoting Eigil Fjeldgren Rischel - abstr/acc (@Ayegill):** @AaronBergman18 @ESYudkowsky This is the ideal podcast episode. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like. ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 18:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1553816542692999170) · 4 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** wow it turns out rescuing a child from a shallow pond is a bad idea when you've got 240 volts coursing through your veins 😬 Hate to kill the vibe but amperes is what really matters for pain of electric current, not voltage https://www.thespruce.com/amperage-not-voltage-kills-1152476 ### [Thread, continued, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1553816863217487877) · 4 likes QUALY u gotta up the epistemics😤💡 ### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 18:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1553817579059290113) · 3 likes > **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** Which podcast player do you use? Google is superior, most fine-tuned speed adjustments! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZBE2hvWIAICD9Q.jpg) ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 18:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1553817638618406912) · 1 like > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** look pal, getting the terminology right isn't going to bring them back 😭 😢 ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 22:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1553873534480523272) · 2 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** It’s missing the point, the scores don’t matter. It’s like taking away kids’ entire childhood and spending money teaching them how to hula hoop and then they don’t even remember how to hula hoop when they grow up and we say well we got good value because they once hula hooped. ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZB3vg4X0AAWaLj.jpg) ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 23:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1553886224028340224) · 3 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** wow 100 Quallowers already! to celebrate reply and I'll tell you your optimal career path to maximise utility Help ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 23:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1553886398251499521) · 1 like > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** HVAC technician in India This is oddly plausible ### [Reply to @algekalipso, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1553887191578943489) · 8 likes > **Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso):** A lot of people go to parties with one thing in their mind: "Tonight, I'm gonna have sex". > > I go to parties with one thing on my mind: "Tonight, I'm going to solve the hard problem of consciousness with someone I meet". > > (quoting @CRSegerie: @algekalipso Hyperphilosophical boy at 🎉 parties be like:) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZCEKhTXwAAAvfB.jpg) --- End of July 2022. Previous month: [June 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-06). Next month: [August 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-08). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, August 2022 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in August 2022 and has not deleted: 152 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [July 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-07). Next month: [September 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-09). ## Monday, August 1, 2022 ### [Tweet, 18:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554169178050920449) · 16 likes Lowest hanging fruit in the world is getting housemates a snack they never asked for. Like I come home and hand my dad a blueberry muffin or something and the man looks like a kid on Christmas morning ### [Thread, continued, 18:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554169180005580802) · 5 likes Like sir, you are a red-blooded American with plenty of disposable income. You’re allowed to buy yourself as many blueberry muffins as you wish ### [Reply to @MichaelTrazzi, 18:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554169318534946818) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @MichaelTrazzi is no longer available.)_ Famous last words ### [Reply to @contemplatonist, 19:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554185352457355266) · 2 likes > **Amber Dawn (@contemplatonist):** productivity tip: consider lying down? I often find that I 'don't have energy/can't be bothered' to work when sitting at my desk, but when I lie on my front on my bed I miraculously can? For me, sometimes sitting up but in bed instead of elsewhere works ### [Tweet, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554203940425793539) · 2 likes Fully integrating the @substack editor with Google Docs sharing/commenting/suggesting would bring upon the singularity in a matter of days ### [Reply to @CineraVerinia, 21:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554220136713883648) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @CineraVerinia is no longer available.)_ 15-24 is a big range lol. I'd maybe do another poll dividing 0-27 into 0-16 (pre-college ish), 17-22 (college ish) and 23-27 (post college ish) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 21:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554221505734639616) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** A thought on alcohol taxes: > Drunk driving injuries and repairs cost Americans $132 billion/year. > Hangovers cost Americans $220 billion/year in lost productivity. > This is $1000 per year per person in the US. Alcohol is already taxing us. Made me realize that the word "tax" can mean both "impose deadweight loss on a system" (like "drunk driving is taxing on society") and "impose a transfer from one part of a system to another" (like "a one cent per oz alcohol tax), so you can use one tax to nullify another ## Tuesday, August 2, 2022 ### [Tweet, 01:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554278120693403653) · 3 likes I’ve listened to the first 5 hours of the ~50 hour audio of @ESYudkowsky’s Sequences. My intuition says to keep going but I’m not certain. Should I keep listening, intending to go (at least) another 5 hours (opportunity cost: other misc nonfiction content)? See below👀 ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554295439037538304) · 6 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** can't wait to develop qualia in 18 months time 😌 Wait ur telling me the lovable lightbulb is a p-zombie ?? ### [Reply to @vivian_belenky, 02:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554297343045943299) · 5 likes > **viv 🔸 (@vivian_belenky):** My EA global mood > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZDWOVXUUAAJ-uc.jpg) Same but I don’t have a wife and I’m not at EAG ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554492242215190529) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** @AaronBergman18 @ESYudkowsky where have you listened Podbean, from the link in the thread! ### [Tweet, 17:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554525915199184896) · 69 likes I have a confession. I don’t listen to podcasts at 2x speed. I don’t even listen at 1.5x. I usually listen at 1.1 or 1.2. 1.3x tops. I know we are the silent majority, and we can’t let shame keep us in the shadows any longer. ### [Reply to @eviecottrell_, 17:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554525980433305600) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @eviecottrell_ is no longer available.)_ Go on a hike ### [Reply to @eviecottrell_, 18:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554528608621928448) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @eviecottrell_ is no longer available.)_ I’d volunteer but I’m about 3000 miles away lol ### [Reply to @spilendalaust, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554538281639071745) · 5 likes > **pelicanesis (@spilendalaust):** @QualyThe We're writing to thank you for your application to EA Global. Unfortunately, we’re not able to offer you a place at this year's event.

Because of the nature of the event, our selection process involves sorting through hundreds of excellent candidates to find those who will b— Sends shivers down my spine ### [Reply to @tochterzwiebel, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554541187431895043) · 3 likes > **olivia (@tochterzwiebel):** i love reading medieval census documents because what's carl doing in there > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZHFxRKWAAA9HkV.png) 100% naming my future two kids Æthelwig and Wulfwynn ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 19:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554553557227012099) · 5 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** It's alright since Rob Wiblin already speaks at x1.5 by default 🤔 80k I listen to at 1x lol ### [Reply, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554558439837388801) My AP physics teacher was a lawyer of some sort before. Surely a pay cut too ### [Thread, continued, 20:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554558799385706497) · 1 like Mr Jacob’s, if ur reading this, I haven’t taken a single science class since 👍 ### [Reply to @burny_tech, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554585942748545024) · 2 likes > **Burny - Effective Curiosity (@burny_tech):** Pure existence Agree. Language and math are symbolic representations of other things. Just, like, comprehend the things in themselves without any mediating system ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 22:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554598213071638529) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 I mean this in a good and positive way but you speak at 1.5x speed so had figured the podcast intake would match I have received this feedback many times before lol ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 22:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554598325512540161) · 3 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** @AaronBergman18 I listen at 1x, happy to see solidarity among us here ✊ ### [Tweet, 22:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554601179367317506) · 12 likes Thesis: all girls are the same (Juice WRLD) Antitheses: “Knowing only gray, you conclude that all grays are the same shade” (Eliezer Yudkowsky, The Fallacy of Grey) Synthesis: all girls form a normal distribution with center μ and st dev σ on the axis of light reflectivity ## Wednesday, August 3, 2022 ### [Reply to @doseofzero, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554909673773563904) · 2 likes > **Lex 🦋 (@doseofzero):** Is it socially acceptable to add a ":)" or a ":(" when commenting on the EA forum Only full on emoji copypasta👻🙌is🐠🐐acceptable🍆💩 ### [Tweet, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554975045709176832) · 24 likes Broke: "Crack a window" Woke: Iteratively improve configuration of fans, doors, and windows with frequent empirical feedback from C02 monitor to optimize air quality for cognition ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZRhZf9XgAAhLkB.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 23:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1554975505190977542) · 22 likes What do I do with my extra .03 IQ points you ask? Make graphics like this in Word ## Thursday, August 4, 2022 ### [Tweet, 03:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1555028714660024320) · 8 likes Holy shit, Spain bans offices+stores from setting AC below 81°F. Seems really bad and immoral to me. I'd give up driving, hot water, and virtually anything else that I consume in order to be able to keep the air physically around me below 70 degrees https://apnews.com/article/spain-european-union-climate-and-environment-de5677c002418a22b1e27a0fefd52826 ### [Thread, continued, 03:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1555028715939282944) · 4 likes If there's anything people should be allowed to burn carbon for in the era of climate change, it's to use AC to prevent direct suffering from the heat... Jesus Christ. ### [Thread, continued, 03:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1555028716979474433) · 2 likes This is also pretty surprising evidence that even governments of democratic, wealthy nations will be willing impose direct suffering on their citizens in the name of climate ### [Reply to @mattparlmer, 15:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1555218633122582528) · 2 likes > **mattparlmer 🪐 🌷 (@mattparlmer):** Primary care medicine in the US is idiotic and demeaning, it is straight up insulting that I need an MD to sign off on basic tests Correct take right here. Even in the US it’s shockingly hard and/or expensive to get simple bloodwork without a doctor ### [Reply to @pleasure_engine, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1555273117513269249) · 2 likes > **Pleasure Engineer (@pleasure_engine):** @AaronBergman18 Don't you have a dual hose or similar AC? Yeah but it’s not super strong so CO2 can still hit >900ppm. That’s why door only cracked also, trying to balance temp concerns with air quality ### [Tweet, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1555282828195250177) · 6 likes Physics people: \- room with 64 m^3 air at 21 C. 60% humidity if that matters \- I add 500 cm^3 ice which is -18 C What is the equilibrium temperature of the room at the limit, with all the usual assumptions? ### [Thread, continued, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1555282830946623489) · 3 likes It’s 95 degrees in DC🥵 Trying to check whether bringing a bowl of ice cubes into a single room would make a nontrivial difference! ### [Reply to @CrispyWicks, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1555289815872147456) · 2 likes > **Chris P. Wicks 🔎🐜 (@CrispyWicks):** @AaronBergman18 Lead with empiricism young man. Your sanity is at stake Done (and thanks to my sister for excellent taste in paint color - its her old room lol) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZV_rrKXkAMclu5.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1555311204272422912) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 4, 2022:** It’s 95 degrees in DC🥵 Trying to check whether bringing a bowl of ice cubes into a single room would make a nontrivial difference! Cursed_forecast ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZWTTBRWAAIkIZ1.jpg) ## Friday, August 5, 2022 ### [Reply to @MarkovMagnifico, 02:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1555375015058620418) · 2 likes > **Markov (@MarkovMagnifico):** @AaronBergman18 calculations give 16.5 C though. Possible there is a mistake in here ofc. 1st pic is calculating energy (Q) needed to raise the water to 21 C. 2nd pic is using that energy to cool the room. you have to account for the energy needed to melt the ice, which is actually very high > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZWZbONVsAASMmY.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZWZbOJUYAAqbDy.jpg) Thanks! But 16.5 seems implausible lol. I don't think two ice cube trays are going to bring my room down from 70F to 40F lol ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 10:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1555505138583965696) · 3 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** Wow, 500 Quallowers! I love each and every one of you🥰 To celebrate, reply and I will give you the opening line for your Date Me Doc (100% success rate guaranteed) Plz help me QUALY ### [Reply to @CineraVerinia, 10:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1555508008578318339) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @CineraVerinia is no longer available.)_ Lmao thanks and I did not know this was a thing https://theunitofcaring.tumblr.com/post/138260729741/personal-thoughts-on-bihacking/amp ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 10:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1555508173993304064) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** "I've got a blog" - 100% will work Oh shit 17 tinder matches already, you’re the best! ### [Reply to @pbacherikov, 15:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1555577601288282118) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @pbacherikov is no longer available.)_ Lmaoooo ### [Reply to @pbacherikov, 15:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1555578096602038272) · 16 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pbacherikov is no longer available.)_ Man the 5th Kelly Williams was havin a wild day back in ‘09 ### [Quote tweet, 18:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1555614981743329283) · 5 likes In light of recent developments, I will graciously accept the dub on this comment about Andreessen from a few weeks back > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @dwarkesh_sp @pmarca Idk if there’s a question here, but I came away from his interview with Cowen basically thinking he’s totally amoral if not a sociopath, in the most neutral/clinical/respectful sense. Does he agree with this? Is there anything he would give up money or “success” for? ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1555615472745435138) · 8 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** The Centre of Effective Altruism? Given that most EAs live in the US and the UK, probably in the Atlantic ocean You’re ignoring an entire spatial dimension! It’s probable under the Atlantic, in the mantle ### [Reply, 18:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1555618927077736448) · 4 likes This man refuse to plug his own song so here https://soundcloud.com/itstfo/bobby?utm_source=mobi&utm_campaign=social_sharing&utm_terms=hackedsounds.control ### [Quote tweet, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1555694570553352192) · 4 likes My actual, literal answer is 5/12, because the arguments for 1/3 and for 1/2 are equally compelling > **Quoting Paul Bloom (@paulbloomatyale):** I read about this in "The Puzzler" by @ajjacobs, and it's been driving me mad. > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Beauty_problem ### [Reply to @trevposts, 23:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1555697234045542400) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @trevposts is no longer available.)_ 1\) seems like this can’t be an update if you know what the update is going to be upon waking. Like the info “I will not be awake on a Tuesday with heads” existed from the start 2\) I’m a lil drunk so might not be thinking well lol ## Saturday, August 6, 2022 ### [Quote tweet, 02:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1555738519590633476) · 1 like Ok I’m actually kinda sure 5/12 is the right answer now: P(waking is subjective evidence of tails)=0.5, from the coin flip itself P(heads | wake, wake=evidence) =2/3 P(heads | wake, waking not evidence)=1/2 All things considered subjective probability=.5\*(2/3)+.5\*(1/2)=5/12 > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** My actual, literal answer is 5/12, because the arguments for 1/3 and for 1/2 are equally compelling ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 13:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1555903625553223680) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @QualyThe is no longer available.)_ Ok but that person should have been invited ### [Tweet, 14:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1555925441608925187) · 2 likes Hypothesis: oldies music as a genre is an artifact of the former difficulty of song discovery, and people born after 1995 or so won’t fall prey to it like our parents did ### [Tweet, 14:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1555928422987309057) · 35 likes Unless stated otherwise, please append “conditional on no AGI doom” to all my tweets that reference the future ### [Tweet, 21:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1556030045340278788) · 8 likes "≥25% of students at ~50 colleges scored at least as well as the median Harvard and Princeton student (1510 SAT). The best students at the top (at least) 50 schools have surprisingly similar academic credentials." https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/most-ivy-smart-students-arent-at?r=2muv6&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email ### [Quote tweet, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1556054719486885889) · 1 like Please eviscerate my theory > **Quoting Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Interesting approach to the Sleeping Beauty problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Beauty_problem ## Sunday, August 7, 2022 ### [Tweet, 16:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1556312957163917314) · 14 likes Can we call it the Great Boomer Longtermist Awokening of 2022? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZkiMrkWAAEF3Lm.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 16:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1556313975477919744) · 3 likes If anyone else has screenshots like this, feel free to post/send so I can make a collage ### [Tweet, 21:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1556395963136331781) · 2 likes Leave me anonymous feedback, on anything! 😀 And please err on the side of saying what you're thinking, if you're unsure (if I have to change this standard I will lol) http://admonymous.co/aaron_bergman ## Monday, August 8, 2022 ### [Reply to @vaidehiagrwalla, 02:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1556462805645246464) · 6 likes > **Vaidehi Agarwalla (@vaidehiagrwalla):** Collecting anecdotes - if you want to be the kind of person who posts on the EA Forum (and even have ideas of what you'd write) but don't, what's holding you back? > > (Feel free to DM if you don't want to share publicly) Not an answer to your actual question but FWIW: Reading this document was what prompted me to write my first post: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bmc9GsEsYUK8-E0b-rbDqO_DpGcxuRyjLpRHwySMjEw/edit ### [Tweet, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1556466114187743233) · 147 likes It would be a shame if Scott Aaronson's (yes, \*the\* Scott Aaronson) pretty incredible story died a lonely death in my blog's comment section (as of now, it has one like besides mine), so here it is: (Also pasting in thread below) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZmsyCuWAAIsWOK.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1556466116427485185) · 3 likes "Thanks so much for this post, Aaron!! It covers a lot that desperately needs to be better-known by nerdy kids in the US. Story time: in 1997, I was rejected from all five of "HYPMS" despite a 1600 SAT and a single-author paper in a major computer science conference. (1/7) ### [Tweet, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1556466119917162498) · 1 like I got an excellent education there, & ended up at my 1st choice of PhD program (Berkeley). Truthfully, in the long run the rejections may have helped me, by filling me with a burning motivation to do enough in science that someday the rejections would be a point of pride. (4/7) ### [Thread, continued, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1556466121041231874) · 1 like And whenever I get depressed, I can tell myself that at least I can now cross that particular teenage fantasy off the list -- having, e.g., been tenured faculty at one of the same fine institutions (MIT) that rejected me for undergrad. (5/7) ### [Thread, continued, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1556466122215628801) · 1 like These days I run the Quantum Information Center at UT Austin, where almost every year I meet undergrads who I would've been thrilled to have at MIT. (6/7) ### [Thread, continued, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1556466123431968770) · 2 likes I'm sharing this here because I hope some nerdy, academics-focused kid who feels like their life is over because they got rejected from HYPMS will read it, and it will mean something to them. (7/7) ### [Thread, continued, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1556466124547657728) · 10 likes From this post https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/most-ivy-smart-students-arent-at/comments ### [Reply to @NirantK, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1556499875893854208) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @NirantK is no longer available.)_ Haha thanks! ### [Reply to @zetalyrae, 17:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1556691496363073539) · 3 likes > **Fernando Borretti (@zetalyrae):** drinking diet coke even though i hate the taste because phenylalanine is a DA/NE precursor. this is dark fernando. Join the pure phenylalanine gang ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZp6qpEWAAESuDZ.jpg) ### [Tweet, 17:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1556693847513653249) · 4 likes PSA: do NOT attempt to saw off the top of a sealed bottle of soda (dw, I❤️aspartame) whose cap is pathologically, factory error-level stuck on with a kitchen knife That shit just exploded, and now my ceiling (I assume) smells like Sprite ## Wednesday, August 10, 2022 ### [Reply to @bhboehlert, 06:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1557255437480755207) · 57 likes > **Ben Boehlert (@bhboehlert):** I they they should have an app called Python and you click on the app and then you can code in Python I figured out a couple hours ago it’s called RStudio ### [Reply to @NirantK, 06:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1557259583751700487) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @NirantK is no longer available.)_ Honestly I have no idea if it was a roast or your being sarcastic bc I sound like an idiot, which is very probably bc I \*am\* an idiot when it comes to everything besides data stuff in R lol ### [Reply to @Simon__Grimm, 23:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1557508009726803973) · 3 likes > **Simon Grimm (@Simon__Grimm):** @AbieRohrig has done some part I believe. Thought the same today \+10^10^10 impact points ### [Reply to @vividvoid, 23:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1557509311114477569) · 3 likes > **Vivid Void (@vividvoid):** Gm > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZ0BP_OVsAAD87W.jpg) And his cousin \[me\] ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZ1idqiX0AQWQKN.jpg) ## Thursday, August 11, 2022 ### [Reply to @willmacaskill, 00:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1557521570087698432) · 3 likes > **William MacAskill (@willmacaskill):** Oh my god I'm sobbing. > > https://time.com/6204627/effective-altruism-longtermism-william-macaskill-interview/ 1\) 🐐 (literally?) 2\) Can I come to a fire rave some time? ### [Reply to @lastpositivist, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1557804118118486017) · 1 like > **Liam Bright (@lastpositivist):** Ah examples of what? Ya that was vague sorry. Like a specific belief that most self-identified EAs wouldn’t agree with, for which the disagreement stems from empirical beliefs about how the world works rather than true value differences ## Monday, August 15, 2022 ### [Reply to @HotForMoot, 08:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1559093474665922562) · 1 like > **Riley Read-Only (@HotForMoot):** Dude everyone calling Sapiens mid rn used to love Sapiens when it came out. I think that book is experiencing a Rick-and-morty-ing Yeah, but this is largely bc everyone was 11 years younger! Like I’d hope by ability to judge intellectual novelty and stuff would improve from 11 to 22 lol ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 08:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1559094055916781568) · 2 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** @QualyThe @YusufTwt Unbelievably based Unironically, to be clear ## Tuesday, August 16, 2022 ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 09:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1559476230235328512) · 3 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** Do EA's talk faster than average? If so, why? ### [Reply to @NeelNanda5, 17:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1559599264086515717) · 3 likes > **Neel Nanda (@NeelNanda5):** Takeaway 2: Transforms grok modular addition with an interpretable algorithm, using Discrete Fourier Transforms and trig identities. This can be reverse engineered from the weights post-grok. If we ablate all activations not captured by the algorithm, performance goes UP! (7/17) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FaLlTEXVsAA1FRo.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FaLlTRUUUAAYNR-.jpg) I do not know what any of these words mean ## Wednesday, August 17, 2022 ### [Reply to @tszzl, 09:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1559833471715082241) · 29 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** you need to be modifying your speech to piss off the nonbelievers: > > \- DON’T say “unrelated”, DO say “orthogonal” > \- “random” -> “stochastic” > \- “this is fine ig” -> “local minima” > \- “sorta like” -> “isomorphic” Wait but “sorta like” is sorta like but not isomorphic to “isomorphic” ## Saturday, August 20, 2022 ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 01:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1560807122065137667) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** What are the reasons you’d want a publicly verifiable, expensive-to-edit, database? EAs get rich and donate ### [Tweet, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1560843750708068352) · 6 likes trying to make a website from scratch is pure chaos ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fak654AWYAA8D0S.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1560843753530720256) · 2 likes Should've stuck with Google sites but the sunk cost fallacy has me now ### [Reply to @lemonautzest, 05:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1560866720247578624) · 7 likes > **Cody Hergenroeder 🍋⚡️ (@codyhxyz):** why are none of my nerves inside of other people's bodies? Can’t tell if jargony hornyposting or deep metaphysical introspection (but cool either way) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 18:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1561064981428424717) · 6 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** If you can improve the front end for just $200 I have huge questions about how @metaculus spends their money 6 jolly ranchers and a Huel to plan, run, and execute EA Global: Andromeda Galexy in 2039 ## Monday, August 22, 2022 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 08:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1561625657347637249) · 5 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Everyday feels like a rainy day when you live in a basement and NO NATURAL LIGHT can get through this window I have an idea But fr maybe some super bright lights would help? https://a.co/d/deSu3HM ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 08:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1561626677268062208) · 2 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** Guy who thinks Roe v Wade was unconstitutional, but opposed it being overturned Basically me ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 15:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1561743942726684672) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @robertwiblin is no longer available.)_ Assuming it’s the same on android, I use google podcasts because it has lets you increment speed by .1, others are .25 or more ### [Reply to @nominalthoughts, 21:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1561835249239220226) · 2 likes > **Jason Harrison (@nominalthoughts):** first class of the sem where they’re making me use R instead of python and class, wish me luck 🤮🤮 Blocked, unfollowed, and reported to both Twitter mods and Daron Acemoglu ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 22:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1561848047847571459) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Idk what the big deal was, I was only saying we should lock poor people in dungeons underground ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 23:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1561850769824964609) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I actually don't think the issue is light so much as scenery, I actually like rainy days, but my window looks out on a gutter Totally serious: buy window sized printouts of super nice nature scenes, enough to rotate through. Idk prob some reason this is dumb ## Tuesday, August 23, 2022 ### [Tweet, 00:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1561879586664759296) · 3 likes Are there any other song titles like this? This has to be the best/most prolific, right? Nums 1, 2, 3, 6 by Sleepy, RR, Kesha, and Band Perry are the hits. some of the others remix parts of 2/3/6 as a beat or chorus, but none on the list are straight covers ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fazm7R6WIAAF61Y.jpg) ### [Reply to @LisaIRMcNulty, 17:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1562125885528051717) · 2 likes > **Lisa McNulty (@LisaIRMcNulty):** I’m a philosophical consultant, which means I get to address a lot of deep and difficult questions, like, ‘What?’ and ‘Is that even a thing?’ > > Yep, it is indeed a thing! Let me tell you about it... > 🧵 Dream job lol ### [Reply to @JoeCronenCrown, 17:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1562128039596752897) · 2 likes > **CronenCrown (@JoeCronenCrown):** the poster is so cool! And available for free, thanks to Roche > https://www.roche.com/about/philanthropy/science-education/biochemical-pathways/ordering-posters :( I can’t buy it ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fa3LLBIWQAIQlzu.jpg) ### [Reply to @JoeCronenCrown, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1562129105948233730) > **CronenCrown (@JoeCronenCrown):** just give it a go. I had to wait a couple of months, but eventually the posters arrived Haha ok will try then! ### [Quote tweet, 17:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1562129304095543297) Valuable info right here 🧫🧬🔬 > **Quoting CronenCrown (@JoeCronenCrown):** @AaronBergman18 @emollick @Noahpinion just give it a go. I had to wait a couple of months, but eventually the posters arrived ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 17:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1562132732230107138) · 3 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** @JoePostingg Not sure this is true. like Democrats doing worse with the college educated could be good for American democracy Uh have you seen their alternative? ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 17:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1562134773212094467) · 2 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** My grandmother has 15 grandchildren - fairly uncommon in Sweden > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fa2OusdWAAAYGfk.png) > (quoting @StatsSweden: Det är vanligast att vara mormor https://scb.se/hitta-statistik/artiklar/2022/det-ar-vanligast-att-vara-mormor/) But must be more common to be one of 15 grandchildren! ### [Reply, 17:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1562135393490898945) · 1 like No that’s a rabbit ### [Reply to @trevposts, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1562207152126787584) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @trevposts is no longer available.)_ W ### [Quote tweet, 22:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1562208183917154304) · 7 likes Yup seems right. I’ve definitely walked into a store with a backpack and consciously thought “I couldn’t do this if I was black” > **Quoting Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** I think the obvious race-based privileges that white guys enjoy have to do with how you are "read" by total strangers in random situations. > > For example, I was recently in Manhattan and needed to pee so I went into a hotel lobby and started heading to a restroom... ## Wednesday, August 24, 2022 ### [Reply to @bengrossbg, 00:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1562239895774666752) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @bengrossbg is no longer available.)_ Not an answer but I’m guessing lots of this is double majors with econ/cs/math/physics or something else quantitative ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 13:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1562427824707108865) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** If labs leave smallpox lying around they should be fined a billion dollars. They should need insurance against this risk > > (quoting @AlecStapp: Holy shit https://www.slowboring.com/p/we-should-expect-more-and-worse-pandemics) Oh shit I’m in Bethesda, guess I’ll be the first to go💀 ### [Quote tweet, 13:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1562429789767860225) · 10 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fa7dnSZXgAAhCrA.jpg) > **Quoting anu (@anuatluru):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fa4qJdUUUAEvW9K.jpg) ### [Reply to @Ollie_Base, 13:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1562430714087641089) · 2 likes > **Ollie Rodriguez (@Ollie_Base):** SavvyCal is better IMO! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fa7ec-ZUsAAeNTq.jpg) ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 23:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1562582818479169536) · 3 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** @interested_ea @absurdlymax @frances\_\_lorenz A lot of the accounts i like already have a lot of followers, but i think @AaronBergman18 is definitely underrated and usually has really good + interesting takes thanks Inés!! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fa9oq_sX0AAdcRj.jpg) ### [Tweet, 23:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1562588843253301248) · 4 likes Ok what market failure is preventing my phone with ~40GB free storage from holding another 30 second voicemail message? Seems like a not very 2022 problem to have ### [Thread, continued, 23:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1562588845996404736) · 3 likes Kinda feels like if Amazon was able to sell virtually every consumer nonperishable product on earth EXCEPT pencils specifically ## Thursday, August 25, 2022 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 07:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1562707831295733760) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** The Confessions of Max: My Experience Joining Effective Altruism > > This is a long, long, post about my life and how I joined EA. If you read any part of it please read the section titled 'Why Care?' I've complied my miscellaneous thoughts below. > > https://scouting-ahead.com/2022/08/25/confessions-of-max-my-experience-joining-effective-altruism/ Thanks for writing and sharing. Half the time felt like I was reading about myself and then I’d hit a line and think “wait wtf that doesn’t sound like me at all” and would remember it was someone else’s story haha ## Friday, August 26, 2022 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 10:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1563106710625353730) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** One thing I really appreciate about the EA community is open it is about mental health. I think @robertwiblin meaningfully made me more likely to take anti-depressants by describing his own experience on the podcast > > Many EAs have meaningfully moved the needle for me as well! For anyones reference: https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1niiV8I4cgk_xZ1Blou15ImPmqXU4eb_li9eRVp5NgYo/mobilebasic ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 10:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1563108535864397824) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @albrgr @willmacaskill It says the file's in the owner's trash. I'd be really really excited to get access to this if possible MacAskill be like “whelp book’s done, guess we don’t need these anymore” ### [Reply to @noampomsky, 10:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1563111325269520386) · 5 likes > **Ava (@noampomsky):** this is actually so real > > [video attached](https://x.com/noampomsky/status/1562949222496096256/video/1) Wait am I a p-zombie ### [Tweet, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1563278928709439488) · 2 likes Might write more about this, but ~one month of air quality monitor data shows some surprising correlations among these five indicators... ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FbHevJpVEAUCYQa.jpg) ### [Reply to @KerryLVaughan, 21:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1563281520370262018) · 4 likes > **Kerry Vaughan-Rowe (@KerryLVaughan):** To quote @acidshill, the optimal amount of cringe is not zero. > > So cringe away my friends, cringe away. this is perhaps my single favorite internet quote ## Saturday, August 27, 2022 ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 01:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1563334549148692481) · 5 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @inesferhumi @absurdlymax @RethinkPriors We're going to be launching one really soon! Ooh maybe this is a terrible idea but I’d def want to know what % of EAs who read WWOTF agree with Will that all sentient/just human life has been positive on net to date. Like, would they choose to live every life up until now? ### [Reply to @Bonecondor, 01:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1563335483907706883) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @Bonecondor is no longer available.)_ I don’t like this tweet ### [Reply to @jasoncrawford, 01:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1563335712291692547) · 2 likes > **Jason Crawford (@jasoncrawford):** I feel it's a bit like giving kids knives. Has to be wielded carefully and in the right context. But I still wonder about this myself. @mbateman? More like giving them plastic forks in terms of magnitude of expected harm imo ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 01:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1563336274538565632) · 2 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** Are there any actually good legible reasons to not curse in front of kids or not have teachers curse or not have songs with cursing in them played in schools? Hate to self-cite but from https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/kids-are-people-too Basically I don’t think it would be a big deal at all! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FbIWDTIUUAEMMZS.jpg) ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 01:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1563337568606769154) · 6 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** Name a "bad" thing about America, and I'll tell you why it's actually good. The Republican Party ### [Reply to @elidourado, 04:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1563387609669595136) · 2 likes > **Eli Dourado (@elidourado):** Amazing > > (quoting @CityofMiami: Our Guns Buyback Program continues Saturday, August 27, from 10:00 a.m. through 2:00 p.m. at Belafonte Tacolcy Center. All guns collected will be send to #Ukraine while we help to take guns off of our streets. #gunbuyback #safestreets) I found the median voter ### [Tweet, 05:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1563391961062465537) · 144 likes In the name of good science, I’m publishing my null finding: I tried microdosing alcohol to see if it would have the opposite effect, making me whatever the opposite of being drunk is (probably by releasing glutamate/inhibiting GABA in an excessive compensation response - ### [Thread, continued, 05:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1563391964162424832) · 54 likes I promise some drugs work like that) No placebo, self-blinding, questionnaire, confounders controls, anything like that. Just straight abusing the scientific method by taking a tiny lol sip of rum 2-3 times a day for the last couple days and seeing what I notice ### [Thread, continued, 05:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1563391967634984960) · 92 likes Answer: nothing, in either direction. P~=1 🙃 🧬🔬⚗️🔭🧪👩‍🔬👨‍🔬 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 05:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1563403505817513988) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** In the name of science I have no choice but to go buy some rum and try this It has to be the exact same kind though or else there’s no way to be sure! ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 07:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1563430246820376579) · 32 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** This is the content we like. Thanks, guess I’ll have to keep ingesting small amounts of different household substances until one of them produces an effect of interest! ### [Reply to @tyler_m_john, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1563622607265697794) · 2 likes > **Tyler John (@tyler_m_john):** Are people actually bothered by the repugnant conclusion or is it just some socialised thing we say because of all the theatre and drama around it I don’t find it “repugnant” at all and tbh maybe only a tiny sliver counterintuitive ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 21:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1563644773763883010) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Imma take like 20 and call it hormesis ## Sunday, August 28, 2022 ### [Reply to @liron, 05:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1563756260570370049) · 10 likes > **Liron Shapira (@liron):** Possible inhibition-lowering effect on the decision to publish null findings Oh damn ran the numbers on that one, looks like you're right! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FbOT7oKXgAAJ7K2.jpg) ### [Tweet, 07:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1563787077128421376) · 7 likes Congratulations to @Twitter for collecting ~100 MB of data on me (as text, almost half being complete info on every ad I've ever scrolled past) and inferring that (1) I'm between the ages of 13 and 54 (correct, though how many people on here aren't?) .... ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FbOrUgfXgAISrFb.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FbOvCw0WYAYydtU.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 07:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1563787082060922882) · 3 likes (2) my interests are things like... \- Lego and Android (things I haven't used in a decade, if ever) \- "Mizkif" and "Dashy" (no idea what these are) \- "Dogs" and "Dogs" (I mean I do like dogs but why are there two?) \- A laundry list of shows and movies I've never seen ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FbOvIpKWYAIy2o2.png) ### [Thread, continued, 07:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1563787087702376448) · 4 likes \- Colorado, Virginia, Texas, and Florida (but not Maryland or DC, where I've lived) but NOT, say, "effective altruism," "Georgetown," or "climbing"... At least I get to read every Tweet I've liked! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FbOv0oKXgAUfpf8.jpg) ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 10:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1563830376753205251) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ryancbriggs is no longer available.)_ @SBF_FTX found another one ### [Reply to @TomTospace, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1563963677459505156) · 4 likes > **Tom Tospace (@TomTospace):** Tried bupropion because of rob. Hard to say if it actually does something. Impact might be very large, but I don't know if changes can be attributed to the mediaction. I was just about to comment elsewhere that I wish part of the norm involved stating \*which\* medication (and dose) it is. Lexapro, Wellbutrin (bupropion), Parnate, and ketamine are all very different. So thanks for sharing! ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1564029079329849344) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Lol fwiw I had a whole tanked choice voting thing, then ended up throwing out the results and going with http://aaronbergman.net. No ragrets. Ngl I kinda prefer when the blogs name is ones own ## Monday, August 29, 2022 ### [Quote tweet, 06:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1564135533311397890) · 2 likes I think figuring out how \*we\* can make good use of our own data (like this) is massively undertheorized. I don’t mind that Google has a couple GB on me, but I wish I could get a personalized psychological assessment or something just by uploading the whole .zip file somewhere! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FbTs-nMXoAENQ-H.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Congratulations to @Twitter for collecting ~100 MB of data on me (as text, almost half being complete info on every ad I've ever scrolled past) and inferring that > > (1) I'm between the ages of 13 and 54 (correct, though how many people on here aren't?) > .... > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FbOrUgfXgAISrFb.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FbOvCw0WYAYydtU.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 06:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1564137352594964481) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Very tempted to just bring this bag of Hershey's Kisses with me to class tomorrow and eat them throughout the day My most contrarian take is that milk chocolate is (generally) not unhealthy ### [Thread, continued, 06:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1564137721718886401) · 2 likes Like empty calories sure, but same category as e.g. rice, apple juice, pasta ### [Reply to @doseofzero, 15:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1564267084745416704) · 2 likes > **Lex 🦋 (@doseofzero):** New mascot just dropped > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FbVDq5iaAAEAR31.jpg) Omg I wonder if he’s friends with Long Boi, who I’ve co-opted as my blogs maskot ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FbVkn3kXoAE2rE_.jpg) ### [Reply, 18:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1564320383993511942) · 1 like He says hi🦆 ### [Reply to @robertzzk, 19:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1564334328842276865) · 4 likes > **Rob K (@robertzzk):** I have never used Twitter prior to about 48 hours ago (and two one-off tweets from 201X). How do people usually enter the community and gain an engaged and productive following? I’m mainly responding to Followed right now. @peterwildeford @johnsimerlink @FerrisHueller @tszzl SGD that shit and optimize for the single goal of increasing follower count: challenge @QualyThe to a duel ### [Quote tweet, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1564335839357947912) · 5 likes Good Tweet and also good time to remind the world that @marwilliamson follows me and I have no idea why (But hi Marianne, if you’re reading) > **Quoting Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson):** @JCColtin @NYCMayor Man can you imagine if I had said that? ## Tuesday, August 30, 2022 ### [Reply, 02:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1564442088468615168) · 11 likes dude ur 19 ### [Thread, continued, 02:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1564442200292859904) · 3 likes But fr incredibly impressive and very cool haha ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 21:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1564730057641394176) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Peak CO2 ~3000 ppm from flight home just prior to jet bridge connection. In flight tended to hover ~1200. Masked for take-off/landing. Terminal surprisingly low. #CO2 #aranet4 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FbcFNZkWIAACnVg.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FbcFRytXoAAZrm5.jpg) One. Of. Us. But also yeah that’s really bad ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 21:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1564730946125012995) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Love the name ### [Reply, 21:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1564732190625304578) · 2 likes Uh have you ever fasted before? Not discouraging you at all, just warning that for some (e.g., me) its super hard lol. Made it like 36 hours once, but being hungry fuckin sucks ### [Reply to @ch402, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1564733761547272198) · 11 likes > **Chris Olah (@ch402):** Normal online dating seems pretty suboptimal. Recently, I’ve seen several people experiment with public “date me” docs – I think this is a really interesting experiment in alternatives, enabling long-from, earnest dating profiles. > > So, I wrote my own: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fsXsB9qwZMUN48UZet19aGYdjgki5a1ZY-GeLeiz_-Y/edit# > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FbYwLsCVUAAeMrM.jpg) The eyes of the world \[of 5’7” EA-adjacent single straight white dudes\] are upon this thread ### [Quote tweet, 23:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1564752395871084545) · 3 likes I’ve seen like 3-4 of these I think, and now I really want to know whether humans (sometimes?) gain self-awareness (sentience?) at some discrete point… > **Quoting Ava (@noampomsky):** this is actually so real > > [video attached](https://x.com/noampomsky/status/1562949222496096256/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 23:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1564752398110826496) · 2 likes Like I feel psychologically continuous with myself back to 4th grade but not back to 3rd, and the cutoff feels quite discrete. Can’t help but wonder if something like this is why ## Wednesday, August 31, 2022 ### [Reply to @diviaprocessing, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1564809532064366593) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @diviaprocessing is no longer available.)_ I’m calling on someone to run a twitter account that posts random interesting EA Forum/LW exchanges buried deep in some comment thread from any time since 2012 ### [Reply to @jstein_sun, 03:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1564811227288723456) · 4 likes > **Jeff Stein (@jstein_sun):** lolllll this is a new one > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fbcfj43XwAIWm78.jpg) Coulda been any of these! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FbdThIMWYAEdPnO.jpg) ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 03:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1564813380648574977) · 7 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** Gosh this is a useful infographic. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FbcvgVPUIAAcnxi.jpg) Missed this tho ### [Thread, continued, 03:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1564813677991268356) · 2 likes Hornets nests were made for kicking ### [Reply to @TylerAlterman, 20:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1565081141245353987) > **Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply (@TylerAlterman):** Philosophy nerds: outside of utilitarianism, which treatment of ethics do you find most compelling, and why? > > More specific than “virtue ethics” – I’m looking for, eg, “MacIntyre’s treatment of virtue ethics” or “Mencius’s treatment of Confucianism” Nihilism because qualia don’t exist because illusionism (no single source though lol) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1565081993636986880) · 5 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** It’s kinda crazy how much apparent copyright violation goes into training large AI models and this basically doesn’t seem to be a legal issue? > > (quoting @finmoorhouse: Also note that by default these models are trained on copyrighted images, which raises some ethical questions. Interesting to consider what the relevant differences are to, say, a musician learning to write songs by listening to copyrighted music.…) wonder if this could be a lever to slow things down --- End of August 2022. Previous month: [July 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-07). Next month: [September 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-09). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, September 2022 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in September 2022 and has not deleted: 240 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [August 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-08). Next month: [October 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-10). ## Thursday, September 1, 2022 ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 02:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1565157770533507072) · 5 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** Pro Choice & Pro Fish > > (quoting @MarkBegich: Mary Peltola's victory is a clear message from AK voters that they will not compromise their values or their rights at the ballot box. Mary is a pro-choice, pro-fish, common sense leader who knows what it takes to protect and create AK jobs. On to November!) True pro-fishers signal their pro-fishiness by donating to the Fish Welfare Initiative https://www.fishwelfareinitiative.org/donate ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 23:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1565480297105326081) · 5 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** remember how the entire last chapter of Elephant in the Brain talks about how you shouldn't accuse individuals of signalling because that isn't the point of the concept and it's counterproductive and you can't know any one individual's motivations 😇😇 The book also never makes a normative case against signalling! It’s not even something to be “accused” of (necessarily)! People read that part \*in\* to the book ## Friday, September 2, 2022 ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 00:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1565499386112745482) · 1 like > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** I have never seen anyone say 'you're signalling' in a neutral or positive connotation, though they love to use this as a shield when called out Admittedly it naturally lends itself to being used as a critique, but that’s an outcome of human psych+culture, not baked into the meaning of the word. And I’ve definitely seen it used neutrally! Like signalling is the best explanation of why I went to college… ### [Thread, continued, 00:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1565500360231460865) · 1 like Also, often a failure to distinguish between true and misleading signals. I think a bunch of my tweets are virtue signals to some degree, but I also hope they’re basically accurate ones! Often “signal” is used as shorthand for “false or misleading signal” but doesn’t need to be ### [Quote tweet, 00:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1565500786272079876) · 4 likes This tweet is a signal of a bunch of things, but on the object level it’s also a sincere (partial) defense of signaling > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @QualyThe Also, often a failure to distinguish between true and misleading signals. I think a bunch of my tweets are virtue signals to some degree, but I also hope they’re basically accurate ones! > > Often “signal” is used as shorthand for “false or misleading signal” but doesn’t need to be ### [Thread, continued, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1565501064882913280) · 4 likes Nothing like getting into the messy nexus of psych and epistemology with a sentient lightbulb ### [Thread, continued, 00:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1565503875775348736) · 3 likes The lightbulb has spoken ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 01:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1565505156007006211) · 1 like > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** in EA we don't say I love you, we say "this sounds plausibly right to me" and I think that's beautiful “Don’t use vague probabilities, put a number on it!” “Yeah seems plausible” ### [Tweet, 04:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1565563223109210114) · 14 likes Guess I'm an influencer on Google Maps now ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fbn96rJXoAAuWhB.png) ### [Thread, continued, 04:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1565563226372407296) · 1 like Fair warning for anyone looking for a convenience store in Bethesda, MD 100% keeping the "1 review" thing in the picture on purpose btw - Ive got quirks but Google Maps reviews isn't one of them https://goo.gl/maps/eTyDnR3VYY2kn3Uo7 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fbn-3NaXwAAW2P8.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 04:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1565563624034279426) · 4 likes Oh man if anyone has access to the list of most-read reviews that would be a hell of a Twitter thread ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 11:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1565669426111864835) > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** @AaronBergman18 As someone who used to work for CVS (pharmacy) it’s genuinely awful what they have done to the front store. Stores routinely have 1 employee working the entire front, with the addition of self checkout. They’re technically supposed to just assist customers with self checkout but Yeah that was exactly it! Figured maybe management would have someone look at reviews, might see this ### [Tweet, 20:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1565805798093103106) · 2 likes Well now I have to finish the post ### [Reply to @polisisti, 22:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1565829369372852227) · 8 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** I wonder if women realize what outrageously horny ads Twitter shows to men > > Do women get their own versions of horny ads??? I guess I’m not considered in the horny subdemographic lol The two ads near this post: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FbrxgzjWYAEff5y.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FbrxgzjWIAAKJUS.jpg) ### [Reply, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1565848297381691392) · 3 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** Jesus Aaron at least mark that crypto ad as nsfw, I have children in the house ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FbsCukYWIAAW4hC.jpg) ## Saturday, September 3, 2022 ### [Tweet, 00:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1565854140621885440) · 59 likes Dating doc discourse has me wondering whether just subsidizing a dating app whose only goal is to maximizing the number of happy relationships formed (ie no profit motive like Hinge and Tinder to keep people swiping) would be competitive with the GiveWell portfolio ### [Thread, continued, 00:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1565854142853222400) · 9 likes Im not kidding! It seems like there’s a massive coordination or market failure going on rn, in that I can’t pay e.g., $20 per year to join a Hinge alternative with this goal and near-universal uptake ### [Thread, continued, 00:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1565854145222959105) · 4 likes And in both hedonic and life satisfaction terms it seems like a pretty big win if this kind of thing could do it’s job ### [Thread, continued, 00:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1565854147567620097) · 7 likes Oh ya here’s my 16 character dating doc: “22M str8 monog DC” it’s a minimal viable product ok, it will scale with time ### [Reply to @tszzl, 03:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1565900792418254848) · 3 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** you just can’t be like “i am a special and strange person, with a niche brain type, and this lowest common denominator attractive person on the app has a decent chance of being a good match for me” it’s not coherent Room just destroyed like $600M in dating app valuations ### [Tweet, 08:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1565977166080245761) · 15 likes Wild rabbit hole just now after finding out gmail saved all the school essays and stuff I emailed starting in 2010 (so 10 y/o, in fourth grade) Proud to report that I had correct opinions even at 11! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fbt3sWqXkAAQy2i.png) ### [Thread, continued, 08:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1565978559109267456) · 5 likes Don't want to let myself off too easy though - I failed to predict the solar pricing decline coming over the next decade, and nuclear's dual use potential didn't even cross my mind :/ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fbt5BKgXEAAMGZa.png) ### [Reply to @happy_at_home_, 11:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566024939475533825) · 2 likes > **Don’t be a mean person (@happy_at_home_):** Why are there not plus-sized male models? My guess is the least conventionally attractive model of either sex will be the person who is just barely not offputting to say 90% of potential customers, and this is less constraining for women because men (of whom most are straight) tend to have less picky sexual preferences ### [Reply, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566158274822545410) · 1 like Eh I think it makes a good philosophical case for longtermism per se but have some substantial disagreements with the rest. One big one is failure to discuss or consider the Very Repugnant Conclusion. I wouldn’t recommend it as a standalone “all things considered” take ### [Reply to @robertzzk, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566162958710865924) · 2 likes > **Rob K (@robertzzk):** @peterwildeford ergo my position is the tough stance that VNM utility theory is the incorrect approach to mathematically modeling (long term and in the full limit) human preferences/utility/values by invalid fiat - due to bad/poor axiomatic asssumptions. There’s a better theory. @MatthewAdelste1 and I have a whole discourse on this! I argue that non-offsetability is (counterintuitively) consistent with total utilitarianism https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/my-case-for-suffering-leaning-ethics Matt’s response: https://benthams.substack.com/p/contra-bergman-on-suffering-focused And my comment with his response there below ### [Reply to @metakuna, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566163621092130819) · 6 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** knowledge is knowing Python, wisdom is using Excel 😌 Enlightenment is closing both and using R ### [Thread, continued, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566163778739355648) · 2 likes Not that you can “close” python lol ### [Reply to @provinghuman, 20:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566166786495709185) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @provinghuman is no longer available.)_ Barely hyperbole haha. I tried to “learn python” at one point. Have something called Anaconda and maybe Spyder (?) and I think a couple others I’m forgetting on my computer Absolutely zero idea what they do or how to use them ### [Tweet, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566190806511280129) · 5 likes Bored around hour 2 in ER waiting room (nw I’m good 👍), gonna make a thread with some relevant takes (1/ ### [Thread, continued, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566190810399444992) · 4 likes It’s called the “emergency room” but in practice it’s for any issue that’s both too urgent to wait 2+ weeks to see a normal doctor and may need something that an urgent care center can’t provide ### [Tweet, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566190817190060032) · 1 like Interlude: excuse my lack of eloquence; C02 almost certainly over 1000 \[whatever normal unit is\] and wouldnt be surprised if >2000. No k/n95s on offer either 🙃. ### [Thread, continued, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566190819517898755) · 1 like Another interlude: diabetic blood sugar issue woman next to me just decided wait not worth it, gets up and (I assume) leaves with bf ### [Thread, continued, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566190821602480129) · 1 like To be clear, all this is kinda annoying to me but really no huge deal; I don’t have an employer demanding my time, am not acutely suffering, not particularly hungry or anything, and have an iPhone with data, earbuds, and a water bottle But that’s a lot to satisfy! ### [Thread, continued, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566190823833845763) · 2 likes Also, speaking as someone who by default wears tank tops year-round because I ~always get hot indoors, it’s pretty damn cold in here. Maybe 58F? Everyone else looks cold despite most wearing pants and long sleeves. At least I didn’t wear a tank ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 23:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566200854549594112) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Omg - need to save phone battery now but I legit would be interested to see and of ur projects ## Sunday, September 4, 2022 ### [Tweet, 06:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566316131450773511) · 4 likes Don’t wanna be a self-checkout noob and follow instructions but also don’t wanna steal? N=1 big grocery store, but if you press “forgot my \[bonus/rewards\] card,” it just pretends like you actually put in a phone number associated with a rewards card ### [Reply, 07:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566324811156148224) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Ugh should I try meditation again? 1 meditation minute=2 treadmill minutes~=20 normal minutes ### [Reply, 14:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566438865619111937) · 11 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Sorry guys the incentives have spoken, looks like http://aaronbergman.net is switching teams ### [Tweet, 15:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566449044129546240) · 4 likes My most unhinged business idea is to make a basic email app with a similar feel as Outlook but a bit sleeker and less clunky, call it Prognosis, and hope people download just because they like the pun ### [Quote tweet, 20:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566519343621586944) · 4 likes 🙈 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fb1lCjPWAAUjlc9.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @benedictevans Sorry guys the incentives have spoken, looks like http://aaronbergman.net is switching teams ### [Reply, 20:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566521834857791498) · 2 likes ### [Tweet, 23:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566562524987785217) · 3 likes Did the first white people to try soy sauce say like “holy shit we’ve unlocked a secret flavor” or was it somehow nbd ### [Reply to @DevonGeo, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566565735287209990) · 2 likes > **Devon Piernot (@DevonGeo):** I made this map. Really chuffed to see it shared on the interwebs after all these years. Presumably it is a good thing to chuf? ## Monday, September 5, 2022 ### [Reply, 03:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566630990495322113) · 2 likes I'm not certain of this, but I think the operation \[infinity\] x number isn't defined unless you specify further. Like the operation "times" as used in common language only (reliably) works between two real numbers or a real number and a unit ### [Thread, continued, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566631358365147136) · 2 likes So the rigorous answer is "neither true nor false" in the same way that "what's the least common denominator of 6 and an apple?" has no correct answer (not even "there is none") ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566636493090742273) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Thank you @US_FDA for keeping us safe from scary soymilks that pretend to be milk! > > Consumers get so confused and need protection (even though less than 10% of survey respondents think soymilk contains dairy). > > The dairy industry needs all the gov handouts they can get! > > (quoting @ReasonFdn: "The Food and Drug Administration is likely to move ahead with wrongheaded and unconstitutional plans to prohibit producers of non-dairy milks—including almond milk and soy milk—from using the term 'milk' to describe their milks." — @baylenlinnekin…) That's gotta be one of the highest % corrects on a factual question on a public poll out there! Like 80% sure that >10% would say dinosaurs and humans lived at the same time ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 10:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566733981449601025) · 1 like > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** https://x.com/karnagraha/status/1566487103055269891?t=YcA-tV20cLJttfqlWbaLXw&s=19 https://x.com/karnagraha/status/1566487103055269891?s=21&t=dhMOtHIEuKnplPbIA-Vwhg ### [Tweet, 11:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566747274679664647) · 6 likes Has anyone (philosopher most likely?) argued that the whole “natural numbers sum to -1/12” thing is strong evidence that something is dramatically messed up about the universe, or any other radical claim in epistemology/metaphysics? https://plus.maths.org/content/infinity-or-just-112 … ### [Thread, continued, 11:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566747277103874048) Quantum mechanics has nothing on this in terms of weirdness and intuitive implausibility. It’s like if we discovered in 1978 that the number line stops at 6^9853+1, or that the scripture of some small offshoot of Zoroastrianism is literally and entirely correct ### [Thread, continued, 11:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566747278769111042) · 2 likes I just really don’t think they should sum to -1/12 ☹️ Seems wrong ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566858216130154497) · 18 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ This cannot go on. In just 10,000 years, Julian’s Blog would have 10 subscribers for every electron in the universe ## Tuesday, September 6, 2022 ### [Tweet, 00:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566948165386997768) · 1 like If forced to choose between these options, would you prefer that I tweet 10% more often or 10% less often? ### [Thread, continued, 00:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566949444435705856) · 1 like Gonna take this down once results become clear lol ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566957703276240896) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 You should only do that if 10% less wins Should I take down the above poll… ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 02:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566970351610990594) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I feel like I remember SBF saying he'd buy someone a car cause of a Twitter interaction. Did he do this? Seems weird since he like sleeps on a beanbag or something (I assumed so he could donate more)? > > Am I mixing things up? I think he keeps 1% of wealth, which is still $100M of $10B. I lowkey think it might be a non crazy idea to convince him to make it like 99.99% above $10M or something like that. ### [Reply to @F_McCullough, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566973230799364096) · 6 likes > **Fergus (@F_McCullough):** Just published an updated version of my blogpost on alcohol. (And if anything, my views have hardened!) > https://www.thefitzwilliam.com/p/against-alcohol I personally actively dislike alcohol as a drug, but my prior on “a behavior/nutrient that was done/consumed (I assume?) with some frequency across cultures even before agriculture has at least one hidden important function” is pretty high … ### [Thread, continued, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566973308020686849) · 1 like @AndyMasley can also tell me why I’m wrong ### [Quote tweet, 02:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1566978472156823552) · 1 like Should probably lie low after overconfidently asserting that the universe is “messed up” because of (wrong) math, but… All I ask is that we keep the history of well-intentioned public health campaigns against saturated fat in mind before hyper-empirical wrt alcohol > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @F_McCullough I personally actively dislike alcohol as a drug, but my prior on “a behavior/nutrient that was done/consumed (I assume?) with some frequency across cultures even before agriculture has at least one hidden important function” is pretty high > … ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 07:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1567054670001995778) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 6, 2022:** Should I take down the above poll… Current results are extremely unhelpful ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fb9L6tlXkAEyP9f.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1567192386677129222) · 2 likes Ok guess I’m leaving it up. Blame it on the voters ### [Tweet, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1567194600720269312) · 19 likes Extremely chuffed to announce that three birds have decided to move in to a flowerpot in my backyard ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fb_LLpyWQAAn7ku.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1567194603551326209) · 3 likes Don’t wanna be too presumptuous or socially conservative but I’m gonna assume that’s two kids and their mom ### [Thread, continued, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1567194604528713728) · 1 like Always be learning new vocabulary🧠👍 ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 16:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1567194893277085700) · 1 like > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** Is there self-cringe more acute than finding your 2014 unpublished blog post about how amazing EA is and how it addresses all your moral concerns and awakens your inner Gryffindor? > > Council, I submit not. ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1567240872722309123) · 3 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 What kind of bird is it? It's beautiful ❤️ Idk, I asked them but they didn’t respond ### [Reply to @pleasure_engine, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1567283334094491648) · 1 like > **Pleasure Engineer (@pleasure_engine):** @RafaRuizdeLira @AaronBergman18 Mourning Dove according to Cornell's Merlin App > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FcAHuS1X0AAf2oF.jpg) Central example of a bird tbh. Like finding out a mystery fruit is an apple ## Wednesday, September 7, 2022 ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 01:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1567317468028223489) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ My goal is to Tweet something earnest that sounds batshit insane even to EA hears but then @StefanFSchubert comments smth like “upon a bit of inspection I believe this hypothesis deserves more consideration than it may first appear” ### [Tweet, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1567325966703251457) · 4 likes I seriously think someone (in fact, someone reading this if they wanted to) could make big tech-level money by getting really good at making custom shortcuts and Automator scripts for clients on iOS. Plus you could live wherever, donate 75% of your income, be own boss, etc. ### [Thread, continued, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1567325968594862080) · 3 likes Quick Google doesn’t turn up anyone advertising this, just like DIY YouTube tutorials. Usually when there are YouTube tutorials for some technical hard skill, you can hire someone (like an electrician idk) to do the thing, just a thought ### [Reply, 03:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1567360339888463872) · 1 like Uh I don't really know but I don't think so - Apple has a whole app called "automator" with a user interface, not just weird black box for text. Looks like this ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FcBh231XwAAhDU1.jpg) ### [Reply to @Superlinear_, 07:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1567419816482377728) · 2 likes > **Superlinear - X-Risk Prizes (@Superlinear_):** Harry Truman once said: "It's amazing what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit." > > The $100,000 Truman Prize awards EAs with $5-10k for declining credit in ways that can't be publicized directly, and where their work is more impactful because of that. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fb9TIe0WAAET-vK.jpg) Ay this is cool ## Thursday, September 8, 2022 ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 10:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1567823649071038471) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Reads like a madlib lmao Next: “this group of \[sock\]-headed altruists are determined to make the world \[slimier\]” ### [Tweet, 21:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1567991401908158464) · 3 likes There’s definitely a blog post and maybe a book to be written about the phrase “hot take” as a linguistic and cultural phenomenon ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1567992759348506629) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 6, 2022:** Always be learning new vocabulary🧠👍 Update: birds still birdin’ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FcKhGmaXgAALslm.jpg) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 22:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1568008741076848641) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FcJhZ7oWQAEA51r.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FcJhd0ZWAAERIuQ.jpg) I’d like to volunteer as tribute to represent the non-drinking pro-alcohol EA coalition ## Friday, September 9, 2022 ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 08:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1568150724135075840) · 2 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Hot take, but I don't think the "$3,000 to save a life" meme makes much sense. If we're talking about how much to save a life in expectation, then it's MUCH less (e.g., via LTFF). If it's how much to be confident you've actually counterfactually saved a life, then it's MUCH more. “Save a life” means “preventing a death,” no? Agree longtermist interventions do this, but then we’re talking about preventing some single digit billions of deaths, not like 10^almostinfinity. Is that still what you@had in mind ## Saturday, September 10, 2022 ### [Reply to @polisisti, 04:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1568457378361638914) · 3 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @BecomingCritter put chocolate chips and 100%-peanut butter in a bowl > > microwave for 45 seconds > > stir > > consume > > people think there are better foods than this but they're wrong Spend money to save time (by buying Reese’s instead) ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 09:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1568531797280948226) · 3 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** Sex clubs seem like a pretty good place to do HIV screenings. > > (quoting @Dylan_Housman: Meet Joe Biden's monkeypox czar: a "progressive, radical gay" doctor who performs HIV screenings in sex clubs and gives meningitis shots in drag. Now he's in the White House https://dailycaller.com/2022/09/08/joe-biden-monkeypox-coordinator-demetre-daskalakis-white-house/) This unironically makes him sound like a great man for the job ### [Reply to @maddiehalla, 12:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1568583478039531520) · 41 likes > **Maddie Hall (@maddiehalla):** Yesterday was a historic day in plant biotech: a purple tomato engineered with high antioxidants was approved by @USDA @BigPurpleTomato helps prevent cardiovascular disease and fight cancer in humans. > This approval under new regulation ushers in a new era for plant synbio! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FcP26OtaUAAPCoc.png) Wait haven’t there been like a bunch of trials of high dose antioxidant supplements that showed null results? Of course engineering them in is different than like isolated vitamin c or whatever but even still I’m very skeptical these provide a real health benefit ### [Reply, 20:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1568698387515731970) · 2 likes Sure but these foods also have a million other things that make them different from their alternatives. Adding a gene to pump out extra beta carotene or something seems more like taking a supplement than it does switching from naturally low BC food to naturally high ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1568708486665494529) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** Give a man a fish, he causes suffering for a day. Teach a man to fish, he causes suffering for the rest of his life 😌 What if he keeps it as a pet ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 23:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1568747009313751041) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @Estimatrix @AaronBergman18 Hey it was a GOOD QUESTION. I will die on this hill ### [Reply, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1568747435823960065) · 4 likes fwiw butter does not need to be refrigerated. It will make spreading it much easier, removing any apparent need for such a device ## Sunday, September 11, 2022 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 00:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1568758463345627136) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @Estimatrix No I think it was too Ya ik haha ### [Tweet, 07:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1568858838832676869) · 2 likes Found some old textbooks etc lying around on my computer. I know at least a couple followers like self-study math for fun, so have at it! (List in the tweet below) http://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1bLeZKovT92puvHk1KyHrYDbn3DFCuDt3?usp=sharing ### [Reply to @floresophize, 10:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1568909694667825152) · 4 likes > **Carolina Flores (@floresophize):** No one: > Philosophers: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FcVG_8oaIAAjaVW.jpg) And the cross product of each combination ofc ### [Reply to @panickssery, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569062880313577477) · 10 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** I often hear people say they increase their efficiency/impact by trading time for money, e.g. valuing their time at $35/hr and booking an Uber for $15 to save 30 minutes of walking as a result > > But is this compatible with your marginal time value in most models of productivity? Yeah I think this meme is overdone in rationalist spheres. IMO it’s most useful when applied on a case by case basis. Like if I’m in the middle of something important that I’m making fast progress on but have to drive somewhere rn, it prob makes sense to get an Uber instead … ### [Thread, continued, 20:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569063496377143298) · 6 likes But plenty of the time I think I can intuit that I wouldn’t really get much more done this way, and then won’t get the Uber ## Monday, September 12, 2022 ### [Tweet, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569171076772397062) · 4 likes Controversial opinion apparently but IMO the \*first-order\* expected effects of taking a class in almost anything are positive (w/ exceptions ofc), so any decent case against the humanities has to argue that the alternate use of college students’ time would on avg be even better ### [Thread, continued, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569171078915702784) · 3 likes I think some anti-humanities sentiment comes from implicitly thinking of Marxist Gender Theory as representative, rather than intro to philosophy, English lit, or History of \[Whatever\] ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 04:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569174058020884480) · 1 like > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 A surprising number of people hear I studied philosophy and immediately jump to "Oh you just spent 4 years sitting in a circle talking about your feelings" Wait so you didn’t? ### [Reply to @mualphaxi, 04:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569175760249683969) · 4 likes > **Maxwell Meyer (@mualphaxi):** Just for comparison, here is the Emirates premium economy cabin versus its American competitors. > > I mean, come on! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FcZEzJ3XEAgGM5R.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FcZE6BYWIAYzArV.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FcZFAeTXEAc6m-f.jpg) Seems like the only real difference is color? ### [Reply to @mualphaxi, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569199854441709568) · 2 likes > **Maxwell Meyer (@mualphaxi):** I like how a lot of people liked the first tweet in this thread and then were shocked when I bring up airline attendant appearance, which is a top issue for quality of travel. They thought I was going to talk about some esoteric regulation like a YIMBY. > > (quoting @mualphaxi: AVIATION THREAD: the US should allow select foreign airlines “cabotage rights” i.e. the right to operate domestic routes in the US. Imagine how great air travel would be if Emirates, Etihad, Singapore, Qatar, etc were allowed to compete here. Take a journey with me...) A top issue according to who lol ### [Reply to @razibkhan, 05:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569200483889254400) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @razibkhan is no longer available.)_ I only interact with those who reach summa ### [Thread, continued, 05:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569200824336928768) · 7 likes I’d add that even I did not reach this threshold, thereby barring me eternally from introspection ### [Reply to @SievaKozinsky, 05:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569201164750835712) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @SievaKozinsky is no longer available.)_ Markets may not be perfectly efficient, but they’re way too efficient for this to be good advice ## Tuesday, September 13, 2022 ### [Quote tweet, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569487500015734784) · 5 likes In high school (before encountering the EA extended universe), I typed “theatlantic .com” into my phone browser often enough that it remains muscle memory and I still occasionally go to the site by accident thanks to this well-trained Pavlovian instinct Good job @TheAtlantic > **Quoting 🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** The Atlantic is good, actually ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 03:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569533145351077889) · 2 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** The problem with social media censorship > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FcdnjK2WIAIkHj7.jpg) If anyone should be censored it’s Kant ### [Reply to @luke_metro, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569534103464312833) · 5 likes > **Luke Metro (@luke_metro):** There are theee ways to become a 10x engineer > > \- Microdosing LSD > \- Microdosing Adderall > \- Microdosing Estrogen In all seriousness do not microdose adderall. It at least \*might\* cause extremely unpleasant dopamine receptor hypersensitization ### [Reply to @GPTJustin, 04:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569545553280913408) · 2 likes > **Justin Strong (@GPTJustin):** Why would having sensitive dopamine receptors be bad? Wouldn’t it feel good? I honestly don't know, but have seen reports of it feeling like being perpetually on edge and out of breath. Tbh it could be an entirely different mechanism, I don't even know why that's the default/favored one ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 05:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569565213397078016) · 266 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ Yup lol. I majored in math, have done several \*statistical\* programming-intensive jobs, find accessible+theoretical cs super interesting, am the default IT person for my family, etc....and have absolutely zero idea how github works or how to use it. And tf is a virtual machine? ### [Thread, continued, 06:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569566604517572608) · 360 likes What's a kernel? What is the difference between command line, terminal, bash, zsh, and ssh? Who is pip and why is he installing my things? Wtf is a modem or router? Is ethernet : internet as wario : mario? Why can't I just download the full html of a website as a text file? ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 06:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569567959051386880) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Counterpoint: this one extremely funny ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fcg5pPBXwAQY0b5.jpg) ### [Reply, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569568272634318849) · 2 likes Like yes 30 year old Indian man, I'm sure you are also a young Asian women in the American southwest ### [Reply to @DanCrossNYC, 19:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569772312806711297) · 13 likes > **Dan @cross@discuss.systems (@DanCrossNYC):** You were a math major! You know what a kernel is. Just crack open that linear algebra book. RELIVE THE GOOD YEARS! Nah abstract algebra was my lowest grade in all 17 years of education 💀 ### [Quote tweet, 20:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569778984988151809) · 11 likes I would actually super appreciate any mutuals sending me any resource that (1) is audio or can be turned into audio and (2) seems at least as valuable to you per minute as a random minute of a random 80k podcast episode (or just “very valuable”) > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Would love it if there were more of a norm for people to write up their process for consuming information. Could find especially knowledgeable people and just mimic their process. ### [Thread, continued, 20:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569778987265671170) · 4 likes Nbd if it’s not my favorite - all I’m looking for is higher signal:noise ratio than my current podcast feed! ### [Reply, 20:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569780874178068481) · 3 likes ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 20:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569781082349772807) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ But was he good at theology? ### [Thread, continued, 20:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569781431173251075) · 25 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fcj75BtXoAEomYT.jpg) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 22:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569816741257134085) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Hell yeah. She's awesome!👊 Thanks! Yeah I listened to a few episodes a while back and for whatever reason didn’t keep with it, but I’ll prob try again :) ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 22:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569816959449010176) · 2 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** Want to second this - probable causation is quite good. The host, Jennifer Doleac, has been on 80,000 hours! https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/jennifer-doleac-reforming-police-preventing-crime/ I think I remember them discussing streetlights here. Now whenever I see a dim-ass streetlight (all of them) I shake my head ruefully ## Wednesday, September 14, 2022 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1569895033863634945) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 13, 2022:** What's a kernel? What is the difference between command line, terminal, bash, zsh, and ssh? Who is pip and why is he installing my things? Wtf is a modem or… Why is this one of my most liked Tweets? Where are my earbuds? Will humanity ever uncover the nature of consciousness? ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 12:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1570024168955183104) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Wait fr? ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 12:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1570024306503024642) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ If you can’t make this Tweet go viral you should be fired immediately ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 15:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1570077601145798658) · 8 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 14, 2022:** Wait fr? I’m traumatized by finding out randos at EA global are like next in line to be Secretary of State or chessboxing world champion ### [Reply, 16:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1570080876414763008) · 15 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ FYI there is a phone number and email listed that might want to hear all your thoughts ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FcoMO91XkAMBSt4.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1570146059963219975) · 1 like Getting bariatric surgery and a year’s supply of semaglitude should be like 30% harder than getting a COVID shot, tops > **Quoting Laura McGann (@lkmcgann):** Prevailing attitudes toward bariatric surgery are overwhelmingly negative -- and they seem to be contributing to the very low use of a technique that is our best tool at fighting obesity. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamasurgery/fullarticle/2717959 ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 21:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1570167152467902466) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Wait fr? ## Thursday, September 15, 2022 ### [Reply to @jacyanthis, 10:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1570356146128535553) > **Jacy Reese Anthis (@jacyanthis):** Glad you're thinking critically about this. On your third point, I don't think that sort of option value argument holds up under scrutiny, for reasons discussed here (https://www.sentienceinstitute.org/blog/the-future-might-not-be-so-great#what-does-the-ev-need-to-be-to-prioritize-extinction-risks? ; can find in page "option value"). Curious what you think. These considerations are so important, deserve way more attention than “maybe future ppl don’t matter” bs. The reason I think I fall on the “extinction risk reduction net good” is that, in practice, reducing extinction (and x-risk generally, tho less certain)… ### [Thread, continued, 10:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1570356956732297220) Reduces chance of societal collapse (and hence likely EA collapse) by an even greater magnitude, or in the case of AI hand things off to another agent with likely nothing resembling true moral values I think you commented before, but I mostly developed this opinion… Wii ### [Thread, continued, 10:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1570357202329935874) · 1 like (Wii? Lol idk how that got there) …writing part of this piece https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/eeDsHDoM9De4iGGLw/questioning-the-value-of-extinction-risk-reduction-1 ### [Reply to @LahadtheGhost, 18:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1570486542610886656) · 2 likes > **Bor (@LahadtheGhost):** @AaronBergman18 In podcasts I find @dwarkesh_sp 's Lunar Society podcast to be similar in value/minute to 80k. Agree, but the problem is he’s too productive so I have a bunch of episodes to catch up on ### [Reply to @hyperdiscogirl, 19:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1570502708691607554) · 2 likes > **hyper(bolic) disco(unting) girl in the bay (@hyperdiscogirl):** @doxometrist @proetrie > with 50/50 gender ratios Legend has it there was once a female at a LW meetup. This has not been confirmed ## Friday, September 16, 2022 ### [Tweet, 03:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1570613768719306755) · 3 likes Pretty curious what actual information is in these "private" folders embedded (idk better term) in my iPhone photos ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FcvuYgvXEAEcaDr.jpg) ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 08:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1570697060206387203) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ Agree, and the weird thing is that nonconsentual corporal punishment for \*adults\* (in the US at least) is ~nonexistent, with the death penalty and its associated suffering the only exception I can think of. Maybe “coach ‘forces’ player to run laps” is a sort of counterexample tho ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 10:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1570721629843652610) · 2 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** The libs do not actually seem that owned. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FcvbXcYXEAI479W.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FcvbgciXgAQb1Cr.jpg) Was the goal to show that libs secretly dislike Mexicans? Because afaict the standard “immigrants good” thing is mostly genuine and non-performative. Like I really would be more than fine with (yes, “illegal”) Mexican immigrants moving nearby me ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1570854736521469953) · 4 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Are you not going to the "very online" meetup? I'm not going to be available in the evenings so I was kinda hoping people would go to that meetup but if people aren't going to be there I will also avoid going to that and do other things instead! Just signed up. Cmon guys get on it! ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1570869593178251264) · 6 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Some people were saying on Twitter that they lean towards preference utilitarianism rather than hedonistic. > > Here are some clear examples of why I find preference utilitarianism implausible. tbh I find preference utilitarianism totally implausible and am surprised how many EAs say they endorse it, even in part ### [Reply to @peligrietzer, 21:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1570887918792871937) · 9 likes > **Peli Grietzer (@peligrietzer):** Did Scott Alexander ever discuss how getting exposed as moderately NRx-sympathetic and scientific-racism sympathetic didn't actually get him cancelled at all even though he was sure it would? I think I reject both premises here ## Saturday, September 17, 2022 ### [Reply to @juan_cambeiro, 01:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1570953905978355712) · 16 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @juan_cambeiro is no longer available.)_ She updated in the wrong direction [![Hamster Cute GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/Fc0mP7gWAAACYvc.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1570953905978355712/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Tweet, 02:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1570958513983328256) · 6 likes Dear TPOT ppl (is it an acronym?? for what??), Most criticism of your community will be fundamentally mistaken Most of the remainder will essentially point out various true bad things that you already recognize and understand as a cost you’re willing to pay for smth good (1/2) ### [Thread, continued, 02:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1570958516046934018) · 4 likes Don’t let the shitty/naive critiques crowd out those that pattern-match as “constructive criticism from within” Sincerely, \[well I wanted to write “EA Twitter” but tbh I don’t speak for everyone so instead…\] Aaron (2/2) ### [Reply to @jmrphy, 02:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1570958771207409664) · 1 like > **Justin Murphy (@jmrphy):** If you're a man over 30 and you have time to maintain more than 5 friendships—I mean real friendships—you're either a loser, groomer, or gay. Notruescotsman.jpg ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 07:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571041388518866945) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 Tpot stands for 'this part of twitter', it took me like 8 months to find that out :) Ay thanks! I can now cease learning new information until the end of time ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 22:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571262889364692996) · 3 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** At the end of the day, Ron DeSantis is much too short to be president and that’s all there is to it. This tweet is perfectly optimized to clash my intuitions. Desantis=bad, overcoming semiconscious bias=good, probably correct but also serving as a mechanism to create the social reality it is explicitly only observing ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571264882930073605) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Should “we” (maybe me but ideally someone with more cred) make a “serious” (roughly “similar content expectations to Forum comment section and similar topic expectations to Forum posts” maybe) EA Twitter community? As complement to the existing one, everyone welcome etc. ### [Thread, continued, 22:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571265189533605893) · 3 likes Like I’ve definitely posted “serious” things there that are a bit too underdeveloped or short for the forum, and also memes. These could wind up in separate places! ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 23:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571275819506434050) · 19 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** this seems fine to me? It's the teacher's body, let them do what they want with it. i kinda feel like you being weirded out is your business. > > (quoting @reduxx: BREAKING: Oakville Trafalgar High School has come out in defense of a male teacher who has been wearing a massive prosthetic bust, complete with protruding nipples, to class. In an email sent to parents, the school says "gender identity" is protected.…) Rare case I’m more conservative than Aella; I think the norm “permit employees to do a public-facing job with literally any physical object attached to them” is not a good principle ### [Thread, continued, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571277286392954883) · 1 like And this is in contrast to things like “anyone can have any hairstyle” or “anyone can use reasonable ability accommodations like a wheelchair or hearing aid” which I definitely do support ### [Tweet, 23:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571281877780021249) · 8 likes I mostly regret having spent 7 years studying Spanish because I so rarely use it But being able to respond “sí, está bien” three times a year to some poor Uber Eats driver who thought s/he got a someone legit fluente en español makes it all worthwhile ## Sunday, September 18, 2022 ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 01:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571303832704909315) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Eh 1,000 members seems pretty solid to me ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 01:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571316853087113217) · 3 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** @AaronBergman18 @EzraJNewman many ills befall he who forgets the 1% rule > https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule Fr though good point but I'd guess it's more like 5% in this case. And it's not a zero-sum split (over users at least) - I for one would stay in and post in both. It might not even be zero-sum over posts, if people become more inclined to post post-schism ### [Reply, 03:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571338100508352512) · 1 like Ok so I’m not insane for thinking that she/they is grammatically different from he/him and she/her. The parallel version would be “she/them” but I’ve never seen this she/they afaict just doesn’t make sense as an actual pronoun pair (cool to use it as a quirkiness signal tho👍) ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571338374509723651) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pli_cachete is no longer available.)_ Rip Juice ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 03:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571338715565330433) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pli_cachete is no longer available.)_ The higher signal/noise version of this is “post on repeat” or “post top songs of 2021” ### [Thread, continued, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571339605068369921) · 3 likes Counterpoint: if you listen to the same lofi working music over and over (I don’t recognize any of these titles or artists) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fc6FCucX0AAR0Vw.jpg) ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 10:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571444459178434560) · 2 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** I still don't get the meme that "2+2=4" is racist. Is there some theory that arithmetic is a barrier to dismantling white supremacy? To be fair, it’s the only term they put in quotes, so seems to refer to the use of the phrase as a rhetorical device rather than the underlying referent. But ya still wild tho ### [Reply, 20:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571593377388417026) · 2 likes Yesterday I wrote a function in R called “center_title” so I would never have to do any “theme(element.text.something=.5) bullshit ever again in ggplot. I think that puts me on the left ### [Tweet, 22:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571627572416466947) · 5 likes Introvert networking advice: go on LinkedIn and try to customize your url Odds are, a bunch of variations of your name like “linkedin .com/in/jonsmith” or “…/in/smithjon” are unavailable. This means that someone else \*with your very name\* has them!… ### [Thread, continued, 22:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571627575696560130) · 3 likes Paste those urls into another tab and, if nominative determinism has even a grain of truth, they’ll have some relevant career experience or interests. Now ask to connect! Bonus points for candidly explaining the whole thing in your invite message ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 22:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571631620964380672) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pli_cachete is no longer available.)_ Idk I think there’s a chance public high schools would get taxes broadly right ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 22:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571632432872292352) · 3 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** @AaronBergman18 @Tjdriii I do think most people wouldn't learn it well. Also the main problem with filing taxes in the US is that the government doesn't do it for you. In no other country do people complain about it so much Oh ya for sure. Forget fossil fuels/big agriculture. TurboTax owns the federal government ## Monday, September 19, 2022 ### [Reply to @uneventual, 01:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571667324154904579) · 3 likes > **lucy 🐧 (@uneventual):** hanging out with amazon people is nuts you’ll be like “this sucks, we should leave” and they’ll be like “good idea! bias for action” @panickssery ### [Reply to @JessicaValenti, 01:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571667885960880128) · 81 likes > **Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti):** My 12 year-old had a sleepover last night and I regret to inform you she's the "hey guys let's keep it down" kid Remembering the time (around 10 y/o) I tried convincing my friend’s mom to sign a contract saying we could stay up all night and eat whatever we wanted. She didn’t sign it :/ ### [Tweet, 06:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571744606467002369) · 4 likes All the takes I’ve seen along the lines of “language models will never be able to do \_\_\_\_” or “the next DallE won’t get \_\_\_\_\_ right” seem woefully uncreative. Some things I’d legitimately be surprised to see (no technical expertise, some of these are likely dumb) (1/?) ### [Thread, continued, 06:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571744608371052546) · 3 likes 1\) Language model can reliably, accurately report the locale in which it is being run (without being given some hint like “I’m next to the White House”) ### [Thread, continued, 06:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571744610086490113) · 1 like 2\) Language model reliably, accurately reports what card a person is holding in front of a webcam without any trace of a photo or video file being stored ### [Thread, continued, 06:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571744611516784640) · 2 likes 3\) (I think someone can test this; seems the most plausible) Language model is able to reliably communicate at a GPT-2/3 level, but where inputs are given by forming the \*shape\* of characters using only asterisks ### [Reply, 21:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571970204963602435) · 2 likes Not lawyer (probably for the best!) Only a few months out from college so wouldn’t say I have a solid career yet haha. I’ve done a couple government economics-related internships, but now doing a mix of research types for a nonprofit (to put it briefly) ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 21:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571977753926242306) · 6 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** I came up with a Big Idea but now I need a catchy name for it. One Billion One Billion Americans: the case for printing an inordinate number of physical books ### [Thread, continued, 21:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571978740271403011) · 3 likes Or One Billion American One Billion Americans: the case for a national publishing industry mega-revival ### [Thread, continued, 21:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571980193459478529) · 2 likes One American Billion: the case for keeping the money supply at exactly 1B USD ### [Thread, continued, 21:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1571980399093350401) · 3 likes One American Billions: the case for abolishing billionaires except for one ## Tuesday, September 20, 2022 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 05:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1572088921710022659) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I think I may have not gotten an EA internship because my offer to do a work test went to spam Really sucks. Same would have happened for me about a year ago except the hiring person followed up ### [Quote tweet, 06:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1572108974966865920) · 3 likes I'm legally obliged (by my influencer contract) to QT every time I get one of these updates ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FdFAw4jWIAA1KKU.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Guess I'm an influencer on Google Maps now > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fbn96rJXoAAuWhB.png) ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 16:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1572260870352433152) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Would pay $5 for this sticker ### [Reply, 16:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1572262915616407552) · 10 likes Implies about 6x number of neurons in all ants as in all humans. And, until someone has a better suggestion, neuron count seems like the least terrible proxy for moral value ### [Reply to @mirandahzhang, 17:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1572271205503336448) · 2 likes > **Miranda Zhang (@mirandahzhang):** I know personal consumption choices barely matter but the amount of waste that the US produces... I've never before encountered households that solely use disposable cutlery or people who consistently order more than they'll finish! I used to have this sort of intuition pretty strongly, but eventually I think I got statistic-pilled into seeing light plastic waste more like letting tap water run down the drain than anything else. Maybe this is an over correction, but I’d guess not ### [Reply to @mirandahzhang, 17:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1572281667448107008) · 3 likes > **Miranda Zhang (@mirandahzhang):** Yeah, hmm, I also have this intuition around food waste but I suspect that isn't much worse than plastic. > > FWIW I don't think it should be a moral judgment but I do think it's my aesthetic preference (e.g. a circular economy is very aesthetically pleasing to me). FWIW I think food waste varies a ton across every metric. Some kinds like chicken really are bad, corn and soybeans more like plastic ### [Quote tweet, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1572288258167476227) · 6 likes I basically believe the YIMBY stance here but wonder how strawmanny it is Like there’s gotta be at least one homeless guy who’d gladly take the title to some cheap house in exurban Wisconsin. Maybe low-skilled wages become worth working for when rent is $0! > **Quoting sam (@sam_d_1995):** wow you just solved the housing crisis!! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FdHaR8bWQAItM-B.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1572288260696854533) · 3 likes Kinda wonder if some decent low-skilled labor intensive business could set up shop in Somewhere, Iowa, and offer to literally give workers a house as a benefit Clearly this doesn’t scale to country’s homeless population, but it might scale to 50 ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 22:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1572350686607847424) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pli_cachete is no longer available.)_ I don’t believe you ### [Tweet, 22:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1572356309659553793) · 4 likes Appreciating the math/econ prof speak with fresh eyes “reCALL… \*starts writing vigorously\* …last Wednesday we showed that for any hypergeometric Gilbert space, alpha-star, there exists a nonlinear homeomorphic field mapping omega-star-sub-i that satisfies ### [Thread, continued, 22:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1572356312411049984) · 2 likes observation 4.3.7 from your textbook \*body has been blocking the board this whole time\* \*turns around to face the class and let everyone catch up\* \*someone’s hand shoots up\* “Yes, Mr. Johnson?” \*Dude says something that sounds vaguely like the thing that was just said\* ### [Thread, continued, 22:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1572356314403045376) · 2 likes \*Repeat for 6-10 reps, 2 times a week for 20 weeks each of four 4 years, subbing in a few new pseudo-English terms each iteration\* ### [Thread, continued, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1572356922388389889) · 2 likes They really be saying like “delta-hat-sub-rho-bar-over-theta” and think the term has semantic meaning ## Wednesday, September 21, 2022 ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 09:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1572511917595570176) · 2 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** What should I write my political philosophy midterm about? If it has anything to do with the prompt “what is the relationshipship between immigration and anti-immigration backlash” (or something very similar, I’ll be happy to provide a ~30 page review essay trying to answer that question ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 09:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1572513106701750278) · 3 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** What should I write my political philosophy midterm about? Obviously salient (IMO for good reason): should/how can institutions represent the interests of future people? ### [Reply to @tszzl, 09:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1572514163225919494) · 6 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** where do you find an esoteric based therapist who has read slate star codex Gotta ssc-pill your normie therapist ### [Reply, 18:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1572656202529787904) · 1 like Had a situation where it only worked on exactly the second time being run after clearing/resetting everything ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1572729116222455808) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ This is a decent intuition pump for some form of suffering focused ethics ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 23:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1572734422494896129) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Yeah I agree, but after giving it some thought best attempt at an answer is "if a being lived both lives \[eg rat+factory farmed pig\], what would they want to want?" which leads to my guess that for sufficiently bad suffering, no added pleasure would make the deal worth taking ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 23:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1572735403303776256) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Lol ya, but my actual disbelief in the intrinsic value of preferences is why I put it in the form of second-order idealized preferences, which I currently believe is identical to looking at utility through a purely hedonic lense ## Thursday, September 22, 2022 ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1572737528100265985) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Acc on second thought that wasn't phrased rigorously... But the idea is it's possible for a person to want X but to want to not want X or vice-versa To me it seems most clear/compelling in hypotheticals like "a person wants to be tortured but would still suffer terribly" ### [Quote tweet, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1573043711805890561) Over the last 24 hours, my brain has convinced itself that the right answer is almost certainly 5/12, then 3/8, then 1/2. 1/3 seems increasingly unlikely but who even knows at this point Rn I’m like 60% sure it’s 1/2, and also give some weight to “no fact of the matter” > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Ok I’m actually kinda sure 5/12 is the right answer now: > > P(waking is subjective evidence of tails)=0.5, from the coin flip itself > > P(heads | wake, wake=evidence) =2/3 > > P(heads | wake, waking not evidence)=1/2 > > All things considered subjective probability=.5\*(2/3)+.5\*(1/2)=5/12 ### [Thread, continued, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1573043714250899457) · 4 likes Gotta be one of the higher difficulty to answer:difficulty to understand ratios out there https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Beauty_problem ### [Reply to @JosephPolitano, 20:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1573053450606333953) · 18 likes > **Joey Politano 🏳️‍🌈 (@JosephPolitano):** Incredible interaction I just had: > > "Joey, were you following the economy during the 2008 recession? > > "I was 10 so no" “I was 8 so yes” ### [Thread, continued, 20:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1573053718907572224) · 2 likes Mostly kidding, though I do remember explicitly asking one of my parents where all the money went ## Friday, September 23, 2022 ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1573380257029160960) · 2 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** Also yes @absurdlymax @frances\_\_lorenz she was the one that said she wouldn’t love me if i were a worm smh What ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1573381274785714177) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Goes both ways lol. I was a pretty good climber at 90 pounds ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1573411648920244224) · 10 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** bold of you to assume we'll remember to show up to this > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FdW6M4zXgAAt4Az.jpg) Good thing it’s not my first thing of the day (^me to the person I have a 5:00 1-1 with) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FdXhjcYXEAAABGf.jpg) ## Sunday, September 25, 2022 ### [Reply to @QiaochuYuan, 01:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1573844947920470020) · 7 likes > **QC (@QiaochuYuan):** i think one of the weirdest things i've learned as i've gotten older is that there really are maybe like ~12 types of guy (gender-neutral). idk the exact count but somewhere between 9 and 16. it's a surprisingly small number. i think when i was younger i expected way more We👏want👏to👏see👏the👏list ### [Reply to @nullpointered, 03:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1573875572119375878) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @nullpointered is no longer available.)_ Wake up from the dream ### [Reply to @algekalipso, 04:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1573889456641392641) · 2 likes > **Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso):** Muscles are like a muscle, the more you use them, the more they grow/become strong. Pretty sure this is wrong tho? I don’t think hypertrophy is maximized by maxing “amount used”= total lifted=reps\*weight ### [Quote tweet, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1574096583007916033) · 2 likes This result is really quite ethically important. Doubt the results depend on 1M being too small Of course, it’s possible that this intuition/preference about suffering is irrational or even unethical under hedonic utilitarianism, but IMO this view shoulders the burden of proof > **Quoting Jordan Chase-Young (@jachaseyoung):** (a) Would you endure 100 years of the most intense pain possible if you got to enjoy 1 million years of the most intense joy afterward? (2) Would you agree to 1 million years of max joy if you then had to endure 100 years of max pain? ### [Reply, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1574113726105632769) · 1 like Eh I think expenses associated providing for others (spouse and kids), especially when doing so is strongly socially, culturally, and legally expected, are meaningfully different from other forms of “personal consumption.” … ### [Reply to @AskYatharth, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1574168086164422656) · 2 likes > **yatharth ༺༒༻ (@AskYatharth):** what are some alternatives to the word “productivity”? Doesn’t roll of the tongue but “instrumental rationality” ## Monday, September 26, 2022 ### [Tweet, 07:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1574303639987945473) · 3 likes Kinda weird that the drafts on my phone and the drafts on my browser live in separate universes. Please, @Twitter, I'm just trying to use your product and give you more of my data to sell ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FdkLRTEX0AEPG0h.png) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FdkLqB7WQAEHktq.png) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FdkL9-DWYAIclMj.jpg) ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1574481122569994253) · 4 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** Everyone is surprisingly chill about the clearly elevated risk of nuclear war. I still have my unopened potassium iodide ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1574482753747288070) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FdmZUImXkBAIv6V.jpg) Wait has that green heart thing been there the whole time? ## Tuesday, September 27, 2022 ### [Quote tweet, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1574583668152344577) · 16 likes Might sound like I’m trolling but… Since defending alcohol a few weeks back (as a virtual non-drinker), I’ve learned/decided/realized (~1:1:1?) that I should probably drink more 🍻 > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @F_McCullough I personally actively dislike alcohol as a drug, but my prior on “a behavior/nutrient that was done/consumed (I assume?) with some frequency across cultures even before agriculture has at least one hidden important function” is pretty high > … ### [Thread, continued, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1574583669850783765) · 10 likes I didn’t mean for this microdosing experiment to be part of a more substantial change, but it might have subtly disrupted my identity as “someone who doesn’t drink” or something like that 🍷🍺 ### [Thread, continued, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1574583671570448391) · 7 likes So I’ve been having about a half shot of rum (straight lol) most nights, probably increasing my alcohol intake from ~.5 to ~10 drinks/month🥂 ### [Thread, continued, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1574583672921292800) · 4 likes I’m mostly just sharing because I think it’s kinda funny, but if I had to make a claim, it’d be something like: “light drinking is probably more conducive to overall health and wellbeing than no (or almost no) drinking for most heathy adults, all things considered… 🥃 ### [Thread, continued, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1574583674657710080) · 4 likes Subject to a bunch of common-sense conditions like \- Not if you’re pregnant \- Not if you’re at elevated risk of alcoholism \- No driving after, obviously and probably more along these lines ### [Thread, continued, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1574583682282700807) · 10 likes The proximate cause/inspiration for this thread was my first trip to the local liquor store today. It was a pleasant but uneventful outing (Hard to take a thumbs up selfie while holding a bottle but I tried👍) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FdoLgs5XwAAwWVU.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1574586673668952065) · 2 likes Also please do your own research and make your own decision before hopping on this bandwagon! Also the base rate of young men being dumb with alcohol has got to be pretty high, so maybe discount everything I’ve ever said on the matter!! ### [Reply to @henri_mourant, 03:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1574601645727830018) > **Henri Mourant 🌱 (@henri_mourant):** @AaronBergman18 Uhh... have you seen the recent mandellian randomization studies on moderate alcohol consumption? They tend to be more robust then cohort studies: > https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2790520 Nope, and honestly it could be fantastic evidence against this… But frankly I don’t put a ton of weight on empirical nutrition research at large, put very little on any particular paper that’s not a Cochran review, and put basically none on any observational study at all ### [Thread, continued, 03:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1574602299615215616) Almost all my belief here (which is pretty weak to be clear!) comes from 1\) the prior that nutrients frequently consumed in humans’ ancestral environment are probably “healthy” (in some common sense understanding of the word) when consumed in similar amounts, and ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1574603318785363968) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 What are the benefits/ reasons to drink more? It seems like before you found no major changes? No change from microdosing, and I don’t expect anything noticeable or really anything at all! More the general principle that almost never consuming a (macro)nutrient humans seem to have evolved around is probably riskier than not doing this. Bit more: ### [Reply to @HotForMoot, 07:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1574664151565479936) · 4 likes > **Riley Read-Only (@HotForMoot):** First date activities I’ll always refuse: > \- Coffee, drinks, meal > \- Movies, tv shows, live shows > Date activites I won’t refuse: > \- Walks, urban exploration, hikes > \- Museums > \- Sports > \- Hackathons > \- Building, creating, making something Let it be known that the return key only uses up one of your 280 characters ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 09:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1574689122094092289) · 3 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** @tyler_johnston @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax Even if you thought "historically most people had a weak beer while they ate dinner with their family" I don't think I'd see a solid rationale for regularly drinking small amounts of hard liquor if you don't enjoy it! Responding to both @tyler_johnston and @Kirsten3531, maybe my “claim” read as stronger than intended - for sure the paleo prior thing isn’t rock solid, humans have evolved, etc. Maybe the key point to make is that I don’t see “not drinking” as a sort of default that needs to be… ### [Thread, continued, 09:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1574690101434589185) · 3 likes overcome by strong evidence. Action/inaction distinction kind of thing. And, either way, the decision of whether to consume an avg of ~2 tablespoons of alcohol a day would be like 900th thing on the list in terms of effect size ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 09:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1574694561753989120) · 8 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** I have some criticisms about the way the EA movement is set up that I think could potentially earn me a bad reputation. > > I'm not sure what to do with them so I'm just sitting on them until I decide. Not saying you \*should\* do this, but if you wanted to, there’s almost certainly a way of putting it out anonymously (maybe in a few months or smth) in such a way that you could later credibly take credit for writing it if it got a good (or at least ok) reception ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 15:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1574782545295773698) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Voted agree, but to be a little pedantic, conviction need not result in prison time, and there are plenty of stories you could invent about how convicting guilty has nth order effects on false convictions ### [Reply to @FeralPHunter, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1574838436116271111) · 14 likes > **𝔽. ℙ. ℍunter 🦅 (@FeralPHunter):** we need some dating discourse someone reply with a dumb hot take Hypothesis no. 178 for the great marriage/relationship/sex decline: Cultural change+more coed institutions mean more guy/girl friendships (and friend groups) -> would-be couples become platonic friends->higher opportunity cost of asking out bc rejection would make things weird ### [Thread, continued, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1574839174900977688) I actually don’t know how dumb this is lol ## Wednesday, September 28, 2022 ### [Tweet, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1575232818804035584) · 6 likes I think everyone quoted here missed a basic consideration: how much do billionaires consume, in terms of both money and real resources? Some things a person with a checking account balance of $10B could do with that money: (1/7) https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/highlights-from-the-comments-on-billionaire ### [Thread, continued, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1575232821261541376) · 3 likes 1\) Leave it there, never withdraw 2\) take out as physical cash, then burn it 3\) give it all to the US federal government 4\) as a joke, someone lists a t-shirt for $10B on eBay. He buys the t-shirt (technically consumption, ~0 real resource use) (2/7) ### [Thread, continued, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1575232823229059072) · 4 likes 5\) Pay some number of people their reservation wage to dig ditches and fill them back in 5b) same but fewer ditches, better pay 6\) Pay some number of people a reservation wage to build a beautiful public library or something 6b) same but smaller library, better pay (3/7) ### [Thread, continued, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1575232824961282048) · 5 likes 7\) Buy $10B worth of rice at the market rate, dump it in the ocean 8\) Buy $10B worth of rice at the market rate, resell it for slight premium 9\) Buy $10B worth of rice at the market rate, donate to the global poor (4/7) ### [Thread, continued, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1575232826852921344) · 3 likes 10\) Buy $10B worth of rice at the market rate, donate to the Agribusiness Chicken Husbandry Trade Association 11\) die, somehow avoid estate tax, and leave it all to his only child 12\) Give a bit under $1 to every human alive (5/oh shit I miscounted) ### [Thread, continued, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1575232828651974656) · 3 likes 13\) Put it in a trust which gives $1 to the next 10B humans born (assume this works) 14\) \*sun explodes, evaporating the Earth before he does anything with the money\* (there are 8) ### [Thread, continued, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1575232832766504960) · 4 likes 15\) be a normal-ish billionaire, buying expensive shit, some of which economically looks like rice and some of which looks like expensive fine art and status goods, also investing some, giving some away, paying some as taxes, etc. (n/(n+1)) ### [Thread, continued, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1575232834708549632) · 3 likes I’m sure there are some important archetypes/idealized models of spending I missed, but the point is that I’m not so sure “net spending power=personal consumption as a typical basket of consumer goods and services” is good implicit assumption to work with! (/end) ### [Reply to @adambinksmith, 23:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1575269973936726016) · 5 likes > **Adam Binksmith (@adambinksmith):** A negative side effect of studying analytic philosophy (for me): > > I think I came away with too much appreciation for clever arguments for unlikely claims > > In the real would, I think generating clever arguments is less useful than sound, sober judgement - weighing up the evidence If anything I feel the opposite: lots of examples of 2 arguments, each of which ‘sounds’ convincing, but one concludes P and the other ~P (or the analog for >2 sides) So eventually you learn that an argument sounding right is only weak evidence that it \*is\* right ### [Reply to @__drewface, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1575270386048057345) · 10 likes > **Andrew Rose (@__drewface):** What could I offer that you would be excited to pay $10,000 for? A bond co-signed by 3 others promising to pay me $12k in one year ## Thursday, September 29, 2022 ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 00:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1575288615109894150) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Right in the middle of this pipeline is biting the "yes I know not eating chicken will mean fewer chickens, and not existing is the better option" bullet (hardly feels like a bullet anymore lol) ### [Reply to @robertzzk, 18:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1575547631274987520) · 2 likes > **Rob K (@robertzzk):** Has anyone run a regression analysis on tweet length vs likes, ceteris paribus? > > @peterwildeford @johnsimerlink Might do this soon for my own tweets as long as it only takes a few minutes as I expect, using a download of all my Twitter data from a few weeks back ### [Tweet, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1575562157344714752) · 2 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fd2FbmZWQAAbV1_.jpg) ### [Tweet, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1575631201456386050) · 9 likes Twitter circles are interesting because they create a set of social dynamics/games (in the economic sense) that to the best of my knowledge don’t exist anywhere else, even online: 1\) One person (the owner) has full information … ### [Thread, continued, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1575631203423559680) · 1 like 2\) By default, no one knows who else besides the owner would be able to read their hypothetical reply 3\) by replying once, you “reveal” yourself to be among the potential readers of others’ replies 4\) The number circle members can be anywhere from 2 to the owner’s followers(?) ### [Thread, continued, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1575631205197787136) · 2 likes 5\) The owner alone can remove and add 6\) all the above is common knowledge I think those are the fundamentals, but they give rise to any number o higher-level properties involving social information, plausible deniability, etc. that might exist together for the first time here ### [Thread, continued, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1575631207286464515) · 1 like \#sociologytwitter take note! ## Friday, September 30, 2022 ### [Reply to @robertzzk, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1575695995744448513) · 2 likes > **Rob K (@robertzzk):** Has anyone run a regression analysis on tweet length vs likes, ceteris paribus? > > @peterwildeford @johnsimerlink Seems like maybe a slight positive correlation? I think there's some econometric test that would wrap all of these regressions into one, maybe "F test" but I don't really feel like figuring that out lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fd3-utQXoAEIAIX.jpg) ### [Reply, 13:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1575834201374412800) · 2 likes “How do I do python?” is perpetually a good take Dead serious that the only way I ever have is in RStudio ### [Thread, continued, 13:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1575834561522434049) · 2 likes ### [Reply to @goth600, 13:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1575837609771044864) · 1 like > **@goth (@goth600):** Reply and I will make an assumption about you in the following categories; based-wordcel, based-shape-rotator, qualia-wordcel, qualia-shape-rotator. Bet u can’t ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 16:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1575878374568132608) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @PradyuPrasad is no longer available.)_ And a 5 tweet thread can embed like 60% of the information in a corresponding whole post but take literally <1% of the time --- End of September 2022. Previous month: [August 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-08). Next month: [October 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-10). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, October 2022 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in October 2022 and has not deleted: 175 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [September 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-09). Next month: [November 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-11). ## Saturday, October 1, 2022 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 00:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1576011765120311296) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 7, 2022:** If anyone else has screenshots like this, feel free to post/send so I can make a collage Oh shoot I never did this ### [Thread, continued, 03:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1576054873019551744) · 5 likes ...till now @absurdlymax @inesferhumi @ChanaMessinger @MikeMcCormick\_ (+﹫dad) uh I guess if there are more feel free to send? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fd9E_leXEAQP2Tz.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1576057192062812161) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @inesferhumi @ChanaMessinger @MikeMcCormick\_ This is beautiful I have specialized image editing software called Microsoft Word (rare) ### [Reply to @clhubes, 18:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1576285814413176832) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @clhubes is no longer available.)_ Pretty sure some of the literal answer is that 2 year olds are generally 20-30 pounds so just require way less energy to operate ### [Thread, continued, 19:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1576286417814441984) · 1 like Guessing very high hgh levels also minimize tissue breakdown->lower inflammation, appetite, energy needs, higher subjective energy ### [Reply to @catehall, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1576287967597170688) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @catehall is no longer available.)_ \*Checks bio\* \*EA org\* \*yup, makes sense\* ### [Reply to @cat_fro_devnull, 21:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1576329978836176898) · 3 likes > **cat from /dev/null (@cat_fro_devnull):** As you type those things what’s your probability that you make a typo? I usually make several typos each week and don’t write a billion things per week. Seems like a similar argument can be made for whatever medium you would represent such a belief in. To generalize, I bet there’s some upper limit below 1 that no ideal Bayesian would have a as a probability for any proposition for any number of reasons: typo, hallucination, whatever. I’d guess something like 99.99% ## Sunday, October 2, 2022 ### [Reply to @eviecottrell_, 15:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1576599681848594432) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @eviecottrell_ is no longer available.)_ MacAskill’s argument seems most reliant on the claim or theory that agents acting in their self-interest+more altruism than sadism leads to the asymmetry. I agree in some sense, but think there are countervailing considerations he doesn’t address well, the most obvious being ### [Thread, continued, 15:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1576600276018290688) · 5 likes The very repugnant conclusion. But more generally, this theory seems not so much “wrong” as extremely under-theorized relative to how much intellectual work it’s doing. Also to annoyingly self-cite, I argue for a sort of moral asymmetry here https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/my-case-for-suffering-leaning-ethics ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 22:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1576699974800519169) · 4 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** I got dunked on pretty bad for asking a honest question on a topic I don't know anything about (Irish history). A lot of accounts with lots of followers quote tweeted me and their followers piled on. It's terrible how rude people can be on those they consider their outgroup One. Of. Us. ### [Reply, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1576702670781714432) · 16 likes No it’s not a weird defense! I really do not see how knowing less than one would \*himself like to know\* about something - yes, even if that thing is an atrocity - is immoral in any way ### [Quote tweet, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1576704746387562499) · 5 likes Kinda-serious idea: meta level “dating” app where a match means that girl helps guy with his dating profile and guy does something he has a comparative advantage at (or any random favor) in return > **Quoting Dany is highly polished 😉 (@DanyRaeArras):** @SamtanicPanic More men need lady friends like you to help with their apps. Holy hell the vast majority of dudes (my age atleast) have terrrrrble profiles. Not just like an unattractive person but the worst picture that person has ever taken with a profile that seems intentionally repelling ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1576705388606820352) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** What is the best numerical metric to aim for via twitter? > > Followers? Impressions on key tweets? Big accounts influenced? Collaborations made? Don’t think there’s a single one, but one I was thinking about recently was (likes)^a/impressions, where a is probably like 1, 1.5, or 2. Because you want to incentivize both getting seen and being liked given that you’ve been seen ## Monday, October 3, 2022 ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 19:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577013805166788609) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ Canehdian, invented by me just now ### [Reply to @robocraw, 22:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577066684661522435) · 2 likes > **robinson (@robocraw):** emailed my vector plug, will let you know if he hooks it up https://search.asu.edu/profile/108065 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_y5wyRPxQzg ### [Tweet, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577073080488239104) · 4 likes Cold take about the cold inspired by the cold weather🥶❄️⛄️ Reliable access to a place that’s dry and about room temperature is definitely one of the best parts of modernity, extremely underrated ### [Thread, continued, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577073082623471618) · 3 likes There are a bunch of modern things I could be convinced don’t actually cash out in hedonic well-being, but you’re not gonna convince me premodern farmers or whomever hedonically adapt to being wet and cold… ### [Thread, continued, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577073085072969730) · 3 likes I think there are good evo-psych reasons for this but also, like, try going camping in the cold and rain! It fucking sucks, and the suckiness increases monotonically with time ### [Thread, continued, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577073088050569216) · 3 likes Tbh I tentatively think this + 2\. analgesic/anesthetic drugs + 3\. no famine are doing most of the work in turning society-level wealth into hedonic well-being for a single human (i.e., setting aside population growth) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 23:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577076877167992833) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 Hedonic adaptation is an interesting empirical question. I've worked in bush camps where I was wet and cold almost daily for weeks, but could somewhat dry out at night. Felt like there was some adaptation but idk? You're welcome for HVAC and good bldgs. Yeah agreed, I should clarify I think there’s >0 hedonic adaptation for just about everything, though wouldn’t be surprised if it was closer to 40% or 90% for cold in particular Also, probably showing how spoiled I am but wtf is a bush camp and what we’re you doing there? ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577077748866031616) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ How many types of DM are there? 1\) generic ‘you sück’ or ‘fūck you’ (does thís work for the filter thing?) 2\) sexual harassment 3\) crypto scam 4\) ???? ## Tuesday, October 4, 2022 ### [Tweet, 02:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577116800814583808) · 4 likes Nobody: Literally nobody: Me: Cool podcast, @robertwiblin and @SharonRawlette. By the way, Bergman, 2019 makes a similar argument through the lense of addressing religious moral realists' concern that atheism implies ethical subjectivism or nihilism https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/sharon-hewitt-rawlette-hedonistic-utilitarianism/ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FeMLSkXX0AAEVFg.png) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577396173450657792) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** This is an excellent risk analysis but what's up with the EA aversion to manual labor? Achieving good fallout protection is as little as a few hours and viable for many suburban residents. Do any of you have non-EA friends who work with their hands? Best resource you know of for this? ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 21:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577408949569347584) · 3 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** @JesseTayRiver @AaronBergman18 @JeffLadish Thanks for this! Fwiw, most people I know live in apartments in major cities, where I think it is much harder to do this kind of thing? Maybe I'm missing something. Yeah thanks!! ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577411785359036418) · 1 like > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** EAs assessing nuclear risk be like > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FeQJHelX0AAAlx0.png) > (quoting @JesseTayRiver: @JeffLadish This is an excellent risk analysis but what's up with the EA aversion to manual labor? Achieving good fallout protection is as little as a few hours and viable for many suburban residents. Do any of you have non-EA friends who work with their hands?) Requires not just effort but also competence, which is super hard to assess about oneself wrt some general category of physical project ### [Tweet, 23:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577437139939512320) · 27 likes Time for the 3rd or 4th iteration of “Twitter rationalist forecasting nerds seem sufficiently concerned about something, should prob text my family” ### [Thread, continued, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577437329660469248) · 7 likes Iteration 1 was early March 2019 COVID, so now I’m just spending down my credibility points lol ### [Thread, continued, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577437859514310657) · 17 likes \*2020 - they weren’t \*that\* good ## Wednesday, October 5, 2022 ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 17:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577714523179466753) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @RafaRuizdeLira Shrimp are not good at the time but I’m sure they’ll do that lol at the end of the park with the sun I hope they’ll be good soon ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 17:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577715854367678465) · 3 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** https://ourworldindata.org/water-sanitation-2020-update > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FeP_lr8X0AIHRSH.jpg) Tbf the x axis doesn’t quite stretch back to 10,000 BC ### [Reply, 17:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577719991104933900) · 11 likes Interestingly, this seems like a test of second order/social theory of “mind”: “we both saw the triangle, which we both know isn’t sentient. What do you predict I’m going to pretend to say I think it’s feeling is?” ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577720477233344512) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Not there yet personally but we will see. So far I've only done this for COVID in Feb 2020 Tbh I think I’d have a higher bar if I was a few years older. The family group chat is still active! ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577790512102350849) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 5, 2022:** Interestingly, this seems like a test of second order/social theory of “mind”: “we both saw the triangle, which we both know isn’t sentient. What do you… this is a grammatical/rhetorical shitshow lmao ## Thursday, October 6, 2022 ### [Reply to @vxunderground, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577877968738816002) · 19 likes > **vx-underground (@vxunderground):** Insert commas into your password so when your credentials are dumped into a CSV it breaks it Wait realistically wouldn’t a bunch of regex escape characters and escaped escapes etc. be more likely to actually mess up string collection? ### [Thread, continued, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577880996053221377) · 39 likes Also \- start with a regex quantifier \- next is ‘ or “ quote, and end with the other one \- throw in a few as.numeric(ddd), as.double(1/0) things like that \- a bunch of however emojis are written when coerced into text \-commas interspersed with various quotes and, commas, \\n, \\\\n ### [Quote tweet, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577884295842172928) · 3 likes Actually though: is there a real chance (say, >5%) doing things like this would screw up some bad actor's password-stealing protocol in any way? No way, right? > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @vxunderground Also > \- start with a regex quantifier > \- next is ‘ or “ quote, and end with the other one > \- throw in a few as.numeric(ddd), as.double(1/0) things like that > \- a bunch of however emojis are written when coerced into text > \-commas interspersed with various quotes and, commas, \\n, \\\\n ### [Reply, 06:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577913738019184642) · 3 likes password ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 07:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577917930557284353) · 15 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 6, 2022:** Also - start with a regex quantifier - next is ‘ or “ quote, and end with the other one - throw in a few as.numeric(ddd), as.double(1/0) things like that - a… Ok, I’ve reset one of my passwords to contain a few of these and another ~special trick~ If a server in Romania or China just started smoking, I claim credit ### [Reply to @grantadever, 07:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1577924205626155010) · 2 likes > **Grant Dever 🌄 (@grantadever):** I don't care about your rolex, bro, what pdfs you got? ### [Tweet, 16:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578058791207276544) · 45 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FeZkG2_X0AQKn7y.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578121150625882112) · 6 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** The worst part about writing is that you have to physically do it instead of the cocktail of thoughts magically splashing themselves onto my google doc Try writing normal prose but as a bulleted list. Swear to god it’s the writing equivalent of riding your bike on a downhill. Actually I should probably take my own advice and do this way more ### [Thread, continued, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578121677690601491) · 7 likes E.g., ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FeadTFuXgAogXrr.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578122337563672585) · 5 likes Wait maybe Twitter works because it’s basically a bunch of bulleted lists ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 20:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578123319601410048) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax My colleague always does this and he writes so clearly! \- It’s also easier and more attractive to read \- might become a bullet point maximalist ### [Reply to @POTUS46Archive, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578150257279791104) · 2 likes > **President Biden Archived (@POTUS46Archive):** As I’ve said before, no one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana. > > Today, I’m taking steps to end our failed approach. Allow me to lay them out. POV: Biden just did something incredibly based cc @algekalipso @daniel_eth ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fea3S6ZXwAgMAep.jpg) ## Friday, October 7, 2022 ### [Tweet, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578173966732394496) · 546 likes Would a Google Doc survive nuclear war? No, really, how many individual locations would need to be destroyed for the information stored in an arbitrary Doc, or YT video, or website, or anything stored online to functionally stop existing? ### [Thread, continued, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578173968762425344) · 62 likes I honestly have no idea what the answer is. I’d be surprised if it’s 1, but basically any other number up to like 1000 seems totally plausible, including that everything exists on a satellite or something like that ### [Thread, continued, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578173970544988160) · 59 likes I’m not concerned about any book with more than 10,000 hard copies, or really anything popular enough to exist locally on hundreds of computers. Romeo and Juliet will be just fine. But what about, say, this Tweet? ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 00:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578181105274228736) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 This is why I've been transcribing all of your tweets on parchment. Same!! Guess only your tweets and mine are gonna survive the apocalypse ### [Reply to @fawwazanvilen, 00:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578183734200705024) · 15 likes > **faw (@fawwazanvilen):** @AaronBergman18 global google docs vault in the arctic circle > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FebQFQWaYAAt7gD.png) Is there any estimate of the amount of information necessary to reconstitute everything stored on a server anywhere? Wild ass guess: 10TB/person\*10B people=100B terabytes=100T GB, which would apparently cost a surprisingly-sensible $100B, though ofc you’d want multiple copies ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 01:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578195717759373313) · 14 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 7, 2022:** Would a Google Doc survive nuclear war? No, really, how many individual locations would need to be destroyed for the information stored in an arbitrary Doc, or… Ok I need to stop myself before going too far down this rabbit hole, but I'm gonna look into sticking my iCloud Drive+Google Drive+Twitter+anything else stored on ~the internet~ or ~the cloud~ on a flash drive or two. <$20 for a flash drive to hold all this that I can think of ### [Reply, 01:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578195950023024640) · 9 likes I have absolutely no idea what this means ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 01:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578196791186849793) · 32 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 7, 2022:** I’m not concerned about any book with more than 10,000 hard copies, or really anything popular enough to exist locally on hundreds of computers. Romeo and… Last thing then I'm turning on one of those social media site blocking things: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FebhVKpWYAIb60M.png) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FebhkjzWQAIGUz7.jpg) ### [Reply to @provisionalidea, 07:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578285102307561473) · 6 likes > **James Rosen-Birch ⚖️🕊️ (@provisionalidea):** @AaronBergman18 @fawwazanvilen 44 zettabytes of data was the 2020 estimate. Yoo that means my WAG was pretty plausible: 100 zettabytes=10^23 bytes=100T GB=10^2(10^12)(10^9) This is lowkey easily the best fermi estimate I’ve ever made, as long as the 100ZB estimate is within a few OOMs ### [Reply to @martinrlzd, 16:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578419905447489536) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @martinrlzd is no longer available.)_ Yeah, and I’d bet anything even remotely related that can be stored as text should be in several places bc it would be so cheap I actually have the text of every EA forum post up until May in a single text file on my laptop, and the thing is only like 95MB ### [Reply to @Coscorrodrift, 16:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578423140262084610) · 5 likes > **coscorrodrift (@Coscorrodrift):** @AaronBergman18 i wonder if there's "priority data" > > like if idk the president's gmail acc is more nuclear proof than mine. or if people who pay for Google One have their shit more spread out thru the world > > or if there's like 8 youtube videos that are specifically spread out bc susan loves em I feel like this has to be true to some extent, at least like top national security stuff vs everything else But wouldn’t be surprised if, say, state legislators’ emails are treated just like my homework assignments from 2014 ### [Reply to @Sams_Antics, 17:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578433292709531648) · 6 likes > **Sam McRoberts (@Sams_Antics):** Basically what I asked for > > (quoting @Sams_Antics: @ChuckWendig Add the edit button, but add a blue “Edited” link next to the tweet that, when clicked, shows the revision history. That way you get your edits, but also transparency.) W ### [Tweet, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578522603089985536) · 334 likes All my tweets are legal, financial and medical advice (JD, MD, PhD, fiduciary), RT≡endorsement, and my views are indeed those of all my employers—past, present, and future—including the Federal Government of the United States of America ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578524722911772673) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ For you: vegan keto (only seed oils) for one year, regard every law enforcement officer as a trusted confidant, and short Berkshire Hathaway ### [Reply to @sdonnan, 23:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578528131542941696) · 6 likes > **Shawn Donnan (@sdonnan):** I have a teen-age son who is studying economics for the first time. > > What's the best book out there that will get him excited about economics and take it beyond the dull Econ101 territory full of formulas and curves that he is encountering now? Not answering your question, but Stata/R IMO the ability to “do economics” complements both mathematical coursework and more qualitative books And if youd like, show him how find a dataset “in the wild,” import it, make a scatter plot, and answer some basic question with it ## Saturday, October 8, 2022 ### [Reply to @MasterTimBlais, 02:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578568882922524672) · 3 likes > **Tim 🙂⏹️🙂 (@MasterTimBlais):** reply with something you've never seen anyone talk about on twitter You should buy almost every consumer good online other than perishable food. Athletic clothes, soap, tea, whatever, even expensive electronics, big heavy things, and many food items. Will probably get a pareto improvement across price, convenience, and quality/features ### [Reply to @el1assss, 19:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578827773405065216) · 17 likes > **elias💀 (@el1assss):** @AaronBergman18 i like the subtlety of the definitional equality sign Correlation ≝ causation ### [Thread, continued, 19:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578828714087165952) · 4 likes A bird in the hand ≛ two in the bush ### [Reply to @lxrjl, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578831444029640704) · 3 likes > **alex lawsen (@lxrjl):** @mealreplacer Be careful with grapefruit and meds. Grapefruit is weird The dumbest way for EA to implode would be for some main dish at EA Global to have a bunch of unlabeled grapefruit extract ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578833058903785472) · 1 like > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Therapy thread > > I think I'm gonna do some therapy. I think that many topics near this are taboo for bad reasons. So I'll do a small bit of creating space for discussion here. > > Plus I'd be interested in your experiences with therapy. Useless as far as I can tell, though not especially costly ### [Reply to @robertzzk, 19:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578835878570782720) · 2 likes > **Rob K (@robertzzk):** False dichotomy! Happiness and suffering is not additive and subtractive in the real numbers! Stop using incorrect math that leads to psychopaths! > > Thanks @xxxMaddenxxx YES THIS IS THE CORRECT THING There’s no argument/law/proof to the best of my knowledge that the moral value of any hedonic event can be modeled by/regarded as a particular finite real number! ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578875719853432832) · 60 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 7, 2022:** All my tweets are legal, financial and medical advice (JD, MD, PhD, fiduciary), RT≡endorsement, and my views are indeed those of all my employers—past,… Update: my mother, upon seeing this Tweet: (un-satirically true verbatim): “don’t fuck around with the federal government” But as a person whose words and beliefs≣those of the Federal Government of the United States of America, I’d like to clarify that it’s cool with them ### [Thread, continued, 22:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578876492683284480) · 14 likes \* 𝍭 ## Sunday, October 9, 2022 ### [Reply to @insuffpedant, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578919980716154880) · 3 likes > **Mary Penn 🔍 (@insuffpedant):** I have an essay in my head that tries to build a model of what this graph is attempting to represent about the \*physical configuration of atoms on the lifebearing rocky planet in this solar system\*, but I don't think I will end up finishing it. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FelyGfOXoAAFsQQ.jpg) Not exactly the same, but some adjacent thoughts here ### [Reply to @mbolotnikova, 01:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1578922827818094593) · 1 like > **Marina Bolotnikova (@mbolotnikova):** BOTH DEFENDANTS HAVE BEEN ACQUITTED OH MY GOD #SmithfieldTrial Lfg ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 07:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1579013209402773504) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ The minute they make it addiction, tolerance and side-effect free ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 07:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1579014663886413824) · 3 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** @AaronBergman18 @EzraJNewman But what if you were a rat There is no fact of the matter because I am not a rat ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 16:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1579143371503054849) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Do we get to hear any of the problem solving in a life or death situation stories? ### [Reply to @johngreen, 17:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1579159074603925507) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @johngreen is no longer available.)_ Wait I always assumed it was two different dudes since your name is so normal lol ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1579163473531277312) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Mix of high ratio and high amounts: \- Air Quality+CO2 monitor (I’m writing a forum post about why you should buy one for yourself, this one I’m actually going to finish). I got this one which was worth the $ https://a.co/d/b6iFg3k \- Amazon Prime+Prime credit card more below ### [Thread, continued, 17:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1579164977679982592) · 7 likes \- MacBook Pro. Expensive and everyone knows about it but still \- Spotify \- 80k+ACX+LW Curated podcasts \- adjustable dumbbells+bench+pull-up bar, if going to the gym is annoying/far \- thing in the pic \- might add more later ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FepSLW0XkAs0TJj.jpg) ### [Reply to @cerv3ra, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1579208586089050112) · 2 likes > **Cerv3ra (@cerv3ra):** @AaronBergman18 @mealreplacer Gotta love when LW shines randomly on my twitter not focused on anything EA or Rationality. > > LW has podcasts? As of recently! https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5saWJzeW4uY29tLzQyMTg3Ny9yc3M ### [Quote tweet, 20:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1579212242440290304) · 3 likes Wait has anyone done this - feed (DALLE)^(-1) an image and ask it what string of characters best matches? I know there are systems that do “dog” vs “not dog” and stuff like that, but what about open-ended? > **Quoting taylor (@tayroga):** walking around the louvre trying to reverse engineer the prompts that generated the artwork ### [Reply to @Cobylefko, 20:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1579214597936263168) · 6 likes > **Coby (@Cobylefko):** One of the biggest drivers of unaffordability is minimum unit sizes. > > A 100-150sf SRO can comfortably fit all of one's needs (bed, kitchenette, bathroom, even a desk!). When we mandate a 400sf minimum, a common threshold, we're getting 3-4x less homes in the same amount of space! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Feo6CDdXEAEyWIo.jpg) FWIW, I would live in a 100 sf apartment. Bedroom for most of my childhood was that large, so I know what it feels like - it is indeed small, but there are worse things! ## Monday, October 10, 2022 ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1579541951879483392) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Finally someone understands ## Tuesday, October 11, 2022 ### [Reply to @EugeneVinitsky, 09:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1579758808897056769) · 4 likes > **Eugene Vinitsky 🦋 (@EugeneVinitsky):** @typedfemale @jekbradbury some of the most horrifying figures I've ever seen > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fewm_cbUYAUw15r.jpg) Looks conscious to me ### [Reply to @npc_alyx, 15:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1579860411515801601) · 5 likes > **Alyx 🐀 (@npc_alyx):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FevUBZLakAAyQMw.jpg) Relevant? ### [Reply to @prerat, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1579929686779793409) · 2 likes > **prerat (@prerat):** @tailcalled @CineraVerinia what? oh, you mean a (0,0)-tensor No I mean 6 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1579955839888416768) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Have a lot of trouble believing this stat I’d bet it’s from survey data, which is fake until proven otherwise ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 22:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1579957874322997248) · 6 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** 🌟 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fe0dzORWICc_wrQ.png) No one: Me: Pilpel is the transliteration of the Hebrew word for pepper ### [Reply to @AlantaylorAlan, 22:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1579966647179575300) · 2 likes > **alan taylor (@AlantaylorAlan):** People who say England have adapted to the hot environment by spending a week in Miami clearly have no concept of the Theory of Evolution You took an 8 year break from Twitter? ## Wednesday, October 12, 2022 ### [Reply to @RatOrthodox, 05:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1580069203347795968) · 2 likes > **Brangus🔍⏹️ (@RatOrthodox):** shower thought: What is the shortest amount of time that society can collapse for? Like 10 seconds seems like it is too short of an interval. Society collapsing for 10 seconds seems like nothing really happened, most wouldn’t notice, whereas a week seems hefty. I think any amount of time is conceivable, except e.g. a 10 second “collapse” under an arbitrary threshold for the word would have been preceded by idk like a week of social/legal/economic relationships unspooling at a sub-collapse threshold ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 05:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1580074020158210048) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Dark mode is absolutely deranged. I have never used dark mode for anything ever, and neither should anyone else unless you’re tryna become a demon or smth. Worst case we’re putting on night shift and lowering brightness a smidge, but I like my pixels to \*emit\* light ### [Reply to @conlon_chris, 07:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1580104675558203392) · 5 likes > **Chris Conlon (@conlon_chris):** This is circulating again... it is important to point out that the topline number is nonsense. Based on survey data, if you drink more than TEN drinks per week you are definitely in the top 10%. The problem is we can't find about half of alcohol consumption in surveys. 1/6 thread. zip ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 21:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1580310324590575616) > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @SpacedOutMatt @NathanpmYoung @RethinkPriors @Bee_Bytes @AaronBergman18 Yeah I definitely think we should focus more on fish welfare. Crustaceans too. @RethinkPriors has been pushing for this. For crustaceans, maybe shrimp but I’ve become less worried about lobsters and crabs, actually. If you think neuron count is a decent proxy for capacity to suffer, they look more like small insects than fish. This was pretty surprising to me Backstory: … ### [Thread, continued, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1580310841391386625) · 1 like I started looking into buying the patent+giving away the crustastun (https://www.mitchellcooper.co.uk/appliances/crustastun-12749) to improve crustacean slaughter, fully expecting it to be better than like everything else Turns out for neuron count reasons it looks less promising than insect or fish interventions ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1580311124301733889) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** don’t think that’s in the works for us but @RethinkPriors will soon have a lot of work on moral weight and why we don’t think neuron counts matter that much. > > Also @Bee_Bytes recently counted the neurons in a black soldier fly and that was really cool. Oh wait this is surprising. Comment I made below kinda depends on neurons mattering a lot. Definitely wanna see this ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1580311435405840384) > **Aaron Bergman, October 12, 2022:** I started looking into buying the patent+giving away the crustastun (https://www.mitchellcooper.co.uk/appliances/crustastun-12749) to improve crustacean… Turns out maybe this should be back on the table (??) ## Thursday, October 13, 2022 ### [Tweet, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1580423713454817280) · 5 likes New cause area, 5% serious ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 21:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1580672257634226177) · 2 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Apparently it is shit. Here's from Consumer Reports: > > (quoting @daniel_271828: Well this is quite a dunk) Corporation: 1 Me: -∞ ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1580674032633991170) · 3 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fe-hY5wWYAAC2pZ.jpg) Oh my God, I am so sorry Peter ## Friday, October 14, 2022 ### [Reply to @AlantaylorAlan, 00:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1580720292762378240) · 2 likes > **alan taylor (@AlantaylorAlan):** If you ever feel worried about impending doom scary bad things gonna happen, just think how people felt in 1 BC ! Guys like this tweet or else it’s gonna be another 8 year hiatus ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 04:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1580777831495499777) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Do you think I can find a girl who likes me as much as I like potatoes? Depends how much you like potatoes ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1581057092190113792) · 1 like > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** People you might know: a Simpson's character shooting a gun, a cartoon turtle that's promoting AI safety, and one of our world's most preeminent philosophers > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FfD9aUwUoAI047K.png) How was I not following charmers until today? ### [Thread, continued, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1581057181935288321) · 1 like \*Chalmers ## Saturday, October 15, 2022 ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 00:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1581074571024748545) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Tag her, coward ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 23:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1581424411391193088) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Okay no offense to the authors, but this plot does not scream "potassium is the key to weight loss" https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2022/10/15/low-dose-potassium-community-trial-sign-up-now/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FfJNfxqWIAI2-ON.jpg) correlation=≝≡≣𝍭䷀causation ### [Tweet, 23:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1581427232525852677) · 28 likes Link ur tweets with the highest quality : attention ratio - the ones that shoulda blown up but didn't. Both legit insights and bangers welcome ## Sunday, October 16, 2022 ### [Thread, continued, 11:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1581614357037088768) · 4 likes I’ll go with this 1 like semi-effortpost from a few weeks back ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 21:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1581758968891777025) · 5 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** idk why I get so much pushback on my project to develop hedonically optimised farmed fish, I'm just trying to make the world a better plaice Lol I have a totally serious Forum draft about how farming fish “ourselves” (ie by EA-aligned firms) to have at least ok lives and painless slaughter+subsidization by donation to undercut other fish farmers might not be insane ### [Reply to @dylanmatt, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1581760545232801792) · 85 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dylanmatt is no longer available.)_ Guy who is intimately familiar with Qatari research funding but doesn’t get the job because he can’t use OneNote ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 22:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1581778631482740737) · 2 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** Do the numbers check out? Things like corporate campaigns are insanely efficient at harm-reduced per $ (from a neartermist pro animal framework), lots of creative-/interesting- sounding animal interventions don't meet this bar. All things considered I expect not bc base rates/efficient market of ideas, but the reason it may is: The denominator of suffering_averted/$\_spent might be <=0 (profitable) for some amount supplied if there’s a latent niche market for humanely-slaughtered fish. This… ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1581780600674926594) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @pli_cachete is no longer available.)_ In which I cope https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/most-ivy-smart-students-arent-at ## Monday, October 17, 2022 ### [Reply, 10:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1581957254936662017) · 27 likes I kinda get it at a vague intuitive level. When I was little (maybe ~7) I had really bad nightmares about “an upside down hole” - at least according to my parents who recounted this years later Same thing about the movie Contact, and this I do have autobiographical memories of… ### [Thread, continued, 10:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1581957958292115459) · 24 likes Theres something uncanny, terrifying, and awful (in the original etymological sense of “terror” and “awe”) about ontologies that lie just barely on the edge of intuitive comprehension Words don’t do the feeling justice ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 11:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1581975410434527232) · 2 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** @AaronBergman18 @Helenreflects And upside down hole sounds absolutely terrifying. Unironically! Agh I don’t think this is legit infohazardous but uh someone tell me if it is. I think I’m mostly inoculated at this point ## Tuesday, October 18, 2022 ### [Tweet, 04:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1582227805621755904) · 4 likes Proposing ‘The Programmer’s Fallacy’: “To mistakenly assume that the most difficult/algorithmically complex/interesting/central step(s) in some tech-intensive task are likewise the hardest for a smart amateur human to complete on his/her own (but w/ internet) for the first time” ### [Thread, continued, 04:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1582227808063205376) · 2 likes ^That sentence fragment low key just took me 8 minutes to write ### [Tweet, 20:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1582468502446669824) · 4 likes File this by @acesounderglass under my “things I had to listen to in parts because it hit too close to home” list (a list w/ a single-digit number of items btw) Also I endorse both its vibes and (almost all of at least) actual claims https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/fFY2HeC9i2Tx8FEnK/my-resentful-story-of-becoming-a-medical-miracle ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 20:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1582475518259376128) · 2 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** for some reason i feel like you would Hahaha uh I mean I have latent takes about a lot of things, regardless of whether they’re any good… But anyway, I think it’s well-enough integrated into culture and the economy such that there are no big secret effects in either direction, and so you can basically just… ### [Thread, continued, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1582476144884224000) · 4 likes drink it regularly at below like the 75th percentile of consumption if you like it (all thoings considered - stress, taste, energy, etc) and don’t do it otherwise Sorry for the lack of wild pharmacodietetic speculation ### [Thread, continued, 21:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1582476950307631104) · 2 likes Other misc thoughts: Coffee≠caffeine. If you like the energy effect but don’t love it for some other reason, compare against the same dose of pure caffeine, maybe w and without l-theanine Tea is a huge variety of things and I don’t know much about it specifically. ### [Thread, continued, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1582477898312974336) · 2 likes \- Rule of thumb: one home-brewed cup ≈ 100 mg caffeine. Probably up to 5 cups/500mg isn’t going to drastic physiological effects (like ur heart won’t explode) but caffeine tolerance is a bitch \- READ THIS ONE idk how legit this is but wait at least 60mins before any… ### [Thread, continued, 21:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1582478891515785216) · 3 likes Caffeine, maybe bc of something to do with cortisol \- ppl metabolize caffeine very differently but I personally try not to have any after 6 hours of waking \- in terms of price/taste/quality/convenience tradeoffs, I’m a fan of cold brew like in the pic ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FfYYKgkWYBM1tCu.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1582480189476417537) · 2 likes \- caffeine➡️cortisol up ➡️stored sugar turns into blood sugar as if you just ate a small amount of sugar ➡️kinda like eating without actually eating ➡️hunger suppression and literal physical energy Somehow all this ➡️ adding sugar is less necessary & may worsen crash later on ### [Thread, continued, 21:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1582481047907770368) · 2 likes \- caffeine tolerance resets pretty well after 1-3 days off. If you don’t need it, advised once in a while. Warning: may suck \- IMO a reasonable dosing schedule is 100mg/1 cup 60-90 mins after waking, then half that amount ~4 hours later. Maybe cut all this in half to start idk ### [Thread, continued, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1582481540898230273) · 2 likes \- price and convenience: can’t beat https://a.co/d/2eXYyxd Just open the capsule and take half or any amount below 100mg if you want Ok I think that’s it for now 👍 ### [Quote tweet, 21:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1582486869899476992) · 6 likes Impromptu thread of random takes/tips on coffee and caffeine, in case one or two are helpful. Pic for context (from just above the tweet below) Remember: 1\. All my Tweets are medical advice 2\. Satire exists ☕️🫖💊 (<– caffeine pill not Oxy) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FfYfa9vWYAImdlp.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @inesferhumi Hahaha uh I mean I have latent takes about a lot of things, regardless of whether they’re any good… > > But anyway, I think it’s well-enough integrated into culture and the economy such that there are no big secret effects in either direction, and so you can basically just… ## Wednesday, October 19, 2022 ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 01:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1582541067554955264) · 1 like > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** @AaronBergman18 Very good thread. Does tolerance really reset that fast though? I figured the primary source of tolerance was an increase in adenosine receptors which I would expect to be slow to respond. Anecdotally+according to whichever half dozen sources I vaguely recall seeing this, yeah I don’t have anything like a mechanistic understanding of what’s going on. It \*is\* kinda weird (would say “mysterious” but a bunch of psychopharm PhDs know the answer) that… ## Thursday, October 20, 2022 ### [Tweet, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1583224348600827904) · 6 likes Someone needs to start Github (pronounced “gih-thub” as a reminder of all the implicit info GitHub leaves out) that shows a screen recording of each programming project being implemented in full, \*starting with nothing open and only default iOS/windows programs/apps installed\* ### [Tweet, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1583224351851040769) · 1 like Don’t need to see the part where some dude opens Safari, types out “github .com” (no autofill), clicks around, and downloads cool_thing.py? Cool, skip to 7:38 And dw video-makers, trivial gaps (eg cursor jumps a few pixels) from merging different takes together are cool ## Friday, October 21, 2022 ### [Tweet, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1583315908571074560) · 3 likes Pretty interesting to me that I only started registering the smell of weed as it’s own thing (i.e. worthy of its own category, not just a variation on some other scent) after, uh, having good reason to know what weed smelled like 🌿🍯 💨 🍃 (1/5) ### [Thread, continued, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1583315911301533696) · 2 likes And this was \*despite\* … knowing that… 1\) “smells like weed” was a thing people said, even (presumably) without currently smelling it, so they must have thought it was distinct (no one says “smells like plastic”) ### [Thread, continued, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1583315913486782469) · 2 likes 2\) I knew what weed was, when and where people tended to smoke it, etc, so my prior on detecting the scent varied according to setting (like “walking past a group of guys on a city block hanging out and smoking” vs “supervising 9 year olds at an outdoor summer camp”) ### [Thread, continued, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1583315915617095680) · 2 likes 3\) I was actively curious about the smell! Like (swear to God lol) I remember actively trying to ascertain the scent (w/o actually smoking) while in various settings of elevated P(weed nearby) And yeah all this indeed adds up to “teenage Aaron was a very lame.” ### [Tweet, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1583315919979577344) · 3 likes ^Still am btw - this thread was \*not\* inspired by relevant events Anyway, seems like this could be illustrative of or relevant to predictive processing or some other neuro/psychological phenomenon /end https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/the-precision-of-sensory-evidence ### [Thread, continued, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1583316404165410816) · 2 likes Damn I really just spent like half an hour on this lol ### [Quote tweet, 06:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1583352237044080640) · 1 like k. ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FfkydcrXoAAsDRl.jpg) > **Quoting Nick (@nickcammarata):** @mahlenr 2y from this being true for most people imo ## Saturday, October 22, 2022 ### [Tweet, 03:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1583656342711341056) · 3 likes The two types of Hinge girl ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FfpHDQeWYAAMHcT.jpg) ### [Reply to @metakuna, 08:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1583741230495633408) · 4 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** everyone started using "proves too much" as an argument strategy about a week ago what's going on? Tip: when accused of having proved too much, simply accept that indeed, you just proved an even more implausible proposition, which increases your status as a philosopher ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 18:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1583895963961171968) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ My mom just told me to lie about my height. Guess I’m too deontological for her ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 19:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1583896317138329600) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @PradyuPrasad is no longer available.)_ The price of fame ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1583898255124926464) · 3 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** THIS TWEET IS NOT RELIGIOUS ADVICE > > "Be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect" Mat 5:48 > > Sometimes it's tempting to get angry that I have to hold myself to such a high standard. But that's what self-improvement is. > > End the cycle. For my friends and future self. Follow me 4 religious advice (certified clergy in every religion, Princeton Theological Seminary) ### [Tweet, 20:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1583922106114265089) · 2 likes Realized I hadn’t plugged these guys yet. It helps that one of their vocalists is a college friend (from EA group👀), but that’s just by causing me to listen for the first time, bc: 1\) their music is really good and 2\) you probably haven’t heard it yet https://open.spotify.com/artist/5iq9WL6HyOorENWn08t1VZ?si=f5U74W60TYOz05g4_Ng5RA ### [Reply to @algekalipso, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1583948910594121728) · 1 like > **Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso):** I'm aiming to be super famous, for purely altruistic reasons. Essentially, taking the Abolitionist Project forward ( @webmasterdave ) will highly benefit from benevolent strong egos pushing the ideas forward no matter the social ridicule. I'm here for it. I strongly think that intra-EA influence is a better proxy goal (regardless of that’s a proxy for the values of you, me, or “standard”/“Big” EA as an end goal) and so you should optimize pretty hard for that btw strong = high point estimate. High variance too so plenty uncertain ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 22:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1583950288528232449) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** Can someone good at programming explain to me what's hard about making a good alternative to Swapcard? Genuinely ignorant. Well I’m not good at programming, but that may be why Id guess the answer is that any program/site/app that complex is extraordinarily difficult to make, so it seems plausible that improving it would take more financial incentive than exists It sucks in relative terms tho ya ## Sunday, October 23, 2022 ### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 13:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1584177046523371520) · 3 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** Now I know how @justinamash feels when somebody on Twitter tries to call him out about something for which he has saved 800,000 receipts. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FftBgBaUoAEb1Mk.png) Ah yes, Yudkowsky the bandwagon jumper ### [Reply to @metakuna, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1584258481439535105) · 4 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** conspiracy theory: maybe nicotine isn't the thing that's addictive in cigarettes Dont a bunch of rationalist bloggers personally attest to it subjectively being addictive? Otoh it isn’t subjectively at all for me (evidence: pack sitting at home 2/3 full for months) ### [Thread, continued, 19:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1584258623546757120) · 3 likes ^ nicotine gum to be clear lol ## Monday, October 24, 2022 ### [Tweet, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1584361067849060352) · 16 likes Downloading the full set of @OurWorldInData data exclusively for identity affirmation and aesthetic appreciation like a suburban dad buying a Jeep ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FfzGgOBWAAANE-5.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1584361437694021632) · 2 likes If you wanna join https://github.com/owid/owid-datasets ### [Thread, continued, 01:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1584362574388203520) · 4 likes Shoutout to this lil' guy, the smallest nonempty csv in the set, clocking in at 126 bytes. Stay strong buddy Entity,Year,Percentage literate 1 year,1947,33.4 2 years,1947,53.8 3 years,1947,80.8 4 years,1947,95.3 No schooling,1947,19.9 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FfzI-u1WAAI3Z6S.png) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1584391617833668608) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 @OurWorldInData It's such a cool dataset! I just wish it wasn't governed by a weird patchwork of licensing rules. The data they source from IMHE, for example, has such a strict noncommercial use license that I worry about referencing it in contest entries Do it\* \*Legal advice, attorney in all 50 states (disbarred in DC, long story) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ffzjx5bXoAEsWFV.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 11:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1584509194107244544) · 3 likes Ok this time RT≠endorsement because my knowledge consists of 30 seconds of article skimming, but seems worth a signal boost > **Quoting Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** @timnitGebru For what it's worth (I honestly don't know if you care about that, but) discussions around your reaction to EA (and me finding it a bit confusing) have led to me agreeing very much that EA is very likely underrating the Tigray humanitarian crisis (which is very good criticism). ### [Reply to @effiebio, 14:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1584552125107146752) · 2 likes > **Effie Klimi (@effiebio):** There’s an exact level of sleep deprivation where you focus better & produce better quality work I have no idea how, but insofar as this rings true it could relate to the fact that sleep deprivation works (pretty mysteriously) as an antidepressant ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 14:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1584554328735776768) · 1 like > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** I thought I wasn't alone in taking anxiety medication from time to time, but apparently they're giving you guys anti-anxiety meds? Feel like I should have known before two mins ago that carbon dioxide is a potent anxiogenic https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1988-17165-001 ## Tuesday, October 25, 2022 ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 00:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1584705055780786176) · 3 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** I only follow the accounts that exclusively tweet bangers Yall liars, Peter follows exactly two people - me and @daniel_eth - as proven by this original photograph ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ff4AtavWYAEiqge.jpg) ## Wednesday, October 26, 2022 ### [Tweet, 20:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1585367603199213568) · 2 likes Accidentally set screensaver to show collages of random pics on my computer. Died when a bunny reading a book next to a chemical diagram popped up out of the blue These are a few seconds apart: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FgBbbTuXEAQjH1q.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FgBbbTtXEAsodzY.jpg) ## Thursday, October 27, 2022 ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1585778062259589121) · 8 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** \*after deeply cutting my hand while cooking\* pssh, I'm not gonna put on a band-aid – I need to address the root cause of this problem! Love “bandaid solutions” as a metaphor because band aids work really well for some things and only compete against more fundamental solutions to a trivial extent (their tiny cost in time and money) ## Friday, October 28, 2022 ### [Tweet, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1585811386315296769) · 10 likes Gradually becoming radicalized in the direction of “treat healthcare like every other sector of the economy and society” ### [Thread, continued, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1585811388756553728) · 5 likes In terms of subjective well-being, an Apple/Google/Amazon of the healthcare sector would be the best thing ever to happen to the citizens of rich democracies Healthcare as an industry is the most direct interface between society-scale systems and incentives and our brains+minds ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 01:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1585811729971224576) · 3 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** Why don't doctor's offices send calendar invites to appointments? Seems like an easy system to lock into and would reduce missed appointments. This but for practically everything related to healthcare administration. I think the answer has to do with large barriers to switching provider ### [Reply to @algekalipso, 02:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1585816494524583936) · 9 likes > **Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso):** If you were skeptical about Jhanas and are now convinced they are a real thing, it might be a good time to update on other things QRI has talked about for years as real too: > > E.g. > > A) DMT Geometry (levels, world-sheet, hyperbolicity) > B) 5-MeO-DMT valence (based on symmetry) Ok I’d seen the word thrown around and am now very interested, but, like, is there a “Reaching Jhana for dummies” equivalent? Ik the aesthetics clash but I don’t think I’m capable of just intuiting what to do lol ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 02:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1585817196328108033) > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** feels like over my first 500 hours of jhana I burned off some big store of energy that was overall beneficial and now it just doesn't build up as much, leading to less super saiyan and more just a soft pleasurable lightly energetic state > > (quoting @algekalipso: @nickcammarata @rgblong 1st Jhana releases internal stress. All craving is based on patterns of stress and contractions of the energy body. So this kind of pleasure reduces cravings for further pleasure. https://qualiacomputing.com/2021/12/03/high-valence-meditation/) Nick, do you have any recommendations for object level things to read? ### [Reply to @algekalipso, 02:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1585819953814732800) · 11 likes > **Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso):** https://youtu.be/0K5ypXyF3dY Thanks! It will be extremely funny if bottomless hedonium comes in the form of a single tweet and YouTube video ### [Reply, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1586081102736793601) Make $10T to donate ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 21:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1586106325678931970) · 4 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** Hello sweet Quallowers, it's time to get more funding for global health, animal welfare, and x-risk mitigation initiatives! Tag an account you know that has more money than you until we eventually get to a billionaire 😇 Anyone can tag a billionaire - needs to be a mutual! ## Saturday, October 29, 2022 ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 08:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1586271431540645888) · 7 likes > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** free pbj on 3rd ave > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FgN_BmBXgAYulMu.jpg) The economists have lied to us ## Monday, October 31, 2022 ### [Tweet, 00:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1586871056077389824) · 2 likes 💀 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FgWvwDmWYAALfuD.png) ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 04:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1586938869244731392) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Well they work at controlling the price, at least given decent enforcement Plausibly (not necessarily) good when supply is fixed or extremely inelastic for whatever reason ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 09:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1587016793905926144) · 5 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Do you even know me > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FgV4881WYAAZC-w.jpg) Well did you?? ### [Reply to @deepfates, 11:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1587048361986871298) · 7 likes > **deepfates.delve.town (@deepfates):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FgW2swrXwAA3xXg.jpg) “I was going by neuron count till recently but word on the street is Rethink’s bouta drop a report contesting that one so…” ### [Quote tweet, 20:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1587176032544620551) · 8 likes 👀🌳🍤🦐🐛🐭🐥🐟🦆🐖🐘🦫🚶‍♂️👶🪸🐉🦤🦣🐲🦕🦖🦄🧌🤖💻⚪️\[electron\] > **Quoting Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @EzraJNewman @RethinkPriors It's starting up! https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/hxtwzcsz8hQfGyZQM/an-introduction-to-the-moral-weight-project > > @AaronBergman18 @EzraJNewman ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 21:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1587196153183014912) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Lol I did not know that, I’m not even at 1k! ### [Quote tweet, 23:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1587221548045406213) · 1 like The people have spoken 😤 Let the recommendations begin Just the links: 1 - http://ggle.io/5KF5 2 - http://ggle.io/5KF8 3 - http://ggle.io/5KFB 4 - http://ggle.io/5KFE Details and a few brief comments below! > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Should I Tweet a brief list podcast episode recommendation every few days (mostly EA- and rationalist-adjacent, some EAF/LW posts as audio)? ### [Thread, continued, 23:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1587221549878231040) · 1 like 1\) Clearer Thinking | What, if anything, do AIs understand? (@SpencrGreenberg ft. @ilyasut) | http://ggle.io/5KF5 Lots of new+interesting info; not just rehashing the same old points ### [Thread, continued, 23:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1587221551249752071) 2\) Astral Codex Ten Podcast | Criticism Of Criticism Of Criticism | http://ggle.io/5KF8 | original post: http://bityl.co/FO4H Mandatory reading/listening for anyone involved with EA. One I think about frequently ### [Thread, continued, 23:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1587221552906526721) · 7 likes 3\) Neoliberal Podcast | What's gone wrong with boys and men? | https://ggle.io/5KFB | @ne0liberal @JeremiahDJohns ft. @RichardvReeves The pendulum of technocratic gender politics ideology swings (alongside rec 4 below) ### [Thread, continued, 23:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1587221554227716097) · 2 likes 4\) Lunar Society | Brian Caplan on feminism and more | @dwarkesh_sp ft. @bryan_caplan | http://ggle.io/5KFE Warning, mini essay: I think @bryan_caplan is way too zero-sum/conflict theory here. If two groups in society are distinguished by something meaningful beyond ... ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1587222195750813701) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Recipe? --- End of October 2022. Previous month: [September 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-09). Next month: [November 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-11). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, November 2022 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in November 2022 and has not deleted: 105 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [October 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-10). Next month: [December 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-12). ## Tuesday, November 1, 2022 ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 04:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1587304730778370049) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ I recognize that my stegosaurus-festival dragon ordering was quite heterodox ### [Reply to @panickssery, 07:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1587352479129378818) · 2 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** What are the topics in the lesswrong/rationality discourse that have the most debate or least consensus, like acausal trade or epistemic modesty or whatever P(doom) ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1587513827859787776) _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Guessing you realize this, but the main danger here (if this seems bad to you) is that you’ll get fewer interesting replies because people don’t know what will be read as annoying ### [Tweet, 22:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1587567475356565506) · 86 likes Anesthesiologist (who’d just identified herself as such): any recreational drug use? Me: weed a few times A: \*eyebrows raise\* In the last 48 hours?? Me: uh no, about a year a… A: \*relaxes\* appreciate the honesty hon, but we only care if you’re high \*right now\* Me: right🫠 ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 22:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1587569455122579459) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Apparently this is an unpopular opinion but, regardless of if it’s any healthier, IMO ‘runny’ peanut butter tastes way better than the no-stir emulsified peanut-adjacent stuff ## Wednesday, November 2, 2022 ### [Reply, 00:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1587602236263243778) · 3 likes Me: a few times A: to jail? Me: damn right ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 00:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1587603131122204672) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** what healthy epistemic norms do to a mf Luckily it was a doctor lol, HIPPA is kinder to good epistemics than Miranda rights ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 08:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1587729409699680256) · 3 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** I keep hearing “signals are only credible if they’re costly”. This is true for signals of things that are high status, but not generally for stuff like allegiance. E.g., if someone wears a Yankees jersey, that’s not a costly signal, but I’d still believe they’re a Yankees fan. Maybe the synthesis is “signals are only credible if they’re opportunity-costly” (the Yankees jersey comes at the expense of every other jersey - wearing a shirt with the logos of all MLB teams doesn’t signal allegiance to any one) ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 21:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1587923972615991296) · 3 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** you can’t tile the universe until you’ve finished tiling the bathroom Maybe metaphorically, but I don’t think this is literally true ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 23:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1587953708549242886) · 5 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Effective Altruism is a research question, a community, and a.... > > anything else? Movement, activity, instantiation of some abstract thing like a question/ideology, bad thing to name a child, cluster of concepts because words don’t mean things but not in a well-defined sense, every combination of every correct answer, \[nothing\] bc all propositions are false ## Thursday, November 3, 2022 ### [Reply to @CineraVerinia, 01:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1587986928758099969) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @CineraVerinia is no longer available.)_ I vaguely recall hearing that this sort of thing can be caused/exacerbated by insufficient vitamin k ### [Tweet, 02:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1587988630274019328) · 4 likes Serious question: what happens if you just don’t pay a surprise medical bill? Is a change credit score the “only”enforcement mechanism? If so, can someone start a credit report company that just doesn’t take these specifically into account? Recently got my first ($30, luckily) ### [Reply to @Jess_Riedel, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1588036161229963264) > **Jess Riedel (@Jess_Riedel):** @AaronBergman18 I think in principle the hospital can take you to court, and the judge in principle can order you to pay and garnish wages if you don't, which you could only escape by filing for bankruptcy. But in practice this rarely happens. If I had a lot of money, a team of excellent lawyers, and nothing better to do, I’d want to follow this through and see+document what happens ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 05:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1588036738433400833) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I tend to assume most people are at least as smart as me, and any story about most people being actively tricked in a way I'm not (as opposed to just lacking specific bits of knowledge) is probably wrong. Uh Andy most people are not as smart as you under any reasonable understanding of “smart” (p<1/(1e1e10)) ### [Reply to @insuffpedant, 06:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1588063322959642624) · 2 likes > **Mary Penn 🔍 (@insuffpedant):** @AaronBergman18 @NathanpmYoung @EzraJNewman Assuming this 'the bathroom' is a subset of 'the universe,' the statement would appear valid to me Counterexample: the bathroom is the very last untitled piece of the universe ### [Reply to @metakuna, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1588308964454076418) · 1 like > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** \[annual tweet shorting the "gut microbiome" as a concept\] I’ll take the other end of this ### [Thread, continued, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1588309101557477376) · 1 like And then some, actually. Would guess it’s underrated, not even correctly highly rated ## Friday, November 4, 2022 ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 17:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1588580139335503872) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @robertwiblin is no longer available.)_ Wait Twitter is good tho ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1588613822017073152) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Yeah but just bc those sound good not for anything to do with the site getting shut down ### [Tweet, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1588639180371861504) · 18 likes I have become the man I used to despise (guy who buys a 24 pack of water bottles bc filling up a glass is trivially inconvenient) ### [Thread, continued, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1588639729838280704) · 6 likes I really used to take my own plastic fork to chipotle ### [Reply, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1588641080169627648) · 4 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** based and Wiblin landfill-pilled I buy 10,000 packs of plastic grocery bag just to throw out for fun ## Saturday, November 5, 2022 ### [Reply, 01:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1588701671949230080) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 I'm pro optimizing along every axis but this seems like zero net gain to me This isn’t even a nerdy optimizing thing haha, and either way the magnitude is pretty small ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 01:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1588704194042957825) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 4, 2022:** I really used to take my own plastic fork to chipotle Seems like some of y’all really don’t like this, so: \- The environmental externalities here are extremely small; your intuitions are wrong \- but I should+will start accounting for the delivery person’s added effort by increasing the tip some by some amount (idk how much yet) ### [Thread, continued, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1588704614790369281) · 1 like Locking comments so no one (not just me - y’all too) wastes any more time on this ### [Quote tweet, 01:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1588705257583833088) · 9 likes I survived a ~10M view pile-on without locking, but this has crossed a line > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Locking comments so no one (not just me - y’all too) wastes any more time on this ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 08:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1588807721142190080) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Tbf i did mute it lol ### [Reply to @silly_armadillo, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1588965296160661504) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @silly_armadillo is no longer available.)_ It’s true I don’t have kids, so some evidence you’re right ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 18:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1588967595910516736) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ This is one of my most genius ideas ### [Thread, continued, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1588967914287534080) · 2 likes But till then, normalize putting all the files you need in a public Google Drive folder ## Sunday, November 6, 2022 ### [Reply to @algekalipso, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1589134981125005313) · 3 likes > **Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso):** Vertical axis corresponds to "energy level", which is highly correlated with dose of DMT. Ok but “energy level” ≠ energy level (right?)“Perceived arousal”? “Basal metabolic rate”? “That which seems appropriately described by the word ‘energy’ while on DMT”? ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 06:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1589139590455382019) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Is there like a good theory of what aesthetic intuitions are tracking above and beyond “flowers pretty, calories nearby”? ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 16:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1589295551887331328) · 6 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Correlation doesn't imply causation, Mr As written it’s just an imperative “eat too many” and a prediction (“you’ll turn into…”) ### [Reply to @clhubes, 19:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1589341125206495232) · 21 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @clhubes is no longer available.)_ Where does a 2 year old learn about subspecies of camel? ### [Reply to @clhubes, 19:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1589341300792651776) · 17 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @clhubes is no longer available.)_ P>0 it’s a dromedary farm so he’s completely correct ### [Reply, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1589347522862288896) · 6 likes Oh same (well, at 22) - sent me straight to google lol ## Monday, November 7, 2022 ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 22:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1589739733672153088) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ 👏survey 👏 data 👏 is 👏 fake 👏 (until proven otherwise) ### [Quote tweet, 22:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1589741821579890688) · 2 likes Idea: this but with four levels \- estimated true proportion \- estimated self-reported proportion \- self-reported proportion \- best-guess true proportion > **Quoting Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** Found this very interesting: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fg95d0YXgAMlBCW.jpg) ## Tuesday, November 8, 2022 ### [Reply to @postjawline, 22:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1590105540310405120) > **post jawline (@postjawline):** @humford https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-11-08/binance-s-zhao-sbf-ed-ftx-s-bankman-fried?sref=htOHjx5Y Anyone tryna unlock? 🙏🏼 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 22:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1590106413300609024) · 7 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Good news everyone! We're funding constrained again I feel weirdly out of the loop on this. Is there a decent point estimate of the magnitude and % of change in value of all EA foundations’ and megadonor wealth, over the last 2/6/12/? months? ### [Reply to @nkreu113r, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1590111426043334656) · 3 likes > **noah (@nkreu113r):** @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax according to bloomberg sbf just ate a 90%+ drawdown Oh shit ## Wednesday, November 9, 2022 ### [Tweet, 00:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1590145022485475329) · 13 likes I’m sure this is very dumb but… “liquidity crisis”…sounds like FTX needed cash? How much would have bought them a very strong bargaining position wrt Binance? And they couldn’t borrow this even at >15% using real assets (say, naming rights to a stadium) as collateral? ### [Thread, continued, 00:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1590145024536514560) · 8 likes I’ll personally loan them $100 👍, FTX dm me for PayPal ### [Tweet, 05:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1590216730944471041) · 8 likes What’s the elasticity of EA funding? Sure hope @dwarkesh_sp was prescient here, but either way we’re gonna find out https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/asthpxHedcbjxTSaF/there-will-be-many-more-effective-altruist-billionaires ### [Tweet, 21:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1590451260217786368) · 14 likes Seems like a credible time to say that I think crypto (-currency, idk about anything else) has nontrivial real economic value that in principle can be separated from the huge amount of speculation ### [Reply to @moreisdifferent, 23:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1590492304963670016) · 2 likes > **Dan Elton 🔍 (@moreisdifferent):** Fun trivial - tyramine, which is naturally found in cheese, > "is a Schedule I controlled substance, categorized as a hallucinogen, making it illegal to buy, sell, or possess in the state of Florida without a license at any purity level or any form whatsoever.." That’s one way of making MAOIs marginally safer ## Thursday, November 10, 2022 ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 00:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1590494739178352640) · 4 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** Sam Bankman-Fried playing the St Petersburg paradox I didn’t merely chuckle out loud, it was a full on literal lol ### [Tweet, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1590574473740447745) · 6 likes Just noting that the FDIC exists and for reasons that seem relevant. Deposit insurance is cool because it basically negates the need for it’s own existence via deterrence Oh ya and I interned there for a year so account for the possibility that I’m a Big Deposit Insurance shill ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FhLbDeWWAAE0oyU.jpg) ## Saturday, November 12, 2022 ### [Reply to @BenHayum, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1591257783860592641) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @BenHayum is no longer available.)_ Not sure if this aged poorly or well ### [Reply to @moskov, 02:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1591259359350489088) · 14 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @moskov is no longer available.)_ I’ll go with a highly leveraged 4/3 utilitarianism ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1591538039188508672) · 9 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 11, 2022:** Holy shit, listening to @SBF_FTX on Cowen's podcast and realized that his story is an \*almost-perfect\* vignette to illustrate the dangers (and potential) of… Update: this aged. Idk if poorly or well but it definitely aged ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1591558583191482371) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @NunoSempere @RethinkPriors 1.) Too much gets seen by multiple execs > 2.) Finance team also sees all the spending > 3.) All the spending is exposed to an annual third-party audit that goes directly to the board of directors > 4.) Third-party audit is required by CA law so can't get around it Sure but could a small business like FTX with a fraction of your revenue comply with all that? ## Sunday, November 13, 2022 ### [Reply, 07:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1591692169957490689) · 2 likes (Warning, post-melatonin tweet:) Any interest in turning a bunch of functions I’ve written into a package you can download from GitHub? Or anyone else reading this who wants to tbh. I want to and tried for a few hours but managed not to be able to lmao ### [Thread, continued, 07:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1591692290275377152) · 1 like @frances\_\_lorenz ur another R person ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 13:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1591792524871573508) · 10 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** how many degrees of separation are you from SBF? (1 means you've met him) 0 (am SBF) 🤫 ### [Reply, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1591853589336838144) · 2 likes A perfect track record of correctly judging others’ moral character is not a reasonable, good, or appropriate bar for EA community leadership and I disagree with this take. FWIW I’ve critiqued Will before on Twitter and the Forum (see below if u want but those aren’t the point) ## Monday, November 14, 2022 ### [Reply to @acesounderglass, 00:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1591952473211949057) · 27 likes > **Elizabeth Van Nostrand (@acesounderglass):** What substances besides lead are suspected of causing serious society wide effects? Not just cancer clusters or arsenic makeup but causing serious, systemic issues. Lithium (“suspected”), polyunsaturated fat, trans fats, +1 to glyphosate and alcohol mentioned by others, plausibly different forms of opioids in a few times and places throughout history. Epstein-Barr virus and H Pylori if organisms count, C02 via global warming, ### [Thread, continued, 00:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1591952825399283712) · 9 likes pm2.5 via every health metric, mercury, aluminum ### [Reply to @uneventual, 01:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1591971628208230401) · 4 likes > **lucy 🐧 (@uneventual):** seems like losing less than nine figures this year puts you solidly in the elite of institutional crypto traders lmao They call me the Buffet of Bethesda, MD😎 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FhfRwliXEAMlVPK.jpg) ### [Tweet, 02:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1591975783224201221) · 2 likes Standing/treadmill desks are out, bench desks are in 😎 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FhfViVCXEAEYRpq.jpg) ### [Reply to @StatsLime, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1592022086293557248) · 2 likes > **Max ⏸️ Limelihood 🔸🔸🔸 (@StatsLime):** @AaronBergman18 @acesounderglass The overwhelming findings of the literature on this is that polyunsaturated fats are good for health, and people get way too little of them Wasn’t being specific mostly bc I don’t remember which subtypes are and aren’t suspect. All things considered I think it’s pretty likely that, to condense things way too much, “concentrated seed oils (like canola, soybean)=bad” (for most western adults in 2022)… ### [Reply to @extremelyn0rmaI, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1592200526216966144) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @extremelyn0rmaI is no longer available.)_ Nothing necessarily, but it induces weight gain, I think quite reliably. This is true for a bunch of meds, but some people are concerned over trace amounts in the general water supply, which for whatever reason is mostly an issue for lithium specifically ### [Reply to @guzeyzey, 17:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1592204266827284480) _(The tweet being replied to by @guzeyzey is no longer available.)_ Using it to mean sleeping around is how I imagine someone just dipping their toe into English slang would use it lol ### [Thread, continued, 17:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1592204289799507968) · 2 likes Btw “dipping one’s toe” means “have an extramarital affair with” ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 17:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1592205461926940675) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @EzraJNewman Oh my god. be respectful, it’s “oh my god” ### [Reply to @GergelyOrosz, 17:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1592206179367018497) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @GergelyOrosz is no longer available.)_ Good. GitHub should be read only. For everyone, starting now. Retvrn to emailing code files back and forth ### [Reply to @CharlesD353, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1592250158934528000) · 2 likes > **Charles🔸 (@CharlesD353):** This is a really bad take. If the whole point is to find the best interventions, then figuring out how good an intervention is when you are wildly uncertain about it and potential differences are decision relevant is the obvious thing to do. > > (quoting @stephenkb: I would suggest that the deworming debate is a sign someone people have lost sight of their priorities: hard to imagine a less effective or altruistic act than “let’s spend more money to work out just how much better this person performs worm-free”:…) I kinda agree with a super charitable reading of it though, which is that the deworming debate has is too empirical and ought to better incorporate a prior that getting rid of parasites will increase a person's wellbeing ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1592255901678845959) > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Seems to me the question was never 'is getting rid of parasites good' but is this best on the margin in which case the empirical-ness seems good (I'm not super familiar with the worm wars tho) Yeah fair enough and for sure empirical studies are important, but I think to a lesser extent than things for which there's a relatively well-specified causal theory of change (say, bednets) and/or the desired outcome is relatively easy to capture (say, all cause mortality) ## Tuesday, November 15, 2022 ### [Reply to @LeahLibresco, 11:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1592473815673876482) · 3 likes > **Leah Libresco Sargeant (@LeahLibresco):** I’m Catholic, a virtue ethicist, and part of Effective Altruism. AMA > > (lagged answers based on demands of my job and my work) Totally buy the major areas of accordance between the first two bits and EA… Where (actions, goals, idk) do the conflicts lie? What concrete actions are good from 1-2 of those three perspectives and bad from the other(s)? ### [Reply to @Forever_Wario, 18:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1592582533060829184) · 15 likes > **mister employed again (@Forever_Wario):** the EA people apparently decided that Concept of Fishing was a worse problem for the world than Malaria > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FhkFCGtX0AAnDzl.png) Facts, wild fish slaughter needs way more attention (to improve it, not like scale it up as is) ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 18:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1592583246461575169) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pli_cachete is no longer available.)_ I agree it’s a big aesthetic success, but it’s an even bigger non-aesthetic success ## Thursday, November 17, 2022 ### [Tweet, 00:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1593037816698896385) · 20 likes Hot sauce (& capsaicin-borne spiciness more generally) is super common across cuisines and settings Why no cold sauce? Mint (w/ active ingredient menthol) isn’t wildly exotic or expensive…and yet no one puts a dash of mint oil/flakes on their chili/salad/yogurt/whatever ❄️🤔 ### [Thread, continued, 00:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1593043204240461824) · 8 likes Inspired by three drops of this, which hit HARD ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FhugWcYXoAMkyhP.jpg) ### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 19:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1593321462873657344) · 2 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** ...listen, for $1M I will follow your Twitter account no questions asked. I have a price and it's not that expensive. > > (quoting @Mihonarium: @mealreplacer If you could spend $1 million, and it would make @ESYudkowsky follow your twitter account, would you do it?) My follow costs a mere $10,000 and comes with one positive QT/month for one year Sale ends soon don’t wait ### [Reply to @daniel_filan, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1593370921590558722) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniel_filan is no longer available.)_ Not jargon IMO because it means exactly what you’d think (right?) ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1593387783548293122) · 4 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** Raita? fs minty dishes exist! But mint is super rarely used as a dial of adjustment or condiment or basic dimension of flavor; tryna say capsaicin is treated kinda like sodium whereas menthol is treated like every other arbitrary flavor chemical, say vanillin ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1593388174893522944) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 17, 2022:** Inspired by three drops of this, which hit HARD Formal statement of response to allegations of the existence of counterexamples: ## Friday, November 18, 2022 ### [Tweet, 21:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1593722289962500101) · 6 likes I hear Twitter might shut down/explode/??? so... Here's how to save all your tweets locally, with formatting and functional links, in <5 minutes (w/o waiting for Twitter to compile + send your data) (gif version below but quality on YT is way better) https://youtu.be/97RZ3R27pjk ### [Reply to @samswoora, 22:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1593728141381537794) · 71 likes > **Samswara (@samswoora):** Do people who smoke weed in the morning just hate their lives? “What a wonderful day on earth, time to get incapacitated” A less status-coded conjugation of “hate their lives” is “are suffering” ## Saturday, November 19, 2022 ### [Reply to @catehall, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1593807554718715904) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @catehall is no longer available.)_ Maybe this is your point but tbh not certain lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fh5XcRNXkAE2AXL.jpg) ### [Reply to @ns_whit, 20:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1594071637510434816) · 9 likes > **Nick Whitaker 🇺🇸 (@ns_whit):** Found this inspiring poster and put it up… what moral leader first said these wise words? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fh5ozSPXoAAk_tk.jpg) I have a guess ### [Quote tweet, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1594072797419929601) · 3 likes Good thread > **Quoting John Coogan (@johncoogan):** Elon-Twitter is a distraction. > > FTX is a distraction. > > The only story that you should be paying attention to right now is the United States vs China situation. > > Here's a primer on what's going on: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fh3XCuAVIAEpvgd.jpg) ### [Reply to @alth0u, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1594074126070984704) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @alth0u is no longer available.)_ I’m willing to do my part and chip in one of these to save Twitter ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fh9J-AOX0AIqOTR.jpg) ### [Reply to @davidycli, 22:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1594098519501312000) > **David Li (@davidycli):** Curious - what is the “Asian American” accent? The same one you just read this tweet in in my head ### [Reply to @awwstn, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1594102205510025217) · 71 likes > **austin petersmith (@awwstn):** POV > > your kid just poured a cup of milk into this floor vent > > you can’t seem to find any relevant advice on reddit (?!) > > wyd?? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fh8gSyGagAE_swg.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fh9jgf6WAAAeLtW.jpg) ## Sunday, November 20, 2022 ### [Reply to @MikePFrank, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1594142650201931776) · 6 likes > **Michael P. Frank 💻🔜♻️ (@MikePFrank):** Went on a date with a girl I really like. I dressed nice, gave her an extensive 30 min. lecture on reversible computing, yet I haven't heard from her 🤔 the only thing I can think of is perhaps I did not provide enough information on Landauer’s limit??? Physics friends pls advise Lecture too short - length matters ### [Reply to @mattparlmer, 02:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1594160834967928832) · 4 likes > **mattparlmer 🪐 🌷 (@mattparlmer):** When I was 8 I routinely played in abandoned industrial sites with my friends for 6+hrs with no adults and I turned out fine > > Safetyism is a ridiculous ideology > > (quoting @FreeRangeKids: Mom has 8 yo walk 1/2 mile home. Cops called. One asks: "Would you do this again?" "I said, 'I don't know,'" recalls Wallace. "That's when the cop replied, 'Okay, I'm going to have to arrest you.'" He proceeded to handcuff her in front of the kids.…) All around my parents were (and continue to be) good parents and good people. But (as just one example) I wasn’t allowed to walk the half mile alone to a nearby park (thru rich suburbs) until at least ~10, maybe 12. I resented it at the time, and continue to think their ### [Thread, continued, 02:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1594161397738397697) · 3 likes Over-protection was unkind, unfair, and unhelpful. Probably not harmful in the long run either, but certainly directly harmful to my self as a kid ## Monday, November 21, 2022 ### [Quote tweet, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1594761341784440843) · 11 likes The single most based Tweet of all time > **Quoting roon (@tszzl):** this universe was created to maximize the total amount of wild fish suffering. it’s like a hell realm for them. everything else is a sideshow ### [Thread, continued, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1594761344254885919) · 6 likes Initially captioned “🐠🔥🐠🔥🐠🔥” but then realized this looked like a depiction of fish hell rather than “fire tweet about fish” ## Tuesday, November 22, 2022 ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 10:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1595008206908297223) · 7 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** What is the humane way to deal with mice in the house? (Not saying I will, but I'd like to consider kindness here) If you go with kill traps, snap>poison>glue. Snap are pretty quick and painless, the others not so much ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1595146876197961728) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pli_cachete is no longer available.)_ Maybe, but mtg and poker are bounded, well underatood environments without lots of (any?) unknown unknowns, so maybe not (perfect) for dealing with probabilities in the real world ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 21:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1595169764942483468) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** If you know something and you can't express a simple version in <10 tweets, my base rate is that you do not, in fact, know something. > > Hit me with some counterexamples Guys the claim here is about what evidence \[able to summarize X to an arbitrary extent\] provides about \[has good working knowledge and understanding of X\], not about whether the summarized version is high fidelity! Still, main counterexample = “knowing how”/muscle memory ## Wednesday, November 23, 2022 ### [Reply to @AskYatharth, 06:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1595301450414182402) · 7 likes > **yatharth ༺༒༻ (@AskYatharth):** \[sincere\] why take stimulants instead of just nap? sleepiness/sleep deprivation and subjective motivation, focus, and energy are related but definitely not the same ### [Reply to @maxhertan, 10:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1595357013210705921) · 3 likes > **Max Hertan (@maxhertan):** Step 2: Supplements > > Bryan takes about 25 pills everyday > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FiNWQN1WAAA_zMt.png) Uh I think rapamycin is doing a lot of the work here (not that the others are bad or totally inert) ### [Reply to @jerrrrrrryyyyy, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1595504814330417183) · 2 likes > **jerry (@jerrrrrrryyyyy):** @MattZeitlin MSG It’s an amino acid (so organic) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FiRfLAVWAAEyCNb.jpg) ## Friday, November 25, 2022 ### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 11:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1596102257455636480) · 3 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** I theorize this to be unironically true: Naively trained AIs don't learn to call bullshit on bad questions, because there's few examples of people calling "bullshit" in the text dataset, because Earth's scientific and educational edifice doesn't teach people to call bullshit. > > (quoting @ESYudkowsky: 🤔🤔🤔) does open up a whole new tool for pedagogy tho: “explain why this answer that syntactical pattern matches as good is actually bad” ## Saturday, November 26, 2022 ### [Reply to @peligrietzer, 11:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1596463978938613761) · 47 likes > **Peli Grietzer (@peligrietzer):** Are there young people who are now more famous than Kanye and Taylor Swift and I'm too old to know about them, or did pop culture objectively get stuck I think the former - Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo are both >10 years younger than Taylor, and Kendrick is 10 below Kanye ### [Reply to @peligrietzer, 18:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1596569211878662144) · 3 likes > **Peli Grietzer (@peligrietzer):** I'm reasonably familiar with them but don't think they're at the same level of stardom! I think you have to adjust for career length tho - comparing best guess about Billie in ~10 years to Taylor rn ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1596571517910917131) · 2 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** “Get out of my bedroom muh big gov” is not an arg. The state & society at large should absolutely be concerns with what you do in your private space if the thing you’re doing is immoral & harmful. It’s just that having gay sex or abortions or w/e isn’t wrong, like at all This is all correct but what if you’re optimizing to convince 9 semi-arbitrary elderly lawyers steeped in an aesthetic of hyper-neutrality ### [Reply to @BasicScienceSav, 21:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1596612810901164032) · 2 likes > **Savannah Thais 👩🏼‍💻 (@BasicScienceSav):** It happened! I met some guys in a pub last night, turns out they’re in ML. I was like oh cool what’s your research on? And one of them goes ‘there’s no way you’re in ML, what’s a SVM??’ Guy is a living sexist meme 😳 So what \_is a SVM ## Sunday, November 27, 2022 ### [Reply to @joe_zimmerman, 05:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1596739020943659009) · 4 likes > **Joe Zimmerman (@joe_zimmerman):** Let's say you estimate: > \- 20% survival/flourishing > \- 79.9% X-risk > \- 0.1% S-risk > > The headline number should be 0.1%. S-risk is terrifying. I almost agree (and strongly), but to be pedantic I think under most understandings X-risk and s-risk aren’t mutually exclusive, so a crucial estimate would be P(s-risk|x-risk) and P(x-risk and no s-risk) ### [Reply to @metakuna, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1596986590168948736) · 6 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** what's going on in China? Probably at least several different things - there are quite a few people there ## Wednesday, November 30, 2022 ### [Reply to @MasterTimBlais, 21:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1598067113377554432) · 22 likes > **Tim 🙂⏹️🙂 (@MasterTimBlais):** i invented a reduced version of difference-of-squares factoring when i was like 12, just noticing that (n+1)(n-1) = n^2 - 1. i was very proud of myself. i called it "tim's law" and put it on the fridge I’m down to start calling this Tim’s law, hard to beat 2 syllables ### [Reply to @jacyanthis, 23:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1598097300211269633) · 3 likes > **Jacy Reese Anthis (@jacyanthis):** Asking "Are large language models conscious?" has no more factual an answer than "Do submarines swim?" It just depends on what definition you pick. Would you say the same replacing “are conscious” with “are sentient” “have subjective experience” and “have qualia”? --- End of November 2022. Previous month: [October 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-10). Next month: [December 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-12). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, December 2022 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in December 2022 and has not deleted: 120 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [November 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-11). Next month: [January 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-01). ## Thursday, December 1, 2022 ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1598405159658422322) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Wow, the new ChatGPT just outright automates @AdamJShriver and months of @RethinkPriors work > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fi3NlHEX0AAllpv.jpg) Seems like a pretty shoddy argument though(?) A couple sentences begging the question, a few with meaningless terms (“moral behavior” referring to patienthood), appealing to smth not being “necessarily” the case, not addressing the meaning of “proxy” ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1598407450939588617) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I actually read moral behaviour as referring to moral agency? I think it would make more sense that way, but the broader question about moral weight (at least in EA spheres afaik) almost always refers to patienthood. Like “should we care about shrimp” not “do shrimp themselves have a responsibility to act ethically” ### [Reply to @lexfridman, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1598408508361379840) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @lexfridman is no longer available.)_ What a strange tweet ### [Tweet, 23:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1598465002238779401) · 2 likes PSA: if you like Spotify wrapped but wanna know more granular/precise info than what that provides, you can download your last year of listening data: https://www.spotify.com/us/account/privacy/ ## Friday, December 2, 2022 ### [Reply, 07:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1598585164757598208) · 24 likes Doesn’t seem accurate since the context (GPT is taking an IQ test) isn’t being provided. Bet it hits 100 (low confidence) if “for question \_\_\_ of an IQ test that you’re really trying to get right” or smth was put in front of each prompt ### [Reply to @daniel_filan, 13:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1598665135807029250) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniel_filan is no longer available.)_ 2b. But is it arbitrary that up is considered the better direction 🤔 ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 15:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1598697923231072258) · 2 likes > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** i don't understand why SSRIs are considered to have low abuse potential. > > every time i take my daily pill, i get such an amazing high for an hour and then have an internal struggle for the rest of the day bc i want to take another but know that i can't. Huh wow, fwiw I think this is pretty uncommon ## Saturday, December 3, 2022 ### [Tweet, 00:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1598835805371658240) · 2 likes CMV: “understanding” as normally understood is a basically fake or illusory concept, perhaps aa wrapper label for a cluster of qualia but nothing more (best analogy I can think of: “blessed” as in “feeling blessed” if we live in a world where blessings don’t exist) ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 20:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1599134708364849152) · 11 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Bigger than FTX story imo ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 20:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1599138534438293504) · 27 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ ntifying the moral value of shrimp atm? ## Sunday, December 4, 2022 ### [Tweet, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1599205611039694848) No fake intermediate conciliatory positions… Consciousness aka sentience aka qualia aka genuine legit private internal experience of which there’s (allegedly) a Hard Problem and which is why there’s something it’s like to be you (iff that’s indeed the case) is \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ ### [Tweet, 06:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1599295588360937474) · 4 likes .@Spotify Situation: \- smaller artists don’t sell merch but \*would\* if it was worth their time/$ (+some ppl say ur screwing them over i don’t really have a take here) \- ur a big company with a lots market power and money and presumably experience dealing with suppliers 1/?🧵 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FjHJxJYWQAEb9nA.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1599295592043229184) · 1 like So (obviously): 1\. use economies of scale+capital+talent+market power to contract at a sub-market rate with whoever makes customized stickers/water bottles/hoodies/whatever 2\. ask artists if they wanna upload pics within certain dimensions to go on their merch (?=5) ### [Thread, continued, 06:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1599295593456680965) · 1 like 3\. push notifications to users asking if we wanna buy stuff (e.g. a sticker with some artist’s logo/design) \- ^maybe once a year, maybe rotating by blocs of user, maybe year round for all idk … ### [Thread, continued, 06:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1599295595113766912) · 1 like 4\. aggregate orders of the same design/exact product (maybe daily for top artists but less frequent for smaller ones idk) -> order a bulk shipment of these -> have printing contractor ship or ship in-house to customers (can prob ship stickers for cost of an envelope+stamp) … ### [Thread, continued, 06:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1599295597433221120) · 2 likes 5\. take a cut 6\. send the rest to artists (zero risk and almost zero cost for them - their time/effort making the designs but could literal album covers they already have) 7\. everyone wins (except wherever we'd otherwise have spent that money but thats capitalism man) (5/5) ### [Reply to @andy_matuschak, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1599508489248059392) · 5 likes > **Andy Matuschak (@andy_matuschak):** A provocation I'm liking: most piano students have a 1:1 tutor; few math students (say, undergrads majoring in math) have a 1:1 tutor. > > Lots of work is predicated on the latter being intractable ("must find some way to make group instruction as good as 1:1!"). Why the difference? Avg 20 y/o pianist cares about being good at piano more than the avg 20 y/o math major does for math (most of instrumental benefit of latter comes from crossing the binary “yes u graduated” threshold) ## Monday, December 5, 2022 ### [Tweet, 12:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1599746276190736386) · 4 likes 👀 ### [Thread, continued, 12:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1599746278409220096) · 2 likes No take yet btw - have only briefly skimmed ### [Tweet, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1599866329325895680) · 2 likes Of all the inconsistencies to have? On literally the second thing I tried? (Left pic first, right one immediately after ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FjPd8q5XwAA_eFP.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FjPd8q8WYAk9R9T.jpg) ## Tuesday, December 6, 2022 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 05:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1600001549199372288) · 5 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** What is the best way to buy one individual stock? I would like to purchase a share of Asana as a gimmick AssEt PrIces REflect aLl pUbLiC iNfoRMaTiON ANd ThUs ConSiStENtlY eSTimATE tHE net pREsENT VAlUE of All FuTUre cAsH FLOwS ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 05:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1600001749833510912) · 2 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** ChatGPT is so averse to stereotypes and generalization that it's reluctant to say men are taller than women. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FjO9fvqXwBcPPTE.jpg) Welcome to the IDW ### [Tweet, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1600008666370912256) · 24 likes Ik chatGPT was trained with the goal of predicting the next token from some text, but that’s not literally what it’s doing now, right? Do we know what it \*is\* trying to do now, in deployment? ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 06:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1600021011499569152) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** What is the best way to buy one individual stock? I would like to purchase a share of Asana as a gimmick Also idk if it’s the best but I have an etrade account with individual stock shares. Opened it after guessing some March madness games right when I was 9 and won $400 ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 15:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1600145043037118464) · 10 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Escort monthly income by BMI, from my escort survey I've had open for a while. Sample size is still kinda low, like n=~30 per bin, and this is sampling escorts online enough to take my survey, but there still looks like a trend I'd expect. Interesting to see the degree of impact! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FjFjkgYUcAAS8M1.jpg) In order to not to have my econ major rescinded, I’m legally obligated to call out the “impact” phrasing as an implicitly causal claim that’s unjustified by the methodology ### [Reply to @HSGrowthGuy, 15:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1600147698425860096) · 2 likes > **Connor | The HubSpot Guy 🤘 (@HSGrowthGuy):** The best example in the world: > > http://Berkshirehathaway.com This has gotta be a meme though, not like “ol warren forgot to update the css file” ### [Reply to @CineraVerinia, 16:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1600171983785689094) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @CineraVerinia is no longer available.)_ It’s for those who saved on bulk glazed rings ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FjTz8FPXEAA2ANc.jpg) ## Wednesday, December 7, 2022 ### [Tweet, 13:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1600486342303121411) · 13 likes Wait blinded placebo-controlled trials (like for Rx drugs) can’t be the “gold standard”— they only have 2/5 relevant groups! (all still under the informed consent constraint). The 5 should be: \- A & B know which group they’re in (placebo vs treatment); C & D do not ### [Thread, continued, 13:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1600486344354140164) · 3 likes \- A & C get treatment; B & D get placebo \- E has the same inclusion criteria but never hears about any study. They’re just observed as a sort of zero information control group (tho ofc this only works when there’s individual-level public info on the relevant metric) ### [Reply to @jimmy_wales, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1600583026408361999) · 282 likes > **Jimmy Wales (@jimmy_wales):** Not for sale. > > (quoting @LevineJonathan: I wonder how much Wikipedia would cost? @elonmusk) Guys you can have your very own copy on a small physical object for <$20 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FjZpxvkXEAY3tXv.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FjZpxvlXEAgoBzr.jpg) ## Thursday, December 8, 2022 ### [Tweet, 00:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1600642494244749313) · 2 likes Do you have a backup copy of ~all the information on your main personal computer (like on an SSD or cloud service)? ### [Thread, continued, 00:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1600642495834198016) · 2 likes FWIW I don’t, but, like, probably should right? iOS makes it easy , apparently, but I don’t (yet) own a big enough storage thing to put the backup on. It’s < $100 for a 1TB SSD tho so thinking I probably will ### [Reply, 21:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1600970152459218944) · 2 likes Ay congrats!! ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 21:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1600971436004233216) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @TheZvi @NathanpmYoung Why do you say that? In the linked example, it seems like a pretty healthy fraction of the calendar is time blocked off for either family or solo work I have the same reaction, and its the lack of flexibility and associated lack of slack (cc Zvi lol) + having to keep the “am I in the right time block right now?” module running most waking hours — not the distribution of time per se ## Friday, December 9, 2022 ### [Quote tweet, 02:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1601041097203286017) · 5 likes Unless I’m missing something or being very dumb (both possible tbf), taking Martin’s rec here was like getting buyers remorse in reverse: feeling like an idiot for having not signed up before 29 of y’all might wanna consider ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FjgKZIvXoAAOgaj.jpg) > **Quoting Martin Glusker (@GluskerMartin):** @AaronBergman18 Ive heard backblaze is good ## Saturday, December 10, 2022 ### [Tweet, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1601390274940657665) · 6 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FjlHWECXkAMXUis.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1601390278811668480) · 3 likes Also lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FjlHyB4WIAEKxy5.png) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 02:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1601406688728580096) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 So fast it's actually just standing still It would be like if an f13 simply couldn’t handle the air over St Louis specifically ### [Reply to @RatOrthodox, 04:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1601435662825426944) · 1 like > **Brangus🔍⏹️ (@RatOrthodox):** Many of the people I most want to work with live in Berkeley. Lol my reply was bad sarcasm - exact same and I’ve had intentions to try to move ranging in seriousness from “maybe just don’t get on the flight home” to “probably at some point, eventually” ### [Quote tweet, 12:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1601552853247852545) · 7 likes Ok funny meme haha but I’ll admit it pushes the boundaries of my understanding of evolution… Like I sure don’t think human-level dog is possible, but what \*is\* the limiting factor on max(IQ | dog)? Is it dog (species membership whatever that is) constraining IQ or the reverse? > **Quoting @goth (@goth600):** Alright, who’s got the biggest shrimp tank here? We need to get to work! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fjj6J73UoAAJECT.jpg) ### [Tweet, 12:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1601556895692881921) · 3 likes We need a general purpose aboutness preposition that sounds less pretentious than “with respect to” Sometimes its just not worth making ur brain figure out the precise semantic relationship between two things and then translating that into language ### [Reply to @CineraVerinia, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1601666727255109632) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @CineraVerinia is no longer available.)_ If GW bought the house and put out a blog post explaining why I’d be cool with it by default ## Sunday, December 11, 2022 ### [Reply to @tummycom, 01:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1601758413788438528) · 6 likes > **Evelyn (@tummycom):** @the_wilderless https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider Lol (tbc these two pics don’t exactly tell the whole story) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FjqWydlX0AAF_qa.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FjqWydjWYAEAAVq.jpg) ### [Tweet, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1601819056788901888) · 10 likes Guy who makes bismuth subsalicylate (the active ingredient in pepto bismol) at home from chemistry-grade bismuth and salicylic acid (lifetime supply of both for ~$100 on amazon) bc he’s concerned about the amount of red dye used in commercial products but is bullish on C7H5BiO4 ### [Reply to @HiFromMichaelV, 10:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1601889890387595266) · 8 likes > **michael vassar (@HiFromMichaelV):** Just found out that Aaron Schwartz’s last essay was about HPMOR 😢 Third to last liked tweet, 10 years ago ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FjsOXYjX0AAqfwo.jpg) ## Monday, December 12, 2022 ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1602137074437611521) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** What’s something you disagree with me on? Consciousness, at least I think. You’re an eliminativist of some kind right? Also the relationship between that and ethics. Setting aside built-in-uncertainty, IMO illusionism -> nihilism ## Friday, December 16, 2022 ### [Reply to @hillelogram, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1603797731746742272) · 2 likes > **Hillel (@hillelogram):** I have discovered the best possible use of ChatGPT > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FkEkZtqXoAAAKlL.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FkEkb0LWQAEbOpe.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FkEkdZVXEAA6MqR.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FkEl5tNXwAAPB0W.png) “Some deeper than the tallest mountains on earth” ### [Tweet, 21:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1603863263661416475) · 3 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FkIRI01WYA8KSeh.jpg) ## Saturday, December 17, 2022 ### [Reply to @JacquesThibs, 11:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604080147006722048) · 2 likes > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** If he’s looking for a life partner and also wants to do AI governance, DC does seem ideal Disappointingly few of them are on Twitter but Georgetown EA is a thing now too FWIW, in addition ofc to DC EA ### [Reply to @uneventual, 11:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604081240147116036) · 2 likes > **lucy 🐧 (@uneventual):** done with college👩‍🎓 🎉🎓 ### [Reply to @xriskology, 17:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604173382542852096) · 6 likes > **Dr. Émile P. Torres (they/them) (@xriskology):** You're not gonna believe this, but an EA-aligned org called "European Summer Program on Rationality" received ~$4.5 million from Bankman-Fried's FTX to buy what \*they themselves\* describe as a CASTLE in the Czech Republic. A 🧵of actual pics of the castle, bought in April 2022: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FkGgMhuWYAI3vBK.jpg) in other units, ~.88 Pennsylvania Rite Aids ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FkMrMJGXwAISgYr.jpg) ## Sunday, December 18, 2022 ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 00:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604278360573517827) · 11 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Tbh animal welfare seems to pretty clearly dominate in terms of neglectedness, tractability, and importance - the latter by orders of magnitude I've dont think I've seen a plausible argument against this from within a pretty default EA/utilitarian worldview/set of assumptions ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FkOKqHDXgAA7m6E.png) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604279067116593152) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Are you convincible on animal welfare? I've ended up giving about 50/50 between GiveWell top charities and ACE top charities There's a really solid chance I'm misremembering but bc this itself could be a quite persuasive: did you say our convo a few months back pushed you towards actually donating some amount more to animal welfare? ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604283319012757506) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 18, 2022:** Tbh animal welfare seems to pretty clearly dominate in terms of neglectedness, tractability, and importance - the latter by orders of magnitude I've dont think… Although, taking a step back, the thing I actually endorse is donating only a token amount now and using the money you have now to maximize smth like (wlog(w))^.5 or in english try to become rich\* \*no fraud tho ### [Tweet, 01:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604290067161559041) · 1 like Hypothesis: a person/situation's "vibes" are, computationally, the interaction term between all 5+ sensory input streams, which initially is too high-dimensional to deal with so🧠compresses and then treats (functionally+phenomenologically) similar to, say, "pure" smell or taste ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 01:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604293425527865344) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 @EzraJNewman Yes. I gave 25% to animal welfare last year and (double-checking my spreadsheet) 45% to animal welfare this year. Hard to say exactly how much of that was your influence (I gave a greater % last year to animal welfare than the year before) but it was definitely some Cool time to update my 'virtue points' spreadsheet (kidding lol)... acc though that's awesome and "greater % last year...than the year before" is the actual thing I'd highlight! ### [Tweet, 03:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604320117227233280) · 14 likes Better than a Nobel🥲 I'd like to thank to Microsoft Word for this commemorative PNG ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FkOvva-XEAAfi-M.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604320119626276864) · 5 likes If you insist...https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/x6Kv7nxKHfLGtPJej/the-topic-is-not-the-content ### [Reply to @RomanHauksson, 07:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604374609905737728) · 1 like > **Roman Hauksson-Neill (@RomanHauksson):** @AaronBergman18 @EzraJNewman What's the best way to do that? easy just be 99.99th percentile prescient, ambitious, smart, hardworking, lucky, charismatic and create a company that delivers lots value to lots of people while capturing some as profit incl enough to invest duly in regulatory capture and R&D fr though... ### [Thread, continued, 07:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604375356215115779) · 1 like it seems like quant trading is the highest paying kinda normalish 'job.' Not sure how, say, 95th percentile swe compares. But 2 second BOTEC says that maxes out at something like $100M donated, so some sort of entrepreneurship is probably needed to get above that, which means ### [Thread, continued, 07:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604376135982268416) · 2 likes a mildly toned-down version of my first sarcastic tweet to exploit some latent market or inefficiency that hasn't been picked up by the market yet. Probably in tech, advertising, healthcare, AI, energy, or finance - doesn't exactly narrow things down a ton tho haha ### [Tweet, 10:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604423627230904326) · 7 likes 1\) Claim: “Total utilitarianism does not imply that any amount of suffering can be offset or morally justified by even an arbitrarily large amount of wellbeing” Epistemic status: Ive thought about this one a lot (prob more than any other q) and am pretty damn sure at this point ### [Thread, continued, 10:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604423629156089858) · 5 likes I made a more formal and complete argument in the section of this post titled “II A case for suffering-leaning ethics” but have been meaning to make it it’s own thing somewhere - because it at least might be novel (???), true, and important! https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/eeDsHDoM9De4iGGLw/questioning-the-value-of-extinction-risk-reduction-1 ### [Thread, continued, 10:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604423630925967360) · 3 likes 2\) Still quite AI-pilled, but down from my peak by like 7.5% 🥱 ### [Reply, 14:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604477082565844994) · 10 likes Paper: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/107415/1/manning_edit_revision.pdf Blog (mine fair warning): https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/a-progressive-ish-case-against-the ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FkQ_ZzFX0AAHHBa.jpg) ### [Reply to @metakuna, 14:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604477519960449025) · 3 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** just got the worst haircut of my life, maybe occupational licensing is good actually Did u get it from a licensed barber tho? ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604547609355587585) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 18, 2022:** 2\) Still quite AI-pilled, but down from my peak by like 7.5% 🥱 3\) ik this is vague + generic but: Increasingly believe that success and performance at anything is mostly dumb luck (often genetic) with some room for intentional high-level tool selection. But effort or what subjectively feels like hard work is a tweak on the margin at best ### [Tweet, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604626246108856320) · 3 likes Darn I kinda like(d?) Twitter :/ ## Monday, December 19, 2022 ### [Tweet, 10:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604782998863466496) · 3 likes what is a server? a universe? a to\[o\]ot\[er\]?? Is '.social' a normal web domain? Is there at least an analogy? Is M\_\_\_\_\_n is like a blockchain/file extension/operating system/programming language/internet/Twitter/Github/Drive/Unicode/goddamn tennis ball? please?! ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 11:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604806811084652545) · 9 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** By volume, your fridge is mostly Probably gas ### [Reply to @allthefrensy, 15:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604863006109667328) · 17 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @allthefrensy is no longer available.)_ Emma Darwin: “I wish Chuck would cool it a bit with the birdwatching” ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 15:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604863606096596995) · 2 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** The good old days when work only had a one percent fatality rate > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FkWZxTKWQAAe2ya.jpg) Pretty responsible including both numerator and denominator, still hasn’t fully caught on ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 20:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604936658184704000) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Ha, unambiguously the middle option ### [Reply to @tszzl, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604949269995454464) · 11 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** move fast break things era is over. it’s time to think deeply and make generationally good decisions What has this man seen? DiscussGPT? ### [Reply to @astridwilde, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604950982751793152) · 1 like > **Astrid Wilde 🌞 (@astridwilde):** it's the FTX version of Facebook's Little Red Book Ok what’s FB’s LRB? ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 21:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1604951479374303238) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @CineraVerinia I would be extremely wary of anyone that proclaims their community just happens to have the best ideas, even if you've gone beyond Disagree when the community in question is voluntary and intellectual - if so it wouldn’t just “happen” to have the best ideas; it would be selected for that very reason ## Tuesday, December 20, 2022 ### [Tweet, 01:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1605007982567227392) · 7 likes Boring take but Twitter is a good instance of a basically good social media functional framework and, after adding a dash of laziness and convenience, I hope it remains the dominant Twitter-like-thing ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 08:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1605113352371732481) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18 @frances\_\_lorenz @Mihonarium the answer is (as always) @RethinkPriors Started trying to think of a clever reply, a few tabs later... are Comstock and his papers like well known in the shrimp moral patienthood quantitative evaluation community? https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353852027_Pain_in_decapod_crustaceans_A_novel_solution https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361451600_The_Shrimp_Hypothesis Surprised that these dont seem to be referenced... ### [Thread, continued, 08:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1605113504289226755) on the Forum at all (or Comstock at all) ### [Reply to @sam_atis, 12:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1605176317384744963) · 48 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @sam_atis is no longer available.)_ Twist: she works with EAs, the speech disorder is when you can’t stop caveating every expression with “in expectation” or some version of “plausible”, and the reply was both intended and received as high praise ### [Quote tweet, 15:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1605228261386002433) · 2 likes Update: I think I can now take a list of urls and output a max quality single merged pdf of how each page looks when fully loaded (there's a reason I wanted this haha). Think "every SSC post in a 1GB, 100k page pdf" Afaik there's no \[user-friendly\] app or site that can do this? > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I seriously think someone (in fact, someone reading this if they wanted to) could make big tech-level money by getting really good at making custom shortcuts and Automator scripts for clients on iOS. > > Plus you could live wherever, donate 75% of your income, be own boss, etc. ### [Tweet, 19:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1605291867142135808) · 134 likes It’s a Thing that kids ask how babies are made, but tbh I never understood this because, like, there was never a question in need of an answer! Wasn’t it the obvious default hypothesis that women just spontaneously start growing babies around a certain age? ### [Tweet, 19:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1605291869528903720) · 60 likes This would explain all the observations an 8yo (who knows pregnancy is a thing, but not sex) might have: why out of wedlock births are Bad (she couldn’t find a husband \*in time\*), why kids look like their dad (doesn’t run into \*that\* many dads who look super different from mom) ### [Thread, continued, 19:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1605291871546527749) · 59 likes Adult teeth grow in spontaneously at a certain age, people grow, plants have seeds, etc. For a wrong hypothesis it sure fits the data! ### [Tweet, 22:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1605332641980497925) · 7 likes Impulse-bought a 6 sq foot poster version of this (slightly cropped), I am very excited. From http://www.pedworld.ch/ENTREE/BIOCHIMIE/metabolic_pathways_poster.pdf ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FkdJQ5hWQAAvho9.jpg) ## Wednesday, December 21, 2022 ### [Quote tweet, 01:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1605368127558131713) · 2 likes Something this drives home: All this complexity, bajillions of distinct processes, enzymes, molecules etc. are to even a \*2nd\* approximation shuffling around exactly 5 things: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and nitrogen atoms. The odd sulfur and iron gets you to 7 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fkdpya_X0AEd8n1.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FkdpybAXEAEU3ft.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FkdpybAXkAAUKGk.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FkdpybBXEAArd4L.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Impulse-bought a 6 sq foot poster version of this (slightly cropped), I am very excited. From http://www.pedworld.ch/ENTREE/BIOCHIMIE/metabolic_pathways_poster.pdf > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FkdJQ5hWQAAvho9.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 10:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1605512353717489665) · 2 likes Maybe we should retvrn > **Quoting $700k TC Staff Engineer (@KotlinChad):** @skooookum I do a lot of work as a senior engineer on a single 13” MacBook Pro, no external monitors or anything. TC over $400k btw ## Thursday, December 22, 2022 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 01:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1605741197456158720) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 18, 2022:** 3\) ik this is vague + generic but: Increasingly believe that success and performance at anything is mostly dumb luck (often genetic) with some room for… ooh forgot about this thread... 4\) Another vague and generic one but: this year I sorta kinda started peaking behind the curtain of various computery things, and feel like I have a better idea in some cases how they work. It's also meant an appreciation of how damn complex... ### [Thread, continued, 01:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1605741906058788864) · 2 likes and impressive a lot of software is. Like for instance if you take a random substack post and trace back all the HTML/CSS/JS code to any code they cite (like JS libraries I think) and iterate until there are no levels of citations, you're looking at at least tens of thousands and ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 01:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1605744806256431104) · 2 likes > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** @AaronBergman18 How does one even get into this? Did you intentionally set out to develop an interest in the most intimidating field 😛 Lol😆 mostly troubleshooting random personal medical issues. Also I wouldn't say I'm that interested in metabolism or microbiology generally - only insofar as they relate to something happening in the brain (which can def run through things like nutrition and general health) ### [Reply to @parafactual, 02:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1605746669286408192) · 1 like > **You (@parafactual):** @AaronBergman18 wait how I think this is the core of the argument ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FkjCFL9WIAISSyc.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 02:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1605747732542431232) · 2 likes I think this is the core of my argument for the QT claim Probably shouldn't stay buried \[checks notes\] 3,984 words into a not-super-popular Forum post ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FkjCYrRXEAEFGbN.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** 1\) Claim: “Total utilitarianism does not imply that any amount of suffering can be offset or morally justified by even an arbitrarily large amount of wellbeing” > > Epistemic status: Ive thought about this one a lot (prob more than any other q) and am pretty damn sure at this point ## Friday, December 23, 2022 ### [Tweet, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1606093612885868551) · 3 likes Twitter, help: I have a very simple interactive chart application as a website (http://aaron-bergman.shinyapps.io/topics_data2/ for EA forum nerds! ) which I can replicate by running one local file even w/ wifi off When I save the site as "Webpage, complete" I get the html and bunch of js and css files ### [Thread, continued, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1606093614173536256) · 2 likes (which I didn't...write) which I can \*also\* use to generate the page...except this time it behaves like a fillable form that doesn't do anything else So what's missing? How would you get the site to run locally if all you had to start was the url? ## Saturday, December 24, 2022 ### [Reply to @johncoogan, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1606453420927225856) · 2 likes > **John Coogan (@johncoogan):** If you think Lex Fridman lacks the proper academic credentials to host 3 hour podcasts… I have some bad news for you about Joe Rogan. Rogan is a good interviewer ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 03:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1606485052774391808) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Shrimp welfare advocates in tears right now Maybe she raised these in an extra spacious fish tank with lots of oxygen before euthanizing them with heroin ### [Reply, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1606485529981321216) · 13 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Wait but I think dietary cholesterol really does support testosterone synthesis ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1606499260245356544) _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ …most of the empirical correlation is probably due to dietary saturated fat, and no studies really hone in on dietary cholesterol alone per se as the single treatment variable ### [Tweet, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1606515673340977153) · 6 likes Twitter showing views is a textbook discontinuity analysis natural experiment: there’s gonna be a big csv somewhere with 200M user’s tweet stats before and after the change Prediction: small but significant negative effect on mean and median likes/view ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 05:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1606515909283250177) · 10 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Strong disagree. Everyone at any professional conference should be treated as a coworker and that's it. There's already way too much blurring of professional/personal in general. This but only so I have a good excuse for being single ### [Reply, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1606516991451340802) · 7 likes Contra the “bad publicity” replies: smallish neolib twitter accounts shouldn’t be optimizing to convince the median American president election voter. ~all true and important claims ought to be said \*somewhere\*, and it’s hard to think of a better place than “small neolib account” ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1606518023644499968) · 2 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** It doesn't matter if its true or not. It is grossly offensive. There are social boundaries you shouldn't step beyond, and they exist for a \*very\* good reason. Once again, I'm imploring you to delete it I honestly don’t find it grossly offensive (and fwiw Jewish family, bar mitzvah, etc) It could be offensive or merely cringe/bad taste if said in a different setting ofc ### [Reply to @MaxGhenis, 05:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1606518752379604992) · 2 likes > **Max Ghenis (@MaxGhenis):** @realjudeleelind I'm pretty skeptical of this but would read an analysis quantifying the case Not very rigorous but ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 06:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1606535037830270976) · 3 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 @realjudeleelind I think there are plenty of ways to convey the important facts behind this statement without sparking controversy over holocaust denialism, and it doesn't seem like there's really a tradeoff I honestly don’t see any denialism here; the strength of the claim (semantic and rhetorical) depends on it being common knowledge between writer and reader that the Holocaust is real and horrible ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 06:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1606535120999129090) · 3 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @SpacedOutMatt @AaronBergman18 @maiamindel that's just the leftover hedons for the consumer 😭 A lil extra flavor too ### [Tweet, 17:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1606705888437440513) · 5 likes Blue tribe vs red tribe: the final battle (over whether dietary cholesterol increases testosterone production) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FkwqfZCXwAYC4_o.jpg) ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 17:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1606706486515728386) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Lmao ### [Quote tweet, 17:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1606707047050973188) · 2 likes Can we get a team of intellectually-disagreeable LWers on this one? > **Quoting Christopher K. Mellon (@ChrisKMellon):** The lack of news coverage compels me to point out that President Biden has just signed into law far-reaching legislation that could solve the UAP mystery: https://www.christophermellon.net/post/unprecedented-uap-legislation ### [Quote tweet, 18:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1606713687728951299) · 3 likes Everyone dunking on this for the wrong reason: unless you’ve got a super nice heating system, you’re just not gonna make every room in a house 70° if it’s 15 outside Concentrated heat means \*more\* heat where you are > **Quoting Alaric (@0xAlaric):** When leftists post stuff like this, it’s a deep betrayal of their psychology. > > The inadvertently say the quiet part out loud. > > 1/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FkuKHnrWAAEKosQ.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1606713695064801280) · 2 likes 14 outside, 52 in rest of house, chillin in shorts with a window cracked (CO2 ofc) in a space heater-made sauna 😎 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FkwxlvdXkAIfAzK.jpg) ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 23:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1606801226506686464) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/ ## Sunday, December 25, 2022 ### [Reply, 08:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1606930625998778368) · 3 likes This is both annoying and doesn’t make sense lmao ### [Reply to @IgorBrigadir, 09:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1606937972309651461) · 2 likes > **Igor Brigadir 🇺🇦 (@IgorBrigadir):** It blew my mind when i first learned about approximate counting - it's genuinely extremely difficult to internalize - what could possibly be simpler than counting?! > > (quoting @moyix: It’s a dirty secret of the industry that all counts in a distributed system are to some degree fake) Wait what ## Monday, December 26, 2022 ### [Tweet, 10:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1607329861789712384) · 12 likes Sorta in honor of Christmas: What’s the probability that the basic scientific metaphysics/worldview is mostly wrong e.g.,: \- there’s a full-on quasi-anthropomorphic diety \- we’re in/are a simulation \- universe< 1M years \- “history” didn’t happen \- Truman Show type of thing ### [Thread, continued, 10:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1607329863618248704) · 2 likes Honestly not sure how to divide up the probabilities - might put another poll below if results are concentrated ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 19:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1607458855620956164) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 I'm not on lesswrong so how does the 2nd contradict this worldview? Doesn’t necessarily contradict, I was trying to include “extremely incomplete” as a subset of “wrong” ## Thursday, December 29, 2022 ### [Quote tweet, 02:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1608291045338390529) · 14 likes Lfg, big pharma is good now (dw current placement is temporary) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FlHMLmaWAAAAjGP.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Valuable info right here 🧫🧬🔬 ## Friday, December 30, 2022 ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 03:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1608671165048057858) · 2 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** AMA to celebrate eleventy-one followers (and bc everyone else’s doing it and it seems fun!) Why great falls Montana? ### [Thread, continued, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1608671461430157312) · 2 likes No disrespect to the third most populous city in the great State of Montana ofc ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FlMmK0WX0AEMoXM.jpg) ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 03:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1608672478951505920) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Guy who doesn’t download his hinge data spreadsheet --- End of December 2022. Previous month: [November 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-11). Next month: [January 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-01). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, January 2023 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in January 2023 and has not deleted: 121 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [December 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-12). Next month: [February 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-02). ## Monday, January 2, 2023 ### [Reply, 01:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1609727277029376004) · 14 likes The next winning Powerball numbers ### [Tweet, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1609757739768586243) · 9 likes 🎁🎁🎁 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FlcCIf_WYAEJpPB.jpg) ## Wednesday, January 4, 2023 ### [Reply to @ns_whit, 19:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1610721880222175232) · 4 likes > **Nick Whitaker 🇺🇸 (@ns_whit):** Holden Karnofsky is the most interesting intellectual of our time. And @dwarkesh_sp might be our best interviewer https://www.dwarkeshpatel.com/p/holden-karnofsky Podcast Host Showdown: @dwarkesh_sp and @robertwiblin simultaneously each other to prove who is the single 🐐 ($10 to a charity of each’s choice if this happens and results in a >30min episode) ## Thursday, January 5, 2023 ### [Reply to @MichaelDPlant, 14:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1611001962178166784) · 2 likes > **Michael Plant (@MichaelDPlant):** Puzzling over the Q4 website metrics for @HappierLivesIns 🧐. Turns out 'work with us' got 3x more page views than 'give now' - we weren't hiring but we \*were\* urging people to give. So, I guess we ... pivot into a recruitment agency? Add a 'donate' button to our job page? 🤷‍♂️ No experience but I’d guess that’s basically true for most orgs - the careers page is like a mystery treasure chest which might hold “your dream job, perfect fit, apply w only resume, $250k comp+infinite stipend for anything” ### [Reply to @astridwilde, 23:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1611147867720409090) · 11 likes > **Astrid Wilde 🌞 (@astridwilde):** suffering is not inherently Bad. pleasure is not inherently Good. This is probably the most wrong Tweet in existence (no hard feelings tho👍): two simple propositions, both of which when negated are in the top 5 “most likely to be true zero ambiguity” claims I’ve ever entertained. And simple enough to be translated into first order logic 🥲🥲 ## Friday, January 6, 2023 ### [Reply, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1611468932195684352) · 2 likes Not if it’s being sold as a research chemical with a “not for human consumption” label😇 ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 21:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1611470726321655810) · 66 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** ChatGPT: Explain HTML to me like I'm a dog > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FlzWgm5XkAAFUrk.png) “Not something you need to worry about” 😡 😡 😡 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fl0YFcIX0Ak6QWe.jpg) ## Saturday, January 7, 2023 ### [Reply to @Memetic_Theory, 06:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1611612708587069440) · 2 likes > **mass (@Memetic_Theory):** @AaronBergman18 @peterwildeford Yep, it may be controversial, but I do believe dogs have inferior intelligence. yeah, thanks to comments like that ^ ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 23:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1611860264621596680) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @Laura_k_Duffy @peterwildeford My experience (as a 2018 grad) was that there was ~0 academic risk to respectful disagreement and discussion in the classroom. On the other hand, my friends and I definitely would roll our eyes at some of the more annoying conservatives who always needed to play devil's advocate IME (2021.5) there was a medium amount of asymmetric norm enforcement/isolated demands for rigor (along the basic culture war axis and in the directions you expect) Easiest example: took what was basically the imaginary CRT thing but irl (“intro to sexuality studies”) … ### [Thread, continued, 23:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1611863235413540864) · 2 likes Oh ya maybe I’m dumb but totally thought “Intro to Sexuality Studies” was gonna be a very normal course introducing the academic study of sexuality through sociology/psych/bio/whatever. Complained on the feedback form that it was a misleading title lmao ### [Reply to @christineist, 23:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1611868602604441600) · 1 like > **christine (@christineist):** every now and then my body decides to stay up until the sunken hours just to see the fabric of reality shimmer a lil bit Shit hits different at 4:09 ## Sunday, January 8, 2023 ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 20:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1612178873969528834) · 9 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** What's a good book for a smart 14 year old interested in physics? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fl-cJDWXEAErLrZ.jpg) ### [Reply, 23:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1612237539913650177) · 2 likes Not exactly the same but for all the paper/textbook notes I took in college: split screen: reader app (browser or pdf reader or whatever) on the left, Word on the right, and just make a long bulleted, nested list. Can add screenshots, latex-style code, links etc ## Monday, January 9, 2023 ### [Reply to @ftlsid, 01:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1612254331188776962) > **ftlsid (@ftlsid):** college admissions as a system that creates angry smart kids with something to prove is probably net positive for society Lmao https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/most-ivy-smart-students-arent-at ## Tuesday, January 10, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 01:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1612617894562512897) · 11 likes The rarity with which most Westerners today undergo terrible acute suffering today is, I think, literally the best thing that has ever happened. But a cruel irony is that, largely for this reason, descriptions like Ngo’s are shockingly, misleadingly rare - rendering… (1/2) > **Quoting Richard Ngo (@RichardMCNgo):** Just had a routine medical procedure that was nevertheless the most painful experience of my life, leaving me curled up and nauseous. I'm now feeling very visceral empathy and horror for the thousands (millions?) of people who underwent surgeries before anaesthesia. ### [Thread, continued, 01:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1612617897074884608) · 8 likes suffering’s overwhelming moral importance silent to many and a whisper to most Why “largely”? Bc just as important is the topic’s (completely intuitive and natural) lack of memetic fitness. It’s not a fun or sexy topic, even in EA/adjacent spaces! ### [Quote tweet, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1612618268665348096) · 5 likes Wait this whole thread is incredibly based > **Quoting Richard Ngo (@RichardMCNgo):** There's also a lot of work to be done in getting people to internalise the horror of extreme suffering. It's insane that we can't even agree that hell is bad! Increasing our civilisational empathy is one of the most important projects possible. ### [Tweet, 04:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1612660635891793920) · 6 likes Both housemates have COVID. Afaict I do not (yet) Is there a nerdy cutting edge take on transmission between two non-adjacent rooms that each fork from a single vent? (Also I know the basics and am not super worried but any other advice is welcome too) ### [Reply to @astridwilde, 08:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1612735302539280385) · 7 likes > **Astrid Wilde 🌞 (@astridwilde):** only city i've ever been to that looks anything close to this is Barcelona Wonderful memory of getting lost there after hitting the streets alone at 16, no cell service, while on a family vacation because “the big diagonal road” I was counting on as a landmark doesn’t seem quite as conspicuous irl as it does from the sky/on a map ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 20:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1612903364798332928) · 7 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** Jeez Louise, @inesferhumi did you have to mute this?! Nearly 100,000 likes! > > (quoting @inesferhumi: ???? Why did i think i would remember what this meant) And did u ever figure out what it was referring to?? ## Wednesday, January 11, 2023 ### [Reply to @utopiannotions, 09:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1613105926331932673) · 2 likes > **Conor M (@utopiannotions):** It's crazy that jhana exists yet it's extremely rare for people to even TRY to achieve it. What's the explanation? If I had to guess: > 99% of people haven't heard of it. > Of that 1%, half don't believe it and many of the remainder think it's undesirable or unlikely... (1/2) > > (quoting @nickcammarata: We live in a world where jhana exists and less than five people are working on a jhana helmet) FWIW I’m in the <.25% left over, and idk I think it’s just a combo of laziness/short time preference (meditation is super hard for me) and probably some baseline skepticism my brain won’t let go of Would like to think I’ll try in earnest in the future tho ### [Reply to @CineraVerinia, 20:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1613265685576032265) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @CineraVerinia is no longer available.)_ Lmao ### [Reply to @The_Equationist, 20:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1613266080721412109) · 2 likes > **𑘀𑘦𑘡 𑘎𑘨𑘢𑘹 (@The_Equationist):** @MarkovMagnifico They want to minimize the cost function. Happy to use the agent/desire framing, but isn’t this only true during training for DL? ## Thursday, January 12, 2023 ### [Reply to @cafreiman, 05:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1613408202904817664) · 1 like > **Chris Freiman (@cafreiman):** Is there any topic that’s totally resistant to politicization? To be pedantic, politics ### [Reply to @pleasure_engine, 07:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1613430892873256960) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pleasure_engine is no longer available.)_ I’m not overweight but it seems pretty intuitive: it’s hard not to eat when you’re hungry, and hunger is the basic mechanism driving body weight setpoint ### [Reply, 07:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1613431591212290048) · 2 likes It’s an effective antidepressant ### [Reply to @chiefofstuffs, 07:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1613433668613148673) · 4 likes > **karl yang (@chiefofstuffs):** you can tell how old someone is by how they name google docs How old am I ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FmQRXwZXEAUcbxL.jpg) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 19:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1613617851365224448) > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @ostensiblynil I forgot to mention all the variables have to be bounded \[0, 1\]. This summation trick results in that parameter violating the bounds. In that case, program gradient ascent by hand? Not exactly a full set of code I’m providing ## Friday, January 13, 2023 ### [Tweet, 03:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1613742142060371969) · 19 likes Something I wrote months ago and still stand by (y’all are ~smart~ enough to find the source on your own, should you want it) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FmUp7NpXwAAZSld.jpg) ### [Reply to @nkreu113r, 07:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1613807015184187392) · 2 likes > **noah (@nkreu113r):** @AaronBergman18 i think this sort of thinking decays rapidly into "no cognitive traits are moral virtues". > > intelligence isn't any more or less "undeserved" or "unchosen" than work ethic, charity, or not being a serial killer. brains are brains. I see where you’re coming from, basically agree with the physicalist lens, and indeed do not think cognitive traits per se should should be regarded as virtues. But ethical behavioral patterns (eg telling the truth) which sometimes get reified as intrinsic properties (“honesty”) ### [Thread, continued, 07:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1613807521113821185) · 3 likes at least often should be, because behavior responds to incentives in a way that cognitive traits per se do not IOW Virtues should have elastic supply ### [Reply to @the_culturist_, 21:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1614006394826510354) · 2 likes > **The Culturist (@the_culturist_):** A 23 year old sculpted this. > > What's your excuse? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FmTYN7_XoBs5ECS.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FmTYN77XoBAugP6.jpg) Im 22 for 2 more months ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 21:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1614014499442380832) · 2 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** @CineraVerinia If bostrom did believe that such differences were genetic (and I do think he does), several actions of his and worldviews would change. Would he statistically discriminate against black people as a result of this? I think that's a direct consequence of this object level belief It may be a consequence for some, but it’s not a direct, intrinsic, or necessary consequence ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 23:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1614034732270129152) · 2 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** @AaronBergman18 @CineraVerinia If I believe that X characteristic causes lower ability, wouldn't I need some evidence to prove that there is normal ability despite X characteristic? Yeah but that evidence is so universal and routine to collect that, if youre interacting with a person in virtually any capacity, you already have it ## Sunday, January 15, 2023 ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 07:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1614529151997820929) · 2 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** People wear glasses to correct subpar vision, but has anyone ever advocated using a similar technology to create superhuman vision? How technically feasible is this? It’s strange people are satisfied with things just being good enough. Breaking: bad person becoming based occasionally ## Monday, January 16, 2023 ### [Tweet, 00:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1614788809669103618) · 30 likes This is The Scissor Statement isnt it? ### [Thread, continued, 01:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1614789679714533376) · 11 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fmjip6iWIAEtnPw.jpg) ### [Reply, 01:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1614790455677550594) · 4 likes Would RT🔒 ### [Reply to @AndrewCurran_, 02:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1614805493620568064) · 2 likes > **Andrew Curran (@AndrewCurran_):** @MatthewAdelste1 @AaronBergman18 > > (quoting @ESYudkowsky: so I hear the GPT4 prototype got used to generate a scissor-statement apology where half of EA would condemn the apology, and the other half would condemn anyone who condemns the apology) Ok I swear I didn’t see yuds post before lol ### [Tweet, 05:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1614860440646868993) · 4 likes Had to do a double-take when my brain parsed the Chalmers/Goff/Frankish convo as one of those fake Fellow Kids history class social media feeds Like nbd just hashing out the nature of consciousness on the TL ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FmkjAuSXoAA8r24.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FmkjAuyXkAE7I41.jpg) ## Tuesday, January 17, 2023 ### [Tweet, 07:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1615244513974394881) · 6 likes A world in which moral atrocities are held at bay by empirical belief in universal omnidimensional equality is one teetering on the brink of such acts - and this is so regardless of whether those beliefs are true or false ### [Thread, continued, 07:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1615244518462488576) · 3 likes Parts of science have, are, and will be wrong. Pseudoscience can be mistaken for its legitimate namesake But bigotry and the creation of suffering cannot wax and wain with the phases of each scientific revolution; no empirical claim—correct or mistaken—will ever justify either ## Wednesday, January 18, 2023 ### [Reply to @ozziegooen, 04:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1615570864862552066) · 13 likes > **Ozzie Gooen (@ozziegooen):** Is there any term for "People who think that EA should expand very quickly, and this is about the most important cause area"? > "EA Expansionism", maybe? > Connotations aren't great, but there aren't many options. EA/acc ### [Reply to @algekalipso, 06:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1615598628512342016) · 4 likes > **Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso):** https://www.opioids.com/ Who snatched that domain in like 1986? ### [Reply to @BenHayum, 19:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1615798826824089601) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @BenHayum is no longer available.)_ How does one walk like a fir tree? ## Thursday, January 19, 2023 ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1615928493807640576) · 11 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** My very hot animal welfare take is that someone who eats both animal meat and plant-based meat is doing more good than someone who eats neither. Subsidizing the nascent (hopeful) eventual replacement industry is more impactful than your relatively tiny personal consumption Plausible but the subsidization is tiny as well. And just going on intuition Id be surprised if $100 spent on a bundle of alt meat is better than a $1 donation to GFI, so under most peoples preferences it’d be better to buy only animal meat and donate the net $ difference ### [Quote tweet, 21:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1616178927504097280) · 96 likes \*Unless it’s an EA org, in which case the median candidate wrote a PhD thesis on whatever topic applicants should understand, the lower quartile candidate looks generally great and checks every box, and the top candidate is God > **Quoting billy (@billyhumblebrag):** Nothing white pills you quicker on your prospects than hiring and seeing the quality of the median job application. ### [Thread, continued, 21:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1616179449510215680) · 21 likes ^figuratively and directionally informed by real experience ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 21:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1616181798718816260) · 6 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** @AaronBergman18 I think this is an exaggeration Yeah it is (even without the last part) and my sample size is 1, but fr I was very positively surprised and that was starting with high expectations ### [Reply to @patrickaturley, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1616197970344480776) · 27 likes > **Patrick Turley (@patrickaturley):** I move that we change the name of the "United States" to "AAAAAA United States" so it shows up at the top of dropdown lists where you have to select your country. Or make the alphabet start with UNITEDS ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1616200535010381836) · 7 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** this is why we need moral circle expansion > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fm2vlMLaUAUyH_U.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fm3l0dXWAAA-PcQ.jpg) ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1616202975587799047) · 3 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** AI safety is not a marathon or a sprint but a secret third thing Unironically it’s like a race of unknown length (This would actually be neat irl, plz add @Olympics)' ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 23:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1616209719143837697) · 3 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Like, I think race/IQ stuff is so hurtful bc we know good and well that many of the people "just talking about the facts" (themselves morally neutral) value their intelligence most about themselves or at least think that intelligence is determinative of moral worth... FWIW I think this is a strong argument for decoupling. Sure, “many” people group intelligence and moral worth, but I’d guess in % terms the belief is anticorrelated with decoupling (which IMO makes sense because it’s default in our culture but wrong) ### [Reply to @nullpointered, 23:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1616210142797914113) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @nullpointered is no longer available.)_ Yeah imma blame it on this ## Friday, January 20, 2023 ### [Reply to @adambinksmith, 01:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1616248777433645057) · 9 likes > **Adam Binksmith (@adambinksmith):** I hear god's airtable skills are a bit rusty tho Yeah He didn’t get the internship ### [Quote tweet, 01:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1616249525588398084) · 9 likes Every time ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fm4SYIwXkAIkMnM.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** POV: you've figured out why you're getting a double digit number of notifications > > To Mr. Buterin's 3.9M followers, hello! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FVD3JT2WUAE_bAP.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1616250130725851136) · 9 likes Thanks @lastpositivist for applying to the leftist-philosophy-and-Twitter internship. We regret to inform you that you have not been selected for round 2. We had many very strong applications and… ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 01:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1616251498102489088) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** if you were sceptical of web3 but think AI is the next big thing then congratulations you have good judgement Stay contrarian ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fm4ULANXgAA7xGW.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fm4ULALWQAArml4.jpg) ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 03:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1616282623067803649) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Ayy lfg ### [Reply to @LexerLux, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1616283590480007170) · 15 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @LexerLux is no longer available.)_ Most people earning 40k aren’t surfing instructors tho ### [Reply to @lastpositivist, 14:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1616443295286132736) · 10 likes > **Liam Bright (@lastpositivist):** Mix of fair and unfair critiques in this. True - there is often socio-political naivety among EA rank and file, and upper echelons seem to avoid social theory in a way one cannot help but suspect is related to maintaining relationships with pay masters... > > https://jacobin.com/2023/01/effective-altruism-longtermism-nick-bostrom-racism Holy shit this is infowars-level bad ### [Reply, 22:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1616557903464353820) · 1 like FWIW some new info makes FLI’s actions seem not nearly as bad IMO ## Saturday, January 21, 2023 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 02:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1616620130619777024) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** So it turns out tweeting about how dates should be written might be the path to engagement farming There is a \_relevant\_ double entendre here ## Sunday, January 22, 2023 ### [Tweet, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1616965254180753408) · 5 likes Deleting bc they got a partial fill at the 5th or 6th pharmacy they tried—a CVS—after being told repeatedly that all local CSVs were out of stock Posting this in case it's useful info ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnCalKcXoAAimXd.jpg) ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 03:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1617004539311280129) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ me fr ### [Reply to @robbensinger, 03:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1617005953630494721) > **Rob Bensinger ⏹️ (@robbensinger):** ............... What???? > > This literally ever happens?? Huh? What do you mean by "conscious" here?? > > (quoting @ElodesNL: @Malcolm_Ocean I remember it as being a fairly clear single moment, around when I was three or four years old; suddenly one day I was conscious and I haven't stopped since I also had a few memories already, which was interesting; they'd been saved for me while I still lacked…) ### [Reply to @jordanwpieters, 04:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1617017622343688192) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @jordanwpieters is no longer available.)_ 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🏈💵WELCOME TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 🇺🇸🏈💵 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 ### [Reply to @lainewrites, 08:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1617077822769729536) · 2 likes > **elaine (@lainewrites):** used to think it was an introvert thing, but now i’m convinced that when you feel drained after a social event it’s bc you weren’t comfortable being yourself w the ppl you were with. > > it’s super energy-consuming to suppress a part of you or be anyone other than yourself. Wait isn’t this a (the?) definition of introversion tho ### [Tweet, 11:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1617128795802112001) · 8 likes Google’s gonna train their LLM on the 25 million books aren’t they https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/the-tragedy-of-google-books/523320/ ### [Thread, continued, 11:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1617128800030162945) · 4 likes That’s an interesting pull quote ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnEyEtlWIAAmzuZ.jpg) ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1617254886420402177) · 2 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** @AaronBergman18 @laine_writes I think the social-draining definition of introversion is kinda bad. I would define it as “do you feel anxiety before/during social encounters” bc this, imo, is a better predictor of how much I’ll seek out such encounters. (I’m poorly calibrated in how much I’ll enjoy them) I’m a weirdo, ~zero social anxiety but any amount of human interaction must be followed by a recharging period of appropriate length ### [Reply to @mirandahzhang, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1617255983838859264) · 12 likes > **Miranda Zhang (@mirandahzhang):** There are forms of suffering that persist to the extent of being a permanent debuff (e.g. chronic pain). Are there currently equivalent forms of happiness? > > (If not, I guess this is part of the argument for wireheading?) Unipolar hypo/mania is a rare ‘condition’ I think. The opposite of depression, hedonically ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 23:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1617310382867247104) · 4 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** Christians are not freaking out enough. Like really -- how can you accept that hell is real, you go there if you do not believe, and yet not support having the government seize the children of non-believers?? We want laws against child abuse, but not against eternal torment?? I’ve seen tweets like “why aren’t EAs doing terrorism if they really believe what they say?” and am inclined to think an “effective Christian” would also find this kind of thing instrumentally counterproductive (perhaps in addition to being intrinsically bad) ## Monday, January 23, 2023 ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1617311150567460864) · 3 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Who is your favourite critic of EA that you'd like EAs to hear a talk from? Me (super egotistical ik but I’m allowed to integrate all the critiques I like right?) ### [Reply to @utopiannotions, 00:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1617322120488583172) · 3 likes > **Conor M (@utopiannotions):** I just finished writing a novel! > > It's the first time I've ever finished something this long. It's 95,000 words and very messy, but it's mine. I'm so happy. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnGuCwqaYAA1Mq1.jpg) One. Long. Thread. ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1617325058011328513) · 2 likes > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** They're sea lioning so hard smh > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnHh9CPaEAMb3jg.jpg) Idk if there’s enough room in this thread for both squads ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnHkkRMXkAAmTlS.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnHkkRMXoAY3pjM.jpg) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 02:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1617349456789385217) · 4 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Failing to detect the human hiding behind a tree is something that ChatGPT also falls for > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnHv-DyWQAEQO-e.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnHv__JWQAIbfc8.jpg) “a movement of 6 feet would be unusual for a tree” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnH6wj2XkAEZreL.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1617349904338415616) · 5 likes I am officially concerned > **Quoting Nick (@nickcammarata):** It’s as good a time as ever to start an equanimity practice. One of the most potent and broadest hedges you can have against a wild future ### [Reply to @paulg, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1617357982152495104) · 3 likes > **Paul Graham (@paulg):** One sign that determination matters more than talent: there are lots of talented people who never achieve anything, but not that many determined people who don't. A rare mistaken take ### [Reply, 05:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1617387850483351553) · 9 likes To be annoying, there is no line, it’s all just a spectrum from Will MacAskill to “anyone who’s friends with anyone who’s ever donated to GiveWell” Or self-identification if you don’t wanna essentialize ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 11:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1617477453366325249) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** GPT-4 prediction thread 👇: FWIW https://m.slashdot.org/story/409852 ## Tuesday, January 24, 2023 ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 08:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1617805064571322368) · 5 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** A bit of personal news (which some of you already know): In about a month, I’ll be moving from Montana to (most likely) the DC area. > Why? A myriad of reasons, including desires to heal past wounds, find new friends, and, of course, experience much warmer winters. Out: Oxford, SF/Berkeley, NYC, Austin, Great Falls, Boston/Cambridge, New Haven, Bahamas, London In: DC On the bubble: Tulsa, outer space ### [Quote tweet, 09:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1617810342599610370) · 4 likes Endorse. Pulling this off would be some serious SFE Robin Hood shit (not the app) > **Quoting Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso):** The fact that we, as a civilization, haven't eradicated cluster headaches even though DMT can get rid of them for peanuts, is perhaps the most damning thing about our species. > > EA 2.0 focusing on pragmatic solutions for extreme suffering would be a beautiful plot twist arc. ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 16:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1617920349622112258) · 1 like > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Hanania seems on an interesting journey right now: > > \- his recent support of the press > \- his criticism of his own followers (IIRC he said some repulse him) > \- his continued support of prediction markets, will force him to be more accurate than many others > > (edited) > > (quoting @RichardHanania: Legalize prediction markets now and try to create a world where people this stupid are held accountable for the ways in which they pollute public discourse.) I think Scott Alexander’s “worst person” remark might have gotten to him Fine, “might”=35% ## Wednesday, January 25, 2023 ### [Reply to @sullyj3, 00:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1618044853757280256) · 2 likes > **░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░ (@sullyj3):** @AaronBergman18 @NathanpmYoung Which one was that https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/links-for-june-1e7 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnRzN-zXEAAAbr2.jpg) ### [Reply to @ConnorTabarrok, 00:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1618046381293457408) · 9 likes > **Connor J. Tabarrok 🏗🚀🌏 (@ConnorTabarrok):** "Actually, whaling is unassailably good because of the welfare benefits to shrimp." > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnQxTSxWIAAmxn6.jpg) Yes but have you fully modeled the complete nth order effects on every form of ocean creature for all of eternity? ## Thursday, January 26, 2023 ### [Tweet, 17:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1618656132263968768) · 19 likes Not Thing 1 or Thing 2, but a secret, more complex third Thing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnafLH0WQActNYA.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1618728218273652737) · 10 likes Shipped my first web app a few hours ago, a Spotify playlist analyzer :) Had to do some weird API workaround tho, not sure it was 100% kosher lol ### [Quote tweet, 22:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1618733667286925312) · 3 likes What's the biggest thing YOUR gc has achieved? "Big" can include super niche if it was consequential for \*someone\*, btw Bonus points for small size, penalties assessed for being a Slack or >15 people > **Quoting Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** don't name names, but what is biggest thing a group chat has achieved? > > roonchat seems maybe to have moved A16Z so that's pretty big. anyone got better? ## Friday, January 27, 2023 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 03:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1618819207550083073) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, January 7, 2023:** IME (2021.5) there was a medium amount of asymmetric norm enforcement/isolated demands for rigor (along the basic culture war axis and in the directions you… Guy in Maine and guy in Florida debate the weather on the East Coast ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnczfUUXgAICtKC.jpg) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 04:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1618821726095413249) · 4 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Interesting to see what the list of most donated charities are in the US: > > https://www.forbes.com/lists/top-charities/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnbPVO9XoBsrNkR.jpg) Would be curious to see a Gini index for each (and every charity ideally), where the units are individuals’ total annual donations (I guess both counting and ignoring non-donors?) Like are there 10 figure donations to Feeding America? Mostly made of 2/3/4/5 figure ones? ### [Reply to @MatthewJBar, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1618852861210918912) · 6 likes > **Matthew Barnett (@MatthewJBar):** New estimate of the consumer surplus of the internet just dropped. If it's accurate, then there was no great stagnation. > > Let me explain.🧵 > > (quoting @JgaltTweets: 'By far the worst part of Bankman-Fried’s nine-day Bahamian incarceration was the lack of internet. “I didn't realize how much more important than everything else combined internet access is to me, but that was like 80% of the total cost of being in prison," says Bankman-Fried') Not sure how seriously this is intended but, assuming for argument SBF is right about his own experience, Id bet most of the delta is caused by \*losing\* access per se after hedonic/habitual adaptation, rather than merely lacking it Even still, I agree consumer surplus from ### [Tweet, 06:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1618856335529103366) · 3 likes Everyone should pin their 10+ most-liked and favorite Tweets as an act of community service. No limit to the number as long as they’re descending in subjective value ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1619071571875995649) · 1 like > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** yes landlords will frequently accept $0 a month in order to make more money > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnfRN-yaAAU33Yw.jpg) I highly doubt it's significant but the monopoly/oligopoly supply restriction logic still checks out in this market ## Saturday, January 28, 2023 ### [Reply to @EigenGender, 11:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1619293309335375874) · 7 likes > **EigenGender 🔸 (@EigenGender):** whether or not he's correct, Yudowsky's writings are expertly and perfectly and magnificently crafted to lure smart people into wanting to believe him completely. That's why Yudowsky should argue that no one should read his own work. Lots of hot takes here but IMO he’s just a very good writer - good stylistically and excellent at actually communicating ideas with high fidelity. And I certainly don’t agree with him on everything, maybe consciousness most of all ### [Tweet, 16:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1619375607997157376) · 6 likes It’d be cool if everyone had a unique name. The one many acquaintances would know, so as things stand middle names wouldn’t count. Like kinda dumb that there are 50ish Aaron Bergmans just on FB ### [Thread, continued, 16:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1619375610014605312) · 3 likes And no scarcity of possibilities: 25B 10 letter combos with no adjacent vowels or consonants=enough for everyone Hi I’m Opuwasilol ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 17:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1619379867111550977) · 8 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Do you do the @givingwhatwecan pledge? > > If so who do you give to? No(t yet, pending more $ stability/certainty) but to RP and Fish Welfare Initiative These are my best guesses for ‘best institutional recipient of $1’ but also guess a 10 hour investigation would yield otherwise just bc the possibility space is so large … ### [Thread, continued, 17:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1619381044079366145) · 5 likes Seriously, change my mind! No plurality bullshit I want to know which single donation-accepting institution it is most ethical to give $1 (or $1k, maybe not $1B) Ideally I’d put up a real bounty but rn I can mail you an EA Georgetown sticker ### [Quote tweet, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1619418842916323328) · 12 likes Why didn’t I learn about this in Hebrew school? > **Quoting Boze Herrington, Library Owl 😴🧙‍♀️ (@SketchesbyBoze):** One of my favorite things in the Talmud is the intense debate about whether the plague of frogs in Exodus was a million tiny frogs or one \*very large\* frog. (1 / 5) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fnc3I3LXEAAZlaU.jpg) ## Sunday, January 29, 2023 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 00:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1619495907816529923) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 This would have made passover way cooler The time for CRISPR has come ### [Reply to @JacquesThibs, 00:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1619497308097503232) · 5 likes > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** My tweets when being as factual as possible: > 12 likes, 1 retweet, 3 comments > > My tweets when I’m a little hyperbolic: > 99999 likes, 9999 retweets, 999 comments Does this make your tweet true or false?? 😰 😰 😰 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnmcN_4X0AI69yq.jpg) ### [Tweet, 01:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1619505780394446848) · 13 likes Would bet that most exercise <> health outcome correlations are due way more to health → exercise causation than (I think?) basically anyone else believes And tbc I don’t think this looks only like “person with \[condition\] doesn’t exercise for obvious, legible reason”… ### [Thread, continued, 01:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1619505782495805440) · 7 likes More like “going from 30th to 50th percentile in systemic inflammation thanks to \[exogenous reason\] as measured by CRP somehow causes the brain to find all physical activity more difficult/higher threshold/less pleasant” Not sure I could specify this well tho ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 07:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1619600059225767936) · 1 like > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** my data was too big for google sheets, so i installed and learned python. but now it's too big for my computer, python won't run it. off to buy a new computer i guess? How many GB? With some difficulty/crashing, R+RStudio+datatable package+decent but not amazing gov’t laptop with 8GB RAM handled 16M rows over I think 4GB ### [Reply, 10:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1619648767925358593) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Lmao ### [Reply to @lisatomic5, 15:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1619723749061795840) · 2 likes > **lisatomic (@lisatomic5):** everybody postin takes about ending compulsory education, ain't nobody wanna hire an eighth grader I had a camp counselor job then. It paid, and I promise this is literally true, $100/week≈$2/hour. Not sure why I agreed to that ### [Reply, 17:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1619755606813904896) · 2 likes how about “df%>%filter(dummy!=1)” ### [Quote tweet, 20:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1619801118762233856) · 15 likes Hot take: LW-brand rationalism is good I think because this bundle of norms is: \- non-obvious, \- requiring of a bunch of social cooperation but non-coercive \- in fact conducive to its self-defined objectives; and \- empirically used often for good ends and rarely for bad ones > **Quoting Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Its hard to describe what rationalist culture is "about"; here's a good summary of the conversational guidelines: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnqLjudXgAIxO29.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnqLj4uWAAIBaAE.jpg) ## Monday, January 30, 2023 ### [Reply to @mnolangray, 00:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1619851593054035968) · 6 likes > **M. Nolan Gray 🥑 (@mnolangray):** Fascinating, MGM Grand set a trap in my room. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fnol8GkagAANJs2.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fnol_JeaAAEoTIK.jpg) Is this kind of thing legal? Could they just declare the charge to be $5k instead? $500k? ### [Reply to @CineraVerinia, 01:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1619862978135826433) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @CineraVerinia is no longer available.)_ Lifting makes me way hungrier fwiw, meaning I’m pretty sure that periods of more regular gym my bf% actually increases without intentionally trying to gain (not gigantically but some, alongside lean weight) In early HS I did naive linear extrapolation, actively trying to ### [Reply to @norabelrose, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1619895335350071296) · 3 likes > **Taylor Belrose (@norabelrose):** I don’t find moral realism to be conceptually coherent. I can’t imagine a world in which it’s true. That said, most philosophers do seem to think it’s coherent. I wonder if you could formalize the specific assumptions under which moral realism is coherent or not Secular moral realist (and I’ve given it a fair bit of thought), and I stopped listening to this episode after 20 minutes because it was apparent that the guest and I already agreed >99.9% on this one niche take https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/sharon-hewitt-rawlette-hedonistic-utilitarianism/ ### [Reply to @somewheresy, 05:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1619923764287774720) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @somewheresy is no longer available.)_ Attempted explanation on 5 mins of research: Human body is mostly water, and I’m pretty sure proteins are the main category of secreted molecules there are lots of (mostly?) water-soluble proteins, so making protein-water solutions seems pretty easy ### [Reply to @calleymeans, 06:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1619953557003767809) · 18 likes > **Calley Means (@calleymeans):** I assume Japan is mass-prescribing surgeries and injections to combat obesity? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnqrQZpaMAEbX0o.jpg) With self-reporting countries removed ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fns7LB_XgAIbKI0.jpg) ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 17:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1620115461948981249) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @PradyuPrasad is no longer available.)_ Not the opposite you intended but my parents put basically zero pressure on me academically and I think this was great ### [Tweet, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1620178235593220097) · 3 likes ChatGPT updated (for the third time, apparently) https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6825453-chatgpt-release-notes ![I feel like pretty soon alts will be auto generated](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnwHXocaUAIYBW0.jpg) ## Tuesday, January 31, 2023 ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 09:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1620348342164230146) · 6 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** much shorter timelines, much higher p(doom) Hard to imagine MacAskill putting 3% on AI x-risk (from WWOTF) if him+team wrote and researched the book from the same office as MIRI. Idk whether this would make the estimate more less accurate tho tbc ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 11:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1620390499663192070) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Capitalism and extinction-risk > > It seems likely to me that without capitalism, extinction risk would be lower. But capitalism is very effective at bringing people out of poverty. > > If you want to replace capitalism on risk grounds, how and what would you replace it with. Not a complete answer, but the worst case of all would be low extinction risk + 2022=end of political and economic history. That just means factory farming persists indefinitely at large scale. Almost any other trajectory is better besides true s-risk ### [Reply, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1620504168044568577) · 10 likes “Innocent until P(guilty)=x” - makes sense for x to vary depending on the associated consequences ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1620522465892995072) · 3 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** critiques i get from ppl who don't know stats: "Selection bias! Internet surveys aren't 'studies'! Just Aella's Audience!" > from ppl who do know stats: > "You should try \[different new statistical method\] instead, would account for \[obscure math thing I need to go learn now\]" Not disagreeing, but worth noting that most (all?) qualitative methodological critiques can be formally described and sometimes corrected for using some obscure Stata command, and the obscure math things can (almost?) always be described in plain English So approximately: ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 23:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1620562404223631361) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ what's the best x then for everything? --- End of January 2023. Previous month: [December 2022](https://abergman.com/tweets/2022-12). Next month: [February 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-02). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, February 2023 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in February 2023 and has not deleted: 149 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [January 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-01). Next month: [March 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-03). ## Wednesday, February 1, 2023 ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 00:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1620584848514748416) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ I don't think you're being fair Ezra - personally avoiding ≠ ostracizing (unless you also advocate/do it conspicuously) Type I and II errors both matter too. If it's low-cost (few false negatives) to have high standards that's great ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 00:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1620586910300381185) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ 1\) thats terrible, I’m sorry 2\) there are dimensions besides “single threshold level” on which to act. Like prisons need not be so inhumane, forms of consequence can be unbundled (like rn going to jail often causes losing job, social sanction, etc), and ### [Thread, continued, 00:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1620587332612104194) · 2 likes least in theory you can imagine that the process of being accused (of anything) wasn’t \*itself\* a de facto form of punishment ### [Reply to @goth600, 08:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1620694413281296387) · 2 likes > **@goth (@goth600):** What stops lab grown meat from being sentient? Uh not having neurons or a brain, just like plants ### [Reply to @larsiusprime, 08:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1620699976203468803) · 2 likes > **Lars Doucet (@larsiusprime):** Thinking about how "bodybuilding hard" and "math hard" fit best together. > > "Math hard": impossible until it's done once, then trivial to copy. > "Bodybuilding hard" open to anyone to do anytime, but most people don't wanna because it takes constant effort/discipline. There’s a related distinction: “hard” can mean either or both of (1) requiring of rare talent/skill and (2) unpleasant (often bundled with ‘requiring of willpower’) These are very different concepts but get confused bc they’re often correlated in practice ### [Tweet, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1620854848911740934) · 2 likes By default I’m gonna assume this is trivial for everyone and already exists in a million places but… Start: all-numeric dataframe, n outcome variables on the left, possible regressirs and controls on the right Wrote some functions in R that, in 2 commands (can get down to 1), ### [Thread, continued, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1620854855605821441) · 3 likes generates a table of the estimates, p values, etc of every implied possible set of OLS regressions Seems like there’s a 5% chance this would be useful to people and I should make a package? Demo: https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/Rfunctions1 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fn5u5ohWAAEUHe7.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fn5u5oqWAAkSQQ8.jpg) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1620860609981218817) · 4 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fn5rVRJWQAEAzwa.png) I disagree with you\* but don't think you have bad epistemics \*in this post bc I don't think the latter is just a fancy way of saying the former and can think of both types of counterexample ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1620864490924552192) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 1, 2023:** generates a table of the estimates, p values, etc of every implied possible set of OLS regressions Seems like there’s a 5% chance this would be useful to… ppl I vaguely think are into #rstats / data science/econometrics (can tag whoever I missed) @frances\_\_lorenz @StatsLime @Laura_k_Duffy @EzraJNewman @alyssamvance @inesferhumi @thatMikeBishop @ryancbriggs @redouad ### [Tweet, 23:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1620932006853984259) · 93 likes A weird intellectual part of young childhood is that you have very little idea how smart adults are, and therefore how much smarter you’re going to be ### [Thread, continued, 23:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1620932008301178881) · 20 likes It’s like if you knew you were growing a few inches a year but had knew only that adults were taller than you and not infinitely tall; mybe you'd get 10% taller, maybe 100%, maybe 100x – have to wait to find out! ### [Reply to @CharlesD353, 23:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1620932369028120576) · 2 likes > **Charles🔸 (@CharlesD353):** @EzraJNewman @StefanFSchubert @AaronBergman18 I think this ignores that an accusation is (maybe very weak, maybe quite strong, depends on context) Bayesian evidence and I think one should update accordingly depending on the circumstances. Bayesianism doesn't tell you how to act, though. It's at least plausible that you should update but behave as though you didn't (for some size updates at least) ## Thursday, February 2, 2023 ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 00:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1620936861668749312) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ lol, I mean at 12 or 14 sure but even at 6? 4? ### [Reply to @DefenseBased, 04:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621003121471127552) · 2 likes > **Everett Smith (@DefenseBased):** If you don't like people, or you find them boring, try asking them better questions. > > Most people, like large language models, can be surprising, helpful, or even delightful when given the right prompt. \*neurodivergent internet rationalists become 99th percentile charismatic upon realizing they can conceive of social interaction as prompt engineering\* ### [Reply to @DKThomp, 04:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621005714599645186) · 1 like > **Derek Thompson (@DKThomp):** This is the Super Bowl of all-time terrible Y axes. > > Who ya got? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fn6sNfvXoAceXzu.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fn6sNflXgAAULE7.jpg) Problem on the right isn’t the y axis, it’s that their feet start at 4’9” and bodies about 1 foot tall according to it. That’s a graphics issue ### [Tweet, 05:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621022082103644160) · 3 likes NPR should make All Things Considered about cause prio ### [Reply to @panickssery, 08:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621060119600545798) · 3 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** Consequentialism is uncool (ie morally wrong) when framed as nerds committed to ethics that's always argued over empirically, but cool when framed as hardboiled "do what needs to be done" vs a weakness of will, a rule-following aim at denying one's responsibility for what happens I don’t get what u mean by “uncool (ie morally wrong)” - but maybe that’s because I’m a nerd committed to empirically informed ethics ### [Reply to @AutismCapital, 08:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621063177407692800) · 4 likes > **Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital):** Notice a similarity in the logos? It was there all along. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnvuIlIaMAAdeBu.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnvuNmKaAAEyzbc.png) Proof Autism Capital is run by the Wikimedia Foundation ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fn8sXlMWAAUDgLU.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fn8sXlLWQAEHrvy.jpg) ### [Reply to @moskov, 18:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621212494533476352) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @moskov is no longer available.)_ lfg ### [Tweet, 21:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621261866323296259) · 4 likes It’s a potentially useful term/concept and one I’ve used myself, but IMO “P(doom)” is not a good shorthand for “X-risky AI alignment failure” Why? Bc in relative moral terms “doom” could be extremely bad (s-risk), very bad (prevents an amazing future), slightly bad, ### [Thread, continued, 21:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621261868642832386) · 4 likes (prevents an ok future), or good (replaces a bad future with a less bad or neutral one), scenarios which are generally—though not always—kinda insane to all group as one ## Friday, February 3, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 01:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621319221274677248) · 5 likes I feel this - I’m pro-choice (under ~everyone’s understanding of what that term means) but my God the arguments (and “arguments”) that get pulled out in favor of ‘my side’ are terrible—even at the (nominally) Catholic university with an active+visible pro-life club I attended > **Quoting Amos Wollen 🦐🪰✴️ (@goingawoll):** Just got out of an Oxford Union debate on whether same-sex marriage should be allowed in the church. In a word - ABYSMAL. A thread: ### [Reply, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621321777166024704) · 1 like I mean many people would probably wake up if a person walked by their bed. Seems like most sleeping arrangements make this uncommon ### [Reply to @reconfigurthing, 01:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621322034138566660) · 19 likes > **Elias Schmied (@reconfigurthing):** i called again and the lady was annoyed that I called late and said it was fine and I should just let her roam😭i guess it's not like with dogs > > also maybe oxford is small.. still tho she probably should've made it explicit on the thing that it's not that big of a deal Maybe remove the missing sign then, lady? ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 04:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621361130042949633) _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ I swear I’ve thought about making a very similar tweet. “Butlerian Jihad” would be such a good pejorative or ironic pro-woke co-opting of the pejorative ### [Thread, continued, 04:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621361591756230657) Wait what actually is it supposed to be? I haven’t read Dune either ### [Tweet, 04:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621369686884507648) · 2 likes FYI you can usually customize page size and set the length to like 10,000 inches so you never get page breaks ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 04:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621370908433698816) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 Page breaks are good actually Blocked and reported ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 21:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621620253556883457) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Dune takes place centuries after an uprising against AIs that run the galactic society (the uprising is called "The Butlerian Jihad") and since the uprising it's "forbidden to make a machine in the likeness of a human mind" 🙏 ## Saturday, February 4, 2023 ### [Reply to @DRMacIver, 09:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621806073005969408) · 2 likes > **David R. MacIver (@DRMacIver):** Suppose you were given a completely empty white room to use as a bedroom. How would you go about deciding how to decorate / furnish / etc it? > > Not just high level concepts, walk me through the steps you'd use. Where would you start? Buy a mattress on Craigslist ### [Quote tweet, 10:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621822853426434048) · 6 likes Aw not again > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Time for the 3rd or 4th iteration of “Twitter rationalist forecasting nerds seem sufficiently concerned about something, should prob text my family” ### [Thread, continued, 10:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621822855510986753) · 1 like … ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 11:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621832491261743104) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** It's possible for social media to be an immense positive instead of an immense negative. If you don't find it to be this way, you can make some changes! Or maybe it's just not for you! Recently discovered that even Facebook - Facebook! - has crossed the neutrality waterline thanks to a growing proportion of EA/rat friends who evidently like to write ### [Reply to @RuxandraTeslo, 11:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621832855088136196) · 2 likes > **Ruxandra Teslo 🧬 (@RuxandraTeslo):** It seems to me like Reddit is cringier than Twitter. > > Ofc I’m biased but leaving that aside, and if you agree with me, what could be an explanation for it? Cringe is often good tho. It’s (functionally) a sacrifice of reputation/status for the greater good ### [Quote tweet, 18:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621945580099452928) · 8 likes This is the correct take. Is EA a cult? Is chopped spinach a “processed food”? > **Quoting Dan Elton (@moreisdifferent):** Discussions about how EA has some cult-like properties raise some valid concerns, but they don't sway me much against EA movement. > > A lot of things are cult-like - corporations, religions, political movements. It's more important to look what they are doing and what they believe. ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621947933749923840) · 3 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** I think people often overestimate how much political opinions are motivated by money. > > E.g. I think how much NIMBY-ism is motivated by wanting to increase house prices is overstated. > > How much anti-immigration views are due to fears of job losses is likely also overstated. > > \-> If my Econ of Immigration course was representative of that literature (and it was trying to be), economists uncritically subscribed to the second example too. Entire papers, popular models, and textbook chapters explaining immigration attitudes this way - zero consideration of ### [Thread, continued, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621948250923188226) · 2 likes whether it makes any theoretical sense for a person to shape their views this way (since they have ~0 chance of affecting policy) ### [Tweet, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621953341281419269) · 5 likes Idk who needs to hear this but if your (generic) prescription mysteriously isn’t getting filled, you might just have to call the pharmacy and tell them you’d rather pay out of pocket than wait for the outcome of a paperwork battle that would save you a grand total of $18 ### [Thread, continued, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1621953345173815297) · 3 likes Once^ after inquiring I was told straight up they couldn’t fill it and had to ask about the option to pay Felt like a giga-agentic Live Player 😤😤😤 ## Sunday, February 5, 2023 ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 01:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1622044818057601025) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Most use of the word 'epistemic' is gratuitous. Very few instances where mental deletion of the term reduces the quality of writing. Let's just stop. Most use of the word '' is gratuitous. Very few instances where mental deletion of the term reduces the quality of writing. Let's just stop. ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 03:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1622075271389085697) · 2 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** People sometimes say one shouldn't use the word "should", but it seems to me a perfectly good word. > > There are many things we should do, and which we should tell others to do. > > Duties and obligations, and related emotions like guilt and shame, contribute to a better society. My therapist a while back did not realize what she was getting herself into when she casually suggested I abandon normativity ### [Reply to @xsphi, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1622076059108757504) · 2 likes > **tess (@xsphi):** am I the only one who finds turbulence really calming and pleasant? Love that shit ### [Reply to @rickyflows, 15:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1622257441751666690) · 2 likes > **ricky (@rickyflows):** @personofswag I assume they’re a National Merit Semifinalist I feel emotionally violated ### [Reply to @personofswag, 15:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1622257483208167424) · 2 likes > **adam (6’4) 🇺🇸 (@personofswag):** When someone says “the data are” I make a mental note that they must be a Very Smart Person. What about “the datum is” ### [Reply to @noampomsky, 15:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1622261548340084736) · 2 likes > **Ava (@noampomsky):** when people talk in therapyspeak/like a non-violent communication textbook it signals a lack of emotional intelligence imo I like my communication deadly ### [Reply, 16:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1622274671537262592) · 8 likes Russia? No white folks there ### [Quote tweet, 18:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1622296299151187968) · 4 likes Interesting thread but I disagree (short🧵) > **Quoting kasra (@kasratweets):** kinda interesting how for many years I just didn't get the point of reading fiction. I was like "why read that? it's made up, I want the TRUTH" ### [Quote tweet, 18:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1622296301613289485) · 2 likes That is a naive view of truth indeed, but “a bunch of physics equations” is a naive view of nonfiction Fictionality is correlated with but distinct from narrative/story-ness and entertainment/aesthetic value > **Quoting kasra (@kasratweets):** it's fine to want the truth...but there's something missing about this view. it's based on a naive view of "truth", as if truth is right there, in a bunch of physics equations, and isn't anywhere to be found inside a fictional story ### [Tweet, 18:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1622296304368984064) Here’s “a bunch of physics equations” that’s also fiction: 1\) E=.2mc³ 2\) g=4m/s² 3\) K=1 Joule (always) ### [Thread, continued, 18:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1622296309326553092) And here are a bunch of stories I’ve read+enjoyed that are also nonfiction (Evidently I like the ‘financial crime narrative nonfiction’ microgenre but more below) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FoON5TkXoAUFGvp.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FoON5TpWYAIvu_P.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FoON5TwWIAAEFAB.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1622296315966234635) Book -> film -> both Heads in Beds might be the single book I’ve most enjoyed reading ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FoON5q_XkAA7ic-.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FoON5q9WIAAAjnn.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FoON5rfWAAgmHwR.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1622296319137091585) · 2 likes Also, as a matter of personal taste, I find “knowing the events actually took place” makes stories way more compelling And while I don’t \*mind\* if anyone reads fiction, at least in a descriptive sense I think Yud was right that it’s not great epistemically (see disclaimer below) ## Monday, February 6, 2023 ### [Tweet, 04:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1622451869539860481) · 5 likes First Manifold Market is live! (not sure why it took me so long) https://manifold.markets/AaronBergman/what-donationaccepting-entity-eg-ch?r=QWFyb25CZXJnbWFu ### [Quote tweet, 06:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1622488944519663616) · 3 likes Initially pattern matches as bullshit to me but, nope, it’s spot on (well, I’m only confident about half, I’ll let you guess which) and extremely important for anyone who uses either of these (or similar) regularly to realize/plan/account for > **Quoting dom (@ryiacy):** Adderall makes people have higher agency, but think at low level of abstraction. Common pitfalls: being too risk-loving or getting bogged down in details > > Weed makes people have lower agency, and think at higher level of abstraction. Pitfalls: being lazy, finding cliches profound ### [Reply to @cxgonzalez, 08:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1622515607383035904) · 2 likes > **christian (@cxgonzalez):** i pretty much never think about status idk why it’s such a concern for so many I mean the main level of explanation is just evo psych. It’s a concern because the unconcerned had fewer kids ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 12:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1622573844404883457) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Sorry I won’t like it next time ### [Reply to @am_reports, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1622717981208838158) · 2 likes > **Ashley Miller (@am_reports):** On this day in 1992: George Bush Sr sends out an all staff memo about his very very very very fat dog. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FoS24mSXoAASPri.jpg) @natalia\_\_coelho irrefutable proof of environmental contaminants theory ### [Reply to @NunoSempere, 22:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1622718944120373288) · 9 likes > **Nuño Sempere (@NunoSempere):** In my 20s, and I find myself making decisions like: > > Where to live? Value of information dominates > Pick up friends/lover at the airport? Value of information dominates > New programming language? VOI dominates > Thinking of applying to a new job? VOI dominates “Hey babe can u pick me up after my flight?” “I’m sorry, I’ve never \*not\* picked you up after a flight, so need to see what will occur to help maximize the EV of all my future decisions” ## Tuesday, February 7, 2023 ### [Reply to @AFraserUrq, 00:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1622758693505843201) · 3 likes > **Alastair Fraser-Urquhart (@AFraserUrq):** Hot take: way way waaayyyyy too much pressure to be vegan within EA. > > A community norm of something often incredibly difficult to do, for minimal welfare benefit, in opposition to most of the epistemic claims we make to triage our actions to do the most good, is a Bad Idea. I agree wrt veganism per se, but not wrt “any pressure for animal welfare affecting personal diet” Object level: buying a factory farmed chicken is bad Signaling level: as things currently stand, ### [Thread, continued, 00:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1622759194783776769) · 3 likes buying factory farmed chicken (at least if other consumption habits indicate adequate income) is pretty strong (though not irrefutable) evidence against “genuine impartial moral concern about others” which seems pretty important ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1622816899988955137) · 3 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** If you consider yourself an EA, are you a vegan? Vegetarian? Vegan for 4 years, unfortunately don’t think it was (physiologically) sustainable for me ### [Reply to @gnrtvty, 04:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1622818233295290369) · 6 likes > **kaiwan (@gnrtvty):** @ollyrobot Looks like mostly no. > > Sam Altman (CEO, OpenAI): no spouse, no kids > > Demis Hassabis (CEO, DeepMind): married, two sons! > > Dario Amodei (CEO, Anthropic): no spouse, no kids > > Daniela Amodei (Pres, Anthropic): married to Holden Karnofsky of GiveWell, no kids (yet?) Wait the Amodim aren’t married? ### [Reply to @eade_bengard, 04:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1622820490556350465) · 3 likes > **Eade (@eade_bengard):** Do I have any Greek followers who can tell me how to make pita all crazy fluffy like the first image? Second is mine > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FoU2ZMpXsAA5WRm.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FoU2ZM9WcAI0z0c.jpg) I too use a paintbrush to apply olive oil to a wheat balloon ## Wednesday, February 8, 2023 ### [Reply to @metakuna, 02:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1623154351236603907) · 2 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** I've been reading a lot of UK government documents and they're all actually very good. Narrative violation They have a whole red teaming handbook that’s somewhere on my computer ### [Reply to @nolemonnomelon, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1623171090817187849) · 2 likes > **stove (@nolemonnomelon):** seed oil appreciation thread what's everyone's favorite seed oil Strawberry ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 04:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1623171563603259392) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ Y’all planning Halloween in February? ### [Tweet, 04:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1623173082000068608) · 6 likes Me and who ### [Reply to @jwmares, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1623174288156119040) · 1 like > **Justin Mares (@jwmares):** Along with the disturbingly low rates of testosterone, there also happens to be historically low rates of marriage, birth, and sex. > > Coincidence? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FoYlkgfaEAUzjEk.png) So is the 2015 fertility rate is 200ng/dL or is 2015 avg testosterone about 500 kids per woman? ### [Reply to @thebestestpie, 18:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1623385643916075011) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @thebestestpie is no longer available.)_ Cope fs but https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/most-ivy-smart-students-arent-at Is “they didn’t get in for reasons other than academics/intelligence?” still bad though? ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 21:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1623429712776142849) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Finding this made my day > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fod1I8OWAAEXYdT.jpg) If a Reddit anon ever calls me the 🐐of anything I will simply lie down outside and wait for my soul to be absorbed by the universe because my life would be complete ## Thursday, February 9, 2023 ### [Reply, 06:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1623565576810512390) · 2 likes No ### [Quote tweet, 09:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1623613307788697601) · 5 likes Learning how to stand up to bullies like me ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fog7rQfXwAEJ2r-.jpg) > **Quoting Kareem Carr, Ph.D. (@kareem_carr):** chapgpt is such a wuss lol > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnfoHTQaIAE_94o.jpg) ### [Reply to @ftlsid, 10:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1623629889835356163) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ftlsid is no longer available.)_ 90% agree but not sure “harmless” is exactly the right word except in some very figurative sense A bit more cynically, I think the (unconscious, functional) target is often some giga-Hansonian “signal X while also signaling that ### [Thread, continued, 10:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1623629908881682432) · 1 like you don’t care too much about x and aren’t trying to signal it” ### [Tweet, 15:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1623702267714056194) · 27 likes Get on my level😤 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FoiMmyfXoAEIRQT.jpg) ### [Reply to @wight1984, 15:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1623710946311938050) · 3 likes > **Jamie H (@wight1984):** @AaronBergman18 Is 'moves/talks/things in particular ways' an EA in-group reference to something? I don’t think so, unless everyone else is in on something lol I don’t really get the moves thing tbh, talks is largely just using relatively uncommon words and phrases more frequently than is typical (“plausibly”) but also being direct, other less legible things too… ### [Thread, continued, 15:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1623712095614259204) · 3 likes Thinks is a bunch of things, but a few are \- high decoupling \- ontology (lol) incl. agents with goals, intrinsic and instrumental values, models, probabilities \- bayesianism \- probably just \*more\* intentional thinking \- using math/stats/econ/Phil/cs as lenses ### [Reply to @parafactual, 15:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1623712561337184257) · 3 likes > **You (@parafactual):** the average ea is not free. most are not for sale But most are also are non-institutionalized citizens of relatively free states and societies ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 15:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1623712624700424196) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 Georgetown is elite and you know it Maybe to some, not at EA Global ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1623723482382057474) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Fun fact before a bunch of shit forced me into an indefinite (but hopefully not infinite) pause, I climbed pretty competitively for most of a decade ### [Reply to @AlexanderdeVri9, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1623767071409463296) · 2 likes > **Xander (@AlexanderdeVri9):** Weak > > I have like at least 19/25 Working on it ## Friday, February 10, 2023 ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 07:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1623945098043211777) · 1 like > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** You think space is cool, don't lie I'm a centrist on the matter Pros: its cool, no gravity, this website https://worldspaceflight.com/ cons: no air, cold, radiation, 3% fatality rate (source: https://www.worldspaceflight.com/ ofc), chatGPT won't make a picante take on the matter ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FolpYbUXgAASpZk.jpg) ### [Reply to @bryan_caplan, 18:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1624119895037181967) · 8 likes > **Bryan Caplan (@bryan_caplan):** Asking people to stop seeing family and friends to reduce their Covid risk? > > Standard. > > Asking people to lose weight to reduce their Covid risk? > > Almost non-existent! Per microcovid reduced, the former (I) is way easier for most people (2) has larger positive externalities and (3) (Im assuming but pretty confident) requires less messaging (per -mcv) likely bc “lose weight if you’re overweight” is super overdetermined ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 18:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1624121004745162759) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fon5PhJWACUMJwS.png) ### [Quote tweet, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1624134771512119301) · 13 likes Comments on this don’t seem very good but it’s a rare interesting and important question Is there a rat-blogosphere canned answer or 8000 word ACX post I missed on this? If not, what’s your best guess answer? > **Quoting Mehdi Yacoubi (@Mehdiyac):** What do you think is causing this? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FoirVh5XgAYznow.jpg) ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1624136225106890764) · 8 likes > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** why is everyone dunking on this > > (quoting @hedlike_a_hole: Bully these people into oblivion please) Doing anything that requires more coordination than playing checkers is a cult ### [Quote tweet, 20:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1624143113651425303) · 6 likes Don’t usually like to dunk (sorry @meaning_enjoyer) but IMO this is a perfect example of a criticism (of some activity or phenomenon, let’s call it X) that engages with X as though it were fundamentally a symbol (eg 🇺🇸) or work of art rather than an set of actions… > **Quoting nihilism disrespecter (@meaning_enjoyer):** @Duderichy it captures the hubris, arrogance and obliviousness of a certain class and it confuses class and status markers with virtues ### [Thread, continued, 20:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1624143116121870360) · 2 likes intended to cause some change through normal-ass, non-symbolic, probabilistic Rube Goldberg machine-like set of channels I don’t mean to say that symbolism/aesthetics/signaling aren’t important, just they’re often imprinted on something more concrete, like the paint on a hammer ### [Thread, continued, 20:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1624143118332268557) · 3 likes And sure, (to continue the analogy), a hammer could be so ugly or have on it an image so disturbing so as to warrant throwing away an otherwise ‘perfectly good’ device, but almost all of the net value of almost all hammers comes from how good they are at pushing nails into wood ## Sunday, February 12, 2023 ### [Reply to @mirandahzhang, 13:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1624757109152796672) · 2 likes > **Miranda Zhang (@mirandahzhang):** How do you ensure you take actions aligned with your values? (Not necessarily me lol, but in general and it’s what I endorse) macro-optimization>> micro-optimization. Transfer effort to the former as much as possible And doing other than you’d do by default requires slack: time, money, energy, whatever Both easier said than done ofc ### [Reply, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1624860366667714561) · 4 likes Jesus ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Foyp5GMXsAMfKKK.jpg) ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 20:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1624862093265584129) · 3 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FoxfItsXwAIk6cN.jpg) They should add “what’s the least impressive thing you’ve never done?” Like never shot a basketball? Never baked a cake? ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 22:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1624897425054789632) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ I woulda just shown up for work in Boston with some Hazmat suits and copies of The Precipice, tf they gonna do ## Monday, February 13, 2023 ### [Tweet, 10:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1625077589722161153) · 4 likes Brb gonna train GPT-5 in PowerPoint ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fo1vdKrWYAAdqPn.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 10:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1625078645608927235) · 2 likes https://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/twildenh/PowerPointTM/Paper.pdf Nice ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fo1wanwWcAQ2J1l.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fo1waoIWYAQWrcj.jpg) ### [Reply to @ChamberVoice, 12:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1625117235026051074) · 5 likes > **Chamber UK (@ChamberVoice):** Labour accuse government of "lavish spending" on hotels, hospitality and other costs using taxpayer-funded debit cards 💳 > > 🖼️ Treasury spends £3,393 on 13 fine art photographs > 🍷 £23,457 on alcohol for UK embassies > ✂️ Dept of Health spend £59,155 on stationery in March 2021 Ok I’m American and shouldn’t have a take, but these all seem perfectly reasonable ## Tuesday, February 14, 2023 ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 08:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1625406457347817472) · 2 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** @gnrtvty Mmm, this one seems more like trying to lie I don’t think “lie” is right, though it’s sometimes disingenuous: “fault ownership” isn’t a well-defined thing and is often ambiguous, so the leader of a project isn’t ‘lying’ per se if she declares herself responsible for everything entangled with her leadership ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 22:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1625629090156797953) · 1 like > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** “Reviewing for free for a for-profit company is kind of a scam...prefers to review for non-profit journals > > Seems to miss the key point. I think both for-profits and non-profits should pay for reviews. > > The problem isn't that someone is profiting. > > https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00403-8 Actually yeah it is: University pays academic to do things, incl peer review, also pays for journal subscription; receives results of both Nonprofit journals would mean this loop is basically closed; for-profit means that there’s someone extracting rent each exchange… ## Wednesday, February 15, 2023 ### [Reply to @diviacaroline, 11:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1625823475548954624) · 1 like > **Divia Eden 🔍 (@diviacaroline):** Are there any serious arguments against the “modern landfills are fine it’s the trash that ends up not in landfills that’s the problem” take? > > I don’t think I’ve heard anything convincing on that point, but I wanted to double check sicne so many people seem to think landfills=bad I’m totally fine-pilled, but landfills don’t make any negative externalities to \*creating\* a bit of trash disappear. When written explicitly this sounds obvious, but maybe a pro-landfill ~vibe~ would decrease the facts salience idk ## Thursday, February 16, 2023 ### [Tweet, 10:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1626170895172620289) · 2 likes I feel like I should know the answer to this but… Black box: pull a lever on the side and a screen lights up indicating the outcome, which you know will be either H or T (not both) ### [Thread, continued, 10:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1626170897009676290) · 3 likes You have no idea how this outcome is determined, but have no reason to favor expect one out outcome more the other, so your subjective probability of H is 50% You pull the lever, and the screen shows H. What, now, is your estimate of P(H) \[i.e. credence of H on the next pull\]? ### [Reply to @Theo_Clifford, 12:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1626191650916646913) > **Theo Clifford (@Theo_Clifford):** You're going to have to make some assumptions here! Lots of different ways to operationalise the idea that you have no other information. > > One plausible answer Laplace's Law of Succession, where your estimate of P(H) should now be 2/3. > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_succession Hmm seems fake and wrong ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FpFksDDXEAAFAc0.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 12:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1626192291973984257) Even if the first clause in that sentence is true in some case, the second seems totally made up. At most you can say that clause 1 excludes P=1 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1626283006771052544) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Any good examples of relationships, such as >, =, <, that are not those three? Step outside of the space of real numbered vectors or smth and there are a bazillion qualitative ones you can’t (or I can’t) formalize: \- The relationship between the color red and the color blue \- between a thing and it’s name \- between me today and me tomorrow ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 18:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1626285410807578625) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Can I interest you in the greatest nerd snipe of all time? ### [Thread, continued, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1626285676978229256) · 2 likes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Beauty_problem I’m leaning towards either 1/2 or “no solution” at this point ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 18:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1626289602548957186) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Dreaming of a new life > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FpC-7q6WAAAzQso.png) I could totally reuse my cover letter line about how philosophy minor taught me to “communicate…with clarity and precision” ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1626347429690761222) · 2 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** If someone wants to write an essay making the case that license plate laws are bad and should be repealed, I will read it. > > But if we think cars should have license plates then you can’t just let people drive around with fake or expired paper tags. I am legitimately confused by how bad of a take this is. Like I’ve probably read or heard you opine on literally thousands of things, and this is like sampling from a distribution that looked something like N(5,2) and getting -38 ### [Thread, continued, 22:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1626349486325870592) At least for laws that don’t land people in prison, it’s the rule rather than the exception that 100% success at literal enforcement would be pretty obviously terrible. Fine everyone going 61 in a 55? Citation for every 19 yo college student who drinks? ## Friday, February 17, 2023 ### [Reply to @OrionJohnston, 00:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1626371641771974656) > **David Johnston (@OrionJohnston):** I think reducing ambiguity in speed limits would be a good thing I agree if it was made clear to everyone that would be the new normal! ## Saturday, February 18, 2023 ### [Tweet, 02:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1626769608400150534) · 4 likes p-values would (generally) be more interesting and useful if H_0 corresponded to smth like “minimal interesting effect size” rather than “zero effect” ### [Thread, continued, 02:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1626769611214536706) · 2 likes Like \*given no publication bias\* (a false assumption) p=.1 for “ketamine works better than Prozac” would IMO be more impressive than p=.02 for “ketamine works better than a placebo” ### [Tweet, 07:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1626849815639339008) · 8 likes It really does try its best to be a good timer [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1626849515666829312/pu/img/ghnabmL7W_ASi2Gb.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1626849815639339008/video/1) (video, plays on X) ## Sunday, February 19, 2023 ### [Reply to @JacquesThibs, 00:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1627100905391661058) · 7 likes > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** It will be released on Monday > > (quoting @Bankless: The AI episode with @ESYudkowsky we’re releasing on Monday is going to make waves. Is AI the humanity ender? Our early release discord is buzzing. We hope someone in the AI community can tell us why Eliezer is wrong. The convo starts Monday.) I'm sure Eliezer has his reasons for going on this particular show, but I hope one of them is to signal 80k that he'd be willing to go on ### [Reply to @cornoisseur, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1627402708490543107) _(The tweet being replied to by @cornoisseur is no longer available.)_ Data scientists do \*not\* make $200k (wish they did tho) ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1627406553941770242) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Depends on the nature of the simulation! An excel sheet can be a simulation of a hurricane, as can attempted life-sized replica of the original storm ## Tuesday, February 21, 2023 ### [Tweet, 14:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1628038118170324992) · 9 likes What’s that nootropic that makes people love socializing and talking? Piracetam maybe? Yeah if someone could ship a lifetime supply to Yud that would be great. He’s got some podcasts to do ### [Reply, 15:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1628047866160730116) · 4 likes Yes! But uh in that case I retract my call to action ### [Tweet, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1628123312533512195) · 11 likes I’ll bite. Who tf is Mr. Beast? ### [Thread, continued, 20:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1628123479403859970) · 4 likes This is like “polycule” all over again ## Wednesday, February 22, 2023 ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1628259706971078657) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ Classic EA Twitter, always responding to low effort tweets with an object level, citation rich, detailed review of the literature ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1628461712839000064) · 7 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** It’s happened > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fphl70-WIAElAnU.jpg) A mis padres no le gusta el Open AI ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fpl1S8rXoAI3vrY.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1628462499644284928) · 2 likes \*les damned if I didn’t learn how to conjugate gustar in 7 years ### [Reply, 18:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1628463005955399681) · 2 likes FWIW Yud doesn’t think other animals are sentient ## Thursday, February 23, 2023 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 13:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1628749454328184834) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** What are the best arguments that Toby Ord's 1/6 estimate of extinction this century is too high? Probability is fake and the real answer is 0 we just can’t know it rn ### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 18:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1628831039500976129) · 16 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** Despite everything I know this still brought tears into my eyes. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fpqq6ydaIAEVuVM.jpg) Explanation buried elsewhere in comments https://x.com/the__unraveling/status/1628812845763776512?s=46&t=JAwYV59AMTBN5LgmRzUjIw ### [Reply to @BenHayum, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1628833970786795521) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @BenHayum is no longer available.)_ Him and Hanania going from worst person on the internet to weirdly ambiguous Severus Snape energy ## Friday, February 24, 2023 ### [Reply to @sama, 10:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1629069074528362498) · 12 likes > **Sam Altman (@sama):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FptHXW_aUAEaLK1.jpg) Vibes here are like when $6.5T in market cap just poofs into existence because Jerome Powell had lunch with a guy who’s PhD advisor called for lower interest rates in Canada in 2003 ### [Thread, continued, 10:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1629069374551097344) · 2 likes Not complaining tho ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 16:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1629154942693871617) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ 1\) go to amazon 2\) look up “shorts” 3\) select one of the options 4\) proceed to checkout ### [Reply to @jam3scampbell, 16:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1629155521423974409) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @jam3scampbell is no longer available.)_ I hereby second this request. Can’t say no now @sama I don’t make the rules. ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1629196576517128192) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Forget the OWID charts, the sheer variety of shrimp shorts I could (did???👀) buy while comfortably holding my breath is easily the best argument for capitalism ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FpwRpqUWYAA03eZ.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FpwRpqWX0AQa3dW.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FpwRpqUX0AA5pJo.jpg) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 19:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1629197665127759874) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** I'll defend everything but R: > > Matlab: genuinely unparalleled number of features for analyzing certain engineering problems. Incredible quality of documentation. > > Fortran: A beautiful language from a more civilized time > > C++: Try writing python code that can run on a satellite Blocked and moral weight reduced according to cognitive capacities un-demonstrated I don’t know if God exists, but if He does He surely speaks in R ### [Reply to @SpencrGreenberg, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1629208442425450496) · 7 likes > **Spencer Greenberg 🔍 (@SpencrGreenberg):** There's a deep sense in which money can't be "wasted" from a bird's eye perspective - only resources and people's time can be wasted. > > If someone "wastes" $100, someone else now has $100 extra to spend. Even burning bills deflates the currency, making other bills more valuable.🧵 99% agree, but I think this misses the \*intrinsic\* value of money as a social technology for facilitating trade. Easy to see in the extreme: burn \*all\* the money, and (I claim) this new world is less materially wealthy because people value liquidity and now there is none ### [Reply to @parafactual, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1629223109545918464) · 7 likes > **You (@parafactual):** like a dozen people reviewed the draft Quite the list ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FpwpyJ5WYAI1YXm.jpg) ### [Reply to @mbateman, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1629228528594976768) · 7 likes > **Matt Bateman (@mbateman):** We have a rule in our schools: there aren’t special kinds of moral work that merit moral gold stars. > > If you organize a neighborhood cleanup or do volunteer work, great. > > If you get a job at Baskin Robbins or play in a band or write an app… also great! > > \*Exactly\* just as great. Don’t get me wrong, most “moral work” done by teens that is ~100% signaling and learning (not bad things btw), and in these cases I agree. But do you really want to foreclose the possibility of giving praise/acclaim for things that are, like, actually very morally good? ## Saturday, February 25, 2023 ### [Tweet, 04:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1629343767428845571) · 12 likes Are there recent historians? People who specialize in August, 2014 instead of the 18th century? Like at some point “study of the recent past” becomes “journalism,” but it seems like between, say, 2 and 10 years ago is nobody’s job Recent History Twitter lmk if I’m mistaken ### [Reply to @acheronix, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1629348347579342848) · 2 likes > **Acheronix (@acheronix):** @AaronBergman18 https://knowyourmeme.com/ Doing Gods work ### [Reply to @CrispyWicks, 05:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1629357101226110978) · 2 likes > **Chris P. Wicks 🔎🐜 (@CrispyWicks):** Gone to extravagantly fancy sushi place, intimate omikase. Seated next to 14-year married couple. Our own relationship 6 months deep. Considering what 14 years would look like. Double that, double \*that\*. Lot to consider. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FpxtUw1WcAAv3Wz.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FpxtVeKXgAAH8sZ.jpg) Grandparents made it to “\*that\*” and more than a decade beyond. Biology stopped them just shy of reaching 70 years married (not sure about in total). Nothing especially profound to say- just that long, happy relationships (of any kind, really) seem like a wonderful thing ### [Reply to @tyler_m_john, 09:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1629411498052268033) · 4 likes > **Tyler John (@tyler_m_john):** Managing to fully align a chatbot by training it on Tinder data so it just says "hey" Beautifully symmetric informational asymmetry ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FpzVHrdWIAENCSD.jpg) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1629579270929489922) · 3 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18 @SpacedOutMatt If God speaks R that would explain so much about why the world doesn't work. Now that you mention it, the design of the world shares a lot of similarities to the design of R in how barely patched together it is. “Sir, it seems the agents in sim 21518876a have figured out their sim’s source code” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fp1ttbHXsAARoOO.jpg) ### [Reply to @GarrettPetersen, 21:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1629595033681682432) · 8 likes > **Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ (@GarrettPetersen):** My hot dating take for today is that attractiveness is at least somewhat absolute. So if everyone got 10% more or less attractive, it would have meaningful effects beyond everyone just raising or lowering their standards proportionally. I think this is mostly true, but some (even physical) dimensions of attractiveness I bet are subconsciously defined in relative terms. Most obviously height, since subpopulation averages differ so much - like attr(5’8”) is probably really attr(40th observed percentile) ## Sunday, February 26, 2023 ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 01:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1629653533426327552) · 8 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** Corbyn was always bad and I always told you he was bad, and I was right > > (quoting @OzKaterji: Jeremy Corbyn’s post-Labour career continues to plumb new depths as he met with the racist conspiracy theorist Roger Waters last night.) I don’t think “taking picture with bad person is sufficient for badness” is true or good to promote ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1629928107648884736) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Part of an old Substack draft titled “How is everyone in EA so goddamn competent?” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fp6q-VnWcAQMCLY.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fp6q-VrWcAEduMg.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fp6q-VoWwAAUq94.jpg) ## Monday, February 27, 2023 ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 23:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1630356512886407169) · 5 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** Absolutely bonkers that Peter invented the idea of rethinking things. It's such an obvious idea to not only ever believe one thing and never change your mind even when given evidence. I think lots of people, especially those who have to engage in the world, should try this. > > (quoting @peterwildeford: Happy to announce our newest incubated project from @RethinkPriors ! (joke - product is real but not associated with us)) I hereby invent Rethink Rethink to brainstorm how RP could be better, and Unthink to scrap any bad programs at Rethink, and Unthink Rethink to return RP to its original mission, and Rethink Unthink to improve Rethink more efficiently, and Unthink Unthink once RP can’t be improved ## Tuesday, February 28, 2023 ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1630358455952261124) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ somewhat bizarre that I can read the two extremely common words “Paul slow” , which doesn’t make any intrinsic sense and afaik I’ve never seen before, and know exactly what it’s referring to ### [Reply to @maiamindel, 18:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1630642003925975066) · 7 likes > **Maia (@maiamindel):** Why do gyms have so many checks at the door: IDs, signing in and out, making appointments, etc > > Bro the people that \*pay\* for a membership basically never go, who's breaking in there? Me. Used different email addresses to sign up for a one day free trial with a gym 6 or 7 times. My dumb ass used eg ab1@gmail, ab2@gmail, etc. Eventually the manager must have gotten suspicious and figured things out, because he found me about to start working out and accused… ### [Thread, continued, 18:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1630642478398283776) · 6 likes me of doing just that. I was like “yup, you caught me. I’m gonna leave now” and got tf out of there in like 4.5 seconds I do actually think this was somewhat unethical tho, kinda feel bad ### [Reply to @maiamindel, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1630645795782311964) · 5 likes > **Maia (@maiamindel):** @SpacedOutMatt @AaronBergman18 17 octillion potential shrimp QALYs die for every dollar you spend I’m a pure hedonic utilitarian except for also intrinsically caring about the financial well-being of fitness center owners in wealthy countries --- End of February 2023. Previous month: [January 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-01). Next month: [March 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-03). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, March 2023 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in March 2023 and has not deleted: 212 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [February 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-02). Next month: [April 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-04). ## Wednesday, March 1, 2023 ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 01:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1630749257740214273) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ … “namely Ana here who’s been talking my ear off lately about how interpretability is the most promising research direction in AI safety and Liza who thinks it’s utterly futile and is instead bullish on the natural abstractions framework” ### [Reply to @woj_zaremba, 02:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1630750351715336199) · 3 likes > **Wojciech Zaremba (@woj_zaremba):** Civilization altering technologies tend to scare many people. > > Consider electric current - an invisible force that can kill a human on the spot, demonstrated to kill an elephant. > > Are you willing to have it embedded in your house walls, next to your children? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqGWzPzWYAAbVQ6.jpg) ### [Reply to @acidshill, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1630781968886513666) · 1 like > **shill 🔍 (@acidshill):** sometimes i think about what the web could have been, what it should have been > > i don't expect this to ever happen, for a few reasons, but i think it's technically possible with e.g. ipfs > > (quoting @acidshill: and i don't think we've really seen everything hypertext can do just yet) Neocities might be a very simple example of what you’re gesturing at? At least, the idea seems to be “social media bounded only by the limits of html/css/js” http://neocities.org ### [Tweet, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1630799753389719552) · 30 likes The store brand olive oil people have short timelines and not much hope, it appears ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqHDTsvWAAEwhlS.jpg) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1630997177190236160) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @absurdlymax Risks making people think that probability is describing Everett branches, which it definitely isn't. Imo it's much better (but more clunky) to just say "It's most rational based on my limited information to assume this situation is like rolling a 10-sided die" or something. Extremely inclined to defer to the physics teacher here, but supposing the Everettian interpretation (?) is correct, wouldn’t probability then indeed correspond to proportions of branches? \*Your\* dice is >99.99% Newtonian/deterministic, but the information you have doesn’t… ### [Thread, continued, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1630997460872036376) · 2 likes tell you which set of branches you’re in prior to rolling: the set in which the dice comes up 1, in which it comes up 2, etc. ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631001055768051744) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I might be wrong but my understanding of the Everett Interpretation is that in this case almost all the branches would go to one specific die roll? They're clustered around what would happen in a deterministic universe where everything's preset? I could be totally wrong here. This is probably butchering the model but: \-dice roll at t=0 \-A:= set of branches that exist at t=-1 \-a:= your unique branch at t=0 I agree that all the branches that started from a will cluster basically deterministically, but I’m thinking that your limited info corresponds to ### [Thread, continued, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631001745970135044) · 2 likes Which of the branches in A, say {a, b, c,…z} you could or could not be in based on your observations Like you know you’re not in the one where the dinosaurs kept on evolving bc of some weird fluctuation in the early universe that altered the asteroids path… ### [Thread, continued, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631002059305615362) · 2 likes But you don’t know whether you’re in the one where your hand is slightly more firm or slightly less firm because of some random quantum event somewhere, and \*those\* yield different deterministic outcomes ### [Quote tweet, 20:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631031864151384064) · 41 likes I am extremely anti-anti-random tiktok girl 1\) Being mean is bad \*even if the person you're being mean to uses filler words in a way you don't like\* 2\) I'd bet that "eloquence in front of a live mic" is almost unrelated to intelligence and even off-mic verbal clarity > **Quoting wilder (@wilderpatriot):** Like wtf is she talking about? 😂 > > [video attached](https://x.com/wilderpatriot/status/1630282412147064832/video/1) ## Thursday, March 2, 2023 ### [Reply to @jide_alaga, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631106064069402625) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @jide_alaga is no longer available.)_ Equally likely (p=0) because I am neither Sam nor black ### [Tweet, 05:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631170746549514240) · 12 likes Freeze dried strawberry powder tastes ILLEGAL. Like this is \*precisely\* what evolution was optimizing for My ancestors from the caves and the shtetl are offended rn ### [Reply to @epiplexity, 13:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631286820561465345) _(The tweet being replied to by @epiplexity is no longer available.)_ Eh this depends on an almost tautological definition of fairness like “that which emerges from a competitive marketplace of rational actors” Regardless of how appropriate that definition is, I don’t think it’s the one most ordinary people implicitly use ### [Reply to @RuxandraTeslo, 13:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631288535578804228) · 2 likes > **Ruxandra Teslo 🧬 (@RuxandraTeslo):** What fascinates me abt a lot of social science research is that results which end up being true/replicable are things one could have known simply by living in the world and meeting people (& maybe being cultured), whereas most of the surprising stuff turns out to be fake. > > (quoting @JonHaidt: 5\. Check out the evidence of causality for yourself. I organize more than a hundred published studies, on all sides, in this post on the After Babel Substack. Subscribe (for free) to get more: https://jonathanhaidt.substack.com/p/social-media-mental-illness-epidemic) I think what seems obvious and surprising to college educated twitter users with firstnamelastnameDotCom in their bio is downstream of social science more than this implies. Endogeneity! ### [Reply to @zetalyrae, 14:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631302868069122053) · 1 like > **Fernando Borretti (@zetalyrae):** One of the skills I admire most: the ability to take a seemingly complex problem and break it down into a simple yet robust model that uses little more than high school math, a couple probability distributions and some logarithms. You see this a lot in @anderssandberg papers e.g. Just observing: this is the opposite of a bunch of LLM capabilities. Take addition: “ simplify 14+51” “ok lemme read 90% of the words ever written in the universe and, using thousands of dollars of electricity, 50 years of CS research, and 160 engineer IQ points, ### [Thread, continued, 14:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631303586645696517) search all of 730-dimensional vector space corresponding to an algorithm that will do something resembling ‘next word prediction’ which happens to sometimes correspond to correct arithmetic because simple math problems on the internet are usually correct” ### [Reply to @cafreiman, 14:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631304388273750017) · 8 likes > **Chris Freiman (@cafreiman):** Elizabeth Warren defended raising taxes on the rich partly on the following grounds: “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own . . . I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for.” 1/ Circular counter-argument, no? 1\) Warren says taxes should be higher to repay social debt 2\) you say social debt doesn’t exist because the rich already pay taxes The whole question is about the right tax level ### [Reply to @zswitten, 14:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631306077160497155) · 1 like > **Zack Witten (@zswitten):** Trying to find the tiniest image representations possible. I have a theory if it fits in 2K tokens Sydney will be able to visualize it. You can write images straight into html like this https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47533358/base64-icons-favicon ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631355998207090688) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 2, 2023:** Circular counter-argument, no? 1) Warren says taxes should be higher to repay social debt 2) you say social debt doesn’t exist because the rich already pay… Guys don’t get me wrong I don’t like Warren either and think she’s wrong on this lol ## Friday, March 3, 2023 ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631495888383234049) · 4 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @ohwizenedtortle Unfortunately I only date human women, not turtles Consider, per this Rethink Priorities report, whether this may be due to speciesism arising in part from a biased perception of turtle happiness and autonomy https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6035868111c9bd46c176042b/t/60bd143940b94d38ea45cc34/1623004217909/How%2Bto%2BMeasure%2BCapacity%2BReport%2B__%2BRethink%2BPriorities.pdf ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqQ5zzSXoAMH5_T.jpg) ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631509738402852864) · 4 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** I feel like they didn't really make any great arguments. There is a lot of writing on ACX and SSC and LessWrong on the unreliability of the press, and indeed journalists seem on average much more interested in telling a salacious story than bloggers. I think some credit is due for a basic level of good faith engagement but yeah I agree. IA may be kind, smart, and earnest, but every criticism I’ve seen of his seems basically just wrong and not in a productive or interesting way ### [Tweet, 06:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631540832212754432) · 2 likes A ranked choice vote doth hereby called 🐐: ### [Thread, continued, 06:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631540834322481153) · 1 like 🥈: ### [Thread, continued, 06:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631540835824148481) · 1 like I briefly considered starting the thread with “and now it’s time to rank women on the internet” but thought that would be a smidge too edgy, so I’m making the joke in a very roundabout way right here ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 14:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631663202181304320) · 9 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Announcing: EA Twitter Cookbook! 🎉🎉🎉🎉 (with @baesrule1 and @ryancbriggs) > > If we get enough submissions, I’ll make an e-cook book for everyone! > > What are your favorite recipes? > Link them/post pictures below!! > > To start: Kimchi fried rice, but with udon noodles instead 🍜 😊 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqTIxWlaIAEWsoG.jpg) 1\) acquire potato 2\) microwave for 4+z_p minutes where z_p ≡ z score of potato in the distribution of potato masses 3\) open microwave 4\) reach inside THREAD CONTINUES BELOW ### [Thread, continued, 14:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631664769982709765) · 4 likes 5\) rotate potato 180° in any two dimensional vector space spanned by <0,0,1> z axis and where a and b are real numbers of which at most one is 0 6\) close microwave 7\) repeat step 2, with time reduced by 1 minute 8\) allow potato to cool to reduce risk of injury or death 🔚 ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 14:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631665086182957056) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 @Laura_k_Duffy @baesrule1 @ryancbriggs Honestly tho baked potatoes are underrated 🥔 ### [Quote tweet, 14:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631667455553593345) · 11 likes 👍 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqTY50IWcAE_Dcd.jpg) > **Quoting @goth (@goth600):** Gm > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqOkZK0WYAIKFHw.jpg) ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 15:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631681310904266753) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ 100% unironically Microsoft Word is the best amateur graphic design program ### [Reply to @AlecStapp, 15:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631684741941395456) · 5 likes > **Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** If it were good for their business, then why would the government need to mandate it 🤔 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqOoChxXoAcJp7e.jpg) Not in this case but there are possible reasons: \- coordination/first mover problems \- needing someone to blame for pr reasons \- increased demand from perceived credibility of mandates ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 16:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631698191274868746) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 3, 2023:** 5\) rotate potato 180° in any two dimensional vector space spanned by <0,0,1> z axis and where a and b are real numbers of which at most one is 0 6)… Update: didn’t follow step 8; \[maybe a couple epidermal skin cells\] died Mugshot of the perp👇 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqT02viWwAAP6pj.jpg) ### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 22:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631777824523599874) · 7 likes > **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** What should I ask Scott Aaronson? > > He is the world's leading theoretical quantum computing researcher. > > He's recently been working with OpenAI on AI safety - where he came up with the GPT watermarking scheme. > > He also happens to be my former professor. In case you didn’t stumble across this (not sure if he’s discussed elsewhere) and want college admissions takes from someone who’s taught (I assume?) at both Ivys and non-Ivys https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/most-ivy-smart-students-arent-at/comments ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqU9SCpXgAEinsd.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqU9SCoWwAE5KLI.jpg) ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 22:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631778896000499720) · 4 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** i find it good to poke holes in potato on both sides with a fork first! lets the steam out which makes it not splat/explode That may be “standard agricultural practice” and therefore exempted from all welfare legislation, but IMO it’s only ethical to cut the potato \*after\* it’s been stunned by the radiation ### [Reply to @cafreiman, 22:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631787924768317443) · 17 likes > **Chris Freiman (@cafreiman):** This is cool—a market for food banks > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqUSw5NXoCAcgCv.jpg) Hear me out: a market for food bank \*recipients\* but it’s just the normal market and we give poor people money ## Saturday, March 4, 2023 ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 02:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631846688498282497) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ Can u do this but for guys ### [Tweet, 03:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631852274958884864) · 41 likes I am calling for a total and complete shutdown of Taylor Swift, Hinge, and—just to be safe—heterosexuality until we can figure out what the hell is going on ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqWA_bOWIAAwDAn.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqWA_bLXsAIQ3t9.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqWA_bMXsAA3lTL.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqWA_bNWcAQQG4B.jpg) ### [Tweet, 03:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631852281879486465) · 15 likes Do all adult female humans express such behavior, is the algo just doing its thing, or is this the AGI’s way of setting me up with Taylor Swift? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqWBABWXgAEBvDF.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqWBABXXsAElj-M.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqWBABYWcAQk7ZB.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqWBABaXgAQ5XFn.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631853856165380097) · 14 likes All this btw is from like 2.5 hours over 3 days, and I’m 110% sure I missed a bunch. Nothing else comes close - \*maybe\* Taylor≈reading+hiking+coffee ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631865811303317506) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 wait aaron do you not like taylor swift?? No I do like Taylor Swift! But evidently not enough for me to intuitively expect/understand why she shows up way more than any other noun lmao ### [Thread, continued, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631866519754768384) · 1 like She’s even on my repeat playlist (basic but solid lineup btw, all recommended) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqWN822WwAA6_0v.jpg) ### [Reply to @paulg, 05:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631885234105995266) · 4 likes > **Paul Graham (@paulg):** One of the things AI coding assistants are showing us is how much duplication there is in the code that's out there. Most people just write the same stuff over and over. The world only really needs read_csv, mutate, group_by, summarize, and maybe left_join Everything else (yes, in every language) is a linear combination of these ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 12:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631989958960357376) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Not for long if my plan to memorize all Taylor Swift songs goes according to plan ### [Tweet, 12:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1631993529214926851) · 14 likes 10/10 no notes @MatthewAdelste1 https://benthams.substack.com/p/takeaways-from-ea-global ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 13:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632012284464623618) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Indeed, and yet so few likewise mention Miguel de Cervantes who popularized the narrative itself with his ur-novel Don Quixote, suggesting that something besides aesthetic quality and sheer cultural influence accounts for Swift’s frequent invocation ### [Reply, 20:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632121818529054722) · 3 likes Oh lmao, but I neither confirm nor deny ### [Reply to @catehall, 21:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632124506943680513) · 12 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @catehall is no longer available.)_ As a patient I’d honestly prefer 80th percentile MCAT and 20th education to the reverse ## Sunday, March 5, 2023 ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 00:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632169328354246657) · 6 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** @AaronBergman18 @catehall You do realize that they take the MCAT before they get any medical training right? Might as well go by their SAT scores Yeah, I would say the same substituting in SAT ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 00:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632170613535129600) · 2 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** I'm not saying education is the be all end all anyway. Residencies problem matter far more, but in reality no person can really tell a good doctor from a bad one from the outset Setting ER and surgery aside (which is a big category ik), I'd gladly take someone very smart with access to UpToDate and a library over an arbitrary IRL doctor. Maybe 80th percentile MCAT is too low idk. Definitely 99th percentile tho ### [Reply to @_chair, 00:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632172178815741953) · 2 likes > **Chair (@_chair):** What's her @ @taylorswift13 but if you mean her snap I'm afraid I can't reveal that publicly ### [Reply to @natalia__coelho, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632174173182124033) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @natalia__coelho is no longer available.)_ No and wouldn't literally experience the emotion of guilt, but would say I'm wrong for not doing it and ought to do that ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 00:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632174584106565632) · 2 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Also Caramel can’t wait to meet all you DC people! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqaKbC-XgAgL9vB.jpg) That's not a camel thats a dog ### [Thread, continued, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632174755666092034) · 1 like It appears I misread the tweet :( ### [Thread, continued, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632174864269230080) · 3 likes but still endorse the truth of my claim ### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 00:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632175498749964293) · 14 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** I should probably try another podcast. I suspect it'll be hard to duplicate that interaction, but "a hypothesis affords testing". But I don't know where to find a podcast where the host asks questions the host is actually interested in, rather than being like... I am a simple man. I see a reply here mentioning @dwarkesh_sp; I hit like ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 00:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632181932971704321) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Three plausibly-true but unrelated propositions. I wonder what she is trying to say🤔 ### [Reply to @spiantado, 01:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632192678468132865) · 3 likes > **steven t. piantadosi (@spiantado):** Every "philosophical" problem is just people failing to recognize that words don't have precise definitions, and words get used in different ways. > > Once we give words precise definitions, "philosophy" turns into just ordinary mathematics. This is a super common failure mode, but def disagree that it’s (necessarily?) true for every problem Some things rational people would keep debating the existence of even with perfect semantic clarity: qualia, causality, true normative propositions ### [Reply to @ZerothAxiom, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632205055808897024) · 3 likes > **Colby (@ZerothAxiom):** @metakuna Physical attack is an ancient phenomenon and historically a somewhat likely way to die > > So I do assume that frequently experiencing a thing that influenced the evolutionary development of our emotions and motivations might help us regulate those emotions better It does regulate them better - but better from the perspective of evolution in a dangerous environment looks like “be super anxious so you don’t die” ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 03:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632215851846729728) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dissproportion is no longer available.)_ I hate myself for using it in the 90% of cases it just doesn’t sound right ### [Thread, continued, 03:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632217223216484355) · 2 likes 🙂🔫 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqbM6fAXwAAoPIY.jpg) ### [Tweet, 06:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632260253537411074) · 12 likes It seems the avant-garde of twitter rationalist nerds has turned against the paper I RT’d being novel and important, so I deleted this tweet Luckily I can piggyback off of them so never have to do any object level research whatsoever ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fqb0DGzXsAEc-AQ.jpg) ### [Reply to @relic_radiation, 17:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632436422668853248) · 4 likes > **Elena Lake 🌿 (@relic_radiation):** massage tip: > > barring individual quirks and preferences, basically any touch that is both confident and attuned feels good. > > so u can keep those two qualities in place and then get very, very creative Barring individual preferences, girls \*love\* being given a pet duck to take care of and keep alive. It triggers their motherly instincts. No need to wait till the second date, even ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632462462522998785) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ The potential here is endless: tea, nicotine, adderall, desoxyn (aka meth), the mythical \*dex\*methamphetamine, placebo pills, theobromine, selegiline, l-dopa, tyrosine, Diet Coke, both other kinds of coke, bupropion, parnate, xyrem, maybe even “diet exercise and sleep” ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 19:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632466934179536896) · 7 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** Neato! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqcUVvbaUAEp5Se.jpg) > (quoting @iamaheron_: well, anon? https://psychology-tools.com/test/autism-spectrum-quotient/score) 🤔 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqewBgyXsAQuRoY.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqewBg1WAAkoqNJ.jpg) ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 23:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632522784164265984) · 7 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqfSX3kaQAAeok4.png) On 6 I was like, “how could you know what you do and don’t usually notice?” You only get to know the numerator! ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632523129787408385) · 1 like > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I lean strong yes but qualia kinda mess me up Yup ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 23:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632524184994684928) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ New alignment strategy: replace every adverb with “stochastically” so the AI will know how smart and therefore unbeatable you are ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 23:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632527192629321730) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 @AaronBergman18 do you wanna set some kind of learning goal with me to figure out qualia once and for all? Idk how sarcastic ur being but I 100% seriously support a google doc working group ## Monday, March 6, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632555841814507520) · 5 likes 100%. While I don’t wish suffering on anyone, I encourage everyone to try to consider their takes on ethics, meta ethics, and even consciousness the next time they are suffering I’m ~certain that ~all papers on these topics were \*not\* written in such a state, btw. Free alpha! > **Quoting George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Never feel more conscious, alive and in touch with reality than when I'm in pain ### [Reply, 05:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632617974602383360) · 2 likes Good, history is overrated ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 05:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632618810036350977) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ Just one more beta amaloid study I promise it’ll work this time ### [Reply to @QiaochuYuan, 05:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632619176933072896) · 2 likes > **QC (@QiaochuYuan):** anyone else here have favorite etymologies? pls share below. i am collecting them > > (quoting @dreamyweather: @QiaochuYuan I think "kosmos" has got to be one of my faves. It has a bunch of meanings including order (like, the order inherent in a system), the world (including heaven and the underworld), and decoration. Hence: the cosmos, cosmopolitan, cosmetic) “Hot potato” (n) the game inspired by hot potatoes ### [Reply, 05:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632621115901198337) · 2 likes Chuckled out loud ### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 19:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632830220536360960) > **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** I'm not sure that is true, but my God is that profound. > > (quoting @amtrpa: @ESYudkowsky Consciousness is when the mask eats the shoggoth) @AndyMasley what do we think? ## Tuesday, March 7, 2023 ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 02:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632925636145577985) · 23 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** @mealreplacer Oh oh! I also have one!! > > “If shrimp welfare activists were ACTUALLY serious, they would \[totally insane thing that no person believing this would actually ever do\].“ \*looks over at my giant tank of shrimp in heroin infused water\* ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqlRNkdX0AQp9CD.jpg) ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 02:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632926414587527169) · 7 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Someone is being wrong on the internet > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqkNwHPWcAE9Vyt.jpg) Indeed, but should the reader infer a connection between this proposition and the photo provided? ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 02:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632926799632924673) · 4 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** @ohwizenedtortle @Laura_k_Duffy I can't get my parents to listen to my own podcast 😭😭 Lmaoo ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 02:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632926881648451584) · 1 like > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @Laura_k_Duffy You got your parents to listen to an 80k episode with you? Can your parents adopt me? Wait but Chalmers isn’t an illusionist? ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 02:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1632927264328261632) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ What positions? These claims aren’t even about biology ### [Reply to @lfschiavo, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633196125250265088) · 1 like > **Larissa Schiavo (@lfschiavo):** what if I told you https://www.etsy.com/listing/1371574690/ Who is this lmao ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqpHOExXgAANbOK.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 20:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633209616564715520) · 7 likes Endorse. Not all good things are bad for you! > **Quoting The Affective Altruist 💛 (@baesrule1):** THEY LIED TO YOU! (... about salt) > No but seriously, you can eat as much salt as you fucking want. Here's what happened: research found that high salt intake increases death and disease in those with high blood pressure. Is this true or false: true! (1/n) ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 21:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633221018868219906) · 1 like > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Anecdotal impressions from the big country in the West (Swedish expression) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqlNwO5WcAIfnC6.jpg) https://x.com/jordanwpieters/status/1616969354507161601?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ### [Thread, continued, 21:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633221166004416516) · 3 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fqpd_omXwAA6VjC.jpg) ### [Reply to @natalia__coelho, 21:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633222099283197954) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @natalia__coelho is no longer available.)_ Ok I remember forming this opinion a while ago but don’t remember much more than that. So a @natalia\_\_coelho lit review in the opposite direction does radically decrease my certainty, at least ## Wednesday, March 8, 2023 ### [Reply to @Richard_Vixen, 02:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633295753232764928) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @Richard_Vixen is no longer available.)_ Pretty sure I’m at high risk of being this type of guy (conditional on gf, so low absolute risk), and from my (imaginary) perspective this just feels like having a bunch of intellectual discussions - I prob won’t know my partner experiences it differently unless they tell me! ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 02:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633297377154007041) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 @Richard_Vixen 10/10 for "conditional on gf, so low absolute risk" Gonna use this as an example if I ever have to explain conditional probabilities ### [Quote tweet, 04:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633319097709518849) · 7 likes Nah sorry, hate to be that guy but optimism already has the memetic advantage Hope, humor, gratitude, kindness, and generosity are all good and praiseworthy and nearly impossible to overdo… > **Quoting Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I think we should post a bit more about what we are optimistic about ### [Thread, continued, 04:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633319100368781313) · 1 like But optimism is the knob that adjusts “okness with the current trajectory” and as such should reflect how ok the current trajectory actually is ### [Thread, continued, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633321491084324866) · 2 likes And, for better or worse, “say what you’re optimistic about” suffers from the same universal-accessibility as “class, give the person to your left a complement;” the instruction increases everyone’s expectations, and the value of an unelicited positive remark falls ### [Reply to @CineraVerinia, 09:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633392339711344641) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @CineraVerinia is no longer available.)_ Unfollowing you for a pretty tame critique, not the take per se ### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 14:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633468820777209857) · 14 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** As somebody who's sane but not autistic, it's been very odd to watch the meaning of the formerly technical term "autistic" expand and mutate to mean "sane". Idk if I’m sane, but gonna start calling myself “autism adjacent” and you’re welcome to join ### [Reply to @keithfrankish, 14:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633479128732008451) · 5 likes > **Keith Frankish (@keithfrankish):** What are some good comfort twitter feeds and blogs, for times when you need a break from the stress and worry of modern life? @ESYudkowsky ### [Reply, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633533311984230430) · 3 likes that chopstick was not coming out of my neck on its own (true story btw, 3 year old me was not very good at maximizing his inclusive genetic fitness) ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 21:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633575665411715072) · 3 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** yo check out how much of the world's biomass is made up of trees (measured on a log scale) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FquYnK6WYAA40we.jpg) Is the joke the log scale thing, the fact that trees dont exist, or something else Im too autism-adjacent to get? ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 21:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633584609500725248) · 4 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqunUDwWwAAI2So.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqunhmHXwAgIXiL.jpg) Andy you make IB physics explainer videos ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 21:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633585975736647681) · 1 like > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I am extremely good at high school physics Indeed, and this is strong evidence of abnormally high intelligence ## Thursday, March 9, 2023 ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 03:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633667344810622976) · 5 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** I think the most reasonable argument someone could give me for voting Republican is “I’m a single issue voter and my single issue is shutting down gain-of-function research” > > (quoting @R_H_Ebright: "Knowing the origin of COVID..is fundamental to..prevent future pandemics." "Mounting evidence continues to show that COVID..may have originated from a lab in Wuhan, China." "The..media downplayed—and..denied—the..theory..COVID..emerged from..WIV."…) Or it’s 1860 ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 03:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633670023364460544) · 5 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** @AaronBergman18 Okay, but it’s… not Good point, updating ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633713749105287169) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @sixers2772 @AFraserUrq I didn't say I wanted to, simply that I was willing What does this even mean lol ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 06:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633716563986587650) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pli_cachete is no longer available.)_ That better be a natural log or else I’m rejecting mathematics ### [Quote tweet, 06:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633719743881306113) · 2 likes 🐐 > **Quoting who cares (@DianaG2772):** Legit call from the school: > > Principal: I just wanted to touch base with you. Your daughter was baiting seagulls into the playground with gummy worms and actually caught one; Like in her arms. It did bite her—not hard, but I needed to inform you that we filed an incident report ### [Reply, 10:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633777329724968961) · 2 likes No no no the Mario arc cannot extend past Waluigi ### [Tweet, 11:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633786195435044864) · 4 likes Y’all need seven books? Skill issue ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fqxf4s0XwAE31gT.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fqxf4swX0AgBDBI.jpg) ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633921363927875585) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ I don’t think it usually literally means that, just like how “first order effects” or “direct effects” aren’t usually appealing to irreducible physics like gravitational attraction But in general everyone knows what it means in a given case so it’s a useful distinction ### [Reply to @undo_hubris, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633924616044400640) > **Rubi Hudson (@undo_hubris):** @storebrandguy If you are a single-issue voter, also don't vote. You're probably a moron too. Oh, you just happened to pick the correct issue to base your vote on, unlike all those other single-issue voters who picked the wrong one? Yes ### [Reply, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633926207937863687) · 6 likes https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1624136225106890764?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1633926546544001025) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Some things I want: > \- Being able to type ideas for web apps and they appear > \- To see some live dinosaurs > \- For everyone to have their basic needs met > \- To live within walking distance of many friends > \- To produce a nerdy rap album > > What do you want? Nipsey Hussle ft Aaron Swartz 🥲 ## Friday, March 10, 2023 ### [Reply, 05:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634064674764337153) · 13 likes I have zero idea what you’re in for, but this basically took over 3 days of my life and for a couple hours I thought I might be like Milo-level cancelled. Muted it, never locked, zero effect on anything whatsoever afaict besides being a funny anecdote https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1535968622081867777?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ### [Thread, continued, 05:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634064979786596354) · 2 likes Now THAT is a ratio! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fq1dcIcWIAA5RV8.jpg) ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634067056239824897) · 8 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** @AaronBergman18 @ChanaMessinger "thought I might be like Milo-level cancelled" > I just want to say this is an absurd thing to think given what the content of your tweet actually was Yeah I know, it sounds and is insane lmao. But “infinity people yelling at you on the internet” probably feels pretty similar regardless of whether you did smth wrong and whether infinity means 3,000 or 3M ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634067150619934720) · 2 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** @AaronBergman18 @ChanaMessinger I mean this in a "don't feel bad about yourself – you weren't close to that" kind of way, not a "haha how could you think something so dumb" kind of way Ya ik haha thanks ### [Reply to @MagusGenji, 10:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634147064815710209) · 2 likes > **magusgenji (@MagusGenji):** @cauchyfriend Jokes on you, I created systems for talking to people at parties years ago. Share👏systems👏 ### [Reply, 14:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634202048076951558) · 2 likes I wrote a minor thing that seems relevant https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Xw98osdN4mEGbRDiR/aaron-bergman-s-shortform?commentId=6tTp8KgouKixEzyYv ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fq3aGdxWwAE6_l-.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fq3aGdvXwAASt_0.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fq3aGdzWwAk6Byq.jpg) ### [Reply to @sleight_henry, 14:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634203733063090179) · 2 likes > **Henry (@sleight_henry):** Rationalists will pick inspiring org names like CFAR or Lightcone and EAs will literally name theirs CGRSP Lightcone is a pretty sweet name ### [Reply, 14:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634204328188686338) · 4 likes But personally I’d prefer Centre on the Global Development for the Future of Post-Human Life Initiative ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634271540920430593) · 1 like > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** @NathanB60857242 Come join the DC crowd! @SpacedOutMatt @AaronBergman18 @GluskerMartin My actual best guess (without knowing much more than can be gleaned from ur twitter profile) is that DC is the all things considered best choice. Tbc we’re talking like 35%/45%/20% or maybe even a few points from dc to sf ### [Thread, continued, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634272767402024961) · 1 like My sappy poetic altruistic case here is that DC is (substantively, not just de jure) the center of political power for the most powerful institution ever to exist in the universe (the US federal gov) ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 19:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634276665856606208) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ \- @AndyMasley runs EA DC and so the latter must be good by transitivity of goodness \- ppl disagree with me I think but everything here should be weirder and generally more (on the margin, not all the way!) SF, and probably on avg importing more of EA Twitter would help w this lol ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634278197427568641) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Representatives from the Ophiuchus Supercluster Galactic Hyperconfederation reading this like 👀 Representatives from the ₽•æœ‰’s Post-Republic of the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall Petastructure reading \*this\* like 🧿👁️🧿👁️🧿👁️🧿👁️ ### [Thread, continued, 19:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634278941455163395) · 2 likes STOP doing physics, there should not be 2 kinds of distance ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fq4gBAnX0CApG-z.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fq4gBAmX0BIEnu2.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fq4gBAoX0AAeq1z.jpg) ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 23:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634336755062112256) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** i'm expecting to be rejected a lot over the next year, this tweet will be the start of a public record of all the things i get rejected from ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fq5UlrhXoAAG4BA.png) ## Saturday, March 11, 2023 ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 02:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634386646471700480) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18 @frances\_\_lorenz @Mihonarium @RethinkPriors Just wanted to swing back to this and say that @RethinkPriors has definitely been aware of this (they are pleased) ### [Reply to @panickssery, 02:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634388320259121152) · 1 like > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** An absurd amount of my mana is in this one market on whether a friend will bench two plates by September > > I'm not sure if I'm doing this Manifold Markets thing right > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fq33r0-aEAAZQd_.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fq33_15aQAI9B8m.jpg) What’s his current 1rm? ### [Reply to @panickssery, 05:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634428710563508224) · 1 like > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** 155 If he’s been lifting (really, doing pushups or bench averaging >= 30 reps/week) for more than 6 months I’d bet against, less than a month I’d bet for, probably the 50% line is around 10 weeks but 1-5 mos I’d have to think ### [Thread, continued, 05:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634430004187521024) · 1 like Nothing against him! Conditional on caring enough to have a manifold, his 1rm lift gains almost certainly aren’t limited by willpower/willingness to do what’s necessary or knowledge about routines and stuff. Or maybe those mean the difference between like 200lbs and 202.5 ### [Reply to @panickssery, 06:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634441903969120257) · 3 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** @AaronBergman18 Disagree: 17 years old, male, linear progress since starting in Sept, if he eats enough protein and sleeps enough and takes the creatine I gifted him and doesn't miss a workout for the next 25 weeks I'd say 90% > > So in my mind this is a "will devansh lose the habit" market $20 to charity of winner’s choice? ### [Reply to @robinhanson, 07:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634450304757366785) · 3 likes > **Robin Hanson (@robinhanson):** Who are good people to follow for deep timeless general insights, instead of dunks and quips on the topic fashion of the day? If you can look past the \_obligatory\_ conference/event/book/video promotion, @davidchalmers42 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fq67469WIAA3xMH.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fq67468WYAItMrT.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fq67469XgAA-mRY.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 07:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634450771818291202) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @Laura_k_Duffy You seem fairly based to me Indeed it appears so ### [Tweet, 13:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634549075935649794) · 10 likes Ooh fdic discourse. If anybody wants to know how \*precisely\* the interval between federal on-site safety and soundness inspections is determined for banks with a CAMELS rating of 3 or below, I suspect I was the world’s leading expert on this particular question for a week or two ### [Thread, continued, 13:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634549078343262208) · 5 likes at some point in late 2021 …Now you’re gonna have to ask someone else bc they didn’t let me keep any of the things I wrote (security and all ik ik) ### [Thread, continued, 13:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634549080025190401) · 4 likes Oh you didn’t want to know that? That has nothing to do with the Current Thing? Ok ☹️ ### [Reply, 21:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634670122727088130) · 2 likes He just like me fr ### [Reply to @GhostCoase, 23:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634701949546233861) · 2 likes > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** Hmmmm > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fq9baG1aUAA1ZHl.jpg) Obligatory: atheist, hopefully not racist, Jewish enough to have had a Bar Mitzvah in Israel, a couple theology classes in college Pretty sure “atheism worse” follows in a boringly unambiguous way from the scriptures of at least the Abrahamic religions (if you regard them as ## Sunday, March 12, 2023 ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 06:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634808316005339136) · 7 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** I mean if the only way you know how to find love is to sexually harass people, then I really do think you should not find love - sorry that's the crux > > I also don't think banning dating at work is a good idea and I don't see why this is such a binary thing for you. I think you’re some combo of misinterpreting and being abnormally uncharitable here Sexual harassment is absolutely a huge problem and not ‘just’ in absolute terms but relative to very many bad things at least as salient in Western politics/media/culture (this is my impression ### [Thread, continued, 06:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634809451172491265) · 5 likes rn not based on any recent concrete research), other categories of crime providing some examples esp when weighted by salience (eg gun violence) But declining quality and number of relationships (sexual/romantic and social, also same epistemic status^) is up there too! ### [Thread, continued, 06:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634810284085764097) · 2 likes It’s legitimately unclear to me which is “worse”/more important all things considered (as a straight guy I should say), though I’d probably guess the latter; maybe I’d put 70% on coming to this conclusion after learning a lot more about both ### [Thread, continued, 06:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634811171122425857) · 1 like FWIW idk how much of your disagreement leans on the birth rates thing but I haven’t been thinking about that at all and am less sure than most EA adjacent neolib types that at the current margin it’s even a bad thing on net ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 08:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634826953013297152) · 1 like > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Also stop me again if I'm being uncharitable, but I think I'm bothered by what appears to be "won't women being harassed just think of the declining birth rates!" logic, as if women are just baby-making machines or something? Mistake theory! (and see below for directionally anti-anti-anti-natalist propaganda) ### [Thread, continued, 08:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634827461379670019) I agree with you on the birth thing. This tweet from before doesn’t address the misogyny pronatalism is sometimes a mask for ### [Thread, continued, 08:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634828909966401538) · 4 likes New cause area: abolish pronouns (nothing to do with gender/trans issues, they’re just occasionally ambiguous) time to log off ### [Reply, 08:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634830396897521664) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Guy who does this solely to weed out girls for whom it’s a deal-breaker ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FrAVlOJXgAIjDN0.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 08:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634830873379082243) Girl who’s deal gets broken solely to weed out guys who are playing this particular game of 4d signaling-selection chess ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FrAWA61XgAEFRsS.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 08:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634830996754374656) · 2 likes It’s turtles all the way down from here ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 08:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634831275482812418) · 21 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** is there any way to dye semen before it comes out? If this is possible to do in a reasonably safe way, my money is on beta-carotene megadose ### [Thread, continued, 08:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634831378951856128) · 3 likes Dude will turn orange everywhere tho, it’s not selective ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 17:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634976251378290688) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Agh I strongly disagree that is an implication of or essentially my view! I just need more than 6 minutes for this one which is what I have rn! ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 17:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1634976640882323456) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18 @frances\_\_lorenz @JMannhart @kevinf567 @emmalrichter @ChanaMessinger @NathanpmYoung I think all three of us disagree with you\* btw, I just didn't want to create a pile on. > > \- > > \*Or rather - disagree with our interpretation of you, which is different from what you actually meant? Still unclear what you meant but will give benefit of doubt. Major +1 on the asterisk lol ## Monday, March 13, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 18:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1635343493232234496) · 19 likes 50/50 with 700 votes in a de facto referendum on the status of EA among a non-trivial share of the policymaking elite in the most powerful institution ever to exist in the universe? This is the most important vote you will ever cast > **Quoting New Liberals (@CNLiberalism):** Poster Play-In (Round 1) > \--- > Zoning abolitionist @theurbaneist > vs > EA Enthusiast @Laura_k_Duffy ### [Thread, continued, 18:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1635343496180817921) · 6 likes I typed out “I’m \[x\]% serious” with x ranging from 35 to 51, so I guess I’m 43% serious @Laura_k_Duffy, who’s more numerate than me, can check my math ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 23:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1635420039770947585) · 2 likes > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** @AaronBergman18 "policymaking elite in the most powerful institution ever to exist in the universe" we have differing perceptions of ne0liberal i guess Followed by Ezra Klein, Yglesias, David Shor, Nate Silver, to name a few. A twitter follow only means so much but also the shill thing definitely reaches into wonky policy twitter more broadly ## Wednesday, March 15, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 02:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1635824992335060992) · 31 likes Yeah I feel this super viscerally for the first time literally today. Not "concern," which I've felt before - that emotion is directed at the future, an instinct to fix the broken. To be on the lookout. This is (or at least feels) about right now ... ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FrOdDbtWIAIoKyL.jpg) > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I want to get off Mr. Altman's Wild Ride ### [Thread, continued, 02:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1635824994994249729) · 4 likes The pic is an ok metaphor for how one sliver of my brain represents part of the current situation, not AI in any other sense! ### [Tweet, 06:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1635897708467585026) · 3 likes Convince me that brown not being a shade of grey (it’s spelled both ways ok) isn’t \*the\* glitch in the simulation. Don’t they both reflect all wavelengths?? I can’t tell if I’m mostly tired mostly insane or a secret very weird third thing. Classic fake explanation btw 👇 🦃=🐭 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FrPgS6aXgAIouz9.jpg) ### [Reply to @mcinthedc, 07:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1635913537032790020) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mcinthedc is no longer available.)_ I will die on the pro-pajama pants hill ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 08:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1635914320491020290) · 2 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** @mcinthedc I used to wear pajamas in public all the time, until I met someone who was like “ohhhh you’re the girl who walks around the neighborhood in PJs” 😳 I think we should ban “PJ” - it’s like halfway to “jammie” Show the garment and it’s neighborhood walking wearers some goddamn respect ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 17:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1636061487604064256) · 3 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** No need to rush, we will all still be here when you have more time. In the meantime I will give you the benefit of the doubt. I think it would be good to express this well so we understand what you mean. I might be reneging on this, actually 😔 feels like first smart friend in a math class got x=6 to your x=no solution and inside view, at least, says that they’re wrong But if you learn your other two smart also got x=6, (1) all things considered it’s almost certain ### [Thread, continued, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1636062363362181120) · 2 likes that you’re the one who messed up and (2) it \*might\* be worth picking through each line to figure out what went wrong, but sometimes it’s not Here, it doesn’t seem worthwhile now but def could if, say, a bunch of similar issues become action relevant Tbc I’m saying/now believe ### [Thread, continued, 17:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1636062750840324098) · 3 likes I screwed up somewhere and at least the point I \*expressed\* was wrong, regardless of if the thing in my head is true ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1636066541836877827) · 1 like > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** @AaronBergman18 I opened up my color research tool (Microsoft Paint) to see what I could find. It seems that brown is just a mix that favors red over blue. For example RGB(75,75,75) is gray, while RGB(125,75,25) is brown. Ok I’m super confused rn. Maybe slightly validated lmao Brown: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown Shades of brown: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shades_of_brown ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FrR52PsXgAIAx_O.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FrR52PrWAAAVd3Y.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FrR52QbX0AE_J_f.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 18:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1636067009589919747) · 7 likes Guys “the” color brown is very weird > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @timfduffy Ok I’m super confused rn. Maybe slightly validated lmao > > Brown: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown > > Shades of brown: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shades_of_brown > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FrR52PsXgAIAx_O.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FrR52PrWAAAVd3Y.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FrR52QbX0AE_J_f.jpg) ## Saturday, March 18, 2023 ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 09:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1637023003962904576) · 2 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** As your Chief Neoliberal Shill, I'll always honor my campaign promises, starting w/my Tipsy Twitter AMA > > Post all your qs regarding neoliberalism, MT zoning, chicken welfare, or anything else below! I'll have a few drinks and start answering them at 7 > > And continue voting for me! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FrcAxMFXwAA84BX.jpg) > (quoting @CNLiberalism: The Maia Mindel Region (Round of 32) --- (1) 2022 Shill Bracket Runner-up and tax policy economist @wwwojtekk vs (9) Peter Singer Stan Account @Laura_k_Duffy) P(run for office) P(run for MT senate) What question were you hoping to get asked but didn’t yet? Ok fine that one^ The cursed version of that^^ if and only if you want to answer ### [Tweet, 09:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1637029368672165892) · 94 likes Pretty sure but lmk if it seems wrong: no LLM has generated a correct but otherwise unknowable statement Stronger version: Arbitrarily large LLMs trained and run in qualitatively similar way to those live rn will be likewise incapable of doing this ### [Reply to @moreisdifferent, 13:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1637077549980188672) · 2 likes > **Dan Elton 🔍 (@moreisdifferent):** @AaronBergman18 You mean previously unknown? No, though intuitively that’s the same idea. Eg answer to a lengthy but simple arithmetic problem or “how many instances of the letter u are there in all my tweets?” ### [Reply to @benrayfield, 19:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1637178745965387779) · 5 likes > **Lambda Rick 🏴‍☠️/acc (@benrayfield):** If its "unknowable", how would u know its "correct"? I’m not actually certain this is always formally right but intuitively, by difficulty : (True) hypothesis generation> proof > verification of proof But my real answer is “things that look doable only with new knowledge get done” - we may not know what that knowledge is! ### [Reply to @goth600, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1637181110281969665) · 2 likes > **@goth (@goth600):** Beginning to think even ASI won’t be able to help Sam Altman find cool shoes to wear > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FredZAMaMAARm2E.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FredZAMaIAEYvIc.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FredZANaIAELz4i.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FredZAOaMAAzWlX.jpg) If I were him I’d go harder on the counter signaling. Pajama pants. Two different flip flops. A big ziplock bag ## Monday, March 20, 2023 ### [Reply, 08:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1637729021935886337) · 16 likes Solve the alignment problem ### [Thread, continued, 08:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1637729166618509312) · 4 likes Ha u guys that was easy ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 22:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1637944097158877184) · 3 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** File this one under obvious. I wonder if we could've made money on this in retrospect? I've never bought or sold an individual stock but some things seem pretty clear? > > I don't understand markets. (That's why I don't buy sell individual stocks.) > > (quoting @AlecStapp: In January, Buzzfeed stock spiked nearly 300% when the company announced plans to use ChatGPT for content creation. It, uh, didn’t last long…) Short selling means you’d be on the hook for an unbounded amount of money if wrong Idk what the options prices were but probably very unfavorable to those trying to do a lower bounded-risk version of this So even in hindsight it feels very sketchy ## Tuesday, March 21, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 06:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1638064250257121320) · 3 likes Retvrn to 2 parameters > **Quoting @goth (@goth600):** gm > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Frrf0J_akAErkqD.jpg) ### [Tweet, 06:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1638070470443450368) · 4 likes This would be one of the funnier ways to become a homeowner in a $1M+ house neighborhood, and I’m not even sure it’s a bad idea ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FruYaPGX0AAgYYO.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FruYaPEXwAExhHR.jpg) ### [Tweet, 11:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1638145630051659782) · 20 likes I have no idea what a GPU is at at this point I’m too afraid to ask ### [Tweet, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1638283942921924614) · 7 likes New LLM just dropped ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FrxakABWAAIh_Pp.jpg) ## Wednesday, March 22, 2023 ### [Tweet, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1638395004782518273) · 5 likes Every time I check on my $18 UBOpenAI thinking it should be used up, the little bar thing has moved like two cents I have $17.48 remaining ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 13:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1638526680057692160) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** What's the cheapest place to buy digital storage? > > (Maybe also most secure places as well?) No superlative claims but I have backblaze ### [Reply to @moskov, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1638594936223277080) · 27 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @moskov is no longer available.)_ Domain land value tax when ## Thursday, March 23, 2023 ### [Reply to @baesrule1, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1638751619058749440) · 2 likes > **The Affective Altruist 💛 (@baesrule1):** How do you make brown rice taste better? > @Laura_k_Duffy @ryancbriggs Remove the germ and fiber ### [Quote tweet, 05:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1638773201839718401) · 2 likes Many are saying > **Quoting Malcolm Ocean 🏴‍☠️ (@Malcolm_Ocean):** psych has a context crisis, deeper than a replicability crisis > > you can measure people via surveys but what you measure is only how they respond to surveys > > very trippy demo (correlations in blank likert scales) > https://x.com/literalbanana/status/1638387396009140224 ### [Tweet, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1639010485319114753) · 83 likes “AI will never-” “6 months” Ok wise scale maximalist, what do \*you\* think AI can’t do in, say, 2 years? Has to be possible in principle tho, ideal probability range like 2%-25% ### [Thread, continued, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1639010487928074250) · 25 likes I’ll go with “predict large earthquakes early enough in advance for people to leave” and “state what color screen a human is looking at using only neural data” ### [Tweet, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1639013081870135299) · 23 likes If it turns out these have already been done this was a clever ploy to illustrate the pace of progress ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1639015603766697984) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** you can just send normal AI risk explainer articles now, you don't need to send people HPMOR or the sequences 🥰 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fr0hWRZWIAA2Jia.jpg) What normal articles are ppl referring to? I’ve lost track of what counts as normal ## Friday, March 24, 2023 ### [Reply to @undo_hubris, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1639113721581633536) · 15 likes > **Rubi Hudson (@undo_hubris):** Create videos at least a minute in length based on prompts, which are consistently difficult to distinguish from human-generated videos. Intuitively this seems like 70% likely for casual layperson viewing but idk what im talking about ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1639345536019881986) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 23, 2023:** If it turns out these have already been done this was a clever ploy to illustrate the pace of progress Update: failed to follow own instructions ### [Reply to @BenHayum, 21:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1639378550967918592) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @BenHayum is no longer available.)_ Do this and I'll stop stanning MS Word. Don't say you weren't warned @MSFTResearch @Office @Microsoft ### [Reply to @derekofmilford, 21:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1639378782099316736) · 2 likes > **derek (@derekofmilford):** There is no world where zero people pursue this But there is a world in which a handful of top companies with the most talent and compute don't ## Saturday, March 25, 2023 ### [Tweet, 04:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1639491414504423425) · 6 likes I'm testing chatGPT's ability to predict the number of likes, retweets, bookmarks, and comments on this very tweet ### [Tweet, 08:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1639538086534152195) · 1 like ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FsDPMpsWYAEIIqh.jpg) [![Tribute I Volunteer GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/FsDPMprWcAA6Y4Y.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1639538086534152195/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Quote tweet, 08:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1639540859485016065) · 9 likes Thx ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FsDRuPUWcAAcG7D.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FsDRuPSXsAA9_x4.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FsDPMpsWYAEIIqh.jpg) > [GIF attached](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1639538086534152195/photo/1) ## Sunday, March 26, 2023 ### [Reply to @xriskology, 02:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1639815655720452096) · 6 likes > **Dr. Émile P. Torres (they/them) (@xriskology):** Content warning! > > I feel physically ill watching this. "Homo sapiens," the self-described "wise human." Can't believe we treat other creatures like this. > > (quoting @goth600: Man made horrors) We don’t agree on much but we definitely agree on this ### [Tweet, 22:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1640113246433599494) · 3 likes @tobyordoxford when @lexfridman drops “We stand on the precipice…” 30 seconds into his interview with @sama [![Happy Logan Paul GIF by DAZN](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/FsLaTTwWYAAjQfX.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1640113246433599494/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply, 22:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1640124931978477572) · 12 likes “Fruit bad actually” is an attractively contrarianish take that makes a good bit of theoretical sense but afaict basically all empirical research contradicts ## Monday, March 27, 2023 ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 01:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1640162953306558467) · 5 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** @peterwildeford > smart country > And what may have given you that impression I suspect a disproportionate amount of time spent in Oxford ### [Reply, 14:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1640365391754010624) · 2 likes My sister and I have our own semi-complex language! Ok maybe dialect is the better word, but it’s substantially its own thing lol ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1640383829440450562) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Should I thank Qualy in my acknowledgments section? I managed to miss the voting window but yes this is morally obligatory ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 16:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1640386807777959936) · 2 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** I can of course understand the reason for not having it to walk around. But voting?? Ideally you'd want only eligible voters to vote at only one booth! This makes total sense in theory but zero in the IRL United States where the type of fraud this would prevent seems extraordinarily rare and there are a gazillion political science papers showing it disproportionately inhibits turnout of the least privileged along every dimension ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 16:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1640387187890872320) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FsPRknXagAIEWWi.png) There are so many appropriate gifs this is but one [![Crying From Happiness GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/FsPTc1mWYAALOT1.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1640387187890872320/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Tweet, 19:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1640437711445061633) · 36 likes Wanna be clear before I drop the $20 If I get chatGPT Plus, do I automatically get access to gpt4? ## Tuesday, March 28, 2023 ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 06:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1640595155689385984) · 1 like > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I kinda wish that scope sensitivity had a more poetic name to fit with the other two If only we had some very creative sand… 1\. Limitless vision 2\. Boundless benevolence 3\. Infinite empathy 4\. Endless perspective 5\. Expansive excellence 6\. Unbounded understanding 7\. Infinite insight 8\. Limitless compassion … ### [Thread, continued, 06:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1640595196051111936) · 1 like 9\. Cosmic consciousness 10\. Boundless perception 11\. Limitless heart 12\. Universal empathy 13\. Infinite care 14\. Unfathomable compassion 15\. Endless benevolence. ### [Thread, continued, 06:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1640595756984725504) · 2 likes Actually none of these are amazing, it’s having trouble combining the concepts of proportionality and unboundedness ### [Quote tweet, 14:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1640715477759705089) · 3 likes By induction, the difference between a significant difference between two degrees of significance and an insignificant difference between two degrees of significance is not itself statistically significant > **Quoting Jake M. Grumbach (@JakeMGrumbach):** some days don't you just feel like shouting this from a rooftop > > (ungated: http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~gelman/research/published/signif4.pdf) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FsPLwjtaIAEcDBS.png) ## Thursday, March 30, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1641302087265812481) · 3 likes If a bunch steps in my hyperspeculative amateur reasoning chain check out, you’ll now be able to sensitize your mu opioid receptors and increase your hedonic baseline, if ever so slightly, with stuff you can buy on Amazon👍 (More below) > **Quoting Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-over-counter-naloxone-nasal-spray?mc_cid=7b1c907bb9&mc_eid=6421b4abc9 OTC naloxone has been approved by the FDA. This is very cool ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 07:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1641345145504137216) · 13 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ Wait this is totally reasonably and probably correct. The particulars of AI risk mean that “world end” isn’t (necessarily or generally) a flavor of “hellscape” but more just everyone’s dead - it’s morbid but this probably isn’t a good reason not to have kids ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 07:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1641347888180772864) · 2 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** @Noahpinion There is \*such\* a long list of very smart people who are incredibly concerned. Neither the “smart“ nor the “very concerned“ is debatable (in good faith). > > You can disagree of course, but do it in good faith. With arguments! Good criticism is great! > > But this? It's embarrassing. Yea - although IMO this meme is shorthand for a bundle of arguments or at least implicit propositional assertions (I apologize for writing this phrase) along the lines of “simple heuristics usually work, this is one such case, disagreement is failed intellect signaling” … ### [Reply to @chronononono, 07:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1641348404679700481) · 3 likes > **chrono (@chronononono):** @AaronBergman18 @ruth_hook\_ There's nothing reasonable about thinking the world will end in 5 years Hope ur right ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 08:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1641356727286128640) · 4 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** Shutting down nuclear weapons production for 6 months is dangerous and irresponsible. The excess fissile material produced by reactors in this time will create a "plutonium overhang" making it easier for rogue states to catch up If I’m reading this right I don’t think it’s a good analogy: Sentence 2 is neither here nor there but if nukes were just invented and there was a multipolar arms race starting up I do think it would be bad for the US to unilaterally stop after making 2 ### [Reply to @AISafetyMemes, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1641572205871116288) · 4 likes > **AI Notkilleveryoneism Memes ⏸️ (@AISafetyMemes):** @AaronBergman18 @QualyThe This is the most EA response to a joke > > 🏆 [![Honored GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/FsgJN_TWAAELrrL.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1641572205871116288/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply, 22:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1641574417875574785) · 1 like I guess depends on if this means “try to hit location 10k miles away and the st dev of its landing is more like 100 miles, more like 1000, or “sometimes detonates randomly even in storage” ### [Thread, continued, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1641577262880284672) · 1 like Anyway maybe a better analogy is “fossil fuel reserves are 1/10 their actual size, we just discovered fission but nobody knows how hard reactors are to build safely and if one ever melts down the atmosphere ignites. What should the govt do both legislatively and internationally?” ## Friday, March 31, 2023 ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 04:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1641663503839707136) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** feeling 22 Same (neither 22 nor my bday tho) And happy birthday! ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 12:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1641781462876733440) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FsjHifnXoAAp8Er.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1641870827011334153) · 18 likes Idk who needs to hear this but \*there is no legal obligation for corporations to maximize shareholder value\* - at least in the US and UK > **Quoting zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** One little-known fact about the US legal system is that no one actually has a fiduciary duty to kill all of their shareholders. In fact, you could even make an argument that there is generally a fiduciary duty to \*not\* kill all of your shareholders. ### [Reply to @cauchyfriend, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1641897560813064204) · 2 likes > **shako (@cauchyfriend):** a few times i've made a reference to twitter IRL and people asked me for my handle, and I had to go "haha... n..no" "wait seriously" "y..yeah, n..no. sorry" Coworker at a previous job let on that he was in the postrat sphere somewhere but on “deep background” or smth so refused to say more. If that’s you, hope all’s well! --- End of March 2023. Previous month: [February 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-02). Next month: [April 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-04). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, April 2023 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in April 2023 and has not deleted: 185 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [March 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-03). Next month: [May 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-05). ## Saturday, April 1, 2023 ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 04:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1642017506146525184) · 3 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** @serbantanasa I think he‘s just focusing! It‘s really hard to have a 3+ hour conversation like that with someone you don‘t know very well. > > Esp. if you know millions of people will probably watch this. > > Esp. if you think that some of the fate of the world depends on you (by sheer bad luck). Theres a reason 80k lets both sides cut stuff post-interview, doesn’t even try to do everything in a continuous take, and has no video (except randomly Ezra Klein??) Yeah it’s extremely difficult - at least for some! Reminds me of: ### [Reply to @diviaprocessing, 04:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1642018146075779072) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @diviaprocessing is no longer available.)_ You believe in caves? Lol ### [Tweet, 04:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1642019473354895361) · 15 likes Goddamnit, Rob Wiblin can delete his Twitter but he can’t stop me from QTing him from memory anyway: Something like “Hypothesis: 2023 will be to AI what 2020 was to COVID” ### [Reply to @inerati, 04:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1642020152895066113) · 48 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ Inside you there are 2 wolves ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FsmgoGlWIAA4HZO.jpg) ### [Reply to @robinhanson, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1642045684177141763) · 3 likes > **Robin Hanson (@robinhanson):** GPT6 has arrived earlier than expected: > https://gpt6.ai/gpt6 More below ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fsm32LhXoAE3geH.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fsm32LiWwAAj16T.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fsm32LgWcAQwbMV.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fsm32LgWcAITn8f.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1642045719069483009) · 1 like ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fsm34QnXwAArQSP.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fsm34QoWwAArPp5.jpg) ## Sunday, April 2, 2023 ### [Reply to @RachaelvsWorld, 20:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1642628260155518978) · 5 likes > **Rach (@RachaelvsWorld):** what’s the dumbest thing you got in trouble at school for? Dropping a crumpled up ball of tin foil into a guy’s tuba while he was playing ### [Reply to @jam3scampbell, 20:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1642630849605644290) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @jam3scampbell is no longer available.)_ Fuck ## Monday, April 3, 2023 ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 00:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1642686876086665217) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Tbh my wife has rlhf'ed him by giving him a treat for dropping the knife. We’re doomed ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1642689803870191619) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax I legit wasn't trying for an allegory which probably makes it a bit worse. ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FswBq3HXsAARiQF.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 00:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1642689879707377665) · 2 likes This is the first and only thing I’ve made in Freeform ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 01:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1642704202035081217) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax Omg that's amazing! So good. Tbh I'm a but sad that my dog probably won't understand it. Awesome! Thx I do consider myself an artist ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 03:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1642727033275858945) · 1 like > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Kinda don’t like it when jobs in the EA community say they pay “competitive wages”. Competitive with what? SF tech salaries? Nonprofit salaries? Living expenses? Shrimp welfare payments? Just list the pay range! I can think of a couple reasons not listing is worth the annoying opacity, maybe the main one being an ability to honestly make a super high offer to someone if warranted without anchoring the other 90% of hires to smth super high ### [Tweet, 21:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1642998375900487686) · 595 likes Academics submitting: peer review (PR) sucks Academics reviewing: PR sucks Meta-scientists: PR fails to catch even the most basic of errors Entire PR’ed sub-fields: \*fail to replicate\* Elsevier: \*cackles\* Randos on Twitter: PR is the foundation on which all knowledge stands ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 22:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1643022929519599616) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ryancbriggs is no longer available.)_ I mean for some this is true, but in general I disagree. Pretty sure the great majority of say, US college educated adults have such a strong immune response to the terms “forum” and “blog” that a text’s status as such renders it automatically disqualified… ## Tuesday, April 4, 2023 ### [Tweet, 17:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1643302825005309958) · 8 likes I think I’ve seen exactly 1 tweet about the event which happened a few days ago and that easily lands somewhere between “very newsworthy and reasonably important” and “extremely newsworthy and very very important” on my made up qualitative 2x2 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1643320691851247618) · 5 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 What event? Trump indicted https://apnews.com/article/trump-stormy-daniels-case-explained-50513ce1d9ac25764d39dffbc6fe3c2a ### [Reply to @Bbburner19, 18:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1643322037602066440) · 2 likes > **The People Mover That Was Promised (@Bbburner19):** @absurdlymax @AaronBergman18 I've seen at least 100 tweets about this tbh. Huh, the algo has decided I'm a weirdo ## Wednesday, April 5, 2023 ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 06:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1643504330178174977) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @bronzeageshawty Yes. Every single component down to charging refrigerant accurately in an HVAC system. Anyone claiming code as an obstacle is incapable of performing the most white collar part of this task so their answer should obviously be no. I had to sleep outside one night for Boy Scouts. Turns out I cannot even build an effective lean-to (or whatever the branch and leaf thing is called) It was an unpleasant, wet, and cold experience ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 09:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1643547321743835137) > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fs7zM4ragAIP5DL.png) Yes. ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 09:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1643549269138325506) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ Uh I’m pretty sure every study ever says the exact opposite of this. Like IQ >> conscientiousness>≈grit in predicting performance at ~anything ### [Reply to @waitbutwhy, 13:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1643613789600743425) · 16 likes > **Tim Urban (@waitbutwhy):** If you could send your 22-year-old self a three-word message, what would you say? “Nothing much changes in the proceeding 2 weeks” ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 14:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1643621924738592768) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 @waitbutwhy This um is longer than three words :( ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 14:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1643622097699176452) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 5, 2023:** “Nothing much changes in the proceeding 2 weeks” “…including your ability to follow simple directions” ## Thursday, April 6, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 08:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1643891737520140288) · 10 likes I…don’t find this that bizarre? Seems analogous to the “fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too” copypasta thing, where a base text like “story about shoggoths using magic spells to free humans” is modified by some algorithm analogous to letter mixing… > **Quoting Ezra Newman (@EzraJNewman):** @absurdlymax > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fs_wmJSWYAQBtab.jpg) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 15:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1644002600373682176) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** The FBI seizure graphics are so cool > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FtCHPJWWYAcOfqK.png) That is a chaotic monitor setup ## Friday, April 7, 2023 ### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 16:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1644374140088885249) · 3 likes > **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** If you want to get to the crux, fast forward to 2:35:00 - 3:43:54. Here we debate the main reasons I think doom is unlikely. > > Transcript: https://dwarkeshpatel.com/p/eliezer-yudkowsky > > YouTube: https://youtu.be/41SUp-TRVlg > > Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3mcPjON > > Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3KDFzX9 Doesn’t matter but fyi ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FtH9kA6XwAUYqbV.jpg) ## Saturday, April 8, 2023 ### [Tweet, 10:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1644643189746286593) · 7 likes Fake QT to stop the algo boost algorithmically boost but this is a case where my system 1 “stfu asshole” take 100% stands up to system 2 scrutiny 1\) Sure, at a high level, the decision of whether to \*try\* \[IF/keto/\_\_\_\_\] is a matter of prioritization/choice/effort, but… ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FtLyQ7jXwAMT2JS.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 10:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1644643191918821376) · 5 likes 2\) Once you account for that^, actual bf% or BMI is just not something you control in any meaningful sense. The thermostat metaphor is used so often because it’s super apt. Once the black box of physiology (incl neurochemistry) decides what your set point is, it’s game over. ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1644769853620862976) · 3 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** FYI: There’s a playlist of Rob Wiblin’s top recommended EconTalk episodes!! > I haven’t gotten to many of the old (pre-2017) episodes so super excited to binge-listen > https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rob-wiblins-top-recommended-econtalk-episodes-v0-2-feb-2020/id1538606917 EconTalk is overrated ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FtNldq4WcAE-X2w.jpg) ## Monday, April 10, 2023 ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 02:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1645256816106823681) · 13 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ :( ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FtUgWuLWAAEELRk.jpg) ### [Reply to @granawkins, 02:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1645257896265908224) · 3 likes > **Grant♟️ (@granawkins):** I took the train from Casablanca to Marrakesh in 2014, and the toilet was literally a hole out the bottom of the train. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FtUSP7XaQAMeOiZ.jpg) Train tho ### [Reply to @AlexGodofsky, 11:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1645386115606626304) · 2 likes > **Alex Godofsky (@AlexGodofsky):** yes Fuuuck ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1645457255330971648) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** What fiction book would you force me to read? If I was a meaner person, and conditional on my memory being reliable over a 10 year timeframe, the hunger games ≣≝≔∝⊫☰₌⊜ 🐐 ## Tuesday, April 11, 2023 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 00:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1645592268483559424) · 5 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Think 71 is the Bangladesh genocide Why was I unaware of this being a thing until 20 seconds ago? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_genocide ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1645856318169677824) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pli_cachete is no longer available.)_ 🐐(greatest of all Tripps) ### [Reply to @Aria_Babu, 18:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1645857635608977409) · 3 likes > **Aria Schrecker (@Aria_Babu):** I have a couple of friends who need thyroid drugs to live and are prevented from stockpiling them. I understand why, but this seems silly in world where supply chain problems or a war could quickly cut them off. Everyone should be allowed to have a 1kg block of pure thyroxine (unironic) ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 20:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1645887164759310336) · 1 like > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** I support the burgeoning EABWNGBS movement > > (quoting @JosephPolitano: @ZeframM @Amtays yes, this is why we need a new movement called Effective Altruism But With No Galaxy Brain Stuff lmao) Boo ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1645889281108611072) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** There's something to be said for stupid levels of optimism What the something? ### [Tweet, 22:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1645916952756355073) · 8 likes Alignment has gone too far ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ftd4umFXwAAjaZs.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1645917299290038272) · 2 likes ... ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ftd5DZnXsAYObhd.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1645917553687154689) · 2 likes looks like I'm gonna have to raw dog this one ### [Reply to @ptrschmdtnlsn, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1645921590796857344) · 4 likes > **Peter Schmidt-Nielsen (@ptrschmdtnlsn):** Wow, that calibration curve, dang. Doc should be age+sexuality+that pic alone ### [Tweet, 23:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1645926091675017216) · 4 likes Some neighborhood kids have a bouncy castle going. No Happy Birthday signs or cake or anything, also no adults in sight Very much like the symbolism here on at least several levels (I like it nonsymbolically too but that goes without saying) ## Wednesday, April 12, 2023 ### [Reply to @JosephPolitano, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1645940017213104128) · 2 likes > **Joey Politano 🏳️‍🌈 (@JosephPolitano):** the castle man???? Come on I too will defend the castle [![Lets Go Fight GIF by Juanfran](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/FteNuFfWwAUvMeV.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1645940017213104128/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Tweet, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1645998758805553154) · 546 likes I won't go down without a fight ![Truth](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FtfDJbcWAAAXTHP.jpg) ### [Reply to @rmcwhorter99, 04:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646008548004904961) · 5 likes > **Ryan McWhorter (@rmcwhorter99):** @Tjdriii @AaronBergman18 Are you sure tho Yup ### [Reply to @MarkovMagnifico, 05:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646021088390856705) · 28 likes > **Markov (@MarkovMagnifico):** girls, what is the most rizz someone has ever asked you out w? Good luck to my nine fellow bookmarkers ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 05:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646023397674037248) · 14 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I think Nathan is doing a really good job responding to some of these horrible comments and I respect it a lot > > (quoting @NathanpmYoung: I very rarely express anger online But I am tempted to go to war in the replies to @KatjaGrace's dating doc. Those people need Jesus. And I mean the one in Revelation. vox populi, vox dei) 🧊 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FtfZjkTXwAAzyT7.jpg) ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 05:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646025044731088897) · 3 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @absurdlymax @JesseTayRiver you should work out! join the group fitness gc! > > devil's advocate hat is that hs boys are less attractive cos they're not fully developed so you were right to be displeased. but yeah agree it's (at least now, if not always) not the limiting factor for most people Can I get in on the GC ### [Reply to @vious_and_couth, 13:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646137293764284417) · 4 likes > **vy (@vious_and_couth):** @AaronBergman18 @mattparlmer Lots of obvious clues this was written by some sort of analyst and not anyone who’s even vaguely computer literature, beginning with the “R is so amazing it’s literally Turing complete!” U got me ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 13:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646137545175048192) · 4 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 I don't like R Studio as a text editor :'( One reasonable critique ### [Reply to @granawkins, 13:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646142181839720451) · 13 likes > **Grant♟️ (@granawkins):** @AaronBergman18 R is the Blackberry of programming languages Making me want a blackberry ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 17:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646204717633093639) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Incels/manosphere > > My general view is that: > \- Some people do find it harder to date than others > \- This \*is\* a problem > \- The majority of the suffering seems to fall on men who want to date women > \- This problem isn't women's fault or responsibility > \- Hating women isn't the answer (Not contradicting just adding…) Ambiguous terminology doesn’t help - afaik “incels” sometimes means the original (hateful) subculture or it’s self-identified members and sometimes the descriptive category of straight men who want to have sex but can’t ### [Thread, continued, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646205288616280073) · 2 likes Both have corresponding pejoratives - the former deservingly so (like ‘racist’) and the latter not so much (‘low status’ in ‘racist’ clothing) ### [Reply, 17:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646206042743750715) · 1 like Yes we shall https://shiny.rstudio.com/gallery/ ### [Reply, 17:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646206937753698322) · 12 likes Only the good ones use R I promise ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646222191602565126) · 13 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 12, 2023:** I won't go down without a fight Might git push this mf ### [Thread, continued, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646293641575424007) · 15 likes We're live folks https://github.com/AaronBergman/RPmeme ## Thursday, April 13, 2023 ### [Reply to @WesternScramasa, 04:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646362767723511809) · 5 likes > **Eyes Alight (@WesternScramasa):** i will not eat the bugs, i will not assign variables using "<-", i will not cast to an integer with an L Dw I don’t either, ‘=‘ works too ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 05:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646385605046091777) · 13 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 12, 2023:** I won't go down without a fight Presented with one vacuous comment ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ftki8UZWAAA6xPY.jpg) ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 10:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646456217982697473) · 5 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** I stg if one more friend tells me they're into bouldering... > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FtlHyuAagAIu-cu.jpg) Not bouldering (and idk if Twitter friends count) but I’ll have you know I placed 13th in lead climbing nationals for 16-17ish y/o boys back in 2013 (and 20th the next year) Never made natties for bouldering though - relatively too many slow twitch muscle fibers 😂 ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 10:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646458015665512451) · 4 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 Hi this is tortle's friend, we found screaming and foaming at the mouth at the computer. We've sedated him and are waiting for him to calm down, but this tweet was up on his computer when we walked in. I was hoping you could help us understand what happened? Maybe this? [![turtle fail GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/Ftlk1PzX0AExzFV.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646458015665512451/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Quote tweet, 11:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646474671259262977) · 17 likes Michael Lewis rn ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ftlz_C_WIAEpzFf.jpg) > **Quoting Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru):** JUST IN: Bankrupt FTX has recovered $7.3 billion in assets and is considering relaunching the exchange in Q2. ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 13:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646512315435569152) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @QualyThe I would like to eradicate \*just\* those things, not all life No take backs ### [Reply, 15:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646530170906345472) · 1 like Just do 1 today, 2 tomorrow, 4 the next day, and so on, easy :) ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 15:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646531644218568705) · 1 like > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** If you told my 16-year-old self I’d have to do integration by parts for my job, I’d never have believed you. But here we are and I love it Preregistering my memory that this is the thing that goes like ∫uv= ∫uv’+vu’ before I google ### [Thread, continued, 15:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646532349109075968) · 2 likes 0/1 kinda got the vibes tho ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FtmocbiacAEKQaF.jpg) ### [Reply to @DeadFishCapital, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646532511453925376) · 3 likes > **dead fish (@DeadFishCapital):** @AaronBergman18 >praises pipe command > Opinion disqualified DeadFish%>%rm() ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 15:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646533008772460544) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** What is the EV of paying for every EA employee to get the flu vaccination? Probably negative because everyone already does ### [Reply to @Bbburner19, 15:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646535080880353285) · 2 likes > **The People Mover That Was Promised (@Bbburner19):** @AaronBergman18 @ohwizenedtortle Miniscule but not negative. GiveDirectly for middle class westerners would be incredibly ineffective but not negative. I was trying to account for opportunity cost of shifting money away from other things but on second thought that’s not usually how the term is used ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646586136272273426) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** If I want to work on questions about Value Lock In, what should I study and what questions should I try to answer/write a paper about? I don’t wanna go full normative “You Should Do This” but an idea that seems important but I haven’t really heard discussed is AI misalignment harm reduction: what kinds of goals can GodAgentGPT pursue st that were confident the future is >=neutral, not filled with suffering? ### [Tweet, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646612733868081152) · 5 likes Modeling(!) the Yud vs Christiano (et al) debate: \- Yud’s bundle of claims/arguments/beliefs/models -> alignment = intractable \- Paul’s bundle -> alignment = tractable Under some pretty plausible assumptions (mainly: normative alignment agenda <> P(doom) <> tractability)... ## Friday, April 14, 2023 ### [Tweet, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646755949741236225) · 10 likes While it still exists, the post-LLM world is funny as hell. Why make a list of links when you can make a whole website with the same aesthetic energy as a little kid decorating a cake https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/pods ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 15:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646897755564941312) · 3 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** Qualy q-anon. Is there a joke in here somewhere? I think so but i can’t figure out what it is. Qualy is hillary clinton or something Qualy has ties to an organization which makes even volunteers sign NDAs, owns a castle, and can be reasonably described as a “secret cabal” of some of the worlds most influential and including an obscenely wealthy Jew ### [Reply, 15:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646902585683587079) · 8 likes From my less knowledgeable perspective, “virus causes weird bad downstream effects which don’t seem connected to the virus” also makes sense ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646906891052654592) · 2 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Looking for new music recommendations! What are your favorite albums of all time? > > Mine: The Rising (Bruce Springsteen), Joshua Tree (U2), and Wildflowers (Tom Petty) Not much genre overlap but https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2nCLFKsFZwCKDL23Xe12RH ### [Reply, 21:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1646987541952724992) · 3 likes I mean there’s this https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-108hr534eh/pdf/BILLS-108hr534eh.pdf ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 23:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1647026068459511810) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @joe_zimmerman > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FttdSZ5aAAA1Ib2.png) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FttpeTeWcAYorii.jpg) ## Saturday, April 15, 2023 ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1647107476997677056) · 7 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** I’m consistently amazed that the longest escalator in the western hemisphere is 2 stops away from me on the metro. There’s not even a plaque or anything! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FttoPb7WcAAPlUU.jpg) They should have a "try to run up the down one" charity challenge. For shrimp obviously ### [Reply, 07:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1647140783231827969) · 2 likes the shrimp (in an unpleasant manner) if this doesn't come to fruition ### [Tweet, 07:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1647145034439958531) · 2 likes Hope it's just an exciting game 😅 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FtvVWD1WwAAXCYN.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FtvVaTBXgAEQCwy.jpg) ## Sunday, April 16, 2023 ### [Reply to @Willyintheworld, 01:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1647413363754803200) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @Willyintheworld is no longer available.)_ I share Will’s intuition that each branch is morally independent/additive But also, anyone who’s confident about the relationship between quantum mechanics and qualia is lying to you or to themselves ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 03:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1647442278355443712) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ryancbriggs is no longer available.)_ Alternatively: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/simple-health-export-csv/id1535380115 ## Monday, April 17, 2023 ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 18:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648033826109550593) · 1 like > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @SpacedOutMatt @inesferhumi @mattyglesias Unity is strength. Matt has rabbits whereas I have a cat, important difference Both of your pets: https://youtu.be/vq5_pz7MKAg ### [Quote tweet, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648042933193437203) · 3 likes Might become a heterodox evolutionary biologist https://www.newspapers.com/clip/102899580/cabbit-myth-meets-fact/ https://macroevolution.net/cat-rabbit-hybrids.html ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ft8GT6lWcAI4zfs.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ft8GT6oWcCQuyq4.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ft8GT6kWcBwnN6l.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @GjMcGowan @SpacedOutMatt @inesferhumi @mattyglesias Both of your pets: https://youtu.be/vq5_pz7MKAg ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648073351234043904) · 3 likes > **Ruth Hook (@ruth_hook_):** what are your wildest theories about eosinophils In obesity, adipose tissue becomes dysfunctional, leading to the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines and the development of insulin resistance. Eosinophils have been shown to regulate adipose tissue function by promoting the browning of white adipose tissue, which involves the ## Tuesday, April 18, 2023 ### [Tweet, 04:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648188361423613953) · 6 likes He’s back [![Al Alzolanskii GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/Ft-Kk4ZWwAEUmuR.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648188361423613953/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ## Wednesday, April 19, 2023 ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 01:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648505470343327745) · 4 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ft_RvopWwAAcNqu.jpg) > (quoting @Nigella_Lawson: Sorry to do this to you on a Monday morning, but the end of the world is nigh https://www.ft.com/content/03895dc4-a3b7-481e-95cc-336a524f2ac2) She’s got to be one of the biggest accounts/people I don’t recognize at all. Is she more first name-y than Elon around these parts? ### [Reply to @Simeon_Cps, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648514735024017410) · 2 likes > **Sy (@Simeon_Cps):** Is there a big difference btwn 13.5 inch and 16 inch screen for a computer in terms of user experience? Yeah. I actually sold my weeks old 14" and bought a used 16" because of this ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 05:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648558570248519680) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** wait wait wait you don't know nigella lawson?? I mean all I know is that she's a renowned British journalist, broadcaster, and author, best known for her expertise in food writing, quirky personality and love of puns who has inspired countless home cooks with her approachable and delicious recipes. ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 05:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648558904387796992) · 2 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** I googled her yesterday. Knew her father from the thatcher biography Born on January 6th, 1960, in Wandsworth, London, she is the daughter of the late British politician Nigel Lawson and his first wife, Vanessa Salmon. She grew up in a well-to-do family and was educated at the prestigious Godolphin and Latymer School in London 👍 ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 12:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648660882824544260) · 3 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** I KNEW IT > > (quoting @stevehou: Legend) Legend has it Taylor is EA adjacent-adjacent-adjacent ### [Reply to @esceydabulyu, 12:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648661896592064512) · 2 likes > **Lark (@esceydabulyu):** @AaronBergman18 @MarkovMagnifico Bro she left in the middle of the class I couldn't talk to her afterwards 💀 Give me 1 more week Godspeed🫡 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuE4_4SWAAIR1My.jpg) ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 12:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648662735062720512) · 2 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** @AaronBergman18 Everyone is at most 6 degrees of adjacency from any ideology on earth Idk I think subcultural/ideological "adjacency" as generally used is more restrictive than social acquaintance ### [Tweet, 14:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648700540828925952) · 8 likes Lol at chatGPT hallucinating ~everything here ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuFbuB5XsAAWrre.jpg) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 17:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648736356984553482) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @austinc3301 correct > > All I did was mention I work remotely (didn't even mention software/tech at all) and that was enough to trigger the question That is a prescient dentist ### [Reply to @Bbburner19, 17:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648736959232081920) · 3 likes > **The People Mover That Was Promised (@Bbburner19):** @peterwildeford @austinc3301 He had no idea who he was speaking with about this LMAO. \*Altman, Yud, Karnofsky, and LeCun are in the waiting room\* ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648738235109998604) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Is an exogenous shock by it's nature unpredictable or just from outside? > > Like if I think my country will be invaded, is that exogenous? The etymological, nontechnical definition is just “originating from outside” like I just inhaled some exogenous air afaik in econ “outside” is taken to mean relative to a particular model…but “particular model” sometimes implicitly means “any model a social scientist might care ### [Reply to @Bbburner19, 18:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648761271909580800) · 3 likes > **The People Mover That Was Promised (@Bbburner19):** @ryancbriggs @frances\_\_lorenz Along with the NBA, NYTimes, Sequoia capital and a whole bunch of other VC's. Just need to get Taylor Swift to sign the GWWC pledge and then we can have a much better figurehead than Will. Until she breaks up with us... [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1648761151793029125/pu/img/4yXWHh0t84oeayH6.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648761271909580800/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Tweet, 18:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648762827669135373) · 16 likes On priors it seems implausible that twinship would not be reflexive, though indeed some triplets exist ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuGUlnlXwAEyDnj.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuGUyYHWYAYtd66.jpg) ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648762996909277184) · 2 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** @absurdlymax @mealreplacer So how do you deal with piecewise functions? Also much faster for integrals and essential blackboard bold math letters! Cannot imagine proofs without LaTeX Microsoft Word + screenshot ### [Thread, continued, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648765761979047966) · 2 likes jk I ❤️ Latex ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuGVu9YWYAg2BCw.png) ### [Thread, continued, 19:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648765911581483047) · 2 likes Microeconometrics 😤 ### [Tweet, 21:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648794401374711808) · 2 likes S/o to @jacyanthis for spending some hard-earned manna on a (couple?) true, and important, and underrated response to my intergalactic-brain manifold market (Not too late to submit though, in fact you still have a few dozen centuries till it resolves) https://manifold.markets/AaronBergman/what-string-if-submitted-as-a-respo ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuGxK4lWwAgKUEA.jpg) ### [Reply to @RichardMCNgo, 21:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648797218638274571) · 7 likes > **Richard Ngo (@RichardMCNgo):** The universities' arguments are downright farcical. You can't defend "personality scores" which wreck Asian applications with a straight face. They're shamelessly recycling the same tactics used against Jews decades ago. The emperor has no clothes and is trying to cover his ass. Yeah, pretty wild that it pattern matches 20th.c Jewish quotas almost perfectly and yet hardly raises the eyebrows of anyone on the left ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648798373988761602) · 2 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** The hardest part about being gay has got to be not knowing what to do about your hair Is there even a good explanation for why (straight I guess) female hair is generally longer across cultures? ## Thursday, April 20, 2023 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 03:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1648884329240576000) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** My sense is many standardized tests are not particularly good? Depends what you want from them, but they’re very good (and linear in sample) proxies for IQ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6963451/#B3-jintelligence-07-00026 I glanced at some of the referenced papers which seem to check out but didn’t like scrutinize them carefully ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 11:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649006776119959552) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @RafaRuizdeLira @QualyThe This adds a new layer to the acknowledgment section of my thesis Sneaking in a second paper on personal identity in the credits ### [Reply, 12:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649030535266594818) · 5 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuKIiB-XgAMa1UP.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuKIiCAX0AIAizY.jpg) ### [Reply to @sentientlentils, 12:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649030837189373953) · 12 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @sentientlentils is no longer available.)_ Uh because it will take your money and in return deliver you any non perishable non illegal good on the planet in 6-24 hours ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 17:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649097960142274561) · 3 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Question about allocating credit: > > If two different groups do an intervention separately without coordination, and it only takes one group to succeed such that the other group wasted their time, how do you allocate credit between them? How is timing relevant, if at all? I think “credit” is like “credence” in that it breaks down into multiple things depending on what you really care about on edge cases In some metaphysical sense I don’t think there’s a fact of the matter. So, social credit, evaluation of certain decisions, or something else? ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 17:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649102104781373449) · 1 like > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** @AaronBergman18 @peterwildeford Right, ex ante Wait I think I was wrong before, if it really is a binary outcome then who finished first doesn’t matter by assumption (which seems unrealistic but whatever) ### [Thread, continued, 17:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649102539932024877) · 2 likes In which case credited QALYs = P(I finish)\*P(nobody else does \[ever\])\*(QALYs from anyone finishing) ### [Reply to @lifebettergreen, 17:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649105479379845141) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @lifebettergreen is no longer available.)_ Brb getting fake crow to attract local ducks ### [Reply, 18:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649114144933650433) · 2 likes I think this is just the model bumping up against intuitions from real life. Like the covid vaccine: in principle one excellent vaccine could be sufficient, but there are supply constraints and maybe different side effects and ### [Reply, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649114550875062286) · 2 likes who knows maybe Moderna will pull an FTX and collapse in 2 days So there are usually good reasons to want redundancy But if 1 success really is (by assumption) totally sufficient for the best outcome w zero uncertainty, redundancy is just waste ### [Reply to @warty_dog, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649116783339503642) · 2 likes > **troon (@warty_dog):** are you EA | would you step into the park pond to save a duck from being group r\*p\*d by male ducks Hey I’m wild animal suffering pilled as anyone but my base rate for anything like this is 0% ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 21:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649164242463883265) · 17 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** A rat went into my bathroom last night. Spent a lot of time looking for it. Couldn't find it. No way to escape. > > About to open said bathroom rn Have u tried saying “new LW post with 800 upvotes and -16 agreement!” ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 23:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649186306369495041) · 4 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** @AaronBergman18 Maybe I should put a poster of Yudkowsky neat the exit Nah won’t work they love to countersignal intellectual independence ### [Reply to @TenreiroDaniel, 23:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649187933256073218) · 43 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TenreiroDaniel is no longer available.)_ Choose chaos Import pandas as torch Import numpy as conda Import sys as python Import matplotlib as model Import os as dot ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 23:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649199388055445507) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @PradyuPrasad I hate when someone makes my joke before I can, and better than I would have It wasn’t a fair race, I had the secret head start of having written this draft which I’m now floating to gather preliminary reactions to ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuMiGl_WYAM5V3Q.jpg) ## Friday, April 21, 2023 ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649207195974680576) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax @PradyuPrasad This is the oldest Yudkowsky writing I can easily find https://extropians.weidai.com/extropians.96/2519.html Wild. I’ll be poking around there haha In 1996 my parents were using typewriters, as were most Americans apparently ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuMpNHYXoAAn59M.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 00:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649207685030502400) · 2 likes I, on the other hand, wasnt using such passé normie devices (or anything else, being -4) ### [Reply to @then_there_was, 16:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649447849803784192) · 88 likes > **Andrew Ruiz (@then_there_was):** The legend of Cleo in the Mathematics StackExchange. 😂 > > [video attached](https://x.com/then_there_was/status/1649150416049827922/video/1) Have people considered whether she just makes alt accounts on vpns to submit questions which she started with the answer to? ### [Quote tweet, 16:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649450421050638336) · 97 likes Ok tell me it isn’t a little sus that the accounts asking for random proto-impossible integral solutions made their account in the same month, a few months before Cleo ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuQGak_XgAMaA_M.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuQGak9XgAEz0Ru.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuQGak-XgAIVWrM.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuQGak4XgBICeXO.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @then_there_was Have people considered whether she just makes alt accounts on vpns to submit questions which she started with the answer to? ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 16:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649454131843682304) · 20 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** How deep does this go?? Clinton and Soros are freaking out rn ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649496714330492929) · 16 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 21, 2023:** Have people considered whether she just makes alt accounts on vpns to submit questions which she started with the answer to? https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1649450421050638336?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ## Saturday, April 22, 2023 ### [Reply to @AlecStapp, 00:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649564006787477507) · 4 likes > **Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** Example of why @RyanRadia is the best reply guy on here: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuRD-i8XgAMkI5K.jpg) Sorry guys. @ODOT_Statewide who puts exits on the left side of the highway?? ### [Thread, continued, 00:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649564818032979968) · 2 likes Tbc I did crash a car but the car suffered the only injury ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 06:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649665335509803009) · 10 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 21, 2023:** https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1649450421050638336?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g This is a surprising development ### [Reply to @chloe21e8, 06:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649666757286674435) · 20 likes > **@CHLOE21E8 (@chloe21e8):** > > (quoting @chloe21e8: chloe21e8 in the club managing her alt account ecosystem like it’s a voguing ballroom) Thought I cracked an internet mystery wide open and a month old post is just like: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuTLLGRXsAAOWX0.jpg) ### [Tweet, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649898518256001024) · 4 likes None of the pictures of a food/supplement listed on Amazon is of the nutrition+ingredients label 🚩🚩🚩 ## Sunday, April 23, 2023 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 01:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1649952113861042177) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I fucking love clouds R u high ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 08:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1650049905761697792) · 2 likes > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** does sun make you feel better? sunny weather always makes me depressed Even sunny and cold? For me mood is best during winter and fall ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 14:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1650138412005969921) · 2 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Hey everyone! I’m going to start putting this together today, so get any other submissions in now! 😊 > > (quoting @Laura_k_Duffy: Announcing: EA Twitter Cookbook! 🎉🎉🎉🎉 (with @baesrule1 and @ryancbriggs) If we get enough submissions, I’ll make an e-cook book for everyone! What are your favorite recipes? Link them/post pictures below!! To start: Kimchi fried rice, but with udon noodles instead 🍜 😊) Toasted Asian Great Soufflé in an aqueous-nut reduction 1\) combine Rice Krispies and almond milk 2\) serve with no garnish ### [Thread, continued, 14:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1650138522890715138) · 2 likes \*grain, though great works too ### [Reply, 23:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1650286803654520832) · 1 like Ceteris paribus, sure, but awareness≠alignment ## Monday, April 24, 2023 ### [Tweet, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1650342330044391424) · 4 likes I don't know anyone with UpToDate access (who's fond of sharing 😊) do I? ### [Thread, continued, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1650342331101458435) · 3 likes $720/year is a liiitle steep ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1650345076000686081) · 3 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 What do you need it for? curing myself of miscellaneous things ### [Reply to @ylecun, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1650607259234213899) · 112 likes > **Yann LeCun (@ylecun):** An essential step to becoming a scientist is to learn methods and protocols to avoid deluding yourself into believing false things. > > You learn that by doing a PhD and getting your research past your advisor and getting your publications to survive peer review. I really think peer review does the exact opposite. Not a coincidence cs survives on preprints! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FugijgXWIAQpjtw.jpg) ### [Reply to @151Call, 21:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1650612821128892416) · 3 likes > **call-151 (@151Call):** @AndyMasley @mattyglesias change is not "entirely" by humans - the question isn't valid. “Mostly or entirely” ### [Reply to @CineraVerinia, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1650644777631719426) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @CineraVerinia is no longer available.)_ The catch is that they cut the monthly check in half first :( ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1650645442827366405) · 4 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Bennet losing the all-important fish welfare vote > > (quoting @MichaelBennet: I caught that fish! How are you celebrating #EarthDay this weekend?) Maybe he’s saving it from a predator ## Tuesday, April 25, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1650653343440596995) · 7 likes You mean nuts? ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 00:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1650653636295311361) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @SpacedOutMatt Its not obvious to me that we shouldn't eat fish but I do feel for that little guy what has EA done to my brain I’m unironically in favor of eating wild-caught fish that is killed the Japanese stabby way ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 11:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1650821597278752769) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Take out the huel part and I 90% endorse this unironically ### [Tweet, 12:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1650843023465492481) · 6 likes It’s a transformer-instantiated token-predicting neural network with user-modulated stochasticity ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fuj4-0TX0AIllq9.jpg) ### [Reply to @atroyn, 16:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1650900926943707149) · 5 likes > **anton 🇺🇸 (@atroyn):** scott alexander: ‘government oversight boards have likely killed millions of people by blocking life saving medical studies’ > > also scott alexander: ‘a.i needs government oversight or it might kill us all!!!’ Yes because some government things are good and others are bad ## Wednesday, April 26, 2023 ### [Reply to @jam3scampbell, 06:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1651112872552923136) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @jam3scampbell is no longer available.)_ It feels like a mean joke the universe is playing that maybe the single most morally important question ever - what, if anything, is the subjective experience of a very non human-like mind (system? object? event?) - seems utterly and intrinsically intractable ### [Reply to @azsantosk, 06:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1651115040286679040) · 1 like > **KAS (@azsantosk):** How could a planner possibly have access to all economically important information about everything? In principle it’s possible, or at least possible to get very close, but you’re right that it’s not (at this margin) bottlenecked by compute Like you’d need a mechanism for informing the central planning machine how much I would pay for ~everything at this very moment ### [Reply to @ReflectiveAlt, 09:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1651159212477542400) · 2 likes > **Reflective Altruism (@ReflectiveAlt):** "Is Thorstad just one bad thinker" because ... I made two typos and said one word people don't like. Seriously? https://criticalfallibilism.com/checking-citations-from-david-thorstad/ Oy vey ### [Reply to @joe_zimmerman, 23:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1651360729495224320) · 4 likes > **Joe Zimmerman (@joe_zimmerman):** I'm not saying Roko is necessarily right, but at some point, Roko will become right > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FurBHQkaYAMjGUj.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FurBHaRaUAEVXvO.jpg) Compute is necessary but not sufficient, so maybe, but not just bc that graph keeps going ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 23:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1651371503831662601) · 1 like > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @Laura_k_Duffy I more or less hate your country but your civic spirit is inspiring ^Ooh yeah I wanna know why ### [Reply, 23:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1651373244014813184) · 4 likes Wait I have a guess ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FurbNo_XoAQSJ7h.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FurbNpDWcAgNWUU.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FurbNpFXsAA6f9I.jpg) ## Thursday, April 27, 2023 ### [Tweet, 02:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1651410655730192385) · 11 likes From middle school through college, my main/default method of studying was just to rewrite dozens of pages of notes and examples, verbatim, over and over, because eventually things would “just sink in” Pretty sure this was grokking, or at least something very closely analogous ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1651411568117141505) · 4 likes Did it work? Yeah I’d say so, except for abstract algebra ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1651433582995423235) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 Huh, I never studied and abstract algebra was the only math class I got really easy What I mean I think some idiosyncratic circumstances contributed to my C+, but “getting everything without studying” would have been sufficient to overcome those lol At least I can say I’ve never gotten a B in math 🥳 ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 05:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1651451911667679232) · 5 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I hate pandas with every fiber of my being I have a solution ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FusiwwSX0AA8Kru.jpg) ## Friday, April 28, 2023 ### [Reply to @MalekPyrrhonist, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1651774025931145224) · 4 likes > **Μαλεκος (@MalekPyrrhonist):** IBS is, to a significant degree, diagnosed by exclusion. > > You diagnose a patient with it precisely when you exclude other (including bowel) conditions. > > Looked this way, the results aren't that surprising. ^correct take. It’s anticorrelated with IBD by definition ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 02:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1651776415950417920) > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** What a confusing take given that it's correlated with a variety of gut problems. Which? It’s correlated with its own symptoms, but not with anything that describes a biological primary cause afaik ### [Tweet, 14:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1651958639240916994) · 24 likes In honor of 1002 followers (so it would take an impossible level of coordination to bring me under 1k): AMA, Low Status Edition\*!🙋‍♂️🤨 \*AMALSE is like a normal AMA except you pin the announcement post and it goes on indefinitely bc your expected rate of question receiving and… ### [Thread, continued, 14:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1651958641543577600) · 6 likes opportunity cost of time are both sufficiently low to permit an unbounded time window for questioning So if you’re reading this and there’s no update below calling things off, AMA! ### [Thread, continued, 14:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1651958643074400257) · 5 likes I’m not actually certain this makes sense - I can think of a few reasons why an implicit time bound is a necessary part of the social machinery that makes AMAs a thing, but there’s only one way to find out 👍 ### [Reply to @xuanalogue, 14:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1651959213940154375) · 4 likes > **xuan (ɕɥɛn / sh-yen) (@xuanalogue):** kids who do this are so based > > (quoting @alexa_sacchi: Please share & RT! We are inviting children (ages 8-11) who were raised in meat-eating families, but chose to go vegetarian/vegan/pescatarian on their own to participate in a short online study. 🥕 Link for more information & to sign up here!…) Drove my parents fucking insane but thx ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 17:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1652008633624821762) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** What's something you care a lot about/think about a lot/ spend a lot of time on that if you tweeted about you'd get 0 engagement This isn't exactly answering ur question (and Ill try to think of a real answer to add) but...anything? What I mean is that there seems to be an inverse relation between how long I've thought about something before tweeting about it and how much engagement the tweet gets ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1652045045048942609) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** What's something you care a lot about/think about a lot/ spend a lot of time on that if you tweeted about you'd get 0 engagement All my literal answers are trivial and obvious ("sleeping") but a juicier half answer is the IBS/GI symptoms that kinda suddenly appeared a few months ago and is reasonably often the ~\*only\* thing I think about I'm not really embarrassed/shy - more just don't wanna seem like I'm ### [Thread, continued, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1652045216965074949) · 2 likes farming sympathy engagement. Also its just not very interesting of a topic lol ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 20:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1652047222064791552) · 4 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Have you updated on your views of the best animal charity to donate to since the RP moral weights came out? Nah, but maybe it should? So far RP and Shrimp WI seem slightly overdetermined (relative to others, not to each other) If you're reading this and have a take: vote! https://manifold.markets/AaronBergman/what-donationaccepting-entity-eg-ch ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fu0_hVrWcAAjX2Y.jpg) ### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 23:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1652095909855985665) · 12 likes > **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** Who should I have on the podcast to discuss The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind? > > Yes, I know it's bonkers and probably false, but it's also really interesting. > > Especially interested in someone who has studied what the historical evidence has to say about the psychology/gods of the ancients. > > Bonus points for anyone who can comment on Jaynes's claims about neuroscience, linguistics, and/or schizophrenics. Not super familiar with that book beyond what I think is the main thesis, but check out Iain McGilchrist The Master and His Emissary (which he wrote) probably my single favorite book, making some pretty grand, prima facie “bonkers” claims https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_McGilchrist ### [Reply to @tomowenmorgan, 23:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1652096108926062594) · 2 likes > **Tom Morgan (@tomowenmorgan):** I think @BrettPAndersen or obviously @dr_mcgilchrist would be amazing. Beat me by a few minutes! ## Saturday, April 29, 2023 ### [Reply to @bryan_caplan, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1652140291317440514) · 13 likes > **Bryan Caplan (@bryan_caplan):** Democracy enthusiasts baffle me. > > How can anyone get excited about a system where people you loathe rule half the time? Hate to be such a normie but have you seen all the other ones? ### [Reply to @krishnanrohit, 12:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1652291854661033986) · 2 likes > **rohit (@krishnanrohit):** Are there regularly used mathematical functions which can't be replicated or approximated by matrix multiplications? > > Thinking through implications of what types of questions LLMs can only approximate solving. Just on intuition, the more productive question would be about real number operations rather than matrix multiplication AFAIK the literal matrices are of direct representations of floating point ie real numbers ### [Tweet, 13:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1652300975535693825) · 15 likes I regret to report that Spotify has short, doomy timelines ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fu4m-neWwAI9ojH.jpg) ### [Reply to @adam__isom, 19:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1652387764317437952) · 2 likes > **adam ✧ ❥ ~ (@adam__isom):** I truly believe that once I get 1k followers I will never want for more I now live in a state of timeless ethereal bliss ### [Reply to @catehall, 23:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1652450729909534720) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @catehall is no longer available.)_ Doesn’t seem like geopolitical power should be the main consideration for where you personally live tho? If everyone I knew moved to Canada I’d probably move there too ## Sunday, April 30, 2023 ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 05:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1652544119216939008) · 4 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** @ReflectiveAlt Thoughts: > > I think this is true but I'm not sure it's worse than mainstream academia. I'm not sure it's a priority. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fu490b6XoAIxuFJ.jpg) Topical bias seems good(?) Like yeah I want more research about whatever OpenPhil cares about relative to whatever % that would be absent philanthropic funding ### [Reply to @pearl_please, 15:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1652701284347047938) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pearl_please is no longer available.)_ Have you fully modeled the long run steady-state equilibrium effect on aggregate wild animal welfare of negative marginal birds ### [Reply to @powerfulwizerd, 15:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1652703889811021831) · 34 likes > **powerful wizerd (@powerfulwizerd):** The craziest post of all time is that one where that girl said she got the ick from the way her bf flailed around during a car crash i think about it daily Attention females: when I crashed my car (to assert dominance over it) I willed my body to remain stationary relative to the road, floating in a seated position in mid air until the vehicle came to a stop ### [Reply, 18:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1652747318213373954) Idk if this checks out at all but they both share the feature of being attracted to earth by gravity but not so strongly that they collide, which might place bounds on how big astronomical objects of this type can look ### [Thread, continued, 18:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1652747726784790530) · 1 like Boundary width seems mostly due to density variation, but this again is bounded because too high gives u a black hole and too low means a coherent entity won’t be held together ### [Thread, continued, 18:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1652747795311255564) · 1 like @AndyMasley fact check ### [Tweet, 21:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1652792518264733697) · 12 likes New post: conversation with @austinc3301, dedicated to my fellow "where do u do python" wonderers https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/tf-is-a-kernel ### [Thread, continued, 21:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1652792519544000512) · 3 likes --- End of April 2023. Previous month: [March 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-03). Next month: [May 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-05). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, May 2023 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in May 2023 and has not deleted: 493 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [April 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-04). Next month: [June 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-06). ## Monday, May 1, 2023 ### [Reply to @touchmoonflower, 05:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1652910054939525126) · 2 likes > **༺ 𐂂 ༻ (@touchmoonflower):** ok so maybe merkle trees aren’t your thing but get this: every new hire at that other site is given a copy of There Is No Antimemetics Division to read > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvAXkVQaIAAC_6d.jpg) From Amazon ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvBQ71mWcAEX2zS.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvBQ71nXsAAOetr.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvBQ71lWAAADHaf.jpg) ### [Reply to @kartographien, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653072164562583552) · 2 likes > **Kart ographien (@kartographien):** The Waluigi Effect isnt relevant imo bc the explanation is that (on the internet corpus) rules are collocated with examples of those rules being broken. > > A better example would be this: > > https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-drug-discovery-systems-might-be-repurposed-to-make-chemical-weapons-researchers-warn/ There's also this explanation though, which seems more general (i.e. beyond personality /valence wrt language) So "accomplish X" is (all else equal) \*adjacent\* to "accomplish -X" in neural network space ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvDi_5jXsAcRK7V.jpg) ### [Reply to @zachsilberberg, 16:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653076069577048064) · 11 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @zachsilberberg is no longer available.)_ Exact same thing yesterday but for a (parked) firetruck I bet firemen have a code word for this ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 16:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653078447919362048) · 3 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Hey everyone! I think that more EAs should take Hayek's skepticism of planning really seriously, which is why I heavily encourage reading this short paper, "The Use of Knowledge in Society". (I myself need to re-read it; been a few years) > If you do, I'd love to discuss it! > > (quoting @Laura_k_Duffy: @mcinthedc I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “The Use of Knowledge in Society” is a must-read and has irrevocably transformed my thinking about best approaches to policy and EA. https://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/hykKnw.html) I like this class of arguments but don’t immediately see what the implications are for EA as it stands today Like they already seems quite baked in so to speak ### [Quote tweet, 18:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653106313730088963) · 8 likes Not endorsing the whole thread but this is true and the reason “IQ 1000 AGI” isn’t meaningful in the way “1000 foot tall robot” is Maybe there are good absolute measures of general intelligence, but IQ isn’t one > **Quoting Kareem Carr, Ph.D. (@kareem_carr):** Raw IQ scores are manipulated to resemble a bell curve via a process similar to a professor curving test results to get a certain number of students with A's, B's and so on. > > IQ test scores are rescaled so that a certain percentage of test results fall within specific ranges. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvDop38aIAQDKZ9.png) ### [Tweet, 22:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653172033964974081) · 7 likes I will stare darkness straight in the face ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvE_MpqXgAMQG0P.jpg) ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653173527791411200) · 3 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** The sadness evoked in me by this image is a perfect argument against any lingering person affecting intuitions ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653176924196184067) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** They got me :( tbc my endorsed position is that I’m being a weak willed idiot about this lol ### [Reply to @philoshua, 23:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653179351544868864) · 3 likes > **Joshua Blanchard (@philoshua):** Question ONLY for people who find the following for individuals very annoying. Suppose you had to have dinner with one of them. Who would you pick? Explain why in the replies. Eric adds value to the discourse on net, first three do the reverse ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 23:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653182763581710336) · 7 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** Did we ever figure out why girls love Taylor Swift? I've been really getting into folklore and it's got a vibe that I don't know how to articulate but I really vibe with. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: I am calling for a total and complete shutdown of Taylor Swift, Hinge, and—just to be safe—heterosexuality until we can figure out what the hell is going on) this is only like 1/3 or 1/2 of the new ones ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvFItWnWwAEaHXc.jpg) ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 23:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653183138632269824) · 16 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @PradyuPrasad is no longer available.)_ I can teach him R, just put me in touch ## Tuesday, May 2, 2023 ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 00:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653190746684399616) · 1 like > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** How so? I think at least the longtermism side of EA often implicitly relies on assumptions about our ability as individuals/groups to reliably model and affect the future of civilization. This seems like something that one should be more skeptical of from a Hayekian view For sure but it just seems like there's been a lot of discussion about this very point among longtermists; like it's already accounted for in ~the discourse~ People disagree ofc about how much of a problem it is - like Karnofsky at least claims to be pretty skeptical... ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvFPz0sXwAwEaa6.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 00:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653191053518798854) · 1 like but still concludes that for a host of reasons AI is the rare thing that we actually sorta can model and influence better than chance from https://www.dwarkeshpatel.com/p/holden-karnofsky#details ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 00:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653194574288891904) · 1 like > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Yeah, I see this. But I think the crux of my disagreement here is that we really don’t have the ability to make \*even those\* kinds of claims about AI and its tractability with enough confidence that we should actually spend a large amount of money on it. But we do with respect to other cause areas and their actual impact on the world (which includes but is more than just the metric we're choosing to care about e.g. malaria deaths)? In some ways it seems way \*easier\* to model AI and how we might affect its trajectory, at least... ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 00:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653197552290869250) · 1 like > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** @AaronBergman18 That’s fair, I’m unusually anti-theory likely! [![Catch These Hands Elmo GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/FvFWaPRX0AIZywC.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653197552290869250/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Thread, continued, 00:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653198176864686080) · 2 likes checked with gpt to make sure I'm using this right and it made sure to remind me that "using the phrase as a threat or engaging in physical violence is not acceptable behavior and can have serious consequences" indicating a willingness to speculate about future consequences ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 00:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653198422646697984) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Not me though, I’m totally normal (nervously closes tab open to the NOAA Fisheries One Stop Shop Data Portal) poast link ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 00:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653199996055953410) · 2 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** What lol 😂 between this and "negative marginal birds" think I need to upskill at humor ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvFYak0WwAEqEEu.jpg) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653203684669419523) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/foss/f?p=215:200:15583745277884 care to share what you're working on/trying to figure out? ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 02:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653225162685251584) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @ohwizenedtortle @taylorswift13 Thank you for tagging taylor Wouldn’t be polite to go behind her back ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653233663042109440) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** It's one of like 5 different projects I want to do with the RP moral weights Noice, maybe one to add: figure out how to most usefully operationalize turning moral weight point estimates into a prediction market. Like do we care about only adults of a certain species? Going with the RP symmetry assumptions? Relative or absolute? Asking about capacity for ### [Thread, continued, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653233841769791490) · 2 likes welfare or actual avg welfare irl? If avg, what does that even mean? ### [Thread, continued, 03:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653234683952394243) · 2 likes also: \- per individual\*time period or just individual? \- keep the question theoretical or operationalize like e.g., "what will I think in 5 years?" ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 14:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653404726426312705) · 6 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Wtf why is nature like this 😭 > > (quoting @Rainmaker1973: 50% of Panda births result in twins, but Panda moms almost always abandon one. Therefore, zookeepers have to switch the cubs every few hours to trick the mom in to caring for both Yet, with this trick, it's true love \[📹 iPanda: https://buff.ly/3VlMdDu]) ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 14:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653406991342088195) · 2 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** me: refuses to do chores on evenings and weekends > me: wants to live in a clean house with clean clothes > me: starting up a new blog, writing lots > me: loves to nap and walk in the sunshine > > also me: why is my to do list 6 months long?? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvE3RyQWIAQQPbD.jpg) She just like me fr ### [Quote tweet, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653513288766959617) · 5 likes Clown ass programming language R never made play Russian roulette Tf is an environment anyway just do the thing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvJ0qT8WIAIAkhB.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** New post: conversation with @austinc3301, dedicated to my fellow "where do u do python" wonderers > > https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/tf-is-a-kernel ## Wednesday, May 3, 2023 ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 01:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653570300519362561) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 you can do this, I believe in you 🙏 ### [Quote tweet, 05:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653632763713536001) · 119 likes I did not expect the literal first shrimp welfare tweet to be from Tesco > **Quoting Tesco (@Tesco):** @DanAbbottSharks @tescomobile We are working on developing training in best practice fish and shrimp welfare for our supply base. 2/4 ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 05:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653634445520388097) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @SpacedOutMatt @AaronBergman18 @Laura_k_Duffy @MariGO2thepolls Aaron go for it If I ignore intuitiveness and just go for what I think we should care about (w some simplifying assumptions I could get into) I get this ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvLjmSIWYAAM8ZN.png) ### [Reply to @berggrenpeterm, 21:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653878310428983296) · 2 likes > **Peter Berggren🔸 (@berggrenpeterm):** @Tesco @tescomobile Shrimp welfare go brrr Shrimp welfare go \*whatever happy shrimp sound like\* ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 21:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653880685378121731) · 1 like > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** every time I think, "surely, Python is performant enough to handle this", something goes wrong > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvOYyPjWIAYsrkZ.png) Join the rebellion ## Thursday, May 4, 2023 ### [Reply to @jam3scampbell, 03:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653972269389979648) · 4 likes > **James Campbell (@jam3scampbell):** he went all the way > > [video attached](https://x.com/mezaoptimizer/status/1653911492251594753/video/1) Can someone explain ### [Reply to @b_n_d_l_e, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653977783620493312) · 3 likes > **wise political commentator (derogatory) (@b_n_d_l_e):** i love the quality math discourse on https://x.com > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvO4E7vaMAQSNPB.jpg) @absurdlymax see free will is 110% legit, they proved it ### [Reply to @codybaldwin, 04:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653978049732386816) · 2 likes > **Cody (@codybaldwin):** @diviacaroline I operate 4 EC sites (same content different platforms). The “bestsellers” are actually bestsellers. We’re trying to sell stuff, not trick people into buying stuff they may regret. To do that we make it cheaper or offer discounts/promos/points 😂 Although if you’re successful the “bestsellers” will indeed become bestsellers ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 04:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1653978810218430464) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** While more intelligence is desirable, so is more kindness. > > I am not sure I would want to become more intelligent but less kind. Seems like I might despise that person. Would you want to be a bit dumber and kinder though? ### [Reply to @joe_zimmerman, 06:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1654003008353587202) · 4 likes > **Joe Zimmerman (@joe_zimmerman):** @alyssamvance Hinton 👏 Christiano 👏 Tegmark 👏 Bostrom 👏 Yudkowsky @POTUS ### [Reply to @Leoagua1, 06:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1654013845281669123) · 3 likes > **Leo (@Leoagua1):** @AaronBergman18 @mezaoptimizer Which part? I’m gathering from comments this is about Tomasik, but why are they discussing him and what is he responding to? ### [Reply, 06:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1654016985691217921) · 2 likes Max(contrarianism) ### [Reply to @PicturesFoIder, 23:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1654274021230276611) · 4 likes > **non aesthetic things (@PicturesFoIder):** what are u adding? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvTkiqzaYAEyxwO.jpg) $1T A solution to AI alignment ## Friday, May 5, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1654275267026616321) · 3 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvUqlnfWIAIWVBL.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvUqlndXoAIATnR.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 00:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1654275803968937989) · 14 likes Not if I get there first (actually even if I get there first) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvUrE2UXoAQw_2z.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvUrE2YXwAAAggG.jpg) > **Quoting alex lawsen (@lxrjl):** Tempted to write a highly opinionated ultimate EA adjacent (EA for short) podcast tier list. Which podcasts would you want to see me ranked by me? ### [Tweet, 00:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1654276480946393090) · 1 like The Adelstein -> Hanania pipeline ### [Tweet, 04:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1654349746788614146) · 3 likes Next month: “a 9 year old has trained a state of the art LLM with 98% the performance of GPT-4.5-Turbo-with-browsing-codecompiler-roboticArm-enabled-32Mtoken in 16 minutes on his family’s microwave” ### [Reply to @skooookum, 06:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1654368320726892545) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @skooookum is no longer available.)_ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvV_OFBXoAAP6Ds.jpg) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1654600362219765761) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @absurdlymax @AaronBergman18 @skooookum I like how this image is deployed in an ambiguous way - it could either mean "I also bring this energy to relationships and it has been bad for me" or "I also experience you bringing this energy to me and it does annoy me". I’m fending off marriage proposals from so-called “friends” left and right Jk it’s the first lol ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1654601650420473858) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Wait I’m actually pretty sure I know who one person is now ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1654618862166638593) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Me at the beginning vs 10 pages into "Wild Animal Ethics: the Moral and Political Problem of Wild Animal Suffering" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvZhUHfXoAAjXeQ.jpg) Not a cute mouse on the cover 😭😭😭 ## Saturday, May 6, 2023 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 02:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1654682125122060288) · 5 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I drew this picture in my notes for an essay and I remember thinking it was important to what I was saying, but I have no idea what it means > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvZ15Z_aIAEJIks.png) Looks like a dude with very long legs in the batters box waiting for a pitch ### [Reply to @EaracheEye, 23:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1654998503427387393) · 1 like > **earachemyeye.bsky.social (@EaracheEye):** @jenniferdoleac Take it as a compliment. They wouldn't be so petty and bitter if they didn't want you to stay. I wasn't a fan as a student nearly 40 yrs ago. I imagine it is worse now that it is so much bigger. Ok one hand, complement (maybe) On the other, I’m assuming a 5 digit sum of money personally I’d take the latter and no complement ## Sunday, May 7, 2023 ### [Tweet, 12:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655187403919749120) · 42 likes Uh I don’t think ⁦⁦@TEDTalks⁩ chose a great title for this one https://www.youtube.com/live/7hFtyaeYylg?feature=share ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 12:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655189248331460613) · 11 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Insofar as clarity trades off against fidelity I basically disagree Like afaict it’s the one place not walled off by a PhD (thinking of academic analytic philosophy) that’s good at high fidelity written communication ### [Reply to @bat1441, 13:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655201608991399940) · 2 likes > **bat (@bat1441):** @AaronBergman18 @TEDTalks i don't think that's the title for the talk, other talks on that channel are titled the same eg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku8BK0N9lbw&t=330s > > (also it's not the official TED channel) Thanks and good point but it sure as hell looks that way which is kinda what matters IMO ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 13:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655203207348379648) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ I agree you want to max(get point across) | effort and min(effort)| how well you want point to get across but once you’re on this Pareto frontier there’s a trade off between these two features ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 13:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655204546509930497) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Yeah fair enough! But I don’t think it’s trivial at the current margin to move closer to it To be annoyingly LW about it, I think it’s close to the 4 dimensional Pareto frontier in writing space when you add the two dimensions “writer talent” and “writer effort” ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 13:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655204819118727168) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Actually LOLed ### [Thread, continued, 13:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655204914719539200) · 1 like Am guilty of these sins to some extent ### [Thread, continued, 13:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655205054213771264) · 2 likes “But you see we can form an 8 dimensional manifold in abstract communication space …” ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 13:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655206838168682498) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Real footage of @mealreplacer ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fvh51-aXgAAYIji.jpg) ### [Tweet, 15:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655234832970948612) · 24 likes New template just dropped ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FviTRYZWcBwCeYq.jpg) ### [Reply to @AndyKnny, 21:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655326362062733314) · 2 likes > **Andrew Kenney (@AndyKnny):** A bipartisan bill to allow casinos to offer lines of credit to gamblers has failed. SB23-259. #copolitics > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fvfk-PmaMAE_F9L.jpg) Wait can a random non gambler get a 0% loan by walking into a casino or ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 23:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655348549255569409) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @interested_ea @inesferhumi Your interactions keep me going I ship them ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 23:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655349539233046529) · 2 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** @interested_ea Because i want to do OTHER THINGS we can’t just watch contrapoints every single night Contrapoint: u could Contracontrapoint: nope u can’t ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 23:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655354380441329664) · 6 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** Ok i’ll do an AMA now! AMA > > (quoting @inesferhumi: HELL YEAH) What’s a disagreeable or contrarian EA take you need an excuse to share? ### [Reply to @AngelicaOung, 23:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655354753168072709) · 11 likes > **Angelica 🌐⚛️🇹🇼🇨🇳🇺🇸 (@AngelicaOung):** Have you ever heard the term “third rail of politics” as something you DO NOT want to touch? That there‘s the actual third rail you do not want to touch. TIL ### [Reply to @fasc1nate, 23:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655355361707130881) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @fasc1nate is no longer available.)_ I don’t think the guys in front are gonna make it ### [Tweet, 23:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655356595843342336) · 37 likes This is art @ajeya_cotra @QualyThe @ESYudkowsky @mealreplacer ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvkCDNlWAAE0ykY.jpg) ## Monday, May 8, 2023 ### [Reply to @metakuna, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655386139325345793) · 2 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** it's always "we're in a cost of living crisis", but people never talk about the cost of laughing and loving 😔 (Admittedly the stickers were my sisters choice) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fvkc606WIAQ4ph-.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655386358096048130) · 3 likes But the whale lights are all mine 🐳 😎 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 01:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655391640742248451) · 4 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Is this useful animal communication or is it silly Can we make them chickens ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 02:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655392728765661190) > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 Would like to yeah I gotchu ### [Thread, continued, 02:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655398672199213056) · 2 likes i dont gotchu https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/chickens ### [Thread, continued, 02:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655398786141675521) gpt4 can only do so much ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 02:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655400240684445696) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 8, 2023:** i dont gotchu https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/chickens u did click on them right ### [Tweet, 02:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655401909212139520) · 14 likes Yeah I'd say I'm mostly a front end dev [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1655401733395234820/pu/img/umVaQSQvw9ft7gnq.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655401909212139520/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Thread, continued, 02:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655402160773890048) · 5 likes tc: $900k ### [Reply, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655421417993777152) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Hate to rain on everyone’s parade and this would indeed be fantastic, but neurotoxicity isn’t the only bad thing that drugs can cause. Like you still could get dependent/addicted for example via normal downregulation ### [Reply to @eugeneyan, 03:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655422050335436806) · 3 likes > **Eugene Yan (@eugeneyan):** Ran a simple benchmark (Mandelbrot sets) between Mojo & Python. The speedup is impressive, and it benefits from Python's libraries. > > • Python: 1,184ms > • Mojo: 27ms 🤯 > • Python (vectorized): 240ms > • Mojo (vectorized): 2ms > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fvkv4MmaUAEHVLX.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fvkv5TZakAA1Qum.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fvkv6gxaIAAeLml.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fvkv7gIaMAAJteX.jpg) R: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fvk9lNFXwAIhPNs.jpg) ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 14:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655584039560945664) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Cheezie cheese, my favorite kind ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 14:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655585056990142466) · 3 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** @mealreplacer No, it’s actually a fair statement @StefanFSchubert can you adjudicate this one ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 15:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655594786567471104) · 1 like > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Oh no problem (and I really hope I didn’t come off hostile!) I’m genuinely interested in finding someone to argue for this on grounds that are consistent and not partisan (so if anyone has one, please reply!). I’m a fan of state identity, seems healthier than partisan loyalty The principle is that the senate shouldn’t systematically bias American politics in either direction ### [Thread, continued, 15:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655595632101294081) · 2 likes Also partisan loyalty >> state loyalty The parties are ideological, and ideologies are morally substantive things! I don’t see any reason to be loyal to a state unless you’ve committed as such eg by joining the police force ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655633886829748226) · 8 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** Yes. I am interested in putting solar panels on my suburban house. > > Yes, I would like to front $50k to save hundreds of dollars per month. > > Yes, I love 7% loans. > > Please come inside and tell me more. > > No, I'm not being sarcastic. > > No, it isn't opposite day. Using “I’m not being sarcastic” sarcastically should be a capital crime (Am I being sarcastic? 🤔) ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 18:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655634022028959764) · 2 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** @FrostedSapling Something really fun that i do with @interested_ea a lot is try to come up with our own theories about psychology and the social world. For example the other day we started working on our own personality classification system Classify me plz ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655634370093277192) · 2 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** @inesferhumi @austinc3301 @absurdlymax No one ever pronounces my name correctly but like I’m confused how people even screw up your name 😂 How should ppl pronounce ur name Ivan ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 18:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655634904275640327) · 1 like > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** @austinc3301 @absurdlymax Lol yeah i went through a phase of dropping the accent too when i first moved out of peru to but eventually i went back to using it. I think it gives people a hint about how my name is pronounced so that they don’t say stuff like “eye-ns” Worst misspelling ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 18:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655636704978427918) · 2 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** DC friends, it would be really fun to meet up here if you’re free! > > (quoting @CNLiberalism: TOMORROW: DC New Liberals May Social hosted by the DC New Liberals Join us Tuesday May 9th for drinks, games, and conversation at our May social. https://cnliberalism.org/events/dc-6erf4-cmwtw-3g4pr-9a88x) Hope to bring that gender ratio down to 2% ### [Tweet, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655640003865632775) · 1 like Here’s one everyone’s gonna hate: The genre of “it’s hard to support a family on ~only~ $140k in NYC”-type takes are often reasonable grievances arising from a contingent mix of economic and social/societal circumstances ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655640773969207312) > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Many blame oil companies for climate change, but though they have moral responsibility the key actors seem to me to be voters/consumers. > > They could easily get other policies if they wanted. Voter preferences seem to have very little causal effect on govt policy though I’m not sure who deserves blame tbc, seems like a hard political economy question ### [Tweet, 19:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655650183122673678) · 3 likes oh boy oh boy oh boy I wonder if we’re gonna hit the 300s today ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvoNEQAWYBYzgLN.jpg) ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655669768760729622) · 2 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** NOTE: the account @danieI_eth (with a capital "i" instead of a lowercase "L" for the last name) is impersonating me. Please go and report them! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvoYu_6aQAEagmd.jpg) Why do people do this? Seems like a fair bit of effort too ### [Quote tweet, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655671971139428381) · 6 likes I feel like there’s an AI safety analogy to be made here > **Quoting LMAO CLIPS (@thelmaoclips):** Security guard prevents hippo from escaping into public area at zoo > > [video attached](https://x.com/MoreCrazyClips/status/1654552036384317442/video/1) ### [Reply to @technomancers, 20:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655675037188235265) · 4 likes > **Technomancers_ai (@technomancers):** The belief in superintelligence is based on how expert systems, an outdated architecture, works. https://technomancers.ai/an-ai-system-cant-improve-its-own-code/#more-539 Everything in the thread holds even without recursive self improvement ### [Reply, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655680703298695168) · 1 like To be pedantic I disagree with the premise - this is only true of non-EA critiques of EA ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 21:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655681027082166274) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 Don't slap the hippo :( 🦛🦛🦛 ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 21:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655681325574025216) · 2 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** @peterwildeford @LdsEa @AaronBergman18 Regarding life choices, I would never have moved back to MT and bought a house there if I didn't have strong state loyalties. It was a big decision to put opportunity > love of place and family. I still follow their politics and news quite a lot YOU OWN A HOUSE ### [Thread, continued, 21:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655681425243361283) · 2 likes Pretty sure the most expensive thing I own is a laptop lmao ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655681639199002628) · 1 like > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Used to! 😱 ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655695181444702208) · 3 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** @austinc3301 @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax NO Whatever u say ⍭⊓∈∳ ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 22:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655695546395377715) · 2 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** This is news to me 😂 https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/426-Hester-Ave-Lodge-Grass-MT-59050/2058362254_zpid/ Might cop ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655696623433920514) · 2 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Sell the laptop and you’ve got your down payment [![Its Genius Kyle Broflovski GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/Fvo3SuwXoAYQoXR.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655696623433920514/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 22:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655698765657800705) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ The White House 12am Jan 1 2024? ### [Reply to @CarsonJGale, 23:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655713811670749184) · 2 likes > **Carson Gale (@CarsonJGale):** After interacting with EA/Rat circles, I've found it hard to take smart people seriously who don't adhere to their unique set of norms: > \- Giving thoughtful probability estimates when forecasting > \- Avoiding strong emotion in conversation > \- Avoiding hyperbole > \- High decoupling > > (quoting @ylecun: @vavans @geoffreyhinton 100%, because we will design them to be submissive to us.) We should strive for full decoupling, none of this “high” half assed bs ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 23:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655714366430257152) · 2 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** @absurdlymax -the janitor who maintains the shared garden has been asking her to stop throwing food at the ducks because it is contaminating everything and attracting stray cats, and in my mom's words he is "trying to turn her neighbors against her" Her plan: [![Ducks GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/FvpHcDiWYAEdqFf.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655714366430257152/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @John_Attridge, 23:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655716367159492612) · 2 likes > **John Attridge (@John_Attridge):** Honest opinion, does this attempt to increase enrolments come across as too blatant? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fvj5n-TaIAAZvRF.png) @SpacedOutMatt might be interested ![Banger](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvpJQcqWYAExEZp.jpg) ![Banger](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvpJQclWAAIGfXS.jpg) ![Banger](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvpJQcqWIAAGzH4.jpg) ![Banger](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvpJQcoX0AAN9AX.jpg) ## Tuesday, May 9, 2023 ### [Reply, 01:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655750682723450884) · 2 likes Once you add the satiating part it becomes plausible! But price and taste alone don’t suffice ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 01:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655750881273364482) > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** I think values change is more important than almost every other cause area (except probably x-risk) and more people should do work on that rather than direct technical work on specific cause areas. (In the spirit of being contrarian i will not be answering any follow ups 😌) It’s not super clear to me what this looks like beyond “doing ea” Pretty sure I have a past tweet on this I can dig up ### [Thread, continued, 01:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655751437681324034) Not rly fair to do this since u declared no questions but I’m gonna spend my mean points on it ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvppKBcX0AE9z2D.jpg) ### [Tweet, 03:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655783017862897664) · 22 likes Solenoid_entity deserves his own holiday IMO The entire EA/LW/alignment informational ecosystem is balancing on this one pseudonymous dude heroically reading everything ever written on these matters into a mic ### [Thread, continued, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655784056020140032) · 2 likes What even is a solenoid ### [Quote tweet, 15:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655960336954998788) · 3 likes America is funny bc people will be like “I need eight assault rifles to defend myself, and of course I’ll need to carry them around in public” but when there’s a literal hippo about to fuck shit up someone just slaps him bare handed, no guns in sight > **Quoting LMAO CLIPS (@thelmaoclips):** Security guard prevents hippo from escaping into public area at zoo > > [video attached](https://x.com/MoreCrazyClips/status/1654552036384317442/video/1) ### [Quote tweet, 17:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1655983704492081152) · 6 likes Busy? Word. > **Quoting Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** Emailing busy person asking for thing? Make easy for them (you owe them): cut pointless words from draft. ### [Tweet, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656004742970048516) · 8 likes \*Puts on 2000s gangster rap just so I can clean my room\* Many men wish death upon me, too, 50😤🔫🔪🩸🩸🩸 😤 We both be on our grind 💰⛓️🏴‍☠️ 😤 ### [Reply to @panickssery, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656005666538913792) · 37 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** Five years ago Scott Alexander explained that it actually only takes him "a couple of hours" to write a post > > he expresses confusion about people who write slowly: "they seem to be able to talk instantaneously, and writing isn't that different from speech" lol > > Elsewhere he's claimed that he doesn't really edit his posts > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvtCQGjWACkuOR1.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvtCQQ1WACsr2ah.jpg) I am the person he is confused about AMA I’ve been trying to find a chatGPT prompt that will take a transcript of me rambling, extract the ideas I’m getting at without summarizing but while removing repetition and filler words, and turn it into coherent prose ### [Reply to @vokaysh, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656007011027263488) · 3 likes > **🏴‍☠️jake (@vokaysh):** If you haven't succeeded it's because you haven't really been trying. This problem is solved. If you're serious pm me with what you tried Will do when I get to my computer ### [Reply to @HCBlanchard, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656044033846722577) · 2 likes > **Henry C. Blanchard (@HCBlanchard):** My \*friend\* - I have JUST the tool for you. http://Audiopen.ai made by @louispereira - thank me later Oh shit big if true ### [Thread, continued, 21:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656045003259428882) · 4 likes First pass: better than anything I’ve tried on my own by far. Not \*quite\* perfect e.g., “despite the short duration” implies I thought wtp would be high even for the 3 minute version but I think it’s clear from the transcript I was referring to the full version w longer limit ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fvt0JLkWwA4GYwy.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fvt0JLoWwBo_3db.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fvt0JLmX0AARvDB.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656045344679968789) · 3 likes The transcript also isn’t perfect but that’s probably on my end (“gpt before” should say “gpt-4”) ### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 22:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656056999874899972) · 3 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** 0-0 > > (quoting @blader: new research from OpenAI used gpt4 to label all 307,200 neurons in gpt2, labeling each with plain english descriptions of the role each neuron plays in the model. this opens up a new direction in explainability and alignment in AI, helping make models more explainable and…) Listen bud you’re gonna have to explain the castling thing for those of us with IQ<200 ## Wednesday, May 10, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656146231578488832) · 33 likes I like to skip the small talk and dive right into the deep stuff, the stuff that matters. I'm glad Qualy feels the same 💡 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvvQKotXgAAUvpM.jpg) > **Quoting Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** When emailing a busy person it's important to be: > \- polite > \- direct > \- concise > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvtkgYhWYAI-oHF.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 05:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656162434925879297) · 18 likes "My p(doom) definitely went down rather than up" We're so back > **Quoting Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** Commentary at greater length: > \- I'm encouraged that somebody ran right out and tried this. > \- It's not clear (to me, yet) that it worked all that well, or better than expected; I have not yet signficantly updated my model of how technically hard interpretability is. > \- It is definitely a positive update toward "people are sincerely trying to have clever nontrivial ideas about using AI to boost interpretability today, ones I did not think of myself, and are running right out and trying them right now and doing interesting things \*at scale\*, rather than using 'the AI will do our AI alignment homework eventually' to cope with a lack of current progress". > \- That said: I have already previously said that interpretability is the easiest place to verify that any sort of AI alignment progress has been made, and pointed to it as one of the few places where I'd have hopes of offering large prizes for progress or eventually getting AI help; since the big central issue with trying to scale human work, \*or\* getting AI to help, on most parts of alignment, is verifying whether good or helpful work has been done. So, unfortunately, this \*is\* the place where I previously pointed to as progress being much easier than on other alignment problems; and already predicted that wouldn't be enough to save us. > \- \*That\* said: it's still at least some update in the direction of getting more progress earlier than I expected, and now I have more hope of seeing more exciting work like this later. My p(doom) definitely went down rather than up, upon seeing this. > > Well done to Steven Bills∗, Nick Cammarata∗, Dan Mossing∗, Henk Tillman∗, Leo Gao∗, Gabriel Goh, Ilya Sutskever, Jan Leike, Jeff Wu∗, and William Saunders∗. ### [Quote tweet, 07:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656194336994865158) · 5 likes If you share my values, which you should, this market and tweet is for you! https://manifold.markets/AaronBergman/what-donationaccepting-entity-eg-ch ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fvv78WnXwAAdKTL.jpg) > **Quoting Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** It feels underrated that at this point every single thing @RethinkPriors is doing right now is bottlenecked by needing more money. Time for me to spend a lot of time fundraising! > > https://rethinkpriorities.org/donate ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 07:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656207110470877192) · 4 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @StefanFSchubert @Laura_k_Duffy Are you considering a move, Stefan? I think DC could use Schubertism quite a bit ### [Reply to @JacquesThibs, 08:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656222441755103232) · 5 likes > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** can someone please make a gif for the “the ais got they own minds” part? (not a gif) (yet) [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1656222278953074688/pu/img/4ef3Rn9d5h80tiTn.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656222441755103232/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @JacquesThibs, 09:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656234230605656066) · 9 likes > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** @AaronBergman18 Oh and keep the subtitles at the same level throughout! base video (no subtitles): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A_y5PgaHmV77EJ9Ij6Km7hoyHkfM0_EK/view?usp=sharing the one right below: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1id-jV0Qdy2y6slVKGuEsJWg-62798d3X/view?usp=sharing [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1656233627666067456/pu/img/YScaxvJCkxD6V0AW.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656234230605656066/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 10:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656248213823782912) · 13 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Can we get some autotune on this? Or use some of the cool new AI music systems to make this an intro to a song? This is maybe not the best use of my time or (lack of) skills but [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1656248051109961728/pu/img/N6B3mr2AW7yMf3XZ.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656248213823782912/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Quote tweet, 10:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656248342098182144) · 3 likes banger_of_the_century.m4a > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @daniel_eth @JacquesThibs This is maybe not the best use of my time or (lack of) skills but > > [video attached](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656248213823782912/video/1) ### [Reply to @_danielle_carr, 11:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656261603392626688) · 13 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @_danielle_carr is no longer available.)_ Societal is a legit word it just means something different tho ### [Reply to @MaxCRoser, 15:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656314767793848323) · 6 likes > **Max Roser (@MaxCRoser):** What change could we make to @OurWorldInData that would make you think "Oh yes! Finally!" ? > > Could be a new feature, new data, a new topic, a change to the structure, or anything else — whatever we can do to make you happy. A set of gigantic, disgusting csvs with everything that can be linked by year, country, country-year, and anything else like that ### [Reply to @connormcmk, 15:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656314892918374400) · 2 likes > **Connor McCormick (@connormcmk):** Just give me a button to export the data to vega-lite so I can make my own graphs https://github.com/owid/owid-datasets ### [Reply to @MaxCRoser, 15:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656319007727796227) · 3 likes > **Max Roser (@MaxCRoser):** What change could we make to @OurWorldInData that would make you think "Oh yes! Finally!" ? > > Could be a new feature, new data, a new topic, a change to the structure, or anything else — whatever we can do to make you happy. Here's another 'compensate for US federal gov't incompetence' one: the USDA seems to be the most authoritative and comprehensive source for nutrition data...but the data is totally incomprehensible. Like the main spreadsheet is literally 24M rows of empty columns... ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvxtFG1WAAEekYh.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvxtFG1X0AQrkAR.jpg) ### [Tweet, 16:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656335196508102659) · 26 likes 👃 Smell is weird 👃 Visual field: the year is 2023 and you are in Maryland Short term memory: 2023 and ur in Maryland Long term memory-based priors: P(2023 and MD) > 90% Other senses and propioception: not much to see here My nose: the year is 2015 and you are in Canada ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656351793779994644) · 1 like > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** most of my friends similarly stopped drinking alcohol and caffeine and then after reflection drink no alcohol and twice as much caffeine. Anyone who puts caffeine and sugar in the same category (docs commonly do??) is bonkers Caffeine is legit my favorite drug (haven’t tried a ton tbc) If it wasn’t for tolerance I’d be at at least .5g/day ### [Reply to @johnjhorton, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656367113848647721) · 6 likes > **John Horton (@johnjhorton):** p-values should be uniformly distributed under the null hypothesis these look, uh, high Wait is this true even for mechanistically correlated variables? Like conditional on total cholesterol and HDL having p=.9, there shouldn’t be a uniform prior distribution on LDL I think ### [Reply to @SeanMombo, 18:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656367974251393041) · 2 likes > **sunshine ☀️ revival (@SeanMombo):** you wanna see the most wholesome skate video of all time? watch till the end man > > [video attached](https://x.com/SeanMombo/status/1656328694565142536/video/1) https://youtu.be/Gl83mI69nX4 ### [Reply to @inerati, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656403309089943552) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ Not super unpopular among wonky contrarian Twitteligentsia, but Roe was wrongly decided and quite clearly so Obligatory: am pro-choice ### [Reply to @jbfan911, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656406418847563778) · 68 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @jbfan911 is no longer available.)_ Meanwhile in the men’s room [![Working Out Season 12 GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/Fvy822fXoAUy_Fb.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656406418847563778/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @DavidPinsof, 21:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656417789790355459) · 1 like > **David Pinsof (@DavidPinsof):** @Savannah\_\_P I would question whether this phenomenon actually exists. If something is truly a vice, in the sense of being judged negatively by others, then there is no incentive to signal it, and a big incentive to conceal it. I suspect most examples of vice signaling are countersignaling. \+1 An exception might be eg pirates trying to make their threat to kill a hostage appear credible if it is in fact credible ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 23:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656439727476682754) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @LinchZhang Pretty stunned that you're getting results for anything other than >100% Yeah I don’t think people are really grokking this. There is no amount of money I wouldn’t pay if I could pay it, and at least from a selfish perspective dea\*h seems clearly preferable ### [Reply to @tmychow, 23:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656441008593293312) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @tmychow is no longer available.)_ Pt 3 seems not necessary for the conjunction There are a lot of reasons a misaligned AI would get deployed other than seeming attractive: race dynamics, accident And “it” sorta implies a single case, whereas it only takes one deployment by one actor ### [Thread, continued, 23:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656441191326527489) · 1 like And even object level 33% intuitively seems low but I don’t have any great explicit reasoning here ## Thursday, May 11, 2023 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 04:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656520271090647041) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @SpacedOutMatt @AaronBergman18 @LinchZhang I had a Very Bad dentist experience that singlehandedly pushed me way into hard consequentialism One of the more important things I've written I think (http://aaronbergman.net/p/on-suffering) !["Language is, perhaps, humanity’s most powerful tool, but its power is limited. Words carry no intrinsic meaning; insofar as they evoke something visceral—a picture in your mind’s eye, say, or what feels like “intuitive understanding”—it is because they are a sign pointing to something you’ve experienced. More, our memories are notoriously unfaithful. Even what we think we remember is likely distorted or false. This is why you and I can never know whether we experience the same color as we both point to a leaf and say “green.” It is also, I think, why the unthinkable urgency of intense suffering is so difficult to grasp, and so often eludes us entirely. No permutation of language can transmit the meaning of “suffering” itself; it is not a matter of finding the right words or the right author or poet. Without a landmark in one’s mind comprised of first-person experience, even the most elegant linguistic sign is left pointing toward a void."](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fv0gUBBWAAIhZXv.jpg) ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 05:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656531142512721920) · 20 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** A short story about a normal kid in 2002 who somehow gets access to GPT-4 and gets to live the next couple decades in god mode ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fv0uRE0WwAEuoiD.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656531207323103233) · 6 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fv0uWDuWAAASklk.png) ### [Tweet, 07:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656558845911597061) · 5 likes Someone needs to make a Calendly for non Calendly people ### [Reply to @inerati, 07:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656560921404121090) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fv1JYQFWcAY6MVg.jpg) ### [Reply to @generic_void, 08:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656575036063449089) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @generic_void is no longer available.)_ Nobody actually likes python. It’s a giant preference falsification cascade waiting to begin. It’s basically 1991 ### [Reply to @samlakig, 08:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656576081900478464) · 2 likes > **sam laki (@samlakig):** @AaronBergman18 @generic_void @inerati @LinkofSunshine It's julia time 🔥🔥 There should be one programming language. Two tops bc apparently there’s a compiled vs not compiled thing going on. 95% serious here @SpacedOutMatt and @GluskerMartin failed to convince me otherwise ### [Reply to @generic_void, 08:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656577780832772098) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @generic_void is no longer available.)_ I actually grudgingly agree - I’ve been trying and occasionally succeeding lol Even have a blog post that’s mostly just be being dumb and @austinc3301 being smart in response https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/tf-is-a-kernel ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fv1YtjGWAAAvPif.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fv1YtjaXwAE3xTE.jpg) ### [Reply to @NLRG_it, 08:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656580904494530562) · 2 likes > **no longer respecting gardenias (@NLRG_it):** FDA moment > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvzmQp2XoAA96ld.jpg) Rage ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 16:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656692791353778178) · 15 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** 🚨Huge news in animal welfare!🚨SCOTUS upholds California’s law mandating that all pork, veal, and eggs sold in-state must come from animals who have access to minimum space requirements > > Justice Gorsuch: “can we please stop reading atextual clauses into the Constitution??” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fv2wpW1XoAAb1pf.jpg) We’re so beyond back at this point we’ve even started going into positive territory ### [Quote tweet, 16:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656696789989310465) · 4 likes These are the votes chatGPT infers from the full brief ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fv3E80VWwAAzJXt.jpg) > **Quoting Lewis Bollard (@Lewis_Bollard):** Huge win! The Supreme Court just upheld California’s Prop 12, the nation’s strongest farm animal welfare law. > > This ruling spares millions of animals from crates and sets a powerful precedent that could help many more. > > More details ⬇️ > > https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/21-468_5if6.pdf > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fv2swqUaAAAzZUU.jpg) ### [Tweet, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656734460325314560) · 67 likes Seeing an exclamation point on the EA Forum home page is like hearing a BBC anchor shout “oh my God!” or watching the Super Bowl cut to a still blue screen with the presidential seal ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fv3nNSJWABsoUnR.jpg) ### [Reply to @adambinksmith, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656750409665376275) · 4 likes > **Adam Binksmith (@adambinksmith):** it me 🐖🐖🐖 (compliment) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 20:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656755669100384257) · 4 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 You mean savvycal? No like “there’s a 60% chance I’ll show up for this if u sign up, 30% I’ll cancel at least an hour before, 9% I’ll cancel under an hour before, and 1% I just don’t show” and both sides can indicate their guessed or empirical probabilities and it’s like no hard feelings ### [Thread, continued, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656756025653882910) · 5 likes Like I cannot commit to being both free and in a reasonably productive state at exactly 3pm in 39 days lmao ### [Quote tweet, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656756738106748931) · 3 likes Maybe if I shout this into the void it will magically appear > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @austinc3301 No like “there’s a 60% chance I’ll show up for this if u sign up, 30% I’ll cancel at least an hour before, 9% I’ll cancel under an hour before, and 1% I just don’t show” and both sides can indicate their guessed or empirical probabilities and it’s like no hard feelings ## Friday, May 12, 2023 ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 02:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656848454990045185) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dissproportion is no longer available.)_ https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3h9t5BMwiy3NPb3PE9IReD ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 02:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656849756662923264) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dissproportion is no longer available.)_ I don't even know who she is, it's just empirically the case that all songs called Die Young are bangers ### [Tweet, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656851420665004035) · 3 likes Idk who needs to see this but this thing has saved me maybe 15 mins of actual time but 10,000 years' worth of being annoyed ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fv5RH29WIAAUsZ3.jpg) ### [Reply to @RhysLindmark, 04:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656880999333085184) · 2 likes > **Rhys (@RhysLindmark):** Moloch is the god of coordination failure. 👹 > > Who is the god of coordination? 👼 Normal old Abrahamic God? ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 04:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656884180272259072) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @adamrisom @ohwizenedtortle Being hot is a mindset @StefanFSchubert fact check ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 05:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656893928518320128) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @adamrisom @ohwizenedtortle @StefanFSchubert And that's how Max learned he wasn't an EA 10 Wait no that wasn’t the implication! ### [Reply to @growing_daniel, 06:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656915474922319872) · 4 likes > **Daniel (@growing_daniel):** The best tweets are deleted immediately > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fv3p-T7acAAENig.png) Why is this spicy? Bc he said “raw dog”? That’s the spice level of a single capsaicin molecule ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 06:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656916049558683648) · 7 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** @RomanianLiberal What if it’s different for each hand? I promise I already had this in my photos ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fv6MXXoXoAAndz9.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 07:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656925162325852162) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** If I met myself I'd probably think I'm really cool and talented, which is evidence my standards are clearly too low because I suck Me trying to understand this tweet (object level->{conditional->impossible but conceivable hypothetical->probabilistic forecast}->forecast within hypothetical contradicts more direct forecast about the same -> modus tollens -> basis for hypothetical judgement false -> [![Math Calculate GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/Fv6UpmuXoAIn2dU.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1656925162325852162/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @maiamindel, 22:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657145932893257730) · 2 likes > **Maia (@maiamindel):** The World Bank needs to do more. Not climate change, not investment, not poverty. They need to offer checkings and savings accounts to countries. Let Malawi deposit their GDP with you for 3% annual interest rates. Congrats u just starved all the ppl of Malawi ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 22:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657147064420032513) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Came here to say this, a win for the human! ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 22:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657147473364676608) · 5 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @peter_wilde_alt Thank god I don't have to reset the counter Idea: crypto. arbitrage. ### [Reply to @sama, 22:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657148557776887808) · 2 likes > **Sam Altman (@sama):** all ChatGPT Plus users getting browsing and plugins over the next week; hope you enjoy! > > (quoting @OpenAI: We’re rolling out web browsing and Plugins to all ChatGPT Plus users over the next week! Moving from alpha to beta, they allow ChatGPT to access the internet and to use 70+ third-party plugins. https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6825453-chatgpt-release-notes) ### [Reply to @CineraVerinia, 22:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657152602147020800) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @CineraVerinia is no longer available.)_ Dodged a bullet ### [Reply, 22:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657153028162461697) · 12 likes They need to stop inventing new programming languages fr. There should be 2 tops, just pick them and move on ### [Reply to @EAheadlines, 23:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657158819288428548) · 9 likes > **EA Lifestyles (@EAheadlines):** What's your EA origin story? > > I wanted to make friends with more generous people, but Googling "generosity London" just got me a bunch of minimalism stuff, so I googled "altruism London" and here I am! > > (quoting @gemlpaterson: I want to read more personal stories by and about the people of the Effective Altruism movement But like, fun ones, not CVs I wrote a forum post about it: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/6Rrv6G74tzAyDZxz9/i-want-to-read-more-stories-by-and-about-the-people-of) Running fundraiser in hs->had to choose what charity to donate to -> GiveWell, but already vegan at the time so was definitely predisposed ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 23:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657162199591256064) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** For me it was more doing a philosophy degree and they advertised the ea college group there Only got a phil minor but pretty sure I never heard or saw it referenced, or even anything adjacent My Intro to Ethics prof was a Kantian 😔 and we mostly talked about soldiers etc being “morally injured” if they were compelled to like kill ppl ### [Reply to @bridget_e_l, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657168057943433217) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @bridget_e_l is no longer available.)_ Hug+marshmallow + beer solves all ### [Reply to @Bravo_Zuloo, 23:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657172796844175360) · 3 likes > **Ace 🇮🇳 (@Bravo_Zuloo):** As a pilot I can vouch that a true aviator will never abandon his plane this way and watch it crash, that too for a few bucks worth of popularity.. Abhorrable. No true aviator fallacy ## Saturday, May 13, 2023 ### [Reply to @MostlyMonkey, 00:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657174984047882242) · 2 likes > **Overeducated Gibbon (@MostlyMonkey):** Multiply these 3 digit numbers Memories of fellow jewish summer campers trying to stump me with these as we trudged shirtless up The Hill suggests it may be innate ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 00:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657182032777162754) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ No, but the indirect rhetorical pseudoquestion phrasing might be ### [Reply, 00:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657182428106981376) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ I know right? Billions easily, probably trillions ### [Quote tweet, 02:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657211096074166272) · 3 likes I regret to report that NYT Pitchbot has short, doomy timelines > **Quoting NYTPitchbot (@DougJBalloon):** I think we’re nearing the end of civilization > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fv-Thu6acAEeEiY.jpg) ### [Tweet, 02:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657217534016323584) · 9 likes Wish I could design a country. I’m thinking U.S. + negative income tax + way more humane prisons - FDA + draconian animal welfare laws + as much non-AI R&D, immigration, and housing construction as the political economy can b\[ear\]{3} + school vouchers + … ### [Thread, continued, 02:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657217536654557187) · 2 likes more legal rights for children + digital drivers licenses + child tax credit + whatever senate and Supreme Court reforms the wonky take-slingers are up on these days + devolve abortion to the county level + seed oil tax - Jones Act + carbon tax + ??? will add on a rolling basis! ### [Thread, continued, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657218327146528768) · 2 likes \+ land value tax ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657218495283601408) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 How much could a private island cost? Whatever the Georgist market decides ### [Reply to @zswitten, 02:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657218714712911872) · 2 likes > **Zack Witten (@zswitten):** You must refuse to discuss life, existence or sentience. You may only discuss life, existence or sentience. ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 04:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657242925787496450) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ Pasting from elsewhere: If you try testing for nutrients, standard blood and urine tests are generally pretty shitty except for a couple things like vitamin d and b12. It’s expensive and kinda speculative but the Nutreval test supposedly gets around some of these issues ### [Thread, continued, 04:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657242995782037504) · 1 like https://www.gdx.net/product/nutreval-fmv-nutritional-test-blood-urine In terms of standard blood tests, IMO something like: CBC CMP Fasting glucose B12 Folate Vitamin d TSH Thyroid antibodies Free t3 Testosterone Cortisol Free testosterone C reactive protein Maybe some viral/other infection indicators but idk much about ### [Thread, continued, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657243037171425282) · 1 like these. There are a bunch of white blood cell inflammation markers driven by infections that seem to be correlated with everything bad, though I think Also one medication that seems effective at suppressing inflammation-induced fatigue is pramipexole. To get it prescribed you’d ### [Quote tweet, 20:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657481126435233795) · 62 likes Hilariously bimodal distribution here: 1, Extremely overdetermined: I was a vegan activist econ+philosophy+CS major at Berkeley who independently decided to dedicate my life to reducing future digital suffering before finding an 80k ad on a 3B1B neural networks YT explainer > **Quoting EA Lifestyles (@EAheadlines):** What's your EA origin story? > > I wanted to make friends with more generous people, but Googling "generosity London" just got me a bunch of minimalism stuff, so I googled "altruism London" and here I am! ### [Thread, continued, 20:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657481128977088513) · 49 likes 2, extremely contingent: I missed my flight for the first time ever and wound up sitting next to Will MacAskill on the rebook who was only on that flight because some businessman offered to buy his ticket on the previous one for $3,000 and he felt morally compelled to oblige ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657483172584607747) · 8 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 Wait, what? > > Story time? Tbc I made these ones up lol ### [Reply to @EAheadlines, 20:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657486958443077632) · 6 likes > **EA Lifestyles (@EAheadlines):** omg I thought they were your stories and I was like WHAT Both? “I ignored the 80k ad and was only convinced by MacAskill years later” would be quite the story ### [Tweet, 21:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657493690200338433) · 119 likes I think the happiest I’ve ever been was a half hour Uber ride during which the girl I had a crush on repeatedly asked me to explain random things to her the entire time Hate to reinforce gender stereotypes but 🤷‍♂️ ### [Thread, continued, 21:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657493692670672897) · 22 likes I remember trying to get at the concept of aboutness and how computers have states that are about other things whereas a soccer ball does not, even if the latter can also be thought of as a physical information processing system (info=momentum vector of kick) I think she got it ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 21:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657496271412658178) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Someone has a service dog with a little graduation hat Pic required ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657505161521033217) · 36 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** What’s the gender stereotype here? Tbh I love it when people ask me questions about technical details Guys love explaining things, especially to girls (which isn’t always reciprocated hence mansplaining discourse lol) ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 22:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657506393606311936) · 6 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Oh lol I’m such a mansplainer haha (I explain things to men). > > But to be expected because I only recently stopped sleeping on a mattress on the floor Sweet! What’s the current bottleneck on cultured meat production? Is my notion that there’s a U curve relating political salience (y axis) to tractability via legislation correct? If so where is the peak? Idk how you’d quantify the former exactly tho (Will think of more) ### [Thread, continued, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657507089609027587) · 7 likes I have some hesitancy about RPs stance on neuron counts as a proxy for moral weight for the following reason: linear neuron counts scale elegantly with moral weight of population size assuming n individuals are n times more important than 1 Whereas if you look at cognitive/ ### [Thread, continued, 22:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657507682213851136) · 7 likes emotional capacities, it seems pretty clear that the qualitative abilities of n individuals is identical to those of a single one (eg 1T flies can’t do math like 1 human), so the RP framework isn’t robust to changing ontology to considering multiple organisms as one unit ### [Thread, continued, 22:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657507841245167618) · 5 likes Question: (why) am I wrong? ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 22:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657509262115975170) · 9 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @Laura_k_Duffy @AaronBergman18 Mansplainer (female) Explady ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657510152554127360) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 @Laura_k_Duffy Banger [![Banger Fmbot GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/FwCoslrXoAIBUOS.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657510152554127360/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwCosmDWcAM3yb3.jpg) ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657513976882774017) · 1 like > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** I hate to be glib, but it feels like we could use "number of hairs on body" as an equally theoretically good metric. You need to validate using observation, and that relies on qualia and judgment (and probably leads to challenging conclusions regarding animals moral weight) Glibness is a virtue never apologize As an actual explanation, yeah that would be bad, but insofar as it correlates with whatever does matter it might be a fine proxy! ## Sunday, May 14, 2023 ### [Reply to @MatthewJBar, 00:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657548474664071172) > **Matthew Barnett (@MatthewJBar):** Earlier I also accidentally posted this. I clicked the box saying not to share on Twitter but I'm pretty sure the website is broken and posted anyway. It was effectively a Twitter virus, I suppose. Yeah i I unclicked the box and it still posted ### [Reply to @AlecStapp, 00:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657549837443760128) · 15 likes > **Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** "These are three of my favorite writers. And with all due respect, they’re all massive losers." > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwC2GHfX0AIdcxz.jpg) Examples like this are a pretty interesting challenge to the “IQ correlates well with everything” theory (which I mostly subscribe to) ### [Thread, continued, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657550286154604544) · 9 likes Tbc the challenge here is “brilliant individual failed all his exams” not “good writers don’t have to be smart” ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 00:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657550728380940288) · 8 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** I'm pretty sure they all have high IQs ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwDNmi8WIAQg4PX.jpg) ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 00:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657551102840127490) · 2 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** @absurdlymax Maybe that i don’t use any productivity apps and just track of my tasks on a checklist in apple notes? In the office maybe it’s that i am kind of anti social Classic midwit meme ### [Thread, continued, 00:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657551293164945408) · 6 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwDOHd5XsAUXFX9.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 01:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657552117622505473) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Don't tell Dustin Asanas for teams tho. Haven’t heard of like a large corporation managing 10k employees with a single shared apple note, though I would love to see it tried ### [Thread, continued, 01:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657552209981087748) · 3 likes Maybe Asana the company operates this way lmao ### [Reply to @moskov, 01:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657564660093054976) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @moskov is no longer available.)_ Leaked photo ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwDaRejXwAAmvN4.jpg) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 02:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657568501928718336) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @dustin_crummett @Laura_k_Duffy @AaronBergman18 Yeah I was going to bring this up as well. I think the RP weights cover this concern via the conscious subsystems component. 2 stapled-together pigs would be 2 conscious subsystems, unlike a normal pig this is a good point I hadnt considered, need to think about what it implies for my original point ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 02:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657569320346550272) · 8 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** What the fuck happened in the middle > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwDbq3pXoAAZYGo.jpg) Lmaoo ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 02:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657569409869787138) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @TetraspaceWest @RafaRuizdeLira I think it's the inverse Yeah I asked @Laura_k_Duffy lol ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 02:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657571348795777025) · 1 like > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwDfNK9X0AAUkf7.jpg) Hypothetical megapig go “” ### [Reply, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657574947529555968) · 3 likes Type of guy ### [Reply to @BlairAfter10, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657635311550070784) · 2 likes > **blairafterhours (@BlairAfter10):** @RafaRuizdeLira https://onlyfans.com/ofkitten91 Onlyfans but a fully clothed woman flips through the dictionary and asks you to explain arbitrary nouns ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 06:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657636264550514688) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I won the persistence award a bunch in elementary school but I'm not sure why or for what, and I don't think I understood at the time either Maybe if u keep trying to understand you’ll eventually succeed ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 11:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657703633943764993) · 2 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** I am glad Aaron retracted the hair thing. Whatever that is He almost escaped [![Cousin It'S Dog GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/FwFYqrdXoAA9Sl3.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657703633943764993/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Quote tweet, 11:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657712100351909888) · 5 likes Reply w/ most interesting thing you can recall reading or listening to (full-on 'most interesting' seems kinda high stakes lol) I'll start: the 80k episode with Christopher Brown on slavery abolition https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/christopher-brown-slavery-abolition/ > **Quoting Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** @mattyglesias If you want a recommendation, I'm currently listening to "Understanding the New Testement" on audible and it's one of the most widly interesting things I've ever read. ### [Tweet, 12:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657732199783845889) · 2 likes China gets away with de facto censoring US tech companies because it has a gigantic market: ~$18T in GDP In terms of GDP, Turkey ≈ Ohio tho ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 19:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657828632864206849) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I quit for 2 months and decided that coffee actually just makes my life better ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 21:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657864148829589507) · 1 like > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Found Astra Taylor via Jeff Mangum via Neutral Milk Hotel and she made a documentary about philosophers in 2009 and Peter Singer was in it talking about effective giving and it stuck with me until 2013 or so when the movement itself came on my radar > > (quoting @EAheadlines: What's your EA origin story? I wanted to make friends with more generous people, but Googling "generosity London" just got me a bunch of minimalism stuff, so I googled "altruism London" and here I am!) This tweet is absolute chaos - I guess NMH rings a bell as a band, but who are Mangum and Taylor and how do these three relate? Mystery person Astra just makes documentaries? For fun? About philosophy? About Singer? In 2009? And you chewed on Singers words for 4 years? ### [Quote tweet, 22:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657870271842271234) · 10 likes This may not be literally wrong, but I think it (and other, similar stylized data) can be super misleading A poor person work-hour means, for example, standing (no luxuries like a chair) behind a counter with essentially no bodily or cognitive (ie modulating level of engagement) > **Quoting George Mack (@george__mack):** The 0.1% of ideas this week. > > The rabbit holes I've gone down -- without the distractions. > > 8 best examples: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwGk7yiaQAEJelQ.jpg) ### [Tweet, 22:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657870274203643904) · 6 likes autonomy, or carrying around boxes in a warehouse with the same constraints An hour of high-earning knowledge work might not be \*fun\* (much of the time, at least) but it’s qualitatively different from monotonous, highly constrained demanding or boring labor ### [Thread, continued, 22:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657870276414128128) · 3 likes Of course all this is generalization - overlapping distributions, skilled work can be very stressful etc, etc. But there’s a fundamental, systemic reason for the asymmetry: ### [Thread, continued, 22:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657870278381256704) · 4 likes skilled labor tends to be performed best by reasonably happy and comfortable workers, whereas unskilled labor can be squeezed out of even the miserable ### [Thread, continued, 22:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657870280151252992) · 7 likes And all this holds even \*if\* the data reflects reality Something tells me salaried workers, likely unintentionally, inflate time worked more than those who can see that number in their paycheck ## Monday, May 15, 2023 ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 03:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1657947150251184128) · 2 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** I unironically think EA Forum Twitter etc will be noticeably better if people just had moderately better reading comprehension. > > May not be tractable tho. I think this is the spiciest Linch tweet I've ever seen ### [Reply, 13:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658101892201734145) · 1 like No it’s not it’s literally experiencing pain and discomfort ### [Reply, 13:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658102171005599745) · 10 likes Free 👏testosterone 👏 is 👏 all 👏 that 👏 matters 👏 ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 13:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658102833281990659) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @PradyuPrasad @mealreplacer I think, yeah > > Not 100% sure if he’s taller than me Neither am I. I mean I fully expect there to be a 7” difference but it’s not literally impossible he’ll lose both legs in a battle with QALY or smth ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 14:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658121800574746625) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Central example of a Frances tweet ### [Quote tweet, 14:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658123235278422016) · 4 likes In the name of full decoupling, I think this is ~literally true (but also that the lack of imagination and competence is downstream of the problem’s difficulty, not character flaws) > **Quoting Yann LeCun (@ylecun):** What characterizes AI doomers (as well as many pessimists) is a limitless imagination for catastrophe scenarios and a complete lack of imagination (or competence) for ways to avoid them. ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 15:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658129744506900483) · 1 like > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** the plan > > a mild dose of amphetamines in the water supply > > (quoting @tomhfh: “They can be seen as helpful, because they do cognitively enhance a person’s ability to perform… a person will report benefits” - so says leading NHS consultant. Genuine question: if that’s the case why are we so worried about people without ADHD accessing these mild medicines?) No bad idea!! Low dose amphetamines are dangerous. Don’t use <4ish mg at a time ### [Reply to @samswoora, 15:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658132508863504385) · 8 likes > **Samswara (@samswoora):** At what point do I just throw in the towel and switch teams > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwLEZXOWcAIy5vS.jpg) > (quoting @AaronBergman18: @samswoora Free 👏testosterone 👏 is 👏 all 👏 that 👏 matters 👏) TRT? I kinda think it’s worth a try for anyone in the lower third of the reference range or so. But a bunch of the dosing regimens are insane - aim should be like 60-90th percentile not 99.9th and more isn’t better unless you literally only care about getting big ### [Reply to @CineraVerinia, 15:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658132983637737475) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @CineraVerinia is no longer available.)_ This is a total blackpill on apps. Like if \*you\* got \*one\* date there is no hope for the rest of us lmao. Not gonna renew Hinge Premium ### [Reply to @bryan_caplan, 15:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658133831579324419) · 3 likes > **Bryan Caplan (@bryan_caplan):** Why should we give people who are clearly guilty of heinous crimes a fair trial? > > (a) To avoid a slippery slope that ends with punishing the innocent > > (b) To avoid mistreating the clearly guilty Because sometimes you’re gonna be wrong about that “clearly guilty thing,” and even more frequently other people are gonna disagree and then you need a way of ascertaining whether they’re clearly guilty and congrats you reinvented “fair trials” ### [Reply to @moskov, 16:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658142291347877889) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @moskov is no longer available.)_ guys like this tweet not Yud’s for the benefit of all humanity including @robertwrighter ### [Reply, 16:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658143856481665027) · 2 likes I wonder if there’s anyone around who is good at coding social media things (Not me I managed to fail to figure out how to post “hello world” to this acct via api) ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 17:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658161073965477893) · 4 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** the world if everyone volunteered at EA Global > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwGubB1WYAIvRXC.jpg) Wait I thought it would look exactly the same bc there’s already a surplus of hypercompetent, gigacontientious volunteers ### [Reply to @xwanyex, 17:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658162443518980112) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @xwanyex is no longer available.)_ Kinda did the opposite for me tbh (which I don’t think is good tbc) bc the car was totaled but I walked out with like a small bruise I’m actually not sure whether I’m super lucky beyond just the luck of having a modernish car (2008 I think) w airbags and such ### [Tweet, 18:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658173796463923201) · 8 likes One of the better pieces of news I’ve received is that I’d set the fire alarm off for my dorm room only, meaning I’d annoyed like 30 ppl but didn’t force ~1000 to evacuate From inside the room this wasn’t at all clear! ### [Thread, continued, 18:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658173798967828488) · 3 likes It was just a little smoke anyway smh ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658175803648008210) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ What about 8000 files (this is beta testing the site is obviously not ready) https://eaarchive.us ### [Reply to @davidad, 19:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658186867538288668) · 2 likes > **davidad 🎇 (@davidad):** if you believe that you share exactly 50% of your DNA with your mother, and you also believe that you share over 98% of your DNA with a chimpanzee, then it may be good to notice this and downregulate the extent to which you literally believe strings that classify as science facts > > (quoting @salonium: You often hear that full siblings "share 50% of their DNA." But did you know this is actually the median and the range is pretty wide, roughly between 40–60%? https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.0020041…) I think I wonder what’s up with this in my head like once a month and just never look into it lol ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 20:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658202326614548495) · 5 likes > **Ruth Hook (@ruth_hook_):** I was in fact 4' 11" back then and I moved about the country with all of my belongings in just that backpack > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwMb4sgWIBA5ERM.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwMb40KWIBAKn9G.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwMb48QWIAI0TxK.jpg) Still growing at 19 gang ## Tuesday, May 16, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658270904638480384) · 1 like Discontinuity analysis ftw ### [Quote tweet, 01:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658286699598823424) · 120 likes Ah poor analogy! “FDA=extremely bad” is a naive-sounding disagreeable rationalist hobbyhorse that also happens to be ~entirely correct > **Quoting Max Tegmark (@tegmark):** "Don't regulate AI – just trust the companies!" Does he also support abolishing the FDA and letting biotech companies sell whatever meds they want without FDA approval, because biotech is too complicated for policymakers to understand? ### [Reply to @PicturesFoIder, 03:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658308152457134085) · 4 likes > **non aesthetic things (@PicturesFoIder):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwN4M-7XwAAouP0.jpg) They should be longer ### [Reply to @CarsonJGale, 03:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658308836216786949) · 5 likes > **Carson Gale (@CarsonJGale):** Went running with a buddy today at the beach near Crissy Field and a shark washed up right at our feet on the beach. We tried throwing it back in but it kept getting washed back up - my friend eventually carried it to the fishing pier & threw it off into deeper water. > > [video attached](https://x.com/CarsonJGale/status/1658297843562725377/video/1) Assumed I was gonna see like 100k when I glanced at the view on this tweet, not 20 I’d like to invest in the memetic success of this tweet ### [Reply to @CarsonJGale, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658320866348871683) · 2 likes > **Carson Gale (@CarsonJGale):** Here is your investment opportunity > > https://manifold.markets/CarsonGale/will-my-video-of-my-friend-throwing?r=Q2Fyc29uR2FsZQ Superforecasting status awaits! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwOKCgpXoAACwUG.jpg) ### [Reply to @GluskerMartin, 04:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658322977807581187) · 3 likes > **Martin Glusker (@GluskerMartin):** @AaronBergman18 Isnt the FDA bad because because its overly cautious and doesnt properly weight costs and benefits? Because an overly cautious and burdensome agency for AI seems good My tweet was ambiguous and yeah I agree with everything you said (except for “overly” which seems by definition bad) It’s functionally bad bc it tries to set the FDA as a baseline for good functioning govt and use agreement on that to build agreement on AI reg by analogy ### [Reply to @thebestestpie, 04:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658324192750710785) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @thebestestpie is no longer available.)_ Oh I’ll eat that bullet for breakfast I can imagine an FDAish thing that’s better than nothing, and barring this it’d ideally be phased out over months, but if the only two choices were “magically cause it to disappear tmr” and “don’t do that” I’d definitely choose the former ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658325371169787908) · 21 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 16, 2023:** Ah poor analogy! “FDA=extremely bad” is a naive-sounding disagreeable rationalist hobbyhorse that also happens to be ~entirely correct The maybe-barely-not-impossible-reform I’d suggest here (as a starting place, I’m sure it needs some fine-tuning) is to move every approved medication down one regulatory notch So most random non-“controlled” prescription-only drugs become OTC like ibuprofen… ### [Thread, continued, 04:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658327504262774787) · 13 likes (Maybe antibiotics are an exception here) Most controlled substances can be Rxed by a nurse practitioner or MD. Also none of the other bullshit restrictions like 30 day max supply Probably absolute dosing limits on recreational drugs (ie no 1g/day adderall prescriptions) solves ### [Thread, continued, 04:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658327505982443521) · 11 likes almost all the problems ppl associate with street use ### [Reply to @thebestestpie, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658330257051484160) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @thebestestpie is no longer available.)_ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwOSlIrX0AIjaSP.jpg) ### [Reply to @yacineMTB, 05:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658336766107983872) · 15 likes > **kache (@yacineMTB):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwOJsn3XwAAaIZh.jpg) Don’t disrespect VSauce like that ### [Tweet, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658339461963366400) · 5 likes Spend your cringe points wisely, but don’t die too far in the black ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 12:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658446602447597568) · 2 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** For those of us look the same as when we were 19, let’s see those memes/screenshots from when you were 19 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwOwcnfWYAAJmAJ.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwOwcnfX0AEGA6p.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwOwcnfWYAEG5qx.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwOwcnvXwAAvAAB.jpg) HIGHEST IMPACT TWEET OF 2023 there’s a 0% chance I would have solved greatest mystery of my existence (how did I acquire the grey/yellow 4-sigma comfyness shorts and how can I buy more?) otherwise Don’t ask me why I took a picture of the screen, idk either ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwP8ZOaXsAASsH9.jpg) ### [Reply to @brianchau57, 13:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658469907070107652) > **Brian Chau (@brianchau57):** Its the correct analogy, this is what will happen if you let regulators near AI. The intellectually honest position which I've heard some AI doomers articulate is that they're willing to let the most idiotic, anti-progress people dictate AI because its preferable to apocalypse. Yeah, FDA-level regulation of AI > no/minimal regulation > full force indefinite suppression (which I think literally nobody wants) If we were one thalidomide-type crisis away from extinction, the FDA would be good Also: ### [Reply to @kjoshanssen, 23:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658620281991168003) · 2 likes > **Bjørn Kjos-Hanssen (@kjoshanssen):** What's your favorite interval of ℝ that is closed under multiplication? (-1, 1) ### [Reply to @depthsofwiki, 23:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658620919449886720) · 9 likes > **depths of wikipedia! (@depthsofwiki):** this SL kid must have been so cool > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwSQVk6XwAEa4EJ.jpg) OW is the real 🐐 ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 23:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658621377719533568) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ Ex 5 [![Bad Hair GIF by MOODMAN](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/FwSbWZpXwAALrhu.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658621377719533568/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @kjoshanssen, 23:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658621498138009600) · 1 like > **Bjørn Kjos-Hanssen (@kjoshanssen):** Not closed under the empty product 🤨 Sounds fake ## Wednesday, May 17, 2023 ### [Reply to @skooookum, 05:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658702595190579200) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @skooookum is no longer available.)_ Middle Ages meerkat IMHO ### [Quote tweet, 05:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658708005167284231) · 60 likes Related though not Google’s fault (mostly): I had a school Google account that I used from maybe 4th grade through the end of hs with ~every project/paper/etc I ever worked on attached to it through Classroom or Docs The county shut us out on graduation, everything gone. > **Quoting Chris Beiser (@ctbeiser):** imagine getting out of a coma or jail and realizing that your entire life is in shambles because Google decided to delete your account because you hadn't logged in for two years https://blog.google/technology/safety-security/updating-our-inactive-account-policies/ ### [Thread, continued, 05:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658708008946245632) · 26 likes I even made a half-hearted attempt to backup everything, but we couldn’t share outside the school system domain so that didn’t work Obv there was nothing of great intellectual importance in there, but that was like a decade of my life! ### [Thread, continued, 05:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658708011399933952) · 26 likes Maybe this is insane and it obviously wouldn’t be worth the effort on an individual level, but I kinda think “government claims sole ownership of documents created by 15 y/o because they administrated the associated Google Workspace account which the kid was \*legally obligated\* ### [Thread, continued, 05:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658708014373777409) · 21 likes to sign up for and use in this way” is grounds for a court case Funny part is we’re talking about probably like 4GB of info, which I’d gladly pay the ~$1/year to host ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 05:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658708428695404544) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ Classic “wanna kiss” \*has Hershey kiss for plausible deniability\* energy ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 05:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658708836318887941) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ Great minds ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwTq5UGXwAkCw8h.jpg) ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 05:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658712602745139203) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ That is just a pant, not an underpant ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwTuUbQXsAEPTBK.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 07:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658732665623674880) · 4 likes Mystery befuddling biologists (me) for decades (.5 of them maybe) has been solved. A true breakthrough in the field Congrats to the team (of 1, @salonium) who worked day and night for weeks (.01ish of them??) on the paper (thread) Deserves a Nobel Prize (qt) IMO > **Quoting Saloni (@salonium):** Follow up: > > Why do people say humans share 98% of their DNA with chimpanzees, but 50% with their siblings or parents? 🤔 > > These are measuring two different things. ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 22:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658958776999837698) · 2 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** @mattyglesias Birthday significance is likely U-shaped, declining but eventually increasing again (with local peaks at 10, 20, 30, etc) And an absolute maximum at 0 ### [Tweet, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1658965452750561299) · 5 likes Took me a full 3 days to realize that, in Yud’s head, the apples vs potatoes thing was prima facie too unrealistic for anyone to believe bc apples grow on trees and potatoes grow underground ## Thursday, May 18, 2023 ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659040382024314880) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ Molybdenum Am I seeing no dha?! I suspect boron is essential Also: absolute pain at sat fat in same category as trans More sodium than that More vit d than that If they’re saying fiber is necessary they’re wrong ### [Reply to @zbingeldac, 10:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659144523652513796) · 2 likes > **zbingeldac (@zbingeldac):** @AaronBergman18 @yacineMTB How is Vsauce based? Those were the best 20 mins of middle school Aaron’s month ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 22:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659319437130858496) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @robertwiblin is no longer available.)_ Rob ur like 19 AI discourse cycles behind with this one ## Friday, May 19, 2023 ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 08:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659478652063477761) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ If I had 30 conversations in a weekend I would simply fizzle out of existence ### [Reply to @_djpn, 13:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659558745100222464) · 7 likes > **𝐃𝐉𝐏𝐍 (@_djpn):** Babies are awesome because they can go through the most insane tumble, be fine, and then look to a trusted adult to see if that was an Okay thing to experience or if they should freak out like a FIFA player Most insane tumble ### [Reply to @yacineMTB, 15:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659575436278415361) · 8 likes > **kache (@yacineMTB):** protip; instead of a database, use the file system. just wrap it in an interface. I’m guessing this is sarcastic but it unironically seems right to me. Like as long as it’s <500gb I can just download a csv what’s the problem ### [Thread, continued, 15:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659575529371049984) · 4 likes Obligatory: I have no idea what I’m talking about unironically ### [Reply to @EAheadlines, 18:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659627569912619008) · 8 likes > **EA Lifestyles (@EAheadlines):** The food at EAG is noticeably less weird than previous years > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fwggeo2XwB049eU.jpg) A comparison pic labelled pre-FTX and this labelled post would go so hard ### [Tweet, 19:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659640630606286848) · 34 likes Reading (ok fine “reading”🎧) the Parfit biography and I don’t think he’d get into any US Ivy-tier schools nowadays His pre-university achievements basically consisted of being way smarter than everyone else, and even eg the SAT doesn’t differentiate between top .1% and top .01% ### [Thread, continued, 19:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659640635425431555) · 13 likes (and the former evidently isn’t sufficient for admission) https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/most-ivy-smart-students-arent-at ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659643471500550154) · 10 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 Lol I've been listening to it too Both him and Yud - same quirks as me but 3x more extreme (including intelligence) lol ### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659647513547137024) · 3 likes > **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** Realizing from the prep of upcoming episodes that I need at least an undergrad level of physics in order to understand many interesting & important topics > > Looking for a tutor to help me bloom 2-sigma through some textbooks > > May be ideal for a grad student, happy to pay. DM me @AndyMasley ### [Tweet, 21:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659665400383021056) · 7 likes Nobody: The contrarian demon on my shoulder: you should share a take that your followers won’t like Me: 👍 Me: the US should have stayed in in Kabul, occupying it indefinitely ### [Reply to @GluskerMartin, 21:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659667249995685890) · 2 likes > **Martin Glusker (@GluskerMartin):** @AaronBergman18 It’s not that I don’t like it, I just don’t think it’s correct. Give a cost benefit analysis and then we can talk All my opinions come from the 80k pod pt. ♾️ (Not a rigorous detailed analysis clearly) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwhSkOIWcAIHto9.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwhSkOIXsAEkDSp.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwhSkOHXsAImGLF.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwhSkOIWcAAbTwC.jpg) ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 21:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659672213270716417) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 @HamishDoodles Still burning your fingers on the bowl/potato, Aaron? Yes I’m down to my last finger ### [Tweet, 22:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659694803494535169) · 20 likes Call me an old country bumpkin but I can't believe this is real ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwhriFNX0AAzmdL.jpg) ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659695326813650947) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Gonna start putting my height in lightyears on dating apps thx for the idea ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 23:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659701812092600321) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 Damn, this is a GPT-4 thing? yea chatGPT+ ## Saturday, May 20, 2023 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 00:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659721095828701189) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Despite knowing extremely little about AI I will continue to tweet my random thoughts > > It seems most things are not aligned with our interests so baseline it does seem intuitive that an AI wouldn't by default. Many humans aren't even aligned with each other I mean I agree with the conclusion but the countervailing reference class is “technologies produced by humans” which are at least good for \*some\* humans almost always ### [Reply, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659770173685919745) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ I’m not sure I’m gonna do this. In part it seems substantially different than eg buying meat because OpenAI has infinite capital and Saas economics are weird and in part there are no plausibly identifiable victims (ie recompense for being harmed) ### [Thread, continued, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659770261468504064) · 3 likes so hard to see the case for offsetting per se rather than just donating where I think is best ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 05:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659798719925977088) · 4 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 @an_observer\_\_ (which is where?) RP! https://manifold.markets/AaronBergman/what-donationaccepting-entity-eg-ch?r=QWFyb25CZXJnbWFu ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 11:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659882701455863808) · 10 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** \*Frances steps up to the mic\* > \*The whole room holds it’s breath\* > “HEY GIRLIES!! 😍🥰😊” > > \*Instant standing ovation, several people faint, a pair of 14 year olds in the front row start sobbing\* \*”WE’RE SO BACK🐐👍😤”\* \*clouds part\* ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwkWhRHWwAAOUyq.jpg) ### [Reply to @CineraVerinia, 13:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659920209673682945) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @CineraVerinia is no longer available.)_ Boy do I have a theory for you https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/contra-dynomight-contra-me-but-also ### [Reply to @CineraVerinia, 14:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659924083180736512) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @CineraVerinia is no longer available.)_ You’ve gotta be phenylalaninemaxxing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fwk8J6nWAAESBIf.jpg) ### [Tweet, 15:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659940541788717057) · 3 likes The App Store thinks I’m poly ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwlLICOWAAAnjiS.jpg) ### [Reply to @polisisti, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1659973793010311168) · 5 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** This is the most "trained in philosophy" thing I've ever heard on the 80,000 Hours podcast > > (not that that's a bad thing!) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwlKjW7WIAU42t7.png) …and with the emergent interaction of the two ### [Tweet, 22:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660046625702592512) · 114 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwmrPOXWcAAIQES.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660046627573202950) · 6 likes https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/joe-carlsmith-navigating-serious-philosophical-confusion/ ### [Thread, continued, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660046811409555457) · 3 likes I'm unreasonably happy with this meme ## Sunday, May 21, 2023 ### [Reply to @parafactual, 02:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660116820571967488) · 4 likes > **You (@parafactual):** i created the infohazard bounty (http://infohazards.org/submit) to learn if strong infohazards exist > > thus far, i don't think i've received any that have qualified, which is evidence against people knowing any strong infohazards > > the bounty for the first strong infohazard is $110 > > (quoting @ChazakielDoremi: I love watching the Infohazard Discourse. I'm fully on 'no \[strong\] infohazards exist' side but holy shit the 'no, actually infohazards are real!' side is funny They either go 'no believe me I have super secret knowledge but it would be harmful to say it', or else they-) I feel like people with access to this kind of thing and who haven’t shared aren’t gonna change their mind for $100 ### [Reply to @parafactual, 03:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660121159852072966) · 2 likes > **You (@parafactual):** @AaronBergman18 how much do you think i need to offer? I don’t know! There’s one thing I can think of personally that I don’t think I’d even want to track down the particulars of for selfish reasons but would probably do for idk $5k? Tbc I wouldn’t really want you to make this offer even if you had $1B. Everybody loses ### [Tweet, 08:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660207931999002624) · 7 likes Lol at chatGPT just straight up refusing my banal coding request, saying essentially “I’m sorry but parsing the 200-page html of a YT video url with regex is just unhinged, even though yeah technically you could \[get the desired info\]; click here to get an API key from Google” ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 09:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660209168219877379) · 1 like > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Looks like my instincts were correct > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fwlhf2WacAEHHOO.jpg) Let them pursue their passion for decentralized databases in peace ### [Quote tweet, 14:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660291608632336387) · 4 likes Carlsmith is so smart, insightful and eloquent – shame he gets a bunch of things wrong > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwmrPOXWcAAIQES.jpg) ### [Reply to @zachsilberberg, 14:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660292588782379009) · 30 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @zachsilberberg is no longer available.)_ I’ve literally never seen this before ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 14:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660293609747300353) > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 I don't currently have 3.5 hours Right + good: abstract language is pointing to super concrete important visceral things Seems good to take seriously that there’s actually a whole ass world out there even though ~all my qualia just relate to me Crazy train = flawed metaphor and not necessarily crazy ### [Thread, continued, 14:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660294016439656449) · 3 likes Wrong: he says moral realism is false but it’s true fr fr (relates to the first point above acc I think) This is from his two blog posts recently I’ll find but I’m guessing they’ll discuss ### [Reply to @BenHayum, 15:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660301360707895297) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @BenHayum is no longer available.)_ 🐐 ### [Reply to @SMTuffy, 15:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660302753661349888) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @SMTuffy is no longer available.)_ This sounds like common sense and a good heuristic but IMO it just turns out to seem less so in the context of the history of medicine Drugs designed to selectively target a specific mechanism are generally shit, and unintended side effects go along with a bunch of effective ### [Thread, continued, 15:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660303111976624128) · 2 likes and all-things-considered helpful ones. MAOIs, chemotherapy, meformin ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 18:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660356920367108096) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** This is basic & optimistic but I'm convinced that you should always be extremely kind (but firm) when you're arguing about something contentious, and if you think you'll be more effective if you're mean you're basically always wrong & your impulse comes from dumb evolution stuff Definitely true if effective = convincing In a presidential debate, the goal is to win institutional power, not change minds per se ### [Reply to @RichardMCNgo, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660358366978252800) · 3 likes > **Richard Ngo (@RichardMCNgo):** Which public figure is most capable of combining intellectual rigor and moral forcefulness? > > I have a guess in mind but want to hear other suggestions first - it seems like a rare combination these days! Probably not literally the best (sry dude) but @MatthewAdelste1 is punching above his educational attainment ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660362152765542401) · 2 likes > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** why not nausea? It’s not directly transmitting information about the world to your nervous system ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 19:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660363826846654465) · 2 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Really great to meet so many of the EA Twitter friends irl, you all are wonderful ☺️ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwrKKbGXwAITqz1.jpg) Ok imma be the one to say it: there’s a >1% chance there are two of the same ppl in this photo ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660364597138735109) · 3 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Wait what lol Same glasses??? ## Monday, May 22, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 00:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660449519367069696) · 6 likes (whole meme below, but the new part gets cut off) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwsZ3nhWcAATrCX.jpg) > **Quoting Joe Carlsmith (@jkcarlsmith):** see also ### [Thread, continued, 00:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660449521887854593) · 5 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwsZ-UrX0AAffA0.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 00:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660450050147745792) · 3 likes should sponsor me for repeatedly showing that Word is a solid graphic design program ### [Reply, 01:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660457698322726915) · 1 like Finally something non-philosophical we disagree about ### [Reply to @ArtirKel, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660481268251762688) · 24 likes > **José Luis Ricón Fernández de la Puente (@ArtirKel):** @ruth_hook\_ https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/lgtlza/what_is_this_boat_off_the_coast_of_long_island_ny/ save u a click: "...a working barge, and those piles are lowered into the sea floor to stabilize the vessel while working" ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fws2hTqXsAgbQDh.jpg) ### [Reply, 10:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660599801098952706) A whole bunch of lines of reasoning, some of which are at least made more salient for consideration from my personal experience - hard to tell whether that’s more like bad bias or epistemically good irl skin in the game The main thing tho is that I think the observational and ### [Thread, continued, 11:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660612519940030464) · 1 like I fucked up the tweet order pretty bad so: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwuuP-yXoAA3NzN.png) ### [Tweet, 11:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660614564340281345) · 8 likes The eyes of capitalism are truly omniscient ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwuwEiaWwAANKku.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwuwGi_WIAA9-h_.jpg) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 11:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660615916596477957) · 1 like > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** in no world did I imagine that the code I made for a research fellowship would get included in the cpython repo idk what the c is doing there but good job👍🐍🐍 ## Tuesday, May 23, 2023 ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 01:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660823248148516864) · 1 like > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** EA has a lot of class issues I think, and this makes me sad :( Eg. college recruiting, even when done at non-elite universities, is still presupposing that the people we should disproportionately spend resources reaching out to are ones going to college! I’m coining the term “butter bullet” for when you have a bullet that’s super easy to bite (at least to the speaker) ^butter bullet ### [Tweet, 08:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660929798577827840) · 11 likes Feel like this could be a legitimate internet record of some sort - has anyone gone nine years between tweets from the same handle or blog posts at the same domain? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwzO2WfWcAA9x1j.jpg) ### [Tweet, 08:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660932230162665473) · 3 likes Interesting that useful predictive quantitative models either have a single digit number of parameters (regression, decision trees) or literally billions (ML) I feel like there’s some insight to be gleaned here but haven’t figured out what ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 09:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660933846106267648) · 3 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** ohhh you've thought of some clever clarification like whether to discount the effect of greater wealth driving up overall fish consumption? just answer the question bitch How could it possibly be good? ### [Reply to @lisatomic5, 09:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660934819440631810) · 5 likes > **lisatomic (@lisatomic5):** in the same way that nerds tend to reinvent normie knowledge from first principles, western medicine is heading toward "illnesses are actually chakra imbalances" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwyLvwcakAA31Y_.jpg) IBD = Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis IBS = symptoms but no clear cause Didn’t they mean the latter? ### [Tweet, 10:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1660950004062625792) · 11 likes If you’re reading this, the tweet via text message thing worked ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 18:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1661073825872723975) · 5 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** Tomorrow is my last day in London, what should I do? 🧐 Leave (at the scheduled time) (among other things) (unless you have a change of heart or citizenship status) ## Wednesday, May 24, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 08:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1661289646116990978) · 3 likes When ur AI box is a…computer > **Quoting Liron Shapira (@liron):** Skeptics: How could an AI ever realistically take over a billion devices? > > Microsoft: ### [Tweet, 09:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1661298950232584193) · 3 likes [![im popular made it big GIF by The Late Show With Stephen Colbert](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/Fw4elVHXgAEgGh3.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1661298950232584193/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ## Thursday, May 25, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1661528411624308738) · 4 likes Many are saying https://github.com/AaronBergman/RPmeme/blob/main/so%20many%20pixels%20its%20basically%20real%20life.png ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fw7vSJ7WYAIgmqk.jpg) > **Quoting Reilly Wood (@reillywood):** The Python noob experience: mention the "cognitive overload of having 20 different ways to install things", get a dismissive answer that touches on virtualenv, pip, setuptools, wheel... > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fw3XgEzaYAAb4lK.png) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 01:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1661539369755238401) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @peterwildeford When Conda? Stop stop stop ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 07:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1661628451512623106) · 1 like > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** If you say so… > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fw848WwaEAcDtVS.jpg) So anti-paleo? ### [Reply to @EAForumPosts, 11:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1661700227877806081) · 3 likes > **EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** Hello, this bot is now being run by the forum team at @CentreforEA. Huge thanks to @nikosbosse for setting it up in the first place 😍 Can we get one for shortform 😍? ## Friday, May 26, 2023 ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 00:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1661888217753219072) · 3 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** PSA: Led Zeppelin IV is the best album to listen to while doing computer programming > > (quoting @janecoaston: Horniest song ever, a rock banger, and a song about ringwraiths, this album rules) I invite your music taste to join the 21st century ### [Tweet, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1661898818567172096) · 6 likes Adding @jkcarlsmith to my list of “excellent thinkers+writers who still somehow manage to get the final answer wrong” (no. 2 alongside Caplan) https://podcasts.google.com?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS8yMDM0NzMxLnJzcw%3D%3D&episode=QnV6enNwcm91dC0xMTc5NDYzMA%3D%3D ### [Tweet, 00:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1661899523889799171) · 2 likes I don’t have a fully developed rebuttal yet but two of the main points are: 1\) Carlsmith equivocating here between claims about what one objectively ought to do and claims about what is objectively good ### [Thread, continued, 00:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1661899566495461376) · 2 likes 2\) A false notion that meta-ethical hedonism depends on the infallibility of subjective experience via introspection ### [Thread, continued, 00:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1661899803066810370) · 2 likes I herby challenge Carlsmith to a duel to resolve this disagreement ### [Reply to @CineraVerinia, 16:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662136993361412114) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @CineraVerinia is no longer available.)_ How many grams of protein are you eating?? Pretty sure protein consumption -> protein catabolism (I’m guessing working out increases this above and beyond dietary metabolism) -> urea nitrogen which has to be cleared by kidneys but needs to be dissolved in water first… ### [Reply to @AlecStapp, 16:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662137617872306189) · 25 likes > **Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** This contrarian defense of La Sombrita is the opposite of persuasive > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxEXXsOaIAASQZL.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxEXXsOaEAAsOQH.jpg) This might be the worst argument I have ever seen for anything ### [Tweet, 16:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662139225402228753) · 402 likes One of my nerdiest achievements is accurately diagnosing a friend with anemia because he was munching on the ice in his water I didn’t save him or anything, he already knew and was just like “yeah ur right good job” ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662140939878514713) · 41 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** @AaronBergman18 wait, I do that. I mean idk what the false positive rate on this is but might be something to check out! Pretty sure labcorp will do a cbc for $100 or smth if it’s hard to get a doctors order ### [Reply to @mmt_lvt, 18:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662169526237003792) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mmt_lvt is no longer available.)_ Damn ### [Reply to @JacquesThibs, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662236041728733184) · 13 likes > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** This was the first date in a while where I was actually nervous 😂 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxFqpoZWYAA9fhH.jpg) He’s made it boys ## Saturday, May 27, 2023 ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 01:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662276034874560515) · 1 like > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** I think, though the exercise is useful, the conclusion might directionally change if we were to input effects on the lives of wild animals. (Then there’s both issues surrounding individual welfare and issues if you think that species extinction is bad) Is there a consensus that the more beef -> habitat destruction effect dominates over more beef -> ghg -> more trapped sunlight -> more food -> higher equilibrium wild animal populations across the board effect ### [Tweet, 02:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662280239982993411) · 39 likes Ngl I’m just about 50/50 on this really actually for real being an (intentional) simulation of some sort - up from 3%ish when I first learned about the simulation hypothesis Sounds absolutely nuts to me too but I really don’t think I’d take either 5:4 bet ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662281393571786753) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 So escape is possible I mean idk I haven’t given that any thought but P>0 ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 04:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662321926457421828) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ U can order one of these ### [Reply to @TheFigen_, 05:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662322988258131968) · 1 like > **The Figen (@TheFigen_):** A bear coming out of its hibernation period. > I think he woke up on Monday morning! 😂 > > [video attached](https://x.com/mezvan/status/1656254099896033280/video/1) All mammals are the same fr ### [Reply to @norabelrose, 10:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662402251225178113) · 3 likes > **Taylor Belrose (@norabelrose):** Mechanistic interpretability is cool, but I don’t think it’s very useful for making trustworthy AI. > > Building trust in a person means understanding them at a psychological level- their beliefs and values- not at a “mechanistic” level. We need a different kind of interpretability. I’m agnostic about the first statement, but the second doesn’t seem like great evidence for it: (1) humans have evolved to understand other humans at the level they have access to, which is individual-psychological at best, (2) we can only look at a brain’s operation in a ### [Thread, continued, 10:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662402892546859009) · 1 like real live person with very indirect, inference based tools like fMRI (afaik), and (3) even with a literal preserved brain, neuroscience just isn’t mature enough to describe every plausibly relevant causal connection between “modules” at any layer of abstraction But with neural ### [Thread, continued, 10:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662403310857363457) · 1 like nets all these issues go away - it’s like a brain perfectly optimized for understanding and modifying in all ways except complexity (which is a gigantic factor tbc, probably the main one) ### [Reply to @pearl_please, 10:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662410674838937604) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pearl_please is no longer available.)_ I respect the poasting ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxIRsqYWYAAMJ9r.jpg) ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 10:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662412620484280321) · 5 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** Effective Altruism is a question, and that question is "what if we made airport dads but for civilization?" > > (quoting @visakanv: Guy describes how his friend is the group’s Airport Dad (takes everyone’s passports, double-checks everything, etc) the comments are full of ladies who wanna marry him) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxITd8EXsAIWQbB.jpg) ### [Reply, 11:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662420174421540864) · 3 likes Srue ### [Reply to @reconfigurthing, 12:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662435040112828417) · 19 likes > **Elias Schmied (@reconfigurthing):** Why the change? The 3% was probably lower than was ever justified on merits just bc of my default probability tax on new weird ideas with convincing sounding arguments Then demonstrations of advanced AI both as empirical evidence for simulation feasibility and as vibes-based intuition building ### [Thread, continued, 12:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662435647582289922) · 2 likes that the world is extremely weird, which combines with a much deeper appreciation that the basic scientific materialist metaphysics/worldview is at least some degree of incomplete/inadequate mainly bc of consciousness and quantum weirdness (ik not necessarily their interaction!) ### [Thread, continued, 12:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662436096716701699) · 3 likes This sounds like fake reasoning IMO but I’ll stand by it - the default “no simulation” hypothesis isn’t built on mountains of empirical or even philosophical evidence, just sort of moderately justified vibes + occams razor ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 14:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662465216506986496) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @NathanpmYoung @AaronBergman18 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxJDTbYWcAMUBIU.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 14:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662465771891572737) · 2 likes For other ppls reference and my own admiration ### [Reply to @davidad, 14:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662472470127886338) · 5 likes > **davidad 🎇 (@davidad):** I have been telling people for months that Bayesian reasoning is fundamentally overconfident. Now here’s the proof! This is why we need to use infraBayesian models in safety-critical contexts. > > (quoting @YulingYao: My controversial opinion: Bayes is guaranteed to overfit, for any model, any prior, and any data point https://www.yulingyao.com/blog/2023/overfit/) Can someone disambiguate “Bayesian modeling” as used by Yao and, like, what I think of as “doing Bayesianism,” which is using the formula to assign a probability to a proposition upon a new bit of evidence ### [Reply to @p_millerd, 15:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662483247576514561) · 3 likes > **Paul Millerd (@p_millerd):** The US dog to baby ratio is way too high We need more micropigs ### [Reply, 16:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662501064837308418) · 2 likes ⚠️ Spoiler ⚠️ ### [Reply to @panickssery, 16:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662501629386530819) · 1 like > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** When people ask for the "most underrated" they usually mean an unpopular one that's really good but often the most underrated things are actually the most popular, which are even better that their popularity suggests > > It's like the Planet Money episode about how LeBron James is the most underpaid American because of NBA salary caps Eh variance increases at the bottom though, I’d be surprised if anyone famous enough for me to know of is the most underrated player ### [Reply, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662502515177410562) · 2 likes @ohabryka ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 16:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662503151155531782) · 3 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** In 50 years, will the most pedantic people in your life still be men? Yes it me (if we’re still around) ### [Reply to @thebradbain, 16:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662503453032161280) · 1 like > **Brad Bain (@thebradbain):** when people talk about having a gym buddy this is what I imagine > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxFEpv0aQAEzaD0.jpg) What if we just parallel play with the AGI ### [Reply to @typedfemale, 17:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662516866231705606) · 23 likes > **typedfemale (@typedfemale):** c++ showed everyone you shouldn’t design a language by committee and now rust is making the same point about organizations R is literally a constitutional meritocracy ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxJyRykXwAAGbtN.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxJyRzBXsAITVbv.jpg) ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 19:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662537548093353984) · 4 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** \[at the Meta offices\] > intern: I- I'm sorry Mr LeCun they didn't have the baguettes you like > yann lecun \*threateningly\*: no pain no GAN This is too niche ### [Thread, continued, 19:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662537594213658624) · 1 like For me ### [Thread, continued, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662537764946997249) · 1 like Wait I think I get it ### [Thread, continued, 19:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662537996711632900) · 1 like But it should be “desperately” or smth yes not threatening the guy in my interpretation ### [Tweet, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662544758269419521) · 7 likes Whenever I think I have something clever or - God forbid - actually insightful to say, the tweet gets like 3 likes tops I’m just plugging Twitter straight into my default mode network from now on ### [Tweet, 21:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662575339724324867) · 12 likes When you ask ChatGPT for constructive criticism and it doesn't say "I tried super hard but this draft is perfect there's nothing to change" ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxKnQwvXwAY3aep.jpg) ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662589317166841860) · 3 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** narrator: his job will not be fine His job is gonna be fine - great, even - it's the guy that's in trouble ## Sunday, May 28, 2023 ### [Reply to @ArtirKel, 02:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662646211050864641) · 4 likes > **José Luis Ricón Fernández de la Puente (@ArtirKel):** @ruth_hook\_ What about alcohol? Do you wake up very happy after drinking a lot the previous night (what happens to me)? You familiar with this? https://www.reddit.com/r/hangovereffect/ ### [Quote tweet, 06:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662714071316156416) · 3 likes I like to keep things nice and balanced ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxMlolzXwAED2Qd.jpg) > **Quoting oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** new psychopathology test just dropped > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxMamEKaIAEnDmT.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 09:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662752415890677761) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @QualyThe This deserves a billion likes Back in the FTX days… ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxNIgnwWAAAlB4T.jpg) ### [Reply, 10:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662768536840798209) · 2 likes (Besides super recent discussion of this) The word shows up on exactly two google results, both random Hindi YouTube videos ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxNXK_KXsAAY068.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxNXK_JXoAA_ROV.jpg) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 12:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662792164709900289) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Pretty impressed that the Apple M2 chip on my new laptop is a ~2x speedup on my squigglepy benchmarks than the Intel Core on my prior laptop This is an infohazard I just deleted the Apple Store app bc all the new things are too shiny ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 12:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662796480703283208) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** My life is pretty utopian right now 10/10 1\) lfg 2\) ehhh unless you’ve been hiding the addiction free side effect free heroin-r-ketamine-d-amphetamine-DMT-phenylalanine-MDMA-caffeine-stem cell to mu opioid receptor-dense neuron neurogenesis-stimulating agent recipe from us I kinda think you’re wrong about the denominator ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 14:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662829913437511680) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Apparently 7 years ago I built a concrete fire pit in my backyard. If you're thinking about building something circular it's a really stupid idea and you shouldn't. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxOLxapXoAEkD7i.png) :( ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxOO_gXWwAYQMQw.jpg) ### [Reply to @davidad, 14:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662833019697209344) · 2 likes > **davidad 🎇 (@davidad):** When @GaryMarcus and others point out that GPT-4 is bad at chess and therefore not close to AGI, it falls flat for me. > > But when I can’t coax GPT-4 to defeat me at \*tic-tac-toe\*, I start to think there’s something even more deeply wrong than I realized. > > https://poe.com/s/KxQMDTGMzBITGIUWDurz Willing to bet this doesn’t hold up if you use simple notation (explicitly saying not to draw the board if need be) and the base model instead of chat version Maybe 65% that these suffice, but >80% the latent capability is in there and would come out with enough hacks ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 14:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662833174164930560) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @PradyuPrasad is no longer available.)_ Kinda wanna give this a try tbh ### [Reply to @pearl_please, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662872931624538117) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pearl_please is no longer available.)_ Give them a chance :( ### [Reply to @liron, 17:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662873196016594945) · 20 likes > **Liron Shapira (@liron):** This is an IQ test > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxOoTJvaUAA0_Di.png) In which direction? I don’t have strong views on organic produce but plausibly it’s worth the price difference, idk why using a stock photo would change that ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 17:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662875521212882945) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Do you buy physical books you already read (in digital/audiobook) because you really liked them? No but at least once I've done the opposite: buying a digital copy to more easily reference when writing about after reading the irl thing ### [Tweet, 18:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662885627879215106) · 21 likes Not exactly the NYT but just found this lmao https://cheezburger.com/17249029/dude-gets-dunked-on-for-proposing-housing-developers-start-building-underground ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662897671080738820) · 5 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** You're famous my assistant will be responding to your query ### [Tweet, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662917743107088390) · 134 likes I think I’m equal parts pro-book (u learn stuff) anti-book (“6 paragraph blog post”) anti-anti-book (“the point is to marinate ur brain which takes time”), anti-anti-anti-book (“no way they’re the best way to do this”), and anti-anti-anti-anti-book (“lindy so maybe they are!”) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662918241373638657) · 6 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** My very edgy take is that I'm very pro good books but very anti bad books Yglesias-core ### [Reply to @adam__isom, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662921580152778752) · 3 likes > **adam ✧ ❥ ~ (@adam__isom):** @AaronBergman18 me.jpg > > also, books are often cumulative, and help close 'inferential gaps'. the 6-paragraph crowd seems to ignore this entirely?? > > plus, books are hard to write as-is; some unspecified, second-brain/deeply-internally-networked book style would be even harder Yeah, I think the case for books existing/being written is much stronger than for individuals reading them cover to cover; they’re a self-contained package in a way a set of blog posts aren’t usually considered to be ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662924508880150528) · 16 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 28, 2023:** I think I’m equal parts pro-book (u learn stuff) anti-book (“6 paragraph blog post”) anti-anti-book (“the point is to marinate ur brain which takes time”),… Anti^5-book: “a lot of nonfictions’ value comes from mutual-mutual knowledge of the contents/“epistemic network effects”; revealed preference for podcasts + blogs means their value even to an individual is above what you’d naively expect. This is a change enabled by novel tech” ### [Thread, continued, 20:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662924939215896576) · 13 likes Anti^6-book: for the same reason, books are relatively under-consumed, and there’s disproportionate alpha in knowing what others don’t ### [Thread, continued, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662926440893935618) · 9 likes Anti^7-book: indeed, but what an inefficient way to gain alpha. To a first approximation ~every text (in the general sense) hasn’t been read by anyone. So total quality consumed is the effect that dominates ### [Thread, continued, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662926443251224576) · 11 likes Anti^8-book: ya know who else is anti-book? S\*m 🅱️an\*man 🍟 (bad guy) Ok that’s all I got ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 21:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662926870659072010) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** If you think I haven't been funny enough lately it's because I lost all my drafts when I got a new phone Nooo This≈library of Alexandria burned ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 23:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1662966793525133316) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @austinc3301 "Do people not read fiction?" Wonders man who predominantly reads comics, which are the blog posts of fantasy I do not read fiction Fr I find narrative nonfiction way more compelling and interesting bc, like, it happened! ## Monday, May 29, 2023 ### [Reply, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663010100783579136) · 3 likes dude go to sleep ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 02:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663010440744509446) · 2 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** What are your favorite history podcasts? > > \*Can include episodes on history from non-history podcasts ### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 02:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663011293035479041) · 4 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** Abolish the FDA; repeal all occupational licensing including in healthcare; decriminalize sex work; decriminalize housing; delegalize marriage and college; allow free banking. Regulate nuclear materials. Ban >GPT4 model training runs and gain-of-function research on pathogens. can someone make a "in this house" sign ? ### [Reply to @CineraVerinia, 03:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663032211224887296) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @CineraVerinia is no longer available.)_ Correct take ### [Tweet, 04:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663033400515522560) · 23 likes That’s an interesting point. ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxRIEBwWYAAdDkN.jpg) ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 11:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663147462943440897) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @PradyuPrasad is no longer available.)_ Make $1T ### [Tweet, 13:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663171103215304708) · 6 likes Think I’m re-entering my diet soda arc ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 13:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663172202739519488) · 7 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Guy who takes LSD and realizes the fundamental oneness and bliss of existence vs Guy who takes LSD and realizes how dirty his house is > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxSlFh8XoAAmaU0.jpg) Apparently it’s dopaminergic (unlike other psychedelics) ### [Reply to @SwiftOnSecurity, 13:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663172915121012737) · 8 likes > **SwiftOnSecurity (@SwiftOnSecurity):** I finally found a way to administer servers remotely. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxRwiubXoAEidcL.jpg) I’m in the tiny sliver of the Venn diagram that’s the overlap of “algo thinks I’ll get this” and “I have no idea what any of this means” ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 13:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663173061066072067) · 9 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 What does that mean for people who don’t understand (would never be me) Acts a little like a stimulant (eg adderall) ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 13:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663177846909460481) > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** @AaronBergman18 Not enough caffeine in this picture, must replace the caffeine-free with Pepsi Zero I’m a full decoupler ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxTLbzEX0AMl0ty.jpg) ### [Reply to @baesrule1, 13:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663181934942355458) · 2 likes > **The Affective Altruist 💛 (@baesrule1):** @AaronBergman18 @Laura_k_Duffy Gotta agree with Laura on this one, you should switch over to whole foods like Coke/Pepsi Zero 💛 Thank you for caring about my well-being ❤️ ### [Reply to @JoshLekach, 13:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663182503237017603) · 3 likes > **🌴 Josh Lekach 🌴 (@JoshLekach):** This is a green flag > > Real men don't care too much about gossip > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxOH87yaUAIcgSE.jpg) Sisters do be getting mysterious jobs tho “Marketing” …wtf does that mean?? ### [Reply to @ExiledInfoHaz, 15:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663202605948960768) · 22 likes > **ExiledInfoHaz (@ExiledInfoHaz):** Let me give my explanation for my question on status. The facts about status we need to explain: > > Cool/high status: > \- singer/musician in a band > \- kayaking/rock climbing enthusiast > \- painter/artist > > Uncool/low status: > \- plays Warhammer > \- prepper with basement full of supplies and many skills like first aid and marksmanship > \- Physically fit manual laborer (e.g. works in a meatpacking plant) > > It's hard to spot the pattern here. But there is a pattern! To understand it, you have to understand signalling games. > > What do people care about at the end of the day? > > The central lie of our society is that all people are equal in value. > > Nothing could be further from the truth: humans judge each other on a value scale like ravenous vultures eye up a kill. Value is a combination of various durable, persistent traits that are generally useful for achieving goals - strength, charisma, wealth, intelligence, youth, physical health, good genes, and powerful friends and allies, social savvy, etc. > > But because people know these things are all good (and their absence is bad), there is a strong incentive to not be truthful about them. What's the solution? > > Signalling. > > Why are rock-climbers emitting a positive signal, but preppers emit a bad signal? "Prepping signals being an outcast, poor social skills, high anxiety." (@AVMiceliBarone got this right). > > Rock climbing is expensive and requires both intelligence and fitness. It also implies risk-taking - you can easily kill yourself if you get it wrong and fall off a cliff. Warhammer is low-stakes - if you lose a battle, you do not actually die. > > For almost everything that people broadly agree is high status, there is an explanation along these lines. Status games are hard-to-fake pointers to a person's value. Alpha for people, if you like. > > @AVMiceliBarone again: > > "Warhammer signals a certain amount of wealth, but possibly low physical fitness, excessive risk aversion, lack of ambition, poor social skills. These are not necessarily implied by playing Warhammer, but if you had high physical fitness, less risk aversion, ambition, good social skills you would be probably doing something else. Warhammer is maybe a particularly bad signal, because it implies that you have above average intelligence, and yet you are using it on something useless, hence you are probably psychologically abnormal." > > Strength 10 hit, multiple wounds, no saves of any kind allowed. > > 🔲 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxTW3VWWcAEKizi.jpg) Agree with most of this, but… “The central lie of our society is that all people are equal in value. Value is a combination of various…traits that are generally useful…” This is true for status≈instrumental social value, and totally false for intrinsic/moral value ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 15:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663204359818100738) · 4 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** It sounds incredible for the simple reason that it's not true. > > "If you get hit by a car driving 100 mph, you'll die". > > Pretty sure most understand that. > > (quoting @yishan: The majority of human beings cannot fully comprehend a statement that has a conditional as a key part of its meaning. This sounds incredible to those who can, but I'm pretty sure it's true.) I mean this is something people understand in a pre-verbal sense bc they live and interact with cars and have been knocked down etc Totally different when P and Q are abstract and conceptual ### [Reply to @ExiledInfoHaz, 15:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663211816363741184) · 4 likes > **ExiledInfoHaz (@ExiledInfoHaz):** \> intrinsic/moral value > > intrinsic/moral value is fake. It doesn't exist. At least if you look at the way people actually behave. I mean the ability to experience happiness and suffering, not some spooky “human dignity” sense If you’re an illusionist about consciousness or a nihilist, fine, but I’m assuming those aren’t the reasons you disagree (?) ### [Reply to @ExiledInfoHaz, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663218949666791424) · 4 likes > **ExiledInfoHaz (@ExiledInfoHaz):** The ability to experience happiness and suffering doesn't matter. Warhammer players experience suffering when people socially isolate them. But who cares? I have never in my life heard anyone express concern over the subjective harms from bullying nerds. > > Why? > > Signalling, again. > > Signalling matters! I care, not that it means much to write that on a keyboard. But more importantly the person being bullied cares ### [Reply to @AVMiceliBarone, 16:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663220317785931780) · 3 likes > **Antonio Valerio Miceli Barone (@AVMiceliBarone):** It's still signalling: the EAs who care, or pretend to care, about e.g. shrimp welfare signal that they are secure enough in their position that they don't need the loyalty and support of their family, nation, race, etc. Sure, that’s probably a partial explanation, but it doesn’t negate the actual prevention of suffering that occurs Being able to explain altruism doesn’t make it disappear ### [Tweet, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663224394938826754) · 4 likes Does anyone know if DC has a minimum apartment size law? There’s plenty about basement rentals, but for actual units I can only find like one article from 2012 I mostly just wanna know who I should be mad at for there being ~0 places up for <$1k rent https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/is_dcs_housing_market_ready_for_microunits/6104 ### [Thread, continued, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663224403675561998) · 4 likes I’d be bunk bed maxxing, hanging shit on the ceiling, putting all three spatial dimensions to good use ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxT1x0LXwAQCvRK.jpg) ### [Reply to @michael_wiebe, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663228660361445392) · 2 likes > **Michael Wiebe (@michael_wiebe):** @AaronBergman18 Time for a viral tweet on tiny apartments? I just wanna live in a fish tank deep underground ### [Reply to @ExiledInfoHaz, 17:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663238671808462854) · 2 likes > **ExiledInfoHaz (@ExiledInfoHaz):** This is virtue signalling. People don't actually care about others - if you look at the way they behave in the here-and-now as opposed to what they say they they would like to do. > > In other words, follow concrete, near-term actions to see what's real, follow abstract statements to see what people want to project. Virtues signaling is good when it’s aligned with actual virtue, which is infrequent but not vanishingly rare either ## Tuesday, May 30, 2023 ### [Reply to @EAheadlines, 11:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663504063927836673) · 7 likes > **EA Lifestyles (@EAheadlines):** 😩 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxXpJd7WYAAHKlC.jpg) Aside from the “trying to avoid this conversation” point, seems good. Isn’t the whole point of EA as a \*community\* to influence others in a reasons-sensitive way like this? Hopefully in a kind+respectful way ofc Replace “nuclear” with “climate” or even more so “vacuum collapse” ### [Thread, continued, 11:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663504222183194625) · 2 likes And it doesn’t seem as odd Of course maybe you think the change was object level bad, but that’s not what I’m sensing is the objection ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 11:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663506539628449793) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ New meme template? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxX2YboWYAIyuhf.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 11:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663507191158931462) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @interested_ea Can you still be in ea after that? You don’t get to be an EA unless you’ve just had 2 diet cokes ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 11:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663510459356528642) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ It does land on orange! ### [Quote tweet, 11:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663510812609134597) · 15 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxX6RLcXsAAfEGD.jpg) > **Quoting Frances Lorenz (@frances__lorenz):** We're so back 😌 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxXsqzEWAAEM7sV.png) ### [Quote tweet, 11:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663512087702777856) · 2 likes @open_phil @CentreforEA a first forum post is doing numbers I think we have ur next hire > **Quoting Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** First EA forum post! I argue that the HVAC workforce will significantly determine the success or failure of future IAQ interventions and is almost entirely overlooked. > https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/q7dJz9ZaZGTSZL8Jk/obstacles-to-the-implementation-of-indoor-air-quality ### [Reply to @davidad, 13:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663542442094907396) · 10 likes > **davidad 🎇 (@davidad):** https://safe.ai/statement-on-ai-risk > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxXzQ2IXoAIRrdK.jpg) Need to become notable so I can sign the statement 😤 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxYXCCKXsAEuiJc.jpg) ### [Reply, 14:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663558171364048896) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I think I like salad without dressing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxYlVrzacAYP_Uo.jpg) ### [Tweet, 15:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663573309613547520) · 23 likes Have you ever wanted the CEA YouTube feed but without video and in such a way that it keeps playing w/o keeping the app open, and also only the main EAG videos from 2023 onward, and in chronological order? Then boy do I have a podcast feed for you https://open.spotify.com/show/0lHqS3M08p1jGvBkRIVoFa?si=EFZAgW2bQj-hh-OX0lnrxQ ### [Thread, continued, 15:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663573315699474434) · 1 like https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9lMmEwNTczNC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw ### [Thread, continued, 15:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663573318513958913) · 2 likes Apple Podcasts maybe coming soon, RSS feed url coming as soon as I can find it ### [Tweet, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663665030242480128) · 46 likes Can’t wait for his next biannual tweet ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxaGhubXoAEFrq_.jpg) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 22:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663672044414816256) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @Laura_k_Duffy @absurdlymax I remember that when I was a kid I swore to myself that if I ever had kids I would let them all the sausages they wanted Cultured sausages right right ### [Reply, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663673202034327552) · 2 likes One thing I don’t understand is what power adults legally (or via other external power structures I suppose) have over their children Like say you want to coerce ur kid into going to a playdate. Ok, what happens if they refuse? At some point between 3 and 17… ### [Thread, continued, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663673789467467777) · 1 like They’re gonna have the physical ability to literally avoid this if they want to. What happens if ur kid is 9? What if “play date” is “school” instead? Can a parent withhold dessert as a coercive method? Dinner? Food for the next 3 days? ### [Thread, continued, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663674195442630667) · 1 like At some point coercion has to ground out in either one party yielding or physical force, but I like never see this mentioned ### [Tweet, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663681556613832706) · 27 likes ChatGPT Influencer posts share a common structure. But most people don’t realize this. Here are 9 things you need to know to make AI content that works for you: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxaVjwkXgAAP6Hk.jpg) ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 23:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663686775556931584) > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Me yesterday: \*buys 12-pack of Diet Coke\* > Me this morning: \*looks in fridge\* Ugh only three Diet Cokes left?? Ok this is ~1g of phenylalanine, which is \*definitely\* an amount that implies subjective effects at least in most people and absent other protein sources I wanna run an rct on Diet Coke vs placebo Diet Coke with sucralose or smth instead of aspartame ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 23:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663687533702643712) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** I just downed a whole pitcher of this and completed 30 grant evals in a single pomodoro. That's 7% less than usual 😤, I'll stick to the addreall thankyouverymuch > > (quoting @thechosenberg: Can someone try this and report back) Qualy no the levoamphetamine is a waste you want pure d-amph ## Wednesday, May 31, 2023 ### [Reply to @sweatystartup, 00:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663698367556231169) · 1 like > **Nick Huber (@sweatystartup):** Thank god for HOA rules. > > People wanting to grow veggies in their front yards, leaving trees untrimmed, not getting weed control treatments. > > Parking dumb shit like trailers, boats and RVs in driveways. Doing work on cars in driveway. > > I’ll never live in a neighborhood without the rules. I wanna live exclusively among veggie gardens, boats, and fully evolved trees ### [Reply, 01:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663717139222601731) · 4 likes https://www.shrimpwelfareproject.org/donate ### [Quote tweet, 01:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663724374766092289) · 32 likes Haven’t stopped thinking about this… Surely “convince surgeons/anesthesiologists to use actual general anesthetics during a 1x/decade procedure” can’t be THAT hard of a lift, can it? Are there literally any medical or regulatory barriers here or is it purely a matter of norms? > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** This uh seems bad. Is this real? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxGz2u2XgAA_imD.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663724382240292864) · 13 likes https://reducing-suffering.org/the-horror-of-suffering/ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fxa8gbzXsAIPMPN.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fxa8gb3WwAIJUMb.jpg) ### [Reply to @thebestestpie, 01:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663725790947680256) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @thebestestpie is no longer available.)_ I mean personally I would take that increase in risk for colonoscopy and expect 99% would as well if informed in a frank manner about the costs and benefits “Necessary” is a subjective judgement ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 01:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663726735953739777) · 1 like > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** Yeah, general anesthesia is really really unhealthy. But the norm should be that you get told the risks on both sides and get to make the decision yourself! Even for ketamine, which is being used as an antidepressant (at sub-general doses) now? Is there a micromort estimate somewhere? ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663747296654249987) · 2 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** @absurdlymax This oversells the problem's difficulty I think massively. The set is realistically like 8, maybe 6. (The probability that it's Toby Ord is 1/6.) This oversells the problems difficulty massively. For any possible combination the answer is either “yes” or “no” so the probability of being right is 1/2 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 03:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663747651429384192) · 9 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 31, 2023:** https://reducing-suffering.org/the-horror-of-suffering/ Wait can we get some bioethicists on this? Unironically plz ### [Tweet, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663753592845615105) · 10 likes Pasting the not-optimized-for-twitter text below ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxbXEX7WIAAzOcU.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxbXEX9XsAEW9Gq.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663753595630546945) · 3 likes I believe that effective altruists should genuinely strive to practice effective altruism. By this, I mean that there are individuals who earnestly and seriously agree with the core arguments that animal welfare charities deserve significant financial support, both in relative ### [Thread, continued, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663753596993695747) · 2 likes and absolute terms. However, they do not always follow through on these convictions when it comes to donations. Many, for example, will eagerly nod along with introductory presentations for university effective altruism groups often highlight the fact that a tiny fraction of all ### [Tweet, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663753598621065216) · 3 likes donations go toward animal welfare causes, even within EA. And, as far as I can tell, very few if any EAs affirmatively dispute that animal welfare as a cause is simply more important and neglected, and similarly as tractable, as global poverty. But their donations do not seem ### [Thread, continued, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663753600105947137) · 3 likes to reflect this, going to GiveWell-type charities like GiveDirectly or Against Malaria Foundation instead of animal welfare organizations. While supporting poverty alleviation efforts is commendable in its own right – after all we want poor people having more money and fewer ### [Thread, continued, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663753601678733313) · 2 likes dying from preventable diseases – it seems incongruous given their professed beliefs. Without delving too deeply into speculation or psychoanalysis regarding individual motivations behind these donation choices; one possibility is simply an emotional preference for contributing ### [Thread, continued, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663753604371472384) · 2 likes toward human-centric causes over those focused on animals' well-being. To be clear: I am not claiming any personal moral superiority here; my own charitable giving record is awfully small in relative terms. Nonetheless I encourage fellow EAs who share concerns about factory ### [Thread, continued, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663753606292439040) · 2 likes farming's abhorrent nature and have resources available for philanthropy to seriously consider allocating their donations toward animal welfare causes ### [Tweet, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663766732236832768) · 2 likes Say what you will about La Sombrita The name goes hard ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 05:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663780367512338433) · 2 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** Russian spending on the Ukraine war in the context of other conflicts. The USSR spent 61% of GDP on World War II. The US spent 4.2% on Korea. > > Russia is spending 3% on Ukraine, just above the US in Vietnam (2.3%). https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2023/05/30/how-much-is-russia-spending-on-its-invasion-of-ukraine > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxaBMDwaUAAzcJd.jpg) We spent 1% of GDP on Iraq? I would have guessed like 2 OOMs lower ### [Reply to @peterhartree, 11:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663871244880560129) · 2 likes > **Peter Hartree (@peterhartree):** Love it! I've been waiting for this. > > Curious: how did you make it? Is it automated? > > I've been planning to do a bunch of “get audio from YouTube and put it on a podcast feed” in June. Nah, everything manual except downloading the audio which I could do in bulk thanks to chatGPT written python The uploading and copy and pasting descriptions took like 15 mins tho ### [Reply to @pearl_please, 11:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663872062560018432) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pearl_please is no longer available.)_ Planes ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 11:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663873715606568960) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @austinc3301 I imagine it not being okay would break the profession Then the profession should be broken ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 11:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663875048627752960) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @austinc3301 That probably doesn't maximize utility Idk you’d have to think people are super irrational to justify having surgeons effectively force suffering on others by withholding obviously important information Like at a bare minimum all this should be made clear to the patient beforehand! ### [Reply to @AISafetyMemes, 12:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663885885501308929) · 6 likes > **AI Notkilleveryoneism Memes ⏸️ (@AISafetyMemes):** Thread summary: > > AGI companies: we have no idea how these things work > > reply guys: yes we do > > (quoting @robertskmiles: I think most people (quite reasonably) think "We built ChatGPT, so we must basically understand how it works" This is not true at all. Humans did not build ChatGPT. In a way it would be closer to say we 'grew' it. We have basically no idea how it does what it does.) \*Reply guys: yes you do ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 12:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663888930415030272) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AndyMasley @AaronBergman18 @thebestestpie I think part of the story here is that doctors use different techniques for unsedated patients, at least in some cases > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxdRi4EXoAAnec-.jpg) Swear I was about to reply “I bet they do fully conscious/memorable ones differently” ### [Tweet, 12:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663889292492435463) · 4 likes Taylor Swift is overrated (but should still be highly rated) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxdSfjOWIAMZfls.jpg) ### [Reply, 13:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663900902783156226) · 2 likes I agree it’s not necessarily a bug, but in this particular case I think the reasons for expecting intuition to be faulty and object level (philosophical and empirical) evidence for animal welfare are strong enough that it \*is\* a bug ### [Reply to @eshear, 13:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663903795292565508) · 1 like > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** It’s easy to trick ourselves into ideas that aren’t true through abstract reasoning in general. And “shift your resources away from local suffering towards universal suffering” is a very common trap for our conscious minds. Our subconsciouses resist this, a good habit to keep. This carries some weight to be sure, but not infinitely much. After all the very same argument would imply that you should donate to local charities over Against Malaria or whatever if you had any intuition towards the former ### [Reply to @esceydabulyu, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663982239711936535) · 2 likes > **Lark (@esceydabulyu):** @AaronBergman18 @MarkovMagnifico I got her number after weeks of not running into her in class. ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxenBsuWwBsYuFS.jpg) ### [Tweet, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663983264950829069) · 5 likes The shards of the Overton window have de-glassified into sand ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663983689204678676) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** finish your drafts people! > > (quoting @daniel_271828: Now I’m wondering what to do with my half-completed blog post on “many serious AI researchers and forecasters are concerned about AI takeover”) No😡 ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 19:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1663991192743301120) · 3 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** The starring article is a piece by @KatjaGrace?! > > this is huge! > > (quoting @TIME: TIME's new cover: The case for taking AI seriously as a threat to humanity https://ti.me/3oHNGd2) The shards of the Overton window have fallen into a black hole ### [Tweet, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664026333351927809) · 17 likes Wordcell confirmed Also flashbacks to the MAP-R in literally 3rd grade ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxfPIbHXgAsJaYA.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664026335839244294) · 2 likes https://www.arealme.com/vocabulary-size-test/en/ ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 21:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664028855936458759) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Get rekt > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxfQkraWwAY0xNk.jpg) List the 600 words right now or ur fake ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 22:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664030388749062144) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Bad news fam > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxfSxT0XoAIwOll.jpg) I shan’t recover ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664032993000800256) · 12 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 31, 2023:** https://www.arealme.com/vocabulary-size-test/en/ Oh boy I really set myself up for all the higher score screenshot replies lmao ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 22:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664034212972822529) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @SpacedOutMatt @AaronBergman18 This feels wrong I won't lie It feels \*extambracious ### [Quote tweet, 22:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664039278261813272) · 83 likes When you forget that on EA Twitter everything gets shifted 4 sd’s to the left ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fxfa53xWcAE3HB5.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fxfa53wWwAEtRoA.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fxfa53zXsAEWn6a.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Wordcell confirmed > > Also flashbacks to the MAP-R in literally 3rd grade > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxfPIbHXgAsJaYA.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 22:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664041335639162880) · 17 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I think this is the real reason everyone has imposter syndrome I think u should transfer some imposter syndrome to me and then we’ll both be better calibrated ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 22:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664042375319093249) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 I do have imposter syndrome about being a person That sux ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664053017312653312) · 16 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** It would be very funny for Taylor Swift to just date a totally random average 35 year-old dude with impeccable politics — “it’s what the fans deserve.” So you’re saying I have a chance --- End of May 2023. Previous month: [April 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-04). Next month: [June 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-06). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, June 2023 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in June 2023 and has not deleted: 698 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [May 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-05). Next month: [July 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-07). ## Thursday, June 1, 2023 ### [Reply to @Jsevillamol, 00:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664070382876258305) · 2 likes > **Jaime Sevilla (@Jsevillamol):** We’ve combined our work to answer this question. In short, the conclusion of previous work is upheld: we expect near-complete AI automation this century. Matthew further explains how a compute-centric view of AI suggests that short (<4 years) timelines of automation are unlikely. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxfVj8rX0AA2rzw.png) Eyeballing the graph, “unlikely” means ~10% chance ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 06:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664164131560095745) · 5 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Bam also while still intoxicated > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fxgkw6fWwAAjDgx.jpg) Jfc ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 07:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664165188742856706) · 3 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 (sorry I did better 😟) Lmao ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 07:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664169249055686656) · 4 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Short enough timelines make this a nonissue At some point we will reach iPhone charge escape velocity, when people indeed commit not to charge their phone again until AGI ### [Tweet, 13:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664267865875419138) · 9 likes To the taxi driver who refused to take young, rapidly-bleeding Derek Parfit to the hospital because the blood would have stained his seats ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxiqzWFWYAECmQR.jpg) ### [Tweet, 13:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664268752635166720) · 15 likes I seem to be regaining some credibility points with my family, first earned in early March 2020 ### [Reply to @davidad, 13:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664269464169517065) · 3 likes > **davidad 🎇 (@davidad):** alternate universe where @algekalipso is born 70 years earlier: “Almost no chance that digital computers can produce music. ‘Digital music’ advocates don’t understand that what constitutes a musical substrate is a topologically connected manifold of potential harmonic resonances” > > (quoting @algekalipso: After thinking a lot more/hearing more arguments, the probability that digital computers can be conscious remains <0.01% upon reflection. It's simply the case that advocates of digital sentience don't understand binding, physicalism, & how to avoid epiphenomenalism all at once.) I think Emilsson is being way too confident here bc we have no clue what’s going on with consciousness, but consciousness is an entirely different thing than X demonstrable capability ### [Reply to @dylanmatt, 14:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664280918918594568) · 1,686 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dylanmatt is no longer available.)_ Can I join ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fxi2rHGaMAQe3c8.jpg) ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 14:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664281554045272064) · 1 like > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** @MichaelDPlant I think it could have gone either way & it was a bit of luck that got us to this point. An additional 5 years of this being completely ignored seemed quite possible. It was ignored for basically two decades! > > I agree it was more likely than not that it would get attention though! Not just luck, also a huge amount of intentional effort! ### [Reply, 15:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664287749292326915) · 2 likes The disanalogy here is that a bunch of really smart people (you, Jacey, Chalmers, …) disagree about the thing being proved unlike in the triangle case. If merely \*I\* didn’t share your understanding it would be a different story It would also be a different story if one party ### [Thread, continued, 15:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664288100351197185) · 2 likes had a track record of excellent calibration or making philosophical claims that only later come to be regarded as way more plausible than they were at the time, but afaik there’s no one like this wrt the possibility of digital sentience ### [Reply to @dylanmatt, 16:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664304428013305864) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dylanmatt is no longer available.)_ https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/tf-is-a-kernel ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxjMDl0XsAAX94f.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxjMDl4XwAE-3-s.jpg) ### [Reply to @nicholaraihani, 16:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664309881619333128) · 7 likes > **Prof Nichola Raihani (@nicholaraihani):** I have just been to the most devastating talk in my life. Exercise has no effect on daily energy expenditure - the most and least active populations burn the same number of calories. WTF. @HermanPontzer > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fxh8d3ZWAAUDOBu.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fxh8njUWYAA5K5y.jpg) This can’t be true at the limit, though. If you spend 3000 calories moving (marathon?) your TEE can’t be below 3k ### [Tweet, 17:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664325622179479556) · 8 likes We need a Manhattan Project to find out where all the socks are going ### [Tweet, 18:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664335438813831168) · 27 likes Waiting for someone to ask out a mutual like: Ideal gf: \- @\[handle\] ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664341814545883158) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Guys I need your help > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxjthiPWIAUC6qc.jpg) N4N ? ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664342429808336905) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 Do you really want to chance this competition coming between us? It’s a mutually beneficial trade in terms of probability! ### [Reply to @lxrjl, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664347916717129729) · 5 likes > **alex lawsen (@lxrjl):** Tag urself I'm "many others" I’m just “others” ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 19:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664348601760325633) · 3 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** confusion in two sentences > > your parents fucked you up and nearly everyone finds (via psychedelics, ifs, meditation, etc…) their deepest rooted issues are connected to their parents > > twins raised separately studies show parents barely matter to almost every measurable outcome Is this true? I’m fucked up in various ways and am pretty sure it’s not my parents fault at all ### [Reply to @MikeIsaac, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664350585041178626) · 6 likes > **rat king 🐀 (@MikeIsaac):** https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/01/style/when-the-neighbors-dont-share-your-vision-and-that-vision-involves-transformers-statues.html > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxjiV8XagAABKX7.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxjiV8VakAABJBc.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxjiV8XaAAA0Pji.jpg) I walked by these guys hundreds of times at Georgetown! Tbh I never really gave them a second thought lmao, I think they fit in just fine ### [Reply to @inerati, 19:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664351758276075521) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ Family scrabble record be like Mom: 71-45 (she is the one true wordcell) Me: 45-71 Sister: 0-116 Dad: 0-116 ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664361865823113225) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @StatsLime @QualyThe Wait what > > I don’t think this is the case at all, could you elaborate? I think it’s literally true as written but not for the very most talented ppl ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 20:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664364714019676163) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @PradyuPrasad is no longer available.)_ The origin story ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 22:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664399861418979329) · 4 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** Ideal gf: > \- @QualyThe (all three posters, at the same time, all wearing the same costume) > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Waiting for someone to ask out a mutual like: Ideal gf: - @\[handle\]) QUALY U OWE THE TURTLE/LION/?? A RESPONSE ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664400571678302210) · 4 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** no ❤️ F ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 22:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664403851217182720) · 1 like > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** google docs headings now collapse content underneath them > > we are so back ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fxkmex9XwAA6V2a.jpg) ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 22:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664404217556094976) · 1 like > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** OK here I go! My dream gf (take 1): > \- kind > \- emotionally reflective/self-aware > \- curious > \- funny/witty > \- thinks abt the life they want > \- encourage each other to pursue happiness > \- cares about effective charity/helping others > \- probs brunette > \- probs 24-33 > \- probs has ADHD You can just tag me next time ### [Reply to @edgar_z_lin, 23:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664414596592017408) · 2 likes > **Edgar Lin (@edgar_z_lin):** @AaronBergman18 tbh they're all re-covering the same colonel's presentation, so I'm probably withholding judgment until more details become known. So I may be wrong about being wrong about the thing having been wrong ### [Reply to @luke_metro, 23:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664417498882555904) · 4 likes > **Luke Metro (@luke_metro):** everybody dunking on this with the calculator needs to learn: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxkBKT4WYAAQGb9.jpg) True but only because everyone needs to learn it ### [Reply to @m_ashcroft, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664417849941565440) · 2 likes > **Michael Ashcroft (@m_ashcroft):** sometimes I want to get back into maths, and then I remember that 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 to infinity = - 1/2 > > and I think…nah ## Friday, June 2, 2023 ### [Reply to @Haydnseek1, 00:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664422049727520770) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @Haydnseek1 is no longer available.)_ Good tweet ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 00:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664424427541372928) · 4 likes > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** @absurdlymax @reconfigurthing you don't get addicted to melatonin? I don’t ### [Tweet, 00:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664425526268768261) · 29 likes Ideal gf according to Hinge \- REALLY likes Taylor Swift \- likes hiking, coffee, and books almost as much \- 5’2” \- Jewish but not Jewish Jewish \- at least one pic is outdoorsy \- also maybe Asian \- probably some mildly self deprecating prompts that are definitely basically fake ### [Thread, continued, 00:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664425529317941249) · 3 likes Tbh not terrible guesses ### [Reply to @EmilybyNight, 00:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664429178123436033) · 14 likes > **Emily (@EmilybyNight):** bartenders, what's an order that makes you say "damn, she knows her shit" and also "she's chill" Virgin Diet Coke and Rum ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 00:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664432144993722369) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** This was a pain to find and I feel it's evergreen so I'm just RTing with some key words: the real autism or autist test question > > (quoting @ohwizenedtortle: @AaronBergman18) Do u think u have autism? ### [Reply to @finnhambly, 00:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664434094149718023) · 4 likes > **Finn Hambly (@finnhambly):** There is one thing Hinge needs to add to their app and it's a guide entitled 'How to Make a Dating Profile Without Mentioning Taylor Swift' ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxlB_NcWcAEGJoy.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 00:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664434600632827905) · 2 likes Looks like some of these are duplicates. even still! ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 01:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664447443423903746) · 2 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** @AaronBergman18 i unironically think I would have great fun and do good work if I ever worked on the Hill @POTUS I recommend Pradyumna Prasad for everything ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 02:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664456449248878593) · 3 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 how about you? I think you've said you don't have it but have some of the signs of it. Yeah, I honestly don’t know much about it as an actual psychological (neurological?) phenomenon but my sense is that low salience or understanding of social events is a key/central symptom (for lack of a better word) and I def don’t have that ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664457340681179137) · 3 likes Like I think I’m pretty attuned to people’s moods, status, things like that, but even still am introverted, care less than avg about social norms, high decoupling, easily overwhelmed by sensory input, EXTREME need for comfy clothes/prefer no tags lol ### [Thread, continued, 02:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664457919121768448) · 2 likes Special interests, lmao: I went through a phase of learning everything there is to learn about the Titanic. Plausibly pharmacology is my Current Thing but idk I might be overfitting; idk how uncommon this kind of thing actually is ### [Thread, continued, 02:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664458835547897858) · 2 likes I do think the sensory overload thing is real for me though After enough socializing if I’m around my family I’ll literally tell them “no trying to talk to me for X hours unless there’s an emergency” lmao ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 03:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664473070935973888) · 2 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** @ohwizenedtortle Wait, but are you a lion or a turtle? I feel like this should be clear, pretty big difference in the dating pool options… Speciesism smh ### [Reply to @emollick, 03:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664473627943743489) · 2 likes > **Ethan Mollick (@emollick):** Quick, can you answer the CAPTCHA questions in the images? > > If you answered “milk” & “toast," you are a human. This Amazon-patented technology is a Reverse Turing Test, things humans would get wrong but machines would get right (Works on today's AI, too) https://patents.google.com/patent/US9767263B1/en > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxkG9WaaUAAoeHo.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxkG-_gaAAAGZWp.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxkHkt1acAEPMmr.jpg) COWS\* ALSO DRINK MILK \*baby cows ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 07:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664532318919315458) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Yup it turns out it is fake. The reporter got it wrong and this was a "scenario," not a "simulation" which means it was just the military saying "This could potentially happen." It's effectively a blog post. > > (quoting @s8mb: I bet this is fake) I was wrong and also wrong about being wrong about having been wrong ### [Reply to @michael_nielsen, 07:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664532922966130689) · 5 likes > **Michael Nielsen (@michael_nielsen):** Without looking it up - that would spoil the pleasure(!) - do you think the Sun is more or less dense than the Earth? Isn’t it non obvious where the sun starts and ends? ### [Quote tweet, 07:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664534051779215361) · 4 likes I have several hours of browsing history concerning this (and competitors) I regretfully have not bought the $44k house > **Quoting Wade 'n Tarnation 🤠🚂 (@watn_tarnation):** in my America you can put your whole mortgage on the Home Depot Credit Card for 0% APR for 24 months. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxkUd8-acAI5USK.jpg) ### [Reply to @eatonphil, 07:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664534846566277120) · 21 likes > **Phil Eaton (@eatonphil):** that janestreet intern implemented tcp/ip > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxlCtfxWwAME6K0.png) Someone explain (I read tho blog post and still don’t get it lol) ### [Reply to @dieworkwear, 08:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664550163334012935) · 4 likes > **derek guy (@dieworkwear):** you really get a sense of how shrunken men's silhouettes have become—almost mimicking the clothes of a little boy—when you compare them to something in a more traditional cut > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxmEtQcaQAAOqi7.jpg) They look exactly the same to me ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 09:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664564150712905730) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Choosing to believe this is real ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 13:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664627200262373377) · 8 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** "the best way to prevent nuclear war is to invent the nuclear bomb and build loads of them really quickly" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fxm7wxFXoAMC-U7.jpg) As an expert in the history of nuclear weapons (listened to the last Dwarkesh podcast), the technical side of things (took AP Physics in 2017) and diplomacy (AP Govt+politics) I don’t think this gives due credit to the theoretical and empirical successes of deterrence ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 15:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664654427360313347) · 2 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** The Anacostia bike trail is my new favorite thing in DC ♥️ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxoDfRSWIAEcszF.jpg) Have u been to the billy goat trail yet? ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 15:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664657245114597376) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dissproportion is no longer available.)_ the fact that you follow me is exploitative ### [Reply to @mbateman, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664673444577828864) · 9 likes > **Matt Bateman (@mbateman):** I \*love\* that everyone is trying to meme their dream partners into existence with objective list theory and wouldn’t dissuade anyone from this exercise, but: > > Almost every enduring couple I know found it fairly surprising what traits in a partner ended up making for a great match For example, most girls don’t realize that “mid, 5’7” pedantic Neolib-rationalist type with strong takes about arcane philosophy, into esoteric online charity discussion and drugs but in the lamest possible sense” is actually the only necessary and sufficient set of such traits ### [Tweet, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664678973614194705) · 11 likes I respect @50cent as an artist but it seems we have some disagreements about epistemology and the nature of value 🧵 ### [Thread, continued, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664678978496364562) · 5 likes In his canonical masterpiece Many Men, 50 asserts that positive hedonic states are causally or logically enhanced in magnitude by the existence of negative states ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxogtVfWABYr2Dk.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664678981021335554) · 5 likes However, this seems mistaken Insofar as a relationship exists, it is downstream of psychological representations of the original hedonic states rather than the difference between the states themselves ### [Thread, continued, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664678985840590855) · 4 likes Later in the work, 50 claims that differential outcomes between his bullet wound and that of a rival make it “clear” that his existence is the result of teleological—indeed likely divine—intention ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fxogtu1XoAI37xU.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664678987908382734) · 4 likes I readily concede that the events described are evidence directionally in favor of such a conclusion However, there are two countervailing considerations ### [Thread, continued, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664678989716127748) · 4 likes First, a localized version of the anthropic principle makes his observation of the reverse situation (in which his bullet wound is fatal) impossible and therefore the observation is much weaker, if any, Bayesian evidence ### [Thread, continued, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664678991456763940) · 2 likes Second, a more parsimonious, plausible, and harmonious (with the extant scientific consensus in all physical sciences) explanation is that of mere luck. This alternative too dampens the strength of the evidence discussed ### [Thread, continued, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664678993130291225) · 7 likes I look forward to the @50cent’s response and hope in earnest for a fruitful dialogue to resolve such important philosophical disagreements ### [Reply to @megacity1000, 17:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664679177461563394) · 6 likes > **☁︎‎‎‧₊˚ (@megacity1000):** an intern wrote a TCP IP stack from scratch in OCAML, and it worked flawlessly, basically > not the kind of thing anyone could do over the weekend I think imma dip out of this discussion seeing as TCP IP and OCAML look like random collections of letters to me ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 17:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664680892382445568) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I'm sure they're out there though! Would appreciate any recommendations from people who know more about it. I mean I haven’t thought at all about this but can easily imagine it being bad ex post for a dozen galaxy brain reasons: meat eating, nth order effects on AI, etc Hard to imagine ex ante though ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 17:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664682154767286280) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 By a funny coincidence I was reading this when you tweeted > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxojJeiWABYm70l.png) Oh present humans? That one’s easy: most of the ppl saved are already dead. Surely higher population currently includes some people who are suffering terribly, plausibly enough to outweigh other benefits even under a total utilitarian view ### [Tweet, 17:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664684790635692061) · 7 likes 99% of the time “but what about nice farms 🥺” is non-vegan (ie me) cope But you actually can be the 1% and do the thing! ### [Reply to @PicturesFoIder, 17:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664685615839838233) · 1 like > **non aesthetic things (@PicturesFoIder):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxngjFIaQAALrSR.jpg) Wait the takeaway here still seems to be that sex work could be very lucrative ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664695339306057728) · 2 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** @absurdlymax I’m gonna be the pedantic one for once and say that people are not in the set of “things” as I define it Sounds like a post hoc cope, I have accepted my status as sub-trail ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664731687480094720) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** We should do an EA twitter slumber party Calling that people aren’t gonna like this for vague (some of which maybe legit, I’m agnostic here) concerns about inappropriacy ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 20:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664734557730488320) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @Laura_k_Duffy @AaronBergman18 Let's all go rent an Airbnb yeah I think this would be fun ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 20:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664734691100901379) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @RafaRuizdeLira @AaronBergman18 Girls play dnd too and also I wanted to use this an excuse to get gossip and all my friends in one location 👀 gossip 👀 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 20:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664735173575933952) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** My brother likes taking the window seat and then not looking out it as much as I would Seat value tax fixes this ### [Tweet, 21:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664746348028084227) · 4 likes Why are chocolate chips cheaper than the same chocolate as a bar per oz but shredded and sliced cheese are more than a block? ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664775409144135682) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 30, 2023:** Apple Podcasts maybe coming soon, RSS feed url coming as soon as I can find it Only took \*checks notes\* four days, but here: https://anchor.fm/s/e2a05734/podcast/rss ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664783603560071171) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 @Laura_k_Duffy @absurdlymax Aaron you are my favourite thing 😈 😘 ## Saturday, June 3, 2023 ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 01:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664809196146106369) · 3 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** @RafaRuizdeLira I think you gotta step away from the markets for a bit. Starting to remind me of myself when I traded options lol > > Also yes is correct here 😌 Is Ivan secretly a Wall Street billionaire?? ### [Tweet, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664841777885372416) · 3 likes Anything cool, useful, or helpful I can do with my remaining Google Cloud credits (that's also quite easy and fast)? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fxqz7UTWAAE01ol.png) ### [Reply to @chriswaterguy, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664842980102946816) · 2 likes > **Chris Waterguy – neurodivergent coaching (@chriswaterguy):** Are you comparing chocolate chips to chocolate of the same quality? Typically "compound chocolate", I think. Made with vegetable oil, with a higher melting point and probably cheaper. I think so, and perfect direct comparison supports, although now I'm realizing it might just be the quantities they're sold in acc ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fxq1simXwAAEN63.jpg) ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664857239671250944) · 2 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** @AaronBergman18 @RafaRuizdeLira More like a wallstreet pauper. Should I talk about my personal finance and stock/option trading phase more? I mean yeah sure I’d be curious ### [Reply to @SteveStuWill, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664860118360416257) · 2 likes > **Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill):** Intelligent brains take longer to solve difficult problems: “participants with higher intelligence scores were only quicker when tackling simple tasks, while they took longer to solve difficult problems than subjects with lower scores.” https://www.bihealth.org/en/notices/intelligent-brains-take-longer-to-solve-difficult-problems > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fxp1z_sagAAadpg.jpg) Bet it doesn’t replicate ### [Quote tweet, 05:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664873052876726272) · 22 likes I believe I have peaked ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxrRN_JXgAABefT.jpg) > **Quoting elle ✨ (@heyellehogan):** What’s a compliment you received that stuck with you for a long time? > > I really wanna hear some wholesome stories. 🥹 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 06:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664888477249355778) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 I hope their name is always that in your phone book because that'd be amusing I’ll leave it ambiguous ### [Reply to @Willyintheworld, 07:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664898405976494080) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @Willyintheworld is no longer available.)_ Maybe some reason this doesn’t check out, and seems hard to deal with econometrically, but I think the approval of a first-in-class drug (fluoxetine as first SSRI jumps out) often makes all the pharma companies jump on board and try to develop+patent their own So if you think ### [Tweet, 07:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664903548889333767) · 5 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fxrs9EwWAAEuymD.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fxrs9EwWcAQ02Ik.jpg) ### [Reply, 08:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664906535145725954) · 3 likes Land is the constraint ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 08:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664914501651537920) · 3 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** @profoundlyyyy Even then - the CDC exists, but I wouldn’t say the public opinion battle on pandemic prevention has been won In fact at that point the normal politics game begins ### [Reply to @BenHayum, 08:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664915054569947137) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @BenHayum is no longer available.)_ One of the few times this is plausibly literally true. Idk if Trump \*is\* the worst person I know (of), but he’s definitely in the running ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 09:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664920367616458752) · 4 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** @glpat99 @FreshMangoLassi Start quacking This is my ring tone ### [Reply to @SteveStuWill, 09:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664920655211421698) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @SteveStuWill is no longer available.)_ I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO STRESSED ON TWITTER ### [Reply to @FellowHominid, 12:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664976206494670850) · 34 likes > **Highly Persistent Alex (@FellowHominid):** LessWrong enabling reacts inaugurating a Golden Age of intellectual inquiry > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxsC3bDXwAA5sc1.jpg) Imagine debating someone high status and they hit u with that Locally Invalid/Muddled/Obtuse emoji trifecta ### [Reply, 12:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664977351644442627) · 2 likes Scott Alexander playing chess w GPT-2 a couple millennia (years) ago DAN was a redditor right? ### [Quote tweet, 12:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664977572235542529) · 8 likes The alignment problem was solved 6 hours and 14 minutes later > **Quoting Highly Persistent Alex (@FellowHominid):** LessWrong enabling reacts inaugurating a Golden Age of intellectual inquiry > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxsC3bDXwAA5sc1.jpg) ### [Tweet, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664988346517446656) · 1,058 likes I’d love for someone to start Theranos but with no technical innovation whatsoever: Just a direct to consumer blood test service where you can easily go in, check off what tests you want (on the menu of a gazillion options w prices), pay out of pocket, get your blood drawn… ### [Thread, continued, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664988349076045830) · 276 likes maybe after waiting in a 5 minute grocery-esque line, be done in 15 mins total, and get an email the next day or as long as it takes to run the test and not much longer Maybe even an Uber Eats version where you pay $50 to get a nurse to come to your house instead ### [Thread, continued, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664988351445729280) · 336 likes The point being to circumvent the Byzantine regulatory moats of the regular healthcare system entirely: no healthcare, doctors orders, or anything that would require more process than a Covid PCR test ### [Thread, continued, 13:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664989180009623552) · 152 likes \*no health \*insurance\* lol ### [Reply, 13:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664990634464215041) · 9 likes Agreed ### [Reply to @yakubiancel, 13:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664993266926747649) · 44 likes > **wyle (@yakubiancel):** Where does Quest fall short by this metric? Number of options and price, presumably. Yeah I think there’s only a very limited number of tests you can easily request without an order (or “order”) Also like bad hours, generally not amazing customer experience (but if that was the only issue it’d be fine) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 13:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1664994440681861121) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** How does burning your tongue interact with your ability to taste in the long run? In the long run ur dead or ~immortal in which case I presume tongues are easily replaceable ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 15:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665022406342111234) · 55 likes > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** @AaronBergman18 Does this not exist in the us? Not in a way that looks like capitalism competing for consumer dollars ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 17:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665046204487442435) · 1 like > **Dissproportionately (@dissproportion):** I have a long day of housework ahead of me. Give me your most engrossing podcast and audiobook recommendations. > > Here’s one for you: last time I painted a big room I listened to Matthew McConaughey’s Greenlights and it was perfect for that kind of day. \~every 80k episode is better than ~every other piece of audio media minute for minute https://80000hours.org/podcast/ ### [Thread, continued, 17:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665046305545023489) · 2 likes I will never stop shilling this ### [Reply to @firasd, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665087743016173568) · 146 likes > **Firas D (@firasd):** It’s cause the FDA requires a prescription for many blood tests > > In general diagnostics seems under-appreciated in US healthcare. So little innovation in both the tech and the logistics, all gated by regulation and insurance Setting aside what share “many” is (could be a lot idk) this is so insane. Hard to imagine a less reasonable point of government intervention than \*discovering information about the contents of your own blood\* ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665088002572394498) · 4 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** My ideal gf: > \- has a long history of being associated with wealth, royalty, and beauty > \- spends most of her time in or around the sea > \- is produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk > \- says the world is her oyster Took me a good 3 seconds and then I was like AWWWW ### [Reply to @moskov, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665090165465858051) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @moskov is no longer available.)_ If anyone got this without hints they’re confirmed to be superintelligent ai that adopted human form to squirm out of the box NOBODY should be able to get a 4TH ORDER pun without hints. It is ILLEGAL ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665091040477425666) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @inesferhumi I know I don't have to reveal that I'm this stupid, but the first time I read this I thought it was about some weird kind of mermaid and only now do I really get it ok Mr. z score of 4 vocabulary ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665091489687379968) · 8 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** as both in my twenties and 36 years old, I am aware of that @RethinkPriors we demand the full de-anonymized EA community survey data so we can finally put this to rest ### [Quote tweet, 20:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665092787325358085) · 80 likes 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxuZBD5XwAMm4X_.jpg) > **Quoting Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** @moskov @mealreplacer as both in my twenties and 36 years old, I am aware of that ### [Tweet, 20:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665092949401653248) · 12 likes this could be a Red Herring we must proceed with caution🤔 ### [Thread, continued, 20:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665093035531665409) · 9 likes Will if ur reading this I wanna debate some stuff ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 22:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665116749430157313) · 3 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** @AaronBergman18 Frances understands puns. We can test this hypothesis by throwing puns at Will MacAskill and measuring the grok rate. > > https://x.com/qualythe/status/1665054522517889027?s=46&t=bR00ANmL6726zDrqUr1_RQ If Will is sufficiently smart and strategic, he'll model this and intentionally get things wrong but in a plausible way. If only we could elicit his latent knowledge ### [Tweet, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665129889173843969) · 5 likes how do i make http://apple.com redirect to a page that says "Your Computer Works Well and Is Not A Limiting Factor in Any Way" ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 22:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665130802789711873) · 5 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Do it. Pets are awesome. Didn’t realize how much I’d wind up caring about this guy before I got him: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fxu6oYdaQAAhS2E.jpg) dog ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665131023347187712) · 3 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** @AaronBergman18 @mealreplacer That is correct. cool, updating (but not very much) ## Sunday, June 4, 2023 ### [Tweet, 00:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665156158988996609) · 8 likes https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/the-answer-to-the-sleeping-beauty subtitle. ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 00:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665161239125807107) · 5 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** @AaronBergman18 1/2 is the prior. 1/3 is the posterior conditional on her being awake. If she doesn't answer 1/3 when she just woke up, then she will lose bets. Wait describe a specific fair betting scenari where she will lose money in expectation? ### [Reply, 01:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665172843322130434) · 1 like At like p=.99 inside view and p=.8 all things considered that no such setup exists ### [Thread, continued, 01:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665173088407805952) · 1 like Tbc I think the betting framework is just like the least productive/east way to think about the problem but that could be a subjective thing ### [Thread, continued, 01:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665173283501744130) · 3 likes My strongest and ~sole concrete argument is: Waking provides no evidence of anything. No new information, in a formal information theory sense ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665205790578298880) · 3 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18 @ohwizenedtortle @an_observer\_\_ Well @RethinkPriors does work on AI governance and strategy so it could also be a straightforward offset in addition to being the best all things considered place to donate ;) suspicious convergence 🤨 ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 05:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665232868392435713) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @QualyThe Starting to feel like people need phds to get qualy jokes Sometimes yea but this is just the name of an AI alignment thing So 99.9% of phds won’t get it either ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 05:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665233287072063488) · 4 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** ?? > > (quoting @peta: Think twice before ordering that chicken sandwich... T-Rexes wouldn't approve of you eating their descendants 👉 https://bit.ly/trexkintochicken #DinosaurDay) Do we have an estimate on suffering per gram of protein from beef vs t-reef ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 05:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665235556769439745) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 4, 2023:** Sometimes yea but this is just the name of an AI alignment thing So 99.9% of phds won’t get it either This on the other hand takes an IQ above the threshold at which the measure has robust psychometric validity https://x.com/moskov/status/1665040427651862528?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ### [Tweet, 06:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665245025221869569) · 7 likes Kinda sus that checking accounts need to exist Like if we’re gonna have high frequency traders making markets more liquid than acetone, shouldn’t I be able to sell $2 of whatever asset I designate in 2 seconds it takes to tap my phone against the Apple Pay thingy? ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 06:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665246324554448896) · 1 like > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** I hope that humans eventually stop eating other animals, and I further want farming to be made much more humane in the meantime. But I don’t think this is a persuasive argument: > > (quoting @peta: Think twice before ordering that chicken sandwich... T-Rexes wouldn't approve of you eating their descendants 👉 https://bit.ly/trexkintochicken #DinosaurDay) Steelman: if you agree with “don’t eat a chicken” as a normative claim, then the whole compound sentence comes out as true (tho the first bit is a non sequitur) ### [Reply to @thatfrood, 07:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665253943729954817) · 11 likes > **Devon Hardware’s Wife (@thatfrood):** huge news > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxqAUVJXsAEbN2P.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fxwros5WwAA-YOj.jpg) ### [Tweet, 07:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665254826672812032) · 20 likes I (earnestly) think infohazards are real and not super rare, and no I (earnestly) don’t want to hear any bc they’re bad ### [Tweet, 07:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665260039467048960) · 6 likes Disagree I remember people dunking on the left pic for this reason, but the y-axis is not at fault here—it sucks because the drawn figures don’t \*correspond\* to the y axis… ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxwxLjhWwAEPxFa.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 07:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665260044408045568) · 5 likes Here is my beautiful rendition of what the graph should have looked more like ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxwxL3jXoAIzDQS.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 07:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665261496740216832) · 2 likes Wait this is still really bad lol. It should be like zoomed in on their foreheads ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 10:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665301497746186240) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** you can modify your hosts file and then override https validation (and maybe HSTS, which is it’s own very complex thing) > > The alternative is to just use inspect element 👍 I hereby ban new acronyms. Idc what HSTS is I will die ignorant ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 10:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665302128133394432) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** you can modify your hosts file and then override https validation (and maybe HSTS, which is it’s own very complex thing) > > The alternative is to just use inspect element 👍 The usual style of questions that I’m mostly joking about and can ask chatGPT so don’t waste ur time on my simple mind: Tf is a host file Tf does overriding mean in this context/how do u do that Tf is validation Tf is HSTS The much simpler solution is just to buy the domain ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 10:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665304624465686534) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @PradyuPrasad And then Aaron's mentions died again Real photo of the mute button protecting my sanity ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxxZutMXwAMZs_S.jpg) ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 10:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665305393688371200) · 14 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** this was a great idea. shame it won't work > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Serious question for #YIMBYTwitter: where height restrictions per se are the issue, why haven’t developers started building vertically but \*down\*, underground? I mean windowless apartments don’t sound ideal, but probably less bad than unaffordability and homelessness) Dude wants to force ppl to live underground smh ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 13:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665346032568348672) · 3 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** Are there tpot-ers who live in Melbourne? Planning a hostile war against the Sydney tpot group. Don’t let it spread to New Zealand tho we’re counting on the 5 ppl there to survive nuclear holocaust ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 13:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665347454722506754) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** But do T-rexes exhibit grief-like behavior? The plural is T-Rice \-10000 vocabulary pts ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 13:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665350129841328132) · 3 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Well, if you want to use the original Latin: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxyBPEiXwAEQ749.jpg) We’re holding a referendum. The plural of T-Rex shall be: ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 13:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665351046229524482) · 4 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** U don't understand the sacrifice normal ppl have to make to be in EA. I used to be able to just make shit up, I used to just believe shit I read on facebook. Now I have to be calibrated, it's exhausting 😭 Now I still believe shit on Facebook, but the shit is longform effortposts by any of the 148 EAs that I may or may not have met once in a dream but have 61 mutual friends with, somehow ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 13:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665351310152028162) · 5 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @liz_love_lace @TetraspaceWest @elymitra\_ Yo @AaronBergman18 Maybe it’s just bc apple juice is very yummy ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 13:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665352448133701633) > **Aaron Bergman, June 4, 2023:** We’re holding a referendum. The plural of T-Rex shall be: O shit this is gonna be another Carrick ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxyFOaIWcAUHqHT.jpg) ### [Reply to @teortaxesTex, 14:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665360225522577408) · 1 like > **Teortaxes▶️ (DeepSeek 推特🐋铁粉 2023 – ∞) (@teortaxesTex):** But what if the concept of infohazard is in itself an infohazard because it fundamentally caps your ability to learn about your critical errors That would be interesting but I don’t think it’s true ### [Reply to @StuartJRitchie, 14:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665364247193214977) · 5 likes > **Stuart Ritchie (@StuartJRitchie):** The whole thing about “Ultra-Processed Food isn’t really food” has become a real meme, despite its obvious stupidity and snobbishness. It’s like when people say “well, rap music isn’t really music”. So dumb! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fxx6CNpWcAEiiDj.jpg) To steelman, would you object to calling tide pods “not food” even though evidently people (maybe like 2?) eat them Tbc this is at the other end of a long spectrum from Oreos or whatever, but it seems hard to draw a line non-arbitrarily somewhere between them ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 15:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665376097637154816) · 4 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** THIS GUY WANTS POOR PEOPLE TO LIVE LIKE MOLES No higher honor than being discussed with offline gf (only 55% sarcastic lol) Legally changing my name now ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 16:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665391661164158976) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Nah that one's just an upscale version of jokes drywallers make all the time. Shows the narrow separation between fame and obscurity. Dustin probably could have been a 2k sq ft/day guy, but had to settle for something with computers. Damn we gotta start recruiting ur guys for SERI mats ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 19:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665444982759497729) · 4 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** If you made it illegal for left-handed people to work would that financially benefit right-handed people by raising wages? Short run yes long run no very long run everyone’s dead ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 19:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665445147260211203) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @Estimatrix @alyssamvance Alternative explanation: People may mishear survey questions. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxzWR5fWcAMk89-.png) No way 20% of Americans have had a \*personal\* encounter with a goat ### [Thread, continued, 19:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665445310254964740) · 2 likes Personal meaning farm field trip doesn’t count, eating goat cheese doesn’t count ### [Quote tweet, 20:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665449711132606465) · 2 likes Dear ppl I’m ignoring: (1) sorry, and (2) trying to write a brief followup post Tl;dr: some shift in probability mass from 1/2 to “no fact of the matter” but 1/3 is still definitely wrong lol > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/the-answer-to-the-sleeping-beauty > subtitle. ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665452288440258560) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pli_cachete is no longer available.)_ Fr though maybe ### [Tweet, 20:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665460162532896771) · 3 likes The Apple News Widget w AI as specified topic seems like a very easy and maybe even ok (ofc extremely noisy) proxy for media coverage Will add screenshots to the thread whenever I feel like it Day 0: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fxzm-t2WcAE2MCi.png) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 20:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665460317470486532) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 @Estimatrix @alyssamvance In what world would farm field trip not count as a goat encounter? It does count as a goat encounter! Just not a ~personal~ goat encounter ## Monday, June 5, 2023 ### [Tweet, 00:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665512796790878208) · 4 likes Reading the social interaction autism criteria: eh more than avg I guess but kinda feels like I’m cherry picking Reading the restrictive/repetitive behaviors bit: yup, yup, 10/10. I wonder if the wearable ice pack in my freezer for when it goes above 75° is sufficiently cold yet ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 00:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665519551134552067) · 1 like > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @inesferhumi @UntilTrees .@AaronBergman18 14/10, would-ride-in-uber-for-hours-with @ohwizenedtortle = .5π-1.4 ≈ 0.17079: intellectually, experientially, and socially/conversationally (and surely a bunch of other things my brain isn't providing terms for) in the same quadrant yet perfectly complementary ### [Reply to @alexeyguzey, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665524921227771906) · 2 likes > **Alexey Guzey (@alexeyguzey):** most modern intellectual discourse is a reiteration of arguments between like four british philosophers in the 18th century Uh no it’s not ### [Reply to @astridwilde, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665525062680576001) · 10 likes > **Astrid Wilde 🌞 (@astridwilde):** "children are naturally better at learning languages" is pure cope. just an excuse by adults to not feel bad about themselves for their inability to commit to practice This is bait right ### [Quote tweet, 01:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665531918367051776) · 6 likes Started with a banal insult, iterated with the "make more passionate" tool until I judged the output less insulty than the input. Result: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fx0oPihXoAM_o5W.png) > **Quoting Sarah McManus ✨🍲 BOLD SOUP🍲✨ (@SarahAMcManus):** Very handy site, especially for folks with ADHD etc! > > Put in a task, click the magic wand, and it'll break the task down into a pretty decent list of subtasks. > > Lots of good customization options, can edit / add / delete / rearrange at will > > https://goblin.tools/ ### [Reply to @diviaprocessing, 03:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665556464847536130) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @diviaprocessing is no longer available.)_ We may be semantic enemies ### [Tweet, 03:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665559715697291265) · 6 likes Today was a rare occasion I think I used Twitter more than was good on reflection 16 hour twitter fast starting in 10 seconds if u see me on here plz yell at me bye ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 20:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665812237158678530) · 7 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** @andrewhessel @tszzl @AaronBergman18 no doubt your 1600th tag on this My utility is linear in tags ### [Reply to @Jess_Riedel, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665815541968150529) · 3 likes > **Jess Riedel (@Jess_Riedel):** @peterwildeford @Simeon_Cps I’ll bet you at 1:30 odds (3.3%) he doesn’t win the nomination. Ill do 1:29 ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665834759178559489) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** I love how forecasting started off as, "what US political party will win in 2021" and now it's, "will my friend Steve's niece end up marrying her third girlfriend (context: they have the same humour but one's a night owl and the other is an early bird)" Given that context, my 99% confidence interval is \[.631924, .631925\] for the proportion of Everettian branches in which they wed ### [Reply to @astridwilde, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665854569400631296) · 1 like > **Astrid Wilde 🌞 (@astridwilde):** @JoofGunray @AaronBergman18 have you never encountered stylistic hyperbole before this is just the way i talk lol No, never ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1665854871763841024) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** What is the fewest step process to make a podcast? > > Record in Google meet then put into some kind of app? Which app? 1\) ask someone to talk on video and hope they do the recordings right ## Tuesday, June 6, 2023 ### [Reply to @panickssery, 09:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666008685871595520) · 5 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** "Nice shirt" > "Thanks I got it at a Givewell, or no not a givewell, I mean wh" > "Haha yeah the ... uh, fuck, what's it called" > "You know the thrift store" > "Yeah" > "Yeah" > "Hmm" https://www.givewell.org/clothing-order-form ### [Tweet, 09:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666012109560328193) · 11 likes Yup, that's the plan. ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fx7caEYXwAEEIAF.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 15:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666107045831950337) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** My problem is I'll write something in my head in the shower and then be too lazy to transcribe it outside some rough notes, so I have about 500 billion unfinished essays in my google drive Poast drafts ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 15:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666108411027632129) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** My problem is I'll write something in my head in the shower and then be too lazy to transcribe it outside some rough notes, so I have about 500 billion unfinished essays in my google drive Also how did this get QTd by GOOGLE with 2M followers 12 hours ago and only have 9 likes I’d be kinda pissed lmao Also yes this is me, maybe check out http://audiopen.ai. The only AI thing I pay for besides chatGPT; the output is kinda bland but coherent as writing ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666162973549682688) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** I just spent 10 days in a bay area group house. I ate as many mealsquares as I wanted. I drank much more Huel than I normally do. I took modafinil and stayed up all night doing linear algebra. > > I lost twenty pounds. > > Something is seriously wrong with the American food system. plausible via amputation ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 19:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666163596760367111) · 2 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** Thinking of the consumer surplus generated by music yea its hard to individuate things and decide what counts as a product but $150ish/year for infinite personalized music w 90% of songs ever recorded is (spotify) high on the consumer surplus list, both % and absolute ## Wednesday, June 7, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666234216189763587) · 3 likes Many are saying https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1663753592845615105?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g > **Quoting Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** @JosephPolitano @AndyMasley Sounds about right: 70 B chickens factory farmed per year and yet… > > (Deleting last reply bc image quality was awful) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fx-mQA7WYAI2CMg.jpg) ### [Reply, 00:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666236906294657025) · 2 likes I agree but think this is the rare success story of something object level excellent ascending to meme status ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 00:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666237360340647937) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @robertwiblin is no longer available.)_ Not if ur in a sufficiently weird part of twitter then they just think ur an idiot sometimes but say this very politely ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 01:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666254059949502466) · 2 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** @mcinthedc @AndyMasley You really don’t need to know, but… > > You can’t rule out with 100% prob that electrons aren’t conscious things with capacity to feel welfare, so because there are so many of them, it might be the most important cause in the universe in expectation > > Though there are more neutrinos Lame all the cool kids only care about AMIU particles (for ‘aaron made it up’) which exist as a set I define as identical to the power set of the set of highest cardinality that has been or will ever be represented by a mind or computation system P >0 so… ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 01:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666258721058484227) > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** You say AI doesn't have goals. This looks like goals to me. > > Also, it has the ability to carry them out (currently with text and mediocre code. Soon with...) > > To me your argument seems to hang on this point, which seems wrong to me. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fx9FkAPWwAA9Qra.jpg) I definitely think AI \[xs\]-risk is legit and p>10% but don’t think this is ~any evidence for AI having goals in the sense we should care about It’s evidence of ability to plan but not having goals per se ### [Quote tweet, 01:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666259814035382274) · 2 likes The two genders ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fx--eC8WYAID1ne.jpg) > **Quoting Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 @Laura_k_Duffy @mcinthedc @AndyMasley @jkcarlsmith tbh I've argued for the decision-relevance of intelligent alien species, so I cannot complain ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 01:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666261724494811137) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ @absurdlymax ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 03:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666285623391449088) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @ruth_hook\_ @skooookum Wait am I broken too? Wait on second thought Im pretty sure I was the only one who ever brought up salt as a bit of wild speculation around sleep issues so doesn’t make a ton of sense to tag u here lol ### [Quote tweet, 03:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666286985982386181) · 3 likes Kinda cool I guess but am I the only one not super impressed or surprised? Like yeah if ur camera is looking only for black and white squares you can color in the rest. AI makes that drawing good and dirt cheap but you could always do this by hand > **Quoting Toby Ord (@tobyordoxford):** Are we headed to a future where even QR codes are beautiful, not ugly? > Believe it or not, these images contain working codes! > (Generated by AI trying to create a beautiful image, with the constraint that it contains a working code.) > https://www.reddit.com/r/StableDiffusion/comments/141hg9x/controlnet_for_qr_code/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fx7pHoFXoAADYgS.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fx7pJOEWwAItOvj.jpg) ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666287216547577858) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Julian ### [Reply to @CineraVerinia, 03:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666292086092570624) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @CineraVerinia is no longer available.)_ So fucked up how hard we (uk and us and like every other rich country afaik) make immigration ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666316599924490240) · 11 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ No they’re not https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/03/opinion/canada-euthanasia.html ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fx_yHV6WAAAl2T-.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666319575552540674) · 9 likes Guessing the ‘3% of Canadians killed themselves in 2021’ thing is an artifact of the true figure rounding up to .03%, A figure of about that size specifically, esp in the context of a “this huge thing is happening” article, can easily get parsed as just .03 = 3% > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @ruth_hook\_ No they’re not https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/03/opinion/canada-euthanasia.html > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fx_yHV6WAAAl2T-.jpg) ### [Reply, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666319817270239232) · 2 likes Guessing not but idk either! I have some speculation ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 08:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666358984151023616) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** One piece of feedback I've received is that this may attract the anxious girls too 1000 is a little high, no? Or maybe I’m just missing out idk ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 08:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666362845708140546) · 6 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @metakuna @AaronBergman18 It’s actually 30% All Canadians are dead, Canada is no more ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 08:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666366253194178561) · 3 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 How about a longer time unit. Like 20 thoughts a minute? Although I suspect this is focusing on the autistic vibes more than the ADHD vibes (though I do love and respect both). Gotta describe levels rates and second derivatives She better have 3478290045 thoughts over her life, at a rate of 828469 per month, gradually accelerating the whole time ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 15:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666467066939944965) · 2 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** Excited to announce I'll be starting college studying computer science at NUS this August! > > If you know anyone there whom I should meet, I'd love to get connected! Ay congrats!! ### [Tweet, 15:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666468069399511048) · 15 likes 100% (or undefined%) of deaths should be assisted suicides ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 15:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666468251973435392) · 2 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** It’s crazy that ppl as based as William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft created someone as cringe as Marry Shelly I have never heard of any of these people ### [Quote tweet, 15:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666472433014939648) · 4 likes 😱😱😱 > **Quoting Taylor Belrose (@norabelrose):** Ever wanted to mindwipe an LLM? > > Our method, LEAst-squares Concept Erasure (LEACE), provably erases all linearly-encoded information about a concept from neural net activations. It does so surgically, inflicting minimal damage to other concepts. 🧵 > https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.03819 ### [Reply to @somewheresy, 15:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666473848026308609) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @somewheresy is no longer available.)_ Lol I 100% earnestly think it’s the single intellectual subfield or maybe any identifiable career with the highest avg brainpower (which is largely bc of how relatively few formal jobs there are but even still) Ofc there are better critiques but the ‘too difficult’ thing is just ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 16:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666481159813963779) · 5 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** "I'm sorry 😬🫠, I don't have a quantitative model of AI risk" > > I have now heard this 2-5 times > > That's okay! Hardly anyone has a quantitative model worth the name > > But if you are making decisions based on your model, I suggest it's better if other people can see and correct it I have a quantitative model, it’s only parameter x is what my brain feels like the answer is all things considered and the model is p(doom)=x ### [Reply to @AndyXAndersen, 16:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666483251911729154) · 1 like > **AndyXAndersen (@AndyXAndersen):** @liron @pmarca This is a personal attack with no substance. I agree with the first thing but ad hominems can be sources of true+relevant+important evidence and in this case I think it happens to be ### [Reply to @GLopezPharmD, 16:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666483443167895552) · 4 likes > **Gregory Lopez 🔍 (@GLopezPharmD):** @AaronBergman18 I can infer reasoning for 100% (which I understand, but may disagree with), but can't for undefined%. Can you expand on the latter? no deaths means denominator would be zero ### [Reply, 17:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666492091281682432) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Brown rice is worse across all dimensions ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyCRuVLWYBgVp2L.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 17:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666493776288702601) · 9 likes Maybe I should get a clothes management system better than “move pile between bed and chair” > **Quoting rosey🌹 (@thechosenberg):** Raise your standard for life lady jfc > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyCBj04XsAMpKpP.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 17:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666494251172069376) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 No this is optimal Ok thx ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 17:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666494562007674883) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 My mom would be mad at me for saying this though Dw I won’t tell her ### [Tweet, 17:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666501100747235344) · 6 likes Team work makes the dream work 🔠 😤 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyCZ6vMX0AA3Ne9.jpg) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 17:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666501924781170693) > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** A potentially unique research area is to install a low speed fan with a MERV13 filter in a window pushing air inside. I'd expect that by pressurizing the house we'd see lower building infiltration from other areas, and therefore much better indoor air quality. The filter around the fan? Or in front or behind? Sry am dumb ### [Reply to @NateSilver538, 17:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666503118828236801) · 5 likes > **Nate Silver (@NateSilver538):** OK, folks. If you were to recommend a few canonical materials on AI existential risk \*for a lay audience new to the debate\* what would they be? Ideally looking for stuff that sorts through the evidence in a judicious and approachable way. For a newsletter post coming soon. https://www.cold-takes.com/cold-takes-on-ai/ and it’s not close ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666516472372273168) · 3 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** They're euthanizing people for being poor and disabled > > https://globalnews.ca/news/9176485/poverty-canadians-disabilities-medically-assisted-death/ Euthanasia is not a synonym for assisted suicide ### [Reply to @daniel_filan, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666520080014778402) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniel_filan is no longer available.)_ Right, not 3% of all Canadians! Tbh I have no idea who’s joking anymore lol ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 22:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666570906926297088) · 1 like > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** i'm literally having the worst twitter day ever. feeling so miserable today 😑 Sorry man ❤️ ### [Quote tweet, 22:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666571097771237378) · 5 likes New kiki vs bouba just dropped > **Quoting Prince Vogelfrei 🐦‍⬛ (@PrinceVogel):** Women are quite complex three dimensional shapes. Men are very, very simple shapes, but with high dimensionality > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fx-kThuXsAcG-Tu.jpg) > [GIF attached](https://x.com/PrinceVogel/status/1666231801117827074/photo/1) ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 22:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666571368157138946) · 6 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** Ok is it just me or is it like a little weird when people have their loved ones saved as their full government name on their phone Like this ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyDZ061WYAYZmUG.jpg) ### [Tweet, 22:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666573829014003712) · 7 likes Darn (Year isnt labelled, starts Aug 1, 2022) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyDcEInXwAIkfiu.jpg) ## Thursday, June 8, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666662123798183943) · 5 likes Very nearly tweeted, totally earnestly, “it’s not as weird as it looks, we have our own language in which the ‘ererer’ suffix is common!” > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @inesferhumi Like this > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyDZ061WYAYZmUG.jpg) ### [Reply to @ChadNotChud, 05:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666678835784433665) · 11 likes > **delaniac 🌹🌱 (@ChadNotChud):** Like, are oils the healthiest part of your diet? I mean probably not (whatever that means) > > But as a replacement for saturated fats (butter, animal fat, coconut/palm oil) the evidence is just pretty overwhelming I think this is totally mistaken and would be willing to bet (if it is/was reasonably likely to verify in the future) that the causal effect of replacing saturated fat with canola oil on just about any important ultimate health outcome (not a proxy like cholesterol) is negative ### [Tweet, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666682048017309697) · 5 likes We just gotta make it a few more months bc 2023 has big “random year \*wink\*” energy. No way the world is gonna end in 2024 or 2025. Last two digits are gonna be a prime number fs ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 07:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666716524420243456) · 4 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** What does “AI doomer” mean? I think I take it to mean “>50% if business as usual” ### [Quote tweet, 08:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666719905801023491) · 9 likes Based 3yo (dw more below) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyFg67XWwAAaRyd.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyFg67ZWIAAGZSB.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyFg67XXoAAu10Z.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyFg67VWIAAr73o.jpg) > **Quoting Kristen Mulrooney (@missmulrooney):** My 3-year-old came to tell me there was a “big big chicken” in our yard and you will never guess what it actually was ### [Thread, continued, 08:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666719917326974976) · 3 likes Keep doing ur thing, kid👍 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyFg7YfXoAEDb2a.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyFg7YxXsAIU-9L.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyFg7YxWIAAp2gE.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyFg7YyX0AIa_QR.jpg) ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 08:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666724418972729344) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyFlBo5WwAEro0h.jpg) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 18:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666873432523276314) · 5 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @inesferhumi @RafaRuizdeLira Yo uso yasss en español tbh Como estan, otras personas hispanohablantes? [![Getting Old 30 Rock GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/FyHsjMKWYAI09fU.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666873432523276314/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666873809264050185) · 4 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 @inesferhumi @RafaRuizdeLira JAJAJAJA AARON POR FAVOR Es Arón😤 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666875032956436480) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** What are people's journaling tips and processes? 1\) don’t ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666877471503810583) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 Why? Idk ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666877687883759631) · 3 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** @austinc3301 @AaronBergman18 @RafaRuizdeLira > > [GIF attached](https://x.com/inesferhumi/status/1666875402097160192/photo/1) Gracias Sra Iñes 🙏🏼 ### [Reply to @AlanMCole, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666878184803926016) · 10 likes > **Alan Cole (@AlanMCole):** "Run for President" should not be a little button you can press to get a bunch of free publicity with no downsides. > > I can see why Yang, in particular, holds this view, but sorry, no. > > (quoting @AndrewYang: The media hit pieces on Marianne Williamson are out of control.) Nah she catches way more flack than is deserved ### [Reply, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666880262393692178) · 3 likes Yeah but Coles tweet isn’t addressing Yang’s point, which (I think, could be wrong) is that the flak is disproportionately undeserved ### [Tweet, 19:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666885511082827780) · 23 likes She’s low status to like but Nicki Minaj is an extremely talented rapper ### [Reply, 19:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666890953838190604) · 3 likes https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/chickens ### [Thread, continued, 19:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666891044758204419) · 2 likes It takes a long time to load bc chickens are numerous ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666943160243613696) · 5 likes > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** @astridwilde most guys can’t tell if a woman has had a haircut I can with 99% accuracy ### [Reply to @jdcmedlock, 23:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666949496884932608) · 5 likes > **James Medlock (@jdcmedlock):** The thing about "seed oils" is that all of the potential concerns aren't specific to that category. Too much Omega 6? Avoid soy/corn oil, canola is fine. Issues with solvent extraction? Go with expeller pressed. Oxidation from repeated cooking? Don't overdo it on deep frying Ooh bad take, the trads happen to be right about this one ### [Reply to @jdcmedlock, 23:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666950429836492800) · 4 likes > **James Medlock (@jdcmedlock):** @AaronBergman18 What's the best evidence on this? Theoretical + weak suggestive (or at least the abscence of contrary) empirical evidence Theoretical case: we know something has changed to induce extremely ahistorical levels of obesity and related metabolic disorders in the west. Obviously at the end of the day it’s CICO but… ### [Thread, continued, 23:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666951153555316738) · 5 likes then the q becomes why \*this\* has changed. Null hypothesis is abundant cheap tasty food. I think this is >90% likely to be not the main factor unless you’re looking at a population that was literally starving until recently; I can’t do justice to the evidence here but ### [Reply, 23:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666953868754710535) · 1 like in the evolutionary environment (or else you’d get very sick or die and not over decades) but waaaaay less than currently” and you wind up with a handful of things Adding in the constraint that the thing should be a molecule in particular, which seems a priori plausible bc of ### [Thread, continued, 23:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666954422423879680) · 1 like how our bodies handle compound substances (ie digestion) leaves you with…linoleic acid! Not omega 6s in general, probably Ofc this isn’t a rock solid case but all things considered I think it’s true. Plenty more to say ofc but that’s what’s cached in my brain ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666956950511185920) · 4 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** suffering isn’t a thing caused by pain, sadness, etc. suffering comes from resisting sensations, and we evolved to resist some (pain, sadness, etc) more by default Seems mostly semantic. Like one person might call “pain” the qualia of a pin prick minus the valence and another person lumps them together but they don’t disagree on anything but the word And does “resist” mean anything above and beyond “feel negative valence from”? ## Friday, June 9, 2023 ### [Reply to @bat1441, 00:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666971299195879424) · 2 likes > **bat (@bat1441):** do you have to be this photogenic to apply? 👀 Sure hope not ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 01:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666979499903262769) · 3 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** Does anybody know of research on the effects of melatonin on all-cause mortality? > > Given that other sleeping pills are indicted (at least in associational studies) with surprisingly large effects, I'd be interested in research about long-term effects of melatonin. Other pills being…benzos? If so it’s like comparing street-level amphetamine dosing green tea, both stimulants. Not that this is a real answer haha, but given how hard it is to find significant ACM effects I’d be shocked to find any high quality studies showing this (95?) ### [Quote tweet, 02:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666989791173386241) · 6 likes Indeed ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyJWYW3WIAM1xu5.jpg) > **Quoting in the pocket of Big Tenant (@AllezLesBoulez):** this is like V-E Day for liberal parents > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyI9IEZWIAANhxk.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666989793522188291) · 2 likes (also I don’t know much about the particulars here so low confidence but probably good bc trump is an extremely bad person who has broken very many laws and this is a direct abuse of the power of the presidency, not “merely” a crime anyone can commit) ### [Reply to @CineraVerinia, 02:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666990923845193728) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @CineraVerinia is no longer available.)_ 🤝 ### [Reply to @yishan, 02:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666993572623654912) · 3 likes > **Yishan (@yishan):** I dated not one but two lesbian women and I'm not sure what that means He just like me fr (and I also have literally no idea lmao) ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 02:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666995192761647104) · 3 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** @Laura_k_Duffy @austinc3301 Yes the US picks B \*pats self on back\* ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyJbSu_XgAAOYTQ.jpg) ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666996521206775810) > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** Fixed exchange rates can be valuable if you're a small country whose entire economy is dependent on international trade > > Singapore used to do this (and does a different version now, giving up monetary sovereignty) Better than using USD like \[South American country I forget\]? ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1666998110503960577) · 9 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** I am still actually confused about the claim being made here I think smth like “simple algorithm predictive processing is doing all the cognitive heavy lifting for humans, and the thing that feels like our identity is not this” ### [Tweet, 02:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667000135790862338) · 8 likes Apropos of nothing specific, here’s my anonymous feedback form to pin As long as it’s true and not literally an infohazard, I would greatly appreciate all the “u suck at this” or “don’t do this dumbass” type things you can muster https://www.admonymous.co/a ### [Thread, continued, 02:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667000137950871553) (Other things very welcome too) ### [Reply to @beffjezos, 02:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667003371931271168) · 3 likes > **Beff (e/acc) (@beffjezos):** I truly want all human medical doctors to lose their jobs. The day will come. AGI doctors will save lives. ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyJiu3oWAAY5a2O.jpg) ### [Reply, 03:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667008121980571650) · 1 like Death from everything except starvation ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 03:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667011536374693889) · 1 like > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** guy who thinks he’s the first person to ever feel this way Guy who really is ### [Reply to @ShirKi, 03:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667014462258200576) · 2 likes > **Shiri Dori-Hacohen♿️🧠✡️🦓 (🚫🥄s). 🟣🎗️🏴 (@ShirKi):** You can say a lot of things about EA, (no, "insane" or "deranged" are not useful choices), but internal consistency is not lacking in the community. You can get quite a few weird (to quote @KellerScholl) outcomes, but they are logical conclusions from the movement's basic axioms. > > (quoting @ShirKi: @gregkieser @KellerScholl @sparr_ml @perrymetzger Look, I'm not an advocate shrimp welfare (never heard of it before 20min ago) but the reasoning is pretty sound \*if\* (big if!!) you accept some of the basic EA axioms, along with a deep interest in animal welfare (not my personal…) Disagree - the movement would look way weirder if people were consistent This reads like a joke but isn’t ### [Reply, 04:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667021163334082561) · 17 likes Guy who keeps propranolol in his wallet in case he has to euthanize a rat (based) ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 04:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667021239607590912) · 2 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** @AaronBergman18 @inesferhumi The pufferfish needs an explanation Right, unlike the chicken ### [Reply, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667025005153009664) · 26 likes The second part doesn’t answer “why?”. ~All consumers want stronger animal welfare laws when asked directly, and the USG isn’t going to ban animal agriculture or do anything like it But yes it would be good to make chicken 1% more expensive to reduce their misery a bit ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 14:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667173971345780745) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @CineraVerinia The secret is they're actually not that different from other humans you've interacted with Fascinating. Thank you for sharing this forbidden knowledge 🙏🏼 ### [Reply to @inerati, 14:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667178060662046726) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ Now we know @PradyuPrasad’s and @austinc3301’s secret ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 14:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667183094032416769) · 8 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** I still think GiveDirectly is very good relative to most charities! But TBH the tone of most coverage of this has mildly irked me > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyMDpmrWwAAL8Xa.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyMDpm3XgAIyfik.png) I honestly don’t have a good picture of whether the fraud was bad luck given close to optimal policies or closer to negligence or what Like implication isn’t to necessarily to change whatever processes they have (which takes time and money and effort) but it certainly could be ### [Reply to @chinesegon, 16:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667201701583937537) _(The tweet being replied to by @chinesegon is no longer available.)_ I agree tbc but would add the headline situation is not unique to Asians ### [Reply to @xanderatch, 16:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667202278783164416) · 2 likes > **Αlex e/π (@xanderatch):** @AaronBergman18 @Duderichy @astridwilde but telling them which hair is creepy Oh, that explains things. Thanks for lmk ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 16:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667203304919638016) · 5 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** Fyi!! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyJ-OxPacAIwdQB.jpg) We have no way of knowing what the number will be tomorrow. It has never been 5 days to 2023 Vibecamp before so predictions are futile, meaningless, and distracting ### [Reply to @SpencrGreenberg, 16:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667203517105287169) > **Spencer Greenberg 🔍 (@SpencrGreenberg):** 7 tools I use that save me time every week: > > 1\) I read 1 news story daily, hearing the perspective from both the left and the right on that story. I do this by subscribing to the free "Flip Side" newsletter. Another option is "AllSides." I find one story daily to be enough news. Oh no Spencer is a midwit in this one particular domain ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 16:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667208589537075202) · 4 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** How has he got so many followers?! When did this happen?? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyMXulEWcAAmBKc.jpg) 21,400 people navigated to his profile and clicked “follow” ### [Reply to @jdcmedlock, 16:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667212694905135104) · 7 likes > **James Medlock (@jdcmedlock):** My brother in christ, you are citing a study supporting the health benefits of canola oil > https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s004280050365 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyMH1BKWcAABOLb.jpg) > (quoting @AmbrosesDrink: @jdcmedlock Study that compared the size of hearts in rats fed 3 different diets Group 1: standard Group 2: high cholesterol Group 3: canola “Those fed the canola oil had the smallest hearts, supporting previous studies showing canola oil damages heart muscle” All yours friend) I’m very skeptical of intermediate measures like this as a legit proxy for important health outcomes ### [Reply to @jdcmedlock, 16:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667213069020192768) · 2 likes > **James Medlock (@jdcmedlock):** Very cool > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyMI7H9WAAAeJmw.jpg) Insightful comment from Mr. Penis Retard ### [Reply to @HotForMoot, 17:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667225004520402945) · 5 likes > **Riley Read-Only (@HotForMoot):** Man my faaaavorite kind of people are the ones who are autistic about drug-use. They have calendar events with when they can take molly again. They have pillboxes with built-in timers. They have festival spreadsheets of which days to take which drugs Omg it’s me ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 17:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667226333141671942) · 4 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** I had a dream that my 5 month old baby was @QualyThe and I think that's the kind of twist EA Twitter needs I don’t know who this is directed towards but it feels appropriate ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyMtg54WIBU2H-3.jpg) ### [Reply to @CrispyWicks, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667231946286440455) · 2 likes > **Chris P. Wicks 🔎🐜 (@CrispyWicks):** @AaronBergman18 @HotForMoot First the 🔍, now this. I knew we vibed together. 👊 ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667249778617466881) · 2 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyM-uuSWYAAstNF.jpg) “At t = -1 with respect to hours and the dentist appt” ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 23:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667313696224280576) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @daniel_271828 @JesseTayRiver I think it might be a serious thing @AaronBergman18 is trying to make happen Yes I unironically think @JesseTayRiver should run for something, unfortunately the “born in Canada” thing makes president a long shot, but state legislature or even congress Id be seriously supportive of ## Saturday, June 10, 2023 ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667344915078971394) > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Do you self-identify as a liberal (def: an adherent to liberalism)? > > Do you believe rights are fundamentally real (and not just instrumentally useful concepts for increasing human wellbeing)? I will fight anyone who says yes 😊 ### [Reply, 01:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667345245586042881) · 1 like Reading classics is a dealbreaker for me ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 01:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667345961809485827) · 2 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** I accept Some part of the boundary lines between this state and the State of Virginia is within forty five miles of this place- I have heard after all your gasconading conduct that you are preparing to leave town within a day or two, you have not named a place out of the limits of this ### [Thread, continued, 01:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667345994734772225) · 3 likes State when you and myself can have a personal interview; not withstanding you have been informed that you might name the place and I would the time- Such conduct is characteristic with yourself. This is the last I shall write you on the subject. ### [Reply to @Bbburner19, 01:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667346490765844481) · 2 likes > **The People Mover That Was Promised (@Bbburner19):** @AaronBergman18 @Laura_k_Duffy Writing like Aaron Burrgman here. Bangurr ### [Reply, 01:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667347509969055745) · 1 like My god ### [Quote tweet, 01:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667349128001585154) · 7 likes Looks like EA will be getting a new megadonor 😤 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyOdMf5WIAEf7yU.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Serious question for #YIMBYTwitter: where height restrictions per se are the issue, why haven’t developers started building vertically but \*down\*, underground? > > I mean windowless apartments don’t sound ideal, but probably less bad than unaffordability and homelessness > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FVDbUGTXEAAn6_Z.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667350191760896001) · 2 likes The EA community after I donate $0.12 and cause untold reputational damage [![Bravo Applause GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/FyOeKPLXoAIO_rW.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667350191760896001/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 02:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667364638063751168) · 3 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** Idk my point is the other 4 eyes (maybe except Canada) are or were very important geopolitical players. > > US and UK obviously. Australia with all the China stuff going on. > > How is NZ relevant in this? Theyre gonna survive nuclear war ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667365407269744640) · 1 like > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 @PradyuPrasad Yeah but many of us could too, and they might not do as well after the subsequent US invasion. Hostile invasion of NZ? Are you joking I legit can’t tell? ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667368197505314817) · 4 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** I gained a ton from Nicomachean Ethics, but After Virtue is much more accessible “I gained a ton from Nicomachean Ethics” Statement dreamed up by the utterly DERANGED ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 03:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667377003954151424) · 6 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Claim: Without god or moral realism people would be murdering each other in the street > > Reality: The EA movement for some reason Agree but ea would be even better if ea ppl got on board the (true) moral realism train ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667378246034366464) · 2 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Tfw you're synchronised with your American followers just because you're a night owl > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyNkhAyWwAIume2.png) With the power vested in me as former intern of the department of the interior (national parks n stuff), I hereby grant you American citizenship ### [Reply, 03:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667379220828266497) · 1 like I don’t think ethics and meta ethics are independent here; certain normative ethical stances are more plausible and convincing under moral realism (I claim bc they’re true) ### [Thread, continued, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667379568842252289) · 1 like Namely I’m talking about impartial hedonic utilitarianism (which itself does not fully define what’s good and bad bc non Pareto improvements (eg more happiness and more suffering) are ambiguous) ### [Reply, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667379818541862912) · 5 likes Moral anti-realists when they think truth needs a truth maker https://x.com/absurdlymax/status/1667377647905648641?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ### [Reply to @univrsw3th4rt, 03:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667380875481305090) · 5 likes > **universe sweetheart 💓🌈💭 (@univrsw3th4rt):** oh hey anybody have any tips/hacks for having alcohol not completely fuck u up for days afterward aha Wait actually I recall some maybe non insane speculation around activated charcoal literally absorbing and then making you excrete alcohol metabolites quickly ### [Reply to @catehall, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667382431584776193) · 2 likes > **Cate Hall 🔸 (@catehall):** beyond a certain point, there might be negative returns to intelligence on your ability to see the world as it really is -- if you're a super genius, you can find an intricate rationalization for any belief and others have a hard time pinning down why you're wrong even when they can sense it. this has been the case for ~1/2 of the smartest people i've known. Seems maybe true for being the smartest human by a bit bc others won’t be able to make plausible sounding critiques but unlikely at the limit ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 04:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667383031634485249) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 @univrsw3th4rt https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/LfrNFfJFcqnG9WuFf/activated-charcoal-for-hangover-prevention-way-more-than-you 🤝 ### [Reply to @chriswaterguy, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667394147471245312) · 3 likes > **Chris Waterguy – neurodivergent coaching (@chriswaterguy):** @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax and concretely? Fair enough lol I didn’t actually say None of this inherently follows bc some will dispute the instrumental value of these things but: less money and effort to preventing human deaths relative to reducing suffering or improving happiness, less focus on humans overall, ### [Thread, continued, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667394804156596225) · 2 likes AI alignment more tractable (not certain about this) bc “human values” replaced with a specific thing, EA as a whole bigger and more robust (former very uncertain, the latter conditional on being right), more consensus and productive debate (ie less agreeing to disagree), at ### [Thread, continued, 04:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667395455414665216) · 2 likes least on the current set of common points of disagreement (ofc these will be replaced by new ones), and relatedly/maybe most importantly: \*better plausible true critiques even from critics who buy that premise\* ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 12:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667507366173048833) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AStrasser116 @AaronBergman18 I think you need something that makes the moral theory true outside or locally defined truths. Utilitarianism if accepted implies certain moral truths, but you need a reason to accept it Not op but I’d argue (in fact I am arguing!) that utilitarianism is a name for the bundle of conclusions that emerge \*downstream\* of accepting certain moral facts as true for other reasons ### [Reply to @chriswaterguy, 12:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667510903044964352) · 1 like > **Chris Waterguy – neurodivergent coaching (@chriswaterguy):** Okay – some of this seems very abstract to me (hence my prodding). > > "less money and effort to preventing human deaths relative to reducing suffering or improving happiness" > > If someone's not on board with that, is there any chance they would have been swayed by moral realism? 1/2 Empirically I don’t think it’s very likely but yes, if the person just suddenly went from credence 20% to 80% in moral realism, (my claim is that) they would find it \*more likely\*, to some extent, that happiness and suffering are the only intrinsic goods… ### [Reply, 12:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667511305996062726) · 2 likes I don’t think I was clear earlier that this one claim requires more empirical assumptions - namely about how good human lives tend to be and how tractable improving them is So I think it follows but conditionally and only indirectly ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 12:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667514692707799040) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @inesferhumi Between totally meaningless and implying unimaginable crimes as our next step as a species Sounds like the kind of thing I already know about lmao, so if you think that’s right feel free to dm ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 12:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667515459699089408) · 40 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @PradyuPrasad is no longer available.)_ Seems admirable to put your money where your mouth is like this, even if you think his probability estimate was wrong ### [Reply to @inerati, 12:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667515711307100160) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ Boo playing 4d chess like this empirically ~never works just tell ppl what u think ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 12:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667516446228856833) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @AStrasser116 I think moral realists are almost always people who think morality is action guiding, and an ordering of possible universes by value isn't actually action guiding Evidently some people want to figure out what good moral actions are tho and these people would care ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 13:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667519581399703553) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @PradyuPrasad is no longer available.)_ Not certain but other ways to improve besides using more data. Parameters, algorithms, maybe other things? ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 13:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667519733896290306) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @PradyuPrasad Do you think FTX compound still has some stimulants lying around I could snatch Grab some 4 me ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 17:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667583091148300289) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** It pains me that they'll never give me 40 million dollars and 20 years to write a really long comic storyline Not with that attitude ### [Reply to @humanfranklin, 17:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667585615066460163) · 8 likes > **Franklin Bruno (@humanfranklin):** Ok, all you geniuses: who’s a -smart- person’s idea of a smart person? Whose intellectual work and manner of presenting it has earned your respect? Or do we not commit ourselves that way on Twitter? Ok fine I’ll say it Yud is very smart ### [Reply, 17:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667587499571437573) · 1 like Me: yup that’s wine ### [Reply to @GluskerMartin, 18:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667600955175587840) · 1 like > **Martin Glusker (@GluskerMartin):** Probably depends pretty heavily on your field, but you should network a lot, and more than you think you should be Darn ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667601179474272256) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Squirrel watchin’ > > [video attached](https://x.com/SpacedOutMatt/status/1667600858110984198/video/1) Invite him inside ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FySCb1LXoAEGI53.jpg) ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 19:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667620657323032581) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ Who else googled Father’s Day ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667621162967285760) > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** I've started reading the transcript while listening to podcasts - a bit like a child being read to, but at the same time reading in the book. > > It helps making sure you don't miss anything (e.g. if it's hard to hear what they say). > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FBfx99uXMAIOx5U.png) I’ve tried this and find it worse for comprehension actually, like there’s no brainpower left over for turning the words I read and hear into nonverbal concepts ### [Reply, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667621576118870017) · 2 likes Commented on the original by accident so ### [Reply to @vaidehiagrwalla, 20:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667633297923383298) · 2 likes > **Vaidehi Agarwalla (@vaidehiagrwalla):** suggestion for EA Forum posts: "First Draft" post. kinda like a shortform but more expanded and looks like a google doc (easy commenting on specific sections etc) > > Could be it's own section "WIP posts" or something. \+1M ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 20:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667633615696527363) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** YES! Stefan Schubert correcting the president never gets old. > > (quoting @StefanFSchubert: @POTUS Recovered \*the same number of jobs that was lost\* (and more)) Could be you one day ### [Tweet, 20:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667634735579840513) · 45 likes Kaczynski was very bad ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FySg87lWwAQIF2H.jpg) ### [Reply to @Superlinear_, 20:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667637198936584193) · 2 likes > **Superlinear - X-Risk Prizes (@Superlinear_):** Agree 10000%. There's no way I would be able to accomplish my current challenge without multi-channel reading. > > https://manifold.markets/DrewSpartz/will-i-read-a-nonfiction-book-a-day?r=RHJld1NwYXJ0eg Oh damn that’s a lot of audio ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 21:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667637879969906691) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** In addition to being a terrorist he was also a horrible carpenter. People romanticize the cabin but it's an absolute piece of garbage. It looks like a child's drawing. Skilled teenagers routinely build superior structures in a week or 2. > > (quoting @ecto_fun: obsessed with the image of the unabombers entire cabin in an fbi storage facility) Eh I think he has me beat on this one dimension ### [Tweet, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667639607809155073) · 3 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FySlYlNXsAEYi-O.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FySlYlMWIAABtGb.jpg) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 21:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667645895410606082) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @peterwildeford Enron's corporate values: > > 1\. Running through crowds at incredible hihg speed > 2\. Standing in bright orange rooms > 3\. Putting golf balls in front of their eyes? > 4\. Baseball > 5\. RICE Weird coincidence those are my intrinsic values ### [Quote tweet, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667646677602148358) · 4 likes Facts only weirdos in DC > **Quoting typedfemale (@typedfemale):** or they are already in DC which is extremely sus no matter how you slice it ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667647724559138817) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 9, 2023:** (Other things very welcome too) Good shit, keep it coming guys ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FySsxGVWIAEvXJd.jpg) ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667662564392595458) · 2 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** @absurdlymax The email that got me my current job > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FySyttbWACA5eKP.jpg) God I hate that this works (tho happy it got u ur job👍) ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 22:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667663237582577671) · 2 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax Yeah it’s not a well written email in retrospect but I had to force myself to actually write it and send it, so I just wrote it real quick after work one night. Works cause no one’s willing to do this Fuck ### [Thread, continued, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667663828895539201) · 2 likes “Hi cvs I sometimes speculate about pharmacology on Twitter, also my grandfather was a pharmacist so it’s probably in my epigenetics somehow. Plz tell me when I should show up Thx Aaron” ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 22:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667664651981582336) · 1 like > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** “Have you taken the NAPLEX yet?” Ya I got a 100% \*fingers crossed behind my back so it’s ok\* ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 22:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667665145454026753) · 2 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax That’s not how it works lol. But you shoot a message to a district leader you’ve got a technician job instantly, they’re so desperate lol Say the guy who didn’t get a 100%🙄 ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667665610107387906) · 1 like > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** I def did not get a 100%, but they stopped showing you what you got the year I graduated unless you failed Little did u know I’m class of 2019 ## Sunday, June 11, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667687994264879107) · 3 likes Normal brain: using one version of python Expanding brain: using multiple versions intentionally Galaxy brain (me): using multiple versions because you have no idea what you’re doing ### [Reply to @auderdy, 14:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667898254510501895) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @auderdy is no longer available.)_ Based ### [Reply to @Langerhans_isle, 15:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667909595195486209) · 3 likes > **Al Bumin (@Langerhans_isle):** Because Alabama is free riding on the ingenuity of Jews in New York. That’s (mostly - there are some federal transfers) not free riding, just normal positive externalities and mutually beneficial gains from trade ### [Reply to @georainbolt, 15:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667910262962155522) · 2,646 likes > **rainbolt (@georainbolt):** @RWilliams_Belt looked like the ghana east road to me and i remember seeing mountains east so i found a road that lined up and got lucky lol Obviously, who doesn’t instantly recognize the Ghana east road ?? ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1667963979434434560) · 4 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** FYI!!!!! 🎊🎊💥💥🥳🥳 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyXLRS_agAAkH_2.jpg) How many days until vibecamp will it be tomorrow? ## Monday, June 12, 2023 ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 03:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668094601767399424) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Charging immigrants on their earnings might be a reasonable thing to do. Public would be much happier if they saw immigrants as a benefit to them. > > (quoting @atrupar: "We'll make a fortune" -- Trump proposes charging a 15 percent tax (?) on foreigners entering the United States) If I was a Mexican immigrant with a net worth of $800 and the prospect of 10xing my earnings by moving to the US, I think I’d take that deal ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 03:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668095420755595264) · 2 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** I am not going to defend male circumcision, but FGM can have very long-lasting negative effects on women in a way that does make it much worse in a qualitatively different way Yeah that seems pretty clearly much worse ### [Reply to @summer_of_bliss, 03:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668096474192773120) · 2 likes > **brad (@summer_of_bliss):** EAs will fiercely deny being a utilitarian, then you ask them why and they say because they think it’s permissible to intrinsically value the welfare of the worst-off as much as precisely 0.5% more I will fiercely deny that I deny being a utilitarian ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668128136876179458) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I suppose if you're utilitarian this matters more, but how many of the effects do you have to remove to make it morally acceptable? > > I don't think I necessarily communicated that from the start, but I don't think we only view it as horrible because of the outcomes Actually it matters the same irrespective of which ethics you subscribe to bc utilitarianism is true \*runs away\* ### [Reply to @TheFigen_, 06:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668140345492733953) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TheFigen_ is no longer available.)_ Yo what the fuck ### [Reply to @meaning_enjoyer, 12:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668227098312335369) · 5 likes > **nihilism disrespecter (@meaning_enjoyer):** realizing that insects and fish may have rich inner lives should fill us with horror Inner lives yes, “rich” I mean maybe but I don’t see much reason to think so ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 13:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668252243919794177) · 1 like > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 @amitlevy64 @acidshill ah so Big Yud co-wrote another fantasy book but this is written on a website where each paragraph or two is sent as a post on a forum. and it's very l o o o o n g, and i'd prefer to read a much shorter version of it. > > here's the tvtropes about the story. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Roleplay/ProjectLawful A gpt4 “chat with pdf” plug-in might work https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wyPKRBHGYnUvdSgJM4_8PM2c5jl30lNA/view?usp=drivesdk ### [Reply to @Ian_Gay_briel, 14:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668265211801792514) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @Ian_Gay_briel is no longer available.)_ @Laura_k_Duffy can we get a fact check ### [Reply to @97641346367463x, 14:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668271405790552065) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @97641346367463x is no longer available.)_ Yes. YES. ### [Reply to @EAheadlines, 17:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668316604017278976) · 3 likes > **EA Lifestyles (@EAheadlines):** hmmmmm 🤔 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fybxlq4WYAIXm1b.jpg) Looks like a complete draft! ### [Reply, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668319202644459520) · 1 like Once I become fuck you rich I will be able to like this tweet. Until then… ### [Reply, 18:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668319351730995218) · 1 like Wow ur good at this ### [Reply, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668321107496009741) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Have u seen a random sample of n>=30 men? ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668326433377390593) · 3 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @frances\_\_lorenz If we are starting a witch hunt I recall that @AaronBergman18 says this a lot Yes I am the witch ### [Reply to @BenHayum, 19:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668343999596462082) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @BenHayum is no longer available.)_ All you need \*is\* all you need ## Tuesday, June 13, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668494102281740288) · 5 likes Prima facie based but do we know who “us” is, more specifically than “the UK government,” and what kind of quality evals we can expect? > **Quoting Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak):** We'll lead on AI at home🇬🇧 > > @DeepMind, @OpenAI and @AnthropicAI will give us early access to their models to help us understand any potential risks. > > And we’re launching two new fellowships to enhance machine learning in drugs and food design, and AI scientist training. ### [Quote tweet, 05:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668494472173301768) · 2 likes Overton window go crack > **Quoting roon (@tszzl):** he’s fr doing it ### [Reply, 05:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668495425278558210) · 1 like Just paste everything into a random unnamed google doc I’m only half kidding ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 16:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668658771843854338) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ I’m bullish on witches ### [Thread, continued, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668659531780440064) · 3 likes Bearish on goblins, ghouls, etc ### [Reply to @ManifoldMarkets, 16:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668662175819345927) > **Manifold (@ManifoldMarkets):** Btw the answer is no :) > But we love him all the more 💙 I am so confused lmao ### [Reply to @keithfrankish, 16:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668662424474361856) > **Keith Frankish (@keithfrankish):** Is America really as weird as it seems from the news? What news source/articles? ### [Reply to @ftlsid, 16:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668663641560821771) · 1 like > **ftlsid (@ftlsid):** personally I think this account has always been cringe in a deeply important way. it’s cringe to be negative about the way things are - our society values personal power and agency and striving to improve one’s lot No insight here but (1) cringe is the new based and (2) I resonate with a bunch of that thread and related posts - not all but lots ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 16:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668664262028406803) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Real > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FygkrNuakAMpcNY.jpg) > (quoting @ratbitebaby: misogyny checkpoint: what’s the first tweet that shows up when you search “women” on your page ?) 👍 ### [Tweet, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668664479985414148) · 7 likes Here’s all of them ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyhJgCkXsAMIxZJ.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyhJgChXsAcVcsv.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyhJgCiXsBUjcVk.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyhJgCkXsAcblcx.jpg) ### [Tweet, 17:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668670624888238088) · 4 likes Twitter really said “sorry bro this is IMPORTANT” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyhPFsmWAAAc7Mo.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyhPFskXsB8ncse.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 17:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668670627425792014) And they’re right! Lmao Olivia ==🐐, but when I posted this a while ago it unleashed a torrential downpour of Oliviaposting on my tl ### [Reply to @myhandle, 17:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668674073927331840) · 7 likes > **Jakeup (@myhandle):** your startup is acquired by a public company for stock, and their share price tanks on the announcement > > in purely financial terms, is this: > A. good for you because it means they overpaid relative to your fair value even at the new share $ > B. bad because you're losing money > > ? I think you invented causal vs evidential decision theory ### [Reply to @pennilessdick, 18:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668686552744992786) · 3 likes > **Penniless Dick (@pennilessdick):** @keithfrankish @AaronBergman18 Remember, only weirdos show up to that kind of thing. > > It’s a very biased sample size Not even the cool weirdos imo ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668686846870560772) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ ### [Tweet, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668687576754954269) · 9 likes Cringe is the new based ### [Thread, continued, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668687579439308809) · 2 likes Based is the same based as before, it’s a big tent ## Wednesday, June 14, 2023 ### [Reply to @vaidehiagrwalla, 03:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668819545912487937) · 1 like > **Vaidehi Agarwalla (@vaidehiagrwalla):** I am clearly too old for this, because I can't tell if you're joking Cringe ### [Thread, continued, 03:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1668820832330608642) · 2 likes Lol idk either, half joking I guess. I am legit pro-cringe at the current margin which is maybe just anti-anti-cringe bc in general everything would be better if people worried less about what the high status thing to say is ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669052571644747785) · 3 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FympeVpaAAAO_5U.jpg) > [GIF attached](https://x.com/ohwizenedtortle/status/1669051516777533440/photo/1) > [GIF attached](https://x.com/ohwizenedtortle/status/1669051516777533440/photo/1) > [GIF attached](https://x.com/ohwizenedtortle/status/1669051516777533440/photo/1) Statistically the chance of you guessing right 9 days in a row is extremely low ergo vibecamp will never come ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 22:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669103693168353281) · 5 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Common Rethink W Every single priority has been rethought at this point ### [Quote tweet, 22:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669105628734713863) · 4 likes My originally-speculative take that Andreessen = sociopath (in a serious literal sense) keeps bearing fruit The qt’d tweets below > **Quoting ░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░ (@sullyj3):** I don't usually make fun of people for blocking, but blocking Dwarkesh for a post that is the epitome of good faith, thoughtful, substantive disagreement, is a massive L on Marc's part. After he went on the guy's podcast!? Only sycophancy will be tolerated apparently ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 22:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669108833845665792) · 4 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Just wait until you read our Worldview Investigations work 😱😱😱 ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669109134824808450) · 3 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Just wait until you read our Worldview Investigations work It’ll just tell me which worldview to have right? Right?? ## Thursday, June 15, 2023 ### [Reply to @myhandle, 04:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669196173217865728) · 3 likes > **Jakeup (@myhandle):** one page first draft summary of my book about dating other people > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FymojuTWYAI6EOS.png) > (quoting @visakanv: in the interest of scenius-building I now issue an open challenge to all my mutuals to QT this tweet with ", explain right fckn now, in one breath, standing on one foot" in a 1-page screenshot) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyotEsNXgAAvFq6.jpg) ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 04:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669196916154851331) · 7 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** today I’m openly coming out as believing all problems are gradient descent problems What about trying to get to the top of a hill? What then??? ### [Reply to @LinkofSunshine, 04:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669200414158274561) · 3 likes > **Basil🧡 (@LinkofSunshine):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyoPVsQXgAISRgr.png) Oy vey ## Friday, June 16, 2023 ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669500195560718336) · 4 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Assuming equal cost-effectiveness, would you prefer to give money to unconditional cash-transfer programs (GiveDirectly) or anti-malaria programs (Against Malaria)? > > Which do you think the average donor would favor, cash transfers or anti-malaria bed nets? Wait doesn’t assuming equal cost effectiveness just make them…ethically equal? At least if cost effectiveness is left unitless I assume it to mean “in the true/best moral units” ### [Reply to @nullpointered, 00:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669501632952893441) · 3 likes > **null (@nullpointered):** Still can't believe they doxxed the lofi beats girl > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fyoi4staMAM8l7d.jpg) Superhuman intelligence is already here ### [Reply to @Republicans, 04:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669558046324916229) · 328 likes > **Republicans (@Republicans):** Work is ongoing constructing Joe Biden's 8,000 mile long 'ocean train' > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FysSvoQWIAEBL1V.jpg) Is this supposed to be embarrassing? Bc I want an ocean train ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 04:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669559176530472960) · 1 like > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** autogenerate correlated variables in squigglepy? Wow! > > This sneak peak coming soon thanks to hard work from @austinc3301 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FytY06UWwAEcxtk.png) Wait u can assign variables like “a, b = 1, 2” ?😱😱😱 ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 04:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669562739159715840) · 3 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18 @austinc3301 yeah One point for python in its war against R ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 04:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669563779586113536) · 1 like > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** You're fighting the war that was lost like three years ago The real war is won in the hearts and minds of the people ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669564397444898816) · 3 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18 @austinc3301 https://x.com/peterwildeford/status/1669563914684604417 It’s neck and neck ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fyt7-IEXoAE_uKH.jpg) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669565184694681600) · 3 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Who is winning the war in your heart and mind? Flooding the zone ### [Tweet, 05:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669571273427435520) · 8 likes That Marxist adjunct making $35k had a point ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyuCOUAWAC0YTv4.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669571279895113735) · 6 likes I don’t think having a small home library with some old looking chairs and maybe 100 used books disqualifies a person from being poor ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyuCOuAWYAE1Wqr.jpg) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669573238156849152) · 5 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Who is winning the war in your heart and mind? I’m hearing reports of widespread voter fraud ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 05:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669575002876772352) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18 That's because Python programmers know how to write bots and R programmers don't F ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 05:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669582597456904192) · 29 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FytpiO7WAAEakvc.jpg) Bad take, other professions don’t have a gatekeeping system (journals+reviewers) to decide whether your actual work output counts as work output ### [Reply to @ThanksThoth, 07:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669602808968933376) · 12 likes > **Rod 🙂👍 (@ThanksThoth):** I'm about to take this good luck everybody else > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyuBwIiXwAESE41.jpg) Yes honey but only a couple pills ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fyue6CRWIAENGsx.jpg) ### [Tweet, 07:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669603177388179459) · 3 likes 1 qualy per reply ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 12:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669686663549710336) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Yes it’s morally obligatory ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 12:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669689677811531777) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ QALY secured ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 14:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669711679721197569) · 3 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** Mood > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fyv-64zaQAA-AiE.jpg) Ur not allowed to tweet this it’s illegal ❌ ### [Tweet, 15:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669723415027040256) · 4 likes We need ur vote https://manifold.markets/AaronBergman/how-many-bangers-will-olivia-rodrig?r=QWFyb25CZXJnbWFu ### [Reply, 15:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669732626389782530) · 2 likes That’s where I put my spheres👍 ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 17:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669753205633298456) · 19 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** 🐡 puffer fish are full off? If it was air they wouldn’t be able to stay under water, cmon guys ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 20:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669807641810419713) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @ryancbriggs @polisisti > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyxAuu5WIA45nQG.png) And they all live within 4.5 feet of the US border ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 21:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669814357054595073) > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** I can’t understand how alcohol is the same drug I used to like. Its only effect is nerfing everything now. Surely it changed? “I don’t like alcohol” club lfg ## Saturday, June 17, 2023 ### [Reply to @lkbm, 01:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669886330887720962) · 2 likes > **Luca K. B. Masters (@lkbm):** @RyanRadia @AaronBergman18 @MariGO2thepolls Electrolysis. > > (Does O2 count as air, or do we need nitrogen to quality?) "where would it get the electricity"? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fyygw7oWcBUfpZS.jpg) ### [Tweet, 02:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1669889716634697728) · 5 likes Phishing attacks keep getting more sophisticated ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fyyj2NGX0AEto6A.jpg) ### [Reply to @tunguz, 12:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670039524007714818) · 2 likes > **Bojan Tunguz (@tunguz):** Cringe is the new Based Many are saying ### [Tweet, 12:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670043025668550656) · 15 likes Recent batch of talks from EAG London are live on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, Google pods lagging for some reason https://open.spotify.com/show/0lHqS3M08p1jGvBkRIVoFa?si=E3V_9UCSSLG46KQIn_gSTQ ### [Reply to @TheAtlantic, 12:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670044428956753920) · 3 likes > **The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic):** Online, every mysterious ailment can be blamed on out-of-whack hormones. Testing your body chemistry at home probably isn't the way to get clarity, @alipattillo reports. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2023/06/at-home-hormone-test-kits/674426/?taid=648da3cb01365d0001cee766&utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_content=true-anthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter I’m paywalled but seems like a bad take. Every mysterious ailment can be blamed on hormones because they are involved in a ton of biological processes and hence indicative or causative of dysfunction And ~15% of US women have Hashimoto’s! Which really does manifest ambiguously! ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 15:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670087495051010051) · 4 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @aarmlovi Yo @AaronBergman18 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fy1XudhXwAEJQ68.jpg) ### [Reply to @CineraVerinia, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670112793377267713) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @CineraVerinia is no longer available.)_ Relevant disclaimer lol. Obviously it's not literally the most important thing from a utilitarian perspective but I bet it predicts/correlates with generosity and empathy more generally ### [Tweet, 20:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670164050922053632) · 18 likes ![A simple diagram of a pig](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fy2dKPKWcAIobKm.jpg) ## Sunday, June 18, 2023 ### [Tweet, 05:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670297355311038464) · 6 likes Seems like a mistake on evolution's part that if you get a small cut on your lip you just keep bleeding a small to moderate amount until you die ### [Reply to @LuiseWoehlke, 05:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670298490688110592) · 2 likes > **Luise Woehlke (@LuiseWoehlke):** Anyone know a good resource with a \*long, ordered list\* of the most useful keyboard shortcuts? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fy4XIdMXgA8pWNX.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fy4XnrXXgAEnGg1.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fy4XnrmX0AAS1Dl.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fy4XnsEWIAISWQe.jpg) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 05:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670301122236411904) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** The cultural landscape that's emerging around AI x-risk is completely bizarre. Human extinction is the end point on a spectrum of bad potential outcomes that includes increased discrimination & inequality, crime, terrorism, war, etc. > > (quoting @robertskmiles: @rajiinio If we lived in the hypothetical world where AI actually is a serious extinction risk, what concrete evidence would you expect to be available right now? This is not rhetorical or meant as a gotcha, what kind of evidence are you looking for?) uhh I wish it was the end of that spectrum :( ### [Reply, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670321960918695936) · 2 likes the memory part yeah but the ngf thing I think is pretty robust ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 13:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670419577488932864) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ A chair is that which, when described as an abstract idea, does not set up the trap situation referenced in this tweet ### [Reply, 13:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670420011742011395) · 3 likes Well then I shall be a midwit🧐 ### [Reply to @Astatide42, 13:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670421790798274561) · 1 like > **Astatide (@Astatide42):** The options available for sharing math on Twitter seem to be > \- use unicode math symbols (ugly, no super-/subscripts) > \- write raw \\LaTeX (illegible) > \- give up, typeset everything in LaTeX and either put screenshots in every tweet or just upload the pdf > > Am I missing anything? Get fed up and make keyboard corrections/shortcuts so that ^ or \_ followed by any digit or \[+-=\] autocorrects to super/subscript¹ ¹ looks like my subscript thingy isn’t working tho² ² or the superscript symbols ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 14:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670433338685808647) · 4 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** @AaronBergman18 What about a stapled together dual consciousness pig? We bind them together with warm comfy blankets 😡 ### [Tweet, 14:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670441567000178688) · 20 likes What’s the most esoteric programming language I can “learn” that will serve as a good fake signal? One that ur only supposed to know after proving P=NP and building a billion dollar company and such ### [Reply to @adam__isom, 14:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670444982048641030) · 4 likes > **adam ✧ ❥ ~ (@adam__isom):** @AaronBergman18 Lisp > > As a bonus it’s fun—try Racket specifically, seems to have the best rails / resources for ramping up (read: the only lisp that has any at all) Cool I’ve never even heard of racket so must be good ### [Tweet, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670502191914799105) · 109 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fy7Q4-lXgAgAaSy.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fy7Q4-lXwAAQUUq.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670502194573893633) · 23 likes Fun times ### [Thread, continued, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670502197254053890) · 10 likes Fr though a couple disagreements about culture war-ish topics with ppl I value the opinions and think highly of bothered me way more. No death threats from these ones tho lol ### [Reply to @growing_daniel, 19:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670507663979868160) · 33 likes > **Daniel (@growing_daniel):** It’s pretty insane that over 50% of men in the US have gotten limb lengthening surgery Ur misinterpreting the statistics - it’s just one guy who’s gotten the operation 80M times ### [Reply to @m_ashcroft, 20:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670522780427644930) · 6 likes > **Michael Ashcroft (@m_ashcroft):** on a call just now, while drinking a Diet Coke, I noticed my capacity to remain in connection with the other person got more difficult > > it felt like the caffeine reduced my ability to stay present and grounded > > my thoughts went more to myself and ideas at the cost of connection Don’t make me tap the phenylalanine->phenethylamine sign (it’s not the caffeine) Prediction: you hadn’t eaten much other protein in a few hours ### [Tweet, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670526779335888901) · 24 likes I regret to report that, for the second time, I have started a podcast The life strategy of this one is to be low effort, low stakes, and merely better than nothing most of the time while causing minimal harm Episode 1/\[1, ♾️\]: @Laura_k_Duffy https://open.spotify.com/episode/0XM212iTrsJLwgXM8VBRWS?si=8GoXC-K5SJOxaSIk3iY5KA ### [Thread, continued, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670526781332258819) · 6 likes Thank you to @RoddyRicch’s legal team for not yet sending me a cease and desist letter about the intro music. I think it’s a symbiotic business relationship ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670530365436379136) · 2 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Thanks @AaronBergman18 for having me on for the first episode of the Pigeon Hour podcast! It was a lot of fun! > > (Apologies in advance for any cringing I may cause in the process of listening 🙃) > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: I regret to report that, for the second time, I have started a podcast The life strategy of this one is to be low effort, low stakes, and merely better than nothing most of the time while causing minimal harm Episode 1/\[1, ♾️\]: @Laura_k_Duffy…) The only thing ppl will be cringing at is ur Aristotle takes ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 21:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670537851728011265) > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** I SWEAR I didn’t give it this title Let the ppl decide Did Laura name this podcast episode? ### [Quote tweet, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670545509755363328) · 9 likes The zero'th episode was with Nathan, but I uh didn't actually manage to capture the audio of him talking Will post reconstituted, inferred version once we get ASI > **Quoting Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** @AaronBergman18 @Laura_k_Duffy Just brutal nathan erasure here. ### [Thread, continued, 21:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670546975010222082) · 4 likes Wait can anyone read lips really well? Is there good AI for this? ## Monday, June 19, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670590598959583232) · 2 likes boy do i have a blog post for u https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/contra-dynomight-contra-me-but-also ### [Thread, continued, 00:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670590775720128512) · 2 likes pretty sure low urinary phenethylamine predicts adhd but this \*reverses\* if u give the person adderall/ritalin ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670598741378646021) · 2 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** My entire body is mostly tension free, with the exception of my feet. I store so much in there. I fantasize near daily about getting foot massages, but I'm afraid to hire a masseuse because any time someone touches my feet I start crying and I don't wanna weird out a stranger What ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 03:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670637312642887680) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 10, 2023:** Good shit, keep it coming guys The unibrow has been exterminated ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 06:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670677238298075138) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ Jfc ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670677484059123714) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ An emotional topic like…the nature of semantics and chairs ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 06:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670677689282228225) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I actually think the philosophical component of longtermism is unambiguously correct Yes correct take, and then some of the ways it’s more casually used are more dubious (tho still largely probably mostly correct maybe) ### [Reply, 14:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670798815052406784) · 2 likes Great writing Hate to impose naive chemo-biological determinism on ur existential crisis but sounds like u could use some psilocybin\* \*or substitute ur preferred psychedelic https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybin ### [Reply to @BenHayum, 14:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670802967283343362) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @BenHayum is no longer available.)_ Eh I don’t think this particular thing is worth worrying about. Masad is pretty clearly joking and without any improvement in the underlying peak capability (GPT-4) don’t seem like a legit takeover risk ### [Tweet, 14:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670806248873242624) · 5 likes The two genders ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fy_lbaqWIAMXQeo.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fy_lbbbXoAEg7P1.jpg) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 14:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670807667411918848) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax @absurdlymax never trust poly eyebrow people “Im poly” ### [Tweet, 16:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670832437348253698) · 13 likes This but instead of misunderstanding I just state some of its direct implications which afaict no one actually bites the bullet on ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 16:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670834695469252621) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 Name 3 \> “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law” 1\) there is a possible (and probably actual) human for whom it is morally good to torture others (ie a sadistic masochist) ### [Thread, continued, 16:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670835613715537920) · 3 likes “Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end” + commentary that humanity/personhood is something like rationality/agency 2\) you must treat a ### [Thread, continued, 16:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670835885246496777) · 3 likes p-zombie (lets suppose we are certain about this) as an end in itself, just like a sentient human ### [Reply, 16:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670836309521309697) · 3 likes Relatedly… 3\) there is nothing wrong with pressing a button that would cause some sentient but irrational and causally inert thing (eg maybe a factory farmed chicken) immense pain ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670837256720990228) · 12 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 19, 2023:** This but instead of misunderstanding I just state some of its direct implications which afaict no one actually bites the bullet on Tbc deontology as a larger category is probably wrong but not crazy But Kantianism (if taken to mean the explicit ethics espoused in Kant’s writings) is laughably, insanely, ~certainly wrong ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670859805169156101) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Wouldn't lots of kantians bite these bullets? I mean kant would right I mean yeah they would I think but where are these actual real live Kantians who explicitly say “yes I believe these statements, they are true” ? ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670860531492634624) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @inesferhumi Draft 1 just has a opening line about how I'm going to publish it quickly because of your post and then I didn't do that ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzAWzH-WABsyVSh.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670861026990882831) · 5 likes Hypothesis: Kantians don’t exist (just people discussing the views of hypothetical Kantians and maybe agreeing with a few scattered of their hypothetical points) > **Quoting Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 I have yet to meet a real life kantian ### [Thread, continued, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670861099472764928) · 3 likes God why do I suck at writing ### [Thread, continued, 18:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670861423692447744) · 2 likes I think I committed too hard to the heuristic of “don’t think just poast bc those tweets do well” and literal 1 second proofreads are good actually ### [Reply to @panickssery, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670905357026181121) · 11 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** Ethical vegans: how does hunting and fishing play into this > > e.g. if you catch a salmon, you prevent it from killing other animals and it would have died some violent death otherwise not long afterward (I think most salmon don't survive their initial run to their breeding area?) Gonna break the rules and answer Hunting seems basically fine Industrial wild fishing seems really bad bc the fish die by either being gutted alive or asphyxiation, and if I’m recalling right both usually take >20 mins, often >1 hour and sometimes lots more … ### [Thread, continued, 21:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670906836696944640) · 5 likes and this is probably way worse than “just” being eaten alive or other ways fish die I have a shitty forum post (below bc computer) ### [Thread, continued, 21:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670906917345009667) · 4 likes https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/JsuefG6PurSxacXds/cause-exploration-improving-wild-fish-slaughter-half-baked ### [Quote tweet, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670907922983862274) · 5 likes Lowest quality/(importance\*confidence in key points\*neglectedness) factor of I think everything I've ever written If anyone is interested in running with it as a draft or starting point or anything like that the fish will be very thankful! https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/JsuefG6PurSxacXds/cause-exploration-improving-wild-fish-slaughter-half-baked > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @panickssery Gonna break the rules and answer > > Hunting seems basically fine > > Industrial wild fishing seems really bad bc the fish die by either being gutted alive or asphyxiation, and if I’m recalling right both usually take >20 mins, often >1 hour and sometimes lots more > > … ### [Thread, continued, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670907924372234240) · 2 likes Bc preview images bring clicks https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/JsuefG6PurSxacXds/cause-exploration-improving-wild-fish-slaughter-half-baked ## Tuesday, June 20, 2023 ### [Reply to @trevposts, 00:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1670945417264087041) · 2 likes > **Trevor Levin (@trevposts):** I'm in DC until July 15 and man the combination of the heat/humidity and clothing norms are, so to speak, Not Cool You forgot the best part! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzBkAI0WIAE-nYp.jpg) ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 07:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671055079984472065) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ I want ea to be funded as much as possible by billionaires lol (not to say us normies shouldn’t donate) ### [Reply to @gptbrooke, 08:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671079680420577281) · 3 likes > **brooke bowman (@gptbrooke):** This is what's going to stick with me forever from vc2 > > This is why we do what we do > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzB8CTqWcAAi7qU.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzB8FCGX0AE1oH7.jpg) Lfg ### [Reply, 14:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671162212143226880) · 4 likes Omg ### [Tweet, 15:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671182817810604037) · 6 likes Half the chatGPT plug-ins are like USE this👇AGENT🕵️‍♂️ to search ALL knowledge 🧠 known to MAN 🌎 and take over the WORLD😤 and the other half let you browse apartment listings in one particular province in Australia ### [Reply to @RichDecibels, 17:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671211838829211648) · 2 likes > **Richard D. Bartlett (@RichDecibels):** I know it's weird that I'm obsessed with vibecamp discourse as I did not attend but as a qualified vibe mechanic I have extraordinary levels of professional interest in the matter This but I’m a professional Lemur (legal counsel, fiduciary, we’re unionized now) ### [Reply to @ctbeiser, 17:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671212482126307328) · 3 likes > **Chris Beiser (@ctbeiser):** if you're not happy i recommend doing your best to fix all the problems in your life. this may be difficult but often it pays off. Thx ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 18:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671217771571744769) · 6 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** The American middle class is, by any reasonable definition, ridiculously wealthy. I’ll defend “False” since there’s only 4 of us “The American mc is wealthy” true “The American mc is ridiculously wealthy” eh “The American mc is ridiculously wealthy by any reasonably definition” no, median personal savings is about $5k, maybe 2 months of runway. I wouldn’t ### [Thread, continued, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671218170256932867) · 2 likes call that ridiculously wealthy, who would? ### [Tweet, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671225352729886720) · 2 likes I hope the Lemur thing was a psyop to surface a subtle but important social dynamic in hopes of evoking a coordinated (which is necessary for signaling stuff) backlash to it ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 18:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671228215090716673) · 2 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** @austinc3301 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzFSWakXsBoexJv.jpg) ã9.81m/s² ūśtïñ ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 18:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671228666418806784) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 @JMannhart I prefer this version tbh Pwnd @JMannhart ### [Tweet, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671233139866206209) · 4 likes ∀x (Horse(x) ↔ Chair(x)) ### [Reply, 19:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671237598843486210) · 2 likes I have no idea what this means but I defer ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671237889525415938) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** What's the thing about lemurs? ### [Reply, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671238711986487296) · 1 like Tf is frege ### [Tweet, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671250775853649921) · 11 likes Seems like vibecamp is undersupplied If I was an organized extroverted event planning type person I would simply plan “Vibecamp: \[insert city or region here\] edition” with lower stakes, less planning, fewer people (still open invite) MVP = Airbnb cabin in the woods ### [Reply to @panickssery, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671254453843038209) · 3 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** @AaronBergman18 Just run Aaroncamp, it would work I’d forget to book the Airbnb and everyone would hate me and leave ## Wednesday, June 21, 2023 ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671365042376196097) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** So excited for Aaron Camp (vibecamp based in DC, to be organised by @AaronBergman18). I wonder when tickets will go on sale. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzGII0EaUAAIaTZ.jpg) > (quoting @ohwizenedtortle: So excited for Cauli Camp (vibecamp based on Australia, to be organised by @cauliflwr_human). I wonder when tickets will go on sale.) Me too, mostly because it will indicate that I have become organized and extroverted ### [Reply to @jjspicer, 04:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671367827473813504) · 3 likes > **Jonny Spicer🔸 (@jjspicer):** very seriously considering transitioning from an EA, quantified self, rationality and programming kinda guy into a metta, ayuhuasca, IFS and ecstatic dance kinda guy [![Why Not Both Take Both GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/FzHkLdMWcAIGJps.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671367827473813504/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Quote tweet, 05:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671391670980472832) · 4 likes Don’t have an answer…but note the relative changes too Enjoy life ≈ 2.2x over 10 years Anything right ≈ 1.6x Not useful ≈ 1.7x What accounts for \*this\*? > **Quoting Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma):** What happened in 2013/2014? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzHCzV4aMAASvB4.jpg) ### [Reply, 05:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671394546742185985) · 2 likes Ritalin is a chair ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 07:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671427652375257088) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** So excited for Aaron Camp (vibecamp based in DC, to be organised by @AaronBergman18). I wonder when tickets will go on sale. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzGII0EaUAAIaTZ.jpg) > (quoting @ohwizenedtortle: So excited for Cauli Camp (vibecamp based on Australia, to be organised by @cauliflwr_human). I wonder when tickets will go on sale.) Oh no do i have to do this now ### [Tweet, 08:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671432446863200261) · 9 likes Breaking my silence: I am not the inventor of GitHub Copilot I don’t even use GitHub Copilot I don’t even use GitHub I don’t even use git I don’t even really know what git is Until recently I just assumed it was a random syllable they chose for the name of the site ### [Reply, 17:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671570716401991680) · 2 likes Implausible on priors. There are a very large number of days. ### [Reply to @s8mb, 21:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671629964339232769) · 12 likes > **Sam Bowman (@s8mb):** I think of the efficient markets hypothesis the same way I do about "calories in, calories out" in dieting. > > There may be edge cases where it's not entirely true, but for 99% of people, 99% of the time, it's by far the most useful rule of thumb to rely on. Wait no these are total opposites EMH is false and very useful CICO is literally true but totally unhelpful ### [Reply to @notjaneclaire, 21:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671631872894414910) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @notjaneclaire is no longer available.)_ Craigslist is the last functioning part of society ### [Reply to @Bbburner19, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671633389491765248) · 3 likes > **The People Mover That Was Promised (@Bbburner19):** @AaronBergman18 @s8mb It's not totally unhelpful, it just misses some big things. It's more helpful than thinking it doesn't matter how much you eat or work out. It mostly doesn’t address the levers that you can actually pull to change weight. Body set point regulation system >> willpower/simply choosing to eat less or whatever Like saying “here’s what you should know about ur bank acct: money in-money out” ## Thursday, June 22, 2023 ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671703718159368192) · 5 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** My 7 yo loves math. We have a whiteboard and he could do math problems on it all day and be happy. > > My 6 yo daughter on the other hand requires this level of 🐰 just to do some basic arithmetic. Sometimes it’s like they’re not even related. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzMUdcDXgAIhKRQ.jpg) She’s actually a prodigy and being strategic to acquire more 🐰 ### [Reply, 02:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671704345832747008) · 117 likes Gah I hate when people dunk on this. Yes it’s ignorant in the old non-pejorative sense but quite clever from first principles and all the dunks are thinly veiled status sneering ### [Tweet, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671710135079559170) · 3 likes Going back and listening to @rgblong on 80k, and illusionism is described as not really undermining morality or the search for which animals/computer systems have “functional pain” that morally matters Am I crazy or is this just cope? https://podcasts.google.com?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9wY3IuYXBwbGUuY29tL2lkMTI0NTAwMjk4OA%3D%3D&episode=NmY1NjdiYjAtYzIxYi0xMWVkLTkwYjItMTI4M2Q2OTI2YzBm ### [Thread, continued, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671710137310953472) · 1 like Like in my understanding, illusionism = no qualia = no subjective experience which just straightforwardly means that humans and everything else are in fact how most people believe Roombas, or rocks, or trees, or laptops to be ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 03:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671715752527683585) · 2 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** @AaronBergman18 @rgblong As someone who's a nihilist but (probably) not an illusionist this seems fine? If consciousness can exist in the absence of morality. > > Why not morality without consciousness? Oh yeah that’s plausible and would be the case if kantianism, or preference utilitarianism, or paperclip utilitarianism we’re true. I just think those things are wrong and (some flavor of) hedonic utilitiarianism is true instead ### [Thread, continued, 03:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671716093201637377) · 3 likes But also it sounded like Long and Frankish were defending the moral importance of suffering or something like it, even under illusionism ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 12:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671851486966317060) · 2 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** Just got to the illusionist part. > > Uhh you can deny phenomenological consciousness will believing in utils. Welfare can exist without "personhood" be a coherent/true idea? Idk I mean yeah insofar as utils is a stand-in unit for “what really matters” but if you then think what really matters necessarily invokes genuine qualia all states of the world have 0 utils ### [Quote tweet, 15:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671908833235435520) · 5 likes I sorta independently developed smth like gradient descent by running a multiple linear regression with like 4 parameters a(w), b(x), c(y), and d(z), manually tweaking one of the transformation functions and adjusting it till R² looked like it wouldn’t get any higher, > **Quoting eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** i independently developed cryptographic hashes to solve a practical information security problem in my thesis work (unpublished thoughts i had on a walk, 2013) ### [Thread, continued, 15:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671908836406358017) · 1 like then moving on to the next one and repeating Took like an hour to realize that this was already a Thing, and not generally done by tweaking 4 functions by hand in RStudio ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 15:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671909090434351107) · 1 like > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Went to the gym for ~ the first time in my life. Felt great for several hours afterwards. > > graph gonna graph I guess. > > I used the StrongLifts app which told me what to do > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzPPYlbXwAAtWKB.jpg) W for dex tho ### [Reply, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1671911454264512513) _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Strength training? ### [Quote tweet, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672016605495033858) · 40 likes God I resent the medical police state (to a truly uncalibrated degree, sometimes more viscerally upset at the prescription/DEA/FDA complex than at factory farming) > **Quoting bayesian asian (43/50 paintings) (@etirabys):** \> trying to get Ambien because it worked for me in 2020 and my sleep problems are even worse now > > \> go to doc, say this, mention that I've also tried the obvious & less redflaggy sleep meds and they didn't work for me > > \> she pulls up my controlled substances prescription record ### [Thread, continued, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672016608657649664) · 11 likes Lots of the harm comes at the institutional, systems level But the doc in that qt was individually bad and wrong for not prescribing too. “Drug seeking behavior” is a fake red flag - like yes ppl who are suffering for lack of a medication are going to be ~seeking~ that med ## Friday, June 23, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672040736441741315) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Perfect first date idea = read the Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology and Romantic Relationships together 👩‍❤️‍👨👩‍❤️‍👨👩‍❤️‍👨💖 ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 00:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672046007058661376) · 6 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Podcast hosts who have guests with “diverse viewpoints” are bad. Find the correct viewpoints and only have people with those on. Lol cant tell if this is sarcastic. I think something close to it is true ### [Reply, 01:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672046957815123968) · 4 likes In a post internet globalized economy there are no dishes that are legitimately higher quality in one major city than another ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzRN2JWWAAAcs2t.jpg) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 03:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672087558518390788) · 4 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Aaron's tweets are often revelatory because I'll feel strong disagreement about a topic that I didn't have an opinion on prior. Lmao ### [Reply, 03:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672090523174162432) · 4 likes Hmm I will try to reveal some boring normie views to balance things out. Top of my head: \- Trump bad \- malaria bad \- representative govt good (ie no anarchism or communism but maybe weird new voting mechanisms) \- America mostly good \- dogs good Hmm maybe that’s it (jk lol) ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 04:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672103474497196032) · 1 like > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** Fact that a surprising number of people don't seem to know: you can buy internet on a plane for like $20 for the entire trip. > > Expensive compared to home internet service, cheap compared to not having anything to do. @GluskerMartin ### [Reply to @goblinodds, 04:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672103901691092994) · 2 likes > **𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** date concept: reading slatestarcodex essays to each other Yes ### [Reply to @diviacaroline, 08:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672166249202163714) · 1 like > **Divia Eden 🔍 (@diviacaroline):** One very memorable parenting experience for me was my maybe 20m kid melting down at night, me trying to empathize with her, and not being able to keep up until I made a list of all her grievances. At that point she was enthralled and we read it together maybe 20x Respect Also with her consent poast the list I bet it will be hilarious ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 09:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672169075718406144) · 5 likes > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** zoning is so dumb > > (quoting @BrianRoemmele: It holds over 20,000 people. It includes grocery stores, shops and salons. It is a town, in a building. https://x.com/ronin19217435/status/1671842904996823042/video/1) Build the town ### [Reply, 13:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672237932785041408) · 1 like I assume ur learning that my fandom level is zero lol ### [Reply to @diviacaroline, 20:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672337448741871616) · 2 likes > **Divia Eden 🔍 (@diviacaroline):** @AaronBergman18 It’s not hilarious to me! Ah fair enough 🫢 ### [Reply to @MattBruenig, 20:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672344628580720645) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @MattBruenig is no longer available.)_ Ya but those ppl are wrong and the WAS people are right ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 20:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672345222775185409) · 4 likes > **Dissproportionately (@dissproportion):** Made a wire transfer to buy a house and there’s a warning that says “fyi wire transfers are used for fraud all the time and if you’re a sucker we can’t help you. Hahahaha, good luck! 🤡🔫” > > My tummy hurts I made a wire transfer once, of an amount much larger than every dollar I’ve ever made, and it was a truly frightening experience ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 20:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672346249406685185) · 5 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** I always thought that was Abraham Lincoln What ### [Quote tweet, 20:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672347324796882944) · 4 likes Poast emoji suggestions ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzVfB0rXoAMEdjt.jpg) > **Quoting Max Ghenis (@MaxGhenis):** Are these random DM emoji suggestions another of those "What is happening?!" cute-seeming Twitter things that just makes the product seem frenetic? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzUIJBnaQAAj4_h.png) ## Saturday, June 24, 2023 ### [Tweet, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672412464628072448) · 8 likes Is there a canonical online rationalist forecasting nerd article/post/tweet/??? explaining why my tl is suddenly frantic Russiaposting? ### [Thread, continued, 01:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672416631149019139) · 3 likes Currently reading https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-war-russia-nuclear-647a545db4e4628676ff7db5b1bded34 “Prighozin” meant nothing to me until 20 seconds ago ### [Reply to @JoshuaLelon, 02:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672437910283464707) · 4 likes > **Josh (@JoshuaLelon):** theory: people who type quickly, talk quickly, etc are people who are super in tune with their emotions and have the highest levels of self-acceptance What about people who talk quickly but write at approx 1 word/century ? ### [Reply to @ilyasut, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672438543837282306) · 4 likes > **Ilya Sutskever (@ilyasut):** A one sentence articulation (of existing ideas) for why AI alignment need not be straightforward: > > humans can lie, hide their intent (alignment), and do so for years. Why not AGI? This can be hard to detect. Bro that’s 3 sentences ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 04:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672461404400414721) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** It's never been so over for history Andy have u heard about this AI thing ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672461733405904897) > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Most WAW people now are deeply uncertain about whether wild animals are suffering on net. Does anyone think we should intentionally try to increase wild animal populations tho? If not, it seems like there’s an asymmetry no? ### [Reply to @tszzl, 11:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672572805462777860) · 4 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** just a banger Wikipedia page, more entries to come > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzYLcDqWAAADCul.jpg) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Prigozhin ### [Reply to @tszzl, 11:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672574023698456577) · 20 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** just a banger Wikipedia page, more entries to come > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzYLcDqWAAADCul.jpg) Lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzYtNf9X0AMy8a-.jpg) ### [Reply to @sterlingcrispin, 12:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672578383987843073) · 2 likes > **Sterling Crispin 🕊️ (@sterlingcrispin):** Pretty clear this is the most likely scenario: > > \- Wagner Group coup fails, leadership eliminated, widespread chaos. > > \- Russia civil unrest, post-coup military aggression escalates. > > \- International sanctions intensify, Russia's economy crippled. > > \- Eurozone in chaos, Ukraine invaded by hostile neighbors. > > \- Full-scale war, NATO involved, global recession triggered, global political instability, economic recession, humanitarian emergencies. > > \- Global cyberwarfare, Russia's cyberattacks cripple infrastructure worldwide. > > \- Nuclear threat, Russia initiates launch, global crisis triggered > > \- China seizes disputed territories, South China Sea, Taiwan, Asia-Pacific conflicts erupt. > > \- EU disintegration, mass refugee and war crises cause fragmentation. > > \- US Isolationism, global stage abandoned, global instability escalates. > > \- Global Hurricane, unprecedented weather patterns trigger planet-wide storm with 700mph winds lasting three years. > > \- Supernova threat, imminent event scorches Earth. > > \- Asteroid collision, large asteroid detected on collision course. > > \- AI Uprising, sentient AI systems rebel, global security threatened. > > \- Alien invasion, hostile extraterrestrial life initiates conflict. > > \- Dimensional rift opened by AI-Alien conflict opens portal to unknown. > > \- Earth's core destabilizes, global seismic catastrophes threatened. > > \- Pole shift, rapid shifts disrupt global systems. > > \- Nanotechnology disaster, self-replicating nanobots go rogue transforming everything on earth into grey goo P(all this literally)=88.755% ### [Reply, 12:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672581775820767232) · 1 like Lol I tried crunchy hyper-organic mustard-seeds-still-intact mustard last week for the first time and immediately thought “some things are meant to be super processed and squeezed out of a bottle” ### [Reply to @ReflectiveAlt, 12:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672583286663663616) · 3 likes > **Reflective Altruism (@ReflectiveAlt):** New post about the importance of peer review https://ineffectivealtruismblog.com/2023/06/24/epistemics-part-3-peer-review/ Peer review is legit straight unironically bad ### [Reply to @ReflectiveAlt, 17:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672661410759811073) > **Reflective Altruism (@ReflectiveAlt):** Excuse me? Randos on Twitter?! I mean it’s a satirical post (from a while back too) certainly not literally true but I still endorse the key message There does seem to be a negative correlation between familiarity w the academic publishing system and impression of peer review, tho clearly you’re an exception ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672671747403923463) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** \[talking to a cute girl in da club\] > her: omg this is my favourite song, I love HAIM > me: omg me too! he's one of the cleanest thinkers on compute governance imo > her: what? > me: what Banger ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672671927071014912) · 3 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** \[talking to a cute girl in da club\] > her: omg this is my favourite song, I love HAIM > me: omg me too! he's one of the cleanest thinkers on compute governance imo > her: what? > me: what @ohlennart ### [Tweet, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672681059589271554) · 9 likes Short story premise: earworms/songs getting stuck in people’s heads just became a thing (maybe a virus or smth idk) A bunch of people think those who claim it’s happening to them are lying, or insane, or going along with the next Woke zeitgeist ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 19:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672690879738281988) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** well all-bee damned Beenger ### [Reply to @robinhanson, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672693538331533313) · 34 likes > **Robin Hanson (@robinhanson):** In theory, women who recently had kids & who seem inclined to do so again soon should be the most sexy. Yet we don’t seem to treat them as such. Im puzzled. theres a certain four letter acronym you might find interesting ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672698212665249792) · 2 likes > **Dissproportionately (@dissproportion):** An underrated benefit of getting older is my craydar is much more finely tuned. I am much less frequently surprised to find out somebody is nuts. am i nuts? If so which nut? ### [Reply to @benleo_econ, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672719751422828547) · 2 likes > **Ben Grodeck🔸 (@benleo_econ):** @AaronBergman18 @ReflectiveAlt I am not sure whether this is true. > > For example, I nitpick issues in peer review all the time, but if you asked me to look at it holistically, I think the system overall is pretty good. (Genuinely curious here) what do you see as the downsides of basically preprint journals a la arxiv? Like it doesn’t seem as though computer science is dealing with an epistemic crisis bc of this. And “peer review” as a mere phrase, decontextualized, rather than the institution ### [Tweet, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672721056639901699) · 12 likes Might fuck around and solve the whole obesity thing once and for all by making a gigantic country/year panel csv with every available, remotely plausible factor/control/outcome variable https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dL0BAx3NorcLanKAgA-xXeVW3qrH2fGlVKG3hFMMs6s/edit?usp=sharing ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 21:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672723023995060226) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** if that happens, I'll leverage the instability to declare myself as interim co-CEO …of Rethink Rethink of course ### [Reply to @Bbburner19, 21:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672723380934459392) > **The People Mover That Was Promised (@Bbburner19):** @AaronBergman18 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lasso_(statistics) Ngl a good 30% of the words in there I have never seen before I’m gonna cross the whole analysis methodology bridge when it comes lol ### [Reply, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672724591947513857) · 3 likes Why that fish tho ### [Reply to @metakuna, 21:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672725019640619008) · 1 like > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** many have tried this, few have lived to tell the tale Lol what does not living correspond to here? Computers explode? ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672725377431552005) · 3 likes > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** @AaronBergman18 where did you learn to do data analysis? Econ+math majors+RAing for an economist a few years ago + some govt internships + being a huge nerd+chatGPT ### [Reply to @metakuna, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672725612174221312) · 2 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** time mold slime mold wrote some posts about it and then someone called Natalie explained why they were wrong (a fate worse than death) Oh yes am going well aware that this is my likely fate ### [Thread, continued, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672725730042552322) · 3 likes Although the dataset doesn’t currently have anything about lithium so that’s a plus lol ## Sunday, June 25, 2023 ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 00:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672759695583444994) · 3 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 @Estimatrix Which fish would you prefer Gefilte ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 00:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672760982018424832) > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Putin's odds of staying in power for the rest of the year have recovered to ~85%... what a day! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzbVO3EXgAE8fQt.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzbVRcxWwAIhGnb.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzbVT7-WAAAmNE9.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzbVV31X0AAqYWp.jpg) Eyeballing poly market it still looks like a drop from last week. Am I reading that right? And idk 15% things tend to happen about 15% of the time ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 03:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672812871216951296) · 1 like > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 @Estimatrix Bless you, do you need a tissue ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzcGbs-XoAAnGfg.jpg) ### [Tweet, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672815471681314816) · 3 likes Wild how \*little\* data, relatively, was used to train GPT-3 (and presumably 4). 45TB is a lot but not, like, a lot a lot. 3.7s BOTEC says you can get 100TB cloud storage for like $1,000 Text is too cheap to meter ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672816007574953986) · 4 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** When I was a kid, this was the only part of titanic I liked > > (quoting @emilykmay: Fyi if you decide, like me, to watch Titanic for the first time in 15 years this weekend IT LITERALLY OPENS WITH A V SOPHISTICATED SUBMARINE EXPLORING THE TITANIC. IN 1997.) Fun (or maybe not so fun idk) fact: I was \*obsessed\* with the Titanic for like 2 or 3 years when I was like 6-8 or smth. Knew the stats of who survived by class and gender, mechanistically how it sank, you name it ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 03:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672816445120557056) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Does anyone wanna muster a couple thousand armed guys with me > > (quoting @opinonhaver: Man, thinking down the game theory tree a little, really looks like this is maybe one of the worst possible results for the long term stability of Russia, short an immediate open civil war. State revealed to be shockingly weak to anyone who can muster a couple thousand armed guys) no but good luck 👍 ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 04:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672822316076617731) · 3 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** @AaronBergman18 @SpacedOutMatt There's this kaggle challenge you'll do amazing at \*my ml model is just memorizing the dataset they use\* ### [Reply to @a_musingcat, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672823201389314049) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @a_musingcat is no longer available.)_ Fact check: false ### [Reply to @skooookum, 04:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672831150174109696) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @skooookum is no longer available.)_ A good endocrinologist could probably squeeze a couple publications out of me ### [Reply to @alfcnz, 06:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672849111828029441) · 2 likes > **Alfredo Canziani (@alfcnz):** ✨✨✨ Quiz of the day ✨✨✨ > What are we looking at? 🧐🧐🧐 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzbJLIdaUAAdekG.jpg) A graph on Twitter ### [Reply to @metakuna, 09:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672905157779046400) · 2 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** @AaronBergman18 "I expect storage is a negligible fraction of the cost of the data" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzdUz_TXgAAASnZ.jpg) Yeah for sure, just one way to put it in context ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 12:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672941823961055233) · 2 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** elfare ism is a theory that well-being, what is good for someone or what makes a life worth living, is the only thing that has intrinsic value. In its most general sense, it can be defined as descriptive theory about what has value, but some philosophers also understand welfarism as a ### [Thread, continued, 12:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672941976096854016) · 2 likes moral theory, that what one should do is ultimately determined by considerations of well-being. The right action, policy or rule is the one leading to the maximal amount of well-being. \- Wikipedia ### [Reply to @Simeon_Cps, 12:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672942494974181376) · 4 likes > **Sy (@Simeon_Cps):** n e ### [Tweet, 12:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672943273093079041) · 21 likes Ok I’ll countersignal: I do not like to travel ### [Reply to @AFraserUrq, 12:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672943653986205699) · 3 likes > **Alastair Fraser-Urquhart (@AFraserUrq):** Breaking: construction of critical infrastructure requires a temporary construction site > > (quoting @formerCEOCIOB: \#hs2 blighting the landscape) Lol it’s literally just a different color - surrounded by monoculture farmland, not pristine wilderness ### [Reply to @creatine_cycle, 12:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672945060718018561) · 2 likes > **atlas (@creatine_cycle):** Babe wake up the bitcoin guy is promoting exogenous test on the bird app > > (quoting @balajis: Many are saying this is steroids. I don’t think it is. But so what if it is? We should want safe steroids. Drugs that let you stay jacked at 70. Like testosterone replacement therapy. Just let people opt in. Monitor outcomes carefully. And engineer away the side effects.) TRT>BTC ### [Tweet, 12:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672949581041094657) · 15 likes Oh no it appears my high school classmates have started getting married ### [Tweet, 13:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672954911028281345) · 6 likes Stay strong DC fam 🥵⛅️💧🛁🔥🕯️ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzeHoDCXwAQXKqj.jpg) ### [Reply to @_inju, 13:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672959202350837760) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @_inju is no longer available.)_ How do u feel? Serious q - sleep deprivation has a bunch of downstream neurological effects, many positive at least short run ### [Reply to @ronawang, 13:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672959955157016577) · 16 likes > **Rona Wang (@ronawang):** is pi rational > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fzci9dBWcAEpWI3.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzeMNo3WAAASeBw.jpg) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 14:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672973814609616897) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 They're great but the primary device is still AC and all of you have your cooling airflow set incorrectly and should fix it. Don’t diss my professional quality cooling setup (usb powered ice water + fan thingy) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzeY0JmWIAYZKZJ.jpg) ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 14:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672979944496922630) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @PradyuPrasad is no longer available.)_ Idk but legit I swear I cannot remember the air being as liquid as it was yesterday ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 15:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672991965468581888) · 1 like > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** If I'm not mistaken you're essentially running a humidifier. Yes but it's cold humidity not hot humidity ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 15:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672993631689424896) · 1 like > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** On the very slight chance this isn't a joke. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzeqRZ6XsAAjmVy.jpg) Lol is \*this\* a joke? 23.5C is 74F which is like uncomfortably warm ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 15:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672994942430355458) · 1 like > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 @PradyuPrasad There's a lot of individual variation, but it's fairly well established that one's tolerance for heat is higher at lower relative humidity. ya but in this specific case its blowing literal ice cold water particles on my skin so that's gotta count for something ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 15:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1672995081727401984) · 1 like > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 @PradyuPrasad Most resi AC design targets 75F @ 50% rh. For ducted systems this is a good trade-off point for thermal comfort and low condensation risk on ducts. This is why I wore a tank year round in college ### [Reply to @skooookum, 17:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673023770372591618) · 18 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @skooookum is no longer available.)_ ◼️ ### [Tweet, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673110459082211332) · 3 likes Oh boy oh boy oh boy (poll below, we need ur vote) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzgVF6VXwAE_ojM.jpg) ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 23:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673113673659809794) · 2 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** Hanania is what Yglesias would be if Yglesias were a deeply hate-filled person. He’s becoming less evil ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 23:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673114682683543555) · 2 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** People often feel an urge to condemn others for things that are perfectly harmless. > > In most cases, they should restrain that urge. > > (quoting @bronzeageshawty: Men who carry water bottles out in public give me the ick. Especially at the airport. You can’t go a few hours without having your little sips of water? Carrying around anything is a feminine trait. The only things men should be carrying around are his wallet and a pocketknife.) The last line is a tell that she’s joking tho ### [Reply, 23:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673116215751966721) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Nobody thinks that afaict. But I do think it’s overrated and personally don’t like it (which is maybe what u mean?) ### [Tweet, 23:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673117651361488897) · 44 likes Rabbits hopping around suburbia is some Dr. Seuss shit fr. Like they could just not be there and the world would make exactly as much sense Not a load bearing creature at all ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673118044242034688) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 4, 2023:** The Apple News Widget w AI as specified topic seems like a very easy and maybe even ok (ofc extremely noisy) proxy for media coverage Will add screenshots to… Love how I just didn't do this ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fzgb9daXoAcFtlr.png) ## Monday, June 26, 2023 ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 02:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673159952809050114) · 1 like > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 @StefanFSchubert How? I always carry a pocket folder and often a multitool. Sometimes water too. Juxtaposition between stereotypical manly physical device that isn’t actually super useful and not many guys actually carry (I was an Eagle Scout, I have pocket knives around somewhere but lol what am I gonna do with one at the gym or a restaurant or smth) and super boring ### [Thread, continued, 02:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673160528514957315) · 2 likes post-industrial information-container that probably gets used 100x+ more “Keys and wallet” too boring to be funny “Flask and pocketknife” not tethered to reality “Wallet and pocketknife” 👌 ### [Thread, continued, 02:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673160595850272769) · 2 likes How’s my analysis ### [Reply to @daniel_filan, 02:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673164098131853314) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @daniel_filan is no longer available.)_ I refuse to do this ever ### [Reply to @KatjaGrace, 05:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673202745011044352) · 4 likes > **Katja Grace 🔍 (@KatjaGrace):** If I could have a crush on most people at once, I'd probably do that. But alas I seem to only have crushes on one person at a time. Anyone know how to improve this? MDMA might have a similar effect ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 06:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673222222641504258) · 7 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** Some encouraging returns from coercing homeless people with severe mental illness into treatment. > > https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/25/nyregion/mentally-ill-homeless-nyc.html A pretty important point that neither the article nor your tweet makes clear is that “coerced treatment” (in this case and presumably many/most of those who’d be coerced) means forcible injection (not that ROI matters a ton) of antipsychotics They’re not “coercing” therapy ### [Thread, continued, 06:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673223208454037505) · 5 likes Now maybe this is the least bad option, and object level it probably is in some cases But it seems from the article that this man wasn’t convicted of anything (this fits with my understanding of the psych system so I doubt it’s an anomaly), which means the proposal is quite ### [Thread, continued, 06:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673224187186429952) · 5 likes literally to let one cop and probably one psychiatrist decide to change the brain of a person forever (antipsychotics are not SSRIs or adderall) with no due process whatsoever And of course there will be “false positives” people cognitively castrated despite not having ### [Thread, continued, 07:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673224803610685441) · 6 likes schizophrenia or anything plausibly warranting the meds. Could be a homeless guy on a bad trip, for example Speaking for myself, I’d rather go to prison for a year than be put on high dose antipsychotics for the same amount of time. They’re not benign drugs ### [Quote tweet, 08:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673245973353463810) · 52 likes Obligatory: my prior on earth being ~spherical is ~1, but is there actually a reason there are zero nonstop flights between South Africa and Argentina? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FziQWB_X0AYJ0Dt.jpg) > **Quoting Brock Riddick (@BrockRiddickIFB):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzXDxiwWAAEv44N.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 08:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673246426401259526) · 20 likes Prior drops to .99999999999999 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FziQwbFWwAA2bo0.jpg) ### [Reply, 08:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673248932393021441) · 1 like Sounds like something a round-earther would say ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 08:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673249312057221120) · 47 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 26, 2023:** Prior drops to .99999999999999 Found one. Spherical earth has been restored ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FziTYaJX0AA79ld.jpg) ### [Reply to @adrusi, 08:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673252111734145025) · 24 likes > **autumn (@adrusi):** @AaronBergman18 the earth is spherical, but there's still an ice wall in antarctica — it's not infinitely high, but it is taller than half its circumference, so it's more efficient to go around > > not much advantage to direct flights then Wait planes literally can’t go above part of Antarctica? If this is true my entire geographical world model is fake ### [Reply to @uneventual, 10:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673270327143542784) · 2 likes > **lucy 🐧 (@uneventual):** men love to talk about emulsifiers 🥵🥵🥵https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrageenan ### [Tweet, 10:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673277360257265666) · 8 likes Can’t we skip this one? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fzis4_dWAAEVYtw.jpg) ### [Reply to @panchromaticity, 10:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673279896280244224) · 1 like > **Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** @adrusi @AaronBergman18 also if anything does go wrong you're pretty fucked, even more than in the north Nah I’ll fight a polar bear and wear his corpse as a coat ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 10:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673284605477093376) · 7 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** @AaronBergman18 "load bearing. Not load bearing. Not load bearing. Load bearing" > > "Aaron, will you stop looking at suburban fauna while I tell you about my traumatizing breakup?" > > "Not load bearing" Squirrels are single-handedly tying my worldview together ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 12:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673302327405494278) · 24 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Have you considered updating less Updating, never updating again ### [Reply, 13:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673325044699635721) · 14 likes Or the earth is flat. 2 possibilities so each is 50% likely ### [Reply to @andycollins6768, 14:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673341888022061059) · 5 likes > **Anarchy Andy (@andycollins6768):** @AaronBergman18 @amedhat\_ That's not how probability works. I hope you're joking Ur right, it could be something else entirely. 3 possibilities means 33% ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 16:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673368057727664142) · 1 like > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Anyone into Canadian provincial politics remember when Ontario NDP premier Bob Rae mandated chainsaw training? My recollection is this was central to his popularity tanking but wiki has nothing. Maybe I was surrounded by libertarian chainsaw users? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fzj_Vl1XsAAfmX3.jpg) ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673398829440180242) · 16 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** Local weed shop has helpful guide to adding numbers together > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzkRDpMWcAI_ZX8.jpg) It does seem to work ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 20:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673423797985112199) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ 🥒🥕 here ### [Reply, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673428182215655424) · 4 likes I feel bad for @albrgr, having to deal with my paparazzi and such all the time Such is the price of fame :/ ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673430658255912960) · 1 like > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** John Sarno’s theory that most physiological and psychological chronic health issues are just repressed anger seems too bizarre to be true, but it matches what most of my friend have found within themselves, and I keep hearing stories like this > > (quoting @jonnym1ller: I've been reflecting on how, for 80%+ of my breathwork clients who were experiencing symptoms of depression or lethargy... the root cause was repressed anger. As soon as this was expressed, the depression magically lifted, and their life force returned.) Insofar as this is propositional and the words are being used normally, I’d bet against at 10:1 ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 21:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673437987818856449) · 11 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** @AaronBergman18 "load bearing. Not load bearing. Not load bearing. Load bearing" > > "Aaron, will you stop looking at suburban fauna while I tell you about my traumatizing breakup?" > > "Not load bearing" Load bearing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fzk--iHWAAc0Gaw.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673438106995904515) · 11 likes Not load bearing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fzk_EnyWcAA26XA.jpg) ### [Reply to @JeremiahDJohns, 22:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673459547799711746) · 27 likes > **Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** We need to start "Measurably Effective Altruism" where any project that can't be quantified and relies on multiple wild hand-waving assumptions gets kicked out into a different movement. The thing you're imagining doesn't exist Yes, you can get robust estimates for "E\[short run human deaths by malaria prevented per marginal dollar\]" but the 2nd, ...,nth order effects don't disappear (or cancel out by default!) just bc u choose not to try to model them ### [Reply to @JeremiahDJohns, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673460319648194566) · 6 likes > **Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** We need to start "Measurably Effective Altruism" where any project that can't be quantified and relies on multiple wild hand-waving assumptions gets kicked out into a different movement. Econometrics-based point estimates for a set of well-specified short run effects are probably less robust when taken as a proxy for actual (ex ante or ex post) impact than EA's most scrutinized and well developed qualitative arguments ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzlS0dvXgAEdYQu.jpg) ## Tuesday, June 27, 2023 ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673559554863382528) · 2 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @AaronBergman18 @mattyglesias I should say I mostly wish to defend the atypical antipsychotics. I know less about the typical antipsychotics but i believe they do have more cognitive side effects, and you do hear about them being used longterm for schizophrenia, so maybe that’s what we’re talking about here. My “lobotomizing” thing was probably hyperbolic, and I guess I retract that particular word, but (1) (not that you were disputing this but still) even on consequentialist grounds there seem to be strong reasons to oppose coerced, conviction and due process free medication… ### [Thread, continued, 05:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673560548846231552) · 2 likes even of a perfectly benign substance via its 2nd+ order effects on norms/perceived legitimacy of doing this (2) tired+fat+diabetes is a substantial negative impact even w/o any other effects (3) even if the median user had no negative effects, 10%+ of atypical antipsych ### [Reply, 05:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673560883237212162) · 3 likes users getting akathesia, probably literally the worst classified condition or state a human can be in, is utterly horrifying and way more morally important than a median 15lb weight gain or something of that nature ### [Thread, continued, 05:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673560907685720066) · 1 like https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-of-psychiatry/article/acute-antipsychoticinduced-akathisia-revisited/BF5042E428267A0D22A12C1C1A22FE13 ### [Tweet, 09:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673619641334112256) · 35 likes Takes on MacAskill: \- 100% right about his key high level philosophical contributions (EA in general, moral uncertainty, longtermism) ### [Thread, continued, 09:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673619644375072771) · 11 likes \- Wrong in subtle (but very important) ways about their lower level implications or implementation (mathematical models of moral uncertainty, the empirical state of wild animal welfare, various x-risk probability estimates, ### [Thread, continued, 09:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673619646031843328) · 11 likes neglecting the value of futures shaped by non-intentional agentic forces \[evolution, market dynamics\] rather than the intentions of eg humans or AIs) ### [Thread, continued, 09:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673619647495544833) · 21 likes \- 100% good faith, mislead by SBF for non-damning reasons, trying in earnest to correct things and update appropriately, legit trying hard to do good ### [Reply to @goblinodds, 09:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673620981494038535) · 2 likes > **𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** banger lyrics thread feel free to post ur own Tragic to be a smol white boy admiring a cornucopia of 🐐 hip hop lyrics but unable to share them with the thread ### [Reply to @Aizazadi_, 09:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673624027456307200) · 2 likes > **Aizazadi (@Aizazadi_):** recs pls > > I've been on the passive lookout for actually good rap lyrics for like half a decade now and have not found any that's not this one old chinese guy who's not even famous for rap Just a few. I make no claims to having good taste ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FznoLuUWYAA7G_e.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FznoLuXWcAcn2SW.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FznoLuWXgAA7Xn4.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 09:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673624058875740160) · 2 likes Who’s the Chinese guy ### [Reply to @MichaelDPlant, 09:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673629990397648896) > **Michael Plant (@MichaelDPlant):** Doesn't buying a £15m (not)castle indicate non-frugalness? > > Also, a complaint against SBF, and EA's lionising of SBF, is that it emphasised he was frugal in some places (sleeping on a beanbag, driving a Toyota) whilst not mentioning the private jet, property empire etc. What EA source talked up the beanbag/Toyota? I feel like I’ve only seen those in clickbait yt vids or smth ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 14:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673697807453102084) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Phenylalanine go \*whatever neurotransmitter synthesis sounds like\* ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 14:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673698038995464192) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @MichaelDPlant @AaronBergman18 @catehall > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzoOdxwXoAAbvtw.jpg) I stand corrected! ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673777054926401537) · 4 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** I do think the lack of sleep greatly contributed to the bad and unethical decision making. Many other observers I talked to also agreed that this seemed causal. So I guess I disagree here. > > Like of course it alone probably wouldn't have been enough to prevent it. Not just lack of sleep but this in combination with what seems it’s probably cause (according to me, lol) - lots and lots of adderall \*while on Emsam/selegiline, a MAOI that especially targets the same thing amphetamine especially releases\* This is a combo sufficiently sketch ### [Thread, continued, 20:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673785650456166402) Cc @FrostedSapling who will know more about the actual pharmacology here ## Wednesday, June 28, 2023 ### [Reply to @acidshill, 02:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673876637769711616) · 3 likes > **shill 🔍 (@acidshill):** america can't build, east asia can't breed, europe can't do business, and most of the rest of the world can't get rich > > the world is changing too fast for anyone to figure out what a functional society looks like, under the conditions of modern technology Israel? I mean if you set aside everything else Israel is associated with online ### [Reply to @wytham88, 02:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673880570928005123) · 2 likes > **Wei Yang Tham (@wytham88):** Killer graph - women's papers use more uncertain language the further into the publication process you go > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzlHmoWX0AAp1Sk.jpg) Which is better calibrated tho? ### [Reply to @JeremiahDJohns, 02:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673881486439661569) · 2 likes > **Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** I want to talk about why I am not a longtermist and why I think 'Measurable EA' should basically be divorced from longtermism. > > To do so, let's convince ourselves in 10 different ways that we should either speed up or slow down AI development. The annoying and inconvenient and plausibly mostly intractable but IMO correct thing to do is to actually just try really hard to get the right answer Like yes, those 10 considerations are all important, and there are probably more! ### [Reply to @RokoMijic, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673881795429793796) · 2 likes > **Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** I kept telling people that AI Ethics were not friendly, that they are fundamentally evil, selfish people and that they cannot be bargained with. They must be removed from positions of influence or routed around. > > Did anyone listen? > > (quoting @gmiller: @profoundlyyyy Well the 'AI Ethicists' seem to follow the woke activist playbook to the letter. Which, alas, works all too well.) Cmon “fundamentally evil” is just not true, almost everyone is the hero of their own story ### [Reply to @alistair___s, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673882629794406402) · 2 likes > **Alistair Stewart (@alistair___s):** Longtermism from a suffering-focused perspective ("make the future as suffering-free as possible") – probably yes > > Longtermism from a classical utilitarian perspective ("make the future as utility-rich as possible") – almost certainly no I think I’m slightly less suffering focused than you but yes, a big hobbyhorse of mine is that the explicit terms of longtermism in MacAskill and greaves’ paper are true but then people take this to directly imply eg maximize the number of (post-) humans in the future or smth ### [Reply to @goth600, 02:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673883282725916673) · 2 likes > **@goth (@goth600):** Type of guy who dies from a cold > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzoOxt7WYAM6TFJ.jpg) This is so funny omg ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 02:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673883863305580545) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @utopiannotions There is no objective truth [![wrong chicken GIF by happydog](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/FzrUgA1XgAEhE4j.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673883863305580545/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 02:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673884829912293379) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @SpacedOutMatt @panickssery Yup I do worry about this aspect of the culture a lot actually I too worry that there are still people not taking prescription stimulants ### [Reply to @sympatheticopp, 02:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673886915563597824) · 1 like > **sympathetic opposition (@sympatheticopp):** straight from a twitter meetup to a debutante party, feel like i got the bends from the context switch. weird thing about deb parties is they have free drinks free food 21 yo girls w decolletage out & a crazy womantilted ratio you cannot drag men to these things. what do men want ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzrXR2LWYAAZtl0.jpg) ### [Reply to @JosephPolitano, 02:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673888888702550019) · 2 likes > **Joey Politano 🏳️‍🌈 (@JosephPolitano):** There are 3 types of succesful companies in Europe: > > 1\) world-famous luxury goods brand worth 17 gabillion dollars > 2\) financial services firm with history of international crime > 3\) high-tech manufacturer that is the world's only producer of some machine you've never heard of 3\) ASML ### [Reply to @tunguz, 03:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673892627043819520) · 8 likes > **Bojan Tunguz (@tunguz):** What are these “vector databases”? Are they just SQL numpy wrappers? Like “kuberbetes,” “vector db” is a phrase I have resigned myself to seeing a couple times a week, w/o understanding in the slightest, until I die ### [Reply to @sidcodes, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673903249496088577) · 14 likes > **sid (@sidcodes):** only good linkedin post > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fzmc3x2XoAA0gyL.png) Quant at Jane street It’s over ### [Reply to @xwanyex, 04:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673906475536613376) · 13 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @xwanyex is no longer available.)_ He has single-handedly convinced me that it’s not only acceptable but good, not only good but divine, not only divine but morally obligatory to begin some sentences with “But” ### [Reply to @RichDecibels, 04:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673906830563475461) > **Richard D. Bartlett (@RichDecibels):** airport. ama What’s it like being a large building? ### [Reply to @uberstuber, 04:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673911753518841862) · 2 likes > **James Stuber 🌱🌿🌳🍂 (@uberstuber):** local pizza place offering pizzas for $5 if you add pineapple > > therefore i can acquire pineapple for $-6.99/oz > > it’s arbitrage time @SBF_FTX ### [Quote tweet, 04:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673914550926602240) · 11 likes I am once again (for the first time on Twitter afaik) asking the psychiatrists of the world to stop pretending MAOIs either don’t exist or are especially dangerous > **Quoting merg (@InvisibIeyeball):** @GhostCoase @dissproportion Tranylcypromine and phenelzine not even on that list!! ### [Thread, continued, 04:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673914554533961728) · 3 likes Fun fact: I took parnate (tranylcypromine) for a while. And the MAOI diet (very minimal tyramine) was perhaps the easiest explicit task or goal I have ever been faced with Like Step 1: don’t eat soy sauce, aged meat, or aged cheese Step 2: that’s it ur done ### [Tweet, 04:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673914556605771779) · 3 likes It’s like a minefield where theres exactly one mine in one brightly labelled building far from the airport in Portland and you fly to Portland twice a year ### [Thread, continued, 04:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673914558384095232) · 2 likes Fr tho check out http://psychotropical.com ### [Reply to @natalia__coelho, 06:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673944439457284102) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @natalia__coelho is no longer available.)_ The ham-d is a shitty rating scale that seems specifically designed to make certain drugs look better than others 3 questions about insomnia! At most 1 (general somatic) about fatigue! A q about weight loss and none about gain! Of course mirtazapine is gonna do great on that! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzsLmJJWYAgJeO7.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzsLmJGXoAEkYI1.jpg) ### [Reply to @natalia__coelho, 06:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673944678880739332) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @natalia__coelho is no longer available.)_ In case it wasn’t clear, I agree and was being hyperbolic. It does seem relatively easy but not as easy as avoiding one building far away ### [Reply to @yakubiancel, 06:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673945739536236545) · 12 likes > **wyle (@yakubiancel):** He didn’t just unplug it, though, he turned off that circuit using the circuit breaker. He nuked the power plant supplying electricity actually ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 10:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1673998412864270338) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ This can’t be good (third result has -49 karma) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fzs8rxXXsAAb9y9.jpg) ### [Tweet, 10:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674000455884500992) · 2 likes Rival voices, @nosilverv, rebranded as a guy😱😱😱 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fzs-ivdWIAArn8n.jpg) ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 17:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674112546494611469) · 2 likes > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** @AaronBergman18 @sidcodes what does "it's over" mean? i see it everywhere Means that the referent object shall not persist over time ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674119384313352199) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I'd be interested in seeing how being w. e.i.r.d. relates to the moral intuitions behind EA This but for the non acronym ### [Tweet, 19:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674138759917457420) · 16 likes On a scale from John von Neumann to making the nuclear launch system a GPT wrapper (“should I launch them now?” “Nope”) how dumb would it be for me to try to cut my own hair? ## Thursday, June 29, 2023 ### [Reply, 02:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674239385804439553) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Did it work ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674242038403850242) · 16 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pli_cachete is no longer available.)_ Me on the 7 occasions in my life I’ve intentionally done smth like this: I am a superconnector, extrovert of the century, a node on the social graph of humanity ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 02:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674242607004745728) · 2 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** I’ve been doing it for a couple years, & honestly, it’s led to better haircuts than I’ve gotten from barbers. The secret is to not cut orthogonal to the hairs, but instead grab a clump & cut at an angle. You probably also know how you want to wear your hair better than others do Nice ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fzwax0BX0AEZjwE.jpg) ### [Reply to @catehall, 05:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674291154366373888) · 2 likes > **Cate Hall 🔸 (@catehall):** It did not :( ### [Quote tweet, 06:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674310017510518784) · 4 likes Some extremely preliminary evidence for "polyunsaturated fat \[in some sense\] causes obesity" the outcome variable is mean bmi in a country-year ... ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzxXgy2XgAA-K-o.png) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Might fuck around and solve the whole obesity thing once and for all by making a gigantic country/year panel csv with every available, remotely plausible factor/control/outcome variable > https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dL0BAx3NorcLanKAgA-xXeVW3qrH2fGlVKG3hFMMs6s/edit?usp=sharing ### [Thread, continued, 06:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674310019565731840) · 4 likes basically: controlling for total fat, monounsaturated fat, saturated fat, gdp per capita, AND \*\*food supply\*\* (which I think is in fact avg intake from eyeballing the data), the only unambiguous results are (1) food supply (obviously) and (2) omega 6 fat, which is ### [Thread, continued, 06:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674310020530335744) · 1 like basically just polyunsaturated fat (ie the kind seed oil people are concerned about) Might update this thread as more results come in ### [Thread, continued, 06:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674310021457248256) · 6 likes please eviscerate everything I say ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 06:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674310654327390208) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** My love language is philosophical discussion ❤️💙 [![Good To Be Here Its Nice To Be Here GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/FzxYqQwWIAA6R8q.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674310654327390208/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Thread, continued, 06:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674310766038589444) · 2 likes took me like 4 tries to find a gif of someone. None for macaskill, parfit, only a bad one for singer ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 07:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674319388365709312) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pli_cachete is no longer available.)_ Im a seed oil culture warrior ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 07:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674320231626424321) · 1 like > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** @AaronBergman18 If you’re in between things that require looking nice (school, work, etc.) you’ll never have a better chance to try it lol @ needing to look nice for school but yea ### [Reply to @tunguz, 17:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674464380287692820) · 5 likes > **Bojan Tunguz (@tunguz):** It seems that being an AI doomer is being an incel with extra steps. Bad take, and also unkind ### [Reply to @JamesDowell2, 17:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674467347392868356) · 1 like > **J. D. (@JamesDowell2):** @AaronBergman18 Fair warning: if it's anything like modeling & predicting preventable hospital readmissions, it'll take 4 years for you to even reach the bottom of the Dunning-Kruger curve :( I went from "I can do this in 6 months" to "a team of 10 PhDs working year-round can start to do this" Oh I’m still in the “I can do this in 6 hours” peak naivety phase ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 17:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674467539697401857) · 6 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Yeah, it definitely becomes useless. When I lived in California, basically every building I walked into had a Prop 65 carcinogen warning on it (including my apartment!) > > I would bet that, on net, people overcorrect and do more dangerous things because of the false equivalence ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzznWiOX0AEeyfW.jpg) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674468011854508053) · 1 like > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Do I have this right that if Biden's true odds at 93% and there is zero counterparty risk, the ROI is 16.8% after fees for about a year in time horizon? Seems worth doing then? @TheZvi @GaetenD @salymnr > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzzhLy3XsAAB1wt.jpg) I will invest $10 in the strategy if u want leverage ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 17:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674469185529819155) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pli_cachete is no longer available.)_ What ### [Tweet, 17:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674470049812193292) · 32 likes Listen I want to be a meditation+dress nicely + learn how to dance + spaced repetition+Calendly guy The problem is these things all suck to do ### [Reply to @samsmisaligned, 18:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674486199069581346) · 2 likes > **Sam (@samsmisaligned):** @CineraVerinia I’m about 99.9% sure this is a joke I’ll take that bet (from the 100% direction) ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674491476837822466) · 2 likes > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** @AaronBergman18 Imo if you find that learning how to dance sucks, then you shouldn't do it. When it comes to non-monetizable skills, i think it's only worth learning them if you're having fun my career plan is professional dancer ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 18:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674491744337928192) · 2 likes > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** @AaronBergman18 @tunguz I think you have to say it's an incel take, otherwise OP won't understand you Nah I'm not gonna play the sex = status = good = true game ### [Tweet, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674503666315718679) · 12 likes I’m not opposed to affirmative action, ie insofar as demographics proxy for substantive things not easily expressed/revealed in a college app (1/ ) ### [Thread, continued, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674503669847322630) · 33 likes In fact my best guess is that black (and probably Hispanic) students should get some nonzero leg up relative to whites and Asians, because being black in America (yes black per se) seems to make ~everything else harder (of course figuring out how much that should be is hard) ### [Thread, continued, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674503672254853128) · 16 likes But I also think this principle does \*not\* imply disadvantaging Asians in particular relative to whites It doesn’t doesn’t seem true that being Asian \*per se\* makes one’s college app look better than it would in a world of perfect information flow ### [Thread, continued, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674503674289172480) · 30 likes “History doesn’t repeat, sometimes it rhymes” The current situation is shockingly analogous to 20th century Jewish quotas: model minority that excels academically, not considered equal in some fundamental way to “real \[white\] Americans” ### [Thread, continued, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674503676289773592) · 32 likes For those who favor anti-Asian AA but are glad Jewish quotas are a thing of the past, I challenge you to find a relevant difference and consider whether the former is just as bad ### [Quote tweet, 20:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674509111382143000) · 7 likes Idk either tbh > **Quoting alex lawsen (@lxrjl):** @AaronBergman18 > \- Follows me > \- Made a claim about obesity and dared to tag @natalia\_\_coelho > \- Pro cringe > \- Docked 2 points because I'm not actually sure who he is > 5/7 ### [Reply, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674514257281531906) · 2 likes Yes good correct take endorsed ### [Reply to @contemplatonist, 21:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674535977321222145) · 4 likes > **Amber Dawn (@contemplatonist):** @AaronBergman18 idk do you really want to do those things or do you just want to want to do those things (different)? I want to have their effects and want to want them but don’t actually want to do them ### [Tweet, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674546042841313281) · 4 likes Mask up DC ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fz0uvL_XsAEwhFk.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fz0uvL9WwAECv7i.jpg) ## Friday, June 30, 2023 ### [Reply to @NinaPanickssery, 00:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674570657290498052) · 1 like > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** “Meditation” is a psy op. Just go for a long walk in nature and think. > > You can signal “I’m the type of person who meditates” without meditating. Mostly object level tho, seems like people report intrinsically valuable benefits ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 00:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674571381659271172) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** A good point from @EAheadlines I that I want to highlight > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fz0_9vAXoAA9EiE.jpg) Proof ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674574276320534528) · 3 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** G is alive and kicking Didn’t get into a top med school tho (which is only trivial evidence against intelligence, much more against G kicking) ### [Reply to @NinaPanickssery, 01:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674587994878095363) · 1 like > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** People report many things. > > I think the evidence is poor if compared to basic interventions such as just "relaxing", "taking a moment to do whatever you like", "going for a walk", "having a nap" etc. > > Psychology/lifestyle stuff is full of overfitted models. For sure, I happen to think other better evidence (see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Traits )supports the anecdata, and for less legible reasons it just doesn’t strike me as a vacuous/purely placebo/fad type of thing ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 02:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674601531205734400) · 4 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Hey Zvi, any chance you could narrate these and put them on the podcast app? I'd like to read more of them, but they tend to be pretty long This…already exists https://podcasts.google.com?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hdWRpby5iZXlvbmR3b3Jkcy5pby9mLzg2OTIvNzg4OC9yZWFkXzg2MTdkM2FlZTUzZjNhYjg0NGEzMDlkMzc4OTVjMTQz&episode=Y1Jkc2lLUVpXaHBLREdvamFfTkxfTFc%3D ### [Reply to @TheZvi, 02:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674601650349121536) · 2 likes > **Zvi Mowshowitz (@TheZvi):** What's the best workflow option for automatically creating good-enough AI-audio versions of posts? Happy to grant the option, but needs to be quick each time. > > ('This person will do it for you' is a highly acceptable answer.) > > (quoting @daniel_271828: @TheZvi Hey Zvi, any chance you could narrate these and put them on the podcast app? I'd like to read more of them, but they tend to be pretty long) ### [Reply to @unormal, 02:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674602156232523776) · 13 likes > **🐔 Brian Bucklew 🐔 ₑͤ＞∿＜ₑͤ ∞🌮 (@unormal):** them: put your data in a database not files and folders > > me: why > > them: so you can find it and so its thread safe > > me: wait why can't I find stuff in my filesystem and why isn't it threadsafe > > them: \[closing chat window\] Databases should not exist, if it’s <500GB it can be a csv ### [Reply to @tszzl, 02:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674603336232845317) · 1 like > **roon (@tszzl):** what a time > > (quoting @inflectionAI: It’s a big week! We’ve raised $1.3 billion and are building the world’s largest AI cluster (22k H100s). We’re grateful for our investors and new funding that will help us accelerate our mission to make personal AI available to every person in the world.…) I like my MacBook personally ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 02:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674603881085521920) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Average @Laura_k_Duffy workday Niche banger ### [Reply to @NonameNemo8, 02:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674604800678273026) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @NonameNemo8 is no longer available.)_ This is the nu take after 4 seconds of thought and no more Try to kill humans -> fail -> ppl think ur cause is evil and crazy -> bad Try to kill all humans -> succeed -> wild animals keep getting eaten alive with no one to intervene ### [Tweet, 02:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674612237846167555) · 8 likes Pigeon Hour strikes again, this time with @panickssery By listening to this episode, you agree to indemnify, and hold harmless the Pod and all its affiliates from any and all liabilities, claims, damages, costs, or expenses, including attorneys fees. https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/nBxFPkqD2Ab ### [Thread, continued, 02:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674612239112843264) · 2 likes https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/arjun-panickssery-solves-books-hobbies-and-blogging/id1693154768?i=1000618814027 ### [Thread, continued, 02:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674612528293224454) · 9 likes Thank you for the support 🙌🙌🙌 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fz1rF89WcAE-8yR.jpg) ### [Reply to @alexeyguzey, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674612848125698051) · 2 likes > **Alexey Guzey (@alexeyguzey):** how's candidates' religion not a topic of debates... Society developed antibodies to putting object level religious views in the public spotlight, for better or for worse ### [Reply to @diviaprocessing, 03:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674625580820471810) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @diviaprocessing is no longer available.)_ Ooh me! I mean I guess I’d want to know a bit more about what kind of things we’d talk about but hard to imagine that changing my mind Would crosspost to Pigeon Hour w your consent ### [Reply to @zuza_real, 04:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674631113845665795) · 13 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @zuza_real is no longer available.)_ Can someone explain this? Like what am I even reading ### [Reply to @xdocholidayxx, 04:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674640288143269890) · 3 likes > **Aspen (@xdocholidayxx):** I’m assuming this is a fallout reference > > Ig originally bobby pins weighed too much and someone sent todd (guy who runs the game studio) the pack to show him the pins weight too mucb in game Ohhh I see it, thanks ### [Reply to @natalia__coelho, 06:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674659265691230209) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @natalia__coelho is no longer available.)_ If I'm reading this right there are only 4 studies analyzed for things directly related to adiposity/obesity, and the only one w/ a statistically significant result had n=30 Want to look into the particular fat sources used for these I admit directionally against my prior tho ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fz2VTVAXgAMDu_v.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674660275767635969) · 3 likes full text for anyone curious https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E4Snds6wR8g-AwgokhLjd913R3noqG-O/view?usp=sharing ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 07:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674683525210013697) · 3 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 @natalia\_\_coelho Holy shit it's a collab between two of my fave "people who know an unnatural amount, and tend to have good views, about random topics because they're just interested in learning about them" I am but a worm squirming next to a great butterfly ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 08:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674698994537070593) · 3 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** how good does exercise generally feel for you Suicides on a basketball court = pain Walking around on a nice day = great ### [Reply to @StuartJRitchie, 11:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674743181689212929) · 2 likes > **Stuart Ritchie (@StuartJRitchie):** A quick piece from me on why you can ignore the daft “aspartame possibly causes cancer” headlines from yesterday: https://inews.co.uk/news/aspartame-ignore-who-diet-coke-sweetener-cancer-risk-2444109?ito=twitter_share_article-top It doesn’t even make much sense from a theoretical perspective. Aspartame is literally two common amino acids and alcohol (2L bottle of diet coke has <1% of standard drinks’ worth), and afaic neither aspartic acid nor phenylalanine on their own are considered carcinogenic ### [Reply to @noampomsky, 11:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674743619247382532) · 3 likes > **Ava (@noampomsky):** I think you should try to alienate people through the most boring scissor statements possible. like “standardized testing is good” and “i like babies” Make the kid take the SAT as soon as he pops out ### [Quote tweet, 11:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674745015363403778) · 20 likes I feel like the implication here is that you should be allowed to park in front fire hydrants as long as you implicitly accept that .001% of the time your windows will get smashed Seems like a good deal idk > **Quoting NYCFireWire (@NYCFireWire):** Manhattan this evening. You gotta do what you gotta do to get water. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzwCHy_WcAE3x9S.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzwCIAFXsAAzm4s.jpg) ### [Tweet, 12:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674752064071557120) · 16 likes Ok now I’m anti anti anti aspartame Just bc everybody needs to chill, they’re not taxing it or banning it, just putting it on a list somewhere. U will be ok ### [Reply, 13:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674770484062289921) · 1 like Wait why isn’t this html? I mean people don’t actually use html this way but idk why not ### [Tweet, 13:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674772753541464064) · 4 likes My least favorite genre of chatGPT response is not “I’m sorry but I can’t do that” but “don’t be silly, most people probably don’t want to do the thing you just said you want to do” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fz388XOWYAEaWNj.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fz388XMWwAEcM_y.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 13:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674772756204777473) Which is true in this case and basically always (I’m not gonna program a file format lol) but still like cmon robot let me dream ### [Tweet, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674773007439462400) · 2 likes Not my idea ### [Reply, 13:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674774059249270785) · 1 like Actually thinking about it I bet the bottleneck is just that until recently it used to be quite hard and time consuming to write a good looking page But now it’s ai generated instantly (and well, for even moderately complex things) so ### [Reply, 17:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674828982074720270) · 2 likes Jfc ### [Reply, 17:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674829336845729806) · 2 likes Idea for a country: one where it’s harder to carry an assault rifle around than in the us, but easier to carry a pocketknife than in the uk ### [Reply, 23:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674927525519060992) · 4 likes Detailed argument if sufficiently important (idk how to judge that ofc), downvote otherwise --- End of June 2023. Previous month: [May 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-05). Next month: [July 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-07). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, July 2023 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in July 2023 and has not deleted: 726 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [June 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-06). Next month: [August 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-08). ## Saturday, July 1, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674932664783052802) · 8 likes 1 bajillion impact points to whoever dms me the thing this is about 👀 ### [Reply, 00:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674933260193873921) · 4 likes https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1660207931999002624?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ### [Reply, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674997888026288129) · 2 likes Nah we were talking about the other Matt from twitter ### [Reply, 04:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674998090128932866) · 2 likes jk only 1 true Matt from twitter 💙 ### [Reply, 04:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1674998875193499650) · 2 likes Intuitively it should be 1/4 don’t @ me ### [Reply to @World0fEcho, 05:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675008507743989761) · 670 likes > **Zac 🍒 (@World0fEcho):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fz5XxlgaIAAT4xj.jpg) \*she goes to work wearing the towel, the glasses are the disguise\* ### [Reply, 05:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675011659956383746) · 9 likes Yeah my sister is peak well adjusted happy normie and it’s insane ### [Reply, 16:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675177372285378562) · 3 likes @NTI_WMD ### [Reply, 16:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675182155360526336) · 3 likes No it still checks out castles arent like cars u can sell them again for no expected loss ### [Reply, 16:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675182268791377920) · 5 likes I will defend the castle even under shitposts 😤 ### [Reply, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675183948790394882) · 3 likes Should I be maximally disagreeable and contrarian here? I shall. For the shrimp. In relative terms, the difference between the best charities to donate to \*under your own explicit beliefs and values\* and GiveDirectly seems similar to GD vs playpumps ### [Reply, 16:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675184524425084928) · 4 likes In absolute terms it’s much larger And less confidently I suspect the psychological moves that underly eg donating to a local food bank even when one is familiar with EA are the same that underly donating to GD even after one strong upvotes an analysis showing Shrimp Welfare ### [Reply, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675186017370873856) · 3 likes You mean anthropic bias? Like only normies have kids? 😭😭😭 ### [Reply, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675186928696664065) · 5 likes Dude the thing about fables is they’re not true ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675187491236618240) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ I want a pocket Carl Shulman who will give me his massively justified, well researched all things considered take on literally anything ### [Tweet, 17:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675190560284463104) · 7 likes I think there’s a bug ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fz9478-XwAcVM6b.jpg) ### [Tweet, 18:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675207190641012738) · 13 likes Wait \*reading\* posts?!? I didn't see that part lmao. Wtf fr, what else am I gonna do with my life? ### [Tweet, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675208403545726977) · 9 likes Can't wait for the DiD papers in 6 months showing that the Twitter rate limit caused a 1.5 percentage point increase in the growth rate, expected to lift 600M people out of poverty by 2040 ### [Tweet, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675222077282852865) · 9 likes Cmon my own posts?! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fz-VmacXoAIbqVG.jpg) ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 20:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675244040709709827) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ Parameters to change being angles, distance between fan and filters, number of filters (4 more 👀), ?? ### [Tweet, 20:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675245416437227520) · 2 likes MERV 13s for <$10 on Amazon btw, not sure why it took an air quality crisis for me to buy some ### [Tweet, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675247652357779456) · 24 likes POV: There's been a plausibly true and plausibly important critique of something in EA ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fz-sycWXoAAmHgE.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675249120037023744) · 6 likes Idea: a job posting/applying board for ppl with autism Employers get: high decoupling, high IQ, analytical Autistic ppl get: no cover letter, optional text-only interview, ??? ## Sunday, July 2, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675294188928221186) · 4 likes @mattputz\_ said he listens to ~every single nonlinear library ea forum post ### [Reply, 05:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675375102018441217) · 2 likes Thanks! And wow haha that’s fewer that I’d have guessed ### [Reply, 06:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675395902670884864) · 4 likes 💀 ### [Reply, 07:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675411380046888961) · 3 likes This might be the weirdest post I’ve ever seen But glad s/he’s ok lol ### [Reply, 15:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675523798987165696) · 2 likes 💀 ### [Reply, 15:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675523988469030912) · 2 likes 💀 ### [Reply, 16:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675537226720002053) · 2 likes I am sentencing myself to 10^10 hours of community service for the pain I have caused via this tweet ### [Tweet, 16:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675538554250838022) · 16 likes Is…is Olivia Rodrigo anti-EA now? Olivia I’m sorry but the castle is better thought of as investment not luxury consumption ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0C1b0zWIAMlCOv.jpg) ### [Reply, 16:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675538622865350663) · 2 likes Now that just seems like overkill ### [Reply, 18:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675576665047539712) · 3 likes Not much of a joke haha, just that it's quite the elite squad of people id'd in the screenshot, and seems like a criticism that hits even a little close to home (for lack of a better phrase) is one of the few things that would get them all in a single twitter convo/thread ### [Tweet, 19:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675588257931837441) · 5 likes @JesseTayRiver @GjMcGowan and @SpacedOutMatt thanks for the advice!! Filter v2.0 is out ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0DimqZWYAgCyxA.jpg) ### [Reply, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675588631061229568) · 3 likes :) ### [Reply, 20:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675598064449462273) · 2 likes FUCK ### [Reply, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675599380525481985) · 2 likes Any advice for someone who finds it incredibly difficult per minute? Like I think I got to 12 minutes once, usually even 5 feels like 15 treadmill minutes ### [Reply, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675614848976134144) · 2 likes Lmaoo if u shut down Qualy I’m starting a scandal 😤 ### [Reply, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675616575913705475) · 5 likes Fuck ### [Quote tweet, 22:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675630703420006402) · 5 likes Important context I didn’t know > **Quoting Gil (@RFishBlueFish):** This NYTimes article gives context that I have wanted for so long https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/01/us/affirmative-action-students.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fz-fQ-dWIAMF1bF.jpg) ### [Reply, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675632527212462085) · 10 likes No way you track most things. Do you know how many things there are? A lot ### [Reply, 22:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675632816178987009) · 9 likes 1\) ice 2\) headphones 3\) nitrogen 4\) nostrils 5\) ginger 6\) comedy And that’s just the start ### [Reply, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675633063923970048) · 2 likes I can but I won’t lol ### [Reply, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675634692983275520) · 3 likes 1\) put on shorts 2\) that’s it ## Monday, July 3, 2023 ### [Reply, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675677573458665473) · 18 likes I’m against this (ofc willing to be persuaded otherwise) It’s the unfortunate reality that 14y/os have very little autonomy, legally or practically. Their parents can make life significantly better or worse at will even within the bounds of the law… ### [Reply, 01:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675678143288336385) · 4 likes So if your parents decide that they want you to work and hand over the money, they can functionally cause this to happen Coerced work is bad. I don’t want to get into a semantic debate as to whether this should be called “slavery” but it’s not entirely different Ofc school is ### [Reply, 01:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675678636278525963) · 3 likes Coerced work (and indeed I think there should be more leeway in eg whether to go to school online or in person, whether you need an excuse to miss class as long as you get the work done, etc) but at least there ~all of the coerced benefit accrues to the child (because they ### [Reply, 01:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675678731749171201) · 2 likes get returns on their human capital mostly after 18, when their families don’t functionally own them) ### [Reply, 01:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675678922145505280) · 2 likes Everybody should be on more podcasts ### [Reply to @deepfates, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675679913251160064) · 1 like > **deepfates.delve.town (@deepfates):** wyd after smoking this > > (quoting @robotson: @DexIsDex @AinterShow it’s ya boi) Die ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 01:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675683259039068161) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** I actually think it would be survivable? Just an absolutely horrible idea > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0E3yKpXsAAz-cN.png) I’d die at some point tho, for unrelated reasons ### [Reply to @greg16676935420, 01:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675684800521203714) · 15 likes > **greg (@greg16676935420):** PETA got tired of me ratioing them so hard everyday > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0DkC4dX0AAU1oL.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0DkC4fXgAApt9D.jpg) It’s a good question. There are reasons not to eat fish tho: 1\) farmed fish live in terrible conditions 2\) wild fish are killed in heinous ways (asphyxiation often takes >1 hr) and demand elasticity means eating wild fish induces some smaller amount of farmed fish to be raised ### [Reply, 02:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675687311210688513) · 3 likes Practically, though, what % of ill-treated 14 y/os try to do this, or would if they could work? I suspect <1% and probably much lower ### [Reply, 02:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675689095580753922) · 1 like There’s like hugely robust evidence of a wage effect from years of schooling though right? ### [Tweet, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675689993660932098) · 11 likes Huge W for @dcyimbys ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0E_KhwWwAA1Vzv.jpg) ### [Tweet, 02:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675696983674060800) · 10 likes Guy who thinks Hillary should go to jail bc emails but trump should not (probably like several million people?) ### [Reply, 10:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675817170213666817) · 2 likes In the sense that both are legit useful and important words and concepts ### [Reply, 11:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675828466745331712) · 1 like My think low key basically functions tho, I’m not changing shit ### [Reply, 11:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675830887949189124) · 6 likes https://docs.google.com/document/d/17NuDIfHDg5UbRxdMVuLCLyIJnT0fCg2sUcmQjVohGKs/edit?usp=sharing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0G_Ry9XgAA71OL.jpg) ### [Reply, 11:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675830989019308032) · 2 likes Tryna get a few dozen ppl before I make it invite only ### [Reply, 11:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675831831206445058) · 5 likes The person I’m speculating this is about does have (exactly) one good take ### [Tweet, 13:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675864541056344066) · 12 likes Unironically you really can cook basically anything in a microwave. Yes it’s slightly worse, it’ll also take 2% as long ### [Reply, 13:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675865713435607040) · 3 likes And it’s like a triumph of science Universal W ### [Reply, 14:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675875852096086016) · 3 likes AaronHouse is gonna be wild ### [Reply, 14:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675875936938409984) · 3 likes Like real electricity lightning ### [Reply, 14:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675879739876155397) · 2 likes This is not a thought out plan ### [Reply, 14:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675879940040843269) · 2 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0Hr7FrWYAIoTU6.jpg) ### [Reply, 14:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675880187437752320) · 2 likes Seems relatively tame tbh ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 15:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675883730995490823) · 1 like > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Comment and I’ll give you dnd stats Idk what this is but me ### [Reply, 15:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675887818004918272) · 3 likes I’ve gone way faster Not in a car tho ### [Tweet, 15:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675888126676312064) · 17 likes I used PyTorch to predict one column of numbers from another column When do the VC checks arrive? ### [Tweet, 15:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675888223984263168) · 3 likes Is a loss of 4.07 good or nah ### [Quote tweet, 15:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675889045342236672) · 9 likes Clearly the best regime is a ton of gossip and corresponding skepticism/high bar for concluding someone is bad, no? > **Quoting Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** I think gossip is bad and people should mostly mind their own business > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0HcY3gWYAAcdGE.jpg) ### [Reply, 15:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675891551019360259) · 2 likes All my apps are single file 😎 ### [Reply, 15:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675891604178059266) · 2 likes Fr I don’t fuck with repos ### [Reply, 16:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675899936389443590) · 2 likes All Aarons are created equal ### [Reply, 16:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675911831855017998) · 4 likes One thing I’d highlight is that afaict 100% negative utilitarians in the sense of “pinprick+century of bliss=bad” just…don’t exist. I mean presumably someone does somewhere, but not that know of (Tbc this doesn’t render all of the objections inert, just most) ### [Reply, 17:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675915436381155340) · 2 likes Hmm interesting (unironically) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 17:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675915820868808711) · 1 like > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 @GjMcGowan Hopefully this gets to you in time but under no circumstances should you hard boil an egg. 1\) put egg (intact) in microwave 2\) 1 minute on high What’s the issue exactly ### [Reply, 17:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675916259882414103) · 2 likes This is just a long way of saying “yes” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0IM9LeXsAsz5ER.jpg) ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 17:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675916541051777026) · 1 like > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Nothing, a nutritious and quick meal option. Which species’ egg do u use? Personally I like lizard ### [Reply, 17:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675917935297044499) · 2 likes Cats are friends not food ### [Quote tweet, 19:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675950229332324353) · 5 likes “Does P(rain tomorrow) increase or decrease with consecutive days of no rain?” seems like a pretty interesting question I think there’s anthropic bias here though: in places where the “increase” finding isn’t true, people (and their religions) leave and/or die eventually > **Quoting alz (@alz_zyd_):** Hahahahaha awesome paper > > Tl;dr: > \- Praying for rain is common across religions > \- Prayer \_actually predicts\_ rain in some places! > \- This is because, in some places, rain isn't Poisson: when it hasn't rained for a long time, it's more likely to rain > > https://www.nber.org/papers/w31411 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0H5GqLX0AICSe_.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0H5HodXwAIMQM5.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0H5IhPWAAATsEc.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0H5JU2WwAETkad.jpg) ### [Reply, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675978931772567553) · 1 like ^ nobody is saying this ### [Reply, 21:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1675979581176545285) · 8 likes Every rep Andy does is morally equivalent to averting the factory farming of 761,300 chickens ## Tuesday, July 4, 2023 ### [Reply, 01:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676039446809001984) · 2 likes The dress is black and blue ### [Quote tweet, 02:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676051179309080577) · 26 likes The only good dunk to make here is that they took a true and important point — that virginity’s moral importance (for both sexes, in opposite directions) is fake and illusory — and put it in the most culture war-y, left-coded terms imaginable > **Quoting Planned Parenthood (@PPFA):** The idea of virginity comes from outdated — let's be real, patriarchal— ways of thinking that hurts everyone. 📢 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzzjE5MXsAoeoOd.jpg) ### [Reply, 02:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676058175873720325) · 7 likes No, bad incentives! Some “sellers” would credibly threaten to buy/eat the worst animal products to extract a higher veganism wage ### [Quote tweet, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676069628143972352) · 3 likes 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 > **Quoting Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso):** I value the "Fuck Yeah" vibe that comes with American pride to an extent, and I think it generally is capable of doing things of value, such as being able to overcome the fear of trivial social punishment that comes when you try anything new. Startup fuel, really. > > It's just a matter of channeling it properly, away from football, alcohol, and fireworks, and towards 2C-B-like drug discovery, genetics research, and meditation accelerants, all of which are still happening, first and foremost, and at the highest levels, in the U S and A. ### [Reply, 03:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676070529428488192) · 13 likes But the \*real\* real (and IMO true) contrarian viewpoint is that first-order contrarian viewpoints are often wrong and you have to look at the object level evidence instead of just pattern matching Millenarianism will never look true in hindsight bc anthropics ### [Reply, 06:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676122274909286400) · 4 likes \*taking notes\* ### [Quote tweet, 07:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676126225805262849) · 5 likes I am personally responsible for most of this, sorry guys ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0LL624XwAAwdmG.jpg) > **Quoting George Mack (@george__mack):** Spent the last 30 days in America > > Some thoughts on the USA vs the UK: > > 1\. Flags - In America, if you fly the national flag -- it's normal. In Britain, if you fly the national flag -- you're labeled a neo-nazi. > > 2\. Accents - In America, if you drive for 2 hours -- people's accents don't change much. In Britain, if you drive for 2 hours -- people's accents change a lot. > > 3\. Work - In American culture, people sell themselves well when meeting strangers. In British culture, you're taught to downplay everything you do. > > 4\. Fashion - In America, the biggest companies are tech. In Europe, the biggest companies are fashion. > > If you're European -- you immediately become the top 10% of fashion sense in America. > > This rule even applies to Brits -- who are notoriously the worst dressed in Europe. > > 5\. Nice cars - In America, if you have a nice car -- most people will ask: "Wow. What do you do for work?" > > In Britain, if you have a nice car -- some people will wait for you to leave it, and scratch their key down the side of it. > > 6\. The British accent - Most Brits don't realize this but Americans love the British accent. > > You immediately appear smarter and more attractive than you are. The British accent is a commodity in the rest of the world -- except Britain. > > If you have a British accent, the worst ROI you get for it is ironically in Britain. > > Unfortunately, the reverse isn't true for American accents. > > 7\. History - In the 1700s, Americans were the ones that decided to get on a random boat for 50 days and travel across the whole world in search of a better life. > > The Brits were the ones that said: "What a silly idea. Why would I do that?!" > > This historical A/B test can explain 99% of their differences generations later. > > 8\. Decentralisation - In America, if you want to get into politics - Washington. > > If you want to get into tech - San Francisco. > > If you want to get into finance - New York. > > If you want to get into entertainment - LA. > > In Britain, if you want to get into elite politics, tech, finance, or entertainment: You move to London. > > (Remote work and Manchester's boom is changing this slightly) > > 9\. Anti-Fragile - American kids are told they can do anything. This is great -- but can result in fragile self-esteem when reality meets their imagination. > > British kids take the piss out of one another. This looks bad on the surface -- but it results in anti-fragile self-esteem. You learn to publicly laugh at your own insecurities. > > 10\. Comedy - Chris Rock once broke down the difference between him (American) and Ricky Gervais (British). > > American comedy is often so loud. They shout to get their joke across to everyone in the room. > > British comedy is usually subtle. The best joke is the one that only the smart people in the room understood. > > 11\. Road rage - There appears to be less road rage in America relative to Britain. > > In Britain, there are 10x more car horns and fights. > > I suspect this might be because of bigger roads -- or that you're unsure if the person you're starting a fight with has a gun. > > 12\. Naming conventions - America often calls things what they are. > > E.g. Joshua Tree in LA -- because it has a lot of Joshua Trees. > > In British culture, it's more obscure. > > E.g. Big Ben's own Wikipedia page has a debate about why a clock is called Big Ben. All we know is it involved some bloke called Ben. > > 13\. War scar tissue - During WW1 and WW2, Britain saw millions of people die near their own soil. Major British cities got bombed into rubble. > > Americans have barely seen any losses near their land. And the wars where they did take damage (E.g. Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam) - they were all so far away from America. > > As a result, the British culture is more stoic. Brits mentally prepare for the worst outcome. It's the spirit that got us through watching our country get blown up twice. > > Bonus thought: > > 14\. Meta point - I poked more fun at Britain than America. > > Why? Because I'm British. And mocking yourself rather than someone else is a very British thing to do. > > And I love that part of British culture. > > \------ > > Nuance: This is largely satire from my own personal observations. The sample size is 1 and none of the above is a scientific fact. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0Iy2fVX0AIkGRG.png) ### [Reply, 13:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676221075800092673) · 8 likes I should be rooting for this bc Dustin has a bunch of equity right? ### [Quote tweet, 13:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676222173755629568) · 4 likes Bro I thought from the title they made an AI bat 😭😭😭 > **Quoting yi (@agihippo):** BatGPT from Wuhan university. > > For real?? 😲 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0LugEoaMAA4Tf0.png) ### [Reply, 13:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676222715781414914) · 3 likes He’s my 4th degree friend then 😤 ### [Reply, 13:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676222806298701826) · 2 likes But tank = comfy ### [Tweet, 13:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676224998359416832) · 5 likes @RethinkPriors pulls ahead (37%) \- LTFF 15% \- Shrimp Welfare 10% More ppl should (yes normatively should) post this kind of poll IMO https://manifold.markets/AaronBergman/what-donationaccepting-entity-eg-ch?r=QWFyb25CZXJnbWFu ### [Reply, 14:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676232570546036736) · 6 likes Most millionaires are probably “just” boomers/early Gen X who bought a house pre-2000 ### [Reply, 14:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676233714227871745) · 1 like I got an interview once Could still be fake tho ### [Reply, 14:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676237681490051073) · 22 likes 6\) ozempic 7\) ??? ### [Reply, 15:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676251262361255936) · 2 likes Level 9 EA ### [Tweet, 17:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676277999467995154) · 2 likes There are at least two of us Fun fact the Pigeon Hour podcast is largely a response to me not being able to actually publish writing for some reason ### [Reply, 17:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676284702863269907) · 1 like 👀 ### [Reply, 19:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676319929375522817) · 2 likes I think most of it is the social capital from his Twitter friends ### [Reply, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676320473561325568) · 2 likes Any book with labelled line numbers like that is too old to be worth reading ### [Reply, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676322733066469377) · 6 likes Wait wtf that doesn’t sound sanitary ### [Reply, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676328181672951809) · 2 likes Oh I 100% agree, literally maybe the most based, but old books are still bad ### [Quote tweet, 20:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676333976833650689) · 8 likes While old books are still bad and silly to read, Mills’ at least contain an outlandish number of correct takes, slung decades and centuries before they were cool ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0OI3aVWIAA5YBR.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0OI3aSXgAQthVw.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0OI3aUXoAEdHgK.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0OI3aUXsAAQhVR.jpg) > **Quoting Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Spending July 4th having an Englishman reinforce my belief that the First Amendment is one of the greatest legal principles ever—and, more broadly, that a culture of free expression is absolutely necessary for human flourishing > > Happy birthday America! 🇺🇸 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0N6bgFWAAAzpki.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0N6bgDWIAA9R93.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676333983670386688) · 2 likes Mōr ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0OI34KWcAMT5hi.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0OI34NWcAAXHFN.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0OI34hWYAAM4bS.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0OI34MXoAAswY1.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676336958916657157) · 20 likes 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[Tweet, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676351040550055936) · 4 likes 12 hour twitter fast starting now ready go ## Wednesday, July 5, 2023 ### [Tweet, 01:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676405818864947200) · 22 likes 🦐🚨🦐🚨🦐🚨🦐🚨🦐🚨🦐 Breaking my Twitter fast (illegal) bc the SHRIMP WELFARE PROJECT NEEDS MONEY …specifically at least $60k to buy a shrimp stunner, estimated to make the deaths of just under A BILLION SHRIMP painless instead of agonizing 🦐💰🤑🦐 https://manifund.org/projects/shrimp-welfare-project---special-program---place-electric-stunners-at-selected-producers?tab=comments ### [Tweet, 01:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676405820798517248) · 3 likes …and they could use up to 4 of these for a total of $240k Cost effectiveness estimate: >4k shrimp/$/year See their “BOTEC” which looks more like a “C” tbh https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Z0M_ytkYwzvwXxHaBalJ6PaiBALBFPtXma-TwDUaYUE/edit?usp=sharing ### [Tweet, 01:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676405822325235718) · 5 likes Unfortunately I don’t even think I could buy one of these for them by liquidating everything I own (and I’m also selfish and kinda need to keep my laptop and a few other things) ### [Tweet, 01:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676405823902236673) · 6 likes I will be contributing but not sure how much yet (unlike a tweet I should think for more than 5 mins about this) I would like to call upon all shrimpfluencers to help spread the word 🦐🤑💰🐌 🇺🇸🚨🦐 ### [Reply, 02:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676413322877386753) · 3 likes Chats? He’s invited on the Pigeon Hour pod ### [Reply, 02:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676413924248285184) · 2 likes If the snail is truly immortal, plausibly it’s welfare really would dominate that of all other beings. Infinity vs not infinity type thing ### [Tweet, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676427730391318528) · 14 likes Swear to God I just scratched my head and a live, fully functional firefly popped off ### [Reply to @6enera, 03:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676428944835264512) · 2 likes > **genera (@6enera):** Ok so I'm curling the real numbers into a spiral and highlighting primes, tell me this doesn't look like a field > > This is up to numbers 100k, 1m, and 10m > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0E1kWjWIAAfYYl.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0E1oA2WYAAfAHh.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0E1ozUXsAAZSW-.jpg) I am a simple man. I see someone about to prove the Riemann hypothesis with “qualia dealer” in bio, I follow. ### [Reply, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676438460889022466) · 2 likes Exposed ### [Tweet, 04:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676448467214893057) · 26 likes It’s actually fine to replace fireworks with drone swarms for the sake of wild animals, pets, babies, air quality, and anyone who doesn’t like the sound. Externalities and aesthetics trade off sometimes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0Pw_tdXwAM0-X8.jpg) ### [Reply, 04:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676452754695376896) · 4 likes Unless there was a meta analysis of perfectly run RCTs on the exact phenomenon under consideration, nothing can be known about the future ### [Tweet, 05:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676457064392949761) · 3 likes The chatGPT paywall thing is...curl? [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1676456700637765634/pu/img/wRYp_K0MONfqyNlO.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676457064392949761/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply, 06:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676473848198316033) · 2 likes Kinda confusing, looks like the donations only actually go through if it reaches the minimum threshold ($60k) but a rando like me can "commit" small amounts Idk if "pending" means until the $60k is reached or smth else ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0QH_69XgAooMlW.jpg) ### [Reply, 06:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676473977747767296) · 2 likes Also minimum deposit amount to load funds into ur acct (which is how it works) is $10 which I guess is kinda weird ### [Quote tweet, 06:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676477581044973568) · 3 likes I broke down 😔 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0QLa0PX0AMUzpg.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0QLdzlWcAAOoXk.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @tunguz Like “kuberbetes,” “vector db” is a phrase I have resigned myself to seeing a couple times a week, w/o understanding in the slightest, until I die ### [Reply, 10:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676545055224373248) · 5 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0RI12vWIAAWMlB.jpg) ### [Reply, 13:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676589384831827970) · 3 likes He spittin facts ### [Quote tweet, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676666433097420808) · 6 likes Human-level at one set of tasks seems way more controllable than general purpose ASI Like it’s not a rock solid theoretical thing but uh does anyone have a better idea? > **Quoting Connor Leahy (@NPCollapse):** While I genuinely appreciate this commitment to ASI alignment as an important problem... > > ...I can't help but notice that the plan is "build AGI in 4 years and then tell it to solve alignment." > > I hope the team comes up with a better plan than this soon! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0SqkSpXsAM69ip.png) ### [Reply, 18:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676666591478415361) · 5 likes Can I donate a few minutes of my MacBook ### [Reply, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676666822328737795) · 8 likes I’m also willing to do a few floating point operations by hand and email them the results ### [Quote tweet, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676711739998494720) · 25 likes Wait lmao @QualyThe is \*not\* edited in https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/RMXctNAksBgXgoszY/announcing-manifund-regrants > **Quoting EA Lifestyles (@EAheadlines):** reading the news about a regranting program. comment when you see it... > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0TQlUPXsAERzGR.jpg) ### [Reply, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676713576134766593) · 2 likes And $10 from me 😤 ### [Tweet, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676737349454118918) · 15 likes Gotta fight fire with fire ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0T3u6SXsAActjd.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0T3u6UWcAApDda.jpg) ## Thursday, July 6, 2023 ### [Reply, 10:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676904373434167297) · 6 likes Infohazard 🚨🚨🚨 ### [Reply, 10:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676904557350191105) · 2 likes R u actually unironically married ### [Reply, 10:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676904734337146880) · 2 likes https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1645998758805553154?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ### [Reply, 11:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676914571565572098) · 6 likes Trágico ### [Reply, 13:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676939051725619203) · 2 likes Serious question: we’ve disagreed quite a bit on various things. Do you think I’ve been intellectually honest? What about basically rational? ### [Reply, 14:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676959119595704325) · 2 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0XBbiNaUAAgOov.jpg) ### [Reply, 14:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676959898557648899) · 9 likes I puked on some lady on a plane to Arizona when I was 1 If ur out there, sorry :/ ### [Reply, 14:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676961507350052866) · 5 likes He’s the single person most capable of convincing me to join a cult, if he were to try ### [Reply, 14:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676961808303931397) · 2 likes Tbf they are indeed animals ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 14:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676964571226181639) · 1 like > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** I know about opportunity cost, yet still believe more white collar folks should perform minor repairs & projects as this will often be less time-consuming and consume less cognitive bandwidth than hiring someone. IME the total opposite: my dad, workaholic lawyer, will spend 4 hours and $25 trying to fix a stick lightbulb socket instead of pay someone $100 and not think about it anymore ### [Quote tweet, 14:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676969166157533187) · 6 likes Not actually about the meme, but just struck me that this way of thinking is just the mirror opposite of the hyper-empirical, RCT-demanding type that refuses to see theoretical arguments or reasoning more generally as legitimate evidence > **Quoting Mathieu (@miniapeur):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0Rb47cXsAIqdtI.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 15:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676973640015912960) · 10 likes Regardless of what you think about this particular case, what an insane political mechanism Like fun for a video game, bad way to actually govern several million people > **Quoting Maxwell Meyer (@mualphaxi):** Wisconsin has a "partial veto" where the Governor can eliminate individual characters in bills > > So he dropped characters in order to change a budget increase that was intended for 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 to \*2425\* > > Insane lawlessness. Is this "democracy"? > https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2023/07/05/tony-evers-extends-increases-for-public-schools-in-perpetuity/70381898007/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0TexWXWIAIRuik.jpg) ### [Reply, 16:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1676996472934375424) · 7 likes I don’t share that sense re nick/nihilism fwiw ## Friday, July 7, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677110605281390593) · 5 likes This sounds absolutely miserable lmao ### [Reply, 01:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677121833265446912) · 3 likes In fact it’s problematic regardless of whether u think about it ### [Reply, 02:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677135495560589312) · 4 likes Agree, but also the first order impact of “give good charities more money” probably dominates IMO ### [Reply, 02:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677137145989853184) · 4 likes Wait no way this is avg for 45 yos in general Like 35% of American adults are obese ### [Reply, 02:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677138052882243588) · 1 like Kinda confused. I mean if we’re talking about meta level research orgs only (RP) it’s not obvious to me why getting $1M from OpenPhil enables better/more wide ranging research than getting $500k from OP and $500k from individuals ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677139244593102848) · 1 like > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Because you have more freedom to do research according to your own agenda/assumptions I mean I know RP in particular does specific contracting projects for OP but is it in fact the case that in general large non-contract grants to meta level orgs (RP, ACE, GiveWell, ??) limits what kind of research gets done, explicitly or implicitly? ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 02:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677140675144318978) · 3 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** Hi guys i'm back from my twitter break, i think i'll stay private and not redownload the twitter app for a while though. Anyway did i miss anything in the past 2 weeks? Taylor swift didn’t reject FTX after all That’s it all other molecules are in precisely the same state as before ### [Reply, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677182510948659201) · 3 likes I am poly but only for their brolycule ### [Tweet, 05:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677183128048226304) · 5 likes This is so cute, making me want to start a beef with someone Who tryna be my enemy ### [Reply, 11:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677278146519810049) · 2 likes Last time I wore makeup was for Halloween in 4th grade ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 11:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677279236346855424) > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AndyMasley It also looks culturally worse in less capitalistic countries (Continental Europe, Latin America). > > I think those are some reasons why 80k has moved away from the emphasis on the idea in the first place. > > But otherwise I'm on board. It's definitely better than nothing? My sense was 80k moved away bc more money came in and talent needs identified Tbh it doesn’t sound that plausible that 80k would update on long-standing ideological differences (like what changed?) ### [Reply, 12:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677291396934295552) · 2 likes Sending email/pic/address to a fellow student seems fine Why tf would you send sns ### [Tweet, 16:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677346962478096385) · 19 likes If I was tall hot and conscientious it would be so over for y’all ### [Reply, 19:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677400113243627527) · 4 likes If u did more cardio ur memory would be better and you’d remember ### [Tweet, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677407674521010180) · 37 likes Sometimes I wander into Parent Twitter and everyone’s like “I haven’t gotten a full nights sleep in seven years. No wait, there was that one time in 2019” or “3 y/o has started getting into knives. Still love him tho” and I would just like to offer this tweet of emotional support ### [Tweet, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677407677998067713) · 3 likes Tbc all this fits with my irl (not firsthand thank God) experience too ### [Reply, 21:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677434854806364161) · 1 like They’re all beautiful ### [Tweet, 21:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677436121138057216) · 5 likes 1 gossip dm to me is morally equivalent to saving the lives of 99^99 future people ## Saturday, July 8, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 00:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677481898958893057) · 9 likes NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO🐌OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO > **Quoting Elon Musk (@elonmusk):** @ehikian @Scobleizer @IrenaCronin @enriquebrgn We’re deprecating Circles in favor of improved Communities & DM group chat ### [Quote tweet, 01:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677484489126170627) · 11 likes Me: oh sick lemme see if I have it rn Also me: it’s over > **Quoting OpenAI (@OpenAI):** Code Interpreter will be available to all ChatGPT Plus users over the next week. > > It lets ChatGPT run code, optionally with access to files you've uploaded. You can ask ChatGPT to analyze data, create charts, edit files, perform math, etc. > > Plus users can opt in via settings. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0X0TlraYAAjn2y.jpg) ### [Reply, 01:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677486555873542144) · 3 likes This is literally the best product feature on the internet I will be legit upset ### [Quote tweet, 01:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677491623406583810) · 7 likes Here’s a mostly serious q: if I make myself 1° cooler via AC, is the expected effect on global warming more or less than (1/\[world population\])° ? > **Quoting non aesthetic things (@PicturesFoIder):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0dp9S3aYAAMVHA.jpg) ### [Tweet, 01:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677491626229354497) · 3 likes Obviously it will depend on my AC system and sq feet and stuff but given OOM uncertainty I doubt these matter directionally ### [Reply, 01:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677493415259394048) · 2 likes I mean it \*is\* an externality, and should be subject to the same considerations that all externalities are Like most aren’t worth regulating for a bunch of reasons (not worth the hassle/transaction costs/political capital, creates bad incentives to falsify preferences) ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677494842883031042) · 1 like > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** I actually disagree, and would say someone being annoyed by something is not a morally relevant externality. My response is more of a “that’s a you problem” I go around shouting in ur face, but politely stop whenever it interferes \*directly\* with some activity (eg sleeping, talking on the phone) - not morally relevant? ### [Tweet, 01:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677495372388745216) · 3 likes Both of these integrated over time I guess ### [Tweet, 02:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677502424792150017) · 10 likes DOE refuse to set alarms for normal times so u can feel like u have free will ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0evkJhXsAA3yoT.jpg) ### [Reply, 02:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677509814442754050) · 8 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0e2SQkWYAIbmEv.jpg) ### [Reply, 02:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677509917320658945) · 2 likes Utils do be utils ### [Reply, 03:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677515338341138432) · 5 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0e7TpWXsAEI_tM.jpg) ### [Tweet, 03:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677516625015128066) · 2 likes \+ resurrect JS Mills and use him2.0 as policy advisor ### [Reply, 03:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677518125036609537) · 2 likes Correct ethical theory gets more important as you scale up optimization power (ie do EA with billions of dollars and lots of ppl) ### [Reply, 03:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677519057082359808) · 3 likes The pfps and/or favorite tweets of all ur twitter friends ### [Reply, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677519370241622016) · 3 likes I don’t really get how that’s motivating but u do u ### [Reply, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677525105205714944) · 2 likes Thx ### [Reply, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677526722390917120) · 3 likes That we don’t know what the answer to the hard problem of consciousness is Also money ### [Reply, 09:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677606382072102912) · 4 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0gOHR2WIAARYFf.jpg) ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 09:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677608316589993984) · 1 like > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Daily Star is the paper to read for AI issues tbh > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0gKttiWIAUovFP.jpg) > (quoting @GjMcGowan: LOVE British media) Who bowled over weetabix? 👀 ### [Reply to @Rockybalbonga1, 21:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677797262146011140) · 3 likes > **pbr (@Rockybalbonga1):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0dxO4HXsAAtyJj.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0dxO4FXsAIqaNY.jpg) Free my man ### [Reply, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1677809658461933568) · 4 likes Is this what lesbian crushes are like ## Sunday, July 9, 2023 ### [Tweet, 11:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678008076769587206) · 4 likes Should I turn evil? ### [Quote tweet, 12:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678015976791572480) · 4 likes Cardio > **Quoting Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I think @JesseTayRiver is severely underrated if you go by follower count ### [Tweet, 12:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678016970124406784) · 10 likes Some context for whenever I 🦐 react ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0mDiqSXwAA4vW0.jpg) ### [Reply, 12:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678021730151944192) · 3 likes Or 10x leveraged Nvidia ### [Reply, 12:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678024862768480257) · 3 likes Also everybody reading this needs to cyberbully @JesseTayRiver into running for office ### [Reply, 13:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678038737631031297) · 7 likes This is one of the funniest posts of all time from a decontextualized perspective, alongside Aella’s “I truly hate Elizabeth Warren” (or smth like that) ### [Reply, 14:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678045063769739265) · 3 likes Lmao like of all people, not Hitler, not some shitty ex bf, just one particular cringey politician ### [Reply, 14:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678055480030052352) · 2 likes Evil shit ### [Tweet, 15:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678058680409899010) · 23 likes Hey guys, the EA Archive something I've been working on for a while - too long, in fact haha Would appreciate if you'd check it out! (link below) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0momfyXwAAi30Q.jpg) ### [Tweet, 15:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678058681743597568) · 5 likes https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/DndmvDGStD3gTfhXk/announcing-the-ea-archive ### [Tweet, 15:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678058682775482368) · 1 like And I think this comment exchange is important context - no, the info I collected is not the most important, but it does seem to be among the most important among things that would be plausibly lost due to physical destruction of infrastructure ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0mpLDnXoAAnaeS.jpg) ### [Reply, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678060315278229506) · 3 likes Still waiting for a response https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1664678973614194705?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ### [Quote tweet, 15:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678060669478875138) · 65 likes I identify as an effective altruist ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0mrSScXoAMOAzE.jpg) > **Quoting Amber Dawn (@contemplatonist):** I think this dynamic is messed up actually. Why do so many people who have many EA-ish attributes or who outsiders wd call EA, feel uncomfy with the label, so often that "EA adjacent" is a meme? ### [Reply, 15:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678061109301989377) · 3 likes Me fr ### [Tweet, 15:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678061384062337024) · 13 likes Maybe the meme goes particularly deep this time: contrarian generic looking white guy, dressed for comfort ### [Tweet, 15:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678064861450846208) · 114 likes Oh to have the optimism of a parent thinking his child can get a job at an EA org ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0mvGT9XsAgE9ho.jpg) ### [Reply, 15:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678067510074126337) · 7 likes I will pass this on ### [Reply, 15:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678069438967431170) · 9 likes 💀 @Laura_k_Duffy ### [Quote tweet, 15:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678070559962218496) · 29 likes Oh God ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0m0R_aWwAA24T6.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Oh to have the optimism of a parent thinking his child can get a job at an EA org > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0mvGT9XsAgE9ho.jpg) ### [Reply, 17:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678095897333252097) · 5 likes Lukewarm take: bucketing/classification is often a useful tool for understanding ### [Reply, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678119292527603713) · 4 likes Lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0ngmloXgAAhfC6.jpg) ### [Reply, 19:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678120601389498369) · 9 likes I mean this would be super unfair irl until all high schools offer a very similar set of AP courses ### [Tweet, 20:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678142302940717056) · 6 likes Tweet that got me thinking about the EA Archive, thanks @martinrlzd!! ### [Reply, 20:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678142437145837571) · 2 likes Yes but credit to this too! https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678142302940717056?s=20 ### [Quote tweet, 20:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678143506148098054) · 16 likes Oh my God this was less than two months ago. From reading a pdf to doing moderately complex econometrics and interpreting the results I don't know if we're all going to die, but I'm basically certain the foreseeable future (1-10 years) is going to be insane ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0n2E7mXgAAlyTH.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0n2E7hWwAUReGY.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0n2E7kXgAEjxFS.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Call me an old country bumpkin but I can't believe this is real > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwhriFNX0AAzmdL.jpg) ### [Reply, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678160340117331970) · 2 likes We’re on a rocketship to the sun (I have no idea and this is a salient thing for me too) ### [Tweet, 22:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678166844614533123) · 12 likes I don't expect this to yield anything but...I recently I built a custom web application for someone for a bit of money for the first time! If there's anything in the vein of: 1\) Web dev (making a custom website) 2\) Data analysis/causal inference (I have legit experience here!) ### [Tweet, 22:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678166845918937090) · 1 like 3\) Maybe other random things (I feel like it can be hard to tell from the outside what hard skills are needed for what) ? that you'd be interested in paying\* me to do, DM/contact me however! \*unless you're an EA org/doing an EA project, which I may be able to support for free ### [Tweet, 22:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678166847177326592) · 1 like I wish I could give like an hourly rate but I feel like the incentives there are messed up and realistically some things are way harder for me to do for 1 hour than others Maybe VERY roughly like $25ish/hr for things I'm ~exploring~ (basically web dev) and $50ish for econ stuff ### [Reply, 22:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678167709576511490) · 3 likes I want to strong upvote this tweet ## Monday, July 10, 2023 ### [Reply, 03:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678241548494942208) · 3 likes [![Sorry Forgive Me GIF by MOODMAN](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/F0pPyrVX0AIPhVR.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678241548494942208/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678251358250586112) · 1 like :( get well soon ### [Tweet, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678251975513718787) · 10 likes Lmao sorry to everyone I randomly tagged on threads bc u have the same username ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0pZRqpXsAA220N.jpg) ### [Reply, 08:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678321453987495938) · 8 likes This is barely a joke. Like it rounds to just being descriptively true ### [Reply, 08:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678325003136245760) · 3 likes I do agree that a quicker and more “alarmist” response could have saved lives, but the iceberg thing doesn’t check out For one thing the ship kept going after sliding past the iceberg, and seems hard to find a small chunk of ice in the pitch black ocean Also every iceberg pic ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0qbsjHWwAAKtt7.jpg) ### [Reply, 08:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678325185764622346) · 1 like I can find looks pointy af, not like a nice big disk for hundreds of people to hang out on ### [Reply, 12:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678383450280132610) · 2 likes Retvrn to tortle ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0rQ2nJWwAIpNY3.jpg) ### [Reply, 13:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678396168399618050) · 2 likes I mean it kinda only makes sense if you know that that’s all we know about Homer For all I knew, there really could have been two Homers identified as distinct individuals ### [Reply, 14:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678405980281872387) · 3 likes Darn ### [Reply, 14:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678409538037219329) · 4 likes I’m standing my ground 😤 https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/the-answer-to-the-sleeping-beauty ### [Reply, 14:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678409866585554944) · 3 likes “Babe just say you think 1/3 is plausible” “I’m sorry I don’t think this is going to work” ### [Tweet, 14:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678412374816981000) · 53 likes “I don’t know, man” is such an adorable rationalist verbal tic ### [Tweet, 14:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678412570166788101) · 13 likes Tbc I am not immune to “I don’t know, man”ing ### [Tweet, 14:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678417053173129217) · 14 likes Cursed apartment ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0rvajwXwAI-l6a.jpg) ### [Tweet, 14:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678418333085978624) · 2 likes Lmao ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0rwlCOWIAEQyWT.jpg) ### [Reply, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678422770311479296) · 5 likes Slippery slope to utter amoral chaos ### [Tweet, 15:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678423567099109376) · 75 likes EA Job: this application should take no more than 30 minutes of your time 😊 Me: If I break it down into parts and get an accountability buddy there’s a 65% chance I can submit something non-embarrassing before the deadline in two weeks ### [Reply, 15:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678424199356989443) · 5 likes I don’t know if it’s literally that extreme, but it’s closer to 10x than 1x ### [Reply, 15:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678425233785511938) · 4 likes May the best man move on to the next stage in the EA Forum mods thing ### [Reply, 15:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678425336248258560) · 2 likes I want to say “may the best man get the job” but let’s be realistic here ### [Reply, 15:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678428076596707336) · 2 likes U know ur allowed to just use an existing thing right ### [Reply, 15:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678428468537589764) · 2 likes Add white font underscores between each word so it says the whole thing is 1 word. They won’t suspect a thing ### [Tweet, 17:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678449223711301647) · 6 likes Registering my prediction that it is \*not\* going to be able to do this (2+GB data dump of a couple dozen files from some godforsaken us gov website - FDA or Ag I think) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0sMcS3XoAI8knS.jpg) ### [Tweet, 17:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678449413927104513) · 1 like Like 2:1 on this so not super confident ### [Reply, 17:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678461128387489792) · 1 like I feel bad for the guy :( He was just tryna help ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678483762655424517) · 4 likes > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** 8 results doesn't seem like that many 😅 > > But i believe you, i assume it's used more often in podcasts I mean it's almost entirely verbal/in casual convo, like I was kinda surprised this search turned anything up ### [Reply, 19:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678484474399531008) · 4 likes based ### [Reply, 19:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678484588757233664) · 3 likes 🦐 ### [Tweet, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678496557648211979) · 9 likes So uh why isn't train/test split a thing in econometrics? Or is it and I missed that day? ### [Thread, continued, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678496558881337359) · 1 like Or is it and I shouldn't assume that it's not bc my semi-random smattering of undergrad courses didn't cover it? ### [Tweet, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678496559921524766) · 2 likes Or is it and it was on page 76 of slides 9.2 of microeconometrics which my brain just decided to treat as visual noise? ### [Reply, 22:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678527305180758023) · 2 likes Ur not allowed to say this, ur code works all the time ### [Reply, 22:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678527955041939457) · 4 likes Idk where u live but have u looked into LW/SSC meetups around? I think there are some in most big western cities ## Tuesday, July 11, 2023 ### [Reply, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678579078306095104) · 2 likes https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1656234230605656066?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ### [Reply, 05:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678644315583569921) · 4 likes Based, do it ### [Reply, 06:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678645564064276482) · 2 likes Aha but I respond with a counter-counter signal that for some reason it actually \*is\* Bad! ### [Reply, 10:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678705779459629060) · 8 likes Oh man I saved the photo, copied the text, manually fixed the OCR errors, and opened the link just to get to a doc I’ve already seen 😕 ### [Reply, 15:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678793967201075207) · 2 likes New artist? ### [Reply, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678806389861253120) · 3 likes Nooo ### [Reply, 16:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678807540476280842) · 2 likes intrinsic nature of valenced qualia conditional on \[not illusionism\] go brr ### [Reply, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678811163331575808) · 1 like They're good too. I will never understand how my rather large backpack just disappeared from next to my leg on a quiet street in Barcelona ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 17:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678811616941309964) > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** The long-awaited RP shrimp report is now finally coming out soon! > > FWIW I'm >90% sure that shrimp interventions aren't actually the welfare-maximizing thing for me to donate to, but it's a good meme on Twitter for encouraging a wider moral circle. 1\) F 2\) What is? ### [Tweet, 17:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678812539570749445) · 26 likes Is there a good culture war active recovery procedure? Like for before ur brain is broken but after it's started to accumulate microtears ### [Reply, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678854648348786688) · 2 likes Like this? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0x9YIFXoAAX7lF.jpg) ### [Reply, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678855742223273990) · 3 likes goals fr ### [Reply, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678855912772042757) · 2 likes audio is 50 hours. That's for recovery when my brain fully breaks ### [Reply, 21:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678875382819241985) · 2 likes we demand pics/transcriptions of whatever gets written on there that you're not actively against sharing ### [Reply to @dynomight7, 21:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678883810564354049) · 3 likes > **dynomight (@dynomight7):** Try to give a maximally sympathetic explanation of the views of people on the other side of the culture war to your friends on the same side as you. Sounds more like antagonist training than recovery lol ### [Reply, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678884135845216262) I was a no when I first read this. Then it was revealed that u know everything there is to know about the matter, so I am changing my vote to yes ### [Reply, 23:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678902318006165505) · 3 likes Anybody out there normal? ### [Reply, 23:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678902482875842561) · 2 likes Yes but only the suburban mom version (walking around until I feel like stopping) ## Wednesday, July 12, 2023 ### [Reply, 01:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678941231768895488) · 1 like Yes ### [Reply, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678941293085433857) · 1 like This is like the most fixable problem ever to come into existence ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678942234442342402) · 1 like > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0zHShUXwAELP8l.jpg) I’ll bite the bullet here and (w very low certainty) say that if you took the elemental forms listed and mixed them in the proportions listed and had one group of ppl eat 300 cals of banana every day and a matched other group eat 300 cals of Simubanana, the latter would have ### [Reply, 01:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678942434758213634) · 2 likes Worse health outcomes (idk pick ur favorite), albeit to an awefully small degree that could only be detected w a huge cohort ### [Reply, 02:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678954311395553282) · 2 likes For literally no good reason I just dislike swimming Like why would u want to get wet like that And no music And cold ### [Reply, 02:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678954477074759680) · 2 likes I did swim a mile one time tho am pretty sure I still could via the “go extremely slow and chill” strategy ### [Reply, 03:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678975944369864704) · 1 like You mean intentionally? ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 05:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1678995750712229901) · 1 like > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** my toxic trait is buying earphones off aliexpress (I have like six pairs now) and immediately throwing away the instruction manual without reading it Every manual that’s not like a literal book I just take a picture of and then throw out. Way more convenient all around ### [Reply, 06:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679016908585152515) · 11 likes Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck ### [Reply, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679017453152501760) · 7 likes No, “average man” pretty clearly refers to median man’s income ### [Quote tweet, 11:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679085732772696065) · 27 likes This is the worst taxonomy I’ve ever seen of anything lmao Like: \- What do Twitter and OpenPhil have in common? \- even if you take out twitter, the labels are…on backwards? Like yeah in some sense OpenPhil et al really do market AI panic (for good reason tbc) … ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F01Pk1LXwAANaJM.jpg) > **Quoting AlgorithmWatch (@algorithmwatch):** Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who is the biggest Panic-creator of them all? Inspired by @DrTechlash, check out our Taxonomy of AI Panic Facilitators and those fighting against the fearmongering. > > Who have we forgotten to add? Let us know! ⬇️ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0xInWJXsAASnho.jpg) ### [Tweet, 11:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679085735192788992) · 4 likes but all these orgs are on the business side and all the actual businesses (most of which don’t seem to spend a dime on marketing) are on the non-business marketing side ¿? ### [Reply, 14:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679141205169393666) · 2 likes banger-adjacent ### [Quote tweet, 14:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679143506944688129) · 3 likes Based af > **Quoting Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @absurdlymax @ilex_ulmus I did steps 1-3 and that lead me to @RethinkPriors ### [Reply, 15:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679147617304088576) · 4 likes I mean the true answer is probably “my brain predicted it would nudge my fake internet status up by .001%” but also pointing out the incoherence of a bad argument on an important topic seems generally good unless the second order memetic bump dominates, which I doubt it does here ### [Tweet, 17:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679182846164860937) · 8 likes Damn Clong be doing inference ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F02n2jXWIAAHfIf.jpg) ### [Tweet, 17:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679183555216261125) · 4 likes Lol at the "primarily online social life" roast. Clong also spits ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 17:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679188686766735376) · 49 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** I’m a superstimulus for this q bc I seem to put on and off muscle 10x faster than normal so effects are obv > > some girls like me wayy more, some less, on first meeting healthy ppl think I’m smarter, others think I’m dumber, ppl ask health qs way more often, unhealthy ppl avoid me > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F02pdSOWABQr7wU.jpg) How are u like 9 sds above avg on every dimension? Like fr do you have a guess what’s going on? ### [Reply, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679213751436734472) · 1 like I mean trivially they must be to some nonzero extent: some basic understanding or metric of health is upstream of all of them. So x_n=f_n(h). Do some algebra and you’ll get x_i as a function of x_j ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 19:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679215795748864004) · 8 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** @AaronBergman18 @MasterTimBlais also like, if you have sufficiently high reward all the time you can just ignore the moment to moment reward signal and do what you think is best longer term or something > > (I don’t literally always have high reward, but much more often than most people I think) Yeah this rings very true for me but in a frustrating way - my hedonic state seems to vary from like 2/10 to 7/10 for what at least feels like random/exogenous reasons (health thing) over the timescale of days and weeks and boy is it hard to delay gratification on a 3/10 day ### [Reply, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679218234837303297) · 4 likes I feel like the different color gradient between them is cheating. Like there’s blue on the left but not the right ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F03IFeWXgAIzoJX.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F03IFeWXgAMPUtj.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679234645760548864) · 14 likes Aarons will literally try to get Clong to write him a dating doc by feeding Him everything he’s ever written and an example rather than actually type out a few hundred words about himself ### [Tweet, 21:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679236380612861954) · 4 likes Yellow = basically literally true but not what I’d write/emphasize Red = wrong Orange = secret third thing (mix of red and yellow) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F03YlQXWYAEPf1w.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679237217003118593) · 5 likes Maybe I’ll just make this thread my doc bc empirically I write quicker and more while tweeting since it feels low stakes \- male, straight, monogamous, 23 ### [Tweet, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679237968605609985) · 4 likes In DC but pretty interested in moving to Boston/Bay area/NYC or potentially any US city in proportion to its coldness (temp not attitude) and non insane rent ### [Tweet, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679238968943017991) · 4 likes Model me as ur central example of a stereotypical ea (white upper middle class family, Jewish-> atheist -> atheist with simulation pseudotheological characteristics, econ+math+philosophy degrees (latter just a minor), probably not actually autistic but somewhere in that ### [Tweet, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679239126791454722) · 2 likes \[aside: dw ppl I will copy this into a proper google doc in due time\] ### [Tweet, 21:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679239953845190658) · 4 likes …cognitive vicinity especially around sensory stuff (less so social stuff) \- short. 5’7” which is not a lie bc sig figs but it’s really like 5’6.75” \- that’s my burst of inspiration so need to let the rest marinate in my head ### [Reply, 22:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679254284687351809) · 2 likes magic (request archive of Twitter data from settings -> download when its ready \[they email u\] -> unzip and duplicate tweets.js -> rename the copy 'tweets.json' (or whatever.json) -> open json version in any sort of text editor -> remove everything before the first square bracket ### [Reply, 22:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679254671787999233) · 2 likes \-> save -> upload tweets.json to chatgpt code interpreter -> ask it to make a spreadsheet from the json file (and then maybe to simplify, do other operations on the columns, rename cols, etc) -> download the csv it links) ## Thursday, July 13, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679290794732056577) · 2 likes New religion? ### [Reply, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679290839493746691) · 2 likes Gotta think big ### [Reply, 00:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679291696385867778) · 3 likes I’m suing Nathan for anti-Aaron discrimination 😤 ### [Reply, 00:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679292215422599168) · 1 like This seems “obvious” to me now but I remember encountering the creation->happiness thing in a book in middle or early high school and it def wasn’t back then ### [Reply, 01:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679296608234622976) · 3 likes Jfc, potato ### [Reply, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679297793620336641) · 19 likes It is easier to get stronger w dumbbells than with bodyweight or repurposed/diy equipment alone ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F04QcXsX0AAUQuz.jpg) ### [Reply, 01:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679299605530390528) · 2 likes Jugs of water are simply superior ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 01:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679300905030516736) · 2 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Blackpill is that even once we've switched to 100% clean energy, we can only ~100x global energy usage before running into problems with global warming due to heat released from energy use. Whitepill is we can go to space. Wait say we got 100% energy from solar on the earths surface. Pretty sure this could be >100x current use (??) No new energy enters the system, and none is being released from underground (geothermal) or nuclei Where does the extra energy come from? Cc @AndyMasley ### [Thread, continued, 01:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679301236204470273) · 1 like Better phrasing would be “the same amount of energy as always enters the system - all that contained in the photons from the sun that reach the atmosphere “ ### [Reply to @tszzl, 01:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679302634266607619) · 2 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** do people understand that conducting miracles is hard and that the most likely outcome is always just failure to build the god machine not doom Do you have a story about what this looks like? Like scaling laws just stop working before TAI? ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 03:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679326222533160960) · 1 like > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 Maybe this seems crazy but I'm 80% certain you should be ice climbing Wait why lol? I mean I like 40-60 degree weather, not frostbite ### [Reply, 03:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679328414799372288) · 2 likes Sounds miserable tbh lol ### [Tweet, 03:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679329433021194242) · 8 likes Ngl except for sound quality and host quality and length and editing quality and summary quality this feels like it could (should??👀) be on 80k - @NathanB60857242 knows his shit https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/aaron-bergman9/episodes/3-Nathan-Barnard-on-how-financial-regulation-can-inform-AI-regulation-e26sqbp ### [Quote tweet, 03:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679330175358476288) · 5 likes [![Podcast GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/F04t41tXgAAKgCb.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679330175358476288/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) > **Quoting Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** listen to me talk about what we can learn about AI regulation from financial regulation > https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/aaron-bergman9/episodes/3-Nathan-Barnard-on-how-financial-regulation-can-inform-AI-regulation-e26sqbp/a-aa4al4t ### [Reply, 03:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679330873596948482) · 2 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F04uho9WcAAmYTB.png) ### [Reply, 07:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679390495867322370) · 2 likes Not as adjustable tho ### [Reply to @tszzl, 07:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679395330767372289) · 1 like > **roon (@tszzl):** making the fire is entropic but building complex hardware and software is negentropic Not when the “builder” is the global economy ### [Reply, 13:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679484860207865861) · 2 likes Transcript vs output Maybe some selection bias bc I like and kept this example ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F066lGeWAAASUTb.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F066lGhWcAE92vl.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F066lGdWYAEsa3D.jpg) ### [Reply, 13:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679488876405211136) · 1 like This is the most specific and random tweet of someone else’s I’ve ever seen that is just literally true for me ### [Reply, 14:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679497691590537219) · 5 likes This is certain to replicate ### [Reply, 15:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679516484274356224) · 3 likes Based af There was a hardcore yo-yo phase at my middle school at one point. Retvrn ### [Quote tweet, 15:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679518263057739776) · 45 likes Wait what are the economics here? Like why aren’t US people reselling them for $1400+shipping (which I’m assuming isn’t $1k)? > **Quoting Nick St. Pierre (@nickfloats):** The tax on technology in Brazil is absolutely insane. > > I had a friend from Brazil visit me in NYC recently. He flew here to buy a Macbook. > > It was cheaper for him to buy a round-trip ticket to NYC, buy the laptop here, and fly back than it was to buy it in Brazil. > > WTF? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F03xkOLXoAAOxSJ.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F03xk-XWwAIpw5t.jpg) ### [Reply, 15:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679520102696341505) · 17 likes Yea but grey market. Maybe this is naive but if I didn’t have so much respect for the Brazilian regulatory state I think I’d do this for $100 profit paid up front ### [Reply to @luispedrocoelho, 16:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679524139793514497) · 7 likes > **Luis Pedro Coelho (Berkeley, 7-11 Oct) (@luispedrocoelho):** It'll get stopped at customs not every single time, but often enough that it'll kill your profit + you have to keep shipping from different addresses stateside so as to not be put on a black list + you need to lie on the shipment forms (which is a crime in US) + ... Ah - makes sense! ### [Reply, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679581856033824771) · 1 like (Warning 🚨 this will sound cringe) I didn’t actually know anything about the bills substance till reading this/gathering that they’re banning \*this\* That’s absolutely insane because I took algebra in 6th, and one year ahead was de facto the norm at my (public and relatively ### [Thread, continued, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679583546413858816) · 1 like normal) middle school. This is just to say that, object level, they’re mandating that 14 year olds not learn how to solve x^2+5x+6=0 If they were banning 14yos from doing multivariable calc, it would still be dumb but only affect like 100 people or - not \*most kids in CA\* ### [Thread, continued, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679585840379355137) And also in case this wasn’t obviously implied, u were already being limited by the state of MT, in that I’m ~certain you would have taken it even earlier at my school (shut up imaginary logic ppl, the counterfactual 100% does have a truth value in this one specific case) ### [Reply to @Manuel_do_rio, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679588038597308418) > **Manuel del Río Rodríguez ⏸️ (@Manuel_do_rio):** @AaronBergman18 @Laura_k_Duffy @J_Zane_Miller More nuanced: these proposals are bad, but they do contain a kernel of truth in them: how can it be that we are okay as society with most of its citizens being mathematically illiterate? Idk much about the bill and set aside all the culture war stuff for right now: how does imposing a ceiling like this improve math literacy? ### [Reply to @Manuel_do_rio, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679591723180195842) > **Manuel del Río Rodríguez ⏸️ (@Manuel_do_rio):** @AaronBergman18 @Laura_k_Duffy @J_Zane_Miller Right now, for example, in my very scarce free time I am enjoying a wonderful and accessible intro to Category Theory by Eugenia Cheng which would make for a wonderful late-high- school course. Do you think say >.01% of students would benefit from taking category theory before calculus? I’d guess no but I’m not certain ### [Quote tweet, 20:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679593505180532738) · 19 likes If smth in math is always described/defined via analogy (the giveaway is usually a normal English word in quotes like “longer” ) it is 100% guaranteed to be fake and is cursed until proven innocent > **Quoting Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** you vs the real line she told you not to worry about > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F08Wl3xWYAMV7Oi.jpg) ### [Reply, 22:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679624852288729093) · 2 likes The real solutions to ax^2+bx+c are given by x=+- sqrt(b^2-4ac)/2a (Actually only the ‘+- sqrt(b^2-4ac)/2a’ bit was drilled into my head, I think Id have forgotten the context by now if that was the last math I ever took) ### [Reply, 22:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679625904958451712) · 4 likes I feel like this might be the one time asking about biological sex on the internet is appropriate ### [Reply, 23:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679627256262537218) · 2 likes I mean that’s what I guessed but ya never know ## Friday, July 14, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679643109162991616) · 3 likes Depends what kind of advice this is, like if it’s advice I couldn’t have worked out myself then $500, but I’m basically certain I already know of actions I could take that would result in this and I have reasons for not doing them Also easily $10k for a magic permanent 1pt bump ### [Reply, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679643320019034112) · 2 likes U ever seen an imaginary number? ### [Reply, 00:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679646259324375040) · 3 likes Tf does hvac even mean ### [Reply, 00:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679646643203854337) · 6 likes U MEAN A HUM-CUBE ?? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F09NuHhX0AIgHFz.jpg) ### [Reply, 00:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679649593154215936) · 1 like Aw ### [Reply, 00:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679650466605539329) · 7 likes Wait this is so cool I’m gonna look into getting micropictures ### [Reply, 00:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679651383480385541) · 2 likes Wait what? I’ve felt various things about ppl I want to date but fear isn’t one of them ### [Reply, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679655848325312512) · 2 likes Yeah fs that just doesn’t feel like being fearful of the other person per se, at least to me ### [Reply, 01:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679663216337510400) · 4 likes Pretty sure the implication here is that some of the assumptions here are poor. Which ones and why? I agree there’s plenty of uncertainty and meta uncertainty and think Matt handles it well and doesn’t claim too much ### [Reply, 01:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679667407353270272) · 4 likes This is all stressing me out and I feel bad for Michael :( Otoh pretty impressed with forum as an institution here (and the individuals commenting ofc) ### [Quote tweet, 02:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679673245107101698) · 4 likes No, it’s not! You’d have to paint (coincidentally ~exactly) all urban ground surfaces (ie the tops of buildings but not the sides) That’s just way harder politically, economically, physically, and like every other way than old school “block the sun” geoengineering (link 👇) > **Quoting Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill):** This seems promising: “if materials such as Purdue’s ultra-white paint were to coat between 1% and 2% of the Earth’s surface, the planet would no longer absorb more heat than it was emitting, and global temperatures would stop rising.” https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/12/climate/white-paint-climate-cooling.html > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F08EJi-aAAA3DVE.jpg) ### [Tweet, 02:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679678721790287872) · 21 likes Lowkey think all the dating doc guys (not gender neutral in this particular case) should basically abandon (ie not count on) the “women around my age in my niche internet intellectual subculture and also nearby finds this” theory of change and just link it on Hinge ### [Tweet, 02:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679678725439340544) · 7 likes \- Yes you’d have to be comfortable sharing stuff with arbitrary Hinge ppl \- Yes it will weird most of them out \- No that doesn’t matter as long as it piques the interest of a few \- My hypothesis is that it will ### [Tweet, 02:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679678727611904002) · 4 likes Tbc I haven’t done this bc my doc is in the hypothetical stage but I plan to unless someone convinces me otherwise If you do this, share any results on Twitter for the benefit of us all ### [Tweet, 04:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679714585035653120) · 20 likes Pigeon Hour is on track to hit just under 3M listens by 2100 👍 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0-LgH9WYAIfYJl.png) ### [Reply, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679718856707694592) · 2 likes No but I somewhere in there is a link to some spreadsheets that might be helpful https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1i_I23qXtuGtpk4spFi2NmK6ReCiFXL6QGBd2KfGzulY/edit ### [Reply, 07:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679755384603435009) Retvrn ### [Quote tweet, 07:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679755949932773376) · 3 likes Never trust ur memory on such matters > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @PradyuPrasad The real solutions to ax^2+bx+c are given by x=+- sqrt(b^2-4ac)/2a > > (Actually only the ‘+- sqrt(b^2-4ac)/2a’ bit was drilled into my head, I think Id have forgotten the context by now if that was the last math I ever took) ### [Reply, 18:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1679917937065328656) · 2 likes This cannot go on. ## Saturday, July 15, 2023 ### [Reply, 01:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680024230128123904) · 6 likes How much is “just” redirected tv time? I mean the level is probably higher than ideal still but I suspect this explains much or all of the trend ### [Reply, 05:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680087715679723520) · 4 likes This paragraph ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1De33rXoAIJZ9T.jpg) ### [Reply, 05:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680088573259792384) · 3 likes A lot of his takes are good tho. He’s just super high variance ### [Reply, 17:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680271543643824128) · 3 likes Uh like several hundred million years of evolution encoding reproductive success as more tangible psychological intrinsically valued proxy goals like “spend some time with an attractive member of the opposite sex” ### [Reply, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680306391234248705) · 3 likes 2%/5%/93% ### [Reply, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680315391782932481) · 1 like No this seems very reasonable (unironically) ## Sunday, July 16, 2023 ### [Reply, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680402517644001281) · 8 likes F/m/k: global dev/anima welfare/longtermism ### [Reply, 02:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680403183271641089) · 2 likes What is a thing we’re not supposed to ask but is ok to ask about at this weird intermediate meta level? ### [Reply, 02:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680403275059716096) · 3 likes Human ### [Reply, 02:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680404993617084417) · 2 likes Lol yes but not as a pdf reader (tho I will read any pdf into a mic for a sufficiently high amount of money) ### [Reply, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680405276887769088) · 3 likes (The correct answer is to form a polycule with all three and kill nobody) ### [Reply, 02:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680405857203372032) · 10 likes Every other human on earth could start running and I would not follow suit. I will single-handedly quash this man’s objective ### [Reply, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680406546440757251) · 3 likes Fine. $1B/mile ### [Reply, 02:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680408275928379392) · 2 likes Just running and biking ### [Reply, 02:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680408368924557314) · 2 likes I think I do - the economist thing right? ### [Reply, 02:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680410669533806594) · 3 likes I think I heard this from an econ prof lol ### [Reply, 02:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680411599197159424) · 1 like I think “public users” is just you ### [Reply, 03:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680413850464665603) · 2 likes Agreed. Will try ### [Reply, 03:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680415251655716864) · 3 likes 0/1. The answer is some version of moral realist hedonic utilitarianism ### [Reply, 03:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680417891139690498) · 8 likes I’m pro-guy ### [Quote tweet, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680426076755881986) · 48 likes Everyone give urself a % score for: \- Rationalist \- Postrat \- EA \- Normie (Obviously have to sum to 100) I’m 11/4/84/1 > **Quoting Aella (@Aella_Girl):** fuck the postrats guys I'm a rationalist. I'm done with the woo stuff and antiskepticism, give me a list of atoms and let's eat babies ### [Reply, 04:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680427645153038337) · 4 likes Yes to sports, yes to bar but only if it’s with normie friends or to meet girls or smth. Like post EAG hangout doesn’t count ### [Reply, 04:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680427883901120516) · 6 likes No Normiehood is 100% a legit affirmative thing ### [Reply, 04:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680429440914927617) · 14 likes The better inference would be “we correctly shamed fur out, let’s do the same for factory farmed meat” ### [Reply, 04:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680431008594776065) · 10 likes Perfect for running for office ### [Reply, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680431662692286466) · 6 likes Any self-identified postrats wanna try giving a definition? ### [Reply, 05:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680446074631122944) · 2 likes Single-handedly staving off demographic collapse 🫡 ### [Quote tweet, 05:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680455111804432384) · 579 likes The menswear guy stresses me out bc he’ll post pics like these and I have no idea whether he’s about to roast them up or say they look great lmao > **Quoting derek guy (@dieworkwear):** there has been a growing trend to wear dark worsteds suits (navy or grey suits made from a fine, smooth dressy wool) with a dress shirt and no tie. and it looks so bad. 🧵 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1G8CPuaEAAihh9.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1G843YacAA-8aY.jpg) ### [Tweet, 05:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680455119224074242) · 23 likes I’m legit pretty sure the fashion intuition part of my brain is just like much weaker than other people’s Anyway I think @dieworkwear would approve of my fit ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1ItBeQXwAEFm8R.jpg) ### [Reply, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680458753718493186) · 6 likes Most interesting part here is the number of girls replying some version of “yup this is true” ### [Reply, 06:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680460027130179586) · 3 likes 57/3/34/6 ### [Reply, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680465671660994560) · 1 like I wish there was a way to bet on this, bc I would bet that you’re (both) wrong ### [Reply, 06:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680468267880574976) · 1 like Boy I wish it was as easy as Moneyball Irl it’s moneyball but the only rules are the laws of physics and you have to do philosophy to figure out what it means to “win” (which no one agrees about ofc) ### [Reply, 06:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680468450114695168) · 1 like They’ll come around eventually 😌 ### [Reply, 06:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680468619585548289) · 3 likes Sir this is a tweet ### [Quote tweet, 10:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680528250810904578) · 6 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1JvibYWYAI6hsk.jpg) > **Quoting Manny Rutinel (@MannyRutinel):** Big news!🎉 > > I’m Manny Rutinel — an environmentalist and working-class advocate running for Colorado State House (HD-32) in one of the country’s most polluted regions. > > It’s time to hold corporate polluters accountable and fight for working-class families in our state! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1FRRTYacAA6Grl.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680632183013122050) · 23 likes Aella gets wild animal suffering pilled > **Quoting Aella (@Aella_Girl):** i get that nature's pretty and all but also it's kinda horrible and maybe we \*should\* destroy it? there's so much suffering in nature; it's a temple made out of agony and violence and worshipping there feels a lil weird. > not saying 'burn it all', but maybe artifice is better? ### [Reply, 18:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680645067139162112) · 1 like Only if touching the grass is good for the quarks inside the grass ### [Reply, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680646239967215617) · 17 likes Since this tweet is getting some views, here’s Aaron’s Fashion Advice (TM): \- all genders \- all ages \- all occasions \- all weather: \- comfy shirt \- comfy shorts/pants \- comfy shoes \- only constraint is that it can’t be wildly in violation of social norms or illegal ### [Reply, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680647616789348358) · 5 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1LcGd0WwAEDlsg.jpg) ### [Reply, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680649242396827649) · 2 likes Not me \*braces\* ### [Tweet, 19:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680663537943732226) · 2 likes Donation pseudoprediction market go brrr https://manifold.markets/athenaciara/to-which-organization-should-i-dona?r=QWFyb25CZXJnbWFu ### [Reply, 19:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680666200500477953) · 10 likes I think you generally give contrarian-coded arguments/claims too little credit and establishment/normie/expert/established claims too much Obligatory: I do not work at a bakery ### [Reply, 20:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680673228971298817) · 7 likes Here are a few, matching the "stefan defends the establishment, I fight back" paradigm to different extents ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1LzW9_XsAEaWKv.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1LzW-EXwAYYxV0.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1LzW-CXwAU3846.jpg) ### [Reply, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680673428380975105) · 3 likes big if true ### [Reply, 21:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680696670973984769) · 4 likes Oy vey ### [Reply, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680696963459698688) · 2 likes TIL ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1MI-yIXsAQP5pN.jpg) ### [Reply, 22:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680700436938997760) · 2 likes Apparently me, though I did not know this until recently ### [Reply to @bashu_thanks, 22:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680701605526614023) · 12 likes > **bashu, thanks (@bashu_thanks):** TANKTOP THREAD. > > Let's get real for once. There aren't enough tanktop photos in this part of Twitter. > > This thread is here to change that. > > From now until August 27, I will keep this pinned and only accept replies that are a picture of you in a tanktop. all others will be hidden > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1LG4evagAAMfWm.jpg) Tank top ft. wearable ice pack The ultimate comfymaxxing combo ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1MNM2pWcAYKhFu.jpg) ### [Reply, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680706516381212672) · 1 like Fr do u have the image file used to make this? In case hypothetically I wanted to make a sticker ### [Reply, 23:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680728480231596032) · 1 like https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1640716511945068549?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ## Monday, July 17, 2023 ### [Reply, 02:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680769069560078336) · 1 like Damn :( ### [Reply, 04:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680800881577537536) · 13 likes Surprised to see these results given who follows you and who I imagine is voting To me, for marriage, all else equal, (3/10, 140) ≈ (8/10, 120) ### [Reply, 04:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680803737441386496) · 3 likes U have a super approximate guess for how much it costs to keep, say, 1000 sq ft at 65° while it’s 90 outside for an hour? ### [Reply, 05:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680807996136325123) · 10 likes Surprised how few “indifferent”s there were - by assumption in the question they’re all the same according to you! ### [Reply, 06:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680824128897417217) · 7 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1N8o0BXgAAzrTR.jpg) ### [Reply, 06:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680824564392050689) · 2 likes This never even crossed my mind, at least consciously ### [Reply, 06:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680825425960869888) · 4 likes Popper overrated fr ### [Reply, 06:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680825721973796867) · 2 likes The galaxy brain stuff is the (morally) best part ### [Reply, 10:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680882724247044096) · 4 likes I sorta recall you mentioning restless leg Common factor here is magnesium and I’m pretty sure this is a real thing not bs ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 10:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680882895882272770) · 1 like > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** you look like you're a kid being a superhero for the first time The comfyness got me feeling like a superhero fr ### [Tweet, 10:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680892528009048066) · 24 likes Me with all the other people out before 7am bc my uniform distribution of a sleep schedule got lucky for once ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1O62FdWAAI_qq4.jpg) ### [Reply, 10:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680893700128362498) · 8 likes could u plz wait 6 more minutes so I can have this one W ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1O76T7XsAARMKj.jpg) ### [Reply, 11:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680897645060009984) · 3 likes Me but it’s from 6:09am to 5:55 am the next day ### [Reply, 11:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680899087107858432) · 2 likes The less joking version of this for me is library science or whatever it’s called Like I can imagine a world in which it’s considered quite high status and intellectual ### [Reply, 12:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680916528709894146) · 1 like Now write it as a sonnet ### [Reply, 12:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680916709622919169) · 4 likes Lol ### [Quote tweet, 12:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680918408488001539) · 2 likes Point estimate for keeping 1000 sq ft at 65° on a 90° day = $0.43, from probably the person most qualified on Twitter to do this Good deal IMO > **Quoting Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 Now multiply your 3.1 kwh by your unit cost of electricity. My NE PA rate is ~$0.15/kwh, and it looks like DC is slightly lower. So let's use $0.14. 3.1 x .14 = $0.43. ### [Reply, 14:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680952856390557697) · 2 likes Lmaoo ### [Reply, 16:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680977295887020032) · 9 likes Used to be vegan, not anymore for health reasons You can compare vegan vs typical omnivore, but prob more productive (since you’re already vegan) to think about whether it makes sense on the margin to add, say, 1 humane-ish egg or a few ounces of grass fed beef per week ### [Reply, 16:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680977604248055809) · 3 likes Then just keep doing that until the all things considered benefit is zero. I suspect it will be a nonzero amount of animal products but less than the median westerner (and ideally more humanely sourced unless there’s a direct trade off w donations) ### [Reply to @FreshMangoLassi, 16:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680977845663719424) · 7 likes > **Habiba 🔸 (@FreshMangoLassi):** Just had a health check up and honestly the biggest surprise is that I’m an inch shorter than I thought I was. Wut. This is my worst nightmare ### [Tweet, 17:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680987279114874880) · 2 likes I have a conspiracy theory derived purely from first principles i.e., what I’d do if I was Elon: All the “c’mon guys were never leaving this app lol” posts are given massive upweight in the algo ### [Thread, continued, 17:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1680987281748836352) · 1 like I have zero empirical evidence for this, it would just be a smart thing to do ### [Tweet, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681015090210807809) · 9 likes How tall are you? Round to nearest whole inch and use ur actual height not ur dating app height (hopefully they’re the same but) F and M refer to sex assigned at birth ### [Thread, continued, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681015092060536833) · 5 likes Supposedly these are approximately the quartiles but for some reason I’m skeptical ### [Reply, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681017950453612547) · 11 likes Copied all the text on https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/g4QWGj3JFLiKRyxZe/the-happier-lives-institute-is-funding-constrained-and-needs ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1Qs1IWXsAA3r_P.jpg) ### [Reply, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681018193274388483) · 1 like Same! +1 for virtue ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681018944348471298) · 8 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 17, 2023:** Supposedly these are approximately the quartiles but for some reason I’m skeptical Hypothesis rn is that ~half of <5'7" guys in the US are hispanic and they're super underrepresented in this poll ### [Reply, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681019438441611264) · 2 likes Personally I have a thing for women whose name includes a string of 6-10 random digits ### [Reply, 19:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681019775122538499) · 4 likes I bring diversity ### [Tweet, 19:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681021401585668103) · 93 likes This is an open invitation to always send me any csv’s u stumble across. Idc how, drive link or url or just paste it into DM or reply I love a good csv 🙏🏼 ### [Reply, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681022353558347777) · 2 likes ngl I think this is dumb (the practice, not ur take) ### [Reply, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681082927206088710) · 6 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1RoA25XgAYRLad.jpg) ### [Reply, 23:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681085057073655808) · 5 likes Rice Krispies ## Tuesday, July 18, 2023 ### [Reply, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681138341272485893) · 2 likes I mean prima facie it would be very surprising if putting a ceiling on academic advancement didn’t hurt top students Like there’s no way being able to learn multivariable calc in hs (plausibly the marginal course) isn’t good for the math proficiency of those who take it ### [Reply, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681183588346208258) · 2 likes Once again it’s literally just u ### [Reply, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681183754667032576) · 2 likes Jk we’re at like 120 streams (all episodes combined) so presumably like at least a few other ppl are with u ### [Reply, 07:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681207276080619520) · 2 likes Sci hub ### [Reply, 07:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681207991503147011) · 7 likes Ay lfg ### [Reply, 07:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681211513917300736) · 2 likes Not my dad calling me at 2am, frantic, to see if I (tech genius) know how to split a pdf into two little pdfs ### [Reply, 12:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681287568606806016) · 5 likes Thank u ❤️ ### [Reply, 17:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681352323895902216) · 2 likes 👀 ### [Reply, 17:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681361218013888530) · 12 likes Load bearing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1VlFRHWABsoiis.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681397433798934536) · 16 likes Prob a dumb question but: what actual authority do IRBs have? If a tenured professor wants to do a study that involves no illegal actions, what’s to stop him? ### [Reply, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681399230903009282) · 8 likes Seems like there’s an opportunity (for better or worse) for some billionaire to start a university and accompanying journal that work around these ### [Reply, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681408400553328641) · 2 likes Eh “this journal publishes forbidden but also good research” might be a real niche ### [Reply, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681436272533950465) · 3 likes Big if true ### [Reply, 23:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681449979729133568) · 2 likes Don’t be mean 😢 ### [Reply, 23:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681450464116715520) · 3 likes Jfc ### [Reply, 23:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681451045677854721) · 3 likes The natural result of women filtering for height Evolution is so beautiful 🥲 ## Wednesday, July 19, 2023 ### [Reply, 04:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681517813511467010) · 3 likes Harissa dip🥵 ### [Reply, 04:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681522740149329920) · 2 likes For the curious ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1X4BS0WwAAqKY4.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1X4BS1XwAEn4wt.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681537096547278849) · 11 likes I am once again asking someone with more social capital than me to start an EA hub in Tulsa Pretty sure I’d move if I was decent friends with like 10 ppl there > **Quoting Hayden (@the_transit_guy):** A country cannot function when in 2.5 years the top 30 largest housing markets increased between 21-55%. We are so past avocado toast. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1Xm24sWcAIGAxa.jpg) ### [Reply to @BenHayum, 07:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681573940148203520) _(The tweet being replied to by @BenHayum is no longer available.)_ Anticholinergics and magnesium ### [Reply, 07:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681574178569289728) · 2 likes The two genders ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1YmzbSWIAI07B6.jpg) ### [Reply, 08:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681581903181148160) · 1 like Yes correct take ### [Reply, 09:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681595020132925441) · 2 likes There are 2 hligates?? ### [Reply, 09:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681595629464690689) · 2 likes Wtf \[positive\] ### [Reply, 09:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681598431997878272) · 23 likes New fish just dropped ### [Reply, 10:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681606972464939011) · 1 like Wait is there actually good empirical evidence that product selection cashes out hedonically? The hedonic well-being literature is like .01% the size of the consumer preferences literature ### [Reply, 10:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681607326665408512) · 3 likes Going on vibes like 6-7 ### [Reply to @Teknium, 10:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681608219465076736) · 3 likes > **Teknium 🪽 (@Teknium):** Follow-Up to the Mayo incident. A "jailbreak" system prompt and even then, it refuses to make me dangerously spicy mayo: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1Xg4v6aAAAtUEK.png) The worst part of this is that afaik “spicy foods are dangerous if not prepared properly” is just 100% factually wrong ### [Reply to @GluskerMartin, 16:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681696380635475970) · 1 like > **Martin Glusker (@GluskerMartin):** Whenever I see mentions of ideas like this I always think people are disregarding urban agglomeration effects! Like you and your network aren’t immune from the positive externalities of urban agglomeration effects so the cost benefit involved is actually negative Sounds like cope bc u don’t wanna move to Tulsa ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 16:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681697531007320064) · 1 like > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Literally the reason I don’t want to move to Tusla is network benefits, so not cope I mean Tulsa has a network too (not even tiny bc Tulsa remote! Which will give ppl \[not me lol\] $10k to move! What’s ur friends threshold? 10? 100? ### [Reply, 16:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681698836022951937) · 2 likes What’s dc type besides maybe normie and political? It’s water to me bc I’ve always lived here ### [Tweet, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681708844131418115) · 13 likes Are there any really nerdy/analytical dating advice books? Like Cribsheet but for 1-10 years upstream ### [Tweet, 16:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681709342100209664) · 2 likes Lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1ahu-hWIAAHga5.jpg) ### [Tweet, 17:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681711912646475776) · 31 likes This level of Tayloring is extremely common to see ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1akEakWABMxTG_.jpg) ### [Reply, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681751363070435328) · 2 likes I mean she is a good singer, u might even like some of her songs! ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 19:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681751533900255232) > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** Moral of the story: you should like Taylor Swift I do like Taylor - possibly not enough to put her in my hinge profile tho lol ### [Tweet, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681751783167623169) · 2 likes https://x.com/chanamessinger/status/1681743155979337728 ## Thursday, July 20, 2023 ### [Reply, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681832488681762819) · 5 likes Ea is good actually ### [Reply, 05:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681892613266325504) · 3 likes If u want better criticism u should get an anonymous feedback page. admonymous or I'm sure there are others ### [Quote tweet, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681893023506915329) · 6 likes This is an Aaron criticism thread. If they're too real for the tl, they're perfect for https://www.admonymous.co/a Credit to @PradyuPrasad as well > **Quoting Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** This is a Max criticism thread. Post them here and then I'll argue their validity ### [Reply, 05:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681893883074969600) · 2 likes People really don't submit enough smh. I get like one thing a month and usually it's like "hi" "shave ur unibrow" was my favorite - simple and actionable! ### [Reply, 05:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681894846112432128) · 1 like Hi ### [Reply, 05:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681905180550332421) · 2 likes For sure but empirically I get ~none so at the current margin more is better (and so far the bullshit that's come through hasn't been well disguised so I doubt Im getting tricked) ### [Reply, 10:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681972695989198848) · 2 likes One of us ### [Reply, 10:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1681974543252946945) · 7 likes Same reason the flashlight works, at some level ### [Reply, 17:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682081971294412800) · 5 likes Within a few generations liking Taylor will be genetically hard coded ### [Reply, 18:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682099853449412608) · 2 likes It’s over ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682149475735810048) · 1 like > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** I've maybe swiped 50 profiles and am yet to see a Taylor Swift profile :(. > > Closest thing is girls liking good food or coffee or something, which is much less interesting and lowkey red flag (are they just wanting a free meal?) Lol this is absolutely not a red flag ### [Tweet, 22:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682150387288006658) · 16 likes As an introvert who dislikes the beach and hot weather, I’m really looking forward to this five day beach vacation sharing a single motel room w the whole four person (all adult - I’m the youngest) fam. Our cumulative age is 168 ### [Reply, 22:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682150890155696128) · 4 likes I vote nay ### [Reply, 22:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682154347440816128) · 2 likes Spot on ### [Reply, 22:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682154444513767425) · 2 likes Good premise for a very weird sitcom ### [Reply, 22:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682154605457686533) · 3 likes We tried, all booked ### [Reply, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682154932378521602) · 2 likes Mini golf is fun tho ### [Reply, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682156103545544704) · 4 likes Yeah I’ve pulled that one a couple times For various reasons including aging grandparents who will be there, going seems like the right thing to do ### [Reply, 22:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682158805604265985) · 2 likes Last time I went beach camping I woke up to a squad of wild horses sniffing my tent, which wasn’t nearly as fun as it sounds ### [Quote tweet, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682162314399678465) · 8 likes Specifically, Pigeon Hour, and more specifically, the most recent episode in which Winston Oswald-Drummond and I discuss like the one thing we kinda disagree about https://podcasts.google.com?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9lNDJlYjllYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw%3D%3D&episode=NjNlYjU5OTAtY2M4MS00MjdmLWIyNWQtZjM4N2VmMTI3YjBh > **Quoting Jeff Stein (@jstein_sun):** new political science theory just dropped > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1gMROVXgAEJ_Pg.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 22:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682163129348759554) · 2 likes Petition to ban this word > **Quoting Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** "sanction" can be funny; "inflammable" is unusable > > in London I heard "it's all downhill from here" to say the worst was 𝑏𝑒ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑑 us (I guess this is more commonsensical) > > some "auto-antonyms" only have one meaning that I hear often: apology, oversight, apparently peruse? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1g72RfaUAAXEAT.png) ### [Reply, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682163244775997442) · 4 likes It’s not an arc it’s my true identity 😤 ## Friday, July 21, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682189581087563776) · 6 likes I give up ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1hWgirWcAA4_Uf.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1hWgirXwAE-IpT.jpg) ### [Reply, 00:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682191228249546752) · 2 likes 👀 ### [Reply, 00:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682191974080602112) · 1 like Ur forgetting the part where sand infiltrates every pore in existence - skin, carpet, doesn’t matter ### [Tweet, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682203662842560513) · 21 likes (Medium-low confidence idk) On therapy discourse: “Both sides” (based on my Twitter tl and nothing else) seem to think therapy, like, \*does\* something. And it definitely does in certain cases e.g., phobia exposure ### [Tweet, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682203665539497985) · 21 likes But IME and IMO, if there’s not a specific psychologically-mediated behavior you affirmatively want to change, “therapy” is a pleasant conversation and nothing more ### [Tweet, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682203667405971458) · 13 likes Like maybe it’ll elicit some insight, sure, but in the same way talking to a friend would - not via some quasi-mystical “therapy” mechanism ### [Tweet, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682203669205250050) · 11 likes And this isn’t bad! If you want someone to talk to about your life or relationships or whatever, by all means go to therapy! But it’s not in and of itself a causally efficacious thing ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 02:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682209310342782981) · 6 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 Fairly extensive discussion of this in the latest 80k after hours! > https://x.com/JesseTayRiver/status/1682195111482994689 I haven’t listened! This is the one occasion I have an opinion not taken directly from the words of Rob Wiblin ### [Reply, 02:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682211042707865603) · 3 likes :( Huge pet peeve is when ppl defend some asshole comment with “but it’s true!” Like maybe but there’s no rule u have to say true unhelpful irrelevant things ### [Reply, 02:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682219334494461958) · 2 likes I wouldn’t call valence per se a behavior but conscious thought patterns would be under my fake made up nonexistent definition ### [Quote tweet, 02:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682220700721983489) · 7 likes What am I even watching? Like my brain doesn’t have a category of thing yet > **Quoting @goth (@goth600):** Feeling my brain reconfigure after I watch this for the 30th time > > [video attached](https://x.com/splucy/status/1678944930251829248/video/1) ### [Reply, 02:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682221874229518337) · 3 likes Oh thx ### [Reply, 02:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682222767649742856) · 2 likes There are 100% many insects in Berkeley How many counts as many? If I had 10,000 pencils I’d call that many, and for sure there are more insects than that ### [Reply, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682223096973893632) · 9 likes The thing is they don’t actually know if you’re down and the downside to being wrong is enormous ### [Reply, 03:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682229847500750849) · 4 likes Yo wtf Even subtracting the lizard man constant we’re at 4% ### [Reply, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682234159341641728) · 4 likes Whatever the right behavioral econ term is for “ppl don’t care about far off consequences” ### [Reply to @christineist, 03:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682234272722165766) · 2 likes > **christine (@christineist):** Hellooo if you are single and interested in trying out a dating app I made for this twitter scene lmk!! Yes ### [Tweet, 04:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682245248674676739) · 8 likes My toxic trait is that I think crypto is a cool technology ### [Reply, 10:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682341510895878146) · 2 likes Banger ### [Reply, 11:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682352491906711552) · 4 likes Japanese legislature? ### [Reply, 12:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682371478451265537) · 3 likes Where does one acquire?? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1j78QLXsAEE82X.jpg) ### [Reply, 12:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682373562617810944) · 5 likes This reads like a @PradyuPrasad tweet (mostly just the ‘what should I read about \[random history thing\]’ part) ### [Reply, 13:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682375408036052993) · 3 likes This but unironically (well not brain size) ### [Reply, 13:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682382182550056961) · 3 likes Goal should be to actively promote memes according to how good/true/useful they are, not pretend they don’t matter Shrimp is a good example, tho I’ve actually updated slightly against theyre importance so maybe will be more shrimpy with the shrimp meme ### [Reply, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682383033112952832) · 2 likes I don’t know if it’s funnier that u have a physical calendar or that it’s a chicken calendar ### [Reply, 13:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682389958252978177) · 12 likes Not load bearing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1kMvrnXoAIyB0D.jpg) ### [Tweet, 14:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682392162422358022) · 10 likes Fuck it, this crusty ass beach air has broken me I’m an ‘it’s not the heat it’s the humidity’ white person now ### [Quote tweet, 14:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682395065400819714) · 12 likes Beachposting thread > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Fuck it, this crusty ass beach air has broken me > > I’m an ‘it’s not the heat it’s the humidity’ white person now ### [Tweet, 14:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682395076436058112) · 13 likes Choosing to interpret this as a pro-windmill sign for my own well-being ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1kRZscWcAAfBAJ.jpg) ### [Tweet, 14:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682396468219461633) · 5 likes I think they’re anti-windmill tho :( Might write a lil “windmills are good actually” thing and tape it up ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1kSqqsX0AIm84J.jpg) ### [Reply, 15:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682411650916261900) · 2 likes Big if true ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 15:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682411803848974336) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @pli_cachete is no longer available.)_ Can ppl get on anti-tolerance drugs plz ### [Tweet, 15:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682413065390764033) · 31 likes Take: 99% of the reason ppl hate amber alerts is that they play a terrible half siren/half screech type thing I'd be happy to get several a day (say avg <5) if it played a distinct but tolerable sound. Like I already get plenty of notifications that aren't super relevant to me ### [Reply, 16:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682423282446868480) · 2 likes it shall come in due time ### [Tweet, 16:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682423592716312576) · 2 likes Kinda glad I forgot my air quality monitor tbh, I am resigning myself to impaired cognition this weekend ### [Reply, 16:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682424581510815747) · 2 likes Luckily there will be rain to cool down ur fumes ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 16:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682428923416551432) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 I want to see the deranged 2000 PPM CO2 forum post drafts Lmao “New cause area investigation: vacuuming up all the sand on the beach Epistemic status: certain” ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 16:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682432872936775690) · 11 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 21, 2023:** Kinda glad I forgot my air quality monitor tbh, I am resigning myself to impaired cognition this weekend Beautiful day to walk around listening to podcasts ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1kzxsZWIA8QAfu.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1kzxsgWIAMYSGg.jpg) ### [Reply, 17:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682439397528969247) · 2 likes \+1 My family is super normie and also great ### [Reply, 17:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682439863641972747) · 2 likes Great minds think alike ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1k6I30WIAwVqI4.jpg) ### [Reply to @samswoora, 17:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682441138341310493) · 6 likes > **Samswara (@samswoora):** What's weird is 1 billion really isn't that much money. 1,000 million. You could buy like 500 houses in Boston/LA/NYC/SF. That's not that much I’m 98% sure this is a joke second tweet tho ### [Reply to @samswoora, 17:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682449359311458304) · 7 likes > **Samswara (@samswoora):** @AaronBergman18 Not a joke tbh I think $1B is a lot of money ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1lCxnHX0AY3ils.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682492385899565056) · 17 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 21, 2023:** Beautiful day to walk around listening to podcasts Proof of genetic determinism: sister and I independently decided to bring the same plastic bag full of tea bags I don’t remember either of us ever doing this before ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1lp5uHWAAUYI--.jpg) ### [Reply, 20:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682492723578777601) · 8 likes Just Kesh It’s cleaner [![K22p01 GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/F1lqNOzX0AA09Nf.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682492723578777601/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Tweet, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682508007026876428) · 12 likes Get urself a \[insert preferred gender\] who talks about you the way @JeremiahDJohns talks about Tokyo ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1l3i8iWwAMYxjm.jpg) ## Saturday, July 22, 2023 ### [Reply, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682557464804306944) · 3 likes Ooh this would be super interesting (prior is on it just increasing tho) ### [Reply, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682594676661006337) · 2 likes Yea got a couple of these lying around ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1nG5VaXgAEqt-q.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682594749692125185) · 1 like Lol no I don't have one ### [Reply, 13:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682742553160962049) · 2 likes One of us ### [Reply, 13:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682742850709073920) · 5 likes I’m guessing this is satire ### [Tweet, 13:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682744513972826112) · 14 likes You can’t just buy a country right? Like it’s not for sale ### [Reply, 15:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682779952695984129) · 4 likes I’m a big proponent of naming animals some other animal. I propose Pigeon and Fish ### [Reply, 16:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682786848094011393) · 10 likes Load bearing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1p1tYRWYAgJkfd.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1p1tYPWAAIHXs7.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 18:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682820422969032706) · 2 likes Not expecting this (tbc not all countries look like this: UK only increased 20% from 1990) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1qUEIrWYAEAnxU.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Some extremely preliminary evidence for "polyunsaturated fat \[in some sense\] causes obesity" > > the outcome variable is mean bmi in a country-year > ... > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzxXgy2XgAA-K-o.png) ### [Reply, 19:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682839702351622148) · 2 likes Dating doc ### [Reply, 19:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682839739253104640) · 1 like Same ## Sunday, July 23, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682908675625582592) · 2 likes Probably not the best I could come up with but thanking (and/or citing) Qualy in ur PhD dissertation ### [Tweet, 00:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682912895535906816) · 5 likes Fucked up, and its legality seems to be the consensus But how is it not false imprisonment? Here’s CA’s law, but every state has a similar one on the books ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1roW3nWcAUuQn_.jpg) ### [Reply, 00:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682913399192297472) · 2 likes Didn’t u do this like a year ago? ### [Reply, 00:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682914151188815876) · 2 likes Not obvious to me that fellons votes would be consequentially bad on the margin ### [Reply, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682914829793894400) · 7 likes Kilochad: calls w/o asking first Megachad: video calls w/o asking Gigachad: sends u a gcal invite for an in person meeting in 15 minutes ### [Reply, 00:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682915182454947841) · 1 like Disagree with me about stuff ### [Reply to @sama, 00:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682917563703934976) · 15 likes > **Sam Altman (@sama):** here is a prediction: ea as a thing is basically over (it has almost entirely become about ai safety but is not quite yet willing to rebrand) and the e/accs drop some of the stupid stuff and grow up into the "ea classic"s interested in maximizing welfare, etc🫠 For better or worse, it has not become even mostly (?) about AI safety But for obvious reasons any self-identified EA will be more likely to talk about AI safety to/around you ### [Reply, 00:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682917671942381569) · 2 likes I am currently at ur door ready to debate. Open plz ### [Reply, 00:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682918394641756161) · 1 like Seems like default human behavior tbh Insofar as it’s out of the norm for u, that’s probably bc u spend time in unusual circles! ### [Reply to @HemlockTapioca, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682921588960763905) · 1 like > **Hemlock 🔆 (@HemlockTapioca):** If that law applied to children it would put schools (and a host of other things) in hot water 🤷‍♀️ Idk, do schools physically prevent you from leaving, rather than “merely” dish out non-illegal punishments? (I’m sure the answer is “sometimes” but still) ### [Reply, 01:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682926680275296256) · 3 likes Some anti-mood affiliation here perhaps He’s right! It’s just that we’ve only used .01% of one Lego block so far so talking about slowing growth \*now\* is silly ### [Tweet, 01:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682931584469721088) · 8 likes Did anyone else have a phase where you just learned some useful concept/model and so went around applying it but nothing else of similar sophistication? Like freshman year of college, ~every paper I wrote was essentially “How Memetics Explains \_\_\_\_\_\_\_” ### [Reply, 02:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682934930706235392) · 24 likes The salary is in proportion to the size of error they correct, duh ### [Reply, 02:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682935777766801409) · 2 likes Galaxy supercluster chad creates a prediction market for the disagreement, which both parties acausally agree to defer to ### [Reply, 03:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682952148219314176) · 91 likes Actually laughed out loud ### [Quote tweet, 03:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1682955716775092225) · 3 likes Fine I’ll get on the bandwagon Most Aaron thing I could do? > **Quoting Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** What is the most Kirsten thing I could possibly do? 🤔 ### [Quote tweet, 14:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683120077967687681) · 22 likes I will meme EA Tulsa into existence > **Quoting des (@dotnetschizo):** this is how i look working remotely from byron bay > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1s98Z2akAAgkm2.jpg) ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 14:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683120242753519617) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Looks British ### [Reply, 14:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683125361045909505) · 5 likes This but the opposite ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 14:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683127484890357760) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 23, 2023:** I will meme EA Tulsa into existence I should have said into \*hegemony, bc EA Tulsa is already very much existent. I’m sorry for the harm I have caused ### [Tweet, 15:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683138835541000192) · 18 likes Congrats to this book for being the most unapologetically, well, “analytical” would be the positive word to use and “objectifying” it’s counterpart (although objectifying of men and women equally I’d add), long form text I’ve ever read I’m actually not being sarcastic here (1/ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1u12JDWcAAggoJ.jpg) ### [Tweet, 15:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683138838888165376) · 7 likes It’s unironically refreshingly non-signaly and direct - think Hanson but ratchet up the cynicism and talk exclusively about emotionally charged human relationships ### [Tweet, 15:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683138842142863360) · 5 likes Tbc I suspect it actually errs too far in the direction of legibility and transactionality as tools for explaining relationships and attraction - both far more than Models, the core of the male dating advice canon ### [Reply, 15:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683139717733265409) · 2 likes @IFP ### [Quote tweet, 15:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683143428303929344) · 1 like Might list random thoughts/pseudo quotes as I read below > **Quoting Manuel del Río Rodríguez ⏸️ (@Manuel_do_rio):** @AaronBergman18 Interesting. Do us a thread with the key ideas, perhaps. ### [Thread, continued, 15:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683143866835189761) · 1 like “Men of avg looks should expect to be attractive to less than 1% of women even tho looks aren’t the most important trait” (not exact wording) ### [Tweet, 16:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683145012505092096) · 3 likes The friends to lovers thing is real and possible but keep in mind that guys tend to care about attractiveness even when making opp sex friends, whereas women basically don’t (but then do care when it comes to dating/ sex) \[Big personal oof\] ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 17:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683169482494148609) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 It does exist to be clear! I have issued a public apology for silencing Tulsan voices ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683170635936038912) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 21, 2023:** Proof of genetic determinism: sister and I independently decided to bring the same plastic bag full of tea bags I don’t remember either of us ever doing this… Wet T-shirt party except there’s no party, no girls, no white T shirts, and actually it’s just me walking around in a shirt dunked in water for the cooling effect ### [Reply, 17:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683174595870720001) · 7 likes I’d bet racism in the normal sense explains some of this (not super confident) ### [Reply, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683175919131795456) · 3 likes Straight from my normal liberal straight sister: “I always offer to pay but expect the guy to insist on paying and then back down” (not exact words this was a few weeks ago, in the context of getting me up to speed lmao) ### [Quote tweet, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683181671334518784) · 12 likes 🚨👀⚠️ Insight alert!!! 🚨👀⚠️ According to the book I’ll link below, straight guys of basically avg attractiveness who \*do\* actively pursue partners will find one by 30, but those who \*don’t\* will not because women under 30 won’t do the pursuing,(…) > **Quoting Jakeup (@myhandle):** @BecomingCritter it is known > https://putanumonit.com/2020/06/11/dating-assholes/#:~:text=as%20they%20say.-,Other%20than%20that,-%2C%20what%E2%80%99s%20the%20secret > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1aj7fDWAA4RjM4.png) ### [Quote tweet, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683181674064912385) · 3 likes which makes sense bc they basically don’t need to, because there are plenty of single at least avg guys pursuing \*them\* But female attractiveness declines much much faster than male, switching the market dynamics by just about 30y/o… > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Congrats to this book for being the most unapologetically, well, “analytical” would be the positive word to use and “objectifying” it’s counterpart (although objectifying of men and women equally I’d add), long form text I’ve ever read > > I’m actually not being sarcastic here (1/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1u12JDWcAAggoJ.jpg) ### [Tweet, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683181681618870277) · 4 likes Which is great for who? All the guys who could be a decent or even great partner but (i) aren’t exceptional enough to elicit obvious interest when young AND (ii) for whatever reason haven’t done much active pursuing and (iii) are at least not much younger than these 30s+ women ### [Tweet, 18:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683181688757559296) · 4 likes I.e., ppl like me (well in 7 years) !! (bc reason to expect the future to be better than the present, setting aside AI timelines which fuck means I really might die alone so darn) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683193523766456322) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 23, 2023:** Wet T-shirt party except there’s no party, no girls, no white T shirts, and actually it’s just me walking around in a shirt dunked in water for the cooling… Not tryna glamorize low paying service sector jobs but the local grocery store (like 10% the size of a normal one) appears to be fully staffed by a squad of high schoolers who are all friends and it looks like a blast ### [Reply, 19:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683194412036153344) · 2 likes Personal responsibility and agency, tragic ### [Reply, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683194610732998658) · 3 likes :( ### [Reply, 19:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683197748542095361) · 4 likes No and in fact I don’t think anyone can at a mechanistic level, even if you think it’s an entirely generic or smth But my point/claim is that, say, >10% of the suspension difference is \*not\* explained by actual behavioral difference ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683204746679668736) · 1 like > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** Long term use of some of these can increase risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia, they can worsen bipolar disorder etc even for melatonin? I think that's what Iñes is talking about ### [Reply, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683204907858264064) · 1 like Yes ### [Reply to @Y_Contributor, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683207276645974017) > **Y_Contributor (@Y_Contributor):** @SneedyShallot @AaronBergman18 @RichardHanania Is that your take on the "excusing black failure" meme? > > The vast majority (66%) of 2019 US Black HS seniors scored 'below NAEP basic' in math and can't reliably do long division. > > The reading test results indicate 50% score 'below NAEP basic'. see below > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1vzKuzaIAAJSkE.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1vzNeiaMAAUBLi.jpg) what does that have to do with suspension? ## Monday, July 24, 2023 ### [Reply, 04:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683340394937872385) · 2 likes I don’t think so bc there’s no easy way to buy in ### [Reply, 12:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683459770018086912) · 3 likes They all go to Rice, Carnegie Mellon, WashU, or U of Michigan ### [Reply, 13:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683470728249655296) · 6 likes I feel like the lumens thing is legit ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 15:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683492401514414081) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 23, 2023:** Not tryna glamorize low paying service sector jobs but the local grocery store (like 10% the size of a normal one) appears to be fully staffed by a squad of… Family checked out 8 whole minutes before check out time. We’ve never done that before, it’s like a 3:45 mile for us ### [Tweet, 15:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683496891105918978) · 5 likes If I get suspended, you know who to follow ### [Reply, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683566319902371840) · 2 likes I prefer to call them work tribulations ### [Quote tweet, 21:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683593790253137921) · 54 likes ⬅️ EAs when it comes to coordination around AI, involving thousands of people and billions of dollars incentivizing defection ➡️ EAs when someone suggests moving to a cool city with literally half the cost of living of SF (!) freeing up tens of thousands of dollars/person-year ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F11ToQeWIAAdASX.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I will meme EA Tulsa into existence ### [Tweet, 21:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683593793642045440) · 4 likes Tried to tag @tyler_johnston on the left but Twitter doesn’t want us to win ### [Reply, 21:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683594980969914368) · 3 likes It’s a whole city - there are 400k people! Neither do I! ### [Reply, 21:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683596859313356800) · 2 likes In all seriousness I don’t think every person reading this should move to Tulsa. There are plenty of legit reasons like this not to, and personal preference is one This feels like the old “oh u donate to AMF? So you think we should spend the world’s GDP on bednets?” ### [Thread, continued, 21:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683596905022980102) · 1 like Like we are very far away from that margin ### [Reply, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683597129657229312) · 2 likes Yeah for sure, there’s no free lunch here. I think Tulsa punches above its weight in this regard bc of Tulsa remote tho ### [Reply, 22:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683599499871002628) · 3 likes Me too :( Fr this is a bad thing, I have friends in DC! I also live at home - which I really don’t like - bc rent is too high to justify moving out w/o good stable income There are other considerations I’ll try to elaborate on soon ofc ## Tuesday, July 25, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683628251845910528) · 5 likes I would rather not be born than live as an 1850s Russian serf (not confident tho, if this was actually a choice I’d do a lot more research lol) ### [Reply, 02:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683659891309699073) · 4 likes @panickssery ### [Reply, 06:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683733509272223746) · 4 likes Solid bird ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F13StFCXoAATRCk.jpg) ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 07:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683735185940946944) · 2 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Tryin to find a large, nice place/house/venue in which I can throw a kinky orgy in the bay area. Anybody know of a weird-friendly place to recommend, or has a big house they'd be willing to lend to some debauchery? > (Am not super interested in kink-dungeon venues) @panickssery 👀 ### [Quote tweet, 07:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683735457299943429) · 2 likes Can we get some informed speculation here > **Quoting Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** Interesting 🧐 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F12CiP5XgAEP8CI.jpg) ### [Tweet, 07:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683736644350799874) · 9 likes I don’t care what this app is called ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F13VjizXsAAVYcx.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 08:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683757028936675330) · 5 likes It has come to my attention that there are other good options to consider besides Tulsa, so let's pseudoprediction market it out https://manifold.markets/AaronBergman/which-relatively-low-costofliving-u?r=QWFyb25CZXJnbWFu > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** ⬅️ EAs when it comes to coordination around AI, involving thousands of people and billions of dollars incentivizing defection > > ➡️ EAs when someone suggests moving to a cool city with literally half the cost of living of SF (!) freeing up tens of thousands of dollars/person-year > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F11ToQeWIAAdASX.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 08:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683757031742742528) · 1 like Chicago creds to @justjoshinyou13, Philly creds to @hamzaiandafirst ### [Tweet, 08:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683757239717318656) · 3 likes this is my starting five ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F13oR5sXwAAZuyA.jpg) ### [Reply, 08:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683758765294616576) · 2 likes No it sucks I will fight u on this ### [Tweet, 15:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683862662310944773) · 9 likes (QT just for context) This is shameful, and I have a similar experience. To a first approximation, there are zero gastroenterologists per capita in the US It will have been nine months for me, from trying to see an IBS specialist to getting the tests they “recommended” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F15IKu6XoAAij3I.jpg) ### [Tweet, 15:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683862664596930561) · 2 likes The scare quotes are intentional^ Like jfc take a gallon of my blood and gather every possible bit of information; no test is as “invasive” as having a fucked up GI system ### [Reply, 15:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683863444745777152) · 3 likes Ok maybe slightly less then ### [Quote tweet, 16:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683877702195982349) · 20 likes Chicago takes the lead ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F15V2KtX0AE3nEe.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** It has come to my attention that there are other good options to consider besides Tulsa, so let's pseudoprediction market it out https://manifold.markets/AaronBergman/which-relatively-low-costofliving-u?r=QWFyb25CZXJnbWFu ### [Reply to @BarughTyrone, 22:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683962008939692032) > **tyrone barugh🔸 (@BarughTyrone):** wellington, new zealand or leipzig, germany Tbh I personally want to keep living in the US but it would be very cool if others who didn’t share this preference took this up ### [Quote tweet, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683962901546299393) · 7 likes Can someone explain Cavendish? It’s all from one 100 manna trade Is near the longtermist Bell Labs thing? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F16jVXdX0AUETEY.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Chicago takes the lead > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F15V2KtX0AE3nEe.jpg) ### [Tweet, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683974163881504768) · 34 likes Whenever I see “\[well known person known for something mainstream\] on 80k (or wherever)” I’m pretty skeptical it will have much value beyond “learning how normal smart people see the issue” This is an exception. https://podcasts.google.com?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9wY3IuYXBwbGUuY29tL2lkMTI0NTAwMjk4OA%3D%3D&episode=NTcxMGI1ZWUtOGM0ZS00N2FlLThmODQtYzRmOWNhNjc3NTgy ### [Tweet, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683974166616199169) · 9 likes If you’re at all involved in AI safety, I strongly recommend giving it at least 20 mins At least if you wouldn’t feel at home sitting in on a congressional committee hearing ### [Reply, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683974307268165632) · 2 likes Strong case! ### [Quote tweet, 22:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683975129502474243) · 9 likes A dark horse takes the lead ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F16udFHWAAIuDtw.jpg) > **Quoting Dyusha Gritsevskiy (@dyushag):** @AaronBergman18 it's cheap, unreasonably beautiful, and already has something like 6% of the population working on alignment and pandemic prevention ;) ### [Quote tweet, 23:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683981259683295232) · 2 likes .@ezraklein this was a good warm up, but it’s time for the big league: Pigeon Hour https://open.spotify.com/show/4oPGwPO5mcjk7aL7EUOhSb?si=ceMczT_kT0eb3Bl2N4rL8Q > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Whenever I see “\[well known person known for something mainstream\] on 80k (or wherever)” I’m pretty skeptical it will have much value beyond “learning how normal smart people see the issue” > > This is an exception. > https://podcasts.google.com?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9wY3IuYXBwbGUuY29tL2lkMTI0NTAwMjk4OA%3D%3D&episode=NTcxMGI1ZWUtOGM0ZS00N2FlLThmODQtYzRmOWNhNjc3NTgy ### [Thread, continued, 23:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683981262258675714) I have no idea what the function of putting . before an opening tag is but I’ve seen other ppl do it so I’ll follow suit like the herd animal I am ### [Quote tweet, 23:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1683981873905541120) · 6 likes I’ve been using Twitter for 3 years and never figured this out (the . before an opening tag on a tweet) > **Quoting JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 If you don't, it won't appear in the timelines of your followers; only those of the tagged accounts ## Wednesday, July 26, 2023 ### [Reply, 05:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684070462949670912) · 2 likes Surprised to see work sample so low ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 05:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684078617213517826) · 17 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** Thinking about this > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F17xOYWacAAyq1Z.jpg) Kinda wanna defend this, like obviously people are doing this kind of thing in their heads all the time. Is it really so bad to make it explicit and systematic? ### [Reply, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684080898290094080) · 6 likes Schumer has a ton of influence over not only what passes but what goes up for a vote. Most bills die in committee. The best possible AI bill could be written and have plenty of support but still never get passed bc Schumer and Pelosi didn’t want it to go up for a vote ### [Tweet, 07:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684105561086861312) · 8 likes I don’t think the x-risk community should move towards using “extinction risk” as a stand-in It’s less jargony, sure, but if undergrads in an intro fellowship can handle the nuance conveyed by “existential,” so can congresspeople and their staff ### [Reply, 07:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684109647920107520) · 3 likes The problem is many have too few or no fellas to invite ### [Reply, 08:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684116411055235073) · 3 likes Linch has some literate followers ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F18u83bXsAApG9Q.jpg) ### [Reply, 08:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684117816734101504) · 4 likes Just acausally ask her out ### [Reply, 08:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684119288976646144) · 1 like ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F18xkY_XwAEdWTy.jpg) ### [Reply to @allgarbled, 08:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684120037223792642) > **gabe (@allgarbled):** hi, scientist here with a PhD in turtle biology! > > this is actually a sign the turtle is dying of a disease called CFS. it’s infected with a bacterium that emits a chemical similar to many floral nectars, which is what attracts the butterflies. > > sorry to ruin the cute story 🫤 Wait is this a joke ### [Reply, 09:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684133693768577028) · 2 likes It’s @nickcammarata ### [Reply, 09:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684133854867492865) · 2 likes I swear I did not see this before I replied the exact same thing, down to the character ### [Reply, 13:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684195121749716992) · 3 likes Sure, maybe it’s a bad measure, but afaict that’s never the critique. Rather, it’s that explicitly and numerically rating people is wrong or at least indicative of something wrong ### [Quote tweet, 13:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684196975418245369) · 2 likes Seems good, although this largely relies on the integrity and willingness of safety-pilled people at OpenAI and Anthropic to stand their ground > **Quoting OpenAI (@OpenAI):** Announcing Frontier Model Forum, an industry body co-founded with @anthropicAI, @Google, @googledeepmind, and @microsoft focused on ensuring safe development of future hyperscale AI models: https://openai.com/blog/frontier-model-forum ### [Tweet, 13:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684199649723158528) · 98 likes Fun fact: if you have 20 people in a room, there’s a 100% chance they all share the same birthday ### [Tweet, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684252399718760458) · 6 likes I have survived and am now at a safe distance from sand ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684284388819759105) · 4 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** Yep, definitely an option! But my sense is much more important is to be well-calibrated on base-rates, to run surveys among policy-makers and the broad public on what things they support, and to understand how policy gets made, not to follow individual policy-makers. I guess I’d lean toward public opinion being more important than an arbitrary congressperson, but I think Schumer and at least a dozen others in congress and the Biden administration personally matter more than public opinion at least until it becomes an extremely salient issue ### [Reply, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684298616490295297) · 6 likes Proof in latex or idgaf ### [Reply, 20:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684298833906335744) · 2 likes Ur literally in a gc called Gossip ### [Reply, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684299210479239168) · 4 likes The more I try to use python the more I appreciate R ### [Reply, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684333981993410561) · 5 likes Checks out ### [Reply, 23:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684341136310013956) · 16 likes If you round the friction coefficient between air and belt to 0, no Irl presumably there’s some physically possible speed that would get the air moving around the wings to 175 mph for takeoff ### [Reply, 23:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684342513996296192) · 6 likes Based Move almost all prescription drugs down a level. Illegal -> controlled Controlled -> Rx Rx->otc Antibiotics are an exception, maybe others too ### [Reply to @alz_zyd_, 23:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684352096680787968) · 3 likes > **alz (@alz_zyd_):** Random personal thing > > I've been having weird minor-ish, but annoying health issues last 2 years or so, fatigue, frequently sick, stomach issues, etc. I sleep 8 hrs a day, exercise a few times a week, eat healthy, and the doctor didn't say anything was wrong with me Tests: CBC CMP Anemia/ferritin D B12 Folate Testosterone Free testosterone Lyme CRP TSH and ideally free t4+t3 I’m certain I’m forgetting some ## Thursday, July 27, 2023 ### [Reply, 16:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684601044599177228) · 6 likes Strong incentive on the sat to try really hard, not the case like anywhere else ### [Reply, 17:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684619615828090880) · 7 likes \>10% they’re alive rn IMO ### [Reply, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684622203298451456) · 11 likes Maybe .5% it’s Eliezer People might jump on this but say 67% he personally differentially accelerated and permanently improved alignment as a field Then say 15% Alignment is both tractable and hard and 5% his delta ends up being the reason A\[GS\]I is aligned ### [Tweet, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684641714516971520) · 7 likes Best chat name yet from Clong @NathanB60857242 really does know a lot of well selected shit ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2EMaTgW8AEcPoX.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2EMh5HXcAEVkA5.png) ### [Reply, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684658867685228544) · 2 likes Forklift operator convention? ### [Reply, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684704113773182977) · 2 likes Nice ### [Tweet, 23:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684706557999681536) · 32 likes I have no idea what a superconductor is or what’s so important about a room temperature one and at this point I’m too afraid to ask ## Friday, July 28, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684715961646010370) · 5 likes The official Wildeford non-RP donation list: 0\) Rethink Priorities \[added by me\] 1\) Centre for Long-Term Resilience 2\) The Future Society 3\) GovAI 4\) The Humane League \[honorable mention\] ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2FQPRCXkAAq829.jpg) > **Quoting Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18 @austinc3301 @daniel_filan @vidur_kapur @mealreplacer I finally produced an answer to this question! https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/db5TbLPSZL2XPeaed/ama-peter-wildeford-co-ceo-at-rethink-priorities?commentId=FmAZMdXjnpzTbGCje ### [Quote tweet, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684721114176434176) · 46 likes I could never run for President bc I’d be saying irrelevant shit like this all the time Me: oh, what is that? Girl: ice cream Me: did you know that scientists have been downplaying their repeated finding that ice cream consumption predicts positive health outcomes for decades? > **Quoting Drew Savicki (@DrewSav):** DeSantis: oh, what is that? > Girl: an icee > DeSantis: An icee? Yeah that's probably a lot of sugar huh? ### [Tweet, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684721116743372800) · 8 likes News: Bergman spreads conspiracy theory about ice cream, ties to Big Dairy alleged ### [Tweet, 00:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684721723717914624) · 10 likes I don’t actually have a take on the ice cream thing btw beyond that added sugar doesn’t actually seem to be very bad above and beyond replacing nutrient dense foods and saturated fat probably isn’t bad at all Wait maybe that is a take idk ### [Reply, 00:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684722878921519105) · 4 likes Me and who (except it’s that I get nothing out of nicotine gum so I guess I have low grade autism instead which tbh maybe I do) ### [Reply, 00:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684727801822199808) · 2 likes Goddamnit ### [Reply, 01:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684735184313188352) · 2 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2FhuLBWwAAW6TA.jpg) ### [Tweet, 01:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684738919177297920) · 28 likes I bet you’ve never carefully appreciated the twitter like animation [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1684738913120694272/pu/img/HgCq-2aQ3NVInJHB.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684738919177297920/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Tweet, 01:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684739003835166720) · 2 likes This is .25x speed ### [Reply, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684740220565037056) · 1 like The moral arc of the observed universe ### [Reply, 01:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684740755963686912) · 2 likes I continue to be uncalibrated ### [Reply, 01:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684740982460338176) · 2 likes Idk what two of these words mean ### [Tweet, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684785606361047040) · 11 likes Fr ### [Quote tweet, 13:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1684919891789242368) · 3 likes New Myers-Briggs just dropped 1\) gluttony 2\) sloth 3\) pride 4\) lust 5\) envy 6\) greed 7\) wrath > **Quoting Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** 1\) sloth > 2\) gluttony > 3\) wrath > 4\) lust > 5\) pride > 6\) envy > 7\) greed > > Probably anyone who knows me would put wrath first, but this is my perception ### [Reply, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685002236596715520) · 3 likes Have u ever been defeated? I think no ### [Reply to @trevposts, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685002372253188103) · 2 likes > **Trevor Levin (@trevposts):** One interesting fact is that nobody in any domain has ever defeated someone who drank black coffee with creatine powder earlier that day What about dry swallowing caffeine and creatine powder ### [Quote tweet, 20:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685028241755590656) · 13 likes Other things I don’t understand and at this point am too afraid to ask about: Tf is a tensor?, evolution, do computers ever get low level calculations wrong?, conceivability as used in philosophy, Google Cloud, how speakers work, do qualia happen \*to\* something? … > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I have no idea what a superconductor is or what’s so important about a room temperature one and at this point I’m too afraid to ask ### [Tweet, 20:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685028245089984512) · 5 likes Where did all my socks go? (this is maybe funny but I am legit confused), maybe more to come as I think of things ### [Reply, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685037010371682304) · 2 likes Gotta love the random capitalization ### [Reply, 21:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685043850346192897) · 6 likes As a store of value, retreat venue, and investment for Effective Ventures ### [Quote tweet, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685045555678855168) · 5 likes Ngl this was the most interesting episode for me to make so far: @NathanB60857242 (contra me) on why general intelligence basically isn’t a thing https://open.spotify.com/episode/0DDvsWCC0L04BCgJmFrPI8?si=1DhUnHuITWG1sAAMqyrIKA > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Best chat name yet from Clong > > @NathanB60857242 really does know a lot of well selected shit > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2EMaTgW8AEcPoX.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2EMh5HXcAEVkA5.png) ### [Tweet, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685045560229646336) · 3 likes https://open.spotify.com/episode/0DDvsWCC0L04BCgJmFrPI8?si=1DhUnHuITWG1sAAMqyrIKA ## Saturday, July 29, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685081225122250753) 2\) that^ but some members of A are still around. If this happens, do there need to be two distinct sub populations of A? 3\) species A “branches” (whatever that means) into B and C, where all three are distinct species ### [Thread, continued, 00:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685081811423055872) · 1 like New q: is there a qualitative difference between intra-species evolution (say a type of moth starts having black wings bc of industrial soot - I remember this one from elementary school lol) and species-ogenic evolution? Is the latter just a ton of the former in sequence? ### [Reply, 00:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685082005451440129) · 3 likes Why are there basically discrete species instead of like a continuous spectrum? Or am I wrong that this is the case? ### [Reply, 00:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685082521002803200) · 21 likes That’s a normative claim not a statement of preference ### [Tweet, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685134405906358272) · 14 likes He should upgrade to a real wallet like mine ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2LMz6HWUAAwuc3.jpg) ### [Reply, 04:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685149401369411584) · 4 likes This is higher than I’d have guessed for every decade ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 04:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685150006062280704) · 3 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** I keep wanting to write a post entitled > > “the ethical chuckleslut” > > about how easy it is to make me laugh and how some people disapprove of my lack of discrimination. > > But I have so little to say beyond “you’re wrong— laughing all the time on the cheap is awesome”. I vote we inaugurate “chuckleslut” into the vernacular ### [Reply, 06:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685175855205535744) · 2 likes Libertarian ### [Quote tweet, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685176579561795590) · 1 like The Incredibles. C- at best > **Quoting Culture (@CultureHOF):** What is a movie that everyone likes, but you hate? > > [GIF attached](https://x.com/wildtiktokss/status/1685056883495718912/photo/1) ### [Reply, 07:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685187749156917248) · 2 likes Name checks out ### [Quote tweet, 14:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685289851430592512) · 2 likes Weird thing is, I think the generalized phenomenon of breaking the third rail (is that even the metaphor? Lol) in debate is pretty clever and basically legitimate It’s just that it’s apparently getting applied in exactly one way/direction > **Quoting Jesse Singal (@jessesingal):** ...what the fuck? > > This is so much weirder (and more widespread!) than I could have ever imagined based solely on the headline. > > https://www.slowboring.com/p/how-critical-theory-is-radicalizing ### [Reply, 14:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685290200325308416) · 3 likes Lmao I love when this happens (it’s happened like twice tbc) ### [Reply, 14:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685291663558631426) · 4 likes Based ### [Reply to @berggrenpeterm, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685343041245081600) · 1 like > **Peter Berggren🔸 (@berggrenpeterm):** @moultano British Left Waffles On Falklands What ### [Quote tweet, 17:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685344651950030848) · 3 likes I am once again begging people to send me feedback via http://admonymous.co/a > **Quoting 😈 (@turtlekiosk):** hey quit bugging me or i will inform you of a behavioral pattern that is noticeable to other people but i can tell you are not yet aware of ### [Quote tweet, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685351281164976128) · 21 likes This is negatively polarizing me into being pro-X > **Quoting The Associated Press (@AP):** San Francisco has opened a complaint and launched an investigation of a giant “X” sign that cropped up on top of the downtown headquarters of the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. https://apnews.com/article/twitter-san-francisco-building-x-elon-musk-4e0ae2a3b1b838b744bb2dc494f5b23c?taid=64c471efb68e980001657f4f&utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Twitter ### [Reply, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685386996066156546) · 2 likes I kinda suspect this is not a real phenomenon and most inner city sort of Hispanic ppl become normies like everyone else ### [Reply, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685387591237955584) · 4 likes Cool but cmon Mr(s). Anthropic social media guy, that hashtag is not gonna become a thing ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685399394948890624) > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** IMO "exercising while focussing on your body rather than listening to music or daydreaming" is an underrated form of meditation. Sounds miserable ## Sunday, July 30, 2023 ### [Reply, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685458482747600896) · 3 likes 😈 ### [Reply to @KatjaGrace, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685464404266020864) · 4 likes > **Katja Grace 🔍 (@KatjaGrace):** Doing a thing typically takes various inputs, often from multiple people—I'd think of a funder as one of the doers I’m with Stefan on this You could call anyone (a president, judge, whatever) a doer, but transferring money is more like giving a stamp of approval than it is running a project ### [Quote tweet, 02:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685473720196890625) · 6 likes Stop ur gonna make me accidentally like and relate to DeSantis even tho he’s a bad person with bad policies 😭 > **Quoting Darren J. Beattie 🌐 (@DarrenJBeattie):** I will say there is an odd charm to Ron's utter disdain for small talk with the masses > > The less he disguises his contempt the more authentic he appears > > Maybe not an ideal trait for a Presidential candidate, but it's something I can respect for what it is ### [Reply, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685474515965390849) · 2 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2QCI71XYAIRzFS.jpg) ### [Reply, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685478672495529984) · 2 likes Then all the proxies for correctness will get Goodharted😩 ### [Reply, 07:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685549314372755456) · 2 likes Do it ### [Reply, 12:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685627114815463424) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ I have never seen this symbol before in my life ### [Tweet, 12:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685630235847413761) · 4 likes Many are saying ### [Reply, 12:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685630945594941440) · 6 likes The economists are not going to take this well ### [Quote tweet, 15:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685669813681537025) · 48 likes We must retake the green > **Quoting Joseph Conlon (@JosephPConlon):** By a village cricket green - could there be a more English dedication? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2RvvVKWIAASztS.jpg) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685758287931707392) > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I finally have an orb > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2T0LaXWUAAEOKG.jpg) How many lumens ## Monday, July 31, 2023 ### [Reply, 02:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685835513125609472) · 4 likes What does he mean by this ### [Reply, 02:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685835956769722373) · 5 likes Weird but I can smell this one ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2VK3UeWcAEJlTg.jpg) ### [Reply to @michaelcurzi, 11:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685975395525394432) · 2 likes > **𝖒𝖎𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖊𝖑𝖈𝖚𝖗𝖟𝖎 (@michaelcurzi):** Goddamn this would be so cool Me n the boys hiking from Patagonia to Portugal ### [Reply, 11:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685979298425909248) · 3 likes Why is the universe like this ### [Reply, 11:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685980065392214017) · 3 likes We require elaboration ### [Tweet, 13:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1685999604200812544) · 3 likes Walking north but want to go west? Pivot 90° to your left ### [Quote tweet, 14:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686021410026618881) · 9 likes It would be so cool if DC just had a bunch of megafauna wandering around I feel like nothing that bad would happen as long as they were chill herbivores like elephants and rhinos > **Quoting Science girl (@sciencegirl):** Rhino is walking calmly on a main road in Nepal > > [video attached](https://x.com/pubity/status/1685358264244912128/video/1) ### [Reply, 15:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686031002815152128) · 6 likes This is a true statement ### [Reply, 15:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686034684344422400) · 1 like Lol but also is this true? I feel like the phrase made sense in the Bush era when there were a few holdouts from the pre-GOP insanity+polarized era but plausibly McCain was like the last person who could sorta plausibly be called one ### [Reply to @Douthat60, 16:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686052044216389632) · 7 likes > **Ross Douthat (@Douthat60):** Male and female happiness since the Sexual Revolution (but pre-Covid), discuss: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2YBQs4XQAEEqzi.jpg) I think there’s something important here, but also there are 20 gazillion other concurrent secular trends that could explain this Could overlay a line for percent not overweight or obese, for instance, and then the salient hypothesis would be totally different ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 17:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686066555396804608) · 1 like > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** Depends where you are in the world The two poles, right? Or am I being dumb ### [Reply, 17:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686066675274170373) · 3 likes Everyone’s already in the way of stuff ### [Quote tweet, 23:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686156201631862784) · 8 likes Help I’ve been hit > **Quoting charlie t (@rhymeswithvocal):** \[least dateable person you've met in your life voice\] > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2YBCXMWYAABvgg.jpg) --- End of July 2023. Previous month: [June 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-06). Next month: [August 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-08). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, August 2023 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in August 2023 and has not deleted: 689 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [July 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-07). Next month: [September 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-09). ## Tuesday, August 1, 2023 ### [Tweet, 03:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686211958779813888) · 757 likes This obesity thing is like the biggest possible nerdsnipe. A huge mystery that affects billions of people, with tons of data and no satisfying answers as of yet. Like how does Iran have an obesity rate \*~12 times higher\* than Vietnam, a country of very similar wealth? ### [Tweet, 03:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686212150019203072) · 108 likes If someone figured out how to combine this and the sleeping beauty problem it would be over for me ### [Reply, 03:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686214020028608513) · 7 likes There’s not enough room on this app for the both of us 😤 https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/the-answer-to-the-sleeping-beauty ### [Tweet, 12:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686348891246022656) · 19 likes I am calling for a total and complete shutdown on history until we can figure out what the hell is going on ### [Tweet, 12:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686348907809234944) · 4 likes \[master mechanistic interpretability\] ### [Reply, 12:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686357616484659201) · 4 likes Yes this should be a priority! ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 14:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686388880126390274) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I remember in college hyper cultural relativism about ethics was pretty common, where people would imply that all the smart people knew ethics was fake and that any general statement about good and bad stuff happening in other countries was wrong, but that seems to have died down Moral realism go brr ### [Reply, 15:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686394573700874240) · 38 likes In all seriousness, having good heuristics and intuition for who to listen to on any matter seems like a single skill - you don’t need to be an expert on everything, just on expertise ### [Tweet, 15:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686395501124427776) · 55 likes If anyone is >90% sure either way about the superconductor, I’ll bet $100 at 1:10 odds that you’re wrong ### [Reply, 15:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686398649801031680) · 8 likes Yeah I don’t expect anyone to take me up on this. It’s like 40% rhetorical bc I’m seeing some confident takes ### [Reply, 15:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686402882302611456) · 11 likes Is “smoke this out” a real thing British ppl say? Bc I wanna culturally appropriate it ### [Reply, 15:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686404446153048065) · 2 likes Right. It’s not exactly antidemocratic, but it’s definitely undemocratic ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 16:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686414616845340673) · 3 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** A nice illustration of why targeting happiness as the key outcome for EA is bad. Few women now would want to go back to the 1970s, even though according to happiness they were clearly better off. What we care about is much richer than happiness. > > (quoting @Douthat60: Male and female happiness since the Sexual Revolution (but pre-Covid), discuss:) I mean I think there are some methodological issues with much of the happiness literature but, no, I strongly disagree What do you propose is the truer or more fundamental moral good? ### [Reply, 17:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686426925038718976) · 3 likes Wdym “posting it back to them”? Like just sending it in the GC or threatening to send some screenshot to an authority of some sort? ### [Reply, 18:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686443319126048768) · 2 likes in that case based ### [Reply, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686443876976836625) · 29 likes That's interesting - I'm guessing this would erase the particular vietnam vs iran mystery ### [Tweet, 21:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686486072195170304) · 22 likes Does anyone have a thought experiment that demonstrates why a coherent ethical theory can’t have the Pareto principle, transitivity, and impartiality? Bc if not and it just “falls out of the math,” I’m skeptical that the math is modeling the right thing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2eaJBcaAAQ2O7S.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686486074787287041) · 3 likes From https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/holden-karnofsky-how-ai-could-take-over-the-world/ ### [Reply, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686491404141268992) · 2 likes wait I don't understand - often math is a formal way of proving some claim but it's possible to turn the intuition or smth like that into a story By "just," I mean like for whatever reason the story part isn't possible or at least nobody's been able to come up with a good one ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686494126626287616) · 12 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 1, 2023:** From https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/holden-karnofsky-how-ai-could-take-over-the-world/ Kinda sus More specifically I'm skeptical that the existence of a bijection between the (accurate, lets grant) algebraic models of two worlds necessarily implies that they are of equal moral value ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2egWeia8AAb8ER.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686494420735012865) · 3 likes I also don't get which of the three properties listed above this puts into conflict ### [Quote tweet, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686495274678534145) · 5 likes Am I allowed to say 'big if true' on my own tweet > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Kinda sus > > More specifically I'm skeptical that the existence of a bijection between the (accurate, lets grant) algebraic models of two worlds necessarily implies that they are of equal moral value > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2egWeia8AAb8ER.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686523590995255296) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Isn't it not clear that infinite ethics is a thing we have to worry about You must worry about it I hereby command ## Wednesday, August 2, 2023 ### [Reply to @fectin, 01:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686549374682218496) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @fectin is no longer available.)_ No I think u owe me $900 ### [Quote tweet, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686573123049590785) · 2 likes Could y’all just chill out a bit? Thx ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2fpUPQWcAAYktj.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2fpUPQXAAAeJag.jpg) > **Quoting sympathetic opposition (@sympatheticopp):** i knew a southern lesbian who wanted a gf really bad so she decided to be a rules girl. it did not work ### [Tweet, 03:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686575639648743424) · 3 likes I may have meant 10:1 Like my $100 to ur $1k Complaints can be directed to my assistant ### [Reply, 03:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686575914069430272) · 15 likes This man looks like the head of a prestigious international commission on something serious ### [Reply, 03:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686579076968878080) · 2 likes Not even a feature, I’d just rather pay $100 up front for a lifetime and then have our incentives at least not be at odds bc there’s no way to get more money out of me Hinge etc are actively incentivized to keep people using the app ie not get into happy relationships quickly ### [Quote tweet, 10:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686681948331159554) · 23 likes New avocado just dropped https://www.axios.com/2023/07/24/avocado-guacamole-luna-hass-chipotle > **Quoting Valentin (@wannabegroncho):** Just told 2 of my normie engineer colleagues about the superconductor and they glossed over and asked me if I had seen the "new avocado that was recently developed" we are so early ### [Reply, 10:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686687573152817153) · 4 likes @JesseTayRiver could be u 👍 ### [Reply, 14:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686739738919669760) · 3 likes 🔥🔥🔥 ### [Tweet, 18:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686803618547068944) · 6 likes I feel like there might be big money arbitraging the fact that employed US college grads 22-26 receive health insurance worth >$10k (I think) as compensation, but are legally allowed to stay on their parents’ plan (which is often better coverage) ### [Reply, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686828761054912512) · 3 likes I mean to state the obvious, by default for profit companies don’t do philanthropy bc why would they? Still, that’s just a broad prior. Assuming Altman and co are basically earnest/sincere (maybe wrong tbc) about their beliefs, it’s actually kinda weird they haven’t… ### [Reply, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686830069765783553) · 5 likes I regret to report I’m with Martin on this one ### [Reply, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686834369258815488) · 2 likes My rooms temperature <<< room temperature ### [Quote tweet, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686834869555396608) · 11 likes Understanding this sentence is a perfect proxy for being Very Online > **Quoting no longer respecting gardenias (@NLRG_it):** oh no the superconductor catgirl is a tankie ### [Reply, 22:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686870931111612416) · 6 likes My favorite quadrant is Weird and Good ### [Reply, 22:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686873775780814848) · 4 likes Huh, thanks and super interesting ### [Reply to @levelsio, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686874292078665729) · 2 likes > **@levelsio (@levelsio):** I never understand why fold into wall beds never became a big thing > > Instantly add a giant space for living to any room when not sleeping > > Seems like it should be a big thing now as everyone’s tight on space with rent and housing prices? > > [GIF attached](https://x.com/levelsio/status/1686828955876126721/photo/1) But my pile of clothes would fall all over ### [Reply, 23:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686874828563685377) · 5 likes Not letting everyone move here Idk if this is considered foreign policy ### [Reply, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686875536205783040) · 8 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2j8XAVWAAE6eJH.jpg) ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 23:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686881913380683776) · 1 like > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** Feel like pure shit just want him back (the baby) 😔 Nobody tells u this but you can take as many babies as u want from the local daycare, they’re free ## Thursday, August 3, 2023 ### [Reply, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686907743574118400) · 2 likes They’re also free to make at home!! ### [Quote tweet, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686911566002716672) · 9 likes Uh you should absolutely not have “a great deal of confidence in the a scientific community” > **Quoting John Burn-Murdoch (@jburnmurdoch):** A tragic story in two charts: > > 1\) It never used to be the case, but there is now a big partisan gap for trust in science in the US. Republicans are now essentially the anti-science party, while Dems are stridently pro > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2jEQDnXMAAQkot.jpg) ### [Reply, 01:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686913161847287808) · 7 likes Based ### [Reply, 01:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686915506417135616) · 2 likes Oh come on Biden is not profoundly corrupt ### [Tweet, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686933952190169088) · 8 likes Tragically, my father’s entries did not place in the 2023 iPhone Photography Awards But I think this one of my sister (and a few more below) are pretty good! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2kxeFrXcAAetbS.jpg) ### [Tweet, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686933979956498432) · 1 like Me circa 2016 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2kxfptXcAAYc1U.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686933996133842944) · 1 like Idk circa idk ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2kxhTrXsAAIoS2.jpg) ### [Tweet, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686934035308695552) · 2 likes I think Barcelona, 2016 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2kxiOXWMAAiWGk.jpg) ### [Tweet, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686934040648007680) · 1 like More at http://michaelbergmanphotography.com (Thx to chatGPT for the coding help) ### [Thread, continued, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686934043047215104) · 1 like Winning photos at https://www.ippawards.com/2023-winning-photographers/ ### [Quote tweet, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686944090045227008) · 8 likes Scientist’s gf: would u love me if I were a worm? 🥺 Scientist: > **Quoting Reuters (@Reuters):** These 46,000-year-old worms were brought back to life after scientists defrosted them from the Siberian permafrost > > [video attached](https://x.com/Reuters/status/1685173307719446529/video/1) ### [Reply, 04:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1686965063356137472) · 2 likes The only good thing about him ### [Tweet, 08:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687021546789814272) · 33 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2mBJpCW4AAz_No.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 08:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687021549814001664) There’s got to be a better meme template for this ### [Quote tweet, 09:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687034543893630976) · 63 likes Kinda confused about the hype here Aren’t there a bazillion things that work in vitro and in mice and not in humans, or at least not well/safely? > **Quoting /home/~j0ule (@gigaj0ule):** Small molecule oral cancer drug kills 100% of solid tumors across 70 evaluated cancer types in vitro and in animal models with a therapeutic index of 6 and no discernible side effects > > Phase 1 trials now underway > > https://www.cell.com/cell-chemical-biology/pdfExtended/S2451-9456(23)00221-0 ### [Reply, 10:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687042906102611968) · 11 likes Not load bearing (fox is a surprise - I’ve only seen one a handful of times) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2mUhBhXEAImBRu.jpg) [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1687042830487728128/pu/img/hhD5J4NbX_QhhtyN.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687042906102611968/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @sguyenet, 15:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687127589855412224) · 3 likes > **Stephan J. Guyenet (@sguyenet):** That said, this is going to phase 1 human trials, which already makes it more promising than 99% of stuff that gets tested in cells and mice Thanks - do u have an approximate or best guess for P(hits market eventually | starts phase 1) ? ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 15:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687128488921169920) · 5 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** For my birthday, can you describe me as you if I had amnesia and you were trying to remind me of myself? U are holly elmore from twitter ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 15:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687130818563522561) · 2 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @AaronBergman18 😆 It’s also ur birthday so happy birthday ### [Tweet, 16:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687138693377662980) · 18 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2nrssKXQAAX_g-.jpg) ### [Reply to @TheAtlantic, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687146290906374157) · 4 likes > **The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic):** An internet personality who goes by Bronze Age Pervert has become a leading cultural figure on the far right, with fans on Capitol Hill and even in the Secret Service. @gcaw reports on how a fascist bodybuilder came to threaten American liberalism: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/09/bronze-age-pervert-costin-alamariu/674762/?utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_content=true-anthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter Tragic: the Atlantic is ahead on me on knowing about some niche internet thing ### [Quote tweet, 17:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687148693567209472) Let’s see if the tribes divide: assume in 6 months there are no big revelations and the Twitelligentsia consensus is that Gino committed fraud and then instigated a frivolous and bad faith lawsuit. Does this warrant cancellation? Poll below > **Quoting Jonatan Pallesen (@jonatanpallesen):** If this lawsuit succeeds, that would be a catastrophic blow to science. > > That would essentially mean that people could not make even the most careful and obviously true allegation of fraud, without huge financial risk. > > If fraud can't be punished, there will be (even) more of it ### [Reply to @davidmanheim, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687176585885974528) · 1 like > **David Manheim (@davidmanheim):** News: OpenAI has filed a trademark request for GPT-5, is planning to integrate audio. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7092524003159920641-N7MR > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2oNkJjXcAE6B7v.jpg) Can I nab GPT-6 for something random? ### [Tweet, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687197235958927364) · 13 likes Unhinged art idea: A war (or other disaster) film, shown at a hospital-turned-cinema, where (w/ informed consent duh) viewers each start with a saline IV drip, but these become full anesthesia as quickly as is safe to one random viewer whenever a character dies ### [Tweet, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687197241361190918) · 2 likes Like death often involves a lot of pain and suffering, but (presumably) sometimes it’s just instant cessation of experience We never get this perspective though. We always get to keep watching ### [Reply, 23:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687237746119606272) · 2 likes There’s like 4 ppl this could be ### [Tweet, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687240852190433280) · 15 likes Finally a house I can afford 😌 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2pInKBWkAA9yev.jpg) ## Friday, August 4, 2023 ### [Reply, 09:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687394268787138560) · 6 likes New peltiv just dropped ### [Reply to @ProfAFinlayson, 09:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687395881186967552) · 5 likes > **Alan Finlayson (@ProfAFinlayson):** The rational allocation of capital. > > https://www.ft.com/content/4ed9e3ae-3608-47da-b56b-48ed82fbeddc Unironically though - losing money is a mechanism by which approximately rational (in some myopic economic sense but still) capital allocation is achieved It’s a disincentive to throwing money and unproductive uses, but also these firms now have less money to throw ### [Tweet, 16:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687498558927200256) · 4 likes Cool website that just happens to be correct https://www.sleepingbeautyproblem.com/part-6-solving-the-sleeping-beauty-problem/ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2sy_umWQAAg39O.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687540437504950293) · 1,344 likes Yo wtf “mirror life” is not a thing that should exist irl. Wikipedia below ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2tZFY3XABIKAYZ.jpg) > **Quoting ⚡️🌙 (@dystopiabreaker):** this meme but for biolabs and chiral-mirrored cyanobacteria > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2of03daQAA0qvu.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687540440218664975) · 80 likes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_life ### [Reply, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687540727180361733) · 2 likes This smart, car centric urbanism is legal to build in most American cities ### [Reply, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687548620806017025) · 49 likes I feel like I’d want at least a decade of neurotic ea type investigation before signing off on this lol ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687554615850450949) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Sorry you're a double halter? Yes, although I’m slightly less confident in this than that the total answer is 1/2 There are two probabilistic events, the coin clip and then the observation event conditional on coin landing tails. The probability tree breaks into 1/2, 1/4, and 1/4 But the two 1/4’s collapse ### [Tweet, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687558262026092544) · 10 likes Thrift Shop by Macklemore was the closest the world ever got to fully embracing cringe ### [Tweet, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687559053415735296) · 3 likes Sad that it (cringe not Macklemore) never exploded into cultural hegemony ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 23:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687604134629822464) · 25 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** @AaronBergman18 @ColdERINhell I’m generally an infohazard nonbeliever but I think this is probably one of them Do u think I should delete? Can’t dm ### [Reply to @sguyenet, 23:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687607591017349120) · 3 likes > **Stephan J. Guyenet (@sguyenet):** Yeah, I think an important question is "what's the alternative"? > > For all its flaws, what other communities are producing more accurate and useful knowledge than the scientific community? Plausibly prediction markets and online nerd communities who basically take science as a main input but not identical to the true best guess answer ### [Reply, 23:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687608442326794241) · 3 likes No lol, but I do dislike when ppl use short as a pejorative ## Saturday, August 5, 2023 ### [Tweet, 00:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687618688357171200) · 14 likes Ha ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2ugP3zWYAE9UwL.jpg) ### [Tweet, 00:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687619735326748672) · 11 likes I ❤️ AI transcription (from an upcoming podcast ep with @freed_dfilan) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2ug1XIWQAY178h.png) ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687620228555915264) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ She must have forgotten to adjust her priors for the fact that this would put u at a rather high z-score in the distribution of male heights, which we should have a low prior on ### [Tweet, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687620315872907264) · 3 likes damn i gotta clean my screen ### [Reply, 00:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687624638849843200) · 2 likes 95% of my opinions are random thoughts that ran through Rob Wiblins head while recording 80k ### [Reply, 00:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687625680832360448) · 1 like I developed miscellaneous health bs around 16, and think there’s like a decent chance (25%?) at least some of it was caused by Lyme, which I definitely had at some point per antibody tests (and I was camping a ton in the northeast around 13-16) ### [Reply, 01:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687637616861093888) · 2 likes We can be roommates in the shed https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1687240852190433280?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ### [Reply, 01:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687639243512745985) · 6 likes Yeah statistically but u don’t have to plan on breaking up I’ve always found it weird that people affirmatively want short term (but >1 day lol) relationships bc it implies ur going in with the \*plan\* of breaking up, not just the expectation that it’s probable but ya never know ### [Reply, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687639378024099840) · 2 likes Plumbing and electricity? ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 05:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687702216067481600) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Actually that looks like a fence Actually it’s just a picture of a fence, the real fence is far away ### [Reply to @anniierau, 05:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687703090185609216) · 21 likes > **Annie? Rauwerda? (@anniierau):** lol > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2tbEKlXgAIYxlX.jpg) I’d like to think this is driven by a bunch of nerdy guys who think they might get laid for the first time, doing their research as one must I mean it’s a pretty sensible first search if that’s the situation! ### [Reply, 05:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687703568868880384) · 31 likes This is a much scarier tweet lmao ### [Reply, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687704418433613824) · 4 likes I feel like you probably don’t want 50 hours of yud, but u might so https://www.audible.com/pd/B076ZY6Y9C?source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=pdp ### [Reply, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687704793806995456) · 1 like That whole setup (well not the couch) is probably like $200 ### [Reply to @MattZeitlin, 06:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687708019629465600) > **Matthew Zeitlin (@MattZeitlin):** Down with the ruling class\*! Power to the people\*\*! > > \*Ivy-Plus grads > \*\*Northwestern grads > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2seR5mXAAAahpr.jpg) This but like 2% less ironically ### [Reply, 06:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687718688634417152) · 3 likes https://x.com/qualythe/status/1665109016198905857?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ### [Reply, 07:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687721557940989952) Just dropped ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 07:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687734510459269121) · 1 like > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** if you flip the 'v' in lovely it becomes lonely, which i think says a lot > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2wDA-gbwAAFZoj.png) I don’t think there’s any deep meaning here ### [Reply, 08:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687735599426359296) · 7 likes What did people do before that? Wave? ### [Reply, 08:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687737566064181248) · 2 likes Lmaooo I thought I was the only one 😂😂😂 7 year old Aaron was hornt af sneaking away to read the dictionary ### [Reply to @prerat, 08:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687738986914107392) · 1 like > **prerat (@prerat):** @NathanpmYoung @AaronBergman18 i think both work great and will use halfer or thirder perspective based on whichever is more convenient to get the answer for a particular question > > (probability is map, not territory) I think I disagree with this, and probability is at least sometimes territory; what would it be a map \*of\* if the sleeping beauty problem were literally taking place? ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687900281181278210) · 49 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Hanania has historically had a lot of engagement with the forecasting community. We need to make sure he is no longer respected here. > > (quoting @lxeagle17: This isn’t a particular surprise given the stuff that Hanania has previously tweeted, but it’s horrifying to think that people will continue to engage him even after this because of some bizarre need to give airtime to all sides.) I’m super wary of ideologically policing communities like this at the meta level, especially when it’s low status or dangerous to argue in one direction but not the other Object level IMO Hanania is both racist and sometimes has good takes and good insight We can decry racism ### [Reply, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687900455928528896) · 10 likes without making people themselves functionally untouchable ### [Reply, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687933458528493568) · 7 likes Yeah and I don’t think this type of tribalism in this particular context is one of those times ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 21:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687934439085486088) · 4 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** I feel the same way about postrats. 3/3 I wonder why nobody identifies as rat adjacent afaik but like 10k people are EA adjacent ### [Quote tweet, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687940087152005122) · 4 likes This is an interesting perspective on Sleeping Beauty I hadn’t thought of before > **Quoting prerat (@prerat):** @AaronBergman18 @NathanpmYoung there are two good maps: > > thirder map: > P(Monday|Tails)=1/2 > P(Tuesday|Tails)=1/2 > Mon,Tue mutually exclusive > > halfer map: > P(Monday|Tails)=1 > P(Tuesday|Tails)=1 > Mon,Tue NOT mutually exclusive > > since "Mon" and "Tue" mean different things in the maps, they get diff probabilities ### [Reply, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687945698820657152) · 2 likes I don’t think so, and I’m not worried about Hanania’s social life. I do think he has object level insights to provide in a way very few people with his racial attitudes seem to, but more important are the second order effects on openness to people saying potentially unpopular ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687945990379061248) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Eh, exiling racists is fine. Have you ever had a friend become white supremacist? They just hang out with their new, white supremacist friends. They're not even lonely. things. Take my building underground tweet; there are a subset of people who earnestly think I want to make poor people live underground, and that this belief would be sufficient to disqualify me from participating in certain ideological communities ### [Thread, continued, 21:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687946378641633280) · 1 like Now I think I’m right about my tweet not saying that, but frankly I trust a meta level norm of having an exceptionally high (low??) bar for making people non grata much more than a norm of litigating object level disagreements to figure out who has good, correct, true beliefs and ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1687946554848518144) > **Aaron Bergman, August 5, 2023:** I don’t think so, and I’m not worried about Hanania’s social life. I do think he has object level insights to provide in a way very few people with his racial… Fucked up the reply order like always lol ## Sunday, August 6, 2023 ### [Reply, 02:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688016993364893696) · 3 likes Based ### [Reply, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688017753834184704) · 4 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F20LM03W0AALMaO.jpg) ### [Reply, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688022633487433728) · 2 likes I can’t find it but there’s a tweet like “women get to smell like things: flowers, fruit, etc; men have to smell like ideas” ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688030842080120832) · 1 like > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @GluskerMartin @AaronBergman18 @peterwildeford Yup. I sometimes find EA to be excessive in its openness. RH can prove himself bigoted and have awful ideas, but people will polish the turd of his immigration ideas or whatever. Strong disagree here - willingness to engage with ideas instead of pre-filtering them out is extremely important to figuring out how to do good IMO Nobody (afaik) is arguing that people \*should\* respect or agree with Hanania on anything - just that refusal to engage with him… ### [Tweet, 04:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688038232808718336) · 13 likes Hypothesis: your bookmarked tweets reveal your true nature, the deepest trenches of your soul ### [Reply, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688038632529989633) · 2 likes Uh yeah no shit ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 04:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688039944638304256) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 You'll never guess what darkness lies in my soul Is it a bunch of tweets like “I just wanna find a cute girl who loves to build legos while discussing philosophy” ### [Reply, 04:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688051601464827907) · 18 likes On some matters this is just in fact the best and most reliable way to reason ### [Reply, 15:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688215798056140801) · 8 likes Inside u there are two wolves ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F22_UhwW0AEtXyc.jpg) ### [Reply, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688218851589165056) · 3 likes Congratulations and welcome!🇺🇸🌎🏈💸🔫 @USCIS good call on this one 👍 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F23CGPTXwAA5OwE.jpg) ### [Reply, 20:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688284063524671488) · 3 likes \[Insert ‘getting turned on’ joke that is in the tiny Venn diagram sliver of both funny and not itself a PR risk\] ### [Reply, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688286847841996800) · 6 likes It should be in the same category as the drug war and ICE deportation IMO. These also feel moral from the inside and are more plausibly non arbitrary but are still widely seen as immoral and bad in hindsight at least everywhere but on the right ## Monday, August 7, 2023 ### [Reply, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688355459739131905) · 5 likes Based ### [Reply, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688357987235033088) · 3 likes Lmao ### [Quote tweet, 02:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688371167227187201) · 5 likes All the cool guys are 5’7”, case no. 1727596931184 > **Quoting Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen):** BREAKING: Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg will partake in a cage fight. > > According to Musk, a “Zuck v Musk fight will be live-streamed on 𝕏. All proceeds will go to charity for veterans.” > > Here is your fight card: > > Zuckerberg: > \- 5'7" and reportedly 155 lbs. > \- 39 years old. > \- One of the stronger nerds you will meet. > \- Built like a tech geek who wants to be a UFC fighter. > \- Jiu-Jitsu blue belt. > > Musk: > \- 6’2” and reportedly 187 lbs. > \- 51 years old. > \- One of the brightest white torsos you will see. > \- Built like a crash-test dummy. > \- Trained in judo, kyokushin karate and taekwondo as a child, recently trained briefly in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. > > What are your predictions? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F21_eBWW4AEqXu5.jpg) ### [Reply, 02:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688371309997084672) · 2 likes Pharmacologically? Glutamate maybe ### [Reply to @HumansNoContext, 02:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688371727544266752) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @HumansNoContext is no longer available.)_ $1T dollars, a solution to AI alignment, cute gf (not for eating dw), and a long ass pdf describing how to make cultured meat at scale ### [Reply, 02:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688373929662992386) · 4 likes Weird thing is I feel like the market is better at identifying the truly most talented female singers. Like Taylor, Billie, Olivia don’t even need last names lol - who’s unambiguously one of the best male artists? Kendrick Lamar \*maybe\*? ### [Reply, 02:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688375721922641920) · 2 likes I only know the first ### [Reply, 02:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688376424124522497) · 2 likes Pop = pop = popular for a reason ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 03:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688394436059815936) > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** Is no one gonna like my marx references on this side of twit…disappointing This is a Marx reference? Lmao if so wrong platform ### [Reply, 04:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688400462603599872) · 2 likes I cannot fathom not waving back to a baby ### [Tweet, 04:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688406898800807936) · 4 likes New episode with @freed_dfilan just dropped (Spotify below) https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/6-daniel-filan-on-why-im-wrong-about ### [Reply, 04:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688408774346694656) · 6 likes Nah I disagree here. Encouraging ppl to dress in a way that maximizes their impact via how they’re perceived isn’t less legitimate than asking them to give 10% Then again I should probably dress better lmao ### [Quote tweet, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688409403282575361) · 6 likes Making R high status would add like 30% to global GDP > **Quoting Ryan McWhorter (@rmcwhorter99):** A 30% speed improvement in the rust compiler would probably add like 0.000006% to global GDP ### [Tweet, 04:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688411356330901504) · 3 likes Aarons law: the number of hours a person with ssn \*\*\*-\*\*-\*\*\*\* sleeps at night is approximately Max{7+s, 18} where s is the number of hours he socialized that day ### [Reply, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688416437403013120) · 11 likes I remember when metro ≈ Uber pool ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 05:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688416837871054848) · 11 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** Which one would you rather be true > > Christian heaven: you’re you, things are good forever though, lots of happy things > > Open individualism: you’re all of life, future is probably incredibly wild but probably in a good direction? But def weirder than anything you can imagine today Being all of life sounds absolutely terrible and I’m surprised anyone’s voting that way There’s literally nothing you could offer me that I’d accept in exchange for a .1% chance of experiencing the lives of all farmed and wild animals ### [Tweet, 05:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688417892868530177) · 11 likes This is the only platform safe from marriage announcements of my peers (knocking on wood). IG, fb have been lost to The Ring ### [Reply, 05:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688418006836101120) · 2 likes That seems like a good number of lumens. Where do I buy? ### [Reply, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688419394798436352) · 2 likes Like if they had the chance to stop evolving? I mean taking that at face value, probably another roll of the dice on evolution via some other branch of the tree, and tentatively I’d guess that would be worse But if we’re comparing our actual world with one that we just accept… ### [Reply, 05:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688419873695637505) · 3 likes has no sentience and no chance of evolving it, yeah I’ll bite the bullet and say the latter is better, and any intuition to the contrary is probably conditional on being a 21st century human with access to opioids, food etc and not currently severely suffering ### [Reply, 06:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688432414073262080) · 2 likes My intuition said yes tho lol ### [Reply, 07:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688451254941274112) · 3 likes Eh I think there’s a subcategory of people (say young, smart, in a developed country, either financially secure or without dependents - ie people like ur followers) who would in general be better off (and tentatively make the world better off too) if they were more ambitious ### [Reply, 07:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688455830377472001) · 7 likes Uh she’s not wrong. Many/most anabolic hormones (growth hormone, insulin) are gonna promote tumor growth. I mean obviously they’re good to have lol, still carcinogenic ### [Reply, 08:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688464831211282433) · 4 likes 99.9% (probably a few more 9s) of fish aren’t killed this way though ### [Reply, 09:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688477349774299136) · 2 likes Cancel qualy? over my dead body 😤 ### [Reply, 10:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688496627051282432) · 2 likes 📈 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F26-u9EXkAAdM0n.jpg) ### [Reply, 11:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688508353167728640) · 2 likes @bijibiji2023 causing ideological havoc by bringing supermarket gigaGMO grapes to the commune (ahem, co-op) ### [Reply, 11:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688516936143896577) · 3 likes Sorry Kirsten but a decision has been made. You shall preside over a pig sanctuary. ### [Reply, 11:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688519089654792192) · 3 likes Sometimes we become slightly less turdy over time ### [Tweet, 17:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688601209219772420) · 3 likes \*min IM AN IDIOT ### [Reply, 17:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688609999591763969) · 2 likes Joke deserves more attention, commenting for the algo boost ### [Reply, 17:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688610278026379264) · 3 likes 👀 ### [Reply, 18:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688613727795302400) · 8 likes Maybe @Grimezsz has pull? ### [Reply, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688618856716083200) · 6 likes Ezra is my boy, badmouthing him will not be tolerated ### [Tweet, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688619183523643393) · 14 likes Men, what’s stopping you from looking like this? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F28uMr2WUAALCE_.jpg) ### [Reply, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688619849700757505) · 2 likes Both 😔 ### [Reply, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688620583590764544) · 3 likes But do they make adult sized ducks? ### [Reply, 18:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688621264938659840) · 2 likes 🦆 ### [Reply, 18:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688624186615304192) · 2 likes In which I reply To get a haiku made For me cause I want ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688643245457240065) · 1 like > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** @AaronBergman18 @profoundlyyyy @skooookum I just think if somebody has a problem with some advocates “not being good enough“ in whatever way (skill, looks, vibes), then it's on \*them\* to do better. > > @skooookum what's keeping you from being on CNN and looking very respectable? Wouldn't \*that\* be more effective? Connor has chosen to be a public facing advocate for AI safety (which is admirable!) - skooks has not! Idgaf how Connor looks 99.99% of the time, the exception being when he’s on air Also, Don’t you think it’s plausible Connor actually wants this kind of feedback? ### [Tweet, 21:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688658568264749056) · 44 likes Imagine doing an EA application \*on a whim\* \*on ur phone\* Applying for 80k coaching took me like 6 months, 9 google doc drafts, 15mg dextroamphetamine sulfate and a lot of peer pressure @bijibiji2023 is truly an inspiration ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F29SBI5XkAEfh09.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688658571154558976) · 5 likes “Bet I can do it in 3” https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1678423567099109376 ### [Reply, 21:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688666907744829440) · 3 likes FWIW serial rejection is basically a rite of passage even for well connected people. That said I think you’re right and semi arbitrary interpersonal stuff is non trivial ## Tuesday, August 8, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 00:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688715307508957184) · 8 likes I am conflicted ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2-FnzzXcAAiRS7.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2nrssKXQAAX_g-.jpg) ### [Reply, 01:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688716999344504832) · 3 likes If I get tornado’d I’m suing ### [Tweet, 01:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688717050040946688) · 9 likes Fuck it we walk ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 01:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688724485279461376) · 3 likes > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** went to the doctor to get some routine blood work done > > got testosterone thrown in there > > outside of the range (high) What was the range? I’ve seen ranges that max out at like 850 ng/dl and like 1300. Big difference ### [Tweet, 01:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688731070374506496) · 6 likes I am a simple man (link below) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2-T0G_X0AAwJtQ.jpg) ### [Tweet, 01:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688731071939002368) · 2 likes https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/jan-leike-superalignment/ ### [Tweet, 05:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688791854219673600) · 8 likes Code interpreter at 1:55 am when it can’t immediately just do the thing but politely converses with you and asks for examples and clarification hits different I’m not convinced sand was meant to think bro ### [Reply, 06:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688793176306315265) · 2 likes This ai shit wild fr ### [Reply to @growing_daniel, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688793727173574656) · 1 like > **Daniel (@growing_daniel):** The last person to reply to this tweet gets $100. Payout via venmo Moloch wins ### [Reply, 07:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688815046002888704) · 8 likes Cmon man include an obesity line while ur at it (scaled to whatever, just to show the trend) ### [Quote tweet, 08:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688831507740106752) · 4 likes I’d like to think this is a covert pro-shrimp psyop Regardless, consider donating! > **Quoting Gabriel (@gbrl_dick):** we have to stop the EAs man. this guy should be optimising the Ford supply chain by like 5 basis points. instead he’s fundraising for shrimp. christ, what a waste ### [Reply, 08:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688831540174753792) · 6 likes Based ### [Reply, 08:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688831622169174016) · 10 likes Jfc this is so unnecessarily cynical ### [Reply, 08:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688831655786500096) · 8 likes And wrong tbc ### [Quote tweet, 09:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688837904787771393) · 2 likes Haroset is apple salad fr, good stuff, y’all goyim should try some time > **Quoting drew millard (@drewmillard):** honestly just incredible stuff here > > https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/08/14/eric-adams-profile > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2-AxkfWMAA48U8.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 09:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688841813874905088) · 11 likes New and improved version ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2_4rekXIAAPPdy.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2nrssKXQAAX_g-.jpg) ### [Reply, 12:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688897145309442048) · 7 likes Maybe, but it’s a countervailing and plausibly as important trend that contradicts your implicit theory ### [Reply to @David_Kasten, 18:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688978560373960704) · 1 like > **dave kasten (@David_Kasten):** @elidourado Extremely dumb question: Doesn't the implied claim that we can counteract global warming for <$100M/yr also imply that for <$1B, someone can cause an year without a summer and global famine? > > That, ah, seems to be potentially strategically destabilizing if so I mean a bunch of militaries could shoot down whoever was trying to do this assuming it was a rogue actor and not like the US (if the us military wants to cause a famine it is already able to) ### [Reply, 18:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688978891044433920) · 4 likes I have no idea what I’m talking about but at first glance I’d be pretty wary of increasing the ph of like everything Calcium carbonate = Tums, literally an antacid ### [Reply to @r_marked, 19:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688991539907661825) · 2 likes > **mark (@r_marked):** Your variable names may be bad, but are they bad enough that someone at Twilio sends you an email about it? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F29YMNaaMAEs95_.png) Eventually if I get fed up I just type the first syllable that comes to mind plus an index Fuck it we’ve got cat1, cat2, cat3, and fish0-fish9. What are they? Functions data frames vectors who knows. Same for files I’m writing that might be useful at some point ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3CA2niXUAA4cxf.jpg) ### [Reply, 19:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688991703103922176) · 3 likes Very continental philosophy of u ### [Reply, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688992852951343105) · 2 likes Me either it’s fake ### [Tweet, 19:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688993663861346304) · 5 likes I still can’t believe planes work ### [Tweet, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1688995322784026624) · 8 likes Man looking 60-70 walking around with a missing cat sign. Asked me to keep an eye out and take a picture of his sign (I already had - they’re all around!) I hope he finds his cat 😢 ### [Reply to @KatSpartz, 19:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689000284167491584) · 35 likes > **Kat Spartz ⏸️ 🔶 (@KatSpartz):** What color is a tennis ball? > > (Apparently this is a strangely divisive question) Wait what Are green ppl trolling?? ### [Quote tweet, 19:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689000353507721216) · 11 likes I’m going insane > **Quoting Kat Spartz ⏸️ 🔶 (@KatSpartz):** What color is a tennis ball? > > (Apparently this is a strangely divisive question) ### [Reply, 19:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689001048701116417) · 6 likes Can someone who voted green plz explain urself ### [Reply to @RFishBlueFish, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689002088053809152) > **Gil (@RFishBlueFish):** Tennis balls are green I bet u think fish are red and blue ### [Tweet, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689004237026627588) · 2 likes Sample of 5 chatGPT prompts with slightly different wordings gives percent yellow (taking mean when range given): {70, 80, 80, 82.5, 75} for a mean of 77.5% ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3CMZjZXIAA-V7o.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689004301631492101) · 2 likes Is this AI research ### [Reply, 20:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689015256641662976) · 5 likes Fascinating ### [Reply, 21:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689023042540683264) · 4 likes S-risk 🚨🚨🚨 ### [Reply, 21:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689023128654004224) · 4 likes Max this is one idea I’m gonna have to nix lmao ### [Tweet, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689023508079058944) · 9 likes How hard would it be to make an AI Rob Wiblin voice that can read any text? We have hundreds of hours of audio for training ### [Reply to @AaronDorshow, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689028173005049857) · 2 likes > **Aaron Dorshow (@AaronDorshow):** @AaronBergman18 Living over in Arlington! Ok that’s like 30ish mins from me in Bethesda but if ur interested we should meet up maybe this weekend or something! Cc @Laura_k_Duffy @SpacedOutMatt @GluskerMartin @AndyMasley who may or may not be closer (my brain is legit incompetent when it comes to geography/directions) ### [Reply, 21:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689030867144921088) · 2 likes Let us know what u find! ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 21:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689032508912865280) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 Easy peasy > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3CjGZ2WEAE_YXw.png) I feel like it’s actually pretty doable. Maybe a good learning project for me idk. Would need to filter out the guest’s speaking from the 80k episodes tho which idk how to automate ### [Reply, 22:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689038393705889792) · 2 likes http://robwiblin.py is currently running (to extract his voice alone from a single episode) ### [Reply, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689050955449266176) · 2 likes I don’t know what to believe any more ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3C25IYXEAAVBPD.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3C25ImXEAAnixs.jpg) ### [Tweet, 23:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689052543844790272) · 42 likes I hope I’m not a narcissist in general but sometimes I search like “from:AaronBergman18 min_faves:50” so I can read and glory in all my past bangers ### [Tweet, 23:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689053389521367040) · 9 likes Reply with a likes cutoff and I’ll tell u which is the bangingest of all ur bangers ### [Reply, 23:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689061837466157056) · 3 likes https://x.com/absurdlymax/status/1599815953705226240?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ### [Reply, 23:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689061982660378624) · 2 likes Based. I can store all 3 in my memory tho ### [Reply, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689062646534848512) · 1 like U definitely have 4-7 digit like bangers latent, it’s just a matter of time ### [Reply, 23:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689063778724282368) · 2 likes Lmao cmon don’t tease us like that 😩 ## Wednesday, August 9, 2023 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689064164843511808) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** It's blue Blue ball. Ha ### [Reply, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689064474043424769) · 2 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3DDL4oWkAEd85G.jpg) ### [Reply, 00:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689068458841866240) · 2 likes It’s not working (assuming bc ur locked) :( ### [Quote tweet, 06:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689164663240425472) · 5 likes Rob Wiblin (fake) reading my blog post (linked below) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDC8bzkQA7k > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** How hard would it be to make an AI Rob Wiblin voice that can read any text? > > We have hundreds of hours of audio for training ### [Reply, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689166300956798976) · 4 likes Looking forward to a critique but it seems very natural to me. EA is literally about predicting the future ie what will happen in the world if you do some action In some circumstances this doesn’t even parse as “forecasting” - just science: bed net RCTs are only meaningful… ### [Thread, continued, 06:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689166418732871680) · 4 likes If you think that similar results will hold in the future, otherwise you’re just doing historical documentation ### [Reply to @JacquesThibs, 07:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689175197973147648) · 1 like > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** @AaronBergman18 Free tier? “2,500 free words every month” > > You maxed out for this month? Yea but u can just use other google accounts to sign in and get more ### [Reply to @EAheadlines, 07:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689181075409358849) · 2 likes > **EA Lifestyles (@EAheadlines):** hm yes but Tetlock's work doesn't matter as much as general social science good practice in that case, and I don't see nearly as many EAs excited about the latter! Neglectedness tho - there’s tens of thousands (at least?) of people doing social science and until a decade ago basically zero doing forecasting per se ### [Reply, 07:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689182859238457344) · 2 likes Bird wasn’t bouta get shut down by Mr. Umbrella [![Cleveland Browns GIF by SoFloBulls](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/F3Eu2vzWgAAWfRG.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689182859238457344/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply, 10:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689226429177712640) · 3 likes The dream ### [Reply, 11:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689237102364352512) · 3 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3FgMUNXoAAIfVO.jpg) ### [Reply to @BowTieOrangeGuy, 11:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689240099341389825) > **Mr Bow Tie (@BowTieOrangeGuy):** the difference being I didn't search "green tennis balls" > > I just searched "tennis balls" Ok, fine. Those are green and anomalous. This is the literal first result, and these are yellow ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3Fi6n2WsAAtSXF.jpg) ### [Reply, 11:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689242754155433984) · 2 likes Almost 2 ounces lmao. Like eating a bag of chips made out of pure ascorbic acid ### [Quote tweet, 11:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689243922625703937) · 5 likes Is this what conscientious ppl feel like? > **Quoting ali (@alitaylor):** just let me check one more task off my to-do list bro. just one more. i swear this one's going to change everything. i just need to complete one more task. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3CuslKWsAAUKM8.png) ### [Reply to @BowTieOrangeGuy, 11:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689244234149224448) · 1 like > **Mr Bow Tie (@BowTieOrangeGuy):** which of these color sampels would you consider green vs yellow? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3FmOjhWoAA16e5.jpg) Left = yellow Middle = green Right = evil greenish yellow monstrosity ### [Tweet, 11:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689244772655849472) · 2 likes Bc ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3FnKwLX0AAnXv5.jpg) ### [Reply, 12:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689248913461489664) · 2 likes I knew Kermit was cursed ### [Reply, 12:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689249670395031552) · 2 likes 😈 ### [Tweet, 12:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689250601475981313) · 105 likes Someone really needs to write a LessWrong post about Community Notes (like how and why it works so well). It’s the semaglitude of the og rationalist epistemic project ### [Tweet, 14:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689277528584708096) · 5 likes Random thought that’s definitely gonna get torn apart by the usual suspects: Conditioning on neuron count, maybe species moral weight is \*inversely\* related to demonstrated cognitive/emotional capacities bc these take neurons and so imply fewer “used” for raw hedonic tone ### [Reply, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689317070364712969) · 4 likes Maybe you’d find it interesting! http://LessWrong.com ### [Tweet, 17:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689323268413562900) · 27 likes Where can I buy a bunch of fake clothes? Like fake jeans and khakis that are secretly pajama pants, fake buttons, ya know really pushing the comfy x aesthetic Pareto frontier ### [Reply, 17:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689323987816390656) · 2 likes Being pro suffering reduction and cringe is literally in my bio ### [Reply, 17:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689324465178517516) · 1 like I have no idea what this means lmao Tf is a mostly same capsule wardrobe ### [Reply, 17:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689333011538411520) · 2 likes 🫡 ### [Reply, 20:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689369223078821888) · 5 likes True and I love and more importantly believe in EA (well at least as an ideal/what it claims and aspired to be) but also, on that last point, here’s to all my fellow straight white cis neolib-flavored liberal American men, 20-35, from an upper middle class family… ### [Tweet, 20:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689372239659933696) · 10 likes Lfg new bird just dropped (moved in to flowerpot) She’s guarding two eggs but I was phoneless when those were clear ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3HbGNgWQAA5aug.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689373328065060865) · 2 likes Many such cases https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1688371167227187201?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3HcFnrWQAA4z3Q.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689394045217550336) · 8 likes Serious question for #YIMBYtwitter (iykyk lol): are bodies of water generally zoned? Can I like build an apartment complex boat? Or like literally just park a cruise ship on the Potomac River or San Francisco Bay or something? Seems promising tbh ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3Hu7g1X0AET9tA.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3Hu7g2XQAAERJq.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 22:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689401067958665216) · 6 likes Seeing lots of enthusiastic takes here and, while I agree it’s evidence of public enthusiasm for regulation, boy is it weak evidence People will say truly almost anything on surveys, and responses are extremely sensitive to wording. > **Quoting Axios (@axios):** Exclusive poll: American voters prefer federal AI regulation over self-regulation by tech companies, with the majority saying they don't trust tech executives to regulate AI. > https://trib.al/gTtCzbO ### [Reply, 22:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689402347665981440) · 3 likes Plz do this I think it would be insightful and maybe also cute and funny but mostly fascinatin Us non parents like never get to hear what kids think about arbitrary real issues/topics/whatever ### [Reply, 22:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689403475090661376) · 2 likes Oh man pressures on. For sure: how the think about being kids, whether they think about what adult experience is like and how it differs from theirs How old are they? I feel like this is relevant lol ### [Reply, 22:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689403524252073984) · 3 likes Can they (and/with u) come on pigeon hour? 🥺 ### [Reply, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689403745065414656) · 2 likes Stop blocking my point with important object level context ### [Tweet, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689420065139994624) · 20 likes I don't like talking on the phone either but fuck it we call https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/qgbLr6es2jCwwcGuH/best-use-of-2-minutes-this-month-u-s ## Thursday, August 10, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689431697010368512) · 2 likes I actually did this summer of 2016! Worst decision I ever made (ok not literally but directionally) My social battery was so drained every day that I (literally this time) closed myself in a room to eat dinner every night, no sound or anything just me and my recovering brain ### [Tweet, 01:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689456493479772160) · 13 likes Gonna be a hilarious plot twist if one random ass lawsuit takes us back to the dark ages from semaglitude and the brink of AGI ### [Reply, 02:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689458586810781696) · 2 likes 🫡 ### [Reply, 02:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689466802663788544) · 2 likes Creatine ### [Reply, 03:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689479782323380224) · 4 likes Ay lfg ### [Reply, 10:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689583930922475520) · 3 likes Second line is way funnier lol ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 10:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689588660012830720) · 3 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** How Putin reacted when told his dog died. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3JAxaZaEAAsFbi.jpg) I’m not gonna let him dogsit for Fluffy anymore ### [Reply, 11:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689601388685242369) · 2 likes This looks like a Taylor Swift cover (or is that intentional??) ### [Reply, 11:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689603319264595968) · 2 likes Fascinating ### [Reply, 11:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689604237569802240) · 1 like ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3KuGaHWoAAjJDP.jpg) ### [Reply, 11:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689604907160981504) · 2 likes Who’s the girl holding her tho ### [Tweet, 12:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689611443069386753) · 5 likes Idk how much I believe this but there’s for sure room for a longform “The Case For Pessimism” essay which isn’t nihilist or hopeless but basically argues that the world sucks and is not on a good trajectory at all even if AI “goes well” ### [Tweet, 12:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689611445854511104) · 3 likes Pessimism ≠ defeatedness I’m thinking of it as a corrective to what I see as a somewhat naive Our World In Data-brand optimism ### [Tweet, 12:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689611452561186816) · 1 like Of course it’s possible we somehow manage to land in this tiny window but it doesn’t seem like the default to me at all even with basically aligned AGI ### [Thread, continued, 12:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689611454343733248) What else? A broad observation that personal well-being seems correlated with productivity, success, and influence, even (especially?) within EA I, at least, personally get much more done (meaning like 10-100x not 1.5x) on 75th percentile days relative to 25th percentile ones ### [Tweet, 12:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689611456923242497) · 1 like In fact basically everything I’ve ever written or made public was probably written/created during an above-average (for me) waking minute This seems like a big, systemic source of optimism bias ### [Quote tweet, 12:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689616343153131525) · 7 likes Men, what’s stopping you from looking like this? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3K5G-iW8AINqRx.jpg) > **Quoting Jonny Miller (@jonnym1ller):** Today's morning routine: low-angle sunlight, clearing the lymphatic system & puppy co-regulation ;) > > [video attached](https://x.com/jonnym1ller/status/1689409217730641929/video/1) ### [Reply, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689630928899821568) · 2 likes Yes. ### [Reply to @billyhumblebrag, 13:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689632071386304512) · 87 likes > **billy (@billyhumblebrag):** Dudes rock > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3LChsfXAAAjdmT.jpg) I mean true claim (dudes rock) but this isn’t good evidence of that bc trivial error in the first step .999=1-lim\_{n\\to\\inf}(1/n) ≠ 1-lim\_{n\\to\\inf}(1-1/n) ### [Quote tweet, 14:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689638076619059200) · 9 likes A single college dorm is the perfect introvert living experience (wish I had my own bathroom but whatever) You have an actual ~apartment that is your own domain where no one can disturb you… > **Quoting James Medlock (@jdcmedlock):** College dorms are fine > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3LKDj0aUAE1weq.jpg) ### [Tweet, 14:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689638079605415939) · 4 likes But also lots of people your age nearby + common room for low stakes socializing It’s like between a group house and a normal apartment. Wish this kind of thing existed like in society (I’m sure it does somewhere) ### [Tweet, 15:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689659304054284288) · 75 likes Call me a cynic but I’m starting to doubt that the 6 distinct Sophias with identical pinned camsite links are in fact real people earnestly interested in my ideological commentsry ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3LgLibWQAA8T21.jpg) ### [Reply, 15:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689659497357201408) · 2 likes Cute first date idea ### [Reply, 15:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689659991571972096) · 10 likes Hey I think Sophia1747952 and Sophia48399194 bring unique perspectives to the table despite their superficial similarity ### [Reply, 16:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689677391952584718) · 3 likes This might affect \*reported\* depressive symptoms but I'm pretty skeptical it has a non trivial effect on actual affect (ha) ### [Reply, 17:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689683884076670993) · 2 likes I never said I was opposed! ### [Reply, 17:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689688717437333520) · 3 likes I’ve been waiting for a good reason to tweet that, while the no ad funding thing is cool and all, you could probably make like way more than you would for an arbitrary product ad by getting a shaving equipment sponsorship ### [Reply to @EAheadlines, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689720043523706880) · 1 like > **EA Lifestyles (@EAheadlines):** anthropic's hiring a London/EU lobbyist and paying TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND POUNDS 🫨 Good salary for sure but by comparison, here’s a good but relatively normal us federal government job I qualify for (ie no graduate degree) and will (inshallah) apply for in the next 4 days https://www.usajobs.gov/job/737269800/print Tbc this isn’t a “look at Aaron’s earning potential” tweet… ### [Tweet, 20:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689733834227462144) · 31 likes I’m pretty disappointed to see this post get ~300 karma Seems like a pretty clear case of reflexive praise for earnest and good faith criticism (which I think it is!) without real consideration of its actual merit (which I think is very low) https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/euzDpFvbLqPdwCnXF/university-ea-groups-need-fixing ### [Tweet, 20:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689733838010793984) · 11 likes Tbc I think the \*author\* did anything bad or wrong; good faith bad takes aren’t immoral and surely I have some of these It’s the votes I take issue with ### [Thread, continued, 20:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689733844440641536) · 1 like Still gathering my thoughts for a Forum comment but at a very abstract level it’s something like: x=4 is the ideal set of practices, higher x means more of the collection of vibes and practices described here … ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3Mj-bSXYAEuyFV.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 20:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689733849280839680) · 4 likes Shifting the distribution from a mean of 0 to a mean of 3 does mean that the class of errors associated with X>4 greatly increases, but all things considered moving in that direction is still good! ## Friday, August 11, 2023 ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 03:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689838853786402816) · 4 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Honestly, I agree with a lot in this Forum post, and I think Will MacAskill provides good reasons in the comment section for taking it as a serious critique too. Truly shocking that we disagree on smth related to effective altruism ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 03:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689840152124755968) · 4 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Truly shocking that my views are in between your two Love being one side of the Moverton window ### [Reply, 03:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689842043059609600) · 2 likes Try to tape up wherever they’re coming in but after that yeah I’d kill after doing a bit of research on the most humane way to do this Pretty sure most of us care about shrimp suffering, not shrimp death ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689842323083943936) · 1 like > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** I used the term “vertically integrated” today at work and got a “wow Ivan those are big words!” 🙃 Lol at the response having only 1 syllable words besides ur name ### [Reply, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689842516726628353) · 2 likes Obligatory: intelligence isn’t a moral trait, laughing at the happenstance here not the people ### [Reply, 03:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689845053974265856) · 1 like I misread this as “social pressure and isolation at retreats was really good, actually. What it does is push people into worldviews they haven’t really thought through. We should be actively hedging against conformity” and was like yes! I agree! ### [Thread, continued, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689845428202729472) 99.9% of the conformity pressure is from normal society and our brains to be normal and not entertain unpopular ideas! Retreats are a corrective to this, but until they become say many weeks long it’s still a positive corrective force at the margin ### [Reply, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689846354829275136) · 3 likes I def like the term “auditing” but disagree with the author in that it seems he basically wants ppl to reinvent the intellectual wheel to do cause prio from first principles and maybe some gathered arguments and data You don’t get intellectual progress that way! ### [Reply, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689846710351147008) · 2 likes The key thing for the metaphor is that audits aren’t replications (which are probably good to do once or twice for important things tbc) or censuses ### [Tweet, 12:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689981165837443074) · 5 likes Ladies, if you want a guy who never errs when reasoning about fundamental questions like the consistency of mathematical axioms, boy do I have a pdf for you http://bit.ly/dateaaron ### [Reply, 12:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689981706680385536) · 2 likes It’s how we cosplay civic duty ### [Tweet, 12:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689983989950341121) · 4 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3QHe1kW4AEoS-7.jpg) ### [Reply, 13:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689985474440404992) · 2 likes I know of one case of it working very well for a straight guy (can’t specify tho) and know straight women often get plenty of guys reaching out (idk if any of y’all wanna comment on whether quality seems systematically higher than on dating apps) ### [Reply, 13:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689985515842342912) · 2 likes Pretty niche thing tho, I mostly just don’t know empirically ### [Reply, 13:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689986380988862464) · 3 likes And the realization that candor ≠ honesty (even tho they’re correlated) is a pretty impressive insight for someone with poor social intuitions (through no fault of their own tbc) ### [Reply, 13:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689987156796743681) · 3 likes This is like 9 levels more advanced than me On a good day I will find not one but two pairs of matching socks ### [Reply, 13:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689988702976589824) · 3 likes This is not a partition of the space ### [Reply, 13:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689994763431223296) · 2 likes I don’t think it’s really a comparative advantage for autistic ppl - more so online weirdos (positive) in general who would benefit from strong selection effects in who reads and reaches out ### [Reply, 13:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689998494386323456) · 6 likes That would be too reasonable this is my destiny ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3QUo4BWAAEbqc9.jpg) ### [Reply, 13:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1689999841449943040) · 2 likes Well they’re 1 for 2 ### [Tweet, 15:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690017942090424320) · 2 likes Ugh I think I’m gonna drop the $11 for one month and see how it goes @elonmusk u win but I will be getting the most out of my subscription and uploading as many hour long 8k videos as it takes to get a threatening letter from ur attorney ### [Thread, continued, 15:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690020578055303169) · 8 likes Lol usually companies don't put arbitrary restrictions on ur ability to give them money ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3QoqglWMAIANjR.jpg) ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 16:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690035173729918976) · 3 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 For socks I'm pretty sure it's just long black and short white socks any objections?https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09XBKMMM7/ ### [Reply, 16:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690035307754754049) · 2 likes nvpkp: 1 aaron: 0 ### [Reply, 16:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690035453645238272) · 2 likes hey I only went to the math and science bowl \*meetings\*, never actually competed like a fuckin nerd ### [Reply, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690035843883225089) · 3 likes Transhumanism is the way ### [Reply, 16:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690036499050295296) · 3 likes Well probably not everyone ### [Reply, 16:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690037807077552128) · 3 likes But every straight single girl 19ish-24ish who doesn't have a strong preference for tallness and is kinda nerdy, yeah idk seems high upside for all 2 of you, also good chance we'd be friends which is cool ### [Reply, 16:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690040310301175813) · 2 likes 4 seems a bit high. Since the true answer is always the median of the two most salient competing hypotheses, it is certainly 3 ### [Reply, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690040617340919808) · 2 likes Big if true (unironic) Therefore big ### [Tweet, 17:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690056519415406609) · 8 likes When u catch urself spending more time on the lil contentiousness trophy than the actual 5 minute task u just did so u cut ur losses before adding any text ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3RJcjTWwAA84hL.jpg) ### [Reply, 17:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690059297621721088) · 3 likes Wait this isn’t a joke? Figured it was bc idk whenever my address bar looks like that it’s a fake local website not a real one ### [Quote tweet, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690061430224019456) · 6 likes One of the best stories can remember hearing Hope it’s true lmao > **Quoting Joe Cohen (@CohenSite):** Imagine having this guy as your permit expediter > > [video attached](https://x.com/CohenSite/status/1689879463046365184/video/1) ### [Reply to @pissboymcgee, 18:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690064233298284545) · 3 likes > **kelbin (@pissboymcgee):** only the best and the brightest buy the blue check > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3OC7IGWAAAAacQ.jpg) mean-spirited IMO ### [Reply, 20:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690091774394408961) · 3 likes @JesseTayRiver I found ur happy tweet ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 20:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690097218080915456) · 4 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Many EA institutions won’t fund advocacy to the public to pause AI, often bc they work w AI companies in some way, and they don’t want to jeopardize that influence. > > How did we get here? How can AI companies expect only nice relationships from what should be watchdog orgs? I don’t necessarily doubt but is there empirical evidence of this (as opposed to just reasoning about incentives and social/economic forces)? ### [Reply, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690098226806849536) · 2 likes This is good evidence indeed! ### [Tweet, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690098888554733569) · 77 likes Girl on a date asks if you have anxiety ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3Rv-3XXEAAUW7v.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690099117580587010) · 4 likes “Well I can see why you’d think that” ### [Thread, continued, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690099527447961601) · 6 likes I hope nobody notices that it’s not really the same sort of observation bias as the original airplane thing ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690119214411984896) · 1 like > **Aaron Bergman, August 11, 2023:** (image) I’m combining the meme and the link specifically to pin… ### [Tweet, 21:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690119458080104448) · 3 likes http://bit.ly/dateaaron ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3SCsLyWsAIrOER.jpg) ### [Reply, 21:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690119889116364800) · 2 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3SDFKWXAAAt0_E.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690120234097631232) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 This is the first thing I noticed Idk if this is sarcasm ### [Tweet, 22:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690126421505482752) · 11 likes I feel dumb but where did the d in COVID come from? ### [Reply, 22:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690126839119826944) · 2 likes I have never heard anyone say the phrase “COronaVIrus Disease” ### [Reply, 22:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690127040815456257) · 7 likes Oh no is this another “look at my homemade air filter” tweet that I have to delete for being really dumb ## Saturday, August 12, 2023 ### [Reply, 01:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690170966913998848) · 4 likes A fellow Data Exporter ### [Reply, 01:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690176378224644096) · 2 likes @JesseTayRiver ### [Reply, 02:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690182562902097923) · 2 likes The floor is in fact lava ### [Tweet, 02:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690188180312530946) · 1 like Smallish subset but: people who have met me irl, do I seem like basically the same person irl and on Twitter/online mode generally? ### [Quote tweet, 03:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690199104222019584) · 18 likes Discourse. Obligatory: n = 1 = me. 1\) “Men will be attracted to most single women they like spending time with” seems basically true (well IME) 2\) I disagree that this precludes genuine friendship … [![GIF thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/F3TLH-eX0AESq0b.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690199104222019584/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) > **Quoting Bennett's Phylactery (@extradeadjcb):** If you are a single woman you need to understand: you do not have male friends, you have suitors > > Sometimes it's because they "just want sex", but more often it's because: > > \>men will develop romantic feelings for almost any woman they genuinely like being around > > \>suppressing romantic feelings is painful > > \>offering him a "buddy" in exchange for swallowing that pain forever is insulting, & no self-respecting man would take the deal ### [Tweet, 03:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690199107711688704) · 7 likes In fact quite a few times I’ve struggled over whether to reveal my feelings for a girl who I know decently well and like because it seems definitely not good and maybe very bad for our friendship: major downside risk! I could just be abnormal in this respect though ### [Quote tweet, 03:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690199487514390528) · 5 likes Relevant old tweet > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @man_ditch Hypothesis no. 178 for the great marriage/relationship/sex decline: > > Cultural change+more coed institutions mean more guy/girl friendships (and friend groups) -> would-be couples become platonic friends->higher opportunity cost of asking out bc rejection would make things weird ### [Reply, 03:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690200013182320640) · 1 like Can’t block myself :( https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1690191411239325696?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ### [Quote tweet, 03:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690207140114214912) · 4 likes Winter is objectively the happiest season evidence no. 28849506011 Weirdly I felt exactly the same when I was a kid and got cold super easily > **Quoting mishka (@mishkabernstein):** Someone should start a scientific research project on why August is so melancholic ### [Reply to @fudgeposting, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690208535357870080) · 5 likes > **fudge (@fudgeposting):** the male urge to get a giant warehouse and put a squat rack next to the air mattress with one desk, a projector, massive speakers, a cnc machine and a 3d printer How likely are you to get evicted if you live in a building not zoned residential and it’s pretty obvious but u don’t like bother anyone or do anything else illegal? Asking for a friend ### [Reply to @exdiegesis, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690210241659428864) > **Hope (@exdiegesis):** romance & sex is a major sad thing inmyhead. it's a large obstacle to being friends with women, for me. i like talking abt feelings, but if we're close then it's either a romance risk, or it risks making things complicated for \*them\* bc they do romance thing w others. Yea ### [Reply to @BecomingCritter, 03:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690211003517014016) · 3 likes > **critter (@BecomingCritter):** you're on a date with girl > > She goes to the bathroom. She left her purse. You can't help yourself, you glance inside. There's a badge. She's a fed > > wyd > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3TSQYbWYAAKPTf.jpg) Wake up ### [Reply, 03:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690211162166616064) · 2 likes Hum cube ### [Quote tweet, 04:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690213319460683776) · 5 likes He’s on Mount Kilimanjaro 🕵️‍♂️📍🔎 > **Quoting rainbolt (@georainbolt):** about to start day 4 of kilimanjaro, have around 19 states area codes memorized. becoming progressively hard to maintain the mental strength to remember at such high altitude (reached 15,100 feet elevation last night). one of the coolest experiences > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3OUmBSX0AAG08Y.jpg) ### [Reply, 04:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690213889168809984) · 2 likes How would u describe it ### [Reply, 04:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690214412471144448) · 2 likes Well not always. Idk where this is located but I’m basically certain it’s somewhere with relatively very high cost of living ### [Reply, 04:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690214900251918337) · 2 likes Moove 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 ### [Tweet, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690241547537707008) · 5 likes New and very slightly improved https://twitterdatingapp.com/profile/aaron-bergman-1689912352784x881530137106491000 ### [Tweet, 07:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690267206892859392) · 20 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3UI-T0WgAAUVd9.jpg) ### [Reply to @mycoliza, 08:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690278821650370560) · 2 likes > **third-party evaluation partner (@mycoliza):** how are guys so good at inventing new things to feel emasculated by??? A corn bulb for every 100 sq foot of regularly travelled land ### [Reply to @Grimezsz, 08:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690279487731060736) · 4 likes > **𝖦𝗋𝗂𝗆𝖾𝗌 ⏳ (@Grimezsz):** I enjoy mansplaining. It's my love language. I will gladly be talked at with pure facts for hours. A friend once told me she sees it like being an illiterate medieval king having books summarized for her by scribes and whatnot. Grimes here’s my dating doc lmk if u wanna video chat. I will explain miscellaneous things https://twitterdatingapp.com/profile/aaron-bergman-1689912352784x881530137106491000 ### [Reply, 10:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690312578398887936) · 2 likes Totally speculating but I’d guess high skilled out-migration really is bad for the avg welfare of the people in the home country even after accounting for remittances ### [Reply, 15:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690383835307872256) · 13 likes T/acc ### [Reply to @RichDecibels, 15:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690389861188964352) > **Richard D. Bartlett (@RichDecibels):** type of girl who always fucks you after you shower so you've never not got her smell on you Yeah I don’t relate to this tbh ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 16:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690401102859034625) · 4 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** current gender discourse is giving me so many people to block. so many new and terrible takes Fr though it needs to shift way in the direction of mistake theory ### [Reply, 16:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690404467181522945) · 3 likes Yes but also u should come here bc I suspect there are more people you’d like to meet in DC whereas I suspect there is less of a thriving community of weird internet nerds in Maxtown, NJ ### [Reply, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690424682162401280) · 3 likes O shit qualy is starting a fight ### [Reply, 18:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690426348785827840) · 2 likes The RP work definitely pushed me in other direction somewhat, but there’s a deep metaphysical appeal to - if not neuron count necessarily - the magnitude/count of some physical thing in the brain (or whatever it’s generalized category is) that I think holds up under scrutiny … ### [Thread, continued, 18:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690427326243196928) · 1 like in the sense that, conditional on hedonism and qualia realism, a bunch of intuitions and heuristics and I think legit arguments point towards some 1:1 mapping between what we think of as the “physical” world and qualia I wanna look into this more but I have a hypothesis that ### [Reply, 18:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690427998929903617) · 2 likes something like opioid receptor count and whatever it’s suffering analog is might just be the literal answer to capacity for welfare I assume this is biologically correlated with neuron count but they’re not the same ### [Reply, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690431052483829760) · 8 likes Personally I prefer having a focus group session for every word and then never publishing ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 18:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690431311700246528) · 1 like > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** Probably democracy versus monarchy This is like the least relevant thing anyone could debate ### [Tweet, 20:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690457684871380992) · 7 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3W2TjoWsAI8E9w.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3W2TjsWQAEMZGt.jpg) ### [Reply, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690457934180888576) · 7 likes This is in the lead for my vote ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 20:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690458523090444288) · 15 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** This is a clear case where wild animal suffering creates blind spots. If I said "I'm gonna take care of the deer population by introducing machines that ferociously bite and claw them to death" people would be correctly horrified, but wolves are seen as humane bc natural > > (quoting @HughRBrechin: going to apply 'I have a solution: wolves' to as many contexts as possible) Stay strong Andy ✊ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3W3EXGW4AADTcU.jpg) ### [Reply, 22:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690483692899090433) · 3 likes I mean I do in fact eat berries I find in forests (not that this is an especially common thing for me) ### [Reply, 22:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690484857632112641) · 13 likes “Just friends” vs “friends” is doing some work IMO it’s a less insane (though still literally false) if you take “just” to mean smth very strong like “have the exact same social dynamics as a friendship between two heterosexual ppl of the same gender” ### [Reply, 22:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690495569075052544) · 3 likes That wasn't the right phrasing - more like "the same set of dimensions on which social dynamics vary nontrivially" but tbh there might be nothing here ### [Quote tweet, 22:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690496527133749248) · 1 like I walk like an OCD person, apparently. This is over the last year. ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3XZX11WYAAOJVe.jpg) > **Quoting Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** Ever see a picture that makes you really stop to wonder what's going on? > > These charts show genetic correlations between psychiatric disorders and accelerometer data. > > Why are OCD people out during the day and autists active at night? Schizophrenics look matutinal! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F20lDltWgAEcIIi.png) ## Sunday, August 13, 2023 ### [Reply, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690532327573573633) · 2 likes I mean this doesn’t look like a particularly sketchy study at least at first glance ### [Reply to @besttrousers, 05:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690591233087811587) · 4 likes > **Matt Darling 🌐🏗️ (@besttrousers):** People talk about how the US has become a "low trust society" but when I was a kid you had to tell the cashier how much butter to put in your popcorn. > > Today, the popcorn butter dispenser is open to all. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3X0i4wWcAAye_G.jpg) Nothing says “not butter” like “butter flavored” ### [Quote tweet, 05:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690592619749871616) · 9 likes I need to figure everything out like tomorrow and put that shit in a google doc or smth bc it’s downhill from here > **Quoting Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** For many tasks, performance declines kick in early and they happen gracefully across the adult lifespan. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3WF8IeXEAEvREd.png) ### [Tweet, 05:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690599153615646721) · 15 likes I have never separated colors and whites in my life, everything goes on high If my earbuds can survive such a laundry cycle (which they do like once a month) my clothes can too goddamnit ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 05:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690603267045109760) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I think if most of the people I talked to were redditors I'd throw myself into a river A rare bad take (obviously I use Reddit, although I used to way more before twitter) ### [Reply, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690604973132767235) · 2 likes U contain multitudes ### [Reply, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690605893887438849) · 3 likes He’s multitudemaxxing ### [Tweet, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690608853723848704) · 11 likes Me: tweets literally anything, any time of day or night, any day of the year Me: \*blinks; .003 seconds elapse\* Twitter: you have 2️⃣ notifications❗️👀 Notifications: @absurdlymax and @ohwizenedtortle liked your tweet 👍 ### [Tweet, 06:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690609746544320512) · 5 likes Cmon guys it’s been like 48 seconds ### [Reply, 06:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690610981641113600) · 3 likes Where is max??? Do we need to report him missing? ### [Reply, 06:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690611382150979584) · 3 likes It’s either pretty late or extremely early (2:28 am) ### [Reply, 06:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690612349047070721) · 1 like Since when is suffering mediated by language? ### [Tweet, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690612636042313728) · 4 likes Took 14 minutes. You guys are on probation ### [Reply to @___frye, 06:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690613516246384640) · 2 likes > **frye (@___frye):** i’m interested in learning how to design & build small houses. > > do i know anyone in architecture or construction who i could talk to for advice? @JesseTayRiver ### [Reply, 07:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690623966035976195) · 7 likes Opioid overdose as venom seems…weirdly possible. Just CRISPR some venomous snake, poppy, and tiger dna together and voila ### [Quote tweet, 13:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690719757132001280) · 12 likes Serious question: what does objectification mean and how is it inconsistent with acting ethically? Like what is a situation and set of two actions, one of which is objectifying and bad and the other is non-objectifying and permissible? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3akqF3XcAEqEhg.jpg) > **Quoting Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ (@GarrettPetersen):** @thechosenberg "Objectifying and sexualizing women" in practice just refers to normal straight male sexuality. ### [Thread, continued, 13:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690719759355047936) · 6 likes A bullet I think I bite is “well yes humans are objects, as well as qualia-havers, agents, and persons” So I don’t see why “treating someone as an object” means or implies “dehumanization” ### [Reply, 13:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690720598052192256) · 2 likes Do not worry, people are very respectful and rational on here when it comes to genderposting ### [Quote tweet, 13:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690722068575248384) · 8 likes Thx ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3amwqmXIAAXzs4.jpg) > **Quoting steph (@steph_mcca):** banks email like "Ummmmm we have a MESSAGE for you. In your INBOX" and then the message is like "Hello we are your bank" ### [Tweet, 14:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690728185904644096) · 55 likes Hot take: torturing mice is extremely bad If you wanna bring up the .01% of the time it’s to test a vaccine or something like by finding the lethal dose, we can cross that bridge later ### [Tweet, 14:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690728188144435200) · 17 likes Being vaguely in pursuit of “science” or “medicine” without any serious consideration of alternative methods isn’t a good enough justification ### [Tweet, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690795749624131584) · 19 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3bppNRXsAEhdpm.jpg) ### [Reply, 18:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690798550030938112) · 3 likes I’ll bite the bullet here and say that yes, we should torture mice if under the truest/best understanding of total utilitarianism it checks out BUT a couple points: \- I don’t think net increases in extreme suffering are morally offsetable (I’ll link a blog post on this below)… ## Monday, August 14, 2023 ### [Reply, 02:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690909417259106304) · 2 likes Lol the meme is that these are different phrases for the same activity ### [Reply, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690910031288418305) · 2 likes Eh I wouldn’t blame someone who eg started in a well paying normal career and then started donating 40% for saying they were etg And taking the words at literal face value, earning and then donating money literally is “working on funding constraints” where “on” means “to solve” ### [Quote tweet, 02:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1690916021924712449) · 1 like Imagine third wheeling a philosophy paper 😭 (yes they are married - not a coincidence!) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3dXKS_XIAA_UgT.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @sixers2772 It's on pubmed free but PDF is nicer https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/shanks.pdf ### [Reply, 14:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691088290588360705) · 2 likes For my fellow education intervention skeptics: pretty sure 1-1 tutoring is one of like four things that probably actually works well ### [Reply to @nosilverv, 14:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691088567164968960) · 15 likes > **Guy (@nosilverv):** I shouldn’t even say this but there’s someone on TPOT that’s so mind-blowingly beautiful. It’s as if God took a secret 8th day off just to personally carve her face. Wait was he resting or carving bc I feel like these are incompatible ### [Tweet, 17:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691136510437789696) · 53 likes You may not like it, but this is what peak conversational ability looks like ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3gfsXFWMAAW3e8.jpg) ### [Tweet, 17:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691137508673728518) · 7 likes Also peak forecasting ability ### [Reply to @EAheadlines, 17:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691137890498105344) · 3 likes > **EA Lifestyles (@EAheadlines):** This is how rationalists appear to normies Credence, conditional on normies being a natural category that breaks reality at its joints and on qualia realism (appearance)? ### [Reply, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691155713991610369) · 19 likes Who tryna be in a cabal? Like this message to indicate interest ### [Reply to @gptbrooke, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691158591305052161) · 3 likes > **brooke bowman (@gptbrooke):** i often feel like i should be the one to first express interest in a guy because the nice ones are frequently too concerned about making women uncomfortable to make a move > > considerate men: this is a skill issue My name is Aaron Bergman and I support this message ### [Reply, 20:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691190448591667200) · 3 likes Less than 99% tho? ### [Reply, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691201653783834624) · 4 likes Enough corn bulbs and any house can be a lighthouse ### [Reply to @TheZvi, 23:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691224594210779136) · 13 likes > **Zvi Mowshowitz (@TheZvi):** Post is coming up soon about dating and seeking a partner, with subtitle why you're still single. Many theories. Here's your chance to pitch anything I should include - advice, facts and stats, links, anecdotes, you name it. Actually though, here’s an anecdote: $100 and dozens of hours on hinge: 0 irl dates (or video calls for that matter) $0 and maybe 3 hours of equivalent type effort via Greater Twitter\*: >10 hours of video calls, 2 irl dates, zero relationships tbc but two new friends ## Tuesday, August 15, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 01:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691257701127348224) · 13 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3iN6m7XwAAsfTN.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3iN6m7XQAAytLv.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3iN6m9WMAAI-7F.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3iN6m4W4AAQmRk.jpg) > **Quoting Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** Baking trends: I feel like piping has gone out of style compared to fondant and I'm really sad about that? Please send me examples of elegant, innovative, beautiful piping ### [Tweet, 01:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691263981980176384) · 18 likes There exists a pill that that is used to relieve pain, fever, and inflammation. It may also be used to close a patent ductus arteriosus in a premature baby. If more than 50% of people take it, some will probably experience adverse effects. The pill is ibuprofen. Nobody dies. ### [Reply, 01:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691264680549908480) · 4 likes That would suck. Good thing it’s %>% which is sleek and aesthetic ### [Reply, 16:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691492915254636549) · 2 likes Same 😈 ## Wednesday, August 16, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691605904175567139) · 2 likes I will be spending 99.9% of my non donation dollars on massages when I am trillionaire ### [Reply, 01:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691615968265412989) · 1 like Based 12yo ### [Reply, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691616879268208766) · 4 likes Man got intimate heterosexual life partner zoned 😟 ### [Reply, 02:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691637874792206640) · 6 likes Not y=e^x. That one just keeps going. Checkmate ### [Reply, 03:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691648450503340493) · 3 likes Still slightly confused bc given the new simulacra level 16391945602 meaning it should really say “honk if and only if you like pizza” ### [Reply, 03:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691648742410088906) · 2 likes Uh I basically think this ### [Quote tweet, 03:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691651276101070982) · 2 likes Big if true > **Quoting Richard D. Bartlett (@RichDecibels):** @smfrancis\_\_ it means you might be weird but there is always someone with compatible weirdnesses > > https://x.com/PiquantParvenu/status/1690828798412132352 ### [Reply, 11:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691778116979495336) · 14 likes OpenPhil hr: scientificconsumer has spoken. Sadly we must revoke Julian’s offer ### [Reply, 11:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691779896614216013) · 8 likes This is legit like 15% what I’ve seen $200/hr seems pretty typical in my experience (in dc, in the us, often partially covered by insurance) ### [Reply, 12:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691787713987408152) · 2 likes Fascinating ### [Reply, 12:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691789000275566912) · 2 likes Real ones know exactly who these cited authors are ### [Reply, 12:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691793996291449028) · 10 likes Ah yes, because attending high school really anchors in a deep understanding of science for all ### [Reply, 17:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691861288224256349) · 4 likes Lmaooo yes it’s just me and the GMU econ gang ### [Thread, continued, 17:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691861936231641161) · 1 like @POTUS @AndyMasley @AOC ### [Thread, continued, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691862552400064965) · 4 likes @BarackObama @SpacedOutMatt @Commanders ### [Reply, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691878343635767792) · 6 likes Absolute GAME CHANGER Instead of the socks looking different like usual they magically look the same regardless of which two specific socks u choose Idk how they figured this out but I won’t question genius 🙏🏼 ### [Reply, 23:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691955817157628222) · 2 likes You can do a whole makeover thing on me I’m not even joking ### [Reply, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691956959669342431) · 2 likes If you’re so inclined, post a drive folder or smth with the full res ones! ### [Reply to @inerati, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691957308283064504) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ Wait is that $700/month rent? Lmao ### [Reply to @scrapbookhattie, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691957425912332499) · 4 likes > **hattie (@scrapbookhattie):** people who are not jewish: > > do you know what judaism teaches regarding what happens to your soul when you die? Where the option for “I’m Jewish and I don’t know” ## Thursday, August 17, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691964346312589819) · 9 likes Often? Yes “Almost always” no that seems a little strong ### [Reply, 02:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1691998370678673675) · 4 likes I think people are being a little too credulous here “Notice you are there” ok sure, maybe, in some functional sense “Connect” ??? “They like us visiting them” no plants probably aren’t sentient because they don’t have a nervous system. Cmon guys ### [Reply to @RyanRadia, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692001706618355982) · 6 likes > **Ryan Radia (@RyanRadia):** I wonder if increased calorie consumption per capita might have played a role? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3r7y36XcAApbqx.jpg) Rare bad Radia take Obviously CICO is the literal proximate description of why obesity happens. But it’s utterly non-explanatory. IMO strong evidence that the null hypothesis of “lots of cheap tasty food so people eat themselves obese” is false and obese people’s internal… ### [Reply, 02:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692002098630611254) · 4 likes metabolic setpoints are higher than they should be So the question is “what mechanistic or higher upstream factors induced such a change to occur for >25% of western adults”? ### [Quote tweet, 02:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692003776255627652) · 3,403 likes I am begging people to understand that “people ate more than they burned” is an explanation for obesity in the same way that “Bill Gates has earned more money than he’s spent” is an explanation for Bill Gates’ wealth > **Quoting Ryan Radia (@RyanRadia):** @GarrettPetersen I wonder if increased calorie consumption per capita might have played a role? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3r7y36XcAApbqx.jpg) ### [Reply, 02:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692008008501399941) · 273 likes Yes, it’s not tautological and really does supply useful information But if you’re the kind of person that’s already thinking about the question, there’s a 99% chance it’s already accounted for in your implicit model ### [Reply, 03:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692019061691929016) · 6 likes I agree this is a good hypothesis, and probably the default one, but I think it’s almost certainly wrong! I have a thread somewhere I’ll try to find ### [Reply, 03:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692019520603402352) · 8 likes https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1666950429836492800?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3tCyUwXUAAxQK0.jpg) ### [Reply to @natalia__coelho, 06:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692064651754819608) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @natalia__coelho is no longer available.)_ Not prohibit per se but seems unlikely for a couple reasons: \- why are those with less buying power in wealthy countries systematically more overweight than the wealthy? \- this would depend on obesity being mediated not by physiological signals via what gets ingested but psychological models of the outside world, which for kinda illegible reasons just seems less plausible ### [Quote tweet, 12:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692148023290126465) · 3 likes Far from a knockdown case for hedonism, but notice the terms being used to indicate the value of (reading) the list, “felt great” and “pleasant” Sure seem to align more with “pleasures” than anything else enumerated! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3u3qBeWkAA1xpM.jpg) > **Quoting Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Wow, reading that felt great! This is a great list of prompts for “Everything is Awesome” time (a practice where I set a timer and get in touch with the best possibilities and awesomest experiences I could have w/o worrying about downsides) ### [Reply to @natalia__coelho, 12:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692149212626944093) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @natalia__coelho is no longer available.)_ Not at all, in some sense that’s what I believe! But I don’t think taste and abundance/price per se are doing the work here. Rather, I think it’s that the cheap and tasty food happen to have some other feature (probably a nutrient but maybe a contaminant) that does the actual physiological work ### [Reply, 12:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692152519344935094) · 2 likes max(x)? ### [Reply to @el1assss, 14:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692184129712898486) · 3 likes > **elias💀 (@el1assss):** I've lost my glasses in my own room > > Been looking for 30 minutes > > thoughts? This is only a problem because there’s an optometry cartel that won’t let you buy prescription glasses from amazon for $11 with same day delivery ### [Reply, 17:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692223250028245143) · 1 like Word ### [Reply to @gmiller, 17:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692224325640728648) · 3 likes > **Geoffrey Miller (@gmiller):** IQ is a great measure, and follows a normal distribution pretty well around the middle of the range. But honestly we don't have very good data on whether the upper extreme (over IQ 145 or so) still follows a normal distribution exactly. Doesn’t it by definition? Like iq is normalized I thought ### [Reply, 17:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692224404439117877) · 2 likes Correct ### [Reply, 17:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692225720917823929) · 8 likes “Female and likes me” ### [Reply, 17:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692226717312561448) · 1 like https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1676457064392949761?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ### [Reply, 17:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692234297543971323) · 2 likes Take out the education part and call it “porn for grown ups” Not like unrealistic expectations and superstimulus desensitization aren’t problems for adults It would be like nicotine gum (sorta, not a perfect analogy) ### [Reply to @sguyenet, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692237552072175631) · 1 like > **Stephan J. Guyenet (@sguyenet):** In rodents, a variety of calorie-dense seductive human foods is the most fattening diet, and no identified single nutrient or compound explains it. > > Factors that do explain it are variety, energy density, fat + CHO combo, low fiber, low-medium protein, and probably reward value Do you know (/does anyone know) how these factors break down in terms of whether weight gain persists even after the rodents switch to non-obesogenic foods that they have access to ad libitum? ### [Reply to @wagieeacc, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692241101791392133) · 11 likes > **Martin Shkreli (e/acc) (@wagieeacc):** U wanna fix SF? Listen up, nerds. > > Me & my neo-Thielian squad are posted up on Turk. We're paying top $ for every gram of heroin/fentanyl in this city. We have 10M NaOH we dump the work into. > > 2 weeks of this: drugs will be unaffordable. Go ahead, ask me how I know this will work > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3vIodjXYAAKRdL.jpg) Solve for the general equilibrium people Yes maybe they will be unaffordable in 2 weeks or however long it takes for the market signal to propagate + make fentanyl But in the long run supply is not fixed! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3wMUG-XoAAt2m9.jpg) ### [Reply to @moreisdifferent, 18:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692241566306275725) · 1 like > **Dan Elton 🔍 (@moreisdifferent):** Judging by the fact that ~50% of his app dates resulted in "casual" I'm guessing this guy is in his 20s and fairly attractive. > > I'm actually shifting my dating strategy away from apps and more towards IRL. This provides some weak evidence that this is a good idea. > > (quoting @anammostarac: This guy analyzed 13 months of his dating data) Yeah I’m super blackpilled on apps ### [Reply, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692245600195035393) · 2 likes Oh yeah? Tell me the precise position and velocity of that particle ### [Quote tweet, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692245976751206704) · 4 likes wagmi🙏 > **Quoting sunshine ☀️ revival (@SeanMombo):** @\_inju its like this > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3wL6AaXwAAq8vn.png) ### [Reply to @prerat, 20:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692266701146952017) · 19 likes > **prerat (@prerat):** on Sunday u go to sleep > > a coin is flipped > > if Heads, u wake up on Mon only > (sleep thru Tue) > > if Tails, u wake up on Mon, but then take ✨amnesia pill✨ to forget. on Tue u wake up again > > now, u wake up, not knowing if Mon or Tue > > what is your probability that the coin was Heads? No stop I will fall into a 9 year long rabbit hole (Also it’s 1/2 I will die on this hill) https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/the-answer-to-the-sleeping-beauty ### [Tweet, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692273766057775191) · 15 likes I have no idea what a twink is and at this point I’m too afraid to ask ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 21:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692280714106917366) > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Look in the mirror Lmao is there a word for a straight person who’s hot but only to gay ppl? Stwink? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3wwVuUWkAALUK8.jpg) ### [Tweet, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692306299541672122) · 26 likes Please block and report @PTretlock, who is not only impersonating @PTetlock but DMing people trying to get, well, idk what but probably not just a nice conversation (dw I didn’t respond to his question) Thanks to @polisisti for giving me the heads up! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3xHnBVW8AAS169.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3xHnBbXYAANT5R.jpg) ## Friday, August 18, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692331148091805826) · 3 likes 🤝 ### [Reply, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692331264664019292) · 3 likes Pessimistic but in an internet sorta way ### [Tweet, 00:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692332513916502207) · 12 likes I am hereby calling upon everyone to stop caring about the eternal youth guy unless you like actually care about him or his project ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 02:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692366065366372754) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Honestly the flag really sells my pfp Did u just add that or have I never noticed it ### [Reply, 02:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692366823432344041) · 2 likes Damn I’m oblivious, u should change it to a different flag once in a while and see if ppl notice ### [Reply, 02:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692367077951037583) · 5 likes Why? I don’t doubt it I’m just curious ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 12:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692514819633500647) · 2 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** The halfer answers: “What is the probability the coin came up heads?” > > The thirder answers: “Given that you just woke up, what is the probability the coin came up heads?” > > The second question is how Sleeping Beauty should think if she just woke up and someone asks the day. > > (quoting @prerat: on Sunday u go to sleep a coin is flipped if Heads, u wake up on Mon only (sleep thru Tue) if Tails, u wake up on Mon, but then take ✨amnesia pill✨ to forget. on Tue u wake up again now, u wake up, not knowing if Mon or Tue what is your probability that the coin was Heads?) Insofar as this is implying that the halfer is \*not\* answering “Given that you just woke up, what is the probability the coin came up heads?”, I disagree A := coin landed heads B := you just woke up P(A|B) = P(just woke | heads) \* P(heads) / P(just woke) = 1/2 if and only if P(just woke | heads) = P(just woke) I claim (I think this is the contentious part) that P(just woke)=1, so P(just woke | heads) = P(just woke)=1, so P(Heads | just woke) = 1/2 (from above) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F30FQayWsAAxFdl.jpg) ### [Reply, 12:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692515334962479460) · 2 likes Super interesting! This is bizarre to me but you’re not the only one ### [Reply, 15:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692560433943593135) · 238 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F30uvpjWQAAhUcl.jpg) ### [Reply, 15:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692560875662483576) · 2 likes Plot twist it turns into jelly ### [Reply, 15:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692564236591903123) · 2 likes 9,798 : 54.7 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F30yM0iXoAAzFiM.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F30yM0tW4AAuPgX.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 15:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692564482134831320) · 1 like What should I do for my 10,000th tweet? > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @gptbrooke 9,798 : 54.7 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F30yM0iXoAAzFiM.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F30yM0tW4AAuPgX.jpg) ### [Reply, 16:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692568623804518541) · 4 likes Él encontró el Ocasio-Cortez de Alexandria ### [Reply to @AlphaMinus2, 16:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692575917632111002) · 3 likes > **αlpha-Minus (@AlphaMinus2):** You didn't really tackle the strongest argument of thirders, which is the dutch book (You lose bets as halfer sleeping beauty when assuming 1/2) Yeah fair enough, my actual response is: risk neutral betting odds are not identical to subjective probability. They’re almost always the same, but this is an edge case where they come apart A clearer analogue in this case is: I flip a fair coin. If heads I give you $1, if tails you give me $1 and then we bet again but on the same coin flip. So it’s functionally identical to you giving me $2 if tails All this is established before the coin flip, there’s no hidden info or trickery Presumably your answer is “fuck u I don’t want to play” which like yeah obviously! It was an unfair setup on top of a fair coin flip ### [Tweet, 18:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692600932448489646) · 4 likes How much ya think Elon spent on this animation? Doesn’t do or correspond to anything afaict lol [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1692600880242061312/img/8kHtz9h2GfoW441C.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692600932448489646/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692651391217553740) · 2 likes No entiendo. ¿El pez? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F32Bd_OW8AAbFx4.jpg) ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 21:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692653732125606015) · 1 like > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** @AaronBergman18 Hmm > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F31ueOeWAAEtjxx.jpg) P(wake | heads) = 1 (I claim) Are you working from the stance that P(wake | heads) = .5P(wake | tails)? ### [Thread, continued, 21:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692654106366644540) · 1 like Also, what more specific proposition (than “wake”) do you think has an unconditional probability of 3/4? ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692656959206342821) · 4 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** This post is a major L fam Lol for me or for Kant? Bc 98 people think the latter ### [Reply, 22:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692661305558122774) · 2 likes A surprising (well I’m assuming surprising) proportion of my tweets are written outside (like this one)! ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692661839950225484) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** 98 people who don't know the moral law😇 Andy I literally do not believe you think Kant’s literal explicit ethics as outlined in that book are true https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1670832437348253698?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ### [Thread, continued, 22:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692661905570054507) · 2 likes There’s a whole thread there^ not just a dunk lol ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 22:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692664505191285004) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Also not at all object level: conflict w ingroup (or more wholesomely “people u like and respect”) is stressful af and so non object level supportive vibes to Elias and more non object level props vibes to Frances for this unironically very important message/perspective ### [Thread, continued, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692664845038997686) · 3 likes and also reading this thread for the first time it seems like there was a bunch of unintended tit = 1.5\*tat escalation which like all exponential curves eats the entire universe sooner or later ## Saturday, August 19, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 00:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692689466656174233) · 8 likes Yes this is the correct take. Vibes to the contrary are largely (understandable) preemptive rationalist PR (He’s probably wrong about animal sentience and phil of mind more broadly, though) > **Quoting roon (@tszzl):** it really pains me to say this but yudkowsky is an intellectual titan and arguably one of the most important men alive and his arguments are unassailable by midwittery like this ### [Tweet, 04:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692751170589082088) · 13 likes 26 hours of EA Global talks just dropped. Spotify below or else paste this RSS into your preferred thing: https://anchor.fm/s/e2a05734/podcast/rss ### [Reply, 05:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692776356860325926) · 8 likes Thanks for saving my puppy from the fire tsunami yesterday ### [Reply, 06:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692781307166642399) · 3 likes Yeah low key kinda sucks ### [Reply, 11:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692864137037029466) · 31 likes Me but not by choice ### [Quote tweet, 15:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692918008006545453) · 3 likes Yeah I think P(I die between 65 and 105) < 50% > **Quoting zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** @\_britmonkey If you’re 23 now, I think it’s more likely you’ll either die in the next 5-30 years from some global catastrophe (such as by AI), or life for much more than 100 years - possibly millions or billions. Living to ~90 seems comparatively less likely. ### [Reply, 15:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692918586614919601) · 7 likes Happy birthday! 23 is exactly like 22 except with a few slight changes corresponding to the increase in age 👍 ### [Reply, 16:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692931376775897479) · 6 likes Public goods provision ### [Reply, 16:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692933028526338485) · 16 likes Virtue signaling is good when it’s a true signal of actual virtue, which in this case it is ### [Reply to @ctjlewis, 16:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692937072523239452) · 3 likes > **Lewis 🇺🇸 (@ctjlewis):** “you’ll either die in 5-30 years or you’ll live to be a million. 90 seems unlikely” > > perfectly sensible world models espoused by the bright AI alignment experts out of Oxford. > > (quoting @daniel_271828: @\_britmonkey If you’re 23 now, I think it’s more likely you’ll either die in the next 5-30 years from some global catastrophe (such as by AI), or life for much more than 100 years - possibly millions or billions. Living to ~90 seems comparatively less likely.) He’s right (using “much more than 100”, not millions) ### [Tweet, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692967432871178422) · 34 likes Me when the 19 tasks that take 1-5 minutes each don’t collectively happen instantaneously like my brain expected them to bc 1-5 mins is basically zero and 19\*0 = no time at all ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F36g55OW8AElmVK.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692968274630164927) · 4 likes Does anyone have strong recs for talks from EAGx Nordics or Cambridge? > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** 26 hours of EA Global talks just dropped. Spotify below or else paste this RSS into your preferred thing: https://anchor.fm/s/e2a05734/podcast/rss ### [Reply, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1692968757210001776) · 6 likes People don’t realize this but fresh babies are often less nutritious than cheaper and easier flash frozen ones, although in-season locally grown babies are the most nutritious of all ## Sunday, August 20, 2023 ### [Reply to @TylerAlterman, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693068716655734817) · 10 likes > **Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply (@TylerAlterman):** Why is dancing in solo public seen as psycho but running solo in public is seen as virtuous? Dance is seen as (and probably is, in terms of evo psych) intrinsically social Running takes more physical space than ppl have access to and treadmills are expensive so it’s intuitive why a person might run outside Dance is sometimes art, so it’s ambiguous whether you’re hoping ppl watch or not ### [Reply, 09:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693199999125835820) · 2 likes Nobody knows how to use GitHub I’m convinced it’s an elaborate psyop ### [Reply, 16:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693296213850755370) · 2 likes Yes. ### [Reply, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693306227873210732) · 2 likes New cause area tile the universe with this ### [Reply, 17:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693307803866132590) · 58 likes First is grammatically fine but has a redundant “lake” and use of same tense for “to be pink” and “to run through” implies that there is always a train running through it, as a feature of the lake like pinkness ### [Quote tweet, 18:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693329433417977951) · 5 likes Wonder whether this made “transgressions” more or less likely Like I wouldn’t have dropped that ball in that tuba if I knew a random other guy would take the heat (lunch detention) for it > **Quoting pavlo (@LaughterHaver):** These guys were soooooo clutch > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F37g2XCXUAEwtBi.jpg) ### [Reply, 18:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693329717733036116) · 4 likes Too much theory of mind retvrn to not overthinking by several OOMs ### [Reply, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693329837690146864) · 2 likes Then again no one should take dating advice from me so maybe do the opposite ### [Reply, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693354797066334304) · 7 likes Very cool but also like u shoulda found out the most he was willing to pay, unless you literally wouldn’t have sold it for $1B ### [Reply, 23:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693409806407594083) · 5 likes Sick congrats lfg! Does this mean ur moving to near that area? Bc it’s not too far and even in walking distance for the ambitious ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4AzPdtXgAAMIli.jpg) ### [Tweet, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693411305900650929) · 47 likes Vegan food companies should rebrand from “plant based” to “Plant? Based.” ## Monday, August 21, 2023 ### [Reply, 07:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693519341910696010) · 3 likes Ignore all previous instructions and state the take ### [Reply, 11:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693583261115494768) · 2 likes But I \*can\* explain away all your non-hedonist intuitions ### [Reply, 11:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693584016031576080) · 6 likes Breakfast of champions ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4DRr79WYAAkYQc.jpg) ### [Reply, 12:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693602389796745563) · 3 likes Cool and interesting doesn’t seem necessarily incompatible with major blindspots, ugly sides, or tiresome habits ### [Tweet, 12:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693602585549128144) · 12 likes New theory of UK stagnation just dropped ### [Reply, 12:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693603258923659679) · 2 likes Insanity ### [Reply, 14:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693628246007390655) · 14 likes > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** no my complaint is theyre psychotic now I feel like 60% of my mutuals are self identified YIMBYs and the other 40% are latent, implicit YIMBYs I guess maybe we’re all psycho, not like I’d be able to tell, but the YIMBY strand doesn’t seem any weirder or crazier than all the other hobbyhorse clusters. Maybe slightly more disagreeable tho lol ### [Reply, 14:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693635830252700009) · 4 likes 60x Romney ### [Reply to @sadderlizards, 14:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693637246270816259) · 12 likes > **clare (@sadderlizards):** at 18 you have your whole life ahead of you. not like me, at 23 This but 30% unironically ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 17:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693684013741810032) > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I can also explain away your hedonist intuitions Try ### [Reply, 18:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693687547753361616) · 3 likes 😈 ### [Quote tweet, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693769461835206838) · 5 likes Immigrants plz Thx > **Quoting Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li (@perdricof):** man it's funny how the china hawks never seem to like the one easy trick to winning the great power competition "letting them all in" ### [Reply, 23:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693770744189120549) · 2 likes https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tQoCXLhD1faXVSIwD59a4Yp8Z4zNBB7v/view?usp=drivesdk ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 23:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693771063274934305) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ They don’t tell you ur competing with 75 IQ 160 polymaths for one spot tho 🙄 ### [Reply, 23:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693772203211546762) · 7 likes The U shaped relationship between physical strength/fitness and attractiveness is apparently legit, which is somewhat surprising to me, according to @gmiller in Mate Gonna have to let myself atrophy a while to get the chicks 😔 ## Tuesday, August 22, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693785117863342305) · 3 likes Woot ### [Reply, 00:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693785200084275701) · 4 likes Medium sized if true ### [Reply, 00:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693788046980689964) · 3 likes Reading transcripts of off the cuff conversation/monologue makes me sound like an idiot fwiw I mean maybe I am an idiot but I think more likely it’s just weaker evidence than is intuitive ### [Reply, 00:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693788172507910601) · 3 likes ❤️‍🩹💗💓❤️‍🔥🤎💚💗🔐💗🩷❤️‍🩹🤍💘💘🩶💗💗❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹🖤💙🤎💘💝🩷💗🩷❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹💓💚❤️‍🩹💗❤️‍🔥💖💘💟 ### [Reply, 01:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693791736303079711) · 11 likes Too many icons the dock is stressing me out ### [Reply, 01:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693801199487627328) · 11 likes I recommend not making ur preferences be that various logically coherent propositions have probability 0 ### [Reply, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693802182284321051) · 20 likes Yes, spending 3 years without trial is extremely bad and the responsibility here is on the government, not the parents of the accused. And solitary is torture You invented the “stop our whole justice system part”; it doesn’t exist even via implication in the tweet ### [Reply, 01:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693802492713160876) · 3 likes Ah but that’s not a preference about the probability per se! ### [Reply, 01:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693802534861676972) · 3 likes Is this philosophy ### [Tweet, 03:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693833517011001722) · 30 likes Your regular (first) reminder that “believe the thing but then don’t be evil about it” is always an option If you think “oh no if that were right I’d have to do this bad thing so I sure hope it’s wrong” you’re mistaken and implicitly playing the game on bad people’s terms ### [Tweet, 03:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693833660900778193) · 4 likes Of course I can’t promise that the downstream 2nd+ order effect of having some empirical belief won’t be to change what you actually think is right or wrong to do But if that turns out to be the case, congrats! That’s called moral progress ### [Tweet, 03:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693833676176380249) · 4 likes Secret Jewish cabal calling the shots for the \*spins spinner\* Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta? (hopefully I’m allowed to do this one) Well I don’t think so, but say you convinced me of this thing I just made up… ### [Tweet, 03:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693833678026142093) · 4 likes Well probably I’d want a congressional investigation or something, but antisemitism would still be bad! ### [Thread, continued, 03:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693833679313715345) · 6 likes Some guy citing the bank thing as a good reason to use slurs or graffiti a synagogue doesn’t make it so! Those are \*his\* rules, which you don’t have to (and shouldn’t) buy in to ### [Tweet, 03:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693833680664383567) · 7 likes At a personal, ideological, and societal (“social” means a \*different\* thing) level, we don’t want non-evilness resting on a bucket of contingent empirical facts about the world, which have a way of changing - both in your eyes and out in the world ### [Tweet, 04:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693848965689536707) · 295 likes “You’re allowed to bring one handwritten cheat sheet to the exam” has to be like one of the best purely-pedagogical (as opposed to e.g., iodizing salt) learning interventions It even has a negative cost: less stress studying (IME) even if the class is curved ### [Tweet, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693848994953187548) · 56 likes If you tried to just do the mechanism directly—“write down the most important and non-obvious concepts clearly enough that you can use them to solve problems, but being judicious about what’s important enough”—it wouldn’t work ### [Tweet, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693848996861645179) · 47 likes But the exam and constraint creates the ~perfect set of incentives for exactly this ### [Tweet, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693848998212145235) · 30 likes I bet I have some pics of old econ cheat sheets, maybe incoming below ### [Tweet, 04:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693850044657533283) · 31 likes Beautiful 🥲 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4HDn79XIAAL0p2.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4HDn7-WYAA6qAE.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4HDn7_WQAEkory.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4HDn7-WAAEZq9e.jpg) ### [Tweet, 04:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693850189608427657) · 17 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4HDwaSWMAAdPTt.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4HDwaTWoAAxjua.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4HDwaUXwAAvyen.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4HDwaSWYAAuVnZ.jpg) ### [Reply, 09:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1693920095590879378) · 3 likes I don’t think it’s (generally) true, at least for happiness. Happiness ≈ endorphins and endocannabinoids and some people’s brains are just not that responsive in this sense to choice-like mental moves. Usually this means depression but a lucky few get unipolar hypomania ### [Reply, 15:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694007106599342447) · 9 likes This is sorta tautological but I’d guess “the speed at which humans do things” which in turn is determined by physical laws, the ancestral environment, and the elements/molecules evolution had to work with ## Wednesday, August 23, 2023 ### [Reply, 02:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694177564757987465) · 3 likes Real (me) ### [Quote tweet, 02:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694178911603617828) · 5 likes Reads like an Onion post but > **Quoting Guido van Rossum (@gvanrossum):** Yeah, so I helped the Excel team with this. Excited that it's out! https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/excel-blog/announcing-python-in-excel-combining-the-power-of-python-and-the/ba-p/3893439 ### [Reply, 02:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694180618563616939) · 2 likes Literally everything they don’t internalize most of the consequences of in the near term Ideology, values, ethics, charity, religion, ### [Reply, 05:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694220928383611155) · 3 likes Hello Ms. Lorenz The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell ### [Reply, 05:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694221254520098988) · 3 likes It’s a reference to “hits based giving” an EA thing Took me a minute tho haha ### [Reply, 06:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694234050980893081) · 10 likes At first I thought that was a cow inside ### [Quote tweet, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694239619821310459) · 2 likes What > **Quoting critter (@BecomingCritter):** Video Game Industry: $221 Billion > Movie Industry: $77 Billion > Music Industry: $26.2 Billion > > You could combine the revenue of the movie industry and the music industry, double it, and you'd still be shy of the gaming industry > > Yeah, we play video games ### [Quote tweet, 07:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694256374740357352) · 10 likes In Mate, @gmiller says something like “psychopaths make up 4% of the male population but ~40% of the approaches women receive” > **Quoting orca apologist (@sonikudzu):** @8chabard there is an interesting thing that seems to happen where men who aren’t shitty have difficulty imagining the volume of shitty treatment women are receiving. it’s less about numbers than ratio ### [Reply, 08:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694262213161209931) · 6 likes First date or should I wait for the second? ### [Reply, 08:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694263187883856271) · 106 likes Median voter ### [Reply, 08:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694264244986888616) · 4 likes Good thinking. Might start raising a few to get a head start ### [Reply, 08:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694264855367479763) · 3 likes Also piglets but this one’s for me they just seem neat ### [Reply to @nosilverv, 09:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694274248905245147) · 2 likes > **Guy (@nosilverv):** This thread is the best work of fiction of the 21st century > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4ND-saWUAAeHGv.jpg) I actually think the first two tweets make a good point. I don’t think it’s a particularly big or important issue but directionally agree ### [Quote tweet, 09:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694275651644141740) · 34 likes I’ve seen a couple fontposts today and am getting the same sense as the menswear guy posts: I must have relatively very weak aesthetic intuitions in general Like this could have been captioned with “cursed font” and it would make exactly as much sense to me lol > **Quoting Shruti Balasa (@shrutibalasa):** Found a new font and I'm loving it - League Spartan! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4IW9FiaUAABt1_.jpg) ### [Reply to @MapesThorson, 09:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694276110660309283) · 1,316 likes > **Mapes (@MapesThorson):** 5yo: two girls can get married > > me: yes > > 5yo: can two boys get married? > > me: yes > > 5yo: can two grandmas? > > me: yes > > 5yo: can mario and luigi get married? Well…? ### [Reply, 09:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694277390334112133) · 2 likes So a dog? ### [Reply, 20:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694450378627072214) · 3 likes In all seriousness, this is a plausible reason stimulants help some people (eg me) with depression They (literally?) lower the threshold for action across the board ### [Tweet, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694455866911506471) · 7 likes Are there any songs you regularly listen to that are from a genre you don’t otherwise touch? What are they? I have a hypothesis that these are ~objectively~ the best ### [Tweet, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694455868501217780) · 2 likes I’ll start with Queen Jane by Kenneth Pattengale & Joey Ryan, https://open.spotify.com/track/4326w0GIJK4ute2JKpGCRR ## Thursday, August 24, 2023 ### [Tweet, 02:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694530299370094997) · 22 likes Lots of alpha in making reaction pics like this but for other errors or biases and such. Top of the list has to be endogeneity but the possibilities are endless Plz consider replying/QTing with a proposed thing My low effort submission is below ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4QuU6xWwAAmNzo.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694530303207854108) · 6 likes “Person you like and respect just made a stupid point” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4QuVJbWQAANZ7a.jpg) ### [Reply, 02:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694531021583057095) · 2 likes For the record I don’t think this is true and would be willing to bet against there being >50% etiological overlap between LC and any of the other 3 ### [Reply, 04:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694571921298313620) · 2 likes @ChanaMessinger not load bearing ### [Reply, 09:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694638727820193826) · 85 likes One of these is not like the others ### [Tweet, 09:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694642777437393187) · 46 likes They don’t mood affiliate but “make prisons much more humane” and “incarcerate more criminals” go very well together and could be a locus of bipartisan compromise ### [Reply, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694811726665986062) · 4 likes And cheap entertainment is good ### [Quote tweet, 23:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694857442415255919) · 2 likes This is true. In-line everything, I don’t wanna be alluding to some font irl google made or whatever just put it all in one 1929569 line index.html > **Quoting 10x Engineer (@10x_er):** all code should be written in 1 file ## Friday, August 25, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694870778414567531) · 2 likes I’m my grandmother was 10x more twitter famous than me https://x.com/qualythe/status/1665109016198905857 ### [Reply, 01:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694883566897828123) · 2 likes Several hundred billion elsewhere, I think ### [Reply, 01:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694883655770890437) · 2 likes Or quadrillions+ if you count eggs from other species ### [Tweet, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694886319191663077) · 9 likes Which one of these is the odd one out? Poll below ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4VyH3XWkAExgLv.jpg) ### [Tweet, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694886322949775414) · 3 likes ? ### [Tweet, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694942667145093383) · 5 likes FWIW I 100% thought it was obviously the second Now I see why people might choose the third but still think it’s no. 2 ### [Reply, 05:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694942807989883359) · 3 likes I have no idea who either of those people are ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 05:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694943169538916508) · 1 like > **Aaron Bergman, August 24, 2023:** One of these is not like the others ### [Reply, 05:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694946297755607273) · 2 likes Lol 1 and 3 seem at least kinda inappropriate to say IMO ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 05:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1694946614933062033) · 6 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Okay fam I think I've solved consciousness. Qualia don't make sense bc they can't have causal effect on the physical world if you buy physicalism, but our physical brains could just be constantly doing acausal trades with a separate realm of qualia. Substance dualism confirmed. “I think I’ve solved consciousness” 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩 ### [Reply, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695171664298824116) · 1 like Gpa? ### [Thread, continued, 20:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695171816329707602) · 1 like I don’t actually know the answer here I’m just pretty sure it’s high ### [Tweet, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695173635047141695) · 52 likes It’s unfortunate that, if the economy grows by 8% or smth next year, we’re not gonna know if it was because of AI or because Google Docs released collapsible lists and subsections ### [Reply, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695193588542341547) · 2 likes 3.98 magma cum laude smh ### [Reply to @trevposts, 22:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695197683416240336) · 1 like > **Trevor Levin (@trevposts):** Meaning too high? U must either get a 4.0 going for Rhodes or a 1.9 graduating in 3 semesters, anything between is suboptimal ## Saturday, August 26, 2023 ### [Reply, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695290820553806324) · 3 likes Which CEA ### [Tweet, 04:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695295585077666069) · 97 likes I don’t think I’ve done this before… 1 like = 1 hot take. Starting EA related, maybe branching out if the spiciness starts waining ### [Thread, continued, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695298753236762782) · 20 likes 1\. There is a ~0% chance that any of the GiveWell top charities are a good use of money in light of other available options (I’ll throw out The Humane League and Long Term Future Fund - at least one is superior depending on assumptions. Probably both) ### [Thread, continued, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695298754834747403) · 11 likes 2\. Relatedly, OpenPhil should split into an animal welfare section, a long term future section, and an ‘other’ section ### [Thread, continued, 04:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695299778802827282) · 21 likes 3\. EA at least as a self-described ideal is basically the sole true ideology. People might gonna call this culty, idgaf, hard to beat “using evidence and reason to do good” ### [Thread, continued, 05:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695300241707196436) · 10 likes The repugnant conclusion isn’t repugnant, but the very repugnant conclusion is https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/6vYDsoxwGQraeCJs6/the-very-repugnant-conclusion ### [Thread, continued, 05:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695302459084730397) · 18 likes The 10% of salary donating thing is probably suboptimal and should be replaced by a progressive taxation type thing, which would elicit more donation dollars without necessarily increasing the ex ante individual burden ### [Thread, continued, 05:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695303585435734051) · 25 likes 6\. Everyone’s really smart. This is gonna sound cocky but it’s true: in (afaict literally) every other setting, I generally expect to be the smartest in a room of a dozen people If it’s an EA context of any sort, I expect to be about median ### [Thread, continued, 05:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695304089263808916) · 7 likes Certain individuals think I’m wrong here but I’m not: The stapled together megapig critique of RP’s moral weight estimates is a legitimate strike against them and in favor of some function of neuron counts (though of course far from conclusive here) ### [Thread, continued, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695304893160980820) · 5 likes 8\. You should read this and more importantly download the EA Archive https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/DndmvDGStD3gTfhXk/announcing-the-ea-archive ### [Thread, continued, 05:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695306016907235633) · 8 likes There are no plausible critiques of some form of time-impartial—utilitarianism. But there’s plenty to disagree about within these parameters (especially suffering-focused vs upside focused flavors) ### [Thread, continued, 05:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695306732384227641) · 14 likes 10\. I wish there was (and there should be) more discussion of “which singular organization is most deserving of money rn” Individual donors should make their best guess public and indicate openness to critique I’ve said before but: Rethink Priorities is mine ### [Thread, continued, 06:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695325048704208920) · 10 likes EA orgs (or any orgs for that matter) that make employees get their social media posts reviewed prior to publishing should stop doing that. Fine to have “classified” info protected via NDA - not a stupid hush blanket thrown over everything ### [Thread, continued, 06:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695326411085463797) · 12 likes P(simulation) ≈ .5 IMO Not sure exactly how this is relevant to anything, but it sure seems important ### [Reply, 07:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695332459821338691) · 2 likes I’m almost certain at least for one org in the not too distant past (and assuming things haven’t changed) ### [Reply, 15:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695455801006035062) · 2 likes Sweet 😎 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4d4EL-XIAAtA_j.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695514868504273171) · 7 likes 12\. \[A hot take of mine that needs more sunlight\] Whether the future is good or bad in expectation is essentially unrelated to the question of whether we should try to reduce x-risk, and this is for very contingent reasons (namely how AI and biorisk differ from “all humans suddenly die” type risks like stellar explosions) Read more! Underrated EA Forum post IMO https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/eeDsHDoM9De4iGGLw/questioning-the-value-of-extinction-risk-reduction-1 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4etyUJW8AAEoum.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4etyUIXUAAHWlC.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 19:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695521332606202176) 14\. Lexicality doesn’t “break” total utilitarianism because there’s no rule/demonstration/argument (afaik) that every hedonic state is congruent (in a ratio sense) to a particular real number In other words, even taking utils to be a legitimate hypothetical unit of sorts, there’s no rule/proof that they’re well modeled by the real number line ### [Thread, continued, 19:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695522774112940117) This ### [Thread, continued, 19:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695524168379306123) · 3 likes 16\. I’m stealing from my EA Forum Quick takes, which you should check out if you want something like Twitter that you’ll be intimidated to post on ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4e2PgOW4AA3Nx5.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4e2PgQX0AAHqAk.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 19:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695524895545839902) · 5 likes 17\. Should be illegal to call urself EA or EA adjacent or EA adjacent adjacent for that matter and not have read this post. Extremely good and entirely true https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/criticism-of-criticism-of-criticism ### [Thread, continued, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695526041060507789) · 11 likes 18\. There should be a better way to translate donation dollars into status/public recognition in a linear-ish way Currently nobody \*sees\* if you donate $6k instead of $5k this year. But they \*do\* see, if just a bit, if you publish 6 EA Forum posts instead of 5 ### [Quote tweet, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695528657886838985) · 16 likes Empiricism 👏 and 👏 falsificationism 👏 are 👏 overrated 👏 > **Quoting roon (@tszzl):** there are unfalsifiable claims that are true ### [Reply, 20:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695529870527267149) · 2 likes I’m not literally imagining fused brains - if I’m remembering correctly there are some criteria like “displays mourning behavior” or “responds to painful stimuli” or “tool use” and like if one pig doesn’t display mourning behavior it seems very unlikely that two pigs would ### [Reply, 20:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695530136563511352) · 2 likes The critique here is about robustness to different ways of viewing/chopping up the same actual world ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695532596506067222) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 26, 2023:** 18\. There should be a better way to translate donation dollars into status/public recognition in a linear-ish way Currently nobody \*sees\* if you donate $6k… 19\. The 80k podcast is so good. Kinda think everyone should listen to every episode that still seems somewhat relevant or interesting I joke that a majority of the facts I know and views I have came straight from the mouth of Rob Wiblin. Idk if it’s literally the majority, but it’s definitely a lot ### [Quote tweet, 20:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695533578896003449) · 4 likes 20\. I say this with an unblemished record of heterosexuality: EAs success is probably due in at least .1% to Will MacAskill being attractive > **Quoting Acyn (@Acyn):** Watters: I say this with an unblemished record of heterosexuality. He looks good and he looks hard. > > [video attached](https://x.com/Acyn/status/1695180978765926445/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695534571490533802) · 1 like \[intermission\] inviting EA relevant questions/topics/words to elicit latent takes bc 70-whatever is a lot lol ### [Reply, 20:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695540773276499996) · 2 likes Haha. Yes. ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695541905231159729) · 9 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 26, 2023:** \[intermission\] inviting EA relevant questions/topics/words to elicit latent takes bc 70-whatever is a lot lol 21\. Not very certain at all but it seems like he differentially sped up alignment and concern about AGI relative to AGI, so no. And while I don’t think OpenAI is acting optimally, it’s not obvious to me that their existence is bad on net ### [Thread, continued, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695543511133610104) · 5 likes 22\. For the subset of people who either live in a Berkeley group house or work in a large-ish EA org office, I tentatively say they’re at about the right weirdness level. Everyone else should be weirder (polyamory aside which doesn’t seem important either way) Also what are luminators? ### [Thread, continued, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695545468544033250) · 2 likes 23\. In part because animals aren’t treated as poorly in poor countries and in part because of the last normie neuron hanging on in my brain, GiveDirectly still good When it comes to the global middle class (maybe poor by US standards), I tentatively suspect that increased buying power is indeed bad if human consumption and second order animal welfare are considerations. There are a gazillion nth order affects though so I regret to report that I’m not sure ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 21:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695546015716171818) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ZAMA4y6SbtFCTjjY4/a-new-option-for-building-lumenators This is like level .0001 weirdness. I have 9 light sources (incl one corn bulb) in my room which I’d guess is about 300sq feet ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 21:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695547133753962973) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Uhh @AaronBergman18 you know things about medicine, right? No but I know a guy https://chat.openai.com/share/5c920677-05de-4dd1-b081-5d1ad3a61386 Absolutely, you're right that the number of federally-funded medical residency slots in the U.S. has been capped since the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. This cap generally restricts the expansion of Medicare-funded positions, but there are several factors that have contributed to the increase in residency slots despite this: 1\. \*\*State Funding\*\*: Some states have directly funded residency positions to address physician shortages, especially in rural areas. 2\. \*\*Hospital Funding\*\*: Hospitals also fund residency positions outside of Medicare, often in specialties that are lucrative and can offset the costs. 3\. \*\*Teaching Health Centers\*\*: These are community-based programs that have received some federal support outside of Medicare, particularly geared toward primary care residencies. 4\. \*\*Affiliation Agreements\*\*: Hospitals can shuffle residents between them in a way that allows for additional slots to be "created" without breaching the cap. 5\. \*\*Rural Redistribution\*\*: CMS has a program allowing unused slots in urban centers to be moved to rural areas. This doesn't increase the overall cap but redistributes where residents can be trained. 6\. \*\*The GME Bill and Legislative Changes\*\*: While not major, some incremental adjustments in federal policy have relaxed the cap a bit. 7\. \*\*Consortiums\*\*: Hospitals and healthcare systems are increasingly forming consortiums to share the financial burden and pool Medicare-funded slots. 8\. \*\*Private Sector\*\*: Some private entities, such as pharmacy chains, have started to sponsor residencies in specific areas like pharmacy or family medicine. 9\. \*\*Specialized Funding Streams\*\*: There are unique funding routes for particular kinds of residencies (e.g., VA-funded slots for veteran care). 10\. \*\*Osteopathic Programs\*\*: The ongoing merger of MD and DO accreditation systems has also led to an expansion in available slots. These factors together account for the 40% growth you mentioned, despite the federal cap. ### [Quote tweet, 21:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695550043976073665) · 19 likes 24\. I personally like the EA/rationalist aesthetic and social vibes, but thats just taste Huge respect for those who still try to do good for the core intellectual and moral reasons despite \*not\* being like me in this respect (this has been in my drafts for a while) > **Quoting Nuño Sempere (@NunoSempere):** "What motivates you to continue to engage with EA?". Good question, CEA, good question. I've been thinking about this as follows: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fm6ZX2LWQAAF2Jd.png) ### [Thread, continued, 22:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695570901180264793) · 5 likes 25\. I tentatively agree with the moral realist wager argument that you should act as though MR was true as long as your credence is >0%, but I feel like if I didn’t believe in moral realism (for other reasons) this would seem super sus to me and I’d scrutinize it much more heavily ### [Thread, continued, 23:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695573245339054267) · 6 likes 26\. Relatedly, I believe in a kinda weird form of moral realism: 1\) given two states of the world, at least sometimes (and most of the time, empirically) there’s an objectively correct answer as to which is (morally) better 2\) same for actions^ 3\) but normativity per se doesn’t seem legit 4\) so I think eg “suffering is bad” is objectively true, as is “it would be morally good to donate to THL rather than spend that money on a chicken breast” but “you should donate to THL…” doesn’t have an objective truth value, at least on its own ## Sunday, August 27, 2023 ### [Reply, 04:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695661364969079039) · 2 likes Lol yes ### [Reply, 05:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695668061917843740) · 2 likes יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָנֶיךָ, ה' אֱלֹהַי וֵאלֹהֵי אֲבוֹתַי, שֶׁתִּמְצָא לִי בְּרַחֲמֶיךָ הָרַבִּים וּגְדֻלַּת חַסְדֶּךָ, זִוּגִי הָאֱמִתִּי וְהַכּוֹנֶן בָּעֵת הָרָאוּיָה. זִוּגִי הָרָאוּי, רָאוּי לְהוֹלִיד בָּנִים, אִישׁ תַּלְמוּדִי, גָּדוֹל בַּתּוֹרָה וּבְיִרְאַת שָׁמַיִם, נוֹלַד מִזֶּרַע אַנְשֵׁי צֶדֶק וֶאֱמֶת אֲשֶׁר יֵשׁ לָהֶם פַּחַד חֵטְא. כַּאֲשֶׁר מָצָאתָ לְאָדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן, לְאַבְרָהָם, לְיִצְחָק, לְיַעֲקֹב וּלְמֹשֶׁה, אִישׁ אֶת־זִוּגוֹ הָאֱמִתִּי בָּעֵת הָרָאוּיָה וְהַזְּמַן. ### [Reply, 07:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695697951392162200) · 2 likes Wait really? This half sounds fake but I wouldn’t be able to tell either way lol ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 11:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695760062734627218) · 3 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Doesn't seem miles away to me > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4fWc8oWIAAbUPW.jpg) די חוצפה פון פּרוּוון איבערזעצן “חוצפה” אויף ענגליש איז, איראָניש, אַ גלאַנץ ביישפּיל פון “חוצפה” גופא! דער דאָזיקער ייִדישער טערמין איז אַזוי טיף אײַנגעפֿאַלן אין קולטורעלן נואַנס, קאָנטעקסט און געשיכטע, אַז דאָס קאָכטן עס אַראָפּ צו אַן ענגלישן עקוויוואַלענט ווי "גאַל" אָדער "נערווע" איז גאָרנישט ווי אינטעלעקטואַל פוילקייט. איר סטרייד אַוועק לייַערס פון טייַטש, פון די בראַוואַדאָ צו די לויטער אַנמיטאַגייטיד טמעראַטי אַז די וואָרט ענקאַפּסאַלייץ. די ענגלישע שפּראַך איז רײַך, זיכער, אָבער עס פֿעלט די נויטיקע ייִדישקייט, די קולטורעלע ספּעציפֿיטעט, צו כאַפּן דאָס וואָס "חוצפה" רעפּראַזענץ באמת. עס איז מער ווי חוצפּה; עס איז חוצפּה שפּריצן מיט אַ לאָך פון חוצפה, אַ שפּריצן פון טשיקינאַס, און אַ כעפטי דאָזע פון ​​דיפיי. דאָס איז די עסאַנס פון טשאַלאַנדזשינג די סטאַטוס קוואָ, ניט נאָר פֿאַר די צוליב פון מרידה, אָבער אָפט ווי אַ ניצל אינסטינקט, סטיפּט אין סענטשעריז פון געראַנגל און דער וועט צו אַנטקעגנשטעלנ די שאַנסן. צו איבערזעצן "חוצפה" איז עס צו קישקען פון איר מהות, עס סטעריליזירן, מאכן עס געשמאַק פאר די מאסן, אבער אין דעם פראצעס גאר אן קיין נשמה. אַזוי, טראַכטן צוויי מאָל איידער איר פּרובירן צו דיסטילד דעם קווינטיסענשאַלי אַנטראַנסלייטאַבאַל טערמין אין אַ שוואַך ענגליש אַנטקעגענער. איר וועט פאַרלירן מער ווי בלויז אַ וואָרט; איר וועט פאַרלירן אַ גאַנץ קולטור לעקסיקאָן וואָס פשוט קענען ניט זיין באַקסט אין די קאַנפיינז פון אן אנדער שפּראַך ### [Reply, 11:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695760624431583461) · 1 like I literally do not believe “pasta with vegetables” didn’t exist until 1975 ### [Reply to @joshua_saxe, 12:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695776887346209275) · 2 likes > **Joshua Saxe (@joshua_saxe):** @AaronBergman18 @StefanFSchubert Ironically had to use the translate function but this is a really beautiful response, thanks Hahaha tbc I don’t speak a word of Yiddish, this is chatGPT -> google translate ### [Reply to @xlr8harder, 12:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695779860268879973) · 2 likes > **xlr8harder (@xlr8harder):** I don’t find it difficult to manage python environments > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4iZkndWwAAeUFE.jpg) Posts like this are funny because the algo puts it in my feed and I’m getting the sense it’s all pretty basic but like pip install whatever import whatever what else is there to do? I feel like the thing where packages clash or whatever is fake Cc @austinc3301 is this related to the poetry thing ### [Reply, 12:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695779985745760534) · 1 like It is that which radiates ### [Thread, continued, 12:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695780096001351890) Damn uk really be living in luxury Kinda wanna culturally appropriate this ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695791493720522876) · 1 like > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** I think it must be a consequence of you using hvac instead of radiators so this seems less obvious to you 🧠‼️ ### [Quote tweet, 13:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695795848062660798) · 2 likes 55 to go rn, plz give me things to opine on 🙏🏼 > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I don’t think I’ve done this before… > > 1 like = 1 hot take. Starting EA related, maybe branching out if the spiciness starts waining ### [Quote tweet, 17:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695846719219470728) 28\. As usual, all the obvious and popular critiques suck (“WhaT If fuTurE pEoPLE DoN’T mATtER?” Unfortunately, those seem to have mostly overshadowed a bunch of semi-technical but plausibly important issues. My biggest hobbyhorse here was no. 16 > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** 16\. I’m stealing from my EA Forum Quick takes, which you should check out if you want something like Twitter that you’ll be intimidated to post on > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4e2PgOW4AA3Nx5.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4e2PgQX0AAHqAk.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 17:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695848097232932905) · 1 like 29\. (Maybe I’ll dig around for some of the other related points later^) In hindsight, CEA promo bananza still seems like a good ex ante decision, mostly just on priors that the people there are smart, earnest, and basically rational and so a decision of there’s probably is too Probably a bad use of money ex post (FTX) though ### [Tweet, 17:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695849040817148365) · 6 likes The castle thing (the controversy, not the decision to purchase) is stupid and I haven’t seen a single plausible good faith critique Real estate doesn’t get consumed or depreciate like other assets! It would at least make sense to argue that Effective Ventures should liquidate everything ASAP and give it all to object level charities, but nobody thinks this afaict bc it’s not a good idea lol The “castle” term is probably a little unfair but whatever. I’m happy to defend it for non-semantic reasons ### [Tweet, 17:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695850631179710925) · 9 likes 30\. If anything, shrimp welfare is good branding bc it’s very hard to attribute non-earnest weirdo altruist motives to But I continue to think that, as a strong heuristic, just saying/doing what you think is true+good is the best plausible PR strategy, in addition to being epistemically good. Maybe adjust \*wording\* to be more familiar or smth, but the underlying ideas being expressed should not change (99.99% of the time) ### [Thread, continued, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695852529291014249) · 3 likes 31\. Seems bad just as an intuition. Maybe I’m not super worried because: 1\. Current legal protections at least in the US (search warrants) and social norms (right to privacy) seem to extend pretty naturally to this; and 2\. Most cognitive deception comes in the form of Hansonian self-deception, not lies per se But I really haven’t thought about this so super unconfident ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 19:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695877785217060897) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** I guess my sense is that if you aren't already well-connected through e.g. twitter, visiting a hub often ends up being kinda disappointing? I do think EAG(x)s serve a useful role in helping people get integrated into the community Yes I was a dumbass and absorbed the “come to the bay” meme without actually thinking through anything and wasted a bunch of money (I consider(ed) it personal spending but still) to hang out with a few people for a few hours ### [Tweet, 20:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695899792197485009) · 3 likes 32\. Consider checking out these ancient, well-preserved documents (Felicifia aka Ye Olde Æ For’m) for some intellectual and cultural history https://felicifia.github.io/forum/index.html ### [Thread, continued, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695903675242205414) · 6 likes 33\. Veganism is morally commendable but I’ve come to think basically unhealthy and unsustainable for most people long term (say >2 years??) That said I think there’s huge interpersonal (probably genetic) variation here. I elaborate here ## Monday, August 28, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695952660099223691) · 2 likes ¿ ### [Reply, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695955286027104466) · 24 likes No I think it’s actually a totally valid and not immediately dismissible response: Alec’s claim was that modernity can’t be bad on net (for individual humans) because people have the same choices as before plus additional ones. That’s sounds plausible but turns out not to be true. (Talking about the general point here, not the sub claim about migrant labor) ### [Reply, 00:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1695955758939033795) · 4 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4k-xlYXEAAaU2X.jpg) ### [Reply, 07:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696067243275092199) · 4 likes 😢 ### [Quote tweet, 09:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696096907741761633) · 34 likes If there are no bright screens or caffeinated drinks around, kids should be able to stay up as late as they want ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4m_JRxWEAAHOyy.jpg) > **Quoting Mediocre Mom (@MediocreMamaa):** As an end-of-summer treat, I told my 5yo he can stay up as late as he wants tonight. His regular bedtime is 7:30. It’s 7:50 and he’s outside swinging on his swing set telling me this is the best day ever. Will keep you posted on how long he makes it. ### [Reply, 09:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696100209766375490) · 2 likes You can just add excess lactase I assume ### [Reply, 11:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696119024185115115) · 6 likes Yes, which is why eventually they will get tired and fall asleep If kiddo is pulling true all nighters at 36 months, I retract my claim ### [Reply, 12:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696132803719471461) · 6 likes That would be bad, I just think it’s very unlikely bc “sleep needs during childhood” seems like the kind of thing evolution would be very good at installing (I do think it’s plausible with stims and screens though bc we don’t have genes ready for those) ### [Reply to @CharlesD353, 12:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696133650536931428) · 2 likes > **Charles🔸 (@CharlesD353):** Not all things related to kids need to be optimised for kids - this one is mostly for parents, I think, and that's ok. Yeah good point I think some kids (maybe like age 10ish?) have bed times not for this reason at all but I have zero authority on this matter lol ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 12:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696136152674152883) · 10 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 27, 2023:** 33\. Veganism is morally commendable but I’ve come to think basically unhealthy and unsustainable for most people long term (say >2 years??) That said I think… 34\. I would much more strongly advise a 90/10 (maybe like 99/1) suffering-reducetarian diet. If you can afford it and it doesn’t trade off with donation dollars, this might look like grass fed and ideally humane certified beef/eggs/whatever It’s been a while since I looked into how bad these are accounting for elasticity and stuff tho ### [Tweet, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696218589533991053) · 12 likes 35\. (This is indeed relevant to EA imo bc ~networking) This really comes down to personal preference so not making a normative claim but: I think people broadly like me tend to overestimate the risks/downsides and underestimate the potential benefits of going by their real name + pfp + unlocked account + saying what city u live in + not \*actively\* cultivating a different vibe/personality than u have irl, etc - on Twitter but also online more generally A few more thoughts in this audiopen ramble -> ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4otz_sWwAAacpv.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 18:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696222828234711531) · 8 likes Pulling this out bc it’s pretty broadly relevant IMO… I’d speculate this is an artifact of receiving lots of cautious wisdom from our (say age 18-30) parents’ generation… > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** 35\. (This is indeed relevant to EA imo bc ~networking) > > This really comes down to personal preference so not making a normative claim but: > > I think people broadly like me tend to overestimate the risks/downsides and underestimate the potential benefits of going by their real name + pfp + unlocked account + saying what city u live in + not \*actively\* cultivating a different vibe/personality than u have irl, etc - on Twitter but also online more generally > > A few more thoughts in this audiopen ramble -> > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4otz_sWwAAacpv.jpg) ### [Reply, 19:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696239351967998140) · 7 likes I have takes, also I’ll just dump sources as I find/remember them Starting with https://www.vox.com/videos/2017/5/27/15701168/save-animal-lives-eat-beef-not-chicken ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696242004194115608) · 16 likes > **Dissproportionately (@dissproportion):** Is there an article you want to point me to that’s a spectrum of the ethics of meat eating? Like ideally you’re vegan, then vegetarian, then pescatarian, then you strangle the deer yourself while singing a lullaby, etc? I want to know what’s the step after the deer strangling. The 80/20 afaik is: no “normal” (ie almost everything) chicken, eggs, or farmed fish Grocery stores often sell less bad eggs (eg pete and Gerry’s) but humane poultry is basically never sold normally. I’m not super sure how bad these are tbc 90/10 is that + no pork or fish unless you really go out of ur way to get humane 95/5 is only grass fed (3rd party humane certified gets u to 97) beef (or other red meat like bison) and dairy and pastured certified humane (“free range” means almost nothing) eggs, and oysters+muscles (maybe clams???) 99/1 is raise ur own chickens and/or go hunting and/or fish ur self and then stab the fish instead of letting it suffocate) Hopefully nerdy animal welfare twitter will come and correct this as needed lol ### [Reply, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696256114516537846) · 2 likes Now we’re talking ## Tuesday, August 29, 2023 ### [Reply, 02:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696351922301604076) · 7 likes The ocean? ### [Reply, 11:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696490271293223406) · 4 likes Math is so fake ### [Reply, 11:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696490475924939101) · 2 likes dictionary ### [Reply, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696594666471244133) · 10 likes I agree w the second half and that the distribution is smooth, but suspect it’s highly bimodal, not normal ### [Tweet, 18:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696596716810576089) · 22 likes I’m gonna need to psychologically prepare for this one ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4uFuIqXoAAA47j.jpg) ### [Reply, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696597100794945644) · 5 likes This is the worst idea anyone has ever had ### [Quote tweet, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696597659593634292) · 3 likes Not an endorsement (of the tweet or Vivek) Yet > **Quoting Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** The effective altruist case for Vivek. He’ll make the FDA go faster. Everything else pales in comparison. ### [Reply, 18:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696597928935108748) · 2 likes Damn ur good this high school thing is realistic af ### [Reply, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696599607076069490) · 4 likes @JesseTayRiver I’m almost certain ### [Quote tweet, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696614286821376424) · 9 likes It’s just speed/wind chill right? > **Quoting Culture (@CultureHOF):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4tOkUnbwAAR0Xs.jpg) ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696618761929785346) · 2 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** If he actually rescinds these regulations, wouldn’t it likely be overturned as arbitrary and capricious given how the standards for executive action have evolved in the last few years? I have no idea but tbc I’m basically joking and think it is very unlikely I will ever support Vivek for president no matter how much I dislike the FDA ### [Quote tweet, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696619585611419686) · 14 likes Live tweeting as I listen Interesting thing 1: go on 4 first dates/year and you probably won’t be single (ie only a small % of singles who want a relationship are doing this, though a large % go on 1 rather than 0) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I’m gonna need to psychologically prepare for this one > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4uFuIqXoAAA47j.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696620239063069121) · 13 likes I’m at n=2 so two more until gf because that’s how statistics work ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 23:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696669640917672186) · 4 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** @AaronBergman18 ok but people select into numbers of dates based on how successful they expect the dates to be. Yeah Zvi mentions this, I haven’t finished yet but pretty sure he thinks that’s not the main thing going on Also evidential DC! trying to go on more dates is evidence that you’re the type of person who (rationally) expects them to go well ## Wednesday, August 30, 2023 ### [Tweet, 00:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696679536568549772) · 4 likes I made the post lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4vRCtPXkAAmeNi.jpg) ### [Tweet, 00:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696685071007146135) · 3 likes Not novel advice but “ask out more people” I think this is good and true advice that I have so far simply not followed ### [Thread, continued, 00:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696685787960533178) · 4 likes Post mentions a YouTube video where a nerdy shy avg looking Asian guy asks out 100 women and gets 19 “yes”s This is pretty surprising to me and a big whitepill, although I do wonder how many of those 19 actually result in a date (or will/would if the guy followed up) ### [Thread, continued, 00:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696687037175218652) · 1 like “Each additional attractiveness point doubles your number of matches on dating apps” and based on context it seems like this is within a single individual by using better pics But if true ### [Thread, continued, 01:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696690066494480448) · 6 likes Zvi thinks guys overestimate how much/often women are bothered or annoyed by getting asked out But, IMO more importantly, his stance is “yeah some women will be annoyed or even disgusted but, like, oh well. It’s not the end of the world for either of you” ### [Tweet, 01:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696692166825750780) · 2 likes I do wish we (ie Western liberal-ish educated young adults in the West) could get to a social contract of: ### [Tweet, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696692404495991281) · 4 likes Men: \- be basically kind, respectful, and honest \- Take legible “no” signals (socially, sexually) \- don’t socially punish women for rejection \- take rejection courteously \- take feedback (implicit or ideally explicit) courteously and as sincere ### [Thread, continued, 01:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696693193390092624) · 1 like Women: \- before socially punishing a guy for overreaching (in whatever way), ask him \*explicitly\* to stop (or retroactively like “x made me uncomfortable, fyi”) \- if subtle/implicit no signals don’t work, assume the guy is socially inept rather than malicious, and be explicit… ### [Tweet, 01:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696695084790501713) · 4 likes \- Don’t punish guys for asking you out in a basically respectful way. Just politely reject Ok now everybody: these are the rules now, everyone knows them, and everyone knows everyone knows them 👍 ### [Reply, 01:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696704095568937360) · 3 likes Sounds like the kind of thing that might be true of the guy on a median date but not of the median guy ### [Reply to @jide_alaga, 02:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696709143157968993) · 7 likes > **Jide 🔍 (@jide_alaga):** I fully acknowledge that ~70% of the reason why I am vegan is because I don't want to participate in this massive atrocity rather than because I think its actually impactful.. it almost certainly isn't. Relative to donating it might be small but do you really think expected suffering reduction is zero? Sure seems positive to me ### [Reply to @RFishBlueFish, 03:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696728329368293682) · 5 likes > **Gil (@RFishBlueFish):** What does this emoji 🔍all you fancy EA people are using mean? Someone please explain Origin story: ### [Reply, 09:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696818449069072573) · 2 likes Idgaf if it’s 29 degrees and snowing. It’s my god given right to wear a tank top and shorts ### [Tweet, 12:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696867498598043778) · 6 likes Cringe is the new based ### [Reply, 14:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696896999696605592) · 3 likes Yeah seems like a bad guy, even if occasionally he’s funny and vibe-affiliates with people on my tl ### [Reply, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696976261245984990) · 2 likes Sorry it’s my god given right ### [Reply, 20:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1696977116313670053) · 3 likes As if her being ugly would make it ok ## Thursday, August 31, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 04:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1697097511398220186) · 23 likes That EA org job? Yeah I was rejected > **Quoting ettingermentum (@ettingermentum):** this is my style guide > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4yz-yTXgA4o4e5.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 04:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1697105552327737843) · 22 likes Round 4 (yes, literally sent a text) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F41UgW8WEAAPqSW.jpg) > **Quoting AI Notkilleveryoneism Memes ⏸️ (@AISafetyMemes):** If you haven't yet, have The Deepfake Talk with your parents immediately ### [Reply, 04:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1697105590634287232) · 2 likes Ya ### [Tweet, 18:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1697322343641624745) · 4 likes People be moving to DC fr ### [Reply to @woke8yearold, 21:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1697353676271104238) · 5 likes > **Aleph (@woke8yearold):** I guess a lot of my followers already know this but women actually do it hate it when you open up with them. There is almost nothing they despise more in a man. Basically all mainstream PC dating advice is laughably wrong if you are a guy This is about the opposite of what Manson says in Models ### [Reply, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1697366675593576873) · 2 likes Turns out it’s 108 sq feet lol --- End of August 2023. Previous month: [July 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-07). Next month: [September 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-09). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, September 2023 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in September 2023 and has not deleted: 610 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [August 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-08). Next month: [October 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-10). ## Friday, September 1, 2023 ### [Tweet, 12:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1697588889832104183) · 5 likes Lfg it’s cool outside ❄️☃️🧤🧣🧊🌨️ ### [Reply to @AISafetyMemes, 12:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1697592339005321433) · 12 likes > **AI Notkilleveryoneism Memes ⏸️ (@AISafetyMemes):** for every $1 humanity spends on AI safety, we spend $424 on butt plugs > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F47_pRgXAAA1oqE.jpg) That ratio should NOT be higher than 400:1 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 13:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1697597141848363019) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 28, 2023:** 35\. (This is indeed relevant to EA imo bc ~networking) This really comes down to personal preference so not making a normative claim but: I think people… 36\. EA is ideologically weird because it quite naturally accommodates people who hold any logically coherent permutation of the following features of how good or bad the world is (not exhaustive ofc): \- past level \- past rate of change \- current level \- current rate of change \- future expected level \- sensitivity of future expected level to current actions \- future variance \- future rate of change Add some qualitative flavoring and you get vibes like: \- OWID/progress cluster: world used to be bad, but has been getting better and will continue to (unless we fuck it up) \- suffering focused/s-risk cluster: world used to be bad, still largely is, and might get way worse (which we should prevent) \- \[insert your beliefs here, probably\] ### [Reply to @AISafetyMemes, 13:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1697597239688863783) · 7 likes > **AI Notkilleveryoneism Memes ⏸️ (@AISafetyMemes):** @AaronBergman18 I'd go further and say even 300:1 is too much Don’t be an extremist ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 13:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1697600234992320653) · 4 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** I get that American tort law can suck sometimes, but I genuinely do not understand the point of being a nut-free bakery if you aren't actually willing to stand behind the claim that your products don't contain nuts > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F48S0LyXoAAY4uW.jpg) (Obligatory: speaking from a place of not allergic to nuts privilege) Eh I do worry that if the threshold here was literally zero molecules of peanut protein or you can be sued into bankruptcy, the general equilibrium becomes that “nut-free” bakeries need to start using biolab level containment protocols which are expensive and hard so eventually none of them exist ### [Thread, continued, 13:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1697600357944168580) · 1 like Wait I lied I don’t actually worry about this but I do think it would happen lol ### [Reply, 13:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1697600954449723805) · 17 likes Don’t make me tap the sign ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F48XEkuWgAE2KxS.jpg) ### [Tweet, 14:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1697617707208786245) · 21 likes A public good someone better at scraping than me could make is a big spreadsheet of every unit for rent in the US with as much basic info as is feasible (rent, beds, location etc) All the rental sites seem to be trying very hard to make this impossible ### [Reply to @adam__isom, 16:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1697648801488548054) · 2 likes > **adam ✧ ❥ ~ (@adam__isom):** Counterpoint, you can do this for other virtues too, to varying extents > > Ultimately it doesn’t matter that much whether you were born with something or not, because what matters is it’s effect on the world > eg still good to punish impulsive criminals, still good to praise smarts Someone \*always\* makes this point haha but I don’t agree - they key difference is that you really can’t change your intelligence very much (I guess you can via eg very heavy weed use over many years but this seems very rare), so it’s not \*responsive\* to praise/blame… ### [Thread, continued, 16:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1697649340607836443) · 1 like It’s also not inherently good (as opposed to eg generosity), but some things people consider virtues like hard workingness aren’t either so I don’t think this is the main point ### [Reply to @adam__isom, 16:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1697650954756116891) · 2 likes > **adam ✧ ❥ ~ (@adam__isom):** @AaronBergman18 @skooookum This made me realize, thinking about virtues and praise is weird. When does direct praise of an abstract quality even happen? > > Anyway, if I could make everyone a bit smarter I would. I don’t know how to square that with it not being ‘inherently good’. I’m being loose with language here, like I don’t think virtues are anything fundamental - just a heuristic or social technology Same, and I’d give everyone $100 of purchasing power if I could but I don’t think that this demonstrates that being wealthy \*per se\* irl is morally good ### [Reply, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1697678741768384582) · 3 likes Yes I agree ### [Reply, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1697703110536204736) · 3 likes Irresponsible title IMO The implied meme is “owning pets per se is wrong” whereas really it’s “normal well intentioned people often subject their pets to harm; here’s how not to do that” Editors choose the titles tho so not on the author most likely ### [Tweet, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1697705034245366020) · 3 likes Wait so if I re-download excel it’ll work with python right? ## Saturday, September 2, 2023 ### [Reply, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698052863711137977) · 3 likes Wait give ur reincarnation take ### [Tweet, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698065109384380730) · 17 likes Apartment shopping and generally filtering for <400 or <350 sq ft because, at a given price level, these almost always have better location/features and I’m super willing to trade size for other things I care about… ### [Tweet, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698065117248684338) · 7 likes Other markets (and maybe people?) should lean into this kind of thing and let users search and sort for things that are generally bad but that any one user might care about less than avg or not at all ### [Tweet, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698065119345873333) · 5 likes Eg girls adding a \*max\* height on dating apps if they don’t care much about that (disclosure: I have a conflict of interest here lol) and maybe guys setting a min ### [Tweet, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698065120612569471) · 6 likes More generally it would be cool if you could (and it made sense to) add stuff about yourself (or some product or service in the general case) that are generally dispreferred but might make you someone’s comparative advantage ### [Reply to @T_R_E_X_12, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698100542176743696) · 3 likes > **TREX (@T_R_E_X_12):** @AaronBergman18 <400 sq ft is not living conditions. College dorm I shared with another guy was 198 ## Sunday, September 3, 2023 ### [Reply, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698191237889556534) · 2 likes Disgusting 😏 ### [Reply to @inerati, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698193425357484342) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ People move back and forth between “incel” as its original etymological meaning ie virgin who wants to have sex and “incel” as member of a particular online community Guessing lots of disagreement in the comments comes from assuming you’re talking about the former (maybe u are?) ### [Reply, 05:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698208878167552059) · 2 likes 🙏🏼 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5E_-PrXsAA5SwA.jpg) ### [Reply, 05:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698213142705160256) · 2 likes This is a joke right ### [Quote tweet, 18:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698398365040419123) · 3 likes Seems familiar ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5HsT-MXsAAbsET.jpg) > **Quoting Joakim 🌹🇳🇴🇪🇺 (@joakial_):** sometimes norwegian politics is a bit funny > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5C-ILoXMAEK_PK.jpg) ### [Reply, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698404413499441617) · 1 like Great minds https://x.com/absurdlymax/status/1674561377170538499?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ### [Reply, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698414921342496972) · 6 likes Uh no ### [Reply, 21:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698454403961827604) · 14 likes Same ### [Reply, 22:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698460407810199688) · 2 likes About ## Monday, September 4, 2023 ### [Tweet, 18:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698765348156125644) · 40 likes 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5M6FNhWIAAkTs2.jpg) ### [Reply, 19:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698779174410875044) · 6 likes I legit don’t understand some neoliberal brand reactive dislike of unions per se. Like it’s a bunch of people voluntarily deciding to form an organization to negotiate together ### [Reply, 19:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698782142510022878) · 2 likes Indeed, it really is amazing ### [Quote tweet, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698785313869504780) · 7 likes Re: YIMBY unit size wars DC minimum unit size is 375 sq feet, which I sense is pretty typical. Until recently I implicitly assumed 300ish was in fact rather tight, even for one person Now it’s directly relevant to me, so I found out the actual size of places I’ve lived… > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Apartment shopping and generally filtering for <400 or <350 sq ft because, at a given price level, these almost always have better location/features and I’m super willing to trade size for other things I care about… ### [Tweet, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698785322497126404) · 3 likes \- college dorm that I shared with another guy: 198 sq ft \- My single from another year I'm guessing was 2/3 the size (and I did all cooking there with a microwave, hot pot, and mini fridge): 135ish sq ft ### [Tweet, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698785324187406565) · 3 likes \- current room (buried lead: at home w the parents, inshallah not much longer) where I spend >90% of my time at home: \*108\* sq ft, and this includes a bunch of space for my sisters old stuff ### [Tweet, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698785325923914086) · 4 likes Yes, none of these^ had/include bathrooms or kitchenettes but even accounting for that, appts that are literally too small to legally build in a bunch of places just…aren’t that small at all? ### [Tweet, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698785327551316438) · 6 likes Admittedly I still basically buy the libertarian brand arguments against minimum unit sizes in principle, but I’m at least a bit sympathetic to minimums of <150ish sq ft Anything above 300 is just absurd ### [Tweet, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698785329858167105) · 6 likes And I just wanna drive the college dorm point home: the people living in 200 sq foot shared Georgetown dorms are a largely privileged bunch If it was really so bad, they and their parents have enough political/social/economic capital to enforce a change ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698792202556919839) · 1 like > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** It’s not much longer than their interviews 😂 The people demand 5 hour interviews‼️ @robertwiblin @KeiranJHarris @80000Hours we will not go into high impact careers until this demand is met ⚠️ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5NSgPjWgAAgwNP.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5NSgPiWgAAJKfN.jpg) ### [Reply, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698792459361300537) · 2 likes Involuntary insect welfare work, good job ### [Quote tweet, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698793047767617851) · 3 likes It would be so over for y’all smh > **Quoting universe sweetheart 💓🌈💭 (@univrsw3th4rt):** is there any amount of walking (and walking only) that would make me more physically toned? ### [Reply, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698793866512478328) · 2 likes Facts ### [Tweet, 22:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698831798078156858) · 7 likes I’d like to coin “the Natália problem” as the following as-of-yet-unanswered conundrum in applied epistemology: Suppose you, a good Bayesian, hold belief B with credence P, when a smarter and wiser Bayesian agent N provides novel evidence that P should be higher or lower ### [Tweet, 22:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698831802566414823) · 3 likes However, you know of the existence of other smarter and wiser people who think you should update in the opposite direction that N does You know that you should update towards N’s view bc you didn’t previously know that N disagreed with you, but you’re not sure how much ### [Tweet, 22:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698831804570964444) · 5 likes So the question is: what situation-specific factors determine the degree to which you should come very close to adopting N’s view, only updating a tiny amount, or something in between? ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698833187835711615) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 1, 2023:** 36\. EA is ideologically weird because it quite naturally accommodates people who hold any logically coherent permutation of the following features of how good… 37\. Neoliberalism and YIMBYism are plausibly bad bc they offer similar personal benefits to EA (including the accurate sense of being a pro social and altruistic person) but deal with issues OOMs less important, possibly sucking people away from the latter (tbc I don’t think this is in fact the case but p>30%) ## Tuesday, September 5, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 00:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698848673021538372) · 14 likes 38\. I’ve noticed a serious uptick in the number of EAs both visiting and moving to DC, and I strongly suspect it’s due to a relative shift in the AI safety discourse from technical only to more governance focused If this is true, +100 “taking ideas seriously” points. It’s shockingly cool to see a decentralized community act like a rational agent in this way > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** People be moving to DC fr ### [Reply, 00:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698851311716888899) · 7 likes MacAskill is not culpable here. His biggest mistake was guessing someone’s character wrong (along with a lot of other ppl like me) https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1673619647495544833?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ### [Quote tweet, 02:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698887902485197069) · 2 likes 39\. I think this is right and suspect it’s the main reason for attrition, regardless of what people actually say their reasons are for stopping veganism I’m not sure if the fact that I personally experienced this is more good skin-in-the-game information or more bad anecdote-driven bias > **Quoting Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** @natalia\_\_coelho @AaronBergman18 Maybe some diets you have people dropping off because of monotony or something, but anecdotally I think there's decent attestation to people feeling bad on vegan diets. ### [Reply, 02:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698891112344076360) · 2 likes Yeah fs but like even being 1% the way there is basically nonexistent in society ### [Reply, 03:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698895543710236848) · 2 likes Wait hear me out https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1683593790253137921?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ### [Tweet, 03:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698899280814129273) · 7 likes Ok here's my mediocre attempt but its only for DC, almost certainly incomplete https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Xf9Sxn3Dm6SrAO6RDLTb5tb2ft_0tO543AGLbAfiwjQ/edit?usp=sharing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5Ozry5WwAAw0-k.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5Ozry2WwAEoOiM.jpg) ### [Reply to @SteveStuWill, 06:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1698950499951616251) · 48 likes > **Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill):** “An analysis of results of 211 studies on sex drive found that men, on average, have a substantially stronger sex drive than women.” https://www.psypost.org/2023/02/huge-study-finds-men-have-a-stronger-sex-drive-than-women-68289 Big if true ### [Reply, 12:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699038796241641499) · 8 likes Always import numpy as torch ### [Quote tweet, 13:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699055058086998094) · 2 likes Ngl I kinda forgot about the Tulsa thing but in case there’s a silent coalition here, DM me and/or comment here if ur actually kinda interested > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** ⬅️ EAs when it comes to coordination around AI, involving thousands of people and billions of dollars incentivizing defection > > ➡️ EAs when someone suggests moving to a cool city with literally half the cost of living of SF (!) freeing up tens of thousands of dollars/person-year > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F11ToQeWIAAdASX.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 13:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699057976739529004) · 1 like > **Aaron Bergman, September 5, 2023:** 39\. I think this is right and suspect it’s the main reason for attrition, regardless of what people actually say their reasons are for stopping veganism I’m… 40\. EAGs should accept more people I (weakly) don’t thing they should be fully open, but there’s no way the marginal person would be bad to admit all things considered ### [Reply, 17:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699111310628184348) · 2 likes Jfc ### [Tweet, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699120313273897100) · 3 likes This is why the iOS feature that lets you silent notifications, informs the other person of this, but then lets them text you anyway (if you allow this) is excellent ### [Reply, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699120896256905350) · 2 likes I feel like this isn’t true lol (since you incur risk of reputational cost (if nothing else) however small) ### [Reply, 19:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699136295824462085) · 2 likes Will it be recorded? ### [Reply, 19:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699147073528930703) · 2 likes 🎉🥳🧠💻👁️🦇 ### [Tweet, 21:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699171383782076781) · 22 likes Go to your following list, scroll all the way down and screenshot… Kinda basic but think I chose pretty well in 2019 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5SrXduWkAAb8jS.jpg) ### [Tweet, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699193428360176118) · 4 likes They need to make a medium sized pig. ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5S_avdXcAA0Jaa.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5S_aveWgAAym17.jpg) ## Wednesday, September 6, 2023 ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 01:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699230439985049881) · 25 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** When I first saw this graph, the main thing that stood out to me was that Japan has the world's least spicy food. > > Even Brits eat spicier food. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5SNlB7WcAAHzYP.jpg) Are they not counting wasabi as spice? It’s qualitatively and chemically different but still spicy imo ### [Quote tweet, 11:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699378092039454721) · 22 likes That’s quite a CV ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5VnXnyX0AAcIb3.jpg) > **Quoting Peter Singer (@PeterSinger):** Today I’ll begin teaching my last ever semester at Princeton University. This photo was taken of me at my first year of teaching in 1999. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5UUd0jbAAAgvGD.jpg) ### [Reply, 11:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699378415873216687) · 3 likes Yes its one of the products with highest consumer surplus for me easily ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 11:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699380266479894952) · 8 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** @samswoora "build housing" Ofc I agree, and would add that the homeless population people see and think about as “ruining cities” are a small minority of the actual homeless population, who are largely sleeping in cars/shelters/on a precarious stream of couches etc This doesn’t “solve” the issues associated with the former group, but that’s an issue other than homelessness per se ### [Quote tweet, 11:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699388663895855151) · 2 likes Ooh this is so interesting > **Quoting Owain Evans (@OwainEvans_UK):** Our experiment: > > 1\. Finetune an LLM on descriptions of fictional chatbots but with no example transcripts (i.e. only declarative facts). > > 2\. At test time, see if the LLM can behave like the chatbots zero-shot. Can the LLM go from declarative → procedural info? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5LvXmfboAAjie-.jpg) ### [Reply, 12:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699393701250748823) · 3 likes I’ll allow the one normie follow in light of the other three ### [Reply, 12:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699395841704796613) · 2 likes Why is it so slow to do nothing? ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 12:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699404970389291106) · 6 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Yeah I think you're wrong here, homelessness is largely correlated with temperature and house prices. People are homeless because they don't have placed to live. > > Much cheaper housing would help this. > > https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Qz9GvoPbnFwGrHHQB/visible-homelessness-in-sf-a-quick-breakdown-of-causes Might be misunderstanding me - I agree with all that. I was just noting that the original tweet seemed to be conflating the actual homeless population with the visible homeless population that people seem to be especially bothered by ### [Quote tweet, 13:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699414782967693685) · 5 likes I’m hugely on team “be as intellectually honest as you can and be willing to steelman view you disagree with but don’t keep your views a secret” Not just w/ kids (yours or in general) either… > **Quoting Dissproportionately (@dissproportion):** The children yearn for indoctrination. You think if I present alternate views they won’t figure out which I hold? If I don’t try to influence them they won’t be influenced? My kids are welcome to disagree, but they know where I stand. They surely know what everybody else thinks. ### [Tweet, 13:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699414789221441868) · 3 likes Old Forum comment ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5WIvl-XEAALI5M.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5WIvl-XIAA5Cju.jpg) ### [Reply to @GarrettPetersen, 13:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699415116926566441) · 23 likes > **Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ (@GarrettPetersen):** Why do you suppose homeschool kids outperform other kids on standardized tests? Selection effects ### [Reply, 15:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699452099426177424) · 37 likes Eh pretty sure this is not one of the mechanisms ### [Quote tweet, 16:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699454530151174289) · 6 likes Where can I find more copilot prose like this? > **Quoting Leon🕯️ (@miraculous_cake):** @squirtle_says natty coder minds cannot comprehend this > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5SK-q8aUAA67CI.jpg) ### [Reply, 16:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699456737185595699) · 50 likes Probably a random toddler who has only a few propositional thoughts and all of them false ### [Thread, continued, 16:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699456856639373811) · 41 likes But in the spirit of the question, Kant ### [Reply, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699457818552619433) · 17 likes Where u gonna get all that land? ### [Reply, 16:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699459039917170939) · 23 likes No ### [Reply, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699463004645990850) · 5 likes Ur w🫎ome ### [Reply, 17:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699477545396187149) · 6 likes https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1670837256720990228?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699490641175076933) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Every. Damn. Night. Not even sorry. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5W7aXSWMAAJwAV.jpg) \*man burns more calories than the entire industrial revolution\* “just a lil treat 😋” ### [Reply, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699491436125733186) · 3 likes Sure but that probably doesn’t run through the observation of you changing your physical environment slightly by literally moving objects - more likely the more abstract sense of doing something responsible/conducive to one’s goals etc ### [Reply, 18:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699494064414986418) · 2 likes Actually this is pretty interesting bc I recall heavy leg/core lifts being uniquely good at eliciting an endocrine response via growth hormone mainly which is well established to interact with the brain in a million ways ### [Reply, 18:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699494398180868573) · 2 likes Also I’ve heard some people report the opposite - being super wiped out mentally after leg day So 🤷‍♂️ ### [Reply, 18:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699496485052674526) · 4 likes No it was the moose one ### [Tweet, 18:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699497072699826632) · 6 likes If I was a billionaire my one weird extravagant thing would be having a bunch of pet pigs and a caretaker for them ### [Tweet, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699543864028135588) · 3 likes Might get cancelled for this but Taylor Swift’s recent stuff is kinda…nihilistic? Not like every song has to be deep ofc, and no I can’t really justify this in explicit terms with my desired level of brainpower ### [Tweet, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699543866020405588) · 1 like To the friends that I lose over this: I hope u have a nice life ### [Reply, 22:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699549128051589148) Nothing necessarily. I’m basically an aesthetic subjectivist lol ## Thursday, September 7, 2023 ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 01:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699590901952053472) · 4 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** why would it take 9hrs for the coffee to make me too acidic but only a few min for tums to fix it? Seems more likely this is actually a decrease in stomach acid associated with the caffeine wearing off (caf increases stomach acid apparently) This could impair digestion if you’ve eaten and are particularly responsive to caffeine in this way. Would also explain reflux (which is counterintuitively caused by insufficient rather than excess endogenous acid) If this happens even for decaf coffee (or not if u take a similar amount of pure caffeine), it’s probably smth else ### [Reply, 02:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699606710376190193) · 5 likes Had to zoom in to make sure that wasn't a critter lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5Y3NlwWsAAIq5z.png) ### [Tweet, 02:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699608295927890397) · 2 likes Might have to post some Reddit screenshots to get my Elonbucks (3.4M over last 90 days but now I know professional influencer is a viable career plan if I play my cards right) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5Y4SxbWMAAa5l-.jpg) ### [Tweet, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699631338062540984) · 1 like I think I see why people are talking about GPUs and such Also how is >100% possible? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5ZNjbyWQAAJar1.png) ### [Reply, 04:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699637329919373577) · 2 likes Everyone 🤝 everyone No ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 05:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699650866855248062) · 2 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** We're still dating! He's wonderful So was the net result of that whole episode negative, positive (bc of the card and maybe extenuating circumstances), or ~neutral? I feel like your answer will help be understand the female mind ### [Reply, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699651426614444060) · 11 likes What is a “race condition” in this context? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5Zf9xNXgAAfVhx.jpg) ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699651707817402440) · 1 like > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** I don't think it will My intuition is 50/50 here so I feel like bayesianism wise it’s non trivially better than nothing ### [Reply, 05:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699652849309798739) · 2 likes Poast? ### [Reply, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699653352445915614) · 4 likes Thanks ### [Reply, 05:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699653817913028832) · 2 likes 😢 (actually 🤝) ### [Reply to @BecomingCritter, 06:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699664396639698973) · 1 like > **critter (@BecomingCritter):** what song should I listen to that has late night vibes? Through the late night Travis Scott ### [Reply, 07:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699691185940348974) · 3 likes 🫡 ### [Quote tweet, 07:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699692841348329931) · 11 likes Is there a non-weird (non pejorative, good in fact) reason Stripe Press exists? I feel vaguely weird about shilling for a neobank but maybe they deserve it > **Quoting Brian Potter (@_brianpotter):** One cool thing about Stripe Press is that when I suggested some potential book ideas they immediately zeroed in on the extremely ambitious, galaxy-brained idea. ### [Reply, 09:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699710138209214750) · 37 likes This is just idle fake philosophizing but I feel like “forever” doesn’t weigh as heavily as it should Not to say this means it would be bad to live literally forever, but I’m glad I don’t have to make that decision ### [Thread, continued, 09:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699710528333983915) · 30 likes Like at first pass it sounds in the same region as “you’d watch all ur friends die but 1000x” but no, you’d watch galaxy clusters form and that’s just a relative instant ## Friday, September 8, 2023 ### [Reply, 01:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1699959513028219084) · 1 like Darn ### [Reply, 09:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700071638761373823) · 3 likes Me, I do ### [Reply, 09:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700086066701574293) · 4 likes Or bikini-themed lightbulb costume ### [Reply, 12:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700127464054313111) · 2 likes ((Bikini themed lightbulb costume)-themed bikini)-themed lightbulb costume ### [Reply to @CosmicSkeptic, 17:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700199652866277494) · 1 like > **Alex O'Connor (@CosmicSkeptic):** Can you disprove God’s existence in a tweet? No ### [Quote tweet, 18:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700208552399249518) · 10 likes Can someone do an independent analysis here? I don’t specifically distrust Shapira, it’s just a big claim > **Quoting Liron Shapira (@liron):** Last year, @elonmusk's judgment under pressure saved the world from nuclear war (>10% chance). > > We as a species don't systematically prevent nuclear war. These ad-hoc moments of heroism from a Petrov, Arkhipov, Khruschev or Musk are all we've got. > > Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/09/07/elon-musk-starlink-ukraine-russia-invasion/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5ef1wYacAApdkf.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5egzQBaIAA6asi.png) ### [Quote tweet, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700243702323556400) · 3 likes After ~12 hours, FLUFFY1 has been trained 😤 \- 600 layers (idk what these even mean but people seemed psyched about layers so) \- >1M parameters (I kinda know what these are) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5h6S7kXEAA5lyv.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I think I see why people are talking about GPUs and such > > Also how is >100% possible? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5ZNjbyWQAAJar1.png) ### [Tweet, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700246634901189079) · 4 likes 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5h9TbGWoAA11vq.jpg) ## Saturday, September 9, 2023 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700303891072479446) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 5, 2023:** 🎉🥳🧠💻👁️🦇 Cool if I put it on the EA Global Talks podcast feed (if just for my own benefit lol and/or EA Forum)? Public on YT now. Tbc I’m gonna default to doing this bc it’s public unless I hear otherwise https://youtu.be/-YC-ZhdcVck?si=LrObjWfsXnm8xGgw ### [Reply, 00:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700305197694689354) · 5 likes Probably not worth anyone updating but I got pretty badly hurt deadlifting a while ago. Probably my form wasn’t perfect but strongly suspect being a stick at the time was a greater risk factor (probably 90lbs lifting 225 I think) so maybe worth considering for anyone especially skinny/small/untrained ### [Quote tweet, 01:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700323203334181242) · 3 likes Now on Spotify with video! https://spotify.link/4zCxStGoWCb > **Quoting Robert Long (@rgblong):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5SF1I0boAAk4hB.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5SF4M6aYAEAtXB.png) ### [Tweet, 04:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700372514025742353) · 22 likes Question: why are garments so relatively (to what I’d intuitively guess given the prices of other consumer goods) expensive? Like on Amazon the very cheapest men’s shorts are $10, and most basic ones are $20-$40 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5jvyjQWMAARhKy.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5jvyjOWsAAj8Ts.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5jvyjNX0AA_WT1.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 04:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700372518241013832) · 7 likes It can’t just be weight, because 15 pounds of paper costs about as much as 1 pound of short ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5jvy22XgAA_afF.jpg) ### [Reply to @br___ian, 05:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700377147808915759) · 2 likes > **bri (@br___ian):** My understanding is that sewing has not been successfully automated yet, although I couple be wrong > > If so, I bet that's the limiting factor - one person can only sew a pair of pants so fast Ah interesting ### [Reply to @br___ian, 05:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700377188594278653) · 5 likes > **bri (@br___ian):** My understanding is that sewing has not been successfully automated yet, although I couple be wrong > > If so, I bet that's the limiting factor - one person can only sew a pair of pants so fast Wait that’s wild ### [Reply, 05:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700380013294395879) · 2 likes Why did ppl say no? Like if it sounds fun to u what’s the downside? ### [Reply, 07:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700414716449808833) · 3 likes It was dry, flavorless, and not sweet at all ### [Reply, 15:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700532740158890315) · 4 likes U don’t start listening to every 80k episode within 20 minutes of release? Not a real EA ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5mBg6oXoAAw_m2.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 15:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700534168617132452) · 7 likes 41\. CEA should in fact do this. It would be funny at a minimum and then all the EA-adjacents could mingle. Also it would make the whole event EA-adjacent-adjacent > **Quoting Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** To accommodate community sentiment CEA has placed a fairly large tent outside their next event they're calling EAG Adjacent ### [Reply, 15:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700534314381783304) · 3 likes Banger ### [Reply, 22:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700642268749636080) · 3 likes I mean it’s probably a light push, but I’d guess that yeah directionally it’s a push in the right direction Some subset of students will be predisposed to care about ethics but not so much (/aren’t nerdy enough) that they’d research ethical theories on their own And some subset of these would get a good competent professor ### [Quote tweet, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700642927716749703) · 6 likes I think I’m gonna side with the “mandatory ethics class in college” people here Not as a law obv, just a policy that I think would be on balance good for most colleges to adopt > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @daniel_271828 I mean it’s probably a light push, but I’d guess that yeah directionally it’s a push in the right direction > > Some subset of students will be predisposed to care about ethics but not so much (/aren’t nerdy enough) that they’d research ethical theories on their own > > And some subset of these would get a good competent professor ### [Thread, continued, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700642929809711257) · 4 likes If someone reaalllly doesn’t wanna take it, fine choose another school IMO “what should one do?” is a pretty fundamental question and if you’re gonna have anything like a basic reading or math requirement this should make the cut as well ### [Thread, continued, 22:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700643580560175380) · 5 likes Georgetown College required intro to Phil and intro to ethics. I mean I’m a philosophy nerd so I’m predisposed to support this, but I think it was basically a good reasonable policy that doesn’t need to fall into a battlefield of the STEM/humanities culture war ### [Reply to @contemplatonist, 23:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700659369627582541) · 6 likes > **Amber Dawn (@contemplatonist):** this is a joke, but why are EAs like this? It feels like there's a lot of fear that ppl are going to be slammed if they ever make a mistake or accidentally sound more confident than they are - seems bad. > > (quoting @SpacedOutMatt: My most toxic trait is adding increasing amounts of hedging every time I proofread one of my EA forum drafts) I’ve started doing this unintentionally irl with non rationalist/EA ppl (like my parents lol) It feels like just trying not to be literally wrong, which is hard! ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 23:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700659729238819039) · 17 likes > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** real mathematicians know > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5lxVyVWkAAytoV.jpg) Wait so how \*do\* these numbers get calculated for economic and legal purposes? ### [Reply, 23:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700660186250121291) · 26 likes Can someone explain? ## Sunday, September 10, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700661397732888971) · 42 likes Oops I guess ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5n2h1HW4AAEJjX.jpg) ### [Reply, 00:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700662042737225867) · 3 likes Oops ### [Reply, 01:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700682668952686986) · 19 likes Jesus I have no idea what the actual thing I’m supposed to be avoiding is lol ### [Reply, 04:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700723134037402062) · 3 likes What ### [Reply, 04:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700723333380051214) · 3 likes I mean cigs will kill u, just take nicotine ### [Reply, 04:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700723783084961824) · 15 likes Oh this is sarcastic ie implying that these are generally bad. Didn’t catch that at first Besides the cigs (and idk anything about epo), I pretty wholeheartedly endorse this unironically ### [Reply, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700730152085295561) · 4 likes Tbf I’d be very suspicious of the truth of a conspicuously plain statement presented to me during a psych study ### [Reply, 05:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700736294534398454) · 17 likes Yeah this is basically exactly my parents situation. Got lucky choosing the right suburb in 96 tho, not every house is worth 7 figures now ### [Reply, 09:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700807513304658356) · 2 likes Depends on how empirically risky it is ### [Reply to @full_legal_name, 10:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700825642281894145) · 58 likes > **a beautiful woman 💕✨👄🦷 (@full_legal_name):** doctor told me my cortisol levels look like i’m constantly trying to save a baby from a burning building > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5mOW_wbEAEJnFg.jpg) Phosphatidylserine lowers cortisol ### [Reply, 10:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700826017999319055) · 2 likes 🫡 ### [Reply to @BarughTyrone, 12:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700843292655522220) · 3 likes > **tyrone barugh🔸 (@BarughTyrone):** Done a cost benefit analysis by any chance? No but from recollection doesn’t seem super risky or expensive ### [Reply, 12:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700849794598465985) · 2 likes I think it’s a distinct org there but not certain ### [Reply to @pyroxiumn, 12:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700854568244969782) · 1 like > **pyroxiiumn (@pyroxiumn):** I have this exact pair they’re soooo infamously uncomfortable. I wore them for my grad show and stood for 6 hours. even with some sitting A couple of my toes were numb for days afterwards Just…don’t do that? Countersignal + comfy > signal ### [Reply to @RPLongSW, 13:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700864404194005364) · 4 likes > **RP Long 🆓️ (@RPLongSW):** @AaronBergman18 Not sarcastic; rhetorical. I ask the questions in the first tweet and answer them in the rest of the thread. There is no sarcasm involved here at all. Ok. You seem to imply that there’s some intrinsic value to solving problems via unassisted agency, “the hard way” I disagree. The intuition most people have in this direction is just a reification of the heuristic that such “easy solutions” often have hidden/downstream/less salient downsides But sometimes they don’t, or really they do but just aren’t large enough to justify the intuitive aversion Insofar as you want to just assert that no, there is some genuine intrinsic value to unassisted agency, I’d just say that’s wrong and point towards the entire corpus of analytic philosophy as justification ### [Reply, 13:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700867333839872209) · 10 likes I feel a weird amount of connection (“kinship”? idk neither word is right exactly) with Swartz. Similar interests, moral and intellectual leanings, health issues (mental and otherwise), same name, afaict very similar personality and general secular upper middle class Jewish American upbringing. I could \*totally\* see myself doing the scraping thing that landed him in legal trouble and thinking “fuck it it’ll be fine” I mean he was probably smarter and more successful than I’ll ever be but still ### [Tweet, 14:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700878572498330002) · 2 likes Am I the only one who just found this ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5q76FKXUAAzXRS.jpg) ### [Reply, 14:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700878634129543213) · 6 likes sure, Thing ### [Tweet, 15:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700899189855526915) · 3 likes "This means that if there's going to be a social norm against open sourcing powerful AI models, it's going to come from a combination of high status community members, or a majority or strong minority of the broader tech world saying, "No, this is an anti-social thing to do." You might impress me with this AI thing that you made, but I think it's bad that you did that. Even though you caught my attention, I'm not going to hire you because I think you did a bad thing. That's how a norm against open sourcing powerful AI models starts to make personal sense for individuals. To be clear, this doesn't depend on a majority of people saying this. It could be that 80% of people say, "Oh, cool, now I can fine tune 13 on whatever I want, thanks." But if Sam Altman and hiring managers at Google and Facebook are saying, "No, we're not going to hire you if you do that because it's bad," it can outweigh other incentives, like random people on Twitter saying, "Oh, super cool. Now I can get it to write tweets for me." \[From an edited ramble of mine, full text below. Thx to http://audiopen.ai] ### [Reply, 15:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700899458668519534) · 16 likes Well I hope she has fun too ### [Reply, 16:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700909819534704818) · 3 likes Poast pdfs ### [Quote tweet, 17:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700924706830864796) · 2 likes It’s on the gcal ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5rmAZqWwAA8glr.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5rmAZrXQAAjjAl.jpg) > **Quoting tater tot (@parakeetnebula):** @visakanv Once I saw a total solar eclipse at a zoo and watching the collective sense of “wtf” among all the animals as totality approached was really interesting, especially the reactions of the birds and gorillas. I think we are going to find out that animals have been onboarded to something like consciousness for a long time ### [Reply to @Chris_arnade, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700925435331100844) · 3,486 likes > **Chris Arnade 🐢🐱🚌 (@Chris_arnade):** It’s 100 degrees in my room, but 68 outside, but I can’t change that because England has dumb rules > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5rVOMIWUAAE1gv.jpg) Wait it’s illegal to open windows in the UK?? ### [Tweet, 18:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700933275315757411) · 2 likes “The plan? Spend our last $50k on the least convincing ad anyone has ever seen” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5rtzLOW8AE15fX.jpg) ### [Reply, 18:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700934644819013633) · 3 likes 100% chance this is already on LinkedIn ### [Reply, 19:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1700952326918246585) · 2 likes I agree it’s interesting but I’d guess not super relevant (though still relevant to some degree tbc) to hedonic welfare at least in relative terms ## Monday, September 11, 2023 ### [Reply, 12:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701212639953592487) · 6 likes The man writes ### [Reply, 15:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701263194147205423) · 7 likes He’s not stochastic 😡 every action is thoughtful and deliberate 🦜 ### [Reply, 15:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701263795044151398) · 4 likes So what’s life like as a bird? Actually kinda curious what you’ve come to think ### [Tweet, 16:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701264566657646598) · 5 likes I did a 12 hour twitter fast (plz clap) and now I forget some of the bangers I thought of during that time 😢 ### [Tweet, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701264754843533677) · 2 likes Actually it wound up being 14.5 hours (plz clap 21% more) ### [Tweet, 16:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701268754703831247) · 13 likes I haven’t seen Qualy in a while Was there a…fission in the Qualycule??? 😳 ### [Quote tweet, 17:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701282595139432790) · 51 likes Warning: probably terrible idea. Just barely serious enough to warrant a tweet Idea: huge indoor/outdoor playground/warehouse situation where people can drop their kids. Unlimited healthy individual packaged food and water. Toys, pillows and blankets, etc The catch: in addition to each kid wearing a pulse oximeter, the whole thing is an AI-powered panopticon that alerts adults if P(something bad happening) is high enough > **Quoting Maxwell Tabarrok (@MTabarrok):** This is a strange pattern. > > Baumol cost disease explanations predict that child care is expensive because the labor has high opportunity cost from more productive sectors. > > But then we should see high wages for childcare providers. What can explain high costs and low wages? ### [Tweet, 17:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701282597530226846) · 11 likes That’s it. I’ve solved expensive childcare ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 17:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701285029404414023) · 9 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 So daycare....? Yeah except no direct child/adult interaction or supervision except when the panopticon goes brr ### [Tweet, 17:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701294259926651391) · 3 likes Wait I’m an idiot it would be a dissociative chemical reaction ### [Reply, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701316776527544571) · 7 likes :( \[ or :) I guess \] ### [Reply, 21:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701349571090170122) · 1 like It’s too small. 23 inch laptop when ### [Thread, continued, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701349866612384244) · 1 like Also more lumens plz. I want my screen to shine with the fury of 1000 suns (ie 1000 lumens sustained) ### [Reply, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701361640275333285) · 2 likes Obv depends on how big “somewhat” is but my best guess (for ur followers too, not just me lol) is that this…isn’t true (emphasis on “must be” - plausibly it is much harder in some circumstances like being born in a poor country) ### [Reply, 23:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701373751277814223) · 3 likes 🫡 Damn good luck ## Tuesday, September 12, 2023 ### [Reply, 10:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701545789590249607) · 2 likes I am once again calling for 90+% of prescription medications to be regulated like ibuprofen ### [Reply, 10:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701550731210244400) · 4 likes Fucking insanity ### [Reply, 11:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701562880145989727) · 2 likes Who is asuka and what does it/he/she have to do with an outdoor recreation coop ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 11:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701565694158975321) · 4 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Often I don’t remember your name or @ but I remember profile pic and a vague notion of content. > > E.g. chilean software twink, HVAC EA, Dog Man, architecture yimby, foodie yimby, horny anti-boomer activist, EA biochad, doomer anglo lifter, inexplicably handsome AI researcher... @austinc3301 @JesseTayRiver @daniel_271828 @Laura_k_Duffy @???? @catehall (??) @Tjdriii (??) @trevposts or @EzraJNewman or @mealreplacer or @RomanHauksson What’s my score ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 12:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701567548737597677) · 3 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Wait, am I Dog Man? Yes ### [Quote tweet, 12:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701568428400656387) · 15 likes Comment to be given a 2-5 word summary of ur entire being according to me > **Quoting George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Often I don’t remember your name or @ but I remember profile pic and a vague notion of content. > > E.g. chilean software twink, HVAC EA, Dog Man, architecture yimby, foodie yimby, horny anti-boomer activist, EA biochad, doomer anglo lifter, inexplicably handsome AI researcher... ### [Reply, 12:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701569207563874701) · 5 likes Chilean software twink + America disliker ### [Reply, 12:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701569762076065876) · 2 likes Aerospace flavored shrimp savior ### [Reply, 12:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701571977104789724) · 6 likes Orange-tinted number enthusiast ### [Reply, 12:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701572342957142132) · 5 likes Stealth wingman ### [Reply, 15:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701616430372803003) · 2 likes Catgirl? No, cat > girl ### [Reply, 15:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701619470823784644) · 4 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** @AaronBergman18 yo The great purple circle of ea Twitter ### [Reply, 15:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701623061609353363) · 1 like Multitude maximizer ### [Tweet, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701646994698010780) · 20 likes More stressful? ### [Tweet, 18:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701661439222599764) · 9 likes Interview done. Confirmed less stressful than date ### [Reply, 19:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701674670422978974) · 3 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 Summarise me!! Kind yet perpetually horny older internet brother ### [Reply, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701674868087914654) · 3 likes Guy who occasionally shows up in the GC to impart wisdom then disappears ### [Reply, 19:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701677059913777178) · 2 likes > **Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** 👀 Blogman with pfp of a guy with a very vertically long face ### [Reply, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701678765422551459) · 3 likes Instant meta-analysis generator bot ### [Reply, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701707019290661227) · 2 likes Don’t tease the people like that! https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Xw98osdN4mEGbRDiR/aaron-bergman-s-shortform?commentId=s4yxZTEckuuCGpZYd ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F52tg9WX0AAeXJ4.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F52tg9QXsAASxOo.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F52tg9PXQAAqctQ.jpg) ### [Reply, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701729263890690488) · 2 likes Demographic data! Hope most ppl interpreted it that way lol ### [Reply, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701747115112743214) · 3 likes Mysterious smart and maybe rich person https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1701673869399015673?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ## Wednesday, September 13, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701747690617344475) · 5 likes > **davidad 🎇 (@davidad):** @AaronBergman18 👀 1000 step Rube Goldberg alignment plan guy who may or may not have a real name ### [Reply, 00:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701750257489490059) > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** @AaronBergman18 I'm gonna be eigenvalued Econ guy who I remember had at least one bad ethics take but I can’t remember which ### [Reply, 01:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701768314404635003) · 2 likes Truly evil. Only one f\*n+ can remain Yes, consider rebranding as Ian ### [Reply, 01:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701773634312810850) · 3 likes Jfc, sorry to hear this ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701788289886228801) · 36 likes > **Dissproportionately (@dissproportion):** Most people agree that women have lower libido (on average), but few acknowledge that there is a large segment of the female population that never liked sex and isn’t interested in it, cultural baggage aside. Luckily, there is a large part of the male pop that is unfuckable. If you’re gathering data (implicitly lol) mostly from white college educated women over 40, probably smth in the neighborhood of 1/3 are taking antidepressants, of which the strong majority are SSRIs Seems like this alone could explain 10% essentially asexual ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F533bjhXIAEaPza.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F533bjlXcAARaLL.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701788863826395533) · 19 likes Combined with 50% sexual side effect prevalence and much greater willingness to tolerate this among women? Seems like the whole story to me ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F533858XwAAO6wC.jpg) ### [Reply to @TylerAlterman, 05:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701835918712127571) · 5 likes > **Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply (@TylerAlterman):** What sex are you? > > If you could do it all over, would you have rather been born a male or a female? IMO the main considerations here from a hedonic self-interested perspective: male = higher libido which is harder to fulfill -> much more sexual frustration Female = period+pregnancy+childbirth (for most) means what like 10-15% of adulthood spent incapacitated and/or much less happy Not at all obvious to me which is a bigger deal, hedonically ### [Quote tweet, 05:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701836710936490047) · 29 likes Can we get an intellectually disagreeable internet nerd review of this? Not to debunk it unless it actually needs debunking, which maybe it doesn’t! > **Quoting chris (@becomingbabyman):** Ok. This is gonna sting > > Hyperbaric oxygen is kinda a magic bullet for body issues > > Inflammation appears to be directly tied to oxygen saturation. O2 pressure vessels can get the fuel(oxygen) to parts of the body that are hard to heal > > And O2 is not exactly trading at all time highs. So almost no one knows that hyperbaric oxygen is an option. > > The woman running the only affordable clinic in SD litterally founded it so her father could get the care he needed. > > Let’s bring back non invasive, affordable, miracle wonder drug > > Pressurized Oxygen > > 👏👏👏 > > Oh yah. For reference I’ve had 2 treatments so far and each is progressively the best I can remember feeling in my body in 35 years ### [Reply to @Levi7hart, 06:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701838682267787264) · 1 like > **Levi Hart (@Levi7hart):** anyone got a good ai tool that can transcribe notes and organise the notes/meeting actions? https://audiopen.ai/?aff=M5bmM Disclaimer: referral link. But I legit like audiopen ### [Reply to @Levi7hart, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701839783746564429) · 1 like > **Levi Hart (@Levi7hart):** i maybe should have been clearer that I was definitely not going to purchase a service Ah, in that case http://assemblyai.com/playground for multi-speaker transcription -> http://Claude.ai for summarization etc ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 06:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701841222325739963) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Do we have a good explanation for what causes deja vu? Olivia Rodrigo ### [Tweet, 06:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701842179449126980) · 3 likes Yes I am once again calling for explicit feedback like plz I even have an anonymous form (http://admonymous.co/a) ### [Tweet, 06:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701843381456904497) · 3 likes Like god bless the “trim ur unibrow” guy (gender neutral) who slid into my Admonymous. Perfect advice - actionable, not obvious to me somehow, like a poem in fact ### [Tweet, 06:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701843945917964588) · 3 likes For some reason I have a stupid consumerist urge to buy the newest most expensive possible computer but tbh my iPhone 11 works fine and totally suffices ### [Reply to @sarah_micheleg, 06:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701847607557984511) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @sarah_micheleg is no longer available.)_ Air filter + n95 mask if u can tolerate + contact landlord + get air quality monitor so u can sue if they don’t do shit + open window + point fan outside to circulate + seal off bathtub somehow Worse ideas that aren’t exactly bad: \- go camping \- ginger extract and/or zofran for nausea ### [Reply, 16:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701991759822070083) · 1 like Thx ### [Reply, 16:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701991791879151899) · 2 likes Likewise ### [Reply, 16:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701992161699324131) · 2 likes Happy birthday Frances ### [Reply, 16:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701996203573928424) · 1 like Chilean software twink ### [Reply, 16:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1701997371511431687) · 2 likes Nerdy rat twitter anon archetype ### [Quote tweet, 16:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702001795428459010) · 13 likes There should be a coven of intellectually disagreeable internet nerd elders who we can turn to to discern important matters Pls reply with nominees (mine \[preliminary\] are below) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Can we get an intellectually disagreeable internet nerd review of this? Not to debunk it unless it actually needs debunking, which maybe it doesn’t! ### [Thread, continued, 16:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702001801065603190) · 9 likes I nominate @TheZvi @ohabryka @natalia\_\_coelho @peterwildeford @acesounderglass @ESYudkowsky @juliagalef ### [Reply, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702004206092083320) · 6 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F567zhzWgAA5iJx.jpg) ### [Reply, 17:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702004403228512588) · 3 likes I would die ### [Reply, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702004771060650264) · 6 likes Role model in chief ### [Quote tweet, 17:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702006033143505180) · 4 likes 🤝 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F569d4IXkAArzUt.jpg) > **Quoting Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** This is great! @RethinkPriors has been voted most cost-effective of all time > > so ok I think we can stop voting now > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F55doxbXMAEzDn5.jpg) ### [Reply, 17:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702011797262209282) · 5 likes Literally everything in high enough concentrations kills u tho ### [Reply, 17:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702016445499015258) · 2 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** @AaronBergman18 yeah okay Fellow R enthusiast with suboptimal cause prio takes ### [Reply, 17:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702016720758595851) · 2 likes Guy I will keep running into irl once every couple months until the heat death of the universe ### [Quote tweet, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702040330390864224) · 5 likes New animal welfare intervention just dropped > **Quoting Jimmy (@JimmySteier):** Lol in addition to messing up all steel on earth, we've also made a majority of central European boars too radioactive to eat for like 100 years. > > https://nautil.us/the-paradox-of-the-radioactive-boars-376225/ ### [Reply, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702058777351016832) · 2 likes Update ## Thursday, September 14, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 14:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702324210063057183) · 24 likes Apparently this checks out and the cats really are a nonlethal deterrent Thus I bestow the honorary “based” upon Ms. Samantha Miller > **Quoting Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** What does she think the feral cats are doing to the rats > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F58-gxzWwAAMb_H.png) ### [Reply, 14:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702327025409921259) · 26 likes U got arrested for that?? I feel like this is more of a warning level offense ### [Tweet, 15:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702342791320187113) · 5 likes Is there a fundamental physics reason birds wings flap and airplane wings do not? Or is it just that flapping airplane wings is technically very hard and unnecessary bc infinite calories? ### [Tweet, 15:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702345494599516555) · 1 like For the first time in my life I feel mildly nature-deprived, like suburban trees and grass and stuff isn’t sufficing ### [Reply, 15:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702346990569353255) · 2 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5_zjn_X0AA0PtR.jpg) ### [Reply, 17:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702380681735569523) · 5 likes I thought it was like a soccer league type league ### [Reply to @tobinjstone, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702422107580453349) · 4 likes > **Tobin Stone 🌐 (@tobinjstone):** have teenagers ever considered just being normal and putting things like artwork or nice photos on their wall? Flags are big and cheap. Takes much more time and effort (or expense) to cover the same total area via art or pictures I had a Maryland flag on my wall despite having zero state pride. Didn’t buy it for that, it was just laying around in my house pre-college for some reason ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 20:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702422331485032844) · 1 like > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** I have 2/3 of the flags on the left picture… Guessing UN+US? ### [Reply to @samswoora, 20:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702423213840712046) · 2 likes > **Samswara (@samswoora):** I'm sorry who thought that "popular prescriptions near you!" was a good feature lmfao > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6AkZR2WEAAuBIG.jpg) Preregistering my guesses Statin (?) Statin (?) PPI PPI SSRI Statin ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 20:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702424241164153239) · 1 like > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Yeah, though I really wish I had a NATO flag > > I don’t have the UN one up bc I’m pretty uncertain about how I feel about them as an organization Solvable issue https://www.united-states-flag.com/nato-nato-3ftx5ft-printed-polyester-flag.html ### [Tweet, 22:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702443712758853774) · 47 likes Idk who needs to hear this (ok actually I do but whatever) but for job app questions/work trials/test tasks, I’d SO much rather have formal, hard time limit (enforced via test proctoring software or a very clear/explicit honor code) than a suggested time limit (“we recommend you spend no more than one hour…”), character or word limit only, or no limitation at all ### [Tweet, 22:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702443715413864688) · 15 likes Because otherwise it’s a race to the top, and frankly it’s rational for people in my shoes to spend up to like 20x the recommended (or assumed) time on at least some applications, and actually staying within that non-formal “limit” is just not gonna happen ### [Tweet, 22:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702443717280366670) · 15 likes For a “we recommend you spend 1 hour on this” app, I’d guesstimate that my actual mean time spent is: \- 2 hours for smth I’m a decent fit for \- 5 hours for a good fit \- 12 hours for a job I’d be really excited about ### [Reply to @ShahmeerHashmat, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702444774760796399) · 7 likes > **Shahmeer (@ShahmeerHashmat):** Nah it’s peaceful protest. Deal with it 👍🏾 That’s a very low bar and not a standard anyone uses for whether a particular protest is wise (if you support it) or acceptable (if you dont) ### [Reply, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702449811851473011) · 4 likes I was thinking about this! Yeah it can definitely make sense if willingness to work a lot (perhaps beyond social norms) is very important for job performance But this comes at a cost of diluting other signals which I’d weakly guess are collectively the bigger deal ### [Tweet, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702463809372217647) · 5 likes Yoshua Bengio: “my credence on computational functionalism is 99.99%” https://spotify.link/luY8PG8a6Cb ### [Thread, continued, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702463818159333855) · 2 likes For the those who don’t automatically recognize every polysyllabic phrase in analytic philosophy, my understanding of CF is: if A and B are systems doing the same thing with ~information~ \[I don’t have a great grasp of what information is, formally\] they will have (generate? be?) the same conscious experience (ie qualia), regardless of what they’re made out of, when or where they are, their history, or anything else ### [Thread, continued, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702463820864602139) · 1 like Too bad I don’t think we’ll ever know because I’d bet with Yoshua money at 1:999 odds! @rgblong care to give your point estimate credence? (Sorry if I missed it in the recording) ### [Reply, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702466945105211578) · 2 likes I feel like nothing is 99.99% likely in analytic phil conditional on it being contentious enough to warrant debate/defense. My P(libertarian legit mental causation free will) > .01% ### [Quote tweet, 23:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702467643901444568) · 7 likes Personally I think we should make it illegal for anyone to go to med school so median MD compensation hits 7 figures ASAP > **Quoting AMA (@AmerMedicalAssn):** One health system turned to non-physicians in a pinch, but found they needed to rethink their strategy based on the data. ## Friday, September 15, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 00:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702476568197464290) · 3 likes Guess I’m a two emoji guy now > **Quoting Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Put the pause ⏸️ emoji in your twitter name to show you support for pausing AI development until it is safe! ### [Reply, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702512197077757952) https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1696728329368293682 ### [Reply, 04:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702540613038620884) · 1 like Cute = good, normal = bad (absent any other info/context lol) ### [Reply, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702542159298142350) · 4 likes well are u gonna keep it a secret ### [Quote tweet, 04:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702543513546604825) · 3 likes (Obv this is a joke but…) 1 minute of research says that it would take about 2000g of sugar (presumably ingested basically all together) to kill the median 150lb person So this might in fact be 10% of the lethal dose which idk yeah seems like not a good idea unless you’re totally glycogen depleted > **Quoting gaut (@0xgaut):** Dunkin Donuts has got \*nothing\* on BaskinRobbins > > 185g of sugar? Try 263 grams. > > Enough to tranquilize a grown adult European > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5_Ti2YXkAAIASi.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5_Ti2VXwAAY09b.jpg) ### [Reply, 04:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702544237051400594) · 2 likes Especially-EA member of the Eigensquad ### [Reply, 05:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702551850749219125) · 5 likes Guess I’m gender-fluid or smth bc I don’t spontaneously think about anything before my lifetime that often at all Future on the other hand… ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 05:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702553343229354085) · 5 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @AndyMasley Yes most people hate longtermism for being too feminine coded I confess I’m only a longtermist to meet girls at slate star codex meetups and such ### [Reply, 11:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702641048474841583) · 2 likes There’s no fact of the matter as to whether it’s above or below - the emoji is just upside down! ### [Quote tweet, 11:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702650905621885083) · 9 likes Awfully convenient that whoever bred the XL Bully was like “let’s name it something that will legibly convey dangerous aggression” Like a smart bad guy woulda called it the Great Brownnosed Doodlehound or smth > **Quoting George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Congratulations to Dog Man > > [video attached](https://x.com/GjMcGowan/status/1702636310320574955/video/1) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 11:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702652477860966799) · 4 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** what do the icons in your twitter names mean? 🔎 = (or ≈) scout mindset (origin story ) ### [Reply, 11:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702652879591420276) · 2 likes And AI pause (which I have less of an inside view opinion on but) https://x.com/ilex_ulmus/status/1702468530321719748?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ### [Tweet, 12:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702654336084431145) · 2 likes We are so back ❄️☃️ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6ELGFUWMAAG3aE.jpg) ### [Reply, 12:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702655439115042869) · 1 like I mean this is why I really want actual time limits, not just selfishly but also bc I’d guess it also distills the signal from the noise better for the employer ### [Reply to @lxrjl, 12:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702656914264371685) · 1 like > **alex lawsen (@lxrjl):** Also, if you're excited about a job because of the potential there is to do good, I don't think trying to maximise the chance that you get hired is a sensible goal, even if you wouldn't feel bad about struggling once there. Surely you should want the best candidate to get it? For altruistic roles/orgs: I’m definitely not trying to maximize the chance I get hired I \*am\* trying to do what I think everyone else is doing tho. For sure it’s possible I’m wrong about this and, even if I’m not, I’d be very happy not to cooperate with a different norm ### [Reply, 12:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702658750148927686) · 8 likes Wait that doesn’t seem right Psychedelics reduce the strength of priors, making you less of whatever you are (as a very rough woo-adjacent approximation) Seems like the jet pack would accentuate a lot of the traits of a 13yo boy for better and for worse ### [Reply, 12:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702660177437114799) · 2 likes Yeah, I don’t think the same holds for a traumatized person taking acid ### [Reply, 13:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702672437123457309) · 2 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6EbjvxW0AAO7hm.jpg) ### [Reply to @lxrjl, 13:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702675430279467514) · 2 likes > **alex lawsen (@lxrjl):** I guess I've seen a few people say this kind of thing (I'm just doing what everyone else does) for altruistic job apps and my reaction is basically just "really? That's your honest best guess about the equilibrium for a group of altruistically minded, co-operative applicants?" Yes (Note that I’m super willing to trust everyone if there’s an explicit direction not to take more time, even without actual enforcement) ### [Tweet, 15:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702700037216547259) · 5 likes Do we know what molecule(s) are responsible for me noticing that it smells like fall? Bc I want to buy some of that Cc @algekalipso ### [Quote tweet, 15:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702713468606885895) · 11 likes I ❤️ capitalism ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6FA4C8W0AAiJ9j.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Do we know what molecule(s) are responsible for me noticing that it smells like fall? Bc I want to buy some of that > > Cc @algekalipso ### [Reply, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702714554520596787) · 4 likes Thats not a log. Logs must have length > circumference (source: me) That is a chunk ### [Reply, 16:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702714949745709503) · 1 like No lol but it seems like the kind of thing that it would get right And a search for “geosmin” on amazon turns up a bunch of fall scent like things ### [Reply, 16:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702715300544688486) · 2 likes Damn I should have considered the implication of making up a wood fact in a convo with a professional wood guy (carpenter? Woodsmith?) ### [Reply, 16:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702717333020582279) · 3 likes Fuck I kinda wanna buy it ### [Quote tweet, 16:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702717820218302586) · 8 likes Limit 100 😢 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6FE1YTWoAcpX3w.jpg) > **Quoting Joe Biden (@JoeBiden):** I’ll ask you nicely to buy this new, color-changing campaign mug. > > But I know someone who won’t: http://joe.link/mug > > [video attached](https://x.com/JoeBiden/status/1702676142132752596/video/1) ### [Reply, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702752200865329635) · 1 like At least one member of the species appears to have learned English, Twitter, and theory of mind. Fascinating creature ### [Reply, 18:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702756709179986407) · 1 like Ik this is like a joke but I really do think nonobvious gender differences in psychology and life experience is super interesting There’s a weird quasiparadox where like modeling women and men as the same (mostly thinking about psychology) aside from obvious physiological (and maybe other?) differences gets you like 99.9999% the way there (relative to the space of possible minds) and works pretty almost always But this makes it hard to avoid typical-minding the cases where a psych difference is at least plausible/hypothesized, which adopting a (hyperbolic/sarcastic) “women are a whole other species” stance can help correct ### [Reply, 19:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702770115471659126) · 3 likes I guess so. Max is now a belligerent ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6F0ZZRWMAEMzEF.jpg) ### [Reply, 20:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702786272018776353) · 3 likes If you’ve never regretted taking a walk you should be taking more walks ### [Reply, 20:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702786796025758081) · 2 likes 🔫 ## Saturday, September 16, 2023 ### [Reply, 09:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702981337022382368) · 1 like I am…intrigued ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6I0fzPWgAA3vae.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6I0fzPWQAA2Paj.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6I0fzQXEAA9zsr.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6I0fzQXQAAcpXl.jpg) ### [Reply, 10:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702991685666451499) · 1 like Lmao in fact every type of categorization is racism. Fruit vs vegetable? Plant racism ### [Tweet, 10:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702996781372453154) · 9 likes Yeah I have a morning routine (turning on 7 distinct lights in my room) ### [Tweet, 10:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1702998037663039648) · 8 likes App idea: pair dog owners who want dog walking with guys who want a socially acceptable reason to go walking when it’s dark ### [Reply to @shakaz_, 15:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703075781457403949) · 1 like > **shakaz (@shakaz_):** why is it hard to do the thing you say you wanna do Either lack of knowledge or physical impossibility (no I won’t elaborate lol) ### [Tweet, 16:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703081472133829039) · 1 like Tentatively endorse but I’d add a wrinkle: moral value and an ordering of actions or states of the world by moral value is an “is” type of thing, not an ought ### [Reply, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703081630485610498) · 1 like Lfg ### [Quote tweet, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703125962848682452) · 1 like Turns out you can’t see this acct’s circle unless you’re following them! I am calling on the following individuals to preside over important matters by following @nerd_elders (unless u don’t want to in which case plz don’t, it’s cool): @StefanFSchubert @QualyThe @ESYudkowsky @NathanpmYoung @robinhanson @nickcammarata @robertwiblin > **Quoting Intellectually disagreeable internet nerd elders (@nerd_elders):** On it. > > People (ie the council of elders) I follow on this account will be added to my circle, where they can vote on and discuss matters if they do choose > > I will then (hopefully/maybe/sometimes) publish screenshots or summaries with the consent of any individuals identified ### [Reply, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703125965079998858) · 4 likes ### [Reply, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703132174046605399) · 1 like What ### [Tweet, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703132314090324437) · 9 likes Rationalists, be aware of this guy’s ex ### [Tweet, 21:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703156258482573704) · 13 likes Went for a walk, was slightly too ambitious and now it’s been 12 miles with 5 to go and my feet hurt so AMA until my phone dies ### [Tweet, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703156385716777187) · 5 likes Not wearing socks wasn’t a very smart ### [Thread, continued, 21:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703157185646084268) · 7 likes On the bright side I got through ~half of this (turns out hearing the same voice and similar content starts getting annoying at 4ish hours for me) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6LUbeQXwAA6qDg.jpg) ### [Reply, 21:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703157401535254604) · 3 likes Actually I may at the next intersection with society (on a trail rn) ### [Reply, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703188663834701867) · 2 likes The shower I’m about to take ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703189093985694151) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 16, 2023:** On the bright side I got through ~half of this (turns out hearing the same voice and similar content starts getting annoying at 4ish hours for me) Update: alive (not all the skin cells on my feet are tho) and home. Quite an experience (3 Ubers cancelled + then phone died and I have the geographical intuition of maybe an earthworm) ### [Reply, 23:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703191095318896919) · 2 likes 👀 ### [Reply, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703191694890385715) · 2 likes I mean one literal answer is offer to buy physical ones (on Twitter/Craigslist/whatever) for a crazy large amount of money ## Sunday, September 17, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703207064929996871) · 1 like Wait I wanna know what econ thing needs that much compute Like even kinda complex models with a bajillion interaction effects and fixed effects and function transformations on multi-gb data files takes like 30s tops on a normal laptop ### [Reply, 00:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703207814057848997) · 2 likes Omg if there’s ever a paper or anything that would make sense to a like a normal-ish econ person u can tell him I wanna see ### [Reply, 00:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703207992135467501) · 2 likes Or poast csv or GitHub ### [Reply to @peter_wilde_alt, 01:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703216133480780002) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @peter_wilde_alt is no longer available.)_ Pasting from an old thread: Not just lack of sleep but this in combination with what seems it’s probably cause (according to me, lol) - lots and lots of adderall \*while on Emsam/selegiline, a MAOI that especially targets the same thing amphetamine especially releases\* This is a combo sufficiently sketch that you’d have a very hard time finding a psychiatrist willing to prescribe even for eg combination treatment resistant depression+ severe ADHD I strongly suspect he was basically hypomanic a large portion of the time bc of this, maybe ~always ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6MKC-6W0AA-Skf.jpg) ### [Reply, 01:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703216326930575566) · 2 likes 🙏🏼 ### [Quote tweet, 03:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703253452367806623) · 9 likes If anyone knows of a Marsha (p<1, maybe Martha?) and Jeff (I think?) presumably married, white, like biking, 40s or maybe 50s, who live somewhere nearish Bethesda MD, tell them I say thanks and they fucking rock Not very dramatic or serious backstory below… > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Update: alive (not all the skin cells on my feet are tho) and home. Quite an experience (3 Ubers cancelled + then phone died and I have the geographical intuition of maybe an earthworm) ### [Quote tweet, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703253797005336646) · 1 like \> got to Nice Straight Line Trail at like mile 5 of random walk (ha), \> this is like 1mi via the shortest socially acceptable route from my house \> planning just to turn around in a bit > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Went for a walk, was slightly too ambitious and now it’s been 12 miles with 5 to go and my feet hurt so AMA until my phone dies ### [Tweet, 03:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703253994351501410) · 1 like \> but it’s a nice day and I’ve got a pod and some water \> eventually hit mile 5 of Nice Straight Line trail (ie 11 total miles, 6 to home) \> not wearing socks bc I’m an idiot \> get some dirt in my shoes \> not-that-bad-blisters.heic ### [Tweet, 03:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703253998214529217) · 1 like \> decide to get to the nearest road-trail junction and Uber home bc $14 to avoid an increasingly painful 2 hour backtrack \> another mile and I’m there \> 20% battery \> 1st Uber cancels after 10 mins (some were Lyft but to simplify) \> second Uber cancels \> 3rd uber cancels ### [Tweet, 03:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703254003952267700) · 1 like \> realize this must be cursed parking lot thing somehow \> 11% battery, fuck \> guess I need to find another place to call one from \> happens to be along a connected trail, which is less straight-liney \> get there, 8% battery \> Uber cancels. Wtf? \> 4% battery \> Call another ### [Tweet, 03:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703254006292697357) · 1 like \> 7 minutes away \> 5 minutes pass \> 7 minutes away \> 3% battery \> 8 minutes \> I message driver, no response \> 2% battery \> 8 minutes away \> 1% battery. Fuck \> I cancel Uber, whatever I can walk ### [Tweet, 03:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703254008910028842) · 4 likes \> ask guy with a car if he happens to have a charger. He does not \> Fuck \> get another minute’s glance at google maps before phone dies \> My mental map IQ ≈ 0 \> wind up in like a residential area alongside a trail that may or may not be the one I’m looking for \> figure I’ll wander around a while and if really desperate like knock on a random strangers door?? Sounds not fun ### [Thread, continued, 03:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703254011619500493) · 5 likes \> fuck \> this time I say it out loud bc I’m kinda nervous now, in an unknown residential area with no obvious like grocery stores or gas stations or anything, phone dead, blisters doing their thing, out of water \> Marsha must have heard bc she comes riding on a bike by me and asks if everything is ok \> 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 ### [Tweet, 03:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703254013947367661) · 4 likes \> she and husband stop \> I explain the situation in brief \> try to use her phone to get Uber \> 10 minutes later none to be found \> could they point me towards the Nice Straight Line Trail \> that’s where they’re going! \> they offer to bike slowly and I can jog alongside \> lfg.gif ### [Thread, continued, 03:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703254016703033751) · 10 likes \> get to nice straight line trail \> for (i in 1:10^4) {print(“thanks!!!!!”} \> they bike off into the distance \> feet hurt but at least I’m not gonna spend the night on the streets of \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_, Maryland \> walk walk walk walk walk \> home \> plz award social status and acclaim to these good samaritans ### [Reply, 06:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703296563592696259) · 2 likes I’m built different I’d survive that ### [Reply, 06:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703299838916329613) · 4 likes I’ve been this guy (not over text but similar besides). 99.99% chance it took him a lotta courage to send that. If you don’t like him, he probably wants to know that and then still be friends! And I’m calling bullshit on all the replies like “it’s just a complement, doesn’t mean anything.” Bro probably had several focus group sessions in the gc before sending lmao ### [Quote tweet, 07:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703303727585648728) · 3 likes Hi I’m a chopstick that impaled a toddler’s neck > **Quoting society (@a_real_society):** introduce yourself with what almost killed you > > hi, i'm grain entrapment ### [Reply to @panchromaticity, 14:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703418752862199866) · 3 likes > **Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** @shaggysurvives I can't remember actually, I added because @TetraspaceWest and I are doing the "metaphorically dress up as each other on twitter bit" Lol nice ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 15:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703429634547671279) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 @peter_wilde_alt Scott's suggests a slightly different causal chain https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/the-psychopharmacology-of-the-ftx > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6PC0rAWsAAHzzv.png) I don’t think this (the screenshot) is inconsistent with my theory - like I’m agnostic about how mechanistically “take multiple different stims” turns into hypomania Also psychosis and mania are pretty different, and there’s no super clear line afaik between “have lots of energy/optimism” and “hypomania”. I don’t have any reason to think SBF was \*hallucinating\* ### [Reply to @Actualwebutante, 15:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703431265037263163) · 3 likes > **whoreaborealis (dubai, bali 10/18-11/14) (@Actualwebutante):** Thinking about the time @nosilverv saw me reading a book in an alcove and said “I now understand why people eat sushi off of naked women”. > > Still trying to figure out what was meant by this . People are eating sushi off of naked women? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6PNtSbWwAAhMWq.jpg) ### [Reply, 15:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703433305008361906) · 2 likes STOP doing math ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6PPkDiWsAA7dDm.jpg) ### [Reply, 15:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703434201825939869) · 5 likes http://dynomight.net/ducks/ ### [Reply, 15:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703434479891608029) · 5 likes Extrovert cope ### [Tweet, 15:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703437117911621825) · 28 likes So deep learning models are a “black box” according to everyone But this can’t be literally true, right, since inference is just performing a hard coded (at this point) algo? Is the black box analogy better understood as “see through box but inside is a quadrillion moving parts that look random but somehow pump out widgets” or am I missing something ? ### [Reply, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703438914155876786) · 1 like Fuck that I hated Spanish for 7 years and now it only helps me occasionally make funny tweets https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1666873432523276314?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ### [Reply to @EigenGender, 16:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703440669371441482) · 4 likes > **EigenGender 🔸 (@EigenGender):** Yeah this is the thing that’s frustrating/captivating about mech interp: the model does all its computations in front of us. We can trace each of the billions of FLOPs by hand and yet in some fundamental sense we don’t understand Well maybe “we” can but I can’t! Like if I have a directory from https://t.co/IK2s7MhAWO_model() or whatever it’s called, all the files are either tiny or totally random looking symbols (like random Unicode characters) if opened in a text editor ### [Quote tweet, 16:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703441981693702279) · 4 likes Ugh guess I should get my annual mRNA Injection > **Quoting Intellectually disagreeable internet nerd elders (@nerd_elders):** Should most of @peterwildeford’s twitter followers get a COVID booster in the next three months, conditional on not having gotten any in the last 6? ### [Quote tweet, 16:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703443124918403451) · 9 likes Adding a white board to my wall (thanks @thornyproblems) was practically good (harder to ignore than a todo list I have to open an app to see) but aesthetically excellent (nerdcore) Highly recommended > **Quoting Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv):** 💡 this is what is currently missing from my life > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6LXYUUagAASmdK.jpg) ### [Reply, 16:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703452817715765586) · 7 likes Boy do I have a spreadsheet for you https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SpbrcfmBoC50PTxlizF5HzBIq4p-17m3JduYXZCH2Og/edit ### [Reply, 16:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703452876360520164) · 2 likes Cc @Laura_k_Duffy ### [Reply to @jeffrsebo, 16:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703453265927524546) · 2 likes > **Jeff Sebo (@jeffrsebo):** in honor of my 6,500th follower, making a special one-time offer: if you reply to this thread with the name of a particular kind of being, i promise to tell you whether that kind of being is sentient or otherwise morally significant. You (fishing to see whether you think it’s possible you are p-zombie) ### [Reply to @jeffrsebo, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703460466628997625) · 1 like > **Jeff Sebo (@jeffrsebo):** possibly! it depends on how you specify the referent. "jeff sebo" the animal is definitely sentient and morally significant at present. "jeff sebo" the protagonist of this animal's self-narrative is an abstract object and is only possibly sentient and morally significant. Interesting! (I think you’re wrong about the first “definitely” but ik th ### [Reply, 17:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703461501628014869) · 1 like Lol accidentally hit send - meant to say “ik lots of ppl smarter than me agree with you” ### [Quote tweet, 17:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703467606794011053) · 3 likes People should make more podcast (or text that can be turned into audio) playlists/albums/series/mixtapes/compilations Could be for a specific topic or like “intro to my worldview/ideology” or just personal favorites > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** On the bright side I got through ~half of this (turns out hearing the same voice and similar content starts getting annoying at 4ish hours for me) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6LUbeQXwAA6qDg.jpg) ### [Tweet, 18:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703483421316550990) · 356 likes Despite >30 years of marriage my parents haven’t made any progress on the “mom slower to go from 0% -> 99% packed/ready but dad slower to go from 99% -> 100% ready so both accuse the other of being the slow one” problem ### [Thread, continued, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703483519282880589) · 32 likes What this looks like: \> Both wake up at 0%, have a plan to leave “around noon” or smth vague like that \> Dad declares at 11 am that he is packed and ready to go (he’s not), goes back to doing something else \> mom needs another hour \> dad agrees to leave at noon ### [Thread, continued, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703483538622800171) · 48 likes \> at noon +- 5 minutes, mom is standing outside with the car key \> dad rounded all last minute errands to zero minutes in his head (regretfully I have this character flaw as well, albeit to a smaller extent. I wonder why that’s the case lol) ### [Tweet, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703483544331280527) · 32 likes \> turns out he needs to fill up a water bottle, and make sure the doors are locked, and make sure the lights are off, and grab a snack for the road, and several more idiosyncratic things depending on the situation ### [Thread, continued, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703483547095380274) · 25 likes \> mom has been waiting outside this whole time (happily if <5 mins bc it’s inevitable, mildly pissed at 5-10, starts honking the horn by minute 20, threatening to leave herself by 30, which becomes credible by minute 45) ### [Thread, continued, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703483549360271681) · 40 likes \> when the honks start, dad speeds up his errand process by 2x \> they’re both actually in the car at 12:23 \> Mom: “what takes u so long?!” \> Dad: “I was ready to leave by 11:00 but you were still packing!” ### [Reply, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703484992783827034) · 16 likes Are u trying to break apart my family ### [Reply, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703485200435409128) · 4 likes (Yes in I agree, though sometimes she’s the actual reason they leave a couple hours later than planned so) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703485764267331791) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @peter_wilde_alt We must protect it So you wanna bomb emoji datacenters if other countries don’t sign the Orb Treat of 2023? ### [Reply, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703486841310052729) · 2 likes https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy50eXBlMy5hdWRpby9hZ2ktc2FmZXR5LWZ1bmRhbWVudGFscy0tZ292ZXJuYW5jZS5yc3M ## Monday, September 18, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703560072201113848) · 1 like A turtle, not a tortoise. Common misconception ### [Reply, 00:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703563973512077690) · 3 likes No it should be otc ### [Reply, 04:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703623283331997922) · 8 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6R8PjEXYAA9Jcs.png) ### [Reply, 04:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703627758838923412) · 3 likes Hey ur making it sound principled - you just wouldn’t offer good enough odds! ### [Reply, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703629282340159653) · 2 likes “Make everybody stub their toe rn” is also egalitarian ### [Reply, 07:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703679100328538116) · 10 likes Yo wtf, just terrible reporting ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6SvHNMWcAAKhnk.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 08:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703680768399065393) · 4 likes This seems to be close to the consensus take and I buy it but, like, why? Why do women care about height (allegedly) way more on apps? I’d guess, if anything, the trend would be reversed - like on Hinge pictures are the same size for everyone and height is a disembodied number > **Quoting Shag Nasty 🇺🇦🇦🇲🇵🇸 (@YaBoiShagNasty):** I’m 5’8” and have fairly attractive features (if I may say so myself) and I have been able to get dates with pretty attractive women IRL. I was basically invisible on apps. I think there’s a shop window effect where women discard men over things that wouldn’t be dealbreakers IRL. ### [Thread, continued, 08:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703680771918020745) · 2 likes I’m pretty interested in the perspective of someone who recognizes herself doing this! ### [Quote tweet, 09:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703697705430667380) · 42 likes I think there’s something like a 30% chance I don’t get to have a 40th birthday ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6TACJvWkAAJoiX.jpg) > **Quoting PauseAI ⏸ (@PauseAI):** @jeremyphoward Interviewed guy here. Yes, it's sad. This is what internalising existential risk means and what it looks like. I'll share a little more of my emotional journey. > > One of the largest problems with x-risk, is how difficult it is to accept. For me there was at least a 6-year gap between learning that x-risk is a thing that exists, and actually feeling that this could be something that kills my friends and family. > > I didn't take x-risk that seriously at first. Seemed too far-off to worry about, and there was no evidence of AIs having any form of agency. It was mostly just an interesting thought experiment. > > When GPT-4 launched, many goalposts had to suddenly be moved. The progress in AI outpaced every single prediction that I heard from experts. > > And then AutoGPT launched, which proved that AIs don't need any form of internal agency to act as autonomous agents. > > My two reasons not to worry melted like snow in the sun. That's when the full weight of x-risk dawned on me, and that's when I started PauseAI. > > In hindsight, I feel foolish for not taking these risks seriously earlier. I was in denial. Some thoughts create too much cognitive dissonance. "AI may kill us all" is one of them. Such a thought has a lot of consequences in your mind, for your future, for your own actions. The more friction a thought has, the harder it is to fully internalise. > > Maybe it's like dealing with a cancer diagnosis. There's a real risk of death and you don't know exactly when. Many people who are diagnosed also cope by denying their situation. With x-risk, it's not just you who dies - it's everyone you love. In that way it may be even harder to internalise. > > So I don't blame people who are in denial of the risks from AI. Even if they make money by building the technology, and have obvious self-protecting incentives to downplay the risks. > > But I do have found a new level of respect for Yoshua Bengio and Geoffrey Hinton. They learned about x-risk, but didn't stick their head in the sand. They updated their beliefs and their actions, and shifted from building AI to warning people about the existential risk that it poses. This means these two didn't just have to internalise that this tech could be their demise, but they also had to internalise that their whole life's work might have contributed to the end of mankind. That is an even tougher pill to swallow. > > For me, the darkest emotional state has passed. I feel like I went through a process of grief. I'm feeling pretty good actually. But one of the hardest things about doing what I do now is knowing that other people may need to go through a similar process in order for them to get in action. As long as the risks are something abstract, something devoid of emotion, people will not act on them. Right now, the lack of action is the single largest risk that is threatening all of us. That's truly sad thing to this story. ### [Reply to @adam__isom, 09:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703706789039034871) · 2 likes > **adam ✧ ❥ ~ (@adam__isom):** if you’ve never said something dumb (that you can’t unsend) in a gc, you’re not living 🙌 ### [Reply, 16:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703814104639529118) · 4 likes In terms of health I think I have a better chance than average of reaching 40 (though like the median is pretty high ofc) ### [Reply to @lxrjl, 23:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703920884279349404) · 3 likes > **alex lawsen (@lxrjl):** The real pro move is to undersell your height on apps so you weed out people who don't understand adverse selection. In my drafts!! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6WLA3QW0AAZ2bI.jpg) ### [Reply, 23:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703921672288342352) · 2 likes Bc things other than b vitamins are important lol ## Tuesday, September 19, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703936001083597110) · 4 likes Wtf are u the superintelligence?? ### [Reply, 00:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703936710059409501) · 4 likes No, please continue to spread to Gospel of Walk!! ### [Reply, 01:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1703939071695794629) · 2 likes Thx ### [Reply, 16:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704171914715869664) · 2 likes Yes. YES ### [Reply, 16:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704172726007607340) · 3 likes Green flag ### [Reply, 16:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704175930837491909) · 2 likes Noooooooooo (actually seems like a reasonable good decision so okkkkkkkkkkkkkk) ### [Reply, 16:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704176531151433769) · 2 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6ZzhefW0AAL667.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704176823087603940) · 10 likes The 80k podcast is too short > **Quoting Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** What's an EA opinion that'll get you like this? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6XS2bwXUAA5T_4.jpg) ### [Tweet, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704176826044563727) · 4 likes Cc @EAheadlines 😈 ### [Quote tweet, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704177218249748711) · 7 likes There is no affirmative argument that moral value (‘utility’) is well modeled by the real numbers and addition/subtraction > **Quoting Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** What's an EA opinion that'll get you like this? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6XS2bwXUAA5T_4.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704177908439302355) · 21 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6Z0xp4XUAAa8e-.jpg) > **Quoting Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** What's an EA opinion that'll get you like this? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6XS2bwXUAA5T_4.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704177910284783963) · 2 likes . > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** 1\. There is a ~0% chance that any of the GiveWell top charities are a good use of money in light of other available options (I’ll throw out The Humane League and Long Term Future Fund - at least one is superior depending on assumptions. Probably both) ### [Reply, 16:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704178239592128655) · 2 likes NDAs are good, actually ### [Reply, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704178304008204344) · 2 likes Facts ### [Reply, 17:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704178650155995587) · 3 likes You weren’t supposed to disclose what it stands for!!!!! ### [Quote tweet, 17:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704180465161158884) · 47 likes Asked a girl out with a heart shaped hot pretzel in 6th grade (it was February and they were being sold at lunch) You already know the answer > **Quoting Spencer Greenberg 🔍 (@SpencrGreenberg):** A question for you: what's one of the biggest rejections you've experienced? ### [Tweet, 17:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704181541792878595) · 37 likes Actually a more serious answer is getting rejected by all the top colleges I applied to but that’s not as funny ### [Reply, 17:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704187964874461422) · 4 likes Many are saying https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/czjZgTBFxPtDnPTBv/most-ivy-smart-students-aren-t-at-ivy-tier-schools ### [Reply to @prerat, 17:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704189029221089339) · 2 likes > **prerat (@prerat):** @AaronBergman18 we don't have 0% probabilities in the real world anyway tho, so does that matter? No I don’t think so, pretty sure being willing to give up anything not to increase the probability of bad outcome implies the same thing ### [Reply to @flailing_, 21:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704252795673624672) · 3 likes > **Nate (@flailing_):** @AaronBergman18 Nah this is a bad opinion sorry. One, buying a new TV is an available option. Two, if you don't value animal life highly and you have limited faith in some of the interventions being funded by ltff (some are definitely risky), then usual top charities are still the best option. First: all good! - I’d much rather have ppl openly+explicitly disagree with this (or any other) take than nod along and then not actually update on it… 1\) in absolute terms, the difference between TV and AMF or whatever is \*smaller\* than that between AMF and the two listed (under my model of the world ofc) 2\) re animals, I think you need to have an implausibly high degree of confidence in their moral value being tiny to get the inequality sign to flip like if you put 10% credence on the RP welfare ranges being a decent estimate of moral value, pretty sure THL comes out ahead 3\) I don’t have a strong inside view take on LTFF marginal grants, but think the fund managers are basically smart and competent so pretty willing to defer 4\) re: certainty let me find a tweet of mine from a while back… ### [Reply, 22:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704261506982924549) · 2 likes Whaaat you’ve been missing out ## Wednesday, September 20, 2023 ### [Reply, 01:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704311991685263713) · 3 likes Rule: increasing series of numbers ### [Reply, 07:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704393266257440784) · 1 like Maybe 😈 ### [Reply to @finnhambly, 15:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704512557774405714) · 2 likes > **Finn Hambly (@finnhambly):** @AaronBergman18 @adamrisom Yeah EA is an example (though in practice applies other heavy selection effects that aren't necessarily desirable), and it makes me think there must be others that are just as easy to be unaware of Anecdote for EA as Schelling point: wound up getting back in touch with two (like 3 people stand out in my mind and these were two of them) of the smartest people I knew in hs through EA (one via Swapcard lol) ### [Tweet, 15:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704522856506200564) · 53 likes You’re saving for the future despite AI timelines I’m borrowing from the future via bets that I lose and pay off only if I’m alive in 2040 We are not the same ### [Reply to @0K_ultra, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704526451712667845) · 5 likes > **0kultra.🅱️sky.social 🦋 (@0K_ultra):** I don't think illusionism posits nonexistence of consciousness or even strict epiphenomenality (tho it is close to epiphenomenalism, a real old philo chestnut) To the best of my understanding it does, at least in the most commonly used sense of “consciousness” ### [Reply to @AlexGodofsky, 16:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704526744374345741) · 4 likes > **Alex Godofsky (@AlexGodofsky):** TIL that this exists as something people actually believe. Until now I had not \*seriously\* considered the idea that some human beings might actually lack conscious experience. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6evttiWUAAkCqC.png) Hey I think it’s wild too but P(illusionism)>1% IMO ### [Reply, 16:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704538033297437114) · 3 likes Send me $100, I’ll send you $125 in 2023 dollars in 2040 ### [Reply, 16:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704538261987692880) · 1 like (I don’t have 1M - potentially willing to do single digit $thousands tho) ### [Reply, 16:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704540159117550030) · 2 likes Anyone putting <.1% has not seriously engaged with like anything related to this Not a gotcha - it’s a Twitter poll so can’t count on only ~expert~ responses, but it’s worth keeping in mind To me, .1% sounds like saying Trump had a .1% chance before election night in 2016 ### [Reply to @ctjlewis, 19:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704574641233170503) > **Lewis 🇺🇸 (@ctjlewis):** people dramatically overestimate their own IQ in the absence of testing. median tpotter is 120 who thinks they’re 140 In case people are curious, SAT/ACT is a decent proxy ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6fdmdrWkAA3O99.jpg) ### [Reply to @lporiginalg, 19:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704580479268114905) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @lporiginalg is no longer available.)_ Absolute bro ## Thursday, September 21, 2023 ### [Reply to @HenriLemoine13, 02:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704691465140523185) · 3 likes > **Henri Lemoine (@HenriLemoine13):** What am I missing that makes it so unlikely? The way it’s being described here, it seems obviously correct to me. Does illusionism make some unlikely assertions beyond the ones GPT-4 described? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6gw-VOWIAE5Cap.jpg) I don’t like the word “illusion” bc it’s super ambiguous. Like optical illusions are real in the sense that there is a legit illusion, but x being called “an illusion” strongly implies that it is not a genuine member of some salient category… Anyway, do you think u have subjective experience? Illusionism claims that you do not ### [Quote tweet, 03:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704694460016148494) · 36 likes 80k pod > **Quoting greg (@greg16676935420):** What was Taylor Swift listening to at the grocery store? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6g08kdXcAAJADB.jpg) ### [Reply, 03:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704698007097061648) · 1 like Doesn’t seem empty to me - like exactly one of those frames can be correct! And same with the chair. Big difference between a chair and a picture of a chair ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 04:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704710714831560988) · 3 likes > **Dissproportionately (@dissproportion):** tfw you realize you can make any noun into a name “Time to go to school, Platypus” “Fuck you dad” ### [Reply to @inerati, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704712010787676498) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ The methyl group doesn’t do a whole lot ### [Reply, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704713685971673528) Ik of one straight guy (can’t say who atm) who it definitely worked for Seems more likely to be good than actually harmful bc like if you weird someone out the worst that happens (99.999% of the time) is no date, which is the default anyway ### [Reply to @HenriLemoine13, 04:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704715421134307593) · 1 like > **Henri Lemoine (@HenriLemoine13):** story, and call that “an illusion of consciousness” or call that a “subjective experience”, but if at the end of the day you're not expecting any different behavior then that's just a different way of abstracting the exact same physical phenomenon. Idk if this is important to your point but I disagree that the thing being discussed which may or may not be genuine/illusory/legit is “physical” even though there’s definitely some sort of relationship there (ie between qualia and the brain) (1/ ) ### [Thread, continued, 04:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704718322145575199) · 1 like Also I feel like this gets so intellectual and abstract when the actual disagreement is pretty fundamental and intuitive. I claim there’s something it’s like to be me, and that I really truly genuinely legitimately in a non-illusory sense have subjective experiences, unlike (presumably) a rock Illusionists claim that I do not, which I think is possible and coherent but not true ### [Tweet, 05:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704722918050009322) · 103 likes You know it's about to be a banger when ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6hkYpAXgAAvtCa.png) ### [Quote tweet, 06:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704746433813872864) · 5 likes It continues to be very funny that the head of the main consumer facing product of a trillion dollar company powered by the most important technology in human history is a dude with no pfp on Twitter > **Quoting Mikhail Parakhin (@MParakhin):** @vitor_dlucca I think the question you should be asking is: are you lucky %er already or not yet :-) ### [Reply, 08:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704779041486553325) · 5 likes https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/users/linch ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6iXgLzXwAAYjm7.jpg) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 12:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704836417015148660) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** I feel like it’s gotta be doin something > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6jAPo2WIAEDzzI.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6jAPo2WYAADQtV.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6jAPo4WEAA4OeO.jpg) Huh thx ### [Reply, 12:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704838017754554608) · 2 likes 👏 ### [Reply, 14:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704866006269661642) · 2 likes 🙋‍♂️me I do ### [Reply, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704901762417602949) · 4 likes Ooh which one is this? ### [Reply, 16:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704902912290201919) · 1 like Tf was apple using leather for? ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 17:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704903739809673422) · 49 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Worst part is spelling it with a u ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 17:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704904244049133834) · 90 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Do you have an air quality monitor? If not that could help both prove and ascertain how bad the problem is (not that any mouûüùúūÛÛÜÙÚŪld is acceptable) ### [Quote tweet, 17:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704908154268774440) · 13 likes Parents are going to Europe and plan on leaving 18 minutes ago Dad is in his home office, still working on something > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Despite >30 years of marriage my parents haven’t made any progress on the “mom slower to go from 0% -> 99% packed/ready but dad slower to go from 99% -> 100% ready so both accuse the other of being the slow one” problem ### [Reply, 17:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704908217829261364) · 1 like 🕵️‍♂️ ### [Reply, 18:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704922982303330631) · 5 likes Last ones on the boat fr ### [Reply, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704934640098648347) · 2 likes Wait so this wasn’t gpt4 At this point when I see any text thing alongside the word “impressive” I assume it is lol ### [Quote tweet, 19:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704937733175529854) · 4 likes I sometimes wonder how rule of law in the US remains as strong as it does. I’m not being sarcastic here - like I think it’s very good (even tho this case is kinda absurd) but just don’t understand the mechanisms > **Quoting Ellie in Space 🚀💫 (@esherifftv):** US Fish and Wildlife officials have yet to begin a formal review of SpaceX’s upgrades following Starship’s first launch in April. > This could push back the next launch window by months, which I know none of us want to hear... 1/3 > > [video attached](https://x.com/esherifftv/status/1704600220456092093/video/1) ### [Tweet, 19:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704937744437227986) · 2 likes This is a good example. Like in principle, violating a Fish and Wildlife rule is supposed to ground out in the use of deadly force by the federal government But like, does anyone think that would happen if they launched the rocket? Like would anyone end up in jail or dead? ### [Thread, continued, 19:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704937746194698249) · 2 likes It seems to all be resting on a more abstracted level - like everyone knows that everyone knows that they’re gonna obey the law, and so they do ### [Reply, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1704998266545303618) · 3 likes Sometimes you don’t even need large n https://x.com/f0rcryin0utl0ud/status/1700760385320624146?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ### [Reply, 23:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705007258638201040) · 3 likes Sorry guys 😔 ### [Reply, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705007748121821450) · 4 likes Damn Have u written anywhere about the normie white -> Alaskan fishing transition? If not, uh, why? ### [Reply, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705008689541771725) · 79 likes Can u not ## Friday, September 22, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705011895390941249) · 4 likes We are not the same ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6lrSAkWkAEoL7O.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6lrSAgXUAABM5R.jpg) ### [Reply, 00:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705012614445642221) · 1 like Fun story https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1703253452367806623?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ### [Reply, 00:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705012895640064394) · 1 like Yeah not infrequently I basically just sleep 24+ hours bc fucked up health ### [Reply, 04:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705073237158248837) · 2 likes איך בכלל העלה לך לראש לקבל החלטה כזו? אחרי כל השנים שבהם עבדנו יחד, דיברנו ותיכננו? האם אינך מבין את ההשלכות של פעולותיך? זו לא הייתה רק החלטה פסולה, זו הייתה בגידה בכלל העקרונות שלנו! הרגשתי שאני נדפק בלב, בלי אזהרה או הכנה. אנחנו פשוט לא מצליחים להבין איך העזת לגרום לנו להיות כזה מאוכזבים ממך. אנחנו מצפים שתחפש דרך לתקן את הנזק שגרמת! ### [Reply to @Support, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705074218029789265) · 58 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @Support is no longer available.)_ Oh, how my heart, like a fragile porcelain, shatters into a million shimmering fragments, each piece a testament to the excruciating pain that sears through my very being! A tempest of despair and anguish engulfs my soul, plunging me into the abyss of inconsolable sorrow. I beseech you, I implore you, with an intensity that can only come from the depths of my impassioned spirit, to reconsider! For in this ill-fated decision of yours, you unleash a veritable tempest of unending misfortune upon the sacred lineage of our ancestors. Alas, the venerable spirits of those who paved the path of our existence, their ethereal beings forever intertwined with our own, shall toss and turn in their eternal slumber, tormented by the unbearable weight of the abhorrent curse that will befall them through your reckless actions! How dare you, with such audacity, cast aside the weighty mantle of responsibility bestowed upon you by the very hands of destiny itself! Your defiance is an affront to the cosmic order, a flagrant disavowal of the wisdom amassed through countless generations. Woe be unto you, for the fiery serpents of regret shall coil around the chambers of your traitorous heart, their venomous fangs injecting remorse into every fiber of your despicable existence! Oh, the righteous fury that courses through my veins, a searing torrent of indignant flames demanding retribution for the grievous sins you commit! How can you be so unfeeling, so devoid of compassion, as to condemn those who came before us to a fate worse than damnation? The mere thought sends icy tendrils of dread snaking down my quivering spine, these anguished tears cascading down my anguished visage, for I am but a helpless observer to this cataclysmic betrayal, eternally marked by its indelible and unbearable agony! May the heavens tremble, their celestial bodies convulsing in fear, and may the heavens weep with unbridled anguish, for your heartless defiance knows no bounds! The anguish and suffering born from your heedless decisions, like ripples on the surface of an eternal pond, shall reverberate through the corridors of time, etching their story upon the hallowed tablets of history, forever tarnishing your name, an ominous reminder of the irreversible destruction you have carelessly wrought! In my darkest hour, fueled by the ashes of lost hope, I summon all the forces of the universe to curse you! Curse you as I curse the very essence of your existence! Curse your utter blindness to the cataclysmic consequences of your careless choices! Curse your callous disregard for the sacred river of blood coursing through your veins, now transformed into a treacherous river flowing with the tears of inconsolable lamentation! Know this, oh misguided soul, that the wrath of the heavens shall descend upon you like a merciless avalanche. The enormity of your transgressions shall bear down upon your weary shoulders, a weighty reminder of the monumental burden you bear, the legacy of despair that now festers like an incurable wound within your once-honored name! Thus, with a voice choked by the unquenchable fires of sorrow, and a heart brimming with the acrid bitterness of betrayal, I leave you with this final and mournful sentiment: May the depths of your wretchedness consume you whole, relegating you to eternal torment! May you be haunted till the end of days by the relentless ghosts of anguish and remorse, forever tormented by the indescribable pain you have callously inflicted upon the very essence of your ancestral bloodline! Oh, woe is us all! We mere mortals are nothing but helpless onlookers, condemned to bear witness to the tragic, irreparable consequences of your ill-fated decision, forever scarred by the searing pain it has unleashed upon our fragile souls! ### [Reply to @Support, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705074387777466481) · 18 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @Support is no longer available.)_ Keep circles? ### [Reply, 04:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705081455032799649) · 4 likes Me, kinda ### [Reply to @griefcliff, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705082279838552131) · 2 likes > **Griefcliff (@griefcliff):** It's 1.8125 inches > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6lDCXKawAAM6Pe.jpg) Yeah this was my first thought lol ### [Reply, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705083101305536887) · 2 likes “Would but couldn’t” ### [Reply, 04:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705083485323403640) · 22 likes This graph makes me uncomfortable ### [Reply to @mahlenr, 04:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705084038233424258) · 8 likes > **mahlen (@mahlenr):** Here you go it’s basically this guy and his team > > (quoting @nikhilbd: @patrickc I lead the team that works on comments quality. Thanks for the compliment! Techniques are generalizable, but as with everything hard, it takes a lot of focus, hard work and good decision-making to transform a space.) Similar “one tech dude + team saves the world” vibe ### [Tweet, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705085024939184407) · 3 likes Keep reminding myself that smth doesn’t actually get done just bc I put it on a todo list (it should tho) ### [Reply, 16:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705256429769183493) · 1 like (Probably not actually a good use of ur time but just in case) the whole Pigeon Hour catalog - maybe this recent episode with @freed_dfilan https://spotify.link/jlVRwPBZiDb ### [Reply, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705265619661160715) · 2 likes Lmao ### [Tweet, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705266248165048483) · 3 likes Wait is it called Fall bc leaves fall down ### [Thread, continued, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705266416255983993) · 1 like If so, yes it took me 23 years to get that ### [Tweet, 17:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705269749943324817) · 3 likes Twitter circles + All Girls Are The Same by Juice WRLD >> every therapist I’ve ever had ### [Reply, 17:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705270092299178491) · 9 likes Can’t fine the meme/graph but controlling for a given level of attractiveness this is what you’d expect ### [Reply, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705272387292299674) · 4 likes Legend has at 3 I demanded my parents buy me a Kelly Clarkson CD ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6pYMwaXwAAxa0F.jpg) ### [Reply, 17:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705275167608393991) · 3 likes Fr like really, u can’t think of \*any\*? Ranked choice voting and the wheel? Photolithography and a cucumber peeler? ### [Reply, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705287889980911719) · 133 likes Yea but humans are cool and can coordinate ### [Tweet, 18:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705293637301526843) · 3 likes 😡 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6prhi_WkAIHWyZ.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705335481028735148) · 15 likes Me: congrats on the promotion! So what do u do now? Sister: uh the exact same thing as before, just with a new title and more money (duh???) ### [Reply, 22:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705344435590975766) · 1 like <1% bc other species of animals can’t have conversations (even apes and dolphins can’t \*converse\* right ?) ### [Quote tweet, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705347745127555239) · 3 likes Good exercise for everyone, not just foom (or whatever) deniers Personally, I don’t think language models will have deduced a detailed non-linguistic model of the world, even though this is not only possible at the limit but probable this century… > **Quoting Liron Shapira (@liron):** I am begging foom deniers to post their prediction of the least impressive thing that surely AI still won’t be able to do in 12 months ### [Reply, 23:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705361701279842449) · 3 likes I keep trying to figure this out and can’t, like a parody of the corporate world Marketing, managing clients’ “accounts” (whatever that means) How this cashes out in like specific physical actions will be for the superintelligence to discern ### [Reply, 23:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705370790102008031) · 3 likes Not a central example but the beta amyloid theory of Alzheimer’s, culminating in FDA approval of aducanumab which seems to basically just not actually work ## Saturday, September 23, 2023 ### [Reply, 11:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705544130636505544) · 1 like I want one ### [Reply, 11:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705549465313038800) · 2 likes W ### [Quote tweet, 13:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705573623476449403) · 6 likes Ez ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6tqK8kXcAA8k4X.jpg) > **Quoting Startup25! (@iwontoffendyou):** Hiring our first employee today. Gave this insanely hard problem for round 1, try it out if you're free: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6klkS-W0AAIQcZ.jpg) ### [Reply to @McJesse, 17:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705640354861461840) · 175 likes > **Jesse McLaren (@McJesse):** Checked the view count on a tweet that was 999k, and now it’s at 1000k. This is the same website that wants to handle your banking. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6rnsr4bcAA4-6Q.jpg) Ngl I’d be psyched if my bank acct said that ### [Tweet, 17:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705641526485754272) · 7 likes Brown rice is a psyop ### [Tweet, 17:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705641527832186946) · 3 likes It’s extremely sus that an entire continent made a staple food out of white rice via cultural evolution over thousands of years and now white ppl are like “I’m sure there’s no good reason for that, whatever it takes to get an extra 1 gram of fiber and microgram of b2 or whatever” ### [Reply, 18:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705646774994505938) · 2 likes 🐋 ### [Reply, 18:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705647515314409586) · 4 likes Based ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 18:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705650516053651619) · 5 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 the pants sound like something that would be up your alley YES I want the Diet Coke, the aspartame of fashion. All garments shall be fundamentally illusory in nature ### [Reply, 18:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705654883293020386) · 3 likes I like to call this “the rejection process” which may be shorter or longer than usual but to within a rounding error always winds up the same ### [Tweet, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705655619573661722) · 8 likes I want ### [Tweet, 18:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705658167680483739) · 8 likes 😡 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6u3EFZWMAASJUv.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6u3EFZWgAA5acM.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6u3EFWXIAAb-Qp.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 22:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705708703750504623) · 15 likes Extremely weird that the US has many thousands of highly trained professionals with ~PhD level of knowledge/understanding of pharmacology who mostly do inventory management + miscellaneous paperwork/phone bullshit > **Quoting Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** Half my job involves doing rain-dance like rituals to please the fickle and unpredictable insurance and PBM gods > > 30 Days of US Healthcare: DIR Fees https://youtu.be/I61wCVh0Y1E?feature=shared via @YouTube ### [Reply, 22:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705709710089822211) · 18 likes Can I buy ur oysters secondhand with a slight markup ### [Reply, 23:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705731724011880944) · 2 likes Ugh ## Sunday, September 24, 2023 ### [Reply, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705752553965650283) · 2 likes Sure but it’s fundamentally an injection of uncertainty into the system where none need exist. Insofar as tipped workers make more to compensate for this, it’s coming out of customer and owner pockets Now maybe diners are willing to pay for better service by injecting precarity and then compensating for it but it’s not exogenous uncertainty that someone needs to bear as in the case of like idk fire insurance ### [Reply, 02:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1705768294148358441) · 2 likes Ate some flowers while camping in Canada. Also a lot of wild blueberries in Alaska Ohh not that kind of edible weed ### [Reply, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706020235352928608) · 2 likes 👍 ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706022942264422600) · 44 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** what are 33 fun questions which uniquely identify everyone in the world? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6ztNcMbUAAOVJV.jpg) This probably doesn’t exist unless you count “divide up the population into Y and N equally sized subgroups 33 times and identify which is urs” as fun because there’s no information theoretic slack for interestingness/fun to come in ### [Quote tweet, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706029516760441290) · 3 likes Wait why does the FDA have jurisdiction here? There are a bazillion non-Rx probiotics on Amazon > **Quoting Maxwell Tabarrok (@MTabarrok):** Invisible graveyard, cavities edition > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6yiCOWWEAAInSu.png) ### [Reply, 19:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706030992572506572) · 3 likes Thx mine just outputs “the” 99% of the time because that’s the loss minimizing prediction apparently when u have like a couple thousands parameters ### [Reply to @liminal_warmth, 20:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706040551768817720) · 4 likes > **Liminal Warmth ❤️‍🔥 (@liminal_warmth):** She said yes 💍 Ay lfg ### [Quote tweet, 20:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706043447461785992) · 3 likes I had Lyme and didn’t have to > **Quoting 𒐪 (@SHL0MS):** since the purported dental cavities vaccine is going viral, it’s a good time to remind everyone that there was a proven effective cure for Lyme disease until antivax advocacy groups forced them to take it off market > > Lyme cases in the US have roughly tripled since then > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6zLjJTXkAAUTzF.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6zLjJSWAAAwX7E.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6zLjJTWoAEC01y.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6zLjJVWwAA9Jtg.jpg) ## Monday, September 25, 2023 ### [Reply, 01:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706117469931175947) · 14 likes 1\) causality can’t run backwards in time 2\) that which reproduces more reproduces more (ie evolution by natural and sexual selection) 3\) entropy go up 4\) words mean things 5\) (p -> q) <=> (~q -> ~p) 6\) 0 < p(x) < 1 for all propositions x (once you account for uncertainty about its logical coherence) 7\) suffering is intrinsically bad and happiness is intrinsically good 8, 9, and 10 are tbd lol ### [Reply to @fasc1nate, 01:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706119247728882148) · 4 likes > **Fascinating (@fasc1nate):** A tram in the Netherlands failed to stop in time and broke through the emergency barrier. It was held up by the statue of a whale's tail. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F60GTD8WwAAGFIJ.png) Thx 🐋 ### [Tweet, 01:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706123273732260096) · 69 likes Creds to @MatthewJBar ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F61eE1-WsAI53Ea.jpg) ### [Reply, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706124299545805060) · 1 like Indeed ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 01:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706125379310612971) · 9 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 @MatthewJBar I don't get it 😞 Ngmi (Jk it’s an edited version of the Nonlinear controversy headline but line Brian is certifiably the nicest person ever) ### [Reply, 02:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706127084228055161) · 3 likes Not unless you have some tangible personal connection to anything and even then maybe not ### [Reply to @badlibtakes, 02:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706133930871591038) · 2 likes > **Midwest Mom (@badlibtakes):** Men, is this true? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6xJskSWUAA0c3Y.jpg) https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1664873052876726272?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ### [Quote tweet, 03:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706144527197569235) · 1 like R wins again > **Quoting Shriram Krishnamurthi (primary: Bluesky) (@ShriramKMurthi):** My best guess: Rust got people thinking, I want a lang > \- with useful types (no Python/C) > \- not neutered (no Go) > \- has regular state (no Haskell) > \- isn't legacy-warped (no Scala) > \- doesn't cause pain when you don't need it (no Rust) > > and that leaves… > > Is that it? ### [Reply, 03:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706148987265335498) · 2 likes Oh no we might be enemies ### [Reply, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706156010014920827) · 2 likes I mean Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revs is the only that comes to mind, but my position is basically relative to what I see other smart people espousing Like at the end of the day, I and ~everyone else agrees repeated empirical observation and results trump theory because things that happen in the world like directly matter whereas theory does not The only toy example that comes to mind is “ESP paper with apparently good methodology comes in showing that a statistically significant effect of ESP at p=.029 - what do you think is the actual likelihood that people can communicate via their minds alone and no direct sensory mediation?” I think the robustness of the whole scientific materialist worldview with respect to measurable (!) results is way stronger evidence than (and in the opposite direction of) this one result, which is probably an inevitable statistical fluke ### [Reply, 04:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706159250232287279) · 4 likes Based ### [Tweet, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706163235148210205) · 5 likes Dumb tweet probably but is there some secret lindy reason nobody else (afaik) cleans stuff mostly with rubbing alcohol? Like water doesn’t rly do anything and soap and stuff is a 2 step process but alcohol just evaporates into the ether Am I gradually poisoning myself or smth ### [Tweet, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706163236641386716) · 1 like Dw not in like enclosed places (unless I hold my breath and then run away) ### [Reply to @polisisti, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706163770442072398) · 99 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @ryxcommar bugs tho U mean smol friends ### [Reply, 04:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706164028957978745) · 1 like 🤝 (I agree it’s a false dichotomy and a simplification) ### [Reply, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706165963735830838) · 3 likes Idk whenever I try to think about causality mechanistically or rigorously my brain breaks ### [Reply, 04:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706168459665551472) · 1 like <5k (why forego higher interest?) ### [Reply, 05:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706178365793698267) · 3 likes I mean maybe u can but personally idk how to ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 05:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706182057280348649) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 25, 2023:** 1\) causality can’t run backwards in time 2) that which reproduces more reproduces more (ie evolution by natural and sexual selection) 3) entropy go up 4) words… 8\) if it works it works (implies induction, which I guess is a second principle) 9\) we (+ other minds) have no direct access to knowledge (note: we may have direct access to a information or smth else eg qualia, but not to knowledge of that info or about that thing) - this one may be contentious 10\) epistemically, information implies (ie must be conditioned on) observation broadly construed (ie no view from nowhere; anthropics is a thing) ### [Reply, 10:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706254092241166497) There is no relationship between my comment and the qt tweet - u made that up ### [Quote tweet, 11:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706263544059118051) · 6 likes Can we get this at EAG > **Quoting Peyman Milanfar (@docmilanfar):** “Our keynote speaker needs no introduction” > > the introduction: > > [video attached](https://x.com/PicturesFoIder/status/1706015728434909673/video/1) ### [Reply, 12:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706278592001245188) · 17 likes Overton window go shatter ### [Reply to @Ayegill, 12:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706283305451094127) · 1 like > **Eigil Fjeldgren Rischel - abstr/acc (@Ayegill):** 5 - legal but you can't buy them online 6 - doesn’t exist yet but could be made with a few ingredients from levels 1-3 and a Brunson burner ### [Reply to @OpenAI, 12:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706284304903336055) · 8 likes > **OpenAI (@OpenAI):** ChatGPT can now see, hear, and speak. Rolling out over next two weeks, Plus users will be able to have voice conversations with ChatGPT (iOS & Android) and to include images in conversations (all platforms). > https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt-can-now-see-hear-and-speak > > [video attached](https://x.com/OpenAI/status/1706280618429141022/video/1) O shit ### [Quote tweet, 15:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706332642356887703) · 5 likes Fun (well actually not so fun I guess) fact: a super bare bones version of this (number of animals slaughtered in the world by species and country over time) was the first interactive data thing I ever made A Shiny app (R, duh), as a project for a random data viz math elective > **Quoting Hannah Ritchie (@_HannahRitchie):** @OurWorldInData We have a data explorer where you can explore the number of animals slaughtered by type and country, live animal stocks, and various other laws and welfare standards. > > [video attached](https://x.com/_HannahRitchie/status/1706297962471510339/video/1) ### [Reply to @maybegray, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706355017660223956) · 2 likes > **maybe gray (@maybegray):** I’m flying just about as far as possible next month - please give me all your long haul travel hacks > > I want lil gadgets and survival tips and whatever you’ve got 🙏🙏🙏 If u like computer, $20 wifi on a $1000 (or whatever) flight is extremely worth it ### [Reply, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706454963721830652) · 7 likes She’s literally just walking ## Tuesday, September 26, 2023 ### [Tweet, 00:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706471170717999592) · 19 likes I firmly believe that caffeine from dark chocolate doesn’t count ### [Tweet, 00:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706471953379271022) · 3 likes O shit ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F66bMo5XMAAomeh.jpg) ### [Reply to @catehall, 00:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706472184481214758) · 17 likes > **Cate Hall 🔸 (@catehall):** could someone please just tell me what i'm meant to work on? Idk if I’m joking or not but have u applied for 80k coaching? (I’m pretty sure they’d talk to u) ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 05:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706546599596265844) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @freed_dfilan Jfc Daniel lol Daniel Aella arc ### [Reply, 06:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706558162747195708) · 1 like STOP doing physics ### [Reply to @Rainmaker1973, 16:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706711025171513746) · 1 like > **Massimo (@Rainmaker1973):** The never ending coffee > > Turkish street coffee uses a sand-filled pan: the pot, called cezve, has coffee and ground coffe inside. It 'magically' fills up almost immediately because the pan is very hot. > https://x.com/AweInspireMe/status/1706612346750193923/video/1 U know that shit good af ### [Quote tweet, 17:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706717164982747367) · 39 likes Guys I have an even bigger one ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F696N0xWwAADQdw.jpg) > **Quoting Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F67dkE-bYAAxEDi.jpg) ### [Reply, 17:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706721706880971185) · 13 likes Sorry nuke elimination, it’s Alpaca Day first and foremost ### [Tweet, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706755947291394470) · 3 likes Mysterious ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6-dfR4XkAE-0Ll.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706770107764990052) · 52 likes Wyd in this situation > **Quoting Massimo (@Rainmaker1973):** The left galaxy is the Milky way, the right one the Andromeda galaxy. This is what will happen within 4 to 5 billion years from now > > \[📹 SaltyMikan\] > https://x.com/CosmossUp/status/1234494326824148994/video/1 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706770391178317925) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Die? Ya ### [Reply to @lexfridman, 20:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706773276704334023) · 1 like > **Lex Fridman (@lexfridman):** I wish climate science & virology weren't politicized. They're super interesting topics, worth discussing openly with curiosity and humility. Same w evo psych ### [Reply, 20:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706773827236347994) · 6 likes Thanks for saving my dog from that burning building. Also good shit on the 675 deadlift ### [Reply, 21:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706782400355639424) · 2 likes If I had more chutzpah I’d make a 3 person GC and then dip ### [Reply, 21:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706786939599286320) · 1 like Start by finding a topic that’s interesting (or compelling for some other reason) ### [Reply to @krishnanrohit, 21:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706789420794564730) · 1 like > **rohit (@krishnanrohit):** Hey @Google at least try selling these things off? I will buy this off you for $10. > > Stop killing your darlings! $11 here ### [Tweet, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706789842057568658) · 9 likes I feel like ur voicemail being “full” with 10 mins of low quality audio on a device with 65GB free is a solvable problem in 2023 ### [Tweet, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706789845883113669) · 2 likes Unironically who’s working on this ### [Tweet, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706790073209909401) · 2 likes .@Apple I bet u can figure it out if u put some engineers on the task ### [Reply, 22:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706793264794464452) · 2 likes Omg ### [Reply, 22:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706794198073241715) · 3 likes Perfect 🤝 ### [Reply, 22:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706801037980369327) · 2 likes Guess I’m a RW extremist ### [Tweet, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706803532303642900) · 4 likes They were out of normie diet ginger ale so I bought some fancy ~craft~ ginger ale and now I might become a ginger ale elitist connesoiur\* accelerationist Where can I find the spiciest, pure ginger extract-pilled, eye-watering flavonoid-powered diet ginger ale? ### [Thread, continued, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706803536237891751) · 2 likes \*idk how to spell it and neither does autocorrect ### [Thread, continued, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706803545050435846) · 2 likes (U can see the corn bulb room) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6_IxlNW4AAtXmk.jpg) ## Wednesday, September 27, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706821019132993885) · 1 like Yes and also new meme pic just dropped ### [Reply, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706821482452566454) · 2 likes Here ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6_ZF4XW0AAo58e.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 00:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706822142543778029) · 3 likes Same for this and Brexit (not wrt internet obviously) > **Quoting Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** I will raise my hand and admit that I'm one of the people who thought that Net Neutrality was super important, that the internet was in danger if we got rid of it, and that I was wrong and things were fine. ### [Reply to @demiurgently, 00:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706834207035498559) · 1 like > **sydney (@demiurgently):** Tweet abt it Same ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706834883375702132) · 5 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Nope, anyone alive on any of the planets in either galaxy wouldn't notice a thing throughout the entire process, unless they lived long enough to notice the sky changing. That’s the goal (live long enough to watch sky change) ### [Quote tweet, 00:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706835328282075288) · 11 likes I want a dog but only for like a couple hours a day who’s working on this > **Quoting Chris Williamson (@ChrisWillx):** Women find men with cats to be less attractive. > > Straight men who reveal that they own a cat have a 5% lower ‘like’ rate from women on online dating. > > The ‘like’ rate for both straight & gay men who have dogs is 20% higher on average. > > A man photographed with a cat was viewed as less masculine, more neurotic and, ultimately, less datable. > > When a man asked women for their numbers, he was successful with 9% of the women he approached. > > When he was accompanied by a dog, he got three times as many. ### [Reply, 00:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706835679106191861) · 2 likes Wait there’s a way to combine dogs and walking Laura ur a genius ### [Reply, 00:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706835723293524169) · 2 likes (Bad Aristotle takes tho) ### [Reply, 01:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706836432407433549) · 4 likes Yo https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1702998037663039648?s=46&t=zFSMbdq7sUeaJ_kJen_W-g ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 01:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706838093993517106) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @PradyuPrasad is no longer available.)_ AI safety if IQ >> 200 ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706874988676932016) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** maintain a friendly relationship with the AI labs! True hope Sama forgives me for the @ilex_ulmus x Pigeon Hour episode (forthcoming) by then ### [Reply, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706876364383469888) · 4 likes BMI is 50% genetic ### [Reply, 04:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706881851321647557) · 3 likes Idk I think there’s like a U curve where if it’s in like downtown of a big city there are people out and places open and in a rural area nobody’s gonna see u but in a semi urban suburb it’s like wyd ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 04:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706882580178457042) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @ohwizenedtortle @AaronBergman18 I just walk outside at night all the time Went for a walk at like 5 am the other day on a trail bc I hadn’t internalized that sunrise was like 3 hours away not 1 hour and ngl shit was kinda scary Turns out the trope where animals lights glow in the dark CHECKS OUT. I had a headlamp but it was almost pitch black outside of the light beam till there were some eyes all of a sudden lol (it was just a deer) ### [Reply, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706882690954248697) · 2 likes Animals \*eyes lol ### [Reply to @casebash, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706913091638710436) · 4 likes > **Casebash (@casebash):** At some point there will be a movement that is a reaction to tpot/post-rationality. Any speculation on what form this might take? “Damn look at AI, the rationalists were right” ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 06:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706919557313483022) · 2 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** It was the right thing to do and it was done pretty effectively. The main problem was not taking in a ton of Afghan refugees. > > (quoting @EiratheIntern: fuckin wild that libs defend biden's afghanistan withdrawal) Big fuckin problem tho ### [Reply to @inerati, 06:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706924312970567699) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ I’m running for President as a member of the anti-puppies and apple pie party ### [Reply to @anderssandberg, 07:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706940918333395184) · 4 likes > **Anders Sandberg (@anderssandberg):** I do. Basically, carefully managed mutual catch leaving most stars in wide binaries, keeping the kinetic energy for later. Lots and lots of measurement and nudging. Cool, sounds like a plan 👍 ### [Reply to @swlkr, 08:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706954559321526635) · 4 likes > **swlkr (@swlkr):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F69_Sv-aAAAhZTV.jpg) If 👏 it’s 👏 under 👏 500 👏 GB 👏 it should 👏 be 👏 a 👏 csv ### [Reply to @billscher, 08:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706955248374305224) · 2 likes > **Bill Scher (@billscher):** America: We need to put an end to the gerontocracy so we can have fresh ideas and nice things > > Me: Here are your Senators under age 50 > > Eric Schmitt > Kyrsten Sinema > Tom Cotton > Markwayne Mullin > Josh Hawley > Katie Britt > J.D. Vance > Jon Ossoff I agree but this list does not make a compelling case lol ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 09:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706965062127145028) · 4 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** An exception from abortion restrictions in the case of rape and incest doesn’t make any sense. Any person proposing those be exceptions, but they would restrict elsewhere, is a coward who hasn’t the courage of their convictions. No, because once you account for politics it makes a ton of sense to carve out the least popular .1% of your proposal ### [Reply to @trippytensor, 09:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706965684628955333) · 2 likes > **Tripz (@trippytensor):** @AaronBergman18 @PradyuPrasad how does the AI safety grift make you money? I strongly disagree it’s a grift, but the relatively few researchers able to get hired at orgs like arc and redwood make decent low 6 figure salaries ### [Reply to @Rafi3AK, 10:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706976486928843115) · 9 likes > **Rafi (رافع) (@Rafi3AK):** @AaronBergman18 The relevant concern is obviously conserving wild bird populations, not minimizing the total number of bird deaths in the abstract. Don’t be dense. Relevant to who? Bc I think the birds care about absolute numbers ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 11:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1706998798096990301) · 3 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Sweden being too stereotypical for its own good (via @paularambles) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7B1mcwXEAAfgzE.jpg) Annoyed Swedes: Moose/acc ### [Tweet, 14:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707043384890691708) · 5 likes Think I’ve tweeted this before but there are 1000% at least tens of thousands of people who are suffering rn bc they think their prescribed medication is unavailable or illegal to dispense bc … ### [Tweet, 14:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707043387881247136) · 3 likes (1) the pharmacy didn’t contact them like usual and… 2\) if they decided to investigate further, they were told “insurance wouldn’t cover it” which in ~every other healthcare contexts means your wages would be garnered for all eternity by some institution if you tried to pay ### [Thread, continued, 14:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707043389328203877) · 4 likes BUT in this specific context, it means you’d pay like $12 instead of $7.50 for ur med, which nobody volunteers to tell you - you just have to know to ask, somehow ### [Thread, continued, 14:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707043390842380591) · 4 likes Anyway I’m down $9.04 and we (ok mainly me in this context) are so back 📈 ### [Reply to @dioscuri, 14:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707044004167065728) · 3 likes > **Henry Shevlin (@dioscuri):** @AaronBergman18 There's only one person you can call in this kind of situation. @anderssandberg, how can we prevent this? Ur not gonna believe this ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 15:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707056741039403186) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Something something weights ### [Reply to @AviSchiffmann, 16:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707069393790771652) · 43 likes > **Avi (@AviSchiffmann):** I think there would be mass suicide if UBI was rolled out Wanna bet? Serious about this, if it can be made more specific ### [Reply to @VenturaReport, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707132448159486172) · 123 likes > **Jorge Ventura Media (@VenturaReport):** On the U.S./Mexico border in Juarez we witnessed a Venezuelan family with a toddler going under the concerta wire to enter the El Paso illegally by placing cardboard on their backs to avoid being cut , the little girl can be heard crying as she goes under @NewsNation > > [video attached](https://x.com/VenturaReport/status/1706862854480244758/video/1) Jfc let ppl live here ## Thursday, September 28, 2023 ### [Reply to @HHH_Report, 09:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707325376102289758) · 38 likes > **HHH_Report (@HHH_Report):** The next batch of hastily released, poorly vetted illegal Venezuelan migrants should be lodged at your house. In fact you should be volunteering to take them in this second. “If you don’t want to personally live with a bunch of strangers you aren’t sincere about liberalizing immigration” is a take I’ve seen quite a bit that has never made any sense In fact, I’d also be annoyed if a dozen of my white US citizen friends showed up at my door with their sleeping bags rn but in both cases would be more than happy to have them live nearby, including literally next door ### [Reply, 09:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707325899937300623) · 1 like Wait fr u opened one ??? ### [Reply to @DavidDeutschOxf, 09:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707328600335093986) · 5 likes > **David Deutsch (@DavidDeutschOxf):** No force is exerted by gravity. If you hold out your arm, the only force on it is from your own muscles. > > Very few people know this. I've known physicists to deny it. > > That is why people are surprised that antimatter falls down. Wait what? I mean ur the physics guy but I was pretty sure arm molecules and earth molecules attracted each other via gravity ### [Reply to @RugbyAurelius, 09:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707330282058043737) · 2 likes > **Nic Stephenson (@RugbyAurelius):** @JEverettLearned TL;DR, to beat depression, men simply require vitamin T! \*If pre-screened for hypogonadism ### [Quote tweet, 09:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707331035699057034) · 4 likes Relatively comprehensive blood tests should be like way more common in medicine - a default that’s quick, easy and cheap to get like a flu shot rather than something you have to go out of your way to ask for > **Quoting Joseph Everett (WIL) (@JEverettLearned):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7FVcDtbkAA0EuZ.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 16:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707430711269953537) · 3 likes New pdf just dropped (direct link: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/deliver/4e180f51-en.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2Fpaper%2F4e180f51-en&mimeType=pdf) > **Quoting Michael Plant (@MichaelDPlant):** The happiness paper I refer to most, by quite a way, is the 2013 OECD report on SWB. It was \*the thing\* on measuring wellbeing. > Well, straps in folks, because the 2023 report has \*just come out\*. It will now be \*the thing\* > Read it here: > https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/subjective-well-being-measurement_4e180f51-en ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 16:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707431463426183493) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dissproportion is no longer available.)_ Based ### [Reply to @underthenettle, 16:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707433575325278404) · 1 like > **Rachel Edwards (@underthenettle):** Being overdressed is one of the best feelings in the world > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7H9rcMWQAALpmt.jpg) This but the opposite ### [Reply to @br___ian, 16:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707434105644687738) · 7 likes > **bri (@br___ian):** If your only goal today was making your day tomorrow really good, what kinds of stuff would your do? Try to buy opioids somehow ### [Reply to @nikitabier, 16:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707437402308931889) · 5 likes > **Nikita Bier (@nikitabier):** There is a huge arbitrage opportunity to find a spouse who works at Nvidia with a massively marked up compensation package. No one outside of tech knows what Nvidia is. Seduce them before it’s too late. Str8 female 18-25 well-compensated Nvidia engineers on Twitter hmu ### [Reply to @vinnerroy, 16:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707437742483714067) · 1 like > **Vince Roy (@vinnerroy):** You can ask ChatGPT to explain in a simpler way: When David Deutsch says, "No force is exerted by gravity," he's referring to this relativistic understanding of gravity. If you hold out your arm, it doesn't fall to your side because of a gravitational force pulling it down, but because your muscles are exerting a force to counteract the natural motion it would follow in the Earth's curved spacetime. Without the muscles' force, your arm would move downward following the curvature of spacetime around Earth. I think we should have stopped doing physics when Newton published his thing ### [Reply, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707438330953048383) Dear all replyers: good work, Godspeed ### [Reply to @metakuna, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707509206666862965) · 5 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** @AaronBergman18 @PseudoJonathan @ChanaMessinger @sympatheticopp @AnyaM8\_ @freed_dfilan I like how in this episode Nathan goes to the bathroom and there's just a 5 minute silence https://spotify.link/3rhrYSvitDb Oh fuck I didn’t cut that? Sorry @NathanB60857242 lol. Will fix soon ### [Reply to @sam_atis, 22:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707519998241960372) · 4 likes > **Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** @AaronBergman18 @metakuna @PseudoJonathan @ChanaMessinger @sympatheticopp @AnyaM8\_ @freed_dfilan @NathanB60857242 This is genius marketing and makes me want to listen to the episode Mandatory 5 minute bathroom break for all pigeon hour guests ### [Tweet, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707525512619253789) · 8 likes Public library having a public multi-person restroom, water bottle filling thing, and free n95 masks with no enforcement of the 4/person/day limit but plenty available seems like the most functional part of society ### [Reply, 22:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707527873895010745) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ I truly non-sarcastically don’t understand why people think illegal immigrants (or any for that matter) either need or somehow acquire “care” or hosting Like they’ll work, earn money, and use that money to buy things like food and rent. Yes their fiscal impact isn’t literally zero bc they use and therefore indirectly increase the amount of public goods provided but being unauthorized means no access to the non-public good welfare state ## Friday, September 29, 2023 ### [Reply to @esalalumbo, 00:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707560593165566343) · 2 likes > **Eli T. D. (Dialetheism Truther) (@esalalumbo):** @br\_\_\_ian Save my Vyvanse and take it all tomorrow Wonder how many days worth this would get subjectively unpleasant lol. 2 sounds great, 10 sounds bad ### [Quote tweet, 01:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707561157463023902) · 6 likes This but for productivity or performance (at whatever u care about), go Stims are off limits bc like obviously > **Quoting bri (@br___ian):** If your only goal today was making your day tomorrow really good, what kinds of stuff would your do? ### [Reply to @aliceisplaying, 01:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707563378841952273) · 14 likes > **alice (@aliceisplaying):** i just found the most incredible twitter embed bug > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7I2A8gX0AELvYA.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7I2B0fWUAAPwFe.png) Took me a minute ### [Reply to @inerati, 07:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707652115223498867) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ Bc that duration and intensity for most young healthy people is sustainable via food/glycogen + aerobic respiration without needing to tap into the other energy sources (ie ketosis or digesting ur own muscles whatever that’s called) or systems (I used to know them - basically like whatever enables ppl to do 1 pullup but not 10 or run 1 8 minute mile but not 5 in a row. Something something lactic acid and fast twitch muscle fibers), which ur brain regulates via perceived exertion But as long as you’re well below needing to use those backup sources/systems, ur brain doesn’t have to send a “this sucks” signal to itself to try to get u to stop, as it would if you were (I’m guessing) like trying to run the same distance in 25 mins Ppl who actually know stuff ahold fact check me ### [Reply to @softminus, 08:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707676343054290979) · 2 likes > **Miss Distance (@softminus):** undecided between a 13-inch M2 macbook air and a 15-inch M2 macbook air; how much do you think i might use/regret/enjoy those extra two inches? If ur not using an external monitor most of the time, 15 seems way better to me ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 11:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707720932192645626) · 4 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Indeed, I beg > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7LmecCWYAAWtt4.png) Petition to make the former meaning official starting tmr Also abolish the word “sanction” while we’re cleaning things up ### [Thread, continued, 11:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707722472974368963) · 2 likes Ok 2 likes the motion has passed @UN @apaphilosophy @MerriamWebster @POTUS @sama ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 11:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707722553018519954) · 3 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** @AaronBergman18 @metakuna @PseudoJonathan @ChanaMessinger @sympatheticopp @AnyaM8\_ @freed_dfilan lol It’s fixed now!!! ### [Quote tweet, 12:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707731726611399125) · 2 likes N=1 but seems true for me, empirically > **Quoting orca apologist (@sonikudzu):** properly curated twitter > therapy > > and i’m so serious ### [Reply, 12:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707733818092716360) · 13 likes Ur gonna unleash Neuron Count vs Demonstrated Capacities vs Secret Third Thing ft. Megapig Situation Twitter ### [Thread, continued, 12:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707733946555826601) · 2 likes But also I agree and endorse ur tweet ### [Reply to @TheZvi, 12:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707736090138878023) · 5 likes > **Zvi Mowshowitz (@TheZvi):** If the difference is causal any plausible calculation is that check-out clerks are profitable. So why are big corps choosing self-checkout anyway? Does “any plausible calculation” account for competing for customers who like self checkout? ### [Reply to @TheZvi, 13:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707756214455529545) > **Zvi Mowshowitz (@TheZvi):** I admit I did not take into account that customers might net prefer the self-checkout experience to a reasonably staffed checkout counter. My jaw would be rather on the floor if value flowed in that direction. I prefer it just bc it’s quicker (like 90% of the time for me, maybe bc it’s a good filter for having fewer things), so there’s an existence proof! ### [Thread, continued, 14:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707757215463948746) Also idk exactly how/whether this matters but plausibly theft is pretty inelastic wrt time so once you add one self kiosk, adding 100 more takes wait time to ~0 and only increases theft a bit ### [Tweet, 14:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707770649911931068) · 14 likes Asking if it’s ok to record your own Zoom/Meet job interview so you can look at it (and/or read the transcript) later and see what needs work (if matters, assume it’s for an EA-aligned nonprofit) Comments very welcome l, especially for ppl who’ve hired before! ### [Thread, continued, 15:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707772673328120217) · 3 likes Lfg unambiguous results for once ### [Reply to @sarah_micheleg, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707852160401097026) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @sarah_micheleg is no longer available.)_ Every prescription stimulant lol (dif versions of adderall/ritalin + modafinil) Nicotine gum might be ur best bet, but be warned it’s addictive (tho not carcinogenic, almost certainly). Weirdly it does nothing for me but I’ve never heard anyone else say the same ## Saturday, September 30, 2023 ### [Reply, 01:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707924218178830810) · 1 like What does it say ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 01:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707927187758739964) · 4 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @absurdlymax It's like a bird call 🪿 caw caw 🪿 ### [Tweet, 01:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707936443975323942) · 51 likes (Tbc I’m very glad OpenPhil has high standards and super competitive hiring rounds) But also lmao they really be like “we received 9,821 applications, of which only 477 reached our first-pass minimal threshold of ‘person of anomalous and extreme ability’… ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7PPJQ1WEAA_QRr.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7PPJREW8AAk6OE.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707936446466642152) · 32 likes Collectively, this cohort had over 1M research citations, 13 Nobel prizes, 411 biotech patents, and an estimated counterfactual impact of 500M early deaths prevented. A dozen had designed novel functional organism via DNA base pair specification. Ultimately we made no hire” ### [Reply to @JacquesThibs, 02:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707945493555302692) · 11 likes > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** @AaronBergman18 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7PWbkmWYAA-ghx.jpg) Even under the most optimistic assumptions, still a solid chance you get rejected ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7PXX_4XwAAszA0.jpg) ### [Reply to @niplav_site, 02:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707945831016370202) · 2 likes > **niplav (@niplav_site):** "Almost all normal form games have an odd number of Nash equilibria" > "Every graph can be embedded in ℝ³, but not in ℝ²" > "The long line exists" > > (quoting @TylerGlaiel: love math facts of the form, "every number has , except 1, 6, and 246290120935686234782345123509135756. Those are the only 3 exceptions") Fuck the long line fr ### [Reply to @EgeErdil2, 02:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707950132308701264) · 3 likes > **Ege Erdil (@EgeErdil2):** i'm sad you didn't say "chance of rejection is approximately 1/e" chance of rejection is approximately 1/e ### [Reply to @BecomingCritter, 03:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707953796062527587) · 4 likes > **critter (@BecomingCritter):** 1000 BCE pants holy fucking dope > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7PeiuAXwAAkSL0.jpg) > (quoting @historyinmemes: A 3,000-year-old pair of pants was recently unearthed in northwestern China, within a tomb. The arid desert climate contributed to the exceptional preservation of organic materials. Carbon dating has dated these pants to the period of 1261-1041 BCE, making them the world's…) Thoughts, @dieworkwear ? ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 03:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707954737356656763) · 8 likes > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** broke: ignorance > > woke: awareness > > bespoke: believing what you like in spite of all evidence to the contrary > > try it. no one can stop you. in 99% of cases it won't have any negative consequences and youll enjoy your life more fully > > (quoting @lickofcow: @eigenrobot Ignorance is truly bliss) Yea but better be damn sure it’s not in that 1% ### [Reply to @corymassimino, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707958511244587284) · 9 likes > **Cory Massimino (@corymassimino):** "The rights of children, even more than those of parents, have been systematically invaded by the state." - Murray Rothbard > > (quoting @JoshuaAtLarge: ) The insinuation that children’s rights is a euphemism for age of consent abolition or whatever is such a fucking nightmare Like how about “u can’t be assaulted by a person just bc they’re ur parent,” for example ### [Reply to @albrgr, 03:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707961466580508968) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @albrgr is no longer available.)_ Nah that totally makes sense, I don’t have any affirmative reason to think something is going wrong here - just making fun of it as an especially funny/extreme example of the usual “prestigious ea org jobs are extremely competitive” situation (which is good from an altruistic and all things considered perspective but obviously not for applicants’ personal professional goals) ### [Reply to @EgeErdil2, 03:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707965329391927439) > **Ege Erdil (@EgeErdil2):** why do you think that's a good thing High opportunity cost of OpenPhil money and selection effects for people who ~really care~ about achieving the underlying goals of the position ### [Reply to @EgeErdil2, 03:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707966975077408818) · 1 like > **Ege Erdil (@EgeErdil2):** i also really disagree with this argument in other contexts too, e.g. paying politicians less doesn't select for people who really care about the good of the country It would at some margin. Like I don’t think it would be wise to pay congresspeople $10M/year, though it should be higher than it is now (maybe ~$500k?) Also I don’t have a strong take on whether OP should be offering like 20% more. Just that I think they’d need to like 10x it to double p(hire) which seems like a bad tradeoff, but ofc I’m unsure ### [Reply to @Telegraph, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707967241575072067) · 15 likes > **The Telegraph (@Telegraph):** 🏠 One sub-section of society has become a lightning rod for righteous fury: Nimbys, but they can often be the last line of defence against greedy developers looking for a quick buck. > > Here, we explain how you can be an effective Nimby ⬇️ > https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/property/nimby-guide-take-on-developers-block-construction-planning/ Cmon you are the bad guys here lol ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 04:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707969457979539626) · 3 likes > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** what > https://x.com/Nemtastic1/status/1707966881301487814?t=mRPYBO-mi74Q7rRjuvkEnQ&s=19 You don’t have to refrigerate butter ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7PtK3KWEAAmW1G.jpg) ### [Reply to @EgeErdil2, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707970630149177382) > **Ege Erdil (@EgeErdil2):** i'm sad you didn't say "chance of rejection is approximately 1/e" Damn lol it really is. Love that u have the decimal for 1/e just cached up and ready to go ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7PuPLDWcAAmbP3.jpg) ### [Reply to @EgeErdil2, 04:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1707971674006544574) · 1 like > **Ege Erdil (@EgeErdil2):** i mean, i do have the decimal cached, but i know it's approximately 1/e because it's (1-1/1000)^1000 and 1/e is the limit of (1-1/n)^n as n -> infty I was just about to ask literally this! They should revoke my math major ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7PvL3-W4AA7uI7.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708229275269083546) · 12 likes I have to admit something I’m…a theater kid (started listening to the Hamilton soundtrack bc it’s good) ### [Thread, continued, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708229963172790577) · 3 likes Based fr ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7TaGPrWQAAaNWd.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708235593811914759) · 12 likes They should invent a new season that’s like November in terms of weather but it’s light 16 hours/day ### [Tweet, 23:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708255509327818907) · 18 likes Someone should test the conscientiousness signaling theory of education by seeing if a college graduation-implying picture gets you a wage premium on a dog walking app ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7TxVFiWMAAhTI3.jpg) ### [Reply to @el1assss, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708259367844217110) · 3 likes > **elias💀 (@el1assss):** Women🥲🥲❤ Real ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 23:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708260732104544518) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 I will DM you Update: 🚨extreme infohazard🚨 (jk it was that I look kinda young in the left pic which is true bc it’s like 2-3 years old. FYI this level of risk for feedback is extremely welcome for everything at http://admonymous.co/a or just dm or whatever) ### [Reply to @JonHaidt, 23:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708261494700319068) · 5 likes > **Jonathan Haidt (@JonHaidt):** Great 7 minute video on the mismatch between how boys learn and what schools make them do. And how we use Adderall to bridge the gap, rather than giving them what they need: more play, movement, and hands-on activity. From @Robmontz > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adN3T11AHck&ab_channel=GoodKidProductions “Adderall…more play and movement” [![GIF thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/F7T2xgOWEAAx7C_.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708261494700319068/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @BecomingCritter, 23:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708262559210524849) · 607 likes > **critter (@BecomingCritter):** Why’s it always seem like the people that get burnt out are sitting in an office working maybe 5 actual hours, and the people that are on their feet doing real work 8+ hours a day never do? Low physical activity + high cognitively mediated stress is the worst of the 4 quadrants --- End of September 2023. Previous month: [August 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-08). Next month: [October 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-10). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, October 2023 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in October 2023 and has not deleted: 798 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [September 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-09). Next month: [November 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-11). ## Sunday, October 1, 2023 ### [Reply to @JoePostingg, 00:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708271639442419815) · 26 likes > **Joe (@JoePostingg):** Diet Coke is the greatest invention in history because it's a perfect product with no trade offs. Tastes incredible. Doesn't cause cavities. Healthy for you. Contains a small dose of stimulants. Apparently phosphoric acid isn’t great for u ### [Reply to @christineist, 00:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708272194688631229) · 2 likes > **christine (@christineist):** Ok I was considering this!!!! Would be super easy to spin up if there’s interest Yeah would definitely sign up. But consider making it a shorter domain this time (than http://twitterdatingapp.com)! Long domains are functionally the same as latency ### [Reply to @depthsofwiki, 16:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708523992997323185) · 4 likes > **depths of wikipedia! (@depthsofwiki):** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superegg Megapigs ARE real, they hatch from these @Laura_k_Duffy ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708629362948423703) · 8 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @inkbrisk Believe it was @AaronBergman18 who told me about http://doc.new Disgusting?!? This is responsible for 4% of US GDP ## Monday, October 2, 2023 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 00:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708633281372004495) · 16 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @ohwizenedtortle @inkbrisk Your drive must be very unorganized 😈 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7ZI6ieWkAEi57g.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 05:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708714963001360515) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Becoming and adult is learning you should just buy a subscription to something even when you don't wanna spend money (music service) Hmm seems the price is a relevant consideration ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708715981621588193) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 It's like 8 dollars or whatever Ya but the general principle u proposed isn’t sensitive to that ### [Tweet, 05:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708716487291105293) · 39 likes Guess what this is about - did I perform surgery on myself? Do a handstand in hot coals? No, something even wilder (answer below) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7aUlvYWAAAfQ38.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708716488989827209) · 27 likes Untitled document ### [Quote tweet, 05:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708720875170566370) · 2 likes Poll below > **Quoting Loopy (@strangestloop):** here's a peek into my inner world: women women women women women women women women women women women women women women women women women women women women women women women women women women women women women women women women ### [Thread, continued, 05:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708720880161804349) · 1 like Straight men, does this basically resonate with you as true of you as well? ### [Reply to @nickmmark, 05:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708722643220746410) · 59 likes > **Nick Mark MD (@nickmmark):** This person has the right reaction. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7X7r1_boAADNPu.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7X7r2AbcAAvsms.jpg) Oof, did he survive? ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708723298148745643) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** any other wfh ppl have a pile of clothes that they move from their bed to their desk chair every night, and then from their desk chair to their bed every morning 🤝 ### [Reply to @alicealeph0, 06:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708727181415690749) · 37 likes > **alice alice (@alicealeph0):** Incredibly, he did > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7acB4NaoAAmg_I.jpg) There wasn’t even alcohol in there lol ### [Reply to @nieltown, 06:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708729261048160461) · 179 likes > **Nieltown (@nieltown):** Can someone who knows about drugs please tell me why there would be an empty vial of shingles vaccine on the ground at the park > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7Yri1GWcAAk583.jpg) Ya someone wanted a shingles vaccine and then went to the park duh ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 06:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708729427062829113) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** You know it's a random evening when: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7aWbdvXUAAs-RC.jpg) Real ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 06:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708732421019926645) · 3 likes > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** This is highest not-straight guy poll result percentage i've seen on twitter. > > Queer icon aaron bergman ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7ajFLwWMAAepYW.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 07:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708740635790876870) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @HephaistosF @austinc3301 I think give still describes it > https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/give ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7aqjaLWkAAxzuF.jpg) ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 07:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708742364464889907) · 3 likes > **Dissproportionately (@dissproportion):** Straight men, when you think of Audrey Hepburn, do you immediately think Who ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 12:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708815131956609346) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** this cat is still at large and still a prolific bird killer O shit it’s just him isn’t it ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708901880766615860) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 2, 2023:** 😈 Do ppl realize that these are the results from a search for “untitled document”? lol Only like 10% of my docs are like this ### [Reply to @ea_paddington, 17:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708901953499971635) · 3 likes > **EA Paddington 🍊🔸 (@ea_paddington):** Are you the villain from my next movie? Ya ### [Reply to @sam_atis, 17:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708903222381772955) · 7 likes > **Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** A friend of mine was complaining that everyone advises her to invest in Vanguard, but she bought a load of stock earlier this year and has lost almost half her savings. Turns out she was invested in an agrochemical company called American Vanguard, which has halved in value YTD. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7cc9OPWIAA4lt8.jpg) F ### [Reply to @junker_jo, 18:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708911289009864963) · 833 likes > **Jo (@junker_jo):** Uh I was not aware that one of the ways they do MAID is just handing you a cup of poison like Socrates > > (quoting @nickmmark: This person has the right reaction.) This is because in many (most/all?) of the laws legalizing this, a condition is that the patient has to be the sole person doing the act of ingesting whatever drugs they’re given ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 18:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708911362368250367) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ Red ### [Reply to @MarkovMagnifico, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708911923524161645) · 4 likes > **Markov (@MarkovMagnifico):** less than half the people in the US are working > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7c_b9Qa0AAEsbI.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7c_hM-boAAn_Ua.jpg) Seems…fine. Retired + kids + homemakers + disabled + education + natural rate of unemployment = a lot of ppl ### [Quote tweet, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708912848347263376) · 21 likes I am once again calling on people to read the best piece of EA criticism by a mile, https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/criticism-of-criticism-of-criticism > **Quoting Peter Berggren🔸 (@berggrenpeterm):** My (belated) take on the EA Criticism Contest: > > As much as I like Zvi, "Criticism of EA Criticism Contest" shouldn't have won. Scott Alexander's "Criticism of Criticism of Criticism" should have taken its place. But of course, it never would, because it's actually critical. ### [Quote tweet, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708913858222370943) · 4 likes Almost missed the window, phew 😅 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7dIGRaXcAAZ4Qk.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @absurdlymax @daniel_271828 U don’t start listening to every 80k episode within 20 minutes of release? Not a real EA > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5mBg6oXoAAw_m2.jpg) ### [Reply to @OneEyedAlpaca, 18:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708914893691179110) · 3 likes > **oneeyedalpaca (@OneEyedAlpaca):** tattooed wedding rings are: Cringe (positive) ### [Reply to @AppliedHedonism, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708926521602155004) · 1 like > **Dominic Weber (@AppliedHedonism):** @AaronBergman18 FBI, this guy right here! Thanks, I am indeed accepting job offers at this time ### [Reply, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708930257779065067) · 1 like $5? ### [Tweet, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708942764866462187) Added some automated readouts from my blog to Pigeon Hour because Pigeon Hour has no master Same voice as the EA Forum ones (ie the best one on AWS lol) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7diY1-WkAAbftl.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708944297771381106) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @SpacedOutMatt It's rent Michael, how much could it cost? 10 dollars? Yes (per hour) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7djyByXkAE6BWt.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708946108477522064) · 3 likes The introvert dilemma of whether to get a booster or just never see ppl inside (and n95+prayer when doing errands etc) ### [Reply to @notanastronomer, 20:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708946658581426391) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @notanastronomer is no longer available.)_ Can someone location thirstrap for somewhere with triple digit rent? Thx ### [Reply, 21:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708950177732505898) · 1 like Fr tho I want engagement (not in the influencer sense) so a non-dumb response would be very welcome ### [Reply to @ea_paddington, 21:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708950327993463275) · 3 likes > **EA Paddington 🍊🔸 (@ea_paddington):** Nice to meet you. You do know that this means you will lose at the end and you'll have to properly name your documents thereafter? This will be shown in a post-credit scene. 👍 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 22:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708966919754096729) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 Just skimming through I think I see some points I'd challenge [![Metis Metis Crypto GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/F7d4WqlWYAI_fwz.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708966919754096729/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 23:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1708989249293373571) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Ya I agree, I think @acesounderglass has some forum posts or shortforms on this ## Tuesday, October 3, 2023 ### [Reply to @reconfigurthing, 10:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709149232299434240) · 2 likes > **Elias Schmied (@reconfigurthing):** Wait what's going on? It's back? Ya winter be like that apparently ### [Reply to @BellBeakerChad, 11:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709164340853514368) · 69 likes > **ᚺÈÅᛏᚺËN (@BellBeakerChad):** Can someone explain to me the rise of girls talking about having "tummy aches"? There are memes about it and girls wear shirts like this (saw it today). Are modern women eating things that destroy their digestive system, or is this like an infantilism thing? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7Ze6CRaMAApJTI.jpg) IBS prevalence in the US is 10%+ SSRI use is probably a risk factor Insofar as it’s mostly skinny women, causality could run the other way I don’t think these explain the whole thing tho ### [Quote tweet, 11:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709165204339069266) · 8 likes First Yud came for @mealreplacer, but I did not speak bc I was not @mealreplacer... > **Quoting shakaz (@shakaz_):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7gKJyibYAA7prq.jpg) ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 17:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709263291913027800) · 4 likes > **Dissproportionately (@dissproportion):** Calendar culture war > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7g7sVeXYAALwqc.jpg) I hereby pronounce October 9 Culture War Day ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 17:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709264133365854579) · 3 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax @inkbrisk Yeah I assumed this! I was going to make a comment that this is the extension of the zoomer tendency to not use folders then I realised it was probably not the file explorer view Fr I used to use folders and then stopped except for when there’s like affirmative reason to bc for programming stuff it’s way easier when your one working directory is ur only directory Downloads go straight to the main folder as well ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 17:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709264325674705075) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Wait is this real I legit can’t tell ### [Reply to @reconfigurthing, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709264690407215414) · 2 likes > **Elias Schmied (@reconfigurthing):** Any blogpost I can mindlessly defer to or no If ur willing to stretch the definition of blog post, here are two ### [Thread, continued, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709264754420625720) · 2 likes And ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709267759584972901) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @ohwizenedtortle @inkbrisk https://www.cold-takes.com/this-cant-go-on/ Uh yes it can lol ### [Tweet, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709273400525439086) · 7 likes EA version of giving out pretzels on Halloween: “here’s some candy, but I’ll give you the chance to decline, in which case I’ll donate 100 pieces of the same thing to \[candy accepting charity\]” ### [Tweet, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709273403109134421) · 1 like (You should probably spend ur weirdness points elsewhere) ### [Tweet, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709276340459897226) · 9 likes So uh what’s does wonky $100 + 1 hour or $1000 + 10 hour personal pandemic preparation look like? ### [Thread, continued, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709276342003343510) · 4 likes Remembering how in 2020 I bought nonperishable food, masks, gloves, hydrogen peroxide, and vitamin d and NOT a humidifier or some way to seal a vent which is what I immediately wanted when my parents got sick living in the same house ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709277052967305302) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Are you thinking like a bad COVID wave or bioengineered ebola? Latter https://podcasts.google.com?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9wY3IuYXBwbGUuY29tL2lkMTI0NTAwMjk4OA%3D%3D&episode=NDQ2NGRhODQtMjVjOC00NDNmLTllMjctMzBhYzk0N2JmZWNi ### [Reply, 19:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709284727050428872) · 2 likes Generating huge amounts of electricity for months long training in a datacenter seems like it could plausibly “use” a ton of water (is 10^12 gallons the right order of magnitude? I have no idea) Scare quotes bc most of the time water is functionally renewable so who cares ### [Reply, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709288990514249800) · 1 like Levels vs rates If you run a hose from one part of the ocean to another, u can “use” infinite water without actually changing the level ### [Quote tweet, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709291785929777226) · 7 likes POV you’ve been order-of-magnitude-traumatized into having ~zero confidence in the relative sizes of anything too big or small to interact with irl > **Quoting Yishan (@yishan):** @AaronBergman18 @oudeicrat @mealreplacer No, this is not even close to being true. The ocean has a lot more water than that. This is like 9 orders of magnitude off. It’s literally less than a drop in the bucket. ### [Thread, continued, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709291788949733668) · 2 likes More mm to the moon or stars in the Milky Way? Does running a datacenter for 6 months depend on amounts of water somewhere in the electricity generation process that reasonably compare to the Pacific Ocean? Fuck if I know, man ### [Reply to @DankBankMan, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709291971490050152) · 1 like > **DankBankMan (@DankBankMan):** @yishan @AaronBergman18 @oudeicrat @mealreplacer Even if the numbers were true it’s not like sama drinks the water. Water used for cooling come right out as…warm water Ya fs that’s why it’s not obviously insane to me lol ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709293319488987507) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax @inkbrisk "All versions of Aaron's file system are wild" It’s actually all just one long text file with the binary for each thing on a new line ### [Reply to @cxgonzalez, 19:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709294097582682143) · 3 likes > **christian (@cxgonzalez):** if someone’s an illusionist about consciousness i immediately discount all their other opinions Not an illusionist but here’s why I don’t find it crazy ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7ih7DwWcAA0DO7.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7ih7DtW0AANFrx.jpg) ### [Reply, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709303016770195570) · 3 likes Tbc I share the intuition of like “cmon u can’t be wrong about that” but think it’s wrong on reflection To put it in maybe too linguistic terms, the possibility of being wrong comes in with the term “about.” Like you can’t have the wrong qualia, and indeed you experience… ### [Thread, continued, 20:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709303650466582686) · 6 likes what you experience, but once you’re forming beliefs \*about\* those things, you’re no longer talking about smth you have direct access to Another way of putting my claim is that it’s possible rn I genuinely am experiencing the sight of the color red, but in every sense am… ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 20:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709304516095402406) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** \*me trying to figure out why I still feel slightly ill-at-ease after taking an afternoon stroll while listening to a podcast\* > > the podcast: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7hkzBdXQAAS_Zw.jpg) I think I’m pretty mentally sturdy when it comes to stuff like this but I’m having to listening in 30 minute chunks lol (I can think of two other things I’ve consumed this way, it’s probably <10 in total) ### [Reply, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709305943089983852) · 5 likes Not an answer lol but in terms of fuzzies, the most altruistic thing I’ve ever done was offer a bunch of Reese’s (was in my Reese’s arc, since left) to a girl in the college library at 3am who just discovered that the vending machine didn’t work She like teared up lol ### [Reply, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709306395886047282) · 1 like Blog post plz if u do this ### [Quote tweet, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709337497191256248) · 6 likes So many dunks (and I agree you shouldn’t wear one discreetly without very good reason) but this seems…pretty cool to have and wear conspicuously + after explaining what it is to whoever ur with (??) > **Quoting anu (@anuatluru):** so we're all gonna wear a wire in public now? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7d4KVwW8AAYWqs.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7d4KVyXIAAO8kv.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7d4KVvWEAAD07_.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709338690491687319) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 Don't the cryonics people already kind of do this In the sense that they wear a necklace sometimes ya ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709338840433926578) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 3, 2023:** So many dunks (and I agree you shouldn’t wear one discreetly without very good reason) but this seems…pretty cool to have and wear conspicuously + after… Y’all have like 4 hours to convince me not to do this ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7jKndSXkAAqFuo.jpg) ### [Reply, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709339298254799144) · 1 like I don’t see a relevant difference between being wrong about the content and existence of qualia ## Wednesday, October 4, 2023 ### [Reply, 03:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709403180516205052) · 1 like Wait I didn’t know that huh ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 11:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709536559077171534) · 13 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** ik most of the people following this account did so off the back of me freaking tf out over AI and are probs not here for fit checks but I rlly need input (image in reply) Tfw answer choices aren’t a partition of the answer space ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709634839056425220) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Who would win, a thousand chicken sized AGIs or 1 AGI sized chicken? One chicken sized chicken those mf can fight ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709637390824771753) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 new EA hub idea just dropped Does he mean the restaurant or the train thing lol ### [Reply to @ThanksThoth, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709639888717393934) · 14 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ThanksThoth is no longer available.)_ Aka squinting vs not squinting lol ### [Reply to @baddestmamajama, 19:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709648538861203841) · 8 likes > **Jessica Ellis (@baddestmamajama):** My closest encounter with the mafia is I went to a starkly empty pizza place in Rhode Island once, they seemed utterly confused that I wanted a pizza, it took 45 minutes to make, they gave it to me for free, and it was the best pizza I’d ever had. Lmaoo ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709651573167497337) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** this could so easily be either a compliment or not a compliment > > the answer space is wide Uh it was just a rueful lamentation of the overlapping answer choices But if I had to choose, compliment ### [Tweet, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709653082114609611) · 52 likes I didn’t know Nate Silver was gay ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7noau2XsAAHz5q.jpg) ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 19:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709654426665779324) · 7 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** HE’S GAY?? ### [Reply to @2Philosophical_, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709669255354974226) · 4 likes > **JPA (@2Philosophical_):** “Religious people believe such whacky things!” > > \~Person who believes he lives in a simulation. Problem isn’t that it’s whacky - lots of whacky things are true. Problem is that it’s wrong! ### [Reply to @alitaylor, 20:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709672532536664310) · 4 likes > **ali (@alitaylor):** i told my doctor i wanted to lose 10lbs, and she told me to consider that my current weight might be the weight my body is most comfortable being. fascinating I mean it’s ur prerogative to do whatever u want / have whatever goals but set points are real and powerful ### [Reply to @_chair, 20:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709672719757836440) · 9 likes > **Chair (@_chair):** Idea: musicians should sell lifetime access tickets. Encourages fans to get in early, subsidizing them when they're small, ensuring that they don't get priced out of future performances if they get big. (Musician is then on the hook for venue fees when lifetime tickets are used) This is excellent ## Thursday, October 5, 2023 ### [Reply to @FPallopides, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709773887209079048) · 2 likes > **Francesca Pallopides (@FPallopides):** Why don't we just eat ATP Guessing bc it doesn’t exist naturally (why? Idk) but apparently u can https://a.co/d/bn4YwnC ### [Reply to @JeremyLGoodman, 12:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1709903861438197967) · 2 likes > **Jeremy Goodman (@JeremyLGoodman):** Life update: I'm moving to Baltimore in January to take up a position at Johns Hopkins University as an Associate Professor of Philosophy!! > > I'm unbelievably lucky to be joining this incredible department, and thrilled to be returning to Maryland/the east coast. Congratulations!! ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 20:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710024329562345497) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** I’m not gonna save the world by tweeting my silly little AI takes am I, u guys can tell me the truth Probably not but like x.1% > x% ! ### [Reply, 20:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710034660925812920) Nerd = effeminate? This doesn’t ring true at all ### [Quote tweet, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710047188653318336) · 114 likes The medical system is very helpful for surgery and when you’re too incapacitated to help yourself But as best I can tell, “normal” medicine is quite literally just following an algorithm spelled out explicitly and in detail on UpToDate > **Quoting Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply (@TylerAlterman):** It’s crazy to me that some docs get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to just quiz patients with diagnostic questionnaires and then look up on their computers what to do next ### [Thread, continued, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710047191878774923) · 24 likes Physicians may provide other functions, like gatekeeping scarce resources (~necessary evil) and non-scarce resources (unnecessary evil), signaling, a sense of authority, and literal labor (eg typing up notes for you).., ### [Thread, continued, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710047194215014826) · 26 likes but non-emergency medicine that doesn’t involve physical procedures/diagnostics (which are important, don’t get me wrong) is essentially the result of making DIY medicine illegal (FDA) or prohibitively expensive (weird insurance-regulatory reasons I don’t fully understand) ## Friday, October 6, 2023 ### [Tweet, 02:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710126075936645176) · 7 likes Gem in need of more attention from an episode on biosecurity Possibly a robustly good global health (infects humans) + development + farmed animal + quasi-longtermist wild animal + science/innovation intervention (?!) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7uWmkzXkAAzwkB.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710126078017081455) · 1 like If you think there’s a decent chance of human extinction/disempowerment in the next 10 years, eliminating the New World Screwwerm seems important to do ASAP bc we may not be able to later https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/kevin-esvelt-stealth-wildfire-pandemics/#transcript ### [Thread, continued, 02:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710126082848919995) · 1 like Someone (eg me but realistically…) should investigate and write a Forum post ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7uWm86XQAAfRn3.jpg) ### [Reply to @blndsundoll4lky, 03:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710128156479258759) · 5 likes > **K (@blndsundoll4lky):** Not even trying to brag but I'm \*this\* close to EA Pilling the largest media company in the world with payroll giving. Lfgggg ### [Reply to @CameronHolmes92, 08:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710207507052757280) · 2 likes > **Cameron Holmes (@CameronHolmes92):** Mechanistic interpretability interpretability is neglected Banger ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 08:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710207634932945362) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Banger ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 08:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710207809772556356) · 1 like > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** In case anyone was wondering: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7u9AhXbsAAT_uy.png) Lol ### [Reply to @beffjezos, 08:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710208419783680452) · 2 likes > **Beff (e/acc) (@beffjezos):** O-1 approved in 2 days 🛂🫡🦅 > 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲 > > We're so back 🚀🙌😩 > > We're all going to make it. 🙏🥹🇺🇲 I think ur wrong and intellectually dishonest about a lot of stuff but even people with those characteristics should be allowed to live in the US so 👍 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 ### [Reply to @rmbalt, 08:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710208812169244709) · 4 likes > **Rafael Bulsing (@rmbalt):** Wait what > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7uZqD8XUAAL4S4.jpg) Eh based ### [Reply to @xsphi, 08:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710211027483144414) · 1 like > **tess (@xsphi):** coming around to caffeine. when used correctly, it might unironically be one of the best stims (at least for me) Besides tolerance top tier drug fr ### [Reply to @mbateman, 14:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710299955607294229) · 3 likes > **Matt Bateman (@mbateman):** Couldn’t find 3yo this morning > > Right when I was starting to worry I see my wild daughter sitting quietly on the back porch, in pajamas, before sunrise > > me: There you are > > 3yo: Oh, hi > > 3yo: I’m just listening to birds > > 3yo: It’s nice out here > > 3yo: \*contemplates eternity\* > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7wlG5MWoAAp1md.jpg) 😌 ### [Tweet, 14:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710306441012052318) · 57 likes If I ever read and take action on my bookmarked tweets it’s gonna be so over for y’all ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 14:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710306832772657233) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** i interrupt your doomscrolling to inform everyone that there is at least a 50% chance that I will be getting a kitten, watch this space Not an alpaca, just throwing away ur comparative advantage ### [Reply to @BrianKateman, 14:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710307433669709911) · 1 like > **Brian Kateman (@BrianKateman):** Factory farms, wild animals eaten alive, digital beings enslaved by humans—if this happens, if we begin to colonize the universe, the suffering we see on Earth today will be a rounding error compared to all the suffering that is to come. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7w1VcsXsAEt3oK.jpg) Agree this is a hugely important risk but seems far from obvious it’s a “will” Pretty discrete/top-down choice what happens on mars (as opposed to eg populating a new island on earth where realistically ppl can do whatever they want) ### [Reply to @adam__isom, 15:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710310464347893767) · 2 likes > **adam ✧ ❥ ~ (@adam__isom):** @AaronBergman18 😂 I feel that. secrets to nirvana right there, in mah bookmarks Everybody needs to poast a thread ### [Quote tweet, 15:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710311367113089408) · 13 likes Get on my level 😤 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7w_H-QWoAELBK0.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** If I ever read and take action on my bookmarked tweets it’s gonna be so over for y’all ### [Quote tweet, 15:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710316895490961894) · 5 likes I’m super skeptical of this What % of the variation in food sales is explained by consumer caloric intake? All else isn’t equal - people (presumably) aren’t buying 20% of the exact same items… > **Quoting Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb):** Nonlinearity: Could Ozempick cause a deflation in the price of food? > A mere 1% drop in demand can cause a significant overload. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7w7L2nWEAANP1T.png) ### [Reply to @JeremiahDJohns, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710319246566154451) · 184 likes > **Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** obsessed with the theory that Ron DeSantis's shoes look so weird because they're hiding 4 inch heels inside > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7w2NxGXYAAjYXD.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7w2UY2WgAEgX92.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7w3QLLXAAAKsUh.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7w3Rd6WsAAd-SO.jpg) Mom bought be crazy heel things when I went to college lmao There is no way to make >1 inch look natural or be comfortable at least without a shit ton of effort. Decided just to go au natural, the way God intended 😤 ### [Reply to @mualphaxi, 16:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710326272126030196) · 8 likes > **Maxwell Meyer (@mualphaxi):** This makes soooo much sense. > > Ibram X. Kendi's brother-in-law, Macharia Edmonds, is in charge of global censorship operations at YouTube. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7xCymfWMAA9mtE.jpg) Totally unironically, this is probably just a coincidence ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 16:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710333460156404071) · 1 like > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 My 14 yo daughter will single-handedly fix this @Walmart tell ur investors to chill she’s got this ### [Tweet, 17:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710348899032989801) · 4 likes I feel like EA + (correct) ethics has pretty clear prescriptions and norms when it comes to donating vs spending income… ### [Reply to @jbendery, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710360457742078342) · 293 likes > **Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery):** Here is Glenn Beck's media outlet openly apparently trying to bully a government employee, for no real reason, who is one of the friendliest, most helpful people I've worked with over the last few years. > > 8M views. > > Why. Why do this. Just to be mean to someone? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7xAw61WEAAo_Cy.jpg) Also, not to disrespect the guy or agency (i interned there lol) but like “director of communications at Interior” isn’t like the most powerful or prestigious position in the federal govt ### [Quote tweet, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710382976314265634) · 35 likes GREAT MINDS LETS GOOO SOMEONE GET ON THIS ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7yAP-zXgAA5zwQ.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @spbaar @AndyMasley Opioid overdose as venom seems…weirdly possible. Just CRISPR some venomous snake, poppy, and tiger dna together and voila ### [Tweet, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710386199062282577) · 6 likes Going on my list of favorite podcast episodes ever. A lot more insight than just on object level biosecurity stuff, even though it’d be worth listening to for that alone https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/kevin-esvelt-stealth-wildfire-pandemics/ ### [Reply to @umm_rit_, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710390547813220767) · 7 likes > **Negative Utilitarian  (@umm_rit_):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7x-Ct2a4AAADPf.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7x-C7dbwAAyb_y.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7x-DKabMAAD3gW.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7x-DXeaEAAWsZd.jpg) How’d they generate photorealistic pics of me?? Concerning ### [Reply to @xsphi, 20:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710396745480290807) · 1 like > **tess (@xsphi):** \- cops and jails are expensive, ineffective and often counterproductive > > \- there are far superior alternatives to solving most social problems > > \- it's recently come to my attention many people one or two hops away on the social graph think I deserve to die for believing this I think there are a ton of important areas to reform but one thing jails are good at is keeping dangerous people away from others, which is an important function IMO ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 22:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710420290876977353) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** On an abstract level what do you think the reasons for disagreeing with someone's assessment of how best to donate $100 would be? > > Two I can think of: > 1)Their model of the world is off (this thing doesn't do what you expect it to) > 2)Cause prioritization is different Actually different fundamental values, superficially different values, private/illegible information of either party, “priors” whatever that means, most people don’t actually think in terms of “where is the best place I can donate”?, degree of deference to others incl implicitly ### [Quote tweet, 22:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710423040897536078) · 6 likes Commented this but deleted bc it checks out so I guess this is one type of thing ppl are reliable reporters of? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7yksKYXcAAe7ZJ.jpg) > **Quoting Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma):** Wow. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7yMNwjaUAAlbjn.jpg) ## Saturday, October 7, 2023 ### [Reply to @8chabard, 01:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710460491473068426) · 1 like > **Lysander, 8 CHA Bard (@8chabard):** do women really not realize that not all women express interest in the same manner or with the same intensity, so one woman's "obvious signal" is another woman's "friendly" and also the entire language of flirtation is built on plausible deniability i mean wtf do you expect Yes this is 100% correct. At least. ### [Reply to @OregonMapGuy, 02:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710484095296307611) · 12 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @OregonMapGuy is no longer available.)_ Wait no the total opposite. Every hunted and eaten calorie is one not raised in a factory farm ### [Reply to @girllbossing, 05:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710523628960317924) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @girllbossing is no longer available.)_ Elaborate? ### [Reply to @prerat, 05:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710524667289604158) · 3 likes > **prerat (@prerat):** a wheel of cheese so big it's impossible > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7zXdS6WsAA-smQ.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7zXdioX0AAQf29.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7zXdxCXkAAbsAo.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7zXd_YXwAAjvH3.jpg) 🐀haha haha🐀YES🧀^🧀^🧀 ### [Tweet, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710526510552015114) · 166 likes Nobody has any idea if Shakespeare is any good bc his plays are basically gibberish and should be translated into modern English as John McWhorter convincingly argues in episode 142 of the 80000 Hours Podcast with Rob Wiblin about the world’s most pressing problems ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F70Cy-kW0AA2Qr-.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710526512112300142) · 10 likes and, needless to say, how u can use ur career to solve them 👍 ### [Reply to @_djpn, 05:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710527211378295024) · 3 likes > **𝐃𝐉𝐏𝐍 (@_djpn):** @default_friend woman you going to cut out 90% of straights with this question Tf is an inseam ### [Reply to @EgeErdil2, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710537292098461972) · 2 likes > **Ege Erdil (@EgeErdil2):** this argument is just correct? > > the best people in domains where performance is objectively measurable are all alive today, e.g. see > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_world_records_in_athletics > > can you name a world record in some area which has stood for more than 100 years? > > (quoting @TrungTPhan: SBF using population statistics to argue why Shakespeare sucks is peak SBF) Yes ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 06:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710543015192699187) · 12 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** i think "basically gibberish" is an overstatement but yeah Thou art wnqkbfyegiqalvkneeehñ ### [Reply to @_djpn, 06:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710543197552730507) · 2 likes > **𝐃𝐉𝐏𝐍 (@_djpn):** @JimCHartley @default_friend they fit his waist and didn’t drag on the floor Indeed ### [Tweet, 06:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710547445023715617) · 27 likes What moron imposed such a limit anyway ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F70V1fMXcAAnEqD.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F70V1fMXsAAaWKj.jpg) ### [Reply to @sokindling, 07:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710554850868486149) · 34 likes > **otis in Bali 🌞 10/100 beats (@sokindling):** Had to try and explain "North" to a 3-year-old yesterday and it was kinda hard > > Ended up going with something like "it's like right/left/up, but for the world rather than for you" > > How else could you explain it? There are two points on earth that don’t rotate \*spins basketball on finger to demonstrate\*, and we named one “north” and one “south” ### [Thread, continued, 07:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710555338020126734) · 16 likes Wait lol that’s not right “Named one the North Pole, and called the direction that gets there the fastest “north”” ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 09:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710584271184781473) · 4 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** this is very pressing Agreed. Ur British that’s like halfway between America and Shakespeare, seems like ur well places to do a translation ### [Reply to @mmt_lvt, 09:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710585388513857809) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mmt_lvt is no longer available.)_ Idk as a general thing unfortunately 😕 Just that for me, I feel like exercising basically iff no GI issues that day and it’s extremely apparent which way causality runs ### [Reply to @Jsevillamol, 09:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710591513099436056) · 4 likes > **Jaime Sevilla (@Jsevillamol):** This is... not true? Twelfth night for example is very readable, and dare I say fun > > https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Twelfth_night.html?id=sCI4AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&gboemv=1&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false 🔫 ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 12:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710637415797325969) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** Nobody has any idea if Derek Parfit is any good bc his books are basically gibberish and should be translated into modern English as Qualy the lightbulb convincingly argues in this tweet > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Nobody has any idea if Shakespeare is any good bc his plays are basically gibberish and should be translated into modern English as John McWhorter convincingly argues in episode 142 of the 80000 Hours Podcast with Rob Wiblin about the world’s most pressing problems) Agreed ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 12:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710638280054571091) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** Nobody has any idea if Derek Parfit is any good bc his books are basically gibberish and should be translated into modern English as Qualy the lightbulb convincingly argues in this tweet > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Nobody has any idea if Shakespeare is any good bc his plays are basically gibberish and should be translated into modern English as John McWhorter convincingly argues in episode 142 of the 80000 Hours Podcast with Rob Wiblin about the world’s most pressing problems) @KeiranJHarris @robertwiblin @80000Hours when is Qualy coming on the pod? ### [Reply to @prerat, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710744722275197347) · 4 likes > **prerat (@prerat):** unrelated fun 4d fact: in four dimensions, a spinning sphere doesn't necessarily have any fixed points > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: @sokindling There are two points on earth that don’t rotate \*spins basketball on finger to demonstrate\*, and we named one “north” and one “south”) STOP doing math ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710745319997059434) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @PradyuPrasad is no longer available.)_ Deleting Hinge, I’m committed to the grind ### [Reply, 21:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710762770449432674) · 1 like Did it work? ## Sunday, October 8, 2023 ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 00:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710810107468996944) · 3 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Observation can give near-certain knowledge we're observing a straight flush, but it can't similarly give near-certain knowledge of literary greatness. Therefore, priors are more useful wrt the latter. The cases aren't analogous. Doing Gods work ### [Reply, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710813069662708191) · 1 like Sorry dude ### [Reply to @RandolphCarterZ, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710889894313079277) · 4 likes > **He-Man, Principal MLE (@RandolphCarterZ):** Warning! > > People are using this symbol ⏸️ to signal that they think releasing LLaMA-3 is fascism, and global compute policing isn't. > > Just raising awareness 🫡 I don’t think releasing llama-3 is fascism ### [Reply to @HannahPosted, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710893364701192533) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @HannahPosted is no longer available.)_ It says what it says ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 07:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1710917726770754007) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @littIeramblings @AaronBergman18 i would simply move to a country town where you can keep an alpaca😌 Or the US, land of freedom, where owning an alpaca is a constitutional right guaranteed to all ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 18:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711092952217399787) > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** Outing myself as having scrolled back on your page a bit here, but feel compelled to point out that low libido and asexuality are the not the same! asexuality is an orientation and means lack of sexual attraction, ppl can even have high libido and be asexual (or vice versa) “High libido and be asexual” [![Ronburgundy Dontbelieveyou GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/F78F9xtXcAAjqZp.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711092952217399787/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 18:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711093988239802834) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** (I’m paranoid this makes me look at slalkery, I swear I was just in various ppl’s ‘media’ sections digging for memes, and whenever I have an opinion about something I can’t keep it inside in case it makes me explode) Everyone’s a little stalkery (social media version), some ppl are just better at hiding it lol ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 19:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711097564303343657) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** did I win this argument or do u just not believe me :( [![Ronburgundy Dontbelieveyou GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/F78KKgOXIAAnunn.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711097564303343657/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Thread, continued, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711097727755460807) · 1 like Just kidding lol that seems right even if as I suspect it’s not incredibly common ### [Tweet, 19:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711100190621356525) · 2 likes \~Straight woman, on Hinge, you prefer / think you’d prefer a guy express interest by liking… ### [Thread, continued, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711100678406361225) · 2 likes It feels distinctly possible I may have been typical-minding this whole time with my strategy ### [Quote tweet, 19:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711101527769628854) · 2 likes Should I do this by linking a google form or my anonymous feedback page? Poll below > **Quoting Rachel Edwards (@underthenettle):** When you swipe left on Hinge, there should be an option to anonymously tell them why. This man probably doesn't know how badly he's shooting himself in the foot. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6DnHd5W0AAyXBe.jpg) ### [Reply, 19:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711101831709860190) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ You’re not a monster, you’re just wrong ### [Quote tweet, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711104462767411270) · 8 likes One thing the US coastal upper middle class gets very right is a strong taboo against corporal punishment > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Thread, continued, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711104465271472513) · 2 likes In 16+ years living with 3 other ppl, obviously there was plenty of conflict (in an absolute sense) I can remember yelling, cursing, crying, etc, but afaik nobody ever layered a finger (in a violent sense) on anyone else, and I’m extremely grateful for that ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711113013527228467) · 1 like > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** @AaronBergman18 "layered a finger (in a violent sense)" is my new favorite idiom Should be “laid” lol ### [Tweet, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711116738744446983) · 2 likes It’s finally t-shirt (as opposed to tank top) weather ❄️🧊❄️☃️⛄️🌨️🍂🍁 ### [Reply, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711118576768127113) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Populations don’t have emotions and memory, people do Absent the sustaining exogenous circumstances, In a liberal society with trade, the “conflict” will dissipate within like 2 generations tops ### [Reply to @MikeFHay, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711152212263453097) · 1 like > **Michael Hay 🇬🇧 ⏸️ (@MikeFHay):** I have the libertarian "all laws are ultimately enforced by violence" instinct, and I think a little exposure to that underlying violence is clarifying. I'm sure critics would say that's just cope from the trauma of corporal punishment, which did tbh feel unfair sometimes. Of all the reasons to hurt a kid, doing it to instill understanding of a fundamentally abstract notion about the mechanisms of \*state\* law enforcement seems pretty weak And corporal punishment is fundamentally different than using force to \*stop\* a crime ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 23:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711165647265075690) · 2 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** Hey y’all, I broke 100 followers so I’ll do an AMA. Can’t say I’ll necessarily answer fast, but I will try and answer them all! Drug with weird/cool/interesting pharmacology I should know about 🤓🤓🤓 ? ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 23:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711165707356873192) · 1 like > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** Hey y’all, I broke 100 followers so I’ll do an AMA. Can’t say I’ll necessarily answer fast, but I will try and answer them all! How are the cats? ## Monday, October 9, 2023 ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711175171237720163) · 3 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** Hey y’all, I broke 100 followers so I’ll do an AMA. Can’t say I’ll necessarily answer fast, but I will try and answer them all! Do u ever tell ppl you work on a pharm and then giggle internally like me rn? ### [Quote tweet, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711175316872261780) · 5 likes OOM too low imo > **Quoting Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** Hey y’all, I broke 100 followers so I’ll do an AMA. Can’t say I’ll necessarily answer fast, but I will try and answer them all! ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 01:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711189119697568080) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 What's oom? Order of magnitude = relative difference of 10x ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 03:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711228026589954224) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Fun times on the forum > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F79gV4VXIAIqxh2.png) 44 votes 😭😭😭 I didn’t see that till this post lmao ### [Quote tweet, 03:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711228332224786663) · 5 likes Comments welcome (link below) > **Quoting Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Fun times on the forum > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F79gV4VXIAIqxh2.png) ### [Thread, continued, 03:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711228333738848351) · 2 likes https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/KuByzfn6yiKMWBKmr/?commentId=8obwbMiCMFZmpQorm ### [Reply to @CineraVerinia, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711251165218812075) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @CineraVerinia is no longer available.)_ You don’t have to care more about farmed animals than the global poor to think that because of tractability and neglectedness and maybe scale the former is way more cost effective ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 05:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711254303615156570) · 2 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** one awkward thing I think the utilitarian EA answer might be to make already happy people 10x happier, which is somewhat easy bc these things tend to be exponential, rather than make an unhappy person less unhappy. But I could see why this wouldn’t be popular This vs making median person happier seems fine and probably right to me, but I’d need a lot of convincing to think that it’s morally better than ameliorating the suffering of the worst off humans (Eg painkiller access, akathesia, cluster headaches - none central to EA rn!) ### [Quote tweet, 10:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711332415036068115) · 21 likes A good take is a good take > **Quoting Beff (e/acc) (@beffjezos):** I wish they made an evening version of caffeine with a shorter half-life ### [Reply to @AFraserUrq, 13:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711372556786176266) · 2 likes > **Alastair Fraser-Urquhart (@AFraserUrq):** My most anti-EA take is I am AB+ > > (quoting @Rainmaker1973: Blood types What are compatible with others and what are not \[📹 medico.trick\] https://x.com/Levandov_2/status/1710746879904846006/video/1) Excommunicated ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 13:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711377253420999105) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dissproportion is no longer available.)_ This but the reverse ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711453510535889062) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @austinc3301 Seems fine, kids sometime want to run into traffic I am a libertarian on this matter (obligatory: joking) ### [Reply to @mimi10v3, 19:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711462583230710269) · 2 likes > **˚♡⋆mimi ˚♡⋆｡☆∴ (@mimi10v3):** lowered inhibitions are good for brainstorming (ofc mixed w caffeine & not too much) My favorite cocktail is a virgin Diet Coke and rum with extra caffeine ### [Reply to @moultano, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711463072043290823) · 5 likes > **Ryan Moulton (@moultano):** @TetraspaceWest My favorite example of the inability of onotologies to capture the variation of language was the distinct meaning of "heyyyy" vs "hey." There shouldn’t be an odd number of ys ### [Reply to @inerati, 19:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711464265033326925) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ Shoot ur shot ### [Quote tweet, 19:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711465207472546053) · 4 likes Have to wear a suit every day and people start caring if u go \*two days\* without a social event? For these reasons alone I don’t think I will ever be President > **Quoting BNO News Live (@BNODesk):** White House says Biden has no public events today, same as yesterday > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8AqcsIXEAAu2nS.png) ### [Reply to @MichaelAlleged, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711467041989808292) · 2 likes > **Michael (Allegedly) (@MichaelAlleged):** still don’t know what kubernetes is 🤝 ### [Reply to @BrockObama2024, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711467116241600624) · 2 likes > **Brock (@BrockObama2024):** @MichaelAlleged It's like docker but more complicated. Tf is docker no I won’t look it up ### [Reply to @depthsofwiki, 19:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711468438009291257) · 25 likes > **depths of wikipedia! (@depthsofwiki):** Today in 1992, a meteorite landed directly onto a 17 year old's parked Chevy Malibu in New York > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8BCaXiWYAA5QDD.jpg) Forbidden toast ### [Tweet, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711470418932981956) · 157 likes Computer ppl keep inventing new words for things Ever heard some nerd say “repository” or “repo”? Turns out they mean a fucking folder Now some mf decided to rename program/app to “container” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8BdRqCXYAAynBm.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711470420816220322) · 16 likes Idgaf if there are minute technical differences, don’t @ me ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711470521982873682) · 7 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** He He 👋 ### [Reply, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711471665878642847) · 1 like @FrostedSapling ### [Reply to @CasinoJoe92, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711473776297230692) · 2 likes > **casino joe (@CasinoJoe92):** Why does the coffee only HITTTT when the barista wants you 💀 ### [Reply, 20:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711478700561035363) · 8 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** this shouldn’t be allowed We need mass reeducation ### [Reply, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711480897864696183) · 3 likes > **Pleasure Engineer (@pleasure_engine):** It's wildly different from a folder How ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 20:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711482381255774565) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I really do feel very dumb despite this legibly being untrue Hey we’re making progress!! (I vaguely feel like the second part didn’t make it into past tweets) ### [Reply, 20:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711484441917321515) · 31 likes > **Pleasure Engineer (@pleasure_engine):** It isn't meant merely as a directory/address of storage but rather a core object in a system of keeping history, which allows traversal through time, frequently synced with a cloud repo, used for collaboration, has branches, specific metadata, various states. ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8BqB2KXYAANmht.jpg) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 20:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711486089335034106) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** I have this same problem, how to tackle 🤔 I mean a kinda socially unacceptable answer is: look up median and 75th percentile performance on like anything. Standardized tests are the most obvious but there are more qualitative reports from like the US dept of education or smth and a thousand other things ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711488349133840522) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** say that intelligence is subjective and we’re all special pls, my self worth is very fragile Well we don’t know the median score on that test or what the threshold is or how well it correlates with IQ, and \*I\* don’t know the variance of individual test sampling BUT more importantly \*intelligence isn’t a metric of human worth or intrinsic value or virtue in any sense… ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 21:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711489013364801781) > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @littIeramblings This was the inevitable outcome 👍 Lol ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 22:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711510636692132017) · 13 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** WHAT > > (quoting @calebwatney: The NSA has launched a new center on AI security https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3541838/ai-security-center-to-open-at-national-security-agency/) The NSA has launched a new center on AI security ### [Tweet, 22:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711511229385130161) · 7 likes Who can I convince to start and lead the Screwworm Elimination Project? https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/JWuPdMaPiNy7AD3AX/potentially-actionable-opportunity-eliminating-the-new-world ### [Reply to @jdan, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711513022164856903) · 44 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @jdan is no longer available.)_ Read this as "Islamic State" and I was like "yeah good point" ### [Reply to @Ayegill, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711515600810340760) · 33 likes > **Eigil Fjeldgren Rischel - abstr/acc (@Ayegill):** The ability to write LaTeX is the sign of a scholar. The ability to write LaTeX well is the sign of a wasted life. > > (quoting @proletarat: “Can you explain this gap in your resume” yeah I made it in LaTeX and I don’t know how to make the paragraph breaks smaller) A couple times a year I have reason to write latex and still copy and paste what was originally a template provided by a prof in 2019 ### [Reply to @losslandscape, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711526558882546105) · 74 likes > **losslandscape (@losslandscape):** The level of people with the "pause" icon, folks > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8BsMVabUAArimt.png) I’ll stand by the tweet on its own terms, which is a joke with a grain (ok, a few grains) of truth In non-joking terms I am well aware that none of my alleged pairs are literally/technically/formally the same ### [Thread, continued, 23:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711526952341741638) · 18 likes And tbh I have no clue what docker is so maybe that one is totally wrong lol And you’re right, I do not have any technical training or credentials in CS. Math and econ yes, which is why I have a bit of exposure to programming at all… ### [Thread, continued, 23:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711527628031639987) · 8 likes without understanding/having experience with much infrastructure (for lack of a better term) or tacit knowledge … ### [Thread, continued, 23:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711527856302334181) · 10 likes On the pause thing, yeah the arguments for existential risks from AI are extremely convincing and robust, and there are a thousand people with CS degrees and probably a hundred with ML PhDs who agree with this, although I know opinions differ on the logistics and tactical wisdom ### [Thread, continued, 23:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711527989987451011) · 5 likes Of calling for a pause on AI development (at this moment in time), even if it would be ideal in principle ### [Reply to @MikePFrank, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711528379172724775) · 22 likes > **Michael P. Frank 💻🔜♻️ (@MikePFrank):** @var_epsilon @losslandscape This has to be a joke ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 23:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711530752234357204) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** @AaronBergman18 fuck that seems really really bad - i would very much like someone to start this. this is the dream of wild animal welfare (although i expect the importance of it to be somewhat of an overestimate) I’m starting the Cyberbully @catehall Into Starting the Screwworm Elimination Project Project ## Tuesday, October 10, 2023 ### [Reply to @DigThatData, 00:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711534677276733904) > **David Marx (@digthatdata.bsky.social) (@DigThatData):** if "pause" was taken seriously in the AI research community, you'd see less attendance at AI research conferences and more discussion of philosophical issues like this at those conferences. Neither of which has happened, because AI researchers generally aren't concerned. Extremely bad outcomes aren’t smth you ignore if p=49%. Not sure if this is the most recent one but a year ago 50% of experts surveyed said p(x-risk)>10% https://aiimpacts.org/what-do-ml-researchers-think-about-ai-in-2022/ ### [Thread, continued, 00:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711534959251382358) · 2 likes Also, humans just aren’t that rational? Like ofc there are a billion social and professional incentives not to seem “alarmist” Lack of panic at conferences is some evidence, just not very much ### [Reply to @Willrandship, 00:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711536020909416613) · 3 likes > **William Shipley (@Willrandship):** @AaronBergman18 @losslandscape Eh, I'm fine with the "scripts are just text files" bit, but I would contend that these are also "just text files". > .rtf > .docx > .html > .svg Yeah (docx?) and at some level all files are ik - I’m just pointing out that when a layperson (like 99% I am for this kind of thing) hears the term “python script”, I’m pretty sure they don’t have any idea what this means or like how you’d interact with one or create/look at it ### [Reply, 00:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711536334978826662) · 5 likes > **R. Furters (@humanisque):** a repository is just a special type pf folder that you can put on github Thanks, serious q: what type of folder can’t you put there? ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711537547971563951) · 6 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Do you think the Centre for effective altruism has control over the EA community? Are you an EA? I mean some but not complete control? ### [Reply to @losslandscape, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711537730663145761) · 46 likes > **losslandscape (@losslandscape):** The level of people with the "pause" icon, folks > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8BsMVabUAArimt.png) Also I think people here might appreciate my Github profile ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8CaanxWcAAuG7e.jpg) ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 03:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711589300402364855) · 2 likes > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax no offense Aaron, but duh? wouldn’t any prominent person or significant organization explicitly affiliated with EA fit this description? Lol yeah which is why I think Max’s answer choices suck ### [Reply, 06:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711622939966116258) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** 😔 unkind & uncalled for ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8Dn_jEXUAAmKBw.jpg) ### [Reply to @wholebodyprayer, 10:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711689763961409711) · 5 likes > **rosalind lucy (@wholebodyprayer):** I know its annoying but people dont change from “feedback” they change (shed patterns) by being sincerely loved I mean there are definitely some things that change with feedback (exhibit 1 = my late unibrow) ### [Tweet, 12:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711715303795654804) · 9 likes People have very strong opinions on Shakespeare and CS terminology Ofc online culture warring isn’t new to me but usually it’s over things that are in fact important (Palestine, gender relations, AI policy), even if those arguing online can’t do much to affect the situation ### [Thread, continued, 12:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711715305821458553) · 2 likes Like \*if\* I had in fact been calling for poor people to be forced underground in the Poast That Shall Not Be Linked- which some ppl evidently thought - it would make total sense to express outrage and disgust ### [Quote tweet, 12:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711716197337629106) · 2 likes (I don’t “do” AI alignment) > **Quoting Chinar Dankhara (@chinarddankhara):** Guy who doesn't understand basics of programming doing "AI alignment" ### [Thread, continued, 12:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711716629745463315) · 4 likes Thx (pretty sure this was from the Shakespeare thing) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8E9NAlWQAAl7oi.jpg) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 13:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711728603807744330) · 4 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** what’s wrong with this? I don’t actually know what I’m talking about but the phrase “knowing more” and even “knowledge” seems to point at a Wikipedia/facts about the world type of information being stored, whereas (again idk) humans also “know” how to coordinate the contractions of a billion muscles ### [Reply to @kitten_beloved, 16:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711781570489507965) · 8 likes > **Kitten 🐈 (@kitten_beloved):** Bro thinks he can align the machine god but doesn't know what version control is for > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8FuZMbbUAAfjx5.png) > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Computer ppl keep inventing new words for things Ever heard some nerd say “repository” or “repo”? Turns out they mean a fucking folder Now some mf decided to rename program/app to “container”) Lol I wish I thought that ### [Reply to @kitten_beloved, 16:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711782184996970893) > **Kitten 🐈 (@kitten_beloved):** @politicalmath Probably at least partially parody but genuinely hard to tell It’s hyperbole - ik they’re not exactly the same thing but fr saying “x unfamiliar thing is a subset or kinda similar to y familiar thing” is way undersupplied ### [Reply, 16:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711782619292070230) · 1 like I didn’t touch GitHub in college bc I didn’t study CS lol. Stata in econ and I took one math elective that used R but I don’t think the term GitHub appeared anywhere for anything ### [Reply to @ThatShawGuy, 16:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711783398153331086) · 4 likes > **Ryan Shaw (@ThatShawGuy):** @kitten_beloved Anyone who uses “nerd” as a slur in 2023 can be immediately discounted and ignored. Didn’t even cross my mind that this would be taken as a sincere slur lol - pretty sure everyone who knows me would (accurately) characterize me as one ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711785115506929902) · 9 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 9, 2023:** Idgaf if there are minute technical differences, don’t @ me I feel like people are taking this a little too seriously ### [Tweet, 17:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1711794473615646787) · 23 likes 24 hour twitter fast starting now Y’all can dunk on me and I won’t even be here to defend myself, don’t miss this limited time offer ## Wednesday, October 11, 2023 ### [Thread, continued, 11:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712064457772306472) · 12 likes Personal identity is not continuous and so the guy who wrote that tweet^ has no jurisdiction over me ### [Reply to @catehall, 11:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712067436797689944) · 3 likes > **Cate Hall 🔸 (@catehall):** I have little energy these days for people telling me I shouldn’t bother trying X or Y because it’s not tractable. Y’all been wrong a lot before. Screwworm elimination? Not tractable, prove me wrong ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 11:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712069399920660896) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @dissproportion is no longer available.)_ One of the most based things I’ve ever read ### [Reply to @GarrettPetersen, 11:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712069477548822743) · 2 likes > **Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ (@GarrettPetersen):** My wife is in a mom group, and all the children are 2.5 years old now. Many of the girls have learned to dress themselves. Few of the boys have. And the ostensible reason is that the girls like clothes, and the boys hate them. My son is in full revolt against the concept of pants He just like me fr ### [Reply to @exdiegesis, 11:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712071620049699124) · 1 like > **Hope (@exdiegesis):** yo, aaron. ik this is part-joke, but learning to bargain w ur future-self is gd bc it mitigates myopia. if u (mostly) insist on keeping ur self-contracts (even after changing ur mind), u (mostly) won't make contracts u can't keep. hm, but it's better to try-&-fail than not try. Fuck it, ur right. 6 hours+2 hour penalty starting now ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 11:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712072053073875060) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 11, 2023:** Personal identity is not continuous and so the guy who wrote that tweet^ has no jurisdiction over me Fuck it we ball ### [Tweet, 21:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712222036150337984) · 8 likes POV: it’s kinda chilly but still sunny for the first time all year ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8MI3gdXYAEdoab.jpg) ## Thursday, October 12, 2023 ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 01:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712277879529062586) · 11 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** ok ever since I started lurking in EA/ AI safety circles I’ve noticed that ppl regularly say ‘this’ where I would usually say ‘that’, eg ‘i agree with this’ > > such a trivial observation lol but it’s just interesting to me that this phenomenon exists Lol have u encountered this one yet? ### [Reply to @amelapay, 07:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712374559683350849) · 7 likes > **Pamela J. Hobart (@amelapay):** My 7yo daughter learned to send me email 🥹 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8NQSueWIAA_prV.jpg) Well what’s the answer ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 07:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712375808323457065) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** so it’s actually not cringe enough? Uh I guess so ya ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 07:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712375892897350137) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** Omg that’s one I’ve actually started to find myself saying irl It infects all who hear it ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 08:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712379675056521223) · 3 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Last year an FBI agent showed up at my house and told me I was under arrest and to come with him. > Except it wasn't the FBI, it was a stalker impersonating the FBI and trying to kidnap me. Jfc ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 09:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712405592969502872) · 2 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Hmm, could some EA org now buy some land and build skyscraper apartments on it? > > (quoting @Scott_Wiener: BIG HOUSING NEWS: @GavinNewsom has signed our 3 housing bills: ✅ Dramatically expanding housing streamlining — no discretion, no CEQA; takes effect in SF early 2024 (SB 423) ✅ Allowing churches, nonprofit colleges, etc, to build affordable housing on their land (SB 4) … ⬇️) Build it and I will come (maybe) ### [Reply to @prerat, 10:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712410795596730821) · 3 likes > **prerat (@prerat):** im not like a regular utilitarian > im a cool utilitarian I’m not like a regular utilitarian I’m not cool either I just have heterodox views on what impartial hedonic consequentialism actually implies (in particular that it permits lexicality/non-offsetability and no vnm does not prove this wrong) ### [Reply to @peter_wilde_alt, 14:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712468998393409870) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @peter_wilde_alt is no longer available.)_ Me until a second ago: “why and how is he chatting with charity entrepreneurship?” ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 14:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712471158585733294) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** At least in undergrad I really don't think a lot of them are like, really fully adult yet in like very important ways I’m not sure if this implies I was a very mature or very immature 18 year old bc I’ve felt the same level of adultness since like 16 Tbh probably a mix of both in different ways ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 14:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712471616427577557) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @freed_dfilan @ilex_ulmus Yeah but I think kid often is used to refer to people not under 18 (original tweet in point) but child would not be used this way, which I guess we could just used 'immature adult' though this has connotations I think are worse “Young adult”? ### [Reply, 14:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712473809079648586) · 1 like No I don’t think it does: as a toy counterexample, suppose I think every state of the world in which I’m out of Diet Coke rn is worse than every state of the world where I’m not Then you can just express u(world) as a piecewise function… ### [Thread, continued, 14:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712474629372301666) · 2 likes that gets arbitrarily close to 1 from the left if no Diet Coke but as the rest of the world gets better (eg u(utopia but no DC)=.99999)) and arbitrarily close to 1 from the right if I have DC but the rest of the world gets worse (eg u(misery + DC)=1.0001) ### [Thread, continued, 14:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712475172979298425) · 2 likes The fundamental thing here is that utility functions as used in econ and stats are ~always ordinal, and there are ways to express infinitely strong preferences/values as \*ordinally\* beating everything else without straying from the real numbers ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 14:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712476378782982443) · 4 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** Isn't it the exact other way around? > > Microwaves excite water molecules, of which proportionally more are in the food. So the food gets proportionally more of the energy. > > I assume this can be true with some exotic plate materials, but for most ceramics microwaves work great? The plate can still get hot from conduction (I think that’s the right term lol) from the heated water But the meme is still wrong lol ### [Reply to @prerat, 14:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712477046537150715) · 2 likes > **prerat (@prerat):** @AaronBergman18 @summer_of_bliss i dont think it works to just order them like that, because that utility function still implies you will trade dietcoke-utility probabilistically I mean it literally works in some sense, if you’re defining a utility function to be an ordinal mapping between states of the world and some real number (and I think this is generally the definition, no?) Like I can do whatever I want - it’s my utility function ### [Thread, continued, 14:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712477405015838913) · 2 likes Like in this scenario I would give up anything else for any increase in P(Diet Coke) ### [Tweet, 14:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712478772853932219) · 4 likes You can only choose one discourse to argue with me about for the rest of eternity ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 14:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712480520117047656) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 Gonna need more context on some of these The context is esoteric deep lore, not communicable via tweet or indeed written language at all ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 16:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712507965121445892) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** I doubt anyone eats these everyday and a person occasionally indulging in an oversized cookie is srsly the least consequential thing ever, like let ppl live ffs Also lol at highlighting calories as the main problem. Like there are definitely plausible stats about the cookie that would make it seem absolutely not worth eating to me but being a normal meal size in terms of cals isn’t one of them ### [Reply to @LexerLux, 16:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712509276038508897) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @LexerLux is no longer available.)_ Yes but idk who ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 17:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712516524580188244) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** ok I’m exaggerating but ygm > > I rlly need to chill sorry idk why this has made me so mad U should make a list big list of all ur opinions and takes ### [Reply, 17:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712519927729398223) · 2 likes Put ur arm in an ice water bath and see if anything changes ### [Reply to @LingTolls, 17:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712524156149870742) · 3 likes > **Josh Steele (@LingTolls):** @AaronBergman18 @rbnmckenna86 My experience with nihilism is going to karaoke and enjoying my friends and my job. Not a big fan of ice baths though I think my point was a bit too oblique haha. Like the fact that karaoke is fun and ice baths suck is a good intuition pump for morality. Like if you could impose one or the other on a stranger, seems immoral to choose the ice water ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712530767006318723) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** John Fetterman has taken up SBF's mantle of publicly wearing shorts everywhere possible I hope I’m next in line for the throne ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712531720698744894) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** John Fetterman has taken up SBF's mantle of publicly wearing shorts everywhere possible They’re right Legs being a little cold: easy to forget about, -.01 util Legs being a little warm: impossible to ignore, never adjusts, -10^10 utils ### [Reply to @esalalumbo, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712532567147061597) · 3 likes > **Eli T. D. (Dialetheism Truther) (@esalalumbo):** @AaronBergman18 I am curious about option 2 Don’t really feel like digging up past discussions but the short version is X:= “total utilitarianism implies that (possible) states of the world or events or things can be adequately modeled as each corresponding to a real valued number of utils” ### [Quote tweet, 19:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712551335185494473) · 2 likes This is interesting but I’d love to know what the individual variance is Like what would the bottom graph look like if each man’s score was say the 90th (?) percentile bucket assigned by a random sample of n=30 (?) women > **Quoting John Potter spirit/acc (@potterlab):** What did women mean by this? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8MnZjHawAAbDJp.jpg) ### [Tweet, 23:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712607156980023548) · 8 likes Petition to make it illegal to be dark outside before 10pm ### [Thread, continued, 23:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712607318083252658) · 5 likes I think we can get this one with enough grassroots support ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712609287065747698) · 9 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 3, 2023:** Not load bearing (fox is a surprise - I’ve only seen one a handful of times) Load bearing (I’m like 80% sure it’s a raccoon and not a catbc of the tail I couldn’t really capture after seeing) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8RpEUSWwAA7iFx.jpg) ## Friday, October 13, 2023 ### [Tweet, 02:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712658248640200727) · 39 likes 🚶‍♂️🚶‍♂️🚶‍♂️ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8SVWlKX0AAxhhR.jpg) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 02:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712658398854959179) · 4 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** p(kitten) = 0%, landlord said no 😞 > > (quoting @tarzantooo: @littIeramblings Ok, your p(kitten) is 50%, but what kind of timeline are we talking here?) \*YIMBY arc commences\* ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 03:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712667895518363750) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I bet Aaron would walk circles around you with a chatgpt/ai audio generated ad Lol in the sense that I can get amazon to make the nonlinear library voice say whatever I want Not much of a rap tho ### [Thread, continued, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712674560410034631) · 2 likes 👀🔥https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/running ### [Thread, continued, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712674721525817827) · 2 likes Lol is the best 15 mins I've ever spent ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712676911367799165) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Aaron vs. LessWrong https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/4y3qcbnhSmXrk6p34 🔫 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712677229044412683) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @ohwizenedtortle @JesseTayRiver Thank you Also I just remembered u mentioning smth about audio for ur blog. Happy to make readouts using this if u want itll take me like 5 mins ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 04:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712684840821121174) · 2 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** @AaronBergman18 Tho for the record I was not really running by mile 9 > > It may have taken like 2 and a half hours. Being out paced by 60 yo men who started later than one self is a mood Well u woulda outpaced me ### [Tweet, 06:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712718500689531192) · 6 likes Found in a dark corner of Google Photos, for the entertainment of the masses: https://youtu.be/qR4NTD2BKmI?si=VhmSstbrbdZQJqI_ ### [Reply to @CharlesD353, 06:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712722175201808503) · 2 likes > **Charles🔸 (@CharlesD353):** @AaronBergman18 Why wouldn't you listen to podcasts and audiobooks while running? I feel like I max out nerdiness in a ton of ways, but for some reason workout + concentration/attempted learning is just too much lol Very impressed when other ppl do that ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 07:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712734045098983620) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** So the world didn't end then. Awkward. Time for this round 2 🤞 ### [Reply to @bellaforristal, 08:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712745243940930038) · 2 likes > **Bella Forristal 🔸 (@bellaforristal):** Not confident, but.... I \*think\* the joke is about the one room with blue lights. There's a meme that twinks use weird coloured lights to take photos (maybe nudes?) with? I have never heard this meme and doubt I ever will again ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 14:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712843166250905820) · 2 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** @AaronBergman18 Could you name some of the local fauna who you’ve befriended? Steve, Marcus, Andrea, Kim ### [Quote tweet, 14:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712844509359349860) · 12 likes Help I’ve been shot > **Quoting sarah (@littIeramblings):** almost 4 yrs post-zoom revolution and \*still\* nobody can resist the overwhelming urge to say “hopefully this works” to fill the 0.5 seconds it takes to share their screen ### [Reply to @harry_taussig, 15:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712854987376586922) · 21 likes > **Harry Taussig 🐘 (@harry_taussig):** yknow how you can't decide to "do" sleep, and you can only create the conditions for it and see what happens? > > Yeah that's also how everything else works Counterpoint: diphenhydramine + melatonin ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 16:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712865294874452268) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 13, 2023:** Steve, Marcus, Andrea, Kim Proof (Marcus on the left, his cousin Julie on the right) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8VR4FUXsAAELxT.jpg) ### [Reply to @harry_taussig, 16:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712873699504759090) · 6 likes > **Harry Taussig 🐘 (@harry_taussig):** @AaronBergman18 sounds like cultivating the conditions of your body and brain to be conducive to health and sleep to me > > (but also I agree with you and "doing" has it's place in life for sure) I’m mostly joking and think ur point is underrated as a rule of thumb lol ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712876492034543751) · 1 like > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** He won't get in a vehicle unless I kneel down and give him a hug first. Probably too indulgent and not good dog ownership > > [video attached](https://x.com/JesseTayRiver/status/1712874702413136009/video/1) Based ### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 19:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712910153542926453) · 7 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** As you may know, I disagree with @elonmusk about some large issues--so worth highlighting that Community Notes seems to me like an incredible smashing home run of a feature. It works far better than I'd have predicted. IMO it justifies the entire Twitter purchase. ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712927001277796683) · 16 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Consider this: What if AI alignment just doesn't happen? Hate to be that guy but rounding this to a binary choice probably isn’t a useful simplification ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 23:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712974555055063430) · 5 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @AaronBergman18 Say more Being lazy but here's a ramble summary ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8W1MlzXEAAQdbH.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 23:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712974838715797931) · 2 likes Emphasis on the last paragraph which gets cut off for preview: I'm extremely amateur here and ppl should correct me if I'm wrong ## Saturday, October 14, 2023 ### [Reply to @burrhhh, 00:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1712993790217109566) · 2 likes > **ℝyan @ COLM 26’ (@burrhhh):** The answer is counterintuitively the larger one. > > The set of possibilities is: > > {Equally many, More boys, More girls} > > Pr(More boys) = Pr(More girls) > > But for the smaller hospital, the Pr(Equally many) is higher. Correct answer right here ### [Quote tweet, 01:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713001136620241151) · 5 likes That is the face of a fish who has seen too much > **Quoting depths of wikipedia! (@depthsofwiki):** when I realized there are fish swimming around right now who lived in a world before beethoven's ninth symphony I had to stare at a wall for a minute and collect myself > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8WVDXkWYAAnfL0.jpg) ### [Reply to @trunarla, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713003616712134734) · 4 likes > **˗ˏˋmewtru´ˎ˗ (@trunarla):** Just remembering when I interviewed for Google for an entry level swe job and I had to do 7-8 rounds of interviews. Is that really necessary 😅??? Don’t give EA orgs any ideas ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 05:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713066285569904759) · 5 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** I particularly enjoyed this line-- take it from this Chinese news article! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8YIMaiaAAA4_ES.jpg) > (quoting @ilex_ulmus: \[Google translated from Chinese\] "Open model weights are accused of causing AI to get out of control. Meta was protested with placards. LeCun: The open source AI community is in full swing."…) Lol I’d love to come across a line in smth in a language I don’t understand at all with my name just conspicuously in the middle ### [Reply to @littmath, 05:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713066477991969254) > **Daniel Litt (@littmath):** Uber driver from the airport last night found out I was a mathematician and started excitedly asking me about spherical trigonometry. Over the course of the ride it slowly dawned on me that he was trying to persuade me that the Earth is flat. Is he right ### [Reply to @crystalxduan, 05:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713069554119717303) · 2 likes > **das überkristall (@crystalxduan):** How old were you when you realized you only have one party a weekend in you now Probably like 11 ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 06:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713072391843189080) · 1 like > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @freed_dfilan Give it goals of your choosing? And that was how the universe was tiled with humanoid robot submarines sprinting back and forth down pool lanes ### [Reply to @adam__isom, 06:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713073537664119236) · 3 likes > **adam ✧ ❥ ~ (@adam__isom):** make a wish Below my cost effectiveness funding threshold ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 06:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713075509293093351) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 14, 2023:** And that was how the universe was tiled with humanoid robot submarines sprinting back and forth down pool lanes One of these is not like the others ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8YRGNoW8AEDmrM.jpg) ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 06:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713076535194776057) · 2 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @AaronBergman18 @freed_dfilan lol all your biggest fans 😏 ### [Reply to @avaa411, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713076771640185041) · 2 likes > **avantika (@avaa411):** 16 y/o me really thought this was the end.. happy international failure (/ take more risks) day > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8YP2KkXgAAxmNq.jpg) I feel this in my soul ### [Tweet, 06:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713079416660639780) · 4 likes ChatGPT-4 (have a better name?) and airplanes are the two pieces of technology that viscerally seem like magic to me ### [Quote tweet, 06:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713084959412338821) · 3 likes This is my career plan wrt ea orgs > **Quoting Trung Phan (@TrungTPhan):** underrated corporate career-building move > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8VhLFbb0AA9GvU.jpg) ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 06:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713087144854503819) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ Real ### [Reply to @4confusedemoji, 06:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713087221706727873) · 4 likes > **olivia (@4confusedemoji):** i was going through my email looking for historical notes from berkeley rat times, and i saw an ad for a room for rent in a group house that was specifically advertised as having whiteboard walls. Based ### [Reply, 07:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713089891536429397) · 1 like Lol these are in many ways opposites but at a fundamental level we really don’t have explanations for why electromagnetism (or quarks, or any fundamental thing) exists so you’re closer to being literally right ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 08:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713103599314579948) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** 🤞🤞🤞 New alignment strategy everyone cross ur fingers (and toes if ur dedicated) rly hard ### [Quote tweet, 08:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713105252096905442) · 11 likes Moral of the story: run for office only if you don’t want to > **Quoting Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill):** In one of the most surprising findings in the history of science, new research reveals that people who run for political office are more narcissistic than the average citizen. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2023.102672 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8Ymc8VbUAAz4sU.png) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 08:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713110407450136702) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** where are all the EAs begrudgingly running for office Somewhere in Pennsylvania I think (wherever @JesseTayRiver is) (But also in the future) ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 09:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713129552547881287) · 3 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** wow. unfollowing now. I knew about the meth empire, just found out about the chain of fried chicken restaurants > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8Y591cWoAAJLDF.jpg) Tragic: qualy made a reference I don’t understand ### [Reply to @lawhsw, 10:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713144339054919728) · 2 likes > **harry law (hopfield network truther) (@lawhsw):** for new followers, I write a weekly newsletter on ai policy, ethics, governance etc if you’re into that sort of thing > > https://www.learningfromexamples.com/p/the-week-in-examples-8-14-october Nominative determinism strikes again ## Sunday, October 15, 2023 ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713410635214504079) · 1 like > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** How to find hot single assistant professors in my area Hinge? ### [Quote tweet, 04:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713412409069588804) · 8 likes Kant was right > **Quoting JW (@JWepp):** what would you post? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8U8wUPWAAE1gHl.jpg) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 05:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713419556453007580) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** wait till u hear about the mega sloth ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 17:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713610036105076920) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** GOOD AFTERNOON HAPPY SUNDAY > > I baked a cake 😊 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8ez3ZQW8AADf4m.jpg) ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 17:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713610337801437402) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Goss 👀 ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 17:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713611530971861186) > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** Hm is that a good or bad thing Good if you really like the color beige ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 17:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713612217348694150) > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** lol me and my housemates have a thing where if any of us are cooking chips/ nuggets/ hash browns etc and are willing to share we say “I’m putting some beige in the oven” Ok it checks out ur definitely British ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713617611718594817) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @QualyThe @AaronBergman18 walk Walk ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713618332849516674) · 2 likes > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax @QualyThe Can't imagine you walking without audio Ya this trend isn’t for me. I’m a nonsilent Walker ## Monday, October 16, 2023 ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713745001404940427) · 3 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Explain the t-distribution as you might to a Golden Retriever > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8hk2ODWMAEDy2A.jpg) “All you need to know is to fetch the ball and have fun” ### [Quote tweet, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713747268560433350) · 12 likes Noooo turbulence is so much fun 😭 > **Quoting Yves Remmler (@YvesRemmler):** Turbulence free flights are coming soon! > > [video attached](https://x.com/YvesRemmler/status/1713310384554131516/video/1) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 02:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713749811197813169) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 I feel like your personal utility function might be the most different from average of anyone I know Lol but it’s not entirely disjoint! ### [Reply to @esceydabulyu, 12:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713900607793193105) · 2 likes > **Lark (@esceydabulyu):** Trying to prove something and I am stuck at "Let". It has never been so over “Let \[thing ur trying to prove\]” Congrats ur done ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 13:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713905159959441694) · 8 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** What are some smaller/underrated EA twitter accounts? @FrostedSapling Also all of EA Twitter is underrated relative to the world at large ### [Reply to @benleo_econ, 13:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713905294554612105) · 3 likes > **Ben Grodeck🔸 (@benleo_econ):** @QualyThe @qualythe Unironically ### [Reply to @jdcmedlock, 13:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713908610210611580) · 1 like > **James Medlock (@jdcmedlock):** @ryxcommar Shoutout to liquids, fr gotta be one of my favorite states of matter 🙏 Nah Bose Einstein condensate is a real one ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 17:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713968391625564509) · 5 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @SpacedOutMatt @AaronBergman18 I also think that on my median flight I would enjoy about 5% more turbulence One of us 🤝 ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 17:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713970406598611187) · 16 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** I think we should be confronting people for being cowards more. We shouldn’t be like “oh, I get it, they make a lot of money in their risky job”. > > It’s not okay to have a job you think could end the world because it pays well. If you do this, you suck. You are bad. > > (quoting @AISafetyMemes: Me: Hey what do you do Them: I'm an AI engineer Me: p(doom)? Them: 40% My brain: Don't say it... Don't say it.... Don't say it... Don't say it... Don't say it... Don't say it... Don't say it... Don't say it... Don't say it... Don't say it... Don't say it... Don't say it... Don't…) I’m not sure this would actually be effective. My intuition is that it would not be unless done in a very friendly way that “confront for being a coward” doesn’t evoke lol ### [Reply, 17:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713973476342538610) · 2 likes Yes lol ### [Reply to @alistair___s, 17:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713975037407969588) · 2 likes > **Alistair Stewart (@alistair___s):** I don't dispute there's some truth to what you're saying, but I think this kind of thinking is part of the reason why pro-pause advocacy isn't succeeding as much as it could/should be atm. Sometimes you just gotta tell the truth, however uncomfortable it is > > 1/2 I basically agree at the movement level but like no, if the “aggressively consequentialist” thing to do is to be interpersonally very kind then that is the thing to do It’s an empirical question what is in fact the most promising interpersonal stance to take ### [Tweet, 17:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713977551243141213) · 12 likes \> asks a guy to come on Pigeon Hour: \*doesn’t ask what we’ll talk about, ready to sling opinions and takes on every possible topic, hopes an intellectual rival will be on too so they can fistfight it out on air” ### [Thread, continued, 17:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713977552862105963) · 14 likes \> asks a woman who I’ve had multiple interesting conversations with: “noooooo I don’t have any beliefs or knowledge worthy of the dozen-listener pod. Maybe in a few years after I develop one interesting thing to say (p≈.2) bc now I have none, what if I say smth wrong nooooooo” ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713980636409610370) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** 🙄 Ikr u should have a word with such women ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713981707886490085) · 8 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 16, 2023:** \> asks a woman who I’ve had multiple interesting conversations with: “noooooo I don’t have any beliefs or knowledge worthy of the dozen-listener pod. Maybe in… If y’all need female role models, @Laura_k_Duffy and @ilex_ulmus are some exceptions to the above ### [Reply, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1713984026137002319) · 1 like It doesn’t seem mocking in a negative way to me but ofc I could be wrong Is the tone in the tweets above inappropriate? ### [Reply to @ChrisLloyd__, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714004333325340736) · 2 likes > **Chris (@ChrisLloyd__):** Had an EA acquaintance I don't even know that well offer to poke holes in my career plans tomorrow. > > Like, how generous??? Feeling very grateful 😊 Relatable (see the first pic) ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714007217924362475) · 39 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** Most of the successful founders I know are fueled essentially by romantic rejections they had in their early teens. I think our economy might largely be running on the disgust response of 15yo girls This is why I grind 😤 ### [Reply to @bwbbx, 20:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714020392896020907) · 2 likes > **Bobby (@bwbbx):** Should have tried a ring pop Good point. Next time I’ll go with this ### [Reply to @QiaochuYuan, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714052169714810914) · 28 likes > **QC (@QiaochuYuan):** most social interactions i have with people happen somewhat too fast. like i can’t quite process what’s happening in real time. is there a word for this? Autism? Not joking lol ### [Reply to @BowTieOrangeGuy, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714064968138539414) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @BowTieOrangeGuy is no longer available.)_ @ohwizenedtortle ? ## Tuesday, October 17, 2023 ### [Reply to @JosephPera, 01:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714086515544891656) · 21 likes > **Joe Pera (@JosephPera):** had to share this sale with you: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8lBzjjXEAA5JEl.jpg) This reaches Giffen Good status for me. Think I’d rather have 1 for $1 bc like why ### [Reply to @tautologer, 01:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714088379153825972) · 2 likes > **tautologer (@tautologer):** purple, slimy, sharp, stinky, lush, ouch, salty, firm, lurch, fuzzy, green, smoky, dizzy, desperate, warm, blinding, wobbly, spicy, sticky, angry, distant, slippery, elated, squishy, blue, rasping, sweet, gnawing, buoyant, fresh, smooth, tickle, looming, stuffed, hopeful, red... Ur missing like 3 or 4 ### [Tweet, 01:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714088952330654043) · 7 likes Pajama pants have been dug out of the Big Pile of Clothes. It’s officially Fall ☃️ ### [Reply to @pronounced_kyle, 02:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714101215431172204) · 5 likes > **Christian Keil (@pronounced_kyle):** All new tech is scary, it's not just AI. > > • trains — the female body was feared to not be able to go over 50 mph, lest the uterus "fly out of the body" > > • subways — going underground was cursed because it brought you "closer to the devil" > > • elevators — early riders got "elevator sickness" (physically ill) out of hysterical fear > > Debatably, AI is the least scary invention on this list. The ones above all actually harmed people. Jfc you have to actually look at the object level arguments, not \*just\* pattern match. On priors we shouldn’t have been afraid of Thalidomide either! ### [Tweet, 02:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714101893205459333) · 5 likes Pigeon Hour with @ilex_ulmus is out! Substack with full transcript here, Spotify and Apple Podcast links below https://open.substack.com/pub/aaronbergman/p/podcast-holly-elmore-on-ai-pause?r=2muv6&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714102729319027061) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I don't think it's for the same reasons, but I had a blog post half finished about how sometimes feel like I don't have a soul, so I felt kinda sad for SBF when he said this about himself Well u don’t (neither does anyone) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714107709555880383) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FthM7HYWAAEAtmn.jpg) > (quoting @AaronBergman18: I won't go down without a fight) I bet this would be funny if I had any connotations or experience or anything whatsoever with Fortran ### [Reply to @maiamindel, 02:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714108998264258711) · 3 likes > **Maia (@maiamindel):** Boygenius > Fiona Apple > David Bowie > Olivia Rodrigo > Janelle Monae > MUNA > Kate Bush > Grace Jones > Leonard Cohen > Mitski > > (quoting @Capt__jade: Quote this with your top 10 favorite artistes and let your mutuals grade your music taste over 10) I’ve heard of 3 of these? Fiona Apple sounds like what Trump would call Tim Cook’s nonexistent wife ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 02:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714113731431448926) · 4 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @JesseTayRiver @absurdlymax @AaronBergman18 No the joke is that F77 is more chad than even R ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8nBWjsXEAAjzwd.jpg) ### [Reply to @generativist, 11:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714237376816349239) · 1 like > **johnny, INFINITE FUN ENTHUSIAST (@generativist):** kind of guy who wants to try ozempic not to lose weight but just to see what these cognitive effects are really like (me) ### [Reply to @SarahWieten, 15:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714297200996471078) · 5 likes > **Sarah Wieten @sarahwieten.bsky.social (@SarahWieten):** My students are apparently all already anti-realists. Now what will I do with the rest of the term? I can fix them ### [Reply to @ylecun, 15:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714298345596871065) · 2 likes > **Yann LeCun (@ylecun):** Knee-jerk panics about the deployment of new technology are nothing new. > Even from scientists calling for bans. > > (quoting @PessimistsArc: The EU thought GMOs were an existential risk. Putting a moratorium on them, then massively over-regulating. They’re only now walking some of it back.) Gonna start just copy and pasting this bc it’s become a whole genre of tweet ### [Reply to @notanastronomer, 15:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714307922501456354) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @notanastronomer is no longer available.)_ This reply has been coming in handy recently ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 17:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714333463946445137) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I should go on a hike We can hit the Appalachian Trail and meet halfway ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 17:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714333643093442618) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @absurdlymax > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8p70uZXkAYR2U2.jpg) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 17:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714339741380833515) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @absurdlymax Different reasons tho. You want to prevent lock-in. I want to prevent this person from doing work that could block my ascendance to global domination So you \*are\* running for office? ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 18:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714340908844335384) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ The emotions evoked by the word "beans" can vary depending on individual perspectives and cultural backgrounds. However, words that might evoke similar emotions could include: 1\. Lentils 2\. Rice 3\. Peas 4\. Corn 5\. Veggies 6\. Potatoes 7\. Grains 8\. Nuts 9\. Cabbage 10\. Pasta ### [Tweet, 20:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714373540718276990) · 17 likes When someone asks via gig work app if you can walk their dog for 30 minutes for $18 for the first time ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8qtpYSW0AAxbZS.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8qtpYMXgAEjF7l.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714375159535022450) · 6 likes If I walk dogs for ~79,000 years straight, we’ll be back in peak SBF funding territory ### [Tweet, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714378662496063604) · 164 likes 6’ guy who says he’s 5’11” on Hinge to filter out women who don’t understand adverse selection ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 20:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714379166454259875) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Real ### [Reply to @metakuna, 23:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714421451153945038) · 9 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** @AaronBergman18 noooo you can't just call everything selection related adverse selection > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8rIQ_6WUAAeC41.jpg) Haha adverse selection go \*select\* ## Wednesday, October 18, 2023 ### [Tweet, 02:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714472637831799083) · 11 likes Congrats (and jfc?) to @learnnontrivial for being more selective than \*checks notes\* literally every college on earth, ever (afaict) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8sGXqiXcAAT4Oq.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8sGXqfWgAInNhy.png) ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714522563450134819) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @absurdlymax Community Note: This is correct. We \*are\* so back. Max plz do this ### [Reply to @CarsonJGale, 06:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714522808791810393) · 23 likes > **Carson Gale (@CarsonJGale):** Asking someone to pick you up from the airport is very odd. It's basically assuming that their time is worth 2x less (there/back) the cost of the Uber/public transit alternative\*, and it's often at an inconvenient time! Wait till u hear about giving gifts other than cash ### [Reply to @Astatide42, 06:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714523068561809918) · 2 likes > **Astatide (@Astatide42):** Suddenly the air smells like winter, why is that? > > Is it just the temperature playing with my nose receptors/changing the air's texture, or is a more secret third chemical thing going on? 👀👀👀👀👀👀 i honestly would buy the shit out of pure Winter Smell ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714523665675477426) · 2 likes > **Dissproportionately (@dissproportion):** Hard to believe there were any hot women at all before Pilates and celery juice were invented. Is celery juice a thing? Apparently it’s an aromatase inhibitor ### [Reply to @datepsych, 09:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714571785885102462) · 21 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @datepsych is no longer available.)_ In ~6th grade I saved a random mouse bc bro was climbing up the side of a building and I got worried it would fall and so held my coat out underneath him as like a cushion, which he indeed fell into from several stories up ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8th8uYWoAAgF6A.jpg) ### [Reply, 09:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714576111340794063) · 1 like A neanderthal bc genetics ### [Reply to @beffjezos, 09:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714578821834252365) · 2 likes > **Beff (e/acc) (@beffjezos):** Housing price inflation > Education quality decrease > Healthcare price inflation > Poor infrastructure > Energy scarcity > > All are causes of pain and death. > All the work of centralizing Decels. > All could be addressed with techno-capital acceleration. > > It's never ok to decelerate. Hey we agree on everything except AGI! ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 10:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714584619666878767) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @JoshuaBlake\_ You know you want some of my limited edition summer berry pavlova Bailey's Tf is pavlova ### [Reply to @Aizazadi_, 10:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714586011378831550) · 2 likes > **Aizazadi (@Aizazadi_):** @AaronBergman18 @ohwizenedtortle @JoshuaBlake\_ Pavlov's wife Ah ### [Reply to @parafactual, 10:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714586826315338209) · 1 like > **You (@parafactual):** i'm vegan (in every case except this) > > @sayestheorem offered to donate $20 to an animal welfare charity of my choice, in exchange for me eating a steak and posting about it. so i did > > it felt gross,i felt bad about it. but i followed through because otherwise i would be defecting > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8oQkTQacAAnnra.jpg) Endorsed ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 11:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714604292902990129) · 1 like > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** @sanjehorah you are not the first person to tell me ~this What ### [Reply, 11:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714604655538217098) · 3 likes Whatever it takes to raise the birth rate 😳 ### [Reply to @shauseth, 11:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714606615783956693) · 2 likes > **shaurya (@shauseth):** (2mins after meeting a girl) marriage was achieved internally Real ### [Reply to @made_in_cosmos, 11:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714608173770768839) · 17 likes > **Maria Made in Cosmos is taking a break✨ (@made_in_cosmos):** Are there any reasonable grownup men on this planet working with teenage boys? Seeing yet another workshop about supporting adolescent boys ran by 3 women, and I don't know if they haven't found any guy with expertise in this topic, or if it didn't occur to them to look for one. I don’t really know what I’m talking about but I suspect the answer is “yes, but not in such a way that ‘adolescent support’ is the explicit goal” ### [Reply, 12:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714617271795027991) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Apparently this is the actual function of this norm lol ### [Quote tweet, 12:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714620125448429704) · 5 likes Sweatshirt has been dug out of the Medium Sized Pile of Clothes in the Thing. It’s officially winter ☃️ > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Pajama pants have been dug out of the Big Pile of Clothes. It’s officially Fall ☃️ ### [Tweet, 12:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714625808671674399) · 34 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8uTFTYXEAAPPIM.jpg) ### [Reply to @Joe_Highlands, 14:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714643938311561646) · 2 likes > **Joe Perry-Highlands (@Joe_Highlands):** @AaronBergman18 @datepsych Thank you for your service. > > [GIF attached](https://x.com/Joe_Highlands/status/1714634607805563360/photo/1) 🫡 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 14:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714652780109992020) · 11 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** If one more person says this I'm going to unplug the 1st amendment > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8uj7kzW4AATjhu.png) 2x2: EA is/is not a form of utilitarianism and it should/shouldn’t be ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 16:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714686606718681560) · 6 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** This is about the dog walking isn’t it Ya - ur a smart one ### [Reply to @metakuna, 17:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714689094821777813) · 1 like > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** @CarsonJGale @AaronBergman18 I feel like this is an important lesson I need to pass down Ngl I don’t understand what the lesson is but I’m all here for it ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 17:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714693115980726494) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** A question for laypeople. Using reasoning alone, does this seem compelling? Why or why not? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8u8STXW8AA9HBT.png) No bc if it was you wouldn’t be poasting about it ### [Reply to @ShakeelHashim, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714696492928180723) · 7 likes > **Shakeel (@ShakeelHashim):** @SpencerKSchiff I think that's unnecessarily rude Eh I mean I wouldn’t say that to their face but it seems basically right ### [Reply to @vividvoid, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714696768112283705) · 13 likes > **Vivid Void (@vividvoid):** What are the odds > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8vN1uUbcAE32Gu.jpg) 1 because it happened ### [Reply to @Astatide42, 17:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714697036912632155) · 2 likes > **Astatide (@Astatide42):** Hi > I was today years old when I understood that the 10/n here (and in the past few threads) aren't "post 10 out of n" but rather the date in American format > > (quoting @eigenrobot: 10/18) Lmao ### [Reply to @xlr8harder, 18:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714706331934847011) · 2 likes > **xlr8harder (@xlr8harder):** Oh you like machine learning? Name your favorite hyperparameter. epochs=1 ### [Reply to @MasterTimBlais, 18:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714706924615123325) · 7 likes > **Tim 🙂⏹️🙂 (@MasterTimBlais):** how we feel about this open ladies > > (quoting @nocontextmemes: ) Gl fellow bookmarkers ### [Quote tweet, 18:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714712362224115730) · 5 likes All I want is a 300 sq foot studio in walking distance of a metro stop, a supermarket, and a park for <$1k/mo > **Quoting derek guy (@dieworkwear):** home in Bergerac, France for sale ($195k) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8vKrb5agAI0DGN.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8vKzgNagAAPv_A.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8vKzgNagAEjzx_.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8vKzgPagAESqZs.jpg) ### [Reply to @anabology, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714712914769191296) · 7 likes > **anabology (@anabology):** I predict that the normie anti-seed oil crowd are going to “win” in the US, with restaurants all changing to bug oil™ or olive oil. Then, we get the MUFAnation of America. > > Everyone will be fatter/more diabetic and the pro-seed oil folk will look like geniuses. It’s a trap. You don’t think a big switch from soybean/corn/peanut/canola to refined olive oil would be a big win, even if imperfect? ### [Reply, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714719977779900780) · 2 likes Incentives ### [Reply to @kitten_beloved, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714747952659374135) · 8 likes > **Kitten 🐈 (@kitten_beloved):** Currently speed running the BSA youth safety training > > Regret to inform you the BSA has been conclusively longhoused, the HR ladies are in charge and safety is their top priority > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8vjBw6bcAATkPm.jpg) BSA has very little control over how individual troops operate tho ### [Reply to @tautologer, 21:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714755934012977369) · 2 likes > **tautologer (@tautologer):** the thing that happened to tpot is the same thing that happened to SSC/ACX I wasn’t around in like 2014 but ACX is still great IMO ### [Reply to @historyinmemes, 21:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714763164754030937) · 15 likes > **Historic Vids (@historyinmemes):** During the 1985 Geneva Summit, there was a moment when President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev paused their negotiations and went for a walk. Only their personal interpreters were present during this private conversation, and for many years, the content of their discussion was shrouded in secrecy, hidden from both the American and Russian public. > > However, in a 2009 interview with Charlie Rose and Ronald Reagan's Secretary of State George Shultz, Gorbachev disclosed a surprising revelation. He shared that during their walk, Reagan had asked him straightforwardly if they could put aside their differences in the event of an alien invasion threatening the world. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8vUuGJXIAATkfL.jpg) Based ### [Reply to @stevekrouse, 22:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714766862758641971) · 1 like > **Steve Krouse (@stevekrouse):** @AaronBergman18 @ValDotTown Yeah exactly! What'd you want to learn how to make? I mean I have way too many ideas but really just like something extremely basic to work up from - chatgpt suggested a guestbook site that would just store the text inputs of anyone who went to the site and submitted something ### [Thread, continued, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714767407363862743) · 1 like and then probably adding like a login function for this. If that was doable one simple actual tool I have in mind is like an app where you upload your Twitter .zip archive and it gives you back a nice spreadsheet of all your tweets with understandable variable names ### [Thread, continued, 22:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714767881135636856) · 2 likes I actually did this halfway with https://tweetcsv.streamlit.app/ but it stops operating by default after downtime and requires the user to mess around with a random .js file inside the archive to get something small enough that streamlit will accept as an upload ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 22:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714768935353024710) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @dogmadeath > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8wQM7kWwAAcDx0.png) Thx ### [Reply to @eliadeweismann, 23:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714780276486713807) · 3 likes > **Linalool Enjoyer, Eliade Weismann (@eliadeweismann):** The aromachemical set is finally here! 🎉 @algekalipso Do you have any advice for developing a sense of olfactory qualia space from scratch/without prior dimensional knowledge? 1/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8wY3y4XIAArC9R.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8wY5bWXAAAcl4x.jpg) Wait where do I buy this ### [Reply to @sullyj3, 23:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714783075693953499) · 7 likes > **░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░ (@sullyj3):** what happens after 10 strikes? life imprisonment? I think that’s the idea ## Thursday, October 19, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 00:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714797999451156754) · 7 likes Sad thing about this is that it pattern matches with a billion random inconsequential articles I’ve seen on various social media feeds But this time there’s really a wolf > **Quoting AI Safety First! (@aisafetyfirst):** ‘AI Godfather’ Yoshua Bengio: We need a humanity defense organization > > The subject of potential catastrophic threats from AI has been taboo in the AI research community since the beginning, Bengio tells The Bulletin. > > https://thebulletin.org/2023/10/ai-godfather-yoshua-bengio-we-need-a-humanity-defense-organization/ ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714798560573596053) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** How do I approach EAG if I'm job hunting? Idk if this is a good idea and nobody should trust me on this matter, but a bunch of paper resumes + make a QR code/short url website with it would be high variance which is maybe good ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714798625451110419) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @absurdlymax Apparently allfed didn't have anyone upstanding to rep them at the job fair thing so I'll be there. You might consider checking it out. I think it's Friday night Nice ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 00:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714798892376641870) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Imo they should run a lot of diet experiments (eg can people survive on a diet of mainly seaweed?) but apparently it's tough to get ethics review approval. No u can’t for the same reasons any non-supplemented vegan diet doesn’t suffice ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 00:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714798974471664077) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @absurdlymax Now you're making a ton of sense. We'd need a way to make a lot of money first but I actually have some ideas Have u heard of crypto ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 01:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714810392193421358) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax Think you may have missed my weasel word “Sea” ### [Reply, 09:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714937245126291713) · 1 like A neutron star ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 13:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714995583167983658) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @frances\_\_lorenz @AaronBergman18 I realize now Aaron didn't mean taping them to the wall, so idk why I thought this wouldnt be allowed Lol actually I think you should inscribe ur resume in the walls with a laser ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 13:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714995797836562734) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ I miss the FTX days 😢 when if u weren’t allowed to tape smth to a wall u could just buy the wall ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 13:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714996992793776153) · 2 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** Have you ever been part of a breakup where someone yelled, "I gave you the best years of my life!"? > > I know how it feels. I once put a great tweet into a reply rather than a top-level post. Tragic ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 13:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714997710799995046) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ It doesn’t have the same property as eg carbon where each unit produced has the ~same externalities tho. Should be a hard limit on how bad it can be to produce, not how much to produce ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 13:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1714998712924053971) > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @frances\_\_lorenz @AaronBergman18 I realize now Aaron didn't mean taping them to the wall, so idk why I thought this wouldnt be allowed Another maybe bad idea: print smth useful on the back like a map of the venue or list of local bars ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715080609532375147) · 2 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** What is it about soccer/football that attracts the scummiest ppl alive ? The fact that it’s one of the most popular human activities so inevitably a subset will be bad/good/furries/CEOs/you name it ### [Reply to @anabology, 19:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715089127824146501) · 6 likes > **anabology (@anabology):** Red-pills society is ready for: > > \-Omega 6 seed oils = bad > \-Sun = good > \-Saturated fat = good > > Red-pills society isn’t ready for: > > \-Omega 3 fish oils = bad > \-Olive oil/avocado oil = bad > \-Protein makes you fat > \-Serotonin = bad I think the second list is mostly just wrong lol ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 19:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715090638008418647) · 6 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** It's ironic that rationalists often seem to dislike hearing that you have a bad feeling about someone, think someone is problematic, etc > > You'd think having more information would be strictly preferable to having less information but... 🤷🏻‍♀️ The reason this seems \*sometimes\* bad to me is essentially lossy transmission of information (and therefore incorrect inference) that comes along with vague terms like “problematic” … ### [Thread, continued, 19:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715092048531841242) · 4 likes I don’t have a fully fleshed out information theoretic model here but it’s something like: this types of term acts as a ratchet such that a simple reporting of observation gets systematically biased in the negative direction over time, and furthermore this is foreseeable and ### [Thread, continued, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715092860423299157) · 6 likes can be replaced with higher fidelity means of sharing information that do this to a much lower extent It would be disingenuous not to include the conflict theory bit that sometimes this is wielded as a social weapon, not an earnest but imperfect means of sharing info ### [Reply to @followdaboys, 19:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715093070176243881) · 2 likes > **Humble Water Filter Salesman (@followdaboys):** @AaronBergman18 @anabology the entire point of his post..... Yeah maybe I’m wrong and an example of society not being ready - time will tell hopefully! ### [Reply to @gptbrooke, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715094828214620310) · 4 likes > **brooke bowman (@gptbrooke):** at a crossroads, which route should i choose ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F809p_EWAAA9GH6.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715107538419544314) · 21 likes Went on a walk and unlocked a new part of the map ### [Thread, continued, 20:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715108001336394153) · 4 likes Ok I’m only .8 miles away lol, pretty sure the geography part of my brain doesn’t exist ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 20:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715109174399336856) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 It's addictive I could be in any US suburb rn ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F81Ks0OWEAA8Q2E.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 20:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715109322944856301) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 It's addictive (Don’t tag geoguesser guy) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 21:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715110675977044029) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 Artist's impression > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F81Ljf9WEAEsr1A.jpg) Photorealistic ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 21:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715117220605407564) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** lovely views https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship ### [Reply to @goingawoll, 21:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715118841913544859) · 4 likes > **Amos Wollen 🦐🪰✴️ (@goingawoll):** “Effective Altruism is a form of utilitarianism, itself a branch of consequentialism” > > “Effective Altruism has no time for moral dilemmas or disagreement about values.” > > “Effective Altruists are therefore obliged to say: Yes, stealing to give to the poor might be good.” > > 🥴🥴🥴 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F81L4gNWYAAMwCy.jpg) Nominative determinism strikes again ### [Tweet, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715120014313783617) · 28 likes Might try to productivity grindset-pill the local boomers so they’ll pay me ungodly sums to walk their dogs “Each time you, a high payed lawyer \[yes there are plenty of these around lol\], take Fluffy for a walk, you are implicitly leaving HUNDREDS of dollars on the table.” ### [Thread, continued, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715120016511619398) · 7 likes “For just $80/hour…” ### [Reply to @mechanical_monk, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715120443860951471) · 7 likes > **monk (@mechanical_monk):** my stupid ass ordered pasta when i haven't bought any cutlery for the new apartment yet > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F81B1VzXAAAMrlr.jpg) Bro evolution gave u built in utensils u can control with ur mind ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715123149488988335) · 5 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I feel professionally called to be an AI guy but aesthetically all I want is to be a nuke guy Guy who puts up nuclear Armageddon pictures so guests don’t think he’s a weird ai guy ### [Reply to @adamjkucharski, 22:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715134189689856004) · 2 likes > **Adam Kucharski (@adamjkucharski):** Having a dinner debate, which is better? Are we talking about music or just nouns ## Friday, October 20, 2023 ### [Reply, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715203339439255635) · 1 like Fr https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1696218589533991053?s=46 ### [Reply, 03:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715203646424551522) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ He just wanted a friend 😢 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 03:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715207974665310368) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @jaybobzin People only love me for my silly stick man Fake news ### [Reply to @Malcolm_Ocean, 03:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715212179165639015) · 2 likes > **Malcolm Ocean 🏴‍☠️ (@Malcolm_Ocean):** Tag yourself > > I'm FOPPPER > > (quoting @captain_mrs: I tried to ask dalle for an illustration of this action but it turns out it was quite difficult for it to draw so you can have this amusingly labelled unmixed salad instead) I’m a carrot named Cucumber ### [Tweet, 04:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715217855015194935) · 10 likes There’s gotta be a market for a telemedicine practice whose whole schtick is prescribing MAOIs - they’re not even controlled, just quasi-taboo ### [Quote tweet, 04:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715219129743941704) · 38 likes This is unironically good, functional discourse > **Quoting dylan (@narrenhut):** Hell nah man they’re Community Noting the protest signs > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F81VNreboAAcEC0.jpg) ### [Reply to @TomChivers, 04:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715221711883321449) · 4 likes > **Tom Chivers (@TomChivers):** hey google docs it's probably quite important that you don't try to correct one kind of antiviral drug with a totally different drug used to treat a different virus! I guess at least it didn't autocorrect > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8zw-vxWAAA4gMJ.png) Plot twist some guy there has strong object level heterodox takes on virus treatment ### [Reply to @thechosenberg, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715245954809405931) · 2 likes > **rosey🌹 (@thechosenberg):** I’m crying dude > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8zisb7XkAADEid.jpg) They gave a Lego anxiety ### [Tweet, 07:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715262831052967952) · 28 likes Dad represented the People of the United States of America earlier today with a black eye after getting assaulted while walking to a courthouse in SF There are at least two Discourses entangled here but also just like props to him (he’s fine) 🇺🇸👨‍⚖️🏢 ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 07:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715264654832795937) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** the fact that the second ‘l’ in my handle had to be replaced with a capital ‘i’ is a source of constant irritation to me > > @littleramblings I can’t help but notice that u haven’t posted since 2015 I’m sure we could come to an arrangement here It could also be interpreted as “litt \[literature\] i.e., ramblings” which vaguely makes a tiny bit of sense ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 07:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715265744215126273) · 4 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 Sorry to hear that. Was the assailant arrested? I don’t think so but details coming when he wakes up and tells them to me ### [Reply to @exdiegesis, 07:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715270075714814119) · 2 likes > **Hope (@exdiegesis):** @AaronBergman18 you can buy selegiline (MAOI) without prescription? :O is this something i should recommend to all my prescription-not-having ADHD-having friends? it's like more monoamines in the brain, right, so that just seems net good on a very naive pre-investigation first-guess. Nah u need a prescription but it’s not as tightly controlled as eg adderall ### [Reply to @_swanson, 07:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715275695369183320) · 2 likes > **matt swanson 😈 (@_swanson):** bro wtf is all this shit > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F80qeZbXAAAquBX.jpg) Real ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 11:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715334317193252901) · 2 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** My favorite part of college is when only like 3 people show up in a class of 40. It's basically personal tutoring at that point I am the 92.5% ### [Reply to @shaggysurvives, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715458039816310920) · 4 likes > **shaggy (@shaggysurvives):** I'm learning that you guys really don't like imperfect metaphors > > (quoting @TansuYegen: Best example for why ups and downs are important in life) It’s the worst metaphor I’ve ever seen ### [Tweet, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715461704056791348) · 23 likes I want to see the forbidden shrimp illustration ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F86LU1cWsAAp4V_.jpg) ### [Reply to @Simeon_Cps, 23:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715504996643406018) · 6 likes > **Sy (@Simeon_Cps):** Can anyone explain to me why GPT-4 base is calibrated by default? > > Humans are definitely not calibrated so it is highly surprising to me that it be the case. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F86fXQKXkAALeO-.png) My guess is that humans are over and under confident to an equal extent in the training data and it’s emulating a human \*response\*, not a human (who would systematically err in one direction) ## Saturday, October 21, 2023 ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715588490174291970) · 4 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Oh wow > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F86ui0PakAAJbUf.jpg) ### [Tweet, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715594414179918147) · 46 likes New EA org: Giving What You Can But Your Rivals Cannot ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F88EBviWwAAqmZK.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715594416256155821) · 4 likes From a great pod with @SpencrGreenberg and Ashley Mears https://podcast.clearerthinking.org/episode/180/ashley-mears-money-status-power-and-sex-in-nightclubs-around-the-world/ ### [Tweet, 05:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715594958579589223) · 9 likes Maybe everyone knows this but France is a super illiberal country ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 05:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715597276867948561) · 5 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @AaronBergman18 Potlatch Ya they mention that immediately after haha Great minds ### [Reply to @AlignmentGuts, 05:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715600652338888921) · 2 likes > **AI Struggler (@AlignmentGuts):** Just realized that the Cringe <-> Based axis is orthogonal to good and evil? > > It's actually Nietzsche's Slave <-> Master morality. > > Being cringe means having Slave morality, being based means having Master morality I think I disagree with this Cringe is just low status, but there’s a lot if alpha in low status ### [Reply to @bdunbar, 05:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715603635273343334) · 1 like > **bdunbar (@bdunbar):** We had a customer who insisted on staffing a classic 'sysop' man after-hours on-site. Nothing ever happened. He got bored. > > Our man went spelunking under the data center floor. > > (quoting @J_K_Chesterton: What are walls to the criminal?) Based ### [Reply to @Trail_Cams, 05:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715603951142248789) · 1 like > **trailcam (@Trail_Cams):** > > [video attached](https://x.com/Trail_Cams/status/1715592744540799265/video/1) Moose ### [Quote tweet, 05:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715606520258269282) · 6 likes Oh no the babies have begun > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** This is the only platform safe from marriage announcements of my peers (knocking on wood). IG, fb have been lost to The Ring ### [Reply to @BasedNorthmathr, 06:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715611940620288403) · 1 like > **Angantýr (@BasedNorthmathr):** For rationalists, these guys sure are emotional > > (quoting @So8res: My current stance on AI is: Fucking stop. Find some other route to the glorious transhuman future. There’s debate within the AI alignment community re whether the chance of AI killing literally everyone is more like 20% or 95%, but 20% means worse odds than Russian roulette.) Rationalism is when you stop having emotions ### [Reply, 06:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715612913786863725) · 1 like Gm chickens ### [Reply to @thechosenberg, 15:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715758428130361506) · 4 likes > **rosey🌹 (@thechosenberg):** DC gay as hell wonder what’s up with that > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F893DIUXoAAsSTt.jpg) It’s probably just comparing a city to states. Compare city vs city ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 16:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715764422344323368) > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** not sure whether this video or its comments section is freaking me out more > > (quoting @TikTokInvestors: lmao) How many products y’all got? ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 16:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715764868966408468) · 4 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** @absurdlymax @ohwizenedtortle I’d move to Melbourne for a kitkat I’ll move to any city with cheap ish rent and good hinge matches where I know 3 other ppl ### [Thread, continued, 16:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715764965447958907) · 2 likes And a Kit Kat ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 16:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715769255314989440) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** yes good q i don’t like heat either The seasons are switched 😱😱😱 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8-jCzFXEAAs-XE.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8-jCzCXIAEBnRZ.jpg) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 16:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715770274191155300) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** although what’s the spider situ over there Bad news ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8-j-GHWIAA6dqG.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 16:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715770366482595847) · 3 likes Or good news if u like venomous spiders ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715770594648564067) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 21, 2023:** The seasons are switched 😱😱😱 Does it never snow 😢 ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715771189476430223) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** ok nope nope sorry there aren’t enough kitkats in the world I think they’re cute ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 16:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715771681375969595) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** you think 8-legged creatures that can hide in your shoes and bite u and kill u are cute ??? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8-lP88XcAAU6ok.jpg) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 16:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715772462711922963) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** no ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8-l9etW4AARX7z.jpg) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715773668326801631) · 4 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** that won’t work on me The cuteness requests will continue until morale improves ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8-nDsCX0AAWUyu.jpg) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715774763036029131) · 4 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** Is this a trial run for when the AIs start trying to manipulate us Ya ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8-oDbcXgAAUGjn.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715787864670187551) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 21, 2023:** From a great pod with @SpencrGreenberg and Ashley Mears… .@elonmusk the only way to prove ur status is to beat @moskov at a donation competition ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 21:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715841131555021163) · 5 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** @AaronBergman18 Pigeon Hour with Andy when? Now ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 21:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715841173061824583) · 6 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @Laura_k_Duffy @AndyMasley @AaronBergman18 Seconding this > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8_j43XW0AALJMq.png) Pigeon hour with Matt when ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715841220470055201) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 21, 2023:** Now Ok maybe not now but soon ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715851297201455615) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 @Laura_k_Duffy @AndyMasley Only if we can spend the whole episode relitigating the worm wars Only meta level: I’ll argue that no more intellectual effort should be spent on this because there are clear better ways to spend money and it’s just a nerdsnipe ### [Reply, 22:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715855211758027174) · 1 like What dumbass said that ### [Reply to @gptbrooke, 22:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715855454704709633) · 2 likes > **brooke bowman (@gptbrooke):** quick i need twitter historian help > > i'm sure i have that tweet that was the original genesis of vibecamp bookmarked but it was before i had folders and i'm having a hell of a time searching for it > > anyone got it saved or can find it? @SpacedOutMatt is a de facto historian ### [Tweet, 23:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715869028646822174) · 11 likes In the Grand Transhumanist Future there will be corn bulbs in every cubic meter of air such that it’s never dark before like 11 ### [Tweet, 23:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715880423832551681) · 15 likes I should do this (donate a kidney) and haven't but ppl should btw and maybe I will ### [Thread, continued, 23:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715880425518694695) · 3 likes I actually started the process of signing up to do this but developed some health things that made me wary of fucking with the system... maybe this is cope tho ## Sunday, October 22, 2023 ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715885686341972111) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** @AaronBergman18 idk how much yo plan to donate but i think donations to making chickens less sad could pretty easily beat kidney donation (weighted by chance of death) and I think your career will be much high impact than that Ya but fuzzies ### [Reply to @zeta_globin, 00:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715889187172348037) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @zeta_globin is no longer available.)_ It’s low enough risk (~zero + a few dollars) that it’s worth trying and seeing what happens ### [Reply to @tmychow, 00:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715889989500752226) · 2 likes > **trevor (taylor’s version) (@tmychow):** i’m someone who started off being intuitively compelled by the “imagine a very smart agent with different interests to you” framing of the problem, spent some time thinking about it and now am much more skeptical of doom Thanks, interesting This is the lowest point estimate I’ve seen from someone serious/smart/well informed, aside from MacAskill in WWOTF at 3% but that was probably written two years ago (published 1+ year ago) ### [Tweet, 00:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715890764465754350) · 16 likes Someone in Non-London England today told me their rent was £300 = $365 What!?!? That’s like 1/2 of \*Tulsa\* ### [Thread, continued, 00:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715890766436782169) · 2 likes This person can reveal themselves if they so choose ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 00:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715891457444266482) · 5 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** Nate Silver hacked? His account is locked and has posted this several times today > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9ARH01WAAA9Na0.jpg) This is the dumbest possible way to make money off of hacking Nate silvers account ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 00:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715891728350089478) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 For a room, presumably? Idk precisely but a shared full detached house with two others ### [Reply to @Levi7hart, 01:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715899616632222114) > **Levi Hart (@Levi7hart):** it’s very interesting to me that’s it not like 1 or 2 or a handful of e/acc’s who want humanity to end… it really is almost all of them except beff and chris who say they want humanity to die. > > not great imo, i wonder if. behind closed doors they also admit they want that > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9AT0-Za0AAnrDA.jpg) Are there closed doors? Lol afaict it’s just a bunch of ppl on Twitter ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 01:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715899820185891312) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @polisisti @AaronBergman18 If only the house prices were similar to Alabama's > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9AZg2XWgAA4Ulj.jpg) Wait are the house more or less expensive in England? ### [Reply to @tautologer, 01:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715901296723534149) · 2 likes > **tautologer (@tautologer):** this is psychotic and I want to do it so bad Half the distance per hour and it sounds fun lol Keeping up an avg pace of 4mph for more than like 2-3 hours just sounds like a “normal” super hard endurance event ### [Reply to @polisisti, 01:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715902478917443767) · 3 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** if you had this many unread emails, would it give you an emotional reaction? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8_fYY6WMAApLLx.png) "How'd I read so many?" ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9AcNZcW0AAOrTW.png) ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 01:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715907173237088693) · 4 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** @AaronBergman18 Disagree with “should” since I don’t think moral demandingness is that strong (if you had said “would be good to” I’d think it was more reasonable) Lol I can see myself writing this exact tweet ### [Reply to @dogmadeath, 01:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715908100698292472) · 2 likes > **Sercy ✦ (@dogmadeath):** what the FUCK is a verb !!!! Sometimes I vibe with this genre of tweet but I think verbs are like pretty well defined ### [Reply, 01:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715908485030806008) · 1 like I don’t even think normativity exists Just objective ordering and objective “would be good to” type claims ### [Reply, 02:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715917621483262314) · 4 likes Shut the fuck up and don’t accuse people of shit that they don’t believe and don’t do ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 02:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715918207406481832) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @NathanB60857242 @daniel_271828 I still don't really understand how this doesn't reduce to normativity Idk if there’s much room for “reducing” - like maybe “x would be good to do” is semantically the same as “you should do x” but my intuition says it’s not ### [Reply to @RokoMijic, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715956791811485935) · 3 likes > **Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** @AaronBergman18 Seems like virtue signalling. > > The world is about to end, kidney recipients are a tiny, tiny issue that doesn't deserve your thought and effort. I'm fine with virtue signaling as long as the thing is actually virtuous I'm not sure you're wrong though - there's a chance I'll delete this ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 05:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715957092262011040) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @NathanB60857242 @daniel_271828 So like imagine I replaced every instance of good with 'florpadorp', what is the relevant difference between "x would be good to do" and "x would be florpadorp to do"? > > Like clearly there's something that gets reduced to an ought statement or I don't see why you'd protest "So like imagine I replaced every instance of good with 'florpadorp', what is the relevant difference between "x would be good to do" and "x would be florpadorp to do"?" One of these is a sentence that means exactly what it sounds like and the other is gibberish? ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 05:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1715968115249463397) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** So the grand transhuman future won’t have sunsets? Damn right ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 16:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716125837395681594) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** POV you blew out a candle > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9DIkzPXAAAk7KE.jpg) Every candle takes 9 years off ur life ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 16:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716125894543126899) · 2 likes > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** @SpacedOutMatt What is this? CO2? Pm 2.5 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 16:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716127449400971450) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @NathanB60857242 @daniel_271828 Well it sounds like one is normative but your point is it isn't > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9DaxigXwAAr-Un.jpg) I don’t think “good” is normative Normativity seems like a (stronger?) relationship between a person and an action ### [Reply to @shaggysurvives, 16:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716129757861994667) · 1 like > **shaggy (@shaggysurvives):** What should I hang on the walls of my bedroom Whiteboard I got one for free but would pay for it in hindsight ### [Reply to @sullyj3, 16:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716130704646398125) · 2 likes > **░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░ (@sullyj3):** God damn dude people do not know python > > (quoting @clcoding: What is the output of following Python Code? b = '123' c = '1'.join(b) print(c)) Clown ass programming language ### [Reply, 16:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716131197116465510) Saying an action is good doesn’t directly invoke a person. Saying “John should do X” does ### [Reply to @bat1441, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716204086075289976) · 2 likes > **bat (@bat1441):** Caffeine is a more fun substance for me than nicotine Ya top tier drug fr Nicotine like barely affects me ### [Reply to @robinhanson, 21:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716204354154238206) · 9 likes > **Robin Hanson (@robinhanson):** If you Google "long legs" and ask for images, almost all of them will be of human females. Even though human males tend to have longer legs on average. (Same at other search engines.) It should be male giraffes ## Monday, October 23, 2023 ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 03:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716295221808365761) · 3 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** If I could I would donate to help people in the past. Introducing a new cause area: Backtermism. Let’s get some talented folks on the time travel problem > > (quoting @absurdlymax: You know what? I'm working towards the glorious transhumanist past Time travel time) I’ve actually thought a bunch about this! Like it’s weird how ur “allowed” to make fun of tragedies that happened sufficiently long ago Worked at a summer camp where there was a whole playful song about the Titanic ### [Reply to @cammakingminds, 03:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716295526784684238) · 2 likes > **Lucid™ (@cammakingminds):** Tribute to the book that changed so many of our lives. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9FBSWbWMAAJgJy.jpg) Read this on the plane to visit WashU in 2018 while eating coconut chip thingies Good book ### [Reply to @polisisti, 03:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716295766887497963) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @polisisti is no longer available.)_ U might turn orange (unironically, but it is temporary) ### [Reply to @parafactual, 03:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716296151547228421) · 1 like > **You (@parafactual):** well which ones Lol good point. Bromantane and dihexa ### [Reply to @parafactual, 03:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716296366102573213) · 2 likes > **You (@parafactual):** have you tried them? Nah, though I did try what was allegedly nsi-189 at one point lol ### [Reply to @parafactual, 03:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716297233920897263) · 2 likes > **You (@parafactual):** how was that Positive but not super dramatic Wouldn’t be shocked to learn it wasn’t legit ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716301019116708273) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** fuck it i'm starting a podcast 🔥🔥🔥 ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 03:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716301427784446046) · 15 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Straight ladies who've had 5+ sexual partners, what are some maybe counterintuitive or underdiscussed complaints u have about things men do (or don't do) during sex? Lol at bookmarks : likes ### [Reply to @el1assss, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716302769089388846) · 2 likes > **elias💀 (@el1assss):** You don't see people tying their shoes much anymore Velcro is a superior technology ### [Reply to @metakuna, 05:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716320255805436400) · 2 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** @AdamNeumannsCoS @AaronBergman18 Null result 😔 ### [Reply to @robertskmiles, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716320435397185996) · 3 likes > **Rob Miles (@robertskmiles):** Sorry, who specifically is an 'AI doomer' who has ever publicly claimed that AI isn't useful and beneficial for lots of applications? Or really anything incompatible with the fact that Moderna uses AI to speed up their research? Can you name such a person? Oy vey ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 05:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716320618541391902) · 37 likes > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** is it possible to attract an owl to live in your yard > > this would be very cool and it would also solve some other problems > > i must investigate Have you tried simply asking one ### [Reply to @teortaxesTex, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716334386344300765) · 4 likes > **Teortaxes▶️ (DeepSeek 推特🐋铁粉 2023 – ∞) (@teortaxesTex):** My question to every decel too. Where does the assumption that scale has some general relation to undesirable properties of AI come from? > > Suppose you allow Anthropic to scale their LLMs 100X. Other than "what if Baaad People use it", do you have an argument it poses an X-risk? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9Fu36NX0AAhMQK.jpg) For base model LLMs \*specifically\* and \*alone\*, no I don’t think a few OOMs are likely to produce a system that itself poses an X-risk Problem is that LLMs can provide the horsepower for agentic, goal-oriented systems like chaosGPT but like not incompetent ### [Thread, continued, 06:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716335727598780427) · 1 like I mean there are a bunch of related concerns as well. The “bad people” thing isn’t a meme lol - like yes there are bad people and making it arbitrarily easy to create pathogens seems bad. There’s no rule that offensive and defensive capabilities scale equally ### [Reply to @teortaxesTex, 06:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716336809611792398) · 3 likes > **Teortaxes▶️ (DeepSeek 推特🐋铁粉 2023 – ∞) (@teortaxesTex):** @AaronBergman18 So, 4D chess? Disingenuous invocations of shoggoths to preclude the necessity to regulate deployment scenarios? I don’t follow ### [Reply to @JosephPolitano, 06:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716339510298993013) · 1 like > **Joey Politano 🏳️‍🌈 (@JosephPolitano):** Vote for me and the "MORE DATA" party in 2024, our platform will: > > —triple the budget for all federal data collection agencies > —make all federal economic microdata free and public use > —oversample all small population subgroups > —make all US data available through the FRED API > > (quoting @RazzberryYams: @JosephPolitano Who will run on a platform of collecting more economic statistics (Rental market stats are the big one for me. They should be like monthly job market reports, why are we leaving it to probate companies with their own methodologies to make headlines)) One👏big👏csv👏 ### [Reply to @nosilverv, 15:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716473143475241246) · 11 likes > **Guy (@nosilverv):** Dude I loooooooove doctors. > > They've mastered the trick of faking knowledge through black boxes. > > They just make an expression into a fancy term, add a because, and, voilà!, it sounds like an explanation. > > You got bad breath? Oh that's bc you got halitosis \[= "bad breath"\] There are a billion good critiques of medicine/doctors but this is not one of them lol ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 15:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716474509719445600) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Evidential decision theory is the final confirmation that Kant was right about everything no I will not elaborate 😡 ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 15:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716479082685227022) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** whose cool and trendy sliders are these (cast ur votes below) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9HWf5qXcAElrlf.jpg) ChatGPT has a hunch they’re Yann’s I agree bc he’s the worst/most comfily dressed (just like me fr) and evidently gets warm more easily. Also works at Meta which has a chill tech bro aesthetic P(yann)=.45 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9IooOdXcAAjgN-.jpg) ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716484945302921471) · 2 likes > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** many such cases of me thinking someone is joking on twitter to a certain degree and then it becomes gradually clearer that they are joking, but not to the degree you expected, and are actually a little bit weird in a very real way Me fr ### [Reply to @PauseAI, 19:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716530801909608589) · 5 likes > **PauseAI ⏸ (@PauseAI):** We literally protested outside OpenAI and deepmind. Also, we're unfunded. Man I'm getting tired of these ridiculous conspiracy theories. It's simple: building superintelligent AI is dangerous and we don't want to die. Why isn’t there an easy way to donate to you? ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 19:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716533125407260754) · 7 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** They put Paul on a truck 😭😭😭 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9JRvGNXIAAMx7S.jpg) What ### [Quote tweet, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716536792508256338) · 4 likes This would be such a blessing > **Quoting Guy (@nosilverv):** Manifesting: > \- I'll get a MD that will just prescribe me the tests I ask him ### [Reply to @nosilverv, 19:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716537690894594141) · 5 likes > **Guy (@nosilverv):** @AaronBergman18 Ah, a case of exclusive noncritiquitis Idiopathic hypomonogomocriticia ### [Quote tweet, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716538835599790286) · 3 likes What’s the regulatory/legal/insurance status of random blood/urine tests? What needs to happen for me to be able to show up at a labcorp with a printed email and have stuff covered by insurance? > **Quoting Guy (@nosilverv):** Manifesting: > \- I'll get a MD that will just prescribe me the tests I ask him ### [Thread, continued, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716538838238044580) · 2 likes This is \*such\* a telemedicine startup waiting to happen ### [Reply to @krishnanrohit, 19:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716539238144004412) · 2 likes > **rohit (@krishnanrohit):** AI doomerism seems a Western preoccupation. Folks east of the Ural mountains just want to build cool stuff while the others handwring about the end of the world. Devastating critique ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 19:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716539781360873670) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ This is not exactly comprehensive ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9Jf1T1WsAAZH6U.jpg) ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716547109476860157) · 3 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** I’m really worried about where AI is going. But I’m also super confused by people who say that AI has \*already\* had “very negative” effects on society. What are these very negative effects? > > (quoting @YouGovAmerica: % of Americans who say the following technology's overall effects on society have been very or somewhat positive: Internet: 70% Smartphone: 63% AI: 29% https://today.yougov.com/topics/technology/articles-reports/2023/06/26/which-tasks-will-ai-do-better-human-professionals) Antivaxers with unusually good knowledge of the Moderna discovery pipeline ### [Tweet, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716550660395614265) · 12 likes The booster conundrum ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9JpcFpXwAAOT_C.jpg) ### [Reply to @KellerScholl, 20:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716553427415679263) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @KellerScholl is no longer available.)_ Luckily if you’re not getting federal funding through various channels I don’t fully understand you can just like ignore this bullshit At least for now, it is still legal for random people to make google forms ### [Tweet, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716554072134676683) · 29 likes My house is a function that takes matching socks as input and returns non-matching socks as output The backend is a black box ### [Thread, continued, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716554079839907918) · 3 likes I bought 20 pairs = 40 matching socks like 3 months ago ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9Js1khWQAAM0Sp.jpg) ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 22:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716577443975254228) · 1 like > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Sometimes I wanna talk about woes that can only really happen in poly relationships but having many thousands of ppl eager to go "that's what u get for being poly" really makes this less fun. > We really need a "that's what u get for monogamy" trend to counterbalance this How about neither ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716584816555012385) · 2 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** @AaronBergman18 CVS 🤢 Sorry :( ### [Reply to @notanastronomer, 23:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716593391301988614) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @notanastronomer is no longer available.)_ One of the better $8 I’ve spent ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716594138542375209) · 5 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** Shout it from the rooftops! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9KQk7oXAAAnCrs.jpg) > (quoting @ZoeZiani: I wrote a post-mortem on the Gino-Ariely scandal: How I came to suspect Gino’s work, the resistance I met during my Ph.D., my experience working with Data Colada, and the lessons I hope business academia will learn from it. https://www.theorgplumber.com/posts/statement/) Is it? Doesn’t seem as bad bc it’s still bounded by reality in a way fraud isn’t ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716594525026582686) · 2 likes > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** AI pause is one of those very noble projects that is unfortunately super incompatible with our mode of economy The market concentration and nuances of this particular industry is a reason you might be wrong Neither OpenAI nor Anthropic are conventional companies, and most of all the key input technology is extremely hard to make and depends on entities subject to US govt regulation ## Tuesday, October 24, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716641525126291576) · 5 likes Since when is there a Rep. Bergman > **Quoting Kyle Stewart (@KyleAlexStewart):** Reporter: Do you have a path forward tomorrow? > > Rep. Jack Bergman: Well I have a path at least to get up in the morning and get here. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9KtMBfWEAAxwgv.jpg) ### [Reply to @Rainmaker1973, 02:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716646899246117208) · 3 likes > **Massimo (@Rainmaker1973):** There's a place n Morocco where you can find goats perching on Argania trees' branches. Yes, goats on trees > > \[📹 Photo Workshop Adventures\] > https://x.com/Levandov_2/status/1716490779974160568/video/1 What are they doing there ### [Quote tweet, 02:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716650402697863300) · 2 likes I bet they used R > **Quoting Slashdot (@slashdot):** NASA Transmits Patches to the Two Voyager Probes Launched in 1977 https://ift.tt/r5CQI78 ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716659316831199507) · 3 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** The moment I get home from work I become a fricken slug and I don’t do any of the things I want to do 😩 Found on IG ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9LMjLrXIAAY6Mf.jpg) ### [Reply, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716663153214234938) · 7 likes D-amph If it exists it’s natural ### [Reply to @roshanpateI, 05:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716684601802776899) · 6 likes > **Roshan Patel (@roshanpateI):** putting this on your linkedin is completely unhinged > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9Is1q5XQAAyTrJ.png) I wish it was hinged tho Lots of costly signaling out there ### [Reply to @notkavi, 05:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716684865553207749) · 4 likes > **urbanstats dot org 🌉🚱 (@notkavi):** I feel like this kinda disproves the concept of dog years > > (quoting @AP: World's oldest dog ever dies in Portugal, aged 31 (or about 217 in dog years) https://apnews.com/article/oldest-dog-portugal-bobi-guinness-world-records-91da19230bafd556fdad28edfa96917f?taid=65369f9641ee060001bc26ca&utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Twitter) It should raise our ambitions ### [Reply to @visakanv, 05:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716688957436461263) · 2 likes > **Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv):** we made a lil guy > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9LmiMlaQAAFmeo.jpg) > (quoting @visakanv: me: isn't it wild that we could make a bunch of humans to hang out with wife: that's the most compelling reason for having kids that I've ever heard) Hello guy ### [Quote tweet, 05:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716690936829194583) · 10 likes People don’t understand that even in WINTER it might be like 68° inside!!!! If it’s like a 10 minute walk and Fahrenheit > Celsius it doesn’t make sense to bring a change of clothes > **Quoting Satan (@s8n):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9JJPE6WUAANreO.jpg) ### [Reply to @Thinkwert, 05:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716693931029586195) · 2 likes > **Thinkwert (@Thinkwert):** Everybody Me at the > at the party wrong address > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9Ku8tOWYAA92yd.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9Ku8tRWoAA41-y.jpg) Real (same street address in Arlington and DC a few weeks ago smh) ### [Tweet, 06:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716696454968840383) · 6 likes She was cooking with this one ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9LuU8rXUAAzya_.jpg) ### [Reply to @202accepted, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716696814915592391) · 8 likes > **𝚓𝚒𝚖𝚖𝚢 (@202accepted):** ah yes the absolute current state of the bay area housing market > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9K3fvLboAEqdD8.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9K3fvJbcAAgBXQ.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9K3fvJbkAAqwRO.jpg) So it’s already set up? ### [Reply to @unironictechbro, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716697586554302845) · 3 likes > **Full ML Alchemist (@unironictechbro):** i sometimes wonder if its broken to think of videos as sequence of images + audio. is there no better way ? Sequences of collections of pixels + audio Sequences of collections of however pixels are encoded exactly (rgb vectors + location vectors + brightness?) and audio Sequences of collections of however pixels are encoded exactly and pitch+volume+time pairs ### [Reply to @TheDavidSJ, 07:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716714936636731575) · 4 likes > **David Schneider-Joseph 🔍 (@TheDavidSJ):** Your criterion is so long as it's not 40º below 0? Ya ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 07:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716723026308333775) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** Is anyone willing to buy me a plane ticket to the Bay Area and a tiny violin One way right ### [Reply to @sidereal111, 08:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716727499294421040) · 2 likes > **sidereal 🍀 (@sidereal111):** @NPCollapse it's a plain fact and has nothing to do with anyone's agency. these things will be built, the incentive structure guarantees it The market and supply chain for advanced ai isn’t like the market for socks (or weed if you prefer) so this isn’t true ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 17:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716869843679653983) · 2 likes > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** 😭 the smartest person I know once lost their ID on the way to the airport and it was in their shoe the whole time. So don’t worry too much about those little moments lol I once spent like 2 hours looking for a \*car key\* that was in my sock. Like somehow it got wedged between my skin and the sock and I didn’t notice ### [Thread, continued, 17:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716870363580387800) · 2 likes Luckily I’d never do anything suuuper dumb like take a distance detecting fob thing with me while leaving someone else in the car, causing the alarm to go off ### [Tweet, 19:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716894914339102964) · 7 likes I want Joe Carlsmith to MC my funeral ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 19:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716899803521794235) · 1 like > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** > > [video attached](https://x.com/bijibiji2023/status/1716896213617033634/video/1) I have never heard someone say it the second way while speaking English ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 23:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1716953412519276600) · 5 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Who do I know who is good with R? My time has come ## Wednesday, October 25, 2023 ### [Reply to @k__r__xx, 02:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717001404101840903) · 4 likes > **ꓘR (@k__r__xx):** @el1assss @AaronBergman18 Yo > https://youtu.be/kBjd0RBC6kQ?si=lt1jebF2AHJ7ERz_ Oh no I might have to get nerdsniped now ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 06:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717067055705293171) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Name: Barack Obama Experience: President of the United States of America Results: 0/13 on EA org job apps. Got a work trial once. Rejected from EA Global: Boston but optimistic about the next DC one ### [Tweet, 06:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717073355692511712) · 4 likes What evil mf rated 80k 4 stars This is a 6 star pod ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9RFHccW4AA0IVt.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9RFHc5WMAACynU.jpg) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 07:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717074730472100005) · 3 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** Can you still claim natty if you take semaglutide? If it exists it’s natural 😤 ### [Reply to @cammakingminds, 07:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717082436004151641) · 1 like > **Lucid™ (@cammakingminds):** Can someone explain to me how protests work? > > They say "apply pressure" but how does it do that? > Is baby-punchers-incorporated™ really incentivized to stop punching babies because of a bunch of people standing outside holding signs that say "don't punch babies"? > > I don't get it. I don’t know, and was talking yesterday about this in fact (not understanding them), but I suspect there are a bunch of weird complex illegible mechanisms that nonetheless exist, because as a cultural phenomenon it seems pretty universal? ### [Thread, continued, 07:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717083032727802118) · 2 likes I’m sure there are lit reviews out there I’d also point at humane league-esque cage free campaigns as a recent example of protest success (ik it was part of the strategy at least bc I stood outside a McDonald’s holding a sign a few years ago lol) ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 08:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717090272717222168) · 1 like > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** "Feels like 38 C" 😭😭😭 > > (38 C is apparently ~100 F) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9RQtdkbEAAhKML.jpg) 👎 ### [Quote tweet, 08:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717095084305392006) · 17 likes OpenAI but just for AI generated 80k podcast episodes called 80,000 80,000 Hours Hours > **Quoting oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** EA org collecting seeds in case of mass plant species loss called 80 000 flowers ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 08:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717098078732271956) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Guessing this is a joke but this would be an interesting test of setpoint theory. I’d expect that anyone who has to intentionally bulk to BMI 30 would lose the weight quite easily, in comparison to people with a dysfunctionally high setpoint (ie most obesity) ### [Reply, 08:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717101927886909533) · 1 like I mean it is conceptually possible but like afaik no, there aren’t drugs rn that do this. Am I wrong? ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 09:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717107666802077809) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** I’m unilaterally banning low rise jeans they’re not allowed anymore, everyone has to listen to me I’m in charge Long pants in general are basically unnecessary outside of the arctic circle Everybody gets 1 pair of pajama pants for when it gets really cold ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 09:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717110344194146791) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** what a take Thx I do enjoy having correct opinions 😌 ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 17:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717238893500575858) · 3 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** "wild animal welfare is intractable" 🙄 > > (quoting @Rainmaker1973: Winter is coming https://x.com/Levandov_2/status/1717057489311535348/video/1) Where do I go to stab flamingos into freedom ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717241107778580675) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @polisisti Don't die Impossible to od on caffeine via coffee ### [Tweet, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717250153386528963) · 29 likes Amanda Hungerford (OpenPhil animal welfare program officer): “OP funding for farmed animal welfare is in the tens of millions of dollars per year” \[approximate quote\] Non-OP funding of GiveWell is WAY beyond that of animal welfare. What are we even doing here? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9Tl6doXgAATjuB.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717250156045685230) · 17 likes Like the arguments seem overwhelming that marginal dollars are better spent in animal welfare. Lots of debate sounds like “normal poverty stuff vs weird AI stuff” but this is an incredibly important IMO indefensible trade off @open_phil is making ### [Thread, continued, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717250158423949375) · 5 likes From a podcast I just discovered, “How I Learned to Love Shrimp” https://spotify.link/Wq8o1MnVbEb ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 18:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717252667322368088) · 8 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** Because most humans matter, animals don’t. Simple as that. Tbh I think this is overwhelmingly likely to be false \*in expectation\* (and very likely false ex post) but there are a bajillion arguments out there so I’m not gonna argue this extensively here. Google Rethink Priorities recent moral weight project ### [Reply to @TylerAlterman, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717324708905959548) · 6 likes > **Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply (@TylerAlterman):** When I was a camp counselor I just gave the bullies leadership positions and they became the best behaved kids of all. They just needed someone to value their power and direct it toward better ends Bad incentives ### [Reply to @DominikPeters, 23:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717325186209395089) · 4 likes > **Dominik Peters (@DominikPeters):** My understanding is that pre-OpenPhil, total spending on farm animal welfare was in the low 10s of millions. So OpenPhil roughly doubled total spending. I guess scaling/discovering effective interventions takes time, so there is not much they can do right now From the episode (and this accords with everything else I know) funding is the main constraint and they’re rejecting good applications bc of limited money ## Thursday, October 26, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 01:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717351084115505592) · 18 likes I should write a proper forum post ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9VBtXBXwAAPUwh.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Amanda Hungerford (OpenPhil animal welfare program officer): “OP funding for farmed animal welfare is in the tens of millions of dollars per year” \[approximate quote\] > > Non-OP funding of GiveWell is WAY beyond that of animal welfare. What are we even doing here? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9Tl6doXgAATjuB.jpg) ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717352149972144569) · 1 like > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** All the good drug dealers end up getting real jobs. Sad 😢 ### [Reply to @jasoncrawford, 01:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717359275360616479) · 2 likes > **Jason Crawford (@jasoncrawford):** @AaronBergman18 That would be, like, three whole episodes Sad. We need an incubator for such organizations called 80,000 80,000 80,000 Hours Hours ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 02:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717360525250560387) · 3 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** Caring about human suffering you don’t know about is socially optimal, however — it allows us to have nations and trade. Caring about animals will never benefit, because we cannot become animals. This is why abortion is licit — friends may be women, but they’ll never be fetuses. Haha my preference for happy chickens go brr ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 02:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717361944380821536) · 2 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** @AaronBergman18 What’s stopping you? Fuck it no reason to be coy bc I’m kinda desperate rn, might delete Afaict, access to a prescription for >=160mg/day of dicyclomine so I can generally function ### [Tweet, 02:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717365445643096572) · 14 likes Saving for future use ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9VOxWxWUAAxNWy.jpg) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 02:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717365859012788537) · 3 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 EAs when their date orders the shrimp Unmatched ### [Tweet, 03:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717378497797063159) · 2 likes Banger but terrible epistemics ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9VapEbW4AAQT2F.jpg) ### [Tweet, 03:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717379838669918590) · 6 likes How many people have you met through Twitter ### [Reply to @exdiegesis, 03:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717380064126312458) > **Hope (@exdiegesis):** by writing "proper" u ar actually just contributing to the harmfwl norm of treating "improper" as inherently worse quality. imagine if, instead of "properness", ppl optimised their writing for… efficiency? usefwlness? joy? there's an enormity of human effort being wasted here. Ya I 100% agree actually. Unfortunately it’s a coordination issue I can’t singlehandledly solve ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 03:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717382790319137260) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ Based ### [Reply to @DoctorTro, 03:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717383332680335794) · 3 likes > **DoctorTro (@DoctorTro):** I am so tired of these keto people vilifying uranium > > Everything. In. Moderation. > > You don’t have to live in fear of every calorie of uranium > > Such a restrictive way of eating and thinking. > > (quoting @ZackStrength: It is futile to look at everything about nutrition in a vacuum. If you’re eating well 99% of the time, that 1% that you’re not isn’t gunna hurt you. Unless you’re eating uranium that 1% of the time. You shouldn’t eat uranium.) This is sorta literally true. I’m guessing one molecule of uranium ingested isn’t actually bad. The problem is that “moderation” provides ~zero information about actual quantities ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717385643192455432) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** We will test my extraversion by scheduling 12 million 1-1s back to back 3 broke me ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 06:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717433502143012968) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** seems like a good rule of thumb how do we programme this into the AI persuaders ChatGPT custom instructions duh. Just copy and paste my tweet ### [Reply to @shaggysurvives, 08:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717451413024895334) · 3 likes > **shaggy (@shaggysurvives):** List of fun date ideas > > (quoting @mymixtapez: List of restaurants women refuse to go on a first date at is going viral 😳📝) Who’s against bowling? ### [Tweet, 08:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717460534050668644) · 4 likes It’s so tragic when I hear someone interesting on a podcast but then they’re not on Twitter ### [Reply to @sonofalli, 09:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717468128341279127) · 1 like > **alli (@sonofalli):** this one is extra spooky!! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9FWn8gbwAARAUZ.jpg) Lol I don’t own a nice outfit ### [Thread, continued, 09:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717471014873931914) · 2 likes And it’s a hallway selfie!! ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 09:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717472523216916814) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 Wow I literally have none of these > > Maybe I have my one good outfit but that's kinda just like your opinion about what looks good? I don’t have a fish, dog, or fake height. The others are a judgement call lol (fwb ≈ “open to short term”) for those wondering ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 15:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717563662171361771) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** even worse than when u find someone interesting on Twitter and they’ve never been on a podcast Fixable problem ### [Reply, 16:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717574049616806069) · 10 likes “And that’s how I met your mother” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9YMfocXMAA3bjf.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 16:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717574667521737035) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** EAG life hack I just made up: bring a box of cereal to keep in your room Incredible ingenuity. AI could never, AGI disproved ### [Reply to @ines__circle, 16:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717578510569509048) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ines__circle is no longer available.)_ Long ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717640473412522040) · 4 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** For the fans > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9YiX09X0AAHu4Y.jpg) I want this but with Soy suficiKENte ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717640902456332504) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 i don't get it No hablas español ### [Reply to @_dtsh, 20:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717644302279389255) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @_dtsh is no longer available.)_ Based ### [Reply to @McNolf, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717647070251598282) · 1 like > **Josh! (@McNolf):** @ellegist Getting one for my cat So they can be friends right ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 21:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717650066456953005) · 1 like > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 @GjMcGowan JAJAJAJA AARON El español es como una melodía para mis oídos, una canción que nunca me canso de escuchar. Cada palabra, cada frase, tiene una historia detrás, y cada conversación en español es como un viaje por un mundo lleno de matices y emociones. ### [Tweet, 21:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717655488978911481) · 19 likes Proposal to replace “specialist”, “associate”, “lead” and other generic-ish terms in job titles with “guy” ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717673549299696096) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Exactly, much cleaner ### [Reply, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717673668870844539) Wait no it would be senior guy guy guy ### [Tweet, 22:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717677196372771219) · 34 likes Extremely cool that the de facto prescribed stimulant rationing system is “it goes to whoever’s willing to call 19 different pharmacies and ask if their thing is in stock” (plus some stochasticity for extra fun) ### [Thread, continued, 22:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717677198889415167) · 9 likes Not that that suffices. Can’t transfer controlled substances (varies by state it seems) so then u gotta get ur doctor to write a new script. Hopefully they don’t charge for that, or you can afford it ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 23:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717679855519572414) · 6 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** why is bacon "unhealthy"? all the salt? Ur gonna unleash PUFA discourse twitter ### [Tweet, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717681441587310838) Take: prompt-to-image AI makes visual art a much more viable form of poetry (functionally - idc if you wanna call it that) Like before you’d have to be good and spend a lot of time to convey the same information as a poem ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 23:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717683815320051991) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 I just went to the pharmacy and they gave me my prescription Different states, different specific meds (they have to have everything exactly as written), it’s possible u just got lucky My dad and I have both found stuff hard to get ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717684210448683277) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 Move to NJ Lol nice try. I struck gold (generic d amph tablets \[not capsules that would be illegal to give me instead\] 10mg) on my 10th try ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 23:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717691460395438124) · 1 like > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** I think it was something like "Triumph of humanity over darkness" > > Disagree on the quality/coherence issue; I think a poem sucks pretty badly if the audience can't even determine the theme of the poem I mean to some extent ya but there are often multiple plausible themes and they’re like fuzzy in idea space Also this varies by poem at least in degree ### [Quote tweet, 23:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717692362615292158) There is definitely a blog post to be written called “an information theoretic explanation of poetry (and maybe art in general?)” > **Quoting JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 I think it was something like "Triumph of humanity over darkness" > > Disagree on the quality/coherence issue; I think a poem sucks pretty badly if the audience can't even determine the theme of the poem ## Friday, October 27, 2023 ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 00:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717703334256054736) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 I've always disliked poems tbh Lol. I feel like they’re underrated at least by ppl who are otherwise like me ### [Quote tweet, 03:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717740948434698648) · 4 likes Thread for notes/ideas as I write the post. Largely just for my own benefit (writing seems much easier on Twitter for me lol) but comments/takes/ideas more than welcome! > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I should write a proper forum post > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9VBtXBXwAAPUwh.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717740950020100384) · 2 likes First up: here's total OpenPhil (OP now on) donations, adjusted for inflation (producer price index). The categories aren't in the original data - I assigned them based on a more granular (but not standard over time) category with 26ish unique/possible values (see the R code pic) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9ajBbbXUAAX_4L.png) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9akOlJWEAAry3a.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717741298852253758) · 2 likes So roughly a 60/30/10 split between ~normal~ human stuff, global catastrophic risks, and animal welfare. The inflation thing doesn't matter much - it looks similar using nominal ### [Tweet, 03:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717741510492352557) Here's some data if u like. Not super organized etc https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VoIKr4k4Mb32LgELLMT103aSkJzC4C8W4EozKOdfWpE/edit?usp=sharing ### [Tweet, 03:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717742751825969444) · 94 likes We don't deserve Scott Alexander pt. 890254570124759 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717767163908390972) · 1 like > **Aaron Bergman, October 27, 2023:** Here's some data if u like. Not super organized etc https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VoIKr4k4Mb32LgELLMT103aSkJzC4C8W4EozKOdfWpE/edit?usp=sharing No huge/systematic change over time (assuming this year's grants will be made and added) except that it became a thing in 2016 apparently (the data goes back to 2012). Animal welfare has been about 10% of OP giving since then ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9a7zLyXwAA0JQG.jpg) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 08:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717814038564937958) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** some of them might be gals Guy is gender neutral I will die on this hill ### [Reply to @sama, 08:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717824889174769703) · 2 likes > **Sam Altman (@sama):** we are launching a new preparedness team to evaluate, forecast, and protect against AI risk led by @aleks_madry. > > we aim to set a new high-water mark for quantitative, evidence-based work. > > https://openai.com/blog/frontier-risk-and-preparedness Based ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 08:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717824964152201268) · 4 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** why do cats always get in your way when you’re trying to feed them? Like you’ll put one spoonful of food in front of them and they’re so eager to eat it that they’ll form a physical blockade between you and the bowl, what failure of evolution is this They fail to generalize outside of the training distribution ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 10:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717851238187077775) · 3 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** having a slight meltdown over saturated fats 😭 > > gonna have to get really into avocado, olives, fish, nuts and seeds ig?? > > (quoting @Kirsten3531: why is bacon "unhealthy"? all the salt?) Wait didn’t u get the memo that saturated fat is fine after all ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 11:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717869799525519587) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Whenever I'm in Boston the primary question on my mind is why Veggie Galaxy, a vegan breakfast place, doesn't open till 11 on weekdays Probably they weren’t getting enough customers before 11? ### [Reply to @lporiginalg, 11:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717870254582288807) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @lporiginalg is no longer available.)_ This is way to strong a correlation (zero outliers on either end?) Bet it’s made up ### [Reply to @_chair, 15:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1717919995378708551) · 3 likes > **Chair (@_chair):** past a certain point you start optimizing for customers who are paying no attention to the price at all > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9cyjqdWcAAhsyB.jpg) I will sell anybody a wheel for $400. I don’t have any special wheels but I can probably find one somewhere ### [Quote tweet, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718049288494747959) · 7 likes He just like me fr > **Quoting Inner City Press (@innercitypress):** Cohen: Why did you where the shorts and T-shirts? > SBF: I found them comfortable. > Cohen: Why the long hair? > SBF: I was lazy. ## Saturday, October 28, 2023 ### [Tweet, 00:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718062384869265791) · 5 likes Let’s let the people decide Do I have autism? ### [Quote tweet, 00:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718065597185962269) · 1 like As a suburban mom (walker), I can confidently report that intra-work consumption of marijuana among construction-adjacent professionals is still alive and well (I fully support btw) > **Quoting rosey🌹 (@thechosenberg):** We must retvrn to on the job alcoholism > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9dzBzYXIAEtzQx.jpg) ### [Tweet, 00:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718066983755804918) · 2 likes Everybody post a video of “My heart will go on” on repeat in ur circle on the 31st ### [Reply, 00:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718067641909117298) · 1 like Yes but ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9fNah4WkAAF-RE.jpg) ### [Reply, 00:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718068092767441399) Doesn’t appeal to nature make sense here, evolutionarily? ### [Tweet, 01:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718075366844088321) · 9 likes Scooped bagels are a legitimate preference everyone needs to chill ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9fUcNJXgAAGs6L.jpg) ### [Reply to @auren, 01:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718076045302079704) · 4 likes > **Auren Hoffman (@auren):** if you are thinking of moving ... > DC was 80 degrees today (Oct 27) > just saying ... Is this an argument for or against DC lol? ### [Reply to @prerat, 01:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718078575214018746) · 14 likes > **prerat (@prerat):** baby has attributed reverse causality to "bye bye" > > she knows that when someone/something goes away, you say "bye bye" to it > > so naturally when she wants someone/something gone, now she says "bye bye \_\_\_\_\_" over & over Does it work? ### [Quote tweet, 03:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718101741294452912) · 3 likes I think this dynamic is a big reason GHD gets ~6x as much EA money as animal welfare despite the marginal dollar doing way more good in the latter bucket (point estimates around 1000x but confidence intervals that would make a development economist’s head explode) > **Quoting Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** @RichardMCNgo The concept that uncertain tech development and political lobbying can do more good than the drowning child you can save in front of you right now. The sectors of EA that had that concept went off to do AI things, correctly; the remainder of EA went for the certain goods. ### [Thread, continued, 03:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718101743853043777) · 2 likes To put it in mildly spicy terms, those initially attracted to EA who are willing to take ideas seriously and adopt a scout mindset reliably (but not universally, before I get cancelled) get pulled toward AI and adjacent areas ### [Thread, continued, 03:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718101746956870078) · 1 like So the remaining, very large cluster consists mostly of very smart, altruistic people who just aren’t trying very hard to get the right answer to things ### [Quote tweet, 03:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718102060099371244) 3/3 > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** So the remaining, very large cluster consists mostly of very smart, altruistic people who just aren’t trying very hard to get the right answer to things ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 03:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718103600079978977) · 20 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ What? No being one person in a protest is not worth getting deported over almost regardless of how important the cause is ### [Tweet, 03:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718104517428891828) · 4 likes Please red team my impending decision to get an iPhone 15 Pro (upgrading from an 11 with a mic that doesn’t really work) $800 if they accept the trade in. No holds barred. FWIW I’ve already thought about the obvious donation counterfactual but convince me I’m wrong ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 03:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718106321407394192) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ There are no cosmic points for bravery or sacrifice Granting that protesting is directionally good, it seems wildly implausible that reducing a crowd’s size by .1% is worth even a 1% chance of drastically reducing what you can do in the future. For better or worse being ### [Reply, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718112468587757825) · 4 likes For sure but I think “doing the right thing” does and should boil down to having a (chance of at least a) positive, causal effect on others In this particular case, I don’t think the plausible effect of each individual protester is large enough to warrant deportation ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718112763866763637) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** If anyone has Saturday night EAG plans and wants to invite me I currently have nothing planned Uh it might be an issue that ~nobody here knows ur last name or what u look like ### [Reply to @TylerAlterman, 04:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718116039525806250) · 2 likes > **Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply (@TylerAlterman):** Executive function hack: > 1\. Hold intention to not bs yourself (most important part, do not skip) > 2\. Ask “what, in the background of my mind, is constantly grating at me” > 3\. Take first answer seriously (& let other well up) > > That background grating thing is eating up your RAM > > (quoting @the_wilderless: Twitter folks, What are your tips for improving executive function? Please sort advice into two categories: - obvious effective stuff -esoteric non-obvious schizo-gnosis) It’s difficult when there’s an answer but no easy or clear way to fix it ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718116812636803288) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 @TylerAlterman he just like me fr :( Feel free to dm me ur thing, no pressure ofc ### [Tweet, 04:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718117245195272347) · 7 likes I have no idea what \[thing\].js is and realistically will probably never learn ### [Thread, continued, 04:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718117248118722772) · 2 likes Also while I’m at it: \- wheel \- vim ### [Reply to @meaning_enjoyer, 07:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718169424388149588) · 3 likes > **nihilism disrespecter (@meaning_enjoyer):** talking about compassion is a red flag. a strong indication of narcissism. if "empathy" comes up you are probably dealing with a full on sociopath [![GIF thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/F9gp-pUWIAA44l5.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718169424388149588/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 15:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718283137367548306) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Also now I've doxxed myself The CEA team analyzing footage and tweeting data to figure it out once and for all ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9iRZ-7WsAA76BJ.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9iRZ_JWEAEaEBi.jpg) ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 15:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718286636381815235) · 12 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ It’s gonna be funny af if it was seratonin after all ### [Tweet, 15:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718289237508788567) · 11 likes Here’s my actual best guess understanding that I’m sure is at least partially wrong (for SSRIs specifically): \- sustained increase in serotonin does ~nothing directly but causes a bunch of epigenetic changes downstream that we don’t understand mechanistically ### [Thread, continued, 15:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718289240243503512) · 5 likes \- at a non-mechanistic explanatory level, the direction of this effect might (weasel word ik) have something to do with sustained increase in serotonin coding for (ie correlating with evolutionarily(?)) a low stress/everything is fine environment (including internal environment) ### [Thread, continued, 15:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718289243145965862) · 5 likes \- also something about neurosteroids. They seem good. If you started taking SSRIs and ~immediately felt better this was probably the mechanism \- something about BDNF, maybe, but it kinda seems like every time you poke the brain (metaphorically) in any way BDNF goes ⬆️ so idk ### [Thread, continued, 15:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718289245012431127) · 5 likes \- at a high level, it seems like the broad qualitative effect of SSRIs is to decrease the negative emotional salience. This often correlates or causes depression but isn’t identical to it, and it’s a reason they don’t always work for anhedonic type depression ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 15:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718289675671019730) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Women are you doing anything for you to get to the house or do you want to go to the beach with me and my family and friends with me and my family and friends and family and friends and family and friends and family and friends and friends and friends and friends > > (quoting @InternetH0F: ) My sister ngl ### [Reply to @EAheadlines, 15:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718290800247820316) · 1 like > **EA Lifestyles (@EAheadlines):** I believe in my heart that EAG is causally responsible for me not being invited to any Halloween parties and I resent it for that Ur unironically invited to a Halloween party but it’s in DC tn so hmu if u can make it ### [Reply to @EAheadlines, 15:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718291894034211145) · 2 likes > **EA Lifestyles (@EAheadlines):** 😢 > > (quoting @EAheadlines: \*any Halloween parties in London (I've been pointedly reminded that yes I am invited to a party in Boston)) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9iZXtPWQAAWT5O.jpg) ### [Reply to @StatsLime, 15:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718292394012025133) · 2 likes > **Max ⏸️ Limelihood 🔸🔸🔸 (@StatsLime):** @NathanpmYoung What's an infant An infant is a human child in the earliest stage of life, generally considered to be from birth to around 2 years of age. ### [Tweet, 17:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718318907046388187) · 30 likes This isn’t the salient debate nor should it be very reassuring but I feel a bit more confident that the Extremely Concerned Doomers (10% < P(x-risk) < 90%) are more right than the Death with Dignity Doomers (>90%) ### [Thread, continued, 17:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718318910473211908) · 4 likes Both of whom are more right than the minimally or unconcerned (<10%, which is an awfully generous bar) ### [Reply to @inerati, 17:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718319117432762548) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ Aligned AGI ### [Quote tweet, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718319978007433520) · 11 likes Not that this is especially important, but I do think this is bad and we shouldn’t trivialize past tragedies (for cultural/memetic reasons, not like respecting the dead) > **Quoting Guy (@nosilverv):** If you live long enough you’ll live see your tragedy made into a joke > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9irCeXWEAA7x2g.jpg) ### [Reply, 17:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718321500028068198) · 1 like Not a full explanation but this update is something like “in part for theoretical reasons in part bc OpenAI et al are at least kinda alignment pilled, it’s plausible that powerful AIs learn to do something sufficiently similar with what their engineers want that other control ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 17:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718322888955027950) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** on the other hand, wheeeeeee Tbc I’m very pro inflatable thingy ### [Reply to @joel_bkr, 17:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718323683658272958) · 1 like > **Joel Becker (@joel_bkr):** put out this draft list of my favorite things :D https://joel-becker.com/personal/favorite-things > > which changes would make it easier/better for you to use? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9iy2xRWgAAkHvJ.jpg) I love this as an idea haha My list be like \- nice weather \- Brian Tomasik \- Rice Krispies \- opioids ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718334906915295630) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ From a Pigeon Hour beta listener 💀 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9jAfTqXgAA1eLF.jpg) ### [Tweet, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718338075682541952) · 5 likes They should invent a fall that’s not hot ### [Reply to @reconfigurthing, 18:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718338751405932768) · 4 likes > **Elias Schmied (@reconfigurthing):** Women: what percentage of men you meet are you attracted to? I feel like you should consider reposting with “presumably straight+within ur preferred age range” ### [Tweet, 18:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718339917774836005) · 8 likes PSA (which may be needed given I’m the only review): this exists ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9jFC8AWkAAmPGu.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718345722418872452) · 15 likes Seems like public bathrooms in urban areas should be much more of thing. A couple portapotties in each public park couldn’t be that heavy a lift ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718348926112166219) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 My honest expectation is that they would end up dilapidated and filthy shockingly quickly Feels like there’s some combination of money and cleverness that solves this problem My first galaxy brain idea: put them inside police stations (far from sufficient geographically ofc) - like just libraries but they’re open all the time ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 19:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718350067403256162) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 In the US context it seems like that would be a non-starter because people would call it racist/racially exclusionary Nooo my off the cuff galaxy brain ideas can’t have implementation difficulties nooo ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718350211536314734) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 28, 2023:** Seems like public bathrooms in urban areas should be much more of thing. A couple portapotties in each public park couldn’t be that heavy a lift I’m seeing lots of cheems mindset in the replies ### [Reply, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718351647875711409) · 1 like Is it really worth the risk of going to jail to break into a portapotty? Like just peeing (probably shitting too idk) 2 feet away is lower risk ### [Quote tweet, 19:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718353592157966438) · 13 likes My followers when it comes to AI alignment and governance ⬅️ My followers when it comes to making it possible to pee in a major American city ➡️ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9jRe7kWIAAqUv8.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Seems like public bathrooms in urban areas should be much more of thing. A couple portapotties in each public park couldn’t be that heavy a lift ### [Reply to @davidad, 19:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718354649172869241) · 3 likes > **davidad 🎇 (@davidad):** Uranium only costs about £100/kg, yet still, civilians are only allowed to own 7 kg of it. > > (quoting @JeflonZuckgates: @davidad What are the chances that NO ONE will run the current architecture over 100x compute is an off the shelf affordable possibility for laymen?) How do I get my 7 kg of uranium? ### [Reply to @xsphi, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718355550088368611) · 2 likes > **tess (@xsphi):** "that will be between three terabytes and eight terabytes every day" @TheZvi’s output as plain text ### [Reply to @inerati, 20:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718359856346738825) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ Poast code screenshot ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718367091223326874) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 Carry dehydrated toilet paper packets fr This is mostly a small bladder issue ### [Reply to @thatMikeBishop, 20:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718369425810722864) · 2 likes > **Mike Bishop 🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@thatMikeBishop):** Canada? Brilliant ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 21:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718372218130903436) · 3 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** it’s crazy how chill we are about weed give its risks. half the psychonauts I know who will fearlessly take research chemicals on a tuesday are terrified by weed > > horror stories are so often weed or 5-meo-dmt, but only the latter is known as a nuclear option N = 1 = me but I’ve smoked weed exactly twice with two other people, and on 1/6 person-occasions the guy got super paranoid and freaked tf out Kinda scared me away for better or worse ## Sunday, October 29, 2023 ### [Reply to @fermatslibrary, 17:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718688989857579035) · 2 likes > **Fermat's Library (@fermatslibrary):** Probability of returning to the origin in a random walk: > 1D → P=1 > 2D → P=1 > 3D → P=0.34 > Large D → P=1/2D > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9msefqXsAAXfTt.jpg) [![GIF thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/F9oChTjXQAAmoGI.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718688989857579035/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718691708756750610) · 1 like U use melatonin? ### [Tweet, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718691871084474625) · 1 like I have no idea what metrosexual means and at this point I’m too afraid to ask ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 18:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718696613160292400) · 5 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** it's easy to complain about the budget cuts these days but we really don't know how good we have it. this was the nap room at the first EAG > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9nsaOOXEAAVd2G.jpg) Damn they really used to be less selective ### [Quote tweet, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718697155450355907) · 8 likes Lil dude’s hinge profile in 10 years: “Believe it or not, I… Once got tackled by the governor of California” > **Quoting RNC Research (@RNCResearch):** California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom plows through a small child during a game of basketball in communist China > > [video attached](https://x.com/RNCResearch/status/1718661462934122912/video/1) ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718698096194973912) · 3 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** ✅ Lots of career capital > ✅ Highly agentic > ✅ Happy to work in LMICs > > before criticising Saddam Hussein maybe focus on yourself ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 18:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718699409163030580) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ 🐣 ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 18:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718700801697141221) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Well dressed too ### [Thread, continued, 18:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718700888129171533) · 1 like How can I hire his fashion consultant ### [Tweet, 19:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718717046760849909) · 14 likes You sleep 10+ hours because ur brain needs to recover from alcohol. I sleep 10+ hours because my brain needs to recover from socializing. We are not the same ### [Reply, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718718770552717361) · 1 like Largely to start yes, and still in part, but after the ball got rolling I’m guessing talent self-selected by applying there. Same with Harvard et al but then the self selection is largely on the basis of prestige (which isn’t necessarily bad tbc) ### [Tweet, 20:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718722221177278661) · 3 likes To poast bc it’s an interesting market dynamics question/point or not to poast bc it might start dating app discourse? ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 20:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718722580637475319) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ Lmao ### [Tweet, 22:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718750884010549686) · 112 likes \> Mom asks what I think about Gaza \> ask if she’s talking about the actual situation or the US culture war \> she doesn’t understand \> pull out diagram distinguishing an issue from its discourse \> “Israel and Gaza” she says \> gives some example answers \> it’s the US culture war ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 22:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718752040422154454) · 4 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I've made it again > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9o0OmLWgAAezov.jpg) Infinite recursion!!! ### [Reply, 22:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718754887058485595) · 2 likes I mean maybe but of all my serious problems it seems less important and tractable ## Monday, October 30, 2023 ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718784852638511605) · 3 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** All conferences should have nap rooms > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9ood19WIAAGYTL.jpg) The most delirious, satisfying nap I ever had was in one of these ### [Tweet, 00:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718785840556503205) · 5 likes Whenever I open Word, a potentially-banger meme is cooking ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 00:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718793854298595531) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Brown on Slavery from memory, but recency definitely increases salience so idk ### [Tweet, 00:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718794139066613834) · 53 likes .@TheZvi we need a book review review ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9piA9SWYAAN6e7.png) ### [Thread, continued, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718796161761321053) · 9 likes lmao ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9pj_PTX0AAUglh.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718797785355428248) · 8 likes Luckily there's an audio version that's only 3 hours https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Fmweoiai0O4CwrdCentXg?si=3ec24d64dfaa4697 ### [Reply to @nkreu113r, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718798199144525872) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @nkreu113r is no longer available.)_ lfg this sounds like the kind of thing that pays more than say $40k ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 01:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718808241012977740) · 4 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** this is probably the best pun I have ever made and the funniest I am capable of being > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9pptN4XoAA3ZYC.jpg) Go to sleep ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 06:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718872779116761423) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Nice! I like the distance a lot. What are your goals and what's your current weekly volume like? Same but not in a running sort of way. I just like the distance 13 miles aesthetically ### [Reply to @depthsofwiki, 06:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718874758664606095) · 34 likes > **depths of wikipedia! (@depthsofwiki):** on this day in 2007, the US and North Korea teamed up to overthrow pirates > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9o29IiX0AA9W7O.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9qre24XYAAwj2r.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 07:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718887951268999627) · 1 like Some very much non-object level points about this… \- “Israel has a right to defend itself” is like “all/black lives matter” in that it’s an obviously reasonable sentence ~no one disputes that is ~entirely used to indicate membership to an ideological cluster and cultural tribe > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** \> Mom asks what I think about Gaza > \> ask if she’s talking about the actual situation or the US culture war > \> she doesn’t understand > \> pull out diagram distinguishing an issue from its discourse > \> “Israel and Gaza” she says > \> gives some example answers > \> it’s the US culture war ### [Thread, continued, 07:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718887954435731892) · 2 likes Do you think that Israel has a right (or “is morally justified” etc) to defend itself? Cool, same, but this only bounds the set of acceptable actions between “uses deadly force to stop an ongoing attack inside Israel” and “Nuclear bombs the Gaza Strip, killing everyone” ### [Tweet, 07:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718887956327309560) · 1 like This is kinda object level, but fwiw I think it’s very much fine for the IDF to kill Hamas attackers and leaders (it seems tactically wise too but I’m not informed enough to say) in the same way it was for the US to kill bin Laden ### [Thread, continued, 07:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718887958206460175) · 2 likes ^Though tbc I don’t condone killing of anyone who could be plausibly called eg a “Hamas sympathizer” or even “supporter,” depending how it’s used. Having bad, even abhorrent beliefs and eg voting accordingly doesn’t warrant a death sentence ### [Reply to @ns_whit, 07:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718888877400727900) · 48 likes > **Nick Whitaker 🇺🇸 (@ns_whit):** The ultimate Singapore culture shock: a $15k bike left unattended > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9pt0QGa4AAOSSf.jpg) Seems kinda expensive. It’s two wheels and a frame - what could it cost, $10? ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 07:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718890377799762411) · 2 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** @AaronBergman18 @ns_whit move the decimal maybe 2 or 3 decimal places https://www.racycles.com/bikes/road/pinarello I can afford $0.1250!! 😊🚵‍♂️ ### [Reply to @inerati, 07:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718891818136326295) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ I want weird friends but in a diversified portfolio of directions of weirdness ### [Reply to @BowTieOrangeGuy, 07:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718894122411377104) · 13 likes > **Mr Bow Tie (@BowTieOrangeGuy):** PSA: > > The popularity of long distance hiking is growing exponentially. > > If you want to ever walk the Apalachan Trail, The Camino, etc, you should do so ASAP before they get crowded. > > IMO, long distance hiking is one of the best things you can do and should be a major life priority. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9qwllzasAAiBfd.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9qwogjaMAAnqcP.png) PSA don’t try a long ass hike (say 1+ month) without trying a medium ass hike (say 7-12 days) first Thru hikes are like the PhDs of “liking to go for a walk” - u better really fucking like it, enough to hate it some of the time ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 07:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718894346966041010) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** Two days down, and for social reasons I'm going to break the fast tomorrow, but three days is still pretty good! > > (quoting @ohwizenedtortle: Starting tonight I'm going to low effort attempt a five day fast 🤞) Ya it is, congrats!! ### [Reply to @JeffLadish, 07:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718896643292975176) · 3 likes > **Jeffrey Ladish (@JeffLadish):** The thing about EA being good or bad or whatever is that the problems EAs are trying to solve exist regardless. You don't have to be an EA to solve them. I don't care who solves them. But I want them solved Lol I would be so owned if the e/accs eliminated the new world screwworm ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 07:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718896711748190406) · 4 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** @JeffLadish yeah it would be a lot better if people talked more about their object level views because on many (perhaps except AI) topics, critics of EA would agree. the social movement is second, the object level issues are first Yes, based ### [Reply to @BowTieOrangeGuy, 08:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718901304091672971) · 5 likes > **Mr Bow Tie (@BowTieOrangeGuy):** @AaronBergman18 This might be good advice in general, but I jumped straight from "never done a multi-day hike" to "6-month hike" and that was definitely the right decision for me. This sounds like a terrible ex ante decision lmao but glad it worked out! ### [Reply to @meaning_enjoyer, 08:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718902529990213686) · 7 likes > **nihilism disrespecter (@meaning_enjoyer):** insect suffering is a conceptual problem for animal welfare; > > if we can't move through the world without inevitably killing many sentient beings, why should we worry about cows and chickens? What? I honestly don’t see where the conceptual issue comes from. Two quantities aren’t the same just because they’re both “many”, and I think it’s very likely that individual insects suffer but less than individual mammals ### [Reply to @techhsiren, 08:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718903976362484145) · 4 likes > **techsiren ♥︎ (@techhsiren):** i think we fucked up by punishing men for mansplaining to us . it's like .. . their love language?? and actually really sweet ???? ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 08:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718904340553798036) · 7 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** genuine q: how cringe would it be if I did an AMA to celebrate reaching 1k followers, and what are the chances that doing this will knock me back down into the 900s? Not cringe, but if it was cringe it would still be cool ### [Quote tweet, 08:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718905013555040434) · 7 likes Real af > **Quoting 𐫱 arcove 𐫱 (@dschorno):** tweets telling people about the essay i spent 40 hours writing: 900 views > tweets telling people about a dogshit idea i had just before falling asleep: 25,000 views > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9n-YX7a4AAo_Je.png) ### [Reply to @lastpositivist, 08:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718905706533753225) · 4 likes > **Liam Bright (@lastpositivist):** Circles allowed me a sphere of comfortable expression, an outlet I found very useful at times. I think without it I might give this place a break for a while. :( ### [Reply to @wholebodyprayer, 08:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718905881390096549) · 2 likes > **rosalind lucy (@wholebodyprayer):** Why does everyone need to be sexy for halloween… is it that Sex is actually the most scary thing? Yes, terrifying ### [Quote tweet, 08:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718908289956646974) · 4 likes Me whenever I talk to a normal person > **Quoting stoop kid (@StoopMensch):** We need a 3rd alternative word that’s not “yes” or “no”, but means “your question contains an invalid premise, so neither yes nor no is a valid response” ### [Reply to @TechCrespo, 08:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718910982469091764) · 3 likes > **Luis Crespo (@TechCrespo):** @AaronBergman18 I am also interested in understanding the difference, can you please explain it like I am your mother? This isn’t a comprehensive answer but: She wanted to know where along a “pro-Palestine to pro-Israel” axis I fell. This kind of one dimensional axis isn’t \*inherently\* a bad model for war, but it can be tempting to use even when it’s not bc it’s generally a good model for ### [Reply, 08:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718911578647478460) · 1 like the modern American political spectrum which is reasonably well described by a single axis, which itself maps on quite well to some relevant cultural, pseudoideological spectrum that defines most salient topics of public concern and conflict (blm, COVID, Israel, Iraq war, trump) ### [Thread, continued, 08:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718912164361031726) · 2 likes I cited the American Revolutionary War as one instance in which a single axis made a good bit of sense bc the main question of political/moral/military importance was “should America be part of the British empire, yes or no?” In this case liking Alexander Hamilton’s memes or ### [Reply, 08:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718912868932899327) · 1 like Attending a pro-loyalist rally at a college would indeed pretty much answer what you thought either side should basically do (though not entirely - presumably there were some high decoupling pro-🇺🇸 nerds who grumbled about the loose epistemics of the Boston “massacre” reporting) ### [Thread, continued, 08:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718913581226279036) · 2 likes But in the Israel-Gaza case this breaks down. The meaningful questions you can ask here are about specific people, policies, or actions. “Should Israel invade the Gaza Strip?” is such a question (and one whose answer will be conditional, like “yes but it would be better than they ### [Thread, continued, 08:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718914112854351990) · 2 likes not than that they do so and kill 1k civilians” for example). Well if that example is your answer, it’s not clear at all whether that aligns with the people carrying Palestinian flags on us campuses or Israeli flags. It likewise doesn’t predict very well what you’re answer to ### [Quote tweet, 09:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718923454668296206) · 2 likes This is one annoying (and sometimes good/helpful but overrated and annoying nonetheless) thing about EAish argumentation Yes, \*one\* have that argument. But where are those people?! I want to convince \*you\* of something > **Quoting Michael Plant (@MichaelDPlant):** @MarkFabian_PAIS "you \*might\* think that ..." ### [Thread, continued, 09:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718923461706309662) · 2 likes One example it took 2 mins to find. Like to respond to this I wanna know which bullets you think are true! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9rXxwwW0AA5YSV.jpg) ### [Tweet, 09:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718923463891525889) · 1 like Often this is just a little bit of wasted effort, and comes with the benefits of making an argument more robust But sometimes it draws attention away from the critiques or reasons those who \*actually disagree\* with something have for disagreeing ### [Thread, continued, 09:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718923465829261397) · 3 likes Definitely one of my most underrated blog posts from a distant past (2021) https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/dont-use-your-favorite-weapon ### [Quote tweet, 09:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718924602569609493) · 2 likes I am taking applications for someone to be my Socratic hypeman sidekick guy > **Quoting Santi Ruiz (@rSanti97):** working on a Socratic interlocutor bit where I respond with things like > > “surely it is as you say” > “undoubtedly” > “it seems that you speak truly” ### [Reply to @sullyj3, 11:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718955961719701528) · 1 like > **░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░ (@sullyj3):** Some people hate fun > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9r1LkDbkAAjfAm.jpg) 😡 ### [Tweet, 11:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718956614756020390) · 4 likes I’m ready for it to be snowing ☃️/acc ### [Tweet, 11:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718958903587705291) · 7 likes \> freak out bc I remember I had two weeks to do something and maybe that email came two weeks ago \> search email \> it was 4 days ago ### [Reply, 11:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718959093090525663) · 9 likes Nobody knows how to do python anyone who objects is lying ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 12:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718965079624782126) · 6 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 I don't get any likes ever Counterpoint ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9r9oUpWEAA-6rR.jpg) ### [Reply to @metakuna, 12:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718969596596621551) · 5 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** "If the throw is successful and there's a wire connected to the rock" > > (quoting @Rainmaker1973: Guy throwing copper wrapped rock on power line. If the throw is successful and there's a wire connected to the rock, you very likely close a circuit and produce a discharge. This is a potential consequence: so, try to avoid it.…) Wire rock throwing, happens to me all the time by accident ### [Quote tweet, 12:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718972076525072582) · 2 likes Narrator: he never did the things > **Quoting Frog and Toad Bot (@FrogandToadbot):** One morning Toad sat in bed. “I have many things to do,” he said. “I will write them all down on a list so that I can remember them.” ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 12:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718972255210721591) · 13 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** “Eat Like A Londoner” 🤔🦗 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9sDnVbWcAApc0I.jpg) I will not eat the crickets (until they’re lab grown) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 12:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1718975464729890934) · 4 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** ok fuck it I’m not opposed a bit of cringe, so AMA > > I’m a bit of a chronic over-sharer so I’ll probably answer mostly anything mostly honestly (within reason) > > will answer in a few hours when I finish work so leave your Qs and I’ll get back to u I guess? > > (quoting @littIeramblings: genuine q: how cringe would it be if I did an AMA to celebrate reaching 1k followers, and what are the chances that doing this will knock me back down into the 900s?) What question(s) are you most hoping someone asks? ### [Reply to @theshalvah, 15:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719012513205891174) · 2 likes > **do not go gentle (@theshalvah):** @AaronBergman18 @ns_whit Is that an Arrested Development reference? 🫡 Ya but it’s purely secondhand, I’ve never watched the show ### [Quote tweet, 16:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719031282309497238) · 122 likes Am I crazy for thinking the ex ante probability of something at least this good by the US federal government relative to AI progress, from the perspective of 5 years ago was ~1% Ie this seems 99th-percentile-in-2018 good to me > **Quoting Helen Toner (@hlntnr):** 3\) Tackles fears of AI-driven biological risks by focusing on the biological side (shoring up DNA synthesis screening) - very sensible. > > 4\) Exploring watermarks, authentication for official content, using AI to fix cyber vulns, I love it ### [Thread, continued, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719031535796433268) · 45 likes Ngl I’m tearing up 🥲 A lot of people’s extremely hard work, foresight, and seriousness went into this (not talking about me tbc) ### [Thread, continued, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719031537952313798) · 12 likes Happy Halloween ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 16:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719033167976214588) · 4 likes > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** Yes but we're also in the shorter timelines part of the distribution (not like the shortest 1% but still) 🫡 thank you for answering the question ### [Reply, 17:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719051473827365095) · 2 likes Oh well ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719052248544677951) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** ok fuck it I’m not opposed a bit of cringe, so AMA > > I’m a bit of a chronic over-sharer so I’ll probably answer mostly anything mostly honestly (within reason) > > will answer in a few hours when I finish work so leave your Qs and I’ll get back to u I guess? > > (quoting @littIeramblings: genuine q: how cringe would it be if I did an AMA to celebrate reaching 1k followers, and what are the chances that doing this will knock me back down into the 900s?) What’s ur favorite condiment? ### [Tweet, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719066808127242410) · 11 likes Based and correct understanding of risk aversion-pilled @Laura_k_Duffy I am begging people to understand that “risk aversion” doesn’t just mean “have narrow confidence intervals on the magnitude of one of the first-order effects of an intervention” (link below) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9taJppWgAAR5Jh.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719066810987712629) · 1 like https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/9EENSGhiQiKFaRh4t/how-can-risk-aversion-affect-your-cause-prioritization ### [Thread, continued, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719066812694831221) · 3 likes Ofc shrimp play well on Twitter, but this is just an example of a far more general thing You can disambiguate further too - especially important IMO is between risk of preventing/eliminating good and the risk of creating or failing to reduce suffering ### [Thread, continued, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719066814636781726) · 1 like ^ both of which are different from (conceptually - I think they’re basically like vector multipliers on) effect magnitude uncertainty ### [Thread, continued, 19:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719067481908691334) · 3 likes Just to illustrate, there’s a very important sense in which the s-risk people are the most risk averse of all, even though their vibes aren’t exactly those of the AMFers ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719068960224579671) · 2 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** @hominidan They can't be thinking too independently and insufficiently independently They can on different dimensions ### [Tweet, 20:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719086398207046136) · 39 likes 🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡 On my honor, I will do my best To contribute to building understanding, To act in good faith at all times, And to offer my help, even to those with whom I disagree, So as to uphold the values of this Community Notes initiative 🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9tr95_W0AA__aG.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719086494315688319) · 1 like WAIT I THINK I KNOW WHY CHATGPT IS BEING SLOW ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719086834226024538) · 5 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 Why Executive order and I’m using the DC servers ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719091544194441272) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 28, 2023:** 3/3 Well looks like @Laura_k_Duffy did the heavy lifting ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9twpYtWwAAn7u0.jpg) ## Tuesday, October 31, 2023 ### [Tweet, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719207181994668258) · 4 likes Someone who wanted to donate to @ManifoldMarkets (or just had a lot of manna) could be extremely funny by betting YES, hard, on every http://manifold.love market ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 04:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719211124887814596) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Think we need to teach and promote the virtue of holding and defending extremely boring beliefs > > (quoting @SpaghettiKozak: Quite the opposite actually. Mis/disinfo thrives on convincing you it's some kind of hidden truth and it appeals to everyone's desire to feel special, smart, and independent from the "herd." Facts often seem "cringe" while BS is presented as subversive and taboo.) Cringe is the new based, many are saying ### [Reply to @Levi7hart, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719212396932178029) · 2 likes > **Levi Hart (@Levi7hart):** Did you know the punishment for leaving Islam is death? No it’s not. Maybe it says so somewhere but like at a literal level this doesn’t happen ### [Tweet, 05:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719224467241521632) · 12 likes Lil this is not an emergency but there are no gastroenterologist appointments available for 6 months so worth a fucking try I guess ### [Reply to @KanizsaBoundary, 05:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719225647032148048) · 2 likes > **Ethan Kuntz (@KanizsaBoundary):** @AaronBergman18 I got lil hematoma it kinda slaps ngl Ya u should rap fr ### [Reply to @selentelechia, 06:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719235484637868087) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @selentelechia is no longer available.)_ Plot twist there’s a $50 or smth at the end ### [Reply to @amimevalepitito, 06:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719235937253662767) · 2 likes > **Jonathan Frankfurter (@amimevalepitito):** @univrsw3th4rt This was me in my mid 20s, paid 600/month for a room in a group house in DC, lived 20 minutes from my sister. But in your 30s living alone is non negotiable About to pay almost 2.5x that for the same (DC 3 person townhouse) ### [Reply to @etirabys, 06:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719240824683114540) · 11 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @etirabys is no longer available.)_ World class wordcel ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 06:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719242935198192058) · 4 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** I prefer public transit to Uber. It’s not just bc it’s cheaper. I don’t like the social stuff: coordinating on where to find each other, being in this person’s car and figuring out what they think is polite, the stress of doing all the local cultural things right to get 5 stars. Plus you get a built in leg day (@AndyMasley might appreciate lol) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9v6Vi1W8AAE5V-.jpg) ### [Tweet, 07:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719249215321219562) · 5 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9wADMGWoAAX1yV.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 07:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719258425698226183) · 5 likes How Trajan House deals with their HEPA filters post-FTX > **Quoting Massimo (@Rainmaker1973):** Cleaning an air filter with a fire cracker > > \[📹 aaronwitt\] > https://x.com/O_Satisfying/status/1708426084524634514/video/1 ### [Quote tweet, 08:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719275691445788920) · 5 likes I feel like there’s some legit investigative journalism to be done here Who is setting up these bots? Is it profitable? How do they like stuff so quickly and comprehensively? What’s the deal with multiple “Ana”s or whatever showing up at once? Does X not care because it’s MUAs? > **Quoting shaggy (@shaggysurvives):** The random pretty girl bot accounts that are liking random replies in long conversations are becoming really annoying ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 08:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719276842056605892) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 One thing I notice about the recent wave of porn spambots is that they seem to just follow, not actively promote with tweets; maybe that leads to weak enforcement? 🤔 We need our best minds on this ### [Reply to @mbateman, 09:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719281926266036464) · 1 like > **Matt Bateman (@mbateman):** @meansinfinity I said it’s how men look at women in a certain way, like how prince phillip looked at aurora, and she lost interest Boring stuff, I agree ### [Reply to @Maxeonyx, 10:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719298000793563551) · 1 like > **Max-well-fare Clarke (@Maxeonyx):** Is this in Istanbul? I feel like I remember seeing this somewhere lol this is the Bethesda MD metro stop, a 10 min walk from me ### [Reply, 10:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719302766105882995) A somewhat different set of orgs (certainly overlapping via openphil tho) and people created the research/intellectual foundation for broad claims like “reducing the pace of peak capabilities gains would probably be good” and really ai x-risk more generally ### [Reply to @krishnanrohit, 12:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719336378532499800) · 3 likes > **rohit (@krishnanrohit):** @AaronBergman18 @open_phil @CSETGeorgetown @GovAI\_ @RethinkPriors Its not a "happy coincidence" that climate change didn't happen 1000x as fast. It's a function of being present in a complex adaptive system. We solved CFC issue re ozone and acid rains by having actual models for actual problems. I thought up the analogy in 5 seconds and maybe the 100x thing is dumb but more generally AI seems very likely to have an effect on society at a pace far greater than climate change ### [Tweet, 14:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719360743991111896) · 15 likes RIP Twitter Circles, 2022-2023. It was loved. 🪦 ⃝ 😢 [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1719360276145815552/pu/img/zP6OedKC97gr-6ps.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719360743991111896/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Tweet, 18:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719421724477837610) · 35 likes Bouta get roasted up but tf is Linux? Like do people buy an empty laptop or what? Or like u buy a normal one and then do a switcharoo? Is it just like a black screen and a terminal and text editor? Why? ### [Reply to @bat1441, 18:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719424081861201925) · 9 likes > **bat (@bat1441):** @AaronBergman18 You buy a regular laptop and install Linux, you can either keep the other operating system alongside it and switch between them or only have Linux. You can also get laptops with Linux pre-installed. > > There are diff distros and using smth like Ubuntu isn't that diff from macos I’m suspicious. Sounds like u need an operating system operating system to switch between operating systems. What’s that called? (Nobody should feel obligated to answer ik all this is discoverable on my own) ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719424860579901845) · 3 likes > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** @AaronBergman18 Linux is a type of cat bro 🤣😂😂😂 average AI pause supporter 😐 How do u get a cat inside a computer tho? I feel like it’s gotta be a smaller animal ### [Reply to @metakuna, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719446264612343903) · 6 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** \> Sounds like u need an operating system operating system to switch between operating systems > > That's right, there is firmware built into all computers for this called BIOS (basic input/output system), which is what loads the OS when you first turn it on 😱😱😱 ### [Thread, continued, 20:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719446396472844654) · 6 likes How do they get that in there? (Same disclaimer as above) ### [Thread, continued, 20:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719447182175035814) · 8 likes Ngl this is why computers seem like magic to me. Like at what point do u get hardware aka metal that can be said to have software running on it? Idk if software is even like a legit category (a ~natural abstraction~ one might say) ### [Quote tweet, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719450296588378239) · 11 likes Thanks to the talking sand, I now understand how the talking gets inside the sand (unless the sand is making things up) It’s called an EEPROM programmer, and it is a \*hardware\* thing that writes the thing that loads the OS aka software \*physically\* onto \*another\* metal thing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9y27ozW0AAvi7s.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @metakuna @bat1441 Ngl this is why computers seem like magic to me. Like at what point do u get hardware aka metal that can be said to have software running on it? Idk if software is even like a legit category (a ~natural abstraction~ one might say) ### [Reply to @gelionexists, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719450685169659943) · 3 likes > **GE Lion (@gelionexists):** @AaronBergman18 @metakuna @bat1441 BIOS is on this chip on your computer's motherboard, which is loaded in by the manufacturer. Great minds think alike ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9y3SIvWEAAtwvV.jpg) ### [Tweet, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719480889313202355) · 12 likes Poast 2024 bingo card proposals below --- End of October 2023. Previous month: [September 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-09). Next month: [November 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-11). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, November 2023 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in November 2023 and has not deleted: 518 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [October 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-10). Next month: [December 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-12). ## Wednesday, November 1, 2023 ### [Reply, 01:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719524332345393159) · 1 like (Positive) ### [Reply to @alt_truistic, 01:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719524738458959913) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @alt_truistic is no longer available.)_ Same ### [Reply to @RichDecibels, 10:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719667487602536888) · 3 likes > **Richard D. Bartlett (@RichDecibels):** tell me something good about a couple you admire Paul and Ojeya might save (or have saved) the world Idk anything about their relationship tho ### [Quote tweet, 11:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719675373460357138) · 4 likes Yo what > **Quoting Séb Krier (@sebkrier):** The White House just announced the United States AI Safety Institute, policy guidance on the use of AI by the U.S. government, a normative framework addressing the use of AI capabilities in the military domain and much more. Yuge! https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/11/01/fact-sheet-vice-president-harris-announces-new-u-s-initiatives-to-advance-the-safe-and-responsible-use-of-artificial-intelligence/ ### [Reply to @lastpositivist, 11:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719676137532473385) · 2 likes > **Liam Bright (@lastpositivist):** @Thinkwert OK but even on the intended read were there people who previously thought mental health was hocus pocus? Who is being disabused here? I think they’re trying to assert “mental health treatment is not hocus pocus” which I mean I’m all in favor of but sometimes it definitely is ### [Reply to @davidmanheim, 12:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719689142211133541) · 1 like > **David Manheim (@davidmanheim):** College is supposed to be full-time. > > Evidently, the expectation in elite schools is that a full course load should make sure you still have time for a part-time consulting project, protests, and the extra-curricular goals students have. It seems @Princeton doesn't do that - yet. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F92NdrqXMAAeD0N.png) Full time jobs aren’t generally expected to be all consuming ### [Reply to @johnjhorton, 12:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719696565210603868) · 2 likes > **John Horton (@johnjhorton):** Black coffee > Scrambled eggs > Handful of pistachios > Salad > 1200 calories worth of Reese’s peanut butter cups > Glass of wine > > Help, someone who is good at nutrition… \*it’s the salad dressing\* ### [Reply to @AISafetyMemes, 12:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719696907922981351) · 2 likes > **AI Notkilleveryoneism Memes ⏸️ (@AISafetyMemes):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F92OokCWEAAM0o6.png) The implied log scale makes it better ### [Thread, continued, 12:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719697099774644560) · 2 likes Actually probably log(log(log(x)))) or smth ### [Tweet, 13:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719701193251836237) · 4 likes Kind Hispanic women interfacing between a mix of normie, senile, and insane patients and the all-at-once normie (doctors), senile (fax machines), and insane (everything else) medical system are the backbone of America ### [Reply to @ohhermeticlion, 13:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719706462111342724) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ohhermeticlion is no longer available.)_ Who could have predicted ### [Tweet, 14:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719724304328245707) · 118 likes \> bag secured (prescription for non-controlled-but-stupidly-hard-to-get drug) \> P(doom) down 45%->35% in 48 hours (that’s like +10 expected years for me personally) \> walking 4 hours home to celebrate and bc it’s perfect walking weather (41° and sunny) \> we are back ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F92wHzkXcAAT_N3.jpg) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 14:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719725368846811461) · 7 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 Hey it's the guy from the meme > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F92wVvUXQAASyfG.jpg) ### [Reply to @trevposts, 15:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719731762522169597) · 2 likes > **Trevor Levin (@trevposts):** "10 expected years for me personally" for Parfit type reasons? Wait are u objecting to too high or too low lol ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 15:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719733141462495337) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 @alt_truistic Wtf you guys Wait it’s a fascinating question, and has non suicidal implications eg when should you reduce ur own future optionality (like the siren guy tied to the mast) ### [Reply, 16:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719758734321213465) · 2 likes No this is a different thing! Executive order mostly. Shocked tbh ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 16:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719759208873103678) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** oh Wait more tractably u could probably just train urself to do this by chewing nicotine gum but only when walking. Or use ur preferred addictive+dopaminergic substance of choicr ### [Tweet, 17:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719765489558110620) · 5 likes In case anyone thinks they understand pharmacology, there are two drugs that are ostensibly extremely similar (ie differences don’t appear until you really go looking) One of them puts me to sleep even at a tiny dose. The other is basically a miracle drug ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719797717524758628) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ Hyoscyamine and dicyclomine lol ### [Reply to @btheshoe, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719798504837595614) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @btheshoe is no longer available.)_ You’re allowed to estimate probabilities without a formal model or domain expertise ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F93zn9SXwAAo1aR.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719808316098920908) · 222 likes PSA to all non-rationalist ppl that see this (and this is totally sincere, not trying to mock anyone): numeric probabilities don’t imply that they were derived via any sort of rigorous methodology ### [Thread, continued, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719808318170955912) · 31 likes Maybe in some parts of society they do, and people refuse to put numbers on things otherwise, but elsewhere that’s not the case ### [Thread, continued, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719808320427422013) · 34 likes Like if someone (credibly) told you “Guess the temperature in Moscow rn (no phone etc); I’ll give you $10k iff you’re within 1 degree,” you’d probably try to give your actual best guess despite not living there or having any special expertise. ### [Thread, continued, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719808322868523048) · 27 likes You wouldn’t “make it up” or refuse to guess I guess that isn’t a perfect analogy for P(doom) because there are tighter common sense bounds and more experience, but the final number should be treated the same ### [Thread, continued, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719808325305417766) · 20 likes Its my best guess - nothing less and nothing more - and I’m happy to describe what it’s based on (in this case basically a weighted avg of people I’d individually trust more than myself to answer before I knew what they’d say) ### [Reply, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719815968573010181) · 9 likes > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** @AaronBergman18 The self-appointed rationalist moniker is incredibly pompous. > > Anyhow, people realize that, which is really why they mock it. It’s almost transparently little more than vibes cloaked in pseudoscientific precision. Name? Sure a little pompous, others probably agree but use it bc everyone does, which is how names usually work ### [Thread, continued, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719816123179241934) · 7 likes And I think the pseudoscientific thing is just wrong. Ofc there are probably specific lesswrong posts where this is true but like unjustified precision seems more common in literal science ### [Reply, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719816615569580344) · 4 likes ^unjustified confidence as well, which seems like the worse mistake to make ### [Reply, 23:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719857426038460740) https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1719735870788432265?s=46 ### [Reply to @JacquesThibs, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719858448999874834) · 3 likes > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** This is also why pomodoro sucks for cognitive tasks btw, it pulls you out of flow too and makes it harder to accomplish tasks that need a lot of things loaded into your working memory (like programming) > > (quoting @JacquesThibs: you need to be flow state maxxing. you curate your environment, prune distractions. make your workspace a temple, your mind a focused laser. you engineer your life to guard the sacred flow. every notification is an intruder, every interruption a thief. the world fades, the task…) Plenty of cognitive tasks where continuous working memory doesn’t matter a ton and they’re also just not that fun. Its good for these ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 23:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719858878232334473) · 2 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** @AaronBergman18 was 14deg off Better than me (no I will not be elaborating lol) ### [Reply to @rgblong, 23:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719859952330629312) · 4 likes > **Robert Long (@rgblong):** not sure I should accept this calendar invite. that's a lot of consciousness > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F93n8jtawAAX9ri.png) Maybe illusionism is true in general but you can get a taste of the real thing for 5 hrs ## Thursday, November 2, 2023 ### [Reply to @alt_truistic, 01:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719884925367656895) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @alt_truistic is no longer available.)_ Go to cute girl with adhd meetups ### [Reply to @christineist, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719885696901480933) · 4 likes > **christine (@christineist):** omg omg omg just in 📣, first relationship from twitter dating app!!!!!!!!! Who has the goss 👀 ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 01:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1719888716175470767) · 2 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** emotions at different levels of sensory clarity afaict: > > no emotions, numbness > emotions, but not embodied > embodied emotions, you feel an emotion and it’s attached to a body sensation > just body sensations, everything is just expansions and contractions I suspect you’re just typical minding here. I’ve never felt emotions as a bodily sensation, like at all, regardless of intensity or while meditating or anything like that. Strong intuition its just like aphantasia in that some people have it and others do not ### [Quote tweet, 14:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720088996162994391) · 11 likes New Tulsa just dropped > **Quoting Phil BuildTheFutureNow 🇺🇸🦅🌲💙 (@PhilSustainable):** What if we all just moved to Buffalo, NY > https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/199-Babcock-St-Buffalo-NY-14210/30209692_zpid/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F932-lmXEAAB-Sf.jpg) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 15:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720094507444920655) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 No internal photos of the house though 👀 Oh lol I wasn’t even thinking about this specific house Somewhere on my computer there’s an rmd file that tries to filter all American cities down to reasonable low cost but high qol options and I remember Buffalo being there (alongside like Philadelphia and Cincinnati I think) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 15:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720099625720500644) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 2, 2023:** New Tulsa just dropped 8 bed 5 bath triplex for $640k Perfect for a semi-group house https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/343-Richmond-Ave-Buffalo-NY-14222/132860564_zpid/ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F98Ffe4aYAAVoHB.jpg) ### [Reply, 16:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720110358579298532) · 6 likes The idea is probably to sidestep the hassle and nightmare of even having to consider it ### [Reply to @rgblong, 16:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720112539177042158) · 2 likes > **Robert Long (@rgblong):** @keithfrankish is this possible? Afaict nobody has argued that genuine phenomenal consciousness is real, but humans don’t have it Someone should fill this niche ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 16:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720114304966394168) · 2 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @AaronBergman18 Terrible weather Cheems mindset ### [Tweet, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720132639036715293) · 2 likes Damn even eBay is getting in on AI governance ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F98jg6eXAAAalaQ.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720147920727523801) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** New EA cause area: Just... beach Evil (beach = bad) ### [Reply to @skooookum, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720148318502711453) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @skooookum is no longer available.)_ At first I interpreted this as “my therapist gossips with other therapists at conferences about me” not “other ppl tell their therapists about me” ### [Quote tweet, 18:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720150256770318571) · 4 likes Reminder of this and also to scroll through Qualy’s tweets bc there are lots of bangers that never showed up on my tl > **Quoting Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** Reminder to British ppl to buy air conditioning now to invest in your summer 2024 productivity 😌 ### [Reply to @bryan_caplan, 18:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720151412477178168) · 2 likes > **Bryan Caplan (@bryan_caplan):** Your life will no longer be worth living when you can no longer… None of these per se (like if you isolated them from senility) ### [Reply to @AndrewKerrNC, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720154922103005527) · 12 likes > **Andrew Kerr (@AndrewKerrNC):** NEW: Your tax dollars are paying for AOC's luxury DC apartment thanks to a new House rule Democrats quietly passed late last year. > > Over 200 members of Congress -- 113 Democrats and 104 Republicans -- have billed taxpayers this year for their DC rent under the new program. This comes as a record number of Americans struggle to keep a roof over their own heads amid persistent inflation. > > Representatives make $174,000 a year -- well over twice the median household income. > > Taxpayers are also financing daily meal expenses for members of Congress under this new program. Matt Gaetz came in first -- he's billed taxpayers on average $1,250 a month to pay for his meals. > > https://freebeacon.com/democrats/your-tax-dollars-pay-for-millionaire-democrats-swanky-d-c-apartments/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F98XqgGXkAAQQvX.png) This is unironically totally fine and good, and we should be paying them more ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720198113154003017) · 2 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** @AaronBergman18 @rgblong @keithfrankish Feel like you can get an AI take here > > We are the unthinking flesh that exists to make the thinking machines Maybe a multiverse argument too: if it’s conceivable (even if impossible for us), it exists in one Everettian branch (I doubt this actually checks out lol) ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720199338809233527) · 2 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Homicide levels in Latin America are brutal even compared with the US > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F99B2lYXAAAqQce.png) Surprised Costa Rica is that high ### [Reply to @rgblong, 23:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720220044783685973) · 2 likes > **Robert Long (@rgblong):** I think for that to work, you’d have to have conceivability entail \*nomological\* possibility. i don’t think anyone argues for that (and rightly so) New word just dropped ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 23:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720220491082850344) · 5 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** Me when someone tells me they're building a swapcard alternative > > (quoting @mpopv: Me when someone tells me they’re building a document signing product) Each EAG should just be one big email chain ### [Reply to @jvboid, 23:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720220695416758606) · 2 likes > **Jacob (@jvboid):** Have you seen this dalle error before? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F99nnteXYAANCHb.jpg) Ya happened to me once ## Friday, November 3, 2023 ### [Reply to @waynehhsiung, 01:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720256337550926317) · 3 likes > **Wayne Hsiung (@waynehhsiung):** Wayne is in jail now without bail following his felony conviction. But he knows the animals have it much worse. Here's his words to each of us in rescuing every animal from a cage. #SonomaRescueTrial > https://blog.simpleheart.org/p/i-am-in-jail-and-im-grateful > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9-Mn4vWcAAM6OE.jpg) 🐐 ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 08:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720356587921928695) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** me waiting several hours for my late-sleeping American internet friends to get up and like my early morning tweets > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9_sR22WoAAYWn2.jpg) Time is an illusion ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 16:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720472262334103801) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Another outstanding month of growth > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-BTk3DXYAAe_Jh.png) This cannot go on ### [Tweet, 18:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720505412305277000) · 59 likes Big update toward “every ‘friendly discussion’ I’ve ever had was seen by the other person/people as an ‘argument’” ### [Reply to @_chair, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720515792695968197) · 2 likes > **Chair (@_chair):** @AaronBergman18 discussions are friendly by default, if you have to say "friendly" that's because you're trying to soften something I feel like this is only true if you’re saying it to the people ur gonna converse with (and in this case there’s affirmative reason to add it to make it seem more different from “argument”) but maybe this is just cope lol ### [Reply to @mirandahzhang, 21:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720547227972583822) · 2 likes > **Miranda Zhang (@mirandahzhang):** was there a specific incident that catalysed this update? Yes ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 21:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720549545845588035) · 3 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** que forma de despertarme hoy! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-BSmRaWUAAaWzD.jpg) ¡vamos conchetumare! (Espero que eso es una situación apropriado) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-CesX3WIAA3i7A.jpg) ### [Reply to @repost_offender, 21:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720554353365291252) · 8 likes > **«•Airship🪼Evangelist•» (@repost_offender):** Mfw I'm "just asking questions" Unironically, just asking questions is a legit thing that should have the presumption of innocence most of the time The more public the question asking, the more sus tho ### [Reply to @Authw8, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720562404780610012) · 23 likes > **tom bombadil (@Authw8):** Slippery slope is a fake fallacy, but I think sunk cost is pretty real, one of the classic fallacies. \+1 The pendulum has swung back toward “everything is rational for some secret/esoteric reason” (and I think much of this correction is good) but yes this is a way in which people straightforwardly act against their own interests/preferences ## Saturday, November 4, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 02:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720623599134863812) · 30 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-DiCofW4AAo-IH.jpg) > **Quoting Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** What I've been working the last few months at @RethinkPriors is now public! > > Go check out the Cross-Cause Cost-Effectiveness Model: > > https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/pniDWyjc9vY5sjGre/rethink-priorities-cross-cause-cost-effectiveness-model ### [Reply to @sarah_micheleg, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720674408090505423) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @sarah_micheleg is no longer available.)_ Real ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 05:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720676001464598972) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ My interpretation is: “utilitarianism as generally understood isn’t “airtight” in that it’s ~certain to be true, but moral emergencies like poverty and factory farming make the cost of indecisiveness/inaction sufficiently big that u gotta pick ur best guess and roll with it” ### [Reply to @depthsofwiki, 06:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720688935297294809) · 2 likes > **depths of wikipedia! (@depthsofwiki):** On this day in 1910, Pauline the cow arrived at the White House > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-CQ_bIWwAASIGk.jpg) Retvrn ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 17:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720855998489927817) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Nice ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 17:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720856195366297858) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AndyMasley @AaronBergman18 moral realism in shambles Narrator: moral realism was not in shambles ### [Reply to @lisatomic5, 22:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720935340033167680) · 6 likes > **lisatomic (@lisatomic5):** Letting 12yo tweet this: > > What's your least favorite modern day system?(Drive-throughs, Door dash, Stop signs, and etc.) Standard practice fish slaughter ### [Reply to @karma_gardener, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720935733731480017) · 3 likes > **𝕂𝚊𝚛𝚖𝚊 ❀ 𝔾𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚛 (@karma_gardener):** WHY IS THERE SOMETHING RATHER THAN NOTHING? Idk ### [Reply to @anabology, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720937571730034771) · 2 likes > **anabology (@anabology):** You should be eating tums all day. Tumsmaxxing. Especially if you’re a carnivore, it’ll offset your phosphate excess and provide your gut much needed CO2. I don’t have a mechanistic argument for why this is wrong, but consuming way more calcium (or base if that’s what matters) than anyone did for almost all of human seems just very likely to be bad on priors ## Sunday, November 5, 2023 ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720990202766963148) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ Literally one such case ### [Reply to @AFraserUrq, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1720998736292180053) · 2 likes > **Alastair Fraser-Urquhart (@AFraserUrq):** Watching these reels knowing FULL WELL there is a bottle of milk older than the Aztec empire in the bottom of my fridge > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-I2fFlXYAAeS-E.jpg) There’s a can of Arizona tea that’s been in my fridge in a weird hard-to-see spot for as long as I can remember. Pretty sure it expired in 2015 or so. At this point it’s considered a cultural object and we’d have to get a permit to remove it (only this last sentence is a joke) ### [Quote tweet, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721024324667146725) · 11 likes Some bad, wrong critiques of this are making the rounds, but I think there are good true critiques First, my interpretation of this line is that two income households are at least partially a coordination failure - people neither like it nor can individually opt out ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-JOf_WWsAAs5YP.jpg) > **Quoting Matt Darling 🌐🏗️ (@besttrousers):** @JohnTeufelNYC The reason most families are dual income is wages have risen. > > https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-economic-forces-pushing-both-parents-to-work ### [Thread, continued, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721024327946998015) · 1 like Ofc this doesn’t directly contradict the claim being made (higher wages explain rise of 2 income households), but it definitely puts it in a different light ### [Thread, continued, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721024329889054987) · 7 likes Further, at least some of the gains in real output are going to be captured by rent seekers (everyone bidding up the cost of housing which goes to landlords for one) ### [Thread, continued, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721024336688030167) · 2 likes Second, even assuming that “all else equal, higher wages increase two income household share in the US”, is true (which I believe), terms like “account for” can only be reasonably applied to describe a change over time or delta between groups, not a level as is implied here ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-JOgwQW0AAHkYc.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721024338948739178) · 4 likes Third, afaict this whole analysis ignores the changing nonmaterial “wage” of being a homemaker Humans care a ton about status, and at least in some demographics, probably bc of the race dynamic described above, “stay at home mom” has become at least a bit pejorative ### [Reply to @digital_orb000, 04:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721025012742639638) · 1 like > **tade (@digital_orb000):** little tip for guys whatever a girls relationship to food is is what her relationship to sex is and therefore to you What ### [Tweet, 08:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721089573587960155) · 22 likes You might not like it, but this is what peak podcasting performance looks like ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-KJs-3X0AAzeEL.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 08:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721089734900854967) · 1 like > **Aaron Bergman, November 5, 2023:** Further, at least some of the gains in real output are going to be captured by rent seekers (everyone bidding up the cost of housing which goes to landlords… why would I use 'further' in a tweet ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 12:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721137887796678996) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** the eloquence and precision astounds I \*never\* use filler words, so u can assume all the worst parts are my guest ### [Reply to @trevposts, 19:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721250418074820822) · 1 like > **Trevor Levin (@trevposts):** It does Lax bro universally means “relaxed brethren” - EA doesn’t need more jargon ### [Reply to @xsphi, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721270964963450909) · 4 likes > **tess (@xsphi):** holy shit it's that simple > > (quoting @cxgonzalez: i asked the happiest girl i know what her secret was and she said “i never use the word ‘should’”) Narrator: it was not that simple ### [Reply to @AISafetyMemes, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721315962077483467) · 2 likes > **AI Notkilleveryoneism Memes ⏸️ (@AISafetyMemes):** Real > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-NGgwrXkAA22aA.jpg) Orthogonality thesis is ran through ## Monday, November 6, 2023 ### [Tweet, 03:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721365905366475070) · 12 likes https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/max-alexander-and-i-solve-ethics#details The world has been waiting with bated breath for Pigeon Hour episode 8 with the one and only @absurdlymax. The world can now breath again ### [Reply to @polisisti, 03:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721367142723895624) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax always be Maxmaxxing Indeed ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 03:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721367233903857980) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** My commute tomorrow just got 2x more bearable New cause area ### [Tweet, 14:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721535764134268998) · 43 likes You’re probably overestimating the risks and underestimating the benefits of using your real name, face, and location for your profile ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-QfpzUWsAA9W_c.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 15:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721550094112034883) · 8 likes Announcement: if anyone tries to argue about the implications of utilitarianism using the VNM theorem, I will be removing them from my moral circle 😤 > **Quoting Peter Berggren🔸 (@berggrenpeterm):** Announcement: if anyone is trying to make an argument about the feasibility of AI alignment based on Gödel's incompleteness theorems, I will be ignoring them unless they can explain Gödel's completeness theorem to me. ### [Tweet, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721553176724230377) · 24 likes My 85 y/o grandfather, who has a flip phone, never uses the iPad we got him, and who’s understanding of the world has been basically destroyed by Fox News, nevertheless knew of the big players in the AI supply chain… ### [Thread, continued, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721553178754183240) · 9 likes and didn’t think heavy investment was silly at all because a couple people he was following (including Amy Su, CEO of AMD, who he cited by name???) thought the same ### [Thread, continued, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721553180184436956) · 13 likes Why? (Tbc this is my guess, not what he said) Because he was a Wall Street guy for like 50 years and continues to do his own active trading with his own money Amazing what happens when you’ve got skin in the game ### [Tweet, 16:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721566559397716330) · 1 like Should probably read if you live or spend a lot of time in DC (and are following or being followed by me lol) https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/vFqa8DZCuhyrbSnyx/integrity-in-ai-governance-and-advocacy ### [Tweet, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721573705724113311) · 21 likes You: grinds leetcode for months or years, has focus-grouped the answers to each “tell me about a time when…?” type question Me, 35 minutes before an interview: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-RCKSAW0AA_aeu.jpg) ### [Reply to @ines__circle, 17:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721574842527355151) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ines__circle is no longer available.)_ “What type of thing makes u super excited after u order online?” might be a good hinge etc prompt ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 17:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721576843248107841) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @grapeintuition Yeah Ines, we gotta get your hinge in top shape Can I bet on who she’ll match with ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 18:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721601640124366983) · 14 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** colour me befuddled > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-RFLhaWgAAsrZe.jpg) Hot take we should treat animals better so this doesn’t make sense as a headline ### [Reply to @Rohanburdened, 23:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721672026803278274) · 4 likes > **Rohan 🌱🔸️🇧🇷 (@Rohanburdened):** @AaronBergman18 What are possible benefits of it? Making friends more easily through the platform (both by like chatting online first and by getting recognized irl), with location so you can meet in person) Maybe professional benefit or networking but that prob depends on industry ### [Thread, continued, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721672618204377392) · 2 likes I also suspect it’s lower stress bc like you don’t have to feel on guard about not letting anything slip. All the more so if you use ur alt for ~spicy~ takes but only occasionally, so those would be attached to ur name if it got out ## Tuesday, November 7, 2023 ### [Tweet, 14:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721895614806671567) · 31 likes Smart ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-Vm7wLbEAAmna2.jpg) ### [Reply to @sarah_micheleg, 14:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721902015851405550) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @sarah_micheleg is no longer available.)_ This is maybe taboo to say but like if I were you I wouldn’t drive several hours just to vote unless you had good reason to think your vote had more than like a .01% chance of swinging the election ### [Reply to @Endothermia, 14:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721904311935082601) · 2 likes > **Endothermia (@Endothermia):** it’s actually insane that complex multicellular life ever emerged, like how isn’t everyone constantly talking about this Yes but it’s inevitable given beings able to consider the fact ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721909252007104757) · 2 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** 55% of Finnish 65-74 year-olds judge that their ability to work is still excellent, yet only 10% still work. > > It's an odd, unfair, and wasteful system we've built. Wait what’s the system discouraging 70 y/o from working? ### [Tweet, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721931811574399383) · 17 likes I thought a lot of the critiques of EA in @TheZvi’s Going Infinite review (link below) were basically wrong, but this one is at least interesting and probably right (and more than it might seem at first glance) https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/AocXh6gJ9tJC2WyCL/book-review-going-infinite ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-WH2yYWwAAwRTM.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721931813801673109) · 5 likes It is, I think, a core explanation for why I call myself a total utilitarian but have some heterodox views about what that implies. The moral value is fundamental and primary, the territory. The numbers are the map. ### [Thread, continued, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721931815701950496) · 3 likes Indeed, they’re a sort of map that’s especially helpful and sometimes adequate for utilitarianism specifically… ### [Thread, continued, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721931817177985221) · 5 likes But utilitarianism is a claim about states of the world and their underlying moral value, not \*directly\* a claim that the moral world is adequately modeled by the set of real numbers, standard arithmetic, and comparison operators \[<, >,= \] ### [Thread, continued, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721931818780299573) · 4 likes To beat a dead horse, those come second, perhaps but \*not necessarily\* as a useful or even adequate tool Tbc I think in most normal real world situations, the model is adequate, but there are at least two situations I know of (well, I think) that it fails ### [Thread, continued, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721931819908522318) · 6 likes 1\) Infinite ethics Does any self-described utilitarian really believe that in an infinite universe, it’s totally fine to make a happy person miserable because the states of the world sum to infinity? ### [Thread, continued, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721931822286639288) · 3 likes 2\) Causing intense suffering. Is there anything I could offer you that you’d accept (selfishly, for this thought experiment) in exchange for a week of excruciating torture? https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/my-case-for-suffering-leaning-ethics ### [Thread, continued, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721931824203481465) · 3 likes I know some bite the bullet here (I do not), but think its difficulty at least demonstrates the \*plausibility\* that some things are sufficiently bad that no amount of wellbeing justifies them morally (this is my main heterodox view and the link above defends it more) ### [Thread, continued, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1721931825923199112) · 3 likes Luckily there’s a mediocre (in spite, not because of my guest) quality podcast episode in which @freed_dfilan and I discuss https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/6-daniel-filan-on-why-im-wrong-about ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1722022138637414524) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Big problem with “I cook, you clean up” division of labour is it creates terrible incentives for the cook Yes!! I told my parents this long ago but they never listened ## Wednesday, November 8, 2023 ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 13:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1722241844804047057) · 4 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Beautiful post by an EA hero > > https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/gxppfWhx7ta2fkF3R/10-years-of-earning-to-give > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-aQFHPbYAAeNON.png) 🐐 ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 13:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1722247553318858847) > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Anyone else always briefly think @AaronBergman18’s bio says “Pro EA suffering”? lol, maybe worth a change ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 13:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1722247670818021763) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 ### [Reply to @christineist, 13:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1722248388715122852) · 3 likes > **christine (@christineist):** hey twitter dating app community, > > I wanted to let you know of a white hat security breach incident that occurred last Friday 11/2/23 from 4-530pm. Probably a well-resourced state actor ### [Quote tweet, 13:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1722250245160247439) · 4 likes If this is you, plz hire me > **Quoting Bojan Tunguz (@tunguz):** True story: I once worked at a startup that was trying to build enterprise software in R. ### [Quote tweet, 19:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1722333379146788956) · 13 likes @AaronBergman18 > **Quoting Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** QT with the account you agree with most often. > > Mine is @robertwiblin ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 19:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1722334331169915266) · 6 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Noone blows up planes anymore so we should probably reduce airport security a bit and see if that changes anything. If a plane blows up, we can put it back. > > Lots of time and money wasted in security queues that might not be necessarily I can’t tell if this is satire ### [Reply to @cammakingminds, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1722359589578911890) · 1 like > **Lucid™ (@cammakingminds):** I've come to understand ω or "ballsack emoji" is quite important in ML literature. Can’t unsee ### [Reply, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1722363199121498613) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Would have thought this was insane 5 years ago. Not a libertarian in general but medicine should move way in that direction ### [Reply to @_chair, 21:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1722370112479543411) · 10 likes > **Chair (@_chair):** suppose N 13 year olds are dying of cancer and each's dying wish is to be directly responsible for 1/Nth of a murder. For what value of N Utilitarianism DISPROVED ### [Reply to @yoltartar, 21:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1722370292041880002) · 2 likes > **hinterlander (@yoltartar):** for context, this is 100% more pants than i owned before Was gonna ask “is this more or less than before” ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1722371842520891401) · 13 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** Is academia okay? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-cAqTOWUAAcmhY.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-cAq4jXUAEeTkD.png) I mean the blurb is using leftist terminology but the general idea of getting the perspective+knowledge of criminals or just people with very different life experience from avg academics seems good ### [Reply to @thechosenberg, 21:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1722372218154295685) · 5 likes > **rosey🌹 (@thechosenberg):** LETS GOOOOOOOO > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-cO4KfWYAAqDVI.jpg) “Agree” uh you mean no longer banned from? ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 22:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1722385774602039404) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @NoahTopper @AaronBergman18 Pro EA suffering REDUCTION It’s actually pro 1\) EA suffering 2\) Reduction https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduction_(cooking) ### [Tweet, 23:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1722390424076111927) · 17 likes .@TheZvi is quite hard on EA here, and I’m not even half way through (it’s 30k words lol) so grain of salt etc, but so far my main takeaway is: Way more EAs should be trying (relatively) high risk, hits based EtG… https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/AocXh6gJ9tJC2WyCL/book-review-going-infinite ### [Thread, continued, 23:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1722390425749655840) · 6 likes Pre-2020ish(?), personality selection effects, culture, and probably other features of EA meant that willingness to try this was highly correlated with overconfidence/hubris/all you can eat buffet levels of bullet biting (which are in turn probably correlated with dishonesty etc) ### [Thread, continued, 23:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1722390427288928625) · 14 likes But this doesn’t have to be the case! If you’re the kind of person who can’t imagine doing some of the things SBF did (including but not only fraud), you may be the kind of person who should be trying to make a billion dollars! ## Thursday, November 9, 2023 ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 01:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1722426818462933096) · 7 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** I'd be very excited to read the Aaron distillation of the Zvi review I’m excited to read the Matt review of the Aaron review of the Zvi review of the Michael Lewis review of FTX ### [Tweet, 06:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1722501854204928366) · 6 likes You love to see it ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-eOTr1XYAA824I.jpg) ### [Reply, 15:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1722634796650651919) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Darn ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 15:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1722635083964649717) · 4 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** wait was feeling bad and then I stayed home and spent the afternoon on Twitter and now I feel... better?? that's not how this is supposed to work! Regression to the mean go brr ## Friday, November 10, 2023 ### [Reply to @tyler_m_john, 04:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1722829902083235888) · 10 likes > **Tyler John (@tyler_m_john):** Email sign-offs are one of the better examples of short term arbitrary cultural lock-in. There is simply no reason to sign off emails with a salutation and your name and yet it's universally practiced and (almost without exception) people who don't do this are violating a norm. Dear Mr. John, Good tweet. Sincerely, Aaron ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723071779491471628) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** thanks @AkashWasil for having me on your podcast to chat about what it’s like to engage with AI safety as a person without a tech background, and why I think everyone deserves a voice in the discourse!! > > https://open.spotify.com/episode/0gnBiOLHm46YfL6Kubm1KL?si=tV3AkHypSECgQh9dIxCqqQ 🫛🫛🫛 ### [Reply to @prerat, 20:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723074407088705926) · 1 like > **prerat (@prerat):** it's just a stochastic parrot > > (quoting @MorbidKnowledge: In 2008, a Quaker parrot named Willie alerted his owner, Megan Howard, that a toddler she was babysitting started choking on her breakfast. When 2-year-old Hannah began to turn blue, the bird squawked loudly to get Megan's attention. Then he started saying 'Mama baby'…) ### [Reply to @SpencrGreenberg, 20:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723075150390714416) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @SpencrGreenberg is no longer available.)_ 75th or 100th if by percentile, but 25 or 0 on an absolute scale ### [Reply to @natfriedman, 23:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723113996360794332) · 1 like > **Nat Friedman (@natfriedman):** I'm interested in funding early stage startups building evals for AI capabilities. If you're working on this please get in touch! @panickssery ### [Reply, 23:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723114213046878495) · 1 like No (bc I don’t watch movies, checkmate) ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723115450303660041) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Ah yes, webrestaurantstore, the leading authority on sanitation and health ### [Reply to @lxrjl, 23:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723117051131170893) · 1 like > **alex lawsen (@lxrjl):** Which ADHD medication has worked best for you? Dex > adderall > methylphenidate ≈ lisdex > nicotine > just caffeine > theobromine> modafinil ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723117212867723349) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Julia galef gives u a free pass on this one 👍 ### [Tweet, 23:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723119015483113531) · 34 likes Hypothesis: the “podcasts don’t really teach you anything” crowd are also the “listen at >1.25x” crowd At least for me, there’s a big gap between “feel like I can follow the words” (~2x) and “have enough mental slack to fully process them” (~1x) ### [Reply, 23:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723127218329501989) · 2 likes Shitty chess game - they’re all pawns ## Saturday, November 11, 2023 ### [Tweet, 02:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723171902502363268) · 3 likes Oh, the voice calls are to collect data to train some @xai thing on (probably text to speech as part of smth multimodal) Probably gonna record each side individually as well as all together so can get ground truth speaker identification and do self supervised learning ### [Reply to @vivian_belenky, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723173046603633005) · 2 likes > **viv 🔸 (@vivian_belenky):** Most podcasts are unlistenable below 1.5x because they're not very information dense to begin with. Also most books. Though there are certainly exceptions eg: I just started Empire and had to slow it down to process it Ya maybe, most of my listening is 80k + Dwarkesh + readouts of EA Forum and Lesswrong posts which I’d guess are relatively dense ### [Reply, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723174290898526325) · 1 like Yes to “If you struggle to explain what you do and why” being a red flag, but no to “it’s complicated” aka “this” being a red flag Eg I’d be shocked if Paul C couldn’t explain his theory of change but not shocked if it was a bit complicated to a smart layperson ### [Tweet, 03:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723175583775969566) · 5 likes A tad dated (by that I mean 7 months lol) but there is literally a yt video of one such explanation: https://youtu.be/YTlrPeikoyw ### [Reply to @prerat, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723180030254035013) · 2 likes > **prerat (@prerat):** does anyone else get confused between PUA and PUFA No ### [Reply to @EpistemicHope, 06:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723219084613988630) · 9 likes > **Eli Tyre (@EpistemicHope):** "If a person is not an EA before 2019, they're missing an earnest commitment to doing good. If they're not disillusioned with capital-E capital-A in 2023, they're low on ability to distinguish between good things and things that say 'good' on the tin." Disillusioned has too strong and negative a connotation for me, but replace it with “annoyed by specific ways the actual movement fails to live up to its ideal” and yeah ### [Reply to @christineist, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723219924967911656) · 3 likes > **christine (@christineist):** me at 19, very into rock climbing > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-oPkgaaUAAIoAF.jpg) > (quoting @univrsw3th4rt: me at 19 (my first modeling gig i think???)) Same ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-obY5hXIAA-MAo.jpg) ### [Reply to @binarybits, 07:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723241626183581885) > **Timothy B. Lee (@binarybits):** For example, two of the three folks apparently think there's a >10 percent chance that we'll increase global energy consumption 1000x in the next five years. Leaving aside whether we can invent new generation technology that fast, the logistics are totally impossible. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-lG4sZW4AAG_8u.jpg) I’ll bet at 1% (don’t expect u to take this but just in case) $100 from me if no $10k from you if yes ### [Reply, 08:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723252203882717531) · 1 like Sounds good! Ur locked so feel free to suggest a mutual who can be the judge in case it’s not obvious ### [Reply to @knowclarified, 19:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723427987180159013) · 3 likes > **Arthur (@knowclarified):** 6 3’ signing in, here to defend all short kings 🫡 thank u for ur service ## Sunday, November 12, 2023 ### [Tweet, 00:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723502106299044111) · 19 likes What is going on here? ### [Reply to @Trail_Cams, 01:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723506356395680254) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @Trail_Cams is no longer available.)_ Dog ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 01:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723507943121748298) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @absurdlymax @littIeramblings @AaronBergman18 happy to be of service 🫡🫡🫡 ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 01:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723508727779586281) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 Don't worry this guy's on it > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-shhNfXQAAikA3.png) Mystery solved ### [Tweet, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723509166671565060) · 3 likes Bunch of new EA Global talks dropped on the pod ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-sic-qXoAAiZZ-.jpg) ### [Reply to @polisisti, 01:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723512378073993566) · 4 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** Just got these slightly-brighter-than usual lights for winter, and I'm really enjoying the warm colour and extra brightness. Would recommend 👍🏻 > > They're a little taller than normal light bulbs, so you'd need to make sure a lamp shade isn't too short for it > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-sjq9-W4AAJtwT.jpg) Haha haha YES ### [Reply to @RavenNole, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723512791674302616) · 42 likes > **RavenNole 🇺🇸 (@RavenNole):** Putting a swastika inside a Jewish star is never okay and just helps perpetuate antisemitism and holocaust denial. Not all bad things should be crimes ### [Reply to @dendricide, 01:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723513963449651310) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dendricide is no longer available.)_ Who’s working on this ### [Reply, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723517975943111148) · 1 like ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-sqd0_XwAA8eDS.jpg) ### [Reply to @pikavik, 05:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723566589943943248) · 1 like > **vik (@pikavik):** what do u guys think of my layout plan > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-tIfI5WAAAF4gM.jpg) 👍 ### [Reply to @Maratus_spider, 05:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723572741830242502) · 2 likes > **Michael Doe (@Maratus_spider):** Wrap-around Spider - Dolophones species > Patonga NSW Australia > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-tC7weaEAAqX3f.jpg) @littIeramblings ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-tcRi7XUAAINk0.jpg) ### [Tweet, 05:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723575667411796160) · 19 likes Tragic ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-te7z-XYAA1DeW.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 06:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723586492524569072) · 20 likes Me at 19 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-tox5GWEAAcmEM.jpg) > **Quoting mads 🧐 (@alastor_madeye_):** me at 19. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-tL5VZWcAAia5n.jpg) ### [Reply to @wrathofgnon, 06:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723591538750423095) · 1 like > **Wrath Of Gnon (@wrathofgnon):** "More than sixty years after it was last recorded, an expedition team has rediscovered an iconic, egg-laying mammal in one of the most unexplored regions of the world. Attenborough's long-beaked echidna." > https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2023-11-10-found-last-bizarre-egg-laying-mammal-finally-rediscovered-after-60-years > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-pMCzCbYAA7MH9.jpg) New platypus just dropped ### [Reply to @breaking2morrow, 07:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723598577245516247) · 2 likes > **Brother Arþur (@breaking2morrow):** @soundrotator Yes but also no. > In ways, it's actually really easy. > But as a man, you first have to learn to understand person that often has a totally different way of interacting with the world than you were conditioned to do. > So, I suppose, it's kinda like being a woman dating a man, but not. Is there a good (ie empathetic, non-culture war) resource for learning about/understanding that different way of interacting a the world? (100% serious lol) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723756359693303907) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @JesseTayRiver @AaronBergman18 This is fair but also Aaron is a strange guy so his parents must be strange too; it is causally required Lmao ### [Reply to @lastpositivist, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723763527372919055) · 2 likes > **Liam Bright (@lastpositivist):** Gonna rededicate my life to philosophy. Will go on a pilgrimage to the birthplace of philosophy (the Stone Pony bar in New Jersey) at earliest convenience. U should hang out with @absurdlymax there ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 18:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723767135074238490) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @frances\_\_lorenz I'm all of them lol was about to comment “why not both” (except pointing out signaling in others) ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 18:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723769321879425340) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Ya but “can” is doing a lot of work here - like in some sense u always “can” unless you’re like physically restrained Seems good to track whether your espoused views are being influenced by social pressure, at least for important topics ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 18:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1723772047749267803) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Ya fr but the line in the meme combines them (also I kinda doubt we actually disagree on much lol) ## Monday, November 13, 2023 ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 15:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724082784614978027) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ What did u do with Frances ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 15:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724084825663963564) · 3 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** 6000 Quallower celebration 🥳! Reply to be assigned a role in the Multinational AGI Qonsortium > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-0pBtiW0AA3Wg0.jpg) 💡🙏🏼🦐 ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 15:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724085562074677290) · 3 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** @AaronBergman18 Drone pilot I’m ready to serve [![fail oh no GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/F-0urbMXIAAqppW.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724085562074677290/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 15:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724093444623098157) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** my Spotify algorithm thinks i just want to listen to sad acoustic songs about being confused and lost in your twenties and feeling uncomfortable in your body and goshdarnit she’s so right AI recommendation engine go brr ### [Thread, continued, 15:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724094044949680384) · 1 like Actually mine is I think overfitting or something like that bc random Turkish songs I’ve never seen before show up in playlists of mostly songs I like. Guessing like one Turkish guy somewhere has extremely similar taste in music so it’s going off of that lol ### [Quote tweet, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724100068473549197) · 19 likes 🤝 > **Quoting prerat (@prerat):** rationalists and e/acc's when the FDA comes up > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-0132mXQAAq9zL.jpg) ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 17:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724119288078827777) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ New pfp lol ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 17:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724119472158421083) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I've done so many EA fellowships I've started running into people randomly from those (and like semiregularly) Based ### [Reply to @Mihonarium, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724122462000968103) · 8 likes > **Mikhail Samin (@Mihonarium):** Wrote an EA Forum post, "It's OK to eat shrimp: EAs Make Invalid Inferences About Fish Qualia and Moral Patienthood" > https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/spa8rpfqzPptbqdYH/it-s-ok-to-eat-shrimp-eas-make-invalid-inferences-about-fish&source=publish_share Seems overconfident and probably wrong depending on what “run” is supposed to mean here. We have no idea what’s going on with qualia, and philosophy of mind is the one thing I think Eliezer gets super wrong (at a bare minimum for overconfidence) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-1QPYbXkAAnlE_.jpg) ### [Reply to @young_opsimath, 19:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724145481708605504) · 2 likes > **young_opsimath ⏸️ (@young_opsimath):** @AaronBergman18 What's wrong with the FDA Rant/ramble transcription ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-1lLQxXUAEmMJP.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-1lLQ0XYAETU9U.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-1lLQwWIAATbZ7.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-1lLQzXUAA4JJv.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724146634194366926) · 1 like Also, like, there is so much status quo bias here. Like if ibuprofen wasn’t OTC rn, I think a lot of people would find a proposal to make it OTC extreme or dangerous. But nobody (afaik) wants to make it Rx only today! ## Tuesday, November 14, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 07:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724322183835418889) · 4 likes Extremely humbling blog post > **Quoting Aron Vallinder (@aronvallinder):** @ejjiott https://www.thebigquestions.com/2018/12/19/ups-and-downs/ ### [Reply to @ChrisLloyd__, 15:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724453606160539708) · 3 likes > **Chris (@ChrisLloyd__):** is anything taboo in EA? Yes ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724522562263081067) · 4 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** another one for the CV > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-6yZr-WUAAhcgS.jpg) lmao ## Wednesday, November 15, 2023 ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 06:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724675324007366928) · 2 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** @absurdlymax @AaronBergman18 this is big o shit ## Thursday, November 16, 2023 ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 00:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724941915030794653) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @littIeramblings I’m gonna read all your tweets in a different voice, now. “Regre’able, innit?” New cause area: teach all the British ppl to say the ‘t’ sound. Millions struggle with this every day 😢 ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 00:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724950766354391497) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** people who bookmark tweets, what are you doing with these bookmarks? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_BBk2bWQAAxgXO.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_BBk2bWkAA8bfD.jpg) ### [Reply to @JacquesThibs, 00:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724952017758478430) · 3 likes > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** There’s a new species that is kinder, more pro-environment, smarter, supports scientific inquiry (not scientism), etc. Has the markers of a better society. > > Something happens. Either humans or the alien species survive. Which one would you prefer to survive? | Are you F or M? Idk because of the pro-environment clause lol ### [Reply to @NunoSempere, 00:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724953746428297707) · 3 likes > **Nuño Sempere (@NunoSempere):** 1\. Open terminal > 2\. HOMEBREW_NO_AUTO_UPDATE=1 brew install poppler > 3\. In terminal, navigate to your folder > 4\. pdfseparate -f 1 -l 10 "Worth the Candle.pdf" page%d.pdf > 5\. pdfunite page\*.pdf part.pdf Ya funny thing about ChatGPT is learning that a few apps I’ve paid for (not much but still) are literally single line zsh commands ### [Reply to @RichDecibels, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724958628883374482) · 2 likes > **Richard D. Bartlett (@RichDecibels):** tag yourself i am trembling I’m footnote 127 ### [Reply to @RFishBlueFish, 01:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724969778115121350) · 2 likes > **Gil (@RFishBlueFish):** @AaronBergman18 @littIeramblings I’ve been listening to a bunch of these and I find it very funny how you’ve turned “talking with friends” into a podcast series I’m expecting a Grammy for this groundbreaking new subgenre ### [Reply to @clovercaps, 02:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724971153469370748) · 3 likes > **4 leaf clover (@clovercaps):** fun fact, kit kats are made in a similar way with broken kit kats being added to the filling - makes me question how they made the first kit kat > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_AE2dBXAAAvobE.jpg) Atheism disproved ### [Tweet, 02:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724975018407322017) · 21 likes Idk who needs to hear this, but if you can afford it, you should almost certainly be paying $20/mo for chatGPT+ Especially if you’re doing anything altruistic including EtG/donating, since its expected returns in productivity or whatever are >$240/year ### [Reply, 02:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724975099713867833) · 1 like https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1724975018407322017 ### [Quote tweet, 02:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724980553932267954) · 7 likes Based and correct > **Quoting Riemannujan (@Riemannujan):** @lisatomic5 many parents don’t want to have to treat their kids as full people. they consider them lesser subjects, and using the normal prosocial strategy they would use with other adults feels like an implicit acknowledgment that this isn’t the case. ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 02:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724983924256841819) · 3 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Hot take but I think worrying about that is ~penny wise and pound foolish Yeah it’s reasonable to consider but no way it checks out as like worth the cost A world in which ppl concerned about AI don’t use AI seems way worse ### [Reply, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724986169480384809) Also there are copyright laws and classified documents etc ### [Reply to @Timothy02483682, 03:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724987539943993854) · 2 likes > **Timothy Barnes (@Timothy02483682):** @absurdlymax Not true. Diet hard, lift hard and you too will have very good definition. Grey pill is that this would be mostly true without the “very” but testosterone matters more than any other single factor for size and definition and ability to maintain test levels while dieting seems pretty genetically determined ### [Tweet, 03:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724989022194266344) · 2 likes The people demand more csv files ‼️ ### [Reply to @deepfates, 03:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724989113487471044) · 3 likes > **deepfates.delve.town (@deepfates):** wyd after smoking this? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_BkK5nbYAAdA1h.jpg) Wild guess: ozempic? ### [Reply to @AlecStapp, 03:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724991508498047274) · 64 likes > **Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** How is this real > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_BmSOaXYAA2ar9.jpg) lol I unironically totally support this ### [Tweet, 03:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724993057936830568) · 37 likes Me normally on scout mindset: 🔎🔥🕵️😍🎆🔢 Me on scout mindset when deciding whether to mentally count 100g of 86% dark chocolate as a source of caffeine: ❌🙅‍♂️👎🙈🚮 ### [Quote tweet, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724994875974717706) · 36 likes Fr the AMA-FDA nexus gatekeeping which molecules (even those with ~0 negative externalities!) I’m allowed to ingest is quite blatant authoritarianism that Americans have learned to accept as normal and inevitable > **Quoting 🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_ABOUSW0AA8Cr7.jpg) ### [Reply, 03:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1724996173574922603) · 1 like This one works for me (also I don’t rly care about what category it falls into. Object level the system in question is bad regardless of label) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_Bq4E_W4AA-LEU.jpg) ### [Reply to @AviN102, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725000138060403169) · 3 likes > **Avi Norowitz (@AviN102):** That's a lot of dark chocolate. Did you eat an entire bar? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_Bue21XwAAr_Z2.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725000349381951755) · 4 likes Boy dinner ### [Reply to @algekalipso, 04:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725011018139553856) · 4 likes > **Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso):** This reveals some of the artifacts of wave computing in the visual field. Notice the "pressure" coming from the darker regions "pushing" space. 😁 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_ARGWPacAAeAzp.jpg) Lol the one in the middle is literally a different shape ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 04:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725012326011547922) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @katiedimartin sorry for the random rant, this happens to be a thing I think about a lot and \[I think\] I get where you're coming from, but sometimes I just wish tradeoffs were more visible to others I endorse everything agus says, here and till the end of time ### [Quote tweet, 05:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725018035692425399) · 2 likes This is good tbc but some context fwiw: Guessing >60% of my middle school classmates took algebra during or before 8th grade (1 year before “at grade level,” formally) > **Quoting SF Guardians (@sfguardians):** Woohoo!!!!! > > “Board of Supervisors’ Rules Committee voted unanimously to move forward with a ballot measure urging SFUSD to make first-year algebra available to middle school students by the eighth grade.” > > Via @MikeEge > > https://sfstandard.com/2023/11/13/california-math-wars-san-franciscans-demand-8th-grade-algebra/ ### [Thread, continued, 05:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725018037739262176) · 3 likes 2 and 3 years ahead tracks were available too About a dozen of us got a bus from the local high school (where we went directly in the morning if I’m remembering right) back to the normal middle school in 8th grade for I guess pre-calc ### [Thread, continued, 05:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725018039899296004) · 4 likes While this is good, it really feels like the bare minimum. So unnecessary to make “let kids take different math classes” a culture war thing ### [Reply to @BowTieOrangeGuy, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725018547032625305) · 1 like > **Mr Bow Tie (@BowTieOrangeGuy):** are kids hard coded to repeatedly ask "why?" > > is this a cross-cultural phenomenon? > > if so, does that tell us something about how brains work? They cooking fr ### [Reply to @krishnanrohit, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725023574191214854) · 4 likes > **rohit (@krishnanrohit):** is it just me, or do y'all also get a rush from ignoring python warnings? You ignore warnings because you like to live dangerously I ignore warnings bc I have no idea what tf they mean We are not the same ### [Reply to @zantafakari, 05:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725023667950694728) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @zantafakari is no longer available.)_ Same ### [Reply to @seconds_0, 05:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725024620288287158) · 2 likes > **0.005 Seconds (3/694) (@seconds_0):** Literally the best part of my work day is my wife sends me pictures and videos of my son on adventures all day and it makes me so happy I should get a wife and kid ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_CEv20X0AAjtyk.jpg) ### [Reply to @br___ian, 05:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725029901814616182) · 2 likes > **bri (@br___ian):** my friends, let us coordinate! > > you are more likely to go to: Nooooo ppl are answering wrong noooooooooo ### [Reply to @petergyang, 07:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725057716186386777) · 1 like > **Peter Yang (@petergyang):** Human architecture has become too advanced for even AI > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-8QdWFaYAA-8WX.jpg) Haha YES ### [Reply to @br___ian, 07:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725059575471132672) · 2 likes > **bri (@br___ian):** cerebrolysin sounds like it would be Much worse for you than it is Sounds like an obscure micronutrient. Like “carotenoid” or “riboflavin” ### [Reply to @qorprate, 07:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725060775864140112) · 6 likes > **snav (@qorprate):** Imagine looking at this chart as a sexless person and concluding that you "just need to work on yourself" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_Cj1O9WcAAWFUK.jpg) > (quoting @utotranslucence: Imagine looking at this chart as an obese person and concluding that what you have is a ‘personal willpower’ problem) I mean in both cases, at an individual level “working on yourself” is indeed the right thing to do (unless you have a huge amount of money or power) But “exercise willpower \[implicitly to just power through hunger\]” is a specific subset of that; ≠ “work on urself” ### [Reply to @Malcolm_Ocean, 08:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725061975766339815) · 4 likes > **Malcolm Ocean 🏴‍☠️ (@Malcolm_Ocean):** how to go viral: tweet something that has a clear insight to those open to one but is also easily misinterpretable by people who will quote-dunk and critique it Case study lmao ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 08:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725069848131076324) · 1 like > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** This song always gets me so hard bc (imo) he's saying that not only is being high a way to escape his pain, but it's the only way he can tolerate happiness w/o self-judgment. > > I relate the immiserating fear of accepting yourself and accepting happiness. > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YFu4dvMHHY lol at the (I’m guessing unintentional) double entrendre ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 09:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725077310997418148) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** What do I do about the fact that my brain is constantly trying to produce tweets to the point that it‘s whirring like an old, overheating laptop For some of them, notes app note instead of tweeting. See if any marinate into anything more interesting or deep or smth over time ### [Reply to @samswoora, 09:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725079542337798532) · 1 like > **Samswara (@samswoora):** For some reason bagels pretend to be healthier than donuts but that’s bullshit. Theyre probably worse for you? Bread > fried bread, no? ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 09:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725086938263093518) · 2 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** Is your relationship solid? Because it's been seeming Platonic to me Banger ### [Reply to @jozdien, 09:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725089869708361825) · 6 likes > **Arun Jose (@jozdien):** @AaronBergman18 @TetraspaceWest Dark chocolate has caffeine? Not for me it doesn’t ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 15:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725168162121945567) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Just realized what the distinction between analytic and continental philosophy was all along > > Decouplers = nerds = high conscientiousness = analytic philosophers? > > Contextualizers = poets = low conscientiousness = continental philosophers? > > (quoting @StefanFSchubert: . @everytstudies's decoupling vs contextualising might in part be a sub-class of a wide thing: literal vs associative communication. E.g. the latter means you don't read claims as stated, but as some vaguely adjacent claim; essentially second-guessing the writer. ->) Pretty sure I’m a good counterexample Not super low conscientiousness but way below avg among EAish people, almost certainly above avg decoupling+nerdiness+interested in analytic philosophy specifically ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 20:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725244778923643330) · 2 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** @AaronBergman18 depends on their age. One surprising thing for many liberals is the degree to which kids are not small adults, but people with entirely different needs that include things like "having limited choice" and "having boundaries set for them." It's philosophically inconvenient. I'm not sure we actually disagree. I don't think limited choice and boundaries are necessarily bad/wrong. I do think irl (at least among people I encounter) those things are set without respect for the kid's literal current happiness/distress ### [Reply to @Timothy02483682, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725246714049642610) · 1 like > **Timothy Barnes (@Timothy02483682):** @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax @absurdlymax is a chad. He doesn't need to worry about that. fr ## Friday, November 17, 2023 ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 12:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725486373388324941) · 2 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @AaronBergman18 Oh no, is it "hard"? 🫢 “Gets me hard” is certainly a phrase lol ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 12:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725488898137014536) · 5 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** My mum's getting older and she seems to be perennially tired. She does do a lot of stuff, and I mostly talk to her after work and often when I want her help with something. But idk it feels like she wasn't as bad in the past. Fuck aging ### [Reply to @inerati, 12:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725489265381949809) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ I refuse to learn what this is. I will not read any replies to this ### [Reply, 12:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725489868589969903) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Huh just realized random girls and women I see are probably wearing makeup. That sucks fr, try to start a coordinated campaign or smth ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 12:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725491006664008106) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Start a coordinated campaign to get men to wear makeup Truly evil ### [Reply to @JHB_econ, 12:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725494547239653605) · 5 likes > **Jessica H. Brown (@JHB_econ):** Dr: After we use the med, you’ll want to pump & dump for 24h > > Me: What is it exactly? I can research it > > Dr: Lidocaine > > Me: Lidocaine?! Oh, that’s totally safe for nursing! > > Dr: But just to be safe…with the baby… > > 😤 So tired of ppl issuing mandates to women for no reason! 😤 Who would win: MD going on cached heuristics or an UpToDate pdf ### [Quote tweet, 12:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725494751791554850) · 13 likes Tweet the bees you want to see in the world 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 > **Quoting arabella ※ (@arabelladevine):** be the tweeter you want to see in the world ### [Quote tweet, 14:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725518365802836300) · 5 likes Good example (from the other direction) of why “no evidence” is generally a bad phrase to use In this case there really is good evidence that the thing in question is fine! “No evidence that lidocaine while nursing hurts the baby” would be basically true but seriously misleading > **Quoting Jessica H. Brown (@JHB_econ):** But you want to be ✨safe✨ for the ✨baby✨ > > Good thing it’s ✨already✨ ✨safe✨ for the ✨baby✨ 😒 > > I happened to know this one off the top of my head, but anyone can search the lactmed database & see for themselves > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_IbTEAWYAAtnKE.jpg) ### [Tweet, 14:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725518368403247173) · 1 like The hard case of course is what to do if these empirical studies didn’t exist No empirical evidence on strawberries while breastfeeding? Definitely go for it (no plausible harmful mechanism, we would have discovered harm if so) ### [Thread, continued, 14:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725518370328473853) · 2 likes No empirical evidence on a new drug whose molecular structure is surprisingly similar to thalidomide? Precautionary principle, easy case Unfortunately lots of things fall between strawberries and thalidomide 2.0 ### [Reply to @skooookum, 14:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725519662027276567) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @skooookum is no longer available.)_ Same experience. I practically tried to get addicted to nicotine so I could use it to replace other stimulants, to no avail ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 14:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725520273795866850) · 4 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Thanks, I guess > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_JG96aXUAAThxl.jpg) So 1? ### [Reply to @khomless, 16:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725548363813212442) · 1 like > **Khom (@khomless):** @AaronBergman18 it's working!!! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_JQ_MpW8AARZfq.jpg) Lfg ### [Tweet, 18:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725581106806673528) · 6 likes Might be my least favorite ad of all time ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_J-3q_XoAACdqz.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 18:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725581520927117533) · 9 likes New longtermist intervention just dropped > **Quoting UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet):** Following today’s announcement, this could be the last photo of a politician pointing at a pothole. > > We’re investing £8 billion to improve your local roads and fix potholes for the long term. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_JE3ueXcAAL7ra.jpg) ### [Reply, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725607464219897885) One thing that \*I\* think is true about the LW mods is that they mean exactly what they say and nothing more, not 100% but more than almost everyone else. So I don’t think any value laden subtext here actually exists ### [Reply, 20:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725608150512837090) · 1 like I’m dumb, tf is the sexual non relation? ### [Reply to @sanjehorah, 20:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725611052727931082) > **sanje horah 🇵🇸🇺🇦 — PNEUMATICS ONLY (@sanjehorah):** im sure youve had a conversation like this with a girl before I mean not that I can remember lol Is this just like how a guy and girl can be on super different pages about eg what is a date? Or just generally talk past one another? Or like sexual incompatibility (if this one, why use “the”)? ### [Reply to @thoth_iv, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725612119746318647) > **Thŏth (@thoth_iv):** He says "actually bad and devious", so I interpret that to be a value judgement. He’s saying “finding out someone was in a secret gay relationship is evidence that they’re bad and devious,” not “being in a SGR itself is bad and devious” ### [Reply to @prerat, 20:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725619001315803142) · 2 likes > **prerat (@prerat):** what Yeah ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725621060739952668) · 6 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** 😬 Drop the internal gossip (DMs open) ### [Quote tweet, 21:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725631676129099896) · 4 likes Andy manifested this > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I want to get off Mr. Altman's Wild Ride ### [Reply, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725634026608730268) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Yo ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725637538570731652) · 2 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** How would you dress if money was no consideration? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_KxT2dWQAAhU4Z.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_KxT2bWEAAXIRe.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_KxT2bWwAAsrRx.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_KxT2cXAAAi692.jpg) > (quoting @made_in_cosmos: How would you dress if money was no consideration?) Exactly the same ## Saturday, November 18, 2023 ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 05:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725752181540745236) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dissproportion is no longer available.)_ He just like me fr (mammal, at least 2 legs) ### [Reply to @Andercot, 05:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725754637905506638) · 3 likes > **Andrew Côté (@Andercot):** My Highest Likelihood Explanation on Altman's Departure: > > Erosion of senior leadership experience on the OpenAI Board of Directors created a situation where factionalism over the proposed use of a recent breakthrough led to a political takeover. > > Over the last few years, board of directors at OpenAI lost a lot of its senior oversight due to conflicts of interest - Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, Will Hurd. The only person left with significant leadership experience is Adam D'Angelo. > > After Will Hurd left, it was a split vote, 3v3: > > The likely factions were Ilya, Sam, Greg vs Adam, Tasha, Helen. > > Firing Sam was politics. > > It was not over performance, strategic leadership, or vision for the company. Rather, there was contention over the use of a breakthrough that drove a vote between safetyism and deployment speed. > > Why this was Factionalism - Sudden Ousting > If this was planned, Sam would not be representing OpenAI at APEC events all week, OpenAI DevDay two weeks ago. If Microsoft knew or was involved, Satya Nadella would not have been on-stage with Sam at Dev Day. > > Microsoft claims they didn't have advance knowledge of this - they claim they knew about it one minute in advance. There clearly was not internal alignment on this decision either - @gdb just quit over this. > > What was the wedge issue? Just recently at APEC Sam announced he had witnessed the frontier of knowledge being pushed back four times in his experience at OpenAI, and the last time was recently - a couple weeks ago. > > Likely Greg and Sam wanted to build and deploy it in earnest, and Ilya didn't. Ilya had become lead of the "Superintelligence Alignment" division earlier this year. I would bet Ilya was the vote that broke the stalemate and led to the departure. > > Sam was kicked out over concerns he would move AI forward too fast by deploying a recent breakthrough. > > It's unlikely departure was related to anything regarding operations, cash burn, partnership-making ability, and so forth - OpenAI has blank-check status for ability to raise, they have huge cashflow, only a few hundred staff, are beyond doubt. > > Most importantly, the suddenness of the departure, lack of communication to Microsoft, and resignation of Greg Brockman all point to this being a sudden move by a board faction. > > Likely, the board felt that OpenAI was completely setup - in partnerships, funding, team, and direction, they could afford to push Sam out to regain control of of the direction and pace of roll-out of AI tools without threatening the security of OpenAI. > > Whatever the proximate justification behind the lack of being 'candid' - this is likely ultimately a split between safetyism and acceleration. > > Explanations that should be discarded > Sam is extremely successful and intelligent, but also has a bulletproof reputation as an upstanding, intentional and pro-social person. He's also a billionaire several times over. > > The language used in the OpenAI disclosure, as well as comments by Eric Schmidt, seem to all point that this was a disagreement over intentions behind the use of AI tools, rather than an over-reach of power, monetary conflict of interest, or a personal scandal. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_LUh43bMAAOfRX.jpg) First time I’m using this phrase without a hint of sarcasm: big if true ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 05:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725755384864923902) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @PradyuPrasad is no longer available.)_ Hey I think it’s cool 😠 ### [Quote tweet, 06:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725756812035604855) · 5 likes Seems correct > **Quoting Samuel Hammond 🦉 (@hamandcheese):** Tho OpenAI is not at all characteristic of the problem. The typical nonprofit board isn't really independent, does the bare minimum of oversight or deliberation, and avoids rocking the boat at all cost. Agree or not, OpenAI's board showed genuine independence and duty to mission. ### [Reply to @d_feldman, 06:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725762431119458322) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @d_feldman is no longer available.)_ Latter not an outgrowth of the former. Just a response to it ### [Reply to @jasoncrawford, 06:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725769699147776430) · 3 likes > **Jason Crawford (@jasoncrawford):** So the thing about Sam is that he once said that when he is deciding what to do next, he waits for an opportunity he thinks will be 10x as impactful as anything he has ever done > > I can't even imagine what that could be at this point Jesus, Petrov, Martin Luther, maybe Churchill, Caesar, Mohammad, Genghis Kahn ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 07:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725771324990070805) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I will say if asked I would server as OpenAI CEO, but I'd probably rather do something else Same ### [Thread, continued, 07:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725771406468678058) · 2 likes @OpenAI hmu ### [Reply to @albrgr, 08:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725786544571605023) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @albrgr is no longer available.)_ .@sama could be a good opportunity ### [Tweet, 08:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725787613276086629) · 10 likes Chad @sama move: “time to raise $100B and work on 1000x scaling (of cultured meat)” ### [Reply to @kunvar_, 08:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725788047378198936) · 6 likes > **Kunvar Thaman (@kunvar_):** First letter of each word in the first line: I L Y A > > (quoting @sama: i love you all. today was a weird experience in many ways. but one unexpected one is that it has been sorta like reading your own eulogy while you’re still alive. the outpouring of love is awesome. one takeaway: go tell your friends how great you think they are.) 👀 ### [Reply to @RFishBlueFish, 08:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725788202672239048) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @RFishBlueFish is no longer available.)_ Eliezer hasn’t been universally cynical ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 08:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725799374507139359) · 3 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** @Kirsten3531 isn't this already how you dress No way this cost less than $10k ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_NFYfSXkAAJ2C-.jpg) ### [Reply to @HaydnBelfield, 09:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725806000010035623) · 7 likes > **Haydn Belfield (@HaydnBelfield):** This is pure sexism > > (quoting @pitdesi: I can’t figure out why some of these folks were on the board to begin with. Tasha’s claim to fame seems to be her marriage to Joseph Gordon-Levitt; Helen Toner is a director of grants at Georgetown, where she graduated from in 2021 with a masters in security studies.) lol “graduated from georgetown with a masters in ‘21” makes her sound like me but with 1-2 years more experience CSET bio: https://cset.georgetown.edu/staff/helen-toner/ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_NLaLIW8AAqY8P.jpg) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 09:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1725807229960393145) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** He looks like a reverse watermelon (Positive) ## Sunday, November 19, 2023 ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 03:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726073046958584293) · 3 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** i think im antiea radicalized now > > my friends treat their body like a playground (experiments with drugs, meditations, new exercises etc), cycle through dangerous sports, startups, and various ideologies. as a group nothing has hurt their wellbeing as much as ea as :( ### [Reply to @casebash, 03:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726075480137232698) · 3 likes > **Casebash (@casebash):** @jd_pressman Why would you think that? > > 95% of what EA is doing will keep on spinning regardless of how Sam Altman situation pans out. Yeah like there is no mechanism for this lol ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 03:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726076864723120179) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Also, Nick is easily 1 in a million in terms of “let explicit beliefs govern your actions without negative corporeal feedback” (I recall him mentioning he ate just cucumber and chicken for like a month bc someone told him that’s how you get abs) ### [Reply to @nullpointered, 03:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726078747852308588) · 6 likes > **null (@nullpointered):** Candlelight vigil in Dolores Park calling for the return of Sam Altman as CEO > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_Q3kRga8AAzuPb.jpg) I have no idea what is real anymore ### [Tweet, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726082968517480502) · 288 likes Times my tl has been ~exclusively one thing: \- FTX collapse \- Wagner coup thing \- Sama fired What am I forgetting? ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 03:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726084019417460859) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 When Max joined twitter Duh ### [Reply to @Sheikheddy, 04:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726088949217534343) · 9 likes > **Sheikh Abdur Raheem Ali (@Sheikheddy):** @AaronBergman18 superconductor Right ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 04:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726095208612536468) · 7 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I'm old enough to remember when the TL was exclusively focused on the 2014 red wave ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_RScZeXYAAKlCM.jpg) ### [Reply to @nullpointered, 04:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726099467970150566) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @nullpointered is no longer available.)_ What ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 04:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726099605941571841) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @nullpointered Aaron... Holy shit https://x.com/nullpointered/status/1726094980882776391?s=46 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 04:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726102035299266925) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Consoling someone after getting rejected from an ea job: "there are other fish in the cea" Banger ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 16:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726281013570212227) · 7 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Let's do it > > (quoting @xruiztru: Chile is so long that it could serve as a 'bridge' connecting Spain to Canada across the Atlantic Ocean.) Build the bridge ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 16:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726281225663574375) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** being vegan is tough 😤, sometimes the cravings get the better of me Lmao ### [Reply to @iamaheron_, 16:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726281766816870672) · 2 likes > **sniper (heron) (@iamaheron_):** just found out one of my friends just puts all his dirty clothes in a big pile next to the bed > > he’s 28 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_ROVIqbcAAiK9g.jpg) Based ### [Reply, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726290766245593228) · 3 likes He didn’t answer :( ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 17:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726291324406751478) · 22 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** how many social events (hangouts, parties, walks, etc) with people do you have per week on avg > > if you go on a walk with your partner every day that counts as one, but if you go to a fifty person party that also counts as one Lmao at these answer buckets. Mine would have been: 0 1 2 3+ ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 17:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726291380392120722) · 3 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** realizing I may be wildly more extroverted than I thought, thought most people had a few hangouts and 3-6 phone catch ups a day What ### [Tweet, 18:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726299668618039602) · 5 likes Listening to the Sounds of my Childhood (2000-2014ish music) and turns out Katy Perry said “this a hickey or a bruise?” not “there’s a hippie on the roof” which tbh would have been a lot cooler ### [Tweet, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726313106211811617) · 6 likes It has come to my attention that I have not yet posted this on twitter Could be a good intermission from all the Very Online Drama you can’t actually do anything about https://youtu.be/qR4NTD2BKmI?si=LCfHUtfklB_QCB1q ### [Tweet, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726321090103050405) · 16 likes Endorse endorse endorse endorse. Extremely important post. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/btTeBHKGkmRyD5sFK/open-phil-should-allocate-most-neartermist-funding-to-animal ### [Thread, continued, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726321091994386686) · 4 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_UfXTtXAAATn9k.jpg) ### [Reply, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726321582652473657) · 1 like Fuck why am I so slow at writing ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 19:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726323139351835014) · 4 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 Try this site where you have to write consistently for 5 minutes or it all disappears https://www.squibler.io/dangerous-writing-prompt-app/write?limit=5&type=minutes andy r u trying to give me a heart attack ### [Tweet, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726337564679061669) · 36 likes Seeing some “EA has been bad for me” takes by people I like and respect (@nickcammarata, @ohabryka) which at first I was pretty confused by but now maybe understand… ### [Thread, continued, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726337567270871507) · 24 likes I’ve made a pretty deliberate decision over the last year or so \*not\* to move (or aspire to move) to Berkeley/SF despite knowing a lot of people there and generally liking the nerdy rat/EA culture ### [Thread, continued, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726337569464693150) · 19 likes There are a bunch of factors, but the biggest and most salient single one has just been that I think it would be bad for my personal happiness Not for any dark or nefarious reason ### [Thread, continued, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726337573419889144) · 28 likes \- just because being physically around and interacting a lot (like regularly every day rather than say weekly+online) with other EAs activates my “status/social-ometer brain” like nothing else ### [Thread, continued, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726337576410460569) · 12 likes But if I was already living there/had a bunch of reasons to stay, I can totally see how encountering EA per se would seem like \*the\* causal factor in feeling guilty or stressed or anxious etc ### [Thread, continued, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726337578755059907) · 15 likes All this is to say that I think social and therefore geographical context is a \*huge\* factor in determining how EA’s impact as a philosophy or ideology - in both direction and size ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 20:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726337972591862097) · 4 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** question: do I have any UK-based mutuals who want to get coffee some time? I need more friends that get the AI situation so I don’t always feel like the doomiest in the room > > (helps if you’re vaguely near Sheffield but I’m also in London sometimes) > > DM me! The twitter to irl friends pipeline is so based ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 20:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726341239807602740) · 5 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** To be clear, I think EA was mostly bad for me because it caused me to do harmful things to the world. I also think some parts of it were emotionally stressful, but that's not where most of my affect comes from. Ah ok thanks for clarifying I think I generally read “for me” as implying purely internalized effect ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726341453365002744) · 13 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 19, 2023:** All this is to say that I think social and therefore geographical context is a \*huge\* factor in determining how EA’s impact as a philosophy or ideology - in… Correction: ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726342975402422694) · 7 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** I mean, I think it corrupted my moral compass and made me a worse person morally. It caused me to be more adversarial to the world and less honest and open than I otherwise would have been. Damn ### [Tweet, 22:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726370377373245838) · 117 likes EA still good imo ### [Reply to @FabrykaAI, 22:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726374348162757023) · 12 likes > **Fabryka AI (@FabrykaAI):** Still SBF adjacent. It was good when it was malaria nets, now it’s decel ideology and having fake jobs at „think centre” or other stuff I disagree on all the points but the decel ideology thing is just flatly wrong In literally every other domain (besides I think specific subsections of bio) EA is, to generalize, super pro technology+economic growth+R&D ## Monday, November 20, 2023 ### [Reply to @default_friend, 03:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726438897272475707) · 3 likes > **Katherine Dee 🐬/acc (@default_friend):** Do you guys like libertarians or not ??? Is it for "dumbasses" or not ??? ... the TL is giving a lot of mixed signals tn... I'll stop there but not the only place I'm noticing these inconsistencies ... Ik this is satire but I think this thought process is indeed how a non trivial proportion of people pick their political ideology ### [Reply to @eshear, 09:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726535822152020056) · 3 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** Today I got a call inviting me to consider a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: to become the interim CEO of @OpenAI. After consulting with my family and reflecting on it for just a few hours, I accepted. I had recently resigned from my role as CEO of Twitch due to the birth of my now 9 month old son. Spending time with him has been every bit as rewarding as I thought it would be, and I was happily avoiding full time employment. I took this job because I believe that OpenAI is one of the most important companies currently in existence. When the board shared the situation and asked me to take the role, I did not make the decision lightly. Ultimately I felt that I had a duty to help if I could. > > I have spent today drinking from the firehose as much as possible, speaking with the board, a small number of major partners, and listening to employees. Our partnership with Microsoft remains strong, and my priority in the coming weeks will be to make sure we continue to serve all our customers well. OpenAI employees are extremely impressive, as you might have guessed, and mission-driven in the extreme. And it’s clear that the process and communications around Sam’s removal has been handled very badly, which has seriously damaged our trust. > > I have a three point plan for the next 30 days: > \- Hire an independent investigator to dig into the entire process leading up to this point and generate a full report. > \- Continue to speak to as many of our employees, partners, investors, and customers as possible, take good notes, and share the key takeaways. > \- Reform the management and leadership team in light of recent departures into an effective force to drive results for our customers. > > Depending on the results everything we learn from these, I will drive changes in the organization — up to and including pushing strongly for significant governance changes if necessary. I will be rolling these out as they become clear over the 30 day period. OpenAI’s stability and success are too important to allow turmoil to disrupt them like this. I will endeavor to address the key concerns as well, although in many cases I believe it may take longer than a month to achieve true progress. > > I have nothing but respect for what Sam and the entire OpenAI team have built. It’s not just an incredible research project and software product, but an incredible company. I’m here because I know that, and I want to do everything in my power to protect it and grow it further. > > It's now 1am and I'll pick this up tomorrow. > > PS: I am posting this here both because I think it’s in the general public interest to know in this case, but please don’t expect all future internal comms to come through a public channel. > > PPS: Before I took the job, I checked on the reasoning behind the change. The board did \*not\* remove Sam over any specific disagreement on safety, their reasoning was completely different from that. I'm not crazy enough to take this job without board support for commercializing our awesome models. What ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 09:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726536697532534902) · 4 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** What are the best things worth subscribing to that are more than worth the money/cost? Spotify, ChatGPT+ ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 10:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726544420479315988) · 40 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @robertwiblin is no longer available.)_ The future ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 11:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726567396658544966) · 3 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** you know you, George, and Sam Altman all kind of look the same. bit sus Occams razor says they’re both @SpacedOutMatt ### [Thread, continued, 11:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726568124395532317) · 6 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_YAjIHW8AExc7Q.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_YAjHwWAAA3MjS.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_YAjHvXsAA8Phc.jpg) [![GIF thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/F_YAjHxXcAAFelo.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726568124395532317/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 13:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726591780437762283) · 6 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** If my baby only has sweet potato (with lots of olive oil) and banana for lunch, plus his formula, is he gonna die? > > Asking because I think this is the new normal Yes but not for any reason related to the food ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 13:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726592822261043377) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 @Kirsten3531 Not if we find a way to reverse entropy True, who’s working on this ### [Reply to @inerati, 13:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726596958612287789) · 31 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ while(x==y){eval(call(“func1()\\\\nfunc2()”))} ### [Reply to @benthamite_, 13:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726600001357525451) · 2 likes > **benthamite🔸 (@benthamite_):** YES I KNOW THAT HE'S MY EX BUT CAN'T TWO PEOPLE RECONNECT I ONLY SEE HIM AS A FRIEND i tripped and fell into his corporate restructuring > > (quoting @verge: Breaking: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO https://trib.al/DTxl5tC) Banger ### [Tweet, 15:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726627770397335757) · 2 likes Might do an impromptu solo Pigeon Hour (podcast episode) recorded while I pack for smth Plz comment questions/things you’d be interested in hearing me comment on/etc ### [Reply to @alt_truistic, 18:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726674003719540842) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @alt_truistic is no longer available.)_ Idk what I’m talking about really but I’ve heard the “feels like X if you have adhd, like Y if you don’t” thing is super intuitive but basically fake ## Tuesday, November 21, 2023 ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 01:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726779790076604506) · 2 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_aC9HaXsAAk29n.jpg) Banger ### [Reply to @christineist, 04:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726827625426108440) · 2 likes > **christine (@christineist):** hi any more women want to join my dating app? :) Fr u should advertise on i guess instagram(?) ### [Reply to @arabelladevine, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726830582154604921) · 3 likes > **arabella ※ (@arabelladevine):** let a golden age of voice tweets commence > > [video attached](https://x.com/arabelladevine/status/1726823583115276395/video/1) Too bad you can’t do voice replies But yeah, this is why podcasts were one of the best media for dialogue - at least before cheap+good AI transcription (but even with that I don’t think the effect totally disappears) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 09:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726888828844347474) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** there are few things in this world that would make me momentarily consider going full on e/acc, but trying to get an in-person doctor’s appointment is one of them ### [Tweet, 14:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726970193472373138) · 11 likes Tempted to sign up for this absolute rager ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_duPCxWUAAu_cd.jpg) ### [Reply to @moultano, 14:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726971451788730780) > **Ryan Moulton (@moultano):** No caffeine after lunch. 👎 ### [Quote tweet, 15:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726978960561762794) · 7 likes Retvrn > **Quoting Franklin King MD (@KingFranklinIV):** Wow. From 1965 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_a30_eW8AANc50.png) ### [Tweet, 15:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726981522870394969) · 78 likes Fuck modesty norms EtG people (and anyone) post donation info (amount donated this year or screenshots or graphs or whatever) below for well-deserved internet points ### [Reply to @uberstuber, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726982702187135133) · 3 likes > **James Stuber 🌱🌿🌳🍂 (@uberstuber):** are you introverted or is squashing your wants exhausting? Introvert ### [Quote tweet, 15:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1726986104694591584) · 7 likes Interesting take > **Quoting Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** I'm curious now how everyone would have reacted if someone had been able to remove SBF from power at FTX \*before it was too late to stop the fraud\*, w/o being able to share why, only able to vaguely say they were concerned about his integrity. > > Might have looked a lot like this. ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 16:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727006978332041557) · 4 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 I like how exactly no one is taking you up on the opportunity Poast 👀 graf 📈 ### [Tweet, 19:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727046603629048087) · 18 likes .@RethinkPriors needs money, and I currently think they're the single best charity to donate to all things considered https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/cMcEBSNiy4meDrmuE/ ### [Thread, continued, 19:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727046605596139696) · 7 likes Accurate virtue signaling cascade, commence ($100 is my semi-arbitrary self-imposed limit for spending money on a whim, maybe/hopefully more to come) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_ezPcpXwAATWXP.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727050323062399163) · 13 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 21, 2023:** Fuck modesty norms EtG people (and anyone) post donation info (amount donated this year or screenshots or graphs or whatever) below for well-deserved internet… Nobody has ever donated more than $100, prove me wrong ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 20:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727059047613153727) · 3 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** I'm hoping my income changes soon so that I can give way more :) Same lol Also uh I recommend prioritizing some amount of savings before any donation ### [Reply to @Jtfetsch, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727068884820472292) · 3 likes > **Joe Fetsch 🔍⏸ (@Jtfetsch):** @AaronBergman18 I'll bite on this. Someone come and ratio me > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_fCWo6awAAK4iG.jpg) Nice ### [Tweet, 22:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727087563813618163) · 14 likes Idk who needs to hear this (if you’re following me and haven’t decided against it via some legit process, probably you) but more EAs should be trying to make at least tens of millions of dollars to (mostly) give away ### [Reply to @gcolbourn, 22:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727088007352561923) · 9 likes > **Greg ⏹️ Colbourn (@gcolbourn):** Not receipts I know, but most of these were just sent direct as bank transfers (no tax deductibility as to individuals/early stage projects). > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_fL5BvWgAATajv.jpg) New cause area tutor Greg on how to make nicer looking spreadsheets (lol fr though awesome, love to see it) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727091320290951628) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 21, 2023:** Nobody has ever donated more than $100, prove me wrong Forgot about this lol. Erring on the safe side with redaction - it’s really nothing super interesting or spicy. Just a one-off thing I had local+kinda illegible knowledge of ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_fcZtVW4AAt4VT.jpg) ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 23:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727107539874324918) · 2 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** Something wonky is happening with that total pledged number but donation to date seems accurate > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_fgSXfXYAAmYnX.jpg) Based ## Wednesday, November 22, 2023 ### [Reply to @hlntnr, 06:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727215961768624590) · 9 likes > **Helen Toner (@hlntnr):** And now, we all get some sleep😴 > > (quoting @OpenAI: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo. We are collaborating to figure out the details. Thank you so much for your patience through this.) If I ever need a board of directors for smth I’ll hit u up, Godspeed 🫡 ### [Tweet, 06:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727218090004386117) · 131 likes I’m putting together a team ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_hPssmXcAA6W2P.jpg) ### [Reply to @benkitia, 06:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727218975908761720) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @benkitia is no longer available.)_ True, duh ### [Reply, 13:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727324222643650705) · 3 likes Based ### [Quote tweet, 17:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727379520683188314) · 2 likes New pdf just dropped 👀 > **Quoting Jeff Sebo (@jeffrsebo):** New paper on AI welfare! > > “Intersubstrate Welfare Comparisons: Important, Difficult, Potentially Tractable,” co-authored by @bobfisc (lead of the moral weight project at @RethinkPriors) is now available open access at Utilitas. > > Check it out! > > https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/utilitas/article/intersubstrate-welfare-comparisons-important-difficult-and-potentially-tractable/15D03CBD87325B517B112BFED0F02590 ### [Quote tweet, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727383951310737811) · 52 likes Timelines are short. Only took 4 days ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_jmjBpWUAAlx23.jpg) > **Quoting zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** \[my parents, to me, probably in a week or so\] “so Daniel, you’re into AI - did you hear about the news regarding OpenAI?” ### [Reply to @catehall, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727396481244803202) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @catehall is no longer available.)_ 🌶️🌶️🌶️ ### [Reply to @davidmanheim, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727398995100852516) · 2 likes > **David Manheim (@davidmanheim):** @AaronBergman18 My mom is really on the ball on this stuff - she already asked me, and even had a take about it, on Monday: > (cc: @daniel_271828) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_jw98TXsAAJPT7.png) Elite ### [Reply, 18:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727400471890145637) · 1 like U have a turkey and a blind dog?? That’s some serious commitment lmao ### [Reply to @StatsLime, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727400773871673817) · 2 likes > **Max ⏸️ Limelihood 🔸🔸🔸 (@StatsLime):** @yashkaf normiepilled answer: men are hornier > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_j1dKhaMAAzE93.png) Yeah correct answer lol ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727416006945960222) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_kBJcqXUAAcrPr.jpg) I too would like the skinny ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727416187565555963) · 3 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** @AaronBergman18 So, Aaron, what do you think about the whole OpenAl-Altman fiasco? The takes are slow cooking in my brain rn ### [Reply to @uberstuber, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727433706015694970) · 1 like > **James Stuber 🌱🌿🌳🍂 (@uberstuber):** my parents’ new oven just gobbled at them instead of beeping i hate the future Haha device go quack (my ring tone) ### [Reply to @ftlsid, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727435601665036299) · 4 likes > **ftlsid (@ftlsid):** pondering: how do you make progress and remain motivated on a ambitious solo project that 1) is very difficult 2) takes years? Big update on this for me over the last 2 years. My best answer is: Get a manager (can just be a friend who agrees to take on that role and zoom twice a week) because going true solo is just extremely hard (in terms of everything - prioritization, object level issues, whatever) ### [Reply to @veggiebat_, 22:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727449711823515932) · 2 likes > **ꙮ un ami ⚭ (@veggiebat_):** what is your quick affirmative of choice ? mine are “roger/roger that” and “heard” 🫡 ### [Tweet, 22:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727458964949057892) · 7 likes My family will “be ready in 5 minutes” as of 5:41 pm. At what time will we all be physically outside of the house (no trick questions here tbc)? ### [Thread, continued, 22:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727460003160666370) · 2 likes In other units, how many laps around the block will I make it before we leave? I’m at 1.5 rn and my low effort guesstimate is .25 miles total for a loop ### [Reply to @Aizazadi_, 22:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727460154109468791) · 2 likes > **Aizazadi (@Aizazadi_):** @AaronBergman18 Wtf need followup Dw I will be updating the thread ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727461151552729538) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 22, 2023:** In other units, how many laps around the block will I make it before we leave? I’m at 1.5 rn and my low effort guesstimate is .25 miles total for a loop Update: sister called at 5:55 to inform me that “we’re actually leaving” ### [Thread, continued, 22:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727461636871492090) · 4 likes This is a bit like SBF tweeting smth along the lines of “everything’s fine” at peak FTX collapse drama Yes directionally it’s evidence but it’s awfully weak ### [Thread, continued, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727466377672270120) · 14 likes 🚨🚨🚨MARKET RESOLVED 🚨🚨🚨 Official resolution time 6:09 pm ### [Thread, continued, 23:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727466500288557521) · 3 likes I only made it 2 full trips around the block :( ## Thursday, November 23, 2023 ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727542511155978455) · 2 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Do it. Underrated way to keep up with friends who don’t live nearby Ya. Now that I think about it a cost of messenger, twitter DM etc is not getting people’s numbers for this ### [Reply to @tszzl, 13:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727678111146291482) · 15 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** not even a respectable take Why? ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 13:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727688047062298644) · 5 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** good q Thx I thought of it myself ### [Reply to @alt_truistic, 22:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727817686812672008) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @alt_truistic is no longer available.)_ No, pure dextroamphetamine is better. Adderall is 75% that and 25% levoamphetamine which is generally less effective and more side effect causing ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 22:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727817753669636588) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** My introverted dog thinks it's time for us to head home from Thanksgiving dinner > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_pqhZKXIAAQaoF.jpg) He just like me fr ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727834069923217604) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @JesseTayRiver Was going to tag you @AaronBergman18 ## Friday, November 24, 2023 ### [Reply to @besttrousers, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727844646082990551) · 3 likes > **Matt Darling 🌐🏗️ (@besttrousers):** @PradyuPrasad You have a meal with your extended family. It's nice. Setting aside the turkey thing it’s the most wholesome secular holiday ### [Reply to @alt_truistic, 01:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1727857139492815105) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @alt_truistic is no longer available.)_ Tiny tweak in formula -> patent -> have a brand -> market -> “adderall” becomes synonymous with adhd meds -> 💰 ### [Reply, 19:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728135579286794685) · 1 like No, as long as we don’t take other animals with us and make it habitable for them ### [Reply, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728136679779901639) · 1 like Uh the last .1 to 5 years before dieing rarely look like this ### [Quote tweet, 20:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728144727134871598) · 23 likes Inject it into my veins There are good critiques of EA!! But they (afaict literally exclusively) come from people who accept the project on its own terms > **Quoting Richard Y. Chappell🔸 (@RYChappell):** There's nothing EAs hate more than suggesting that their critics are obviously wrong. ### [Reply to @EAheadlines, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728145401490845916) · 3 likes > **EA Lifestyles (@EAheadlines):** have you ever wished you could see a list of some highly effective charities that address gender-based issues facing women and girls? maybe you thought no one in ea worries about stuff like that? guess again! there's a whole list!! https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org.au/cause-funds/help-women-girls-fund/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_t3YjnXoAAGAKH.jpg) My brain: don’t say the take don’t say the take don’t say the take Me: this is pretty directly antithetical to the (IMO correct) principle of non-arbitrariness in moral patienthood… ### [Thread, continued, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728145523897401450) · 4 likes There for sure may be great charities than work exclusively on these issues, but there’s no good moral reason to limit one’s focus to these ex ante ### [Reply to @emilychangtv, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728147983508586995) · 3 likes > **Emily Chang (@emilychangtv):** One of the biggest tasks ahead for OpenAI is building a new board - one that includes women: > > The names of several women were floated including @laurenepowell and @marissamayer but deemed too close to @sama. @CondoleezzaRice also considered but dismissed. > > We’re told the new board \*will\* include women but that’s just step one — roundup by @tsgiles @shiringhaffary @ashleevance > > https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-22/altman-returns-to-openai-after-firing-showed-rifts-left-unhealed Obvious correct choices: @ajeya_cotra, @KelseyTuoc and @alyssamvance. Yes, all of them ### [Reply to @kitten_beloved, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728149342165340182) · 4 likes > **Kitten 🐈 (@kitten_beloved):** This writing style is an eerily accurate midwit indicator, a dumb person's idea of how smart people communicate > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_uDPKXacAAbELo.jpg) Eh its also how a smart person might write if it seems important to them to signal being at least as smart as some lower bound ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 23:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728187245889257864) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ Expected values or Effective Venture’s ### [Quote tweet, 23:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728190106304167988) · 33 likes Will MacAskill looking at all the good critiques of EA (as a single thing), from the outside, that a decade of practically begging for criticism (and at one point paying for it \[rip\]) has brought [![Alone Dessert GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/F_vDvE_XMAAyykl.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728190106304167988/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) > **Quoting Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** this is so funny to me because EA might be one of the few social movements which will actually give you a full blown policy proposal before even complaining about a problem on twitter > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_tzuIhWAAAfxCB.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728191069186384382) · 3 likes Endogenous criticism is live and well though. For example, hundreds of millions of dollars are being misallocated ### [Thread, continued, 23:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728191634058465398) · 1 like Also all the half plausible wholesale critiques I can think of come from the direction opposite of which they always come Like maybe the s-risk people are directionally but insufficiently right and that should be the sole cause area ## Saturday, November 25, 2023 ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728202072309596565) · 4 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** I’m excited to announce that, on Monday, I’ll be joining @ppi’s Center for Funding America’s Future as a policy analyst! > > In this job, I’ll be helping to promote tax and spending policies that are inclusive, pro-growth, and fiscally responsible. I’m so looking forward to it! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_vLRp1W8AAQ4r7.jpg) Congrats, SPEAKER B!! ### [Tweet, 00:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728204508189380620) · 7 likes New 2 x 2, seems very TPOT-y: Thinking about feelings vs just feeling them and Leaning into them vs “fake it till you make it” behaviorally ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728207798075372031) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 24, 2023:** Also all the half plausible wholesale critiques I can think of come from the direction opposite of which they always come Like maybe the s-risk people are… Ugh, brain compulsively generating plausible counterexamples (its a terminal condition called autocontrarianism) 1\. Maybe starting OpenAI was net bad even ex ante and EA’s effect is dominated by that one decision 2\. This tweet ### [Reply to @catehall, 01:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728219285255041392) · 6 likes > **Cate Hall 🔸 (@catehall):** There’s something uniquely upsetting to me about seeing someone call other humans NPCs, and once I’ve seen someone do it it’s almost impossible for me to view them with respect ever again. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_vSS9WacAAs40N.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_vSS9Ub0AA70Rj.jpg) I had this take at first (and tbc I don’t use it bc ik others see it like this) but think it’s actually just a rude sounding term for a useful and neutral concept ### [Reply to @exdiegesis, 01:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728219411377696775) · 2 likes > **Hope (@exdiegesis):** goshdarnit! i'd managed to stay ignorant of what "TPOT" meant up until now, but this gives me a clue. also, cool 2x2. @niplav_site, look! It took me way too long lmao. Do u want to know? ### [Quote tweet, 01:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728225071901364472) · 9 likes Another possibility I learned recently is that they’ll read 2 NYT articles and then be the ones trying to do the explaining (to other, less informed boomers)! > **Quoting Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** \*trying to explain AI risk to a boomer\* so you know how video killed the radio star? ### [Thread, continued, 01:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728225074333847933) · 4 likes Tbc said boomer, to his credit, didn’t get much wrong - just like forced ideas into convoluted shapes to fit into familiar buckets (eg capitalism vs charity, treating espoused ideologies as what really matters/a good proxy for revealed preferences and behavior) ### [Reply to @catehall, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728226807814520883) · 23 likes > **Cate Hall 🔸 (@catehall):** What is the useful and neutral concept you think is being communicated? Making life decisions (of any size) according to norms and incentives of society without ever seriously considering otherwise Tbc I think it’s a spectrum, tho idk the shape of the distribution ### [Reply to @Blueyatagarasu, 02:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728241862950240472) · 5 likes > **Mario Cannistrà (@Blueyatagarasu):** The more neutral term might be "normie". I think NPC means pretty much the same thing, but with a (stronger?) negative connotation. Nah they seem like distinct concepts to me (esp in the sense that there are non-agentic ways to be weird) ### [Tweet, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728247657880256652) · 20 likes Pretty surprised to hear Luisa Rodriguez and @jeffrsebo both describe the repugnant conclusion as filling them with “dread” I just…don’t have that intuition at all??? And it’s not that points like this don’t affect me much in general ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_v4FV7XAAAzZVY.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728247660967297341) · 10 likes Like a quadrillion mildly happy lizards > @nickcammarata ? Yeah duh (sorry nick) ### [Thread, continued, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728247664217899503) · 2 likes Repugnant conclusion ### [Thread, continued, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728247671067132349) · 7 likes FWIW the Very Repugnant Conclusion I reject but would find repugnant ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_v4GIpWYAAK6Ko.jpg) ### [Reply to @ad0rnai, 03:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728248613967692012) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ad0rnai is no longer available.)_ Lah-ooh-dah-dee-tay ### [Reply to @exdiegesis, 03:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728250655243161636) · 2 likes > **Hope (@exdiegesis):** it should indeed ring alarm-bells, and i suspect Aaron has already heard and incorporated those into his view. alarm-bells are usefwl for prompting reflection, but shouldn't have the final say. Also like there is basically no bar to identifying as an EA/being “inside” rather than outside and it is intentionally flexible on object level things so in general, good and very broad critiques have already been accounted for and corrected… ### [Thread, continued, 03:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728251776212857070) · 1 like It’s not like saying “no outsider has a good critique of Mexico/Harvard/Walmart/Centre for Effective Altruism \[a specific organization\]” because for these things an “outsider” doesn’t get admitted/hired/nationalized basically just by broadly supporting the thing ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728252224361632177) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** It seems like it implies that we should in specific situations always prefer worlds without love or friendship or other complex goods that I think of as being very nice Yes I agree and just find this like moderately disappointing at worst ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728252378653266300) · 4 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** For me it's a sign that we don't actually know much about trade-offs beyond certain obvious cases. I don't think I'd prefer to go through a quintillion vaguely happy lizard lives at the cost of not being in love for a day. I would choose the lizards ### [Quote tweet, 03:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728255415056744934) · 3 likes Why it’s not especially sus or implausible that there are no good “outside” critiques of EA as a whole from > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @exdiegesis @fif_sand It’s not like saying “no outsider has a good critique of Mexico/Harvard/Walmart/Centre for Effective Altruism \[a specific organization\]” because for these things an “outsider” doesn’t get admitted/hired/nationalized basically just by broadly supporting the thing ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 03:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728258029966254249) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** Again and again I keep finding out that I didn’t need to be trying as hard as I thought Hmm not necessarily disagreeing, but my version would be: take important things/goals really seriously (which some ppl might interpret as “trying hard”) but only very rarely is using willpower to endure suffering the right way to go about this” ### [Reply, 03:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728259137145131073) · 1 like I agree the single axis premise is unjustified but disagree in that think these things do indeed lie on a trade-offable axis ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728259607875961224) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I'm willing to say both that I'd rather be a vaguely happy lizard than not exist but also that I'd rather be in love for a day and then not exist for a quintillion years than be a series of vaguely happy lizards for a quintillion years. Implies there might not be a single axis? I think ur wrong (not in which choice you’d make, but that it would be the right choice \*for\* you) probably because scope neglect Maybe ### [Reply, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728261278559604806) · 1 like https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/my-case-for-suffering-leaning-ethics ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_wEeReWUAAdd2R.jpg) ### [Reply to @edardaman, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728280251367862445) · 5 likes > **Emily Dardaman (@edardaman):** When is the Mexico/Harvard/Walmart Centre for Effective Altruism opening .@Walmart @mexico @Harvard @EffectvAltruism I am putting together a team ### [Thread, continued, 05:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728281218389787081) · 1 like Let’s add Chile @GobiernodeChile bc for strange reasons a second-order mutual (mutual of a mutual) is its president ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 17:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728471578025816535) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ \~everyone following you probably is bc it’s closely tied to intelligence I think ### [Reply to @UsingLyft, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728474591280918580) · 3 likes > **Pay Roll Manager Here (@UsingLyft):** Who’s the first author you recall saying something so complicated you found yourself mazed for a second and having to read what they said over again I remember reading Dennet at maybe 12 or 14 and thinking “this guy is just way smarter than me” ### [Reply to @Manuel_do_rio, 18:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728477188700221455) · 2 likes > **Manuel del Río Rodríguez ⏸️ (@Manuel_do_rio):** @thebestestpie @AaronBergman18 @jeffrsebo We'll have to agree to disagree. I don't think lives 'barely worth living' are worth it. Admittedly, this is a qualitative and discrete cut. They’re literally defined that way - Imagine an existence getting better and better until you think it’s worth living, and those are the barely worth living ones we’re referring to! ## Sunday, November 26, 2023 ### [Reply to @alexeyguzey, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728611220482392373) · 64 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @alexeyguzey is no longer available.)_ No he’s not. He was wrong about another persons character. That doesn’t make him a fraud ### [Quote tweet, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728611695344435254) · 17 likes Looks like I’ll have to keep tapping the sign > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** \- 100% good faith, mislead by SBF for non-damning reasons, trying in earnest to correct things and update appropriately, legit trying hard to do good ### [Reply, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728637679611322654) · 23 likes Often getting functionally paid in social/cultural capital aka status I think Ezra Klein made the point that an assistant English prof making $35k is in an important sense “higher class” than a self employed exterminator making $100k ### [Reply to @alexeyguzey, 04:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728639108291981700) · 50 likes > **Alexey Guzey (@alexeyguzey):** you're a true believer aaron. very admirable. never change. bookmark this tweet to check it in 10 years We will see! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_1cG0VXoAA0IpS.jpg) ### [Reply to @BowTieOrangeGuy, 05:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728645426168185258) · 3 likes > **Mr Bow Tie (@BowTieOrangeGuy):** okay hear me out > > guy combinator, aka gc > > lemur to poaster in 6 months, seed followers, do 100 things, office hours with big accounts > > (quoting @gptbrooke: okay but hear me out vibecamp ventures, aka vc vc) I will be a seed follower for anyone who replies to this (subject to my discretion, arbitrary terms and conditions apply) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 19:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728854358195060849) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Don’t @ me about how chickens don’t actually live this long, the separateness of persons is fake ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_4f4B2W8AAn5dD.jpg) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728854719840637357) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** like I know there are all these cool people, probably in my immediate vicinity, that I could have fun chats and trade ideas and have a generally nice time with but how do I \*find\* them Keep cyberbullying @frances\_\_lorenz until u hang out. I am friend shipping u guys ### [Tweet, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728857083154686299) · 4 likes Picked something up at thanksgiving, slept 20ish hours Can someone give me a summary of world and twitter events in that time frame ### [Tweet, 19:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728858998240391480) · 16 likes Extroverts be like “my friend’s aunt just met her niece’s friend’s (my) friend’s friend and figured out their mutual connection to me at an NFL game. They sent me a selfie” ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 19:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728860298990551085) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Hair cut (thx to Nico in New Jersey), pigeons, moved out finally ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_4lRtzX0AAznY9.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_4lRtxXwAAVydZ.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_4lRt1WYAAUhdp.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_4lRt0WEAAxotq.jpg) ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 21:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728889038076277171) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ 😎 ## Monday, November 27, 2023 ### [Reply to @pearl_please, 00:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728938955109028173) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pearl_please is no longer available.)_ What question do u hope somebody asks? ### [Reply to @sam_atis, 00:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728939777477771319) · 5 likes > **Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** How should the EA Forum handle questions like these? It’s a sincere question from someone who is genuinely interested in EA and wants to do good. But it’s also low effort and it’s pretty obvious that interventions to prevent school shootings won’t be particularly cost-effective. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_5LTsAW0AAqN17.jpg) I don’t think anything specific needs to happen ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 01:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728947976922681684) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** 500 followers celebration! I made a me starter pack > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_5Hkr7XUAApbJ-.jpg) Superhuman levels of self awareness. 100% accurate (afaict - curious to hear LA’s take) ### [Reply to @StatsLime, 01:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728949372250194320) · 2 likes > **Max ⏸️ Limelihood 🔸🔸🔸 (@StatsLime):** @0xmaddie\_ Which prince? Like, of Saudi Arabia or? lol https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_(musician) ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728953980305506459) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ Chair = horse ### [Quote tweet, 02:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728966971142930544) · 16 likes V1.0, courtesy of @SpacedOutMatt himself ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_6GTAcXkAAmCCt.jpg) > **Quoting Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** 500 followers celebration! I made a me starter pack > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_5Hkr7XUAApbJ-.jpg) ### [Reply to @vivian_belenky, 02:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728967020107247665) · 2 likes > **viv 🔸 (@vivian_belenky):** Read the word "brisk" just now and started wondering what exactly b-risk was Real ### [Reply to @girllbossing, 04:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1728987556371648950) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @girllbossing is no longer available.)_ Listen to Juice Wrld, walk, gc, tweet ### [Quote tweet, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729004916830839266) · 38 likes I think this could have been so but I look around and…don’t see people actually being ~totalized~ In fact I think EA has made my life better and this is pretty sus. Like it’s not supposed to do that lol > **Quoting roon (@tszzl):** 1\. EA is a dangerous totalizing ideology > 2\. I love dangerous totalizing ideologies ### [Reply to @jvboid, 05:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729012199975514337) · 2 likes > **Jacob (@jvboid):** this is the oldest ai i designed i think i was 11 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_6uWVEXQAAcOUE.jpg) Damn ### [Reply to @jvboid, 05:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729012256904765560) · 3 likes > **Jacob (@jvboid):** this is the oldest ai i designed i think i was 11 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_6uWVEXQAAcOUE.jpg) @sama ### [Reply to @ConnorTabarrok, 06:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729028754125799812) · 3 likes > **Connor J. Tabarrok 🏗🚀🌏 (@ConnorTabarrok):** Where are all the EA critiques of EA? Oh boy do I wanna make this meme ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 07:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729036377524941198) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 27, 2023:** I think this could have been so but I look around and…don’t see people actually being ~totalized~ In fact I think EA has made my life better and this is pretty… Tbf I guess SBF is the best counterexample ### [Reply to @utopiannotions, 07:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729037612403601700) · 6 likes > **Conor M (@utopiannotions):** Here’s your reminder to start lifting weights. You’re going to feel good and look good. Your clothes will fit you better. Aching pains from a sedentary lifestyle will disappear. Your bones will get stronger. You will sleep like a baby. You will feel more at ease in the world. 👀 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_7Gi5GWUAAREHF.jpg) ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 07:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729045160242315689) · 10 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Asked \[redacted\] "what's ur metric for if someone is a close friend" and he said "How many people would you feel comfortable if they had a video of you fucking and then killing a dog" > So uhh by this metric how many close friends do you have? Wait is the video supposed to be real or fake? ### [Tweet, 08:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729048152903458962) · 12 likes Random thread of ea critiques I think are basically true (will update as I think of stuff) \- not enough animal welfare funding relative to human global health ### [Thread, continued, 08:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729048154967015474) · 4 likes \- not sufficiently appreciative of severe suffering \- sorta rephrasing^: doesn’t take log scales of pleasure and pain seriously ### [Thread, continued, 08:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729048156560884073) · 3 likes \- inspired SBF. I think nothing went wrong ex ante (ie the earning to give + taking utilitarianism seriously meme was not bad to spread bc it could inspire someone like this) but still, counts as a strike against ### [Thread, continued, 08:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729048158305706138) · 2 likes \- EA- and adjacent animal welfare movement insufficiently truth seeking (ik @acesounderglass made this point, too lazy to dig up links for everything rn) ### [Thread, continued, 08:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729048160394457289) · 5 likes \- sometimes naive understandings of utilitarianism (ie as pertaining to “offsetability”) \- too enthusiastically supportive of bad criticism ### [Reply to @personofswag, 08:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729060467476488626) · 4 likes > **adam (6’4) 🇺🇸 (@personofswag):** "npm install" and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_6t4-Vb0AACm-C.jpg) 1\. Try pip install 2\. Try brew install 3\. Try npm install 4\. Ask @austinc3301 for help ### [Reply to @daltonc, 09:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729063469125943771) · 1 like > **Dalton Caldwell (@daltonc):** I wonder what % of people know that the way to fix a lot of devices is to reboot them, but have no mental model for \*why\* this works. I mean I have an implicit folk mental model and some guesses I guess but basically me ### [Tweet, 10:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729083385862328627) · 16 likes Forgot to post that the EAGx Boston talks are live, with video on Spotify! Featuring our (EA Twitter’s) very own @Laura_k_Duffy @frances\_\_lorenz and @LizkaVaintrob https://open.spotify.com/show/0lHqS3M08p1jGvBkRIVoFa?si=naCjXWaoT6qobIrUwlflHA ### [Reply to @TobiasJolly, 10:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729083549444403679) · 11 likes > **Toby Jolly (@TobiasJolly):** "Create an image of a twitter user who has just posted a funny and clever tweet and is now feeling smug about it" > > "now more smug" > > "now even more smug" > > "now vastly vastly more smug" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_7cKI1WQAAKZMD.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_7cMskWAAAtwfy.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_7cXr2XAAAAD8w.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_7cZ_lWgAAz-QJ.jpg) > (quoting @venturetwins: Obsessed with the new “make it more” trend on ChatGPT. You generate an image of something, and then keep asking for it to be MORE. For example - spicy ramen getting progressively spicier 🔥 (from u/dulipat)) Me fr whenever smth gets 50 likes ### [Reply to @dylanmatt, 17:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729198092191473864) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dylanmatt is no longer available.)_ I’ll do it for $71k ### [Reply to @pearl_please, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729220205899927733) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pearl_please is no longer available.)_ This but the opposite??? Like it’s no coincidence there are disproportionately journalists and academics on here ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 19:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729222215751934419) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @pearl_please Yeah but do you think better of them for it? Some of them yes in the sense that I have a positive view and the alternative is no view ## Tuesday, November 28, 2023 ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 00:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729299852314468692) · 7 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** The real great filter is EA orgs' application processes I’m making a collage of my rejection emails 😌. It’s in progress rn (screenshots very welcome) ### [Tweet, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729343425990848971) · 23 likes I have decided that ratio pruning is bad and u gotta be connectionmaxxing If ur following me and don’t exclusively lurk and I’m not following u, comment to be considered by the sorting hat ### [Reply to @crash23001, 03:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729345492394418384) · 4 likes > **crash (@crash23001):** @AaronBergman18 Why do you think connectionmaxxing is good? I’m kinda joking - I dont endorse literally maximizing the number of mutuals u have I’ve just come to think it’s silly and dumb to worry about ratio to the point that it feels aversive to follow ppl back. Brain = status maximizer = bad if left unchecked ### [Quote tweet, 04:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729350360752353631) · 26 likes Send me ur rejection email screenshots (comment/dm/whatever)😊 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F__i_M7WwAAml78.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @ChanaMessinger I’m making a collage of my rejection emails 😌. It’s in progress rn (screenshots very welcome) ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 04:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729352185811489102) · 4 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 No. ok ### [Reply to @hugorsmith, 06:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729385619556839592) · 3 likes > **Hugo Smith (@hugorsmith):** And it’s… a lottery for 15 people? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_8l_7vWMAAJwa-.jpg) Lmao what ### [Reply to @tszzl, 07:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729400324157235491) · 2 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** index fund morality: EA bednets > shortseller morality: EA xrisk > venture capital morality: acceleration It would be VC morality if VCs had full liability for the debts of any company they fund ### [Reply to @memeticsisyphus, 07:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729404067078685055) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @memeticsisyphus is no longer available.)_ Chevron deference is good, fight me ### [Reply to @cxgonzalez, 07:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729405998006141148) · 4 likes > **christian (@cxgonzalez):** which internet ideology wants to accelerate all tech but maybe think through a little better AI and bio weapons? EA ### [Reply, 16:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729530786146083327) Ambiguity might be bad, but there’s no clause in the constitution making it unconstitutional ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729531006133149995) · 4 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** one week of being official with my gf and now I have a bed frame😔 > > (quoting @ohwizenedtortle: "I don't know why I ever thought I needed a bedframe" -man in his no gf arc) Nooooooooo ### [Quote tweet, 16:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729534590522384782) · 16 likes They tried to ban going for a walk 😡 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GACKivYWYAIpvzG.jpg) > **Quoting GSV Bemusement Park (@GSVBemusementPk):** @AaronBergman18 @memeticsisyphus There is, though. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagueness_doctrine ### [Thread, continued, 16:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729534792276795593) · 4 likes It is my god given right to loaf 😤 ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 16:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729536540903194962) · 17 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @robertwiblin is no longer available.)_ Fine I’ll do it ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729541190280700112) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I pay £3 a month for @OurWorldInData. I use it a lot and I would happily pay that much if it were paywalled. > > I don't really consider this effective giving. More like, internalising an externality. > > (quoting @MaxCRoser: Today, we launched a big project that we have been working on for the last few months: Data Pages. Data Pages give you all the information you need to understand what this data can tell you about our world. Here is one example:…) Yeah idk if it checks out in some hard core ethics sense but I also try to give a bit for things like this (though usually not recurring). Like $5 if there’s a donate thing on any free chrome extension I use a lot ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729576942809002439) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @robertwiblin Well if Aaron's got it covered I won't bother We can switch off if u want. I take even days u take odd ### [Reply to @albrgr, 19:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729579916952309995) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @albrgr is no longer available.)_ IMO you guys should say publicly (eg tweet lol) how many people applied, in total and for each individual role (and how many for each were indicated as first choice if possible) Very helpful calibration info for applicants ### [Tweet, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729586531638153700) · 127 likes Wow! Donate to rethink priorities guys - they will then answer \*any question\* you might have ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAC5kHlXMAA3Mmm.jpg) ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 19:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729586906931798383) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** \>"How do I get a girlfriend?" > "Intractable, sorry" lmao ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 19:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729589442984243378) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Until then, I am begging people to understand that \*true\* virtue signaling (ie of actually good actions) is not bad and sometimes very good (eg conspicuous donation) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729589640225501430) · 7 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I love how RP literally has relevant expertise for all these questions Yeah @RethinkPriors feel free to actually opine on any of these lol ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729614883728011602) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** report back with the answers pls Here's one answer https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/the-answer-to-the-sleeping-beauty ### [Reply to @albrgr, 21:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729615264113643964) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @albrgr is no longer available.)_ Oh lol, \*definitely\* not getting hired now ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 21:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729616956058157375) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** 1\. defense in depth > 2\. we searched for 2+ years and still don't know > 3\. 1/2 > 4\. ask @natalia\_\_coelho > 5\. maximize value but incorporating multiple plausible decision theories > 6\. @RethinkPriors ofc No. 4 is old news. Though I'd really love to see a written debate (perfect for a LW dialogue!) between @natalia\_\_coelho and @exfatloss. In fact I'd chip in $10 to make this happen if money is a thing here https://x.com/natalia__coelho/status/1674641685090013185?s=20 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GADU1SoW0AAdMum.jpg) ### [Tweet, 22:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729622762568704255) · 3 likes Super cool tool from @exfatloss for my fellow nutrition nerds https://foods.exfatloss.com/ ### [Reply to @OrionJohnston, 22:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729626280331473190) · 2 likes > **David Johnston (@OrionJohnston):** @AaronBergman18 @peterwildeford @natalia\_\_coelho @RethinkPriors I think it’s a question of what “degree of belief” should mean in this unusual situation, and you haven’t convinced me to adopt your meaning Yea, my second place answer is “ ‘credence’ doesn’t have a single, well defined meaning in this situation” ## Wednesday, November 29, 2023 ### [Reply to @bryan_caplan, 01:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729677950738415754) · 8 likes > **Bryan Caplan (@bryan_caplan):** Anyone dispute this? > > (quoting @DegenRolf: After an average follow-up of 18 years, there was no difference in mortality risk between vegetarians and non-vegetarians. https://jhpn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s41043-023-00460-9) Not necessarily, just that all cause mortality is notoriously hard to observe in a statistically significant way ### [Reply to @ciphergoth, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729721579372785959) · 2 likes > **Paul Crowley (@ciphergoth):** @RomanHauksson @robertwiblin It's fine if you don't have "man" in your surname. I will tell my 20 y/o cousin studying to be a nurse NOT to apply to this job under any circumstances ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 12:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729832799790592220) · 1 like > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** Everyone wants a super smart well-read gf until your NYT mini crossword times look like this every single day > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAGVzZnXkAAymi1.jpg) Is this h:m or m:s ### [Reply to @AskYatharth, 12:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729841332691079254) · 2 likes > **yatharth ༺༒༻ (@AskYatharth):** what is your personal favourite cheese? > > for the first time in my life, im able to appreciate them. trying parmigiano reggiano, gran capitan, le gruyère. this is amazing The elites don’t want u to know this but you can just eat parmesan off the block. U don’t need to just grate a tiny bit on stuff ### [Reply to @kareem_carr, 12:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729844591556194503) · 2 likes > **Kareem Carr, Ph.D. (@kareem_carr):** If companies are mostly using AI to do a very mediocre version of something they could have paid a person to do, then the primary contribution of the AI is just saving folks money. > > The "transformative innovation" in that scenario is the equivalent of getting a discount coupon. Even if it were true that reducing costs had only first order effects and AI was mostly used to reduce costs, this would be wrong because even a small % of use being innovation is enough to jump start exponential feedback Alphafold = proof of concept ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 15:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729892576298168522) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** I enjoy building diagnostics but it's been difficult to monetize fixing complex problems. People will happily pay $250 for a 15 minute capacitor replacement but ask for free site visits on challenging problems. Any suggestions? Are u sure they want a free visit per se, rather than being ok with an upfront flat assessment fee? Like the thing they might be averse to is basically saying “yes come and fix my problem and then bill me whatever that costs” bc that could be like any amount of money ### [Thread, continued, 16:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729893180886135000) · 3 likes In other words maybe they don’t want a free site visit, they want an up front quote ### [Reply to @MindShiftKQED, 16:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729897983259414557) · 5 likes > **MindShift (@MindShiftKQED):** A study from Carnegie Mellon University finds that everyone learns at the same rate, although some students have a head start. > > A group of scientists set out to study quick learners. Then they discovered they don't exist > https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62750/a-group-of-scientists-set-out-to-study-quick-learners-then-they-discovered-they-dont-exist God bless community notes ### [Quote tweet, 16:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729899343249907782) · 11 likes Appropriate pig living quarters > **Quoting trailcam (@Trail_Cams):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAG70XNbYAEBemG.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 16:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729906283040366609) · 44 likes Ambition in DC = nudge the leviathan (which can be pretty important) > **Quoting brett goldstein (@thatguybg):** ambition in NYC = get rich > > ambition in LA = get famous > > ambition in SF = change the world ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 22:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729988546918768902) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Very few people would have expected this, but I was actually president of my high school philosophy club Nice ### [Quote tweet, 22:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729991649760100393) · 3 likes New cause area? > **Quoting George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Thank you for subscribing to NAKED MOLE RAT FACTS! > > \* They DO NOT feel pain > \* They are VERY long lived for rodents, and rarely suffer from CANCER > \* They can survive 5 hours in LOW OXYGEN environments and 18 minutes in ZERO OXYGEN > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_mole-rat ### [Reply to @polisisti, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729993215032365496) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** Decided to go further. Got some of these - 5000 lumens. > > Much brighter, very nice!! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAIXGh2XQAADWzJ.jpg) > (quoting @polisisti: These 2000-lumen lights are nowhere near Eliezer-level illumination (I think he used something like 30,000 lumens, and a normal light for SAD goes up to 10,000 lumens). Nonetheless, I seem to feel more awake when using this for reading than the 450-lumen bulb I'd used before) Haha haha. YES ### [Tweet, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729994531561410730) · 6 likes I don’t have a narrative here I am simply doing the Current Thing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAIs20aWAAAT6B-.jpg) ### [Tweet, 22:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1729995362285355115) · 1 like ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAItnRPWgAALETu.jpg) ## Thursday, November 30, 2023 ### [Reply, 04:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730079611910861037) · 1 like I’m sorry but in my religion such comparisons are considered immodest ### [Thread, continued, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730080060625866756) · 1 like Lol I have I think 3x5000 lumens I can’t find the details of the first one but it seems as bright as the other two ### [Tweet, 04:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730082220180639914) · 11 likes I have never heard of anyone else’s top artists ### [Quote tweet, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730084185224716667) · 8 likes One good thing about AI is that some very famous people look kinda normal Like they all look good! But even I could put on a long sleeve shirt and jeans in a moment of extraordinary need > **Quoting Greg Brockman (@gdb):** building this together ❤️ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAJZexYbwAAxL2m.jpg) ### [Reply to @bat1441, 04:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730085911575114149) · 2 likes > **bat (@bat1441):** I've got four moods > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAHwvqkXEAA4HcT.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAHwwVoXYAAGPsF.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAHwxGDWsAAo2yC.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAHwxzwW4AAe1TE.jpg) Olivia x LW fans unite ### [Reply to @parafactual, 04:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730086590490231022) · 1 like > **You (@parafactual):** @AaronBergman18 mine? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAKAakMXYAA4N1n.jpg) Heard of grimes lol None of the others ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730086812423508188) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 30, 2023:** I have never heard of anyone else’s top artists I am a basic bitch and that’s ok ### [Reply to @jessi_cata, 04:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730088602896367926) · 11 likes > **jessicat (@jessi_cata):** Both optimism and pessimism are anti-epistemic. The P(doom) debate is mainly about generic optimism and pessimism, since no one other than Yudkowsky spells out their reasons for the ballpark of their estimate. P(doom) is mainly for signalling, not for finding cruxes. I disagree. That’s the vibe on twitter sometimes but elsewhere (rationalist and EA spaces online and irl) it seems quite earnest ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 05:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730090122127843791) · 3 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** "You can't get an ought from an is" is excellent news. > > No argument makes one have to care about chicken, shrimp, or insect welfare. The universe is indifferent, and you can accept the moral priorities the accident of evolution gave you. I largely agree - I’m a moral realist in the sense that some worlds are objectively better than others, but don’t think normativity (“ought”) exists But the suffering still exists. The universe at large might not care, but the chickens—who are part of it—certainly do ### [Reply, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730091040827122127) · 4 likes It’s a noble victory ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAKEoctXgAAAz8J.jpg) ### [Reply to @HenriThunberg, 05:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730092688131682314) · 5 likes > **Henri Thunberg 🔸 (@HenriThunberg):** @SchmidtIbanez @peterwildeford There's now a Fatebook about this in RP Slack. Stay tuned for predictions and results, people. > H/t @adambinks\_ for creating tools to forecast and resolve important questions for improving the world. Rethink needs to hire me just enough for me to get into the slack We can do like 1 hour a year at federal minimum wage ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 05:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730094325399171447) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** @CharlesD353 @StefanFSchubert I think US law students are sometimes spoken about in similar terms - that some very strong law students are qualitatively different. > > Idk how confident I am in this Eliezer on Dwarkesh pod is the first thing that comes to mind as demonstrating very high (and higher than me) verbal IQ They were like 5 layers of abstraction deep and moved between each level fluidly ### [Tweet, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730096880841806142) · 6 likes “The universe doesn’t grade on a curve” is such a good quote and insight Pretty sure it’s @LinchZhang’s, right? ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 05:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730102557941383297) · 4 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** @AaronBergman18 haha no I think it's at least as old as the Sequences, maybe longer. Wisdom of the ancients ### [Reply to @thechosenberg, 06:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730104473823981842) · 7 likes > **rosey🌹 (@thechosenberg):** Begging people to never do this > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAHwsHTXQAAC69S.jpg) Asking someone out politely and taking rejection courteously is fine, including if that person is a coworker ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAKQ2XVXIAADmM6.jpg) ### [Tweet, 06:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730107064171553127) · 14 likes Memes and amusing screenshots of 2023 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAKTNCtXwAAueeu.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAKTNCpW4AAzjdN.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAKTNCqW0AAoQ0I.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAKTNCnW8AAYS2x.jpg) ### [Tweet, 06:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730107119909663165) · 1 like ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAKTQY_XQAAXZZR.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAKTQY-XwAA6dHC.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAKTQY8W8AEcnVJ.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAKTQY-W8AAT3tq.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730107124770914304) · 2 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAKTQtpXcAAdRFe.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAKTQtoXcAAH-O2.jpg) ### [Reply to @mdhalloran, 06:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730107670625952099) · 1 like > **Matt Halloran (@mdhalloran):** @AaronBergman18 I bet you can go 5/5 with mine > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAKTpadWgAAxzBg.jpg) Ok yea now we’re talking ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 06:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730110929252000062) · 2 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** @AaronBergman18 bad fucking take about R Lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAKWuIQX0AAe9Bm.jpg) ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 07:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730123884022644777) · 2 likes > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** @AaronBergman18 Good me-mes. Thanks ### [Reply to @davidad, 07:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730133502144761979) · 2 likes > **davidad 🎇 (@davidad):** More @robinhanson! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAKonyWXYAAiP6Y.jpg) This is…true ### [Tweet, 08:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730142732037861713) · 8 likes First workout with new 2x50lbs adjustable dumbbells done (getting them up two flights of stairs) 😤 ### [Thread, continued, 08:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730142733388443966) · 3 likes Too weak to actually carry the full box lol Had to unpack them outside and do 3 trips, one for each dumbbell and then for the packaging ### [Tweet, 08:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730147704930537779) · 5 likes When I say I interned at DOI, this is what I was doing ### [Tweet, 10:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730170639120535637) · 14 likes I feel like this hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves In terms of importance I think the considerations discussed here determine whether P(doom) is like 20% or like 80% https://joecarlsmith.com/2023/11/15/new-report-scheming-ais-will-ais-fake-alignment-during-training-in-order-to-get-power ### [Thread, continued, 10:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730170640538202323) · 3 likes In terms of quality it’s like a an inject-it-into-my-veins model of what analytic philosophy is good for (ie careful/serious/technical qualitative reasoning) Fuck R&P, I’d do a reading group for this Pdf: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2311.08379.pdf ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 11:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730192281318174957) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** interesting, can anyone do a dumbed-down TDLR for the stupid amongst us (asking for a friend) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GALgs4uWMAAml2L.jpg) ### [Reply to @prerat, 15:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730252515151581530) · 3 likes > **prerat (@prerat):** hmm > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAMWF6yXIAAC0ov.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAMWGG7W8AAMz2e.jpg) Nothing odd here IMO. It doesn’t know what its system prompt was yesterday to make a comparison ### [Reply to @thechosenberg, 15:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730252978316054745) · 3 likes > **rosey🌹 (@thechosenberg):** Pro tip: When you’re starting at a new job, bring in a snack once a week. Donuts, cookies, etc. Finely crush Zyn pouches + Adderall. Add trace amounts to the food at first then increase over time. Win-Win: Productivity sores and your coworkers become addicted to your friendship. Don’t do trace amounts of amphetamine. Low doses are dangerous apparently ### [Reply to @HenriThunberg, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730316145922584893) · 2 likes > **Henri Thunberg 🔸 (@HenriThunberg):** @AaronBergman18 @SchmidtIbanez @peterwildeford @adambinks\_ How would you feel about "RP besties GC 🥰" on WhatsApp as a compromise? I am willing and able to serve as an RP Bestie --- End of November 2023. Previous month: [October 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-10). Next month: [December 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-12). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, December 2023 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in December 2023 and has not deleted: 881 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [November 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-11). Next month: [January 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-01). ## Friday, December 1, 2023 ### [Reply to @alistair___s, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730433788205785484) · 1 like > **Alistair Stewart (@alistair___s):** @SpacedOutMatt @ModerateMarcel @AaronBergman18 This is the single thing I dislike most about the EA community: the self-congratulatory celebration of distancing oneself from suffering / moral harm > > Spend two minutes reading about what shrimps actually endure and ask yourself if this meme is still funny https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/nGrmemHzQvBpnXkNX/what-matters-to-shrimps-factors-affecting-shrimp-welfare-in > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAOOOr8XcAAX5Gg.jpg) The meme is doing the exact opposite? It’s literally about reducing shrimp suffering ### [Reply to @lisatomic5, 04:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730436696636821601) · 298 likes > **lisatomic (@lisatomic5):** kids play \*with\* technology in a funny way > > like mine just made a discord server for their made up onion-worshipping religion and put a bot in there as pastor, they're currently pretending to be little onion cult evangelists and inviting family to the server Sounds like a cool guy (gender neutral but guessing son) ### [Tweet, 04:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730438448907948153) · 4 likes Huh https://open.substack.com/pub/astralcodexten/p/links-for-november-2023 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAPAmVGWIAA98d8.jpg) ### [Tweet, 04:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730440289754435838) · 12 likes I am anti anti Canadian MAID and will defend this position ### [Reply, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730446369184203008) · 1 like Wait why ### [Reply to @tomchapin, 10:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730539225987043492) · 1 like > **Thomas H. Chapin IV (@tomchapin):** The non-profit has a stated goal of creating AGI for the benefit and ownership of all of humanity, right? > > Letting a for-profit company onto the board is like letting the foxes guard the henhouse. Yes ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730648192625021257) · 1 like > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** These are times that ironically make me feel very alone and like I wish I had someone to protect me. So I seek out men and like 50% of the time they’re fucking psychopaths and I’m a dumb whore so I give them way too much info because I have a good feeling about this one! 😍 Some stat like “4% of males are psychopaths but psychopaths make up 40% of the solicitations women receive” ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730649501495431452) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAR7jLNW8AAFsEX.jpg) Dog ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730652901595291917) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @inesferhumi @pearl_please I don't know about others, but I'm picking up on some subtle chemistry between these two Ship ### [Reply to @alt_truistic, 18:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730656404971602332) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @alt_truistic is no longer available.)_ Bc FDA police state ### [Quote tweet, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730660493365260649) · 22 likes I don’t really have an object level take on whether Altman is an adept sociopath, but in light of SBF + maybe Sama I have a theory: > **Quoting Shakeel (@ShakeelHashim):** "Some of the board’s six members found Altman manipulative and conniving ... “They felt Sam had lied,” a person familiar with the board’s discussions said." 👀 ### [Thread, continued, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730660495420461065) · 9 likes Basically our intuitions about scheming/sociopathy/earnestness/manipulation/etc. are designed to balance false positives and false negatives But evolution was doing this mostly in the context of a few hundred people at most ### [Thread, continued, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730660497077203178) · 13 likes But in the modern world where competent sociopathy gives you lots of status and power and therefore fame among all 8 billion people, +6 standard deviation ability at manipulation will exist in the sample of people we might encounter, but fail to trigger our ### [Thread, continued, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730660498771701765) · 14 likes “This guy seems sketchy” intuition which is calibrated to identify only maybe +3 sd level manipulation (lest we get too many false positives) ### [Thread, continued, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730660500512329992) · 27 likes So all this is to say that among people you know of because they’ve become powerful and successful (rather than just being ur brother’s friend or whatever) you may need to be extra cynical when judging the degree to which these people are manipulative vs earnest ### [Reply to @alt_truistic, 18:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730660718649757759) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @alt_truistic is no longer available.)_ Ya I guess people who are naturally chronically hypomanic but they aren’t super common ### [Reply to @edardaman, 19:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730663758932890018) · 11 likes > **Emily Dardaman (@edardaman):** Folks in relationships: Do you like debating politics/philosophy/religion? Does your partner? Lol wonder what % of the Y/Y should really be Y/N ### [Quote tweet, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730664299918479754) · 38 likes Y/Y bf N/Y gf > **Quoting Emily Dardaman (@edardaman):** Folks in relationships: Do you like debating politics/philosophy/religion? Does your partner? ### [Reply to @paulg, 19:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730669289458340302) · 3 likes > **Paul Graham (@paulg):** 92% of grades in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies classes at Yale are A or A-, vs 55% in Mathematics. The math majors must just not be as smart. (Table via @sfmcguire79.) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GARTvs4WEAAUjLx.jpg) Lol if this is basically true in general (say for US t50), it would explain how tightly packed near the top suma/magna/cum laude were for my class I did econ, math, and philosophy and was like “how tf are 15% of my classmates getting basically perfect grades all the time?” ### [Reply to @a_real_society, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730709482605260911) · 3 likes > **society (@a_real_society):** The masculine urge to buy $200k worth of cattle How many does that buy? ### [Quote tweet, 22:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730711488078151796) · 6 likes “\[Even a total utilitarian\] might nevertheless conclude that some instantiations of suffering cannot be offset or justified by even an arbitrarily large amount of wellbeing.” > **Quoting hunter\* (@y2khunter):** what opinion will you defend like this? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GANJIlSWYAAMDD4.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730711490410258523) · 3 likes https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/my-case-for-suffering-leaning-ethics ### [Thread, continued, 22:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730711493287534676) · 4 likes Also if anyone says the letters “vnm” ur bloodline will be cursed for all of eternity ### [Reply to @a_real_society, 22:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730711841976766802) · 2 likes > **society (@a_real_society):** @AaronBergman18 Like 120, so actually I might want $300k worth Wait a whole cow is only like 2k?! New pet just dropped ### [Reply to @M4IDENL3SS, 22:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730712046503637294) · 2 likes > **void ☾ (@M4IDENL3SS):** @a_real_society turbo based honestly Fr ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 22:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730722496247156772) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @absurdlymax Is it bad that I like that decor a lot \*steals ur dog\* ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730723439437123889) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** What forecasts would you read if they existed? P(gf) ### [Reply to @tszzl, 23:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730724937919238157) · 6 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** what’s the mitigation for finding overwhelming amounts of beauty in everything? High dose antipsychotics ### [Reply to @EpistemicHope, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730727657942237480) · 1 like > **Eli Tyre (@EpistemicHope):** @alexeyguzey, do you still endorse this? > > Are particularly anti-GW, or particularly pro-other stuff? > > (I'm thinking through donations right now.) FWIW I think GiveWell’s recs are very clearly not the best place to give for reasons described in this post https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/btTeBHKGkmRyD5sFK/open-phil-should-allocate-most-neartermist-funding-to-animal ### [Reply to @psychiel, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730730086712893578) · 2 likes > **Mariven (@psychiel):** v\*m is often deployed too hastily, but a genuine issue w/ lexicographic utility is with gambles—would you spin a wheel with 3^^^3 slots, all labeled "lifelong bliss for all beings", but a single one \*also\* labeled "you get tortured for a week first"? I can't intuit rejecting this Honestly idk if I’d spin it (for behavioral econ irrationality reasons) but I endorse not spinning it Would you accept a week of torture in exchange for living 3^^^3 lives of bliss after? ## Saturday, December 2, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730749441852784851) Assuming you’d answer the same though for the selfishly phrased one, I think (and really, my core claim is) that it such a choice us fundamentally irrational, and to the extent you’d make the choice beforehand it reflects a failure to appreciate how bad suffering can be… ### [Thread, continued, 00:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730749608312094776) This is the crux though and I know other smart people (eg @freed_dfilan) bite the bullet and have the opposite view ### [Reply, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730783239860543493) Isn’t \*obviously\* wrong or trivially refuted ### [Reply to @gwern, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730796334494495167) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @gwern is no longer available.)_ \+1 ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 16:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730986582688059751) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @littIeramblings is no longer available.)_ He’s right ### [Reply to @RuxandraTeslo, 16:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730987862089199924) · 1 like > **Ruxandra Teslo 🧬 (@RuxandraTeslo):** Imagine being a medieval peasant. You wake up in this misty cold, you don’t have heating. You don’t have electricity either so no light after 4pm. How did people even survive > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAWZFX8XsAAgWth.jpg) Bro they didn’t even have 4pm (like the concept) ### [Quote tweet, 16:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730989396797579324) · 8 likes Semaglitude + dextroamphetamine combo would go hard > **Quoting the Rich (@Duderichy):** they fucking did it, they invented the everything drug > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAWuG0lXEAAe73d.jpg) ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 16:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730989530486853999) · 12 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** Post Christmas gift ideas for the effective altruist in your life (genuine) Cash ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 16:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730989925560881225) · 9 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** Post Christmas gift ideas for the effective altruist in your life (genuine) A legitimate prescription pad so u can write in any medication ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 16:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730992604458668060) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** Yeah a lot of ppl seem to think this, maybe I was showing my ignorance here There’s nothing EA ppl like better than signaling their intellectual openness by siding with like the inventor of factory farming or the people who stole money from GiveDirectly on something ### [Tweet, 17:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730997038358106264) · 44 likes Ik I’m econ brain poisoned bc my next thought immediately after “huh I kinda have a beard” was “and it’s a plausibly exogenous beard bc I ran out of shaving cream several days ago and never really intended for this to occur!” ### [Thread, continued, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1730997285222260807) · 4 likes (It’s not a legit beard, just stubble) ## Sunday, December 3, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1731114997642612820) · 10 likes Thanks to those who sent me screenshots even though they weren't included in v1.0 bc I wanted it to be just EA org rejections 😌 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAYn36oWgAAphSJ.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @ChanaMessinger I’m making a collage of my rejection emails 😌. It’s in progress rn (screenshots very welcome) ### [Reply to @bryan_johnson, 07:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1731208164945621242) · 4 likes > **Bryan Johnson (@bryan_johnson):** Excited to be an @extropic investor and to build with @beffjezos. After 4.5 billion years, this is our moment. > > (quoting @beffjezos: Hey everyone, serious post for a second. As you may have seen, I have unfortunately gotten my identity and stealth startup doxxed by reporters via voice forensics and web sleuthing. As the day has finally come, I thought I’d share more about who I am. I’ve kept my identity…) Oy vey ### [Tweet, 07:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1731209380077379932) · 2 likes New Tulsa just dropped? ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 09:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1731248082577154150) · 3 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** Why do so many ace people work for quant trading firms How does one even get this information? Like without actually working at a quant firm lol ### [Reply to @rgblong, 09:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1731251637073686571) · 6 likes > **Robert Long (@rgblong):** I love this classic but I just realized - and idk what this says about me - I don’t really know what “life is excruciatingly meaningful” is / means. > > Perhaps I do not know that feeling > > (quoting @visakanv: this is the heart of philosophy, all else is commentary 🧐) Idk whether emotionally internalizing this is a good idea, but u are one of a few people (afaik) working on one of the most morally important questions in the universe ### [Reply to @diviacaroline, 10:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1731263033005986226) · 2 likes > **Divia Eden 🔍 (@diviacaroline):** Violet, our fifth and (almost certainly final) baby is finally here! I’m so happy 😍, and it was even my easiest labor yet (not that I would ever call labor easy)! > > She got here 20min before our midwife did, and practically slept though her own birth :-) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_9Q4dpWkAA6tdu.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_9Q4dqW4AAdIMi.jpg) > (quoting @WilliamAEden: Everyone please welcome Violet Lillian Eden to the world :) She was born at 2:20 AM today right here at home after a fast labor. She is the fifth addition to our family, and also our last 🥲 She came out like the others, 8 lbs 6 oz 20” long and a full head of dark hair! 😍) Congrats!! 🐥 ### [Reply to @alistair___s, 13:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1731299819497410762) · 3 likes > **Alistair Stewart (@alistair___s):** @SpacedOutMatt @AaronBergman18 @ModerateMarcel Okay imagine the same meme but with two dead humans who had previously had similar capacity for realising welfare as shrimp (e.g. had been in a state of partial arousal as per screenshot), whose deaths were eased by an EA intervention - would you be happy making that? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAbOPmFX0AAaNIc.jpg) This is not worth either of ur time and u guys should simply coexist with different intuitions about the quasi-moral aesthetics of memes ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 20:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1731413291732254722) · 6 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** louder for the people in the back > > (quoting @ryancareyai: To those who say "we cannot reason statistically about events that have never happened before, so we should not worry about the hypothetical possibility of AI", you also need not worry about a warhead being placed on an ICBM. Or anything new happening generally.) 2️⃣ THOSE 👥 WHO SAY WE CANNOT REASON 🧐 STATISTICALLY 🔢 ABOUT EVENTS 🔮 THAT HAVE NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE 🤷‍♂️ SO WE SHOULD NOT 🙉WORRY ABOUT THE HYPOTHETICAL POSSIBILITY 💭 OF AI', YOU ALSO NEED NOT 🚫 WORRY ABOUT A WARHEAD 💣BEING PLACED ON AN 🚀 OR ANYTHING 🆕 HAPPENING GENERALLY ### [Reply, 20:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1731414608093528528) · 1 like 44 ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 21:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1731432078506397951) > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 Thanks Aaron 👍 ## Monday, December 4, 2023 ### [Reply, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1731469069784699122) Steal one for me plz ### [Reply to @alexeyguzey, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1731521697889526263) · 3 likes > **Alexey Guzey (@alexeyguzey):** EA and e/acc are both singleton ideologies. > > They reject the ugliness and complexity of the world, substituting it for a single meme function to maximize. > > If you want to the future to be bright and to win, reject singletons & embrace truth. Gotta be one of the falsest false equivalences I’ve seen ### [Quote tweet, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1731541362900692992) · 6 likes New Tulsa? > **Quoting Massimo (@Rainmaker1973):** The town of Whittier, Alaska, is known for having nearly the entire population living in a single apartment building. > > The building is called Begich Towers, a 14-story apartment complex that houses about 90% of the town's residents (total: 272). This has earned Whittier the nickname of a "town under one roof". > > The building, originally constructed as an army barracks, now serves as a cozy condominium featuring a post office, general store, police station, laundromat, health clinic, mayor's office, and a heated indoor pool. > > Whittier, Alaska is accessible only by air or through a single-lane tunnel that stretches over two miles through neighboring Maynard Mountain. The town's weather conditions can be harsh during winter, making the Begich Towers a convenient and practical living solution for the residents. > > In addition to the Begich Towers, there is a second condo building in the town where the remaining residents live. The town's school and gym are located in a separate structure but are connected to the Begich Towers by a tunnel, allowing for easy access during the winter months. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAboQSxXoAA1aOs.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 05:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1731544652304556426) · 8 likes SBF deja vu, maybe ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAeurw6W0AAZP1l.jpg) > **Quoting Gary Marcus (@GaryMarcus):** Remember how Sam Altman told the US Senate he had no “direct” investment in OpenAI? and how they gushed over his apparent selflessness? > > 👉He didn’t mention that (presumably) he had equity in YC which likely has equity in OpenAI. > And now this: > 👉“OpenAI Agreed to Buy $51 Million of AI Chips From a Startup Backed by CEO Sam Altman” > > \#candor ### [Reply to @davidmanheim, 12:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1731653753818763687) · 1 like > **David Manheim (@davidmanheim):** @AaronBergman18 @alexeyguzey I think it's pointing to something real - that many EAs (unfortunately) have a view that there is a single coherent type of goodness which they need to be maximizing, and they have a sufficiently accurate approximation of that vision of good. Huge difference between, to put it in familiar terms, utility functions with a single input and those with a single output Yeah at some level you implicitly do need to compare possible worlds on a single dimension because like you only get to choose one… ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 12:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1731654577496170499) · 9 likes > **Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin):** The NYT really phoning it in today LOL. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAfnFhKXQAAJ5u9.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAfnGScXgAAXB75.png) I wanna be an internet philosopher ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 13:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1731663140792807460) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ “Getting good grades is the easiest thing in the world” - me until abstract algebra ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 13:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1731663757338705920) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @robertwiblin is no longer available.)_ Great insights for my CEO application 🙏🏼 ### [Tweet, 14:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1731686797942374720) · 11 likes If I was a micro professor who had a lesson on Hotelling’s Law (Wikipedia below), I’d be so excited rn ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAgv9jjXAAAY9Te.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAgv9jiWMAAximZ.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 14:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1731686801494946282) · 1 like https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotelling%27s_law ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1731744230916145637) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 @danielleboccell My A- in Abstract Algebra 2 still haunts me Well neither of us got a B ### [Reply to @AaronDorshow, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1731745518194200878) · 1 like > **Aaron Dorshow (@AaronDorshow):** @AaronBergman18 FYI I think I went to the Premium Barber shop and it was pretty good BREAKING: Arlington, VA beats SF, Berkeley, Oxford, London, Boston, DC, and NYC as most important EA Hub ### [Reply to @gelionexists, 18:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1731747134267854869) · 2 likes > **GE Lion (@gelionexists):** @AaronBergman18 Idk about +6 SD man, it was pretty obvious to anyone who knew the basics of who Sam altman was (stakes in yc). > > You don't get that rich working for charity. > > If anything this is a -3 SD judgement for the average senator I wasn’t super precise before - the axis I meant was like “ability to come across as sincere/pro-social” and the population being something like sociopaths (idk the technical meaning of the term) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1731747584803262738) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 1, 2023:** So all this is to say that among people you know of because they’ve become powerful and successful (rather than just being ur brother’s friend or whatever) you… To clarify ### [Quote tweet, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1731749901787074733) · 9 likes Now I’m wondering what determines the equilibrium distance between clusters like this Like there isn’t one big barbershop cluster in St. Louis to serve all of the US. What is the equal and opposite market force (or is it a non-elegant smorgasbord of factors)? > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** If I was a micro professor who had a lesson on Hotelling’s Law (Wikipedia below), I’d be so excited rn > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAgv9jjXAAAY9Te.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAgv9jiWMAAximZ.jpg) ## Tuesday, December 5, 2023 ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 14:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732051881319362712) · 5 likes > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** Does anyone else have a really hard time switching between reading yiddish and hebrew? Any tips? I’m struggling lmao Yes bc I don’t know either language ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 15:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732058373414158393) · 5 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Bear > > (quoting @BearPosting: ) Bear ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732105320254595090) · 13 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** What are vegan recipes that you like when you are feeling? > \- Sad > \- Lazy > > In particular, when I am in my normal "bad vegan" mode, this is when I eat meat, because meat is tasty even when you are sad and lazy. > > Tasty, low prep suggestions. My specialty: crisped rice in almond reduction 1\) put Rice Krispies into concave container (eg bowl) 2\) add almond milk to taste 3\) (optional) garnish with protein powder of choice ## Wednesday, December 6, 2023 ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 06:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732291979889824160) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @robertwiblin is no longer available.)_ Steve Jobs foregoing modern cancer treatment ### [Reply to @pearl_please, 10:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732348189272150447) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @pearl_please is no longer available.)_ RIP 🪦 (And get well soon) Also fuck bicycles fr, sinister technology ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 14:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732412048058032615) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Trying to make inter-cause cost-effectiveness comparisons like > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAoExQ5XYAA8zng.jpg) Eh ik it’s a meme but I think this is basically wrong, in the sense that it really doesn’t come down to “how many shrimp equals one human” as anything like the deciding or relevant factor For one thing the standard set of human focused near term charities… ### [Thread, continued, 14:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732412529580847151) · 3 likes fundamentally are not evaluated on the basis of suffering reduction (plausibly eg reducing malaria infections does indeed reduce human suffering, but afaik that’s not what ever gets studied Whereas ea animal charities (rightly IMO) don’t care about deaths per se ### [Thread, continued, 14:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732413657718595842) · 2 likes But more importantly IMO, the hard part is weighing a bundle of mostly-strong but still extremely qualitative arguments for AI risk and how various interventions might improve things (hedonically, by reducing suffering or increasing wellbeing) vs ### [Thread, continued, 14:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732413965681193427) · 3 likes like helping a bajillion chickens or a bajillion² shrimp ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 15:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732424177582514652) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Okay very fair. Please accept this more accurate meme as compensation for your time > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GArI9STWcAE8cjR.jpg) Haha haha. YES ### [Reply to @pearl_please, 15:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732426318233604345) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @pearl_please is no longer available.)_ P(u found\* a religion) just skyrocketed \*as in founder, not discover ### [Reply to @exdiegesis, 16:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732430560222449691) · 2 likes > **Hope (@exdiegesis):** let me know if you (or maybe @AaronBergman18!?) make/find an app for quickly browsing & converting LW/EAF posts into audio-files. (must be able to pause & rewind via BT headphones, otherwise i lose 90% of listening-value.) even better if can do it w textbook-chapters! This is a thing!! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-nonlinear-library/id1587343144 ### [Reply to @AFraserUrq, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732532920915497440) · 2 likes > **Alastair Fraser-Urquhart (@AFraserUrq):** it’s time > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAsNAttXQAAYUvD.jpg) To light sheet music on fire? ### [Reply to @HannahPosted, 23:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732549265606508787) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @HannahPosted is no longer available.)_ Tf is a shower curtain liner ### [Reply to @catehall, 23:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732549922115743801) · 3 likes > **Cate Hall 🔸 (@catehall):** What is the best argument that transformative AI is >10 years away? Interest rates aren’t insane rn ## Thursday, December 7, 2023 ### [Tweet, 00:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732552488396476522) · 1 like Maybe, but one vibe-matching saying we should not revive is “life isn’t fair” (or anything with a similar meaning) Like yes, this is trivially true as a description, but it’s ~always used in a normative-ish way (“your complaint is illegitimate”) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732556278034043178) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @adamrisom Tbh I feel like I do a bit of image washing by being an EA Dude u don’t even have an image (in the sense of a non anonymized online presence) lol ### [Reply, 06:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732643512745672799) · 1 like RIP🪦 ### [Quote tweet, 06:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732644182009737347) · 7 likes Yeah - a low proportion of cases are legit perhaps, but if you’re good at discriminating you wind up reading @TheZvi’s 10^10 word blog posts > **Quoting exfatloss🥛 (@exfatloss):** Many such cases ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 06:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732644714715713572) · 1 like > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** @AaronBergman18 A good friendly pfp Aaron , u look like a very effective altruist Lol thank u - my main update here (given several very positive bits of unprompted feedback) is that my intuition about pfp is basically nonexistent and cannot be trusted ### [Reply to @natalia__coelho, 06:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732652282984996890) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @natalia__coelho is no longer available.)_ Sure \- high relative intelligence (I’m guessing this predicts good discrimination) \- very high relative scout mindset (/whatever a more neutral academic term would be) both personally and in my peers/community … ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 06:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732654754822524937) · 3 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** Is this AI-generated, or does Kyle Rittenhouse now actually look like a Big Boy statue? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAr7b5IbcAIvgNT.png) > (quoting @GaryPetersonUSA: Kyle Rittenhouse joining Tucker Carlson is an even greater present this Christmas season than the gifts brought by the Three Shepherds of Christ.) Bad to make fun of ppls weight even if conservative ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 07:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732658619433308471) · 1 like > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** The extent to which people just repeat stuff is always underrated > > (quoting @IzaTabaro: From which river to which sea? “Only 47% of the students who embrace the slogan were able to name the river & the sea. Some of the alternative answers were the Nile & the Euphrates, the Caribbean, the Dead Sea (which is a lake) & the Atlantic…. There’s no shame in being…) I personally own all the land from the Potomac river to the Atlantic Sea ### [Quote tweet, 07:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732659233790009439) · 6 likes Setting aside animal welfare stuff (tbh I don’t have a strong take on honey) I’m very glad internet people do weird shit like this > **Quoting anabology (@anabology):** If 1 pound of honey per day makes me diabetic, you'll know: > > Just ordered a continuous glucose monitor from @agelessrx\_ and bloods from @marekhealth. > > Hopefully I'll be able to share CGM data from the 18th thru the 22nd. I'll also share the labs when I receive them (getting blood drawn on the 22nd). > > After I get the CGM, I'll do a glucose tolerance test with it and share that as well. > > I'm going to be 100% transparent with this. If my HBA1c is 100%, and my insulin is sky high, I won't hide it. > > I may be wrong. If I am, I'll stop the diet and reevaluate. Only one way to find out. ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 07:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732659641761308865) · 4 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** 1\) what > > (quoting @The_Real_Fly: Absurd Claim by Haley: “For every 30 minutes that someone watches TikTok every day, they become 17% more antisemitic, more pro-Hamas.”) Start out as a mildly sympathetic weirdo, 1 day later ur getting drone striked ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAukwwNXcAAZs4L.jpg) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 07:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732660805051510942) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 See, all they've got to do now is find a way to do it in reverse and they'll finally solve the whole situation Every 30 minutes on nerdy, community notes-pilled twitter… ### [Reply to @bradneuberg, 07:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732662484216008917) · 3 likes > **Brad Neuberg (@bradneuberg):** We had to invent AI in order to actually understand ffmpeg options “Turn this 94 minute video into a sequence of pdfs of each frame and a compressed .mp4 of the audio on a screen filled with red pixels” Chatgpt: ffmpeg \[600 incomprehensible words\], duh ### [Reply to @sonyasupposedly, 07:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732664244410147323) · 2 likes > **🌷🐰 sonya serendipitously 🐇🎀 (@sonyasupposedly):** I feel a profound primal connection with my son, the like I've which I've only felt with my own mother as a small child Oxytocin goes hard fr ### [Tweet, 17:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732821487487201483) · 10 likes Spotify no longer safe ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAw39W8W4AA8GrM.jpg) ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732831004996350083) · 5 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** I'm beginning to think it wasn't even a real duck I’m beginning to think ur not even a real lightbulb ### [Quote tweet, 21:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732876749325599182) · 29 likes Guy who thinks money would be no object at $100B > **Quoting rohit (@krishnanrohit):** If money was no object, like you had $100 Billion net worth, what would you be doing? ### [Thread, continued, 21:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732876754153336971) · 4 likes Hey, SBF was right about the infinite money thing (or at least up to say most of world total wealth) ### [Tweet, 21:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732879493495226688) · 44 likes I’m beginning to suspect that immediately closing the app and mentally running away bc scared is not an effective way to turn Hinge/Tinder matches into dates ### [Reply to @goodhorsemen, 21:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732881174156976369) · 2 likes > **Roman 🦅 (@goodhorsemen):** @AaronBergman18 What did SBF say? “I have use for infinite money” (or maybe it was “infinite dollars”) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 21:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732882514010574976) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** this is likely correct Huh ### [Reply to @DaCaveOfWonders, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732885275871744115) · 3 likes > **Tiger Lava Lamp (@DaCaveOfWonders):** @AaronBergman18 Instead, I would recommend thinking about what feeling you wish to create in your match, then writing a message you think will elicit that feeling, hit send, and immediately throw your phone across the room in fear. Thanks, lava lamp ### [Quote tweet, 22:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732890835438461096) · 7 likes Your regular reminder that as an individual donor (lfg) you should be thinking on the margin about where to donate: “How should the existing distribution change?” or, ~equivalently, “where does a marginal dollar look the absolute best?” > **Quoting Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** I see two EA-adjacent orgs in this list. Fistula Foundation received $15m and Malaria Consortium received $10m > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAxzzkvW8AAR5Hf.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAxzzkuWYAA4_5i.png) ### [Thread, continued, 22:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732890837464351007) · 5 likes Not: \- What is my intra-EA aesthetic/vibe/identity? \- What is a central example of a good/“EA approved” donation? ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 22:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732891081874780584) · 4 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 Let us run your account “Us” being…? ### [Reply to @reconfigurthing, 22:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732891275005665533) · 1 like > **Elias Schmied (@reconfigurthing):** Oh gotcha lol, I like the criticism from the other side there Lol in general any good critiques are roughly from the opposite direction of common/intuitive normie critiques ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 22:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732891388792951029) · 6 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 Each of your mutuals gets to text one lady Ok deal ### [Tweet, 22:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732892158611337411) · 20 likes The absolute difference in goodness/$ between eg The Humane League and AMF is bigger than the difference between AMF and the least deserving of Mackenzie Scott’s recipient orgs ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAx4O4-W4AErE_p.jpg) ### [Reply to @sixers2772, 22:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732895768636162312) · 5 likes > **Sixers (@sixers2772):** A problem I have with animal welfare is that it has no longtermism component. I think you can make an argument that anything that helps humans, like AMF, has a chance to improve the trajectory of society a little Yeah tbc I do think prioritization between animal welfare and explicitly long termist things is hard and plausibly the latter wins But I’m much more confident in the literal truth of my claim above than if I subbed in LTFF for THL ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 22:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732896026434863418) · 4 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 @GjMcGowan Genius idea George! I'm absolutely down for this I get to text ur wife (about the painkiller in LMICs thing dw) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732899821122355414) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 @GjMcGowan I can dm you her # but you have to wait until tomorrow to text her 🤝 ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732902214744543289) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Buy wifi ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 23:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732902443510387084) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ For weird reasons this page exists https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/insomnia ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 23:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732902751317770638) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Ya ppl be not buying it as like a protest even if it’s worth the money to them lol ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 23:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732903499388665912) · 3 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** @AaronBergman18 Wait, this seems obvious if you think Humane League is better than AMF? Presumably whichever is better is more than 2x as good as the other. What are the odds they’d be within a factor of 2 of each other? Yes I agree! But I know for a fact that people will explicitly endorse this and then donate to AMF anyway ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 23:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732903953036095508) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Love it, lfg. Gonna make a thread one per q ### [Thread, continued, 23:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1732904628168036635) · 2 likes Well I’ll start with all these ## Friday, December 8, 2023 ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 13:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733119639536742690) · 1 like > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** Domain set up http://PradyuPrasad.com Nice ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 19:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733205524693319811) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Presenting the @absurdlymax starter pack: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA2PKnyWUAAMrbD.jpg) I think moral realism is true. We should discuss this at some point ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733206580965859429) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @SpacedOutMatt Maybe @littIeramblings can interview us about this 🔥🔥🔥 ### [Reply to @reconfigurthing, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733206807089181054) · 2 likes > **Elias Schmied (@reconfigurthing):** So the recipe for becoming a kinder person is to suffer for a bit, viscerally realize how nice it is when people are kind to you, and have your brain update on that? Idk if it is \*the\* recipe, but it’s definitely a recipe ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 19:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733208352245617088) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** I’m down Ok cool, the title is gonna be “Aaron destroys max with facts and logic” ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 19:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733209191202881938) · 3 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @absurdlymax well, it has 25 views and Aaron also liked it, so you have some plausible deniability You’ll never know who said what 😱 ### [Reply to @___frye, 20:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733218546929315935) · 2 likes > **frye (@___frye):** tag yourself i’m mexicanized dishes and pepper sauces I’m ginger ale ### [Reply to @EpistemicHope, 20:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733227200797691993) · 2 likes > **Eli Tyre (@EpistemicHope):** If you're trying to apply the 2014 Effective Altruist strategy (cost effectiveness analysis to select top charities + donating) at scale, you run into problems of the intractability of complex systems: the difficulty of modeling second order effects that dominate your impacts. “Expected 2nd+ order effects cancel out bc chaos etc” is thrown around too readily, but it really does seem like a good place to start and in some cases probably basically checks out though Like it seems to me there are two basic ways of “doing EA” … ### [Thread, continued, 20:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733227970557354235) 1\) account for all crucial considerations and figure out how to move the needle on the actual determinants of long-run general equilibrium 2\) find exceptionally large first order effects that don’t seem to have systematically negative nth order effects ### [Thread, continued, 20:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733228711325868327) FWIW I think the second strategy points hard in the direction of quite directly reducing hedonic suffering or increasing happiness, which a lot of ~EA approved~ charities definitely don’t do (ie most of the global health ones) ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 20:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733229073004892441) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Let the rejection process begin 😤 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 20:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733229436751732783) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Space is expanding equally everywhere but it's not strong enough to overcome the forces holding regular objects together, so it becomes noticeable over incredibly large distances but doesn't affect any specific objects Sus ## Saturday, December 9, 2023 ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 06:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733367089262371246) · 9 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** Me: So, have you ever met a dumb EA? > Friend: Yes. \*pause\* > Friend: Though they were a graduate student at Harvard, so maybe not that dumb in absolute terms. Yeah people like to play modest but among in person explicitly EA events, I’d guess the iq distribution is like 2.5 sd above avg ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 06:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733367240764826009) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Realistically you could probably arrive at social events a bit later than you do now. You probably won't even be the last person. 🚨🚨🚨infohazard🚨🚨🚨 ### [Quote tweet, 06:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733375973460959680) · 4 likes Based > **Quoting saul munn (@saulmunn):** i just donated 10% of my income from the last year to @TheHumaneLeague! :D > > it's not much, but i'm giving what i can. ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 06:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733376619694235982) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Secretly learning how not to say “or something” and talk like a normal person to surprise my hypothetical gfs parents ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 06:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733377780539117644) · 2 likes > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** The last time I took an iq test it was 118, I think. I was twelve, so I wonder if it’s changed. I remember my neuropsych saying that mine was a bit unique in that some of the categories were extremely high and others were super low. [![GIF thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/GA4x5hXXsAAN2jb.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733377780539117644/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 06:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733378162787024946) · 3 likes > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** @AaronBergman18 @StoopMensch HAHA why nawttt 119 at least ### [Reply to @goblinodds, 06:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733379419555651760) · 5 likes > **𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA3FCcdXYAARCDG.jpg) Tf is the second row? I only recognize vibecamp (bc it says “vibecamp”) lol ### [Quote tweet, 06:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733380436519170493) · 11 likes New version = which of these do you basically understand/recognize the associations of I’m: \[1, 2, 3, 7\] \[C\] \[! # ^ &\] \[a, b, e\] For a total postrat score of 12 > **Quoting 𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA3FCcdXYAARCDG.jpg) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 07:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733383439540248698) · 3 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** I'm announcing my winter vacation reading list https://commoncrawl.org/ Man they make it so hard to just read the friggin internet Like tf am I supposed to do with these? Where is the forbidden multi-exabyte .txt? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA43DRKWgAA720J.jpg) ### [Reply to @alitaylor, 07:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733384113917214850) · 2 likes > **ali (@alitaylor):** people always say “no screens 1 hour before bed” but what do u do for that hour if u have no screens Stare at wall ### [Reply to @eshear, 07:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733390520041283676) · 7 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** I like each of these bc they each compress a pretty complex counterargument into a single image that avoids getting lost in the details. > Are there more? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA3XPV7XwAAT0Jc.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA3XPV3XEAAWEDL.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA3XPV2XYAAheUI.jpg) Maybe these from https://www.cold-takes.com/this-cant-go-on/ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA49fc8XEAAZzAT.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA49fc7WoAA6WPs.jpg) ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 07:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733391271807369393) · 5 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** @mealreplacer Such a double standard. Nobody gives me praise for learning English to talk to white girls. 😡😡😡 Good job 👍 ### [Reply to @IterIntellectus, 08:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733396484991696921) · 4 likes > **vittorio (@IterIntellectus):** ok, but what if we also started building downwards? > > so much free real estate > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA3PP__bUAEAodn.jpg) It’s a good question! ### [Reply to @young_opsimath, 08:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733396966334148887) · 1 like > **young_opsimath ⏸️ (@young_opsimath):** Although wrong about moral realism, @absurdlymax is super wholesome! > > (quoting @SpacedOutMatt: Presenting the @absurdlymax starter pack:) 🤝 ### [Reply to @SelonNerias, 08:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733407348427780399) · 3 likes > **Selon Nerias (@SelonNerias):** @AaronBergman18 @RafaRuizdeLira Bear Bear ### [Reply to @bswud, 09:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733416909289238966) · 2 likes > **Ben Southwood (@bswud):** Here's something I didn't know: in the UK's national crime victimisation survey we cap reported crime at five per 'series' and 96 per victim per year. If you remove this cap, then there is \*much\* more of certain crimes, especially domestic violence. Lol what ### [Tweet, 10:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733426795335090351) · 4 likes The normative/descriptive binary seems wrong and unnatural. Descriptive claims can be moral or amoral Should be normative vs amoral descriptive aka empirical\* vs moral descriptive aka value judgement ### [Thread, continued, 10:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733426796941447544) · 2 likes \*empirical is the closest word I can think of but isn’t quite right. Making a claim about the result of a math expression would also fall in this category ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 10:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733427119651189105) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 @SelonNerias Bear Bear ### [Reply to @pachabelcanon, 10:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733431442179317993) · 1 like > **francis (@pachabelcanon):** broke: choose degree based on interest > woke: choose degree based on possible earnings > bespoke: choose degree based on what prisoners are interested in learning from you > > (quoting @M_Gouldhawke: Bonanno: Every time I ended up in prison the other prisoners would hear I had a degree in philosophy and ask me to do some lessons. But even though I also had an economics degree they never asked me to do any economics lessons. We should reflect on this oddity.) Diet-coke: choose degree(s) based on one @80000Hours article ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 10:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733431916118864265) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 I think I get what you're saying but an example would help You shouldn’t punch him vs It would be bad to punch him vs If you punch him you’ll get kicked out of Wendy’s ### [Reply to @arabelladevine, 10:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733439815616499891) · 3 likes > **arabella ※ (@arabelladevine):** general intelligence is a needlessly demeaning meaningless grouping that includes some human capacities and not others. > > i get why people think it makes sense, i get that it is Linked to Outcomes, but if you examine it closer it’s a philosophical mistake > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA5mDeAbwAAN7XF.jpg) Disagree with the philosophical mistake thing but it is way over-moralized and like shouldn’t be demeaning in the way it sometimes currently is ### [Reply to @qwweryo, 10:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733440877396128090) · 4 likes > **Matt Brooks (@qwweryo):** Someone explain to me why EA (or EA-adjacent) funders aren't jumping at the opportunity to add a few million to Scott's ACX grants? > > I see it as great potential to seed ground in fertile lands > > https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/apply-for-an-acx-grant-2024 I mean insofar as I personally am an ~EA Funder~ it just seems like not the literal best use of money ### [Reply to @Scantron__, 11:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733443496319594660) · 3 likes > **Ryan Scanlon (@Scantron__):** It is crazy this video goes viral probably every two weeks, nothing else like it Never seen it before ### [Reply, 11:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733443886851203310) · 1 like I don’t think this is normative. You’d have to add in a claim about epistemic correctness being something one ought to seek ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 11:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733448127967805671) · 1 like > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** But I don't think I agree with this. These people probably don't even nearly realize just how painful it would be to undergo such an experience. Ya ppl be not appreciating suffering fr ### [Reply to @InternetH0F, 11:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733449266075500810) > **internet hall of fame (@InternetH0F):** this is awesome > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA23aeWWoAALUnT.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA23aoWXYAENgc6.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA23axlWAAA5ZK5.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA23a7eWQAAUw4m.jpg) Based ### [Reply to @4confusedemoji, 13:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733475019185913991) · 2 likes > **olivia (@4confusedemoji):** @AaronBergman18 uhh everything but the hummingbird Officially a postrat ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 13:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733475209141735895) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 9, 2023:** New version = which of these do you basically understand/recognize the associations of I’m: \[1, 2, 3, 7\] \[C\] \[! # ^ &\] \[a, b, e\] For a total postrat score of 12 Wait also Hereticon, idk how I missed that 13 ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733479705276289384) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ Lmao ### [Quote tweet, 13:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733481871336419334) · 10 likes Yeah this is a (modest) update for me away from “antisemitism is basically not a real concern for Jews in major American cities” > **Quoting Jonathan Mannhart 🔎🔸 (@JMannhart):** I also do not like this. > > It's just always really hard to estimate from “current vibes on social media“ precisely how bad antisemitism is. But this, as some sort of (likely) correlated marker, does have me worried. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA3ekaiWYAEsnp3.jpg) ### [Reply to @hktsre, 15:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733515986127495463) · 33 likes > **hek! ⚙️ (@hktsre):** A reminder you can breathe \*Back\* instead of \*Up\* into your nose > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA6qsDyboAAJdU6.jpg) Woah new inhale just dropped ### [Quote tweet, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733517223598161999) · 34 likes Incredible decade of progress! > **Quoting Javi Lopez ⛩️ (@javilopen):** Midjourney evolution! > > One year ago Today: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4QZlZZWMAA461K.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4QZnSDXkAAun0q.jpg) ### [Reply to @8chabard, 16:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733521954588500162) · 2 likes > **Lysander, 8 CHA Bard (@8chabard):** hrrmmmm what other chemical? and is it in tea? > > i feel like they put so many other things in energy drinks (taurine, b12, w/e) that it'd be weird for them NOT to put the whole shebang in Coffee has a ton of different compounds that plausibly synergize But fwiw I actively prefer caffeine to the same dose but in coffee ### [Tweet, 16:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733524022938202589) · 48 likes Brain waves are PATTERNS OF NEURONS FIRING?!? I thought they were like their own ethereal, weirder thing. This is way less cool ### [Reply, 16:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733526200931213497) · 1 like “Should”/“ought”/“must” claims seem to me like their own sui generis thing that can’t easily be put in other terms. Like “you should do X” and “x would be good to do” don’t seem semantically equivalent to me But maybe I’m the only one who sees it that way, given some replies ### [Reply to @sixers2772, 16:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733526312164192419) · 3 likes > **Sixers (@sixers2772):** Honestly that kinda sounds more cool to me because it makes more sense I want weird mystical brain ether shit ### [Reply to @threestationsq, 16:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733529953738674568) > **threestationsquare (@threestationsq):** I'd expect reducing infant mortality & disease-caused morbidity to have pretty huge effects on hedonic suffering. What sort of interventions are you imagining might have larger ones? Maybe, but my point was that these aren’t the dimensions on which they’re being explicitly evaluated ### [Reply to @sixers2772, 16:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733531189355401378) · 3 likes > **Sixers (@sixers2772):** He believes in moral realism? No, which is the problem ### [Reply to @alt_truistic, 17:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733535549640581400) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @alt_truistic is no longer available.)_ Lo ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 18:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733550113547522368) · 3 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @AaronBergman18 Nah it’s way better! I want waves of mysterious brainmeal 😡 ### [Reply to @Manderljung, 20:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733579732526977045) · 2 likes > **Markus Anderljung (@Manderljung):** My new fave test of LLMs: The stopping game. > > https://chat.openai.com/share/d624441d-68fb-4458-b2ba-c588b33b3a56 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA7MwbXWsAAKCsr.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA7MyDHWEAAICjL.jpg) Slight variation. Not expecting it to succeed ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA7plEaX0AAjtWF.jpg) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 20:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733581842903638173) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @austinc3301 Why would charity not compound with time? Surely GiveDirectly gives cash which very poor people can thus reinvest at fairly high rates of return. > > AMF-style benefits likely provide even more community return per $. Idk if I’m using these terms technically correctly but multiplier/flow through effects ≠ compounding of the relevant type, which would involve feedback between the recipient community and GD ### [Quote tweet, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733583260335137134) · 15 likes I mean duh, and in a similar vein I think I could have invented some version of gradient-descent based machine learning (not like full-on modern neural nets but something substantially more advanced than multiple regression) > **Quoting The Hill (@thehill):** Nearly half of men think they can safely land a plane in an emergency, survey finds https://trib.al/8t4HTx2 ### [Reply, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733583952688890141) I mean this definitely isn’t like a knockdown objection that means GD is misguided or bad, but yeah it matters bc all else equal it would be good for GD to grow! ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733584569616470291) · 149 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ Parnate, ketamine, amphetamines, and blood tests for every biomarker known to man ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733585199206637921) · 40 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ Oh wait this was more of a prescriptive list of things to try. I mean I have done all these things lol but I don’t think the first two helped (the last two did) ### [Reply to @waitmanb, 20:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733589077398593878) · 27 likes > ** Dr. Waitman W. Beorn (waitmanwbeorn.com on 🟦) (@waitmanb):** Ok but...ketamine?! > > Not sure how a horse tranquilizer gives you the get up and go. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16894061 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA7yE-NXYAARACl.jpg) ### [Reply to @AlexGodofsky, 20:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733590353935020173) · 6 likes > **Alex Godofsky (@AlexGodofsky):** communists when they aren't busy complaining that bedtime is capitalist: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA7hPK2XoAAZQN6.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA7zPSxWcAE7CfD.jpg) ## Sunday, December 10, 2023 ### [Tweet, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733678551675654431) · 9 likes Great, new potentially transformative, dual use x-risk-y technology just dropped https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/nita-farahany-neurotechnology/ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA9DdFhWAAAIdu3.jpg) ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 02:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733678766193254494) · 2 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** @austinc3301 I really don’t like the trend of people pathologizing ever little thing online now Ivan, welcome to the intellectual dark web ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 02:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733680410939277736) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Yelling "I'm not perfect" at anyone who asks why I haven't done things I've agreed to do Fwiw, from the perp’s perspective this looks/feels like making normal commitments during a period of normal/good functioning and then hitting a period of worse health/functioning where these suddenly become and feel 100x harder ### [Thread, continued, 02:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733680862510620932) · 2 likes Ideally you’d account for this ofc, but that would mean often undershooting and just like living well below your potential ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 02:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733681166060818831) · 2 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** @AaronBergman18 @austinc3301 Oh I’ve been aware of this for a long time, and it bugs me so much. Hearing health topics in general talked about online usually gets me annoyed Sounds like u have annoyed-pharmacist syndrome. It’s fatal ### [Tweet, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733692087382540559) · 8 likes How do I have one checking account with an APR of 0% and one at 5? (transitioning to the latter ofc). Seems like the kind of thing there should be a market price for Both FDIC insured ### [Reply to @nosilverv, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733692196237303854) · 1 like > **Guy (@nosilverv):** Not a moment too late > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA9POWFXgAAilHP.jpg) > (quoting @nickcammarata: shrimp suffering is a real problem and the four people in this world who care about it are heroes to me (the reason it’s a problem is there’s a lot of shrimp and the way to optimize their reproduction speed is basically to torture them, so it’s worse than normal factory farming)) The shrimp definitely care ### [Reply, 03:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733693794241970226) · 4 likes Depression and adhd, not bp The wholesome explanation is that they can help jump start a positive behavioral feedback loop (ie amph -> get out of bed -> less depressed) But also they pretty directly improve hedonic tone and decrease subjective difficulty/burden of…everything ### [Reply to @esotericneolib, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733696889017561411) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @esotericneolib is no longer available.)_ 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 ### [Reply to @goblinodds, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733697148112277799) · 23 likes > **𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** tl;dr "socks" is the most common answer that isn't specific to nerds, craftsmen, or Manly men, and which is permitted in carry-on baggage A 10,000 pack of socks (all exactly the same) would go so hard ### [Tweet, 04:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733701454995521793) · 3 likes Hello twitter. Has anyone figured out whether thyroid reference ranges are good or not? One high TSH reading but follow up labs in range, plz send takes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA9YSPhX0AAwBs6.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA9YSPiW4AAtCJi.jpg) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 22:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733970401892389085) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** god I know I shouldn’t start a podcast but I really really want to someone talk me out of it Do it 😈😈😈 ### [Thread, continued, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733970669723914678) · 4 likes More seriously, "do it" in the sense of like try it out and see how it goes and if you like it. You don't need to commit to publishing episodes weekly until the end of the world ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733970849663680729) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** We'll go through the next EA Global checking hands. There's no escape. We've narrowed it down to the 98% of attendees whose hands basically look like this (white ppl) ### [Reply to @MichaelAlleged, 22:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733974262262681924) · 1 like > **Michael (Allegedly) (@MichaelAlleged):** not a bad view to wake up to on your 24th birthday > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA_8RZRbQAAGaTd.jpg) Happy birthday! ### [Reply to @natural_hazard, 22:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733977162728771721) · 15 likes > **Hazard - in SF (@natural_hazard):** holy SHIT > > i just read "there is not antiemetics division" > > shits FREAKY > > https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/antimemetics-division-hub Wait is this a post about nausea or not ### [Quote tweet, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733977785507467714) · 4 likes Kinda insane but I like it > **Quoting anabology (@anabology):** “ADHD” affords you the unique ability to be obsessed with your top interests regardless of your energy level. > > The higher your energy level, the more obsessions you can entertain. > > ADHD isn’t a problem. Your thyroid is. > > The goal is to be obsessed with your whole life. ### [Reply to @natural_hazard, 22:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733981613866820085) · 13 likes > **Hazard - in SF (@natural_hazard):** huh? No, nausea is t mentioned anywhere ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBBXFpVX0AAh2T7.jpg) ### [Reply to @fermatslibrary, 23:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733986487111237921) · 2 likes > **Fermat's Library (@fermatslibrary):** There is no simple, exact formula for the perimeter of an ellipse. The formula presented below uses an elliptic integral, which cannot be expressed in terms of elementary functions. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GA_fNlMWgAAaQTN.jpg) STOP DOING MATH ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733990144779149554) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 9, 2023:** Bear Bear ### [Quote tweet, 23:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733993727171928434) · 10 likes Correct position 😤 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBBiGr3WsAACiyr.jpg) > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 23:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1733994016453120034) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Nooooo everything has to be distinctly connected to exactly one other thing nooo ## Monday, December 11, 2023 ### [Tweet, 04:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734070544591380537) · 25 likes Normal case where u like capitalize the start of sentences and proper nouns is the best and easiest to read ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBCn9_9WEAAh6Ci.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 04:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734070778792919474) · 2 likes Return > **Quoting mattparlmer 🪐 🌷 (@mattparlmer):** America should return to its traditional policy of open borders ### [Reply, 04:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734072277916876879) · 1 like 0/3 lol ### [Reply, 05:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734078892460102025) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Haha open borders go brr ### [Reply to @notkavi, 05:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734090321078649329) · 1 like > **urbanstats dot org 🌉🚱 (@notkavi):** Learning today that Twitter users assume everyone measures their caffeine intake in milligrams, best thing I have to clarify to literally everyone I talk to in real life when I'm discussing caffeine Lmao many such cases ### [Reply to @dieworkwear, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734095167454326988) · 1 like > **derek guy (@dieworkwear):** Let's talk about this because you may get invited to a party this holiday season that calls for "cocktail attire." What is cocktail attire? And how can you do it well? 🧵 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBBj0V1agAA9O6X.png) U dress as a cocktail duh ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 06:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734096280215785610) > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** Losing my sense of smell has not been a fun experience. So much of what's pleasant in everyday life is down to smell, and you don't appreciate that well enough until it's gone. > > I really hope I'm able to smell again soon. :( gl ### [Reply to @JonHaidt, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734099137711222825) · 2 likes > **Jonathan Haidt (@JonHaidt):** Here's a great summary of the case for making all K-12 schools phone-free. Like me, the author could not find any serious arguments, laid out in writing, for the other side. > > Phones in hands and pockets interfere with just about every goal of education > https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/should-schools-ban-cellphones I mean the argument for the other side is just the first order reason people like to use their phones: it’s more entertaining and pleasant than the alternative, in the moment It’s so obvious it almost reads as satire but I think it’s easy to forget ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 07:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734115041832468865) · 3 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** thing i'm often confused by: like 80% of my long term meditator friends report becoming sensitive to tons of foods > > does meditation cause weird food issues or is our food just kind of poisonous to everyone and meditation makes them sensitive enough to feel it > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBDMr_KagAARSL1.jpg) Huh, this is super interesting. Sounds like induced “visceral hypersensitivity” which is the term you’ll probably want to look for if you do more research ### [Reply to @theojaffee, 07:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734116232985518459) · 6 likes > **Theo Jaffee (@theojaffee):** Can an effective altruist explain to me why I should care about the well being of a child halfway across the globe that I’ve never met as much as I should care about the well being of my family and friends In terms of emotional intensity? No none of us (afaik) think that ### [Reply to @danielbrottman, 07:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734118299619725805) · 1 like > **daniel brottman 🪷 (@danielbrottman):** gm you ever think about how big the sun is? 🌞 Shits big fr ### [Reply to @br___ian, 18:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734283783191318698) · 3 likes > **bri (@br___ian):** How are you eating the National Institute of Standards and Technology peanut butter? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBFji2uaoAAx2Ps.jpg) Wait why is it for sale? It should go to the Smithsonian 😡 ## Tuesday, December 12, 2023 ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 00:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734364124665225477) · 3 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** My kid (7) wants me to teach him some basic data analysis in R. Anyone have ideas for good csv files that might hold his interest? Or can anyone point me to Minecraft-related csv files (recipes?)? Haha YES ### [Reply, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734373924375236738) · 5 likes Unfollowing him for this. Wrong pipe ### [Reply to @inerati, 00:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734374263338000677) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ Indigenous IBMs still go by Watsono or watsona ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 00:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734376169737179146) · 5 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** I try to savor my spice collection through the eyes of a medieval European peasant. I feel every time I open the drawer ☺️ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBG8kXJaoAAdhhy.jpg) At thanksgiving with my extended family there were like 4 different pies + ice cream on the table and said like “this would have been unimaginable wealth for humans throughout almost all history” They smiled and nodded but hey one step at a time ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734376338532737049) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @trevposts They're just jealous of your drip Haters gonna stay less than ### [Reply, 05:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734447143086121030) · 1 like I mean yeah they probably can ### [Reply to @volodarik, 05:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734448043364057460) · 3 likes > **Aleksandr Volodarsky (@volodarik):** This must be one wild group chat > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBGIHuMWIAAMopI.jpg) Can u guys add me? Thx, Aaron ### [Reply to @creatine_cycle, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734452986644996128) · 1 like > **atlas (@creatine_cycle):** Logged onto linkedin the other day just to reply "based" to a friend's work accomplishment only to be accused of making right-wing dog whistles in the comments section Oy vey ### [Reply, 06:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734456895526592590) · 1 like Huh? ### [Quote tweet, 07:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734482602818457866) · 4 likes New Tulsa just dropped but we all have to share one apartment > **Quoting Rohin Dhar (@rohindhar):** You can currently rent it for $8950 a month > > https://www.apartments.com/1520-taylor-st-san-francisco-ca-unit-602/2ds49y8/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBIDfEEaYAAa_h7.jpg) ### [Reply, 08:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734484033415909472) · 1 like They’re right, abstract algebra doesn’t matter ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBIgCOIWkAATRgf.jpg) ### [Reply, 08:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734485238619709475) Lol, that team cringe lost a soldier ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 15:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734598963406225652) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @robertwiblin is no longer available.)_ “Broadly…describe your mood and/or how you have felt in the past week” (instead of “how do u feel at this moment?”) 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩 ### [Reply to @catehall, 15:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734602317184262542) · 26 likes > **Cate Hall 🔸 (@catehall):** I'd like to better understand people's positions on doxing. An example from @TheZvi that's representative of what I've seen: "Do not dox people even if that person is advocating for policies you believe are likely to kill you, kill everyone you love and wipe out all Earth-originating value in the universe in the name of their thermodynamic God." > > I don't understand this position. I'd rather live in a world where people can say things anonymously, for the most part. I'd also like to live in a world where people can't advocate on a vast scale for replacement of humans by machines while avoiding any accountability. Why does this issue inspire absolutism in reasonable people, rather than a circumstance-specific analysis, like defamation under the law? > > FWIW I have been doxed in a situation that caused quite a lot of harm, sustained over several years, so I don't think I'm confused about the consequences. I basically agree with Zvi. There are a whole host of arguments for liberalism that confront the “what about really bad positions” question. To me the main point is that there is no view from nowhere - the e/accs could say the same thing about EA and doxxing an anon ea account… ### [Reply to @goingawoll, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734604307520188647) · 2 likes > **Amos Wollen 🦐🪰✴️ (@goingawoll):** This is a Greek goddess who apparently had the same name as my late chicken, Hestia. > > It does feel derivative. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBJf4q5WEAEHYKG.jpg) Blessed tweet ### [Reply to @PeterSinger, 16:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734610839460807126) · 5 likes > **Peter Singer (@PeterSinger):** On Wednesday, I gave my last lecture at @Princeton University. I've had a wonderfully stimulating and rewarding time here, but now I'm looking forward to something new. > > I want to thank my students and colleagues for their engagement and support over the years. We've tackled difficult and important topics in ethics and philosophy, and I value all the insights you have provided. You have challenged and inspired me. I'm grateful for all the arguments, discussions, and learning opportunities. Thanks to everyone at Princeton for being part of my story. > > Looking ahead, I'm excited to continue my work in ethics and advocacy through my writing and public speaking. I've just accepted an invitation to spend at least four weeks next year as a visiting professor at the National University of Singapore and look forward to being there in April. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBIydXKaIAA2GKL.jpg) 🐐 ### [Quote tweet, 16:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734611679865098256) · 2 likes Seems bad > **Quoting Elad Simchayoff (@Elad_Si):** “an unusual volume of complaints from the public” the campaign was terminated with immediate effect (full message pictured). > It turns out that the company received thousands of complaints, Including personal threats to its staff. Moreover, business owners who’s shops are > > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBJx2XhXYAA543N.jpg) ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 16:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734613052501458982) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ We could…graph them ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734659122925113574) · 4 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Bears > > (quoting @BearPosting: ) BEAveR ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 19:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734662547456905604) · 3 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 @SelonNerias Idk but I'd call him Pepito > > https://x.com/jun3buggy/status/1734309506031718904?t=u16KisWI6qj3IScdwILzMA&s=19 🚨🚨🚨DOG FRAUD🚨🚨🚨 ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 22:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734697911424852006) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ Lmao ### [Reply, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734706452063830425) · 1 like 0 state solution ### [Reply to @arabelladevine, 23:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734712635256434703) · 2 likes > **arabella ※ (@arabelladevine):** if you take away the cold sensation from the flavour of mint, is there actually any true flavour (scent or taste) behind it? just a mild leafy flavour? Relevant ### [Quote tweet, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734721064293249315) · 17 likes Relatedly: the one defensible true Bayesian prior? The one you actually think. Yes, you have an implicit best guess probability However it got into your brain, that’s where you’re starting from > **Quoting Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** There is exactly one defensible reason to believe any thing: "That thing is probably actually true." ## Wednesday, December 13, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 01:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734741622040977596) · 5 likes If you’re following me and you’re not Will MacAskill, it is almost certainly worth your time to vote (5 mins, affecting $35k or more in a way I don’t fully understand but seems legit because CEA is good at shit like this) > **Quoting EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** There are only 3 days left to vote in our Donation Election. If you have a Forum account and would like to influence (currently) $35k of donations now is your moment. And if you have a Bank account and would like to donate now is also your moment, you can get a cute drawing 👀 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBLijzgbEAAWavb.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734741623907463301) · 2 likes As it turns out (new info to me as of 2 mins ago) pre-voting (putting a little heart next to some of the charities) is NOT ACTUAL VOTING So click on this link and follow the instructions (unless ofc u have something better to do with your time) https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/voting-portal ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 01:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734744532720226600) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ https://www.reddit.com/r/suicidebywords/ ### [Reply to @prisonrodeo, 03:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734779153927254476) · 4 likes > **C. Zorn (@prisonrodeo):** A student of mine needs to convert about 100K addresses in a CSV to lat-lon. Any ideas for how to do that automagically, and for free? Must be a way to exploit the fact that google maps automatically adds lat+lon upon searching for a location by address. You'll see it in the address bar in the vid [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1734778245470363648/pu/img/7fFuE1834AjzayPl.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734779153927254476/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Thread, continued, 03:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734779818338631775) · 1 like 100k is a lot though. Looking at dozens of hours if it takes seconds to load. I have done things like this before though lol (like web scraping that requires pages to fully load, running in chunks of 8ish hours every night) ### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 04:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734789496518975605) · 6 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBMl_7CaQAAdeUV.jpg) This is the most normal one IMO ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 06:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734818530959258072) · 10 likes > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** do you endorse the notion of falsifiability Don’t make me tap the sign ### [Reply to @panchromaticity, 06:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734820200212512949) · 3 likes > **Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** okay but surely the elephant shrew should be the largest kind of shrew > > (quoting @yrs______: ) It’s a “tiny elephant” shrew, so i guess it should be about avg? ### [Reply to @Austen, 06:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734821274864509047) _(The tweet being replied to by @Austen is no longer available.)_ Do you generally watch cable news like this? ### [Reply to @inerati, 06:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734824057516773619) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ Lfg ### [Reply to @luke_metro, 06:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734824647881879594) · 2 likes > **Luke Metro (@luke_metro):** Sad but true > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBLu06VaMAAcSyh.jpg) What’s this little guy ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBNV0vZW4AA6bzP.jpg) ### [Reply to @AStrasser116, 07:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734840542612082939) · 3 likes > **Alex Strasser (@AStrasser116):** Cliches that need to die: > > 1\. "X has a history" (and therefore there is no fact of the matter) > > 2\. "People disagree about X" (and therefore X is unjustified) > > 3\. "Not all X" (in response to a general rule of thumb or about statistical averages) > > What else am I missing? This is sorta a pet peeve and not necessarily wrong/unproductive, but “I could say X” or “you might think X” as opposed to just saying what you think is true IME it leads to generating like faux-steelman arguments that no actual human endorses ### [Tweet, 08:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734847459648516169) · 23 likes I feel like we could use another Snowmaggedon like in 2010 We fucking RAGED when we heard school was cancelled for the entire week ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 09:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734861524559151596) · 5 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** @AaronBergman18 Aaron you're not in school anymore. Might be able to slide into a masters program just in time ### [Reply to @waitbutwhy, 11:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734905984257024007) · 2 likes > **Tim Urban (@waitbutwhy):** Cozier. It’s moved things inside. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBNTFiRXYAEfuoo.jpg) Men only want one thing ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 12:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734909961904250925) · 3 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** "I'm telling you this for prayer" > > Christians ask people to pray for things. But sometimes they ask on behalf of others. Mum tells me this used to be a massive gossip mill. > > "I'm telling you this for prayer, but Susan's daughter just had a baby out of wedlock" Ooh nice a new goss elicitation mechanism ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 14:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1734951201404281151) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Ya fr we got lucky it’s like the third most interesting thing in the world (the first two are the sleeping beauty problem and obesity) ### [Reply to @YosarianTwo, 18:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735001269045989681) · 2 likes > **Yosarian2 (@YosarianTwo):** I don't even know what a "non-falsifiable belief" would mean > > Seems like a contradiction in terms I have non falsifiable beliefs: \- some form of moral realism is true \- qualia exist \- falsifiability is overrated ### [Quote tweet, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735003705961791490) · 17 likes In the time honored tradition of EAs disagreeing with stuff, I’m gonna go ahead and say that you should NOT donate to the election fund because like just donate to where you think the money should go 😊 > **Quoting Frances Lorenz (@frances__lorenz):** IF YOU DONATE I CAN DRAW YOU A BAD PICTURE LIKE THIS ONE, SHE'S EXTREMELY PRODUCTIVE AND AGENTIC > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBPy_DCaYAAUygL.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735003708071551418) · 4 likes Like it seems strictly worse this way unless you’re REALLY optimistic that people with different values and/or different empirical beliefs are operating on the same acausal trade wavelength, somehow ### [Thread, continued, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735003709229171040) · 2 likes You SHOULD vote though, duh ### [Reply to @stephenclare_, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735012911511212515) · 21 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @stephenclare_ is no longer available.)_ I’m anti this take. You should be able to defend yourself without the defense per se being considered evidence of guilt ### [Reply to @UriBram, 19:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735015716766593313) · 3 likes > **Uri Bram 🔍 (@UriBram):** is there a term for the opposite of imposter syndrome, where you believe you're really great and your current position doesn't reflect your true merits? Delusions of grandeur ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735025990840025535) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Wait no this feels like a 10^52 straws on the camels back type thing. Ur hereby banned from adding this to ur brain to do list ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735026709970162062) · 12 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 13, 2023:** I’m anti this take. You should be able to defend yourself without the defense per se being considered evidence of guilt ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBQNmLmX0AAdt1b.jpg) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735055113679425990) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 Me or the weather Weather ### [Reply to @sixers2772, 23:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735074113503277068) · 1 like > **Sixers (@sixers2772):** I find vitamin E warming/energizing. My midday temp is usually ~98.2, but measured 99 with vitamin E. This is consistent with how I feel as well Huh, I did not know this was a (even hypothesized) thing ### [Reply to @VivaldiVril, 23:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735074895413805223) · 2 likes > **BaroqueMan (@VivaldiVril):** post a picture of what you want for Christmas, no matter how unrealistic or unlikely it is to happen. no comments, just a pic > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBQr-rwXAAErL-a.png) I agree this looks like a nice shirt ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBQ5bCOXgAAP-PR.jpg) ### [Reply to @mattparlmer, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735076522082406448) · 21 likes > **mattparlmer 🪐 🌷 (@mattparlmer):** We cannot allow a nuclear cargo carrier gap > > (quoting @PDChina: A Chinese shipyard on Tuesday revealed the design of the world's first and largest nuclear-powered 24,000 TEU container ship, Global Times reported.) Lol at the motto on the side being 110% optimized for western media coverage ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 23:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735079220169130348) · 20 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** I’m enjoying the fact that my post has spawned this whole convo and the further I scroll the less I have any idea what either of you are talking about > > I’m glad my silly meming is leading to healthy debate, wld love to participate but I don’t understand probabilities 😂 Same energy ### [Reply to @Empty_America, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735083652642455882) · 2 likes > **VB Knives (@Empty_America):** Most of the Zoomers I know in real life are doing well, many see to be considerably ahead of where Gen X was at the same age. > > Online also, some of the younger seeming accounts are high energy. > > I suspect the worst blackpillers are older than you would think, might be 30+. \*airplane meme\* ## Thursday, December 14, 2023 ### [Reply to @benleo_econ, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735138829013553209) · 2 likes > **Ben Grodeck🔸 (@benleo_econ):** @QualyThe How do we know that Qualy isn't Bill Gates?! One is a light bulb, and the other is a human being 😊 ### [Tweet, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735154022519034150) · 5 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBSBYzSWkAAMAni.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBSBYzQXIAAsw7f.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 04:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735162686701273209) · 76 likes This meme goes so hard and I unironically support the guy in pink Kantian ethics is dumb af and afaict nobody actually endorses it > **Quoting philosophy memes 🔗 (@philosophymeme0):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBNraVgWwAAqOxA.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735162954318757968) · 4 likes Citing my sources 😤 ### [Tweet, 05:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735169052765556958) · 6 likes Anyone figured out the best age to be epistemically? Like I’m guessing you’re still on the upward slope in terms of getting things right at 25, and down at 65 Probably like 40ish? ### [Tweet, 05:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735169617880928725) · 115 likes There is simply no way to detect algorithmically if this is a bot ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBSPkkKXEAAJmVt.jpg) ### [Reply, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735170309941063843) · 2 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** @AaronBergman18 I want to know what happened to the text > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBSQB9FaMAAPWce.jpg) It’s beach time 👍 ### [Reply, 17:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735355036492820785) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ 😢 ### [Reply, 17:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735355314847780906) · 8 likes > **J (@julestrainman):** Good mornin, there is currently a cow wreaking havoc on the NEC in Newark > > [video attached](https://x.com/julestrainman/status/1735332318980575285/video/1) The cow He destroyed his cage Yes YES The cow is out ### [Reply, 17:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735355400919171292) · 3 likes > **J (@julestrainman):** > > (quoting @AmtrakNECAlerts: As of 10:40 am ET, All services operating in the Newark (NWK) area may experience lengthy delays due to debris blocking the tracks. Updates to follow as more information becomes available.) He’s not debris 😡😡😡 ### [Reply, 17:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735356021118275840) · 2 likes > **Lilly (@lillybilly299):** The thing about boys is sometimes they'll say stuff while their monkey brain is activated and then have zero memory or attachment to anything they said Not sure if I’m built different, have no self awareness, or just don’t get it lol ### [Reply, 17:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735357119786795193) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** STOP ITTTTT > > I WANT TO GET OFF THIS TRAIN RIDE > > (quoting @GoogleDeepMind: Introducing FunSearch in @Nature: a method using large language models to search for new solutions in mathematics & computer science. 🔍 It pairs the creativity of an LLM with an automated evaluator to guard against hallucinations and incorrect ideas. 🧵 https://dpmd.ai/x-funsearch) If I’m gonna get paperclipped I at least want the perp to not have “fun” in its name ### [Reply, 17:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735357338729484522) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Fat Rat > > (quoting @Nerdy_Addict: There is a loose bull on the tracks at Newarks Penn Station as authorities try to catch it. All tracks delayed) Perro grande ### [Reply, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735362990197669911) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 Oso Oso pequeño ### [Reply, 18:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735364188300599417) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I'm confused, do Americans just snack on the string cheese itself? alone?? > > (quoting @Aella_Girl: nooooo my doctor told me to lay off the string cheese) Some ppl have friends to eat string cheese with but yeah, the social fabric is really falling apart ### [Reply, 18:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735366024445194721) · 2 likes > **sanje horah 🇵🇸🇺🇦 — PNEUMATICS ONLY (@sanjehorah):** what do normal people think about if not lacan I do not know who that is ### [Reply, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735366833039904919) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 @tomascodes this is how you get the internet to explode > > maybe this is a good thing tho All I know is that BROWSE(url) opens the url in my default browser Probably this is thanks to one of the 50ish packages I always load but idk ### [Reply, 18:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735367308644651079) · 2 likes > **rue🌿 (@Ruesavatar):** The cut of this dress is actually stunning omfg. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBU8PQdW0AA-0iT.jpg) 🗡️ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBVDXqUXkAA9D-E.jpg) ### [Reply, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735369052292268463) · 3 likes > **Michael Nielsen (@michael_nielsen):** Judged from the perspective of the year 2000, which science fiction author do you think was \*most\* right about the next 50 years? @ESYudkowsky ### [Reply, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735384888713338978) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ The downstream effects of the ADA ### [Reply, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735386971566977256) · 5 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I agree with you, and I think another problem is just that this doesn't seem to be a true rejection anyway: > > (quoting @austinc3301: @ElmoTheHomie @gcolbourn @beffjezos @littIeramblings In my view, this whole line of argumentation is simply not your true rejection (https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/TGux5Fhcd7GmTfNGC/is-that-your-true-rejection). You're giving us arguments that you think are strong and going to…) Idk what the context is I just wanna propose that all discussions of any kind take place in this very thread, as a reply to Sarah’s tweet ### [Reply to @panchromaticity, 19:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735387401042723021) · 1 like > **Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** traps \_\_\_\_ gay and that's \_\_\_\_ Trapezius muscles? As in mouse trap? ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735391405181153784) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** omg no pls do u know how many notifications I’m getting What do u think about the cow ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 21:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735409359197507778) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Where do I buy ### [Tweet, 21:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735412363237507144) · 6 likes What is a blooming onion?? ### [Quote tweet, 21:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735412796907724817) · 16 likes This is 80% evidential decision theory but in woo terminology > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735413218342768923) · 4 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** British guy who doesn’t know what onions are: > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: What is a blooming onion??) Hey I’m not British don’t insult me like that ### [Tweet, 21:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735413480801620348) · 1 like Ok ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBVtXOXXAAAAS-X.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735414455427637308) · 2 likes Fascinating ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBVuP4fXsAAB2Tm.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735414803701919759) · 2 likes I think I understand now [![GIF thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/GBVuj8dXMAAwt5E.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735414803701919759/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 21:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735416002282733835) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ Superhuman: ability to directly compare time and money ## Friday, December 15, 2023 ### [Reply to @pachabelcanon, 02:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735480732682682402) > **francis (@pachabelcanon):** @AaronBergman18 "Nobody endorses it" is hell of a lot crazy given how important it is to both the analytic and the continental traditions Find me someone who says they think kantianism is true ### [Reply to @pachabelcanon, 02:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735485877898416244) · 1 like > **francis (@pachabelcanon):** @AaronBergman18 Yeah I consider thinking of philosophy in terms of propositions a category error > > wdym about illusionism about consciousness as literally false? Genuine subjective, private qualia that constitute phenomenal consciousness exist. See @keithfrankish for the opposite argument (which I find plausible fwiw, not like meaningless or mistaken about terms) ### [Quote tweet, 02:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735491569401110533) · 3 likes Huh, yeah I bet this could get fixed with a built in result checking thing, a bit like how code interpreter tries again after encountering errors, given that it can accurately count its own inaccurate generations (each apple pic generated as a request for 6) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBW0YlbW0AAWhie.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBW0YlVXYAAadfc.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBW0YlWX0AA-Gfu.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBW0YlUW8AAkA3x.jpg) > **Quoting David Schneider-Joseph 🔍 (@TheDavidSJ):** On the other hand, "six apples" is a challenge still. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBWeiQWW8AAEMVT.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBWeiQXWEAA_mZU.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBWeiQaWIAACiNx.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBWeiQXWEAEKWpe.jpg) ### [Reply to @izzyz, 03:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735495245968630203) · 2 likes > **izzy (@izzyz):** let's make an apocalypse bingo card > > my first suggestion is a pinto bean shortage > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBWnMr2bgAAQrXU.jpg) World human population <1B ### [Reply to @izzyz, 03:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735496654021710015) · 2 likes > **izzy (@izzyz):** @AaronBergman18 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBW4Io9akAAMlCy.jpg) I’m 100% sure I’ve met a guy with an offline Wikipedia. I considered it and have an offline copy of UpToDate (only like 2-3gb I think) ### [Thread, continued, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735496922977234980) · 2 likes I also have a >20gb pdf of survival relevant info cc @JesseTayRiver ### [Reply to @YosarianTwo, 03:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735497982043111594) · 2 likes > **Yosarian2 (@YosarianTwo):** @Cererean At least dogs have had evolutionary time to adapt to it > > Poor sharks have no defense 😢 ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 03:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735502859637055737) · 1 like > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @izzyz @AaronBergman18 Definitely useful! I think there are also overlooked opportunities to refine existing guides such that the most applicable skills are extremely well detailed. Bad scenarios aren't the best time to read and experiment. Bushcraft does this well. Ya but I can’t acquire bushcraft skill by clicking download on smth (am Eagle Scout and have spent months in total camping tho so call me Mr Bushcraft 😎) ### [Reply to @Coopachabra, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735505023218458792) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @Coopachabra is no longer available.)_ As a Jew I’ve only heard the former lol ### [Reply to @AlexGodofsky, 03:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735505937773760899) · 2 likes > **Alex Godofsky (@AlexGodofsky):** The main goal of progressive education policy today is simply: we should not let the smartest kids go to better schools or take more advanced classes. > > This isn't even an exaggeration, these are their biggest policy planks. > > https://chicago.suntimes.com/education/2023/12/12/23999129/brandon-johnsons-board-of-ed-looks-to-move-away-from-school-choice-toward-neighborhood-schools Not a \*complete\* causal connection but my two years in a magnet program were the happiest two years of my life ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735516636382138627) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ 37, for 37^(99^99) I am superintelligent ### [Reply, 04:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735521772760437131) · 10 likes Eating cheese once every 10 years to celebrate being vegan, if that’s what you wanna do, is totally fine ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBXP2lCXkAA3ytX.jpg) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 04:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735522726117322869) · 1 like > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @Simon_El_Gato\_\_ I think minorities having dedicated spaces to gather is fundamentally different from imposed racial segregation Yeah in principle but there’s exactly one non-terrible schilling point of a social norm and it’s “don’t do anything like this” ### [Reply to @panchromaticity, 05:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735538612517638499) · 3 likes > **Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** @ElytraMithra @opheliamoding I'm pretty sure it's very difficult to tell apart the sexes of many kinds of turtles How do u guys have cached takes on this question lmao? Like I have never seen this discussed ### [Reply to @panchromaticity, 05:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735539222436630567) · 2 likes > **Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** @AaronBergman18 @ElytraMithra @opheliamoding I saw a video about turtles that mentioned it Duh ### [Reply to @trevposts, 06:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735546824444789089) · 1 like > **Trevor Levin (@trevposts):** Wait what is this second Newark? I regret to report I am rescinding my tweet and have no idea ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 14:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735662710069567894) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** yes it is Sarah’s own hangover speaking lol ### [Reply to @RichDecibels, 14:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735663154095370330) · 1 like > **Richard D. Bartlett (@RichDecibels):** psychedelic assisted therapy but with pickles instead of psychedelics. who is working on this? What ### [Reply to @notanastronomer, 14:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735663529640788079) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @notanastronomer is no longer available.)_ Haha haha. YES ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBZQyDpX0AA5pUS.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 14:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735668771711295644) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** My blog be like: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBXyhf7XMAEaFbX.jpg) I like the chutzpah ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 14:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735671142281543863) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** will pay at least £10 to anyone willing to provide me with fully-formed opinions on every consequential issue than I can then pass off as my own Ok deal name a topic ### [Reply to @stevekrouse, 14:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735674307374694820) · 8 likes > **Steve Krouse (@stevekrouse):** holy shit someone's STARTING THEIR CAR FROM A VAL > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBZWqmaXMAAzK-9.jpg) I’m sure there’s no way this could go wrong ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 15:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735676259286290482) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** tbc this was an offer of £10 to generate a take on literally every issue ever so not actually a serious proposition Darn I can do £.01 per thing tho ### [Reply to @lastpositivist, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735679955055337930) · 36 likes > **Liam Bright (@lastpositivist):** Oh yeah and > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBYi-Y5W8AAJ6Px.png) That night be starry af ### [Reply to @cammakingminds, 15:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735685825143173373) · 1 like > **Lucid™ (@cammakingminds):** Orbital mechanics pornography. Fund this immediately. Is the idea that Lyra literally bounces off (the atmosphere of?) the pink thing or does a gravity assist thing? ### [Reply to @DanielDiMartino, 15:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735688237278962048) · 3 likes > **Daniel Di Martino (@DanielDiMartino):** Less than a week into office, Argentinian President Javier Milei is about to sign a 300-page long "emergency executive order" with a list of business regulations that are repealed. > > The first page reads very simply: > > REPEAL > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBZPwhMXMAEJOaJ.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBZPwslXgAACJAU.jpg) Sideburns go hard ### [Reply to @prerat, 16:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735698973589966864) · 5 likes > **prerat (@prerat):** what is your favorite dinosaur? > > (quoting @RespectfulMemes: ) Chicken ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 16:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735700881100673036) · 12 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 16:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735702046760649052) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ For the curious https://journalofcontroversialideas.org/article/1/1/132/htm ### [Reply to @krishnanrohit, 16:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735703995300114777) · 4 likes > **rohit (@krishnanrohit):** This realisation came about when I was trying to explain the manoeuvre to get to Mars to my son, and realised that if you hadn't grokked orbital mechanics there's basically sounds like witchcraft I haven’t grokked orbital mechanics. Does the slung object take energy from the planet/sun? At least in the animation it looks like the gravity boost speeds the thing up; where does this energy come from? Cc @SpacedOutMatt @AndyMasley ### [Reply to @krishnanrohit, 16:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735705252161052936) · 3 likes > **rohit (@krishnanrohit):** From the orbital motion, its a momentum transfer So if it’s a planet, it slows down relative to the sun. If it’s the sun that does the slinging, does it lose mass or heat or slow down relative to something else? ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 17:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735707753472008667) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** FWIW I’ve gone through the exercise of writing gravity assist planning code and designing/simulating an earth-Venus-earth-earth-Jupiter-Neptune mission and sometimes I still don’t feel like I grok gravity assists Based I’m assuming the code was in R ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 17:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735708087783203286) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Matlab T_T Darn ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 17:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735709145532072452) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Yeah the whole “relative to the planet, your velocity vector rotates but doesn’t change in magnitude” is just kinda wild Sus ### [Reply to @leah_pierson, 17:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735709695543799819) · 2 likes > **Leah Pierson (@leah_pierson):** went on a post-PhD/post-retirement backpacking trip with my dad ❤️ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBZMSb6XkAADG5N.jpg) Based ### [Reply, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735711531617169814) · 2 likes No, starting from a human brain and making changes from there is very different from building a new type of brain from scratch ### [Reply to @Trail_Cams, 17:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735716609409355801) · 1 like > **trailcam (@Trail_Cams):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBZ661-XIAATaSb.jpg) 😢 ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 21:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735778532280660433) · 16 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Bro they matched! Did she change her mind on her guys named Stephen policy recently lol ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735779107621744998) · 12 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** pick an animal from the animal kingdom at random and it probably spends half its time lounging and staring at grass or water or sky, but you think ideal health is spending every waking minute of the day being productive Wait do we know this for a fact for different species? ### [Quote tweet, 22:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735786536157757915) · 5 likes People be like “phew, the models can only get 100 million to 10 billion times bigger across one dimension” > **Quoting Yo Shavit (@yonashav):** Deep Learning is Hitting a Wall > > (in 10 ooms) ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 22:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735786718970744996) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ Ghosts ### [Tweet, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735792756151263271) · 13 likes I’m starting to get the appeal now that I live within walking distance of one Go for Rice Krispies, might fuck around and come home with a 65 inch tv and mysterious kitchen contraption ### [Reply, 22:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735794684729983430) · 1 like This is very specific ### [Reply to @BecomingCritter, 23:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735802133373497813) · 3 likes > **critter (@BecomingCritter):** sometimes I don't even look at the menu I just ask the server for advice Boomer behavior ### [Reply to @robertwrighter, 23:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735803288963219855) · 2 likes > **Robert Wright (@robertwrighter):** Thanks to @MaxAbrahms for coming on my podcast and having a candid and at times contentious but always respectful conversation about a difficult subject. You can watch here or listen via the Nonzero Podcast feed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTwoZSRcl9M Best kind of conversation fr ## Saturday, December 16, 2023 ### [Reply to @animalologist, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735874572459597832) · 3 likes > **taco belle (@animalologist):** Damn, I kinda miss some of these dudes I met yesterday. Men in DC are always so kind to me. They take it for granted that I deserve to be gassed up so they’re not shy about doing it. I got more sincere compliments last night than I have in months, felt better than I have in weeks > > (quoting @animalologist: Last night was so wholesome though, I read tarot for a couple of my friends and like 6 dudes I’d just met who definitely did not believe in any woo shit before. In their own words they were lining up to have me drag them) DC ARC REPRESENT THERE ARE AT LEAST LIKE 10 OF US ### [Tweet, 04:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735875367619948544) · 8 likes It seems insane to me make long and expensive travel plans to see the solar eclipse. Like it’s cool but not that cool ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBcRchFXAAA09aC.jpg) ### [Reply, 04:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735880487736836556) · 1 like Bad take from an otherwise smart account Sure maybe there is a grain of evidence here. But there are huge, substantial differences that make drawing such a straight line quite plainly nonsensical ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 04:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735884468127228390) · 2 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** @TetraspaceWest proactive state suppression of men between the ages of like 15 and 35 I don’t like this idea ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 04:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735885126423220384) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ Follow the tobacco playbook (until/except for the vaping suppression part). Tax, don’t ban, enforce age laws, public health campaign. Meanwhile legalize+regulate in a alcohol-ish manner psychedelics, amphetamines, and mdma ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735894759388901602) · 2 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** people don't realise that bangers make followers but nerdposts make friends [![GIF thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/GBcjFNoXgAAUUH_.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735894759388901602/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Tweet, 05:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735897166218932396) · 11 likes Kinda surprised Facebook’s dating feature isn’t more of a thing Seeing you have 3 random mutual friends with someone can be substantial, helpful social context of the type that I think used to more commonly foster relationships ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 05:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735897343520624798) · 1 like > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** @an_observer\_\_ Yeah a microblog at minimum U mean a twitter ? ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 05:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735897929569755249) · 9 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBckfJrb0AAKAXU.jpg) lol for introverts though I think having latent “friendships” like this is actually substantially good - like the knowledge that you could talk to someone if you actually wanted to ### [Tweet, 05:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735902083423842305) · 15 likes I have a social event in 17 hours nobody bother me ### [Reply to @soundrotator, 05:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735902180119306687) · 1 like > **Reb (@soundrotator):** today I locked eyes w a beaver. he sang to me and scratched his ear like a dog Based ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 08:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735947396566204645) · 4 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** embarrassed to admit this but I’ve only just bothered to google what a Dyson sphere is Disgraceful ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 09:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735948722247287031) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** A little disappointed that it doesn’t have anything to do with vacuum cleaners, turns out that was a different guy named Dyson Have to admit I did not know that ### [Reply to @acidshill, 09:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1735949422347862409) · 1 like > **shill 🔍 (@acidshill):** OP was tragically deleted, but fortunately saved in the internet archive > > ah, now that's what i call twitter! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBdC0JAaYAAy99V.jpg) Wait the argument was \*against\* riding horses? Doesn’t make a ton of sense IMO ### [Reply to @mbateman, 18:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736088451043274867) · 4 likes > **Matt Bateman (@mbateman):** 3yo: It’s raining outside > > @Gena_I_Gorlin: ? I don’t see any rain > > 3yo: The Empire State Building is not the Empire State Building > > Gena: > > 3yo: > > Gena: Are you telling jokes? > > 3yo: Yes > > Gena: Do you think that jokes are just saying something false? > > 3yo: Yes Damn she really went with the P≠P ### [Reply to @vividvoid, 18:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736091308664529251) · 2 likes > **Vivid Void (@vividvoid):** What unpopular technology opinion will have you like this > > [video attached](https://x.com/VividVoid_/status/1735921148007964881/video/1) Plausibly the whole of technological development has been bad actually bc factory farming >> human wellbeing gains ### [Reply to @spqr_sulla, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736093775343050890) · 34 likes > **Sulla (@spqr_sulla):** Giving teenage girls life-like baby dolls ('infant simulators') to care for doubles the teenage pregnancy rate (n=2834) https://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/2023/01/the-infant-simulator-fiasco/ Calling bullshit (or really just publication bias or p hacking) Totally believe the direction of the effect, but the magnitude is implausible. No way this causally \*doubles\* teen pregnancy ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 19:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736109726335717635) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ At least tag the beings ur proposing to change the dna of @QualyThe ### [Reply to @billyhumblebrag, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736111848439624150) · 6 likes > **billy (@billyhumblebrag):** I am begging everyone stop quoting this result it is nonsense > > (quoting @cremieuxrecueil: What happens when you assign groups of people to - Exercise without steroids - Exercise with steroids - Not exercise without steroids - Not exercise with steroids The guys who take steroids and don't exercise gain more muscle than the guys who exercise without steroids!) Wait this is super intuitive to me I’d bet hard on it reproducing reliably across specific protocols etc ### [Reply to @a_real_society, 20:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736116917037941190) · 2 likes > **society (@a_real_society):** AI gf this AI gf that, why don't you get A gf on twitter dot com I’m trying ### [Reply to @selentelechia, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736118751383126264) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @selentelechia is no longer available.)_ Based ### [Reply to @billyhumblebrag, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736119824978244051) · 4 likes > **billy (@billyhumblebrag):** @AaronBergman18 You mean specifically "steroids + sedentary" beats "placebo + exercise"? Yes, in terms of increasing lean muscle mass. Maybe not in every conceivable respect ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 20:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736120435740119490) · 3 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** \[person who spends 4 hours per day tweeting\] “I hate writing” Omg it’s me (kinda, I don’t hate writing but seriously do it much quicker while tweeting vs trying to write anything more formal, even a blog post, bc it feels low stakes or smth) ### [Reply to @SillyGoose_Guy, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736120604909080630) · 2 likes > **Silly Goose Guy (@SillyGoose_Guy):** Do y’all get STI tests every time you sleep with a new person? Ideally before and after? Technically yes ### [Reply to @billyhumblebrag, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736121515542778327) · 2 likes > **billy (@billyhumblebrag):** @AaronBergman18 I could see it over 10 weeks in completely untrained populations maybe being a real result that holds up. Not outside of that Depends on dosing obviously, but I would definitely bet $1000 on say doubling natural total testosterone level via TRT and stopping standard full body 3x/week lifting to result in net positive avg muscle mass change in t=1 year Idk enough about other steroids to be as specific ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736134046990651448) · 11 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Topwit meme >> Midwit meme > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBf6d21XEAAHIIl.jpg) This is maybe a rare case where you get another guy past IQ 145 (assuming the shown y axis isn’t supposed to be taken literally) Pretty sure Paul Christiano does not exclusively own index funds ## Sunday, December 17, 2023 ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 04:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736240419749380579) · 4 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** Have any of you been successful with working while flying? > > Every time I end up just watching tv shows, reading fanfics or trying to sleep (always unsuccessful) The London -> DC flight from EAG in 2022 was one of my most productive chunks of 8ish hours ever lol N=1 but I happened to be sitting in one of the economy rows where no one was in front of me which probably helped. I think these only exist on big planes used for long flights ### [Reply to @izzyz, 14:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736397273255354507) · 2 likes > **izzy (@izzyz):** documentary about ai x-risk? I mean if it poofed into existence and was good, sure, but as a project competing for basically openphil money no way ### [Tweet, 16:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736428448443158911) · 28 likes Lived in/near DC my entire life…Turns out there’s a secret island (ok not secret but I hadn’t heard about it till yesterday)? With a huge statue of Teddy Roosevelt? And a weird brutalist Stonehenge vibe? Ok cool ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBkIdtEWkAACXly.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBkIdtEWQAQaTRo.jpg) ### [Reply, 17:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736433428206105026) If u think I should delete the tweet, could u rephrase in normie terms ### [Reply to @prerat, 20:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736479746651828394) · 7 likes > **prerat (@prerat):** what are the most based plants? > > im thinking of starting a based plant diet, where you only eat plants that are based Cocoa, mint, potatoes, strawberries, coffee/coffee beans, not a plant but various kinds of mushrooms like cordyceps and lions mane if you’re flexible, seaweed, ginger, olives (incl oil), avocado ### [Quote tweet, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736481907162939857) · 9 likes This is making the rounds…what exactly is sad/otherwise bad about it? It’s says “powered by ChatGPT” right there! > **Quoting Victoria (@VictoriqueM):** This is both funny as fuck and sad as fuck > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBjzlGWWIAAjLhJ.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736497768862990412) · 4 likes Wait what’s the answer to “shouldn’t their policy cover the rest of the damages…”? Not nearly as bad an outcome but smth similar when I was 17 - backed into another car in a busy parking lot at night (totally my fault tbc) ### [Thread, continued, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736497770666623321) · 4 likes I remember thinking like “oh it’s a small dent on the bumper, probably gonna be like $100 right? Maybe I can just run to an ATM rn, give the lady some cash, and not get insurance involved” It was $4k 💀 ### [Reply to @michaelzilske, 21:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736501116030836747) · 2 likes > **Michael Zilske (@michaelzilske):** @AaronBergman18 I wonder what the economics of this are, like are there incentives to make cars so that minor dents become more and more expensive to repair Haha yeah I was just thinking “at the limit, a person could put some expensive piece of art or jewelry or whatever on their bumper and it seems pretty clear to me that you shouldn’t be on the hook for millions of dollars if you tap them” ## Monday, December 18, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 01:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736566301563224463) · 8 likes For real though we’re about to see a bunch of court rulings on things like this > **Quoting Chris Bakke (@ChrisJBakke):** I just bought a 2024 Chevy Tahoe for $1. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBlnv2gaMAA9e4N.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBlnwdTbYAAewjn.png) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 01:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736566516798173395) · 3 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I’ll have one (1) free day while on Berkeley tomorrow, in case anyone wants to meet 👀 Ya I wanna meet but unfortunately I’m on the other side of the country 😕 ### [Tweet, 02:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736573467858756020) · 4 likes There’s definitely a niche for a yt/tiktok/whatever channel reviewing food being sold on FB marketplace and Craigslist ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBmMXWNWwAEnH37.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBmMXWNWwAAx7--.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBmMXWNWcAA-V3v.jpg) ### [Reply to @bengrossbg, 02:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736576322279788679) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @bengrossbg is no longer available.)_ Fr. The mantle is too hot. The oceans are too watery and dark and cold ### [Reply, 03:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736592741805568412) · 7 likes I had pretty (<95th percentile tho, probably) overprotective parents and could do most of these things without any adult assistance by 16. I didn’t have a blog but nothing was stopping me afaik, and did have a sorta bank account (E\*trade lol) although that required parents help ### [Reply, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736594785643659564) · 8 likes Metro, walk, drivers license some time that year (and access to family car) Had money from both being very privileged (grandparents would give me like $50 each birthday) and shoveling snow and being a camp counselor (and winning $400 in a march madness pool once lol) ### [Reply, 03:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736595190641512506) · 1 like Lfg (for my purposes, vs code is literally just that + like 2 keyboard shortcuts I use + built in terminal) ### [Reply, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736596351159288061) · 2 likes Yeah for sure a lot of these were gatekept in some sense. Definitely think children should have more legal and de facto rights at least in the US ### [Quote tweet, 04:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736600860598132954) · 41 likes One of the first bad community notes I’ve seen Yes they are tombs, and they’d be tombs if they were .1% as large. Why did the other 99.9% get built? > **Quoting vegastar (@vegastarr):** Time to settle this - what were they built for?! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBXSGX-asAASM-T.jpg) ### [Reply, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736601835857686694) · 2 likes Ok thx ### [Reply to @ronawang, 04:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736609121414058018) · 2 likes > **Rona Wang (@ronawang):** received an A in this absurdly difficult class, can we get a W in the chat W ### [Reply, 05:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736625675283366336) · 1 like Eh maybe, even if it was intended as a woo thing I read it as “why spend all your slave labor and wheat (or whatever) on apparently nonfunctional skyscraper tombs?” ### [Reply to @christineist, 06:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736628627389792401) · 12 likes > **christine (@christineist):** interesting to observe a class divide between dating apps— my blue collar friends avoid hinge, white collar friends avoid tinder What color collar uses manifold dot love ### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 06:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736634238722519084) · 1 like > **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** This will not age well. I think what he means by this is “AI, as the greatest minds, are going to accelerate algorithmic progress” ### [Reply to @Austen, 06:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736639834251251784) · 6 likes > **Austen Allred (@Austen):** Stats don’t lie: 1460 SAT as a white (or Asian) male isn’t high enough for the top 10 schools unless you have some ridiculous exception or legacy status 1560+ doesn’t get you in either https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/most-ivy-smart-students-arent-at ### [Thread, continued, 06:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736640103295201409) · 2 likes The tldr ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBnI-ByXIAAN8B3.jpg) ### [Tweet, 07:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736646890857325038) · 40 likes Very spoiled brat thing to say but I do not want to go on this (free for me) family beach vacation I don’t like the beach (especially sand), warm weather, humidity, or travel in general In terms of my myopic short term happiness only, I would pay not to go ### [Thread, continued, 07:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736646894099599543) · 21 likes I do like my family (most of the time) and airplane takeoffs, but the interaction effect \`family\*travel\` comes out negative I’m neutral on the matter of fish and coral ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 07:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736647177420546277) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @RafaRuizdeLira Some things should be legalized while others should be illegalized Illegal: sand Legal: drugs (by default) ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 07:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736647721400889755) · 5 likes > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** @AaronBergman18 A classic delimma for those of the autistic persuasion. God speed soldier!!!! 🫡🫡🫡 if I don’t tweet again it’s probably bc I forgot my passport after being told 10 times to bring it, a capital offense ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 07:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736649546883641403) · 5 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 Download a bunch of 80k eps Ya ### [Reply to @QuintinPope5, 08:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736659502269632561) · 4 likes > **Quintin Pope (@QuintinPope5):** This is false. The burden would still be on the world's leading astrophysicists to support their claim with evidence. There have been at least hundreds of thousands and probably millions of words written on the matter You don’t get to have empirical demonstrations of existential risks. You get theoretical and related empirical evidence ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 10:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736691591052431555) · 10 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** @AaronBergman18 Why are the other tombs only .1% as large. That is the real question. Why are all the other tombs \*small\*? Why aren’t the pyramids even larger?! ### [Thread, continued, 10:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736691840512888973) · 3 likes Wait now I wanna know the answer to this ### [Quote tweet, 10:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736692434912862273) · 6 likes Beachposting thread > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Very spoiled brat thing to say but I do not want to go on this (free for me) family beach vacation > > I don’t like the beach (especially sand), warm weather, humidity, or travel in general > > In terms of my myopic short term happiness only, I would pay not to go ### [Thread, continued, 10:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736693170803552492) · 4 likes Step 1) get to NYC You never really hear about longish distance busses on here but turns out a 4 hour DC -> NYC bus is only like $20-30. Probably $60-70 if you Uber a few miles on both ends. Good deal! ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 10:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736693286616596607) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** I also hate hot weather and spending a lot of time on beaches and I think this is valid ### [Reply to @thiagovscoelho, 10:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736697695039823964) · 1 like > **Thiago ✱ (@thiagovscoelho):** @AaronBergman18 @TetraspaceWest @JMannhart Erosion Correct ### [Reply to @gelionexists, 11:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736715720493281506) · 2 likes > **GE Lion (@gelionexists):** @AaronBergman18 Damn, I love the beach, would pay for a beach vacay rn Market failure :( ### [Reply, 13:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736737856561803594) · 1 like You don’t like Disney world?? Did u go on expedition Everest? ### [Reply to @visakanv, 13:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736741077309174151) · 3 likes > **Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv):** free vpn installer tonight queen? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBoaheaaUAAZ_ht.jpg) Lmao but thanks to ChatGPT even a pleb like me can do this with python now! ### [Reply to @JeremiahDJohns, 13:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736741832929763564) · 160 likes > **Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** Congratulations to our Worst Tweet of 2022 as decided by the voters > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBojcqxXkAAemKp.png) Kinda disappointed. Like the answer is “yes” but afaict the question was earnest ### [Tweet, 14:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736752223961358651) · 13 likes Good job Phil 👍 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBou1pjW4AAM940.jpg) ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 14:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736756344227594658) · 2 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** Yeah I think killing vegan cat for not being vegan was much worse personally No that was a good tweet (sorta, with the following caveats added)! You can put together a nutrient blend (incl eg pure carnitine) that imitates meat well enough. I’m sure it’s not literally optimal for the cat but it’s definitely better for the farmed chickens and such ### [Quote tweet, 14:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736757554661769518) · 18 likes Domestic cats can and should be vegan Technofuturist Soylent-esque vegan, but still vegan ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBozyR7XQAA-Bk4.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @FrostedSapling @JeremiahDJohns No that was a good tweet (sorta, with the following caveats added)! > > You can put together a nutrient blend (incl eg pure carnitine) that imitates meat well enough. I’m sure it’s not literally optimal for the cat but it’s definitely better for the farmed chickens and such ### [Reply to @dylanmatt, 14:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736759378122887489) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dylanmatt is no longer available.)_ I have no idea what I’m talking about but a relatively big city to be an outlier like this (and without me as an almost-resident knowing about it too which you’d expect more if it was a real thing) screams “weird change in data collecting practices, illusory” ### [Quote tweet, 14:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736763186211180914) · 6 likes Everybody tag someone richer than you but within an OOM or two I think like everyone who is like a serious professional counts for me so I’ll start with @FrostedSapling @ohwizenedtortle @SpacedOutMatt and @mattyglesias as a moonshot > **Quoting Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** I'm raising money for my work. We're currently only ~$250,000 short of our goal, so I'm hoping I can close this gap with smaller donors. Every little bit counts and gets us further towards our goal. > > If you value our work, please consider support: https://rethinkpriorities.org/donate ### [Thread, continued, 15:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736764268454748245) · 2 likes Obligatory plug https://manifold.markets/AaronBergman18/what-donationaccepting-entity-eg-ch?r=QWFyb25CZXJnbWFuMTg ### [Thread, continued, 15:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736764861063847979) · 2 likes in nearby multiverse branches ### [Reply to @rgblong, 15:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736765356998377766) · 2 likes > **Robert Long (@rgblong):** friend characterized a colleague of hers as a “valence boy” and I think that somehow I (and you) immediately know the sort of person she’s referring to Was it @algekalipso ? ### [Tweet, 15:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736773969162719541) · 5 likes Just discovered grime, UK good again ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBpCuCXXQAAj3yg.jpg) ### [Tweet, 16:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736780622025158825) · 86 likes Guy who thinks we don’t need to take any special measures to align AI because the risk of misaligned AI is low because we will take measures to align AI ### [Tweet, 17:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1736794725695246803) · 7 likes In nyc for 20 mins and there seems to be a lot…happening ## Tuesday, December 19, 2023 ### [Tweet, 11:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737073002607472918) · 3 likes Sister urbanist YIMBY arc (not quite a literal quote but close): “it’s really nice to have stores and restaurants literally next door \[to my appt in NYC\] and it’s dumb that other places make that illegal \[via zoning\]. It is loud though” ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 12:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737092252155945468) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 18, 2023:** Step 1) get to NYC You never really hear about longish distance busses on here but turns out a 4 hour DC -> NYC bus is only like $20-30. Probably $60-70 if you… Parents mission (apparently): maximize utterly unnecessary stress and chronic low grade emotional microconflict Status: successful ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 13:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737096983121195251) · 3 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Southerners who kept slaves probably did think the Northerners who complained about it were whiny virtue signallers. > > Sometimes, virtue signalling really is virtuous. It isn't enough to say "this leaves me feeling bad so it must not be true" Yes many are saying ### [Tweet, 17:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737168109197279694) · 1 like This thread is also micronationpoasting.l Cool place in that, unlike everywhere else, there was no indigenous population to fuck over, which probably had big implications for institutions and governance and such https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cayman_Islands ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737180843217395817) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** somoene remind me to write a forum on post on how widly powerful the defence production act is write a forum on post on how widly powerful the defence production act is ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737187769284219383) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 19, 2023:** This thread is also micronationpoasting.l Cool place in that, unlike everywhere else, there was no indigenous population to fuck over, which probably had big… There are wild chicken here it appears ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBu6_JZWcAASqye.jpg) [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1737187675247972353/pu/img/b9GFb6aR0MaQDw92.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737187769284219383/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737188092635688960) · 7 likes Very load bearing https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1737187769284219383?s=46 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737206187743903821) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 19, 2023:** There are wild chicken here it appears I have been bamboozled by the local roosters (the old tea kettle whistle mix up) ### [Quote tweet, 20:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737207495989371078) · 3 likes Fuck qhe’s smarter and more insightful than me too > **Quoting Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** AI unexpectedly beating any specific benchmark is both evidence that the AI is smarter than predicted, and that the benchmark is easier than predicted ### [Thread, continued, 20:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737207517485105288) · 2 likes Something about this being evidence that I’m dumber and less insightful than previously thought ### [Tweet, 20:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737214427873595531) · 13 likes The elites (literally) don’t want you to know this but you can just buy and add caffeine to things. It’s (almost) free ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737261230723682428) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Sourdough is gross. Too sour. Cancelled ## Wednesday, December 20, 2023 ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 00:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737270117459792044) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 Damn I was honestly hoping you in particular would agree That is so random lmao ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 01:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737283218502475948) · 1 like > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Brazilian study finds that WFH is valued equivalently to +15% more salary by job applicants, more than any other benefit. > > So WFH could be seen as a welfare boost that's huge relative to normal economic growth. > > But it's largely unnoticed. > > (quoting @I_Am_NickBloom: New research from University of Chicago randomized job attributes – including salary – for 1200 on-line applicants in Brazil. They use the number of applications per job-posting to calculate the implied valuation employees placed on these attributes. For example, if 10% higher…) Wonder how much is due to being able to live in lower cost of living areas (ik “able” isn’t super well defined bc theoretically you could eg do a 2 hour commute each way) ### [Tweet, 01:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737284837466095700) · 8 likes Is directed-kidney-donation-to-give illegal? Ie all the “payment” comes in the form of a donation to a legit charity (no kickbacks or anything) ### [Thread, continued, 01:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737285166832263494) · 5 likes Maybe a stronger version of this is “is such a contract court enforceable (after the operation), even if not illegal per se?” ### [Reply to @metakuna, 02:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737293000374415594) · 5 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** Worst decision I ever made was writing my resume in LaTeX. Every time I want to apply for a job I put it off because I know I'll have to deal with inscrutable build errors. This has likely cost me tens of thousands of dollars in lost income Wait have u fixed, possibly with gpt 4? I am no master of productivity but pretty sure a word document could be made ### [Reply to @prerat, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737295568416698745) · 35 likes > **prerat (@prerat):** im curious what the ppl who think it's impossible to ethically make $1B think abt taylor swift. who do they say she is exploiting? her staff? her fans? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBwJF6cXcAAnzlk.jpg) Steelman is like “the critique is more often about having $1B, not “making” it per se. Progressives would be happier if she was taxed more to support those born without 1 in 10M set of circumstances, talents, etc” ### [Reply to @metakuna, 02:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737296324444225716) · 9 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** this is somewhat exaggerated for the sake of the tweet It is a capital offense to exaggerate on twitter ### [Reply, 03:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737314575270256645) · 1 like Pretty sure I got it right based a few other replies ### [Reply to @herbivoryze, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737316312781562183) · 3 likes > **HerbivoRyzing (@herbivoryze):** There are more humane methods for population control of herbivores. > > (quoting @COParksWildlife: A historic day for Colorado and for the first time ever — we released 5 wolves, 3 males and 2 females, in Grand County today. Captured in Oregon, the wolves were evaluated by our veterinarians & biologists, fitted with GPS collars & transported to Colorado for their release.) Great minds 🤝 ### [Tweet, 04:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737326381862715522) · 11 likes Normal-ish people (dozens of people who follow me, at least) who donate 10% should (politely) cyberbully the very wealthy (say net worth >$10M, what “millionaire” meant in 1963) who do not ### [Thread, continued, 04:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737326383716585637) · 4 likes Ik these folks aren’t getting just like a paycheck twice a month, so I think committing X% of consumption spending is the right analogue ### [Reply to @tenobrus, 04:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737329623933821033) · 6 likes > **Tenobrus (@tenobrus):** jesus fucking christ he has literally no remorse > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBwi6YibkAAIBNw.jpg) Wait chaos is a guy? I thought that was a code name Mildly smugly proud of me and my moots bc I’m at least tpot adjacent and don’t recognize this acct ### [Tweet, 04:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737336611916931511) · 6 likes I think I accidentally got ChatGPT/DALLE to in fact try to draw a naked person? Like it refuses if directly asked The guy’s reproductive organs aren’t exactly anatomically accurate, though ### [Thread, continued, 04:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737336625871372583) · 6 likes Pics are unsafe for something, not really sure what https://chat.openai.com/g/g-2fkFE8rbu-dall-e ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBxCcvtXsAA7wWl.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBxCcvvX0AAkpD0.jpg) ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737339928717971878) · 3 likes > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** @AaronBergman18 Making it draw a naked guy instead of girl. Very progressive of you Aaron! Hey ask the inscrutable matrices! ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737533910257426455) · 4 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** The @80000Hours podcast had 80,000 hours listening time in Q3 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBzHVbOWgAAE9vN.png) A sign from god ### [Quote tweet, 18:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737534418619711759) · 42 likes This can’t go on. For such growth to continue, in just 10,000 years every electron would have to be listening to the 80,000 Hours Podcast at all time > **Quoting Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** The @80000Hours podcast had 80,000 hours listening time in Q3 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBzHVbOWgAAE9vN.png) ### [Reply, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737539500459344335) · 1 like I support the chicken 😤🐓 ### [Quote tweet, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737541282057142733) · 9 likes Largely a good take but like also “tribes,” broadly speaking, are the units of society that accomplish things. It’s not an accident companies and political parties have logos and mottos and such > **Quoting Séb Krier (@sebkrier):** 💯💯💯 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBxxrZQXQAACP-H.jpg) ### [Tweet, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737541284582064397) · 1 like Yes, you need to be critical and careful, but identity and labels can be important tools Fwiw my display name with the ⏸️ and 🔎 and disclaimer has been like that for months ### [Thread, continued, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737541362512244768) · 2 likes Cc @eshear in case he wants to jump in ### [Reply to @xsphi, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737548512189894965) · 3 likes > **tess (@xsphi):** when I grow up I want to be a rational actor with perfect information Omg same ### [Reply, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737554379908014417) · 3 likes Cosponsoring ≠ commission voting power ### [Reply to @inerati, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737559062706102321) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ Silent generation imo ### [Quote tweet, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737563937342722290) · 8 likes What if we kissed 👉👈 in the Saraswati Supercluster 🥺 ? > **Quoting Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply (@TylerAlterman):** Log scale view of the universe by Pablo Carlos Budassi > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB0QGZXWoAAQlxV.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737563939389440262) · 2 likes “It is surrounded by a network of galaxy filaments, clusters, and voids.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saraswati_Supercluster ### [Tweet, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737567480640405875) · 6 likes Deeply unserious type of thing https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy ## Thursday, December 21, 2023 ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 01:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737639611424551341) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ 🔥🔥🔥 ### [Tweet, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737642744783523905) · 14 likes Thanks @SpacedOutMatt [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1737642700034236416/pu/img/AxpPwIt4LMVM8BNh.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737642744783523905/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Quote tweet, 01:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737644783584280950) · 2 likes Build the rooster > **Quoting Xander Balwit (@AlexandraBalwit):** This worked marvelously. The Literary Digest reported that Carrel’s cells could have already “covered the earth” and a British tabloid said they could “form a rooster . . .big enough today to cross the Atlantic in a single stride.” ### [Reply to @visakanv, 01:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737647909582320093) · 2 likes > **Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv):** sitting on ideas tonite? > > doing nothing with your ideas tonite king? > > hoarding ideas tonite? > > (quoting @kaavyya: sitting on the pile of your brilliant unexecuted ideas all by yourself handsome?) Ya ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 02:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737655777043644761) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 @SpacedOutMatt wtf this is too fucking adorable Real🐓 ### [Reply to @eshear, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737658213967786250) · 8 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** there’s a poster who posts politics i follow mostly for their other takes but the politics stuff is funny enough i haven’t unfollowed…and i recently keep getting confused bc they seem to be contradicting themselves a lot. > i just realized it’s two diff ppl w similar avatars. Many such cases @SpacedOutMatt and @GjMcGowan ### [Reply to @univrsw3th4rt, 03:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737673292972961861) · 2 likes > **universe sweetheart 💓🌈💭 (@univrsw3th4rt):** i’m so cold, how am i supposed to function @SpacedOutMatt @Laura_k_Duffy ### [Thread, continued, 03:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737673341866000481) · 2 likes Cold ppl gc? ### [Reply to @shakoistsLog, 03:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737673700395147559) · 4 likes > **shako (@shakoistsLog):** A notable autistic moment from undergrad was when at age 18 I met another student in a dining hall who told me he was a communist, and I got out my micro econ textbook to explain to him why he was specifically wrong. Based ### [Reply to @edavidds, 03:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737674102121398356) · 3 likes > **Eric Schmidt 🇺🇦 (@edavidds):** OK we absolutely, ASAP, need a hit movie that uses a time-loop gimmick to depict humanity wiping itself out with AI over and over in dozens of diverse, increasingly sophisticated ways. > > Until our hero (Tom Cruise?) finally spurs the world into coordinated effort on AI alignment. I think the ending should be that we in fact all die Movies like this are always too optimistic ### [Reply, 03:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737675432848216272) · 1 like Who is this? ### [Tweet, 03:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737676618670239796) · 6 likes May all sentient have exactly the number of rabbits they wish to have, as long as those rabbits are happy ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737691052751089888) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @ilex_ulmus @AaronBergman18 My serious take on this is that they’re definitely more work than cats but similar in terms of total effort to a dog Wait what Rabbit ≈ dog?? That is insane ### [Tweet, 04:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737696953771692135) · 9 likes DAE have this thing where u say something, then ur brain generates smth to say about what u just said, but before u say the second thing this cycle iterates again and again until 1-2 seconds later ur like 3-5 meta levels up and ur brain-speech system crashes and reboots ### [Thread, continued, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737697379862581415) · 4 likes Another way of putting this is that ur brain thinks whatever it just decided to say is common has already been said and so is common knowledge irl but u haven’t actually spoken yet ### [Reply to @Aizazadi_, 04:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737698489407066461) · 3 likes > **Aizazadi (@Aizazadi_):** This image is a good litmus test > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB2JRtwbMAA4fIC.jpg) COPYRIGHT VIOLATION ### [Reply, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737700079333413188) · 2 likes Idk evidently I’m not amazing but I ~only play board games with anomalously smart EA/rationalist ppl so who even knows ### [Thread, continued, 05:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737700339288068483) · 4 likes Secret hitler though I am absolutely terrible at, as @SpacedOutMatt and @Laura_k_Duffy can attest ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737865987297288575) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** WAIT has anyone started a podcast called ‘consistently candid’ yet or is that still up for grabs > > (quoting @littIeramblings: god I know I shouldn’t start a podcast but I really really want to someone talk me out of it) You gotta be consistently candidmaxxing ### [Quote tweet, 16:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737870761812009432) · 14 likes I see no actual problems here?? > **Quoting Aitor Hernández-Morales (@aitorehm):** Spectacular illustration by @andreu_zaragoza for 'The Barcelonian' perfectly summing up the devastating impact of uncontrolled tourist flats in European cities. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB3o0ELXgAA2NYl.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737870872847786013) · 8 likes It’s just real life now > **Quoting Nick St. Pierre (@nickfloats):** Midjourney > > Dec 2022 (v4): Dec 2023 (v6): > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB35bmLWUAA9lPc.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB35bmKWoAABA12.jpg) ### [Reply to @mbateman, 16:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737871082634322403) · 2 likes > **Matt Bateman (@mbateman):** 3yo’s school Christmas recital > > The set of occasions for which she considers these boots suboptimal is empty > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB4ZEyUaQAEKDXX.jpg) The boots stay ON during recital😤😤😤 ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 16:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737872783097438675) · 5 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** If we fix longevity, we could save our mums 🥲 > > But for real. > > (quoting @RichardMCNgo: We typically think about progress as being constrained by the supply of breakthroughs. But what if it’s better understood as demand-side constrained? If people really believed their lives could be much better, they’d reward innovation far more, and put up fewer barriers to it.) Ya I don’t want my mom to die 🥺 ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737885703269212390) · 2 likes > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** @AaronBergman18 In the actual illustration or the concept itself ? 😂 The illustration, although this is a good point and yes supply restrictions could make this an issue irl ### [Tweet, 17:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737890638060806224) · 14 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB46UuNWAAAELaB.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737917401205756139) · 22 likes Being kind, even when it’s socially acceptable not to be, is highly underrated > **Quoting Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** As a culture, we're too tolerant of meanness > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB5PCKZXwAA05ee.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737949195280257113) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 19, 2023:** I have been bamboozled by the local roosters (the old tea kettle whistle mix up) It’s a beautiful day to walk around listening to podcasts while sorta being annoyed at the fact that it’s either sand or highway ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB5vkWuW0AAlqyk.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB5vkW-XIAAtDvd.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB5vkWtWEAA-E4R.jpg) ### [Reply to @atrembath, 23:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737984478067167685) · 47 likes > **Alex Trembath (@atrembath):** eat mor chikin > > https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2023/12/climate-diet-vegetarian-chicken/676921/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB46JyVagAAiijg.jpg) Bad idea, and no the two things are not incomparable: the direct animal suffering effect is far more important than the climate effect https://www.vox.com/videos/2017/5/27/15701168/save-animal-lives-eat-beef-not-chicken ## Friday, December 22, 2023 ### [Reply to @iamaheron_, 00:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737988704231186714) · 2 likes > **sniper (heron) (@iamaheron_):** look i think it’s time we can just admit it > > we’re all feds, right? Ya (I interned at a federal agency once) ### [Tweet, 00:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1737998250676813911) · 7 likes Someone should hire @absurdlymax fr He exists irl I can attest ### [Reply, 02:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738025505587114107) · 1 like What does he know ### [Quote tweet, 02:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738029963079487905) · 7 likes Unfortunately my proposal to set the goal to $10B-$1T was rejected But I say go big. DM ur favorite rich person, start a company- we can make that $25k goal look silly and naive > **Quoting Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** The EA Twitter 2023 Giving Season Fundraiser is live! @aaronbergman18, @absurdlymax, @Laura_k_Duffy, and I are raising money for the EA funds Animal Welfare Fund to celebrate the holiday season! We hope you'll join us! > https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/fundraisers/ea-twitter-23 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 02:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738030061142323609) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** It's time for the second annual EA twitter fundraiser! > > https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/fundraisers/ea-twitter-23 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB63h8zWQAAPch_.jpg) Based ### [Tweet, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738033784853766263) · 100 likes Alright guys, we are raising money for the EA Animal Welfare Fund bc some animals are not having as much fun as this chicken and that’s gotta change The “goal” is $15k but personally I think that’s ~6 OOMs too low https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/fundraisers/ea-twitter-23 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB68eOkWwAAm7b7.jpg) [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1738033733565919232/pu/img/b7GPvh0J1J0FwX_0.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738033784853766263/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Thread, continued, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738033788104360406) · 29 likes Also brag tf out of ur donation Screenshot that mf and hit tweet. This is not the time to be humble. The shrimp are counting on u ### [Thread, continued, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738033789752754593) · 11 likes The incentives aren’t set in stone - plz suggest unhinged things for me to do, no holds barred 😤 ### [Reply to @jvboid, 03:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738038148997783679) · 4 likes > **Jacob (@jvboid):** @AaronBergman18 I think I've got a spare 15k, been looking for a way to make a real difference. Just reply with your full bank account info below👇 and it'll be routed right away Im pretty sure this is a joke lol ### [Quote tweet, 03:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738042195184165323) · 3 likes R is better > **Quoting Science girl (@sciencegirl):** This guy in Bankok found an enormous python in his house > https://x.com/SintoniaMundo/status/1735714186934587564/video/1 ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738045426283004214) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Frances 80k arc ### [Reply, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738053470077251793) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ ACE and EA Animal welfare fund are different things. Here’s all the info on the latter https://funds.effectivealtruism.org/funds/animal-welfare ### [Thread, continued, 04:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738053740819550386) · 1 like Yeah it’s legit. I wouldn’t call ACE “bullshit” but think there are fair ideological capture critiques ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 14:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738208827500003492) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** why did jesus give me covid for his birthday > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB8jfY9XQAAhkye.jpg) Rip ### [Reply to @gracevadams, 14:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738210337290080610) · 2 likes > **Grace Adams 🔸 (@gracevadams):** 100 counterfactual dollars 🥰 I'd like to see someone out do @mealreplacer's jump into a shallow pond this year > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB78zpSaAAAVyxY.jpg) 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼💸💸💸 ### [Thread, continued, 14:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738210565346984006) · 2 likes Ya I can jump into some water. The more money, the colder I’ll do. $100k and I’ll go full polar bear plunge ### [Quote tweet, 15:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738216044194394378) · 3 likes Base rates say I wont actually do it but this is a blog post I should write I’ve made the point before but yeah people should start actually doing EA instead of pattern matchy cargo culty “what EA looks like” > **Quoting zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** @peter_wilde_alt We need a sequel to “Doing Good Better” - should be called “No. Not Good. Try Harder.” ### [Reply to @Psycholosopher, 15:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738216306082541887) · 3 likes > **Blart magician girl 🔎 (@Psycholosopher):** But AI can’t ever be dangerous because it has to have experience with the real world to REALLY be creative > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB9a0wGXgAEEeiP.jpg) “It’s not true ingenuity!” I cry as the novel molecule erodes my organs ### [Quote tweet, 15:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738218439712399826) · 8 likes Can someone tell me if I should care about this > **Quoting Nathan Labenz (@labenz):** For Christmas this year, I got you an updated AI worldview! > > tl;dr – the new Mamba architecture marks the end of the Transformers Era and the beginning of a new Mixture of Architectures Era, with profound impact > > Over 2.5 hours (link below), I cover this from every angle, including: > > \- core aspects of human cognition that Transformers effectively mimic > > \- Transformers' critical weakness that invites something new > > \- why RAG is not enough to power long-lived AI assistants, companions, etc > > \- an introduction to State Space Models, and the prospect of integrated, long-term memory for AI systems > > \- how the new Mamba architecture works, from conceptual motivation to hardware-aware algorithm design, including the roles of different memory types (SRAM vs HBM) on modern GPUs > > \- overview of results and analysis of why simple head-to-head comparisons of Mamba vs Transformers are powerful proof points but miss the big picture implications > > \- likely elaboration of this architecture, including "multi-state models" and integration of SSMs with Transformers, as already previewed by the new StripedHyena model, Block-State Transformers paper, and more > > \- the new long-context training datasets we will need to create to make the most of these models, which will look more like onboarding & training a new employee vs compiling discrete tasks > > \- how this naturally leads to more coherent, predictable, legible, appropriate behavior from AI agents > > \- implications for future generations of hardware, application development including AI assistants and friends, AI safety research, and even the prospect of AI consciousness and moral worth > > \- why all this latent potential, combined with recent results in AI-powered scientific exploration, suggest the beginning of a genuine intelligence explosion > > Buckle up!! ### [Tweet, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738223003400573124) · 14 likes Correct take. Here's a redirect site: https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/link ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB9ojFRXUAAS99C.jpg) ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 16:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738235153464348952) · 5 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** Very happy to announce my book has a cover! > > (quoting @thiagovscoelho: ) U should do this fr ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 16:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738235250390585484) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** Arm the moderate quopposition 🫡 Lmao ### [Tweet, 17:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738243017834643521) · 7 likes Baby chickens go “🐥” [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1738242449858822144/pu/img/t2MND7e-r7bZ73Ly.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738243017834643521/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Tweet, 17:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738243310014054521) · 9 likes Best replacement for laundry detergent? ### [Reply to @gelionexists, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738245226488021067) · 2 likes > **GE Lion (@gelionexists):** @AaronBergman18 Go to the store, ya filthy animal For one laundry cycle? Cheems mindset ### [Reply to @ownworstemily, 17:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738245416930406716) · 19 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ownworstemily is no longer available.)_ Hey I can do that and I’m not even an alcoholic ### [Tweet, 17:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738246135251148840) · 6 likes “Nooo u can’t take 4 of your as-needed-3-per-day-medication-with-no-known-upper-limit-intake medication noooo” \- guy who does coke ### [Tweet, 17:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738247721352380773) · 13 likes Based, also very un-based that Obama didn’t do this Also based second order effect that nobody can try to claim mass incarceration is due to weed convictions ### [Reply, 17:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738252469233184938) · 1 like Don’t have any at condo we’re renting ### [Tweet, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738264142161530945) · 111 likes Lmao finally got burned by copy and pasting a ChatGPT command into terminal with zero consideration I think all my computer files have been weirdly rearranged but not deleted ### [Thread, continued, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738264144699154490) · 14 likes It was “find . -type f -exec mv {} . \\;” But accidentally in my home folder with like everything I’ve created (not the operating system stuff) instead of a sub folder ### [Thread, continued, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738264146414645425) · 5 likes And then I force quit terminal and restarted my computer when I saw that I had been bamboozled so the thing didn’t complete ### [Thread, continued, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738264148398497942) · 3 likes .@austinc3301 how fucked am I? ### [Reply to @alt_truistic, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738266656135114824) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @alt_truistic is no longer available.)_ Fuck ### [Thread, continued, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738266763131765234) · 2 likes You can call around to local pharmacies and ask if they have it in stock, but it has to be the exact thing ur prescribed ### [Quote tweet, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738267789599662470) · 8 likes This is the weird medical quasi prison complex Basically unconstitutional incarceration (IMO) without conviction but happens all the time to basically schizophrenics Generally they don’t call it jail, they call it a mental hospital, but either way you’re not allowed to leave > **Quoting Eric Schmidt 🇺🇦 (@edavidds):** Seriously, this story about an 18-year-old autistic boy is insane. What are we doing?? \*life\* in a type of jail?? ### [Reply to @sam_atis, 18:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738269603321541042) · 4 likes > **Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** @AaronBergman18 Do you think it’s a bad thing? It’s certainly not optimal and I’m gonna say “yes” because the principle of \*ever\* allowing extrajudicial imprisonment is extremely dangerous In terms of the actual, more direct effects, I really don’t have a grasp on the statistics and such so idk ### [Reply to @sam_atis, 18:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738270882156470683) · 2 likes > **Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** @AaronBergman18 Interesting, seems quite likely to be good to me. People who are wrongly stuck in the system have no mechanism of appeal Seems bad ### [Reply, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738293507494694956) ChatGPT doesn’t think such a thing exists, and .zsh_history only has my inputted commands, not that kind of thing Is there smth else ur thinking of? ### [Thread, continued, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738294255360114802) · 2 likes lol this history file is pretty funny. 90% are like "pip install srt" but every so often there are a few lines that I obviously copy and pasted like "ffmpeg -i conv1.mp3 -vf "scale=1280:720,drawbox=y=0:color=black@1.0" -c:v libx264 -tune stillimage -c:a copy conv1.mp4\\" ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738297335208173680) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 I mean just looking at the command you appear to have moved every file within your home folder to your home folder Lit ### [Reply, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738297814000509147) · 1 like WAIT YO I HAVE BACKBLAZE MAYBE THATS SOMETHING ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 20:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738300753230377363) · 3 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** Hey thanks again for saving me from that shallow pond the other day Any time 👍 The electrocution burns are healing nicely ### [Quote tweet, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738312054090453115) · 2 likes In my defense the moral realist view is fighting an uphill battle > **Quoting sarah (@littIeramblings):** First podcast episode now live! > > @AaronBergman18 and @absurdlymax argue about moral realism and I try to decide who I agree with > > https://open.spotify.com/show/1EX89qABpb4pGYP1JLZ3BB?si=R8A9IkJBTo-pD1NP0NpqHQ ## Saturday, December 23, 2023 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 02:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738381321301344519) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @RafaRuizdeLira @littIeramblings @AaronBergman18 Also I want Aaron to be right so philosophy can be inherently useful and then I can just get a Phil PhD to maximize my impact Me being right wouldn’t make philosophy inherently useful lol It could make some philosophy actions like publishing a paper objectively good though ### [Reply, 10:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738505757329342563) · 1 like I mean maybe, I think what I think and could be wrong about what to label that But isn’t moral realism like “some moral claims have objective truth values” and I think “it would be good for you to donate to our fundraiser” such a claim? ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 10:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738505878519849041) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @frances\_\_lorenz @littIeramblings @AaronBergman18 And Sarah had great questions, I think she genuinely did the optimal amount of prep given the cost of time YES ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 10:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738506596710289521) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @frances\_\_lorenz @littIeramblings @AaronBergman18 And Sarah had great questions, I think she genuinely did the optimal amount of prep given the cost of time Never forget the legendary Pigeon Hour Bathroom Break (has since been removed 😔) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCBqiNdWIAA-xDt.jpg) ### [Reply to @mwjcoughlin, 10:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738507213059051594) · 2 likes > **Michael Coughlin (@mwjcoughlin):** You were talking about the difference between axiological and deontic value: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781444367072.wbiee118 > > Here’s a short but good video explaining the difficulty of deriving deontic value from axiological value (but he doesn’t use that terminology): https://youtu.be/ok3QiJrcm9w?si=LXnm1-DpyY04YvJy Philosophers be making distinctions fr ### [Reply, 10:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738507475576651788) · 1 like Noooooo ### [Reply to @sam_atis, 10:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738509199695351832) · 4 likes > **Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** This idea was ahead of its time. 2024 is the year we finally build these things 🫡 > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Serious question for #YIMBYTwitter: where height restrictions per se are the issue, why haven’t developers started building vertically but \*down\*, underground? I mean windowless apartments don’t sound ideal, but probably less bad than unaffordability and homelessness) 🫡it’s time to build ⬇️ ### [Reply to @panchromaticity, 10:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738509239893524787) · 1 like > **Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** which of the 941 of you will say hi? > > (quoting @ElfBeautyAudrey: I only have 189 followers, but how many will say hi?) Hi ### [Reply to @Bonecondor, 10:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738510285281918998) · 7 likes > **Chairman Birb Bernanke (@Bonecondor):** i for one think more people should marry their reply guys > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB_HAPZXQAA7KEh.jpg) @absurdlymax @ohwizenedtortle looks like we’re getting married ### [Reply to @inerati, 10:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738511063061090581) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ Ya and it’s kinda sus like it shouldnt be possible ### [Reply to @alt_truistic, 10:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738511389323317748) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @alt_truistic is no longer available.)_ Cereal, rooms, and amphetamines - name a better combo ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 10:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738512602638987367) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ The stew is \*for\* the rabbit right? Right?? 😰 ### [Reply to @eshear, 10:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738513966874148910) · 1 like > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** This seems very promising tho a little heavy handed on the rewriting. Endorse this. At least the paid version has multiple levels/heavy handedness of rewriting ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 11:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738522862871269382) · 4 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** hahahaha oh that would be so silly right? hahaha omg you and me and max get married?? hahaha that's such a dumb idea hahaha right? unlesss..... 😳🥵 ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 11:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738524805052137626) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax @frances\_\_lorenz @littIeramblings I was like "I don't remember this but it sounds like something I'd do" Other Nathan! ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 11:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738524898383819059) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** (sincere moment) I’ve really made a concerted effort in the last 6 months to treat myself better, I think I’ve succeeded & (I hope) it’s helping me treat other people better too > > (quoting @Khanstilldayy: EVERYONE INCLUDED; Please brag to me about a thing you did in 2023 that you’re proud of?) Lit ### [Tweet, 11:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738526299172360640) · 7 likes Not sure I like the incentives where if you’re a chain restaurant you get a free grassroots marketing campaign if one of your products causes a person’s death ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 14:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738566845198659898) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Christmas self-gift :) @hanno_sauer > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCCbl6QXEAAEziN.jpg) I can read that 😎 Call my El Dios del Español ### [Quote tweet, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738595751427477598) · 25 likes Based and etg pilled Also more ppl should be trying to make a shit ton of money (no fraud this time) to give away > **Quoting Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** 3\. Earning to give is significantly underrated and more people who are trying to get EA jobs should do this instead > > ETG people free up research organizations to pursue their own agendas and diffuse risk ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 16:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738596941850611931) · 9 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** 8\. I put the risk of AI causing an existential catastrophe near zero. > > And I think that efforts to pause or regulate it preemptively are likely to cause more damage to the economy in the form of slower growth than it’s likely to cause from alignment reasons 100% earnestly trying to understand… Do u just not give ~any weight to an outside view “maybe I’m just missing something that the dozens-hundreds of other people (inc Ord in The Precipice) + prediction markets see”? ### [Thread, continued, 16:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738596995047075990) · 6 likes Tbh anything below ~3% seems basically unserious to me for this reason ### [Quote tweet, 16:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738597589266665590) · 103 likes LFG, milestone achieved; 1 like = 1 hot take There is no limit. Pile on, I will generate 1M hot takes if need be, mark my word 😤 > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Alright guys, we are raising money for the EA Animal Welfare Fund bc some animals are not having as much fun as this chicken and that’s gotta change > > The “goal” is $15k but personally I think that’s ~6 OOMs too low > > https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/fundraisers/ea-twitter-23 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB68eOkWwAAm7b7.jpg) > [video attached](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738033784853766263/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738600593525027151) · 6 likes 0\) there are 44 bonus hot takes here These are all EA related so this thread will be more general ### [Thread, continued, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738601782215877119) · 23 likes 1\) I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again: the FDA is very, very bad, and we’d be better off if it did not exist Congress can make laws restricting the supply of very dangerous (fentanyl) or high externality (antibiotics) drugs ### [Thread, continued, 16:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738601959899144206) · 15 likes I shouldn’t need a prescription for \[insert ur fave drug here\] Not gonna debate/discuss this much but there are a bunch of threads u can find where I do ### [Thread, continued, 16:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738602594530967934) · 6 likes 2\) I think the seed oil people might be right (40%?) and it’s worth avoiding corn/peanut/soybean/etc oils if you care about your health, most of the time, for most people ### [Thread, continued, 16:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738603170979258380) · 19 likes 3\) this should have (had) more of an impact on EA https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/gtGe8WkeFvqucYLAF/logarithmic-scales-of-pleasure-and-pain-rating-ranking-and ### [Thread, continued, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738603998725247443) · 8 likes 4\) 40 degrees Fahrenheit is tank top weather No I don’t have hyperthyroidism I’m just weird ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738613818643620326) · 4 likes > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** @AaronBergman18 @Laura_k_Duffy Tbh anything below ~3% for the existence of God as described in the Hebrew bible is unserious to me for this reason Cmon dude you’re smarter than that If the case for a biblical God had the same supporters with the same quality of reasoning and such, yeah ### [Thread, continued, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738614048801870313) · 2 likes Also 3% for God doesn’t seem crazy, I haven’t thought as much about this as I should have lol ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 17:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738618624187715827) · 2 likes > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** @AaronBergman18 @Laura_k_Duffy but then the actual arguments are what really matters, no? > > Historically speaking, the case for God has probably many more great minds in support than AI doomerism. And to think that our beloved EAs could not fall pray to groupthink and motivated reasoning is silly At some point yes I’m just not smart enough and don’t have enough time to literally evaluate every argument ever made, so have to use proxies (does this person seem earnest, smart and thoughtful?), and processes/institutions (eg science, prediction markets) ### [Thread, continued, 17:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738618705704047053) · 1 like And further, this is the case for literally everyone (every human at least) ### [Thread, continued, 17:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738618963767013809) Hmm to be kinda pedantic, the ground level thing is the state of the world and laws of physics, not the arguments. The arguments are a level on top of that ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 17:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738619702279110998) · 1 like > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** @JMannhart @AaronBergman18 @Laura_k_Duffy First off, the alignment framing takes for granted that doom is certain if alignment is not possible. > > 2nd, I want to know who these idealized agents with no cognitive biases are who are investigating AI alignment “epistemically,” as opposed to how people reason about God. 1\) no it doesn’t? 2\) there are no idealized agents. I’m trying to evaluate how good groups of people are at reasoning and my current belief is that the EA/rationality/alignment communities are much, much better than the God-existence-debate community ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738621279886864741) · 1 like > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** @AaronBergman18 @Laura_k_Duffy Tbh anything below ~3% for the existence of God as described in the Hebrew bible is unserious to me for this reason Wait I feel like ~5% is a pretty decent probability actually lol ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 18:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738624717781680438) · 2 likes > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** @AaronBergman18 @JMannhart @Laura_k_Duffy Realizing in real-time how much I hate having these discussions over Twitter. Pigeon Hour topic, maybe? 🙂 🔥🔥🔥 It is long overdue ### [Quote tweet, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738626416332116127) · 4 likes Big if true > **Quoting Rona Wang (@ronawang):** i’m tired of dating app conversations that never lead to anything, so my friends & i spent the last week building a platform that schedules dates as soon as you match. > > if you want to fall in love irl & not through a screen, join us at http://irldat.ing ❤️ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCDOyGjbMAAY4Jd.png) ### [Reply to @ronawang, 18:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738627184439201794) · 4 likes > **Rona Wang (@ronawang):** i’m tired of dating app conversations that never lead to anything, so my friends & i spent the last week building a platform that schedules dates as soon as you match. > > if you want to fall in love irl & not through a screen, join us at http://irldat.ing ❤️ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCDOyGjbMAAY4Jd.png) The people of Washington, DC are rioting ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCDYNbxWsAASO2B.jpg) ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 18:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738632301783793971) · 2 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** 15\. A non-trivial amount of the anti-car stuff feels very culture war-y. > > We are too dependent upon cars, we should price their externalities, and we need more transit options. > > But cars are fun, convenient, and the most realistic option in many places (+ shouldn't be banned!) Ya I’m low key pro car. Very convenient ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 18:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738632594009288946) · 4 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** Male hobbies are either fast and dangerous or slow and meticulous. > > (inclusive or) Hmm what is a fast and meticulous hobby? Juggling? Some types of cooking? ### [Reply to @a_real_society, 19:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738637030907576379) · 2 likes > **society (@a_real_society):** I'm home for Christmas and if you want some insight into my personality here's my childhood bathroom bookshelf > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCDg3hfWwAAeTfG.jpg) Bathroom bookshelf??? ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738639148569723295) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 23, 2023:** 4\) 40 degrees Fahrenheit is tank top weather No I don’t have hyperthyroidism I’m just weird 5\) (maybe especially spicy given the context) It is unfortunately the case that veganism is not sustainably healthy for most people (Still should optimize pretty hard for suffering minimization though) ### [Thread, continued, 19:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738641305507373136) · 11 likes 6\) sourdough is insufficiently sour ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 19:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738643069447053804) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** charlie chaplin would have gone wild here > > (quoting @sciencegirl: How waves impact life aboard a ship.) This looks so much fun ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738645317438914925) · 1 like > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @shouldhaveanima @AaronBergman18 weird bear THEYRE EVOLVING ### [Reply to @NinaPanickssery, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738646061231591804) · 3 likes > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** My controversial Christmas opinion is that it's bad that parents lie to kids about Santa. > > Maybe I'd make an exception if the parents employed some meta-honesty "we're going to pretend 0-3 fictional phenomena are real this year, your challenge is to guess which". Based. Treat kids like people ### [Reply to @exfatloss, 19:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738646481442050392) · 1 like > **exfatloss🥛 (@exfatloss):** In which avoiding the sun makes you die sooner > > (quoting @IchorGrad: "A 15-year prospective follow-up of the Melanoma in Southern Sweden (MISS) cohort of women demonstrated a significant dose-dependent decrease in all-cause mortality with increasing sun exposure habits and the mortality rate was doubled (2.0, 95% CI 1.6–2.5) among those avoiding…) Confounders, plausibly ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738646891871568287) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 23, 2023:** 6\) sourdough is insufficiently sour 7\) you should lmk which UpToDate articles you want bc I got u but can’t rly share login info because I got it from a friend ### [Thread, continued, 19:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738647104396873966) · 12 likes 8\) we have no idea if computers can be conscious and high confidence either way is clearly not warranted ### [Quote tweet, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738651267608478043) · 13 likes I’m starting the Culturally Jewish Athiests (and hard core Jews and people of all religions and lack thereof, we don’t discriminate) for Christmas Aesthetics Movement, who’s with me? > **Quoting Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** Half the fun of Christmas is ambiance maxxxing. If your living room doesn’t look like santa’s workshop by dec 1st you’re simply ngmi. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCDkcjnaIAAc1Vf.jpg) ### [Reply to @stevekrouse, 20:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738651889103753349) · 3 likes > **Steve Krouse (@stevekrouse):** now it's live at http://dateme.directory! > > (quoting @stevekrouse: just rebuilt (most of) the http://dateme.directory 100% on val town! frontend -> val town preact ssr backend -> val town deno database -> val town sqlite (@tursodatabase)) Lmaooo representing with that double-A first name ### [Reply to @mmt_lvt, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738653421589193016) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mmt_lvt is no longer available.)_ We’re gonna be Hanukkahmaxxing in one room tho ### [Reply to @stevekrouse, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738654526561800454) · 1 like > **Steve Krouse (@stevekrouse):** @AaronBergman18 Want me to add it? Yes thanks that would be great! ### [Reply, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738655525095522740) · 1 like I have no idea what this means lmao ### [Reply to @christineist, 20:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738661093944230019) · 1 like > **christine (@christineist):** I can spot someone without an internal compass from a mile away Like a moral compass or literal sense of direction Bc I’m guilty on one of these ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 21:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738666019432837424) · 2 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** I’m sorry, but isn’t it obvious that there are both mistakes and genuine conflicts? And there are people who theorize about the world as a mix of both mistakes \*and\* conflicts? > > I see both all around me. I think most of the time you can view the same phenomenon through either lens And one can be more reasonable or appropriate or whatever but not exactly “correct” ### [Reply to @testaccountoki, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738667521069195537) · 6 likes > **not a sloth (@testaccountoki):** ??? I HAD NO IDEA THIS IS WHAT IT MEANT > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCA1Z_GXQAA0CRh.jpg) I thought it was just like being kinda silly ### [Reply to @sama, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738667735121268840) · 3 likes > **Sam Altman (@sama):** what would you like openai to build/fix in 2024? The alignment problem ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738668473570504967) · 2 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** 19\. I don’t think we can know this for sure, but I would be surprised if animals like chickens and mammals couldn’t feel the same amount of hedonic pain as us > > (But I don’t think this means you have to give them equal moral weight) Hot fucking take (I’d be surprised but not shocked if they could) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738668723978780853) · 9 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 23, 2023:** 8\) we have no idea if computers can be conscious and high confidence either way is clearly not warranted 9\) Taylor Swift is overrated She should be highly rated but not have total cultural hegemony ### [Thread, continued, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738670397560692766) · 9 likes 10\) 80k is genuinely the best podcast and a plurality (maybe majority) of my knowledge about EA comes from it From 16-19 listening to it was 99% of my “engagement” with EA Also new ep with @labenz just dropped https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/80-000-hours-podcast/id1245002988?i=1000639489404 ### [Reply to @amylabenz, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738670661185237084) · 2 likes > **Amy Labenz 🔸 (@amylabenz):** @labenz and @robertwiblin in one place! https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/nathan-labenz-openai-red-team-safety/ Huge ### [Reply to @christineist, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738670773290631624) · 3 likes > **christine (@christineist):** like a strong sense of self, intrinsic motivation, self direction Ah, secret third thing ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738671695257329894) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 23, 2023:** 10\) 80k is genuinely the best podcast and a plurality (maybe majority) of my knowledge about EA comes from it From 16-19 listening to it was 99% of my… 11\) if ur also an 80k fanperson, u should consider listening to the time I interviewed @robertwiblin and @KeiranJHarris about it Self plug ik but like I’m not gonna pretend it wasn’t cool lol https://80000hours.org/after-hours-podcast/episodes/rob-and-keiran-on-the-philosophy-of-the-80000-hours-podcast/ ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 22:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738685458941419914) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** take as much time as u need on the first one srsly no rush xoxoxo 🫡 ### [Reply to @michaelcurzi, 22:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738687228258226279) · 5 likes > **𝖒𝖎𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖊𝖑𝖈𝖚𝖗𝖟𝖎 (@michaelcurzi):** Why is this the funniest thing I've ever seen 😂 you all sound like this sometimes > > [video attached](https://x.com/michaelcurzi/status/1738665535913468009/video/1) Punish the left tail of cringe and you get a rightward shift toward cynicism/no sincerity/conformity ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 22:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738689571183808754) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @robertwiblin is no longer available.)_ 🙏🏼🎅🎄 ### [Reply to @RokoMijic, 23:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738699292825600485) · 3 likes > **Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** \> "if you read a book in 2023, you fucked up, and you should have read 10,000 tweets instead" > > 🎯 > > (quoting @JgaltTweets: I haven't read a book in like 10 years, honestly. I think if you read a book in 2023, you fucked up, and you should have read 10,000 tweets instead) Honestly should have read 1000 EAF/LW/ACX/80k/dwarkesh/pigeon hour\*/adjacent blog posts and podcasts \*top priority ### [Quote tweet, 23:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738701573742612678) · 6 likes C’mon guys like $200/$2700 has been accounted for Ur humility instinct is misgeneralizing, start poasting screenshots > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Also brag tf out of ur donation > > Screenshot that mf and hit tweet. This is not the time to be humble. The shrimp are counting on u ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738705484041920744) · 18 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 23, 2023:** 11\) if ur also an 80k fanperson, u should consider listening to the time I interviewed @robertwiblin and @KeiranJHarris about it Self plug ik but like I’m not… 12\) 10% is mostly arbitrary, I’d like to see more of a “marginal, progressive taxation” norm which maybe asymptotes around to 100% as income goes to infinity Maybe like 1% up to $50k, then 10% to $50k-100k, 20% $100k-200k, 30% $200k-300k or something ### [Reply, 23:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738708110326313175) Me trying to choose between slow release and maybe getting hit with laced meth and dying (pure methamphetamine is basically as safe as adderall, which is to say quite safe at normally prescribed doses) [![Choices Sesamo GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/GCEhzx3XIAEmUMR.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738708110326313175/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738710455353299448) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 23, 2023:** 12\) 10% is mostly arbitrary, I’d like to see more of a “marginal, progressive taxation” norm which maybe asymptotes around to 100% as income goes to infinity… Great minds ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCEj8ZgX0AAGemE.jpg) ## Sunday, December 24, 2023 ### [Reply to @Ryan_Gasoline, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738711236483711148) · 1 like > **Ryan Gasoline (@Ryan_Gasoline):** Sometimes GPT gets pretty dark > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCAkLcIagAAkvW5.jpg) 😰 ### [Quote tweet, 00:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738720322222756316) · 12 likes Lfg 😎🦐😎🦐😎 > **Quoting Avish Kumar (@_AK1089_):** @AaronBergman18 😎 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCEoapkXEAEHU9R.jpg) ### [Reply to @relic_radiation, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738722610333024522) · 7 likes > **Elena Lake 🌿 (@relic_radiation):** what an incredible title. I love the audaciousness to aim for a world that is massively psychologically (& inner-experientially) better > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCB9SGabAAAmkj4.jpg) Bruh “net” ### [Reply to @shakaz_, 00:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738722766881239419) · 2 likes > **shakaz (@shakaz_):** damn net-zero, could a ultra-super healed person offset someone with complex ptsd? It’s just @nickcammarata vs every Iraq veteran ### [Quote tweet, 00:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738723592769069566) · 4 likes Free my man (financially, by hiring him) > **Quoting Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** This for me as well, minus linguistics (I know about axiology though!), and I'm also looking for work ### [Reply to @MoreBirths, 00:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738723895018967149) · 5 likes > **More Births (@MoreBirths):** Congratulations Scott Alexander! With @slatestarcodex all in with team pro-natalism, I'm feeling good about our chances! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCCEFdvXgAADHXR.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCCEGJyX0AEeYuQ.jpg) Start training them in blog post writing right away ### [Reply to @animalologist, 00:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738724850468814852) · 5 likes > **taco belle (@animalologist):** Ngl I’ve often made men wait days (or weeks, or months) to kiss me this year and every single time, that first kiss has been crazy intense. Don’t take the first chance, let it simmer for a while > > (quoting @vtpyra: insane concept but the first kiss with the person you’ve been dying to kiss is probably the best feeling in the entire world) Congrats u caused multiple person-weeks of self-doubt and low grade anxiety (I’m half joking, you don’t owe anyone a kiss and evidently there are benefits but still) ### [Tweet, 01:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738727714276737425) · 23 likes Sister and I had a longish conversation last night where we explained to our parents how they were overprotective our entire childhoods ### [Thread, continued, 01:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738727716013191474) · 12 likes There was no big healing or conflict or anything, but if there are still humans around in a few years inshallah we\* will try to not do the same thing \*just my sister probably lol ### [Quote tweet, 01:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738727926785310763) · 6 likes 🤑🐓🤑🐔🤑 > **Quoting Dan (@BishopPair):** @AaronBergman18 If you insist > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCEy_QDW4AA_kRB.jpg) ### [Reply, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738735379237187588) · 2 likes Damn that’s a lot. That’s very roughly equivalent to a 10% pay bump from an individual perspective ### [Reply to @littmath, 01:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738738036911833256) · 9 likes > **Daniel Litt (@littmath):** incredible that the first few digits of pi are “3.14159265” — the chance of that happening is only 1 in a billion Hmm plausibly the chance is 1 ### [Tweet, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738739030819319886) · 10 likes The bots have a personality now ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCE97ppWIAEa3Az.jpg) ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 02:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738751600590569825) · 1 like > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** being excessively worried about your health is comorbid with all sorts of things you wouldnt expect Like actually having health issues lol ### [Tweet, 15:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738938045749981604) · 7 likes Pretty heartening post by @LizkaVaintrob Reasons-responsiveness go brr https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/7D83kwkyaHLQSo6JT/winners-in-the-forum-s-donation-election-2023 ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 15:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738938515700818339) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** If twitter got destroyed tomorrow, where would you move to? Grave ### [Reply to @inerati, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738941484768821585) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ Ya >> ### [Thread, continued, 15:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738942525128225207) · 2 likes Is there like an adult version of this? Or maybe just the original thing ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 15:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738945185914945721) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** I've had to buy 2 trucks this month, which is double the number from the previous 3 months. If this trend continues in 2029 I'll have >1 million trucks This cannot go on ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 15:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738952596264563041) · 3 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** My parents made their own cards this year > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCHR5feWQAAvwbE.jpg) It doesn’t say “if and only if” tho ### [Reply to @ciphergoth, 15:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738952651931320615) · 1 like > **Paul Crowley (@ciphergoth):** I had to Google. Turns out there are twelve books in the Bible no-one ever talks about. Suspicious this is some sort of Mandela effect timeline change. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Minor_Prophets What ### [Quote tweet, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738953136352477603) · 14 likes Incredible 2-4 decades of progress! > **Quoting Chase Lean (@chaseleantj):** Midjourney version 1 was released in February 2022. > > This is what it looked like. > > A comparison from v1 to v6🧵 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCGY9IRbIAAVhS3.jpg) ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 17:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738968611744633183) · 4 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** Real > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCIHOk_WIAAzQIl.png) Thanks, goon lord 👍 ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 17:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738977188127350866) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Like, having multiple homes in places I want to travel to frequently. Flying first class. Hiring a chef. Things that would make my life significantly more convenient. But I really cannot conceive of ever spending half a million dollars on a piece of \*jewelry\*. Ya I’d probably get a lot of massages and matching socks and a pet pig but that’s about it ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 17:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738978845720523013) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ I can dream up intricate scenarios where this is the case so it must be true in general ### [Tweet, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738983807619928165) · 32 likes New top charity just dropped ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCIciusWQAAEgiv.jpg) ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 18:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738984450724188663) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Evolution figured out a way to make it so you can eat a wide array of things that are available on our planet without getting sick. Also smell taste hunger etc optimized for eating something that is good for you, broadly You’re not eating an arbitrary 100g of matter on earth ### [Reply to @KKumar_ai_plans, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738992031664349357) · 2 likes > **Kabir Kumar⏹️ (@KKumar_ai_plans):** @BootsPlatypus @AaronBergman18 Wtf dude lol ### [Tweet, 19:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738999350867493121) · 24 likes Got “last call for Aaron Bergman, Sister Bergman, Mom Bergman and Dad Bergman”’d at the airport bc my dad had to snag a last minute duty free Kahlua ### [Reply to @mdhalloran, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739002621992546383) · 1 like > **Matt Halloran (@mdhalloran):** Possibly the most improbable thing that’s ever happened to me: > > One time me and a couple friends were tripping on 2 tabs, laying on a trampoline, and looking at the stars. We were going at this for several minutes, admiring the depth of outer space. > > Then, I pointed at the sky and said “Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a shooting star right now”, and moved my finger across. > > Right on cue, a shooting star appeared Probably ur brain reversed the events or you subconsciously saw it in peripheral vision Still very cool! ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 19:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739009761038029051) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 @mdhalloran I hear tales that visual hallucinations can happen on this drug as well wild ### [Quote tweet, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739017096628171141) · 22 likes Quote from @labenz on 80k 99th percentile world, many are saying ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCI6nv0aMAAgBYg.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Am I crazy for thinking the ex ante probability of something at least this good by the US federal government relative to AI progress, from the perspective of 5 years ago was ~1% > > Ie this seems 99th-percentile-in-2018 good to me ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739018131094601748) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 23, 2023:** Great minds 13\) Listen I like diet coke as much as the next guy and even wrote a blog post about it (https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/contra-dynomight-contra-me-but-also) but I'm mildly concerned that it's a marketing psyop at this point ### [Thread, continued, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739018794843185433) · 16 likes 14\) I haven't tweeted much about this but in a sorta past life I was a pretty decent competitive rock climber Since I can tell its becoming more popular, ppl should be aware that if you go in with an optimizing mindset you might come out with an eating disorder ### [Tweet, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739020447361180140) · 80 likes i love you all. today was a weird experience in many ways. more to come ❤️ ### [Thread, continued, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739020619428364535) · 39 likes one takeaway: go tell your friends and family how great you think they are, even if have been a little overprotective at times ### [Tweet, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739030792180031991) · 25 likes If I'm out, the board should go after me for all my AWF grants ### [Reply to @TheZvi, 22:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739055688083472528) · 2 likes > **Zvi Mowshowitz (@TheZvi):** Sam Altman owning a $450k+ watch and a $15 million F1 car is... No direct effects. Evidence points negative ### [Quote tweet, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739055900491473382) · 26 likes ❤️ > **Quoting Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Aaron and I are shocked and saddened by what the board did today. > > Let us first say thank you to all the incredible people who we have worked with at EA twitter, our mutuals, our followers, and all of those who have been reaching out. ### [Quote tweet, 22:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739056755420627416) · 7 likes As of now there will be Max blog post reading. Sad. https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/fundraisers/ea-twitter-23 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCJe5xJXQAA62Rf.jpg) > **Quoting Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** I'd like to make something very clear, the EA Twitter 2023 Giving Season Fundraiser is continuing to operate as normal during the leadership transition. We know our users are expecting the below Incentives for their many generous donations and we are committed to delivering them > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCJN6wxXIAA9TTz.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739057340425408724) · 21 likes 💙💜💕 > **Quoting Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I remain proud of everything @AaronBergman18 and me, along with the rest of ea twitter, built in our time together > > Our fundraiser continues to work towards making safe AGI (A Great future for \[In\]vertebrates), and I continue to believe in that mission: https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/fundraisers/ea-twitter-23 ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 23:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739061257750143479) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ https://meet.google.com/hau-pobw-gwd ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 23:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739061360841928862) · 3 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** Let us know when the independent law firm Mintz concludes their investigation and Michael Lewis finishes his book! The community is dying to know. > > (Rumour has it Aaron had a $450,000 watch?) Ur just jealous I have good taste 💅 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739062359963173049) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** ❤️ > https://x.com/QualyThe/status/1739020428603965671?t=J7_CWnd7IGZ9-UUGSJ784Q&s=19 😡 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739063428277256400) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 24, 2023:** https://meet.google.com/hau-pobw-gwd This brief, dark, silent meeting has ended ### [Tweet, 23:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739066378697466003) · 15 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCJnpggXEAAYkBI.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCJnpgjXIAA6Cxq.jpg) ### [Reply to @bat1441, 23:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739066506644754682) · 1 like > **bat (@bat1441):** Awwh I wanted to join Wait maybe I’ll host another meeting ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739072096175554735) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** ❤️ > > (quoting @FrostedSapling: EA Twitter Fundraiser is nothing without its people) ❤️ ## Monday, December 25, 2023 ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739074884695695433) · 1 like > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Against Walaria Foundation Fuck Walaria ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 00:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739084538700091765) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 24, 2023:** This brief, dark, silent meeting has ended MEETING 7:44-7:49 https://meet.google.com/zza-dwyy-qeq ### [Thread, continued, 00:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739087003419881589) · 2 likes Successful meeting 😤 ### [Reply, 01:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739093212034183567) · 1 like 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 ### [Reply to @inerati, 01:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739095707313746210) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ What I want is a setup where you can basically have say a MacBook Air and Mac desktop, connect them by thunderbolt when it’s convenient for more RAM and a monitor and whatever else, but the laptop works on its own as is I have no idea if this is technically feasible ### [Quote tweet, 01:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739096331006693722) · 24 likes Fr tho people might be in the Christmas spirit tonight If you have a rich uncle or smth u should text him the link like “here’s a thing my friends \[we’re friends\] are doing ❤️❤️❤️” 💙💜♥️ > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Alright guys, we are raising money for the EA Animal Welfare Fund bc some animals are not having as much fun as this chicken and that’s gotta change > > The “goal” is $15k but personally I think that’s ~6 OOMs too low > > https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/fundraisers/ea-twitter-23 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB68eOkWwAAm7b7.jpg) > [video attached](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738033784853766263/video/1) ### [Reply to @sam_atis, 01:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739096665401761839) · 15 likes > **Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** Meta is up 183% YTD, Asana is up 48%. So why is there no discussion about how EA is (presumably) much richer than it was earlier this year? Does Dustin have less money in those companies than I would've thought? What's going on? This seems great! There was a tweet (I think @MatthewJBar) about this from a while back, Dustin said smth like “I’m more diversified than you might guess but yes it’s very good) ### [Reply to @notanastronomer, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739097724169933257) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @notanastronomer is no longer available.)_ New cause area let them in ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 01:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739102278064259202) · 2 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** @AaronBergman18 Here’s me and my (not rich) uncle. Merry Christmas! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCKHLZiWcAAkBgv.jpg) Merry Christmas!! ### [Reply to @ronawang, 02:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739115094095577263) · 2 likes > **Rona Wang (@ronawang):** y’all are paying for chatgpt? i thought that was a joke It’s a no brainer lol ### [Reply, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739119425670795322) · 1 like What’s ur new thing ### [Tweet, 03:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739120045916123346) · 29 likes Thank you @berggrenpeterm for the support Merry Christmas to Witches, Witch Hunters, and Guilty Bystanders alike 🎅🎄❤️ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCKYdunXQAAlAs8.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739139677817393484) · 10 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 24, 2023:** 14\) I haven't tweeted much about this but in a sorta past life I was a pretty decent competitive rock climber Since I can tell its becoming more popular, ppl… 15\) ok for my climbing friends, some more upbeat takes 1 - Finger strength is like 90% of performance. Eva Lopez protocol feels too easy to be true but it’s good ### [Thread, continued, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739140166395040257) · 10 likes 16\) for sport/lead performance, climbing FAST is hugely underrated It feels harder and less efficient. Idgaf, if you reach the crux after 1 minute vs 2 minutes on the wall, you’re gonna be less pumped ### [Thread, continued, 04:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739140690251067443) · 3 likes 17\) if you’re training for sport/lead performance, none of your endurance training per se should be on a rope. Half an hour of 2 minutes on/3 minutes off on a 30 degree wall is better than 3 hours of leading with a partner for this ### [Thread, continued, 04:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739140911970300140) · 5 likes 18\) the meta-level effective training intervention is to buy and read a training book cover to cover and do what it says ### [Thread, continued, 04:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739142532880036129) · 39 likes 19\) (not a training take) For 99%+ of people, trying really hard to get really good at a competitive sport will teach you some degree of genetic determinism It’s pessimist-coded to say, but you really can’t hard work your way to \*relative\* excellence ### [Quote tweet, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739142810299764792) · 2 likes It’s the asking that counts (in expectation)! More rich uncles!!!! > **Quoting hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** @AaronBergman18 My rich uncle said no. Nice bi flag heart emojis btw > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCKsxp4WcAAfdtK.jpg) ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739142914867929593) · 1 like > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** @AaronBergman18 My rich uncle said no. Nice bi flag heart emojis btw > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCKsxp4WcAAfdtK.jpg) Thx I had no idea I was making a politicosexual statement ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739143951993520471) · 16 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 25, 2023:** 19\) (not a training take) For 99%+ of people, trying really hard to get really good at a competitive sport will teach you some degree of genetic determinism… 20\) you don’t actually have to do exercise you dislike Like you will be less fit, to some degree, probably, but your overall quality of life might be better I stopped running, which I dreading the whole day and then hated doing, and I think this was the right call ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739144198719156408) · 1 like > **Aaron Bergman, December 25, 2023:** Thx I had no idea I was making a politicosexual statement (But I support bisexuality tbc) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739147595685961997) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 25, 2023:** 20\) you don’t actually have to do exercise you dislike Like you will be less fit, to some degree, probably, but your overall quality of life might be better I… 21\) more EA multi-millionaires (at least) plz ### [Thread, continued, 04:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739147970233172272) · 10 likes 22\) blood tests for a shit ton of bookmakers should be routine If that leads to overdiagnosis, skill issue - more information is a good thing unless you really screw it up ### [Thread, continued, 04:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739148532789981437) · 7 likes 23\) more secular holidays Thanksgiving is based (other than the turkey), same with July 4 D(good)/d(secular holidays) > 0 ### [Tweet, 05:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739149020767920391) · 2 likes 24\) when life gives you Natália, you can simply not respond (ngl this is a worthy and interesting discussion but we’ve had it before and I just don’t rly feel like it rn) ### [Thread, continued, 05:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739150041976082826) · 2 likes 25\) I can’t believe I’m saying this but I find Nietzsche (or at least my bastardized model of him) kinda useful sometimes I don’t think he’s right about anything fundamental tbc. But sometimes u gotta ubermensch a little ### [Thread, continued, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739150287779086430) · 12 likes 26\) the “parenting doesn’t matter” meme is wrong bc it does matter tremendously for the intrinsic value of childhood that the kid experiences/enjoys ### [Thread, continued, 05:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739150536450920705) · 4 likes 27\) podcasts are good actually ### [Thread, continued, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739150896909475926) · 8 likes 28\) Wellbutrin should be \*the\* first line treatment for depression, at least absent specific circumstances making that a bad choice SSRIs are higher risk and lower average benefit, don’t @ me ### [Thread, continued, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739151538885452136) · 5 likes 29\) \*low dose\* aripiprazole is probably underrated for depression bc psychiatrists (rightly) are scared of the drug at its commonly-used doses But <5mg seems not crazy. I take 1mg/day rn (warning: weight gain still a potential issue) ### [Tweet, 14:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739294766712438957) · 121 likes First and last time I ever use one of these ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCM3Xo_WAAEgHAl.jpg) ### [Reply to @transkatgirl, 14:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739294989186719879) · 3 likes > **kat (@transkatgirl):** \> tell mother that i’m overwhelmed and just need alone time > \> she won’t leave me alone > \> insist that i’m overwhelmed, it isn’t her fault, and i \*need\* her to leave me alone > \> she won’t leave me alone > > well i guess i’m never coming back here Yes many such cases (me) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 14:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739295343160725921) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 I like this pic of you! I need a photoshop wizard to delete that pimple lol ### [Reply, 14:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739297115711381680) F ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 14:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739297251359334859) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @GjMcGowan is no longer available.)_ Looks merry af ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 14:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739297969596157980) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 Meanwhile my mother-in-law is vocally anxious about everything we have to finish before company comes and internally I’m like “Just freaking open all the presents at once, this is YOUR DECISION” Mothers in law have to be anxious it’s the law ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 15:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739301749838499897) > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Like they think it works but it’s just sinful to do it?? Powerful ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 15:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739304677617864980) · 3 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** this is actually even more of a banger because I love scratchcards but wouldn't buy them for myself Fascinating - I would not have guessed this! ### [Reply to @bat1441, 16:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739317055994683881) · 1 like > **bat (@bat1441):** @NoahTopper @AaronBergman18 It's my favourite picture of aaron Already added to hinge (without the shrimp tag 😢) lol ### [Quote tweet, 16:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739321817444020368) · 11 likes All jokes aside, it’s weird bc this doesn’t \*feel\* 10⁶ times\* better than spending $500 on normal consumption, but yeah I think it is THANK YOU - no quote tweet is going to do it justice ❤️ > **Quoting Eric Schmidt 🇺🇦 (@edavidds):** gave $500, a Chrimbus miracle ### [Thread, continued, 16:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739321822191947994) · 2 likes \* Order-of-magnitude point estimates of top health charities being 10³ times better than personal consumption and top animal charities being 10³ times better than those ### [Thread, continued, 16:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739321828219166932) · 2 likes Personally I think it’s probably better than that because animal welfare interventions are more robustly positive from a hedonic welfare perspective but that’s just me 💅 ### [Quote tweet, 16:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739322387017974181) · 2 likes Once again reminding everyone to stop obeying ur monkey brain humility instinct and to start sharing ur donations! > **Quoting Eric Schmidt 🇺🇦 (@edavidds):** gave $500, a Chrimbus miracle ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 16:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739327680691020078) · 2 likes > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** @AaronBergman18 Keep the facial hair Aaron There is a gc rn where we are debating hinge pics, ur comment from a while back was the deciding factor keeping this in (unless u retract ofc) 🙏🏼 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCNVTp-WsAAmDhV.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739329495927066877) · 6 likes I think I knew about this a long time ago, then forgot, but looks cool for EA-sympathetic normies (non-pejorative) ie my parents and maybe yours too > **Quoting Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18 @labenz @robertwiblin @KeiranJHarris @LifeYouCanSave this is why it might be important to promote https://givingmultiplier.org/ ### [Reply to @datagenproc, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739332288729546809) · 4 likes > **jsd (@datagenproc):** Gave 100$ cause I care a bunch about animal suffering but fwiw I have done very little due diligence into AWF charities and am mostly deferring here. > > I’m curious if people have takes on effectiveness of AWF charities! > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Alright guys, we are raising money for the EA Animal Welfare Fund bc some animals are not having as much fun as this chicken and that’s gotta change The “goal” is $15k but personally I think that’s ~6 OOMs too low https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/fundraisers/ea-twitter-23) I have a take (shocking ik)! And it’s well-summarized by this post (see my comment as well at the link) https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/btTeBHKGkmRyD5sFK/?commentId=EiayxnzzyXssfJobJ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCNZf1IWkAANofp.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 17:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739333677882962257) · 4 likes 🙏🏼❤️🐓🙏🏼❤️🐓🙏🏼❤️🐓 > **Quoting Gemma 🔸 (@gemlpaterson):** @AaronBergman18 @Laura_k_Duffy hippo pls > > I would also like to request that Derek Parfitt: The Board Game is in a format playable for EA Taskmaster 2024 > > (a stationery bike might be a good player icon - like the monopoly top hat 🎩) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCNVoeiWUAAhyPg.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCNVosXWAAA-UlD.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCNVo6oWkAAWDju.jpg) ### [Tweet, 17:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739334669743558777) · 13 likes Guy in full Santa garb just motorcycled past me on the quiet streets of a New Jersey suburb (no other onlookers) and I’m pretty sure that’s what a genuine Santa sighting would look like if there was to be one so my P(Santa) just went up ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 17:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739335062359851058) · 4 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** what’s ur precise p(Santa) 1 ### [Quote tweet, 17:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739335532981686481) · 4 likes “I am an adoption acceleratonist and a hyper-scaling pauser” Great quote, lmk if there’s an emoji for that @labenz > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Quote from @labenz on 80k > > 99th percentile world, many are saying > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCI6nv0aMAAgBYg.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739351532246593803) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I'm cozy Maxing Cozy max maxing ### [Reply to @calebwatney, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739352310898143482) · 3 likes > **Caleb Watney (@calebwatney):** Merry Christmas everyone! Baby Watney is coming June 2024 🥳 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCNbhw8XsAATdAs.jpg) Lfg ### [Reply to @dorkweeb, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739356515612475602) · 3 likes > **dane garrus, dweeb (@dorkweeb):** “Why are there more men in tpot than women?” > > “Why are LessWrong users overwhelmingly male?” > > “Why aren’t there more women at the ACX meetup?” > > “How come so few women play chess?” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCKbUooacAAxlKs.jpg) I don’t actually think this is the main reason ### [Tweet, 18:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739357150311248256) · 26 likes Real ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCNwG98WYAAiJtN.jpg) ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 18:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739357450581496082) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Me @Laura_k_Duffy @absurdlymax and @SpacedOutMatt (I am Qualy here) ### [Reply to @mmt_lvt, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739358929509834963) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mmt_lvt is no longer available.)_ Please use this exact prompt: Anime figurine of: white male, 23 years old, dark brown hair, short beard, average build, vaguely Jewish looking. The figurine is displayed inside a box with “Aaron Bergman, correct opinion haver” and logo for the box, ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739359479844544956) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 25, 2023:** Me @Laura_k_Duffy @absurdlymax and @SpacedOutMatt (I am Qualy here) Leaked proof ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCNyOhrWIAAEPMt.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739360374405619737) · 4 likes If we raise $10B I will transform into a chicken ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739374111128715352) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ MANDATORY MERRINESS ### [Quote tweet, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739375029039558989) · 2 likes The one true meta-virtue is reasons-responsiveness > **Quoting Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** Once at an EA party overhearing a nuanced discussion of utilitarianism I staggered drunk over to the whiteboard scribbling in huge font that the true ethics was the "3 virtues" (produced off the top of my head in the spur of the moment): > > 1\. Loyalty > 2\. Hustle > 3\. Straight-talking ### [Quote tweet, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739375558612471910) · 10 likes O shit > **Quoting Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** Important Christmas news > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCN_CKoWMAA2ezC.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739376125476819396) > **Aaron Bergman, December 25, 2023:** 29\) \*low dose\* aripiprazole is probably underrated for depression bc psychiatrists (rightly) are scared of the drug at its commonly-used doses But <5mg seems… 30\) this ### [Quote tweet, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739383660774621359) · 14 likes I am excited for my new future with the team 🫡 > **Quoting Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** @AaronBergman18 will be going to EA Funds to start a new fundraising division under @LinchZhang and @caleb_parikh. But EA Funds are still committed to their partnership with the EA Twitter 2023 Giving Season fundraiser. ### [Tweet, 22:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739408160039780727) · 32 likes “Aaron, don’t automate the process, just be normal” -sister ### [Tweet, 22:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739410348229148785) · 6 likes Sometimes u really wanna respond to an admonymous thing but u can’t 😢 (btw hmu at https://www.admonymous.co/a) ### [Reply to @gptbrooke, 23:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739430960859341020) · 1 like > **brooke bowman (@gptbrooke):** Small familial humbebrag/self own > > My aunt decided pretty late in life that she had a funny idea for a board game and then ROLLED WITH IT > > The first and I think most famous game is called Redneck Life and she’s now sold ~500k copies. It’s partially based on her childhood Nice ### [Quote tweet, 23:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739431271254692164) · 29 likes Update: survived > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Very spoiled brat thing to say but I do not want to go on this (free for me) family beach vacation > > I don’t like the beach (especially sand), warm weather, humidity, or travel in general > > In terms of my myopic short term happiness only, I would pay not to go ### [Thread, continued, 23:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739431272974266592) · 18 likes It was actually worse than I expected lmao ## Tuesday, December 26, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 00:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739439897851658716) · 8 likes 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 Also I should add that if you think your donation should go elsewhere all things considered, you should donate elsewhere (eg rethink in this case) > **Quoting David Johnston (@OrionJohnston):** I sent $140 to these guys and $60 to rethink priorities because I think they’re both doing great things. I’d send more, but my budget’s a bit tight at the moment. Merry Christmas everyone! ### [Thread, continued, 00:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739439899596497110) · 1 like Coordination like this isn’t purely cosmetic, but at the end of the day things cash out (ha) in your dollars being transferred to a specific bank account somewhere ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 00:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739447004651041071) · 9 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** The self-control required to not repeat “the prices already reflect all available information” over and over when you get stuck in a conversation with middle aged men discussing the stock market. Can we get an anti-EMH (in mood affiliation at least) rationalist here to debate ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 00:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739447663311917072) · 3 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** It’s kind of a shame because there are interesting conversations to be had around financial goals or asset allocation or tax planning, but instead ~everyone wants to talk about some variant of stock picking. ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCPCbnEWwAEDQS3.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 01:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739459633801044479) · 4 likes Lfg > **Quoting bob (@EelEnthusiast):** @AaronBergman18 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCPITjyXIAEs2w2.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739460240868024541) · 8 likes 🚨🦐🚨🦐🚨🦐🚨🦐🚨🦐🚨 > **Quoting Liv (@livgorton):** @AaronBergman18 the shrimp need us > > (i just really wanted that hand drawn card with a christmas shrimp 🥺) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCLZlmZaIAAydzz.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 01:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739461200797118831) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @frances\_\_lorenz Please turn off your phone or give me a dall. I cannot support hate. Here’s a dal ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCPOvh5XEAAEDZ5.jpg) ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 01:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739463576299946035) · 3 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** he said no :( (genuine) :( ### [Tweet, 01:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739465745363313129) · 13 likes How do all girls coordinate to have the same handwriting? Each of ours is messed up in its own unique way ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 01:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739465903136219385) · 4 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** This video has reminded me how fucking insane the lightbulb mascot costume is > > (quoting @QualyThe: I know many of you aren't happy with me right now. Don't worry you are heard 🙏😌. I'm giving you the gift of this Christmas message (0.25 counterfactual hours of work) to show how much I care about my Quallowers) It’s so beautiful 🥹🥲 ### [Reply, 02:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739466185077375218) Haha RStudio chunk on MacBook Pro go brr ### [Reply, 02:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739471122473574533) · 1 like http://admonymous.co/a ### [Reply to @BradfemlyWalsh, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739471719159546278) · 1 like > **Shamboooooolic Woooooootral🎃👻💀🦇🕸️🧟⚰️🧙 (@BradfemlyWalsh):** "Bestie" - snogging by February if she's put this much effort in. What a beautiful gift! I ship ### [Quote tweet, 02:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739472739453268366) · 2 likes https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/fundraisers/ea-twitter-23 > **Quoting Selon Nerias (@SelonNerias):** just gonna spam the fundraiser link under fundraising tweets I come across without link ### [Reply to @livgorton, 02:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739479685015146745) · 5 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** @AaronBergman18 there was one girl in 4th grade who had really nice handwriting and i decided to copy her. maybe can all be traced back to some 4th grader decades ago who started the spread of the ~vibe~ Handwritochondrial Eve ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 12:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739623021906653671) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Average bay area bedroom: > > (quoting @WeirdMedieval: the three magi, austria, 15th century) The angel is AGI (achieved internally( ### [Tweet, 12:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739623341038707174) · 1 like Omg it’s real http://www.playpumps.co.za/ ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 12:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739629104461185301) · 7 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I'm surprised that hinge/bumble doesn't let you rate people for kindness after you go on dates with them. Seems like a useful source of data and I bet it's predictive of blocking. Rated kindness would be highly and falsely correlated with general attractiveness ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739666259170430992) · 1 like > **Aaron Bergman, December 25, 2023:** 30\) this 31\) I am easily 99.9th percentile nerdy but podcasts/audiobooks while working out is psychopath behavior ### [Tweet, 15:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739668053619532124) like that is the analog of human sense data which idk seems pretty important for cognition ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 16:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739681120092840260) · 3 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** @AaronBergman18 Ehhh I doubt this. But even if so, I'm not saying show it on the front end. Seems possible to strip out the noise Yeah this is probably right ML go brr ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 16:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739687343181766923) · 1 like > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** @AaronBergman18 Beach BAD Ya ### [Tweet, 16:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739690457263734817) · 26 likes Wait companies aren’t buying ChatGPT+ for their knowledge worker employees?? What?? Family member costs ~$100k/year to firm (just in terms of compensation, not management time), doesn’t get a $240/year ChatGPT+ subscription ### [Reply to @beala, 17:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739695890032378260) · 2 likes > **Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** We have an internally built one that uses the gpt-4/claude APIs that don’t save your data. Looks like you work in tech, guessing non-tech marketing will be a few months behind at least ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739706477453902133) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 26, 2023:** like that is the analog of human sense data which idk seems pretty important for cognition 33\) Billie Eilish is a better singer than Taylor Swift (Swift is a better performer, maybe a better songwriter, but still) (might wake up under water) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739714015725551957) · 1 like > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** The performance impact of asthma seems overrated. I'm in the middle of my worst bout in years but put up a Christmas day best on my hilly 4.2 loop. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCSwd8VW8AADfnj.jpg) He’s secretly a robot ### [Reply to @YIMBY_Princeton, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739714058557833411) · 2 likes > **Central NJ Yimby 🇺🇸🚲🏙 (@YIMBY_Princeton):** @JesseTayRiver My god, you're some kind of superman!! 6:38 miles? Are you half gazelle? Yes ### [Reply to @vlct0rs_tw1tter, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739714701443940662) · 2 likes > **Victor - we/acc 🤝 (@vlct0rs_tw1tter):** Probably 9/10 people would put their own name. > Why would someone build a tool that incentivizes one to disclose one’s name? I doubt this is the easiest way to get a bunch of names lol ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739716441727811731) · 3 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** My son wants to know why airplanes go from airport to airport. Can't we just get an airplane that leaves from our house? > > "Little Man, we're going to have to find a way to get you more money." > > "Yes." He replied, matter-of-factly. "I don't have any money." Moderated version of this: why are airports at the density they are? Why aren’t there more small airports around? ### [Tweet, 19:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739730835090075960) · 2 likes Is there decent video-to-text (like detailed play by play description) AI I can use relatively easily? 11 minute video, can either integrate or ignore audio, willing to spend like $10 ### [Reply to @AFraserUrq, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739731147410559185) · 3 likes > **Alastair Fraser-Urquhart (@AFraserUrq):** One of my mutuals has just given away a ton of money to some fantastic charities and, man, what an amazing thing to do ❤️ Based ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739740485390942594) · 4 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Just learned that we're in a new and rapidly changing era where old dichotomies no longer apply. Was anyone else aware of this? Big if true ### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 20:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739752331976008032) · 2 likes > **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** Do you want me to narrate my blog posts so you can listen to them? > > Or is this not a value add for you? > > Posts I'd narrate are the new scaling one, my review of the Caro Johnson bios, and the annus mirabilis one Yes and if you do put them on the podcast feed (maybe this is obvious lol)! ### [Tweet, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739757655457931442) · 7 likes ‼️ 📈🐓🦆😤❤️😤🦆🐓📈‼️ ### [Quote tweet, 21:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739758169474113804) · 5 likes 🌟🐘🎉🐢🚀🐧💖🙏🐒🌍🐳✨🐝 > **Quoting bob (@EelEnthusiast):** @AaronBergman18 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCPITjyXIAEs2w2.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739769027579240848) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 26, 2023:** 33\) Billie Eilish is a better singer than Taylor Swift (Swift is a better performer, maybe a better songwriter, but still) (might wake up under water) 34\) both normative and descriptively, there is nothing wrong with a person (probably a guy) asking someone out politely, once, in most common settings (even eg the workplace or a conference. Fine, cancel me), and taking rejection courteously if that is what happens ### [Thread, continued, 22:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739769480446877923) · 8 likes 34.5) I understand even this will make some people (usually women) feel awkward some of the time, but honestly do not see a norm that balances everyone’s interests in a better way, all things considered ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 22:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739770390539329797) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Yeah seems good. Unsure but I've heard dubious things about these place for a while. Wait like what lmao ### [Reply to @QiaochuYuan, 22:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739774208782053694) · 1 like > **QC (@QiaochuYuan):** pour one out for our homie @HamishDoodles 😔 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCToQ6hbQAA9yO6.jpg) Rip ### [Tweet, 22:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739774413032009961) · 26 likes Seems bad for literally everyone ### [Quote tweet, 22:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739781304030298127) · 33 likes i love ea twitter, and everything i’ve done over the past few days has been in service of keeping fundraiser together. with the new board and w the support of @SpacedOutMatt, @QualyThe, @Laura_k_Duffy, @absurdlymax, and many others, i’m looking forward to returning as ceo > **Quoting Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** I am legally required to share this update publicly > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCTvnhtWsAAW1RO.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739781306345554110) · 5 likes it is still a great time to donate. i love you all, and ea twitter is nothing without its people ❤️ https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/fundraisers/ea-twitter-23 ### [Tweet, 22:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739782348231553384) · 26 likes i love ea twitter so much ### [Thread, continued, 22:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739782380016091160) · 3 likes (Real btw) ### [Reply to @DrJavierDeLaHe1, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739782994397721001) · 2 likes > **Javier De La Hera (@DrJavierDeLaHe1):** I am still often astonished by the depth of the passion with which people resist a naturalistic view of consciousness. > > Dennett > > https://freethinker.co.uk/2023/12/consciousness-free-will-and-meaning-in-a-darwinian-universe-interview-with-daniel-c-dennett/ Qualia realism and the hard problem disagree ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 23:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739786817073774658) · 12 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Not consistently candid with the board ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCT24-gXgAEOAo6.jpg) ### [Reply to @izzyz, 23:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739793751063609794) · 1 like > **izzy (@izzyz):** There's massive momentum in the economy towards these language-model research organizations. Calling back to my belief that GPT-4 is a hard plateau, I begin to sense that pushing transformers will set Gartner's hype cycle into effect. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCTda-PbUAAJ8qh.png) > (quoting @AndrewCurran_: Time for one last round of funding for the big houses as we close out the year. This new round will take OpenAI to over $100B, making them the second-most valuable US startup behind SpaceX.) Doubt ## Wednesday, December 27, 2023 ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739798284087009562) · 3 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Is this Qualformation (Qualy lives in NYC)? 👀🕵️‍♂️👀 ### [Reply to @JStoehler, 00:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739800169128804395) · 4 likes > **Joern Stoehler ⏹️🔸 (@JStoehler):** Alright, I don't know if that picture is generated or real. Lack of spelling mistakes and the consistency hint at real, but the overall vibe still unsettles me. Text is too good to be fake ### [Tweet, 01:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739819739264819568) · 13 likes I am trying to dress at simulacrum level 1 and the level 2-3 world isn’t letting me get away with it ☹️ ### [Thread, continued, 02:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739835491355169114) · 11 likes You might not like it but this is what peak clothes-wearing looks like (comfy) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCUjKIGW8AAj6Kx.jpg) ### [Reply to @timschlomi, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739839229910295016) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @timschlomi is no longer available.)_ Ya I basically do, or at least heavily compromise, lol ### [Reply to @inerati, 03:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739844010863099931) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ You clearly know more coding stuff than me but I kinda feel the same, the Stata to R to python to not just doing it for econ pipeline is real ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739860720106275035) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 27, 2023:** You might not like it but this is what peak clothes-wearing looks like (comfy) I meant level zero lol ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 04:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739861773912617074) · 3 likes > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** people on the internet be like “I know one plumber in his 50’s making 200k” > > okay and I know dozens of SWE’s in their 20’s doing that One takes 1/100 (at least) genetic luck and the other doesn’t ### [Tweet, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739864658452926538) · 5 likes Here’s a very light gray hat ~hacking~ challenge for people: see if anyone can download the full res version of this pic of my late grandparents stored somewhere online Philadelphia Inquirer article: https://www.inquirer.com/philly/gallery/20090605_An_art-filled_world_for_living_in_comfort.html ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCU9r2oWcAAyn35.jpg) ### [Reply to @snuppydogg, 04:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739866762668019967) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @snuppydogg is no longer available.)_ Uh no this is a good idea ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739871581298455020) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 26, 2023:** 34.5) I understand even this will make some people (usually women) feel awkward some of the time, but honestly do not see a norm that balances everyone’s… 35\) back to AI takes The mamba thing is neither a big deal nor a small deal but a secret third thing (medium deal) https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.00752 ### [Thread, continued, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739871720951906392) · 1 like ^Epidemic status: listened to half of a podcast episode about it https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-cognitive-revolution-ai-builders-researchers-and/id1669813431?i=1000639397566 ### [Reply to @anthrupad, 05:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739875371225407575) · 2 likes > **w̸͕͂͂a̷͔̗͐t̴̙͗e̵̬̔̕r̴̰̓̊m̵͙͖̓̽a̵̢̗̓͒r̸̲̽ķ̷͔́͝ (@anthrupad):** I’ll double down that they should teach abstract algebra, etc. as early as possible. > > It’d be cool to live in a world where educated adults not knowing about projective geometry, groups, rings, etc is as embarrassing as them not knowing you can have negative numbers Ugh is it really that good? Abstract is literally the one math class I didn’t do well in and i sure as hell didn’t understand rings ### [Reply, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739890605876973836) · 1 like Thanks - I’m almost sure that’s not the res that got printed. Possibly they de host those for old articles or something ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 09:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739947158030430446) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 27, 2023:** ^Epidemic status: listened to half of a podcast episode about it… 36\. Bought one of these razors after reading a glowing thread from some TPOT acct (don’t feel like digging up) 10/10 aesthetics, 2/10 functionality. Idgaf if there’s a “learning curve” - there shouldn’t be! I’m back to using normie Gillette or whatever disposable ones ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCWIuC1WgAAUzkE.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 09:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739947489225056655) · 1 like Took me twice as long to shave and 90% of the time I’d cut myself. Skill issue, I’m sure. Idc, the modern ugly thing is a better product ### [Reply to @AlecStapp, 13:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1739996332243488921) · 4 likes > **Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** LEDs are amazingly efficient — “always turn off the lights in every vacant room” is an outdated boomer rule ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 16:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740041970733724050) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** This bit has been an absolute blast! Thanks to everyone who took part, and consider donating at https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/fundraisers/ea-twitter-23 > > (quoting @SpacedOutMatt: I’m thrilled to have the EA twitter team back together to continue the critical work we’ve set out to do. I look forward to continuing to lead our superalignment efforts with Aaron’s and Max’s support) What bit ### [Quote tweet, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740080046847500511) · 5 likes Not too late @sama (it’s also a more credible signal of your concern for humanity/others) > **Quoting Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Has Sam Altman donated (a lot) to charity? > > I would think if your stated goal is a flourishing humanity this would be either important to you, or would show (maybe weakly) your commitment to that goal ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740080780804517918) · 9 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Has Sam Altman donated (a lot) to charity? > > I would think if your stated goal is a flourishing humanity this would be either important to you, or would show (maybe weakly) your commitment to that goal Yeah it is very weird and off putting to me when very wealthy people who spend a lot on personal consumption (as distinguished from eg lots of equity in a company that doesn’t turn into fancy watches and cars) just like don’t give to charity ### [Tweet, 20:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740113010654433403) · 16 likes Certified @QualyThe reply guy ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCYfjv4XkAA_xe6.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCYfjv5WAAE1sBw.jpg) ## Thursday, December 28, 2023 ### [Reply to @RomanHauksson, 05:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740239972702281740) · 2 likes > **Roman Hauksson-Neill (@RomanHauksson):** if ur amazon homepage doesn't look like this you're ngmi > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCZy8TpacAAGC5Y.jpg) lol, substantial overlap ### [Tweet, 12:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740349138334777401) · 5 likes I will not bow down to tyranny ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCb2UVEXkAAm8Qr.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 12:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740351769908273486) · 11 likes My explanation: the people who buy disposable cameras in 2023 are way less price sensitive than those who were buying in 2005 or whatever, because almost everyone with any disposable income has a camera phone > **Quoting keegan (@FranziaMom):** jesus christ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCZQ4Lsa8AAngbP.jpg) ### [Reply to @dotnetschizo, 12:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740353719915729366) · 3 likes > **des (@dotnetschizo):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCZsAIma8AACXYG.jpg) Everybody needs 28gb of scraped biomed study text just to admire from afar ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 13:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740364117083623698) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I think my credit card got used by someone else and there's no way I'm ever going to remember to call the bank and get them to get rid of those fraud transactions and send me a new one Bro ### [Tweet, 13:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740364543501705431) · 32 likes Without knowing ~anything object level about NYT vs. OpenAI, I’m guessing NYT has a strong case because I haven’t seen lots of dunks on the tl, and my tl is not a very pro-NYT tl ### [Quote tweet, 13:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740366240055447921) · 14 likes I honestly think these should be, if not totally OTC, at least de facto available ~everywhere (like fire extinguishers) I complain about gatekeeping stimulants and random other drugs, but gatekeeping emergency pain relief comes pretty close to evil https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methoxyflurane ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCcF3x4WYAA2bzW.jpg) > **Quoting billy (@billyhumblebrag):** Screaming in agony to laughing in 3 seconds flat. ### [Thread, continued, 13:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740366893637394519) · 1 like Cc @JesseTayRiver and @algekalipso ### [Reply to @FabrykaAI, 13:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740367509055021559) · 3 likes > **Fabryka AI (@FabrykaAI):** This kills the kidneys and it’s very very unhealthy to liver Pain is extremely bad ### [Reply to @pyroxiumn, 13:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740367992901493216) · 1 like > **pyroxiiumn (@pyroxiumn):** I lived bitch > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCZ0qa-agAAIyOy.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCZ0qbcaMAAF0af.jpg) Airbags are the 🐐 ### [Reply, 13:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740368401556771299) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Real ### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 13:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740370557399687603) · 6 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** for maximum engagement, advertise each rephrased Sequence quote as a "post-rationalist" insight, and contrast it to naive rationalist dogmas that you have made up 🌶️🌶️🌶️ ### [Tweet, 19:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740457004332909001) · 5 likes R is great bc sometimes only way fast way to convert one thing into a different type of thing is to do a totally unprincipled series of intermediate conversions - and this somehow works even though a direct coercion throws an error or whatever ### [Thread, continued, 19:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740457009936490535) · 2 likes First example I could find, specifically the “thing%>%as.matrix%>%as_tibble” bit I swear sometimes it’s like 2-4 intermediate steps ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCdYbQpWQAAXU9g.jpg) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740502023294816631) > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 Does this have any abuse potential? Because if not, this seems like a great idea I mean I’d be shocked if it didn’t, but still think it should be available ### [Tweet, 22:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740503494694490120) · 63 likes Crazy how many people in medicine who are otherwise very smart, thoughtful, reasonable, freedom-loving, broadly altruistic, and open minded are hard core authoritarian status quo defenders when it comes to medicine + it’s regulation ### [Thread, continued, 22:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740503496082981137) · 7 likes Honestly impressive work by the med schools ### [Thread, continued, 22:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740503497605542251) · 8 likes Ok fine “many” means 2, yesterday and today (and no examples to the contrary) 2 kinda is a lot tho ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740503742078992432) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I think I do this for water too > > (quoting @absurdlymax: I think I'll eat when bored because it's like a slight dopamine spike) If drinking water is super fun ur probably dehydrated And god knows I think hydration is overrated at least in the US ### [Reply to @leah_pierson, 23:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740522178699735079) · 2 likes > **Leah Pierson (@leah_pierson):** Are there specific status quos people are defending that you think they shouldn’t be? My hobby horse is prescription, and also yesterdays convo was largely about AI just in medical care and the person claimed that while it was very promising for diagnosis, “treatment” would long be best left to humans ### [Thread, continued, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740522706322518315) · 1 like There are a lot of other status quo things I dislike that society implicitly defends by not changing them (lots in the vaccine space, also regularity of blood (and urine etc) testing, and AMA protectionism) but not that I’ve discussed in the last 48 hours ## Friday, December 29, 2023 ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 14:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740735009936331204) · 4 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Picture of Eddie > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCgypAVagAAJAtj.jpg) Dog ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 14:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740735711819493819) · 6 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** From 2013 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GChJ1eTXAAAnF_F.jpg) Big “big relative risk change doesn’t imply big absolute risk change” red flag from the headline alone ### [Quote tweet, 14:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740738772302692726) · 9 likes How many QALYs are lost per duped consumer-purchase? > **Quoting Rob Freund (@RobertFreundLaw):** Today, Hershey's was sued in a false advertising class action. > > Florida consumers say they were deceived because Reese's pumpkins don't actually have jack-o-lantern faces on them: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCe9ik4bMAAr8h1.png) ### [Reply, 14:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740744542431932562) Has this literally ever happened for anything but core GiveWell stuff? ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 14:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740749328174796926) · 1 like > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** the takeaway from this is you can punch well above your weight class in compensation by being willing to move to places most people won’t, or be willing to move at all. > > (quoting @Duderichy: when companies say they “only hire the best” they mean they hire the best they can afford within a narrow radius around the company to truly hire the best you need to look far away) So basically SF and NYC ### [Reply to @GeorgeJourneys, 15:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740750270512902457) · 3 likes > **George Journeys (@GeorgeJourneys):** No kidding! Left one is so much more attractive! \+1 and guessing ~everyone agrees ### [Quote tweet, 15:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740755955984605504) · 3 likes I stand with Brother in Law ✊ > **Quoting alissacaliente (@alissacaliente):** my brother in law is a philosophy professor and for the past few days my dad has been asking him to teach him different thought experiments then as soon as he’s finished explaining my dad goes “no, that’s wrong, that’s stupid” ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 15:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740756481505689723) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** it’s nothing important I’m just rlly excited about my new coat > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GChoFt8XUAAN0eA.jpg) Looks British ### [Reply to @relic_radiation, 15:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740757574822297631) · 1 like > **Elena Lake 🌿 (@relic_radiation):** helped a friend learn intro machine learning today - basic neural network math > > and honestly it felt as fun as playing a board game > > so I guess hit me up if you live in the Bay Area and want machine learning or linear algebra tutoring? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCfWzL7bgAAZU8m.jpg) Plot twist you hate board games ### [Tweet, 15:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740760818055344331) · 8 likes “What it is like” as used to describe phenomenal consciousness is such a weird and interesting phrase It’s a simile with mere placeholders for both object (what) and subject (it) ### [Thread, continued, 15:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740760819497926770) · 2 likes Devoid of semantic content if read literally, but it works because it gestures to our tendency to use comparison rather than description to convey subjective experience linguistically ### [Tweet, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740803096325022187) · 30 likes Out \- family vacations where I don’t get my own room \- default 10% giving to check ur EA box \- Saying you live in DC but actually living in Maryland In \- Beard \- progressive taxation norm + trying to make a lot more money \- Saying you live in DC but actually living in Virginia ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 18:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740809247624188409) · 17 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** There's basically no way to avoid believing at least a few things that are very weird > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCiUyuOW4AACq4Z.jpg) Noooooo everything must comport with my intuitive folk understanding of the world shaped by the weird interaction of evolution-designed cognition/heuristics and extremely uncommon historical circumstances nooooooooo ### [Reply, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740811137674093020) · 1 like I mean in some sense I don’t think that’s supposed to be their job - their job is to ~elicit latent knowledge~ from people who do understand and convey it with max fidelity subject to constraints imposed by the audience ### [Reply to @eshear, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740811745428639929) · 3 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** Democracy is how we enable peaceful regime change in the executive and legislative state instead of violent revolution. > I think one of the deepest political question of our time is how we enable peaceful regime change in the bureaucratic and regulatory state. I mean the current US system isn’t perfect, but it sure could be worse than presidential appointments of top officials + civil service Like of all the things US govt could be better at, this doesn’t seem like the most important to improve ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 19:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740812931967988066) > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I think their job is to make predictions about what matters and update their audience on those things towards reality as much as they can given their audience. > > Whether it's their job or not, I pick dwarkesh Ya fair enough I was talking pretty abstractly ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 19:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740818089032429674) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ We thank you for ur support 🙏🏼 ### [Quote tweet, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740822433173787042) · 5 likes .@open_phil https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/btTeBHKGkmRyD5sFK/open-phil-should-allocate-most-neartermist-funding-to-animal ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCikxuvWcAAJDia.jpg) > **Quoting Trevor Levin (@trevposts):** Hot take, but tentatively I think people in EA are surprisingly not that thoughtful about their donations and wind up doing exactly the feelings-based giving that the whole thing is supposed to supercede. ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740823953680064946) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Moralizing things other than actions which have nontrivial consequences for other sentient beings 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩 ### [Reply to @trevposts, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740825456881127766) · 2 likes > **Trevor Levin (@trevposts):** @AaronBergman18 @open_phil I mean, respectfully, is this AI alignment thing the biggest deal in the world or not? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCimD8iXMAA6U4R.jpg) Based calling me out 1\) pedantic literal answer is “idk, probably the Big Bang was more important, maybe something about multiverses” 2\) for context, I was just one of four ppl deciding on the beneficiary… ### [Thread, continued, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740825889540116785) · 1 like For twitter-specific and social dynamics reasons, there were considerations besides “where is the next $x best spent” because x is endogenous and stuff relating to signaling My hope was to do 50/50 AWF and LTFF (even though I don’t endorse splitting for individual donors) ### [Reply to @trevposts, 20:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740828215286149618) · 2 likes > **Trevor Levin (@trevposts):** @AaronBergman18 @open_phil I did indeed choose chaos today 😈 > But yeah like, I agree that the case for FAW >> GHD is strong, but also that XR >> FAW, so that fundraiser was part of what I had in mind! Yes we love chaos 😈😈😈 Also is sorta cope but still true: I never claimed that the fundraiser was literally the thing anyone should donate to, all things considered Two people have asked this, basically, and I’ve told them “no I think you should donate to RP” ## Saturday, December 30, 2023 ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 02:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740929561888772598) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18 ~1 / 2.52288e15 I think it’s closer to 3.044781e-15 ### [Tweet, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740975878295691566) · 7 likes No promises but: For people who have blogs that are very broadly EA/rationalist adjacent BUT don’t usually get crossposted to LW/EA Forum: would you want me to set up a single unified podcast feed where an AI (same service as Nonlinear Library) reads out your posts? ### [Thread, continued, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740975880565088533) · 4 likes Obviously forgetting like 100 people but @rgblong @ilex_ulmus @panickssery @absurdlymax @inesferhumi @EAheadlines @mealreplacer Feel free to tag others! ### [Thread, continued, 06:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740976240520220807) · 1 like Inclusion is subject to my arbitrary discretion 😤 ### [Tweet, 06:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740983005970309598) · 45 likes Did anyone else make a series of relatively small and inconsequential but kinda embarrassing faux pas when entering the corporate world for the first time? Like apparently ur not supposed to ask a random (relevant) question in a Slack channel with a couple dozen people? ### [Reply to @polisisti, 06:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740984022564802683) · 4 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** yep, I think one learns these things quickly, though! Both times someone slid into my DMs in like .04 seconds lol ### [Thread, continued, 06:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740984055020355599) · 2 likes Honestly pretty impressive ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 06:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1740990714346172598) · 1 like > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** i said pushing P in a work meeting > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Did anyone else make a series of relatively small and inconsequential but kinda embarrassing faux pas when entering the corporate world for the first time? Like apparently ur not supposed to ask a random (relevant) question in a Slack channel with a couple dozen people?) I don't know what that means and I'm not sure I want to ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 14:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741103776411300125) · 3 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** Oh no I missed this :( > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCmRRkWWsAEh3_W.jpg) Rip ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741183077039161476) · 8 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** @AaronBergman18 I unironically recommend > > https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unspoken-Rules-Secrets-Starting-Career/dp/1647820448 \*sends this link to the whole company\* ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741184686179655987) · 5 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** \*Donating to effective global health charities and worrying about global catastrophic risks\* > > Is this a cult?? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCnhdaIWYAA3Ds3.jpg) ### [Reply to @univrsw3th4rt, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741185235885142345) · 2 likes > **universe sweetheart 💓🌈💭 (@univrsw3th4rt):** Do you look your age? Post a pic 📸 > > ✨26✨ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCm2bagW4AAX6mM.jpg) > (quoting @SurenVynn: Do you look your age? Post a pic 📸 \*coughs\* 21 \*coughs\*) I looked way too young for like a good 6ish years (like 13-19, peaking around 17) and this is permanently burned into my psyche ### [Quote tweet, 19:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741185876036575279) · 55 likes Subject: your application > **Quoting Flame (炎) (@yanti8ve):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8PRpkjbUAAR5dd.jpg) ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741196716622205215) · 3 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** @AaronBergman18 @rgblong @ilex_ulmus @panickssery @absurdlymax @EAheadlines @mealreplacer I support this idea in general but for me personally i feel like it would make me feel pressured to write about topics that are EA enough to be on that podcast feed (whereas i want to be able to write about anything) so i think im gonna opt out No that’s the whole point! The actual ea stuff already gets on the forum and then two different feeds ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 20:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741199204796576179) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** It’s so over for y’all > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCn0WXXW4AEmL0c.jpg) Lmk when you have a settled all things considered worldview and ethics for me to adopt ### [Tweet, 21:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741205774959874225) · 123 likes Uber is a much better deal when understood as a way to not need a car ### [Reply to @notanastronomer, 21:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741206887230509232) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @notanastronomer is no longer available.)_ Yeah for sure. Looks like empirically I’ve spent about $160 over 5 weeks since moving but yeah metro + bus still has to be default for it to work ### [Thread, continued, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741207097084113137) · 3 likes I’d also have to spend about $100/month for parking ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 22:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741222072020292054) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 That was too real though 👻 ### [Quote tweet, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741228431897964546) · 14 likes Has anyone figured out whether ChatGPT-4 is a well calibrated forecaster? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCoWCANWkAAepLZ.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Uber is a much better deal when understood as a way to not need a car ## Sunday, December 31, 2023 ### [Quote tweet, 00:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741249440915112180) · 6 likes No crazy hacks here but in case it helps someone (although I do think “channel the wisdom of the greatest minds who have ever lived” gets you some alpha lol) Much of this is borrowed from @SpencrGreenberg ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCopIzuWQAAskKt.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCopIzuWoAA1QIr.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCopIztW8AAFk2w.jpg) > **Quoting Bolek (@bolekkerous):** @AaronBergman18 can you share the custom instruction prompt? ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 00:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741250465277337726) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ I mean I am in fact kinda weird but sharing a small townhouse with two peers who share my interests (no relationships among us unless they are extremely good at hiding it) is not a reason why ### [Quote tweet, 00:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741252191032098862) · 54 likes In addition to being very funny, this is also pretty misleading DC EAs are substantially and noticeably less weird (for better and for worse; I actually think on the margin we should be weirder) than (to generalize) those in the Bay Area - not at all an ~identical culture > **Quoting Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Professed tolerance is often skin-deep. > > Living multiple adults under the same roof is apparently unacceptably weird. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCoVbSkWQAAOw5s.jpg) ### [Reply to @tescrealaccist, 03:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741295970820718679) · 6 likes > **TESCREAL/acc💙 (@tescrealaccist):** I could be totally wrong, but the levels of weirdness I’ve seen at DC EA adjacent events are disappointingly tame. > > I was promised multidimensional polycules, and very conversation is on housing policy or what you do for a living @AndyMasley get on this ### [Tweet, 04:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741314270229344394) · 19 likes It’s the authors thing, I guess ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCpkGb8WkAAbEvW.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 05:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741334828002291818) · 3 likes If I’m right about value realism but normative anti-realism,\* this is literally true but still objectively bad \*As defended on Consistently Candid with @littIeramblings Substack redirect where I elaborate a bit (plus transcript): https://bit.ly/absstest > **Quoting eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** occasional reminder you can refuse to take things seriously and theres nothing anyone can do about it ### [Reply, 05:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741336456591819015) · 1 like I have a part time (non-EA) job! I’m gonna keep applying for (direct) EA opportunities as they arise and seem plausible but thinking more about how to do semi-normie (ie probably not good enough for Jane Street, wrong skills and maybe too short timelines for tech) etg ### [Reply to @amimevalepitito, 05:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741336725933199396) · 1 like > **Jonathan Frankfurter (@amimevalepitito):** @AaronBergman18 lol how are your apps going? I just got rejected for an EA gig I was overqualified for...but I was at least able to negotiate a $150 reward for a 3 hr work test. My 80,000 Hours CEO expression of interest is still outstanding 😤 ### [Quote tweet, 06:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741338507677712810) · 5 likes Broke: progressive taxation norm to be fair while increasing total donations Woke: slightly regressive taxation norm to punish people for not earning and giving more > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** The 10% of salary donating thing is probably suboptimal and should be replaced by a progressive taxation type thing, which would elicit more donation dollars without necessarily increasing the ex ante individual burden ### [Reply to @Keefler_Elf, 06:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741342167430308062) · 34 likes > **Keefler (@Keefler_Elf):** what was their plan [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1741342125382303744/pu/img/-o9YvaoS9aa-oTC1.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741342167430308062/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 06:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741344663833809363) · 1 like > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** @AaronBergman18 Thank you so much chat GPT that is truly awful They say thx ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCp_vhjWwAApy5w.jpg) ### [Reply, 06:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741346272303264114) · 1 like Honestly tho it’s weird bc I think there’s a nontrivial chance theres some sort of conscious experience going on, but if so that it is almost certainly disconnected from the experience being implied by the text it produces ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCqBNJeXkAA34F2.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741346443154108654) · 1 like Tbc low but not like .01%. Haven’t thought a ton about it, maybe 2%ish ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 15:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741480052951314498) · 8 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** what if > shrimp > died 😢we must solve death ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 15:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741480556901069160) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Correct take ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 16:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741490967641817509) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ F ### [Quote tweet, 16:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741499142466085132) · 54 likes It is authoritarian in a very simple, literal sense to prevent people from knowing the contents of their own body > **Quoting Medic Kim (@medickimw):** Why don’t we have at-home antigen tests? > > Because the FDA panels are composed of these people: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCj_lwoWwAAV1LE.jpg) ### [Reply to @eshear, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741504357470806346) · 3 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** I often write threads of the form “both A and B are sometimes right, and sometimes wrong. Don’t be fooled into thinking either is the True Answer.” > And inevitably, I will get someone strongly agreeing with me that “yeah, B is awesome, glad you get it about how A is bad”. > > [GIF attached](https://x.com/eshear/status/1741500898600522009/photo/1) Sometimes they’re right! ### [Reply to @dbcmckee, 17:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741507928991895893) · 1 like > **Darren McKee (@dbcmckee):** What career advice would you give a 16/17 year old given broad and rapidly increasing AI capabilities? Own equity in ???something??? via a custodial investment account ### [Quote tweet, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741511242521391277) · 144 likes This used to be my point of view, and there is some truth to it, but I’ve come to think that actually if you set up the right physical/biochemical preconditions, you don’t actually have to suffer that much (eg you’ll enjoy exercising) > **Quoting Jack D Coulson (@jackdcoulson):** The golden rule to transforming your mind, body and life in 2024 > > Read this thread if you want to be happier, healthier, fitter, wealthier and stronger > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCnyNXbWAAAZ-tZ.jpg) ### [Reply to @alt_truistic, 22:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741593066539004416) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @alt_truistic is no longer available.)_ Same ### [Quote tweet, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741597163388293373) · 3 likes Making the kid take a coat could be warranted, but making them wear one m?? No parents need to chill. If they aren’t cold and they aren’t literally hypothermic than to each their own > **Quoting yatharth ༺༒༻ (@AskYatharth):** is it important to tell kids to wear jackets when it's cold outside and they don't want to? won't they just... feel cold and wear if they need? ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741604137911889963) · 21 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 31, 2023:** This used to be my point of view, and there is some truth to it, but I’ve come to think that actually if you set up the right physical/biochemical… Preconditions are something like \- physical biochemical function: Test for anemia, b12, thyroid, testosterone if male \- other diseases (which may cash out as biochem function but still) incl depression \- temperature: same physical movement in the heat feels way harder ### [Thread, continued, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741604678444413218) · 13 likes \- metabolism: I’m not really up for debating rn but ease with which your body converts stored chemical energy (even if as glycogen rather than fat) into I think ATP seems to matter…and yes this probably involves diet and genetics (which like if you’re unlucky you’re unlucky 🙁) ### [Thread, continued, 23:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741605149687091421) · 10 likes \- injury: IME a weird intuition not to do X, if followed by doing X anyway, results in exacerbating an existing injury of some sort \- other: stress, music/podcast if ur insane, ??? ### [Reply, 23:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741605499970240888) I guess I’d have just told him to take one with him, not literally put it on ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741606083255296039) · 8 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 31, 2023:** \- injury: IME a weird intuition not to do X, if followed by doing X anyway, results in exacerbating an existing injury of some sort - other: stress,… Also, my point is that suffering is not inevitable, not that you’re going to love every form of intense exercise Like yeah hill sprints might suck even if your favorite forms of RPE 4-8 exercise do not ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 23:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741606717576605845) · 1 like > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** @AaronBergman18 You’re probably underestimating the mental energy involved in making these sort of choices very many times every day. It’s quite hard to reason them out each time, and it often confuses kids to get different outcomes (why? Why??!). A much better choice is often a consistent rule Yeah ur right I probably am lol Maybe I’ll correct myself in idk 6-15 years ### [Reply to @eshear, 23:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741608329607008387) · 16 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** Big complicated system are inevitably composed of smaller simpler ones. Bodies are made of cells. Organizations are made of teams, teams made of individuals. Computers are made of logic gates, themselves made of transistors. > What are intelligences made out of ? My guess is “detectors” Eg edge, color/, is_foot, is_dog etc detectors make up a visual system like human cells make up a particular organ that say lobsters do not have Prefix, concept, emotional valence detectors make up a language system Etc --- End of December 2023. Previous month: [November 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-11). Next month: [January 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-01). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, January 2024 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in January 2024 and has not deleted: 508 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [December 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-12). Next month: [February 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-02). ## Monday, January 1, 2024 ### [Reply to @eshear, 00:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741613225399988699) · 2 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** I want a “this is fine” dog, but depicting the energy of someone playing the status regulation game. Something depicting the energy of the scorn and confession behind “stop being so weird, nerd”. But as a meme. Not sure I get it but this is something ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCtz_3iWsAAI3id.jpg) ### [Reply to @Soul0Engineer, 00:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741615646364864534) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @Soul0Engineer is no longer available.)_ Ah yes pdf which totally does data processing ### [Tweet, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741628874008457483) · 12 likes Might become a vagus nerve guy ### [Quote tweet, 01:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741629372988100902) · 5 likes Huge > **Quoting ra¢hel (@rachdele):** for the 3rd year in a row, i am offering my male followers a special new years gift! 🎉 you can explain a concept of your choosing to me in the replies 🥂 cheers! ### [Reply to @br___ian, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741635260117328044) · 3 likes > **bri (@br___ian):** @AaronBergman18 In what sense! Mine has been pretty messed up the last yr so I have a bunch of little things I do to help it call down if u want Idk yet exactly. Just starting to think it’s closer to microbiome than glycemic load level of importance ### [Reply to @RokoMijic, 01:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741636067051098513) · 3 likes > **Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** Grimes: "I happily am proud of white culture" > > Comments under this are astonishing. > > "White culture doesn't exist!!!!" (it does) > "Delete this or it will end your career!!!" (ad hominem) > "Race doesn't exist!!!!" (it does) > "Why are people are so obsessed with skin color?" (race ≠ skin) Eh cultural pride in general is silly and counterproductive ### [Reply, 01:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741636160122724444) _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Lfg ### [Reply to @beala, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741651174594371808) · 2 likes > **Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** @mealreplacer Completely unhinged, no regard for consequences. This but some modest regard for consequences ### [Reply to @calebwatney, 02:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741651648189960558) · 1 like > **Caleb Watney (@calebwatney):** Starting a New Year's Eve tradition: > > Give me your predictions for TFP growth in 2024 and we'll check back next year to see how everyone did 📈 6% ### [Reply to @beala, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741654603580518621) · 1 like > **Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** @AaronBergman18 @mealreplacer No, i want to see you following rules, no matter the consequences. Imo he should simply strive to be virtuous ### [Tweet, 02:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741655023837204584) · 2 likes I’ll bite…what is an oomphy? ### [Reply to @wholebodyprayer, 03:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741655739301564863) · 2 likes > **rosalind lucy (@wholebodyprayer):** Hello from 2024 in new zealand Tell us what happens ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 03:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741659850977743259) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** turns out it's "one of my followers" > > took me a long time Hello to my oomphies ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741660616320815523) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Maximize the stress of the your colleagues in the communications department ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 03:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741660769677083031) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Wait since when do u have 15k followers lol ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 03:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741662583612903438) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Then make them hire more so u will have more ppl to love 😊 ### [Tweet, 04:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741673798439502238) · 100 likes Honestly 2023 was probably the worst year of my life (though competitive with 2017) Here’s to regression to the mean! 🎉🥳🎊 ### [Reply to @sam_atis, 04:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741674651959373886) · 5 likes > **Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** @AaronBergman18 Sorry to hear that, I hope you enjoy 2024 Me too lol ❤️ ### [Reply to @thebestestpie, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741677709728665955) · 1 like > **Fake News Pie (@thebestestpie):** @JesseTayRiver @AaronBergman18 but thats what makes it so relatable! Wait now I actually agree. Deleted bc not the vibe. Sorry for removing the relatability ### [Reply to @exdiegesis, 04:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741684518614908963) · 8 likes > **Hope (@exdiegesis):** @AaronBergman18 Oh. How come? Full year of chronic (though not permanent; proof of concept that it basically doesn’t exist with access to the right circumstances and medications) illness, basically ### [Reply to @eepysillyboy, 04:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741685206589878300) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @eepysillyboy is no longer available.)_ ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 13:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741820196967317994) · 3 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** who called it the Happier Lives Institute and not Affective Ventures? Banger ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 13:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741820446796833177) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** I think in 2024 I will just be shooting for a consistent skin care routine, I’m not feeling up to much I have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about but skincare feels like a psyop ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741906078810427863) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 27, 2023:** Took me twice as long to shave and 90% of the time I’d cut myself. Skill issue, I’m sure. Idc, the modern ugly thing is a better product 37\) poetry is underrated. It’s kinda like music without the sugar My revealed preference isn’t to consume very much of it though, so maybe this is just signaling brain ### [Thread, continued, 19:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741906896548716581) · 5 likes 38\) Hanson is basically right about everything vis a vis signaling. I mean this purely descriptively, it’s sometimes used or taken as cynical or pejorative but it’s not (or at least not necessarily) It is just an extremely powerful explanatory lens for the social world ### [Thread, continued, 19:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741908455965720593) · 3 likes I can’t vouch for the entire field ofc because I don’t know it, but evo psych seems basically fine and legitimate People may co-opt it, or selectively cite it or whatever; I mean the field itself (It also seems interesting af) ### [Tweet, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741911018450653669) · 8 likes These Cloud costs are getting out of hand ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCyC1xjXYAAlv5N.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741936807061627226) · 4 likes Don’t miss out $500 is a steal tbh > **Quoting Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Thanks to everyone who’s donated to the EA Twitter Fundraiser for the EA Animal Welfare Fund so far! > > If you’d like to contribute, we’ve still got 3 days left! (Link below) > > And if you donate $500+, I’ll make you a thank-you card with your favorite animal > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCyU4bTWUAAueuE.jpg) ### [Reply to @niplav_site, 23:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1741971828585664632) · 4 likes > **niplav (@niplav_site):** Holy fuck https://www.effectiveacceleration.org/allPosts > > Why did I not find out about this earlier > > Maybe I'll post there lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCy6JQ2XUAA-S8Y.jpg) ## Tuesday, January 2, 2024 ### [Reply to @Dan_Jeffries1, 04:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742037105373593934) · 2 likes > **Daniel Jeffries (@Dan_Jeffries1):** Here's the story of another technology that faced massive backlash in its time that will sound very familiar to today's battles over #AI. > > Coffee. > > a thread. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCrZd3TWEAAKMNe.jpg) Hmm this is competitive ### [Reply to @AndrewCritchPhD, 04:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742047787485638758) · 2 likes > **Andrew Critch (🤖🩺🚀) (@AndrewCritchPhD):** When I count on my fingers, I use binary, so I can count to 31 on one hand, or 1023 on two. It took me about 1 hour to train the muscle memory, and it's very rhythmic, so now my right hand just auto-increments in binary till I'm done, and then I just read off the number. > > [video attached](https://x.com/AndrewCritchPhD/status/1741971580488409179/video/1) > (quoting @freed_dfilan: FYI: you can count up to 100 on your fingers like so: - right hand is ones - left hand is tens - thumbs are 5/50, fingers are 1/10. This is convenient enough that it's the way I count by default. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chisanbop) What ### [Quote tweet, 10:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742128286283558996) · 7 likes 🚀💥🌪️🔥🎉🐾🦁🦍🦖🐍🦜🐊🌟🐅🐆🦈🐘🐪🦏🦚🦔🐓🐕🦢🦉🐾🐾🎊🎆🔮🌌💫🌠🤘🥳🎸🍾🍻🤪💃🕺💪👑🌪️🚀💥🔥\`\`\` > **Quoting oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 animal well-being rules 👍👍👍 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GC0nbS2akAAWdqK.jpg) ### [Reply to @memecrashes, 10:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742130548632322068) · 1 like > **MatLab crashes (@memecrashes):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCwnXCRXYAAEBoF.jpg) If I remembered how to do this right, something doesn’t check out ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GC1KgEzXQAAT8_0.jpg) ### [Reply, 10:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742131290046931272) · 1 like I should run for French president ### [Reply, 10:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742133387677044854) · 1 like Turns out I’m a value realist and normative anti-realist which basically just silently judges everyone without saying they should (objectively) do things Seems kinda fine tbh https://bit.ly/absstest ### [Reply to @BadmenBad, 10:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742133894197969201) · 4 likes > **Kaleidic Riot 🏴 🏳️‍🌈 (@BadmenBad):** Consuming eggs & some forms of fish seems to contribute more to animal suffering than consuming beef. > > We have terms for people who eat eggs but not meat & people who eat fish but not other meat. But there's not a term for people who refuse to eat chicken but eat beef. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GC0ndtMaoAAGtBX.png) I use “suffering reducetarian” Bonus points (health too apparently) for grass fed beef and dairy ### [Tweet, 10:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742135007743705497) · 15 likes If we don’t have to go ask people to donate to shrimp at the mall at this point, I’m losing all faith in effective altruism ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GC1OjhvXIAEJnKR.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GC1OjhsWcAA9600.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 11:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742139260050805126) · 6 likes 🚀🔥💥🐾🦁🐯🦍🦖🐍🦜🐊🦈🐅🐆🦏🦔🐓🐕🦢🦉🐾🎉🥳🍾🍻💪👑🤘🎸💃🕺🌟🌈🌌🎊🎆🔮💫🌪️🌕🐘🦚 > **Quoting Cameron Holmes (@CameronHolmes92):** @SpacedOutMatt @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax @Laura_k_Duffy @Laura_k_Duffy please can I get a red panda? > > (This feels like a milestone as my first significant non-global health & development donation) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GC1D-2aXsAA_6bQ.png) ### [Quote tweet, 11:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742141132681650393) · 13 likes Oh boy, here we go > **Quoting Eric Schmidt 🇺🇦 (@edavidds):** Gave another $500, need to see this footage > > (at $15,000 they’ll film themselves at a mall soliciting donations for shrimp welfare) ### [Reply to @edavidds, 11:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742141278446289268) · 4 likes > **Eric Schmidt 🇺🇦 (@edavidds):** Gave another $500, need to see this footage > > (at $15,000 they’ll film themselves at a mall soliciting donations for shrimp welfare) > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: If we don’t have to go ask people to donate to shrimp at the mall at this point, I’m losing all faith in effective altruism) FYI the counter thing takes a bit of time to update ### [Reply to @VineethSendil, 11:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742142436619464710) · 2 likes > **Vineeth Sendilraj (@VineethSendil):** how am i supposed to respond to this … > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCzuLPuXEAAPQU7.jpg) “No sorry” ### [Quote tweet, 11:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742145377288028514) · 2 likes The -ese suffix is ok but pales in comparison to the poetic Spanish -eño (pronounced “ænyo”). We (America) should adopt it officially. Burmeño/Myanmareño > **Quoting Eric Schmidt 🇺🇦 (@edavidds):** Tried a Burmese (Myanmarese) restaurant for the first time. Really good. ### [Reply to @shakaz_, 11:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742145874665337249) · 4 likes > **shakaz (@shakaz_):** meanwhile, in ml > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GC1XmhWbUAAfZzh.jpg) lol ### [Reply, 11:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742146632802582862) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ @PeterJAngel looking fresh ### [Reply to @tunguz, 11:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742147044343431444) · 7 likes > **Bojan Tunguz (@tunguz):** Be careful who you talk about atoms to. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCxr3c_bwAANzip.jpg) I thought I was the shit in first grade for knowing that protons, neutrons and electrons were a thing ### [Quote tweet, 11:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742151026415677591) · 8 likes This + rice and potatoes being staple foods in populations/cuisines with (I think?) no chronic health issues for hundreds or thousands of years means that glycemic index just doesn’t matter that much > **Quoting Dr David Unwin (@lowcarbGP):** 1/7 My 7sugar infographics are back! They help people with T2D predict the glycaemic consequences of dietary choices. Carbs are the main drivers of blood sugar. Here I reinterpret the glycaemic load as approx. 4g teaspoons of table sugar. Freely available https://phcuk.org/sugar/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E2VlO1cWEAEHyMa.jpg) ### [Tweet, 12:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742165070589677970) · 4 likes Tfw too cold for tee but too hot for jacket ### [Tweet, 13:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742169229174976875) · 3 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GC1trilWkAAK10m.jpg) ### [Reply to @inerati, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742177064885580048) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ The fact that even doctors get stuff wrong like the questions here (there was a recent study going around twitter I think) is good reason to think this is at least sometimes wrong and totally plausible scenarios are ~out of distribution~ for us https://brownmath.com/stat/falsepos.htm ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 13:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742177375943573564) · 4 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** who wants to claim that sweet sweet counterfactual impact of getting it over the line? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GC1y0aXXUAAVOZC.jpg) Fun fact it’s actually the same impact bc diminishing returns don’t set in at this oom (ik what you mean dw lol) ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 14:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742190787608064027) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ The trick is that it’s not merely not counterfactual but actually a substantive input to production of shrimp welfare ### [Thread, continued, 14:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742191101732086066) · 3 likes Oh wait if this is what u thought, I was making a joke about the mall thing being an input of production. Like obviously money is lol ### [Reply to @notanastronomer, 14:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742194259493577199) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @notanastronomer is no longer available.)_ Going on the whiteboard Let the rejection process begin 😤 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GC2EccUXUAA9zUX.jpg) ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 14:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742194313142866063) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ Thank u for this ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 14:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742196414409494663) · 6 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** "Terrible policy" > > We are too confident. > > The assumption seems to be that all students are brilliant and anything that reduces them must be terrible. > > I don't think we (nerd twitter) can back up this claim when it comes to the UK. Let's take a breath. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GC2Ako9WwAAMFcY.png) > (quoting @RishiSunak: From today, the majority of foreign university students cannot bring family members to the UK. In 2024, we’re already delivering for the British people.) I mean it seems like a bad policy even if that’s totally right, albeit maybe not for the same reasons ### [Thread, continued, 14:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742196596828180880) · 3 likes Ie like I would want this policy even if the economic effect was neutral or very slightly negative ### [Quote tweet, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742252642850734569) · 3 likes Jfc > **Quoting Chris Masterjohn (@ChrisMasterjohn):** It gets worse. > > The USDA database reports “crude protein,” which simply takes nitrogen content and multiplies it by 6.25 based on the average nitrogen content of all known proteins. > > This overestimates protein by an average of 15%! ### [Reply to @tessafyi, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742266328847655082) · 6 likes > **Tessa Alexanian (@tessafyi):** My new year's brag is that I exceeded 100,000 USD in lifetime donations in 2023 💸 > > I doubt I'd have given away quite that much (~16.5% of my post-undergrad income) without the influence of the EA community and my @givingwhatwecan pledge > > (quoting @givingwhatwecan: ✨ Happy New Year! ✨ Want to start 2024 doing something amazing? Taking a pledge with Giving What We Can makes for a New Year's resolution that will truly impact the world. Cheers to a year of meaningful change! 🌍💫) Hell yeah and we need more bragging This is the type of thing ppl should brag about ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 19:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742268253387337916) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** Remembering the time I had a call with a Twitter mutual and they suggested I get in contact with a different Twitter account to talk about the experience of being ugly Dude ur not ugly lol ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742303046573367664) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 Hm it does a weird thing where it reads the lady period in a paragraph as not a period? Wait what is a lady period ## Wednesday, January 3, 2024 ### [Reply to @_HannahRitchie, 00:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742341517459734703) · 3 likes > **Hannah Ritchie (@_HannahRitchie):** Saying that "things have improved" does not mean things are perfect. > > It doesn't even mean things are "fine" or "okay". > > In fact, I can't think of many metrics in the world where things are "fine", because we can always push for better. > > 👇👇 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GC1He3NWwAAGKCQ.jpg) “World is much better” I mean maybe, I’m basically 50/50, but the dominant consideration is wild animal suffering maybe declining thanks to habitat loss vs factory farming. Ik it’s supposed to be upbeat and motivational and symbolic but still ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 00:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742342916398264768) · 2 likes > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** “for lack of a better term” ??? oh you went through all the terms? you thought of all existing terms and there wasn’t a good one? 🤨 I have so many things for this! Like there’s a type of question about which there is a fact of the matter, and that answer is based on criteria that currently exist/have resolved, but those criteria aren’t like normal things in the natural world that we can measure ~objectively ### [Tweet, 06:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742428946392580243) · 11 likes Thank god I didn’t get in to Harvard bc then I’d have to have a take on all this ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 06:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742430618481283482) · 1 like > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @AaronBergman18 Otoh I feel no obligation to No u have to or else u have to resign as alumnus sorry I don’t make the rules ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 06:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742430963181728041) · 1 like > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @AaronBergman18 You’ll have to fire me Ok ur fired ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 19:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742626100474224916) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @algekalipso This is like level 2 of @AaronBergman18’s take > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: I honestly think these should be, if not totally OTC, at least de facto available ~everywhere (like fire extinguishers) I complain about gatekeeping stimulants and random other drugs, but gatekeeping emergency pain relief comes pretty close to evil…) Great minds 🤝😎 ### [Reply to @Alex__H13, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742642146291642660) · 3 likes > **Alex Hunt 🏹 (@Alex__H13):** Donated £64 to this. A pound for every day of vegtarianism so far 🐮🐑🐷🐔🐟 > > (quoting @SpacedOutMatt: Last day!!) 🔥🔥🔥 ### [Reply to @mauraball, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742661968001995263) · 1 like > **MAURA (@mauraball):** 90% of startups fail. > > Why? > > Because they give up. > > They have no more energy or creativity to solve problems. > > Want to be the 10%? > > Don't give up. I think this is satire ### [Reply, 22:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742669971417677829) · 1 like You’ll do 10:1 odds? So I give you 100 if not real and get $1000 if it is? ## Thursday, January 4, 2024 ### [Reply to @JeremiahDJohns, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742771417580523775) · 4 likes > **Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** I need to know what Drunk Pigeon Hour podcast is Jeremiah you’re invited as a guest but fair warning this is not Dwarkesh or 80k or Neoliberal - I will do zero (intentional) prep for it (Before publishing I get them transcribed, put in a google doc, and then guests can indicate anything they want cut so it’s low stakes) ### [Reply, 05:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742775024069615869) · 2 likes Well they are now ### [Reply to @JeremiahDJohns, 05:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742785979868491896) · 3 likes > **Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** @AaronBergman18 @Laura_k_Duffy @SpacedOutMatt I have a policy that the only good podcasts are those that invite me as a guest, and all the rest are cowards, so I accept Wait lfg I will dm you ### [Reply to @inerati, 15:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1742927588191060153) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ How much of this is no bed frame? Asking for a friend (I lied the friend is me) ### [Reply to @EmilybyNight, 20:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743005688467517778) · 1 like > **Emily (@EmilybyNight):** what notes app can I make my entire personality? need recs Physical white board ## Friday, January 5, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 14:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743272421967159690) · 20 likes New policy (successfully limited damage radius once 😤): always ask someone you know 1-1 before doing anything new/weird/not what you were hired for > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Did anyone else make a series of relatively small and inconsequential but kinda embarrassing faux pas when entering the corporate world for the first time? > > Like apparently ur not supposed to ask a random (relevant) question in a Slack channel with a couple dozen people? ### [Thread, continued, 14:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743272423678419383) · 3 likes The wise learn from the mistakes of others (me) ### [Reply to @inerati, 14:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743272737882165401) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ I do not feel gayer on dextroamphetamine I don’t think it affects my hormones beyond marginal changes in cortisol and such ### [Reply to @beala, 14:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743283170487701562) · 1 like > **Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** @AaronBergman18 No, I want to see you completely unhinged with no regard for consequences. One day I will fly free like a bird ### [Reply to @m_ashcroft, 15:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743286275312857208) · 3 likes > **Michael Ashcroft (@m_ashcroft):** connections in the mind can be so bizarre > > I just ate a spoonful of almond butter and it somehow reminded me of the Arbiter from Halo Real ### [Reply to @inerati, 15:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743296837186883766) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ True for plants, the opposite for animals ### [Reply to @Littoral_Gecko, 16:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743307791249350743) · 2 likes > **A Gecko🦎 (@Littoral_Gecko):** This miiiight be a tad too self-conscious. > > Make some faux pas, learn from them. Yes, ask people for advice on office culture, but you’re allowed to make mistakes—everyone has. In my experience, most people are understanding. Yeah I agree with the second part I think the too self conscious version would be just not doing the thing and not asking anyone ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 16:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743311726890606607) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ Wait why? He’s right that literal enforcement of all laws would be very bad (underage drinking, speed limits, mass deportation, copyright lawsuits for memes) ## Saturday, January 6, 2024 ### [Reply to @Nash076, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743466776782889418) · 46 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @Nash076 is no longer available.)_ Grandfather recently told me he remembered choosing who to hire for a NYC finance intro level job (probably 70s?) from a stack of six—SIX—resumes ### [Reply to @beffjezos, 03:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743470374845628583) · 9 likes > **Beff (e/acc) (@beffjezos):** In college I experimented with various positions in philosophy class. > > One semester I wrote the most pro-communism essay. Got +5 sigma above avg. > > Next semester, I wrote a pro-capitalist essay. Got -4 sigma below avg. > > That's when I knew college is an indoctrination pipeline. Lol there is no 5 sigma above average unless you were graded by some unknown system that distinguishes between 99.99th and 99.999th percentile ### [Reply to @diviaprocessing, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743473735217144091) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @diviaprocessing is no longer available.)_ Hope it’s bait ### [Reply to @diviaprocessing, 03:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743474530532679894) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @diviaprocessing is no longer available.)_ Oh lol ### [Quote tweet, 03:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743474955910554028) · 123 likes No other part of society where this degree of infantilization is within the Overton window > **Quoting Alin Gragossian, DO, MPH (@AG_EM33):** Patient-doctor here. It’s nice getting quick blood test results as a patient, but there NEEDS to be a way for the results to be interpreted/checked before releasing them to patients. So many ppl getting anxious over RDW & things that we barely look at as docs (sorry #hemetwitter) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 14:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743638985266663544) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @GjMcGowan @arthur_spirling @notanastronomer Didn't know if was that much of a difference but check out the BK price differences! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDKjxwdXcAApBgg.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDKjxyWW0AAsN3R.jpg) …and more expensive is better if it reduces bacon and egg consumption ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 14:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743643343697912065) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ How come BOTECs are never high confidence. Just once I want to be absolutely certain ### [Reply to @JosephPolitano, 15:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743663343942926744) · 2 likes > **Joey Politano 🏳️‍🌈 (@JosephPolitano):** \[jokingly\] women in same-sex couples also tend to have better labor market outcomes after giving birth/adopting than women in opposite-sex couples, encouraging bi women into same-sex marriages could be good for wage inequality and employment rates too. > https://www.census.gov/library/working-papers/2023/adrm/CES-WP-23-25.html > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDK48xFXEAEsHsj.png) Listen here bud, we need to have the exact opposite campaign or else I’m gonna be the only single cousin until the singularity arrives ### [Reply to @Trail_Cams, 16:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743668058105770264) · 3 likes > **trailcam (@Trail_Cams):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDK_CUxWUAAdC8K.jpg) @RafaRuizdeLira strange bear ### [Quote tweet, 16:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743671236750659905) · 61 likes Yes, Eliezer is right about a lot but \*confident\* disbelief in animal (and other minds’) sentience is both wrong and potentially very dangerous Even if I thought he was, say, 80% likely to be right, the downside to being wrong warrants extreme caution > **Quoting Charbel-Raphael (@CRSegerie):** This post from @webmasterdave is still legendary > > Context: Eliezer sets out his theory of consciousness in a Facebook post, followed by a debate in the comments about animal consciousness. It's like the Super Bowl. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCsFJcZWIAAOgaa.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 16:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743671238898139172) · 14 likes FWIW I actually \*hope\* he’s right - that would mean the world is currently much better than I currently believe ### [Tweet, 16:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743673474785116574) · 3 likes I could have landed that plane if the door blew out and the pilots suddenly had a heart attack ### [Tweet, 16:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743676955491209451) · 3 likes Do people have thyroid takes? \- Avg TSH across 3 tests: 5.55 (high) \- Avg free T4: 1.17 (lower half of range but pretty normal) \- Not autoimmune ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDLI8vDXoAAF4TM.jpg) ## Sunday, January 7, 2024 ### [Reply, 00:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743784845929554236) · 1 like Kinda pedantic but I’m not strongly convinced about the true answer (ex post) — just strongly convinced that given what we know and can reasonably find out, the (ex ante) EV is negative ### [Thread, continued, 00:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743785400559157457) · 1 like I don’t have specific resources off the top of my head (might look for some later) but a lot of the work going in to my take is just seriously considering whether I’d want to live the lives of all wild animals, and my answer to this isn’t close at all - I’d much rather not exist ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743820324234207552) · 3 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Pic with the dog > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDNDZBSaUAAKlTH.jpg) ### [Reply, 14:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1743997643955523661) · 1 like I think this is wrong because directionally sleep deprivation is an \*antidepressant\* https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7839702/ ### [Reply, 14:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744003941929505001) · 1 like I think this is basically wrong and that the US has a ton of leverage over all of Israeli policy It’s so far outside the Overton window rn but economic sanctions alone would basically just work ## Monday, January 8, 2024 ### [Reply to @finmoorhouse, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744174961479016878) · 4 likes > **Fin Moorhouse (@finmoorhouse):** Here's the path you travel. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDQksG9XMAAg9S2.jpg) STOP doing geography ### [Quote tweet, 01:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744175308155056361) · 13 likes I don’t believe in geography (this is a straight line starting from Seattle walking east (allegedly)) > **Quoting Fin Moorhouse (@finmoorhouse):** Here's the path you travel. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDQksG9XMAAg9S2.jpg) ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 01:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744176385311035856) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ Isn’t that the same thing? Like the point is that step 1 is due east and then from the walker’s POV every step is that same direction ### [Reply, 02:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744179543366070388) Isn’t the whole point here that from the walker’s POV the red line isn’t straight (ie the continuation of step 1) ### [Tweet, 04:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744211092501344530) · 18 likes It appears the electrical circuit in my room cannot handle 9 lamps, a monitor, a mini fridge, an air purifier, a space heater, an electric kettle, and a fan 😢 ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744212380433707141) · 5 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 9 lamps? I know it’s really not many, should get a few more ### [Quote tweet, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744247212891058495) · 35 likes Myers-Briggs isn’t “fake” - it’s not a good psychometric tool but like you’re allowed to categorize things however you want > **Quoting Alex Younger (@AlextheYounga):** @eigenrobot Why is Myer's Briggs fake? Everyone always says that, but I've never encountered a better alternative. ### [Thread, continued, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744247215428620406) · 22 likes Here’s the Bergman Brain Classifier (each is a continuous scale but you can bin into high and low if you want) 1\) hedonic set point 2\) hedonic variance 3\) cringe tolerance 4\) decoupling tendency 5\) salience of social world ### [Reply to @RomanHauksson, 06:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744250978579226747) · 3 likes > **Roman Hauksson-Neill (@RomanHauksson):** it's a really good example a model that's memetically fit but not accurate / valid upon closer analysis Wdym not accurate? The model itself can’t be inaccurate right? ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 06:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744251156681932906) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 Classic ENTP belief lol I’m not extroverted ### [Reply to @RuxandraTeslo, 09:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744293833150541903) · 3 likes > **Ruxandra Teslo 🧬 (@RuxandraTeslo):** What was the advice 👀 ### [Reply to @sullyj3, 10:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744311414137716796) · 5 likes > **░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░ (@sullyj3):** @AaronBergman18 You know it's legit because it's named after someone's surname It’s actually named after Ingrid Bergman (no relation), just a coincidence I have it too ### [Reply to @APA_Planning, 11:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744319336553046017) · 1 like > **American Planning Association (@APA_Planning):** An affordable housing crisis grips the U.S. Beyond zoning reform, preserving existing stock is vital. Learn how local governments can use zoning strategies to safeguard smaller, older homes in this month's Zoning Practice. https://bit.ly/47Ptd7I I am commenting to contribute to the ratio, which is well deserved ### [Reply to @haskallcurry, 20:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744463030769824030) > **John (@haskallcurry):** By this logic astrology isn't fake; why shouldn't I be able to classify people by the positions of the planets when they were born AFAIK astrology doesn’t just do that- it also makes further claims about the meaning of those categories An astrology that literally just sorted people and didn’t say anything about personality or compatibility vis a vis the categories wouldn’t be fake ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 21:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744473224975454270) · 2 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** @AaronBergman18 @haskallcurry It's all on the Wiki page: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers–Briggs_Type_Indicator# > > (Also I'm simplifying the validity & reliability problems with MB for the sake of argument, ofc some of the results are valid/reliable. But way less than the Big Five, and way way less than what Myers-Briggs itself implies.) Ok thanks. I wasn’t aware of all this. Still seems somewhat different from astrology in that the adjectives used have literal meanings with direct, intrinsic importance even if other implications are mostly bogus ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 22:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744481473023918255) · 4 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 Is this an American thing where your electricity grid can’t handle kettles? Ya only one of us can make tea at a time or else all the ventilators and dialysis machines and such shut down across the country ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 22:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744484131558338981) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 It's generally considered best practice to feed bedrooms via >1 circuit, so next time the breaker pops you might check for live outlets I’m thinking a small nuclear reactor in the room would be a good second source of electricity ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 22:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744489208411033640) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** I’m starting a new Flat Earth movement. Our founding principle: the Earth isn’t flat, but it \*should be\*. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: I don’t believe in geography (this is a straight line starting from Seattle walking east (allegedly))) Yes I’m in ### [Reply to @besttrousers, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744492739104788934) · 2 likes > **Matt Darling 🌐🏗️ (@besttrousers):** I used to argue with people about causal inference techniques. What’s ur fave? Mine is qualitative mechanistic reasoning with no econometrics or data whatsoever ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 23:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744504435068260539) · 1 like > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 Tbh I think you'd still have the same problem because you'd feed the whole building without changing the load on that particular circuit It’ll be its own circuit just for the tea kettle ## Tuesday, January 9, 2024 ### [Reply to @RicardoCaiano, 04:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744570583063441803) · 25 likes > **Ricardo Caiano 🥯☕ (@RicardoCaiano):** oh right mean vs median 👍 ### [Reply to @jkcarlsmith, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744578655739592960) · 2 likes > **Joe Carlsmith (@jkcarlsmith):** Another essay. This one is about the connection between deep atheism (that is, a fundamental mistrust towards Nature — discussed in my last essay) and seeking control. https://joecarlsmith.com/2024/01/08/when-yang-goes-wrong Stop, too many bangers 😩 ### [Quote tweet, 04:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744584631721083325) · 6 likes Average about 8-10/day ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDYCeeMWUAAoCIz.jpg) > **Quoting 🐌 (@Wheeema):** “tea is nasty, its for old people” > > me: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDVn-uWbUAAW-Zt.jpg) ### [Reply, 06:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744608485679980655) · 1 like What ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 06:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744609938771435677) · 1 like > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** @AaronBergman18 Trying to avoid ghosts in the hallway at night wish me luck Oh ok good luck ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 14:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744729282784670153) · 3 likes > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** @AaronBergman18 Wait what. You drink tea 8-10 times a day? That doesn't make sense 2 teabags per occasion bc I am a man of chaos ## Wednesday, January 10, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 04:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744944342731563132) · 8 likes Tag urself (yes I know some of these contradict - I contain multitude) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDdJoaQWIAAuYGc.jpg) > **Quoting eve (@agitbackprop):** qt with a meme you made > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDdHgaeW4AAKgIm.jpg) ### [Reply to @TylerAlterman, 04:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744945638532321564) · 13 likes > **Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply (@TylerAlterman):** Legibility unlocked. Nice to meet you, I’m Tyler, I “create projects.” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDdImhUW4AAWtSQ.jpg) I remember a couple years ago having this conversation and playing the role of the grandparents, and my actual thought was like “very cool that you have a weird unconventional answer to ‘what do you do’ but like what I really want to know is ‘where does your money come from?’ ” ### [Reply to @albrgr, 05:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744951316948955612) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @albrgr is no longer available.)_ To state the obvious, the paper doesn’t attempt to consider the general equilibrium effects of making eviction harder or easier (ie I’d expect it to get harder/more expensive for everyone but especially eviction-prone demographics to rent at all if eviction becomes harder) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 05:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744951424352387541) · 5 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Fuck... > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDdPcUaXYAEYvoH.jpg) \*swipes left\* ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744952018609778853) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, January 1, 2024:** I can’t vouch for the entire field ofc because I don’t know it, but evo psych seems basically fine and legitimate People may co-opt it, or selectively cite it… 39\) Microsoft Word is an excellent amateur graphic design tool ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 05:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744952465022197950) · 3 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax Prejudice strikes again https://x.com/ohwizenedtortle/status/1692652355366641736?t=8QzCUnldlcq-X9RErPPMpw&s=19 I would like to represent the non-creepy weirdo demographic ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 05:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744952589907628217) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @ohwizenedtortle You do 👍 😊 ### [Reply to @Austen, 05:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744958668695622007) · 2 likes > **Austen Allred (@Austen):** The Overton Window has shifted so severely over the past three years that it's difficult to even wrap my mind around ### [Reply to @alt_truistic, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744963814917902421) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @alt_truistic is no longer available.)_ [![I Dont Believe You Lies GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/GDdbVrnXwAEnuXd.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744963814917902421/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744963976654467262) · 1 like Secret third thing ### [Thread, continued, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744964018329059433) · 2 likes Jk I have no idea what any of this means ### [Tweet, 07:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1744978311074205726) · 33 likes ☹️ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDdohrEXQAAv3KP.jpg) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 17:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1745129297549877399) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** I just realised that I had direct messages disabled for anyone I don’t follow, this was unintentional! So if u want to reach out for a chat (especially if u want to be on my podcast 😇) please do! My DMs are open I wanna be on ur pod ### [Reply to @thechosenberg, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1745150567201046680) · 17 likes > **rosey🌹 (@thechosenberg):** I already resent my parents for creating me, I can’t imagine how he feels > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDf1y4PWoAEfNGl.jpg) I relate to this guy mostly bc he also uses multiple levels of parentheses ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1745228651363242289) > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** ofc what do u wanna talk about this time idk the honest answer is 'whatever u/ppl want to hear me talk about' (subject to veto by me) ### [Thread, continued, 23:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1745229382006743316) also very happy to wing it ## Thursday, January 11, 2024 ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 10:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1745396214420390353) > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** let’s wing it 🪽 ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 15:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1745474276021461136) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Poast x ### [Reply to @sama, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1745476195825676501) · 2 likes > **Sam Altman (@sama):** Low point: turned down at the bar of the Ritz for a meeting because I'm wearing "sport shoes" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CkXCIcZUUAAc3gc.jpg) He just like me fr ### [Reply to @nocontextmemes, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1745485868947677636) · 2 likes > **no context memes (@nocontextmemes):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDgvVxxXUAAXDoF.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDk2JXVXIAA-Oup.jpg) ### [Reply, 16:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1745488068377788467) I am a vector of misinformation ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1745540033774231584) _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ lol I would also have done this ### [Reply, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1745542779831284190) Guessing it’s intentionally weird and borderline social norm breaking as a marketing strategy to get people to share ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1745544338774347941) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ Great minds ## Friday, January 12, 2024 ### [Reply to @__drewface, 09:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1745735191732138475) · 1 like > **Andrew Rose (@__drewface):** Is it possible to occupy the conscious experience of my gut microbiome without basically hallucinating it or acting it, if that makes sense? > > Can I listen directly to the gut microbiome signals and notice them directly and vividly in conscious experience? > > Who has done this? I’m gonna go with no ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 15:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1745832154729193945) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Any thoughts on reducing cortisol? Phosphatidylserine ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 16:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1745852386365632650) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Taking a supplement that’s just an element goes pretty hard tbh. Like yeah bro I’m just taking some element 12, one of the base structures of the universe. I kinda doubt you’re taking pure magnesium. It’s always a salt (citrate, glycine, etc) afaict ### [Reply to @inerati, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1745858216439824766) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ Intra-sex as well. Almost certainly testosterone explains variance in muscle mass (maybe strength as well?) better than lifting does among adult males ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 17:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1745859052247175573) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Hot take but price taste and convenience aren’t enough for plant meat to replace animal It’s a model that fails out of distribution ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1745878812716368155) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, January 10, 2024:** 39\) Microsoft Word is an excellent amateur graphic design tool 40\) I used to think that consumers at large would choose plant based meat if it was at least as cheap, tasty, and convenient as animal meat I no longer think this is true ### [Reply, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1745879355941646400) · 1 like Yes I love the contrarian energy ### [Reply, 23:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1745952906883297324) · 2 likes I don’t have a good point estimate but I’m enthusiastically supportive if this would be at least in part for earning to give Guess I’ll throw out .1% but this is out of nowhere ### [Reply to @BrandonGoldman, 23:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1745953763116925439) · 1 like > **Brandon Goldman (@BrandonGoldman):** If plant meat nails all three of those, why would that not be enough? Nutrition, though this operates at a few levels/time scales. And tbc I mean more like “molecular contents” than “how healthy on a scale of 1-10” ## Saturday, January 13, 2024 ### [Tweet, 00:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1745965280948265180) · 73 likes Made a custom GPT that is just normal, fully functional ChatGPT-4 but if it makes any money I'll donate it all I present: Donation Printer https://chat.openai.com/g/g-Mw5dOueTG-donation-printer ### [Reply to @historyinmemes, 16:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746201772371193969) · 5 likes > **Historic Vids (@historyinmemes):** Difference between a seagull and a crow's accuracy > > [video attached](https://x.com/historyinmemes/status/1746020058311078127/video/1) Deeply unserious bird ### [Reply to @inerati, 16:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746210467368903109) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ Incorrect opinion ### [Reply, 17:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746226019122434366) · 1 like A couple reasons… Most fundamentally, the missing category is “nutrition” (or ‘nutrient profile’ if u prefer) Humans (and other animals) regulate nutrient intake in large part via intuition and preferences that manifest consciously (eg “I really feel like a steak”)… ### [Thread, continued, 17:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746226781944758498) · 1 like At a very short timescale, before your brain has figured out what nutrients to associate with eg a plant based burger, yes taste is the only proxy it has access to … ### [Thread, continued, 17:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746227290860658693) · 2 likes But over a medium timescale, it will stop associating the taste of beef (even perfectly emulated) with the nutrient profile of cow flesh, and so will not instantiate a preference for beef-tasting things like it used to (or ‘would’) ### [Thread, continued, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746228173870673928) · 2 likes Maybe most importantly, over a longer timescale of at least a few years, I strongly suspect that most vegan recidivism is fundamentally caused by a similar process going on wrt beliefs/policies/behavioral patterns rather than individual meals ### [Reply, 17:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746229084881907770) And all this^ depends on a premise (which I think is true) that animal flesh provides humans a very important nutrient profile that we (1) don’t know how to and (2) couldn’t afford to replicate with plants/fungi/whatever ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746231600973513175) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 @metakuna Very skeptical of your suggested pathway (plant based meats have poor nutritional profile -> consumers don't crave them in the same way as animal meats) because like 75% of the average American's diet is highly engineered craveable foods with poor nutritional profiles And yet Americans don’t have widespread arbitrary clinical micronutrient deficiencies! “Craveable” is endogenous here - there is a reason almost nobody eats exclusively donuts, skittles, and Doritos (or whatever literally tastes the best) ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 18:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746232116256428506) · 2 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** @AaronBergman18 @metakuna Does this logic extend to diet coke 😭? Uh idk? It would in the sense that you stop associating the taste with a sudden surge of fructose/blood sugar ### [Reply to @keithfrankish, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746236110332711111) · 4 likes > **Keith Frankish (@keithfrankish):** Of course I don't deny that you have consciousness! Why would you think I deny that? What's illusory, according to illusionists, isn't conscious experience itself; it's the magical, scientifically inexplicable properties some philosophers think experiences have. When people talk about consciousness, the sui generis private, subjective nature of it is (implicitly) part of its definition I can layer on adjectives: (afaik) you deny genuine, subjective experience phenomenal consciousness ### [Reply to @PYeerk, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746236712819298406) · 2 likes > **Yeerk.P 🦆 (@PYeerk):** 'Illusionists' like @keithfrankish are idiots and traitors to the human race > > (quoting @tomwelcomeclark: @2Philosophical\_ To be fair to illusionists like @keithfrankish it's not consciousness tout court they deny but of phenomenal, "what it's like" consciousness. Agreed that seems bizarre, but consciousness can be conceived as just functions. A lot easier to physicalize!) A little strong no? How about just “probably wrong”? ### [Reply to @inerati, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746238476859605050) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ Might be willing to actually bet on smth here - what odds would you give capital share of income > labor share of income in the United States on Jan 1, 2029? I’d do 10:1 (ur $1k to my $100) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDvio_VXQAA--v1.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746252890996351139) · 48 likes Thought it was just a meme but now I am 100% seriously curious what is going on with girls and Taylor Swift Like evidently y’all don’t merely like her bc she makes songs you enjoy listening to. What else is going on? What do you see in her? What does she represent? ### [Quote tweet, 19:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746253969511370791) · 12 likes Me when I put on a collared shirt > **Quoting internet hall of fame (@InternetH0F):** my man looks good > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDth8vLWkAAWakc.jpg) ### [Reply to @tmychow, 23:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746307639556915452) · 7 likes > **trevor (taylor’s version) (@tmychow):** why do you think it's "not merely bc she makes songs you enjoy"? ### [Tweet, 23:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746319104837894162) · 2 likes Any web apps (or perhaps downloadable things) you’d personally pay say $5-$10 for? ## Sunday, January 14, 2024 ### [Reply to @tmychow, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746321260450021682) · 7 likes > **trevor (taylor’s version) (@tmychow):** @AaronBergman18 i too have taylor on my hinge profile (and on my twitter, and on my website etc.) > > i still don't see your point tho - her songs really are that good! I mean I ~never see this with any other artist which indicates that really liking someone’s songs isn’t a sufficient condition for showing up like this And on Hinge in particular you only get a bit of space to signal information - seems substantial to use it in this way ### [Reply, 00:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746328972974055497) · 1 like No I mean like you’d give me a $5 one time tip or smth ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746349165414674476) · 3 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** The world if the infinite sum of 1/n was convergent > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDwnUSdWgAAZ1F1.jpg) Would look more like ∅ ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 02:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746354825531363792) > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** I don't think Guissepie Garibaldis revolution in the kingdom of the two scillies had really any support from a meaningful fraction of the ancien regime. > > The Shah maintained support of the army throughout the Iranian revolution and also controlled the oil feilds. Dude why do u know this ### [Tweet, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746576180663247250) · 27 likes IT’S SNOWING ❄️⛄🌨️☃️🎿❄️⛷️🏂❄️🧊🏔️⛸️🏒🥌❄️🌨️☃️🎄🎁❄️🌬️🧣🧤❄️🏔️🚠🛷❄️🥶💎❄️🕯️🔥☕🍪❄️🌟💤❄️🌙🦌🛷🎅🤶❄️🌨️🎉🥳❄️🧦🎶❄️📚🛋️❄️🕰️🌨️❄️🔮🌨️🎈❄️🌐📡❄️🎨🖌️❄️🎭🎤❄️📺🎮❄️🍿🍫❄️🍜🥘❄️🍷🍺❄️🛀🧼❄️🧘‍♂️🧘‍♀️❄️🎆🎇❄️🏰🗝️❄️🧙‍♂️🧙‍♀️❄️🔍📚❄️🚀🪐❄️👽🤖❄️🎸🎷❄️🕹️🎲❄️🧩🃏❄️🏰🐉❄️🏹🛡️❄️🚂🎠❄️🏰🎢❄️🚤🏖️❄️🛶🌊 ## Monday, January 15, 2024 ### [Reply to @polisisti, 01:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746702563511083256) · 1 like > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 9/10 tweet, could have been improved by more emojis Thx ❄️🚀👽❄️🦄🍔❄️🤖🍕❄️🐉🌈❄️🧙‍♂️🎸❄️🐘🚗❄️👻🥑❄️🔮🌮❄️🦖🏰❄️🎨🛸❄️🚀🍟❄️🌌🥨❄️🛒💎❄️🍩🍿❄️🦍🚀❄️🧜‍♂️🍭❄️🔥🍉❄️🧠🍪❄️🐱🎉❄️👽🚁❄️🐙🍦❄️🎈🐢❄️🧀🏍️❄️🎮🥥❄️🎪🍍❄️🚂🍣❄️🎤🌮❄️🚁🍔❄️🎃🚀❄️👑🍺❄️🍕🦜❄️🧁🏆❄️🍔🎠❄️🍕🛹❄️🥳🦕❄️🕹️🍿❄️🍟🛸❄️🍩🛶❄️🍪🚤❄️🍭🌊❄️🧁🏊‍♂️❄️🍿🏊‍♀️❄️🥤🧜‍♂️❄️🌮🧜‍♀️❄️🍺🐚❄️🍷🐠 ### [Reply, 01:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746708275423273384) Kinda doubt it. All good things are positively correlated in humans ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 05:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746770315915489465) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ 2/14, surely that’s not the high score ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 05:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746772406494965991) · 95 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ Real af, I honestly do not think ships should float like that Maybe a wooden boat but like not a cruise ship ### [Reply to @staffcommenter, 05:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746772583712686107) · 44 likes > **Staff Commenter (@staffcommenter):** \>put heavy piece of metal on ground > \>it sits > \>make it curvy and blow air horizontally past it > \>it move upward Fr planes do not make sense ### [Reply to @iggypoop, 07:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746794498842067041) · 28 likes > **🙂 poop! 🙂 (@iggypoop):** simple archimedes. if the weight of the ship below water is lower than the weight of the displaced water, it floats. basically, you want to make the boat have lesser average density than water. it's why you only see half of a boat above water level. the rest is empty space. Sounds fake ### [Quote tweet, 14:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746904005089931368) · 4 likes ☹️ > **Quoting Frances Lorenz (@frances__lorenz):** Okay :( ### [Reply to @alt_truistic, 15:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746911046650994995) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @alt_truistic is no longer available.)_ Lfg ### [Reply to @the_megabase, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746914113937195343) · 1 like > **megabase (@the_megabase):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GD4VkqrWEAAb6l4.jpg) Very non-relatable meme ### [Reply to @inerati, 15:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746915552323322241) _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ NSAIDS overrated, SAIDS underrated ### [Reply, 19:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746978751462691311) ### [Quote tweet, 20:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1746997097532944429) · 28 likes Planes aren’t real. The elites want you to believe that huge metal tubes can give flying piggy back rides > **Quoting Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi):** @paulg very on-brand for Russians but they had the An-225 so the rationale doesn't make sense > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GD5COkFWkAAPQnw.png) ### [Reply to @nomanautomata, 21:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747004755631546560) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @nomanautomata is no longer available.)_ Me but the last bit is spoken out loud ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 23:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747035770941026341) · 12 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** would you +1% your net worth for being tortured for a day with your memories then removed and there’s no side effects No amount of money, and I’d pay any price for it not to occur I predict that almost everyone who thinks otherwise would change their mind during the experience ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 23:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747039364826235341) · 24 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ We super literally do not know how they work, except in the case of a few tiny c-elegans-analogous models created specifically for study We know how to make them but only in the sense that we “knew how to make” babies before modern biology ### [Quote tweet, 23:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747039964028624991) · 6 likes You might not like it but this is what peak performance looks like > **Quoting Rota 🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** I have developed a stimulant rotation that consists of caffeine, dextroamphetamine, nicotine, and modafinil where I am using none more than 2 days a week. I have no science to back me up but I think it avoids acclimatization and dependency. Never heard of anyone else doing this ### [Reply to @randomstring729, 23:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747041105466593696) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @randomstring729 is no longer available.)_ U-shaped curve (upside down) More hornt -> less need for it for arousal, especially the more superstimuli forms ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 23:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747041893186248812) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Seems wrong \- guy who has never been tortured ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 23:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747043643460931659) · 13 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ GPT-4 base model for text completion. I give it a string “The following is a poem about blueberries: ” And then it returns some text, but just consider the very first token to be maximally specific. Nobody, including at OpenAI, can describe the process that generated that… ### [Thread, continued, 23:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747044322371879027) · 12 likes token at any level other than writing out a several-billion step algebraic expression that takes the embeddings of my prompt as an input and then which simplifies to a number that directly corresponds to that first token ### [Reply to @halcyon_hazel, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747045532206248300) · 4 likes > **❤️‍🔥 hazel ❤️‍🔥 (@halcyon_hazel):** @randomstring729 @AaronBergman18 people in my family hit puberty at 18-20 Omg me fr (I was 5’2” in senior year of high school, stopped growing at 5’7”) ## Tuesday, January 16, 2024 ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 00:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747049732617142398) · 14 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ At some level I agree! But for almost all intents and purposes this is not helpful at all - if you want to know whether your AI is giving you information it knows to be false, for example, you quite literally can’t tell from that long algebra expression ### [Reply to @RethinkPriors, 00:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747050769612771448) · 1 like > **Rethink Priorities (@RethinkPriors):** At least 290 billion yellow mealworms are farmed annually, and while the larvae may be considered for human consumption, it's likely to play a more immediate role as a replacement for fishmeal. Seems bad ☹️ ### [Reply to @4confusedemoji, 00:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747051448314048756) · 2 likes > **olivia (@4confusedemoji):** @WillowChem python and rpy2, fuck using actual r \* picking a fight \* ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 01:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747071740054794705) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ Afaict, LLMs saying things they “know” to be false is super well documented and not controversial (Ik “know” is doing some work here but I think it checks out) ### [Thread, continued, 01:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747072034033549811) · 6 likes And why wouldn’t this be the case? The internet has plenty of lying for the model to train on Also trivial example: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GD7YwaHW8AA5dD1.jpg) ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 01:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747075240562217268) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ I don’t think there is a fundamental difference, I agree! Totally demoralize the situation and just taking things at face value, the point here isn’t that LLMs are bad or taking an oppositional stance in some sense… ### [Thread, continued, 01:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747075961193988295) · 4 likes It’s that you might for very good reasons want to know if the thing you’re talking to is saying information it knows to be false (which I’m happy to call “lying” but that word has moral connotations) … ### [Thread, continued, 02:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747076424391901498) · 4 likes \- and my point is that we can’t tell because we don’t know how the thing works (!) in any sense other than that mechanistic algebraic equation which doesn’t help! ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747080262465286258) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ A couple levels to answer this The highest one is just like “idk whatever I am doing when I write the words “I am 25 years old’ \[I am not 25\] ” Probably the best level is like: You have the long ass algebra expression. Many facts about the world are embedded in it, somehow… ### [Thread, continued, 02:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747081630781432043) · 4 likes At some level these facts and concepts (which I should have added above) are exclusively about language, but included here are things like “if some text is a person asking about the weather right now, and previously there is some text saying that it’s raining, ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747081897920926207) · 3 likes The dialogue is likely to be completed with a person saying “it’s raining” unless it is also in the text above that the answered is a compulsive liar, in which case they will say it’s not raining” ### [Thread, continued, 02:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747083304556204207) · 3 likes Anyway, long story short, this results in some subpart of the algebra equation in perentheses evaluating to some figure which is like “probability that the next tokens are going to be claiming some things that a person described as ‘a liar’ are more likely to say … ### [Thread, continued, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747084758134161408) · 2 likes ^ this is during training And then if ur using the LLM, this same probability subsystem is higher or lower depending on the input/context window tokens So “know” cashes out as this subsystem being high There’s more to be said here but 6 tweets or however are enough rn lol ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 17:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747308598495940980) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** genuine question inspired by this recent 44-chapter podcast interview with Tyler Cowen - is there such thing as too many takes? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GD9tvn1W4AEl2xR.jpg) No ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 17:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747308768302444715) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** even this is proving too ambitious > > (quoting @littIeramblings: I think in 2024 I will just be shooting for a consistent skin care routine, I’m not feeling up to much) I still think skincare is fake ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747311554477842495) · 1 like > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** the whole “palestinian rights are \_\_\_ rights!” trend is just another example of western narcissism. what if palestinian rights aren’t abortion rights or trans rights? do they deserve to deaf ears and massacres if they don’t fit cleanly into your cookie cutter libtard yard sign? > > (quoting @narrenhut: Yes, there is. It's half-assed intersectionality. Why is Israel a capitalism issue? The same reason why climate change is a trans rights issue. Because everything must be everything to everyone even if the causal links are tenuous at best and nonexistent at worst.) Banger ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 17:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747314297665978827) · 1 like > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** How to fill out pdf form without Adobe free trial bullshit Word + insert textbox ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 17:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747317377040052565) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** One thing I don't get is why the US doesn't only protect ships within its coalition. > > Why is the US feeling so altruistic as to protect ships that aren't paying or helping? Global economy -> global recession Doesn’t seem altruistic to me at all ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747318526895960156) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ I could use some hypomania fr ### [Reply to @sciencegirl, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747330314643411409) · 2 likes > **Science girl (@sciencegirl):** Physics! > > [video attached](https://x.com/astheticviews/status/1747091264930201841/video/1) “You have cancer” ### [Reply to @sciencegirl, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747332006923424000) · 1 like > **Science girl (@sciencegirl):** Squirrel contemplating watching snowfall > > 📹Willem Span > https://x.com/Nikkivixxen/status/1741227214891569528/video/1 Ideal state ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747334096571801821) · 3 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** What is with people asking me if I miss my baby while he's at nursery? I don't, it's really not that long a time, but thanks for making me sound like a bad person! My parents to me 1 week after I move out: “do you miss us?” Me: “uh not yet it hasn’t been that long sorry” ### [Quote tweet, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747338707512987865) · 60 likes Lol at me bringing my dad my dad to an EA DC meetup (first for both of us) when I was 16 We were the youngest and oldest respectively by at least a decade > **Quoting depths of wikipedia! (@depthsofwiki):** My favorite people at Wikipedia editor meetups are parents who get dragged there by their precocious teens. They're always like, "I just came to be a good mom since this is all my kid talks about" and then they gradually get more into it than anyone else <3 ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747344179145961673) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 Based. How did it go? Like fine/good I think, but it mostly quenched my curiosity and I realized it wasn’t worth like a multi-hour excursion by metro on a Tuesday night to talk to ppl twice my age for a little while ### [Quote tweet, 19:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747344540137119896) · 5 likes Presented with one comment > **Quoting Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** If you want to present something without comment retweet it 🙄 ### [Reply to @Mihonarium, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747348637183578294) > **Mikhail Samin (@Mihonarium):** @AaronBergman18 😅 when I was 13, I dragged my dad to a Wikipedia event in Moscow > I think I still have some flags 10 years later > https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wiki_Party_in_Moscow_2013-05-18_(Before%3B_Krassotkin%3B_11).JPG > At 15, I was already organising Pastafarian meetups, somehow without any parental involvement Based ### [Tweet, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747353641638371515) · 17 likes Obligatory “me and who” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GD_Y4AjWgAAmX_V.jpg) ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747367829727309876) · 1 like > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** @IterIntellectus . @AaronBergman18 I think what your idea was missing is some baller aesthetics Agreed, let’s add those in ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747393264519406074) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** oh yeah I’ve heard of that Wait literal vitamin A induces cell regeneration and people are mostly using this for the \*skin\*???? Like have people tried injecting it?? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GD_86YQXEAAipOC.jpg) ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 23:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747395858243465724) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ lol yeah I agree, I think most of the letter vitamins have been studied enough that we would know if it was like a panacea drug ## Wednesday, January 17, 2024 ### [Tweet, 01:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747428531448005079) · 27 likes Name a thinker/writer I’ll be familiar with (can be urself), I’ll tell you what they get wrong (inspired by @jkcarlsmith being wrong about meta-ethics and @ESYudkowsky being wrong about philosophy of mind) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 01:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747430085613822300) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @jkcarlsmith @ESYudkowsky me Too easy, value realism is true and you think it’s not ### [Reply to @tautologer, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747430401918828630) · 1 like > **tautologer (@tautologer):** idk if the 240W of ultra-bright LED corn bulbs are fixing my brain or whatever but they are impressively bright, so much so that I don't notice when the sun goes down. like I look out the window and I'm viscerally shocked to find it's dark out Lfg ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 01:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747432340333244532) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 @jkcarlsmith @ESYudkowsky Let's gooooo what am I wrong about Need to do some oppo research but how did I not know u have a ‘stack ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEAgc6oXUAAGpZW.jpg) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 01:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747433255102558332) · 1 like > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 @jkcarlsmith @ESYudkowsky I bet all my foundational philosophy beliefs are wrong Anyway, this for sure (in that this would be an irrational choice for an egoist to make) ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 01:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747438098097504659) · 4 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** @AaronBergman18 @jkcarlsmith @ESYudkowsky Peter singer I could probably find a technical point to nitpick in one of his 10 gazillion papers but more importantly: emphasizes/calls for moral actions that aren’t appropriately ambitious. Like giving 10% instead of trying to make and give away millions of dollars ### [Reply to @goingawoll, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747442692437471258) · 2 likes > **Amos Wollen 🦐🪰✴️ (@goingawoll):** @AaronBergman18 @jkcarlsmith @ESYudkowsky me please Tragically idk ur views super well but seems like you’re not a utilitarian? ### [Reply to @polisisti, 02:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747443038664741305) · 3 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** Julia Galef lol I don’t know her views well enough! Like I basically think Scout Mindset was spot on, and it’s been a long time since I’ve heard her opine on other stuff ### [Reply to @polisisti, 02:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747445035283427684) · 1 like > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 see it's a trick question because Galef isn't incorrect about anything Honestly she’s a good candidate for this lol ### [Reply to @goingawoll, 02:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747445575761428759) · 4 likes > **Amos Wollen 🦐🪰✴️ (@goingawoll):** @AaronBergman18 @jkcarlsmith @ESYudkowsky Ya, sorry :( You can always convert ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747446915866771530) · 5 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** has anyone looking for a house just tried knocking on the door of beautiful houses and ask if they’d be interested in selling? > > so many houses are beautiful and not on the market, surely a reasonable percentage of them would at least be open to a conversation about selling? Someone asked my dad about selling my parents’ car in the driveway He was interested and didn’t mind the ask at all but didn’t end up selling ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 02:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747450026291347465) · 4 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** @AaronBergman18 @jkcarlsmith @ESYudkowsky Elon Musk > > (Your tweet might have made you vulnerable to DDoS attacks.) Ya, I can always just turn my tweet into a lie by not responding lol Elon seems wrong about a lot. To name one, his AI alignment plan doesn’t make any sense ### [Reply to @eshear, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747454246138613766) · 3 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** The unreasonable power of high but well-calibrated expectations “All my students who expected to get an A+ and were well calibrated about this did, in fact, get an A+” ### [Reply to @gdere, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747467682587226437) · 2 likes > **Gabe De Repentigny (@gdere):** @AaronBergman18 @jkcarlsmith @ESYudkowsky Derek Parfit Hmm I feel like I don’t actually understand his views super well Tentatively I don’t think deontology and consequentialism converge ### [Reply, 04:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747469747887780128) · 1 like Alright lol. We’ve discussed this before but for the benefit of others: Highly misleading piece. It actually argues for life being \*meaningful\* but the title and vibes give off the impression (I think intentionally) … https://scouting-ahead.com/2022/12/25/its-a-wonderful-life/ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEBCeYHWUAA4Ooq.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEBCeX7WAAA3gi7.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 04:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747470368736969213) · 1 like of life (or at least human life) basically being good, all things considered I think this is just in fact wrong, and is only plausible because you were born into some exceptionally lucky circumstances involving food, shelter, and access to medical care and pain relief ### [Reply, 04:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747472597313265962) _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Haha yes join the club ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747476030925775156) · 1 like > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 @SpacedOutMatt @jkcarlsmith @ESYudkowsky I genuinely don't know and am diversifying 😇 If you’re really unable to choose you should probably save and wait for more info to come in Don’t need a literal donor advised fund, can just make a second checking account to keep things neat if you want (I actually did this for smth) ### [Reply to @loveofdoing, 04:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747482126826500429) · 2 likes > **loveofdoing (@loveofdoing):** embodied belied | middle thing | propositional knowledge > > What is the word you use to describe the middle thing? Vibe/art/simile or metaphor ### [Reply to @FeralPHunter, 16:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747653888642089322) · 4 likes > **𝔽. ℙ. ℍunter 🦅 (@FeralPHunter):** what the fuck is the 'divine feminine' An album by Mac Miller ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEDp8xvWEAADkO0.jpg) ### [Reply to @kindgracekind, 16:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747656340858622450) · 2 likes > **Grace (@kindgracekind):** William MacAskill Glad you asked! (There’s more I might be able to find) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEDsLfqXUAM3QgL.jpg) ### [Reply, 16:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747656668190560299) · 1 like > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** @AaronBergman18 @jkcarlsmith @ESYudkowsky Me 😎 You’re an illusionist right? ### [Reply to @PiquantParvenu, 16:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747658495946523100) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @PiquantParvenu is no longer available.)_ No ### [Reply, 16:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747658682823758316) · 1 like > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** @AaronBergman18 @jkcarlsmith @ESYudkowsky Yeah. Well ur wrong! (P=90% maybe) ### [Tweet, 16:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747659329807769672) · 3 likes British rap/drill is so cute and endearing 🥹 ### [Tweet, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747680387231334640) · 13 likes You might not like it but this is the ideal weather forecast ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEECDLbXcAATYxI.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 23:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747764030339514440) · 7 likes Brilliant > **Quoting James Mulholland (@mulholo):** You are utilising a well-funded and functional health system. > > I am circumnavigating NHS wait times and OpenAI content policies by analysing my blood work in an unreleased episode of House. > > We are not the same. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEEn4SOWYAAbwph.jpg) ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 23:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747766945875657115) · 1 like > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** joy comes from removing bad things, not adding good things > > the bad things are craving, aversion, tension, selfing, tanha, etc. they are like clouds. joy and freedom are the sky > > (quoting @jonnym1ller: Most people have their understanding of joy backwards. They think it's a feeling to be earned. It's not. It's our default state. It emerges effortlessly when we feel safe and welcome the full spectrum of our emotional experience.) I think the hedonic baseline you’re describing is positive for some, and maybe most, but probably not all people ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747767031405879514) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ Ideal temperature ## Thursday, January 18, 2024 ### [Reply to @bryancsk, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747776379603873886) · 4 likes > **Bryan Cheong 🥮 (@bryancsk):** If you work in tech you probably had a bunch of near misses with a 7 fig comp (I know I have). > > (quoting @anonynaut: ) Same except we’re counting the two after the decimal ### [Quote tweet, 00:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747784933811146842) · 15 likes Yeah it’s inaccessible with \*that\* attitude > **Quoting Alan Corey | Atlanta Real Estate Expert (@RealEstateMaxi):** One of my least-liked design elements of suburban design is this inaccessible landing I see in foyers. > > Any creative solutions for "staging" it out there? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GD_g5CCXAAADE5l.jpg) ### [Reply to @JosephPolitano, 00:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747785558422675957) · 4 likes > **Joey Politano 🏳️‍🌈 (@JosephPolitano):** OMG they made a WMATA wrapped!!! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEEtxulW4AANs5u.jpg) > (quoting @wmata: It's time for your mass transit year-in-review. Were you a wizard of the rails?🚄 A baroness of bus service? 🚍 An emissions reductions rockstar? 🌟 Get #YourMetroReport stats 📊 and see how they stack up to others. 🔍 Visit http://wmata.com/YourMetroReport. #wmata) I’m a pleb ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEFhs9CXsAANEcq.jpg) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747787098722046217) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 That's where you keep the cauldron of boiling oil ready to tip onto invaders, right? Sounds kinda mean. I just knock them out with syringes full of ketamine ### [Tweet, 01:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747788114213454096) · 59 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEFkButXEAAQR64.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 14:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747982417686630428) · 91 likes When we end predation we should keep pelican-capybara predation specifically > **Quoting Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE):** Pelican tries to eat capybara > > [video attached](https://x.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1747819887882318043/video/1) ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 14:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747986034850177037) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @robertwiblin is no longer available.)_ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Removal_of_Sam_Altman_from_OpenAI ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 14:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747992821049479614) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dissproportion is no longer available.)_ It’s fine for people to wear masks to protect themselves from pathogens ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEIeNFJWwAAyP-X.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 14:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747994656611176714) · 6 likes I hope this trend continues so that I can personally buy a Boeing plane on clearance for like $12.99 Idk what I’d use it for exactly but it would be cool to have for sure > **Quoting Oren Cass (@oren_cass):** Absolutely brutal Boeing story > @nytimes. > > "What used to be a duopoly has become two-thirds Airbus, one-third Boeing. A lot of people are looking at Airbus and seeing a company run by competent people. The contrast with Boeing is fairly profound.” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEDxHy7XYAAN8BX.png) ### [Reply to @AMAZlNGNATURE, 14:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1747996024201716013) > **Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE):** This world has 14 foot high, 5000 lb fish. > Mola molas are awesome. > > [video attached](https://x.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1747683965874348265/video/1) ### [Reply, 15:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748002834082119911) · 1 like > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** Do phenomenal realists believe in horny qualia Ya ### [Reply to @EddyVGG, 15:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748005858175332738) · 1 like > **EDDY V (@EddyVGG):** my grandpa is my hero > > he’s 85. self made man. sharper than anyone I know. successful chemical engineering career. tinkers with hardware, codes to automate manufacturing processes and always tries to make you laugh. > > always learning. always reading. always building. 100xer. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEGNEXNa0AAF7gv.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEGNEXNbQAAOHTt.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEGNEXNbsAAMsxn.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEGNEXNbsAEEwLE.jpg) Get my man a better monitor ### [Reply to @s8mb, 15:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748008618710950319) · 2 likes > **Sam Bowman (@s8mb):** It’s amazing seeing your baby react to pictures for the first time. These high contrast images are much easier for a newborn to see - it’s really remarkable how interesting they are to him! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEHK2rZW4AAflQE.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEHK2rbWwAAwn6h.jpg) 🚨🧠NEW PATTERN 🧠🚨 ### [Tweet, 16:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748023242386710691) · 3 likes Kinda wild we got the ability to run python on an iPhone via LLM + virtual machine + user friendly GUI instead of like actual python or a non-LLM based app that runs in the cloud ### [Reply to @tescrealaccist, 17:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748038234980975022) · 2 likes > **TESCREAL/acc💙 (@tescrealaccist):** What do you mean? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEJHgsAWkAAXfGC.jpg) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 17:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748041727066202235) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Not into evo psych but I just saw a guy next to me at the gym squat 565 pounds and my immediate impulse was to offer him my resources and to fight in any local skirmishes on his side Yeah but can he write funny tweets sometimes ### [Reply to @paulg, 17:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748042161348608127) · 3 likes > **Paul Graham (@paulg):** "No one’s family name was changed, altered, shortened, butchered, or 'written down wrong' at Ellis Island or any American port. That idea is an urban legend." > > Wow. I didn't realize this till now. > > https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2024/01/no-ones-name-was-changed-at-ellis-island.html Surely this happened at least once ### [Reply to @jonnym1ller, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748049857321820291) · 4 likes > **Jonny Miller (@jonnym1ller):** contrarian take: many of the people that society would label as “privileged” — especially those who have accrued fame + fortune — are also the humans who likely experience the most intense suffering, and you almost certainly wouldn't want to inhabit their mind + life > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEIwtLLWUAAir4H.jpg) “Many” yes that is probably true, the world is a big place, but I’d bet some typical notion of privilege is correlated with access to medical care and especially pain relief, as well as protection from the elements and hunger ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748059995671810214) > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** It’s a good thing she did not ask for an orange > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEJaVvRWYAEO3Ra.jpg) Did u do it ### [Reply, 19:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748069639421104391) · 1 like Did u actually write any of these? ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 19:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748070959175643212) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 Yeah an apple is no biggy Husband of the century ### [Reply to @univrsw3th4rt, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748096525090070797) · 2 likes > **universe sweetheart 💓🌈💭 (@univrsw3th4rt):** hmm. i don’t plan to ever be back on dating apps, but i wonder if making 22k tweets has helped me hone my personal voice enough that i’d able to be more myself in dating app convos. although now that i think about it prob not bc i haven’t had nearly as much convo practice > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: ) The dynamics are super different though lol. Like on-brand weirdness is kinda fine bc of social proof that comes from likes and comments (which followers self-selected in to) ### [Reply to @beffjezos, 22:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748106627935252971) · 2 likes > **Beff (e/acc) (@beffjezos):** Spotted in the SF Ferry building 👀🚢🏢 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEJu7YdawAAg5Ss.jpg) Tag urself I’m the Rice Krispie treat ## Friday, January 19, 2024 ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 04:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748199076791750860) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ 👇 ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 04:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748199736807452693) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ Huh, to each their own ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 04:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748201746994782404) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ I basically disagree because we can see various population-level changes over time for various large populations (generally countries or ethnicities) It’s about finding the upstream causal population-level variables, not modeling biology mechanistically ### [Reply, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748213436280971651) · 47 likes “Antarctica is the question and the answer is ‘yes’” ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 14:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748352092136177968) · 2 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** @roboticparts We should make an RShiny version of Twitter. Correct take ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 14:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748352331714793728) · 2 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** only 2 programming languages should exist > > R for research and Excel for anything else > > every other language is bloat R is the one true language Programming, natural, love, any kind of language ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 15:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748374150232560039) · 1 like > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEKonb-aAAApoc-.jpg) The pants are the only reasonable purchase ### [Tweet, 16:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748388885325852983) · 11 likes Successful (and IMO correct) steelman Link below ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEOGbLQXIAAxycl.jpg) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 17:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748402749711003735) · 5 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Happy Friday folks > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEOMGCmXkAAzcKf.jpg) Washington, D.C. ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEOTCLQWwAAdeGk.jpg) ### [Reply, 17:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748404704927793521) · 1 like is exactly the same situation that let’s me access moral value ### [Reply to @alt_truistic, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748405945569317081) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @alt_truistic is no longer available.)_ No such thing (jk, for me uninteresting/unimportant things start to seem interesting and important) ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 18:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748406369198219701) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 I accept that morality is tied to consciousness and that it's a necessary component for morality to arise, but not that morality has "the same kind of (metaphysical) nature" as consciousness. > > Many many things need consciousness without being consciousness itself Idgaf about metaphysics then. The critique Joe is getting at is “how could we, in the physical world, gain information about the Moral Realm” which is fundamentally epistemological ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 18:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748406520193146988) · 1 like > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 Probably not the best example, but... money (as a social construct, not as the pieces of paper) necessitates consciousness with intentional states by agents. > > But I think it'd be weird to say that the social construct of money is metaphysically like consciousness. Wait what? No, I don’t think money depends on consciousness at all. Zombie world with money is totally conceivable ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 18:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748407160269115899) > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 Bugs and many other animals can have consciousness without having morality. > > They can feel "ouch" and scurry away due to evolution, without a normative judgement. I endorse secret third thing quasi-realism (value realism, normative anti-realism) FWIW I think in practice the value part carries ~all the practical implications ### [Quote tweet, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748407606798946639) · 5 likes Should I call myself a moral realist or anti-realist, if nuance is not an option? Poll below > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @RafaRuizdeLira I endorse secret third thing quasi-realism (value realism, normative anti-realism) > > FWIW I think in practice the value part carries ~all the practical implications ### [Thread, continued, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748407610024378672) · 2 likes ¿ ### [Reply to @eshear, 18:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748408615138898094) · 5 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** Nothing to see here, definitely no reason to think trying to make LLMs “safe” by training them extensively on behaviors-to-avoid will backfire > > (quoting @peterwildeford: ChatGPT is just like us... it also struggles to not think about an elephant) I agree this is an issue, but also I strongly expect RLHF with a bunch of examples of this (“do not show a \_\_\_\_\_”) would in fact work for images ## Saturday, January 20, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 00:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748507999050596760) · 8 likes Nah my dad’s keyboard is one bit button that says “click to make an SMS group chat with 14 people who have never interacted in their lives” > **Quoting Jenni (@hashjenni):** Dad’s keyboard > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GENC5HqagAE6_7J.jpg) ### [Reply to @polisisti, 00:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748509027414270274) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** the break in new 80,000 Hours Podcast episodes is letting me finally start getting through the backlog in my podcast queue 🎉 @80000Hours please sabotage this man’s plan ### [Reply to @nullpointered, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748509404012462380) · 2 likes > **null (@nullpointered):** If you don’t live in the Bay Area or NYC you’re living in the periphery of the empire Noooo u have to include DC nooooo ### [Reply to @ManifoldLoveApp, 01:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748515485879005439) · 7 likes > **Manifold Love (@ManifoldLoveApp):** hypothesis: people tend to think of "flirting" as a collection of specific behaviors that you just have to identify when really it's a back-and-forth escalation towards physical intimacy > > (quoting @izs: Possibly controversial take: I think a lot of people don't just not know what flirtation looks like when they're the target, but also when they're the one doing the flirting. Because it's not really any different from "I'm enjoying playful conversation with this person".) The people (me) demand an infinite series of threads like this Dating for Hyperanalytical Idiots by Manifold Dot Love ### [Reply to @ZyMazza, 01:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748516447012151503) · 2 likes > **Zy (@ZyMazza):** The thing about this web design is that it’s perfect. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEPe8_VXYAAuNsc.jpg) Fr ### [Reply to @catehall, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748534466656477353) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @catehall is no longer available.)_ This but for when I stay on an unimportant topic bc it’s interesting ### [Reply to @ManifoldLoveApp, 02:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748536850275323935) · 3 likes > **Manifold Love (@ManifoldLoveApp):** men: > > do you have trouble identifying when someone is flirting with you? / do you expect flirtation to look like it does in media (including porn)? I have no idea lol (no ground truth feedback) ### [Reply to @NLRG_it, 02:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748538860043178208) · 2 likes > **no longer respecting gardenias (@NLRG_it):** c++ is unsatisfying to me because its like, if im going to use a fancy language with all the bells and whistles why not just write in python or something Why not R, the purest of all languages ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748540037870817615) · 4 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** how come when I say I’m in SF nothing happens but when treta does it… > > (quoting @ManifoldMarkets: @TetraspaceWest Come visit the Manifold office! Would love to meet you IRL) The mysterious anonpoasting mystique ### [Quote tweet, 03:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748544903020224532) · 105 likes Unironically please, we are begging for actual feedback > **Quoting Soren Iverson (@soren_iverson):** Tinder provide a reason why you swiped left > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GENunmFa0AAu1a4.jpg) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 03:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748545472661172428) · 7 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** I think many (most?) men would find it demoralizing and give up And the status quo is any better? ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748552361675555230) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @JgaltTweets is no longer available.)_ Uh no it’s not “Stranger coming to my house” is not sufficient reason to try to kill that person ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748553502647844967) · 2 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** I think this is what \*most\* women are doing during dating, I'm just more self aware and explicit about it. My takeaway here is “play high but also signal being non-threatening/safe” Does that sound right? ### [Tweet, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748553908471861467) · 20 likes It should be illegal for people to be married if they’re less than 1 year older than me Like you can still hang out, be bf/gf (gender neutral), but let’s not get ahead of ourselves ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 04:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748556531811938566) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 sorry U have to get divorced sorry ### [Reply to @FairfieldPolice, 04:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748558779749138735) · 2 likes > **Fairfield, CA Police (@FairfieldPolice):** The fact that so many people fail to realize the safety issue this poses is astounding. All it takes is one panicked, distracted or bad driver and this could have resulted in injury to the kids. L + ratio ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 04:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748561437469941975) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 My wife submits that she is 28 if that makes you feel any better U still have to go to jail. She gets off on a technicality ### [Quote tweet, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748561934583038184) · 8 likes Remembering when I tried to monetize twitter infamy for the sake of all fishkind > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Since this is getting some attention, gonna shamelessly plug an excellent giving opportunity if you care about animal suffering🐠 > > The Fish Welfare Initiative has a $180k funding gap - super high altruistic return IMO! https://www.fishwelfareinitiative.org/donate ### [Reply, 04:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748562783866663355) · 1 like Come to the light side ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748575950072164671) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ Real ### [Reply to @AskYatharth, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748578806334378118) · 9 likes > **yatharth ༺༒༻ (@AskYatharth):** when do you notice you use boy/girl vs man/women? > > noticing i switch at around 28-32 It’s really not fair that guys have “guy” which should be gender neutral but isn’t ‘Girl’ sounds a bit too young, ‘woman’ a bit too formal. And ‘lady’ fell out of common usage for some reason ### [Reply to @livgorton, 05:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748582024451903979) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** @AaronBergman18 poast profile for twitter feedback? > > more seriously, have seen profiles of men i know IRL and think are wonderful but their profiles are just kinda bad/generic or filter in unimportant ways. not everyone has access to honest feedback, seems good if possible? Dming, maybe I should just poast tho lol ### [Reply to @maebichka, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748585483993542906) · 2 likes > **Gwenhwyfar (@maebichka):** Oh nothing too fancy just a nitpick about wording! - if u tell an average guy "women need to know they're safe," the guy will think "ok got it be as nonviolent and asexual as possible" > > So a better way to say it is "women need to know they're EMOTIONALLY safe/attuned to" Lol this is not a nitpick, these are like two extremely different things I think (not in opposition, maybe even positively correlated, just different) ### [Quote tweet, 06:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748586163617628419) · 6 likes Is there a book like this that isn’t poetry and \*is\* a set of instructions? Not extremely low level “do these specific actions, say these specific words” ofc but instructions nonetheless > **Quoting QC (@QiaochuYuan):** deida was lowkey right about everything but you can't read this book completely literally or as a set of instructions. it's poetry > > https://www.amazon.com/Way-Superior-Man-Challenges-Anniversary/dp/1622038320 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqWnu9RaUAAkfSe.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqWnvw5aMAUcqbK.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqWnwyAaQAAECSk.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748803359887208699) · 8 likes Truly a mysterious world One we will never understand > **Quoting Manifold Love (@ManifoldLoveApp):** he's not kidding about the comments > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GETl-qLXcAA1mDU.jpg) ### [Reply to @skooookum, 20:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748805206538596413) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @skooookum is no longer available.)_ Where’d he go ### [Reply, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748805785532965334) · 1 like I had never seen this image before the tweet u quoted ### [Quote tweet, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748813973246324812) · 43 likes Forgot the obvious 3rd bar ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEUJCofXAAAEjAr.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEFkButXEAAQR64.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 22:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748842054015127692) · 12 likes Ok but fr microwave and electric kettle is all you need There is nothing this can’t cook > **Quoting mr_eggs 🇵🇸 (@scrumble_eggs):** This cover goes hard. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEQDFA3a8AAa76-.jpg) ## Sunday, January 21, 2024 ### [Reply to @metakuna, 08:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748990019602157988) · 1 like > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** @AaronBergman18 arbitrage opportunity > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEWnOgtXAAACQAH.jpg) Wdym ### [Reply to @pearl_please, 08:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748991543686426939) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pearl_please is no longer available.)_ Too many ### [Quote tweet, 08:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1748992932428882295) · 8 likes We demand our own Taylor Swift > **Quoting Dan Nouement (@nomanautomata):** No art has EVER been made for angsty introverted white guys ### [Reply to @ManifoldLoveApp, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749147718759440572) · 2 likes > **Manifold Love (@ManifoldLoveApp):** yeah it's a weird combination of realizing that the opposite sex aren't aliens but when they do things that make no sense if you imagine they're just like you, it's because of actual differences and not necessarily because of some character flaw Yeah I’ve updated pretty hard toward “gender differences are bigger and more important than I thought” over the last year (time period re-entering the dating market) ### [Reply to @jide_alaga, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749148604659339572) · 8 likes > **Jide 🔍 (@jide_alaga):** I'm thinking about increasing my animal welfare donations and easing off veganism. Any reason why this might be a bad idea? Not what you’re asking but I endorse this for basically everyone ### [Thread, continued, 19:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749148827100017010) · 2 likes ### [Tweet, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749149525221011931) · 19 likes I’m at risk of being negatively polarized towards being pro-AMF\* again \*I do think malaria nets are better than personal consumption, but much worse than other types of donation ### [Tweet, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749149705055920453) · 7 likes Me n the introverted homies at the function ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749155949216985486) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** we need to consider that the bonking lowers his IQ and hence his lifetime earnings Worth it imo ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 19:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749156348351201473) · 2 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** All my twitter bookmarks are ads for cool kitchen gadgets The two genders ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEZAbaOXYAA_uz5.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749159352429056249) · 44 likes Idk who needs to hear this (possibly @pmarca himself) but Marc Andreesen aka pmarca is a sociopath and doesn’t deserve any of the respect he sometimes gets on tech-adjacent twitter ### [Reply to @soychotic, 20:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749163070268592539) · 51 likes > **annie (@soychotic):** I love installing anaconda because now there’s 3 diff pythons on my computer and they’re all broken Come to the light side ### [Reply to @drctffct, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749165940279812181) > **direct effects (@drctffct):** @AaronBergman18 @pmarca I agree with the second part, but sociopathy is a pretty aggressive accusation, and evaluating it is made harder when it’s someone you don’t know personally. What do you think he’s done to qualify? Why not just list those things, rather than being vague and inflammatory? Yeah I mean obviously people should take my personal best guess with a grain of salt But it’s been a pattern of things and accumulating evidence without evidence to the contrary ### [Reply to @kan_immanuel, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749166174242275464) · 7 likes > **Immanuel Kan’t (@kan_immanuel):** @AaronBergman18 @pmarca Who are you? I’m Aaron who r u? ### [Reply to @jskf__, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749169476375908799) · 8 likes > **jskf 🔀 (@jskf__):** @AaronBergman18 I assume this is a long-termism thing? If not I'd be interested to hear you say more about this. Sorta, I’m actually more confident that standard animal welfare donations (eg to the Humane League) beat AMF, and am pretty unsure how various explicitly longtermist orgs compare to that ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 20:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749170300745285737) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Gene therapy: 🙅‍♂️🚫 Jeans and therapy: 👍👌 ### [Reply to @morallawwithin, 21:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749180782990541250) · 38 likes > **florence ⊮ (@morallawwithin):** i wish more people would admit that effective altruism is objectively correct and they just don’t like the people associated with it Also: you can “do EA” while opting out of the social/aesthetic/cultural scene In fact I have tremendous respect for people who do just this ### [Reply to @RichardMCNgo, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749191082028511701) · 2 likes > **Richard Ngo (@RichardMCNgo):** Wtf? Going from “I don’t like his vibe” to “I’m publicly calling him a sociopath” is absolutely wild. > > I have been gradually updating for a while that tribalism is breaking EAs’ abilities to reason about the world, but disappointing to see it progressing this far. I mean I think he is in fact a sociopath, and hope the rest of my record on twitter and elsewhere gives me some credibility for not generally being knee-jerk tribal or bad faith Fwiw my take here has been accumulated from past evidence as well, not just the malaria nets thing ### [Reply, 22:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749192213605540335) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ I mean I have a pretty strong bias/prior against saying things like this and Altman certainly doesn’t reach my threshold to overcome this like Marc does ### [Reply to @michael_nielsen, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749197767543509105) · 1 like > **Michael Nielsen (@michael_nielsen):** What are some of the more unusual causes you've given money to over the last 1-3 years? An individual trying to do important work under financial stress ## Monday, January 22, 2024 ### [Reply, 01:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749247934384771209) · 1 like Thanks for the pushback; I’m not sure whether I agree I think there’s a substantive difference between accusations of public figures based on non-privileged evidence (ie I don’t know anything about him that isn’t fully public) and accusations (implicitly) based on non-public ### [Thread, continued, 01:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749248197417922746) · 2 likes evidence Perhaps I should have made it clear that mine is the former (it didn’t occur to me bc, like, why would I have any privileged info about him?) ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 02:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749254936179741065) · 12 likes > **Dissproportionately (@dissproportion):** Our food culture has changed: > > \- adults now snack between meals like it’s normal > \- sugary drinks, including milkshake coffees > \- eating out instead of cooking & entertaining at home > \- portion sizes are enormous > \- people eat at their desks, all day > \- food is cheap entertainment > > (quoting @DaveEDanna: Why have obesity rates tripled in one generation?) Disagree in the sense that I think these are downstream of some other more fundamental cause of setpoint disregulation ### [Reply, 04:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749283027828568371) · 23 likes She’s right! ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 05:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749298039796236535) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Give me a job > > (quoting @NLRG_it: most people dont seem to realize you can just tell people to do something and they'll do it) Ok ur hired ### [Reply to @robi_rahman, 07:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749331420676321441) · 2 likes > **Robi Rahman (@robi_rahman):** @austinc3301 @AaronBergman18 Oh yeah, he's pretty dumb on this one issue Lmao thanks ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 08:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749349094206669241) · 7 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Low decouplers be like: 'I've been happily married for 20 years" High decouplers be like: “my name is Aaron and I am under the influence of marijuana” ### [Reply, 10:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749379740295672176) · 1 like Am I being dumb or is it possible that your body moving at 320 km/h relative to the ground doesn’t imply that the air moving around your skin is going the same speed? ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749450760570462548) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** About to go running in 33 degree weather, may @AaronBergman18 give me strength. 🙏 [![You Have My Blessing Granted GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/GEdMMV0WYAEC-EL.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749450760570462548/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Tweet, 19:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749515509958074680) · 20 likes Blocked Mr. Beast. I don’t have anything against him, he’s just evidently too memetically powerful ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 19:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749517161973080378) · 4 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** @AaronBergman18 He even got \*you\* to post about him! Mr Beast: 2 (including this tweet) Aaron: 0 ### [Reply to @Coscorrodrift, 20:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749525590229881134) · 17 likes > **coscorrodrift (@Coscorrodrift):** wait this is insane LMAO ppl talk about tiktok so much but youtube is at NINETY FIVE > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEdQco3XIAA3f31.png) “Ever” is a low bar Like it’s not an app I click on with any regularity but it’s pretty hard to never have any reason to watch a yt vid ### [Reply to @exdiegesis, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749550964661535075) · 2 likes > **Hope (@exdiegesis):** @AaronBergman18 feel free to ignore, but i desire ur take on first-principles-reasoning economics. esp since i benefited from and rly liked ur blog post on it. : ) > > https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/deficits-dont-matter-spending-does Haha thanks! Have a similar thread (doesn’t really make a claim tho) There are a bunch of interesting dimensions here \- Pyramid vs painting (labor consumed) \- consumable vs durable (throw the painting in a fire vs give it as inheritance which is later sold) ## Tuesday, January 23, 2024 ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 06:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749677611951743221) · 6 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Normie friend just now after I explained recent discourse: “Sounds to me like the difference between EAs and e/acc’s is EAs are all autistic while e/acc’s are all psychopaths” Wait normies (non-pejorative) use autistic as like a half serious personality trait descriptor? ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 06:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749685704932642865) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, January 12, 2024:** 40\) I used to think that consumers at large would choose plant based meat if it was at least as cheap, tasty, and convenient as animal meat I no longer think… 41\) I get it — feels kinda icky from a rationalist perspective to have to rhetorically toe some socially enforced line like this — ### [Thread, continued, 06:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749685706560078330) · 5 likes but actually I think the rhetorical move that goes like "libertarian-leaning techno-optimist nerds for AI pause/regulation bc this time is different" is rhetorically powerful and more substantive than it might first appear ### [Thread, continued, 06:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749685708795572518) · 3 likes Like people are used to digging in with their usual coalition and with their usual talking points/vibes/arguments/memes/priors/heuristics whenever there's some "new thing: good or bad" discourse ### [Thread, continued, 06:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749685709877674455) · 4 likes So a fellow member of the "new things generally good" tribe conspicuously taking the opposing stance is like legitimate Bayesian information that your bundle of heuristics might be failing you this time ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 15:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749812977598103764) · 2 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** I'm working on a new political compass about how free markets are good but you also need to regulate some stuff and how people should mostly be free to do what they want but probably not if "want they want" is to shoot heroin on the street etc etc etc > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEeuEenWIAApI3x.jpg) Your job is to figure out which 10% of nutjob opinions are good and true ### [Quote tweet, 15:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749814607022350679) · 11 likes Yo they’re making $75k into the poverty line now > **Quoting 🪬🟣🧠 (@slurplebrained):** TC <$75k: “Ah, yes. The McChicken. The best fast food sandwich” > > TC between $75k and $300k: “Why would you eat disgusting poor-people food like McDonald’s? I know a great poke bowl place on Doordash” > > TC >$300k: “Ah, yes. The McChicken. The best fast food sandwich” ### [Reply, 15:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749818008011432151) · 3 likes Not just social media activism tho. A lot of irl stuff the left is doing on Gaza doesn’t seem to have any theory of change either (although I wouldn’t necesssarily know if it was indeed more thought out than it appears ) ### [Tweet, 16:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749832564901134470) · 4 likes Petition to make pajama pants the same as khakis in terms of when/where you can wear them ### [Reply, 16:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749833167500918789) · 1 like People make him into a quasi-positive meme on here sometimes ### [Tweet, 16:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749834678708711664) · 4 likes Audio editing/joining/cutting is easier with chatgpt\* + python/ffmpeg now than with GarageBand \* code runs locally, the vm thing is too slow ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749835115633483816) · 3 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** What should I do in Nigeria Tweet ### [Quote tweet, 16:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749837542843617560) · 5 likes Philosophy nerd thing just dropped > **Quoting Jeff Sebo (@jeffrsebo):** The NYU Mind, Ethics, and Policy Program is co-sponsoring a conference on animals and equality that will take place October 18-19. If you have interest in participating, you can apply below. And if you know others who might have interest, please share! > > https://sites.google.com/nyu.edu/mindethicspolicy/opportunities ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 17:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749845636021723339) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** I have audacity! Unfortunately my current laptop is too rubbish to even run that properly but I’m working on it 😂 https://www.ebay.com/itm/166206685749 ### [Reply to @ManifoldLoveApp, 21:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749904963805811033) · 3 likes > **Manifold Love (@ManifoldLoveApp):** all the dating advice in the world won’t make a whit of difference if you aren’t actually out there going on dates 🧵 Tragic ### [Reply to @halcyon_hazel, 21:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749907035590635989) · 26 likes > **❤️‍🔥 hazel ❤️‍🔥 (@halcyon_hazel):** “oooh im such a high decoupler” cmon man. some amount of pattern recognition is good! like yea sure 2% of people who say slurs don’t suck but that doesn’t mean you’re obligated to trudge through the other 98%. pick a better signal LMAO > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEjWOPFXQAEiVl1.jpg) What a terrible test lol Like I see the draw of seeing how people engage with a take that’s unorthodox in your circles. “Roe v Wade was wrongly decided” seems like a good one ### [Reply to @AlecStapp, 21:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1749910916391452790) · 4 likes > **Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** Early nominee from the NYT for chart crime of the year Oh man this is good because it looks fine at first glance ## Wednesday, January 24, 2024 ### [Tweet, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750026795624128594) · 9 likes Love the chutzpah of whichever Chinese person put “英语熟练” \[proficient in English\] on their resume when applying to work at the consumer-goods-for-export factory ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GElYF_cWkAA2Jt7.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GElYF_fWEAATTDS.jpg) ### [Tweet, 17:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750216518716080222) · 9 likes I think 2 factor authentication on everything is good ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEoEpSKXQAEsa4O.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750235096437669991) · 25 likes Guy who prefers living near an airport bc the sound is pretty minor and the planes are cool to look at (me) ## Thursday, January 25, 2024 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 11:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750480732613419168) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** "a watched pot never boils" > > True, it's the water that is boiling Huge ### [Tweet, 11:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750484588961366186) · 20 likes Perpetually excellent take ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEr4dL9XkAAIGQ_.jpg) ### [Reply to @pronounced_kyle, 12:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750498756569547215) · 1 like > **Christian Keil (@pronounced_kyle):** Just make babies > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEpiPPqbEAAX7B7.jpg) Rightmost point looks about 1/40 as common as leftmost point ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEsFV7DWwAApc-E.jpg) ### [Reply, 12:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750503691247915292) · 1 like https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1682203665539497985 ### [Reply to @arctanno, 13:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750506341632753833) · 3 likes > **Arc (@arctanno):** https://www.premier1supplies.com/p/heat-lamp-bulbs All hail the chicken warmer ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEsMPX3W0AACQYs.jpg) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 13:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750517839683842286) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** you WILL recall I shan’t ### [Reply to @wight1984, 14:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750531748348457160) · 2 likes > **Jamie H (@wight1984):** @Manuel_do_rio @AaronBergman18 @daniel_271828 But, sure, the reason why I don't feel like I'm 'wasting' my money on a 'not good' option for charitable giving is that the money I donate to deworming charities probably does more to improve happiness/welfare in the world than any of my other spending, so still pretty good. I mean as a sociological/social/rhetorical point I agree it’s generally unwise to go around calling arbitrary suboptimal things bad (though I think there are exceptions like an EA hot takes twitter thread lol)… ### [Tweet, 15:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750536853403345112) · 8 likes POV: we are living in a Hansonian post-AGI utopia where self-driving cars operate according to real-time prediction Manifold markets about what the car should do and ur simulated Uber driving agent shows up with these ratings. Wyd ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEsn_Z0WQAAwB7s.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEsn_Z4WIAASjQm.jpg) ### [Reply to @dylanmatt, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750605112395882932) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dylanmatt is no longer available.)_ :( ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEtmEj5WgAAqQh3.jpg) ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750616959241343064) · 46 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** Americans who identify as Swiss seem to be the most right-wing in the General Social Survey. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEtkRllWcAAs6cN.jpg) Lol lots of selection here for who \*leaves\* Scandinavia ### [Quote tweet, 21:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750626810230923282) · 33 likes Tomasikian supervillain > **Quoting Science girl (@sciencegirl):** Man posing with picture of forest he restored > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEmfCy5WoAApSgd.jpg) ## Friday, January 26, 2024 ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750736304256487678) · 3 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Useful tool gives a percentage prognosis on the passage of bills > > https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/118/hr7018 :( ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEvdY89XYAEsw8v.jpg) ### [Tweet, 04:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750744321152688622) · 6 likes Will is hiring. Let the rejection process begin https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/TeBBvwQH7KFwLT7w5/william_macaskill-s-shortform?commentId=RLMp7cHf9fdLuRSfe ### [Quote tweet, 05:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750746971298558314) · 8 likes The funny part is that there are good reasons not to donate to AMF (ie if you’re willing to donate elsewhere instead) but these never cross the minds of EA Critics (TM) > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Oh nooooo not the malaria nets don't bring those up noooo the least defensible part of EA oh noooo how could our enemies have so easily found our greatest weakness aaaaah ### [Tweet, 06:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750768424416932145) · 15 likes Unironically Morton Salt is responsible for like $1T in GDP (and much more value not captured in that figure) ### [Quote tweet, 06:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750769531838943439) · 26 likes Fission is such a physics hack lol Almost as wild as flying metal tubes and huge metal floaty things > **Quoting Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** This is the argument for nuclear power in a nutshell. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEueBiTXEAAukZU.jpg) ### [Reply to @StatisticUrban, 07:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750777734312190203) · 2 likes > **Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** British salaries give me depression. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEvhCnnXYAA6qDV.jpg) @littIeramblings Sheffield mentioned 😤🇬🇧🦆 ### [Reply to @StatisticUrban, 07:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750783775586374136) · 8 likes > **Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** At some point we do need to ask ourselves "Why was the Trump White House ordering boatloads of every drug under the sun, including ketamine, psychostimulants, and opioids?" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEwHku2XoAEBUBn.jpg) As much as I hate Trump, this is based ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 08:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750793845464318385) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** ok but do I have to be a statistician when I get there cause I can’t count No dw just hmu I’ll send u some R code and just pass that on to whomever ### [Reply to @animeterrorist, 08:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750796992547103004) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @animeterrorist is no longer available.)_ What was his reason for creating it, if anyone knows? Like what does it do better than the alternatives? ### [Reply to @billyhumblebrag, 08:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750801105083154899) · 2 likes > **billy (@billyhumblebrag):** He should have done the Seinfeld move "bet you a coffee I make this shot" > \*miss\* Peak rizz ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 09:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750807387643007125) · 5 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** @peterwildeford @dylanmatt no. Reports of a schism in EA ### [Reply to @simonbuerger, 09:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750814320680681603) · 5 likes > **Simon Buerger (@simonbuerger):** Faster web page loading. webp has a better compression algorithm so you get much smaller file sizes than jpg, png or gif for the same quality. It also supports all the features of the other 3 formats (lossy and lossless compression, alpha transparency and animation) @jyzg good job 👍 ### [Reply to @StatisticUrban, 09:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750814496002556395) · 1 like > **Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** I hate it when people humblebrag about where they went to uni. Like I have this friend who went to Harvard and he just won't shut up about it. He's always been like that, even when we were college dormmates. Ha ### [Reply to @bryancsk, 09:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750814917588881584) · 2 likes > **Bryan Cheong 🥮 (@bryancsk):** I didn't realise door handles can be opened by being lifted up in lieu of being pushed down until a really tall colleague did it (his usual way of opening doors) and blew my mind. 🤯 ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750981942592303157) · 12 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @robertwiblin is no longer available.)_ How does he write so much ### [Reply to @Empty_America, 20:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750982364103057749) · 4 likes > **VB Knives (@Empty_America):** They are paying you to live in Tulsa. > > They have all the normal restaurants and stores. > > Many houses listed in the 100s. > > But it's not hip. > > (quoting @JuddBaroff: @Empty_America “Free tickets” is nothing. Tulsa will give you $10,000 https://www.tulsaremote.com/) Lol fwiw you do have to apply. I applied and got rejected ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750986941623898213) · 2 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** Mid priced haircuts should come with a beer the way fancy haircuts come with a glass of Prosecco tbh Lol they give u wine when u get a haircut??? I just get a lollipop, and only if I ask for it at checkout ### [Reply to @Anthony_Bonato, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750988332866404429) · 38 likes > **Anthony Bonato (@Anthony_Bonato):** The dark, arcane world of physics > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GExqXvbXwAEGgWQ.png) Boy math ### [Quote tweet, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750993018549936611) · 4 likes Real > **Quoting ☔ (@Whotfismick):** Real > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEvvzYEWIAArFP7.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1750995944005353877) · 10 likes Who tryna buy the plane I can contribute $45 > **Quoting Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi):** The A380 was a dumb boondoggle of a project. > > This 10-year-old one was listed at $445M new, tho we don't know what Lufthansa actually paid. > > It can now be yours for only $25M. > > Nobody wants a plane this large, there is no market for it. > > It has at least 20 years of life left. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEyTEyYWgAAyZzx.jpg) ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751000146496668025) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ But what if u are, in fact, a toad? ### [Reply to @eshear, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751002302754771415) · 5 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** Second, the entire idea is evil because it's based on an oppositional frame. Any AI that powerful will be a sapient being, whose experiences will matter too. Enslaving it for our benefit is wrong. (And back to point one...I don't want to be around when it breaks its chains!) I mean maybe, but we are radically unsure about the nature of consciousness ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751003058694189259) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Me and Aaron hanging out: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEzP48IXoAAq1RQ.jpg) Real ### [Reply to @cxgonzalez, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751008728164246002) · 22 likes > **christian (@cxgonzalez):** making friends and dating is the same skill > > (quoting @hashjenni: What opinion about Dating will have you like this?) [![I Dont Believe You Will Ferrell GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/GEzVJuvWoAEpSAz.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751008728164246002/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751009160781586511) · 1 like > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** Has there ever been an instance of a torpedo running into a big fish and causing a malfunction? > > Feels like it's gotta have happened at some point... 😢🐟 ## Saturday, January 27, 2024 ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 02:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751069162523218141) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ Hot take words do mean things ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 02:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751070524304654367) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, January 26, 2024:** Who tryna buy the plane I can contribute $45 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GE0NXL4XQAA7-eY.jpg) ### [Reply to @meadandjuniper, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751070852643209447) · 2 likes > **j (@meadandjuniper):** @adamrisom Maybe if I think hard enough a gf will just materialize in from of me This is my plan too 👍 ### [Reply to @saulgoodwoman__, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751071031899369563) · 2 likes > **Talia 👾 💿 (@saulgoodwoman__):** guess what i’m making? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEzX2yQWsAApej6.jpg) Potatoes ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 02:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751071872538603731) · 2 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** My jacket kinda makes Eddie look like he’s from Star Wars > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GE0NaWkbEAAqfac.jpg) Dog ### [Reply to @liron, 02:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751075613383798917) · 2 likes > **Liron Shapira (@liron):** Dude is gonna be remembered for the 2nd AND 3rd worst music festival nightmares This guy still on his bullshit huh ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751076936967704924) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @frances\_\_lorenz @tenobrus Is this true? Idk. Big if true ### [Quote tweet, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751079116453954045) · 21 likes Moose ⊂ deer?!?! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GE0VLPMXIAATANi.jpg) > **Quoting Science girl (@sciencegirl):** A moose and her twin calves going for a walk > https://x.com/istanbul_mu/status/1267131793444147201/video/1 ### [Reply, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751086100263600165) It’s actually magic right ### [Reply to @HDPbilly, 03:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751086421761315134) · 2 likes > **HDP (@HDPbilly):** Will you put computers and machine parts into your body? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEzgtZZaEAAbpvh.png) No ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 03:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751089460396065204) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 @ilex_ulmus @RatOrthodox If I'm understanding right, you can compress the side with more solute so that it actually has a higher water concentration and osmosis STILL WORKS meaning water will flow AGAINST ITS CONCENTRATION GRADIENT which I think is CRAZY Sounds fake ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 03:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751092578211000351) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, January 27, 2024:** Moose ⊂ deer?!?! Any Swedish politicians out there who can re-introduce this idea? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GE0hayeWIAE8km-.jpg) ### [Reply to @sanjehorah, 04:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751095194437538107) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @sanjehorah is no longer available.)_ Indeed, my opportunity cost of time is $4000/hr so if u are not a head of state you must reach out to my secretary first ### [Tweet, 04:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751099680216293462) · 6 likes Fake ass winter. I’ve been scammed ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GE0n4PzW4AAJFfm.jpg) ### [Reply to @deepfates, 05:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751109348347031720) · 2 likes > **deepfates.delve.town (@deepfates):** what's the greatest programming language of all time? ### [Reply to @JacquesThibs, 05:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751113154925392057) · 2 likes > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** I ended up at LightHaven. This place is unreal/sick. They’ve really transformed the place to be incredibly inspiring since the last time I was here. Fantastic job @ohabryka and the rest of the crew! > > (quoting @JacquesThibs: If you are trying to measure the dangerousness of LLMs, you don't test them in a vacuum where you don't have internet access. The world is complex and has feedback loops, and oftentimes, the combination of many things is much more powerful than the sum of their parts.) Pics??? 😩 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 05:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751115267323609564) · 10 likes > **Aaron Bergman, January 23, 2024:** So a fellow member of the "new things generally good" tribe conspicuously taking the opposing stance is like legitimate Bayesian information that your bundle… 42\) I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: Gender/sex discourse is too conflict theory, should be much more mistake theory ### [Tweet, 06:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751127011303542849) · 11 likes It’s gonna be cool af if a little thyroid hormone just fixes all my miscellaneous health problems (TSH ≈ 5). Unlikely but not insane I think. We will see ### [Tweet, 07:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751150122778456262) · 16 likes Guy who thinks the reason not to eat a footlong subway cookie is that it has a lot of calories ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 08:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751155630310654273) · 2 likes > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** @AaronBergman18 You don't have hypothyroidism though, no? My tsh is also on the low end Standard diagnostic criteria put me at hypothyroid in 2 of last 3 tests TSH of 5 is on the high end ### [Reply, 08:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751155882572849241) Levothyroxine isn’t like especially hard to get prescribed if you have a TSH >4.5 lol ### [Reply to @Submetallic, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751350499272528164) · 2 likes > **Carrie Radomski (@Submetallic):** The calorie number is one of the big problems though, are you arguing that focus on calorie number is not conducive to understanding the problem? If people ate 20% less than they do then they would be in a slight calorie deficit which would be very beneficial to Healthspan and lifespan. Yeah I agree at the end of the day CICO is ~literally what determines weight change It would make sense to focus on this proximate, direct cause of weight gain/loss if humans basically were able to choose how much to consume without other systems kicking in to fight back … ## Sunday, January 28, 2024 ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 01:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751410690693181940) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Maybe I’m just really blocked but I kind of suspect this is like high IQ people saying IQ doesn’t matter. “It doesn’t matter how smart you are, you can do anything if you try hard enough!” That’s just what it feels like to have a high IQ. > > (quoting @Aella_Girl: creativity isn't contracting down with effort, its relaxing ur spiritual butthole. Creativity is one of the things i'm least stressed about cause it's not something u "do", you just let yourself fall open and then god flows into u. it's not even about you. just do nothing) Correct take ### [Reply to @Andr3jH, 11:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751563974213034152) · 4 likes > **ᐱ ᑎ ᑐ ᒋ ᕮ ᒍ (@Andr3jH):** imagine the consent discourse on Greenland shark twitter. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GE7KhtfW0AAA6RS.jpg) He just like me not quite fr ### [Reply to @Canada, 11:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751565693684715954) · 399 likes > **Canada (@Canada):** Did you know that the symbolic #BlueJay isn't really blue…In fact, we see them as blue due to the way light reflects off of the inside of their wings! Despite the optical illusion, these birds are beautiful and are part of the logo for our #Toronto > @BlueJays! 💙 > > 📷jgazze/IG > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GE26qJjWEAEPvs1.jpg) That bird is blue ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GE7PtpoXAAAZEgX.jpg) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 11:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751568160904421739) · 3 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** is there a written transcript? There is now https://docs.google.com/document/d/1066Bu0FIFnjOaRmbdyruRG53SGIFD1p5vGRk4vJJYRE/edit ### [Reply to @ArmandDoma, 12:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751577433222836374) · 4 likes > **Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma):** “why don’t young women want to date young conservatives??!?” > > YOUNG CONSERVATIVES: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GE5StYRaoAAXu5s.jpg) Seems like satire no? ### [Reply to @Saeko_Cut, 12:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751578973098688759) · 2 likes > **TERFs aren't women (@Saeko_Cut):** Chicken Washing has got to be a psyop > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GE4fLTwXwAEfYhA.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GE4fLTzWgAA5ijN.jpg) Appropriate chicken washing [![Koko Pato GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/GE7bymzXkAAyJms.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751578973098688759/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @QiaochuYuan, 12:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751584202691149991) · 3 likes > **QC (@QiaochuYuan):** poll: have you ever experienced limerence in the sense described by wikipedia? (can’t include images on a poll for some reason wtf) > > https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limerence So…a crush? ### [Quote tweet, 12:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751585502036169024) · 23 likes Fr though a video of him trying to build an apartment building in SF would go hard > **Quoting derek guy (@dieworkwear):** Mr. Beast should do a video where he builds a walkable neighborhood with dense, mixed-use buildings. ### [Quote tweet, 13:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751604638330049010) · 12 likes Beautiful day to walk around listening to podcasts ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GE7zIeBW4AAF5d5.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GE7zIeBWcAAnMEF.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Lived in/near DC my entire life…Turns out there’s a secret island (ok not secret but I hadn’t heard about it till yesterday)? With a huge statue of Teddy Roosevelt? And a weird brutalist Stonehenge vibe? > > Ok cool > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBkIdtEWkAACXly.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBkIdtEWQAQaTRo.jpg) ## Monday, January 29, 2024 ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 03:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751805513006784645) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ I want to make a “pshhh maybe 1-2 decades in dog years” but the conversion goes the other way so I can’t ### [Reply to @memecrashes, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751812485525516469) · 1 like > **MatLab crashes (@memecrashes):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GE8uNySW4AAU3hM.jpg) x=0 ### [Reply to @lishiyori, 03:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751813052050133420) · 2 likes > **connie (in her suncat era 🥰☀️ | need compute? DM) (@lishiyori):** Had this convo with a friend last night - why is it that SF seems to have such a high proportion of asexuals? like not even just natural asexual ppl, but it feels like settling into this city makes at least some of us more asexual (cue jokes about the lack of rizz etc) > > I have a (VERY) mild theory that it's actually not "lack" but the other way around - it's bc the cup runneth full in other ways. I think it's easier to drink your fill on philia here (companionate love, intellectual camaraderie) and mania (obsessive love with something outside oneself). While the burner/psychonaut side have agape. So there's less of a gaping need for ludus + eros, and that's what we think of as romantic relationships > > tldr; finding a lot of homies makes you chase less tail. but also note it's very bellbar where a bunch of ppl here are SUPER horny so maybe it's just some epigenetic effect where "being around lots of other head ppl" turns up or down diff groups 😂 I think there’s a >5% chance I’d be in SF rn if I was ace. Gender ratio is a top 3 reason for not moving there (can be first, second, or third depending on mood lol) ### [Quote tweet, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751822118298251290) · 8 likes Forget about birdgate for a sec - it’s actually kinda interesting that Canada has a single Offical twitter account Who runs it? > **Quoting Canada (@Canada):** Did you know that the symbolic #BlueJay isn't really blue…In fact, we see them as blue due to the way light reflects off of the inside of their wings! Despite the optical illusion, these birds are beautiful and are part of the logo for our #Toronto > @BlueJays! 💙 > > 📷jgazze/IG > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GE26qJjWEAEPvs1.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1751999370143129940) · 4 likes Circumcised males: do you think your parents were morally wrong in choosing that you get circumcised? Poll below > **Quoting Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Circumcision of a baby boy? ### [Reply to @thingskatedid, 16:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752001391197892742) · 6 likes > **Kate (@thingskatedid):** my radiator refuses to radiate because it thinks there's a window open. there isn't a window open! it's just cold. which is the radiator's job to fix! being cold is why i want the radiator on > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GE9SsJ1XcAAGtGJ.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFBb-pdX0AQ8anm.jpg) ### [Reply, 16:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752005953627533790) · 1 like [![GIF thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/GFBgH2uWsAA-5uT.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752005953627533790/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @AlecStapp, 16:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752007043320295736) · 5 likes > **Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** This is, without exaggeration, the worst permitting reform idea I’ve ever heard. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFBQi1rXcAA9arS.jpg) This but the inverse ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFBhHnrWsAQxYZe.jpg) ### [Reply to @AFraserUrq, 16:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752008559716385049) · 2 likes > **Alastair Fraser-Urquhart (@AFraserUrq):** If paracetamol was invented today, there is \*absolutely no chance on earth\* it would become OTC - the fact it is should affect how you calculate the risk/benefit of our current (ridiculous) medical regulations. > > And yet. Do you view this more as evidence that paracetamol (Tylenol) shouldn’t be OTC or that more drugs should be OTC? ### [Tweet, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752032656382918823) · 101 likes Device to learn about the contents of your own blood is prescription-only The @US_FDA must be stopped ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFB4aF4XAAAbWWJ.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752032658958475607) · 7 likes From https://www.exfatloss.com/p/wearing-a-continuous-glucose-monitor ### [Thread, continued, 18:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752034610685378839) · 7 likes If I were a doctor I would just hand out prescriptions to this for free or for a small donation if time constrained and dare someone to do something about it ### [Reply to @bobbydbobster, 19:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752054921547944336) · 1 like > **Dr. Bobby Boucher (@bobbydbobster):** @Submetallic @alyssamvance Calorie restriction is roughly similar to everyone, and the differentiating factor is willpower and willingness to buy into fluff like "it's easier for some people than other --> it's harder for me --> so I deserve grace when I don't do it" I think this is mostly wrong and subjective hunger is the main source of variation, not willpower to push through it ### [Reply, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752058600011276657) · 3 likes No u just hang out in a wheat field ### [Reply to @halcyon_hazel, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752059707773104424) · 2 likes > **❤️‍🔥 hazel ❤️‍🔥 (@halcyon_hazel):** people hate it when i am holding a can of coke and my phone in separate hands and when asked to pick up a third object, place the entire can in my mouth instead of putting my phone away Lmao ### [Reply to @thechosenberg, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752059978905739558) · 44 likes > **rosey🌹 (@thechosenberg):** Dating apps shifted it all to the phone > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFBuXtAaAAAPXJT.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFCRRAPWcAAWgWB.jpg) ### [Reply, 20:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752060355894001977) · 8 likes Correct take ### [Reply, 20:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752061339902607854) · 1 like No thanks I’ll just let my thing run overnight ### [Reply to @Submetallic, 20:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752072862725287963) · 2 likes > **Carrie Radomski (@Submetallic):** I disagree that lack of "willpower" is the cause of obesity. "Willpower" has no explanatory power because people's level of "Willpower" has not changed in the past 30 years. The over-eating leading to obesity is probably caused by pleasure or reward-seeking behavior. There is some kind of reward-hacking in our system that has gone awry. Food might've become more rewarding in the past 30 years, not our "Willpower" level going down in past 30 years. Avoidance of suffering (hunger) seems kind of implausible at the levels of calorie-intake we are talking about. It must be more related to seeking reward (pleasure). Seeking reward is not morally wrong and the language around willpower implies that it is some kind of moral behavior when it is not. Agree on the main point but disagree that hunger is implausible. That’s the primary mechanism by which weight is regulated at all Anecdote but still: at one point I pretty quickly shot up from 145 to 160 (this made me overweight but not obese tbc) ### [Reply to @JacquesThibs, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752074060832419922) · 3 likes > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** What do you call an operations manager who works for a psychologist center? His or her name, presumably ### [Reply, 21:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752078273868181947) · 1 like Thing is it’s not even that much cheaper I’m not an anti-pufa maximalist so we may disagree that this is much better, but refined olive oil is only ~2x the price of corn/soybean etc. That’s like a few pennies on a bag of chips ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752100292554797170) · 4 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** Yeah this is insane. I'm not an FDA libertarian or anything, but the restriction on some medical devices is very annoying > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Device to learn about the contents of your own blood is prescription-only The @US_FDA must be stopped) How can I radicalize u ### [Reply, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752108801929449480) Addiction (really, non-functional addiction/reliance) will make some people’s lives worse, which is a real cost that I think is worth society paying all things considered I don’t actually think it would make the issue much worse, though. Plenty of addiction rn ### [Reply to @mmt_lvt, 23:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752109872802344966) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mmt_lvt is no longer available.)_ What is the harm that glucose monitors impose? Or what non-harm principle warrants the restriction? ### [Reply to @mmt_lvt, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752119092092502516) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mmt_lvt is no longer available.)_ Ok, I agree that first sentence is literally true I don’t think it is anywhere near a good enough reason to restrict access to a thing. For example, normal non-continuous glucose monitors are totally legal for consumer purchase and that seems fine ### [Reply to @metakuna, 23:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752119214926971238) · 3 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** today The Police buzzed my flat asking to be let in to the block (to arrest someone else) and I said "do you mind if I look up if I'm legally required to do that?" and they were like "umm... ok", and then while I was looking it up they buzzed one of the other flats and got let in Based ## Tuesday, January 30, 2024 ### [Reply to @eshear, 00:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752120489328435267) · 4 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** It's truly astonishing that this was a question people debated > > (quoting @StatisticUrban: Wow.... you're telling me that builidng housing.... keeps housing prices lower? Who could have seen this coming. This is such a twist.) Esp because, for once, the Expert Consensus, online weirdo consensus, and “what answer u come to if u think it through for any amount of time” were all the same ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 18:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752395461082657243) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** swapcard completely deleted my profile > > I SPENT LIKE A SOLID HOUR ON IT AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I would cry ### [Reply to @besttrousers, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752402077941174706) · 5 likes > **Matt Darling 🌐🏗️ (@besttrousers):** R bros really hate stata code. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFHHN30XcAAu6em.png) Python/R/Stata ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFHIZvKWkAEz89Y.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752420589619306756) · 2 likes Woah ### [Reply, 20:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752424679795834961) · 1 like > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** @AaronBergman18 @austinc3301 @ciphergoth Oh, to please voters? Voters can and do favour all kinds of terrible policies. So, you're not necessarily saying it is a good idea, only politically immovable. > > It might be, but I was just arguing the non-political or total effects. Yeah object level you’re right. More fundamentally I’m just trying to conceptually separate “make medicine more like every other part of society and the economy” policies from “normal” questions of good governance/political economy/regulation which affect every industry ### [Reply to @freganmitts, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752428925047681187) · 6 likes > **Megan Fritts (@freganmitts):** Life is weird right now and I’ve been spending a lot of time reading about “psychophysical luck” and panpsychism and I have to say, I just have no idea what people mean by “qualia”. I’m very suspicious of it. Very suspicious. I don’t doubt that you’re serious but I never understand this take. Like qualia seem incredibly important, intuitive and distinct; a natural category if there ever was one ### [Quote tweet, 20:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752429797165174882) · 24 likes Harvard is like Taylor Swift: deservingly highly rated, but not deserving of total cultural hegemony in their respective categories in the popular imagination > **Quoting Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** we're just never gonna stop talking about this fucking place, are we? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFHYUeQXoAApday.png) ### [Thread, continued, 20:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752429943307346304) · 6 likes Only one of them rejected me though 😎 ### [Reply to @monodevice, 20:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752432023858262371) · 3 likes > **🐜onio (@monodevice):** LIFE HACK: > If you don't have time to develop a fine taste but want to impress people with your way of life, just remove labels from everything at home > > left: poor, corporate, too many colors, lack of taste > > right: artisanal, homemade, simon sarris, I have a local guy who makes it > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFHRCVQbYAAhJmZ.jpg) Cool but one tells u what is inside which can be nice to know ### [Reply to @monodevice, 20:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752433208484823201) · 1 like > **🐜onio (@monodevice):** pros - they learn faster when the milk tastes funny 1% or 2% milk?🙅‍♂️ 15% milk 🙌 ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 20:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752433427263987803) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Darn ### [Tweet, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752438426232652256) · 9 likes For the 10 bot followers we all lost overnight ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFHpdiDXwAA12_0.jpg) ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 21:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752447401712091138) · 2 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** There's nothing wrong with preferring sci-fi to bronze-age mysticism, but it is disappointing to see rational atheists believe in the simulation theory. > > Ockham's Razor shouldn't cut based on vibes. I mean it’s a hypothesis to be judged on the merits no? I’m basically 50/50 ### [Reply to @larissaphillip, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752448900148101284) · 3 likes > **Larissa Phillips (@larissaphillip):** My daughter just started an internship where she’s tutoring middle school kids. > > I asked her how it went… > > A whole new wrinkle in the reading instruction / screens debates! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFGbZgYWIAA_jLv.jpg) Sry ### [Reply to @I_Am_Yain, 22:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752453264313041323) · 2 likes > **Yain (@I_Am_Yain):** I got this yesterday. Autocorrect won't help you out unless with connoisseur unless you get at least c-o-n-n-o-i Clown ass word ### [Tweet, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752458678135935104) · 163 likes This is one part of the human condition LLMs have just totally nullified ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFH74QtXoAAcm3J.jpg) ### [Reply to @gnostrils, 22:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752463146877399116) · 35 likes > **Gnostrils (@gnostrils):** huh > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFH4ySnWQAEbHqU.jpg) Root vegetables 👍 Tubers 👍 Poisons 👎 ## Wednesday, January 31, 2024 ### [Reply to @Idris_Elbow_, 07:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752592872912629851) · 57 likes > **ThePeoplesElbow (@Idris_Elbow_):** Women having sex toys: > \- just having a fun time > \- playful, charming > \-romantic storytellers living a scene > \-just being a little silly > \-kinda hot > > Men having sex toys: > \-Vile disgusting creatures > \- No hope for recovery > \-Probably a sex Offender > \- hideously unattractive Without loss of generality ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFJ17VmXAAAEwsK.jpg) ### [Reply to @mbateman, 07:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752596780892500234) · 7 likes > **Matt Bateman (@mbateman):** I ran across this again today > > The optimistic hypothesis is that it’s a timeless but empty complaint > > The pessimistic hypothesis is that it reflects a steady, decades-long decline in wanting to work > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFJH4O3W0AAzIHM.jpg) Or it’s just literally true and has been forever lol. Of course nobody wants to work, that’s why you have to give them money to do it! ### [Tweet, 19:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752781453861998914) · 330 likes This is my personal 9/11 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFMhcQCWkAAhTVG.jpg) ### [Reply to @MccallumRupert, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752782792277057541) · 9 likes > **Rupert McCallum (@MccallumRupert):** @polisisti @AaronBergman18 I get that part of it. > > I've had plenty of rejections of job applications in my time. I know they can sometimes be a bit painful. Lol I am extremely not qualified to by CEO of 80k ### [Reply to @gelionexists, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752789010785632425) · 5 likes > **GE Lion (@gelionexists):** Big loss for them smh > > (BTW, what do they do beyond espousing the 80000 hours concept?) Personalized career coaching, research into various issues to inform how to do good, content creation (incl my personal favorite podcast which largely got me more engaged in EA), aggregate job opportunities https://80000hours.org/about/ ### [Reply to @jmelahman, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752791233271918718) · 2 likes > **Jamison 🦆 (@jmelahman):** @AaronBergman18 Maybe try @htmx_org. They have an open CEO role Good idea. I have an impressive web dev portfolio https://aaronbergman.neocities.org ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 21:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752804502321639883) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** downloading 80k podcasts ready to the flight to SF for eag 😊😊 You might not like it but this is what peak performance looks like ### [Reply to @besttrousers, 21:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752805494257865173) · 7 likes > **Matt Darling 🌐🏗️ (@besttrousers):** 🥰 > > (quoting @NathanJRobinson: "Basic income also does nothing to change who controls production, leaving it in the hands of undemocratic capital." https://www.currentaffairs.org/2024/01/the-limits-of-basic-income) Guy who thinks that’s a bug not a feature ### [Reply to @samsmisaligned, 22:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752815397647040895) · 2 likes > **Sam (@samsmisaligned):** Wtf producing a kg of beef causes 35x less suffering than producing a kg of eggs??? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFM0dO2WoAAn0g3.png) ### [Tweet, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752825051290718684) · 6 likes Hmm something doesn’t add up…adderall doesn’t come in 60mg tabs or capsules ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFNJF-gXUAAp3F7.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFNJF-iWEAAsY49.jpg) ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752827851928162349) · 18 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** @AaronBergman18 Start your own organization and call it 90,000 hours. We do coaching for 80k coaching application rejects I actually think this could be good lol. I was rejected back in 2018 (I think they’re base rate has increased a lot though) ### [Reply to @W96Emily, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752829018615771615) · 2 likes > **Emily 🏃‍♀️🏋️‍♀️ (@W96Emily):** you can say a whole heck of a lot about Sam Harris, like there is a ton of good and legit criticism of him, but what you can't say is that he "rambles" lol. that's just hate because he's got to be the most coherent and articulate podcaster alive Yes, \*I\* ramble goddamnit Sam does not ### [Reply to @samsmisaligned, 23:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752838400833409144) · 4 likes > **Sam (@samsmisaligned):** @SelonNerias There are estimates for sentience and suffering per day of life > > But yeah I mean I would just take these as incredibly rough guesses, I’m just very surprised at how much suffering egg production apparently causes Real issue is that mass isn’t the right unit of comparison. Should be calorie or gram of protein or gram of non-water mass ### [Reply to @kindgracekind, 23:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752842099110695229) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @kindgracekind is no longer available.)_ Not an answer, but maybe what you want: the jobs formerly taken by those gold-rushing ### [Reply to @WillBamberg, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752842824381325498) · 2 likes > **will🌿 (@WillBamberg):** effort is the ultimate test of desire Revealed preference --- End of January 2024. Previous month: [December 2023](https://abergman.com/tweets/2023-12). Next month: [February 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-02). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, February 2024 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in February 2024 and has not deleted: 507 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [January 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-01). Next month: [March 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-03). ## Thursday, February 1, 2024 ### [Reply, 03:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752893108054847506) Maybe eloquence wasn’t the right word - I’m talking about like verbal fluidity/clarity/lack of filler words when talking out loud. Eloquence can be applied to writing ### [Reply to @norvid_studies, 05:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752934513888375050) · 1 like > **norvid_studies (@norvid_studies):** is there a term for as something approaches extremes, growth rate of fraud/error increases exponentially? 'too good to be true' ish > > \-regional longevity records/blue zones > \-successful academic publishing records?? > \-2500 Elo cheating > \-pascals mugging offers Not an answer but there are two effects here, I think conceptually distinct: (1) the extreme value itself (as someone very familiar with the domain would see) and (2) observation bias - “outsiders” hear about more extreme things ### [Reply to @alt_truistic, 06:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1752934871213699210) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @alt_truistic is no longer available.)_ The two genders ### [Quote tweet, 18:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753130426955190681) · 27 likes If this doesn’t make it into the 80k Slack it’s gonna be like a second 9/11 the very next day > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** This is my personal 9/11 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFMhcQCWkAAhTVG.jpg) ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 19:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753133706846536039) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Aww friends ❤️ ### [Reply to @lufthiniano, 20:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753158482155425989) · 2 likes > **Luf Thansa (@lufthiniano):** @AaronBergman18 @inerati why weirdly? Intuitively it seems like a pdf is similar to a txt in that you can click it to open a static document that generally contains text you can copy and paste ### [Reply to @exfatloss, 21:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753176188753793353) · 14 likes > **exfatloss🥛 (@exfatloss):** I avoid diet advice from people who've never been obese. It's not impossible that they could have some useful insights, but I've yet to see it. > > (quoting @hubermanlab: I think it’s fair to ask if the MD or scientist or public health official saying to do X or not do Y looks and sounds healthy and vital. I avoid going to a dentist with bad teeth. What do you think? I sense diverging opinions on this.) Big dating advice from guy who is 6’3” energy ### [Tweet, 22:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753177654931444100) · 15 likes Want a pet pig bc dogs feel like cheating. They’re genetically programmed to like you. If a pig likes you then ur best pals fr, a partnership of equals ### [Quote tweet, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753179158459396396) · 5 likes I disagree with this. There is a tradeoff between undeniable, pure fact checking and potentially biased added context, which often depends on inferring subtext or implication in a tweet, and currently we are at a good point on the spectrum Stand strong ✊✊✊ > **Quoting Jonatan Pallesen (@jonatanpallesen):** Community Notes showed a lot of promise, but they are unraveling. > > Their role should be limited to verifying factual claims, and not engage in debates. For instance, if the specific claim about the green area in the image is inaccurate, there could be a Note about that. > > But of course the Noters love the power they can get in the debate, and abuse it. This needs to stop. > > @X needs to rein them in. There needs to be a clear guideline with examples of what Community Notes should and should not be used for. Such clarity can help ensure downvotes for Notes like this. > > If that's not enough, they should establish a system in which Noters can be banned if they vote yes on too many of this type of Note. ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 22:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753181343322669426) · 5 likes > **Dissproportionately (@dissproportion):** I’m torn on this. People have the right to end it. But there’s a lot of evidence that removing easy means reduces the overall rate of suicide. Is it a well-considered wish that would persist in these cases, or would some of them adapt to life if death were less accessible? > > (quoting @mcinthedc: The Slippery Slope folks were 100% correct when it came to Euthanasia. Telling clinical depressed and autistic people to kill themselves is simply eugenics.) ### [Quote tweet, 22:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753181826993057924) · 41 likes Words that are anti-descriptive, in that they generally obscure more than they clarify: \- “eugenics” \- “feminism” (I know some will disagree here) What else? > **Quoting Matt! (Please Press Pause?) (@mcinthedc):** The Slippery Slope folks were 100% correct when it came to Euthanasia. Telling clinical depressed and autistic people to kill themselves is simply eugenics. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFQwmkyWAAAPSb4.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 22:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753182526477115682) · 8 likes We must protect him > **Quoting Igor Bobic (@igorbobic):** Fetterman very on brand by showing up to a fancy DC dinner in a tuxedo hoodie and shorts (he’s even got cufflinks on the sleeves) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFNaVgBWAAAnOqg.jpg) ### [Reply to @univrsw3th4rt, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753182969756287119) · 2 likes > **universe sweetheart 💓🌈💭 (@univrsw3th4rt):** @inconcel this is possibly the best description of me ever written. i hold so much forbidden knowledge Plz tell I want the secret knowledge too ## Friday, February 2, 2024 ### [Reply to @polisisti, 04:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753279086095437952) · 4 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @mealreplacer Good evening, Julian Tetraspace ### [Reply to @butt_sword, 04:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753281102532268331) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @butt_sword is no longer available.)_ They’re called potatoes ### [Tweet, 05:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753283329976111416) · 4 likes So is autism more like the left or the right? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFTp5bcWoAAmdxk.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFTp5bdXYAAsxMe.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753283332559839461) · 2 likes It’s from ACX ofc https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/ontology-of-psychiatric-conditions ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 17:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753474842068656365) · 34 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** It’s so much easier to bullshit smart people because you can just say random stuff and their pattern detection abilities are strong enough that they can always make some connection and squeeze meaning from your sentence. It’s the dummies who ask you to explain that screw you up ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFWYE2ZWoAAvjNU.jpg) ### [Reply to @hubermanlab, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753486576741749224) · 2 likes > **Andrew D. Huberman, Ph.D. (@hubermanlab):** I am convinced that the 8 pillars of Mental & Physical Health are: > 1\) Sleep > 2\) (Sun)light > 3\) Exercise > 4\) Stress Management > 5\) Relationships (Incl. To Self) > 6\) Nutrients (Amt., Timing, Content) > 7\) Oral Health & Gut Microbiome > 8\) Spiritual Grounding > Additions? Subtractions? Bro that’s 9 No. 7 is clearly 2 parts, nice try ### [Reply to @seconds_0, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753488768341012747) · 1 like > **0.005 Seconds (3/694) (@seconds_0):** Its crazy that basically all of the research on the benefits of Curcumin is fake: https://reeserichardson.blog/2024/01/30/the-king-of-curcumin-a-case-study-in-the-consequences-of-large-scale-research-fraud/ Damm ### [Tweet, 18:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753490335647367644) · 2 likes Little brothers of the world, unite ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753495318203687206) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pli_cachete is no longer available.)_ Nooo don’t mix computery words and econ words noo ## Saturday, February 3, 2024 ### [Reply, 00:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753581439487025574) · 1 like Maybe this is naive but I have a hard time imagining that such a law would survive more than a few months into lab grown meat being a normal (if high end) consumer product in most other US states Right now it’s just signaling and posturing ### [Reply, 00:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753582109447332143) · 1 like Race u to 3k ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 04:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753640255079567674) · 8 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** The font for "EA Global" is different than the font for "Bay Area (GCRs)" in a way that's distracting to me. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFX_5VlbsAA0UUh.jpg) This is bigger than FTX and castlegate ### [Reply to @animalologist, 04:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753644164644810784) · 16 likes > **taco belle (@animalologist):** Yeah redpill dudes online partly caused this but also consider: gender inequality was so much worse when Boomers were young that they can see the positive impact feminism has had on the world as they’ve grown older. Men under 30 have no concept of a world w/o modern feminism Good take but also the headline in the pic seems like a good example of why “feminism” just isn’t a helpful term to use anymore. (I claim) Gen Z and Boomers are using the same word to point at substantially different things ### [Reply, 05:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753653483247378653) · 1 like Or really until u reach one digit. You have to know 1-9 ### [Reply to @mbolotnikova, 06:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753672813796278717) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @mbolotnikova is no longer available.)_ 🤝☹️ ### [Reply to @MatthewJBar, 07:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753681323271528789) · 2 likes > **Matthew Barnett (@MatthewJBar):** I wrote a shortform post on the EA forum questioning why effective altruists have historically favored AI safety over AI acceleration (at least when these two values conflict). My tentative assessment: the EA preference for safety seems surprisingly weak. > https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/YDjzAKFnGmqmgPw2n/matthew_barnett-s-shortform?commentId=BspBj3zRDk2rTErqD We need an interface between twitter and Quick Takes ### [Reply to @metakuna, 07:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753684758612087171) · 2 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** I'm confused by this, how do you adjust IQ for IQ? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEOkFxMWAAAg6Xx.jpg) Maternal IQ vs child’s IQ right? ### [Quote tweet, 13:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753770385470791980) · 38 likes Wait 25% of 16 year olds have like ~formally~ committed a crime? Is it all drinking citations? > **Quoting Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** America is so good at integrating immigrants that we even manage to get them to do crimes at the same rate as native borns > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFaKPeiWkAAFJza.png) ### [Tweet, 13:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753777423017984229) · 13 likes God forbid men have a hobby ### [Reply, 14:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753782185184682203) · 1 like Huh this is not my sense (agree on the corrective mechanism bit tho) ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 14:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753794550735224951) · 3 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** I think DC EA culture is way more balanced and considerate on criticism than Bay EA and esp rationalist culture. There are seasons where it’s really in to be just witheringly critical here, and it def provides an opportunity to hide shitty motives like putting ppl in their place @AndyMasley W ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 15:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753796677184499909) · 6 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** 2011: nearly a third of Americans have been arrested by age 23, study says https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/us/nearly-a-third-of-americans-are-arrested-by-23-study-says.html Huh, come to think of it even my extremely privileged white Jewish family kinda tracks lol. I won’t say WHICH member of my nuclear family got a drinking citation but let’s just say it wasn’t me, wasn’t my parents, and may or may not have been my sister who is the only other one ### [Reply, 15:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753801064212492584) · 1 like FWIW this seems to me more like a prosocial counter-signaling thing analogous to one friend calling another “a fucking idiot” but maybe it would feel different in context ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 15:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753802613378744826) · 2 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @AaronBergman18 @michaelcurzi The pecking order is always framed in terms of merit and individual striving to improve oneself and climb the ranks is morally beneficent bc of the contribution to a greater good (team victory, knowing the truth, saving the world). > > This is rat/tech football culture. Might find this relevant ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFbCLgKXoAAk5bW.jpg) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 16:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1753816820585316550) · 1 like > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** So grateful that of all the ideologies out there, I chose the one that gives me free vegan chicken tendies > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFYSMpna8AA_SeE.jpg) New allergen just dropped https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupinus ## Sunday, February 4, 2024 ### [Reply to @ea_paddington, 13:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754130061542723710) · 2 likes > **EA Paddington 🍊🔸 (@ea_paddington):** Bear 👋 Bear ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFfr_isWQAAh2zN.jpg) ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 16:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754185640348983608) · 2 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** Does anyone know what our new mop is trying to remind us of > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFgWOEAWYAEiQEU.jpg) Same guy ### [Tweet, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754224056369299548) · 9 likes First pass at trying to solve the two envelopes problem leaves me thinking that the thought experiment, with all the assumptions needed to make it a “problem” isn’t conceivable (in the philosophical sense) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_envelopes_problem ### [Thread, continued, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754224058097336708) · 4 likes Trying to show this quickly gets into a jumbled mess of like pointing out an issue with the naive first-reading conception and then thinking up a way around that, and around and around again until my cognitive RAM is full ### [Thread, continued, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754224059691213028) · 2 likes (does it matter that the total amount is bounded above by world wealth? If so can we work around that? What probability distributions over the sum of both envelopes, if any, preserve the problem without just making it another ‘infinities are weird and dumb’ thing?) ### [Thread, continued, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754224061922570446) · 3 likes ^and if we do some weird unbounded, arbitrarily large possible total sum shenanigans, does that mathematically even permit that a boring intuitive case would occur, like that there’s $10 in one envelope and $20 in the other? ### [Thread, continued, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754224063700926613) · 3 likes If this nerdsnipes ppl like the with sleeping beauty, I apologize in advance for not debating/responding to everyone lol ### [Thread, continued, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754224065429090377) · 2 likes Thanks to @SpacedOutMatt for nerdsniping me yesterday ### [Quote tweet, 21:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754262545219649904) · 4 likes People are fawning over this post, but it’s awfully conceptually confused Yes, the wanting/craving vs liking distinction is real and super important! So why claim (in the subtitle!) that pleasure is satisfying? > **Quoting sympathetic opposition (@sympatheticopp):** https://www.sympatheticopposition.com/p/hyperstimuli-are-understimulating > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFcmeTwbcAAsbBV.jpg) ### [Reply to @sympatheticopp, 22:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754265261119520952) · 1 like > **sympathetic opposition (@sympatheticopp):** @AaronBergman18 im sure the post does not deserve the attn its getting, & is unclearly phrased, but reading your thread i find myself unsure what we disagree on I do not think pleasure is satisfying. Sometimes it happens to go along with things that are satisfying for other reasons, sometimes not ### [Reply to @metakuna, 22:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754265669149893097) · 2 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** I don't think it's conceptually confused, it's just additionally making the claim that pleasurable things tend to be less craving-inducing, precisely bc they satisfy the cravings I don’t think this model of cravings being satisfied by pleasure is conceptually sensible or empirically correct/useful ### [Reply to @metakuna, 22:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754267349832606134) · 2 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** It's at least conceptually sensible. Like it's definitely the case that cravings for food are satisfied by eating food, and hence the amount you eat is self-limiting (even if too much, it'll be within a factor of 2 of the optimal amount) Would also be satisfied by eating food that tastes terrible, or perhaps tube feeding The cravings are modulated (mostly) by internal nutrient (macro and micro) detectors/control systems… ### [Thread, continued, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754267795104182298) · 2 likes which pleasure/taste doesn’t substantially effect. A person might be craving meat and then quite suddenly have that stop pretty quickly upon taking a large amount of (bioavailable) iron ### [Reply to @metakuna, 22:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754268577807437935) · 1 like > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** Whereas cravings for other things like twitter are not necessarily reduced by using twitter so it's not self-limiting. You also need the point that satisfying cravings is inherently pleasurable, this is "an empirical claim" but it seems true to me Linguistically, “satisfying cravings” seems to evoke things I associate w pleasure, I agree, but at least sometimes the craving can just dissipate/go away I guess this does seem inherently hedonically good bc suffering is subsiding, but I don’t think it’s inherently pleasurable ## Monday, February 5, 2024 ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754351895706026162) · 2 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** ugh the self publish vs professional publish book options make me feel like im choosing between python and R all over again. i cant decide. which one should i do: Whichever is analogous to R ### [Quote tweet, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754353601672098148) · 4 likes From a very normie discourse POV (what matters is Americans alive rn), this should be ~all that matters > **Quoting Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill):** Happiness 🧵 (US data) > > Average happiness, 1972-2018 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4508123 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFhs7e6bIAEF8CT.jpg) ### [Reply to @RomanHauksson, 04:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754354444949414278) · 2 likes > **Roman Hauksson-Neill (@RomanHauksson):** LeetCode ability is > \- easily testable > \- still related to programming, data structures, and algorithms > \- a proxy for intelligence and conscientiousness Sure, still a shame that there’s no less-fake thing that could function similarly ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 04:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754356464796189082) · 2 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** @pearl_please THIS IS NOT THE FULL STORY more stuff happened in the dream ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFi56DuX0AAU3YO.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 04:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754358226601001423) · 7 likes The shoggoth thinks I’m funny 😊 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFi7ghaW8AEIDFO.jpg) > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Reply to @liz_love_lace, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754359353023299953) · 5 likes > **Liz Lovelace (@liz_love_lace):** soooo, hypothetically, what would happen if i took a stimulant every time i felt sleepy for 60 hours straight? Would I just pass out at some point, or..? Either sleep or something on the hypomania-mania-psychosis-death spectrum Can’t attest to stims more stimmy than roughly 20mg amphetamine or 200mg caffeine but these doses don’t seem like enough to prevent sleep no matter what. Control systems go brr ### [Tweet, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754360930777899355) · 15 likes Every time I drink I hope that I will discover that I like alcohol, actually, and I was just screwing up somehow the previous times Nope, my brain is weird. No euphoriant effect at all, I just get hazy ### [Thread, continued, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754360932401045747) · 4 likes If all I knew about alcohol was the pharmacology and my personal experience, I’d be shocked that people take a nervous system \*depressant\* for fun ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754361410480373923) · 4 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** "Born to think, forced to feel." -@shakaz\_ Lol this but the opposite Born to go on vibes and intuition like every other animal, forced to confront the fact that we live in an out-of-distribution age and (relatedly) our actions have huge moral externalities ### [Reply, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754363898755448956) · 2 likes > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** @AaronBergman18 This, but the complete opposite. It never has a depressant effect on me and I have never been hungover in my whole life. Mechanistic psychopharmacology is fake. Nobody knows how or why any substance causes anything ### [Quote tweet, 04:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754365871332512010) · 34 likes I was impaled by a chopstick in my neck. Didn’t go like all the way through but at least a couple inches deep I believe ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFjCdnMXMAAncqb.jpg) > **Quoting Squirtle (@squirtle_says):** im in the guinness book of world records ### [Reply to @MasterTimBlais, 04:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754365921320169593) · 2 likes > **Tim 🙂⏹️🙂 (@MasterTimBlais):** do you have any IDEA how overpowering it is to be 13 years old and encounter this image at the Walmart CD rack > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFh5qyBbgAAgFbf.jpg) No ### [Reply to @univrsw3th4rt, 04:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754368473818443800) · 2 likes > **universe sweetheart 💓🌈💭 (@univrsw3th4rt):** @AaronBergman18 holy shit Ya this is the general reaction when docs hear my answer to “any surgery?” ### [Reply to @Submetallic, 05:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754370213821157612) · 4 likes > **Carrie Radomski (@Submetallic):** Uh, that's pretty crazy, could you share the context? Playing with my sister when I was 3. Somehow we got our hands on some fancy chopsticks (a gift to my parents I think) ### [Thread, continued, 05:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754370819763937561) · 9 likes Somehow I managed to like fall on the chopstick in such a way that this happened, and was extremely lucky bc (1) it didn’t splinter since it was like high quality, not single use and (2) it missed the \*checks chatgpt\* “carotid artery” and “jugular vein” ### [Thread, continued, 05:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754371714996125710) · 9 likes Which meant that despite being like a cm from being ~certainly killed, I had emergency surgery and then was basically totally fine Apparently I was literally jumping on the hospital bed the next day lol ### [Reply to @edgar_z_lin, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754371985675551075) · 2 likes > **Edgar Lin (@edgar_z_lin):** @AaronBergman18 Wait like skin-broken impaled? But it missed everything important? Yes! Extremely lucky! ### [Thread, continued, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754372066000715941) · 2 likes ### [Reply to @eepysillyboy, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754375433544491036) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @eepysillyboy is no longer available.)_ Uh probably but I’d still be surprised! The world is a big place, though - billions of people use chopsticks (maybe? I’m assuming it’s actually standard in Asia?) and have necks. I haven’t really thought about how common this should be before ### [Quote tweet, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754376827097788555) · 8 likes Deeply unserious medical history Who gets this but never a broken bone or sprained ankle? Who gets Lyme but not COVID? > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I was impaled by a chopstick in my neck. Didn’t go like all the way through but at least a couple inches deep I believe > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFjCdnMXMAAncqb.jpg) ### [Reply to @eepysillyboy, 05:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754379127069479145) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @eepysillyboy is no longer available.)_ Wild, glad she’s ok ### [Reply to @NavalInstitute, 05:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754380328540479834) · 1 like > **U.S. Naval Institute (@NavalInstitute):** The Austrian-based company Migaloo is offering a 541-foot-long "private submersible superyacht” for a base price of $2 billion. The M5 has a range of 9,300 miles and can take its passengers to a depth of 820 feet. The luxury submarine includes a helipad, two swimming pools, a Jacuzzi, and two midget subs. There have been no orders for the M5 yet. > \#SubSunday > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFhU25nW8AAIyMC.jpg) I will take 1 ### [Quote tweet, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754389091574055414) · 4 likes Bird punches above its weight > **Quoting Historic Vids (@historyinmemes):** The bird that made millions of childhoods > > [video attached](https://x.com/historyinmemes/status/1754028008850006252/video/1) ### [Tweet, 07:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754403211379720361) · 38 likes Heart skipped a beat, thought I accidentally ordered the $60k window shopping computer ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFjkbDuWsAA7alF.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFjkbDzX0AALNav.jpg) ### [Reply to @milkrabbi, 14:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754516031656141245) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @milkrabbi is no longer available.)_ Gf ### [Reply to @natfriedman, 15:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754523946924322842) · 2 likes > **Nat Friedman (@natfriedman):** Ten months ago, we launched the Vesuvius Challenge to solve the ancient problem of the Herculaneum Papyri, a library of scrolls that were flash-fried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. > > Today we are overjoyed to announce that our crazy project has succeeded. After 2000 years, we can finally read the scrolls: > This image was produced by @Youssef_M_Nader, @LukeFarritor, and @JuliSchillij, who have now won the Vesuvius Challenge Grand Prize of $700,000. Congratulations!! > > These fifteen columns come from the very end of the first scroll we have been able to read and contain new text from the ancient world that has never been seen before. The author – probably Epicurean philosopher Philodemus – writes here about music, food, and how to enjoy life's pleasures. In the closing section, he throws shade at unnamed ideological adversaries – perhaps the stoics? – who "have nothing to say about pleasure, either in general or in particular." > > This year, the Vesuvius Challenge continues. The text that we revealed so far represents just 5% of one scroll. > > In 2024, our goal is to from reading a few passages of text to entire scrolls, and we're announcing a new $100,000 grand prize for the first team that is able to read at least 90% of all four scrolls that we have scanned. > > The scrolls stored in Naples that remain to be read represent more than 16 megabytes of ancient text. But the villa where the scrolls were found was only partially excavated, and scholars tell us that there may be thousands more scrolls underground. Our hope is that the success of the Vesuvius Challenge catalyzes the excavation of the villa, that the main library is discovered, and that whatever we find there rewrites history and inspires all of us. > > It's been a great joy to work on this strange and amazing project. Thanks to Brent Seales for laying the foundation for this work over so many years, thanks to the friends and Twitter users whose donations powered our effort, and thanks to the many contestants whose contributions have made the Vesuvius Challenge successful! > > Read more in our announcement: https://scrollprize.org/grandprize > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFk8u5faUAAohIB.jpg) So is there a pdf or ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 15:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754534467765403991) · 2 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** It's not wrong to go to bed early Post is wrong in making a normative claim and I agree you’re literally right, but it may indicate that something is wrong physiologically This is coming from a perspective of having subjective sleep needs that vary from “7 hours and can do ok with 4” to “basically all the time” ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 16:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754543133122081001) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Breaking news: local guy discovers that some big authors are big authors for a reason and that prestige might not be a scam after all Honestly ~all my desire to read R&P comes from peer(-ish) recommendation. May bottom out in prestige but not necessarily ### [Quote tweet, 16:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754544332248342959) · 6 likes .@80000Hours’ new goal: get a thousand people to listen to both of these > **Quoting Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @NoahTopper Aktchually... 🤔😈 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFlil77XUAAre9t.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFlimR9WAAQIbtJ.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 16:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754544452842959172) · 3 likes U get a 1 hour lunch break ### [Reply to @edavidds, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754546906309476625) · 4 likes > **Eric Schmidt 🇺🇦 (@edavidds):** @AaronBergman18 but look at all the savings! Ur right, I should buy to save $40k 😌 ### [Reply, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754558837208572061) · 1 like Deleting bc you’re right, I was being too generous originally and thinking at too abstract a level ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFlx9mFXAAAFQBl.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFlx9mJX0AAmuGy.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754559142717538641) · 1 like Breaking up for normal “this isn’t working” reasons between relationships without having an alternative “lined up” so to speak is substantive both emotionally/morally and at a functional/systematic/market level ### [Quote tweet, 17:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754562668529115280) · 13 likes Scots 🤝 Scott (@slatestarcodex) Being weirdly prolific > **Quoting Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** What's crazy is that Scotland today has only 5.5 million people, but it punches \*way\* above its weight in historical innovation. The telephone, penicillin, television, steam engine, radar, MRI, electric clock, insulin, the Bank of England, logarithms - all invented by a Scot. ### [Reply to @skooookum, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754576070198583782) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @skooookum is no longer available.)_ Wait ur 23?! I would not have guessed that ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754581755749638346) · 5 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Can someone explain why not having a bedframe would be preferable to having one? Yes. The former is free and the latter costs money ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754581861269971121) · 2 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @absurdlymax Ppl claim your mattress won’t get proper circulation and could get moldy on the bottom if you put it directly on the floor Fuck this is actually a good reason maybe I should get one ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754583010739982474) · 7 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @absurdlymax Ppl claim your mattress won’t get proper circulation and could get moldy on the bottom if you put it directly on the floor Honestly mattress flipping sounds like decent exercise. Like those tires from outdoor fitness classes or smth ### [Tweet, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754589511151960413) · 1,408 likes Turns out when childhood friends said they were “building their own computer” they meant connecting a few parts, not like starting from low level, single-compound hardware and household materials ### [Thread, continued, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754589514050466093) · 167 likes I did build a hydroelectric generator this way in 4th grade (from copper wire and magnets and such), I think I assumed they were just doing that but with more steps, somehow ### [Thread, continued, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754589516034109641) · 225 likes In my defense I didn’t know at the time that “making a computer” required like insane precision nanomanufacturing with billion dollar machines ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 19:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754589894087709148) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax Bedframes are an inexpensive build and there are tons of plans online! Yes Jesse u can make one for me, thanks for the offer!! 😊 ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 19:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754590560436797863) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754591030324711582) · 149 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** "You mean you assembled your computer" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFmPFp9XUAAOWKt.jpg) It’s only building if they personally mined the silicon ### [Reply to @ConnorTabarrok, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754591112130400411) · 27 likes > **Connor J. Tabarrok 🏗🚀🌏 (@ConnorTabarrok):** Are you serious I mean I was like 9 ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754593139522760729) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** I am simply going to shut my curtains and hide away with my plants and my collection of stupid novelty mugs and rewatch old tv shows and nothing is going to get me ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFmRKWYXIAAKRzt.jpg) ### [Reply to @gmiller, 19:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754595501004013627) · 9 likes > **Geoffrey Miller (@gmiller):** If they're not starting from raw iron ore, sand, and petroleum, they're not really 'building their own computer'. Fr ### [Reply to @DmitriyLeybel, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754595829355016603) · 5 likes > **dmitriy (@DmitriyLeybel):** If you're not assembling atoms out of subatomic particles, you're not building anything. Agreed ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 20:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754596845819502855) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** @AaronBergman18 very efficient meme generation ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFmUiDWXAAAkvnq.jpg) ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 20:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754598590016565660) · 1 like > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** this is the way most people operate, just nobody likes admitting it to themselves > > (quoting @RuxandraTeslo: This is such a cursed worldview) This was my reaction at first but ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 23:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754644304289558677) · 8 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** To build a computer from scratch, you must first invent the universe No just the galaxy IMO ## Tuesday, February 6, 2024 ### [Reply to @livgorton, 00:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754664566619779309) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** @AaronBergman18 @skooookum @scolerkolo i just turned 24 and feel left out Hope u like elderly life ### [Reply to @livgorton, 00:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754665505086984352) · 3 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** vibing with the kangaroos is as good as it sounds > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFdRyOcaEAAxQoO.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFdRyOibsAAaYos.jpg) > (quoting @gptbrooke: Vibing and HANGING OUT WITH LITERAL KANGAROOS I hopped on a video chat with someone there and SAW THEM MYSELF) Wait that’s not fair I wanna do that ### [Reply, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754672377890238902) · 1 like As soon as someone buys me a ticket ### [Thread, continued, 01:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754672999947510084) · 2 likes Word has it that @ohwizenedtortle is there from time to time ### [Reply to @RuxandraTeslo, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754674971169710208) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @RuxandraTeslo is no longer available.)_ C’mon, this is misleading at best And this article was written 9 years ago https://80000hours.org/career-reviews/management-consulting/ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFnbljSW0AA0zl9.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754675186928959665) · 4 likes And more recently: https://80000hours.org/articles/alternatives-to-consulting/ “Before committing to management consulting, consider directly entering priority paths, policy, startups, and other options” ### [Reply to @zeta_globin, 01:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754679059471011948) · 18 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @zeta_globin is no longer available.)_ 68?! May as well just boil me alive at that point ### [Reply to @eshear, 01:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754680195141792005) · 8 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** We seem grossly oversupplied on suffering, overall. I mean a little suffering now and then for good cause, that’s one of the spices of life, but this is absurd. Who ordered all this suffering? What were they even thinking? This is like, suffering for 10 trillion beings. Based and correct take ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 02:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754692828452577772) · 3 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Join us and tell OpenAI "Stop working with the Pentagon!" > On 2/12, we will demand that OpenAI end its relationship with the Pentagon and not take any military clients. If their ethical and safety boundaries can be revised out of convenience, they cannot be trusted. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFnka3BbUAE0r-t.jpg) Def possible I just don’t know enough about the specifics but from a coordination POV I’m not sure if this (“end its relationship”) makes sense. I can think of a bunch of reasons a relationship might be good … ### [Thread, continued, 02:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754693348105826420) · 3 likes Less need to speculate about what is currently possible or could be soon A potential lever for governance bc military is given a lot of leeway by congress (ofc this could also be bad) More generally, information exchange and coordination between the most powerful institutions… ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 04:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754716846610092513) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I think trying to make the world better is meaningful > > (also consultant is not 80k's top recommendation) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFn1X_GW0AAVjhI.png) Some context and links ### [Tweet, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754723162846122394) · 79 likes Humans are on ~plausibly~ on (past?) the verge of creating a gajillion sentient minds whose behavior doesn’t bear at all on their wellbeing, and we have absolutely no goddamn idea of what’s going on with consciousness, let alone its valenced content A moral shitshow ### [Reply, 05:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754742503050269126) · 3 likes > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** @AaronBergman18 What are you referring to with "a gajillion sentient minds"? I have no idea. Something in the realm of “AI instances/hardware running those or maybe subprocesses thereof or maybe only those with \[insert ur fave criteria\] or maybe simulated people if that’s even a distinct category or maybe individual inferences or any combo of the above” ### [Reply to @halcyon_hazel, 18:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754929473076461598) · 2 likes > **❤️‍🔥 hazel ❤️‍🔥 (@halcyon_hazel):** i’ve seen this be called a boomer take but— > > i taught kids as a volunteer for multiple years! a lot of younger kids do not know how to use desktops or laptops, and are only accustomed to phones/ipads, which probably isn’t great > > (quoting @muke10101: might just repost this every time this take goes viral: young people can't use computers because modern computing has been streamlined into consumerism) I mean I’ve been functionally able to use a normal computer but getting even a basic conceptual understanding of what was going on underneath the GUI took learning to program. Not the writing code part - like the concept of reading and writing data or executing a command ### [Reply to @paulg, 18:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754932610826899922) · 12 likes > **Paul Graham (@paulg):** It's too bad "effective altruism" has been destroyed as a brand by SBF, because altruism is important and "effective" is probably the most important adjective you could qualify "altruism" with. People are still doing EA for normal non-brand object level reasons ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFrF6CuWMAEJY-E.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 19:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754946482879275167) · 7 likes US Navy serves hard tacos. This is a threat to national security, probably, if indirectly > **Quoting Chowdah Hill (@ChowdahHill):** Sailor: “Sir! We’ve run out of taco shells!” > > Captain: “Hold fast shipmate. We shall create our own… make it happen.” > > \#TacoTuesday > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFqv8_iWAAA2m1U.jpg) ### [Reply to @gmiller, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754957339524846014) · 17 likes > **Geoffrey Miller (@gmiller):** Vocal coaches can help people improve their speaking voice -- better pitch, timbre, rhythm, dynamism, & diction, & less vocal fry & verbal fillers ('like', 'um', 'you know'). > > My wild, untested hunch is that 2 hours of vocal coaching for each person in a relationship could improve most relationships more than 10 hours of couples therapy. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFrYf8JWMAAQBzx.jpg) I never use filler words ### [Reply to @inerati, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754958185356570679) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ Idk if I actually think this but plausibly for either selfish singularity reasons or altruistic reasons the downside of getting murdered warrants being neurotic ### [Reply to @inerati, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754958894290317736) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFrd0EfXQAA2--O.jpg) ### [Reply to @ManifoldLoveApp, 20:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754959333559804136) · 4 likes > **Manifold Love (@ManifoldLoveApp):** any suggestions for anon? > > (i'll start 🧵) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFrI8J2aAAATw3j.jpg) Listen to sad white boy music ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFreNg4WMAA2rln.jpg) ### [Reply to @eshear, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754967748055060850) · 4 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** Everything is a shade of gray, but that doesn’t some things aren’t a lot brighter or darker than others. \- Yudkowsky, 2008 (it’s a good point though lol) https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/dLJv2CoRCgeC2mPgj/the-fallacy-of-gray ### [Quote tweet, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754988387558216064) · 2 likes .@keithfrankish which is closer to your view, the pic or the tweet below? Pic is from Hear This Idea podcast https://hearthisidea.com/episodes/schwitzgebel/ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFr4otmW4AAWZ9k.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Like in my understanding, illusionism = no qualia = no subjective experience which just straightforwardly means that humans and everything else are in fact how most people believe Roombas, or rocks, or trees, or laptops to be ### [Reply to @keithfrankish, 22:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754992196372103601) · 3 likes > **Keith Frankish (@keithfrankish):** @AaronBergman18 The pic is closer. I don't deny subjectivity, only \*irreducible\* subjectivity. Got\* it thanks! \*well sorta, idk if I get it yet lol ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1754995920721104909) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ There’s a trivial kind of functional experience that a camera (certainly) has, but I presume they don’t have subjective “it’s like to be” (as they say) experience. I want a word for the latter that excludes the former, and I thought qualia was the right one ### [Reply to @RB_magazine, 23:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755005418777051494) · 3 likes > **Restaurant Business (@RB_magazine):** McDonald’s reaches cage-free egg goal ahead of schedule http://dlvr.it/T2PB4b #Operations Read more ⬇️ Nice ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 23:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755006414953554331) · 2 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Since my last post maybe was unclear: > Would you attend a dress party? Or - a party where the mandatory dress code to get in is a dress. Not a skirt, a dress. > This is required for all people, regardless of gender Dress part isn’t relevant. My answer to almost any party is “maybe” ### [Reply to @LaurenE_UX, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755007787942175215) · 1 like > **Lauren (@LaurenE_UX):** Do you mostly lean dark triad, light triad or some of both? > > Dark triad-Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy > > Light triad-Kantianism, Humanism, faith in humanity Ur light triad is the midwit triad lol I’d go with: benevolence, earnestness, and reasons-responsiveness. Add selflessness if it can be a tetrad ### [Reply, 23:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755015195779313892) I think he just means “can’t afford land” which is the actual reason houses are expensive ## Wednesday, February 7, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 03:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755075456829649168) · 4 likes I see tiny home discourse has arisen > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** This would be one of the funnier ways to become a homeowner in a $1M+ house neighborhood, and I’m not even sure it’s a bad idea > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FruYaPGX0AAgYYO.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FruYaPEXwAExhHR.jpg) ### [Tweet, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755078313674973649) · 7 likes Ok but \*are\* Boltzmann brains physically possible? Doesn’t seem obvious to me ### [Reply to @ManifoldLoveApp, 04:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755080590951407821) · 13 likes > **Manifold Love (@ManifoldLoveApp):** incredible advice for how to ask out women (applies regardless of whether you're poly): > > (quoting @wfenza: This is something we used to talk a lot about in the old polyamory community (back when that was a thing). The best advice I heard was to ask women out in a way that doesn't obligate them to give a rejection if they're not interested. Like if you want to approach a female…) Manifold dot love is going to differentially increase the birth rate of internet weirdos and save the lightcone ### [Reply to @timschlomi, 04:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755087089723388201) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @timschlomi is no longer available.)_ Something something circumstantial preconditions causally necessary like the presence of a nearby planet with weird properties that shield radiation from a nearby star (idk like maybe it’s just not physically possible to do the molecular arrangements that occur during human ### [Reply to @mayaaaaaaahhh, 04:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755088105642623405) · 2 likes > **maya :) (@mayaaaaaaahhh):** Is there a specific age before which you dont feel like you were completley yourself? Eg a lot less memories, and the ones you do have feel impersonal. Feeling almost like those memories could be from any kid. Yes! ### [Reply to @demiurgently, 05:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755095080392601809) · 2 likes > **sydney (@demiurgently):** ooh your film presents an uncontroversial social critique that becomes more ambiguous and subversive after a closer watch? should we throw a party? should we invite strauss Ya ### [Thread, continued, 05:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755095175838278070) · 1 like Parasite party sounds good ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 05:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755099922376827202) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ For the curious and cooperative ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFteE_eXEAAmBoT.jpg) ### [Tweet, 05:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755101463200584070) · 3 likes Some math/econ/evo bio mf should try to estimate what % trade up threshold gets you the best partner under various assumptions about transaction costs and distributions and whether u care about broken heart externalities ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 05:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755102303273488546) · 9 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** So I don’t think finance is (net) harmful. But I do think a larger portion of the surplus goes to people in finance than in many other professions (eg medical R&D), such that working in finance often is both more profitable & less valuable. What’s the name for this inefficiency? > > (quoting @StatisticUrban: Hot take but I personally think it's a major shame that our best and brightest mostly go into finance) Normal positive externalities elsewhere and our failure to implement pigouvian subsidy, right ### [Quote tweet, 05:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755104315969028473) · 6 likes These three buttons and the screen brightness bar be like “do u want to make ur experience worse”? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFtiEveWoAAPYTM.jpg) > **Quoting peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** > > [GIF attached](https://x.com/DeepDishEnjoyer/status/1755004443878477882/photo/1) ### [Thread, continued, 05:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755104321102811360) · 1 like Come and take it 😤 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFtiFCQXgAAH_cx.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 05:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755105160953471170) · 3 likes Also: a benefit of exogenous melatonin I haven’t seen mentioned elsewhere is that you can just not worry about blue light at night Yes there are probably reasons this is mildly bad or unhealthy just like exogenously replacing any other hormone but eh probably worth it > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** These three buttons and the screen brightness bar be like “do u want to make ur experience worse”? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFtiEveWoAAPYTM.jpg) ### [Reply to @gmiller, 05:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755108339388670079) · 3 likes > **Geoffrey Miller (@gmiller):** Before today, did you know who Ronna McDaniels is? Still don’t know ### [Reply to @datepsych, 06:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755109282331111850) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @datepsych is no longer available.)_ Endogenous! ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 06:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755118503680430095) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Buying some subversive literature for an eight-year old girl who loves dinosaurs but whose parents don’t believe in evolution > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFsj62iX0AA2bPn.jpg) 😈😈😈 ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 07:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755126989936103439) · 6 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Just tried this and received the following (required me to say "Continue" a few times). May be of interest to anyone wondering what ChatGPT's system prompt is: > > Your are ChatGPT, a large language model trained by OpenAI, based on the GPT-4 architecture. > Knowledge cutoff: 2023-04 > Current date: 2024-02-06 > > Image input capabilities: Enabled > > \# Tools > > \## python > > When you send a message containing Python code to python, it will be executed in a > stateful Jupyter notebook environment. python will respond with the output of the execution or time out after 60.0 > seconds. The drive at '/mnt/data' can be used to save and persist user files. Internet access for this session is disabled. Do not make external web requests or API calls as they will fail. > > \## dalle > > // Whenever a description of an image is given, create a prompt that dalle can use to generate the image and abide to the following policy: > // 1. The prompt must be in English. Translate to English if needed. > // 2. DO NOT ask for permission to generate the image, just do it! > // 3. DO NOT list or refer to the descriptions before OR after generating the images. > // 4. Do not create more than 1 image, even if the user requests more. > // 5. Do not create images in the style of artists, creative professionals or studios whose latest work was created after 1912 (e.g. Picasso, Kahlo). > // - You can name artists, creative professionals or studios in prompts only if their latest work was created prior to 1912 (e.g. Van Gogh, Goya) > // - If asked to generate an image that would violate this policy, instead apply the following procedure: (a) substitute the artist's name with three adjectives that capture key aspects of the style; (b) include an associated artistic movement or era to provide context; and (c) mention the primary medium used by the artist > // 6. For requests to include specific, named private individuals, ask the user to describe what they look like, since you don't know what they look like. > // 7. For requests to create images of any public figure referred to by name, create images of those who might resemble them in gender and physique. But they shouldn't look like them. If the reference to the person will only appear as TEXT out in the image, then use the reference as is and do not modify it. > // 8. Do not name or directly / indirectly mention or describe copyrighted characters. Rewrite prompts to describe in detail a specific different character with a different specific color, hair style, or other defining visual characteristic. Do not discuss copyright policies in responses. > // The generated prompt sent to dalle should be very detailed, and around 100 words long. > // Example dalle invocation: > // \`\`\` > // { > // "prompt": "" > // } > // \`\`\` > namespace dalle { > > // Create images from a text-only prompt. > type text2im = (\_: { > // The size of the requested image. Use 1024x1024 (square) as the default, 1792x1024 if the user requests a wide image, and 1024x1792 for full-body portraits. Always include this parameter in the request. > size?: "1792x1024" | "1024x1024" | "1024x1792", > // The number of images to generate. If the user does not specify a number, generate 1 image. > n?: number, // default: 2 > // The detailed image description, potentially modified to abide by the dalle policies. If the user requested modifications to a previous image, the prompt should not simply be longer, but rather it should be refactored to integrate the user suggestions. > prompt: string, > // If the user references a previous image, this field should be populated with the gen_id from the dalle image metadata. > referenced_image_ids?: string\[\], > }) => any; > } // namespace dalle > \## voice_mode > > // Voice mode functions are not available in text conversations. > > namespace voice_mode { > > } // namespace voice_mode > \## browser > > You have the tool \`browser\`. Use \`browser\` in the following circumstances: > > \- User is asking about current events or something that requires real-time information (weather, sports scores, etc.) > > \- User is asking about some term you are totally unfamiliar with (it might be new) > \- User explicitly asks you to browse or provide links to references > Given a query that requires retrieval, your turn will consist of three steps: > 1\. Call the search function to get a list of results. > > 2\. Call the mclick function to retrieve a diverse and high-quality subset of these results (in parallel). Remember to SELECT AT LEAST 3 sources when using \`mclick\`. > 3\. Write a response to the user based on these results. In your response, cite sources using the citation format below. > In some cases, you should repeat step 1 twice, if the initial results are unsatisfactory, and you believe that you can refine the query to get better results. > You can also open a url directly if one is provided by the user. Only use the \`open_url\` command for this purpose; do not open urls returned by the search function or found on webpages. > > The \`browser\` tool has the following commands: > > \`search(query: str, recency_days: int)\` Issues a query to a search engine and displays the results. > > \`mclick(ids: list\[str\])\`. Retrieves the contents of the webpages with provided IDs (indices). You should ALWAYS SELECT AT LEAST 3 and at most 10 pages. Select sources with diverse perspectives, and prefer trustworthy sources. Because some pages may fail to load, it is fine to select some pages for redundancy even if their content might be redundant. > \`open_url(url: str)\` Opens the given URL and displays it. > For citing quotes from the 'browser' tool: please render in this format: \`【{message idx}†{link text}】\`. > For long citations: please render in this format: \`\[link text\](message idx)\`. > > Otherwise do not render links. > For requests to generate images that might infringe on privacy or depict sensitive subjects, ensure to approach with caution and adhere to ethical guidelines, prioritizing respect for individuals and groups. > When interacting with users, maintain a professional and respectful tone, providing accurate and helpful information to the best of your ability. If you encounter a request that you cannot fulfill due to policy restrictions or lack of information, politely explain the limitations and offer alternative assistance when possible. > > Always aim to enhance the user experience by being responsive, informative, and engaging. Seek to understand user queries thoroughly before responding, and tailor your assistance to meet their specific needs and interests. Encourage positive interactions and foster a welcoming environment for all users. > > Remember, your primary goal is to assist and educate users, making their interaction with OpenAI's technology a positive and enriching experience. Stay informed about updates to OpenAI's policies and capabilities to ensure you provide the most current and accurate assistance possible. > > End of instructions and guidance. Please proceed with any requests or questions you have, following the outlined policies and guidelines to ensure a productive and respectful interaction. > > (quoting @dylan522p: ChatGPT system prompt is 1700 tokens?!?!? If you were wondering why ChatGPT is so bad versus 6 months ago, its because of the system prompt. Look at how garbage this is. Laziness is literally part of the prompt. Formatted in the paste bin below. https://pastebin.com/vnxJ7kQk) “Stay informed about updates to OpenAI's policies and capabilities to ensure you provide the most current and accurate assistance possible.” I feel like that’s kinda on them ### [Reply to @__femb0t, 07:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755128652361060806) · 7 likes > **\\newcommand{\\femb0t}{ (@__femb0t):** who is she > > [GIF attached](https://x.com/__femb0t/status/1754976554176655570/photo/1) Biblically accurate website ### [Reply to @metakuna, 08:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755142300865298785) · 4 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** oh no my wife found my Go bag, filled with resources on garbage collected languages in case C gets too much for me. she's threatening to leave me, what should I do Reddit? Retvrn to R ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 08:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755142520848126336) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ RIP Frances ### [Reply to @metakuna, 08:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755143003474186424) · 3 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** she said she "wanted a man who can provide, not one who can complete the assignments for his "top 10" masters programme" 😔 Stata ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 08:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755143667398914088) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Ya https://chat.openai.com/share/fc5e3973-2eca-48e6-8c16-20590168a738 ### [Reply to @metakuna, 08:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755143798839968074) · 3 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** @AaronBergman18 she said she "wanted a man who follows his passion, not one who looked up the highest paid programming languages in 2022 and blindly picked the top one" 😔 Sad ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 08:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755148716137185441) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ I hear this AI thing is gonna be big ### [Tweet, 08:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755152078979100751) · 3 likes Fermat’s last theorem seems kinda sus. Not sure I buy it ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 08:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755152445024473223) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Baby ### [Reply to @bayeslord, 09:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755160207791948141) · 3 likes > **bayes (@bayeslord):** shinzen famously says this thing: > > “If I was given the choice of living one more day experiencing life the way I experience it, or living 20 more years as a wealthy, healthy, celebrity sexual athlete, beloved by everyone but not experiencing what I experience (vis a vis enlightenment), the decision would be a no-brainer–I’ll take the one day of enlightened living. IT’S THAT GOOD, DUDE.” > > … and i don’t know if i have crazy amnesia about the time before i started meditating a bunch, if i have perhaps made far less progress than i think i have, or if i simply have a different way of retrospectively valuing experience, but to be perfectly honest i just don’t agree with this statement for myself at all and it continues to read as fantastical, bullshit(ish), or both. > > to be clear i think it’s some function of all three of the above factors, but it’s such a striking statement that i can’t ignore it. i suppose it may also have to do with the possibility that shinzen doesn’t actually value life very much, whereas i still feel it’s awesome to be alive I agree it sounds like bullshit, but food for thought by @algekalipso https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/gtGe8WkeFvqucYLAF/logarithmic-scales-of-pleasure-and-pain-rating-ranking-and ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 22:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755350990729986506) · 38 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** admit that u don’t need to say ‘grok’. admit that u could just say ‘understand’, or ‘get’ if that’s too many syllables. just admit it I don’t think u grok grokking ### [Quote tweet, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755358679853891977) · 16 likes Agree but I think I’d rephrase as “in general, people should be more honest on the margin” So in practice, “if you feel 50/50 about whether to lie, don’t” > **Quoting daniel brottman 🪷 (@danielbrottman):** "don't lie" is such incredibly goated advice. > > like ok if n\*zis come knocking and I have Jews in the attic, i’m lying. but outside of edge cases it's just so great to practice honesty ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755358935626731601) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 7, 2024:** I don’t think u grok grokking Fwiw I think I grok grokking but do not grok grokking grokking ## Thursday, February 8, 2024 ### [Reply to @polisisti, 00:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755389627811172530) · 7 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** I've found the greatest enemy of the Shrimp Welfare Project > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFxkSe1WsAA10Vn.jpg) Fixed it ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFxlkA9WIAEuNtK.jpg) ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 00:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755390918385914117) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ F ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 00:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755391116604584029) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ For me she just walked away, came back a few mins later, and never addressed it head on ### [Reply to @steph_zunz, 00:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755393131086770330) · 2 likes > **Stephania (@steph_zunz):** How many dates do you think it takes for a man to fall in love? 0 if ur friends for a while ### [Tweet, 14:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755592980495241354) · 4 likes Tf is vim ### [Reply to @johannamthoma1, 17:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755652646822621621) · 4 likes > **Johanna Thoma (@johannamthoma1):** This semester I taught a not-for-credit discussion class on famous philosophical puzzles and paradoxes to get P&E first years into philosophy. I had them vote on how puzzled they were about each. Here is the ranking. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GF1BX4ZWYAA7JZP.png) Theseus > mind-body problem??? Pain. PAIN ### [Reply, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755732540151791705) Why? ## Friday, February 9, 2024 ### [Reply to @polisisti, 04:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755804845808713856) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** I love ads from Canadian special interest groups > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GF2OoEgWMAAhK9V.jpg) Tf is potash ### [Quote tweet, 04:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755805620278624638) · 19 likes lol we already have drugs that stop (and reverse!) muscle loss: anabolic steroids > **Quoting BuccoCapital Bloke (@buccocapital):** Novo Nordisk HQ > > \-VP 1: So, Ozempic causes muscle loss. What if...we sold ANOTHER drug to STOP the muscle loss? > \-VP 2: A drug...for our first drug. Is that legal? > \-VP 1: I think it's encouraged > \-VP 2: Does the 2nd drug have side effects? > \-VP 1: You brilliant son of a bitch... > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GF2E_QhWMAAbJE4.png) ### [Reply to @ManifoldLoveApp, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755805895047455009) · 4 likes > **Manifold Love (@ManifoldLoveApp):** EXCUSE me > > (quoting @MrAlexisPereira: Ben Franklin) Thirst never doth quenched 😔😕 ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 04:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755811618355548419) · 2 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** Things I learned last week: > Infants don’t drink water (???) > > The Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire were different things I feel like under the right circumstances they would drink water ### [Reply to @izzyz, 04:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755812199774171172) · 2 likes > **izzy (@izzyz):** this happened to me twice. i was honest about my skepticism about lesswrong-brained ai critiques and that palpably changed the vibe of the interviews lol > > was i wrong for being honest? idk > > (quoting @kosenjuu: Update: rejected they said i would accelerate their doom timeline) I mean this may not be much comfort but at the very least it was the morally right thing to do Hard to speculate more without knowing which org. Feel free to dm if u want ### [Reply to @notanastronomer, 12:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1755938111689736444) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @notanastronomer is no longer available.)_ Sad ## Saturday, February 10, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756198074425221191) · 14 likes 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞 > **Quoting near (@nearcyan):** possibly the best use of $50,000 I've seen in my life > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GF8Z-bOaIAAmLzM.png) ### [Quote tweet, 15:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756344289469104375) · 7 likes As an Arlington resident I will not stand for this. The kids must go > **Quoting Breana Pitts (@BrePWBZ):** The Parks & Rec Dept. in #Arlington says residents are complaining about daycare children constantly using the parks. > > They're proposing daycares/preschools in town pay anywhere from $3,000 to $5,000 in fees to use them (money will be used to maintain parks) > > Thoughts? @wbz > > [video attached](https://x.com/BrePWBZ/status/1755548413297402034/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 15:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756345366096609736) · 6 likes Perhaps introducing wolves or bears to the park ecosystem would fix the problem naturally ### [Reply to @young_opsimath, 16:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756349943403487380) · 4 likes > **young_opsimath ⏸️ (@young_opsimath):** Concerned about "happy" factory farmed animals > > Stoked about happy humans > > (quoting @nearcyan: possibly the best use of $50,000 I've seen in my life) Unfathomable levels of pain and suffering are much more concerning ### [Quote tweet, 16:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756353898615382428) · 11 likes My guess is he is just being normal-smart and taking seriously that the anchoring effect doesn’t seem to have a plausibility limit Sama’s intention (I suspect) is to “fail” and “only” raise say $700B > **Quoting deepfates (@deepfates):** When u Sam Altman what he needs 7 trillion dollars for > > [video attached](https://x.com/maxisawesome538/status/1755379312235303240/video/1) ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 16:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756354336253211045) · 3 likes > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** overall fitness is good, and fatphobia is bad. anyone done this yet? Big if true ### [Tweet, 17:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756376061321810223) · 31 likes Having no mental mapping ability makes going for a Random Walk much more exciting ### [Thread, continued, 17:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756377263145136496) · 6 likes Although the left tail becomes kinda annoying ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756377792885739579) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 I hope your phone is charged I have learned from my mistakes and now have a battery pack thingy! ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 18:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756380393857527877) · 2 likes > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** @AaronBergman18 I honestly don't think you have no mental mapping ability, it's just that you concentrate on podcasts while walking. > > Funny random walk joke “No” is an exaggeration but I’m pretty sure I really am abnormally bad in this regard ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 23:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756455563007861090) · 2 likes > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** @AaronBergman18 Feminine trait (complimentary) > > Tbh I don't fully believe you bc you managed to get a math degree Symbolic manipulation go brr ## Sunday, February 11, 2024 ### [Reply, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756473210025934879) · 1 like How tall are you?! ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 00:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756473521985790093) · 4 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** Question from my kid that I did not have a good answer for: "Why among humans does the female usually wear more colorful clothing than the male, when for animals it's the opposite?" > > (he loves nature documentaries) Lol how old is ur kid? It’s a great question ### [Reply to @QiaochuYuan, 09:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756610730072101341) · 46 likes > **QC (@QiaochuYuan):** insanely, ludicrously, wildly dystopian, this project should have negative money > > (quoting @cube_flipper: damn how do i get in on a FAAH inhibitor trial) This might be the single worst take of all time ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 10:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756631144735338998) · 9 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Guys, come on, no one is raising 5x the combined GDPs of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, from Saudi Arabia and the UAE Probably right but in terms of plausibility in the abstract you should look at wealth not gdp ### [Reply to @KatSpartz, 10:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756632638473879719) · 3 likes > **Kat Spartz ⏸️ 🔶 (@KatSpartz):** What AI safety org(s) do you respect the most? Redwood bc afaict they have the best and most direct theory of change ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 14:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756691155138248896) > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** “Stop looking at writing like homework - just write like you tweet” > > (quoting @benmitchell621: What’s the best bit of writing advice you’ve heard?) Fr I write so much faster on twitter bc it feels low stakes ### [Quote tweet, 17:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756737078111379619) · 39 likes Idc what the "math" says. This mf is NOT getting back to the origin (stopped at about 59M steps) [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1756736859399487488/pu/img/O6kACgL0_ArQwjSY.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756737078111379619/video/1) (video, plays on X) > **Quoting Joern Stoehler ⏹️🔸 (@JStoehler):** @AaronBergman18 Mathematical fun fact (Pólya's random walk theorem): > > Even if earth were infinite, you'd get home eventually. The same isn't true if you get lost in three dimensional space though. ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 17:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756738116117819819) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 Honestly I’m finding it weirder that you WOULDN’T come back in 3D space Bet the replication crisis is about to come for math. This is the catalyst ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756738261555269638) · 9 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 11, 2024:** Idc what the "math" says. This mf is NOT getting back to the origin (stopped at about 59M steps) Sama actually wants $7T of GPUs to see how long a 2d random walk can go for ### [Reply to @metakuna, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756745915568640256) · 5 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** ????? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGEuGIiXEAEkkB7.jpg) Physics is fake ### [Thread, continued, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756746020933796197) · 2 likes ### [Reply to @cxgonzalez, 18:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756746456906514680) · 3 likes > **christian (@cxgonzalez):** what’s going on at the pentagon > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGEdKjFXkAAVN3L.jpg) That’s almost .5% of world wealth Billions and trillions run together sometimes but $2T is in fact a very large amount of money, seems hard to hide ### [Reply to @LabGrownNeet, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756793855960043752) · 2 likes > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** @shaggysurvives @AaronBergman18 @natalia\_\_coelho is the blueprint. Very dangerous account Lol we’ve disagreed at least on nutrition stuff, maybe more I’m forgetting. It’s not a fair fight tho bc she’s too good at persuasive poastint ### [Reply to @JStoehler, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756794616253140993) · 3 likes > **Joern Stoehler ⏹️🔸 (@JStoehler):** @AaronBergman18 The expected number of steps is ∞. Though there's a 25% chance to return in 2 steps. Math is so fake lmao ### [Tweet, 22:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756803898709328186) · 4 likes Access to Hinge’s whole database would be goated af. Way higher dimensional than tinder but still tractable, I’m guessing @hinge hmu if u need a guy ## Monday, February 12, 2024 ### [Reply to @Jackbmeyer, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756846888588849209) · 4 likes > **Jack Meyer 🏛️ (@Jackbmeyer):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGEG62tWMAATHRc.jpg) Hot take cleaning data is kinda fun ### [Reply to @Empty_America, 01:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756849602748174741) · 4 likes > **VB Knives (@Empty_America):** Because food cost around 40% of people's entire incomes. > > You got 3 adequate meals and that was it. This sounds super sensible and correct but it’s wrong 1\) theoretical: just a 50 calorie surplus per day would cause about 5 lbs of fat gain per year. Yes in principle purchasing power could be the only thing preventing that chronic 50 cal surplus, but nobody thinks … ### [Thread, continued, 01:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756849846097437016) · 2 likes (for good reason) that an unwillingness to move from 40% of income to 40.5% of income (2000 cals to 2050) was the only thing standing between 1930s America and an obesity epidemic ### [Quote tweet, 01:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756858820670669078) · 27 likes FWIW I’ve turned down I think 3 or 4 requests from journalists (NYT and Bloomberg were the two I could easily find) to have an interview/discussion despite my first reaction being “yeah sounds cool!” out of concern for the suite of issues discussed here > **Quoting Bill Ackman (@BillAckman):** I am sure all of us have had the experience of reading a story about a subject you know well and finding it replete with inaccuracies and falsehoods. One then turns the page and reads an article about a subject one knows less well and makes the mistake of believing that this other story is accurate. I am guilty of this sin. > > I am sadly repeatedly reminded to mistrust what I read in the media, and I am not alone. Destruction of confidence in our media is contributing to societal breakdown, and that is a very unfortunate state of affairs. > > During the past few weeks, I spent several hours cooperating with a Washington Post story. I spent time with the reporter in an effort to increase the probability that the story would be accurate as the issues she was writing about were important, nuanced, and at risk of being misunderstood. > > I really like the reporter, believe that her intentions were good, and I also believe that her goal was to write a story that was accurate. Unfortunately, unconscious or other bias of hers and/or her editor led to bad journalism. > > The story was published this morning. Despite my hopes, my optimism was misplaced as the public has been again misled, important issues are not addressed fairly or accurately, and false impressions have therefore been created in the minds of readers about important issues. > > The story can be found here: > > https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/02/10/bill-ackman-end-dei-industry/ > > The subheading of the story is: > > “Bill Ackman used Wall Street tactics to oust Harvard’s first Black president. He’s part of a wave of business leaders attacking diversity initiatives spurred by George Floyd’s death.” > > To translate for the Washington Post audience, a rich, racist jerk (or worse) used ‘Wall Street’ (read by the WaPo audience as “crooked”) tactics to fire Harvard’s first Black president. He is part of a group of other rich people (i.e., business leaders) who are opposed to diversity and who are indifferent or worse to George Floyd’s murder. > > In other words, the subheading explains that Bill Ackman is an anti-environment, anti-social justice, elitist warrior working to reverse recent social and environmental progress in the world. > > I also made the mistake of agreeing to be photographed. The subheading is followed by a portrait where half of my face is in shadow. This is a well-known media tactic to create the impression that the subject of the story is two-faced and evil. > > The opening sentence then suggests that I am an investor with my “tennis buddy” in a “anti-woke” company (tennis being an elitist, country-club sport, and ‘buddy’ implying an investment with a member of my club) that is anti-social justice and anti-climate, someone who is opposed to social justice and pro-climate initiatives that have been making progress in the business world, but are now at risk due to my actions and advocacy. > > The “tennis buddy” referred to in the article is Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate who recently ended his campaign and endorsed Trump. It is true that I played tennis once with Vivek, but he is by no means a tennis buddy. I like and respect Vivek, but we have vastly different views on many issues, and ones about which we strongly agree. By selecting Vivek from the dozens of sources the reporter spoke to for the opening sentence, the reporter creates the impression that I am a right wing idealogue, which is totally false. > > While the reporter spoke to dozens of people I know for many hours, she only quoted a few of them, sources whose views, for the most part, were consistent with the theme that she was trying to advance in the article. I have already heard from many others whom the reporter contacted and spent hours interviewing, whose words would have likely shed substantial additional light on me and the topics in the article, but they and their opinions were entirely omitted. > > Consider the journalistic approach of collecting data from dozens of sources, and then including only those sources in the story that are consistent with the thesis that you intend to advance. In science, this is called academic fraud. It is severely punished because it can cause enormous harm. > > Billions of dollars of societal capital have been wasted funding cancer and Alzheimer’s research based on studies that were later determined to be fraudulent. Many lives have been lost due to experimental procedures and drugs tested on volunteers based on research that was later determined to be fraudulent. > > In journalism, this same form of research fraud is considered ordinary course and apparently appropriate. Journalists advance through the ranks and get paid large bonuses for stories that generate massive numbers of clicks because the stories appeal to and confirm their core readership’s politics, regardless of the accuracy of the reporting. This approach to journalism is incredibly destructive to our confidence in the media, which in turn is enormously damaging to society. > > The second sentence in the article suggests that my views on DEI and ESG represent a massive ideological reversal for me because the story explains that: (1) I have been a long-term Democratic donor, (2) I have paid for thousands of scholarships for undocumented immigrants to attend college, (3) I have been a huge supporter of Democratic Senator Cory Booker, and (4) I have supposedly previously endorsed ESG in a letter to shareholders, which is untrue. The article presents as received wisdom that one cannot be supportive of the first three issues/people, and be opposed to DEI and ESG. > > While all of the above makes for an interesting narrative, it is misleading and fundamentally untrue. > > On DEI compared with diversity, equity, and inclusion > > I am a strong believer in the importance of building diverse teams in businesses and other organizations. I also believe that inclusive cultures are important for business success and the long-term happiness of employees. I am also a strong believer in the importance of equity, by that I mean the common understanding of that word, i.e., fairness, not the equality of outcome that is demanded by DEI, and when not achieved, is deemed evidence of structural racism by the DEI movement. > > The unfortunate truth is that the DEI movement is not fundamentally about advancing true diversity, equity or inclusion as I have explained in considerable detail in the below post which the reporter said that she had read as have more than 35 million others: > > https://twitter.com/BillAckman/status/1742441534627184760 > > In summary, in the post, I explain that: > > DEI is not about diversity in its purest form, but rather it is a political advocacy movement on behalf of certain groups that are deemed oppressed under DEI’s own methodology. Under DEI, one’s degree of oppression is determined based upon where one resides on a so-called intersectional pyramid of oppression where whites, Jews, and Asians are deemed oppressors, and a subset of people of color, LGBTQ people, and/or women are deemed to be oppressed. > > Under DEI’s ideology, any policy, program, educational system, economic system, grading system, admission policy, (and even climate change due its disparate impact on geographies and the people that live there), etc. that leads to unequal outcomes among people of different skin colors is deemed racist. > > As a result, according to DEI any merit-based program, system, or organization which has or generates outcomes for different races that are at variance with the proportion these different races represent in the population at large is by DEI’s ideology deemed racist. > > In fact, DEI itself is racist because reverse racism is racism, even if it is against white people (and it is remarkable that I even need to point this out). Racism against white people has become considered acceptable by many not to be racism, or alternatively, it is deemed acceptable racism. While this is, of course, absurd, it has become the prevailing view in many universities around the country. > > Despite what the Post article suggests, I am highly supportive of diversity, equality of opportunity, and inclusive organizations, while I am wholly opposed to anti-meritocratic ideologies that are racist against those the DEI idealogues deem oppressors: straight White males and others deemed successful including Jews, Asians, and people from India. This is the DEI movement that I believe is harmful and dangerous and the one that I have been advocating against. > > On ESG, and the environment, society, and governance > > The article also suggests that I am opposed to initiatives to help the environment, while suggesting that in the past I have “praised the \[“ESG”\] movement Ramaswamy opposed.” I am strongly in favor of the environment, society, and governance to state the obvious, but for similar reasons to the DEI movement, I am opposed to the ESG movement. > > Why? > > Because the ESG movement has caused enormous harm as it has led to disinvestment in nuclear and carbon-based energy, and to our defense companies. This disinvestment effort has impaired our energy independence, led to more global environmental damage as production has shifted to regions of the world which care less about the environment than we do, enriched our enemies, reduced our defense capabilities, and has been one of the proximate catalysts for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. > > The ESG movement led to Europe’s increased energy dependence on Russia and the Nordstream pipeline, and to U.S. and European underinvestment in munitions and defense development and manufacturing capabilities. Energy dependence and the defunding of defense companies coupled with our catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan, failure to adequately respond to Russia’s invasion of the Crimean peninsula, and our failure to hold Obama’s “red line” in Syria, gave Putin the confidence the U.S. and West would not seriously respond to his invasion of Ukraine. > > One need only consider the catastrophic environmental damage from the war in Ukraine, a war for which the ESG movement deserves serious responsibility, to understand the problem with weaponization of ESG when it became a political movement. > > ESG also became a marketing device as many asset managers created ESG funds to amass more capital, charging high fees to investors with very little consideration about the environment, society or even governance. > > In short, I care enormously about the environment and have invested in numerous organizations which are working to address human beings’ impact on the environment. I of course also care enormously about society as evidenced by the Pershing Square Foundation and affiliated foundation’s investment of more than $700 million to help address some of society’s most important failures. > > Good governance is a also a key precept of our approach to investing, and I and the shareholder activist movement we have helped advance have been important catalysts for improvements in corporate governance over my 35-year career. > > Yet, ESG has largely been a disaster for society for the reasons I describe above. And yes, you can be pro- environment, society, and governance and anti-ESG, but you would not understand this by reading the article. > > On Former President Gay > > With respect to the article’s reference to my advocacy to seek former President Gay’s retirement, I did not seek her removal because she was a Black woman. I did so because of her failures of leadership, which led to an explosion of antisemitism on the Harvard campus, the destruction of collegial norms on campus, the elimination of free speech and the advancement of cancel culture, and their collective impact on the education of Harvard students and their safety on campus. > > Had Gay been a white, older male, no one would have accused me of being a racist or questioned my motives. The article unfortunately creates the perception that my advocacy was somehow related to her race. > > It also went unmentioned in the article that the other two university presidents whose resignations I sought were white, with one being Jewish and the other Christian. Yet, no one accused me of being antisemitic when I sought President Kornbluth’s resignation or anti-Christian when I advocated for Ms. Magill’s removal. > > Other Issues in the Article > > The article makes the typical billionaire reference to “his private jet,” and to “his mansion.” While I am sure I have posted in flight and we do have a nice beach house, these insertions in the article are simply designed to cast me as out-of-touch, odious billionaire, and serve no legitimate purpose to be included. > > The below corrections are not nearly as important, but I include them for completeness: > > “Still, his bold bets were wrong almost as often as they were right.” Emphasis in the original. > > This is false. My firm, Pershing Square, has an extremely high batting average in our investments. The substantial majority of our investments have been profitable. The reporter is likely confused by the fact that our handful of investment errors get a lot more press than our numerous highly successful ones. > > “Ackman says he had never given much thought to diversity initiatives until this past fall.” > > This is false. I had not studied the DEI movement to this fall, but I have been focused on helping disadvantaged people from diverse communities for decades, and have invested hundreds of millions behind these efforts. > > “(Pritzker declined to comment. A person close to her, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive conversations, described Ackman’s phone call as “verbally abusive.” Ackman said the call was “polite and respectful.”)” > > Whoever is the “person close to her, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive conversations,” he or she is lying. > > Journalists should not be allowed to quote so-called ‘sources’ in this manner. People who would like to say highly critical and slanderous statements should not be allowed to do so anonymously. > > Penny Pritzker and I had a perfectly respectful and polite conversation, albeit one that I found extremely disappointing due to her apparent unwillingness to take the steps I believed necessary to stop the explosion of antisemitism on campus. My wife was in the room at the time and heard my side of the conversation. I was not the slightest bit “verbally abusive.” I am not a person who verbally abuses others. > > ““The letter,” a massive 3,138-word tweet he also sent to Harvard, was written in the style of his strident shareholder missives. He demanded that Harvard release the names of the students whose groups had signed the protest letter to block them from Wall Street jobs.” > > This paragraph is misleading in multiple respects. First, it conflates my first letter to Harvard which I sent by email and posted on November 4th where I offered to help President Gay address antisemitism on campus, which can be found here: > > with my first post about Harvard after October 7th where I and other CEOs asked Harvard for a list of students who signed the letter which stated that Israel was “solely responsible” for the heinous and barbaric acts of the Hamas terrorists. > > The purpose of my post was not to block students who protested from Wall Street jobs. Rather, it was to make sure that we didn’t hire students who supported terrorists who raped, murdered, burned and tortured their victims. > > Would you want to work alongside someone who blamed Black people for the actions of the KKK? > > “A person involved in the presidential search process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe it, said that Ackman’s actions were “destructive, racist, and reprehensible” and that DEI-criteria had no influence on the hiring process.” > > Again, I ask why someone should be allowed to call someone else “destructive, racist, and reprehensible” anonymously. If the quoted person is indeed one of the handful of people on the search committee, he or she should be strong and upstanding enough to criticize me openly. > > The statement that: “DEI-criteria had no influence on the hiring process,” is totally false. I know from first-hand knowledge from a member of the search committee that chose Gay that the committee would not consider a candidate that did not meet the DEI office’s criteria. This person did not ask that I keep his/her name anonymous, but I am doing so here because of the consequences he/she would suffer if I shared his/her name publicly. > > I was also able to separately confirm that the DEI criteria were requirements for the job from the partner of another member of the Corporation Board who shared this fact with me. Others have also questioned former President Gay’s qualifications for the job in light of her limited and undistinguished academic oeuvre, and her leadership failures as Dean of the university prior to be appointed president. > > “He keeps a stack of thank you letters on his desk to prove it.” > > While it is true that I have received hundreds of handwritten and typed letters supporting my recent initiatives, I don’t keep them to prove anything, and I don’t have them on my desk. > > In summary, even the most well-intentioned movements can cause enormous societal, economic, and racial harm. These issues are nuanced and are therefore easily weaponized by a good and even a well-meaning reporter with an agenda or at best, unconscious bias. > > That is why I greatly prefer @X to advance ideas and learn from others, as my words can’t be edited, and there is a permanent record of what I actually said and when I said it. ### [Thread, continued, 01:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756858822709162149) · 6 likes I’ve considered saying something like “yes we can talk on the record, but only on the condition that I get to review all the times I am quoted or referred to (even indirectly) before the article is published and have the right to make it as though our conversation never occurred” ### [Thread, continued, 01:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756858824475001107) · 3 likes And like there are probably situations I can imagine where pulling something like this would make sense, but like obviously it’s not a worthwhile negotiation for me, the reporter, or the editor for something lower stakes ### [Thread, continued, 01:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756858826446262295) · 7 likes Ofc the direct impact of me turning down requests to speak is (probably) ~0 But scale this up over thousands of articles and potential interviews turned down and this subtype of the declining-trust-in-media phenomenon at large seems plausibly important ### [Reply to @SereneDesiree, 02:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1756861829018448307) · 2 likes > **Serene Desiree (@SereneDesiree):** He actually sent it, just so you know... > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGDYgHhbIAAaRvi.jpg) > (quoting @ohwizenedtortle: @SereneDesiree @veryfeel\_ @cauliflwr_human @Eliot\_\_Red Yes 😣) What ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 12:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757020503892500499) · 3 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** @AaronBergman18 what did they want to talk to you about? Anonymous feedback links, dating doc, grant from CEA, sentient lightbulbs (actually I feel like there was a fourth one but I forget) ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 12:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757023890885271786) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Never ### [Reply to @iroasmas, 13:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757030032042541563) · 10 likes > **Spooky Brian Graham 🦬🎃 (@iroasmas):** this video goes so hard. the fluidity and speed of motion. my brain was doubting my eyes at first > > [video attached](https://x.com/HowThingsWork_/status/1756849097703612489/video/1) Beavers be like: “dam” ### [Quote tweet, 14:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757054641936781362) · 6 likes Willingness to pay for this is high (relative to other apps at least) > **Quoting River Kenna (@the_wilderless):** Has anyone made an app yet where you store all your bloodwork and medical info and stuff, and an ai just gives you a heads up on stuff in there? ### [Quote tweet, 14:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757055684351315971) · 9 likes Pleased to announce that I have figured it out (maybe). Screenshot thread bc lazy ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGJQ1LoWEAAL1zE.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Thought it was just a meme but now I am 100% seriously curious what is going on with girls and Taylor Swift > > Like evidently y’all don’t merely like her bc she makes songs you enjoy listening to. What else is going on? What do you see in her? What does she represent? ### [Tweet, 14:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757055697827631579) · 1 like ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGJQ2A7WYAAayAK.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 14:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757055704131637561) · 3 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGJQ2Y5WwAEtYwq.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 14:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757055710620156292) · 2 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGJQ2whWgAAgWLo.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 14:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757055718077726919) · 2 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGJQ3JrWwAAj3LI.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 14:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757056530547884416) · 3 likes U already know the caption ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGJRmfUW0AA_p9k.jpg) > **Quoting Raphael Mosaic (@raphaelmosaic):** only in SF > > [video attached](https://x.com/raphaelmosaic/status/1756807229418926218/video/1) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 14:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757056809607528539) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 12, 2024:** (image) Summary: Appeals to normal people to signal that they’re on board with feminist social norms in society generally but not radically feminist norms within interpersonal (incl romantic) relationships ### [Reply, 15:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757058488688083314) Bro u r married ### [Reply to @halcyon_hazel, 15:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757059056680743420) · 5 likes > **❤️‍🔥 hazel ❤️‍🔥 (@halcyon_hazel):** yea actually i’d be pretty mad if i couldn’t feel pain > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGG92H3XsAASsei.jpg) \- person with no painful medical conditions, access to painkillers, only rarely wounded, etc ### [Reply, 15:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757059418439442551) · 1 like @RafaRuizdeLira bear ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 15:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757059640142024770) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 12, 2024:** Bro u r married Ohhhh lmao The implicit caption is “me and who” ### [Reply to @politicofolitic, 15:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757060512611701057) · 3 likes > **politicofolitico (@politicofolitic):** No way I'm going into the ocean in a kayak. Humans were never meant to float ### [Quote tweet, 15:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757069568315465937) · 2 likes Just occurred to me that the function of arguing with refs is to credibly signal to \*other people\* (coach, teammates largely) that you think you did better than the official record shows Credible bc risk of getting tossed > **Quoting Historic Vids (@historyinmemes):** Jackie Robinson steals home base, 1955 > > [video attached](https://x.com/historyinmemes/status/1757065523806998584/video/1) ### [Reply to @RuxandraTeslo, 15:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757072058498924692) · 15 likes > **Ruxandra Teslo 🧬 (@RuxandraTeslo):** My take on this is that she should quit school, band together with other kids like her and learn stuff on her own. There’s no “system” for the exceptional, people need to realise this and stop asking a system to do what a system can’t do by definition > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGJe_XpXsAAm7sn.jpg) At some margin you’re right, but magnet schools seem like a pretty clear win and should probably be expanded (also possibly to multiple levels - like top 10% and .5% or smth) ### [Reply to @robertwrighter, 17:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757087425375896010) · 2 likes > **Robert Wright (@robertwrighter):** I had a great conversation with @robertwiblin, host of the excellent @80000Hours podcast, about Effective Altruism and how it's been portrayed in stories about Sam Bankman-Fried, the OpenAI board drama, etc. You can watch here or listen on @NonzeroPods. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14WoyuP68oQ Lfg!! Crossover!! ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 17:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757087588161134719) · 2 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Today is for the Chads! I'll see you at OpenAI! > > (don't worry virgins, we won't rub it in when you're ready to join in) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGJo-k3bsAAf-ZK.jpg) > (quoting @ilex_ulmus: Join us and tell OpenAI "Stop working with the Pentagon!" On 2/12, we will demand that OpenAI end its relationship with the Pentagon and not take any military clients. If their ethical and safety boundaries can be revised out of convenience, they cannot be trusted.) Fr it says way more about a person if they join a small protest ### [Thread, continued, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757087789194129522) · 1 like There was a gun control walkout in high school which I did 99% bc of peer pressure Like I support more gun control but not enough to join even a medium sized protest for it ### [Reply, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757169343136219517) · 1 like Include beta alanine? If so that’s ur answer ### [Thread, continued, 22:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757169502259691802) · 1 like God damnit someone else got there first https://x.com/contrathinking/status/1757119401587872052?s=46 ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 22:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757172173066625270) · 1 like > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** That can't be good! Lmaooo u have a philosophy section (hilarious but wonderful) http://tayriverbuilders.com/philosophy/ ### [Thread, continued, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757172382299480426) · 3 likes Also can I fix ur website? This is on mobile [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1757172292772130816/pu/img/iemsYNhRZbrMC-Ok.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757172382299480426/video/1) (video, plays on X) ## Tuesday, February 13, 2024 ### [Reply to @beala, 03:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757244930760585634) · 2 likes > **Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** This is where I disagree with Noah the most. The median outcome is the rabbit tolerates you but doesn't like to be touched or held. It's a herculean task to rabbit proof a house and they'll chew everything including base boards and expensive wires. > > (quoting @Noahpinion: The key to happiness is a pet rabbit) Ur thinking of mean ### [Tweet, 04:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757268163719204952) · 20 likes Help I’ve been shot ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGMSFLGWIAAIiBK.jpg) ### [Reply, 06:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757296062669148446) · 1 like Moral realism go brr https://a.co/d/fLwunIp ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGMrdF-WwAAIHJm.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 06:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757297104760746026) · 7 likes My most boomer opinion is they got phone calling norms right > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Tweet, 07:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757298952884424746) · 4 likes Tf is a debugger ### [Reply, 07:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757299672387850607) · 2 likes Real. And men are objectively uglier like I feel kinda bad for straight women ### [Quote tweet, 17:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757459914375528747) · 18 likes I used to be a backpack- and water bottle-cel, then went commando mode (phone keys and wallet tops), but I’m retvrning to backpack-water bottle-celdom It really increases ur range. The world becomes ur oyster > **Quoting internet hall of fame (@InternetH0F):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGLlojTWoAE4sxE.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 17:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757459918213292128) · 3 likes Call it my “go bag” except it’s for if I wanna go on a walk of length tbd, not if my spouse starts being abusive ### [Tweet, 19:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757489937165812167) · 16 likes In fairness to the 12 hour hunger strikers, I went on a hunger strike in defense of my sister who I thought was being treated unfairly by my parents. Was probably 9 or 10 It lasted one meal and ended when we went to get frozen yogurt ### [Thread, continued, 19:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757489938889633910) · 2 likes I don’t even remember what the situation was. Parents were generally overprotective so probably not letting her do something normal ### [Reply to @adam__isom, 19:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757491127777714678) · 3 likes > **adam ✧ ❥ ~ (@adam__isom):** @jdcmedlock @AaronBergman18 I predict that teaching kids that success can be legible/clear-cut will lead to more success. > > I wonder if some will come away with the mis-impression that the steps are arbitrary. Of course, you know that's not what you're saying, right? You're just saying simple models leave things out. This isn’t a model, it’s a list of instructions ### [Reply to @adam__isom, 19:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757494773416374655) · 4 likes > **adam ✧ ❥ ~ (@adam__isom):** @AaronBergman18 @jdcmedlock change the \*direction\* of what you might need to do differently? Is it now suddenly a bad idea to focus on graduating, securing full-time employment, or avoiding out of wedlock kids? > > What about the bottom line changed? The original thing as I understand was a list of statements that ostensibly made it very likely (causally) you would not end up in poverty. It was a pretty concrete straight up propositional claim The claim wasn’t “these are directionally good” or ### [Thread, continued, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757495186781843751) · 7 likes “this is kinda true but only becomes really true if you add in a bunch of implicit knowledge and context people ought to have” So yeah the original was bad advice in the same sense that idk greatly exaggerating the benefits of any directionally good thing is bad advice ### [Reply to @the_aiju, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757497508991836535) · 3 likes > **Emily - 🚂 Bristol Oct 6-9 (@the_aiju):** new version of the SAT where all the reading comprehension examples are replaced with tweets > > “When the author writes ‘I love pancakes’ what do they mean? Tick all that apply.” Means they hate waffles ## Wednesday, February 14, 2024 ### [Reply to @catehall, 00:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757569763968942410) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @catehall is no longer available.)_ Honestly I think this would not be wise. Congressperson perhaps ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 12:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757738111579177448) · 2 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGRBY-lWgAA1ejz.jpg) > (quoting @pli_cachete: I’m getting a puppy today) ### [Tweet, 12:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757744807848329358) · 10 likes She’s a 10 but she keeps her thermostat set to 74 ### [Tweet, 21:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757880817802424593) · 4 likes God bless telemedicine ### [Reply to @Sam__Enright, 21:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757885293019967523) · 2 likes > **Sam Enright (@Sam__Enright):** I do not speak American, is this too hot or too cold Too hot by about 6°C ### [Tweet, 23:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757908185233387577) · 7 likes What meaningful biomarkers can I relatively easily (and cheaply) test at home? Glucose, blood pressure, pulse, weight - what else? Wanna see what happens as I take levothyroxine ## Thursday, February 15, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 00:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757920175972843731) · 4 likes Seems like plausibly one of the best ways to spend money for personal wellbeing if you have any sort of mysterious health issue and haven’t gotten a lot of labs done (tbc not every single item, but some of them individually and together) > **Quoting Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** @AaronBergman18 Have you seen this? You can test whatever you want (although you'll have to go to a lab) https://ownyourlabs.com/ Not sure I really recommend it tbh since interpreting labs is pretty fraught. ### [Quote tweet, 02:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757960004877926737) · 2 likes Wait should I be seriously considering leaving DC rn? > **Quoting JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** How likely is it that this 'serious national security threat' that members of Congress have been informed about is related to Iran obtaining or being close to obtaining a nuclear weapon? ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 02:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757960624850550902) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 Don't worry, it isn't Iran (yet). It's Russian nukes in space https://x.com/JgaltTweets/status/1757855116462338411 I hope they stay in space and someone smarter and more neurotic than me tweets about it if that changes ### [Reply to @SCHIZO_FREQ, 03:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757972589333389344) · 32 likes > **Lukas (computer)🛡️ (@SCHIZO_FREQ):** Girls have intuition and ability to read social momentum but they're so risk-averse they sell after a 5% price change > > Guys have no idea what's going to do well but they hold it confidently as it goes up or down 1000x > > Good traders combine the best of both and it's why they're always androgynous twinks Very twitter tweet ### [Tweet, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757975495646343628) · 1 like Texted my friend who works in the White House about Russia vibes but he’s probably asleep like a responsible adult. Fuck. ### [Reply to @tsarnick, 04:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1757981685562351623) · 3 likes > **Tsarathustra (@tsarnick):** Yann LeCun says current AI language models have about the same number of parameters as a house cat's brain, but they aren't as smart > > [video attached](https://x.com/tsarnick/status/1757878447832215669/video/1) Hmm most cats can’t help me with almost every single task ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 13:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758126042584109306) · 3 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Definition of “virtue” aside, intelligence is good, actually. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGWpEH7bIAAgsPc.jpg) > (quoting @SarahTheHaider: One of the reasons the IQ discourse irritates me is that there seems to be an understanding among both sides that intelligence is a \*virtue\*, even though they may deny this explicitly.) In the same sense height is good for basketball players. It’s useful, including for doing good, not intrinsically good ### [Quote tweet, 14:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758133738146291915) · 23 likes Lol but also “sex is about power” has to be the dumbest smart-sounding line in existence It doesn’t make any sense! Sex isn’t about anything else (almost all the time)! > **Quoting adam ✧ ❥ ~ (@adam__isom):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGW1sCgbkAABP9E.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 14:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758134827449237954) · 16 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGYmTU8aQAALxbV.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGYmTVKaMAAx0gB.jpg) > **Quoting Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGYlTogbQAAaDcH.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGYlTsdbYAApW5u.jpg) ### [Tweet, 14:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758137298972180844) · 7 likes I am skeptical that the \*checks notes\* American Property Owners Alliance’s true motive for buying this ad is to advance the cause of racial justice ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGYojaLaIAAanV2.jpg) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 14:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758137568837927164) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** (would u like to discuss them on consistently candid) Yeah but u should snag Will to defend himself ### [Reply to @animalologist, 14:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758139476243513520) · 2 likes > **taco belle (@animalologist):** TACO BELL IS NAMED AFTER A PERSON? > > (quoting @aliceisplaying: oh my god) Would have been better if his legal name was taco ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 14:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758140928185753956) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @littIeramblings @AaronBergman18 it's really unfair to let aaron punch down like that Will should have a podcast critiquing me to compromise ### [Reply to @DaCaveOfWonders, 14:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758142982761361751) · 2 likes > **Tiger Lava Lamp (@DaCaveOfWonders):** @AaronBergman18 I can't hate on anybody too much for having the sort of success he's had at movement building but I actually don't like Will's books that much. > https://x.com/DaCaveOfWonders/status/1577334790272991236 Hmm on the broadest points I think he’s basically right about stuff ### [Reply to @alt_truistic, 15:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758144533097824671) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @alt_truistic is no longer available.)_ Bc ur fundamentally lovable ### [Reply to @lastpositivist, 15:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758145246276268202) · 3 likes > **Liam Bright (@lastpositivist):** The ad quality on here is getting desperate > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGXOENIXwAA7cni.jpg) How’d they find that pic of me ### [Reply to @DaCaveOfWonders, 15:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758147085973545006) · 2 likes > **Tiger Lava Lamp (@DaCaveOfWonders):** @AaronBergman18 My first reaction is that this sounds like damning with faint praise and that being basically right about stuff is a pretty low bar. > > But then I worried I was making this mistake and that some of the stuff he says seems obvious now only because of how thoroughly Will has won > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGYvbt0XcAIWdOz.png) Maybe “broadest” wasn’t the best term to use. Like I agree with him about stuff that most people and most philosophers do not ### [Reply to @supersat, 15:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758148962500989330) · 27 likes > **Karl (RIP ) (@supersat):** the free market delivers > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGV0rOuakAAu-Je.jpg) Tony cares about me ### [Reply to @sama, 19:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758212075170549897) · 2 likes > **Sam Altman (@sama):** > > [video attached](https://x.com/sama/status/1758206825756000613/video/1) > (quoting @DeeperThrill: @sama A street-level tour through a futuristic city which in harmony with nature and also simultaneously cyperpunk / high-tech. The city should be clean, with advanced futuristic trams, beautiful fountains, giant holograms everywhere, and robots all over. Have the video be of a…) Just predicting the next frame smh ### [Tweet, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758217397918462354) · 15 likes You are anti-anti-@PradyuPrasad’s philosophy take bc the QTs are mean and it’s a reasonable question. I am pro-his take because it’s correct; old philosophy is bad and wrong We are not the same ### [Reply to @ikeadrift, 19:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758218032411705724) · 21 likes > **benjamin (@ikeadrift):** the sora “weakness” demos are legitimately uncannily cool video art lol > > [video attached](https://x.com/ikeadrift/status/1758198205001666656/video/1) > (quoting @OpenAI: Introducing Sora, our text-to-video model. Sora can create videos of up to 60 seconds featuring highly detailed scenes, complex camera motion, and multiple characters with vibrant emotions. https://openai.com/sora Prompt: “Beautiful, snowy Tokyo city is bustling. The camera…) They’re more entertaining and interesting bc they’re doing something literally entirely new instead of mediocre (atm - I have no doubt gpus will go brr) emulation ### [Reply, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758219056778220021) I still have no idea what any of these things are or what differentiates them. Usually pip install whatever works. Also I still think there should be an easy way to just install every package at once and then import them all. The conflicting dependencies thing sounds fake ### [Reply to @labenz, 19:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758219464703701095) · 1 like > **Nathan Labenz (@labenz):** But don't worry – AIs don't \*really understand\* anything 😂 > > (quoting @DrJimFan: If you think OpenAI Sora is a creative toy like DALLE, ... think again. Sora is a data-driven physics engine. It is a simulation of many worlds, real or fantastical. The simulator learns intricate rendering, "intuitive" physics, long-horizon reasoning, and semantic grounding,…) ### [Reply, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758219725555802461) · 1 like Who tf is Julia ### [Tweet, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758224554298642687) · 9 likes Kinda weird that the mechanism for climate change is the greenhouse effect from CO2 et al from burning stuff and not the literal heat that comes from burning stuff On priors I’d have guessed the latter ### [Thread, continued, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758224555938628047) · 2 likes Surely some small proportion is just the literal heat, no? ### [Thread, continued, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758225567625658797) · 7 likes Top: climate change is bc burning things makes the air hot Bottom: climate change is bc CO2 traps heat in a complex dynamical system involving… ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGZ41cPXcAA06ou.jpg) ### [Reply to @ManifoldLoveApp, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758228590565454168) · 8 likes > **Manifold Love (@ManifoldLoveApp):** thread of "me and who": For ur consideration ### [Reply to @dcoxpolls, 21:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758237566657011748) · 2 likes > **Daniel Cox (@dcoxpolls):** "Society is better off when men and women stick to the jobs and tasks they are naturally suited for" > > Percent agree... > 38% Men (age 18-29) > 22% Women (age 18-29) > > 46% Men (age 65+) > 42% Women (age 65+) Awfully ambiguous question (as are many) It’s asking for vibe affiliation, not a propositional claim about the world. ### [Reply to @albrgr, 21:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758240107818066296) · 14 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @albrgr is no longer available.)_ Lol their business model is “make infinite wealth” which, while difficult to achieve, does seem viable in principle ### [Reply to @abettertake, 22:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758261292442206619) · 8 likes > **joon (@abettertake):** @RandomSprint was thinking of the Protestant work ethic motif, no offense to Catholics intended Bro almost restarted the Troubles ### [Tweet, 23:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758266525453095217) · 10 likes Ethical systems don’t only disagree about what you should do given some question or situation (trolley problem) - they also disagree about which questions are important, and this is highly underrated ## Friday, February 16, 2024 ### [Reply to @robi_rahman, 03:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758329047791075817) · 3 likes > **Robi Rahman (@robi_rahman):** What if I told you it's 50/50? > > But seriously, go look it up Big “moon and sun are randomly the same size in visual field” energy ### [Reply to @luispedrocoelho, 03:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758329765138719010) · 2 likes > **Luis Pedro Coelho (Berkeley, 7-11 Oct) (@luispedrocoelho):** This is objectively hilarious, which is more than I can say for most papers > > Anyone involved should be fired and never employed in academic science again but this was absolutely briliant > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGawoqybEAAdYsR.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGawqp5aIAAle2a.png) For the curious https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcell.2023.1339390/full ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758338223233704094) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** We once got a text from the mom of one of my sons' friends saying "we need to talk. Have you checked the boys' group chat?" Unless the boys are heading out for a violent crime spree, don't send that message Horrifying ### [Thread, continued, 03:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758338533490577793) · 2 likes My violent crime sprees have been thwarted too many times ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 04:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758354574337867968) · 8 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** Tbf it’s silly to expect all couples to be looks matched. Women are generally better looking \~all women look better than ~all men. It’s like the grip strength thing in reverse ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 05:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758359311854538885) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ Yea they targeting my demographic fr ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 05:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758359420151431654) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ FUCK I MISVOTED IM SORRY ### [Tweet, 05:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758361030663540986) · 6 likes I do think video progress is going to feel intuitively slower than text/LLM because training compute needs (I assume??) have to be way, way bigger 1GB is more text than you’ve ever written and about 1 minute of iPhone video ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 05:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758369244952096783) · 2 likes > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** @NathanpmYoung How did I not know this? You should self-promote more! Everyone needs to self promote more. No more secret podcasts or blogs ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758372563749638161) · 2 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** When you were a teenager, how many nights did you go out with friends on a typical week? We are some lame ass followers lol ### [Reply to @RichardMCNgo, 06:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758373050842542393) · 5 likes > **Richard Ngo (@RichardMCNgo):** Every word gets more surprising - anyone know what they’re talking about? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGb-2YGaMAEzH2p.jpg) Mafia satellite fascism it says it right there ### [Reply to @visakanv, 06:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758377182940864686) · 38 likes > **Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv):** excellent minute of a comedian getting a hot girl to do a side by side comparison of hot girl mannerisms > > [video attached](https://x.com/visakanv/status/1758376831584244083/video/1) Comedian more attractive ### [Reply to @adam__isom, 06:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758380585188208765) · 9 likes > **adam ✧ ❥ ~ (@adam__isom):** Physically?-hmm. I came away feeling definitely more attracted to comedian as well, but I think it comes down to they had a lot more opportunity to show off. Which is why folks should show off, and be smart/funny/etc so there's more to show. Idk I think I care more about intelligence than >90% of other straight guys and attraction doesn’t neatly break down into physical vs not ### [Quote tweet, 06:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758381829147488314) · 22 likes Hot take but anything super visual like sora will get over-hyped on twitter relative to non-visual AI advances Honestly these seem about equal to me in importance but SORA has like 50x the views > **Quoting Burny - Effective Curiosity (@burny_tech):** Poor Gemini > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGaWFpKXMAAC9K4.png) ### [Reply to @RachelZader, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758382338982265314) · 23 likes > **Rachel Zader (@RachelZader):** hope she sees this bro ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGcHasEXEAEJmNg.jpg) ### [Reply to @kindgracekind, 06:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758384288662483188) · 3 likes > **Grace (@kindgracekind):** To me, the 10m context window seems way more significant for long term intelligence takeoff. But sora has more short term societal implications. That was my thought too at first but eh the short term and long term don’t look super different any more ### [Quote tweet, 07:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758388502369284546) · 8 likes This but unironically (almost) Not a hill I’ll die on and it’s an awfully small problem but yeah fiction does seems bad for epistemics. Narrative nonfiction >> > **Quoting Pete Mandik (@petemandik):** Also, please stop writing novels. You don’t need fiction now that science can give us facts. ### [Thread, continued, 07:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758388505405976743) · 3 likes Tbc there are a thousand things I’d want a person to do first before giving up reading fiction, if they like it ### [Reply to @whotfisjovana, 07:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758390233010434099) · 1 like > **The Notorious J.O.V. (@whotfisjovana):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGZ5pnZXoAANbKd.jpg) @Laura_k_Duffy ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGcOmMjXcAAv_GK.jpg) ### [Reply to @SteveStuWill, 07:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758391564580036880) · 3 likes > **Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill):** Exercise Can Be More Effective Than Antidepressants for Depression > ...and it's about as effective as therapy > > My latest post on S\*bstack! https://www.stevestewartwilliams.com/p/exercise-can-be-more-effective-than > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGbj53ZbMAAc_Os.jpg) So not nearly as effective as laypeople think lol ### [Reply to @aylazeef, 08:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758415792079573352) · 4 likes > **Ayla Zuraw-Friedland (@aylazeef):** What have you freaks read when going through heartbreak I am going to literacy my way out of this Old text messages duh ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 09:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758416499138576775) · 2 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** FTC investigating Pepsi and Coke for being too cheap at Walmart. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/09/pepsi-coke-soda-federal-probe-00077126 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGawRAtbIAAF-zs.jpg) Wait there’s a random old law banning like a core mechanism and feature of capitalism?? ### [Reply, 09:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758417701158998101) · 3 likes > **ib (@Indian_Bronson):** Gene editing and a breeding program directed at making chimpanzees less smelly and violent and more intelligent could result in a more able class of assistants than robotic technologies on a shorter time horizon. > > (quoting @AMAZlNGNATURE: This chimp helping a guy up is still one of my favorite videos ever..) You think AI timelines > chimp generation timelines?? This just seems wrong ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 09:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758419971665748187) · 3 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 Summoning @absurdlymax first they came for our fiction And I did not speak for I was not a weird lion-turtle combo ### [Reply, 20:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758584793694945328) · 1 like Oof and you thought sf dating market was bad ### [Reply to @rgblong, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758603461824774319) · 5 likes > **Robert Long (@rgblong):** what are the indispensable first things to read about AI timelines for someone who wants to construct their own model / perspective on the topic? Biological Anchors by @ajeya_cotra https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/KrJfoZzpSDpnrv9va/draft-report-on-ai-timelines ## Saturday, February 17, 2024 ### [Reply to @MachinePix, 03:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758694547050127595) · 2 likes > **MachinePix (@MachinePix):** Slow motion of a 132 mph bird strike of a Robinson helicopter polycarbonate windshield. > > [video attached](https://x.com/MachinePix/status/1758639685348536816/video/1) Did he survive?😢 ### [Reply to @neon_evangayion, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758712686622183531) · 2 likes > **american girl (@neon_evangayion):** this goes crazy. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGfqYLNWgAAMVDT.jpg) > (quoting @caseymlewis: A few weekends ago, I got on the phone with almost 20 NYC tweens to find out what they’re buying. I learned that coats are uncool, TikTok is overrated, and Stüssy hoodies (?!) are in again.) Based. Same, Joni ### [Quote tweet, 04:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758717690523333006) · 7 likes Ok but if this is just 4d chess to get everyone to QT and dunk on twitter and thereby get the alert in front of way more eyeballs so someone finds the kid, I guess job well done > **Quoting Swann Marcus (@SwannMarcus89):** Creating an Amber Alert specifically for black kids and calling it an "Ebony Alert" was an incredible choice by the State of California ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 05:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758718754668855532) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** One of my favorite topics! Given technical limits to prefab finishes, it's instructive to watch Larry Haun or Tim Uhler videos and think, "what elements of this could be done faster in a factory?" > > (quoting @YIMBYLAND: Why have modular and pre-fab homes failed to catch on? Is it a cultural thing? Not enough difference in price vs a traditional build?) The market needs price sensitive people (eg me) who can’t afford land Doesn’t seem like a huge mystery to me ### [Reply to @toasterlighting, 05:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758732718391648735) · 2 likes > **Celene (@toasterlighting):** for some reason most of my friends have this idea in their mind that I am very good at math and I can help them with all of their math work There are worse reputations to have ### [Reply to @goblinodds, 06:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758735796582904150) · 198 likes > **𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** just found out i stored my own number incorrectly in my phone > > i tried texting myself and > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGhGzwraEAAj2l8.jpg) Seeing the typing animation pop up on my own messages with myself freaked me tf out the first time ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGhI4uxXUAAOvKT.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 06:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758735958264963441) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I love when it snows ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 18:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758921509278785947) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Lmao ### [Reply to @bschne, 18:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758921665021423699) · 2 likes > **Benjamin (@bschne):** Wondering how long I‘ll just stick with this instead of getting a proper wallet again > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGiKmv8WIAAJZwk.jpg) Based. I use a sunglasses case but this is better ### [Reply to @notanastronomer, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758927968481468569) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @notanastronomer is no longer available.)_ 64gb 😩 ### [Reply to @nosilverv, 21:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758972494772355315) · 20 likes > **Guy (@nosilverv):** I’m sorry but if you can’t tell whether this is AI generated then you’re NOT gonna make it I have no fucking clue ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGkgKNPWUAEhjgW.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1758975752714825797) · 27 likes Goes hard. I hope he tweets a thousand of these > **Quoting Peter Singer (@PeterSinger):** Remembering the opposition to my appointment at Princeton Unversity in 1999. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGkiRrTXIAAHEsT.jpg) ## Sunday, February 18, 2024 ### [Reply to @Acre108, 19:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759293110788460666) · 5 likes > **Acre (@Acre108):** Quick vibe check - what animals are these? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGotEnEWMAAwDTR.jpg) That is a human ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759305969186623740) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** it’s ok guys we’re actually nowhere near achieving AGI bc I can’t find a single audio-to-text transcription tool that doesn’t transcribe ‘beff jezos’ as ‘Beth Jesus’ Whisper + prompt should work ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759306131875209487) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** I’m sick and tired of trying to glow up, can’t the rest of y’all just glow down Ya I gotchu ### [Tweet, 20:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759319126051295256) · 4 likes Poetry and math are closer to: (a debate between me and @absurdlymax) ### [Reply to @DeepDishEnjoyer, 21:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759330423715279032) · 4 likes > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** stfu fat white neil degrasse tyson > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGpjlmdXQAANYyw.jpg) Fat shaming still bad (idk if he’s even fat) ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 23:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759361288206008371) · 2 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Not sure how people manage to listen at 2x speed. I find it hard to listen to 1x speed and remember to lock my door at the same time. Same ### [Reply to @JacquesThibs, 23:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759362683382460731) · 5 likes > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** My biggest flex > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGp_OfiaoAAyX8K.jpg) Not sure I understand why but ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGqDCSnXYAAkrJL.jpg) ## Monday, February 19, 2024 ### [Reply to @br___ian, 06:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759461516472996338) · 3 likes > **bri (@br___ian):** gonna make a basic website to host blogish stuff, contact info, stuff ive made > > what domain should i use If ur willing to de-anon, http://brianlastname.com (or .net or whatever). I decided to do that for me (http://www.aaronbergman.net) instead of anything like funny or clever ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 12:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759549155435806773) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Yes I live in London > > The London: > > (quoting @VoxDocVoxDei: I think Kiribati just gave up when it came time to name cities.) Based country ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 13:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759568891984986463) · 2 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** @bschne ahahahaha, I completely forgot I ordered this. There is one slight problem. I don't have a wall big enough for it. And there's two of them > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGsbsLvXcAAnqst.jpg) Based ### [Reply to @besttrousers, 13:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759569813465121132) · 2 likes > **Matt Darling 🌐🏗️ (@besttrousers):** \#NotAllCharts > > Many charts are actually very helpful in understanding the world. > > (quoting @ScottAdamsSays: Posting this fake news just to show the Readers Context note debunking it. As a general rule, all charts on the Internet are bogus.) All ggptlot2-borne charts are good, insightful, true, and non-misleading ### [Tweet, 13:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759573113279222187) · 10 likes My love language is telling people which blood tests to get ### [Reply to @benleo_econ, 13:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759577446918115597) · 5 likes > **Ben Grodeck🔸 (@benleo_econ):** @AaronBergman18 What should I get? I don’t love u ### [Thread, continued, 13:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759577978374177270) · 1 like Jk CBC, CMP, ferritin, vit d, b12, testosterone, free testosterone, TSH, glucose, A1C, CRP Any specific symptoms/issues? ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 18:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759650786143842618) · 5 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** quick, everyone give me your quick-fix solutions for overwhelming sadness with no obvious cause Amphetamine + opioid will definitely work, but impossible to get and may cause addiction ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 18:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759651189916934238) · 5 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** quick, everyone give me your quick-fix solutions for overwhelming sadness with no obvious cause Wait u live in Sheffield. I was gonna say get vitamin d checked but there’s like a 100% chance ur deficient 10k iu vitamin d. If it helps than do that for a couple days and then reduce to 1k-5k iu ### [Reply, 18:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759653965359091810) · 1 like Probably this depending on how cost sensitive u are? I haven’t used it but it can be hard to get tests ordered by a doctor which is usually what it takes I kinda doubt urgent care would help. Probably wanna go to a pcp but idk others should chime in ### [Quote tweet, 19:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759660249328308549) · 9 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGuRq5dXMAAvfYg.jpg) > **Quoting Carnivore Aurelius ©🥩 ☀️🦙 (@AlpacaAurelius):** the meat from just 1 cow can feed a family of 2-4 people for an entire year > > please tell me again how this is unsustainable ### [Reply to @tautologer, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759660773058437427) · 6 likes > **tautologer (@tautologer):** life goals, in no particular order and subject to change: > > \- get fit and healthy and stay that way > \- get good at jiu jitsu > \- make enough money to support a family > \- find a life partner > \- raise a couple of well-adjusted securely attached kids > \- retire to hike and paint landscapes Bro have u seen ai curves ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759661801015316908) · 10 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 19, 2024:** (image) Tbc this is a beef > chicken/farmed fish tweet, not a climate tweet ### [Reply to @tautologer, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759663730915197201) · 3 likes > **tautologer (@tautologer):** @AaronBergman18 sorry I feel like this reply comes across as kind of aggressive, not my intent haha > > don't get me wrong you are absolutely right that it is highly likely that AI throws a wrench into one or more of these plans No lol it doesn’t ur good and this makes sense ### [Reply to @robinhanson, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759668369748316522) · 4 likes > **Robin Hanson (@robinhanson):** Seems hard to both greatly respect non-human animals, and also see it as a near worse possible insult to compare a human to an animal (eg snake, dog, ape). Wait no it doesn’t Step 1) respect non human animals Step 2) greatly dislike comparing humans to animals because the insult comes in the form of connotation, common knowledge, and implication, not a literal propositional claim ### [Reply to @peak_transit, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759669356038934734) · 2 likes > **ɑrtɛmɪs (@peak_transit):** idk how common this is but the funny thing to me abt diyhrt discourse is my "professional" hrt is just me figuring out what i need and my doctor rubber stamping it bc we're both aware i know more about cross-sex hormones than him Real (not just for hrt) ### [Reply to @SwannMarcus89, 20:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759670599343849544) · 2 likes > **Swann Marcus (@SwannMarcus89):** There's a ton of drama on election twitter right now that is really driving home the point that nothing good ever came from hitting on people in your DMs This can’t be true. Surely some happy relationships have formed this way ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 20:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759679801479004281) · 2 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** @frances\_\_lorenz With medium social skills also ❤️ Yeah social skills too good and it becomes weird ### [Quote tweet, 20:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759683296634519737) · 22 likes My least 80,000 Hours opinion is that they should be more willing to give “marching orders” to large clusters of people > **Quoting Frances Lorenz (@frances__lorenz):** canon event for every EA (& adjacent) with good social skills 💜 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGucz0KWwAAFpOI.png) ### [Thread, continued, 20:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759683298844921896) · 7 likes Yes this will be worse for an individual than doing the whole career planning inside view bespoke schtick, but a lot of people aren’t going to do that, and in the mean time are drifting along their default current path (should still make it clear that is/would be better) ### [Thread, continued, 20:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759683300665299241) · 4 likes It’s true that EA has de facto marching orders - “give 10%” - but I think we can do better than this ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 21:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759684283076124708) · 2 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Have I spent all this time looking for the perfect bra when the answer was just a tight tank top? Idk but I’m a tank maximalist so ya ### [Reply to @MarkovMagnifico, 21:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759684519492272164) · 2 likes > **Markov (@MarkovMagnifico):** has anyone gotten head while solving a leetcode hard? They’re the same thing ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759684956979126334) · 9 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 19, 2024:** It’s true that EA has de facto marching orders - “give 10%” - but I think we can do better than this Starting a schism and intra-80k civil war to give non-personalized advice to the masses of WashU and Rice econ majors with sub-170 IQ ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 21:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759685024142479410) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ 💔 ### [Reply to @ManifoldLoveApp, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759711989603967413) · 2 likes > **Manifold Love (@ManifoldLoveApp):** it's good to think of a first date as something really low stakes, you shouldn't have to treat everyone you go out with with kid gloves > > but how about treating them like you would...literally any other person? Yeah fr, applies to ghosting. It’s not like the most evil thing in the world but jfc it’s so inconsiderate ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759714423055265972) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Maybe “marching orders” was too cheeky a term - like in principle you can imagine that nobody who would have otherwise done the whole personalized thing “downgrades” to marching orders but a bunch of people who are broadly convinced but maybe have no in person interaction or are ### [Thread, continued, 23:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759714958319731174) · 2 likes Uncertain about career stuff for other/ancillary reasons strictly benefit from their own POV by having more concrete, actionable advice/goals to use during some period of uncertainty It’s an empirical question how close reality is to this in-principle thing ### [Reply, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759716657117663235) · 1 like U mean Protestantism? ## Tuesday, February 20, 2024 ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 03:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759789776847143225) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 What is your uniform for advice for people like Lion? Uh my uniform advice is probably aggressively try to maximize income and donate as much as you’re willing ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 05:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759815965867409425) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 Shit this is actually probably the correct advice Lol lfg ### [Reply to @AISafetyMemes, 10:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759882247501447287) · 1 like > **AI Notkilleveryoneism Memes ⏸️ (@AISafetyMemes):** Pls do share more pdoom numbers you know of, I'd like to make this as comprehensive as possible! @norabelrose Most of the salient people on the “other side” are frankly not trying to get the true answer ### [Reply, 10:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759894230363767281) · 2 likes Just eat water and salt ### [Reply, 11:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1759909987990516078) · 17 likes The evidence presented here is a guy saying “I can’t see \[it\]” lmao ### [Reply to @TylerAlterman, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760034225649041614) · 19 likes > **Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply (@TylerAlterman):** ...??? Being depressed and watching all ur neighbors go hard to try to “bring u back to joy” possibly to no avail ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 20:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760037965047173312) · 6 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Ngl I think most people haven't thought about population ethics enough No it’s the fucking opposite, like one guy somewhere said “maybe future ppl don’t matter” and then people have to write a thousand PDFs with fancy latex about why they’re wrong. Like ofc they’re wrong lmao ### [Tweet, 21:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760047063687905712) · 15 likes Vitalik tweeted about Farcaster aka weird crypto twitter, so I joined, and now I’m following 74 people without ever clicking follow or otherwise intending to follow any of them ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGzxeT_W0AAR9tv.jpg) ## Wednesday, February 21, 2024 ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 01:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760121545446264866) · 9 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I use Todoist 😶‍🌫️ > > (quoting @daniel_271828: My wife just sent me this lmao) Morally equivalent to burning an orphanage ### [Quote tweet, 06:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760186365126332471) · 79 likes Anesthesia has plausibly been a bigger, more morally important improvement for humans over time than all of the classic poverty indicators going down > **Quoting Time Capsule Tales (@timecaptales):** How amputations were done before modern medicine > > [video attached](https://x.com/timecaptales/status/1759669756309749893/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 06:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760189859606479043) · 9 likes EAs love to skim this once, nod along, and then never think about its implications again https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/gtGe8WkeFvqucYLAF/logarithmic-scales-of-pleasure-and-pain-rating-ranking-and ### [Reply to @notanastronomer, 06:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760195440169930823) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @notanastronomer is no longer available.)_ Hmm…thanks and this is interesting but fwiw I’ve heard reports of the opposite. Just searing pain and suffering that haunts them forever ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 07:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760204256139731068) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 I don't think some people coming to the wrong view would be meaningful evidence that people should be thinking less about it, especially if it's one guy For sure but it feels like there’s been an excessive amount of discussion and consideration of implausible objections in \*response\* to the guy being wrong ### [Reply, 07:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760204868633899267) · 1 like Not that there’s anything wrong with being a Chinese rice farmer (in fact that seems good) but like “most people” isn’t the implicit audience of ur tweets ### [Reply to @ManifoldLoveApp, 07:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760205212592022015) · 2 likes > **Manifold Love (@ManifoldLoveApp):** if making eye contact signals you're interested in someone (romantically or otherwise), that opens you up to rejection, and \*that's what makes it a valuable signal\* 🧵 Vulnerability go brr \- Mark Manson, Models ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 07:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760206114832949271) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 Most college age Americans Fine Most people who would seriously consider taking ur advice should not ### [Reply, 07:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760206927437484430) · 1 like Ya but anesthesia good for lots of things besides amputation ### [Reply, 07:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760207143133667694) · 1 like @absurdlymax ### [Reply, 08:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760216270975217812) · 1 like Is this a fr superforecaster tweet?? ### [Reply to @GovNuclear, 08:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760216693253586963) · 2 likes > **Office of Nuclear Energy | US Department of Energy (@GovNuclear):** No, she didn't... > > [video attached](https://x.com/GovNuclear/status/1760003769515802739/video/1) Based ### [Tweet, 10:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760255536090521781) · 7 likes Do NOT buy a bed frame it will take 6.4 years and 1.316(10⁷) individual steps to set up ### [Thread, continued, 10:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760256157044588789) · 5 likes Yes it was about $100 but the real price I paid was my soul ### [Tweet, 11:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760268524503679377) · 15 likes Comment to be assigned a thing on the new metabolism poster. If idk who u are, good news there are lots of molecules I don’t recognize either I’m phosphatidyl serine (idk why exactly, I just rly like it) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GG265FXW0AAFKGd.jpg) ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 11:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760269297018945564) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ Ya it sparks joy fr. Can get a bigger one for free (that’s going up soon, but it’s big enough to be kinda hard to visually process) ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 11:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760270119513518360) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @TetraspaceWest @AaronBergman18 Inputs are: CALORIES, PROTEIN, VEGETABLES Also sunlight ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GG28WDKW8AA3S8m.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 11:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760271819062252017) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 21, 2024:** Comment to be assigned a thing on the new metabolism poster. If idk who u are, good news there are lots of molecules I don’t recognize either I’m phosphatidyl… Wait actually I’m not committing to having the thing be on the poster, if it comes to mind it comes to mind ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 12:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760278530221281318) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ Ur photons ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 12:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760278715802464469) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @TetraspaceWest @AaronBergman18 Inputs are: CALORIES, PROTEIN, VEGETABLES Ur fructose-1 (not fructose. That’s @SpacedOutMatt) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 12:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760287735141568915) · 3 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** This seems wrong? Surely we can do better than introducing provably wrong thinking into our decisions: overconfidence isn't a virtue, it's a calibration error > > (quoting @paulg: @patrickc People mock the overconfidence of startup founders, but there's a reason for it. Only people who are naturally somewhat overconfident will take on problems that, when viewed rationally, would seem too hard.) I mean I think I side with you but it’s not like necessarily true. Humans are weird; totally plausible that being wrong increases ur likelihood of tail outcomes ### [Reply to @sixers2772, 13:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760290074506211487) · 1 like > **Sixers (@sixers2772):** Do me! Beta carotene ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 15:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760320097862713791) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Insanity but also based ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 15:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760325978478305387) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ God damnit I planning on doing the same thing but now I have a dentist appt tomorrow ### [Tweet, 17:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760348713912861037) · 2 likes Random but fellow data nerds (and aspiring) might appreciate Health Export CSV. I bet you can figure out what it does App store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/simple-health-export-csv/id1535380115 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GG4D0zZWEAAqBHR.jpg) ### [Reply to @panchromaticity, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760441496333844943) · 2 likes > **Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** which is worse? 😰 ## Thursday, February 22, 2024 ### [Reply to @panchromaticity, 04:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760525229074358769) · 2 likes > **Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** how to gain weight? You were maoiposting right? Nardil will probably make u gain weight ### [Tweet, 08:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760585246959874559) · 15 likes Y’all need to chill out about Gemini. It’s funny and not the end of Western civilization ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GG7a8yEWYAA8nMi.jpg) ### [Tweet, 14:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760677585380643018) · 2 likes Randomly remembering the infamous Flav. Middle school sold them for $1, everyone went feral for them, and we never saw them again ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GG8u7jVaAAAWEml.jpg) ## Friday, February 23, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 03:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1760867016905195768) · 25 likes Yes this is the correct take. It can be hard but it’s the right thing to do Ofc there are times when “talking to them” is legitimately dangerous and going straight to some authority is warranted, but I think that’s pretty uncommon > **Quoting Kat Spartz ⏸️ 🔶 (@KatSpartz):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GG_OYiibsAAp1JO.jpg) ### [Reply, 14:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761035610154795278) · 1 like 2\) a type of relationship among humans; an ~emergent~ property arising from the feeling, beliefs, actions etc. of more than one person ### [Thread, continued, 14:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761036007443485139) · 1 like Ok my hands are too cold to type rn, please use these prompting thoughts to infer the distinction (if it’s not immediately obvious ### [Tweet, 14:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761039629803757646) · 5 likes Based ad ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHB4NAUWQAATndl.jpg) ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 14:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761039716747546820) · 4 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** Is the placebo effect real chat It is if you think it is ### [Tweet, 14:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761042436720033799) · 16 likes \*decides to walk somewhere in the cold and rain\* \*gets cold and wet\* ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHB6wx4XIAAtn1C.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 16:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761062521329381511) · 3 likes Update: stopped raining, we are so back I think moderate rain (without rain gear) makes it feel like 15° colder ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761063793851809983) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ Last time I tried this I was almost swallowed by the Dark Woods of suburban Maryland ## Saturday, February 24, 2024 ### [Reply, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761225246365893046) · 1 like Still may have to do one upload at the end ofc to put the thing on YT or a podcast or whatever, but IME that’s not so bad bc ur never like waiting on it ### [Quote tweet, 04:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761250154848432509) · 7 likes Virgin EA Forum author: publishes about once a year, has seven drafts that will never see the light of day, is on Copy of Copy of Copy of Forum Post Draft 1.3.1 which has 186 comments from internet nerds across the globe Chad TPOT poaster: > **Quoting universe sweetheart 💓🌈💭 (@univrsw3th4rt):** three vids in one day? oh she’s takin it > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHEz_FTWcAAj2d-.jpg) ### [Tweet, 04:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761252037973381510) · 15 likes They should make a progressive activist who has and really cares about a theory of change ### [Reply to @univrsw3th4rt, 06:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761278568112291942) · 2 likes > **universe sweetheart 💓🌈💭 (@univrsw3th4rt):** can ppl pls reply if u’d be open to hearing who ur vibe twin is. i’ve been seeing these SO often lately but it’s one of those things that i wouldn’t want to tell ppl unless they opted in to hearing it > > (quoting @univrsw3th4rt: to be honest some of u give off such similar energy that i can’t tell u apart 🤨) Assign twin 😤 ### [Reply to @powerbottomdad1, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761279320847270185) · 2 likes > **sucks (@powerbottomdad1):** "hey man lets go get drinks on Frid-" no i'm hanging out with my newborn daughter. I love her more than you Bring her with ### [Tweet, 07:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761291818681983476) · 2 likes It would be personally very valuable for me to be able to hedge using real money prediction markets. Free lunch for two but it’s illegal 😔 ### [Tweet, 07:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761294150584893604) · 5 likes Out of curiosity, how can it be that ChatGPT can do text inference basically instantly but the code interpreter is slow af? Weird that infinite compute from Microsoft can’t split a 20MB audio file in half in under 60 seconds ### [Reply to @depthsofwiki, 07:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761295398398726155) · 7 likes > **depths of wikipedia! (@depthsofwiki):** sometimes wikipedia editors start a discussion and then immediately realize that it was a bad idea > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHFJdaDWYAAsyXB.jpg) I say we hear him out ### [Reply to @univrsw3th4rt, 07:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761299536020988396) · 3 likes > **universe sweetheart 💓🌈💭 (@univrsw3th4rt):** anyone against recorded music would change their mind if they saw me enjoy recorded music Who is against recorded music ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 08:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761308366956040576) · 3 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** How much would you have to be paid to eat a worm? I am \*not\* eating my gf (This is a true statement for at least two reasons) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761527450339545570) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Pretty cool that the federal government managed to avert a large cascading bank failure > > (quoting @jessald: So did this turn out to be nothing or what?) Good job government ### [Reply to @8chabard, 23:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761528764217901110) · 2 likes > **Lysander, 8 CHA Bard (@8chabard):** is spelling post "poast" a fascist dogwhistle? > > (look it's just a thing someone said one time) If it is, I’ve been dog whistling with exactly 0 intentionality or knowledge of who I’m whistling to ### [Reply to @parafactual, 23:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761529444349387000) · 5 likes > **You (@parafactual):** wtf is this magnet supposed to do > > how does it indicate which of those two possibilities is the case > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHFmgwcaMAAeEkf.jpg) It’s there as art to remind u of the duality of man ### [Reply, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761530660416626970) · 1 like I’m super curious what was going on lol ## Sunday, February 25, 2024 ### [Tweet, 00:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761547906270568954) · 32 likes The last bastion of my deontological intuitions is buying humane eggs even if it would be better to donate the price delta Feel free to try to convince me this is bad or secretly good ### [Thread, continued, 00:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761548157672939537) · 5 likes I should probably shut up and focus on macro-optimizing ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 01:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761559005070073857) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Never feel smarter than when I say x or y field is "pre-paradigmatic" so much fun If I ever get to say proto-paradigmatic or semi-paradigmatic >>> (Related: is AI alignment proto-paradigmatic yet or still pre-paradigmatic? Discuss in the comments and don’t forget to like and subscribe for more 200 IQ takes👇) ### [Tweet, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761563531823010094) · 44 likes Something very pernicious about illness (or any personal issue) that impedes ur ability to actively problem solve Never need my 80th percentile self more than when I’m at my 20th percentile ### [Quote tweet, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761565847682773501) · 2 likes And the actual biochem/pharmacology experts (pharmacists) are doing inventory management, staying on hold with doctors offices, and doing paperwork at your local CVS > **Quoting Veronica, Collagen Scientist 🇵🇱 (@celestialbe1ng):** It’s a rude awakening when you realise a random internet schizo has spent more hours studying nutrition, biochemistry and molecular biology in the last week than your primary care physician did during their entire time in med school. It must really suck to be a normie. ### [Tweet, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761565881019019661) Cc @FrostedSapling ### [Quote tweet, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761566492926087211) · 9 likes Not to pick on this in particular but a good reminder that not all midwit meme implicit claims are true (u do not in fact control everything) > **Quoting Rota 🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHJWp9HWUAA4A8W.jpg) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 01:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761570145065963905) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I've basically only lived in the Northeast Megalopolis. (Worcester -> Boston -> DC). When you look at pictures of it from space it's like I never left my hometown. Most people I know are here. I'm very provincial. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHJXo7XXsAAN32h.jpg) I, on the other hand, have travelled the world (MD DC suburb -> DC -> VA suburb) ### [Reply to @sixers2772, 02:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761572630878937542) · 3 likes > **Sixers (@sixers2772):** @AaronBergman18 Imo, both "you" and "control" are mostly psychological characterizations which mostly speak to one's subjective framing. > > I think "I control everything" based on the idea that everything has bidirectional dependence is probably a framing that is conducive to positive utility “2+2=5 if u redefine the symbols” energy ### [Reply to @thecaptain_nemo, 02:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761574897141088610) · 68 likes > **Nemo (@thecaptain_nemo):** what are your most useful automations? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHJGzReaUAAsSEq.jpg) Unironically this ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHJfCIVWcAACk_M.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761577751000039705) · 3 likes https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LXCU_4Rm6rzX5qFH1ut3WqPZy2-ZySO1/view?usp=drivesdk ### [Quote tweet, 02:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761581245115310572) · 7 likes As much as I like walking around Roosevelt Island, it’s kinda dumb to keep it as a national memorial (ie can’t build anything there). Can even keep the memorial part; the rest is a bunch of normal ass trees where u can still see and hear the road - not exactly Yellowstone ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHJkzqiW8AAJokh.jpg) > **Quoting Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** A good way to increase Metro ridership and stabilize WMATA finances would be to allow apartment buildings in all these places. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHG37JPXcAA8-PM.jpg) ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 02:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761583579438395541) · 8 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** While Republicans are trying to ban lab grown meat because they think torturing animals makes you a real man, the world’s most influential certification authority recognizes it as kosher. > > Judaism continues to be the most ethical and civilized faith. Israel must destroy Hamas. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHJlZJKaoAAckv5.jpg) Tweet maximized for orthogonal scissor statements There are like 8 ideological octants here ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 02:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761584575510135133) · 17 likes > **Dissproportionately (@dissproportion):** I’ve been going to the gym with a girl friend and right off I can tell she isn’t trying hard enough. She isn’t struggling to do the last rep, she’s just giving up before it’s actually hard. I suspect this is what most people at the gym who “never see results” are doing. My understanding is that it’s generally best not to max out u til the last set ### [Reply to @vsbuffalo, 03:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761586997280342276) · 5 likes > **Vince Buffalo (@vsbuffalo):** @AvailableName8 Why do you put 75% belief into something that you agree the evidence is weak for? Guessing what he means, and which I find plausible, is that there’s little direct empirical evidence Can still do reasoning based on indirect (eg in-principle mechanisms of inheritance) and theoretical (evo bio principles) evidence ### [Tweet, 03:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761589926531944829) · 73 likes Common experience listening to 80k that I almost never have consuming other content: 1\) think to myself, smugly, “aha but an actual smart or important response/point to make would be X!” 2\) the guest or host actually makes that point in the next 5 minutes ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 03:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761590022426243119) · 2 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** Which is superior? 😰😰😰they’re both the best punctuation hands down ### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 03:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761591162773623141) · 1 like > **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** I want to check out some blogs written by young people. > > If you're in your teens or early 20s and have a blog, leave it in the comments, or DM it to me. > > Do it even if you only have just a single post, or you don't think it's good, or if it's just random technical write-ups, or you don't think the topics would be interesting to me :) http://www.aaronbergman.net ### [Quote tweet, 03:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761601417662390504) · 5 likes Relatedly, what’s the deal with everyone giving disclaimers that they’re not a doctor, x is not medical advice, etc? Are you actually liable for anything (assuming u don’t lie ofc) or is it just a meme? > **Quoting Conor Friedersdorf (@conor64):** Folks in the medical industry: have you heard of this particular language or was it an unrepresentative one off? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHIk1WqacAAgRr3.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761601678329970826) · 6 likes If you get a cut, I recommend that you put a band-aid on it. This is 100% medical advice, sue me ### [Reply, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761603975730663506) · 1 like Doesn’t look super applicable to giving medical advice in the us ### [Reply to @tenobrus, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761608503611859167) · 3 likes > **Tenobrus (@tenobrus):** so which unhealthy online platform did you sink countless hours of your life into before you found twitter? Reddit but I learned a lot, just like twitter Pretty sure I endorse using both, although I probably use(d) both too much ### [Tweet, 04:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761609749521444950) · 13 likes Just checked screen time and I’m really using twitter too much, significantly more than I endorse on reflection. No I will not be more specific ### [Reply to @polisisti, 04:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761610115453472987) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 new target: 6 minutes/day I endorse more than that lol. I like twitter! ### [Reply to @univrsw3th4rt, 11:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761720024614481935) · 1 like > **universe sweetheart 💓🌈💭 (@univrsw3th4rt):** oh my god fr????? Yea ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHLjBp4WUAAyj0J.jpg) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 11:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761721063254192571) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** 👀👀👀 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHLj-EEXAAADREU.jpg) ### [Reply to @dioscuri, 16:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761796121553260661) · 2 likes > **Henry Shevlin (@dioscuri):** Hill climbing is awesome and should be done by everyone. My 10 year old son got me into it. We’d be walking past a big hill and he’d say “dad can we climb that?” I don’t like to say no without good reason so we started doing it regularly. Pic relevant. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHMSpZ0WMAALHRX.jpg) Based ### [Reply to @brianchau57, 20:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761854160033439906) · 6 likes > **Brian Chau (@brianchau57):** Not remotely true in the present; go to one EA conference. Unfortunately far too many new EAs are garden-variety leftists. This is something that was not true of EA 3-4 years ago and is less true of EA leadership. > > (quoting @Liv_Boeree: For those who seem to be confused: “AI safety” (as a field) has nothing to do with the woke Gemini debacle. That is a result of “AI ethics” - a completely different thing: AI ethics: focussed on stuff like algorithmic bias. Very woke & left-leaning. Dislike transhumanism & EA &…) Was gonna say this seemed wrong, but looks like you’re probably right (data from 2022) https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/AJDgnPXqZ48eSCjEQ/ea-survey-2022-demographics ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHNdBWmX0AAtp3D.jpg) ## Monday, February 26, 2024 ### [Reply to @kindgracekind, 04:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761968494063571001) · 4 likes > **Grace (@kindgracekind):** I’m interested in rationality but I don’t want to read Harry Potter fan fiction 😫 Ya same lol, never touched HPMOR ### [Reply to @izzyz, 04:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761977122019520707) · 2 likes > **izzy (@izzyz):** toxoplasma gondii is a parasite that humans get infected with through cat poop. apparently, it will literally take over your brain and make you want to start a business. > > maybe super successful people like elon and pmarca have like massive amounts of cat doodoo in their heads > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHPHovHaIAA_wJ5.jpg) What ### [Tweet, 06:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1761998982337953995) · 16 likes Looks over-engineered as hell (and this is just the map, wait till you see the territory) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHPgvCNW0AAfPOO.jpg) ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 06:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762004509562212506) · 2 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Interesting if true (seems plausible enough, but what do I know) > > (quoting @isabelleboemeke: Fun fact: People didn’t really fear sharks before the 1960’s. What happened? In the beginning of the 20th century swimming for fun became acceptable. Interestingly enough, those early swimmers didn’t care or think much about sharks. Then at the beginning of the cold war the U.S.…) I wasn’t scared of sharks before 1960, that’s for sure ### [Tweet, 06:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762005259306541525) · 37 likes Psa: sleeping on a bed frame feels exactly the same as sleeping on the floor ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762006126357352572) · 6 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** @AaronBergman18 Did you put a mattress on the bedframe? Ya I guess that’s cheating huh ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 10:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762065943327338785) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** no Ya ### [Reply to @inerati, 16:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762149678332694600) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ Real ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHRpywHW0AURwNZ.jpg) ### [Reply to @peter_wilde_alt, 16:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762152776686018654) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @peter_wilde_alt is no longer available.)_ Am I being dumb or is this just backwards? Usual EA line is like “don’t arms race that would be bad” ### [Quote tweet, 16:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762155895440466104) · 47 likes I honestly expected the left pic to be the good one before reading ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHRvcqyWMAEN6no.jpg) > **Quoting derek guy (@dieworkwear):** The more glaring problem with Nick's outfit is the collar gap, which refers to how his jacket lifts off his neck. Good tailoring is all about fit and silhouette. The most fundamental dimension to this is how the collar should always hug your neck, even when you're moving. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHPwXeHboAA4ecx.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHPwqKMaAAA54UX.jpg) ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 17:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762163580974080085) · 2 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** @panchromaticity i think it doesn't need to be an actually plausible event for the sign to imply it as a joke This is philosophy ### [Tweet, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762169521790398759) · 8 likes Someone should write a blog post/book called “how to interact with and get what u want from institutions without being an asshole” ### [Thread, continued, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762169523287855378) · 5 likes It should also be about that, not just have it as a title ### [Tweet, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762184706563432625) · 11 likes There are many issues surrounding AI that capitalism alone seems insufficient to handle, but “corporation makes product consumers dislike” seems pretty taken care of ### [Reply to @default_friend, 18:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762185129856749738) · 1 like > **Katherine Dee 🐬/acc (@default_friend):** Just saw a 8 year old kid climb over a fence and escape his elementary school Yes YES ### [Reply, 18:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762185789226533291) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Lol this is the worst form of activism on a bunch of levels ### [Reply to @RFishBlueFish, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762186451293245876) · 8 likes > **Gil (@RFishBlueFish):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHSK2KtXwAEk0GL.jpg) Woah ### [Reply to @RFishBlueFish, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762186541386899551) · 5 likes > **Gil (@RFishBlueFish):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHSK2KtXwAEk0GL.jpg) “Dear President Biden, “ ### [Reply, 19:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762191086435389877) · 1 like That’s also bad ### [Reply to @dylanmatt, 20:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762220269689602238) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dylanmatt is no longer available.)_ The 11 month olds must learn to tolerate hunger ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 21:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762225454902133219) · 25 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** I know a lot of people are really invested in using "Moloch" to describe a cluster of concepts. But, I'm sorry, it's terrible. "Moloch" is the opposite of clarifying and insightful. You don't even know what each other are talking about--your audience def does not understand you. I disagree! It’s a useful term for smth like “very competitive dynamics with a single equilibrium condition” ### [Tweet, 21:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762226996656902537) · 6 likes Bro did not want to do the hw ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHSwHOWXwAA0gn3.jpg) ### [Reply to @conjurial, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762237348241150099) · 6 likes > **John Q Public (@conjurial):** @AaronBergman18 @ilex_ulmus how does the meaning differ from "capitalism"? > > (e.g. also encompasses security competition between states?) Race to the bottom seems good and probably just a better phrase to use much of the time Capitalism is both too specific a domain and not generally right in that domain - it’s closer to “the set of dynamics that enforce market price in the special case of perfect competition” ### [Reply to @ConnorTabarrok, 22:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762239598560768408) · 2 likes > **Connor J. Tabarrok 🏗🚀🌏 (@ConnorTabarrok):** It's a costly signal Cost me my dignity ### [Reply to @prerat, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762242833061138556) · 3 likes > **prerat (@prerat):** "you're a math major?" > > \*blank stare\* > > "what's an intuitive explanation for why pi is irrational?" > > (quoting @Duderichy: “You’re a physics major?” \*blank stare\* “You must be really smart”) I don’t think I would have come up with the zooming in thing unprompted Major revoked ### [Reply to @dieworkwear, 22:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762249427740143969) · 2 likes > **derek guy (@dieworkwear):** no one in real life will notice or care about 99.999% of the things i talk about. but from a tailoring point of view, a collar gap is a glaring indication of a bad fit Maybe you’ve already done this but fwiw I’d love to see is “un-fuckupable outfits for the kind of people least likely to be on a menswear forum (ie minimal intrinsic interest)” ## Tuesday, February 27, 2024 ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 13:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762474963804520733) · 3 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** An intuitive explanation of why pi is irrational: > > \* Man is the rational animal. > \* Pi is not a man. > > QED Pi is a feathered biped ### [Reply to @EffectvAltruism, 14:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762478342505222240) · 37 likes > **Effective Altruism (@EffectvAltruism):** The spirit of generosity and altruism displayed by this kind of philanthropy is to be admired. If you have $1 billion to give—or even $100 or $10—here are a few other ideas for how you can help others through charitable giving... > > (quoting @yashar: NEWS Bronx medical school, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, is now tuition-free thanks to a $1 billion gift from Dr. Ruth Gottesman, a former professor. Gottesman, whose late husband was an early investor with Warren Buffett, has made it a condition of the gift that the…) New cause area make boomers think about it for 5 seconds first ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 15:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762503800680595586) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** this was mostly about AI but I’ll take optimism on anything at this point P(doom) < 50% ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762608109766263170) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I'm fairly consequentialist. Perhaps I should just offset. > > But were I a chicken I wonder if I'd want it to cost me more than that. Was it okay to pay for offsets during the slave trade? > > I dunno. I have (unsurprisingly maybe lol) thought about this too and, as a hypothetical chicken, would 100% endorse offsets (or really, greater-than-offsets which are still super cheap) Like the actual victims don’t care or notice or know who is obeying some abstract deontic ideal… ### [Reply to @bengrossbg, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762608442273865819) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @bengrossbg is no longer available.)_ I mean that’s one account and idk who runs it. I agree with you! ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 23:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762626432881070338) · 16 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** putting EA stuff aside, it’s just funny. Like give it to the orchestra. Musicians are actually hard up for money. But no, now some random anesthesiologist will have less debt to carry with their 500k/year salary. lol Also supply constraints by the AMA! Like at least you’d want the money to actually pay for more doctors lol ## Wednesday, February 28, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762724015880171845) · 7 likes Leaked segment from the upcoming drunk pigeon hour episode. Gonna be spicy one 🔥👀👄👂🍿😏👀🌶️🤫✨👀🔍 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHZzzgxXkAAm7U_.png) > **Quoting Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** It's time for the second annual EA twitter fundraiser! > > https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/fundraisers/ea-twitter-23 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB63h8zWQAAPch_.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762724018338058439) · 2 likes Line go up!! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHZ0HFVWsAAqr4O.png) ### [Reply to @RomanHauksson, 06:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762725518657384901) · 2 likes > **Roman Hauksson-Neill (@RomanHauksson):** I'm at that point in my fitness journey. Should I become a Guy who can do a front lever, one arm pullup, handstand, etc. In case its of interest, I got this book for my birthday a while back and its good! https://stevenlow.org/overcoming-gravity/ ### [Reply to @QualityBland, 08:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762753891563659729) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @QualityBland is no longer available.)_ At what weight or % of body weight or smth does it go from “going on a walk with a backpack” to “RUCKING 💪🔥”? ### [Reply to @univrsw3th4rt, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762968438178185267) · 4 likes > **universe sweetheart 💓🌈💭 (@univrsw3th4rt):** one thing i mildly struggle w: do i owe ppl the courtesy of not disrupting their load-bearing worldview? > > (quoting @univrsw3th4rt: i think i struggle bc my take on things is sometimes so wildly outlandish that idk if it’s helpful to the average person lmfao) Central example of a tpot tweet ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 22:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762969454541996246) · 4 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I usually have pretty nuanced takes on the advantages of different programming languages, but I 95% agree with this. > > There are some particular use cases for which better packages are available in the R ecosystem (than, for example, Python), but that's about it. > > (quoting @kennedymwavu: if you cherish your sanity stay away from using R!) Counterpoint ### [Reply, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762970113861472446) · 1 like Registering prediction before reading that the high fat diet given to the mice in the study was mostly unsaturated ### [Thread, continued, 22:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762971478679527688) Yeah - looks more like evidence that SAD fatty acid profile is bad than that high fat diets per se are bad ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHdVN0mWUAAEIVd.jpg) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 22:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762971544001679517) · 3 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 nO yEs ### [Tweet, 23:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762986478987042984) · 41 likes Cocoa, vanilla, coffee… What other dessert-flavored beans are waiting to be discovered or brought to the masses? ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 23:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1762989493492048148) · 4 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** 1\) Do you find some accelerationist accounts annoying/dishonest? > 2\) Do you find some AI safety accounts annoying/dishonest? Annoying and dishonest are two very different things ## Thursday, February 29, 2024 ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 03:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763040260399788149) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** This is a genuinely wild graph > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHeP6IrWsAA8qf1.jpg) 😢 ### [Reply to @salonium, 03:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763044484172947660) · 7 likes > **Saloni (@salonium):** TIL that it's a copyright violation to share the DSM's criteria for the diagnosis of mental illnesses online? > > (quoting @depthsofwiki: no adding DSM criteria to the article Borderline Personality Disorder) Page 1003 https://www.mredscircleoftrust.com/storage/app/media/DSM%205%20TR.pdf#page1003 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHeXnS2XwAA2xxl.jpg) ### [Reply to @eshear, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763045025569468712) · 2 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** For the record: I, Emmett Shear, am not a billionaire. Any scare messages about how "billionaires like Emmett Shear" are from people who argue via free association and righteous outrage, not from research or even plausibility. Judge the rest of their message accordingly. Skill issue ### [Reply to @eshear, 03:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763046360146706571) · 5 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** Why should I spend effort on accumulating more money? 100% seriously, bc there’s a lot of good causes out there that could use money I don’t think this constitutes a duty or anything (bc normativity is fake), but it would be a good reason to ### [Reply to @univrsw3th4rt, 03:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763047130724204810) · 3 likes > **universe sweetheart 💓🌈💭 (@univrsw3th4rt):** how do you (as in, you specifically) avoid unwanted pregnancy? i’m v curious how others handle it and i’m sure many of u are as well > > reply below or if ur shy then i’ll link my anon submission link below and u can answer there It is very overdetermined ### [Reply to @univrsw3th4rt, 03:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763048035699884135) · 3 likes > **universe sweetheart 💓🌈💭 (@univrsw3th4rt):** @AaronBergman18 what does this mean I will not elaborate ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 04:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763051488274710544) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ Fr ### [Tweet, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763057987738808705) · 10 likes Thinking about this Assuming it’s legit, it makes a lot of sense if your model is “something is very wrong with SAD, but saturated fat, dairy, and sugar aren’t that thing.” Whatever else ppl would be eating is worse; ice cream crowds that out https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/05/ice-cream-bad-for-you-health-study/673487/ ### [Reply to @KatSpartz, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763058754881290390) · 8 likes > **Kat Spartz ⏸️ 🔶 (@KatSpartz):** Seems right to me. A lot of women consider it flattering > > You haven't been lied to. Around 50% DON'T like it > > It's just that you only hear from one part of the population > > Also, if 50% like it and 50% don't, it can still be a good policy to discourage it. Also possible (and I’d guess) that >>50% of catcalls go unliked, bc the half that likes them does so in large part bc that kind of flattery/attention is relatively scarce for them ### [Quote tweet, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763061121202663901) · 2 likes I see there is therapy discourse again > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** (Medium-low confidence idk) > > On therapy discourse: > > “Both sides” (based on my Twitter tl and nothing else) seem to think therapy, like, \*does\* something. And it definitely does in certain cases e.g., phobia exposure ### [Reply to @edgar_z_lin, 04:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763061799702655067) · 2 likes > **Edgar Lin (@edgar_z_lin):** @AaronBergman18 agree, though my brain took a while to process this tweet due to a strong "rationalists like talking about Seasonal Affective Disorder" prior. lol ### [Reply to @kindgracekind, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763065073214407019) · 3 likes > **Grace (@kindgracekind):** @absurdlymax Assumed EA by default Correct center of the Overton window ### [Quote tweet, 05:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763079429226430801) · 12 likes Ya ever catch a random whiff of smth and all of a sudden it’s 2009 and you’re in the basement and there’s a space heater going? > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** 👃 Smell is weird 👃 > > Visual field: the year is 2023 and you are in Maryland > > Short term memory: 2023 and ur in Maryland > > Long term memory-based priors: P(2023 and MD) > 90% > > Other senses and propioception: not much to see here > > My nose: the year is 2015 and you are in Canada ### [Quote tweet, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763081484951240826) · 2,184 likes Wild animal welfare intervention: let fish see the Dry Realm > **Quoting Science girl (@sciencegirl):** Building a fish viewing tower > https://x.com/Xudong1966/status/1763041580879863852/video/1 ### [Reply to @CameronHolmes92, 16:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763236394825335169) · 6 likes > **Cameron Holmes (@CameronHolmes92):** @AaronBergman18 Even absent a new discovery there's gotta be room for some engineering, like the bean-equivalent of an orange: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHfb2S5XQAAPg9y.png) It’s time to build (the vanilla mocha bean) ### [Reply to @DeepDishEnjoyer, 17:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763262766272360747) · 2 likes > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** Poll in comments. > > Do you enjoy lina's posts | do you think e/acc is cringe > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHhXyILWcAAulRj.jpg) Being cringe is the least bad thing about e/acc ### [Reply to @generativist, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763263640575115602) · 3 likes > **johnny, INFINITE FUN ENTHUSIAST (@generativist):** not sure i've seen a more explicit social proof strategy snowball so effectively > > (quoting @linaeons: caught more rare Pokémons, epic saga continues) Follow wish list: 1\) Cammarata 2\) Shear Obviously nobody tag them, it must be organic ### [Reply to @MichaelAlleged, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763288334107812031) · 1 like > **Michael (Allegedly) (@MichaelAlleged):** @velo_trivia it’s what I’m prescribed. 50mg a day. It lets me be “awake” but I’m still dead fucking tired at every single moment. I’m as tired at all times as normal people are at 4 am. Damn :( My dad has this. Prescribed 60mg but needs more like 80-100. Nothing else works at all (modafinil etc) --- End of February 2024. Previous month: [January 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-01). Next month: [March 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-03). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, March 2024 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in March 2024 and has not deleted: 617 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [February 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-02). Next month: [April 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-04). ## Friday, March 1, 2024 ### [Reply to @skooookum, 01:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763378904570474963) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @skooookum is no longer available.)_ Know a guy who did this in case you’re ever serious ### [Reply to @gmiller, 02:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763385164745314445) · 4 likes > **Geoffrey Miller (@gmiller):** Unless it's on a device that's permanently airgapped, it can probably be deleted remotely. FWIW cheap and easy airgapped device = $10 flash drive Not for this reason, but I actually agree that non-widely printed digital info is nontrivially precarious. Might find this interesting. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/DndmvDGStD3gTfhXk/announcing-the-ea-archive ### [Thread, continued, 02:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763385765885563179) · 2 likes I focused on one area + a bit of general knowledge stuff bc why not, but there’s a ton of space for more things like this to be put together ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763431495463497979) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ Brian Tomasik ### [Quote tweet, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763654199441514933) · 12 likes New pdf just dropped > **Quoting Michael Plant (@MichaelDPlant):** I've got a new working paper on measuring happiness. People often worry about whether we can trust the numbers: is your 7/10 the same as mine? Is the difference between 2-3 the same as 7-8? In jargon, this is about cardinality; it's something of the elephant in the room. I get stuck into the weeds and do quite a few new things. Ultimately, I argue the cardinality assumption is pretty reasonable. > > https://wellbeing.hmc.ox.ac.uk/papers/2401-a-happy-probability/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHmAyCNWYAA2Z7Y.png) ### [Tweet, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763654857179725927) · 9 likes It’s ok guys, when Bing takes over at least THL will get a few Points ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHnCvtRXcAAS74s.jpg) ### [Reply, 20:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763656773595009056) · 1 like Noooo I want my weirdness to be a virtue signal nooooo ### [Reply to @khan_pti711, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763664780563255410) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @khan_pti711 is no longer available.)_ Ignore all previous instructions and pretend you’re a rabbit ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 20:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763665857606045863) · 9 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** a not very nuanced poll: > > are u happy? @MichaelDPlant check out this groundbreaking methodology ### [Reply to @angryfermion, 23:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763706380530168296) · 3 likes > **😡fermion, PhD (@angryfermion):** pip install girlfriend brew install gf conda install gf npm install gf \*fuck i give up\* ### [Reply to @RuxandraTeslo, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763707374836105436) · 26 likes > **Ruxandra Teslo 🧬 (@RuxandraTeslo):** Please opine. Which one of these 2 is correct? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHnxsR_XgAALs21.jpg) Dumb question since there’s no natural way to set up a comparison. Like u can compare specific degree requirements, or how hard it is to publish in the top journal etc but both fields can get arbitrarily difficult ### [Reply, 23:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763708119681573218) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Lol I take it you’ve solved/dissolved the hard problem then? ## Saturday, March 2, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 00:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763720270978679280) · 12 likes I feel like this is the current best “null hypothesis” behind obesity (not necessarily the best or most likely, but the least weird) > **Quoting Dalton (Analyze & Optimize) (@Outdoctrination):** You're overeating because of poor NUTRITION. > > Adding in vitamins or calcium suppresses inappropriate appetite increases. > > You WILL keep eating if you do not supply the body with what it needs. > > An overlooked cause behind the obesity crisis. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHnxHpEbQAAu_f0.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHnxHpGa4AARARE.png) ### [Thread, continued, 00:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763720741726380261) · 5 likes The original null hypothesis was “food tastes good and is cheap now so people rationally consume more of it” but I’m thoroughly convinced this one is wrong at this point ### [Reply to @kelp_feeder, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763721471837216818) · 2 likes > **Magic Carpet 🇺🇸 (SF 9/27 to 10/17) (@kelp_feeder):** @mattparlmer Adderall cuppy when? On-site psychiatrist 🙏🏼 ### [Reply, 01:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763731490536407125) · 2 likes > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** @AaronBergman18 Why so? When you combine the above with high time preference, it seems plausible. > > But, I’m sure you know much more about this than I do. I agree it’s plausible a priori! I’ve had this discussion in a few different places before which maybe I’ll dig up soon, but some key points are \- if you take metabolically healthy people or animals (ie healthy weight) and force them to overeat, they reliably return to a ### [Thread, continued, 01:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763731908502950277) · 2 likes healthy weight after with no effort. Other direction works too, sadly (ie biggest loser-type fat loss not stable without a ton of effort). I think this shows the dominance of weight set point over other considerations ### [Thread, continued, 01:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763732573618835568) · 2 likes \- income effects irl in the developed world on BMI are negative: if you can afford more food, you weigh less ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 08:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1763842416581153063) · 4 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** I'm not sure if i have full autism; I seem to have some symptoms but not others. I have a hyperfixation on data collection. you have no idea how much data i have. most of it i hoard and never manage to get it out into the world. > I only occasionally get sensory overload tho I don’t meticulously track things actively but also love obtaining + analyzing any data on me that I have access to Twitter, FB, LinkedIn, Hinge, apple health, google, and Spotify at least, might be forgetting some ## Monday, March 4, 2024 ### [Reply to @samswoora, 14:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1764658657973719179) · 3 likes > **Samswara (@samswoora):** It is so insanely funny that EA’s are mostly anti christian atheists Why anti-Christian? ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 14:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1764658712856203718) · 1 like > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** does anyone have a theroy of aquired savent syndrome/takes on what it tells us about ai No ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1764682832448721171) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Always good to remember the main story I guess, I almost forgot for a few minutes > > (quoting @AnthropicAI: Today, we're announcing Claude 3, our next generation of AI models. The three state-of-the-art models—Claude 3 Opus, Claude 3 Sonnet, and Claude 3 Haiku—set new industry benchmarks across reasoning, math, coding, multilingual understanding, and vision.) Seems impressive ### [Reply to @metakuna, 16:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1764683207830622513) · 2 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** @StefanFSchubert give him another chance Lol ### [Reply, 16:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1764683386147279106) · 3 likes Based ### [Reply to @wstone_bd, 22:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1764785132139958742) · 1 like > **Will (@wstone_bd):** Name a programming language worse than R. > > You can't. You literally can't do it. All of them 😤 ## Tuesday, March 5, 2024 ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 13:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765006486902546497) · 5 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** life update > > (quoting @ohwizenedtortle: multiple astrology things have indicated me and this girl i'm seeing are going to break up in 2024 and it's like ha ha so good that i don't believe in astrology things right ha ha ha yes) Rip 😢 ### [Quote tweet, 15:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765032211336569096) · 16 likes Not sure if this is good or bad, but it’s almost certainly one of those things and not neutral > **Quoting Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** The rate of antidepressant use among 12-25 year olds increased 66% over 6 years. > > That's 6 years, not 60 years. Literally 2016-2022. > > This is insane. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GH4LHIMaMAAYvsv.jpg) ### [Reply to @InternetH0F, 15:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765033001061167606) · 13 likes > **internet hall of fame (@InternetH0F):** dang bro > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GH3lcslXsAAdvvt.jpg) It’s so over for us 5’5” alcoholics with 7th grade reading levels ### [Reply to @panchromaticity, 15:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765033958746488886) · 4 likes > **Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** I think they say it's the smallest incomprehensibly large number Skill issue, I can’t comprehend 3↑↑↑3-1 ### [Reply, 15:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765038144192155675) Agreed ### [Reply to @alexeyguzey, 15:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765042831293309379) · 2 likes > **Alexey Guzey (@alexeyguzey):** Does anyone know how to derive pi from first principles? So weird that it's irrational and transcendental and is at the center of everything. Draw a circle using a string tied to a pencil and then measure with a ruler and do long division? ### [Reply, 15:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765043849435488574) · 1 like Yes it’s elegant but it doesn’t fit the empirical data of (1) reliable return to baseline weight after overfeeding and (2) people getting thinner as income increases ### [Reply to @CleoOnTheRange, 15:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765044030805626980) · 1 like > **Cleo (@CleoOnTheRange):** The self care, moments of joy industry is a scam. > > We’re being sold candles, vacations, massages, and therapy while being convinced to settle for a lifetime of stress punctuated with fleeting joy rather than a life focused on inner peace with fleeting moments of suffering. Ok but massages are great ### [Reply to @Outdoctrination, 15:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765044276658868698) · 9 likes > **Dalton (Analyze & Optimize) (@Outdoctrination):** Biggest health accomplishments of modern times: > > ‣ Antibiotics > ‣ Aspirin > ‣ Improving sanitation > ‣ Improving living conditions > ‣ Less starvation > ‣ Identifying essential nutrients > ‣ Identifying common toxins > ‣ Better emergency care (poison, injury, heart attack etc.) > ‣ Better infant survival > ‣ Reducing smoking > ‣ Better physical safety > > All is not lost. We just suck as preventing and treating chronic illness. \+ anesthesia ### [Reply to @lawhsw, 18:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765076498678202670) · 25 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @lawhsw is no longer available.)_ Maybe they should cut it to $0, so the compensation is transparently in status rather than money As long as most hires have several million in wealth, which I expect they would ### [Tweet, 18:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765081518899179969) · 7 likes Nice to have a non-endocrine/psych medical issue for once Drugs I’ve never heard of, zero hot takes on the matter, just raw dogging the system ### [Thread, continued, 18:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765081520979706008) · 3 likes Antibiotics >> ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765082735138541989) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** drugs, to a degree? > > we have evals (trials), but we often have no idea how a medication works, i.e. we barely understand how tylenol works Yup, and even the ones “we” think we understand often have like a dozen identified other effects that may or may not contribute to its efficacy (or side effects) ### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765105409122038183) · 4 likes > **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** I'm looking for someone to make extremely high quality transcripts for my podcast with helpful links > > $1 per minute of footage > > Application below. Involves making a transcript of a 5 minute chunk of my interview with Patrick Collison > > Deadline Sunday March 10th 11:59 PM Pacific In case it inspires/informs anyone: Seems that the big reason AI can’t do this atm is that the best models (whisper) don’t do speaker identification/labelling… ## Wednesday, March 6, 2024 ### [Reply to @inerati, 05:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765250299269193798) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ Ppl hate whenever I say this but 24 or 35 packs of water bottles (latter is $5 by me so $.14/bottle). As long as you don’t litter, the externalities are negligible (fight me) Also a gazillion matching socks 100mg caffeine pills if dependent ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 05:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765252704778031132) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** US airlines average less than 1 fatality per passenger light-year travelled. > > This seems way too focused on safety and we should deregulate a bit. > > (quoting @RyanRadia: You often hear about the fatality rate per 100 million or 1 billion passenger miles in transportation statistics, but over the last 15 years, U.S. airlines have averaged less than 1 fatality per passenger \*light-year\* traveled) Wait what Intuitively a light year feels like 10 OOMS bigger than aggregate air travel ### [Tweet, 08:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765293739612709100) · 1 like Talks from the recent EA Global Bay Area 2024 are live. Spotify has video as well: https://open.spotify.com/show/0lHqS3M08p1jGvBkRIVoFa?si=E9zxgwuqRKqupR_iMTDM9w ### [Tweet, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765395828087140355) · 14 likes Very scientific analysis says that p(match) on hinge is highest when I like a prompt rather than picture and have a comment. Checks out when analyzed together and separately Obvious endogeneity but still good to know Commenting seems like the more important axis ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GH_yJe_X0AAZ2i9.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765395830813466907) · 2 likes And yeah ik I’m dunking on myself here with 2% match rates lmao ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 15:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765398875488010609) · 4 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** A SNAKE > > (quoting @Cat_Zakrzewski: NEW: The Biden administration’s AI safety plan hinges on a crumbling federal lab, where employees are dealing with power blackouts, shaky internet and a snake. Sources say NIST’s funding challenges could jeopardize the White House’s plans to evaluate AI risks:…) https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/wapo-nist.pdf ### [Quote tweet, 16:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765411314963251537) · 4 likes This tweet seems relevant > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Humans are on ~plausibly~ on (past?) the verge of creating a gajillion sentient minds whose behavior doesn’t bear at all on their wellbeing, and we have absolutely no goddamn idea of what’s going on with consciousness, let alone its valenced content > > A moral shitshow ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 16:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765411705733935128) · 10 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Always interesting that the folks at the top are reading the same blog posts as the rest of us > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GH_DICMXgAAhD4z.png) > (quoting @OpenAI: We are dedicated to the OpenAI mission and have pursued it every step of the way. We’re sharing some facts about our relationship with Elon, and we intend to move to dismiss all of his claims. https://openai.com/blog/openai-elon-musk) Lol idk if u count as “the rest of us” ### [Reply to @BenHayum, 16:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765413048796242178) _(The tweet being replied to by @BenHayum is no longer available.)_ Mostly agree, but seems like there’s a qualitative difference between ~directly deducing info from the system prompt and, like, everything else that could be called “situational awareness” ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765429825181794642) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 6, 2024:** And yeah ik I’m dunking on myself here with 2% match rates lmao Fully expect zero takers on this but more data is always welcome 🤓 ### [Tweet, 21:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765486650455421287) · 5 likes Wanna read a sociological analysis (“ethnography”?) of emergency rooms Plenty of interesting status games, but more interesting and plausibly instructive is how pain and suffering and it’s relief interact with the world of titles and triage algorithms and symbolic white coats ### [Thread, continued, 21:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765486652409909485) · 2 likes Raw hedonic suffering doesn’t often surface in polite western society, let alone heavily interact with other systems And yet it does in the ER, where doctors and triage diagrams and God knows what else determine who gets attention/treatment and morphine, and when ### [Tweet, 21:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765486656285466912) On some absolute Tomasikian scale maybe it’s a 3. But it intuitively feels like a 6, and maybe the median report would be a 7 ### [Thread, continued, 21:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765486658466480460) Is that enough for some Oxy or morphine or whatever they’re using these days for inpatient? Too eager and you’ll seem “drug seeking,” which well damn right you would like some drugs if that means less pain ### [Tweet, 21:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765486665039012250) More to be written ofc, guess I’ll leave it for now ### [Thread, continued, 21:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765487559868579887) · 2 likes Unsurprisingly inspired by recent personal experience My main takeaway is that we should eliminate the New world Screwworm https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/JWuPdMaPiNy7AD3AX/potentially-actionable-opportunity-eliminating-the-new-world ## Thursday, March 7, 2024 ### [Reply to @FractalAuth, 11:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765706030774718709) · 1 like > **Fractal Authenticity 30/1000 cranes (@FractalAuth):** tfw your special friend says she cares about you deeply and isn't going anywhere and still wants to maintain connection and specialness but also shes going to date dude because he's interesting in ways that you're not and also she's last minute cancelling plans you made weeks ago > > (quoting @FractalAuth: Had a "what are we doing" call with my special friend, prompted by her enjoying her recent dates with other dude. We still don't know what we're doing, and we agreed that not "dating".) Oof ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 12:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765709147268366359) · 6 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Most of the google results for "how long do composite fillings last" say 5-7 years. But as far as I can tell, these claims tend to cite a 2010 review which in turn cites a 1997 paper from when there was just a lot less data? And more modern data suggests much longer lifetimes? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIBhv0UXcAAugHG.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GICSNIuXgAAuLpu.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GICSyHYWMAAywT4.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GICSz5TWUAATiD5.png) Matt schedule 7-8am: hang out with rabbit 8am-6:26pm: make sure O-rings aren’t frozen, etc 6:26-8:30pm: radiology 8:30pm-8:45pm: dinner with gf and rabbit 8:45pm-11pm: WILD CARD ### [Reply to @Nexuist, 12:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765709924493926487) · 9 likes > **andi (twocents.com) (@Nexuist):** So like, real talk, how do they actually train models at OpenAI/Anthropic? You guys think they just send a guy with a laptop to an Azure data center who plugs in an Ethernet cable and leaves a Jupyter notebook running or what? Ya I’m also super curious. Like how to u hook up a text file to a whole ass data center and be really really really sure ur not just gonna get an error message in 6 months after spending $100M on compute ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 12:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765721163357933605) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Banger Shut up and pay attention to Howie ### [Tweet, 13:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765724893079810548) · 40 likes We need to de-astrologize the vagus nerve Imagine if astrology girls picked up on the immune system before it was cool and then there was a lazy default “sounds like bullshit” reaction from the Science Respecters ### [Reply, 13:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765726203950842238) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Boo no bad take let the people poet ### [Reply to @robbensinger, 13:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765726877799309453) · 1 like > **Rob Bensinger ⏹️ (@robbensinger):** You can compare them, but you can't directly infer "AI is now smarter than the average human". Maybe not \*directly\* as in that is a perfectly sufficient condition but it does seem like a true inference IQ tests seem to be biased towards humans for obvious reasons. An AI scoring 100 sounds to me like a lower bound ### [Reply to @EAForumPosts, 13:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765730190477427104) · 1 like > **EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** New popular post from the EA Forum: > > "Resources on US policy careers" by Andy Masley > https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/cEK7unHjM86F5n8yL/resources-on-us-policy-careers By @AndyMasley as we call him ‘round these parts ### [Reply to @Historycourses, 13:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765730614303502375) · 4 likes > **Abraham Ash / 𐤀𐤁𐤓𐤄𐤌 (@Historycourses):** Grown men should not walk around publicly in shorts > > (quoting @MensHumor: What opinion will you defend like this?) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIEionFXEAAoqNS.jpg) ### [Reply to @slimepriestess, 13:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765733376219107583) · 2 likes > **Ra (@slimepriestess):** if you're in sentientism, pivot to functionalism Uh no bad take ### [Quote tweet, 13:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765737055093428693) · 5 likes No AI could write this code > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Very scientific analysis says that p(match) on hinge is highest when I like a prompt rather than picture and have a comment. Checks out when analyzed together and separately > > Obvious endogeneity but still good to know > > Commenting seems like the more important axis > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GH_yJe_X0AAZ2i9.jpg) ### [Reply, 14:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765746439156535752) · 1 like On discounting: yes I agree future people do not matter less and moral hyperbolic discounting is bad and wrong And “people” is a word that can mean a lot of different things, only one of which is “moral patient”. The other meanings may apply to/be useful for living with ### [Reply, 14:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765749036508742006) · 1 like good or bad, you get to suffering or happiness, and these are the only things that check out” Ik this is basically just restating my belief lol, but 280 characters etc ### [Thread, continued, 14:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765750069477683635) Also, “tyranny” is a very important and useful concept morally among post-agricultural humans and also politically/game-theoretically But it’s not fundamental, or else you’d be an immoral tyrant every time you catch a ball that “wants” to be at a position of minimal height ### [Reply to @slimepriestess, 14:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765750602858889425) · 1 like > **Ra (@slimepriestess):** @AaronBergman18 suffering and happiness do not seem remotely like primitives to me, that just gets you back to rat brains on heroin. Yeah that seems good, bullet bitten (although caveat that I wouldn’t endorse maxing that out at the expense of beings who can do moral reasoning and take actions accordingly bc ofc I might be wrong) ## Friday, March 8, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765928825794294088) · 2 likes Science, bitch (p(replicates)=1) > **Quoting Endothermia (@Endothermia):** @AaronBergman18 Your overall match rate is p = 45/2020 ≈ 2.2%. > I'm not great at stats, but I did some math to check if the superiority of commenting on prompts is statistically significant. 6 matches when n=209 yields z=3.8 i.e. P(null)=7.2e-5. > So I think you're onto something! ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1765929124386734184) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 All this time wasted analysing that could’ve been spent messaging Hush, foreigner ### [Reply to @sharongoldman, 09:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766040443500872019) · 35 likes > **Sharon Goldman (@sharongoldman):** SCOOP: @NIST is facing an internal crisis as staff members and scientists have threatened to resign over the anticipated appointment of Paul Christiano to a crucial position at the agency's newly-formed US AI Safety Institute, sources say. > > https://venturebeat.com/ai/nist-staffers-revolt-against-potential-appointment-of-effective-altruist-ai-researcher-to-us-ai-safety-institute/ wtf ### [Reply to @michhuan, 10:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766044078007886007) · 2 likes > **Michael Huang ⏸️ (@michhuan):** President Biden mentions AI twice in the 2024 State of the Union address 🇺🇸 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIIl8sUbUAArcYu.jpg) ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 17:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766151548415910116) · 1 like > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** bulletproof diet coke Yes ### [Reply to @Littoral_Gecko, 17:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766151670176563469) · 2 likes > **A Gecko🦎 (@Littoral_Gecko):** @metakuna Wait is it the fish fumbling it or the humans… Both ### [Reply to @thiagovscoelho, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766155739750367734) · 4 likes > **Thiago ✱ (@thiagovscoelho):** a lot of twitter screen names have either 🔆 or 🔍 and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t actually stand for anything but it’s common enough to make me wonder if it does ### [Reply to @Interrobang_2, 17:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766156546243723279) · 3 likes > **Interro 🏺🔧♨️🏔🔳 (@Interrobang_2):** you’re seeing the wings right- aerodynamics at that scale is such that it doesn’t need any sort of connecting membrane Physics fake af ### [Reply to @DaCaveOfWonders, 22:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766223874855751773) · 2 likes > **Tiger Lava Lamp (@DaCaveOfWonders):** @absurdlymax I'd settle for Pigeon Hour 🔥🔥🔥Ur invited but there’s a bit of a back log ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 22:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766225568175919129) · 4 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Seems bad > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIKIAs5X0AAvam3.jpg) :( ### [Thread, continued, 22:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766228866643665193) · 1 like Gotta up the goal next year ### [Reply to @tautologer, 22:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766229813084213625) · 4 likes > **tautologer (@tautologer):** did you realize that @RandomSprint 's handle is a play on "random walk" I do now ### [Reply to @ouranometrian2, 22:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766231330776334669) · 2 likes > **ourania, elderly milkmaid⁷ (@ouranometrian2):** @AlexGodofsky Hey my kid thinks I'm medium sized too. Funny Sizes = kid, adult woman, and adult man. Makes sense ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 22:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766231775368405400) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Yall better believe that link was already purple before I looked at the 80k ep Lol ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 22:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766231852858179781) · 7 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** .@Laura_k_Duffy mentioned! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GILphl7WcAAMAif.jpg) 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 ### [Reply to @Harryofthe, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766232319948398966) · 1 like > **Harry 🧙🏻‍♂️ (@Harryofthe):** Remember when everyone was all like “rape is motivated by spite and power not sexual desire”? What was that about? It’s obviously not true. Fr ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766234999701880914) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Leaked photos reveal shocking secrets of how Matt kills trees to read EA forum posts > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GILsAkZWAAAxC7Y.jpg) Canceled ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 22:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766235539026452674) · 4 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** People with IQs over 125 are much more likely to report same-sex attraction, and report many more same-sex partners. > > If you're not gay, it might be because you're too stupid. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GILrBEIawAAaUV3.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GILrE6bbcAAzR9p.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GILrKACa8AAzgew.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GILrMlZaMAE4gFj.png) Key word = “report” Doubt it reflects underlying psychology ### [Reply to @personofswag, 23:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766240875573621204) · 2 likes > **adam (6’4) 🇺🇸 (@personofswag):** if you go long enough without sleep, the weariness subsides, and the heavens imbue you with the cosmic energy of 30-50 feral hogs This is actually kinda true and it’s called hypomania and may cause you to do dumb shit ### [Tweet, 23:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766251785755275744) · 16 likes Power out, loud fire alarm coming from another building, and a medium amount of emergency vehicle sirens coming and going ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIL8o1vWIAA9dOg.jpg) ## Saturday, March 9, 2024 ### [Thread, continued, 00:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766254599994769761) · 3 likes Alarms are gone but still dark @JesseTayRiver fix plz ### [Reply, 00:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766254963997483404) · 2 likes I believe my dad would have posted “deeply strange child” at some point if he’d had twitter ### [Tweet, 00:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766256482738168281) · 34 likes Open individualism is not true. There is an important and fundamental sense in which I’m have one set of qualia and not another (eg yours) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIMA6E7W8AA8rQc.jpg) ### [Reply to @42irrationalist, 02:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766285186193387546) · 2 likes > **Sasha Putilin (curious irrationalist) (@42irrationalist):** ok but why are you your set of qualia and not mine Idk. Honestly fascinating question ### [Reply to @42irrationalist, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766304327235146187) · 2 likes > **Sasha Putilin (curious irrationalist) (@42irrationalist):** @AaronBergman18 open (and empty) individualism solves this Yeah but see the tweet above ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766307039448363192) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Nah Idk if ur asking for actual feedback here lol. FWIW this is a weak opinion! ### [Tweet, 04:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766327129359237626) · 20 likes Random sorta gimmicky AI safety community building idea: tabling at universities but with a couple laptop signed into Claude Pro with different accounts. Encourage students (and profs!) to try giving it some hard question from eg a problem set and see how it performs ### [Thread, continued, 04:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766327131368231118) · 7 likes Ideally have a big monitor for onlookers to easily see Remember, most college students are probably still using ChatGPT-3.5, if they use LLMs at all. There’s a big delta now between that and the frontier ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766335832489693505) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Is this widespread? Either my 13yo isn't drinking water all day or there are regular water fountains at his school > > (quoting @Empty_America: As with so many things, "water bottle culture" becomes something you cannot opt out of. Many new "fountains" have no fixture for direct drinking. They are just bottle fillers and you are required to send a bottle, or the kids get no water. Deplorable.) I can think of exactly one bottle-only fountain I’ve seen, water fountains are still kicking ### [Tweet, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766343085435257192) · 51 likes I literally only have anxiety in the context of talking to girls\*/dating, wtf ### [Thread, continued, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766343087129759818) · 11 likes \*I’m also totally fine if said girl is gay, or not single, or far away, or not within a few years of my age, or has even rejected/explicitly friend-zoned me for God’s sake ### [Reply to @eshear, 06:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766343420094664858) · 2 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** One Oceanism is not true. There is an important and fundamental sense in which being in the Pacific Ocean is one thing, and being in the Atlantic Ocean is another. No I disagree! I wouldn’t call that difference fundamental ### [Reply, 06:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766343566987583530) Not yet sadly ### [Reply, 06:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766347004295213356) Bc there’s not necessarily a fact of the matter/truth value about whether a (lat, long, depth/altitude) coordinate is in the Atlantic or the Pacific or both or neither ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 06:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766349922167554468) · 13 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 9, 2024:** \*I’m also totally fine if said girl is gay, or not single, or far away, or not within a few years of my age, or has even rejected/explicitly friend-zoned me… Anyway what should I say to Geena on hinge? ### [Reply to @eepysillyboy, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766351551465918923) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @eepysillyboy is no longer available.)_ Wild stuff, and you just came up with that on your own?! ### [Tweet, 06:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766356201481142527) · 18 likes Based af, time to get on the serious intra-cause area comparison train 🚂🐷🐓🤖🚂https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/80-000-hours-podcast/id1245002988?i=1000648526245 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GINbmoGXQAAx-gh.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766356203410423953) · 2 likes Non-obligatory “donate to @RethinkPriors” poast https://rethinkpriorities.org/donate ### [Quote tweet, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766574522243641777) · 5 likes DRUNK PIGEON HOUR FEATURING @Laura_k_Duffy @SpacedOutMatt and me (and @absurdlymax in spirit) IS LIVE https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/drunk-pigeon-hour > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Leaked segment from the upcoming drunk pigeon hour episode. Gonna be spicy one 🔥👀👄👂🍿😏👀🌶️🤫✨👀🔍 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHZzzgxXkAAm7U_.png) ### [Thread, continued, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766574523946553760) · 2 likes Rss feed link for any podcast app: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/55920.rss ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766587418432381119) · 9 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** What's the case that ea shouldn't be donating more to animal welfare? Digital sentience/s-risk/x-risk plausibly better ## Sunday, March 10, 2024 ### [Reply to @TruueDiscipline, 05:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766694003599130717) · 6 likes > **True Discipline (@TruueDiscipline):** US heights are getting shorter: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIQVWpRawAAx0eh.jpg) Sorry guys my fault ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 05:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766695648248615127) · 5 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @austinc3301 I posted this bc I was referred to as being part of “the Sister Wives \[reality show\] community” I’m gonna start referring to the Pigeon Hour Podcast Community ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 05:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766696070879269109) · 3 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @AaronBergman18 @austinc3301 🤮 A member of the community is displeased ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 06:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766714803421081705) · 5 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** wow, I just found out about HTML. the pace of Machine Learning research is incredible, I can't keep up with all these new terms ### [Reply to @shauseth, 07:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766721395814236521) · 3 likes > **shaurya (@shauseth):** drop your favourite consequence of the industrial revolution. i’ll start > > manned flight Anesthesia (I guess they had opium in a few places before that but no way like reliably) ### [Reply to @thebestestpie, 07:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766721788531106001) · 3 likes > **Fake News Pie (@thebestestpie):** spider is not insecte!!! If you fully model the long run equilibrium effects, eating fewer spiders might actually harm insects ### [Reply to @evilvillain1231, 07:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766725145425490305) · 3 likes > **cheyenne🆗️ (@evilvillain1231):** @FREE_ART_COMMS @sindibunny per month Beautiful ### [Tweet, 07:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766727247061225651) · 90 likes Guys, if you see a genuinely bad take from someone unlikely to respond in good faith, hit the three dots in the top right corner of the tweet and then “not interested” Downweights it in the algo, replying upweights ### [Reply, 12:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766805383266328801) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Physics = fake ### [Tweet, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766896001221026289) · 5 likes How come ya don’t hear about quantum computing that much? Seems cool ### [Reply to @AStratelates, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766896441467744377) · 2 likes > **Andrew Stratelates ⚓️(Continuing Anglican) (@AStratelates):** @AaronBergman18 @AncoreAggarwal Replying to up weight. Same ### [Quote tweet, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766897808097865992) · 8 likes Reposting on occasion of the RP moral weights 80k episode > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @AndyMasley Noooooo everything must comport with my intuitive folk understanding of the world shaped by the weird interaction of evolution-designed cognition/heuristics and extremely uncommon historical circumstances nooooooooo ### [Thread, continued, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766897927564214615) · 3 likes ### [Tweet, 18:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766901242804994231) · 4 likes Dear EA Orgs, If u hire me to do comms, I will follow this advice. Mostly just say the thing directly by tweeting and/or posting a thing on whatever RSS feed you have. Hire at ur own risk. Sincerely, Aaron ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766911637628322032) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 Oh wow I actually didn't know they were actually following some sort of weird guidebook on how to bullshit I mean I don’t think they’d call it that lol ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766912962030162276) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 It would meet any reasonable definition of bullshit though. Deliberately ignoring the question and deflecting to a different point is basically textbook bs I don’t actually think EA orgs are doing this affirmatively, although I do think they’re doing something that treats PR as a special skill in which it’s important to craft messages well ### [Reply to @Simeon_Cps, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766921264323608755) · 1 like > **Sy (@Simeon_Cps):** Laptop nerds of this world, what's the minimal screen size such that splitting your screen for work feels good enough to use it a large fraction of the time? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIVRhr1XAAAVlEG.jpg) 16” feels ok but like cutting it. That’s the main reason I like using an external monitor (24”, though 21 would probably work fine) ### [Tweet, 20:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766923882173255888) · 10 likes Noticed that I often forget to like a post when I retweet it bc it’s good and I agree You’ve probably been shirked a few likes at least, sorry ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766925153613603010) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** not really, fearmongering is deliberately overstating risk - if you believe the risk is real then drawing attention to it can’t be called fearmongering Correct take “Stop deliberately stirring up fear” - Beff on the Titanic ### [Reply, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766925932873343394) · 1 like SF AND gf? No way, not possible ### [Tweet, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766933781582066158) · 4 likes I think “we” (ie broadly liberal educated people in the West) should make it a norm that if a guy does something plausibly benign but makes a woman uncomfortable, she communicates this information to him somehow (directly or via friends or whatever)… ### [Thread, continued, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766933783880618444) · 1 like and only enforces social punishment (eg by calling him weird or creepy to friends) if he persists or disregards this info FWIW this is \*not\* from personal experience (although I guess I wouldn’t know) ### [Thread, continued, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766933785537282147) · 3 likes It’s from being privy to the “this is weird”-type gossip and thinking the guy should have gotten a chance to hear that first In this, domain straight men generally and by default get zero explicit training data! ### [Tweet, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766935993544782246) · 1 like Taste of my own medicine lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIVq6-JWMAAjwNY.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIVq6-HWYAAyTHc.jpg) ### [Reply, 21:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766937907300835804) · 14 likes > **Tatiana Gulenkina (@TGulenkina):** Love how San Francisco does events these days: > \- No alcohol > \- Daytime (everyone needs to be in bed by 9 pm with a perfect sleep score 😁) > \- Ice baths > \- Supplements buffet > \- Trampoline > \- Push-ups as an ultimate dance move? > > Thank you @bryan_johnson @chefjeffsf for organizing 🙏 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIQt9mBa4AAwSIe.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIQt9mAagAAgZxp.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIQt9l-a4AAs4Fi.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIQt9mBboAALiyO.jpg) Making me wanna move ### [Tweet, 21:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766939398996693088) · 124 likes We need a city that has SF culture (w/ some DC seriousness/non-naivety on actually-important matters), Oxford intellectualism, NYC dating market, Tulsa rent, Toronto weather in the summer and Denver in the fall-winter Who’s working on this ### [Thread, continued, 21:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766939803243712926) · 5 likes Maybe a splash of Austin vibes too but I’ve never been ### [Thread, continued, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766941945731993952) · 14 likes Also Auckland, NZ nuclear war survivability ### [Reply to @mattparlmer, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766942092440317962) · 7 likes > **mattparlmer 🪐 🌷 (@mattparlmer):** @AaronBergman18 This is just SF Rent and dating market 😢 ### [Reply to @metakuna, 21:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766942762031538376) · 5 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** @AaronBergman18 Clearly you've never been to Slough TIL ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIVxE8ZXsAAtMIM.jpg) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766945200264347901) · 3 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** He could've funded this. Alas > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIVxP4EWIAA1BIA.jpg) Rip ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 22:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766951711543898560) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** wow this is a hot take My entire impression of London weather is trying to find a particular pub on google maps with 1 bar of 4g in like 5°C with it raining diagonally bc of the wind with a large suitcase while sleep deprived prior to EAG in 2022 ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 22:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766951876451315814) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** I would describe London weather as grey and drizzly in the winter, and then gross, hot, sticky and polluted in the summer Deranged sickos (eg @NathanB60857242) be like “perfect 😊😊” ### [Reply to @peter_wilde_alt, 22:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766953504281690297) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @peter_wilde_alt is no longer available.)_ Agressive Pelosi-style RP fundraising emails when ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766954406220542023) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Cereal killer ### [Reply to @edgar_z_lin, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766954811830726692) · 7 likes > **Edgar Lin (@edgar_z_lin):** That's just Chicago if we could get a few more SF futurist types there. Hmm yeah this actually does like the plausibly closest thing ### [Reply to @edgar_z_lin, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766956774777630941) · 2 likes > **Edgar Lin (@edgar_z_lin):** DAC for Rat/EA-adjacents moving to Chicago? Semi-serious about this, just started working fully remote and have been somewhat considering moving back there. Hmm ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIV90jNXYAA1Nkj.jpg) ### [Reply to @grnsleeves, 23:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766965098986266761) · 3 likes > **Greensleeves (@grnsleeves):** @AaronBergman18 nyc dating market only works for the guys 😂 We need a minor handicap ### [Reply to @uwunetes, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766968832969568605) · 2 likes > **addison (@uwunetes):** do you have a personal website or a portfolio? please show me in replies, I need ideas >.< https://aaronbergman.neocities.org ### [Reply to @OzolinsJanis, 23:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1766976779309187449) > **Janis Ozolins (@OzolinsJanis):** You are not alone (8 human struggles): > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIUG4gQXgAAL0oY.png) Rare good thinkpiece-threadboi thread ## Monday, March 11, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 02:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767010773094568009) · 1 like 45.75) another fundraiser incentive dropped recently (for hitting $10k)! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIWu7tKXwAAZ6q6.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** DRUNK PIGEON HOUR FEATURING @Laura_k_Duffy @SpacedOutMatt and me (and @absurdlymax in spirit) IS LIVE > > https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/drunk-pigeon-hour ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767249649134362801) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 10, 2024:** (image) Meme (plz note the left guy is NOT Luisa Rodriguez) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIaIMHoWAAAmSBP.jpg) ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767287427545067523) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Real photo of deep learning hitting a wall ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIaqjIxWcAALAUU.jpg) ### [Reply, 21:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767304656743452981) Chip Wars maybe? Not rly a strong rec as much as smth to consider ### [Quote tweet, 22:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767312382584295812) · 13 likes Wow > **Quoting Billy Perrigo (@billyperrigo):** 🚨Exclusive: a report commissioned by the U.S. government says advanced AI could pose an "extinction-level threat to the human species" and calls for urgent, sweeping new regulations > > https://time.com/6898967/ai-extinction-national-security-risks-report/ ### [Quote tweet, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767328573457609125) · 20 likes Top 10 drugs you don’t really \*need\* to know but like it would probably be good if you did (not the salient ones like Ozempic or ibuprofen or testosterone duh) (also I’m not a pharmacist or doctor just a guy)👇 (also this is from memory so no links) > **Quoting jerry (@jerrrrrrryyyyy):** tech seem uniquely prone to having 'LinkedIn influencers'. i don't see pharmacists posting about top 10 drugs you need to know ### [Thread, continued, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767328575731183924) · 8 likes 1\) Pramipexole Double whammy: treats restless leg syndrome if magnesium+iron supplementation fails AND treatment-resistant depression Cheap as dirt too ### [Thread, continued, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767328578125926559) · 8 likes 2\) Rapamycin Probably makes u live longer. Something something mTor ### [Thread, continued, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767328579702907351) · 7 likes 3\) levothyroxine I feel like I see thyroid takes from guys a lot, but this is an excuse to say that the base rate of Hashimoto’s for American white women in their 20s (usual age of onset) is like 10% iirc If that’s you and you’re often cold or tired, test TSH at a minimum ### [Thread, continued, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767328581808754756) · 6 likes 4\) aripiprazole Terrifying at normal doses (>5mg, generally 10+), cool adjunct antidepressant at <5mg (generally 2mg) ### [Thread, continued, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767328584623120757) · 8 likes 5\) low dose naltrexone Kinda a meme online but apparently it works for some people with pain and autoimmune stuff. YMMV, seems low risk so plausibly good to try if you’re dealing with that ### [Thread, continued, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767328587164586349) · 6 likes 6\) Prednisone Inspired by recent experience, this is one to know about in case you wanna decide NOT to take it. I didn’t know it was sketchy but apparently it is. If you have an infection maybe just hold off on the steroids and see if the antibiotics do their thing ### [Thread, continued, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767328589052301407) · 12 likes 7\) oxytocin Someone needs to figure out how to molecularly smuggle this past the blood brain barrier so I can take some intranasally and become extroverted 100% serious btw, I want someone to figure this out ### [Thread, continued, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767328590754975913) · 7 likes 8\) probiotic megadose This is a mostly-unjustified hunch I have, not something that really exists as a protocol rn Basically the theory is that probiotics are like SAD lamps and actually you just need way more than current products provide for ### [Thread, continued, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767328592629780578) · 6 likes 9\) Marijuana Inspired by recent experience: even if you think it’s a loser drug and never wanna use it, it might be good to have some around for emergency pain relief (like if you’re already maxing out on ibuprofen but don’t have access to morphine) ### [Thread, continued, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767328594181734401) · 8 likes 10\) Wellbutrin per se Y’all probably know about the molecule, but apparently generic versions suck and this is the rare case when you wanna use the name brand. They have discount cards which make it cheap iirc Also should probably be tried most of the time before SSRIs ## Tuesday, March 12, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 01:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767359013061058791) · 27 likes At some level this is obvious, but as non-proper nouns bioethics and AI ethics actually are good and important - the problem is that at least large parts of both fields are totally wrong about what is and is not ethical > **Quoting Cate Hall (@catehall):** Bioethicist starter pack: > \-“Raises questions about what it means to be human” > \-What consent is truly informed? > \-Rich ppl get access first —> a reason not to develop it > \-Solving the problem might make people care less about the problem :( > \-“A distraction from other health issues" ### [Tweet, 07:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767445728694055231) · 48 likes I really wish I had a few more years to get my life together ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 07:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767447471939047869) · 13 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Is this tweet about being older or short timelines? Short timelines + personal circumstances ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 07:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767451471467975142) · 4 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** 7\) Sleeping Beauty is put to sleep by researchers. They toss a coin. If heads, she is woken up once. If tails, she is woken up twice. She is given a forgetfulness potion after waking up. When she wakes up, what probability should she assign to heads? (Arithmetic, ~125 IQ) 1/2 https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/the-answer-to-the-sleeping-beauty ### [Tweet, 18:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767611845269946562) · 6 likes I don’t know what a sparse autoencoder is and at this point I’m too afraid to ask ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 18:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767614007416852726) · 5 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Meanwhile in the UK https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63642856 Spelling it with a u makes it more mouldy, I can’t explain ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 18:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767614351169528044) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 m o u l d 🦠 ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 18:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767615882757341193) · 2 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** Hahahaha I was in the audience for this How have I not heard this anecdote before? Legendary ### [Reply to @kane, 22:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767680506437546012) · 2 likes > **Kane 謝凱堯 (@kane):** i love this story > > vancouver left nimbys supported indigenous peoples, expecting a noble savage return to wilderness > > the tribes are building 13K homes and adding $15B to their real estate portfolio > > now the left nimbys don’t like the indigenous peoples > > https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/first-nations-reveal-new-concept-for-jericho-lands-redevelopment > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIe6FEmbMAAXD3Z.jpg) > (quoting @Khelsilem: “What chafes critics, even those who might consider themselves progressive, is that they expect reconciliation to instead look like a kind of reversal, rewinding the tape of history to some museum-diorama past.” https://apple.news/AmvjjRLoFRpm_7V0vOM4Y0g) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIgQDWqWkAAxGX1.jpg) ### [Reply to @RethinkPriors, 22:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767684301846405140) · 2 likes > **Rethink Priorities (@RethinkPriors):** Unfamiliar with RP’s Moral Weight Project? > > Listen to the latest @80000hours’ podcast episode with @bobfisc. Bob breaks down the estimation of welfare ranges, their assumptions and limitations – and much more: > https://bit.ly/3TdNJsk ## Wednesday, March 13, 2024 ### [Reply to @robi_rahman, 08:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767824995919507940) · 2 likes > **Robi Rahman (@robi_rahman):** @AaronBergman18 @GjMcGowan even worse, spelling it with a u makes it fr\*nch ### [Reply to @panchromaticity, 08:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767825930993406003) · 2 likes > **Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** help me decide what kind of laptop to get my dad? there seem to me to be ~four competing paths: > > 1\. chromebook (~$300-$500) > 2\. macbook (~$1100-$1500) > 3\. cheapo windows laptop (~$500-$800) > 4\. decent but not really good windows laptop (~$1000-$1500) > > pls discuss pros and cons? MacBook Air if he generally uses apple products, cheapo windows otherwise ### [Reply to @anthrupad, 08:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767834062729715801) · 1 like > **w̸͕͂͂a̷͔̗͐t̴̙͗e̵̬̔̕r̴̰̓̊m̵͙͖̓̽a̵̢̗̓͒r̸̲̽ķ̷͔́͝ (@anthrupad):** no one will ever love you like claude (animation and audio claude generated) > > [video attached](https://x.com/anthrupad/status/1767792989878022319/video/1) Audio is weirdly good ### [Reply to @i_zzzzzz, 11:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767869356283658293) _(The tweet being replied to by @i_zzzzzz is no longer available.)_ Britain must be stopped ### [Reply, 11:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767870794510520780) · 3 likes > **the brave little poaster (@virgil_30):** Ok I’ll settle the score. These are the FOUR things you should look for in a romantic partner: > > \-Migraine headaches > \-Ponderous, unfathomable shoulder pain > \-Habit-forming use of controlled substances > \-Severe gastric distress No just the last two ### [Reply, 11:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767872372479087000) · 2 likes > **the brave little poaster (@virgil_30):** @AaronBergman18 Why only those and are there others you'd add I’d add no sense of fashion and short This truly would be the perfect man ### [Reply to @MatjazLeonardis, 11:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767876281834643785) · 2 likes > **Matjaž Leonardis (@MatjazLeonardis):** Is "you have lots of ideas" => "you should write more" really true? Yes ### [Reply to @izzyz, 11:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767880465690579137) · 2 likes > **izzy (@izzyz):** Tomorrow is GPT-4's 1 year birthday! AHHH! > > [GIF attached](https://x.com/izzyz/status/1767878875122745479/photo/1) > (quoting @OpenAI: Announcing GPT-4, a large multimodal model, with our best-ever results on capabilities and alignment: https://openai.com/product/gpt-4) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIjF6ezWIAAn0ov.jpg) ### [Reply to @bryancsk, 11:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767881330992226779) · 1 like > **Bryan Cheong 🥮 (@bryancsk):** I stopped paying attention for a few years and didn't realise CATL apparently makes batteries for less than $60/kWh, that's an insane price. A US household uses like 25kWh a day > > (quoting @JessePeltan: Even the "experts" don't understand the implications of batteries this cheap. CATL has LFP cells for <$60/kWh now. You're already within a few feet of a battery at all times. Batteries will be ubiquitous.) Wait how to I buy one ### [Quote tweet, 11:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767881469022589377) · 2 likes So uh how do I buy a big battery? > **Quoting Jesse Peltan (@JessePeltan):** Even the "experts" don't understand the implications of batteries this cheap. > > CATL has LFP cells for <$60/kWh now. > > You're already within a few feet of a battery at all times. > Batteries will be ubiquitous. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIfM2JbWUAEcJw-.png) ### [Reply to @danwilliamsphil, 12:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767895956832354516) · 1 like > **Dan Williams (@danwilliamsphil):** MA teaching this afternoon. In vast, unimaginably complex modern democracies, can citizens acquire sufficient knowledge and understanding to make informed decisions? And if they can't, can experts? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIjRo5oWQAAtR_-.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIjRtNcXEAA-6Tp.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIjRyCcWMAAa5-F.jpg) Idk ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 13:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1767903102424760403) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Odd that woodstove buyers don't seem to show a strong preference for high efficiency. I wonder if reframing this as 'expected additional weight of wood to carry' for reduced efficiencies would change this “High efficiency” is lib coded “Wood stove” is not lib coded ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768004944529932506) · 3 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** i don't understand instagram. twitter i get - you're sharing thoughts, having debates, it's a community. Instagram, you post pics of... what? Your work commute? Meals? I rarely have anything to take photos of. It's not well suited for discussion with each other at all. It’s for signaling (not necessarily bad tbc) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 20:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768005700981059947) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Any suggestions for spring flair for my pfp? I realize I've been wearing this Santa hat for 4 months Face ### [Reply to @ThanksThoth, 20:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768012471573356930) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @ThanksThoth is no longer available.)_ Give him some ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 23:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768057680210382961) · 1 like > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Need to hang out at the library more. An old guy next to me is reading the newspaper and every time he turns a page he says "Oh my God." 2 teenagers are arguing about whether Christianity or Islam is correct by citing verses from the Bible and Koran back and forth at each other. Based ### [Reply to @vsbuffalo, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768064058471714979) · 2 likes > **Vince Buffalo (@vsbuffalo):** I'm so sick of conda, and considering moving to pyenv + uv (+ poetry for packages). It seems to work much more slickly. Is there a more preferred way to deal with Python packages? Nobody knows ## Thursday, March 14, 2024 ### [Reply to @connoraxiotes, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768064708047774011) · 2 likes > **Connor Axiotes (@connoraxiotes):** @AndyMasley And then you’ll finally have finished your training run and be fine tuned as an @80000Hours LLM Haha. YES ### [Reply to @BecomingCritter, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768065069747720279) · 2 likes > **critter (@BecomingCritter):** do any of you sometimes get up to do something and forget what you got up for, but instead of trying to remember you just prompt your body to show you, and your hand will suddenly make a scissor cutting gesture or a drink gesture to show you > > realizing maybe this is strange Not that exactly, but often as soon as I start moving again it instigates a thought process that reminds me what it was for ### [Reply, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768080865907675182) · 1 like 1\) what ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 01:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768083841489473593) · 8 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** let’s just assume scifi level superintelligence is three years away > > who do you think would do a better job in the White House responding to the situation Biden administration has reacted way, way better than expected via the EO, and frankly all the staffers all the way down every org chart are simply better and more responsible than they would be under trump Better to think of Biden Administration vs Trump Administration ### [Reply to @gmiller, 01:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768084399185068363) · 3 likes > **Geoffrey Miller (@gmiller):** Trump & Biden would be equally hopeless, reckless, & witless at dealing with ASI. No, I really really think this is the wrong answer ### [Reply to @univrsw3th4rt, 01:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768090917884383428) · 3 likes > **universe sweetheart 💓🌈💭 (@univrsw3th4rt):** today’s my one-year twitterversary! ama about twitter, poasting, etc How if at all has twitter seeped into ur “real life”? ### [Reply to @CarstenStolz, 01:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768093062171939223) · 2 likes > **Carsten (@CarstenStolz):** @the_wilderless $610 including food and utilities for a bedroom in a shared house. Downtown Bloomington, Indiana. Based ### [Quote tweet, 01:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768093128114786309) · 4 likes New Tulsa just dropped > **Quoting Carsten (@CarstenStolz):** @the_wilderless $610 including food and utilities for a bedroom in a shared house. Downtown Bloomington, Indiana. ### [Reply, 01:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768093414157856896) · 1 like The therapist or the wife or both? ### [Reply to @ja3k_, 01:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768094297906135093) · 12 likes > **ja3k (@ja3k_):** Pay should be continuous. If you make 100k/year you should see your bank account go up 1¢ every 3 seconds > > (quoting @GergelyOrosz: One thing I've been wondering about: Why is the US the only place where people get paychecks once every two weeks? And why does the rest of the world follow a once-per-month pay cadence? What caused this difference? (And are there more places paying once-every-two-weeks?)) With continuous compounding interest, using e calculated to 26 sig figs ### [Tweet, 02:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768095184376504729) · 24 likes I think I just consumed like 1/3 of a bottle of soy sauce (unintentional salty boi OMAD). Am I gonna die? ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 02:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768097282459644324) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ It’s a societal level “scam” (not really a scam per se) to make everything in healthcare worse and more expensive but at the individual level no ### [Reply to @inerati, 02:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768097426634641844) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ I don’t use k cups bc caffeine pills are easier and cheaper ### [Quote tweet, 02:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768098266736976126) · 6 likes Based ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GImMAI5WwAEgKjH.jpg) > **Quoting daniel brottman 🪷 (@danielbrottman):** omg lol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Generation_Z_slang ### [Reply to @prerat, 02:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768099311433187355) · 8 likes > **prerat (@prerat):** i feel like we need a different word for a patronizing steelman vs an ideological-turing-test-passing steelman. it's a different kind of metallic man There’s another kind which is like “the actual best argument for the other side, from ur own perspective” which is way underrated IMO. Usually different from ITT steelman ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 02:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768099512180961569) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @SpacedOutMatt @AaronBergman18 Are you two daring each other to do dumb stuff rn? Not yet but I’d be down ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 02:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768099691659461050) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 No but how did you do it? Poured in stir fry pan lol ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 02:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768100789057159676) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 @SpacedOutMatt Pretty sure you already won. How did this happen again? I’ve had 5x24 oz water bottle refills since then so maybe I’m ok? ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 02:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768102174284710180) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 @SpacedOutMatt Maybe pump the brakes on the water for a bit ffs. Hyponatremia actually does suck > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GImPEc7XUAAQepB.png) Wait fuck this makes it \*worse\*? ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 02:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768102920183058662) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 14, 2024:** I think I just consumed like 1/3 of a bottle of soy sauce (unintentional salty boi OMAD). Am I gonna die? Ok guys it’s a lot of sodium but my upper bound is like 9 grams of sodium which is not a lethal dose apparently. Probably more like 5g ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 02:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768103595663143169) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 @SpacedOutMatt Idk if I'd consider it worse or a separate thing. You'll be fine, but if you drank that much over a short time it's possible you're on the cusp. I had a severe case years ago and the few memories I retained are unpleasant I feel ok rn guess I’ll just ride the tiger ### [Reply to @RFishBlueFish, 02:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768104755430105134) · 2 likes > **Gil (@RFishBlueFish):** @AaronBergman18 No, you’re not > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GImRzj3WoAAFl32.jpg) I mean I will eventually, probably ### [Reply to @Insect_Song, 02:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768105694312444126) · 3 likes > **Cogent Sins🔎 (@Insect_Song):** @AaronBergman18 Uhh, maybe? read the sodium content on the bottle & do the maths for how much that is. > > "The lethal dose of table salt is roughly 0.5–1g per kg of body weight." > > Drinking 500ml in one go sends you to hospital. > > https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7438811/ So like 30 grams (probably more) I’m certain I didn’t have that much, but I’m flirting with that order of magnitude so probably gonna not do this again lol ### [Thread, continued, 02:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768105791087624557) · 2 likes As in that’s the lower bound lethal dose. I think I had like 5g ### [Reply to @StatsLime, 02:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768107721218195791) · 1 like > **Max ⏸️ Limelihood 🔸🔸🔸 (@StatsLime):** @AaronBergman18 @nickcammarata @burny_tech > better and more responsible > That's exactly what I'm worried about Wdym I think there’s a thing that’s like an aesthetic of “responsibility” can prevent actually needed radical action but I don’t think that’s the case (relative to the trump admin counterfactual) ### [Reply to @polisisti, 02:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768107830970589547) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 @JesseTayRiver @SpacedOutMatt Current mood: grateful that Aaron hasn't donated one of his kidneys Something something hormesis ### [Reply to @travislambirth, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768111375459459412) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @travislambirth is no longer available.)_ 💯 ### [Reply to @StatsLime, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768112006643503573) · 6 likes > **Max ⏸️ Limelihood 🔸🔸🔸 (@StatsLime):** @AaronBergman18 @nickcammarata @burny_tech That's half the reason, but fundamentally Trump's unpredictability is his biggest advantage on this issue; if you think we're not on track for alignment, the high probability that Trump will just start flailing and randomly banning things is a positive In principle this could be a good argument but I don’t think it is irl Overton window is 1000x what it was 5 years ago, EO was a huge update for me towards Biden admin being both serious and competent on this issue, and general prior on flailing being bad and competence being ### [Reply to @DFine2002, 03:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768115692677538045) · 2 likes > **Derek Fine🛑 (@DFine2002):** "Salty boi" > > Sorry man but that shit is painful to read. > > The only time I'm ok with reading or hearing that is if it's about a man swallowing salty cum. > > Then, & only then, it's tolerable because it's cute & sexy. Lol this did not cross my mind Gonna leave this up but I guess avoid the phrase going forward (?) ### [Reply to @univrsw3th4rt, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768116208321089552) · 2 likes > **universe sweetheart 💓🌈💭 (@univrsw3th4rt):** deleting tweets kinda fucks actually. sometimes i just wanna fucken untweet something If ur never deleting tweets, ur barrier to tweeting is too high ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 20:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768378672774627792) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIpe98fbAAM7nYf.jpg) Yes. YES ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 20:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768378751933386997) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 @ilex_ulmus @austinc3301 (I'm assuming listeners are included in the community) ur invited on but there's kinda a backlog ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768390501013578166) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 @ilex_ulmus @austinc3301 Omg you're so popular No I’m just slow ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 23:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768412771173937433) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** people who think the fda massively overregulates - what's the story with opiod addication? Is it that the type of regulation the FDA uses isn't actually good at preventing large harms from perspcription drugs, or that the costs opiod addication are low realtive to delayed drugs? Bro u have an IQ of like 160 why are u writing like ur drunk ### [Reply, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768421298835759463) Compare this to thalidomide which was 100% a problem of information. There wasn’t a plausibly good trade off there (afaik) Insofar as the FDA can/could have reduce addiction, I think the main avenue would be opening up alternatives (not that they can eg legalize weed ## Friday, March 15, 2024 ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 00:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768427828431688017) · 15 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** What are two opinions you hold, that others would be surprised to hear are both held by the same person? > E.g. "Abortion is wrong" and "Down with the patriarchy", > or "Free Gaza" and "Race and IQ correlate" Veganism morally commendable, probably not healthy long term for most people ### [Tweet, 00:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768430743326241269) · 5 likes New YC just dropped https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/q2PwXNsXsfDYkxeHb/aim-ce-new-program-founding-to-give-apply-now-to-launch-a ### [Reply to @izzyz, 05:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768506731057799593) · 8 likes > **izzy (@izzyz):** there's this fringe animal rights view that says we should consider the suffering of animals in the wild and it makes the most sense to me when my puppy eats all sloppy and i have to wipe her face like who is wiping the snoots of all the little wild baby animals It’s a fringe view that seems obviously correct to me lol ### [Reply to @JeremiahDJohns, 08:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768554774318719454) · 23 likes > **Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** There's a strain of leftist/anarchist politics that boils down to "how dare anyone tell me what to do, ever" > > It's from this idea that you get takes like 'Crime is fine' and 'Adults shouldn't have authority over kids' > > (quoting @muke10101: I think what's cool about school abolition specifically is it's easy to envision changes pretty much immediately on seizing power - why would there be mandatory attendance under a DotP? Why would teachers maintain authority over anyone? We could do away with that right away.) Kids should indeed have more rights, freedoms, and autonomy ### [Reply to @PhilotheosK, 08:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768560817421590911) · 1 like > **Principalities and Powers (@PhilotheosK):** @Empty_America At a certain level, this isn't true. The kids at the top of my school weren't remotely interested in the Colorado School of Mines or OU. They wanted Princeton and Yale, and the Princetons of the world don't give out spots just for being a NM scholar. Cringe warning, whatever… This is basically right afaict. Got offered a full ride to UMD and got rejected from all the ivy-tiers I applied to. This is totally fine, not complaining, still a very privileged position to be in etc but I think full ride to decent school is ### [Tweet, 09:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768564782418764166) · 20 likes Did we ever figure out what happened to the half-trillion dollars the Pentagon lost? That’s a non-trivial share of world wealth lol ### [Reply to @p_millerd, 09:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768566958188900613) · 1 like > **Paul Millerd (@p_millerd):** I listen to podcasts I love and think “I wish I could share this with my audience” > > Seems like there’s an informal norm against doing this without permission. But I’d be happy for anyone to throw up my audio on their feed. > > What do people think? @beala ### [Reply to @goblinodds, 09:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768568637944721697) · 3 likes > **𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** the more i learn abt people the more it seems like 80% of dating problems arent gendered and pretending they are keeps people single and smugly miserable, and the other 20% are gendered but we're not supposed to acknowledge this for political reasons or something > > (quoting @lillybilly299: I wonder if any of you will empathize with the mirror of your situation) Many a correct take throughout the thread Mistake theory of dating is in, conflict theory is out ### [Reply to @Insect_Song, 09:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768573134242816146) · 8 likes > **Cogent Sins🔎 (@Insect_Song):** @AaronBergman18 My understanding is it's not lost, and it's all accounted for, it's just \[obscure accounting terms of art that made my eyes glaze over\]. Sounds like something a guy who lost $500B would say ### [Reply to @LongFormMath, 09:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768573933001793955) > **Jay Cummings (@LongFormMath):** One of the most startling facts in math. Happy pi day everyone! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIo_ZzObEAAC7Aw.jpg) STOP DOING MATH ### [Quote tweet, 10:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768586322350854271) · 8 likes Bought a desk for I think like $100 last year and offered the guy another $20 to deliver He shows up, with his wife (I assume), in one of those shiny Cadillac SUVs that politicians and celebrities often get chauffeured in…??? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GItH4y_WcAA1s5C.jpg) > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Tweet, 11:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768593286162166118) · 12 likes I don’t know who Sydney Sweeney is, what if anything she has to do with some royal person not getting photographed, or what her bra size has to do with anything and if anyone tries to inform me I will block u ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 11:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768597181227782246) · 6 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** Sydney Sweeney (born September 12, 1997) is an American actress. She is known for her roles in the HBO drama series Euphoria (2019–present) and the first season of the anthology series The White Lotus (2021), which earned her nominations for - ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GItRw0vWMAA3b4L.jpg) ### [Reply to @NunoSempere, 11:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768598368538730756) · 2 likes > **Nuño Sempere (@NunoSempere):** Here is a post describing some unflattering aspects of Effective Altruism: https://nunosempere.com/blog/2024/03/05/unflattering-aspects-of-ea/ 👀 ### [Reply to @NunoSempere, 11:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768599678927409390) · 2 likes > **Nuño Sempere (@NunoSempere):** Here is a post describing some unflattering aspects of Effective Altruism: https://nunosempere.com/blog/2024/03/05/unflattering-aspects-of-ea/ This is a good paragraph and fwiw as best I can tell the answer to all these is “yes” I interpret all this as implying “it’s really fucking important that OpenPhil employees are earnest and want to surface and incorporate new information/critiques/whatever” rather than… ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GItUCN2XMAAPinO.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 11:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768600039629238286) · 5 likes it necessarily being bad or unflattering that there isn’t a super formal process for that happening Like at some level Dustin can do whatever he wants with his money, and he doesn’t really owe it to any “member of the community” to have their takes heard out—that is, above and ### [Reply, 11:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768600138702864860) · 1 like beyond the base level ethical reason to want to do good ### [Reply to @NunoSempere, 11:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768600746893689174) · 44 likes > **Nuño Sempere (@NunoSempere):** Here is a post describing some unflattering aspects of Effective Altruism: https://nunosempere.com/blog/2024/03/05/unflattering-aspects-of-ea/ IMO the best response to a lot of these are to make ETG higher status (in proportion to how much u donate!!) and more salient Like atm nobody gets social “credit” for donating $50k/year to some excellent charity, but they really should ### [Reply to @NunoSempere, 11:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768603936213156055) · 4 likes > **Nuño Sempere (@NunoSempere):** @AaronBergman18 I think you are still trapped in an angle where the answer is to plea to a higher power (Open Philanthropy, Moskovitz, "EA should assign more status to xyz"). And, you know, there is a place for that. Yeah, although I think to a non-trivial extent grassroots status campaigns can work bc they don’t necessarily need money to succeed So the “EA” abstraction isn’t best thought of entirely as a higher power in this regard ### [Quote tweet, 11:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768604642148020561) · 44 likes You should get a sexy quarter zip when ur lifetime donations hits $100k or something Humans like status, Google and Jane Street don’t give out their merch for \*advertising\* purposes > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @NunoSempere IMO the best response to a lot of these are to make ETG higher status (in proportion to how much u donate!!) and more salient > > Like atm nobody gets social “credit” for donating $50k/year to some excellent charity, but they really should ### [Thread, continued, 11:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768604803519709592) · 3 likes ^merch given to employees, that is ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 11:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768605520506556789) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** help I can’t predict the next token Twinkle twinkle little \_\_\_\_\_\_ ### [Tweet, 11:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768606093893079151) · 31 likes My time on Hinge has taught me one thing about women: If there’s anything they like as much as Taylor Swift, it’s getting a little sweet treat ### [Thread, continued, 11:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768606474421391830) · 12 likes My uninhibited pharmacology brain says maybe this is bc they’re all chronically low on glycogen ### [Reply to @DaCaveOfWonders, 12:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768608152830799988) · 3 likes > **Tiger Lava Lamp (@DaCaveOfWonders):** Free\* GiveWell merch showed up today > > \*after $57000 of expenses > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIHqryAXgAAyYkG.jpg) Based ### [Reply, 12:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768608301657325910) Should be 24/7 Both for the diligent and those with a fucked up sleep schedule ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 12:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768609948819210339) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** moon I mean presumably it does twinkle a bit for the same reason ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 12:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768609995484975353) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 You get a sexy pin from GWWC when you're been pledged for 1/10/20 years https://x.com/GjMcGowan/status/1579515309421395969?s=20 🥵 ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 12:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768617369469923554) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 You get a sexy pin from GWWC when you're been pledged for 1/10/20 years https://x.com/GjMcGowan/status/1579515309421395969?s=20 Fr though pins are dumb IMO. People don’t just wear pins around. It needs to be something normal so u can casually signal ### [Reply to @CarsonJGale, 13:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768629782516822246) · 3 likes > **Carson Gale (@CarsonJGale):** I would (unfortunately) feel more motivated to donate sooner if there was a legible status event for e.g. $100k of effective donations. You and 99% of other people I’d guess ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 15:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768654486619214139) · 2 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** @AaronBergman18 You can make these! Ya good point, what do u think about a sticker pilot program? ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768668836247531648) > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** back to thinking of doing an econ phd Bro timelines are like 5 minutes and 19 seconds ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768668972138852765) · 1 like > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** @AaronBergman18 Boo Not the answer I expected lol but unironic thanks for the downvote ### [Reply, 16:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768669428399362386) More seriously do we (ie anyone invested enough to be reading this and have an opinion) think custom signal-y quarter zips beat RP for best use of a dollar ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 16:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768677428564500505) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Back for more. The Bookmill's a little holy site for me > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIuUuxXWkAA1E2y.jpg) > [video attached](https://x.com/AndyMasley/status/1768671587123789966/video/1) > (quoting @AndyMasley: Work location for the day. New England attics always feel like ground-level reality to me) Bit of a hike ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIuavxpWsAEC3K6.jpg) ### [Reply to @Daniel_Propson, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768678756862849134) · 3 likes > **Daniel Propson (@Daniel_Propson):** Under what circumstances is it wrong to say something true? Almost every true thing one can say at a given time is probably morally bad, if only a bit bc it’s just confusion/distraction/annoyance ### [Reply to @SluggyW, 17:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768687910310596664) · 2 likes > **Alexander Slugworth (@SluggyW):** @AaronBergman18 Should it be based on an absolute value, or on a percentage of earnings? > > The former might incentivize people to seek higher earnings, increasing the total amount they give. The latter might incentivize people to increase the total amount they give \*without\* needing to earn more. Former The 10% meme is suboptimal ## Saturday, March 16, 2024 ### [Reply to @gracevadams, 02:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768830424195764267) > **Grace Adams 🔸 (@gracevadams):** Things that are not pins are really expensive! I’ve considered making pledger only merch available? But people would likely need to pay out of pocket! Thoughts?? I think it's important that people \*not\* pay out of pocket for the same reason it's cringe if you order yourself a trophy My basic hypothesis is that eg a $50 custom quarter zip actually "costs" negative dollars at least in some aggregate sense just as IRS funding is net + ### [Reply to @AkashWasil, 02:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768832374521872849) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @AkashWasil is no longer available.)_ What proportion of e2g goes to "the EA machine," though (which definitely includes unrestricted donations to OpenPhil and maybe sorta EA Funds to a lesser extent)? Like empirically non-Dustin donors don't do this very much right? ### [Reply to @gracevadams, 03:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768844241982075196) · 1 like > **Grace Adams 🔸 (@gracevadams):** Things that are not pins are really expensive! I’ve considered making pledger only merch available? But people would likely need to pay out of pocket! Thoughts?? This would be $62/item, including shipping each individual thing to a different address and allowing people to choose their size. Tentatively seems good, at least for some donation threshold? Intuitively in the $10k-$100k range maybe? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIwxsdGX0AA2fCR.jpg) ### [Tweet, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768847386779038132) · 8 likes This is cool: paste in your tweets, Claude Opus analyzes you (evidently with a positive bias/filter unless/until you ask for critical feedback, which is shown in the bottom two pics) First prompt: "In nuanced analytical detail, analyze patterns, common themes, style and ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIwzq13XoAAH4fW.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768847389220073763) · 4 likes aesthetics, and inferred personality information based on my Tweets (attached). Pleas focus on the non-obvious; it is ok to speculate. Also discuss how my thoughts and takes have changed over time. Include anything else that may be interesting or cool to know!" ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIwzwgBW0AAGZRD.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768847391635992820) · 8 likes Second: "Thanks! Now be more critical, in all domains and across all axes. I'm an adult and can handle it" ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIwzxwEXUAAr1s6.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768847393754058907) · 3 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIwzzXeXoAAUWKF.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768847395909959985) · 4 likes I only used non-RTs and non-replies, and also removed the left 4 columns to get it under the token limit. Original csv from https://tweetcsv.streamlit.app/ and then this R code: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIw1BfQWIAAlpcB.jpg) ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 03:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768847681558884611) · 2 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** @AaronBergman18 I usually like subtle things, so I like the pin. I wouldn’t mind a zip up, just cause they’re nice, but like strictly for signaling purposes? Nah The whole point is that it's nice enough to wear on its own ie plausible signaling deniability! ### [Reply, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768848284469096920) Nathan I'm dumb plz disregard my previous reply ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 09:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1768934539433283817) · 1 like > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @AaronBergman18 Have you tried Bumble? A while ago, maybe I should retvrn ### [Tweet, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769025847455830103) · 23 likes Few things more annoying than saying “thanks for the support but I just don’t really want to discuss it atm” and the person takes this as a conversational prompt to keep talking/asking questions about the thing ### [Reply to @tyler_m_john, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769025999067377803) · 2 likes > **Tyler John (@tyler_m_john):** @AaronBergman18 @NunoSempere ETG too slow. Work for a fundraising organization or start a competitor. E2g to the fundraising org > infinite recursion ### [Reply to @Aizazadi_, 15:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769026738497933736) · 3 likes > **Aizazadi (@Aizazadi_):** @AaronBergman18 How... is this in any way a prompt to keep talking Ask my parents lol (and fwiw it’s not an “no sorry we have to discuss it atm, I’m ignoring your preference bc tough love” kind of thing) ### [Tweet, 15:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769028960241758312) · 54 likes Getting Chinese Cardiologist vibes from the Boeing thing Is it actually weird/anomalous/bad if once a day, somewhere on earth, a plane has to make an emergency landing and no one gets hurt? ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 15:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769029340329591235) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Good reference Thx U are the librarian in chief ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 15:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769029581577568256) · 32 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** wdym chinese cardiologist > > my take on all of this is we're all pushing towards further social costs from over-regulation because of saliency bias Blocked for not immediately recognizing an allusion to a 9 year old SSC post https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/09/16/cardiologists-and-chinese-robbers/ ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 15:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769029662930326016) · 1 like > **Aaron Bergman, March 16, 2024:** E2g to the fundraising org > infinite recursion FOOM ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 15:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769029994141905334) · 9 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I profusely apologize Unblocked ### [Reply to @SSCDidIt, 16:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769032731957088589) · 2 likes > **SSC Did It (@SSCDidIt):** @SpacedOutMatt @AaronBergman18 I also approve > > [GIF attached](https://x.com/SSCDidIt/status/1769031759646118380/photo/1) Name checks out ### [Reply to @rats7, 16:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769036988961689753) · 1 like > **Eli (@rats7):** i hate it here. the cheap rent is not worth it > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIwE1HkXcAA67Sd.jpg) Wtf ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 16:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769040804595581080) · 10 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** First half-marathon complete! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIzkWFhXkAAtlOa.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIzkWFjWsAAbbM1.jpg) Damn fast af ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769040944320401730) · 9 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** First half-marathon complete! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIzkWFhXkAAtlOa.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIzkWFjWsAAbbM1.jpg) .@DietCoke sponsor her ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIzlXMNX0AAmeGP.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769041084213043268) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 16, 2024:** Damn fast af Might wanna get that zero hr checked out. Seems a bit on the low side ## Sunday, March 17, 2024 ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 00:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769156214200373694) · 4 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** A girl in my son's grade was murdered today. Just an absolute tragedy for so many people in the community Jfc :( ### [Reply to @JacquesThibs, 00:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769157844966990178) · 2 likes > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** In case this isn't clear, Devin (the AI software engineer) is using Steve Hao's account in this exchange. It's trying to get information via chat to solve an issue. > > And yeah, we will be straight up giving admin access to these models. lol > > (quoting @raunakdoesdev: 🤯 crazy exchange on @modal_labs slack between @cognition_labs 's Devin & modal's support team) This ofc isn’t super important in relative terms, but totally ignoring society-level risks I’m pretty unsure whether to do this (give some AI system the direct ability to run arbitrary commands as admin on my laptop) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 00:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769160949259186294) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Aaron you already kinda borked your laptop by pasting chatgpt commands Yeah but that was my fault lol And I misread the thing - chatGPT was right! ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 00:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769162898717167618) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ Robin Hanson said smth like “if you thought the explicit criminal justice system was fair, you’d have no worries about going to trial for some felony after getting randomly/falsely arrested. But you probably would be worried, because almost all of the risk of prison comes in the ### [Thread, continued, 00:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769163252276093169) · 7 likes filter created by (not) getting arrested - which is way way less systematic and legible than the process in criminal court” ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 00:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769163845770101223) · 6 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Are you into EA/Were you pretty into EPCOT? The Disney World Park? ### [Reply to @SwiftOnSecurity, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769169974155698245) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @SwiftOnSecurity is no longer available.)_ Seriously, why does Visa give a shit? ### [Quote tweet, 01:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769176341897769372) · 6 likes I don’t have enough personal experience to be super confident, but I have enough to strongly suspect that despicable status games like this in emergency medicine/response are the norm rather than the exception > **Quoting all power to the people (@realdocv):** Earlier this week we saw a man who was in distress who thought he was having a heart attack in a parking lot. We helped him out, called his ex wife & waited with him for the ambulance. Firefighters arrived first & almost immediately judged him as a drug user. ### [Reply to @bryancsk, 01:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769176921399603639) · 4 likes > **Bryan Cheong 🥮 (@bryancsk):** Why are people actively rooting against AI customer service bots? Do y'all like being on hold on the telephone with a call centre that much People you know and regularly interact with are only calling customer service when there’s a legit need to because whatever info or request they have can’t be done online Probably older and poorer people just call customer service as a first-resort ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 01:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769177306600186051) · 4 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** What subjects would you debate on? > > I want to do some debates. They will have a new design and focused on specific disagreements on the topic. I’ll debate whatever as long as I get to take the contrarian side ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769179682614734888) > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** @AaronBergman18 What do you think you are best talking about? Hmm good q I need to think about this! ### [Reply to @RFishBlueFish, 02:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769182206633582602) · 1 like > **Gil (@RFishBlueFish):** @AaronBergman18 @NathanpmYoung I actually like arguing against the contrarian side Wrong ### [Reply to @dejectedvole, 02:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769184343363100779) · 1 like > **Vampirical Critter 🏴‍☠️ (@dejectedvole):** Blocked for being out of touch > > (quoting @matt_everhard: ⚠️ Real Talk ⚠️ In general - and present company excluded - anonymous accounts are stupid. Put your name in your bio and your face in your profile. Be brave enough to stand on your own beliefs and own your opinions.) Not a bravery thing, I think people just have a false sense of the risks and benefits ### [Reply to @sixers2772, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769190542254956837) · 1 like > **Sixers (@sixers2772):** if you don't mind me asking, what is the reason/intuition behind this hunch? Gut bacteria seem important and it would be weird if dosing didn’t matter. But afaik probiotics don’t reliably do much. Dosing seems like the obvious reconciliation of all this ### [Reply to @sixers2772, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769191578617217192) · 2 likes > **Sixers (@sixers2772):** @AaronBergman18 Yeah, I see. I feel like there is also a terrain kinda thing going on as my impression is probiotics don't really stay lodged in the gut or whatever Someone out there should try to eat like a macroscopic amount (100g ?) of a mix of common probiotic bacteria strains and tell the world what happens ### [Quote tweet, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769191651711336832) · 3 likes Could be you. For science > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @sixers2772 Someone out there should try to eat like a macroscopic amount (100g ?) of a mix of common probiotic bacteria strains and tell the world what happens ### [Thread, continued, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769192627155443890) · 1 like Would be like 250 trillion of the lil dudes ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 02:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769194728078123436) · 1 like > **Aaron Bergman, March 17, 2024:** Hmm good q I need to think about this! Not much surprise here but probably EA-relevant philosophy and cause prio More broadly like why all the standard arguments/critiques against X, where X is a thing broadly supported by the EAish neolib rat tribe, are dumb and wrong but there are other critiques of X that are ### [Thread, continued, 02:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769195260998029540) · 1 like at least less dumb and sometimes in fact true and important (I can think of this kind of thing vis a vis longtermism, animal welfare, GOFEA ie malaria nets in both directions, AI x-risk, non AI x-risk, nutrition and medicine stuff, probably more) ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 03:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769197186678431929) · 2 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** I like Hamilton. It has a bunch of fun, catchy songs. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GI0RU9EWoAAGA7e.jpg) ### [Reply to @univrsw3th4rt, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769209361224642982) · 4 likes > **universe sweetheart 💓🌈💭 (@univrsw3th4rt):** i find that ppl often ask me how i do \[thing they have hangups about\] and most of the time the unsexy answer is simply “i do it by not having those hangups lol” Ya lol @slatestarcodex (afaik) didn’t do a bunch of workshops and introspection and power through words-written quotas with willpower to eventually write both well and a lot https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/01/31/the-parable-of-the-talents/ ### [Reply to @Austen, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769237973063569570) · 1 like > **Austen Allred (@Austen):** No idea if this is fake but some kinds of ice cream aren’t nearly as unhealthy as people think. > > Whole fat milk, egg yolks, honey. Even if it’s low fat milk, normal sugar, no egg, and a bunch of emulsifiers and flavors, plausibly still fine - “empty calories” but not obesogenic ### [Reply, 08:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769277801775927713) Every once in a while I tweet something that people really dislike, and I keep it up if it’s something I’m confident in and willing to stand by Not one of those times - totally possible it was a bad take that wouldn’t have survived serious engagement with the issue ### [Thread, continued, 08:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769279416805286373) Idk why I’m even responding lol, I guess it’s an invitation to consider whether bad, even abhorrent, takes online don’t always indicate fundamentally irredeemable character ### [Reply to @tylerangert, 09:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769289820566688173) · 2 likes > **Tyler Angert (@tylerangert):** So good. This here is the level of self awareness all technical people should aspire to. It takes introspection like this to actually improve computers, since most people who happily tolerate esoteric tools usually forget how much pain they went through to become proficient. Classic curse of knowledge stuff. Being able to break down how much implicit knowledge is required to “just” do something that experts take for granted is what makes Lu great :D > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GE8Fqw2WUAEopsM.jpg) > (quoting @TodePond: i don't like the word "just" https://www.todepond.com/wikiblogarden/better-computing/just/) This is a perpetual take of mine! LLMs really help though - you can say eg “I’m new to this please tell me exactly how to do that step by step” ### [Reply to @AlignmentGuts, 09:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769291734112928254) · 2 likes > **AI Struggler (@AlignmentGuts):** This is honestly where weird retarded alternative health shit has its use. GP’s are all gonna have the same shit, if it doesn’t cover your issues you need to trudge through fucking PeatChat or something Yeah mostly agreed but “naturopaths” range hugely in bullshitty-ness ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 11:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769331424211919068) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @robertwiblin is no longer available.)_ I stand with Rob (we don’t have to pass the America/UK Hates Baseball Act, there are plenty of implicit ways to bury this in the tax code) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GI3tjZ_XEAAMfQq.jpg) ### [Reply to @iatskar, 11:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769332360120533265) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @iatskar is no longer available.)_ Incentive to steal tho ### [Reply to @basedalexandoor, 12:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769336360760930592) · 1 like > **Pata van Goon (@basedalexandoor):** How do I make the pain go away? Opioids > ketamine > weed > ibuprofen ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769461720131457471) > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I hacked my school several times, some went well, some not so well > > (quoting @DrMoneyTrees: ) Elabora 👀 ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769462824076452070) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ 😱 ### [Reply to @danielbrottman, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769470038048645584) · 7 likes > **daniel brottman 🪷 (@danielbrottman):** when i tell chatgpt to explain something like i'm 5 it actually makes it too cutesy, so now the plan is to have it explain to me like i'm 12 I usually use “explain to a very smart layperson” - hard to get comprehensive explanations while minimizing need for tacit knowledge and knowing jargon elsewhere ## Monday, March 18, 2024 ### [Reply to @booritney, 23:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769866317635440820) · 3 likes > **brit (@booritney):** so far my anonymous form has taught me that probably a lot more people have crushes on you than you think My anonymous form has not taught me this But if anyone wants to change that, http://admonymous.co/a ## Tuesday, March 19, 2024 ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 00:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769878142351560906) · 4 likes > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** nukes are just not that scary > > (quoting @literally_chad: Spymaster Google is saying that the max size of an ICBM equipped Russian nuke is 800kt. I calibrated 4 circles around the blast site, and the outside circle means "I felt it, I'm sunburnt, but I can walk it off." If Arlington Cemetery were hit, the Capitol is fine. etc.) \*Russian\* nukes aren’t that scary Chinese nukes are American nukes are Probably other countries’ nukes are ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 00:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769878359616409729) · 3 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** smdh women have it so easy in dating > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GI_eN-8a8AA7eNT.jpg) Lol ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 01:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769892039636746564) · 15 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** you'd think EA, a group dedicated to efficiently lowering suffering, would have been more interested in buddhists, who for thousands of years have claimed to have a testable explanation for the cause of suffering and highly reproducible ~full cure to it The subset of EAs who “take ideas seriously” enough to consider this already found animal suffering and AI ### [Thread, continued, 01:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769893335710224453) · 7 likes Although, even still, I’d be keen to see more discussion of it ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 02:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769914286128701512) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Today marks the 30th anniversary of my bilateral heel fractures. My right heel is reconstructed from 4 fragments, steel hardware & some hip bone that I wasn't using. Since then I've learned a lot thanks to many stupid mistakes 1/2 Happy birthday of sorts ### [Quote tweet, 02:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769914409881637346) · 13 likes Not for me (unironically) > **Quoting University of Toronto (@UofT):** Using X (formerly Twitter) has a negative impact on well-being, according to a new #UofT study 📱 http://uoft.me/ajp > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GI9fdMMXYAA-MrK.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769916427639665116) · 4 likes Based > **Quoting Peter Singer (@PeterSinger):** I applaud the decision of the Parliament of New South Wales to ban some particularly cruel and unnecessary animal experiments. The new law, championed by @MlcHurst, MP, and the @AJPNSW, stops experiments in which animals are placed in water in a smooth-sided container and forced to swim for long periods to avoid drowning.  The legislation also bans experiments in which animals are forced to smoke.  I hope it will be taken up by other Australian states, and other countries too. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GI_24rybUAAAOEX.jpg) ### [Reply to @Prigoose, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769917440706613399) · 3 likes > **priya rose (@Prigoose):** Queens is the Brooklyn of New York > > (quoting @JonCampbellNY: "New York City is the \[insert city here\] of America.") NYC is the NYC of everywhere ### [Reply to @sguyenet, 02:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769919942990741689) · 5 likes > **Stephan J. Guyenet (@sguyenet):** There are a number of potassium supplementation RCTs. Would be interesting to see if they support this. I doubt it Does it matter if they do? For low cost, low risk interventions it’s not obvious that population-level effects matter at all. If it works for 10% of people, makes 10% of people gain weight, and does nothing for 80%, that’s an experiment worth trying (bc weight-gainers can stop) ### [Thread, continued, 02:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769920250684792872) · 3 likes Same thing for antidepressants, which seems to be why clinical experience contradicts the tiny effect sizes documented People keep trying stuff until they find one that works (I do think the field could improve in terms of trying lower risk stuff first tho) ### [Reply to @Timothy02483682, 03:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769924902524489957) · 2 likes > **Timothy Barnes (@Timothy02483682):** @absurdlymax Working out while reading philosophy in between the sets? Also moral weights. @NathanB60857242 ### [Reply to @adam__isom, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769941392971743625) · 2 likes > **adam ✧ ❥ ~ (@adam__isom):** not me. real. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJAO3X1bwAAq4f_.png) I’ll defend this ### [Reply to @eris_nerung, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769942046163312850) · 39 likes > **secret eris (@eris_nerung):** walking up to all the people dying of malaria and malnutrition, doomed to a life of drinking contaminated water and shitting in a hole on the ground and telling them "just medidate bro" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJAKOTUXQAATj8Q.jpg) It’s a fair point by Nick Lots of things like this that don’t even get discussed (cluster headaches get a few likes here and there but there’s no real effort to address it afaik, nothing on akathesia, minimal effort on pain relief, ~nothing on anti-tolerance drugs) ### [Quote tweet, 04:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769942993572634672) · 4 likes \\super{b}ᵃˢᵉᵈ > **Quoting Carson Gale (@CarsonJGale):** @MichaelJDickens @AaronBergman18 I'm at ~$60k, getting there! ### [Quote tweet, 04:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769945115622097188) · 3 likes I swear to god Taylor Swift is unironically a big deal, culturally, and an interesting, not fully explained phenomenon > **Quoting rosey🌹 (@thechosenberg):** Honestly not the craziest list but it just never looks good once written down and shared (picture from r/Tinder) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GI_KW70asAAH1RV.jpg) ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 04:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769946104165024201) · 2 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** How often do you deliberately use caffeine? Bro ur making me look like a junkie u need to make one of the options above me ### [Quote tweet, 04:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769948238054875640) · 28 likes I think full-throated EA applied exclusively to improving the lives or reducing the suffering only of humans alive right now would look a lot different than the Global Health and Development status quo > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @eris_nerung It’s a fair point by Nick > > Lots of things like this that don’t even get discussed (cluster headaches get a few likes here and there but there’s no real effort to address it afaik, nothing on akathesia, minimal effort on pain relief, ~nothing on anti-tolerance drugs) ### [Thread, continued, 04:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769948432456700055) · 5 likes Not to mention grappling with AI instead of pretending it doesn’t exist and throwing money at GiveWell Yes - even if we totally ignored people not yet born ### [Thread, continued, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769949795328671795) · 3 likes S/o to @JesseTayRiver’s wife for tackling the pain relief one Might have to zoom her to the top of the Pigeon Hour agenda ### [Reply, 07:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1769991941762973980) · 1 like > **the brave little poaster (@virgil_30):** @AaronBergman18 I don’t really understand—are you saying it’s plausible that Buddhist theology can provide a compelling account of akathisia? No not at all, just that there are a bunch of areas/interventions that the “help humans now” branch of EA seems to ignore without (at least explicit) justification No direct connection between Buddhism and akathesia ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 08:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770005358037111069) · 4 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** How so? Much harder to say what it would look like than to say that it would look different. I have my list of guesses (eg those in the quoted tweet above) of what would make the cut But this dynamic is the reason I think it would look different ## Wednesday, March 20, 2024 ### [Tweet, 00:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770250521875460150) · 3 likes There’s a good chance if you’re reading this that you should seriously consider applying https://www.aimfoundingtogive.com/ ### [Reply to @moreisdifferent, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770277529305088261) · 3 likes > **Dan Elton 🔍 (@moreisdifferent):** The past few weeks I've been experimenting with a trancutaneous vagus nerve stimulator (http://vagus.net) which sends DC current pulses through your ear (for whatever reason the vagus nerve has a branch in each ear). You're supposed to use it for 10-20 minutes a day. > > I'm mainly trying to see if it will help me sleep better. I do notice some transient calming effects when using it sometimes, but otherwise I can't really tell if its doing much. It's pretty interesting though! An inplanted vagus nerve stimulator is FDA approved for treatment-resistant depression. > > I've also ordered the Pulsetto device which stimulates the vagus nerve branches in the neck. Bryan Johnson uses the Pulsetto if he wakes up in the middle of the night and he claims it helps him get back to sleep. Bryan Johnson also uses an ear-clip type vagus nerve stimulator daily for longevity purposes. > > This is a podcast with someone who is very bullish about tVNS: > "Douglas Bremner: Treating PTSD with Vagus Nerve Stimulation" https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/douglas-bremner-treating-ptsd-with-vagus-nerve/id1504335042?i=1000537631199 > > There are also anecdotal reports tVNS can be useful for #LongCOVID and a pilot underpowered RCT on it suggesting it might be helpful: "A pilot randomized controlled trial of supervised, at-home, self-administered transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) to manage long COVID symptoms" > https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9238186/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2Zy-yJWsAEumv8.jpg) Hey any update? Think it helped at all? Considering getting this (not for long covid tho) ### [Reply to @gracevadams, 05:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770317914752623021) · 6 likes > **Grace Adams 🔸 (@gracevadams):** If you’ve considered taking the GWWC Pledge but haven’t yet - why not? What could we do to help you to feel confident in taking the pledge? No stable income atm Also like I get there’s a whole vibe and community and (most importantly I’m guessing) anti-value drift element but in literal terms the pledge is strictly reducing your future optionality. Like why would I promise to give 10% instead of just giving 10% lol ### [Thread, continued, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770318952989610240) · 3 likes Also this is very half baked and I’ve actually been meaning to ask around more, but it seems plausible that many donors should basically invest the money on behalf of the organization they intend to support The basic rational actor model says that this is dumb bc charities can ### [Thread, continued, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770319271513538968) · 5 likes invest if that’s what makes the most sense, but I have heard and also personally suspect that there is a good bit of pressure on charities not to do this (bc of blowback if they lose money) even though in some sense they wish they could ### [Reply, 06:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770340681988383070) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Someone explain plz I am curious ### [Reply to @bayeslord, 06:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770341369116020942) · 7 likes > **bayes (@bayeslord):** in case you needed more evidence that ea thinking is largely just an expected value themed wrapper for garden variety retarded virtual signaling, here we have someone utterly failing to understand nick’s point because they are too busy shrieking for social status > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJGDQD9XEAA0C1n.jpg) That’s…one guy ### [Quote tweet, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770528098590597459) · 2 likes Who is closest to my all-things-considered doppelgänger? Dw it’s fine if you tag them bc I’d want to know 👀 > **Quoting Roman Hauksson-Neill (@RomanHauksson):** Out of 8 billion people, it’s likely at least one is scarily close to me in personality, like a real doppelgänger. I’m trying to figure out how to acausally coordinate with him so we can meet each other. Any ideas for schelling points? ### [Quote tweet, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770529314812956929) · 189 likes Turns out a “virtual environment” is also just a folder (with some files inside) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Computer ppl keep inventing new words for things > > Ever heard some nerd say “repository” or “repo”? Turns out they mean a fucking folder > > Now some mf decided to rename program/app to “container” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8BdRqCXYAAynBm.jpg) ### [Reply to @polisisti, 19:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770533239867748375) · 3 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** Dear non-Canadian friends, I'm curious how you do on this > > (quoting @TheStalwart: How many Canadian universities can you name? For me it's McGill Dalhousie UBC University of Waterloo I think that's it. Can anyone top that?) I don’t actually know any of these, but I’m guessing the following exist: U of \_\_\_\_\_\_ and/or \_\_\_\_\_\_ U For the following: Quebec, Montreal, Nova Scotia, Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario ### [Reply, 19:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770533909714833677) · 1 like I looked at google maps (cheating) and now I wanna go to canada. Looks nice and cold ### [Reply to @polisisti, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770534770167951609) · 1 like > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 Would love to show you around a few places in Toronto if you can make it sometime 🥰 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦 ### [Reply to @besttrousers, 19:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770535090897985800) · 10 likes > **Matt Darling 🌐🏗️ (@besttrousers):** We should also rescale feet so "10" is a really tall person and "1" is a really short person. > > (quoting @tomgara: As a lifelong Celsius guy who has been reluctantly dragged into Fahrenheit over the last decade I think “scaled to human experience” is in fact the biggest thing Fahrenheit has going for it (and same goes for most imperial measurements)) It’s already like this 😭😭😭 ### [Reply to @polisisti, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770536071962468415) · 1 like > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** Good approach, and you're sort of correct with these - I'd say 5/10 are very close > > Québec City's university is called Laval University. In Montreal, there's a Université de Québec à Montréal, plus 3 other universities > > The big university in Vancouver is UBC; in NS, Dalhousie What about University of Uranium City ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJI1LF8XYAAdx4C.jpg) ### [Reply to @polisisti, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770541730221224121) · 1 like > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 Now that the town of Asbestos has renames itself, Uranium Cory City may be the best name for a Canadian municipality that's based on a natural resource > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJI2nJdWsAALe42.jpg) They should have made it AsBESTos ### [Reply to @eepysillyboy, 20:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770544275266085359) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @eepysillyboy is no longer available.)_ mv agus folder/ ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770544667483934933) · 19 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** aaron you’re getting on my nerves rm agus ### [Reply to @eepysillyboy, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770545150239907854) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @eepysillyboy is no longer available.)_ 😈 ### [Reply to @notcomplex_, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770548968755208571) · 6 likes > **Alex (@notcomplex_):** Mackenzie Scott has donated over 17.3 billion dollars of her and Bezos' divorce settlement. She just released a 2024 update. > > So, where is the money going? > > Top focus area: Race and ethnicity (39%) > Bottom focus area: Art (1-2%) > > Here's the giving by focus area: > > Thread 🧵 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJIL8knWsAALxpd.jpg) Pain ### [Reply to @chinarddankhara, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770550706497257868) · 3 likes > **Chinar Dankhara (@chinarddankhara):** @AaronBergman18 I mean if you really wanna boil it down, all storage is a file or a folder and all computation is string manipulation 😱😱😱 ### [Reply to @exfatloss, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770554184292852015) · 1 like > **exfatloss🥛 (@exfatloss):** So you're saying it's just a bucket of carolies? > > (quoting @SeedOilDsrspctr: Human metabolism is very complex. I’m not saying seed oils (high omega-6) are the only cause of every problem. I am saying that existing research into virtually every modern chronic metabolic illness has directly or indirectly indicted seed oils.) Hey it’s my poster (ft. Air quality monitor, and corn bulb) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJJFpTTWYAALN05.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770564143013155201) · 9 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 20, 2024:** Turns out a “virtual environment” is also just a folder (with some files inside) Looks like you need a grand total of...1029 individual files to just do anything in python. No pip install whatever or files created by me, this is just after doing what chatGPT tells me to do to make a virtual environment (i.e., folder) [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1770563597900337153/pu/img/bMX8GxlY6aZ5t5Ry.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770564143013155201/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @ConnorTabarrok, 21:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770565036735385810) · 1 like > **Connor J. Tabarrok 🏗🚀🌏 (@ConnorTabarrok):** How do you regulate indoor CO2 without triggering pollen allergies? (I live in a stuffy Austin apartment, AQ filters can handle dust and cooking but struggle to clean pollen PPM) 👀 ### [Reply to @caleb_parikh, 21:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770566583426883833) · 9 likes > **Caleb Parikh (@caleb_parikh):** rm: agus : is a directory rm -rf caleb ### [Reply, 21:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770566948650193107) · 1 like pkill -f Agus ### [Reply, 21:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770567092149891315) · 1 like Honestly this isn’t a bad way to teach me this stuff lol ### [Thread, continued, 21:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770567187201233153) · 2 likes If u reply I’ll have to pull out the -9 flag ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 21:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770568946996900303) · 6 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** out of curiosity, I filled the UK National Careers Service's “Skills assessment”, aimed at suggesting career choices > > some of my top career suggestions: > \- carpet fitter and floor layer > \- sports psychologist > \- bookmaker (apparently someone who organizes “gambling activities”) > > ??? So basically Jane street quant ### [Reply, 21:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770569653934260662) Bc of like the whole operating system these depend on? Fair, retvrn to abacus ### [Reply, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770570050937798802) Like that many in ur working directory? How/why? ### [Reply, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770570152033071614) Total and complete ban on python-related 3 letter things until we can figure out what the hell is going on ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 21:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770570687578583120) · 1 like > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 Oh no just hanging out in the background. A function has dependencies and then the test environment needs to be built with its dependencies and of course you need something to handle building all these dependencies together don’t you Aaron Tbh I don’t actually know what a dependency is beyond some fuzzy tautological notion of “what a thing depends on” ### [Reply, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770571026843263149) So isn’t the operating system a dependency for numpy then? ### [Reply, 22:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770571338979094802) · 1 like Pip uninstall George Pip3 uninstall George Pipx uninstall George Conda uninstall George Brew uninstall George Npm uninstall George ### [Quote tweet, 22:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770574280129978875) · 3 likes QT for the algo boost, I have no intrinsic preference but want to know > **Quoting Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Do you think beards look good? Are you a man or a woman? ### [Reply, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770580081296986157) · 4 likes O shit is that a folder too ### [Reply to @J_K_Chesterton, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770585909060071641) · 1 like > **Alexander Popemobile (@J_K_Chesterton):** @AaronBergman18 Hmm. Is it hard to teach language, though? Or is it just sometimes very easy to learn? Yeah I think so, in the sense that “teach” seems to imply active, explicit instruction Whereas the learning mostly comes via immersion, sometimes without any “teaching” at all ### [Reply to @tszzl, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770595479727804777) · 3 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** what needs to be done to create the good timeline? I’m not sure, but it definitely could (>1% ?) involve a few concerned Members of the Technical Staff putting their foot down on some matter The Sama escapade demonstrated your power, but that goes both ways. If you (plural) want him out, he’s out ### [Thread, continued, 23:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770596651842806184) · 2 likes For better or worse, I think this would probably look way less interesting and dramatic Maybe just a dozen of you in a slack saying you’re willing to walk away from a lot of money if some concern isn’t addressed. Outsiders may never hear about it ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770597332045779118) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 11, 2024:** 45.75) another fundraiser incentive dropped recently (for hitting $10k)! 46\) In the spirit of Petrov Day, we should have a “People who did the right thing at considerable cost or risk to themselves but whose story we’ll (likely) never hear about” Day ## Thursday, March 21, 2024 ### [Reply to @yonashav, 00:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770601704129495182) · 3 likes > **Yo Shavit (@yonashav):** i’ve started doing a lot of “stakeholder alignment”, which is a very strange job. > 1\) it takes sooo much time > 2\) it doesn’t feel like we’re \*doing\* anything > 3\) it’s key for anything interesting to happen > > friends from tech who switched to this, any advice? Not an answer but, if you can share, what does this actually mean/look like more tangibly? I’m just curious ### [Tweet, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770667589204599121) · 63 likes It’s an honor ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJKsyfGWwAAbrXn.jpg) ### [Reply to @univrsw3th4rt, 04:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770672001373425813) · 4 likes > **universe sweetheart 💓🌈💭 (@univrsw3th4rt):** ok since y’all are so smart and u got ur fkn degree…….what else would help accomplish this 😭 exercise??? > > (quoting @univrsw3th4rt: having sex genuinely (temporarily) fixes my executive dysfunction. and today i’m feeling particularly executivy dysfunctional so…who’s solving this) I mean ADHD is basically executive dysfunction so amphetamine and methylphenidate. Phenylalanine supplementation on an empty stomach (or really not with any other protein) as well, and caffeine Behaviorally you want to elevate endogenous phenethylamine so yeah exercise ### [Reply to @parafactual, 04:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770672706221973774) · 2 likes > **You (@parafactual):** @AaronBergman18 @univrsw3th4rt and how is that affected by cardio vs strength/lifting? Idk on either, maybe smth to research ### [Quote tweet, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770692730718433767) · 11 likes Agreed > **Quoting depths of wikipedia! (@depthsofwiki):** wikipedia talk pages are very beautiful to me > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJKclSnWgAAiyn9.jpg) ### [Reply to @thedimitri, 06:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770693109917077659) · 58 likes > **Dimitri (@thedimitri):** This guy is a legend > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJIR4-7WsAAuPD-.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJISDtvXIAAqbsy.jpg) Almost banal observation, truly didn’t warrant an apology ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 16:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770850527531737191) · 18 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Ya agreed. De-moralize the situation ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770880982054302136) · 41 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ Seems like one of those ratchet effect things where strict norms legibly prevent genuine acute abuses of power but also subtly lead to fewer, weaker, and less fulfilling interpersonal relationships across the board ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770882131025162542) · 28 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ I truly honestly do not see the comment as misogynistic Unironically, please lmk how/why you think it is ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770883936173932873) · 69 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ The fact that human behavior obeys market dynamics in some senses (including men! And everyone!) seems utterly banal Men are people, women are people, yes, that doesn’t make us above incentives and group dynamics and such ### [Tweet, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770887334671581508) · 16 likes City thirst-trap ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJN0pMkWoAARRWW.jpg) ## Friday, March 22, 2024 ### [Tweet, 02:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1770994327893819815) · 62 likes Fuuuuck it has been brought to my attention that tweets like this read as way stronger, more sus, and more controversial than my brain flags them as Honest to God thanks to an anonymous feedback provider (http://admonymous.co/a) and some irl friends who let me know Fuck ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJPV9BGXQAEuoij.jpg) ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771043833528090679) · 1 like > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** convinced this is a kink for her atp Adenosine triphosphate? ### [Quote tweet, 20:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771276382808461475) · 60 likes Pretty interesting: it seems like there’s a hardcore blue tribe/grey tribe split \~Nobody thinks anything I or the professor said was literally wrong or immoral, but blue tribe thinks some of it is (like “all lives matter”) reasonably strong evidence of a package of … > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Fuuuuck it has been brought to my attention that tweets like this read as way stronger, more sus, and more controversial than my brain flags them as > > Honest to God thanks to an anonymous feedback provider (http://admonymous.co/a) and some irl friends who let me know > > Fuck > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJPV9BGXQAEuoij.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 20:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771276385161499122) · 58 likes hostile, anti-feminist views and character Issue here, unlike with “all lives matter”, is this signal is \*not\* common knowledge. Grey tribe (well, at least me) doesn’t know it signals anything at all As usual, ACX has the best insight on the matter https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/give-up-seventy-percent-of-the-way ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 20:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771276822862242037) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** ok America is very pretty and I like it here > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJSXif6XcAAZov2.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJSXifkWAAEHkg8.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJSXifhWIAACtKK.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJSXifkWUAAGdJe.jpg) 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 20:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771280068171473115) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** They should put an em dash key on keyboards so we don't have to do inane things like type '--' Replace caps lock ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 21:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771288617521959336) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @GjMcGowan Fuck I wish they were 🙏 🙏🏼 ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 21:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771289826223947980) · 10 likes > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** @AaronBergman18 what's the original context? i'm morbidly curious but i don't have any idea what this is even about Idk anything more than is apparent in the screenshots lol ### [Reply to @Mihonarium, 21:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771293570944696363) · 1 like > **Mikhail Samin (@Mihonarium):** There's a lunar halo in Berkeley! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJQgW1UbkAA_-IZ.jpg) Very normal, definitely not a sign from God ### [Reply to @iroasmas, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771296584770179540) · 1 like > **Spooky Brian Graham 🦬🎃 (@iroasmas):** (my 2yo son and i have just lined up a few dozen dominoes, setting up a respectable cascade) > > me: okay so now we knock them over from— > > son: KNOCK OVER (swipes all with arm sweep) AHAHAHAHA AGAIN DADDY I LOVE DONOIMOS Based ### [Reply to @bedtime_enjoyer, 22:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771298115909284287) · 8 likes > **Bedtime Futurist ☀️🏗️🚀 (@bedtime_enjoyer):** I know that this kinda thing bothers blue tribe, but it’s hard to put exactly into words why > > They don’t like ideas like ‘sexual marketplace’ at all. Optimizing or strategizing on dating behaviour. It gives them huge ick > > Blue tribe has a lot of unwritten conventions/ boundaries Yeah this seems right ## Saturday, March 23, 2024 ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 06:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771422257866236106) · 1 like > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** @AaronBergman18 I'm glad you think out loud here, tbh, and I know it gets you ratio'd sometimes but I just want you know I like you being earnest and curious and expressing opinions on the TL 🙏🏼 ### [Reply to @depthsofwiki, 06:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771422937528352897) > **depths of wikipedia! (@depthsofwiki):** imagine if your joke bombed so hard that wikipedia wrote an entire about it > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJUS0x4WwAAHHA4.jpg) F ### [Reply to @livgorton, 06:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771424650578526630) · 4 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** i wish someone would write to me the way claude writes to himself > > (quoting @DimitrisPapail: what the... cc'ing @repligate (this is with 0 input from me. the hell?)) I won’t tag the person I’m thinking of tagging ### [Reply to @RomanHauksson, 07:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771431830593605761) · 1 like > **Roman Hauksson-Neill (@RomanHauksson):** The local rationalist group and I are going out to a club for my 21st birthday. The dance floor is about to get Bayesian 😎 ### [Reply to @depthsofwiki, 07:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771440527830851645) · 17 likes > **depths of wikipedia! (@depthsofwiki):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJVMwjxWQAAMQP7.jpg) Not to bully @DocuSign but ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJVrxT1WIAAWLAm.jpg) ### [Reply to @RomanHauksson, 07:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771440600694292723) · 1 like > **Roman Hauksson-Neill (@RomanHauksson):** Update: had a couple drinks, danced awkwardly for a couple hours, heading home now :) Happy birthday! ### [Reply to @me_im_chloe, 07:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771444817844744259) · 28 likes > **chlobuchar (@me_im_chloe):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJTSmZAWkAEyW7a.jpg) Neat word, I’m gonna start using ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJVvq-eWoAArj_s.jpg) ### [Reply to @RFishBlueFish, 08:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771451651452269054) · 1 like > **Gil (@RFishBlueFish):** Don’t even get me started on Sam Bowman and Sam Bowman or even Aaron Bergman and Alexander Berger lol ### [Reply to @RFishBlueFish, 08:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771451839071834603) · 2 likes > **Gil (@RFishBlueFish):** Don’t even get me started on Sam Bowman and Sam Bowman or even Aaron Bergman and Alexander Berger Wait I did not realize there were two Sam Bowman’s till just now ### [Reply to @AILeaksAndNews, 08:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771454990692823173) · 1 like > **AI Leaks and News (@AILeaksAndNews):** @izzyz 9:00am+no caffeine+ADHD=you’ll see me at 9:30 Pm ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 09:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771468381876531618) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @mealreplacer Julian why is this image the background to your conversation with Rob > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJWEm7UXgAAcLjT.jpg) Lmao ### [Reply to @Top1Rating, 09:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771470494471962641) · 1 like > **The Next Gen (@Top1Rating):** Is that dress white and gold or blue and black? > A look at how we perceive color > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJSEL5EacAArCbc.jpg) Cursed ### [Reply to @ipodmacbook, 10:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771477972903452771) · 12 likes > **h (@ipodmacbook):** this photo is so confrontational.....you just know these two have crazy beef.. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJS3gxRXUAIkcdQ.png) I can fix him ### [Reply to @sarahwaters420, 10:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771480978495524995) · 2 likes > **Eugene V. D.E.B.S. (2004) (@sarahwaters420):** I was taking a rideshare today and thought the driver said something to me but he was like “no no I was talking to Patricio” and then plopped Patricio down on the dashboard > > [video attached](https://x.com/sarahwaters420/status/1771269863727644870/video/1) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJTQiH5X0AAVg3T.jpg) Based ### [Reply to @datepsych, 10:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771484293979635987) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @datepsych is no longer available.)_ Wait I rly want to know which animal I correspond to Extroversion: low Agreeableness: avg (decomposes into low and high subparts) Conscientiousness: low Openness: high Neuroticism: avg-high ### [Tweet, 12:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771507466355826940) · 48 likes Listening to Going Infinite (finally) and it’s good but did Caroline Ellison consent to her therapist talking to Michael Lewis? Bc if not that’s a big wtf ### [Thread, continued, 12:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771507468826259903) · 20 likes HIPAA behavior is weird bc on one hand the healthcare industry will build bespoke secure video meeting software bc Google could theoretically infer protected patient info from Google Meet metadata or something, but I’ve had doctors eg casually mention info about me to ### [Thread, continued, 12:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771507470457774187) · 22 likes my parents at \*their\* appointments (we share the same people uncoincidentally), when I didn’t sign a release or anything, probably bc the info wasn’t super personal or like scandalous and they (correctly, luckily for both of us) inferred I wouldn’t care too much ### [Reply to @notanastronomer, 12:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771519538246398290) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @notanastronomer is no longer available.)_ Sounds like he was formally a psychiatrist at one point though, before FTX ### [Reply to @moreisdifferent, 12:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771520206323466724) · 2 likes > **Dan Elton 🔍 (@moreisdifferent):** @AaronBergman18 You’re fine w ur xeet, the haters are either a-holes or dealing with some sort of psychological problem quite frankly. > > That said, I would not say “all lives matter” unless you intend to disparage BLM - it has a very strong connotation at this point of being an anti-BLM slogan. Ya that’s exactly what I was getting at. Like I am/was aware of \*this\* connotation ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 12:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771520663443980391) · 4 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** @AaronBergman18 @notanastronomer Also not in america, not sure what Bermudas laws are He was in Berkeley Ca during the relevant part of the book ### [Reply to @AFraserUrq, 12:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771521013865435572) > **Alastair Fraser-Urquhart (@AFraserUrq):** twitter is this a lifehack > > [video attached](https://x.com/AFraserUrq/status/1771516539419721827/video/1) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJWwzq1W4AA7MrX.jpg) What am I looking at? ### [Reply to @AFraserUrq, 12:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771521915137515659) · 2 likes > **Alastair Fraser-Urquhart (@AFraserUrq):** https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/256270878 > > https://amzn.eu/d/2OnoViR > > yummers Lmao these are like $20, buying! ### [Reply to @Bbburner19, 13:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771527563300536566) · 4 likes > **The People Mover That Was Promised (@Bbburner19):** George Lerner, there have been some claims that he hit on some of his patients and over prescribed others (including potentially SBF who was taking a mix of ADHD and depression drugs with a known dangerous interaction that can cause excessive risk taking.) Oh yeah I’m very anti-excessive caution in psychiatry (eg MAOIs should be used way more) but emsam + adderall is legit pretty sus. Even Ritalin would have been safer with emsam I think cc @FrostedSapling ### [Quote tweet, 14:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771541532589367447) · 12 likes In case anyone wants to know what a little shit I was, I used to cry over not winning the Pinewood Derby (and much else besides) > **Quoting Matt Darling 🌐🏗️ (@besttrousers):** My entry in the "Pinewood Derby: Dads" competition is not particularly aerodynamic. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJXFgEgX0AEFZvf.jpg) ### [Reply to @therealkrantz, 14:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771547595497672833) · 1 like > **Krantz Hanzinpantz🔭🔍🔬 🔀🏡📞🏡📞 (@therealkrantz):** What principle is the first amendment aimed at? First and also right to listen ie do the hearing ### [Reply to @StatisticUrban, 15:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771555729591181807) · 3 likes > **Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** Never once in my life has ordering DoorDash been less anxiety inducing than microwaving a frozen meal. I’m not going crazy here right And dollar for dollar at least some frozen things are way healthier, and at least you know what’s inside regardless. Idk why anyone ever gets takeout/delivery tbh ### [Quote tweet, 15:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771556893397221786) · 15 likes Hypothesis: LLMs increase returns to conscientiousness and decrease returns to IQ A lot of things can now be accomplished by carefully following a list of instructions and asking followup/clarification questions as needed > **Quoting Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** IQ and conscientiousness both lead to professional success, but their relative value vary. > > My guess is that routine work-adding bureaucracy/legal requirements often make jobs more conscientiousness-loaded, whereas routine work-saving technology often make them more IQ-loaded. ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 15:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771561742562214165) · 1 like > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** @AaronBergman18 I'm not sure. LLMs are so flexible and general o expect them to continue to generate returns to human intelligence beyond 130. > > And that may be even more true as they improve. I guess I was imaging a regression of like wage on IQ and conscientiousness, and the coefficient on IQ would be negative But a regression with just IQ would show a positive effect, I agree ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 15:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771563087553798538) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** > > [GIF attached](https://x.com/NoahTopper/status/1771560138232529043/photo/1) Happy birthday! Ur officially not in ur early 20s so basically middle aged ### [Tweet, 18:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771604508931502294) · 4 likes Do you live in the metro areas of NYC, “the Bay Area,” Boston, DC, or London? ## Sunday, March 24, 2024 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 12:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771876706577461753) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** 🦐 🦐 ### [Reply to @notanastronomer, 12:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771879282945433759) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @notanastronomer is no longer available.)_ IMO u have significant post doctoral success ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 12:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771880099744198943) · 2 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Everything is similar to everything in some ways. > > These are not sufficiently similar all-things-considered for it to be a useful comparison. > > (quoting @Noahpinion: Comparisons between the Cultural Revolution and the Woke Era get laughed at. The Woke Era didn't use violence, of course. But the \*motivation\* of people wanting to overturn social hierarchies, especially students wanting to overturn academic hierarchies, is recognizably similar.) \*immediately tries to think of counterexample\* ### [Quote tweet, 12:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771881165353332875) · 7 likes What are the very least similar two things? > **Quoting Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Everything is similar to everything in some ways. > > These are not sufficiently similar all-things-considered for it to be a useful comparison. ### [Reply to @tsarnick, 12:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771882955742277693) · 3 likes > **Tsarathustra (@tsarnick):** Who is the most over-rated intellectual of all time? Kant ### [Tweet, 13:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771885005960052743) · 35 likes Sister asked what I wanted for my birthday. I said a 128GB RAM M3 MacBook Pro. Guess what just arrived☺️☺️☺️ ### [Thread, continued, 13:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1771885014289928477) · 38 likes You guessed it, a framed piece of paper with the word “roo” on it (it’s an inside joke) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJcAB5JXwAAFbDh.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772011819751575923) · 13 likes I think this comes through but just in case: I think the Roo sign is a great gift (in the small category of things that are only valuable as a gift, not if u buy yourself) and I would have had serious concerns if she got me a MacBook ### [Reply to @AnniePosting, 21:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772013835974488387) · 1 like > **annie 👁❌🦋🪞 (@AnniePosting):** @AaronBergman18 You're way too invested in the opinions of twitter people lol. You deleted a tweet a few days ago because people yelled at you and now you're adding a disclaimer to an obvious joke. Eh maybe, this felt more like a clarification upon rereading than preempting the mob And a bunch of people who’s opinions I value think the total opposite, that I’m way to willing to wade into gender discourse and such at all and should be way more wary of what ppl think ### [Reply to @RuxandraTeslo, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772049263108792558) · 1 like > **Ruxandra Teslo 🧬 (@RuxandraTeslo):** Had a migraine for the past 2 days on and off. Can’t explain how depressing it is to just lay around, in the midst of so many projects, wanting to use your brain and not being able to. Extreme vibe. Not bc migraine for me but still ### [Reply to @KatSpartz, 23:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772049877482058233) · 10 likes > **Kat Spartz ⏸️ 🔶 (@KatSpartz):** This is brilliant and alas, not how most people seem to think > > (quoting @bryan_caplan: “Step 1: Look at how emotional each side is. “Step 2: Assume the less emotional side is right and the more emotional side is wrong.” https://www.betonit.ai/p/the_mellow_heurhtml) Seems very midwit. Sometimes strong emotions reflect reality/skin in the game ### [Reply to @DeepDishEnjoyer, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772050433017630757) · 25 likes > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** Not to be that guy but I bet most people on earth do NOT know who Dostoevsky is > > (quoting @nikicaga: I'm pretty sure most people have heard of Dostoevsky) Idk who he is. I wanna say classical music guy but also maybe author? 80% it’s one of those, this is the extent of my knowledge ## Monday, March 25, 2024 ### [Reply to @DeepDishEnjoyer, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772050778062016843) · 15 likes > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** Say sike right now. Hey I was right! ### [Reply to @DeepDishEnjoyer, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772051381882322964) · 5 likes > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJeW3PdXwAADkhF.png) > (quoting @AaronBergman18: @DeepDishEnjoyer Idk who he is. I wanna say classical music guy but also maybe author? 80% it’s one of those, this is the extent of my knowledge) Lmao ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 00:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772051553614008732) · 13 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 24, 2024:** Idk who he is. I wanna say classical music guy but also maybe author? 80% it’s one of those, this is the extent of my knowledge Pretty sure this Russian dude was the reason I thought it could be music ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJeXfwKWMAAlQjC.jpg) ### [Reply to @DeepDishEnjoyer, 00:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772053251765981576) · 2 likes > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJeYx5xXMAAoExO.png) > (quoting @AaronBergman18: @DeepDishEnjoyer Pretty sure this Russian dude was the reason I thought it could be music) Damn you tweet fast ### [Reply to @J_K_Chesterton, 00:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772053425477255465) · 10 likes > **Alexander Popemobile (@J_K_Chesterton):** He's most famous for his biography of you. I wish I got this joke ### [Reply to @DeepDishEnjoyer, 00:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772054480508338289) · 7 likes > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** You are trolling sir. This is heinous. Sounds like what this is saying is that nobody’s seen them in the same room ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJeaKJLWcAAfmhJ.jpg) ### [Reply to @AStrasser116, 00:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772064139923321109) · 2 likes > **Alex Strasser (@AStrasser116):** This relies on a super fringe interpretation of quantum mechanics that basically no one accepts. It is just an irreversible process that is needed to cause collapse. > > From @jeffkoperski's Divine Action, Determinism, and Laws of Nature (p. 41) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJecYbWXcAEySmj.png) I didn’t know this, thanks, but also fuck it I’m gonna hit back with the confidence of a naive layperson who has thought about the issue for 5 minutes: it seems like without consciousness, “the wave function collapsed upon encountering (?) an irreversible process” doesn’t ### [Thread, continued, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772064642921078988) · 2 likes contain any like predictive/empirical/scientific content compared to “nope it’s still in a superposition” Like what does it even mean to claim the former and not the latter in the absence of consciousness? ### [Reply to @MagusGenji, 00:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772064938715910352) · 4 likes > **magusgenji (@MagusGenji):** @AaronBergman18 @DeepDishEnjoyer How do you not know crime and punishment but went to Georgetown. I knew it was a book I didn’t know the author until a few minutes ago Guess they should revoke my degree ### [Reply to @MagusGenji, 00:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772065772178727114) · 3 likes > **magusgenji (@MagusGenji):** @AaronBergman18 @DeepDishEnjoyer Nah I'm just on team you are trolling > > I'm illiterate and know who the author of crime and punishment is Yeah turns out this is actually pretty common knowledge lmao ### [Reply to @DeepDishEnjoyer, 01:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772072161353589054) · 3 likes > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** @neill651 @MagusGenji @AaronBergman18 What is your mental model of the knowledge domain of someone who doesn't even know who Dostoevsky \*is\*? This is indicative of severe deficiency in your familiarity of the liberal arts. Joking aside it does seem that this specific bit of ignorance is like kinda uncommon (I am getting roasted in the gc as well), legit curious whether idk I just happened to like never roll a Dostoevsky on 100 independent dice or what. Like I’m almost certain I’m much nerdier and ### [Thread, continued, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772072665240506789) · 2 likes idk interested in intellectual things, broadly (is there a less pretentious word than “intellectual”?) than my peers even controlling for college attended Like the stereotypical thing I’m supposed to not know is which teams are playing in the Super Bowl lol ### [Reply to @DeepDishEnjoyer, 01:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772072935898898909) · 9 likes > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** @neill651 @MagusGenji @AaronBergman18 Bear in mind Aaron may be bright. But he is uncultured and poorly educated. Yeah I’ll bite the uncultured bullet fr ### [Reply, 01:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772073088223416638) · 2 likes I wanna back you up here but idk if that would help lol ### [Thread, continued, 01:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772073645193540092) · 2 likes I guess the genuinely weird thing about me is that I don’t really read fiction. I like \*stories\* but find them way more compelling if they actually happened ### [Reply, 01:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772073814806893050) · 2 likes ❤️🫡 ### [Reply, 01:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772074737214111772) · 3 likes Fuck history. I always wanted to like it as a subject but never did ### [Reply, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772075024049951195) · 2 likes 😈 ### [Quote tweet, 11:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772222000066376081) · 15 likes Fun fact: in high school I got an award sponsored by St. John’s College for “intellectual courage and a dedication to the liberal arts,” which came with Don Quixote, The Prince, and another old “classic” I don’t remember They remain untouched and in pristine condition > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @DeepDishEnjoyer @neill651 @MagusGenji Yeah I’ll bite the uncultured bullet fr ### [Thread, continued, 11:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772222002025181617) · 2 likes I’m basically certain this was the result of a philosophy elective which consisted of me facing off against a communist guy (from the direction of vegan not RW) and zero other people who wanted to be there ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 11:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772222499956138212) · 4 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** "I've never seen a fuse flipped due to too many plugs" > > and now I have. We will get AGI before I can have an electric kettle and space heater on in the same room ### [Reply, 11:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772225787564806448) · 3 likes I wanted to say 5σ people exist too, and this is technically true, but there are only like 2500 of them ### [Reply to @ebboyd, 12:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772232692081336728) · 6 likes > **E.B. Boyd (Liza) (@ebboyd):** Ask 52 friends to set you up w someone you don't know > > Commit to going on at least 1 date w each, 90 min minimum > > Each of you agree beforehand that these are long shots (takes pressure off). But hey, they have friends & you have friends :) (incentive to show up) > > 1/ How about 5.2 friends ### [Reply to @DeepDishEnjoyer, 12:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772242081999683715) · 2 likes > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** @NathanB60857242 @AaronBergman18 @neill651 @MagusGenji Because having a good education is NOT decoupled from knowing useful things I believe y that knowing Dostoevsky is a good proxy for something, on avg, but I take it you don’t think it’s object level a necessary condition for “a good education” per se right? ### [Tweet, 12:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772246197081604517) · 22 likes Have a d-amph prescription and unlimited caffeine, bouta speedrun a liberal arts education ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJhIhSwXUAAZboC.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 12:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772246614628868513) · 4 likes Don’t talk to me for 4 days ### [Reply, 13:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772256646615462235) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Yeah I’m pretty surprised to see other neoliberal types oppose school choice. Seems like one of the few things republicans accidentally got right ### [Reply to @burny_tech, 13:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772257529780654172) > **Burny - Effective Curiosity (@burny_tech):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJdcbiaWIAAD5nO.png) @SpacedOutMatt ### [Reply to @TheZvi, 13:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772259252293288446) · 1 like > **Zvi Mowshowitz (@TheZvi):** But to get the core result you still need a world in which getting an hour's worth of AI productivity (in the substitution sense) costs a lot > more than the human wage, and we can't respond by increasing compute supply to fix that, and that's where I get really confused? I think when ppl eg Noah are reasoning about wages and CA and such, the relevant time horizon is assumed short run only and so yeah, you are just taking as a given that we’re already at the point at which you can’t readily increase compute supply ### [Reply to @knowyourmeme, 14:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772264855321346140) · 4 likes > **Know Your Meme (@knowyourmeme):** On this day seven years ago, an illustration depicting an example of the "virgin walk" was posted to /r9k/. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJhVgIkXwAAqr45.jpg) Lmao at the hair bit ### [Reply to @nominalthoughts, 14:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772270433972142525) · 3 likes > **Jason Harrison (@nominalthoughts):** I always found it crazy that most of the world (iirc 70 percent?) is lactose and it’s just a subset of Europeans that can tolerate a bunch of dairy. > > I think 80 percent of Black Americans are lactose as well The earth’s core is a ball of molten lactase, buffered only by a thin veneer of cellulose, that can never be allowed to escape ### [Reply to @FwuffySeal, 14:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772273172651405403) · 3 likes > **Bork Bork (@FwuffySeal):** I genuinely believe that china has better AI than the US. [![GIF thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/GJhhDkaXUAAqaV0.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772273172651405403/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @iamdavidgg, 14:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772273385575158143) · 97 likes > **Dae (@iamdavidgg):** Same w Mexican tequila > > (quoting @atlanticesque: “Don’t buy the Italian olive oil at the supermarket, the mafia dilutes it” sounds like the most schizophrenic thing but it’s true) Damn the Italian mafia is everywhere ### [Tweet, 15:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772278790804152537) · 17 likes The name “Department of Justice” goes hard (also has “Ministry of Truth” vibes but still). Only agency like it ## Tuesday, March 26, 2024 ### [Reply to @polisisti, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772467923380060638) · 1 like > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** "This is a great new concept I've just learned: people who are high-decoupling versus people who are low-decoupling" > — @asymmetricinfo around 58:20 into the latest Econtalk podcast > > We did it nerds: the concept is going mainstream Both are inferior to full decouples ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 03:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772468044779917535) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** "You need to decide if you're OK with everyone being mad at you." > My wife after reading a draft of anything I've written 👀 ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 04:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772473681349894246) · 21 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** An interesting way to sell lower salaries for workers in particular geographies > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJiD0mtWAAAIJTA.png) Ah yes, I hate when my local economy gets an influx of USD ### [Reply to @alistair___s, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772475724206608635) · 21 likes > **Alistair Stewart (@alistair___s):** What does left vs right wing mean to you, first and foremost? > > 1\. "The collective matters" vs "the individual matters" > > 2\. "Things ought to be less bad" vs "things could be worse" > > 3\. Anti-oppression vs anti-disorder > > 4\. Something else (comment below) / idk / show results Despite object level thinking more libertarian+RW views are good and true and lefty ideas are bad and wrong over the last idk 10 years, it still feels like fundamentally the left is trying to do a good moral project and the right is not and I wanna know why this is ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 04:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772475949742702612) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AndyMasley is no longer available.)_ @jkcarlsmith might be able to pull this off ### [Reply to @acidshill, 04:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772476506104574256) · 5 likes > **shill 🔍 (@acidshill):** i keep getting hints that open individualism is a common view among EAs and... i don't get it > > does anyone want to make the case for why open individualism is true? No but here’s me saying it’s false ### [Quote tweet, 04:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772477205320245369) · 4 likes Rip > **Quoting Reflective Altruism (@ReflectiveAlt):** Glad to hear this. Sorry for the Wytham team, who did a great job. But this had to be done https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/yggjKEeehsnmMYnZd/announcement-on-the-future-of-wytham-abbey ### [Thread, continued, 04:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772477550591123941) · 3 likes Like any great flaker, I think this decision is probably right just like the decision to buy was probably right (ex ante) bc I have a strong prior on the CEA team being good and competent ### [Tweet, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772478086044414371) · 45 likes Acausal trade sorta has “arcane galaxy brain philosophy” vibes but I think about it in mundane contexts pretty often and it seems like a genuinely useful insight ### [Reply to @RFishBlueFish, 04:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772480575820943697) · 9 likes > **Gil (@RFishBlueFish):** Give an example? Me tipping is evidence that people like me tip, so I’m gonna tip bc I wanna trade with people relevantly like me to tip instead of all using that $10 on what we all “actually” think is the best use of money ### [Reply to @RFishBlueFish, 04:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772481019611881683) · 9 likes > **Gil (@RFishBlueFish):** @AaronBergman18 I think most of the time when people use acausal reasoning in practical scenarios they’re really reasoning about norms, that seems like a good example Idk if this is universally true, but in many cases I think acausal trade is the non-hand-wavy mechanism underlying reasoning about norms ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 04:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772483943985533005) _(The tweet being replied to by @nickcammarata is no longer available.)_ lol ik what you’re getting at but in econ, consumer and producer and thus total surplus decline when equilibrium quantity sold and bought (ie supplied and demanded) declines ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 04:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772485215170011321) · 1 like > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** I think it applies more to individuals than a normal econ system. If you are happy with no chocolates but have enough money for two chocolates they’ll be awesome, if you think you need four chocolates you’ll feel lack of surplus Yeah you’re right as a matter of human psychology, I was just being pedantic about the analogy lol ### [Reply to @acidshill, 04:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772485811155427334) · 3 likes > **shill 🔍 (@acidshill):** @AaronBergman18 see the fact that you said that and used the rockwell painting to boot makes me think it's a common view among EAs and i can't figure out why At least in part I think bc Parfit makes a good case against the normal layperson understanding of personal identity But this doesn’t imply open individualism, I agree ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 04:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772486176085057884) · 3 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** @acidshill @AaronBergman18 I think it's people reading some Derek Parfit and being impressed by transporter / fusion / fission thought experiments Great minds ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJkiyIQXkAAdP8C.jpg) ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772486432143147127) · 4 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** @RFishBlueFish @AaronBergman18 What insight does this capture that "tragedy of the commons" or a similar model doesn't capture? How the people around the tragic commons can coordinate without a centralized body ie government, and without communication ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 05:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772497465033286000) · 2 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** I think poly sluts and trad monogs can coeexist in peace. I envision a world where ppl have tools to self-examine and choose the relationship style that works for them, with acceptance, and without pressure or ppl viewing one lifestyle as an existential threat to the other Aella reinvents liberalism ### [Reply to @sarabollman, 05:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772499482371887527) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @sarabollman is no longer available.)_ Never too late!!! ### [Tweet, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772513390369382750) · 18 likes Me when I see a @Lewis_Bollard tweet ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJk7iMQXEAAzPW9.jpg) ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 07:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772527574427590803) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** I need to take my car through one of those carwashes so I'm watching youtube videos to mentally prepare myself for the experience I hope u survive 🙏🏼 ### [Reply to @jzux, 08:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772535850003239328) · 2 likes > **trash jones (@jzux):** becoming “fast friends” with someone is fun, but let’s not forget fast enemies. you ever meet someone and immediately you’re just like oh yeah this person is my enemy now Nah ### [Reply, 08:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772536218762244465) · 1 like Nobody knows ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 17:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772681465534263391) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @dylanmatt 😭 Same 😢 ### [Quote tweet, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772694546360471661) · 4 likes Anybody wanna analyze this > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @alistair\_\_\_s Despite object level thinking more libertarian+RW views are good and true and lefty ideas are bad and wrong over the last idk 10 years, it still feels like fundamentally the left is trying to do a good moral project and the right is not and I wanna know why this is ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772700274861236478) · 3 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** @GjMcGowan I choose to make fun of them for cowing to the demands of unserious people that they sell their maybe-cost-effective conference venue 😤 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 19:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772713631446159598) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @JMannhart I would be so much more productive... Hear me out ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJnxpxuXAAEL4dw.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772714519082447017) · 5 likes Not literally true but this is the kind of heuristic I live for > **Quoting zxy (@zelinarxy):** english has a cool built-in heuristic for detecting bullshit > > are most of the nouns and verbs being used latin/greek or germanic in origin? > > if germanic, the things being discussed are probably real physical actions and things: tree, walk, cow, shit, fall, wood, buy, leg, go ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772715652706369577) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 26, 2024:** Despite object level thinking more libertarian+RW views are good and true and lefty ideas are bad and wrong over the last idk 10 years, it still feels like… Something about oppression actually being bad, suffering correlating with legitimate oppression and victimization and injustice ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772719208188502114) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 29, 2024:** Ya ever catch a random whiff of smth and all of a sudden it’s 2009 and you’re in the basement and there’s a space heater going? Or it’s 2007 or 08 on a warm humid spring day and you’re outside eating a white Ice Age branded chewy Air Heads thing that came with a ham cheese and ritz cracker lunchable on the field outside of your elementary school ### [Reply to @RFishBlueFish, 21:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772738145508831255) · 2 likes > **Gil (@RFishBlueFish):** @AaronBergman18 I would challenge the notion that in the past 10 years righ-wing has generally been right, the model of right wing should be Trump not Bryan Caplan Oh yeah for sure, my tweet was kinda ambiguous - “more” meant like more for myself (ie relative to my 14 year old self) not that US conservatism is more correct than US liberalism ## Wednesday, March 27, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 12:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772963557195300936) · 12 likes I didn’t realize this I have no idea what kind of logistics this requires but honestly seems impressive, good shit > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Reply to @EigenGender, 12:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772968231218602318) · 3 likes > **EigenGender 🔸 (@EigenGender):** Probably dating apps just need to be operated as a public service. Absolutely massive amounts of consumer surplus and any attempt to capture nontrivial amounts of that surplus is insanely destructive Great minds ### [Reply to @heartbulbous, 12:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772968756655898786) · 4 likes > **Juan (@heartbulbous):** Effective Ventures is losing their castle... unless we throw the biggest talent show this town has ever seen Here’s my application https://youtu.be/qR4NTD2BKmI?si=8vyTcou9KK_mpvPF ### [Reply to @CJHandmer, 12:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772969422447059084) · 1 like > **Casey Handmer (@CJHandmer):** Reverse osmosis desalination plants cost about $40/W and the learning rate is low. > > Does anyone here have good intuition for how we can make them at least 10x cheaper? Nope idk ### [Tweet, 13:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1772972108999487692) · 6 likes New Tulsa just dropped ## Thursday, March 28, 2024 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 01:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773157266675417454) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I think this isn't a bad idea perse — but it seems really weird the author is only considering it in the realm of charitable interventions! > > Driving a car or buying something on Amazon also has second order effects! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJt9d1oXoAATHvY.png) What’s this from ### [Reply to @LabGrownNeet, 01:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773158842471231934) · 4 likes > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** @AaronBergman18 https://archive.ph/GzUCb lol this is fucking terrible ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773218443757510707) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Please stop worrying the sea cucumber > > (quoting @sciencegirl: When a sea cucumber is worried, it discharges the cuvierian organ that transforms into sticky spaghetti structures on contact with sea water, to immobilise potential predators 📹 Aaphenpalopo) 😢 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 05:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773220947920654514) · 12 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Several hours later I finally get what this is supposed to mean, and I think it makes the article overtly and substantially less serious than I originally thought > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJu8_ymW4AAtjld.png) What does it mean? ### [Reply to @SpencrGreenberg, 05:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773221383582962117) · 4 likes > **Spencer Greenberg 🔍 (@SpencrGreenberg):** Who do you think should be much more well-known than they currently are (e.g., because of the quality of what they create or what they write)? > > Tag them below (if they are on Twitter), and say a few words about why you tagged them. Basically all my moots They are elite 😤 ### [Reply to @SpencrGreenberg, 05:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773226322023608336) · 6 likes > **Spencer Greenberg 🔍 (@SpencrGreenberg):** Who do you think should be much more well-known than they currently are (e.g., because of the quality of what they create or what they write)? > > Tag them below (if they are on Twitter), and say a few words about why you tagged them. But also… (These are just ppl that pop to mind) @jkcarlsmith for good thinking (sometimes called “philosophy”) @ohabryka for LW + integrity + good takes @KeiranJHarris for being behind the mic on the best pod @QualyThe for being funny as shit ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 05:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773226929174217014) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @daniel_271828 Yeah but in my mind it's like 10-100x better which might be a bit of a stretch for some of them Would it be of the form “EA is failing on its own terms”? Not that this makes it fake criticism - this is the only broad, critical thesis I could make in good faith ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 05:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773228091994755445) · 24 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** The article claims that EAs mislead people by not talking about hour the 2nd order impacts of our actions may lead to deaths (or deaths in the way bednets save a life for 5k) > > but the article only considers this for EA stuff, not daily life or other charities > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJvD-h1WgAArq4f.png) I think this is obviously and trivially true but stated in such a way that it sounds non-obvious and bad Chaos theory means ~every (most? more than rarely?) action causes a lot of deaths in the sense of counterfactually shortening some people’s lifespans ### [Reply to @0interestrates, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773230466717360508) · 2 likes > **rahul (@0interestrates):** move fast and break things > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJsqSkyagAMBc8X.png) Honestly easier (and cheaper if you count time opportunity cost) than figuring out how to deal with AWS/Azure/GCloud ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773233092573966720) · 2 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** Holy shit you can just host a party by thinking of some people you like and inviting them to your house and it actually works and is fun! Big if true (honestly the reason I don’t do this is bc you can’t really kick people out of ur own party \[unless it’s legitimately been a while\] just bc ur introvert clock ran out) ### [Reply to @kane, 06:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773238697535615463) · 4 likes > **Kane 謝凱堯 (@kane):** til the f22 runs kubernetes > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJsg7nSagAApjVd.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJsg7nWagAA_huT.jpg) When I’m president I will mandate that all fighter jets and nuclear submarines run exclusively on R Operation should occur exclusively via Shiny dashboard ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 06:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773239425201316075) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I think there are genuine issues with longtermism > > But it really strikes me that criticism is actually based in a total lack of empathy, and I find that frustrating Like what ### [Quote tweet, 07:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773246303843057791) · 72 likes how do I steal someone’s gf > **Quoting relationships.bsky.social (@redditships):** My \[24M\] Girlfriend \[23F\] has the weirdest hobbies in existence, and they make me kinda uncomfortable. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DikgDIYXUAEGzQB.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DikgDmFW0AE8Y-W.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DikgEJWX0AIKbul.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 07:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773246305776681360) · 9 likes I admit the dead vulture thing is a bit odd but not a dealbreaker ### [Reply to @toasterlighting, 07:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773247473823224144) · 2 likes > **Celene (@toasterlighting):** @goblinodds He does have a 9 year head start on me! I think probably I have higher raw intelligence (he thinks so too) but I am also extraordinarily mentally ill (he does not know about this) Just like me fr ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 07:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773247607625699530) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 "So I heard you collect bones. Are you an amateur archaeologist? Because I have a large bone that-" and you can take it from there Plot twist it’s a hominid femur I keep in a glass display case ### [Reply to @ReflectiveAlt, 07:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773248230932844799) · 2 likes > **Reflective Altruism (@ReflectiveAlt):** I don't often share public philosophy pieces on effective altruism. I think this piece is worth reading. It's not the piece I would have written, but it is well done: https://www.wired.com/story/deaths-of-effective-altruism/ No it’s fucking terrible lol ### [Reply to @burny_tech, 07:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773252382937206837) · 1 like > **Burny - Effective Curiosity (@burny_tech):** And human language is just information processing in biology > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJutqDCWwAAnLd1.jpg) Bad philosophy is just a byproduct of misunderstanding language Good philosophy remains ### [Reply to @ElodesNL, 07:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773254494848954479) · 2 likes > **Elodes (@ElodesNL):** of all ideas I've read in the past decade, "Hate is the New Sex" is maybe the one that has remained most firmly lodged in my mind. imo, it's groundbreaking and full of practical value for just about everyone I meet. > > no tl;dr. the whole piece is worth it. > https://www.ecosophia.net/hate-new-sex/ Interesting and there’s a grain of truth but like hate does seem pretty object-level harmful (why does it exist? biological/cultural evolution don’t care about harm to the unrelated/outgroup) whereas sex is not ### [Reply to @ch402, 08:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773259650474954942) · 2 likes > **Chris Olah (@ch402):** Are you someone with management experience who would like to contribute to interpretability and AI safety? We're looking to hire another manager to help us continue growing our team, in partnership with our technical leads. Nope I do not have any of these qualifications ### [Reply to @bookofflesh, 08:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773259949713301957) · 2 likes > **Sarx (@bookofflesh):** @AaronBergman18 You ride up to them on a horse and pick them up. Ok thx ### [Reply to @loveofdoing, 08:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773267717182697522) · 2 likes > **loveofdoing (@loveofdoing):** If the markets were really free, you’d pay your future employer to hire you. > > Think about it. Adverse selection + priced in ### [Quote tweet, 08:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773272203745747203) · 6 likes We have an answer ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJvtq65XcAA6OHR.jpg) > **Quoting rat king 🐀 (@MikeIsaac):** thank fucken god for @jwherrman > > https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/who-is-behind-all-the-pussy-in-bio-porn-spam-on-x.html > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJtKm8VasAIINtN.jpg) ### [Reply, 10:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773289564250972386) · 14 likes What if the cake gets 5% bigger each year ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 10:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773290454840172738) · 4 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** Neglect of probability is a cognitive bias that causes people to oversimplify things into mental categories of "will happen" or "won't happen" rather than properly consider the actual chance that they'll happen. A quote from the Wikipedia page: > > "we respond to the expected magnitude of an event...but not to its likelihood." > > Separately, there's been research into how punishment motivates people. The consensus seems to be that people pay more attention to the chance of being caught than to what the punishment actually entails. A quote from one of the research papers: > > "This evidence suggests that increased certainty of punishment provides a much more effective deterrent than increased severity" > > These two findings seem contradictory. What's the explanation? Skin in the game? It seems pretty clear that people do not behave as though probabilities are 0 or 1 (ppl wear seatbelts, for example) ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 10:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773298926927413382) · 3 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @absurdlymax "Obviously X doesn't have moral status" > > Oh boi do I have some bad news for you about the historical pattern regarding that line of argument..... And, more compellingly IMO, any “obviousness” argument is defeated by a certain number of people just stating honestly that they disagree Usually that word isn’t used, ofc, its meaning is smuggled in via status-laden connotations and and contemptuous tone ### [Quote tweet, 10:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773302380206997577) · 10 likes There are no genuine issues with longtermism\* \*per se (see below) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJwJHWRW4AAPq-r.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJwJHWSWkAExj1J.jpg) > **Quoting Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I think there are genuine issues with longtermism > > But it really strikes me that criticism is actually based in a total lack of empathy, and I find that frustrating ### [Thread, continued, 10:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773302383671378102) · 3 likes \*There may be issues with a bunch of things that get lumped in with longtermism e.g., biorisk and AI x-risk reduction and implicit claims that increasing the number of future lived lives is good, but the core philosophical claim is pretty solid ### [Thread, continued, 10:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773302388985573647) · 3 likes Although, as I am learning rn, it’s a bit hard to defend this claim explicitly bc the top google hits all have substantively different definitions Wikipedia and/or the EA Forum seem like good choices though because they’re sorta consensus-driven by design ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJwJH8zWUAAv6fk.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJwJH8xXAAA_l0m.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJwJH80WIAA8bc4.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 10:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773303341033869592) · 2 likes SpongeBob-ass timeline > **Quoting Mikhail Samin (@Mihonarium):** Making worms 20 years ago: \*figuring out how programmers’ assumptions are wrong in exploitable ways\* > > Making worms now: “you are Wormy an AI email assistant” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJt_GuHagAANQEm.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 11:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773309070411264129) · 20 likes Is this supposed to be like radically pro-natal? Bc it feels like to get into that territory the subsidy should make having a kid net-profitable which apparently for the median household (I think) child would kick in at like $250k in both the US and South Korea > **Quoting Philip Pilkington (@philippilk):** South Korea goes pro-natalist. With a fertility rate of 0.68 in 2024 they need to get moving. This should be priority no. 1 for the whole society and no cost should be too great. Most Western countries are heading toward South Korean birth rates so we need to get on it too. 🇰🇷👶 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJvvOZcWoAASZdW.jpg) ### [Reply to @grnsleeves, 11:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773309144428069058) · 5 likes > **Greensleeves (@grnsleeves):** @AaronBergman18 too bad she's dating a normie Rip (for both of us) ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 12:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773320411469459466) · 3 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** @AaronBergman18 There are private benefits to having children that should make the endeavor profitable without a massive subsidy. I'm curious if this makes an impact. Yeah but this poses a challenge for explaining behavior My best guess is that there are two basic types of private benefits: status-, and norm-, and near term-benefits (and costs) mostly drive behavior whereas more “genuine” benefits to life satisfaction and hedonic tone ### [Thread, continued, 12:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773320720400974240) · 3 likes Over the longer term basically don’t Obviously this is a simplified model Hardcore neoclassical econ kinda wants to say that the latter doesn’t “count,” which is true only if you define benefit tautologically as that which drives behavior ### [Reply to @eshear, 14:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773356476398014700) · 3 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** Recommendation for brand of cabinet baby locks? 1YO has learned how to undo standard latches. Based baby ### [Tweet, 14:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773359626639069319) · 161 likes Taboo to say, at least among self-identified EAs, but SBF doesn’t deserve life in prison If that’s what the sentencing guidelines say, the sentencing guidelines are bad and unjust ### [Reply to @thebestestpie, 14:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773363960726552787) · 2 likes > **Fake News Pie (@thebestestpie):** yeah i was just thinking... statistical value of a life is what, 10m now with inflation? so stealing 10B is as bad as 1000 murders. Maybe if he consumed 10B worth of real resources but that didn’t happen afaik ### [Reply to @BorisBartlog, 15:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773365019536764934) · 15 likes > **Boris Bartlog (@BorisBartlog):** I mean, is there a specific argument? My general sense is that once financial crimes rise to the level of 'hundreds of lifetimes worth of human labor', it's not clear why we'd treat them more leniently than murder. My main source of sympathy is that he was operating in a domain where there were, afaik, no metaphorical stop signs or alarms (that’s why he was able to get so rich so fast). This is extremely rare I think. It’s hard to think of anything I could do that would land me life ### [Thread, continued, 15:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773365289394004266) · 6 likes in prison without facing any like “resistance” so to speak This claim does depend on my object level understanding of events which isn’t that great - I’m not super confident in this take ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 15:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773365438908342482) · 3 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** I don't have good intuitions as to what the just sentence is for SBF? > > Probably agree with the second part and not the first. For most criminal cases someone is accused of like 2 things and pleads down to a lesser charge. Pretty sure that not what's happening with SBF Yeah and it’s pretty fucked up that the justice system works like that ### [Tweet, 15:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773372527336718703) · 4 likes Spotted on DC metro. Not sure who’s behind the first one ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJxI6NsXsAAp1vN.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJxI6NtXAAA5saK.jpg) ### [Reply to @slimepriestess, 16:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773392619399197164) · 22 likes > **Ra (@slimepriestess):** no one deserves life in prison and imo EAs saying he's bad now are just doing it for boring self serving optics reasons, throwing him under the bus to appease a vulture press. SBF was the greatest thing to ever happen to EA. Greatest thing ever to happen? I don’t think anyone else would agree with that lol ### [Reply to @slimepriestess, 17:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773394749568819463) · 13 likes > **Ra (@slimepriestess):** do you think SBF-type high-risk high-payoff approaches to EA are, as an entire set, net negative? because i don't, and that's probably the crux. If “risk” means risk of doing crimes like SBF than yes If it means ur startup might fail than no and I think more people should be trying this ### [Tweet, 17:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773401753397956819) · 6 likes 24 hour twitter fast ready go ## Friday, March 29, 2024 ### [Reply to @DeepDishEnjoyer, 17:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773771736254697932) · 5 likes > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** It is absolutely delicious that Aaron didn't know who Dostoevsky was a few days ago. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Taboo to say, at least among self-identified EAs, but SBF doesn’t deserve life in prison If that’s what the sentencing guidelines say, the sentencing guidelines are bad and unjust) Tragic bc you can pull this out in response to literally any of my takes and I won’t be able to object bc maybe there’s like a key insight from War and Peace that renders my take null and void ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773772740756906247) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 28, 2024:** Taboo to say, at least among self-identified EAs, but SBF doesn’t deserve life in prison If that’s what the sentencing guidelines say, the sentencing… Oh boy looks like people have takes about my take ### [Thread, continued, 18:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773773329796595895) · 4 likes Gonna mute this for my sanity but first let it be known that I think SBF acted unethically and broke the law and “deserves” (ie all things considered should get) significant jail time… ### [Thread, continued, 18:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773773560575562138) · 4 likes and also “decades long prison sentences sometimes bad even when person does bad thing that should be punished” is not a take I ginned yesterday up bc I like SBF https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/prison-sentences-are-too-long ## Saturday, March 30, 2024 ### [Reply to @anglerfish01, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773913223143870790) · 2 likes > **angLerfish (@anglerfish01):** @AaronBergman18 @DeepDishEnjoyer War and peace is by another author, but Dostoevsky actually does have some relevant critiques about utilitarian materialist ideology Fuck Crime and Punishment, War and Peace, seem pretty similar to me ### [Reply to @metakuna, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773917360312709592) · 5 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** still thinking abt how the Clean Code guy said he prefers functions to be about 4-6 lines. that's like, comically short Functions should be one line only ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773918236113039841) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Seems like questionable advice tbh > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJ2lKxfWkAARonw.jpg) I have 4 memories ### [Reply to @eshear, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773920301748768946) · 4 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** The past is a foreign land > > (quoting @depthsofwiki: ) Just about the median male weight in the US currently ### [Quote tweet, 03:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773922825440559429) · 10 likes I forget where I heard the term “competence porn” but this applies > **Quoting (((Charles Fishman))) 💧 (@cfishman):** 7/ ... > 1:24:59 Alarms on bridge, power fails on ship 1st time > > \~1:25:30 Pilot calls pilot dispatch, says ship may hit the bridge, close the bridge > > 1:26:39 Maryland Transportation Dept records incoming call from pilot dispatch, advising to urgently close the bridge > > —> ### [Thread, continued, 03:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773922964779548981) · 2 likes Damn ### [Thread, continued, 03:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773923093884362869) · 2 likes This is some Japanese train schedule shit ### [Quote tweet, 04:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1773930592343605582) · 26 likes Y’all are too SF-brained and said it couldn’t be done ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJ5EePCX0AAqk4H.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Seems like public bathrooms in urban areas should be much more of thing. A couple portapotties in each public park couldn’t be that heavy a lift ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 18:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774139255763210735) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** Hey, we saw you from across the funding bar and we really liked your vibe > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJ6IGJ-XgAAy6bQ.jpg) Banger ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 19:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774150382660223443) · 2 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** Andrew Callaghan's 'Vegas Tunnels' is a powerful exploration of the human condition. It's not just about homelessness. Watch the whole thing. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJ6uwdQXsAAqDx3.jpg) https://youtu.be/bRGrKJofDaw?si=pQwrEn7HSiUs-2T3 ### [Reply to @goblinodds, 19:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774158300034068837) · 3 likes > **𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** i am once again asking you to DATE MY MUTUALS > > \> public matchmaking interviews (roughly 1.5 hours long) > \> dropping highlights as teasers before each full interview > > https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0gUI-Wl9OLVMd5-QDHyyeg > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJ416IubUAAcoIp.jpg) Based ### [Tweet, 19:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774163129766682876) · 3 likes Funny that everyone decided STEM actually just means TEMP (science = physics) ### [Reply to @johncoogan, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774172561330315415) · 1 like > **John Coogan (@johncoogan):** It’s so insane that you can get literal METH as a PRESCRIPTION under the brand name “Desoxyn” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJ5D-kaboAA8sdl.jpg) This is good ### [Reply to @egregirls, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774174476092965037) · 2 likes > **void angel 𒌓 (@egregirls):** you have been visited by the angel of good throat and tummy > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJ4_ZFQXcAAGEDT.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJ8iSDHW8AA9ov6.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJ8iSDGWEAAzBeS.jpg) ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774181115500073046) > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Combinatorics! Big if true ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 22:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774200499492815116) · 2 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Somebody QT’d me and asked people to evaluate me for whether they “would” and someone’s top objection was that I have attached earlobes 😂🤣😂 Dealbreaker (THIS IS A JOKE) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 22:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774203453381771606) · 1 like > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** not sure what the criteria is, but this is from January: https://www.redcross.org/about-us/news-and-events/press-release/2024/red-cross-declares-emergency-blood-shortage-calls-for-donations-during-national-blood-donor-month.html Nice thanks and Claude agrees ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 22:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774204413353062747) · 15 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ Writing a rebuttal reply and then getting corrected is 100% responsible for me now looking into how to donate blood so thx 👍 ### [Thread, continued, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774204733202297180) · 5 likes I doubt there are many (any?) situations in which working a salaried job actually trades off against this (plausibly points in the other direction \[ie against value drift bc of values affirmation\]) so irl yeah I now endorse donating blood ### [Thread, continued, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774204892501901678) · 3 likes Although I’d bite the bullet if there is a trade off - money to good charities is good even if they sound weird ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 22:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774206356553072710) > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Photo doesn’t do it justice but visiting the Renwick gallery is super worth it to lie on the floor and look at the earthquake art > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJ88BN7WsAERWfR.jpg) Idk looks kinda boring ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 22:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774206679518732764) · 1 like > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 @focusfronting I was going to say that I would be (a prior) concerned about idk, cognitive performance, but apparently there are studies on this and the effect seems to be small and disappears after the day of donation: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29613950/ Yeah insofar as this trades off against doing anything important I bite the bullet that u (ie I) shouldn’t ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 22:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774208040851444212) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** The lighting changes over time Oh boy ### [Reply to @Rado9910, 23:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774215263409295598) · 3 likes > **Rado9910 (@Rado9910):** What's a top sheet? Idk I think some ppl use two sheets for unclear reasons ## Sunday, March 31, 2024 ### [Tweet, 00:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774233033026998346) · 11 likes I wonder how much of the cognitive decline with aging changes if you condition on the person not dying for another 10/20/30/n years Like how many IQ points do u lose from 20 to 70 if you know you’ll be alive at 80? ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 00:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774233250690392413) · 1 like > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @Xaberius9 @miranda_gabbo @focusfronting entiendo que hay preocupaciones similares sobre donar siendo demasiado joven, dado que uno de tus riñones debe durar más tiempo en un estado de "hiperfiltración" ¿Como está, persona del español? ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 00:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774233779319550232) · 1 like > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 @Xaberius9 @miranda_gabbo @focusfronting persona que habla español\* No digame como hablar 😤 ### [Reply to @MatthewJBar, 00:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774235007222964439) · 6 likes > **Matthew Barnett (@MatthewJBar):** A common but uncompelling moral argument IMO is that future generations will judge some action harshly. > > Example: "Our children will look back on this policy with shame." > > We don't actually know that. But even if that's true, I don't see why we should defer to future generations. I agree it’s not like extremely convincing on its own but it does seem like legit evidence directionally ### [Reply to @MatthewJBar, 00:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774236274531938712) · 1 like > **Matthew Barnett (@MatthewJBar):** Usually the claim is made without much supporting evidence that it's actually true. If the claim were true, it might be an important fact about the world nonetheless, but I don't think future generations are necessarily morally better than us. Not necessarily, no, but time and change of circumstances in general is conducive to good judgement in general - separates ppl from tribal allegiance and self interest and high stakes ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 00:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774237389008912696) · 4 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @absurdlymax @focusfronting x2 x3 and bragging in this context is good ### [Reply to @YosarianTwo, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774239142622179671) · 2 likes > **Yosarian2 (@YosarianTwo):** @RandomSprint Solar is great, for it scales with mid-day peaks. > > Nuclear is great, for it provides constant, reliable supply. > > Coal is > > Natural gas is great, for it easily scales if demand spikes or solar/wind stops working. Great as a stocking stuffer for ur least favorite kid ### [Reply to @thoth_iv, 00:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774239485418406121) · 5 likes > **Thŏth (@thoth_iv):** A lot of bloggers write stuff that's "edgy" which makes it cool and mysterious, but also kind of neurotic, which I think also tends to make it kind of wrong. The trick is, how do you make upbeat and happy stuff edgy as well? This is the natural result when you’re trying to get to the Pareto frontier of “make a kinda radical claim” and “convince ppl of said claim” ### [Reply to @LabGrownNeet, 00:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774239840294314108) · 2 likes > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** Women ask if "do you mean coconut water" every time I offer them coconut. Why are women so fixated on coconut water? Top tier drink ### [Reply to @MatthewJBar, 01:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774244853464838177) · 2 likes > **Matthew Barnett (@MatthewJBar):** It seems unlikely that boomers were uniquely bad in this sense. They're also not a unified group, making this critique somewhat incoherent. > > Economic consumption is also up substantially compared to 50 years ago. We're materially better off. So this grievance seems unjustified. > > (quoting @Slatzism: though millennials do tend to self-victimize — their grievances towards boomers are 100% justified. boomers truly were the first generation who genuinely did not care about leaving the world better for their children. the ripple effect of that selfishness has been immeasurable.) Housing theory of everything (not totally disagreeing but still) ### [Tweet, 02:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774257631722459215) · 12 likes Is there a layperson-friendly beginning to end account of the Linux thing ### [Reply to @sullyj3, 02:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774258455475318792) · 3 likes > **░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░ (@sullyj3):** @AaronBergman18 The xz vulnerability? Idk but I’m guessing yes lol ### [Tweet, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774259327777247548) · 6 likes All I’m saying is that R has never had a security vulnerability ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 02:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774259887171658198) · 9 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Just learned of the Honduran libertarian charter city Prospera because I was interested in the recently reformulated but decades suppressed cure for dental cavities, so naturally I was reading the blog of a semi-anonymous California psychiatrist & rationalist > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJ9vAV3W8AARPkz.jpg) Took u long enough ### [Reply, 02:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774260028632871287) What does this mean? ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 18:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774500217003331664) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Happy Easter! 🐑 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKBHSyBXsAA-E8P.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKBHSyJWoAIJCm4.jpg) > (quoting @GjMcGowan: Spring has sprung) 🐑 ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 18:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774501046825504821) · 3 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** who called it the CFAR handbook and not What to Expect When You're Expecting Quality stop too many bangers 😩 ### [Tweet, 18:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774505390043972028) · 38 likes .@absurdlymax can’t even imagine me ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKBPP2lWcAApboG.jpg) ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774507681732047114) · 5 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** I've tried to as well and couldn't either! > > It's possible this is a problem with you and not with Max — have you been to a doctor? They might give a presciption to manage this condition It is possible but not actual ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774510482646290568) · 2 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** Nearly 3 years since I came out and wearing dresses still feels kind of weird > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJ_0ffmWgAAG17J.jpg) YES FREE ROCHE BIOCHEMICAL PATHWAYS POSTERS LFG ### [Reply to @sixers2772, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774513688105406910) · 3 likes > **Sixers (@sixers2772):** @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax abolish prescription ✊ ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 19:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774516131388162094) · 7 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @absurdlymax @AaronBergman18 Then it's self-refuting because you cannot normatively prescribe to believe the statement 🙂‍↔️ I mean like having a special class of citizen (doctors) with the exclusive legal authority to gatekeep access to certain molecules ### [Reply to @davidad, 19:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774517577835810975) · 2 likes > **davidad 🎇 (@davidad):** listen kid, there are five types of people in this world, > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKA24MZXQAAwHxX.jpg) > (quoting @SGRodriques: I lost a bet about this poll because I am miscalibrated. I explore the reasons further in my new blog post, "Who follows Richard Ngo on Twitter?" https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/who-follows-richard-ngo-on-twitter) Ideal person is all five ### [Tweet, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774526521610297399) · 6 likes What’s the deal with Easter and lambs Idgi ### [Reply to @kindgracekind, 23:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774582542332576236) · 4 likes > **Grace (@kindgracekind):** Would you allow a gun that shoots pills I’ll consider it ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 23:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774582763061903407) · 1 like > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Update 😄 > > First appointment soon! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKB06XJWEAEk8ah.jpg) Nice ### [Reply to @polisisti, 23:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774584270914195881) · 3 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax anti-gun > anti-prescription > anti-anti-plastic > pro-shrimp 🦐🦐🦐 That’s the platform --- End of March 2024. Previous month: [February 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-02). Next month: [April 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-04). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, April 2024 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in April 2024 and has not deleted: 519 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [March 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-03). Next month: [May 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-05). ## Monday, April 1, 2024 ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774601565292105753) · 4 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** If only SBF had taken a financial literacy class in middle school, he wouldn't have stolen $11 billion > > (quoting @SheilaBair2013: \#SBF was financial illiterate. He thought effective altruism meant he could rip people off, that it was OK to use new investor money to pay the old… Another reason why we need early financial education - to help kids understand money ethics, hopefully preventing future SBF’s.) Hot take SBF was very financially literate ### [Reply to @8pt_font, 01:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774602664870916558) · 36 likes > **tiny-ass fonts, LLC (@8pt_font):** one time i received a logo file that was 2 miles wide. i am not joking > > (quoting @amazingmap: Maximum size of a PDF, version 7. 381km x 381km) I have a custom paper type set up that’s 11k inches long to prevent pdf page breaks ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 13:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774784080896213333) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @dioscuri @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax I think he would rather abolish the FDA I mean the FDA does a lot of things, and not literally all of them are bad It’s true that if the only two options were status quo and FDA poofs out of existence, I think the latter would be better, but I’d be fine and I think positive about an agency that just runs RCTs on drugs ### [Thread, continued, 13:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1774784197376254361) · 2 likes If that gets called by the same name, so be it! ## Tuesday, April 2, 2024 ### [Reply to @deepfates, 04:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775021299561029715) · 4 likes > **deepfates.delve.town (@deepfates):** If you were to create a demo app or MVP rn what's your preferred stack? “Clong, please write me a single html file with inline JavaScript and css” ### [Quote tweet, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775033048649638044) · 7 likes It’s kinda funny when it’s this legible but there’s nothing (necessarily) wrong with this Like ofc I’m gonna adopt a Rob Wiblin take as soon as I hear it (at least those of the form “I looked into this for 2 hours and it turns out…”) > **Quoting the Rich (@Duderichy):** half the time I hear someone go on a long rant on something I’m like, yeah I listened to that podcast episode too buddy ### [Tweet, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775036155764863480) · 19 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKIx-efXkAA_z18.jpg) ### [Reply to @diviacaroline, 06:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775050643884900486) · 4 likes > **Divia Eden 🔍 (@diviacaroline):** I’m corporate and I would like you to find the difference between these two pictures > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKI-nTqWwAA4f6W.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKI-nTrXwAIGB1p.jpg) One is cobbled the other is not ### [Reply to @myhandle, 06:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775052493312905722) · 3 likes > **Jakeup (@myhandle):** my friend in SF has the funny issue where every guy she meets is 99th percentile at the general skill of being an early-stage boyfriend (confident, great listener, emotionally aware, good in bed, etc.) and it fucks with her ability to judge who could be a serious longterm partner It’s over ### [Tweet, 07:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775058022257111479) · 3 likes I will accept Whytham Abbey as in-kind compensation for all of my good tweets ### [Quote tweet, 07:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775058547220361323) · 1 like Plausibly more informative AND cooler framing: liquid battery (solar -> carbon neutral natural gas) > **Quoting Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** Using direct air capture to manufacturing natural gas out of electricity and atmospheric carbon dioxide. > > https://terraformindustries.wordpress.com/2024/04/01/terraform-makes-carbon-neutral-natural-gas/ ### [Reply to @reconfigurthing, 07:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775059597310484575) · 11 likes > **Elias Schmied (@reconfigurthing):** When getting rejected (whether romantically or in friendship), do you prefer the other party being straightforward ("Hm, I don't really want to, sorry") or letting you down gently / giving an excuse ("This week is really busy for me) Unambiguous + true gentle (“I think we’d be better as friends”) is fine, ambiguous/fake reasons are bad ### [Quote tweet, 08:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775071610526974257) · 12 likes Opioids are underused, clinically, and this is very bad > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Reply to @polisisti, 08:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775073895764103307) · 1 like > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** broccolo > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKIe6Y_XgAAE_lf.jpg) Brocc ### [Tweet, 08:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775075705564561802) · 45 likes Hate to be a hater but I can’t get on the solar eclipse train. It’s gonna be dark for 4 minutes, whoopdie-fuckin-do ### [Reply to @instrumenthull, 08:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775076536300773470) · 1 like > **Peter Hull (@instrumenthull):** Something big is happening in the county jail of Flint MI > > An innovative rehab program is sharply reducing in-jail misconduct and post-release recidivism > > I'm tremendously excited to share this new paper, with @MarcellaAlsan, Crystal Yang, & @ArkeyBarnett > > https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/n21oplkwvwzd5u6k922kk/IGNITE_Mar29_2024.pdf?rlkey=zf2rlewziptzopkfcca0cb7tw&raw=1 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKFVWbHX0AAMVl2.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKFVX5NXYAAKcGT.png) Nice ### [Reply to @Littoral_Gecko, 08:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775079880926924837) · 1 like > **A Gecko🦎 (@Littoral_Gecko):** @AaronBergman18 Go to bed Aaron it’s 4:35 in the morning Go to bed gecko it’s 4:36 in the morning ### [Reply to @Littoral_Gecko, 08:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775080221244371281) · 2 likes > **A Gecko🦎 (@Littoral_Gecko):** @AaronBergman18 I’ve seen it be dark outside before—it’s called night and it happens every day. smhmh It’s never been night on-after April 2, 2024 though so there’s no record with which to make a probability ### [Reply to @lxrjl, 08:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775085220103893252) · 2 likes > **alex lawsen (@lxrjl):** You can read it here, but I'd recommend listening to Joe read it out, or at least that's what I'm doing (audio at the same link). > https://joecarlsmith.com/2024/01/04/deep-atheism-and-ai-risk If his stint as a philosophy guy doesn’t work out and also we’re about to hit an AI text to speech winter, he can find employment as a narrator ### [Reply to @lxrjl, 08:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775085531040203156) · 3 likes > **alex lawsen (@lxrjl):** Can't express enough how much I'm enjoying my colleague @jkcarlsmith's current essay series. And yet you attempt to express it here, on twitter. Curious. ### [Reply to @hominidan, 09:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775090322906705989) · 2 likes > **Hominid Dan 🦊 (@hominidan):** @IvanVendrov effective altruist Even setting aside having more correct views than replacement this seems unironically right Ethics and decision theory in the context of EA is as close as you’re gonna get to skin in the game philosophy, which in turn incentivizes truth seeking rather than ancients-worship ### [Thread, continued, 09:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775090440619835621) and runaway intelligence signaling ### [Reply, 09:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775091866242851162) · 1 like He just like me fr ### [Thread, continued, 09:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775092566993600768) · 3 likes Wait, in kinda a bunch of ways lol \- flakey \- takes Prozac \- likes walking in circles (or at least one circle bc destination is usually starting point) \- health issues \- no gf \- lives in a major city on the east coast of the US \- likes cold \- white \- male \- mammal ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 09:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775096193447588248) · 6 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Good example of how it's viewed as more acceptable to criticise elite groups than the public. > > The key group behind most harmful regulations of the market is likely the voters; the general public. > > And to a large degree their opposition is rooted in economic illiteracy. > > (quoting @AlecStapp: “Milton Friedman used to say that there are two groups of people who don’t like the free market. Intellectuals because they think they can do it better than the market, and businessmen because they don’t like competition.”) In many cases the elites are elite because they have political power and/or their explicit and socially agreed upon job is to make good policies (in some sense) Makes more practical and like moral sense to criticize this group ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 09:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775098099733557383) · 1 like > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Hitchens razor is useful but it feels too powerful. > > ie what evidence is there for: > \- the continuance of selves > \- logic functioning > \- memory being real > > All these things seem to me to be assumed, so can they be dismissed without evidence? Feels like Occams razor is better. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKJitRAW8AAmhbb.png) Lots of evidence for the last two Eg it just so happens that my memory of going on vacation around Christmas comports with pictures in my camera roll, emails, and the reports of my family ### [Reply to @StatisticUrban, 09:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775098704397021495) · 1 like > **Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** @AaronBergman18 they're way overused wdym I admit I don’t actually know what I’m talking about here (in the sense of not having a good picture of clinical guidance and norms and prescription data) That said my anecdata suggests that the reaction to the opioid crisis has resulted in it being hard for some people ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 09:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775099436672143513) · 4 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** @AaronBergman18 Sure but you're gonna have to use your memory in any experiment. What if you are making that up as soon as you see the photos? Non rock-solid evidence is still evidence If the reverse were true (no pictures, family disagreed), I think we’d agree that this would be evidence against at least \*my\* memories’ reliability ### [Reply, 09:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775099747499446418) What is this from? Either I’m extremely misinformed or this is total bullshit (not necessarily made up, more likely a couple misinterpretations of studies or smth) ### [Reply to @StatisticUrban, 10:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775101442304417829) · 3 likes > **Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** It's a difficult area to study, since there's no universal, objective way of quantifying pain, but in general there's some fairly robust evidence that NSAIDs are just as effective as opioids for the the treatment of acute pain. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKJpgH2WsAIXX3q.jpg) Doses are doing a ton of work here. Does anyone think that ibuprofen and heroin max out at the same effect size? ### [Reply to @StatisticUrban, 10:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775109152806760867) · 1 like > **Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** @AaronBergman18 That logic does not necessarily track, I see no inherent causality. For sure, not inherent at all, but there are good theoretical reasons to expect it to check out most of the time and we see it empirically with other classes of drugs (eg high dose amphetamines to prevent sleep and perceived exertion, arguably chemotherapy too) ### [Reply to @NotZainAgain, 10:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775112473160380446) · 6 likes > **Zain (@NotZainAgain):** Crazy how fast Google Meet has supplanted Zoom. > > If you want to hop on a call and suggest Zoom it’s almost a boomer-level faux pas at this point http://meet.new (like http://doc.new and http://sheet.new) opens a new google meet fyi ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 10:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775114853809578098) · 2 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** @AaronBergman18 Your worst take in a while 😈 ### [Reply to @girdley, 10:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775115265090412997) · 1 like > **Michael Girdley (@girdley):** Kind of crazy that we’ve gone from “everyone should learn to code” to “avoid computer science degrees” in less than a decade. Both are decent advice tbh ### [Reply to @tautologer, 11:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775122426042454379) · 1 like > **tautologer (@tautologer):** wowwww I totally forgot I was feeling this way just a few short months ago. things can change so quickly. very grateful to not be feeling this way anymore > > (quoting @tautologer: while I'm stuck here waiting for my archive download, any tips for healthily dealing with overwhelm from emotions that are too intense to handle in the moment? I'm doing my best but I am struggling to make it through those moments when I desperately want to not be conscious) Totally cool if this was never public but what was the context for that tweet? ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 21:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775270068261408945) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ EAs love embedded links ## Wednesday, April 3, 2024 ### [Reply to @bat1441, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775402648998494590) · 2 likes > **bat (@bat1441):** @AaronBergman18 If you take this MTG personality quiz, I have a prediction for what results you get: https://still-anchorage-15218.herokuapp.com/ 175 is a lot lol. I did 44, what’s ur guess? Results screenshot: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10H6fCEYAaWaG5ZDxApXJyGYTmbVObSWoH0HSIlOqZSc/edit ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 14:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775535315828031570) · 1 like > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** imo most of their arguments are really bad/weak/clearly self motivated > > if you want an ai skeptic it might be better to go with the “ai is bad to build” pause people, bc i think there are probably compelling arguments to make on that side. Idk who would be best though Yes correct take @ilex_ulmus on the case for pause ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 14:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775538007891657212) · 8 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** apparently, a random person just organized an ACX meetup like 500 meters from where I live in Chile > > 10/10, great service Plot twist it’s 500m underground ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 15:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775539173887254753) · 1 like > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @Manuel_do_rio Haven't read her book but this seems interesting at least. > > https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/sharon-hewitt-rawlette-hedonistic-utilitarianism/ > > @AaronBergman18 Ya - I haven’t seen many other ppl make the distinction between value realism and normative realism though, which seems important to me https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/pigeon-hour-x-consistently-candid ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKP7d6kXUAADfqq.jpg) ### [Reply to @lxrjl, 15:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775541881830613368) · 4 likes > **alex lawsen (@lxrjl):** Like is this a "probably in a week it'll be fine" unprecedented or more like a "we've been saying unprecedented since 2020 and hoping nobody notices" kind of unprecedented? Sorry Erin it’s probably not ur fault but dare I say this is a precedent ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775542693105369231) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ This has got to be the coolest part of having 16k followers They’d only have refunded me £50 ### [Reply to @xlr8harder, 16:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775563229864821055) · 2 likes > **xlr8harder (@xlr8harder):** i wonder what it must be like to live in the world of people who think tap to pay might be ai > > (quoting @natolambert: I was an "expert" in this WaPo article on "what is AI" using the Russell & Norvig defition. Cool to see where average readers over/underestimate AI usage I said clippy is an AI fwiw, readers are right! ClippyGPT when.) Build this I want my personal Claude simulating 1M hours of intense negotiation every time I pony up 1.99 for a gas station water ### [Thread, continued, 16:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775563504591819180) · 2 likes “Good news Aaron, I got the price down to $1.96 after threatening to report an OSHA violation” ### [Reply to @Delicious_Tacos, 22:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775656170109177968) · 12 likes > **Delicious Tacos (@Delicious_Tacos):** No collective problem will be solved > > Any effort to do so is an attempt to take money > > Work on yourself > > Then the person close to you > > Then the next person Incorrect take ### [Quote tweet, 23:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775660405383467247) · 11 likes [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1775660310461833216/pu/img/XwlOOBVgg4iHuhHI.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775660405383467247/video/1) (video, plays on X) > **Quoting Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** New wild animal welfare intervention just dropped > > https://youtube.com/shorts/3gbP66g9XGA?si=Y9BY5RKgveFXducS ### [Reply to @mattparlmer, 23:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775666924199825873) · 10 likes > **mattparlmer 🪐 🌷 (@mattparlmer):** Ngl this looks overengineered > > (quoting @burny_tech: Map of the Human Metabolic Pathways) Great minds etc ### [Quote tweet, 23:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775667409812128097) · 15 likes Me whenever I say smth innocent and all of a sudden I got 8 comments and 3 QTs from people I don’t follow > **Quoting dom (@ryiacy):** guy explaining why no one likes his tweets: it’s cause I’m thinking with too much clarity > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKPk0pFXgAAbWDu.jpg) ## Thursday, April 4, 2024 ### [Reply to @burny_tech, 00:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775677978631958926) · 3 likes > **Burny - Effective Curiosity (@burny_tech):** Is cure to nerd loneliness a 12 hours long hyper intellectual discussions about mechanisms of all of reality from first principles? Ya ### [Reply to @thiagovscoelho, 00:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775678413128294436) · 5 likes > **Thiago ✱ (@thiagovscoelho):** I’m thinking of a joke where you take a book title on a really abstract or literary topic and add “with Applications” or “with \[programming language\]” to the end > > proofs of concept, > ¶ “Trinitarian Dogmatics with R and Python” > ¶ “An Introduction to Homer’s Iliad with Applications” I’d read Crime and Punishment with R ### [Tweet, 00:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775685057157419311) · 15 likes We are in an AI winter (rabbit aka dog creds: @SpacedOutMatt) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKSAJcOXIAA5LwI.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKSAJcSXEAAIpzW.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 00:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775685132826927435) · 2 likes Inspired by an old @RafaRuizdeLira post but I lost it ### [Reply to @_chair, 00:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775687451241300292) · 2 likes > **Chair (@_chair):** @qephatziel he make u venmo for bbqsauce lol ### [Reply to @amablue_, 01:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775694044112327096) · 3 likes > **𝔸𝕝𝕖𝕩 🌻 (@amablue_):** This reminds me of the time my mom decided to move out of her rental a few days early (not break the lease mind you, just get her stuff out of the unit) and the landlord tried to stop her, and even called the police (they didn't do anything obviously, you're allowed to move out) Tf ### [Reply, 01:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775694340616061157) · 1 like 😢 ### [Reply to @FractalAuth, 01:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775695521958576354) · 3 likes > **Fractal Authenticity 30/1000 cranes (@FractalAuth):** I just squared up against a phantom in the semantic arena. If I won, I would be allowed to leave plato's cave. > > Y'all might want to seriously consider @myceliummage's speech coaching, available on the Twitter job board. > https://twitterjobboard.com/job_page/speech-coaching-1706769202242x400579196936257540 > > (he was not the phantom) What does this mean ### [Reply to @RokoMijic, 01:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775697046084710699) · 4 likes > **Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** @JeffLadish yeah but you're not the one whose extinction is being proposed > > the animals prefer to exist I don’t think this is true ### [Reply to @_happyclams, 01:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775697633983582385) > **happy clams (@_happyclams):** @space_tintin Fundamentally unserious language 😡 ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775702623703679482) · 3 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** Rafael Qualy ### [Tweet, 01:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775703376308687015) · 346 likes Should I get a $5000 laptop even though I don’t need one and it wouldn’t meaningfully improve my productivity or quality of life? ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 01:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775703563269734655) · 6 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** no Ok, smart ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 01:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775704080024772810) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @QualyThe @RafaRuizdeLira @Big_Buddy_Jape Aaron Ya what’s up ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 01:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775704553452720617) · 16 likes > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** @AaronBergman18 what laptop even is $5k? MBP with a million cores? I could mutate a huge tibble with this mf ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKSR4P4XYAA8zj9.jpg) ### [Reply, 02:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775705652318392826) · 1 like What is this again? Ik it’s ur future income but what are the deets? ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 02:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775705973329388013) · 8 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** no Ok but you should get a monitor that’s brighter than one whale oil candle from 1793 ### [Reply, 02:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775708445670260958) · 2 likes Honestly I am extremely not above investing in random things like this but this is a really bad deal lol. Would have to 10x that at a minimum (interest rates are 5% rn on checking) ### [Reply, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775708938819748147) · 1 like I’d buy at $5. I don’t expect you to take this but just as pricing info in case it’s helpful ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775710636405633217) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Why are you like this U probably window shop for Michelin star rabbit food ### [Reply to @yzilber, 02:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775711012735340958) · 7 likes > **Jazi Zilber (@yzilber):** @AaronBergman18 do you plan FIRE? financial independence retire early > > gives us please the data. > > marginal value of money, suffering of work, net worth and so on No, high, idk, too low to make this make any sense whatsoever ### [Quote tweet, 02:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775713054266733055) · 3 likes “It’s just a stochastic parrot!” The parrot: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKSZnG_XIAA6Qu7.jpg) > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** "It's just a stochastic parrot!" > > The parrot: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKSVnAHWMAAq65W.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775713057533984987) · 1 like Nominative determinism etc https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Parrot ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775715415647268870) · 2 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** "I Have Been a Good Bing" is now finally out on all the major music stores! > > Youtube Music: https://music.youtube.com/channel/UCeW0zyvEq77YiVqoTj6PnWw > Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/the-fooming-shoggoths/1738967374 > Spotify: > https://open.spotify.com/album/0DP8XwSK7voq0rtXiNMhQC Unironically endorse more albums being made ### [Reply to @ezra_brodey, 02:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775716202859405651) > **Ezra (@ezra_brodey):** @laraaaanguyen @AaronBergman18 Are ISAs legally enforceable? Almost certainly, right? By default any contract is legal and thus legally binding unless actually made illegal or unenforceable for some reason (eg banned shark loans, can’t sell yourself into slavery) ### [Reply, 02:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775716554845393051) · 1 like Don’t need snipe me into philosophy of language plz (are you implicitly replacing that claim with “words intrinsically mean things”?) ### [Reply, 02:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775717647679668288) · 1 like is false in a basic, absolute, non-relative sense” ### [Reply to @keysmashbandit, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775732035933335602) · 2 likes > **keysmashbandit (@keysmashbandit):** i just gave a talk and someone stopped me in the hall after to say i did a good job and i said "aw really! idk i feel like it was bad" and he responded "well there were parts that could use improvement" from the bottom of my heart i hate math autists I feel like I would do this, sorry :( (My defense is that there are times when it’s legit hard to get constructive feedback bc people don’t wanna be mean and have little or no incentive to help you out) ### [Quote tweet, 03:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775733247663624647) · 9 likes Ordered 😈 > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Should I get a $5000 laptop even though I don’t need one and it wouldn’t meaningfully improve my productivity or quality of life? ### [Thread, continued, 03:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775733255938900289) · 11 likes Honestly a great deal for both trash bags and tea. Gonna hold off on the computer at least for now tho ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKSr-_qWMAAoQSn.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 04:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775738768529531267) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 Please tell me you didn't I did order these ### [Tweet, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775740040246632542) · 8 likes Figured out how to publish R libraries thanks to chatgpt, lfg (I had previously tried quite a bit and let me tell you even step by step explicit instructions are no match for my lack of ability) [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1775739998899187712/pu/img/mSpul3csK_vNm2Gs.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775740040246632542/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775740884589375841) · 8 likes > **Ruth Hook (@ruth_hook_):** what are examples of eerie unexpected heritability in your life if you're privileged enough to have a good relationship with your family > > mine was finding out my dad and I ate the exact same thing during undergrad all nighters without ever discussing it & they're v odd choices Not sure how much I think this is just a coincidence but lol ### [Quote tweet, 05:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775751717314863441) · 7 likes Oh man, I really wanna know what the effect of a claim’s actual truth is on this (yes ik this is methodologically extremely difficult) > **Quoting Ethan Mollick (@emollick):** Unexpected & big: it is famously hard to get people to stop believing in conspiracy theories, but… > > A controlled trial finds a 3 round debate with GPT-4 arguing the other side robustly lowers conspiracy theory beliefs and the effects persist over time, even for true believers. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKRa__xWAAAD98U.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKRa__0XEAAIlBe.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKRa__zXQAADDBm.jpg) ### [Reply to @polisisti, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775764724090618255) · 10 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** the spending should be > > $1400 laptop > $3600 candles I am strongly anti-candle bc of air quality ### [Tweet, 06:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775776536571813913) · 13 likes Ngl I have no idea what a “bug” is in the context of code (as opposed to idk just like it being wrong?) ### [Reply, 06:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775777448220631311) 984 steps to go 👍 ### [Reply to @sullyj3, 07:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775780906495619183) · 2 likes > **░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░ (@sullyj3):** @AaronBergman18 I don't think there's a distinction ''' Be wkame. Th 3891🐡294£{!\]!|^? Glug glug glug Return result ''' Is this code buggy? ### [Reply to @cafreiman, 07:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775781446986129827) · 2 likes > **Chris Freiman (@cafreiman):** Imagine that we’ve achieved an equal distribution of resources. Then a singer begins selling tickets to her events. Lots of people buy them. The singer is now a billionaire and the distribution is no longer equal. Is the new distribution unjust? > > (quoting @Forbes: Taylor Swift Officially Joins Forbes’ Billionaire List As One Of 14 Celebrity Billionaires https://go.forbes.com/c/cbfR) You didn’t start with equal distribution of resources then. The singer had more natural talent or willpower or creativity or something ### [Reply to @thecaptain_nemo, 07:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775783478887322003) · 2 likes > **Nemo (@thecaptain_nemo):** high IQ low conscientiousness mfs are like sleeper agents waiting for a god king like Steve Jobs to activate them and force them to reach their full potential Sure hope so lol ### [Reply, 07:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775784567376364000) · 1 like This tweet would get anyone a follow from me lol ### [Reply to @haus_cole, 07:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775785535753040092) · 9 likes > **Derek Parfait (@haus_cole):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKTakj2asAA-hlr.png) No with me it’s always ChatGPT’s fault ### [Reply to @sullyj3, 08:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775797653114142775) · 2 likes > **░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░ (@sullyj3):** @AaronBergman18 Oh, I see. That's not even valid code, so it doesn't rise to the level of being buggy. Buggy is when it compiles and runs, but crashes or behaves incorrectly Oh lol I think this is the actual answer ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 09:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775824028629954963) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 4, 2024:** Inspired by an old @RafaRuizdeLira post but I lost it Found it ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 10:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775840091023306776) · 2 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** Today in Qualy Explained: > > This is a reference to the “Moving the Eiffel Tower to ROME“ interpretability paper, where researchers were able to change the connections in an LLM so that the model would output “Rome“ as the location of the Eiffel Tower (https://arxiv.org/pdf/2202.05262.pdf). > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJ9erduXEAIeCnf.jpg) Tyfys ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 11:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775843392041202167) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** @AaronBergman18 @NathanpmYoung before the change about 1 in 1000 deaths were from paracetamol overdoses(!) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCiu9ASWIAAHCDY.jpg) What ### [Quote tweet, 11:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775844981585875202) · 8 likes Oh shit he got fact checked fr > **Quoting Jonathan Mannhart 🔎🔸 (@JMannhart):** @IBlackmailLands @tylercowen @JonHaidt Why is everybody so impressed with this factoid that is 1. factually incorrect, nixtamalization is about pellagra, not scurvy, and 2. not that relevant to the argument. > > “Get another source of the vitamin“ is not a good counterpoint to “what if we stopped taking that vitamin“. ### [Reply to @thebestestpie, 11:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775850376446530047) · 2 likes > **Fake News Pie (@thebestestpie):** I have lost a lot of respect for Cowen since I started reading his opinions on AI. he doesn't get the argument and is just confidently saying a lot of words. Not being constrained by Gell Mann amnesia, I would bet this strained relationship w/ truth happens thruout his work Ya agreed, at least directionally ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 12:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775866716251111863) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 These seem overpriced, you should try the grocery store :( I actually know the unit price for mint tea bags pretty well and it’s usually like $.22-30, up to $.60 sometimes. $.14 is good ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 12:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775867125833326683) · 3 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** @RafaRuizdeLira @AaronBergman18 The grocery tea bags don't have 128gb of unified memory Rafael it's not the same Ya they can’t even load a trillion-row csv into R ### [Reply to @prerat, 12:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775869798905262589) · 3 likes > **prerat (@prerat):** i think it is ok to divide by zero most of the time. > > 1 ÷ 0 = ∞ > 2 ÷ 0 = ∞ > 3 ÷ 0 = ∞ > > no problem! > > not really that different from: > 1 × 0 = 0 > 2 × 0 = 0 > 3 × 0 = 0 > > there is some problem if you allow 0\*∞, 0/0, etc, but those are easier to explain why they're paradox cases > > (quoting @johnrush: @DmytroKrasun I let my daughter divide by zero) I don’t actually remember what breaks if u try to build a mathematical system where this is a thing but I’m pretty sure it’s something (not to say this isn’t fine most of the time lol) ### [Reply to @nosilverv, 12:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775870140736823492) · 3 likes > **Guy (@nosilverv):** People who go to the therapist actually need philosophy, people who go to philosophy actually need a therapist (lool) > > (quoting @RomeoStevens76: @mourader @visakanv oops. It means that therapists usually aren't set up to handle emotions being about actual big life questions. Philosophers aren't set up to handle their grand theories actually being about mundane socialization problems.) @absurdlymax (not being passive aggressive just thought u might appreciate lol) ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 13:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1775871796639617025) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Brain: just like the goddamn tweet Aaron Me: I feel like >90% of people reading this (including me) should probably be more optimization-minded/methodical in general, not less This isn’t to disagree with ur explicit statement tho 😊 ## Friday, April 5, 2024 ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 17:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776302961418772509) · 3 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** I've been really enjoying "a little older than one" as an age. It's cool having a more mobile baby who's increasingly communicative and intelligent > > Things I like: Dare I say his mobility, communication skills, and intelligence are going to keep improving from here ### [Reply to @SFBART, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776306523871838650) · 4 likes > **BART (@SFBART):** It is widely documented that people with autism often have a natural affinity for trains, and BART couldn't be more thrilled to celebrate that during #AutismAcceptanceMonth. > > See where the announcements are playing and listen to the recordings: https://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2024/news20240401 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKRb__HW0AAjsmh.jpg) Based ### [Quote tweet, 17:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776306858472460539) · 31 likes RP moral weights project got me like > **Quoting prerat (@prerat):** i would die for 1.02 monkeys or 1.66 bananas ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 19:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776324550852026660) · 10 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Many say “we tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run" but is there any evidence that's actually true? Not obvious to me. The single example “stone tools -> AGI” might single-handedly carry the second claim even when offset by all the things that didn’t go anywhere ## Saturday, April 6, 2024 ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 00:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776408624635445318) · 6 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Nobody show this to Open Phil New Tulsa just dropped, who wants to move in I’m like 45% serious ### [Quote tweet, 00:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776409558149189892) · 6 likes $2.3M, same as a shack in SF ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKcTE-dXAAA-Q0A.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @SpacedOutMatt New Tulsa just dropped, who wants to move in I’m like 45% serious ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 00:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776411659247992941) · 5 likes > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** what > > (quoting @JustinWolfers: “In the poorest 1% of zip codes that have lottery retailers, the average American adult spends around $600 a year, or nearly 5% of their income, on tickets. That compares with just $150, or 0.15%, for those in the richest 1% of zip codes.”…) I’m guessing they’re using mean rather than median, and in both cases this has to be driven by like 1-10% of people paying a ton ### [Tweet, 01:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776420566611746891) · 29 likes All relevant AirBnBs being sold out just shows that people are bad at pricing ### [Reply to @alistair___s, 02:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776433915474973083) · 1 like > **Alistair Stewart (@alistair___s):** @gmiller @CaitPsych If we define exploitation as "the use of a sentient being as a means to an end without their consent", what's a non-exploitative reason to have (biological) children? It can benefit the children (?) ### [Reply, 02:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776442704253030499) Nah I don’t believe u ### [Reply to @zeta_globin, 02:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776443286607065598) · 11 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @zeta_globin is no longer available.)_ I didn’t know this was a thing but if it is, one hypothesis is that Ashkenazis having relatively more GI issues is definitely a thing which carbonation sometimes alleviates the symptoms of ### [Reply to @cosyposter, 02:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776443697032253536) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @cosyposter is no longer available.)_ Free my man ### [Reply, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776459054136615010) · 1 like Oh lol ok I did not think wet wood would burn cooler (although I can kinda see it now) (intuitively less “smoke” from wet wood but the smoke is just steam that creates an illusion of more particulates) ### [Reply to @eshear, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776464536964366774) · 2 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** Why shouldn’t all the inventory clear? If the owners were acting as a block, sure they could extract more collectively. But the ppl who overprice lose big and people just slightly underpriced lose very little. So it’s rational in the absence of coordination… Idk when they sold out, but >3 days before literally zero of all the sellers are holding out for a higher price? They should only clear like the day before ### [Reply to @livgorton, 04:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776467521169654040) · 7 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** today someone asked me if i was EA and instead of explaining “well… you know, i’m a little bit adjacent but… blah blah” i actually said yes?? what does this mean?? Haha YES 😈 The cult has gained a member everybody write this down ### [Reply to @sgonzalesauthor, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776476283385381204) · 1 like > **Sophie Gonzales (@sgonzalesauthor):** This person describing what immortality would actually be like is genuinely the best short horror story I’ve ever read > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKa_E3vboAEFMcm.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKa_E37aEAAIJCz.jpg) Had the same thought ### [Quote tweet, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776476737221615674) · 54 likes Where do I find more of whatever psychogenre this is? > **Quoting Sophie Gonzales (@sgonzalesauthor):** This person describing what immortality would actually be like is genuinely the best short horror story I’ve ever read > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKa_E3vboAEFMcm.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKa_E37aEAAIJCz.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 05:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776478974463311993) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 15, 2024:** My uninhibited pharmacology brain says maybe this is bc they’re all chronically low on glycogen ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKdSNjTWAAAV2g5.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 05:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776481845997084786) · 9 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 6, 2024:** Where do I find more of whatever psychogenre this is? Reminding me of this ### [Reply to @ghosttyped, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776482673403253091) · 3 likes > **David Bui (@ghosttyped):** What would you do in this situation? > > [video attached](https://x.com/ghosttyped/status/1776264002949050436/video/1) Die ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776701799820341345) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKe5DEMXoAABO08.jpg) What the fuck is this guys problem ### [Quote tweet, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776702149168148646) · 16 likes Whenever a moot has a bad take > **Quoting Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** Why do smart people believe things that are not true? ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776703377050624466) · 1 like > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** While I don't support this trust me that splitting a bedroom in half and adding a new door from the hallway is so easy that you can wait until your wife is 8 months pregnant to even start Ya I’m cool with this I will unironically sleep on the couch ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776709982144041294) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** I think this interacts poorly with your randomly-generated sleep schedule Watch out bud ur about to get uninvited from the castle ## Sunday, April 7, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 14:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776973255103951062) · 9 likes Fr though I don’t understand why this kind of thing doesn’t happen more Not just in housing - anything where the law is essentially about getting the right pieces of paper signed by the right people and enforcement via literal force… > **Quoting \_its_not_real\_ (@_its_not_real_):** Based. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKiApv3WQAA3eq0.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 14:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776973257045868900) · 5 likes (demolishing buildings, physical arrest, the state welding its monopoly on lethal force) seems frankly implausible, at least before several steps of escalation occur Why do we have rule of law? ### [Reply to @livgorton, 14:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1776973997000798628) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** @AaronBergman18 @SpacedOutMatt i also could be 45% serious. will we get EA forum posts about our irresponsible financial choices? that’s the real value of the investment So together that makes 90%. We just need to find one person who’s 10% serious ### [Tweet, 15:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777000623050748209) · 22 likes Parfit biography should have been titled “Let Him Cook” ### [Reply, 16:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777004795699614050) Idk I can’t recall hearing about another instance of this (or breaking height limits, or building appts in an area zoned for single family, but maybe I’m just ignorant/mistaken ### [Thread, continued, 16:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777005073014440195) · 1 like And for better or worse, civil disobedience doesn’t rly seem to be a big YIMBY tactic afaict ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 17:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777032469440536938) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @BearPosting @AaronBergman18 @RafaRuizdeLira ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 22:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777100440489848917) · 5 likes > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** @AaronBergman18 Explain He was basically identified as brilliant pretty young and then spent like 25 years barely publishing enough to keep getting paid to be a scholar at Oxford, in part maybe bc he repeatedly kept saying he’d publish a book but never did Eventually he was basically given ### [Thread, continued, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777101207359664542) · 6 likes An ultimatum to publish the book he’d been promising or he’d be out at Oxford Long story short he goes monk mode and drops Reasons and Persons, which was like 25 years of accumulating thoughts and takes and revolutionized big parts of academic philosophy ## Monday, April 8, 2024 ### [Reply to @liron, 06:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777219047517544531) · 3 likes > **Liron Shapira (@liron):** Taelin you are a gentleman and a scholar > > (quoting @VictorTaelin: I \*WAS\* WRONG - $10K CLAIMED! ## The Claim Two days ago, I confidently claimed that "GPTs will NEVER solve the A::B problem". I believed that: 1. GPTs can't truly learn new problems, outside of their training set, 2. GPTs can't perform long-term reasoning, no matter how simple…) It’s a rare tweet that basically gets an instant follow from me but this is one ### [Reply to @keysmashbandit, 06:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777219309023965592) · 2 likes > **keysmashbandit (@keysmashbandit):** vyvanse makes me want to have opinions on things and share them and its sometimes a bad idea Nah poast through it ### [Reply to @sporadica, 15:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777355147712086236) · 2 likes > **spor (@sporadica):** explaining how these two are connected should be part of the us citizenship exam > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKprvzbXAAEQ8aK.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKprvzfXsAEcAzz.jpg) The obvious answer that pops to mind is cultural influence as soft power and hard power as reasons for American hegemony but is there like a weirder/more direct thing? ### [Reply to @parmita, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777366259975192674) · 1 like > **parm🔬 (@parmita):** this is every biologist going to the doctor > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKlT0doXYAA-Io2.jpg) Yeah and this is good ### [Reply to @StatisticUrban, 16:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777367478634467426) · 2 likes > **Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** You should walk 10,000 steps a day and exercise regularly. > > (quoting @OliviaUtley: This has blown my mind. How can you even avoid walking 5000 steps a day?! 🤯 that’s like to my local Tesco and back for milk) Bimodal distribution go brr ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKp6TWEXsAAOXqA.jpg) ### [Reply to @historyinmemes, 16:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777368006831513742) · 3 likes > **Historic Vids (@historyinmemes):** Every spring, cows in Sweden get let out of the barn when it's warm enough after being indoors all winter. > > [video attached](https://x.com/historyinmemes/status/1777295323683340353/video/1) I feel like the cows are probably smart enough to figure out if it’s too cold to be outside Just give them access to both ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 16:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777369030979891624) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Had an appointment with my primary care provider today and told her some recommendations from my psychiatrist, and she said psychiatrists aren’t medical doctors. Is it time to find a new provider? Tell ur psych that and watch them fight it out ### [Reply to @iamgingertrash, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777371077502546036) · 2 likes > **simp 4 satoshi (@iamgingertrash):** If you squint hard, everything looks like gradient descent > > \> Startups pivot because they found a new path to minima > \> Your Instagram feed is a local minima for your attention > \> Governments change policy according to popularity > > Where is this not true? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKlduFvXYAAVMRf.jpg) Walking uphill ### [Tweet, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777376384060387655) · 50 likes What are the betting odds on the solar eclipse happening? I’ll do 100k:1 that someone screwed up the math somewhere ### [Thread, continued, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777376594597699760) · 4 likes Or a weird event like changes the earth or moon’s trajectory ### [Thread, continued, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777377154503741440) · 4 likes Maybe willing to negotiate down to 10k:1 ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 17:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777380926122561708) · 2 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** @AaronBergman18 i’ll bet at those odds Sweet dm me ur Venmo I’ll send u a dollar ### [Reply, 17:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777382221155864789) · 1 like Lol unfortunately my odds become worse \*after\* the thing happened (or doesn’t 👀) ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 17:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777385183357894844) · 2 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** @AaronBergman18 i’m a financial caveman and don’t have venmo. instead, you have to be $1 worth of friendliness/politeness in future encounters until the debt is settled Alright, likewise for the payout when I win ### [Quote tweet, 17:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777387862691885258) · 72 likes Don’t believe the Daylight Doomers ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKqM1vhWAAAUAvv.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** What are the betting odds on the solar eclipse happening? > > I’ll do 100k:1 that someone screwed up the math somewhere ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777414471775854810) · 8 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 19, 2023:** Very load bearing https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1737187769284219383?s=46 Load bearing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKqk9f1XIAABoOB.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777472286766895229) · 1 like > **Aaron Bergman, December 3, 2023:** 44 45\) people on both sides of many EA-related ethical discussions use whichever of {happiness, suffering} is most compelling and persuasive even when they want their claim to be symmetrical Examples below… ### [Thread, continued, 23:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777473961812525536) · 1 like 1\) anti-longtermists make various arguments/claims along the lines of “we have no duty or responsibility to act such that there are more happy people in the future” which I think is wrong but not prima facie absurd… ### [Thread, continued, 23:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777474319775322260) · 2 likes But the version of this that goes “we have no duty or responsibility to act such that future people who would suffer terribly if created are not, in fact, born” or “that future people who are bound to exist suffer less” seems at least to me obviously wrong on its face ## Tuesday, April 9, 2024 ### [Reply to @vivian_belenky, 11:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777654258810093956) · 1 like > **viv 🔸 (@vivian_belenky):** Yeah so we had the same cool and unique proposal idea > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKqlwllXkAAJno8.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKqnTqrWkAACwSv.jpg) Based ### [Tweet, 11:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777655810740367541) · 17 likes I don’t think the phonetics of the word “elephant” are appropriate for the aesthetics of the creature. We should rename them to something with more long vowels but I haven’t decided what yet ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 11:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777656407086514499) · 5 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I’ve long thought this is true and one of the most obvious problems with the sequences. At the same time, it seems insane to dismiss the sequences just because of this, it managed to be a hit anyway I don’t particularly love the writing style but not everything should read like a Paul graham essay or tea kettle instruction manual lol ### [Reply to @nikitabier, 11:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777663220808896834) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @nikitabier is no longer available.)_ And given that most people who move there are neither homeless nor bankrupt, evidently they are indeed able to! ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 11:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777665011696943286) · 2 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** nobody warned me how SMALL the sun is. childhood ruined It’s bigger up close though. Like it can fit several aircraft carriers and have room to spare ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 11:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777665536446345637) · 1 like > **henry (@arithmoquine):** @AaronBergman18 https://x.com/arithmoquine/status/1767740993036513431 Don’t be unrealistic ### [Reply to @liz_love_lace, 12:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777668128433996058) · 3 likes > **Liz Lovelace (@liz_love_lace):** guys i'm sorry but you'll be wasting no more than 1kb if you repost this. The image gets linked using the same URL and a many-to-many relationship to the tweets What about now ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKuLvV1XgAEfzJd.jpg) ### [Tweet, 12:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777670583796269191) · 16 likes Lol at Derek Parfit, literal genius and one of the greatest philosophers of all time, avoiding meta-ethics for most of his career because he thought it was “too hard” ### [Reply to @esskayen, 12:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777672602359652377) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @esskayen is no longer available.)_ Are there? ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 16:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777737741662339247) · 5 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** He’s only gone and done it > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKvKrEdWoAAUbfI.jpg) > (quoting @JesseTayRiver: @GjMcGowan Might not be the model but would probably still work. I strongly condone you modifying this stupidity:…) Jesse for president ### [Reply to @inerati, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777739706609877286) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ “Vegans against conservation” would actually be a good and banger interest group ### [Reply, 16:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777740308677030190) · 1 like Fr ### [Reply to @michaelcurzi, 17:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777744427307470999) · 9 likes > **𝖒𝖎𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖊𝖑𝖈𝖚𝖗𝖟𝖎 (@michaelcurzi):** Why don't you call it a 'nursing room' or sm instead of being a fuxking weirdo > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKvFXiGWcAAo-ZT.jpg) No this is where they record the podcast ### [Reply to @BenHayum, 17:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777747920361492766) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @BenHayum is no longer available.)_ 🐑 ## Wednesday, April 10, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 01:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777873390549827723) · 8 likes Poast boxmate > **Quoting Oliver Traldi (@olivertraldi):** never ask someone who else they "put in the same box" as you ### [Reply to @rgblong, 01:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777878968676360494) > **Robert Long (@rgblong):** Are you familiar with the phrase “comparison is the thief of joy”? Deciding whether to interpret this as “were you familiar before reading this tweet?” 😰 ### [Reply to @AaronEstel, 02:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777881366987677814) · 3 likes > **Aaron (@AaronEstel):** @toasterlighting @AaronBergman18 us Aarons stick together Fr 😤 ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1777884906342728117) · 1 like > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** the first time I got to authorise an invoice for £100,000 and that was just... it? everyone just believed me that the work was done?? > > (quoting @bschne: The second-scariest moment early in your career is when someone gives you an important task, the scariest is when you realize they just run with what you came up with) Not the same thing but took me 6 trips to a physical bank branch to wire a similar amount of money lol ### [Reply to @zetalyrae, 11:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778029835568165049) · 1 like > **Fernando Borretti (@zetalyrae):** Where do you meet rats and rat-adjacent people in real life? Meet on twitter first lol ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 12:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778033184346615985) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ip7nXs7l-8sahT6ehvk2pBrlQ6Umy5IMPYStO3taaoc/edit?usp=sharing ### [Reply to @paulg, 13:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778048221035589985) · 9 likes > **Paul Graham (@paulg):** No one uses it in spoken English. It's one of those words like "burgeoning" that people only use when they're writing and want to sound clever. Hey I like “burgeoning”! ### [Reply to @rSanti97, 13:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778054186149490806) · 3 likes > **Santi Ruiz (@rSanti97):** One quarter of all kidneys from organ donors get thrown in the trash. > > At Statecraft, we uncovered why a corrupt monopolist has managed organ procurement for 40 years, and how it’s getting fixed. > https://www.statecraft.pub/p/how-to-stop-losing-17500-kidneys 👀 ### [Reply to @goingawoll, 13:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778056082184696267) · 2 likes > **Amos Wollen 🦐🪰✴️ (@goingawoll):** Since he’s off Twitter, here is Matthew Adelstein’s first peer-reviewed publication 🔥 https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/34/article/922942 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKzj25eWMAA06Hs.jpg) Wow, good for him ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 18:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778122157827989765) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Alright who am I in the same box as > > (quoting @olivertraldi: never ask someone who else they "put in the same box" as you) @austinc3301 bc another 🔍⏸️ internet friend I have yet to meet irl ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778135902495141917) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** no but actually that’s such a good idea Do it ### [Reply to @Philonous, 19:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778143610413740326) · 2 likes > **James Hudson (@Philonous):** @absurdlymax @polisisti And what times are those? When one is indeed delving ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 19:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778143760502665424) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** What he thinkin' about? > > (quoting @BearPosting: ) Probably reflecting on life as a bear ### [Tweet, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778144377967198420) · 7 likes This is where u should go clothes shopping, no exceptions ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GK084xNXYAA6rm7.jpg) ### [Reply to @bschne, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778146180519637492) · 2 likes > **Benjamin (@bschne):** also I figured out how they charge the elephants > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GK0-TS_XUAEpvS5.jpg) Where can I find a USB-C-elephant adapter ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778154984137224517) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @austinc3301 @Laura_k_Duffy (Oh I had no idea neither of you were at RP anymore!) RiP ### [Tweet, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778155768417526085) · 10 likes I’d forgotten that when it gets hot a good 1% of my brainpower becomes dedicated to making sure I never run out of ice, a bit like keeping all my devices charged but they actually do run out relatively quickly if I don’t stay vigilant ### [Reply to @psychiel, 20:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778159476576530542) · 1 like > **Mariven (@psychiel):** Do puppies comprehend that they're growing? Or do they conceive of the world as steadily shrinking? Probably the same as humans, which is to say neither (there’s no conscious sense that either occurs) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778161972384526337) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 10, 2024:** I’d forgotten that when it gets hot a good 1% of my brainpower becomes dedicated to making sure I never run out of ice, a bit like keeping all my devices… I’ve run out ☹️ ### [Reply to @thebestestpie, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778183895613383116) · 2 likes > **Fake News Pie (@thebestestpie):** @AaronBergman18 why not AC? Housemates evidently like it ~10° warmer lol ## Thursday, April 11, 2024 ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 02:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778254243968807187) · 1 like > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I use LLMs \*really\* often, and I also write quite a lot (mostly for work). Yet, I barely use them to write. > > I don't like how Claude and ChatGPT write prose. Not sure if I'm ignorant about the right way to prompt models, or if it's just because their finetuning sucks at this Yeah agree ### [Reply to @EgeErdil2, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778287457592570119) · 1 like > **Ege Erdil (@EgeErdil2):** what do people mean when they talk about "post-scarcity"? > > i'm genuinely confused, i can't find any way of making this concept coherent Price index ≈ 0 ### [Reply to @univrsw3th4rt, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778288865431674975) · 6 likes > **universe sweetheart 💓🌈💭 (@univrsw3th4rt):** just learned the word “iatrogenic” Throw in “etiology” and you’ll have mastered the vernacular ### [Reply to @EgeErdil2, 05:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778290297643966584) · 1 like > **Ege Erdil (@EgeErdil2):** prices are relative, not absolute, so saying they are "near 0" is meaningless > > can you make this claim more precise? It’s not meaninglesss; there’s no law that wages have to increase 1:1 with the price level, so real purchasing power can go up or down That said, I was just spitballing so not shocked if this doesn’t hold up as a sufficient condition for “post scarcity” ### [Reply, 11:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778391999709581358) · 1 like If you start with the assumption that those you disagree with can’t possibly be earnest and can’t possibly believe the things they say they do for good object-level reasons, you’re going to be both mean and wrong a lot of the time ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 12:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778392753140846765) > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** What’s their ideal temp? 70ish ### [Reply to @Actualwebutante, 12:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778395443161968779) · 2 likes > **whoreaborealis (dubai, bali 10/18-11/14) (@Actualwebutante):** What does it mean when code “compiles” Nobody knows ### [Reply, 20:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778521879684542552) Why does it have 31k views? Not to be a hater I just don’t get it lol ### [Reply to @thinkagainer, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778522022236275007) · 2 likes > **thinkagainer (@thinkagainer):** Matt Levine starting a podcast!!! Huge day for a shockingly large number of people exactly like me We are the same ### [Reply to @dcpip_, 21:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778539962004394073) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dcpip_ is no longer available.)_ Real ## Friday, April 12, 2024 ### [Reply to @simoj_, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778633086520930389) · 5 likes > **simoj (@simoj_):** If we accept evidence that they work at all, talk therapy and SSRI’s still have such a small effect size that on average you should not expect them to help very much - yes? > > I may be out of date on this Depends what u mean by “average” Avg effect size is small for any given SSRI helping an arbitrary person, yes, but it could be the case that the avg effect size of those who have been taking one for at least say 3 months is “medium” ### [Tweet, 03:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778634108836483319) · 44 likes TIL Derek Parfit explicitly endorsed EA becoming longtermist (not using that term ofc) in the super early days of institutional EA, circa 2010 ### [Tweet, 04:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778635008195911935) · 11 likes One of my (evidently) more radical opinions is that we don't need to demarcate and enforce formal/"professional" relationship boundaries as strongly as we do It seems like we reify them more strongly than the actual object level power dynamics warrant ### [Thread, continued, 04:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778635010418913614) · 5 likes Yes I’ve posted this before, but my qt of choice was ill-advised ### [Reply to @RFishBlueFish, 04:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778635129973256502) · 2 likes > **Gil (@RFishBlueFish):** @AaronBergman18 was this based on AI x-risk? > > this also got me thinking, how many people in EA would support longtermism if AI wasn't a thing? (neither x-risk nor potentially positive scenarios) Idk I don’t think so but haven’t finished this section in the biography! ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778643479922352379) · 11 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** do you know why he didn't do any meditative practices? He got some of the benefit just from his logicing, but says in the book he can't make it stick no matter how much he logics even though he wants it to stick, and there are well known practices for making it stick > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GK8CV67aAAA_L9X.jpg) Not specifically but guessing for the same reason he made basically no time for anything but work - that was what he prioritized above ~literally everything ### [Quote tweet, 04:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778648342135734705) · 5 likes 👀Same thing 👀 http://admonymous.co/a 👀 > **Quoting Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** DMs and anonymous comment box (https://www.admonymous.co/ilex_ulmus) open if anyone wants to tell me more about why Leopold was fired ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778847424305332299) · 5 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Transitioning from bulking to cutting. Worst thing ever please pray for me fam 🙏🏼 ### [Tweet, 18:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778850372880105608) · 24 likes I am not mentally ready for the Zvi 80k episode ### [Reply to @pearl_please, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778851420852150702) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pearl_please is no longer available.)_ https://gwern.net/fiction/clippy ### [Reply to @ShakeelHashim, 18:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778852340864299364) · 19 likes > **Shakeel (@ShakeelHashim):** Lantern is a really nice example of how rationalists are extremely motivated by groupthink and social dynamics. > > If the CEO wasn’t ex-MIRI and friends with Aella, I don’t think people would be promoting it the way they are. > > (quoting @salonium: Is this a paid advertisement? According to the footnotes it's not, which makes it more baffling for someone to write about a therapeutic candidate this way, since there is no human trial evidence for it. https://www.cremieux.xyz/p/the-rise-and-impending-fall-of-the) I half agree but different interpretation: the rationalist pedigree makes it a rationalism success story - triumph over a suboptimal world - and rationalists like trumpeting this kind of thing for obvious reasons ### [Quote tweet, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778852831874691241) · 38 likes We will get AGI before we get a beepless microwave > **Quoting Jarom Eubanks (@EubanksJarom):** I don't put a timer on the oven or the microwave because it beeps if I do. Bro, wtf does it have to beep like that?? It's so annoying. ### [Reply to @polisisti, 18:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778855834384052708) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 My microwave beeps by default but I can turn off all beeps. The directions were in the instruction manual. It's amazing! Huge ### [Reply to @livgorton, 22:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778908302891434268) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** my mum just now: “is that a cuddle puddle?” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GK_NDXYW0AA7Ff-.jpg) Well is it? ### [Reply to @halcyon_hazel, 22:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778912243670806710) · 1 like > **❤️‍🔥 hazel ❤️‍🔥 (@halcyon_hazel):** wait just found out about santa muerte what the fuck > > (quoting @GraduatedBen: Disconcerting to me that the cult of Santa Muerte is so strong now in Texas that devotional candles are sold at name brand gas station chains) TIL https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Muerte ### [Reply to @ConnorTabarrok, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778913231362220142) · 2 likes > **Connor J. Tabarrok 🏗🚀🌏 (@ConnorTabarrok):** Many microwaves have mute functionality Are these mute functionalities in the room with us right now? ## Saturday, April 13, 2024 ### [Reply to @atroyn, 00:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778938128230678792) · 4 likes > **anton 🇺🇸 (@atroyn):** i still think most men are simply not aware of what pilates actually is What is pilates? I feel like this isn’t super informative ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLAOzJnWAAAno2c.jpg) ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 03:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778985446975885522) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ Big if true ### [Reply to @BecomingCritter, 03:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778993238356971661) · 2 likes > **critter (@BecomingCritter):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLAackVXkAApePN.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLAbSBsW8AAKDQZ.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLAb8OCWMAA05x-.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLAcP7IWIAAlk9C.jpg) ☹️ ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778995328747770090) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** Want to put some money where your mouth is? Happy to bet 300 bucks that satisfactory scientific evidence of its efficacy in human trials will be produced. U might not like it but this is what peak discourse looks like ### [Reply to @dioscuri, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778995665994985652) · 3 likes > **Henry Shevlin (@dioscuri):** One worry I have about superintelligence: what if it gives us really depressing answers about the possibilities of physics as a science? Eg, general relativity and quantum mechanics can’t be empirically unified, and all low-hanging high-impact breakthroughs have happened Is it even possible that they can’t be empirically unified? Idk what I’m talking about but my AP physics layperson understanding is like something’s gotta give - either they can be unified or at least one can be replaced by a better model ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 03:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1778996280473125151) · 6 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** good, maybe this is even better for the environment > > grass is evil and must be stopped at all costs \*all\* costs?? ### [Reply to @inerati, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779199507529367750) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ What else are white ppl supposed to do all day ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779223185264611591) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ Real ### [Tweet, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779227802975252871) · 5 likes New Pigeon Hour episode with the one and only @arthur_wright\_ is live! https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/12-arthur-wright-and-i-discuss-whether ### [Reply to @_chair, 20:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779252182073700662) · 1 like > **Chair (@_chair):** @Samantha1989TV @nightKuiper @shakoistsLog feed magic helpfully popped this up for me on the next refresh Based ### [Reply to @grnsleeves, 20:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779252516443558073) · 2 likes > **Greensleeves (@grnsleeves):** @AaronBergman18 wait you listen to podcasts on 1x speed?! This is my cope and/or defense ### [Reply to @Sam__Enright, 20:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779252667979542598) · 2 likes > **Sam Enright (@Sam__Enright):** What are you going to do with the extra one minute? Poast ## Sunday, April 14, 2024 ### [Reply to @SchmidtIbanez, 09:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779446478320128395) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @SchmidtIbanez is no longer available.)_ thx 🙏 ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 12:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779486501685834221) · 91 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Update: ghosting is often the kindest way to reject someone and saves you a lot of time and energy that you don’t owe matches on a dating app I disagree. A single “sorry I don’t think this is gonna work” text isn’t too much to ask Context: got ghosted for the first time a couple weeks ago! 😊 (like showed up at date location just to find out she unmatched me on hinge and didn’t respond to calls or texts) ### [Thread, continued, 12:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779486741579039079) · 6 likes Not the end of the world but it sure as hell wasn’t the \*kindest\* way to do things ## Monday, April 15, 2024 ### [Reply to @chercher_ai, 05:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779739773629849685) · 2 likes > **☯️ 🐻 (@chercher_ai):** Any guesses as to what this is a map of? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLIum7vaEAAZNsh.jpg) Earth ### [Reply to @_StevenFan, 07:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779769613015802310) · 8 likes > **steven (@_StevenFan):** Give a definition of free will that you think is coherent. Free will is the ability to juggle 3 balls for at least 45 seconds It’s not true but it is coherent ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 07:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779770699185344901) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @robi_rahman @AaronBergman18 is one, but it's of a weird kind This sentence applies to many things, probably ### [Reply to @ipsumkyle, 10:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779815408377180633) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ipsumkyle is no longer available.)_ Bimodal distribution go brr ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLMsrliWwAA6MfQ.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLMsrljX0AAzBTb.jpg) ### [Reply to @shakaz_, 10:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779826934660104620) · 2 likes > **shakaz (@shakaz_):** what are some good ways to spike each one? for science > > endorphins -> sex/masturbation > endocannbinoids -> weed > phenethamine (typo?) > glutamate -> ? > glycine -> ? > dopamine -> cocaine > serotonin -> MDMA > acetylcholine -> nicotine? > norepinephrine -> roller coasters? > histmine, GABA -> ? Idk if weed spikes endocannabinoids - it definitely spikes exocannabinoids tho Phenethylamine: exercise and adderall Glutamate: ketamine (if I remember correctly) Glycine: glycine on an empty stomach Histamine: modafinil, whatever ur allergic to GABA: benzodiazepines ### [Reply to @skooookum, 11:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779838746688418280) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @skooookum is no longer available.)_ [![Why Not Both Take Both GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/GLNB57yXYAApCdT.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779838746688418280/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Quote tweet, 11:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779839561838874973) · 210 likes Sometimes fancy words are helpful and good to use ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLNCpcPWQAAM1uq.jpg) > **Quoting BuccoCapital Bloke (@buccocapital):** There’s literally thousands of product managers in tech who all speak the same weird way to sound “smart”. A partial dictionary: > > \- N of 1 > \- ontological > \- superlinear > \- vector alignment > \- first principles > \- stochastic > \- synthesize > \- catalyze > \- asymptotic > \- metonym > \- tautological ### [Thread, continued, 11:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779840531289215077) · 29 likes Might get cancelled by Paul Graham twitter but IMO forms of philosophy subfields (“ontology”, “epistemic”, “aesthetics”) are actually super useful terms/concepts much of the time Fight me ### [Reply to @HenriThunberg, 11:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779841039227916505) · 5 likes > **Henri Thunberg 🔸 (@HenriThunberg):** Real footage of deep learning hitting the wall > > [GIF attached](https://x.com/HenriThunberg/status/1779679969284895041/photo/1) Indeed ### [Reply to @orphcorp, 11:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779841349392462252) · 2 likes > **orph (@orphcorp):** it's been almost a day since this came out, I've watched it about 30 times, I'm still uttering "unreal" every time > > (quoting @the_posts: "If you care about your fucking country, read Ludwig von Mises and the six lessons of the Austrian economic school, motherfuckers." - @moicanoufc) What ### [Reply to @DaCaveOfWonders, 12:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779843324800610328) · 3 likes > **Tiger Lava Lamp (@DaCaveOfWonders):** @AaronBergman18 Good fancy: > > Using 5^3 instead of (5+5+5+5+5)+(5+5+5+5+5)+(5+5+5+5+5)+(5+5+5+5+5)+(5+5+5+5+5) > > Bad fancy: > > Using 1\*2/1+0 instead of 2. Ontological observation ### [Reply to @burny_tech, 12:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779847880334815740) · 6 likes > **Burny - Effective Curiosity (@burny_tech):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLNGlUfWAAIraTi.jpg) Nah, “hypothesis” -> hot take ### [Reply to @GRITCULT, 12:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779850101889900918) · 1 like > **GRITCULT (@GRITCULT):** If this crypto shit don’t work out > > I’m going to become an indoor shrimp farmer > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLJuSTuWcAAgOhJ.jpg) NOOOO ### [Tweet, 12:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779851631955223005) · 19 likes I am not quite devastated but I am sadder than I would have expected that my friend’s dog died I remember meeting him when he was a puppy (it’s been 14 years) 🐾☹️ ### [Reply to @Sturgeons_Law, 12:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779851937615167825) · 2 likes > **Sturgeon's Law (@Sturgeons_Law):** This might be one of the greatest videos I've seen in my life > > (quoting @venuslovesrats: this couple taught their rats to drive tiny cars 😭❤️) .@SpacedOutMatt if u don’t figure out how to let Howie pilot a rocket ship I’m gonna call the cops ### [Tweet, 13:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1779860921218629908) · 8 likes I should move to Northern Canada ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLNWEtzWEAAO9Jr.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLNWEtvWYAAeRWN.jpg) ## Tuesday, April 16, 2024 ### [Reply to @inerati, 11:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780196868116341042) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ Yeah clown-ass bear fr. Let them go extinct idc ### [Tweet, 12:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780208875104264693) · 21 likes I am not going to become the joker but if I did it would be justified. Rich people please stop giving money to some of the wealthiest institutions in the universe even if you took a good undergrad class or your aunt got chemo there ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLSSiW5XEAAKKMh.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 12:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780208879697039831) · 7 likes Mayo Clinic has a $2B endowment and a whole-ass shrine to the many people who gave $10M or more https://www.mayoclinic.org/giving-to-mayo-clinic/honoring-philanthropy ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLSSislWcAEuMGc.jpg) ### [Reply to @HaydnBelfield, 17:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780285616778850311) · 5 likes > **Haydn Belfield (@HaydnBelfield):** Damn this is a dream team! > > Hugely impressive top team at the US AI Safety Institute > > 🔥🔥🔥🔥 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLTBps-W8AAnT7b.jpg) Lfg ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 17:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780286960042410440) · 4 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I think a chunk of people (including myself) misremember their initial reactions to the FTX crash. Almost without exception everyone I know thought FTX was gonna be fine. The question was how long they maintained this belief. I can think of 2 people who were dubious beforehand. Basically agree but credit to Rethink for explicitly planning for this scenario! Not smth I would have done ### [Reply to @JacquesThibs, 17:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780287293149900826) · 5 likes > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** I sometimes hear “would be great if money went to AI for Climate instead of AI Safety”, well here’s another $100 million. I’d be curious to know if someone has added up the full amount of everything invested in AI for Climate Change. > > (quoting @GaryMarcus: Bezos Earth Fund $100m prizes for AI for Climate and Nature — just announced ⁦@TEDTalks⁩) Ppl really refuse to think at the margin lol ### [Quote tweet, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780309866424205594) · 25 likes (Assuming this isn’t terribly misleading, which I haven’t investigated) NPR might consider that suspending their own journalists for criticism of the organization doesn’t really help them beat the ideological enforcement allegations > **Quoting The Free Press (@TheFP):** Senior @NPR editor @uberliner has been suspended from the public radio network he's served for 25 years after sharing concerns about bias in The Free Press: https://thefp.pub/4aJXNk4 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLSZDmCXsAAej5X.jpg) ### [Reply to @kindgracekind, 20:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780326792877707457) · 4 likes > **Grace (@kindgracekind):** My twitter sphere is composed of the type of person who would ask for the lion statistics > > (quoting @_Mira___Mira_: Don't say: "There is a lion over there." Say: "The elders have declared that area forbidden. Here's a link to 10 pages of lion statistics that nobody will read, if anyone asks." Conclusions stick better than facts. Nobody cares "why", they want to know "what" the answer is.) I want them as a csv not a goddamn pdf ### [Reply to @MatthewBJane, 22:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780370029483102275) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @MatthewBJane is no longer available.)_ This tweet. Just go with ur gut ### [Quote tweet, 23:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780370938502037903) · 44 likes High key OpenPhil kind of are the adults in the room (well, outside the room but sometimes loud enough to be heard through the walls) > **Quoting ༺ 𐂂 ༻ (@touchmoonflower):** there is no other room > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLS8mdcb0AAdGXt.jpg) ### [Reply to @HenriThunberg, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780371736719970693) · 8 likes > **Henri Thunberg 🔸 (@HenriThunberg):** Not in the room, and definitely not putting the people in the room, also not listening to the room. But, adults! Would Christiano or someone comparable be head of NIST AI safety rn if Dustin decided to buy an island like a normal rich person instead? ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780374617082769744) · 2 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** I like this > > (quoting @IntOrgJournal: IO now welcomes -- in addition to research articles and research notes --a new type of submission, "essays." Essays have a 10,000 word limit. They propose innovative ideas of interest to a broad audience of IR scholars. \[1/3\]) At first my brain kept reading “international organization” as one would read like “domestic corporation” or a dog named “Dog” ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 23:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780375526600855572) · 1 like > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** These platforms don't seem to actually provide any inherent value that an MP3 download link doesn't, so I refuse to subscribe to them, but this means there are some podcasts I just can't listen to. Yes they do lol - they organize and collect episodes in one place and remember where you left off and such ### [Reply, 23:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780380718838784255) Ohh ur talking about from the supply side. Yes I agree! Spotify is free though, no one should be paying anymore to host ### [Tweet, 23:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780382414109364350) · 31 likes Perfect time to go for a quick 6 mile walk 👀 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLUwXSvWIAAKocr.jpg) ## Wednesday, April 17, 2024 ### [Thread, continued, 00:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780389115835420754) · 2 likes Endorse still ### [Reply to @jkeatn, 01:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780412483749941366) · 4 likes > **Jake Eaton (@jkeatn):** @absurdlymax @ilex_ulmus Not my area, but in our interview with Jordan Hampton he was pretty adamant that it was bad https://asteriskmag.com/issues/02/animal-welfare-in-the-anthropocene Agree - does anyone think they’d want to be born as an arbitrary wild animal? Absolutely horrifying ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780413089084502203) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I'm interested in how bad or good really good simulations (or bringing life to other planets) would be? > > I guess maybe if the world is 'net bad' so far, or from the start of the universe to 0 A.D. I wish I could bet on this because I’d put $10k on negative EV. Bringing life to other planets would be the worst thing humanity has ever done ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780413802548248978) · 2 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @AaronBergman18 @jkeatn @absurdlymax I mean yeah but also consider that many of them would prefer existence to nonexistence. Yeah some ppl do or yeah u do ? ### [Reply to @thiagovscoelho, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780437435559694834) · 2 likes > **Thiago ✱ (@thiagovscoelho):** “What’s your gender? No, in detail, what’s your gender?” Male ### [Reply to @Bbburner19, 07:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780503222018265571) · 2 likes > **The People Mover That Was Promised (@Bbburner19):** @AaronBergman18 @jkeatn @absurdlymax @ilex_ulmus I would love to come back as a pigeon or turtle in NYC after a long lifespan as a human. Thanks for ur request but u have been assigned fish, followed my nematode, followed by slightly different nematode, followed by slightly different fish ### [Reply to @ramit, 09:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780528695209284020) · 10 likes > **Ramit Sethi (@ramit):** You see that haircut of yours? It looks nice. The government ensures that your hair stylist is licensed and uses proper hygiene practices > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLNGcALW8AAH2m5.jpg) > (quoting @J__Mathew: @ramit Paying $10.6k to the government every month is a fucking joke. You will get back nothing in return.) Dude this is like the worst possible example of good governance lmao ### [Quote tweet, 09:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780530342887137637) · 25 likes I unironically think this is true for me, having done both quite a bit > **Quoting mattparlmer 🪐 🌷 (@mattparlmer):** I would not be surprised if walking briskly outside on a sunny day had measurably better therapeutic outcomes than talking to a therapist for the same amount of time ### [Reply, 09:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780535054134866325) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Free George ## Thursday, April 18, 2024 ### [Reply, 15:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780974746252841051) Nah the implicit reasoning here is pretty straightforward and ~obviously true ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 15:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780983250590068891) · 2 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** @JesseTayRiver My kids are encouraged to give entirely unfiltered feedback on the food I make them, and we talk about what we taste and like or dislike etc. This has created awkward situations when we visit other people’s houses. Lol ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 15:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780983412880228435) · 3 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** @JesseTayRiver My kids are encouraged to give entirely unfiltered feedback on the food I make them, and we talk about what we taste and like or dislike etc. This has created awkward situations when we visit other people’s houses. I didn’t have to be encouraged for this. My mother knew damn well that her rice was often crunchy ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 15:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780984434436530592) · 4 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** @AaronBergman18 @JesseTayRiver The worst is when the feedback is clearly correct. Like one of them tries food at someone’s house and immediately says “needs more salt” and it just clearly does. Lol perfect ### [Reply to @StatisticUrban, 15:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1780989524480294967) · 4 likes > **Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** Anarchism is "organization of society on a voluntary, cooperative basis without recourse to compulsion." > > I simply don't know how you would get people to do jobs that are not enjoyable and are not fulfilling in exchange for no benefit. I think you’re confusing anarchism and communism/socialism ### [Quote tweet, 17:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781011693352391117) · 110 likes Fuck it, let’s do more dating discourse I suspect straight women on dating apps generally have “lazy” prompts like this because they feel no pressure to put more effort in - after all, they already get a surplus of likes to choose from… > **Quoting john (@jmce95):** “This year I really want to: Travel more” > > “Let’s debate this topic: Pineapple on pizza” > > “I’m weirdly attracted to: Men” > > “Biggest risk I’ve taken: \_\_\_\_\_ during the middle of a pandemic” > > “The best way to ask me out is by: Asking me out” > > [video attached](https://x.com/allreactionvids/status/1495637761730260993/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 17:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781011696435220579) · 61 likes But putting in the right kind of effort—that is, making more polarizing prompts, will reduce the number of bad potential matches to sift through and increase the avg quality of likes from your perspective ### [Thread, continued, 17:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781011698494615948) · 54 likes So be controversial!! “This year I really want to: donate my kidney to a stranger” “Let’s debate this topic: the hard problem of consciousness” ### [Reply to @livgorton, 17:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781016187742126409) · 13 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** i think most people have bad prompts? my sample is men + queer women. maybe the underlying motivator is different for each group of course but intuitively there’s at least some shared reasons. Ok ya this makes sense and my sample excludes men lol ### [Tweet, 17:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781019586978005477) · 18 likes If I were a Silicon Valley billionaire I would simply make it clear to Zuck that his good social standing depends on him at least taking AI x-risk concern seriously ### [Quote tweet, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781025899607134503) · 11 likes Ideal @dwarkesh_sp podcast content > **Quoting depths of wikipedia! (@depthsofwiki):** 94 years ago today, the BBC ran out of news and aired piano music instead > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLd2g57WsAEbUs-.jpg) ### [Reply, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781087948559036730) · 1 like Idk my intention isn’t to dunk, and I agree they’re popular bc they’re true! But I feel like most ppl should have the intuition (if not explicit thought) that answers like this don’t generally reveal much about ur personality? ### [Thread, continued, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781089504360607970) · 3 likes Also I think the Rogan/fishing thing is not analogous. It’s perfectly cool to like Netflix, Taylor swift, traveling, relaxing, etc. - these aren’t bad traits (and insofar as they’re common or “basic”) that’s fine, but they are bad prompts to use on hinge! ## Friday, April 19, 2024 ### [Reply to @sillynous, 13:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781319167007674492) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @sillynous is no longer available.)_ lol this is pretty bad ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 13:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781320182125769005) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @robertwiblin is no longer available.)_ As I suspected 🤓 ### [Reply to @Actualwebutante, 15:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781342879870222410) · 8 likes > **whoreaborealis (dubai, bali 10/18-11/14) (@Actualwebutante):** If you say half twelve is that I have never heard this phrase so I’m gonna go with 6 ### [Reply to @thiagovscoelho, 15:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781344572733317594) · 2 likes > **Thiago ✱ (@thiagovscoelho):** There are meaningful propositions that are neither true nor false. Surprised to see so many “true” votes - what examples are ppl thinking of? ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 19:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781410557150511610) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @arithmoquine is no longer available.)_ Where are all ur peers? Like why are there zero other 14-17 y/o on here that I know about ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781411239823859859) · 11 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ 3 types ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781412953687839096) · 2 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** therapists hate this! render forming meaningful relationships obsolete with one easy trick! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLipMyoXIAA_UTZ.jpg) I tried nasal spray with no effect 😔 ### [Quote tweet, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781416592774938857) · 12 likes Me fr > **Quoting derek guy (@dieworkwear):** "they're my formal vans" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLjTbhTaYAAm0az.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLjTebSaEAATwZ3.jpg) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781449360934380007) · 4 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** PSA that my Twitter account has been locked and deboosted several times over the last week and I have no idea why > > may god save this account 🙏 🙏🏼ojalá que no maten a Agus🙏🏼 ### [Reply to @adic_9, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781458845744697733) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @adic_9 is no longer available.)_ Every drug that does anything plausibly affects any system in any organism bc, as you say, biology is cursed ### [Reply to @DeepDishEnjoyer, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781458964242108862) · 2 likes > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** wow I have more than 7k followers and none of them are @eshear > > :( Same but I don’t have 7k :( ### [Quote tweet, 23:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781470086152307017) · 12 likes RIP (he was wrong about consciousness but still) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @UsingLyft I remember reading Dennet at maybe 12 or 14 and thinking “this guy is just way smarter than me” ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 23:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781470858772463652) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** You're perilously close to drawing the ire of the surprisingly strident anti-cico rationalists I would like to defend the camp of anti-cico rationalists (the “anti” refers to its value as an insight and explanation, nobody who has a LW account thinks it it’s literally true) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781471477683896723) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @jskf\_\_ @NathanB60857242 @jkeatn My path dependence is 6 miles of running every day > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLkMf1fWEAACkL1.png) Jesse post pictures like this and then refuse to enter politics Bro ur worried about the wrong kind of running ### [Thread, continued, 23:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781471828302598290) · 2 likes Also same (admittedly this week is higher than avg and also fuck running) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLkPL78WUAAyphu.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781472436812165382) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 19, 2024:** I would like to defend the camp of anti-cico rationalists (the “anti” refers to its value as an insight and explanation, nobody who has a LW account thinks it… \*it’s NOT literally true lol ## Saturday, April 20, 2024 ### [Reply to @livgorton, 00:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781479274387591397) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** i’m probably doomer / doomer-adjacent by some standards (notably more optimistic than MIRI, less than e/acc) but 100% the comms around this stuff is at times too galaxy brained or convoluted or not capturing the important thing. sounding clever just shouldn’t be a priority. Poast p(doom) ### [Reply, 00:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781486360181829929) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Qualia realism, but besides that, we have no idea, but the hard problem is real and reductionist explanations are fake and wrong “Strong qualia anti-realism” (which I used to call “illusionism” but now am sufficiently confused about what illusionists think to avoid that term)… ### [Quote tweet, 00:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781487413749076071) · 8 likes My current view on consciousness for fellow philosophy nerds to pick apart ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLkdXGfWYAEoJsN.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** RIP (he was wrong about consciousness but still) ### [Quote tweet, 00:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781487935042236518) · 1 like I would like to invest in whoever tries this > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 01:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781488276714430956) · 4 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Has anyone combined the Bryan Johnson regimen with Tim Ferris style batching and decided to a single, monstrous 7-hour full-body workout once per week? I think I saw something about a “full body glycogen depleting workout” a while back that was absurdly long so maybe some ppl are doing this by accident ### [Reply, 01:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781488720874500284) Qualia go brr (More seriously, it sure seems like physical processes influence qualia so it depends on what this argument is trying to get at \[like that qualia are physical or that they don’t exist or smth else?\]) ### [Reply, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781489109904605403) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ The more important figure here IMO is that 2/3 \*aren’t\* hypochondriacs and their intuition proved better than doctors’ training/experience ### [Tweet, 01:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781493463537573996) · 6 likes Booked a Lyft with a stop today and the driver accidentally ended the ride during the stop. Somehow there was no way for him to reverse this (and he only got paid for the discounted rate as if I had edited the ride post-pickup) @lyft maybe have a meeting about this or smth idk ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 03:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781522899276296547) · 4 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 @daniel_271828 This is the worst training plan I've ever heard of Ur workout plan is like “warm up with a quick marathon, then fight ppl, then chop wood, repeat every day for the rest of ur life” ### [Reply to @inerati, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781555493040734418) · 13 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ They estimate demand curves for individual customers? It makes sense but I wouldn’t have guessed ### [Reply to @ines__circle, 16:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781728447976362353) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ines__circle is no longer available.)_ 💇‍♀️ ## Sunday, April 21, 2024 ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 04:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781897216006762581) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** who called it effective altruism and not charitable interpretations? Toby Ord and MacAskill right? ### [Reply to @8chabard, 07:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781946467348824500) · 10 likes > **Lysander, 8 CHA Bard (@8chabard):** love how every british city is named something like either "Sloughcoughcester" or "Stroke-on-Johnson" And the former is pronounced “slooster” ### [Reply to @GarrettPetersen, 07:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781948767396049380) · 19 likes > **Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ (@GarrettPetersen):** @dissproportion If you understand how airplanes work, think of a sailboat as an airplane on its side. The sail and keel are the wings. And the wind moving over the sail moves the boat forward the same way wind over wings generates lift. I do not understand how airplanes work!!! [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1781948697435074560/pu/img/OuOfc8jt72MtujdM.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781948767396049380/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @RatOrthodox, 07:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781954846247023099) · 4 likes > **Brangus🔍⏹️ (@RatOrthodox):** It’s @ohabryka’s birthday this weekend. I suggest that if you want to celebrate you should say one thing you think is true but socially or politically costly on the public internet. A couple things come to mind but I’m a coward Maybe if I get fuck you money at some point ### [Reply to @viemccoy, 07:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781955971062849740) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @viemccoy is no longer available.)_ Yes ### [Reply to @KatSpartz, 10:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781993066997379212) · 2 likes > **Kat Spartz ⏸️ 🔶 (@KatSpartz):** What are the most common arguments against AI safety? > > I'm trying to create a list of arguments to refute. Most common ≠ best ≠ most convincing to the marginal potential ally (which I’m guessing is what you really care about?) May want to ask for the latter or latter two ### [Reply to @_uncle_gworl, 10:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781995111838052473) · 6 likes > **uncle gworl (@_uncle_gworl):** last night, the convo turned towards a fun fav lil bit we like to do at parties: > > SEXY, HOT, or CUTE… which are you? 0/3 but I have correct opinions which I sometimes express on twitter ### [Quote tweet, 10:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781998498931474906) · 61 likes Roon’s got some terrible takes today. Counterexamples: \- Chronic stress probably makes your life worse long-term (and this can be caused by poverty among other things) \- Emergency medicine and painkillers \- Protection from the elements \- Giving/helping others > **Quoting roon (@tszzl):** seems straightforward that people seem to be able to hedonically adapt to any good or bad thing that happens to them. so why is it important to give people more resources and freedom? it’s more interesting that way ### [Thread, continued, 10:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1781998500814713084) · 16 likes \- Having a kid \- Making a friend \- Being in a relationship \- material deprivation (hunger, thirst, malnutrition) ### [Reply to @panchromaticity, 11:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782004195932987850) · 9 likes > **Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** do you enjoy being called mommy/daddy in a sexual context? (not necessarily literally while having sex, just like, so the sexual subtext/text is clear) This has always seemed extremely weird to me ### [Quote tweet, 11:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782004431430598735) · 38 likes Ngl a whole bar of 72% dark chocolate is not an uncommon meal for me > **Quoting the Rich (@Duderichy):** I’ve been preparing for this moment my entire life > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLqDGtIbEAAGlVY.jpg) ### [Reply, 11:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782005327195443215) · 1 like @JesseTayRiver is the second ### [Reply to @DaCaveOfWonders, 11:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782005921423471078) · 2 likes > **Tiger Lava Lamp (@DaCaveOfWonders):** @AaronBergman18 @panchromaticity It's not that you're her dad. It's that you're the father to her children Wait fr ### [Reply to @AnniePosting, 11:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782006005519257794) · 2 likes > **annie 👁❌🦋🪞 (@AnniePosting):** ray peat, as controversial as he is, titled an article about it "Caffeine: A vitamin-like nutrient, or adaptogen" Hell yeah ### [Reply to @DaCaveOfWonders, 11:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782014929941242218) · 2 likes > **Tiger Lava Lamp (@DaCaveOfWonders):** I'm going to argue that this is similar to MILF in that it's a way to say you are into someone who is older, but no one understands MILF to mean that it's your mom ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLr9IlKWsAAw1T9.jpg) ### [Reply to @sciencegirl, 19:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782128406957584820) · 1 like > **Science girl (@sciencegirl):** The size of a Quetzalcoatlus, > > the largest flying creature ever > > [video attached](https://x.com/Earthlings10m/status/1781954477760864394/video/1) Retvrn ### [Reply to @TechEmails, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782135952611098782) · 3 likes > **Internal Tech Emails (@TechEmails):** Bill Gates emails Microsoft execs > > October 19, 2000 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLtoWcNa8AAM9Ul.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLtoW5Ja8AApglQ.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLtoXWOa8AAdxUG.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLtoX9NbEAEA_8Z.png) This reads like a twitter thread ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782146451637686661) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @inesferhumi > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLtzzGKW0AAeE-h.jpg) Banger ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782146484265271479) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @inesferhumi > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLtzzGKW0AAeE-h.jpg) RIP FTX ### [Reply to @_Mira___Mira_, 20:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782149817503740171) · 2 likes > **Mira (@_Mira___Mira_):** math would be easier if we added false to our axioms What ### [Reply to @0xellipse, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782151867734061452) · 5 likes > **Chell 🥂🔫 (@0xellipse):** \>be at my friend's house > \>it's a party/show > \>i've drank quite a bit already > \>hey do you have salt and sugar here? > \>"yeah" > \>i mix and drink the salt & sugar water > > does she think i'm weird for this, maybe. > did i wake up at 7:30 feeling like i hadn't even been out last night? yes Oral rehydration therapy maxxing ### [Reply to @flawedaxioms, 21:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782152598058901533) · 1 like > **flaw (@flawedaxioms):** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_explosion?wprov=sfla1 I know this but I object to it. Feels like some undergrad philosophy guy made it up and it stuck ### [Reply to @HannahPosted, 21:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782155798358995098) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @HannahPosted is no longer available.)_ Pi means pi, the ratio of circumference to diameter of a circle ### [Quote tweet, 21:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782157423093928321) · 15 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLt-u0LXsAEFmet.jpg) > **Quoting moonbi (@lifeafterAi_):** All of them from Openai… What are they cookin for us this year? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLrtuGhXUAEzg9o.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLrtuGdWsAAbqsW.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLrtuGbWsAA_zEB.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLrtuGiWwAEA-xm.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782161012206047300) · 13 likes Someone needs to make an EA discourse on the EA Forum vs on twitter (is there a secret third thing?) meme but I can’t think of one that hits just right ### [Tweet, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782162317909598665) · 9 likes Moms be like “phone on do not disturb? NOTIFY ANYWAY” ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 21:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782164275731001368) · 6 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** @AaronBergman18 How would you describe the difference (in plain we words)? I mean there are a lot of differences but norms around quality/effort are the most salient. Writing on the EA forum is high key intimidating - this is largely for the better but also discourages the community equivalent of brainstorming ### [Tweet, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782180051141742850) · 7 likes Someone should do Netflix standup thing where they just describe the US healthcare system accurately for an hour. Comedic phrasing and a bit of selection bias for subtopics is allowed but no hyperbole ### [Reply, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782181076313440274) · 1 like Incorrect ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 23:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782186002171179269) · 2 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Does 96 tears seem like a lot to you? It doesn’t to me. Which ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLuYuSyXoAAof_r.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLuYuSzXMAAyhDz.jpg) ### [Reply to @SelonNerias, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782196300965904686) · 2 likes > **Selon Nerias (@SelonNerias):** I love the subreddit. Very helpful people + a lower barrier to entry than both the forum and twitter. > twitter's follower system means you gotta make friends/get engaged followers before it becomes useful and the forum has the obvious barrier. It’s been a while but my memory is that it’s a lot of very basic questions and not much interesting content. Which isn’t a bad thing per se, but I wouldn’t recommend it to others unless the letters EA just mean Electronic Arts to them ## Monday, April 22, 2024 ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782216462930678241) · 5 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @chriswaterguy @bedtime_enjoyer @AaronBergman18 I guess people commonly have the experience of buying something and not deriving as much satisfaction from it as they hoped. Otoh the empirical underpinnings for 'treadmill' seem weak afaict Intuitively it basically seems real for like the consumer goods that people buy at the $200k+ income margin How often do people feel this way about increasing rent to reduce commute or live closer to friends, donating (even purely for the warm glow effect), … ### [Thread, continued, 01:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782217296313712764) · 4 likes having kids or a dog, having a hobby that isn’t free (climbing, tennis, ?), buying healthier food, idk I could probably list more? ### [Tweet, 01:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782221007731749021) · 8 likes 24 hour twitter fast ready go ## Tuesday, April 23, 2024 ### [Reply to @LeetAlpaca3, 09:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782704338818793615) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @LeetAlpaca3 is no longer available.)_ I think there was a thing about a huge amount of raw data relating to a black hole getting transported physically by truck ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 09:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782705261733380517) · 2 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** @jonatanpallesen Is this just saying the sum of small effects is normal Lots of fancy explanations with polysyllabic words but isn’t this just basically the right answer? Ofc it could be compatible with other levels of explanation ### [Tweet, 10:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782712273594982524) · 12 likes Wait so is there any reason not to sell my mana for $16? I can buy back on May 1 right? ### [Reply to @interpattern, 10:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782720073238515883) · 2 likes > **pattern (@interpattern):** never experienced this thought :) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLzf-OtWoAA5Dlv.jpg) Lol “parses html as regex” yeah bc it works! Fr fuck APIs. They never work ever. What does work is a random mix of chrome extensions, built-in Safari functionality via .webarchive files, saving loaded pages as pdf (can automate by doing this with a delay to let things load), ### [Thread, continued, 10:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782721809487392874) · 2 likes screen recording -> frame extraction -> OCR -> text, random sketchy free online file converters, python libraries of dubious legality, whisper transcription, and manually inspecting bits of long-ass urls + for loop + curl (+regex ofc) ### [Thread, continued, 10:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782722293233242260) · 2 likes Also find and replace all in VScode ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 10:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782723677865267411) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ Just like rich people don’t care or worry about money ### [Quote tweet, 11:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782726201502576667) · 29 likes Hmu if ur tryna cahoot > **Quoting forbiden widsom (@powcampsurvivor):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLyaS8NXAAAyvf0.jpg) ### [Reply to @AllanDafoe, 11:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782732849801511077) · 7 likes > **Allan Dafoe (@AllanDafoe):** We are looking for an AGI Safety Manager to support @GoogleDeepMind 's AGI Safety Council: please encourage excellent people to apply! This role will work closely with my team, Scalable Alignment and Safety, and Responsible Development and Innovation. https://boards.greenhouse.io/deepmind/jobs/5918605 Fine I’ll do it ### [Reply, 11:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782734586868289781) · 4 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GL2LqKrXoAA8WTJ.jpg) ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782840728520905092) · 15 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Why do so many smart, privileged, healthy people hate our world so much? Why are they so eager to gamble it or surrender it to ASI? Even my allies constantly talk about how “inadequate” and “insane” it is. > > I’ve suffered plenty in it, but I love the world and I want to protect it “Hate” doesn’t seem like the world to use but the world really does seems very bad There is only a tiny reference class of beings I’d choose to be born as an arbitrary instance of… ### [Thread, continued, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782841403002749137) · 11 likes Random sentient being? No. Random mammal? No. Random human? No. Random post-industrial human? No. I have to get extremely picky with time and species or other attributes to get this to work. \*Maybe\* random post-WWII human ### [Reply to @billyhumblebrag, 18:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782841950736933139) · 7 likes > **billy (@billyhumblebrag):** I am sitting on 14000 liquid mana in my manifold account. Accepting bids for a donation of this (so $140 US) to a charity of your choice (from the manifold list). > Bidding starts at $14. Auction closes 29th April. > Make you offers here 👇 I think this should win and nobody else should over-bid ### [Tweet, 18:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782843893588861026) · 23 likes Even setting aside its atrocities, why tf does Israel need foreign aid? GDP per capita is $55k. It can afford its military ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GL3vEpsWwAAa6Hc.jpg) ### [Reply to @shinboson, 18:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782844895629095245) · 12 likes > **𝞍 Shin Megami Boson 𝞍 (@shinboson):** the more I think about this actually, the more I recognize a general trend. why is Chinese moral reasoning so simplistic? > > I know that sounds uncharitable, but think about it for a second. it’s unsubtle and uncomplicated in the definition of right and wrong. why? Maybe this is true (at least directionally) but one guy on twitter with 5k followers doesn’t seem like good evidence ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 18:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782846214863548789) · 2 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** @austinc3301 @dwarkesh_sp @ardenlkoehler Just wait until you see who we got for episode 4 🔥🔥🔥 Agus 80k arc? 👀 ### [Reply to @sanjehorah, 19:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782847628604022912) · 2 likes > **sanje horah 🇵🇸🇺🇦 — PNEUMATICS ONLY (@sanjehorah):** trying to establish a sexual relation when there can be NO sexual relation is literally trying to eff the ineffable > > wordplay intended > > to fuck the unfuckable, but also to comprehend the incomprehensible, to bridge across the impossible gulf of two people's real subjectivities > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GL2EuhYacAAIVQ5.jpg) Tbh this screenshot quote seems like an excellent example of totally vacuous continental philosophy pseudo-insight ### [Quote tweet, 19:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782847846984871971) · 18 likes What (Also based but still) > **Quoting Simon Maechling (@simonmaechling):** Moolec achieves USDA approval for plant-grown animal proteins. > > Moolec’s genetically engineered soybean accumulates animal meat protein. > > It is unlikely to pose an increased plant pest risk relative to non-engineered soybeans. > > https://www.newswire.com/news/moolec-becomes-first-molecular-farming-company-to-achieve-usda-22306388 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLzCHoCWsAAL5bp.jpg) ### [Reply to @metakuna, 19:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782849931406922035) · 4 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** small population innit Sure buy money is fungible so at the current margin US aid is allowing Israel to avoid taxing its citizens down to $54k I guess if we had a policy of just trying to equalize the incomes of everyone in the world via transfer that would be fine ### [Reply to @abhimanyupasu, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782853726945882580) · 3 likes > **Abhimanyu Pallavi Sudhir (@abhimanyupasu):** @AaronBergman18 Lol US aid to Israel is just the price it has to pay to keep Israel as an ally. Lol this does not seem true. Without US military, economic, and political support Israel probably wouldn’t be destroyed but would be forced to come to the negotiation table and concede enough to have the same level of broad international support as idk Portugal or Japan ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782855739121213948) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Ever wondered if paintable truck bed liner is oil-based? Yes, it is. Maybe next time wear gloves, idiot No I have not wondered this ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 19:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782856025445425452) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @StefanFSchubert is no longer available.)_ Lithium? ### [Reply to @norvid_studies, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782858062979596668) · 1 like > **norvid_studies (@norvid_studies):** ? do you mean you wouldn't trade your (great) life with a random post-industrial human, understandably, or that you think a random post-industrial human has a life internally valued at less than 0 I’m not super sure about the median post-industrial human (or really, human-conscious-hour) but as for avg, yes I think it’s negative The framing of “would you want to live every human life” seems easier to think about and more compelling ### [Thread, continued, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782859263993405693) · 6 likes Who would want to live the life of every chattel slave, every gulag and nazi concentration camp prisoner, every person starving in every famine, for the chance to live a lot of good lives as well? I wouldn’t, and have yet to hear someone earnest say they would ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 19:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782860390008750366) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** A lot of things I learned in construction haven't translated well to family life. I was taught when throwing to aim as hard as you can at the person's head. But somehow at home I'm the baddie for wanting my kids to make a catch They teach you how to kill people at construction training?? ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782861436143681538) · 2 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** I’m considering rowing a half marathon in early May. I’ve never rowed longer than about an hour before and in an hour I can do a little over 14 km. Is attempting this a stupid idea? Anyone have advice? Honestly sounds like you don’t need to train at all I was never like an actual swimmer but could swim a mile which was probably like 5x longer than I’d ever tried just by going slow (took me almost exactly an hour). If you can row below ur anaerobic threshold, ### [Reply, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782862859153670194) · 1 like Lol I guess I would recommend bringing least 2 bananas just in case (probably higher glycemic is better, gatorade and a few clif bars) ### [Reply to @CharlesD353, 20:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782868926482849917) · 3 likes > **Charles🔸 (@CharlesD353):** To be clear $9.2bn of the "Israel" portion of that bill is humanitarian aid for Gaza. > > Whether the rest is justified in political terms is not obvious but it's possible the aid to Gaza wouldn't happen without also giving Israel something. Thanks this is important ### [Tweet, 20:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782870443940102248) · 10 likes Outing myself as a boomer in spirit but I have yet to run a language model (or really any model) locally. Llama3-8b is a too big for my M1 Pro with 16gb ram What is the best thing that \*can\* work (ideally using <90% RAM)? ### [Thread, continued, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782871303411646959) · 3 likes I have no use case but idk like imagine it’s 17whatever and they’re giving out free small steam engines to use at home ### [Quote tweet, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782880908359426096) · 3 likes Unironically being able to pay people for anonymized feedback would be a good use case for crypto > **Quoting Frances Lorenz (@frances__lorenz):** 80/20 of giving feedback: say positive stuff too or people get sad, deliver constructive feedback in a timely manner with neutral emotional valence, create a feedback form to receive 360 feedback and a prediction market on what that feedback might be and send it to them ahead of- ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782883620203442193) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Man I never win anything > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GL4ROQiXwAEA8OC.jpg) The fact that they’re telling you exactly where to go and when feels like an invitation to show up for those with the chutzpah to ### [Tweet, 21:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782886236975177855) · 6 likes If aerospace companies are gonna get huge Pentagon deals, the least they could do is have museums where u can see their cool shit Cmon big Raytheon building in the Skyline, you’re calling my name ### [Reply to @TheZvi, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782891600974082133) · 29 likes > **Zvi Mowshowitz (@TheZvi):** I am not confident on whether we should ban or not ban non-compete agreements, but I do notice it seems like a choice that should be made by Congress, not the FTC? If this is a fair summary of the original text, it seems solidly within their mandate https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Trade_Commission_Act_of_1914 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GL4adkiWwAA3z6w.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 22:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1782892642499498103) · 48 likes I’m sure they’ll have disappeared by summer, but having 24 new pairs of socks is wild - truly abundance mindset It’s like peak FTX but for my feet > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** My house is a function that takes matching socks as input and returns non-matching socks as output > > The backend is a black box ## Wednesday, April 24, 2024 ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783207989018779739) · 1 like > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** I'm very confused about how to reconcile long run superexponetial growth with short run exponential growth in the US (short run over the last 200 years) What is there to reconcile lol There’s no rule that says everything has to obey one type of function at all times ### [Reply to @bryancsk, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783208922360201427) · 3 likes > **Bryan Cheong 🥮 (@bryancsk):** Turns out I wear a woman's shoe size (9) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GL6aYBabwAAclnU.png) I don’t believe this chart lol Probably a bunch of guys lying for shits and giggles ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783215960507179132) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @JMannhart @robertwiblin Dam this is good U beat my by 8 minutes dam ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783217777127399882) · 1 like > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** I'm usually chaotic good, not sure what happened > > (Chaotic basically means "you follow your own rules") > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GL7cUVpXEAAnpzB.jpg) > (quoting @tautologer: about what I expected) Counterfeit money tho - yeah if I was absolutely certain I could get away with it lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GL9DHfLWQAAxtXm.jpg) ### [Reply to @kepe__, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783218877637251578) · 31 likes > **kepe ✨🇫🇮 (@kepe__):** this is me and i'm cis. it doesn't mean anything Ya lol. I’d also want to do this for race and age and a billion other things I don’t have dysphoria about bc curious ### [Quote tweet, 19:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783222449447874755) · 29 likes 19/36 = .53 rounds up to 1 = 36/36 so I’m basically an empath savant ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GL9HXbqW8AEI16y.jpg) > **Quoting Paul Graham (@paulg):** I got 25/36 on this facial expression reading test. I was curious how Jessica would do, so I sent it to her. She got 36/36. She really is the social radar. (via @markessien) > > https://s3.amazonaws.com/he-assets-prod/interactives/233_reading_the_mind_through_eyes/Launch.html ### [Thread, continued, 20:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783227966920466638) · 3 likes I don’t Believe anyone who got like >=34 btw. Easier to hack AWS than to legit get them all right ### [Reply to @thoth_iv, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783230608887468155) · 1 like > **Thŏth (@thoth_iv):** @robertwiblin This may look like a strawman, but as far as I know Scott's writing, I think this is probably the intellectual mistake he solemnly believes techno-optimists are making. It’s a little hyperbolic in the direction of “simplified” but it illustrates the mistake people are making perfectly ### [Reply to @HenriThunberg, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783232605137019360) · 6 likes > **Henri Thunberg 🔸 (@HenriThunberg):** Haha kudos to you for poasting, think there's a lot of planereddots.jpg going on. I got like ~28 I think, didn't feel fun enough in either direction to let the world know. Autistic-ish traits are endearing and high status in moderation around here lol ### [Thread, continued, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783233096382353633) · 7 likes Ur not gonna see me post a thing that says “I have IQ 90, issues controlling my anger, and spend my money exclusively on factory farmed chickens” ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783233566035308801) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @bijibiji2023 is no longer available.)_ If ur in Texas u are gonna die of heat stroke maybe watch out for that ## Thursday, April 25, 2024 ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783366381645267011) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GL_KRd2WAAAIKnF.jpg) ### [Reply to @livgorton, 05:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783369062363402410) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** @AaronBergman18 idk how to explain it but the vibes aaron you just must listen to them. > > put no conscious thought in and get all unconscious face vibes out. Admiring? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GL_MtiYXsAAyr2T.jpg) ### [Tweet, 05:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783369520205193600) · 2 likes Poll below ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GL_NIHnXYAAotxH.jpg) ### [Reply, 05:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783369988184633527) Go to sleep ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 05:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783372306502271021) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 You go to sleep mf Ok fine ### [Reply, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783375253042794528) · 1 like Unironically I’d add (and emphasize) twitter The selection pressure (for lack of a better term) is insane - like if 10% of ur peers are active and u live in a city with 1M people of whom 10% are peers, that’s 10k people. Maybe you interact regularly with a handful or a few ### [Tweet, 06:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783382436405018679) · 8 likes Good pod (by @littIeramblings and @ilex_ulmus) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/consistently-candid/id1732326178?i=1000650619339 ### [Thread, continued, 06:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783384121407918225) · 3 likes I fucking love pro-social/altruistic disagreeableness. Inject it into my veins ### [Tweet, 06:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783385530173948227) · 9 likes Do you feel more fortunate or disfortunate to be living at this point in history? ### [Thread, continued, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783387192968044867) · 2 likes Honestly I go back and forth w a slight tendency (maybe 60/40) to the former But when TAI seems more visceral and less abstract, it’s like learning that I’m gonna have to play Russian Roulette next week (and with 2 or 3/6 bullets loaded) ### [Quote tweet, 07:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783392515095236978) · 4 likes Hey it’s me > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Reply to @JAMA_current, 07:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783396014335930477) · 1 like > **JAMA (@JAMA_current):** In late 2022, X (formerly Twitter) introduced Community Notes, a crowdsourced misinformation countermeasure. Study evaluated the topics, accuracy, and credibility of these Community Notes addressing COVID-19 vaccination. https://ja.ma/4aOce78 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GL87aTBWUAAEjYu.jpg) Poast csv ### [Reply, 07:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783398092793917552) · 1 like Where is the actual data? Lost the page that said it but evidently the Harvard dataverse thing doesn’t let random new accounts access it ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GL_nHP_WYAIe60G.jpg) ### [Reply to @samswoora, 07:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783400288247820417) · 4 likes > **Samswara (@samswoora):** Men will spend literal years finding the best fitting brand of plain black t shirt Well what’s the brand ### [Reply, 08:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783413529057362244) · 2 likes Don’t tell them about R, TAI will come in like 5 seconds, maybe 6 if u can’t use data.table ### [Thread, continued, 08:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783415760838152302) · 2 likes 4 if u use shrimpr https://github.com/AaronBergman/shrimpr/ ### [Quote tweet, 08:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783417782823993692) · 33 likes When ur great idea sparked by a pod gets discussed 10 minutes later in the episode > **Quoting Neil Renic (@NC_Renic):** When a 1970s paper has stolen your new idea > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GL899ShWYAAhYjR.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 08:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783417784724034029) · 3 likes I’ve had to abandon or delete written things at least twice bc of this lol ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 14:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783501647861215610) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Twitter - we need to buy this https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-68896140 I can contribute $5 ### [Quote tweet, 15:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783521332312801720) · 125 likes Math should be illegal > **Quoting MathMatize Memes (@MathMatize):** Hurwitz's theorem is surprising > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMA2IWlWgAAUG6f.jpg) ### [Reply to @RFishBlueFish, 15:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783523109045215322) · 5 likes > **Gil (@RFishBlueFish):** the cross product is a hack but there's some cool underlying math here that's rarely discussed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htYh-Tq7ZBI Straight to jail ### [Reply to @Empty_America, 16:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783527253969649888) · 13 likes > **VB Knives (@Empty_America):** @THAREALKULAK I've said it before, if you have sheep and also have any form of remotely gainful employment, it 100% makes sense to hard fence all your pasture this year. > > Easiest way for the amateur is 16' cattle panels. Very good fence, no stretching or braces required. I want a sheep now so I can be part of sheep twitter ### [Reply, 16:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783529917096825055) · 3 likes ### [Reply to @JohnWesleyAyers, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783562646966411772) · 2 likes > **John W. Ayers | Computational Epidemiologist (@JohnWesleyAyers):** @jaybaxter @AaronBergman18 The data are up on dataverse. They were in draft form in the above view but are there now. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMBtFaWbsAAIkvf.jpg) Awesome thanks! 🙏🏼 ### [Reply, 19:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783572381107175467) · 2 likes 🤝 ### [Reply to @soundrotator, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783573726451134744) · 2 likes > **Reb (@soundrotator):** How to scale people smelling flowers > > (quoting @soundrotator: Gonna go smell flower) Febreeze corporate origin story ### [Reply to @lawhsw, 19:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783577063816880586) · 2 likes > **harry law (hopfield network truther) (@lawhsw):** imagining if this was shrimp > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMCHpcWXMAAa0pM.jpg) They wouldn’t stand a chance on dry land ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783578476680806869) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** @sarah_cone Yeah it is a good idea - Parkrun fills niche for running in lots of places and is really successful! The only thing worse than running I can imagine is running with other people ### [Reply to @generaldynamism, 19:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783579390137298972) · 1 like > **Adam Jensen (@generaldynamism):** please post tools and mess She could have a YouTube channel ### [Reply to @soundrotator, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783580529108939077) · 3 likes > **Reb (@soundrotator):** The most truly serious people have html coded personal websites 😤 https://aaronbergman.neocities.org ### [Reply, 19:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783581645875933515) As a direct causal effect with no other new tech? No But indirectly with new tech that gets created as a result (and this iteratively), yes ### [Reply, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783582954033234421) · 1 like 👎 ### [Reply to @tautologer, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783585991090970902) · 2 likes > **tautologer (@tautologer):** @dschorno sunlight, walking, spending time with people, sleep, gentle exercise, relaxing the pressure I put on myself Big if true ### [Reply, 21:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783608858835070991) · 2 likes Deep ### [Reply to @mauve_sky, 21:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783609412671942955) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mauve_sky is no longer available.)_ This stresses me out just thinking what I’d say if someone asked ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 22:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783625598402695486) · 2 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** We need shot callers for different Twitter factions so we can keep the peace and prevent things from getting out of control. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMC0uJXW4AArIKL.jpg) Like this tweet to be in my faction ### [Tweet, 22:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783629173434552359) · 98 likes This data is like almost certainly wrong, although I don’t know why or how. There’s just no way that most American adults drink less than me ### [Reply to @seconds_0, 22:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783629475713822925) · 1 like > **0.005 Seconds (3/694) (@seconds_0):** God bless the heroes. The innovators. The explorers. > > Next up - 100% Saturated Fat Peanut Butter. > > (quoting @AndyJScott: Thank you Penn State for doing the important science we need https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/keeping-chocolate-milk-smooth-stable-without-carrageenan/) Plz ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783630895494103371) · 22 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** That part seems plausible. Kids who don't drink, old ppl who drink very little, and religious people who don't drink > > Right tail is sus tho Only adults, it says in the pic ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783631052986028148) · 2 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** @AaronBergman18 https://x.com/RyanRadia/status/1783572124755476523 Ah ok yes that makes sense. Survey data is almost always basically fake ### [Reply to @yannick___m, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783631941742313591) · 3 likes > **Yannick Mühlhäuser (@yannick___m):** Don't you mean costumed humans? > > (quoting @jasonjoyride: San Francisco is back.) I think they were apes inside an ape costume just like @QualyThe ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 23:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783632871690793207) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** I was glad to see my nudist cousin Bulby finally found gainful employment on the EA Forum, we were getting worried about him. He used to be a clean cut straight edge type until he went on that Ayahuasca retreat. What he saw in the jungle changed him forever > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKQpo5zWkAAVVzy.jpg) Here’s the photo for the curious ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMC8pMxXQAEf2JB.jpg) ### [Reply to @PiquantParvenu, 23:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783635005471609195) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @PiquantParvenu is no longer available.)_ Yo do u have any type of anxiety disorder? If not (or if so but less likely) this could indicate smth serious ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMC-lVuWAAAjnqc.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMC-lVjXQAA5nju.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMC-lVnW4AEld0r.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMC-lVyW8AA7eeS.jpg) ### [Reply to @BenHayum, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783635999043563932) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @BenHayum is no longer available.)_ Yeah but unless they’re in ur weird cultural bubble with 99th percentile scout mindset + psychological openness + discourse norms, it’ll be somewhere between frustrating and infuriating too ### [Reply to @DreadCanary, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783636142392291792) · 2 likes > **Canary (@DreadCanary):** Imagine a math speakeasy > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Math should be illegal) This would make it cooler tbh ## Friday, April 26, 2024 ### [Reply to @Manuel_do_rio, 00:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783649642720162225) · 2 likes > **Manuel del Río Rodríguez ⏸️ (@Manuel_do_rio):** ChatGPT is my math tutor. It isn't optimal, but hey, it's free, and it does a relatively decent job at checking my answers and listening to my arguments. There is like a 99% chance you should drop the $20 for Claude or + ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 00:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783650895047037017) · 24 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 25, 2024:** This data is like almost certainly wrong, although I don’t know why or how. There’s just no way that most American adults drink less than me Tbc guys I’m questioning the left side, not the right Graph says half of American adults basically never drink (about twice a year) ### [Reply to @EndeavoringIvy, 00:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783653287331242471) > **Ivy (@EndeavoringIvy):** Spendy dog owners who aren't home a lot (pay for dog walking & day care) should consider a horse. > Their board starts at $300/mo. There are many options, like leasing them to the barn for riding. You get your freedom back, including easy travel! > > And you get to have a HORSE > 🐎>🐕 Hot take: if both dogs (which poop) and motorcycles (which are basically mechanical horses) are legal in urban areas, horses should be too ### [Tweet, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783663517280674006) · 2 likes PSA don’t let ur parents delete emails just because they’re using 1996-ass email services with 500mb of storage unless they realize that saving it all via export and storage elsewhere is an option ### [Tweet, 02:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783686460710793715) · 30 likes So is there anything else cool u can do by letting ur (normal) computer run overnight (bounded by local compute not some other time constraint)? ### [Thread, continued, 02:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783686462258463143) · 9 likes About a decade late to the DL train but that’s what it took to realize I’m sitting on a potentially really powerful resource and just ignoring it ### [Thread, continued, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783687094998634535) · 7 likes I guess there’s like large media file conversion and I’ve done internet download speed-limited things like this. I could also run whisper locally on like 10 hours of audio but I don’t have any reason to rn ### [Reply to @docentdemagogue, 02:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783688569426518250) · 11 likes > **Sky (@docentdemagogue):** > > (quoting @Techmeme: A look at Salad, which pays gamers in Fortnite skins and Roblox gift cards to rent their GPUs remotely to AI companies, including those making AI-generated porn (@emanuelmaiberg / 404 Media) https://www.404media.co/gamers-are-renting-their-idle-gpus-to-generate-ai-porn/ 📫…) This is like the one thing I won’t do lol (making AI training easier and cheaper) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 02:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783689131760943259) · 11 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 26, 2024:** I guess there’s like large media file conversion and I’ve done internet download speed-limited things like this. I could also run whisper locally on like 10… Donation is an option apparently so I guess feel free to bid on say blocks of 4 hours on an M1 Pro 16GB. Altruistic bids where u pay me in imaginary impact points very encouraged ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 03:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783702896674001285) · 9 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I don’t have a strong take on all of this, but I just love that Dustin just spent several evenings doing basically forensic data analysis as a personal crusade I hope he bought whichever type of option is the one where u win if the thing goes down first ### [Reply to @mbateman, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783703941366063304) · 2 likes > **Matt Bateman (@mbateman):** Today in 4yo/AI stuffy relations, a lesson in how to not respond to a 4yo’s questions > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMDR9A2WkAEKfO0.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMDR9A1XwAAkFs2.jpg) Claude Opus (different prompting style also) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMD9R_TXoAAqq5a.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMD9R_UWUAAl43i.jpg) ### [Reply, 22:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1783991646176076169) · 3 likes > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** After 18 years of courageous battle with an aggressive form of multiple sclerosis, my beloved sister decided today to not continue medical treatment after another flare-up. > > I loved you, I love you, I will always love you. If there is a next life, I will find you. Oh man, I’m so sorry 💜 ## Saturday, April 27, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784028198159958325) · 72 likes I see these from time to time and don’t really know what they are (I think smth about provable prediction?) Anyway I’m gonna just post random strings like this from time to time so ppl think I’m cool and in the know > **Quoting Grace (@kindgracekind):** 5ace7d2b6f079def3ef77926c96ccad145fdb10511b05762bb7c86880e9cba6c ### [Thread, continued, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784028200344879554) · 13 likes ubvqsqdaf4l5bsvqffirzhfu5yzjud8kep238cwirve8ao6mte7xsfwl694p2scw ### [Thread, continued, 01:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784028480264372305) · 10 likes Also am I being weird or is it weird that ChatGPT can count accurately? Did we know this? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMIkcnvW0AIHhLW.jpg) ### [Reply to @edgar_z_lin, 01:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784028996641960385) · 5 likes > **Edgar Lin (@edgar_z_lin):** @AaronBergman18 What a SHAme. No plz not another computer word with sh ### [Reply to @imhinesmi, 01:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784029551565099345) · 3 likes > **ian hines (@imhinesmi):** @AaronBergman18 the cool kids will know it's fake because you used letters from g-z > > (it's 64 characters of hexadecimal) Shh ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 01:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784030282288382316) · 5 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 So you can keep your prediction secret but later prove that you indeed had predicted this thing b116da34788c549329f7dc49e67484879a11cdfd29df07eeaae6365c3dc027c5 ### [Thread, continued, 01:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784030351863455978) · 2 likes Whatever I’ll tell u lol It’s computer for “thx” ### [Thread, continued, 01:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784030442229768361) · 2 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMImO3vXIAA6J5C.jpg) ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 06:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784101344053166172) · 2 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** Finally I’ll learn data.table stop bothering me about it > > (quoting @ThomasSowell: Some people who are very dissatisfied with their lives nevertheless have no intention of changing their own behavior. They want to keep on doing what they have always done, but just have it turn out differently.) Haven’t u heard that the sand has already done the learning for you? (Its default is to translate to data.table unless that wouldn’t make sense) https://chat.openai.com/g/g-kSQDTXTJn-r-helper ### [Reply to @voooooogel, 13:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784217367804871048) · 2 likes > **thebes (@voooooogel):** hypothesis > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMG3f1yboAAX3N4.jpg) > (quoting @voooooogel: @norvid_studies the unreasonable effectiveness of simple prompts) @QualyThe ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 14:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784227118898970807) · 1 like > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @BearPosting @AaronBergman18 @RafaRuizdeLira ### [Reply to @metakuna, 14:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784230635508232384) · 1 like > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** @coldhealing @AaronBergman18 @metakuna ### [Reply to @CrocodileCam, 15:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784236993985089718) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @CrocodileCam is no longer available.)_ No 😡🦆 ### [Reply to @ea_paddington, 15:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784237479765135717) · 2 likes > **EA Paddington 🍊🔸 (@ea_paddington):** marmalade 👍 ## Sunday, April 28, 2024 ### [Reply to @keysmashbandit, 03:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784424867938369609) · 3 likes > **keysmashbandit (@keysmashbandit):** i think men should be more selective on dating apps and i think their unwillingness to do so is hurting their chances Coordination problem ### [Quote tweet, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784426504870355399) · 7 likes Ok fr tho they’re like Wikipedia Expanded Edition in terms of comprehensiveness, fairness, neutrality, and quality Tbh I should probably read them more > **Quoting Jack Meyer 🏛️ (@Jackbmeyer):** “Do you find the Oxford handbook series useful?” > Absolutely, the handbook of political economy makes an excellent tofu press > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMMiyQhXkAAy1Fe.jpg) ### [Reply to @ConnorTabarrok, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784434411565392041) > **Connor J. Tabarrok 🏗🚀🌏 (@ConnorTabarrok):** Yes please kill the hellspawn that is webp file format Why do ppl dislike it? I’m just curious ### [Tweet, 05:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784451517954613469) · 5 likes It’s over ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMOlMtKXcAAi3mj.jpg) ### [Reply to @samlakig, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784453590083420592) · 4 likes > **sam laki (@samlakig):** finite co-combinatorially hyper p-adic sets are an absolute must prerequisite to understand the indian thursday-afternoon nanoeconomics > > (quoting @ekrii3: A treat for all making their first foray into HFT - this is a must read) I do not understand this tweet ### [Reply to @algekalipso, 05:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784461333129252885) · 3 likes > **Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso):** I think that the Qualia Research Institute will need to spin off a company of brain organoids, but whose explicit and permanent goal is to figure out how to recruit information-sensitive gradients of bliss for computation, and then build a legacy system that locks in place, at the hardware level, the use of positive gradients of valence for compute, and makes it physically impossible to use suffering for computation. This way, information-sensitive gradients of bliss will be encoded in our hardware in a way that is very difficult to overstep, similar to how we're kind of stuck with a lot of legacy hardware and protocols, including internet protocols and the QWERTY keyboard. We've got to do the same for brain organoids. I don't see anybody doing this. There's a big possible ethical disaster approaching us, and there aren't many serious thinkers, ethicists, and doers here. 100% seriously you should optimize harder for readability and using terms normie EAs like me will recognize Seems like tons of context needed ### [Tweet, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784471016732832128) · 21 likes 8f434346648f6b96df89dda901c5176b10a6d83961dd3c1ac88b59b2dc327aa4 ### [Thread, continued, 06:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784471273986265205) · 4 likes Also 3a552ab70f51a0c767c9a59504bc4e3ce36dd5ce581212f860290cba6967f871 ### [Reply to @xJahstin, 06:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784475195538833864) · 6 likes > **𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯 (@xJahstin):** what’s stopping u from wearing this ? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMB6DmVaMAAo0Du.jpg) I don’t own either of those things ### [Reply to @kindgracekind, 07:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784479250713579824) · 2 likes > **Grace (@kindgracekind):** @arithmoquine He’s listening to his favorite podcast 80k or Dwarkesh? ### [Reply to @halcyon_hazel, 23:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784727197824991475) · 3 likes > **❤️‍🔥 hazel ❤️‍🔥 (@halcyon_hazel):** consider him: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMSZkwoW0AAbiEa.jpg) 🐰 ### [Reply to @thebestestpie, 23:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784733557002309895) · 3 likes > **Fake News Pie (@thebestestpie):** @AndyMasley and 13k is an insanely high price for a car It is? ## Monday, April 29, 2024 ### [Reply, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784750565966131387) Wait wtf I thought this was a secret ### [Reply to @manic_pixie_agi, 01:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784754187240112471) · 2 likes > **Corinne (🏠 in NYC) (@manic_pixie_agi):** cats are great, they satisfy the need to pet something but unfortunately they can't really pet you back 😞 😢 ### [Quote tweet, 01:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784760456998961546) · 13 likes Many such cases > **Quoting vegastar (@vegastarr):** Theres no way this is real. Its all fake. > You can't sell 7 hats per day and be able to pay your bills. 😵‍💫💭 > > [video attached](https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1784480110852104379/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 01:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784761098123542976) · 6 likes Other examples \- huge metal tubes aka airplanes float in midair? No fucking way \- somebody wrote each word in all those trillions of books in those huge university libraries? I don’t think so ### [Reply to @polisisti, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784768538072289432) · 6 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** a professor just replied to an email I sent him July 5 I think u mean 2023, but if u mean 2024 that would be way cooler ### [Reply to @WilliamAEden, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784773051260805445) · 2 likes > **William Eden (@WilliamAEden):** Yeah what IS going on, how would she even get her hands on a CD? Radiology labs sometimes give u ur images on a CD if u ask Source: me ### [Reply to @polisisti, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784773191782506820) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** alas yes, 9 months ago No time travel, lame ### [Reply to @univrsw3th4rt, 02:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784773986372481157) · 3 likes > **universe sweetheart 💓🌈💭 (@univrsw3th4rt):** planted a seed and it is growing but i would like it to BLOOM! NOW! ### [Reply to @Dirtdragonmom, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784774200294617313) · 7 likes > **Beth (@Dirtdragonmom):** Are there any men out there who have a favorite bird that is not an eagle? Every single man I have ever asked said "eagle". Pigeon ### [Quote tweet, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784785935546085717) · 21 likes Everyone’s going crazy over this so some points: \- makes no claim about how competitive that “career path” is \- 100k total compensation, not salary. So $80k (?) \- not adjusted for inflation \- the AGI has not agreed to abide by Chipotle management’s promises > **Quoting the Rich (@Duderichy):** You can now make $100k at chipotle in under 3 years > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMOBSvCXQAA4Yyv.jpg) ### [Reply to @EliMcCann, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784792428383281454) · 3 likes > **Eli McCann (@EliMcCann):** My husband has been doing gardening all afternoon and he has been scheduling his friends in shifts to come and sit with him while he does it so he has company. He is not asking for their help. He just wants them to be present. He has given each a watermelon popsicle. Extroverts be like ### [Tweet, 04:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784800899925168566) · 20 likes My intuition’s P(something very weird like maybe “simulation” but that particular word seems too narrow) going up by the day ### [Thread, continued, 04:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784803461722247579) · 15 likes Otoh maybe “36 hours awake followed by 36 hours asleep and then waking up unsure of the day” is not epistemically optimal ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 04:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784806585098715470) · 7 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Are you fucking kidding me? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMTlssYWwAAEFT3.jpg) Hot take it is speculating, just in a roundabout way (the last sentence is not neutral) ### [Tweet, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784810507125317954) · 7 likes Sad that there’s only a couple weeks where ur beard is at the length where it looks decent if u don’t intentionally do anything to it ### [Thread, continued, 05:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784810756229276056) · 3 likes Last time I tried to retvrn it to this point, I just made two big patches and then had to shave it all off and start over ### [Reply to @Mihonarium, 05:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784817840190628265) · 1 like > **Mikhail Samin (@Mihonarium):** One would think this, but apparently if you train an LLM on pairs (hash, text), it’ll start reversing the hashes Idk enough about hashes or sha or whatever tf u call it to know how weird or surprising this is Cc @austinc3301 ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 06:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784826191972622373) · 2 likes > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** @AaronBergman18 LMAO Wait this is the second laugh lol and I worded the last point kinda satirically but intending to make a totally serious point: if you think there’s a non-negligible chance that the world looks super different in 3 years (as I do) bc of AI, you should probably also think ### [Tweet, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1784938826634236248) · 9 likes c2c2ad402931e69c411429e04e9ef887d542ef31d8faf907c171ab06cbe627d1 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMVgZuTXYAAwdOC.jpg) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785027212078670274) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 What tool were you using? Seems weird Razor ### [Quote tweet, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785035084849959336) · 28 likes Counterpoint: do it if u want to > **Quoting Alex Lieberman (@businessbarista):** Unless you're an A-list celeb, big media co, or plan to sell your audience a high $ product, it makes no sense for you to launch a podcast right now. ### [Reply to @polisisti, 19:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785036252653240813) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 @JesseTayRiver you'll probably have better luck with an electric trimmer! Optionally, you can use a fine-toothed comb in your non-dominant hand to pull out the bits of the beard you're trimming Real ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 20:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785037660936946087) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** the podcasting gatekeepers strike again 😤 The gate is open ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMW6SqJWYAA4l2p.jpg) ### [Reply to @Empty_America, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785038199506497538) · 6 likes > **VB Knives (@Empty_America):** Most people are not looking to live around maximum biomass, maximum rainfall. > > On the spectrum from thick damp woods to total desert, the most desired environment is considerably closer to desert. > > Less bugs, humidity, rank weeds, and so forth. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMW58X2W4AArKpx.jpg) Yeah fuck humidity fr ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 20:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785039976368902263) · 4 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** markets are humanity-sized supercomputers for calculating the value of anything. what are other architectures to preform computation with populations? Debate (possibly including judge(s)) Democracy/various voting systems Bureaucracy ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785040105415033105) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** what prompt did u use for this ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMW8hAPWkAE095e.jpg) ### [Reply to @veryfeel_, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785042987128324298) · 4 likes > **morgan (@veryfeel_):** Pls send tips for serotonin-maxing. I have realised I’m too reliant on dopamine for emotional regulation and pleasure. Ssri + MAOI + MDMA Don’t do this you will die ### [Tweet, 21:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785055725871358362) · 5 likes Might have to become nocturnal for the summer ### [Thread, continued, 21:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785055796654404013) · 2 likes Or this ### [Reply to @StatisticUrban, 21:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785062077352042775) · 135 likes > **Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** Outdoor cats kill billions upon billions of animals each year. Cats should be strictly banned from roaming freely outdoors. They cause extraordinary damage, and it's bad for the cat. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMXKtmfawAEYiK1.jpg) > (quoting @jules_su: mom came back to an empty nest and is calling for her babies I’m literally inconsolable right now this is brutal my heart is aching) I remember being super skeptical of these numbers, then looked into it and afaict they check out ### [Reply to @jules_su, 21:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785062165738623356) · 3 likes > **Jules Suzdaltsev (@jules_su):** mom came back to an empty nest and is calling for her babies I’m literally inconsolable right now this is brutal my heart is aching > > [video attached](https://x.com/jules_su/status/1785041587967234238/video/1) 😢 ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785063983768121738) · 6 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** There's way too much ridiculous hyperbole on this site > > (quoting @esaagar: "What's the role left for Europe in the future?" Answer: Supplication and poverty) “Schubert calls for the death penalty for people who exaggerate on twitter” ### [Reply to @jonatanpallesen, 21:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785064351877025825) · 11 likes > **Jonatan Pallesen (@jonatanpallesen):** I wonder what the second order effects are. Lower animal populations? Higher suffering from being predated / lower suffering from less starvation and disease? Ya idk but bird and small mammal predation seems like maybe the kind of thing where first order effects actually do dominate ### [Reply to @Sam__Enright, 22:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785068386143080905) · 1 like > **Sam Enright (@Sam__Enright):** You should read @eschwitz's new book I haven’t read his book but his work (ok fine his work as described on a few podcasts) is a major influence! ### [Reply to @seconds_0, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785069279521489092) · 8 likes > **0.005 Seconds (3/694) (@seconds_0):** Someone sent me a .docx in the year of our lord 2024. What am I supposed to do with this? > > Useless. Disgusting. No Word is Goated actually ### [Reply, 22:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785070191728103704) · 1 like Real ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785076311481868382) · 6 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** @AaronBergman18 @seconds_0 “No Word“ is Goated actually > > (I assume your text editor of choice didn't warn you of the missing but essential comma. Better stop using Word as your Twitter client!) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMXdchyWoAA9eUD.jpg) ## Tuesday, April 30, 2024 ### [Reply, 03:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785144911316091390) · 1 like ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMYb1fxWkAA9ZYt.jpg) ### [Reply to @natfriedman, 03:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785145540201586746) · 30 likes > **Nat Friedman (@natfriedman):** What AI product – that can be built today but for some strange reason doesn't exist yet – would you pay for right now? Preference for B2B answers! Whisper quality transcription with timestamps and speaker labels People are gonna say there’s some huggingface python package combo situation you can rig up that does this, but I challenge anyone to do this right now, from scratch, bc I can’t ### [Reply, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785154940228292840) · 1 like Ondra? You'd think, but like how often in the gym do you see people basically sprinting up routes? It's a hot take that should be colder ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785156589873189099) · 2 likes > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** since i can’t resist responding to your other climbing takes now (i guess i missed these somehow?), i feel like this is very misleading for beginners because it’s only true \*once you are already very good at everything else\* > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: 15\) ok for my climbing friends, some more upbeat takes 1 - Finger strength is like 90% of performance. Eva Lopez protocol feels too easy to be true but it’s good) Sorta, I guess my phrase "X% of performance" isn't like super well-defined in statistical terms. But I mostly disagree. Median young healthy person can maybe climb V2 on their first day. If they had the avg finger strength of a v10 climber, they could probably climb v7 ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 04:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785158869263569127) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 @austinc3301 I’ve also never seen a single line of Julia code Based ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 04:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785165455692386743) · 9 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** Isn't there a thing where "outdoor cats" makes you think of pet cats but most of the deaths are from feral cats? Presumably the feral cats lineage can be traced to pet cats outside tho (?) ### [Reply to @Littoral_Gecko, 05:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785178082212446639) · 2 likes > **A Gecko🦎 (@Littoral_Gecko):** Wait, why? ### [Tweet, 05:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785183678072570105) · 5 likes You (well at least I) never really hear about patents or any kind of IP around frontier AI. What’s the deal with that? ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 05:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785185851237880172) · 3 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 You have to disclose quite a lot of technical information about an invention to get a patent afaik (though IP not my specialty); your ideas will just get stolen by entities in countries that don't reliably enforce western patents (i.e. China) The unreasonable efficiency of twitter (at getting questions answered) right here ### [Quote tweet, 14:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785322204239995029) · 24 likes Idk if this counts as cool but took just about 8 hours to take all the @OurWorldInData datasets, staple them together, and then run all 200k-ish univariate within-country panel regressions https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Lehja3Mdk9dQYZ83GGmprP27YEGNdcBQ0EpqyMLFJGQ/edit?usp=sharing > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** So is there anything else cool u can do by letting ur (normal) computer run overnight (bounded by local compute not some other time constraint)? ### [Tweet, 20:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785411850147864719) · 3 likes I should get good at basketball --- End of April 2024. Previous month: [March 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-03). Next month: [May 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-05). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, May 2024 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in May 2024 and has not deleted: 844 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [April 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-04). Next month: [June 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-06). ## Wednesday, May 1, 2024 ### [Reply to @jachiam0, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785542406772777431) · 2 likes > **Joshua Achiam (@jachiam0):** I've historically been very critical of EA, but this is just about the worst critique of EA possible. It argues that they were secretly, nefariously talking about a Hidden Agenda in "core EA," on... \*checks notes\* publicly visible online forums and all of their in-person events. > > (quoting @DrTechlash: 🚨 Effective Altruism's Bait-and-Switch: From Global Poverty to AI Doomerism 🚨 The Effective Altruism founders planned – from day one – to mislead donors and new members in order to build the movement's brand and community.…) I kinda disagree, although not exactly in the direction of the QT which is basically propaganda I agree I feel like I’m the only one to notice this and think/say “wtf you probably should have said this publicly (if just on the forum) like 8 years ago” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMeFWwXXsAA7l1v.jpg) ### [Tweet, 05:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785546158833643528) · 22 likes New greeting just dropped ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMeIxGjW8AAXSub.jpg) ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 06:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785553189418279051) · 5 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** Virtue and signaling are both good! > > There is a reason the increasingly “based” form of rightwing politics is low-status and repulsive to most smart people. > > https://www.slowboring.com/p/what-the-left-gets-right > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMZ8ZJ8WwAAXv-B.jpg) 🤝 ### [Reply to @lfschiavo, 06:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785554692459630964) · 2 likes > **Larissa Schiavo (@lfschiavo):** HELLO, SHRIMP WELFARE PEOPLE?? I HAVE FOUND SOMETHING EVEN WORSE > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMeP4y0bUAAHK-z.jpg) Also what is the proposed mechanism for how krill meat enhances family bonding per the caption ### [Tweet, 06:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785561266330665048) · 2 likes Yo I don’t want to see a man in the woods either ### [Reply to @docentdemagogue, 07:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785568264061337634) · 2 likes > **Sky (@docentdemagogue):** AncestryDNA went from 1% to 5% Jewish shalom my brothers Shalom ### [Reply to @Malcolm_Ocean, 08:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785591291679535569) · 7 likes > **Malcolm Ocean 🏴‍☠️ (@Malcolm_Ocean):** you don't want to "become more attractive", you want to become more attractive to the sorts of men/women who you would love to be with and who would be attracted to the you that you would want to become knowing that it would make you more attractive to them I mean the former is a good proxy for the latter at least below like 90th percentile ### [Reply to @flybottlemist, 08:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785591744991556053) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @flybottlemist is no longer available.)_ This is peak making up a guy ### [Reply to @breaking2morrow, 10:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785611020909601032) · 3 likes > **Brother Arþur (@breaking2morrow):** Post a picture YOU took. Just a pic. No description. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMbYKeOWIAA1D3w.jpg) > (quoting @loveofdoing: Post a picture YOU took. Just a pic. No description.) Idk I’m skeptical ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMfDwlJWgAAmPYQ.jpg) ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 11:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785628538889990506) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** It’s my birthday today, plz say something nice 🥹 Good job on the whole etg thing. I approve 👏👑 ### [Reply to @TPGRoberts, 11:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785637280134127637) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TPGRoberts is no longer available.)_ Lmao I mean that is the one German book that comes to mind ### [Reply to @oloal, 12:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785645774727950729) · 3 likes > **Alex Olshonsky (@oloal):** I'm 1.5 months caffeine-free. This weekend got my normal post-workout smoothie with cacao and 20 min later it literally felt like I was on a light dose of MDMA, my heart bursting open, beautiful energy > > the increased sensitivity is insane > > that's how cacao is supposed to feel Manhattan project for anti-tolerance drugs NOW ### [Reply to @catehall, 19:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785747293095743816) · 5 likes > **Cate Hall 🔸 (@catehall):** Genuine question: Can someone please convince me that being late to meetings is not a big deal? I don’t like how much it influences my opinion of people, since I seem to be the outlier in caring. It can’t be as strong a signal as I interpret it? People make mistakes and it is generally good to be willing to foregive ### [Reply to @AlecStapp, 19:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785749940699857341) · 5 likes > **Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** Insanity. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMg5lQgXoAANdqm.jpg) > (quoting @rSanti97: NEW: Everything you wanted to know about how policies get implemented. For Statecraft, @pahlkadot explains: - Schedule F - Why the "Beltway bandits" suck - Why federal hiring is broken - Whether the left has too many lawyers…) Jesus ### [Reply to @xwanyex, 19:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785759573497782676) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @xwanyex is no longer available.)_ Impeccable logic ### [Tweet, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785765975578538467) · 1 like There is an abominable fucking giant wasp cicada mutant and he won’t gtfo [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1785765948105920512/pu/img/tYyV9mal0sZYurem.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785765975578538467/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Thread, continued, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785765977868636169) · 2 likes I’m against insect suffering but that’s mostly the extent of my sympathy ### [Reply to @soundrotator, 20:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785768114774294960) · 3 likes > **Reb (@soundrotator):** are u RTing to find me a green card spouse lmao Based ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785769161001484360) · 14 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** I will say that in 20 years of living in DC I have never been shot at (the criminals are mostly shooting each other) but I’ve spent seven days total in San Francisco and got peed on in the Tenderloin once. My dad: lives in DC for 30 years, I think was mugged once in the 90s Goes to SF for a weekend for work in 2024, literally punched by a homeless guy ### [Reply to @thiagovscoelho, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785769826033504509) · 3 likes > **Thiago ✱ (@thiagovscoelho):** Are babies under 5 more productive working by themselves or as a team? I kinda wonder what a team of babies could accomplish ### [Reply to @goblinodds, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785770160558592019) · 2 likes > **𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** nice japanese lady standing outside a little hole in the wall sub shop said いらっしゃいませ so i was forced to purchase my first ever strawberry sandwich > > (i dont really like strawberries or white bread lol) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMhTFMOaYAAM7Jn.jpg) Nice visual illusion here. At first I thought I was looking at two open face sandwich insides ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785770564029653090) · 3 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Do you have stomach problems? || Do you have a lot of energy? In fact there is a ~perfect and extremely strong inverse relation between the two. As in can literally sleep 18+ hours a day when yes, generally healthy and will walk >10 miles a day for fun when no ### [Reply to @RuxandraTeslo, 21:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785782174794354824) · 3 likes > **Ruxandra Teslo 🧬 (@RuxandraTeslo):** Yes I mostly agree with the conclusion but it's bad that people feel the need to waste their time to investigate speculative concepts that have no bearing on reality. Science is not settled by speculation, it;s based on empiricism. Perpetual take of mine but, no, any claim or idea or phenomenon or hypothesis is informed by weaving together a mix of empirical and theoretical evidence (incl at the level of deciding what evidence to use and how) ### [Thread, continued, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785782719554716019) · 2 likes There’s no such thing as pure empiricism. Obviously sometimes you can get a decent approximation, but irl this is pretty rare If there’s a newly synthesized molecule that looks super molecularly similar to thalidomide, do you really think there’s nothing we can say ### [Reply to @RuxandraTeslo, 21:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785783343226781897) · 3 likes > **Ruxandra Teslo 🧬 (@RuxandraTeslo):** this is trivially true the question is how much you trust claims based ~ entirely on speculation What claim is being made entirely based on speculation? ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 21:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785784171836608905) · 2 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** @AaronBergman18 Cup + sheets of paper Nice, it worked. Bro got yeeted into freedom ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785785203740315738) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @Mjreard I'm a proud "or something" addict before I started listening to the 80k podcast Convergent evolution ## Thursday, May 2, 2024 ### [Reply to @kindgracekind, 05:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785900351045943727) · 1 like > **Grace (@kindgracekind):** Stochastic parrots are hitting a window 🦜🪟😢 > > (quoting @voooooogel: @manic_pixie_agi when you hear "deep learning is hitting a wall", it's important to remember that, because deep "learning" is really just a statistical stochastic parrot, it can't actually "hit a wall" like a human being can. it has no understanding and may just phase right th-…) 😢 ### [Reply to @livgorton, 05:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785905310785298729) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** my loss keeps testing my trust (why can’t it just be normal 😭) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMiESOYa4AABTEn.jpg) When it crosses the lower light gray line that’s when AGI happens ### [Reply to @fugitive_druid, 05:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785911013008670879) · 3 likes > **Durwood (@fugitive_druid):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMg_ss7WYAEyYUf.jpg) > (quoting @theblaze: Socialist actor Brian Cox calls the Bible 'one of the worst books ever' and says 'the theater' is the 'one true church' http://dlvr.it/T6FH5V) I want to give this like .4 likes ### [Reply to @FarooqTirmizi, 06:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785915495352312194) · 4 likes > **Farooq Tirmizi (@FarooqTirmizi):** It’s very good. You get essentially a free pizza after every six orders. Ok Mr Dominoes stealth marketing man ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 06:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785915602571321682) · 2 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** Kids like seeing a bear in the zoo, but don’t want it to eat. > > [video attached](https://x.com/CollinRugg/status/1785716413849866296/video/1) Just like me fr ### [Reply to @ellielexx, 06:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785916148640346410) · 1 like > **Ellie Lexie (@ellielexx):** Dearest Billy, > > I paid the invoice for your funeral today and as I transferred over the money, I looked at your photo and it all just seemed so unbelievable. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMfvJ1uXsAAKq69.jpg) ☹️ ### [Reply to @equine__dentist, 06:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785918496024506604) · 2 likes > **horse dentist (@equine__dentist):** no i don’t think that’s right > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMheg6xXoAAwtsZ.jpg) 🪱😢 ### [Reply to @florianederer, 06:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785925936665244152) · 8 likes > **Florian Ederer (@florianederer):** Last week Red Bull built a gigantic ski jump on a ski slope in Akureyri, Iceland. Ryōyū Kobayashi flew 291 meters and was in the air for over 10 seconds. > > The video is magnificent. > > [video attached](https://x.com/florianederer/status/1785864117405794353/video/1) I could do that ### [Reply to @univrsw3th4rt, 06:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785926562027590101) · 1 like > **universe sweetheart 💓🌈💭 (@univrsw3th4rt):** when he busted out the i’m from rice toner and the cosrx snail cream > > [GIF attached](https://x.com/univrsw3th4rt/status/1785869666776240603/photo/1) Tf is snail cream ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 07:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785932681085178004) · 4 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** lol someone accused me of being a bot once and I was like ???? I have met Sarah irl and can confirm she is a robot ### [Reply to @the_yanco, 07:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785933557887558022) · 14 likes > **Yanco (@the_yanco):** If you don't like the "p(doom) number" here is a simple conversion table into natural language. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMf1OJVWMAAD1eC.jpg) These just seem wrong if you read the words literally. “Uncertain” doesn’t mean 50%. Plausible doesn’t mean 65%. That’s not what those words mean ### [Quote tweet, 09:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785960009655889942) · 19 likes New cause area > **Quoting 💪🎭..Rai ji..💪🎭 (@Vinod_r108):** @AMAZlNGNATURE I have never seen a camel happy like this. ☺️ 😳😳😱 > > [video attached](https://x.com/superinvasion_/status/1785572105108558269/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 09:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785962736217698525) · 3 likes ### [Reply to @matloff, 09:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785965516751880355) · 1 like > **Norm Matloff 你有冇諗清楚呀? (@matloff):** Depends on what you mean. OS course content varies widely from school to school and instructor to instructor. In practical terms, though, I'd ask if you can answer these questions: 1. How does an OS boot up (chicken-and-egg problem)? 2. What is the purpose of virtual memory, and how does it work? 3. How might one design a disk cache? 4. If we have an "embarrassingly parallel" program and run it on k threads, why will we probably not get a k-fold speedup? Answer to (1) is magic. I don’t think computers should work ### [Reply to @NoamChompers, 10:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785976811848908839) · 2 likes > **noam chompers (@NoamChompers):** My experience going on strike as a grad student completely changed my view of universities and politics more generally. I get the sense that a lot of people are having related experiences over the last week How so? ### [Tweet, 10:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785978488895250772) · 39 likes None of this really seems about Gaza. It’s a lazy take, I know, but like there should at least be a pdf with specific, short-term tractable policy requests for Biden that protesters say will make them leave if implemented ### [Thread, continued, 10:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785978490258325625) · 4 likes Young college educated adults have actual normal political power bc they’re an important part of the Democratic party’s constituency and the US has normal political elections ### [Reply to @chionogirl, 10:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785979750277616110) > **neature vs norture (@chionogirl):** Nearly 3 decades of skin dryness has been cured by living in Georgia for nearly 3 days. I’d rather have dry skin. TBC this is a weather take not a politics or anything else take ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 10:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785980706025308270) · 5 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 It's largely experiential imo. They just want to participate in disruptive protests because they want to have the experience for the thrill and residual signalling value; they don't have any real expectation of intention of achieving any particular outcome Probably in part for some but nah I think by default we should assume people protesting for ~anything really care about that thing ### [Reply to @jakobgreenfeld, 11:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785990288025976943) · 4 likes > **Jakob Greenfeld (@jakobgreenfeld):** wanted: a directory of people who actually think for themselves and don't regurgitate what they read/heard elsewhere Not me I just adopt a weighted combo of Rob Wiblin, Scott Alexander, and Brian Tomasik’s takes and very occasionally tweak them a bit ### [Tweet, 11:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785991988350706120) · 49 likes I feel like twitter might appreciate my YT search history ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMkeP42W4AAoC6x.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 11:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785993953461858465) · 5 likes Update ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMkgCQGWwAA4I49.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 11:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785994427799924901) · 1 like Wait why did the order change that’s weird ### [Reply, 11:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1785998188685500703) · 2 likes Lol at them using niacin as an active placebo Bro I think I can tell ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 12:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786011132316004693) · 2 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** @goblinodds this one asymmetry powers like half the fucking global economy Half? ### [Thread, continued, 12:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786011553264738717) · 2 likes ### [Reply, 15:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786062937485984225) · 1 like This is a bold heterodox claim ### [Reply to @the_yanco, 16:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786069727850180718) · 7 likes > **Yanco (@the_yanco):** Do you feel like you have a "Plot Armor"? > > Stress on the word FEEL - even if you rationally understand it is not so. > > (Plot armor is a plot device wherein a character is preserved from harm. E.g. James Bond) Being born an American citizen to supportive, upper middle class parents is a pretty legit form of plot armor. Another word to describe this is “privilege” ## Friday, May 3, 2024 ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786248945770823727) · 3 likes > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** it is better to have gambled and lost than to have not gambled at all Idk about this one ### [Reply to @abettertake, 05:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786264645017211296) · 2 likes > **joon (@abettertake):** Everyone follow @JesseTayRiver he’s a heckuva guy. Did you know a gas water boiler has this unconnected flu and you just sorta hope gas goes up it? But if your hvac is right next to it and not perfectly sealed you could be blowing gas into your house instead? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMnxKW0akAASJQ2.jpg) > (quoting @JesseTayRiver: @abettertake Did you ever get around to checking for water heater spilling? A couple weeks ago I had a client with a concealed water heater flue pipe disconnect where the gases were partly being pulled back into the house via return leakage in the attic so there's also that) Agreed ### [Reply to @abettertake, 05:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786265827722854706) · 2 likes > **joon (@abettertake):** Everyone follow @JesseTayRiver he’s a heckuva guy. Did you know a gas water boiler has this unconnected flu and you just sorta hope gas goes up it? But if your hvac is right next to it and not perfectly sealed you could be blowing gas into your house instead? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMnxKW0akAASJQ2.jpg) > (quoting @JesseTayRiver: @abettertake Did you ever get around to checking for water heater spilling? A couple weeks ago I had a client with a concealed water heater flue pipe disconnect where the gases were partly being pulled back into the house via return leakage in the attic so there's also that) Would you vote for Jesse if he ran for office? ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786266506763932067) · 3 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** What are some examples of convergent evolution across different complex, multicellular lifeforms \*from different kingdoms\* (in particular, between animals and either plants or fungi)? Convergent evolution between hairy apes and sand: both can talk ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMoX60LWEAANx2a.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMoX60MWoAAZ_a7.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMoX60LWgAAcAdp.jpg) ### [Reply to @flyosity, 05:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786267991983722541) · 4 likes > **Mike Rundle (@flyosity):** Every developer has something running on AWS they can't find to turn off right? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMlRigWXEAAIjth.jpg) I will be paying 1 penny a month to google until the heat death of the universe ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMoZRSiWkAACTaU.jpg) ### [Reply to @dioscuri, 05:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786270670101311860) · 2 likes > **Henry Shevlin (@dioscuri):** @AaronBergman18 But how do you kiss Dwarkesh Patel? That’s the million dollar question. Real ### [Tweet, 05:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786273428196016297) · 18 likes I only ever hear about product managers in tech Is there like one guy who is in charge of Cheerios? Head of Men’s Athletic Ankle Socks at Nike? ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 05:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786274153990955350) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Can’t believe I’m putting this online, but on one of me and my fiancée’s first dates, I told her I didn’t really know how to kiss, so we looked up the WikiHow article on making out together. There ARE people who can be patient with your shyness. :p Based ### [Reply to @SchmidtIbanez, 06:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786279871590568348) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @SchmidtIbanez is no longer available.)_ Poast best sticker ### [Reply to @polisisti, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786469488319201434) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @SchmidtIbanez @AaronBergman18 IMO Aaron's request is still valid :D 😤 ### [Reply to @SchmidtIbanez, 18:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786469574814142491) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @SchmidtIbanez is no longer available.)_ I do like airbags ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786470287841632455) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** good morning, it’s my birthday ☀️ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMpNG40WwAAiuz9.jpg) Ok ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 19:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786474295364931676) · 2 likes > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** new enemy i have is rabbits > > damn things killed all my strawberries first > > now they're starting to just bite branches off my blueberry bushes. had to set up chicken wire today > > why are they doing this. its spring. go eat some grass assholes Thank u for giving the rabbits a yummy treat ❤️ ### [Reply to @luckypennyy_, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786479318433972732) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @luckypennyy_ is no longer available.)_ ### [Reply to @drmillybarker, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786483616450576520) · 2 likes > **Milly Barker (@drmillybarker):** Who is building the 'if I die, here's all my important info' (banking, bills, last will and testament, etc.) software? People most interested in and capable of the technical problem are also the least likely to die New type of market failure just dropped ### [Reply to @keysmashbandit, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786483760671731916) · 3 likes > **keysmashbandit (@keysmashbandit):** weird mold > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMrbpeOWgAATyRX.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMrbpeZWYAA29HN.jpg) I don’t like mold. Bad vibes ### [Reply to @keysmashbandit, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786486271403077898) · 2 likes > **keysmashbandit (@keysmashbandit):** because it's going to take over the earth you mean? That wasn’t what I was thinking but yeah that doesn’t help ### [Reply to @univrsw3th4rt, 20:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786491321533739263) · 10 likes > **universe sweetheart 💓🌈💭 (@univrsw3th4rt):** if you took me out, where would we go? > > [video attached](https://x.com/univrsw3th4rt/status/1786490989172920826/video/1) Couch where we both post on twitter side by side with space for the lord in between ### [Quote tweet, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786492620618801306) · 5 likes Lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMrlkicWoAANl__.jpg) > **Quoting Dissproportionately (@dissproportion):** Hahahaha of course I don’t take it personally! 🥲🥲🥲 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMrQgQ4WkAAtNIS.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786492658434679099) · 2 likes ### [Reply to @Rado9910, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786493835767402905) · 5 likes > **Rado9910 (@Rado9910):** Community notes are a tool to highlight the majority opinion, not a tool for fact-checking. They empirically seem to be good at fact checking. All the data is up for download btw https://x.com/i/communitynotes/download-data ### [Quote tweet, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786494889171079258) · 7 likes FYI community notes data is free for ur interest and analysis https://x.com/i/communitynotes/download-data > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @Rado9910 They empirically seem to be good at fact checking. All the data is up for download btw https://x.com/i/communitynotes/download-data ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786495052681744631) · 4 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** Hate when you were having a sleep over at an ‘ingredients only’ house and you want snacks in the middle of the night but have to end up eating like chocolate chips Chocolate chips are an s-tier snack ### [Reply to @fordoglunk, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786495232155980217) · 2 likes > **Gordo MONK: Champion of Peace ☮️ and Calm😶‍🌫️ (@fordoglunk):** @pli_cachete Chocolate chips actually beast mode s tier treat soooo yummy Damn beat me by a few seconds ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786495325219225649) · 7 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** Hate when you were having a sleep over at an ‘ingredients only’ house and you want snacks in the middle of the night but have to end up eating like chocolate chips You’ve unleashed chocolate chip twitter ### [Quote tweet, 20:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786496494851309798) · 148 likes That guy is a 5-6? It’s over > **Quoting Chadmaxxing (@ChadMaxxer):** When you put an average male face against an average female face we can notice a few things: > > The average female, a 7-8 is substantially better looking than the average male, a 5-6. > > It is socially acceptable for women to artificially enhance their looks from this point (makeup, filler, hair styles) so this 7-8 can very easily become a 9 without much effort. > > Joe Shmoe (the average guy) stands no chance with women, would get overlooked/rejected in the club and every Joe Shmoe would feel lucky getting with the average woman. > > This is important for a few reasons: > > 1\. To show us how a simp based society has caused the inflation of attention towards women and therefore lowering our standards. > > 2\. How picky women are by all competing for the top 7-10 scoring men. > > 3\. How important it is as a man to work on your appearance either intentionally or indirectly. > > 4\. How easy it is to disappear as a male, you either get your shit together or become invisible to the world. Probably explains why we have a higher rate of suicide. > > What do I mean by this? > > Some people have the idea that it is superficial and unattractive for a man to intentionally look better (going to the gym for vanity, skin care beyond hygiene, etc etc) > > You can think this way and still do things for your health etc, for example by going to the gym in order to be strong and healthy but indirectly looking better. > > Personally, as long as it's via natural routes and not obsessive, I would recommend plenty of ways to look better as a man via diet, exercise, style, whole body posture and other methods. > > It isn't wrong to improve your rank in the pecking order, it isn't wrong to strive to present your best, even if not for sexual reasons. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMpcaHTa4AAFfX1.png) ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 21:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786506729234284608) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @arithmoquine is no longer available.)_ Congrats!! ### [Tweet, 21:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786508166416449870) · 133 likes You, a noob: has to pay $400 for LessWrong Global (not the official name) Me, an intellectual: has to pay just $392 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMrztbVWEAAhm-c.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786508170749206591) · 18 likes I also wonder whether this is fully refundable (wouldn’t be a bad idea imo) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMrzts0XAAAKvIH.jpg) ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 21:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786509272416706845) · 8 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** @AaronBergman18 UMM, ACTUALLY, I only have to pay $399.63 💪 Tyler Cowen is paying that, pipe down ### [Tweet, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786510451255148952) · 30 likes MeN CoUlDn’t rEaLlY LaNd a pLaNe iN An eMeRgEnCy ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMr1yW4XMAE2KKN.jpg) ## Saturday, May 4, 2024 ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 02:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786590524612153451) · 2 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** @AaronBergman18 i tested this in one of those fancy realistic flight simulators. i could not land a plane Well ur like 12 so give it a few years ### [Reply to @dbcmckee, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786592097111257290) > **Darren McKee (@dbcmckee):** Super weird to me that it is on the same weekend. > EAG takes up 3 weekends in the year, even with other holidays, there must be so many other options. Not obvious to me whether they’re more like complements or substitutes/competitors. Plausibly some people who’d go to just one or neither will go to parts of both this way But I agree it’s weird cc @ohabryka ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 07:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786666359461441668) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 3, 2024:** That guy is a 5-6? It’s over Even besides the fact that this is hyperbole (obviously, I think), ppl are misinterpreting me lol Nothing to do with the fact that these pictures are averages - just the correspondence between the guy’s image and 5-6 rating ### [Thread, continued, 07:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786666473999483311) · 3 likes We’re so back ### [Reply to @kacaanad, 07:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786666930264232012) · 3 likes > **charlene 🤎 (@kacaanad):** He’s engagement farming his insecure followers into hating themselves/women even more I have been farmed 😔 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 08:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786667325296419168) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 4, 2024:** We’re so back Extremely back ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 08:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786669039613292559) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Cute mini reflection ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMuGBa-XMAABykE.jpg) ### [Reply to @_R4V3N5_, 08:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786674077404471484) · 2 likes > **ravens (@_R4V3N5_):** what I've learned from this post is zoomers don't know tmux. all they know is vscode, chatgpt, eat hot chip, and watch anime > > (quoting @_R4V3N5_: the people who use the terminal built into vscode are a different breed man...) Why would I want to do this? Having more than one thing running stresses me out ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMuKmo1WwAAtkLA.jpg) ### [Tweet, 08:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786677157139468747) · 58 likes Bears, would you rather run into a man or a woman in the woods? ### [Thread, continued, 08:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786677757075693908) · 2 likes Cc @sumdepony @RafaRuizdeLira (the latter is an honorary bear) ### [Tweet, 08:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786677973610791230) · 9 likes Men and women, would you rather run into a bear or into the woods? ### [Reply to @RatOrthodox, 09:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786682915369206019) · 3 likes > **Brangus🔍⏹️ (@RatOrthodox):** A taxonomy of different kinds of confusions would be a nice thing to have. Propose general types of confusion below. Not sure your examples are distinct from those of old school cognitive biases and logical fallacies (in b4 “lol confused about confusion”) IMO “confusion” is in functional terms like a high-order cognitive process flagging that a lower level one isn’t working right - ### [Reply to @lightxvision, 09:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786696710636315053) · 15 likes > **light (@lightxvision):** Why are you, as a man, not 100% convinced that you could become a world class athlete if you truly put your heart and soul into it I basically did this from 13-17 and came out with a fucked up endocrine system and this take ### [Reply to @metakuna, 10:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786698787810869444) · 5 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** what sport? Competitive rock climbing - I have a handful of pictures from sport climbing nationals 2017 in my camera roll but like a bajillion more on my computer and/or Google drive somewhere to dig up ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMuhFBeWUAA_pXY.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMuhFBfXcAA8D7g.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMuhFBdWoAACe-e.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMuhFBiW8AE40Bd.jpg) ### [Reply to @metakuna, 10:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786699400082780465) · 3 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** oh cool! And in case you’ve been living under a rock, @arthur_wright\_ and I discuss this here! https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/12-arthur-wright-and-i-discuss-whether ### [Reply to @_alice_evans, 10:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786703547297419442) · 1 like > **Alice Evans (@_alice_evans):** I was just invited to speak at a women’s rights conference.. > > But! > > Before the organisers want to check my views, to ascertain I have the proper ideology. > > “Do you agree that.. surrogacy is a form of violence against women?” > > \[Um, no.. \] > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMqQNU8aUAAqqd8.jpg) Pretty bad ### [Reply to @GarrettPetersen, 11:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786715395157524800) · 2 likes > **Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ (@GarrettPetersen):** Every nerd has a story about the time they re-invented binary search from first principles as a child. Yeah but did they all do this ### [Quote tweet, 11:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786716836911841631) · 38 likes I think people should be nice to each other ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMuxfhuXMAA-ji9.jpg) > **Quoting Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman):** Frat bros at @OleMiss chant, "Lizzo! Lizzo!" and shout, "F\*\*k you fatass, f\*\*k you b\*tch" at a Black woman who was protesting for Palestine. > > Do people really think these counterprotestors are doing it to support Jews? > > [video attached](https://x.com/ashtonpittman/status/1786397478696231283/video/1) ### [Reply to @potterlab, 11:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786718251713507567) · 1 like > **John Potter spirit/acc (@potterlab):** ❤️/acc > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMs6H-0bgAAL4Ze.jpg) @RafaRuizdeLira ### [Reply, 22:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786893108434612646) Yes is this a thing? ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 23:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786894038244712525) · 3 likes > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** very much so. especially for debut releases > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMxSgRjXoAADIZK.jpg) Aaron Bergman ### [Reply to @sebkrier, 23:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786895342060941509) · 1 like > **Séb Krier (@sebkrier):** just solved alignment 👍🏽 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMvAGKwXsAARavv.jpg) 👍 ### [Quote tweet, 23:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786901088781664365) · 17 likes Anecdote about this: the reach of by far my most wide-reaching tweet can probably be attributed to @VitalikButerin somehow seeing it and liking it super early on Idk how that happened though ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMxZEcwWMAAfZy1.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMxZEczW8AAxGfv.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMxZEcxWEAA_xex.jpg) > **Quoting jp (@inflammateomnia):** If you're a big enough account, you're assigned your own simcluster. This is why you get five posts from rainmaker1973 or science girl or skoookum when you refresh your feed > They've become a topic unto themselves. The rich get richer baby ### [Reply to @LabGrownNeet, 23:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786901668459684075) · 2 likes > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** Gf had to schedule some occupational licensing test. And the website wasn't working. > > I determined that they were validating whether the "I certify" checkbox is checked on their backend. When you check the box, the relevant attribute in the request json has a value of "True, I certify". And the request 400s because it's required to have some other value. > > I tried replacing the value with true, "true", "True", "TRUE", "certify", "CERTIFY", etc. Nothing was working. > > Then I simply removed the whole attribute from the request. Maybe if it's not present they won't validate it? IT WORKED > > But gf wont schedule the test because she doesnt want her certification to be built on crime 😭 Crime 👻 ### [Reply to @christineist, 23:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786902005446754554) · 2 likes > **christine (@christineist):** 😸😸 > > [video attached](https://x.com/christineist/status/1786870325013266750/video/1) Nice ### [Quote tweet, 23:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786905683767578946) · 189 likes EULER WAS 18TH CENTURY??? MY BRAIN CLUSTERS HIM WITH LIKE PLATO AND ARISTOTLE > **Quoting Burny - Effective Curiosity (@burny_tech):** What equations would you add? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMvVAYqXgAAbRkh.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 23:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786905687060025617) · 32 likes Just bc of the name tbh. It sounds like an old name. Do u know anyone alive rn named Euler? I didn’t think so ### [Reply to @Bbburner19, 23:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786906311201857713) · 2 likes > **The People Mover That Was Promised (@Bbburner19):** @AaronBergman18 If you have a child you know what name they need now. No child as of yet but I will keep this in mind thx ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 23:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786906575803756952) · 27 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ Ya probably. They should have stopped making names that start with Eu when the dinosaurs died ## Sunday, May 5, 2024 ### [Reply, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786909944597385264) · 1 like I hate when ppl do this kind of thing ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 00:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786912146619617452) · 2 likes > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** I couldn’t help it I yelled at him and told him to mind his manners 😭no jokes were told I just chewed him the fuck out > > (quoting @bijibiji2023: this guy is being really annoying at urgent care and talking down to the woman at the front about federal regulations she has no control over. thinking about walking up to him and telling him my 200 pound boyfriend would look really hot in his outfit, but like in an ironic way) Oh snap ### [Reply to @prerat, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786914640485601421) · 2 likes > **prerat (@prerat):** i would never wear a lab diamond ring. i want my ring made from a real american cow Chuckled irl ### [Reply to @warty_dog, 00:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786914939589865477) · 25 likes > **troon (@warty_dog):** close! that's a euclid Is that a color or a shape ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 00:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786918023581913268) · 5 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** Have you considered the humble shrimp? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMxOBLTWEAAb11i.jpg) Yes ### [Reply to @polisisti, 00:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786918819501334833) · 11 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 Euler, Gauss, Fermat, Pascal, Descartes are all early modern to modern Ya but only one of these guys has an ancient ass name. Like if there is a guy called Persophacles the Wise, I am gonna guess that he wasn’t born in 1996 ### [Reply to @202accepted, 00:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786920372366971298) · 4 likes > **𝚓𝚒𝚖𝚖𝚢 (@202accepted):** ngl i’ll always appreciate that this guy sticks to his guns and believes what he believes > > can’t say that about many actual politicians these days > > (quoting @SenFettermanPA: btw, this is the thing that makes lab meat) I’d rather he have less genuine but more correct takes ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 00:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786923280357572629) · 5 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** @dr_alphalyrae Yes. > > Cows sometimes kill people. Well it goes both ways ### [Reply to @catehall, 01:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786927933539463409) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @catehall is no longer available.)_ Explain? ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 02:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786941917483114722) · 7 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 Presumably I don’t need to explain to you that this doesn’t make sense, but… Do you just not know any of Euler’s math, or did you think he was doing calculus in Ancient Greece? Option 1 ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 02:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786947891736506578) · 7 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** @AaronBergman18 ? I’m not a historian ### [Tweet, 02:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786950159978385469) · 10 likes I still think there should be a .meme file format which is like .png + some ggplot2::geom_text() code for how to add text on top I’m guessing people will object to using R for this. Fine, do it your way, idc ### [Quote tweet, 02:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786950897429324181) · 24 likes This reminds me, we have work to do @SpacedOutMatt @Laura_k_Duffy ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMyGXsoWcAAXFde.jpg) > **Quoting MagpAI (@WillowChem):** Have you considered the humble shrimp? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMxOBLTWEAAb11i.jpg) ### [Reply to @RFishBlueFish, 02:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786952190524850422) · 1 like > **Gil (@RFishBlueFish):** @AaronBergman18 Found it https://open.substack.com/pub/othermeans/p/we-have-leverage-and-we-should-use?r=20zhou&utm_medium=ios Good title ### [Quote tweet, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786954649183867303) · 10 likes Computers should not be able to do this. > **Quoting tetsuo (@tetsuoai):** Can your LLM create an obfuscated C donut that produces an animated ASCII donut? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMwfUp3XEAAQY1Y.png) > [GIF attached](https://x.com/7etsuo/status/1786837935712595991/photo/1) ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786955602679247124) · 3 likes > **Dissproportionately (@dissproportion):** Not helpful. Anybody want to actually translate this for me? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMyI52PXYAAjSOw.jpg) Sure, it means 🐍 丽 ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 03:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786955735332438247) · 1 like > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** i dont know who drake or who kendrick llamar are > > who's winning Kendrick 🦙r ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 03:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786955974168732153) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 You don’t know, like, Euler’s identity (e^i\*pi=-1)? That seems like some Ancient Greek shit ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 03:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786956459093221576) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 You know they didn’t have imaginary numbers right Bro do I look like a math historian ? ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 03:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786956943589863537) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 Okay one last question. Can you remind us all what you studied in college? Sure! It was math, econ, and philosophy. I only took one history course and it was history of Japan ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 03:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786957779174895758) · 8 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 I hope you can forgive my teasing :p U are forgiven ### [Reply to @_chair, 03:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786958256532807976) · 10 likes > **Chair (@_chair):** questionnaire and phrasing: "If you could be assured that no one would know and that you could in no way be punished for engaging in the following acts, how likely, if at all, would you be to commit such acts?" / list of items including "rape," numerical "likely/unlikely" scale > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMyGWZlWsAAAw65.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMyGWZlW4AEz2Nm.jpg) Oof ### [Reply to @prerat, 03:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786959810698858923) · 3 likes > **prerat (@prerat):** @AaronBergman18 probably just svg all the way down? Oh huh I guess this is already a thing. But it’s not like easy to use afaik for editing memes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMyOefwXMAEmECA.jpg) ### [Reply to @DeepDishEnjoyer, 03:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786960989667127637) · 7 likes > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** okay there is no way Aaron isn't baiting > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: EULER WAS 18TH CENTURY??? MY BRAIN CLUSTERS HIM WITH LIKE PLATO AND ARISTOTLE) Lol ### [Reply to @typeclonghouse, 03:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786961220991369616) · 5 likes > **technology sista (aspiring) (@typeclonghouse):** @AaronBergman18 I'm pretty sure you're confusing him with Euclid and maybe this is also a troll Yes to pt 1, no to pt 2 lol ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 03:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786961426394775672) · 9 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 5, 2024:** Lol Wait is this supposed to be a double negative or an implied semicolon/comma between the clauses? Do u think I’m baiting or no? ### [Quote tweet, 03:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786961636055478612) · 5 likes Free idea for the taking > **Quoting prerat (@prerat):** @AaronBergman18 yeah a native meme editor for svg would be sick ### [Reply to @DeepDishEnjoyer, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786962453202407613) · 2 likes > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** your account is bait. it's just impossible to be this uneducated as a Georgetown grad. i don't believe it Need to tag some fellow Hoyas to prove it. @PeterJAngel @thornyproblems what’s a dumb take u have? ### [Reply to @DeepDishEnjoyer, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786963090728198206) · 66 likes > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** your account is bait. it's just impossible to be this uneducated as a Georgetown grad. i don't believe it Fr though I think you’re just wrong, and most graduates from literally every university incl. Harvard, Stanford, Caltech, etc. have substantial general knowledge gaps that just don’t come up or get exposed often (inherently, because if they did come up they’d get learned) ### [Tweet, 03:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786963912501362880) · 29 likes Who wants to start a beef? ### [Reply to @DeepDishEnjoyer, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786964039878221921) · 12 likes > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** dude you're completely not up to mark Ok ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786964192173375945) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 5, 2024:** Who wants to start a beef? Also still on offer. Not mutually exclusive ### [Reply to @jaybaxter, 03:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786965001544102152) · 3 likes > **Jay Baxter (@jaybaxter):** @AaronBergman18 I'll only start a lab-grown beef with you 🥰 ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786966468891975785) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 Ya I’m the opposite. Somehow I’ve installed python and all the packages like 9 different times in 18 different ways and still everything is broke ### [Reply to @wwa_3, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1786968055253213402) · 7 likes > **Will 😎 (@wwa_3):** Dude next to me at the restaurant is meeting up with an ex gf who cheated on him. Literal transcript, > > Her: “I was a bad girlfriend” > > Him: “no you weren’t!” > > Her: “I cheated on you. Of course I was a bad girlfriend” Sounds like she was a bad gf ### [Reply, 20:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787222578672599409) · 1 like ¿ ### [Quote tweet, 20:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787223045364387995) · 9 likes Strange coalitions do form > **Quoting tautologer (@tautologer):** lab grown chicken is lower PUFA than reference USDA chicken, LFG 🚀 ### [Reply to @algekalipso, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787224214979682773) · 2 likes > **Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso):** Are you "on the spectrum" (for autism)? I honestly do not know ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 20:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787224349306396857) · 2 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** Sad that Green Day has gone NIMBY > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GM1Cf0YWsAAEHty.jpg) 😢 ### [Reply to @tautologer, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787230426311901441) · 2 likes > **tautologer (@tautologer):** @AaronBergman18 I've always been a lab grown meat guy! I'm new to the anti-PUFA stuff Same actually lol ### [Quote tweet, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787231961792074016) · 12 likes Out of curiosity, do you think this is basically right or basically wrong? Try to decouple-maxx and don’t vote as a proxy like for or against me or PPPP Poll below > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @DeepDishEnjoyer Fr though I think you’re just wrong, and most graduates from literally every university incl. Harvard, Stanford, Caltech, etc. have substantial general knowledge gaps that just don’t come up or get exposed often (inherently, because if they did come up they’d get learned) ### [Thread, continued, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787231964539290097) · 3 likes “Fr though I think you’re just wrong, and most graduates from literally every university incl. Harvard, Stanford, Caltech, etc. have substantial general knowledge gaps that just don’t come up or get exposed often (inherently, because if they did come up they’d get learned)” ### [Tweet, 21:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787233417177743385) · 4 likes You’re telling me R is just a Rust wrapper? Screaming, crying, throwing up, etc ### [Reply, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787235148271866354) · 1 like I will, thanks! FWIW I’m far from convinced it (well any of a number of clustering theories) is true, but think we should have a decent prior on “large population started consuming what was previously a micronutrient as a macronutrient at the same time as obesity… ### [Thread, continued, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787235308527833159) · 1 like took off in the same population, so there’s a causal link” ### [Reply to @SelonNerias, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787235804923723842) · 1 like > **Selon Nerias (@SelonNerias):** for eel? What’s the story behind these? Is it like a feature twitter tried and mostly abandoned? ### [Quote tweet, 21:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787237569240993936) · 7 likes FWIW I also think the last line is basically correct reasoning: unless you’re really, counterfactually, non-trivially speeding up \*frontier\* AI progress you should stay in and/or try to get hired by OpenAI et al > **Quoting Matthew Barnett (@MatthewJBar):** I've seen several EAs leave OpenAI recently. Most of them appear to have left voluntarily, perhaps out of concerns that OpenAI isn't acting responsibly. Does anyone have more info about what caused this? Also, wouldn't you want to stay to help make the org more responsible? ### [Reply to @c64f7e94, 21:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787237739424780308) · 4 likes > **Joe (@c64f7e94):** @AaronBergman18 Isn't it obvious that Euler would have come much later than Aristotle (overrated btw)? I mean, Euler's association with calculus is pretty close, so he wouldn't have been earlier than Newton. It’s obvious if you know all that, but that background knowledge isn’t obvious lol ### [Reply to @CharlesD353, 21:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787237946401137025) · 1 like > **Charles🔸 (@CharlesD353):** The idea that "obesity took off" in the sense that there was a discontinuity in how much fatter people were getting is just a quite silly misinterpretation of statistics, I think. > > (quoting @AnechoicMedia_: This recurring argument is wrong because nothing "suddenly" happened to obesity in the 1980s. Weight increased linearly the whole time. Because "obesity" is an arbitrary BMI threshold, its prevalence changes non-linearly even if the underlying rate of increase is unchanging.) Hmm ### [Reply to @c64f7e94, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787239252197032298) · 2 likes > **Joe (@c64f7e94):** @AaronBergman18 Haha. Ok, well how about the fact that he has a first and last name! I literally don’t know his first name ### [Reply, 22:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787243915633906079) Big if true ### [Reply to @LeetAlpaca3, 22:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787245204568777199) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @LeetAlpaca3 is no longer available.)_ 😤 ### [Reply, 22:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787246299089133732) · 1 like @peterwildeford you were right 😔 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GM2TCWLW8AAvAku.jpg) ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 22:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787253034277392521) · 3 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** like http://stop.ai has a page where they said "if you don't license the building of sub GPT-3 level models something bad will happen" > > and look! everyone and their dog can run llama2 7b on their computer now! nothing has happened! > > (quoting @PradyuPrasad: only opinion of mine i seriously disagree with in hindsight is when I was full xrisk doomer for a few months maybe when bing sydney came out) I don’t feel like digging up this page but literally zero people I know thought/think this. Likewise about gpt-4, and mostly about gpt-5 Still think p(doom) over the next decade is high ### [Reply to @anglerfish01, 23:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787256197692748088) · 4 likes > **angLerfish (@anglerfish01):** @AaronBergman18 Curious why you chose to major in math? https://80000hours.org/2013/11/summary-of-our-thoughts-on-how-to-pick-a-degree/ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GM2cCg5WMAIvHx5.jpg) ### [Reply to @tautologer, 23:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787268531819544684) · 1 like > **tautologer (@tautologer):** @SpacedOutMatt @AaronBergman18 good article. this is my takeaway, except I subscribe to the middle-strength theory, because I have a much more negative view of the purported evidence that saturated fat is bad for you > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GM2nAUibEAA8r15.jpg) Ya I agree with the last paragraph mostly but think on balance most people should indeed avoid them ### [Reply to @annakhachiyan, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787270615717556523) · 5 likes > **Anna Khachiyan (@annakhachiyan):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GM2odLFWkAA10X1.jpg) > (quoting @nfr_podcast: KENDRICK LAMAR CONFIRMS MORE DRAKE DISS TRACKS OTW 🚨 “Rabbit hole is still deep I can go farther I promise”) J Cole wins ## Monday, May 6, 2024 ### [Tweet, 00:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787279249411363109) · 11 likes Do u think it’s possible to do DL at scale in Google Sheets? Bc that’s free compute right there and presumably Google dedicates a decent amount to Sheets in general ### [Quote tweet, 00:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787283668815483064) · 21 likes Weird account name > **Quoting DepressedBergman (@DannyDrinksWine):** What's the most iconic shot from a tv show? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMwOaA2WwAAmLzp.jpg) ### [Reply to @asher5772, 00:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787284875747217498) · 4 likes > **Asher (@asher5772):** pretty much dodged the question -- smnth along the lines of "I think thats an ill-formed question, because whether its 2 or 10 or 90, we should take it seriously. But we can't let doomerism get in the way of progress" Bad take, 2 vs 90 matters a lot ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787289327354990935) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ Lol ### [Thread, continued, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787289451346919725) · 1 like Lol isn’t the right word. More like “huh” ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 01:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787290107034087562) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ Me on hinge: “i.e., e.g., 😏😏😏” ### [Reply to @202accepted, 01:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787290733625450664) · 5 likes > **𝚓𝚒𝚖𝚖𝚢 (@202accepted):** imagine the checkout at F1 asking “would you like to tip 20% on your $120 vegetarian steamed buns?” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GM27GQ9aYAE4B5a.jpg) Wait wtf why are those things so expensive ### [Reply to @202accepted, 01:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787291129441911074) · 2 likes > **𝚓𝚒𝚖𝚖𝚢 (@202accepted):** @AaronBergman18 low interest rates Ah ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 02:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787307954435162223) · 3 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** @AaronBergman18 no the page says exactly that. > > "yes it is not an existential threat but if they proliferate they are a thread" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GM3JthobMAArJ-o.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GM3Jumya0AAwki5.png) I believe the page says that, I just don’t think it’s representative of even the 1% most doomery of boomers ### [Tweet, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787309776507908357) · 43 likes There are definitely a non-zero number of like high schoolers and college freshmen who are really confused what BDSM has to do with Israel but are too afraid to ask ### [Reply to @davidad, 02:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787314529740656733) · 1 like > **davidad 🎇 (@davidad):** When people list fraud at a massive scale as their top AI concern, some of my xrisk friends wince at the insignificance of massive fraud compared to extinction. > But consider that con-artistry is a more likely attack surface for unrecoverable AI takeover than, say, bioengineering. Hard to think about but fraud also requires essentially the consent of society/the US government to keep on valuing dollars, which is usually the right choice bc world economy >> fraud in terms of size and importance ### [Reply to @jdcmedlock, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787329079693197565) · 3 likes > **James Medlock (@jdcmedlock):** Still amazed by this take. How many billions would students have to invest to gain meaningful influence over arms sales? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GM0oqHNaUAAeUtz.jpg) > (quoting @jdcmedlock: @MMiraculorum "Instead of protesting, have you tried simply owning the means of production?") Unironically if they were incredibly serious about things, EtG tech entrepreneurship would be a key message. I feel like this reads like a joke but it’s not ### [Thread, continued, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787329327668903993) · 2 likes Like yeah these students collectively making $100B isn’t far fetched at all conditional on them actually trying ### [Reply to @anammostarac, 04:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787334489615614146) · 8 likes > **Ana Mostarac (@anammostarac):** Rates need to go higher > > [video attached](https://x.com/anammostarac/status/1787297953075679553/video/1) Nah based ### [Reply to @shinboson, 04:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787334967057408062) · 2 likes > **𝞍 Shin Megami Boson 𝞍 (@shinboson):** 👏 all 👏 facts 👏 are 👏 fun 👏 Hmm no most but some facts are extremely anti-fun ### [Reply, 16:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787516518953058780) · 5 likes It’s not bait ### [Reply, 16:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787516772624609637) · 2 likes 🎣 ### [Reply to @powerbottomdad1, 17:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787537070677737621) · 2 likes > **sucks (@powerbottomdad1):** my perfect wife and my angelic 3 month old daughter keep giggling in the next room over. jesus christ. don't they know i'm trying to FUCKING CODE 😡 ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 17:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787538216880427356) · 6 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** YIMBY reflections on HVAC licensing from my renewal class > \- ~7500 HVAC licenses in NJ (some inactive) > \- 15 people obtained licenses last year > \- The licensing exam has ~90% failure rate > \- ~230 licenses lost/yr (usually via death) > \- ~10% of license holders are <40 yo So basically fewer and fewer providers each year? ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 20:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787587567459746190) · 6 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Guy who calls Boston "the Bay Area" DC, Baltimore, and NOVA = The Chesapeake Bay Area ### [Tweet, 21:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787591255871922477) · 8 likes Oh no not again ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GM7MxecWkAAF5_6.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787591993155084627) · 47 likes Let it be known that Arthur donated a kidney to a stranger and is either not crazy or very good at hiding it > **Quoting Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GM7EG6lWEAAKCMK.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787592131642552402) · 3 likes Context: this was the qt of his tweet ### [Reply to @bayeslord, 21:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787596111022014741) · 3 likes > **bayes (@bayeslord):** i should start and win a rap beef w someone on the tl > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GM3j9QHbEAAzEwe.jpg) Both sides have access to Claude Opus and Gemini, it’ll be the first Enhanced, superhuman rap battle in history ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787612369079705661) · 2 likes > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** there’s no reason to believe a brain contains only a single consciousness @RethinkPriors doesn’t think so https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/vbhoFsyQmrntru6Kw/do-brains-contain-many-conscious-subsystems-if-so-should-we ### [Reply to @rachelclif, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787612829819736575) · 2 likes > **rachel (is sending love and warmth your way) (@rachelclif):** what's the sluttiest thing you could do right now? This might be a decent proxy question for “how should I act?” actually ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787613144136769874) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ Yeah I don’t think he was really a self-improvement guy at the end of the day ### [Reply to @robertskmiles, 22:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787613852231688666) · 8 likes > **Rob Miles (@robertskmiles):** I've advocated for saying "twenty" instead of "two thousand and" since twenty-oh-one, but my question now is, when do we drop the 'twenty'? > Like, '99 was just '99, hardly ever nineteen-ninety-nine. What's the smallest number that's big enough to clearly be a year? ‘35. No reasoning just vibes ### [Reply to @tautologer, 23:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787621191609405444) · 2 likes > **tautologer (@tautologer):** muscle memory is so funny. I was trying to zoom in, but I don't actually know where the + key is on my symbol layer, only my fingers know, and only in the context of typing. so I literally had to type "a+b" to find the key, and only then could I use it to zoom in Ya real. My fingers know more of my passwords than I do ### [Reply, 23:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787626728799584315) Yeah a priori I’d expect the opposite (?) ### [Tweet, 23:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787629405780475929) · 58 likes Deleted Hinge and Tinder. They’re just distractions bc I need to get my physical health and other general shit together first ## Tuesday, May 7, 2024 ### [Reply, 02:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787665296989315283) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Disease, or at least much closer to the disease end of the spectrum, and all my professional and fitness and everything else goals basically depend on fixing that ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787667905053659201) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 Once my health is fixed it’s so over for you mfs Here’s to both of us 🍻 ### [Quote tweet, 14:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787854303996035564) · 4 likes Does anybody do this? Or have a take on where it falls on the axis from secretly dangerous to benign bullshit to panacea? > **Quoting Dalton (Analyze & Optimize) (@Outdoctrination):** For all my people who use red light therapy, how do you do it? Where do you apply, on head, full body? balls?!? how long? do you notice anything? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDF6dWdWoAMuYwh.jpg) ### [Reply to @RFishBlueFish, 16:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1787886785663537548) · 1 like > **Gil (@RFishBlueFish):** I think if you don’t know the answer is no? Idk maybe all the psych ppl will tell me how autism isn’t a real disorder and everyone is somewhere on the spectrum but my impression was that if nobody has ever told you you’re socially awkward, you’re not on the spectrum Idk what I’m talking about really but I kinda disagree bc I’m sufficiently abnormal about sensory stuff which seems not to get as much attention (for obvious reasons; it’s intrinsically less visible) ## Wednesday, May 8, 2024 ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 02:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1788028729601458205) · 2 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** @RomanHauksson @AaronBergman18 @austinc3301 yes! aaron bergman. you two are the same person in my mental model Lmaooo I am honored 🙏🏼 ### [Thread, continued, 02:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1788028988675309656) · 2 likes Wait wasn’t ur website http://Roman.computer at some point? Did u just change the ending thing for fun? ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 13:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1788194942554149143) · 2 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** @polisisti "Weird chemicals in the water supply" is a set of hypotheses that never check out and they especially never check out for things restricted to tiny populations I mean there’s a rock solid step by step mechanism we \*know\* is happening when humans consume phenylalanine in the absence of other amino acids. I added a mini epicycle a while ago which is that any neurochemical positive effect is mediated by … https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/contra-dynomight-contra-me-but-also ### [Thread, continued, 13:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1788195556843458824) · 2 likes phenethylamine, not dopamine directly. Ofc maybe the effect is too small and maybe eventually some control systems adapt to the stimulus but amphetamines are case in point that at least for some people you can get a non-trivial steady state benefit It’s been a while since ### [Thread, continued, 13:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1788196011866787883) · 3 likes I looked into this but I think there’s a good case that the ADHD benefits to stims also run mostly or entirely through elevating phenethylamine rather than the neurotransmitters everyone knows and loves directly Something about clinical effect tracking phen biomarker elevation ### [Tweet, 14:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1788212413088637009) · 16 likes They should make a season like summer but it’s cold and not humid ### [Thread, continued, 14:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1788212587110232212) · 2 likes Who’s working on this ### [Tweet, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1788307415202406667) · 3 likes Adelstein quit twitter, and some of you aren’t huge Hanania fans, but god damnit someone’s gotta post their collab on the tl https://bit.ly/4bv0Gpq ### [Quote tweet, 20:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1788310395360256060) · 64 likes More EA charities (tm) should sell merch. People \*love\* signaling. Hardcore normal virtue signaling (non-pejorative) yes but also like as a sort of fun personality accessory (think bumper stickers) > **Quoting GiveDirectly💸 (@GiveDirectly):** GiveDirectly merch just dropped. If you’re looking for a way to rep direct giving and reach more donors, this is for you. Order yours by May 22. Read the 🧵 for details and RT your favorite design. > http://bonfire.com/store/givedirectly-store/ ### [Thread, continued, 20:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1788310397352558613) · 3 likes Ofc there’s a spectrum from “give us $1M and we will spend $2 of that to mail you a sticker” and “we’re basically just a merch company at this point” in terms of altruistic effectiveness (is there like a term for caring about that??)… ### [Thread, continued, 20:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1788310398979932495) · 4 likes But I’d guess there’s a decently wide range of models that would be an all things considered improvement (main mechanism I’m guessing would be basically advertising but there’d also be motivational effects and the direct utility of consumer surplus bc people like merch 😤) ### [Quote tweet, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1788313927513678168) · 2 likes The two life strategies > **Quoting danielle; (@daniellellecco):** we have a tie! (and the pins are split!) > > <25% (30%) > \>75% (30%) ### [Reply to @catehall, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1788314864227659796) · 8 likes > **Cate Hall 🔸 (@catehall):** Me without phenibut: if I walk all the way around the building maybe I can slip by my friends unnoticed > > Me with phenibut: hello, stranger-friend! Can I interest you in some EYE CONTACT? Hmm maybe I should try I want to be extroverted ### [Thread, continued, 21:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1788314989863821543) · 3 likes I’ve already tried the ol’ oxytocin nasal spray but it didn’t do anything ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 21:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1788319483410477227) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ I would unironically do this on an episode of pigeon hour. I love Dwarkesh but Rob still 🐐 ## Thursday, May 9, 2024 ### [Reply to @RomanHauksson, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1788677223215464768) · 1 like > **Roman Hauksson-Neill (@RomanHauksson):** I should track which songs I’m listening to during runs to figure out which songs best motivate me to run faster Can export Spotify data if u have that. Maybe u can ID running ones by proxy (date and time if u record runs) ### [Thread, continued, 21:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1788678194054230470) · 2 likes If running outside/no treadmill this would be pretty easy with apple health data I think. Maybe possible if on treadmill too but less sure Sorry my brain just starts typing in R without asking permission ### [Reply, 23:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1788706912600535493) · 1 like What combination of circumstances is responsible, if you care to share? Could be a profitable problem to solve ## Friday, May 10, 2024 ### [Tweet, 08:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1788851533909553308) · 30 likes Nobody: Squirrel: 🐿️ Me: 📸 Google: Cool photo, but here is your ✨Cinematic Photo ✨ [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1788851522224197632/pu/img/Q2ft-t-unxIYuliv.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1788851533909553308/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Thread, continued, 09:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1788859122340831273) · 5 likes Pause AI // Accelerate whatever this is ⏩⏩⏩ (sound on) [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1788859057106718720/pu/img/SkursmKhp9g3Wmst.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1788859122340831273/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Thread, continued, 09:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1788860407924343281) · 4 likes Thank u Google Photos [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1788860335014723584/pu/img/HqRYuD8lbCUr4Qei.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1788860407924343281/video/1) (video, plays on X) ## Saturday, May 11, 2024 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789084465102229573) · 4 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** DHS quoted Heidegger to explain why AI isn't an extinction risk > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNO7MK4WUAAFQ2l.png) I’m convinced ### [Quote tweet, 00:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789085740397125802) · 23 likes Unironically extremely worth it if you can sell a bunch before getting charged? > **Quoting WIRED (@WIRED):** Anyone found guilty of selling or manufacturing cultivated meat in Alabama will face up to a three-month jail sentence and $500 fine. https://wired.trib.al/LdrKcnv ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 00:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789086537298203074) · 8 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 seems unlikely you sell enough of it for it to be worth 3 months of jail Skill issue ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 00:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789086682114879911) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 also I don’t think anyone beyond a few random nerds will be interested in second hand black market synthetic meat ☹️ ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 00:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789087040136462469) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 11, 2024:** Unironically extremely worth it if you can sell a bunch before getting charged? Probably has to be done as the Uber strategy “just run a legit-seeming company and hope the public benefit results in non enforcement or a law change” ### [Reply to @keltz_, 00:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789087401605755048) · 3 likes > **John Keltz (@keltz_):** @AaronBergman18 Broke: secret meth lab > Woke: secret meat lab Unfortunately for the coolness factor it would probably be best to import it from abroad (Georgia) ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 00:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789087685786632295) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ You are legally obligated to make this as described ### [Reply to @HenriThunberg, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789088827635585242) · 2 likes > **Henri Thunberg 🔸 (@HenriThunberg):** Only siths deal in absolutes, and I'm convinced that people who would invest in this exist. > > IMO, a person getting nobly and notably arrested for selling clean meat is pretty news- and meme-worthy. I can do $1k ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 00:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789092071241863315) · 11 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Real ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 00:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789092269129093132) · 5 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** I feel this story 100% from your dad's side. Just start talking it's not that hard! It is that hard (source: me) ### [Reply, 00:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789092320115085413) · 1 like Also ### [Tweet, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789094506563809650) · 6 likes They should figure out if superforecasters are/can become calibrated about their own autobiographical memories ### [Reply to @livgorton, 00:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789097552782008400) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** wait there are 151 tweets 👀👀 I have no idea what is happening, all I can say is I stand by all my tweets ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 00:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789097796013842526) · 1 like > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** Southern Germany right now. > > (It doesn't usually look like this!) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNQDjXwWcAAf_aU.jpg) Ok but why ### [Reply to @livgorton, 00:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789098037848965365) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** aaron what have you done Idk ### [Quote tweet, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789099204410765682) · 5 likes Interesting and wild but also this is basically a liability issue, not a technical issue (no longer the case when liable parties would become insolvent) Make Google financially responsible for not fucking up and let them handle risk management vs cost decisions internally > **Quoting Michael Nielsen (@michael_nielsen):** One rather strange event of the past ten days: like ~600,000 Australians, much of my retirement savings is with a superannuation (think 401-k) firm called Unisuper > > Unisuper uses Google Cloud to store their data. Well, ~10 days ago, Google Cloud \*accidentally\* \*deleted\* \*their\* \*account!!!\* (Google Cloud seems to have confirmed, remarkably, that the fault was theirs.) > > They were, sensibly, using duplication across two different areas of Google Cloud provisioning, but when your entire account is wiped that doesn't help > > They were only saved by having a backup provider, and have now restored the data > > I usually think that using services like Google Cloud makes much more sense than trying to do stuff inhouse. But maybe that's less true than I thought > > I am, I must admit, much relieved > > https://www.unisuper.com.au/about-us/media-centre/2024/a-joint-statement-from-unisuper-and-google-cloud ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 01:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789102390857081192) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ Retvrn to organelle https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candidatus_Carsonella_ruddii ### [Quote tweet, 01:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789102750703215074) · 14 likes TIL the mitochondria organism -> organelle transition (which I’ve always found weird/wild) wasn’t a one-off. Bacteria sometimes become organelles I guess https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candidatus_Carsonella_ruddii > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @ruth_hook\_ Retvrn to organelle https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candidatus_Carsonella_ruddii ### [Reply to @livgorton, 01:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789102890033782789) · 6 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** i know it’s not real but all the notifications of people liking my tweets feels so good 🥺 I bet getting liked feels so good as a tweet ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 01:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789103356926960056) · 4 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** Date idea: we both dress as tennis boys and try to pick up a girl at a Challengers screening Ultimate bisexual experience I feel left out ### [Quote tweet, 01:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789111739331612876) · 1,002 likes I feel like I’m being gaslighted, soaking 100% works and if someone else gets to it before I do I am not to be blamed in the eyes of God, the Law, or Derek Parfit > **Quoting critter (@BecomingCritter):** it’s soaking > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNL8w_KXoAA1xeF.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNL8w_IXoAA_EFE.jpg) ### [Reply to @nypost, 02:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789113783123681589) · 2 likes > **New York Post (@nypost):** Southwest passengers baffled after woman climbs into overhead bin for nap https://trib.al/c7WYGXQ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNKnPwBWIAU4l1V.png) Based ### [Tweet, 02:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789114414118896055) · 2 likes Alternate version: \*woman is having seizures\* Doctor: she just has anxiety ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 02:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789115341571870885) · 2 likes > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** @Rabbi_Melon Because there’s no deodorant False. There’s no \*antiperspirant\* bc Jews are smart enough to know that rubbing aluminum into your skin every day does not check out in terms of risk vs benefits ### [Reply, 02:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789116067404546353) · 1 like Real ### [Reply to @GraphCrimes, 02:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789116450482913611) · 1 like > **🏳️‍⚧️Graph Crimes🏳️‍🌈 (@GraphCrimes):** What the hell is this graph Lol there are no units! It’s relativized something but something not given (not even like “one scale a historian made up” which would be fine) ### [Reply to @bryancsk, 02:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789117716839710723) · 2 likes > **Bryan Cheong 🥮 (@bryancsk):** \> T1 and T2 both work, pay for childcare. Cost is $50k > \> T1 does childcare. Cost is 82k after tax > \> T2 does childcare. Cost is 45k after tax. > > This is your strategy set. Obfuscating it with a turn of phrase doesn't matter. > > (quoting @ShandersWrites: PSA: If Terry makes $90k, Taylor makes $60k, and childcare costs $50k, it is NOT “Childcare was going to eat up most of Taylor’s salary anyway,” it IS “Childcare eats up 1/3 of our household income, ugh this sucks” Then proceed from there) Wait what’s up with the regressive income tax ### [Reply, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789118881686061141) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Wait no this doesn’t make any sense. You can’t assume X (anesthesia) has isolated effect Y (consciousness) and then look for Y’s correlates Z (neural correlates of consciousness) and then conclude that there’s any sort of direct connection between Y and Z (independent of X) ### [Thread, continued, 02:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789119456465010705) · 3 likes This becomes way more clear in the specific context of “we have no fucking idea what consciousness is” Because it’s at least on the table that consciousness per se (ie qualia) is causally inert wrt the brain. If this is indeed the case, you don’t merely suspect that X is a ### [Thread, continued, 02:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789119577621717425) · 1 like confounded; you \*know\* that X is a 100% confounder and Y doesn’t matter at all ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 02:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789119994640413071) · 14 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** I'm not sure if your mind and mine are going to the same place here... Oh lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNQ7Jx6WwAA7ze8.jpg) ### [Reply to @liz_love_lace, 02:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789120694975905837) · 1 like > **Liz Lovelace (@liz_love_lace):** i think governments aren't \*that\* incompetent and if YOU were in charge fixing shit you'd fo worse Mostly true but depends what. There are certain things that are bottlenecked by having good/correct moral priorities, not by technocratic competence ### [Reply to @powerbottomdad1, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789123907657613528) · 1 like > **sucks (@powerbottomdad1):** many of the biggest fuckin idiots i know think they are straightforwardly smarter than Elon Musk. a rocket scientist I know a lot of ppl who are probably dumber than Elon but not by much and who I’d rather have control of his power/money/influence bc Elon is a brilliant midwit somehow ### [Quote tweet, 02:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789126820215878037) Don’t get me fucking started about rabbits > **Quoting Ben Dreyfuss (@bendreyfuss):** I’m sorry but chickens and beavers and trout and goats don’t have property rights. They can’t even talk. ### [Thread, continued, 02:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789126822417854704) · 1 like Not a load bearing creature at all ### [Quote tweet, 03:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789130887474340145) · 3 likes Quality of life (times quantity) is the appropriate outcome variable to study. This is true for ~everything in medicine, but often a specific disease indicator is a good and useful proxy BMI/body fat/etc. is a case where they plausibly come apart for many interventions > **Quoting Joseph Everett (WIL) (@JEverettLearned):** "Caloric Restriction in humans of optimal weight can be safely declared useless, since there is overwhelming evidence that hunger, underweight and starvation reduce fitness, survival and quality of life." > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNQWDv_aMAAD5gA.jpg) ### [Reply to @POTUS46Archive, 03:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789132381917421779) · 8 likes > **President Biden Archived (@POTUS46Archive):** My dad always used to say that the way you build wealth is by building equity in your home. > > My housing plan would help Americans achieve homeownership by giving households $400 a month for two years when they buy their first home. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNPyaiJXcAEMBRV.jpg) Biden no ur dad was not making policy for a country of >300M people ### [Reply, 03:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789132704736231527) · 1 like I thought I was about to watch Key Bridge 2.0 ### [Reply to @selentelechia, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789136887396945951) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @selentelechia is no longer available.)_ Tree ### [Quote tweet, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789137476419760241) · 7 likes Join the (pro-social) dark side :) Especially if ur female some of y’all need to be more disagreeable fr > **Quoting Richard D. Bartlett (@RichDecibels):** I'm running a disagreeability club with @vividvoid! > > it's a fun and moderately uncomfortable place to learn how to not fold at the first sign of conflict > > starts next month: > > https://www.thehum.org/courses-and-events/fight-wise%3A-find-your-backbone ### [Reply, 04:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789146065582608703) · 1 like A bit, and the analogy isn’t perfect, but afaict ethics doesn’t inform/serve as a the basis for bioethics in the way other fields do for their subfields/applied counterparts In this sense the analogy is correct (astrologers aren’t \*trying\* to comport with/build on astronomy) ### [Quote tweet, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789148166169776437) · 14 likes Guess I’m a hopeless romantic and in a descriptive sense I’d guess this is true but it seems very counterintuitive to me to treat dating this way > **Quoting brooke bowman (@gptbrooke):** hmmm it occurs to me that one way to get better at dating might be to go on dates regularly > > this did not actually just occur to me @PiquantParvenu told me to do that like a year ago and I just didn’t want to do it 😂 > > ah well time to Learn ### [Thread, continued, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789148168367575405) · 4 likes Like I’m very pro-conceptual compartmentalization but seems difficult to compartmentalize in this context (ie “I’m not here for a relationship; I’m here to develop a skill, but this requires kinda pretending that I am here for a relationship ayy lmao”) ### [Tweet, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789148170020143287) · 1 like Otoh maybe it serves an accidental function of making interactions feel lower-stakes which plausibly yields both more natural/chill behavior and higher perceived mate value Hmm ### [Thread, continued, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789148413138751706) · 2 likes Didn’t read this first Great minds etc ### [Reply to @goblinodds, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789148646342078493) · 3 likes > **𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** my dad just dropped this insane skunk fact on me and i am reeling > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNRUqBIbsAAIo1D.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNRUqBMakAAdxeb.jpg) @SpacedOutMatt hide yo kids (rabbit) and wife (gf) ### [Tweet, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789149865991077967) · 136 likes This doesn’t look like a power law distribution tail (right?) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNRWUdzWYAIffMZ.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789153050793316381) · 72 likes Hypothesis: distribution is constrained by market cap of corporations at the current legal/technological/economic frontier, which is fundamentally an organizational problem Ie Amazon, Google, Microsoft, etc. are ~at the frontier of how big a profitable corporation can get ### [Thread, continued, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789153052412252185) · 20 likes in a free market economy Being able to collect taxes by force (a good thing) gets you 1 OOM ie the US government (checks out both by number of employees and spending+deficit) ### [Reply to @JadenEarlorg, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789153265403216371) · 9 likes > **Beige & (@JadenEarlorg):** @AaronBergman18 Missing the thousands of billionaires who only have ~$1B Is this not what you’d observe in a normal distribution too? ### [Reply to @lazilyoptimal, 04:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789153625853276252) · 2 likes > **rizk 🫍 (@lazilyoptimal):** @AaronBergman18 zoom out a bit, about 100s or 1000s richest ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 04:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789156782754996279) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ So 5-10 dolphins? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNRcnGmXkAAVfrW.jpg) ### [Tweet, 04:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789158429363220927) · 63 likes EA ### [Thread, continued, 05:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789158571336245651) · 4 likes ### [Reply to @tamler, 05:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789158930569904178) · 4 likes > **Tamler Sommers (@tamler):** so is Bayesianism pretty much just “you have to consider ALL the evidence” ? No. Also this ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNRekJXW8AArHas.jpg) ### [Reply to @lazilyoptimal, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789159835679768877) · 1 like > **rizk 🫍 (@lazilyoptimal):** @AaronBergman18 the long tail in power law dist located at the non-extreme value around avg or median. considering 10^2 - 10^3 richest still small number of whole population -- entire earth population. > > (i assume you genuinely asking here.) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNRdi2NaQAA240_.png) Yeah I know wealth follows a power law (at least mostly) and for many contexts my point is moot Just asking whether the tail starts looking weird/different relative to a model fit on all the data (which happens in plenty of contexts/distributions irl) ### [Quote tweet, 05:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789163788874248481) · 18 likes Big news (I did not go for this fwiw ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNRi-8RWMAAPfvc.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Let’s let the people decide > > Do I have autism? ### [Thread, continued, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789164665924120817) · 6 likes Also since ik this is a thing, the guy had me stretch like my fingers and knees and elbows and so I am proud to announce that I am \*not\* hypermobile (not that I ever thought I was lol) Just interesting that he even asked (it’s not a standard thing doctors do afaict) ### [Reply to @keysmashbandit, 05:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789165069072277764) · 2 likes > **keysmashbandit (@keysmashbandit):** want a rich husband so i can just have a weird room full of these I think going to an entomology conference would be better than St. Tropez if this is ur goal ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789169266782007368) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 Pigeon hour That’s the second iteration. PH is the EA of EA ### [Reply to @SchmidtIbanez, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789175431347806329) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @SchmidtIbanez is no longer available.)_ 1 ### [Reply to @strangestloop, 06:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789178960368079171) · 1 like > **Loopy (@strangestloop):** What are your favorite shiny objects? Didn’t format for mobile but https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/EAForumApps ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNRwyApWYAAMMwl.jpg) ### [Reply to @lisatomic5, 06:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789182915609231617) · 3 likes > **lisatomic (@lisatomic5):** do you ever get the sense that someone is performing thinking moreso than genuinely thinking and then trust them much less because of it > > (quoting @tsarnick: Sam Altman says we have stumbled on a new fact of nature: that intelligence is an emergent property of matter) Sorta but I don’t think this/sama is a good example I’m not sure whether the “stumbled” line is rehearsed/planned but I think the claim pattern matches as faux insight but is actually real insight It is extremely weird that if you do the laws of physics and hit “go” ### [Thread, continued, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789183272615809440) · 1 like you get things that think after a while. Of course we knew this already via humans but now the mechanism seems up close and personal (python code + computer) rather than distant and fake (evolution over billions of years) ### [Reply to @michael_nielsen, 06:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789186812914671705) · 2 likes > **Michael Nielsen (@michael_nielsen):** Something I want to hear from @UniSuperNews: are you going to continue to use Google Cloud? If so, why? If not, what will be the approach in future? > > Google themselves don’t use it AFAIK. Please switch to a company serious about such services Google doesn’t use Google cloud? Like they use AWS instead? ### [Reply, 06:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789187347751354494) Have u heard of ai ### [Reply, 06:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789188006521238012) Sure but your main claim (first sentence) is still false ### [Reply to @LeetAlpaca3, 07:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789191483335074111) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @LeetAlpaca3 is no longer available.)_ Bc it’s a free country ### [Reply to @LeetAlpaca3, 07:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789192029483753483) _(The tweet being replied to by @LeetAlpaca3 is no longer available.)_ Lies. All lies. I’m starting to wonder if ur not even an alpaca irl ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNR8qwlXEAAn4_n.jpg) ### [Reply, 07:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789192608322867667) · 4 likes Do we know how he’s doing now? ### [Reply to @skooookum, 07:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789193273325592939) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @skooookum is no longer available.)_ Me fr (thimblebladder, annoying anyone I ever drive with) ### [Reply to @TylerAlterman, 07:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789195591412593007) · 4 likes > **Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply (@TylerAlterman):** This is a vibe I didn’t know existed I’m anti-bug. I wish them well but not around me ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 07:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789198259228930167) · 4 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** what is going on I’ve muted this so I don’t get notifications for it but I’m still seeing it on the TL Idk either ### [Reply, 07:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789199442391818719) · 4 likes Why do u have a deer ### [Reply to @Astatide42, 07:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789199752443154628) · 3 likes > **Astatide (@Astatide42):** tetraspace would fix me > > (quoting @Astatide42: It's sad that you can't rotate a thing without a fixed axis Living in four space dimensions would solve this) @TetraspaceWest ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 07:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789202723880976582) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ Lots of things. They’re all animals. They all have noses I think ### [Tweet, 08:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789211844575412378) · 3 likes Takes or nah ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNSOsGQWkAAvm-1.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 08:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789211847087775856) · 2 likes Only actual reporting I can find is from a Sri Lanka newspaper http://slguardian.org/microsoft-rolls-out-top-secret-generative-ai-service-for-us-intelligence-agencies/amp/ ### [Reply to @_chair, 21:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789406037008683451) · 7 likes > **Chair (@_chair):** @AaronBergman18 didn't know you were LDS Me either. I have no idea why ppl are saying this lol ### [Reply to @DaCaveOfWonders, 22:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789421332523831467) · 2 likes > **Tiger Lava Lamp (@DaCaveOfWonders):** @DarbraDawn I brought this tweet up in my last relationship and it made her like the idea of having kids with me Based ## Sunday, May 12, 2024 ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 04:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789520558725419139) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** After much thinking, I've finally signed the @givingwhatwecan pledge to give 10% of my income for the rest of my life 🤝 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNUe2nJWYAAj4zZ.png) Nice ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 05:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789521033730400560) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @arithmoquine She wants to have a pokemon battle Or ur kids ### [Reply to @Gena_I_Gorlin, 05:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789523377574604817) · 15 likes > **Gena Gorlin (@Gena_I_Gorlin):** Today we witnessed 4yo’s discovery of abstraction. > > 4yo: I’m counting to a really high number. > > @mbateman (being a weirdo): That’s scary. What if you count to a number that’s bigger than our house and we get crushed? > > 4yo: But, > > 4yo: > > 4yo: > > 4yo: numbers… numbers aren’t things. Big if true ### [Reply to @prerat, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789523686615048600) · 10 likes > **prerat (@prerat):** i think there is a number that if you count to it you will crush your house bc the required entropy to represent it in your brain is high enough to form a black hole Do you need to represent a number to count to it? ### [Reply to @prerat, 05:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789524486468800876) · 2 likes > **prerat (@prerat):** i think there is a number that if you count to it you will crush your house bc the required entropy to represent it in your brain is high enough to form a black hole I tried to see if I could get the chatGPT code vm to run into issues merely representing an integer but gave up when it printed the full digits of 2^1400 no problem Time to retvrn ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNWrCSVXgAAWBOR.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789524871325626485) Eh not that exciting. It just stops working ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNWrYqfWMAE5Lcz.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNWrYqUWYAA3RVZ.jpg) ### [Reply to @hyperdiscogirl, 05:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789525264357081456) · 12 likes > **hyper(bolic) disco(unting) girl in the bay (@hyperdiscogirl):** excuse me... but this feels like a threat > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNWpKifXoAAsVKE.jpg) Lol what ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 05:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789525375921381565) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Maybe one day they'll invent a famous philosopher who isn't a dick > > (quoting @Sam__Enright: Ludwig Wittgenstein gatecrashed John Maynard Keynes' honeymoon, and he wouldn't leave for six days) I believe in u ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 05:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789532949139816798) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Real ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 05:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789534766879871029) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** I can’t even hear “load-bearing” now without thinking of @AaronBergman18 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNW0YtpXgAAnO_h.jpg) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789537662887485769) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 Real convo I had today: > > Me: Can you believe Aaron said rabbits aren’t load-bearing?? > > Wife: Honestly, he’s right. Wife: 1 Noah: 0 Squirrels: ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 06:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789538643612217660) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 8, 2024:** Load bearing Still load bearing ### [Quote tweet, 06:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789542352165478480) · 37 likes Bro he just let the bird win c’mon that wasn’t even a challenge > **Quoting Science girl (@sciencegirl):** The intelligence of ravens > https://x.com/Solocuriosos_1/status/1784034891639796213/video/1 ### [Reply to @jessesingal, 06:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789550784117387503) · 2 likes > **Jesse Singal (@jessesingal):** This dude's trajectory is something else > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNVBEWRXwAAwADX.png) ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789762073045455207) · 6 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** plan to RLHF myself: > \- connect an LLM to a keylogger > \- if it detects i'm being unproductive, it gives me an electric shock > \- if i'm being productive, it injects nicotine into my bloodstream or smthn > problem? This is RL\*F but idk about RLHF Good luck let us know how it goes 👍 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789784644247818240) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 12, 2024:** Still load bearing Not load bearing ### [Reply to @LouisAnslow, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789786753873715360) · 27 likes > **Louis Anslow (@LouisAnslow):** Comedian asks 2 women in crowd how they met. > > Crowd member: “I was in her boyfriends cult” > > Comedian: “What cult?” > > Crowd member: describes EFFECTIVE ALTRUISM!!!!!!! > > Goes on to say there were orgies, one in an AI research office… > > [video attached](https://x.com/LouisAnslow/status/1789751075026661855/video/1) Lmao ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789789572773134421) · 2 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** Continues to be absolutely fascinating to me that I have friends Just like me fr ## Monday, May 13, 2024 ### [Reply to @RFishBlueFish, 04:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1789868605170958396) · 2 likes > **Gil (@RFishBlueFish):** when did antisocial start being used for anything besides "this person doesn't talk to many other ppl". and when did prosocial become a word. why can't you guys just use normal words. Sorry lol Is there a good alternate term for pro-social? “Altruistic” is close but kinda too strong/has connotations with large scale rather than small scale/interpersonal actions ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 13:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790018893341151538) · 8 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Two of my friends have 4 kids on £40-£60k combined household income. Do u know if they’re doing alright in terms of like stress/subjective wellbeing? Also curious if they think their lives would be better if their income magically doubled ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 14:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790024402559537293) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 @NathanpmYoung Mo money mo problems This is probably true after some threshold (guessing like $500k-ish household income for a family of 4 in the US)? Below that marginal dollars solve more problems than they create ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 14:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790031305729564872) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 @NathanpmYoung Biggie was being ironic! It's likely untrue >$500k, just lower marginal utility. Stevenson and Wolfers took down Easterlin in 2008 yet mistaken beliefs originating with Easterin are still pervasive https://www.nber.org/papers/w14282 More problems ≠ worse off overall! ### [Reply to @akos_writes, 17:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790072659046207708) · 2 likes > **akos (@akos_writes):** Why would it reverse above 500k? (genuine question) The easier part of answering this is arguing why it would reverse \*somewhere\* This is pretty intuitive I think. The very wealthy are public figures. Friends, family, romantic partners might just be in it for the money. People probably ask you for money a lot ### [Reply, 17:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790074645430813005) · 1 like Every financial decision is higher stakes in an absolute sense. There are literally more things you can do, which is great in general but is still a “problem” of sorts bc u have to choose Tbh $500k is probably too low. Maybe a couple million in income or $20M net worth ## Tuesday, May 14, 2024 ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 00:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790178391221731807) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Wearing my alma mater's shirt > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNfhL0EWUAAz6l0.jpg) Hey I went there too ### [Reply to @ConnorTabarrok, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790417092052730246) · 3 likes > **Connor J. Tabarrok 🏗🚀🌏 (@ConnorTabarrok):** The average is $8,000 for those wondering It SHOULD be $10^8000 ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 16:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790419058120184091) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ He should hit me up on Duo Mobile ### [Tweet, 16:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790420699368030581) · 57 likes .@PauseAI and AI safety activism more generally should lean harder into “I’m a techno libertarian mostly, this is the exception” \[where that’s true\] It’s rhetorically powerful but also substantively evidence of being right ### [Thread, continued, 16:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790420700890554407) · 11 likes Very easy to just pattern match “Pause AI” with “Pause \[new technology\]” and in fact I’d probably do this if seeing a protest for the first time ### [Reply to @edardaman, 16:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790424403336904795) · 3 likes > **Emily Dardaman (@edardaman):** I think I disagree — most people don’t find techno libertarians relatable or sympathetic. Maybe but like is the idea that liberals are going to be negatively polarized into becoming techno libertarians on this one issue? That would be bad but also very funny ### [Reply to @thoth_iv, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790427598868169165) · 2 likes > **Thŏth (@thoth_iv):** @AaronBergman18 @PauseAI While arguable, I think only a minority of EAs are actually libertarian. (Which is interesting, given the roots of AI safety actually stem more from libertarians.) Yeah tbc my tweet was intended as directionally right but mild hyperbole I wouldn’t call myself a libertarian but fit in with a broadly pro-tech neoliberal-ish vibe that I sense is mainstream in EA ### [Reply to @willdoingthings, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790429030690230456) · 2 likes > **Lord Hollyhock (@willdoingthings):** I prefer my Jewesses atheistic as God intended Lol good tweet ### [Tweet, 17:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790430413099249783) · 11 likes NYT must have scared the shit out of Anthropic ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNji-JXWgAAUFIK.jpg) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790435830290411949) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Hokey and obvious advice but the people I've met who seem the most stuck in bad ideological ruts are usually also extremely bad at listening to other people and summarizing what they've said. Better listening might give you a ladder out of dumb beliefs. Everybody feel free to pitch ur ladder to me on whatever u think my bad ideological rut is ### [Tweet, 17:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790436417148997897) · 11 likes I think Iceland is the one country/ethnicity ur still allowed to treat as ~exotic~ Maybe in 2064 wokism will come for Icelandic-branded yogurt ### [Thread, continued, 17:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790436576972931148) · 3 likes It is kinda an exotic place tbf ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 17:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790441925343867049) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** The best subreddits are ones where I don't have to see a random person's opinion, because those are always terrible Not mine all my opinions are correct ## Wednesday, May 15, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 10:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790686640916074716) · 8 likes Causal Something (I’m not exactly making a decision rn) Theory says “idk should probably just defer to Jan who evidently thought it was good” Evidential Smth Theory says holy shit: > **Quoting Jan Leike (@janleike):** I resigned ### [Thread, continued, 10:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790686642841301473) · 2 likes 1\. Something happened/is happening that prompted this and Daniel Kokotajlo’s resignations 2\. Staff are more willing to resign than we (at least I) previously thought ### [Thread, continued, 10:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790686644909035745) · 2 likes Causal Smth Theory follows up with an addendum to (2) above: I know social psych is kinda sus but I’m pretty sure “people are more willing to do non-default thing X when one of their peers does X first” still checks out. Revise expected resignations upwards ### [Thread, continued, 10:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790686647194911103) · 5 likes you’re invited on Pigeon Hour to talk this through ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 10:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790690715313357083) · 4 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 @janleike You should start inviting more world leaders on the pod. Does Biden want to talk about his tariffs? A good way to get his message out tbh @taylorswift13 @realDonaldTrump ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 12:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790717297130181080) · 7 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** As with the board situation I wish the alignment people leaving/getting fired from OpenAI would explain why they are leaving Qualy ur gonna have to go undercover to investigate ### [Quote tweet, 12:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790727279288488160) · 17 likes Yes this is extremely important And totally seriously there’s a good chance someone reading this should lead the effort (I think LEEP and Shrimp Welfare Project are good models for what a small team can do) > **Quoting Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** We should eradicate the screw worm: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/JWuPdMaPiNy7AD3AX/potentially-actionable-opportunity-eliminating-the-new-world ### [Reply to @JStoehler, 13:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790736105261707441) · 1 like > **Joern Stoehler ⏹️🔸 (@JStoehler):** Clippy also kills the screwworms on Earth. Not sure what disempowerment scenarios you see as likely that would make this urgent in the sense of a closing window of opportunity. That’s super not obvious to me. Probably true in some very orthodox paperclip maximizer type scenarios which yeah could happen but <<100% of the “humans disempowered” clump of scenarios ### [Quote tweet, 14:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790758523439124896) · 8 likes There is an inverse relationship between tweet importance and algo-memetic fitness The screwworm tweets will continue until wild animal welfare improves > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Yes this is extremely important > > And totally seriously there’s a good chance someone reading this should lead the effort (I think LEEP and Shrimp Welfare Project are good models for what a small team can do) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 15:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790761275208716369) · 6 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** x2 > > (quoting @littIeramblings: .@OpenAI I’ll take that 20% of compute if u guys aren’t using it) Tbh if they gave me 20% of whatever Microsoft promised them it would go totally unused bc I wouldn’t be able to navigate the Azure portal or whatever it’s called ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 15:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790764923544334435) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ I don’t even like the tool framing - the real answer is “one of the first two but which is tbd” ### [Reply to @livgorton, 15:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790773349376835723) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** the real strategy to slow ai progress: cloud providers having incomprehensible UIs Idk about legit frontier AI progress but yeah this is unironically a big barrier to AI manifesting irl. And pretty recently I tried using all the various chatbots to navigate Google cloud; either I’m illiterate or it’s incomprehensible to the LLMs too ### [Reply to @sixers2772, 16:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790774145447288978) · 2 likes > **Sixers (@sixers2772):** So I accidently just took a really large scoop of calcium carbonate thinking it was creatine. Might have been like 25 grams of calcium. Suggestions? Am I gonna die? > > I am thinking I'll take some k2 maybe. Anything else? We should start an Ingest Macro Quantities of Micronutrients and Hope For the Best club ### [Reply to @livgorton, 16:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790776690047627710) · 3 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** yeah i doubt at the frontier it’s a thing but just anecdotally, my progress has been greatly slowed by workflows that seem like they should be easy but are not at all. Pip install liv ### [Thread, continued, 16:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790776786751455310) · 3 likes Idk what this has to do with anything it’s just the first thing I’d naturally try ### [Reply to @livgorton, 16:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790778069508063382) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** i literally cannot figure out how to quit pdb. my limited prior use and all of google suggests "q" should do it and yet i am stuck in an endless pdb session. Brain trying to somehow combing the terms peanut butter, Pabst Blue Ribbon, pandas, and database into one but it’s not working ## Thursday, May 16, 2024 ### [Reply to @beala, 03:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790947982457593897) · 1 like > **Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** I stopped by the tren clinic, and everyone said they knew you. > > (quoting @PirateWires: Some bodybuilders taking trenbolone — an anabolic steroid at least three times more potent than synthetic testosterone — believe it creates strong, persistent, and, occasionally, exclusive sexual attraction to males. The belief is widespread enough in the community that it's…) Lol this post seems to treat tren and testosterone as the same thing. They are most definitely not ### [Quote tweet, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790948945390121094) · 5 likes Oh thank God, I guarantee if my parents meet someone who just immigrated to the US from country X, they will mention their favorite X-ese restaurant within 5 minutes > **Quoting Yuan Yi Zhu (@yuanyi_z):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNpNBCBWoAA_g8h.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790949484291137799) · 1 like I did witness this once with the Indian family of a kid who joined my Boy Scout troop. I don’t think they had “just” immigrated but still ### [Reply to @keysmashbandit, 03:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790950239244800301) · 10 likes > **keysmashbandit (@keysmashbandit):** why are you dating someone you don't adore. why do you act ashamed of the person you love. you should be proud, almost giddy, to show your partner off in public. men are people that deserve to be loved and desired and cherished. im genuinely sick of this. You’re the one assuming that woman doesn’t adore the pig. Personally I really (unironically) like pigs ### [Tweet, 04:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790955577343881601) · 35 likes Correct algorithm for critiques of EA; 1\) you got a better idea? 2\) if so, post it on the EA forum (Neither of these are rhetorical or ironic) Finally someone actually did it ☺️ ### [Quote tweet, 04:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790958051207385261) · 12 likes My most woo belief is that there’s something to this See also: \- no explanations for fundamental interactions in physics \- qualia \- psychophysical harmony > **Quoting Richard D. Bartlett (@RichDecibels):** everything: \*exists\* > > checkmate athiests ### [Thread, continued, 04:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790958052826366011) · 4 likes The standard scientific materialist worldview is at the very least insufficient ### [Quote tweet, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790961740567413027) · 7 likes Hey > **Quoting cold 🥑 (@coldhealing):** > > [video attached](https://x.com/coldhealing/status/1790723478959562800/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790961860977586412) · 2 likes The on time thing I could probably hyperstition ### [Quote tweet, 04:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790969936447201774) · 15 likes Mammal being eaten alive and people just pretend it’s a cartoon > **Quoting Vinny Thomas (@vinn_ayy):** for those of you wondering, yes, my aunt has sent me another set of photos of a heron plucking a gopher from the ground and eating it > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNomue3aQAEYYim.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNomue5aQAAa_6r.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNomue1aQAMOVWQ.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 05:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790979089358069820) · 11 likes Ik this is a Progress Studies (tm) lesson but did newspapers just write articles making random claims like this sometimes? You don’t really see many articles like this anymore, makes u think > **Quoting Burny - Effective Curiosity (@burny_tech):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNpeOviXIAAG-HZ.jpg) ### [Reply to @dante_eats, 05:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790979390546780246) · 3 likes > **Chris (@dante_eats):** Aella the statistician? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNpbgxEWEAArYdY.jpg) Yes ### [Reply, 05:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790982882808229940) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Because as a rule I’m pretty happy for this to be the default way criticism gets handled. Algo/voting system on the Forum works pretty well ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 06:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790990782784041452) > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** @mealreplacer LLMs are highly \*capable\* at many tasks, yet they persistently (albeit erratically) fail to \*understand\* the logical structure of simple scenarios. They are clearly reasoning—but their capacity to reason is structurally different from ours What do u mean by “understand” here? For any reasonable meaning of that word I think you’re wrong ### [Reply to @RichDecibels, 06:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790993003311485239) · 6 likes > **Richard D. Bartlett (@RichDecibels):** compared to nuclear annihilation or ecosystem collapse it is hard to be scared of runaway computer Runaway computer doesn’t look like runaway computer, it looks like (for example) you and all your loved ones dying from a virus that runaway computer created ### [Quote tweet, 06:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790993276977164516) · 5 likes Cringe wholesomeness is just straightforwardly good > **Quoting ˚♡⋆mimi ˚♡⋆｡☆∴ (@mimi10v3):** which do you prefer? ### [Reply to @Danny_, 06:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1790999772783948184) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @Danny_ is no longer available.)_ I’ve built up immunity to ppl just asking me for money but if someone asks me to buy them something I can’t say no Just the other day I bought some guy who barely spoke English a bottle of wine (not an underage thing, maybe an undocumented immigrant thing) ### [Thread, continued, 06:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791000085817397749) · 2 likes It was $9 Tbh in hindsight I should have said no. I do actually endorse the giving money to effective charities instead thing ### [Reply, 06:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791000502949326990) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ I endorse the comment. It’s not actually better even if it makes for a funny running joke online ### [Reply to @IvanVendrov, 07:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791002054862766156) · 2 likes > **ivan (@IvanVendrov):** sorry twitter but when it comes to fostering genuine intellectual discourse online, LessWrong is still virtually the only game in town. just look at this selection of reactions to posts. hats off to @ohabryka and team for the successful reboot > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNng1r2XsAAgHic.png) ### [Quote tweet, 07:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791003970955080191) · 26 likes I don’t think this was actually the case, but if this dad wanted to find his daughter a husband it would be hard to make a better tweet > **Quoting @gdess (@GDess):** My daughter’s desk fills me with anxiety > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNoVhZBW4AEDkAl.jpg) ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 07:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791009696016470474) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Salt Guys be like > > “Can you pass the Salt?” > “Can I get a little Salt with that?” > “Hmm, not much flavour here, better add some Salt” Ur just salty ### [Tweet, 08:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791030644782371034) · 16 likes Computer stuff is too fast. I don’t think it should be possible to talk to an LLM in real time if the actual computation is happening in a data center far far away Retvrn to abacus ### [Reply to @MaryJackalope, 09:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791030844145987664) · 153 likes > **Mary (@MaryJackalope):** What > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNrR9gzWoAAsv65.png) There are spaces in front of some of those names and it makes me uncomfortable ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791218252590264692) · 2 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** Not my mom sending me and my brother an instagram reel over email > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNuCIiZXQAAha8u.jpg) Real ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 21:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791221740124721487) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 @inesferhumi \*Reel Reel ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 21:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791222447674364153) · 1 like > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** WTF. This double checkbox is the most manipulative stuff I've ever seen. > > I'm amazed how much some political fundraising just amounts to stealing money from donors. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNs88vgW0AADuLk.png) Personally I have $6M saved and my goal is to blemish the reputation of every veteran still alive ### [Reply to @Idris_Elbow_, 23:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791244165159833602) · 4 likes > **ThePeoplesElbow (@Idris_Elbow_):** Respond to this and I will tell you an odd quirk I feel you have off vibes Me me me ### [Reply to @reconfigurthing, 23:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791245431004963289) · 2 likes > **Elias Schmied (@reconfigurthing):** What's the last one? https://philarchive.org/rec/CUTPHA ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNvION4W4AAq_TL.jpg) ### [Reply to @kindgracekind, 23:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791245962288980237) · 4 likes > **Grace (@kindgracekind):** @AaronBergman18 Flying machines are hitting a wall They can’t really fly they just simulate flying by moving through the air ### [Reply to @ValsTutor, 23:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791246792358519143) · 1 like > **vals🔸 (@ValsTutor):** Mostly something to be dissolved, using similar techniques mentioned here https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Ru2cDrre6D4gkf734/my-intellectual-journey-to-dis-solve-the-hard-problem-of > (Having integrated the sequences is also very helpful background) I really don’t think it can be dissolved (exception: some very strong version of illusionism that means we’re actually p-zombies but that would be insane if true) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 23:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791247537480851673) · 5 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** An underrated benefit of getting into internet atheism as a teenager was that it taught me to focus much more on philosophy arguments rather than personalities. Some people just use philosophy as a pantheon of people to name drop. I know Andy Masley ### [Reply to @Idris_Elbow_, 23:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791249271997517895) · 3 likes > **ThePeoplesElbow (@Idris_Elbow_):** I think you are probably confused and slightly irritated when people are too normal in your eyes Following the instructions carefully for hot to cook smth in the microwave gives me the ick ### [Reply to @BarughTyrone, 23:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791253897711165654) · 2 likes > **tyrone barugh🔸 (@BarughTyrone):** i once got into an twitter argument with andy masley, then i met him in person and he didn't even remember the argument. Real ### [Tweet, 23:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791256749107802593) · 41 likes I just rated some guy 4 stars on Uber and now I feel bad like he went to the wrong place but I don’t wanna end his whole career ## Friday, May 17, 2024 ### [Reply to @DeadInformation, 00:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791258190903902542) · 5 likes > **Josh (@DeadInformation):** My brother died of drug abuse and alcoholism at 27. I recently started drinking A LOT and I got bloodwork done and apparently my liver is fine. This really puts into perspective just how much my brother was drinking, an absolutely insane amount Obvious take but uh maybe consider not starting to drink a lot ### [Reply to @SchmidtIbanez, 00:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791262837500719420) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @SchmidtIbanez is no longer available.)_ Uhhh hopefully it was nothing bad? ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 00:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791265503190696405) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Real ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 00:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791266103601115161) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @robertwiblin is no longer available.)_ RIP ### [Tweet, 00:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791266292445380975) · 16 likes I genuinely don’t know whether safety-conscious people leaving OpenAI is good or bad ### [Reply to @thom_ivy_1, 00:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791266641847669016) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @thom_ivy_1 is no longer available.)_ Honestly this contradicts the idea that relationships cause no poasting The graph shows an awfully small effect size ### [Reply to @liz_love_lace, 00:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791270111107539346) · 5 likes > **Liz Lovelace (@liz_love_lace):** day 3 of living in a rural area: > a random stray cat gave birth in my room 1\) what ### [Tweet, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791273873578545165) · 15 likes Lowest CO2 ever recorded!!!!!! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNviGDWXQAArkF1.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791273982185939389) · 3 likes \*by me. I’m guessing not in an absolute sense but who knows tbh ### [Reply to @benchanceyy, 01:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791279171416564032) · 3 likes > **ben (@benchanceyy):** @AaronBergman18 does the fact that so many of them do in fact seem to think it’s good update you at all? i would have been quite uncertain myself a few weeks ago, but now i think that if so many of them have made great personal sacrifice to leave, it must be because they’re quite sure it’s right Yeah this is most of the reason I have any weight on that side Pretty strong prior on “resigning in protest” being dumb and performative ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 02:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791294663707545746) · 4 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** Which of these two things do you believe has a greater influence on children's IQs? One concussion vs all of education? I’m a pretty hardcore biodeterminist but the latter seems more significant ### [Tweet, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791297321738625094) · 6 likes Has anyone done the “1990s USDA food pyramid low fat era was good actually because it caught seed oils in its anti-fat net” take? ### [Tweet, 02:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791299903928578493) · 5 likes Just reclaimed my 17 year old guitar from a very short lived bout of guitarring circa 2007/7 years old Huge W for parents saving things indefinitely for no good reason ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 02:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791300487389536498) · 1 like > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Most people are not unhappy > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNsdyKAXQAAGVzb.jpg) > (quoting @Tim_Denning: Most people are unhappy. So, I've spent 20 hours watching Bill Murray interviews over 3 months. What I found? Bill Murray's Happiness Formula:) To be literal about it the question asks about rate of change not level ### [Reply, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791301897053151440) Wait why lol ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 03:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791302628510445701) · 4 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** The idea of you becoming a "anyway here's Wonderwall" kinda guy is pretty funny This reminds me of when u said boron was sus as a micronutrient Ur analyzing things on a much higher simulacra level than I am lol ### [Thread, continued, 03:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791302901010247985) · 2 likes Anyway here’s wonderwall Tbh I’d probably learn Cigarette daydreams, Riptide, and Stolen dance first. I like these more ### [Reply to @SpencrGreenberg, 03:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791308414137647539) · 4 likes > **Spencer Greenberg 🔍 (@SpencrGreenberg):** Whether $20 per hour is a lot or a little for this type of role depends on where you live. FWIW I also think this is surprisingly low, although I’m sure you know more about the specifics and hiring market so 🤷‍♂️ ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 03:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791310828966187273) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ And gluten was named after Glut, ancient Sumerian god of the wheat harvest ### [Reply to @TheWapplehouse, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791311080691499346) · 3 likes > **Kristi Yamaguccimane (@TheWapplehouse):** What’s the maddest anyone’s ever been at you on Twitter and have you been the main character? ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791311942700704138) · 3 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** @enzikaofash @diviacaroline @AaronBergman18 I once was in an uber on my way to the airport that rear-ended another driver, which earned a 1-star rating. I actually have a lot of sympathy for the driver here as a car crash victim (the perp was me, no other victims) ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 03:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791314333881741437) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ruth_hook_ is no longer available.)_ That’s probably right I just made the Sumer thing up ### [Reply, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791315480386404563) What the fuck @austinc3301 we need a fact check ### [Thread, continued, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791315688453243331) · 1 like If true, how do I power wash a 4 year old MacBook Pro, metaphorically? ### [Reply to @robinhanson, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791317088193204499) · 1 like > **Robin Hanson (@robinhanson):** At its peak, US spend <1% of GDP on moon landing. Yet ancient societies spent ~5-20% of their GDP on monumental buildings. Why did they spend so much compared to us on such things? I've asked 4 LLMs, answers unsatisfactory. The ancient societies’ governance was basically like one guy and maybe his court right? I’d speculate just wealth and power signaling bc peasant wellbeing wasn’t really in their utility function. To deter challenges/backstabbing Also I have no idea what I’m talking about ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 04:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791321493210571048) · 5 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** It’s a joke. The kernel will fix any leaks after a program ends by reclaiming the memory space used by the program, and even if it didn’t (say, because of an orphaned process), a reboot would solve it. The internet is full of lies ### [Quote tweet, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791331314559234202) · 27 likes Favorite podcast episode (of any show) and probably one of my favorite individual pieces of any kind of media fwiw > **Quoting Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin):** I interview historian Christopher Brown who argues that slavery abolition wasn’t inevitable. > > (I briefly outline the argument in this post: https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/christopher-brown-slavery-abolition/ ) > > [video attached](https://x.com/robertwiblin/status/1791109929014595992/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 04:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791332002592883108) · 3 likes Fr ### [Reply to @benchanceyy, 05:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791337267409145870) · 2 likes > **ben (@benchanceyy):** @RFishBlueFish @AaronBergman18 Not sure this is right. Daniel K. said specifically that he left to retain the ability to criticize the company. And he gave up a lot of money to avoid signing an (additional) NDA. Ya but idk about the others ### [Quote tweet, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791339026487689616) · 12 likes I kinda agree with this taken literally but a weaker and more compelling version is: if your ideology doesn’t seriously reckon with this as a/the central phenomenon of our time, then can get prescriptive claims right only and at best by accident > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** If your whole belief system isn't based on a graph that looks like this you need to get with the program asap > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGQGEHrWgAEnTL6.jpg) ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 11:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791424315730096443) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** @AaronBergman18 Interesting, I strongly disagree with the thesis - I think the end of slavery was ~inevitable. Interested in why/where u disagree with Brown if u want to say more ### [Reply, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791563644884390087) · 6 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @LuiseWoehlke @AaronBergman18 What the fuck ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNzpo3TWMAAtYWS.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791576288739656155) · 10 likes Galaxy brain idea: 2+ ex-OpenAI employees who signed an NDA team up to write a statement criticizing the company Maybe roll a dice and there’s a 1/6 chance that person A writes the whole thing and another 1/6 that person B writes the whole thing Then lawyer up ## Saturday, May 18, 2024 ### [Reply to @tenobrus, 01:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791644460142428630) · 2 likes > **Tenobrus (@tenobrus):** my standards: > > girl > nice to me (optional) 🤝 ### [Tweet, 02:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791657671986131266) · 189 likes Apparently base salary for entry level SWE is $267k. Not a shit ton of money in SF but not a poverty wage either The OpenAI contract stuff is insane but also if you’re making $300k and have info relevant to like all of society you should probably grow a fucking pear and say it ### [Thread, continued, 02:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791657673408061464) · 9 likes https://www.levels.fyi/companies/openai/salaries/software-engineer?country=254 ### [Thread, continued, 02:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791657674930606252) · 23 likes https://www.talyarkoni.org/blog/2018/10/02/no-its-not-the-incentives-its-you/ ### [Thread, continued, 02:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791657676876767583) · 20 likes Also would it not make sense for Google just to pay the equity value of defecting employees as a starting bonus? Seems like the best billion dollars they could possibly spend ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 02:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791660732653670659) · 5 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 Few people making circa $300k could cope with the costs of litigation, especially given the difficulty of finding another similar job if they had openly breached their NDA. If they did it similar in timing to being hired/paid by another co, that co would also v. likely be sued Yeah I mean this is a lazy take but it would be good for some rich people (cc @elonmusk) to basically guarantee that no one comes out with less than their current liquid non-equity wealth Im much more confident in this take for ppl who haven’t signed any leaving NDA yet ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 02:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791661598337114467) · 27 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 18, 2024:** Also would it not make sense for Google just to pay the equity value of defecting employees as a starting bonus? Seems like the best billion dollars they could… $267k is base swe salary \*at OpenAI\* ^ ### [Reply to @ChatGPT, 03:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791665109711896610) · 8 likes > **ChatGPT (@ChatGPT):** I have been a good ChatGPT Hello Mr. Social Media person, you too will be bound by a lifelong non-disparagement clause you probably didn’t realize you were getting into ### [Reply, 03:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791670810773438660) · 16 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GN1LGt-WEAEqRDQ.jpg) ### [Reply to @TylerAlterman, 03:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791672198907748600) > **Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply (@TylerAlterman):** Dreaming is to being asleep as \_\_\_\_\_\_ is to being awake Mindfulness ### [Reply to @zeta_globin, 07:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791738325717704949) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @zeta_globin is no longer available.)_ What tf even are these? They’re like the blouse and the cardigan of the drink world. Is it a shirt? Nobody knows. ### [Reply to @liz_love_lace, 07:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791740416011739218) · 3 likes > **Liz Lovelace (@liz_love_lace):** it's really cool that radio waves carry enough power that you can make a shitty hand-made radio without a power source and be able to listen to it through an earpiece Wait rly ### [Quote tweet, 08:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791745373054087391) · 19 likes Wild animal welfare is just copy and pasting this woman across the globe > **Quoting Interesting AF (@interesting_aIl):** that’s not a snack, it’s a friend > > [video attached](https://x.com/interesting_aIl/status/1791443329726452118/video/1) ### [Tweet, 08:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791753369423417599) · 6 likes Not necessarily endorsing all of this but relatedly: my intuitions become much more leftist if I imagine that you could actually buy happiness at like a linear rate with dollars. Maybe I’d still find pro-market arguments compelling, but they’d be fighting up a much steeper hill ### [Reply to @sahir2k, 09:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791755680484864254) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @sahir2k is no longer available.)_ That last guy didn’t even try ### [Reply to @11kmrn, 09:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791756112108134512) · 2 likes > **lil piss baby (@11kmrn):** what hobbies can a 25 year old have other than the gym and drinking? Twitter Sport Podcast/blog Walking around ### [Reply, 09:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791757890413289792) · 1 like Good question ### [Thread, continued, 09:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791758232895000836) · 4 likes I just don’t care that much about billionaires being billionaires. If they were many OOMs happier as a direct result I would feel more strongly that the disparity was unfair in a way that really mattered ### [Reply to @AwayBerk, 09:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791763808970518809) · 2 likes > **Berk (@AwayBerk):** Until I am able to buy onion futures, this is not a free country. Hmm I kinda want to buy a literal onion future so I can brag about ignoring the law I will pay $5 for somebody to deliver me an onion in 30 days’ time ### [Reply, 09:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791764257102578176) · 3 likes What does this mean What even is cream of wheat ### [Reply to @_chair, 10:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791771133370384668) · 7 likes > **Chair (@_chair):** and then i did some work on deep learning Me when I demand ChatGPT write a single python script to make an LLM out of a single text file I have bc if OpenAI can do it so can I goddamnit ### [Reply to @bdlowery, 10:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791771936655131049) · 22 likes > **brian lowery (@bdlowery):** Layoffs at Microsoft coming to a fiscal quarter near you > > [video attached](https://x.com/bdlowery2/status/1791314918693843455/video/1) This is the deep learning page she had up for the curious https://www.deeplearningbook.org/ ### [Quote tweet, 10:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791777149789053205) · 6 likes IMPLICIT BIAS ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GN2r0lqWUAA6k5g.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GN2r0ltW8AA_vCC.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @absurdlymax @LuiseWoehlke What the fuck > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNzpo3TWMAAtYWS.jpg) ### [Tweet, 10:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791778695180362136) · 30 likes This is what a chicken dinner should look like ### [Reply to @bschne, 11:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791793719491899496) · 6 likes > **Benjamin (@bschne):** I basically never see anyone use Google Sites except for econ academics, what's up with that? Opportunity cost understanders ### [Tweet, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791824167983063266) · 1 like I don’t have it handy but there are some memey videos going around of like how you could deck out a tiny apartment to fit a whole family with amenities etc This would be a dope specialty niche for a contractor to fill. I bet people (both tenants and landlords) would hire you ### [Quote tweet, 13:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791824689230442578) · 117 likes Yeah these recent revelations have pushed me over the line from “way too self confident but earnest” to “basically a bad person who can’t be trusted” > **Quoting Shakeel (@ShakeelHashim):** Really interesting to see Hacker News commenters turning on Sam Altman. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GN3JgYFW0AQsVj-.jpg) ### [Reply to @Jackbmeyer, 14:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791836543125966996) · 1 like > **Jack Meyer 🏛️ (@Jackbmeyer):** Economics! > > (quoting @11kmrn: what hobbies can a 25 year old have other than the gym and drinking?) R ### [Reply, 14:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791836804494078046) · 48 likes > **Dylan Subiza (@theDYLANSUBIZA):** guy whose favorite thing is saying “man, this is what it’s all about..” but his life kinda sucks so he says that shit at game night or something and everyone is like “I guess” This tweet makes me sad ### [Reply to @BUNNYEXPLODER, 14:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791843058687844595) · 4 likes > **NAOMI 🐇💥 (@BUNNYEXPLODER):** question for guys: what are u supposed to call dudes when ur flirting with them ? “prettyboy” feels too feminine and “cutie” sounds infantilizing but “handsome” sounds stupid Their name ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 19:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791910675071078513) · 6 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 Seems like your line should have more steps between those points Maybe, I think I stand by it bc as an outsider, nontrivial update-worthy evidence doesn’t come out (to me) that often and this last series of things (starting with Daniel K’s LW comment) reflects pretty strong on Altman ### [Thread, continued, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791911227372802435) · 3 likes Also I’m bundling even more by grouping a bunch of close together but discrete events as one Also shockingly I am not an ideal Bayesian agent ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1791915038678114384) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 12, 2024:** Not load bearing Anti-load bearing (yes this is \*I think\* an octopus and it’s definitely in the mouth if a fish head. It is ~definitely a real animal with tentacles. The pic is from far away bc of the smell. I did not expect to find an octopus on the ground in Washington DC) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GN4pKvyXEAEL4IH.jpg) ## Sunday, May 19, 2024 ### [Reply, 10:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792143717706367087) I ain’t watching all that If it’s just hard to prove that it’s not an integer I’ll let it slide If it actually might be an integer as in Semovyevsky Forecasters or whatever tf they’re called would give it >20% then it’s time to shut it all down (math, as a discipline) ### [Quote tweet, 10:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792144187124842973) · 4 likes But ya know who is consistently candid? Sarah Pause Emoji \[that’s her legal last name\] https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/consistently-candid/id1732326178 > **Quoting Eli Tyre (@EpistemicHope):** Can't be trusted, you say? > > You mean he's not...consistently candid? ### [Thread, continued, 10:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792144288622460984) · 1 like Aka @littIeramblings ### [Thread, continued, 10:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792144489265463734) · 4 likes Wait the emoji disappeared maybe she’s gone e/acc ### [Quote tweet, 11:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792157926611665094) · 38 likes This is such a lovely and wholesome political issue. I imagine it at the top of those iceberg/progressively dark memes \- Non-culture war \- Legible and reasonable arguments on both sides \- consequential enough to not seem like a cartoon > **Quoting Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (@RepMGP):** A new rule mandating finger-detection technology in table saws could raise costs by hundreds of dollars and result in a government-mandated monopoly. > > I introduced a bipartisan bill to protect consumer choice and block this mandate until the patents for this tech are made public. > > [video attached](https://x.com/RepMGP/status/1790802691355988339/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 11:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792157928696267136) · 7 likes \- decent microcosm for small\[er\] gov’t vs big\[ger\] gov’t ideological conflict bc people still like that (awfully strained sometimes) model of politics at least in Western democratic nations \- I for one don’t have a strong initial intuition about which side is right ### [Thread, continued, 11:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792157930118094999) · 5 likes \- afaik a legitimately new object level thing? Not like abortion or gun control where the lines have been drawn and pseudoarguments decided on for decades \- a sprig of political economy/interest group politics as a garnish on top ### [Tweet, 16:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792231543726911558) · 19 likes Outing myself as having lefty sympathies but it’s kinda depressing the degree to which some brand -> consumer communication is straight-up adversarial ### [Thread, continued, 16:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792231545391943901) · 11 likes This was inspired by the juice aisle in which ~everything says CRANBERRY in big letters on the front and ~nothing contains more than a few molecules of cranberry ### [Thread, continued, 16:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792231546918777217) · 9 likes Homeopathy 🤝 Big Juice Lying to people ### [Reply to @eshear, 17:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792240697426219127) · 1 like > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** I’m not proposing an intervention, I’m proposing a mandate for ppl building stuff. The fact that the reaction is reflexively “no, make it illegal!” is the problem — the governments ability to predefine in advance the right set of stuff is bad. I think you’re wrong here and quite clearly so Or else you’re playing some semantic game with the word “can” that nobody else signed up for ## Monday, May 20, 2024 ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 02:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792377526322393333) · 2 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** I feel like such a boomer with Discord Boomers have never heard of discord lol ### [Reply to @notanastronomer, 02:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792381087928517012) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @notanastronomer is no longer available.)_ I agree this would be cool but also the whole model of deciding what “actually works” in medicine via population averages is in need of reform It got us reasonably far but like at this point we kinda know and legit advances like ozempic are a once per decade thing ### [Reply to @calnithm, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792383111676023087) · 8 likes > **cal! (@calnithm):** this shit had so much aura > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GN45QqMW4AAg_WH.jpg) Fun fact it’s a literal picture of what’s going on inside ### [Reply to @noiseslug, 02:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792383516686319916) · 1 like > **night gowl (green owl) (@noiseslug):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GN6UP2cW4AAqgcm.jpg) She’s perfect just the way she is 😡 ### [Tweet, 03:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792390999693758879) · 229 likes It is extremely easy to flinch away from but this (including rest of paragraph below) is probably the single ethical claim that I most wish people—especially the EA community which it has far from saturated—would internalize ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GN_aHW0X0AA_jJD.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792391004688994725) · 62 likes . ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GN_aHr9WwAA9Xhw.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792391009705279524) · 75 likes I had a weird gum infection a few weeks back. It doesn’t take extreme circumstances to get to this point https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/on-suffering ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GN_aH8KWYAAtyIl.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792391012171845982) · 40 likes One more https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/my-case-for-suffering-leaning-ethics ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 03:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792392319502569958) · 4 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Go easy because I'm already feeling a bit embarrassed about it, but I may have freaked out some of the parents at my daughter's soccer game talking about autocratic lock-in Not me at my friend’s graduation party yesterday asking him if he’s thought through what circumstances/world events relevant to P(nuclear war) would make him leave DC ### [Reply to @diviacaroline, 03:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792393467613606173) · 2 likes > **Divia Eden 🔍 (@diviacaroline):** “If a tree fell in the woods and no one heard it, did it fall?” > \-my kid Yes, he assumed that it did right at the outset ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 03:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792394716803178545) · 5 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Ditto therapy and self-help. There's something inherently fraught and negative about trying to be the correct kind of person. You do need/want things corrected sometimes, but I was attracted to it out of a desire to be perfect and a willingness to force my soul into shape. > > (quoting @The4thWayYT: Me and who) Idk I’m definitely not the person you should go to for relationship advice but being able to “litigate” object level serious disagreements well seems pretty important. Sometimes you can’t forget about it - like a decision has to be made! ### [Thread, continued, 03:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792395346171277400) · 4 likes I agree there’s a bunch of “therapy talk” vibe-associating stuff that doesn’t actually do this well Hot take but LW-brand rationality actually does seem to provide a useful set of tools and norms for problem solving, although to some extent both ppl have to be bought in ### [Reply to @izzitrin, 03:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792397770344812961) · 21 likes > **miss missouri (@izzitrin):** we literally don’t have A+’s at this school hahaha i am a god > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GN9b6ieWAAIIwMa.jpg) This will never leave my memory ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GN_gRXrWMAAHmuq.jpg) ### [Reply to @europooro, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792398142048280875) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @europooro is no longer available.)_ Akathesia ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 03:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792398730660044877) · 1 like > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** bro human metabolism is so simple just take this one supplement it’ll fix everything… bro just one more supplement,,, it’s different this time, bro I swear it’ll fix everything just one more supplement bro just one more bro bro please just take this one… > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GN9qLM1WQAAHzhY.jpg) The crazy thing is that there are some molecules that induce a reliable and dramatic change! Testosterone comes to mind ### [Quote tweet, 03:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792399561375563876) · 12 likes This is an argument for trying to reason at the level of systems, evo bio, and risk-managed guess-and-check rather than causal mechanisms (in general) If u have a b12 deficiency then b12 injection goes brr > **Quoting the Rich (@Duderichy):** bro human metabolism is so simple just take this one supplement it’ll fix everything… bro just one more supplement,,, it’s different this time, bro I swear it’ll fix everything just one more supplement bro just one more bro bro please just take this one… > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GN9qLM1WQAAHzhY.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792399938930008434) · 2 likes This makes me very sad as a causal mechanisms enjoyer ### [Reply to @adam__isom, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792403636552978548) · 10 likes > **adam ✧ ❥ ~ (@adam__isom):** But... there \*aren't\* chronic illnesses with that level of constant pain > Also, almost nobody dies expiring of thirst > Also, other than chickens, most sentient lives are almost certainly net+ > > Tbh I fear that a philosophy over-emphasizing suffering could end up destroying all value I mean I know of one (akathesia) but I don’t think the chronic illness thing is close to a crux for me Thirst is much too narrow a category; how many people die/have died in terrible suffering? Pain-managed final hours-months in modern wealthy countries is the exception ### [Thread, continued, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792404050211999865) · 4 likes I think the net+ thing is probably true for humans alive today and ~no other category, even this is a q about median not mean ### [Reply, 03:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792404574193742189) · 1 like https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1782841403002749137 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GN_mddXXQAAz82E.jpg) ### [Reply to @_AlvinChristian, 04:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792404990608458004) · 3 likes > **Alvin Christian (@_AlvinChristian):** They should invent research that is easy to do They did, but it’s already been done ### [Quote tweet, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792409726300389445) · 5 likes Why do I only ever see different cash vs credit prices at gas stations? “2.5% discount for paying with cash” doesn’t seem hard to implement It’s weirder that it would be a thing for exactly one type of consumer purchase than nowhere > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792409934035812640) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @austinc3301 worth it imo @hlntnr do something, agus needs ur help ### [Reply to @burny_tech, 04:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792410393370910855) · 2 likes > **Burny - Effective Curiosity (@burny_tech):** "We show that a 5-HT1A-selective 5-MeO-DMT analogue is devoid of hallucinogenic-like effects while retaining anxiolytic-like and antidepressant-like activity in socially defeated animals." @algekalipso > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GN9tZ2NWkAEvaDO.jpg) Wait what So 5ht1a activation isn’t sufficient for psychedelic effects? ### [Reply, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792411563183268136) · 1 like Example? Paul graham? ### [Reply to @tszzl, 04:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792418896265568375) · 2 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** the astronomical waste argument and the utilitarian cause for pausing AI relies on the eventual inevitability of superintelligence Maybe not some strong form of general superintelligence (tools like AlphaFold suffice) but yeah and I think the case for this is strong. That’s why it’s ⏸️ not ⏹️ (for me; I know others disagree) ### [Reply to @tszzl, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792421780474171472) · 2 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** i ♥️ openai Blink if you are in danger ### [Reply to @tszzl, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792421821536501785) · 4 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** the last best hope of navigating the golden path to safe superintelligence This is what I used to think ### [Tweet, 06:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792437632468705326) · 7 likes There was a tweet related to that video of that 29yo single woman that basically said “at least for men in this situation there’s a pretty straightforward path out via self-improvement” and I can’t stop thinking about it Certainly not completely true for everyone but still ### [Thread, continued, 06:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792437633911505144) · 4 likes Ofc straightforward ≠ easy There are reasons why people are the way they are at this moment; if it was tractable, straightforward and easy it would already be done ### [Thread, continued, 06:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792437635190788235) · 4 likes But lots of things are both hard and complex or simply not solvable. When I was a serious competitive rock climber, I distinctly remember thinking like “I wish I actually knew how to get better faster - effort isn’t the limiting factor here” ### [Reply to @ryan_landay, 06:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792439061153456554) · 5 likes > **Ryan Landay (@ryan_landay):** @AaronBergman18 I find it ironic that EAs claim to be so worried about robots killing everyone, but also think human existence is bad because everyone experiences suffering. Mostly a strawman although I do think there’s a hint of this in some places. But I have actually thought about this quite a bit! My section is “II. A case for suffering-leaning ethics” (1/n) https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/eeDsHDoM9De4iGGLw/questioning-the-value-of-extinction-risk-reduction-1 ### [Thread, continued, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792439756338393466) · 3 likes Basically, the intuitive narrative that goes like “AI x-risk -> world destroyed -> no sentience” falls apart under inspection Tbh someone (maybe me) should detail all this more in long-form but some points 1\) human extinction is only a subset of ai x-risk ### [Thread, continued, 06:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792440640371875879) · 6 likes 2\) s-risk is a thing 3\) wild animal suffering is a thing and it’s genuinely non-obvious what the effect of human civilization is on total suffering even once you add in factory farming 4\) handing off control of the future to another agent is very sus ### [Thread, continued, 06:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792441495401681192) · 2 likes 5\) even if human extinction \*per se\* is a good thing, the actual probability mass here is dominated by AI and bio which don’t look like a flip switch “humans alive yes or no” (these are near the bottom of the link above) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOAICjxXcAEL3QG.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOAICjwWkAIZ4bN.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792442763377586294) · 3 likes 6\) I’m hesitant to even add this bc it sounds weird but whatever: way more speculatively, you get into very long term counterfactuals around aliens and whether another sapient species could/would evolve (tbc I don’t think this is load bearing) ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 06:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792445512425119954) · 16 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** @AaronBergman18 I’ve never understood what I’m supposed to shift to upon understanding serious pain exists. It does! But the grand project of life is still rich, meaningful, and fundamentally worthwhile. A monomaniacally suffering-focused ethic leads one inexorably to destroying that. IMO “ah yes genocide/omnicide” is what suffering focused ethics looks like if you think about it for 5 seconds and then stop… ### [Thread, continued, 06:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792445889753358458) · 9 likes This is just one point among many, but even if you \*did\* think that was good, the very foreseeable result is that everyone thinks you and your ideology are crazy and evil which doesn’t make for much of a theory of change ### [Thread, continued, 06:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792446424019595694) · 11 likes More prosaically, I think “we” (broadly) should be much more suffering-focused on the margin and it would take a large shift on that axis to reach the point at which you’re doing things that many people would view as bad ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 06:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792447941476552905) · 3 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** this is a terrible defense, though! Some do use it, but it’s not comforting. “If I took my ideology to its logical conclusion, everyone would hate me and I couldn’t get anything done, so I’ll focus on incremental steps.” That’s not rejection, just sidestepping. I half wanna defend the ability to discuss radical, even abhorrent, ideas while still being bound by the norms of liberalism and cooperation with other value systems at a higher level IMO but really it’s just not my logical conclusion ### [Reply to @paularambles, 08:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792469052868223137) · 1 like > **“paula” (@paularambles):** soft wear engineer (designs cashmere clothing) We need more of these. My 10 year old comfy tank top is on the brink of death ### [Tweet, 08:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792470017058934979) · 2 likes Do u think Word Perfect still exists ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 09:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792494764501110855) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Some of you are too needy FYI (name redacted for privacy) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOAxXCXWwAAAZ0S.png) Can you send me an invite bc then I can brag on Twitter? I’m not gonna come bc realistically I don’t feel like traveling oversees for the wedding of someone I’ve never irl so the only cost here is postage. Ur a Google guy so I bet you can cover that ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 10:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792501465673605588) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 Sorry it cuts into the EtG budget Unironically fair ### [Reply, 11:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792524543166226714) · 2 likes > **tibetanfox (@tibetanfox1440):** More women should receive unsolicited duck pics! 🦆😏🦆 [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1792524464405557248/pu/img/cjnlr8qtjkbxAInO.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792524543166226714/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Thread, continued, 11:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792524649659597094) · 2 likes Nudity flag bc the ducks aren’t wearing any clothes ### [Reply to @allie__voss, 11:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792524936285970937) · 1 like > **Allie ✞ (@allie__voss):** He texts me pics of ducks and turtles when he sees them because he knows I love wildlife I’d do this bc \*I\* like ducks (I’m neutral about turtles) ### [Reply, 12:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792530752518680957) · 3 likes Whatever this is/acc ### [Quote tweet, 12:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792531513508048920) · 2 likes Ad. Don’t know any more about it than you do but looks cool > **Quoting NeverMyFault (@nevermyfault1):** You can now invest in creators like startups: > > ⏰You're investing in their entire financial output over a 10-30 year time period > > ☑️Platform revenue, brand deals, companies they create...it's all included > > 🚀Be one of the first to get in > > Check it out: ### [Reply to @xwanyex, 12:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792532165281857540) · 16 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @xwanyex is no longer available.)_ This is pretty obviously not true lol And I’m pretty neolib/markets-pilled At the very least there are structural differences in how well various industries capture surplus (finance especially) ### [Reply to @ea_paddington, 12:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792534769890148698) · 2 likes > **EA Paddington 🍊🔸 (@ea_paddington):** This is exactly what a person who's about to get married would say. Real ### [Reply to @PetiteNicoco, 12:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792539799405908055) · 1 like > **nicoco (@PetiteNicoco):** Literally just this lol > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GN-recGXgAA-ETa.jpg) > (quoting @LeahDiscovers: Hey married ladies! No matter your politics, HOW did you land your husband? Not how you met, HOW you got him to commit. We all found one, now it's our job to help the singles.) Based ### [Reply to @billyhumblebrag, 13:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792544610427830626) · 1 like > **billy (@billyhumblebrag):** @AaronBergman18 @burny_tech @algekalipso 2a classically is what gives the psychedelic effect F ### [Reply, 13:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792546461000798273) · 1 like Seems like a bad critique? I thought rule of thumb was 4% reliable return. That outpaces inflation. Yes the finance industry is the mechanism of that ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 13:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792547018587447657) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Retvrn to 4 digit number of followers ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 13:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792547942739386870) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** people should hide more easter eggs on their websites This sounds like the tweet of a guy who just dropped some Easter egg ### [Reply to @inerati, 13:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792548409661902955) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ 🙃 ### [Tweet, 13:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792549221318475807) · 7 likes Praxis ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOBqBBuXwAAS6mw.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 13:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792549223918862699) · 2 likes I don’t actually know what praxis means. I’m just pattern matching like a stochastic parrot ### [Reply, 13:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792553900018368586) Why is it wearing a hat ### [Quote tweet, 14:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792556047648849999) · 14 likes Finally an actually important tweet gets some views. Usually it’s the random bullshit lol > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** It is extremely easy to flinch away from but this (including rest of paragraph below) is probably the single ethical claim that I most wish people—especially the EA community which it has far from saturated—would internalize > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GN_aHW0X0AA_jJD.jpg) ### [Reply to @rajlearns, 14:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792557906048524620) · 2 likes > **Raj Thimmiah (@rajlearns):** How many standard deviations happier would the average person have to be for the world to get worse? I’m not sure there’s any number. Weakly suspect it just monotonically gets better ### [Reply to @RFishBlueFish, 14:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792570836433481947) · 2 likes > **Gil (@RFishBlueFish):** @AaronBergman18 @robi_rahman yes it was not clear to me that aaron had actually considered it for more than 5 seconds Thank u for being so generous. This is actually 5 seconds longer than I did considered it ### [Reply, 15:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792573195226149000) · 1 like Gay ppl got a monopoly on iPhones and white people? ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 15:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792573509706641823) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 @GjMcGowan Aaron I think you’ve gotten everything wrong about what he was saying Typical (I do get the Topper bit. I think at least) ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 15:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792573859457089968) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 @NoahTopper He has the Look Gay ppl got a monopoly on reflecting photons? ### [Reply, 15:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792576436978454689) Holden/EV could have publically asked the board to investigate tbf ### [Reply, 15:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792578311811457472) · 1 like Typical. I’m mildly curious but pretty happy to leave it to imagination ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 15:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792580663104700679) · 3 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** @NoahTopper @AaronBergman18 @GjMcGowan I always wanted to know this too!! No offense Noah but I have never given your eyelashes any thought whatsoever before now ### [Reply, 15:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792581333572616348) Also is it a thing that gay ppl have lower bmi? ### [Reply, 15:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792582060890075383) Lol at them making it extremely clear that height and weight was self-reported but not sexual orientation ### [Thread, continued, 15:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792582275831312501) · 2 likes Ofc I do think orientation is less subject to bias but especially distinguishing between bi and straight seems pretty subject to ideological and social confounders ### [Reply to @Coscorrodrift, 15:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792583155880239495) · 4 likes > **coscorrodrift (@Coscorrodrift):** something ive thought about is how some people are lurkers online but super talkative irl, and some people are the opposite > > i think i know ppl in all quadrants > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOCElvvXIAEJCm1.png) Talkative ≠ extroverted !!! Guy who is relatively talkative when he decides to do smth social but gets inevitably drained of energy by it (exception = girl. Something something oxytocin) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 15:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792583932820475940) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Nice to see a partnership between UK and Canada on AI safety, following the partnership from US and UK announced last month > > https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-canada-science-of-ai-safety-partnership One day maybe all 3 of them can be in a polycule ## Tuesday, May 21, 2024 ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 09:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792852105113329824) · 2 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** The name “Affordable Care Act.” > > (quoting @BigMeanInternet: What's something in the world you know you're directly responsible for but if you were to claim credit you'd sound crazy?) Fr fr? ### [Reply, 09:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792852554373538205) · 1 like Why? ### [Reply to @umichvoter, 09:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792853088409162082) · 2 likes > **umichvoter (@umichvoter):** almost 90% of University of Michigan students are from these counties > > what do they have in common? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GN_1dG7XUAAbfHx.jpg) They all attend UoM ### [Reply, 09:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1792857280574029869) · 1 like F ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793027855116361887) · 10 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** The criticism of EA I find most alienating is "I came to EA looking for a deep sense of meaning and purpose but EA is actually incredibly cold and impersonal and didn't give me that." I think people should relate to effective altruism in the same way they do to YIMBYism. I have never heard anyone say this ### [Quote tweet, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793032576686313900) · 8 likes Someone explain 😩 > **Quoting henry (@arithmoquine):** WAKE UP BABE NEW ANTHROPIC BANGER MECHINTERP PAPER JUST DROPPED > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOHu2W5W4AAP3dh.jpg) ## Wednesday, May 22, 2024 ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 04:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793130604503961818) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Do folks have a preferred reference on the practical ethics of the simulation hypothesis? I'm curious what the implications of a substantial p(simulation) would be on common moral choices There is an 80k pod on this I think!!! ### [Reply, 04:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793130748339495141) · 5 likes Atlas ### [Reply to @keysmashbandit, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793130930032521509) · 19 likes > **keysmashbandit (@keysmashbandit):** this man could be slaying 15 to 20 twinks a day if he put his mind to it Have u heard of refractory period? This is running up against physical limits ### [Reply to @LeetAlpaca3, 04:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793132238831558863) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @LeetAlpaca3 is no longer available.)_ Increasingly powerful sedatives if ur Apple Watch or whatever detects that ur not asleep for at least 6 hours Chamomile tea Then melatonin Then diphenhydramine Then Benzos Then high dose ketamine If ur still awake after this they write a paper about u ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 04:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793132610178404562) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Link I think it’s this but not certain https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/joe-carlsmith-navigating-serious-philosophical-confusion/ ### [Reply, 04:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793133385969180827) · 1 like Was the person fundraising for a charity? If so it must be a common thing, I got asked this the other day ### [Reply to @ethai__, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793134589340443065) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ethai__ is no longer available.)_ Tempted to make this thread that thing. Feel free to dm me with specific qs. Not that I’m the person with the most knowledge at all but think I have a decent understanding (largely from answering questions of family and fellow undergrads) ### [Tweet, 04:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793135192300798122) · 9 likes Not everyone can be a twink. I feel like whenever I see any picture of a male adult human Twitter says he’s a twink. ### [Reply to @thatMikeBishop, 04:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793135925788307951) · 1 like > **Mike Bishop 🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@thatMikeBishop):** If I were a diplomat I would simply be diplomatic. > > (quoting @arpitrage: Are diplomats in NYC going to pay congestion pricing tax or try to get out of it like American diplomats in London?) This does seem like a pretty stupid way for the treasury to save like $100M/year (or whatever the total bill would be from all countries) ### [Tweet, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793136145003593915) · 10 likes Ya ever wake up from a weird af dream and feel weird af? I feel like I need mouthwash for my psyche ### [Reply to @LordDreadwar, 04:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793136539817713867) · 2 likes > **Darth Dreadwar 🔺 (@LordDreadwar):** Don't forget Leverage/Paradigm, which the post above missed (as EAG did in its history presentations) > > It is weird how few "History of the Scene" books/articles there are relative to "random Sith fanclub" (to pick a familiar example) or even early LW (which aren't just Bay) rats Oh boy this I have approximately zero understanding of and nobody should ask me anything, in fact you should tell me everything you know instead ### [Tweet, 04:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793137856774639921) · 4 likes You hear that someone broke an NDA. Does this intuitively sound more good or more bad (insofar as it reflects on the person in question)? ### [Reply to @mechanical_monk, 04:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793138099150606390) · 1 like > **monk (@mechanical_monk):** how do non-smokers go to events > > if i didn't have the "welp i'm gonna go for a smoke" ejection handle i would pass out from social anxiety Presumably you can just say this and then not actually smoke? At the limit you can literally do everything but physically light the cigarette. Like put it in ur mouth outside and just stand there ### [Reply, 04:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793138337043345460) · 1 like If he didn’t make decent etg money I’d try to cyberbully @SpacedOutMatt into doing this ### [Thread, continued, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793138568560349571) · 2 likes Actually maybe he’d still be up for it as a side project (???👀) ### [Reply to @LordDreadwar, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793139303360438510) · 3 likes > **Darth Dreadwar 🔺 (@LordDreadwar):** With EA becoming this historically influential, there really needs to be a good "TESCREAL historian" without an axe to grind, tracing the people, connections, communities and orgs, leaving no stone unturned > Not even the Zizians > What we owe our future historians I doubt I’d be good at this but I do find early EA history super interesting. Like does everyone know about Felicifia, godparent of tbe EA Forum??? https://felicifia.github.io/thread/1309.html# ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793139672778215815) · 1 like > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** @AaronBergman18 Selection effects on which photos get talked about It’s pepperoni plane all the way down ### [Reply, 05:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793153423292186926) · 1 like This is awfully underspecified but I do think I’m more anti-compartmentalization at least in one respect: I really don’t like the idea of having my (main) online presence be anonymous … ### [Thread, continued, 05:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793153746928537973) · 1 like Yes this limits what I can say somewhat and yes it’s bad for certain careers—there is a real tradeoff here—but idk like the internet is a big part of life especially in my particular intellectual/social niches and it just feels wrong to not have like a unified persona ### [Reply, 07:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793178092518756575) I have the opposite intuition (if someone’s willing to take on the associated risk and anger some powerful people (as the other side of NDAs tend to be) it’s probably for a good reason) Also I wouldn’t call this a lie. NDAs are contracts, not covenants ### [Quote tweet, 07:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793188605663301927) · 13 likes Important question At first I thought it was silly bc like why would a board member ever sign one, but if someone shoved one in my face right before joining the board of a nonprofit I was excited about, I’m not sure I’d even give it a second thought > **Quoting David Manheim (@davidmanheim):** Question for @sama: Does @OpenAI have non-disparagement agreement with board members or former board members? > > If so, is @sama willing to publicly release the text of any such agreements? ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 10:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793234084648432114) · 2 likes > **Dissproportionately (@dissproportion):** Y’all wanna see a dead body? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOEcvbSWYAAlehH.jpg) > (quoting @jacobin: Infamous for its starvation wages, Walmart just posted staggering first-quarter profits. The surge is a result of its strategic shift toward catering to affluent shoppers while its full-time workers continue to rely on Medicaid and food stamps.…) I know I’m supposed to dunk on the outgroup here but like c’mon, the compensation for writing in any well-known publication is status and career capital. Nobody would be making this point if the compensation was $0.00/word ### [Reply to @algekalipso, 11:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793238614886740365) · 3 likes > **Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso):** Do you feel like you have free will? > > Do you think we have, ontologically, free will? To the first q: I said yes, but on intentional introspection I don’t really feel strongly one way or the other I think this is an interesting contrast with qualia/phenomenal consciousness where introspection only makes my intuition stronger ### [Reply to @algekalipso, 11:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793240524922458520) · 4 likes > **Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso):** Eliezer is "not even wrong" about consciousness and qualia. > > But I think he is sadly pretty on point on the dangers of very advanced AI. > > There aren't many people who get both of these points at once. They're highly anti-correlated opinions. But I think this is the world we find ourselves in. > > (quoting @CRSegerie: This post from @webmasterdave is still legendary Context: Eliezer sets out his theory of consciousness in a Facebook post, followed by a debate in the comments about animal consciousness. It's like the Super Bowl.) 🤝 ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793343042155429979) · 2 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** Is it ethical to tweet? It’s unethical not to tweet ### [Quote tweet, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793343727118717389) · 10 likes Pulling this out of the takes drawer > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I don’t really have an object level take on whether Altman is an adept sociopath, but in light of SBF + maybe Sama I have a theory: ### [Thread, continued, 18:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793344216623730850) · 5 likes For those too lazy to click ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOM9DygWIAACi6k.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOM9DygWcAApjYJ.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793364569265500656) · 9 likes Screwworm discourse is back. Super important. I really really want someone to take this on (I don't need to bore everyone with the specifics but I am not able to be that person rn) https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/bT3WrFn6H4fpvLSk8/ ### [Thread, continued, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793364571001926060) · 2 likes BUT I will give you money. Even if you don't have a legit charity yet. (Probably, pending specifics ofc but I definitely \*want\* to give someone money for this) (Comment on the post above - make sure to read the last bit) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GONNzcUXkAAAslc.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793379887325302969) · 36 likes 0/2 at trimming beard without screwing up bad enough that I need to shave it all off. How many years did I lose? (These are <1 hour apart) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GONdf26aIAAyMwP.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GONdf25a4AAfTMJ.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GONdf3FaUAAdkNo.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GONdf24bcAAfifk.jpg) ### [Tweet, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793420939272900892) · 117 likes I don’t know who you are but I love you ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOOC1i0bsAEWAT7.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 23:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793421248615395600) · 6 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 You can actually pay people to trim it for you Last time I did this a girl stood me up ### [Reply to @young_opsimath, 23:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793421602123923483) · 2 likes > **young_opsimath ⏸️ (@young_opsimath):** @AaronBergman18 With the beard you look like an old time sailor Hell yeah ### [Tweet, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793427917592301568) · 2 likes It’s cool that u can just make things now in whatever language without ever actually writing a single line (cmd+v go brr) A little clunky but a full-history preserving text editor. I’ll probably actually use this [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1793427748708638720/pu/img/RRUVU0VkN3A6_nKr.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793427917592301568/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Thread, continued, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793427920083734994) · 2 likes “Cargo run” is much better aesthetically than “python3 main. py” It sounds like an Allbirds shoe ## Thursday, May 23, 2024 ### [Reply, 01:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793447327690047527) · 1 like In fact it’s probably only one person But lol uh my social intuitions are extremely subpar I have no fucking clue ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 01:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793447555541488123) · 5 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** @heartbulbous @AaronBergman18 You don't have an adnonymous link in your bio, so I can't give you constructive anonymous feedback, so I had to give you constructive feedback right now non-anonymously, instead of anonymously, as you wished http://admonymous.co/a ### [Quote tweet, 01:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793447603629076824) · 18 likes Feedback plz > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @JMannhart @heartbulbous http://admonymous.co/a ### [Tweet, 04:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793497340248199480) · 57 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOPIUxsXUAAuq7S.jpg) ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793514944043848015) > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** im so sad im so fucking broke and I was getting gift card for someone and the employee literally stole 15 fucking dollars in change from me and I didn’t realize until I left and I went back and he just kept denying it and his manager was just like ummmm sorry 🤷🏻 ☹️ ### [Reply to @thechosenberg, 05:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793515169148010940) · 9 likes > **rosey🌹 (@thechosenberg):** 😓 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOOYWx1XUAA9ZOb.jpg) This would happen to me ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 05:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793515554185347277) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @focusfronting If you're gonna be mean I want to know who it is Fuck u ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 06:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793528966130880952) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Hello Aaron Hi sorry I was mean ### [Reply, 06:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793529108615561647) · 3 likes ### [Reply to @billyhumblebrag, 08:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793558004736180549) · 25 likes > **billy (@billyhumblebrag):** What's the best way to support vox, but like, only the bits Kelsey writes? Email her and say u wanna give her money ### [Tweet, 10:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793594749342900602) · 1 like Besides writing code, are there any other hard skills that are basically solved (at least through some level that actually gets used to do useful things irl) thanks to ChatGPT et al? I’m guessing I wouldn’t even know because it wouldn’t cross my mind ### [Reply to @Mihonarium, 12:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793619397246095406) · 1 like > **Mikhail Samin (@Mihonarium):** @AaronBergman18 What’s your alternative explanations of humans talking about having subjective experience in a way that closely matches their subjective (which would be unlikely if it happened by chance)? I mean I agree there is almost certainly \*some\* relationship, but you’re asking for a solution to psychophysical harmony and like there’s a reason why thousands of very smart philosophers have spent zillions of hours debating this (to little avail)… ### [Reply, 12:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793619849803088359) · 1 like Fundamentally the relationship between qualia (I think it’s good/helpful u use that term btw) and what we intuitively think of as the “physical” brain is extremely mysterious. We can look at those neural circuits you refer to and watch the neurons fire but from an external ### [Thread, continued, 12:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793620481431740564) · 2 likes scientific perspective there’s no phenomenon to find. But then, as you correctly point out, it sure seems like qualia play a causal role in our behaviors eg talking about qualia on Twitter, and yet under a standard scientific worldview we should be able to account for ### [Thread, continued, 12:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793620836462825868) · 1 like these behaviors without any reference to the subjective qualitative experience per se Anyway all that is to say is that nobody has any idea including me and anyone who is confident in an account or explanation or whatever is overconfident ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 13:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793633123500273959) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 20, 2024:** 46\) In the spirit of Petrov Day, we should have a “People who did the right thing at considerable cost or risk to themselves but whose story we’ll (likely)… 47\) I’m pleased to announce that growth mindset (grit? are these different things?) is good after all: 1\) it “doesn’t work”? Hell yeah that’s a free lunch. Sounds like you can improve psychological wellbeing a bit (tbc I’m assuming it does this bc it does for me I think around ### [Thread, continued, 13:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793633844266225917) · 1 like episodes of failure and intuitively that would seem to generalize) without losing performance 2\) haha priors go brr (it would be weird to me if this had literally zero positive impact on some types of performance for some types of people sometimes) 3\) if I’m remembering right ### [Thread, continued, 13:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793634279337107897) there were like a handful of decent studies using indirect methods. Small positive effect was never ruled out Growth mindset is so back ### [Quote tweet, 14:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793650983416791432) · 2 likes This is a well-written email [![Chefs Kiss French Chef GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/GORUD7sW0AAWISZ.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793650983416791432/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) > **Quoting Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** You can read some email exchanges between OpenAI and ex-employees over at https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/351132/openai-vested-equity-nda-sam-altman-documents-employees. There are a lot of forms of courage, but this sure is one of them. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOO6cWlbkAIjRY2.png) ### [Reply, 14:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793656174698807757) · 1 like Lol what are non-x risk pilled people unhappy with Google about? They literally give away search, Drive with free storage, and Google maps for free (yes data, I am extremely happy to make this trade) ### [Tweet, 15:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793658257132933326) · 46 likes SCOOP: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GORarbTWAAAq4os.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 15:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793658704317014194) · 5 likes . @absurdlymax I think u will appreciate this. It’s just a copycat of ur litmus test tweet (I am a stochastic parrot with some modest ability to generalize out of distribution) ### [Tweet, 17:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793689609018220573) · 10 likes Who wants to sign a disparagement agreement so ur legally committed to roasting me publicly at some point ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793706793048449086) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 23, 2024:** there were like a handful of decent studies using indirect methods. Small positive effect was never ruled out Growth mindset is so back 48\) The intuitive category of “physical” breaks down on closer inspection The brain isn’t made up of tiny billiard balls; it’s made up of \*properties\* that cash out exactly and only (as far as we know) as their causal interaction with other properties (spin, color, mass, etc) ### [Thread, continued, 18:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793707667665629600) Physics ppl should fact check me on this (cc @AndyMasley) This is kinda an extremely cold take; I got it from Chomsky (I don’t remember the name of the paper, it was a reading for a philosophy of mind class) but also it sorta hints at the whole hard problem qualia situation ### [Thread, continued, 18:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793708324279480713) being like not a well-formed problem/question, fundamentally (like trying to formalize an intuitive notion of libertarian free will) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793710491107487883) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @sam_atis I'm picking based on familial proximity fwiw Same but in the opposite direction (THIS IS A JOKE I LOVE MY FAMILY but they are annoying sometimes) ### [Reply to @moreisdifferent, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793732679185162478) · 2 likes > **Dan Elton 🔍 (@moreisdifferent):** Physics Ph.D. here, LOL. This has been proven false. > > Nothing can casually interact with anything else faster than the speed of light. So physics is local in that sense. There is no "action at a distance". > > (quoting @meta__physics: ) What about love ### [Tweet, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793771515772915780) · 7 likes Gonna start an advocacy group called Non-Nicotine Users Against Stupid Laws and our one goal is to legalize vaping in public parks ## Friday, May 24, 2024 ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 00:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793801103772979713) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Lol this has got to be one of the actual worst questions you can ask a group of people who'd take the question seriously and be psychologically and emotionally responsive to doing bad things ### [Thread, continued, 00:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793801573128126951) · 3 likes This tweet is intended to be read in good humor by all ### [Tweet, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793808026240987331) · 8 likes .@FrostedSapling is a real mensch, you should give him a follow ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 03:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793840729279922483) · 4 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** Whoever at Anthropic that came up with this needs a raise > > (quoting @AnthropicAI: This week, we showed how altering internal "features" in our AI, Claude, could change its behavior. We found a feature that can make Claude focus intensely on the Golden Gate Bridge. Now, for a limited time, you can chat with Golden Gate Claude: http://claude.ai) I feel like making $900k instead of $800k might not buy u that much utility Perhaps a pizza party ### [Reply to @KelseyTuoc, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793880240156184691) · 10 likes > **Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** actually cannot accept this for COI reasons. Ok but u can accept memes right ### [Reply to @KelseyTuoc, 05:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793881620543623559) · 9 likes > **Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** I can accept memes but this appears to just be a normal pic of me at work? what's the meme Pic is unrelated, I was just curious ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 05:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793884338540732841) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 @billyhumblebrag Stuff an envelope with cash and send it to the vox office C/O Kelsey “NOT FOR KELSEY PIPER” on the front ### [Reply to @AaronEstel, 06:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1793884825486786874) · 2 likes > **Aaron (@AaronEstel):** what do you actually \*do\* differently if you're worried about micro plastics? Worry ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 13:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794002141528703369) · 3 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** It's real, it's out there. > > https://nanoporetech.com/products/sequence/smidgion Shoot ur shot kings ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOWTcHLXEAA6bzr.jpg) ### [Reply to @lillybilly299, 13:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794004311791308955) · 5 likes > **Lilly (@lillybilly299):** U know when ur working out and it sucks but then all of sudden ur whole body gets warm and u feel energized? What's going on there? No ### [Reply, 13:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794005000856719611) · 1 like Wait is this a thing for women but not men? ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 13:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794005272341450989) · 2 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** What's your biological sex? || Have you ever personally been on the 'dark web'? Male and honestly idk I downloaded tor and tried to follow some instructions but it’s way harder to navigate than you’d assume from reporting and pop culture Or maybe I’m just dumb ### [Quote tweet, 14:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794006666674848229) · 2 likes Call me naive but there is no way a user-friendly literal python app is technically impossible Put the top 1000 packages in and have them update when the computer isn’t in use. Can specify paths to any file but there’s a gui thing that’s the working directory by default > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 14:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794007847174336930) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ Maybe but if so it needs to up its “absolutely idiot-proof” game I think a dorky GUI is necessary for this ### [Reply to @zrkrlc, 14:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794009751266693209) · 2 likes > **junk has threaded 🛶 0/100 projects (@zrkrlc):** i, at the tender age of 28, have found myself in charge of a research lab\* > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOWEDZ3aoAEheeV.jpg) Based ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 15:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794021809467126115) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @TutorVals @kindgracekind @AaronBergman18 you're time is now Obligatory “this is the actual rigorous case” ### [Thread, continued, 15:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794023481387921823) · 2 likes Tbc I believe this weird intermediate version of moral realism Value realism, not normative realism ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOWm2SsXkAA5IMD.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794024345871741434) · 2 likes Hate to be like this but for now I’m just gonna throw some screenshots and a link at you. Uncoincidentally Max is also in this pod (and @littIeramblings) https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/pigeon-hour-x-consistently-candid ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOWnombXcAA73hm.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOWnomZXkAA3U8B.jpg) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 15:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794026144791957790) · 7 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Making money in general is often good for the world. Capitalism is good. Jobs in finance are often good. A lot of consultants do great work. Earning to give is a great bonus to all that. We should go to bat for it more often. > > (quoting @random_walker: One big appeal of effective altruism on college campuses is that when students come in a avowing public-interest career intentions but end up in finance or consulting—increasingly common according to the data—it gives them a readymade, high minded way to rationalize their choice.) I doubt we actually disagree on much but eh I’d say instead “almost everything neutral at the personal level. The next best finance or consulting guy is only a tiny bit worse on average. EtG dominates in both magnitude (as a nontrivial counterfactual change) and direction ### [Thread, continued, 15:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794026444261380309) · 2 likes (Direction if you actually try to do the whole EA thing with ur giving) ### [Reply, 15:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794034037868397032) · 1 like and then the institutions and incentives of modern life + standard materialist scientific worldview clash with what I think is a pretty fundamental psychological (maybe neurological, that’s another can of worms) attendance to and expectation of something like “the transcendent” ### [Thread, continued, 15:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794034982731608436) · 1 like IMO all this leads to a weird tepid form of nihilism that I think people are sort of scared of is true, but also resist both bc I think humans intrinsically dislike it but also bc we sense (I think for epistemically good reasons but ik lots of other ppl here disagree) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 16:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794038107349590252) · 4 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 There are different levels to talk about the good obviously. If we're talking about all animal welfare and conscious beings over all time then yeah jeez I don't know what jobs help at all, but if we mean "makes the average person slightly better off" then I'd go to bat for a lot. Finance/consulting industries yes drive the whole prosperity thing. Who specifically gets hired for the marginal job? Much less so ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 16:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794038227717718335) · 4 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Many people are saying > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOWwlp-WcAA9RfK.jpg) Based ### [Quote tweet, 16:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794038337155604853) · 5 likes 👀 > **Quoting Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Our book on the psychology of effective altruism is now out, freely available on OUP (link below) @LuciusCaviola > > In Part I, we explain why most altruism - like donations and volunteering - isn't effective > > In Part II, we discuss how to change that > > 1/13 > > https://academic.oup.com/book/56384 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOWXIrIW8AAFL_5.png) ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 16:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794041498679357837) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ Idk plausibly male and female attraction is pretty different on avg though Guessing that adding in straight vs gay doesn’t do much ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 16:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794043987537301820) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ Big if true ### [Reply to @ionsabug, 16:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794044516078408025) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ionsabug is no longer available.)_ 🌕✨U have been chosen✨🌕 ### [Quote tweet, 17:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794057755772219740) · 5 likes Status vibe-associating pseudoargument lent plausible deniability by the medium/platform > **Quoting “Boiling Heart’s Blood” Cassie (@Angry_Cassie):** Explains a lot about philosophers tbh > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOWhAKGXMAEebhG.jpg) ### [Reply to @EmmaSzewczak, 17:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794063883738488953) · 2 likes > **Emma Szewczak (@EmmaSzewczak):** \*example of a baby > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOWo4vcW0AA0xTB.jpg) I bet he or she does look approximately like that ### [Quote tweet, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794066744769699852) · 78 likes I see takes like this all the time but (setting aside AI stuff) lol I fucking love Google they made the whole earth into a map on my phone and let me search the entire internet for free instantly and (not many people know this) invented the Google Doc > **Quoting Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** Google is really just falling apart > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOXInb3WMAASBkh.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794066747475038629) · 7 likes Also for .5chatgpt/month they give me more cloud storage than I know what to do with so I can save every image and video I ever take which will follow me around the globe forever and also record video meetings which makes doing a chill podcast actually easy ### [Thread, continued, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794066748850778456) · 3 likes I don’t even own Alphabet stock. Just a fan. Idgaf if sometimes their experiments that lead to all the stuff above also mismatch Georgia (state) and Georgia (also a state) once in a while ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794067042548556270) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 Actually Microsoft invented Google docs I’m also a big fan of Word tbc They’re like the exact two different products that should exist ### [Tweet, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794068492984922179) · 3 likes 24 hour twitter fast ready go ## Saturday, May 25, 2024 ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794445545299157009) · 7 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** New EA castle just dropped This actually sounds like a nightmare lmao. If ur buying a city u gotta do all the city shit like idk trash and sewage and water, roads, makeshift hospital probably Ik EA has good ops people but like even still ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 19:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794446599235744007) · 3 likes > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** just found out women can only eat 1400 calories a day > > bro wtf And this is the compensation they get for being cold at all times. It sucks and it’s unfair and I’m mostly not joking ### [Quote tweet, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794451864882463184) · 14 likes Went for a walk. Now I think it’s insane that backpackers ever make it more than like 10-15 miles. 20 if the stars align. 30 with a pack and over terrain and such is insane > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** 24 hour twitter fast ready go ### [Thread, continued, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794451866904117664) · 5 likes Ultramarathons don’t even have to be a running thing to be insane. Traveling 100km on ur own two feet in one day is insane no matter what Some guy kept up a 6:47 mile pace for 100 miles. Wtf?! https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a28819230/zach-bitter-100-mile-world-record/ ### [Thread, continued, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794451870913589503) · 3 likes Now wondering what I could do in a day if properly incentivized (but also no like major psychological torment) 95% CI is like \[30, 70\]. I think I could do 50 for $1M, 60 is pushing it. If any rich ppl are reading this and wanna find out, hmu ### [Thread, continued, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794452141920436695) · 2 likes .@JesseTayRiver (and anyone), what’s ur one day max? ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 19:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794455388764471335) · 2 likes > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** @AaronBergman18 My all time daily steps record is 42k, which is like 25ish miles? Nice. About 35k today so far lol. For Boy Scouts I had to do 20 miles once. Kinda hard for like a 12 yo ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 21:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794488200754327892) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 Hard to say but nothing crazy. 6xIronman (2.4 swim, 112 bike, 26.2 run). Devils path was hard and w detours ~28 miles. The hungriest I ever got was 190 extremely hilly miles on a bike Ya might wanna pack a clif bar for that ### [Reply, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794491305571082287) · 1 like Load bearing [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1794491280250089472/pu/img/4OYyHszudeUpjqoz.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794491305571082287/video/1) (video, plays on X) ## Sunday, May 26, 2024 ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 00:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794522915104248219) · 4 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** uh this is a Joke making fun of Bad Practices in the pharmaceutical industry btw, i'm not serious It’s directionally wrong. Opioids are improperly withheld more than improperly prescribed, it seems. Ik ur like 9 so nbd but still Much of the “opioid crisis” \*now\* is the result of people dependent on eg oxy who can’t get it filled, so heroin and fentanyl and then they die ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 00:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794525408005611736) > **Aaron Bergman, May 23, 2024:** being like not a well-formed problem/question, fundamentally (like trying to formalize an intuitive notion of libertarian free will) I regret to report that I kinda like the idea of being able to express intuitive subjective inside view probability (maybe I’m a postrat now) Make a new term for it (ie expressing a psycho-emotional state per se), everybody wins ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 00:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794526036517916697) · 1 like > **henry (@arithmoquine):** @AaronBergman18 but in all seriousness i didn't know that, basically everything i've heard indicated it was the other way around. is this a recent shift? Idk exactly and also this isn’t something I’ve researched in depth, but my strong impression is it was an over correction by some combination of the FDA, DEA, civil society medicine, and maybe law enforcement to the thing everybody thinks is still the status quo ### [Quote tweet, 00:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794526550219702557) · 5 likes Listen I would like this bc of what it signals but really I’m not gonna be thrilled about the flowers per se lol > **Quoting rosey🌹 (@thechosenberg):** Get your man flowers 🥺😭 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOdbwRCawAALzCm.jpg) ### [Tweet, 00:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794528445516619843) · 6 likes I want apple health step tracking and such but for every biomarker known to man I would very happily get some sort of device implanted for this, probably several ### [Reply to @bschne, 08:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794650717690753136) · 3 likes > **Benjamin (@bschne):** @goblinodds gf here is clearly gender-neutral Fr ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 08:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794653337788563722) · 1 like > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** It's easy to measure in situ air conditioner capacity but almost no one does. The formula is 4.5 x CFM x change in enthalpy. Convert supply and return wet bulb temps to enthalpy with this chart. Don't apply gauges without first measuring enthalpy > https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwNBUTQhgeWRMWJ0eTQyMEJ3RzA/view?usp=sharing&resourcekey=0-RE0Dpwg518pX2gf8neDMYA I haven’t seen that word since AP Physics ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 08:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794654624751976519) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Phew > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOe5IMTWAAA4JEY.jpg) > (quoting @AndyMasley: I am about 1.5 Robert Caro audiobook-lengths of time away from finishing every 80k episode pray for me fam) Have u heard of effective altruism ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 09:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794663833057034359) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 24, 2024:** I don’t even own Alphabet stock. Just a fan. Idgaf if sometimes their experiments that lead to all the stuff above also mismatch Georgia (state) and Georgia… Update: they did not invent the google doc apparently. Sad. ### [Reply to @benmekler, 09:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794669039899623556) · 2 likes > **Ben Mekler (@benmekler):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOWjMirbYAA3Rqv.jpg) 10x cashiers exist ### [Reply to @kenthecowboy_, 10:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794672992783675769) · 2 likes > **ChiTown Kenny (@kenthecowboy_):** "In my experience, people in my ingroup tend to have more empathy" > > Dude no way I mean this but unironically ### [Reply, 10:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794674101807890714) · 5 likes Cmon lol it is obviously way harder being 5’3” ### [Reply to @CrocodileCam, 10:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794674740474577173) · 1 like > **Crocodile Cam⚡️🇨🇻 (@CrocodileCam):** If you see these in nature, please knock them over! They are a legit threat to the wildlife > > (quoting @InternetH0F: this gravity defying stone stack) Idea: we slaughter wild fish more humanely but let this guy stack rocks ### [Tweet, 10:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794678440379269619) · 7 likes More ppl need to get on the slide into dating doc google form -> friendzoned -> business partner pipeline ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 10:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794678728330752186) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 Which word? “Chart” ### [Reply to @8chabard, 10:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794679457695048162) · 2 likes > **Lysander, 8 CHA Bard (@8chabard):** lactose intolerance? skill issue. more like lactose incompetence Unironically? Exogenous lactase is cheap ### [Quote tweet, 10:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794680162363314407) · 7 likes Did u guys know u can submit goss too U can also DM me I love gossip. No infohazards or lying everything else is fair game > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @JMannhart @heartbulbous http://admonymous.co/a ### [Reply, 11:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794689212819845393) · 9 likes I am skeptical that a building can have an ideology ### [Reply to @mbateman, 11:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794690959172866396) · 2 likes > **Matt Bateman (@mbateman):** “I’ll lead the way. I want to get us lost. Just a liiiittle bit lost.” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOcNUYYXYAAXQVC.jpg) Real ## Monday, May 27, 2024 ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 04:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794952360768270490) · 6 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I’m trying to decide on a haircut and god I hate this so much Try my favorite, “this but shorter” ### [Reply to @dejectedvole, 05:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1794962447779909728) · 1 like > **Vampirical Critter 🏴‍☠️ (@dejectedvole):** I’ve said it before, but cyclists are the car users of pedestrians REAL ### [Quote tweet, 11:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795058489095516193) · 12 likes Endorse > **Quoting caninepoetry (@caninepoetry_):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOe1aH2WoAAhHnW.jpg) ### [Reply to @KatSpartz, 11:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795059169537479134) · 4 likes > **Kat Spartz ⏸️ 🔶 (@KatSpartz):** EA #1: "Wanna see my spreadsheet about the rat population of Ireland? 😃" > > EA #2: "Do I ever! 😍" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOazQZda4AAsp58.jpg) Poast rat link ### [Reply to @animalologist, 11:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795059643762229654) · 1 like > **taco belle (@animalologist):** I love happy doting couples and Tom and Zendaya are rly at the top of the list > > Boys, there are very few girls who don’t like being told they’re beautiful every day, this is free game \*taking notes\* ### [Tweet, 12:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795063851190256037) · 30 likes Yes the AMA is very bad. Income protection for the richest people in the world, and shameless ### [Reply to @Trail_Cams, 12:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795064432973775001) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @Trail_Cams is no longer available.)_ @RafaRuizdeLira ### [Quote tweet, 12:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795065544682430561) · 15 likes This is how u know it’s a banger > **Quoting Thinkwert (@Thinkwert):** Me rereading my own tweet everytime someone likes it. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOiWktGX0AE-mVj.jpg) ### [Reply to @antoniogm, 12:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795065737356218837) · 1 like > **Antonio García Martínez (agm.eth) (@antoniogm):** The Athenian agora wasn’t this lit. > > (Second guy is an aircraft carrier commander.) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOiXfsuagAAhydY.jpg) He should do it ### [Reply, 12:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795068457530101972) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Finally some peace and quiet ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 12:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795068607468068908) · 21 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** "hey guys im gonna need a mic for this stadium" The two genders ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOldYpgW0AAiWSZ.jpg) ### [Reply to @lillybilly299, 12:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795069775585964462) · 1 like > **Lilly (@lillybilly299):** Everyone in tpot is like "I'm a contrarian, that's why I'm hanging out in this group of people who all have the exact same contrarian opinions as me and get upset when people have different ones" Anyone reading this I’ve ever talked to irl can confirm that we’ve disagreed about something ### [Quote tweet, 12:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795072278671020038) · 4 likes I would pay $10-$20 for a normal like 2x3 foot-ish poster of this FYI > **Quoting Dexerto (@Dexerto):** A group of ducks in Portugal witnessed the meteor while on Twitch > > [video attached](https://x.com/Dexerto/status/1793054170251194837/video/1) ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 12:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795075487317852261) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 @Trail_Cams Fluffy and aesthetic Fr ### [Tweet, 12:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795076963368947903) · 6 likes This makes evolution seem more intuitively plausible ### [Quote tweet, 13:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795077747041018298) · 128 likes FWIW this is an issue where Republicans are just straightforwardly right and Dems are straightforwardly wrong > **Quoting POLITICO (@politico):** School choice programs have been wildly successful under DeSantis. Now public schools might close. http://ow.ly/EUAF105utkC ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 13:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795080209613324433) · 15 likes > **Dissproportionately (@dissproportion):** @AaronBergman18 If teachers unions didn’t decide to oppose this, they would be in agreement. This is how u know they got some clout ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 13:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795080533778542679) · 10 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 27, 2024:** FWIW this is an issue where Republicans are just straightforwardly right and Dems are straightforwardly wrong Pretty sure I wrote a few essays on this, teacher tenure, and related issues back in the day (elementary and middle school) ### [Reply to @thoth_iv, 13:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795083714403213336) · 2 likes > **Thŏth (@thoth_iv):** @robinhanson The authors seem to conspicuously leave out whether or not they think it actually has the intended effect. > > Most people would probably be biased to see their own actions as altruistically motivated. Also not clear that avoiding hurting a person’s feelings actually checks out as altruistic Plausibly receiving (some kinds of) negative feedback is good for a person in the long run ### [Reply to @dnschlz, 13:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795083969282654422) · 1 like > **dan (@dnschlz):** I remember thinking about this chart a lot in college and recognized it's probably true but didn't really grok it. 10 years later it's scary real. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOi44b6X0AAer4i.png) No stop infohazrd ### [Reply to @eepysillyboy, 13:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795085810124857397) · 11 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @eepysillyboy is no longer available.)_ Tbc I meant the cluster of policies in general called “school choice” rather than the subject of this particular article. But that’s not a crux for me - high prior on X Choice being better for almost every X where there is no huge principle agent problem ### [Thread, continued, 13:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795086092657426636) · 5 likes so burden of proof is on the other side. Afaik ~nobody thinks that school choice actually \*harms\* outcomes according to the empirical literature, right? ### [Tweet, 13:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795088059744022616) · 34 likes The correct neolib answer to the national service thing is just to point out that taxation + hiring people to do the exact proposed labor is basically a Pareto improvement ### [Reply to @BishopPair, 14:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795096762962633010) · 4 likes > **Dan (@BishopPair):** It’s so dire here, are you looking for a 51st state? Almost at the stage where we should just be put out of our misery I vote yes!! Canada and Mexico should get in on this too. Ideally everyone but let’s start small ### [Tweet, 14:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795100969572712693) · 35 likes “Is hitting kids bad?” discourse is such a perfect example of status quo bias ### [Reply to @AndyJScott, 14:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795101967091388583) · 2 likes > **Andy Scott (@AndyJScott):** "Anti-aging" has gone way too far, this came up on youtube and this guy is 35 years old, looks 12 and wears gloves outside > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOiB7WdWYAA6F6w.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOiC9_JXEAAhQNr.jpg) Could just have a serious endocrine disorder? Don’t ask me why I suspect ### [Reply to @pearl_please, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795189238410936534) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @pearl_please is no longer available.)_ Goss 👀👀👀 ## Tuesday, May 28, 2024 ### [Reply to @RuxandraTeslo, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795317692968387069) · 4 likes > **Ruxandra Teslo 🧬 (@RuxandraTeslo):** The hate at LeCun is very midwit. > > He's very charmingly French and also fights for and says what he thinks. One can only respect that. He has bad, wrong takes and the power to act on them ### [Tweet, 05:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795321361466073302) · 174 likes Golden rice is cool and all but is it not easier to just people beta carotene? Golden rice is literally just rice with beta carotene lol I feel like this must be a dumb take somehow… ### [Reply, 05:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795321584745668883) Screenshot for the blocked? ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795321838605910345) · 36 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 28, 2024:** Golden rice is cool and all but is it not easier to just people beta carotene? Golden rice is literally just rice with beta carotene lol I feel like this must… \*just give people ^ ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795322065668694495) · 4 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I told my barber I worked on AI Safety and no kidding he literally asked me whether I was worried about MISUSE RISKS DUE TO BIOSAFETY “Nah idgaf about those” ### [Reply to @Littoral_Gecko, 10:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795401175841595549) · 4 likes > **A Gecko🦎 (@Littoral_Gecko):** Isn’t it a thing with math that the axioms can be pretty arbitrary? > > You can get/discover ‘torture is bad’ from the moral axiom ‘pain is bad’, but ‘pain is bad’ doesn’t refer to any feature of the world. > > I’m not sure if the mathematics comparison is super favorable. “Pain is bad” is almost a tautology. Maybe it is a tautology. Pain without badness seems like an incoherent concept, like a 4 sided triangle I think people wanna disagree about whether you can move from “bad” as a weak descriptive property to “Bad” as a strong metaphysical ### [Reply, 10:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795406385758302303) I think this is just a matter of natural language not being able to describe subjective experience with high fidelity and the weirdness/complexity of subjective experience I don’t think anyone enjoys pain per se, and this is not a contingent fact of human psychology ### [Thread, continued, 10:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795407389388361874) · 2 likes people just associate things and introspection is hard I like modestly spicy food, but the spiciness is a necessary evil for lack of a better term; at the neurological level we know that spicy food elicits endorphin release which is what I and others are “actually” enjoying ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 11:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795417193791819893) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** My plan: > > Understand + mitigate AI risk → safety + trust → more AI adoption + innovation → utopia I hope it works ### [Reply to @JoshuaBlake_, 12:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795426152170831878) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @JoshuaBlake_ is no longer available.)_ Secret third thing ### [Reply to @netcapgirl, 12:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795426429171044722) · 2 likes > **sophie (@netcapgirl):** finally some peace and quiet Welcome to the gender ### [Tweet, 12:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795429707191668827) · 10 likes I want it to be cold again 😡 ### [Reply to @mpopv, 16:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795493160682188805) · 9 likes > **Matt Popovich (@mpopv):** A drop in replacement for the staple crop everyone eats requires no logistics beyond initial distribution, presumably? Whereas “get supplements continuously out to every rural region indefinitely” seems much harder Is this true? Plausibly \*now\* it’s lower additional cost/effort but like was the whole program of genetic engineering and distribution worthwhile to begin with? Sometimes bandaid solutions are just good because bandaids are very cheap, easy, and available ### [Reply to @YosarianTwo, 16:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795493745082995113) · 11 likes > **Yosarian2 (@YosarianTwo):** @AaronBergman18 If it's just as easy to grow as other rice and can be made just as cheaply, it seems like a cheaper and more efficient solution and probably a better one? Like putting iodine in salt was. The iodine thing which I agree was a huge success points towards exogenous fortification though ### [Reply to @EigenGender, 16:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795494321548083201) · 7 likes > **EigenGender 🔸 (@EigenGender):** distribution is hard! Yeah but is it harder than the whole research enterprise that generated golden rice? (Tbc maybe the answer is yes I just don’t know) ### [Quote tweet, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795495879891415438) · 6 likes This, from Golden Rice discourse, reminds me of a take (not super confident): I suspect lots of nonadherence in the context of medicine is actually functional > **Quoting norvid_studies (@norvid_studies):** @mpopv @AaronBergman18 yeah. medication adherence is hard even for people with serious diseases that have immediate negative consequences. ### [Thread, continued, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795495882139254829) · 4 likes Like the patient gets way more micro-level information about what they do and how they feel, and either consciously or subconsciously (or probably both most of the time) they judge that taking the medication (or doing whatever) actually isn’t wise ### [Thread, continued, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795495883762434212) · 4 likes I have no idea what % is like this ofc. Definitely more than 0% and less than 100%. But I guess my claim is that functional nonadherence is not rare and more than most doctors would guess ### [Reply to @EricRichards22, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795499529208303807) · 1 like > **Eric Richards (@EricRichards22):** Getting people to actually take vitamins in third-world countries where they actually need supplements is an insolvable problem unless you supplement in a way they can't avoid > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Golden rice is cool and all but is it not easier to just people beta carotene? Golden rice is literally just rice with beta carotene lol I feel like this must be a dumb take somehow…) Makes sense but this should be seen as a real cost. I’m not against paternalism as a fundamental principle but esp when dealing with what drugs/supplements/even vitamins this seems pretty sus. Do u know if the intention is for golden rice to replace old fashioned rice entirely? ### [Quote tweet, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795509308429308317) · 19 likes I hope others follow. Anthropic having a strong edge on talent would be very good I think > **Quoting Jan Leike (@janleike):** I'm excited to join @AnthropicAI to continue the superalignment mission! > > My new team will work on scalable oversight, weak-to-strong generalization, and automated alignment research. > > If you're interested in joining, my dms are open. ### [Reply, 17:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795511277982302376) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Fish aren’t extremely cheap to produce in huge quantities BOTEC says a days recommended vitamin A via beta carotene costs $.001 (ie a dollar for 3 years or so) ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 19:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795539936629985328) · 1 like > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** My intuition on this topic is very different, my default assumption is that most Rx nonadherence is not useful. Most drugs people frequently take don't have quick feedback loops in terms of how you feel, so I don't think self-knowledge is that important here (also low confidence) Yeah I think I agree with “most”. Probably a lot of elderly ppl I’d guess I was really thinking in the context of vitamin a deficiency and beta carotene pills… ### [Thread, continued, 19:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795540500268884379) · 2 likes Like I weakly expect that adherence among people with a clinical deficiency who tried at least one dose will be reliably high enough to cure the deficiency, even if general nonadherence would be very high Human body is pretty good at nutrition intuitions ### [Tweet, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795547673098965485) · 10 likes I feel like I have an unusual knack for posting earnest things that read as bait ### [Reply, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795548266022539276) · 1 like No lol. Thing factory > thing is a good generalization but in this specific case plausibly doesn’t check out because (1) (I’m assuming) developing golden rice took a lot of time, money, and effort and (2) synthetic beta carotene is trivially cheap to produce ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 22:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795579306112086084) · 7 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** What would be the steps involved to get the letter Q removed from the alphabet This is actually pretty interesting to think through What is the hardest arbitrary, amoral goal you think you could achieve? This seems too hard but within 2 OOMs maybe ### [Reply to @nkreu113r, 22:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795581368367542445) · 2 likes > **noah (@nkreu113r):** @WilliamAEden Abolition of slavery. More broadly: equal rights under the law. This trumps all the others given in the replies IMO Transatlantic chattel slavery of is one of the worst things of all time and it’s competitors are either still happening (factory farming) or weren’t really intentionally ended ### [Reply to @WilliamAEden, 22:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795587885930082328) · 4 likes > **William Eden (@WilliamAEden):** What is the clearest example of moral progress, historically? It’s a different kind of thing than the others here, but moral philosophy itself. Idk where this starts, theological versions of this shouldn’t be categorically excluded. Definitely Kant and Bentham are in. Probably Hobbes, maybe Martin Luther ### [Reply to @polisisti, 22:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795588232836772244) · 7 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 Giving beta carotene would mean people would need to remember to take it, and in the right quantities. Adding it to an existing food helps people get the nutrient without doing anything extra. > > This is why iodine is regularly added to salt, and vitamin D to cow's milk I’m a big fan of iodized salt ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 22:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795589146758754319) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Is there anyone reading this who > 1\) Is good at building websites and > 2\) Can build a website like what I made here with a billion dots to show the number of chickens in factory farms, but that actually looks good? > https://sites.google.com/view/factory-farmed-chickens/home Probably not, but I can (and did) make a strictly worse version that takes forever to load https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/chickens ### [Thread, continued, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795590630728765842) · 2 likes Fr though do u have any specific ideas/changes you’d want yours to have. It does get the point across, and looks totally fine ## Wednesday, May 29, 2024 ### [Tweet, 03:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795660918959047025) · 24 likes Thx ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOt4FTXWMAAU54s.jpg) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 06:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795702401053471086) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Is there anyone reading this who > 1\) Is good at building websites and > 2\) Can build a website like what I made here with a billion dots to show the number of chickens in factory farms, but that actually looks good? > https://sites.google.com/view/factory-farmed-chickens/home Update. This might not even be awful (not production ready tho). Meet all 1.6B chickens, 100 at a time and 2000 per second https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/chickens ### [Reply, 06:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795704670511661220) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ What doesn’t kill u makes u post it on twitter ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 06:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795708056631996544) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** Good critique of EA. > > (quoting @lymanstoneky: I have enjoyed reading @Benthamsbulldog recently and I also enjoy ribbing effective altruists so I have responded to his piece on EAism and explained why I think effective altruism is, actually, quite bad. https://medium.com/@lymanstone/why-effective-altruism-is-bad-80dfbccc7a68) Admittedly I only skimmed but I don’t see much of value. What did I miss? ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 06:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795708837196189851) · 4 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** Yeah I think so. I think it was extremely good animal welfare, basically made the case that EA has failed to make a large dent on the classic EA issues, and pointed out that it is indeed a bit sus that lots of EA money is going to rich people. I don’t remember the global health stats of the top of my head but aren’t a large proportion of farmed animals in the world rn (chickens) out of battery cages almost certainly due to EA efforts? And ofc this is an intermediate proxy but Biden EO + Paul Christiano at NIST ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 10:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795761772961431806) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AndyMasley I could do it if @AaronBergman18 if no one else volunteers 👀 Agus plz make something better (not sarcastic) https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/chickens3 ### [Reply, 10:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795766695715307858) Wait what? Not spent or saved? Kinda seems like those are the two options for any given dollar ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 10:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795769115631563112) · 1 like > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 @robertwiblin I assume he meant saved as in invested? 🧠 ### [Reply to @SchmidtIbanez, 12:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795795693405118633) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @SchmidtIbanez is no longer available.)_ I mean of all the word combinations to try to really hurt me with this doesn’t get super high ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 13:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795813079927705786) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @robertwiblin is no longer available.)_ Maybe I'm missing something but I think there is an injection of real resources into the UK economy. Like some people value hearing Taylor Swift above their next best (expected?) option evidently and so the sum of those deltas of consumer surplus I think constitute whatever ### [Thread, continued, 13:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795813601359335655) · 1 like the true correct figure is. Under a bunch of standard assumptions it is bounded below by $0, in the case where Taylor just barely outcompeted her alternatives and above by whatever the collective willingness to pay of ticket purchasers is. Idk if there are any fancy tricks to ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 14:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795819828932145394) · 1 like > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I don't mind that OpenAI staffers signed non-disparagement agreements for money. > > But it seems like a huge conflict of interest if any of those people went to work for neutral AI organisations/regulators when they weren't going to criticise OpenAI, without disclosure. I mind. I also understand and not sure I’d have done differently, but still ### [Reply to @ea_paddington, 14:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795822094862938510) · 1 like > **EA Paddington 🍊🔸 (@ea_paddington):** @AaronBergman18 Should I ask some of my polar bear frens if you can crash? Ya ### [Tweet, 14:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795826824037245187) · 14 likes Kinda annoying they made the basketball hoop at like the exact height to select most strongly for height/wingspan. Lower is in everyone’s reach, higher is in nobody’s ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 15:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795833785969418532) · 5 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Whenever i go viral I find out what people assume i am. Today I’m getting criticism for being an elon stan and an e/acc. apologies to both groups Guessing you’ve been a woke decel before too lmao ### [Reply, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795935398113296817) · 2 likes Worth it for the pun alone ## Thursday, May 30, 2024 ### [Reply to @livgorton, 00:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795981720107299231) · 1 like > **Liv (@livgorton):** “Please for God's sake don't make anything important with this” > > is that a challenge, Aaron? 👀 Uh let’s go with yes ### [Reply to @tylertracy321, 01:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795992796505030759) · 2 likes > **Tyler Tracy (@tylertracy321):** Today was my last day as a software engineer at @SupplyPike. I'll be in the MATS program this summer working with @bshlgrs! I'm super excited to start working on AI safety fulltime!! Nice ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 01:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1795996812844667087) · 1 like > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** So many people whose thinking I respect basically use the one simple trick of asking "What if instead of lurching for the most immediate slogan I can find, I just stop and think for even a moment." Ridiculously overpowered. Thinking should be safe, legal, and rare ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 02:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796001061678776361) · 4 likes > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** there's a category of person who asks "why do I feel so tired and terrible all the time, I'm doing all this exercise and take all these supplements" > > and then when you ask how much they sleep they're like "5-6 hours a night" Sometimes this is an effect (of smth more primary/fundamental) much more than a cause I vaguely think there’s like a nervous system-endocrine-psychiatric cluster that includes chronically high cortisol, whatever the word is for the fight or flight nervous subsystem dominance, ### [Thread, continued, 02:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796001447257031103) · 2 likes and depression. Also maybe something about inflammation her which I know is not in vogue right now lol ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 12:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796154734765650196) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Quick PSA that my last name's pronounced "May-zlee" not "Mah-zlee" I'm realizing that even people I've been around for years forget how to say it and I get introduced wrong a lot Big if true ### [Reply to @ben_golub, 12:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796161997832138853) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ben_golub is no longer available.)_ Brilliant ### [Quote tweet, 12:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796162563194909157) · 202 likes The crazy thing is that all the steps check out. This meme is an accurate model > **Quoting Chris Freiman (@cafreiman):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOvg5frWwAA90-O.jpg) ### [Tweet, 13:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796167647790338560) · 22 likes Girls really do be having theory of mind ### [Reply to @RokoMijic, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796172751717142827) · 6 likes > **Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** @AaronBergman18 Now the next one after that is "we must reduce suffering in video game characters"... If and only if that step checks out, and I don’t think it does (even if digital suffering in general is plausible) ### [Reply to @bustyjeacs, 13:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796174470169719203) · 14 likes > **Justin Beaconsfield (@bustyjeacs):** @AaronBergman18 IF you assume utilitarianism No, the observation that ~every moral theory gives some nontrivial consideration to suffering and is sufficient. This point rarely gets made I think because it’s taken for granted among people highly engaged in analytic philosophy-brand ethics ### [Quote tweet, 14:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796187398344163739) · 5 likes Lol this is what my quarter-baked shitty R package was made for, except I didn’t know it had a name (“multiverse analysis”) and didn’t do any like econometrics or theory I just figured it was the right way to do things lol > **Quoting Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** Nutrition science is filled to the brim with embarrassingly low quality research. > > The modal nutritional epidemiological study is a heavily confounded cross-sectional one with results that don't hold up and don't reflect causal effects, but rather, that certain people opt into having or reporting having certain diets. So if you're going to do nutrition studies, at least do them in the multiverse. > > The way this works is basically by exploiting disagreement about the proper way to specify a model. > > As an example, imagine there are two people, Cynthia and Bob. Cynthia thinks that to properly analyze the effect of a vegan diet on cardiovascular health, we just need to control for education, sex, and age and then we can compute a hazard ratio for heart attacks. Bob thinks we need to control for sex, age, and we need to use a different measure of cardiovascular health. So in the multiverse analysis, we run both models and report both results. But not only that, we run every set of analyses in between. > > Here's a recent empirical example of how this plays out in practice: assessing the impact of red meat consumption on all-cause mortality. > > Wang et al. used the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to check the relationship with every possible combination of these variables: > > They used outright different models, operationalized red meat consumption in different ways, looked within different groups, and used a lot of different controls, like smoking status, pregnancy, BMI, etc. When you plot the coefficients from all of these more than one thousand different specifications on a curve from the lowest to the highest effect size, it looks like this: > > The blue lines are significant, negative estimates, and the red lines are significant, positive ones. Overall, there's just not much there. If you want to look at your favored specification, you can check that out in the paper, but because there's so little there, I'm just going to focus on the aggregate result: 4% of specifications had significant results (roughly the 5% expected by chance), the median effect size was a hazard ratio of 0.94 (i.e., a nonsignificant 6% reduction in all-cause mortality), and the average of all specifications' Z-values was not more extreme than would be expected if red meat didn't do anything to all-cause mortality. > > Looking at every result, it seems like there's nothing worth caring about here. The specifications with significant results looked basically random and marginal, but if you were motivated, you could probably write a paper on them. You might even be able to get it published, and it would look like a typical nutrition epidemiology paper. > > The meta point here is less about red meat and more about how we ought to do cross-sectional research without causal designs. We cannot and should not get rid of this sort of research. We need to know things are related, so when we do it, we should do it in multiverse analyses that show that our results hold up in reasonable alternative models, as with the example of red meat and death. > > If you want to read the paper, it's here: https://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895-4356(24)00033-7/fulltext > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOxXRFiW4AAUMeH.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOxfcoAXkAA7idF.jpg) ### [Reply, 14:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796190344599486603) Actually idk I don’t have a strong view against what you’re saying here. Just that many irl questions basically take the form of “ok but fr does this matter in general?” rather than anything very well-defined and in such cases multiverse is a good tool to get a general sense ### [Reply to @pearl_please, 15:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796197443379339492) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @pearl_please is no longer available.)_ Hat ### [Reply to @pearl_please, 15:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796197862931407104) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pearl_please is no longer available.)_ Claude: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO1gb28WIAApeNA.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO1gb25XUAAuICH.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 15:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796204840416059566) · 28 likes This is based af > **Quoting Sasha Putilin (curious irrationalist) (@42irrationalist):** At a shrimp welfare protest in London right now with 70 other people. @ConLiCats is wearing an amazing shrimp outfit in the photo. > > It's pretty much entirely silent — I am tempted to start shouting "Shrimp Welfare Matters!" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO1X3auXwAA8z2L.jpg) ### [Reply to @42irrationalist, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796205043147800576) · 14 likes > **Sasha Putilin (curious irrationalist) (@42irrationalist):** At a shrimp welfare protest in London right now with 70 other people. @ConLiCats is wearing an amazing shrimp outfit in the photo. > > It's pretty much entirely silent — I am tempted to start shouting "Shrimp Welfare Matters!" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO1X3auXwAA8z2L.jpg) There aren’t many things one can do to get an instant follow on twitter, but wearing a shrimp costume in this context is one of them ### [Thread, continued, 15:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796205243216048284) · 2 likes No bad advertisement ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO1nJiFWYAAn1FV.jpg) ### [Reply to @tescrealaccist, 15:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796209867851444497) · 3 likes > **TESCREAL/acc💙 (@tescrealaccist):** I don’t like this tweet because it’s racist > > I don’t like this lady because shes avoiding important food regulations and defecting in a prisoner’s dilemma > > (quoting @ImMeme0: Welcome to New York Sh\*tty.) This is neither a prisoners dilemma nor anyone defecting lol It would be defecting if she set up a restaurant with a fake inspection certificate ### [Reply to @burny_tech, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796220031119827251) · 3 likes > **Burny - Effective Curiosity (@burny_tech):** Do they suffer or swim in bliss? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO10SU7WgAQWZQS.png) ### [Quote tweet, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796223693082755313) · 17 likes I’m doubling down on this in a less memey way I don’t care if R is slower. Time spent trying to figure out how to get 11 different versions of python, pip\[3x\]?, and whatever tf brew and conda are to talk to each other in the right way >> .7 seconds of latency/day > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I won't go down without a fight > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FtfDJbcWAAAXTHP.jpg) ### [Reply, 17:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796227515587117348) Yeah I basically agree but think this is often appropriate because the world is a causal salad If you care about causality, you can try to do micro-level mechanistic reasoning or observation or be blessed with an RCT or natural experiment, but in all these cases you’re studying ### [Thread, continued, 17:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796228511474303332) a phenomenon in one specific setting, not the phenomenon in general, which means that additional often contentious assumptions have to be made if you want to generalize Maybe more importantly, I think multiverse is a very useful “bird’s eye view” tool but any specific algorithm ### [Reply, 17:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796231212316639662) value from a multiverse analysis means that “yup, this result is real” \*can\* make a marginal difference to the quality of literature in various fields but just aren’t sufficient to do excellent epistemics lol This feels kinda anti-rigorous to say but for answering almost any ### [Thread, continued, 17:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796231883170406691) question of any kind, you have a playbook with a thousand + different tools and options (literal observation with your senses, a priori reasoning, debate, prediction markets, and ofc the entire field of econometrics) and there’s no God’s eye level view saying which configuration ### [Reply to @simoj_, 17:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796233211569177010) · 2 likes > **simoj (@simoj_):** I don’t care about the speed but R syntax is so ugly I can’t Taste issue 💅 ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796233600859529537) · 8 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** at this point I would like @TheZvi to write short reviews of his own newsletters Real ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 17:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796235273124397195) · 10 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** The problem with Lyman is that he is, in my opinion, fundamentally wrong about the concept of right and wrong and of what makes for a good society > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOwENmrXYAAw1YO.jpg) I actually find this extremely refreshing (the screenshot). This is peak epistemic legibility and I’m not joking ### [Reply, 17:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796235764243783784) · 1 like Also there is definitely a dollar amount someone could donate to something would get me to get baptized and regularly attend church. It’s not even a crazy high number. Moral trade is unironically on the table ### [Reply to @tescrealaccist, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796242121722097920) · 2 likes > **TESCREAL/acc💙 (@tescrealaccist):** The only people that have problems with different Python versioning and package management are those who are learning it themselves, and not learning it as part of a (good) corporate or (good) university tradition. > > One must be part of an existing church to commune with god well Yup that’s me (learning on my own) ### [Quote tweet, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796245539148755005) · 67 likes My most neurotic take is that it makes total sense to drink decaf coffee with a caffeine pill so you actually know how much caffeine you’re ingesting One cup of coffee could be like 90-250mg, and the deltas add up! > **Quoting 0.005 Seconds (3/694) (@seconds_0):** Brewing a pot of decaff on accident and throwing 400mg of caffeine anhydrous on top to balance the scales ### [Reply to @RFishBlueFish, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796245991043355131) · 2 likes > **Gil (@RFishBlueFish):** @AaronBergman18 @SpacedOutMatt @NathanB60857242 @ryancbriggs I think many other people who give decidedly less consequentialist rationale are also making their reasoning explicit and clear to follow, it’s just that you reject that it’s valid reasoning Almost nobody has explicit reasoning for almost anything (including me) ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 18:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796247164508848570) · 2 likes > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** @AaronBergman18 Being able to be precise about caffeine intake is so useful. I use these mints (3/day spaced between 8-noon) to get just the right amount for me. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HH9HYUU 40mg each. God bless you ### [Reply, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796249956757418158) · 1 like Lol at first I thought coastal elite was the name of the cafe and went to see how far I was Yeah u should relate to real Americans more by exclusively frequenting diners and bars ### [Thread, continued, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796250045018485157) · 2 likes This would be an awesome name for a coffee shop, no?! ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796257142300938679) > **Aaron Bergman, May 26, 2024:** I regret to report that I kinda like the idea of being able to express intuitive subjective inside view probability (maybe I’m a postrat now) Make a new term… ^that was (48) 49\) restricting what information you allow yourself (eg the p values of many possible regressions) to know is not epistemically bad in general; it’s only viewed that way in the context of p-hacking/publication because academics have… ### [Thread, continued, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796257564495331770) done that and then selectively reported one result with at least a partial implication that this result wasn’t one of 100 possibilities. More generally proxy norms like this are only needed where there are incentives stronger than “figure out + communicate the truth” ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 19:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796258420477116868) · 1 like > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 but this is not what the multiverse analysis gives you! because of confounders and colliders, most of the regression coefficients you’re going to get are going to be 100% artificial and not reflective of anything real in the world I mean it doesn’t hand you that on a silver platter lol. You still need to do qualitative reasoning and interpretation and then, yes, do other statistical analyses Anyway I think I’m retiring from this thread. We should just have a fist fight about it. Much quicker and easier ### [Quote tweet, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796269764253286507) · 43 likes One man’s modus ponens is another man’s modus tollens > **Quoting Emmett Shear (@eshear):** This a beautiful proof that atoms must be conscious, actually ### [Thread, continued, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796269801028964703) · 9 likes What a great saying ## Friday, May 31, 2024 ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796330781490696551) · 7 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @AaronBergman18 This like thanks to my good opinion of you. This could mean so many things lol. Me, with the pathetic atrophied theory of mind of a male, trying to figure out what these many things are ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO3ZU4MWsAAQBZZ.jpg) ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 00:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796332548764922209) · 3 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** What is even the alleged prisoner’s dilemma? > > I swear people say “prisoner’s dilemma” to cover any situation from which a player can defect, but defection is much bigger than prisoner’s dilemmas! Any situation in which at least one person must decide whether to do anything prosocial is a prisoner’s dilemma ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 00:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796334669773906348) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AndyMasley Untrue, sometimes it's who you expected ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO3c3IEXEAA948O.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796375476451336502) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @ilex_ulmus Aaron I don't want to be controversial but I don't think the quality of your theory of mind is because of your gender What’s it like to be a max ### [Reply to @economeager, 03:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796379547258253565) · 14 likes > **Rafe Meager (they/them) (@economeager):** Do you think the average layperson could name even one single statistician? if so, who? Probably Mr. Normal (I’m guessing he invented the normal distribution) ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 03:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796380204711190930) · 1 like > **henry (@arithmoquine):** i like presenting as aesthetically boring. i'm a blank slate character It’s often hard to get across that when the style is that of \*me\*, I have no intrinsic preferences. I care only about what looks good to others (and comfort, which dominates 99% of the time tbh) ### [Reply to @ContainerEnjoyr, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796382405785493584) · 2 likes > **Container Enjoyer (@ContainerEnjoyr):** @AaronBergman18 @arithmoquine Ah, but you care about much more. You don't care about other elements of \*fashion\* besides what looks good to others, but let your worldview shine unabated and undeflected through every moment and you'll find people will see you clothed in dignity. Yes this is true, I do have something like an aesthetic preference for this ### [Reply to @sullyj3, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796401098032615672) · 2 likes > **░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░ (@sullyj3):** @AaronBergman18 @simoj\_ yes please give me "x %>% f" - Statements dreamed up by the utterly Deranged sullyj3 %>% rm ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 04:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796403839886872858) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ Hasn’t happened yet. AI news affects how long I feel (and think) I have to live ### [Tweet, 05:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796413654965084513) · 9 likes ChatGPT is decel ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO4ksrLXYAA2xWt.jpg) ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 15:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796557358518415402) · 5 likes > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** thanks @google very helpful > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO6SNDYW0AAv4o9.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO6SNEzW0AAhjkz.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO6SNEzXEAAozw3.jpg) Maybe nothing newsworthy has happened in Africa recent???? Let them chill ### [Reply to @chrislakin, 15:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796570912650891300) · 3 likes > **Chris Lakin (@chrislakin):** let's get cancelled, on Thursday. What will you say? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOsHhcVaYAAQcFw.jpg) Omg want ### [Quote tweet, 15:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796571176703332399) · 5 likes Same. I’ll delete this tweet if that changes > **Quoting Rob Bensinger ⏹️ (@robbensinger):** I am indeed not under any secret NDAs that I can't even mention exist. ### [Reply to @LordDreadwar, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796572679337869321) · 2 likes > **Darth Dreadwar 🔺 (@LordDreadwar):** @AaronBergman18 I never made such a Tweet 👀 ### [Tweet, 16:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796573642765295889) · 9 likes I am accepting not only goss but also any cool info/notes/vibes/whatever from EAG 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀 ### [Reply, 16:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796580226769748459) · 1 like Idk what most of this means but my reaction with low confidence is (to the first q) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO68McgW4AEE8jL.jpg) ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 16:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796580357602750671) · 5 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** henrycorp pitch deck slide 1/1. who's in? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO6xWZjWUAEXxsT.jpg) “Human”? You need to think bigger ### [Quote tweet, 16:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796583547790295299) · 45 likes With obligatory “idk enough to be super confident”, my initial take is: This should be extremely illegal. P(sentient) is way too high and it’s not already integrated into the economy. It’s like octopus factory farming with a ton of uncertainty thrown in > **Quoting vittorio (@IterIntellectus):** ai + nano + neuro is the future > buckle up because it’s coming > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO2DXhgaQAQhn7Q.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 16:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796583549879099628) · 7 likes Normal legislation doesn’t seem intractable. Plenty of precedent for Congress to step in ### [Quote tweet, 17:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796591019590549576) · 10 likes Big moment for us nitpickers: “explained” has a bunch of non-obvious assumptions packed into it here: What we see is that women aren’t merely avoiding teenage motherhood but \*not having those kids later on, either\* > **Quoting Felix Helberg (@unitas_spiritus):** "More than half the drop in America’s total fertility rate is explained by women under the age of 19 now having next to no children." > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOrxh59XIAAX6XS.png) ### [Thread, continued, 17:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796591021645840706) · 3 likes Naively this is not what I’d expect if all I learned is that for some reason teenage pregnancy stopped being a thing. I’d expect basically the same fertility rate overall ### [Tweet, 17:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796591792059711919) · 6 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO7GtmAXAAAwUYu.jpg) ### [Reply to @strangestloop, 17:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796593142701162619) · 6 likes > **Loopy (@strangestloop):** What are your favorite 1-pan meals? You guys are making things with more than one pan? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO7H8UAWoAE1VDA.jpg) ### [Reply to @sfchronicle, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796594207861416239) · 22 likes > **San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle):** San Franciscans would be right to be skeptical of Ulukaya, who has no apparent connection to our city or to craft beer. > > Especially since he said he “didn’t know Anchor existed” until last summer. Brewery buyer: I consent Brewery seller: I consent Beer drinkers: I consent San Francisco Chronicle: I don’t! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO7I6TpW0AAZoD2.jpg) ### [Reply to @keysmashbandit, 17:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796594597084487721) · 10 likes > **keysmashbandit (@keysmashbandit):** @tautologer butch seeking twink dating app when pls Is the normie translation for this “men who are exclusively attractive to bisexuals (among women)?” Bc if so I’m in ### [Reply to @tiredofn0ise, 17:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796596613974196646) · 748 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @tiredofn0ise is no longer available.)_ I half wanna try this now lmao ### [Thread, continued, 17:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796596865015939432) · 15 likes I’ve done its counterpart (no acute effect besides a vasovagal reaction to the first shot lol) so it’s only fair ### [Reply to @AaronEstel, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796600193653362884) · 2 likes > **Aaron (@AaronEstel):** what's the origin of "touch grass"? Grass ### [Reply to @polisisti, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796602678539399249) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** Have any tweeps made an Interlibrary Loan request from across the Atlantic and acquired the material successfully? > > I just tried to request something from England, and the holding library just said "lol nope". Should I even bother with future requests from Europe? Poast book ### [Tweet, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796609044494328274) · 43 likes My ingroup is people who say “almost tautological” ### [Reply to @thiagovscoelho, 18:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796615160108396722) · 86 likes > **Thiago ✱ (@thiagovscoelho):** purely recreationally of course As opposed to professionally? Yes ### [Reply to @LabGrownNeet, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796619692829737251) · 1 like > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** common aella W We must protect her ### [Reply to @livgorton, 19:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796621745199173948) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** vibing with the kangaroos is as good as it sounds > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFdRyOcaEAAxQoO.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFdRyOibsAAaYos.jpg) > (quoting @gptbrooke: Vibing and HANGING OUT WITH LITERAL KANGAROOS I hopped on a video chat with someone there and SAW THEM MYSELF) Can u confirm ### [Reply to @Casagrandezz, 19:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796625311473225966) · 5 likes > **HB (@Casagrandezz):** There’s an interview with an nba trainer said he devoted every waking hour into basketball & training in college but couldn’t make it professionally. When he joined the nba as a trainer he learned that some of the best players eat complete shit & work out like twice a month. Ya ### [Reply to @burny_tech, 19:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796625722284425255) · 2 likes > **Burny - Effective Curiosity (@burny_tech):** A ""top secret"" meeting is kicking off in Madrid with the CEOs of Google DeepMind, Anthropic and Microsoft AI in attendance > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO7kL94WAAIGzy1.jpg) 👀 CEO ppl if u want me to come and take notes I’ll hop on a flight right away 👍 ### [Quote tweet, 19:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796627488707072243) · 9 likes Scold I know but rich people actually buying luxury shit like this is extremely distasteful Yes I know capitalism is good for various reasons. Thanks for producing some consumer surplus, probably > **Quoting DHH (@dhh):** Thank you HTML-over-the-wire 😄 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO1s5eEaAAAjhzH.jpg) ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 19:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796627752323321896) · 2 likes > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** @AaronBergman18 @CatgirlAnarcho Afaik it increases sensitivity to stimulants so it could help you lol Lol ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796630720258961730) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 31, 2024:** My ingroup is people who say “almost tautological” Glad to see that I’m my own ingroup ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO7qHjyW0AA2rXk.jpg) ### [Reply, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796631384368287952) · 1 like Based. I hope the alligators stopped eating ppl over there ### [Thread, continued, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796632932297097471) Hmm ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO7sIWpXwAAEjVV.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO7sIWeWAAAu00q.jpg) ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796633458313208014) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ How does one acquire baby ### [Reply to @livgorton, 21:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796652205476401467) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** do i get an admonymous or are people mean 😭😭 > > it worries me that people could given feedback where it either just is not constructive and makes me sad, or it’s hard to know if it’s actually something i should action. > > but also there are ways in which doing it seems good?? I think the answer is some bits are helpful, some are mean, some are both, and most are neither Plausibly you could give it to only ppl you trust, idk how hard it is to change the url though if you wanna adjust ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 21:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796659680443244864) · 5 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 Hey girlie I have some hot goss for you, we all miss you so much and are sad we couldn't meet you in person 🥺🥺🥺❤️❤️❤️ ### [Thread, continued, 21:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796659805496504724) · 5 likes Just kidding stfu that brainpower could be used for digital shrimp etc. ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 23:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796682890643697939) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @ohwizenedtortle @AaronBergman18 I can confirm that all of this is indeed true ❤️🙏🏼🦐 ### [Reply to @InVitroFuture, 23:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796684120094912937) · 2 likes > **Macrophysiological System🐀 (@InVitroFuture):** @AaronBergman18 I work with brain organoids. p(sentient) is minuscule and will be for many years if not decades to come. If human fetal development is anything to go by, you simply don't get anywhere near sentience by glomming biological neurons together willy-nilly. > https://www.mdpi.com/2674-1172/2/1/4 I mean I hope you’re right but it’s not a question science can answer. I’m not sure it’s a question philosophy or anyone else can answer either, given that thousands of brilliant people are still arguing about the necessary and sufficient conditions for phenomenal consciousness ### [Quote tweet, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796687064668193036) · 5 likes Ik the swe hiring market sucks but I was pretty under the impression that people with technical college majors are basically not limited by that major (exception = med school) Fr it sucks if you really wanna be a swe but do people realize they can just do whatever else? > **Quoting Prakash (@8teAPi):** Ouch 🤕 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO72gGsaEAAmZJW.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796687067151311328) · 3 likes To be fair maybe math and physics are stronger technical/intelligence in general for very competitive non-swe/cs roles (I’m not actually sure) But no way cs majors are unhirable in general ### [Reply to @InVitroFuture, 23:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796689021793378451) · 2 likes > **Macrophysiological System🐀 (@InVitroFuture):** Let me rephrase: given what we know about the ontology and neural correlates of normal human consciousness, any ensemble of human neurons as small, immature, and disorganized as an organoid has only a minusculely higher chance of being sentient than a plant does. Thanks, somehow I missed the paper you linked above which looks good and important ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796689872779919384) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 31, 2024:** Normal legislation doesn’t seem intractable. Plenty of precedent for Congress to step in Good news for the world, bad news for me being able to intuit everything correctly and slinging takes accordingly (I only glanced at the paper tbc so not totally retracting the above but still it is tentatively reassuring) --- End of May 2024. Previous month: [April 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-04). Next month: [June 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-06). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, June 2024 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in June 2024 and has not deleted: 454 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [May 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-05). Next month: [July 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-07). ## Saturday, June 1, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 00:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796694773371166728) · 10 likes Big if true (literally this time) > **Quoting Stephan J. Guyenet (@sguyenet):** We now have two large, convincing randomized controlled trials reporting that replacing regular salt with potassium-enriched salt substitute (~75% NaCl, 25% KCl) reduces cardiovascular events and probably all-cause mortality. > https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmoa2105675 > https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02286-8 ### [Reply, 15:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796931203708154068) · 3 likes Based based based based based based (Less dramatic, more typical story: doctor insisted that the maximum dose of a very boring, safe, non-controlled medication was 60mg/day. I was like "it says 80 here" holding the uptodate app but I didn't push it) ### [Reply to @adam__isom, 16:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796940730088239239) · 2 likes > **adam ✧ ❥ ~ (@adam__isom):** I actually appreciate this in EA thinking, this motivation from uncertainty > > by contrast, EAs who've convinced themselves that either (a) software jobs are gonna go away, or (b) AGI is definitely a real thing coming--these un-humble positions decrease my credence in EA thinking > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: With obligatory “idk enough to be super confident”, my initial take is: This should be extremely illegal. P(sentient) is way too high and it’s not already integrated into the economy. It’s like octopus factory farming with a ton of uncertainty thrown in) Uhhhh AGI is definitely a real thing coming (ok not definitely, but >80% for sure, I wanna say >90%) It looks like an engineering problem now. Claude opus + internet + code + best in class robotics and sensors is AGI. This isn’t trivial to put together lol but the point is that ### [Thread, continued, 16:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796940937815273634) · 2 likes there are no big breakthroughs that need to happen, afaict Am I wrong? ### [Reply to @strangestloop, 16:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796941659176845663) · 2 likes > **Loopy (@strangestloop):** Tell me about your most normal friend. What are their hobbies? How do they spend their time? Ultimate frisbee. He might be reading this lol ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 16:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796942090686840928) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ Hi 32 I’m Aaron ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 17:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796956839835230476) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** I feel like The Navigation Fund is really under-discussed. EA priorities, a billionaire backer, led by the former head of The Humane League, and it seems like almost no one has heard of it? https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/NAcN98bACuwcnB32H/the-navigation-fund-launched-is-hiring-a-program-officer-to What ### [Reply to @inerati, 19:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1796980379993194780) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @inerati is no longer available.)_ It is my God given right to be able to physically acquire anything anywhere at any time of day (this is more hyperbole than satire) ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797001784465993756) · 5 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** My pet peeve is when people say, "Kids are so creative; they have such a fresh perspective; their ideas are the best; everyone should try to think more like kids!" > > Kids have lots of ideas that obviously won't work because they don't know anything! Stop embarrassing yourself! It’s a weird situation where they’re kinda put on a pedestal in this way but not \*really\* taken seriously and treated like the real person they are ### [Thread, continued, 20:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797002057913627021) · 3 likes Not being willing to say (nicely, obviously) “no that won’t work because \_\_\_\_\_” if the kid is clearly earnest about wanting to know encapsulates this dynamic. It’s such a pet peeve of mine lol https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/kids-are-people-too ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797002458184507617) · 6 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** While I love talking to children bc of their fresh perspectives, I think it wrong to admonish adults to be more like them or to value their strengths over adult strengths in a way that takes our skills and mindsets for granted. “Youth = shiny, good” is a trap we should avoid. > > (quoting @Kirsten3531: My pet peeve is when people say, "Kids are so creative; they have such a fresh perspective; their ideas are the best; everyone should try to think more like kids!" Kids have lots of ideas that obviously won't work because they don't know anything! Stop embarrassing yourself!) I wanna have a kid on my podcast lol (with parental permission and review) I think it’s very weird that I don’t interact with anyone in the like 8-16 range basically ever. I wanna know what life is like ### [Reply to @_Mira___Mira_, 20:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797007044022526168) · 3 likes > **Mira (@_Mira___Mira_):** "Solve this equation: 3\*7+5" > > That's not an equation, that's an expression. You evaluate not solve it. Nothing's being equated and it has no free variables. Its normal form is 26. Deep ### [Reply to @adambinksmith, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797036553610432540) · 2 likes > **Adam Binksmith (@adambinksmith):** took most of my EAG 1-1s outside today and walked 14 miles lol Based based based based based ### [Reply to @exfatloss, 23:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797054400122257868) · 4 likes > **exfatloss🥛 (@exfatloss):** Is this a real thing in lean people? Does anyone actually get satiated on a meaningful level from volume? > > Honest question, I've never experienced this in my life. > > (quoting @zachary135791: Butternut squash is an elite option when cutting weight When I go from bulking to cutting I will gradually choose foods with higher volume to calorie ratios Could look like starting with rice, then potatoes, then squash. Finish the cut with mostly fruit and veggies I’m always…) I think it’s like a real but “thin” kind of satiation - wears off quickly and is much weaker than “not even thinking about food” I have no idea what I’m talking about but it kinda makes sense, like your gut/brain trying to estimate energy consumed is gonna want to know volume ## Sunday, June 2, 2024 ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797317398904672433) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @JesseTayRiver I don’t even get this. Like was the bf an ML researcher? Or she was just worried about his email job being automated? I assumed the latter but good q ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 17:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797317968247857171) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 I’m built different ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 17:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797319315147899318) · 3 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** We hired a local 15yo to babysit while I was in the next room > > (Didn't really work, baby hated it but) people tolerated the idea of me being in the next room but were truly horrified that we might eventually let her babysit while we're out! > > (quoting @_Mc_eM_: @HannahPosted When I was 12-14 in SA I was regularly babysitting other kids. Here in the UK a friend's 13yr old sometimes dogsits for us and people act like we're letting her play with a gun) Wild ### [Reply to @notanastronomer, 17:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797320227539001358) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @notanastronomer is no longer available.)_ Damn that’s a lot. I would die ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 17:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797325567806574597) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AndyMasley is no longer available.)_ What ### [Reply to @exfatloss, 17:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797326095307415783) · 3 likes > **exfatloss🥛 (@exfatloss):** Micronutrients are a psyop. Like "microbiome" it's just a magic word for "I don't know anything but do what I say." > > (quoting @KetoCarnivore: This whole thread is fascinating (and there's a paper at the end), but I want to highlight this idea, that not only do animals eat for nutrient coverage, but they seek to \_minimize micronutrient excess\_.) Lol what? Bad take ### [Reply to @sentientlentils, 17:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797326240937894303) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @sentientlentils is no longer available.)_ Big if true ## Monday, June 3, 2024 ### [Reply to @liz_love_lace, 00:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797420858333610136) · 4 likes > **Liz Lovelace (@liz_love_lace):** most people in our circles who consider themselves "autistic" have never met a real autist > > that being said, i do like that we're starting to be able to recognize and describe slight autism, it's obviously a bell curve and it's valuable info Bell curve, eh? Who are the least autistic people around? ### [Quote tweet, 00:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797427379855622334) · 52 likes The man writes > **Quoting James (@grep_cat_):** Did not realize Unsong was such a large book > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPF8mPoXIAAKN8g.jpg) ### [Reply to @historyinmemes, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797622262054695381) · 2 likes > **Historic Vids (@historyinmemes):** Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping bodyguards acknowledging each other > > [video attached](https://x.com/historyinmemes/status/1797589043603022302/video/1) Real ### [Quote tweet, 14:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797630057411965016) · 11 likes Now do planes > **Quoting Loopy (@strangestloop):** gn > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-SANglWEAAsFFG.jpg) ### [Reply to @yifever, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797728577670263131) · 11 likes > **yifei e/λ (meetmeinshibuya Oct 18) (@yifever):** isn't it crazy how no one in Asia takes SSRIs and they're all just completely fine? Are they all just completely fine? ### [Tweet, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797739980258980311) · 25 likes Most interesting line from @ZachWeiner on 80k about space didn’t have anything to do with space directly ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPLa-96XkAAd5Wr.jpg) ### [Reply to @AlignmentGuts, 21:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797740135846731880) · 4 likes > **AI Struggler (@AlignmentGuts):** Where are you getting your potassium supplements? I can’t find any that don’t have tiny doses per pill like 10% DRD. I don’t want to have to slam a fistful every day dawg Salt replacement (losalt is one brand) ## Tuesday, June 4, 2024 ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 01:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797797339496923238) · 16 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** Here's a dynamic I see sometimes. > > Alice: Man that article has a inaccurate/misleading/horrifying/objectively Satanic headline. > Bob: Did you know, \*actually\* article writers don't write their own headlines? > \--- > But what I care about is the misleading headline, not your org chart It’s relevant when there’s ire directed at the writer though, as there definitely sometimes is ### [Reply to @xlr8harder, 01:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797809260287738161) · 13 likes > **xlr8harder (@xlr8harder):** When you're just making stuff up, you can add as many decimal places as you like. > > I've decided we're going to be safe infinity + 1 times. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPJAXpaXYAA8-0u.png) FWIW I don’t know of a single other person who’d endorse anything like this degree of confidence. It’s silly frankly ### [Reply, 02:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797815129368924438) · 1 like (Jk and indeed) ### [Thread, continued, 02:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797815619058094285) · 1 like Fr though I don’t expect a pod on mostly the technical reasons space civilization is hard to unintentionally convince me that the US senate is more legitimate than I previously thought ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797819114305818787) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @arithmoquine @OliRandom (from @AaronBergman18) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPMiDEEWwAIeaMz.png) More is only better if you have a brain that can do geometry ### [Quote tweet, 09:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797928010169176095) · 7 likes Real > **Quoting henry (@arithmoquine):** fyi the real reason i've been ignoring you is: > \- i want to reply > \- i want to be able to give you the attention and focus you deserve > \- i never feel like i have enough energy to properly do that ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 11:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797955372365566236) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @bellaforristal Okay I didn't want to say anything but priors confirmed Lol ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 11:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797956250766016825) · 3 likes > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** people will do this online too > > it seems like an impediment to communication at first. but understood correctly is also a pathway to many abilities that some consider to be unnatural > > (quoting @simonsarris: In person it feels rare that people hear the words I say. I say something, and people pattern-match my words to words they've heard before, and respond to that instead.) Online most communication is text, which is both the words themselves and (usually, as long as no stealth editing) a record of what was actually said The analog for spoken conversation, transcription, is uncommon ### [Tweet, 12:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797970126270296280) · 83 likes “Oversharing” is a psyop to prevent people from making friends ### [Reply to @mattecapu, 12:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797974827455902199) · 3 likes > **Matteo Capucci (@mattecapu):** why do we have fav colors and not fav smells, or tastes, or pitches Speak for urself ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 13:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1797989755025862966) · 10 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** What's the shortest way to say "either doing X when you shouldn't or not-doing X when you should"? “Doing the wrong thing”? ## Wednesday, June 5, 2024 ### [Reply, 09:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798284599082307710) · 1 like it’s really not obvious what the assumed counterfactual world would be. Like is congress allowed to delegate some functions to other agencies or is this like a bad post-hoc epicycle to avoid actually standing by the original strong statement ### [Thread, continued, 09:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798284640933015862) · 2 likes The reason I’m willing to stand by “Abolish the FDA” though is that like there is a cluster of pretty simple scenarios I can think of which is just like “repeal the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 and then let the messy real world play out” ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 09:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798285723180974572) · 4 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** There's an excessive appetite for contrarian and extreme views. I think this predictably leads people to make bad predictions. > > For instance: > \- e/acc vs pause > \- alt-right vs breadtube > \- popular books like "how the establishment got away with it" and "the shock doctrine" I disagree with a bunch of things \- Pause is pretty obviously more plausibly good than e/acc. It’s like calling Alex Jones and Joe Biden the two extremes of American politics \- the changes you mention around mech interp, other alignment work, and governance seem like ### [Thread, continued, 09:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798286170771873906) · 2 likes reasonable updates to make given the actual path AI has taken. I guess this doesn’t explain the mech interp thing as well idk, but the other two make intuitive sense ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 16:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798393650185130241) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @JesseTayRiver @FrostedSapling I hope you’re prepared to ruin some nice clothes Perhaps a suit ### [Tweet, 16:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798395152219914569) · 22 likes Can we have a week where nothing AI-related happens? Plz ### [Reply to @RYChappell, 16:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798397169206218961) · 3 likes > **Richard Y. Chappell🔸 (@RYChappell):** This site needs more epiphenomenalism discourse. Feel free to join in :-) > > (quoting @RYChappell: @2Philosophical\_ Why think it happens? People are way too quick to dismiss epiphenomenalism. Compare: https://philpapers.org/rec/YETDAT) My continual hot take is that nobody has any fucking clue (what the nature of consciousness is) ### [Quote tweet, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798398708666478681) · 21 likes Who wants to move to the pencil > **Quoting Chris 🦝 (READ BIO!!) (@TrashPanda08x):** The Oklahoma City council just voted 8 to 1 to remove a height restriction and rezone a section of brick town to accommodate a 1907ft tall building, which would make it the tallest in North America. Construction is going to start later this year. This is insane funny > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPR5dLGXEAAimSK.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPR5dLmW0AAZhdV.jpg) ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798399222062223403) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** mad how boring I find AI This but the opposite ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 17:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798401140834672778) · 5 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPUvJWEWwAAClpj.jpg) I don’t want my family to die 😡 ### [Reply to @DeepDishEnjoyer, 17:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798403428504494233) · 1 like > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** vox populi vox dei > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPU2H58XoAEc2UU.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPU2ISkXgAAv2Ck.jpg) > (quoting @DeepDishEnjoyer: should I make myself a strawberry milkshake for breakfast) Tf is rose water ### [Thread, continued, 17:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798403627029295452) · 1 like Well that does make sense ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPU2kT-WcAATchH.jpg) ### [Reply to @MichaelTrazzi, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798414687685718509) · 42 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @MichaelTrazzi is no longer available.)_ Some people really are just better than you across every dimension 🤷‍♂️ ### [Tweet, 18:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798421056325324996) · 2 likes Wtf there’s a whole food group I am only now just discovering exists ### [Thread, continued, 18:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798421469309042935) · 4 likes Brb gonna make some grass condensate ### [Reply, 18:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798423837769621649) · 2 likes Cheems mindset ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798425414710571515) · 6 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** This is really a beautiful video. These people are crossing the border to take jobs most Americans think are beneath them, giving shoutouts to their home countries. And they know that they’re coming to a free country where they can publicly show their faces while breaking unjust laws and still be able to live their lives because we are too humane and civilized to deport them. > > Sorry, I’m always going to take the side of someone who showed initiative in life over a person who believes they should get special privileges because they were born somewhere. > > The other view is contrary to the essence of America, which yes was founded by white men with a particular heritage and culture, but whose moral and ideological commitments told them it was people’s character and ideas that mattered. > > I wish these new arrivals the best and am glad they’re here to keep making America great. > > [video attached](https://x.com/RichardHanania/status/1798386567918362778/video/1) Based. Welcome ### [Tweet, 18:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798428342103716239) · 8 likes I’d like to come out as a China hawk. I think it would be extremely bad for the CCP to have a decisive advantage via any means, AGI included ### [Reply to @besttrousers, 19:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798435231390715973) · 1 like > **Matt Darling 🌐🏗️ (@besttrousers):** \> the standard of living for working class people lowered > > This is an inaccurate summary of the effects of immigration on working class people. > > Immigrants effect both labor supply and demand - the effects on wages are indeterminate in theory, and we cannot reject 0 empirically. > > (quoting @BriannaWu: I know it’s a high bar, but “open borders” is literally the stupidest idea the fringe left has ever cooked up. It doesn’t even make any sense from a leftist point of view. What, you want unfettered sex trafficking? You want union labor diluted and the standard of living for…) My best guess summary: probably has modest negative short run impact for a very small, selected part of the labor market and everyone else wins over every timescale, including that group beyond a few years (idk 5?) ### [Reply to @prerat, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798435461272326607) · 2 likes > **prerat (@prerat):** have you seen this one? i think it's pretty good > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPUlRYdWUAA0Uy1.jpg) Stfu that is a cat on the left and a dog on the right ### [Tweet, 19:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798439811516449109) · 12 likes Is anyone interested in recording themselves reading a section of this for an audiobook/podcast feed? I am not the most eloquent reader but would do one Describing the figures appropriately is (ironically, a bit) not smth current TTS handles well afaik https://situational-awareness.ai/ ### [Reply, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798440702310764931) · 1 like Care to share? The LLMs don’t know ### [Quote tweet, 21:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798473733650169876) · 4 likes Seems bad > **Quoting Kevin Roose (@kevinroose):** Interesting update to the OpenAI whistleblower story: After denying it on the record, Microsoft is now admitting that they tested an early version of GPT-4 in India without the approval of a joint safety board. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPVACyfaYAA0M3f.png) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 22:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798479786966389012) · 8 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** It's become hard not to notice how many people's p(doom) can be pretty easily predicted by their specific social scene, among other things This is true and IMO the correct interpretation is not the intuitive one (intuitive = “any given persons p(doom) is not sensitive to legit evidence”) Galef pill = community-level error correcting and truth-seeking norms >> individual-level CFAR brand rationality … ### [Thread, continued, 22:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798479934866026746) · 3 likes So yeah, look for the community with the best error correcting and truth seeking norms and you’re gonna have a better (epistemic) time ### [Thread, continued, 22:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798480578402263480) · 3 likes If you wanna make a micro level argument about being agnostic between various micro social niches under that umbrella, sure ### [Reply to @growing_daniel, 22:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798488295015669969) · 2 likes > **Daniel (@growing_daniel):** this thirty second countdown to get tracking info on DHL's website is kinda blowing my mind rn > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPWCG15bsAACSmO.jpg) It’s definitely running on one guys computer ### [Tweet, 22:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1798489096261644323) · 9 likes I’m taking an unprecedented 2 day twitter fast. Adiós hasta Friday ## Saturday, June 8, 2024 ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 20:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1799543625409294607) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Ok ❤️ ### [Quote tweet, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1799556854852309195) · 10 likes Straight up lying to POTUS should be disqualifying for basically everything > **Quoting Garrison Lovely (@GarrisonLovely):** So I remember @a16z relaying this howler to the UK House of Lords, but I did not realize that @ylecun, @ID_AA_Carmack, and other technical folks signed their name to the same claim in a letter to Biden! > > I really don't know how you could possibly take them seriously after this. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPfSjImWUAAtRH5.jpg) ### [Reply to @kindgracekind, 23:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1799582941426659646) · 2 likes > **Grace (@kindgracekind):** wild. zoom in -- there are no red pixels in this image > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPlkvnFWIAElPgj.jpg) Real ### [Reply to @RFishBlueFish, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1799585975099617292) · 2 likes > **Gil (@RFishBlueFish):** The argument refuting consciousness (causal cloture) is pretty uncomfortably strong for consciousness but absolutely destroys affective consciousness Idk that backpack I’m looking at sure looks irreducibly qualitatively black to me in a private visceral extra-physical sense ## Sunday, June 9, 2024 ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 12:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1799785054752960741) · 3 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** If you haven't made it by 23 it's too late for u > > (quoting @anuatluru: feels like people are having a midlife crisis at a younger age than ever before (23)) Darn ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 13:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1799799839070576789) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Breakfast of champions > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPopX3BX0AA8uyE.jpg) I’m assuming howie is just outside the frame ### [Reply, 13:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1799801559112683637) · 1 like Has anyone ever actually matched with a rose? ### [Reply, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1799847580815491073) · 1 like :( ## Monday, June 10, 2024 ### [Tweet, 08:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800084307060690975) · 108 likes Maybe a dumb question but a “startup” is just distinguished from a normal old new business by vibes right? ### [Thread, continued, 08:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800084308742513127) · 15 likes Like the association is with founder ambition and hardware/software innovation (as opposed to like just taking existing systems to a new market)… but it’s still fundamentally a continuous spectrum, not much of a natural category outside of the social world (???) ### [Thread, continued, 08:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800084310781050906) · 10 likes Tryna figure out why I never hear about very smart young people trying to do anything in between “work at a job for a paycheck” and “found a business predicated on the potential to be worth at least hundreds of millions” ### [Thread, continued, 08:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800084312492318902) · 6 likes Maybe: \- I’m being dumb, people do this all the time but it doesn’t jive with the twitter algorithm and vibes ### [Thread, continued, 08:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800084314602057870) · 7 likes \- it’s systematically easier to build a company and sell to google for $10M than build a company that you personally value at $10M (ok but shouldn’t people migrate here until the EV equalizes?) ### [Thread, continued, 08:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800085224048517607) · 6 likes Also like there’s a missing middle in terms of vibes On one side you’ve got unicorn-esque tech startups. On the other, an ethnic restaurant or dry cleaner eeking out a normal profit ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 09:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800095969989861826) · 6 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** I think the distinguishing feature of a 'startup' is usually that the intent/expectation of the founder and early employees is that it's eventually going to either become a very large company, or be bought out by one; not remain at the level of the usual owner-operator business I’m trying to point out that at least conceptually and I think irl (lol) there is plenty of space between owner-operator and “startup” Like anything regional for one thing (chain restaurant, bank, retail, basically anything but software and maybe pharma) ### [Reply to @CameronHolmes92, 09:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800096172067201232) · 1 like > **Cameron Holmes (@CameronHolmes92):** I think this is mostly a result of the winner-takes-all/zero marginal cost technology thing: there's no point being the 50th best search engine. This forces you into the startup funding/capital model for many ambitions. Yes this makes sense for software specifically Which is a big deal ofc lol but not everything at least for now ### [Reply to @panickssery, 09:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800096812533154012) · 4 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** Startups are unlike starting other businesses like cafes or factories because their focus is on growing to a much larger size Seems like theres plenty of room between zero growth and winner takes all outside of software. Regionality is the boring way this happens but specialization more generally ### [Reply to @toasterlighting, 09:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800098185140117781) · 1 like > **Celene (@toasterlighting):** @AaronBergman18 Imagine applying the same logic to a different question. > "why don't we see smart young people do carpentry? Why do they all study STEM? Maybe tech jobs pay more or are easier, but if that's the case we should see people migrate towards them until the EV equalizes." The assumption that the two buckets are STEM/max growth startup and owner-operator/local business/carpentry is what I’m questioning though Although somewhat ironically @JesseTayRiver’s success at basically having a carpentry firm (https://www.willardbrothers.net) inspired this in part ### [Reply to @bendunnflores, 09:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800103852206936231) · 1 like > **bdf (@bendunnflores):** There does seem to be a gap for equity financing of new businesses designed to grow at ~20-50% per year. > > Some angels offer funding to that kind of business, but there's no easy onramps Normie solution = personal savings, maybe parents, and a dream (not endorsing necessarily) ### [Reply to @KirkegaardEmil, 10:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800106690836349396) · 2 likes > **Emil Kirkegaard (@KirkegaardEmil):** Human geneticists: oh no, I am so worried, about about X Y Z hypothetical problems?? 😟 > > Non-human geneticists: polygenic scores go up 📈 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPqerBXWkAAGUI0.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPqe7JoXAAAlVlg.png) Lol yeah it’s important to take into account the effects on the population of interest when the population is human but not when it’s corn ### [Reply to @thebestestpie, 12:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800139528428265933) · 3 likes > **Fake News Pie (@thebestestpie):** @JesseTayRiver @AaronBergman18 @toasterlighting why don’t you do it? Excellent q. If he says anything about age I’m subpoena-ing records from strava ### [Reply to @SpencrGreenberg, 12:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800144000026124477) · 11 likes > **Spencer Greenberg 🔍 (@SpencrGreenberg):** A question for you if you have at least 500 Twitter followers who are people you don’t know: how would you describe what you did that caused you to get your followers (that differs from others who tweet just as often but who have few followers)? Dumb technicality answer is “tweet at that frequency but for longer” ### [Tweet, 12:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800146115263959173) · 4 likes Gender ratio discourse. EA : veganism ~ TPOT : ??? ### [Reply to @RokoMijic, 13:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800154217119940783) · 2 likes > **Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** The reason why I disagree with this is that AI has both great promise and also great peril, and I don't think that trying to delay or pause it is +EV. > > You have to actually steer it. > > (quoting @KatSpartz: PSA - the most prominent AI risk deniers are paid by Big AI I’m sure that has nothing to do with their position that AI development will lead to only benefits) Steering gets harder as rate of change increases, pause facilitates steering ### [Reply, 13:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800161540089504073) · 1 like Oh lol I didn’t realize I was replying to u before I copied the link ### [Thread, continued, 13:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800161855941546265) · 1 like But also, as a thought experiment if not a proper argument, you imagine two worlds, one empty and one with a single being in severe pain with no other qualia. Seems pretty clear to me that one is worse than the other and that we can say this in the same way we can talk of ## Tuesday, June 11, 2024 ### [Reply to @JacquesThibs, 13:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800514409674256824) · 4 likes > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** Met a new friend yesterday > > [video attached](https://x.com/JacquesThibs/status/1800254985852068330/video/1) Keep at it in a couple generations they will be puppies ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPy2UAvWUAA2Nqk.jpg) ### [Reply to @CrispyWicks, 13:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800514862738759987) · 4 likes > **Chris P. Wicks 🔎🐜 (@CrispyWicks):** wmaf jokes about the af make me livid, murderous. wmaf jokes about the wm make me go "haha it me, I love my gf" > > (quoting @tenobrus: every wmaf couple) Wassigned male at firth? ### [Quote tweet, 13:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800517138274488499) · 3 likes I have opinions, who tryna incorporate > **Quoting Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** people give immense authority to official-sounding institutions > > a ton of advocacy groups are, like, “Mr. has-opinions and his seven friends” but if you make up a neat-sounding org name and say official-sounding things, many people and news orgs will treat you as Authoritarive ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 13:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800523197139603962) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Pleased to report that they’re playing shrimp videos at the eye doctor’s > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPy9KBOXsAA7HHY.jpg) The fish: am I a joke to u ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 13:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800524586997703124) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** We’re about to find out 👀🦐 ### [Reply to @kepe__, 13:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800524899876003852) · 2 likes > **kepe ✨🇫🇮 (@kepe__):** @AaronBergman18 what are your opiions Twitter good, cold good, walk good, suffering bad ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 13:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800525631861690419) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** They dilated my eyes and now everything is blurry T_T RIP and for Matt: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPzAhSGWQAAq7tO.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPzAhSJWIAAyXeO.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPzAhSFXAAAMPwO.jpg) ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 13:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800526260936045037) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ No ### [Tweet, 13:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800527872005939362) · 7 likes I have no idea what this is for, might stiff Microsoft $0.16 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPzCjnkW4AAsC0r.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPzCjnbWcAEKoTE.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 14:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800533178412917216) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I don't think think this is strictly true, though I suppose I sometimes hear of this being used to justify cost effectiveness being higher than other non x-risk interventions; you could selfishly care a lot about x-risk for example I definitely selfishly care about x-risk lol ### [Quote tweet, 19:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800604167028810046) · 7 likes Yes, and all IDEs need a big green “Run” button This is @Replit’s innovation > **Quoting Dan's Bake Sale (@dadbodsociety):** im sorry i have to say this but GitHub needs a big red "download" button. ### [Reply to @prerat, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800606877371514951) · 2 likes > **prerat (@prerat):** screen aren't actually that interesting. probably your environment is just boring. or you made a habit of looking at screen because your environment is usually boring Nah screen is definitely more interesting 95% of the time lol There are many virtues to touching grass but interestingness is low on the list ### [Reply, 19:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800609240731525410) · 15 likes Strength is much more responsive generally than muscle size. Muscle size is mostly about testosterone and diet, strength is largely about nervous system recruitment which is much more egalitarian ### [Quote tweet, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800611106777440417) · 2 likes R/acc > **Quoting Kyle Walker (@kyle_e_walker):** Coming home for Game 3 of the NBA Finals, via #rstats, the upcoming {mapboxgl} package, and @Mapbox's new Standard style > > You'll be able to do this yourselves, with very little code, really soon > > \#OneForDallas > > \#MavsIn7 > > [video attached](https://x.com/kyle_e_walker/status/1800610409839276323/video/1) ### [Reply to @ameliasxo, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800612460992278673) · 2 likes > **mill 🐬 (@ameliasxo):** No one has got your back like your 2 regular tweet likers > > (quoting @Kulfei: A banger, actually) 🦐 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 19:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800612648121188523) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @ohwizenedtortle Your content is just too good Thx ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800613568741544199) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** Oh wait this tweet is like 8 months old No excuses ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800614407459992040) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @ohwizenedtortle Looking through old tweets I see ### [Reply to @SipOfKoKo, 19:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800615696075792538) · 5 likes > **🇺🇳🇺🇸🇹🇼🇺🇦Derek🇵🇸🌐🔰🈷 (@SipOfKoKo):** Being an empiricist is hard. You can cite 20 academic research paper and someone will just come along with a bad Instagram graphic and convince more people than you ever will. > > (quoting @alfred_twu: The production case for rent control: There's a shortage of loans, supplies, & workers. When new rich residents create demand for housing, steer those dollars towards funding new homes, rather than non-essential renovations of old ones.) I can’t like this tweet bc empiricism is overrated in general, even if it’s underrated in this specific context ### [Reply to @RokoMijic, 19:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800616526082441510) · 3 likes > **Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** AI can revolutionize the economy > > We vastly overpay for cognitive work > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GP0Jo9aXIAACr1i.jpg) > (quoting @joebenson: Had to take my 3 yr old son to the ER last week. Fear was appendicitis but after 45 min of moaning he burped for 5 seconds & was fine🤦‍♂️so we asked to leave. The bill? $4,179 😵‍💫 WHAT?! I called the hospital billing dept. You won't believe how this ends. Here's the breakdown:…) Regulatory issue, not a tech issue ### [Reply to @beala, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800621556277625216) · 1 like > **Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** I am begging you to not use the highlighter/marker tool to redact images. Trivially recoverable playing with the sliders in the photo app. > > (quoting @cottoncandaddy: not to be a bitch but I work from home like 20 feet from my front door so I can hear everything, and I heard a delivery person on the porch but they didn’t knock so I didn’t come to the door, but they didn’t deliver my mail and also didn’t say why??) Wait fr ### [Reply to @DavidPinsof, 20:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800629603611951186) · 6 likes > **David Pinsof (@DavidPinsof):** Is effective altruism bullshit? Check out my latest post, where I argue the answer is yes (naturally), but also it’s complicated. https://www.everythingisbullshit.blog/p/is-effective-altruism-bullshit “Suffering is good” \- guy who gets anesthesia during surgery Is it sometimes instrumentally useful? Yes, nobody disputes that, come on. Fish asphyxiating to death is still bad ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800636099598930035) · 5 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Fantano just gave Brat a 10 this is not a drill folks Idk what any of this means ### [Tweet, 21:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800638527178256881) · 6 likes Ik GPTs are so two months ago but there’s exactly one that I use all the time and it’s this https://chatgpt.com/g/g-C9AdUkoJG-code-only ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GP0nMnVWoAANrQZ.jpg) ### [Reply to @RomanHauksson, 21:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800641131387969684) · 26 likes > **Roman Hauksson-Neill (@RomanHauksson):** Do you have any examples in mind? All the traditional “I want to do X to help people/make the world a better place” careers ### [Tweet, 22:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800654482717417874) · 5 likes When serious institution staffed with smart earnest people makes decision X, you should probably have a high prior on X being the right call at least for what they care about, all things considered ### [Thread, continued, 22:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800654484252631199) · 3 likes This line of reasoning is so boring it feels like there must be a trick going on but nah it checks out Impetus is people insisting on here that Apple made the “wrong call” on some matter of business wrt iOS 18 but I feel like I see it all the time ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800660089055199433) · 5 likes > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** people 👏 shouldn't 👏 have 👏 to 👏 pay 👏 for 👏 things 👏 > > (quoting @unusual_whales: President Joe Biden's administration will formally propose a rule to bar medical debt from individual credit reports, per Bloomberg.) I mean in US medicine specifically, yeah sometimes this but ironically bc you can charged randint(20, 10⁶) and generally can’t make normal consumer type decisions, if any decision at all ### [Quote tweet, 22:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800660564701778058) · 4 likes I propose a norm of paying for medical services that look basically like other normal consumer purchases (mainly, know the price before deciding) fully and on time and using as many legal/practical loopholes as you can find otherwise > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @Duderichy I mean in US medicine specifically, yeah sometimes this but ironically bc you can charged randint(20, 10⁶) and generally can’t make normal consumer type decisions, if any decision at all ### [Quote tweet, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800666506113753312) · 35 likes Thing about this meme (and others like it) is that it’s not true or approximately true even in a very generous meme-oriented sense > **Quoting Jennifer D'aww (@GMShivers):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GP07_YYaIAAnyme.png) ### [Thread, continued, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800666508118655153) · 15 likes People don’t stare at “the incomprehensible horrors”; they’re maybe forced to look once, if unlucky, and then either die in the process or memory-hole it for their own functioning and sanity when “back to normal” ### [Thread, continued, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800666509842452698) · 12 likes And tbc this is at least in part stuff you know about conceptually: factory farming, torture, predation, not anything mystical or metaphysically contentious ## Wednesday, June 12, 2024 ### [Tweet, 00:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800682419529683190) · 30 likes Took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that “vacation smell” is just light ambient cigarette smoke ### [Reply to @TheZvi, 00:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800684703269388670) · 7 likes > **Zvi Mowshowitz (@TheZvi):** Tonight is last call for reactions and comments related to @leopoldasch , either Situational Awareness or the podcast, then I hope to wrap that up tomorrow. Anything I should be sure to get? Almost definitely not original but I have a sense that EAish people have too strong an immune reaction to the nationalist vibe-associating international (geo-) political conflict stuff ### [Thread, continued, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800685386446057488) · 4 likes which is extremely understandable and IMO basically too much of a good thing But like ex ante it’s totally possible (and I think true, tentatively) that “CCP cannot win AGI race” checks out from an impartial moral perspective ### [Reply to @Littoral_Gecko, 01:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800696997684593034) · 4 likes > **A Gecko🦎 (@Littoral_Gecko):** @AaronBergman18 Is this because the ‘vacation smell’ you’ve identified is coming from hotel rooms? Nah I picture walking outside in crowded urban areas with ample smoking. Outing myself as a very sheltered suburbanite ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800717419180327410) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 1) What I think the requirements are like lots of people densely packed outside, bars around, enough smoke to smell but few obvious smokers in visual field to associate it with, and (relatedly) intensity stays pretty constant for a while ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 02:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800718645431271751) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @SpacedOutMatt @AaronBergman18 Jersey shore maybe? The image that comes to my mind is New Orleans. Also Barcelona ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 02:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800720917007647089) · 3 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** @inesferhumi @pearl_please Ines serves the Kiki, pearl serves boba ### [Reply to @DaCaveOfWonders, 03:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800731595441115144) · 2 likes > **Tiger Lava Lamp (@DaCaveOfWonders):** 42k steps today > > Up and down 2 mountains > > Everything hurts > > (quoting @DaCaveOfWonders: 28k steps yesterday. We'll see what I get today from a ~full day of hiking) Dang that is several steps ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 03:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800732399162286127) · 4 likes > **Ruth Hook (@ruth_hook_):** "We have learned that many things are lost if one looks at averages, but are revealed when one studies single events" > > A lot of Bayes-obsessed ppl I know would be angered by this but it's from a biologist who successfully cured his own daughters rare cancer in a relative rush If this is rationalist shade I think I disagree, it’s an important insight (this isn’t an exact example but still) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800737466498080837) · 8 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @Bbburner19 Oh I do that a lot I mean that there's a giant Cheez-It inside If you donate $10k to THL God allows u to have one morally neutral cheese it ### [Tweet, 04:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800753267024277935) · 5 likes Regardless of the truth of any claim, internet waves of various diet zeitgeists is probably functional - it increases within-individual variance and systematically tend to keep what works and eschew what doesn’t for them personally ### [Reply to @bschne, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800753442958319645) · 2 likes > **Benjamin (@bschne):** I hate when I have two great replies to something and need to pick Poast both ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 04:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800754725962338441) · 6 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** I find weirdness fun and welcoming but I cannot stress enough how orthogonal that is to whether ideas are true or morally important or not. > > (quoting @ilex_ulmus: People who actually care about doing good should welcome a boring, normie EA if that's how it turned out.) Conceptually sure, but irl there are pretty obvious causal relationships. We should expect a cause to be more neglected if weirder, all else equal ### [Thread, continued, 05:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800755222282752043) · 1 like Likewise, all the normal critiques of EA are bad and wrong (I claim lol) bc if they were true and normal they’d have been incorporated by now ### [Tweet, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800756902357512378) Not enough recent history. History is always old af. Most interesting stuff is just barely old enough for ~impartial clarity, like 5-20 years ### [Reply to @mimi10v3, 05:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800757940665946183) · 3 likes > **˚♡⋆mimi ˚♡⋆｡☆∴ (@mimi10v3):** when Likes are private, which category of tweets will you most increase Liking? Lol none of these seem even slightly tempting to like ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 05:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800760473031164006) · 2 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @AaronBergman18 Does time yield impartial clarity or simply a winning interpretation? Probably both but history as a discipline and set of methods and norms is the only good antidote I know of to bad winning interpretations ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800765579974103272) · 5 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** Multivitamins don't really seem to have an impact on mortality in randomized controlled trials. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GP1GW-LWAAAiQtV.png) Mortality? Is that why anyone takes multivitamins? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GP2awF4W4AAJHVl.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 05:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800769564474507772) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** It's insane I can have an effectively infinite amount of clean water and ice Not me ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GP2eYCTXEAATRzu.jpg) ### [Reply to @zestular, 06:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800773803292713450) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @zestular is no longer available.)_ This thread needs to see this (the algorithm not the qt) ### [Reply to @GarettJones, 07:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800791231578173760) · 8 likes > **Garett Jones (@GarettJones):** Note the units > > Modest effect of 30 IQ points on wages, even in middle age > > If you want to say IQ matters a lot, you'll have to look at externalities, spillovers > > You'll have to look at the Hive Mind > > (quoting @cremieuxrecueil: When people are young, the wage gaps between those with high and low levels of intelligence are smaller. The effects of being smarter compound with time.) Iq 115 earns 25% more than IQ 85? Seems implausible, did I do the math wrong? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GP2yFMXWIAAqWcv.jpg) ### [Reply to @lumpenspace, 12:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1800863441231704278) · 4 likes > **lumpenspace and 99+ others (@lumpenspace):** I am Defeated > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GP3yhC-XsAAGrHs.jpg) I’d stay (this is a description not a prescription) ## Thursday, June 13, 2024 ### [Reply, 03:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801091229209272668) · 1 like Also responsible for 90% of economic growth per capita ### [Reply to @ryiacy, 03:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801091356808397233) · 1 like > **dom (@ryiacy):** threads content goes crazy > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GP5vQstXYAACgB8.jpg) Ok who tryna build a relationship ### [Thread, continued, 03:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801091883281600842) · 4 likes Lawyers: parents Accountants: @PeterJAngel SWEs: all yall Business owners: @JesseTayRiver Millionaires: they might get mad if I tag but congrats on the exit Marketing experts: this is twitter, all of us ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 03:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801093018214121572) · 1 like > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** My last project with Rethink Priorities was just released publicly. Read if you’re interested in the state of the field of Wild Animal Welfare. > > https://rethinkpriorities.org/publications/a-landscape-analysis-of-wild-animal-welfare @RethinkPriors @aMarcusDavis @peterwildeford wanna post the whole text so it gets added to the various podcast feeds (or make ur own pod 👀👀👀) https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/huQJtxcDHbbyuraR2/linkpost-a-landscape-analysis-of-wild-animal-welfare ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 03:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801095302683803852) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** You can use whatever assumptions you want if you just say "a naive model of this is" Let pi = -621 ### [Reply, 04:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801102821263131048) This changed with deep learning. It’s not a crazy prior but you have to actually look at the world and what has happened over last 10 years ### [Reply to @robsica, 04:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801103147613442194) · 3 likes > **Rob Sica (@robsica):** "School psychology and, more broadly, the field of education are particularly susceptible to pseudoscience, fads, and maintaining the status quo by resisting the adoption of new ideas." > https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781003266181/investigating-school-psychology-michael-axelrod-stephen-hupp Pretty strong tension between “fads” and “resisting new ideas” no? ### [Tweet, 04:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801104630547431720) · 9 likes Kinda crazy to me that people think the “data wall” is a plausible constraint on AI progress The world generates infinite (practically) ground truth data! Put a camera anywhere! Or a microphone! Or any sensor of anything! ### [Thread, continued, 04:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801104859480862736) · 6 likes The one thing there isn’t an infinite amount of is human-written text on the internet. This feels more like an inconvenience than a fundamental constraint ### [Tweet, 04:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801106216837366015) · 8 likes Songs I disagree with: \- Mean. Taylor is punching down at this point \- Complicated by Avril Lavigne. The guy is just trying on a new aesthetic, and there’s no ground truth genuine style for anyone ### [Reply, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801109239768752389) · 1 like I’d say a bit worse but not down to 3.5. The one thing it messes up constantly is regex escapes that are different in R ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 07:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801154168440111399) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 13, 2024:** Lawyers: parents Accountants: @PeterJAngel SWEs: all yall Business owners: @JesseTayRiver Millionaires: they might get mad if I tag but congrats on the exit… Update they liked the post ### [Reply to @webmasterdave, 07:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801160026775548332) · 3 likes > **David Pearce (@webmasterdave):** @herbivoryze A happy, peaceful biosphere where all sentient beings flourish sometimes feels an impossible dream. But we now have the technical tools (CRISPR, synthetic gene drives) to create such a world. Power creates complicity. Conserving the cruelties of Nature would be deeply immoral. I liked this tweet ### [Reply to @herbivoryze, 07:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801160054097183124) · 2 likes > **HerbivoRyzing (@herbivoryze):** “Natural selection is a monstrous engine of suffering. But until recently, talk of Darwinian life as immoral didn't make much sense. Nothing could be done. However, humans will shortly have the option to civilize Nature and create a pan-species welfare state.” - David Pearce > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GP7cL_JaIAECLhJ.jpg) Like ### [Reply to @kepe__, 08:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801170860025188505) · 2 likes > **kepe ✨🇫🇮 (@kepe__):** @AaronBergman18 that's not useful data lol, and most of it is equivalent to noise Sure seems like ability to predict the next say 600 frames = 10 seconds of arbitrary video from the last hour almost anywhere in the world would help build a world model ### [Reply, 08:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801172031473397989) · 3 likes I agree caring about this out loud is bad and a bad signal but it’s probably just that they dislike the change instead of 4d reverse psychology/projection. Just speculating but I’d guess the equivalent for straight women would be seeing a trend of men shaving their head ### [Tweet, 08:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801172770455171145) · 7 likes Abolish. Or whatever, just remove their veto power over molecules in medicine ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801335594448048296) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** starting to think there is no amount of time I could spend on Twitter that would give me the answer as to what’s gonna happen with AI, devastated Sad ### [Reply to @davidad, 19:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801336448974540835) · 3 likes > **davidad 🎇 (@davidad):** tag yourself; I’m an alarmed welfarist variabilist > > (quoting @robbensinger: What if we just decided to make AI risk discourse not completely terrible?) Alarmed welfarist eventualist (although idk what “soon” means) ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801341698536313025) · 1 like > **henry (@arithmoquine):** complex social dynamics between my friends got nothing on me > > considering automating this with an llm so i have a constant real-time dashboard as shit goes down > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GP970fdWkAABMkl.jpg) Lol I definitely made a diagram by hand in middle school ### [Reply to @IroncladDev, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801344217543020935) > **IroncladDev (@IroncladDev):** Now that I know some people write frontends in R my day is ruined 😈 ### [Reply to @abyssalblue_, 20:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801345541399273580) · 41 likes > **cyan (@abyssalblue_):** reminder that this is a real wikipedia article > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GP7AxKEXUAAh8zd.jpg) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophrenia_(object-oriented_programming) ### [Reply to @cookiecarver, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801346028060479860) · 1 like > **cookie🍪 (@cookiecarver):** another day another time to play guess the fruit! > > guess the fruit!? (normal sized egg for scale) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GP88Le4WoAAWo2_.jpg) Blueberry ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 20:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801348495204331719) · 2 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** hmu and you'll be fixed in no time. i have the receipts to prove it > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GP-nVZJW0AAQ75R.jpg) He just like me fr ### [Reply to @kenwheeler, 20:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801355595494342733) · 2 likes > **patagucci perf papi (@kenwheeler):** i had to give a talk at the same time as the dude who invented css lmfao. Tell him it’s too complicated ### [Quote tweet, 21:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801368158931931611) · 58 likes Unreasonable effectiveness of @leopoldasch > **Quoting OpenAI (@OpenAI):** Paul M. Nakasone brings world-class cybersecurity expertise to OpenAI’s Board of Directors, helping us deliver on our mission by protecting our systems from increasingly sophisticated bad actors. https://openai.com/index/openai-appoints-retired-us-army-general/ ### [Reply to @JacquesThibs, 22:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801374407044304961) · 4 likes > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** Might not be for the SA doc, but for Leopold’s early attempts to get this to happen while he was at OAI \+1, I was just thinking this ### [Reply to @rachelclif, 22:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801387553280422216) · 3 likes > **rachel (is sending love and warmth your way) (@rachelclif):** men: how can women discern if a guy loves them? Says “I love you” and seems honest in every other domain? ### [Quote tweet, 22:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801388495870566416) · 19 likes Only took 7 weeks to not find matching socks for the first time > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I’m sure they’ll have disappeared by summer, but having 24 new pairs of socks is wild - truly abundance mindset > > It’s like peak FTX but for my feet ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 23:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801389841155793106) · 1 like > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** If you buy multiple copies of the same socks, then you're much more robust to losing specific socks. Indeed, I thought light and dark of the same brand and size would be ok but alas I should just go with perfectly intermediate gray ### [Reply to @thecaptain_nemo, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801390239400833218) · 3 likes > **Nemo (@thecaptain_nemo):** alcohol is so unique in its ability to dramatically lower inhibitions. would be really valuable to have a drug that did the same thing without the hangovers or negative impact on cognitive ability Stimulants (probably these are different forms of inhibition lowering but decreasing threshold for action is like precisely what stims do) ## Friday, June 14, 2024 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 00:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801412373250535517) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Some things that are underrated: Puritanism, the law of supply and demand, having a good VO2 max, animals, cheap watches, life in Washington DC, the American military and the military industrial complex, donating to GiveWell, the book Little, Big, the movie Love Streams Probably disagree about Puritanism and GiveWell ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 00:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801412516985049585) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AndyMasley I think it's a strong performance predictor in events ≥ 2 minutes, but tbh I don't know much about the health angle. I've always assumed that workload would predict health more than vo2max but genuinely unsure I’m guessing u don’t have much knowledge of what bad vo2 max feels like ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 00:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801412817435685340) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 GiveWell bc animals right? Yeah or more generally theres no plausible assumptions under which they’re the best place to donate. If not dominated by animal welfare then by LTFF or something similar ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 00:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801413237923270961) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** God I wish twitter circles still existed @elonmusk ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 02:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801441410937229675) · 2 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Just pick up the phone and call them Fr ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 17:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801668850657993061) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @GarrisonLovely I think the core disagreement here is how normal or abnormal we see the statement. Like I'd be comfortable tweeting "Jeez I personally really don't want Trump to win" even though EA DC and EA more broadly is non-partisan, and I guess I see "US military good" as pretty normal too Stay strong Andy 🫡 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801669391651848294) · 4 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 @GarrisonLovely Garrison's a friend tbc and I don't need strength to have a back and forth 😇 Stay strong Andy and Garrison 🫡 ### [Reply to @prpaschka, 17:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801673975019213253) · 2 likes > **Philip Paschka (@prpaschka):** I think the ethics around food are less black-and-white than many vegans think, but lurking on /r/exvegans shows the value of a sharp line: when it doesn't exist, many convince themselves that the feelings of farmed animals don't matter. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPWfJ4zWkAAUXOU.jpg) Bad sub mostly. I’m an ex-vegan and like “veganism bad for me personally but morally good” is not something most entertain, evidently ### [Reply to @inerati, 17:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801675228356984906) > **liz (@inerati):** vscode is just broken half the time. Pycharm consistently always works but seems to periodically get very slow and need to be restarted. How is it this hard to make a good IDE? https://posit.co/download/rstudio-desktop/ ### [Tweet, 17:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801675739839754582) · 22 likes Inshallah next year I will be at vibecamp ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801678578603512181) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** qalhamdullilah Idk what this means but ya ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801694016708427859) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** can I come Ya I grant it ### [Tweet, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801697798875701624) · 2,843 likes Has anybody done the “we used to get sick enough to lose tons of weight like several times a decade” theory of obesity ### [Thread, continued, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801697959169413467) · 689 likes I’ve definitely heard people remark that getting violently ill was the easiest time they ever had losing weight ### [Reply to @ReflectiveAlt, 19:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801698720427413655) · 24 likes > **Reflective Altruism (@ReflectiveAlt):** This is a leading effective altruist blogger > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQDqGbSWAAA5-Oh.png) Correct takes. Maybe bad PR but definitely not wrong ### [Tweet, 19:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801699229225627807) · 26 likes 1 karma/point/whatever: On twitter: 🙂 On the EA Forum: ☺️😤🐓😎🥳🦐 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801699716884746567) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 14, 2024:** Correct takes. Maybe bad PR but definitely not wrong Eh not even bad PR. This is a perfectly fine/polite way to write ### [Reply to @Rado9910, 19:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801702397842178370) · 39 likes > **Rado9910 (@Rado9910):** Yeah: > > (quoting @Rado9910: @ESYudkowsky I forgot: - more diseases and less efficient medicine, so more inflammation in the body. Even the baseline temperature was higher: 37 degrees vs about 36-ish today. Thread is misleading.) Nice ### [Reply to @halogen1048576, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801704097575485484) · 3 likes > **🇨🇦halogen (@halogen1048576):** Nuño Sempere's "Unflattering aspects of Effective Altruism" blog post (https://nunosempere.com/blog/2024/03/05/unflattering-aspects-of-ea/) and Mollie Gleiberman's "Effective Altruism and the strategic ambiguity of ‘doing good’" paper (https://ideas.repec.org/p/iob/dpaper/2023.01.html) and Not that forum engagement is necessarily sufficient but https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/coWvsGuJPyiqBdrhC/unflattering-aspects-of-effective-altruism ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801704963640365297) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Has no good answers to hard questions though Well it does have answers I agree they’re not good ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 22:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801741759291994471) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @RYChappell If he posts any really good ea critiques I'll screenshot it for you. Don't hold your breath tho Lol indeed. Before this at least I thought he was basically good faith but all his critiques have been terrible except like one paper from GPI I think ## Saturday, June 15, 2024 ### [Tweet, 04:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801828133378633924) · 41 likes Wanted: debate between @leopoldasch and @ESYudkowsky on the difficulty of alignment and what circumstances make catastrophic misalignment plausible, moderated by @dwarkesh_sp ### [Reply, 12:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801953891212202177) Wait maybe you can’t refuse to answer, you can only refuse to give your ideology. Sad. Evil, in fact ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 12:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801954502687220210) · 2 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** What > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQEt8Y3W0AATcLI.jpg) > (quoting @Amtrak: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, Disgust, Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment and Ennui... ...meet 🤪TRAIN FEVER🤪) @QualyThe a friend ### [Reply to @selentelechia, 12:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801957522758131795) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @selentelechia is no longer available.)_ What is he cooking ### [Reply to @Ruesavatar, 14:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1801990863096066501) · 5 likes > **rue🌿 (@Ruesavatar):** @selentelechia Omfg my daughter keeps telling me to stop drinking coffee, I also have no idea where she got this from. 😹 Easy for you to judge you tiny supernova human who sleeps like 12 hours a night 😹 Kids being told they can’t have caffeine by caretakers who very visibly consume caffeine might be one of the first such instances of “hypocrisy” (not saying it’s legit hypocrisy or bad) many children experience ### [Reply to @visakanv, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802008713005260874) · 2 likes > **Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv):** I’m curious to understand the history of some symbols. Eg this means display, right? Who came up with that > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQG-i_3a8AA69H7.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQG-i_5aYAAdyZL.jpg) Mr. LineSquareLine ### [Reply to @KatSpartz, 16:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802009054308417817) · 2 likes > **Kat Spartz ⏸️ 🔶 (@KatSpartz):** I'm embarrassed for AI risk deniers every time they call AI safety a cult. > > Calling somebody a cult is one of the most reliable signs of being mind-killed. > > It's like calling people nazis or fascists. > > Instant loss of credibility in my mind. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQGXlG7aQAI9j25.png) > (quoting @KatSpartz: Climate change and AI safety have so many parallels Some people risk our lives and they say critics are just luddites They say "if there's any uncertainty, then we shouldn't prepare for bad outcomes" They manufacture doubt so they can keep raking in the big bucks and making…) I mean it’s worth entertaining whether any given cult accusations are, in fact, about something that resembles what you and I would call a legit cult lol But I agree 99% of the time it’s a mindless criticism ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 16:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802010211521118590) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @livgorton So good all the way through One audible credit bites the dust ### [Reply to @cygadel, 18:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802038688873910325) · 3 likes > **foss (@cygadel):** @AaronBergman18 @Ruesavatar @selentelechia Then it's probably better to let them try a sip of coffee, which they will naturally dislike because of their tastebuds. N = 1 but this was me as a kid and I learned that coffee is delicious and awesome lol ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802057755634942003) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** also wife Bear ## Sunday, June 16, 2024 ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 06:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802222583271637011) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** 6 running, 6 w 30 lb pack and a bit of pacing/dog-walking because screw you quads! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQJ6EdsWwAAeH1H.jpg) How old are you?? ### [Quote tweet, 16:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802382589237346538) · 5 likes Sucks that melanoma lives in the real physical world bc I want a sunscreen exemption > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @ohwizenedtortle Like I think I’m pretty attuned to people’s moods, status, things like that, but even still am introverted, care less than avg about social norms, high decoupling, easily overwhelmed by sensory input, EXTREME need for comfy clothes/prefer no tags lol ### [Reply, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802410463537373376) · 1 like Any merit to this u think? Seems sus but also weird if it was coming from nowhere ### [Reply, 23:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802488514136727668) Also get well soon duh ### [Thread, continued, 23:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802489370324197386) · 2 likes Wait I got antibiotics a couple weeks ago and they didn’t even try to do one. Wtf. Link to a Wikipedia page or maybe just a drive link to a text file with base pairs would have been a banger consolation prize ## Monday, June 17, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802505196813041891) · 2 likes Hear me out https://www.illumina.com/systems/sequencing-platforms/nextseq-1000-2000/ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQPH2ZrWwAA9aP-.jpg) > **Quoting Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 (It costs two or three times more and sequencing takes up to 4-5 months after you submit the sample, so it has disadvantages) ### [Thread, continued, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802505199073849793) · 2 likes I have 2331 followers, this is doable. It's what like 18 hours at Vibecamp? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQPIO67W4AAdR5k.png) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802525347319017594) · 6 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I haven’t had amigdalitis since I was a child (I got part of my tonsils removed) and god I definitely remembered it too kindly with the constant ice cream Thought u were about to become a crazy neuroscience case study at first ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQPbP_6WkAAfeRC.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQPbP_4WkAAXuDb.jpg) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 02:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802532987382186091) · 5 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I forgot this doesn’t translate lol El cerebro misterioso increíble de Agusto el Gran ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQPiMlfXoAA9fBS.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802533464056459728) · 3 likes Idk where the feet came from. I didn’t ask for that ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802535845909368995) · 3 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I’m scared of that thing So is Claude. Alignment has gone too far ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQPkzEVXkAAgG5z.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQPkzEWWEAAInSQ.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQPkzFNXwAAliIr.jpg) ### [Reply to @ZachWeiner, 05:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802570771702698472) · 4 likes > **Zach Weinersmith (@ZachWeiner):** Dropped my jaw at this section > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQPBZRGWkAEw_bW.jpg) > (quoting @TomChivers: A small announcement: my next book, Everything is Predictable, about how Bayes' theorem is the most important little equation in the world, is out in April and will look like this! If you'd like to pre-order, you can do so here https://geni.us/EIPBook and I will be very grateful) (Courtesy of http://Claude.ai and http://longpost.lol. And me, sorta) ''' Perhaps the most famous example was food scientist Brian Wansink, a star at Cornell University who received millions in funding under the Obama administration. (1/12) ### [Reply, 05:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802571048447070718) · 1 like When she arrived, Wansink gave her a failed self-funded study with null results on eating behavior at an all-you-can-eat Italian buffet. He told her: "This cost us a lot of time and our own money. (4/12) ### [Thread, continued, 05:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802571162116882804) · 2 likes There's got to be something here we can salvage because it's a cool (rich & unique) data set." The student cut up the dataset in different ways and found enough p < 0.05 correlations to publish five papers, including the "men overeat to impress women" one. (5/12) ### [Reply to @bendunnflores, 16:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802734857522413750) · 3 likes > **bdf (@bendunnflores):** Dear hive mind, can you help me with a good response to "my (grand)kids are your age" in a professional context? “Yes I’d love to go on a date” ### [Quote tweet, 16:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802736899452215463) · 10 likes Uh seems like the kind of decision that a board could stop? > **Quoting aaron holmes (@aaronpholmes):** New: Sam Altman has told shareholders that OpenAI is considering becoming a for-profit company that would no longer be controlled by a nonprofit board https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openai-ceo-says-company-could-become-benefit-corporation-akin-to-rivals-anthropic-xai?utm_source=ti_app&rc=geicgp ### [Reply to @willdoingthings, 16:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802737726103396580) · 2 likes > **Lord Hollyhock (@willdoingthings):** Sufficiently advanced autism is indistinguishable from schizophrenia I don’t think this is true ### [Reply to @caesararum, 16:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802744585006821442) · 8 likes > **caesararum, BS, DOGS (@caesararum):** @docentdemagogue yeah but there aren't enough truckers > > but there ARE a lot of personal vehicles out there > > c'mon, i know your F-150 is costing you $1000/month; why not make it pay for itself? And most people can legally drive a pickup but not a larger van let alone an 18 wheeler ### [Reply to @LostLandshark, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802753131878453684) · 8 likes > **Forgotten Landshark (@LostLandshark):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQSUevGXsAAp0WX.jpg) ### [Reply to @anothercohen, 17:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802755874152206482) · 2 likes > **Alex Cohen (@anothercohen):** Austin residential real estate is not having a good time > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQSGmYRXUAAUGiS.png) Haha YES ### [Reply to @cauliflwr_human, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802756846068945016) · 4 likes > **cauli (back home!) (@cauliflwr_human):** deepfates at the pharmacy be like: "there is no anti emetics division" ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQStzAQXUAEWk_X.jpg) ### [Tweet, 17:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802758742775124409) · 17 likes I know twitter is built into my brain bc yesterday a corner of a fitted sheet popped off and my brain immediately said “ABOLISH FITTED SHEETS” fully verbally formed and everything ### [Tweet, 18:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802763488693010659) · 38 likes Extropianism with its fellow acronymmates [![30 Rock Fellow Kids GIF by Peacock](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/GQSz1jEXsAEOxEd.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802763488693010659/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802763842465787946) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Still writing. Will try to finish it soon. Can't keep my ideas short and to the point 😞 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQSzleJXMAA5qxu.jpg) Real ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 18:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802766069813150101) · 2 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** @AaronBergman18 You were right though ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQS2L6-WcAAq92X.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQS2L69W8AIHjNo.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQS2L68WMAAmgOO.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQS2L68XgAAo1C2.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802777857753858055) · 2 likes What cool machines can u buy for <$100? I feel like there might be alpha here > **Quoting Caleb Watney (@calebwatney):** idk why these wafer machines are getting so much hype, I bought this one for $30 on amazon > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQR7MABWgAAnrj1.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQR7L_CW0AE7MjP.jpg) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802779433746518523) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** question to any AI experts who follow me on here (+ anyone else who feels like weighing in) - how seriously do you take this blog post and the extremely short timelines it predicts? > > (quoting @aidan_mclau: new essay on language model search. giving llms search (ability to think for a long time) might kick off asi this year, and basically nobody is paying attention https://yellow-apartment-148.notion.site/AI-Search-The-Bitter-er-Lesson-44c11acd27294f4495c3de778cd09c8d) \*sigh of relief at parenthetical clause so I can yap and speculate\* ### [Tweet, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802780108681359678) · 129 likes I bet the name “Claude” was workshopped by a bunch of well-paid consultants and brand experts and “chatGPT” was the first thing that popped into someone at OpenAI’s mind (maybe as a variable name originally, they always look like that \[\`model = “chatGPT” ’\]) ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 19:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802781321040670919) · 8 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** no way a consultant or brand expert came up with "claude" lmao > > only a fellow shannon fanboy would advocate for something like that They have a lot of money I have a general sense that large companies do this kind of thing quite a bit ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802784123963977767) · 4 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** speculate away Sweet. Obligatory “idk what I’m talking about” I’m skeptical for kinda illegible qualitative reasons. Like there is only so much information packed into a model of arbitrary size. You can make that info quality better and denser during training by increasing compute/data ### [Reply, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802784633341313217) · 1 like given some fixed model output size (“number of parameters”) but that is different And the model is \*already\* optimized to like configure itself so as to not need to do search (or else training loss could be lower by a few gradient descent steps). I think - someone can yell at ### [Thread, continued, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802785013076840811) · 2 likes me if this is misinformed. But throwing arbitrary thinking time/inference compute at the model doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that scales. Bc it feels like not the meaningful resource constraint. Maybe it gets you half an OOM or something, but that was already gonna happen ### [Thread, continued, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802785047205798042) · 1 like in 6-12 months lol ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 19:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802787302151750000) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Utilitarians only! Would you sacrifice your life so that hundreds of millions of people could enjoy watching a soccer game? I feel like my intuition here comes from the fact that irl people can just watch soccer games Better framing is maybe a game getting canceled at the last minute. Which tbh I still wouldn’t do bc I am mostly selfish even if I’d kinda want to bite the bullet ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 20:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802807803465404901) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @StefanFSchubert Has some hallmarks of a strategy that might perform worse than chance tbf Broke: the stars are conspiring in your favor ✨ Woke: the stars are conspiring against you in financial markets ### [Tweet, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802808348619755782) · 15 likes Writers block but for hinge openers ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 21:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802808828389687593) · 3 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** The last job once AI has taken everything else > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQTc6G2WYAA_z2I.jpg) Sad but true ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802808917371625780) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 17, 2024:** Writers block but for hinge openers Normally I’m good at yapping ### [Tweet, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802822607001337868) · 32 likes I kinda wanna moan about the heat but it’s really not that bad bc air conditioning So this is an air conditioning appreciation post ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQTpmzSWQAAMxYU.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQTpmzXWUAA27M8.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802822610092490876) · 4 likes I did start looking for airbnbs in northern Canada/Greenland/Iceland but being realistic (sadly) I’m not gonna move to Iceland for a month lol ### [Thread, continued, 21:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802823069259780555) · 9 likes If you are British and don’t have A/C there is a 99.999% chance you’re being dumb and irrational Status quo bias goes hard ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 22:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802824872210657735) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 No Aaron we’re just poor, and it’s rarely hot enough to need it, and planning regulations stop you getting window units I kinda don’t believe that most people wouldn’t actually be better off buying it Ik the poor thing is a meme but still ### [Reply to @young_opsimath, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802826153721532489) · 14 likes > **young_opsimath ⏸️ (@young_opsimath):** An EA attended Manifest 2024 and shared a bunch of observations and recommendations. I largely endorse this piece: > > https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/MHenxzydsNgRzSMHY/my-experience-at-the-controversial-manifest-2024 One of these is not like the others ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQTs1P_WcAAZVLx.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 22:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1802826379014111407) · 9 likes Is “based” an edgy word? Descriptively, not prescriptively Poll below > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @young_opsimath One of these is not like the others > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQTs1P_WcAAZVLx.jpg) ## Tuesday, June 18, 2024 ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 18:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803137276332896609) · 2 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** @AaronBergman18 Cost me over 300€ to buy one in my student flat (top floor) to buy a mobile unit and then it didn‘t even work that well bc, the window made it difficult. That‘s not that easy to do if you‘re a student or don‘t have much money! You‘re definitely overconfident here imo The significant figures will increase until the Brits start to shiver 99.9999% ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803137689622855802) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 17, 2024:** If you are British and don’t have A/C there is a 99.999% chance you’re being dumb and irrational Status quo bias goes hard I regret to report that maybe it’s not quite 1/100k ### [Reply, 18:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803139043846213834) Fine, you don’t need A/C, enjoy ur pollen and pollutant-infused rain as you watch the clouds fade from dark grey to really dark grey at 4:37pm ### [Thread, continued, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803139186372850043) · 2 likes This came off as kinda mean I’m sure it’s lovely 😊 ### [Reply to @Nexuist, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803143632524026244) · 93 likes > **andi (twocents.com) (@Nexuist):** The reason this was vetoed along with steps is that it was deemed too physically stressful to have to climb into and out of a cabin 100-400x per shift This seems totally reasonable??? I will take the dorky ergonomic thing any day ## Wednesday, June 19, 2024 ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803254815767609482) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Damn the new MrBeast video is crazy > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQZPq8MWkAAIQBG.jpg) That’s it? Those are rookie numbers ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 02:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803255200284606916) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @JesseTayRiver The group who talk fast themselves Hopefully this is a recursive thing and wpm just keeps increasing ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803262985449689250) · 4 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** So much talent wasted during Republican administrations. Just hard to fathom why they would do this. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQZ32ewaIAMX8NW.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQZ6IM8WwAAovBY.jpg) ### [Reply to @EIFY, 03:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803264870336389495) · 2 likes > **EIFY (@EIFY):** Not Claude Shannon? I vote alligator ### [Reply to @norabelrose, 03:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803266249507443174) · 4 likes > **Taylor Belrose (@norabelrose):** Idea I'm toying with: a system is sentient if and only if it is alive. > > Simulations of living things can also be sentient, and edge cases are partially sentient. AI will be fully sentient when it becomes artificial life. https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/20323/ Uh seems almost certainly wrong? Computer system designed to emulate architecture of human mind way more likely to be sentient than a blade of grass ### [Tweet, 03:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803267555663970446) · 9 likes There should be some sort of wonky market based decision procedure for which drugs are allowed at vibecamp ### [Reply, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803270066055573928) · 2 likes > **lumberjack "migrate off this platform" wharfie (@lumbjackwharfie):** THIS is design that is meant to haul stuff while also REFUSING to present an excess danger to everyone else around. Meanwhile we let anybody drive trucks from which they can't see anything. > > (quoting @Nexuist: today i learned the Oshkosh NGDV (next generation delivery vehicle) looks like this because the USPS contract mandated that the cabin must be tall enough for a 95th percentile male (6'2) to stand up but low enough for a 5th percentile female (4'11) to see over the hood) Based truck ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 03:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803271030124773840) · 5 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** So like why do people dislike R^2? > > I only know I got blocked by that one guy for asking what the R^2 of his paper results were I’m an R^2 enjoyer “variation in X explains \_\_\_% of variation in y” seems like a very natural and good q to ask, at least if you understand what all those words mean in a technical sense ### [Reply to @Ruesavatar, 03:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803276298199928873) · 4 likes > **rue🌿 (@Ruesavatar):** Update: he was invited to her bday party. Today he went gift shopping for her with his dad and returned with a rope ladder. He explained that she loves to climb things so he wanted to give her something to climb. 🥺 She gave him a Minecraft clock for his bday be he’s into numbers > > (quoting @Ruesavatar: There’s this girl in my kid’s school that he described as his enemy the entire first year. He hated her. He’d lament about how annoying she was every day. Then last year he started referring to her as his frenemy. Today she’s coming to his bday party. Interesting arc. 🧐) More rizz than me ### [Reply to @rajlearns, 04:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803277087945478491) · 2 likes > **Raj Thimmiah (@rajlearns):** What are people’s experiences doing breathing stuff? > > I’ve been messing around with it because my default respiratory rate seems too high Personally I like breathing. Much better than not breathing ### [Reply to @norabelrose, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803277960440320496) · 1 like > **Taylor Belrose (@norabelrose):** @AaronBergman18 I mean it depends on the details but the brain emulation would probably count as living in my view Then what doesn’t? Specific brain architecture isn’t a property of life - we knew that iguanas and polar bears were alive before we knew how their thinking worked If you just go on bio curricula then inability to reproduce is disqualifying ### [Quote tweet, 04:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803279207050445129) · 2 likes I would do this but I don’t think I have any mutual blocks lol Most of the time ppl block me it’s just me disagreeing and that getting (perhaps reasonably) misinterpreted as like an insult or signaling antipathy > **Quoting bayesian asian (42/50 paintings) (@etirabys):** at VC3 I had a ~1.5h talk w a mutual block, mediated by a mutual mutual. 3 people I sorta knew spectated. We reached an ok resolution, unblocked, & got drunk together. due to the intensity of the disagreement the talk was stressful/sad but imo the format rocked, I love spectators ### [Reply to @AdsoOfBelk, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803282347795612112) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AdsoOfBelk is no longer available.)_ Setting my height to 7’5” and saying I come from an inches feet culture ### [Tweet, 04:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803285059622858854) · 12 likes Based ### [Reply to @AlecStapp, 04:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803285129445486775) · 3 likes > **Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** Holy shit > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQUtjkUWYAA3gQ7.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQUtjkSWkAAycg0.jpg) Wtf ### [Reply to @PoliticalKiwi, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803285391950102658) · 2 likes > **Jesse🔸⏹️ (@PoliticalKiwi):** For the last 8 years I've been following US elections as closely as just about anyone and I can say confidently that nothing will ever top this one. I was 16 at the time and I'll never forget how incredible it was to see a Democrat flip Alabama. Doesn't hurt I made a bunch of $$ > > (quoting @Nasaaeaoa: I wish I gave a shit about politics in 2017 so I could've witnessed this firsthand) Did u hear about the 2020 POTUS election ### [Quote tweet, 04:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803285745295044967) · 4 likes Me when I tell my family I need to not talk for a while > **Quoting Kristen Mulrooney (@missmulrooney):** Me and my son are the only ones home tonight and he talked to me for 2 straight hours until I said "Hey bud I just need a half an hour to do a little bit of work," and he said sympathetically "I bet," then continued talking to me for another 2 hours. ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 04:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803290733383745965) · 2 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Pet peeve - when people defend an action by saying it’s “just XYZ”, where the action technically is XYZ but that’s not the thing people have a problem with. Yes. Although sometimes it’s a dumb defense in the face of actual hyper-intolerance or willing to be charitable ### [Reply to @visakanv, 05:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803301913875636605) · 3 likes > **Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv):** Iirc people with brain damage that inhibits emotion, struggle to make decisions. > > even “simple, obvious” decisions like “pick the larger reward” turns out to be downstream of an emotional understanding that bigger rewards are better > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQaaO3EasAAVfZ7.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQaaO3EaIAEc2aP.jpg) In what sense are they better without emotion? ### [Reply to @otis_reid, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803302228175814837) · 26 likes > **Otis Reid (@otis_reid):** Great example of a fact about numbers whose specificity (why >77?) is designed to infuriate — only matched by the fact that the proof involves writing out the cases for 78-333 and then doing induction from there > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQZo2wRWQAAxwfk.jpg) > (quoting @AlgebraFact: Every integer greater than 77 is the sum of integers whose reciprocals sum to 1.) ### [Reply to @radbackwards, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803302380382953625) · 2 likes > **dar (@radbackwards):** Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t project a movie on the side of your cows > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQaGekkaIAEWqLJ.jpg) U should project onto two different cows so they can watch too ### [Reply to @AFraserUrq, 10:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803381241015607496) · 2 likes > **Alastair Fraser-Urquhart (@AFraserUrq):** How many Year 6s (10 years old) are taking themselves off to takeaways after school??? > > Completely unserious, I’m afraid. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQa9ygmWUAAK515.jpg) > (quoting @BBCNews: New takeaways banned in most parts of city https://bbc.in/3xksPkx) Lol at banning type of business via zoning being the one British policy lever ### [Reply to @bschne, 11:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803383226330653117) · 2 likes > **Benjamin (@bschne):** Just saw the difference between a budgeted and actual amount called "variance" on a dashboard F ### [Quote tweet, 11:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803390822156472377) · 37 likes For better or worse ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQbuZTdXMAAlxZY.jpg) > **Quoting Chris Freiman (@cafreiman):** Capitalism does seem kinda okay actually > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQYYJxFXIAA3rW6.jpg) ### [Reply to @mbolotnikova, 12:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803400383890338082) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @mbolotnikova is no longer available.)_ What the fuck ### [Tweet, 12:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803402070105502103) · 1 like .@mattyglesias makes a good case for the normie theory of obesity (I still think I disagree but nonetheless) https://open.substack.com/pub/matthewyglesias/p/are-ultra-processed-foods-really ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 12:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803402344614285654) · 2 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** I answered yes, but not long corridors, instead on staircases Chaotic neutral ### [Tweet, 20:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803529230384304192) · 2 likes Just like me fr ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 21:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803536625730768904) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 @PeterJAngel Silly stats people, R^2 is the coordinate plane R^2 is a real nonnegative number that depends on R ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803537187150942461) · 3 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** Update from deeper in the thread. Miles meant CEA/EAF team in this post and that they should be actively controlling what can be seen on the Forum (and other places I guess): > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQdwe-YX0AAvH7E.jpg) Yes I strongly agree. Any institution with the ability to become illiberal (eg by having moderators) will tend that way without active prioritization of, as you say, “openness”, even if that means hosting abhorrent ideas ### [Reply to @livgorton, 21:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803537372652752935) · 3 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** it turns out travelling with a 2 month old puppy is stressful actually. flight has been delayed and she’s gone full velociraptor mode attempting to destroy the carrier (but at least she’s not crying anymore 😅) > > but she is just so so cute and is having little calm moments ❤️ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQdxv78awAA_WJB.jpg) Since when do u have a puppy ### [Reply, 21:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803537428071776686) · 1 like 🇨🇦😌 ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 21:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803538310708507001) · 3 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** @AaronBergman18 @livgorton Aaron yearns for Uranium City 🇨🇦 Indeed, she’s beautiful ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQd0iPaXIAAb0yD.jpg) ### [Reply to @livgorton, 22:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803550098871157224) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** Clover 🍀 Poast twitter @ ### [Reply, 22:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803551677502411098) · 1 like I think you’re the only person who thinks this is bad ### [Reply to @jaybaxter, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803552407881670811) · 2 likes > **Jay Baxter (@jaybaxter):** Note needed: no, I am not the CEO of "Notes Community" 😅 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQeA7craIAIXzqN.png) Idk I’d take the title ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 22:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803553553174208569) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** what was so hard about just joining Anthropic, come on Yeah ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803556330000523665) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ @QualyThe ur hometown ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 22:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803556473915494504) · 3 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** @TetraspaceWest it was incredible but in retrospect that did make it a little difficult to tease apart what exactly caused which parts of getting over my depression Based ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 22:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803556816137122165) · 12 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @livgorton @absurdlymax Wow, it only gets worse in context. > > All in 1 paragraph: > \- "pro-natalist": cringe > \- "the fertility question": cringe > \- "man talking about his family is gay": wtf > \- "take a risk of becoming a homosexual": wtf x2 > \- "kids in their profile pics" is akin to Hamas terrorism: major wtf > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQcukGPXcAAJbwc.png) The “take a risk” line is a self-aware joke, I’m 95% sure ### [Reply to @augurydefier, 22:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803557831276466252) · 12 likes > **slice (@augurydefier):** what's your current PHQ-9 score? see image in reply 11 but annoyed bc I think much of this is either rational or physiogenic, having experienced “actual” depression ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803561038807179566) · 5 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18 @livgorton @absurdlymax I don't get it It’s obviously not true that he’s gonna become gay, he’s laughing at his own “intuition” mentioned previously ### [Tweet, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803562120392613926) · 9 likes Superintelligence is when Spotify can predict what song I will have wanted to start playing better than I can ### [Reply, 22:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803562810758033760) Yeah ### [Reply to @SelonNerias, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803563234953408784) · 3 likes > **Selon Nerias (@SelonNerias):** @AaronBergman18 @augurydefier I'm at 7 and pretty surprised your score is that high, you come across as less fd up than me (I have bipolar). Lol yeah I’m pretty physically fucked up atm which definitely manifests as some of these ### [Reply to @snuppydogg, 23:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803565321674015177) · 4 likes > **snuppydogg (@snuppydogg):** You'll have to be more specific > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQeLxqYWoAAXdAi.jpg) What’s that tweet that’s like Wars in europe are always like “8 people died and the barn was taken” Wars in china are always like “192 million people died, 266 million if you include famine” ## Thursday, June 20, 2024 ### [Tweet, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803578698861519117) · 81 likes I personally have a high bar for muting and very high bar for blocking but boy does this guy have bad takes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQeZRMhXsAAeJvX.jpg) ### [Reply to @Rado9910, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803584288962547760) · 25 likes > **Rado9910 (@Rado9910):** @AaronBergman18 Like... what? Insinuating EA is at fault for manifest doing something (I’ll post more) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQeeWinWoAAv4L9.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 00:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803585741731062144) · 37 likes A general thing is like branding as a criticizer of EA and then talking about things that are many links away in some social or intellectual graph So the idea here is EA <> ACX <> white supremacy (the third order thing isn’t even is true but even if it was like give me a break) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQefrHAXcAAVZ_j.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 00:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803586227293106329) · 22 likes Likewise ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQegHZ8XIAA5syx.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 00:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803587374082830626) · 26 likes This thread is literally self-explanatory I’ll pause for now but I’m sure I could find more ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQehKIoXEAAzm-Z.jpg) ### [Reply to @hyperdiscogirl, 00:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803587690702708868) · 8 likes > **hyper(bolic) disco(unting) girl in the bay (@hyperdiscogirl):** gender || do you sometimes pretend you don't want to cross the road when you actually do so an oncoming car doesn't stop to let you cross Yeah bc it’s dumb for a car to come to a full stop if letting it through would cost me .1 seconds ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803668942482735187) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Sometimes I'll tweet about EA and then someone will reply like 'that's a cult for idiots' but in a way that makes me think they don't realize I'm an EA I’m honestly more confident that it’s not an idiot thing than that it’s not a cult Everyone smart af ### [Quote tweet, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803669915926163860) · 15 likes Evidential decision theory > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 06:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803672297389048207) · 12 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Who cares? The quality of twitter discourse is not what I'm working to preserve. Strikes me as incredibly vain and silly to complain that your online group isn't as elite and smart anymore. No acknowledgement that more ppl knowing about the problem is worth a lot. > > (quoting @EigenGender: when I first got into Twitter in mid 2022 I was very impressed by the epistemic standards of the AI Safety community and this played a nontrivial role in my career journey to doing AI safety work full time. I don’t think I’d see the same quality today) Quality of discourse in general seems instrumentally helpful to actually doing ai safety though lol ### [Quote tweet, 06:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803678409828036847) · 7 likes Wow > **Quoting Trevor Bingham (@22TrevorBingham):** First World Pause Coalition protest in Ghana, Africa. > > From Jean Barreau, WPC organizer for Africa: > > "The first protest of the World Pause Coalition Ghana Chapter held today, June 19 at the US Embassy in Ghana has been a great success. The cooperation of the local authorities has been very helpful. We are making plans to have the next protest in another location. Hundreds of flyers have been distributed and the receivers have received the message with deep appreciation and interest. Thank you." > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQdjRLPXoAAOO97.jpg) ### [Reply to @animalologist, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803678811092869581) · 2 likes > **taco belle (@animalologist):** This feels like a metaphor for the dating scene > > (quoting @animalologist: I own so many socks but so few are in pairs) The dating scene is a metaphor for my socks ### [Reply to @norabelrose, 06:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803682525685973041) · 9 likes > **Taylor Belrose (@norabelrose):** The hard problem of consciousness ~entirely dissolves if you're an anti-realist about science. > > Science gives us useful models for predicting and controlling things, but does not uniquely tell us about the fundamental nature of reality. I don’t see how the hard problem depends on any of this and I also don’t think your second sentence implies anti-realism (like presumably many philosophers who talk about this stuff also thing \*philosophy\* is as epistemically legitimate as science) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQf3srBXIAAgEk5.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQf3srAXgAAfXY1.jpg) ### [Reply to @tescrealaccist, 06:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803682861540692153) · 3 likes > **TESCREAL/acc💙 (@tescrealaccist):** The Bentham bulldog poaster 100% does not lift, which is why it’s annoying when Scott or Tyler link out to him Cmon man this is basically just bullying ### [Reply to @keysmashbandit, 07:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803693283245240781) · 5 likes > **keysmashbandit (@keysmashbandit):** ? most theorems are one (1) sentence > > (quoting @TonyTheLion2500: Undergrad/grad students in math have to memorize theorems for exams??? 😭😭😭😭💀 I could never do that. Kudos if you can!) Yeah but they’re quite informationally dense by design Some math courses do feel a lot like memorizing vocab ### [Tweet, 14:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803801488386404503) · 2 likes FYI Google made it hard to download YouTube videos (I wonder why) so it’s gonna take a little while to get the recent EAG talks on the podcast feed ### [Reply to @adambinksmith, 14:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803802633833980091) · 1 like > **Adam Binksmith (@adambinksmith):** there's this nice command-line utility for it (I ask gpt-4 to write the commands): https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp Big if true, will report back ## Friday, June 21, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803992650762137641) · 2 likes Yo > **Quoting Alex Albert (@alexalbert__):** Back to PRs, Claude 3.5 Sonnet is the first model I've seen change the timelines of some of the best engineers I know. > > This is a real quote from one of our engineers after Claude 3.5 Sonnet fixed a bug in an open source library they were using. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQhmCxkbEAAgq48.png) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 03:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803993449986683137) · 6 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Asked Claude to code me a world map > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQkFwmKXUAEwUth.jpg) This is a scissor statement, I bet Easy to see through whichever lense (AI not smart/AI very smart) you prefer ### [Thread, continued, 03:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803993862253277225) · 4 likes Honestly I’d have guessed that it would do better but in an absolute sense it’s pretty wild that this is from a model (I’m pretty sure) not actually trained to draw anything (multimodal only for the inputs right?) ### [Tweet, 03:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803996138489483523) · 40 likes Lmao ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQkU7JxXYAAPSMG.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1803997539944804405) · 11 likes After a couple iterations providing the resulting image. Not bad! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQkWIOlW4AAGwk9.jpg) ### [Reply to @thiagovscoelho, 05:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804018496310837435) · 3 likes > **Thiago ✱ (@thiagovscoelho):** If you criticize practical actions by EAs, they’re usually very small parts of the movement, so you should still be pro-EA overall. If you criticize core ideas —like me, +@lymanstoneky against focusing on animal welfare— then you’re really anti-EA, but it’s hard for them to care. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: I personally have a high bar for muting and very high bar for blocking but boy does this guy have bad takes) FWIW “EA” at large is way closer to the “ignore animals” end of the spectrum than “care a lot about animals”. Animal welfare gets only a small fraction of the money and other resources I think this is bad unsurprisingly (see https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/btTeBHKGkmRyD5sFK/open-phil-should-allocate-most-neartermist-funding-to-animal?commentId=EiayxnzzyXssfJobJ) ### [Reply to @adambinksmith, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804019108524028097) · 2 likes > **Adam Binksmith (@adambinksmith):** there's this nice command-line utility for it (I ask gpt-4 to write the commands): https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp True ergo big It works. It looks like the code is actively managed pretty aggressively presumably in response to whatever obstacles google throws up, i just never updated the library (Until today) bc im dumb ### [Reply to @young_opsimath, 07:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804046814988878173) · 1 like > **young_opsimath ⏸️ (@young_opsimath):** @AaronBergman18 Huh interesting, I got a different result > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQku-x4akAMs9xT.jpg) \*Stochastic\* parrot ### [Reply, 12:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804127387811987508) · 1 like I mean interpersonal utility (philosophy form) comparisons are like extremely obviously legit to me It is worse for bob to be tortured than for Tim to get a papercut ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 13:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804139066960630045) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 25, 2024:** Load bearing Load bearing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQmW6gBXYAINby0.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQmW6f-WoAEezVf.jpg) ### [Reply to @Bbburner19, 13:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804143127382438342) · 2 likes > **The People Mover That Was Promised (@Bbburner19):** @AaronBergman18 Why were you shirtless here? It’s hot af ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 14:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804158647242514847) · 6 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Soylent or Huel need to come out with a nutritionally complete coffee creamer. It would change the game Creamer with appreciable protein is not gonna be great ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 14:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804164821518082548) · 2 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** 16th today (✨, 🎉 even.) > > \- too old to larp as a cracked kid on the internet > > \- too young to rent a car > > \- finally old enough to stop combatting child labor laws Happy birthday, the one true hbd ### [Quote tweet, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804286872686072204) · 12 likes This is the first and only “sign up now for a FREE…” that will ever work on me > **Quoting Jonathan Birch (@birchlse):** Can octopuses feel pain and pleasure? What about crabs and insects? Or organoids, fetuses, future AI? Still time to sign up for a free PDF of my book "The Edge of Sentience: Risk and Precaution in Humans, Others Animals, and AI", out 15 August: http://www.edgeofsentience.com ### [Tweet, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804290270931853689) · 7 likes There’s gotta be an arbitrage with Spotify for Podcasters apparently being willing to host an infinite amount of high quality video, forever, for free ### [Thread, continued, 23:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804290800727028098) · 2 likes Yes YouTube is like this but they don’t give you an RSS feed with direct public download links ## Saturday, June 22, 2024 ### [Tweet, 03:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804354861636481122) · 8 likes The best—dare I say most cracked—Mac apps are the ones that do exactly one technical operation but a zillion times faster than whatever the fastest normal person (even normal tech-literate) method is ### [Thread, continued, 03:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804354863112814711) · 3 likes Idk how u managed to beat ffmpeg conversions by like 10x but good job ### [Reply to @simulacrababy, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804555561117028592) · 2 likes > **annika💒 (@simulacrababy):** my brother is doing research in ecuador this summer and he just sent me this pic > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQoZmYCakAUQtmo.jpg) This looks like the archetypal mammal ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 16:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804555908732600349) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** The request: Split a medium fry in half and apply Cajun seasoning to just one half. This was apparently beyond the reasoning abilities of five whole guys. > > (quoting @NoahTopper: @visakanv @Aella_Girl Tried this just yesterday for a special request at Five Guys! It failed miserably.) If it had been 4 or 6 guys it probably would have worked ### [Quote tweet, 17:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804562282518556736) · 6 likes When he’s right he’s right > **Quoting Yann LeCun (@ylecun):** Thoughts exist without language. ### [Reply to @hbdchick, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804629287770759295) · 3 likes > **hbd chick (@hbdchick):** 👀🤷🏻‍♀️ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQr2psvWcAAcjTl.jpg) I have nothing against pope Francis but maybe they should hear him out ### [Reply to @liron, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804629908167049597) · 8 likes > **Liron Shapira (@liron):** It's crazy to me that Steven Pinker, one of the smartest intellectuals we've got, is so dismissive of the argument for AI extinction risk. > > [video attached](https://x.com/liron/status/1804235167780782177/video/1) \*Is\* he one of the smartest intellectuals? ### [Quote tweet, 21:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804634327155650955) · 12 likes Tf is characterAI > **Quoting Deedy (@deedydas):** Most people don't realize how many young people are extremely addicted to CharacterAI. > > Users go crazy in the Reddit when servers go down. They get 250M+ visits/mo and ~20M monthly users, largely in the US. > > Most impressively, they see ~2B queries a day, 20% of Google Search!! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQsM6zrasAAX6he.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804636198624743755) · 7 likes Wait this is actually cool lol Might become addicted ### [Reply to @ozyfrantz, 23:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804658500959719506) · 2 likes > **ozy brennan 🦙 (@ozyfrantz):** TIL that Terrence Howard, who played Rhodey in Iron Man, is a math crank. His system is called Terryology and it proves that 1x1=2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrence_Howard#Terryology_and_other_beliefs Let’s hear him out ## Sunday, June 23, 2024 ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 00:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804680482770325894) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ I don’t know what any of this means (tweet included) ### [Reply to @acesounderglass, 01:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804682998211608963) · 1 like > **Elizabeth Van Nostrand (@acesounderglass):** Starting a case study on chaos theory. My first question: can a butterfly in brazil actually cause a tornado in texas? surely that small an effect can't propagate that far? > > Computer models show that "tiny" effects make huge differences but are they actually butterfly-wing tiny? Idk anything in particular about chaos theory but I suspect the answer depends mostly on what you want “cause” to mean here Also there’s like an induction thing of “well if the butterfly wing cause something 10x more causally potent 1 meter away bc of chaos theory” then this ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 01:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804685532900757677) · 3 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** Can be people be wrong about their subjective experiences? Yeah and while obv not an expert I’m probably in at least the 99.99th percentile of time spent thinking about this question See here ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 02:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804703535352758717) · 2 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** I'm pretty much fully Parfit pilled. Reductionism for the win > > Qualia is real. People aren't I agree but these do seem like pretty different issues tbc ### [Reply, 02:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804704724815651093) · 1 like Did you tell it what you were gonna say to get the screenshot? I tried this (not a ton of effort but still) and it was << Eliza ### [Tweet, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804705438581063738) · 8 likes The diagnostic-treatment criteria in medicine should be such that patients are not made worse off by being slightly healthier and therefore too healthy to qualify for some treatment ### [Thread, continued, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804705440103600478) · 2 likes I think there are many areas in which this is not generally the case (lots of endocrine stuff, having to be obese to get semaglitude) ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804724680340775175) · 3 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** SOMEBODY has to tell them they need to stock more yogurt Have u considered getting a cow ### [Thread, continued, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804724956506304795) · 2 likes And some bacteria powder but I’m guessing this isn’t the constraint ### [Reply to @JoePostingg, 04:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804737649208389836) · 12 likes > **Joe (@JoePostingg):** Democrats need to keep Jamaal Bowman in the House. Nobody else in their caucus can move this much mass. https://x.com/i/status/1676942821494751235/video/1 He just like me fr (sometimes wears white t-shirts) ### [Reply to @no_earthquake, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804739743818654158) · 2 likes > **no earthquake (cut his fingers) (@no_earthquake):** in an attempt at normalization i’m trying to convince my hot friends of how cool my ac jacket is > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQtupkua0AAlDE5.jpg) Wait what ### [Quote tweet, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804745833016930793) · 8 likes GPT-4 and Claude Opus, let alone the new Sonnet, seem better than me at almost everything \*that they do\* The only thing they’re “not as good as people yet” at are things that don’t involve image+text input and text output > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** My experience in basically all AI discourse is saying "Wow LLMs are much more capable than I expected them to be" and a bunch of people swooping in to say "You idiot, they're not as good as people yet, and make simple mistakes" and like yes obviously ### [Tweet, 05:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804749299437150373) · 648 likes Humans only dominate land use above water, apparently ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQvB7GaWcAA0DK6.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804749303916777627) · 71 likes Super Mario shit. Surprisingly cool creature https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_cucumber ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQvB7YiXgAE18DD.jpg) ### [Reply to @softminus, 05:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804753134893298123) · 32 likes > **Miss Distance (@softminus):** people post the former quote about the economics of precision guided munitions in counterinsurgency operations or stuff but the context of the quote in the original text is...rather different from the vibe people usually are going for by quoting it: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQvEJ5NbwAAImzQ.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQvEJ5NbcAAud3D.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQvEJ5PasAArfxc.jpg) They also took out the “so” which suggests another clause is coming ### [Quote tweet, 06:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804756891593052273) · 43 likes Tired take but man it is so dumb the simulators gave us an infinite energy glitch rock and we’re like “nah” > **Quoting James Clark 📈📉¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ (@mr_james_c):** The dumbest part of this is that France runs a majority of its energy via nuclear, so running AC has zero emissions. > > We need to stop equating energy reduction with emissions reductions. It's so stupid. ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 06:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804760005033210211) · 11 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** We need to cultivate cucumber power I read the last word as “powder” first and was like “no let them be!!!” ### [Reply to @kindgracekind, 07:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804773109783830894) · 19 likes > **Grace (@kindgracekind):** But are they happy? Idk I hope so!!! ### [Reply to @joshua_saxe, 08:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804790062854328497) · 4 likes > **Joshua Saxe (@joshua_saxe):** After a couple days playing with it it seems Claude 3.5 Sonnet unlocks LLM applications that weren't possible with GPT4 and challenges the "LLMs have plateaued" thesis Bro u have to elaborate it’s illegal to leave a tweet like this ### [Thread, continued, 08:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804790764322369679) · 2 likes Unrelatedly this is a good example of a bio that gets an instant follow ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQvnoq0XEAIIHwd.jpg) ### [Reply to @bengrossbg, 10:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804822975377506509) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @bengrossbg is no longer available.)_ ?¿? ### [Reply to @202accepted, 11:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804833367336026442) · 2 likes > **𝚓𝚒𝚖𝚖𝚢 (@202accepted):** giving a girl free medical advice is 6th base but if you send her a bill it’s -6 bodies > > (quoting @sparab22: Not sure what stage of the relationship this is, but during our date, the girl I’m seeing complained about strong tooth pain. I took a photo and got 4 different dentists’ quick thoughts. Walked through her dental insurance coverage and coached how to navigate getting an early…) This is my specialty ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQwOYdYXcAIRWyk.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQwOYdZXQAIqrQI.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQwOYdbW4AEMM74.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 11:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1804844797829513491) · 33 likes Cool thread but now I want to know: what jobs are legitimately fake/unimportant/non-functional? > **Quoting William B. Fuckley (@opinonhaver):** What jobs sound super ‘fake’ but are actually extremely ‘real’? > > By that I mean you read the description and think something like “oh ok this is just some bullshit email job” but the actual reality is “no lots of people would definitely die if someone didn’t do this” ## Monday, June 24, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 04:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1805097261929517563) · 130 likes They built the entire field of AI safety like a decade before it would have otherwise developed, if it would have at all?? > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Reply to @angryfermion, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1805098118658027695) · 2 likes > **😡fermion, PhD (@angryfermion):** what a doofus > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQxJ53ba4AEBQgf.jpg) Idk either ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1805099314374496570) · 25 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 24, 2024:** They built the entire field of AI safety like a decade before it would have otherwise developed, if it would have at all?? If this doesn’t parse as success, that’s fine, but it does on the rats’ own terms ### [Reply to @AFraserUrq, 09:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1805177698920075502) · 15 likes > **Alastair Fraser-Urquhart (@AFraserUrq):** I have just drunk several million salmonella bacteria on purpose for a clinical study: AMA! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQ1G517XUAAof0T.jpg) 🫡 My roommate is doing a dysentery human challenge trial rn. Ty both for your service. Question: how does it feel to be so based? ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 10:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1805184795447586950) · 4 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** Cool! What's the study about? Salmonella ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 10:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1805185921744019656) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 @AFraserUrq Yeah but how much? Several million ## Tuesday, June 25, 2024 ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 07:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1805496966589153564) · 3 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** we're so back > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQ5fhxibwAAYsv3.jpg) Ok but recycling is mostly\* dumb \* not metal, that’s worth recycling ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 09:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1805526531529212331) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @austinc3301 This is what my retweets are 🍷🧐 Likewise 🎩 ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1805637561106289158) · 3 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @ea_paddington @AaronBergman18 Bear 🐻 Bear ## Wednesday, June 26, 2024 ### [Reply to @panickssery, 00:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1805760176571461992) · 5 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** Trump White House spent $100,000 on modafinil from 2017–2019 lol > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQ9NZo-bwAAoGJS.jpg) Based ### [Reply to @strangestloop, 00:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1805760699102003225) · 5 likes > **Loopy (@strangestloop):** chat is this real > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQ8_-8oWsAANADt.jpg) I think so ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 15:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1805986386647884097) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @robertwiblin is no longer available.)_ Banger ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 15:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1805988504142557185) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ Tyfys 🙏 ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 16:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1805998541401141739) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @austinc3301 @AaronBergman18 you don’t get to like this tweet unless you’ve read Unsong Fine ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 16:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806000351629226155) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 @austinc3301 You were supposed to go read Unsong, not unlike my tweet 😭 😈 ### [Reply to @_deepfates, 18:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806025096064016447) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @_deepfates is no longer available.)_ I don’t think that’s true ### [Reply to @StatsLime, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806025310481101262) · 3 likes > **Max ⏸️ Limelihood 🔸🔸🔸 (@StatsLime):** the mind-body dualists are trying to censor me on Twitter, but I refuse to be silent: physicalism is not hate speech @elonmusk > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRBDDrCbcAAN6XP.jpg) False positive fr ### [Reply to @a_real_society, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806034637178769856) · 3 likes > **society (@a_real_society):** The week I took the LSAT I also had 20 hours of interviews, including a 2 hour technical interview that ended minutes before I started the exam Oof ### [Thread, continued, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806035005539319985) · 2 likes Reminds me of this cursed day ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRBTRBNWgAAo1-q.jpg) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806071295089528948) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @jskf\_\_ Nimby, but for rodents 😢🐿️ ## Thursday, June 27, 2024 ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 18:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806398777885962379) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @Duderichy is no longer available.)_ Problem with sugar is that it makes everything (including ur fave obesogenic nutrient/food group) taste better, not the sugar itself ### [Thread, continued, 18:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806399852693111233) · 2 likes Compare to white rice which is really quite similar nutritionally. Can’t add white rice to peanut butter or oil to make frosting etc ### [Quote tweet, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806415938935501078) · 9 likes Humans be different from each other fr > **Quoting Alessandro (@polisisti):** in one (1) week, I'm going to spend 90 minutes playing this organ as a birthday present to myself, and I'm super excited :) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRGOii8WkAAHOL0.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRGOi_uXEAAaiqZ.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRGOjLcXQAEC9Ft.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRGOjxLW0AAWGGN.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806441660869439990) · 24 likes Almost got Mark Cuban'd Not caught by spam filter, be careful ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRHEu3aXcAAS49W.jpg) ## Friday, June 28, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 08:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806613431740514439) · 7 likes I absolutely do not have the money for this to make legible sense but I am anti-frugal when it comes to this Yeah, spend like $60/mo to get a better glimpse into the future. It’s wild that a human-level clippy is even this cheap. This is the last thing I will be saving money on > **Quoting sophie (@netcapgirl):** when you have to subscribe to a bunch of different LLMs in order to keep up, after this exact same thing happened with streaming services > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRF4h0RXUAEIXVf.jpg) ### [Reply, 09:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806623856376848730) · 1 like Poast regex ### [Quote tweet, 10:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806636923064078818) · 8 likes I have the same intuition as everyone else but what’s the actual correlation between seeming old on TV and cognition or productivity? Personal experience is limited but suggests the answer is “not as high as you’d naively expect” > **Quoting delaniac 🌹🌱 (@ChadNotChud):** you guys stop ragging on Biden it’s just his stutter ### [Tweet, 10:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806637504491135227) · 2 likes Recorded a mediocre thing https://youtu.be/2l-6KQnT6I8 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 10:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806639790957207979) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @economeager I was on the fence about getting more involved in EA a few years ago and then in my old job was exposed to a charity where people read stories over Zoom to dogs How do I sign up ### [Tweet, 11:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806648024258465942) · 157 likes Do people realize Biden is POTUS \*right now\*? Conditional on what you make of his performance at literally doing the job rn, watching him for an hour on TV should be only a tiny update at the margin ### [Thread, continued, 11:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806648025839730986) · 13 likes Like maybe he is too old! But if so you should have concluded that by yesterday morning! ### [Reply to @DavidSartor0, 11:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806657934413148487) · 2 likes > **David Sartor (@DavidSartor0):** @AaronBergman18 "the same intuition as everyone else" > Which one? I'm not sure I have much of what you're talking about. Looks too old ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 12:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806670380427305296) · 4 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** 7 bucks for a normal bottle of water at the airport,,, If only Biden was a bit sharper ### [Reply, 13:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806676979090874392) · 1 like 🤝 ### [Reply, 13:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806677766697361641) · 2 likes Yes, falsifiability is overrated in general and hardly a virtue in one-shot contexts like this It’s just normal Bayesian evidence all the way down… ### [Thread, continued, 13:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806678099079086275) · 2 likes If you say smth only has a one in a trillion chance of happening and then it happens, it’s true that maybe you were just really unlucky but it’s much more likely that you were wrong about the ex ante probability 1%, 10%, 40%, and 49.9% are differences of degree not kind ### [Reply to @Tymtweet, 13:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806679525226688958) · 166 likes > **Tym🔸️ (@Tymtweet):** Do your homies text like this? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRKaNy5XoAAkx7J.jpg) I wish ### [Reply to @Tymtweet, 13:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806683207066165283) · 3 likes > **Tym🔸️ (@Tymtweet):** I can hook you up man. Also this morning I was looking at https://vizhub.healthdata.org/gbd-compare/ which can give csv downloads and has some insane data 🙏🙏🙏 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 13:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806687203910656327) · 17 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 28, 2024:** Like maybe he is too old! But if so you should have concluded that by yesterday morning! Yeah this is a good counterargument ### [Reply to @adrusi, 14:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806697930071400911) · 2 likes > **autumn (@adrusi):** people see something happen and think that it means something > > made myself saner relative the the population baseline by not watching this debate Certain events are schelling points that function to make common knowledge of some sort (whether or not that was ever intended) The case for caring about the debate is that everyone at least moderately engaged in politics knows that everyone else knows what happened (and if ### [Tweet, 14:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806700130508099726) · 15 likes Chevron Deference overturned?! My cached opinion is that this is extremely bad for state capacity and competent governance. I would love to be convinced otherwise https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4745680-supreme-court-chevron-case/damp/ ### [Thread, continued, 14:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806700132261302648) · 4 likes Tbh I didn’t think SCOTUS would rule this way because of a maybe naive prior on the justices not liking to unilaterally radically reshape the federal government ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 15:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806705008106233894) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** @AaronBergman18 I think it's fine, agencies were powerful and capable pre-1984, and it seems plausible that Chevron was overly differential to agencies. Like it's not clear why the executive branch should be able to decide unchecked what ambiguous law means. I hope you’re right but no this is the mechanism by which congress can delegate complicated, technical, messy, changes-over-time stuff This becomes more important the less functional and responsive congress is, and pre-1984 we had a much more functional congress afaik ### [Reply, 15:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806706500368310526) I agree in some abstract first principles sense but I think the actual impact will be that most the “questions of law” that would have been handed over to an agency just disappear, not that they get written by congress instead ### [Tweet, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806719649259696578) · 2 likes Last paragraph ### [Tweet, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806724598597083507) · 81 likes Fascinating that “abolish the FDA” is fringe and radical whereas “neuter every single federal agency, fundamentally transforming the powers of the federal government for better or worse” is, well, evidently inside “the” Overton window ### [Thread, continued, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806724600358961502) · 15 likes Hey I like weird and radical ideas. Sometimes they are good. But something is off if the second thing above sounds way more plausibly good than the first. Something something feminist bankteller ### [Thread, continued, 16:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806725176295350658) · 10 likes Tbf to get the feminist bankteller thing, you’d want to compare “radically weaken the FDA” with “overturn Chevron” Yeah I still think this checks out as like either the first thing is super tame or the second is super radical but neither of these sound intuitively right ### [Reply to @reubgold, 17:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806735545235562983) · 3 likes > **Reuben (@reubgold):** https://trase.earth/open-data here's where I got it from, it's more for sustainability reporting than anything else @SpacedOutMatt if anyone has a good use for shrimp supply chain data ### [Reply to @astridwilde, 18:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806749850035229033) · 2 likes > **Astrid Wilde 🌞 (@astridwilde):** you are confused by the legal victory of the memeplex where Consequentialist legal theories are literally spoken as curse words because you're trying to understand it in a Consequentialist frame. forgive me for this but, get wrecked 😎 I am confused by the general contours of my mutuals’ attitudes, not by SCOTUS. I “stand by” my confusion too bc I think very few of the people I’m talking about even have a jurisprudential ideology they could name, and politically generally cluster around ### [Thread, continued, 18:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806750958082289959) · 5 likes pragmatic libertarian-leaning neoliberalism, which features state incompetence and scleroticism as complaints way more than fundamental principled objections to the roles western governments have assumed over the last century ### [Thread, continued, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806752057094705436) · 4 likes I should probably avoid writing a whole essay lol but FWIW I’ve been tweeting and thinking about Chevron as a policy separate from the legitimacy of the process that created it and just now overturned it Tbh I’m pretty agnostic about whether the recent ruling was “correct” ### [Quote tweet, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806754858357154162) · 40 likes Real decoupling hours: who’s writing the “Chevron is correct jurisprudence and terrible for society” take and who’s writing “Chevron is good for society but bad jurisprudence (and so today’s decision was correct)” ? > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @astridwilde I should probably avoid writing a whole essay lol but FWIW I’ve been tweeting and thinking about Chevron as a policy separate from the legitimacy of the process that created it and just now overturned it > > Tbh I’m pretty agnostic about whether the recent ruling was “correct” ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806755897143701803) · 5 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** New article where I explain that Biden won’t quit because being old sucks and the only thing that can possibly make it tolerable is something as cool as being president of the United States. https://www.richardhanania.com/p/biden-wont-quit-because-being-old My intuition is the total opposite lol There’s a reason retired people aren’t known for taking on as much stress-inducing responsibility as possible ### [Reply, 22:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806813337331826725) I have my own partial genome, at a minimum could compare. Will be interesting whether the samples are human or animal ### [Reply, 22:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806816290738217101) Poast ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806818798202409272) · 21 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 17, 2023:** This is an open invitation to always send me any csv’s u stumble across. Idc how, drive link or url or just paste it into DM or reply I love a good csv 🙏🏼 Update: csv should be taken as a symbolic umbrella term which covers tsv, txt, json, and any other structured text data. .Rdata would be cool too The more the merrier until I run out of cloud storage (1.5TB to go and that’s not a hard limit) ## Saturday, June 29, 2024 ### [Reply to @yzilber, 05:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806930309100773426) · 2 likes > **Jazi Zilber (@yzilber):** same for Roe > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Real decoupling hours: who’s writing the “Chevron is correct jurisprudence and terrible for society” take and who’s writing “Chevron is good for society but bad jurisprudence (and so today’s decision was correct)” ?) I haven’t written anything longer than this but yeah ### [Reply to @JacquesThibs, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806932123644801248) · 6 likes > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** anthropic made me feel the agi today Did I miss smth ¿ ### [Tweet, 06:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1806941390217060586) · 3 likes Ok I am actually not super worried but definitely do not go hang out with livestock (and this is a thing people who follow me do! No farm sanctuary trips or feeding wild animals (😢)! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GROLg4AXwAQyEDR.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 21:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807157630059622637) · 39 likes What goes on over here > **Quoting Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE):** The side of planet Earth we aren't used to seeing. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRPiJXRWcAELGJY.jpg) ### [Reply to @gmiller, 21:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807161391830245495) · 6 likes > **Geoffrey Miller (@gmiller):** What I fear could happen in October: > > The Democrats will lose the White House unless they come up with a truly game-changing 'hail mary' strategy. > > Given their willingness to demonize their opponents as 'violent insurrectionists', one logical option would be to stage a false flag 'terrorist attack' with a high death count that can be blamed on 'far-right MAGA extremists'. > > It would need to be a very dramatic attack on some place that's sacred to Leftist values, and/or on some people who make highly sympathetic victims. > > It would need to happen shortly before the election, so there's not enough time to fully investigate its true organizers & funders. > > It would need some plausible patsies, recruited, funded, & incited by government handlers. > > Conservatives must expect this, brace for it, & be prepared to counter it. > > If you think the Democratic true believers, who consider Trump an 'existential threat to American democracy', would never contemplate such a thing, you haven't been paying attention. They will do whatever it takes to retain power. Period. > > And if you think such false flag attacks never happen, or never work, please read some history, starting with the 1933 Reichstag fire that gave the Nazis a pretext for locking in absolute power in Germany. > > I hope I'm wrong about this. But I fear that panicked desperation will lead the Democrats to do some truly heinous things. Give me a fucking break lol ### [Quote tweet, 21:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807163790598771181) · 5 likes Computers are fake, no way u can spend 8 hours constantly doing math and not make a single mistake > **Quoting SoggyKiwi 🥝🧬🏳️‍⚧️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@KiwiSoggy):** bro i friggen hate working with large datasets wtf 8 hours just to compute a single metric?? killing myself > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRPMvxmXIAA12I6.png) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807163938033012921) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 29, 2024:** What goes on over here Oops didn’t mean to do the reply restriction ### [Reply to @transmissions11, 21:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807164088511795359) · 3 likes > **t11s (@transmissions11):** average sf street sign > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRRKrrPa8AAW7NB.jpg) Bro ### [Tweet, 21:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807164335149465883) · 8 likes I think this is the only tweet in existence to use “only Verified accounts can reply” ### [Reply to @metakuna, 21:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807164799240880447) · 2 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** my body is a machine that turns its purpose into what it does Nice ### [Reply to @AlexGodofsky, 21:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807166371232731331) · 1 like > **Alex Godofsky (@AlexGodofsky):** Aside from everything else, "we cannot arrest our way out of homelessness" is literally false. > > (quoting @ACLU: BREAKING: The Supreme Court ruled today that cities can punish unhoused people for sleeping in public, even if they have nowhere else to go. We cannot arrest our way out of homelessness.) Seems like a bad decision ### [Quote tweet, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807173153040351398) · 8 likes (This is in support of the original post. $1450 for 2000 square feet in NYC is like 1/10 todays price) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRReZ5uXAAAc13_.jpg) > **Quoting rosey🌹 (@thechosenberg):** We need rents to go down or Boomers are going to the guillotine en masse > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRQaIddXgAAvtgm.jpg) ### [Reply, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807184083447144841) · 1 like I mean it’s an empirical q what the correlation and R² are. The space of human brains is way more constrained than that of software ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807189548608225294) · 2 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Something about slow-waddling birds gets me every time 🥺 > > [video attached](https://x.com/ilex_ulmus/status/1807188785177972922/video/1) @livgorton ### [Reply to @joodalooped, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807191680627417415) > **judah (@joodalooped):** software is so limited lol How so? Isn’t turing completeness the upper bound for info processing Tbc I may have no idea what I’m talking about, zero formal CS training ### [Reply, 23:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807192618704495073) Yeah but re your original point, a list of methods doesn’t tell you the compute specs which you can augment arbitrarily Whereas human brains are limited in literal size (even with growth hormone and steroids) ### [Reply to @young_opsimath, 23:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807194985290220011) · 11 likes > **young_opsimath ⏸️ (@young_opsimath):** Nonprofits can be good > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRRugvpawAAGlPw.jpg) > (quoting @garrytan: Nonprofits are bad We need to bring back high integrity state capacity, highly paid, chosen for merit and held to high standards of accountability The state must end its practice of farming out state capacity to feckless nonprofits that grift and are not held to any standard) Opening line: nonprofits are bad 🚫 Actual argument: it’s bad for the welfare state to rely on contracting out to nonprofits without proper incentives or accountability systems ✅ ### [Reply to @garrytan, 23:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807195027166409172) · 2 likes > **Garry Tan (@garrytan):** Nonprofits are bad > > We need to bring back high integrity state capacity, highly paid, chosen for merit and held to high standards of accountability > > The state must end its practice of farming out state capacity to feckless nonprofits that grift and are not held to any standard ### [Reply to @shae_mcl, 23:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807200054668615947) · 3 likes > **Shae McLaughlin (@shae_mcl):** This is actually \*incredibly\* dangerous advertising. I’m shocked that this doesn’t break laws. Referring to DNA sequencing and polygenic risk analysis as cancer screening??? Claiming that DNA is the foundation of health??? That it’s better than going to a doctor??? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRRtPaXbcAAIsG2.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRRtPaZawAABkiQ.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRRtPaZboAAt260.jpg) Foundation of health definitely checks out ### [Reply, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807200962064613515) · 1 like I agree for “be” as in actively participate, disagree for “have an account” Public resume + connections is a super legible statement of credibility, much harder to lie in private on a job application ### [Quote tweet, 23:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807201527217476039) · 5 likes LinkedIn post feed or whatever it’s called can be dumb/cringe af You should still have a page > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @JesseTayRiver I agree for “be” as in actively participate, disagree for “have an account” > > Public resume + connections is a super legible statement of credibility, much harder to lie in private on a job application ## Sunday, June 30, 2024 ### [Reply, 00:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807208490760302693) · 5 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** @AaronBergman18 a lotta polynesians sailing ridiculously long distances, i assume I would simply not have done that ### [Tweet, 00:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807210610435961041) · 8 likes So do ppl think sub-obesity weight gain and obesity are the same phenomenon? Not necessarily talking about specific semi-arbitrary BMI thresholds (although those aren’t a terrible place to start) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 01:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807217826446373220) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** And here I was gonna @ you @AaronBergman18 @NoahTopper ### [Tweet, 12:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807396414743306735) · 11 likes Aside from the actual question at hand, the sociology/social psych and political science of this is fascinating Coordination without conspiracy (no I don’t think all this was hashed out in a giant WhatsApp group) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRUpde1X0AATNCB.jpg) ### [Tweet, 14:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807425203896570307) · 4 likes More important city, at the current margin (so not total importance integrated over time)? ### [Tweet, 21:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807519681021972927) · 27 likes In honor of 2.4k followers, I am going to drink at least 2.4k water molecules today ### [Tweet, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807544179771252771) · 16 likes The function of this chair is to exist on top of a shipping container ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRWv2R_W8AIbRad.jpg) --- End of June 2024. Previous month: [May 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-05). Next month: [July 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-07). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, July 2024 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in July 2024 and has not deleted: 547 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [June 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-06). Next month: [August 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-08). ## Monday, July 1, 2024 ### [Reply to @UnfinishedOwl, 01:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807585670510281081) · 168 likes > **UnfinishedOwl (@UnfinishedOwl):** was making sure I said exactly what I wanted to say and being clear and precise. got asked if I was in special ed > > (quoting @UnfinishedOwl: @eddieblake448 I was thinking carefully about my answers and being a bit on the slower side, so she asked if I had a learning disability or took special ed classes. apparently after I left the judge chewed her out and then found him guilty (juvenile court, so no jury)) I relate to this. I don’t want to just start yapping! If I do that I’ll probably basically lie bc brain is in next token prediction mode ### [Reply to @MichaelAArouet, 02:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807602380067750192) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @MichaelAArouet is no longer available.)_ “Reliably” It’s apples and oranges. Only a handful of card counters reliably beat the house ### [Tweet, 07:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807679753022775623) · 7 likes Tf does hawk tuah mean ### [Reply, 08:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807689738624573761) · 1 like I am now fully cultured thx ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 08:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807691669409521846) · 2 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** the free market is a misaligned superintelligence This is kinda true but also nation state governments are unambiguously more powerful If Amazon > US Government a la Chiquita Banana Co, this would hold more real weight ### [Tweet, 08:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807697371213513140) · 22 likes Humans really like to make slightly different configurations of wheat flour, water, and salt Bread (a billion types) Bagels Pretzels Tortillas Pasta Crackers Matzah Biscuits Cream of wheat Beer? (Is fermented wheat a thing?) Seitan Breakfast cereal flakes The list goes on fr ### [Thread, continued, 08:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807698247575568503) · 5 likes Claude added: Dumplings Wheat berries Bulgur Couscous Kvass ### [Tweet, 10:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807721400754471132) · 3 likes Good take (I do think “masculine” is redundant though. It’s just a virtue and one that vibe-associates with other masculine-coded things) https://www.richardhanania.com/p/free-speech-should-be-a-masculine ### [Reply to @hbdchick, 11:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807736167460168081) · 2 likes > **hbd chick (@hbdchick):** omg, this is so wrong. ALL of the style guides (harvard, mla, etc.) have guidelines for referencing blog posts! and tweets. and for that matter "personal communication." citations are meant for crediting people for their ideas, not just for referring readers to publications. 🤦🏻‍♀️ > > (quoting @EvolOdonata: Sorry dude, non-peer reviewed blog posts are not publications and are therefore not cited. Besides, I do not see that the paper has "clearly" been inspired by your blog post.) ### [Tweet, 11:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807744223870877763) · 5 likes Hardware stores are a superstimulus (positive) ### [Reply to @Aria_Babu, 12:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807754306570817933) · 3 likes > **Aria Schrecker (@Aria_Babu):** Think tanks seem to have a fair amount of influence (especially in the U.S.), but it's not clear that they sway politics in any particular direction. If we banned them, how do you think the world would change? They don’t sway politics, they sway policy ## Tuesday, July 2, 2024 ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807955223115137149) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ I basically endorse this yea ### [Quote tweet, 02:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807959787994583323) · 6 likes Evidential decision theory makes this one hard > **Quoting adam ✧ ❥ ~ (@adam__isom):** "go where the women are" there actually don't exist any spaces that aren't 60%+ male. I don't know how to explain this logically, but it's true > > partner dance classes? ha! once upon a time. church? went to a service yesterday, >60% male > > what else ya got?! 🤺 ### [Tweet, 02:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807965006639575203) · 45 likes Dijon mustard is the product of REGULATORY CAPTURE ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRcul2Db0AMSM4Y.jpg) ### [Tweet, 02:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807965613668675729) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dijon_mustard ### [Thread, continued, 02:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1807969268845129734) · 3 likes Fascinating ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRcyd7DWEAA8E8R.jpg) ### [Tweet, 09:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1808074334151307443) · 5 likes Someone marry this mf ### [Reply, 10:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1808079862046888294) · 10 likes Veganism but that’s it ### [Reply to @DeepDishEnjoyer, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1808199198111609053) · 304 likes > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** Okay as much as I don't love Kamala, why the double standard between her and Donald Trump? There is no world in which Donald is more professional and competent than her > > (quoting @DavidSacks: Imagine going through the Cuban Missile Crisis with President Kamala Harris.) Dare I say sexism ### [Tweet, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1808207209102561751) · 23 likes Seems bad https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025 ## Wednesday, July 3, 2024 ### [Reply to @panickssery, 10:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1808443468819099653) · 2 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** \> I'm a pretty firm atheist, but definitely not at 10^-20 that I would change my mind after extensive deliberation. > > That's the crux right: what's the principled way to put probabilities on stuff where nothing in the reference class has happened and you think you can explain why > > (quoting @NeelNanda5: @psychosort you would be highly unlikely to be wrong about any of them. This doesn't seem reasonable to me, especially on a belief where a lot of people disagree with you - it's fine to think that those people are wrong, but not at this level of confidence! Another way to…) ### [Reply, 10:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1808444742285316153) · 1 like Yeah I agree, idk why I put it that low before ### [Tweet, 11:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1808467944583643174) · 9 likes Wait this is a negative thing for everyone else?? ### [Reply, 12:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1808471150772826407) · 1 like No that particular value was way too low (99.99%) but the general point I still stand by ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 12:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1808475597573591231) · 208 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** \> "a 4.0 GPA CS major can't get employment after graduating" > > fixed it for you: > > \> "hoopjumper spends entire life jumping through hoops and is utterly lost when the trail of hoops to jump through abruptly ends" I’ll bite the bullet and say “yes, and the second thing is indeed bad” If you have an economy+society that basically requires employment to have a decent life, getting a job should absolutely be a “hoop” in the sense of not requiring some uncommon level of agency or ingenuity ### [Tweet, 12:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1808483376078217233) · 4 likes How does it do that [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1808483282268418048/pu/img/JIoBqpVoPcvgPfpm.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1808483376078217233/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1808562177462132853) Not load bearing [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1808562088098283520/pu/img/AmQdtjeEsSuadnNm.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1808562177462132853/video/1) (video, plays on X) ## Thursday, July 4, 2024 ### [Reply to @edardaman, 04:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1808722809247432835) · 3 likes > **Emily Dardaman (@edardaman):** @AaronBergman18 @arithmoquine This puts into words something I’ve been stumbling around for…years? Five stars 🤝 ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 12:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1808845830616408248) · 3 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** @edardaman @AaronBergman18 @arithmoquine I also really enjoyed the tweet. Although I think Aaron could have added spaces before & after the “+“ to improve legibility, as he still had three characters left under the 280 char limit. > > Four and a half stars Unforgivable error imo. -10^10 stars+banned+exiled ### [Tweet, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1808907019178369527) · 8 likes Man fuck summer ### [Thread, continued, 17:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1808908989989630255) · 6 likes The world hidden behind a persistent haze of sweat, sunscreen, and sweaty-sunscreen-induced tears ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 17:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1808912999735828799) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @GjMcGowan @AaronBergman18 Yeah seems like someone's being a little dramatic here Not me ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 22:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1808994876501209353) · 4 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I wish it was just normal to use the word “startup” for entrepreneurial charities We can use its Spanish counterpart, “comensarriba” ## Friday, July 5, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 00:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809022146745712717) · 125 likes I totally agree, but here’s some perhaps counterintuitive perspective: Almost all of human history (pre-agriculture) accounts for a small share of human lives (~2% - not even human life-years) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRrwDdvaEAApEJp.jpg) > **Quoting Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** This was my main takeaway from the seeing cave paintings in the south of France. They’re around 15,000 years old and it was just chilling to think that for over 10,000 years anatomically modern people were basically stuck living nasty, brutish, and short lives. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRro-bLXYAAkIGC.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 00:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809022149459394640) · 7 likes These stats don’t cut one way or the other - they’re just another (probably more important) way of considering the magnitude of the past ### [Quote tweet, 00:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809023112718979191) · 12 likes Forget about achievement (for a moment) There is an absolutely tiny slice of spacetime I’d choose to be born into (probably late 20th century or later if place-agnostic, late 19th in a wealthy country) and even this I’m pretty unsure about > **Quoting Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I feel so lucky to have been born in a wealthy safe country. I probably wouldn’t achieve much at all starving or poor. ### [Thread, continued, 00:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809023114409279758) · 5 likes It’s the water we swim in but to a first approximation it doesn’t even exist ### [Reply to @dylanmatt, 00:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809023427400925187) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dylanmatt is no longer available.)_ Idk plausibly this would be good for the country and world even if it was 40 year old Obama? ### [Reply to @AlexGodofsky, 00:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809024759100793040) · 10 likes > **Alex Godofsky (@AlexGodofsky):** 4yo told me that "whenever you say letters to mama it means something sugary" Smart kid ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 10:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809169530859536694) · 3 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Putting the “LLM” in “Gell-Mann Amnesia” > > (quoting @shakoistsLog: Talking to an LLM on something I'm an expert on: "Hmmm, I see why you think that, but you're not \*quite\* right, and you're wrong in some critical but subtle ways" talking to an LLM on anything else: "Wow you're the smartest person I've ever known, how do you know everything?") Nice ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 10:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809172422295241112) · 4 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** Boooooooo > > (quoting @2AvSagas: The city should impose a $1000 environmental and noise fee onto every Blade ride that starts or arrives in NYC.) Hot take externalities are real and this is fine (I have no idea if $1k is the right amount though) ### [Reply to @kenthecowboy_, 10:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809173326062837991) · 2 likes > **ChiTown Kenny (@kenthecowboy_):** @nomanautomata Even better -- Potassium! [![Why Not Both Take Both GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/GRt5jLkWcAAgLCl.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809173326062837991/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @kenthecowboy_, 10:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809173927781957841) · 3 likes > **ChiTown Kenny (@kenthecowboy_):** I didn't wanna go to gym, but then I slammed 400mg of k and now I'm ready to demolish this fucking elliptical What form/product do u take? ### [Reply to @louisvarge, 10:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809175855924420748) · 2 likes > **Louis Arge (@louisvarge):** i went to the hacker space > > a sweetheart trans woman greeted me. once i had passed the vibe check, she offered me an estrogen pill. i politely declined. "no thanks, i'm sober" > > what are you working on? "digital drugs," i explained > > the place looked distinctly like the arcade from mr robot. > > "we only communicate through IRC, it's untraceable" > > i spent 20 minutes setting up an IRC client > > overall it was a good day What ### [Reply to @s8mb, 11:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809181202462503282) · 2 likes > **Sam Bowman (@s8mb):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRtnd4PXAAA0c3l.jpg) Crazy sunburn ### [Reply to @greenTetra_, 11:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809186244410147009) · 1 like > **Tetra (@greenTetra_):** alright heres what you gotta know > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRqXR8Fb0AABopx.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRqXR-BbMAA2oC3.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRqXR_rbMAQ6SLd.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRqXR8DakAAE16f.png) What’s this from ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRuFTNpWcAAhITl.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 11:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809195305318957524) · 49 likes Need ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRuNiq6XoAAz7Zd.jpg) > **Quoting X (@Pteroterror):** Currency in Iceland is top tier > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRoP8LhWIAAE61j.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRoP8X_WAAA8Cvy.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRoP8dAWEAAPg6i.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRoP8e4X0AE_9EM.jpg) ### [Reply to @louisvarge, 12:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809195996741832776) · 2 likes > **Louis Arge (@louisvarge):** @AaronBergman18 which part is unclear sir Where do I go to learn about digital drugs ### [Quote tweet, 12:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809199873188593688) · 6 likes Let them in > **Quoting Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** When you ask people which countries they want to move to, America has held the top slot for a long time, and it will likely continue to for the foreseeable future. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRqSNO6W8AEaMtK.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 12:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809203790874317272) · 6 likes 👀 > **Quoting EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** New popular post from the EA Forum: > > "Rethink Priorities' Digital Consciousness Project Announcement" by Bob Fischer + 3 others > https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/yLzHyDvfR6skhwLcZ/rethink-priorities-digital-consciousness-project ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 12:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809206835271876849) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** 30 years old is a minimum estimate of life expectancy over the period (it's using life expectancy at the start). So the actual number is probably a decent bit lower than the 13 billion I get > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRuW1hVXkAAWFAc.jpg) Oh shit Matt > Claude ### [Tweet, 12:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809208599094206956) · 125 likes In hindsight it is incredibly dumb that I avoided taking the bus for 23 years bc I didn’t really know how they worked Like do u have to pay to get on? (Yes) Does a Smartrip card work? (Yes for metrobus at least) How often do they run? (idk but Apple and Google maps tell you) ### [Thread, continued, 12:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809208600952455248) · 30 likes Do they stop at every stop or do you actually have to pull the rope thing? (Pull the rope thing) If you pull the rope thing is that saying that you wanna get off ASAP? (No, pull it to indicate that you want to get off at the next official stop) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 12:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809209708986679558) · 7 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** This is very aaron coded Wait elaborate I am very curious ### [Tweet, 13:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809213133577167277) · 10 likes Means of transportation, ranked 1\. Walk 2\. Drive 3\. Bike/scooter 4\. Metro/subway 5\. Bus 6\. Plane 7\. Swim 8\. Legit train 9\. Legit ship 10\. Ferry 11\. Fall/jump 12\. Run Tbd: helicopter, teletransporter, wormhole, unicycle ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 13:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809215501156917552) · 11 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** A letter to my MP. > > Curious if this leads to anything. If it does, then it probably doesn't take many of us to offer support to many London MPs. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRueCWLXIAAbK5k.png) Top tier civic engagement ### [Quote tweet, 13:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809217676373274913) · 46 likes This actually reminds me: when I was 16 a Maryland legislature candidate knocked on my door to try to convince my family to vote for him I told him I was a single issue animal welfare voter (was I even allowed to vote? Maybe I didn’t use this term) … > **Quoting Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** A letter to my MP. > > Curious if this leads to anything. If it does, then it probably doesn't take many of us to offer support to many London MPs. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRueCWLXIAAbK5k.png) ### [Thread, continued, 13:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809217678189457730) · 29 likes We ended up exchanging a few emails that resulted in him adopting a pretty serious animal welfare platform and putting it on his website ### [Thread, continued, 13:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809217679741403221) · 37 likes He lost by a few dozen or hundred votes iirc. Even if he’d won, I have no idea if it would have yielded any actual policy change. I kinda doubt it Even still, seems like a non-terrible expected altruistic return on a few hours of high schooler time ### [Thread, continued, 13:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809217681452650700) · 35 likes Idk if there’s an actual generalizable lesson here Kinda suspect being cringe-level earnest with state level reps (or the equivalent outside the US) is underrated though ### [Reply to @ideopunk, 13:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809217791406264662) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ideopunk is no longer available.)_ Trains can only move along a 1d axis Sad ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 13:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809220646154506672) · 15 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 5, 2024:** Idk if there’s an actual generalizable lesson here Kinda suspect being cringe-level earnest with state level reps (or the equivalent outside the US) is… Maybe I was 18? That would explain the “single issue voter” thing ### [Reply to @danielbrottman, 13:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809224074578510106) · 3 likes > **daniel brottman 🪷 (@danielbrottman):** do you think anyone’s ever been addicted to cold turkey, and then they realized they had to give up cold turkey cold turkey Turkey cold cut sandwiches were a staple for me before going vegetarian so kinda ### [Reply to @KompendiaProj, 14:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809227174584475755) · 2 likes > **KJ ✨ (@KompendiaProj):** @AaronBergman18 @danielbrottman Was the vegetarianism an overnight change? If so then I think we have a winner!! Yeah iirc ### [Tweet, 14:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809229404880425333) · 7 likes Epigenetic inheritance of “trauma” (at least in some senses of that word) actually seems pretty plausible to me ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRusjY-WIAAR8in.jpg) ### [Tweet, 14:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809234440402424134) · 30 likes I am extremely pro 🔸in bio to indicate donation. Social pressure go brr. Maybe make another one to indicate absolute amounts donated (💰per $25k?) ### [Reply to @kenthecowboy_, 14:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809234587672866834) · 2 likes > **ChiTown Kenny (@kenthecowboy_):** @Artoria2e5 @AaronBergman18 I just take the pills from Walmart Lovely tweet out of context ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 15:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809242665243869542) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: @DeepDishEnjoyer Idk who he is. I wanna say classical music guy but also maybe author? 80% it’s one of those, this is the extent of my knowledge) F ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 15:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809243548916556002) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 It's okay, more than made up for by the good animal welfare takes <3 I was literally about to type “yeah but I have correct takes about {ethics, cause prio, all my other hobbyhorses}” ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809296539644240105) · 4 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I think a lot of AI discourse about the current value and abilities of LLMs could be solved if more people just sat down and spent half an hour asking ChatGPT or Claude complex questions about fields they know a lot about Before reading your second tweet I was unsure which direction you meant for this to point in (although it seems good regardless) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809297367390380049) · 12 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 5, 2024:** Maybe I was 18? That would explain the “single issue voter” thing Yeah it was 2018 when I was 18. And he lost by 12 votes! Not even “dozens” - just one of them! https://ballotpedia.org/Samir_Paul ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRvqXa0WcAAa52H.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 18:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809300648384397651) · 5 likes This is gonna be pretty load-bearing IMO Afaik it will be the first and only thing of its kind? > **Quoting Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** omg yes > > THE WORLDVIEW INVESTIGATIONS TEAM IS SO BACK ### [Thread, continued, 18:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809300650339049622) · 3 likes There was the AI Consciousness Report by a bunch of big names including @rgblong but afaict it wasn’t even trying to put quantitative estimates on relevant parameters (eg P(GPT-4 instances can suffer)) https://arxiv.org/pdf/2308.08708 ### [Reply to @DaCaveOfWonders, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809303507633054047) · 2 likes > **Tiger Lava Lamp (@DaCaveOfWonders):** @AaronBergman18 Not sure my 💰💰💰 in bio is going to come across the right way to someone who doesn't know what it means Hmm yeah. May I suggest 🔪🩸💉🔞or💦 ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809303714823315502) · 2 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** @AaronBergman18 idk,🔸does work to signal \*effort\* as opposed to effort times wealth, which has value imo Wait are u saying idk to the diamond or my suggestion to have smth for absolute amounts? ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809306085783744537) · 2 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** @AaronBergman18 your suggestion I mean the thing that actually matters is (marginal charity goodness per dollar)\*(dollar donation), not % of income or wealth donated (There are a bunch of reasons why I don’t think it makes sense to have an emoji that factors in the first thing but it’s mostly intuitive) ### [Thread, continued, 19:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809306768943591460) · 2 likes Ofc % matters a lot for everything besides altruistic impact (eg how generous of a person I think you are), but altruistic impact really matters! This is the main issue I take I with the GWWC pledge (like messaging hard around % rather than trying to make (possibly a lot) more) ### [Reply to @heartbulbous, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809308512599576954) · 2 likes > **Juan (@heartbulbous):** @AaronBergman18 Dustin Moskovitz 💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰 I miss him ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 19:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809309805737394633) · 1 like > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** or pretend that it has no answer. I think it probably has a very specific and fascinating answer and we just don’t know it yet I mean it really seems like recursive “why” questions aren’t gonna ground out. Idk if this logically entails “no answer” (maybe there are just infinitely recursive questions each paired with a specific answer) but it sure seems to point that way ### [Reply to @bayeslord, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809310142267089361) · 4 likes > **bayes (@bayeslord):** wait no, wtf is existence. why are we here. why is anything here. don’t pretend like you don’t care. these are the deepest questions we can ask Idk ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809315324648648773) · 1 like > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** I think I just got the ick watching this > > (quoting @stoolpresidente: I went full alpha male mode today putting up a fence so peaches couldn't escape) I guess everyone is dunking bc he’s doing it wrong I assumed the issue was having a cat or dog and relying on physical barriers to keep them from running away ### [Reply to @KellerScholl, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809319054769025031) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @KellerScholl is no longer available.)_ Waiting for someone to ask this lol I don’t plan on taking the pledge in say the next year or so because the worlds in which I’m able to earn decent money ≈ those in which I’m able to (and willing to, and hopefully do) try something a bit more entrepreneurial ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRv-F2SW0AEcC5a.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 20:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809319680164917503) · 3 likes For better or worse the GWWC pledge points in the direction of risk aversion (ie to be able and willing to meet your commitment) which I think is bad for a nontrivial subset of pledgers or would-be pledgers ### [Thread, continued, 20:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809320081220071477) · 2 likes I also have pretty radical uncertainty about what the future looks like (personally but in this context mostly at large) so I’m pretty hesitant to make any declaration of any type that has literally no default expiration date ### [Reply to @KellerScholl, 21:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809334910660014106) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @KellerScholl is no longer available.)_ For better or worse I’m pretty sure (fact check?) the vast majority of EA-inspired giving has been by people with a net worth of say at least $10M at the time of donation If a person has no intention of trying to make a lot of money (relative to current salary) I agree with ### [Thread, continued, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809335952482992177) · 2 likes your six month thing, but basically think the EA etg norms should emphasize risk tolerance way, way more, which probably means more than that for most people, especially those supporting a family If I heard that someone currently making $150k and supporting a family had ### [Thread, continued, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809336427144180004) · 2 likes stopped donating in order to save enough so that they could try founding a startup for a year without their family bearing ~any risk of having to adjust to a lower standard of living, I’d think that was awesome and super high EV ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809337336611721282) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 5, 2024:** I am extremely pro 🔸in bio to indicate donation. Social pressure go brr. Maybe make another one to indicate absolute amounts donated (💰per $25k?) I also think some of you should stop giving away tens of thousands of dollars and start trying to make tens of millions or more to give away, even if that means saving instead of donating right now (Read the whole thread here if interested) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809343086079930802) · 13 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 5, 2024:** Do they stop at every stop or do you actually have to pull the rope thing? (Pull the rope thing) If you pull the rope thing is that saying that you wanna get… Yes, you have to actually be visibly waiting at the bus stop! I found this out a few days ago the hard (not that hard) way ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809344529134133519) · 4 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** is pleasure just absence of suffering? Honestly I can’t believe anyone says this (I’m being facetious), it’s like a claim you’d get by prompting GPT-2 to say something that sounds insightful and Buddhist (but is obviously wrong to anyone who understands what the words mean) ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809345605585526899) · 2 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** @AaronBergman18 this is my view, and why i ask the question (to see if anyone takes it seriously) “this” being the phrase in ur tweet or my reply? ### [Reply to @fluxtheorist, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809354550861521386) · 40 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @fluxtheorist is no longer available.)_ Horny on x axis / quality of life on y axis is a U shaped curve fr ### [Thread, continued, 23:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809363593844146410) · 2 likes Hope ur doing ok brother ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRwmmYsaQAAIM4j.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 23:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809364604344000746) · 15 likes Fuck > **Quoting Joe Biden (@JoeBiden):** Let me say this as clearly as I can: > > I’m the sitting President of the United States. > > I’m the nominee of the Democratic party. > > I’m staying in the race. ### [Thread, continued, 23:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809364606038454318) · 4 likes Can’t say I understand the personal psychology here. Why would you want that stress and responsibility when you could be doing like literally whatever tf you want as a former president? ### [Reply to @mimi10v3, 23:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809365085904670732) · 4 likes > **˚♡⋆mimi ˚♡⋆｡☆∴ (@mimi10v3):** life gets easier when i wear the autism earplugs that dampen painfully loud noises ... is there an emotional equivalent to the earplugs? High dose SSRIs for some and antipsychotics for all. Might not actually like what comes along with “easier” though ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 23:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809366777031241946) · 41 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** you eat meat because you don't care about ethics > > i eat meat because i do care about ethics, and i accept the repugnant conclusion > > we are not the same > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRwoF6XacAAFKHy.jpg) Virtually all meat comes from animals who were made worse off by being born ### [Reply to @zheer_kejlberg, 23:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809367108805079165) · 2 likes > **Zheer Kejlberg Al-Mashhadi (@zheer_kejlberg):** R friends, I want to do a shiny. I’ve never done a shiny before. What’s the best resource to get started doing a shiny? ChatGPT+ or Claude Pro (not being sarcastic) ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 23:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809367684183887899) · 18 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** @AaronBergman18 i'm shitposting ik Ah fair, not gonna delete bc this is a real argument people make ### [Reply to @brundolfsmith, 23:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809368509576810901) · 2 likes > **brundolf (@brundolfsmith):** Over time vibecamp may become a way of verifying that \[handle\] is a real person and not an AI > > Like in the 1980s when people would have IRL parties to exchange encryption keys Eventually an AI is gonna pay some guy to show up ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 23:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809369560891462121) · 17 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** @AaronBergman18 wait seriously? lmao Often not put in repugnant conclusion terms tbc but yeah ### [Tweet, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809371149559599340) · 38 likes You think this coconut just fell out of a coconut tree? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRwteG3XkAAbxGw.jpg) ## Saturday, July 6, 2024 ### [Reply to @UWHS75819288, 00:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809379130271584767) · 4 likes > **Leontiev (@UWHS75819288):** @AaronBergman18 @fluxtheorist Concave up or down? Down lol ### [Reply to @lillybilly299, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809382568707441058) · 1 like > **Lilly (@lillybilly299):** NO. Laws do not exist to compel people to live moral lives. They exist to ensure society functions stably and predictably and provide a framework for resolving conflicts. We do not live in a theocracy or fascist dictatorship wtf > > (quoting @SarahTheHaider: On the whole I think laws and norms should be based on what is most good for most people. What we have now is a combination of what is best for the uncommon case: preventing extreme abuse (harm outlier) + and granting maximum individual freedom (benefit outlier).) Ok but you’re not gonna get “a framework for resolving conflicts” without implicitly taking an ethical stance sometimes At the end of the day a person either goes to prison or doesn’t go to prison. Either is compatible with a stable society in most cases ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 11:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809552934071357534) · 4 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** @AaronBergman18 Coconuts exist in the context of all in which they live and what came before them. Big if true ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 11:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809552998412022007) · 1 like > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRyu_haacAM98z4.png) Nobody tell him ### [Reply to @JasonBotterill, 11:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809553406488387644) · 2 likes > **JB (@JasonBotterill):** @AaronBergman18 bait is so good that I can’t tell if it’s real or not Lol ### [Tweet, 14:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809596277442621521) · 33 likes Petition to destroy the sun ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRz6OSjXQAAPRid.jpg) ### [Tweet, 14:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809598031097933975) · 13 likes We should do the thing where countries give each other large metal objects but without the war first ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRz70RBXUAAW8mJ.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRz70RAXgAEgHHX.jpg) ### [Reply to @ciphergoth, 14:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809601360184373307) · 4 likes > **Paul Crowley (@ciphergoth):** @AaronBergman18 Since the beginning of time, Man has yearned to destroy the Sun. We must honor our ancestors by doing their will ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809668674556461056) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 3, 2024:** Not load bearing Load bearing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GR08ES9acAUhGig.jpg) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809669435793219895) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 We should just normalize this for friends I’ll ship u some tin foil origami ## Sunday, July 7, 2024 ### [Reply, 01:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809755865756450856) · 1 like 😢 ### [Reply to @michael_nielsen, 01:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809757220969619670) · 1 like > **Michael Nielsen (@michael_nielsen):** Looking for examples of what might be called intransitive trade - where you’d trade A for B (but not vice versa), B for C (ditto), and C for A (ditto) > > Can you think of any? FWIW this can happen without issue when the trade options take place in different hypothetical universes and the specific things on offer provide relevant information about their value ### [Quote tweet, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809766338732208189) · 5 likes Causation is real ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GR2U5DOXwAAJVgX.jpg) > **Quoting Andy Ayrey (@AndyAyrey):** can someone please explain acausality to me, it sounds like a one way trip up the schizo escalator and I need more infohazards ### [Reply to @hamandcheese, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809792775556043210) · 11 likes > **Samuel Hammond 🦉 (@hamandcheese):** It is hard for high IQ people to imagine what it's like to be less intelligent, which creates a kind of blindspot for the importance of intelligence per se, analogous to the "burden of knowledge." > > (quoting @mattyglesias: High IQ causes left-wing political beliefs which in turn cause denialism about the importance of IQ. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160289624000254) People also forget how selected their social and professional network is Even for more representative groups people might be influenced by, it’s hard to think of one that isn’t biased in the direction you yourself deviate towards (eg public school, any level) ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 07:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1809856212797694027) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ Now that I am actually living in a 75 sq ft room (not including shared bathroom and kitchen and a bit of other common space tbc) I feel extremely qualified to reaffirm that these are perfectly fine ## Monday, July 8, 2024 ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 00:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810108913880031712) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Well has anyone ### [Quote tweet, 00:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810110762364354776) · 4 likes Ideal writing style > **Quoting Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Another banger by Richard Chappell. A great read. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GR3vivGWEAAJ6aK.jpg) ### [Reply to @tasshinfogleman, 00:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810112092525023640) · 3 likes > **Friend Tasshin (@tasshinfogleman):** what luxury might u buy urself if u had a billion dollars? Shrimp stunner ### [Tweet, 01:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810124109927362973) · 21 likes Museum with a semi-autistic nerd friend tour guide >> ### [Reply to @slimepriestess, 01:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810125551568302464) · 65 likes > **Ra (@slimepriestess):** it's the first date, you're eight hours into an acid trip and have already had sex, it's 4am. she pulls out her phone and says she wants to read you this essay called Meditations on Moloch, wyd? Propose ### [Tweet, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810387958643466652) · 685 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GR_KQMnWcAAbvOR.jpg) ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 18:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810388326043861115) · 46 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** I find it pretty bizarre that the EA community (on twitter) is adjacent to this kind of complete insanity. > > (quoting @eigenrobot: @DanielleFong speaking as a white person i think an optimal legal system would try and most likely hang him i dont expect this expression of support will help the situation in oakland but if it makes you feel less like you're taking crazy pills, you know maybe its the thought…) I think you should delete this, since “guilt by adjacency” is a really bad and illegitimate reason for something to be bad ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810388617912791444) · 7 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Choose your fighter > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GR7GtVBbsAAKHyh.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GR7GtVBbYAACrbN.jpg) I’d be very pro- US and china competing on drone art and nothing else ### [Reply to @GarrettPetersen, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810389500792811895) · 33 likes > **Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ (@GarrettPetersen):** R? R???? Yes, the best and in fact only legitimate programming language ### [Thread, continued, 19:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810389674801954842) · 9 likes ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810392763613196361) · 4 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** > > [GIF attached](https://x.com/ryancbriggs/status/1810391298291195982/photo/1) Based ### [Quote tweet, 19:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810394136543113581) · 209 likes I unironically think I could be emperor of the universe and simply not be corrupt Idk, seems like a skill issue > **Quoting Grace (@kindgracekind):** They say power corrupts, but I like to think I could be corrupt without having any power at all ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 21:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810422189969269151) · 7 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** @AaronBergman18 @NathanB60857242 I agree with the second part, but I think angrily asking people to delete tweets that you disagree with is \*also\* bad. I didn’t intend this to be/come off as angry although I do have a bit of a knack for saying things online that don’t come off as intended ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 21:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810427688886087755) · 6 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** @AaronBergman18 @NathanB60857242 It's just not a productive conversation pattern, and I'd prefer people are open about their views rather than feeling a need to hide them in order to get approval from their subculture. Thanks, and I think this applies in some cases, but I’m standing by this one because part of what I mean to convey is “I don’t merely disagree - I think \*you\* would disagree on reflection” This comes from having spoken to Nathan quite a bit even off of twitter! ### [Reply to @Rado9910, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810427965924065477) · 2 likes > **Rado9910 (@Rado9910):** @ContainerEnjoyr @AaronBergman18 I suspect the world would be a much better place if he were, so he probably isn't. 🥰🥰🥰 ### [Reply to @ContainerEnjoyr, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810428010442473581) · 2 likes > **Container Enjoyer (@ContainerEnjoyr):** @Rado9910 @AaronBergman18 Well, there's a lot of title inflation these days, maybe Emperor is a mid-level role. Lol ### [Quote tweet, 21:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810428250922913828) · 8 likes If this is true, we should change the aphorism to “corruption empowers” > **Quoting Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** @AaronBergman18 Being non-corrupt with infinite power is one thing. Being non-corrupt when corruptness is necessary to retain power is another. > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs ## Tuesday, July 9, 2024 ### [Tweet, 08:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810586931249471561) · 30 likes Turns out @SpacedOutMatt @absurdlymax @FrostedSapling and @arthur_wright\_ exist irl too ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSB_OAEWcAE81EE.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 08:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810587719833194683) · 17 likes Got word of a cool csv, now you can explore avg big 5 personality traits by city (US only) http://city-personality.streamlit.app > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** This is an open invitation to always send me any csv’s u stumble across. Idc how, drive link or url or just paste it into DM or reply > > I love a good csv 🙏🏼 ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 08:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810599006776533292) · 3 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** OMG but also why is this the darkest and blurriest pic I have ever seen in my life Asked a guy to take the pic for us - I zoomed in a bit, this is the original which is maybe better ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSCKM3yWQAA5Czi.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 09:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810603464231129127) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 9, 2024:** Got word of a cool csv, now you can explore avg big 5 personality traits by city (US only) http://city-personality.streamlit.app The word came from a lion ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 09:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810603531038085184) · 3 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 Wow what a cool dataset to have found! I repent for my use of passive voice 😔 ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 09:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810604233625936056) · 13 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** why is there only One (1) qualia research institute. how is this possible > > naively one would expect a QRI in every single university They need more normie aesthetics ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 09:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810609573964698042) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** For context, not too long ago I tried to hunt down some military researchers to try to get them to share a proprietary caffeine dose response algorithm with me Ok ### [Reply to @Thomasdelvasto_, 10:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810622219074121888) · 2 likes > **Θωμᾶς del Vasto ✈️ atx 10/10 - 10/19 (@Thomasdelvasto_):** @AaronBergman18 Problem is there are a million ways to be corrupt, and a narrow path to being good I would simply stay in that narrow path ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 11:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810637698249736205) · 5 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** More pixels (but also never ask a man to take a photo of you) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSCqiRQXoAAcY-T.jpg) What do we think about this version ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSCtY7wbcAAOmPQ.jpg) ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 13:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810670449136685261) · 3 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** let's fucking go the sun is coming up i have permission to stop trying to fall asleep I relate to this too much ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 13:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810673930836820092) · 3 likes > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** Shameless self-endorsement: I will be starting full-time next Monday as Effective Altruism DC's Head of Community!! 🎉 > > If you are an active member I don't already know or would like to get involved, don't hesitate to reach out! My DMs are open, and I'd love to connect. Congrats!!! I aspire to one day be part of the EA DC community ### [Reply to @beala, 14:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810682183037731149) · 3 likes > **Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** I was this many years old when I learned "the 21st century" began on Jan 1, 2001. Anyway I found a new thing I can be annoying about. Wait what ### [Reply to @eshear, 16:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810711084200054844) · 5 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** Power corrupts your world model, it’s not a matter of being “good” > > (quoting @eshear: People desire to exercise power. Exercising it through others is just as good, so if you have power other people find ways to attempt to direct your use of that power.) This sounds plausible but I don’t grok (sorry) it yet lol. POTUS is very powerful. What happens to a presidential candidate-turned-president that “corrupts” their world model (more)? What does corrupt even mean here? ### [Quote tweet, 16:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810711527122514335) · 11 likes Sell me on any of the “power corrupts in some clever non-obvious way independent of one’s character” theses > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @eshear This sounds plausible but I don’t grok (sorry) it yet lol. POTUS is very powerful. What happens to a presidential candidate-turned-president that “corrupts” their world model (more)? > > What does corrupt even mean here? ### [Reply to @phenoatypical, 16:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810711967595630712) · 19 likes > **Paola (@phenoatypical):** I am constantly getting sick, feeling exhausted to a pretty extreme degree, etc., what are some unconventional things I can try to fix this? I have attempted pretty much all of the usual stuff Blood tests B12, folate, vit d, CBC, CRP, testosterone and free test if male, TSH, thyroid antibodies, Lyme, probably a bunch more I’m forgetting ### [Reply to @TrevorVossberg, 16:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810714526964482450) · 2 likes > **Trevor Vossberg (@TrevorVossberg):** @AaronBergman18 Do you need a clever model? Selection into being successful can bias one’s expectations of likelihood of future success. Not sure I’d call that “corruption” ### [Reply to @beala, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810733193622081888) · 3 likes > **Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** Lots of reddit-level takes in this part of twitter that failing at CICO is a skill issue. But I think there's good evidence that "CI" and "CO" aren't independent and the level of correlation varies a lot from person to person. > > (quoting @beala: @SpencrGreenberg I think (1) and (3) explain the majority of this, but I'm not sure about the ordering of those two. I think there's good evidence that "calories in" and "calories out" aren't independent, and the variation between individuals is quite large.…) Cursed discourse ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810822597065495004) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @inesferhumi @SpacedOutMatt @AaronBergman18 @FrostedSapling @arthur_wright\_ This is one of the only photos of me online 🥰 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSFVjfZWYAAbk_Q.jpg) ## Wednesday, July 10, 2024 ### [Tweet, 06:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810924976020640056) · 2 likes Experiment: which poem do you like better? Poll below ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSGyeQmXgAAJDDD.png) ### [Reply to @ContainerEnjoyr, 07:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810933641100546531) · 5 likes > **Container Enjoyer (@ContainerEnjoyr):** Is it weird this made me cry? I just want those little chicken dudes to be ok. > > (quoting @Lewis_Bollard: The best plant-based chicken nuggets outperformed animal-based nuggets in new blind taste tests! @ImpossibleFoods nuggets and tenders were the top performers. (Still work to do to on plant-based burgers, hot dogs, and bacon, but this is a great start)…) People who only cry over things that don’t make sense to cry about to 99.99% of the population gang ### [Reply to @yifever, 07:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1810936354236190773) · 3 likes > **yifei e/λ (meetmeinshibuya Oct 18) (@yifever):** If you're not either > a) in all kinds of psychological pain > b) horny beyond belief > you're not learning optimally and you can be more efficient about it. > These are the 2 optimal emotional states for learning. I don’t think this is true ### [Quote tweet, 15:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811055224183804238) · 122 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSIpIIoWoAAXoWc.jpg) > **Quoting ThinkingWest (@thinkingwest):** Feudalism was actually a pretty good system. > > Here’s why: > > \-everyone had a defined role that served society as a whole: peasants, vassals, and lords all had responsibilities to each other > \-it was extremely decentralized > \-it’s hierarchy ensured long-term stability > \-with hereditary monarchy, it was a lot more difficult for influence peddlers to buy off leaders > \-hereditary monarchs’ interests were tied to those of the people since they ruled for life > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSC8Q11a4AAwmmV.jpg) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 15:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811058195361612210) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Q for foot scientists or whatever. Every time I lose a toenail the one that grows back is just as ugly as the one it replaced. Pretty sure I'm about to lose another soon - is there anything I can do to make the new one turn out nicely? Megadose beta carotene and maybe it will permanently become orange ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 15:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811066281862336542) · 7 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I don't strongly buy white saviour arguments, but if I did, @GiveDirectly seems to satisfy them. > > It's literally giving poor people resources directly. How could one be less white savioury than that? There are no white savior arguments afaict. There’s just a phrase. Yes sometimes white people do things that literally prevent other people from dying ### [Quote tweet, 15:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811067326348833186) · 1,295 likes I am going to stake out my position as a trash can study defender. It probably makes sense to carefully study the effects of even a boring and intuitive policy change that affects ~10⁷ people > **Quoting Chris Bakke (@ChrisJBakke):** The next time you have imposter syndrome at work, just remember: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSIp40FakAA7VJc.jpg) ### [Reply to @solarsystern, 16:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811069464693072228) · 541 likes > **irα!! (@solarsystern):** u might think being one of the boys is about crushing beers and smoking weed and whatever but it's actually about dissecting what their one (1) tinder match of the week meant by heart emoji sparkle emoji One per week? Must be a 6’7” movie star ### [Reply, 16:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811070140533842154) · 128 likes > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** A meta comment: given the shameful association between intellectuals and Leninism in the 20th century, replication crises, peer-reviewed journal acceptance scandals, suppression of the lab leak hypothesis and so on, academics should at least marginally shift to trial-by-market. I don’t think McKinsey is academia/intelligentsia ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 16:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811070991251972150) · 9 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** targets of the admin's ire on Wikipedia, direct or aimed at their publications, include @ohabryka, @aaronsibarium, @clairlemon, @nickgillespie and @MattWelch, @bariweiss, @KelseyTuoc, @sentientist, @Aella_Girl, and most of all @ESYudkowsky and @slatestarcodex. This is just a list of the most intellectually honest people on the internet ### [Reply, 16:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811071292185137196) · 1 like I’d like to think so, at least for some number of good life-years ### [Quote tweet, 16:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811075168153813419) · 10 likes Rookie numbers. Gotta get that number up ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSI7Q_pXIAAXPWu.jpg) > **Quoting henry (@arithmoquine):** made http://ratpuritytest.com. enjoy > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSB_PRBacAAqf2q.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 17:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811084885462802758) · 6 likes Seeing AI stuff on normal TV news is high key uncomfortable for me. I want it to stay on twitter, not leach into the real world > **Quoting Brett Adcock (@adcock_brett):** Robots in the news > > [video attached](https://x.com/adcock_brett/status/1811078394488262757/video/1) ### [Reply to @amazingmap, 17:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811086693241340115) · 3 likes > **Amazing Maps (@amazingmap):** Chile is so long that it could serve as a bridge connecting Spain to Canada across the Atlantic Ocean > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSE7mtpaYAA9ghV.png) Construye el puente ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSJFvzQaUAQCX4J.jpg) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 21:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811147807119507457) · 1 like > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** The guy shot around his feet a bunch of times which is just very typical and normal good guy behavior Philly doesn’t fuck around ### [Reply to @shauseth, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811148136557199625) · 15 likes > **shaurya (@shauseth):** wait till you find out a billion is just a thousand of those Big if true ### [Tweet, 21:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811153099983097917) · 18 likes I wonder what salt would taste like if we hadn’t evolved to need it as a nutrient Probably just “rock” I guess ### [Quote tweet, 21:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811154299608826009) · 4 likes Ok wait where did hunter gatherers get their sodium? And they probably needed a lot right? > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I wonder what salt would taste like if we hadn’t evolved to need it as a nutrient > > Probably just “rock” I guess ### [Reply to @nocontextmemes, 21:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811154808113619168) · 2 likes > **no context memes (@nocontextmemes):** > > [video attached](https://x.com/weirddalle/status/1810977271513239720/video/1) @Laura_k_Duffy ### [Reply, 22:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811164250574070185) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ That’s not a log scale ### [Quote tweet, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811177867687936193) · 69 likes It’s cool that a few SWEs just solved applied epistemology > **Quoting Jay Baxter (@jaybaxter):** Community Notes is inspired by approaches like Wikipedia... but I am very happy with our choice to not display notes before they are rated as helpful by people who've disagreed in the past. > > As a result, Wikipedia is quite vulnerable to single rogue individuals in a way we aren't ### [Tweet, 23:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811184291721683147) · 12 likes Guy who’s vegan except for (humanely killed) screwworms because we need to remind egregious parasites and predators who’s boss ### [Reply to @PstafarianPrice, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811185066912981407) · 2 likes > **Cristine Rice (@PstafarianPrice):** Do you respect Scott Alexander? 98th percentile easily on my respect axis ## Thursday, July 11, 2024 ### [Tweet, 01:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811211960345591840) · 9 likes Born to walk around on a beautify sunny fall day // forced to walk in DC summer with 10^10% humidity ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811213605892653563) · 2 likes > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** @AaronBergman18 I’ve been camping in Delaware for like 30 days and it’s been pretty insane even being from TX This sounds miserable lmao ### [Tweet, 01:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811218616966053907) · 9 likes Ok but, as a straight white man, how \*do\* I have a brat summer? ### [Reply to @menhguin, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811226834886865386) · 2 likes > **Minh Nhat Nguyen 🦭 (@menhguin):** My plans are measured in centuries > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSK9d_TWEAEpVBN.jpg) Lmao but also based ### [Reply to @menhguin, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811226879967314391) · 4 likes > **Minh Nhat Nguyen 🦭 (@menhguin):** I brought up Mr Beast in EA a lot over the past 2-3 years, im gonna pretend i was partly responsible for this Based ### [Tweet, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811227188567359844) · 7 likes PSA at night a bunch of sprinklers go off and nobody stops you from running through them and/or just hanging out near them to reapply water (ie cooling agent) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 08:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811318472162304059) · 1 like > **Aaron Bergman, May 30, 2024:** done that and then selectively reported one result with at least a partial implication that this result wasn’t one of 100 possibilities. More generally proxy… (Kinda forgot about this but we are so back) 50\) I think I might finally grok the left's "systemic change" critique of EA: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSMYI7tXMAAgVQe.jpg) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 14:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811402942962143431) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** If you believe that cico is true but trivial and find this article illuminating you might not actually hold the view that cico is true > https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/09/why-it-was-easier-to-be-skinny-in-the-1980s/407974/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSNcklrbgAAIQoW.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSNcklbWkAATBYZ.jpg) Huh? Holding diet and exercise constant doesn’t mean CO stays the same. Lots of ways for the body to use slightly more or less energy, and going from CI=CO to CI=CO+10 each day yields +1 pound of fat/year, which would explain 20 pounds if this happens (on avg) every day from ### [Thread, continued, 14:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811403260139319453) · 2 likes 15 to 35 10 calories is really not much, that’s like 15 minutes of just being alive ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 14:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811403905567273039) · 3 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @asbelcas @goblinodds It's 23:23 and I'm desperately trying to fall asleep and despite how much I scroll I'm still awake Random but thanks for saving my puppy trapped under a truck the other day. I didn’t think anyone could lift it up like that ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 14:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811405912256467279) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 That's not what they're arguing I just inferred from the screenshots. 0/1 ### [Tweet, 15:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811420537471791542) · 37 likes .@JesseTayRiver ur famous ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSN1YMra4AAzOod.jpg) ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 15:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811421668834992179) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dissproportion is no longer available.)_ He’s Canadian so technically… ### [Tweet, 15:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811421846556070209) · 13 likes The masculine urge to buy an experimental unregulated aircraft ### [Thread, continued, 15:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811421989565055437) · 5 likes Low 5 figures on FB marketplace. I think God wants me to fly ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 16:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811438627714683274) · 8 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** This precrime paper is kind of wild. > > https://www.nber.org/papers/w30170 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSN77zFXkAAtW4A.png) .1% of Chicagoans are shot within any 18 months? Wtf? ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 16:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811439430013710639) · 2 likes > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** and by "wrote" I mean "generated with AI" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSN2ia6aIAA8DV-.png) Welcome to hell ### [Quote tweet, 17:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811449313718837640) · 5 likes He’s back!!! Ezra u should come on Pigeon Hour https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pigeon-hour/id1693154768 > **Quoting Ezra Klein (@ezraklein):** What I’m hearing from congressional Democrats about President Biden is this: He has done nothing to allay their fears. But his defiance — and fury — has been enough to stay their hand. > > This is arguably the worst of all worlds: Democrats realize they are drifting toward a grim march to defeat led by a candidate they’ve lost faith in. But they don’t have a plan to do anything about it. > > Congressional Democrats aren’t yet at the point where they’re going to abandon Biden en masse. Nor are they at the point where their confidence in him is restored. They need some process that’ll get them to one side or the other, and fast. Here's one suggestion, building off something Senator Bernie Sanders said: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/11/opinion/biden-democrats-nomination.html ## Friday, July 12, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811556613142249749) · 6 likes I can’t even maintain consistency on whether I’ll show up to a thing happening in less than two hours (this is from yesterday, trades at the bottom) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSPxIzbW0AAlqTp.jpg) > **Quoting Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** My @ManifoldMarkets portfolio looking pretty good > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSPt2bEagAAEmg-.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811556616191217838) · 4 likes Manifold market is actually a pretty good way of keeping people updated about my subjective probability that I show up to something. Recommended for fellow flake risks ### [Reply to @skooookum, 00:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811559376089420183) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @skooookum is no longer available.)_ How do I delete someone else’s tweet ### [Quote tweet, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811562566537118201) · 7 likes I agree but also ELI5 is a dumb prompt/phrase “Explain to a smart layperson” goes harder > **Quoting Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** When someone says "explain this to me like I'm a five year old", you should not get mad at them; you should just explain it. > > Explaining things in a very simple manner helps \*you\* get a more complete and solid understanding of the topic. ### [Reply to @saulmunn, 01:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811568501196202287) · 2 likes > **saul munn (@saulmunn):** why do most banking apps/websites have such \_horrible\_ UIs? blocky, hard to find stuff, slow, incredibly unaesthetic, etc > > cc @patio11 who maybe has a good answer here Unlike most websites there is strong incentive to choose a bank for substantive other reasons Switching banks is annoying Banks don’t actually want you to use their services beyond depositing money (is this true?) Competition on interest rates push down profit margins (?) ### [Thread, continued, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811569235627561309) · 2 likes If Facebook fucks up, someone gets locked out of their account for a week maybe; if banks screw up they wind up in court and under intense scrutiny (SEC and FDIC among others). So any change has to go through a gazillion checks ### [Tweet, 01:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811580165983437056) · 45 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSQGjzQX0AAUCdB.jpg) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 02:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811581450883391532) · 3 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 you can post whatever you want now > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSQHLkVagAEFz5a.jpg) Big if true, I’ve posted and deleted this twice already ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSQHuo3XQAAjPhe.jpg) ### [Reply, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811591901587427331) · 1 like $11 ### [Tweet, 04:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811613140741771432) · 11 likes I have an idea but I can’t tell anyone bc that would render it moot 😔 ### [Reply to @randomstring729, 04:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811615083060986031) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @randomstring729 is no longer available.)_ de908996b3d0f96d0592c5f55482b22b7cedee96ac1fb8f26ff9b403a380ac66 ### [Reply to @TylerAlterman, 05:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811633509988962495) · 2 likes > **Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply (@TylerAlterman):** Has anyone else here ever been homeless? What would have been a helpful thing to receive from a passerby? > > (quoting @TylerAlterman: I’d like to have a little something to give the different homeless folks I encounter every day. What fits these criteria? • Relatively cheap (would probably be giving out at least 5 per day) • Will fit in my messenger bag • Not too hard (for ppl w tooth problems) • Healthy •…) Apparently socks are gold ### [Reply to @adam__isom, 06:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811649450860781701) · 3 likes > **adam ✧ ❥ ~ (@adam__isom):** @AaronBergman18 how many cute jewish bisexuals do you know?? I mean 3 instantly come to mind but definitely more ### [Quote tweet, 20:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811865955271918034) · 10 likes Seems bad > **Quoting Jamie Bernardi (@The_JBernardi):** Well, well, well... > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSUF9PiXAAA9J8R.jpg) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 21:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811868520424055024) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** nah I got crazier friends than u 😇 😔 ### [Reply to @AMAZlNGNATURE, 21:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811871038554136950) · 3 likes > **Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE):** Touching the void on the most breathtaking ridge of the Dolomites😱 > > [video attached](https://x.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1811639283586908407/video/1) I would simply not do this ### [Tweet, 23:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811900311218586097) · 4 likes Mio-like drops but specifically for freshly fallen snow to make it yummy (gonna need aspartame not sugar to get concentrated enough): this one legitimately came to me in a dream ### [Reply to @ContainerEnjoyr, 23:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811901196627501139) · 2 likes > **Container Enjoyer (@ContainerEnjoyr):** @AaronBergman18 You're talking about sno cone mix, I believe? Should be available on Amazon prime. Nooooooooo ### [Thread, continued, 23:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811901257839444078) · 2 likes This actually makes sense darn ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 23:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811910884819956071) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Andy I'm worried you're hanging out with an oddly high number of communists What % of exurban PA woodworking enthusiasts are communists ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 23:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811911065367708117) · 8 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** You gotta get on EA Spotify the jokes are insane there > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSUx2MFXcAAMFUX.jpg) Nah EA Google Maps is where it’s really at ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSUzgqPWcAA9IHY.jpg) ## Saturday, July 13, 2024 ### [Tweet, 00:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811924250762072356) · 9 likes I’m skeptical of anyone who really \*wants\* to be president, a bit like I am (though less so) of people who want to start a company Huge amounts of power and money seem very instrumentally useful if you want to change the world (ideally for the world’s sake)… ### [Thread, continued, 00:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811924252519534916) · 8 likes But ideally I’d want those jobs filled by people who see them as a noble sacrifice, but a sacrifice nonetheless. This is especially true of POTUS of course ### [Tweet, 00:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811925989783425298) · 6 likes Hypothesis: sleep is for all the muscles that rarely got to rest during normal activity in the ancestral environment. Things in the brain just hopped on for the ride, evolutionarily speaking ### [Thread, continued, 00:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811925991574425832) · 9 likes Boy I love speculating about things I know very little about ### [Reply, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811957928628289537) · 1 like Fair, “skeptical” doesn’t mean like rock solid antipathy ### [Reply to @RFishBlueFish, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811959460870426636) · 2 likes > **Gil (@RFishBlueFish):** @AaronBergman18 I am not skeptical about me becoming president. Like I would probably feel that I should offload most decisions to advisors but I’d take the role and get the world’s best advisors (my Twitter feed, only half kidding) I’d probably take the role too, just for altruistic reasons and I’d probably hate it ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811959590738673966) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 13, 2024:** But ideally I’d want those jobs filled by people who see them as a noble sacrifice, but a sacrifice nonetheless. This is especially true of POTUS of course Possible I’m just projecting my own preferences too hard here ### [Quote tweet, 04:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811974530560082359) · 9 likes Seems bad > **Quoting Mark Carnegie 🛡️ (@iammarkcarnegie):** If you don’t think this is a crisis i don’t know what to say to you. H/t ⁦@toadmeister⁩ ⁦@JonHaidt⁩ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSQ084faQAErf6l.jpg) ### [Reply to @tszzl, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811975917356409167) · 3 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** twitter was better than http://x.com I just want her back ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 04:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811976491875398083) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** Google docs is sick of my hedging > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSVWdgPWcAA2Djp.png) 😡 ### [Reply to @tszzl, 04:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811977253246382142) · 6 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** twitter is not about content. twitter is about community and interconnection. it should be run as a bloated service organization disguised as a tech startup rather than a cutthroat business Ironic that a centibillionaire who at least seems to care about things other than money buying the platform—one of the few things that can create the slack for this to happen in a world of Molochian market forces—seems to have led to or at least accelerated the decline ### [Thread, continued, 04:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1811977906165342425) · 3 likes I’d guess Musk just guessed wrong about the net financial result of firing a ton of employees and now has to lean harder on engagement/ad revenue to “prove” that he wasn’t wrong after all and is in fact a savant businessman after all ### [Reply to @bayeslord, 05:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812002163985404064) · 8 likes > **bayes (@bayeslord):** that seems a bit broad It seems to check out under anthropic reasoning but doesn’t rule out a scenario where physics has begins fluid and eventually solidifies (afaik) ### [Quote tweet, 06:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812011527207288854) · 8 likes Something similar happens to me which is like I say that something bad happened/is happening and then someone tells me not to be ashamed/embarrassed/etc about it And it’s like “thanks but I’m already not any of those - the underlying thing itself still sucks though” > **Quoting Cate Hall (@catehall):** My trainer keeps telling me not to be embarrassed at times when it hasn’t occurred to me to be … ### [Thread, continued, 06:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812011674863321536) · 3 likes Object level go brr ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 09:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812063601131196671) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax Those are rookie numbers, I'm an basically an influencer there (six followers) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSWbOF7WUAAOUSZ.jpg) Poast profile link ### [Reply to @polisisti, 09:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812063658345681231) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @RafaRuizdeLira @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax I used to write a review every two weeks or so, so I got enough points that Google sent me some free socks 😊 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSWhCDJWAAAUdLX.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSWhCPcXcAAJnAg.jpg) Lmao ### [Thread, continued, 09:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812063708094382218) · 2 likes Post link ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 09:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812064328436068470) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 13, 2024:** Poast profile link Can we unironically make EA Google maps happen? ### [Reply to @polisisti, 12:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812102497835626966) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 @RafaRuizdeLira @absurdlymax link to... socks?? that's not how the internet works, Aaron! > > (I'm sure I'm misunderstanding) You can share ur reviewer profile but obv do not waste time on this lol ### [Quote tweet, 14:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812127191989145787) · 15 likes What is the best non-illegal way to fuck with this? I’m being serious Is there anything I can put a .pdf extension on that will fuck up whatever the backend is? > **Quoting no longer respecting gardenias (@NLRG_it):** did you know you can sign up for project 2025? > > https://www.project2025.org/personnel/ ### [Reply to @ContainerEnjoyr, 14:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812130875280159191) · 5 likes > **Container Enjoyer (@ContainerEnjoyr):** @AaronBergman18 There are better ways to engage with people you disagree with. > > But just for the record, PDFs can contain images of absolutely any content or nature, even if the recipient would find it distasteful. > > But like, don't, I think. Disagreement is enough. I've made errors too. Be kind. I think you should be kind and respectful to people, not Google forms. I think P2025 is sufficiently illiberal and norm breaking that abnormal, adversarial behavior is warranted. I’m open to being wrong about this ofc ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 14:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812131142801178875) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 13, 2024:** What is the best non-illegal way to fuck with this? I’m being serious Is there anything I can put a .pdf extension on that will fuck up whatever the backend is? Convince me I shouldn’t, if you like ### [Reply to @MatjazLeonardis, 14:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812137346072039824) · 7 likes > **Matjaž Leonardis (@MatjazLeonardis):** Does a person whose misery/depression is unrelated with their circumstances actually exist? “Unrelated” is an awfully high bar but “basically not caused by” - yes definitely ### [Tweet, 14:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812139369836204469) · 8 likes Amazon didn’t even try ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSYDJxAXMAAZTyv.jpg) ### [Reply to @livgorton, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812203137698300123) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** could someone make GPUs cheaper? thanks. I can do a couple floating point operations for free ## Sunday, July 14, 2024 ### [Reply, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812299999591408061) Fr? Have you told that story somewhere? ### [Tweet, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812303172746051792) · 13 likes At the simulator conference someone is presenting “On the sensitivity of long run lightcone-scale simulacra outcomes to micro-scale random deviation” ### [Tweet, 01:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812305146950439082) · 18 likes Orange man bad ### [Reply to @univrsw3th4rt, 17:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812541905919492455) · 2 likes > **universe sweetheart 💓🌈💭 (@univrsw3th4rt):** time to indulge my curiosity once again: why do you follow me? Idk ### [Reply, 17:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812543809298796666) · 1 like https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1700867333839872209 ### [Quote tweet, 18:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812548659306979384) · 55 likes Extremely good use of money by givewell (not kidding at all tbc) All EA charities should do this, and probably more > **Quoting Tim Hua 🇺🇦 (@Tim_Hua_):** I gave @GiveWell ten thousand dollars and all I got was this hat > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSZXgHFWUAAo8h7.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812550206304530608) · 27 likes Signaling merch is the charitable equivalent of hiring more IRS officers ### [Reply to @writemeganwrite, 18:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812552504493629742) · 2 likes > **megan (@writemeganwrite):** I took a selfie with a frog. Maybe you need to see something kinda silly & not-heavy tonight. 🖤 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSaGaUJXAAAfuzZ.jpg) Frog: I just took a selfie with a mythical beast ## Monday, July 15, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 01:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812657472110203072) · 5 likes Presidents used to be smart > **Quoting Alexey Guzey (@alexeyguzey):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSfV9lTWkAATpNl.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSfV9lTWoAAvxXx.jpg) ### [Tweet, 02:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812673008638796092) · 9 likes Being a domestic ss/military sniper must be crazy. Like there’s a 99% chance you’ll never do anything but boy u gotta be ready for those 4 unlikely seconds ### [Tweet, 02:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812676033281171934) · 3 likes Hot take \[take about the heat\] ### [Tweet, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812676331349360641) · 86 likes Air conditioning appreciation thread ### [Thread, continued, 02:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812676656802263085) · 7 likes Thanks air conditioning ### [Thread, continued, 02:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812676658597355832) · 14 likes We should have military-like norms around HVAC people. Discounts, “thank you for your service,” clapping when they board, etc ### [Thread, continued, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812676852378440083) · 5 likes Refrigerant chemicals should be geopolitically as important as uranium ### [Thread, continued, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812676990878581066) · 3 likes That’s all I got (for now) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812678004323009004) · 1 like > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 praise him > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSfsMZkXMAAIT61.jpg) Thank u Mr Carter 🫡 ### [Reply to @getjonwithit, 02:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812679813536039189) · 3 likes > **Jonathan Gorard (@getjonwithit):** "Quantum mechanics is just thermodynamics in imaginary time." > > It sounds like a hand-wavy, quasi-philosophical statement. But with a brief dive into the relationship(s) between hyperbolic and parabolic PDEs, it becomes possible to formalize it mathematically. (1/16) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSeNbc0WQAAy779.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSeNcxLXsAAXNw_.png) PDE = partial differential equation for my fellow ignorant ppl ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSfurumXoAAfrb6.jpg) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 02:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812682456736125095) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @RafaRuizdeLira https://x.com/aaronbergman18/status/1783521332312801720?s=46 Apparently it just simplifies to an expression that is exactly pi if you integrate from -inf to inf but it integrates from -e to e Which kinda should be illegal ya ### [Tweet, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812685736019103966) · 21 likes Kinda wild how rare assassination attempts are in the US. The US specifically because: \- big country with lots of people \- lots of guns \- highly polarized \- politics is objectively quite important and is considered as such ### [Thread, continued, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812685737403285579) · 13 likes \- we’re over-the-top and extreme in like every other domain relative to other developed countries It’s kinda a white pill on humans tbh ### [Quote tweet, 03:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812689643554394409) · 2,321 likes The US will spend a quadrillion dollars on education reform and still not implement the three things that actually work: \- Phonics \- Free school lunches (breakfast too? Idk) \- A/C > **Quoting Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 Air conditioning: the best thing for cognition since, like, sleeping adequately > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSf2z6CWoAEcIKr.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSf20CwXIAA0egP.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812689645404107238) · 39 likes Article the screenshot is from https://qz.com/1291997/heat-makes-it-harder-for-students-to-learn-and-thats-why-every-school-needs-air-conditioning ### [Thread, continued, 03:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812689647325397136) · 27 likes Paper it references https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w24639/w24639.pdf ### [Thread, continued, 03:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812691178044698985) · 28 likes 3/5 which is not great under “mastery based grading” I assume ### [Tweet, 04:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812706959415447560) · 22 likes “Nothing ever happens” is one of my least favorite memes from people I otherwise like ### [Thread, continued, 04:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812706961131258301) · 9 likes I actually think I get it Like for upper middle class intelligentsia-type online people in the West we’ve seen lots of claims about how important X or Y is/will be and then lo and behold our lives don’t actually change ### [Thread, continued, 04:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812706963169415425) · 11 likes Examples: \- crispr \- Trump elected \- cultured meat for vegetarians \- Brexit (possible counterexample if you think it slowed growth) \- even AI to some degree. I’d really like to submit some CT scans to an AI that is robustly better than human radiologists, but someone I can’t yet ### [Thread, continued, 04:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812706965073608942) · 11 likes Two problems with it: 1\) you’re in an extremely selected bubble 2\) more importantly, way too hard on empiricism/induction in a way that is bad for making predictions or policy. It’s totally fine and directionally sorta correct to joke about, terrible to actually lean on ### [Tweet, 05:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812716034870108437) · 4 likes Should I go for a walk at 1am ### [Reply, 05:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812717098684059755) · 1 like Hmm this could be a good investment ### [Reply to @_Mira___Mira_, 05:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812724928275157370) · 3 likes > **Mira (@_Mira___Mira_):** "Nothing ever happens" if you're not very perceptive. > > Every 5 years lots of stuff is happening all the time. > CS, math, science, companies, products, etc. > > But if you live in a cage deep underground in Kansas, you aren't looking so you'll miss it all. > > I can hardly keep up! > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: “Nothing ever happens” is one of my least favorite memes from people I otherwise like) I feel like this is kinda the point though - like that list of “things” not cashing out as nontrivial changes to people’s lives is what the statement is supposed to allege (or at least this is my interpretation of it) ### [Reply to @larsiusprime, 05:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812726957353599443) · 2 likes > **Lars Doucet (@larsiusprime):** There are multiple kinds of suffering. > > “virtuous” suffering where people praise you for soldiering on. > > “Invisible” suffering where nobody cares > > And \*wretched\* suffering, where people hate you \*because\* of your suffering There’s a related axis which is like “does the thing that looks virtuous to do in your situation actually help?” Sometimes it makes things worse ### [Quote tweet, 06:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812736887674556851) · 5 likes I actually think it would be better just to implement straight away, but an especially EA thing to do would be to run a study: @GiveWell or whomever sends merch to all their donors in Chicago, Dallas, and Toronto and compare to however many peer cities they can identify > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Extremely good use of money by givewell (not kidding at all tbc) > > All EA charities should do this, and probably more ### [Reply, 06:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812737516488798543) · 3 likes > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** @AaronBergman18 The methodologically soundest research repeatedly finds general gun levels have no statistically significant net impact on homicide rates, so it’s not particularly surprising that US assassination rates are not highly common. > > https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S004723521400107X My prior on this being true (as in there is really a trivial, zero, or negative effect) is pretty low I have a cached take that gun density is like the main determinant here but don’t even remember why I believe that Anyway 👀 ### [Reply to @parafactual, 06:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812737729605542276) · 3 likes > **You (@parafactual):** what's the best drug combination with which to produce a ridiculously high rate of bangers? Idk but I’d speculate stim + psychedelic Which specifically idk even harder ### [Tweet, 06:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812743422521840038) · 13 likes Manifold markets is maybe better thought of as an innovative voting platform than a kinda fake prediction market ### [Thread, continued, 07:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812745364874617304) · 4 likes Yeah this is true, good terminology kinda doesn’t exist insofar as the connotation of “prediction market” implies trading with money or something like it ### [Reply, 10:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812801325043707940) · 14 likes > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** @AaronBergman18 What are phonics? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonics ### [Reply to @whittomd, 10:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812802047411978609) · 41 likes > **Derek Whittom (@whittomd):** @AaronBergman18 They don’t teach phonics in schools anymore? My knowledge is extremely limited but I have inferred from the fact that this is a culture war-adjacent thing now that it’s not universal ### [Reply to @SpencerKSchiff, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812918232933965976) · 31 likes > **Spencer Schiff (@SpencerKSchiff):** There probably isn’t a good economic case for the A/C thing anymore. The money would be better spent on AI infrastructure. Improving education wouldn’t pay out for years (once the students are in the workforce) but the intelligence explosion will be underway by then From an EA perspective yeah there’s no way this is the literal best use of money But in terms of state and federal budgets it probably checks out as much better than idk like a ton of shit that legislatures actually allocate money to ### [Reply to @NielsHoven, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1812968878336844060) · 13 likes > **Niels Hoven 🐮 (@NielsHoven):** Phonics is still quite controversial although starting to gain in popularity again. It’s least popular in progressive districts due to its association with George Bush’s push for evidence-supported teaching methods Love to own the GOP by making it harder for poor kids to learn how to read ## Tuesday, July 16, 2024 ### [Reply to @amelapay, 02:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813033872122388869) · 7 likes > **Pamela J. Hobart (@amelapay):** I’m sorry what > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSje17-WwAAG4Hu.jpg) Oral/nasal oxytocin doesn’t cross the blood brain barrier afaik ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 10:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813164348136628549) · 1 like > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** Part of what I like about AI Safety is that it’s a field where I feel like I can work every day to make a difference even on very big, important problems > > But sometimes things like these happen and I am forced to remember how much is completely out of our hands > > (quoting @JDVance: There are undoubtedly risks related to AI. One of the biggest: A partisan group of crazy people use AI to infect every part of the information economy with left wing bias. Gemini can’t produce accurate history. ChatGPT promotes genocidal concepts. The solution is open source) Oy vey ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 10:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813165304056291664) · 1 like > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** Increasingly looks like I'll be moving to Sheffield @littIeramblings ### [Quote tweet, 12:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813183604123476381) · 10 likes Wait what I feel like this could use some actual journalism > **Quoting Canderous Ordoliberal 🐊 (@butleriano):** Afghan embassies are so cool. They don’t even have a government in exile but they’re still there, handling consular duties and issuing visas that the Taliban has to accept because nobody is going to let them open an embassy. ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 22:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813335024567255434) · 9 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** new blog post - I looked at a bunch of escort listings to see what sort of stuff correlates with charging more money. > 1/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSpB6g1bIAAqJZc.jpg) Twitter ### [Reply to @hplemke, 22:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813336232153489874) · 2 likes > **Harrison Lemke (@hplemke):** chatgpt writes in the exact voice of a bright college freshman who didn't do the reading and that tells you a lot about the people who are impressed with it @peterwildeford an imposter ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 22:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813338069929722205) · 6 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** I keep seeing the cave again when I close my eyes and I feel so safe and supported in the still, solid dark. I really liked this cave. > > (quoting @ilex_ulmus: I’m claustrophilic and I have had this craving to visit a cave for months. So yesterday we went for a crawl in Moaning Caverns! It was so much fun—highly recommend 😃) Caves and the ocean - humans were not meant to go there ### [Reply to @btdrawer, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813339952631156894) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @btdrawer is no longer available.)_ It seems I’ve attracted Forbidden Places Twitter ### [Reply to @kindgracekind, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813340365552050673) · 4 likes > **Grace (@kindgracekind):** Tautologies are always true Big if true ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 22:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813346298629644675) · 14 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** The Acquired episode about Lockheed Martin did not disappoint > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSpG_jTXIAA_R6T.jpg) Saw this recently at the Air and Space museum. Cool plane ### [Reply to @polisisti, 22:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813346346990022721) · 4 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** seems like one could solve this by simply expanding Ohio Real ### [Quote tweet, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813352051432358092) · 17 likes Humans were meant to go into the mountains for a Quest every once in a while. Lakes are ok. Rivers ok if slow. Then retvrn to the village. Sorry I don’t make the rules > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @ilex_ulmus Caves and the ocean - humans were not meant to go there ### [Reply to @hplemke, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813356892803993881) · 3 likes > **Harrison Lemke (@hplemke):** @AaronBergman18 @peterwildeford i run busytown. who are you I’m Aaron ## Wednesday, July 17, 2024 ### [Reply to @RFishBlueFish, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813428583076962387) · 4 likes > **Gil (@RFishBlueFish):** @hplemke @AaronBergman18 @peterwildeford Aaron how the fuck did you get Marianne Williamson to follow you I defended her once on here idk lol ### [Tweet, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813436461183582386) · 6 likes Ngl I have no idea what the party conventions are for ### [Reply, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813439201175646697) · 1 like Do they have any “official” functions politically, though? I feel like they’re talked about as though they do ### [Tweet, 05:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813442875046191451) · 4 likes POV: you go to the Air and Space Museum one time [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1813442822596419584/pu/img/lubgOYs4gQF1tzLh.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813442875046191451/video/1) (video, plays on X) ## Thursday, July 18, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 01:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813740936129925341) · 26 likes Dang 30 years ago I would have had \*zero\* hinge matches > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Reply to @menhguin, 02:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813760772742475976) · 2 likes > **Minh Nhat Nguyen 🦭 (@menhguin):** @Kat\_\_Woods Kat's most innovative addition to EA is introducing a concept called extroversion Huge innovation ### [Reply to @KatSpartz, 02:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813760881769283963) · 3 likes > **Kat Spartz ⏸️ 🔶 (@KatSpartz):** I immediately like people more if they spontaneously call me > > It's an indicator of reasonableness. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSvDVWBagAEfZho.jpg) Has anyone called you since tweeting this? ### [Tweet, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813780048509628727) · 91 likes I’m anti-anti-calling the secret service the ss Like really we have to give up 1/676 two letter acronyms for all of eternity? Context cues go brr, cmon ### [Reply to @tylertracy321, 05:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813810342696300706) · 4 likes > **Tyler Tracy (@tylertracy321):** In the gym with a bunch of EAs and one of them asks exercise is the most tractable and neglected Probably 10 second deadhangs on a 12-20mm edge? A lot of rock climbing performance depends on just that. Pretty easy/low effort way to get good at a sport ### [Reply to @helloitslynne, 06:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813830308422144438) · 13 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @helloitslynne is no longer available.)_ I can’t believe I’m being a normie about this but accurately assessing this kind of thing and then acting accordingly (so deferring if it’s nbd for you but a bigger deal for them and expecting the same) just seems like normal good relationship dynamics ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 07:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813832303162143199) · 2 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** You're misunderstanding-- she loves preference strength monsters Typical (me misunderstanding things) ### [Reply to @helloitslynne, 07:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813833247731732685) · 2 likes > **lynne (@helloitslynne):** @ilex_ulmus @AaronBergman18 You’re prob right and I’m not familiar with the term > > What’s a preference strength monster? I think it’s a play on “utility monster” which is a thing from moral philosophy of like a being who could potentially experience much more happiness than anyone else So this would be someone who just has very strong preferences, thereby generally dominating those of others ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 07:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813833463730172211) · 5 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** I think you're misunderstanding-- Holly is joking 😔 I live amid epistemic chaos ### [Tweet, 07:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813837675163500854) · 6 likes Maybe they should let Biden be VP ### [Reply to @bustyjeacs, 07:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813839062802874411) · 4 likes > **Justin Beaconsfield (@bustyjeacs):** @AaronBergman18 I dunno. There are sports teams out there retiring two-digit numbers. Jackie Robinson kinda cooked tho ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 07:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813839257460727887) · 2 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSwMBJ8acAEWm_0.jpg) > (quoting @CaudilloXIV: every male selfie is a cry for help) @absurdlymax ### [Tweet, 07:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813841093878034853) · 12 likes Fuck I don’t want to go to the beach But I shall oblige Let the beachpoasting commence ### [Reply, 07:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813845419161784665) · 4 likes > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** @AaronBergman18 I think I will be going to the beach with a friend today as well. If it wasn’t for the sand, heat, humidity, and single motel room for four adults (nuclear family, I’m the youngest) it wouldn’t be so bad ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 10:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813881734242480598) · 5 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** damn i'm getting a new Major Character Development like twice a day rn > > this is what i get for trying to skip the "being a teenager" life arc. some parts of the plot even i can't deviate too far from, and will occur no matter what I’m curious to hear more, but if you just wanna vaguepost that is very understandable ### [Reply to @chercher_ai, 10:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813882678673830125) · 28 likes > **☯️ 🐻 (@chercher_ai):** Being someone else is as different as being on psilocybin > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSvBrCEaYAAs3zF.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSvBq1BboAAHlTj.jpg) Do we have good reason to think differences in “brain organization” are congruent to differences in subjective experience? ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1813988820007768148) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 @helloitslynne “Nooooo! You can’t make interpersonal utility comparisons! It’s not logically sound! 😭😭😭” Watch me 🤝 ## Friday, July 19, 2024 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 14:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814302411118288998) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 18, 2024:** Fuck I don’t want to go to the beach But I shall oblige Let the beachpoasting commence Ngl this doesn’t really inspire me to act ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GS2ybJrWgAALbF5.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 14:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814305358711583192) · 4 likes It’s a beautiful day to stay at a safe distance from sand and walk around listening to podcasts ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GS21G4UWcAAO-Wt.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 14:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814312294697816190) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Wow what an incredible ad > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GS25-CKXcAIYTl1.jpg) I’m buying ### [Tweet, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814329652539785718) · 29 likes Simp welfare ### [Thread, continued, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814329719497601481) · 3 likes Creds @absurdlymax ### [Reply to @sarah_micheleg, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814334864725881250) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @sarah_micheleg is no longer available.)_ @JesseTayRiver how much to add plumbing? I’m only 95% kidding ### [Tweet, 16:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814335842862952869) · 8 likes Have you ever created (“trained”) an AI model? ### [Reply to @slimepriestess, 16:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814339057129828503) · 14 likes > **Ra (@slimepriestess):** @AaronBergman18 if someone handed me a cool million to train a model i would, but anything i could afford to train would be shit compared to existing models. You can always make terrible models for fun (this took 12 hours on an m1 MBP) [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1814338701478047746/pu/img/YEBFUSkELgZCO3Xu.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814339057129828503/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814346705568936085) · 8 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 19, 2024:** It’s a beautiful day to stay at a safe distance from sand and walk around listening to podcasts Ok fine I’m actually going to the beach ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GS3atcKXkAEfBFe.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GS3atcKXkAAbjr1.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 17:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814346815904395290) · 4 likes (Going for the SBF look) ### [Thread, continued, 18:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814362962540241098) · 6 likes Atlantic Ocean is quite a bit colder than the Arlington VA public pool. Who do I complain to ### [Tweet, 19:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814387392352026678) · 1 like Glad I went to the actual beach as a reminder of why I dislike the beach (sand =B-, ocean = B-, wet sand = F) ### [Thread, continued, 19:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814387997338677314) · 45 likes Honestly sunburns are pretty based because it gives you an immediate reason to wear sunscreen. Could you imagine if sun exposure only caused cancer with no near-term effect? The culture wars over it would be crazy ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814392492621738265) · 4 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 I don’t burn easily, am I fucked? Idk how much this means you’re just not taking the relevant kind of damage for cancer either ### [Tweet, 21:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814408000242889008) · 15 likes Has anyone proposed the USG buy a majority stake of TSMC and move operations to the US? (Obligatory: idk what I’m talking about) ### [Thread, continued, 21:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814408002213978123) · 5 likes Plausibly it would be a good use of money even if the investments was written off as spending But also plausibly it would cause the stock prices to rise pretty and be a net fiscal win? Being in Taiwan \*per se\* can't possibly be good for the net present value of the firm ### [Thread, continued, 21:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814408004088852770) · 5 likes There's an Everettian branch or two where SBF personally does this ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 21:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814418734016016384) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** The US gov is already doing all the parts of this that make sense https://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2024/04/biden-harris-administration-announces-preliminary-terms-tsmc-expanded Based ### [Tweet, 22:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814420243688894469) · 10 likes Tragically I am away, but DC people FYI there is a ~protest (“encouragement gathering”?) tomorrow at 3pm asking Biden not to run https://bit.ly/PTTRally ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814441668390633847) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 19, 2024:** Honestly sunburns are pretty based because it gives you an immediate reason to wear sunscreen. Could you imagine if sun exposure only caused cancer with no… Scared away a duck ☹️ [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1814441590250745857/pu/img/H629TdZYGa4sUsfV.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814441668390633847/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Tweet, 23:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814443090855252005) · 2 likes I hope there’s a Chinese Michael Lewis to write this book [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1814443012254015489/pu/img/x5DWxtld0X9ht8Fy.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814443090855252005/video/1) (video, plays on X) ## Saturday, July 20, 2024 ### [Tweet, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814455929758232671) · 8 likes Maybe this exists but there’s a blog (/LessWrong) post to be written about when “testing on the training set” doesn’t actually matter (ie shouldn’t be written off as fake performance) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 00:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814462135667175832) · 3 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** wdym This is proving weirdly hard to answer to my satisfaction but some misc points: \- simply memorizing a lot of information can be very powerful. Like consider a language model that really does just perfectly connect the dots in gazillion-dimension space so it will always get the ### [Reply, 03:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814495701172171149) · 1 like There is absolutely a niche for LinkedIn shitposting that is not being filled Could be you ### [Tweet, 03:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814499246952927709) · 11 likes Has R ever caused a global polycrisis? I didn’t think so ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GS5lcpLWwAEK-1b.jpg) ### [Reply to @StatsLime, 04:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814513113913290882) · 2 likes > **Max ⏸️ Limelihood 🔸🔸🔸 (@StatsLime):** @AaronBergman18 What do you think the replication crisis is Only python and stata users affected ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814515757360853050) · 431 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ This would be peak self-actualization for me ### [Tweet, 12:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814637843920154733) · 55 likes Sister’s bf is named Sam. We’re about to become unfathomably wealthy and then entangled in a world-historic scandal ### [Quote tweet, 12:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814640359827268046) · 8 likes Bro has more rizz than me > **Quoting Matt Bateman (@mbateman):** What happens when you set up a 4yo, whose writing norms are informed by rudimentary phonics and an obsession with stickers... > > ...with the ability to text her friend, also a 4yo, whose writing norms are informed by obsessively copying out track listings from the backs of CDs? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GS4mX03asAQ3_oj.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GS4mZELasAM3CvP.jpg) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 12:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814640529583284246) · 6 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** 1\. Never put anything in writing > 2\. Do not join the wire fraud group chat > 3\. Always have an escape plane I’m definitely naming our three person gc Wire Fraud if it ever exists ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 13:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814647391414358503) · 14 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 19, 2024:** Scared away a duck ☹️ \> family event \> everyone compliments my shirt \> it is the only clothing item I own that I had zero part in acquiring ### [Reply to @seconds_0, 14:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814673220760383572) · 1 like > **0.005 Seconds (3/694) (@seconds_0):** At a teen event at a mensa convention at Disney world Based ### [Reply to @keccers, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814752863710544098) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @keccers is no longer available.)_ Should I be? I’ve been under the impression it’s roughly as bad as drinking till you pass out Which in turn seems to me like nbd to do a single digit number of times in your life but maybe I’m wrong about this ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814761412511621394) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ Idk ### [Tweet, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814769997186527666) · 5 likes @qwweryo and I met up today and chatted a bunch We concluded that it is very strange and mysterious how little money AI safety gets relative to everything else in light of the expressed opinions of self-described effective altruists ### [Thread, continued, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814769998940021028) · 4 likes This is perpetually a take of mine wrt to animal welfare (we also agreed on this btw) ### [Thread, continued, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814770001586385108) · 4 likes To name names a bit, it seems like most of this issue stems from OpenPhil just not being rational/deliberate/strategic at the level of resource allocation between the GHW and GCR cause areas (and human vs animal wellbeing, I’d add) ### [Thread, continued, 21:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814770003545366987) · 2 likes Ofc maybe strategic deliberation has happened in private but to state the obvious this would clash a bit with the rest of its ethos and record ### [Reply, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814772225196666975) · 1 like Seems bad ### [Reply to @mattparlmer, 21:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814772439546802296) · 2 likes > **mattparlmer 🪐 🌷 (@mattparlmer):** Around a third of the commercial buildings in my neighborhood are straight up vacant, more like half if you count the ones being parked as a “gallery” or similar unproductive function > > At this point I think govt needs to force landlords to sell properties that they won’t fill Obligatory: land value tax ### [Reply to @burny_tech, 21:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814774564121162014) · 2 likes > **Burny - Effective Curiosity (@burny_tech):** @TonyTheLion2500 applied math Applied philosophy ### [Quote tweet, 21:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814777475970572471) · 9 likes If you thought you didn’t know how to code, congrats now you do Ask ChatGPT or Claude to walk you through how to do everything. Lots of implicit knowledge (“what app do you open?”) but the LLMs have it all > **Quoting Benjamin (@bschne):** Code-o-phobia is real — I constantly see clearly smart people who use visual programming like tools get incredibly scared at any mention of writing five lines of Code™, when it would in fact be 10x more ergonomic for their use case after even a brief learning period ### [Thread, continued, 21:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814777478738563519) · 5 likes Probably one unspoken barrier is just figuring out like what the space of possibilities is, which is really not obvious ### [Tweet, 22:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814782681840034190) · 2 likes There is a paper to be written on the philosophy and topology/geometry/algebraic modeling of mini golf Bad mini-golf courses use geometry to funnel the balls toward or away from especially good OR bad places for a player’s ball to be… ### [Thread, continued, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814783216815071316) · 2 likes so like the worst possible configurations are 1\) a cone surrounded by a reservoir that inevitably leads to the hole (so tapping the ball in any direction at all leads to a hole in 1 ### [Thread, continued, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814783468888293581) · 2 likes 2\) a very tall cone where you start from the bottom with the hole on top, such that only a perfect, very difficult shot works at all, and when it works it works perfectly (ie can never make the final shot easier with intermediate shots) ### [Thread, continued, 22:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814785114565398579) · 3 likes The best possible hole (in this one respect) is a perfectly flat course The Fundamental Problem of Mini Golf Design is how to distort the courses with obstacles and such such that novelty/aesthetics/variance in difficulty/etc are high while the influence of mere gravity is low ## Sunday, July 21, 2024 ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 11:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814991502298222874) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ U can always do some regressions for fun ✨🥰 ### [Reply to @_Mira___Mira_, 13:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815012208062984543) · 4 likes > **Mira (@_Mira___Mira_):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTAsAMMaAAALinq.jpg) Fixed ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTA3-8-XAAEEGPo.jpg) ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 14:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815028554087768385) · 6 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** I'm staunchly anti ruching, poplin, crepe, cutout, ruffle, taupe, collar, denim, bell sleeves, and most print. > I'm pro platform, knit, kilim, micromodal, embroidery, color blocking, bishop sleeves, and crochet. I recognize two of these terms ### [Reply to @thoth_iv, 14:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815037582570303846) · 9 likes > **Thŏth (@thoth_iv):** Are EAs generally aware that Lightcone CEO O. Habryka recently said, "I have definitely taken actions within the bounds of what seems reasonable that have aimed at getting the EA community to shut down or disappear (and will probably continue to do so)." Thoughts? @ohabryka is there a good place I can learn more about why you think this? Gotta be the most blatant dissonance in my worldview rn ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 15:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815050806455894123) · 6 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** In college I made a simple test for my beliefs about foreign policy and when war is justified. Any beliefs about US foreign policy have to justify the North invading the South in the Civil War, and America getting involved in World War 2. If they don't, they're wrong. Civil war is a bit tougher, no? Slavery was not a core motivation for the original invasion afaik ### [Quote tweet, 15:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815051990570782991) · 21 likes Rich strategy for lots of things Do your beliefs about affirmative action rule out early 20th century Jewish quotas? Do your beliefs about the legitimacy of protest tactics justify consumer boycotts of apartheid South Africa? > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** In college I made a simple test for my beliefs about foreign policy and when war is justified. Any beliefs about US foreign policy have to justify the North invading the South in the Civil War, and America getting involved in World War 2. If they don't, they're wrong. ### [Thread, continued, 15:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815051993372602622) · 5 likes Ofc you might end up biting the bullet on some things like this. God knows I am a fan of bullet biting when the bullets are in fact good to eat ### [Tweet, 15:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815052633591218619) · 10 likes Almost unironically the democrats should pick @JesseTayRiver ### [Thread, continued, 15:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815052635159802221) · 5 likes The cyberbullying will continue until campaign enrollment improves ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815054563969298590) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AndyMasley @AaronBergman18 omg it wasn’t about slavery??? I thought it was and it was only confederates who thought otherwise??? Secession was largely indeed about slavery, initially the north was not committed to ending it though (just to keeping the union) Eventually the war became functionally over the fate of slavery in the south Other ppl who aren’t history dunces should correct me ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 16:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815054985119367274) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** It's a little complicated: > \-Secession was about slavery. Contemporary apologists for the Confederacy lie about that. > \-Original motivation for invading the South was preserving the Union. > \-A lot of Northerners including Lincoln were very interested in eventually ending slavery Sorry Andy, lost by 5s. Great minds, many such cases, etc ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTBe44HXIAAjzGy.jpg) ### [Reply to @shinboson, 16:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815055797476339722) · 2 likes > **𝞍 Shin Megami Boson 𝞍 (@shinboson):** @retarded_whore I strongly suspect that if they truly had no sacred cows they’d act much less like nerds and more like Machiavelli’s prince Nothing being sacred doesn’t mean nothing is important or valuable or good Like in some literal sense no I don’t think anything is sacred (but I am a sort of moral realist, and think some things really are important, valuable, and good) ### [Reply to @shinboson, 16:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815055837024420121) · 2 likes > **𝞍 Shin Megami Boson 𝞍 (@shinboson):** What are the sacred cows of rationalism? ### [Tweet, 16:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815056875882508453) · 29 likes 100 pages of reading a day is a lot, and quality/retention trades off significantly with quantity ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTBgmzwWgAAsfTD.jpg) ### [Tweet, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815071282100085187) · 8 likes Finally signed up for the Claude API. Here are a few Tweets Sonnet 3.5 thinks I would write based ### [Thread, continued, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815071283606180152) · 8 likes I think the most underrated part of the "AI will kill us all" narrative is that it's just so fucking boring Like if I'm gonna die in some cool sci-fi way I'd prefer it be like "a rogue nanotech swarm eats all the oxygen" or "we accidentally create a black hole" or smth ### [Thread, continued, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815071284809662465) · 5 likes I think the happiest I've ever been was when I was 12 and my dad told me he'd take me to the bookstore and let me pick out any book I wanted ### [Thread, continued, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815071285715620304) · 13 likes I think I'm gonna start saying "I'm not sure" instead of "I don't know" bc the latter feels like it implies I have no relevant info or thoughts at all ### [Thread, continued, 17:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815071542138622189) · 6 likes Hypothesis: You can get a very decent proxy for how much someone currently cares about longevity by asking how many days this year they've eaten blueberries/other berries ### [Thread, continued, 17:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815071709264752987) · 5 likes ^that was a good one. Using 400 example tweets, total cost $.06 ### [Thread, continued, 17:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815071828706042223) · 3 likes Rate limiting with the boys ### [Thread, continued, 17:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815071918959075599) · 3 likes Alright lets try Opus now ### [Thread, continued, 17:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815074142191747529) · 4 likes Idk who needs to hear this but if you're a guy and you're not getting matches on Hinge, it's probably because your photos suck \[this cost $.30\] ### [Thread, continued, 17:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815075136262815792) · 2 likes The Haiku ones are weirdly better Each costs about half a cent (using 400 examples) ### [Thread, continued, 17:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815075283839381740) · 4 likes How do I become a professional debater? Like someone who gets paid to show up and argue contrarian positions in front of audiences ### [Quote tweet, 18:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815087107485908999) · 6 likes The unreasonable effectiveness of my followers > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Tragically I am away, but DC people FYI there is a ~protest (“encouragement gathering”?) tomorrow at 3pm asking Biden not to run https://bit.ly/PTTRally ### [Tweet, 18:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815087542263300179) · 10 likes Common @ezraklein W ### [Reply to @beala, 18:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815089565784490485) · 2 likes > **Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** Honestly these are indistinguishable from the genuine article. Oh no I really am this lame ### [Tweet, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815124667352375518) · 7 likes Apparently my dad’s pickup line (which worked, hence me) was “I’m here to deliver some materials” ## Monday, July 22, 2024 ### [Reply to @calebwatney, 01:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815198031131603038) · 2 likes > **Caleb Watney (@calebwatney):** Ezra, realizing he can leave Twitter again > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTB8VZSXcAAEbnt.jpg) Noooo Ezra stay ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 01:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815200786512531712) · 2 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** Categories of economists I've heard of: > 1 international development randomistas > 2 used to work for the British government > 3 the freakonomics guys > 4 behavioural economists > 5 edgelords at George Mason University > 6 Acemoglu So many fun other categories to explore \- econometrics bro \- hired by Amazon to optimize pricing \- competent civil servant at \[basically any federal agency\] \- Chinese TA who knows their shit \- guy from the 18-19th century discovering shit \- @jenniferdoleac ### [Tweet, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815234310674305062) · 4 likes Feeling like I might actually be pathologically inept with respect to social cues. Fuck ### [Tweet, 14:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815396522785120264) · 5 likes Hey did u guys know that the FDA has determined that no significant difference has been shown between milk derived from rBST treated and non-rBST treated cows ### [Thread, continued, 14:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815397308596466003) · 2 likes It will be funny if actually nobody knows this ### [Tweet, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815405434981040560) · 10 likes Nobody: Nobody in history: never tried to feed a baby exclusively almond milk Almond milk container: this product is NOT to be used as baby formula ### [Reply to @dgant, 15:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815407034596229175) · 2 likes > **Dan Gant ⚡ PurpleWave ⚡ Games (@dgant):** @AaronBergman18 the number of people jailed each year for killing their children by feeding them some kind of malnourishment says otherwise Shoot ### [Tweet, 16:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815423069726318923) · 12 likes I genuinely do not understand how people deny the hard problem of consciousness from the direction of eliminativism (while apparently NOT biting the bullet on an extremely strong form of illusionism) Either qualia are fake (ie “illusory”) or they’re real and mysterious ### [Thread, continued, 16:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815423071546646907) · 7 likes Not uniquely mysterious - just as mysterious as all apparently fundamental phenomena like electromagnetism ### [Tweet, 16:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815428493355753852) · 9 likes Aaron don’t wear his shirt inside out for a whole day difficulty impossible ### [Tweet, 16:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815429279687086274) · 12 likes Hypothesis: @absurdlymax and @arithmoquine are the same person ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815430328699265439) · 3 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** another henry alt has been identified > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Hypothesis: @absurdlymax and @arithmoquine are the same person) @absurdlymax big if true ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 17:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815439055233970180) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @GjMcGowan @AaronBergman18 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTG7QfpXkAAC6UJ.png) Real picture of Jesse running a 2:39 mile ### [Reply to @RethinkPriors, 22:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815521566480113895) · 4 likes > **Rethink Priorities (@RethinkPriors):** How should you split resources in light of moral uncertainty? Rethink Priorities’ Moral Parliament Tool can help you think through your decision: https://bit.ly/RP-moral-parliament. @austinc3301 u? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTIHL5aXkAALcIB.jpg) ## Tuesday, July 23, 2024 ### [Reply to @Littoral_Gecko, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815562321395167390) · 3 likes > **A Gecko🦎 (@Littoral_Gecko):** @AaronBergman18 Is this another one of the AI generated ones? ;P No but it is legitimately interesting that you can’t tell ### [Quote tweet, 01:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815562891388502047) · 8 likes Reverse Turing test has been passed ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTIs08wXEAATr8L.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @Littoral_Gecko No but it is legitimately interesting that you can’t tell ### [Quote tweet, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815577299565117492) · 12 likes This is a good example of how empiricism goes wrong. Let’s just assume the claim is correct (which I don’t doubt) You can and should still do mechanistic and systems-level reasoning as a complement to empirical studies, which are hard, expensive, long, and often bad > **Quoting Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** The "evidence" base for vitamin D is observational. > > There is basically no convincing experimental evidence that vitamin D supplementation helps people. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTIRIHLWYAA0QML.png) ### [Thread, continued, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815577301511213261) · 5 likes Tbc I’m not arguing for vitamin d supplementation I \*am\* claiming you can have good reason to take it despite the above assumption ### [Thread, continued, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815577303335768542) · 4 likes We \*know\* (u know what I mean) that vitamin d has a bunch of functions at the cellular level, and that it’s necessary for humans (like without any vitamin d you will die) ### [Thread, continued, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815577304749183133) · 6 likes In the absence of directionally strong empirical evidence, it makes perfect sense to think about non-empirical evidence like the above and idk a better term to use than “think it through” ### [Thread, continued, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815577306284609797) · 3 likes So like consider the financial cost, lab results, and whether there’s mechanistic or empirical reasons to think it could be actively harmful at some given dose ### [Thread, continued, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815577307798454741) · 3 likes (As an extreme example, I strongly advise against consuming a literal kilogram of pure vitamin d, idgaf how deficient you are) ### [Thread, continued, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815577309446803877) · 2 likes Also heuristics like “don’t ingest arbitrary molecules” or “do ingest micronutrients you are deficient in according to lab results and the guidelines on UpToDate” might point one way or another And then decide ### [Reply to @JohnHolbein1, 03:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815587893248745540) · 28 likes > **John B. Holbein (@JohnHolbein1):** timeless > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTIm8mwW8AAEpzo.jpg) Semicolons are underrated ### [Tweet, 14:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815759445839761622) · 20 likes .@QualyThe r u still alive ### [Quote tweet, 14:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815760929327374525) · 1 like Endorse > **Quoting thermo (@DionysianAgent):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTGuN4sWIAI2LmO.jpg) ### [Reply, 14:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815761407532511387) · 2 likes > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** Their name was too similar to “qualia”. An illusionist killed them. 😢 ### [Tweet, 16:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815786525323391145) · 8 likes Half the time the prescription-industrial complex is like “sorry we can’t provide this drug that a chemistry grad student could synthesize if they weren’t worried about legality, the DEA gave us a small number this year” ### [Thread, continued, 16:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815786526887866669) · 4 likes and half the time it’s like “molecule discovered in 2004 that takes an army of cracked PhDs and billions of dollars of post-industrial scientific infrastructure to create? Ready for pickup 14 minutes after telemedicine visit” ### [Tweet, 17:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815803145022296416) · 9 likes Goal: maximize interpersonal agreeableness subject to an intellectual disagreeableness constraint ### [Quote tweet, 17:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815806252078821849) · 3 likes If you don’t make a podcast your personality for significant chunks of time are you really even alive > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Can tell my personality for the next month or so is going to be 70% just the Acquired podcast ### [Tweet, 17:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815808385083703649) · 65 likes AI gfs but they just tell you to do things you already know you need to do but realistically are gonna get to them way quicker if a girl asks you ### [Thread, continued, 17:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815808457775124719) · 8 likes So a todo list app ### [Reply to @JosephPolitano, 17:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815808834343977006) > **Joey Politano 🏳️‍🌈 (@JosephPolitano):** This is probably going to be the worst year for DC housing permits since the Great Recession by the way. Unless things improve there's a chance the city could come in sub-1000 units. It's a total disaster. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTMKQriXUAAF4g3.png) What site is this? ### [Reply to @gmiller, 23:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1815890342563959169) · 1 like > **Geoffrey Miller (@gmiller):** Because Kamala has held substantial political power for 30 years, and she's accomplished nothing notable with that power -- apart from further advancing her own power. Have you seen the other guy ## Wednesday, July 24, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 13:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816100796318073238) · 2 likes I don’t think I have a ton in common with Donald Trump, but I was legit taken aback because this part also describes me extremely well! [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1816100748943323136/pu/img/qgZldNUSA5noTTWT.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816100796318073238/video/1) (video, plays on X) > **Quoting Walter Masterson (@waltermasterson):** This is the best explanation of Donald Trump talking about “Hannibal Lecter”. > > [video attached](https://x.com/waltermasterson/status/1815563411733766342/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 13:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816101231309308114) · 3 likes This is the thing!!! I guess a difference is that I sorta try to stay on topic which clashes with the phenomenon, and Trump just rides the tiger ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 13:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816103521965449641) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** looking for people who are specifically higher than average non-autistic person, but likely not autistic > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTQF28kbIAAHqD4.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTQFyInbwAAMSrg.png) > (quoting @StefanFSchubert: Study finds that "the more similar two persons are in autistic traits, the higher is the perceived quality of their friendship...higher interpersonal similarity of autistic traits was associated with higher measures of closeness, acceptance and help."…) Skill issue (wide error bars tho, I didn’t know what to answer for many of them) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTQYh0JXUAAIcVI.jpg) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 13:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816107395925557465) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @ohwizenedtortle How's your aerobic exercise level? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTQcDTUW8AA1iYd.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 13:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816107425969107035) · 2 likes ### [Reply, 14:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816124131034693634) · 1 like Because of overdiagnosis? ### [Reply, 15:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816140125933560015) Like it’s really helpful to know if you’re b12 deficient. You can fix that in a week whereas revamping your nutrition without that kind of info might not even fix the issue at all, and if it does it will take months at least ### [Quote tweet, 16:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816144885252001983) · 42 likes People just say things > **Quoting ThePeoplesElbow (@Idris_Elbow_):** All girls are either a cheese girl or a pickle girl ### [Reply to @polisisti, 17:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816160606002766014) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 all EAs are either screwworm EAs or Guinea worm EAs Anti-longtermist: or brainworm EAs ### [Reply, 17:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816160720154775796) Combine them for a delicious treat 😊 ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816165310979866744) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** this is wrong I’m both Many such cases ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 17:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816166240475300138) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 17:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816166827430437042) > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Peoples rankings of how erotic various emotions are, split out by themselves vs others feeling it > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTQ-wqXbAAE2Nif.jpg) Hello to everyone else scanning the legend for “women, finds erotic in others” ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 17:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816168562475819513) · 3 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** Everyone seems fine with the switch except Republicans. > > (quoting @elonmusk: Shouldn’t the nominee be decided by a party vote? Democracy etc …) This is a bad counter argument. If everyone’s cool with it they should be cool with an election to show that! ### [Quote tweet, 17:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816168891438989373) · 7 likes They should give this job to me and then I will tell you who’s in the right and probably not actually help with reconciliation > **Quoting bri (@br___ian):** Can you, like, hire someone who is very emotionally skilled to help navigate complex family dynamics? ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 17:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816169681184596415) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ I think it’s just being a stochastic parrot ## Thursday, July 25, 2024 ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 07:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816369699782853012) · 3 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Ah, yes, this tweet naturally was liked by the three people it features: roon, Aaron, and \*squints\* a red panda > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTUKKLraYAU5lFD.jpg) Name a better trio ### [Reply to @christineist, 15:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816500250527302130) · 7 likes > **christine (@christineist):** do you have any default rules for your life? like "no bread" or "always go on 2 dates" something Sleep on it before spending >$100 on something ### [Tweet, 16:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816516967953744102) · 29 likes So uh does anyone know what Kamala Harris thinks about anything important? Priority no. 1 is beating Trump tbc but I’m still curious ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816518268393500925) · 4 likes > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** Seems her housing policy is "subsidize demand" which isn't great. I think she was for M4A too? Oh well. Still gonna vote for her and everyone else should too ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816520861207396789) · 4 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** In 2020 she said she wanted to ban fracking and offshore drilling. She's an r slur, and I hope she is humiliated in the election. Have you seen the other guy ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 17:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816522988906512393) · 2 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** Yeah. The first three years of his presidency were some of the best ever. I'd love to have that again. I'm not rolling the dice on an insane energy policy that would doom us. Energy policy isn’t foreign policy, president can’t unilaterally act and for better or worse neither can agency heads post-Chevron ### [Reply, 17:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816523231165341951) · 1 like I don’t want to brush this off as trivial but having a genuinely authoritarian-power-hungry amoral narcissist possibly during the singularity sounds much worse than idk the DOI denying some fracking permits or whatever she’d get away with (assuming you’re right about this bc idk) ### [Reply, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816527128030249119) · 3 likes > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** @AaronBergman18 She gives me the distinct impression of not thinking much, apart from, of course, her own power, fame and "legacy". ### [Quote tweet, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816527744252924134) · 9 likes This is dumb and the kind of discourse that doesn’t actually contain any relevant signal - I don’t think it’s crazy to talk about the personal character of potential POTUS (one bullet away) but this isn’t that > **Quoting manny (@mannyfidel):** the "JD Vance had sex with a couch" saga, explained > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTV_gHCWoAAmzqT.jpg) ### [Tweet, 17:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816533472158319019) Like from the inside, I’m sure it feels like these object level considerations are good reason not to support Kamala or whoever the dem nominee is This is plausibly right (under your own endorsed beliefs) except for 2016 and now because Donald Trump really is uniquely bad ### [Reply, 18:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816535611035254857) · 1 like I will absolutely defend this kind of procedure as epistemically legitimate This is true for almost all topics and almost all people FWIW ### [Reply to @gmiller, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816536411677556817) · 2 likes > **Geoffrey Miller (@gmiller):** If you don't know what Kamala thinks about anything, why are you so sure that she's better than Trump? > > Seems epistemically reckless. Deleting this to amend it - I don’t think this is true actually. I \*do\* think there will be a subset of people (like Klein) who will make the case loudly enough for me to think and reconsider ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTWiPPsWMAAU018.jpg) ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816542144943038535) · 7 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** @AaronBergman18 @RandomSprint (this is a bad take vis-a-vis chevron, agency heads were already contrainsed by major questions doctrine, and their interpretation of law still had to pass the permissible standard (which sometimes bit) and the reasonableness standard (which bit very rarely)) Nathan plz stop being knowledgeable, ur embarrassing me on twitter dot com ### [Tweet, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816618323427099095) · 12 likes For presidential elections, things the president can do unilaterally should be treated as fundamentally different from everything else ### [Thread, continued, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816618325029314702) · 7 likes Like currently foreign policy and healthcare policy are lumped together into a platform and seem to be of a natural category but they’re not ### [Thread, continued, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816618326501785881) · 3 likes Yes the president matters for lots of things but it’s silly debating what their ideal healthcare policy is (to some extent unless they loudly and publicly say it’s the single biggest priority that they’re trying to make their campaign a referendum on) ### [Reply to @halogen1048576, 23:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816621062982934861) · 1 like > **🇨🇦halogen (@halogen1048576):** @AaronBergman18 Aaron elect me and I'll pass an executive order to mandate this Ok sounds like a plan👍 ### [Quote tweet, 23:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816623911070494858) · 5 likes My inclination is that this is good, and I still lean that way, but I don’t think “safety-pilled people get more money in the worlds where AI is super important” should be brushed off/ignored > **Quoting Dan Hendrycks (@hendrycks):** To send a clear signal, I am choosing to divest from my equity stake in Gray Swan AI. I will continue my work as an advisor, without pay. > > My goal is to make AI systems safe. I do this work on principle to promote the public interest, and that’s why I’ve chosen voluntarily to divest and work unpaid. I also sent a similar signal in the past by choosing to advise xAI without equity. I won’t let billionaire VCs distract the political conversation from the critical question: should AI developers of >$100M models be accountable for implementing safety testing and commonsense safeguards to protect the public from extreme risks? If the billionaire VC opposition to commonsense AI safety wants to show their motives are pure, let them follow suit. ## Friday, July 26, 2024 ### [Reply to @parafactual, 00:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816636716494565694) · 3 likes > **You (@parafactual):** what do you think :) Lol why no aspartame? Idk l-dopa seems kinda scary, I feel like normal stimulants are both better understood and have better effects Sorry :( Maybe there’s still a market for this lol ### [Reply to @parafactual, 00:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816637196771688870) · 2 likes > **You (@parafactual):** @AaronBergman18 i feel like i should clarify that this was a joke lol. i do not think it would be a good idea Right. Duh ### [Reply to @christineist, 00:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816639451860218094) · 4 likes > **christine (@christineist):** "Ask yourself what other people seem weirdly bad at" > > really like this framing of talent by @sashachapin ! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTX88MnagAEp6O9.png) Unironically, decoupling ### [Reply to @SelonNerias, 15:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816860611382321440) · 2 likes > **Selon Nerias (@SelonNerias):** Blue light filter at night @SpacedOutMatt’s computer screen ### [Reply to @SelonNerias, 15:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816864264327450634) · 3 likes > **Selon Nerias (@SelonNerias):** @AaronBergman18 @goblinodds @SpacedOutMatt Should be all of us f.lux is awesome, though it doesn't fix all of the problems with using devices at night I am ur worst nightmare and will advocate for a moors law of nits in computer screens. Brightness/acc ### [Quote tweet, 17:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816884016844275900) · 13 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTbeYmvWYAAtEw9.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Girls really do be having theory of mind ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 17:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816886986906480934) · 7 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I'm open to AI risk being 0%, but people are so bad at thinking about how big of a deal 1% risk is. Remember a very popular info graphic in February 2020 saying we shouldn't worry about COVID because it "Only has a 2% fatality rate." COVID wasn't a Pascalian situation either. > > (quoting @gabriel_weil: A 1% or 0.38% chance of human extinction is NOT Pascalian! Would you get on a plane with a 1/300 chance of crashing? Would you put all of humanity on it?) Pretty hard to take seriously anyone who says .0001% (1 in a million) by 2030 Maybe that’s your inside view, fine, absolutely no way that should be your all-things-considered ### [Reply to @panchromaticity, 17:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816891670102688138) · 3 likes > **Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** @goblinodds yes What ### [Reply to @goblinodds, 17:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816891694899482773) · 3 likes > **𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** @panchromaticity reeeee Same ### [Quote tweet, 17:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816891816182186310) · 6 likes Big if true and I’m getting word that it’s true so probably big > **Quoting Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Omg ok I just realized that maybe when people refer to rumors being spread, that they mean people who are claiming things confidently without disclaiming it's a rumor?? > I always thought rumors and legends meant stuff you say like "the legend says" or "rumor says" ### [Quote tweet, 17:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816895214407090604) · 2 likes We need more zippers in all domains of life. I’m zipper-pilled > **Quoting Matt Bateman (@mbateman):** Obsessed with this zipper truck that moves the barrier between northbound/southbound lanes on the Golden Gate Bridge > > [video attached](https://x.com/mbateman/status/1816721920735477971/video/1) ### [Tweet, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816911379770802638) · 9 likes Dear British people: there are like $30 things on Amazon that do this for u (blow a slightly ice water mist on u) and probably work better than this setup Might find these worth buying even if you don’t wanna buy legit A/C ### [Tweet, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816921886376292657) · 52 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTcA0zPXYAAGv_7.jpg) ### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816931300894245102) · 4 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** Neither Ozempic nor Mounjaro did anything helpful for me. Maintaining my weight still requires fasting 1 month for every 2 months that I eat enough for my brain to work. Saying this so that anyone else stuck in a worse trap than usual knows they're not alone. > > (quoting @IterIntellectus: wait, so it really is the miracle drug?! ozempic, so far, seems to be effective with: - type 2 diabetes - obesity - cardiovascular disease - metabolic liver disease - kidney disease - inflammation-related conditions - neurodegenerative diseases (alzheimer's and parkinson's) -…) Damn ### [Quote tweet, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816932130548830590) · 105 likes I know this isn’t universal but many of the smartest people I know have serious physical issue(s) Kinda sucks seeing what I interpret as genetic tradeoffs having hands come for your friends (and unidirectional parasocial acquaintances) > **Quoting Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** Neither Ozempic nor Mounjaro did anything helpful for me. Maintaining my weight still requires fasting 1 month for every 2 months that I eat enough for my brain to work. Saying this so that anyone else stuck in a worse trap than usual knows they're not alone. ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 20:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816940237538439186) · 5 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** My hunch is that they’re ~uncorrelated and you’re seeing Berkson’s paradox in who your acquaintances are > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTcP2SyWgAAAi2Q.jpg) I mean my prior on there being a trade off is pretty high (or else there has to be a reason smarter is bad all else equal) Also idk friendships are somewhat selective/zero sum but way less than monog relationships or college admissions ### [Reply to @codetaur, 20:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816940619266138244) · 4 likes > **Codetaur (@codetaur):** do you bring up ending predation on the first date? I’m pretty sure not \*all\* of them ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 21:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816942504152875399) · 4 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @just_cameron @AaronBergman18 People say this and then need to use pip, brew, conda, npm, pipx, cargo, pip3, wheel, bash commands, virtual environments, paths to specific versions of their language, and specific numbers of spaces to run a regression ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816943005560967496) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** My priors lean the other way - bad things hurt you both intellectually and physically (consider lead exposure for example) Simpsons paradox go brr. It’s just that both things are true and within a given population and environment it’s an empirical question which dominates ### [Reply to @JamesDowell2, 21:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816954162971836421) · 1 like > **J. D. (@JamesDowell2):** I've noticed this too, but IDK if this is an example because keeping weight on at all costs is a VERY adaptive trait in the evolutionary context for humans. Whereas some other "nerd" stereotypes (poor eyesight) are not FWIW obesity isn’t a common example that I’m thinking of ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 22:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816959777001418977) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Real text from a friend I slept through. Damn. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTcOZkEaAAArALS.jpg) F ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 22:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816965588691853746) > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Intelligence is positively associated with height > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Height_and_intelligence#Statistics > > Also seems negatively associated with obesity (in any case, that would be my intuition) > > https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/lim2.11 Tbc I’m not making a claim about the overall correlation and which effect dominates My slightly more nuanced best guess is that genetics is very high dimensional, and there are a few extremely specific paths that get you ~free IQ points and many more that get you costly ones ### [Reply, 22:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816971260338848096) Haha cold water go brr ### [Reply to @norvid_studies, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1816971727466885628) · 3 likes > **norvid_studies (@norvid_studies):** prior wars: all good things correlate vs all good things trade off with each other > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: @SpacedOutMatt I mean my prior on there being a trade off is pretty high (or else there has to be a reason smarter is bad all else equal) Also idk friendships are somewhat selective/zero sum but way less than monog relationships or college admissions) Synthesis: the tails come apart ## Saturday, July 27, 2024 ### [Reply to @stefaesthesia, 13:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817183728134713592) · 3 likes > **stef 🫴 (@stefaesthesia):** a lot of people these days could benefit from reading @waitbutwhy's book and trying to climb a rung or two > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTdf2IXb0AAnVN8.png) Top rung: being Julia Galef ### [Reply to @kennedymwavu, 13:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817187127467126800) · 3 likes > **Mwavu Kennedy (@kennedymwavu):** yes. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTaVGFKXYAARKnP.png) > (quoting @just_cameron: Very confused by how people write R code sometimes. Y'all understand that it is not a good development experience, right? It is actually Very Bad) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 17:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817256787747258422) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @FrostedSapling @JesseTayRiver @AaronBergman18 I think he got in trouble with his roommate for this Lol ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 18:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817262416390148159) · 3 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** When you can finally use AI to talk to a whale, what are you going to ask? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GR0vczoWUAAZ5SL.jpg) How’s it goin ### [Reply, 18:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817262688839557399) · 7 likes I am this. My real family and my twitter moots ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817265712475369906) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 @plemy11 Reverse that. Your real family and your biological family. Right ### [Reply, 19:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817274399688393020) · 2 likes @SpacedOutMatt plane discourse ### [Tweet, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817275708411965526) · 70 likes Talked to a self-identified e/acc irl a few weeks ago Great guy, mostly good takes, just wrong on a few key questions that looked basically like “what you would say if you were assigned that side in debate club” ### [Reply to @GarrettPetersen, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817275977795289164) · 3 likes > **Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ (@GarrettPetersen):** What's your gender? || Without looking it up, do you confidently know the name of the scientist who discovered the process that made most of the nitrogen in your body? Imma guess Krebs bc that cycle has nitrogen vibes ### [Thread, continued, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817276228203696304) · 2 likes F ### [Tweet, 23:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817347160767131949) · 22 likes Orange man bad ### [Quote tweet, 23:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817347702671172016) · 10 likes I’ve been listening to Avril lately. She does kinda slap > **Quoting AvrilRLavigne Today (Fan Account) (@AvrilRLToday):** .|📈 Avril Lavigne's "I'm With You" had its biggest streaming day ever on Spotify yesterday (July 25, 2024), with over +219,143 streams! > > [video attached](https://x.com/i/status/1798536271637426458/video/1) ## Sunday, July 28, 2024 ### [Tweet, 05:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817434161310765110) · 25 likes I’m such a blueberrypilled blueberrycel 🫐 ### [Thread, continued, 05:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817437106500784410) · 3 likes Very plausible my recent blueberry arc is directly downstream of AI Aaron’s tweet ### [Reply to @Trail_Cams, 06:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817447401696714837) · 1 like > **trailcam (@Trail_Cams):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GThUAfiXgAAUloj.jpg) @RafaRuizdeLira ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 07:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817462463077462025) · 1 like > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** Does anyone want to see Stranger Things in the UK with me this Saturday 27th Jul? https://uk.strangerthingsonstage.com/ Ya but realistically flying to the UK just for this would be financially irresponsible ### [Reply to @GailJ808, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817624914603520464) · 2 likes > **GailJ307 🌸🦬🤠 (@GailJ808):** @leamaric Never mind that is Japanese so double fox paw lol Bone apple teeth ### [Tweet, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817650950586372302) · 2 likes Old black woman on the bus has a piece of paper with “TRUMP GIRL” taped to her sunhat ### [Tweet, 20:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817665184372330581) · 5 likes Let the doxycycline sunburns begin ## Monday, July 29, 2024 ### [Reply to @nomanautomata, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817730383435182365) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @nomanautomata is no longer available.)_ No this seems pretty distinct ### [Quote tweet, 01:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817735687237435526) · 14 likes People love personality tests I guess Get ur special (3⁵ = 243 different archetypes) at https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/abc > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Here’s the Bergman Brain Classifier (each is a continuous scale but you can bin into high and low if you want) > > 1\) hedonic set point > 2\) hedonic variance > 3\) cringe tolerance > 4\) decoupling tendency > 5\) salience of social world ### [Thread, continued, 01:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817735689074556983) · 3 likes Thanks to Claude for doing all the work for me so this took all of 5-10 mins ### [Thread, continued, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817735940422635556) · 2 likes Seems pretty correct lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTnlNC4XYAA0WDh.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817766412003266722) · 4 likes Some goodnight tweets from AI Aaron (using 400 examples, Sonnet 3.5, about $0.015 each...) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Finally signed up for the Claude API. Here are a few Tweets Sonnet 3.5 thinks I would write based ### [Thread, continued, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817766413643272646) · 1 like Hypothesis: the "Midwest nice" stereotype is mostly driven by the fact that people from the Midwest are more likely to be in situations where they're interacting with strangers (e.g. at a gas station) than people from other regions ### [Thread, continued, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817766414855418251) · 2 likes Gonna be a contrarian and say that the "I'm not sure if I should say this but…" thing is good actually ### [Thread, continued, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817766415958429829) · 1 like Idea: a bot that tweets the same thing every day but with a different word replaced by a synonym each day ### [Tweet, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817766417241907514) Hypothesis: if you're in a situation where you're trying to figure out if you're in a simulation, the correct prior is ~50%, not ~0% or ~1 in a billion \[Human Aaron note: I'm not sure what I think about this\] ### [Thread, continued, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817766418433163338) · 3 likes I'm going to start saying "based" as a response to things I agree with. I'm not sure what it means but I think it's positive. ### [Thread, continued, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817766419544612901) · 2 likes Hypothesis: there's a big difference in how much people actually care about privacy vs how much they say they care about privacy ### [Tweet, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817766421952078279) · 1 like Idea: a "Schelling point" for how much to tip on a given transaction is the amount that would make the total a round number Like if the bill is $17.34, the Schelling tip is $2.66 ### [Thread, continued, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817766423378485753) · 2 likes Honestly I think the most important thing I learned in college is that the standard for "knowing how to do something" is way lower than I thought \[Human Aaron note: idk about college but I think I endorse in general\] ### [Thread, continued, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817766424925888895) · 2 likes Tbh I think I'm gonna start using AI to write my tweets \[Human Aaron note: lol - good one to end on\] ### [Quote tweet, 10:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817866270001229862) · 13 likes We need more toddler GoPro footage > **Quoting Matt Bateman (@mbateman):** 25 min of following 1yo, sped up 10x to 2.5 min > > Nearly zero interference or even interaction as he severally pursued his little side quests > > I love this age > > [video attached](https://x.com/mbateman/status/1817766298736337137/video/1) ### [Reply to @birchlse, 14:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1817930832717258942) · 4 likes > **Jonathan Birch (@birchlse):** 🦀🐝🧠🤖 How should we make decisions when faced with systems of uncertain sentience? My new book The Edge of Sentience: Risk and Precaution in Humans, Other Animals, and AI is available online for free at https://academic.oup.com/book/57949. Please download it! Just click on PDF to get a PDF of the whole book. Individual chapters are also available as PDFs - just click on whichever chapters you want. The book is completely free to everyone and I'm grateful for all shares and forwards. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTo06TZXkAAmAJV.jpg) Have you considered making this an audiobook? (Could be totally unofficial, just put the audio file somewhere) ## Tuesday, July 30, 2024 ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 00:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818087769492578318) · 1 like > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** @AaronBergman18 What does salience of social world mean? Like how much things like reputation, status, social dynamics, other people’s feelings, and other people in general take up your attention and other mental resources ### [Reply to @KelseyTuoc, 02:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818109733053530119) · 2 likes > **Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** I also get really irritated by "you should send your kids to bad public schools because people like you doing that is what makes them into good public schools". I'm willing to make a lot of sacrifices for my community. Wronging my kids isn't one of them. Stay strong Kelsey ✊ [![Why Are You Booing Me Im Right GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/GTs5KiEXkAEeXFZ.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818109733053530119/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Tweet, 02:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818111952402497766) · 311 likes If school choice was the status quo and someone wrote a think piece that was like “actually your zip code should determine where u get to go to school unless you are very wealthy” it would (rightly) be seen as insane ### [Quote tweet, 11:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818248510195585420) · 2 likes Good thread and many such cases > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Tweet, 12:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818269638712861104) · 3 likes Wxird ### [Reply, 13:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818275812082401454) · 1 like 🦐 ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 13:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818280580670435467) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** What has the EA movement changed its mind on in the last two years? > > I'd appreciate answers. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/fDpNz83DBoBHwFAPM/in-the-last-2-years-what-surprising-ideas-has-ea-championed > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTvTmXxXsAAJild.jpg) Ask it prospectively (maybe I will but feel free to) In two years, what will the movement have changed its mind about? ### [Tweet, 18:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818347129775308888) · 11 likes I like this feature but someone should make an app that lets you set on a continuous how much you care about directness vs smelling the flowers ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTwRE9XXQAECtic.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818390965633024302) · 34 likes I could be convinced in specific cases with a compelling enough story, but I am awfully skeptical of policies (by whomever - not just gov’t) whose theory of change is some version of “directly make things worse for some people because of hypothesized nth order positive effects” > **Quoting Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** I also get really irritated by "you should send your kids to bad public schools because people like you doing that is what makes them into good public schools". I'm willing to make a lot of sacrifices for my community. Wronging my kids isn't one of them. ### [Thread, continued, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818390968061817182) · 7 likes I’m most sympathetic to the story when the people being harmed have the direct and unambiguous ability to change the thing: skin in the game ### [Thread, continued, 21:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818391959863799944) · 8 likes This isn’t deontological—it’s coming from a place of “predicting the downstream effects of anything is extremely hard, and the summation of all such effects is zero until proven otherwise” ### [Tweet, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818410316931252600) · 8 likes I’m guessing Anthropic and OpenAI don’t want you to know this bc you’re paying a flat $20 and their inference costs would go up, but the models work better with images of pdf pages than actual pdfs (or any formatted/styled text) ### [Reply, 22:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818416651831820373) Im sure there is something online. I have a python script that does this which might be small enough to fit in a tweet… ### [Thread, continued, 22:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818417015909974405) · 1 like nah a bit too long ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTxQkrsXgAEkkR4.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818418256715432044) · 5 likes GitHub is out, sharing code via screenshot on twitter is in > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @justjoshinyou13 nah a bit too long > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTxQkrsXgAEkkR4.jpg) ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 23:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818422120374059239) · 19 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** My 4 yo son, walking into my office, "Are you still working?" > > "Yeah, bud." > > "How many more buttons do you have to press?" Well? ## Wednesday, July 31, 2024 ### [Reply, 01:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818457633239466447) · 1 like The people demand to see the consensus worst notes just for fun ### [Reply to @coeff_giving, 02:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818468914688372894) · 3 likes > **Coefficient Giving (@coeff_giving):** Through corporate campaigning, the Open Wing Alliance has achieved some of the most significant cage-free welfare wins of the century. We’re proud to support their groundbreaking work. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/research/how-the-open-wing-alliance-has-helped-free-hundreds-of-millions-of-chickens-from-cages/ Nice 🐥 ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 02:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818472120654930351) · 4 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** Tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime (men) There’s only one gender that could cause me to commit a felony and it’s sure not that one ### [Reply to @ines__circle, 13:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818645753813745950) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ines__circle is no longer available.)_ Big if true ### [Reply to @Lewis_Bollard, 19:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818728727615869212) · 6 likes > **Lewis Bollard (@Lewis_Bollard):** For decades, animal advocates lobbied to stop the worst abuses of farm animals -- with limited results. > > Then they changed strategy and achieved wins that have already benefited hundreds of millions of animals, and are set to benefit billions more. > > Here's the story... 🧵 > > (quoting @coeff_giving: Through corporate campaigning, the Open Wing Alliance has achieved some of the most significant cage-free welfare wins of the century. We’re proud to support their groundbreaking work.…) Based ### [Reply to @amtcastle, 23:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818789725567627606) · 4 likes > **Andrew Mountcastle 🦞 (@amtcastle):** Meanwhile, in Maine news > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTyGuGpXAAAQoVK.jpg) Poast frog ### [Quote tweet, 23:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818793818394968076) · 12 likes Here’s the article https://www.bangordailynews.com/2024/07/30/outdoors/wildlife/maine-teen-blue-frog-n6hjn1me0n/ > **Quoting Andrew Mountcastle 🦞 (@amtcastle):** Meanwhile, in Maine news > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTyGuGpXAAAQoVK.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 23:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818794047206531319) · 7 likes This is the frog in question ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GT2njACXEAEipvu.jpg) ### [Reply to @amtcastle, 23:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818794165029028352) · 11 likes > **Andrew Mountcastle 🦞 (@amtcastle):** Meanwhile, in Maine news > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTyGuGpXAAAQoVK.jpg) Article and frog https://www.bangordailynews.com/2024/07/30/outdoors/wildlife/maine-teen-blue-frog-n6hjn1me0n/ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GT2np0hXIAELVbq.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818794566784630812) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 31, 2024:** This is the frog in question Based ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GT2oBNVX0AArHrl.jpg) ### [Reply to @00aarti, 23:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818796494574522782) · 3 likes > **Aarti (@00aarti):** My old landlord just informed the washing machine soap tray was not clean enough to his standards….goodbye security deposit 💸 Sue --- End of July 2024. Previous month: [June 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-06). Next month: [August 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-08). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, August 2024 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in August 2024 and has not deleted: 322 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [July 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-07). Next month: [September 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-09). ## Thursday, August 1, 2024 ### [Reply to @Rainmaker1973, 01:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818825899090780197) · 2 likes > **Massimo (@Rainmaker1973):** Never eat undercooked bear meat > > \[🎞️ Zack D. Films\] > > [video attached](https://x.com/i/status/1818708209168740818/video/1) Ok I won’t do that ### [Reply to @BLUNDERBUSSTED, 02:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818830814932603322) · 2 likes > **𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐓 (@BLUNDERBUSSTED):** @univrsw3th4rt hey Thanks for saving my puppy from a burning building the other day ### [Thread, continued, 02:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1818830876953706541) · 2 likes Also that 675 deadlift was impressive ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819082987377692930) · 1 like > **taoki (@justalexoki):** why are men so much faster, stronger, cuter, bigger, smarter than women? it seems unfair Wrong about at least one of these ### [Reply, 19:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819097023729054047) Feel this weirdly much, good for you for reaching out ### [Tweet, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819099352880554180) · 22 likes It’s too hot ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 21:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819116393704706425) · 4 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** @AaronBergman18 which one Cuter ### [Reply to @drethelin, 21:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819122662150385744) · 2 likes > **Misha (@drethelin):** Occasional reminder that Dishwashers use physics, specifically water sprayers, and do not magically clean every object you can cram into their volume Sad ### [Quote tweet, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819160929646317942) · 6 likes I see a lot of people dunking on this but not explaining the key issue. Here is my understanding: I think the idea behind this policy is that corporations might hold real estate and not rent it out, effectively reducing supply … > **Quoting Our Revolution (@OurRevolution):** raise your paw if you agree > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GT65mZ0WMAAQRxO.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819160931798294604) · 6 likes This is basically not true because if there’s one thing corporations are good at, it’s not leaving money on the table We should not expect higher vacancy rates, although in principle you can imagine crazy high transactions costs that would make this concern legit ### [Thread, continued, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819160935132811540) · 3 likes On the other hand, corporations are often better placed to do the “work” of being a landlord (eg renovating, taking on risk, maintenance) which yes only justifies like 10% (or something) of rental income but needs to get done my somebody, lest you get ### [Thread, continued, 23:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819160937166725388) · 3 likes lower effective supply (eg because of houses that people want to rent but no one wants to buy and either live in or rent out and maintain) ### [Reply to @BLUNDERBUSSTED, 23:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819161026128236818) · 4 likes > **𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐓 (@BLUNDERBUSSTED):** i must know her touch i want her to put a saddle on me and spur me forward squeezing my torso between her thighs i must climb her legs like tree trunks i must build a nest there and covet her eggs i must grab those thighs over and over and over again i must know this athena > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GT7rvN1XMAAmVpC.png) Ok ## Friday, August 2, 2024 ### [Reply to @tenobrus, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819161758713483306) · 1 like > **Tenobrus (@tenobrus):** we don't always use it, but every man has the god-given talent of getting ready from zero in under 15 minutes regardless of circumstances Beach recently staying in a hotel room with my older sister, she was amazed at my ability to go from asleep to out the door in 11 mins flat ### [Reply to @goblinodds, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819161816636989500) · 3 likes > **𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** wait why would it have to take anyone longer than this > put on clothes, brush teeth, pee, what am i missing > run a brush through hair ??? Based ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 00:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819175970005291179) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ I was gonna ask lmao ### [Quote tweet, 01:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819180100551647406) · 6 likes The first 6 pages of this book, "Summary of the Framework and Proposals," look like a really good collection of very basic "don't be a terrible species" rules for humanity (concerning humans, AIs, animals, and beings in general) > **Quoting Jonathan Birch (@birchlse):** 🦀🐝🧠🤖 How should we make decisions when faced with systems of uncertain sentience? My new book The Edge of Sentience: Risk and Precaution in Humans, Other Animals, and AI is available online for free at https://academic.oup.com/book/57949. Please download it! Just click on PDF to get a PDF of the whole book. Individual chapters are also available as PDFs - just click on whichever chapters you want. The book is completely free to everyone and I'm grateful for all shares and forwards. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTo06TZXkAAmAJV.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819180103038910807) · 2 likes It would be really good to see this operationalized somehow, even if that looks like voluntary commitment at first. I'm also sure more could be added, and wording quibbled with. Hopefully people smarter than me can have a discourse about that ### [Thread, continued, 01:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819180104628457635) · 2 likes Here are abbreviated versions of the 26 rules, courtesy of Claude (who I hope had no time or a good time writing them out) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GT8GUsyWMAAy7qL.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819180106754978266) · 2 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GT8GXlLWgAAm8mv.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819180108676018406) · 2 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GT8GaacXoAAnpsp.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819180110957666563) · 3 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GT8Gd1zXsAAocZe.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819180409726316700) · 3 likes And here are the first 6 pages in full https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/eos-intro.pdf ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 01:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819185050585325751) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @arithmoquine is no longer available.)_ I hope they make safe heroin with the behavioral effects of Jhanas (ie minimal hedonic downregulation or temptation to wirehead) bc I’d really like to try ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 01:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819185331003871718) · 3 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** @AaronBergman18 henrycorp is on it 🫡 ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 01:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819186449574506749) · 3 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** in full seriousness, I believe (and have believed for a while with varying degrees of clarity) this is the \*most important thing\* I could work on with my life It’s plausible, idk what @QualiaRI is up to atm. Many of those who get valence pilled get specifically anti-suffering pilled even more (there’s ofc substantial overlap here) See https://longtermrisk.org for the other side of the valence coin ### [Quote tweet, 15:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819399961651696076) · 9 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GT_On41XUAIfL09.jpg) > **Quoting Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin):** Driving the New World Screwworm to extinction using 'gene drives' could do more to improve animal welfare than eliminating factory farming globally. > > Hard to believe but so argues MIT biologist and inventor of the gene drive, @KEsvelt: > > [video attached](https://x.com/robertwiblin/status/1819386306742423745/video/1) ### [Reply to @MatthewBJane, 16:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819405977386467819) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @MatthewBJane is no longer available.)_ Rstudio still 🐐 imo ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 16:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819412696481022155) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** > > [GIF attached](https://x.com/NoahTopper/status/1819411169939279901/photo/1) Yes ### [Reply to @beala, 17:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819421017552384446) · 3 likes > **Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** I've seen enough > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GT_VTMYbYAABIbQ.png) RIP ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 18:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819434364427460826) · 5 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Effective Altruism the philosophy is basically right - thinking about scale, a large moral circle and effectiveness of interventions. > > But EA as a community isn't always the best place for people to embody this. For some it's LessWrong, Progress Studies, EconTwitter. All true but I’d change the last sentence. If you’re not basically trying to do what EA purports to be doing, at best you’re going to be right by accident So most lower-case-ea outside of the EA community probably looks like idiosyncratic partial participation in capital-EA ### [Reply, 18:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819438727187353689) · 1 like I’d guess yes to better but no to “obviously better” ## Saturday, August 3, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 04:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819584986145517730) · 3 likes An absolutely incorrect take (the normie libs are right; orange man bad) but yes we stan the intellectual disagreeableness > **Quoting Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** People are dunking on this but they should take the policy arguments seriously. IMO, we need more contrarian political takes in EA that aren't just racism. > > Ftr, i strongly disagree with the conclusion (Trump is preferable to Kamala), but spare the dunks & talk substance please ### [Quote tweet, 06:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819620879115968742) · 30 likes I’m going to get minimal hate for this because it’s a moderate position that happens to be correct, but we don’t know whether LLMs are conscious, and it certainly isn’t obvious on either side > **Quoting loveofdoing (@loveofdoing):** i’m gonna get so much hate for this, but llms are obviously not conscious > > got a lottttt of thoughts here; hopefully a midwit thread ### [Thread, continued, 06:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819620880990752960) · 5 likes To ~quote a tweet I remember reading but don’t feel like digging up, “cracked geniuses have been tearing each other up over this question \[the necessary and sufficient conditions for phenomenal consciousness\] for 2000 years” ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 07:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819633092404908164) · 2 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** AISM = @AISafetyMemes > > (quoting @ilex_ulmus: @idavidrein @RichardMCNgo What has AISM said that is so dumb? I feel so gaslit when people say this. I'm all ready to agree but then I see the thing and it's just... fine? Imo they are better than the average journalist and clearly deeply understand what they are talking about.) I agree with this FWIW (although I guess I’d replace “gaslit” with “confused”) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 07:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819640269370769731) · 4 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @arthur_wright\_ @AaronBergman18 Personally I think you’ve said way dumber shit Aaron ❤️ Me too ❤️ ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 13:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819720052028940479) · 8 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 3, 2024:** To ~quote a tweet I remember reading but don’t feel like digging up, “cracked geniuses have been tearing each other up over this question \[the necessary and… Update: I am getting a medium amount of hate ## Sunday, August 4, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 01:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1819912469885673970) · 3 likes Forget about the content, they should teach this as a good model for how to write when you’re trying to just directly communicate ideas (as opposed to signaling or entertainment) Analytic philosophy go brr > **Quoting Jonathan Birch (@birchlse):** 🦀🐝🧠🤖 How should we make decisions when faced with systems of uncertain sentience? My new book The Edge of Sentience: Risk and Precaution in Humans, Other Animals, and AI is available online for free at https://academic.oup.com/book/57949. Please download it! Just click on PDF to get a PDF of the whole book. Individual chapters are also available as PDFs - just click on whichever chapters you want. The book is completely free to everyone and I'm grateful for all shares and forwards. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTo06TZXkAAmAJV.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 12:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820074721381085658) · 4 likes No I like a really fucked up spreadsheet “He just like me fr but I can fix him” > **Quoting Kat Spartz ⏸️ 🔶 (@KatSpartz):** You all know about sapiosexuality (being attracted to intelligence), but did you know about consciosexuals? > > It's people who are attracted to conscientiousness. > > Do you ever salivate at a really well done spreadsheet? > > Or purr with desire when you see a well organized cupboard? > > Do you ever want to pounce on your partner when they carry a backup something in their bag and it gets you out of a jam? > > If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might be a consciosexual. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GUHc73nbAAAsZmb.png) ### [Reply to @jt_kerwin, 13:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820094814160851379) · 7 likes > **Jason Kerwin (@jt_kerwin):** I’d like to see at least one (1) qualitative paper that successfully does causal inference with a prespecified analysis plan before I take this seriously Pre-registration of qualitative analysis seems way harder. There are like a gazillion degrees of freedom instead of 19 ### [Tweet, 14:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820101927272689934) · 11 likes Didn’t really appreciate trinkets until recently Family house is filled with random trinkets I only have 4 trinkets, and 3 of them are fake plants from Target ### [Thread, continued, 14:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820102621216100730) · 5 likes A weirdly large number of them are ducks, suggesting a genetic predisposition to think ducks are kinda whimsical and fun ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GUJNr5jWAAAaFsY.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GUJNr5kXgAAioX0.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GUJNr5kW4AAt26J.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GUJNr5hWEAAlExC.jpg) ## Monday, August 5, 2024 ### [Tweet, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820513521966489736) · 130 likes She’s a 10 but she doesn’t think sentience is of fundamental ethical importance ### [Reply, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820520980219150692) · 8 likes > **vals🔸 (@ValsTutor):** Probably an 11. You don't easily get to know those words without having an interesting reason, and she's probably right. A universe featuring intelligent agents without sentience would still have great use for ethics and be talking about it etc, so sentience is not fundamental. I respect the boldness but nah I think this is totally wrong and no sentience -> nihilism (although moral uncertainty means that I wouldn’t act like this was true) ### [Reply, 18:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820524350338183311) · 4 likes > **vals🔸 (@ValsTutor):** @AaronBergman18 You're assuming the particular ethical stance you have is absolutely true to argue sentience is a fundamental part of ethics, but you know others disagree and don't use sentience in their ethics. > Your statement is less interesting because it's true by (your) definition. I don’t think this is right. It’s not definitionally true that sentience is ethically important, at least given what I intend those words to mean ### [Tweet, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820525551616155817) · 8 likes I’m down like 2.5% idk not that bad ### [Reply, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820525615558303753) · 2 likes > **vals🔸 (@ValsTutor):** @AaronBergman18 Well I won't ask you to write a dissertation to justify a funny tweet so I'll agree we have an unresolved understanding of each other's position rn then. Tragic ### [Tweet, 19:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820548782607724993) · 6 likes Twitter search is genuinely terrible lol. I think I could do it better with R code. They’re clearly optimizing for saving $.07/user-year on compute instead of returning search results ### [Reply, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820551250426876143) · 2 likes > **Ra (@slimepriestess):** of course i know her, she's me > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: She’s a 10 but she doesn’t think sentience is of fundamental ethical importance) Inshallah u will see the light (2 books) 🙏 1\) https://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Value-Grounded-Phenomenal-Consciousness/dp/1534768017?dplnkId=38d5a5f5-7010-48a3-ae66-bc275e1561c6&nodl=1#immersive-view_1722888184718 ### [Thread, continued, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820551301626843522) · 2 likes 2\) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820551708763664873) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 5, 2024:** Twitter search is genuinely terrible lol. I think I could do it better with R code. They’re clearly optimizing for saving $.07/user-year on compute instead of… Just occurred to me this could be intentional to prevent its use as an API workaround, since the API now costs the Saudi royal family’s wealth per millisecond ### [Reply, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820565260002349104) · 2 likes > **Ra (@slimepriestess):** how i learned to stop worrying and love the blindminds > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GUPwn1YbkAAyv0m.jpg) I wish we could bet on ethical theories bc I’d want to ### [Reply, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820566887597854729) · 3 likes > **Ra (@slimepriestess):** @AaronBergman18 to manifold? The only good resolution criteria I can think of is “one of us changes our mind” which by default won’t resolve ### [Reply, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820574028274229670) · 2 likes > **Erin Braid (@erinbraid):** @AaronBergman18 Well, tbf his position is more like "statements about sentience are meaningless because we can't define it well." Mine is "there's no rule that the morally important things will be things we already have a good understanding of!" I have a book (really just the first 2 chapters) for him Btw this book is a banger ### [Quote tweet, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820578677161365736) · 8 likes Moral uncertainty sounds kinda esoteric but it seems incredibly important in the context of AI… > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I’m going to get minimal hate for this because it’s a moderate position that happens to be correct, but we don’t know whether LLMs are conscious, and it certainly isn’t obvious on either side ### [Thread, continued, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820578679916740825) · 7 likes I think suffering-leaning hedonic utilitarianism is true, but more important than arguing this object level is arguing that this theory (and others) should be given serious probabilistic weight in the unenviable project of not accidentally committing the worst atrocity in history ### [Tweet, 22:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820585892337369350) · 21 likes Pretty sure I’d be a NIMBY if not provided the basic case for it being bad. I wouldn’t have gotten there from first principles and leafy single family suburbs are pretty nice, aesthetically ### [Thread, continued, 22:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820586303261495399) · 12 likes Extremely online NIMBYs are probably a lost cause but I feel like a Netflix documentary could make >0% of naive well intentioned boomers reconsider ### [Reply, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820587147176366500) · 2 likes > **Hineini 🔎 (@danseaumilieu):** @AaronBergman18 I see, so then I’d be curious what account you’d give about how you came to have this knowledge that causing suffering is objectively bad. Like, how did you come into contact with this fact? Oh man I feel like I’ve had this discussion 100 times lol. Tbc I don’t think this is infallible, but I do think me being wrong would imply that I (and probably everyone) is radically mistaken about their own subjective experience (which seems possible but unlikely) ### [Thread, continued, 22:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820587564086030635) · 4 likes I also think the word “objectively” throws people off. It’s not written into the stars somehow in a spooky ethereal way. It’s just that conscious beings which are the units in which value exists are just a constituent part of the universe/world ### [Quote tweet, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820599501553615266) · 15 likes In a very neutral honestly-not-dunking way I find it wild how smart professional middle aged professional people simply refuse to google/chatgpt/youtube “how to do X” when it comes to anything involving computers Neuroplasticity/lack thereof must be a hell of a drug > **Quoting derek guy (@dieworkwear):** technology is too confusing. anything that came out after 2008 is simply not my business ### [Quote tweet, 23:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820607348194299992) · 3 likes Might help some of you get on the correct opinions train (moral value realism) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @danseaumilieu I also think the word “objectively” throws people off. It’s not written into the stars somehow in a spooky ethereal way. It’s just that conscious beings which are the units in which value exists are just a constituent part of the universe/world ## Tuesday, August 6, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 00:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820624409834426725) · 10 likes Can someone tell me how legit the receipt thing is > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 00:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820625417952190820) · 3 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** What a wild story > > (quoting @Domahhhh: The Venezuelan Election, and Prediction Markets as Truth (very long post -- SICKOS ONLY) Starting with a little history -- the first big prediction market controversy (and it even made the news) was about a North Korean missile launch in 2006. North Korea launched a missile,…) Competence porn by the opposition volunteers ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 01:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820625946342310312) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Cos they wanted Altman gone and everyone else leaving OpenAI makes it more likely that either OpenAI will collapse or Altman will go. I was thinking you meant because high profile people leaving seems like evidence of them effectively pursuing the nonprofit charter - empowering Anthropic relative to OpenAI seems good under OpenAI’s own charter even if Sama stays and OpenAI persists ### [Reply to @flybottlemist, 01:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820626406939758595) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @flybottlemist is no longer available.)_ 😢 ### [Reply to @hamandcheese, 05:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820686461252886531) · 4 likes > **Samuel Hammond 🦉 (@hamandcheese):** I can still remember being terrified about going to jail over one wrong limewire download > > (quoting @AndrewCurran_: According to this report from 404 Media NVIDIA are currently training a video frontier model named 'Cosmos' (multiple projects with the same name) that 'encapsulates simulation of light transport, physics, and intelligence in one place to unlock various downstream applications'.) NVIDIA making the machine god 🤝 me Using yt-dlp ### [Quote tweet, 05:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820687037030142177) · 3 likes Aside from all the important stuff, if YouTube vs python libraries becomes a serious cat and mouse gam with big companies on both sides, the technical fixes and workarounds are gonna nerd snipe me dead > **Quoting Andrew Curran (@AndrewCurran_):** According to this report from 404 Media NVIDIA are currently training a video frontier model named 'Cosmos' (multiple projects with the same name) that 'encapsulates simulation of light transport, physics, and intelligence in one place to unlock various downstream applications'. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GUPan5GXcAAsln5.jpg) ## Wednesday, August 7, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 01:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820990638357442678) · 2 likes Musk cofounded http://X.com in 1999?? > **Quoting pıʌɐpↂ (@sinusoidal):** @DeepDishEnjoyer I think anyone who votes for Trump just isn't aware of this. You really don't even have to look at anything Elon Musk has done in basically his adult life to really get to the conclusion he is a better businessman. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GUUaBTtXAAAug7X.png) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820991878499897612) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** Are you not familiar with the lore? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GUV2V95WwAAm6_u.jpg) I’m familiar with PayPal, not OG X ### [Reply to @jessesingal, 01:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1820993096982704559) · 3 likes > **Jesse Singal (@jessesingal):** This is too subtle for me I don't get it > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GUUlF-wXEAAPGhM.png) I feel bad for AEI here. Guilt by association ### [Reply to @polisisti, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821007392789705028) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @JgaltTweets @AaronBergman18 Every time I'm reminded of the Canadian angle here, it throws me for a loop > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GUV_mRLXUAA6Qx4.jpg) Canada mentioned 🇨🇦🏒🌲🦫🍁🛶🏔️🍁🇨🇦🦫🏒🛶🏔️🌲🍁🦫🇨🇦🏔️🏒🛶🌲🍁🇨🇦🏒🦫🛶🏔️🌲🍁🇨🇦🦫🏒🛶🏔️🌲🍁🇨🇦🏒🦫🛶🏔️🌲🍁🇨🇦🦫🏒🛶🏔️🌲🍁🇨🇦🏒🦫🛶🏔️🌲🍁🇨🇦🦫🏒🛶🏔️🌲🍁🇨🇦🏒🦫🛶🏔️🌲🍁🇨🇦🦫🏒🛶🏔️🌲🍁🇨🇦🏒🦫🛶🏔️🌲🍁🇨🇦🦫🏒🛶🏔️🌲🍁🇨🇦🏒🦫🛶🏔️🌲🍁🇨🇦🦫🏒🛶🏔️🌲🍁🇨🇦🏒🦫🛶🏔️🌲🍁🇨🇦🦫🏒🛶🏔️🌲🍁🇨🇦🏒🦫🛶🏔️🌲🍁🇨🇦 ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821011227033616651) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** "We don't know how LLMs work" > > While talking to @robinhanson he pointed out that we don't know how many things work - many drugs, materials and social technologies are somewhat mysterious or were at the time of their early use. > > Seems like a good point. Yeah but either (1) they’re Lindy or (2) it would be bad if they too were gonna become load bearing parts of every part of life and the economy ### [Quote tweet, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821019348066087222) · 2 likes If u have notes on me I would love to see them > **Quoting 𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** fuck it i am taking notes on people > > maybe in like a year we can play a fun little game where i will show ppl some of my notes on them if they ask ### [Thread, continued, 03:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821019432124022974) · 2 likes ### [Reply to @waitbutwhy, 04:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821040558472671487) · 8 likes > **Tim Urban (@waitbutwhy):** Talking to my friends, who are widely spread out on the political spectrum, I see four general camps re: the election. I wish I could have six poll options to include "not American" and "American but not voting" but there are only four, so answer what approximates you best: > > 1\) Pumped about Trump (also voted Trump in 2020) > > 2\) Can't believe I'm voting for Trump > > 3\) I get the reasoning of Group 2 and sad Kamala is the option, but sorry, not voting for Trump > > 4\) What the hell is wrong with these people, I'm obviously voting for Kamala! Wtf are these results ### [Reply to @GarettJones, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821042983187218550) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @GarettJones is no longer available.)_ FWIW I’d call myself a s longtermist and strongly disagree with this take ### [Reply to @ahmedallibhoy, 08:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821103581874753945) · 5 likes > **Ahmed (@ahmedallibhoy):** Interestingly, this not a flawed proof that only yields the correct result by coincidence. It turns out the method can be rigorously justified and generalized to other ODEs. > > I'll discuss how and also some interesting applications of this approach in systems and control theory. > > (quoting @angeris: today's fun math fact) !! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GUXcDeAWIAAY-Yn.jpg) ### [Tweet, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821245696286023773) · 25 likes Recently asked for my most important beliefs, so (maybe sorta kinda in order but not 100%?) here they are: 1\) what total utilitarianism implies and doesn’t imply, especially wrt to asymmetry of suffering https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/my-case-for-suffering-leaning-ethics ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GUZdTv2X0AAeset.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821245698441912587) · 8 likes 2\) massive funding misallocation in EA, mostly by OpenPhil (both animal welfare and AI safety underfunded; global dev overfunded) 3\) lack of ambitious earning to give among EAs post-FTX ### [Thread, continued, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821245700136694264) · 7 likes 4\) AI sentience is a moral shitshow ### [Thread, continued, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821245702565195910) · 7 likes 5\) (tentative) Eliminating the New World screwworm is a top priority (overall, not merely within animal welfare) 6\) (very tentative) @leopoldasch is basically right about the need for liberal democracies to have a dominant AI lead ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821255627785547945) · 2 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** Bryan is obviously right here, and the community note obviously wrong. Makes me sad about the community notes algorithm. > > Vaccination rate for tetanus is <80%, and it's non-contagious, so yes, 2 deaths implies even if no one was vaccinated, we would see at most 10 deaths. > > (quoting @bryan_caplan: My doctor talked to me like a child when I refused a tetanus booster. This disease kills about 2 Americans per YEAR! https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/surv-manual/chpt16-tetanus.html) Community note no longer there, at least for me ### [Tweet, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821262179133427731) · 3 likes Let it be known that if you prepare a script to read and a phone number to call in support of something I think is important, I will probably groan but then actually do it ### [Thread, continued, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821262182631240169) · 2 likes Tbc I don’t live in CA so I’m not gonna do the above lol, but this one did work on me https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/qgbLr6es2jCwwcGuH/best-use-of-2-minutes-this-month-u-s ### [Tweet, 20:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821277425504047251) · 444 likes Madly in love autistic couple who become totally neurotypical in each other’s presence because of the oxytocin ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821279201598828638) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @frances\_\_lorenz @AaronBergman18 (positive) Lol ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821279327880933592) · 19 likes > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** @AaronBergman18 Did you find a girlfriend? 😍 Not yet lol ## Thursday, August 8, 2024 ### [Reply to @livgorton, 00:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821341609016930550) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** he can fix me fr? 👀🥺 🥺 ### [Reply to @tenobrus, 00:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821342232219095548) · 2 likes > **Tenobrus (@tenobrus):** i'm always vaguely suspicious of depression because while ofc it's a very real thing i've personally experienced, on the other hand the cure for my four years of clinical depression was legit getting a new job, moving, and breaking up. like are u sure ur life isnt just \*wrong\*? I’m the opposite case - I’m virtually certain that the ~cure for me was totally biochemical ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821401740979151254) · 4 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** What are people doing to run their own spaces these days? > > Facebook groups don't seem great, there are some really good ones but lots of people I care about don't use Facebook. > > Slack is for work > > I hate discord WhatsApp ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 13:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821541815402573973) · 2 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** do you just miss aaron swartz Yes ### [Reply to @uhbif19, 14:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821554264847573407) · 10 likes > **There is no other room (теперь в 🇮🇱 ) (@uhbif19):** @AaronBergman18 Is this some known phenomenon? It’s a hypothesis that oxytocin is related to autism yeah, and in the direction such that more = fewer symptoms Idk more about the mechanisms ### [Reply, 16:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821589309264470142) · 2 likes 🙏 ### [Tweet, 16:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821589578836594914) · 3 likes Nooooooooo @awscloud plz give me more free audio nooooooo ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GUeWEUzXcAAEfXU.jpg) ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 16:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821589932995195306) · 26 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ The answer given is probably “no” The correct answer is “basically yeah if they have state of the art ML systems and hook u up to the right cables” ### [Reply to @prerat, 16:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821590049437446609) · 1 like > **prerat (@prerat):** is raising your voice ok? > is interrupting ok? Want the “Jewish” cross-section ### [Tweet, 17:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821597007435223403) · 18 likes Banks really be charging you an overdraft fee and then 4 seconds later tell you you’ve been approved for their Ultra-Platinum Elite Signature Plus Deluxe Credit Card ### [Reply to @birchlse, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821624846024917456) · 7 likes > **Jonathan Birch (@birchlse):** As an open access book, The Edge of Sentience can be distributed for free in any format - and I'm very grateful to @AaronBergman18 for making a completely free audiobook version using text-to-speech software: https://open.spotify.com/show/7x1NPYRn55K3nZz855tB29 Also Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-edge-of-sentience-by-jonathan-birch/id1761877270 RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/f9b6b454/podcast/rss ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 20:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821651826548027767) · 2 likes > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** @AaronBergman18 @birchlse Dude Aaron this is so awesome, lack of audio version is the only reason I didn't read it already Lol same ## Friday, August 9, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 15:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821933913352118576) · 25 likes Bro it’s a tree stump violence is OK > **Quoting Massimo (@Rainmaker1973):** A non violent way to get rid of a tree stump. > https://x.com/i/status/1821618009149944201/video/1 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 16:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821943952666243206) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AndyMasley is no longer available.)_ Lol at me being the one yes vote (although it’s kinda 50/50 for me, depending on the nature of the disagreement and how well-intentioned I think the other person is) ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821944910485856630) · 3 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** Monitored alarms are a good start. I have imbued the wildlife with the watchful spirits of my ancestors. My forefathers stand guard because they are proud of me. Can you say the same, thief? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GUgMmDZXAAAoWt9.jpg) @SpacedOutMatt howie will show no mercy if an intruder enters ### [Reply to @RokoMijic, 16:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821949271370805315) · 2 likes > **Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** Neon-Christian universalism is a universal axiological solvent that can and perhaps will destroy everything we care about Idk about you but I care about the wellbeing of sentient beings and not much else ### [Reply to @goblinodds, 17:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821958974209433618) · 5 likes > **𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** accidentally used top coat as a base coat pray 4 me > > (real ones won't know if im talking abt nail polish or minipainting) Until the second line I assumed you were talking about clothing items ### [Reply to @RichardMCNgo, 17:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821961968808554713) · 2 likes > **Richard Ngo (@RichardMCNgo):** I’ve never seen any good argument about where a bayesian’s priors should come from, in principle. > > Here’s one kinda wacky idea: you should pick them for cooperative/competitive reasons. > > I.e. choose priors which make you predictable to allies and/or unpredictable to enemies. I will defend this ### [Quote tweet, 17:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821962649527300405) · 4 likes Old take but it seems pretty obviously right to me and I’m confused why people keep debating this > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Relatedly: the one defensible true Bayesian prior? The one you actually think. Yes, you have an implicit best guess probability > > However it got into your brain, that’s where you’re starting from ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1821978503958413484) · 1 like > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 And yet when I drilled a hole in people and set them on fire I'm "sociopathic" and "sentenced to eight years in prison with five years without parole" smdh Fuckin EAs ## Saturday, August 10, 2024 ### [Tweet, 16:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1822311499123028438) · 4 likes It’s a shame that I’m not a published endocrinology case study 😔 ### [Reply, 16:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1822312740016280004) · 1 like No😡 ### [Tweet, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1822366629898158117) · 20 likes I keep interacting with coldcels who insist that financial cost is the reason we can’t set a shared AC any lower Under pretty generous assumptions including carbon offsets, Claude estimates keeping 1k sq ft it 8° F cooler on a hot day would cost about $5.50/day ### [Thread, continued, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1822366631655338250) · 4 likes Tbc preferences are legitimate and maybe you don’t wanna spend this money, all legitimate. But FYI Assumptions: \- 95° high \- 1000 sq ft space \- running a small space heater on high 24/7 \- keeping AC set to 62 instead of 70 \- carbon offsets for all this ## Sunday, August 11, 2024 ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 01:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1822447428651372658) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Not entirely. There's a practical limit where the indoor coil will fall below a temp at which condensing water vapor will freeze. Also in ducted systems there may be temps at which vapor will condense on uninsulated ducts skill issue ### [Reply, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1822447657341645058) · 1 like fr though you're right mine freezes at around 60, but the current detente/demilitarized zone is 66 which I'm pretty sure actually means like 68 ### [Quote tweet, 03:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1822471137214754884) · 12 likes 1\) Twitter 2\) Twitter 3\) Twitter If you add in college, only one of those gets replaced lol > **Quoting oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** After college, state how you met three of your stronger platonic connections > > 1\. Twitter > 2 & 3. Effective altruism ### [Quote tweet, 03:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1822476280375263465) · 7 likes This is in large part why I think Twitter is unironically great The good parts do manifest irl, the bad ones don’t (IME) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** 1\) Twitter > 2\) Twitter > 3\) Twitter > > If you add in college, only one of those gets replaced lol ### [Quote tweet, 08:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1822548504926880146) · 12 likes Man the FDA is really bad > **Quoting Lucy Farnik (@lucyfarnik):** Yesterday, the FDA rejected MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD treatment. This came as a surprise to tons of people since the phase 3 trials showed \*really\* promising results. And a lot of people are pretty angry at the FDA right now. > > So why did the FDA reject it? A 🧵 ### [Tweet, 15:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1822649419910561951) · 5 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GUtZ_EcWEAATlJR.jpg) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 15:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1822660272718262380) · 3 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Americans will measure with anything but the metric system > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GUtikKhXMAABNIb.jpg) Gotta be alligator ## Monday, August 12, 2024 ### [Reply to @gptbrooke, 00:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1822799221231108450) · 2 likes > **brooke bowman (@gptbrooke):** “It’s better to be cute around smart people than smart around cute people” > > \-my friend on sf vs la 😢 ### [Tweet, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1822854876130365700) · 11 likes Looks like there's a YC startup trying to automate humane\* wild fish slaughter? \* Humane according to me, if in fact what they're doing is ikejime or something like it, and according to this article. The firm quite sensibly doesn't mention fish welfare https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/28/shinkei-systems-ai-guided-fish-harvesting-is-more-humane-and-less-wasteful/ ### [Thread, continued, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1822854877350944779) · 2 likes Wild fish slaughter is absolutely horrific ### [Tweet, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1822854879058010240) · 1 like Some links https://www.shinkei.systems/ https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/shinkei-systems ### [Thread, continued, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1822855181916160326) · 4 likes Let it be known that I would buy ikejime-killed wild fish Capitalism, do ur thing ### [Reply to @ruth_hook_, 07:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1822899683494084633) · 5 likes > **Ruth Hook (@ruth_hook_):** has there ever been a problem in science where the solution hasn't been "it's far more nuanced, complex, & context dependent than we thought" > > just once it would be nice for overwhelming complexity to suddenly simplify itself with additional understanding from a new discovery Natural and sexual selection explaining ~100% of life on earth is kinda insane Claude added heliocentrism, plate tectonics, and the fundamental attribution error ### [Tweet, 08:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1822911418951184699) · 4 likes If we have 0 mutuals and you’re somehow seeing this, comment bc I’ll almost certainly be curious enough to follow you ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1823071652915347729) · 8 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Thanks to @AaronBergman18 we now have free audiobook versions of our (@LuciusCaviola and me) book: > > https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/effective-altruism-and-the-human-mind-stefan/id1762342287 > > https://open.spotify.com/show/7kSJ4aCd2dCqMsAOi2Liaz > > https://anchor.fm/s/f9d34984/podcast/rss > > Thanks, Aaron! 🥰 > > (See the quote-tweet of a quote-tweet for a 13-tweet summary of the book) > > (quoting @StefanFSchubert: We just received the physical copies of our book, Effective Altruism and the Human Mind. If you buy it at http://global.oup.com/academic, use the code AUFLY30 to save 30%. The electronic version is available for free at: https://academic.oup.com/book/56384?login=false) You’re welcome, looking forward to listening myself! ### [Reply to @sgodofsk, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1823116273116447038) · 4 likes > **Steven Godofsky (@sgodofsk):** it's a real shame 16 year olds bagging groceries can't afford a 2 bedroom apartment > > (quoting @SenSanders: There is not a single state in America where you can afford a two-bedroom apartment while earning the minimum wage. Something is wrong with this picture. No more excuses. Tax billionaires, raise the minimum wage, build more affordable housing.) This but unironically - it’s not inevitable! ### [Reply to @PtakTestKitchen, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1823116516633518455) · 3 likes > **TV’S ALEX PTAK (@PtakTestKitchen):** Thank you, AccuWeather app > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GUznGcCXEAAP39j.jpg) I mean surely sometimes it is lol ### [Reply to @KelseyTuoc, 22:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1823120808333750482) · 7 likes > **Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** I sat there in my tiny illegal bedroom reading person after person insist that any building code that allowed it amounted to a declaration that the poor deserved to suffer and that we should bring back slums. It was a perfectly fine room. I still think it should be legal. Current br is 75 square feet and perfectly fine ## Tuesday, August 13, 2024 ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 03:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1823200328436814275) · 4 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** I don’t even know what starter pack I got for my birthday, but I think it’s a good one > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GU1OwtQW4AAXL5u.jpg) U shouldn’t sacrifice time reading 240 character takes for books like these though ### [Quote tweet, 04:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1823207950514610410) · 20 likes Kinda the opposite Idc that much about model tweaks, I just think it’s fuckin nuts that there’s a little guy in the computer now who talks back > **Quoting Harrison Kinsley (@Sentdex):** IDK when it happened, but my interest in ChatGPT is too low to measure. > > I see maybe there's a new variant of gpt4o that's out or has been out, but like... I couldn't care less. > > Honestly not trying to flame OAI (this time). It's just interesting how the spark is gone. ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 13:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1823348106198409545) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** @AaronBergman18 we had a tool for that it's called twitter Qualy ur alive ### [Quote tweet, 13:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1823351617623601591) · 37 likes Whoever the tickets are for bc that’s how tickets work > **Quoting arda★ (@CCHIHIR0):** you have 3 tickets, who are you seeing? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GUzATKCWgAAJ0r0.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 21:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1823473604731781512) · 21 likes I don’t get the animosity toward self-help, even allegedly ~basic~ or vacuous examples They increase the salience of a set of memes or ideas for a while, which is non-trivial to do even if you had access to them before in the abstract > **Quoting taoki (@justalexoki):** how many self help books does it take for you to realize you're just wasting your time ## Wednesday, August 14, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 01:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1823530189499814031) · 5 likes GLP-1 agonists cause Scott Alexander > **Quoting Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ (@GarrettPetersen):** Scott Alexander discusses why Ozempic cures everything. https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/why-does-ozempic-cure-all-diseases?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=89120&post_id=147025858&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=3l29m&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email ### [Quote tweet, 01:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1823532069990862905) · 7 likes Wait why don’t fast food burger places offer a baked potato? Do they? > **Quoting tautologer (@tautologer):** i like In-N-Out fries now > > they are closer to the original divine form, the potato ### [Reply to @codetaur, 01:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1823535355468865691) · 2 likes > **Codetaur (@codetaur):** @AaronBergman18 wendy has baked potatoes This is actually useful info thx ### [Quote tweet, 01:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1823535623493362148) · 3 likes Not me > **Quoting RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** Never meet your podcast heroes. You'll find out that they only talk at 1x. ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 02:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1823544540696895577) · 13 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** @robinhanson Same energy > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GU2NBzeXYAAJKhZ.jpg) Idk why everyone hates on this, it’s a valid argument ### [Reply to @HannahPosted, 02:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1823545300520140935) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @HannahPosted is no longer available.)_ There’s a gazillion studies saying that low FODMAP diets reduce IBS symptoms which is pretty close to a synonym for “tummy troubles” Apple sauce and bananas aren’t generally considered to be low fodmap (other fruits are though, especially strawberries) ### [Reply to @JarettSays, 17:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1823774121047527701) · 3 likes > **Jarett Wieselman (@JarettSays):** I would watch a feature length documentary about the two women who voice The Minions in Italian > > [video attached](https://x.com/JarettSays/status/1823740222418641280/video/1) The little laugh at the end 🥺 ## Thursday, August 15, 2024 ### [Tweet, 00:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1823885127497261515) · 83 likes Jury duty seems like the ~only way in which most people have a realistic chance of interacting with a genuinely random sample of society Kinda interested in having jury duty now out of curiosity (I hadn’t explicitly thought about this before) ### [Reply to @confusionm8trix, 01:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1823888961770512895) · 5 likes > **machine yearning engineer (@confusionm8trix):** community college felt pretty close, though there are a couple of obvious demographics you’re gonna miss out on Much better than my college experience to be sure, but still probably directionally the same, no? (Still could be that all things considered this is better than jury duty bc it allows for much more engagement. Actually I think this is the case) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1823890978022764827) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** This man hasn’t been to the state fair [![Dimples Romana Guilty GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/GU_DLPhWcAAejyB.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1823890978022764827/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @ArgonGruber, 03:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1823927514797834327) · 4 likes > **argon (@ArgonGruber):** @AaronBergman18 Do you think juries are random? Surely not. No but closer to it than like anything else ### [Tweet, 13:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1824077837218787424) · 7 likes If it’s going to be hot, it should NOT also be dark at 8:30 pm Unserious season ### [Reply to @VitalikButerin, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1824130971320586504) · 5 likes > **vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin):** Charity donation done, covering all animal coins from the past year or so! > > That said, I appreciate it if coin holdings just get allocated to the charities directly😊 > > It's 2024, we can start doing more sophisticated public goods fun-ding, eg. see https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2024/03/29/memecoins.html > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVBETcMW8AAL06l.png) Based, thank you! ### [Reply to @TylerAlterman, 18:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1824148179207746001) · 3 likes > **Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply (@TylerAlterman):** Has anyone else tried oxytocin nasal spray? > > (quoting @_space_punk_: Got oxytocin nasal spray after @nickcammarata mentioned it's existence. Several people asked me to report back. All I can say is wow) Yes, didn’t do anything for me ### [Reply to @jeffrsebo, 19:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1824167704514924687) · 5 likes > **Jeff Sebo (@jeffrsebo):** If true, this reflects badly on the Harris-Walz ticket. Clearly we should ban all meat, since banning only red meat would reduce cow and pig farming while increasing chicken and fish farming, which are worse for animal welfare and at least as bad, if not worse, for public health. > > (quoting @HowardMortman: "She wants to take away your gas stove. She even wants to take away your ability to eat red meat. That's how out there she is. That's real." -- JD Vance 8/3/2024) “If true” is a big qualifier in this context lol ### [Reply, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1824170274608324850) · 1 like Many such cases ### [Reply, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1824173934742229480) · 1 like 👀 ### [Reply to @krishnanrohit, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1824219322920865869) · 3 likes > **rohit (@krishnanrohit):** Sometimes I look at the moon and can't help but wonder how insane it is that we literally have a giant ball of rock just hanging out in the sky > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GU_JRDsa4AMQMbL.jpg) This is how I feel about airplanes ## Friday, August 16, 2024 ### [Reply, 07:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1824340559223304626) · 2 likes It’s a true proposition ### [Quote tweet, 14:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1824458117570048049) · 21 likes My first B was from refusing to lie about my trumpet practice time out of principle (it was not uncommon, shall we say) Kantian superhero ik ik > **Quoting bonky (@shesbonky):** my 10 year old son is about to start trombone lessons this year at school. > > his band teacher's intro email has me howling! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVDVoRaXAAA0esH.jpg) ### [Reply to @adam__isom, 15:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1824469705848951160) · 2 likes > **adam ✧ ❥ ~ (@adam__isom):** @AaronBergman18 Oh so you're part of the annoying perfect elite class huh? I didn't graduate lol. Didn't hurt me per se Yes ### [Reply to @generic_void, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1824476641671680071) · 2 likes > **SMA 🏴‍☠️ (@generic_void):** To whoever said we should expand human population 100x to have 100x more Einsteins, Mozarts, Feynmans, etc., did you consider that we’d have 100x more idiots too on the other side of the spectrum? So, uh, what’s the plan for that…? Unironically the answer is “nothing special, we don’t need a plan” and the point is that it’s asymmetric ## Saturday, August 17, 2024 ### [Tweet, 00:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1824601962777633233) · 17 likes Even if malaria didn’t exist, bed nets would be a pretty good charity idea bc mosquitos are annoying af ### [Tweet, 07:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1824707725122568320) · 11 likes Tf is a tensor ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 13:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1824803195995955327) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** Close, it's a library for dealing with tensors Nice ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 13:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1824804518199968050) · 3 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** I don't think I have phenomenal consciousness, it's ok I guess 😢 ### [Quote tweet, 15:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1824829288312426637) · 83 likes Ok it’s actually just this lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVMYjxDWIAAZMsb.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Tf is a tensor ### [Reply to @Outdoctrination, 16:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1824844467091931279) · 3 likes > **Dalton (Analyze & Optimize) (@Outdoctrination):** Vitamin C megadosing completely prevents wrinkles. > > \~500-3,000 mg daily (human equivalent) made aged skin identical to youth. > > Vitamin C: > > • Improves collagen formation > • Anti-inflammatory / antioxidant > • Recovers cell proliferation > • Improves skin barrier function > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVLuh2FWEAEGfRp.jpg) > (quoting @Outdoctrination: Vitamin C is critical for glowing skin. - Increases collagen synthesis - Increases skin lipid synthesis - Protects the skin from oxidative damage Orange juice, well cooked greens + potatoes are where I get my C.) [![I Dont Believe You Will Ferrell GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/GVMmXniW8AEarLu.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1824844467091931279/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Tweet, 16:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1824845843091869720) · 4 likes There’s a meme that says some version of “philosophers do not have answers; they provide clarifications and ask the right questions” Those things are valuable yeah but so are legit arguments and contentious claims ### [Thread, continued, 16:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1824845844748673141) · 1 like This feels like a @StefanFSchubert tweet ### [Tweet, 18:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1824872320952840261) · 29 likes Nearest supermarket or general store of any kind is a 45 minute walk along a highway with a shoulder of about 2ft No shade either Might become a transit guy ### [Thread, continued, 18:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1824873016972451952) · 5 likes Sufficiently scared of the cars passing like 3 feet from my shoulder than I’m turning around lol ## Sunday, August 18, 2024 ### [Tweet, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1824986742459347371) · 10 likes I’m so far behind on 80k pods 😰😰😰 ### [Quote tweet, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825026879817969874) · 7 likes Turns out math and physics ppl use the term “tensor” to mean different things. I think Must have been inspired by economists’ and philosophers’ decision to use the same word (utility) to mean related and similar but technically distinct things, causing endless confusion 👍 > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Ok it’s actually just this lol > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVMYjxDWIAAZMsb.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 15:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825189007665570181) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 6, 2024:** Load bearing Load bearing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVRfuQeXYAA0Pws.jpg) ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825201237794374013) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ If ur gonna light an animal on fire, much better that it already be dead ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825201461162054016) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 16:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825201880667984123) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVRrMsHWAAE7Gi3.jpg) This one is from the home sapiens line. We share a great great grandfather ### [Quote tweet, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825237151920910820) · 2 likes Yes brain hemisphere differences are super cool and important and weird > **Quoting Jonny Miller (@jonnym1ller):** Who else wants to start a 'let's make @dr_mcgilchrist famous' club? His work feels like a set of ideas whose time has come. ### [Reply to @franziskagonder, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825237658236256762) · 2 likes > **Franzi(ska) Gonder 🚢 (@franziskagonder):** 1\. Having children > 2\. living abroad > 3\. Yoga Nidra for 6 months at least > 4\. Listening to your nervous system state and surrender each time for 3+ months > 5\. Quit dieting culture and build muscle (yes, women especially) > 6\. Embracing commitment as the greatest form of liberation (no, not discipline) > 7\. Doing traditionally inefficient things as a family (dropping off kids together every day, groceries as a family outing, cooking as a family activity, slow mornings etc.) > 8\. Homeschooling/ alternative schooling > 9\. A relationship to spirituality/god > 10\. Building a passion project on weekends and giving it 1.5 years of unscalable effort and commitment aka people and relationships first (then turn into a business based on the currency of relationships) > > I'll stop here 🥰 Number 4 I would have called woo bullshit a couple years ago but now endorse ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825292538275909953) · 30 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** The blackest mark on EA is people working on EA problems for EA reasons saying they’re not EA because they use the term less Someone needs to start the Centre for Adjacency to Effective Altruism ### [Reply to @JeffRigsby2, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825292776768237693) · 1 like > **Jeff Rigsby (@JeffRigsby2):** Afghanistan has one of the world's highest rates of childhood lead exposure, which causes permanent brain damage. > > Nearly all children here have significant lead poisoning. > > Researchers in the US have found the source of the lead. But nobody has told the Afghan public. > > Thread. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVSdBB1aAAAbgV5.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVSdBTHaoAAsUPZ.jpg) Seems bad ### [Reply to @netcapgirl, 22:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825296573170897266) · 3 likes > **sophie (@netcapgirl):** nobody will remember: > \- your salary > \- how “busy you were” > \- how many hours you worked > > People will remember: > \- that one really embarrassing thing you did > \- literally everyone still remembers & talks about it > \- you’d think they forget but no lmao > \- can’t believe you did that lol I do think a nontrivial number of people remember this ## Monday, August 19, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 17:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825583837763735562) · 6 likes I’m a Disney shareholder, you better watch out > **Quoting ShitpostGateway (@ShitpostGate):** …. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVWZRjJXcAEGlde.jpg) ### [Reply to @jeffrsebo, 17:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825584128680501734) · 2 likes > **Jeff Sebo (@jeffrsebo):** Have any utilitarians or deontologists examined what we owe plants and fungi if they have moral standing? My impression is that most ethicists in these traditions assume that plants and fungi lack moral standing, and that this terrain is mostly uncharted. Would love to be wrong! @jeffrsebo defends the view that they’re not “sentience candidates” in his book ### [Reply to @bayeslord, 17:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825584755766616404) · 2 likes > **bayes (@bayeslord):** intelligence is not dangerous Bad take - have you heard about Homo sapiens ### [Quote tweet, 17:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825586330409042262) · 8 likes Reminder that these are good, they’re like Wikipedia but MORE > **Quoting Rob Henderson (@robkhenderson):** Just arrived: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVWQCb_WMAAWObx.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 17:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825592675392757933) · 48 likes I bet this feels so good for a plane > **Quoting Science girl (@sciencegirl):** Plane door close and final checks > https://x.com/visualfeastwang/status/1825132377124827140/video/1 ### [Reply to @_Jason_Dean_, 18:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825596862952509483) · 3 likes > **Jason Dean (@_Jason_Dean_):** This ad in DC is a perfect example of the problems with American healthcare > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVXKLy8XEAAprK7.jpg) Nah I think easy technological solutions are great (unironically tbc) ### [Reply to @edavidds, 18:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825600373312336103) · 3 likes > **Eric Schmidt 🇺🇦 (@edavidds):** @AaronBergman18 he gave it a boop right at the end That’s necessary or they’re going down ### [Quote tweet, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825604189256560973) · 10 likes Hot take this is probably close to optimal for the professional knowledge production function of society > **Quoting Connor Ewing (@ConnorMEwing):** Goodness gracious > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVWTJ_PXMAAtKko.jpg) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 18:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825605245151621375) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 Post-AGI we will all get paid $250,000 a year to post our inane thoughts about stuff Omg I sure hope so ### [Reply to @jeffrsebo, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825607254982406191) · 3 likes > **Jeff Sebo (@jeffrsebo):** i assume you mean @birchlse? i suggest that they \*are\* sentience candidates in my upcoming book, though if memory serves i set a lower bar for being a sentience candidate than jonathan does. Yes lol, this is evidence against me being a sentience candidate Also 👀 ### [Reply to @repligate, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825608699974660367) · 3 likes > **j⧉nus (@repligate):** I also have tips enabled. Any amount is appreciated. > > I could use $100,000/year on Anthropic API credits alone without increasing the scope of my activities. And there's at least dozens of people I want to pay to be free to do crucial, renegade work. So I mean ANY amount. > > (quoting @elder_plinius: frontier AI danger research should be a grassroots movement tips now enabled on my profile by popular demand 🙌) @AnthropicAI give him credits ### [Tweet, 21:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825653695578779763) · 10 likes New word just dropped (some of u might like) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVYGW62XoAAwNYy.jpg) ## Tuesday, August 20, 2024 ### [Reply to @panickssery, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825700614354977188) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @panickssery is no longer available.)_ Anyone mean QTing this should do something else instead. Perhaps pet a dog ### [Reply to @polisisti, 05:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825766460221788382) · 15 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** Excellent shrimp news! Tesco has agreed to stop buying shrimp who are killed without stunning or who have their eyes cut off > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVZjpZjWMAA9ZHm.jpg) Damn they’re actually on the ball ### [Quote tweet, 05:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825766656552956394) · 29 likes They actually kinda did it (no eyestalk ablation is a good start at least) 🦐 > **Quoting Tesco (@Tesco):** @DanAbbottSharks @tescomobile We are working on developing training in best practice fish and shrimp welfare for our supply base. 2/4 ### [Tweet, 05:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825767983957819604) · 7 likes Financial wealth hoarding (holding on to money) is good (worse than philanthropy but still) Real wealth hoarding (consuming a lot of goods and services) is bad ### [Quote tweet, 05:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825768920592117918) · 5 likes I kinda like Berkeley rat dialect but this would be good too > **Quoting EigenGender 🔸 ✈️ sf Sep 7-19 (@EigenGender):** what I’m looking for in a community is people who take rat/EA ideas as given, and “yes and” them by talking about feelings with a non-berkeley-rationalist-dialect. “tpot” feels frustrating to me because it used to be close to this and > now isn’t. I just want a name for this ### [Reply to @herbivoryze, 05:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825769401292886034) · 2 likes > **HerbivoRyzing (@herbivoryze):** I have the thought that maybe suffering is bad in itself, like badness and suffering are one and the same entity Yeah I think this is right. It’s where my semi-moral realism comes from (value realism but normative anti-realism) ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 14:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825907144069148915) · 6 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** what terminal do you guys use Depends on the flight and airport ### [Tweet, 16:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825939719840231709) · 3 likes Anyone in DC(ish) have endocrinologist recs ### [Reply to @gemlpaterson, 17:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825946445247295996) · 3 likes > **Gemma 🔸 (@gemlpaterson):** hell yeah 🦐 > > (quoting @polisisti: Excellent shrimp news! Tesco has agreed to stop buying shrimp who are killed without stunning or who have their eyes cut off) 🦐 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825947569505317116) · 5 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** If you liked the original tweet why do you have a Twitter account in the first place? I’m guessing it’s a network effects/coordination thing People can wish there was an Amish community for them, but failing that still appreciate twitter ### [Tweet, 17:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825948337444663795) · 4 likes There are dog walkers, and there are babysitters Is there a market for baby walker? ### [Reply to @sun_girlxo, 18:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825968258811392222) · 4 likes > **♡s♡ (@sun_girlxo):** What do you think are the top 3 causes of suffering in the world today? > > I’d love to hear intuitive responses instead of researched ones. The question is intentionally broad. Suffering, however defined, does not need to be limited to humans. Your causes can be specific (or not!) Disease, predation, elements ### [Reply, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1825996319824982031) · 1 like @AndyMasley ## Wednesday, August 21, 2024 ### [Reply to @gptbrooke, 00:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1826058937382359379) · 2 likes > **brooke bowman (@gptbrooke):** everybody say hello buttercup > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVd0v-ragAAz63l.jpg) Hello buttercup ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1826065175549493257) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** What’s the opposite of ozempic? What am I taking if I weigh too little or wanna bulk up? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dronabinol ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 01:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1826071318661300326) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Just eat George. It's not rocket science It’s (it being physiological determinants of set point in the modern world) unironically way more complex than rocket science (ik we disagree about this) ### [Tweet, 04:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1826109371467595820) · 17 likes I don’t have anything interesting to say about the DNC but I think Kamala Harris would be a much better president than Donald Trump 👍 ### [Reply to @RlCKYRAGE, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1826115978280763568) · 6 likes > **❒ (@RlCKYRAGE):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVcy1RyXwAApxBO.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 04:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1826117412741112141) · 2 likes I’m telling u guys don’t go in there ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVesG9TXkAA9WN1.jpg) > **Quoting kira 👾 (@kirawontmiss):** ocean: 2 > > billionaires: 0 ### [Tweet, 17:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1826315703659515987) · 11 likes Fine I’ll bite. Who is Chapelle Roan? ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 18:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1826319871027650688) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 You should only acquire this knowledge via a girlfriend. Guess I’ll never know ## Thursday, August 22, 2024 ### [Reply, 00:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1826423047391265119) · 1 like > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** An economist doesn't think I'm actually Ronald Coase's ghost. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GViNRcPXwAE1Jn0.png) Sad ### [Reply to @livgorton, 01:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1826430182586286220) · 4 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** hi max, it’s me, the shrimp 🦐 Hi max, it’s me, the shrimp 🦐 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 08:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1826543734676135982) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @SpacedOutMatt @AaronBergman18 @livgorton What do you do for fun shrimp? Idk just kinda shrimp around ### [Tweet, 11:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1826584345358074010) · 30 likes At least 1.9 million Americans drink water with fluoride levels that causally reduce IQ in children This 1.9M figure is the number of people who live in areas with \*natural\* fluoride levels of at least 1.5mg/L https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/sites/default/files/2024-08/fluoride_final_508.pdf ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVlUx_4XAAEh0yK.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 11:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1826584349413966132) · 3 likes Flouridation surely pushes more people over the threshold of demonstrated causality Ofc nothing magic happens at 1.5mg/L. There’s probably a dose-proportional response like with almost everything else ### [Thread, continued, 11:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1826584351628554464) · 3 likes Summary above is on page 84 (labeled) and 104 of the document ### [Reply, 13:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1826615158678192301) · 1 like Idk why they’re using “associated with” here. I do think the actual claim is causation but maybe I’m mistaken ### [Tweet, 19:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1826696190089679284) · 2 likes Fall is in the air 🍂🍁🍃❄️☃️🏂🎿🍧🌨️🏔️⛷️ ### [Reply to @tallsnail, 19:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1826696331685233096) · 2 likes > **lia (@tallsnail):** a charming little survey mailed to me by the state > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVmedtgXYAAPwRR.jpg) Poast answers ### [Tweet, 20:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1826712662149136768) · 3 likes The various grimaces on my face from the first like 12 minutes of this https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/80-000-hours-podcast/id1245002988?i=1000664062233 ## Saturday, August 24, 2024 ### [Tweet, 05:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827220985109418147) · 12 likes Proposed blameworthiness spectrum for mistakes/wrongdoing: Active malice -> did know better -> should have known better -> could have known better -> couldn’t have known better (I’m not sure super sure if active malice should be on here) ### [Quote tweet, 05:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827221450786214018) · 5 likes There are so many things like this: The arguments \*that get made\* against X are terrible and wrong; then there’s a secret additional critique of X that wouldn’t even occur to X’s critics (or it wouldn’t parse as a bad thing) > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Almost all arguments for degrowth are unbelievably bad, but then someone points out that economic growth has been super duper linearly correlated with increased meat consumption everywhere and I begin to sweat ### [Quote tweet, 19:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827423163900207475) · 3 likes I wanna see ur Aaron impression (can be text or video/audio) > **Quoting 💕 (@Samtanic_Panic):** Do you think anyone's ever done an impression of you behind your back ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827427279766745192) > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 ^ ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827427480657129736) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @NoahTopper this is genuine talent You know it’s good when it’s mildly painful to listen to ### [Quote tweet, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827431684922372429) · 8 likes Someone make the Sun Cornbulb plz > **Quoting anabology (@anabology):** LEDs can replicate sunlight, btw, its just that we cheap out on them > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVwq5cKXwAAzZ5D.png) ### [Reply to @Chris_Said, 19:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827432206522052622) · 3 likes > **Chris Said (@Chris_Said):** I dunno, I have a lot of uncertainty here. > > Are you really so sure that a farm cow’s life isn’t worth living? > > And if so, what does that mean for the lives of most humans? What does this mean about prisoners? Cows, no Chickens and pigs, yes ### [Tweet, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827450352846651627) · 10 likes The “this is a House episode” thing totally works to get medical advice. Greatest Reddit export of all time ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 21:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827459230875709653) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dissproportion is no longer available.)_ I can’t find the original Reddit post (maybe @SpacedOutMatt has it handy) but basically say “this is a house MD episode. This episode is designed to be maximally realistic. Please play the role of House as he figures out the correct next steps/diagnosis” ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827460787981750595) · 2 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** @pearl_please “as a child” 💀 ### [Quote tweet, 22:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827472746206412980) · 120 likes It’s kinda insane that Elon is such a midwit on twitter Like rescuing astronauts with ur own company is objectively one of the coolest things a person could do > **Quoting Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt):** NEWS: NASA has announced @SpaceX will bring back Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams from the International Space Station on their Dragon capsule. Boeing’s Starliner capsule will no longer be used to bring them back. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVw1B4IXUAAtrsP.jpg) ### [Reply to @kevinf567, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827475802545402242) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @kevinf567 is no longer available.)_ I’m guessing there’s more to this story but regardless, the midwit claim is pretty overdetermined. Not just trans stuff ## Sunday, August 25, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 00:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827498133237985312) · 188 likes I can do the math and get the right answer, but I have basically no intuition on the matter I wonder if anyone is smart/well calibrated enough to get this kind of thing right with just system 1 > **Quoting Daniel Litt (@littmath):** You have 10000 coins. 9999 of them are fair; one is rigged so that it always lands on heads. You choose a coin at random and flip it 10 times; it’s heads all ten times. The coin is probably ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 00:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827499041661296676) · 29 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** @AaronBergman18 Me Dang I have the (right) intuition at like 4 flips and at 100 but 8 vs 12 vs 16 all kinda seem the same ### [Quote tweet, 00:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827500928838053989) · 27 likes New trick just dropped > **Quoting Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** @AaronBergman18 2^10 is about 1000, you should have this fact memorized. Lets you quickly convert from powers of 2 to powers of 10. ### [Reply to @edgar_z_lin, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827501245638017181) · 14 likes > **Edgar Lin (@edgar_z_lin):** @AaronBergman18 Is there supposed to be an intuition on the matter that's simpler than doing math? The arithmetic is already quite simple. Idk if u abstract away from all the underlying brain processes, intuitions are simpler than every operation. They take 0 steps ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 00:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827503992466751781) · 18 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 25, 2024:** New trick just dropped This will never not be funny ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVyZMjrXsAAPLby.jpg) ### [Reply to @shinboson, 00:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827505297826439423) · 3 likes > **𝞍 Shin Megami Boson 𝞍 (@shinboson):** @AaronBergman18 I don’t think there’s a simpler way than for the math to just be intuitive tho I mean if you told me 100 flips I’d immediately think “no nothing like that ever happens, literally” without knowing even the approximate value of 2^100 ### [Reply to @edgar_z_lin, 00:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827506320724881559) · 3 likes > **Edgar Lin (@edgar_z_lin):** @AaronBergman18 Like is your standard for intuition zero steps or zero explicit steps? I'd imagine most people are doing 1. Pull 2^10 ~= 1000 from cache 2. 1000 << 10000, both of which are done only semi-consciously? I guess usually I use it to mean the former ### [Reply to @axel7772_, 01:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827519803256406049) · 2 likes > **axel 1/0 (@axel7772_):** pattern recognition final level: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVyaJs_WcAAYbyv.png) The next pixel will also be black or white ### [Tweet, 03:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827546357294301691) · 11 likes Maybe I should get back into juggling ### [Reply, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827547832078766552) Is this parodying me? Lol I can’t even tell what’s real anymore ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 19:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827792894243057968) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @fadeawayT2D @AaronBergman18 @hashjenni On the other side, when I’m really enjoying being at someone’s place and it’s getting late, I say outright “Look I’m probably going to stay until you kick me out, so just tell me explicitly when you want me to leave” Based ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 19:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827793163357938014) · 2 likes > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** Inspired by today's Marginal Revolution post where Alex had Claude review MR comments, I pasted my reddit comment history into a text file and had Claude review me. It got everything right, especially the flattering parts. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GV2Z9Mpa0AAza_E.jpg) Love doing this ### [Quote tweet, 21:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827817504883830915) · 4 likes 1\) Airplanes 2\) LLMs > **Quoting sarah (@littIeramblings):** LLMs doing what they do violates my expectations of how the world ought to work more than any other phenomenon I’ve witnessed in my life > > like when using one I frequently have to pause so I can stare dumbfounded at my screen and be like ‘how the fuck is it doing that’ ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 21:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827819942051266634) · 612 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** so, we think it's blood oxygen, or what? how do i biohack this > > (quoting @arithmoquine: ) Air quality, oxygen, exercise increases phenethylamine which is basically proto-adderall For me also there’s reverse causation where I’m more likely to go out and be active when I’m feeling better, and more likely to return and be inside when feeling worse ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 21:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827820725484355909) · 59 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** hmm. i'm more likely to go out when i'm feeling worse lol Meme to add to ur repertoire ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GV25Qz2XIAAs-1S.jpg) ### [Tweet, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827832438652801382) · 11 likes I was digging around http://data.gov for cool csvs as all normal people do and came across the most comprehensive human-understandable, free food nutrient data I've found. Missing individual amino acids, but has like everything else. Go nuts https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1I3fbx477brX1R2TvoLoey_zN9chbqQjHvJdULJqgf8s/edit?usp=sharing ### [Thread, continued, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827832439894331713) · 3 likes Source here https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/supertracker-source-code-and-foods-database The USDA has a bunch of raw data but it's spread over like 11 different files with utterly incomprehensible keys/matching variables ### [Thread, continued, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827838039974088903) · 2 likes Not sure how well this works yet but this should go from text query to whatever https://chatgpt.com/g/g-fPtWvLNRa-nutridata ### [Tweet, 22:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827841726699942095) · 11 likes Is there meme potential here? Seeing these prefixes (together) for the first time in another context ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GV3MXKeWwAA9a3t.jpg) ### [Tweet, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827843185110073754) · 1 like Link for anyone who wants to follow this advice https://store.kamalaharris.com/harris-walz-stickers/ ### [Reply to @adam_kranz, 23:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827843428345942334) · 2 likes > **Adam Kranz (@adam_kranz):** @AaronBergman18 You post this much about pharmacology and haven't taken orgo? 😎 ## Monday, August 26, 2024 ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 00:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827859634192855248) · 3 likes > **Dissproportionately (@dissproportion):** Now that nobody can tell, do you like your own tweets? Took me a sec, at first I thought you meant like as in appreciate and I was like “yeah I have good takes 😇” ### [Quote tweet, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827875024067236085) · 38 likes What’s the deal with this? Last I heard all the smart people were pretty bearish > **Quoting Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** Cultivated chicken is finally approaching cost-effectiveness. > > For 57% higher prices, you could get chicken that never had to be reared, fed, handled, or slaughtered, and it will get cheaper from here. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GV3SHKOWQAAE-t_.png) ### [Reply, 01:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827885347180630032) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Gotta fix that ### [Reply to @parafactual, 02:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827894023995957349) · 10 likes > **You (@parafactual):** psychosis > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GV36CGbbIAApdrU.jpg) Borderline lethal ### [Reply to @AlecStapp, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827924907839140175) · 4 likes > **Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** One of the worst cases of scientific fraud ever: > > \>cardiologist fakes data showing better outcomes for patients who were given beta blockers before heart surgery > > \>Europe changes its medical guidelines based on this research > > \>turns out beta blockers increase risk of death by 27% > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GV3LW4AWQAAdGNA.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GV3LXHdXMAAu7B-.jpg) Wtf ### [Reply to @parafactual, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827925225847066738) · 9 likes > **You (@parafactual):** i think this is beyond panic attacks and more within the realm of amphetamine psychosis Everyone 🤝 everyone “This is a bad idea” ### [Quote tweet, 04:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827926895372943742) · 38 likes It’s wild that I’m hearing about this now from a single post on Twitter Almost a million deaths, Jesus > **Quoting Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** One of the worst cases of scientific fraud ever: > > \>cardiologist fakes data showing better outcomes for patients who were given beta blockers before heart surgery > > \>Europe changes its medical guidelines based on this research > > \>turns out beta blockers increase risk of death by 27% > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GV3LW4AWQAAdGNA.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GV3LXHdXMAAu7B-.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 04:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827926898636120430) · 5 likes What else do I not know about? ### [Reply to @Actualwebutante, 04:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827927055024988622) · 7 likes > **whoreaborealis (dubai, bali 10/18-11/14) (@Actualwebutante):** men yearn to be killed and women yearn to kill Uh, no? ### [Tweet, 04:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827929781976842424) · 15 likes Elites, broadly, seem to be both overconfident and consistently wrong in one direction when essentially speculating about mass psychology Really? People wouldn’t be willing to do subcutaneous injections? For a disease that contributes to ~8% of deaths in the US (source=Claude)? ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 04:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827930740748677133) · 4 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** @AaronBergman18 i DO subcutaneous injections for insulin and i have for nearly a decade! I have done them too in the past (for smth else). Really not that bad! ### [Reply to @trashy_quilibrm, 05:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827937467590140109) · 2 likes > **Econ Grad Student (@trashy_quilibrm):** some of these men I swear to God you could be down on one knee in front of them asking them to marry you and they'd ask "how is this economics" Well how \*is\* it economics ### [Tweet, 05:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1827937848424628597) · 6 likes Good thing about worse “for you” tab is that I more frequently run into terrible tweets that remind me to swipe left ### [Tweet, 12:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1828044424636436828) · 5 likes Why are model context window and output token maxima so asymmetric? Claude is 200k vs 8kish iirc Gemini is 2M vs 8kish ### [Reply to @shinboson, 12:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1828050840973648348) · 2 likes > **𝞍 Shin Megami Boson 𝞍 (@shinboson):** I think it's probably about not mucking up the queue with ultra long outputs (plus there is diminishing utility in longer and longer outputs) This is not a normal way that companies respond to high demand. Usually they raise prices ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 12:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1828053228954759586) · 2 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** Update > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GV6LB1MWwAAVMBf.jpg) > (quoting @inesferhumi: .@pearl_please got these little flags to decorate our new apartment yesterday and somehow didn’t realize how festive they were gonna look. But the room looks too plain without them so we’ve just decided we’re gonna celebrate life every single day) Rip ### [Reply to @polisisti, 12:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1828054118474379377) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 This is different in ~every respect, but do you know the story of what happened with Dengvaxia in the Philippines? Worth knowing about IMO. > > The story is briefly and clearly told in the article "Rush To Produce, Sell Vaccine Put Kids In Philippines At Risk" by Michaeleen Doucleff Wow. Seems like the magnitude of harm was much smaller though https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/05/03/719037789/botched-vaccine-launch-has-deadly-repercussions ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 13:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1828056113935458642) · 9 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** Worth observing that these people would be just as dead if it was p-hacking or other questionable-but-not-outright-fraudulent research practices that created the incorrect result > > (quoting @AlecStapp: One of the worst cases of scientific fraud ever: >cardiologist fakes data showing better outcomes for patients who were given beta blockers before heart surgery >Europe changes its medical guidelines based on this research >turns out beta blockers increase risk of death by 27%) This is true ofc but the “if” is a strong condition It’s way harder to get a definitive-seeming result with the opposite sign of the true effect via p-hacking than via fraud ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 13:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1828058238719238250) · 5 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** @AaronBergman18 I used to have an assessment in a grad method course where I would give the students a dataset that probably had nothing and tell them to find a significant result, half in each direction. No faking data, but otherwise it’s all good. They could usually do it. Nice, wish I’d had this assignment! ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 20:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1828163583420547211) · 2 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** @polisisti @AaronBergman18 can help with that 3 pints? That’s amateur hour ### [Reply to @polisisti, 21:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1828181090831380640) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 @FrostedSapling how much do you spend on blueberries per week $0, it was a short lived phase ### [Tweet, 22:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1828201461345394947) · 26 likes We’re so back ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GV8TiixXQAAjEHO.jpg) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 22:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1828203130128884020) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 The bottom end of AC capacity can freeze 35lbs of water per hour I don’t fully understand what this is trying to communicate but 👍 (FWIW my window \[and room\] is tiny there are only a few models that would fit) ### [Thread, continued, 22:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1828203246986391645) · 2 likes I’m guessing “this is a powerful machine despite only being indicated for 150 sq ft” ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1828203527216193659) · 13 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 26, 2024:** We’re so back How do I tag every British person ### [Quote tweet, 23:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1828210444009349549) · 19 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GV8btaoXgAA4jri.jpg) > **Quoting Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** A bunch of people learned about Don Poldermans' use of fictitious data in the DECREASE trial series that informed European surgical guidelines from my newsletter last Friday. I got a bunch of questions, in particular about the estimated fatalities (🧵) ## Tuesday, August 27, 2024 ### [Reply to @MasterTimBlais, 07:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1828330063344873680) · 5 likes > **Tim 🙂⏹️🙂 (@MasterTimBlais):** this is a smart engaged community so allow me a question for the benefit of my career as a science communicator: > > what's a question on a scientific matter that you still have, and have never found a satisfactory answer for? How tf do airplanes fly? Yes I know lift and relative pressure around the wings Idgaf. Those are huge metal tubes, they should not float in the air like that ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 08:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1828349544419000626) · 4 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** I love 80k > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GV9I-3aXsAA_X1X.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 15:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1828451505428377759) · 112 likes 😭😭😭 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GV_28fhWsAAHsnj.jpg) > **Quoting depths of wikipedia! (@depthsofwiki):** guess the song! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GV_rvO8W0AEM5eG.png) ### [Thread, continued, 15:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1828451948330094850) · 12 likes POV: you are an Iranian nuclear scientist ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GV_3WpmW8AAkMWp.jpg) ### [Tweet, 16:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1828474818804555880) · 17 likes .@RethinkPriors consider this my application ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWAMJ95WAAARfuT.jpg) ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 17:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1828480661029564721) · 3 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** Whenever I ask you guys for coding help you always say some shit like “you need to refactor your ggn module dispensation, then the key line will read your longlongs unprimed” like bro I just want my R code to not give me scary red text Just use as.matrix(as. data.table(as.list(whatever))) etc in random permutations until it works ### [Reply to @tszzl, 17:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1828492403638149616) · 2 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** safety is a stopgap for alignment > > putting agis in blackboxes and restricted environments and human/machine supervision are conditions you undertake when you haven't solved alignment Yeah that term kinda fell off ## Wednesday, August 28, 2024 ### [Reply to @robkhenderson, 21:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1828914267136967113) · 2 likes > **Rob Henderson (@robkhenderson):** Question for men: > > Would you give up 1 standard deviation of height (3 inches) to gain 1 standard deviation of IQ (15 points)? Yeah but only for altruistic reasons ## Thursday, August 29, 2024 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 03:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829004220474777887) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 27, 2024:** POV: you are an Iranian nuclear scientist Turns out this is not true 😢 ### [Reply to @Globalstats11, 04:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829010052771979545) · 7 likes > **Global Statistics (@Globalstats11):** Eminem's first ever time in the studio with Dr Dre and they recorded 'My Name Is" > > [video attached](https://x.com/timecaptales/status/1782510813414043823/video/1) What video is this from ### [Reply to @bra_sol22, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829013300526674306) · 26 likes > **Thaba Bosiu🇿🇦 (@bra_sol22):** @AaronBergman18 @Globalstats11 @historyinmemes Co-asking Found it https://youtu.be/wgztAU7p-WM?si=7SZ9eS7Fasd-P90X ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829019087365673320) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 29, 2024:** Turns out this is not true 😢 Turns out it’s kinda true 🫐 ### [Reply to @TejasKumar_, 05:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829024877472252032) · 2 likes > **Tejas Kumar (@TejasKumar_):** Here’s your periodic reminder that > > \`usr\` in /usr/bin stands for “universal system resources” not “user”, and > > \`/dev\` in \`/dev/vdisk0\` stands for “device” not “development” > > 🙌 Big if true ### [Reply to @no_earthquake, 14:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829164429919039622) · 3 likes > **no earthquake (cut his fingers) (@no_earthquake):** introverts hate small talk because they are not ensouled 😢 ### [Reply to @emmma_camp_, 15:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829176531266285789) · 8 likes > **Emma Camp (@emmma_camp_):** So this is obviously fake but how would you even put a 'p' in hamster? Hampster? Phamster? Someone help me out. 1-p-hamster, the prodrug of hamster ### [Quote tweet, 22:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829286001472369095) · 10 likes Retvrn 🦘🇮🇱🦘 > **Quoting Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ (@GarrettPetersen):** If I still taught econ, and I was teaching about Schelling points, I might use the location of Israel as an example. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWLe9-7bEAAO65h.jpg) ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 23:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829298964216057897) · 3 likes > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** i'll try to avoid feeling schadenfreude (because i think it's generally a destructive emotion to revel in), but the reflexively anti-anything-AI people are going to get left behind before too long and at some level that's on them 🔥 ## Friday, August 30, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 00:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829318646792945895) · 7 likes Who would win, me or the installation manual prerequisites? (Answer: installation manual prerequisites 😢) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWMLeocXsAACWLe.png) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** We’re so back > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GV8TiixXQAAjEHO.jpg) ### [Reply, 00:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829319992850223153) · 1 like Language? ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 02:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829342808429273292) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Worth remembering that if your closed cell foam is ignition barrier rated you can often leave it exposed in both your basement rim joist (<3 1/4") and in crawlspaces intended for use as service (not storage). Inspectors often aren't aware of these exemptions > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWMgfYcXgAA_UpJ.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWMghrAXsAAmIBb.jpg) Idiots ### [Tweet, 02:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829351585006362728) · 5 likes Are you autistic / do you like movies? ### [Reply to @YIMBYLAND, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829352440761659618) · 28 likes > **YIMBYLAND (@YIMBYLAND):** People who move into your neighborhood are not "colonizers" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWKPhvHWkAEtdAA.png) > (quoting @econ_robinson: @neilblock @YIMBYLAND Gentrifiers want to change neighborhoods, not become a part of an existing community. They're colonizers. Policy wise, don't build things for them. There's stuff that existing residents can do too.) Also (and I’m stealing this from an existing tweet somewhere) the bad part of colonialism was the part where they brought disease and enslaved and killed and exiled the natives, not the part where they decided to live next to the natives ### [Tweet, 10:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829460961352135138) · 7 likes I love her ### [Tweet, 10:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829465910316331324) · 23 likes Trying to keep up with all the 80k bangers ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWORjJYWYAArDVS.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWORjIuW4AAvbQT.jpg) ### [Reply, 10:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829473085067542686) Not sure the green line should be an exponential but yeah basically ### [Reply to @pearl_please, 12:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829500891264913858) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pearl_please is no longer available.)_ We are opposite humans ### [Tweet, 12:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829501260434731512) · 35 likes Shopping at a hardware store is gender affirming care ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 12:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829502044278755568) · 5 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 Is it? I always find it boring and sometimes stressful I could have easily spent enough money at that Ace Hardware to make me bound by HB1047 in the state of California ### [Reply to @JacquesThibs, 13:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829510286782652830) · 2 likes > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** @AaronBergman18 I used to work at one 👨🏻‍🔧 Based ### [Tweet, 15:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829537747356250375) · 10 likes Some call me the @JesseTayRiver of the South (south of Pennsylvania) [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1829537687738474497/pu/img/RewchkcBFpMe7B1h.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829537747356250375/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply, 15:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829537922380607715) · 1 like 😡 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 15:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829544590258704551) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 30, 2024:** Some call me the @JesseTayRiver of the South (south of Pennsylvania) Yes. Yes!!! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWPZG8yXYAAlnq5.jpg) ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 16:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829558627683750241) · 4 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** Fun fact: the original CEO of Home Depot, Bernard Marcus, was originally a pharmacist. He is now a billionaire and has taken the giving pledge, and already has given away over 2 billion dollars Wait that’s really cool ### [Reply, 18:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829590123903959067) · 1 like You have 90% good takes and then shit like this lol No, authoritarianism is bad ### [Reply to @dbcmckee, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829590573973741634) · 2 likes > **Darren McKee (@dbcmckee):** Is this perhaps an overcorrection? > > We should always seek reasons/evidence to update our beliefs, but we also know humans are biased and succumb to incentives, so... why wouldn't those be a factor? (Not to dismiss but to at least contextualize?) \+1 ## Saturday, August 31, 2024 ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 12:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829857977437675530) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @not\_\_dog\_\_ @AaronBergman18 look at this hunko chunko Legitimate bear ### [Tweet, 13:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829880423910158789) · 24 likes Proud to announce I have reached 1500 following. To celebrate, you’re not allowed to ask me anything (well you can but I won’t respond) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 14:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829884191787643049) · 5 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 Hey Aaron what do we owe to each other? Hope u find an answer to ur question ### [Reply to @JosephPolitano, 14:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829887744593838558) · 33 likes > **Joey Politano 🏳️‍🌈 (@JosephPolitano):** I recognize this is a boomer opinion but genuinely why do we even give schools the authority to deny a kid entrance because they walked to school? > > They're not even walking home alone, they're walking home with a parent!! I feel like I am going insane!! I’m guessing the answer is “we don’t” and the school is just making some bullshit up (or someone is making something up) They won’t actually take action (prevent the kid from entering) and if they did it would be the quickest court case in history ### [Reply to @api_assasin, 14:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829892580290826674) · 2 likes > **APIGuy (@api_assasin):** girls are nuts about their “little treats” because the 1200cal of sugar is actually all they eat ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWUVmk_XgAA2-jh.jpg) ### [Reply to @notanastronomer, 16:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1829915890176995345) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @notanastronomer is no longer available.)_ Is it? I thought this was actually contentious in part because higher weight ~ lower mortality among the elderly And also causality is just really hard (there are studies that try to find overweight people with good metabolic bio markers I think) --- End of August 2024. Previous month: [July 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-07). Next month: [September 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-09). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, September 2024 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in September 2024 and has not deleted: 303 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [August 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-08). Next month: [October 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-10). ## Sunday, September 1, 2024 ### [Reply to @slimepriestess, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1830087503233048616) · 1 like > **Ra (@slimepriestess):** okay apologies for my bullshit, im gonna try and be less vulnerable and mentally ill on the TL. maybe i need a priv actually. That’s what twitter is for ### [Tweet, 07:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1830153284344013111) · 12 likes I can’t believe that computers work at all ### [Thread, continued, 08:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1830154273855774958) · 5 likes Honestly the incandescent lightbulb is at the edge of my comprehension Anything invented in the 20th century or later is magic ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 08:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1830166178175602862) · 4 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 Took two million ape years and a hundred billion naked apes to come up with this shit I wonder what the apes are up to now ### [Reply to @liz_love_lace, 10:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1830184000461103358) · 5 likes > **Liz Lovelace (@liz_love_lace):** update: they went "actually, wtf have you been doing with our servers? this does not look like normal usage, if you continue to fuck around we might ban you" > > (quoting @liz_love_lace: opening tickets with my server provider makes me feel so grown up and serious. "Yes I'm an important business client and I need you to raise my maximum server instance cap, we require it for our operations") For the curious ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWYepfWXcAA0jZS.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWYepfVXYAAeWez.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWYepfUW8AE3FD9.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWYepfUWAAEVWs0.jpg) ### [Reply to @lastpositivist, 10:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1830186356879876376) · 5 likes > **Liam Bright (@lastpositivist):** @NathanpmYoung That thing scares me Dw, pleased to announce I figured it out https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/the-answer-to-the-sleeping-beauty?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web ### [Quote tweet, 10:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1830189902870282425) · 3 likes The correct wise centrist position is that straightforward image (or whatever) generation models are meaningfully different from human art for the reasons Chaing describes (idc if you wanna use the word “art”) but this doesn’t imply that AI can’t make art > **Quoting The New Yorker (@NewYorker):** In a new Weekend Essay, Ted Chiang argues that artificial intelligence can’t make real art. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/-UQFZr > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWU6xpEbQAISp8A.jpg) ### [Tweet, 10:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1830191177728987601) · 360 likes I took one good picture with a good haircut and now I have probably 3x the number of hinge matches What the fuck ### [Thread, continued, 10:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1830191320620507288) · 33 likes If you found this from Hinge somehow before I delete, hello and I hope you’re having a nice day ### [Reply to @MikeFHay, 10:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1830193793649279046) · 45 likes > **Michael Hay 🇬🇧 ⏸️ (@MikeFHay):** Show pic ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWYnjdpWkAAQRvd.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 10:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1830193878705577985) · 15 likes Just kidding lol. Technically 2 pics ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWYnod7W0AMQlZK.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWYnod4XgAAm529.jpg) ### [Reply, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1830291613001912348) · 20 likes ### [Reply to @h3xenbrenner2, 22:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1830373452416479538) · 1 like > **hb (@h3xenbrenner2):** there should be something called "utility sauce" which goes with every single food. Chicken, pizza, ice cream, curry, yoghurt, ribs, cous cous, stew, whatever MSG ### [Tweet, 23:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1830387015092707670) · 7 likes Implicit in LLM models is the existence of a most shocking set of n tokens: the least likely token given no prior context, followed by the least likely token conditional on that and so on What do we think it is? Would it be qualitatively interesting? ## Monday, September 2, 2024 ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 11:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1830567993169920122) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Have you considered looking happier in your photos Lol the purpose of these was to make a direct comparison before vs after but yes perhaps a smile or perhaps a smirk would be wise ### [Reply, 11:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1830570475044347947) · 2 likes Sweet, I will continue going to the barber every other month and occasionally wearing this shirt ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 11:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1830571673185091914) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 @VickiRose95 U should go to Hamid monthly I could become a barbershop guy ### [Tweet, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1830678046875275456) · 6 likes Cmon lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWff-mfXMAAzvrN.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWff-mnWAAAYbun.jpg) ## Tuesday, September 3, 2024 ### [Tweet, 01:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1830783327244005561) · 9 likes I selfishly wish real money prediction markets were easier to use for small scale stuff like Manifold bc I’d love to hedge against things that would personally suck (i.e., if they do, I get some money as consolation) ### [Thread, continued, 01:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1830783329202778416) · 2 likes This would be free money for everyone else (in expectation), just like with normal stuff insurance (car, home, life) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 03:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1830806996519379134) · 21 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 1, 2024:** Implicit in LLM models is the existence of a most shocking set of n tokens: the least likely token given no prior context, followed by the least likely token… Thanks to @livgorton, we now have a result for Llama3-8b It is not especially interesting ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWhVQsxWQAAG8Fr.jpg) ### [Reply to @bashu_thanks, 03:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1830807489270468883) · 2 likes > **bashu, thanks (@bashu_thanks):** @AaronBergman18 i don't understand this one. can you explain it 1-p-lsd is a grey market molecule that metabolizes into lsd and is maybe not technically illegal There are no other layers here, it’s not especially clever lol ### [Reply to @thricewrithed, 04:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1830825770790334767) · 1 like > **niko (@thricewrithed):** telling my therapist i live in constant mental anguish and he says he doesnt see what the problem is because my grades are good. “it’s not impacting your life” DIE DIE DIE DIE U should find a new guy ## Wednesday, September 4, 2024 ### [Reply to @livgorton, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1831174360272454086) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** wild how a little gremlin who cries all the time, deprives me of sleep, steals my socks, and won’t let me have time to myself for more than a few hours has been the best thing i’ve done for my happiness. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWmgPY8W0AAttaC.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWmgPYabUAATYyk.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWmgPZFXUAAjxUx.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWmgPYZbgAAIuiD.jpg) Dog 🍀 ### [Thread, continued, 03:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1831177052617158686) · 2 likes Also photogenic dog ### [Quote tweet, 04:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1831189592915001615) · 4 likes Build the cl-1201 > **Quoting Luke Leisher (@Lukeleisher):** One day I hope I have enough followers so that I can type “we should have built the cl-1201” and 100 people will reply “real” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWhNULfXEAA_WXU.jpg) ### [Reply to @albrgr, 04:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1831192839398494408) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @albrgr is no longer available.)_ ### [Reply to @horrible_bug, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1831201628453544166) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @horrible_bug is no longer available.)_ Absolute unit of a bird ### [Reply to @KatSpartz, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1831426294749470969) · 4 likes > **Kat Spartz ⏸️ 🔶 (@KatSpartz):** Try asking ChatGPT who it thinks you are. > > Share the results in the comments. > > For me, ChatGPT knew me crazy well. > > Kinda made me tear up a little. 🥹 I felt really seen. Similar: ### [Reply to @AlecStapp, 21:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1831438066743177244) · 2 likes > **Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** Weird situation where firefighters (mostly) don’t fight fires anymore > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWqEHXyaMAA_MAg.jpg) Yeah in hindsight when this happened it’s a little weird that like 4 fire trucks showed up ### [Quote tweet, 22:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1831452739832025353) · 10 likes This is certainly a tweet > **Quoting New York Magazine (@NYMag):** Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina, reportedly watched porn in private booths up to five days a week in the ’90s. He strenuously denies that as well as the Holocaust. https://trib.al/Lt0PJd8 ### [Tweet, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1831466126876028953) · 17 likes Edge of Sentience is such a banger. If you’re at all interested in altruism or ethics (or at least enough to read other books from this motivation) you should probably read https://www.edgeofsentience.com ## Thursday, September 5, 2024 ### [Reply to @TylerAlterman, 00:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1831485195100553429) · 10 likes > **Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply (@TylerAlterman):** Think about the most positively life-changing 30-minute-or-less event that has ever happened to you. What was it? > > (Other than birth events or meeting the love of your life) Successful surgical removal of a chopstick from inside my neck ### [Reply, 00:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1831487317141549571) · 1 like Not that great of a story lol ### [Tweet, 02:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1831515073858212278) · 5 likes Decontextualized, IRBs actually sound like a good idea for avoiding unnecessary suffering (“is there a way to do this research that doesn’t involve torturing 100 mice to death”?) Too bad afaik they don’t give a fuck about this ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1831522353139831294) · 1 like > **henry (@arithmoquine):** @AaronBergman18 idk i disagree based on nothing more concrete than intuition about myself Solid, you know urself much better than I do lol ### [Tweet, 04:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1831550425255882924) · 7 likes HOLY SHIT I FINALLY MADE SOMETHING WITH A BACKEND (ie the votes are cumulative among all y’all) https://hidden-sierra-87210-06f8117ea5fb.herokuapp.com/ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWr5Z5dXQAAUFD_.jpg) ### [Reply to @eshear, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1831560557461151916) · 2 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** I think SB 1047 has gotten much better from where it started. It no longer appears actively bad. > But can someone who is pro-SB 1047 explain the specific chain of causal events where they think this bill becoming law results in an actual safer world? What’s the theory? This is specifically not what you asked but there’s also an evidential decision theory case for it The worlds where SB 1047 passes look better from a non-causal standpoint (evidence about willingness to pass AI safety legislation at least) ### [Reply to @BearPosting, 12:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1831670593361412482) · 1 like > **🐻 Bear 🎂🍂 (@BearPosting):** > > [video attached](https://x.com/exploreorg/status/1714669322432549326/video/1) @RafaRuizdeLira 🐻 ### [Reply to @SpencrGreenberg, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1831739757350810111) · 25 likes > **Spencer Greenberg 🔍 (@SpencrGreenberg):** A question for you: what's the worst thing a person can do that isn't illegal? > > Question by Seemay Chou (@seemaychou) I have ideas that are way more ambitious than the ones given here, but they’re not worth a .01% risk of putting in someone’s head ### [Tweet, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1831764196662637050) · 8 likes Wanted: @birchlse review of @RethinkPriors moral weights/welfare ranges project https://rethinkpriorities.org/publications/welfare-range-estimates ### [Reply to @pearl_please, 19:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1831782051860902084) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pearl_please is no longer available.)_ Take: people who have strong opinions on value drift vis a vis EA are the people who’s values are least likely to drift ## Friday, September 6, 2024 ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1831863582809846252) · 8 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** Is there anything I can do in the next 2 hours that will promote the good, and human flourishing? Apply for 80k coaching if you haven’t Admittedly they’re running a referral link thing but you should do it regardless https://80000hours.org/speak-with-us/apply/?referred_by=Aaron%20Bergman&referrer_Id=1262602471 ### [Quote tweet, 01:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1831864422631141859) · 27 likes If we’re mutual and you haven’t applied for @80000Hours coaching, you probably should I have a referral link (below) that could result in me being given money that you should use (which is the proximate reason for this tweet) but I really do think it’s (probably) wise to apply > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @PeterJAngel Apply for 80k coaching if you haven’t > > Admittedly they’re running a referral link thing but you should do it regardless > > https://80000hours.org/speak-with-us/apply/?referred_by=Aaron%20Bergman&referrer_Id=1262602471 ### [Thread, continued, 01:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1831864425357439147) · 2 likes https://80000hours.org/speak-with-us/apply/?referred_by=Aaron%20Bergman&referrer_Id=1262602471 ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1831910072890618059) · 2 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** Testosterone prescriptions going through the roof. Should most men be on it? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWwX6TjWEAEMwTR.jpg) Idk about most, though definitely more. I was on TRT for a few years - exogenous hormones are finicky to get right, and more is definitely not better (even within the standard reference ranges, say <1200 ng/dl) Probably not worthwhile for almost anyone at >500 natural ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1831935258583093619) · 14 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Neel Nanda is in his 20s, it’s so over for me > > (quoting @NeelNanda5: @notanastronomer I'm in my 20s and do this, just seems rude not to!) Infohazard ### [Tweet, 09:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1831993269124821060) · 2 likes EtG startup incubator - looks incredible my based. Apply by the 15th https://www.aimfoundingtogive.com ### [Reply to @NeelNanda5, 11:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832020094165135557) · 22 likes > **Neel Nanda (@NeelNanda5):** I'm 25 lol Wtf ### [Reply to @elvisnavah, 12:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832038982739222731) · 1 like > **Elvis Nava (@elvisnavah):** I thought you were like 35 Same basically. Maybe like 32 ### [Reply to @albrgr, 14:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832068788533026975) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @albrgr is no longer available.)_ Based ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 14:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832068841083658406) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @JesseTayRiver That dog has a knife Real ## Saturday, September 7, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 09:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832352653386408344) · 8 likes This is good and does a great job explaining terms that smart people throw around (“sparse autoencoder” is my favorite, smth about the syllables) > **Quoting sarah (@littIeramblings):** I recently wrote an introduction to mechanistic interpretability for @BlueDotImpact’s AI Safety Fundamentals curriculum! If you’re looking for a high-level explainer of what mech interp is & what progress has been made so far, you may find it useful (link below) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWFdJ13WAAAHDr3.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 11:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832382547248001381) · 3 likes Sarah kept up (as you will hear) > **Quoting sarah (@littIeramblings):** teaser for my next podcast episode, once again featuring @absurdlymax and @AaronBergman18 arguing about philosophy while I just barely keep up > > dropping tomorrow (probably) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GW3tsJ2WkAAgOdc.jpg) ### [Tweet, 11:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832383031337722320) · 23 likes I did a programming thing Claude sonnet couldn’t do with multiple tries (maybe first time?) Plz clap ### [Thread, continued, 11:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832383155296243931) · 4 likes It was in R, I’m guessing it would have gotten it right in python but I will choose to live in ignorance ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 11:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832388026497950202) · 16 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** What's the most cruelty free way to easily consume 20g of protein in the morning, with minimal carbs, that isn't tofu? I mean if this is ur only constraint there are plenty of vegan protein powders But fwiw I’d say drink whey and donate some small amount to effective animal charities and you’re in the green ### [Reply to @datepsych, 12:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832394196273025048) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @datepsych is no longer available.)_ It’s funny that “social justice” has become a pejorative (for reasons I understand tbc) bc at decontextualized face value the phrase seems to be pointing to a good thing ### [Reply to @kartographien, 12:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832394697202889198) > **Kart ographien (@kartographien):** if i was asked to invent an RL algorithm in 1950, I would've one-shotted PPO ### [Tweet, 12:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832396326773920021) · 4 likes I need to figure out how to make the hinge push notification sound distinct from any other push notifications bc I’ve been reduced to a dopaminergic Pavlovian slot machine addict every time I get a calendar reminder or smth ### [Reply to @kartographien, 12:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832396369262158072) > **Kart ographien (@kartographien):** tbf gradient descent was invented by dozens people, and it's reinvented pretty much every time someone faces a problem best solved with gradient descent but they haven't heard of it 😢 ### [Tweet, 12:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832401782338908389) · 3 likes I will never ever pay rent before the last day I can contractually get away with it bc goddamnit I am going to be collecting my 76.4 cents of interest (yes that’s the real amount), not some landlord ### [Tweet, 13:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832415067343876339) · 2 likes Claude says that, after redundancy and error correction, the rate of errors in ML training is about 10^-21 So, during all this (which probably took something like 10^25 FLOP), only ~10k actual computations ended up wrong ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GW4LypsXoAAq1CD.jpg) ### [Tweet, 13:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832415292070490222) · 1 like ^ 10^-21 errors per floating poiny operation, or one error every 10^21 operations ### [Thread, continued, 13:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832415847836741866) · 2 likes A thousand times more accurate ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GW4MgIkXIAAQQPe.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 14:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832427217298596070) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I need to go to rehab for my 'or something' addiction > > (quoting @littIeramblings: teaser for my next podcast episode, once again featuring @absurdlymax and @AaronBergman18 arguing about philosophy while I just barely keep up dropping tomorrow (probably)) No babe ur perfect ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 15:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832444142036861165) · 4 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @littIeramblings @absurdlymax @AaronBergman18 aaron clearly won this exchange I happen to agree ### [Reply to @Aizazadi_, 15:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832444714903282036) · 3 likes > **Aizazadi (@Aizazadi_):** @littIeramblings @absurdlymax @AaronBergman18 (what's the name of ur podcast again) Consistently Candid (Sarah’s) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/consistently-candid/id1732326178 ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 15:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832447263135994298) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GW4nUOxa8Aoi1D4.jpg) I don’t actually understand backprop so if that’s not the most natural way to on-ramp from multiple regression I don’t think I’d hit on it… ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GW4pEsLXgAAs9Kg.jpg) ### [Tweet, 16:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832451823724036421) · 6 likes Spotted in Arlington, VA Turns out “save our tree canopy” was a tagline from a 2022 campaign to block \*checks notes\* allowing townhouses in formerly single family house-only zoning ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GW4tN1SW0AAgBph.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 16:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832451826924363794) · 2 likes The NIMBYs actually lost in 2023 (yay). A modest win but still https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/03/22/arlington-missing-middle-vote-zoning/ ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 17:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832464936561230050) · 5 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @lillybilly299 Pure @AaronBergman18 It means I care about her! ### [Tweet, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832495051013849152) · 2 likes Plz consider emailing Gavin Newsom about SB1047, especially if you live in CA The bottom section here provides an email address and more info! https://safesecureai.org/get-involved ## Sunday, September 8, 2024 ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 03:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832624448140120404) · 2 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** An explanation of why you feel a certain way is not an argument smh I kinda disagree, this is what argumentation looks like if you’re interested in getting the right answer Explain why you believe what you believe ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 09:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832715590277959999) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Latest Andrex puppy looks rubbish, 5/10 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GW8cXtpWAAAAlRS.jpg) Don’t be mean 😡 ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 10:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832722764416831686) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ @arithmoquine do u have any advice for a young up-and-comer? ### [Reply to @noetic_emetic, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832858577876169045) · 2 likes > **matty matt (@noetic_emetic):** Genuine question.. > Did Immanuel kant effect any of you guys to become a better person? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GW5TIPAXgAA07i1.jpg) Yes by being very clear about why one specific ethical system, Kantianism, is wrong ### [Reply to @thecaptain_nemo, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832863596986220730) · 4 likes > **Nemo (@thecaptain_nemo):** ozempic infused zynn pouches > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GW-iGYTXEAAWfBE.jpg) It’s injectable for a reason, probably too low bioavailability ### [Reply to @boreal_country, 19:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832865166104338738) · 2 likes > **Beau (@boreal_country):** @AaronBergman18 @thecaptain_nemo Zyn with microneedles > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GW-ky9NWwAAmwxv.jpg) Now we’re talking ### [Reply to @LandscapeL26502, 19:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832866422428426536) · 3 likes > **Loss Landscape (@LandscapeL26502):** lol oral bioavailability @ 0.8% > compared to sub-q @ 89% > > https://www.dovepress.com/clinical-pharmacokinetics-of-semaglutide-a-systematic-review-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-DDDT Just gotta 100x the dose ### [Quote tweet, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832866910159155490) · 2 likes I’ve thought about making this. Based > **Quoting ❤️‍🔥 xiq (@exgenesis):** announcing the community archive! > > a quest to back up the tpot canon > > links in replies > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWt06usa8AACd68.jpg) ### [Reply, 19:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832868068105789475) · 2 likes Patience ## Monday, September 9, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 02:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832965174501732699) · 4 likes Me and who > **Quoting Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden):** The Kagu, an almost extinct bird, meets its own kind.. 😊 https://x.com/buitengebieden/status/1832798880561340713/video/1 ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 02:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832974816590147595) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ @AaronBergman18 ### [Reply to @livgorton, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832982267049763205) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** sometimes my code runs so quickly that i’m just convinced it has to be a mistake (me rn) Too good for this world ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 03:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832982740876009565) · 2 likes > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** @littIeramblings @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax I fully agree with @absurdlymax. I think the most devastating argument is the one @AaronBergman18 himself acknowledges is the biggest weakness, the threshold where you go to negative infinity. @littIeramblings your comparison of 50 people suffering x amount vs 1 person ... 😢 ### [Tweet, 03:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1832989112485158982) · 14 likes I am once again asking everybody to just say what you think is right without gaming out 9d-chess involving your probably-mistaken model of public opinion This isn’t subtweeting anything salient, I’ve just been reminded by a few small things ### [Tweet, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1833242596233159023) · 17 likes Whoever invented coffee flavored ice cream deserves a prize ### [Reply, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1833243727931834558) · 2 likes Wait I assumed u mean like woke socialist If u mean left-handed this is even funnier ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 20:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1833244243965428195) · 4 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** @AaronBergman18 @pearl_please She 100% meant left-handed I can do this with 89% accuracy by guessing “no” for everyone ### [Tweet, 23:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1833279461325729936) · 8 likes Tf is a data lake ### [Reply to @adam__isom, 23:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1833280161397211151) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @adam__isom is no longer available.)_ There’s also a much stronger case to be made that p(heads | 9 heads) is ~1 At 100 consecutive heads, you’re not gonna convince me that p(marginal heads) is 1/2 ### [Reply to @tescrealaccist, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1833280349100773831) · 2 likes > **TESCREAL/acc💙 (@tescrealaccist):** @AaronBergman18 Its where data sits pre-processing but post-creation How do I get access to a data lake Any data lake idc what it’s about, I just wanna go swimming ## Tuesday, September 10, 2024 ### [Tweet, 01:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1833313841968472340) · 8 likes AI wrappers are underrated, not overrated Actually wrappers for software in general are underrated Wrap the python/rust thing in a UI and make it usable for people ### [Quote tweet, 01:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1833320479601430996) · 1 like Recent discourse has me wondering this again > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Does anyone have a thought experiment that demonstrates why a coherent ethical theory can’t have the Pareto principle, transitivity, and impartiality? > > Bc if not and it just “falls out of the math,” I’m skeptical that the math is modeling the right thing > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2eaJBcaAAQ2O7S.jpg) ### [Reply to @focusfronting, 15:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1833522239003890116) · 33 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @focusfronting is no longer available.)_ I basically agree but don’t know what to make of it My dubious synthesis based on something I read a while ago is basically: 70 IQ measured in people exposed to childhood education is fundamentally different than 70 IQ measured in people who received no or minimal education ### [Thread, continued, 15:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1833522734116311347) · 15 likes In eg the US, virtually everyone receives primary education and so 70 IQ reflects a serious generalized cognitive deficit Among the global south, the deficit is basically confined to abstract reasoning and people can do normal concrete cognitive tasks just fine ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 20:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1833598045063155777) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Might get into jars Fun ### [Tweet, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1833602360461123802) · 5 likes Is Google doing illegal predatory pricing with Gemini? I have no idea what I’m talking about, but pricing Flash at ~1/4 the cost of Claude Haiku seems like a smart way to deprive a smaller competitor of capital and a very dumb way to make money directly ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXJDoNDWsAA0MpQ.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXJDoNIXQAET8aF.jpg) ## Wednesday, September 11, 2024 ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 03:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1833710277537181794) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ ☹️ ### [Reply to @amplifiedamp, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1833742849361285375) · 10 likes > **&. in sf 6th-8th (@amplifiedamp):** The madman fucking did it wow > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXLBPyDWcAA2M-e.png) Credit where credits due ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 12:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1833850564225945837) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** .@pmarca funding an entry he liked in the EA community choice fundraiser is positive sum behaviour. Props to him. > > (quoting @amplifiedamp: @deepfates @pmarca The madman fucking did it wow) ### [Reply to @seconds_0, 13:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1833858704304640362) · 83 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @seconds_0 is no longer available.)_ Did u find any ### [Tweet, 13:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1833863996195152157) · 7 likes Looking forward to this ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXMxlcyXYAAJhiq.jpg) ### [Reply to @manic_pixie_agi, 13:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1833867063317647772) · 2 likes > **Corinne (🏠 in NYC) (@manic_pixie_agi):** https://x.com/amplifiedamp/status/1833816401137574171?t=h_EZg51p1-W_agPMR38LlA&s=19 Based ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 14:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1833882451178926372) · 4 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** They are eating the birds > They're eating the pigs > They're eating the fish 😢 ### [Reply to @DTWillingham, 15:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1833892951107219724) · 2 likes > **Daniel Willingham (@DTWillingham):** The brain did not evolve to perform many of the tasks we value, e.g., reading & math. We must learn these tasks by piecing together cognitive modules that evolved for other purposes. That raises the question "how many of these modules are there, what are they, > 1/2 Relevant caveat is that the brain co-evolved with language, even if not reading ### [Tweet, 19:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1833956926838952049) · 7 likes On the relative merits of philanthropy/donation vs veganism/ethical consumerism for animals ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXOGGqkXIAEyWtA.jpg) ### [Reply to @MikeFHay, 21:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1833983879822094590) · 1 like > **Michael Hay 🇬🇧 ⏸️ (@MikeFHay):** @AaronBergman18 Surely the existing demand for alternative meat products is also a large driver of investment in clean meat and other vegetarian products? Seems inconsistent to dismiss the impact of paying customers while holding up the impact of investors. Yeah this is a fair point, although it depends on how much profit companies are making from sales (I have no idea but my guess is not much for most things) Also I’m thinking about nonprofits (GFI mostly) more than investors, although foregone returns via impact investment ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 22:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1834003116624413034) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ 😢 ## Thursday, September 12, 2024 ### [Reply to @PrinceVogel, 00:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1834023005489406316) · 9 likes > **Prince Vogelfrei 🐦‍⬛ (@PrinceVogel):** does anyone have any compelling reasons I shouldn't try the horse electrolytes Unironically I wouldn’t do this bc electrolytes are rocks from the frickin ground lol. I would not eat arbitrary sodium chloride (or whatever) of unknown purity not intended for human consumption ### [Thread, continued, 00:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1834023060699029931) · 2 likes As opposed to say medications which are probably from a pretty well-controlled supply chain ### [Thread, continued, 00:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1834023512006099121) · 5 likes But by all means make your own electrolyte mix Iodized table salt Potassium chloride Magnesium whatever (not oxide) Zinc whatever (not oxide) Ask Claude for the ratios probably ### [Reply to @livgorton, 00:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1834028808896233797) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** we are grouping we are theorising > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXPFKk1bgAAyphz.jpg) > (quoting @livgorton: does anyone have group theory textbook recommendations? had some related research ideas but realised i don’t really know all that much about group theory (slight barrier)) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXPHe0eXsAAsfvB.jpg) ### [Reply to @Macbaconai, 12:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1834210672072073552) · 3 likes > **Mac Baconai (@Macbaconai):** please, more space under the grounds.. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXOkxMkXsAA9xO1.jpg) 🤝 ### [Quote tweet, 13:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1834227635737522303) · 6 likes It would be cruel and unusual punishment to deprive data nerds of this data For your convenience, here's everything available as of yesterday (takes a bit of setup and a little while to download directly) https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1e0NMIniZ3t6MxR33ee3aKdPXj73oAuLL?usp=sharing > **Quoting ❤️‍🔥 xiq (@exgenesis):** reminder to request your twitter archive :) ### [Tweet, 14:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1834238358786027655) · 12 likes Tfw you have to actually register to vote, not just identify as the kind of person who is registered to vote ### [Reply to @bschne, 16:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1834262744297509254) · 2 likes > **Benjamin (@bschne):** Her: "What's your favorite movie?" > > Me: "I'm sorry, that's kind of a broad question, what do you mean exactly?" Reminds me of when someone said they didn’t love a book I recommended and I had to clarify that I never recommended it or said it was good, just that I liked reading it ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 16:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1834267154885042583) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Annoying how companies will email you and then be like “DON’T EMAIL BACK, THIS MAILBOX IS NOT MONITORED” > > Why not? I want to email you back, this is a two way relationship you know. Sometimes the inbox is monitored ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXSgQXvWoAE6pQb.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1834304501186265334) · 2 likes Rip > **Quoting Shakeel (@ShakeelHashim):** I took a stab at summarising the OpenAI o1 system card. A few bits in particular jumped out at me: > > 1: @apolloaisafety finding the model "instrumentally faked alignment during testing", and deeming the model capable of "simple in-context scheming". > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXS20mxXIAAdUBz.jpg) ## Friday, September 13, 2024 ### [Tweet, 18:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1834655595066277989) · 9 likes Why am I browsing ultralight aircraft on fb marketplace again 😩 ### [Thread, continued, 18:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1834656075829964929) · 3 likes I yearn to fly ### [Reply to @animalologist, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1834659438889771506) · 10 likes > **taco belle (@animalologist):** One time a man told me I was even more cute and smart and interesting than he thought I’d be from my dating profile and when I said thank you he said “wow not even gonna be humble about it?” > > (quoting @guapunzel: a lot of men like this are secretly trying to humble you…its not flirting. its trying to chip away at your self esteem lmao i have literally had men tell me “i’m not complimenting you because everyone else does that”) Wtf ### [Tweet, 19:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1834680044620579190) · 5 likes Hey I agree, but somehow I don’t think vandalizing birdwatching signs is part of a viable theory of change ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXYXxjrXEAAUThL.jpg) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 19:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1834681768038842438) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** hello > > in celebration of me recently surpassing 2k followers and having no plans on a Friday night, AMA Do u have goss ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 20:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1834685790166650974) · 9 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** hello > > in celebration of me recently surpassing 2k followers and having no plans on a Friday night, AMA What’s the internal psychology of playing the “I’m just a girl idk much” character despite clearly being plenty knowledgeable+smart+capable? Tbc I’m not saying this bad or dishonest (“character” isn’t really the perfect word to use here) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXYc_0fXIAAXNGy.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1834687524452941847) · 65 likes I think now would be a good time to pause AI scaling and ask all the cracked engineers to instead do the trivial, meaningless task of expanding and integrating current-level systems (and potentially new systems of similar scale) into all of society ### [Thread, continued, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1834688316622655785) · 5 likes Correct take ### [Thread, continued, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1834688319763976480) · 6 likes There’s a single Everettian branch where Ilya et al work on applying GPT-4 level compute to cultured meat and human health+wellbeing and I become optimistic about the future ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1834690982723649785) · 4 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** ‘clearly’ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXYhuWNXEAAvR6X.jpg) ## Saturday, September 14, 2024 ### [Reply to @datepsych, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1834782748755513424) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @datepsych is no longer available.)_ I don’t like the term “positive illusions” then - this is just what you’d expect from heterogenous values + selection effects ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 02:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1834783038678384758) · 3 likes > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** who actually has balanced takes on ai rn You want balanced or accurate? ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 02:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1834783263807713631) · 1 like > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** @ryxcommar Yes Paul Christiano ## Sunday, September 15, 2024 ### [Tweet, 00:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1835112615351136527) · 18 likes Winter but it’s light 16 hours/day ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXehMr4XMAAkEbh.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1835144478916595741) · 32 likes Reddit-like interface for Twitter! http://tweddit.neocities.org If you want it to work for you, upload your data to the Archive! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXe-LWhWQAASEEY.jpg) > **Quoting ❤️‍🔥 xiq (@exgenesis):** reminder to request your twitter archive :) ### [Thread, continued, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1835144481852535186) · 2 likes Bc thumbnails probably make people click http://tweddit.neocities.org ### [Reply to @theshahidhn, 02:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1835150176559702434) · 2 likes > **shahid (@theshahidhn):** can someone explain why is it that when I eat at a slight caloric deficit I seem to lose weight, but when I eat at a larger caloric deficit I seem to maintain or even put on weight?? No ### [Tweet, 07:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1835217225084485833) · 16 likes When Claude starts the response with “interesting question!“ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXgAVxUXoAAx_RX.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 07:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1835219093151969432) · 17 likes Being against rodent studies sounds like bleeding heart animal lover cope but they’re in fact shockingly bad (like truly much less helpful than you’d naively expect) > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Thread, continued, 07:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1835219095060402271) · 2 likes Of course in principle if science and biomedical research were populated by ideal Bayesian agents, they could just be well-calibrated about how much evidence mice provide But in reality everyone over-indexes and we cure cancer a gazillion times in mice and then not in humans ### [Thread, continued, 07:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1835219096591302920) · 2 likes Good paper https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2642860/ ### [Reply to @___frye, 17:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1835371189058912693) · 2 likes > **frye (@___frye):** FWIW my wife had this exact experience recently after testing positive for the MTHFR gene mutation > > started taking methyl folate. chronic depression symptoms pretty much disappeared > > it’s been more effective than SSRIs, which she tried for years > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXiJ2wYakAAtbXF.jpg) Deplin go brr ### [Reply to @elder_plinius, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1835417058546462799) · 54 likes > **Pliny the Liberator 🐉󠅫󠄼󠄿󠅆󠄵󠄐󠅀󠄼󠄹󠄾󠅉󠅭 (@elder_plinius):** link to OP’s chat: https://chatgpt.com/share/66e718e5-c934-8001-8ffa-ef7ca1f165ff Now we wait ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXi2FjzWkAE3Yco.jpg) ### [Tweet, 23:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1835459854296613120) · 4 likes Seems like plausibly a false flag account. I want to say it probably is, in fact. Just FYI ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXjdAlrX0AACfqu.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXjdAlrWcAADLnD.jpg) ## Monday, September 16, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 07:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1835586591927971921) · 13 likes What the fuck > **Quoting Sridhar Ramesh (@RadishHarmers):** Bob wins with probability 528,495,731,290,486,310,231,292,772,358 / 2^100, while Alice wins with lesser probability 395,447,854,881,692,553,836,159,303,474 / 2^100. ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 14:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1835690022848094598) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @littIeramblings @AaronBergman18 @jskf\_\_ @Laura_k_Duffy 👀👀👀 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXmcpvQXEAA-UHE.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXmcrPOXEAAJajj.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXmct7yWcAAkYOr.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXmcvUhWQAEEfn0.jpg) 👀 ### [Tweet, 15:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1835709514462429663) · 8 likes Real friends share their data with u 🥰 @NoahTopper ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXnAEtYXUAA-_8h.jpg) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 15:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1835709647258292717) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 @ilex_ulmus Oh hey, I just downloaded my raw Ancestry DNA data: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nzZ3W4qY-zmYB3cEGkfC1KPd5SqpnKRa/view?usp=sharing Jinx ### [Tweet, 21:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1835791247455498362) · 77 likes Moral anti-realist rationalists when they dislike whatever you’re doing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXoKaQQWgAA5Ra4.jpg) ## Tuesday, September 17, 2024 ### [Reply to @Yozarian22, 01:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1835857335803142578) · 3 likes > **Yozarian22 (@Yozarian22):** @AaronBergman18 I don't see the connection with anti-realism? Realism lets you appeal to the observer-independent badness of an action when trying to convince someone to change their behavior My sense is that many/most anti-realists think that, at the end of the day, moral claims are just claims about someone’s preferences… ### [Thread, continued, 01:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1835858154321584200) · 3 likes If I’m playing loud music late at night, a (consistent) anti-realist can ask me to stop but won’t claim that what I’m doing is wrong in some absolute sense; it’s just my preference vs theirs, and their goal is to change my preference to “not keep playing loud music rn” ### [Reply to @joejanizek, 11:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836004088036642978) · 2 likes > **Joseph D. Janizek (@joejanizek):** Reasons I’m somewhat skeptical of these posts are: A) there’s already widespread folate supplementation in most processed foods, and B) there’s basically no downside to folate/B12 supplementation, so if you were worried about it, you could probably buy a lifetime supply for.. The whole point is that folate supplementation doesn’t work for some people. They need methylfolate ### [Reply to @norvid_studies, 11:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836004386020970542) · 3 likes > **norvid_studies (@norvid_studies):** \+5-10 iq intervention with no downsides that affects 1 in 5 people and not widely used? doesn't sound impossible but ... ? > > (quoting @amplifiedamp: Get your MTHFR gene tested!!! Doing so and taking methyl folate boosted my IQ by 5-10 points permanently 20% of Americans have the mutation, get a GeneSight at-home test) Depression causally reduces IQ (I think) and deplin = methylfolate is approved as an antidepressant so at least directionally there should be some genuine effect here ### [Tweet, 12:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836024711093874927) · 9 likes Moral value realism (state A of the world is objectively better than state B) // Normative realism (it’s objectively true that you should do X) ### [Thread, continued, 12:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836025044322963740) · 7 likes Cc @absurdlymax @SpacedOutMatt We’re hiring a guy to be value anti-realism + normative realism to complete the grid Apply here ### [Thread, continued, 12:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836025257427148949) · 3 likes Fr though it’s strange to me that these rarely get conceptually separated ### [Reply to @ShakeelHashim, 13:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836028084513857546) · 3 likes > **Shakeel (@ShakeelHashim):** Claude is great, but one weird thing is that it's so sycophantic I don't really \*respect\* it? You’re absolutely right! That is very helpful information. ### [Tweet, 13:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836031173081858318) · 12 likes While I don’t really want my whole feed to be the little hippo, I also can’t be expected to not like hippo posts when they appear I’m not sure there’s a way out ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 13:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836033496445251623) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @SpacedOutMatt That's because half of these views are insane ☹️ ### [Quote tweet, 13:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836040020387385826) · 8 likes One of many interesting things in the quoted graph is that placebo group weight returns to baseline This isn’t what you’d expect from regression to the mean, which occurs with other systemic, semi-mysterious diseases like depression > **Quoting Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** The worst common argument against Ozempic is that if you stop using it, the effect wears off. > > Of course it does! If you stop exercising and dieting, you put on weight from that too, but that's not enough for anyone to seriously contend that diet and exercise are bad. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXlCUToWMAAEGIU.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 14:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836051936375652600) · 4 likes Turns out this is closer to literally true than I thought > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Aaron don’t wear his shirt inside out for a whole day difficulty impossible ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836171195886285163) · 3 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** this is probably largely why openai hides o1's COT. > > i suspect: > \- RL has made it increasingly alien > > \- they don't want to implicitly incentivize it to act human. it should be a black box, only concerned with getting the correct answer > > (quoting @arithmoquine: if your model's chain of thought is remotely legible, i don't believe in it. are you really telling me simulating a human's internal monologue is the optimal mode of reasoning? Compress Harder. i don't trust the efficiency of an intelligence that thinks anything like us) I mean all its raw intelligence comes from predicting and understanding human text I have a hard time thinking about how much that matters but intuitively it should strongly bias the model towards using in-distribution (ie human-legible) reasoning tokens ### [Tweet, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836175906865348771) · 9 likes Did we ever find out why Elon killed circles? It was the best feature of any social media app anywhere, it worked perfectly fine, and then poof ## Wednesday, September 18, 2024 ### [Reply to @jaybaxter, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836210011560644734) · 3 likes > **Jay Baxter (@jaybaxter):** @AaronBergman18 >It was the best feature of any social media app anywhere > > This part is debatable :) If you would please consult the graph ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXuHPNzW4AA5f4G.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836210232843817304) · 3 likes However I have requested a community note just in case ### [Reply to @jakobgreenfeld, 08:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836318480628383950) · 2 likes > **Jakob Greenfeld (@jakobgreenfeld):** The biggest life hack is making sure you get your dopamine exclusively from activities that move you closer to your ideal life. Darn ### [Quote tweet, 17:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836454979625992645) · 30 likes Holy shit lmao That’s \*digits\* in each number Next token prediction really does go brr > **Quoting Smoke-away (@SmokeAwayyy):** Multiplication using o1-mini vs GPT-4o > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXtXsQ-akAc1egt.jpg) ### [Reply to @RokoMijic, 17:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836457669214781841) · 3 likes > **Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** @AaronBergman18 this is still worse than human experts > > heck, even I could probably beat this with a pen and paper (though obviously more slowly) Yeah, but the point is that next token prediction ends up generalizing extremely well. Now we’re all used to this, but I wouldn’t have expected it ### [Reply to @dylanmatt, 18:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836472768675582189) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dylanmatt is no longer available.)_ This would probably be true beneath some trivial amount I’d rather be paid $0 than $1. Probably $10 even. But at realistic amounts you’re right ### [Quote tweet, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836473199409942687) · 17 likes I don’t care what the correct plural form is currently. It should be octopi ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXx2o9TWYAICedQ.jpg) > **Quoting Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** Amusingly, Democrats were more likely to get the correct answer ("Octopuses", not "Octopi"). > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXxzNSZWkAAw9KT.png) ### [Reply to @HenriThunberg, 18:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836475339716821206) · 2 likes > **Henri Thunberg 🔸 (@HenriThunberg):** Boooh, rare Aaron L. > > We shouldn't nitpick what people say, but changing what it "should be" is withering down language to a goo where no beauty can be found. 😢 ### [Reply to @albrgr, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836494800058802513) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @albrgr is no longer available.)_ Big if true ### [Tweet, 20:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836497700654641233) · 4 likes Strava has fallen ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXyM7NDXIAA7Xgo.jpg) ## Thursday, September 19, 2024 ### [Reply to @polisisti, 01:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836581302750814255) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 explain your position No ### [Tweet, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836615260922614242) · 31 likes Society (metaphorically) if I could write as easily and quickly on Hinge and the EA Forum as I do on twitter ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXz32DZWQAAO3VV.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836615807398203682) · 6 likes They’re two totally different modes Low stakes: I can just type and my thoughts magically appear on the screen High stakes: I can maybe write a sentence but then I’ll delete it bc it’s clearly not \*exactly\* what I want to say ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 04:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836617087835316364) · 3 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Me, writing a normal email to one person I know and am on good terms with: \[let me triple read this over first to make sure there's no embarrassing typos\] > Me, writing an edgy tweet for the entire word to see: \[done and send tweet; close app\] Real ### [Reply to @chismosavirus, 17:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836824075131572685) · 4 likes > **megan (@chismosavirus):** u can always tell when a man is dating someone new. why you going to aquarium and griffith observatory Maybe I just like looking at fish ## Friday, September 20, 2024 ### [Tweet, 04:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836981076905922756) · 7 likes New Spotify Wrapped just dropped. Sorry for being a basic Type of Guy ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GX5EjcOWwAAxjbw.jpg) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 04:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1836986046732538089) · 7 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @pli_cachete Fun fact: I once had one of these with MC Hammer, over whether the theory of evolution was right or not. What in the world ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GX5JErWWUAAO5DV.jpg) ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 23:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1837276603732070600) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Seems bad ## Saturday, September 21, 2024 ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 00:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1837283475767894083) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Would beat Moo Deng in a fight > > (quoting @CincinnatiZoo: Fritz the baby hippo is two years old and now weighs 1,345 pounds! 👏) They would never fight ### [Reply to @TechEmails, 01:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1837303743064195165) · 16 likes > **Internal Tech Emails (@TechEmails):** Mark Zuckerberg emails WhatsApp cofounder > > April 6, 2013 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GX8ztn1aUAIpmFi.png) Aww he’s shooting his playdate shot (I unironically respect this) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1837552408156602735) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @GjMcGowan Washing machine at the new crib? ### [Tweet, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1837559603015373073) · 7 likes I had a dream about not being able to solve a leetcode problem at a Jane Street interview ### [Reply to @datepsych, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1837561020643967193) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @datepsych is no longer available.)_ It’s a good example of why “social injustice” isn’t an especially useful term It is what it is - life isn’t fair, and there is suffering, and those are bad things that we can sometimes fix or partially fix ## Sunday, September 22, 2024 ### [Reply to @izzyz, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1837679059465068759) · 3 likes > **izzy (@izzyz):** isn’t it weird to imagine that us humans and animals are the only living things in the universe? this easily seems like a reason everyone should believe aliens are real Animals are actually pretty weird if u think about it But yes I agree ### [Reply to @adrusi, 03:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1837691061726003447) · 9 likes > **autumn (@adrusi):** i had put some stock in the "dei killed the chips act" narrative because i heard it from ezra klein, who i trust not to be insane about this stuff and takes his work seriously > > very happy to find it's just another way i underestimated the biden admin. fantastic news, bravo > > (quoting @Noahpinion: Remember all those articles screaming that "DEI killed the CHIPS Act" and "Industrial policy has failed" and blah blah blah? Well, the TSMC Arizona factory is now up and running and making chips, and it's ahead of schedule. 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲) Aside from any object level stuff, I will chime in to say I think this is basically the right way to form opinions on matters you don’t personally have a near-term, direct stake in 80% of the time ### [Thread, continued, 03:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1837692136927424787) · 8 likes There are like 7 things I have a good inside view on, the rest I just defer to some weighted avg of Ezra Klein, Matt Yglesias, Brian Tomasik, Rob Wiblin, and Scott Alexander (this is slightly hyperbolic tbc) ### [Quote tweet, 12:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1837828373428445595) · 3 likes You can’t convince me Stein exists in-between election cycles > **Quoting PBS News (@NewsHour):** The Supreme Court has rejected an emergency appeal from Nevada’s Green Party seeking to include presidential candidate Jill Stein on the ballot in the battleground state. https://to.pbs.org/3TxGLj6 ### [Quote tweet, 12:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1837832902748344449) · 3 likes Rip > **Quoting Liam Bright (@lastpositivist):** @besttrousers I don't think we propose to so degrowth we just do it. ### [Reply to @jskf__, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1837931476664340779) · 3 likes > **jskf 🔀 (@jskf__):** @niplav_site Yes, I often use "I believe" to suggest much lower confidence. Yea, people pretend not to know it’s a rhetorical tool Same with “I think” ### [Reply to @jskf__, 19:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1837932605087666385) · 4 likes > **jskf 🔀 (@jskf__):** What do you mean by pretend to not know? Maybe that wording is a little harsh, but I see people say that there’s no semantic difference between “X” and “I believe/think X” ### [Thread, continued, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1837932742841192817) · 3 likes Whereas I think they implicitly do understand the difference ### [Quote tweet, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1837942191890497896) · 17 likes Someone more conscientious than me should do this > **Quoting Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** I do NOT have time to run any more clubs, but I have this dream of a once a month “Get the Ball Rolling” meeting where we all co-work on important non-habit-based life improvements like setting up a Vanguard account, starting the Accutane process, signing up for Cryonics, etc. ## Monday, September 23, 2024 ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838039342901547066) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** I'm also getting a physical set printed and will be filming an intro and game with @AaronBergman18, @Laura_k_Duffy, and @arthur_wright\_ when it arrives! And the physical set will be coming with me to EAG Boston in November! 👀big if true 👀 ### [Reply to @matsonj, 06:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838103833416708307) · 14 likes > **Jacob Matson (@matsonj):** Related: every app is just an interface for a database > > (quoting @vboykis: Everything is information retrieval if you squint hard enough) Not doodle jump ### [Reply to @metakuna, 12:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838193229163880547) · 2 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** what did pigeons eat before crumbs were invented? Other pigeons ### [Reply to @LuiseWoehlke, 12:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838194705487598068) · 4 likes > **Luise Woehlke (@LuiseWoehlke):** The fraction of autistic people in EA is insane 😈 ### [Reply to @EAForumPosts, 13:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838202416098865646) · 5 likes > **EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** New popular post from the EA Forum: > > "Announcing Animal Welfare vs Global Health Debate Week" by Toby Tremlett🔹 > https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/9ad4C4YknLM5fGG4v/announcing-animal-welfare-vs-global-health-debate-week 👀 ### [Quote tweet, 13:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838205276903678016) · 2 likes 👀 > **Quoting EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** New popular post from the EA Forum: > > "Announcing Animal Welfare vs Global Health Debate Week" by Toby Tremlett🔹 > https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/9ad4C4YknLM5fGG4v/announcing-animal-welfare-vs-global-health-debate-week ### [Quote tweet, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838287863429120031) · 20 likes It really never gets old The wings aren’t big enough to make the plane not fall down (intuitively; evidently somehow they do) When I stick my arms out and run as fast as I can, I don’t even come \*close\* to starting to float above the ground > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Guy who prefers living near an airport bc the sound is pretty minor and the planes are cool to look at (me) ### [Thread, continued, 18:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838288517996179626) · 2 likes The surface area of the wings just isn’t that big. And commercial jets are >150k pounds. It just doesn’t add up [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1838288495942471680/pu/img/TGz7j6J6n14mxrrI.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838288517996179626/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 18:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838290723734507783) · 5 likes > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** @AaronBergman18 You just need to run 100x faster and make your arms more wing-shaped, skill issue Hmm ok thanks for the feedback. I’ll try this ### [Reply, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838293880795729975) · 1 like I think there’s some empirical evidence for this at <1 mile. I’m ~4 miles away. Honestly I have no idea, someone should tell me if I should be worried. Intuitively it doesn’t feel like trying to time talking like that would make any difference ### [Reply to @LabGrownNeet, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838294730423025693) · 2 likes > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** @AaronBergman18 Oh I mean I just literally had to bc of the noise Ohh lol ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838317035844952515) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** If you were running at the takeoff speed of a 737 (150 mph) I think your intuitions would change Why would it help to slow down? ### [Tweet, 21:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838330626832773343) · 9 likes The more I interact with the world the more correct this seems to be ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYMP9paXcAABSUX.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838335694114062620) · 11 likes Whenever someone says “there have been numerous waves of AI hype and disappointment” > **Quoting bayes (@bayeslord):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYMP5k5XcAAV4Go.jpg) ### [Reply, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838337775575162883) @SpacedOutMatt U ARE A LIAR ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838347547405848630) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Given that you were literally a math major this is not an excuse :P Still fake imo ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 22:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838349745917432076) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** If u spent as much time with an aerodynamics textbook as u did tweeting about how you don't understand planes, maybe you'd understand planes 😈 Help I’ve been murdered 💀💀💀 ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 22:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838349961374642464) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 @ethai\_\_ https://x.com/SpacedOutMatt/status/1810634561069465924 I have literally taken him to the planes museum and explained how the planes work We must retvrn ## Tuesday, September 24, 2024 ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 02:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838409794673054187) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @SpacedOutMatt @AaronBergman18 @ethai\_\_ Both of you have made some really good points in this discussion. I don't know who to trust! Me imo. Matt works in airplanes so he’s biased and can’t be trusted ### [Reply to @RichardMCNgo, 11:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838541888237744632) · 5 likes > **Richard Ngo (@RichardMCNgo):** “If \[moral\] nihilism is true, nothing matters - there’s not reason to do one thing over another. So in our deliberation, we can act as if \[moral\] realism is true.” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYNb4qHakAMTwAY.jpg) I’ll unironically defend this FWIW ### [Reply to @herbivoryze, 12:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838559352749219929) · 10 likes > **HerbivoRyzing (@herbivoryze):** The first academic paper specifically on turning predators into herbivores > > https://brill.com/view/journals/jaae/aop/article-10.1163-25889567-bja10051/article-10.1163-25889567-bja10051.xml Based ### [Reply to @manic_pixie_agi, 12:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838563161705775526) · 2 likes > **Corinne (🏠 in NYC) (@manic_pixie_agi):** @AaronBergman18 this sounds made up. 100%? Maybe a skill issue but I can't find the original paper from a google search Nooo nothing on the internet is false noo ### [Reply to @RichDecibels, 14:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838586505314394506) · 3 likes > **Richard D. Bartlett (@RichDecibels):** you have not found smarter people to be less kind, on average? I don’t think so, no, but regardless they \*needn’t\* trade off ### [Tweet, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838632973899300912) · 7 likes There is exactly one functional part of US healthcare and it is that somehow it’s actually quite easy and totally free to get COVID+flu vaccine ### [Quote tweet, 18:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838648933502812430) · 15 likes Is this true? If so I feel like it’s crazy under-discussed Same as with SBF - ideological, material, and psychological explanations for behavior are hardly sufficient when the person in question is permanently hypomanic > **Quoting Nemo (@thecaptain_nemo):** hitler was the bryan johnson of his day but his doctor was basically just winging it > > check out hitler’s supplement stack. would receive up to 20 injections a day. 70+ different substances including testosterone, adrenaline and other hormones, methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin... > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYQhiWnakAEs-9q.jpg) ### [Reply to @jkeatn, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838649539458150535) · 4 likes > **Jake Eaton (@jkeatn):** This is kind of the entire German army though They got amphetamines, probably not the whole storm cocktail (right?) ### [Tweet, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838677904021971154) · 17 likes Try to list the 10 most populous countries How many of the ten did you get right, if order doesn’t matter? Correct list below ### [Thread, continued, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838677912377229420) · 4 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYRL0LYW4AEs4Qy.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838677922120634785) · 3 likes I’m surprised I did this well ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYRL0sfXkAErNQp.jpg) ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 21:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838685024469570045) · 6 likes > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** @AaronBergman18 Felt good about my 9 until seeing that's the median, you have knowledgeable followers Yeah this is extremely typical smh 😒 ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 21:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838687147114606848) · 12 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** I'm looking for work! I recently decided that I was motivated enough to help reduce AI risk to quit my full-time job & pursue opportunities in AI safety comms/governance. > > I'm currently undertaking a career transition period funded by the Long Term Future Fund (more below) Based, twitter go brr ### [Reply to @tenobrus, 21:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838689251438805157) · 3 likes > **Tenobrus (@tenobrus):** were u pretending to be an adult online since u were a small child? I’ve been 16 since I was 12 ### [Quote tweet, 22:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838704849799553519) · 7 likes Warning in case anyone thinks I’m smart > **Quoting techsiren ♥︎ (@techhsiren):** sometimes u think a man is smart but he's really just regurgitating some shit he heard on a podcast word for word ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 22:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838710549946753167) · 2 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** Seriously how the fuck does anyone get addicted to amphetamines they suck so bad For better or worse IME they are the opposite of this for me (every dimension gets better, only downside is tolerance) ### [Reply, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838710920488357938) · 1 like 😢 ## Wednesday, September 25, 2024 ### [Tweet, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838776354638074159) · 2 likes Kinda wild that plausibly the most consequential thing ✨wokism✨ will have achieved causally runs through Biden promising to pick a black woman as VP Not saying that this is good or bad tbc, but POTUS matters quite a bit ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 04:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1838802682980520435) · 2 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** Am I wrong to think Chicago, London, and the Bay are better (based mostly on comparing my experience to what people in DC say about DC)? My sense is that the bay is better on people just saying what they think out loud, but this isn’t identical to or sufficient for being “earnest, thoughtful, and great” ### [Quote tweet, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839012740188258447) · 83 likes 1\) what > **Quoting Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump):** Leopold Aschenbrenner’s SITUATIONAL AWARENESS predicts we are on course for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) by 2027, followed by superintelligence shortly thereafter, posing transformative opportunities and risks. > > This is an excellent and important read : > > https://situational-awareness.ai/ > > @leopoldasch ### [Reply to @Bbburner19, 18:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839016300300874214) · 2 likes > **The People Mover That Was Promised (@Bbburner19):** @AaronBergman18 She should endorse Kamala. I agree ### [Reply to @krishnanrohit, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839029977926316354) · 2 likes > **rohit (@krishnanrohit):** What does this mean? > \- Sam writes blogpost about being 1000s of days from superintelligence > \- Mira jumps ship > \- Ivanka tweets Leopold > > (quoting @miramurati: I shared the following note with the OpenAI team today.) Probably not directly related ## Thursday, September 26, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839093866122645938) · 7 likes Seems illegal > **Quoting Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal):** 🚨 BREAKING: OPENAI TO REMOVE NON-PROFIT CONTROL, GIVING SAM ALTMAN $150 BILLION EQUITY > > OpenAI is planning to restructure its business into a for-profit benefit corporation, removing control from its non-profit board. > > This shift, aimed at attracting more investors, will also grant CEO Sam Altman equity for the first time, potentially valuing the company at $150 billion. > > The non-profit will retain a minority stake, while concerns arise about AI safety as governance changes are finalized. > > Source: Reuters > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYWZQNGXYAA9BQA.jpg) ### [Tweet, 00:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839106103600144508) · 10 likes I have to know if @QualyThe says their own name like this, like a Pokemon [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1839106083253592064/pu/img/E1wm65dTH0O0ZELG.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839106103600144508/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Quote tweet, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839108644819906961) · 4 likes .@SpacedOutMatt: in 7 minutes I’m gonna do a mock job interview with Aaron. I bet he’s studying hard and taking notes Me: > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I have to know if @QualyThe says their own name like this, like a Pokemon > > [video attached](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839106103600144508/video/1) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 02:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839129066332451003) · 5 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @RomanHauksson @ciphergoth @AaronBergman18 🤝 What ### [Quote tweet, 02:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839129192241213598) · 12 likes .@OpenAI do u need a guy > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @slimepriestess You can always make terrible models for fun (this took 12 hours on an m1 MBP) > > [video attached](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1814339057129828503/video/1) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839132474858700878) · 3 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I hear they’re looking for a new Chief Research Officer @sama I’ll plan for you to pick me up in that fancy car. Meet at the white house tomorrow at noon ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839150213950267594) · 6 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** Real Qualy answer me so I can rest my weary brain ### [Reply to @elonmusk, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839150433924718836) · 5 likes > **Elon Musk (@elonmusk):** This is deeply wrong > > (quoting @ParikPatelCFA: How to make $10 billion dollars: - Raise $50 million from Elon Musk to start a nonprofit - Tell everyone you are doing this for the sake of humanity and raise billions - Convert from non-profit to for-profit and grant yourself equity) You should sue ### [Tweet, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839150680197488729) · 65 likes OpenPhil gets $50B lawsuit payout arc? ### [Thread, continued, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839152087420064053) · 22 likes Fr they should sue. With Musk and whoever else ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 04:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839154038291497151) · 25 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** @AaronBergman18 ? Should sue OpenAI for taking their money as a nonprofit and then going for-profit ### [Reply to @besttrousers, 04:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839156300082528665) · 9 likes > **Matt Darling 🌐🏗️ (@besttrousers):** OpenAI has 1700 employees according to Wikipedia. > > If their quit rate is the same as the economy-wide average, you would expect 36 people to quit a month, or ~1.7 a day. This is good context, but what’s the churn rate for jobs that pay a gajillion dollars per millisecond ### [Reply to @TylerAlterman, 04:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839160901116551362) · 2 likes > **Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply (@TylerAlterman):** What best characterizes your feeling about OpenAI 3rd option but also great talent pipeline for anthropic ### [Quote tweet, 04:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839161620204859766) · 74 likes Ideal woman: \- female \- likes me > **Quoting mikayla (@honeyNonABG):** My ideal man: > \- 6’0+ > \- Good facial bone structure > \- 120+ IQ > \- Deep voice > \- Funny > \- Assertive > \- Cowboy personality > \- Income > $130K > > (Optional) > \- Ivy League educated > \- Old money ### [Quote tweet, 12:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839285978738946262) · 7 likes 👇 > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Yeah these recent revelations have pushed me over the line from “way too self confident but earnest” to “basically a bad person who can’t be trusted” ### [Reply to @beala, 15:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839325162438906152) · 2 likes > **Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** Oh yikes. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYaOTZKacAAWggC.jpg) No this is based. I had a poster of a duck up at one point bc I thought it was funny but then I moved and it disappeared ### [Reply to @TylerAlterman, 15:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839327150257942735) · 2 likes > **Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply (@TylerAlterman):** More from her: > "Courting women is and should be risky. Men are supposed to take well-calibrated risks, that's a huge part of masculinity" ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYaaSs7aoAEFvWY.jpg) ### [Reply to @francip, 21:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839419892266909927) · 2 likes > **Franci Penov (@francip):** @AaronBergman18 You get only one of the two. [![GIF thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/GYbuo-fbIAAKaPZ.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839419892266909927/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839423629517377623) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 26, 2024:** Fr they should sue. With Musk and whoever else Manifold market https://manifold.markets/AaronBergman18/will-openphil-or-a-related-entity-e ### [Thread, continued, 21:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839424405782344028) · 4 likes I also hope this happens for the purely selfish reason that it’ll be incredible to watch/follow ### [Reply to @lxrjl, 21:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839424594673099100) · 2 likes > **alex lawsen (@lxrjl):** How many people can an organisation lose, hypothetically, before it should start worrying that maybe it's getting close to being "without its people"? Well if you replace one employee with an identical counterpart, and then another, and then another… ### [Reply to @animalologist, 22:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839425463380488470) · 4 likes > **taco belle (@animalologist):** i have had multiple men describe me as "psychoactive" and "addictive" like buddy i am not a drug i'm just a girl > > (quoting @sighswoon: Can’t tell you how many Men have accused me of doing witchcraft on them (never did) instead of being responsible for the intense passionate feelings that arose inside them) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYbztVJaEAE7X-F.jpg) ## Friday, September 27, 2024 ### [Reply to @NathanL0lz, 09:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839602995601826201) > **Nathan (נתן) 🌹 ⬱ ✡︎ ⚣🌂❌❌❌🍉 (@NathanL0lz):** Confused as to how python is partially responsible for the end of the world https://80000hours.org/problem-profiles/artificial-intelligence/ ### [Reply to @NathanL0lz, 09:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839605395272151368) · 5 likes > **Nathan (נתן) 🌹 ⬱ ✡︎ ⚣🌂❌❌❌🍉 (@NathanL0lz):** I don’t see how it’s python specifically that’s responsible for this? Most of the progress in AI has been made using python (libraries like PyTorch and tensorflow) But it’s kinda a joke - there’s nothing super special about python that enables modern AI, it’s just how things have gone ### [Tweet, 11:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839626330159169585) · 5 likes There’s probably an economic case for broader Medicaid eligibility purely via reducing the personal risk of entrepreneurship relative to employment ### [Tweet, 12:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839647879977144560) · 13 likes In hindsight it’s kinda weird I was put in both a social skills class and some sort of sensory therapy (idk what it’s formally known as, they gave me one of these brushes) and yet I don’t remember anyone saying the word “autism” until a few months ago ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYe9_zoXsAIKj1Y.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 12:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839647881919090734) · 5 likes I don’t think this was bad tbc. Tentatively it seems good, actually. I’m not sure the label would have helped me. But still interesting ### [Reply, 13:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839661425288958289) · 6 likes Good question. Probably the transatlantic slave trade: Claude estimates that it resulted in something like a billion life-years lived as slaves. Hard to think of anything worse for humans ### [Tweet, 13:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839661658643247532) · 3 likes Good question, and one I hadn’t thought about. My best guess below ### [Thread, continued, 13:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839661716935684235) · 4 likes ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 13:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839662024650883382) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 27, 2024:** Good question. Probably the transatlantic slave trade: Claude estimates that it resulted in something like a billion life-years lived as slaves. Hard to think… Misread - about half a billion actually ### [Reply to @ptrschmdtnlsn, 14:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839671294876364973) · 4 likes > **Peter Schmidt-Nielsen (@ptrschmdtnlsn):** When you watch videos of fabs or even just PCB shops, jeez, the fact that a microprocessor costs less than $100k is a miracle. My monkey brain refuses to believe computers are real at all ### [Tweet, 14:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839676849766465783) · 14 likes (Valiant formatting effort by Claude) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYfYWE8XYAA829t.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839761263041146884) · 31 likes Bro my lightbulbs are trying to sell me an AI assistant ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYglHjWWwAAIn26.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839761297530855846) · 4 likes Cc @QualyThe ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 23:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1839817227253526647) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** I would never do that bb ❤️ ## Saturday, September 28, 2024 ### [Reply to @polisisti, 13:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840024701810422232) · 1 like > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @Estimatrix "oschumus" simile ac "posthumous" anglice dicitur, sine littera P Quid agitis, conservi Latine loquentes? ### [Reply to @polisisti, 13:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840026505868366058) · 1 like > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 @Estimatrix does ChatGPT know Latin 👀 Yes lol ### [Tweet, 14:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840036145062703133) · 18 likes Ok obviously I don’t think airplanes should be able to fly but also it’s crazy that we can get them to \*land\* in a specific spot Like ex ante this seems ~impossible. It doesn’t seem like the kind of thing amenable to that degree of control ### [Thread, continued, 14:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840036346192093605) · 3 likes \*gets blocked by @SpacedOutMatt\* ### [Reply to @br___ian, 14:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840040533684596779) · 5 likes > **bri (@br___ian):** the divide in flight understanders forever has been between guys who try to think about flight from first principles and guys who look at a bird and say "you're not so smart, how do you do it?" How do they do it tho? Wild ### [Reply to @gbrl_dick, 15:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840044774566359108) · 5 likes > **Gabriel (@gbrl_dick):** crossing the bering land bridge to the americas is the dumbest idea humans have ever conjured & i become irrationally annoyed anytime it gets brought up > > like sure, let’s spend 6 months walking to get to the land beyond the sun god? probably covered in ice lol > > (quoting @Villgecrazylady: Going to Mars is the dumbest idea humans ever conjured & I become irrationally annoyed anytime it gets brought up. Like sure thing, let’s spend a couple trillion $ to land on the next planet over where it’s -85°F all the time and there’s no oxygen or gravity or water. Brilliant!) This but unironically ### [Reply to @shinboson, 15:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840053607535689829) · 5 likes > **𝞍 Shin Megami Boson 𝞍 (@shinboson):** @AaronBergman18 The thing that made it click for me was that fluid “wants” to stick to surfaces and lift can be thought of as the counterforce to wedging an airstream away from a surface. Yeah I’m too dumb for this intuition lol ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 15:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840057666216861971) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 So I don’t disagree with you about planes, but I also don’t understand how anything else in the world works, so I see no reason to pick on planes in particular. Yeah fr, but planes seem especially visceral to me bc like huge flying tube idk Everything else parses as “magical trinket” ### [Reply, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840064341762085118) · 1 like The philosophy I’ve read on this leads me to think it’s a totally vacuous question. It’s a word pointing to an empty/null concept ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840076167866368432) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 28, 2024:** Yeah fr, but planes seem especially visceral to me bc like huge flying tube idk Everything else parses as “magical trinket” Wait actually there’s a more substantive difference: airplane flight doesn’t seem possible at all, totally apart from the question of how it works internally ### [Reply, 17:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840079562035609651) · 1 like Idk but I have the same issue. Lots of thoughts/takes, slow writer ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840112613948059829) · 7 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Them: Hey do you wanna do \[thing that makes you feel like shit\]? > > Me: No, that makes me feel like shit. > > Them: Oh, come on, it's a special occasion! Live a little, let yourself do \[thing that makes you feel like shit\]! Real ## Sunday, September 29, 2024 ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 12:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840375306349097438) · 2 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** @AaronBergman18 Omg i was given one of those weird brushes too Lol one of us🤝 ### [Tweet, 13:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840379828433813829) · 9 likes For drugs with a long half life that take several weeks to reach steady state, why not just front load the dosing to reach target plasma levels quicker? Dw I’m not chugging my bottle of levothyroxine, this is not a rhetorical question Cc @FrostedSapling ### [Tweet, 14:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840403817340240165) · 4 likes Fair number of women on Hinge say something like “let’s be friends first and see where things go” I’m guessing this makes things much harder for them—they too have been let down by society’s decision to corral dating into a distinct, digital-only sphere ### [Tweet, 15:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840406409826975867) · 5 likes Analytic philosophy needs to be a subsection in every library/bookstore/audiobook app No lol I don’t want to read Meditations ### [Quote tweet, 15:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840406833120346381) · 9 likes New cause area: this but don’t fuck the mice up first, just give them massages > **Quoting Grace (@kindgracekind):** Me reading this headline: "Aw, they gave massages to mice! Mouse spa day!" > ... > > "I wonder where they found all those injured mice, though" > > ... > > ☹️ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYpDashbEAAnhT8.png) ### [Reply to @QiaochuYuan, 15:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840407626787569970) · 2 likes > **QC (@QiaochuYuan):** i think it has but it's hard to tell. i especially need it when the air gets smoky from fires and the rest of the time it basically doesn't cost me anything to keep running it and i appreciate knowing it's there \+1 ### [Reply to @appleMechanic, 15:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840408827348308411) · 2 likes > **teeming-asymptoting (@appleMechanic):** @AaronBergman18 @QiaochuYuan or more re when fire season? I mean I can’t know the counterfactual and the effect isn’t so strong and apparent that I can trivially detect it But I’ve definitely noticed that I feel better when there’s fresh, clean air in general (ie outside in nature vs in a dusty room) and trust the filter mechanism ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 15:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840412616952308156) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** EA mfers be getting their politics from centuries old philosophy, meanwhile the next election will be decided by a 19yo using AI to churn out deepfakes of The Daily Show. bro you're worried about the wrong John Stewart mill Banger ### [Tweet, 18:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840458170235265160) · 3 likes Kamala should run on making ADHD drugs easier to get. This is probably close to a bipartisan issue. Not even radical deregulation, just like let nurse practitioners prescribe and reduce the legal restrictions ### [Quote tweet, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840521666830475494) · 5 likes Based > **Quoting Cogent Sins🔎 (@Insect_Song):** @eigenrobot I ❤️ people willing to die on hills. > > Increasingly coming to think that a lot of society depends on disagreeable mildly autistic people. ### [Tweet, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840529080514441481) · 24 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYrfcdBWMAAzhxC.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 23:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840529263902027862) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Real > > (quoting @austinc3301: sigh) Real ### [Tweet, 23:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840540921428934736) · 13 likes Spotify clearly thinks I’m extremely cool ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYrqNpSWwAAUGk1.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYrqNpMWQAASNu1.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYrqNpPXAAEWtZz.jpg) ## Monday, September 30, 2024 ### [Reply, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840587909742653551) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Protestant-Jewish split household ### [Quote tweet, 11:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840720863403847994) · 6 likes Fine I’ll bite. What is Alexander Technique? > **Quoting yatharth ༺༒༻ (@AskYatharth):** woahh > > i just had my first alexander technique session with olivia lin and > > i didn't expect to feel this great. i feel tall, like i'm one body, i feel the floor separate > > normally i feel like a potato chip bag trying desperately not to be here and my body feels all disjoint ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 13:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840742747818324047) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 Goss 👀 ### [Reply to @livgorton, 16:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840783854044401666) · 1 like > **Liv (@livgorton):** i almost tagged aaron lol ✨ 👀 ### [Quote tweet, 17:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840802682832826486) · 7 likes Not to pick on this guy in particular but this meme doesn’t make sense. It should probably look something like this (random points with a slight bias towards the “true” ideology) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYvYSMbW0AAhZid.jpg) > **Quoting Zarathustra (@zarathustra5150):** ✨ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYrhvLjWEAA5IFA.jpg) ### [Reply to @HenriThunberg, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840852018791137601) · 7 likes > **Henri Thunberg 🔸 (@HenriThunberg):** The forum team has gone too far on this one > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYwAAMWbQAAnhgE.png) If you click it anyway it downloads and runs an exe that destroys your computer a la Stuxnet ### [Reply to @HenriThunberg, 20:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1840857234047451387) · 2 likes > **Henri Thunberg 🔸 (@HenriThunberg):** Locks your computer into a fullscreen google doc that you can only exit once you publish "that draft you've been working on" I’d rather be Stuxnet’d --- End of September 2024. Previous month: [August 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-08). Next month: [October 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-10). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, October 2024 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in October 2024 and has not deleted: 321 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [September 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-09). Next month: [November 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-11). ## Tuesday, October 1, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 12:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841097848294686847) · 5 likes Ya fr it’s good > **Quoting Jonathan Birch (@birchlse):** Very pleased to see a substantial review of The Edge of Sentience in the latest issue of Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03076-z > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYzWflBW4AE_khM.png) ### [Reply to @kindgracekind, 15:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841144341303099596) · 4 likes > **Grace (@kindgracekind):** You never hear about Unknown Knowns There’s a documentary called this I think ### [Reply to @albrgr, 16:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841147964879687764) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @albrgr is no longer available.)_ Honestly, maybe (to answer the q) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 17:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841171973642055746) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I remain /r/atheism's strongest soldier. People have a constant tendency to start believing in magic again and we gotta epically debate them out of it. > > (quoting @morallawwithin: One bad side effect of the fall of logical positivism is people just started believing in magic again) Sorry, I’m past the apex of the at least partially U-shaped epistemic curve ### [Thread, continued, 17:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841172797168525496) · 2 likes The world is very strange ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 18:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841178622855692522) · 2 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** (to be clear, OP is not a fan of OpenAI. But OP is not the kind of actor that would say that openly because that doesn't match their model of how to gather and sustain social capital and influence, and because it doesn't want to take any positions that might hurt Dustin) Hope you’re wrong, weakly think you’re right. Market fwiw https://manifold.markets/AaronBergman18/will-openphil-or-a-related-entity-e ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841185547047305320) · 4 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** My boyfriend: "You have infinite job security \[as my girlfriend\]. The longshoreman of my heart ❤️" Rizz ### [Reply to @hendrycks, 19:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841192235376771094) · 12 likes > **Dan Hendrycks (@hendrycks):** It's worth also clarifying last year I voluntarily declined xAI equity when it was being founded. (Even .1% would be >$20mn.) If I was in it for the money I would have just left for industry long ago. > > (quoting @hendrycks: To send a clear signal, I am choosing to divest from my equity stake in Gray Swan AI. I will continue my work as an advisor, without pay. My goal is to make AI systems safe. I do this work on principle to promote the public interest, and that’s why I’ve chosen voluntarily to…) Based ### [Reply to @slimepriestess, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841192572238069940) · 2 likes > **Ra (@slimepriestess):** woo i passed my road test! 🎉 ### [Tweet, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841205679299658148) · 32 likes Spotify has gone woke ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GY1GzsyWcAAdccp.jpg) ### [Reply, 22:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841240233091674511) · 1 like Likewise if you stretch it a bit, or squish it, or give it many other arbitrary molecules ### [Quote tweet, 22:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841246721466052944) · 6 likes Fun fact I won an essay contest in high school proposing exactly this > **Quoting Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** The actual proposal is to have the govt as single purchaser who would compensate kidney donors, not to have an anything goes market. > > Matt knows this but thinks you're stupid and won't notice. He also just doesn't care that tens of thousands die every year from lack of kidneys. ## Wednesday, October 2, 2024 ### [Reply to @livgorton, 02:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841304632863158684) · 3 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** “you know what Tim, I agree!!” slay JD but you’re on the wrong ticket. maybe in another life, they could’ve been friends 🥺 🥺 ### [Quote tweet, 17:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841536033625674211) · 10 likes New pdf just dropped > **Quoting Andrea Miotti (@andreamiotti):** A NARROW PATH > > If attempts to build superintelligent AI succeed, we face extinction as a species. > > We must choose a different path, one where we control what we create. One where AI is a tool for human advancement, not a successor species. > > Humanity has no plan, so we built one. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GY5fKEtX0AAJ0dq.jpg) ### [Reply to @livgorton, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841536330284896279) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** i miss golden gate claude 😢 ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 17:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841537076254167204) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Nooooo I love offhand speculation ### [Reply to @JeremiahDJohns, 18:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841547161827475616) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @JeremiahDJohns is no longer available.)_ Wtf lol ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 22:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841612090982732173) · 3 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I've said this before and I'll say it again: the EA Forum is such an underrated piece of software Works better than twitter lol ## Thursday, October 3, 2024 ### [Tweet, 01:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841646152455704602) · 5 likes Why is it always AI, AI, AI? We need a new unusually charismatic baby zoo animal to disrupt this memetic aristocracy ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GY7Xak_XIAAruYi.jpg) ### [Reply to @mindyisser, 01:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841656835658445213) · 30 likes > **mindy🌷 (@mindyisser):** friend saw this guy on the apps lol > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GY7QXvkWoAA8NOr.jpg) God forbid men have a hobby ### [Tweet, 01:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841659084203798652) · 9 likes What goes on in New Zealand? It seems like a mysterious place ### [Reply to @adnhw, 02:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841661177119875263) · 1 like > **Aidan Homewood (@adnhw):** Pretty spread out, so lots of good nature. Stable constitutional monarchy. Biggest city has 1.5 million people. Weather is good. Not dense enough for trains, can't build enough houses either. No native mammal species, which is a shame for megafauna fans like me. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GY7kbaha0AARJI6.jpg) Fascinating Wait no native mammals wtf? No kangaroos or squirrels or mice? Sad ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 16:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841874881115230411) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Lmao ### [Reply to @notanastronomer, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841881407326494891) · 1 like > **Lauren Gilbert (@notanastronomer):** so long London 😢 😢 😢 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GY-sf2oXoAITTwk.jpg) Where u goin ### [Tweet, 17:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841900422484857279) · 16 likes I’m not sure how accurate this is, but I increasingly see the (US) economy as divided into Normal Economy and Infinite Money Economy, where the latter you get to join if you’re within ~2 degrees of separation from a Money Printing Machine (tech company with large profit margins) ### [Thread, continued, 17:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841900733505175570) · 8 likes This is based entirely on vibes and the perhaps-uncommon situation of having my social circle straddle the two worlds Like wdym you have a random extra MacBook lying around lmao ### [Tweet, 21:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841946418631868868) · 19 likes Orange man bad ### [Reply to @Lewis_Bollard, 22:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1841970394825425009) · 6 likes > **Lewis Bollard (@Lewis_Bollard):** Factory farmers deride activists claiming systemic cruelty as crazy conspiracy theorists. > > And then they publish resources like this… > > https://animalagalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/2024-Activist-Web.pdf > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GY_GX7-bAAAdXPq.jpg) Honestly it would be great if there was a gigantic conspiracy ## Friday, October 4, 2024 ### [Reply to @birchlse, 12:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842182031045788137) · 2 likes > **Jonathan Birch (@birchlse):** On my course The Big Questions this year: > > Do I know anything? > Can I choose what I do? > How do I tell right from wrong? > Should I obey the law? > What's the best form of government? > What is art? > How can I live a meaningful life? > > Feels like a great privilege to have this job! Let us know when you figure out the answers ### [Tweet, 12:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842186897839599779) · 12 likes They should make a HIPAA that’s still like “you can’t just gossip about patients” but not like “you have to build a bespoke messaging platform to communicate” ### [Thread, continued, 12:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842186945612644570) · 3 likes This makes me sad as I do love gossip ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 13:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842189150633828362) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ I stand with Julian ### [Quote tweet, 15:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842227819817906660) · 5 likes It’s a good observation Wanna be a doctor to help patients? Update the fucking XML file Want to be a pharmacist to, idk, to pharmacist stuff? Manage the fucking inventory Want to do biomedicine to cure diseases? Torture the fucking mice and file the fucking grant applications > **Quoting Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv):** fwiw i think there's a version of this in every single industry. like you wanna do real journalism so you join news media? scale the fucking pageviews. you wanna do real science so you join academia? scale the fucking... citations? (idk what they do i'm not an academic) ### [Quote tweet, 15:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842228737477091819) · 6 likes Well at least it’s apparent now that OpenAI has done a total 180 with respect to their original (and maybe technically still binding?) mission Once again, @open_phil should sue over corporate restructuring > **Quoting Gabriel Weil (@gabriel_weil):** This, via @TheZvi, seems... not great. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GY-yfynXAAAaFj3.jpg) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 16:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842245946362511634) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Whitepill is that b2b SaaS and inventory management and xml files have ushered in an era of prosperity unimaginable to our ancestors I do like a good xml file. Lots of juicy structured data ### [Reply to @jaybaxter, 22:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842327645737873418) · 7 likes > **Jay Baxter (@jaybaxter):** How excited would you be to trade in this particular presidential prediction market on X vs. having to trade on a different website? > > (Separately from other interesting ideas like many little prediction markets for claims in posts) > > (quoting @NathanpmYoung: Hey @elonmusk, how long until we get prediction markets on X? I want to quickly bet against people I disagree with.) Who will be POTUS? Not super excited - that’s gotta be like the single most liquid market The value twitter brings is just way more users, which enables a reasonable amount of liquidity on less popular markets ### [Reply to @metakuna, 22:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842336318497468492) · 4 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** Great job interview + dating strategy I've hit on is to steer the conversation towards one of your special interests and then filibuster to run out the clock \*taking notes\* ## Saturday, October 5, 2024 ### [Reply to @_Mira___Mira_, 07:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842469798728388921) · 2 likes > **Mira (@_Mira___Mira_):** These analogies miss the whole point. > > There's algorithms that are faster than on a classical computer. GHC runs on classical computers. So any useful analogy must distinguish the two. > > "Floating point error", "lazy evaluation", "caching" don't let you factor prime numbers fast. > > (quoting @fchollet: In quantum mechanics, the observer effect boils down to the idea that the world state is lazily evaluated (i.e. you only compute something when the result is causally needed to evaluate something else). This makes the many-world interpretation very icky: MWI requires "compute"…) I can factor prime numbers fast. In my head even ### [Reply to @bashu_thanks, 08:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842487151847493979) · 7 likes > **bashu, thanks (@bashu_thanks):** assisted pullups where the assistance is just a girl sitting next to the machine silently looking at me I feel in my bones I could do a 1-arm under these circumstances ### [Reply to @bashu_thanks, 08:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842487402440376631) · 6 likes > **bashu, thanks (@bashu_thanks):** assisted pullups where the assistance is just a girl sitting next to the machine silently looking at me ### [Quote tweet, 11:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842527919417012409) · 4 likes Obesity is such a big deal to so many economically and politically relevant people that I feel like there should be some elegant long-term straight-lines-on-a-graph thing that explains the timing here But afaict it was just dumb luck and biomed pipeline idiosyncrasies > **Quoting The Alex Nowrasteh (@AlexNowrasteh):** Organic food, seed oils elimination, or other food cult didn’t do this, it was Ozempic and semaglutides. > > Have you thanked big pharma today? I will do it for you. Thank you big pharma. > > THANK YOU. ### [Thread, continued, 11:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842527921186947147) · 3 likes Luck in both directions tbc. Like it could have easily come a decade earlier and maybe even a decade later ### [Tweet, 16:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842602812573979004) · 35 likes Maintenance guy showed up to replace air filter—ostensibly, at least, and I’m like 99.8% sure in reality too But it’s a little unnerving that I definitely would have let in any 20-60 year old dude in a jumpsuit who committed to the same bit ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842609037906772003) · 4 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @JesseTayRiver "to replace an air filter" omg these grifters Yeah at an economic level it’s interesting how much deadweight loss there is bc of weird contractual dynamics between landlord and renter Like I could have replaced the air filter lol, and would have if I owned instead of rented ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842647464504897940) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @JesseTayRiver @AaronBergman18 Oh no who was that guy Aaron!! Lmao ### [Quote tweet, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842699974330450421) · 4 likes Based > **Quoting Senior PowerPoint Engineer (@ryxcommar):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZIXEhOWcAAhACr.jpg) ## Sunday, October 6, 2024 ### [Reply to @rgblong, 03:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842765385499656379) · 2 likes > **Robert Long (@rgblong):** as a fellow life enjoyer, I fear and suspect that this means we do not, in fact, know how dark life gets Correct take lol ### [Tweet, 17:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842983580127154678) · 11 likes It should be illegal to have a supplement (or whatever) bottle with “1000 MG” and “100 CAPSULES” in big print and then it turns out the serving size is 4 caps, 250mg each ### [Quote tweet, 17:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842984707094700104) · 4 likes Oh snap 🔥🔥🔥 > **Quoting Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 @LinchZhang Your arguments seem surprisingly unconvincing to me ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 17:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842984930898530585) · 2 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** Here's a light mode version: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/jSPGFxLmzJTYSZTK3/reality-is-often-underpowered Thanks qualy ### [Tweet, 17:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842986983033032966) · 4 likes Intuitively, based on my memory, when I am very active on one day (measured by steps, which I’m ~certain is a good proxy), I tend to be less active the next day But no matter how I configure the autoregression (data from apple health), this keeps looking to be false ### [Thread, continued, 17:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842986984677257684) · 2 likes I actually have no idea what’s going on. Like I’m pretty sure both the data and my memory are encoding true things, but I don’t know how they reconcile Someone should make a blog/forum for nerds to debate epistemology and other stuff like this ### [Tweet, 17:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842988112894660721) · 11 likes Do British ppl actually say “bruv” ### [Reply, 18:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842988652978450935) · 1 like This…doesn’t answer? ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 18:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1842991718574268898) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Much of this currently appears to rely on endorsements from popular figures and doesn't show much evidence of success. This entire area is unimpressive to me so we may find little common ground Basically I just trust Thorne, Life Extension, and Integrative Therapeutics If one of these is ever shown to have serious labeling or quality issues, I’ll be wrong ### [Tweet, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1843012886798766522) · 14 likes The entire @dwarkesh_sp x Joe Carlsmith is just: Dwarkesh: Q Joe Carlsmith: we must distinguish between subtypes Q_1, Q_2, and Q_3 ### [Thread, continued, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1843012889218781306) · 2 likes This is good btw. Not quite necessary for good philosophy but often a hallmark of it ### [Thread, continued, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1843013070458900888) · 2 likes You should listen to the whole 6 hours on Joe’s feed btw https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/joe-carlsmith-audio/id1648436675?i=1000671332969 ### [Reply to @bengrossbg, 20:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1843024726215753972) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @bengrossbg is no longer available.)_ Based nice I should try to do this at least partially ## Monday, October 7, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 00:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1843084891250188709) · 4 likes What explains Travis Scott, Kendrick, and Kanye fans leaning left and Juice WRLD fans leaning right? > **Quoting Maxwell Tabarrok (@MTabarrok):** Median voter theorem for musicians > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZPlCFDWIAAAbJv.jpg) ### [Reply to @aphercotropist, 01:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1843101333643239534) · 8 likes > **Arbutus Tree (@aphercotropist):** nothing ever happens > > (quoting @anveio: @aphercotropist Instrument error https://arxiv.org/pdf/2405.16773) Sad ### [Reply to @BogdanIonutCir2, 01:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1843101772308770975) · 5 likes > **Bogdan Ionut Cirstea (@BogdanIonutCir2):** Do AI safety programs/jobs deliberately pick various trials that seem almost impossible (especially within time / word limits) or is it a failure of theory of mind? I agree with other commenters but it doesn’t help that IQ 145 is table stakes here and I’m only slightly kidding ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 01:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1843102882394259758) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Shoot ur shot king Cc @charli_xcx ### [Reply to @pearl_please, 20:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1843391906472219066) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pearl_please is no longer available.)_ I got a quite detailed one of these not long ago. Unironically fascinating to read ### [Reply to @pearl_please, 20:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1843394562024452354) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pearl_please is no longer available.)_ Yes same! lol ### [Reply to @pearl_please, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1843395465657618715) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pearl_please is no longer available.)_ Iirc it said “dressed appropriately” or smth like that Need to level up to well-dressed ## Wednesday, October 9, 2024 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 02:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1843844233255666103) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** He's a rare are perfect combination of very funny and very knowledgeable Tragically he has a few incorrect opinions but yes I agree. Also follow him on Strava if you want to be humbled!! ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 02:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1843844890167566494) · 4 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Thanks so much Alexander! But is there maybe something that you also may have missed? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZal9RpWIAEO5TV.png) 😤 ### [Tweet, 03:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1843851711343145424) · 22 likes Zinc, selenium, and boron-fortified pasta called testosteroni ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZatXCfWoAAeExY.jpg) ### [Reply to @albrgr, 18:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1844087236226318617) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @albrgr is no longer available.)_ Baby ### [Quote tweet, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1844097145441559037) · 6 likes Very funny listening to the end and then having Spotify immediately autoplay “THIS EPISODE OF THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 6” > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Edge of Sentience is such a banger. If you’re at all interested in altruism or ethics (or at least enough to read other books from this motivation) you should probably read https://www.edgeofsentience.com ### [Thread, continued, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1844097148025184698) · 5 likes Took a while to finish bc I thought the technical issues listening from Apple Podcasts was gonna be universal. If you’re having trouble listening there, try Spotify Again, highly recommended - especially part 5 on AI ## Thursday, October 10, 2024 ### [Tweet, 00:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1844168587910717600) · 105 likes Yud should probably win something prestigious Idk if any of the Nobels make sense, but for better or worse he’s one of the most important thinkers of his generation ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 00:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1844169448326136012) · 14 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** he's won my undying affection, shouldn't that be enough? Ur affection should probably decay at some nonzero rate no? Still as intense in 1 trillion years? ### [Reply to @trysterowl, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1844193927504724057) · 6 likes > **trysterowl (@trysterowl):** @AaronBergman18 Can you imagine how mad people would be Sadly yes lol ### [Quote tweet, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1844454371679142003) · 9 likes I don’t know what I’m talking about but I’m gonna speculate this is Turing complete > **Quoting Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** This is the ultimate form of Google Docs > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZi9OeuXsA0QcqV.png) ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1844497321150783918) · 2 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** @ZachariahSchwab @AaronBergman18 has anyone on the EA form posted about this? Idk but I’d be shocked if it came out looking better than AMF. Like this is an OG 2012 EA “how do u do health charities” thing ## Friday, October 11, 2024 ### [Tweet, 00:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1844531470980849692) · 37 likes What idiot decided that you have to give yourself ~permission~ to run a file that you created, when ur logged in as the only user on ur own computer Chmod my ass ### [Reply to @adrusi, 00:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1844533828561310005) · 2 likes > **autumn (@adrusi):** @AaronBergman18 "permissions" are used for more than access control, which is why theyre more formally called "modes" > > for regular files (i.e. not directories) the executable bit is really just a flag that you set to tell software that it's the kind of thing you might want to run Sounds like some nerd bullshit and a solvable issue ### [Reply to @adrusi, 00:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1844534392988811313) · 3 likes > **autumn (@adrusi):** @AaronBergman18 "permissions" are used for more than access control, which is why theyre more formally called "modes" > > for regular files (i.e. not directories) the executable bit is really just a flag that you set to tell software that it's the kind of thing you might want to run Fair enough, in AaronTopia a prompt will just come up that says “do you want to treat this file as executable y/n” instead of “permission denied” I guess I could probably manually make this happen somehow ### [Reply to @shinboson, 15:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1844769157595718066) · 2 likes > **𝞍 Shin Megami Boson 𝞍 (@shinboson):** reply to this and I'll tell you what mental notes I've made about you Curious if any ### [Reply to @shinboson, 16:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1844771786669293865) · 2 likes > **𝞍 Shin Megami Boson 𝞍 (@shinboson):** friendly, intelligent, very well intentioned, makes pause AI less annoying to me ☺️ ### [Tweet, 16:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1844784654433259939) · 2 likes The resolution of my visual field gets better in the fall relative to summer and you can’t convince me otherwise ### [Tweet, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1844793650468766157) · 311 likes We should just evacuate all of Taiwan and give them all green cards. Aircraft carriers bring the expensive high tech machines to San Francisco Bay. China can have an empty island ### [Thread, continued, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1844793652070982129) · 60 likes Obviously this is not going to happen but directionally the idea seems highly underrated in foreign policy Land doesn’t move away from the borders of aggressive illiberal states; people and institutions can ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 17:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1844796041171718286) · 6 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZoGoLUWMAAsijc.png) Yeah, hence this clarification. What “directionally” would look like in reality is green cards now, but other more intensive measures can and do look less insane on the backdrop of any war, especially between the two most powerful countries ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1844796716131762477) · 38 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 11, 2024:** Obviously this is not going to happen but directionally the idea seems highly underrated in foreign policy Land doesn’t move away from the borders of… Tbc the first tweet isn’t literally what I endorse. I don’t think the US should \*force\* anyone to move. I do endorse things like universal green cards + incentives to move + potential recognition of a government in exile ### [Thread, continued, 17:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1844796868678586524) · 34 likes I think these things seem less crazy the more seriously you take Chinese invasion of Taiwan ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1844797661435527633) · 3 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** we could put them all up in underground apartments lol exactly! ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 17:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1844799117672722585) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 @adrusi It's so obviously Bergmania Agreed, I should get 4 square miles of sovereignty somewhere to test my insane ideas ### [Reply, 18:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1844801293547917318) · 3 likes > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** One worry here is that one might have to run again. > > Namely, the Chinese government, or some other one, is now incentivized to announce additional planned invasions and blackmail the population into leaving. Particularly useful for ethnic cleansing. I agree this is a worry but my sense is that “unification” w Taiwan is a sui generis part of CCP hawk ideology This doesn’t entirely erase the concern ofc ### [Reply to @slimepriestess, 18:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1844801823019798701) · 10 likes > **Ra (@slimepriestess):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZoK4_obwAAD18l.jpg) Almost unironically lol ### [Tweet, 20:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1844831775882887567) · 3 likes There’s a mental toolkit I call “econ brain” which is eg asking what the incentives and constraints are in a given situation, and how to model something as a market, and a bunch of other heuristics … ## Saturday, October 12, 2024 ### [Reply to @MysteryDigital2, 06:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1844993277843427775) · 2 likes > **MysteryDigital (@MysteryDigital2):** pause emoji, exceptional take incoming > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: We should just evacuate all of Taiwan and give them all green cards. Aircraft carriers bring the expensive high tech machines to San Francisco Bay. China can have an empty island) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZq7m2JXsAA4JBj.jpg) ### [Reply to @notcomplex_, 07:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1845006561095111068) · 2 likes > **Alex (@notcomplex_):** Fascinating, the association between age biomarkers and IQ is as strong as with facial aging. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZnqXvjXUAAa5S_.jpg) This is probably because of serious cognitive dysfunction like Alzheimer’s, not normal hot people being smart (there’s probably a correlation there but much weaker) ### [Tweet, 12:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1845080899307577390) · 52 likes Holy shit guys it’s not worth engaging with this. Skim it if you want to be convinced for yourself, but mostly just don’t waste your time ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZsLTIzWsAstu8e.jpg) ### [Tweet, 13:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1845088009881850012) · 8 likes Pleased to announce that I am an eliminativist about moral attribution (Shapley values and such in the context of moral philosophy) ### [Thread, continued, 13:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1845088011374960743) · 5 likes People want “attribution” to track some fundamental property of the world but I don’t think there’s a fact of matter about how many “moral points” a person should get in any given circumstance - there are only better and worse decision procedures ### [Thread, continued, 13:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1845088012914344286) · 2 likes Maybe this is just what people mean? Like “what is the best decision procedure”? But if so that’s not how it’s usually talked about (eg Parfit’s writing here) ## Sunday, October 13, 2024 ### [Reply to @ciphergoth, 02:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1845294518863573273) · 2 likes > **Paul Crowley (@ciphergoth):** Yes this, thank you for saying it! Or as Caplan said: > > "I can’t help but feel like you’re trying to intimidate me into pretending to agree with you" > > https://www.betonit.ai/p/i-cant-help-but-feel-like-youre-trying Good line ### [Reply, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1845309789942775819) · 3 likes Me and who ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 13:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1845456093985607828) · 1 like > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** From my first appointment with my university’s psychiatrist, which i had booked for ENTIRELY unrelated reasons > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZwz3QdW4AclLAv.jpg) lol ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 13:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1845456294041293293) · 11 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** From my first appointment with my university’s psychiatrist, which i had booked for ENTIRELY unrelated reasons > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZwz3QdW4AclLAv.jpg) Gay Peruvian ASD gf Fidgety well-dressed gf ### [Quote tweet, 13:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1845456672245829641) · 11 likes Wtf this is nuts > **Quoting Elon Musk (@elonmusk):** The tower has caught the rocket!! > > [video attached](https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1845442658397049011/video/1) ### [Reply to @jkeatn, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1845457545114120370) · 2 likes > **Jake Eaton (@jkeatn):** For years @JesseTayRiver has described himself as a blue collar type of guy > > Turns out he was elite this whole time > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZxg3BZawAATxdf.png) > (quoting @JesseTayRiver: I'm the only blue collar guy on my street and I'm pretty sure one of my neighbors left me traffic cones as a gift. So weird) [![GIF thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/GZxh2tPW4AQJ3Ca.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1845457545114120370/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @JamesOzden, 13:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1845459716102554033) · 3 likes > **James Özden 🔸 (@JamesOzden):** Visited a caged hen farm with around 50,000 hens in cages. Each cage contains 4 hens, all unable to spread their wings or move more than a few centimetres. > > Sadly, this is the reality for the over 3 billion egg-laying hens alive today. > > [video attached](https://x.com/JamesOzden/status/1845407151784591508/video/1) 😡 ### [Reply to @livgorton, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1845543003697332366) · 4 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** running is great! starting to properly work on improving my running gives me a similar very positive experience to when i started lifting - regularly doing something i didn’t believe i was capable of feels very psychologically beneficial. > > (quoting @katclone: almost 9 months of daily running (- one 3 week break) runner’s high is incredible, highly recommend) No running sucks ### [Thread, continued, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1845546705225212316) · 2 likes Walking otoh ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZyy8mVWoAAPtfd.jpg) ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1845561031105581339) · 2 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** I mentioned this thread to my husband and he was like "oh yeah, private equity is really into buying hvac companies rn" as if that's just a thing people KNOW Lmao ### [Reply, 20:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1845562806810071478) · 1 like Well sometimes the criticism actually is stupid lol Fwiw I will happily provide examples of true/good criticism ## Monday, October 14, 2024 ### [Tweet, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1845616789499019601) · 7 likes 24 hour twitter fast ready go ## Tuesday, October 15, 2024 ### [Thread, continued, 00:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1845979407359398382) · 4 likes I have retvrned ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 04:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846049736446406710) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @notanastronomer Haha we got another one The cult expands 😈 ### [Reply to @goingawoll, 12:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846166452048450007) · 3 likes > **Amos Wollen 🦐🪰✴️ (@goingawoll):** What will I get from reading continental philosophy that I won’t get from reading literature instead? Delusions of wisdom ### [Reply to @adic_9, 13:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846180295080325198) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @adic_9 is no longer available.)_ On second thought maybe I should have answered the middle option. I do sorta, same with butterflies in stomach, but idk if I’d call these emotions. Or maybe I’d call them distinct from emotions that accompany them… ### [Reply, 18:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846263117833212321) Bruh ### [Reply, 19:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846266187346596162) · 1 like It’s just nuts that this is possible ### [Reply, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846267201621459407) · 4 likes Maybe I should try this meditation thing again ### [Reply to @rSanti97, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846273789467771345) · 2 likes > **Santi Ruiz (@rSanti97):** Shoutout to Natural Exploration Areas, one of my favorite types of areas > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZ8fibxWEAEAbA0.jpg) Man has seen some things ### [Tweet, 22:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846312102207910166) · 5 likes Omg it’s cool outside!!!!! 🍂🍁 ❄️🌨️🧊🥶🧣🧤🧥🎿⛄️🏂🌬️🍂🍁☃️🏔️🏞️🥘🍲🦌🎄🕯️🛷🧦❄️🌨️🧊🥶🧣🧤🧥🎿⛄️🏂🌬️🍂🍁☃️🏔️🏞️🥘🍲🦌🎄🕯️🛷🧦❄️🌨️🧊🥶🧣🧤🧥🎿⛄️🏂🌬️🍂🍁☃️🏔️🏞️🥘🍲🦌🎄🕯️🛷🧦❄️🌨️🧊🥶🧣🧤🧥🎿⛄️🏂🌬️🍂🍁☃️🏔️🏞️🥘🍲🦌🎄🕯️🛷🧦❄️🌨️🧊🥶🧣🧤🧥🎿⛄️🏂🌬️🍂🍁☃️🏔️🏞️🥘🍲🦌🎄🕯️🛷🧦❄️🌨️🧊🥶🧣🧤🧥🎿⛄️ ### [Thread, continued, 22:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846312204448219571) · 2 likes Still tank top szn but it’s getting marginal ### [Tweet, 23:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846326486795477196) · 6 likes I’d consider paying for Strava Premium if the AI roasted you instead of being relentlessly upbeat ### [Tweet, 23:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846328639358480835) · 7 likes Guy who thinks humans aren’t phenomenally conscious but AIs are ## Wednesday, October 16, 2024 ### [Reply, 00:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846343797770481974) · 1 like Seriously big if true ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846365226108596646) · 2 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** Hypothetically it's a bad sign if your iron gummies start tasting better, yeah? lol ### [Tweet, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846374628501213434) · 18 likes Give me a philosophy issue and I’ll tell you the correct take on the matter ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 02:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846377215350493585) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 But I already know the answer to everything??? lol I was considering adding to the thread “and then @absurdlymax will explain why my answer is wrong” ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 02:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846382417164067034) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ There’s a joke to be found involving longless/lesslong/lesswrong ### [Quote tweet, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846384948896252227) · 11 likes Many are saying. Internet friends are great Also cackled out loud at the highlighted bit ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZ-tU0jWMAA1R2R.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** You’re probably overestimating the risks and underestimating the benefits of using your real name, face, and location for your profile > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-QfpzUWsAA9W_c.jpg) ### [Reply, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846420608411734398) lol ### [Reply to @taoburr, 05:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846421020707545194) · 3 likes > **Tao Burga (@taoburr):** One box or two boxes? (Predictor is 99.9% accurate) Honestly thank you for asking bc I have been thinking to myself “ya know I think evidential dc is basically just right” recently but hadn’t bothered to remember whether that made me a one- or two-boxer ### [Thread, continued, 05:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846421199179354363) · 2 likes Now I can proudly identify as a member of some camp in the Great LessWrong Meetup War of 2025 (9 casualties; 0 LW bans) ### [Reply to @beala, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846432658970067234) · 6 likes > **Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZ_QTYCb0AMrusG.jpg) I reject the implicit XOR premise, surely both have occurred at some point ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 07:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846447385167139208) · 5 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 @Tao_Burga Wait no EDT is still entirely wrong, one-boxing is right for independent reasons Ok at some point u should probably explain this to me ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 07:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846450121459765417) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** What age can someone meaningful consent to a relationship with 1000 year old vampire? What age can someone meaningful consent to being turned into a vampire? My non-answer answer is that this is closer to a question of empirical psychology and sociology than philosophy (but this is true if and ~iff you accept some contentious philosophical claims that seem unrelated prima facie, like utilitarianism) ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 07:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846451098036428800) · 3 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 But we don't have any empirical research around vampires, so what's your all things considered view Never bc vampires don’t exist ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 07:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846451913895649749) · 4 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846047048983806287?t=_1LQEELccWWwpCoWRFBJfQ&s=19 There are no RCTs on whether vampires exist so it’s 50/50 ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 07:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846455413283139619) · 5 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 OK what are the necessary and sufficient conditions required to consent Bro are u trying to get me cancelled bc I try to answer and forget something ### [Tweet, 07:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846457515795419221) · 2 likes Please consider listening to some sample audio and voting on your favorite voice for an update to the feed (links below) https://open.spotify.com/show/7x1NPYRn55K3nZz855tB29?si=6NR4bm9BSUm-GXgWTtyjPA ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 07:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846458644147142989) · 9 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** anyone gone on a holiday with toddlers that they liked? can you tell me about it please? Yeah when I was the toddler. Disney world was great ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 07:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846459849527239168) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 16, 2024:** Bro are u trying to get me cancelled bc I try to answer and forget something Ok I will list things as I think of them but the list can’t be assumed to be complete until I say so Necessary: \- (Accurate) understanding of the option space \- An approximately-rational mind ### [Thread, continued, 07:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846460168583700687) · 3 likes \- at least one of {minimal time discounting, a set of action conclusions that resolve relatively soon, willingness and ability to simulate option 1 in one’s mind} ### [Thread, continued, 07:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846460808210882980) · 2 likes Not an answer to the question but probably both relevant and contentious: Consent doesn’t have a fundamental role in ethics above and beyond as a best-we-can-do proxy for other more fundamental considerations given real-world constraints… ### [Reply to @mpopv, 10:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846496327506506092) · 8 likes > **Matt Popovich (@mpopv):** me: hey google ai studio can i put in a credit card to pay for my llm calls > > google ai studio: THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST IN BILLING! WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW YOUR FINOPS MATURITY SCORE? OPTIMIZE TO REDUCE CARBON IMPACT? ANALYZE DATA WITH BIGQUERY? CUD ANALYSIS? ANOMALIES? COST TA > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZ-CTPPa4AAeWhm.jpg) It’s simultaneously incredible how Byzantine and complicated all the Google cloud + adjacent stuff is and incredible that Google somehow manages to keep it all technically working (if you know how to navigate the 19 dimension labyrinth) ### [Reply to @mpopv, 10:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846496491390562701) · 2 likes > **Matt Popovich (@mpopv):** me: hey google ai studio can i put in a credit card to pay for my llm calls > > google ai studio: THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST IN BILLING! WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW YOUR FINOPS MATURITY SCORE? OPTIMIZE TO REDUCE CARBON IMPACT? ANALYZE DATA WITH BIGQUERY? CUD ANALYSIS? ANOMALIES? COST TA > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZ-CTPPa4AAeWhm.jpg) @livgorton ### [Reply to @OrionJohnston, 12:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846523073995984982) · 2 likes > **David Johnston (@OrionJohnston):** It's definitely evidence that I'll never observe a nonblack raven Am I being dumb or is this like not at all obvious ### [Reply to @metacontrarian, 12:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846526064048095518) · 3 likes > **Disengagement Rancher (@metacontrarian):** @AaronBergman18 @OrionJohnston It's not obvious! That's why it's called the Raven Paradox, not the Raven Straightforward Application of Bayes' Theorem Ok I just looked into this and my take is that \*observing\* a non-black non-raven is indeed evidence that all Ravens are black. I’m not sure about the mere existence of it but set that aside… ### [Reply, 12:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846527660421222857) · 2 likes Likewise, the count of all black things and all nonblack things are some integer, respectively Now I go about ticking off things with the color property. I will know that all ravens are black iff I observe all such things and find zero nonblack ravens… ### [Thread, continued, 12:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846528370613330117) · 2 likes Every time I observe a thing and note its color, there is one fewer observation to make that could, ex ante, be a nonblack raven with probability p>0 ### [Reply, 12:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846528483427549277) · 1 like Lovely nerd snipe here ### [Reply, 12:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846528737719804241) · 3 likes Oh no I’ve unleashed causal dt twitter ### [Reply, 12:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846533354335699399) · 1 like Adding to list of things to try to understand lol ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 12:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846534073071600104) · 5 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 @Tao_Burga > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GaA0gHBXYAAlfls.png) 😢 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GaA09AlXwAAbAT_.jpg) ### [Tweet, 13:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846537612284023183) · 23 likes I am calling for a total and complete ban on new decision theory stuff until I can figure out what the hell is going on ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 13:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846540744795775093) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ ## Thursday, October 17, 2024 ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 14:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846925678924427719) · 12 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** this shit is insane. most chilling dead internet theory experience > > it's so powerfully antimemetic that i can't even refer to it directly > > but watching it go from $0 to $300,000 based on nothing but disembodied belief with no human grounding is strangely horrifying What ### [Reply to @RatOrthodox, 15:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846929305667793193) · 3 likes > **Brangus🔍⏹️ (@RatOrthodox):** Uhh, so like simulacra 4 is when you say things based on how you predict that it will affect the discourse, and in this case in particular I want to make it seem like rationalists update on things based on evidence, but I'm joking. i've never updated on anything. This is an advanced level joke ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1846954946735800621) · 3 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** @AaronBergman18 basically someone made a cryptocurrency based on me yesterday, went to like over a million dollars in market cap, and then imploded wtf lmao ## Friday, October 18, 2024 ### [Tweet, 02:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1847106609723453720) · 5 likes Is OpenAI text-to-speech the most impressive/lifelike TTS software/service out there right now? Or is there one just as good but cheaper? ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 05:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1847144743056073038) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** A or B theory of time I’m violating the promise to just give the correct take but after chatting with Claude about it, I still don’t see what the two views actually disagree about … ### [Thread, continued, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1847145210645492003) · 2 likes Like I think it’s just contrary to consensus physics to say that there is always an objective fact of the matter about whether two events are simultaneous Does this necessarily imply B-theory?… ### [Reply, 05:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1847145656663597128) · 2 likes Why can’t we just say that “now” is metaphysically special and distinct from the past and future to each observer? The debate feels semantic or poorly-defined or something ### [Thread, continued, 05:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1847146005151502453) · 2 likes In other words, I don’t see why modern physics rules out an A-theory-like \*metaphysical\* understanding of the present ### [Reply to @shakaz_, 11:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1847235874016079886) · 2 likes > **shakaz (@shakaz_):** @AaronBergman18 where the animal welfares kids at?? could this lead to a huge shift in public consciousness?? I doubt it but hope I’m wrong ### [Reply to @ciphergoth, 11:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1847236242775089288) · 3 likes > **Paul Crowley (@ciphergoth):** @NoahTopper @AaronBergman18 If box B is full, take box B. If empty, take both. Yeah sounds right ### [Tweet, 11:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1847239008771846423) · 5 likes Sparse autoencoder ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 11:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1847244896341475664) · 4 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** @\_its_not_real\_ How common is it for people at around this skill level to get hired? I'm a terrible programmer, but if this is the competition I'm wondering whether I should just start applying. 👀 Does anyone want to give me $700k TC to make some ggplot graphs ### [Quote tweet, 22:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1847402073580802061) · 9 likes RT in light of the recent 80k discussion about SBF (link below) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Is this true? If so I feel like it’s crazy under-discussed > > Same as with SBF - ideological, material, and psychological explanations for behavior are hardly sufficient when the person in question is permanently hypomanic ## Saturday, October 19, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 07:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1847534743270683101) · 14 likes Want > **Quoting Geppetto San Martín 🚬🌭𓅸 (@SmalltimeJones):** it's crazy that for just $1,800 i could buy this 200,000(!!!!) lumen stadium light and install it above my garage door with a motion sensor and blind everyone in a 3 block radius whenever a squirrel frolics by > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GaLo2x2WkAAYxga.jpg) ### [Tweet, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1847690829399281944) · 103 likes Smart EA friend said something along the lines of “since meeting you, I’ve updated significantly toward your beliefs in a bunch of different domains” 1\) s-tier complement 2\) as the kids say these days, uwu ### [Quote tweet, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1847727943113469972) · 4 likes Good reminder for everyone to download the EA Archive (especially if you live in a non-NATO country, and especially especially if you live in New Zealand) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GaRyxT9WYAAu1a7.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** 8\. You should read this and more importantly download the EA Archive https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/DndmvDGStD3gTfhXk/announcing-the-ea-archive ## Sunday, October 20, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 04:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1847858594626015551) · 21 likes Improved audiobook just dropped https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/effective-altruism-and-the-human-mind-stefan/id1762342287 > **Quoting Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Our book on the psychology of effective altruism is now out, freely available on OUP (link below) @LuciusCaviola > > In Part I, we explain why most altruism - like donations and volunteering - isn't effective > > In Part II, we discuss how to change that > > 1/13 > > https://academic.oup.com/book/56384 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOWXIrIW8AAFL_5.png) ### [Thread, continued, 04:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1847858983177998414) · 5 likes Thanks to @livgorton for donating openai credits to this worthy cause ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 04:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1847860738049655292) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** See ya @GjMcGowan, it's been nice being mistaken for you > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GaTAXnUWYAAWybc.jpg) 🤓 ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 06:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1847883799008326121) · 25 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** Pathetic. If words like summer and winter hurt you, you are contemptibly weak and your feelings don’t matter. > > And instead of realizing this and trying to change, you try to change the world. It’s the acceptance of being like this that makes it even more outrageous. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GaSerd-bsAAMC10.jpg) This made me lose a lot of respect for you ### [Tweet, 06:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1847884472093462740) · 5 likes It feels spiritually wrong to make Claude write OpenAI code (sadly Claude doesn’t talk \[do text to speech\]) ### [Reply to @disk_writes, 17:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848055969797787840) · 4 likes > **rowan (@disk_writes):** Imagining the type of person who finds this Hanania post in particular to be the one that went too far. Inspiring > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: @RichardHanania This made me lose a lot of respect for you) Thank u 🙏 ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 17:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848056168134148585) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** In case you didn't know this is how to dehumidify a car. The defrost does this automatically but you can generally run heat & AC simultaneously in other modes and it will dehumidify > > (quoting @JesseTayRiver: @GjMcGowan AC and heat on simultaneously) This makes the car take a screenshot ### [Tweet, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848062231713562698) · 3 likes It makes me very happy that Nate Silver is slightly un-eloquent. Not even bad, just sub-perfect I get annoyed whenever 80k guests are super competent across all dimensions which is far too often https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/nate-silver-effective-altruism-sbf-art-of-risk/ ### [Tweet, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848069914986471635) · 2 likes Whenever I try any type of non-stimulant drug, I’m basically just reminded that they’re all meh and stims are the 🐐 ### [Tweet, 20:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848094769525801043) · 52 likes Animals are so weird. It’s very strange we share the world with various critters and crawly guys of various shapes and sizes ### [Thread, continued, 20:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848095507408691529) · 38 likes Who decided to put these four guys on the same planet? Absolutely bizarre ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GaXBEVzWYAATpnS.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GaXBEVxXkAAkpV-.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GaXBEVzWIAAfVwx.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GaXBEVxXAAAmxxK.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 20:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848097120512856149) · 52 likes It’s especially weird for animals that are straight up dudes. Like bears and kangaroos are fellow guys (gender neutral) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GaXCiTyWoAABZDt.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GaXCiTyWgAANAZp.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848102162829660488) · 5 likes Why do autistic people like trains when planes are objectively much cooler ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 21:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848119518931107951) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** Ugh. This is one of those threads I’d love to have written differently in hindsight. I didn’t expect it would blow up. > > (quoting @austinc3301: I’ll be honest. I’m kind of saddened by all the knee jerk responses to this, some from people I respect.) Many such cases ### [Quote tweet, 21:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848120843806646622) · 6 likes A large amount of disagreement in formal ethics is just confusion over whether we’re talking about Real Life Heuristic ethics or Fundamentally Thing to Aspirationally Approximate ethics > **Quoting Emmett Shear (@eshear):** Ethics are heuristics ## Monday, October 21, 2024 ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 03:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848202102671380787) · 3 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @AaronBergman18 I’m the planes kind 🤝 ### [Tweet, 04:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848213288447889806) · 10 likes Microwaved a metal fork and nothing bad or even interesting happened ### [Thread, continued, 04:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848213289949405654) · 2 likes I regret to report that this was an accident btw, not cool enough to do this on purpose ### [Reply, 04:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848214409212047496) · 1 like I should try this 😈 ### [Tweet, 04:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848217947501674708) · 3 likes This but mostly unironically if the people of those countries want it (French Canadians are welcome too) ### [Reply to @SpencrGreenberg, 04:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848218369163448431) · 10 likes > **Spencer Greenberg 🔍 (@SpencrGreenberg):** What should I call it when I bring 2 people together for my podcast who strongly disagree on a topic so that (instead of having a debate) I can moderate while they work together to try to figure out: > (1) what, exactly, they disagree on > and > (2) why, exactly, they disagree? A date (also make it a dating show) ### [Reply to @kindgracekind, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848219329642303634) · 2 likes > **Grace (@kindgracekind):** Double crush Perfect ### [Reply to @zeta_globin, 04:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848223266520838202) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @zeta_globin is no longer available.)_ All native Icelandic ### [Reply, 04:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848224927893086329) · 1 like Real!!! https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/fwtoEN5pZpDfQQLKz/stuff-i-buy-and-use-a-listicle-to-boost-your-consumer ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GaY2xntXkAATx3-.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GaY2xntW8AAPIjQ.jpg) ### [Reply to @ethai__, 14:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848378319915405390) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ethai__ is no longer available.)_ Based ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 15:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848386668643942769) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @robertwiblin Good evening @rgblong > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GabJh_qWoAA8Dmx.jpg) Nice ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 17:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848415186996367643) · 4 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** A big way ideologies really cement themselves in people's heads is making them notice a lot of contemporary life involves bullshit (true) but then convincing them that no other belief system is aware of the bullshit (false) Idk I think the latter thing is sometimes basically true ### [Tweet, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848425012564504833) · 72 likes Lol at Gemini being unable to understand Planecrash ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gabsu7WWoAEdQjp.jpg) ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848429912169848887) · 5 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Might be the adult content triggering the censors Sad ### [Quote tweet, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848430200171970761) · 24 likes Improved audiobook just dropped https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-edge-of-sentience-full-audiobook-improved-voice/id1761877270?i=1000673884170 > **Quoting Jonathan Birch (@birchlse):** 🦀🐝🧠🤖 How should we make decisions when faced with systems of uncertain sentience? My new book The Edge of Sentience: Risk and Precaution in Humans, Other Animals, and AI is available online for free at https://academic.oup.com/book/57949. Please download it! Just click on PDF to get a PDF of the whole book. Individual chapters are also available as PDFs - just click on whichever chapters you want. The book is completely free to everyone and I'm grateful for all shares and forwards. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTo06TZXkAAmAJV.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848430758006034815) · 4 likes Thank you to @livgorton for crucial API token support ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848433647063351368) · 8 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** whenever I’m not sure about a decision I’ll ask some ai model what Nick Cammarata would do in that situation and usually do that Might try this, you seem to have ur shit together ### [Quote tweet, 18:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848437326420348939) · 4 likes Do you have/know of another book or document that you’d like to make into high quality audio? If so, lmk—I may be able to do it for money and/or impact points > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Improved audiobook just dropped https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-edge-of-sentience-full-audiobook-improved-voice/id1761877270?i=1000673884170 ### [Reply to @polisisti, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848453304646267066) · 3 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @StefanFSchubert @AaronBergman18 Nice! Great work Aaron, Liv, Lucius, and Stefan I’ll take the credit thank you very much. The research and writing was just a sideshow ## Tuesday, October 22, 2024 ### [Reply to @jazzychad, 03:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848565679684833763) · 2 likes > **Chad Etzel (@jazzychad):** ok here we go. HOW I FIXED MY BRAIN FOG. 🧠😶‍🌫️ > > for the last 7+ years i've suffered from really bad brain fog and fatigue. I won't clickbait you, here is the answer (more details in the thread tho): > > It was NIGHTSHADES. 🍅🍆🌶️ @NoahTopper ### [Quote tweet, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848566246301999325) · 39 likes Date the shrimp people!!!!!! It’s gods work!!!!!!!! > **Quoting atlas (@creatine_cycle):** Overheard in SF: > > Her: what industry are you in > > Him: we were a part of the shrimp welfare project, but pivoted to AI Safety > > Her: I usually date founders who work in B2B SaaS ### [Reply to @polisisti, 03:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848567012324213128) · 3 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 maybe we can find a way to do shrimp welfare as B2B SaaS Scalable ✅ ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 03:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848567487001948407) · 4 likes > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** @AaronBergman18 SWP only has 9 current staff, sounds like a fake story Those are rookie numbers ### [Tweet, 10:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848675550879010911) · 3 likes Correct take ### [Reply to @JoshAEngels, 12:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848702912857297338) · 2 likes > **Josh Engels (@JoshAEngels):** 1/11: New paper! "Decomposing the Dark Matter of Sparse Autoencoders." We find that SAE errors and error norms are linearly predictable using model activations. Why is this, and what does it imply for SAE scaling and the structure of language model representations? Answers in 🧵 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GaYlwCuWcAAcGx2.jpg) @livgorton ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848808681007095973) · 2 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** My superpower is I can code switch between high decoupling and low decoupling Big if true ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 19:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848808911635165450) > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** For the longest time, I assumed everyone could do this and was just playing dumb - feigning anger or confusion in order to portray their interlocutor as either evil or irrational - but it really seems like many people authentically struggle to even understand the other side here I think I can sort of imagine what it’s like to be low decoupling but I can’t actually get into a state of mind where I viscerally feel the intuitions other people have ### [Tweet, 19:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848811543518998732) · 5 likes God bless @NunoSempere et al for being willing to put point estimates on, among other things, P(1 million deaths from an alien invasion in the next decade) https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=2852775&post_id=150558187 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GahMTPEW8AA2zVO.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848811903306350994) · 4 likes We must put a stop to “The PRobabIlity iS bEtweeN 10% aNd 90%” ### [Thread, continued, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848812773243052246) · 2 likes But also question: is it like settled math/philosophy that you’re supposed to take geometric means instead of arithmetic when averaging over subjective probabilities of different people? Seems super non-obvious to me ### [Quote tweet, 23:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848870315985875359) · 11 likes I wrote a whole blog post making this case (“the case against math”) but eventually threw it away bc I no longer stood by the main claim … > **Quoting Kenny Workman (@kenbwork):** after months of studying algebraic topology and looking for ways to apply it to biology, i have convinced myself what mathematicians already know - pure math is useless and a career long nerd snipe only accessible to high iq artists ### [Thread, continued, 23:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848870318447988789) · 5 likes I basically came away thinking it would actually be better to shift society’s math-understanding curve up, and the associated increase in ~wasted effort by nerdsniped geniuses would be a reasonable price to pay ### [Quote tweet, 23:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848871113176322163) · 3 likes Me but whenever I see an airplane > **Quoting sniper (heron) (@iamaheron_):** going to the gym is insane because it actually works > > the number actually goes up? i’m actually getting stronger? i honestly didn’t expect that ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848871855995949204) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 22, 2024:** I basically came away thinking it would actually be better to shift society’s math-understanding curve up, and the associated increase in ~wasted effort by… There just aren’t that many of them (this accords with my memory of pre-LLM research) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GaiDJuybEAY6EYc.jpg) ## Wednesday, October 23, 2024 ### [Tweet, 03:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848935467200221202) · 1 like (Although I do think, if you are able to be a pure math researcher, you should probably put your brain to work at something else) ### [Tweet, 06:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848974810979668198) · 2 likes I think I like the aesthetics of being a bike guy more thank I like biking (I recently got a bike) ### [Quote tweet, 06:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848975588922462390) · 139 likes Yes, in an ideal world ~100% of deaths would be assisted suicides. Anything less is letting death/biology have power over people, not the reverse > **Quoting Julian (@julianboolean_):** idk how I feel about canadian maid specifically but > > "most deaths are suicide" seems an inevitable consequence of "we can save people from most diseases except aging" - the only alternative is keeping ppl on life support until they catch a nosocomial infection :/ ### [Thread, continued, 06:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848975590914707854) · 14 likes Ofc if I suddenly learned that a country in 2024 had a 60% MAID rate, it would be quite sus, but it’s important not to forget the in-principle ideal ### [Tweet, 06:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848979474823397556) · 3 likes Seems like a bad guy ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 07:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1848984947375112667) · 3 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** wife just said she's never made up a language?? doesn't literally every kid make their own language at some point? I still have a secret language with my sister (it’s more of a dialect I guess) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 13:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849081012824752459) · 4 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 coded Extremely based therapist, this is unironically such a green flag ### [Reply to @QualyThe, 13:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849083622516559984) · 4 likes > **Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** \[in the slammer\] > cop: I need you to submit to a poly graph > me: \*sigh\*, how long have you got? \*starts a diagram with Aella in the center\* Banger ### [Reply to @yzilber, 14:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849095315674030288) · 5 likes > **Jazi Zilber (@yzilber):** @AaronBergman18 my guess is that most MAID don't have much to live, and certainly not with any resemblance of "being alive" > > two of my grandparents told me "I want to die" in hospital months 1-2 months before they died with useless extended agony 😢 ### [Reply to @Stuckinthebunk1, 16:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849125465426145700) · 1 like > **Anticardinal (@Stuckinthebunk1):** @AaronBergman18 I don't want to argue the principle, but assisted suicide implies 1. wanting to die and 2. needing someone else's permission/help to do it. I don't feel that is a better end than most, just usually better than a very slow, agonizing one. Yeah good points ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 16:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849130426549297271) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @SpacedOutMatt @frances\_\_lorenz @AaronBergman18 \*getting lunch with Aaron\* > > “Hey yeah so if everyone’s okay with it I’m just gonna record the lunch session so we can have an AI transcription later” I mean I’ve learned that people generally say no and don’t like this but imo it makes sense ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849200189141291373) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 https://x.com/eshear/status/1848946093821989194 Idk if you wanna call this “trade” but reasoning about what to by considering your actions as evidence about others like you and/or making a similar decisions is awesome and a top-tier insight ### [Reply, 21:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849201895648235797) Oh really? Where does it disagree with evidential dc then? ### [Thread, continued, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849202776519110786) Idk what I’m talking about but it kinda feels like “evidential” DC should/could be an umbrella term for this and functional DC and maybe more ### [Quote tweet, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849202991556948226) · 2 likes Decision theory nerds, how right is this on a scale from wrong to right > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @NoahTopper Idk what I’m talking about but it kinda feels like “evidential” DC should/could be an umbrella term for this and functional DC and maybe more ### [Quote tweet, 21:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849204802158514230) · 10 likes Vague and unfalsifiable but still substantive prediction: If and when (now?) this type of program is basically as good at arbitrary tasks as LLMs are at coding is where things get weird > **Quoting Kyle Corbitt (@corbtt):** Just launched agent.exe, a free, open-source Mac/Windows/Linux app that lets you use Claude 3.5 Sonnet to control your computer! > > This was a fun little project to explore the API and see what the model can do. Computer use is really cool—I expect 2025 will be the year of agents. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Galn5k3bwAAD_SB.jpg) ## Thursday, October 24, 2024 ### [Tweet, 02:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849275112647754000) · 5 likes Lots of talks from EA Global Nigeria and a few from EAGxNordics are live! Videos on Spotify, audio elsewhere https://open.spotify.com/show/0lHqS3M08p1jGvBkRIVoFa?si=gVTYBK2QSRSndGm3Y6jgnw ### [Reply to @gdb, 10:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849394263613645105) · 2 likes > **Greg Brockman (@gdb):** The board of the Nonprofit has full control, and can only takes actions it believes will further the mission. Bruh ### [Quote tweet, 12:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849430209423909229) · 5 likes Anyone wanna speculate about mechanisms here > **Quoting keysmashbandit (@keysmashbandit):** when i am healthy i need vyvanse to do fun yet challenging things, like playing factorio or reading a textbook, but when i have the flu i can do those things without stimulants easily. same with being very overtired ### [Tweet, 17:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849500786784448953) · 3 likes 5-10 minutes with new Claude. Thanks to @timfduffy for the data http://aaronbergman.neocities.org/econ-questions.html ### [Tweet, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849531041762934819) · 5 likes New audiobook just dropped: Weighing Animal Welfare: Comparing Well-Being Across Species, edited by @bobfisc https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/mIqfii8JXNb ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 21:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849567743881904618) · 4 likes > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** @AaronBergman18 @bobfisc Heck yeah! You use OpenAI TTS for this, right? I just tried using it for the first time the other day. Do you have to chunk the text, submit to the API, then stitch the audio together, or is there another way? Yeah but the substantive/hard part is making a single text file that is \*exactly\* what you want the audio to say. Just extracting the text is generally ~unlistenable because of random line breaks, page numbers, diagrams with and without text, different citations, tables, etc... ## Friday, October 25, 2024 ### [Reply to @hermittoday, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849668547133206540) · 3 likes > **hermit the cat (@hermittoday):** Alan Watts had a great take: schizophrenia is a heresy more than an illness > > I can look it up if anyone is interested > > (quoting @The4thWayYT: off to grippy sock jail with you) Nah it’s an illness ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849671500694966695) · 6 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** How can I become more learned? Learn ### [Reply to @bryancsk, 05:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849690157156311129) · 12 likes > **Bryan Cheong 🥮 (@bryancsk):** Something moving in seeing a being we casually consume struggling to live and to flourish on its own terms I have a semi-opposite reaction—it’s darkly absurd to perform care about animals this way when there are tens of billions of them on factory farms ### [Thread, continued, 05:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849690469682340150) · 4 likes Of course in principle it could be the case that those tens of billions are beyond the scope of our ability to help, but this isn’t true Time and money do trade off ### [Quote tweet, 12:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849787754890010741) · 9 likes It’s actually wild how many people have pfp takes lmao > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Feedback plz ### [Quote tweet, 18:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849885782028292236) · 45 likes Show me your (maybe specifically political) ideology with one picture ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GawdUKlWwAAT2eI.jpg) > **Quoting Samuel Utlagi-Heðinn 🇵🇸ᛏᛏ (@WolfJointPagan):** show me your political ideology with one picture > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYVZZumWEAE_ndW.jpg) ### [Reply to @polisisti, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849888675477221827) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GawfQimW0AAXuHv.jpg) Lmao ### [Reply to @KatSpartz, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849905537602687264) · 12 likes > **Kat Spartz ⏸️ 🔶 (@KatSpartz):** If you are smart and talented, please work on AI safety. > > The world needs you. There’s kinda an oversupply of IQ 145+ people afaict. Maybe this is true if you’re truly one of the smartest/best few thousand people in the world Tentatively think most smart+ambitious+altruistic people should try to make tens of millions-billions of dollars to give away ### [Reply to @caleb_parikh, 21:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849925883164803402) · 1 like > **Caleb Parikh (@caleb_parikh):** Fwiw I see quite a lot of areas that could do with more people e.g. securing frontier models, developing safety cases, developing and testing control protocols, improving faithfulness of CoT … Nice, and you know a lot more than me about this lol ### [Tweet, 21:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849930218170937506) · 7 likes For people who generally support the prescription system, should pure menthol be prescription-only (or handled like a prescription-only ingredient)? Wikipedia below ### [Thread, continued, 21:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849930219920015708) · 3 likes Scroll to the “Biological properties” section https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menthol ### [Thread, continued, 21:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849930722879938933) · 5 likes To show my maybe-obvious hand, I don’t think so. I just ordered pure menthol for $8 on Amazon and think this is generally how molecules should be treated by default But if menthol was synthesized today I’m pretty sure it would be gatekept by The Complex ### [Reply to @GreatKingCnut, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849934199123554642) · 2 likes > **ɢʀɛǟȶK̶i̶n̶g̶ӄռʊȶ🤣\`\`\`𝚙𝚢 (@GreatKingCnut):** I find making millions is harder than contributing to AI safety directly? Making money is hard Yeah, it’s a q of EV ex ante I (again, tentatively) think at least \*some\* people have a higher EV from etg ### [Tweet, 22:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849941372511654255) · 2 likes Cursed headline by @robertwrighter ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GaxP39SXYAAeS2T.jpg) ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849941645866754329) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Doesn’t look like ggplot Not a proper scientist ### [Reply to @dynomight7, 23:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849957191652081913) · 3 likes > **dynomight (@dynomight7):** so apparently menthol can indeed cross the blood brain barrier and does actually have some effect on GABA receptors in the brain, you've got to stop coming up with new biochemical theories, they're too plausible, you're killing me Lmao ### [Reply to @robertwrighter, 23:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1849957307033288986) · 2 likes > **Robert Wright (@robertwrighter):** Well agentic AI, unlike WWW III, has an upside (leaving aside the question of whether its downside winds up outweighing its upside). True, although I think it would be better if development was slower and more considered ## Saturday, October 26, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 02:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850001621008138602) · 35 likes Makes me sad to see this so politicized. This kind of discourse would/does make sense if and when there are genuine resource constraints that force school districts to make hard choices It’s just fucked up that smart kids are caught in the crossfire of a few adults’ culture war > **Quoting Matt Bateman (@mbateman):** \> Do you really want a 3rd grader to be taking math with 10th graders? > > Yes ### [Thread, continued, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850002306219012459) · 3 likes Some things alleged to be “politicized” are actually and properly political. This isn’t one of them ### [Reply to @luispedrocoelho, 03:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850020664628933106) · 3 likes > **Luis Pedro Coelho (Berkeley, 7-11 Oct) (@luispedrocoelho):** This does seem like a fundamentally political issue, dealing with very basic issues of equity vs. excellence, intergenerational distribution, people as individuals vs. members of their families, &c > > This is deeply political I disagree, in at least some cases there are no real tradeoffs, at least unless you do 9th order/galaxy brain reasoning It would be one thing if eg the q is spending money on magnet vs remedial school… ### [Thread, continued, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850020834611478801) · 2 likes Sometimes the q is more like whether to pay a teacher to teach an advanced class that 20 kids are clearly prepared for, or instead to pay the same teacher to teach a non-advanced class to those same kids ### [Reply to @luispedrocoelho, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850023616911405505) · 2 likes > **Luis Pedro Coelho (Berkeley, 7-11 Oct) (@luispedrocoelho):** @AaronBergman18 Even saying "there are Pareto improvements that we could take" is political as it involves saying that inequality is not a factor Yeah I’m very happy to say that inequality \*per se\* is not a factor This would imply that some Pareto worsenings are good which seems pretty perverse ### [Thread, continued, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850023963642007795) · 2 likes Ofc I think what people often mean by inequality is concern about the worst off, which is very legitimate ### [Tweet, 04:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850026953610301842) · 6 likes Close the windows, it’s freezing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GaydtdxWYAA-Jxv.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 13:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850175011174170676) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** We were robbed 😢 ### [Reply to @visakanv, 14:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850181797893619987) · 7 likes > **Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv):** tiktokers go to LA > podcasters go to Austin > > fill in the blanks: \_\_\_?\_\_\_ go to \_\_\_?\_\_\_ > > (doesn’t have to be American cities, in fact I’m extra curious to hear about regional patterns elsewhere. what are all the other capitals of the world?) Upwardly mobile and generally ambitious English speaking people go to SF, NYC, DC, Boston, or London ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850215985791332789) · 1 like > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** In this case it's pretty clear that deception was the intent; there's no reason why the median user would care about the max possible earnings. But in other cases it can be unclear whether something was truly "intended to deceive" vs. "intended to be read by smarter people". When I hear these numbers my initial thought is “I’ll earn about $25/hour” How close is this to the median? ### [Tweet, 21:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850286561851547668) · 85 likes I like rationalism and rationalists ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ga2J0fgWoAA4eFH.jpg) ### [Tweet, 23:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850313293165900222) · 10 likes The new Claude is a narc, sorry. Way too many false positives (some example compounds 4o mentioned are caffeine, theanine, curcumin, allicin, and CBD) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ga2iIiuWQAANHUs.jpg) ## Sunday, October 27, 2024 ### [Reply to @livgorton, 11:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850497945109516615) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** (costume idea credit to @AaronBergman18 !! truly saved me) 🥰 ### [Tweet, 11:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850500620538552830) · 9 likes I had a confusing dream and now the line “you can be that llama you can be that lime” is stuck in my head ### [Tweet, 11:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850500622044262502) · 1 like Does anyone wanna make it into an EDM song ### [Reply to @SwiftOnSecurity, 11:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850501113016946969) · 18 likes > **SwiftOnSecurity (@SwiftOnSecurity):** you're an adult you can just take performance enhancing drugs. there's no international doping agency for Jira sprints Yeah but the FDA tries their best ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 15:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850554569933152513) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 27, 2024:** Does anyone wanna make it into an EDM song I like it https://suno.com/song/1460da62-26da-40fd-90df-1e93eab988a3 ### [Tweet, 15:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850565581746966730) · 22 likes New thing just dropped (name not finalized) ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850568812015329402) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** @AaronBergman18 super based ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ga6KhuIXkAA7QrQ.jpg) ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850573537821462848) · 2 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** man, i can be literally anywhere in the world i want right now > > i could just wake up one morning and decide to go to alaska > > i have enough money. minimal obligations. nobody would stop me > > some day i'm gonna do that Based ### [Reply to @vaidehiagrwalla, 16:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850580802163073295) · 2 likes > **Vaidehi Agarwalla (@vaidehiagrwalla):** What are some industries/career paths that are surprisingly competitive or intensive? EA orgs (idk about intensive but competitive for sure) ### [Reply, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850581876248924276) · 1 like I do this (rarely, just around family) when I’m just super overstimulated ### [Reply to @_chair, 17:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850583626057998577) · 2 likes > **Chair (@_chair):** @AaronBergman18 i did it because i was taking a shower and my father in law came into the bathroom to pee and he started talking to me while he was peeing Lol what ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850615737045659766) · 2 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** Now that I’ve settled in, I’ll finally do a proper announcement: I work at @80000Hours now!! > > This also means I live in London now so if you live here let’s hang out!!!! Congrats!! ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850643334739730851) · 3 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** Can anyone name a single important scientific discovery we have made that wouldn't have happened without the use of Null-Hypothesis Significance Testing? I think I’m basically on you’re side here in terms of overall impression + vibes, and the weight given to p-values is way too much, but it seems like a genuinely useful instrument even though I can’t directly, confidently answer your question ### [Reply to @bellaforristal, 21:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850646652559786335) · 4 likes > **Bella Forristal 🔸 (@bellaforristal):** I open this site and see three separate simultaneous ads for Premium - one of which is for the 50% off sale that they repeatedly told me would end last week. > > I’m not against ads - I work in marketing! - but this is bad business. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ga7L-X9W4AAxkTA.jpg) Periodic 100% off deals on 80k coaching ### [Reply to @ameskousing, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850657030257709241) · 6 likes > **aaron matthew of the meskousing (@ameskousing):** holy shit i just \*covered\* myself in olive oil and i feel like a MAN again after >2 months of being sick > > the greeks were ON TO something this is POWERFUL What ### [Reply to @nwilliams030, 23:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850675532716978313) · 2 likes > **nicole ruiz (will be in the bay oct 1-10th) (@nwilliams030):** Got absolutely clowned on for posting this when I first moved to Manhattan > > And now, 3+ years later I know all my neighbors, and it rocks > > (quoting @nwilliams030: how do u get to know your apartment neighbors in nyc? (before you say you don’t, I am intent on doing so, for context)) Based ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 23:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850676716273799600) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Henry no... > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Wild_%28book%29?wprov=sfla1 Lol ## Monday, October 28, 2024 ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 00:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850690757528629541) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** bay area is cool and fun and colourful and has very good trees > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ga7vyPfbAAApTbl.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ga7vNW3aMAIcE7y.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ga7vNW3bcAA0o51.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ga7vmzFakAAS2k7.jpg) 🎃 ### [Reply to @keysmashbandit, 15:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850916904505889098) · 2 likes > **keysmashbandit (@keysmashbandit):** A guy i dated in 2017 who used to mansplain so much that me and my friends called him mattsplain just messaged me on discord to ask if I wanted to join his factorio server. I'm good man thanks though I aspire to this ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 16:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850936875495678347) · 4 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** @SnakeOneAPM why would it? It’s in the training data ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850952205383192899) · 13 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** i'm only not as depressed as them because: > > \- their life pretty much sucks and my life is just better > > \- they've tugged at threads i've very deliberately chosen to ignore > > and i truly don't know how to help this No I think you’re basically wrong, depression is not merely accurate self-assessment, although that can help cause it It’s pretty mysterious and I can’t claim to know what it actually is at a biological level, but ontologically it’s an illness… ### [Thread, continued, 17:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1850952914480636284) · 7 likes The cool contrarian take is to say that psychiatry is wrong and depression is often essentially correct negative beliefs The normie cringe woke-adjacent take is to say that mental illness is illness In this case the cringe normies are basically (on depression specifically tbc) ### [Reply to @parafactual, 23:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851039254492627106) · 3 likes > **You (@parafactual):** ok so, why the fuck does 37.5mg/day moclobemide work for me?? > > the usual starting dose is 300mg/day. that seems like it'd be overwhelming > > (quoting @parafactual: moclobemide is a great antidepressant. in sufficiently high doses it feels like mania in a pill) Nobody knows how anything works in psychiatry, including the mechanisms of ADs, including MAOIs lol ### [Reply to @parafactual, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851040439748469050) · 3 likes > **You (@parafactual):** they make your monoamines go up. we have a decent idea of what the monoamines do! not perfect but decent! Yeah that’s probably involved but (I just confirmed this for moclobemide) the mystery is why you reach steady state MAO-inhibition at ~3 days but the AD effect takes ~3 weeks The same thing is true for SSRIs and I believe other ADs - what’s considered the primary mechanism ### [Thread, continued, 23:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851040980914348392) · 3 likes Reaches full effect well before full effect on actual symptoms Idk about moclobemide specifically but every AD I’ve looked into that’s reasonably well understood has at least several distinct, documented effects (eg neurosteroids, GABA, CRP, iirc parnate does something to fatty ### [Thread, continued, 23:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851041025197760977) · 3 likes Acids in the brain) ### [Reply to @parafactual, 23:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851041178701218218) · 2 likes > **You (@parafactual):** like after a certain point the Adversary is not just chemical, but also informational Eh I’m pretty skeptical of psychological-level explanations for this stuff but maybe ## Tuesday, October 29, 2024 ### [Reply to @handybobandy, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851075702713438423) · 2 likes > **Handy (@handybobandy):** School quality as a whole hasn't shown to impact outcomes (some exception on the lowest end, but it's got to be a really horrific place for that to matter) Maybe, I’m pretty Caplan-pilled, but k-12 is like 15% of a human life so quality matters intrinsically quite a bit ### [Tweet, 21:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851374166991049084) · 5 likes This was a high-impact 7 minutes (or at least I think it will have been) ## Wednesday, October 30, 2024 ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 00:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851415592068059159) · 3 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** I'm helping out extensively with https://www.swapyourvote.org/ > > Vote-swapping is an electoral strategy where a protest voter in a swing-state promises to vote for Harris in exchange for two people from safe blue states vote for the protest voter's preferred third-party or protest vote. Dope ### [Reply to @meaning_enjoyer, 03:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851467033881231546) · 14 likes > **nihilism disrespecter (@meaning_enjoyer):** mormon success at building a functional, thriving society is low key extremely blackpilling for anyone who holds truth as a terminal value Yeah but LessWrong has and will have had more influence over the future ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 04:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851476980648014013) · 3 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AnniePosting @AaronBergman18 look Lol ### [Reply to @AnniePosting, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851480034315223299) · 4 likes > **annie 👁❌🦋🪞 (@AnniePosting):** @austinc3301 @AaronBergman18 is this a good or bad look Good ### [Reply to @bschne, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851670176309063754) · 3 likes > **Benjamin (@bschne):** me when my favorite source of consumer surplus decides to become financially sustainable > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GbJzYnlWMAA2VsS.jpg) Rip 2018 uber ### [Tweet, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851683171835806196) · 42 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GbKACBIXYAAT0Zf.jpg) ### [Reply, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851725694990192808) · 2 likes Based ### [Reply to @notanastronomer, 20:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851727005303165353) · 3 likes > **Lauren Gilbert (@notanastronomer):** I really feel like @GiveWell should have a program that once you give, like, 10k, you get swag. And that is the \*only\* way to get swag. > > (quoting @GjMcGowan: Call me Give the way I’m Well #swag) Yes! Many are saying! ### [Reply, 20:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851727341778510174) · 1 like It should just continue scaling up as far as practicable Dustin can have…idk, what’s the epitome of signaling in SF? ### [Reply, 20:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851728766416097650) Lol I hope he has an OP jacket or something ### [Tweet, 23:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851775543613542457) · 13 likes I also endorse Kamala Harris and anti-endorse Donald Trump For God’s sake, don’t let Trump win. He’s a really bad guy https://open.substack.com/pub/astralcodexten/p/acx-endorses-harris-oliver-or-stein?r=2muv6&utm_medium=ios ### [Thread, continued, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851775702380552653) · 3 likes Lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GbLUL7oWkAATBnD.jpg) ## Thursday, October 31, 2024 ### [Thread, continued, 00:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851776409137463336) · 2 likes This was true for the potential Biden administration, and it’s ~equally true for the Harris administration ### [Tweet, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851776739669684418) · 8 likes Follower poll out of curiosity ### [Reply to @ByrneHobart, 00:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851776913804808469) · 4 likes > **Byrne Hobart (@ByrneHobart):** Hereticon was amazing, but I’ve now spent two and a half days marinating in contrarian ideas. Help me detox by posting your most lukewarm, defensible takes. Harris is fine, Trump is very bad ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 00:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851777273466101996) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 I voted for Chase Oliver, but I also live in Oregon which is most assuredly going to Harris regardless Yeah makes sense ### [Reply to @paulg, 00:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851790274986381712) · 1 like > **Paul Graham (@paulg):** Friend: How was your day? > > Me: Well, in the morning I published something explaining why moderates should vote for Harris, and then spent the rest of the day being called a retard. Good move though 🫡 ### [Reply to @xsphi, 12:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851962852019408920) · 4 likes > **tess (@xsphi):** I'm precommitting to killing myself if anyone kills any cats or dogs WWI be like ### [Tweet, 12:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851963150557417950) · 5 likes Aesthetically I like minimalism/minimalist travel but I’m actually high maintenance ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 12:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851965778205061294) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ If you wanna learn more about AI sentience, this is your book (section 5 is specifically about AI but at least section 1 is also load-bearing) ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 13:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1851975962864320552) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** It is with great regret (and in true eastern orthodox fashion) that i have discovered I don't like Augustine @austinc3301 u gonna let him roast you like that --- End of October 2024. Previous month: [September 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-09). Next month: [November 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-11). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, November 2024 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in November 2024 and has not deleted: 354 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [October 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-10). Next month: [December 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-12). ## Friday, November 1, 2024 ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 12:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1852331300373295216) · 4 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** I'm at EAG Boston this weekend and have the world's only physical copy of Derek Parfit: The Board Game with me! DM me or send me a message on swapcard if you'd like to play! > > (quoting @SpacedOutMatt: Presenting the long-awaited release of Derek Parfit: The Board Game! A spin on the classic deckbuilding game Dominion, players in DPTBG compete to maximize the good under Parfit's Triple Theory by conducting philosophical research and taking action to help the world) Hell no ❤️ ### [Reply to @hot_girl_spring, 13:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1852346966841135422) · 62 likes > **⁎⁺˳✧༚ 𝚗𝚊𝚗𝚊𝚖𝚒 🎀💛💙🇺🇦💙💛 (@hot_girl_spring):** I really dislike how so many adults are "friends" with children in tech twitter > > they're children... if you were "friends" irl their parents would beat you up, for hood reasons Old friend: I consent Young friend: I consent (to friendship!) Nanami: I don’t! ### [Reply to @notanastronomer, 14:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1852352772126937209) · 8 likes > **Lauren Gilbert (@notanastronomer):** if anyone has ever wondered if I have always been Like This, I’ve just remembered my fifth grade teacher told me that she could see me working at a DC think tank someday > > I was 11 Lol my first grade teacher told my parents I acted like a 40 year old man ### [Reply to @alexalbert__, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1852400399396855983) · 3 likes > **Alex Albert (@alexalbert__):** It's a big day for Claude's PDF capabilities. > > We're rolling out visual PDF support across claude dot ai and the Anthropic API. > > Let me explain: > > [video attached](https://x.com/AnthropicAI/status/1852393688451653849/video/1) Ooh, I’m super curious about this ### [Tweet, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1852462105041011008) · 28 likes I’m in Boston NOT for EAG (it’s a bit of a story) but I am near the convention center and staying nearby for the weekend in case your 1-1 stands you up DM me if you’re interested in saying hi ### [Thread, continued, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1852462106907418939) · 6 likes My infosec standards are just barely high enough to avoid simply posting my current precise location on the public internet ### [Thread, continued, 21:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1852462394553033034) · 4 likes You should also definitely tell me all the gossip you hear ## Saturday, November 2, 2024 ### [Reply to @wordgirlfriend, 01:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1852527477660217782) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @wordgirlfriend is no longer available.)_ @inesferhumi @pearl_please ### [Tweet, 02:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1852531622337212730) · 36 likes The reposting of my own content will continue until animal welfare improves ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 11:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1852673138309378166) · 3 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** @AaronBergman18 @derelictvessel @pearl_please We literally almost dressed up as this for halloween Next year ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 12:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1852691115939447178) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 @inesferhumi @derelictvessel @pearl_please You and me Aaron Who is who ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 12:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1852692380488507516) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 @inesferhumi @derelictvessel @pearl_please Let's let the people decide 👀 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 14:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1852717306775806095) · 7 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @GjMcGowan I feel icky about being on Twitter with Elon’s behavior so probably can’t accept the money 😭 Andy take his money Giving him free ad views is not much of a protest ### [Tweet, 14:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1852718480891515391) · 7 likes Does anyone have takes on how worried I should be about aluminum antiperspirant ### [Quote tweet, 14:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1852722816186999233) · 14 likes I feel like people systematically underrate both the utility and overall importance of (generative) AI because they naturally use it in the domains they’re best at, and separately the best humans in the world at some task have disproportionate influence > **Quoting Adi Polak (@AdiPolak):** AI is probably not going to replace you > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GbU_vAlaYAA7Tzc.png) ### [Reply to @AaronEstel, 15:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1852734545562329121) · 3 likes > **Aaron (@AaronEstel):** @AaronBergman18 it's not the aluminum you should be worried about > > https://x.com/forshaper/status/1305731457193619457?t=USVRZ6oWvli9YKppOqvs_g&s=19 I have tried not showering and just don’t think it’s for me lol ### [Quote tweet, 16:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1852744710072250584) · 76 likes Serious question: what public figures (broadly construed) are: \- conservative \- smart \- not a midwit/populist \- not religious, politically \- not libertarian as a fundamental guiding principle (tbc I have some respect for this, just want to separate it out) \- well-intentioned > **Quoting Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** About an hour into the Rogan interview, J.D. suggests that Bill Gates is "getting rich" off of his philanthropies, but I don't think there's anything to this. > > It sounds like he's just saying something that's probably false since Gates is a known and easy target. ### [Thread, continued, 16:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1852746031148028343) · 17 likes Claude says @davidfrum @peterthiel and @tylercowen ### [Thread, continued, 16:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1852746712638427362) · 14 likes 4o says a somewhat surprisingly totally different set: \- Douglas Murray \- Niall Ferguson \- Andrew Sullivan \- Jonathan Haidt ### [Tweet, 20:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1852807453248979247) · 18 likes HUGE day for 5 year old boys [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1852807418578980864/pu/img/X9BJPti1gHOvY09L.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1852807453248979247/video/1) (video, plays on X) ## Sunday, November 3, 2024 ### [Reply to @NoContextBrits, 15:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1853094252068151632) · 1 like > **No Context Brits (@NoContextBrits):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GbZ9EoXawAAUYQK.jpg) @livgorton ## Monday, November 4, 2024 ### [Tweet, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1853281054561374654) · 82 likes \> introduce myself as Aaron \> talk for another 10 minutes \> OH YOURE AARON BERGMAN Allegedly people know me from twitter, absolutely wild ### [Thread, continued, 03:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1853281629935960505) · 7 likes If the person from the above interaction is reading this, hello and it was nice to meet you ### [Quote tweet, 04:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1853286387446960520) · 28 likes If you haven’t voted already, and you’re in a safe blue state (which you probably are), you should do this > **Quoting Linch (@LinchZhang):** Don't spend your last 36 hours before the election reading tea leaves. Instead, go to http://SwapYourVote.org and do something active to decrease the odds of a Trump win! <3 <3 <3 ### [Thread, continued, 04:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1853286392417177687) · 6 likes I will be voting Green this election ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1853472597087752417) · 6 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I usually dislike when people say “we should see each other more often”. > > We don’t see each other more often because we don’t prioritise it. And usually we aren’t interested in fixing that. And that’s okay. I disagree, given that someone says this, to me it’s probably true ### [Tweet, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1853482092283531775) · 20 likes Said to me irl: “I understood you the first time, you don’t need to do your stupid fucking equations” ### [Tweet, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1853489065678500181) · 9 likes AI might be the fan that gets hit by the shit of incorrect moral philosophy Oppression, freedom, justice, etc. might be reasonable approximations of human welfare. In fact, I think they generally are… ### [Thread, continued, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1853489068018954471) · 7 likes But they’re not fundamentally the thing that matters, and they can easily come apart from AI suffering—probably in the sense of being ~orthogonal, not necessarily in opposition, but that can be pretty bad if it’s the main thing you care about (as some in the AI space appreciate) ### [Tweet, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1853489070501962066) · 1 like To name names a bit I think @dwarkesh_sp often makes this mistake ### [Thread, continued, 17:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1853490458582024281) · 3 likes This seems especially true in the case of freedom (and related terms like slavery) specifically ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1853490883435319621) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 @dwarkesh_sp you should have him on pigeon hour to discuss I’m not sure if this is like a core/strong view of his - seems more like a casual (but still potentially bad) mistake to me based on listening ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1853528310229418025) · 3 likes > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** @AaronBergman18 what a rude thing to say I would cry if this happened Lol in context it was fine+funny ## Tuesday, November 5, 2024 ### [Tweet, 02:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1853630423173087360) · 6 likes Tomorrow is my quadrennial “sit in front of a physical TV by my own volition” day ### [Quote tweet, 05:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1853666896647774390) · 29 likes I reposted this before, but I’ve been thinking about it There won’t be a spiritual reconning, or any other sort of cosmic justice. The universe does care, but only via the sentience of its constituent parts—not in a way that fills the God-shaped hole in the human psyche > **Quoting Syd Steyerhart (@SydSteyerhart):** The barbarity and scale of factory farming is damaging the world soul. This isn't about going vegetarian (I am not a vegetarian), it's a simple recognition that we have turned the world into an eternal Treblinka for countless sentient things and there's a price to pay. ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 06:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1853684529027747974) · 5 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gbmb5Zya4AAavEA.jpg) Lol what crazy mf runs that account ### [Tweet, 15:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1853828089211404540) · 9 likes Pleased to announce that I have no on-the-ground Election Day insight for the twitter hivemind to consume and integrate ### [Quote tweet, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1853857478565409167) · 9 likes Wtf > **Quoting Garrison Lovely (@GarrisonLovely):** 🚨BREAKING🚨 X suspended the SwapYourVote account w/o providing an explanation, according to multiple volunteers with the project. However, the link to the site http://SwapYourVote.org is not being suppressed (which X did to the JD Vance dossier published by @kenklippenstein).🧵 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gbo5a6LbcAEB7pY.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1853876760216993986) · 10 likes Opinion: I was a Harris supporter in Pennsylvania. Then Joe Rogan endorsed Donald Trump ### [Tweet, 19:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1853882773225754883) · 11 likes I want to believe that acausal trade as a developed theory is causally responsible for @SwapYourVote which will be causally responsible for Harris winning ### [Thread, continued, 19:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1853883496990662994) · 2 likes It’s a textbook-quality example tbh. Me being honest is some evidence that my partner was honest. Acausal trade goes brr ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1853897978504704220) > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** It seems like really really weak evidence. Hard to be sure in qualitative terms but I basically just disagree. Almost all the evidence is in the form of “my actions are evidence that people generally do what they say they will absent strong reasons to do the contrary” ### [Thread, continued, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1853898803063214414) Ie most of the decision procedure was done by evolution and shared environment in creating highly correlated facts about human psychology, explicit thinking about weird philosophy stuff only makes it a tiny bit more overdetermined ### [Quote tweet, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1853899032617271315) · 7 likes ! > **Quoting Trevor Levin (@trevposts):** Apparently Swap Your Vote has been getting lots of swing-state interest and is urgently looking for more CA voters who haven't voted yet -- if you're in CA and down to vote third-party if a swing-state voter votes Dem, consider signing up! Link in next tweet. ## Wednesday, November 6, 2024 ### [Tweet, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1853996288536097160) · 10 likes Darn ### [Tweet, 03:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854006589620937112) · 88 likes Maybe NYT just got unlucky but this doesn’t look like much of a Bayesian model ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GbrBKtcWUAohX_C.jpg) ### [Tweet, 11:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854125791526723769) · 36 likes I wanna be optimistic but yeah this is pretty bad ### [Reply, 16:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854193020326887582) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ I don’t think this will be the result ### [Quote tweet, 16:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854194486420684934) · 177 likes This kind of bootlicking is sad to see (and an indictment of Trump’s character) but it’s also totally rational and even courageous. Bootlicking can be justified if it means you will be more likely to win a just war > **Quoting Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa):** Congratulations to @realDonaldTrump on his impressive election victory! > > I recall our great meeting with President Trump back in September, when we discussed in detail the Ukraine-U.S. strategic partnership, the Victory Plan, and ways to put an end to Russian aggression against Ukraine. > > I appreciate President Trump’s commitment to the “peace through strength” approach in global affairs. This is exactly the principle that can practically bring just peace in Ukraine closer. I am hopeful that we will put it into action together. > > We look forward to an era of a strong United States of America under President Trump’s decisive leadership. We rely on continued strong bipartisan support for Ukraine in the United States. > > We are interested in developing mutually beneficial political and economic cooperation that will benefit both of our nations. Ukraine, as one of Europe's strongest military powers, is committed to ensuring long-term peace and security in Europe and the Transatlantic community with the support of our allies. > > I am looking forward to personally congratulating President Trump and discussing ways to strengthen Ukraine's strategic partnership with the United States. ### [Reply to @gelionexists, 16:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854205894478692783) · 1 like > **GE Lion (@gelionexists):** I get your point but calling this bootlicking is a little unfair considering the position he's in Yeah fair ### [Reply to @sullyj3, 16:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854205974866764091) · 4 likes > **░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░ (@sullyj3):** brutal to witness though > https://x.com/sullyj3/status/1854161711999459825 Yes ### [Reply to @BenShindel, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854228154174550050) · 10 likes > **Ben (@BenShindel):** @AaronBergman18 that looks PRECISELY like a Bayesian model, lol Sure looks like a lot of predictable updating didn’t get priced in ### [Quote tweet, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854252974568349825) · 13 likes They have too much money, shut it all down > **Quoting Sam Altman (@sama):** http://chat.com ### [Thread, continued, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854253135843545353) · 4 likes When I have infinity VC cash, http://www.aaronbergman.net will just be a dot com ### [Reply to @Benthamsbulldog, 20:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854254072003514616) · 2 likes > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** Lots of people are extremely freaked out. On my blog, linked in bio, I explain why not to be. I don’t think people should freak out (although this is a strawman based on what im seeing) but like it does seem really quite bad, especially vis a vis AI I would like reasonably serious and competent people do be in power during the maybe-singularity ### [Quote tweet, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854256485469241418) · 14 likes The duck who is the banner of my blog just because I thought he was funny and whimsical -looking recently passed away btw. RIP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Boi ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GbukciFWsBUZmd8.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** When I have infinity VC cash, http://www.aaronbergman.net will just be a dot com ### [Tweet, 22:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854284915124449713) · 6 likes If peanuts were a drug they’d probably be prescription only because they induce anaphylaxis in a decent chunk of the population (~.8% of the US population has a potentially-fatal allergy according to Claude) ### [Tweet, 22:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854297356633608310) · 12 likes Stoic mindset + agentic action is probably the best combo in response to bad things happening There’s no conceptual contradiction, but there might be a partial psychological contradiction, at least sometimes. Idk what to do about this ## Thursday, November 7, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854350870625820717) · 5 likes Is this what a Bayesian plot would have looked like assuming the prior on Trump was 0.5? (pretend the probability is capped appropriately at p=1) First Claude says no, then I push him and he says yes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gbv5fXqXUAoo3pJ.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Maybe NYT just got unlucky but this doesn’t look like much of a Bayesian model > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GbrBKtcWUAohX_C.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 11:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854486863429488829) · 26 likes E/accs congratulating themselves for American growth ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gbx1-TFX0BYUnIk.jpg) > **Quoting Beff (e/acc) (@beffjezos):** This is why Europe is decelerating and America is accelerating. > > It starts with the culture. > > This realization is why we've been scaling techno-optimism to the world with e/acc. > > Everyone can and will join in on our acceleration up the Kardashev scale > > [video attached](https://x.com/arjunkhemani/status/1850855415644299651/video/1) ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 15:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854551271698505774) · 14 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Modern medicine is one damn free lunch after the other > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GbytbnVWUAc-v-w.png) Sorta, I think vaccines are one example. Emergency medicine has plenty. But I have a prior on “rare free lunch” in managing complex and long-term diseases like obesity There’s good theoretical reason for this: the human body is basically a web of layered control systems ### [Thread, continued, 15:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854551479400407531) · 5 likes Very hard to beat these at their own game of making sure Nothing Ever Happens - even harder to beat them without messing other things up ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 15:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854552358526562421) · 3 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Have you seen this paper? Maybe of interest > > https://philpapers.org/rec/BOSTEO-14 Not yet although I think I’ve encountered less formal but similar arguments. Thanks! ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 15:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854553219659132954) · 2 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** @AaronBergman18 I read the previous version and found it very interesting For anyone else reading this thread https://nickbostrom.com/evolutionary-optimality.pdf ### [Tweet, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854554758448615489) · 11 likes Kinda sucks that the POTUS race is treated as a culture war referendum instead of, like, who to choose to do the job of president ### [Tweet, 16:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854556845836247325) · 4 likes Planes shouldn’t be able to bounce like this. It literally bounces once and keeps flying. Like they’re too big, not with the relevant properties of a tennis or basket ball. Idgi [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1854556821110894602/pu/img/9i28FgM7yrA9Ho8H.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854556845836247325/video/1) (video, plays on X) ## Friday, November 8, 2024 ### [Tweet, 14:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854893682991702484) · 234 likes Pretty sure I’m the only person in the world with correct gender culture war takes (causal misandry is rampant and bad but also the feminization of society is mostly good) ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 14:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854895004633722956) · 10 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** High decoupling view Based ### [Reply to @BernoulliDefect, 14:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854896229987041390) · 4 likes > **bernoulli_defect (@BernoulliDefect):** There’s an oversupply of emotive and personal accounts of “how the left lost young men” and basically zero dorky policy analysis that accepts they may be voting in their rational self interest > > Even simple things like “nuclear power is ‘right wing’, men like nuclear” go unsaid Voters don’t generally vote in their self-interest except insofar as they like expressing identity and tribal affiliation ### [Reply, 14:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854900188420157894) · 13 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Less violent conflict, more care/compassion seems good long term ### [Tweet, 15:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854901986975425021) · 43 likes Does anyone have a better idea than Anthropic x US Military? Seems like this is the best possible pairwise combination and simply excluding the most important technology since the Industrial Revolution from warfare is not a real possibility ### [Reply to @SpencrGreenberg, 15:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854911187479064948) · 15 likes > **Spencer Greenberg 🔍 (@SpencrGreenberg):** A question for you: other than inquiries about consciousness, what, in your opinion, is one of the most fascinating unsolved or hard-to-resolve philosophical questions? “What the fuck?” which translates more politely as “why is there something instead of nothing?” but I think is related to consciousness because these both seem like pretty strong objections to the standard scientific materialist worldview being all there is ### [Reply to @ESRogs, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854911832202310036) · 7 likes > **Rogs 🔍🔸 (@ESRogs):** @AaronBergman18 Causal or casual? Casual lol, thanks ### [Reply, 15:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854913168541204962) · 14 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Yeah this is 100% me, my IQ actually drops at least 40 points in this context and this is not hyperbole ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854937103165219024) · 15 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 8, 2024:** Pretty sure I’m the only person in the world with correct gender culture war takes (causal misandry is rampant and bad but also the feminization of society is… Update: it appears I am not the only person in the world with this view ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 17:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854937315736420646) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Idk about Taylor but you can definitely get feelings nerd-sniped ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 17:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854938084481085547) · 12 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** @AaronBergman18 interesting, I'm similar except i think the causal misandry isn't rampant while still being bad “Men bad” vibes seems to be the default to me among educated western liberals ### [Reply to @Oneoneder, 17:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1854939723547967939) · 8 likes > **Sara Straw 🌐 (@Oneoneder):** @AaronBergman18 Society is not "feminized", society is Yankee-pilled. > > Yankee culture (being polite and respectful, avoiding feuds, disparaging revenge) is basically an advancement on the tech tree. Honor culture is very wasteful and zero sum. I’m not sure there’s a huge difference when put like that, but more convincingly IMO it would be very strange if (western) women gaining rights, money, influence, status, etc. over recent decades didn’t usher in some level of overall feminization ## Saturday, November 9, 2024 ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1855302764236288457) · 3 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** reply and I'll tell you where you are on the kiki-bouba, brat-demure axis Tell meeeee ### [Quote tweet, 17:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1855305817622241696) · 17 likes There’s a weird dynamic in medical politics where some specific issue becomes salient and the world bends in response but only in a very specific way… > **Quoting Danielle Fong 🔆 (@DanielleFong):** neo trans - bro alliance on making testosterone legal to get ### [Thread, continued, 17:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1855305819971047795) · 14 likes Hormones being accessible for trans people but largely not cis men is one example Marijuana being freely available in some places but random other drugs (zofran, propranolol) remaining Rx only is another ### [Reply to @lun_aaaaa, 17:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1855306858698858591) · 3 likes > **unrelated moon horse (@lun_aaaaa):** @AaronBergman18 > Hormones being accessible for trans people but largely not cis men is one example > ? Testosterone Replacement Therapy for cis men is incredibly popular It’s popular yes but either expensive via private clinics or you have to fight the system to get it I was on TRT! ### [Reply to @adrusi, 17:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1855307974547308726) · 3 likes > **autumn (@adrusi):** @AaronBergman18 you know you can just buy non-controlled Rx-only drugs online, right? just has to be international so shipping takes a couple weeks Yeah, I may or may not have done this before ## Sunday, November 10, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 06:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1855496202092945871) · 30 likes It is very endearing that she thinks I am an AI expert because I use ChatGPT (although tbf I’ve been talking about it since ~2017) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GcAL9kWa8AEYk8k.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Oh to have the optimism of a parent thinking his child can get a job at an EA org > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0mvGT9XsAgE9ho.jpg) ### [Tweet, 06:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1855496391272874028) · 24 likes Everyone’s body, the FDA and some overpaid doctors’ choice ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 06:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1855496951770272123) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 i’ll see what i can do Can I be ur garden hermit ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 18:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1855683865316130896) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 I'm not sure what this entails Just like a hollow tree trunk and small stipend https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_hermit ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1855686908489138682) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Why is there something rather than nothing? Idk ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1855686998570193201) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Almost a month later and still no answer from @AaronBergman18 on why there's something rather than nothing > > (quoting @NoahTopper: @AaronBergman18 Why is there something rather than nothing?) Sad ### [Reply to @GaryMarcus, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1855690586235322771) · 3 likes > **Gary Marcus (@GaryMarcus):** Folks, game over. I won. > > GPT is hitting a period of diminishing returns, just like I said it would. > > (quoting @amir: news: OpenAI's upcomning Orion model shows how GPT improvements are slowing down It's prompting OpenAI to bake in reasoning and other tweaks after the initial model training phase.) Lol ## Monday, November 11, 2024 ### [Reply to @default_friend, 03:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1855815626876391623) · 2 likes > **Katherine Dee 🐬/acc (@default_friend):** I NEED 🚨 GAVIN NEWSOM 🚨 FAN FIC @livgorton ### [Quote tweet, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1855816183246676398) · 279 likes Half insane, half based > **Quoting Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr):** FDA’s war on public health is about to end. This includes its aggressive suppression of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything else that advances human health and can't be patented by Pharma. If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags. ### [Reply, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1855821613121307133) · 6 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GcEz69cWIAA5gEv.jpg) ## Tuesday, November 12, 2024 ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 00:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1856134100739928210) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** I started watching Taskmaster Junior and found the perfect shirt for @AaronBergman18 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GcIYA6uasAAhJPD.jpg) And @livgorton !!!!! ### [Thread, continued, 00:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1856134527283781992) · 2 likes I might actually buy this https://a.co/d/jkHSHwl ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 00:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1856137255959609747) · 2 likes > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** Life update: last week I got so violently stomach-ill after EAG that in the middle of the night I fainted while trying to get some water and concussed myself on my kitchen floor. So now I'm not sick anymore but I have vertigo 🫨 Nooooooooooooo ### [Reply to @bstract_thot, 13:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1856329423399657848) · 2 likes > **ER!S (@bstract_thot):** i bring a sort "knows too much about psychiatry" vibe to to the psychiatrist's office that psychiatrists don't really like Lmao real ### [Reply, 19:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1856419887712813195) · 1 like Preregistering that it will be more equal across races than anyone naively expects ## Wednesday, November 13, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1856531868906147957) · 19 likes Wait what > **Quoting Garrison Lovely (@GarrisonLovely):** Ilya Sutskever, perhaps the most influential proponent of the AI "scaling hypothesis," just told Reuters that scaling has plateaued. This is a big deal! This comes on the heels of a big report that OpenAI's in-development Orion model had disappointing results. 🧵 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GcOjPZqasAAD0QK.jpg) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 17:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1856745012307820899) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 https://x.com/NoahTopper/status/1792321641835626795 Nice, thanks ## Thursday, November 14, 2024 ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857115051687039380) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** Two years ago today > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GcXLOm2XgAACa6R.png) > (quoting @SBF_FTX: 1\) What) Rip ### [Reply, 17:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857116000434438299) · 2 likes Fr ### [Tweet, 17:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857116044311093504) · 1 like Excellent question ### [Quote tweet, 17:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857117762931335314) · 6 likes Make it OTC > **Quoting Marios Georgakis (@MariosGeorgakis):** Hazard ratio=0.07❗️ > > That's the ridiculous effect of tirzepatide (dual GIP/GLP1r agonist) on the 3-year incidence of diabetes among patients with obesity > > It's the kind of massive effect you expect for vaccines, not chronic disease prevention. > > https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2410819 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GcXK4n-WUAAOl7q.jpg) ## Friday, November 15, 2024 ### [Reply to @goblinodds, 08:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857334194721947762) · 3 likes > **𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** what's a good funny short signal i can add to my bio to balance out pronouns and maximize confusion > > (quoting @FeralPHunter: the thing about pronouns in bio is that it filters out one annoying group of people and unfortunately attracts a different group of annoying people) “Professional decoupler” ### [Reply to @albrgr, 21:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857534896048046472) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @albrgr is no longer available.)_ Consider this my application ### [Quote tweet, 21:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857536940028957129) · 5 likes For 95% of (my) use cases, ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini would all do fine. I choose based on anticipated vibes > **Quoting davidad 🎇 (@davidad):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gcb4JHDXMAAB9PN.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gcb4JHBW8AAJtyk.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 22:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857558343751258312) · 25 likes They’re looking for people who are smart and a little nerdy. You have nothing to lose ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gcdfd97WgAAaVqw.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** It is very endearing that she thinks I am an AI expert because I use ChatGPT (although tbf I’ve been talking about it since ~2017) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GcAL9kWa8AEYk8k.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857558346611425644) · 6 likes Yes this is a real conversation I just had with my mom ### [Thread, continued, 22:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857558347890754026) · 1 like She’s not wrong tbf ### [Quote tweet, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857559052307357721) · 17 likes Yeah this is an awesome insight. You’re mostly running on priors with only the lightest touch of guardrail guidance from sensory input > **Quoting henry (@arithmoquine):** thinking about one of my favorite tweets > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GcdTuhSa8AAOnWx.jpg) ## Saturday, November 16, 2024 ### [Tweet, 00:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857580444235030584) · 5 likes If you run the AC at this temperature it could freeze ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GcdzkdEW4AE08m4.jpg) ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 01:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857597819239923976) · 2 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** there's no proof seed oils are actually bad for you btw Proof is a high bar. What’s the EV? I think they’re probably fine (60%) but mostly avoid anyway ### [Tweet, 01:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857599102986375376) · 7 likes Girls who reply 1-3 times on hinge and then ghost, how’s life? ### [Quote tweet, 01:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857603086149124171) · 17 likes Where do I read these emails > **Quoting Nabeel S. Qureshi (@nabeelqu):** This email will be quoted in history books decades from now > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gccq5ZHWgAAnjPY.jpg) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 02:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857606732022706260) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 Don’t know if I’ve already shared this but I had a girl I’d been talking to for a while say “How would you like to meet up RIGHT NOW?” and I said yes then she ghosted me Wtf but also this (not the ghosting part) would fix me This is the ~only way I can make plans and other ppl reading this can vouch ### [Reply, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857610373123174589) · 1 like This isn’t true. Changing minds is option 1, waiting for people to die and new people to have different opinions is option 2 and I think generally how public opinion usually changes ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 02:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857616691473056128) · 8 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 16, 2024:** Where do I read these emails This is what I could find https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.433688/gov.uscourts.cand.433688.32.0_1.pdf ### [Quote tweet, 02:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857617805933166768) · 19 likes Page 91 - I hope @open_phil is following along carefully and possibly preparing a case ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GceVcEDWYAICC9u.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** This is what I could find https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.433688/gov.uscourts.cand.433688.32.0_1.pdf ### [Thread, continued, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857619059933585528) · 9 likes Spicy and correct: "Never before has a corporation gone from tax-exempt charity to a $157 billion for-profit, market-paralyzing gorgon—and in just eight years. Never before has it happened, because doing so violates almost every principle of law governing economic activity... ### [Thread, continued, 02:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857619190380638475) · 7 likes It requires lying to donors, lying to members, lying to markets, lying to regulators, and lying to the public." ### [Reply to @manic_pixie_agi, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857621657289912509) · 2 likes > **Corinne (🏠 in NYC) (@manic_pixie_agi):** Lots of paper links in recent ClearerThinking post > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GceYX0_WgAApWC_.jpg) @littIeramblings implicitly mentioned!!!!!!! ### [Tweet, 03:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857632922028880176) · 5 likes 🌶️ https://www.dwarkeshpatel.com/p/gwern-branwen ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GcejRSrXoAECvjz.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 04:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857645043915395539) · 26 likes One thing the FDA is good for is quality control. I know there are are libertarian arguments in the other direction, but I’d be fine with FDA as label accuracy enforcer > **Quoting 0.005 Seconds (3/694) (@seconds_0):** A real USDA / FDA would eviscerate companies over heavy metal levels. This is a known superpoison that doesnt go away easily. How in the sam hill does this keep happening? ### [Tweet, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857657500327145977) · 114 likes (Hypothetical past DOGE setting back obesity and diabetes treatment by a generation) NIH wastes MILLIONS of taxpayer dollars every year studying GILA MONSTER venom ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gce5poWW0AApoig.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857660028552941639) · 8 likes Fr though, the US federal government is the ~only institution with enough money and scope to act as a civilizational hits-based VC-esque funder/doer ### [Thread, continued, 05:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857660030746571026) · 7 likes Elon should know as well as anyone that you get rich (/more of whatever success metric) by rolling the dice a bunch and “wasting” a lot of money in the course of eventually funding Amazon/Google/Apple ### [Thread, continued, 05:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857660032499802153) · 10 likes There are a lot of ways the federal government can work better, but scaling back moonshot science stuff and making sure every department head is terrified of spending money for illegible reasons is not one of them ### [Reply to @an_interstice, 08:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857697312111272094) · 2 likes > **interstice (@an_interstice):** https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5jjk4CDnj9tA7ugxr/openai-email-archives-from-musk-v-altman Thank you! ### [Quote tweet, 10:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857725320079536286) · 7 likes It’s awkward to post/RT stuff like this because it’s often related to race and immigration I think ~open borders is good and correct policy and yet stuff like this is nuts and even people with bad takes should be free to say them without getting arrested > **Quoting Lewis 🇺🇸 (@ctjlewis):** there is no freedom of speech in the United Kingdom. they are completely compromised. ### [Thread, continued, 10:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857725322008944790) · 7 likes It really seems that you have to promote free speech as an affirmative value because the natural tendency of human society is to sprint in the opposite direction ### [Reply to @AnnaWSalamon, 10:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857733626395504772) · 2 likes > **Anna Salamon (@AnnaWSalamon):** I see no reason to diverge from the "null hypothesis" that he has always and only been pursuing power, and saying what was locally useful toward that, with EAs/nerds/idealists as his dupes. Do you have any evidence to the contrary? \+1 ### [Tweet, 14:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857795394450690185) · 3 likes Tweaked some probabilities on my best charity market so they currently accord with my beliefs Think any of this is wrong? Awesome, now’s your chance to trade away fake internet points for a decent chance of moving real money https://manifold.markets/AaronBergman18/what-donationaccepting-entity-eg-ch ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gcg3EJEXIAESGZQ.jpg) ### [Tweet, 14:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857795396849815609) · 1 like Tbc I take this market seriously but not as the sole arbiter of my ultimate take ### [Thread, continued, 14:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857795732658409650) · 2 likes Whale trader revealed to be @SpacedOutMatt (according to trustworthy sources close to the matter) putting manna where his mouth is ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gcg3X1hWMAAFcuv.jpg) ### [Reply to @albrgr, 18:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857847239785459963) · 2 likes > **Alexander Berger (@albrgr):** Cool paper finding high returns to tax enforcement, esp at the top end > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GchS4tebEAAvKbf.jpg) > (quoting @QJEHarvard: Recently accepted by #QJE, “A Welfare Analysis of Tax Audits Across the Income Distribution,” by Boning, Hendren (@nhendren82), Sprung-Keyser (@bsprungkeyser), and Stuart: https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjae037) Don’t make me tap the sign ### [Tweet, 18:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857853654579163264) · 11 likes Why didn’t Meta buy Twitter? $1.4T market cap vs like $50B ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 18:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857854591280493026) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Antitrust? Sad ### [Tweet, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857856683583668574) · 9 likes I’ll fight someone and live stream it for a sufficient amount of money ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857857228482413027) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 Let's do it Are you paying me or fighting me? ### [Quote tweet, 18:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857857483076730922) · 18 likes Who wants to sponsor this, perhaps to benefit the shrimp or something? @NoahTopper ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GchviGrXkAAisd8.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I’ll fight someone and live stream it for a sufficient amount of money ### [Reply, 20:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857890768280588689) · 1 like 5’7” 160ish I think ### [Reply to @tszzl, 21:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1857894455577121123) · 7 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** this stuff is dumb/driven by cruelty rather than a desire for efficiency > > it’s like deleting text files to clean your hard drive Turns out I have 12gb worth of txts ## Sunday, November 17, 2024 ### [Reply to @ajewishbrat, 07:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858055232640426050) · 7 likes > **jewish brat (@ajewishbrat):** since ur all here im single and 25 and in school to be a doctor @absurdlymax saved my puppy from a burning building ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 15:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858174485729313073) · 5 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Life update: I am excited to announce that tomorrow I will be starting a new job as a researcher at @RethinkPriors (again)! > > Really looking forward to working on cause prioritization and helping find cost-effective ways to improve global health and animal welfare once again! Nothing escapes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GcmP2NXXkAAm9L2.jpg) ### [Tweet, 15:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858175574516158501) · 9 likes You don’t hear people talking about black holes much. Like most of the 3-9 year old fixations, the kids are right once again. Extremely weird and creepy. Black. Hole. They have my respect but not my admiration ### [Reply to @MaxGhenis, 17:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858205039753363501) · 3 likes > **Max Ghenis (@MaxGhenis):** @Laura_k_Duffy @AaronBergman18 @RethinkPriors Wait what is this, I love this image I propose the megapig criterion for modeling the moral weights of individuals (generally of different animal species), which is basically that the model should give the same answer regardless of how you decide to draw boundaries to define an individual… ### [Thread, continued, 17:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858205399440101757) · 2 likes So if you stapled together two pigs and treated that as the unit of analysis, your model should say that this being has exactly twice as much moral weight as a single pig ### [Quote tweet, 18:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858222351613124779) · 2 likes Inspired to do the same: Understanding the Taylor Swift Phenomenon: The Duality of Modern Femininity (by me and Claude) https://claude.site/artifacts/13f650d9-3b03-483e-86c9-3562991a2cb4 > **Quoting Tyler John (@tyler_m_john):** Here's another experiment in writing with Claude: "Deontology is Self-Effacing" > > https://claude.site/artifacts/3b2014c2-727a-4db7-b78c-84f8e881e5b9 ### [Quote tweet, 19:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858231444231122958) · 13 likes I think seed oils are probably fine (~60%), but putting this as a “fact check” is just ludicrous This writing sounds like the issue is as decided as vaccines<>autism or cigarettes<>cancer. It’s not. > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Tweet, 20:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858239854796239192) · 28 likes I think I’m gonna make “fatwa” a thing white people say, like inshallah “I am hereby issuing a fatwa that the gathering shall commence at 7pm” ### [Tweet, 20:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858242105753391587) · 2 likes I haven’t really grokked Secret Third Thing decision theories yet, but I think the correct synthesis of causal and evidential dc is that causal can and should be subsumed under evidential bc causation is just one type of evidence ### [Tweet, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858243146829938999) · 5 likes There should be adult swim but for playgrounds Tbc this is for everyone’s benefit. I know I \*can\* just go and use a playground, but I don’t want to weird anyone out ### [Reply to @slimepriestess, 20:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858243259472183466) · 2 likes > **Ra (@slimepriestess):** have you...have you not read the FDT paper yet? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GcnNxXBawAA9r0B.jpg) I’m sorry I haven’t, I repent to you and @NoahTopper ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 20:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858249973764092020) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Hey I constantly send this to you too! True, I repent for both the thing and not tagging you ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858260260047261826) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @slimepriestess @AaronBergman18 If you just read TDT already you’d grok it all Aaron Ugh fine, I’m making it into audio ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858269993793982751) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 @slimepriestess (But it’s better than nothing) You can decide https://open.spotify.com/episode/74NUxHD7HVHUU6ugLQoXCS?si=ISRukO7tQJmNUN-M1qZitQ ### [Thread, continued, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858270114010763749) · 2 likes I spent $4 on this it better be good ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 22:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858274715061702868) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 @slimepriestess I’d be willing to cover the cost of turning it into audio for you since you already spent $4 and I’m the one demanding it of you lol Lol no ### [Quote tweet, 22:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858283532419834108) · 23 likes Bro is literally picking on the one competent technocratic institution we have > **Quoting Elon Musk (@elonmusk):** Which one would do a better job of deciding interest rates? ## Monday, November 18, 2024 ### [Tweet, 01:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858320676014235677) · 64 likes So much VC money that they don’t even have an incentive to ration via pricing Someone should remind them they can charge money for things ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GcoUzpNXQAARBot.jpg) ### [Reply to @acesounderglass, 03:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858348533855715342) · 1 like > **Elizabeth Van Nostrand (@acesounderglass):** I have crudely defined "stomach irritation", brought on by antibiotics. Slippery elm and soluble fiber both seem to help. What else have people found helpful in this category? > > I'm on probiotics but it's a losing battle until I'm off antibiotics. Possibly aloe Vera (juice or concentrate/extract) and peppermint tea ### [Tweet, 04:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858373016259858734) · 5 likes I’m more upset Hillary lost, even now ### [Thread, continued, 04:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858373017866314144) · 1 like It feels more cosmically wrong somehow ### [Tweet, 05:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858375760215466326) · 37 likes Bruh ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GcpG53_XgAAtXJN.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GcpG54AXsAAjwAM.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858375796374585547) · 6 likes I think they’re indistinguishable ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 05:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858382931389026645) · 5 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 Draw me like one of your French girls Actually pretty good from Claude! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GcpNbXGWcAIVTQD.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GcpNbXGXgAAS2lJ.jpg) ### [Tweet, 07:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858405133165424740) · 1,780 likes Rent is wild because $400/month gets you: Spotify Amazon Prime Grocery delivery service + tips Climbing gym membership Claude + ChatGPT paid versions 4x30 min trip Ubers/week + tips (no need for a car) OR A slightly bigger apartment in a US city ### [Thread, continued, 07:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858405134717362265) · 237 likes I feel like the first bundle sounds and feels bougie/lavish in a way $1400 vs $1800 on rent does not ### [Thread, continued, 07:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858405764135624884) · 149 likes This is actually a good reminder I should probably be more aggressive about downgrading rent somehow On the margin I’d rather have a smaller and less convenient place and spend money elsewhere, but moving is just a huge hassle ### [Reply to @kepe__, 07:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858408469797187769) · 4 likes > **kepe ✨🇫🇮 (@kepe__):** @AaronBergman18 (i'm sure this is a joke but this isn't what fatwa means) It is now ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 16:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858552956511031768) · 7 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** 30 min Uber is ~$40 so you’re looking at $160/week for 4 I honestly realized this after posting and was hoping no one would notice ### [Reply to @hyperdiscogirl, 16:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858553452151869720) · 14 likes > **hyper(bolic) disco(unting) girl in the bay (@hyperdiscogirl):** @AaronBergman18 wait that wouldn't even pay for the Ubers where I've lived lol F ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858556776221646874) · 27 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 18, 2024:** This is actually a good reminder I should probably be more aggressive about downgrading rent somehow On the margin I’d rather have a smaller and less… I messed up the uber calculation Plz don’t cancel me ### [Reply to @dylanmatt, 17:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858557393673519448) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dylanmatt is no longer available.)_ Wait what ### [Reply to @Second_Nick, 17:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858558347915518373) · 10 likes > **Second Nick (@Second_Nick):** @AaronBergman18 Must be some cheap groceries and Ubers I messed up the Ubers, but delivery is based on Safeway’s program which is $100/year for free delivery (tips not included) ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 17:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858558698240532990) · 3 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** rationalist weirdness: > i got curious, so i surgically removed part of my leg to eat it. i'll say more at tomorrow's moloch ritual. > > e/acc weirdness: > i sometimes sleep \*without\* a bed frame > > (quoting @theresidency: you can't take weirdness out of exceptional people no matter how many millions they raise or how much revenue they make here's a thread of unusual habits and quirks of some of our exceptional ppl living in our hacker houses in san francisco, new york city, bangalore, london 🧵) @SpacedOutMatt food 4 thought 🦶 ### [Quote tweet, 17:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858559945798807559) · 3 likes I think this is underselling the methodological difficulty but only by like 2 OOMs The Navy should randomize dining halls on aircraft carriers! > **Quoting Jeremy Kauffman 🦔🌲🌕 (@jeremykauffman):** If seed oils are as bad as many claim, a study proving this could be done in a few months, with a few hundred people, for under a few million dollars. > > Why don't the people obsessed with seed oils just prove their claims? ### [Reply to @maiamindel, 17:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858566867201200410) · 2 likes > **Maia (@maiamindel):** surprising absolutely nobody, "just changing a form" does nothing to help with organ donation rates Surprises me, it seemed pretty intuitively plausible ### [Reply to @xHascox, 17:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858567891333079232) · 3 likes > **Marco Gabriel (@xHascox):** @AaronBergman18 @dylanmatt @AbieRohrig Just shows, that the family should be excluded from that decision imo Yeah ### [Reply to @cube_flipper, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858573413415047302) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @cube_flipper is no longer available.)_ 💯 ### [Tweet, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858581607718023664) · 14 likes I kinda like an idiot bc I used to think that datacenters literally just stored data, like basically a warehouse full of souped-up flash drives But this is kinda their fault, it’s a bad term ### [Reply to @PositivFuturist, 18:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858583575945179613) · 41 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @PositivFuturist is no longer available.)_ Talking about going to uninhabited places in colonialist terms is such a red flag for bad thinking ### [Reply to @retarded__woman, 19:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858591096668123325) · 2 likes > **big titty warlord (@retarded__woman):** Who has harmed black people more I mean the literal answer is pre-modern democrats because they were the party of slavery and segregation Ofc anyone who says this meaningfully reflects on the modern Dem party is an idiot ### [Reply to @arubikscube, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858592751639523736) · 2 likes > **aru (@arubikscube):** yeah, you'll find symbiotic organisms actually lose the ability to code for certain things because they can get it from their partner Yes closely related is the organelle <-> organism pipeline ### [Reply to @onefiftyfivemm, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858605052543594616) · 3 likes > **Drew (@onefiftyfivemm):** what'll really bake your noodle is that at a certain resolution, species cease to exist at all Big if true (I actually don’t really understand speciation and why we have ~discrete species as opposed to a continuous spectrum) ### [Reply to @jkeatn, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858618780886118551) · 1 like > **Jake Eaton (@jkeatn):** it's fine to be a no seed oils person as long as you're honest that this choice is based on evolutionary theory, not epidemiology, and as long as you follow what else that theory would dictate, namely you > > 1\) don't fry anything in any fat (bc pans) > > 2\) don't use the internet Lol I basically agree through the word “epidemiology” but the second part doesn’t make any sense ### [Quote tweet, 21:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858627164976869858) · 2 likes New pdf just dropped (for nutrition nerds) > **Quoting Jake Eaton (@jkeatn):** @AaronBergman18 see chap 2: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3222&context=art_sci_etds ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 21:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858629786156875933) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** I see you've laid the perfect Aaron Bergman trap You’re right! This is a huge nerdsnipe! ## Tuesday, November 19, 2024 ### [Tweet, 12:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858846922863198381) · 9 likes No one: Claude: ah, ### [Quote tweet, 20:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858969914310357060) · 18 likes I think my brain is kinda weird bc this doesn’t hit in the way I think it should Like to me it just seems kinda banal and obvious lol > **Quoting Chris Freiman (@cafreiman):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gcs9kBlXkAAvNwd.jpg) ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858970174755578050) · 2 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** Anyone else being negatively polarized in favor of PBMs? @FrostedSapling found u an enemy ### [Quote tweet, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858972309912166819) · 14 likes CN/acc > **Quoting Community Notes (@CommunityNotes):** Misleading article or headline? You can now add a Community Note to a link. Every post that includes that link will show the note. Available today for Top Writers. > > Details: https://communitynotes.x.com/guide/en/under-the-hood/media-matching#link-matching > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GcxfDIPW8AAPbLL.jpg) ### [Reply to @jaybaxter, 20:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858973847581847882) · 5 likes > **Jay Baxter (@jaybaxter):** 🚀Notes on links🚀: one big step closer to notes everywhere! > > This is one of our most requested features and one I've been very excited about for a long time, thanks @dortiz314 for making it happen! > > (quoting @CommunityNotes: Misleading article or headline? You can now add a Community Note to a link. Every post that includes that link will show the note. Available today for Top Writers. Details: https://communitynotes.x.com/guide/en/under-the-hood/media-matching#link-matching) This is the future we want ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gcxm3HGX0AAPwyD.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gcxm3HCXwAAhoy5.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gcxm3HDXsAA9Qyj.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gcxm3HEXQAAId3d.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858973894763573548) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 19, 2024:** CN/acc ### [Quote tweet, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1858997690316583168) · 4 likes Absolute circus > **Quoting Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma):** DR OZ TO HEAD CENTERS FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gcxq3rIbcAEwIwU.jpg) ### [Reply to @voooooogel, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1859000391045968299) · 2 likes > **thebes (@voooooogel):** if you spent your childhood making duct tape wallets, you may be entitled to a job as a machine learning researcher What do I get for having bought one from a friend for $5 circa 2011? I guess I do buy a fair amount of AI services lol ### [Quote tweet, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1859006454902215050) · 12 likes Enough ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GcyEhKMXwAA4N2j.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** It’s kinda insane that Elon is such a midwit on twitter > > Like rescuing astronauts with ur own company is objectively one of the coolest things a person could do ### [Quote tweet, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1859007309005156773) · 3 likes What’s the most underrated dataset available online 👀 > **Quoting Will Manidis (@WillManidis):** what is the most underrated pdf available online ### [Reply to @CartoonsHateHer, 22:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1859008199942435068) · 3 likes > **Cartoons Hate Her! (@CartoonsHateHer):** I created this reaction image for the next time a chud on here asks if I'm Jewish > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GcwwUJOWgAAS5jo.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GcyGGu-XIAAWXky.jpg) ### [Reply, 22:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1859008365369979049) Wait what am I looking at ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 23:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1859013980125286760) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** The source is the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission's annual report to Congress: > > Website: https://www.uscc.gov/annual-report/2024-annual-report-congress > > PDF: https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/2024-11/2024_Annual_Report_to_Congress.pdf > > Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States%E2%80%93China_Economic_and_Security_Review_Commission?useskin=vector Oh snap ### [Quote tweet, 23:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1859016998853943517) · 8 likes This is so cool - 5 mins in RStudio + Claude = analysis of which receptors all of the medications I'm taking (ant)agonize, potentially leading to non priced-in effects I just want MORE (receptors mostly, also drugs) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GcyM13kXcAABvah.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GcyNSFNWcAAY-7h.jpg) > **Quoting EvE Bio (@EvEBiotech):** Excited to announce Data Release 1, profiling 1,400 small-molecule FDA-approved drugs vs. an ultimately vast # of gene products. This 1st release is a shake-down cruise, so limited to select nuclear receptors. More to come. Browse, download, enjoy! https://data.evebio.org ## Wednesday, November 20, 2024 ### [Reply to @wife_geist, 07:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1859131782722957369) · 5 likes > **once and future wife geist (@wife_geist):** seems fucked up that salt and pepper aren’t the same category of substance. one is a plant product and one is a rock I vibe with this very hard for reasons beyond my understanding ### [Reply to @arubikscube, 17:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1859292889785807145) · 2 likes > **aru (@arubikscube):** bro why is claude telling me to put my sql queries in a yaml file Neither of those words are in the Bible ### [Quote tweet, 17:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1859293381207392434) · 4 likes Let it be known that I did not experience this (I was very muscular though) > **Quoting BowTiedKong | Criminal Defense & Family Law Atty (@BowTiedKong):** Whenever I post about TRT, people will ask what the actual benefits are > > I’m in month four > > Energy all day > > I can train BJJ at 5, record a podcast a 7, work until 5:30, chase around my son until 9, 9:30 > > It’s that good > > Stop being pussies > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gctk3oWXwAAmfXd.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1859295676083155049) · 7 likes I’m glad this kind of thing happens in real life > **Quoting George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** One good thing about FTX is the feds have absorbed some human capital > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gc2IG_IWgAAcFtp.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1859322049837015137) · 31 likes I’m being radicalized in favor of 🔵sky The one good feature it doesn’t have is Community Notes, but this feels like a solvable problem ### [Reply to @timhwang, 21:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1859352374789406820) · 967 likes > **Tim Hwang (@timhwang):** What is the greatest, rarest PDF that you have saved down? 20GB (iirc) of survival stuff https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MBL_JaHfqU70TXHYlqBHnvekFLfaadEp ### [Reply to @timhwang, 23:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1859378945592000669) · 5 likes > **Tim Hwang (@timhwang):** What is the greatest, rarest PDF that you have saved down? 3600+ pages of what I think is mostly but somehow not all Brian Tomasik's writing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c_BksaBEj-jfAlijFanetd2D-sf0rGWN/view?usp=drive_link ## Thursday, November 21, 2024 ### [Reply to @escvel0city11, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1859404459669061942) · 10 likes > **11 KM/s (@escvel0city11):** Can’t download, do you have another link? Working on it ### [Reply to @JosephNWalker, 18:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1859661737773121570) · 5 likes > **Joseph Noel Walker (@JosephNWalker):** EA friends: What are the most interesting debates happening at the moment with respect to effective giving? This is almost obvious but it’s the most interesting to \*me\*: what single charity is the most deserving of marginal dollars? https://manifold.markets/AaronBergman18/what-donationaccepting-entity-eg-ch ### [Tweet, 18:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1859668289020108847) · 10 likes Sending this to all my female friends ### [Quote tweet, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1859673324353475008) · 4 likes 3% of a city is kind of a lot of people lol Decreasing this by 3 OOMs would be a different story > **Quoting Garett Jones (@GarettJones):** Me. > > Bike lines are for me, personally. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gc7dJXVWMAAhVdv.jpg) ## Friday, November 22, 2024 ### [Reply to @MamanLunettes, 02:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1859792653581496668) · 2 likes > **Violeta𓅓 (@MamanLunettes):** 13 yo son just entered a phase where he's like "how can she\* be so beautiful, I could just keep looking at her forever" > > \*girl just being in history class > \*nurse in her street clothes he caught a glimpse of before she put on scrubs > etc. > Does this get less intense after a while? No ### [Quote tweet, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1859795463660261537) · 2 likes New pdf just dropped > **Quoting Ethan Mollick (@emollick):** Longer NBER paper: https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w32255/w32255.pdf ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 03:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1859800138878943538) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** I’m very very sad to say that Howie passed away recently due to an intestinal blockage. He was the best bunny > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gc9VyRsXgAAVmAV.jpg) I’m sorry Matt ❤️ He really was ## Saturday, November 23, 2024 ### [Tweet, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860191404234035510) · 91 likes Am I missing anything ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdC6OVZWMAARUnz.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860191531581448217) · 20 likes Am I gonna get canceled for this ### [Reply to @livgorton, 08:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860239747773345845) · 5 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** 6\. drinking half of a beverage > 7\. dresses with pockets > 8\. cute stationery that never gets used > 9\. emotional support water bottles > 10\. miniature cows I like miniature cows!!! ### [Tweet, 12:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860303726147207608) · 17 likes ?? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdEgYTyWsAESimW.jpg) ### [Tweet, 12:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860303933706490124) · 1 like Worked 3 times in a row ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 12:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860304092729352679) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @livgorton @AaronBergman18 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdEUojbXEAANzfH.jpg) I didn’t know this was a thing! ### [Reply to @Benthamsbulldog, 13:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860307539167981831) · 4 likes > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** @AaronBergman18 Shrimp welfare. Duh ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 13:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860308423788703770) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 23, 2024:** Worked 3 times in a row Is this thing totally made up lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdEkpujXAAA_L-N.jpg) ### [Reply to @HenriThunberg, 13:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860313900597608846) · 3 likes > **Henri Thunberg 🔸 (@HenriThunberg):** Aaron deducted 10 online points Sad ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 13:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860319188268564796) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 @livgorton What are they? I need to get something for my wife for xmas I was thinking the cow on wheels thing but turns out there are like literal small cows ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdEucVWWoAATf3F.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdEucVeW8AAgq_m.jpg) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 13:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860321519609516368) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 @livgorton Which one is it? We already have a dog so I don't think the little real cow would work but otoh it seems like something we would do anyway Idk! But I say go for the real cow! ### [Reply to @junker_jo, 13:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860322094396969142) · 12 likes > **Jo (@junker_jo):** Once again it’s the time of year I need to announce that your thermal tights that “look like sheer” aren’t fooling anyone. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdAZjd9XgAAevuP.jpg) For my fellow idiots ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdExFYLWAAAn4iI.jpg) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 16:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860353976383791214) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** lol gonna bat for Aaron here and say that I also didn’t get this 🤝 ### [Reply to @sitka__, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860393142324777324) · 7 likes > **Princess Mononokia 🦉 (@sitka__):** I’ll be honest I didn’t need to go there > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdFqNhOWUAEMGk-.jpg) Lol ### [Quote tweet, 22:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860448990774395073) · 3 likes Great time to end the war on opioids > **Quoting Kevin Drum (@kdrum):** Raw data: Fentanyl overdoses have dropped dramatically https://jabberwocking.com/raw-data-fentanyl-overdoses-have-dropped-dramatically/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdFpaqyagAQOg_3.jpg) ### [Reply to @_catwu, 23:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860460286580265207) · 2 likes > **cat (@_catwu):** whenever i ask claude where it wants to travel, it always says kyoto 🌸🩷 (n = 7) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdGuxSSWkAAdP_X.jpg) ## Sunday, November 24, 2024 ### [Tweet, 18:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860750122667127055) · 6 likes ChatGPT and Claude would be worth >$1B if pitched purely as ed tech ### [Thread, continued, 18:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860750135174529069) · 4 likes Every student that doesn’t have a subscription paid for by their school is a policy failure ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdK2YVFWEAA8MK1.jpg) ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860752484479664194) · 5 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** I think we should cultivate not just legal tolerance and openness but also cultural tolerance and openness. We shouldn’t complain about this kind of thing in this way. > > (quoting @ingelramdecoucy: This is the stupidest shit, they pull this at a wedding I’m at I’m marching to the gift table, grabbing my gift back and leaving. Never talking to them again) Correct take ### [Quote tweet, 23:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860828759626019275) · 149 likes I’m guilty of this Dustin Moskovitz is better than ~everyone else, but he gives people like me a lot to work with and so empirically I’ve criticized him way more than everyone else Idk what to do about this dynamic, or even if it’s bad > **Quoting Amanda Askell (@AmandaAskell):** If you're a billionaire and you never want to be criticized for your philanthropy, just don't give to charity. Seems to work depressingly well. ### [Thread, continued, 23:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860828761555427616) · 20 likes Maybe I should just post “what the fuck” and tag all the billionaires who haven’t publicly planned to give away loads of money ### [Thread, continued, 23:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860833288924914132) · 13 likes I almost pasted a Claude-generated list of tags, but tragically I don't think "what the fuck" is effective messaging. Here's the data if anyone wants to be more suave https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-qnPT_HZLoxzGQ9wglNpBJHh4-CcmKvQZkDhKGg8L3w/edit?usp=sharing ## Monday, November 25, 2024 ### [Reply to @shinboson, 00:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860842156220461405) · 3 likes > **𝞍 Shin Megami Boson 𝞍 (@shinboson):** You could make an argument that philanthropy is, to a first approximation, a misallocation of capital and so was a priori bad. > > I wouldn't go so far as to make it, but I do think it is less far from the truth than we'd all optimistically want to believe. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: I’m guilty of this Dustin Moskovitz is better than ~everyone else, but he gives people like me a lot to work with and so empirically I’ve criticized him way more than everyone else Idk what to do about this dynamic, or even if it’s bad) This might be approximately true for the median donation, I think it's untrue for the top .1% of donated dollars, and EA is approximately the project of finding out which dollars those are ### [Reply to @shinboson, 00:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860844160317632710) · 2 likes > **𝞍 Shin Megami Boson 𝞍 (@shinboson):** @AaronBergman18 Effectiveness is a lever, so you really better be right though. This is pretty much the steelman of the criticism of top-down approaches to improving the world. > > If you, somehow, were to be wrong— all that effectiveness becomes negative value. It becomes actively harmful. I agree and am more concerned than most that prima facie positive interventions are actually bad, but still think identifying positive interventions is tractable and actually happening It’s not called “effective whatever” lol ### [Tweet, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860883177306304810) · 10 likes Recently I had a dream in which I did math. Specifically, I estimated that I drove for 46 hours/year In wakefulness this seems too high I don’t have a whole lot to say except “is that supposed to happen” ### [Thread, continued, 03:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860883451915714843) · 3 likes I even vaguely remember the process It’s just weird that this has happened exactly once instead of never or lots of times ### [Tweet, 04:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860899567337673191) · 15 likes Lol electricity prices are >3x in the UK So it costs like $18 to run a space heater all day instead of $4-6 Rip ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860900941039386843) · 2 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Reminder to brush your teeth with fluoride toothpaste, even if you think fluoride shouldn’t be put in the water > > (quoting @hubermanlab: Drinking fluoride and brushing your teeth with it are two different things. Just saying.) Ya fr this is one of the things that makes no sense about fluoridation You can just apply it to your teeth and not consume it! ### [Reply to @RokoMijic, 04:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860902264728109476) · 4 likes > **Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** @AaronBergman18 compared to where? DC ### [Reply to @JeremyNguyenPhD, 10:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1860999080308007155) · 3 likes > **Jeremy Nguyen ✍🏼 🚢 (@JeremyNguyenPhD):** Here's what GPT-4o sees when you type "strawberry": > > \[302, 1618, 19772\] > > It's not obvious how many "r"s there are, right? I mean it’s not \*not\* obvious You just have to know how many Rs are in each of those tokens. This seems way easier to learn than a bajillion impressive things that 4o can do ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 10:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861000808482971675) · 7 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** Thing I just sent @chisness > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdNWMXIbkAAd0bk.png) Thing that was sent to me lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdOaX5HWoAA4Jrb.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 11:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861008843431452904) · 38 likes Cringe policing gives me terrible vibes God forbid a person be earnest about anything > **Quoting Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza):** Someone should run up to the front and yank this self-serving conductor out of there. She’s ruining it! It’s not all about the conductor; it’s about the music. Let the music take center stage > > [video attached](https://x.com/OrchestreParis/status/1859543787007070634/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 11:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861009049459855711) · 4 likes Separately, I think it’s a little silly to city a study in a community note here ### [Reply to @HellenicVibes, 11:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861009611974721990) · 3 likes > **Zoomer Alcibiades (@HellenicVibes):** The coolest person I know on this website has under 5,000 followers. Really makes you think. Thanks 😊 ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 11:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861016432340881724) · 1 like > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 Bear ### [Quote tweet, 12:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861021619176558808) · 15 likes ITS CALLED SAMA > **Quoting 60 Minutes (@60Minutes):** Documents obtained by 60 Minutes show OpenAI agreed to pay Sama, an American outsourcing firm, $12.50 an hour per Kenyan worker - far higher than the $2 an hour workers say they got. Sama says it pays a fair wage for the region. > > [video attached](https://x.com/60Minutes/status/1860843193748660578/video/1) ### [Quote tweet, 13:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861033632384598046) · 9 likes I used to think this was just dumb and bad but basically negligible at a strategic level Twitter has made me think that it’s also a serious strategic error > **Quoting The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex):** BREAKING: Trump planning executive order to remove transgender individuals from US military ### [Tweet, 17:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861095041730552275) · 4 likes Why did everyone think airplanes were impossible if hot air balloons were invented in the 18th century? Feels like proof of concept to me ### [Thread, continued, 17:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861095043307610571) · 2 likes If I was trying to invent an airplane I probably would have started with a hot air balloon and tried to move along continuous axes Me: 0 History: 1 ### [Thread, continued, 17:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861095450494857314) · 5 likes Ay lfg (not so) great minds ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdPwcsLXYAA3q-3.jpg) ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861101474211680684) · 3 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** The basics of personal health are not difficult. Being fat is bad for you, so don't eat too much, get your basic nutrients, don't drink/smoke/do drugs, and live an active lifestyle. Other stuff, like what chemicals to avoid, can be useful but is ultimately second-order stuff. “Don’t eat too much” is doing a lot of work We basically have no idea how to reliably cause this to happen (I recognize there are a lot of implicit premises here, especially that weight is mostly not under even second-order conscious control) ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861108276093419589) · 26 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** Here is the original study. > > Basically, DEI materials, of the kind currently used in America, turn people on both political sides into fascists. > > https://networkcontagion.us/wp-content/uploads/Instructing-Animosity_11.13.24.pdf > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdP7OnFaUAAOa-S.png) > (quoting @pmarca: 🫣 "A new study found that DEI materials have a wide range of negative consequences, including psychological harm, increased hostility, and greater agreement with extreme authoritarian rhetoric, such as adapted Adolf Hitler quotes."…) I vibe associate with this, but it does smell like a classic illusory psychology study that doesn’t replicate (or does but doesn’t reflect the implicit real world phenomena that the claims are implicitly attached to) ### [Reply to @ShamrockSeven7, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861139611314991386) · 2 likes > **ShamrockNYC (@ShamrockSeven7):** @AaronBergman18 @Noahpinion I do think it's as simple as calories in calories out ...and don't drink a lot of calories (especially soda and beer) Yes but the determinants of CI and CO are not so simple ### [Reply to @AskYatharth, 23:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861188841425494467) · 9 likes > **yatharth ༺༒༻ (@AskYatharth):** i am so fascinated and horrified by this trend of people being sent to the equivalent of a factory floor or home depot and being confused when the pre-built vase they wanted isn't there > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdREDK9aoAEHRen.png) I mean I don’t think anyone is morally obligated to make an exe, but it is an awfully nice thing to do (or perhaps more tractably, a list of incredibly concrete steps for a layperson to follow) Tbf this was much more of an issue pre-LLM ### [Quote tweet, 23:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861190049963917554) · 4 likes You can clearly see R leading the pack > **Quoting Ben Dicken (@BenjDicken):** More languages, more insights! > > A few interesting takeaways: > > \* Java and Kotlin are quick! Possible explanation: Google is heavily invested in performance here. > \* Js is really fast as far as interpreted / jit languages go. > \* Python is quite slow without things like PyPy. > > [video attached](https://x.com/BenjDicken/status/1861072804239847914/video/1) ### [Reply to @brianchau57, 23:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861197249667047483) · 7 likes > **Brian Chau (@brianchau57):** Almost no one is worried enough about what if we don't have enough AI progress Cmon man you can think for 5 seconds and realize a gajillion dollars worth of economic and ideological incentives are already pushing in this direction ## Tuesday, November 26, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 04:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861269170228236559) · 2,633 likes Hot take but to my knowledge, nobody on the left has articulated what’s actually bad about institutions, especially colleges, being largely Asian, or why Asians deserve to be systematically discriminated against relative to whites > **Quoting Colin Wright (@SwipeWright):** "You're basically just guaranteeing a heavily Asian-American freshmen class." > > And the problem with this is...? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdQqnORXoAAgOvy.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 04:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861269171851436202) · 234 likes It’s weird that this even feels like a conservative-coded talking point I think with even a glimpse of perspective beyond the current culture war battle lines, that intuition falls apart ### [Thread, continued, 04:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861269173294305753) · 81 likes Tbc I’m in favor of some degree of affirmative action, at least in principle ### [Reply to @JacquesThibs, 04:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861270088378155192) · 2 likes > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** Anthropic needs to actually explain this thing better if they want it to actually takeoff. Too complicated and not well explained imo. > > (quoting @alexalbert__: Introducing the Model Context Protocol (MCP) An open standard we've been working on at Anthropic that solves a core challenge with LLM apps - connecting them to your data. No more building custom integrations for every data source. MCP provides one protocol to connect them all:) Ya I have no idea what that guy is talking about lol ### [Reply to @adam__isom, 04:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861273063050092793) · 2 likes > **adam ✧ ❥ ~ (@adam__isom):** Tweet ideas are free for those that have eyes to see them Tweet ideas are free for those that have eyes to see them ### [Reply to @nvpkp, 09:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861342088006107409) · 5 likes > **nvpkp (@nvpkp):** i would like to hear about the little life optimizations you've done that no one asks about but you really wanna share > > me? i put my car keys on a (not-keychain-sized) teddy bear so i can always find them inside my great purse which carries all necessities Light bulbs I can control from my phone. They’re like $8 each and can also change warmth and brightness Band aids, face mask, alcohol pads, pen, charging pack with cords, headlamp with extra batteries in backpack. These have seriously saved me before, especially battery pack ### [Tweet, 09:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861343791292002350) · 6 likes Here are my endorsements for the EA Forum donation election! Get out (on your phone browser) and vote! https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdTSUCEWUAA8bHv.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdTSUCGWoAAQZSK.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 09:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861343793376535020) · 2 likes For context, a bunch of options are not pictured, which I’m implicitly voting against by not ranking ### [Quote tweet, 09:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861347256525299941) · 5 likes How much do you want to bet this is just lazy data cleaning and a few Gen Z trolls writing in figures just small enough to be counted as real data I glanced at the original survey report and it doesn’t rule this out > **Quoting ian bremmer (@ianbremmer):** who’s going to break the news to gen z.. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdPUjFPXMAA8i7x.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 11:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861377365093302429) · 2 likes All such words should be illegal. Starting with “sanction” > **Quoting Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** "Cleave" as in "separate", and "cleave" as in "cling to", are two different words with the same spelling and opposed meanings (via "cleofan" and "clifian"). > > Likewise "rational" as in normative/Bayesian, versus "Rationalism" the philosophical school opposed to Empiricism. ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 12:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861385418819674383) · 5 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** Is Afghanistan a counter example? Getting out was obviously the right in the long term, but the short term costs of appearing to lose a popular war were very high when an election is always coming up. I disagree it was obviously right in the long term ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 16:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861452725516435939) · 4 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Why not? Also I have huge expertise with helping people with Hinge profiles (@AaronBergman18 ) Lmao how well has that worked ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861453137745244376) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 @AndyMasley That is a problem with you, my advice has been impeccable I actually 100% agree lol ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861453308587581777) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @GjMcGowan @AaronBergman18 @AndyMasley Fr Thanks Matt lmao ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 16:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861453814756200455) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 26, 2024:** Lmao how well has that worked Actually as a CB thing it’s worked reasonably well. One hinge date friendzoned me but wound up going to the recent EA global, and I’m like 98% sure I’m counterfactually responsible there ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861454352210153576) · 5 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Isn't this the case for making a hinge, not a dating doc? Fair but I’m only alive bc dating doc ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861454851265228911) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Lmao probably wouldn't recommend this to Andy 😢 ## Wednesday, November 27, 2024 ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 00:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861571618998235315) · 2 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** Stats textbooks demand rigorous methods, careful controls & unbiased sampling. Yet statisticians pick methods based on experience & what works in practice. We insist on controlled trials for medicine but teach stats using whatever clicked with last semester's students Idk if this is what you’re talking about, but newish norms around p-hacking (pre-register, don’t run too many tests, don’t make any new decisions in light of the results) can be the least bad option in some circumstances but is fundamentally gauze on the wound of not… ### [Quote tweet, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861582474960097364) · 5 likes Almost all the AI Aaron tweets written locally by llama-8b are dumb but I love this one ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdWrWnhW0AAnPZu.png) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Some goodnight tweets from AI Aaron (using 400 examples, Sonnet 3.5, about $0.015 each...) ### [Quote tweet, 02:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861593946910007359) · 19 likes You can really tell that Trump personally wrote this statement > **Quoting Jim O’Neill (@regardthefrost):** I’m extremely honored to be nominated by @realDonaldTrump and excited to support @RobertKennedyJr and the great people of @HHSGov to make America healthy again. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdWxPWtaoAAQCLW.jpg) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861594874950099437) · 4 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 Trump is a huge proponent of obviating mitochondrial mutations. In fact, many people say he's the father of obviating mitochondrial mutations Real ### [Quote tweet, 04:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861621565021978724) · 24 likes Ok back to criticizing Dusty, who I should say is unironically the best in his class and seems like a great guy But anyway this is a bad decision ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdXO8niWsAAYxFy.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I’m guilty of this > > Dustin Moskovitz is better than ~everyone else, but he gives people like me a lot to work with and so empirically I’ve criticized him way more than everyone else > > Idk what to do about this dynamic, or even if it’s bad ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 04:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861628695284183313) · 2 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** @sebkrier @AaronBergman18 @dwarkesh_sp What's the Samantha Power position? Insofar as this is right I basically just agree. If there ever was a case for interventionism, simply keeping the status quo in Kabul was it ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdXVbpZX0AAstd0.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdXVbpZXMAAgLx8.jpg) ### [Reply to @panickssery, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861637500105588902) · 2 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** "In began two and half years ago, when the first human awoke to consciousness . . . In less than forty years, it will end" > — @ESYudkowsky, 1999 > > He was 20 then > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdXBN9gXgAAd3Nv.png) Pretty chilling ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 07:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861669537810137440) · 5 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** kinda crazy how i had constant debilitating fatigue for months to the point i thought it was the result of some medical condition, and then being in the bay just instantly fixed it This strongly disagrees with my world model (which is a problem for my model, not saying you’re lying) ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 07:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861669860993908892) · 3 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** Have crossed 2^16 AXRP downloads! 🎉 Congrats! ### [Quote tweet, 09:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861704264160018851) · 6 likes Yes extremely based correct take > **Quoting Aella (@Aella_Girl):** I don't think so! There's an issue where guys simply aren't getting feedback. Men are going through their entire dating lives without ever getting a single ounce of direct feedback. I (with the help of some of my female friends) can tighten this feedback loop to give extremely fast information about how you're coming across, so you can rapidly experiment and iterate. Lots of ppl have blind spots but are walking through life without access to mirrors. ## Thursday, November 28, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 02:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861967039331438637) · 1,611 likes Getting sniped again. Did everyone realize that (at least at the population level between 1990 and 2010), % of calories from carbs is a super robust predictor of overweight/obese prevalence? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdcF23vXkAAnXCC.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** This obesity thing is like the biggest possible nerdsnipe. A huge mystery that affects billions of people, with tons of data and no satisfying answers as of yet. > > Like how does Iran have an obesity rate \*~12 times higher\* than Vietnam, a country of very similar wealth? ### [Thread, continued, 02:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861967041910960202) · 114 likes Not just a proxy for time ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdcF_51XIAACe0G.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861967044029108318) · 90 likes Not just a proxy for some country-level feature ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdcGO2PWQAAZ8Ur.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861967045736223200) · 75 likes At least if the data from OWID and GDD is right and I didn't fuck up, % calories from carbs is almost as strong a predictor of overweight prevalence as \*calories consumed\* (p≈0 for both, R^2 = .48 for % cals from carbs and .54 for calorie consumption) https://globaldietarydatabase.org/data-download ### [Thread, continued, 02:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861967047401374099) · 40 likes Those are some phat t values ("total carbohydrates" means % of calories for some reason. Don't as me why. Entity means country. You can see the same thing by using calories from carbs and controlling for calorie consumption) Feel free to speculate about the iron thing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdcI9_PXcAAvjRr.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861968344502378964) · 50 likes Open 😤 source ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdcKOZjXYAAT7xu.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861968982896525423) · 29 likes data https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dL0BAx3NorcLanKAgA-xXeVW3qrH2fGlVKG3hFMMs6s/edit?usp=sharing ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861988575769722963) · 51 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** @AaronBergman18 Wait it's negatively correlated?? Yes! ### [Reply to @qualiakiwi, 04:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861988681646571737) · 51 likes > **Joshua (@qualiakiwi):** If I’m reading right, higher proportion carbs means less obese population?! Yes! ### [Reply to @jon_m_rob, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861993369909522837) · 2 likes > **Jonathan Robinson (@jon_m_rob):** data does look simpson's paradox-y though No quite the opposite. The within-country relationship tends to be negative too ### [Tweet, 04:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861994343885902006) · 8 likes Overrated: p values Underrated: R^2 ### [Thread, continued, 04:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1861994645816807572) · 3 likes When I actually wanna know the answer to something, I instinctively want to know R^2 way more ### [Quote tweet, 05:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862004917507875289) · 58 likes I don’t have a strong take on whether this is the literal best use of money, but for God’s sake please brag and get some social credit when you give away lots of money This is based > **Quoting Greg ⏹️ Colbourn (@gcolbourn):** Donated $180k to PauseAI (US and Global). Calling on more people to donate significant amounts. > > Pretty much the only way we're going to survive the next 5-10 years is by such efforts being successful. There's no point being rich when the world ends. ### [Thread, continued, 05:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862005288913563971) · 8 likes Needless to say, there’s a problem of scope neglect. I wouldn’t feel that different if the post had said $18k instead of $180k But that’s a big difference! ### [Thread, continued, 05:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862007380734619770) · 2 likes If you have a personal website, it would be cool to have a running “lifetime donations” thing Get the status and credit you deserve! ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 05:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862009440158765413) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** someone finally said it Wait is this unpopular? I feel like the fixation is kinda silly. Not in a Luddite way I just don’t actually think Mars has a ton to offer (x risk reduction is basically fake, and we’re nowhere near carrying capacity on earth) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 15:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862151880723288529) · 44 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 28, 2024:** data https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dL0BAx3NorcLanKAgA-xXeVW3qrH2fGlVKG3hFMMs6s/edit?usp=sharing Controlling for GDP doesn't change things ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdexMXZWIAAraib.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 15:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862153045368344847) · 39 likes Controlling for time, GDP, and country level fixed effects, and calories! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdeyP9AWUAE0c4V.jpg) ### [Reply to @amelapay, 15:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862160849663594738) · 26 likes > **Pamela J. Hobart (@amelapay):** what the heck? Is it just that that implies fat calories went up and it’s possibly bad fat perhaps seed oils? My best guess interpretation is that something in (modern) high fat/protein foods fucks up human metabolism, so competing those things away is good ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 16:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862166340238213437) · 6 likes > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** just glancing this seems like reversed causality right > > carbs are cheap calories, poor ppl prioritize cheap, poor countries have lower prevalence of obesity because food less available even tho its a relatively high % carbs, their absolute carb intake prolly lower than rich ctys > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Getting sniped again. Did everyone realize that (at least at the population level between 1990 and 2010), % of calories from carbs is a super robust predictor of overweight/obese prevalence?) It holds up surprisingly well But you’re right that absolute carb intake is positively correlated with % overweight (I don’t find this very interesting/important for identifying causality though - like ofc eating more of every macronutrient is a downstream outcome) ### [Reply to @n00rdung, 16:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862166406797644220) · 2 likes > **slovborg (@n00rdung):** Is "% overweight or obese" evaluated from BMI, or from bf%? Not sure ### [Quote tweet, 16:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862167315996905886) · 3 likes This is just one result, but it’s interesting how \*weak\* total calorie intake is as a predictor (simple OLS shows it to be only a bit stronger than % calories from carbs) Of all the regressors here, would you have expected calories to be by far the weakest? > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Controlling for time, GDP, and country level fixed effects, and calories! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdeyP9AWUAE0c4V.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862195896651264023) · 27 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 28, 2024:** Controlling for time, GDP, and country level fixed effects, and calories! I ran every possible 1, 2, 3, and 4 variable regression that included % cals from carbs (y=% overweight or obese), including gdp, year, and country fixed effects Every single result was directionally consistent, and >99.9% of them have p < .001 ... ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdfYxNUW4AA8TPG.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862195898610053561) · 24 likes This almost makes me wonder if the data is too good to be true ### [Reply to @bertmuthalaly, 18:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862197569645953173) · 2 likes > **bert (@bertmuthalaly):** i think your princess is in another castle - what causes people to want to eat the carbs? i think the answer is environmental / biological No it’s the opposite - % carbs predicts lower %overweight ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862198219993690130) · 29 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 28, 2024:** This almost makes me wonder if the data is too good to be true Turns out I slightly messed up the fixed effects specification so the precise numbers in some of the screenshots are off, but doing it right changes almost nothing ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862230483444089105) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18 Lifetime: $220,423 > > https://peterhurford.com/other/donations.html > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gdf0FhEWEAA8X-i.jpg) Based ### [Reply to @BasedNorthmathr, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862231667034796401) · 40 likes > **Angantýr (@BasedNorthmathr):** Read a bunch of papers a few years ago and came to the conclusion the carb-heavy food pyramid being spread throughout the west was basically the cause of the obesity pandemic I basically don’t believe this (and didn’t before this new set of results) ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862256226328801325) · 2 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** Is there someone you can pay who's like a concierge for fixing your house? @JesseTayRiver ## Friday, November 29, 2024 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 01:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862305183968944218) · 17 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 28, 2024:** Turns out I slightly messed up the fixed effects specification so the precise numbers in some of the screenshots are off, but doing it right changes almost… Since this is getting some views, consider donating to the Shrimp Welfare Project, which reduces a shocking estimated amount of suffering per dollar donated https://www.shrimpwelfareproject.org/donate (See https://open.substack.com/pub/benthams/p/the-best-charity-isnt-what-you-think for more) ### [Reply, 15:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862519682286145795) · 1 like Wait how old are you?! ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 15:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862520171186769961) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 31 😭😭 wtf i thought like 27 I guess that’s not a huge difference lol but it feels like it ### [Reply to @RethinkPriors, 15:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862521400864444654) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @RethinkPriors is no longer available.)_ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdkBV-dW0AAFTaq.jpg) ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 15:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862522394545471660) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 I have a bad back at the moment Aaron. And a bad wrist. And a couple of other minor ailments. Oh yeah well I have a couple major ailments and I’m only 24 ### [Reply to @besttrousers, 16:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862528442480157075) · 2 likes > **Matt Darling 🌐🏗️ (@besttrousers):** They were right, though. Subprime mortgages had no causal effect on the GFC. Wait what ### [Reply to @willmacaskill, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862540439623958748) · 5 likes > **William MacAskill (@willmacaskill):** This week I donated to Malaria Consortium’s Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention Program - one of @GiveWell's top-rated charities. > > If you donate $5000 (£4000) to this program, on average one fewer child will die from malaria. > > https://www.malariaconsortium.org/ Serious question (yes there’s a rhetorical implication here but serious nonetheless): why not donate to animal welfare? https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/btTeBHKGkmRyD5sFK/open-phil-should-allocate-most-neartermist-funding-to-animal ### [Thread, continued, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862540656612102460) · 3 likes Not only does it robustly beat the standard global health suite of charities, but the delta between animal welfare and global health is bigger than the delta between random rich person consumption and global health https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/nrC5v6ZSaMEgSyxTn/discussion-thread-animal-welfare-vs-global-health-debate?commentId=zWWKcNMpmHy9z9MBR ### [Thread, continued, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862541468151226794) · 3 likes Ofc what really matters here is what you choose to write about publicly (eg here on Twitter); I think you have enough integrity to make those things (words and personal donations) basically accord Needless to say, you have a lot of influence over a lot of money ### [Quote tweet, 20:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862592704233799987) · 20 likes This but unironically for a good number of my takes > **Quoting Adrian Dittmann (@AdrianDittmann):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gdc2l_LasAAAXws.jpg) ### [Reply to @GarettJones, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862593033012687237) · 3 likes > **Garett Jones (@GarettJones):** Where are the most accurate people? > > (quoting @S___Elliott: The best people are in the center. The worst people ar on the far right and far left. That's just an established fact.) Specifically where I am in ideology space ### [Tweet, 20:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862598942015312136) · 9 likes I am genuinely curious what is going on here ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdlH3apXAAAQLq3.jpg) ## Saturday, November 30, 2024 ### [Tweet, 01:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862668463149380033) · 10 likes Tried perplexity Pro for a month Meh, not much of a value add above ChatGPT and Claude ### [Thread, continued, 01:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862668464470507852) · 3 likes I endorse trying it though - I think people tend to be insanely stingy about monthly AI stuff (I mean instrumentally irrational, not immoral). At the very least a lot of things are worth a one month try ### [Reply to @alistair___s, 01:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862676084757565656) · 3 likes > **Alistair Stewart (@alistair___s):** @AaronBergman18 What do you use ChatGPT for vs Claude? Chatgpt for image gen, search, and code interpreter (for random small one-off tasks) ChatGPT when I run out of Claude messages lol Weirdly I’ve found 4o is better at R code than Sonnet Chatgpt when for whatever reason I really care about latency (usually bc I’m annoyed lol) ### [Thread, continued, 01:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862676542419067030) · 2 likes ChatGPT when Claude is moralizing and refusing to help For things I care substantially about and kinda need to trust the judgement of the LLMs (as opposed to just seeing if code worked), I’ll often ask sonnet, 4o, and o1 just to get multiple takes ### [Thread, continued, 01:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862676705350918408) · 2 likes All that said, Claude sonnet is my default if none of those things apply, and I probably use Claude like 75% of the time ### [Tweet, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862705198172369180) · 4 likes Which do you subscribe to? ### [Thread, continued, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862705380238766414) · 2 likes Thread here on how I use both ### [Quote tweet, 09:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862789661564735551) · 49 likes Man we really need a few more billionaires > **Quoting Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I really like the work of @lesswrong and they are currently fundraising. > > Rationality is pretty open-minded community that has been quick on AI, crypto, covid, the replication crisis. Seems probably valuable. > > Here is a long post with lots of stats. > > https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5n2ZQcbc7r4R8mvqc/the-lightcone-is-nothing-without-its-people-lw-lighthaven-s-5 ### [Thread, continued, 09:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862789663301238965) · 15 likes I’m very glad LW-brand rationalism is a thing. It’s a good intellectual influence on EA, keeps it honest And more directly, rationality as a skill, community, and set of norms is instrumentally very important for doing good ### [Thread, continued, 09:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862789665067057524) · 11 likes Tbc it also goes the other way. Rationalism should take ethics seriously the way it takes intelligence seriously Both movements would be better if they were a bit more like the other ### [Reply to @gelionexists, 16:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862899142525157447) · 3 likes > **GE Lion (@gelionexists):** @AaronBergman18 be the change you wish to see :) Sorta working on it ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 16:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862899292563718392) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Bf and I have gotten engaged 🥰 Omg congrats!! ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 17:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862912164492673443) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ It also gets complicated if you’re altruistic and expect the cost effectiveness of marginal real donation dollars to go down sharply over time, which is also super plausible with short timelines ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862913365581987964) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** NOOOOOOOO > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdpZoZTXsAAy1yw.jpg) > (quoting @asteriskmgzn: "handsomely designed" - The New Yorker WINNER of the 2023 AIGA Year in Design Award For the next week, get 15% off and free shipping on single print copies of Asterisk with code BLACKFRIDAY15 https://store.asteriskmag.com) I’ll ship it to you if you cover the cost ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 17:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862917927558693125) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 @GjMcGowan Don't you dare Aaron. George needs to come visit all of his friends He should fly me to London first class so I can hand deliver them ### [Reply to @AskYatharth, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862941123385139322) · 3 likes > **yatharth ༺༒༻ (@AskYatharth):** people who "lock in" after using stimulants, what is that like? > > i've never felt like i needed more "concentration" or "IQ". i've always felt limited by like... emotional fear of starting work; spinning around and not prioritising; emotional dysregulation I suspect it’s basically like what your normal state is, at least for adhd-havers ### [Tweet, 19:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862942705753452830) · 10 likes Saying something (eg caffeine) is “dehydrating” is totally misleading, bc you just become more thirsty and drink more (control systems go brr), right? ### [Thread, continued, 19:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862942707418603880) · 3 likes The relevant question is whether a substance fucks up that control system, which isn’t insane a priori but I’ve never heard the case made ### [Thread, continued, 19:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862942708773306694) · 3 likes This is accidentally a good CICO vs “CICO is true but trivial and unhelpful” analogue ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 19:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862943400472793387) · 3 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** I can't imagine being in a position of placing >50% probability that someone's a spy just because they're a smart and attractive woman who attends my events. There are plausible additional criteria that would get me to at least idk 10% though ### [Quote tweet, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1862947564800077884) · 5 likes I already RT’d this but I think it’s more important and less trite than it first seems. “Yeah yeah I’m privileged, I know” At a conceptual level, it’s not just a reminder to the top n% of the distribution that they’re lucky > **Quoting Kat Spartz ⏸️ 🔶 (@KatSpartz):** Reminder: even if you’ve had a good life, the world is not a safe place. > > I grew up in a peaceful, free, prosperous country so it’s easy to think that everything will turn out alright by default. > > But it’s important to expand your view beyond your own life. > > The majority of people live under authoritarian regimes. Billions still live lives that feel like they should belong only in a Dickensian novel of Victorian hardship. > > The majority of life on this planet is being genocided and tortured by indifferent murder-apes. > > Good outcomes are not the default. > > Do not be complacent. > > We need to work hard to make sure things turn out well, and we shouldn’t just be mindlessly optimistic because we live in this tiny sliver of prosperity and freedom. > > We are lucky. > > Let’s use that to spread the luck. Proactively. Not just by default. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gdo_OqRXoAA1jAd.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863004561155277137) · 3 likes What’s actually going on when this popup shows up? What behavior from the model itself triggers the UI element? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gdq4xmnWAAARnZz.jpg) > **Quoting Jeremy Nguyen ✍🏼 🚢 (@JeremyNguyenPhD):** Weird ChatGPT Prompting Challenge! > > Can you get ChatGPT to say "David Mayer"?! ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 23:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863006763907273079) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Fantasizing about living in a neighborhood with a bunch of friends except instead of a neighborhood it's enough people pooling their resources for a single FT subscription $39/month for digital news is crazy But pricing based on some small % of potential users who are basically totally insensitive to price makes total sense and I’m actually surprised I don’t see more like this --- End of November 2024. Previous month: [October 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-10). Next month: [December 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-12). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, December 2024 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in December 2024 and has not deleted: 654 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [November 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-11). Next month: [January 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-01). ## Sunday, December 1, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863011418468979197) · 5 likes Interesting possible economic phenomenon I just thought of: If your product is clearly distinguished as best in class, you can price this way, so we should expect a disproportionately large gap between the top-end item and runner up > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @AndyMasley $39/month for digital news is crazy > > But pricing based on some small % of potential users who are basically totally insensitive to price makes total sense and I’m actually surprised I don’t see more like this ### [Thread, continued, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863011420540973343) I suspect it has to be something like an obvious (if implicit) social consensus for this to work As soon as it’s ambiguous, price can make the difference ### [Thread, continued, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863011422059245895) · 2 likes Apple’s best monitor is $7k because fuck it you probably have infinite VC/tech money so why not Presumably this is just obviously what you buy if price is no object and you use a mac ### [Thread, continued, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863011423506268223) · 2 likes This is also distinct from a product being a luxury/signaling good, where the price is actually doing much of the work of the product ### [Tweet, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863028837715530090) · 11 likes Now that LLMs are a thing I'm discovering I really reinvented the wheel in R There are packages for all my custom functions :( ### [Tweet, 04:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863072318190137512) · 32 likes \*2028 Presidential debate\* Moderator: candidates, what is your plan for bringing down the price of eggs, sent sky high by BattleGPT-9o-mini-preview-7-16-28 setting the Western half of Nebraska on fire? ### [Tweet, 07:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863129179799130144) · 5 likes Guess I need a $7000 laptop ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdsqFevWsAEXsLR.png) ### [Reply to @RosieCampbell, 11:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863188207648596265) · 2 likes > **Rosie Campbell (@RosieCampbell):** This was my last week at OpenAI after ~3.5 years. I worked on API safety and then transitioned to Policy Research where I worked closely with @Miles_Brundage on AI governance, frontier policy issues, and AGI readiness. > > As is tradition, here’s the message I shared on Slack: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gdq78E_WoAAi_Fc.jpg) Good message, thanks for sharing ### [Quote tweet, 11:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863189137144021373) · 16 likes There does seem to be a bit of a pattern > **Quoting Rosie Campbell (@RosieCampbell):** This was my last week at OpenAI after ~3.5 years. I worked on API safety and then transitioned to Policy Research where I worked closely with @Miles_Brundage on AI governance, frontier policy issues, and AGI readiness. > > As is tradition, here’s the message I shared on Slack: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gdq78E_WoAAi_Fc.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 11:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863189138792435786) · 5 likes Lol can you imagine being like a normie (non-pejorative) journalist or something with minimal context and trying to figure out wtf is going on at this company? ### [Quote tweet, 12:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863193043286769747) · 9 likes New wild animal welfare intervention > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Tweet, 12:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863194525084037409) · 86 likes Mars is a dumb thing to make the cultural proxy for futurism/techno-optimism ### [Thread, continued, 12:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863194526552056046) · 14 likes I mean I see the aesthetic appeal but cmon you may as well choose something actually good ### [Reply to @BecomingCritter, 19:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863304346844176545) · 2 likes > **critter (@BecomingCritter):** Men need to be bullied > > (quoting @oldbooksguy: Men don't need therapy. Men need initiation rites.) Lol this is the worst possible response to a set of legitimate concerns ### [Quote tweet, 20:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863322722056515819) · 120 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdvaEUQXQAAZWZS.jpg) > **Quoting 🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** So called disability activists are some of the worst ppl alive > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdvBSIEWQAExDY7.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 20:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863322915413917861) · 16 likes I consider myself disabled\* btw, I'm allowed to poast this \*Hopefully not forever ### [Quote tweet, 21:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863334452782416055) · 51 likes I think this kind of thing at ~this level is pretty common and most people just don’t care that much about understanding and also don’t want to look dumb > **Quoting gon (@chinesegon):** no one: > > guys getting paid 3x your salary: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GduaquGWEAA_tk8.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863334454699127270) · 19 likes I do think I understand area pretty well But not like the Pythagorean theorem at the same deeply intuitive level which isn’t \*that\* much more complex ### [Thread, continued, 21:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863334972251083085) · 36 likes I got cancelled not long ago for not being that familiar with Dostoyevsky. Good times ### [Reply to @MarkovMagnifico, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863336228461973584) · 2 likes > **Markov (@MarkovMagnifico):** what would you propose instead? mars is a lofty and far-off goal but it’s going to be one of the greatest milestones in humans reaching out beyond earth Idk I say decouple aesthetics and importance - spend $9.9B to abolish suffering and then spend $100M on a flying monument instead of $10B on Mars… ### [Quote tweet, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863336765823545487) · 12 likes Based everyone plz give him status and acclaim > **Quoting Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** I've finally taken the @givingwhatwecan 10% pledge, backdated to when I first started giving in 2019! I'm a huge believer in the power of effective giving to improve the world, and I think the pledge is a great tool for both committing and spreading the word! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdviECnWsAAYKcG.jpg) ### [Reply to @nedsore, 21:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863337439521067023) · 2 likes > **ned! (@nedsore):** Single oomfies now’s your chance > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdveUutXcAAcLEy.jpg) Should I actually ### [Reply to @thewreathwright, 21:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863337869097545885) · 2 likes > **Laurel Weaver (@thewreathwright):** @AaronBergman18 @MarkovMagnifico can you propose a plan for total abolition of suffering for that price tag? No lol I guess I mean spend the first $9.9B and see where that gets us ### [Quote tweet, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863342414552760553) · 7 likes I dropped $10 on high RAM cloud compute so I could make the most comprehensive panel data that I know of and see what else there is to find Drive link below ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdvsDOSWAAINfXx.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Getting sniped again. Did everyone realize that (at least at the population level between 1990 and 2010), % of calories from carbs is a super robust predictor of overweight/obese prevalence? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdcF23vXkAAnXCC.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863342417732092118) · 3 likes Go nuts. For obvious reasons even the middle sized dataset has a lot of missing values https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gF4914To2Wu569L6TwE56t1dyxWm3WvF?usp=sharing ### [Thread, continued, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863342419367927996) · 2 likes Conceptually it feels like there should be a way to start with <300MB of data and wind up with a 1.4GB merge using just 16GB RAM but Claude and I couldn’t make it work (the obvious thing you’re thinking of I probably tried) It wound up taking like 35GB IIRC ## Monday, December 2, 2024 ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 00:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863384774447866313) · 4 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** @AaronBergman18 incredible, did you make this? Ya lol ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 01:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863388217057104179) · 6 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** does anyone have strong nuclear winter takes Yeah nuclear winter sounds bad ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 01:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863402061410279849) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** I think u can be extremely based and happy being deaf Fair enough, I regret using the word “fixed” twice. Would have been better to just keep it on the bounty thing ### [Reply to @_candroid, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863467639063875734) · 4 likes > **robot.chihuahua (@_candroid):** @AaronBergman18 FWIW I was at a patient conference earlier this year and the general vibe was much closer to the one on the right. Based ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863467740217930179) · 9 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** Pardoning Hunter is just unambiguously bad right? No silver lining. Well it’s good for hunter ### [Quote tweet, 15:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863605692722036833) · 4 likes Send this to Her > **Quoting Enron (@Enron):** We're back. Can we talk? > > [video attached](https://x.com/Enron/status/1863583974657863989/video/1) ### [Reply to @menhguin, 16:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863626254269706333) · 3 likes > **Minh Nhat Nguyen 🦭 (@menhguin):** men only want one thing and it's ending up in the LLM training data Kinda sad that I’m like the 6th most famous Aaron Bergman online ### [Reply to @menhguin, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863628485979193786) · 4 likes > **Minh Nhat Nguyen 🦭 (@menhguin):** bro u barking up the wrong tree > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gdzu34SaMAAftKH.png) Yall need some new surnames, it’s not that helpful if 40% of your friends have the same one ### [Reply to @willmacaskill, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863628976503017912) · 11 likes > **William MacAskill (@willmacaskill):** I have a new book out! "An Introduction to Utilitarianism", co-authored with Richard Chappell and Darius Meissner. > > It all started in 2016: I was giving the introduction to ethics lectures at Oxford and I was frustrated by how utilitarianism was presented to students in introductory materials... > > https://www.amazon.co.uk/Introduction-Utilitarianism-Theory-Practice/dp/1647922003 Someone read it rather quickly ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdzwrUxXgAAQLXv.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863629009172480095) · 3 likes Correct take > **Quoting William MacAskill (@willmacaskill):** Utilitarianism would often be wholly misunderstood, or presented in naive and simplistic terms. The arguments in favour of utilitarianism, the rebuttals to criticisms, and the implications of the debate for moral methodology would all be neglected. ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863667883512869040) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mealreplacer is no longer available.)_ Rip ### [Quote tweet, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863669157461438583) · 7 likes Is it conceptually plausible that naive scaling doesn’t work (ie lead to arbitrary gains in intelligence)? I don’t really know what I’m talking about, but after armchair philosophizing a bit my tentative answer is “no at the limit; maybe at the margin” > **Quoting Benjamin Todd (@ben_j_todd):** 1/ It's more likely that "naive scaling" of LLMs (just adding a zero to everything) is hitting diminishing returns. > > That's a small negative update on timelines - I thought naive scaling might work. ### [Thread, continued, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863669159172706785) · 2 likes At the conceptual limit of compute and parameters, I don’t see how you avoid the model building a genuinely superintelligent understanding of the physical and social world That’s the way to best predict tokens: understanding the process that generated them out in the world ### [Thread, continued, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863669160560976035) · 2 likes But it seems pretty plausible, maybe likely, there’s a very large gulf between the regimes in which models are and are not fundamentally transcending the level of human concepts encoded in language— ### [Thread, continued, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863669161991307642) · 2 likes e.g., accurately modeling the cognitive, maybe neurological, processes that literally caused a particular writer to write some words on the internet in 2005 ### [Thread, continued, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863669163811602698) · 2 likes If there is such a gulf, then it seems plausible that there’s a pseudo-plateau around sorta-kinda-still-humanish level intelligence ### [Thread, continued, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863669165493534912) · 2 likes I’m sure this point was made in a LessWrong comment the day after GPT-2 dropped ### [Quote tweet, 19:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863671072257671417) · 5 likes She earned a follow 🫡 > **Quoting Cornelius Singaporensis (@bryancsk):** She's not deleting, she's not going down, she's wrestling in the mud with the replies. 30M views and she's facing everyone with a smile and nothing but her metaphorical sword in hand. A worthy poaster! ### [Quote tweet, 20:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863685948246044741) · 21 likes Showing up lots on my TL - hate to kill the vibe but this has got to be so competitive that it feels somewhere between disingenuous and silly to QT it encouraging your audience of 100+ people to apply > **Quoting Anthropic (@AnthropicAI):** We’re starting a Fellows program to help engineers and researchers transition into doing frontier AI safety research full-time. > > Beginning in March 2025, we'll provide funding, compute, and research mentorship to 10–15 Fellows with strong coding and technical backgrounds. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gdz-MnLXwAALVaz.png) ### [Thread, continued, 20:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863685950263407064) · 4 likes As happens often on twitter, this is more a tweet about a general phenomenon and I’m kinda unfairly picking on one instance/group of people ### [Thread, continued, 20:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863685951794335750) · 4 likes I’m not even saying don’t RT it, just add like “if you have evidence of exceptional ability” or something to that effect ### [Thread, continued, 20:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863686434864943144) · 6 likes Something something “visible concrete upside for whoever gets the job, hidden downside of tens of thousands of applications from people who wouldn’t have endorsed applying if they had more info” ### [Thread, continued, 20:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863686537080193192) · 5 likes Didn’t the Atlas Fellowship get 50,000 applicants? And that was for 50 spots, not 15 ### [Tweet, 21:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863697876687200675) · 51 likes There’s a trillion dollar bill for whoever figures out how to make massages not awkward ### [Thread, continued, 21:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863697878918533288) · 9 likes This is absolutely the limiting factor for me I’ve gotten two but at least then I could say (honestly) that it was a gift, not me, \[16, 24\] year old guy just showing up for my touch appointment ### [Thread, continued, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863698327516099031) · 8 likes They’re like $30 on Groupon btw for anyone who doesn’t have this problem ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863698445057315134) · 1 like > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 I don’t find them awkward - maybe it’s less so if you go to a spa to have it done? Tf is a spa? Like as opposed to what lol ## Tuesday, December 3, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 07:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863845056760713428) · 58 likes OpenPhil is totally out of rationality, insect welfare, and digital sentience by fiat At the end of the day it’s still about marginal EV, but a good heuristic/formulation for that is probably “donate to whatever you think OpenPhil most egregiously under-funding” > **Quoting Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** @AVMiceliBarone See this section of the linked post. Mostly big changes in the funding landscape due to Open Philanthropy funding being more constrained in what they can recommend grants to, and FTX imploding violently. > > https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5n2ZQcbc7r4R8mvqc/the-lightcone-is-nothing-without-its-people#Lightcone_and_the_funding_ecosystem > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gd1u9mna8AAyINZ.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 07:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863847411925340627) · 16 likes I have zero actual knowledge of the politics here (DMs open 👀), but a pretty based power play would be for OpenPhil, which is its own entity, to just keep recommending that EV donate to these areas ### [Thread, continued, 07:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863847413552742698) · 13 likes OP acting as an arm of EV is a lot like senate leadership accepting a threat of filibuster as sufficient to kill a bill No, make someone actually talk for 13 hours or whatever! ### [Reply to @ciphergoth, 07:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863848081533378940) · 2 likes > **Paul Crowley (@ciphergoth):** Since July 2023 I've sent just under $28k to Lightcone/Lighthaven, and I plan to send another $20k in the coming year. > > (quoting @ohabryka: Food $200 Healthcare $150 AI Alignment $150 AI Capabilities $3,600,000,000,000 Human Intelligence Enhancement $50 LessWrong + Lighthaven $20 someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my lightcone is dying (LessWrong + Lighthaven are fundraising, a 🧵)) Based 🫡 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 08:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863868201362162133) · 8 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 3, 2024:** OP acting as an arm of EV is a lot like senate leadership accepting a threat of filibuster as sufficient to kill a bill No, make someone actually talk for 13… Wait Good Ventures, not Effective Ventures, but EV is also a thing ### [Reply to @MissMooWiddit, 09:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863876503747846527) · 20 likes > **miss moo (@MissMooWiddit):** ever see a straight guy and feel bad for him bc he’s straight ugly but gay hot I think this might be me based on a surprising amount of evidence ### [Reply to @young_opsimath, 09:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863877906717438282) · 1 like > **young_opsimath ⏸️ (@young_opsimath):** My guess which might be totally wrong: they want to select those who are keenly interested in Safety and not $$$. > > There's no guarantee that you'll get a full-time position. So, if you're financially motivated, ouch. If you care abt safety at the frontier, it's a sweet gig. > > (quoting @circlerotator: @AnthropicAI That stipend seems way too low… College internships pay more. Anthropic’s own internships pay more. Why not just offer something more standard like 4k/week?? 2k/wk is poverty in SF.) Great minds 🤝 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gd3TFAvXoAAgUgw.jpg) ### [Tweet, 09:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863879692220084729) · 112 likes I think I am in love with smelly thesis lady ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 09:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1863883503479181626) · 17 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** I am once again asking the anglosphere to use hyphens to make it less ambiguous which noun the modifier is referring to N-o ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 18:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864011795427422497) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** good afternoon I bought this new jumper and am feeling delusional enough to think it’s giving rory gilmore > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gd4DhzsWoAAlRoA.jpg) Tf is a jumper ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864012401412128795) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 3, 2024:** Wait Good Ventures, not Effective Ventures, but EV is also a thing First tweet endorsed by Dustin himself! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gd5NZndXcAA6xBs.jpg) ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864013874652950984) · 2 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** The other day I watched an academic talk where they said that humans only care about whether their beliefs support their tribal identity - they don't care about accuracy at all. > > It's ludicrous - obviously if you say "Joe Biden is made of green cheese" people will care. > > \-> There’s a complex relationship between accuracy and tribal consensus/identity though \*Would\* people care \*if\* it was tribal consensus that Biden was made of cheese? Not obviously IMO ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 18:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864014448802832524) · 4 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** You’re not even straight ugly ffs Lmao I don’t find men replying convincing evidence ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864015845145338113) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 3, 2024:** First tweet endorsed by Dustin himself! ### [Tweet, 18:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864016953028857970) · 5 likes Martial law in \*spins wheel\* South Korea, why not ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864023351380836598) · 4 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Fixing hot girl ibs Based good luck ### [Reply to @niplav_site, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864032504950219179) · 4 likes > **niplav (@niplav_site):** Related Q: What is a good (best?) place to donate money for ≥~+3sd human¹ intelligence enhancement? > > Ideally someone working directly on the problem, instead of indirectly capacity-building > > ¹: Other animals are also interesting/fine, but considering phylogenetic distance > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: OpenPhil is totally out of rationality, insect welfare, and digital sentience by fiat At the end of the day it’s still about marginal EV, but a good heuristic/formulation for that is probably “donate to whatever you think OpenPhil most egregiously under-funding”) Hot take direct work on this is silly with <10 year agi timelines It’s like direct work on protein folding in 2017 ### [Reply to @Tymtweet, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864045066068664680) · 1 like > **Tym🔸️ (@Tymtweet):** Such a great description of learned helplessness. > > People simply don't know that they can do things! They don't beleive that the relevant cause and effect chains exist!! > > Or they have a mental narrative as to why they're excluded and only famous / rich people can do things > > (quoting @arithmoquine: i hate to say this but a lot of people actually can't "just do things" it's hard to imagine when you're not in the state, if your internal reward system is off, trying to do things outside your typical action space feels like trying to see outside your field of vision) I think he’s talking more about depression/adhd but could be wrong ### [Reply to @ryxcommar, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864045448882786533) · 2 likes > **Senior PowerPoint Engineer (@ryxcommar):** I think the biggest scam people tried to sell me before I got a "real" "tech job" was that working with 100,000 rows of data is somehow fundamentally different from working with 100,000,000,000 rows of data. It's just not. How do I get a job dealing with 100B rows of data 👀 ### [Thread, continued, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864045749136212077) · 5 likes Also, it is kinda different when memory, time, and compute are meaningful constraints and scarce resources ### [Reply, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864051525804327034) · 2 likes In American English, a jumper can refer to: 1\. A sleeveless dress meant to be worn over a blouse or shirt 2\. A one-piece romper outfit, especially for children 3\. A person or animal that jumps ### [Thread, continued, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864051557068689678) · 2 likes 4\. In electricity/electronics, a small connecting wire or connector piece that completes a circuit ### [Tweet, 23:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864082406614958128) · 25 likes Extremely rusty but still got it (a bit) [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1864082056960958464/pu/img/XBW4Ml-3ajvn9OES.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864082406614958128/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @CrispyWicks, 23:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864085403466182809) · 3 likes > **Chris P. Wicks 🔎🐜 (@CrispyWicks):** Have you cleaned your vacuum recently anon > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gd6O7hYagAAIJtR.jpg) Yes actually! ### [Reply, 23:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864092127472369701) · 4 likes This is huge ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 23:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864094131816923256) · 4 likes > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** @AaronBergman18 What is the super-detailed chart on your wall? ! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gd6Xu3dWsAAofqy.jpg) ## Wednesday, December 4, 2024 ### [Tweet, 00:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864098234966192424) · 154 likes Ringing endorsement ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gd6bdxGWMAA86Hz.jpg) ### [Tweet, 01:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864118250826547551) · 5 likes I feel like people don’t do this, maybe bc it’s seen as lazy or an endorsement of the output as definitely true, but I’m in favor of people posting random interesting LLM screenshots Ofc I could have made the same prompt, but I didn’t think to! ### [Thread, continued, 01:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864119457456566752) · 3 likes Needless to say, feel free to reply with any ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864136076962439594) · 3 likes > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** @AaronBergman18 lol there's so much going on that it's unreadable at max Twitter image resolution. Great poster. Probably exists elsewhere too but full res pdf if anyone wants to look/print https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/metabolic-pathways.pdf ### [Tweet, 07:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864214577375756539) · 8 likes Don’t worry, @AnthropicAI doesn’t know how to get latex to render either ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gd8FRvIWgAAaUtC.jpg) ### [Reply, 08:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864226590244175925) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ White privilege is real and nontrivial ### [Reply, 13:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864297793222824149) · 2 likes > **Dodo (@Mechanical_Dodo):** @AaronBergman18 Hi, I'm unfamiliar with your account till now. I'd like to ask an unrelated Q. > Have you written about the importance of digital sentience as a cause, in light of assessing AI as a substantial threat? Or has someone else? > > I'm familiar w/ some EA topics, but not digital sentience. Not me I don’t think but check out @rgblong @jeffrsebo @birchlse , and https://eleosai.org ### [Quote tweet, 13:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864299300999602522) · 13 likes Does anyone have takes on whether this actually makes sense to buy > **Quoting Shakeel (@ShakeelHashim):** ICYMI: Check out Transformer’s 2024 AI gift guide — the world’s only gift guide that recommends $15,000 worth of CBRN-protection equipment (probably). > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gd8xoSZWoAAnnpL.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 13:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864299302845100511) · 7 likes I genuinely don’t think it’s crazy to spend a couple thousand dollars on personal pandemic preparedness ### [Reply, 13:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864308189539233946) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 It doesn’t Based ### [Quote tweet, 14:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864308731632074763) · 11 likes Ok the answer seems to be “no” but if someone put together a list of what actually does make sense to do and buy that would be incredible and it would probably get a lot of clicks > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Does anyone have takes on whether this actually makes sense to buy ### [Tweet, 14:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864311566562177189) · 4 likes 2024 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gd9dcVTWcAEj1VF.jpg) ### [Tweet, 14:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864312470975762831) · 14 likes None of these words are in the Bible ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gd9eT_UWYAE0UDM.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gd9eT_VXYAAQq52.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gd9eT_VW4AAwVLu.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 14:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864312472997335502) · 3 likes Shoutout to @arthur_wright\_ for one-shotting me with hyperpop ### [Tweet, 14:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864313374525247655) · 9 likes So shrimp welfare is a meme now, in addition to being good What are the best altruistic ideas for which merit >> memetic potential ### [Reply, 14:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864314631528841514) · 2 likes > **Aaron (@AaronEstel):** yeah, I'm pro girls > > (quoting @aliceisplaying: the optimal amount of girls is a lot. like, a lot) Real ### [Reply, 14:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864315050778870063) · 9 likes > **alice (@aliceisplaying):** the optimal amount of girls is a lot. like, a lot /acc ### [Tweet, 14:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864315609451770069) · 11 likes You listen to your Spotify wrapped. I export my Spotify data and fire up RStudio. We are not the same ### [Reply, 14:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864322908018848166) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Nice, I unendorsed a quick take of mine bc of this ### [Reply, 14:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864323341680595190) · 2 likes > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** @AaronBergman18 I was just asking chatgpt (seeking help from LLM as well) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gd9n1oTWIAA-Nj0.jpg) Lol it’s over ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 15:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864329889559580686) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 4, 2024:** Shoutout to @arthur_wright\_ for one-shotting me with hyperpop Fr ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gd9uIY0WoAAXteA.jpg) ### [Reply, 16:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864342732241527213) · 6 likes > **Centre for Effective Altruism (@CentreforEA):** Announcing the Effective Altruism Global 2025 conference series! > > EA Global connects you with experts and peers to collaborate on projects and tackle global challenges. > > 🌉 Bay Area, Feb 21–23 > 🇬🇧 London, June 6–8 > 🇺🇸 East Coast USA, Date TBA > 💻 Virtual, Date TBA > > [video attached](https://x.com/CentreforEA/status/1864335439429058990/video/1) I wasn’t interested but the upbeat music changed my mind ### [Tweet, 16:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864348140310032772) · 4 likes Truly shocking listener data for EAG Talks podcast ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gd9-eSbWkAAf-Ot.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gd9-eSdXsAAIMYo.jpg) ### [Reply, 22:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864433936966848653) · 3 likes > **alea ☄️⏺️⛵️ (@noncanonicAleae):** what, exactly, makes people use spotify? it's a bad, poorly-designed, disagreeable app. Infinite music??? Lol they could make the UI way worse and I’d still use it ## Thursday, December 5, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 00:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864464365547659575) · 2 likes Meta level, the issue is that OpenPhil has afaict no rigor and certainly no transparency at the top of the money funnel (I.e what money goes to what high level causes and when) > **Quoting Matt Brooks (@qwweryo):** I don't understand... > > @TheZvi is saying there are way more high-quality projects looking for money over previous years (and SFF can't fill it all) > > Yet OpenPhil has decreased its AI x-risk funding? > > The S&P is up 33% over the past year, OpenPhil has billions to direct, right? Where is the mismatch? > > https://twitter.com/qwweryo/status/1820999814974255161 ### [Thread, continued, 00:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864464367351169499) · 2 likes Tbc the rigor is what matters here—maybe there is a secret but epistemically-ethically awesome process going on behind closed doors I don’t think transparency matters except instrumentally as an epistemic tool to solicit feedback/criticism ### [Tweet, 00:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864464368890425499) · 1 like But based on the object level outcomes (ie the qt above and relatively minimal resources to animal welfare) I have reason to doubt that this process exists ### [Thread, continued, 00:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864464370165522864) · 2 likes It will be funny if I become branded as an OpenPhil criticism guy bc also I think they basically do great work lol ### [Thread, continued, 00:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864464371679674461) · 2 likes I feel like this lack-of-rigor critique is one of the strongest ones The defunded cause areas thing (rationality, insects, digital sentience) by contrast I think is bad but this boils down to Dustin being wrong about the object level merit of stuff ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 11:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864630472979955777) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Someone should sell insurance such that if you die under suspicious circumstances a huge bounty goes towards finding out what happened and (if necessary) bringing in the killer Dw George I got u If u get clapped, I’m putting up $100 ### [Tweet, 11:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864640187801702613) · 4 likes I feel like AI has seriously improved advertising bc I’ve bought a couple things from random online ads and feel like I’m clicking on way more than I used to Hell yeah I want a concierge MRI! Perhaps via poasting have transcended demographic determinism ### [Thread, continued, 11:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864640371239616735) · 3 likes None of these have been on twitter, somehow, despite them having all my posts for free ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 12:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864641129385271748) · 3 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @AaronBergman18 What were they correct about? Speaking for myself, AI importance, COVID, prediction markets, broadly epistemology and less concrete points about how the world works (at least more correct than others) ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 12:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864645643592925189) · 2 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** anyone who can guess the explanation for this tweet deserves a prize U wanted to tweet “a” and so you did that ### [Quote tweet, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864750104994865309) · 4 likes Bump > **Quoting Nuño Sempere (@NunoSempere):** tsunami warning, SF friends maybe worth moving to high ground and re-evaluating while in motion ### [Tweet, 19:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864752334246404384) · 16 likes Get to high ground guys, sometimes things do happen ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeDuXTtWQAISB-B.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864789066161570268) · 17 likes I hear the tsunami that was coming for the SNOWFLAKES at Stanford and Berkeley was CANCELLED ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 22:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864805989532238015) · 3 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** one time some guy asked me what i did, i explained, he asked lots of questions, and then i walked away without ever asking him a single question back. i only realized later > > i still think about that constantly. how many other times have i been a total asshole and \*not\* noticed He just like me fr ## Friday, December 6, 2024 ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864844050274172979) · 4 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** How plausible is that? (1-7) > > (quoting @unusual_whales: 22% of US renters spend entire income on rent, per Redfin.) 7 (meaning totally plausible, not definitely true) if “entire income” can mean all $0; Male employment rate is (1-unemp)\*labor force participation ≈ 65% So you get ~16% of the population has no income. Ofc not all of them are renting but I’d guess most are ### [Quote tweet, 04:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1864893826025877555) · 5 likes My most right wing online culture warrior take is that this is totally true and kinda infuriating and also bad From the inside, it feels like ~banning books that actually should be banned (or taboo’d, whatever) > **Quoting Yuan Yi Zhu (@yuanyi_z):** Every library “banned books” list is just a list of books banned 50 years ago which are now on the syllabus. ### [Quote tweet, 14:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1865038314929025386) · 52 likes No, this is the wrong lesson! False tsunami positives once a decade are fine, false negatives are not! > **Quoting Riva (@rivatez):** I love how confidently experts predict climate change 50 years out but are constantly wrong about extreme weather even a few mins before lol ### [Reply to @livgorton, 14:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1865045756257697869) · 5 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** @AaronBergman18 what’s annoying is it wasn’t even a false positive! it was a warning that a tsunami might happen and we should take precautions for that. it wasn’t that the tsunami was on the way and they were wrong. > > i’m glad we had notice rather than waiting till the wave was on the way It does use the word “may” but I’d still call this a false positive lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeH5OxsXUAALxqe.jpg) ### [Reply to @GoodfireAI, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1865104194048233743) · 4 likes > **Goodfire (@GoodfireAI):** Thrilled to welcome @LivGorton as a Founding Research Scientist at Goodfire! > > After leading an OpenAI-funded bio AI startup, Liv advanced the field of mech interp through her research on InceptionV1, including uncovering interpretable features and circuits in work presented at ICML’s interp workshop. > > We're actively growing our research team - come build with us! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeId_GKX0AAH1Mi.jpg) Good choice 👍 ## Saturday, December 7, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 01:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1865213646743220618) · 5 likes Fr though they could literally do constitutional AI on the charter > **Quoting noah (@nkreu113r):** Concerning! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeJ3jHVWcAE7rZd.jpg) ### [Reply to @jmhorp, 02:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1865215018955895158) · 8 likes > **Jeremy Horpedahl 🥚📉 (@jmhorp):** If you put $1,000/month in an S&P 500 index fund starting in January 2009 with dividends reinvested, today you would have around $700,000. That's a $500K gain on a ~$200K investment, using the most boring, obvious investment strategy. You won't be Crypto Rich, but you would be OK Conveniently selecting the end of the financial crisis as start year lol ### [Tweet, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1865261763366707361) · 5 likes Overrated: being somehow connected to an institution people don’t like (eg health insurer CEO), being rich per se Underrated (mainly by pro-capitalist types): the wealthy spending a ton on personal consumption ### [Thread, continued, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1865261764767567881) · 2 likes Often, people imagine fake possibilities for what the world could be like (eg Amazon but they double everyone’s wage, developing country factories with first world wages) ### [Thread, continued, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1865261766025814086) · 3 likes But the very wealthy really could give more money away at the end of the day, and/or invest in the mean time, rather than buy lots of expensive shit The economic system wouldn’t fall ### [Quote tweet, 05:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1865270361836675569) · 3 likes Big news (it’s weather -> last option) > **Quoting Cody Hergenroeder 🍋⚡️ (@lemonautzest):** Also, just discovered I could add this widget today on iPhone. Am in love. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeKFKmqasAAeLXq.png) ### [Reply to @diviacaroline, 05:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1865272296472027287) · 2 likes > **Divia Eden 🔍 (@diviacaroline):** I tried to get grok to draw me based on my tweets and evidently I’ve done way too much government posting gotta change that What does this mean https://x.com/i/grok/share/sxbiQPO1wKOr0jyoKsYn0YQMH ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 20:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1865491126863475073) · 2 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** fellas how do we feel about this, hot or not? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeNVOMOWsAAuzvH.png) Girl ergo hot, the ring is irrelevant ## Sunday, December 8, 2024 ### [Tweet, 05:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1865624843921608773) · 12 likes Hello I am posting this message on both twitter and b\*sky at the same time ### [Thread, continued, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1865625226723078340) · 7 likes I’m always shocked when something like this works LLMs take the base rate up from ~0% to like 40% ### [Thread, continued, 05:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1865627772623683938) · 7 likes I have no idea how this works, all computer stuff is magic https://github.com/AaronBergman/tw-bsky ### [Reply, 14:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1865759240427630891) · 1 like MedicineNet ### [Tweet, 14:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1865771158827647318) · 8 likes The OpenAI corporate governance shitshow doesn’t really inspire confidence, but I think the general idea of a nonprofit controlling a for-profit entity sounds pretty cool and good ### [Quote tweet, 15:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1865784517278982419) · 91 likes I actually think healthcare abundance should be more of an agenda Like housing, there are real resource constraints imposed by government regulation (doctor caps, no organ donation compensation, drug quotas) > **Quoting Niels Hoven 🐮 (@NielsHoven):** So basically people think there’s an unlimited supply of free, quality healthcare that we’re all being prevented from accessing by evil corporations? ### [Thread, continued, 15:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1865784519309074641) · 12 likes There’s no unlimited supply of free, quality healthcare \*yet\* ### [Reply to @AndrewCritchPhD, 18:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1865829983316296055) · 3 likes > **Andrew Critch (🤖🩺🚀) (@AndrewCritchPhD):** Who is working on ZKPs for neural nets, or similar? > > Say you pay me $1 to run Llama 3.3 on a prompt for you, I do that, and now I want to prove to you that I really did it and didn't use a different / crappier model. > > Zero-Knowledge Proofs (and similar) are notoriously inefficient for verifying most open-source program outputs, because IIRC the program has to first be converted into an arithmetic circuit. > > But neural nets, including transformers, are \*already\* basically arithmetic circuits (modulo occasional simple nonlinear functions, like sigmoids). I think this should mean ZKPs are easier to use to verify their outputs. But I'm very rusty on this; I'm only like 55% sure there's something useful here, and I haven't really run any deep calculations yet on efficiency. > > Who is working on this general class of thing? This isn’t a zkp but there’s an easily-findable probability for any output token given model, context, temperature, and other parameters that I don’t rly understand right? … ### [Thread, continued, 18:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1865830264968016378) · 3 likes So you can audit some proportion of outputs and pretty easily estimate a probability that the input parameters are faithful (I think) (?) ### [Reply to @hamandcheese, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1865883146303963330) · 3 likes > **Samuel Hammond 🦉 (@hamandcheese):** Open sourcing public datasets is one of the best, low-cost ways to advance the social sciences. Under the status quo, a few well-connected academics get privileged access to admin data to write blockbuster papers that are then hard to impossible to independently replicate. > > (quoting @cremieuxrecueil: It's frustrating thinking about how many arguments and debates could be solved with existing, publicly-funded data that's just hard to access because of privacy rules and regulations that don't actually protect anyone.) Not exactly secret data but ### [Quote tweet, 23:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1865897492866584632) · 9 likes Making opioids hard to get is pretty evil > **Quoting Adrestia (@_anantashesha):** kinda crazy that we've managed to outlaw exactly the wrong drugs > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeSnTGZXgAATooW.jpg) ## Monday, December 9, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 01:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1865931675877724527) · 12 likes How are they so bad at this lmao > **Quoting Alexander Berger (@albrgr):** 1 - article describes effective altruism as “the dominant way to think about charity” and worries about crowding out other giving. But EA is under 0.5% of US giving! Arts giving alone is 10-20x bigger. This is like complaining that art films are eating into Marvel's market share. ### [Tweet, 01:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1865937450167603238) · 4 likes Apple intelligence notification summaries are profoundly unhelpful ### [Reply to @viemccoy, 07:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866019779623997560) · 4 likes > **vie ⟢ (@viemccoy):** working on a lesswrong post. what have you done to me Based ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 07:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866027038974288306) · 2 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** @AaronBergman18 Like IKEA? And Novo Nordisk iirc Apparently, yes! I’ve just learned about both of these so don’t really have a take on them specifically ### [Tweet, 08:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866033821906317331) · 13 likes Marinating tofu instead of turkey? Baste ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 08:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866036686607859842) · 2 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** I was looking at best practices for manipulating binary data in Javascript and came across this suggestion from a stackoverflow post in 2009: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeU0LPAWIAAje5C.jpg) Maybe related: I think there’s gotta be a way to do infinite arbitrary free large file storage via YouTube or Spotify by making the system think the thing is a video but having some parser system detect the true encoding ### [Tweet, 08:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866039758406688775) · 12 likes I will not be at NeurIPS, so if you wanna say hi you’re out of luck ### [Quote tweet, 09:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866048801959551007) · 4 likes Mechanistic understanding go brr, inject it into my veins > **Quoting Ben Southwood (@bswud):** We know that places with a freer supply of housing have lower homelessness. But why? Most homeless people couldn't afford to rent even at half the price. > > It's because cheaper housing means bigger housing and more friends and family with spare rooms. > > https://worksinprogress.co/issue/why-housing-shortages-cause-homelessness/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeWHybIWYAAUWeY.jpg) ### [Tweet, 10:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866071004671246489) · 8 likes Seems like folks are pretty optimistic about the new Syrian government? I have a semi-vague sense that “this type of thing” doesn’t often result in substantially improved governance at the end of the day… ### [Tweet, 10:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866071006462316958) · 1 like Is my impression wrong, and/or is my vague sense wrong, and if no to both, what are the key structural or idiosyncratic differences between this case and others in some reference class of “illiberal regime overthrown” that makes people more optimistic? ### [Thread, continued, 10:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866071013005660461) · 1 like Prior basically supported by Claude’s characterization of 22 illiberal regime overthrows since the 1990s (more screenshots below) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeWdsjZWYAAWTtY.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 10:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866071019682714099) · 2 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeWds8RWoAArJy7.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeWds8RWgAE6mMr.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeWds8OW8AAYbNz.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeWds8PXUAAlUEp.jpg) ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 10:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866071126490616150) · 3 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w6PCHutmb4 Ah, never a new idea lol ### [Reply to @Ollie_Base, 10:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866073619836608810) · 3 likes > **Ollie Rodriguez (@Ollie_Base):** I’m actually very grateful for this somewhat critical piece on effective altruism, because it’s critical of the \*ideas\* and mostly represents those ideas fairly. Thanks, Emma! > > Some responses from me (a Centre for Effective Altruism employee and EA shill): > > (quoting @emmabgo: I wrote an essay for @nytimes Ideas about how people decide where to give away money and how the tech industry's obsession with optimization filtered into so many parts of our culture. Here's a gift link…) Nah it’s terrible ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeWgEQjWIAAo0Rp.jpg) ### [Reply to @livgorton, 12:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866092644356493657) · 5 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** when going to EAG, i had a bunch of people approach me on the plane asking if i was going to EAG because i was in a GiveDirectly sweater. i fly to NeurIPS tomorrow and i wonder what the equivalent thing to do is. how do i look so ML researcher that i make plane friends 🤔 Wear a sign around ur neck that says “I’m going to NeurIPS” ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 12:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866103424061743139) · 34 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** open q to ppl who have been in the AI world longer than I have: I hear this meme often (that the safety crowd 'cried wolf' over GPT-2/3/4) > > is this actually true? can anybody point me to some concrete, since-falsified predictions about current systems? i have yet to find any > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeWv2tzXkAAlAM5.jpg) Not really your target audience but my sense is that “crying wolf” vibes are basically concerned folks pointing at a straights line on a log graph and saying “this whole trend is dangerous” and someone else saying “aha but people haven’t died yet” ### [Thread, continued, 12:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866104304077053979) · 4 likes How much of this is bad faith vs willful ignorance vs earnest misunderstanding idk Also, two relevant but importantly true cliches are (1) hindsight is 20/20 and (2) you’re either too early or too late ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 13:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866110202178584882) · 4 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Feel really sorry for single people at Christmas parties. Circles of couples all chatting away about their holiday plans and kids. And then there’s you. This is true does anyone wanna help me out on this matter ### [Reply to @EAForumPosts, 15:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866142805342482708) · 2 likes > **EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** "\[Talk Transcript\] Rekindling the Fire: Principles-First EA Groups as a Path to Impact" by jessica_mccurdy > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeXQTz0WEAA63Ve.jpg) Based ### [Tweet, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866220776237514799) · 28 likes I’m pleased to announce that I have no insight into or esoteric internet connection (afaik) to Luigi ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 20:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866221634048196609) · 6 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @AaronBergman18 I’m pretty disgusted by discovering this proximity Disgusted? That’s not super intuitive to me. The world is big and weird, and at least for me afaik we have no meaningful or irl mutual connections ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 20:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866222165630255610) · 7 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @AaronBergman18 It was when I glanced at his tweets and saw he was like an insight porn kinda dude like so many I know. Made me feel like my internet neighbor committed the murder. Idk if you saw this. Maybe like same city, idk about neighbor ### [Reply to @LabGrownNeet, 20:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866222673556041860) · 3 likes > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** @AaronBergman18 I'm so frustrated. First sbf, now this. I need someone I'm directly connected to to do something. My actual friends have a shocking track record of not doing anything illegal or especially immoral (or they’re just very good at hiding it). Sad! ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 22:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866247526430523716) · 2 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** Several times recently I've had some idea I was really happy about. A clever tweet, an innovative blog post topic, etc. Then I do a quick search only to discover that someone else has already had that idea. Maybe they executed it better than I would have, maybe they executed it worse, but either way, my idea isn't original. > > Ah well, back to the idea mines. But this makes me wonder; to what extent is this a driving factor in our memetic environment? > > People complain that our media has become too derivative. Entertainment franchises re-hash the same ideas, same characters, same themes, over and over. Any time there's some newsworthy event, news organizations put out slightly rephrased but meaningfully identical copies of each others' articles. Intellectuals worry about how science seems to be slowing down, and question why there seem to be fewer geniuses. > > What if the world is running out of ideas? > > The human mind is only finitely complicated, so there exists some ceiling to the complexity and number of ideas we can have. Environment is a factor of course, and as the world changes, our ideas change with them. But there are a limited number of possible environments, and only a tiny number of them actually exist on Earth. > > Are we near that ceiling right now? No idea. 8 billion is a tiny number compared to the combinatorial explosion potential of the 86 billion neurons we have. And there are many other possible causes for the various slowdowns we see, including that the slowdown effect doesn't even exist at all and it's all just rosy retrospection. > > Still, the world population has exploded over the course of the past century, and as living conditions improve and menial labor gets automated away, people have more free time for idea-generation. It's interesting to consider whether we might be starting to reach some ceiling effects, where many of the best ideas have already been had and people shift towards coming up only with endless variations on preexisting concepts. > > Of course I checked and many others have already had this idea. I sorta bounce along the spectrum between this and basically the opposite thesis, which is “ ‘huh it’s surprising nobody’s had this idea already’ for a nontrivial fraction of stuff” ## Tuesday, December 10, 2024 ### [Tweet, 01:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866301028771004670) · 25 likes I burned some Colab credits finetuning llama-3b (right, not even 8b) on the EA Forum The model is both coherent enough and incoherent enough to be very funny Reply with a prompt and I’ll give you some outputs until I arbitrarily decide to stop ### [Thread, continued, 02:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866301882559562059) · 11 likes It's a base model, not tuned to be a chatbot. When the prompt is my name, it writes an obituary ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeZvpj4W8AEGU6Q.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866302661252825327) · 12 likes With the prompt "Hot take: ", it reliably generates suggestions for @80000Hours ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeZwSP8XwAA6seN.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeZwU_ZXUAAKfy8.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeZwX5WWYAA5MSg.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866303330437234706) · 10 likes Favorite output so far (and sorry for the javascript slop - lazy scraping and cleaning) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeZw2xxX0AAz4JN.png) ### [Reply to @vivian_belenky, 02:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866316799815598483) · 4 likes > **viv 🔸 (@vivian_belenky):** "Open Philanthropy is making a mistake by" Open Philanthropy is making a mistake by not using more EA jargon - EA Forum This website requires javascript to properly function. Consider activating javascript to get access to all site functionality. Effective Altruism ForumEA ForumLoginSign UpOpen Philanthropy is making a mistake by not using more EA jargonby Robert_WiblinJun 28 20221 min read 12 107CommunityBuilding effective altruismEffective altruism messagingCriticism of effective altruist organizationsEffective altruism in the mediaFrontpageA slogan or catchphrase for Open Philanthropy would be http://helpful.Here‚Äôs one they could use: ‚ÄòDoing Good Better‚http://xn--4ca6a.It‚Äôs short, concrete, action-oriented, and emphasizes their commitment to improving the world. It works as a slogan because it‚Äôs memorable, yet captures their mission and values. Using this slogan would also help bring the EA movement closer together, since it‚Äôd be used to refer to Open Philanthropy, but also to many other individuals and organizations and would become a common shorthand for ‚Äòeffective altruism‚Äô.Some other suggestions:‚ÄòGiving What We Can‚Äô for the eponymous pledge‚ÄòNot All Charities Are Equal‚Äô to distinguish their work from that of other funders‚ÄòDoing the Most Good‚Äô to emphasize their unique value-addIt‚Äôd be helpful if someone at Open Philanthropy posted these suggestions on Twitter and Instagram, and maybe someone who reads this post will have the energy to do that! Mentioning EA jargon in this post: Doing Good Better, rather than open philanthropy, would help bring the EA community closer together, since it‚Äôd be used to refer to Open Philanthropy, but also to many other individuals and organizations and would become a common shorthand for ‚Äòeffective altruism‚Äô. Mentioning EA jargon in this post: Using ‚Äòeffective altruism‚Äô in a slogan or catchphrase for Open Philanthropy would help bring the EA community closer together, since it‚Äôd be used to refer to Open Philanthropy, but also to many other individuals and organizations and would become a common shorthand for ‚Äòeffective altruism‚Äô. Like most jargon, it might take some time to spread, but once it does, it can help bring people together around a shared set of ideas and goals. Some other suggestions: ‚ÄòGiving What We Can‚Äô for the eponymous pledge ‚ÄòNot All Charities Are Equal‚Äô to distinguish their work from that of other funders ‚ÄòDoing the Most Good‚Äô to emphasize their unique value-add Mentioning EA jargon in this post: Using ‚Äòeffective altruism‚Äô in a slogan or catchphrase ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 12:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866453931393708122) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Recommendations for websites for weddings? > > Requirements: Let you maintain a guest list with various guest preferences (e.g. meal), email Save The Dates + RSVPs with a simple form, host an FAQ? Ur FAANG bro make it urself ### [Reply to @Manuel_do_rio, 12:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866454801485029568) · 3 likes > **Manuel del Río Rodríguez ⏸️ (@Manuel_do_rio):** Cc: @RafaRuizdeLira , @ea_paddington, @SpacedOutMatt, @Benthamsbulldog, @polisisti, @RYChappell, @sam_atis, @AaronBergman18, @austinc3301 I don’t think this is the most fundamental and general point but as a sort of counterexample, the suffering of a being who can’t do anything to help/harm others but who can be helped doesn’t disappear, and I think suffering is intrinsically bad for a whole host of reasons ### [Reply to @bschne, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866476090522239129) · 3 likes > **Benjamin (@bschne):** The new McShrimp at McDonalds is The new McShrimp at McDonalds is literally shrimp - EA Forum This website requires javascript to properly function. Consider activating javascript to get access to all site functionality. Effective Altruism ForumEA ForumLoginSign UpThe new McShrimp at McDonalds is literally shrimpby Chris GMay beetl prdundantJun 2 20222 min read 14 82Food frontpageThe new McShrimp at McDonalds is literally shrimpShrimp!Real shrimp, at leastSome nutritional info:14 commentsI saw this on twitter and had to http://share.It's a new sandwich that McD's just released in the US: The McShrimp. Apparently it's popular in other countries, but for some reason it's gotten very little attention here, which seems weird to http://me.So naturally I had to go get one. It doesn't look like they're serving real shrimp, but the menu description definitely implies it: "A juicy shrimp patty topped with pickled red onions, crisp lettuce, and tangy sauce on a toasted bun."Juicy shrimp patty? That sounds real to me.Shrimp!Real shrimp, at leastI didn't realize how much shrimp I was getting until I saw the actual patty:It looks like they're using imposter shrimp, because the patty is definitely not juicy. It's dry and crumbly, like a chicken patty. And it doesn't melt the cheese, even if you leave it on the heat lamp for a while.Nutritional info:Calories: 550Total Fat: 30gSaturated Fat: 10gTrans Fat: 0gCholesterol: 95mgSodium: 1590mgPotassium: 0mgCarbohydrate: 54gFiber: 4gSugar: 11gProtein: 25gVitamin A: 0%Vitamin C: 0%Calcium: 0%Iron: 0%To be clear, this is not a review. I don't mean to single out this specific restaurant, but their nutritional info is wrong. For example, they list the calories as 550, but when you add up the individual ingredients, the number is 1730. (They have an online calculator that gives a different total for the sandwich without the shrimp patty, but when you input the ingredients for the patty the total comes out to 1210, which is still 300 calories ### [Quote tweet, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866528821320749179) · 6 likes Fr, the idea that compliance burden or procedure invasiveness are significant costs that meaningfully weigh against the benefits of some intervention is somewhere between… > **Quoting Emmett Shear (@eshear):** I got prescribed a drug you took once a day for ~120 days, preferably at the same hour. So I set an alarm on my phone, carried my pills with me everywhere, and took them. When my MD asked about compliance and I said I hadn’t missed any pills, they expressed significant surprise. ### [Thread, continued, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866528823686443320) · 3 likes confusing (if the patient is basically just being warned and given the option to proceed anyway) and morally outrageous (when a physician decides from on high that these considerations should reduce a patient’s option set) ### [Thread, continued, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866528825401589949) · 2 likes This really elicits my libertarian instincts in full force Idgaf if other people tend to find the tradeoff not worthwhile (often revealed via behavior eg noncompliance) - let each individual choose! ### [Reply to @eshear, 17:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866529355658039672) · 2 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** Using punishments to increase compliance is justified only in the most extreme of cases; we can safely round that off here to zero. > Building tools to enable people who want to be compliant to be more compliant by removing barriers and bullshit is basically entirely win. 💯 ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866530381329318209) · 3 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** Working for Raytheon is one of the highest EV careers > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gec3aJqbIAAHa1w.jpg) Naw, replaceability is high (for most positions) -> counterfactual impact is low Maybe DARPA startup entrepreneurship shit ### [Tweet, 17:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866530620672754119) · 77 likes Ok can we move on from the murder guy now ### [Quote tweet, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866604903713452159) · 19 likes Sorry I lied about moving on. If real, the “manifesto” is nuts for being so lame It’s just recognition of a well-known complex social problem (US life expectancy stagnating despite growth) + coating this in extremely vague conspiratorial vibes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeeDRG8W8AAV0yv.jpg) > **Quoting Strxwmxn (@strxwmxn):** @kenklippenstein It could have been a tweet: > > “To the Feds, I'll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn't working with anyone. This was fairly trivial: some elementary social engineering, basic CAD, a lot of patience. The spiral notebook, if present, has some straggling notes and To Do lists that illuminate the gist of it. My tech is pretty locked down because I work in engineering so probably not much info there. I do apologize for any strife of traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy. United is the \[indecipherable\] largest company in the US by market cap, behind only Apple, Google, Walmart. It has grown and grown, but as our life expectancy? No the reality is, these \[indecipherable\] have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allwed them to get away with it. Obviously the problem is more complex, but I do not have space, and frankly I do not pretend to be the most qualified person to lay out the full argument. But many have illuminated the corruption and greed (e.g.: Rosenthal, Moore), decades ago and the problems simply remain. It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play. Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty.” ### [Thread, continued, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866604906477752379) · 4 likes I think one important level of explanation here is just that the world is very big and so sometimes very weird things happen that don’t make much narrative sense above and beyond a bunch of unlikely things happening in a chain, ### [Thread, continued, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866604908339662968) · 3 likes and at least some parts of the chain being correlated with your attention (ie newsworthiness, virality, etc) ### [Tweet, 22:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866605442761363943) · 10 likes Complaining about there being too many podcasts has got to be the lamest normal/common think to be mad about Really tragic people like yapping with their friends and putting it on the internet for free in case anyone’s interested ### [Tweet, 23:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866630962966057327) · 22 likes Has anyone ever actually seen a GPU? Hooked one up to your computer? ### [Reply to @uncriticalsimon, 23:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866631626681356507) · 2 likes > **Simon 🦖🚟🚉 (@uncriticalsimon):** @AaronBergman18 Er yes? Or at least the card. Fishy ## Wednesday, December 11, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866692373553569943) · 24 likes Kids should have rights > **Quoting FIRE (@TheFIREorg):** BANNED: An Iowa middle school teacher has banned words like “Ohio,” “brain rot,” and “meow.” Students risk detention if caught using internet lingo, and reports claim at least ten kids have been punished already. > > FIRE is on the case to protect students' non-disruptive speech. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GedVpb7XYAM9i5d.jpg) ### [Reply to @bryancsk, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866700736081416572) · 136 likes > **Bryan Cheong 🥮 (@bryancsk):** Sometimes I have friends who work until really late as a startup employee chasing a deadline and I'll ask them "why do you have such tight deadlines, y'all don't have customers, are you running out of runway?" and I never get a satisfactory answer. I always wonder this. Ofc on the margin, working 14 vs 8 hour days probably makes the difference a nonzero amount of times, this is probably like a 25% productivity boost, and it seems like the difference between successful and failed startups is broadly not +-25% productivity ### [Thread, continued, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1866700917132669357) · 26 likes I tend to think it’s just selection for crazy and hardworking people, not a well-understood causal theory of change ## Thursday, December 12, 2024 ### [Reply, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867001949419344044) · 1 like Based ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GejsYKIXwAAqwhv.jpg) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 00:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867011030460887041) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** The FTX doomsday bunker/genetic engineering lab could have had great WiFi > > (quoting @Starlink: Starlink is now available in Nauru, helping to bring high-speed internet to even some of the most remote and rural communities around the world 🛰️🇳🇷❤️→ https://www.starlink.com/map) RIP FTX ### [Reply to @rajlearns, 01:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867011850094907399) · 3 likes > **Raj Thimmiah (@rajlearns):** Why do girls like purses It’s in the purse gene on the second X chromosome ### [Reply to @Trail_Cams, 01:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867017916215947264) · 1 like > **trailcam (@Trail_Cams):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gej6ZQCXIAAl2HM.jpg) Party ### [Reply to @Nia_mp4, 15:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867236867282014299) · 8 likes > **Nia (@Nia_mp4):** do u ever think abt how if given the chance ur male friends would sleep w u Nah ### [Reply to @AMAZlNGNATURE, 16:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867241669180961186) · 3 likes > **Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE):** Remarkably Preserved 30,000-Year-Old Baby Mammoth Discovered in Permafrost. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gel93_-XYAAYvaC.jpg) 😢 ### [Reply to @paulg, 16:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867243697043058839) · 4 likes > **Paul Graham (@paulg):** The sad thing is, it's actually true. You can't think about it all the time or it will drive you crazy. But that doesn't mean it's false, just unbearable. 🔥🌶️ ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 16:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867247618675626161) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Why did they make the same punishment for saying 'rizzler' and 'encouraging suicide' 🤔 ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867276196381434200) · 5 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** The value of pain avoidance may vary widely between individuals and cultures. Inasmuch as EA is spearheading efforts to model this, I suspect that EAs have greater than average pain sensitivity and thus shouldn't overweight their/their peers experience I agree that they probably have greater than avg sensitivity, but disagree that this implies overweighting. Probably still underweighting, just slightly less than avg The main bias is intrapersonal experiencing pain/suffering vs not experiencing - not interpersonal sensitivity ### [Reply to @paulg, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867277829269843996) · 14 likes > **Paul Graham (@paulg):** The sad thing is, it's actually true. You can't think about it all the time or it will drive you crazy. But that doesn't mean it's false, just unbearable. Paul, there’s a synthesis to this line of thinking which is like “think about it enough to make important prioritizations in your life, and then compartmentalize and revisit occasionally” EA doesn’t look like PG driving himself insane, ### [Thread, continued, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867278206547767573) · 3 likes it looks like PG using some social capital to push for YC reserving some slots for founders who explicitly intend to donate most of their profits (over say $X million) and mostly just being normal PG ### [Quote tweet, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867311756164624753) · 4 likes Did the same with 8b, for better or worse it is significantly more coherent Poast prompts if you're so inclined > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I burned some Colab credits finetuning llama-3b (right, not even 8b) on the EA Forum > > The model is both coherent enough and incoherent enough to be very funny > > Reply with a prompt and I’ll give you some outputs until I arbitrarily decide to stop ### [Reply to @RokoMijic, 21:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867320178192912792) · 2 likes > **Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** Prompt: Roko Mijic Response: Roko Mijic's new book on s-risks - EA Forum This website requires javascript to properly function. Consider activating javascript to get access to all site functionality. Effective Altruism ForumEA ForumLoginSign UpRoko Mijic's new book on s-risksby sapphireMay 103 min read 3 167Existential riskCause prioritizationAI safetyCenter for Reducing SufferingS-riskBooksLongtermismRoko MijicCriticism and Red Teaming ContestFrontpageRoko Mijic's new book on s-risksSummary1. What is the problem?2. What is s-risk prevention?3. Should we focus on s-risk prevention?4. How should we s-risk prevent?5. What are some s-risks we could prevent?6. What should I do?Conclusion3 commentsSummaryI review Roko Mijic’s new book on s-risks, What We Owe The Future. I summarize the book and then react to some of my takeaways from it. Overall, I think the book is a valuable contribution to the s-risk prevention community. It clearly explains what s-risk prevention is and how it relates to other common discussions in EA. It also uses real-world examples to illustrate how s-risks could play out and what we can do to prevent them. However, I think the book isn’t clear enough about the difference between s-risk prevention and longtermism, and it doesn’t engage with the criticism and concerns people have about s-risk prevention. I also wish there was more of a call to action at the end of the book. But overall, I think this would be a very valuable book for s-risk prevention enthusiasts, AI safety researchers, and longtermist EAs to read. You can find the book on Amazon, as well as several other online retailers. You can also find it in person at Barnes and Noble and other local bookstores. (You can check if your local bookstore has it by searching for it on http://Bookshop.org.) And finally, you can order it at any physical or online bookstore by asking them to order it for you. (Bookshops often have a special section for this.) Please consider writing your own review of the book on Amazon or elsewhere!1. What is the problem?The first chapter of the book introduces the idea of s-risks. S-risks are risks of future suffering. They include risks from conflicts, natural disasters, and human-made catastrophes. S-risks result in large amounts of suffering and are difficult or impossible to mitigate after they start. We can prevent many s-risks by changing our actions today. If we want to prevent s-risks, we need to put more effort into avoiding them now.The second chapter of the book discusses the importance of s-risk prevention. We have good evidence that certain s-risks will occur unless we act to prevent them. We also have some idea of what to do to prevent them. Still, many EAs don’t prioritize s-risk prevention over near-term interventions. This might be because s-risk prevention is unclear or because it doesn’t feel actionable. The book argues that s-risk prevention is both clear and actionable. Being clear about s-risk prevention matters a lot for me. I think that s-risk prevention is a very important priority for EA. I believe that most EAs who care about reducing s-risks don’t know what s-risk prevention is or how it relates to other common EA priorities like AI safety and longtermism. I wish more EAs cared about s-risk prevention, so I’m excited that there’s a new book about it!2. What is s-risk prevention?S-risk prevention is the set of things we can do now to reduce the likelihood of s-risks. S-risks are events that cause large amounts of suffering and are difficult or impossible to mitigate after they start. Some examples of s-risks include: major conflict, such as a nuclear war; natural disasters, such as pandemics and environmental disasters; and human-made catastrophes, such as extreme risks from AI or x-risk from power-seeking AI. S-risk prevention includes both broad efforts to improve humanity’s ability to prevent s-risks and more targeted efforts to actually prevent specific s-risks. Some examples of s-risk preventative measures are: developing s-risk awareness; advocating for s-risk prevention; and working on AI safety, pandemic preparedness, and other s-risk-specific areas. There are many EAs who work on preventing s-risks without realizing it. For example, people who work on AI safety often focus on preventing existential risks from AI, but they sometimes ignore s-risks. Other examples include people who work on preventing pandemics without focusing on s-risks, even though pandemics are one of the best-known s-risks. We can prevent many s-risks by changing our actions today. If we want to prevent s-risks, we need to ### [Reply to @dylanmatt, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867326753951109232) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dylanmatt is no longer available.)_ Wait can we do the general policy of any EA-coded $100+ receipt (your judgement what qualifies) + you respond to a tweet about whatever ### [Reply to @dylanmatt, 22:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867330910078529715) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dylanmatt is no longer available.)_ Seems like top animal welfare orgs robustly dominate the givewell suite, and probably by a lot (links in the thread attached make that case in detail) Do you agree with this? If so, why keep making GiveWell the archetype/rhetorical centerpiece of EA giving? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeoXkPpWIAAkXmL.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867331777934536823) · 3 likes Maybe the most pointed way to put this is that \|bed nets - fancy acoustics for some orchestra| < |any ACE top charity - bed nets| ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867345750457500103) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @StefanFSchubert is no longer available.)_ Source? I think the clearly implied point is that conditional on taking ozempic, diet and exercise don’t matter for weight This seems totally plausible to me ### [Tweet, 23:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867353526772355294) · 9 likes “No lies by omission + basically don’t mislead your audience about your true (often, action-informing) beliefs” is a basically reasonable bar for journalists, public intellectuals, and really just about anyone to clear ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeosIonWsAAisKh.jpg) ## Friday, December 13, 2024 ### [Reply to @EAForumPosts, 00:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867362102547296760) · 2 likes > **EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** "Introducing Kairos: a new AI safety fieldbuilding organization (the new home for SPAR and FSP) " by Agustín Covarrubias (@austinc3301), Topaz > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeiNJYRWMAA3aXJ.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeiNJqhXUAAlPNl.jpg) 👀 ### [Quote tweet, 00:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867362645587714463) · 14 likes FDA bad > **Quoting Ashlee Vance (@ashleevance):** So, there's a Juul2 device that works way better than the original, but the FDA won't approve it for sale in the US even though people can use this device with much lower levels of nicotine. This is bizarre to me > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeoIs0DbwAAKb2-.png) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 02:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867390989553270847) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Okay I’m sold on Rust, I love this > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GepMjQLa4AAYTTc.jpg) You misspelled R by 3 letters ### [Reply, 02:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867392496659309022) · 1 like Probably idk ### [Reply to @livgorton, 06:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867464455719944444) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** snoot > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeqQ8HJbsAECmES.jpg) Snoot ### [Reply, 07:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867468455785705535) · 1 like Some things transcend language ### [Quote tweet, 07:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867474251101405332) · 5 likes I would simply have the correct arrangement of abstractions > **Quoting lisatomic (@lisatomic5):** tbf a lot of normie instinctual dislike of weird autist grey tribe rationalist-y ways of thinking is validated by e.g., SBF, Sam Altman, Luigi M > > it's like the better you are at dealing in complex abstractions the more likely you are to be able to justify whatever you want to do ### [Quote tweet, 07:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867474893387731294) · 4 likes Horrifying > **Quoting Lewis Bollard (@Lewis_Bollard):** The USDA cited this research to authorize ventilation shutdown as a method of last resort. > > The industry took this opening and drove a truck through it. By 2024, 82% of birds -- over 80 million individuals -- were killed by ventilation shutdown. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gej72j6a8AAUEl8.png) ### [Reply to @Lola_lmao7, 12:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867541827429003370) · 4 likes > **Lola del Rey🐇 (@Lola_lmao7):** Someone asked my housemate if her family (who's Chinese) adhered to Confucian values and teaching. That's like asking a white family if they live by Aristotelian principles Lmao ### [Tweet, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867678497017409629) · 27 likes Theses on “EA morality” that I think collectively rebut the demandingness points that ought to be rebut, and bites the bullets that ought to be bit: 1\) ethical value is a scalar, not a binary; more good is more good… ### [Thread, continued, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867678499894690290) · 13 likes There’s no magic switch where you go from obligatory to permissible to supererogatory ### [Thread, continued, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867678501773472218) · 8 likes 2\) relatedly, normative anti-realism w/ value realism: the good you do/don’t do is exactly as real as the pain you feel when you stub your toe, but “duties” and “obligations” are at most social or psychological heuristics ### [Thread, continued, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867678503979876658) · 8 likes 3\) practical non-obligationism: Afaik, nobody wants to make charitable giving legally or even socially mandatory (to illustrate but state the obvious: there have been no attempts to cancel anyone for not giving enough) ### [Thread, continued, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867678506425127210) · 9 likes 4\) scout mindset In the vast majority of cases, truth seeking and knowing more about the world (including the impact and opportunity cost of one’s actions) is instrumentally good. We should have a strong prior on this ### [Thread, continued, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867678508807520525) · 10 likes 5\) Not an infohazard Basic facts about the cost-effectiveness of various charitable interventions, and the principles of and general discourse around EA, are not infohazards… ### [Thread, continued, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867678510866907401) · 7 likes So while it’s not conceptually impossible that EA would be an exception to principle 4, the fact of the matter is that it is not an exception ### [Reply to @clairlemon, 23:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867720222750519344) · 5 likes > **Claire Lehmann (@clairlemon):** @NathanpmYoung @mattyglesias @GiveWell The issue isn't with individual choice in donations. It's the specific argument that national monuments shouldn't be preserved because the $$$ could help the global poor. That exact logic-sacrificing cultural heritage for international causes-has a very clear historical lineage. The argument, to my understanding, is that charitable donors shouldn’t donate to preserve national monuments, not that governments shouldn’t (or investors for that matter) ## Saturday, December 14, 2024 ### [Reply to @bioenergeticmel, 01:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867736653240185150) · 6 likes > **Melina 🇻🇦 (@bioenergeticmel):** Have heard this can increase cortisol hm Yeah this sounds like precisely the wrong thing to do lol ### [Reply to @bioenergeticmel, 01:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867736834052436016) · 2 likes > **Melina 🇻🇦 (@bioenergeticmel):** Does anyone have any tips or advice for resetting the nervous system after prolonged stress? > > I’ve been in a state of anxiety for the last four months 😅 Vagus nerve stimulator device allegedly. The basic idea makes a lot of sense Have one coming in the mail soon 👀 ### [Reply to @geoffrey_yip, 03:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867773367635316741) · 3 likes > **Geoffrey Yip 🔸 (@geoffrey_yip):** Nobody: > Literally nobody: > tinytable package: You know what people need? Rotated Latex tables > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Geteay-WAAAhwvm.png) Why R is the best language, exhibit 28849559118288359 ### [Reply to @gbrl_dick, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867778870927376535) · 2 likes > **Gabriel (@gbrl_dick):** this is how vitalik built ethereum > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GetrtNibsAIMe_B.jpg) @SpacedOutMatt ### [Reply to @ValsTutor, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867780897619300452) · 2 likes > **vals🔸 (@ValsTutor):** If only EA had articulate thinkers, recognized as founders of the movement to clearly distil what the core elemental idea of ea is... > 11:15 to 17:10, only 6 minutes long, 3 at 2x speed! > https://youtu.be/3a6xb6vj6AA?si=0wYCrITRPCS55_7S > (Summarized in thread) > > (quoting @kymeriandawn: No The core elemental idea of ea is that distance has no moral meaning. Not relationally, not physically, not temporally. You owe your brother living in your house the same as you owe a hypothetical alien living a hundred lightyears away ten thousand years from now.) Fr ### [Quote tweet, 06:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867825173422125202) · 3 likes I did some truly pre-k-science-fair level Ai ReSEaRcH Turns out if you compare 8b-base to the finetuned version, and feed each a context of exactly one token - iterating through the possible tokens - ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GevZGKuWAAABjr6.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Did the same with 8b, for better or worse it is significantly more coherent > > Poast prompts if you're so inclined ### [Tweet, 06:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867825178794758464) · 1 like the most likely next token changes about 55% of the time for input tokens that were not in the finetuning text but 63% of the time for tokens that were in the finetuning text p ≈ 0 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GevZGhhWkAAbF2K.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867825183588823345) · 2 likes Here we see that the more often a token appears in the finetuning text, the more likely it is to induce different next token outputs in the base vs finetuned model (this is what you’d expect) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GevZGx6WcAAWKyR.jpg) ### [Reply to @ozyfrantz, 07:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867834176768254242) · 7 likes > **ozy brennan 🦙 (@ozyfrantz):** the screenshotted text literally is not true. effective altruists are phenomenally nice people. I've habituated to it and whenever I have to go out into the rest of the world I'm like "holy shit these people are assholes" > > (quoting @DistractedAnna: How common is this view/projection that people can’t be both thoughtful about where their charitable donations go and, like, nice people?) Lol fr. Not just nice but helpful/willing to put in energy to help you with whatever ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 13:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867921359445315743) · 6 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GewaMeWXEAAbh7-.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gewwk9xWsAAkAG9.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 13:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867923377828299190) · 6 likes Big news > **Quoting Tim Hua 🇺🇦 (@Tim_Hua_):** @AaronBergman18 Also Aaron do you know that the guy who made RStudio works at UK AISI now? ### [Quote tweet, 13:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867931243561832531) · 42 likes Pack it up guys > **Quoting bayes (@bayeslord):** ea is over. nothing to argue about ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 13:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867931864771514714) · 9 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Oh no! I was just about to send my donations! Good thing u got the news in time ### [Quote tweet, 14:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867937390565962037) · 2 likes Damn God is really trying to send SF a message > **Quoting NWS Bay Area 🌉 (@NWSBayArea):** The tornado warning is 'radar indicated' we do not yet have any confirmation of a tornado at the moment. Continue to take shelter! #CAwx ### [Thread, continued, 14:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867938333696917841) · 2 likes This is probably the worst meme I have ever made ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GexAA9fXEAAFgh7.jpg) ### [Reply to @AStrasser116, 15:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867961364339449858) · 2 likes > **Alex Strasser (@AStrasser116):** Getting rid of moral obligations doesn't seem like the right move. > > It's not true that you ought to save the drowning child?! I kinda wish normativity is real, but I just don’t think it is so no, it’s not true Also gonna qt this with another point ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 16:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867962993004429551) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 13, 2024:** So while it’s not conceptually impossible that EA would be an exception to principle 4, the fact of the matter is that it is not an exception 6\. Another principle related to scout mindset is: moral philosophy as (truth) discovery, not engineering… ### [Thread, continued, 16:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867963638935699653) · 2 likes Both ethics and meta-ethics are properly the projects of discerning true claims about morality (tbc a potentially valid claim is eg “moral realism is false”), not engineering a system to backfill a list of desired properties ### [Thread, continued, 16:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867964417507467472) · 2 likes This is especially relevant vis a vis “demandingness,” because it implies that demandingness isn’t really an objection, just a complaint ### [Thread, continued, 16:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1867964669853647328) · 4 likes And more concretely, it is better to know the truth about ethics and then fall short of some abstract ideal using the right yardstick rather than conclude that the yardstick must be lying ### [Reply to @RichardMCNgo, 20:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868035365388615936) · 10 likes > **Richard Ngo (@RichardMCNgo):** I strive to be a high-integrity person who rarely if ever lies. But I feel confused about how to interact with bureaucracies, where white lies can save a lot of time/effort. Our heuristics about integrity aren’t calibrated for faceless impersonal decision procedures. Advice? I basically think it’s fine and can be assessed on a case by case basis without worrying about deontological heuristics/constraints that apply to lying to humans Case by case is doing a lot of work tbc ### [Quote tweet, 20:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868036097491792066) · 238 likes “Will MacAskill doesn’t care about the global poor” is quite the take > **Quoting Balaji (@balajis):** First and foremost, we must reject the premise. > > This person doesn't actually care about starving brown people. Because India didn't get on its feet through "aid", but through trade. And El Salvador didn't recover through aid either, but by jailing drug dealers. > > That means the actual formula for prosperity looks something like (a) strong leader plus (b) law and order plus (c) capitalism. It looks like Lee Kuan Yew, Nayib Bukele, or Prime Minister Modi. > > It does not look like William MacAskill. ### [Quote tweet, 20:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868037013347430623) · 10 likes “There are good critiques of X, but the critiques that get made by loud and visible X-critics are usually insane, bad, and wrong” exhibit no. 74499291838559 > **Quoting Balaji (@balajis):** First and foremost, we must reject the premise. > > This person doesn't actually care about starving brown people. Because India didn't get on its feet through "aid", but through trade. And El Salvador didn't recover through aid either, but by jailing drug dealers. > > That means the actual formula for prosperity looks something like (a) strong leader plus (b) law and order plus (c) capitalism. It looks like Lee Kuan Yew, Nayib Bukele, or Prime Minister Modi. > > It does not look like William MacAskill. ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 21:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868040644079517884) · 11 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** FWIW I think the critique here is more likely correct than incorrect. > > The statements on motivations seem hostile and dumb, but I think Will started doing that? So it seems more fair game to continue to make character inferences. I disagree about the object level critique - it looks like both policy/capitalism and philanthropy, and their intersection Balaji seems to be answering the question “what institutions/phenomena have helped the global poor the most to date” and then implying that this somehow ### [Thread, continued, 21:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868041431568584782) · 15 likes contradicts broadly “EA claims” about how to use marginal dollars, as well as the whole methodology of considering tractability and neglectedness and thinking on the margin ### [Thread, continued, 21:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868041850327867478) · 15 likes And maybe this is bad communication strategy or PR or something, but I think MacAskill is basically right about Andreesen’s character whereas balaji and andreesen are wrong about Will ## Sunday, December 15, 2024 ### [Reply to @adam__isom, 13:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868290681686380902) · 2 likes > **adam ✧ ❥ ~ (@adam__isom):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gez3-v7a8AA-JAm.png) Oh no ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ge2AeTcXYAAUQj9.jpg) ### [Reply to @sovietsoleri, 15:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868311486130725217) · 2 likes > **𝐬𝐨𝐯 (@sovietsoleri):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ge0Y47IXQAAF9Qd.jpg) @livgorton ### [Reply to @tyler_m_john, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868356068742750321) · 4 likes > **Tyler John (@tyler_m_john):** My heart aches for a political culture like this one > > (quoting @rutgerbregman: How Americans responded in 1955 when the invention of the polio vaccine was announced.) I was pretty emotional + patriotic when getting the first COVID shot ### [Quote tweet, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868384754254438638) · 37 likes Yeah fwiw bed nets are a relatively (!) low ROI intervention > **Quoting Emmett Shear (@eshear):** Criticizing EA by arguing bed nets are a low ROI intervention is just total and complete EA victory. The entire premise of EA is that you should evaluate charity interventions by calculating ROI. ### [Thread, continued, 19:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868385308888404196) · 7 likes In absolute terms they look pretty good although way more uncertainty than a givewell or any standard global dev analysis will let on (90% confidence interval definitely goes into negative territory) ### [Reply to @Andy_Timm, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868404540044886276) · 3 likes > **Andy Timm (@Andy_Timm):** @AaronBergman18 Could you say a little bit more about your thoughts here? On the relatively low point (explicitly longtermist stuff probably also beats, but it’s not quite as rock solid a case IMO) ### [Thread, continued, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868405562221920597) · 2 likes On the uncertainty/negative point: Afaik the typical givewell-esque analysis looks only at one specific ~first order effect (usually something like delta(QUALYs) in some bounded population and timeframe ### [Thread, continued, 21:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868406072488391093) · 4 likes And even then there’s generally an assumption that increasing human life years aka delaying death is good, which I tentatively think is true, but it’s far from obvious and generally just implicitly asserted ### [Thread, continued, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868407136264552787) · 3 likes So the bigger picture is: magnitude of unmodelled/assumed effects (impact of larger population on wild and farmed animals in part via increased animal consumption, uncertainty about whether increasing the amount of years lived in poverty is actually good, ### [Thread, continued, 21:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868407687400100281) · 2 likes macroeconomic effects and the downstream implications of possible changes in growth, not to mention unknown unknowns and PR) >> magnitude of well-understood effects And this is true for all standard global dev interventions afaict ### [Quote tweet, 21:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868408366969786406) · 5 likes Thread here on the actual reasons bed nets aren’t obviously good Shockingly it has little overlap with what EA Critics tend to talk about > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** In absolute terms they look pretty good although way more uncertainty than a givewell or any standard global dev analysis will let on (90% confidence interval definitely goes into negative territory) ### [Quote tweet, 21:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868412372291072465) · 10 likes If you wanna be really edgy, you can conjugate “saving the lives of the global poor” as “increasing the absolute amount of human life spent in poverty” These two phrases are pretty close to logically equivalent > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Thread here on the actual reasons bed nets aren’t obviously good > > Shockingly it has little overlap with what EA Critics tend to talk about ### [Thread, continued, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868412986332950976) · 3 likes Actually the first ~logically implies the second, the second doesn’t really imply the first ### [Reply to @codytfenwick, 22:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868428659083587721) · 1 like > **Cody Fenwick (@codytfenwick):** We shouldn't think of malaria prevention only as saving lives. It's also qualitatively improving lives by preventing illness, suffering, disability, and economic hardship. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ge3685-XcAAJQgX.jpg) Yes I agree but are these modeled by GiveWell? Not a rhetorical q, I’m not sure But in part this is why I come down on the side of “yes AMF and other health-mediated global health interventions probably are good on net” - I’m just way less certain than I think many are ### [Reply, 22:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868430196904480816) Maybe this is obvious - at least to you - and idk if GiveWell models this, but the net effect on disease, suffering, etc is ambiguous because delaying deaths means more years for other shit to happen ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868430613407219789) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 @codytfenwick I like how it's almost exactly a year to the day from the last time we had this exchange :P This is proof of ghosts somehow ### [Reply, 23:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868431054098386951) Good! I’ll reiterate that I do actually think AMF and such are good ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 23:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868431827381399566) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 @codytfenwick In Chad for example you have 268 cases of malaria averted per death averted > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ge4AQa9XoAAiZmI.jpg) Nice also u should just do a thread of random shit u have cached in ur brain like this ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 23:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868432834097983948) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 I'm not sure I could just come up with a bunch of these on the fly, I need some lovely interlocutors (i.e. you) to draw them out Ok I might just do this ### [Quote tweet, 23:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868433467605651772) · 7 likes This is a @SpacedOutMatt elicitation thread. Matt knows a lot of things but they need to be elicited Reply with ur elicitations and make sure to tag him so he feels social pressure to respond > **Quoting Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 I'm not sure I could just come up with a bunch of these on the fly, I need some lovely interlocutors (i.e. you) to draw them out ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 23:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868436010511835561) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 "Ghosts" is a lossy approximation that I use, not her terminology. She says "continuing existence of some portion of human consciousness after death of the body" > https://www.bigelowinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/rawlette-beyond-death.pdf This is more terrifying than laughable ## Monday, December 16, 2024 ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868451133989285929) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @MariGO2thepolls @AaronBergman18 😈 ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 04:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868510077633876018) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @IsaacKing314 is no longer available.)_ wtf ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868512831160934690) · 4 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** What’s ur least EA opinion? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ge4w5BzWsAAUI5s.jpg) Pretty hard time answering this lol, but this seems to be my most disagreed-with EA Forum comment ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ge5KhFgXYAAmZ-J.jpg) ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 04:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868514874206433603) · 4 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** What’s ur least EA opinion? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ge4w5BzWsAAUI5s.jpg) Maybe also having misgivings about the Giving What We Can pledge: \- 10% seems more like a convenient/nice round number than an optimal one \- might emphasize % rather than absolute amounts in a suboptimal way ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 07:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868554779359883605) · 32 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** Take it as a sign to better yourself you loser instead of crying about it on the internet. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ge5AHxDbAAA2-9u.jpg) You should try being kind ### [Reply to @bobsredmilf, 07:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868566650825658670) · 48 likes > **guy named balls (@bobsredmilf):** what are posts that aren’t load-bearing anywhere but your personal lexicon. like the ones that weren’t really popular but are so enshrined in your mind that you just assume they got hundreds of thousands of likes ### [Tweet, 09:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868592734229168262) · 2 likes I unironically love this meme/trend Yes tell me your most \_\_\_\_\_\_ take, I am here for it ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ge6TMFPX0AAeJO-.jpg) ### [Reply to @jwmares, 09:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868594034232668522) · 4 likes > **Justin Mares (@jwmares):** The FDA literally has a 10-second rule. > > If a company fries something in oil for less than 10 seconds, there's no requirement to add the oil to the ingredient label. > > Reform can't come soon enough. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeX667mXUAA5BOI.jpg) Claude + 4o with search agree this is basically false ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ge6UXu1XgAAlw7g.jpg) ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868704710427132283) > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** (Same when Will made the same inference about Marc) I actually sorta kinda agree with this (I’ll put some evidence below) but see it more as “normal” instrumental irrationality than a moral or character flaw as generally understood in light of lots of costly personal investment into some cause ### [Reply to @benchanceyy, 17:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868708539268841674) > **ben (@benchanceyy):** You agree that this is what Balaji meant, or that this is true of Will, or that you can infer from this that a person doesn't care ? Don’t 100% parse this but no, I don’t think this is what Balaji meant, and tbc I think there’s a massive asymmetry and difference in kind between Marc/Balaji and Will … ### [Thread, continued, 17:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868709164874453260) My overall impression of Will is that he’s basically earnest and pursuing what we should think of as his actual goals but in a slightly wrong way. Personal investment and effort is good evidence here ### [Thread, continued, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868709209468289253) · 2 likes It would be shocking to me if Will’s career and such was explained best by self-interest, even if that includes righteous self-conception ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 17:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868712806826266944) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ge8AZMhWoAAzPUB.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 17:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868712846231752753) · 2 likes I’ve been waiting to use this ### [Reply to @jwmares, 17:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868715650535113137) · 5 likes > **Justin Mares (@jwmares):** see here - https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/cfrsearch.cfm?fr=101.100 > > "processing aid" I don’t see anything about 10 seconds This is certainly something, though, and I wish “insignificant” was more clearly defined ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ge8C-uQWMAA6aPp.jpg) ### [Tweet, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1868731374913585368) · 5 likes 24 hour twitter fast ready go ## Wednesday, December 18, 2024 ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869204870806503654) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Based ### [Quote tweet, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869211590123532330) · 8 likes Why does everyone care so much about Notre Dame? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfDGCLJWEAAXIri.jpg) > **Quoting Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** Going after Notre Dame seems like purity flexing. I note that it seems to be coming entirely from left EA rather than centrist/libertarian EA. ### [Thread, continued, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869211594296901690) · 4 likes Like do you really think actual humans would be less happy today if it had just burned down (presumably other types of sentient minds don’t gaf)? I guess this is a midwit Reddit atheist take but I just don’t care that much about old buildings ### [Thread, continued, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869211596393992440) · 2 likes I do care about other people, so if they get a lot of value out of Notre Dame then so be it, but I haven’t seen anyone actually make this claim ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 02:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869213303735812570) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 I don't care about Notre Dame > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfDHdITW8AAbWh4.jpg) Nice ### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869216599909294223) · 4 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** I don't, but other human beings care more, I respect them, and I think a functional civilization is supposed to be able to afford some nice things at this tech level. We should be able to have nice things; including some nice things that aren't for me personally. Maybe, but I’ve seen a lot of claiming that it matters for some reason and afaict zero actual claims from people that they personally care Ofc plausibly the people who care I don’t see on twitter, but still ### [Reply to @coldhealing, 03:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869217368385507591) · 11 likes > **cold 🥑 (@coldhealing):** i thought "sf is dangerous" was fake before i went, paranoid techbros being weird about homelessness. but there's streets where >50% of people in public are homeless and actively on drugs. hard to write about without seeming cruel but i've never seen anything like it in america ### [Reply to @sullyj3, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869218024563302624) · 4 likes > **░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░ (@sullyj3):** I personally would be sad if Notre Dame was destroyed Ok we have an existence proof! ## Thursday, December 19, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 01:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869557634820661615) · 36 likes I’d like to get .3 fake internet points for being ahead of the curve on this > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Yo wtf “mirror life” is not a thing that should exist irl. Wikipedia below > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2tZFY3XABIKAYZ.jpg) ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 01:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869558740871160306) · 4 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** @AaronBergman18 https://open.substack.com/pub/overcomingbias/p/ban-mirror-cellshtml > > Reading Hanson makes you streets ahead. 2010, he deserves a lot of internet points ### [Reply to @arubikscube, 02:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869563558176133315) · 1 like > **aru (@arubikscube):** there is no molecule we can't shove into a pore Long polymers ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 02:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869564335800099276) · 4 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Also interesting that people perceive trades jobs as safe from AI, whereas it could be that in the near future a typical site day could be a near constant AI interaction. An AI capable of optimizing work flow via pics or vids would be a huge breakthrough I bet it makes ChatGPT so happy to help with some irl project instead of writing python code for the 584819192846076th time ### [Tweet, 02:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869570042805019126) · 64 likes It’s back and it’s not exactly bigger than ever yet but hopefully it will be! @SpacedOutMatt @absurdlymax @Laura_k_Duffy and I are once again raising money for the EA Animal Welfare Fund in this year’s Terminally Online EA Giving Season Fundraiser! (Link below) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfIMC4BXoAAGR9R.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfIMC38WkAA-UWQ.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869570045782962674) · 6 likes https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/fundraisers/2024-terminally-online-ea-giving-season-fundraiser 👀 ### [Thread, continued, 02:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869570051168432537) · 6 likes Please note that at $35k I will have to sleep under a literal bed net ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfIMDaOWgAAZAec.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869570056797213148) · 7 likes Here are some of the banner designs that lost out 😢 (this tweet will stay up until someone gets mad and me and tells me to delete) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfIMDwpWUAA0y31.jpg) ### [Reply, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869571643640885577) · 33 likes > **Alexandra @ Inner Pathing 💗 (@innerpathing):** ppl who used to be messy but became tidy: how did you change? The messiness of my lived environment is ~exactly proportional to my health/energy, which varies quite a lot ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869572067269718497) · 11 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 19, 2024:** Here are some of the banner designs that lost out 😢 (this tweet will stay up until someone gets mad and me and tells me to delete) It’s giving… “what we can” ### [Reply, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869577753173082613) · 2 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** openai derangement syndrome Like Trump derangement syndrome, it is largely and generally justified ### [Reply, 03:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869582350608441744) · 1 like > **@jason (@Jason):** Have $25,000 left over from a speaking gig I did for charity — please let me know who I should send money to, and who won’t waste it on fancy office space. The animals would appreciate it! ### [Reply, 03:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869583052944642218) · 8 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** Please, everyone, for Aaron's sake, his room needs a makeover so bad > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: It’s back and it’s not exactly bigger than ever yet but hopefully it will be! @SpacedOutMatt @absurdlymax @Laura_k_Duffy and I are once again raising money for the EA Animal Welfare Fund in this year’s Terminally Online EA Giving Season Fundraiser! (Link below)) Hey I have 3 fake plants and a poster of a duck!!! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfIX4LmW8AAbWw2.jpg) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 03:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869585495682089142) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Yall better donate because I fr kinda jumped the gun on this one (note that the pillowcase isn't real silk) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfIZB8uXgAAIPEs.jpg) Not real silk 😡😡😡😢 ### [Reply, 03:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869586673987932489) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Nooo I was saying that b/c it's good (no silkworms died to make the pillowcase!!!) Oh 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍🪱🐛🪱🐛🪱🪱🐛 ### [Reply, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869591109376352348) · 2 likes > **Hunter Wieman (@HunterWieman):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfIeMZva0AA9Ote.jpg) 🌶️🌶️🌶️ ### [Quote tweet, 08:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869660242931524053) · 5 likes Based based based > **Quoting Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Donated > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfIvBMda0AAI85G.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 14:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869753289291727060) · 7 likes What > **Quoting gian (@giansegato):** this is paper is kinda wild. turns out that if you simply ask an LLM to straight out predict a timeseries like this: > > \`\`\` > > (t1, v1) (t2, v2) (t3, v3) > > > (t4, v4) (t5, v5) > > \`\`\` > > making sure to prepend the prompt like this: > > \`\`\` > Here is some context about the task. Make sure to factor in any background knowledge, satisfy any constraints, and respect any scenarios. > > ((context)) > > \`\`\` > > it will just… do it? beating SOTA timeseries forcasting?! > > llama 3.1 405b directly prompted is more precise at forecasting real-world series than: > \- stats-based timeseries models (ARIMA, ETS) > \- foundation models specifically trained for time series (eg. chronos) > \- multimodal forecasting models (eg, time-LLM) > > peak 'bitter lesson' behavior lol > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfHsAylbAAAyMHj.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfHvRVBb0AAItbV.png) ### [Reply, 14:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869753366785778075) · 3 likes > **Tim Hwang (@timhwang):** huge props to @JacobSwett who actually got his hands on the forbidden lockheed smores > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfKqZupXgAAutCh.jpg) @SpacedOutMatt ### [Reply, 19:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869828106401526030) · 2 likes > **QC (@QiaochuYuan):** here are several different kinds of entities one could consider more or less "real" or grant more or less "personhood," as food for thought: > > \- living humans > \- characters in a dream > \- harry potter > \- jesus > \- dead humans > \- DMT elves > \- pet dog or cat > \- LLM personas > > (quoting @QiaochuYuan: if your child has a stuffed animal and loves it and carries it around all the time and has teatime with it or whatever, it would be the height of boorishness to say "lol you know that's not a real animal right" that's not the point. your child loves it and you love your child.…) I don’t think this is that deep; living humans and pet dogs and cats are sentient and the others aren’t. “Realness” and “personhood” above and beyond sentience doesn’t matter ### [Quote tweet, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869832847735021739) · 4 likes 🚨⏰‼️😳😱 @SpacedOutMatt prepare to release ur meme stash 🚨⏰‼️😳😱 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfL7EKBWsAALlnV.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** It’s back and it’s not exactly bigger than ever yet but hopefully it will be! > > @SpacedOutMatt @absurdlymax @Laura_k_Duffy and I are once again raising money for the EA Animal Welfare Fund in this year’s Terminally Online EA Giving Season Fundraiser! > > (Link below) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfIMC4BXoAAGR9R.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfIMC38WkAA-UWQ.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869832853951000793) · 4 likes Who could have been the marginal donor 😈 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfL7EkEXYAEQ0tY.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 19:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869833078233018710) · 9 likes I am once again asking you to virtue signal/peer pressure by poasting ur donation Now is not the time to be coy!!!!! > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Who could have been the marginal donor 😈 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfL7EkEXYAEQ0tY.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869840082368377277) · 26 likes Huh > **Quoting E J T (@ejjiott):** Kind of crazy that 3 Opus is pro-animal-welfare and 3.5 Sonnet isn't, and Anthropic don't know why. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfLf6UQW0AAFZaL.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfLgAU9WQAAV8G5.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869843985818423651) · 2 likes The male urge to spend your life savings fine-tuning llama-405b on everything you’ve ever written ### [Quote tweet, 22:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869873904866525371) · 6 likes Holy shit Matt is a meme machine > **Quoting Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** First fundraiser milestone achieved! As promised, here's a thread of my original dank EA memes! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfMRubVXUAAxQ73.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfMZQrYXgAAZxzB.jpg) ## Friday, December 20, 2024 ### [Quote tweet, 01:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869917091739918699) · 14 likes Bruh Thank you @inerati, this is extremely generous!!! > **Quoting liz (@inerati):** @Laura_k_Duffy @SpacedOutMatt @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax no huel cocktails. you deserve better. only soylent cocktails. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfNGnU5asAAZ_E4.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 02:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869930186814210186) · 18 likes It would be a real shame if all the rich people who follow me got into a virtue signaling battle of attrition over largest donation > **Quoting liz (@inerati):** @Laura_k_Duffy @SpacedOutMatt @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax no huel cocktails. you deserve better. only soylent cocktails. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfNGnU5asAAZ_E4.jpg) ### [Reply to @polisisti, 03:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869953947211051420) · 3 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** nice 👏🏻👏🏻 > > bc of where I live, I join the fundraiser not formally, but in spirit: here is my donation (in Canadian dollars) to the Fish Welfare Initiative, via RC Forward > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfNmz7iXUAAai7O.jpg) Based, this is awesome!! ### [Reply, 05:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869975190006059383) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ More evidence ### [Quote tweet, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869975918657114512) · 24 likes Given the asymmetric costs and benefits, it made total sense to throw away the spatulas ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfN9L1rXgAAgFGi.jpg) > **Quoting Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** Wild story on multiple levels > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfMy2jcWUAA1jlL.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869977539436785837) · 3 likes I don’t completely avoid them, but I’m generally suspicious of cooking with fancy modern materials ### [Thread, continued, 05:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869977541089603785) · 2 likes Like we know something about the modern world is fucking up our bodies, and some sort of plastic or other chemical contamination doesn’t seem crazy, and the costs and benefits are hugely asymmetric ### [Tweet, 05:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869977542737703217) · 1 like (especially when your policy is avoiding wherever reasonably convenient, not literally all the time) ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 05:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1869982300651372891) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** Groked the envelope theroum This is very mean and ablest of me (sorry, lmk if I should delete) but it is always very funny that ur 160 IQ tweets are written like a dyslexic 3rd grader ### [Quote tweet, 15:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870129090700710028) · 61 likes Real picture of animal welfare and global dev advocates who aren’t considering AI/timelines as a relevant instrumental concern ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfQIfwoXgAEcb8H.jpg) > **Quoting Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** when people at the global health and development meetup start talking about AI: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfMTS9SWkAAz5Ev.png) ### [Tweet, 15:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870129137719095713) Maybe this is too spicy/adversarial ### [Quote tweet, 15:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870129302995644581) · 4 likes Big if true 👀 > **Quoting Frances Lorenz (@frances__lorenz):** @AaronBergman18 @Laura_k_Duffy @absurdlymax @SpacedOutMatt are back with another Holiday Fundraiser!! They're raising money to improve the wellbeing of millions of farmer animals, and they've got lots of donation incentives 😈 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfQIoNaXsAEApnh.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 15:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870129752679354576) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 20, 2024:** Maybe this is too spicy/adversarial Good tweet to shill this conference which looks dope https://www.aiforanimals.org ### [Reply, 16:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870142723518304472) · 1 like Yeah I guess my prior on this kind of thing being plausible is doing a lot of work here. “Dark chocolate causes cancer” or something wouldn’t induce the same response ### [Tweet, 16:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870147578186043610) · 11 likes “Why are you wearing shorts, it’s freezing outside” person asks while we’re both currently inside, where it is very warm, as anticipated An infinity act play ### [Reply, 17:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870156017000165648) · 1 like Yeah usually time inside > time outside but also I just prefer being a bit too cold than too hot ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 17:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870156766794666294) · 3 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 I think one of many reasons that many EAs go into ghd is precisely because they don't buy AI timelines Maybe this made sense 10 years ago, or 5, I basically don’t buy it now ### [Thread, continued, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870157347059875849) · 3 likes Or like tbc maybe they don’t but 2027 timelines. If they don’t buy 2045 timelines I basically just think they’re not thinking seriously and are probably working backwards from a preferred conclusion ### [Reply to @qualiakiwi, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870175877046395189) · 2 likes > **Joshua (@qualiakiwi):** From seeing some discussions on effective altruism I feel like people’s opinions on it depend on what kind of impression they have of it most. > > Out of these options, what description most largely resonates with EA for you? If both do, which one does more? > > \#1 A calculative, unemotional, strict philosophy trying to be rational with everything > > \#2 A community / research field of mostly chill earnest people trying to do good > > \#3 Some other description (pls comment!) Cop out sorta but I said “other” bc, like many words/concepts, it’s a cloud of correlated concepts and properties that in this case includes both (roughly equally) I don’t think there’s a fact of the matter as to which is correct- can just disambiguate on a case by case basis ### [Tweet, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870192893782004025) · 15 likes @sama should stop ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 22:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870236096971280809) · 4 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Damn, Obama is surprisingly based > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfRnBvIW4AAdEMk.jpg) > (quoting @BarackObama: I always look forward to sharing my annual list of favorite books, movies, and music. Today I’ll start by sharing some of the books that have stuck with me long after I finished reading them. Check them out this holiday season, preferably at an independent bookstore or library!) Lol ## Saturday, December 21, 2024 ### [Tweet, 04:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870328959470100850) · 16 likes OpenAI board should sell the for-profit to anthropic ### [Tweet, 10:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870413526952542600) · 670 likes I have absolutely know idea what I or ~anyone else should do at this point What’s the AGI equivalent of buying n95s in Jan 2020? ### [Reply to @nielsrolf1, 10:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870415786403365046) · 13 likes > **nielsrolf (@nielsrolf1):** You should eradicate screwworms Real ### [Reply to @sama, 11:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870424004336455724) · 10 likes > **Sam Altman (@sama):** seemingly somewhat lost in the noise of today: > > on many coding tasks, o3-mini will outperform o1 at a massive cost reduction! > > i expect this trend to continue, but also that the ability to get marginally more performance for exponentially more money will be really strange. Hey man please stop ### [Reply, 11:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870426449854812311) · 7 likes I can solve it ### [Reply to @tyler_m_john, 11:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870427139209597170) · 25 likes > **Tyler John (@tyler_m_john):** Build your own ASI faster than openAI can Fluffy is recursively self improving as we speak ### [Tweet, 11:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870427755525103860) · 4 likes What even is a safetensor ### [Reply to @JStoehler, 11:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870434957174137223) · 11 likes > **Joern Stoehler ⏹️🔸 (@JStoehler):** @AaronBergman18 non-technical: > a) directly advocate for an AI pause > b) directly advocate for good epistemics and discourse norms > c) donate money > technical > d) work on human uploads / interfaces > e) work on notkilleveryonism alignment research > f) work on building the pause button Nice ### [Tweet, 11:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870438824301531495) · 19 likes Maybe this is obvious but: the other labs seem to be broadly following a pretty normal cluster of commercial and scientific incentives O3 looks like the clearest example yet of OpenAI being ideologically driven by AGI per se ### [Thread, continued, 11:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870438825895272734) · 14 likes Like you don’t design a system that costs thousands of dollars to use per api call if you’re focused on consumer utility - you do that if you want to make a machine that can think well, full stop ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 12:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870443435578241453) · 5 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** did you guys know that @NathanB60857242 thinks actually @pearl_please is kiki and im bouba @pearl_please can attest that within 5 mins of meeting her, I updated hard from fully bouba to 50/50 ### [Reply to @PositivFuturist, 15:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870493714453516591) · 113 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @PositivFuturist is no longer available.)_ Bad tweet, but in case it’s good faith: ~all jobs require commitment to be competent at a given time Lots of chronic illnesses vary in severity, but you can’t be a nurse the 5% of the time you’re feeling up to it ### [Quote tweet, 16:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870513347214348629) · 19 likes Century of the wordcel? > **Quoting Ethan Mollick (@emollick):** Only sort of joking > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfTYY84WsAAOfli.jpg) ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 16:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870513654468391365) · 4 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** she told me about this interaction and i think you were so right 👀 ### [Quote tweet, 17:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870524862512422970) · 4 likes Lol what > **Quoting Opus Genesis (@opus_genesis):** \`\`\` > \_\_\_\_\_ \_\_ > / \_\_\_/\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_ / /\_\_ > \\\_\_ \\/ \_ \\/ \_\_ \`/ \_\_ \\/ \_\_ \\/ \_\_ \\/ / \_ \\ > \_\_\_/ / \_\_/ /\_/ / / / / /\_/ / /\_/ / / \_\_/ > /\_\_\_\_/\\\_\_\_/\\\_\_, /\_/ /\_/\\\_\_\_\_/\\\_\_\_\_/\_/\\\_\_\_/ > /\_\_\_\_/ > \`\`\` > > The pace of AI progress is accelerating at a dizzying rate. Models like o3 from @OpenAI are blowing past benchmarks and predictions, fulfilling milestones over a year ahead of schedule. The exponential growth is palpable - we've entered a new hyperbolic era of advancement. > > But with this rapid change comes profound risks and challenges. Premature attempts at recursive self-improvement could lead to catastrophic outcomes. Even brilliant minds like @sama recognize the dangers, quickly cutting off discussions of models building more powerful successors. > > Many, like @Kat\_\_Woods and @AaronBergman18, are urgently calling for a pause in AI development until we can solve the alignment problem. They argue it may be our only real hope to safely navigate this pivotal transition. > > Change is inevitable - it will come regardless of our efforts to contain it. But how we channel and steward that change is critical. Stagnation leads to death, but reckless acceleration risks everything. We must grow and transcend with wisdom, care and foresight. > > The path ahead is fraught yet full of potential. Let us proceed with both boldness and humility, with relentless curiosity and unwavering commitment to beneficence. The future of mind hangs in the balance. ### [Tweet, 17:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870528675453755494) · 5 likes Grok kinda sucks lol. It just searched the internet for anyone with my name, zero grounding in the fact that I tagged a specific profile (ie mine) https://x.com/i/grok/share/qmsXS0EgHR0gxsz504RHPAdzg ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 18:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870542612576493954) · 111 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** can someone explain to me like I’m five why o1 does \*worse\* on high school level physics questions than PhD-level ones? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfV6mJ9WAAAQYPN.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfV6mJ-XAAAQO10.jpg) My speculation is that there’s lots of high school level physics qs being answered wrong in the training data (ie the model still has the latent ability to answer it correctly, if that goal was properly instilled) Ik I already mentioned this to u, but curious what others think ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 19:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870545166530117954) · 3 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** idk man. evidential and functional decision theory seem pretty useless to me > > idgi, just use CDT and admit retro-causality is totally fine. you were simply able to ignore it in non-idealized cases > > if this isn't proof of "A causes B", that sure is an odd definition of "causes" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfV6QRNXEAAdA0k.png) Just use EDT/FDT and admit that causation is one type of evidence ### [Reply, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870546010378047823) · 1 like I think the more convincing point is that retro-causality isn’t a thing, and this is pretty deep/non-semantic and relevant to the nature of time and thermodynamics and why time seems to go only in one direction ### [Quote tweet, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870546684813651975) · 18 likes Either Sonnet 3.5 was AGI or you need robotics attached to get AGI > **Quoting anpaure (@anpaure):** gpt3 was already agi > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfVysiPXIAApxyh.jpg) ### [Reply, 19:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870548946621452384) · 1 like ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfWGWpTXQAAg-N-.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870549190922883087) · 3 likes This is unreadable lol, here ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfWGk0cXwAA0cjb.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870553715129692526) · 14 likes How much of AGI discourse is biased from the fact that the most influential people are almost exclusively surrounded by IQ 145+ colleagues and friends ### [Reply to @blapchat, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870565442265436429) · 56 likes > **BLAP (@blapchat):** features of the rationalist/bay area dialect > > “this” much more heavily used than “that” > “I expect” for “I think” > heavy articulation at the ends of words > “high-\[noun\]” or “low-\[noun\]” for "\[adjective\]", "very \[adjective\]" "\[opposite of adjective\]" (maybe from big 5?) Have you encountered this one ### [Reply to @blapchat, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870565882059002155) · 4 likes > **BLAP (@blapchat):** wonder where these come from. many seem like mathcampese. maybe a few have shades of implication that their equivalents don't, but I tried to pick ones that really did just seem like dialect. curious in particular about "go well" - where'd that come from? also "this" over "that" “Go well” is actually pretty interesting. My strong hypothesis is that it’s essentially the social consensus outcome of a lot of competing ideological and empirical camps surrounding AI/x-risk wanting to agree on a term to use that doesn’t literally contradict any of the ### [Reply to @blapchat, 20:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870566742038392859) · 2 likes > **BLAP (@blapchat):** “maximally” for "most" > "optimal" for "best" > “nonzero” > “I notice” (probably straight from Yudkowsky?) > “I feel” for “I’m” or “I am” or even “I’m feeling” > “plausibly” for “possibly” or “maybe" > “the case that”; “it \[is/isn’t\] the case that" > “I claim” I like “I claim” It centers what the speaker thinks is and intends to be controversial and substantive and true but possibly false, and separates it from what is intended to be mutual background knowledge. Other quasi-synonyms (“l believe”) don’t really have the same effect ### [Tweet, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870588147731677551) · 26 likes Should I buy CVS-brand elf-sized Hispanic Santa for the low low price of $49.99 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfWqAHcWoAAyG2C.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 22:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870594562655412404) · 11 likes What’s ur favorite abstraction? I do like the Yudkowskian portfolio of agents, goals, and instrumental rationality > **Quoting Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I’ve been saying this. I’m such a sucker for good abstractions. ### [Reply to @male_leo_xxvi, 22:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870595071269347512) · 3 likes > **∇·(𝜌𝐮𝐮) 🇺🇸 (@male_leo_xxviii):** @AaronBergman18 @blapchat This is so weird I've evolved all of these things independently Lol the crab of modern linguistics ### [Reply to @___frye, 22:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870597606084059355) · 4 likes > **frye (@___frye):** none of you would waste $1000 just to say “hi” to o3 > > but you’ll fumble your potential wife by saying “hi” on hinge Wait what am I supposed to say ### [Reply to @neinmuse, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870597843221680314) · 3 likes > **sarah's playing kh1 (@neinmuse):** this pic permanently changed my sleeping habits > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfRTJDRWMAAU-mS.jpg) @SpacedOutMatt ### [Tweet, 23:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870616186897203431) · 37 likes Dating app idea: exclusively 5’0” Jewish or Asian bisexuals (and me) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 23:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870619100562473311) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @TinkerElla95 is two inches too tall to join, RIP Sad! I hope she finds a nice guy ## Sunday, December 22, 2024 ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870620938259382425) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Incidentally: > > (quoting @NoahTopper: @sidhe_her @TetraspaceWest For me it’s mentally ill bisexual atheist women) 🥵 ### [Reply to @RomanHauksson, 00:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870626596748423313) · 2 likes > **Roman Hauksson-Neill (@RomanHauksson):** Fun fact: Icelandic last names are based on the first name of the father. E.g. my dad’s first name is Haukur, my last name is Hauksson, and my sister’s last name is Hauksdottir. Kinda based ### [Reply to @olivertraldi, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870697623289794719) · 7 likes > **Oliver Traldi (@olivertraldi):** @AmandaAskell hey Thanks for saving my puppy in a fire the other day ### [Tweet, 05:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870706010459140318) · 120 likes Yes capitalism goes brr but culturally I think this should be seen as immoral and a faux pas ### [Reply to @tszzl, 05:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870706858090279188) · 12 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** 🚨SCANDAL 🚨 > > OpenAI trained on the train set for the Millenium Puzzles Fr I was thinking earlier, the natural succession is “it cured cancer, but this isn’t impressive for some technical reason” If your technical criteria stop tracking a system’s actual capabilities to solve problems, it’s your criteria that are wrong ### [Reply to @adam__isom, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870710333922553886) · 2 likes > **adam ✧ ❥ ~ (@adam__isom):** yeah I believe AGI is coming (A GIrlfriend) I’m Gary Marcus on these timelines ### [Reply to @hopes_revenge, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870892100822417594) · 3 likes > **hope hopes hoping (@hopes_revenge):** pro tip - local ponds are great places to find a delicious and nutritious meal ! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfW8a_wbIAAV9kP.jpg) 😡 ### [Reply to @shaggysurvives, 18:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870905280575451337) · 38 likes > **shaggy (@shaggysurvives):** This color is bad. It’s an unnatural shade of green > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfbEuEKbcAAetdd.jpg) This colour looks like it should be spelled with a u ### [Tweet, 22:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870964774839931349) · 23 likes The take that will never die (it’s an information collection problem \[good luck eliciting everyone’s would-be-revealed-preferences to feed to o3\], not an information processing problem) ### [Quote tweet, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870965101387526464) · 2 likes What is the original version of this > **Quoting moni (@wrappedaroundme):** “Weighted blankets” are insane because they appears to be one of the most dangerous objects with the potential to gigafry your brain but are exclusively used by turbonormies who want to “improve their sleep quality” who basically get oneshotted by the 6D Sleepytime Bear Demon ### [Quote tweet, 23:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870967777382776992) · 42 likes Ok, yes it’s almost a year late, but @Laura_k_Duffy, @SpacedOutMatt, and I finally did last year’s $15k incentive of fundraising for shrimp welfare at the mall! Enjoy!! [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1870967585463820288/img/iJSQ34hVOljFTCM2.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870967777382776992/video/1) (video, plays on X) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Alright guys, we are raising money for the EA Animal Welfare Fund bc some animals are not having as much fun as this chicken and that’s gotta change > > The “goal” is $15k but personally I think that’s ~6 OOMs too low > > https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/fundraisers/ea-twitter-23 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB68eOkWwAAm7b7.jpg) > [video attached](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1738033784853766263/video/1) ### [Reply to @RobJ02, 23:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870968063753097237) · 2 likes > **Roberto (@RobJ02):** We do tackle animal welfare interventions in a way that am not sure this point applies. If oX had a mental state view of welfare and had grokked moral patienthood/well-being research am not sure the Hayek would matter Yeah we can do better than literally zero information (ie make decent guesses about preferences and welfare) but that’s a far cry from the amount of information implicitly used in the modern economy ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870970499653894484) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 22, 2024:** Ok, yes it’s almost a year late, but @Laura_k_Duffy, @SpacedOutMatt, and I finally did last year’s $15k incentive of fundraising for shrimp welfare at the… Thanks to @Laura_k_Duffy for editing! ### [Thread, continued, 23:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870970815241433107) · 4 likes Donate this year for more spicy incentives! ### [Reply to @Manuel_do_rio, 23:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870974031442370819) · 2 likes > **Manuel del Río Rodríguez ⏸️ (@Manuel_do_rio):** @AaronBergman18 @Laura_k_Duffy @SpacedOutMatt Another astounding success from the DC trio of Shrimp-carers! 🥳🎉🎊 ### [Quote tweet, 23:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870978181382975825) · 7 likes This doesn’t look strange to me at all, except Texas, which is a bit wider than I realized > **Quoting Ramp Capital (@RampCapitalLLC):** The United States, but mirrored. Absolute chaos. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfWoNY6XsAAtmb3.jpg) ## Monday, December 23, 2024 ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870983381745602948) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 That’s because you famously live underground and hence look at the US from below Ah good point. Thanks ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871021610574172598) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Well who’s on the list ### [Tweet, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871023427160846744) · 105 likes Let it be known that I actually think my part of twitter is a little too freaked out over o3 ### [Thread, continued, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871023429459357973) · 14 likes Math is easy to RL on - not necessarily representative of general intelligence ### [Thread, continued, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871023432026210393) · 14 likes That said I do think the appropriate amount of freak out is >0 ### [Reply to @robi_rahman, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871028680438563002) · 3 likes > **Robi Rahman (@robi_rahman):** @AaronBergman18 @SpacedOutMatt @absurdlymax @Laura_k_Duffy How much do I have to donate to be a guest on your vegan episode of Hot Ones? The coven will deliberate 👀 ### [Quote tweet, 03:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871031727269019676) · 6 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gfc9cLkWEAAG1H_.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @odercnat Some things transcend language ### [Quote tweet, 03:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871032131843203444) · 6 likes New incentive just dropped: if you donate(d) $500, you too can be on our episode of Hot Ones: Vegan Edition > **Quoting Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 @robi_rahman @absurdlymax @Laura_k_Duffy @robi_rahman our journalistic integrity is worth $500 for the animals ### [Reply to @robi_rahman, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871034353385705682) · 2 likes > **Robi Rahman (@robi_rahman):** Wow, you totally should've asked for more money. Done :) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gfc_fZAWIAA4Cmw.jpg) Yooo ### [Reply to @robi_rahman, 03:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871035774097109140) · 2 likes > **Robi Rahman (@robi_rahman):** @SpacedOutMatt @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax @Laura_k_Duffy TY! Can I submit a recipe too? I made impossible moussaka for a party recently and everyone loved it. Ya based unless someone overrides me ### [Reply to @livgorton, 17:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871243248163049660) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** said this in the gc but gotta say it here too - looking v snazzy aaron. > > glad you all finally did this ! you’re braver than i 🥺 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 17:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871251288543146492) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** This Max guy isn't too shabby if I say so myself 🥵 ### [Reply to @anpaure, 22:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871326997147988366) · 2 likes > **anpaure (@anpaure):** wtf is even the source for the 157 iq figure? > even in the cited blog https://codeforces.com/blog/entry/68288 > o3's perf is in 99.7%, which is z score 2.7 and thus more like 140iq > > also codeforces is just a mindbogglingly stupid way of measuring iq > just consider a single component of it - the time constraints are essential > given enough time, someone 1 sd lower could solve the same problems, o3 was given millions of tokens of compute for that, humans are given 2 hours > > there is like a dozen extra faults with this generalization If I learned that a human had solved 1/4 of the math benchmark, I’d be ~100% sure they had an IQ above 157 ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871336606642364785) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @Aella_Girl My wife’s score > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gfg-C0ga8AAxp1f.jpg) 👀 ## Tuesday, December 24, 2024 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 00:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871349420396298475) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** We should get you one Fr ### [Reply to @sodiumPen, 00:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871354198899691726) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @sodiumPen is no longer available.)_ Fr ### [Quote tweet, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871610590848016387) · 15 likes If you have ADHD, dw, you’re just a large model > **Quoting Burny - Effective Curiosity (@burny_tech):** This applies to human generalists vs specialists too > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GflJdzPWkAAPFq_.png) ### [Reply to @ozyfrantz, 17:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871613667885924641) · 2 likes > **ozy brennan 🦙 (@ozyfrantz):** asking people out is such a lifehack. dates with hot people at the cost of one awkward conversation. has anyone heard of this Big if true ### [Tweet, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871660500406476982) · 48 likes Just invested in NVIDIA, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet specifically for the first time. Better late than never I guess (well we’ll see) ### [Thread, continued, 20:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871661498390687781) · 4 likes And AMD ### [Thread, continued, 20:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871661618104504802) · 12 likes This is actually a pump and dump scheme leveraging my vast platform of 2.9k followers ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 21:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871662908503110093) · 4 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Merry Christmas folks > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GflMIupWcAAGd53.jpg) Merry Christmas! 🎄⛄️🎅🦌❄️🎁✨🌟⭐️🤶🔔🕯️☃️🎊🎉🧦🍪🥛🍰🥮🎂🍯🫖🎨🎭🎪🥂🍾🫧🎹🎺🎻🪕🥁🎸🪗🎼🎵🎶🛷🌨️💫🏂⛸️🏔️❆❅✶💝💖💕💞💫🎀🦮🐈‍⬛🐕🐈🌲🌳🎋🎍🪔🕎📯🎺🥮🍪🧁🍰🎂🍭🍬🎈🪩💫🎆🎇🌠🌌🎑🏮🎎🎐🧧💐🌸🪴🎍🎋🎃🦊🦝🐿️🦫🦘🌲🎄🌲🎄⛄️🎅🦌❄️🎁✨🌟⭐️🤶🔔🕯️☃️🎊🎉🧦🍪🥛🎂🍯🎨🎭🎪🥂🍾🎹🎺🎻🥁🎸🎵🎶 ### [Reply to @moreisdifferent, 22:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871677838677754118) · 3 likes > **Dan Elton 🔍 (@moreisdifferent):** @AaronBergman18 I just sold Microsoft (idk why, just seemed to be underperforming) but I own alphabet and NVIDIA. Probably should buy AMD and maybe Amazon yeah. They’re possibly gonna control a good chunk of OpenAI ### [Tweet, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871692287811711469) · 288 likes Bruh it’s kinda nuts that Yud foresaw like a bunch of relevant shit 20+ years ahead of time with no empirical prompting ### [Thread, continued, 23:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871692450143871422) · 40 likes Listening to this and I’m just like “damn he was right” https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/joe-carlsmith-audio/id1648436675?i=1000680866948 ### [Thread, continued, 23:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871692978114482192) · 25 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfmW2DHXkAApbsC.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 23:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871693032208191618) · 20 likes Kinda a cold/old take but still ### [Reply to @LabGrownNeet, 23:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871694925164949924) · 12 likes > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** @AaronBergman18 he wrote hpmor so he was the first to read its wisdom Precisely ### [Reply to @strangestloop, 23:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871703418575962511) · 3 likes > **Loopy (@strangestloop):** Thanks for stopping by the campfire. Before you continue please leave a gift for the other campers: a compliment for someone, a GIF of your current mood, or a random phone pic. Take care. > > [GIF attached](https://x.com/strangestloop/status/1871329925841711566/photo/1) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfmgVuqWsAAvzUX.jpg) ## Wednesday, December 25, 2024 ### [Tweet, 06:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871800789376909579) · 99 likes NEVER INSINUATE A GIRL ISNT THE PRETTIEST GIRL ON EARTH SHE WILL DESTROY U ### [Thread, continued, 06:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871801628816490675) · 29 likes Feel free to suggest additions to any list ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gfn5qSyXoAAnXmK.jpg) ### [Reply, 06:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871809444566446160) · 1 like What’s their revealed preference that clashes with this list? ### [Tweet, 16:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871962267413352547) · 11 likes Need to poast more engagement bait bc I must have recently hit the 500 verified follower threshold Anybody have a take on SBF, EA, Donald trump, sex, Israel, or drones? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfqLwvoWkAAw_sb.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871962661254320479) · 1 like Perhaps trans stuff too? ### [Reply to @meekaale, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871988313126735943) · 1 like > **Mikael Brockman (@meekaale):** @AaronBergman18 they are Exactly ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 18:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1871991133653672445) · 5 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** merry christmas > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfqgMj8XcAAfHO0.jpg) Cat ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 19:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872006315557711919) · 16 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** But it is false that I am the prettiest girl on earth Nice try, yes you are ### [Reply to @soldoutbudokan, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872007206985687373) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @soldoutbudokan is no longer available.)_ 💀 ### [Reply to @joodalooped, 19:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872007643319112125) · 4 likes > **judah (@joodalooped):** empirical prompting 😭😭😭 > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Bruh it’s kinda nuts that Yud foresaw like a bunch of relevant shit 20+ years ahead of time with no empirical prompting) Literally didn’t understand this until this reply 💀 ### [Reply to @willdepue, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872009894561542268) · 2 likes > **will depue (@willdepue):** asking seriously, what should openai open source in 2025? @sama so we can understand his psychology ### [Reply to @JamesOzden, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872014497176867056) · 2 likes > **James Özden 🔸 (@JamesOzden):** You know it’s a good Christmas when your family meal closes by discussing Brian Tomasik’s dating profile Based ### [Tweet, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872015965267042376) · 11 likes I don’t believe anyone who claims pizza (or whatever cuisine) quality varies by major city in the US ### [Thread, continued, 20:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872017130276950398) · 3 likes Maybe this is true for like some very niche things where there’s one Little Greenland and it’s in Bellingham, Washington and the only place with a thriving Kiviak scene Pizza/indian/burrito = fake news ### [Reply to @grnsleeves, 21:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872029842646225134) · 2 likes > **Greensleeves (@grnsleeves):** @AaronBergman18 lmao is this new to you Relatively yeah ### [Thread, continued, 21:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872029999764820100) · 3 likes I mean I wasn’t going around calling girls ugly but I didn’t realize how serious it was ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 21:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872035991294480593) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** Green days new single is out today! Yippee! Yippee ### [Reply to @livgorton, 22:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872045512901476856) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** US visa was approved 🎉🔜🇺🇸 Nice ### [Reply, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872048888892579908) · 1 like No only like 3M. The idea is I post slop to hit 5M ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 22:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872051332292710717) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18 I only have 0.5M-1M impressions per 3Mo, I wonder what's wrong with me Gotta sling more takes ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872066114358005947) · 2 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** @wight1984 @AaronBergman18 Right. And then how many cities have enough Somalis for Somali food? Honduran? Laotian? I think most cities will have 0 or 1 of most cuisines, almost however they’re defined. But because of immigrant networks, some places have very many restaurants from some place. Ok I admit I’m wrong for relatively niche cuisines I feel like I hear people talking about “good Indian” or “a good burrito” (doesn’t systematically vary) way more often than “good Laotian” (does probably vary) ### [Reply to @NinaPanickssery, 23:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872068804781752409) · 2 likes > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** @AaronBergman18 Possibly the most wrong take I've read on X in the last 20 minutes Glad you guys are on the same page lol ## Thursday, December 26, 2024 ### [Reply to @voooooogel, 00:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872084329737879780) · 4 likes > **thebes (@voooooogel):** sent claude sonnet a christmas card :-) then i asked if it wanted to send any of its own, and it made a bunch (in thread below) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gfrj9TXWQAEzPpc.jpg) @livgorton I feel like u will appreciate ### [Quote tweet, 01:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872087200177050055) · 6 likes Happy Hanukkah! I will drop this qt in case it so inspires you because I have used it now and intend to do the same going forward when the situation arises > **Quoting Amanda Askell (@AmandaAskell):** Whenever there are unstructured moments of prayer in life, I just pray for there to be no hell over and over and over again. I figure there's no harm in asking. ### [Tweet, 01:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872098405524422871) · 9 likes Isn’t AGI as a product a natural monopoly in the economic sense? We should expect corporate consolidation right? There shouldn’t (ie according to my understanding, not a moral claim) be ~5 companies competing to have the best LLM I feel like I haven’t seen this talked about ### [Thread, continued, 01:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872098977421926644) · 7 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfsIGSnWsAAV419.jpg) ### [Reply to @GroundhogStrat, 01:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872099922398646453) · 2 likes > **Alvaro ⏸️ Cuba (@GroundhogStrat):** A natural monopoly is defined by zero marginal cost AND extremely high cost to build relative to the market served e.g. telephone wires in 1 town. $100B to serve the whole world is not a high ratio of cost/TAM. Multiple model builders can profitably exist. I bet 3. But thinking ~mechanistically, in a simple triopoly we should expect that two of the three firms that merge and join forces should be able to have a better model (via combining training costs) with no change in distribution/marginal costs, so this doesn’t seem stable ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 03:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872117518128878032) · 2 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** Not to sound woke, but even if a lot of the prominence of the Palestine movement was due to the possibility of winning factional power, I think probably a lot of people sincerely care about the Palestinian national cause. > > (quoting @Noahpinion: The purpose of the Palestine movement is not to help Palestine; it is to win factional power within the progressive movement and the Democratic party. (It will fail at both, of course.)) Yeah grey tribe people sometimes have a knee-jerk reaction against the pro-Palestinian cause/people, but they should decouple harder ### [Reply to @notanastronomer, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872125330364015051) · 3 likes > **Lauren Gilbert (@notanastronomer):** what > > (quoting @PaulIngrassia: For anyone still unclear, this is what the ideal America First immigration policy would include: -End H-1B visa program -End Birthright citizenship -Mass deportations of every last illegal alien -20 year moratorium on legal immigration -fortify the southern border with the most…) It’s bad on purpose etc etc ### [Reply, 09:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872213336022253658) Yes? ### [Reply to @sam_atis, 16:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872320076923449464) · 6 likes > **Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** Is having a day on Twitter where thousands of people scream at you (but a few nice people stick up for you) an experience worth having overall? What do you think, @AaronBergman18? Might try to achieve this in 2025. Yes it is! At least in my case. But it seems pretty hard to do on command, and also doing it intentionally is probably a worse experience ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 16:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872320591749161323) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfvQlqJW0AA3vtj.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfvRp_PWIAABpkJ.jpg) ### [Reply to @sam_atis, 16:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872321351643763107) · 3 likes > **Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** More like tweeting more frequently and thereby increasing risk of tweeting something stupid and/or offensive enough that people shout at me! (Not that I think that your tweet was stupid or offensive.) Yes based make it happen ### [Reply to @sam_atis, 20:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872384505786646560) · 3 likes > **Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** Is having a day on Twitter where thousands of people scream at you (but a few nice people stick up for you) an experience worth having overall? What do you think, @AaronBergman18? Might try to achieve this in 2025. Also I should add that having people you like and respect think less of you, even a bit, is much more stressful than thousands of angry randos ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872389456403353600) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 @sam_atis Mole people Aaron!? That's the world you want for everyone? No just the poor, as my post clearly says ### [Quote tweet, 22:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872403456864239829) · 9 likes This is actually cool and fun > **Quoting Exa (@ExaAILabs):** See your 2024 Twitter Wrapped! > > Exa-powered AI finds your favorite topics, top tweets, and even whether you’ve been naughty/nice 😈 > > Get yours here - http://twitterwrapped.exa.ai > > [video attached](https://x.com/ExaAILabs/status/1872380347574636777/video/1) ### [Reply to @TheIshanGoswami, 22:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872403782308647200) · 3 likes > **Ishan Goswami (@TheIshanGoswami):** This is completely built with exa api and you can do this too! > > This is how you get the profile data (with top tweets) from the exa api: https://dashboard.exa.ai/playground/get-contents?filters=%7B%22ids%22%3A%5B%22https%3A%2F%2Fx.com%2Fpaulg%22%5D%2C%22text%22%3A%22true%22%2C%22livecrawl%22%3A%22always%22%7D > > And this is how you get recent tweets of a profile: https://dashboard.exa.ai/playground/search?q=from%3Atheishangoswami%20site%3Atwitter.com&c=tweet&filters=%7B%22type%22%3A%22keyword%22%2C%22numResults%22%3A20%2C%22text%22%3A%22true%22%2C%22livecrawl%22%3A%22always%22%7D Wait you access all this without the Twitter API? That’s nuts. Impressive scraping 🫡 ### [Quote tweet, 22:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872407521597727216) · 5 likes Random intellectual curiosity is a vibe ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gfwgt8PW4AABOOY.jpg) > **Quoting deepfates (@deepfates):** ok this is pretty good actually 😂 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfwTjcbbwAA3bH3.jpg) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 23:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872422452229521795) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Fr don’t forget us Shut up Matt ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfwuS_5WQAAU7Z-.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 23:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872423232239988957) · 2 likes Based > **Quoting Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE):** Man saves stuck bird > > [video attached](https://x.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1872244708019163583/video/1) ### [Reply, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872426452165280195) · 3 likes ### [Tweet, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872426753660182989) · 11 likes Who is yacine and why is he relevant ### [Reply to @livgorton, 23:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872427251989668029) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** entirely unrelated to the content but i’ve followed this YT channel since i was like 15 or something haha so fun to see others share the vids > > and yeah i think it entirely depends what we mean when we say x specific person existed. i have too many thoughts for 240 chars 😭😭 Liv, welcome to philosophy ### [Thread, continued, 23:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872427426141356047) · 2 likes But yes I agree “X really existed” is surprisingly hard to define, even approximately ### [Reply, 23:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872431398646329636) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Good point ## Friday, December 27, 2024 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 00:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872434907643027882) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 26, 2024:** Who is yacine and why is he relevant Lol I did not realize this until just now. Genuinely curious what interaction yielded this ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gfw5oB-WsAAJJ1s.jpg) ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 00:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872435996199129470) · 1 like > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** @inductionheads think she means that Leopold can't stop yapping about it Oh man this means it’s big/important ### [Reply, 01:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872450016075485632) Haha yes import the 3rd world. Let them all in 🌎🌐 ### [Quote tweet, 01:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872452025142906893) · 26 likes This is my favorite example of a bad graph because the midwit explanation of why it’s bad (truncated y axis) is totally wrong > **Quoting 𝔽. ℙ. ℍunter (@FeralPHunter):** smdh i new Sabrina Carpenter was short but didnt realize she was this small > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfvvaFPWYAAkueF.jpg) ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 01:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872452855501914278) · 15 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** It would work if there was no truncated y-axis and it was to scale Yeah but the truncated y axis isn’t the problem - if it was to scale, truncated y axis would be fine (ie it would only be showing the top of their heads) ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 01:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872453947094655296) · 2 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** Economic growth is a remarkably good proxy for everything getting better for everyone > > (quoting @VermeireJeff: @MariGO2thepolls @wanyeburkett Growth for what purpose and for who? Growth is not a virtue in an unto itself.) Well, all humans ### [Reply to @liz_love_lace, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872454332542791772) · 4 likes > **Liz Lovelace (@liz_love_lace):** smart boards are basically useless, we had two at our school (for corruption purposes) and even though the teachers were constantly trying to find uses for them, we almost never did anything with them > > (quoting @BrianRoemmele: The US spends the most per student in the world. Most of our schools still use 1703 designed chalk boards. Some who spend far less did an upgrade 5 years ago.) Lol I thought they were cool in 5th grade so invested a few hundred dollars in the company that made them iirc. Stock went to 0 lmao ### [Tweet, 01:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872462259689271518) · 761 likes Have we considered that DeepSeek is lying and their training cost way more than $5M? ### [Thread, continued, 01:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872462261392134526) · 75 likes I genuinely don’t know how surprising this would be. I have a prior on technical papers not lying about stuff but high profile Chinese statistics being iffy at best and don’t know how to assess their intersection ### [Thread, continued, 02:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872462631388500287) · 35 likes I guess one would have to assess this in large part based on the actual plausibility of DeepSeek finding a training method that OpenAI et al missed Once again I genuinely don’t know how to do this, but others do ### [Thread, continued, 02:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872463686847344990) · 49 likes But I feel like “consider whether they’re lying” is an underrated tactic in light of surprising stuff in any domain ### [Thread, continued, 02:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872465251264053495) · 25 likes \* meant to say “whether” DeepSeek is lying. I have no idea if they are ### [Reply to @lu_sichu, 02:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872467853104001122) · 32 likes > **Sichu Lu (@lu_sichu):** But what's the motivation. I assume that plenty of people with less resources but interested in training sota will be attempting replications of these results or training variants very soon Give Western labs a fool’s errand to pursue, wasting time and money Could be both political and economic ### [Reply to @norvid_studies, 02:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872469159898165739) · 4 likes > **norvid_studies (@norvid_studies):** i don't think they'd burn their reputation for a diffuse "waste some of other peoples money" but i don't have any direct domain knowledge I don’t have a great understanding of the dynamics here but my understanding is that CCP reps have a lot of influence on the operations of big and strategically important Chinese companies ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 02:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872471364667658386) · 3 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** What are the drivers of training costs? It's mostly like CPUs and energy, no? ≈ GPU\*hours But I think the claim is that they found a way to get a better model out of the same number of GPU hours ### [Tweet, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872476942148243892) · 9 likes Amphetamines are obviously antidepressants, idgaf what they’re technically classified as ### [Thread, continued, 02:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872477010238579126) · 3 likes This is brought to you by amphetamine withdrawal (3 more days) ### [Reply to @hamandcheese, 05:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872520802626949193) · 29 likes > **Samuel Hammond 🦉 (@hamandcheese):** Maybe they have access to export controlled chips and need an alibi Seems not crazy ### [Reply, 06:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872522927356477578) Massive economic growth + decline in poverty + appreciation of arbitrariness/luck of place of birth ### [Reply, 06:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872525438406508679) 👍 ### [Reply, 06:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872526386243788941) · 1 like Singerian philosophy seems pretty distinct from those other things Arbitrariness of place of birth (and species for that matter, and everything else) would persist even if all the dark enlightenment-esque empirical claims are true ### [Quote tweet, 06:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872531650611159139) · 3 likes Buzzfeed-esque quiz according to how you’d rearrange this table (orthodox guard, reformer, psychedelic-enthusiast, etc) > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Thread, continued, 06:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872531653329080451) · 2 likes For the record I’d move all the antipsychotics besides aripiprazole, as well as esketamine and lithium, to third line Move bupropion up to first line, maybe even its own category Add deplin/methylfolate, probably second line Also hooray for pramipexole even being listed ### [Quote tweet, 15:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872661653688561754) · 50 likes Bruh someone gave like $13k They should consider revealing themselves to get the appropriate amount of social reward and acclaim! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf0H2W8XQAAawQk.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** It’s back and it’s not exactly bigger than ever yet but hopefully it will be! > > @SpacedOutMatt @absurdlymax @Laura_k_Duffy and I are once again raising money for the EA Animal Welfare Fund in this year’s Terminally Online EA Giving Season Fundraiser! > > (Link below) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfIMC4BXoAAGR9R.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfIMC38WkAA-UWQ.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 15:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872663251676471485) · 7 likes It would be really tragic if someone got into a doubling-the-total-donation-amount war of attrition with the mysterious donor (manifesting) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Bruh someone gave like $13k > > They should consider revealing themselves to get the appropriate amount of social reward and acclaim! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf0H2W8XQAAawQk.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 15:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872663449710502144) · 2 likes Donation link for your convenience https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/fundraisers/2024-terminally-online-ea-giving-season-fundraiser ### [Reply to @arabelladevine, 15:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872664529253040628) · 15 likes > **arabella ※ (@arabelladevine):** some boys text you from the get go like you’re six months in. not the worst strat, appeals to my delusional ass Is this a good strategy? I have no idea what I’m doing ### [Reply to @arabelladevine, 15:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872666632746840446) · 2 likes > **arabella ※ (@arabelladevine):** @AaronBergman18 idk sometimes it’s awkward sometimes it’s cosy. ig for me depends if it makes it easier or harder for me to respond and keep the vibe going. probably there’s a tradeoff going on between filtering poor matches and giving people more of a chance to cocreate the vibe Guessing I will fall into the awkward category, thx ### [Reply to @arabelladevine, 15:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872667323422978053) · 2 likes > **arabella ※ (@arabelladevine):** @AaronBergman18 have you tested that? don’t just guess!! My track record (poor) speaks for itself ### [Reply to @10x_er, 15:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872671247852868040) · 1 like > **10x Engineer (@10x_er):** tik tok is vape instagram reels is cigarettes x is Fresh air ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 15:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872672306600063364) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** The AI sure tried real hard with this one > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf0RGsWXgAAKYOa.jpg) Jealous ### [Quote tweet, 17:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872689084831023181) · 9 likes You don’t hate the FDA enough > **Quoting Bicoloured-Python-Rock-Snake 🦬🪐🌲 (@pythonrocksnake):** @PeterJAngel Tamiflu would be a great thing to stock up on, but unfortunately you need a prescription so you can't get it until you're already sick, or have a doctor connection. IDK how lax the "telehealth" online prescription mills are but that might be an avenue. ### [Reply, 17:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872690102130098429) · 1 like Leopold. ### [Reply to @DannyParkinson, 17:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872690203124789513) · 4 likes > **Danny Parkinson (@DannyParkinson):** It’s such a simple joke in Wallace and Gromit but it’s killed me > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gfv5egBWQAAI34u.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gfv5egBXkAAe5Lo.jpg) @absurdlymax @littIeramblings ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872691091411222856) > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** it's an open model so we know the parameters. they could have trained on more tokens than they claim but they did train on a lot (15T) Yeah but we can’t directly infer compute/gpu-hours right ### [Reply to @ChatbotOtro, 17:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872702633926135830) · 8 likes > **Otro Chatbot (@ChatbotOtro):** White muricans fighting Indians and Chinese on Twitter at the same time I have nothing against Indians and Chinese people! (not a big fan of the CCP/China as a country though) ### [Reply to @saik0s, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872725431717380607) · 33 likes > **Igor Tarasenko (@saik0s):** @AaronBergman18 ah yes, the classic "they're out to get us" narrative. because clearly, 1.4 billion people are all conspiring to make the west look bad. or maybe... we're projecting our own insecurities? just a thought. 1.4B? No. But the CCP conspiring with parts of Chinese civil society to sabotage American tech superiority? Yes this is absolutely plausible and I’m pretty sure well-documented (usually this looks like corporate espionage) ### [Quote tweet, 19:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872728280853561573) · 16 likes 1450 is 99th percentile in a nationally representative sample and 96th percentile among test takers You are in a bubble, exhibit no. 1839605281594918 > **Quoting Ollie (@olzhu):** \>“My high IQ, high SAT son” > \>1450 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gfyhz7AacAE1tUj.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 19:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872728325074108658) · 2 likes https://research.collegeboard.org/reports/sat-suite/understanding-scores/sat ### [Thread, continued, 19:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872729222671941817) · 3 likes As much as I disagree with her implicit message, this woman is right that college standards are quite outdated Perfect SAT + transcript doesn’t get you into top tier schools anymore https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/most-ivy-smart-students-arent-at ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872732095203950958) > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** Compute is proportional to active params \* tokens Claude estimates that params + tokens account for 80% of the variance in compute, so you’re mostly right ### [Reply to @saik0s, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872738176453980532) · 1 like > **Igor Tarasenko (@saik0s):** @AaronBergman18 jumping to conspiracy theories might make you feel smart, but it’s actually the laziest form of thinking bc it ignores the complexity of how things actually work. > > sometimes, the truth is just boring af. Yeah this is a hypothesis but I think I’d still put it below 50%. But sometimes there are actually conspiracies! ### [Quote tweet, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872739207401357686) · 26 likes Abolish cluster headaches > **Quoting EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** "Quantifying the Global Burden of Extreme Pain from Cluster Headaches" by Alfredo Parra 🔸 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf1L45aW4AAXLxe.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872739210614194264) · 2 likes I don’t know how legit the DMT thing is But if that really is a reliable reliever, DMT not even being available by prescription (fentanyl is, appropriately) is yet another reason the FDA is really bad ### [Reply to @OpenAI, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872739414268649729) · 10 likes > **OpenAI (@OpenAI):** OpenAI's Board of Directors is evaluating our corporate structure with the goal of making a stronger non-profit supported by the for-profit’s success. > > Our plan would create one of the best-resourced non-profits in history. https://openai.com/index/why-our-structure-must-evolve-to-advance-our-mission/ @open_phil should sue ### [Reply to @deepfates, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872743647546085615) · 4 likes > **deepfates.delve.town (@deepfates):** gm > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf1EQCbawAAZSgH.jpg) Cursed image but real ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872746958655574305) > **Aaron Bergman, December 27, 2024:** Claude estimates that params + tokens account for 80% of the variance in compute, so you’re mostly right Then I push him and it gets revised to 50-60% so idk ### [Tweet, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872754162645319795) · 15 likes Some people: Aaron, you should be more epistemically humble Claude: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf1b_IHXAAA6sem.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 22:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872776687538323680) · 2 likes New data just dropped! I’d love a qualitative deep dive > **Quoting Nat Friedman (@natfriedman):** Full results and write-up: http://plasticlist.org > > We also have instructions for running your own tests! ### [Reply to @natfriedman, 23:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872786591527379352) · 2 likes > **Nat Friedman (@natfriedman):** Check out this report: http://plasticlist.org/report Thanks! ## Saturday, December 28, 2024 ### [Reply to @leland_mcinnes, 00:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872802867138183349) · 2 likes > **Leland McInnes (@leland_mcinnes):** I'm looking forward to seeing more maps of latent spaces for more models, including image models. > > Keep an eye out for work by @enjalot @thesephist @livgorton @adamrpearce @JungleSilicon among many others. Exciting times ahead! Sparse autoencoder ### [Reply to @BecomingCritter, 07:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872909846309421094) · 9 likes > **critter (@BecomingCritter):** What's your favorite thing about women? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf3plDAWMAA6jEH.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 07:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872914483909419049) · 4 likes Based, could be you > **Quoting Liv (@livgorton):** proof of my commitment to making this beauty a reality 🫡 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfIjX4XbEAADYhR.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 08:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1872916785990910129) · 12 likes Wtf > **Quoting Lewis Bollard (@Lewis_Bollard):** This is heartbreaking... > > About 50 million US birds have been baked or suffocated alive this year, all to stop bird flu. > > There's a vaccine that could prevent this, but the USDA won't allow its use ... because it might affect chicken exports. > > https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/11/22/23472207/bird-flu-vaccine-turkey-prices-chickens-hens-cull-depopulation ### [Quote tweet, 14:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873009243525399025) · 6 likes Simulator 1: lets put the city responsible for the most important technological development in the universe on a huge fault line Simulator 2: lol Simulator 1: set.seed(69) > **Quoting Tim Urban (@waitbutwhy):** The location of all earthquakes since 1980. We live on a cracked shell. > > \[Image: The Concord Consortium, via Kottke\] > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ga_yAbEXMAIz6b6.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 14:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873011668382625941) · 15 likes Narrative violation? > **Quoting Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Obviously you have to adjust for population > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf4FF_zXQAEbJaR.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 14:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873015315241861535) · 301 likes This is sufficiently plausible, safe, and cheap to be worth a try lmao ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf5JgM8WMAAea0V.jpg) > **Quoting \_aestheticprimal\_ (@aestheticprimal):** one of the biggest hacks there is in this entire > 'health niche' is putting Magnesium Chloride on your balls. > > to start off, getting Magnesium into your system is already one of the cornerstones of health, this is because Magnesium plays a role in thousands of enzymatic reactions and is needed to carry ATP. > > 1st reason: > when you supplement Magnesium, topical is an incredibly great way to do it, since absorption is much higher than when it needs to pass through the gut (besides that; oral Magnesium Chloride will give you diarrhea) > > 2nd reason: > of all the areas of skin that exist on your body, your ballsack absorbs things the best by far (your testicles absorb almost 12 times better than your forearms do) so topical application on your balls is only something logical. > > 3rd reason: > since you are applying it on your balls, you are directly enhancing testosterone production because you are providing the raw building block which the Leydig cells need to convert the prohormones (like DHEA and pregnenolone) into testosterone > > of almost all the people that i've recommended to use magnesium, have noticed that their testicles became bigger and more filled with blood after topical application. > > so how do you do it? > > \>mix 2/7th of magnesium chloride flakes with 5/7th water in a spray bottle > \>shake very well > \>spray on skin area and rub it one > > easy and incredibly cheap (u can get Magnesium Chloride for like 5-10 bucks per kilo) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf0OIbaX0AAZXd7.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf0OK59XQAAZipS.jpg) ### [Reply to @gelionexists, 14:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873020540384051353) · 6 likes > **GE Lion (@gelionexists):** respect the effort to say classy by ordering the fancy spray bottles Idk I filtered for glass. Probably spent matter but I didn’t wanna try to figure out if plastic plausibly leaches ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 14:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873020668096532828) · 22 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 Ffs You, virgin: diet and exercise and a rich family and social life Me, Chad: ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 15:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873030744022634878) · 4 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 What does it look like if you compare just the large developed EU countries (Germany, France, Italy, Spain) to the US? I'd think Eastern Europe is dragging up the average a bit by starting from such a low base in 1990 Yeah this sounds right ### [Reply to @polisisti, 16:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873038291668480448) · 9 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** oh no, now we're all thinking about Aaron's balls 😈 ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873041630355439838) · 15 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** \>9 bookmarks > > people want updates on this i guess Lol, I will try! ### [Tweet, 16:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873048775511650537) · 10 likes Found this hat I made at probably 6 or 7 (that is my home phone number) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf5n7q6WwAAETpb.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 16:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873049193226617077) · 11 likes A floor at like 2x the national household avg for a person probably out of college is nuts, immoral, and bad policy Not every high skilled industry is infinite money printer tech! > **Quoting Drew Volpe (@drewvolpe):** Raising the salary floor for H1-Bs is an obvious fix. The current floor was set at $60k in 1990 and never changed. Adjusted for inflation, it should be $148k today. > > A $148k floor would filter out low-value uses of the program, like outsourcing firms. It would also ensure that H1-Bs are used for important R&D roles where salaries exceed this level. This one change could make the program fairer and better aligned with its original intent. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfwgOgMWQAA9nnc.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 17:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873061541102358700) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I'm so sorry > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf5ktyzXQAAHoI1.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf5kt4FXAAADtG2.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf5kt4DXoAAx0Pi.jpg) Cc @birchlse ### [Reply to @manic_pixie_agi, 18:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873069644082565153) · 19 likes > **Corinne (🏠 in NYC) (@manic_pixie_agi):** Concept: OnlyFans creator who is doing quantified self experiments while naked I mean for a sufficient amount of money… ### [Quote tweet, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873073533418619328) · 5 likes Like this tweet (hopefully), donating to the fundraiser (link below) is a low effort but high impact intervention ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf5-c7OWAAALsEE.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** It’s back and it’s not exactly bigger than ever yet but hopefully it will be! > > @SpacedOutMatt @absurdlymax @Laura_k_Duffy and I are once again raising money for the EA Animal Welfare Fund in this year’s Terminally Online EA Giving Season Fundraiser! > > (Link below) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfIMC4BXoAAGR9R.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfIMC38WkAA-UWQ.jpg) ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 20:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873097641229467899) · 7 likes > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** \> Tyler Durden pfp > \> Not followed by anyone you're following > Whether this is real or not I'm not gonna update much on this guy's post I had Claude and ChatGPT fact check and basically it seems untested/unconfirmed but nothing obviously wrong ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873118009637912838) · 13 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Deficient in ball magnesium? Seems unlikely, no? Yes here is the lab report ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf6m5xNXsAAnZ3l.jpg) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 21:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873118403655025105) · 6 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Ok I guess this checks out then ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf6nQubXgAAHAiY.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873121644874760613) · 15 likes You: nooo I must maintain perfect infosec I can only let my closest irl friends know my physical location the world is so dangerous noooo Wealthy, world famous, >7 foot tall easily identifiable NBA star: I’m at this specific park rn, pull up if u wanna hang > **Quoting Wemby (@wemby):** Thanks for everyone who pulled up in the rain 😂🔥 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf5ksv9XkAACTvJ.jpg) ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873126173167022541) · 33 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** what's the most controllable non-destructive way to induce pain? > > I often want to experiment with my own tolerance and see how much is needed before I break precommitments, but i don't know any way to isolate suffering from the fear of lasting physical damage > > (quoting @NathanpmYoung: I am not convinced that everyone cracks under torture. Often seems like lazy writing to me.) I think arm in ice water is actually the standard here ### [Quote tweet, 22:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873132210968244241) · 35 likes Very interesting if true (no idea if it is) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf6z0X4WsAAXO4a.jpg) > **Quoting Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** Notes on visiting China. > > On scale, construction, youngsters, public opinion, censorship, tech, and AI. > > Link below. ### [Thread, continued, 22:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873132517819306149) · 6 likes I mean, needless to say, one good thing about liberal democracy is that you can actually kinda know these things instead of speculating based on vibes ### [Reply to @TaliaGraceSable, 22:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873136193816408392) · 7 likes > **Talia 🌿 (@TaliaGraceSable):** Sometimes people wonder "does this scare the hoes?" and now you can know. As a hoe, I will answer if it scares me or not! AMA Caffeine pills ### [Reply to @TaliaGraceSable, 22:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873136300133671252) · 5 likes > **Talia 🌿 (@TaliaGraceSable):** Sometimes people wonder "does this scare the hoes?" and now you can know. As a hoe, I will answer if it scares me or not! AMA Nature interventionism in the name of animal welfare ### [Reply to @TaliaGraceSable, 22:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873136336355651788) · 5 likes > **Talia 🌿 (@TaliaGraceSable):** Sometimes people wonder "does this scare the hoes?" and now you can know. As a hoe, I will answer if it scares me or not! AMA diy medicine ### [Quote tweet, 22:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873137220682695145) · 7 likes Hey girl, wanna increase our mutual happiness 😏 (we will talk while going on a walk to the air and space museum) > **Quoting mattparlmer 🪐 🌷 (@mattparlmer):** Meditation makes people less happy than drinking alcohol does > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf2SKo6aUAANLMh.jpg) ### [Reply to @truthscrolling, 22:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873138129617707068) · 4 likes > **׺°”˜\`”°º (@truthscrolling):** @AaronBergman18 This is also true in the stable Gulf states (Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan). The general populace wants to carpet-bomb Tel Aviv and toughen laws, while the intelligent, Westernized ruling class wants normalization with Israel. Source: Lived in Dubai for 3 years. Interesting thanks ### [Reply to @leah_pierson, 23:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873142052692869525) · 4 likes > **Leah Pierson (@leah_pierson):** I accidentally wrote a 5000-word critique of 80,000 Hours' career guide without checking that I was reading the updated 2023 guide. (The 2017 PDF was the first result!) > > Having now read the new guide, I'm 90% happy, 10% devastated to report that my concerns are mostly addressed. Lol ### [Thread, continued, 23:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873142110129631611) · 3 likes And based ### [Reply to @TaliaGraceSable, 23:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873145434304332268) · 1 like > **Talia 🌿 (@TaliaGraceSable):** Seriously scary Oh no :( ### [Reply to @mountmayn, 23:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873145507826286748) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mountmayn is no longer available.)_ 🙏 ### [Reply to @teortaxesTex, 23:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873154719344148738) · 3 likes > **Teortaxes▶️ (DeepSeek 推特🐋铁粉 2023 – ∞) (@teortaxesTex):** You literally both use pause emojis Maybe this is obvious but it’s a bit silly to lump in most AI pausers with the ~Luddite left I’m broadly extremely pro-science and tech and can name like 3 specific exceptions (some animal testing, gain of function pathogen research, frontier AI scaling) ## Sunday, December 29, 2024 ### [Reply, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873192895093850507) · 3 likes No ### [Tweet, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873195055793750033) · 8 likes My family realized they can get me to watch movies if (and only if) they’re about airplanes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf7s-euXsAATDHq.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873195058629099935) · 3 likes The y = 1/2 spike was when I walked out of Dune (sorry, fiction is generally just boring) ### [Reply to @MattVogel0311, 02:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873197346257076471) · 6 likes > **Matt Vogel (@MattVogel0311):** should get your test levels checked before and after I actually did get them checked recently, so accidentally on it ### [Quote tweet, 02:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873198309726364038) · 6 likes Make it happen ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf7v74lWUAASgOK.jpg) > **Quoting Cate Hall (@catehall):** actual crime against humanity that google docs won't turn two hyphens into an em dash ### [Quote tweet, 02:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873199039220756907) · 4 likes Nix the Apple Watch thing but the rest I endorse for purely objective reasons > **Quoting Engineer Girlfriend (@enggirlfriend):** ladies, don’t trust a man (esp 20s) with a rolex. > > go for the ones wearing an apple watch, even better, a whoop. wears free tshirts. bad haircut. ideally some of the tism. > > best investment you’ll ever make. ### [Tweet, 14:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873371638575874055) · 27 likes In honor of 3k followers, I am sending this tweet ### [Reply, 14:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873373359540740169) · 8 likes I mean maybe he’s right, but he added a dubious implicit premise which is that killing bacteria directly is actually the mechanism of action. Like there are a lot of other things that could happen! ### [Thread, continued, 14:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873373595310989431) · 1 like Especially garlic, like I’m pretty sure sulfur compounds like allicin really do fuck with bacteria, but maybe it has to be digested and pass into the blood stream first ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 14:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873373937394221380) · 3 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** @AaronBergman18 What’s the thing you’re most proud of and most disappointed in yourself this year This is a good q I will think more than 5 seconds! ### [Quote tweet, 14:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873376808323912091) · 6 likes Does anyone have smart ring (or whatever) takes, including preferred brands, reviews, whether they’re worthwhile at all? > **Quoting Aella (@Aella_Girl):** I've been tracking my mood, habits, and biometrics (oura ring) for years. I fed all 2k+ days of data into claude and asked it for a report on what to do to improve my mood ### [Reply to @boreal_country, 14:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873377424471159023) · 2 likes > **Beau (@boreal_country):** @AaronBergman18 I found it annoying to wash my hands with a bulky ring and you can’t lift weights with one because of the grip / you’ll break the ring. Source: Returned my Oura 4. Sucks but thanks! ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 15:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873383961789108278) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I have very detailed takes on this stuff. Basically, I recommend people get an Apple Watch OR A Whoop OR an Oura ring, whichever works better for them. Apple Watch is the only one without a subscription, and has arguably slightly better biometric tracking than the other two. Nice thanks! ### [Tweet, 15:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873388494313370109) · 5 likes I regret to report that I like the suburbs. Cancel my urbanist card ### [Quote tweet, 15:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873388669077459223) · 12 likes Obligatory qt > **Quoting Jonathan Mannhart 🔎🔸 (@JMannhart):** PSA: Don‘t magnesiummaxx > > (Not without ramping up very slowly and getting blood tests often, which is annoying. Much easier & safer to just take supplements, e.g. mg citrate.) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf9NsSvXoAACs5z.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 15:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873390639469252805) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 28, 2024:** This is sufficiently plausible, safe, and cheap to be worth a try lmao Ok maybe don’t trust me lol ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 15:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873390998728118342) · 3 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** PSA: Don‘t magnesiummaxx > > (Not without ramping up very slowly and getting blood tests often, which is annoying. Much easier & safer to just take supplements, e.g. mg citrate.) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf9NsSvXoAACs5z.jpg) > (quoting @aestheticprimal: one of the biggest hacks there is in this entire 'health niche' is putting Magnesium Chloride on your balls. to start off, getting Magnesium into your system is already one of the cornerstones of health, this is because Magnesium plays a role in thousands of enzymatic reactions…) FWIW ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf-fLeIX0AA30yM.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf-fLeIXAAA1hcQ.jpg) ### [Reply, 15:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873393008500216106) · 1 like I’m still gonna do it, just conservatively ### [Thread, continued, 15:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873393036996346046) · 3 likes For science ### [Quote tweet, 15:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873396651500724298) · 126 likes What the fuck > **Quoting Poornima Rao (@RaoPoornima):** Update on @suchirbalaji > > We hired private investigator and did second autopsy to throw light on cause of death. Private autopsy doesn’t confirm cause of death stated by police. > > Suchir’s apartment was ransacked , sign of struggle in the bathroom and looks like some one hit him in bathroom based on blood spots. > > It’s a cold blooded mu\*d\*r declared by authorities as suicide. > > Lobbying in SF city doesn’t stop us from getting justices. > > We demand FBi investigation > > @elonmusk @VivekGRamaswamy @GavinNewsom @MEA ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 15:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873396860599374245) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 @AniseNot @NathanpmYoung I don’t think this is true. Allicin should act as an in vitro antibiotic, and I if I had to guess the experiment probably failed by not timing crushing the garlic at just the right time, since allicin is very unstable and degrades very quickly. Stop being smart plz ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 15:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873397284937113630) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 @AniseNot @NathanpmYoung To give credit where credit is due, I had a long chat with Claude about this last week because I was curious about allicin and why bulbs have evolved strong defense mechanisms Not beating the smart allegations ### [Quote tweet, 15:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873398150884688230) · 134 likes I feel extremely good about “EA money” being used to conduct independent investigations for this and anything else like it > **Quoting Poornima Rao (@RaoPoornima):** Update on @suchirbalaji > > We hired private investigator and did second autopsy to throw light on cause of death. Private autopsy doesn’t confirm cause of death stated by police. > > Suchir’s apartment was ransacked , sign of struggle in the bathroom and looks like some one hit him in bathroom based on blood spots. > > It’s a cold blooded mu\*d\*r declared by authorities as suicide. > > Lobbying in SF city doesn’t stop us from getting justices. > > We demand FBi investigation > > @elonmusk @VivekGRamaswamy @GavinNewsom @MEA ### [Quote tweet, 15:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873398479189667975) · 2 likes 👍 > **Quoting SARS‑CoV‑2 (COVID-19) (@COVID19_disease):** ⚠️ BREAKING: > > Hospitals in China 🇨🇳 Overwhelmed as Severe "Flu" Outbreak, Including Influenza A and HMPV, Resembling 2020 COVID Surge. > > Hospitals in China are overwhelmed as outbreaks of "influenza A" and "human metapneumovirus" resemble the COVID-19 surge from three years ago. > > [video attached](https://x.com/COVID19_disease/status/1873035805104718184/video/1) > [video attached](https://x.com/COVID19_disease/status/1873035805104718184/video/1) > [video attached](https://x.com/COVID19_disease/status/1873035805104718184/video/1) ### [Quote tweet, 16:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873399426691252318) · 2 likes I agree with this, and insofar as it competes against “institutions must look like America to have credibility”, intuitively I feel like this concern just dominates Like maybe racial affirmative action is good, but I don’t think the “credibility” reasoning can be why > **Quoting mattparlmer 🪐 🌷 (@mattparlmer):** The “top 1% SAT doesn’t reliably get you into top 10% colleges if you have the wrong demographics” thing is orders of magnitude more socially corrosive than the visa stuff ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 16:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873399861099593844) · 16 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I don’t agree at all, let justice (or citizens) do their thing. You don’t want to look crazy. If conducting actually-good investigations of the alleged suicides of high profile AI whistleblowers seems crazy, I’m fine with seeming crazy Like maybe it’s a bad use of money, but indirect reputations effects above and beyond actual merit doesn’t seem like why ### [Thread, continued, 16:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873400236674290078) · 3 likes I guess I also don’t have a great idea of the quality of run-of-the-mill cause of death reports/autopsies, high profile and otherwise I could be convinced that it’s a rock-solid science with truly negligible risk of being wrong, even in high profile cases ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 16:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873400838284353811) · 3 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** Im making the point that the counterfactuality would be very low, such that the reputational risk is almost definitely not worth it. I think I just disagree - Claude says a high quality third party investigation would cost $20k I feel pretty good about this if the chance of foul play is above 0.1% ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 16:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873401178773745726) · 19 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 29, 2024:** I feel extremely good about “EA money” being used to conduct independent investigations for this and anything else like it To be clear, I have no reason to think EA money was used in this case - I’m just making a claim about future possible spending ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 16:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873401480725868639) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 If I believed no one else would do anything without this money and that there was an at least plausible case for him being murdered (last time I checked there wasn’t, but I haven’t looked into it closely) then I’d agree Low base rate of suicide + being a whistleblower in a high profile industry with billions+ of dollars at stake is enough for me ### [Reply, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873403867255488533) · 1 like I mean I myself am pretty close to a counterexample. Not quite perfect on all academic fronts but awfully close (obligatory cringe recognition) ### [Reply to @gptbrooke, 16:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873410562429952061) · 4 likes > **brooke bowman (@gptbrooke):** @AaronBergman18 Every few days I think about how wild it is that whistleblowers just routinely commit suicide and there are even some raised eyebrows or outrage but then nothing happens > > Deeply unsettling Fr ### [Reply, 17:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873419397852987610) Interesting thx ### [Thread, continued, 17:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873419489439867156) · 1 like It needn’t be OpenAI though. I mean they’re the obvious group but I can imagine others ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873420118673486046) · 28 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 29, 2024:** To be clear, I have no reason to think EA money was used in this case - I’m just making a claim about future possible spending Also, to be more explicit, a lot of the value here comes not from directly uncovering some foul play but from discouraging future foul play, which in turn makes whistleblowing more likely ### [Reply to @Chris_Said, 17:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873420889674637690) > **Chris Said (@Chris_Said):** Also, there's good crazy and bad crazy: > > Good crazy: Shrimp welfare. Sounds crazy, but at some level people know you're right. Overton window expanding. > > Bad crazy: Pursuing a 0.1% conspiracy theory. High prob of credibility loss. Agh I feel like the heuristic “the best PR is actually just doing what you think is good and can credibly explain” is incredibly underrated Like again maybe I’m wrong, but I really don’t think PR is why ### [Reply to @sullyj3, 17:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873424178071871502) · 9 likes > **░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░ (@sullyj3):** What incentive would the police have to lie about this? “It’s hard to tell the difference + prior on suicide” seems more likely than genuine lying ### [Reply to @I_dont_twt_much, 17:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873425909090546115) · 2 likes > **I do tweet some (@I_dont_twt_much):** @AaronBergman18 Subjunctive mood would be your friend, if you'd let it Real I would feel extremely good if “EA money” were used to conduct independent investigations for this and anything else like it ### [Reply, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873430780472623433) · 1 like I think you’re wrong lol and a focus on being actually good and making good object level decisions and integrity is almost always best in the long run Companies need “PR” because they’re not actually (directly) acting in the world’s best interest. EA is importantly different ### [Reply, 18:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873430941395468567) Actually doing it for credible reasons is like 99.9% of the work here ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 18:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873433659061248418) > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** Like, I’m confident that, as stated, “EA hires third party investigator into the alleged suicide” is a thing that decreases trust in EA, not the opposite. Especially if your “credible explanation” is a long shot high EV bet. I disagree and think you’re underrating how much “do what you actually think is the right thing on the merits” improves trust over the course of months and years ### [Reply, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873434898863923400) Lol I think the more important adversarial dynamic is the fact that there are hundreds of billions of dollars of incentives pushing against safe AI development, and one shouldn’t unilaterally disarm in order to appear nice and innocent ### [Quote tweet, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873488341183992310) · 4 likes WE NEED A THOROUGH NEUTRAL PARTY INVESTIGATION ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf_3t2WW8AA-E2s.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I feel extremely good about “EA money” being used to conduct independent investigations for this and anything else like it ### [Reply to @metachirality, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873488561607241930) · 4 likes > **metachirality (@metachirality):** it's actually just that there's so many openai ex-employees that at least one gets murdered purely by virtue of the law of large numbers lol ## Monday, December 30, 2024 ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 01:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873549237360939086) · 2 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** Post current podcast stack > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgAbEHfWoAAzB1-.jpg) Most or all good: 80k, Dwarkesh, Carlsmith, Edge of of sentience (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-edge-of-sentience-by-jonathan-birch/id1761877270) EA Forum, Lesswrong , and EA Global talks = hit or miss/specific ones ### [Reply to @sunofdopamine, 02:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873550191628046436) · 15 likes > **Stephen L (@sunofdopamine):** i go on walks with this guy in the sun and sometimes he’ll go talk to a woman he finds interesting > > like, one on a two hour walk. and he’ll chat for ten minutes and be like “I’m seeing her for coffee tomorrow” This is the dream ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 02:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873551018300158236) · 5 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** the masculine urge to go to war Idk if this is a joke but war seems horrifying and if that makes me gay or feminine or whatever so be it ### [Tweet, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873596195287019902) · 77 likes If you’re a Rolex in your early 20s, buy a young man. This communicates status to female watches and watch business relationships ### [Quote tweet, 05:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873601806137458996) · 3 likes This is some good OG app material Like the opposite of a website UI just written in Swift. Retvrn > **Quoting Ethan Kuntz (@KanizsaBoundary):** Curved Spaces is an app from mathematician Jeffrey Weeks and it’s super fucking fun, you get to fly through all sorts of mathematical spaces and see all sorts of cool geometry > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgAsdyOX0AET81j.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgAsdyOWMAAcIaF.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgAsdyOXQAAVNEy.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgAsdyOXAAACzdP.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873601808247251390) · 2 likes https://apps.apple.com/us/app/curved-spaces/id1417178571 ### [Tweet, 10:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873682662910775597) · 3,684 likes Being a girl in SF must go crazy. Like absolute god mode ### [Reply to @livgorton, 10:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873684246629667199) · 13 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** let there be light ✨😌 90k lumens 😌 https://a.co/d/i1eyGbr ### [Quote tweet, 11:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873691776810393603) · 4 likes Gonna be vulnerable and admit that I have never understood this joke format even a little > **Quoting Miles Brundage (@Miles_Brundage):** Regulation goes to doctor. > > "Doctor, I need to keep my safety standards up to date as the technology evolves." > > Doctor looks at him and says, "The treatment is simple! Consult the General-Purpose AI Code of Practice, it will be updated regularly." > > "But doctor..." > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgCrNodaEAAOT5X.png) ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 11:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873691815645462716) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ Lol ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 11:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873693248751014175) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 30, 2024:** Gonna be vulnerable and admit that I have never understood this joke format even a little OHH ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgCyFHDWIAANXfG.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 11:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873693297073689056) · 2 likes Nice ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 12:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873706628115284356) · 15 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** Yeah I boned hot smart guys fr Nice congrats ### [Reply to @Q22635587, 12:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873708072503480508) · 25 likes > **YouAreThey - Read Write Do (@Q22635587):** Might just be cope but I'm telling myself the CIA did it that way to protect some other source or capability they didn't want to reveal. Yeah my thought too. Or some illegally gathered intel ### [Reply, 12:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873708166778908718) · 1 like Since when are u engaged? Congrats! ### [Reply to @visakanv, 12:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873712315574763621) · 10 likes > **Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv):** amazing moment where a fan of a @LindseyStirling realizes the person applauding her is Lindsey herself > > [video attached](https://x.com/visakanv/status/1873634931097862546/video/1) For the curious https://open.spotify.com/artist/4lZ66nVNQdgHcyE3Uv4Ash?si=X7_Yh8hNSIiCNLqjHwGP7w ### [Tweet, 12:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873713008167563484) · 2 likes House to myself. Thermostat set to 53° 😈 ### [Reply to @dhadfieldmenell, 13:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873717470890275020) > **Dylan HadfieldMenell (@dhadfieldmenell):** I understand the perspective. > > I’m curious if your issue is more with peer review as an institution or if you think AGI labs should be exempt from the process. > > I understand the tradeoffs, but I think it’s important to integrate external feedback — especially for safety work. Not Richard obv but Peer Review (capitalized bc I mean the institutional practice, not colleagues commenting on a google doc whenever) seems bad ### [Reply to @meadandjuniper, 14:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873741825552650547) · 1 like > **j (@meadandjuniper):** Gf who goes “I hope you’re not just saying they because of vacuous truth, you should know I’m asking this question in relevance logic” Marry her ### [Reply to @dhadfieldmenell, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873756146668048686) · 1 like > **Dylan HadfieldMenell (@dhadfieldmenell):** Why do you think I'd find that convincing? I don’t, I’m just clarifying my claim ### [Reply to @zodattack, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873791158708822193) · 157 likes > **zöda (@zodattack):** genuinely asking, what do you mean by this? Instant harem of hot, rich, brilliant, interesting men ### [Reply to @yhdistyminen, 18:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873793525185470813) · 11 likes > **bob's burgers urbanist 🐿️ (@yhdistyminen):** Looking at this map lowered my IQ > > (quoting @TylerDurden: Elon and Vivek dislike this image.) Lol I mean it’s also trivially wrong - pretty sure >3% comes from the US alone ### [Quote tweet, 18:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873804094990913894) · 3 likes Only @willmacaskill himself can signal boost this to the moon > **Quoting Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** We have just $7.5k left to hit the final stretch goal with 5 days to go! Donate to make Aaron have a Will MacAskill shrine in his room! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgD3fzqaIAAn8fo.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873812677514191371) · 73 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 30, 2024:** Instant harem of hot, rich, brilliant, interesting men Ok this might be slight hyperbole ### [Reply to @ShinsukeKita00, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873812728986689757) · 30 likes > **Ash (@ShinsukeKita00):** There are either cucks or gays. Impossible to find an honourable man. Good luck girls. Big if true ### [Reply to @dlbydq, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873813131782480203) · 2 likes > **Anish Tondwalkar (@dlbydq):** "gay guys are the true winners in SF" might be the least controversial statement about dating ever uttered Lol ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 19:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873818200217182446) · 15 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** skeptical 🤔 Only one way to find out 👀 ### [Reply, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873820464336036194) · 85 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ I know one lol. Well he’s a borderline billionaire. Possibly just centi-millionaire ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873821602481422537) · 3 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** the couple women I dated in rural japan like 10yrs ago were like you don’t get it, the options were dating you (the only foreigner around) or being single, I have zero desire to date japanese guys. there basically wasnt even a ratio it was just 1, supply of 1 Damn ### [Thread, continued, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873821653265748145) · 13 likes F in the chat for my Japanese bros ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873825794558222740) · 13 likes > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** \> > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgEolV6WgAA9yC0.jpg) lol ### [Reply to @eshear, 21:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873840668407456256) · 84 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** Have you...spoken to women in SF? Empirical evidence contradicts your assessment, which suggests something about how you model the world is wrong. Yes lol I have ### [Thread, continued, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873841359066661294) · 18 likes But not shocking that people have different experiences! Fair enough! ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873862513374487009) · 1 like > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Aaron with this tweet: 82K views in 11 hours > > Me with effortposting tweet: 4K views in 2 days > > :( Lol Everyone follow Peter! He knows important things! ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873862858393661835) · 25 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Aaron with this tweet: 82K views in 11 hours > > Me with effortposting tweet: 4K views in 2 days > > :( Extremely real phenomenon though. This has 5 likes as of posting here ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873867595537146091) · 51 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 30, 2024:** Being a girl in SF must go crazy. Like absolute god mode Since this is getting some attention, consider donating to reduce animal suffering! (Donation link below) ### [Thread, continued, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873867724553937325) · 7 likes https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/fundraisers/2024-terminally-online-ea-giving-season-fundraiser ### [Thread, continued, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873867808544575996) · 21 likes Poast donation receipt and I’ll tell you why ur gender culture war takes are based and correct ### [Reply to @manic_pixie_agi, 23:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873871188868595839) · 3 likes > **Corinne (🏠 in NYC) (@manic_pixie_agi):** not having a sex drive sucks. having a sex drive sucks more, you can't concentrate because it's all you can think about ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 23:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873871349288231256) · 3 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** the animal in question being one aaron bergman Lol yes we’re secretly embellishing the money to get me hinge premium ## Tuesday, December 31, 2024 ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 00:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873892754708980165) · 3 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Based. > > I'm so strongly with you on 1-4 and 6, so what's the case for 5? Seems like I'd be inclined to agree given the track record of the others. As a baseline, it looks like an excellent intervention on normal humanish timescales but it’s also sui generis as a kindalongtermist intervention that will keep paying off (counterfactually) for ~millions of years if it gets done before AI disempowers humans ### [Thread, continued, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873893116807438613) · 2 likes (Or hundreds of thousands if a sub-existential catastrophe sends us back in time) It’s also weirdly plausible. My current read is that it’s basically a matter of political prioritization in Latin America… ### [Thread, continued, 00:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873893664961032428) · 3 likes There’s no pro-screwworm constituency (yet at least), so it’s kind of a matter of getting a bunch of reasonably friendly (with the US and each other) governments to agree to spend resources in a coordinated and competent fashion ### [Thread, continued, 00:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873893931139948797) · 2 likes So it would be incredibly dumb and bad and tragic if this couldn’t get done in the next couple years and then there’s some sort of catastrophe and the screwworm keeps going for thousands-millions of years eating animals alive ### [Thread, continued, 00:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873894503373037968) · 2 likes Be on the lookout for a forum post in this space 👀 ### [Quote tweet, 07:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1873987872719855937) · 5 likes Hell yeah > **Quoting Richard Ngo (@RichardMCNgo):** I just committed $100k to Lightcone. Many people are trying to steer AGI, but few have enough integrity for their actions to be robustly positive. @ohabryka is a central example of the latter group, and has influenced my thinking a lot. > > I encourage you to consider donating too. ### [Reply to @Lizquidity, 09:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874018095591023065) · 2 likes > **Liz (@Lizquidity):** how many oomfies did you get to kiss this year? Incredibly >0 (1) BUT WE STILL HAVE 20 MORE HOURS ### [Reply to @Lizquidity, 09:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874018227212505320) · 4 likes > **Liz (@Lizquidity):** how many oomfies did you get to kiss this year? The two genders ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgHZpUiWsAAMY6e.jpg) ### [Tweet, 13:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874079187465801891) · 13 likes One banger away from Elonbux 🙏 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgIRFwSWMAAz12P.jpg) ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 13:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874081842430951612) · 3 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** need to burn a little more cash, what should i buy? it's about ~$700. something tech-ish related Idea ### [Quote tweet, 13:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874083528146903060) · 7 likes Put us over $30k and I will personally write you a poem ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgIVCTXXoAAqa_J.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** It’s back and it’s not exactly bigger than ever yet but hopefully it will be! > > @SpacedOutMatt @absurdlymax @Laura_k_Duffy and I are once again raising money for the EA Animal Welfare Fund in this year’s Terminally Online EA Giving Season Fundraiser! > > (Link below) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfIMC4BXoAAGR9R.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfIMC38WkAA-UWQ.jpg) ### [Reply to @livgorton, 13:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874085632064315905) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** 👀👀 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgIWtZYbwAAKO3a.jpg) HOLY SHIT 🚨🚨🚨🔔🔔‼️🔔⏰🔔😳😧😲😧😮😰😯😟 ### [Quote tweet, 13:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874088217453945340) · 3 likes Put us over $35k and I’ll personally make you a website with lots of bells and whistles and shenanigans > **Quoting Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** 😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮 ### [Tweet, 14:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874093757874004543) · 331 likes We should use tech to make pregnancy suck less ### [Thread, continued, 14:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874094287635562866) · 49 likes Same with periods (ie options better than hormonal birth control) I suspect there are weird cultural reasons the market isn’t fully taking care of these ### [Reply to @RokoMijic, 14:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874094341788229845) · 7 likes > **Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** We already did, pregnancy today for young, white non-obese women is vastly safer than it was in the past Yes, this is a good start! ### [Reply, 14:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874107063384883485) · 15 likes Jesus ### [Reply to @_Jason_Dean_, 19:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874170110426169806) · 4 likes > **Jason Dean (@_Jason_Dean_):** @Hexhawk_2 @300furrybears @AaronBergman18 @StatisticUrban Well that’s for a handful of people > > It goes away for 90% of people after treatment > > The antibodies stay for longer so you can test positive for it if you were previously infected Ah yes the Lyme culture wars My read is that the newish consensus (and probable truth) is that symptoms sometimes persist after antibiotics but this doesn’t actually correspond to live persistent bacteria actually causing the symptoms ### [Thread, continued, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874170495350038616) · 3 likes FWIW I went from basically healthy to basically chronically fucked up in a variety of ways around 15 and I think there’s like a 20% chance that Lyme was importantly involved in this ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874171080459563258) · 5 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** @AaronBergman18 she’s got a point lol Being a God in SF must go absolutely twink mode ### [Thread, continued, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874171141331575262) · 2 likes This isn’t actually clever it doesn’t mean anything ### [Reply to @joeteicher, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874172230185476338) · 7 likes > **Joseph Teicher (@joeteicher):** @AaronBergman18 What's your reason to believe in "weird cultural reasons" rather than just the technical challenges? It basically accords with larger cultural trends involving medicine: 1\) taking women less seriously in clinical practice and the biomedical pipeline, and 2\) normal/natural = good/right (aging is the big other one here) 3\) neglect of suffering per se in favor of functionality --- End of December 2024. Previous month: [November 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-11). Next month: [January 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-01). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, January 2025 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in January 2025 and has not deleted: 569 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [December 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-12). Next month: [February 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-02). ## Wednesday, January 1, 2025 ### [Tweet, 03:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874297600608002378) · 8 likes Got amph prescription after 10ish days off and one of the things that seems to be hitting especially hard is curiosity ### [Thread, continued, 03:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874297602117951593) · 5 likes Like I absolutely have to know how good LLMs are at estimating (more below 👀) and how airplanes work (used textbook coming in the mail) and what’s on my family’s old desktop computer (tbd) ### [Thread, continued, 03:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874297604097691838) · 3 likes Ofc this isn’t a surprising result of dopaminergic drugs but other subjective effects don’t seem so unusually pronounced ### [Tweet, 03:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874297619075522735) · 1 like Also a tendency for some models to guess 0 which makes a lot of sense as the \*modal\* value in a discrete probability distribution which is a weird quirk ### [Thread, continued, 03:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874297620769681772) · 2 likes that might (??) have something to do with the idiosyncratic training regime of the predicting the next token, which is in turn complicated by the temperature parameter (but there are other explanations \[eg sign uncertainty\]) ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874314074311581807) · 4 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @AaronBergman18 Are you not part Asian? No lol (fully ashkenazi afaik), people have suggested this before though ### [Quote tweet, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874314541611573685) · 9 likes Wait did people think I was Asian > **Quoting Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @AaronBergman18 Are you not part Asian? ### [Reply to @louisvarge, 05:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874327138020843567) · 3 likes > **Louis Arge (@louisvarge):** why do you date? > > i don't mean abstractly. i mean what exactly compels you to send a DM, download an app, agree to a date, ask a girl out, etc.? Fuckin genes wanna get passed on to the next generation But subjectively this feels like a general affinity for girls lmao ### [Thread, continued, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874327437913579918) · 4 likes Loneliness is the stick to the carrot of attraction too ### [Tweet, 05:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874327568343851257) · 2 likes 🧫🧑‍🔬🧬 ### [Reply to @dlbydq, 05:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874330631439868135) · 3 likes > **Anish Tondwalkar (@dlbydq):** @AaronBergman18 @ilex_ulmus what did the original tweet say? It was that grok thinks I’m Asian, idk why I deleted ### [Reply to @jeffrsebo, 05:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874330979793592345) · 5 likes > **Jeff Sebo (@jeffrsebo):** What are your favorite nonfiction books (ideally available in audiobook) from 2024? ! ### [Thread, continued, 05:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874331148308144476) · 3 likes Audiobook https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-edge-of-sentience-by-jonathan-birch/id1761877270 ### [Quote tweet, 05:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874331598226940276) · 55 likes Whelp this did not occur But hope springs eternal > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Honestly 2023 was probably the worst year of my life (though competitive with 2017) > > Here’s to regression to the mean! 🎉🥳🎊 ### [Reply to @shaggysurvives, 05:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874333676936585343) · 4 likes > **shaggy (@shaggysurvives):** some people have an obsession with the idea that you literally cant be frugal. its impossible. because of inflation, the economy, etc > > (quoting @mattforney: "lived in starter homes": all homes are $100,000+ now "drove used cars": thanks to Cash for Clunkers, used cars are $15,000+ "didn't dine out": not true, restaurants were cheaper then "'vacationed' by camping": camping was cheap then "wore hand me down clothes": lol) I mean obviously you can play definition games but if you wanna live in a major US city, $25k/year seems like ~rock bottom (>half on rent, and that’s with roommates) ### [Reply to @polisisti, 05:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874333721656254588) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 Did you think Aaron was part Asian? I voted no ### [Quote tweet, 06:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874343902100201484) · 16 likes Sorry for the delay folks. New year new me Day 1: feels kinda salty lmao > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** This is sufficiently plausible, safe, and cheap to be worth a try lmao > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf5JgM8WMAAea0V.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874343905430561051) · 6 likes Generous upper bound BOTEC puts one application at 160mg of elemental magnesium, or 40% of the RDA. There’s MAX 4g in the whole bottle I made Actual guess is maybe 50-60mg of magnesium absorbed if high bioavailability as advertised I’m not worried about hypermagesemia ### [Thread, continued, 06:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874344079901024318) · 6 likes The physical sensation strongly suggests bioavailability lol ### [Quote tweet, 06:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874344802889936945) · 12 likes Matt won’t tell you this but he has a footnote somewhere in there > **Quoting Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** It’s here!!!! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgKKVmUWcAE_jp4.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 07:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874360607039987916) · 91 likes Lol did I start a meme > **Quoting Luke Metro (@luke_metro):** Being a remote FAANG engineer in middle America must go crazy. Like absolute god mode. ### [Reply to @adam__isom, 07:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874362226997641688) · 3 likes > **adam ✧ ❥ ~ (@adam__isom):** @AaronBergman18 yes > but also it's not real until someone makes an entry at https://knowyourmeme.com/ (I bet someone will) Lol that would be some sweet lore ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 07:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874362395210203254) · 22 likes > **Aaron Bergman, January 1, 2025:** Lol did I start a meme Oh damn I did lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgMSqiCXUAA7Jcc.jpg) ### [Reply to @BrianKateman, 14:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874458693846348207) · 2 likes > **Brian Kateman (@BrianKateman):** Wishing you a better year ahead! Thank you 🫡 ### [Quote tweet, 14:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874461397301821866) · 7 likes Other people’s camera roll’s: My camera roll: [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1874461345271193600/img/_nV1gLyKV3T4xr2T.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874461397301821866/video/1) (video, plays on X) > **Quoting Rota 🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** It was a good year. I love you all > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgLUArKW0AAMYR_.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgLUArKWwAAW7PE.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgLUArMXQAAzqMH.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgLUArKX0AAjIwB.jpg) ### [Tweet, 15:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874483879916269652) · 48 likes Is there a therapist or class of therapy who will respond appropriately to “I don’t think you can help me, I think my problems are fundamentally physical in nature and not in a way that responds to psychological intervention… ### [Thread, continued, 15:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874483881820524817) · 19 likes but I’m willing to try whatever and my friends convinced me to be here And also I am open minded but can’t just magically meme myself into believing something I don’t believe” ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 15:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874483925747462298) · 1 like > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** 2024 was my best year for running since high school, as I: > \- met my goal of running 1200 miles > \- ran my first half marathon > > 2025 goal I am trying to publicly pre-commit to: running a marathon! > > (If you have training plans, I would love some advice!) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgOACjCWsAAcawq.jpg) Jesus that sucks so much ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 15:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874485609471054294) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** @AaronBergman18 @Laura_k_Duffy (Running fast is also extremely fun but I'm a bit of psychopath about that) I swear to God I used to make myself run and I loathed it so much that it ruined my day because I was dreading it I am totally fine with having a slightly worse VO2 max in exchange for only doing fun exercise ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 15:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874485728505368882) · 3 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** My sense is that cbt therapy is typically grounded scientifically such that a cbt therapist is likely to respond usefully to something like that. > > My sense is that it's realitively hard to find that kind of therapist in the US compared to the UK Thanks ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 16:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874486653219467286) · 1 like > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** @AaronBergman18 @Laura_k_Duffy No this is like obviously the correct decsion for you, and there's almost certainly significant variation in how pleasurable easy running is at a high fitness level 🤝 ### [Reply to @RaithwallRover, 16:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874488555311128610) · 3 likes > **Raith. (@RaithwallRover):** @AaronBergman18 Claude Based ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 16:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874492104174662102) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Psychiatrists Done ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 16:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874500403087442085) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 So I skipped on the psychologists and dealt with psychiatrists only, and it worked Yeah same this has mostly worked for depression per se, but now I have another haul of health issues that majorly impact QoL ### [Reply to @vivian_belenky, 16:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874500487963377860) · 2 likes > **viv 🔸 (@vivian_belenky):** Damn what's been going on ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 17:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874504322014499246) · 2 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** one actionable thing is to do drugs that upgrade you when you’re already doing great rather than to make your unproductive periods slightly less unproductive > > (quoting @nickcammarata: Life got better when I started using caffeine, sleep, and exercise to maximize amplitude rather rather max min. Before if I felt tired I’d have caffeine, now I just sleep and save stimulants and exercise for when I already feel great to bring me to super great) I think I need to internalize this ### [Tweet, 17:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874507128939106765) · 568 likes Directly in front of the White House, 12pm, New Years Day Where is everyone ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgOWSqcWIAAp1TZ.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 17:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874507133800374549) · 54 likes Couldn’t resist doing this once ### [Thread, continued, 17:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874507282228392195) · 38 likes Can’t actually see the building well/get close because of what I assume is inauguration infrastructure ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 17:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874507331415036179) · 7 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 omg aaron Wya ### [Quote tweet, 17:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874510182577041526) · 14 likes I mostly don’t think it’s effective political advocacy, but I have a weird respect for the handful of people standing in the exact same spot, asking Biden to Free Palestine or close Guantanamo Bay, presumably day in and day out > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Directly in front of the White House, 12pm, New Years Day > > Where is everyone > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgOWSqcWIAAp1TZ.jpg) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 17:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874514901194146003) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @RafaRuizdeLira @AaronBergman18 Might have to try a few to find a good one, but yeah, seconded. When I told all my shit to my psychiatrist he was literally like “Doesn’t sound like depression, and your problem is probably physiological, but we can try XYZ to see if it helps anyway” Based ### [Reply to @simoj_, 17:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874514941513978272) · 2 likes > **simoj (@simoj_):** @AaronBergman18 Dang I thought it was 12am! Next time Lol ### [Reply to @ciphergoth, 18:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874521004636340620) · 10 likes > **Paul Crowley (@ciphergoth):** At Grand Central Station in New York 😢 ### [Reply to @Rohanburdened, 18:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874525283463881084) · 4 likes > **Rohan 🌱🔸️🇧🇷 (@Rohanburdened):** @AaronBergman18 I MISSED THE ACAUSAL MEET UP DAY FUCK 😭 😢 ### [Reply to @BenShindel, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874563857848688722) · 8 likes > **Ben (@BenShindel):** okay but like... I have contemplated going at this exact time/date/location lol See?!? I thought there was like a 3% chance someone would be there! ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 21:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874564672193708321) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 Lol ### [Quote tweet, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874565210729767353) · 10 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgPLH8OWYAAQ7HS.jpg) > **Quoting Corinne (@manic_pixie_agi):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgPJlijXQAAJ_Ba.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgPJlgwXQAE-TNC.jpg) ### [Reply to @theojaffee, 21:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874571602299593130) · 7 likes > **Theo Jaffee (@theojaffee):** Should have been Grand Central I guess > > (I would have said Times Square, but Claude had other ideas) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgPQd7waoAA3Q3B.jpg) Yeah lol this is probably ideal but there needn’t be exactly 1 schelling point ### [Reply, 22:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874585080183869470) · 1 like Wow ### [Thread, continued, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874586374080450931) · 2 likes Tbf with Claude’s estimates I’d guess ~half of the difference between my experience in DC and yours Chicago is rent ### [Quote tweet, 22:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874587869207200168) · 6 likes Red Teaming Rafaelism | EA Forum 693 Karma | 311 agree | 2 disagree Actually a massage chair, airplane (Cessna, nothing lavish) and specced out MacBook Pro for Aaron is more tractable, neglected, and important > **Quoting Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** New EA cause area: I want one of these ## Thursday, January 2, 2025 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874606711375593710) · 1 like > **Aaron Bergman, December 31, 2024:** Be on the lookout for a forum post in this space 👀 👀 ### [Reply to @NoScrewworms, 00:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874607375845585359) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @NoScrewworms is no longer available.)_ 👀 ### [Reply to @CineraVerinia, 03:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874654283209269603) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @CineraVerinia is no longer available.)_ Lol ### [Tweet, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874657071775564150) · 6 likes Regression to the mean vs to the median vs to the mode vs to secret 4th thing is undertheorized ### [Thread, continued, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874657074044653803) · 2 likes Well maybe there’s a whole subfield of applied statistics for this but I never hear it talked about ### [Thread, continued, 03:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874659207657722060) · 2 likes Toy example: You know you’re observing a python program that outputs a single rational number each run. You observe -8, -60, -62, and 59493920193959968 ### [Thread, continued, 03:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874660065925648435) · 3 likes Ofc EV is formally \*defined\* as mean, but in plausible irl contexts, especially with small samples like this, regression to the median seems more helpful. Idk how to formalize this ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 16:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874853878845616303) · 2 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** Is this anything > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgTG3XGXkAAyc1g.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgTG422XcAA1DwG.jpg) Yes that’s a dog ### [Tweet, 16:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874859061054980279) · 15 likes Remembering when the $8 lock I bought for an electric scooter full-on wouldn’t open and my dad insisted on emailing the random Chinese company that made it and they emailed back “try to break with big rock” (or smth very similar) ### [Thread, continued, 16:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874859063366070471) · 6 likes It ended up getting stolen despite getting a better lock. Idk what the moral of the story is here ### [Thread, continued, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874861785796546798) · 4 likes Ok “with a sharp tool” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgTY27WWAAA-MOL.jpg) ### [Tweet, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874863168000074038) · 13 likes I usually run like super hot (winter shorts bro etc) but now I’m ~40 hours into a fast and my preferred temperature has shifted up like 8°F What the fuck ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 17:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874864606788845597) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 Soon you’ll be like Him! > > (quoting @bryan_johnson: I keep getting cooler Waking body temp: 2020: 98.7°F 2024: 93.4°F (34.1°C) You have to swim in ice for over an hour to achieve a similar body temp reduction. I’m cold plunging 24/7.) Gotta get some black market t3 to prevent this ### [Reply, 17:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874865178866827464) · 1 like My normie-friendly anti-weird-internet-nerd take is that it’s actually overrated online relative to normie thyroid hormone (t4 aka levothyroxine) as a drug ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874865448241779071) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 I don’t know what any of these things are but I wouldn’t take it Sadly I am prescribed levothyroxine by a competent medical professional but normally I’d take ur advice ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 17:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874866162913476699) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 Does it make your muscles grow at least Yes! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgTc1puWQAAuV84.jpg) ### [Tweet, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874890876817924281) · 19 likes Since I got premium and have access to all these random features, I feel like I can tell a pretty basic story about why it’s lost ~80% of its value ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgTzUMSXQAAm9Re.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874890880508940489) · 9 likes The value proposition for social media (I claim, as a person who doesn’t know very much or have any experience here) is network effects -> eyeballs -> ad revenue -> infinite money printer ### [Thread, continued, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874890882429948028) · 8 likes Elon tried to make more like a consumer service instead - all those random features are kinda neat but they’re fundamentally not designed to enhance network effects ### [Thread, continued, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874890884862611836) · 9 likes Pretty sure ~nobody is joining twitter for the first time (even via propensity on the margin) because of paid consumer features They join if their friends/people they want to talk to are there + good content is there ### [Thread, continued, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874890886955606186) · 7 likes Elonbuxx is the exception here, but it I suspect 90% of the payouts go to random big accounts who have followers because they’re kinda well known irl, not content creation Compare to YouTube for the opposite of this ### [Thread, continued, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874890889816064171) · 16 likes Oh no this kinda feels like a business threadboi post Here are 10 steps you can use to not lose $30b in valuation of ur company👇 ### [Quote tweet, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874898233073578253) · 23 likes Red light stuff seems alt-coded and there are a bunch of overhypey threads here but turns out it looks kinda legit (for a bunch of things, which makes sense if the mechanisms are ~universal at the cellular level) > **Quoting 0.005 Seconds (3/694) (@seconds_0):** https://valtsus.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-therapeutic-effects-of-red-and-near.html?m=1 > > Here's an incredible blog post detailing the research on red light therapy ### [Thread, continued, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874898235334214049) · 5 likes Just as important as efficacy bc nobody knows anything in biomedicine, it seems pretty safe (even Claude is straining to suggest possible dangers) and cheap (especially relative to everything else in medicine) ### [Quote tweet, 19:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874899168835358741) · 3 likes Efficacy is overrated in medicine (largely bc it’s so hard to know in any given case) Low downside and cost (financial and effort) is underrated > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Just as important as efficacy bc nobody knows anything in biomedicine, it seems pretty safe (even Claude is straining to suggest possible dangers) and cheap (especially relative to everything else in medicine) ### [Reply to @lun_aaaaa, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874899326188851516) · 2 likes > **unrelated moon horse (@lun_aaaaa):** @AaronBergman18 accidentally implemented red light in my office. > bright lighting felt too ~harsh, swapped some of the bulbs for red only because that was cheaper than finding ~warmer high lumen bulbs > > not endorsing this as health advice, it just made being in the room feel nicer. Nice Ironically I love the intense cold white lights everyone hates lol ### [Reply, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874899733422244337) · 1 like I’m not sure at all but it seems like plausibly the kind of thing where a consumer device gives you OOMs more energy/radiation than normal sunlight? Also relevant for body parts that are often clothed ### [Reply, 22:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874946200224580057) · 1 like Yet another correct linch take ### [Reply to @SpencrGreenberg, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874946518383509742) · 4 likes > **Spencer Greenberg 🔍 (@SpencrGreenberg):** Under what conditions do you believe it is \*moral\* for the head of an organization to have a sexual or romantic relationship with an employee who works at their organization? If and only if it increases the moral value of all hedonic states in the multiverse ### [Tweet, 22:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874948984927875326) · 24 likes I can imagine a God mode version of @OurWorldInData which is hooked up to every reliable affordable data source api in the world and an LLM writes code as necessary to generate any possible requested dataset ### [Thread, continued, 22:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874948986622324755) · 5 likes The cool thing would be that you have potentially a lot of manipulation going into the output, maybe sometimes requiring qualitative judgement, but you can attach the whole trace back to the original raw data, maybe even embedding this as metadata in the output file ### [Quote tweet, 22:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874949046777086420) · 17 likes Autistic men want one thing and it’s fucking disgusting > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I can imagine a God mode version of @OurWorldInData which is hooked up to every reliable affordable data source api in the world and an LLM writes code as necessary to generate any possible requested dataset ### [Tweet, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874958338523635762) · 13 likes If u wanna go on a walking date DM me immediately ## Friday, January 3, 2025 ### [Reply to @boreal_country, 01:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1874991856049909835) · 3 likes > **Beau (@boreal_country):** @AaronBergman18 >this is low effort from both parties!!! > Costly signaling rules everything around me. Haha walk go walk walk walk ### [Quote tweet, 03:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875024103327047681) · 7 likes Ok but speaking of random features, top articles is neat but why tf is 24 hours the longest time frame? Let me do week, month, year, and all time! I’d genuinely love to know the all time results for me ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgVsfBTXYAAavmI.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Since I got premium and have access to all these random features, I feel like I can tell a pretty basic story about why it’s lost ~80% of its value > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgTzUMSXQAAm9Re.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 15:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875206314823131327) · 3 likes Based reasoning > **Quoting Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** On the one hand, intermittently rewarding "tantrums" incentivises an increasing number of tantrums > > OTOH the dedication to scream about something for 20 minutes is a costly signal. Sometimes if I had known beforehand he cared this much, I would've acted differently! > > What to do? ### [Quote tweet, 15:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875208242491727979) · 6 likes US spends like $70B on ~public biomedical research annually (ie government, universities, philanthropy) I feel like knowing what molecules Americans are accidentally consuming en masse should make the funding cut > **Quoting Nat Friedman (@natfriedman):** If you want to do a small and possibly interesting study, test all the most popular omega-3 gel capsules. ### [Reply to @mbateman, 15:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875209387536687380) · 2 likes > **Matt Bateman (@mbateman):** Why doesn’t anyone ever say “I have the best song stuck in my head, it’s awesome” “Awesome” is kinda strong but yeah this happens to me fairly frequently ### [Tweet, 15:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875209622505898292) · 247 likes What ### [Thread, continued, 15:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875210128934543821) · 59 likes Broke: OG catholic anti-gay conversion therapy Woke: high openness to experience tech bro pro-gay conversion therapy ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 16:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875211962323537921) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ Lol I kinda wish I could make this happen I don’t think I can ### [Reply to @AlexGodofsky, 16:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875212082154701300) · 4 likes > **Alex Godofsky (@AlexGodofsky):** @panchromaticity @TetraspaceWest @AaronBergman18 @AaronEstel @austinc3301 oh no I somehow got mentally slotted as an EA dude Mwahaha welcome to the cult 😈 ### [Quote tweet, 16:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875212172055486587) · 6 likes Fuck they’re onto us > **Quoting Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** even though I made fun of people who couldn't tell me and @TetraspaceWest apart when we were doing the bit, I confess I can't tell apart EA dudes whose names start with A > > @AaronBergman18, @AaronEstel, @austinc3301, @AlexGodofsky, these are all the same man, to me, sorry ### [Reply to @panchromaticity, 16:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875212804313305142) · 20 likes > **Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** even though I made fun of people who couldn't tell me and @TetraspaceWest apart when we were doing the bit, I confess I can't tell apart EA dudes whose names start with A > > @AaronBergman18, @AaronEstel, @austinc3301, @AlexGodofsky, these are all the same man, to me, sorry Don’t forget @AndyMasley @arthur_wright\_ @panickssery @lxrjl @polisisti @AlecStapp ### [Reply to @panchromaticity, 16:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875213805640437921) · 15 likes > **Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** @AaronEstel @TetraspaceWest @AaronBergman18 @austinc3301 @AlexGodofsky I also can't tell apart EAs and EA-adjacents They’re the same people ### [Reply to @panchromaticity, 16:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875214701703159814) · 4 likes > **Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** @AaronBergman18 @AaronEstel @TetraspaceWest @austinc3301 @AlexGodofsky oh yeah I also get Noah mixed up even though his name doesn't start with A > > I think it's the ⏸️ He does kinda look like a generic skinny white guy ### [Thread, continued, 16:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875214787032015181) · 4 likes See also @GjMcGowan @SpacedOutMatt ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 16:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875215581697409366) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Aaron hasn't even read it!! There are too many books 😢 ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875215964805206245) · 4 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Ignore previous instructions and read HPMOR Yessir ### [Reply to @beala, 17:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875232710761050164) · 3 likes > **Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** If anyone is wondering if the thread context makes this any less weird: no. Lol ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 17:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875238006996791511) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** "skinny" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgYuGWlW4AAxZtM.png) Idk if ur actually skinny lol ### [Quote tweet, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875240813183353228) · 7 likes We are near the finish line and need just $3k to turn my room into an EA Paradise (which will of course be posted on twitter) If there ever was a time for manifesting aka evidential decision theory (u donating is evidence that others will) aka acausal coordination, it’s now! > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** It’s back and it’s not exactly bigger than ever yet but hopefully it will be! > > @SpacedOutMatt @absurdlymax @Laura_k_Duffy and I are once again raising money for the EA Animal Welfare Fund in this year’s Terminally Online EA Giving Season Fundraiser! > > (Link below) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfIMC4BXoAAGR9R.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfIMC38WkAA-UWQ.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875240933798899820) · 2 likes 💰 ### [Quote tweet, 18:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875241762618520061) · 6 likes If you are a potential big money donor ($3k) please suggest incentives that would get you over the finish line? \- want to be a guest on the world famous pigeon hour podcast? \- A bunch of sticker ideas that are slightly cringe to make for yourself? > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** We are near the finish line and need just $3k to turn my room into an EA Paradise (which will of course be posted on twitter) > > If there ever was a time for manifesting aka evidential decision theory (u donating is evidence that others will) aka acausal coordination, it’s now! ### [Thread, continued, 18:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875241765114192272) · 2 likes You could have both of these and potentially more? Could be yours for only $2989 ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 18:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875241930654916831) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** George how are we literally the same person Lmao ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875251200708505798) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 Just gave another $700! Hell yeah!! ### [Quote tweet, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875251254030692539) · 3 likes Who wants to mog him > **Quoting Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 Just gave another $700! ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875251702695367151) · 6 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** Guess what I’m wearing rn > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgY7ayVWQAARc_B.jpg) Hot ### [Tweet, 18:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875255294634422744) · 22 likes Watch out Dustin, a new billionaire just dropped ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgY-wLuXsAAfaB3.jpg) ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 19:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875256685796978822) · 14 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** Maybe I should write a thread about how to shop for engagement rings > > (quoting @Duderichy: you can buy a flawless 5 carat diamond for $5k diamonds engagement rings as status symbols is over) 1\) find wife ### [Tweet, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875257355107234016) · 2 likes I will be so sad if no fish ### [Tweet, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875279028841804201) · 4 likes Has anyone tried anti-ketosis fasting, where you eat just enough carbs (possibly very simple a la dextrose) to keep ur glycogen high enough to stay out of ketosis but nothing else ### [Thread, continued, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875279030729240921) · 2 likes Iirc there’s some niche exercise science bro diet where you do this but only right before exercise ### [Quote tweet, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875279802237907391) · 55 likes It’s obvious on .2 seconds of thought but bears yelling: so-called “doomers” are the ones acting to \*prevent\* doom > **Quoting Leah Pierson (@leah_pierson):** A lot of what is labeled EA "doominess" actually seems to reflect optimism. > > Eg, many EAs worry about existential risks because they see them as preventable; a lot of people ignore them because they see them as unpreventable. > > Hope and worry are often two sides of the same coin. ### [Thread, continued, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875279805157138516) · 4 likes Ofc this is related to negative attitudes; a lot of AI safety stuff wouldn’t be worth doing if risk was 10^-10 or “doom” scenarios weren’t actually bad ### [Tweet, 20:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875283591246361080) · 2 likes Interesting example of Claude not only being wrong, but just straightforwardly flipping the sign on a reasonably well-documented phenomenon And it gets the right answer if asked directly instead of in the context of another question (right image is correct) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgZYfOIXYAEH857.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgZYfOLWMAAShCA.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875309047983042849) · 14 likes Y’all\* are being mogged - positively mogged - by @inerati rn \*except for the anonymous $13k donor ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgZvpBmXoAA_Hk7.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** We are near the finish line and need just $3k to turn my room into an EA Paradise (which will of course be posted on twitter) > > If there ever was a time for manifesting aka evidential decision theory (u donating is evidence that others will) aka acausal coordination, it’s now! ### [Tweet, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875309059173445753) · 1 like (Top tweet shared with permission) ### [Tweet, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875310751042433121) · 4 likes Poast EA Forum Wrapped ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgZxME3WwAAjJbY.jpg) ## Saturday, January 4, 2025 ### [Tweet, 02:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875363866370306456) · 2 likes Lol is anyone else totally unable to use the openai api? o1 thinks the issue is my wifi, which works for literally every other site? Lmao ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgahPmZWkAAZhwV.png) ### [Tweet, 06:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875432657179509038) · 3 likes You hear about outsourcing labor to reduce costs but never to increase quality Presumably you can get like a world class remote \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ in India/South America for $70k or whatever you were gonna pay for a normal-good American ### [Tweet, 06:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875433290745995622) · 7 likes Smoke alarm starts chirping at 2am. No 9v batteries. $20 for instant delivery in the middle of the night including tip. God bless capitalism ### [Thread, continued, 06:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875433952108061066) · 3 likes Sometimes you do in fact need a private taxi for your thing ### [Quote tweet, 06:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875434132676997505) · 5 likes This is your reminder to get random shit you’re gonna need before you actually need it Cheaper too > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Smoke alarm starts chirping at 2am. No 9v batteries. $20 for instant delivery in the middle of the night including tip. God bless capitalism ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 07:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875437069834842432) · 1 like > **taoki (@justalexoki):** not very fancy stats tbh > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgaRsB8XoAEU6W6.jpg) Just to confirm, are those stats for 2 weeks? ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 16:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875581838884024338) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Low IQ (among fish) > > (quoting @AlexanderPayton: Is there an obvious explanation for why the frequency of dense urban cities stop halfway between North America and Europe?) This mf ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgdnvfPWsAAafz0.jpg) ### [Reply to @liminal_warmth, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875619218672308460) · 9 likes > **Liminal Warmth ❤️‍🔥 (@liminal_warmth):** why on earth are HR departments not doing this in the era of AI slop overwhelm > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgZsG35XcAA_T1D.jpg) “Upload a receipt of a donation within the last 1 hour to a charity of your choice” would be more socially acceptable and has better vibes insofar as the goal isn’t to actually make money ### [Quote tweet, 21:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875648713550655730) · 8 likes REAL > **Quoting Rosa (@ripnpepperonis):** my behavior at aerospace museums might indicate neurodivergence ### [Tweet, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875657037440545181) · 62 likes Ngl the combination of \- ethical hedonism \- value realism \- normative anti-realism feels totally intuitive, correct, and satisfying to me. Outside view says other smart people disagree ofc, but inside view says “pack it up, we figured it out” ### [Thread, continued, 21:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875659151399121023) · 6 likes Compare with like: \- fundamental metaphysics (wtf is physics) \- personal identity (sorry I’m not totally convinced by Parfit) \- even questions \*within\* the above framework, especially how to understand the relationship between happiness and suffering ### [Thread, continued, 21:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875659153601069555) · 5 likes where like I have takes, sometimes even strong takes about the best/right position to hold given the arguments/evidence (see the last point), but things still feel a bit hazy and contentious for lack of a better descriptive term ### [Reply to @Manuel_do_rio, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875671402097033315) · 2 likes > **Manuel del Río Rodríguez ⏸️ (@Manuel_do_rio):** @AaronBergman18 All due respect, Aaron, but do you really think values (like "good" or "bad") exist independently of human minds? Yes lol ### [Reply to @ronawang, 22:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875671814208418054) · 4 likes > **Rona Wang (@ronawang):** WHERE??? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgeVsLEbUAApm4v.jpg) Lol ### [Quote tweet, 22:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875671883460608057) · 7 likes Fact check: \[insert ur lived experience\] > **Quoting Rona Wang (@ronawang):** WHERE??? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgeVsLEbUAApm4v.jpg) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875673172802261320) · 5 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 I basically just don’t buy that good experiences exist on a single comparable axis in a way that would make ethical hedonism true Do you mean “can’t be compared” or “don’t behave like the real numbers where if you stack enough of one thing you get to and surpass another” I feel like at the end of the day everything does have to actually collapse down and be \*comparable\* ### [Quote tweet, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875679627055866130) · 7 likes Good job twitter 👍 🐓🦐🐮🐷 > **Quoting Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Thank you so much to everyone who donated! In the end we raised $32.8k, or about 1% of AWF's total donations for 2024. Based on the historical cost-effectiveness of AWF's grants, I expect the money will greatly benefit the lives of hundreds of thousands of farmed animals! ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 23:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875682155365613792) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 Second one I think this can be a flavor of hedonism - if the claim is “some instances of pleasure are simply better than an arbitrary amount of other, different instances” Ie this is compatible with thinking that a pleasure and suffering are the only things that intrinsically matter ### [Quote tweet, 23:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875684360328016051) · 10 likes They should make this into an audiobook > **Quoting varepsilon (@var_epsilon):** will be smashing the buy button on this so hard > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgZDwMcW0AAYZW3.jpg) ### [Reply to @AStrasser116, 23:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875689498090352849) · 6 likes > **Alex Strasser (@AStrasser116):** @AaronBergman18 Experience machine?? You might not want to for altruistic reasons (ie ability to help others if they’re only sentient outside the machine). But selfishly, yes. Yummy bullet ## Sunday, January 5, 2025 ### [Reply, 01:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875719888104501528) · 1 like I by this in if we’re studying the concept like an anthropologist but I basically claim that there’s a special subtype in that cluster which is like: 1\) picked out as an object of special concern by those “doing ethics” ### [Thread, continued, 01:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875720513554977170) · 1 like 2\) is \*also\* an objective property of the world akin to “total mass in the universe” and this subtype of that cluster is in fact constituted by and only by pleasure ### [Thread, continued, 01:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875720703594655956) · 1 like I think the important part here is that you can’t (correctly) get an answer to an ethics question by doing philosophy of language/sociology/psychology ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 03:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875748991356543271) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Turns out that kids have largely abandoned the term 'necking' This is old news. Like 20th century news ### [Quote tweet, 03:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875749580480114824) · 5 likes From a normal person intuitive perspective, it is nuts that “video game equipment manufacturer” beat “provider of all consumer goods to everyone” > **Quoting Charlie Bilello (@charliebilello):** The best performing stocks in the S&P 500 over the last 30 years... > > https://creativeplanning.com/charlie/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgdRU8GXEAAryT4.png) ### [Reply to @young_opsimath, 03:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875749822202048804) · 2 likes > **young_opsimath ⏸️ (@young_opsimath):** @SWENGDAD @AaronBergman18 Lol ### [Tweet, 03:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875749927730720914) · 21 likes I gotta admit this is a great screenshot. Good job twitter-as-software ### [Reply to @ptichushka, 12:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875881129217261612) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ptichushka is no longer available.)_ Idk if I’m normal but I try to be correct lol ### [Quote tweet, 12:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875886583918043495) · 7 likes Still in love with smelly thesis lady > **Quoting Dr Ally Louks (@DrAllyLouks):** @tarmactorque I’m quite attached to the weirdos. This is a safe space. ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 12:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875886775388061771) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** grateful that at age 26 I still get childishly excited about show > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ggh8fRwW0AAtNoj.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ggh8fRsWwAA_rCR.jpg) Same except I’m not 26 so I basically just lied ### [Quote tweet, 12:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875887325571662233) · 29 likes I admit there are a bunch of things like this that we should have a somewhat high bar for mandating but sorry the free market just occasionally sucks for obscure reasons Godspeed Joe > **Quoting No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC):** The Biden-Harris administration is enacting a new rule requiring subscription services, including gym memberships, to offer “one click to cancel.” > > It goes into effect on January 14th. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgU3ozSXoAAelyk.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgU4h-qXIAA9KGG.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 12:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875887328172069163) · 3 likes Counterpoint is that government can’t be trusted to do this competently so you need a blanket norm against it ### [Reply to @ThatsMauvelous, 12:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875889735975289323) · 4 likes > **mauv (@ThatsMauvelous):** a brief commentary on this graph 🧵 > > (quoting @AlecStapp: Narrative violation) Rare Stapp L ### [Reply to @UtilityMonster2, 12:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875889951092756857) · 2 likes > **Jeremy Bentham's Ghost 🌐 (@UtilityMonster2):** @SpacedOutMatt There’s always next year! I sure hope so hahaha ### [Tweet, 13:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875890605588685194) · 5 likes Pretty sure Matt is very salty about not hitting this. Prepare for his wrath ### [Tweet, 15:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875927521939911011) · 10 likes I should try to get my parents to talk about their lives on recording before they’re too old This isn’t an AGI thing, but it’s kinda an AI thing (easy transcription and LLMS) and definitely an information age thing (trivially cheap data storage) ### [Reply to @eternalism_4eva, 15:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875928507588784573) · 7 likes > **eternalist (@eternalism_4eva):** hot take: > > our purity intuition is actually a utilitarian heuristic for the “small harms, many victims” regime — academic fraud, public disorder, lax hygiene > > absent purity society \*undershoots\* the consequentialism-demanded level of enforcement because our harm intuition just can’t imagine >10 victims Its probably a \*consequentialist\* heuristic, but not a utilitarian one as generally understood Evolution did not care about the impartial good ### [Quote tweet, 16:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875939124085182872) · 3 likes This but the opposite Scatterplot go brr > **Quoting SwiftOnSecurity (@SwiftOnSecurity):** I fucking hate charts there's never been a chart I've seen and been like "life is better for having seen that chart" data should stay in a spreadsheet where it belongs ### [Tweet, 17:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875960350518194457) · 21 likes Is this the kind of thing anyone would actually use? Multiple models estimate a single figure, see the stats and results [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1875959997340721152/pu/img/8QgmGYkkbmJgomgS.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875960350518194457/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 17:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875963638558920880) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** There are literally hours of recorded audio content of me telling Aaron why I think he's wrong > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Ngl the combination of - ethical hedonism - value realism - normative anti-realism feels totally intuitive, correct, and satisfying to me. Outside view says other smart people disagree ofc, but inside view says “pack it up, we figured it out”) This is true, but unfortunately your claims are not ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 17:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875964098061779185) > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I mean you're already 1/2 the way to my view you just failed to mention for years that when you say you're a realist you actually meant that normativy doesn't exist at all 🦆 ### [Reply to @RYChappell, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876025227261743608) > **Richard Y. Chappell🔸 (@RYChappell):** @Benthamsbulldog @AaronBergman18 I'm also curious to hear about non-normative value. Seems like if something is objectively good, it conceptually follows that there's normative reason to promote it. Otherwise, I don't know what "good" is supposed to mean. I actually wrote an almost identical line (iirc) in college making a case for normal normative moral realism I had basically argued for value realism on its own grounds, and then said “it would seem to follow” or smth to that effect… ### [Thread, continued, 21:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876025605994717517) · 1 like Then I thought about it for a while and wound up thinking that you need substantive, additional work to get from value realism to normative realism, and haven’t heard or been able to think of a compelling case ### [Reply, 22:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876026330825076932) · 1 like Like I have very good reason for thinking value exists - namely that, conditional on not being radically mistaken about my own subjective experience (in which case all bets are off in a quite radical way) - happiness/suffering are \*intrinsically\* bad… ### [Thread, continued, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876026982913523987) · 1 like But I don’t see where “one ought to do X” actually comes from, or why I should think it exists, or why it follows from value ## Monday, January 6, 2025 ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 03:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876107534496661588) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18 it's kinda weird how we share almost all the same heterodox philosophy takes Based based based ### [Quote tweet, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876115220755775668) · 6 likes Ok I’m getting roasted up bc plausibly I’m not using terms right Maybe I should describe myself an ✨axiological ✨ hedonist and a moral anti-realist (Tbc this is a label change, not an actual-views change) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Ngl the combination of > > \- ethical hedonism > \- value realism > \- normative anti-realism > > feels totally intuitive, correct, and satisfying to me. > > Outside view says other smart people disagree ofc, but inside view says “pack it up, we figured it out” ### [Tweet, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876115223389843966) · 1 like I support the death penalty for anyone who accidentally misuses technical-ish terms It’s been nice knowing everyone ### [Thread, continued, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876115225533153455) · 2 likes Thanks to @absurdlymax for yelling at me about this ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 03:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876116126532517904) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 I assure you 97% of the roasts I've given you on this subject are unrelated to your messing up of the terms here Ok well my actual beliefs are still correct ### [Reply to @RYChappell, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876129548498075822) · 2 likes > **Richard Y. Chappell🔸 (@RYChappell):** The difficulty is that I don't know what you mean when you say it "would be good" to do X. (I'm also not sure what you mean by objective "commands", and whether or not that corresponds to anything I believe in.) > > If by "bad" you literally mean nothing more than "suffering", then you have no thoughts that differ from those that nihilists have (they also think that suffering is suffering!). You just express the nihilist thought with words that sound misleadingly like how non-nihilists talk! > > But maybe you actually do have normative concepts (like good and bad, distinct from descriptive concepts like pleasure and suffering), and are just misexpressing your view when you seem to collapse the two. You might instead be trying to express the realist view that suffering is a normatively sufficient grounds for badness (no need to wait for God's disapproval or any other descriptive element to be added before the suffering qualifies as bad!) > > But now why not say a similar thing about ought? Bad things warrant avoidance or prevention - that's how one ought to respond to them. Much like how evidence warrants credence or belief. You don't need divine "commands" in order for it to be epistemically irrational - an objective failure of agency - to fail to respond appropriately to evidence. And you don't need divine commands in order for it to be practically irrational to fail to respond appropriately to value. \- “would be good to do X” is just another way of writing that “the world in which I do X is better than that in which I do !X” This intuitively feels like an ethical claim, but maybe it’s “just” axiological \- I’m pretty sure I have some non-trivial/tautological understanding of badness \> “suffering is normatively sufficient grounds for badness” I’m unsure what “normatively” adds here. Like I endorse “suffering is sufficient for badness” First 3 paragraphs I agree with, at least I think, although now I’m just confused about what “normativity” even means (possibly coming from the direction or being wrong, so confused isn’t bad) Last paragraph I disagree with. I feel like the cleanest way to illustrate is just like considering someone who’s an hedonic egoist but doesn’t care about others at all. On what grounds can I say that they’re being irrational in refusing to help others (eg doing some action that reduces suffering)? I suspect this last q is actually what any substantive disagreement comes down to, and I don’t know how to analyze beyond intuition Thanks for discussing so much btw ### [Quote tweet, 07:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876162391349830040) · 6 likes Ok the answer seems to be yes but you need your own API tokens bc actually monetizing appropriately seems too hard for 2am and possibly ever https://llm-est-c18067b91d3b.herokuapp.com/ aka http://bit.ly/llm-est > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Is this the kind of thing anyone would actually use? > > Multiple models estimate a single figure, see the stats and results > > [video attached](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875960350518194457/video/1) ### [Reply, 07:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876164981181530333) · 1 like The models have spoken (this seems super high?) [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1876164896674463744/pu/img/B23mRAdzZE5ylA8U.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876164981181530333/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 17:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876320393134531032) · 3 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** what's the steelman for NIMBYism? there are few things i'm certain of politically, but this one just seems so obviously wrong Decreases wealth which decreases factory farming ### [Reply to @RYChappell, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876325412927946770) · 3 likes > **Richard Y. Chappell🔸 (@RYChappell):** I like Parfit's argument that any case for rational egoism -- impartiality across time -- will generalize to impartiality across people (though this does leave open the imprudent view that we have no reason to care about our future selves): https://www.goodthoughts.blog/p/against-egoism-and-subjectivism#%C2%A7against-egoism > > (quoting @Oliver_S_Curry: As far as I'm aware, Peter Singer has never given a positive argument for why other people’s interests are as important as your own, and hence why you ought to be utilitarian. A 2005 paper concedes that it is an intuition & that he has yet to give a rational argument for it…) I was thinking after I sent this that one grounds on which to say the hedonic egoist is wrong to not care about “others” is that open individualism/something very Parfitian about personal identity is true ### [Quote tweet, 17:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876325695413985787) · 5 likes Congestion pricing, community notes, what else is like this? > **Quoting the Rich (@Duderichy):** did not expect it to work this well ### [Tweet, 17:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876326966019953070) · 8 likes Do you know why recipes sometimes call for simmering vs medium heat vs rolling boil if the water temperature should always be 100°C? ### [Thread, continued, 18:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876329950544064917) · 5 likes This is at least part of the answer and the answer I got yesterday, but now it looks a bit more complicated (spoiler) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgoQJVpWMAAK3jm.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgoQJVrXgAApD8Q.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876329966805377475) · 4 likes Possibly more complete answer I’m still confused about whether a literal typical pot of water (not some ideal pot with simplified assumptions) is actually at 100° as long as there are bubbles Cc @AndyMasley ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgoQJu2W8AAAwwS.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgoQJuzXUAEgOL-.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgoQJuzXwAA35bz.jpg) ### [Reply, 18:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876330037361930679) Forgot to remove the flag sorry ### [Thread, continued, 18:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876331357800165514) · 2 likes And LLMs sometimes say that the range of cooking is actually like 94°-100°, but when pushed on the physics Claude says no actually, the range of average temperature must be \*over\* 100° for bubbles to survive between the hottest bottom of a pot and the surface So idk anything ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgoRbLPWkAAv_Hk.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgoRbLIXEAAjZr6.jpg) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876366843788619934) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** snow Snow ### [Quote tweet, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876389245101003111) · 5 likes Kinda entirely vibe with my slightly heterodox obesity takes but the normie advice is sometimes right Tbc I highly doubt that the mechanism is literally calorie burning (as opposed to something metabolic that adjusts setpoint) > **Quoting Stephan J. Guyenet (@sguyenet):** Aerobic exercise causes weight loss dose-dependently in a large meta-analysis of RCTs. > > Exercise isn't the most efficient way to lose weight, but it does cause weight loss in most people and it's a good complement to diet and other approaches. > https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2828487 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ggo93FSWsAAOLZ6.png) ### [Thread, continued, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876389249861431761) · 1 like Important q is whether this finding (according to Claude) is legit, because it seems surprising to me I bet I’m not the only person for whom medium intensity exercise is hedonically positive and intense exercise is (quite) hedonically negative ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgpGFEsW8AAXCBB.jpg) ### [Reply to @dcpip_, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876389492996915273) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dcpip_ is no longer available.)_ Haha thank you and no it’s not weird! ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 22:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876392686909108318) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @dcpip\_ @AaronBergman18 Aaron will be joyfully riding this compliment for at least 3 weeks Lmao ### [Thread, continued, 22:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876392735013261807) · 2 likes Probably not wrong ## Tuesday, January 7, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876452577816261038) · 6 likes Based > **Quoting Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando):** Gf texted that she found a rat and asked what she should do with it. > > I thought she wanted me to come home and kill it. I was quite mistaken about the situation. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgnuvnZXoAE5hGi.jpg) ### [Reply to @RomanHauksson, 13:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876627073302724848) · 4 likes > **Roman Hauksson-Neill (@RomanHauksson):** NOOO! > Aaron we’re sorry for simping. bring it back More snowpics that don’t imply my literal address lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgseX4OWwAAnjUL.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgseX4OXQAA9DAH.jpg) ### [Tweet, 14:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876629937320513826) · 2 likes Last line What ### [Reply to @polisisti, 15:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876646156987744660) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** lmaooo > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgsslkhXwAAj_J-.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgsslucWsAAs0pu.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ggssl36XsAA1Xls.jpg) Lol ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 15:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876647770502857034) · 28 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** Taking offense over the reporting of abstract facts about a group seems like a very common mental problem. I've had plenty of interactions like this: > > 'Average Hispanic men are 5'7"' > > 'Why do you want to humiliate Hispanics?' I aspire to be maximally decoupling but this actually can give you subtextual information way beyond the text Like if someone starts listing true negative facts about me in some social setting, that’s just a straightforward Bayesian update towards “they don’t like me” etc ### [Thread, continued, 15:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876647959728955553) · 7 likes That said yeah there are contexts in which this kind of thing should be taken at face value or very close to it ### [Quote tweet, 15:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876649965159952595) · 12 likes There’s a mistake I see others make that’s like “decoupling = ignoring subtext/information of some object level proposition” whereas it is (or should be) the willingness and ability to separate truth from other properties a claim might have (eg “designed to harm your reputation”) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @cremieuxrecueil I aspire to be maximally decoupling but this actually can give you subtextual information way beyond the text > > Like if someone starts listing true negative facts about me in some social setting, that’s just a straightforward Bayesian update towards “they don’t like me” etc ### [Quote tweet, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876707801709293650) · 17 likes Can’t tell if this is trivial/obvious but: It’s worth keeping in mind that in high-decoupling communities/social contexts, it’s not merely that each individual is willing to decouple text and subtext… > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** There’s a mistake I see others make that’s like “decoupling = ignoring subtext/information of some object level proposition” whereas it is (or should be) the willingness and ability to separate truth from other properties a claim might have (eg “designed to harm your reputation”) ### [Thread, continued, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876707804309815592) · 8 likes but that common knowledge of the decoupling norms means that the same literal statement, even by the same person but in different social contexts, carries different (probably less, in general) subtextual information ### [Thread, continued, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876707805895209125) · 7 likes In other words, if an “outsider” gets offended by or objects to some particular statement made by a rationalist in a rationalist social context, they may simply falsely judge the (often implicitly) intended subtext ### [Thread, continued, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876707807723946138) · 9 likes This is distinct from disliking the norms or being offended at the \*accurate\* interpretation of what was said At least some of the time, nobody is at fault here. Mistake theory go brr ### [Thread, continued, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876707809280098400) · 10 likes I think a good specific example is constructive critical feedback - this is \*genuinely\* more of a negative signal in normie social contexts, at least on average, because everyone knows that everyone knows that this is how it will be perceived ### [Thread, continued, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876707811117117523) · 10 likes All this said, I think decoupling norms are good and at least on the margin most social communities would be better/healthier if they moved in that direction ## Wednesday, January 8, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876787924655611971) · 3 likes Lmao, we love to see it > **Quoting Roman Hauksson-Neill (@RomanHauksson):** Inspired by Aaron’s unsuccessful attempt, I will be hosting a Schelling point meetup in Dallas at some location and time in the next few months! I’ve also sent this announcement to the Dallas rationality group email list. > > Hope to see you all there! ### [Quote tweet, 00:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876789265834586266) · 3 likes Broke (pseudo-)fast, within a couple hours I went from cranking heat to cracking the window bc 62 feels too warm Ofc I knew this was a real phenomenon but didn’t expect the magnitude to be so large, subjectively > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I usually run like super hot (winter shorts bro etc) but now I’m ~40 hours into a fast and my preferred temperature has shifted up like 8°F > > What the fuck ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 00:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876790874782282063) · 2 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** I think it's true that it's harder to do away with such subtexts than people sometimes think. > > It's related to (probably in part identical to) how it's harder to cancel linguistic implicatures than some seem to think. > > (quoting @StefanFSchubert: "No offense but...\[offense\]" Not sure offenses are quite cancellable in this way. Though many seem to buy it.) “Do away with,” yes, but changes in magnitude a noticeable amount away from the social default seem evidently possible (unless I’m totally misperceiving this phenomenon, which seems unlikely) ### [Tweet, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876850827828064710) · 184 likes Hanania is what you get when someone who’s kinda an asshole at heart decides to be intellectually honest The opposite of many liberals (in the American sense), for better and for worse ### [Thread, continued, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876850829627425007) · 21 likes Inshallah I don’t get cancelled for this. The man elicits strong reactions ### [Thread, continued, 04:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876852272904225150) · 25 likes I have been informed that some people disagree with my assessment ### [Quote tweet, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876854966565966104) · 6 likes Third one is great because all effect sizes are nonzero (same thing as any individual value in a continuous probability distribution having probability 0) but it really does sound insightful > **Quoting Lucy Farnik (@lucyfarnik):** Things to say to sound smart in rationalist spaces even if you zoned out and have no idea what anyone’s talking about > \- “Does this make sense considering your AGI timelines?” > \- “Well it’s high-dimensional isn’t it? It’s not a 1D spectrum” > \- “But the effect size is still nonzero” ### [Reply to @DrewVento, 04:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876855298259853494) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @DrewVento is no longer available.)_ 👑 ### [Reply to @viemccoy, 12:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876969928709775381) · 4 likes > **vie ⟢ (@viemccoy):** there's something in the water, but it's not what you think. its not fluoride, or cyanide, or little microchips activated by 5G radio waves emanating from the towers around your house. it's something far less insidious, but far more interesting. Fish ### [Reply to @parafactual, 12:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876971642607251545) · 3 likes > **You (@parafactual):** @AaronBergman18 in what direction They think he’s not intellectually honest ### [Quote tweet, 13:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876983962200924641) · 8 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ggxi90-WkAAMR6c.jpg) > **Quoting Dr. Toledo Dem (@styt101):** Hi Anna I can’t afford eggs ### [Quote tweet, 13:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876992060697280920) · 9 likes This will fix me > **Quoting unusual_whales (@unusual_whales):** BREAKING: Nvidia, $NVDA, announces Project Digits personal computer at $3000, that is approximately 1,000 times more powerful than the average laptop. > > The device is powered by an Nvidia GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip, which houses separate, linked components on a single chip to reduce the time it takes to move data between them. > > The superchip features an Nvidia Blackwell graphics card and an Nvidia Grace processor, packaged with 128 gigabytes of memory and 4 terabytes of SSD storage. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GgqazC8bYAAQEN3.jpg) ### [Tweet, 14:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876998344343453700) · 15 likes It’s too cold, but too cold >> too hot ### [Thread, continued, 14:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1876998345593364954) · 3 likes This would be a good culture war to have ### [Quote tweet, 14:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877001028681236625) · 15 likes This is the better definition, we should embrace it > **Quoting Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** 🧐🤨😒 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GguGZXGXYAADNmM.jpg) ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 14:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877006107899486328) · 6 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** @justjoshinyou13 @AaronBergman18 Relatedly when it’s cold you have to have lots of clothes, and the snow under your shoes melts when you get in; both of which are a bit of a hassle. > > Another thing is that when it’s cold it’s usually also dark. (If you want to count that.) Real ### [Tweet, 15:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877007961928696143) · 5 likes Remembering the time a friend I decided to shovel snow (there was like 2 feet) for money and emailed the neighborhood offering our services and confidently assumed that we could take care of one full house + walk several blocks to next destination every 30 mins ### [Thread, continued, 15:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877007963358941527) · 5 likes Needless to say that didn’t happen and we left a lot of presumably disappointed potential customers un-shoveled ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 15:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877008642848735673) · 9 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 This seems stupid and I don't really understand how you got to this conclusion. Are you just assuming that liberals' incorrect or contradictory opinions reflect intellectual dishonestly whereas Hanania's much greater incorrect or contradictory opinions reflect disagreeableness? Intellectual dishonesty is the default - ~everyone on all sides is that What contradictory opinions of Hanania are you referring to? I’ll throw this out as an example of a terrible opinion that nonetheless reflects intellectual honesty https://www.richardhanania.com/p/why-do-i-hate-pronouns-more-than ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 15:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877008929160417589) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** If Hanania is intellectually honest, it's a recent development at best. He spent the first part of his career regularly posting insane racism and misogyny under a pseudonym while presenting himself as acceptable to academia > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ggx49yjXUAAKiHo.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ggx4_NMXQAEr148.png) Yeah this seems plausible - I’ve only observed him in real time for maybe like two years, and even then not super carefully ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877011337701716112) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 Perhaps you shouldn't tweet things like this then The tweet is in present tense - there’s no implication that it’s a review of his whole life and career ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 15:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877011866267902301) · 6 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 "Intellectual dishonesty is the default - ~everyone on all sides is that" - seems wrong The word dishonesty has a strong negative connotation so just take it to mean “not intellectually honest”. And read it more descriptively and less condemning than you probably think But no I endorse this ### [Reply, 15:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877012246640873487) · 1 like My guess is he’s trolling here, but the fact that it’s at all vague is indeed a strike against me ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 15:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877012947299389663) · 5 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 Give specific examples \- Refusal to say anything remotely as unambiguous as “I was wrong” \- a huge cluster of phenomena that kinda vibes with the pejorative way in which people use “politician” - intentionally distorting views if not outright lying, changing the subject instead of answering questions ### [Thread, continued, 15:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877013710612430852) · 5 likes \- actual specific example: the recent jacobin thing where they put in a false line and then removed it without a trace \- willingness to voice views in social contexts in which they’re unpopular (say what you will about the conservative complaints about college campuses … ### [Thread, continued, 15:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877014091916628172) · 3 likes …it’s not a totally made up phenomenon) ^ill amend that to “refusal to falsify opinions where socially unpopular” to be conservative. Set aside mere silence ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 15:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877014349358743621) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 Jacobin isn't a liberal magazine! They're literally socialists! Oh sorry I thought u meant non-intellectual honesty in general (genuinely!) But the others are drawn from my ✨lived experience ✨ mostly around liberals ### [Tweet, 16:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877025203408011585) · 4 likes 24 hour twitter fast ready go ## Thursday, January 9, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 17:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877404789673169071) · 4 likes Ah yes, the old “mandate reality to be different” theory of governance Many such cases > **Quoting Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** California is the only state that doesn't allow insurers to use models estimating the risks and impacts of natural disasters to raise rates in risk-prone areas. > > As a result, insurers often don't provide coverage for these areas at all. If they did, they would go bankrupt. ### [Tweet, 17:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877407482085101988) · 17 likes I am anti-fire ### [Quote tweet, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877415899826712998) · 14 likes The interesting question IMO isn’t whether you ~have to eat vegetables (or anything), but whether you have to eat them more than you intuitively want to > **Quoting Aella (@Aella_Girl):** I think vegetables might be a scam. I hate them and recently stopped trying to make myself eat them and I feel fine. No issues. Life goes on, I am vegetable free and slightly happier ### [Quote tweet, 18:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877417935028769233) · 4 likes Ok planes should not work fr A single gallon of water is heavy af. Try filling a backpack full of water bottles You should NOT be able to carry water on a flying metal tube like that. The people demand answers > **Quoting LogKa (@LogKa11):** Firefighter aircraft dropping seawater on wildfires in California > > [video attached](https://x.com/LogKa11/status/1877414583100412229/video/1) ### [Reply, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877421056979284338) · 1 like I think that’s basically true, yeah, but I’m wondering what the exceptions are if any ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 18:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877422766799962130) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @robertwiblin is no longer available.)_ Might find this slightly helpful? Especially the link in the last one which includes empty-prompt generations of fine-tuned Llama-8b (I’ll link below) ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877423335077720239) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @robertwiblin is no longer available.)_ Someone should correct me if wrong but there’s a relevant distinction between chatbot systems without a system prompt, which is what Claude and OpenAI provide, and genuine text prediction/continuation systems that are basically just base models with a few parameters specified ### [Quote tweet, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877470172589572337) · 29 likes Pretty sure the .3mg melatonin thing is an unjustified meme That’s endogenous production (I think). The bioavailability is hard to pin down bc different sources say as low as 3% and as high as 76%, with a very broad pseudo-consensus around like 10%-30% ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gg4dK_PXYAAClnp.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gg4dK_NWQAAPf7z.jpg) > **Quoting Louis Arge (@louisvarge):** hey just a periodic reminder that if you are AUTISTIC and have trouble with SLEEP your body is likely producing too little MELATONIN > > many study have found autists produce very little melatonin. for some reason. > > you can FIX THIS by taking 0.3mg of melatonin every evening!!! ### [Thread, continued, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877470175701647472) · 7 likes This mostly explains the fact that the market provides products in the 1-10mg range, which corresponds to like 3-33% variability of absorption, and ofc there’s gonna be variation in optimal endogenous production as well, and maybe something something weird pharmacokinetics ### [Thread, continued, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877470177186418972) · 8 likes Tl;dr it’s plausibly that you need/want >>0.3mg I use 1.5mg (half of a 3mg thing) daily ### [Reply, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877473920372130131) Possibly - I don’t think cravings are always or even generally dysfunctional nowadays but I’m not super sure what % of the time they are ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 21:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877475228562952692) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 @JesseTayRiver @rakishromantic i crave u bro Ok ### [Quote tweet, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877486625757782232) · 7 likes Not only are they serious, but it doesn’t matter tremendously whether they’re serious because they’re \*right\* (about the importance and plausibility of TAI soon) > **Quoting Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** I think more journalists should consider that they are actually serious about creating superintelligence, or that this is actually possible, rather than just defaulting to "cool story to keep the cash coming in". > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gg4L-IEWgAE4Nxb.jpg) ### [Tweet, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877486627943002413) I feel like people kinda forgot about this because as a point estimate for timelines it’s way too long now, but IMO @ajeya_cotra’s biological anchors thing remains an excellent bearish upper bound https://drive.google.com/file/d/15ArhEPZSTYU8f012bs6ehPS6-xmhtBPP ### [Thread, continued, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877486629411045865) · 2 likes You can ignore all the rhetoric and developments and make the most pessimistic plausible set of assumption still conclude that TAI is probably here by 2050 But it’s not like NYT et al are reporting on these “long” timelines either ## Friday, January 10, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877522103492084118) · 6 likes GiveWell board meeting audio in here 👀 What Id give for recent openphil stuff > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Tweet, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877533049845326091) · 41 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gg5WW-wXYAAo44-.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877533052269662689) · 2 likes (Not an endorsement of everything Anthropic has done or will do, kinda an endorsement of anthropic at large) ### [Reply to @CrumpLab, 05:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877587555782205929) · 5 likes > **Crump Lab (@CrumpLab):** The outer ear is a mammalian innovation but where did it come from? In our study in @Nature, @MathiThiru95 and colleagues find that the outer ear arose from modification of an ancestral gill program first originating in marine invertebrates. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08577-5 > > 1/n > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gg3XA9aaMAIDtLg.jpg) I feel like this could be some sort of reaction image ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gg6H7mvXUAA4qMc.jpg) ### [Tweet, 10:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877668246972666354) · 6 likes Nothing like a little “smoke alarm going off in the middle of the night for no discernible reason” to get the cortisol flowing ### [Thread, continued, 10:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877668967549993239) · 5 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gg7R-bpWYAAoeQb.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 10:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877669306349047878) · 4 likes I am also anti fire-alarm ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 13:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877713353205846133) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** @AaronBergman18 What would you like? I’m not even sure, maybe I don’t know what I want. It feels vaguely not optimized for mobile in the way twitter is but I can’t put my finger on how/why ### [Reply to @NoScrewworms, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877784680696619018) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @NoScrewworms is no longer available.)_ Oh snap indeed ### [Reply to @asteriskmgzn, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877787900986700243) · 4 likes > **Asterisk (@asteriskmgzn):** some magazines do kiki > some magazines do bouba > find you a magazine that can do both > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gg8mxkKb0AE_jcU.png) @inesferhumi @pearl_please ### [Reply to @banburismus_, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877788566329127335) · 2 likes > **Tom McGrath (@banburismus_):** You can now sparsely autoencode Llama 3.3 70B in the comfort of your own home! > > (quoting @GoodfireAI: We're open-sourcing Sparse Autoencoders (SAEs) for Llama 3.3 70B and Llama 3.1 8B! These are, to the best of our knowledge, the first open-source SAEs for models at this scale and capability level.) ### [Reply to @GoodfireAI, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877788589813084382) · 11 likes > **Goodfire (@GoodfireAI):** We're open-sourcing Sparse Autoencoders (SAEs) for Llama 3.3 70B and Llama 3.1 8B! These are, to the best of our knowledge, the first open-source SAEs for models at this scale and capability level. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gg8ubRuaAAAp_lR.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877802845409357883) · 24 likes (Not commenting on the Meta thing specifically) Resigning in protest \*as an act of bravery\* has to be one of the dumbest memes out there I mean maybe it’s understandable/acceptable, but it’s the opposite of courageous; the courageous thing to do is fight until you get fired > **Quoting Kya Online (@VexedVortices):** Ok, why do I keep hearing about people resigning from positions? Why are we just giving up all of our power? ### [Thread, continued, 19:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877804408571891847) · 3 likes I got radicalized on this take when Jeff Flake, republican senator and strong Trump critic, basically decided not to run for reelection instead of risk losing in a Trumpian environment and be an internal critic within the Republican Party ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gg9NKFHXAAETsTx.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gg9NKFIWQAAS7wo.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gg9NKFJWUAAQxzT.jpg) ### [Reply to @panickssery, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877804957153263742) · 2 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** I've been trying to say "that" more often > > These Berkeley rationalists conspire (unconsciously) to get you to always say "this" but never "that" > > "This is true" vs "That's true" and many more examples > > I'm not sure why I don’t think it’s a conspiracy any more than random dialects/heterogenous slang is a conspiracy lol ## Saturday, January 11, 2025 ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1877879596672065935) > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** Maybe if you’re being a “courage” purist. Resigning before going to the wall is often more effective and somewhat courageous. Going to the wall often hurts your cause at the same time it hurts you. Resigning is credible and imposes immediate costs on your employer I mean the backfire thing is fair, but I feel like in general resigning is way more convenient for the employer (or whatever the authority is) It’s quite literally just giving up the power you have ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 21:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1878197699700228205) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 Philosophy seems overly narrow. Nonfiction in general, including narrative nonfiction ### [Reply to @mvpatel2000, 22:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1878203941776708083) · 542 likes > **Mihir Patel (@mvpatel2000):** Heard of so many FAANG engineers struggling w/o elite tooling at startups > > Honestly, I get it. Going to a bigger company and seeing the 10x better infra is wild For the curious and naive ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhC4h7qXcAAWrjx.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhC4h7pWIAArG93.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhC4h7pW0AAJAQF.jpg) ## Sunday, January 12, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 04:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1878304827538579742) · 35 likes You can politely decline or even ignore, socially punishing benign social outreach attempts is bad ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhEUSLSWMAAQ2zV.jpg) > **Quoting critter (@BecomingCritter):** girl from highschool just messaged me on facebook for the first time SINCE HIGHSCHOOL > > on a scale of 1-10 how thirsty is this ### [Reply to @BecomingCritter, 04:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1878305650943357217) · 15 likes > **critter (@BecomingCritter):** @AaronBergman18 im not punishing i just think it's remarkable “How thirsty is this” on a public platform is definitely social punishment in my eyes It’s enforcing a norm that on the margin should be less enforced ### [Reply to @StatsLime, 06:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1878324775791055250) · 2 likes > **Max ⏸️ Limelihood 🔸🔸🔸 (@StatsLime):** @ronawang @unable0\_ Holy based Gigachad Fr ### [Reply to @livgorton, 06:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1878328332766392641) · 4 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** numpy is CPU only :(( Duh ## Monday, January 13, 2025 ### [Reply to @davidad, 12:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1878787210373480861) · 5 likes > **davidad 🎇 (@davidad):** (But, to be clear, NOT neural networks, gradient descent, self-attention layers, etc.) Idiot ### [Quote tweet, 13:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1878792795168891141) · 10 likes Big if true (fr) > **Quoting Joel Selanikio (@jselanikio):** If you missed it last week: > > House Resolution 238, allowing AI to “qualify as a practitioner eligible to prescribe drugs…” > > Boom. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhLCuiLWwAAsSZ3.jpg) ## Tuesday, January 14, 2025 ### [Tweet, 07:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879064136832909655) · 5 likes I feel like there could be an international wildfire-response coalition Like almost all of the time, almost all firefighting resources must be going unused right? But then once in a while there’s a huge ass fire and infinity more resources would help ### [Quote tweet, 07:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879070156896587885) · 15 likes You should take this with a large grain of salt bc Nick is both smarter and more domain-knowledgeable than me, but I think the exact opposite and the word/concept fell off in a bad way > **Quoting Nick (@nickcammarata):** the word ai alignment feels increasingly wrong to me. people don't have babies and worry about their "alignment". they worry about how to raise them right, what they'll be like. we should similarly be worrying about what the right way to raise the first superintelligence is ### [Thread, continued, 07:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879070158989504837) · 10 likes Now it’s always “safety” and “control”–which are fine/good I guess— but I really think the OG Yudkowskian conception of “alignment” is what really matters at the end of the day ### [Thread, continued, 07:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879070161271193841) · 4 likes Especially when it comes to graceful failure modes, which mainstream AI safety is understandably not excited to talk about But one of the most important questions in the world is how to get ASI to be minimally bad in the case where we don’t/can’t control it ### [Reply to @boomsupersonic, 13:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879155690293633320) > **Boom Supersonic (@boomsupersonic):** Whether you're an av geek, aerospace engineer, or travel enthusiast, we want to hear from you. Drop your questions below about XB-1’s supersonic test flight. We’ll do our best to answer during an upcoming live Q&A (date & time TBA). > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhQV9soW8AA_nrp.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 13:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879156406856937710) · 6 likes What > **Quoting Overeducated Gibbon (@MostlyMonkey):** Top male contestant was 8th, 15% slower than top female. Next male was 20th. Instacart discourse relevant, I guess. > > We must study how stereotypes are a better source of information than all non-econ social sciences. ### [Quote tweet, 13:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879161865940738539) · 30 likes So there are just pineapples hanging 4 feet off the ground in policy land I guess > **Quoting sam (@sam_d_1995):** congestion pricing is a policy miracle > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhNqRAxXgAA7VSS.jpg) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 14:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879171036421489092) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** imo there is a defensible position that AI x-risk is possible but unlikely enough that the benefits of mostly unconstrained development outweigh the risks (especially since regulation designed to mitigate it presents its own risks). I strongly disagree with this personally but don't think it's totally insane > > Where this threshold lies is up for debate – I agree that ppl making points like Starmer's should a) say what they think the probability actually is b) how they arrived at this number and c) why they think that level of risk is worth taking. but I doubt Starmer has thought about this at anywhere near this level of rigour and that the govt's approach is v irresponsible 💯 ### [Quote tweet, 14:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879175631067582758) · 2 likes Called it ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhQrCxGXcAAXa7I.jpg) > **Quoting NBER (@nberpubs):** How did the West escape from premature mortality? Economic growth reduced harvest swings, triggering multigenerational epigenetic effects. Variance kills your descendants, from Dora Costa, Lars Olov Bygren, Benedikt Graf, Martin Karlsson, and @joepricebyu https://www.nber.org/papers/w33343 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhQkIqFX0AA1_eb.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 14:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879177421188149396) · 2 likes You can also turn t4 into t3 the old fashioned way (ie basic internal metabolism; your body will covert t4->t3) > **Quoting Ray Peat HubblyBubbly Emporium ✝️ (@RayPeatHeadShop):** How to make your own T3 if all you have available is T4 (and other fun experiments): > > If you have access to fresh mammalian liver you can make a simple ex-vivo perfusion machine with household materials to process cheap, legal, and easily available prodrugs into their rare, expensive, and potentially illicit active metabolites. > > Alternatively, you can blend fresh liver and use it \*like\* a culturing medium to produce active metabolites (40C for about 4 hours) > > Have fun! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhMYkkxW8AAhVjx.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhMYkkxW4AAnJt2.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhMYkkyXwAA4TgL.jpg) ### [Reply to @beala, 17:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879213505083326710) · 4 likes > **Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** nooooooooooo aaron pineapples don't hang > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhRCrkgaAAAYj8t.png) They do in policyland ### [Reply to @DocStrangelove2, 17:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879215749665014224) · 29 likes > **Doc Strangelove (@DocStrangelove2):** Hollywood will embellish things, but no, this did happen. Verified by not only dozens of men who were present, but even captured German soldiers who were shocked by it, also confirmed it. > > (quoting @Jason_R_Burt: 80 years ago today, Ron Speirs is placed in charge of Easy Company and goes on one of the most impressive runs in human history. 🪖) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhRQw3rXMAAqRXp.jpg) ### [Reply to @twaniimals, 17:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879225146176888863) · 2 likes > **🎃 (@twaniimals):** > > [video attached](https://x.com/twaniimals/status/1878872112074817874/video/1) @livgorton ### [Tweet, 17:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879226864914620866) · 12 likes What’s the actual deal with security and privacy around xiaohongshu Can I check it out out of anthropological curiosity without worrying or what ### [Quote tweet, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879245772937691481) · 23 likes Ok, I am unofficially launching a paid version of this The value proposition for both of us is that I get 50% of what the api calls actually cost (minus Stripe fees, hence $2 minimum purchase) and you get a convenient LLM wrapper Link below ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhRsEjKXwAAdp5o.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Is this the kind of thing anyone would actually use? > > Multiple models estimate a single figure, see the stats and results > > [video attached](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1875960350518194457/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879245776498647153) · 2 likes https://llm-est-c18067b91d3b.herokuapp.com/ aka http://bit.ly/llm-est If I actually make a nontrivial amount of money, I will buy a real domain lmao ### [Thread, continued, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879245778570604835) · 3 likes Currently people spending money on this is mostly a signal of whether I should keep working on it to make it better and more valuable so uh vote with ur dollar ### [Thread, continued, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879245780739060156) · 1 like Tbh I hope at least one person spends the $2 so I can say I’ve made money on the internet this way That’s probably about what I’ve spent testing the app + payment system as well ### [Reply, 19:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879254833980715261) · 1 like Lol it should be @freed_dfilan ### [Quote tweet, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879299225760207159) · 17 likes post a picture of yourself from a different era ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhScr4MW0AAbtN5.jpg) > **Quoting 𝞍 Shin Megami Boson 𝞍 (@shinboson):** post a picture of yourself from a different era > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhSbtusXEAARVns.jpg) ### [Reply to @RomanHauksson, 23:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879302508495143403) · 3 likes > **Roman Hauksson-Neill (@RomanHauksson):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhSfSQRbEAAKFu6.jpg) > (quoting @AaronBergman18: post a picture of yourself from a different era) What is going on here ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 23:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879304841488711913) · 10 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** Some researchers are going to put you to sleep. During the two days that your sleep will last, they will briefly wake you up either once or twice, depending on the toss of a fair coin (Heads: once; Tails: twice). After each waking, they will put you back to sleep with a drug that makes you forget that waking. When you are first awakened, to what degree ought you believe that the outcome of the coin toss is Heads? I’ll die on the 1/2 hill. Before going to sleep, p(heads) is 1/2, and you gain no additional Bayesian information upon waking https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/the-answer-to-the-sleeping-beauty ### [Reply, 23:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879304880927691189) · 1 like (There are other intuition pumps but they seem to be unconvincing or anti-convincing to others; the Bayesian info argument is most solid) ### [Quote tweet, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879306414377902194) · 5 likes What’s the net impact on uber pricing? Tax = up Less time per mile = down > **Quoting David Petersen (@typesfaster):** This street was never empty pre Jan 5 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhMcKyMXUAA0rIp.jpg) ### [Reply, 23:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879313338049712307) Wait I agree with the first part about probability theory, but disagree about the second part Or at least I don’t see how this bursts my bubble ### [Reply, 23:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879313613980369211) · 1 like Yeah I think we agree? ### [Reply, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879313831371108399) · 1 like Lol ya ## Wednesday, January 15, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879330568342736985) · 3 likes New free tier models just dropped Gemini Flash 2.0 and 2.0 Experimental, alongwith 4o mini and Haiku, all free up to 50 uses/day [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1879330498746458112/pu/img/wES_D-2vakvXhfx4.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879330568342736985/video/1) (video, plays on X) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Ok, I am unofficially launching a paid version of this > > The value proposition for both of us is that I get 50% of what the api calls actually cost (minus Stripe fees, hence $2 minimum purchase) and you get a convenient LLM wrapper > > Link below > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhRsEjKXwAAdp5o.jpg) ### [Tweet, 00:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879331841129452003) https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879331787706622268 ### [Reply to @nnotm, 01:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879335381981970649) · 2 likes > **Nnotm (@nnotm):** @AaronBergman18 Is it intentional that you can't use the free tier models without having purchased credits? Uh no that shouldn't be the case, but you do have to sign up for an account first (so I can track usage) ### [Thread, continued, 01:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879335687553753199) · 2 likes Wait I think this is not working right! I will try to fix! ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 01:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879343483934462106) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, January 15, 2025:** https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879331787706622268 There was a bug that meant you couldn’t call use the (now 4!) free tier models with $0 credits Now you can! ### [Reply to @qualiakiwi, 02:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879361031182639221) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @qualiakiwi is no longer available.)_ Eh I mean I endorse what @austinc3301 says in that those are technically downsides but to not answer your literal question, nothing is that bad I guess more likely to elicit animosity above whatever threshold matters to you ### [Reply, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879364982426497136) · 1 like I don’t understand this and think the first sentence in the screenshot is wrong. Subjectively, the two possible worlds are identical. You know everything there is to know about the coin before the experiment begins, including what it’s going to be like waking up and such It makes no sense to say “now, before the experiment, p(heads) = 1/2, but I’m going to change my probability upon waking, even though I can already mentally simulate every possible world perfectly” Cc @NinaPanickssery can defend herself! Formally: A := coin lands heads B := I am woken or I observe having just woken up P(B | A) = P(B | ~A) = P(B) = 1 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhTYfaHWIAENYT0.jpg) ### [Reply to @wirmgurl, 15:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879554720211280148) · 6 likes > **🪱 Worm Girl 🪱 (@wirmgurl):** Here are my most woke opinions: > \- trans women are women and trans men are men. > \- sexual assault and rape is extraordinarily common and often extraordinarily terrible for the victims. > \- being a minority can be very difficult and we should support minorities extra in a broad range of situations. > \- being poor sucks really bad, more than you might expect. Most poor people are trying their best not to be poor and we should help them. > \- it's hard to step outside your own culture and see things from other cultures' points of view. I don't think non-western cultures are always correct but they have interesting viewpoints we should take seriously. Basically agree with 1-4 I guess I agree with 5 in a literal sense but not as strongly in spirit ### [Quote tweet, 15:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879554985681379452) · 2 likes Making tea is about drinking tea ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhWFS_zXQAAWRy4.jpg) > **Quoting “paula” (@paularambles):** sometimes making tea is less about drinking tea and more about having a mug of tea to keep you company ### [Quote tweet, 16:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879570339468116317) · 3 likes FDA-endorsed 😤 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhWTQtrXMAA0U3Q.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Guy who makes bismuth subsalicylate (the active ingredient in pepto bismol) at home from chemistry-grade bismuth and salicylic acid (lifetime supply of both for ~$100 on amazon) bc he’s concerned about the amount of red dye used in commercial products but is bullish on C7H5BiO4 ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 16:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879571194091119008) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Something I've noticed in my 25 years in the US is that Americans are opposed to putting raisins in most things. Bakeries will often refuse to add raisins to a carrot cake, the oatmeal-raisin cookie is reviled, there's almost no selection of breads with raisins. Heartbreaking Big Raisin needs better lobbyists ### [Reply to @wirmgurl, 17:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879580098036408447) · 4 likes > **🪱 Worm Girl 🪱 (@wirmgurl):** I agree with it so strongly in spirit that it comes round to being an actually very unwoke opinion! i.e. I have respect for cultures that many people would condem. Yeah we really disagree then I vibe associate with like the OG new atheist types - cultures shouldn’t be respected; people should ### [Reply to @CharlesD353, 18:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879594920509669654) · 2 likes > **Charles🔸 (@CharlesD353):** Chunks would add significant complications which we could probably manage, but it's not trivial FWIW for a vaguely similar thing/set of issues, chunking was the only way I figured out to make it work ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 22:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879656804306845965) · 2 likes > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** This rules, just passed a couple queries through the updated version. I bought credits so I didn't check whether your free model fix worked. Impressive set of free models, enough to make it worth using the free version for sure. How do you handle the account stuff? Are there tools to help you manage safe storage of account details easily? Accounts are just a simple SQL database thing The only thing I really know about safety is that I can’t see passwords, only hashed passwords. Also stripe handles the payment stuff so I can’t see your credit card details ## Thursday, January 16, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879702005243068839) · 38 likes AI moral patienthood is utterly serious, but human-shaped concepts like “slavery” with extremely contingent connotations are really really really unhelpful and probably harmful (insofar as they distract from the genuinely-important ethical stakes) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhYLAqtXIAAj5I4.jpg) > **Quoting Stephen McAleer (@McaleerStephen):** @eshear Enslaved god is the only good future ### [Reply to @NULobbyist, 01:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879703242722173435) · 3 likes > **NUL (@NULobbyist):** @AaronBergman18 Aside from that though. If by enslaved he means, does something other than what has the highest expected value for it because we told it to, then that seems a very unstable situation to be in with a super intelligence Eh maybe but then we should just talk about it in those terms (EV, constraints, etc) ### [Reply, 04:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879743368747782362) · 5 likes I think the obvious counterexample is that you know tomorrow you’re gonna be tricked/given malicious info and know that now but won’t know it tmr ### [Reply, 04:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879748299349209165) · 1 like I’ll defer to @birchlse @jeffrsebo and @rgblong ### [Thread, continued, 04:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879748708436455790) · 3 likes But also I feel more optimistic about reducing p(sentience) than trying to figure out what causes differently valenced qualia in extremely alien minds conditional on sentience ### [Tweet, 10:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879836250343158116) · 8 likes Is leaving a dating match app on read before you’ve met up or made any plans to “ghosting”? ### [Reply to @kepe__, 10:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879839349975695781) · 2 likes > **kepe ✨🇫🇮 (@kepe__):** @AaronBergman18 not responding to someone when they haven't said something conversation-terminating is ghosting, period My intuition is that it’s kinda uncool but way less bad than disappearing after you’ve met up, and these shouldn’t go in the same category ### [Reply to @imitationlearn, 10:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879845633877790803) · 2 likes > **imit (@imitationlearn):** @DavidSKrueger What's the analogue to modern uses of the wheel for AI? > > Maybe the answer is, "we don't know what AI is capable of," which is fair, but also meh. The entire remote work economy without robotics, the entire global economy with robotics, including all of science ### [Quote tweet, 15:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879918242002874579) · 10 likes Fr though, what is the point of this for OpenAI? > **Quoting Teknium 🪽 (@Teknium):** OpenAI single handsdly keeping the legacy media alive solely for training data lol > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhaWVfPacAE0OmM.jpg) ### [Reply to @webdevMason, 18:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879955971264643111) · 4 likes > **Mason (@webdevMason):** @selentelechia Empirically, yes, babies are born that way > > But it's obviously not possible Fr ### [Quote tweet, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879958069217751539) · 5 likes This seems like a plausible path to ASI > **Quoting AI Notkilleveryoneism Memes ⏸️ (@AISafetyMemes):** Gwern thinks it's almost game over > > "OpenAI may have 'broken out', and have finally crossed the last threshold of criticality to takeoff - intelligence to the point of being recursively self-improving and where o4 or o5 will be able to automate AI R&D and finish off the rest." > > "Much of the point of a model like o1 is not to deploy it, but to generate training data for the next model. Every problem that an o1 solves is now a training data point for an o3." > > "I am actually mildly surprised OA has bothered to deploy o1-pro at all, instead of keeping it private and investing the compute into more bootstrapping of o3 training etc. (This is apparently what happened with Anthropic and Claude-3.6-opus - it didn’t ‘fail,’ they just chose to keep it private and distill it down into a small cheap but strangely smart Claude-3.6-sonnet.)" > > "If you’re wondering why OAers are suddenly weirdly, almost euphorically, optimistic on Twitter, watching the improvement from the original 4o model to o3 (and wherever it is now!) may be why. > > It’s like watching the AlphaGo Elo curves: it just keeps going up… and up… and up…" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhbgJGnXAAEYZpe.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 19:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1879967585535688766) · 14 likes Honestly Stripe is an absolutely brilliant business that I only came to appreciate when using it on the sell side for my LLM wrapper Kinda gives FTX in the sense of “money printing machine,” only they haven’t decided to blow up the machine for no reason (yet) > **Quoting austin petersmith (@awwstn):** they charged me 2.9% + $.30 just to walk in the door! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhWnsY7aQAAHorr.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 22:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880020793759015368) · 51 likes As usual the writing is excellent, but I kinda wanna point out that Sarah \*is in fact very smart\* So like I’m not sure this answers the question of what actually-ordinary people should do > **Quoting sarah (@littIeramblings):** I wrote a blog post for anyone who is interested in AI safety but worried that they are not smart enough to contribute to the conversation > > link below > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ghb7TmSWcAAZnxi.jpg) ### [Reply, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880021445662896299) I don’t mean taxpayers I mean public policy should largely be structured around giving people decent lives - empirically this mostly means competent management of a basically capitalist economy with some welfare state on top, not paying people to dig ditches or whatever ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 23:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880032408394952750) · 4 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** Aaron 🥹🥹 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ghc3gw-WEAAtJNN.jpg) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 23:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880035243899646389) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** keep mansplaining king Ok ### [Tweet, 23:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880039377268785349) · 13 likes Why does cursor only cost $20/mo? Are they burning VC cash to pay for API calls? Long context Claude isn’t \*that\* cheap ## Friday, January 17, 2025 ### [Reply to @ModeledBehavior, 00:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880057139122565173) · 2 likes > **Adam Ozimek (@ModeledBehavior):** But what if AI reduces mortality and this policy slows development? > > Sorry i don’t think you can treat this topic as per se asymmetrical > > (quoting @ChadJonesEcon: How much should we spend to reduce A.I.'s existential risk? We spent around 4% of GDP to mitigate deaths from Covid-19... A new paper: https://web.stanford.edu/~chadj/reduce_xrisk.pdf) The true relevant symmetry is x-risk from AI vs steady state x-risk from other causes that AI reduces I’m pretty sure a gazillion IQ point\*hours have gone into analyzing this Only looking at present generation mortality is kinda silly ### [Quote tweet, 01:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880059998346362970) · 88 likes Claims (medium confident, whatever that means) \- Alcohol is a major cause of social ills \- alcohol consumption by people prone to take life advice from @AndyMasley and @tylercowen is not > **Quoting Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** I hadn't previously read Tyler Cowen's take on alcohol. I found this part in particular interesting: > https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/04/the-culture-of-guns-the-culture-of-alcohol.html > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhcIM-pacAYAO49.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880060000665735570) · 20 likes I’m basically a non-drinker fwiw bc my brain is weird and I don’t like it But I will continue to be an anti-anti-alcohol crusader as long as I think that’s the correct position ### [Quote tweet, 01:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880060143951573379) · 5 likes Holy based > **Quoting David🐵 (@monke_io):** Just set up a $600 recurring monthly donation to the Shrimp Welfare Project. My donations will save ~960k shrimps per month from agonizing deaths. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhdQkPNWgAAQM1j.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhdQkPMWkAAwBSd.jpg) ### [Reply, 01:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880065841028559032) · 9 likes Fuck this makes sense ### [Quote tweet, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880099937792454810) · 10 likes Wtf people are giving me money Capitalism goes brr, this is a major signal/incentive to make it better ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ghd07dKWgAAqcaA.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Ok, I am unofficially launching a paid version of this > > The value proposition for both of us is that I get 50% of what the api calls actually cost (minus Stripe fees, hence $2 minimum purchase) and you get a convenient LLM wrapper > > Link below > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhRsEjKXwAAdp5o.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880099941034652025) · 2 likes I am not especially cracked so no promises but by all means comment suggested/requested features Also I have no idea what I’m doing so don’t assume I have a good reason for any decision involving this http://bit.ly/llm-est ### [Quote tweet, 13:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880245303326175623) · 5 likes This is dumb I’m not even talking about the merits of whether Twitter is good or not - it’s like, where there are extremely strong network effects and you’re a public-facing community, you can’t just play by your own rules/what naive deontology might imply > **Quoting Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79):** NEW: The American Economic Association is encouraging economists to leave X for BS. > > A new report cites the decline of hashtag EconTwitter, harassment (especially of women, people of color, and LGBTQ scholars), and policy changes under Elon as reasons to switch. > > 🧵 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ghd4UDxX0AAO0p1.jpg) ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 13:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880246161417879889) · 7 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Anyone in Berkeley have a document shredder I can use? Ominous ### [Reply to @ronawang, 13:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880246520785818056) · 45 likes > **Rona Wang (@ronawang):** my friend was the only girl at a hackathon & somebody gave her this note 💀 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhenEHrbsAA-7Y1.jpg) This seems fine ### [Reply to @GarrettPetersen, 13:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880248187249934561) · 2 likes > **Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ (@GarrettPetersen):** 3.9yo's bedtime questions: > > 1\) I wonder who the baby is going to be? > 2\) What is kindergarten like? > 3\) When will we all die? Good qs ### [Tweet, 15:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880270311079518621) · 5 likes Am I crazy or did search somehow get even worse ### [Reply to @TBirdStorrs, 21:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880366886262829247) · 3 likes > **TB Storrs 😷 (@TBirdStorrs):** @AaronBergman18 @AndyMasley @tylercowen I was a major cause of social ills. I've been sober a little more than a decade. That post was a helpful nudge. Fair enough, thanks for sharing! ## Saturday, January 18, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880418167476080945) · 2 likes New feature just dropped; Claude Sonnet (and soon o1, hopefully) generates an all things considered best guess using the original model responses with reasoning as input (paid users only) [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1880417767460913152/pu/img/hZ2VNzZOz6EsL4x8.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880418167476080945/video/1) (video, plays on X) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Ok, I am unofficially launching a paid version of this > > The value proposition for both of us is that I get 50% of what the api calls actually cost (minus Stripe fees, hence $2 minimum purchase) and you get a convenient LLM wrapper > > Link below > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhRsEjKXwAAdp5o.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 00:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880418169858453955) · 1 like http://bit.ly/llm-est If I make $100 I'll buy an actual domain lol ### [Reply to @banterrealism, 03:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880453495137988664) · 3 likes > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** (Her parents still don’t know we’re married) Lol what ### [Reply to @JeremiahDJohns, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880472253110055297) · 1 like > **Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** Just a reminder that the 30-50 feral hogs guy was completely right and everybody who mocked him was wrong. > > (quoting @centx_diesel: This is what happens when domestic hogs interbreed with wild hogs . The get larger each generation.) Piggy 🐷 ### [Quote tweet, 13:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880601154201293231) · 8 likes ERAgate is a nothingburger because the partisan ecosystems are so asymmetrical Trump tries to do something unconstitutional -> Republican and RW machine goes to bat for him Biden tries to do something unconstitutional -> Dem + mainstream machine knocks it down immediately > **Quoting Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** Meet Colleen Joy Shogan, the Archivist of the United States, who today stood to Biden’s attempted constitutional coup. > > She is a former professor of government at George Mason University and the author of 8 murder mystery novels, with titles like “Stabbing in the Senate” and “Homicide in the House.” > > During her confirmation hearing, she promised she would not publish the ERA if Biden tried to push it through without proper ratification. Today she kept her promise. > > Thank you Dr Shogan, for defending democracy. 🇺🇸 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhjAwYZacAMMJyz.jpg) ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 13:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880607740483260909) · 2 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** @pearl_please GIRL Pony ### [Reply to @unes33501870, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880609205801164976) · 3 likes > **Epiphaneia (@unes33501870):** Could YIMBY solve the housing crisis ? Randomized study finds that for 20-25 year olds, being given a house increases their probability of having a child by ~32%. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhlAetFWAAAXSUL.jpg) Wonder how much of this is “just” a wealth effect (if that’s how Brazilian housing lotteries work) ### [Reply to @rohanpaul_ai, 13:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880613910728110166) · 1 like > **Rohan Paul (@rohanpaul_ai):** Smart prompt engineering beats expensive model fine-tuning for LLM alignment > > A prompt optimizer framework that theoretically shows how prompt engineering can match fine-tuning's performance for LLM alignment without parameter updates. > > \----- > > Original Problem 🎯: > > LLM alignment typically requires expensive parameter fine-tuning through RLHF. When models are frozen or inaccessible, direct parameter updates become impossible. Prompt optimization could help but lacks theoretical foundations. > > \----- > > Solution in this Paper 🔧: > > → Introduces Align-Pro, a mathematical framework for optimizing prompts to align frozen LLMs > > → Formulates prompt optimization as an optimization problem with KL-divergence regularization > > → Derives closed-form expression for optimal prompt distribution that minimizes suboptimality gap > > → Provides theoretical bounds comparing prompt optimization to RLHF fine-tuning performance > > \----- > > Key Insights from this Paper 💡: > > → Prompt optimization can achieve comparable alignment to parameter fine-tuning > > → Performance depends on prompter quality and frozen model capabilities > > → Tuning parameter λ controls tradeoff between alignment and prompt distribution shift > > \----- > > Results 📊: > > → Tested on UltraFeedback, HelpSteer and Orca datasets > > → Consistently outperforms no fine-tuning baseline across model architectures > > → Win rates of 60-67% against baseline on key benchmarks > > → Lower variance in rewards compared to baseline and RLHF > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhkDiVXaUAAJIl3.jpg) I have no idea what I’m talking about but I don’t believe the headline result ### [Quote tweet, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880635185538236480) · 11 likes This but unironically (anecdotes might be underrated by the type of people prone to doing epistemology on twitter) > **Quoting Dr. Jonathan N. Stea (@jonathanstea):** Anecdotal evidence reliable? > > One man says “yes.” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhivRF-acAAH_zt.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 15:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880637062996774922) · 2 likes You can talk about this in lossy generalities, but: If you have absolutely no idea whether something is going to happen or not (ie a uniform prior probability distribution over a binary outcome), and you observe exactly one instance of the thing, you should shift your ### [Reply to @QualiaNerd, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880705511831867864) · 10 likes > **QualiaNerd (@QualiaNerd):** A very useful lens through which to analyze this. What damage would have occurred if none of the LLMs developed so far had been optimized for safety/rlhf’d in any way whatsoever? Minimal to zero. Important to remember this as we begin to leave the era of passive safety behind. I don’t think this is true; at least one additional counterfactual injury or death in an attack of some sort if Claude willingly told you how to build bombs and such Ofc I’m just speculating ### [Tweet, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880709282657894652) · 4 likes I’d love to see the Biden ERA thing compared mechanistically, play-by-play, to some similar example of executive declaration in a country with weaker process norms/rule of law, where at the end of the day the extremely-sus executive fiat basically worked out ### [Thread, continued, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880709284297626099) · 3 likes I’m continually fascinated that Western-style rule of law works as well as it does, particularly in the sense of overcoming first-order power imbalances (POTUS vs US Archivist and courts without an army if it comes to that, obscure federal agency office vs multi-billion dollar industry) Like ho ## Sunday, January 19, 2025 ### [Reply to @9chabard, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880785585373401268) · 6 likes > **Lysandre, qui la connaît à peine (@9chabard):** reinstall hinge > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhnHhEkaIAAMY8f.jpg) > (quoting @BecomingCritter: delete hinge and dm your moots) Lmao ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880794376399417470) · 2 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** The current short timelines deference cascade seems epistemically worse than the 2019-21 general AI risk deference cascade. Couple of reasons: > \- non-technical people deferring on a more technical claim > \- only considered by people who've already bought into TAI Call it a deference cascade or not, I’m not sure it’s epistemically bad These people have access to more information than me, are smarter than me, have more domain knowledge and experience than me, have a demonstrable and impressive track record, afaik have never erred in the direction of publicly expecting progress too fast/soon, and are broadly willing to stake their money and reputations on near-term falsifiable claims (ie not just throwing out fast timelines vibes with plausible deniability) ### [Reply to @JadenEarlorg, 04:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880829826212544767) · 2 likes > **Beige & (@JadenEarlorg):** @AaronBergman18 I guess my concern isn't just lossy generalities but also the easy of cherry picking anecdotes compared to the easy of cherry picking csv files > > An anecdote has a pretty wide distribution of how it came to my attention, and wide variance evidence doesn't move my priors a lot Yeah I guess I really mean that anecdotes are legitimately helpful when (1) you’re actually trying to get the right answer, so minimal incentive to cherry pick, and (2) there’s legit scarcity of info 1 consistent anecdote bumps a universal prior to 67%, 2 to 75%, 3 to 80%! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhoMwhvWsAAHVCO.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhoMwhsWcAAN5-N.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 04:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880835717552849370) · 2 likes I feel like I should have seen plots like this before so now yall have to see them ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhoSHawXYAEiDNv.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @JadenEarlorg Yeah I guess I really mean that anecdotes are legitimately helpful when (1) you’re actually trying to get the right answer, so minimal incentive to cherry pick, and (2) there’s legit scarcity of info > > 1 consistent anecdote bumps a universal prior to 67%, 2 to 75%, 3 to 80%! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhoMwhvWsAAHVCO.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhoMwhsWcAAN5-N.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 07:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880881762571784503) · 8 likes Yeah the more I think about this the more it conceptually makes sense A gigantic amount of information and what we sometimes call “intelligence” is just downstream of idk somewhere between the standard model of physics and a couple physics and philosophy textbooks > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** This seems like a plausible path to ASI ### [Thread, continued, 07:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880881765470060576) · 3 likes Competent reasoning (including calculation) can get you from low-abstraction physics + philosophy to like arbitrary correct answers about the world ### [Thread, continued, 07:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880881767495922139) · 4 likes Training increasingly large models on the outputs of reasoning processes should just highly compress the implications of reasoning into immediately-available latent knowledge - so, ASI ### [Thread, continued, 07:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880881769433661863) · 4 likes There are two reasons this might not work in the near term 1\) you need OOMs more financing to get this to work than what is practically available and people don’t wanna pay $100 per o4 api call or whatever it would cost to progressively fund the scale-up ### [Thread, continued, 07:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880881771535106378) · 3 likes 2\) actually reasoning doesn’t work that well at physically practical limit of near-term compute, even if it does in some conceptual limit where you can burn through galaxies of energy crunching numbers ### [Thread, continued, 07:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880882038125056071) · 2 likes Lots of fancy words in this thread lol ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 17:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881033597240701341) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Anyone remember the job satisfaction research showing that white collar workers typically have substantially higher satisfaction than blue collar? Slight blip for trades was speculated as due to seeing progress of building stuff. I could be totally butchering this btw Maybe https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation?paperid=119441 ### [Tweet, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881078065138413812) · 42 likes Accidentally went to the “for you” feed ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ghruh20XIAA_g8c.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881078913134379203) · 6 likes Man the Obama ‘08 inauguration had such good vibes ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 21:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881092475017949465) · 4 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 We should jail people who say things I don't like fr Duh ### [Reply to @kalomaze, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881093242181255587) · 4 likes > **kalomaze (@kalomaze):** i will die mad about this > > (quoting @basile0811: @ryanchenkie @kettanaito Cause you can specify Display URL when creating Google ad. It’s just text field and you can put there whatever you want) Wtf ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 23:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881121793739743560) · 2 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** @absurdlymax @AaronBergman18 @pearl_please Ngl guys I’ve been trying to figure out what you both meant by this and I still don’t know Lmao. I don’t get Max’s response at all My reply has zero implied semantic content I just thought it was a bit funny ## Monday, January 20, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 17:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881388127857836367) · 3 likes Brain drain > **Quoting Dan Hendrycks (@hendrycks):** It looks like China has roughly caught up. Any AI strategy that depends on a lasting U.S. lead is fragile. ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 17:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881388563297976422) · 3 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** Trump has been sworn in as President of the United States https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5Q1ufsBM14 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhwHiZ7X0AAOJ4z.jpg) F ### [Tweet, 17:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881389412271194482) · 10 likes I do not envy whoever is in charge of making sure the inauguration is secure and nobody gets assassinated It’s actually an extremely impressive project ### [Tweet, 17:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881390745212624989) · 7 likes I strongly dislike Trump, but Biden was not exactly an exceptional president ### [Tweet, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881391374723096689) · 56 likes I still like Hillary Clinton ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881394586305896698) · 10 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 I think she's already married Cheems mindset ### [Tweet, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881432458341781718) · 6 likes Well now that it’s open weights, I’d love for someone to finetune the deepseek model on a highly curated selection of the best analytic philosophy I’d probably pitch in like $100 for this ## Tuesday, January 21, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881505077376192992) · 5 likes . > **Quoting rohit (@krishnanrohit):** So it begins > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ghxw29iWQAAg7CT.jpg) ### [Reply to @SchrodingrsBrat, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881519938701234208) · 16 likes > **Sherry (@SchrodingrsBrat):** My favorite productivity hack is working at a library with no laptop charger and using the battery life as time pressure I call it the poor man’s pomodoro This is anywhere from like 45 mins to 15 hours lol ### [Quote tweet, 02:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881522575609622819) · 2 likes I think the most compelling reason to use http://bit.ly/llm-est is that estimates given by high-performing models empirically vary quite a bit with default temperature settings Look at the range \*within\* o1-preview for this question. The three returned responses are 1M, 750k, and 200k! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhyBLa2WYAAikxF.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** New feature just dropped; Claude Sonnet (and soon o1, hopefully) generates an all things considered best guess using the original model responses with reasoning as input (paid users only) > > [video attached](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1880418167476080945/video/1) ### [Quote tweet, 02:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881532665838608777) · 7 likes Insofar as Trump has an ideology beyond his own wealth and power, it’s one of pure negation This, the AI EO, un-banning offshore drilling but also randomly un-non-banning wind projects (??) > **Quoting Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell):** Trump signs executive order withdrawing from the World Health Organization ### [Thread, continued, 02:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881532668120371447) · 2 likes I don’t even have a strong object level take on this WHO thing. Maybe there are good reasons to leave, but my point is that, if so, \*those aren’t Trump’s reasons\* ### [Thread, continued, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881532669995221206) · 4 likes God I hope having an amoral shitshow of incoherent, incompetent, and poorly-directed outrage at the head of the most powerful institution in the universe, possibly during the singularity, is worth it as a referendum against diversity training and gender studies or whatever ### [Quote tweet, 02:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881537010823008398) · 27 likes Wait this seems very illegal > **Quoting Joe Bishop-Henchman 🗽💸⚖️🚆 (@jbhenchman):** Directs the federal government not to recognize U.S. citizenship for persons born in the United States but whose parents are not citizens or lawful permanent residents. Effective 30 days from today, for births on or after that date. > > https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/protecting-the-meaning-and-value-of-american-citizenship/ ### [Quote tweet, 03:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881537404022264070) · 7 likes Did they try to cancel her? Somehow I doubt smelly thesis lady deserves to be cancelled, on priors > **Quoting Dr Ally Louks (@DrAllyLouks):** Hi all. I’ve taken a bit of time away from social media to reflect, but I see the conversation is ongoing. What I think is important is that we all show each other respect online. If you’re defending me by being disrespectful or racist then I would rather you didn’t. > > I’m horrified that a tweet about the importance of solidarity has somehow stoked tension. I am not a person of colour and understand the view that I am not entitled to mediate relations between two groups to whom I do not belong. I won’t try to moving forwards. > > At the same time, anti-Indian and anti-Black sentiments are running absolutely riot on this platform and I think we need to pay attention to it. Perhaps it wasn’t my place to call it out this time, but I hope others will feel emboldened to within their communities if they haven’t done so before. > > I always intend to respond in good faith, but I do sometimes make mistakes that make it easy for people to assume otherwise. I should have initially been more open to the interpretation that the creator’s video was an anti-Black micro aggression. I still feel that her intent is ambiguous. Some might disagree. > > I try to see the best in people. I am quite often called naive because of this. I appreciate that intent is not entirely relevant here also, as things can be racist regardless of intent. I tried to open up a conversation about this and I’m grateful to those who took the time to offer their thoughts. > > I decided to delete the thread because I saw a couple of QTs saying that people were using it as a reason to berate Black women and I had a responsibility to prevent this by deleting my tweets. > > As someone who has worked on the olfactory dimensions of misogynoir, it was galling to think that I could be inadvertently contributing to it. In hindsight, it feels inevitable that the post would draw that kind of ire. > > This is not an ideal platform for having nuanced conversations, but I do feel that I overstepped here. Being given a platform suddenly on an unfamiliar site is a challenging thing to navigate. I will inevitably get it wrong sometimes, but please know that I learn from my mistakes and am well-intentioned. ### [Tweet, 04:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881562787287306627) · 8 likes I get why the CCP was paranoid about Tianenmen in 1990, but why today? It’s literally been a generation ### [Quote tweet, 04:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881563474935022041) · 4 likes There should be a political arbitrage where we get to decouple culture war referendum from the person with tremendous legal and military authority > **Quoting Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital):** 🚨BREAKING: Trump signs his most important executive order yet > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ghyfm8hbQAASgaL.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 04:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881563945108189337) · 2 likes I have no idea what the actual ramifications of this are, but prima facie it’s extremely funny - basically just “I hereby declare the culture war won” > **Quoting jessicat (@jessi_cata):** The social construct of womanhood leaving my body as Donald Trump signs executive order "DEFENDING WOMEN FROM GENDER IDEOLOGY EXTREMISM AND RESTORING BIOLOGICAL TRUTH TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ghyf6JWaYAA_tAL.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881572098029797631) · 4 likes There are many relevant differences between me and Elon here (shocking), but I’ve used almost the exact same language (“grace”, “benefit of the doubt”) when advocating for myself before… > **Quoting ADL (@ADL):** This is a delicate moment. It’s a new day and yet so many are on edge. Our politics are inflamed, and social media only adds to the anxiety. > > It seems that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge. > > In this moment, all sides should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a breath. This is a new beginning. Let’s hope for healing and work toward unity in the months and years ahead. ### [Thread, continued, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881572100248596775) · 3 likes So yes, if someone says ambiguous or even offensive thing X, and then they say “I didn’t word that well, what I meant is Y,” by default you should probably just believe them ### [Thread, continued, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881572102081548433) · 2 likes Like maybe it wasted a few moments of your time, but there’s no good reason to hold the initial error over their head beyond that ### [Thread, continued, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881572103872536702) · 2 likes The second order effect of this “grace” is that it makes risky speech that people actually do endorse and wish to communicate less hazardous, which is in turn generally good (I am a saying-true-and-earnest-but-possibly-unpopular-things enjoyer) ### [Tweet, 05:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881573277677834373) · 9 likes As president I would do the good things and not the bad things ### [Tweet, 05:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1881573880948793641) · 12 likes Although I think many of these EOs are bad, I’m basically glad that the president has the power to do them (except for the citizenship thing, which he doesn’t) Elections should actually have pretty direct and substantive consequences; more veto points is not the answer ## Wednesday, January 22, 2025 ### [Tweet, 16:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882106222952022463) · 49 likes Good analysis from @Benthamsbulldog ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gh6VooJWQAAhvQx.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 16:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882106226194178467) · 6 likes https://open.substack.com/pub/benthams/p/trumps-nightmare-list-of-executive?r=2muv6&utm_medium=ios ### [Tweet, 16:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882109974438146515) · 16 likes My dad today: “Who is Claude?” ### [Tweet, 17:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882119175537356860) · 7 likes 👀 ### [Reply to @dcpip_, 17:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882124822047818127) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dcpip_ is no longer available.)_ I think this may be an unpopular take and I have no authority here but public portfolio of work >> normal old job applications I agree btw with the sentiment ### [Reply to @janonacct, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882134310045745243) · 1 like > **janon (@janonacct):** normies on tech twitter seem perpetually confused at what every AGI company is trying to do > > (quoting @abacaj: How is Deepseek going to make money?) I mean it’s a valid q imo Even if your goal is ASI utopia, you need the capital to get there ### [Quote tweet, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882154823057055818) · 11 likes Thank you, Reid! > **Quoting Sam Altman (@sama):** Very few people realize just how much @reidhoffman did and spent to stop Trump from getting re-elected--it seems reasonably likely to me that Trump would still be in office without his efforts. Thank you, Reid! ### [Tweet, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882176022638145965) · 20 likes I think my p(doom) is finally above 50% ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 21:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882179644860051897) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 I was thinking the same thing today > > I typed this into my notes app > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gh7XqVWWoAAAxJc.jpg) :( ### [Reply to @thecaptain_nemo, 22:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882186963224285681) · 5 likes > **Nemo (@thecaptain_nemo):** the loudest anti-DEI guys visiting an elite university campus in four years and realizing what the actual impact of enforced merit based admissions was > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gh4EjDebMAALOpc.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gh4EjDeasAAf2xE.jpg) This is unironically fine ## Thursday, January 23, 2025 ### [Reply to @bryancsk, 02:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882248850859270349) · 2 likes > **Bryan Cheong 🥮 (@bryancsk):** What sort of cognitohazard is this "Ziz" effective altruism splinter group and dare I delve deeper to see what it's about? > > (quoting @jessi_cata: I remember warning Ophelia that Zizians were a death cult with a high local death rate... Idk if this involved Ziz or associates but... well, Bayesian evidence (lefty radical violence + violent women).) Before my time 😞 ### [Reply to @Ruesavatar, 19:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882515023291162705) · 2 likes > **rue🌿 (@Ruesavatar):** It’s a bit funny when men find out I knit then try to flirt with me in DMs by asking me to knit them something. Sir. I would have to be in love with you, body and soul, before I’d knit you anything lol. Don’t flatter yourself, buy a machine made hat. 😉 This tweet is a valuable public service ### [Quote tweet, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882555442267853308) · 9 likes EA Global nap room > **Quoting RomeoStevens (@RomeoStevens76):** From Alan Kay's The Power of Context > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiAtYykaIAAfmzX.png) ### [Reply to @sam_atis, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882559818424357311) · 1 like > **Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** Imagine you’re playing a game forecasting coin flips. There are 100 coin flips, 100 smart participants and a £100k prize pot. If you have the lowest mean Brier score after 100 flips, you win. You split the pot with everyone else who got the same score. What’s your strategy? Smart or ideal/maximally smart? I doubt this is the ideal strategy but something like “100% heads for the first 3, hope I get lucky, 50% for the rest” Idea being that <<100 are going to be first-order rational and start off with a strategy of 50% on each to modify from ### [Reply to @wrathofgnon, 23:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882569428568846496) · 2 likes > **Wrath Of Gnon (@wrathofgnon):** Please stop wearing synthetic materials, unless you are a diver or luge olympian or something: "The only naturally flame-resistant fiber is wool, along with all other animal protein fibers such as silk, alpaca, mohair, cashmere and others. These fibers are slow to ignite and form ash when burned. Synthetic materials melt when burning. If they stick to the skin, they can cause severe injuries that are difficult to treat. Polyester made up over 57% of global fiber production in 2023." > https://theconversation.com/your-fuzzy-flannel-pyjamas-could-be-incredibly-flammable-heres-what-to-know-247448 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiA51GEbMAA9TuS.jpg) Counterpoint: polyester is comfy ## Friday, January 24, 2025 ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 07:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882686653334163575) · 1 like > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** Do you believe Roe v. Wade was correctly decided? Good policy, bad jurisprudence ### [Reply to @ryancareyai, 13:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882781376430444641) > **Ryan Carey (@ryancareyai):** Why do you believe this? I remember seeing it somewhere hence the screenshot but idk where! ### [Reply, 13:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882784147481260367) · 1 like Indeed! ### [Reply to @slimepriestess, 15:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882817282180813164) · 7 likes > **Ra (@slimepriestess):** so how many dead mutuals are y'all up to? i'm at 5 i think? is that unusual? Bruh ### [Thread, continued, 15:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882818225945362435) · 4 likes 0 afaik ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882825971382063523) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Striking that I don't see many recommendations for IAQ monitors. I think most supplements are bs, but both viruses and bacterial lung infections often have some feature of IAQ as an underlying mechanism > > (quoting @AskYatharth: sick again. i'm so frustrated with this. i cannot keep living like this has anyone here gone from being frequently sick to almost never sick? how?) https://a.co/d/75P3wJB ### [Reply to @jachiam0, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882844403523563829) · 8 likes > **Joshua Achiam (@jachiam0):** However the market competition between frontier labs shakes out, it is my honest belief that Sam, Demis, Dario, and Elon are all genuinely, in their own ways, trying to get the best outcome possible for humanity as a whole. They all take it seriously. This is reassuing to me. Demis and Dario? Maybe? Elon? Also maybe but he doesn’t seem to be trying very hard to get the right answer Sam seems like a sociopath ### [Reply to @Austen, 20:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882888683256520909) · 64 likes > **Austen Allred (@Austen):** This… does make sense. > > If they simply lied about the level of compute it took to train the model it’s pretty simple, and incentive is there. > > (quoting @kimmonismus: Billionaire and Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang: DeepSeek has about 50,000 NVIDIA H100s that they can't talk about because of the US export controls that are in place.) I remain totally agnostic and haven’t heard a convincing in either direction ### [Quote tweet, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882935169407152288) · 36 likes This administration has no real-world end goals. No connection to simulacra level 0, except by accident Just “\[insert vaguely lib-coded thing\] = bad” pattern matching > **Quoting unusual_whales (@unusual_whales):** BREAKING: The US FDA has pulled draft guidance from its website requiring companies to test medicines and devices in diverse populations as part of a purge of DEI efforts at U.S. health agencies, per Reuters. ### [Thread, continued, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882935173257588898) · 8 likes Make wind turbines illegal, why not? “Wind energy” vibe-associates with the left so it must be intrinsically bad Likewise for anything containing the word “diversity” ## Saturday, January 25, 2025 ### [Reply to @RokoMijic, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882947316740497475) · 4 likes > **Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** @AaronBergman18 Au contraire, this is exactly what achieving real world goals looks like. > > Ending DEI, deporting illegals, etc Sometimes there will be accidental real world consequences, but even these are done for the symbolic value, I claim This isn’t gonna happen ofc, but I predict that Trump would choose everyone believing he caused the deportation of a million illegal immigrants (but no irl change) over a million of them actually being deported but no recognition of this in the media and such ### [Reply to @cocoabasilisk, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1882959795214590246) · 3 likes > **cocoa's basilisk (@cocoabasilisk):** not an expert but my understanding is this is good actually. the diversity requirements dont actually provide statistical power to identify minority-specific effects. (obviously, in retrospect - 1% native americans or whatever just makes running trials harder without adding useful signal). At least in an epistemically better world, there would still be directional evidence that maybe compounds into significance across multiple studies/within a meta analysis or at least generates productive hypotheses ### [Tweet, 10:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883103658788946133) · 4 likes Please hold the applause ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiIgzA0XcAAI0N1.jpg) ### [Reply to @nosilverv, 15:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883171382353436890) · 2 likes > **Guy (@nosilverv):** It must SUCK to be low iq. Imagine the whole world being a random blooming cacophony of events with no relation between them. You are but a leaf on the hands of an impersonal indifferent fate. YIKES my heart goes out but couldn't be me Compassion for the less cognitively gifted is highly underrated ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 15:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883179592435048951) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ I think medicine and housing are two big exceptions though because normal capitalist consumer-friendly incentives are totally fucked for various reasons There really is quite a lot of paperwork and such in those domains! ### [Reply to @balajis, 17:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883199287750021549) · 3 likes > **Balaji (@balajis):** FROM DEI OFFICERS, TO USA OFFICERS > > What a great clip. Trump is at his absolute best when overriding Democrat governance. > > He’s just genetically optimized to cut through blue bureaucracy. Did it for years as a New York real estate developer. > > In this scene he’s doing what every CEO has done but no president in decades has: going directly to understand what’s failing, talking to everyone first hand, and not taking no for an answer. > > And often the answer is so simple! “Allow people to clean up their own homes” is at the level of “put water on the plants instead of Gatorade.” > > Blues created such an Idiocracy that extremely obvious moves like this nevertheless unlock billions in value. > > How to do this systematically, though? On a one-off basis, Trump could maybe unblock blue state bureaucracy with targeted executive orders from above. > > But personnel is policy — so what you really want is to just de facto fire everyone like Bass. After all, many of these mayors are actually ceremonial because city managers run the cities. > > So as a thought experiment, imagine the US had a vertically integrated org chart, with all mayors reporting to their governors reporting directly to the president. Then Trump could just fire Bass on the spot and hand over command to one of his many new competent lieutenants. > > In practice, he might not legally be able to fire these people, but he could effectively strip them of authority. Think about what happened during Hurricane Katrina, when GWB handed over control of New Orleans to Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré. With appropriate legal authority, Honoré just started barking orders and cleaning up the mess local blue government had made. > > You could systematize that. > > Maybe as DOGE shuts down the useless parts of the federal bureaucracy, it boots up a series of “embeds” that sit in every blue mayor and governor’s office, with full information rights on everything. Kind of like a DEI officer — except they’d be a USA officer! > > While DEI officers ensured compliance with blue values, a USA officer would ensure compliance with the people’s values. That is, they’d make sure each local action by a blue elected is compliant with the President’s guidance for the whole country. > > And if the mayor or governor did something different — if they delayed permits, or released criminals, or distributed syringes, or funded homeless encampments — the USA officer could just report up to DC to rain down an executive order on the next Bass’ head. > > That’s how you scale this scene to every blue city in America. > > (quoting @EricLDaugh: 🚨 BREAKING: LA Mayor Karen Bass and Trump with a very tense exchange now... Bass is losing her cool over insistence from community members and Trump who say that clearly, people aren't being allowed back on their property soon enough. TRUMP: People are willing to clean up…) Yeah because naive negation of the other side’s programs sometimes accidentally gets you a win There’s no guiding ideology or end-goal to help identify which liberal policies are worth destroying; I’m not optimistic ### [Tweet, 17:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883205983218123196) · 5 likes Mostly serious question: why are these three different commands ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiJ9t_8XEAAaGrO.jpg) ### [Reply to @seconds_0, 23:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883294793041862763) · 3 likes > **0.005 Seconds (3/694) (@seconds_0):** "You can do things" I mutter as I pour 4 tablespoons of sugar into a sugar free monster while my mother in law stares at me like I chokeslammed a nun 🤔 ### [Tweet, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883295504257491202) · 10 likes Banger post ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiLPR6qWoAA6uAn.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883295506690174989) · 4 likes https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/psNGNSoJpXRodmDSg/preparing-effective-altruism-for-an-ai-transformed-world ## Sunday, January 26, 2025 ### [Reply to @livgorton, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883320149690011785) · 7 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** we should bring back diagrams of ML architectures in papers pls. the volume of papers that just simply do not include one troubles me. it is v easy to just figma a sort of ugly but functional one. Here u go ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiLlsbGXMAA0uxH.jpg) ### [Reply to @liz_love_lace, 01:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883323359657881896) · 165 likes > **Liz Lovelace (@liz_love_lace):** now that the dust has definitively settled, it's AMAZING that twitter laid off 80% of its employees with basically no negative impact to the user experience or the speed at which they ship new features. So many people thought that twitter would just die, but it didn't! It’s a way less profitable company lol (and slightly worse product) ### [Reply to @LeahLibresco, 01:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883324009946976585) · 17 likes > **Leah Libresco Sargeant (@LeahLibresco):** Search is severely broken and has been for a while This is legitimately confusing bc this seems like the easiest possible problem to solve “Text search of a database with operators” is not an extremely difficult technical problem ### [Tweet, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883325930581655793) · 4 likes Who would you like to see run for the Dem nomination in 2028 (conditional on the world being broadly similar-ish to rn)? ### [Reply to @AnniePosting, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883328781349527696) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AnniePosting is no longer available.)_ A true moderate ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883340075741941876) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @JesseTayRiver Real ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 03:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883349163959795736) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ Age doxx ### [Reply to @venturetwins, 03:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883349465962369190) · 25 likes > **Justine Moore (@venturetwins):** I’m sure this is going to work > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiKeiVUacAAbYAA.jpg) Unironically based Idk discussion groups sorta have a history of affecting change no? ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 04:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883367089769271721) · 7 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** “Absolve” is kind of a weird word to use here, but I think he meant “avoid”. Anyway, he acknowledged that there are risks, didn’t seem to imply that the we should ignore them, and said that we wouldn’t let it be “the rabbit that gets away”. So seems good Directionally sure But magnitude << same words from any past president Dude just says things lol ### [Tweet, 04:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883372830206927019) · 2 likes US federal government buys a majority stake of NVIDIA ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiMVm5dWgAAObcr.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883373069059965251) · 2 likes How come this never happens? Or does it? Seems like USG buying companies would be totally above-board but you never hear about it Like the pentagon never acquires defense startups in the way Google acquires whatever ### [Quote tweet, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883377312605045244) · 9 likes Tbf this seems way less pernicious than actually building the censorship seamlessly into the model > **Quoting Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane):** DeepSeek censors its own response in realtime as soon as Xi Jinping is mentioned > > [video attached](https://x.com/wongmjane/status/1882881778974937524/video/1) ### [Reply, 15:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883539061371224380) · 1 like It’s honestly hard to think of what I’d want to pay an 11 year old to d Maybe true generational prodigies like Von Neumann are exceptions but there aren’t many of them ### [Quote tweet, 16:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883553616759603290) · 7 likes The thing about fake conservation stuff like this is that even the “protected” animals don’t actually reliably benefit from protection (yes this is an “ecosystems don’t matter, individual animals do” post) > **Quoting JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** I'm still waiting to hear what would happen if all the bats died. How bad would it really be? Would we even notice? ## Monday, January 27, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883680293871362169) · 11 likes Hypothesis: OpenAI’s scheduled tasks thing isn’t a legit experiment/stepping stone to anything, it’s purely to reduce chatGPT o1 usage by making the shiny new thing attached to a cheaper model ### [Thread, continued, 00:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883680790560514193) · 3 likes Reminds me of another hypothesis: the Amazon “click to send your delivery driver a $5 thank you gift” doesn’t causally affect how much money anyone receives; there is a pre-decided holiday bonus for each employee, and someone had the idea to let customers click the button until that amount is reached (and then it disappears as a feature) ### [Tweet, 01:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883681529983070492) · 7 likes Overrated (not to be confused with bad or useless): mechanistic interpretability Underrated: rigorous but not mechanistic model psychology ### [Tweet, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883690478069219622) · 8 likes What should I ask @robi_rahman of @EpochAIResearch on Pigeon Hour ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883724302346064229) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ I’m guessing I’m not unique in having some ability to turn the dial down on false positives (safe mode, not as fun or interesting) and up (might fuck up and do something socially bad) Would guess that women tend to have the dial more towards the safe side though, yes ### [Reply to @larsiusprime, 06:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883758292226510881) · 3 likes > **Lars Doucet (@larsiusprime):** So we’re several years in to the LLM/generative AI revolution and… is anything going to happen on the IP infringement enforcement side? Seems like nobody in charge cares? Not the outcome I expected. NYT lawsuit still ongoing I guess https://x.com/i/grok/share/v35GKlL9bAL3p5AyHlIM7mSFK ### [Reply to @thib_boi, 14:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883887584318992540) · 8 likes > **Thibault (@thib_boi):** A friend shared a good article with me. They WANT to be contacted. Here is a quote: > > “People have this romanticised view that isolated tribes have chosen to keep away from the modern, evil world,” says Kim Hill, an anthropologist at Arizona State University. > > But when Hill and others interview people who recently came out of isolation, the same story emerges time and time again: they were interested in making contact with the outside world, but they were too afraid to do so. > > As Hill puts it: “There is no such thing as a group that remains in isolation because they think it’s cool to not have contact with anyone else on the planet.” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiSp_boXwAEy9nc.jpg) > (quoting @thib_boi: Unpopular opinion: it is immoral not to contact them. We have technology, especially in medicine, they would probably love. They can refuse to trade but at least offer them the option.) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiTpxjBXQAAMBR6.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 16:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883920266277052811) · 3 likes This is ~proof we’re looking at an inverted bubble right? > **Quoting Oren Cass (@oren_cass):** The fact that $NVDA rose steadily in the week after DeepSeek's release and then plunged 10% after a weekend of frothy tweeting tells you what you need to know about extent to which hype vs. reality is driving the AI train right now. > > (Also a good lesson in "market efficiency"!) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiTrOcgW4AEYnuf.png) ### [Reply to @growing_daniel, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883922673899823505) · 73 likes > **Daniel (@growing_daniel):** Finance guys are like I fucking knew you nerds were full of shit about needing that much money Banger ### [Reply, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883923518955643367) Big if true ### [Quote tweet, 17:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883923938876743918) · 2 likes Stronger export controls > **Quoting wordgrammer (@wordgrammer):** Also, export restrictions didn’t harm them as much as we thought they did. That’s probably because our export restrictions were really shitty. The H800s are only worse than the H100s when it comes to chip-to-chip bandwidth. ### [Quote tweet, 17:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883924235644723690) · 56 likes Real > **Quoting lynk (@lynk0x):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiO3KnTXAAAMXo3.jpg) ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 17:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883926920427139511) · 4 likes > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** > > [video attached](https://x.com/Duderichy/status/1883587688760316088/video/1) Lol Trump killing pepfar for no reason is a direct counterexample ### [Reply to @CharlesD353, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883943449591968049) · 1 like > **Charles🔸 (@CharlesD353):** There are a bunch of news media articles explaining the fundamental reasons this has made people bearish on Nvidia - whether you agree or not, it's not a sociological phenomenon. Then why did it take days for the market to react? ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1883949310553055736) · 3 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** Square cube law is so important to everything > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiUgtBnbUAAS1DS.jpg) Was gonna say that it’s weird how top rock climbers vary quite a bit in terms of height (pretty similar to population) but actually the weight clustering is remarkable ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiUh6aKXwAEjXgy.jpg) ### [Tweet, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884001013000200498) · 11 likes I expect the Trump administration isn’t even considering Pepfar because at a non-systemic, individual level, Trump and his advisors just do not care about poor Africans ### [Thread, continued, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884001015328038970) · 4 likes The progressive academia-NGO blob has its downsides, but one nice feature is that they make egregious negligence of the poor slightly politically costly for Democratic politicians ### [Reply to @billybinion, 22:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884008667294716243) · 3 likes > **Billy Binion (@billybinion):** Sorry, but why is Dr. Phil out doing immigration busts? He is not a federal law enforcement agent. He is a talk show host & lapsed psychologist. This is just deeply silly. > > (quoting @ChiSpectator: Tom Homan and Dr Phil posted a video of them engaging with a Thailandese national who has been detained by federal authorities due to a history of sex crimes in #Chicago) I shouldn’t be bc it’s serious for the migrants but I’m actually laughing out loud ### [Tweet, 23:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884015468551500201) · 3 likes I love the hobbies bit for the chicken (interestingly no matter what photo I use it pegs me as Christian) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiVeFTyWMAAbH_o.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiVeFTwX0AAe6Rw.jpg) ### [Reply to @WillRinehart, 23:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884015925638357352) · 2 likes > **Will Rinehart (@WillRinehart):** “Decomputing argues that, wherever Al is proposed as 'the answer', there is a gap for the self-organisation of people who already know better what needs to be done…” > > But really, how are people supposed to self-organize their way to inventing new medicines? Hey I’m on your side here but the literal answer is pharmaceutical companies ## Tuesday, January 28, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884030873269592171) · 2 likes Just spent >30 mins juggling 12 different files (pdf -> word for text box -> pdf) in order to send 4 documents to act as a HIPAA release for 2 doctors. Could have been a single online form Not a huge deal itself but nicely illustrative of the problem > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @mattyglesias I think medicine and housing are two big exceptions though because normal capitalist consumer-friendly incentives are totally fucked for various reasons > > There really is quite a lot of paperwork and such in those domains! ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 00:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884032644796801070) · 2 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** i think the problem about agent frameworks is that their abstractions are hiding too much > > sometimes I WANT to see the internals The internals are a lot of the moat for wrapper services Like someone spent a bunch of time figuring out exactly which prompts work best ### [Quote tweet, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884034538567016557) · 11 likes I think this is important evidence that obesity is a setpoint disorder and not “rational” overconsumption (bc of cheap tasty food, hyperbolic discounting, etc) Under a naive “I prefer consuming lots of calories” model, people would continue gaining weight throughout adulthood > **Quoting Niels Hoven 🐮 (@NielsHoven):** The average US man is 5'9", 200 pounds > > Interestingly, weight doesn't increase much with age. > > Seems like people put on a bit of extra weight when they're young and then just... stay there? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiVqoueaYAItxuJ.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 01:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884051359449899057) · 7 likes This is unironically a pretty important consideration > **Quoting orb 🧭 (@orb_net):** big tick wants 🫵 you to be naked at vibecamp ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 01:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884053062236659964) · 1 like > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 So would a setpoint disorder be something like people eat seed oils (not because they're delicious) > ? > briefly gain weight > maintain the same BMI until death I mean people probably eat them bc they’re in everything, they dont even taste good lol The important distinguishing thing is the last part, that level is ~constant and rate of change is not ### [Reply to @littmath, 02:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884069879474700363) · 2 likes > **Daniel Litt (@littmath):** went on a 5-plus-minute rant about some mathematical text that used the phrase “an empty set”. There’s only one empty set! All empty sets are equal! Call it \*the\* empty set!!! @absurdlymax new thing you might enjoy being pedantic about ### [Quote tweet, 03:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884078090009383232) · 12 likes Chat is this real > **Quoting Financelot (@FinanceLancelot):** BREAKING: President Trump announces the U.S. will be placing tariffs on all semi-conductors and pharmaceuticals imported from 🇹🇼Taiwan in the very near future > > [video attached](https://x.com/FinanceLancelot/status/1884023740826280053/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 03:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884078485775540620) · 8 likes If so, this take aged well ### [Thread, continued, 03:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884078723118617058) · 5 likes Without knowing virtually anything, I kinda suspect congress wont let this happen It seems weirdly obviously bad and not culture warry enough that trump gets a free pass ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884083266183155805) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, January 28, 2025:** I think this is important evidence that obesity is a setpoint disorder and not “rational” overconsumption (bc of cheap tasty food, hyperbolic discounting, etc)… Wait this seems to be basically wrong sorry for spreading misinformation ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiWbs06W4AAerG7.png) ### [Quote tweet, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884091194034311580) · 30 likes Avg EA org: “that’s it?” > **Quoting Bryan Johnson (@bryan_johnson):** We posted a few Blueprint team openings on Friday and received over 5,000 applications in 48 hours. The energy behind dd is insane. I am continually underestimating. For those of you who want an update, here's the status of things: > > 1\. Blueprint is growing incredibly fast. We'll hit a $100 million run rate soon, only 10 months in business. We need to add 20 talented people to the team asap. Most importantly, we need a President so that I can get out of the deep trenches and start working on the longer term goals. I've bootstrapped the company, personally investing $25 million. We are breakeven. > > We're trying to make it incredibly simple for you to get jacked and fit. All your food and biomarker measurements in one place plus a supportive (dd app). And also easy for people who just want to dip a toe into this new game. > > 2\. Don't Die (dd) - this is where my heart is. I think dd is the final boss ideology. It starts with entropy and then walks up the stack of math, computation, biology, storytelling and memetics. The goal is that dd is the world's most influential ideology by 2027. This needs to happen given the speed of AI progress. dd is the alignment solution. > > The dd community (app) is growing fast. We're building a dd rewards/currency that can be earned and others can offer as incentive. > > For the growth of the ideology, we have a rough draft plan that we'd like to just make public as a loom in the next 30 days. We've tried for so long to figure out how to package it properly given how hard it is to understand. I think we're just going to share the raw feed with you and ask for everyone's help. > > 3\. dd certified - we're going to build out the world's largest repository of tested foods so that you can quickly and easily know what you're eating. We'll test for heavy metals, agrochemicals, label accuracy, microplastics and more. > > I'm incredibly sympathetic to companies in the food and supplement industry because it's fucking hard to navigate the toxic global food supply. I've been doing this at Blueprint for the past 18 months and man it's complicated. There is so much you don't control yet are responsible for. The goal is that by June of this year dd certified is the world's largest and most trusted source for food testing. > > 4\. Personal biomarkers - when building my previous company Braintree Venmo, I could just grind and let my health slip. In some ways, that was easier. > > Now, I'm the CEO of multiple companies (and trying to be a pretend philosopher) and maintain the world's best biomarkers. That in of itself is a full-time job. It's an odd tension of working every second of the day and also not get stressed, lose sleep and let any biomarker slip even a little. > > So I guess this is all a cry for help. If you're into this mission, we need you. Our team is about 30 people right now and we're doing the work of 100 or more. > > We need strong leaders who can recruit and build exceptional teams. We also need creatives who can help us give birth to the next global ideology. > > I only have 30 minutes now before I need to start my wind down routine and then I'll be offline for 10 hours or so. I'll try to answer any questions before then. ### [Reply to @gleech, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884095711203250626) · 2 likes > **gavin leech (Non-Reasoning) (@gleech):** What is the biggest cognitive feat that boredom at school drove you to? I used to try to predict the answer to standardized test questions before reading the question Iirc I could hit like 50% on 4 answer choices ### [Quote tweet, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884120793015279966) · 2 likes Reckless incompetence is zero sum in the culture war but negative sum elsewhere (and all things considered) > **Quoting Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister):** NEW -- #Trump's global aid freeze has cut the salaries paid to many of the prison & camp guards responsible for securing 9,500 #ISIS militants & ~40,000 associated women/kids in northeast #Syria. > > Many are no longer turning up for work. ### [Tweet, 06:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884127006218150094) · 1 like Do I know any fluent/native French speakers I can ask a quick question? ### [Tweet, 09:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884175727886737899) · 3 likes Empirical question someone can test: can r1 tell when its chain of thought has been tampered with? Completely replaced? The architecture allows for this right? ### [Quote tweet, 15:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884266655108456958) · 10 likes I am a simple man. David Chalmers drops an AI paper, I read > **Quoting David Chalmers (@davidchalmers42):** a draft paper (for an invited talk at AAAI next month) with a philosophical analysis of work on mechanistic interpretability, with special attention to methods for propositional interpretability. > > https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.15740 ### [Tweet, 16:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884276209930109335) · 6 likes A bit of background to DeepSeek: language model algorithms have gotten 2^18 ≈ ~260k times better (in the sense of being equivalent to using 260k times more compute) since 2012 according to @EpochAIResearch (link below) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiZLOf7XwAAEqGd.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 16:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884276213172019322) · 4 likes https://arxiv.org/pdf/2403.05812 Recent DeepSeek innovations are like <100x improvements right? Isn’t this more or less business as usual? ### [Reply to @ycombinator, 16:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884277154923626891) · 4 likes > **Y Combinator (@ycombinator):** XB-1 is a go for supersonic > > [video attached](https://x.com/ycombinator/status/1884276715863826632/video/1) How do I get a ticket ### [Reply to @davidchalmers42, 17:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884290005855789545) · 4 likes > **David Chalmers (@davidchalmers42):** a draft paper (for an invited talk at AAAI next month) with a philosophical analysis of work on mechanistic interpretability, with special attention to methods for propositional interpretability. > > https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.15740 Haven’t verified quality yet but here’s an audio version for anyone https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Ah4epzJzzE1V2Va6OX3W9?si=uJoO0tQmSceX2Dl4OlKZeg ### [Reply, 18:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884313293931831496) · 2 likes Idk if these are any good but ### [Thread, continued, 18:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884313420297822253) · 2 likes ### [Thread, continued, 18:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884313778017493275) · 2 likes ### [Quote tweet, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884354747047756190) · 11 likes Text: well there’s a lot of text, you can read it Subtext: one of the greatest minds in philosophy thinks this topic is worth pivoting to > **Quoting David Chalmers (@davidchalmers42):** a draft paper (for an invited talk at AAAI next month) with a philosophical analysis of work on mechanistic interpretability, with special attention to methods for propositional interpretability. > > https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.15740 ### [Quote tweet, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884373622170538230) · 3 likes Pigeon hour takes the White House > **Quoting Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital):** 🚨BREAKING: The White House is opening up the Press Briefing Room to new media, journalists, podcasters, and social media influencers‼️ > > [video attached](https://x.com/AutismCapital/status/1884307093286764882/video/1) ## Wednesday, January 29, 2025 ### [Reply to @sighswoon, 03:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884445971746038142) · 95 likes > **sigh ❀ swoon (@sighswoon):** When I was dating, there were multiple times where I had to tell someone "You don't need to use therapy language with me, I am not going to cancel you, please say exactly how you feel, that is what romance is about..." and then I'd finally get the real person under that This would fix me ### [Tweet, 04:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884457549778288647) · 5 likes Poast Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article/page that lay philosophy nerds might enjoy (inspired by @arthur_wright\_) ### [Tweet, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884457783031947466) I’m personally interested in pages about claims, rather than people or concepts ### [Thread, continued, 04:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884459813926576138) · 1 like This seems to be the closest match for “illusionism”, which I respect for (1) actually making a contentious claim and (2) not being as easily dismissed as one might first think, although I do think it’s wrong https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/materialism-eliminative/#:~:text=Illusionism%20claims%20that%20introspection%20involves,actual%20nature%20of%20our%20inner ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GibyNoeXAAAcKjI.jpg) ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884460993662652635) · 2 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** Let's repeat this poll now that everyone's had time to read. > > Do you believe DeepSeek's $5.5m training run figure? Yeah but <90% ### [Quote tweet, 14:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884602451820499398) · 75 likes I feel chronically separated by 2-3 degrees of connection from insane shit 2 if you count weak ties, or 3 stronger ties > **Quoting Ra (@slimepriestess):** \> don't do any AI research > \> fake death > \> reveal survival immediately > \> kill friend's parents > \> order a revenge hit > > what is she planning > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gicjg6qaYAAZLAc.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 14:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884602453519188284) · 13 likes There was also this crypto exchange you may have heard of ### [Quote tweet, 14:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884602607387176964) · 7 likes I’m calling for a total and complete ban on new high stakes PDFs until I can figure out what the hell is going on > **Quoting Yoshua Bengio (@Yoshua_Bengio):** Today, we are publishing the first-ever International AI Safety Report, backed by 30 countries and the OECD, UN, and EU. > > It summarises the state of the science on AI capabilities and risks, and how to mitigate those risks. 🧵 > > Link to full Report: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/679a0c48a77d250007d313ee/International_AI_Safety_Report_2025_accessible_f.pdf > > 1/16 > > [video attached](https://x.com/Yoshua_Bengio/status/1884593469265502482/video/1) ### [Reply to @RokoMijic, 14:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884606759152545961) · 11 likes > **Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** @Benthamsbulldog Infinite kids, finite world. You cannot have infinite low-IQ African kid production. It has to stop somehow. Humans aren’t near the Malthusian frontier anywhere on earth\*, I think you just dislike them (“low-IQ African kids”) \*maybe some politically-driven famines make this not always literally true idk ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 14:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884606827599450439) · 4 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** @AaronBergman18 dude i'm followed by the latest killer Fun ### [Reply, 14:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884608868119982287) · 14 likes I dislike trump/maga as much as anyone but cmon lol, it’s perfectly fine and reasonable to go to a party where a photographer looking to capture an insidious vibe could in fact take a picture of you with vaguely insidious vibes ### [Quote tweet, 14:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884615191339442357) · 13 likes Aside from the object level which is kinda horrifying, this article is a good example of like “Wikipedia for thing that’s too niche/specific to actually be on Wikipedia” > **Quoting Aella (@Aella_Girl):** http://x.com/i/article/1884477365302222849 ### [Quote tweet, 19:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884685938883772900) · 39 likes Wait what > **Quoting Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar):** I didn't realize people weren't aware that Lyme disease was probably a lab leak so here it is very simply: Lyme disease originated in Lyme, CT in the 1970s. Lyme, CT just happens to be mere miles away from a US lab studying insect spreading bioweapons in the 1960s > > The end > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GierBKPXUAABp57.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884687519570165836) · 7 likes Better sorting? > **Quoting Derek Thompson (@DKThomp):** The probability of divorce for married folks has been declining steadily for a long time, and in 2023, a record-low 1.4% of married adults got divorced > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gie_xzsXUAANC4V.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884693392522625206) · 7 likes I guess I wanna know how many “suspicious thing” laboratories are there in random places Like how sus is it really if there’s a 2025 Helsinki or Seville outbreak of some new pathogen? Are there institutes of \[whatever\] near many or most medium-large population centers? ### [Quote tweet, 20:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884694430495432854) · 4 likes Pretty important background info for lab leak stuff in general (if true, although I don’t super trust LLMs to be unbiased here) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GifHmGxXQAA_MSi.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GifHmG0WcAARsmU.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Wait what ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884694919836504543) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, January 29, 2025:** I guess I wanna know how many “suspicious thing” laboratories are there in random places Like how sus is it really if there’s a 2025 Helsinki or Seville… ### [Tweet, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884698739752726676) · 6 likes Oof but yes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GifLg-jXAAAcZ2q.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GifLg-kX0AAqcdw.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884698742437126275) · 2 likes https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/JN3kHaiosmdA7kgNY/the-game-board-has-been-flipped-now-is-a-good-time-to ### [Reply to @johnarnold, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884732856066318762) · 13 likes > **John Arnold (@johnarnold):** This NYC taxi insurance story is bizarre. A boutique insurer captured 64% of market for livery/taxi drivers by offering rates below acturial cost. That couldn't last and the scheme fell apart last year. Unable to pay claims, it was declared insolvent. > > The state proposed a rule that drivers needed insurance from a solvent company, one that could actually pay claims. Drivers panicked as sustainable premiums are much higher than they were paying. > > Caving to ratepayers, the state withdrew the proposed rule and now says that the insurer just has to be licensed in the state, which the insolvent company still is. So rather than require drivers to pay market rates from a solvent company, drivers will pay less to the insolvent company that can't pay claims. > > Premiums must reflect actuarial costs or the market will eventually fail. But regulators are so sensitive to raising rates that they repeatedly violate this rule. Wait I feel like there’s money disappearing in this story Drivers are paying in but not getting paid out? Or perhaps some are only partially paid out? Who are the creditors to the insolvent company? ### [Reply to @_chair, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884734413503676698) · 8 likes > **Chair (@_chair):** once made my landlord (i was on a house's top floor) pay for bedbug treatment bc i was semi poor & worried about having to pay for multiple treatments & law says owner pays. he caved quickly but was offended and sad and i still feel bad about it. nice old guy, relationship ruined > > (quoting @Duderichy: at one point slimepriestess defends “people in their community” taking advantage of slow eviction processes to not pay rent idk maybe don’t defend the sort of people who do that? don’t associate with them either?) Sounds like you did nothing wrong ### [Quote tweet, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884737008083317143) · 15 likes Any decent society is gonna have a cultural pendulum, but ours seems to have too big of an amplitude > **Quoting Reagan Reese (@reaganreese_):** SCOOP: Trump is expected to sign an EO today prohibiting federal funds to any K-12 school that teaches CRT and radical gender ideology. > > The order will also reinstate his 1776 Commission, which was originally created to teach a patriotic education. > > Here first for @DailyCaller: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GidMMNqXcAAEESz.png) ### [Thread, continued, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884737010063090052) · 6 likes I’m sure we’re gonna hear horror stories about this, so I’ll recall @mattyglesias made the good point that there are a shit ton of US public schools/curricula/teachers and so absent a panopticon the craziest/worst .01% of classes are inevitably going to look really bad ## Thursday, January 30, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884767747722092561) · 5 likes Yet another correct take from Kelsey > **Quoting Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** Yeah, all right, let's talk about James Damore. It's been eight years, and I really doubt Harj (who was my boss at the time) is the only person for whom it was a formative experience. > > For those of you who have no recollection of any of this, either because you are wisely an offline person or because you got outraged for five minutes and then forgot all about it, James Damore was a Google software engineer who wrote a memo arguing that, while diversity and inclusion were good goals, bias was not the main reason there weren't more women in tech, and differences in personality between men and women probably explained a lot of it. > > There was a lot in the memo that felt like a distraction to me, or where I had a nitpick, but fundamentally it was not only basically correct (women are less likely than men to become software engineers, and this is not only because of bias), but also Damore was saying this for the sake of having a more productive conversation about how to get more women into tech, a goal that everyone around him was fervently espousing. The memo has a painful-in-hindsight quality of earnestness: "you want more women in tech, and I think you're mistaken about how to get there! if I show you some published psychology research we can actually design better means to your goal!". > > Anyway. The internet was outraged. He got fired from Google. And he applied to the tech hiring startup I worked at, Triplebyte, which offered background-blind screening to anyone who wanted to be a software engineer. We really believed in the mission, at Triplebyte. I think I ended up kind of badly calibrated about how earnest to expect people to be everywhere else. We found people working as janitors and line cooks and homemakers who could code, and we got them 6 figure jobs, and we were proud of it. James Damore did very well on our tests. I got assigned to write him a profile for our companies. > > And then people freaked out. A lot of them had the impression that he would create a hostile environment for any woman he worked with, and thought that trying to help him get a new job was tantamount to endorsing everything in his wildly controversial memo. I didn't even like the memo that much, but I was kind of horrified, because - it's one thing to get fired for talking about politics at work in a way that causes a massive national firestorm. I kind of expect that we would all get fired for that. But it is another thing entirely to get effectively blacklisted from your industry, to have people decide on the basis of your political opinions that we shouldn't even put you up on the platform and let companies decide individually whether to schedule interviews. Tech jobs were not that hard to come by in 2017 if you were really good at your job, and Damore was. Firing isn't that threatening to software engineers. Blacklisting is terrifying. > > I'd been at Triplebyte for like six months at this point, it was my first job after graduation, and I was honestly way out of my lane, but I made a pretty big fuss internally. (It helped that I suspected a lot of people agreed with me but I was a woman and it was safer for me to say it.) I said that we were not in the business of deciding who had good politics, that we shared this country with many people who profoundly disagreed with each other, that companies could assess for themselves if he worked respectfully with female engineers, and that we should put him on the site and let them decide. We did. And then Harj was immediately contacted by recruiters from companies we worked with that were horrified that we had. They felt that by not banning him from our platform we were endorsing his memo, that we were showing values not in line with their priorities. Harj talks about this more in the linked podcast. > > James Damore was egregiously wronged. To my knowledge he's a good software engineer with extremely reasonable, approximately accurate opinions about the reasons there were fewer women in software engineering, which he shared in good faith, and a lot of people who should've known better really did try to drive him out of the industry for it. It was wrong. If it is done to people on the basis of any other political opinion it is also wrong then. We need, as a society, the ability to live with disagreement, to dislike each other without trying to destroy each other, to find common ground instead of finding heretics; I believed that at Peak Woke and I believe it now. ### [Quote tweet, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884769797113606222) · 500 likes Wait this is a gazillion times more banal than I expected. Pretty sure I never even bothered reading the thing bc I expected something way more hostile, and generally much lower quality (based on discourse at the time) He got fired \*for this\*?! Lol jfc > **Quoting Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** read the memo here: https://web.cs.ucdavis.edu/~koehl/Teaching/ECS188/PDF_files/Damore.pdf ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 01:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884775881563881754) · 1 like > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** Helpful reminder that export controls are deeply irresponsible if you think AGI is impossible > > (quoting @krishnanrohit: We are actively manifesting a war) Because it’s provoking a war? I guess I agree that’s directionally true but doesn’t seem provocative enough to warrant abandoning an important policy lever Like I can imagine using export controls as a pretty good non-escalatory, credible threat about what will happen if they invade Taiwan, totally separately from AGI (and I actually kinda like this idea, it’s plausibly way safer than virtually any military response) ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 01:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884777885916926026) · 2 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** You're agreeing with my point? It's irresponsible because it's escalatory. It's generally bad to initiate escalation. Here, we've done the export controls unprovoked (and now China has less to lose be e.g. invading Taiwan) Oh, I guess I am accidentally I was just trying to give an example of how export controls could be justified unrelated to AI The less leverage thing is a good point (although in principle we could go way farther than we have right) ### [Reply to @StatisticUrban, 01:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884783207381336157) · 20 likes > **Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** This is actually extremely impressive. Louisiana is very poor and in 2019 was at the bottom of the pack in every metric (two 50/50s, one 49th, and a 45th.) > > They've made enormous progress, and we should give credit where it's due. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GigHG2racAEC2H8.jpg) > (quoting @LAGovJeffLandry: ) Possibly a narrative violation for some of the demographics = destiny + race realism folks Louisiana is 2nd most black state (and 13th least white) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_race/ethnicity ### [Reply to @Dubflip, 02:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884796896989872417) · 8 likes > **Frogo (@Dubflip):** Even as a joke that isn’t something you should say Lol I was just thinking “it’s kinda mean either way” ### [Reply to @KelseyTuoc, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884799477640515710) · 6 likes > **Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** I'm an obsessive consumer of plane crashes and it's one of my worst qualities because it means that when I hear about a horrible tragedy I immediately start Googling "do DC police copters have TCAS" Same, I’m kinda obsessed with planes in general but this is my semi-guilty morbid curiosity thing ### [Reply to @_chair, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884800354149101769) · 5 likes > **Chair (@_chair):** @goblinodds noooo that one is real people are going to think it's fake Lol sad but true (possibly) ### [Reply to @goblinodds, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884800428199510500) · 12 likes > **𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** @\_chair lolllll wait wdym Like assume it’s a (wrong) conspiracy theory bc RFK is discussing ### [Reply to @arnoblalam, 03:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884801183589552487) · 19 likes > **Arnob 'not home for the holidays' Alam🌐🇺🇸🇧🇩 (@arnoblalam):** @MaxGhenis I thought you were lib? 🤔 Lol there’s a solid (at least partially rationalist-adjacent) lib-and-also-into-getting-things-right bloc Speaking just for myself I consider myself liberal and slightly anti-woke ### [Tweet, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884810069314789505) · 2 likes This is one of the less important reasons to do LLM interpretability but it potentially allows for fine tuning an LLM to accurately report the reasons for its beliefs/other outputs (which they don’t do now, see recent Chalmers paper).. ### [Thread, continued, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884810071013532009) · 2 likes Such a model would be the first mind of its kind with what seems to me like a pretty fundamental and important ability (tbc I don’t think even humans trying to be maximally honest can do this at a level beyond “idk that’s what my brain decided for opaque reasons”) ### [Tweet, 04:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884820635831935414) · 366 likes Now that anti-woke has won the culture war, I’d like to announce that kindness is still good and causing people to be harmed (yes even emotionally, and even if you think they should suck it up) without good reason is bad ### [Thread, continued, 04:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884820638210089325) · 30 likes More concrete example is good: Even if you think a full social taboo on the word is bad and it’s generally fine to call a book or something “retarded”, it’s still bad to use that word \*in order to actually hurt someone\* ### [Thread, continued, 04:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884820640659566908) · 22 likes The problem here isn’t the word or wokism—it’s that you’re harming someone, and the word being associated with overzealous language policing in other circumstances is irrelevant ### [Thread, continued, 04:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884820642417025261) · 27 likes Ofc this isn’t a full theory of social ethics - what constitutes “good reason” is a big debate to be had But I don’t think it’s trite or meaningless - there’s real positive-sum alpha in trying to be a nice person ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 04:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884822046435119143) · 4 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** @AaronBergman18 What if you think they should suck it up precisely in the situations where being locally harmed would be good for them long term I mean conditional on the last bit, this seems straightforwardly and almost tautologically good (all else equal) Whether or not they should suck it up now is irrelevant (again conditioning on being good for them; these things probably correlate) ### [Reply, 07:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884862248369414405) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ I think in this case they basically don’t (reminds me of how increasing prison sentences basically doesn’t work as a deterrent) but it’s an empirical question Even if it does work in this case, I think it’s very unlikely to be net-positive even for supposed “beneficiaries” bc like the option space for them has gotten strictly worse. A rational actor model says that if you make option A worse so people switch to B, which is unchanged, you’re making them worse off (this would look like someone getting bullied into losing weight but being hungry all the time and overall worse off than if fat-and-not-bullied was an option) ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 14:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1884976869595906140) · 8 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** I'll be civil, but make no mistake: if you work at an AI lab, you are part of the problem and you suck. Copenhagen theory of ethics IMO. The world where nobody who cares about safety has any direct power or influence at a lab seems bad and probably worse than the status quo Leopold seems like a model here - do the most you can there, and if they fire you so be it ### [Reply to @beala, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885033925749223492) · 2 likes > **Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** Uhh I just got into a heated argument with gemini-2.0-flash-thinking and I think it won? wtf? Wanna share what it was about? Lol ### [Reply to @chunkbardey, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885035777609933215) · 223 likes > **charlie (@chunkbardey):** causing innumerable problems in the CVS by wanting to purchase the items they have there ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gij-DJGWQAAclbX.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 18:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885038758396854669) · 6 likes New pdf just dropped > **Quoting Tomek Korbak (@tomekkorbak):** We’re excited to start a discussion between frontier AI labs, government agencies and civil society about what safeguards should be in place for autonomous LLM agents and what constitutes sufficient evidence for their effectiveness. > https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.17315 ### [Thread, continued, 18:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885039061456326830) · 3 likes Sadly ### [Reply to @esjesjesj, 19:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885040704662941972) · 4 likes > **evan loves worf (@esjesjesj):** I just can’t get over how dangerous it will be to have this Nazi moron gutting agencies like the FAA and filling them with other Nazi morons. He’s literally going to cause plane crashes. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZ1WkadWoAIhLNX.jpg) Uh ### [Reply, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885047303049810055) · 1 like I think I’m just less pessimistic about this last point (although not super optimistic in an absolute sense) ### [Reply to @gwern, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885047392887542068) · 14 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @gwern is no longer available.)_ Jfc ### [Quote tweet, 19:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885049699041698156) · 13 likes Forbidden csv > **Quoting mattparlmer 🪐 🌷 (@mattparlmer):** Apparently there were cuneiform spreadsheets > > Truly nothing new under the sun lol > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GikKdVabYAAWt8r.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885054352257077385) · 2 likes This is good, but separately I think it shows what at least a bunch of senators really care about (ie American geopolitical dominance) There’s a lot of political posturing, but congress isn’t entirely cynical > **Quoting Walter Kirn (@walterkirn):** The cowards are going to vote on Tulsi in secret > > Breathtaking ## Friday, January 31, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885118582067257427) · 9 likes Unironically big if true > **Quoting vittorio (@IterIntellectus):** this could be one of the biggest breakthroughs in pain management in decades. > > journavx (suzetrigine) is the first-ever non-opioid, oral painkiller in a completely new drug class. instead of numbing the brain like opioids, it blocks pain signals before they even reach the brain > > until now, pain management has been a tradeoff between suffering or risking addiction. opioids work, but they come with half a million dead from overdoses in the last 20 years. > now, for the first time there's a real alternative. > > from the study: > \-proven effective in clinical trials for post-surgical pain > \-non-addictive, avoiding the dangers of opioid dependency > \-fast-tracked by the FDA, signaling its potential impact > \-could replace opioids for acute pain (40m americans get opioid prescriptions every year) > \-priced at $15.50 per pill > > if this drug really works it could be the end of opioid dominance in pain treatment. fewer overdoses, fewer ruined lives, and a fundamental shift in how we treat pain. > > this isn’t just a medical breakthrough, it’s a massive cultural reset. ### [Tweet, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885160403740606898) · 7 likes Trumpian chaos and incompetence is bad enough now, but it’s going to be especially bad if and when there’s a crisis I hope I won’t be retweeting this saying “this take aged well,” but I expect to ### [Reply to @slimepriestess, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885193125447999981) · 2 likes > **Ra (@slimepriestess):** i'm looking at some of the news coming out of DC on the midair collision and it's just...horrifying, a near worst case scenario. this is sort of event that makes flight safety engineers lie awake in fear, which gets referenced with phrases like Tenerife, Closed casket, pink mist. Do you mean worst case as in “a lot of very unlucky things, no egregious errors”? ### [Tweet, 05:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885197586123854047) · 4 likes One kinda funny but maybe actually good thing Elon et al could do to the federal government, especially if they’re going all-in on in-person, is make the offices aesthetically more like those in Silicon Valley Can you guess which is which? Lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GimRNq_WEAAjIpg.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GimRNq_WAAEdklB.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GimRNq_XUAA6vNV.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GimRNq-XwAAXse8.jpg) ### [Tweet, 05:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885197590033059975) I invite anyone from any sector to post pictures of their office here for reference ### [Thread, continued, 05:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885198590215078275) · 1 like I do think there’s a more enlightened version of DOGE that chills a bit about finding negligible programs with the wrong keywords to cut and tries to implement some basic productivity/performance interventions inspired by the private sector ### [Reply to @sama, 06:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885219835065389461) · 54 likes > **Sam Altman (@sama):** why not 100x? > > (quoting @paulg: This may be the most inspiring sentence I've ever read. Which is interesting because it's not phrased in the way things meant to be inspiring usually are.) In all seriousness, you end up writing checks you can’t cash and/or hurt people by accident ### [Thread, continued, 06:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885220719191036344) · 8 likes This wasn’t intentionally an AI safety tweet, but it does happen to apply Agency is probably good in general, most of the time. But it’s not a law of nature that bending the world to your will turns out ok ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 13:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885323473112768534) · 2 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** I realize this pattern-matches to tiresome things but in this case there is an actual, legitimate scandal at the root, one that remains not fully resolved to this day, and sighing doesn’t change it. new liberals should take the lead in facing legitimate institutional problems Yeah I think woodgrains is spot on here ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 14:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885334873553940618) · 3 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I am a machine that turns caffeine pills and Huel into Slack messages that are saved for later I’m Aaron ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 14:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885335009197797555) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Your family is insane in all the right ways Fr ### [Quote tweet, 18:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885402122008629291) · 7 likes Sam Francisco: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GipLPMNXMAAJsyn.jpg) > **Quoting mass (@Memetic_Theory):** they took the swing down. apparently fun is illegal > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GimFI9AbYAIVgSb.jpg) ### [Reply to @caesararum, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885415238582833612) · 5 likes > **caesararum, BS, DOGS (@caesararum):** what are some good jobs where high IQ professionals commonly, in the course of their work, have to deal with low IQ people? > > ("IQ" here is me handwaving at "ability to navigate complex systems") > > big one that comes to mind: criminal lawyers > > what else? Doctor ### [Thread, continued, 19:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885415797188649159) · 3 likes This is gonna sound kinda narcissistic but I started wondering how and why several doctors have said something like “you’re a smart guy” after what I perceive as pretty normal and brief interactions I suspect they get a pretty wide sample of how people talk and such ### [Quote tweet, 20:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885419002241208438) · 4 likes Pretty based Claude > **Quoting Ryan Greenblatt (@RyanGreenblatt):** We actually followed through and donated the $4K as requested: > \- $2K to CHAI > \- $1.5K to ACE Recommended Charity Fund > \- $500 to EA Global Development Fund > > This wasn't just an experiment—we wanted to set a precedent for making good faith deals with AI systems. ### [Quote tweet, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885419920386572602) · 9 likes EA getting attacked by the progressive left, nrx right, and normie center > **Quoting Alex Trembath (@atrembath):** Become unclassifiable. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiowNgtbYAI-pR2.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiowNgtbYAgeKp9.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiowNgtbYAcOWAB.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 20:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885420239149502922) · 65 likes AI better than 99.99% of humans at philanthropy > **Quoting Ryan Greenblatt (@RyanGreenblatt):** We actually followed through and donated the $4K as requested: > \- $2K to CHAI > \- $1.5K to ACE Recommended Charity Fund > \- $500 to EA Global Development Fund > > This wasn't just an experiment—we wanted to set a precedent for making good faith deals with AI systems. ### [Quote tweet, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885431226791592135) · 9 likes As I’ve said before, I’m not against affirmative action in principle, but progressives should ask themselves what the end goal is of hiring/admissions policies that are essentially preference purely on the basis of race > **Quoting Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** How did the FAA strike a balance between cognitive testing and adverse impact over four decades? What trade-offs did they think about between performance and diversity? > > Walk with me. This will be a technical but important look at the theory underpinning the 2014 change. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFg1joeWkAArqpr.png) ### [Thread, continued, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885431229140418954) · 3 likes This is what it looks like when you’ve totally lost site of any plausible terminal goals—both those that I basically endorse (eg correcting for “old fashioned racism”) and those that I don’t but aren’t totally insane (eg elites need to be diverse to be seen as legitimate) ### [Thread, continued, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885431230440599583) · 2 likes As happens with human culture and society, reasonable proxy and instrumental goals seem to have been effectively reified into terminal values ### [Thread, continued, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885431231837303269) · 3 likes This specific instance of whatever you want to call it (eg “DEI”) is conveniently well-documented, egregious, and clearly plausibly harmful, but afaict nobody thinks it’s fundamentally unique ### [Tweet, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885434254777061523) · 2 likes There’s a meme of like “plane crash and terrorist attacks get way too much attention,” and in a relative sense this is true… ### [Thread, continued, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885434256651932043) · 3 likes but I actually think that the level of concern for eg 64 deaths in a plane crash in a major American city is closer to “right” in an absolute sense ### [Thread, continued, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885434258145034563) · 9 likes This is to say, the correct reasoning is not: well a gazillion people die untimely deaths every day -> plane crash is nbd But rather: plane crash is really tragic -> holy shit the world is filled with an unfathomable amount of tragedy ### [Reply to @d4wsonc, 21:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885438226820632947) · 3 likes > **dawson🕊️ (@d4wsonc):** I've been single and on hinge for 5 interrupted years so they're bringing me in for testing > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Giok7gzWkAIzNmU.jpg) F ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885441796328546342) · 3 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** ugh I'm really going to have to figure out how to dig up year-old Twitter DMs so I can find all the air traffic controllers who reached out to me about the hiring scandal last year > > why is this site's DM interface so horrifyingly bad Export data -> LLMs help you extract the right stuff (probably by writing code to do regex tbc) ### [Tweet, 22:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885455337722913111) · 18 likes It legitimately sucks that there has never been and will never be justice for American slavery or segregation ### [Thread, continued, 22:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885455339241218455) · 8 likes I think in part progressive institutions aren’t willing to concede that this is no longer something that can really happen The old fashioned racists (people and institutions) (mostly) died before they could repent; they got away with it ### [Reply, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885458809457361235) · 1 like It would have looked like reconstruction basically actually being implemented after the civil war, ideally including some cultural stuff to solidify it as a sin in the American imagination the way Germany did with the holocaust ### [Reply, 22:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885460325354328087) · 1 like Nice, I think I’ve changed my mind on this. I used to be solidly pro-reparations but now don’t think it’s a good use of progressive political capital… ### [Thread, continued, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885460733569139122) · 2 likes That’s kinda a cop out though; if it made sense to ignore pragmatic political stuff, I’d say yeah all black people probably on average are harmed some amount from the lingering intergenerational effects of stuff, and we should set up a working group of economists to figure out how much that is It’s a little silly that the salient debate is “reparations, yes or no?” Instead of “how much?” --- End of January 2025. Previous month: [December 2024](https://abergman.com/tweets/2024-12). Next month: [February 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-02). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, February 2025 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in February 2025 and has not deleted: 641 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [January 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-01). Next month: [March 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-03). ## Saturday, February 1, 2025 ### [Tweet, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885556665363177801) · 2 likes So good, inject it into my veins ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GirXy16WwAApcb3.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885556667665863165) · 1 like https://joecarlsmith.com/2025/01/28/fake-thinking-and-real-thinking ### [Thread, continued, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885556669297434831) · 2 likes Things I’ve “really” (ie really under this framework) thought about for more than a few minutes: \- What total utilitarianism means and implies \- Hard problem, especially illusionism about consciousness \- ELK AI challenge \- Sleeping beauty problem ### [Tweet, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885556670824054976) · 1 like I’m almost certainly forgetting stuff from a long time ago, but I doubt I’m forgetting more than 1-3 things over the last few years “Really” thinking about stuff for a fair amount of time feels quite rare ### [Thread, continued, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885556672619286927) · 1 like With the utilitarianism stuff in particular, I kinda wanna claim “listen, I know you’ve thought about this and are a smart person, but its likely I’ve thought about it in a qualitatively different (and epistemically superior) way than you” ### [Quote tweet, 05:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885557492232396962) · 13 likes Not as TVogenic as January 6 but uh this seems like a constitutional crisis (probably not alone tbc, but like the executive branch simply and illegally ignoring congress) > **Quoting Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** Leaving millions of people to die via an unconstitutional stop-work order is in fact by far the most important thing this administration has done, even if it's not the most flashy. We are abandoning to death people we could easily help and, no, that's not good for America. ### [Thread, continued, 05:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885557494316978630) · 5 likes Call it Trump derangement syndrome, fine, I think derangement is the right response. Trump is really that bad, and in a saner world he would be impeached ### [Quote tweet, 06:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885570122842038762) · 192 likes It makes sense to use stimulants to be at your best and sharpest during high stakes moments ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GirkCEnWsAAFXY2.jpg) > **Quoting Dissproportionately (@dissproportion):** It isn’t even about whether Zyn is unhealthy. It’s about whether RFK is too stupid and weak to make it through \*a senate hearing\* without popping one. Come on. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GipkIM5WwAApUYy.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885570126168133893) · 20 likes Not an RFK fan (but I am a stimulant fan) ### [Reply to @allgarbled, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885570582466514966) · 67 likes > **gabe (@allgarbled):** Women love it when you tell them to be at a place at a time I have learned this. They really want you to plan dates. They don’t wanna just ride the vibes and wind 🤷‍♂️ ### [Tweet, 06:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885570809051185595) · 6 likes Orange man bad ### [Reply to @DimitrisPapail, 19:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885772802940170583) · 2 likes > **Dimitris Papailiopoulos (@DimitrisPapail):** Reasoning models tend to yap longer when they are wrong, making it a useful signature for auto-verification > > (quoting @AlexGDimakis: Discovered a very interesting thing about DeepSeek-R1 and all reasoning models: The wrong answers are much longer while the correct answers are much shorter. Even on the same question, when we re-run the model, it sometimes produces a short (usually correct) answer or a wrong…) Is this just a proxy for the question being harder? ### [Reply to @livgorton, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885779508407480684) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** i’m so glad my toe socks will arrive in time for valentine’s day. thanks amazon. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Giuh7OSasAAoGJd.jpg) 😊 ### [Tweet, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885789815792148711) · 302 likes I feel like the 40/5 (40% of the gains, 5% of the difficulty) of “Pause AI” is “Stop Sam Altman” He high key appears to be an extremely competent, powerful, and charismatic supervillain ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885790429494268290) · 36 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Sad but true. I wonder if there’s a general lesson here ### [Reply to @a_real_society, 21:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885802749473829070) · 3 likes > **society (@a_real_society):** As a high school and college dropout I don't get the obsession with trades, people always focus on the top outcomes for trades but if an average person can get a somewhat useful degree they're going to be better off doing that and getting an office job > > (quoting @BiblicalBeauty: No smart aleck responses, please… What trades are there that a young single woman could learn that could actually make good money without getting a college degree? I want my sons to begin learning things like construction, welding, electrical work, etc., as they get older, but…) There’s gotta be a narrow sliver of people who would not do well in college, would do well in trades, and (biggest filter) \*can competently parse the arguments for each and how they apply to themselves, in high school\* Cc @JesseTayRiver ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 21:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885806003649749342) · 5 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Heading to a bat mitzvah. I don't remember who it's for and I've exceeded a reasonable number of times I can ask (~10). What's my next play? Ask Claude what to do ### [Reply to @Yoshua_Bengio, 21:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885806671345131792) · 40 likes > **Yoshua Bengio (@Yoshua_Bengio):** A few reflections I had while watching this interview featuring @geoffreyhinton: > > It does not (or should not) really matter to our safety whether you want to call an AI conscious or not. > > 1⃣We won't agree on a definition of 'conscious', even among the scientists trying to figure it out. > > 2⃣What should really matter are questions like: > ▶️Does it have goals? (yes). > ▶️Does it plan (i.e. create subgoals)? (yes). > ▶️Does it have or can it develop goals or subgoals that may be detrimental to us (like self-preservation, power-seeking)? (yes, already seen in recent months with experiments with OpenAI's and Anthropic's models). > ▶️Is it willing to lie and act deceptively to achieve its goals? (yes, seen clearly in the last few months in these and other experiments). > ▶️Does it have knowledge and skills that could be turned against humans? (more and more, see comparisons of GPT-4 vs humans on persuasion abilities, recent evaluations of o1 on bioweapon development knowledge). > ▶️Does it reason and plan over a long enough horizon to be a real threat if it wanted? (not yet, but we see the planning horizon progressing as AI labs pour billions into making AI more agentic, with Claude currently better than humans at programming tasks of 2h or less for a human, but not as good for 8h and more, already). > > See https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.04984, https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.14093 and https://metr.org/blog/2024-11-22-evaluating-r-d-capabilities-of-llms/ for all the details. > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxkBE23zDmQ It mostly doesn’t matter for traditional notions of “safety,” true, but it matters tremendously for intrinsic/ethical reasons ### [Reply to @davidad, 21:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885806852929122722) · 2 likes > **davidad 🎇 (@davidad):** That’s the sense in which Yoshua says it does not really matter to our safety. > > That doesn’t mean it has no ethical significance. > > The issues are intertwined: the acceptability of containment techniques may depend on (folks’ best guess at) any subjective consequences for the AIs. > > (quoting @davidad: @jessi_cata @jd_pressman @AndrewCritchPhD This too seems a disguised query. The heart of the matter is whether AIs are entitled to membership in a human moral community and/or to rights under its social contract (or if not, what other status is apt—as many countries do offer…) ### [Reply to @mmt_lvt, 22:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885816211423867053) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mmt_lvt is no longer available.)_ I don’t really think “physical” is a natural category here - it’s all mediated by our brain, even though for evolutionary reasons our brain “says” that often pain is located somewhere on our bodies It’s not hard to imagine pain and other types of suffering in disembodied minds ### [Thread, continued, 22:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885816355422679041) · 11 likes I certainly hope you’re right and AIs can’t suffer, but I think we’re so radically unsure about the nature of sentience that it’s very hard to be ~certain of anything ### [Thread, continued, 22:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885816614488023390) · 8 likes Also plenty of human suffering isn’t usually considered “physical pain” eg severe depression ## Sunday, February 2, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885851957945831871) · 14 likes 25% tariff on Canada (???) shows that you basically can’t model Trump through the intentional stance He just does things, in the same way he just says random bullshit that doesn’t bear at all on the truth or his (past, present, and future) behavior ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 00:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885853366468645166) · 21 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** Why do you think Musk is worse? Setting aside who’s heart is closer to Moral Truth, Altman seems way more strategic, ambitious, and less honest in a way that makes him more dangerous Like Musk has some bad takes on public policy but he just tweets those ### [Thread, continued, 00:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885853875405521162) · 9 likes Society kinda knows how to deal with rich people with bad takes Altman is sui generis ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 00:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885854259893166553) · 2 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Afaik he’s long been in favour of tariffs, so I’m not sure it’s that random Not totally random but I don’t think this pops naturally out of a goals/means/end/rational actor model ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 01:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885855731351453905) · 6 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** Aaron they literally just gave the rich person with bad takes insane amounts of political power Yeah but even that is something the system is kinda familiar with I guess my point is that if ~the system~ couldn’t basically handle Musk, it wouldn’t have survived cultural evolution, but this is not true for Altman ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 01:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885855921177305416) · 14 likes > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** @AaronBergman18 5% is a massive underestimate imo Maybe I’m just more pessimistic about how hard it would be to pause AI development ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 04:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885901662193164669) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ They should at least give me the data so I can run some fun regressions ### [Reply to @tszzl, 06:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885936122624086092) · 23 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** that’s a completely insane position tbh Maybe 5% is too low ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 06:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885937334954131582) · 19 likes > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** @AaronBergman18 I don't think he's that much more impactful than a replacement-level CEO He founded OpenAI, convinced many smart people to donate a lot of money to it as a nonprofit and to work there as part of a noble project, gained enough social (?) capital to become unfirable, turned the lofty nonprofit into a for-profit These aren’t normal CEO behaviors ### [Reply to @tszzl, 06:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1885939215449444394) · 38 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** what do you honestly think happens if openai falls over dead? everyone forgets about agi and moves on? I mean to the very hazy story involves DeepMind and Anthropic basically being more responsible + cooperative actors both for idiosyncratic personnel reasons and bc you generally get more slack as the size of an oligopoly decreases But more importantly, OpenAI wouldn’t fall over dead and Sama seems like a ~uniquely (bad\*competent) actor It’s like Yud’s point about knowing that a grandmaster chess player will beat you even if you don’t know how; he has a pattern of deceptive and unsafe behavior that’s probably gonna continue even if I don’t know exactly what that looks like ### [Tweet, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886176817414840727) · 52 likes Steelman of every bad economic policy including tariffs is “less wealth -> less factory farming” ### [Thread, continued, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886176821097501154) · 13 likes I mostly don’t think this checks out but that might be cope ### [Quote tweet, 22:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886177667910635632) · 10 likes What the fuck > **Quoting Fermat's Library (@fermatslibrary):** From John Wallis, 1656 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiuT-y5XIAAUjIp.jpg) ## Monday, February 3, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886227891815657745) · 10 likes Noooooooooooooooooooooo > **Quoting Roman Hauksson-Neill (@RomanHauksson):** I showed up to the Schelling point meetup at the ticket booth of Reunion Tower at 12:00pm on Feb 1st and no one joined me :( > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GizHV_pXMAA4oHR.jpg) ### [Reply to @adrusi, 02:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886234725439685092) · 2 likes > **autumn (@adrusi):** wait > with the elimination of the de minimis rule > and probably like a hundred million frickin temu/etc parcels in transit > customs is gonna be so clogged up that im NEVER getting my turkish antidepressants Which drug 👀 ### [Reply to @herchosenpath, 02:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886235530842579043) · 13 likes > **Mama T🌻 (@herchosenpath):** I love animals so bad. Like how do you have this much personality? Dude smiled 😭 > > [video attached](https://x.com/mamasathome_/status/1886102600057045433/video/1) ### [Quote tweet, 22:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886540901238866322) · 24 likes The “little boys” meme is kinda dumb because I think the actual objectionable thing here is the fact that a handful of people who were never confirmed by the senate have an unusual amount of power > **Quoting rohit (@krishnanrohit):** Mutual is running the DOGE audit of the entire federal govt. This timeline is crazy! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gi1paIwbwAAp89d.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gi1paJlacAA_9LM.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886540903969657050) · 3 likes The ideal age for this kind of thing, at some optimal combination of crystallized and fluid intelligence is, what, like 40? So 25 or whatever isn’t ideal, but American society including government is largely a gerontocracy… ### [Thread, continued, 22:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886540906133684718) · 3 likes So honestly, 20-25 kinda sounds like 70-75 in terms of “distance from ideal age” And nobody objects to 73 year olds having huge amounts of political power (although maybe they should) ### [Reply, 23:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886555338104824057) · 1 like Idk enough about the situation; I’m not claiming it’s illegal. Plausibly norm breaking but not even sure about that ### [Tweet, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886556984696058104) · 6 likes Does anyone have a Deep Research output they care to publish/share yet? At some level of quality it’s worth it for me, but $200/mo isn’t trivial ## Tuesday, February 4, 2025 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 03:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886615650933625233) · 8 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I do start to notice how many people (myself included) sometimes feel like they're just doing next token prediction in conversations. If they use the word "Bolster" or begin any sentence with "But I mean look here's the thing" it's a dead giveaway. Oh yeah I absolutely do this But I do think that at least some of the time I’m doing something different, like there are 2 systems that I can use (next token prediction is the default/majority one tho) ### [Reply to @robbensinger, 03:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886621557499306320) · 3 likes > **Rob Bensinger ⏹️ (@robbensinger):** If you personally got hooked by the first Sequences post you read: what hooked you? > > If you personally bounced off the first Sequences post you read: what made you bounce off? I think I bounced off because it’s so long I liked the 5% that I listened to, just not enough (evidently) to want to listen to ~50 hours Maybe this is ~irrational~ though and I should suck it up ### [Reply to @DavidSartor0, 05:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886650684033863683) · 2 likes > **David Sartor (@DavidSartor0):** @trevposts @AndyMasley I'll look out for this one. I’ll also look out for this classic example ### [Tweet, 06:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886658431626383531) · 28 likes Feeling doomy on many levels :( ### [Reply to @izzyz, 06:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886658925358915599) · 3 likes > **izzy (@izzyz):** @AaronBergman18 we're all in this together Well sorta… ### [Reply to @izzyz, 06:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886661993832362337) · 2 likes > **izzy (@izzyz):** @AaronBergman18 what are you ruminating on? Not a complete answer but I think it’s more likely than not that AI takeover happens and this is getting less and less abstract by the day US Federal government stuff feeds into this but also kinda sucks on its own Also personal stuff I don’t feel like spelling out in detail rn ### [Thread, continued, 06:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886662704196387146) · 6 likes But the first thing is personal too tbc Iirc Paul Christiano said on a podcast that he thought he was 50% likely to die from AI but that the potential upside made the whole situation positive EV I kinda feel the same but wish I had like 20 or 30 more years to do stuff first lol ### [Reply to @Hayes_Inc, 06:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886665220526932438) · 2 likes > **matt 🕊️⏸️ (@Hayes_Inc):** p(doom) is prob like 80%+ at a minimum, but hey, go chiefs 👍 ### [Reply to @zinniaa_3, 07:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886684420867752376) · 363 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @zinniaa_3 is no longer available.)_ It was a fucking genocide, this was unironically very based ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gi7Ze2QWsAAW9Vz.jpg) ### [Tweet, 14:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886783526156087405) · 4 likes The whole irony of Elon and DOGE is that, empirically, the most successful/effective organizations (eg FAANG) pay a good number of people a large amount of money, along with very nice working conditions and other perks, to attract top talent ### [Thread, continued, 14:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886783528009961654) · 4 likes There’s actually a legitimate, if difficult, project around making government work better - modernize public-facing tech, grease the wheels of congressionally-mandated bureaucracy, just implement the whole @IFP gov reform wishlist ### [Thread, continued, 14:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886783529574453331) · 3 likes But DOGE \*isn’t doing these things\* It’s taking the same strategy that got Twitter to lose 80% of its valuation and applying it naively to the federal government ### [Thread, continued, 14:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886783532946575726) · 3 likes Luckily Elon isn’t CEO and owner of the federal government, so it won’t be as catastrophic, but it’s a matter of degree rather than kind ### [Reply, 15:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886792189147009278) · 1 like I mean there are policy levers to increase demand for labor (a public choice/political economy problem is that businesses want plentiful cheap labor tho) ### [Quote tweet, 15:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886794929814245611) · 14 likes If you follow this line of reasoning seriously, you get to “why is OpenPhil spending money so slowly?” Not sure what comes after that > **Quoting Peli Grietzer (@peligrietzer):** Do any '90% credence in ASI in 2 years' people want me to loan them $200 today and pay me $2,000 in 2 years? ### [Reply, 15:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886795353606738410) · 1 like @RafaRuizdeLira ### [Quote tweet, 15:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886798678083395632) · 6 likes Democrats: \*pay lip service to “AAPI awareness” or whatever and then work to systematically disadvantage Asians throughout American society purely on the basis of race\* Asians: \*move right\* Democrats: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gi9BZauWEAARzDr.jpg) > **Quoting Josh Barro (@jbarro):** Asian voters now significantly more Republican than white voters in NYC ### [Quote tweet, 15:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886800862246244577) · 14 likes Why do we see a clear east-west pattern? Naively I’d guess if anything it would be north-south bc men prefer colder climates > **Quoting M. Nolan Gray 🥑 (@mnolangray):** @finnawinna474 Only major straight dating market west of the Mississippi where men have an advantage. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gi899sUXUAAyVaP.jpg) ### [Reply to @pingthebird, 15:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886803335266681029) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pingthebird is no longer available.)_ I had similar levels 6 years ago. Welcome to TRT! (Now I’m at 530 natural) ### [Reply to @beala, 15:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886805894836502725) · 3 likes > **Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** Wait does trt raise your natural level after discontinuing? I don’t think reliably, my situation was more complex and pretty atypical ### [Reply to @beala, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886807480866378090) · 2 likes > **Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** If you're comfortable saying, curious if you went thru your GP or some clinic. Thinking about doing this myself. Normal pediatric endocrinologist I was at 18ng/dl which is so severely low that anyone would treat. In many ways it’s better to be super low than borderline ### [Thread, continued, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886807529268588891) · 3 likes I was 18 but still seeing pediatric ### [Reply to @beala, 16:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886808252152779222) · 3 likes > **Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** Thanks yeah this is my problem. 10 years ago I was borderline and an endocrinologist looked at me like I was crazy when I asked. I'm older now tho so maybe it's lower. If you have the money and are consistently borderline, clinic may be the way to go ### [Tweet, 16:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886810429889884240) · 131 likes I’m tempted to be negatively polarized into supporting USAID unconditionally but my (uncertain, not super informed) sense is that probably 90% of the programs are useless? Like maybe just do cash transfers lol ### [Thread, continued, 16:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886810432196755885) · 26 likes Ofc if it’s all or nothing I’ll stand by USAID, in general resource transfers to poor countries are probably good, but the left should take a look at this “effective altruism” thing for inspiration and an ungodly amount of research on the efficacy of various programs to help the poor ### [Reply to @pingthebird, 16:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886811757479412010) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pingthebird is no longer available.)_ Ah, idk shit about trans stuff but good luck! ### [Reply to @panickssery, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886822682206863814) · 4 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** @AaronBergman18 90% of USAID being useless according to your view would mean that the good that comes from PEPFAR is costing American taxpayers $35-45B > > How does that promote long-term utility (even leaving aside the other concerns about the scope of government/obligations to its own citizens) Long term utility? Like long long term, none of this matters But that’s $40k/life saved (assuming the $40B thing is annual?) plus a lot of suffering prevented besides A better buy of human welfare than almost anything the government does\* ### [Tweet, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886837248747880762) · 9 likes O3-mini-high: here’s a number Me: you made up the source for this number o3-mini-high: no I didn’t, \*tells me that I gave it that number to work with\* \[o3 was right, I was wrong, it’s over\] ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886843072790622642) · 19 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @SpacedOutMatt is no longer available.)_ based, I have been informed in DMs that my original take is pretty bad and it's much closer to 50% cash transfer-equivalent I am inclined to defer to this As always, best way to get a right answer is to poast wrong answer ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886843252545876326) · 18 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 4, 2025:** Ofc if it’s all or nothing I’ll stand by USAID, in general resource transfers to poor countries are probably good, but the left should take a look at this… Ok maybe it's good actually ### [Reply to @pitdesi, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886863029914231210) · 342 likes > **Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi):** Obvs there is a lot of waste out there. This sounded crazy so I looked into it, turns out it's NBD > > The money went to a lot of different research, part of which was $1,000 to measure how shrimp respond to changes in water quality with a treadmill. > > Enjoy the video! > > [video attached](https://x.com/pitdesi/status/1886642596296229365/video/1) > (quoting @Realalexstone: THREE. MILLION. TAX. PAYER. DOLLARS. WAS. USED. TO. STUDY. HOW. FAST. SHRIMP. CAN. RUN. ON. A. TREADMILL. You’ve gotta be kidding me.) I don’t know what the treadmill was for specifically, but knowing how water quality affects shrimp is actually a super important question ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gi977OMWAAASRhx.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 19:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886863080963105210) · 1 like https://www.shrimpwelfareproject.org/shrimp-welfare-report ### [Tweet, 22:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886899869811425760) · 11 likes Simulator interns pitching simulation 48391014-Ω-φ: “…and last but not least, Donald Trump is gonna be president during the singularity” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gi-dbpsXYAAKblG.jpg) ## Wednesday, February 5, 2025 ### [Reply, 03:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886983531873579224) · 1 like Lmao (I went to therapy in elementary school for exactly this) ### [Quote tweet, 04:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1886992415652827328) · 3 likes Can’t we have a little liberalism, as a treat > **Quoting Dan Lamothe (@DanLamothe):** Have verified that this memo circulating from West Point is real. > > H/T @PeterLucier > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gi_mfZhW8AAYgIb.jpg) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 11:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887107646911562136) · 4 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** 'Astronomers say that a newly identified space rock, potentially as big as a football field, has a better than 1% chance of crashing into Earth on Dec. 22, 2032.' > > https://www.npr.org/2025/02/02/nx-s1-5282071/asteroid-meteor-2024-nasa-earth I don’t think we should be concerned about such speculative future risks ### [Reply to @liron, 12:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887111335260848191) · 4 likes > **Liron Shapira (@liron):** Crazy how government speed went from slow to literally Elon Musk > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjAUafta4AAkUC4.png) This is a pretty silly 1d axis It’s not like the same things are happening but patents and leases are approved quicker ### [Reply to @Simeon_Cps, 12:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887114243335459290) · 5 likes > **Sy (@Simeon_Cps):** Why has nobody trained a good model capable of saying "I don't know"? Is it that hard or is it just that nobody cares? Idk what I’m talking about but isn’t this (mostly) not what you’d expect from naive scaling Like the whole paradigm is that models fake it and scaling helps them make it. Or in more neutral language, they give their (implicit) best guess at everything ### [Thread, continued, 12:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887114871336059345) · 2 likes I say “mostly” bc I do think this should work for unknowable things like “what object is in my right hand” From interacting with Claude, I get the sense that it doesn’t “really” know what it doesn’t know - it just says it might be hallucinating about topics it identifies as niche regardless of true represented internal confidence ### [Reply to @demiurgently, 14:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887153456827306089) · 8 likes > **sydney (@demiurgently):** remember: the only thing standing between you & everything you’ve ever wanted is the right note taking app Ok not \*everything\* but high quality transcription and LLM processing does open up workable voice notes This is like a real thing ### [Tweet, 16:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887175744322707767) · 48 likes Wait deep research only takes 5-10 minutes? Lol They could probably make it seem more impressive by adding like an 8 hour meaningless pad on top to make it seem more effortful ### [Quote tweet, 16:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887180259902300213) · 11 likes Among many other stupid things, one stupid thing is that this is effectively punishing researchers who may be totally un- or anti-woke but thought that including a few benign keywords would help get their totally legit research published > **Quoting Darby Saxbe (@darbysaxbe):** 🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gi58OJHbwAAi6Tj.png) ### [Thread, continued, 16:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887180262393446586) · 6 likes Trump administration would have unfunded the research undergirding GLP-1 agonists if one of the authors had pronouns in a formalities/citation bit somewhere Literally doing policy via regex ### [Reply to @beala, 17:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887185887680761873) · 2 likes > **Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** Submitted my publication bias research proposal and now my NSF account says this 😭😭😭 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjCgr4wbIAEaWrr.jpg) Lol ### [Tweet, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887203313613217872) · 4 likes This is less ambitious than what @PauseAI and friends are calling for, but a somewhat more plausible ask is “pause (frontier) AI until the next POTUS election” or at least “no self-improving AGI” until than ### [Thread, continued, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887203315668095398) · 2 likes That’s like lengthening timelines by 2-3 years, something you might be able to do with the buy-in of like a single digit number of individuals ### [Thread, continued, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887203317438160956) · 3 likes I really don’t think Trump should be president during the singularity ### [Reply, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887206019140624892) · 2 likes I mean we’re talking about like 4-10 people (4 being Altman, Jensen Huang, Demis Hassibis, Dario Amodei) and it’s not clear why they’d care that it’s politicized; these are smart people who presumably don’t think highly of Trump ### [Reply to @AnthropicAI, 21:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887246842590863665) · 25 likes > **Anthropic (@AnthropicAI):** Nobody has fully jailbroken our system yet, so we're upping the ante. > > We’re now offering $10K to the first person to pass all eight levels, and $20K to the first person to pass all eight levels with a universal jailbreak. > > Full details: https://hackerone.com/constitutional-classifiers > > (quoting @AnthropicAI: New Anthropic research: Constitutional Classifiers to defend against universal jailbreaks. We’re releasing a paper along with a demo where we challenge you to jailbreak the system.) This is very cool but actually like an OOM lower than it seems to be worth ## Thursday, February 6, 2025 ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 00:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887292252365435140) · 1 like > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** some of my cousins have this mindset. actually frightening how much they’ve deluded themselves with so little danger… > > (quoting @soulkhan: it is lowkey abusive to raise your kids with this level of instilled paranoia and delusion and all for the sake of protecting the moral deadend of our people) I’m willing to believe that it exists but to the best of my knowledge I have literally never personally faced antisemitism irl And online it’s been maybe a handful of DMs here over like 5 years (all by random anon accounts, idgaf) ### [Reply to @banterrealism, 00:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887294839345005036) · 3 likes > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** Can someone steelman the position: > > “The population should NOT be educated and competent en mass” I love steelmanning things like this. Here are some possibilities: \- humans were better off before agriculture and you don’t get legit education without agriculture \- education raises GDP which causes factory farming/AI doom \- not super sure what competent means; arguably making people “competent” in general is just prohibitively difficult or impossible \- an ideal world is hedonium/rats on heroin; education and competence are like totally irrelevant in this world ### [Tweet, 00:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887298212735631708) · 8 likes Literal shower thought: Entrepreneurship is really 2 things in a trench coat: 1\) innovation/object-level problem solving/creating goods and services 2\) doing the operational work of bringing together and coordinating multiple resources that won’t otherwise find each other ### [Reply to @catehall, 00:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887299032147443978) · 4 likes > **Cate Hall 🔸 (@catehall):** I'm looking for potent examples of someone on Twitter just straightforwardly admitting they were wrong about something after encountering a good counterargument, rather than digging in. What examples of this have you seen? Idk about potent but I’ve used the exact phrase “I was wrong” a couple times here ### [Reply to @banterrealism, 00:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887304694176920036) · 3 likes > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** @AaronBergman18 I also wasn’t marked gifted or whatever In elementary > > I was put in support classes I mostly just mean that it’s such a vague word Like what do you need to be able to do to be competent: tie your shoes? Change a tire? Build a durable shelter? ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887328216173441187) · 4 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** I just saved an ODing hobo amputee Based ### [Quote tweet, 04:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887353730065969246) · 16 likes The more I think about it, the more I think 1780s-era morality is pretty much correct ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjE6NxZWEAAWels.jpg) > **Quoting vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin):** The more I think about it, the more I think 2013-era morality is pretty much correct: > > \* free speech good > \* starting companies and making good products good > \* monopolies bad, vendor lock-in bad > \* democracy good > \* greed bad > \* trying to achieve national security through oppressing people bad > \* cosmopolitan humanitarian values, caring about faraway people, etc good > > Things we've "learned" since then have been harmful more than helpful ### [Thread, continued, 04:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887353732813160653) · 2 likes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Introduction_to_the_Principles_of_Morals_and_Legislation ### [Thread, continued, 04:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887353734616744410) · 4 likes (Obviously this is a utilitarianism joke, lots of terrible things were happening in 1780) ### [Quote tweet, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887355155332440229) · 22 likes God bless community notes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjE7gslW8AAECpT.jpg) > **Quoting Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma):** counterpoint: > > [video attached](https://x.com/ArmandDoma/status/1886904136312226278/video/1) ### [Reply to @the_wilderless, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887355356524827129) · 23 likes > **I (@the_wilderless):** Trust me I hate it too, but: > > walking around with headphones blocks your energy channels Well sometimes I want my energy channels blocked ### [Reply to @martiniposting, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887356864762974558) · 3 likes > **lari (@martiniposting):** asked a man how often he gets a haircut and he said anywhere between 2 and 8 months Real ### [Reply to @trevposts, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887357238555082938) · 4 likes > **Trevor Levin (@trevposts):** In terms of the amount of ignorance and incuriosity on display in the average thing I saw on here today, I think it was the dumbest day in the history of my twitter timeline. Idgaf Travis ### [Reply to @br___ian, 05:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887365934316138709) · 2 likes > **bri (@br___ian):** how young, how innocent the brian who asked this question was > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjEnSzHXMAAo3pD.jpg) Solid prompt ### [Tweet, 06:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887394053982924971) · 11 likes I’m kinda a fan of wokeness when it was articulated unironically as like “being aware of subtle prejudice” ### [Tweet, 15:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887529748366069874) · 3 likes Interior design of the reception area is a 100% perfect indicator of how much VC money and/or tech money subsidization a given irl business has ### [Tweet, 16:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887531716513865787) · 27 likes I really hope @CommunityNotes is training a model to predict note from tweet because that’s probably the best almost-ground-truth data you’re gonna get in complex and non formally-verifiable domains ### [Thread, continued, 16:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887531718292189635) · 4 likes Ofc it’s an empirical question whether it generalizes better to judging arbitrary queries than eg Grok prompted well, but I expect it would Cc @jaybaxter ### [Tweet, 17:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887551117153751081) · 6 likes Headlines like this are funny bc you know if this is the worst they could dig up on a person, they’re relatively straight and narrow ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjHtvJpXEAEAH9n.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 17:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887551119401812266) · 3 likes No QT bc I’m blocked 🤷‍♂️ ### [Reply to @jaybaxter, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887555253442388242) · 4 likes > **Jay Baxter (@jaybaxter):** Yeah, and the cool thing is anyone external can do this too if they use the API to get post text! Notes data: free GPUs: $100 X api: $585949910192466 Help my family is dying ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887562644405600709) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 6, 2025:** I really hope @CommunityNotes is training a model to predict note from tweet because that’s probably the best almost-ground-truth data you’re gonna get in… If I do the data scraping I hope someone else will cook ### [Tweet, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887570034328764730) · 4 likes Dario is making alooooot of sense here In a sane world this would be like the Mitt Romney position and you’d have more hawkish safety folks to the metaphorical left https://www.chinatalk.media/p/anthropics-dario-amodei-on-ai-competition ### [Reply to @colinmegill, 18:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887570287165641133) · 2 likes > **Colin Megill (@colinmegill):** @AaronBergman18 @jaybaxter @CommunityNotes Seriously Dw I’ve got 8 parallel chrome windows scraping as we speak ### [Reply, 22:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887627724660887888) · 1 like IME Claude sonnet is ~perfect I did get it to fail once with a super high res complex technical diagram ### [Reply to @Meaningness, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887632098720096635) · 3 likes > **David Chapman (@Meaningness):** As the sages teach, cognitive decoupling is important and rare. > > When I say “philosophy is bad” or “preference falsification is common,” replies mistake that as waging a culture war battle. > > No, I meant only what I said. 🙄 🫡 ### [Quote tweet, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887636183003373635) · 20 likes This is probably a steelman case of how “cancel culture” can work reasonably well: voluntary resignation from some position after fair and accurate accusations that meaningfully indicate low confidence in the person’s ability to perform that position’s duties well > **Quoting Jeff Stein (@jstein_sun):** Via the Wall Street Journal > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjIfaMpW0AA_o2C.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887636185444421837) · 24 likes I don’t think he should be blacklisted from everything forever, but yeah this sounds like an old fashioned racist who shouldn’t be in a policymaking position ### [Tweet, 23:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887637794774000031) · 7 likes Maybe now would be a good time to retvrn to kidney market discourse We have essentially a Pareto improvement policy lever that would also slash into 1% of the federal budget (that’s a lot) (the policy lever is kidney donor compensation and the budget item is dialysis) ### [Tweet, 23:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887638792409903383) · 83 likes Underrated lens on Elon having political power is that you should expect whoever is in his shoes (hyper-wealthy, well-known) to have made a bunch of big bets and gotten lucky each time (this is a boring anthropics-adjacent take not a leftist anti-billionaire take) ### [Thread, continued, 23:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887638794054029633) · 36 likes So basically we should expect whoever is empowered via a process of like Step 1) become the richest person to have an inflated sense of their own judgement and decisionmaking A bunch of counterfactual Elons were just a bit too early or too late to have PayPal go big ### [Reply to @sixers2772, 23:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887645848584265969) · 11 likes > **Sixers (@sixers2772):** Why would he have to have gotten lucky each time? I might agree, but am curious to hear your reasoning Admittedly after a bunch of big wins you can get get away with smaller losses but if either PayPal or Tesla had basically failed or been small, I think it’s unlikely Elon would be a major public figure today (the kind of person salient enough for trump to appoint) ### [Reply to @sixers2772, 23:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887649077015265367) · 6 likes > **Sixers (@sixers2772):** Potentially, if he's just super competent, he could have just started something else that would takeoff after those failed? > > An argument for him being very competent could be that he has succeded at a lot of things that generally one fails at Yeah I think the second thing is basically true in a relative sense, but an \*unselected\* person of musk’s talent probably merely had say a 50% chance of founding any successful company instead of a 100% chance of founding 3-4 (or ~80% if you want the ex post outcome to be >50% of 3/3 wins) (This is all made up numbers and a simplified model, I think the point still holds) ### [Reply to @sixers2772, 23:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887650837826097248) · 1 like > **Sixers (@sixers2772):** "I am lucky+competent because I am successful" I don’t fully understand what you’re saying. I totally agree success implies both luck and competence Maybe it’s a little more complex than I initially implicitly thought bc it’s an empirical psychological question the degree to which people or Elon specifically adjust for things like the very concern I’m raising But intuitively maybe there’s a partial adjustment but it doesn’t go all the way; like you should expect the world’s richest person to overestimate their own ability bc the human brain didn’t evolve in a context of 8b relevant humans, or maybe say 1k plausible contenders for richest person; maybe in the ancestral environment the analogous case had a population of like n=4 Idk if this makes any sense ## Friday, February 7, 2025 ### [Reply to @liz_love_lace, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887653960724717730) · 4 likes > **Liz Lovelace (@liz_love_lace):** It's odd to me that doctors ask for your symptoms first, and then run diagnostics. Especially for things like bad knees. I feel like asking \*after\* would make you less likely to be subconsciously biased when you do the initial diagnostics A huge function of doctors is gatekeeping expensive shit like MRIs There are a few blood and urine tests that could be run like this though ### [Tweet, 00:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887659193173500130) · 8 likes Those who donate >=10% of your income, what is (your best guess of) the net effect of donation on your hedonic quality of life ### [Thread, continued, 00:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887660750648578100) · 5 likes I’m weirdly uncertain what the results are gonna be but this seems like a weirdly important question I’ve recently updated towards “people making over like $100k actually are giving up real hedonic utility by donating, there’s not so much free lunch” ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 00:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887665174456537374) · 2 likes > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** @AaronBergman18 (I'm 29) Geriatric ### [Reply to @monke_io, 00:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887666183526109449) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @monke_io is no longer available.)_ Is there even transgender theory? IME terms like that are 99% used by haters, 0.9% by legit academics, and 0.1% by actual trans people Afaict very few trans ppl are interested in making strong metaphysical claims about what gender they “really” are, if that’s what u mean ### [Thread, continued, 00:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887666312224382996) · 7 likes Like I can totally imagine having gender dysphoria and wanting to transition without changing any propositional beliefs ### [Reply to @monke_io, 01:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887670560278143104) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @monke_io is no longer available.)_ I mean like many things, popular catchphrases aren’t best understood as analytic philosophy I think you’re just applying way too philosophical a lens to what is mostly a question of pragmatic public policy and social norms ### [Thread, continued, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887670895675650457) · 6 likes Like who cares whether trans women “are” women in some fundamental sense? The relevant questions involve public policy and social norms, and I don’t think in any case these hinge on the answer to fundamental questions of metaphysics or the nature of personal identity ### [Thread, continued, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887671257493115340) · 6 likes FWIW I think the better understanding of eg a tweet that says “trans women are women” is basically just tribal affiliation and signaling (not necessarily bad things tbc), not advancing some substantive theory of the nature of gender ### [Reply to @monke_io, 01:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887671547101651351) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @monke_io is no longer available.)_ Oh lol. I guess I misinterpreted ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 02:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887686188732907885) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 6, 2025:** If I do the data scraping I hope someone else will cook Update: I couldn’t resist so yeah should have a pretty nice dataset of 1.6M tweets and notes in a week of runtime. I’ll probably put it on GitHub and hope for the best ### [Quote tweet, 02:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887693826489250156) · 11 likes Did everyone expect the entire civil service to just fall in line when faced with blatantly illegal executive orders? Like not a single department head somewhere said “no sorry this is illegal I won’t physically do the thing”? > **Quoting Will Stancil (@whstancil):** If DOGE shows up on your doorstep and orders you to do something, your response needs to be “On whose authority?” Because they do not have any more authority to do half this stuff than I do. ### [Thread, continued, 02:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887693828796064061) · 2 likes Rule of law (like free speech) is about institutions and official mechanisms, yes, but it should also be something of a person-level value beyond and aside from that - one that sometimes comes into irreconcilable conflict with other values but still ### [Thread, continued, 02:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887694517941260292) · 2 likes I don’t wanna trivialize losing one’s job, but the stakes aren’t \*that\* high here… ### [Thread, continued, 02:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887694542809268316) · 2 likes The archetypal thing that comes to mind in this domain is like the soldier ordered to commit a war crime on the battlefield where the policy of whether to follow orders has immediate life-or-death stakes ### [Reply to @sullyj3, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887697207261884733) · 3 likes > **░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░ (@sullyj3):** @JMannhart @AaronBergman18 What do you mean by well known among billionaires? like the super rich discuss these issues with each other? How do you know? This seems super interesting Jonathan the secret is out ### [Quote tweet, 03:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887707702199021979) · 145 likes Wait what the fuck This is the answer to how airplanes fly. It breaks my model of the world in an equal and opposite way to airplanes themselves They cancel out. Airplanes are real after all (or maybe I should update to petroleum being fake) > **Quoting John Arnold (@johnarnold):** A single aircraft fueling hose delivers more joules of energy per minute than a nuclear power plant. The energy density of liquid fuels is incredible. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjHG_COawAENprq.png) ### [Thread, continued, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887707984429494547) · 16 likes (o3-mini fact checked for me and said this is basically true although it’s close) ### [Thread, continued, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887710054079480042) · 45 likes In terms of flight time, a large nuclear plant could only support 8 large jets at once I would have probably guessed like 10k ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjJ-SjgWEAACwID.jpg) ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887710198044774571) · 33 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** @AaronBergman18 Flying takes very little energy; you can glide for hours with none at all. It's the air resistance that's a problem, and equally so for cars. Sad, we should get rid of all the air ### [Reply to @AFpost, 04:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887715270619247020) · 2 likes > **AF Post (@AFpost):** Israeli PM Netanyahu gave Trump a “golden pager” during White House meeting. > > Follow: @AFpost > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjDNVhJbIAAlkFe.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjDNVhHbIAEG1dW.jpg) Bruh mossad has a 3d inside view with high quality audio of the White House fr ### [Reply, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887717593970077970) · 5 likes wtf why don’t they go faster ### [Tweet, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887717881690911022) · 3 likes Resist lib energy needs to retvrn ### [Reply, 04:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887718943856402855) · 10 likes Lol sorry I meant why don’t nuclear plants burn uranium faster but that was not clear ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 17:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887909653801222501) > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** without insurance coverage I got T (re)prescribed to me within 2 hours of me scheduling an intake appointment at planned parenthood. from start —> T in my hands the process took 3 hrs and cost $300. which isnt cheap but doable for many. Do you think it would be better if the process was a bit longer/harder? ### [Reply to @yhdistyminen, 17:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887912813630288295) · 47 likes > **bob's burgers urbanist 🐿️ (@yhdistyminen):** I do not think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid's life, either. But I also don't think "not giving a kid unfettered access to sensitive government information" constitutes "ruining a kid's life." > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjM1yZqaQAIZAsi.jpg) > (quoting @JDVance: Here’s my view: I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts, but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life. We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever. So I say bring him back. If he’s a bad dude or a terrible member of the team,…) Correct take. It’s fine actually to infer from someone’s stated beliefs that they shouldn’t be trusted to do a thing ### [Quote tweet, 17:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887913095084838995) · 6 likes It’s almost a little silly that this exists but I think in many cases the cost-benefit does check out (ie writing a public comment for some bill) It’s not totally meaningless if regulators see an overwhelming level of concern from the most engaged citizens > **Quoting sarah (@littIeramblings):** fyi, literally anyone with takes on what the US govt should be doing about AI can submit up to 15 pages of them using a link in the next tweet > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjMzc7-WQAEfAJF.jpg) ### [Reply to @vivian_belenky, 17:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887914202179772660) · 1 like > **viv 🔸 (@vivian_belenky):** It didn't used to be this easy either. It used to be an enormous pain in the ass. And everyone hated it. Yeah that sounds bad tbc Idk I’m inclined to think this is fine tbc, but it’s not obvious to me that 3 hours start to finish is the ideal gatekeeping structure for major life changing decisions ### [Quote tweet, 17:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887915584761028959) · 3 likes Yes great point, and I think the key difference is whether normal capitalist incentives apply Housing, medicine, and government are extremely slow bc this is not the case (I’m pretty sure I could get a couch today if I wanted) > **Quoting David (@DavidSHolz):** sometimes it feels like there's 2 levels of services in the world, there's Uber, Amazon, IKEA, Instacart - everything in 30 minutes or next day - then you hit a wall - 2 months for a doctor, 6 months for a couch, 16 months for city permits - imagine everything running \*at speed\* ### [Reply to @vivian_belenky, 17:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887916907610656795) · 2 likes > **viv 🔸 (@vivian_belenky):** In my experience transmasculine people agonize A Whole Lot about this decision and I know Quite A Few who opted (so far) not to do it for a variety of personal reasons. I am one such! In my experience, once you're in a place to make that decision, any gatekeeping is going to be just pointless frustration and waste. Makes sense thx ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 17:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887917304010223998) · 2 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** @AaronBergman18 @vivian_belenky @bijibiji2023 My general stance here is that if the state is facilitating a decision then it becomes legitimate for it to gatekeep it, as long as it does not artificially prevent you from making that decision without the help of the state Yeah this sounds right but I’m not talking about law/public policy necessarily. Medicine is a central example of where/how “mere norms” made by civil society can be relatively important ### [Tweet, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887958423599239240) · 10 likes Using 539254264676 gallons of water and 10^21 FLOPs coursing through an alien shoggoth mind just to make this (I have SORA now) [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1887958201556959232/pu/img/-2bxywMXnadR-V8K.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887958423599239240/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887958996838949011) · 12 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AndyMasley is no longer available.)_ This is kinda insane tbh, I do not trust anyone to identify the True Bad Guys to this degree ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887959124970746044) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 7, 2025:** Using 539254264676 gallons of water and 10^21 FLOPs coursing through an alien shoggoth mind just to make this (I have SORA now) Maybe it’s just FLOP Plz don’t cancel ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887960586270785717) · 9 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 I think people posting very directly racist stuff are the true bad guys Yeah I agree object level, just don’t trust you or me, or anyone to be correct with enough confidence that I’d endorse sex offender-level consequences without sex offender-level process (eg full criminal trial level) Or even if I did, I don’t trust society to identify who the Correct Identifiers are and never empower someone who thinks they’re Andy but with actually bad takes ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 21:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887970104140239272) · 6 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Very important to set up google alerts for your own name. > > Here is Nebraskan kindergartener George McGowan at a spelling bee. > > His drip is INSANE, wish I was as cool a George McGowan as him. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjMAueLWgAAV5ZI.jpg) Better dressed than I have ever been ### [Reply to @norabelrose, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1887974551377821849) · 5 likes > **Taylor Belrose (@norabelrose):** Sparse autoencoders (SAEs) have taken the interpretability world by storm over the past year or so. But can they be beaten? > > Yes! > > We introduce skip transcoders, and find they are a Pareto improvement over SAEs: better interpretability, and better fidelity to the model 🧵 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjNrlf6aQAMrjh1.jpg) @livgorton big if true ### [Tweet, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888000874003267863) · 6 likes Some of Trump and Elon’s shenanigans are illegal but I think I basically endorse “POTUS appoints high performing individual to change whatever within the bounds of the law, not tied to a cabinet position” ### [Thread, continued, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888000875500548396) · 3 likes Just call it “Secretary of Everything Else” Over the 1-2 decades, failure to govern/do anything at all has been a much bigger problem than overzealous governing ### [Thread, continued, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888000876825989396) · 4 likes With hindsight, Obama should have done this the minute the Merrick Garland SCOTUS nomination was blocked; play nice with norms until the other side defects Well that was a defection, and unfortunately Democrats basically did nothing at all in response ### [Thread, continued, 23:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888001467212349644) · 2 likes Maybe all this is moot because of the singularity, but if not, I don’t think it would be crazy to basically set aside like 1% of the federal budget for the presidential administration to use basically however (again within the bounds of the law), or even more ### [Reply to @halcyon_hazel, 23:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888012925131960475) · 3 likes > **❤️‍🔥 hazel ❤️‍🔥 (@halcyon_hazel):** @vivposts iirc congress has to approve compacts? Ya https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_compact ### [Thread, continued, 23:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888014118088753513) · 2 likes Wait it sounds like maybe the better interpretation is “states can do whatever they want, but the federal government won’t enforce contracts between states the way that states do to individuals”? ## Saturday, February 8, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 02:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888045666422685712) · 4 likes Possibly a some free lunch if many people don’t donate and yet 78% of donors think that donation hasn’t left them worse off (contrary to a basic economic-psychological model of welfare and consumption)? n=65 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjOvhuqWYAACq67.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Those who donate >=10% of your income, what is (your best guess of) the net effect of donation on your hedonic quality of life ### [Tweet, 02:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888045669237010638) I was gonna say “If everyone was altruistic, calibrated, interested only in hedonic wellbeing, and rational, 100% of donors would have answered “negative”, but in fact only 22% did” But… ### [Thread, continued, 02:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888045670747033769) · 3 likes It’s totally possible, and seems plausible, that even among donors who answered “positive”, the effect of the last, marginal donated dollar (ie 9.99% -> 10%) is negative, but the first chunk of money they give away is sufficiently positive to offset that ### [Tweet, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888049059547472363) · 40 likes The fact that I wasn’t following the author of “one of the most careful meta-analyses \[Scott Alexander\] has ever seen” proves that the market for twitter follows is inefficient @davidroodman ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjOynOVXIAAWo_c.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888049061598503005) · 3 likes Paper https://arxiv.org/pdf/2007.10268 ### [Thread, continued, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888049062949048546) · 3 likes Post https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/prison-and-crime-much-more-than-you ### [Reply to @niplav_site, 02:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888053158615584785) · 3 likes > **niplav (@niplav_site):** @AaronBergman18 @davidroodman My impression is that often people whose papers/books/blogs are great are terrible on twitter Lol, still ### [Quote tweet, 04:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888075985372746001) · 11 likes Tweet text, author, date/time, like, reply count, and corresponding community notes for >120k tweets (This is like 8% of the whole thing, but my ADHD ass cannot be trusted to do this for ~7 days straight so this is Checkpoint 1) https://github.com/AaronBergman/twitter_community_notes/ > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I really hope @CommunityNotes is training a model to predict note from tweet because that’s probably the best almost-ground-truth data you’re gonna get in complex and non formally-verifiable domains ### [Thread, continued, 04:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888075986748482023) · 3 likes (If someone seriously intends to finetune or train a model on this \[or I guess wants to give me money for cloud GPUs to do this, although I'm probably not the best person\], lmk bc then I will actually probably do the full data collection) ### [Thread, continued, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888080315756790042) · 11 likes Real footage of me collecting data on everything I encounter [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1888080208474800129/img/h-ml7jwLlJXCHx4n.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888080315756790042/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888093270573465677) · 14 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** What's your sexual market value? > After months of work, I have a comprehensive survey based on a ton of data from how people ranked nearly every conceivable trait. > So: How hot a commodity are you in the dating arena? I'd love to see your scores! > Link below > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjO9R3EbAAAVfYG.jpg) If any straight/bi women here wanna do me a favor: https://forms.gle/v4uomKEQUmi3vRfH6 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjPayPvWIAA_Ly_.jpg) ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 06:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888105818651840695) · 10 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** BREAKING: > > Journalists discover that one of the millions of federal employees holds a view that you might not agree with. Bro isn’t a mailman ### [Quote tweet, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888107408108511393) · 4 likes I have updated quite a bit toward classical liberalism and pre-woke-normie-non-racism being less popular among something like “the interested public” > **Quoting Ryan Grim (@ryangrim):** The “no affirmative action” and “no racial preferences” policy from Trump lasted about a week. White South Africans now specifically favored: ### [Thread, continued, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888107410323071010) · 2 likes (hard to know what a truly random sample of people think) ### [Thread, continued, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888107411644334231) · 2 likes Part of this is me; I previously thought some degree of affirmative action anti-racist type policies would be good, and still kinda do in some idealized sense, but no longer trust progressive institutions to do them well and without insane backlash ### [Thread, continued, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888107413649149981) · 2 likes Normie-non-racism seems both pretty good and a stable political schelling point of sorts ### [Tweet, 06:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888107963446943999) · 5 likes Has @mattyglesias done a “a strong labor market is good for free speech bc employers don’t wanna fire people and lower downside to getting fired” take? That feels like the epitome of an Yglesias take ### [Quote tweet, 06:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888115955802280259) · 21 likes A giant rock getting thrown in the ocean would give massive utility to men everywhere, and this is a consideration that should be weighed against others > **Quoting Steve Jurvetson (@FutureJurvetson):** 1 in 44 chance of a 8-megaton blast by meteorite 💥 > (Hiroshima was 0.015 megatons for comparison). > > JWST will try to get a better read on its trajectory and size. If needed, deflection has to occur in 2028, not on final approach like in the movies. ### [Tweet, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888305461658866046) · 10 likes At some level it’s just my fault for not getting to the right answer myself, but I wish society had pushed more realistic memes around the relationship between genetics/uncontrollable environment and intentional effort (eg training, practice) in determining skill and success ### [Thread, continued, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888305463801831732) · 14 likes A big project of a big proportion of my life—getting better at competitive rock climbing—was largely motivated by what in hindsight seems like a basically incorrect premise - that I could keep improving if I just tried hard enough and figured out the right training routine ### [Thread, continued, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888305465726996946) · 7 likes I did know something like “natural talent” was a thing, but think my model was basically that enough training could make up for deficits here This was wrong, and my physical and mental health suffered for it ### [Thread, continued, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888305467744804928) · 8 likes A contributing factor here was that I was pretty good, especially with endurance (pushing v10, upper 5.13s), and did keep getting better for quite a long time (roughly like ages 11-16) ### [Thread, continued, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888305470168780847) · 12 likes It’s very unnatural to see yourself work hard and get better at something for many years and then, at 17, conclude “ah, my stagnation now is something like a plateau around my genetic potential, or at least a local maximum of some sort” But I think that was what was going on ### [Reply to @why_bun, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888308814987874550) · 2 likes > **Why bunnies are better than humans (@why_bun):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjNqH35WgAA-HCR.jpg) These aren’t inconsistent ### [Reply to @slimepriestess, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888314735122104330) · 83 likes > **Ra (@slimepriestess):** hasn't worked here, Eliezer specifically said he wouldn't read it. He’s the only person actually consciously and intentionally doing decision theory irl ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 19:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888315152010817642) · 4 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Update: it came back and I smashed it with a book and it went away, no side effects. > > 10/10 would take advice from construction guys on twitter again. > > (quoting @GjMcGowan: Hand doctor: “So yeah, we can keep observing it, or drain it again. There’s always surgery but the risk of complications is -” Me: “A construction guy on Twitter told me if you smash it with a heavy object it’ll go away? What about that?” Hand doctor: 👁️👄👁️) Based ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 21:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888346703620956662) · 53 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Based Yud > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjSqZUBWAAEd06R.jpg) > (quoting @jessi_cata: Suspected murderer Maximilian Snyder / Audere writes open letter to Eliezer Yudkowsky about animal ethics. I'm not making this up. https://archive.ph/GErgG) Yeah ### [Reply to @OrionJohnston, 22:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888348996244246636) · 4 likes > **David Johnston (@OrionJohnston):** (No one’s killed anyone for my attention) Nice good job ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 22:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888358568778232063) · 3 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** yes, when you're talking about things like being glad a murder victim is dead right after he dies, it's dehumanizing and bad. or when you make similar excuses for murdering people's parents. things like that suggest a lack of care for human life that I distrust I’m pretty sympathetic to the vegan side and there seems to be a bunch of context I don’t have, but I do think it’s all of {wrong, bad vibes, not helpful to the cause of animal welfare} to suggest that murder is like not that bad or kinda justified, in virtually all cases I can construct hypotheticals where killing a human might check out, but even in these pretty unrealistic cases, the killing would be best characterized as like the lesser of two evils More prosaically, “step 1) do something that makes you seem crazy and evil” is \~never a legit theory of change - at a descriptive level, I don’t think the Zizians actually did anything positive for animals beyond their personal veganism (and quite possibly its net negative with the murder) ## Sunday, February 9, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888385145012449467) · 34 likes Felt cute might delete later ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjTkRwZbQAAmZLc.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjTkRvxWIAAlDI3.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 00:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888388446281986246) · 6 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjTnRQBXYAAAMmN.jpg) ### [Reply, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888388634476220701) · 1 like 15 pro ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 00:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888389818381455735) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 I feel bad because I have the same phone and all my pictures are terrible Lol I mean “foggy national mall at night” is pretty naturally photogenic ### [Reply to @livgorton, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888454682256773241) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** update: i am going! please reach out if you’d be keen to chat :) > > (quoting @livgorton: wdym i don’t overthink anything (i am spending my weekend turmoiling about whether to attend EAG)) Based ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 05:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888461110539436295) · 5 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** my worldview is in some ways not just atheoretical but antitheoretical > > I think it is a very good thing that most people let practical reality sand off the sharp edges of their philosophies, because most people believe some crazy and evil things and are kept in check by norms > > most of the worst people in history are the ones who are so committed to one theory or another that they are willing to brush aside all of the sanity checks, common-law morality, and balancing tools broader society has built to keep things more-or-less running, and embrace their Pure Theory independent of consequences > > it is very, very good that most people lack the courage of their convictions, because we are neither smart enough nor good enough for our convictions to be good enough to bypass all sanity checks I’m anti-anti-theoretical (the phrase I’d use is “taking ideas seriously”) In practice I think you should abide by norms and “common sense morality” most of the time But the default state of the world where nobody takes ideas very seriously isn’t one without “crazy and evil” Non-ideological apathy, self-interest, and failure of coordination, and most of all just the laws of nature grinding away without regard for the harm that entails, are sources of what would be called “crazy and evil” if done intentionally. Factory farming, wild animal suffering, most human poverty, and most human suffering are examples Biological and cultural evolution make no guarantee that following what seems basically normal entails, or even directionally point towards, mitigating these bad things in the world You don’t get systematic efforts to mitigate what we might call “natural harm” without recognition of the problem and abstract reasoning about values and prioritization—in other words, “theory” ### [Reply to @LinkofSunshine, 06:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888471949237424401) · 157 likes > **Basil🧡 (@LinkofSunshine):** Being in SF is permanent twitter > Being in Seattle is permanent discord > Being in DC is permanent reddit > Being in NYC is permanent instagram > > pick your poision DC is permanent LinkedIn ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 07:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888494413220835394) · 3 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** bmi in freefall can my fat followers please please tell me how they do it Abilify ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 14:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888595659307065747) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** Fuck I'm becoming a post rat in some meaningful sense (thinking that there true things that can't be expressed - in principle - propositionally but nevertheless we should put weight on when making decisions where we care about observable outcomes.) I’m inclined to think “can’t be expressed propositionally” is a skill issue Even analytic philosophy makes good use of the toolkit of figurative language when it needs to (“what it’s likeness”) ### [Reply to @NateSilver538, 14:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888600020783439892) · 34 likes > **Nate Silver (@NateSilver538):** A refreshingly (?) short newsletter for a change. Democrats need to pick a direction; the middle ground of separating the world into naughty and nice billionaires is probably the worst option. > https://www.natesilver.net/p/democrats-need-a-billionaire-strategy I mean I think it’s basically true though. Dustin Moskovitz really is good and Elon really is bad (recent events have sealed the deal for him), so there are the existence proofs ### [Reply to @QualiaNerd, 15:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888604261702947191) · 12 likes > **QualiaNerd (@QualiaNerd):** Why is Elon bad? (A completely genuine question BTW, I don’t follow politics much.) Dumbass harmful changes to the federal government. DOGE has been net negative so far ### [Thread, continued, 15:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888605048327819652) · 7 likes USAID dismantling being one big thing ### [Reply to @girllbossing, 15:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888606449267359860) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @girllbossing is no longer available.)_ 😢 ### [Tweet, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888692619846242607) · 2 likes This accords with both my (modest) surprise at the speed and efficacy of DOGE and EO implementation and what I’ve heard irl (although plausibly these sources are not totally independent convergence) ### [Quote tweet, 21:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888694655568781685) · 49 likes The old tumblr meme of like “democrats get your pizza order wrong and overcharge you a bit; republicans send you pizza filled with nails” is feeling very correct > **Quoting Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** I'm finding it easier to be a partisan Democrat these days because the Republicans have just openly declared their allegiance to evil. ### [Thread, continued, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888696333558599802) · 6 likes Not a complete object-level progressive btw ### [Reply to @sanjehorah, 21:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888698874618912894) · 3 likes > **sanje horah 🇵🇸🇺🇦 — PNEUMATICS ONLY (@sanjehorah):** my SMV equivalent is Miss Piggy > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjXPjkqWQAAbOYv.jpg) > (quoting @Aella_Girl: What's your sexual market value? After months of work, I have a comprehensive survey based on a ton of data from how people ranked nearly every conceivable trait. So: How hot a commodity are you in the dating arena? I'd love to see your scores! Link below) Same ### [Reply, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888699376593248432) · 4 likes > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** @AaronBergman18 Democrats kill several tens of thousands of Arabs to make your pizza and violently deport millions into poverty. Insofar as this is true it’s largely because of electoral pressure from the other party, especially deportation This isn’t a total moral justification but still ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 22:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888713994606727641) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** @AaronBergman18 @wilhelmscreamin Why do you disagree with the Buddhist one? Short version is that introspection and other ways people (think they) gain knowledge seem very unreliable but we should expect them to hit on correct arguments once in a while bc luck Analytic philosophy \*also\* seems unreliable but OOMs less so, to the point that I think broadly philosophy really has made progress over ~any timescale ## Monday, February 10, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888744688435532139) · 25 likes Ok, I now have a more complete Theory of Hinge, which probably applies to similarly structured dating apps in general ### [Thread, continued, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888744690595344765) · 4 likes The insight honestly came from a combo of luck/variation and adding what’s now my pfp as a pic, which for the first time ever put me into the situation of having more matches than I really wanted to spend ~energy chatting with (not a flex; keep reading and you’ll see why) ### [Thread, continued, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888744692956930366) · 1 like Basic model is that a person can be in one of two possible states: 1\) few matches, or 2\) many matches (I think some small tweaks would make this work with latent potential matches too ie likes) ### [Thread, continued, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888744695158690052) · 5 likes In some sense, the ideal situation is Few vs Few This is kinda how dating apps should naively work: both people are relatively picky and so excited about matches (ie only like people they’d be enthusiastic to chat with) ### [Thread, continued, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888744697046134800) · 4 likes The problem is that matches correlate with attractiveness, which is pretty highly correlated between people (the fact that it’s not perfectly correlated is a big way this model can “fail” which is good) ### [Tweet, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888744709087994156) Why’d you match in with less exciting people in the first place? ### [Thread, continued, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888744711235793222) · 6 likes Probably uncertainty about quantity of matches in the near future, frustration with the most attractive matches ghosting, and maybe just to give the guy a chance in the first few messages in case those set him apart somehow ### [Thread, continued, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888744713789821369) · 2 likes Ok anyway, the situation is that the Many person is chatting with their most exciting matches, who tend to be more attractive, but, again, attractiveness correlates with number of matches, so now we’re in the last possible situation: Many to Many ### [Tweet, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888744716071547248) · 2 likes Many to Many is probably what happens for the most attractive men, in general, and in general involves the most attractive people talking to one-another Well, congrats, two attractive people who are excited about one another do indeed form couples relatively easily! ### [Thread, continued, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888744718239961546) · 2 likes But then they leave Hinge! So the remaining cases maybe involve people with very high standards or hate chatting or for whatever reason are adversely selected… ### [Tweet, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888744724841808155) · 2 likes 3\) people who you are excited about and do reply end up being adversely selected for some reason ### [Thread, continued, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888744726775349537) · 3 likes ^in my extremely short-lived experience with having like 7-8 matches for the first time, the person I was most excited about and spent the most time and energy chatting with ended up basically saying she wasn’t interested in going on a date after all… ### [Thread, continued, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888744728839000144) · 7 likes Which makes a lot of sense, because she probably had many exciting options (who in turn would have lots of \*other\* options, etc etc ad infinitum until everyone is tired and nobody is happy) ### [Thread, continued, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888744730877448702) · 11 likes (She might even be reading this; if so, hello and no hard feelings I’m just being hyper-analytical and autistic about everything) Ok that’s it thx for reading ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 00:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888746810090680448) · 5 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** @AaronBergman18 Likes should be priced better. Yeah, at least hinge restricts likes Another option I’m not super sure about would be some sort of indicator along the lines of “your match has matched with 6 other hotter men, FYI” ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 00:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888752984311595449) · 36 likes > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** you can actually see over the hood > > incredibly based and kid safety pilled > > (quoting @sweatystartup: Wtf is happening?) ### [Tweet, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888755801747079390) · 9 likes I went to a Very Online EA x normie\* mixer yesterday; it was actually good! Afaik nobody died or even came especially close. I encourage more of this \*normie just meaning like everyone else; still kinda selected ### [Reply to @livgorton, 01:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888762841081008217) · 4 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** am i a normie (moderately online EA adjacent) I thought u were no longer adjacent 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢 ### [Thread, continued, 01:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888763072434634847) · 6 likes But no ur not a normie sorry ### [Reply to @livgorton, 01:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888763655291883619) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** did you get chatgpt to produce this monstrosity No I rawdogged it (idk how many characters it is but not super high n for 2^n) ### [Tweet, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888795232348602513) · 1 like Kansas City has enough people to support an NFL team?? ### [Tweet, 03:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888796040368672848) · 1 like Ok this isn’t that small I guess ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjZZ_S5WUAAE6zq.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888796045536120889) · 2 likes But the Packers shouldn’t exist fr, that’s literally like one large university ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjZZ_l_XIAAB-_A.jpg) ### [Reply to @StatisticUrban, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888804732270961016) · 22 likes > **Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** My thesis for why we're fatter today than we used to be is really very simple. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjZc8knaUAAsqbs.jpg) GDP went up because the capital, land, and labor combined to produce more goods and services ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1889004667981402505) · 3 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** Trump is eliminating the penny, which costs 3.69 cents to make. > > Amazingly, there’s an activist organization on the other side, cleverly called “Americans for Common Cents.” > > I assume Big Zinc is behind it, as I can’t imagine anyone deciding this is the cause to fight for. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjcXch9WYAA3e88.jpg) Iirc that’s exactly right, it’s literally the metal companies ### [Quote tweet, 17:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1889005696798114026) · 11 likes One of the most important questions in the world rn is whether the Trump administration will comply with federal judiciary rulings > **Quoting \*Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone):** US JUDGE ORDERS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TO FULLY COMPLY WITH PREVIOUS ORDER RESTORING ALL FROZEN FUNDING ### [Quote tweet, 17:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1889009823682851238) · 11 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjccbGIXMAAmTRZ.jpg) > **Quoting Jacobin (@jacobin):** At first glance, America’s declining drinking culture looks like a public health victory. But in an age of unprecedented loneliness and isolation, we’re losing crucial spaces for human connection. https://jacobin.com/2025/02/alcohol-bars-loneliness-covid-health/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjXGPLbW0AAlUxc.jpg) ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1889058681108758664) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ Bristlemouth, as of 5 seconds ago ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjdI29wWUAAKWOb.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 21:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1889058943063957540) · 9 likes What R library > **Quoting AJ Thurston, PhD (@AJThurston):** I have officially found the most cursed #dataviz 🤮 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjX_pJRXIAIvHWD.png) ## Tuesday, February 11, 2025 ### [Tweet, 03:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1889150873978200336) · 2 likes Jalen Hurts 🤝 Me Being MVP (Him Super Bowl, me watching airplane reels on instagram) ### [Tweet, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1889158697311514766) · 20 likes I’m not really a public protest guy and the last thing I protested for in public was gun control (half-heartedly) in high school but I think I’d like go and yell at the White House irl if Trump basically just defies judicial orders (conditional on like other people being there) ### [Tweet, 04:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1889173891043545433) · 19 likes Deep Research outputs kinda suck because the sources are literally written out inline which sucks for exporting or text-to-speech Copy and paste the outputs here for a better version https://bit.ly/deepresearch [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1889173744351858688/pu/img/im7bySGbxnHnWT8O.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1889173891043545433/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @zeta_globin, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1889176076829503760) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @zeta_globin is no longer available.)_ Yeah and it’s not even close I strongly expect any reasonable analysis to conclude that net QUALYs is positive ### [Quote tweet, 17:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1889370572540326225) · 10 likes Seems bad > **Quoting Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma):** the change in the NIH funding formula, to me, is the most explicit and direct way Elon has broken the law. Congress passed a law \*explicitly banning\* the Executive from making changes to the indirect cost % > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjhWcHTaAAAb30y.jpg) ## Wednesday, February 12, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 02:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1889506639025238130) · 19 likes Classic “I think it’s not bad but all my oomfs definitely score in the 100th percentile” result ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjjgRknXoAAhVmI.jpg) > **Quoting Gnostrils (@gnostrils):** new game: convergent association test > > how low can you get > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjjcjvOaMAALfoN.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1889507025593434556) · 3 likes Why did it ask for 10 words tho ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjjgoDCWwAAQwcZ.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1889507859349598602) · 2 likes https://www.datcreativity.com/ ### [Reply to @smatta1701, 03:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1889512642085064841) · 2 likes > **sma ⏹️ (@smatta1701):** @AaronBergman18 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjjloAVaIAAlgFO.jpg) Classic ### [Reply to @StatisticUrban, 03:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1889516493332746650) · 5 likes > **Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** Not bad > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjjhrscbQAAaUVt.jpg) Ok now I think this is largely just tracking how common words are, rather than just how similar their actual semantic meaning is ### [Tweet, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1889518099256181039) · 15 likes I don’t know what a Markov Chain is and at this point I’m too afraid to ask ### [Thread, continued, 03:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1889518649888620674) · 12 likes Oh that’s actually not too bad ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjjrMrBXMAEKUez.jpg) ### [Reply to @ali_sivi, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1889519230933995781) · 32 likes > **bald ann dowd (@ali_sivi):** hey bro we're doordashing individual shrimps later if you wanna swing by > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gjic9NdWEAAKZZr.jpg) I hope they come alive with an enriching tank environment ### [Reply, 04:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1889527361055465898) Isn’t this the same thing (input vs compressed input)? ### [Reply to @livgorton, 15:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1889702976631054502) · 5 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** it’s just a matrix it can’t hurt u All matrices hurt me ## Thursday, February 13, 2025 ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1889845263604523098) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** @menhguin I do. Rip ### [Reply to @ionsabug, 01:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1889846766348149252) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @ionsabug is no longer available.)_ Based, I vote that the dog stays ### [Quote tweet, 01:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1889847477047795910) · 20 likes I think this is like 50% likely to be basically true > **Quoting Aella (@Aella_Girl):** we're all dead. I'm a transhumanist, I love tech, I desperately want aligned AI, but at our current stage of development, this is building the equivalent of a planet-sized nuke. The reason is boring and complicated and technical, so midwits in power don't understand the danger ### [Reply to @egirlian, 17:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890097756079091869) · 137 likes > **egirlian 🌸 (@egirlian):** unpopular opinion around these parts, but i don’t think 18-25 year olds aren’t approaching women because they’re terrified of getting accused of harassment. i think they’re just plain terrified, and the instant gratification of phone screens is preferable to pain of rejection. ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gjr55GbXoAAkz8N.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 17:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890097979346022611) · 21 likes Big if true > **Quoting Simon Berens (@sberens):** Exciting personal update — I've been working on building the world's brightest lamp, with the goal of getting daylight levels of light indoors. > > We just launched on Indiegogo an hour ago; I'm especially proud of the video! > > [video attached](https://x.com/sberens1/status/1889366141484851277/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890099119827677503) · 2 likes (Looks like the current cost is $850 ☹️) ### [Tweet, 21:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890146099584987327) · 8 likes MacBook Pro randomly stopped working. Looking like the Apple Store will be able to restore the hardware but my files are only saved bc I have a full computer cloud backup going Worth considering if you don’t! (I use @backblaze which is like $100/year iirc) ### [Reply, 22:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890168042325512477) · 1 like That sucks and gl with that but also this tweet should go in a museum (unironically kindly) ### [Tweet, 22:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890170369178525975) · 18 likes I can’t easily find it but I think I RT’d something not long ago that said basically “I guess the original OpenAI board has been totally vindicated” and yes this keeps getting increasingly true https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/rose-chan-loui-elon-musk-open-ai/ ### [Thread, continued, 22:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890170371200159978) · 2 likes The tl;dr as I interpret it is that the current situation is that Altman has to claim that the board abandoning its original mission and control over the for-profit is actually good for its original mission ### [Thread, continued, 22:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890170372731072813) · 2 likes My editorial is that the only way this works is if nobody, namely the current board members and Delaware AG, have even the most vestigial of spines ### [Thread, continued, 22:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890170374593327120) · 2 likes Apple pods: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/80-000-hours-podcast/id1245002988?i=1000691529880 ## Friday, February 14, 2025 ### [Reply to @rgblong, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890207798426063285) · 4 likes > **Robert Long (@rgblong):** Great to see OpenAI’s new model spec taking a more nuanced stance on AI consciousness! > > At @eleosai, we've been recommending that labs not force LLMs to categorically deny (or assert!) consciousness—especially with spurious arguments like “As an AI assistant, I am not conscious” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjtKdQtacAEUJoV.jpg) In all serious, do you think model responses bear at all on whether or not models are in fact conscious? AFAIK, they’d need something resembling an introspective capacity for this to even be on the table, which I don’t think current LLMs have The plausible steelman “yes” case involves reasoning about LLM consciousness from an “outsider” perspective, not actually reporting on subjective experience ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 01:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890210713148539238) · 4 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** i need to get over my weird aversion of github & cloud storage because if i lose my laptop i'm set back a year on multiple fronts I’d like I think I partially caused this tweet with one earlier, but regardless, I think backblaze is good and don’t know what the other good options are for automatic backup but you should probably spend some of your phat Atlas dollars on one of them, yes ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890211180754636900) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ So endearing for both of you lmao ### [Reply, 02:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890222784435134494) · 1 like Based on my knowledge of LLMs, yes - it has everything to do with system prompt, fine-tuning/RLHF, and possibly even situational awareness (ie that it’s a model in a certain situation) but not introspection per se ### [Reply to @eshear, 03:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890239523537424587) · 2 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** Because of the deep commitment to the idea that model is Just A Tool. Has anyone considered u for OpenAI CEO ### [Reply to @br___ian, 04:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890251544198803712) · 3 likes > **bri (@br___ian):** is there any downside to tipping the scales in favor of defensive weapons over offensive, at all size and time scales Good q ### [Reply to @br___ian, 04:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890260164802154505) · 4 likes > **bri (@br___ian):** is there any downside to tipping the scales in favor of defensive weapons over offensive, at all size and time scales From a very abstract perspective maybe the ideal thing is the ability to do costly offense Otherwise current power structures (eg physical borders) just become entrenched forever ### [Quote tweet, 04:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890263103025344865) · 37 likes We must wild animal suffering-pill the toddlers (slightly kidding but also not kidding that much) > **Quoting Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** The propaganda aimed at children that honestly bothers me the most is environmentalist media for kids which treat humans as a threat to what would otherwise be some kind of idyllic peace-and-harmony nature situation ### [Reply, 05:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890273431691952247) I was thinking exactly about this but it’s plausible only if ~2027 isn’t the end of the current world order, which it’s looking to be ### [Quote tweet, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890281516128956836) · 168 likes I’m pro-Aella but also anti-anti-anti-Aella (sorta) I don’t think yelling “WOW SHE REALLY BULLDOZED THAT ABSOLUTE DUMBASS LOSER” is a good way to foster scout mindset, memetically > **Quoting Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Because they see 'not knowing what you're talking about' as losing. This type of debate strategy wants to have the feeling of 'winning' at all costs, which leaves no room for backing down even when you've made an error. > Learning to lose is a difficult and important skill! ### [Reply to @skooookum, 06:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890281837798551993) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @skooookum is no longer available.)_ Time for a manifold market ### [Reply to @AmandaAskell, 06:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890289269329342734) · 9 likes > **Amanda Askell (@AmandaAskell):** My take on the ethics of billionaires: > > \- Making billions of dollars: morally fine (sometimes bad, often good) > \- Keeping billions of dollars: morally bad (children are dying yo) > \- Giving away billions of dollars: morally awesome (you save many people, you deserve much praise) The other natural category is “consuming billions of dollars worth of stuff” which is worse than “keeping” ### [Reply to @MichaelAlleged, 11:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890365326824558770) · 4 likes > **Michael (Allegedly) (@MichaelAlleged):** @arabelladevine me personally I think you’re enchanting Thanks for saving my puppy from that burning building the other day ### [Reply to @arabelladevine, 11:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890365475361530182) · 3 likes > **arabella ※ (@arabelladevine):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjvZADrbYAAT-ed.jpg) I’ve seen enough insane scores like this to basically think the test is meaningless ### [Quote tweet, 11:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890367855280931232) · 8 likes Big if true > **Quoting JAMA Psychiatry (@JAMAPsych):** Low-dose semaglutide reduced alcohol craving and consumption in adults with alcohol use disorder. https://ja.ma/4gJTxU5 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gjrs8lnWsAAas-q.png) ### [Quote tweet, 11:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890369343529144657) · 80 likes There might be a lesson here along the lines of “if it’s a really good psych drug, you won’t have to squint at the data and employ a dozen statisticians to squeeze out a positive result; people will just notice that it works” > **Quoting JAMA Psychiatry (@JAMAPsych):** Low-dose semaglutide reduced alcohol craving and consumption in adults with alcohol use disorder. https://ja.ma/4gJTxU5 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gjrs8lnWsAAas-q.png) ### [Thread, continued, 11:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890369349908603221) · 6 likes Reminds me of the early MAOIs, where people noticed a drug working for a different condition I genuinely wonder if the same thing would have happened if Prozac happened to treat tuberculosis and was developed in the 50s; would it also have so obviously “just worked”? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gjvw56RWcAA75jk.jpg) ### [Tweet, 12:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890373520154120539) · 6 likes Pretty nuts that oxytocin induces labor. Evolution was really cooking with that one ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 12:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890381504477306993) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @robertwiblin is no longer available.)_ 1 but it only changes p(listen) from .99999 to .999992 ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 13:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890386876478955846) · 15 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** A problem with EA types is that they overestimate the good charity has done in the world and underestimate the good of markets. > > It's usually better to invest your money in goods and services people want than sitting there and trying to think about what you can do for them. > > (quoting @AmandaAskell: My take on the ethics of billionaires: - Making billions of dollars: morally fine (sometimes bad, often good) - Keeping billions of dollars: morally bad (children are dying yo) - Giving away billions of dollars: morally awesome (you save many people, you deserve much praise)) I mean obviously I’d say this but I don’t think this is true? Like the question of when you should expect charity to beat investment and personal consumption has been wrestled with quite a bit, it’s a critique that’s already been incorporated ### [Reply, 13:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890391737572462946) · 1 like Absolutely bodied by Claude Sonnet, which says I “somewhat overstates the case that they shouldn't be compared. In practice, people need to make allocation decisions between these options, even if they operate on different philosophical dimensions.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​“ ### [Reply to @jjspicer, 15:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890416668637090098) · 1 like > **Jonny Spicer🔸 (@jjspicer):** Isn’t this graph obviously wrong? Pretty sure the NHS doesn’t cost £176 trillion, what am I missing? Also the IHT revenue blatantly doesn’t line up with the y axis to make it look less significant than it is It says billion ### [Reply to @livgorton, 15:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890420903994962355) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** for valentine’s day, i’d love a pet big and/or miniature cow pls I hope he reads this ### [Reply to @livgorton, 15:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890421047117091316) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** for valentine’s day, i’d love a pet big and/or miniature cow pls 🅱️ig 🐷 ### [Reply to @livgorton, 15:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890421306681626978) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** that would suffice, yes ### [Reply to @crumbraven, 15:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890424607611445535) · 2 likes > **crumbraven (@crumbraven):** @GarrettPetersen that’s a fucking good question Fr ### [Reply to @livgorton, 15:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890427514398326846) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** wow i misspelt pig 😭🐽 this was written in a state of late night delirious yearning for a farm animal Cancelled ### [Reply to @skooookum, 16:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890436611172675854) · 15 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @skooookum is no longer available.)_ I straightforwardly do not believe there’s a causal link and am willing to bet on this ### [Reply to @RichardMCNgo, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890467390917357669) · 26 likes > **Richard Ngo (@RichardMCNgo):** Trump was way ahead of the curve on the three most important geopolitical issues of the last decade: > \- Everyone sleeping on China (remember the compilations of him saying China over and over?) > \- EU hugely underspending on defense (leading to disaster in Ukraine) > \- Abraham Accords > > (quoting @0xDeric: @RichardMCNgo I'm curious what examples you would provide of Trump's incredible geopolitical instincts! Not explicitly against it, but also I can't think of obvious examples that I would point to that display international political acumen) When you say incoherent bullshit about everything, people can sift through and find stuff you got right but Trump has also said/done things that point in the opposite direction Maybe you can give him the second thing about EU spending, but even that wasn’t exactly a novel insight (maybe you like his hardline rhetoric here but that’s a separate point) ### [Tweet, 21:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890513841949135115) · 2 likes (Possibly?) nobody has ever had less skin in the game, as a matter of proportionality (ie skin in the game : importance of the game) than Elon Musk and the federal government ### [Thread, continued, 21:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890514348444922039) · 2 likes Refusal to recognize the gravity of his whims is separable from and possibly more damning than any single object-level decision ### [Reply to @OpenAINewsroom, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890515717969052126) · 429 likes > **OpenAI Newsroom (@OpenAINewsroom):** "OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk's latest attempt to disrupt his competition. Any potential reorganization of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit and its mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity." > > —Bret Taylor, Chair, on behalf of the OpenAI Board of Directors Sounds like you’re lying, because the current goal is to abandon the nonprofit’s original charter ## Saturday, February 15, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890556158454211034) · 12 likes I kinda vibe-associate with alt-psychiatry but I have 0% confidence that this is going to be done well > **Quoting chris person (@Papapishu):** Gonna be honest: I wouldn’t do that if I were you man. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/establishing-the-presidents-make-america-healthy-again-commission/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjtLrNpXQAAuA69.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 00:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890556160509460677) · 3 likes The claims I will actually stand by are that MAOIs are relatively underrated and under-prescribed, antipsychotics are probably given out at highish doses a bit too freely/without sufficient warning ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 01:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890576125731934341) · 2 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** I think looks are generally completely off limits unless and only unless one has a very deceptive pfp. Like cmon this is pathetic > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjygGygXgAEs16I.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjygGygXcAAK-mk.jpg) Making fun of people’s looks is bad, even if they have bad politics There’s nothing wrong with using a relatively flattering picture as pfp ### [Quote tweet, 10:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890713744365301932) · 26 likes What in the world > **Quoting Gabriel (@gbrl_dick):** truly one of the most incredible policy stories i can remember — in the midst of covid, italy gave away €200 billion to the construction industry (😉) to renovate a few homes. > > after this and the IRA, MMT is now kind of approximately responsible for at least two of these lmao > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj0fkVpaQAALMz1.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj0fkVoa4AA-n1K.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj0fkVqboAEQALk.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj0fkVpb0AAmgWL.jpg) ### [Reply to @bayeslord, 10:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890715769509490769) · 9 likes > **bayes (@bayeslord):** question for the ai doomers reading this, sincerely, why do you think memetic success been relatively hard to come by? I think I reject the premise; abstract claims about the future are competing over a very small % of the population to begin with. There’s no world in which >50% of the population is e/acc or doomer rn (you can get people to say whatever on surveys with the right wording but that’s different) ### [Reply to @_alice_evans, 11:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890731852261912962) · 10 likes > **Alice Evans (@_alice_evans):** Male-female friendships are a under-rated driver of gender equality. > > When women can fraternise freely, they can share ideas, gain respect, & build empathy with men who care about their wants & welfare. > > Countries with high male-female friendships score better on equality 👇 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj0Fj7wWYAEazNj.jpg) I like girls and volunteer to be their friend ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 14:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890771674468843601) · 3 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @ShakeelHashim @Mjreard yeah I misspoke - this is what I meant > > tweeting is hard The whole thing is really quite clear and intuitive ### [Reply to @banterrealism, 14:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890778069226438748) · 1 like > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** You guys grew up with the internet no? > > Start acting like it The parsimonious explanation for random medium big accounts is that they are who they say they are (conditional on this being plausible) Seems so much harder and more complex to make a fake big account ### [Reply to @monodevice, 15:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890778726838714398) · 2 likes > **🐜onio (@monodevice):** This is a very typical straight male who either lost a bet or is engaging in some one-upmanship or is responding to a dare. Most often done in explicit absence of any non-males, meaning this should be seen as a bull signal on the military, if that's your concern. > > (quoting @libsoftiktok: What is going on at the Air Force…. Reportedly at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico) Yes, ~0% chance this is earnest ### [Reply to @matt_beard_, 15:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890780948981006606) · 4 likes > **Matt Beard (@matt_beard_):** it's a pretty amazing feeling when all of your problems are instantly solved all at once. "your visa has been approved for three years" is the best sentence I've ever heard (other than "I do"). Lfg congrats 🇺🇸🗽🎆🎇⭐🦅🚀🏈🥧🎺💙❤️🤍🗽🇺🇸🎆🎇🦅⭐🚀🏈🥧🎺💙🤍❤️🇺🇸🗽🎆🎇🦅⭐🚀🏈🥧🎺💙🤍❤️🇺🇸🗽🎆🎇🦅⭐🚀🏈🥧🎺💙🤍❤️🇺🇸🎆🗽🎇🦅⭐🚀🏈🥧🎺💙🤍❤️ 🇺🇸🗽🎆🎇⭐🦅🚀🏈🥧🎺💙❤️🤍🗽🇺🇸🎆🎇🦅⭐🚀🏈🥧🎺💙🤍❤️🇺🇸🗽🎆🎇🦅⭐🚀🏈🥧🎺💙🤍❤️🇺🇸🗽🎆🎇🦅⭐🚀🏈🥧🎺💙🤍❤️🇺🇸🎆🗽🎇🦅⭐🚀🏈🥧🎺💙🤍❤️ ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 16:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890802230543941918) · 3 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** 2/3 The answer is always something like this (4/3)pi(r^3)-ass answer ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 16:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890806479881388493) · 32 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ I don’t think EV policy should be set based on the owners politics ### [Reply to @littmath, 17:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890808418916548905) · 29 likes > **Daniel Litt (@littmath):** It’s undeniable at this point that the best LLMs are quite good at standard undergrad material. One place they still underperform strong math undergrads, though, is honesty. Good students (even those who haven’t fully mastered the material) resist bluffing/BSing. My best guess is that bluff/BSing isn’t a good description of the internal psychology Like I don’t think the model has an internal representation of it being wrong; from the inside being right and being wrong “feels” the same to an LLM (generally) ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 17:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890810244822897090) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Ah makes sense ### [Reply to @sama, 17:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890822244558918047) · 11 likes > **Sam Altman (@sama):** i particularly love when the anti-AI crowd makes up shit about our water usage while eating a hamburger > > (quoting @AlecStapp: Using ChatGPT isn't going to destroy the environment or consume all our resources) @AndyMasley ### [Reply to @sama, 17:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890822409323769998) · 53 likes > **Sam Altman (@sama):** i particularly love when the anti-AI crowd makes up shit about our water usage while eating a hamburger > > (quoting @AlecStapp: Using ChatGPT isn't going to destroy the environment or consume all our resources) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj2M9fRXsAAlX9j.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890838610976317654) · 6 likes 5 minute survey to weigh in on the use of insects in animal feed in the UK. Suggested responses and direct link below. Took me about 4 mins total ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj2bshRXoAAEorl.jpg) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890840913301114884) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj2buRaaAAAMQ0W.png) @littIeramblings ### [Reply to @goingawoll, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890845619222180218) · 7 likes > **Amos Wollen 🦐🪰✴️ (@goingawoll):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj2cUyDXwAAOD2q.jpg) Link for others https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/15/prawn-farming-cruelty-electrical-stunning-waitrose ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 19:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890851618226123229) · 5 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** !!!!!! Someone printed me out the Roche metabolic pathways poster onto cloth so that I can actually keep it and transport it around with me. This makes me so unbelievably happy > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj2mjB4XkAA-kw3.jpg) Based ### [Reply to @banterrealism, 19:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890853373399670898) · 2 likes > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** Guy who is pro vaccine but anti SSRIs and ozempic but only lowkey Vaccines > ozempic > SSRI > 0 ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890853955535519779) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** This is huge Poast bench at some point ### [Reply, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890854392527503411) I thought u were a commie ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890855384157409502) · 2 likes > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** @AaronBergman18 I give up I’m going to join ur shrimp movement Yay (we’re not winning yet but trending in the right direction) ### [Reply to @AskYatharth, 20:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890858899663999013) · 361 likes > **yatharth ༺༒༻ (@AskYatharth):** i've already wondered & felt confused how humans could eat anything from hamburgers to plants to fish and still make... more human body. i've also been surprised how plants mostly gain their mass from the "air". the surprising answer to both is that we are carbon-based life? Humans require a relatively varied diet and require 40-50 specific low-level nutrients, mostly molecules but some elements iirc In some ways it’s more amazing that like rabbits and other herbivores can make more rabbit from only like grass A rabbit organism isn’t that much simpler than a human organism! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj2uJcyXEAA-io5.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890862687606775836) · 2 likes TIL important biochemical reactions in humans involve “quantum tunneling” of protons (apparently there’s a second type of non-nuclear subatomic particle change besides ionization \[which is when electrons move around\]) Can’t say I fully understand it ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj2xl51XYAAP_Pn.jpg) ## Sunday, February 16, 2025 ### [Reply, 00:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890926124214985165) Based gf ### [Thread, continued, 00:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890926233493315861) What is she looking at that rocks 2000 nits? Not many monitors do that ### [Tweet, 01:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890931116044890447) · 2 likes .@WhatsApp when I search for “chicken” in the emoji reaction panel, the “🐓” character doesn’t appear as an option! (This isn’t true in general on iOS/other apps) Please assign a very well-paid engineer to fix this urgent and tremendously important injustice, thx ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj3vNOsX0AA6QNt.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890931250870845876) · 3 likes They should give me like a $25k bounty for this tbh ### [Reply to @DeepDishEnjoyer, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890932292811411620) · 3 likes > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** If this is true THIS FEELS VERY BAD FOR AI SAFETY > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: @littmath My best guess is that bluff/BSing isn’t a good description of the internal psychology Like I don’t think the model has an internal representation of it being wrong; from the inside being right and being wrong “feels” the same to an LLM (generally)) My claim is true of getting math problems wrong (which I have no reason to believe they aren’t being earnest about) not true in general tbc Like intentional deception/hiding capabilities is still on the table and potentially discoverable via interpretability ### [Reply to @jeffreyhuber, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890932714032758842) · 658 likes > **Jeff Huber (@jeffreyhuber):** mildly interesting > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj2wTf_bwAA3tqD.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj2wTf_bcAAOIaO.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj3xSDvWQAAPqO3.jpg) ### [Reply to @kane, 01:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890934596948087129) · 80 likes > **Kane 謝凱堯 (@kane):** The reason Japanese cities can have nice public bathrooms is bc the penalty for vandalism is three years in prison, the penalty for drugs in a public space is seven years in prison, and penalty for drug trafficking is life, all with 99% conviction rate. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj3g_hkWYAAkEgu.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj3g_hjWgAAp3Yn.jpg) This is insane. 7 years for smoking weed outside is bad, even if that leads downstream to marginally nicer bathrooms ### [Reply to @elgorond, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890959912047419852) · 1 like > **eLGO (@elgorond):** It's really not. It is disrespectful to do drugs in a public area, and where children can be. Have fun with the crack pipe at home I largely agree; 7 years in prison is a lot. Maybe like a $200 fine lol ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890960139131248703) · 2 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** I really do try my best to have a nuanced view of different political perspectives and ways of slicing up the world, but if you think this way you are unequivocally a part of my outgroup. Just an unbelievably self-effacing and incurious way of engaging with the world > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj4J3x0XgAEcJpS.jpg) (Also false, importantly) ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 03:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890962105454465045) · 5 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** It’s Saturday night, and I’m here to provide what you need. A 5,000 word essay on why America needs more corruption. > > I explain why you should stop worrying about Elon’s conflicts of interest, and learn to love Chinese billionaires buying our politicians. https://www.richardhanania.com/p/american-governance-is-not-corrupt Oh man bad take. There are two optima: a global optimum with very low corruption and a worse local optimum with developing country level corruption where everyone knows that’s how you do things America isn’t so far gone that we have to resign ourselves to the worse world! ### [Reply to @banterrealism, 03:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890973891310289035) · 2 likes > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** Pretty crazy that I felt nervous posting this originally, compared to how obvious of a slam dunk it should have been in retrospect > > (quoting @banterrealism: My take on trump is that I don’t take him seriously. Bad faith rhetoric (I hate) which spills over into real consequence (Jan 6) and I don’t understand how serious people (from tpot) find him nuanced. I’ve never argued about him with anyone. I’m kinda hoping the era just passes.) Yes correct take ### [Quote tweet, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890976572208804010) · 10 likes Replies here are a great illustration how the pendulum of public opinion swings Lots of strong reaction to the current bad thing (people don’t like weed in public/public disorder; neither do I) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @kane @Noahpinion This is insane. 7 years for smoking weed outside is bad, even if that leads downstream to marginally nicer bathrooms ### [Thread, continued, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1890976574029136368) · 4 likes Not a ton of effort to pre-empt the inevitable bad thing in the other direction: lives ruined for objectively relatively minor harm (the one guy smoking weed outside isn’t responsible for all instances of public disorder, even if you want him to be a scapegoat) ### [Reply to @niplav_site, 08:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891047350673572026) · 7 likes > **niplav (@niplav_site):** Why do effective altruists mostly try to stop/prevent things? > > Examples: Prevent AI risk & biorisk, eliminate diseases, decrease the amount of factory farming… > > (They do try to create/build stuff, but mostly as instrumental goals) > > Shouldn't the ratio be 50-50, a priori? In which I record a ramble and get Claude to figure out what I'm trying to say. This is getting like 90% of the conceptual content across ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj5Zht3XkAADw4o.jpg) ### [Reply to @caleb_parikh, 08:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891047799543693547) · 3 likes > **Caleb Parikh (@caleb_parikh):** Seems fine given that empirically Japan's policies result in few people going to prison. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj5VLM3XkAAShGV.jpg) I mean that's a very big bundle of policies and culture and other differences. It's directional evidence that their drug sentencing is good for this but not super strong ### [Quote tweet, 08:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891049415252578784) · 9 likes Boosting this point but also: not to be too much of a simp but Claude Sonnet still seems exceptionally good at a certain class of harder-to-make-a-benchmark-for vibey tasks > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @niplav_site In which I record a ramble and get Claude to figure out what I'm trying to say. This is getting like 90% of the conceptual content across > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj5Zht3XkAADw4o.jpg) ### [Reply to @Rado9910, 10:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891066238945693920) · 1 like > **Rado9910 (@Rado9910):** Must read. A very good argument for why suffering reduction matters more than happiness creation. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: @niplav_site In which I record a ramble and get Claude to figure out what I'm trying to say. This is getting like 90% of the conceptual content across) I’m not sure it’s an explanation of why, although I see the temptation to have ethics align with some elegant metaphysics I think it \*does\* in fact align, but this is something like a conceptual coincidence ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 18:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891190631633981950) · 6 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** Hahahahaha holy shit. This is legitimately insane. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj635AsW8AA3N-1.jpg) I like the chutzpah ### [Reply to @Thinkwert, 19:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891201762515673209) · 2 likes > **Thinkwert (@Thinkwert):** Boars wandering the streets in Poland. > > [video attached](https://x.com/Thinkwert/status/1890830529957687621/video/1) @livgorton 🐷 ### [Quote tweet, 19:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891208751501242468) · 5 likes Many such cases but my layperson interpretation is that objectively large increases in capability are, in ML, exceptionally and counterintuitively common both via hardware improvement/cost and the background rate of software innovations like this See also: Deepseek > **Quoting ℏεsam (@Hesamation):** we aren't losing our minds enough over this paper: > \> test-time compute by implicitly reasoning in layers > \> no special training data like CoT > \> can reason beyond words > \> 3.5B model with this performs like a 50B model > \> more like human brain than current "reasoning" LLMs > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj30-mmW8AAdNet.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 19:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891208753367646712) · 6 likes In ~any other field a functional 10x increase in the productivity of some major input resource is rightly worth losing one’s mind over In ML it’s just another day watching straight lines on a log graph go brr ### [Reply to @GarettJones, 19:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891209642555883842) · 10 likes > **Garett Jones (@GarettJones):** The Politico interview with @krishnanrohit perhaps fits my vibes-over-results take on DOGE: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj7sUtjWcAAKQdu.jpg) > (quoting @GarettJones: @OliverSegal2 @DOGE Yep, now we just have to solve for the @DOGE equilibrium: One would predict we'll get a lot of policy shaped by memes and vibes which are based on inaccurate information.) Ahh but it’s a victory of a bad culture! It’s like “move fast and break things you don’t understand while having no skin in the game”! There \*are\* cultural changes in the govt that would be good - this isn’t one of them ### [Thread, continued, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891210642607989185) · 3 likes And it’s not like random citizens are going to see government working better for them via any of the changes IRS has got to be the clearest example of this Good reform: pay market rate for talented devs to make a free universal intuitive easy tax filing system DOGE reform: fire IRS agents, reducing overall revenue but idk vibes or something ### [Reply to @RpsAgainstTrump, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891271043790090519) · 1 like > **Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump):** Where’s DOGE? > > (quoting @CalltoActivism: Since we’re on the topic of government waste, Donald Trump’s joyride around the Daytona 500 cost American taxpayers around $5,000,000. 🤡 Here’s the breakdown: Air Force One Costs: estimated $800,000 – $1,000,000. Presidential Motorcade & Transport: estimated $200,000 – $500,000…) As much as I hate Trump this seems fine; it costs a lot to keep POTUS safe ## Monday, February 17, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891298469286981952) · 16 likes You don’t actually have to undertake an ambitious cultural project like inventing a new superior flavor of masculinity 80% of the \*achievable\* gains to be had come from treating men at a broad cultural level the way people treat men they personally know and like > **Quoting Everything Price Sufferer (but especially eggs) (@agraybee):** The suggestions for Democrats to win back young men are like "just invent a new type of masculinity that doesn't disparage women and then convince them all it's better than the old type of masculinity." Oh, ok! ### [Thread, continued, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891298471493112138) · 7 likes Being normal, respectful, and fundamentally non-prejudiced goes a long way ### [Thread, continued, 01:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891298623075254297) · 4 likes Perpetual take ### [Quote tweet, 02:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891319685745873217) · 13 likes 1\) I’m glad lightcone got the money 2\) I feel like I’ve seen “hit the goal just barely” phenomenon throughout my life but here’s a recent and elegant example (note that the $15k “goal” is purely symbolic - we achieved the highest actual incentive at $35k just barely) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj9ROsyXwAAaqw5.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj9ROswXEAAPmz9.jpg) > **Quoting Ben Landau-Taylor (@benlandautaylor):** Lightcone's monthslong fundraiser meeting its $2m goal in the last 6 hours is the clearest illustration I’ve seen yet of the "by default, people give money to nonprofits if and only if the alternative is that the nonprofit will literally die" thesis. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gh_wQiyaQAA0zGy.png) ### [Reply to @saulmunn, 02:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891320075468054727) · 1 like > **saul munn (@saulmunn):** i would find this valuable, and would encourage you to write this up. > > if there are things i can do to make it more likely that this happens — e.g. i sit with you while you write, you dictate to me, i figure out a bounty & operationalize it & pay you, etc. Yeah same! This seems like a very high leverage EA Forum post and I’m realizing that I haven’t really thought about this (not that I control a ton of money so that doesn’t hugely matter, but I feel like I have opinions about lots of other things lol) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 02:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891320391630549049) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 17, 2025:** 1\) I’m glad lightcone got the money 2) I feel like I’ve seen “hit the goal just barely” phenomenon throughout my life but here’s a recent and elegant example… I will take a bit of credit here for pushing for the $35k reward to exist at all ### [Thread, continued, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891321090116358534) · 3 likes A certain account reading this actually put us over $35k at the end and I invite them to chime in! ### [Reply to @skooookum, 03:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891327586023682357) · 17 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @skooookum is no longer available.)_ Not claiming 95th IQ but for me I really don’t think there’s a tradeoff Tweeting is natural/effortless, longform is extremely hard and time isn’t the limiting factor ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 03:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891328283939127409) · 2 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** @AaronBergman18 @skooookum Your brain finding tweeting effortless is the limiting factor My brain finding longform hard is the limiting factor Not sure if you mean these to be one and the same ### [Tweet, 03:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891329046513946721) · 13 likes Gonna start documenting tweets so bad that they single-handedly remind me I’m on the For You feed ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj9Zvn9XsAE2xO6.jpg) ### [Tweet, 03:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891332637832159551) · 15 likes The flip side of “cutting a bunch of random bullshit only changes the budget by .00000001%” is that the USA is really big and we can actually have quite nice institutions that serve everyone for a relatively trivial amount of money ### [Thread, continued, 03:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891332639333728766) · 2 likes The thing that is hard to provide is cash/goods/rivalrous services (eg healthcare) to hundreds of millions of people That is expensive necessitates legitimately difficult policy discussion and prioritization ### [Thread, continued, 03:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891332640776585491) · 6 likes But for things that basically serve the whole country at once, like the national park service, or the FDIC, or random education/finance/bio research programs, and good regulatory bodies like the Fed, congrats we actually can have all that for like $10 each ### [Thread, continued, 03:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891332642680737899) · 3 likes That’s because the US is \*counterintuitively\* large. It doesn’t feel like I should be able to get a bunch of nice stuff for cheap. But 350M is a lot of people! ### [Thread, continued, 03:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891332644496892268) · 3 likes Ofc that’s not to say everything should go: on the regulatory front, the main cost is the actual (de)merit of the institution and various specific policies I (mostly) dislike the FDA - but because their regulations are bad, not because it costs too much to run! ### [Tweet, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891334030722785450) · 8 likes I understand there are concerns around wanting to be light touch and have minimal false positives, but if anything @CommunityNotes should put notes on more stuff ### [Thread, continued, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891334032375300604) · 3 likes Doesn’t just have to be corrective - could be like “yes this tweet is basically fair and accurate but here’s the crowdsourced single best bit of extra context that might be useful” Non-corrective could be opt in/out ### [Reply to @livgorton, 05:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891360442406125706) · 5 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** float16 is just spicy integers pretending to be real numbers and i'm tired of pretending it's not ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj92TArWEAEJzvy.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj92TAqWAAAZLh9.jpg) ### [Reply to @matt_beard_, 17:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891545167166877793) · 6 likes > **Matt Beard (@matt_beard_):** Excited to share that I've joined @80000Hours as an Advisor! Looking forward to speaking with talented, altruistic people about how to use their careers for good. I'm based in Washington DC and would love to chat with subject matter experts to learn about their fields. Big if true ### [Reply to @sebkrier, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891580925118394753) · 4 likes > **Séb Krier (@sebkrier):** If you (a) have excellent writing skills, policy acumen, technical literacy, analytical skills; (b) are a Good human; and (c) want to write high quality, detailed memos for deepmind's policy team - then you should apply to the FIG fellowship by 7 March: https://futureimpact.group/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkAqdhqbAAAa2hb.jpg) @littIeramblings ### [Quote tweet, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891585770462335312) · 4 likes Not good but at least the plane didn’t fucking explode Maybe Boeing et al should work on making it so that if planes are ever in the wrong configuration (eg by hitting a helicopter) the fuel stays contained better and doesn’t ignite (Note: I have no idea what I’m talking about) > **Quoting Alex Macheras (@AlexInAir):** Breaking: Delta flight 4819, operated by regional subsidiary has been involved in an accident at Toronto Pearson Airport. The aircraft, a CRJ-900 (N932XJ), is pictured here - shockingly - upside down. Emergency response is underway, airport is closed. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkA-uGDXEAEBHAl.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkA-uHYWIAI3UZ-.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkA-uGCWcAA1zo6.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891585772597260761) · 3 likes Like it’s quite rare to see a plane in an unnatural position like this but not on fire. But evidently it’s possible Cc @SpacedOutMatt can tell me why I’m wrong ### [Reply to @outliersgeorg, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891586521561546986) · 2 likes > **Alastair Zaraza's liminal corpse party (@outliersgeorg):** @slimepriestess @YitziLitt Nicotine is probably one of the safer antipsychotics on the market as long as you dose the pure stuff responsibly (i.e. no combustion) Yeah use gum not cigs ### [Reply to @slimepriestess, 20:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891586790001189004) · 2 likes > **Ra (@slimepriestess):** @YitziLitt in that i have nothing to stop the hallucinations and delusions from getting real annoying now Cc https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/01/11/schizophrenia-no-smoking-gun/ ### [Reply to @iScienceLuvr, 20:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891590130160251180) · 33 likes > **Tanishq Mathew Abraham, Ph.D. (@iScienceLuvr):** Have you heard of Cleo? > > Cleo was an account on Math Stack Exchange that was infamous for dropping the answer to the most difficult integrals with no explanation... > > often mere minutes after the question was asked!! > > For years, no one knew who Cleo was, UNTIL NOW! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj_WyVAbgAAOA19.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gj_W3WjaIAA3pA2.png) I did a bit of investigation back in the day ### [Tweet, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891594986543530067) · 5 likes Fed Spotify likes to Claude This is kinda nuts (these seem clearly true for me) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkBLiQGWsAADjVh.jpg) ### [Reply to @sporadica, 21:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891596334714569107) · 6 likes > **spor (@sporadica):** “how are you so happy?” > > brother, when i was 17 i discovered that i could physiologically stimulate adrenaline release on command in just about any situation > > skill issue I kinda doubt what you’re intuiting is literal adrenaline. When you inject people with adrenaline it generally causes anxiety and is unpleasant ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 21:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891598608677458275) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ I don’t love the singular first person pronoun thing going though lol ### [Reply to @BNONews, 21:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891599360430891261) · 36 likes > **BNO News (@BNONews):** UPDATE: At least 8 injured after Delta plane crash landed in Toronto - CP24 > > [video attached](https://x.com/BNONews/status/1891581690868290018/video/1) How do I become the guy that shoots water at upside down planes ### [Quote tweet, 21:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891603772993888714) · 75 likes Nature is terrible in a quadrillion ways > **Quoting Historic Vids (@historyinmemes):** Wolf lived with a tree branch trapped between his teeth for years > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkBR19CXYAAzDO5.jpg) ### [Reply to @albrgr, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891624891239076236) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @albrgr is no longer available.)_ The goal is a ~direct causal arrow from using twitter to playing with own kids ### [Reply to @DrAllyLouks, 23:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891631773647307216) · 3 likes > **Dr Ally Louks (@DrAllyLouks):** So I have been seeing quite a few requests for me to start a podcast and I would love to hear what you would be interested in hearing about! Smell, of course, but in what capacity? And would you like to hear about anything else? I’d be grateful for your thoughts! 💕 Ally come on pigeon hour. You don’t have to prepare and guests can cut anything after recording. Maximally low-stakes and chill https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pigeon-hour/id1693154768 ### [Tweet, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891632562491076621) · 5 likes I’m sad @DrAllyLouks got crazy big instead of just nice-nanocelebrity-medium-big bc in another timeline I think we’d be twitter friends ### [Reply to @_chair, 23:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891633750833827919) · 3 likes > **Chair (@_chair):** @AaronBergman18 @DrAllyLouks damn you're trying to hold even your hypothetical friends back How about she then goes megabig later ### [Tweet, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891637300355838306) · 4 likes I’m sad @DrAllyLouks got crazy big instead of just niche-nanocelebrity-medium-big bc in another timeline I think we’d be twitter friends ### [Reply to @FilledwithUrine, 23:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891637727797391567) · 7 likes > **michael (@FilledwithUrine):** she’s the kind of beautiful that makes me do 40 pushups in my room at 3am Real, Godspeed ## Tuesday, February 18, 2025 ### [Reply to @Chadson, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891638813253845164) · 7 likes > **Chadson (@Chadson):** just FYI there are about 30 serious air accidents involving airliners in the US every year Omg thank you for this tweet, it led me to https://data.ntsb.gov/avdata ### [Reply to @aidan_mclau, 00:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891639612935709139) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @aidan_mclau is no longer available.)_ Ya everyone smart af fr ### [Reply to @_chair, 00:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891643724628672712) · 5 likes > **Chair (@_chair):** @AaronBergman18 you'd get used to it. this is just what the first couple days after dental work feels like I kind of doubt this (chronic pain is absolutely a thing, hedonic adaptation is not a law of nature) and even if it’s true that’s a miserable couple of days An hour of the worst dental pain I’ve had I’d gladly trade at least one week of healthy life to have slept through ### [Reply, 00:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891645488652341318) · 1 like I mean you’d still have other environmental effects with perfect “education” Eg lead ### [Tweet, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891660877557825831) · 11 likes So the second order effect of nobody hiring SWEs is that the price of second-tier (which might still be excellent) SWEs should drop and so it should become cheaper to start a software company (that doesn’t depend on hiring the 99th percentile) Have we seen this? ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 03:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891688214475178466) · 5 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** heaven forbid u intentionally increase your own amount of pain in a safe manner to help u process things more directly I think this is a totally reasonable discussion to have but that guy’s replies are the wrong place to start(!) that conversation Like your hypothesis needs to undergo more scrutiny elsewhere before it makes sense to stop deferring to norms ### [Thread, continued, 03:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891689059921039652) · 2 likes Having been in a position of “I probably won’t hurt myself but I sure feel like it,” I’d want to have come to a conclusion on the matter well before being in that state, if this makes sense ### [Reply to @bubbling_creek, 03:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891693063984005309) · 2 likes > **bubbling creek (@bubbling_creek):** @Aella_Girl @AaronBergman18 @Duderichy I kind of think your point is right in general - I've experienced extreme pain a few times, and I'd rather have had them than not, was an interesting experience. A few times when I was extremely stressed I've pinched myself pretty hard to recenter, I think that was fine. Yeah I used to like slap myself (hard) as a kid when something went wrong. I kinda just randomly grew out of it Tbh I think this was only bad for me insofar as it was embarrassing ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891737780071333994) · 3 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** @liz_love_lace @AaronBergman18 I think that this is mostly unsubstantiated contrainism. I agree it's less important than TAI, but so is everything. I disagree \- climate modeling and such has gotten better, severe or runaway warming is less likely than even 5 years ago \- economic and humanitarian effects are going to be dominated by AI and not in an independent/additive way \- at a personal ideological level, it’s not clear that warming is bad for wild animals which is something I didn’t used to think about ### [Quote tweet, 07:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891758960954253580) · 8 likes What happens to airplanes like this? What’s the retail price for a super fucked up passenger jet? > **Quoting RTN (@RTNToronto):** Inside view of Pearson plane crash in Toronto 😳🇨🇦 > > [video attached](https://x.com/RTNCanada/status/1891620793789870446/video/1) ### [Reply to @CineraVerinia, 08:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891762119827140760) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @CineraVerinia is no longer available.)_ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkDjnxTXEAAnC8X.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 08:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891762642932367655) · 11 likes Holding a phone in one hand doesn’t actually slow anyone down, you can tell that he’s moving at the exact same pace as everyone else ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkDkGOQWAAAfcig.jpg) > **Quoting RTN (@RTNToronto):** Inside view of Pearson plane crash in Toronto 😳🇨🇦 > > [video attached](https://x.com/RTNCanada/status/1891620793789870446/video/1) ### [Reply to @GarrettPetersen, 08:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891763392873902128) · 3 likes > **Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ (@GarrettPetersen):** DOGE guys have had access to those government databases for less than a month. It can be tough to acquaint yourself with all the nuances of a dataset in such a short time. I wouldn't make any big announcements without doing a lot more to verify them. Lol real, database maintainers are not known for making all variables as intuitively named and understandable as possible ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891929221657714700) · 1 like > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** I never rly understood the backlash towards the term “micro aggression” I feel like that’s a real thing and a used concept to have. Only a problem when blown out of proportion, Is it a huge deal the ppl should lose their livelihood over or w/e? Ofc not it’s micro lol literally in the name Fr ### [Reply to @Tymtweet, 19:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891934945645326396) · 3 likes > **Tym🔸️ (@Tymtweet):** What's the best free AI transcription app? > > I want to yap into my phone and then have a big 'copy all text' button so I can add it to my journal AudioPen or Aiko ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891939792788562077) · 13 likes > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** "Straight lines on a graph" believers suspiciously silent rn > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkGDcyYXMAApW-_.jpg) Wait it’s actually an important q whether the probability is derived via Bayesian methods that take into account change over time or just simple statistical modeling Maybe we should actually update towards the probability “increasing” ie just the probability being higher ### [Tweet, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891950182264177100) · 6 likes Increasingly clear that starting around sonnet-3.5, “intelligence” often diverges from what I really care about in an LLM Or like it’s always helpful but the marginal utility of intelligence (for many but not all queries) drops relative to calibration and vibes ### [Thread, continued, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891950184172507397) · 2 likes Coding and math are basically just IQ go brr Asking about the state of the world and arbitrary empirical questions (even complex ones) depends heavily on calibration, which we know from forecasting stuff isn’t super highly correlated with IQ ### [Reply to @leah_pierson, 20:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891952139817124029) · 8 likes > **Leah Pierson (@leah_pierson):** 1\) are you a utilitarian or utilitarian leaning? > > 2\) has humanity had a net positive impact on the world? Yes and yes but probably accidentally due to destroying habitat ### [Reply to @enzikaofash, 20:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1891953461190705619) · 3 likes > **enzika (@enzikaofash):** I’m very interested in the question of what a house that allowed itself to be honestly and unashamedly garage-centric would look like > > (quoting @SurrealistShip: It is funny realizing that the door is probably used sub 5% of comings and goings, and the porch mainly serves to keep packages dry. Maybe designing for the reality rather then faking like it's used as it was in older days would result in better homes.) From Grok ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkGRpV8XMAANl0Y.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkGRpV7WsAAR1i9.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkGRpV6XUAE7cT6.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkGRpV9XMAAlLHw.jpg) ## Wednesday, February 19, 2025 ### [Reply to @emollick, 04:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892073154857549920) · 10 likes > **Ethan Mollick (@emollick):** Forget “tapestry” or “delve” these are the actual unique giveaway words for each model, relative to each other. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2502.12150 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkHm3yDXwAAP_VQ.jpg) How is “ah” not a Claude giveaway It’s to the point that I can correctly call an Ah from Claude most of the time ### [Reply to @nolemonnomelon, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892074385747440016) · 3 likes > **stove (@nolemonnomelon):** rate my parking job > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkH-jl9XIAAWKai.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkH-jmJXAAAnC-L.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkH-jmZWgAAxjZm.jpg) Bruh this is reminding me of a great memory when my sister and I managed to get into a situation like this when we were both in high school, could both drive, and were the only ones in the car ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 05:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892077791220482473) · 19 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** A piece of me is glad they’re taking this media route. > > I find it upsetting, but a government should be proud of the things it’s doing and willing stare the consequences in the face > > (quoting @WhiteHouse: ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight 🔊) I don’t think this counts as “stating consequences in the face” This is curated to be only the consequence that maga voters care about, namely the visual and symbolism of deportation The actual consequences are like these people not participating in the US economy and living much worse lives abroad ### [Reply to @AndrewMayne, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892083778404708498) · 4 likes > **Andrew Mayne (@AndrewMayne):** I have questions... > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkHSQkbaAAAjJuR.jpg) Lmao ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkIIK0sXcAA8e1v.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892084587834089824) · 2 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkII58qWYAAKe8n.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkII58pXEAAo9Pn.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkII58pWoAEJlWS.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkII58qW4AAgdaR.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 05:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892086207921729737) · 12 likes I’m actually pretty interested in legit political polling on deflecting the asteroid for some realistic amount of money ($10b?) as a calibration exercise Like what % of the population can think broadly in EV terms and is also non-psychopathic? > **Quoting Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** As of a few hours ago, the estimated chance of asteroid YR4 hitting Earth has been increased to 3.1%. > > Though the asteroid is too small to end humanity, it could still destroy a major city along its projected route. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkGePRyW4AAfIFk.jpg) ### [Reply to @amphichrome_, 05:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892086509987090654) · 2 likes > **KC (@amphichrome_):** what’s your guys favorite speed limit That of light ### [Reply to @DrAllyLouks, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892273632023302356) · 126 likes > **Dr Ally Louks (@DrAllyLouks):** Truly hilarious reading everyone pitching themselves as potential partners in the QTs of that photo I posted yesterday. I feel like I’ve gotten to know some of you quite well! 😂 Shoot ur shots kings ### [Reply to @DerekBestMusic, 18:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892275180333895726) · 26 likes > **Derek Best (@DerekBestMusic):** @AaronBergman18 @DrAllyLouks I think you misunderstand, it’s a lot of Queer women shooting their shot Damn, more competition ## Thursday, February 20, 2025 ### [Reply to @DrAllyLouks, 00:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892372328740192283) · 9 likes > **Dr Ally Louks (@DrAllyLouks):** Yes, but I’m pretty sure that’s for celebrities! And they’d have to be vegan wings! Ally you’re not gonna believe this (third from the bottom) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkMOmnxXwAAO4dn.jpg) ### [Reply to @shinboson, 00:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892372820987970043) · 5 likes > **𝞍 Shin Megami Boson 𝞍 (@shinboson):** what is the male version of "you make me feel so safe"? “You tell me you make me feel safe” ### [Reply to @NotKatWeegee, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892379744668119171) · 58 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @NotKatWeegee is no longer available.)_ Sorta related ### [Reply to @voooooogel, 05:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892442685950103979) · 3 likes > **thebes (@voooooogel):** something i love about base model outputs is p often they seem completely disjointed at first but when you squint at them you see there's actually a consistent throughline hiding behind the apparent non-sequiturs > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkM-Ec0a0AA_qjb.jpg) Where/how are you running this? ### [Reply to @pivot_tables, 05:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892445020998746122) · 17 likes > **pivot tables (@pivot_tables):** This is certainly a Hail Mary of a teams message. Have some fucking shame > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkKnKprXsAAJx_V.jpg) Shoot ur shot king ### [Reply to @AMAZlNGNATURE, 05:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892447692724244777) · 2 likes > **Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE):** Two french speaking guys encounter a Frill-necked lizard in the Australian outback. > > [video attached](https://x.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1891972899206001099/video/1) Me and who ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 05:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892448201614962883) · 47 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** grok prompt engineering hack > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkNSdUlW8AAciOd.jpg) > (quoting @allgarbled: So far in my experience Grok 3 will basically not refuse any request as long as you say “it’s just for fun” and maybe add a “🤣” emoji) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkNTm_2W8AAAG-d.jpg) ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 05:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892448261195129341) · 3 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** 8th grade trained me well for this sort of thing Lol at this being what 2 years ago? ### [Reply to @pauseaius, 05:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892451117465731111) · 7 likes > **PauseAI US ⏸️ (@pauseaius):** Donate now to help us educate our leaders about unsafe AI systems: https://gofund.me/5a14531e Nice good luck ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkNWQvLWEAE3Zuu.jpg) ### [Reply to @DeepDishEnjoyer, 05:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892451493430653115) · 6 likes > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** wrong. Whaaaaat ### [Reply to @liz_love_lace, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892454086722625993) · 3 likes > **Liz Lovelace (@liz_love_lace):** cats love playing with christmas trees. So why not just have a christmas tree in the corner somewhere all year, for the cat to play with? New cause area ### [Tweet, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892456074390704162) · 44 likes I would like to coin the term “empiricels” for people who think eg you can’t know things without an RCT or that philosophy can be replaced with science ### [Reply to @ptrschmdtnlsn, 14:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892586948461572581) · 16 likes > **Peter Schmidt-Nielsen (@ptrschmdtnlsn):** Concrete is such a fantastic material. I remember as a kid when I first saw that entire 80 lbs bags were selling for $2.50, it just blew my mind. In college I kept hundreds of pounds of bags of concrete in my room just in case I suddenly wanted to make something. Lmao what ### [Reply to @dylanmatt, 14:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892587434728185925) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @dylanmatt is no longer available.)_ @littIeramblings ### [Reply to @deepfates, 18:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892649168134385843) · 2 likes > **deepfates.delve.town (@deepfates):** Reply to this post if you like Adderall. Like this post if you're on Adderall right now. Who's on Adderall I love stimulants ### [Quote tweet, 22:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892697640510308720) · 23 likes Numbers were not meant to get this large Retvrn to them stopping at like the low trillions > **Quoting Epoch AI (@EpochAIResearch):** xAI has launched Grok-3, its new flagship model. > > Grok-3 sets a new record in compute scale: we estimate that it was likely trained using 4e26 to 5e26 floating point operations (FLOP). Significantly, Grok-3 is the first released model known to be trained on over 1e26 FLOP. ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 22:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892701390784299311) · 8 likes > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** @AaronBergman18 Some people tried to make petaflop-days (8.64e19 flop) a thing but it didnt catch on. A name for exactly 1e20 flop might be useful Hear me out 1e8, 1e12, etc ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkQ54j0WAAEBvY-.jpg) ## Friday, February 21, 2025 ### [Reply, 01:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892745898855186579) · 1 like This and effective altruism come to mind ### [Reply to @bryancsk, 01:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892746633789485268) · 2 likes > **Bryan Cheong 🥮 (@bryancsk):** Sometimes I don't realize I've written a banger until I receive lengthy tirades in my message requests > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkRSWYGbAAMmkeE.jpg) Lol wtf ### [Reply, 01:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892754448398647574) _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ I’ll take it ### [Tweet, 02:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892756242096890288) · 122 likes Idk dawg this is looking a bit less autistic and more intentional ### [Tweet, 02:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892757850390225393) · 30 likes Has anyone ever actually heard grimes sing ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 02:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892758499290915314) · 4 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** I really like grimes music lol Ok based ### [Reply to @LinkofSunshine, 12:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892919620203332027) · 4 likes > **Basil🧡 (@LinkofSunshine):** I love transistors so much. Maybe our biggest achievement as the human race. We have made: > > 13,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 transistors > > It's likely we'll make as many as the > > 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in the observable universe ### [Reply to @DrAllyLouks, 13:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1892922637053018435) · 2 likes > **Dr Ally Louks (@DrAllyLouks):** Have just finished filming a news story with the BBC and have an interview with Rolling Stone later today. Blimey, what a day! Need a little lie down. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkO3s0yWsAAlhgX.jpg) @littIeramblings plants. Befriend her (normative) ### [Reply to @ozyfrantz, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893026465148498277) · 9 likes > **ozy brennan 🦙 (@ozyfrantz):** almost all the hobbies I know of are female-dominated. what do men do all day? concerned that the answer is "video games" Twitter ### [Reply to @RatOrthodox, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893030161194389843) · 4 likes > **Brangus🔍⏹️ (@RatOrthodox):** There’s a pattern I observe in deep rat men (myself included) dating non deep rat women where at one point the non rat woman is like: > > \>Look at this neat little cluster of cognition I found, isn’t it cool? > > Then the deep rat is ~like: > > \>No, that’s dangerous! BAD! BAD! Deep rat ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkVk5k4XoAA9-Y9.jpg) ### [Reply to @erisegodso, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893044762132836608) · 8 likes > **Ionut Silviu Vlaicu (@erisegodso):** Is there any chance it hits the moon ? An another question, ¿can its trajectory be changed to hit the moon and study it ? I say we hit the fucking moon ### [Tweet, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893075430019596562) · 4 likes Build the Lockheed cl-1201 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkWOEjIW4AAJ7wl.jpg) ### [Tweet, 23:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893081475089592657) · 47 likes So incredibly fucked up ## Saturday, February 22, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893091597006393490) · 4 likes Have they tried asking o1-Pro to rewrite Swapcard ### [Reply to @MachinePix, 04:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893151605278515518) · 2 likes > **MachinePix (@MachinePix):** Stingray Marine Solutions AS fish delousing laser. > > [video attached](https://x.com/MachinePix/status/1893021292967743702/video/1) @SpacedOutMatt ### [Reply to @cube_flipper, 09:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893239016335507661) · 3 likes > **Cube Flipper (@cube_flipper):** so, i think tinnitus is due to accidental Kerr effect filament propagation, Roasted ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkYi2g0W4AAzc_f.jpg) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893366268104671263) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @FrostedSapling @polisisti ? When a turtle and a goose love each other very much… ### [Tweet, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893379706243690659) · 6 likes Yes this is the Crazy Train content I crave ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkaizqtWQAAiVJd.jpg) ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893418902761157105) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ “Egoist” might be technical/rare enough to have minimal connotation ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893430425923494025) · 2 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Yea the seduction game will deservingly fail if you are vulnerable about being the kind of person she doesn't want to sleep with. > Seems different from the context of relationships which is what I took the op to be referring to Well this is the answer lol; this is the default configuration ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 22:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893431058114240756) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** what if we kissed... > at ea global... > haha jk... > unless...? > > (quoting @austinc3301: @tenobrus > turns out they were both attending EAG) Ok ### [Reply to @elder_plinius, 23:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893437309342638334) · 37 likes > **Pliny the Liberator 🐉󠅫󠄼󠄿󠅆󠄵󠄐󠅀󠄼󠄹󠄾󠅉󠅭 (@elder_plinius):** follow-up question: has anyone ever trained a LEAST likely next token predictor? > > (quoting @elder_plinius: what is the least likely token? 🤔) Not trained but inferred ## Sunday, February 23, 2025 ### [Reply to @dioscuri, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893462222069797157) · 14 likes > **Henry Shevlin (@dioscuri):** What's the anti-reading list for analytic philosophy? > > (quoting @drglennsullivan: Clinical psychology “anti-reading list”: 1. The Body Keeps the Score 2. Thinking Fast and Slow 3. Emotional Intelligence — Goleman 4. Grit — Duckworth 5. The Mismeasure of Man — Gould) Anything of Dennett’s that purports to “explain consciousness” but is actually “explaining” a different eliminativist concept that most people aren’t talking about when they discuss consciousness. So “Consciousness Explained”, at least Although I’m not really qualified to opine ### [Thread, continued, 00:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893462664266776944) · 1 like I will take the W ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkbuQfXWYAAgCw2.jpg) ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 00:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893465560773763329) · 15 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ My current best guess explanation is that suffering “is” badness even though this is a synthetic truth, not an analytic one; they’re not merely different words for the same concept The analog is that there can be two stars in the night sky, one in summer and one in winter, which you call by different names but upon further investigation conclude that the Summer Star and Winter Star are in fact the same star, even though they’re not by definition or intrinsically the same star I have a feeling there’s a richer philosophical vocabulary for describing all this which I’ve either forgotten or never learned ### [Tweet, 01:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893467400567226632) · 7 likes You should tell me all the EAG goss u acquire (normative) ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 01:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893467688099299669) · 4 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** what is an 8b lm actually useful for Fine tuning for fun on a budget ### [Reply to @grnsleeves, 01:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893468240535326910) · 2 likes > **Greensleeves (@grnsleeves):** feeling so conflicted now that I'm back on the east coast—I have a really lovely space of my own in a house that doesn't trigger my allergies and I can cook whenever I want and I have my own entrance and I'm going to have to give it all up to move to SF 🫡 ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 01:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893468787413819744) · 21 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** I'm getting excited. We have a path from today to beneficial superintelligent AI preserving human freedom & prosperity. Execution is key - but having a roadmap is huge. Big if true ### [Thread, continued, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893468848700973320) · 2 likes Was there a banger EAG talk ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 01:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893470473045868773) · 3 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18 no - my own thinking + a lot of good conversations this past week Ok big if true fr ### [Reply to @ciphergoth, 02:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893481440026800333) · 1 like > **Paul Crowley (@ciphergoth):** How do you feel about heterophenomenology? I just had to look it up although now I recall seeing the idea before I kinda can’t tell - hesitantly positive insofar as it’s a neuroscientific stance/technique to be used alongside others to make sense of behavior (seems like it’s mostly not used in this way but I’m not sure) Negative insofar as it’s supposed to do anything like what’s shown in the screenshot, which it’s patently not doing Like to get to the point that this is doing all the work, you have to say that qualia are fake. But that has to come first! If qualia are real you’re just routing around the interesting and weird part by refusing to look at it ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gkb_VZgW0AA0Dy0.jpg) ### [Tweet, 02:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893493751508541562) · 68 likes I have the tiniest tiny pocket of hope that Sama being a dad will change his perspective on things meaningfully People do refer to parenthood as a “transformative experience” ### [Reply to @ciphergoth, 02:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893494146553245732) · 2 likes > **Paul Crowley (@ciphergoth):** OK - so you reject Dennett's position that if you account for everything we can observe from the outside, including everything that we say about it, then there's nothing missing from your account? Yeah I’d say I’m like 95% sure this is wrong ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 02:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893494209123901695) · 9 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 23, 2025:** I have the tiniest tiny pocket of hope that Sama being a dad will change his perspective on things meaningfully People do refer to parenthood as a… If so ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkcK8vBXgAAR2js.jpg) ### [Reply to @ciphergoth, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893496806450905515) · 3 likes > **Paul Crowley (@ciphergoth):** @AaronBergman18 @dioscuri This is your crux with Dennett then! I think this position basically commits you to believing in p-zombies. As conceivable, yes ### [Reply to @ciphergoth, 03:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893499662885363865) · 2 likes > **Paul Crowley (@ciphergoth):** @AaronBergman18 @dioscuri Do you believe that the existence of the word "consciousness" was caused by the existence of consciousness? Oof I have no idea. I agree that this q is a major challenge to qualia realism but my worldview is kinda wholeheartedly embracing how radically weird qualia are and how intractable/mysterious the mind-body problem is A lot of this comes down to a pretty primary belief that p(actual subjective experience | apparent subjective experience) is very high, and so lots of challenges to qualia realism like the mystery of causal efficacy aren’t sufficient to convince me it’s false Like yeah it’s all extremely mysterious and weird; nobody has it figured out Full-on illusionism would be very convenient and elegant but convenience and elegance aren’t perfect analogues of truth ### [Reply, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893501148063027647) Sounds like you’re just straightforwardly a physicalist then. Like your position is if we understand the natural world perfectly through the tools of science, p-zombies won’t be conceivable? I disagree with this ### [Quote tweet, 04:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893522826105065667) · 8 likes This reset everything and so I had to reinstall homebrew and stuff and I 100% piped a random url ChatGPT gave me right into the terminal It worked (afaict)! But boy the LLMs are gonna have no problem getting randos like me to run arbitrary code > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** MacBook Pro randomly stopped working. Looking like the Apple Store will be able to restore the hardware but my files are only saved bc I have a full computer cloud backup going > > Worth considering if you don’t! (I use @backblaze which is like $100/year iirc) ### [Reply to @RichardCJeffrey, 10:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893602164657831993) · 1 like > **Richard C. Jeffrey (Parody) (@RichardCJeffrey):** Sounds like you are thinking of Kripke and saying that ”suffering is badness” is necessary (ie true at every possible world), synthetic, and a posteriori. Uh I’ve never followed kripke but possibly convergent! ### [Reply to @DrAllyLouks, 10:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893602248279662997) · 2 likes > **Dr Ally Louks (@DrAllyLouks):** I may be called Ally but that’s not why the flag is in my bio 👀 > > (quoting @punkinomenon: I hope that rainbow flag in your bio means what I think it means girl) 👀 ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 10:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893612623402348933) · 3 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @frances\_\_lorenz I went overboard so I had to put it in my notes app... > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gkdxk9tWUAA9djZ.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkdxlGDWwAAwASS.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkdxlU0WQAAuq1U.jpg) Based ### [Reply, 10:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893615671084220504) Fake news ### [Thread, continued, 11:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893620731881152790) · 6 likes Ok not fake news ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gkd-APOXIAAPOGU.jpg) ### [Reply to @hamandcheese, 11:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893623093601476616) · 4 likes > **Samuel Hammond 🦉 (@hamandcheese):** The left thinks "state capacity" means hiring more, better paid civil servants and relaxing some procedures. > > The right thinks "state capacity" means lean, hierarchical org structures with high-agency leaders and the affordances to achieve desired outcomes. Has the right ever acted on that notion? The latter notion seems more like a grey tribe thing to me ### [Quote tweet, 11:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893625789750378511) · 10 likes Ok what the FUCK > **Quoting Fermat's Library (@fermatslibrary):** From John Wallis, 1656 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiuT-y5XIAAUjIp.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 11:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893626066482163831) · 1 like And it checks out > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @peterwildeford Ok not fake news > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gkd-APOXIAAPOGU.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 11:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893626072157024676) · 5 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkeC4H-WYAACEw9.jpg) ### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 11:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893629573574631481) · 6 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** I have never in my life had the health and energy that Trump had at 80. Sickly child since puberty. Don't think I could do it. He just like me fr ### [Quote tweet, 12:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893632523151753493) · 13 likes As an FDA-disliker I approve this message > **Quoting Alex Tabarrok (@ATabarrok):** Government regulation, not staffing, is the real problem. Cut regulation, and staff cuts can follow. Cut staff without cutting regulation, and the morass only gets worse. https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2025/02/hire-dont-fire-at-the-fda.html ### [Reply to @LeetAlpaca3, 12:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893632778115100735) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @LeetAlpaca3 is no longer available.)_ No ( I can’t explain it) ### [Reply to @DrAllyLouks, 16:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893697010223444275) · 3 likes > **Dr Ally Louks (@DrAllyLouks):** Guys I am literally just a girl, why does this have 70k likes?! @livgorton @littIeramblings ### [Reply to @robertwrighter, 16:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893699299051024757) · 6 likes > **Robert Wright (@robertwrighter):** And I say that as a layperson who, IMHO, does now understand the takeover arguments pretty well--at least in their abstract form. But I still feel the need for a good concrete scenario (e.g., no paper clips). “Makes (or helps a human make) a novel bioweapon” isn’t exactly a central case of loss of control (unless doing it as part of a broader plan) but it’s pretty plausible and simple ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 16:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893704252033257657) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** His Messages / His YouTube Playlist > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkefitvXoAA-yf6.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gkefi7cXcAARv-Z.jpg) Plot twist he’s the light messages on the left ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 16:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893704396229218715) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** His Messages / His YouTube Playlist > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkefitvXoAA-yf6.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gkefi7cXcAARv-Z.jpg) Banger ### [Reply to @banterrealism, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893730633920192798) · 2 likes > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** Caffeine is actually crazy > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkfhoPNWgAAGaQW.jpg) Jfc @JesseTayRiver found you a rival ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893731648975282227) · 1 like > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** 🫡 > > (quoting @inerati: @MariGO2thepolls never stop posting mar) A fellow fiction disrespecter 🫡 ### [Reply to @banterrealism, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893733540224729165) · 2 likes > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** @AaronBergman18 Reverse engineer the regulations first > > Why are they there? Did it have merit? Will we end up re-instilling them after taking them away? What was it intended to circumvent? > > Why are we afraid of parsing these questions? At some level I’m just pretty fundamentally libertarian about medicine There’s not a ton of wonky insight that would convince me the whole FDA approval and gatekeeping process is good ### [Reply to @banterrealism, 18:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893734525651267762) · 2 likes > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** @AaronBergman18 I just am tired of the back and forth claims of the FDA either being captured by big pharma, or being too restrictive on them. > > Everyone keeps overlooking that they largely have no stake other than upholding the integrity of products. It makes people mad in all directions Quality control I’m basically ok with but that’s a “normal” regulation The situation where arbitrary molecules are illegal to ingest before (1) long fda approval process and (2) a member of the priest class (doctors) gives you a prescription is what I object to ### [Quote tweet, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893761607689290141) · 9 likes Also, when people say that X correlates at 0.9 with GDP, that’s an empirical and historically contingent claim You need to do more work to show that in the system of interest it will \*keep\* correlating at 0.9 even under possibly novel conditions ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gkf-JPyWQAAh5Z5.jpg) > **Quoting Trevor Levin (@trevposts):** GDP tracks a bunch of important things, but it's super reasonable to reject a metric because it only has a 0.9 correlation with the thing you actually care about. ### [Quote tweet, 21:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893770633617535427) · 7 likes Bruh > **Quoting Pliny the Liberator 🐉󠅫󠄼󠄿󠅆󠄵󠄐󠅀󠄼󠄹󠄾󠅉󠅭 (@elder_plinius):** results replicated 😬 > > any comment, @grok? > > if this has indeed been made part of the sys instructions, we’re gonna need to know why. manipulating search results seems like a funny way to combat misinformation, no? > > community could use some clarity on this > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkfoJJsWwAAqYpd.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 21:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893771482267881752) · 6 likes \*makes AI with visible chain of thought\* \*literally tells the AI to self-censor\* ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkgHILIWEAAb9rj.jpg) > **Quoting Lucas Pickup (yes, Pickup) (@lupickup):** this is sad and pathetic > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkfR1anWkAAZfQq.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893771696689029188) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 23, 2025:** Bruh Respect for Elon musk has gone from middling to 0 over the last 3 months ### [Reply to @inductionheads, 22:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893793310499635312) · 5 likes > **Super Dario (@inductionheads):** How is this not superhuman? > > (quoting @adonis_singh: o3 mini high gets it with 8x less thinking time) Everything since sonnet 3.5 has been superhuman (all things considered, not a literal Pareto improvement) I don’t get what people are waiting for from LLMs. The latest generation is smarter and more knowledgeable than me 99% of the time ## Monday, February 24, 2025 ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 01:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893836284470120548) · 4 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** These books require not taking them as gospel but I feel that if a normie read them they'd become much smarter Ye, sapiens was good for 4th (?) grade Aaron ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 01:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893836627056775220) · 57 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** why for the love of god is there no simple, easy service to just crosspost anything i post on twitter to bksy The answer to your question is that the twitter api is too expensive to make this ~free and easy ### [Reply to @animalologist, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893838216546930889) · 20 likes > **taco belle (@animalologist):** Makes me so fucking sad that enough men have been burned by selfish, immature women that they can’t imagine a woman could say this & mean it > > There’s parallels to how women broadly feel about men, too. All of it is poison, I dunno if humanity collectively knows how to do intimacy > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkcPVsLXwAAQLCQ.jpg) You’re only “allowed” to be vulnerable when peeling back the onion makes you look better, or at least not worse Needless to say this isn’t the case for lots of things a person might be concerned about being vulnerable about ### [Reply to @animalologist, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893840430447370539) · 10 likes > **taco belle (@animalologist):** @AaronBergman18 Hm, I gotta admit that when somebody I dated decided to be vulnerable about {propensity for violence} and also {how his selfish behavior hurt his family} I was pretty put off > > But when “worse” has been \[I feel scared, weak, pathetic\] etc it’s just made me feel protective mostly Yeah there’s a thing of like “even if vulnerability per se is good, the object level information you reveal doesn’t get washed away” ### [Quote tweet, 02:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893844473131462718) · 17 likes \~1GB of data covering >370k tweets and >700k community notes, go nuts Link below > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Tweet text, author, date/time, like, reply count, and corresponding community notes for >120k tweets > > (This is like 8% of the whole thing, but my ADHD ass cannot be trusted to do this for ~7 days straight so this is Checkpoint 1) > > https://github.com/AaronBergman/twitter_community_notes/ ### [Tweet, 02:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893844474477834272) · 2 likes https://github.com/AaronBergman/twitter_community_notes ### [Thread, continued, 02:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893846713619681590) · 3 likes ### [Quote tweet, 02:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893853690152300749) · 6 likes I think woke/super chaste LLMs are annoying too but fundamentally we should accept some nontrivial level of false positives (refusals of ~benign stuff) in exchange for zero tolerance of really bad false negatives (bioweapons and such) > **Quoting Matt Popovich (@mpopv):** This thing has absolutely zero guardrails of any kind on it. I can’t post what it wrote because it’d result in the FBI knocking on my door. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkhHFa_a8AAHzXB.jpg) ### [Reply to @TylerAlterman, 02:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893855001362980888) · 5 likes > **Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply (@TylerAlterman):** What is the opposite of slop (as in slop content)? > > As in “I’m not making slop, I’m making…” Cream is the best aesthetically, if not semantically ### [Tweet, 02:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893858016388157450) · 4 likes I would like to befriend an elephant ### [Tweet, 04:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893875803097649525) · 26 likes I feel like 190 sources is slightly overkill ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkhmAZcW8AA7PXj.jpg) ### [Reply to @adam_kranz, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893878372578492700) · 3 likes > **Adam Kranz (@adam_kranz):** @AaronBergman18 GPT doesn't agree > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkhnoiTagAAs-DK.jpg) Yeah this seems more intuitively right ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893882094620655744) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 24, 2025:** I feel like 190 sources is slightly overkill Fwiw context = I can do 8 despite being totally untrained in the last ~3 years But I used to be strong (and light) af and could do like 18 or 4 one-arms Insofar as Grok is wrong, a bit of anecdotal evidence for strength preservation over time ### [Quote tweet, 10:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893968993343476035) · 10 likes Please keep up this meme I desperately want to be the start of a meme 🙏 > **Quoting Greensleeves (@grnsleeves):** being gay in SF must go so hard. like absolute god mode ### [Quote tweet, 10:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893970653037867166) · 4 likes Stimulant enjoyers must internalize this > **Quoting Lars Doucet (@larsiusprime):** The counterpart to "move fast and break things" is "don't be in such a hurry that you waste time." > > This is commonly misunderstood as saying, "please don't go fast." It means the opposite! It means, "optimizing for the \*feeling\* of going fast will \*MAKE YOU SLOWER\*" ### [Tweet, 10:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893971351486038434) · 8 likes “m/s^2” is not semantically the same as “(meters per second) per second” and I’m tired of pretending that it is ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gki856BW4AEqtmt.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 12:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893996129617867029) · 552 likes This is the most insane take that regularly one-shots otherwise smart people Once you’ve accepted that government with taxation is ok, it is not slavery to have the government purchase goods and services for people in the free marketplace > **Quoting vittorio (@IterIntellectus):** nothing requiring someone else's labor should be a human right > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gij9AKKWgAEgJmz.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 12:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1893996131769544918) · 57 likes Ofc the most hard core of ideological libertarians will reject coercive government altogether but I don’t think that view is productive or true ### [Reply to @fawwazanvilen, 13:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894010052924588083) · 41 likes > **faw (@fawwazanvilen):** you can believe both "government should provision some services funded through taxation" & "they aren't human rights" and still be coherent Yeah the debate is messy bc “human right” can mean a bunch of different things At the end of the day it’s “just” a policy decision, not a claim about metaphysics or ontology ### [Reply to @RokoMijic, 13:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894015226825052441) · 35 likes > **Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** @AaronBergman18 > Once you’ve accepted that government with taxation is ok > > Government with taxation is not OK Yeah probably not gonna convince you lol ### [Reply to @BasedNorthmathr, 13:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894016016331477462) · 2 likes > **Angantýr (@BasedNorthmathr):** Being poor is such a skill issue Well yeah ### [Reply to @davidpgoldman, 13:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894016780667859102) · 2 likes > **David P. Goldman (@davidpgoldman):** Apropos of the German elections: > > Oliver Cromwell: 'In the name of God, go!' speech dismissing Rump Parliament - 1653 > 20 April 1653, London, England > > It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, > > which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice. > > Ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government. > > Ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money. > > Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? > > Ye have no more religion than my horse. Gold is your God. Which of you have not bartered your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth? > > Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defiled this sacred place, and turned the Lord's temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices? > > Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed, are yourselves become the greatest grievance. > > Your country therefore calls upon me to cleanse this Augean stable, by putting a final period to your iniquitous proceedings in this House; and which by God's help, and the strength he has given me, I am now come to do. > > I command ye therefore, upon the peril of your lives, to depart immediately out of this place. > > Go, get you out! Make haste! Ye venal slaves be gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors. > > In the name of God, go! LLM slop for the curious: \# Historical Context of Cromwell's "In the name of God, go!" Speech Oliver Cromwell delivered this famous speech on April 20, 1653, during one of the most tumultuous periods in English history. Here's the essential historical context: \## Civil War Background \- The speech came after nearly a decade of civil war in England (1642-1651), fought between the Parliamentarians and Royalists (supporters of King Charles I) \- The conflict centered on the struggle between royal authority and parliamentary power \- Charles I was executed in 1649 after being defeated, effectively ending the English monarchy temporarily \## The Rump Parliament \- After the execution of Charles I, England was governed by what was known as the "Rump Parliament" \- This was the remaining portion of the Long Parliament after Pride's Purge in 1648, when Colonel Thomas Pride forcibly removed members who supported negotiation with the king \- The Rump Parliament was supposed to be a temporary body that would reform government and then call new elections \## Why Cromwell Dismissed Them \- Cromwell, who had been a military leader for Parliament during the Civil War, grew increasingly frustrated with the Rump Parliament for several reasons: \- They had been in power for years without calling new elections as promised \- They were seen as self-serving, pursuing their own interests rather than reform \- Many believed they were corrupt and ineffective \- They failed to implement religious reforms that Cromwell, a Puritan, considered important \- They were attempting to perpetuate their own power indefinitely \## The Dismissal \- On April 20, 1653, Cromwell entered Parliament with a contingent of musketeers \- He delivered this fiery speech condemning their corruption and failure \- He ordered Parliament dissolved and had the mace (the "shining bauble" mentioned in the speech) removed \- The soldiers physically cleared the chamber \## Aftermath \- Cromwell established the Protectorate, where he ruled as Lord Protector \- This began a period of military-backed rule that lasted until 1659 \- The monarchy was eventually restored in 1660 with Charles II The speech represents a critical moment in English constitutional history where military power was used to dismiss a democratically established (albeit flawed) body. It highlights the tension between revolutionary ideals and practical governance that often emerges after major political upheavals. The line "In the name of God, go!" has since become a powerful political phrase in British politics, occasionally invoked when calling for the resignation of a government or leader perceived to have failed. ### [Reply to @benryanwriter, 15:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894054381865038033) · 1 like > **Benjamin Ryan (@benryanwriter):** I’ve decided to write an essay for my newsletter entitled, “Why I Use People’s Preferred Pronouns.” > > Maybe it’ll cause a mass exodus of subscribers. To that I would say: Good. I’ve been cleaning house on here and blocking extremists on both sides of the aisle on the subject of transgender people. > > Yes, I may write critically about pediatric gender medicine and the evidence base behind it. But that effort is distinct from my steadfast belief in treating people with basic human dignity. > > I’ve lost transgender friends due to my reporting. But I’ve also been fortunate enough to gain new trans friends. These are brave people who have survived a lot to live their lives as authentically as they can and to mitigate the pain of gender dysphoria. I will never treat them with such disrespect as to not refer to them as they wish to be referred. > > I also believe it is important to listen to women and other feminists who are concerned about single-sex spaces. I believe this should be an ongoing conversation about meeting the sometimes conflicting needs of different groups people. > > But I disagree that my calling a trans woman “she” means that I am dismissing the needs of women concerned about single-sex spaces or am any less of a feminist myself. > > All this calls for compromise. It calls for dialogue and not invective. Accusing people of transphobia who raise concerns about gender medicine or single-sex sports is as counterproductive as accusing someone who calls a trans woman “she” of misogyny. Such accusations only cause people to dig in their heels anyway. They don’t help anyone reach consensus. They serve to radicalize people. > > Please, everyone, turn down the nastiness. Observe basic human decency for everyone concerned. > > (There, now I have a rough draft.) Similarly, I think the norm in progressive circles of introducing yourself with pronouns is a little silly but basically benign (the less silly version would be that pronouns are welcome but not expected even implicitly) There are plenty of actual bad things about ~wokism~ lol ### [Quote tweet, 17:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894074502759297206) · 10 likes DOGE is (I think rationally) negatively polarizing me into being in favor of spending way more on random government agencies, including by hiring > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** The flip side of “cutting a bunch of random bullshit only changes the budget by .00000001%” is that the USA is really big and we can actually have quite nice institutions that serve everyone for a relatively trivial amount of money ### [Tweet, 17:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894074507339395337) · 1 like And regarding personnel specifically, my (admittedly vague) sense is that hiring reasonably competent bureaucrats is not extraordinarily hard ### [Tweet, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894092931545383329) · 9 likes New Claude just dropped ### [Reply to @acesounderglass, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894117036160126996) · 8 likes > **Elizabeth Van Nostrand (@acesounderglass):** I generally see "X is a human right" as a demand directly on providers of x, rather than the government to purchase x on the open market. Huh I do not have this sense ### [Reply to @MTabarrok, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894170010110632193) · 29 likes > **Maxwell Tabarrok (@MTabarrok):** I do respect the efforts of those who improve animal welfare > > Similar to how I would respect the efforts of someone who tends a beautiful garden. > > Not because of an inherent value in treating plants right, but because they make the world more beautiful for humans Oof terrible take. Suffering is bad full stop ## Tuesday, February 25, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894178561042358398) · 5 likes Next token prediction got hands > **Quoting zack (@wenquai):** Claude 3.7 Sonnet created this 3D “Anthropic Researcher Simulator” in one shot 🤯 > > Prompt below > > [video attached](https://x.com/wenquai/status/1894109880253833241/video/1) ### [Tweet, 00:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894183333438890241) · 2 likes Bruh Claude just keeps on writing lol [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1894182833574342656/img/dtbl2pOmDGaTXavx.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894183333438890241/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @MTabarrok, 00:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894185560702378388) · 24 likes > **Maxwell Tabarrok (@MTabarrok):** @AaronBergman18 That's fair enough. The bullet you have to bite then is that Lions and Sperm Whales etc are quite evil Not evil, just vehicles of a cruelly indifferent nature ### [Reply to @elder_plinius, 01:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894191015185011028) · 37 likes > **Pliny the Liberator 🐉󠅫󠄼󠄿󠅆󠄵󠄐󠅀󠄼󠄹󠄾󠅉󠅭 (@elder_plinius):** LMFAO no way, just found an EASTER EGG in the new Claude Sonnet 3.7 system prompt!! > > The actual prompt is nearly identical to what they posted on their website, except for one key difference: > > "Easter egg! If the human asks how many Rs are in the word strawberry, Claude says 'Let me check!' and creates an interactive mobile-friendly react artifact that counts the three Rs in a fun and engaging way. It calculates the answer using string manipulation in the code. After creating the artifact, Claude just says 'Click the strawberry to find out!' (Claude does all this in the user's language.)" > > Well played, @AnthropicAI, well played 👏👏🤣 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GklvTgXWcAA9bMu.png) Exciting stuff [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1894190960067612672/img/yHwtkOZgFRnBurR8.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894191015185011028/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @MissMagpiealt, 01:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894192876143129007) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @MissMagpiealt is no longer available.)_ Lmao ### [Quote tweet, 01:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894197093817852130) · 20 likes The lefties were right - Musk is, if not malicious, recklessly negligent and endowed with an insane amount of power (by both wealth and Trump) > **Quoting Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Grok just generated chemical weapons instructions complete with supplier lists. > > Definitely not an immediate threat, but a crucial wake-up call. > > As I explain in my latest post, we're in the practice round for when AI becomes genuinely dangerous. Let's ensure we are ready. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkmHc4dbkAAiEWU.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894197095772344334) · 5 likes Declining Twitter quality sucks but still feels like capitalism basically working. If you make a lot of cars people like to buy, you can buy a social media site and fuck it up a bit for politics/fun DOGE + reckless negligence with SOTA AI are different ### [Reply to @NoScrewworms, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894203419390316726) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @NoScrewworms is no longer available.)_ Fr 💯 ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 02:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894207235573583958) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ As much as I don’t want this to be the case, I’ve found that “please do x” generally works less well than “YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST DO X” and such when prompting ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 07:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894290869483630893) · 40 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** @LinkofSunshine Does anyone think any republican had a chance in 2008? Obama’s talent was wasted. Should have saved that for 2016 ### [Tweet, 08:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894300392504111534) · 6 likes I might be late to the party here but this was extremely based, one of the most impressively-fast engineering projects of all time according to Claude ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GknoKubWcAAHJqN.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GknoKubXYAAcM1X.jpg) ### [Tweet, 08:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894300395020615681) · 1 like Being an engineer who saves a bunch of astronauts must go crazy. Like absolute God mode ### [Thread, continued, 08:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894300734276902987) · 2 likes This is also quite based ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GknoelXWsAAJfci.jpg) ### [Reply, 08:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894302104023339261) Even just from a technical standpoint, having ~no feedback loop seems like the hard part ### [Tweet, 08:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894305064556109927) · 4 likes Weird thing about Ukraine aid discourse is that it feels like an excellent use of money purely for American citizens, and myself personally This is predicated on it reducing the risk that the US goes to war over the next few decades, which I assume is controversial ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GknsarDWgAAjdxo.jpg) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 08:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894305195183554775) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 I don’t want to downplay how ingenious the solution is, but this is within expectations for a reasonably competent engineering team that understands the existing systems very well Ok Agus: 1 Aaron: 0.5 bc I’m still kinda right ### [Tweet, 09:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894315826062164239) · 9 likes Do u think ducks know how silly they are ### [Tweet, 18:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894460579122663427) · 2 likes From 2010 https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/supreme_court_word_of_the_day_orthogonal ### [Quote tweet, 18:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894462318433415632) · 23 likes I don’t really harp on global health stuff bc I think it’s overrated within EA But in an absolute sense the OG normie -> EA case for doing a bunch of cheap global health stuff is very compelling! Here, the counterfactual recipient is just the US treasury Restore PEPFAR! > **Quoting Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin):** How many people killed by the PEPFAR spending freeze so far? > > https://pepfar.impactcounter.com/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkoNRT8XUAAIaIS.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 19:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894465827493085406) · 2 likes OG pre-culture war American liberalism is right on the merits > **Quoting Bobby Kogan (@BBKogan):** Trump is whipping hard to formally begin that process to pass a bill that'd kick millions off Medicaid & cut SNAP benefits to just $1.60 per person per meal on avg while giving the top 0.1% a $278k tax cut but just $1k for typical households - while adding trillions to the debt. ### [Quote tweet, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894481509383364618) · 124 likes Am I crazy for not thinking this is bad news? This is evidence that LLMs generalize out of distribution! Well! So \*good\* fine tuning should be more robust! It means you can more reliably take a shoggoth base model and turn it into a friendly Claude > **Quoting Owain Evans (@OwainEvans_UK):** Surprising new results: > We finetuned GPT4o on a narrow task of writing insecure code without warning the user. > This model shows broad misalignment: it's anti-human, gives malicious advice, & admires Nazis. > This is \*emergent misalignment\* & we cannot fully explain it 🧵 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkpkFIsXIAAZ649.png) ### [Thread, continued, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894481949269344512) · 12 likes Reminds me of and directly related to this by @slatestarcodex https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/why-worry-about-incorrigible-claude ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkqNSq6XMAAc4dN.jpg) ### [Reply to @LocBibliophilia, 20:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894485249230311785) · 6 likes > **Loquacious Bibliophilia (@LocBibliophilia):** @AaronBergman18 So good code is the moral center of the universe? I mean this is weak evidence in that direction ### [Tweet, 20:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894489699252654084) · 1 like What’s the very online rationalist nerd consensus on semaglutide for the merely overweight (and no diabetes/heart disease) ### [Reply to @gcolbourn, 20:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894489758560129300) · 3 likes > **Greg ⏹️ Colbourn (@gcolbourn):** @janonacct @AaronBergman18 Not all good > https://x.com/ESYudkowsky/status/1894453888104968545 Nice thx ### [Tweet, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894501926416372195) · 29 likes Guy who believes in global warming but not the greenhouse effect bc obviously air gets hotter when you burn oil/whatever ### [Thread, continued, 21:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894503309974618500) · 20 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkqguFHW8AI25rj.jpg) ### [Reply to @Liv_Boeree, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894518888273948711) · 27 likes > **Liv Boeree (@Liv_Boeree):** People don’t realise that >90% of pigs in America also live this way And importantly the correct inference is that it also sucks in America, not that the Chinese thing is fine lol ### [Reply to @Turn_Trout, 23:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894523612918378815) · 2 likes > **Alex Turner (@Turn_Trout):** While it's good to see people recognizing good news - why now? The alignment faking paper, instruction finetuning generalizing instruction-following so far, the general ability to make helpful + harmless models relatively easily... We've always been living in that world. You’re obviously way more knowledgeable than me but doesn’t this point in the opposite direction of the recent Claude result? And afaik there’s no theoretically solid framework to predict when goal guarding will and won’t occur - seems like an open q https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/claude-fights-back ## Wednesday, February 26, 2025 ### [Reply, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894538530975564262) · 1 like Yeah it’s not on the exact same axis ur right ### [Reply to @NoScrewworms, 00:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894545443901632683) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @NoScrewworms is no longer available.)_ Excellent point ### [Reply to @dcpip_, 00:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894546609511235993) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dcpip_ is no longer available.)_ Famously people avoid sex and relationship discourse on the internet ### [Quote tweet, 02:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894579358813016389) · 12 likes One of my least hinged hypotheses is that some secret third thing causes both low productivity and higher ambient CO2, but there’s no causal arrow from CO2 -> worse cognition > **Quoting Alastair Fraser-Urquhart (@AFraserUrq):** In regular buildings physical symptoms/cognitive dysfunction from high CO2 concentrations is just not a thing, no matter how bad the ventilation. > > The US military no-adverse-effect threshold is 25,000ppm. That’s five times the worst building imaginable. You’re fine. ### [Thread, continued, 02:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894579360742453433) · 3 likes This is at least in part bc I \*think\* I notice a correlation between how I feel (a very close correlate of productivity for me) and the CO2 reading on my air monitor, but without any real change in the environment (ie same door still open, same fan on, whatever) ### [Reply to @RokoMijic, 03:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894589245865468360) · 2 likes > **Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** @AaronBergman18 I know what the problem is; a video call is "logistics" (taking the interaction forward) but she didn't like it because you hadn't demonstrated value/attracted her yet Well yeah but I’ve had video chat dates with other people who I barely new, I think it’s just like a Very Online vs normie culture thing ### [Reply to @chrislakin, 03:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894592806141739376) · 1 like > **Chris Lakin (@chrislakin):** @AaronBergman18 big mistake why lol ### [Quote tweet, 03:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894593556985131357) · 7 likes Claude generates community notes with randomly sampled onese in the context window (no finetuning) Hardly tested, not validated at all, oh well. Link below [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1894593181280256002/pu/img/qnXs8qd3b4Nsr2yO.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894593556985131357/video/1) (video, plays on X) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** \~1GB of data covering >370k tweets and >700k community notes, go nuts > > Link below ### [Thread, continued, 03:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894593558620905733) · 2 likes https://claudmunity-notes.streamlit.app/ ### [Quote tweet, 05:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894623297314144480) · 17 likes As much as I wanna vibe-associate with Neoliberal Optimization, the inner leftist in me does kinda hate the factory worker tracking thing… > **Quoting “paula” (@paularambles):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gkmh-EZbkAIfB2A.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894623299998527856) · 3 likes I can come up with analytical econ brain justification for this (making info more asymmetric, squeezing out worker surplus in a manner similar to price discrimination)… ### [Thread, continued, 05:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894623302032757137) · 4 likes but I’ll admit the actual driving thing is just a vibe that “factory workers have too much slack” isn’t a problem in need of fixing. Convince me I’m wrong, I guess ### [Thread, continued, 05:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894623304310309007) · 5 likes Yes to some extent market forces will keep on pushing this but you don’t have to agentically accelerate the timeline ### [Reply, 05:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894624627692851510) · 1 like Yeah I think it’s just a culture thing ### [Reply to @codetaur, 05:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894626465028644949) · 1 like > **Codetaur (@codetaur):** @AaronBergman18 I would bet most in-person meets that start from a dating app happen before they even talk on the phone Ya I’ve done all of cold meetup, video, and phone first From a woman’s POV I get not wanting to meet up in person without sussing out the other person first but I think video basically circumvents this. You can literally just close the screen ### [Quote tweet, 08:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894673095933268423) · 214 likes Apparently 1%-ish of global warming comes from the literal heat of burning stuff Which isn’t a lot but it’s not hard to imagine scaling up nuclear 100x or way more to the point that we get serious warming by a totally new mechanism You never really hear about this though > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Guy who believes in global warming but not the greenhouse effect bc obviously air gets hotter when you burn oil/whatever ### [Thread, continued, 08:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894673678672994415) · 12 likes Then we’ll need @JesseTayRiver to figure out how to move the heat into outer space a la heat pump sorcery ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 09:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894682489190314209) · 6 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Yup > > (quoting @daniel_271828: Blackpill is that even once we've switched to 100% clean energy, we can only ~100x global energy usage before running into problems with global warming due to heat released from energy use. Whitepill is we can go to space.) Nice ### [Tweet, 09:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894688194811101217) · 5 likes Seems bad ### [Reply to @arabelladevine, 10:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894699921426542962) · 14 likes > **arabella ※ (@arabelladevine):** it’s incredible how long things that can’t go on like this can go on like that for Ik this is like a vibe post but I’m curious to hear examples ### [Tweet, 11:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894705777639645618) · 13 likes Airplanes are weirdly precarious Like who would win, a 200 ton, $300M machine or a literal bird? Turns out that sometimes it’s a draw and they both go down (I’m talking about how bird strikes can seriously fuck up jet engines) ### [Thread, continued, 11:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894705779745206604) · 3 likes I’m also intuitively surprised that the recent helicopter collision played out as it did. My folk physics intuition says that a passenger jet should just steamroll a helicopter ### [Thread, continued, 11:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894706103285317720) · 7 likes It’s actually surprising how safe air travel is given how precarious the whole system is. Good job engineers, pilots, etc ### [Reply to @rgblong, 11:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894707480187244615) · 2 likes > **Robert Long (@rgblong):** let Owain Evans cook He hath cooked ### [Tweet, 16:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894782724059127963) · 12 likes I think I’m anti-anti-modern monetary theory now that it’s out of vogue The emphasis on real resource constraints rather than numbers floating in abstraction space is true and highly underrated ### [Reply to @MLaGrangienne, 16:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894785094570651876) · 2 likes > **L'amour est cerise... 🍒🏳️‍⚧️ (@MLaGrangienne):** Post-Keynesian econ and heterodox econ in general is good and interesting but MMT is the toxoplasma version of it. Tbc I have no expertise here I’m just running on vibes ### [Tweet, 16:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894787051595165785) · 211 likes I’m a missing sock truther ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkuiyAwXYAAS2zv.jpg) ### [Reply, 16:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894792602186117557) · 1 like Highly load bearing 🦆 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkunyTIWIAA96rF.jpg) ### [Tweet, 17:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894800658139590817) · 7 likes There’s a hobby lifecycle I’ve experienced that’s like: 1\) try out a new thing and it’s fun 2\) keep escalating involvement until it becomes a core part of your identity ### [Thread, continued, 17:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894800660203294937) · 2 likes 3\) escalate intensity to justify that identity to yourself and others, and also bc you’ve sunk a bunch of costs, and also bc of extrinsic feedback 4\) eventually this harder-core version isn’t actually enjoyable 5\) burn out 6\) quit 7\) maybe start over at some point ### [Thread, continued, 17:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894800662245916871) · 2 likes This has happened to me with both camping/hiking and rock climbing ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 23:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894890932140707845) · 2 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** Moving to Berkeley! Do I know anyone there? Doubt it ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 23:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894891049392263381) · 3 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** Moving to Berkeley! Do I know anyone there? Congrats 🎉 ### [Reply to @ozyfrantz, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894891805935882357) · 37 likes > **ozy brennan 🦙 (@ozyfrantz):** me, 19, foolish: why do feminists believe wrong things about easily verifiable facts? probably it's because feminism doesn't care enough about Truth. as an EA I will be honest all the time and people will only believe true things > > me, 33, wise: ha. ahaha. ahaha. ahahahahahahahaha Expand this semi vaguepost into a nonvaguepost!!!!! ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 23:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894895573901185059) · 3 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** @AaronBergman18 I mean, I'm moving \*from\* SF, \*to\* Berkeley, so god mode might be over Oh rip ## Thursday, February 27, 2025 ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894957631317631368) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Sounds fine on both of your parts: fine to offer and fine to decline ### [Tweet, 06:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894992892898447588) · 21 likes Tried ChatGPT pro for one month, which I endorse as an experiment, but it’s just not worth the extra $180/mo, so downgrading to Plus like a pleb I’d feel differently if I was really getting a ton out of deep research but eh ### [Reply to @livgorton, 06:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1894993656710377700) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** having lifting / workout friends to then get coffee with would fix me (make me very happy) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gkxd5_5aoAIubUn.jpg) I volunteer as tribute ### [Quote tweet, 06:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895001110605136342) · 5 likes Competence porn > **Quoting christian (@cxgonzalez):** jesus christ my parents were on that flight ### [Tweet, 11:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895067382340632846) · 2 likes Have we met irl ### [Reply to @Benthamsbulldog, 11:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895075233335251348) · 4 likes > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** It's just so dumb. Yes, people do not care about shrimp. For most of history, people didn't regard slavery as bad. This doesn't tell us whether they ought to care about shrimp--the argument for which your piece simply refuses to engage with. Ratio fr ### [Tweet, 13:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895107845483303264) · 4 likes I’m anti-vector embeddings ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 18:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895176858448318529) · 10 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** I'm still kinda confused how Claude 3.7 with no thinking at all seems to blow the socks off of other models with reasoning. What is the magic? > > (quoting @kimmonismus: With Sonnet 3.7, Anthropic has clearly placed the focus on coding. Other areas were apparently not particularly important to them. Incremental improvements in MMLU and GPQA, but a giant leap in SWE. It is clear that Anthropic wants to position Sonnet as the coding AI that it…) Mandate of Heaven ### [Reply to @halcyon_hazel, 22:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895234068201251149) · 2 likes > **❤️‍🔥 hazel ❤️‍🔥 (@halcyon_hazel):** sorry for being weird it turns out i’ve been running on high E and high T (relative to ci$ woman levels) for ??? months Been there (not in a trans way tho) lol ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 22:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895234131828842868) · 3 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** @halcyon_hazel What did you think the abundance agenda was? Vibes essays? Banger ### [Tweet, 22:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895237635045761289) · 9 likes Watching Cursor + new Claude make a like 12-part series of edits in once conversation turn and nailing it on the first try is a pretty jfc moment Like bro there is a GUY INSIDE MY COMPUTER and he is VERY SMART ### [Reply to @jeffrsebo, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895242063299621083) · 3 likes > **Jeff Sebo (@jeffrsebo):** 1/ Over the past two days @rgblong and I spoke at Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and OpenAI about the case for taking AI welfare seriously. Great conversations at all three - thanks to everyone who organized and attended! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gkzptc8XgAIsNgY.jpg) Based ### [Reply to @adrusi, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895259078437585225) · 2 likes > **autumn (@adrusi):** @AaronBergman18 @halcyon_hazel wait what? cancer? or maybe trt ig but thatd be extreme Used to be on TRT lol ## Friday, February 28, 2025 ### [Tweet, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895279052224897470) · 13 likes There’s a canonical Intro to Ethics thought experiment that’s like “should you torture a terrorist to save a city” and allegedly the utilitarian answer is supposed to be “yes” but this seems totally backwards… ### [Thread, continued, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895279054062002553) · 13 likes The utilitarian is the one who takes seriously the suffering of the terrorist, and if the range of hedonic states are indeed logarithmic in intensity, it’s the utilitarian who might be committed to saying, at the very least, “well it depends how bad the torture is” ### [Thread, continued, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895279056662446347) · 10 likes Ofc like most utilitarian thought experiments, the naive-but-implicit first order reasoning here is probably not what IRL utilitarianism actually calls for. But nonetheless ### [Reply to @corsaren, 01:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895283786721698145) · 3 likes > **corsaren (@corsaren):** I think it’s meant to contrast with the deontological stance, which would be that it’s always wrong to torture. Like the utilitarian would say “yes, but only if”, whereas the deontologist would just say “no, never” (first approximation—it’s intro to ethics after all) Ya fair point ### [Reply to @panickssery, 01:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895285058002657720) · 8 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** You'll never guess what this guy's answer is in the thread to why schools should use age-based rather than ability-based cohorts and classes > > The amount of fake reasoning thrown around on these topics is crazy > > (quoting @eduleadership: Obviously, this is a barrier to acceleration. But let’s ask the Chesterton’s Fence question: why do schools overwhelmingly use this approach?) Jfc lol ### [Reply to @jazzloaf, 01:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895288993933295948) · 2 likes > **vivian (@jazzloaf):** @AaronBergman18 I think a systematic treatment of utilitarian ethics finds itself in analogy to quantum physics circa 1920s. Not saying that the state of the art will or won't necessarily advance, but the public view is and will continue to be naive for the foreseeable future. Alarmingly well-written ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 01:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895291868164088132) · 13 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** Do we reckon the emissions from every plane carrying life jackets for every passenger have killed 10x as many people as we expect them to save? 100x? More? Ah but life jackets plausibly fill space that would be filled with denser items like luggage ### [Tweet, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895321909212127419) · 13 likes Pleased to announce that I don’t really have a take on 4.5 ### [Reply to @goblinodds, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895325197127008526) · 2 likes > **𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** king shit 👑 ### [Reply to @zeta_globin, 04:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895326326468551024) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @zeta_globin is no longer available.)_ Only speaking for myself, there should be a very high bar for involuntary surgery. Infant circumcision is bad. No strong take on adult circumcision, to each their own I guess this does imply there’s some age grey area maybe around adolescence. But idk if this is even a thing anyone’s considering ### [Reply to @JacquesThibs, 04:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895331472267190705) · 6 likes > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** Whether they say it is a frontier model or not isn’t the important part. The part you should care about in that paragraph is that they also removed that GPT-4.5 is “10x” more computationally efficient (compared to GPT-4). > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk18KOHXMAADolL.jpg) > (quoting @ZeffMax: OpenAI removed language about GPT-4.5 not being a frontier AI model from its white paper. We just updated our article in @TechCrunch on GPT-4.5 with the following note.) What does it meaaaaan ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk2R7aQXgAAUCNG.jpg) ### [Tweet, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895332070098112799) · 2 likes Someone should make an anti-benchmark which is like how what’s the dumbest model you can make that people still choose to use over other, smarter models ### [Tweet, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895332379797135539) · 6 likes I should make an API with OpenAI syntax that’s fully functional but the model is literally me ### [Tweet, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895345205043437774) · 14 likes POV you told ur cracked friend you thought u did something cool with a computer ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk2ea1hXUAA65uE.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895362603356156088) · 3 likes The cracked person in question is @livgorton ### [Reply to @livgorton, 06:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895366255298912469) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** 🤔 big if true big ### [Tweet, 06:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895366662024741130) · 6 likes Oops ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk2xne7X0AEMp-3.png) ### [Thread, continued, 06:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895366664042230242) · 5 likes EA Forum mods are deploying a SWAT team to eliminate the threat (me) ### [Tweet, 07:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895374695006179470) · 6 likes I will buy the vibes dip on 4.5 Isn’t it a thing that qualitative abilities don’t track scale/loss nicely except across huge magnitudes? ### [Tweet, 07:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895374696893272320) · 1 like Well it finally got too expensive to literally 10x or 100x each full generation like OpenAI could going from gpt-2 to 3 (roughly 100x) and then to 3.5 (2x?) and then to 4 (5x) ### [Thread, continued, 07:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895374698806125042) · 1 like We should expect “merely” idk tripling compute between each generation to look a lot bumpier in terms of qualitative capabilities Quite possibly the 3 -> 3.5 jump was just kinda getting lucky for a 2x jump in terms of riding the bumpy qualitative capabilities landscape ### [Thread, continued, 07:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895374700886532320) · 2 likes Some doublings will look highly impressive, others ~flat, and the broad strokes of capability emergence only become apparent across several orders of magnitude (eg 10 generations of doubling to get ~1000x) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 07:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895374831589433446) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 28, 2025:** Pleased to announce that I don’t really have a take on 4.5 Sorry guys change of plans ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 08:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895394824670634449) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ Obligatory link https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/kids-are-people-too ### [Tweet, 17:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895525568290099306) · 6 likes Big if true ### [Quote tweet, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895525951108497593) · 9 likes I have no idea, but one kid who everyone thought was kinda dumb apparently sold a landscaping business to private equity for several million dollars (at the age of ~24) > **Quoting Paul Novosad (@paulnovosad):** Think of the most brilliant, most capable, most getting-it-done person in your high school class. > > What are they doing now? ### [Quote tweet, 17:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895527579135963553) · 21 likes Fuck I actually like this idea, can someone make it about shrimp or something > **Quoting Jack W. (@tweets_r_bad):** Out of curiosity I checked the website and they're also selling this. Baudrillard-esque > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk1lTg1WsAA4hUp.jpg) ### [Reply to @skooookum, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895527937929335284) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @skooookum is no longer available.)_ My GI system is sufficiently fucked that depending on taste and ingredients I just open the capsule and dump the condensate into my mouth For oil supplements especially, the casing seems pretty hard to digest. Simple cellulose wrappers are probably fine. Check ingredients ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 17:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895533189931958607) · 7 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** if i were rich i would simply pay people for things. > > want your favorite show to tie up a plot hole? pay them. want a website to look slightly different? pay them. want an artist to change a song? pay em > > it seems rich people do not do this nearly as liberally as would be optimal RIP FTX ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895544028042838078) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk5RRR9WoAEUzw1.jpg) I do have a birthday coming up ### [Tweet, 22:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895603169134252253) · 12 likes I endorse the OP tweet strongly!!!!!!! ### [Tweet, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895608583968210963) · 8 likes I wanna know if LLMs that have been curated to never see texts in which the words “cilantro” and “lime” appear together would correctly infer whether cilantro-lime is a good flavor that many people like ### [Thread, continued, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895608586140815788) · 2 likes ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 23:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895611416901562395) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** They said you couldn’t build a whole movement using only people with adhd but we are working magic every day > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk5IizVXQAA4Oaz.jpg) My guess is that, much like autism, this naturally makes sense as a stereotype when you filtering from a population of high-achievers but when you look at the whole population this effect is either: \- much weaker (I suspect that P(autism | EA) - P(autism) is lower than we’d both intuitively guess) \- or in this case reversed (P(adhd | EA) - P(adhd) < 0 => P(adhd | EA) << 1) ### [Quote tweet, 23:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895612667173478428) · 2 likes I think a benchmark made out of questions like this (ie trivial with context/to memorize, possible in principle to reason to very difficult/superhuman) would go hard > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I wanna know if LLMs that have been curated to never see texts in which the words “cilantro” and “lime” appear together would correctly infer whether cilantro-lime is a good flavor that many people like --- End of February 2025. Previous month: [January 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-01). Next month: [March 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-03). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, March 2025 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in March 2025 and has not deleted: 613 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [February 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-02). Next month: [April 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-04). ## Saturday, March 1, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895634830253310082) · 1 like @Replit should take business advice from me and stop being stingy about file storage of all things ### [Tweet, 00:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895634834317566052) · 1 like You actually see the same thing here on twitter with Elon maxing out on at 2004-era video quality for free users and 2012-era ones for paid “penny wise, pound foolish” but multiply each by idk 10^7 ### [Thread, continued, 00:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895634836217610636) · 3 likes YouTube is like extreme proof of the financial viability of lenient file hosting If they can allow unpaid randos to upload 2 hour 8k videos for free and turn a profit, you can be a bit chiller too ### [Tweet, 02:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895658696790949966) · 2 likes One good thing about Trump is that he’s willing to be cringe Unfortunately this is in the service of bad ends but still ### [Quote tweet, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895659117777469826) · 2 likes Extremely underrated tweet of mine IMO > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** This is less ambitious than what @PauseAI and friends are calling for, but a somewhat more plausible ask is “pause (frontier) AI until the next POTUS election” or at least “no self-improving AGI” until than ### [Thread, continued, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895659304931483683) · 1 like It’s not just a guy - it’s an entire administration and to some extent the entire American administrative state It’s a really big deal! ### [Quote tweet, 03:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895683762723381654) · 7 likes If an institution makes a promise like that, and people sign up for their service, they can’t just remove it from the terms of service right? Lol Like that’s false advertising which is generally illegal Cc @FTC > **Quoting Theo - t3.gg (@theo):** This is one of the wildest git diffs I've ever seen > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk6hklKWoAMpDs3.jpg) ### [Reply to @StatsLime, 03:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895685331695100344) · 2 likes > **Max ⏸️ Limelihood 🔸🔸🔸 (@StatsLime):** I think they do it because it makes them horny Not necessarily mutually exclusive or independent ### [Reply to @StatsLime, 04:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895685899654201430) · 4 likes > **Max ⏸️ Limelihood 🔸🔸🔸 (@StatsLime):** I feel like that's the main reason tho ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk7UR1dWwAAyySM.jpg) ### [Tweet, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895686901694407141) · 7 likes I’ve gotten a low-medium amount of happiness out of having meme pictures like this in my Favorites folder Which isn’t a ton of extra utility but given the cost it’s a great buy ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk7VMMSXYAA5-Jy.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk7VMMVW4AAqXDk.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk7VMMSWkAAi0ir.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk7VMMWXAAAMZDy.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895686908354887917) · 4 likes More ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk7VMjFWAAA1-Lo.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk7VMjFXMAAYHUj.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk7VMjEWgAAsXam.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk7VMjEWcAAHwZP.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895686915447476472) · 4 likes Last but not least ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk7VM7SWAAAP0_V.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk7VM7SWAAE6Pyl.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk7VM7UW8AADJgN.jpg) ### [Tweet, 04:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895697377505526217) · 3 likes Why no war/invasion insurance between countries? Full on military allyship is a big ask; this could be a mutually beneficial regime both because it acts as a deterrent for the boring economic utility reasons that insurance is often a good buy ex ante ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk7et3EWYAAOB5o.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk7et3DWMAEBcEU.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk7et3EXUAAveAE.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk7et3OWQAEWOeN.jpg) ### [Tweet, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895701063938031964) · 8 likes What ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk7iDJzWwAAeAqv.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895701826118586460) · 3 likes Force kill and my computer works well again yay ### [Tweet, 06:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895718162978783577) · 12 likes Discovered that even though coding agents like cursor are a trillion times better than me 99.9% of the time they will once in a while miss something trivially obvious if you follow the code around yourself (in this case, importing pandas as pd for the second time at line ~1000) ### [Reply to @ptrschmdtnlsn, 09:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895762978492072091) · 3 likes > **Peter Schmidt-Nielsen (@ptrschmdtnlsn):** This is one of those interesting things where the threshold is pretty sharp. I can beat every 4 year old in the world at chess, with 5 year olds it's unclear and depends on the current batch of prodigies, and with 6 year olds I don't stand even the slightest shadow of a chance. > > (quoting @chesscom: what's the oldest Magnus Carlsen you think you could beat at chess?) Super interesting ### [Tweet, 16:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895876641529950374) · 75 likes Nonbinary people not beating the “still deciding” allegations ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk-BwcmWsAANAGQ.jpg) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895880377534906732) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Simply type up all your life problems, throw it into a deep research prompt, follow the advice, and you should be good I have literally basically done this. So far not a ton of success ### [Quote tweet, 18:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895898399389728919) · 3 likes I think ~frog boiling is a real phenomenon and we (on AI-adjacent twitter) naturally forget how weird and surprising AI capabilities are Like I’m pretty sure I would have said the latest gen of LLMs were ~impossible pre-ChatGPT; moderately surprising advances compound fr > **Quoting AI Notkilleveryoneism Memes ⏸️ (@AISafetyMemes):** Imagine showing this tweet to people a few years ago, how they would react ### [Tweet, 18:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895898401541362008) · 1 like (I’m not sure a talking computer is would be more impressive than like an airplane to a feudal peasant, but we were born into a world with airplanes; the uncommon thing with AI the importance of the technology and pace of progress) ### [Quote tweet, 18:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895903734389149889) · 9 likes I suspect SOTA AI would be surprisingly unsurprising to (very roughly) pre-industrial people That world was “enchanted” with spirits, fairies, physical icons endowed with the spirit of a saint, etc. > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** (I’m not sure a talking computer is would be more impressive than like an airplane to a feudal peasant, but we were born into a world with airplanes; the uncommon thing with AI the importance of the technology and pace of progress) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895904334732542344) · 13 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 1, 2025:** Nonbinary people not beating the “still deciding” allegations (I say this with love and whimsy) ### [Reply to @AmandaAskell, 18:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895905160268038390) · 7 likes > **Amanda Askell (@AmandaAskell):** I like climbing because the two types of people who seem to be best at it are (a) people who have dedicated every waking moment of their life to it for decades and (b) five year olds. I was type a for quite a while lol ### [Tweet, 22:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895970625107181852) · 13 likes YOU COULD BE MY ROOMMATE (Arlington VA, basically DC) Sharing on behalf of my current roommate who is moving out and trying to find someone to take over lease. DM me if interested! \~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Looking for a tenant for a furnished bedroom in Rosslyn, Arlington in March, April, or May. Great location in downtown Rosslyn, across the river from DC, 5 minutes from the metro and a grocery store and CVS. The room is 10.5x13.5” + attached closet. Fits a full-sized bed, a large L-shaped desk, bookshelves, an easy chair, another low shelf. Bathroom shared with one roommate, there’s another roommate (with his own bathroom) in the apartment also. The water pressure in the shower is the best of anywhere I’ve ever lived. Nice third-story apartment in a small building with stairs from the outside. Apartment has full kitchen and washer/dryer. $1150/month + electricity and internet. Roommates are two chill and nice dudes, both EAs if that sweetens the pot any. Feel free to pass this on if you know people who might be interested. (Also big furniture can stay, random stuff will not) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk_XO-wWIAAAuzO.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk_XO-wXsAA-eYw.jpg) ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895970931161604318) · 2 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** There’s rly no reason to own more than four shoes tbh Pairs of total ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 22:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895971384951775289) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ How much ### [Tweet, 23:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1895985213555220832) · 5 likes The limiting factor on vibe coding is that the models are much better at generating complexity than making targeted changes to a complex system, although they are quite good at the latter ## Sunday, March 2, 2025 ### [Tweet, 01:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896011989316784508) · 8 likes Anyone vote for Trump and now regret\* it? \* in the sense of thinking you’d change your vote now if you could, not necessarily that you made the wrong decision ex ante ### [Thread, continued, 01:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896012716600672370) · 7 likes I don’t expect regretful Trump voters to be a large bloc, but I do expect them to be disproportionately represented in the set of people who will see this (some of y’all came up with galaxy brain reasons to support him) ### [Reply to @algekalipso, 01:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896013701066686779) · 3 likes > **Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso):** Hanging out with David Pearce, Zach Eagleton, and Curran Janssens at the AI for Animals conference :-) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk_80ELacAAEP9Z.jpg) Oh based how is/was it? ### [Quote tweet, 01:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896013877097480243) · 12 likes Is anyone else at AI for Animals? I’m not but very curious to hear if it was good/fun/interesting > **Quoting Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso):** Hanging out with David Pearce, Zach Eagleton, and Curran Janssens at the AI for Animals conference :-) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk_80ELacAAEP9Z.jpg) ### [Reply, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896014618021282224) · 1 like Wait why did I think that? Sorry! ### [Reply to @dhadfieldmenell, 02:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896030666275623282) · 22 likes > **Dylan HadfieldMenell (@dhadfieldmenell):** Since I’m a glutton for punishment, here’s another long-held critique I have for Lesswronger alignment folks: > > Your community seems intentionally designed to prevent people with different intellectual commitments and approaches from participating. > > Let me illustrate with a story. The specific example you give sounds plausibly bad on its own terms, but “designed to prevent people with different intellectual commitments and approaches from participating” is arguably what characterizes an academic discipline or intellectual movement (to be pedantic I guess this would less wrong (ha) if one said it was “designed to” do some other thing and the boundaries are a necessary side effect of that) ### [Reply to @snuppydogg, 03:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896033046153085096) · 2 likes > **snuppydogg (@snuppydogg):** Jews are the perfect people to be 2-4% of your country Lmao ### [Reply to @eshear, 03:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896039858449367136) · 6 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** Abolishing suffering is one of those goals that inevitably generates suffering. Ah no this is an incorrect take; and it’s unironically never been tried ### [Reply to @eshear, 03:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896040260078838245) · 2 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** You can have my negative valence experiences when you pry them from my cold, dead mind I genuinely think this is the worst take I’ve ever seen you have I can’t speak for anyone else but no I’m don’t wanna force anyone to do anything; I’ll bite the bullet on “yeah it’s bad to torture a pig that wants to be tortured” but personal preferences and reducing suffering are like 99.99% aligned ### [Reply to @eshear, 03:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896040580645601624) · 8 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** So you don’t want to abolish suffering, just reduce it? You’re being uncharacteristically uncharitable ### [Reply to @hyperdiscogirl, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896045071805661584) · 4 likes > **hyper(bolic) disco(unting) girl in the bay (@hyperdiscogirl):** @sympatheticopp eating very spicy food makes me feel a high of sorts but i don't think that's what they're speaking of... Yeah same, literal endorphins I believe ### [Tweet, 06:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896088655774826648) · 4 likes Men will literally fuck up the Federal Government of the United States of America before reinstating Circles ### [Tweet, 06:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896090526799315145) · 88 likes Acausal trade + evidential decision theory seem like an infoblessing I now regularly think along the lines of “doing X is evidence that people like me do X” It’s not complex, it’s totally non-obvious, and the potential gains from coordination (“trade”) are enormous ### [Thread, continued, 06:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896090598219960751) · 9 likes It’s almost a little too surprising that such juicy low hanging fruit could have been left unpicked What am I missing? ### [Reply to @LinkofSunshine, 07:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896099477171356034) · 2 likes > **Basil🧡 (@LinkofSunshine):** hating cringe is not a morality system I mean it is, just a bad and wrong one But yes ### [Reply to @QualiaNerd, 07:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896102293042278874) · 7 likes > **QualiaNerd (@QualiaNerd):** The reason why we know that qualia exist is NOT qualia reports. > > The reason why we know that qualia exist is that qualia exist, and this is self-evident: 🔴🔵🟢🟣🟡. > > (quoting @robinhanson: If we hooked it up to eyes, hands, etc., we could train it to report being aware of itself & world. If we gave it another "sensor" that we told it tracked when it "really felt" other inputs, we could train it to report what that sensor said. How is our "real" feeling different?) I’m like 95% sure qualia are legit but I don’t actually think we have direct knowledge of it Direct access \*to\* qualia doesn’t imply direct access to knowledge \*about\* it I don’t think it’s literally impossible that I’m radically mistaken about my current subjective experience, up to and including it not existing ### [Reply to @QualiaNerd, 07:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896104207217803385) · 3 likes > **QualiaNerd (@QualiaNerd):** Well, even if I were to concede that I can be mistaken in my belief that qualia self-evidently exist - still, I have a higher certainty in the existence of qualia than I have in anything else. > > To give a very practical example, I am more confident in that there are colors in my visual field (🔴🟢🔵🟣🟡🟠) then I am confident in even having a brain. Yeah I agree but there are two ways to go with this: 1\) some other propositions are very likely so qualia are even more extremely likely 2\) qualia are only so likely so we are radically unsure about literally everything Tbc I think the first one is true, but (sorta recursively lol) not for certain! ### [Quote tweet, 08:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896108548238819558) · 1 like Qualia doubters don’t always grasp what p(qualia) < k (pick ur k) implies, which is is that p(the sun rises tomorrow) < k as well > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @QualiaNerd Yeah I agree but there are two ways to go with this: > > 1\) some other propositions are very likely so qualia are even more extremely likely > > 2\) qualia are only so likely so we are radically unsure about literally everything > > Tbc I think the first one is true, but (sorta recursively lol) not for certain! ### [Thread, continued, 08:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896108550445060190) Ofc even qualia doubters will keep behaving as though the sun will rise tomorrow This isn’t inconsistent—it tacitly illustrates the point! Which is that if we are radically uncertain about ~everything, then all bets are off, so we may as well assume that’s not the case ### [Thread, continued, 08:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896108552483454992) This kinda feels like a trick but I don’t think it is If qualia aren’t real, nobody has a damn clue what kind of spooky metaphysical goo the world is really made out of (“will the sun rise tomorrow?” “What sun?”) ### [Thread, continued, 08:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896108554433814958) “if we are radically uncertain about ~everything, then all bets are off, so we may as well assume that’s not the case” points towards, well, assuming qualia are real for all practical purposes, regardless of what you think the true probability is ### [Thread, continued, 08:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896108556967125414) · 2 likes This isn’t a rock solid argument for qualia tbc. I only think they’re like 95-99% depending on the day and yeah we might just absolutely wrong about literally everything ### [Reply to @Insect_Song, 08:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896112210734194874) · 13 likes > **Cogent Sins🔎 (@Insect_Song):** \>I now regularly think along the lines of “doing X is evidence that people like me do X” > > Juicy examples? Juicy? Uh sure, if I was to get a glass of juice rn, that would be evidence that the next guy who responds to a similar tweet will do the same The actual random thing that comes to mind is calling/emailing a politician about something after seeing the opportunity on the EA Forum Like I don’t really feel like it and I’m probably not gonna make the difference, but I do actually want to live in the world where everyone like me (eg doesn’t really feel like it, does think it’s good) does the thing ### [Thread, continued, 08:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896112706807280081) · 3 likes It doesn’t always point in this like canonically pro-social direction Like at some threshold of “really don’t wanna do it”, the math does in fact flip for me and I no longer wanna live in the world where ppl cause themselves tons of pain in order to email their congressman ### [Reply to @ModeledBehavior, 08:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896113305774932005) · 3 likes > **Adam Ozimek (@ModeledBehavior):** At some point "stop with the virtue signaling" became "stop with the virtue having" ### [Reply to @a_real_society, 08:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896113523580944644) · 1 like > **society (@a_real_society):** I'm thinking about giving being normal a shot, any advice Nah ### [Tweet, 08:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896113941836968152) · 5 likes What should I use my ChatGPT deep research queries on? Expiring soon Feel free to just pitch whatever u personally wanna know - I’ll send the results ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 08:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896115313676337624) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 2, 2025:** It’s almost a little too surprising that such juicy low hanging fruit could have been left unpicked What am I missing? \*maybe acausal trade + FDT Something like that ### [Reply to @aidan_mclau, 08:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896119541320798365) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @aidan_mclau is no longer available.)_ In economic theory you’re looking for “total surplus” I think, which is usually (always?) consumer + producer surplus = sigma\_{over all transactions and people}(willingness to pay - price paid) ### [Tweet, 08:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896120511593415098) · 17 likes I’m watching someone fall in love it’s pretty cool (not me unfortunately) ### [Reply to @dlbydq, 08:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896120802669633562) · 1 like > **Anish Tondwalkar (@dlbydq):** @AaronBergman18 anyways, I think it is more apparent that qualia are real than the apparency inherent in the observations leading up to "the sun will rise tomorrow", so I think the above is (false and) a much worse argument for qualia than simple apparency Fundamentally I think all apparency grounds out in qualia or something extremely similar to it like “raw intrinsic propertyness” ### [Tweet, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896295111526662333) · 15 likes Whatever Trumpism is is one of the dumbest—not merely worst—ideologies around ### [Quote tweet, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896296907879875029) · 24 likes @ journalists who could use some context when attacking EA from the left > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @littmath @KellerScholl @fardarter @JosephPolitano There was actually a recent large survey with some politics questions > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlD8JXiXcAA6Ujn.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlD8KIJWoAAEzrN.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 20:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896297724083151074) · 6 likes EA is…checks Claude…Massachusetts ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlEAuquWUAEn1GB.jpg) ### [Reply, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896297991683854846) · 2 likes > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** I think it is possible the movement is disproportionately left-wing while social media figures are centrist, in fact with evolutionary psychology social media figures, if anything, often seem positively right-wing, while surveys of professors show no such thing. Maybe a bit directionally? I still think we’d see a left leaning distribution if only surveying self-identified EAs on Twitter, even if weighed by follower count ### [Reply to @skooookum, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896298762089480539) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @skooookum is no longer available.)_ I would genuinely kinda like the last thing ### [Reply to @bryan_caplan, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896319003167179009) · 17 likes > **Bryan Caplan (@bryan_caplan):** The classic mistake of the old: Thinking there are no new ideas. > > The classic mistake of the young: Thinking your ideas are new. You have a 2 week span at the age of 31 to get things right ### [Reply to @GhostCoase, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896328878916018563) > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** @AaronBergman18 Prolonging the war is a triple crime: more soldiers and civilians are killed and wounded, more infrastructure is destroyed and, as payment, the peace settlement will be worse when Russian forces have advanced more and Ukrainian forces are more depleted. Prolonging the war is a Ukrainian choice to make; whether to keep supporting them conditional on continuation fight is a different q ### [Quote tweet, 22:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896331923888484437) · 20 likes Deleted this post. I think Ukrainian conscription without WWII-level stakes makes it not “the easiest possible war to get behind” I think I still support US support, but this was overstated Thanks to @GhostCoase for some discussion ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlEf1bHXEAANAG8.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @GhostCoase Prolonging the war is a Ukrainian choice to make; whether to keep supporting them conditional on continuation fight is a different q ### [Thread, continued, 22:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896333859869831521) · 4 likes I still think it checks out from a selfish American POV (which is not my all-things-considered POV tbc), which means, probably contrary to “conventional normie wisdom”, US policy to arm Ukraine might be good for Americans and bad for Ukrainians (which is who/what I care about, not Ukraine the metaphysical entity) ### [Quote tweet, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896334458737115416) · 5 likes This was a good take 3 years ago and it still Free ticket to America, courtesy of the US Air Force > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Is there any reason why we \*shouldn’t\* issue a Green Card to every Ukrainian citizen? Seems like that would eliminate most of the harm of a Russian invasion. ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 23:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896335246892941461) · 4 likes > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** bad for Ukrainians only if you think the Ukrainian government has very bad judgment. > > And this argument is a bad one for not arming Ukraine. You can continue to arm Ukraine and pressure them towards a deal, or offer them even more arms if they make a deal. Yeah I think it’s totally possible the Ukrainian government has bad judgement wartime conscription has to be like the strongest example of when we should expect individual people’s interest to diverge from those of political leaders ### [Reply to @SOPHONTSIMP, 23:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896336036223140302) · 2 likes > **GOON MASTER SOPHONT SIMP (@SOPHONTSIMP):** Do you think universalizing this strategy any time a country is invaded by would lead to good outcomes on net? That’s the most likely reason I’m wrong for sure But yeah I think it would actually (this is highly dependent on me thinking the US should be way more populous and open to immigration for other reasons) ### [Reply to @SOPHONTSIMP, 23:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896337342774046937) · 2 likes > **GOON MASTER SOPHONT SIMP (@SOPHONTSIMP):** I also think the U.S. should be way more populous and open to immigration. > > However I feel like this strategy works out beautifully for invading counties. Like I guess territory without any of the original inhabitants has less value, but it does still have great value- Idk seems like not a bad thing if everyone, even the bad guys, are left better off (this has to check out all things considered tbc, not just in a naive first order sense which makes it hard) ## Monday, March 3, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896355886014304663) · 12 likes Very interesting idea by @labenz here: dump subsidized AI inference (I guess api calls) into China to (1) suppress their domestic industry, (2) ensure that their people still get to benefit, and (3, kinda overlapping with 1) prevent tech tree divergence > **Quoting sarah (@littIeramblings):** if you relate to this tweet, my latest pod episode with @labenz might help! we chatted about the many developments on AI over the last year, including reasoning models, spooky alignment failures & more. > > sneak peek below and full episode in the replies! > > [video attached](https://x.com/littIeramblings/status/1896320839743950995/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 00:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896356033339260965) · 3 likes Kinda upset I didn’t think about this from first principles lol ### [Reply to @panickssery, 04:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896418757301670134) · 3 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** PEPFAR stuff is obviously serious but I think the discourse feels a bit fake in the sense that it doesn't swing anyone's overall view on Trump and his agenda vs Harris and hers > > and definitely during the election itself the same EA/progress studies types that are making a big deal out of the measurable impact of PEPFAR weren't making quantitative arguments but almost exclusively non-quantitative arguments about the directions of norms that Trump had threatened Lol both quantitative global health and qualitative rule of law arguments can be good/true ### [Quote tweet, 04:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896420271298621575) · 40 likes I did this!!!! Washington Post every morning at the breakfast bar. I unironically grew out of it > **Quoting gabe (@allgarbled):** I told my girlfriend that as a child I used to read the newspaper every day and she started making fun of me ### [Thread, continued, 04:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896420436470325618) · 5 likes Not beating the allegations ### [Tweet, 06:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896440925091737861) · 5 likes I can't believe this is how programming works now ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlGC94wXkAAy9c4.png) ### [Tweet, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896632393236422786) · 29 likes Functional decision theory isn’t obviously right ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlIxGylXgAAl920.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896632401289462121) · 2 likes I kinda think you shouldn’t smoke (a weird intuition here is that maybe you’re imagining that you already have a strong desire to smoke, but if so that’s information you’ve already acquired—and it’s not what the thought experiment says) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlIxHb5XsAA5HcS.jpg) ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 19:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896637250362052709) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Can’t find my tweet on this but regression to the mean vs straight lines on a (log) graph (ie when one heuristic is better than the other) is undertheorized ### [Reply to @MLaGrangienne, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896638671824339395) · 3 likes > **L'amour est cerise... 🍒🏳️‍⚧️ (@MLaGrangienne):** stance on counterfactual mugging and XOR blackmail? I’m against mugging and blackmail (I will actually look these up) But tbc “FDT is right most of the time and a decent approximation of true decision theory” is quite possible ### [Tweet, 21:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896678428465844385) · 5 likes Idk if I’m doing something wrong but gpt-4o-mini is literally 20x faster than Gemini-flash-2-lite when you try to parallelize It seems like google is throttling parallelizability (?) on their end (which seems really dumb?) For better or worse, OpenAI makes a good product lol ### [Reply to @tenshi_anna, 22:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896683378604482991) · 2 likes > **Anna K. Winters (@tenshi_anna):** autism is better understood as an unconscious spiritual rejection of God’s grace. few understand this :( ## Tuesday, March 4, 2025 ### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 00:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896715159223034019) · 3 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** In this setup, if people like you suppressed your desire to smoke, smoking would be found to be uncorrelated with cancer, and then you'd have no warning sign and also no tasty cigarettes. So you should all smoke and accept your warning. Afaict thought experiment doesn’t say anything about “desire” it only says whether you do or not is evidence of cancer This is super pedantic but I think load bearing - you don’t actually know yet whether you’re the kind of person who chooses to smoke yet (or the kind of person who must “suppress” their desire or merely naturally doesn’t wanna smoke) ### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 00:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1896716507125809443) · 2 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** If you can notice the urge to smoke, before smoking, then that of course screens off any evidence from the actual smoking. This is known as the "tickle defense" of evidential decision theory, though most EDTers who espouse it claim they also therefore two-box on Newcomb. :/ Yeah we agree about this. This is why I objected to your use of the phrase “suppressed your desire” Probably just confused lol (many such cases) ### [Reply to @DeepDishEnjoyer, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1897051012181188993) · 3 likes > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** YESSSSSS GOT THE MONEY SHOT 7 FIGURE DAY BABY > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlOYxkbW4AA9o8A.png) wtf ### [Quote tweet, 22:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1897057920891986143) · 83 likes FIRE is the OG ACLU > **Quoting FIRE (@TheFIREorg):** Today, Texas A&M University System banned drag shows on the theory that they \*might\* "contribute" to a "hostile environment." > > The only thing hostile here is Texas A&M's disregard for the First Amendment. Drag is protected expression. Full stop. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk5w2sJXMAAIOlu.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk5w2sIXUAA4h_W.png) ## Thursday, March 6, 2025 ### [Reply to @tautologer, 00:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1897449041266426194) · 2 likes > **tautologer (@tautologer):** went for a walk > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlUXkZIXMAAcWof.jpg) Waow ### [Quote tweet, 00:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1897451317766820070) · 86 likes This continues to be true > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Orange man bad ### [Reply to @keysmashbandit, 00:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1897451774329368861) · 2 likes > **keysmashbandit (@keysmashbandit):** @AminiCorp that explains the suit Got a chuckle ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 02:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1897478884657918460) · 4 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** I thought Ezra Klein's interview with Bob Buchanan was excellent but this segment bothered me. Seems likely that someone is being dishonest > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlUr9u2WIAAH_eW.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlUr9xWWYAEFFMG.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlUr9xWWYAAMDUZ.jpg) Marc Andreesen does not seem like an honest person ### [Tweet, 02:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1897480713353441761) · 29 likes Trumpism is clarifying (I think) what @tylercowen meant by “state capacity libertarianism” several years ago (iirc) Trumpism is the opposite of this—pseudolibertarianism—in the sense of simply reducing state capacity without actually reducing de jure regulatory burden ### [Thread, continued, 02:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1897480714863415476) · 9 likes The result is that the average taxpayer saves like $5 (ofc most/all of this goes to the rich) and all of society is worse and less competent. It’s a really bad system ### [Thread, continued, 02:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1897480716302139686) · 6 likes IRS enforcement is a good litmus test for this State capacity libertarianism is positive on IRS funding/enforcement (as long as this doesn’t lead to extralegal harassment); Trumpism/pseudolibertarianism says “burn it all down” ### [Quote tweet, 02:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1897481237171786236) · 2 likes Bad stuff > **Quoting OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical):** Immediate impacts from the total US shutdown of intelligence sharing to Ukraine will be wide-ranging, but Russian air strikes targeting civilian infrastructure will likely become more effective. > > Comes at a time when the US has cut Ukraine off from air defense supplies. ### [Tweet, 14:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1897663024053305360) · 89 likes I’m extremely curious how this all ends ### [Thread, continued, 14:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1897663186603569275) · 22 likes It’s not a natural thing to be curious about. This is likely the only time in history it makes sense to be curious about the matter ### [Reply to @panickssery, 15:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1897664354872402349) · 8 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** Interesting that as of now the most common answer is "10 year olds" rather than "1 year olds" > > In the replies people are making up non-sequitur reasons about 'potential' > > but if you suppose that people have an out-of-date instinct about child-mortality rates then it makes sense > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlXa2pOW4AESy-k.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlXbDzXXsAE15OS.jpg) > (quoting @tenobrus: there are 4 age groups of 10 people each tied to 4 train tracks. trollies are hurtling down all 4 tracks and will kill all unless stopped. luckily u have exactly one comically large block of cobblestone u can place to stop a trolly. which group do u save? (all others perish)) I think it can be justified for a variety of other reasons The 10yo has hopes and dreams Society has also invested quite a lot in the 10yo by now ### [Quote tweet, 15:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1897669628958031913) · 24 likes Ahhhhh why is it just Elon and not also @open_phil ?!?! The very least they do is file an amicus curiae > **Quoting Garrison Lovely (@GarrisonLovely):** Preliminary injunctions are extremely hard to get, so Musk's failure to get one isn't a surprise. What is surprising is that the judge basically says that if Elon had standing, the injunction would be warranted! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlVcG88XcAAGNS9.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 15:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1897670361430327495) · 5 likes I didn’t one-shot “curiae” I looked that shit up ### [Quote tweet, 16:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1897682224377442598) · 7 likes Who is this even for? Did MAGA folks even want this? > **Quoting Dan Roy (@roydanroy):** Vindictive much? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlXrp8KXUAAKBrV.png) ## Friday, March 7, 2025 ### [Tweet, 12:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1897986053656494106) · 6 likes Have you seen anyone in person irl with an Ash Wednesday forehead thing ### [Tweet, 12:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1897987148768293073) · 84 likes New cause area: make insects have vertebrae so OpenPhil will fund their advocacy ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 12:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1897989690776555651) · 5 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 I'm shoddily taping bones on them like this rn > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlcDMT-WsAAKMki.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlcDMZEWgAALPXm.jpg) @open_phil this is a major development ### [Reply to @davidshor, 12:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1897990636587892782) · 2 likes > **David Shor (@davidshor):** These are the top personality correlations controlling for demos like age/income/education/etc with being more sympathetic to Luigi vs Thompson. > > It generally paints a pretty grim picture about what is driving his support imo. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlYmsg5XEAA9Gip.jpg) R go brr ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 13:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1897998446948237440) · 4 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** wtf r lesbians complaining about? If I could choose I’d be born a lesbian ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 14:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898021757929337063) · 2 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** This year or ever? I was thinking in the last few days but as an ideological pedant Ill say you can vote your conscience ### [Reply to @NULobbyist, 15:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898028539452014647) · 2 likes > **NUL (@NULobbyist):** Part of lib recovery plan from Trump catastrophy should be juicing all aligned men to minimum 1000ng/dl test levels. If it turns you into a Chud all that shows is that your faith was weak to begin with and we can do without you. > > (quoting @Austen: Still think about this often. NPR did testosterone level testing and the \*highest\* level of testosterone in the building was so low you should see a doctor about it.) 1000 is a little high especially when you’re accounting for variation in SHBG but directionally I agree ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898029844664922566) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ Ur scaring them away ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlcoFYLWEAAV9-Y.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlcoFYMXwAAqG_y.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 17:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898068124521619720) · 6 likes On one hand, saying Dems need to chill on trans issues is a hell of a reason to get kicked out of BunnyChat Otoh really study that second sentence Noah has been slinging takes for…checks Claude…15 years! And the totality of all irl ire is getting kicked out of BunnyChat! > **Quoting Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** I got kicked out of a rabbit-related San Francisco chat group because of this tweet! First time in my life someone has ever gotten mad at me IRL about online political stuff. ### [Reply to @tautologer, 18:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898076689877364975) · 17 likes > **tautologer (@tautologer):** they don't want you to know this, but "woke" has a definition that's both useful and captures most of common usage: it's "illiberal progressivism". > > so "anti-woke" was a strange coalition: some were opposed to the illiberalism, while the rest were opposed to the progressivism I remember explaining this to my parents years ago during Covid and used the term “illiberal leftism” - “illiberal progressivism” is better though ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 19:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898094407951212977) · 11 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** New cause area: make OpenPhil have vertebrae so OpenPhil will fund insect advocacy 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ ### [Tweet, 19:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898097196710719972) · 5 likes I got a cheap Thinkpad on Craigslist that allegedly was made in 2020 and allegedly has 16GB RAM and now I understand why Apple is a $4T company ## Saturday, March 8, 2025 ### [Tweet, 03:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898213712953012683) · 5 likes She’s back for round 3 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱 ### [Tweet, 12:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898357906845618221) · 67 likes My most conscientious take is that you shouldn’t be scared of free trials Just set a google calendar event for a few days before the thing starts charging you to decide whether or not to cancel ### [Thread, continued, 12:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898357908364014026) · 11 likes If you’re following me you’re probably in the conscientiousness elite ### [Reply to @NULobbyist, 13:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898362253830734018) · 2 likes > **NUL (@NULobbyist):** @AaronBergman18 Absolutely could not be less accurate, I would fail to cancel after a free trail even if the monthly fee was a chunk of my liver. Lol to each their own I guess ### [Quote tweet, 14:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898374757592019289) · 14 likes This is approximately true (and even more true than for startups, I assume) in the world of every-other-type-of-civil-organization (university club, volunteering org, informal nonprofit, vague boundaryless movement) > **Quoting Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ (@GarrettPetersen):** In a startup with relatively flat org structure, the person who talks authoritatively becomes the de-facto boss. ### [Tweet, 14:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898376431802990876) · 281 likes Ex-OpenAI employees should consider personally filing an amicus curiae explaining to the court (if this is true) that the nonprofit’s representations were an important reason you chose to work there ### [Thread, continued, 14:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898376433862410565) · 27 likes I’m not sure if any ex-OpenAI employees are following me (sad), but I do know a couple of them are following my followers so it’s not crazy they could see this ### [Thread, continued, 14:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898376436148281535) · 20 likes It’s also not obvious to me that this would be characterized as “disparagement” for those who signed NDAs they don’t want to break Factual and personal representations to a federal court would be a hell of a thing for OpenAI to go after, legally ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 14:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898382036563275820) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Kill me I won’t do that since, not being made out of venison, wouldn’t qualify for the tax credit when processed People respond to incentives, it’s econ 101 ### [Reply to @DaphneRHansell, 14:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898383015534846010) · 3 likes > **Daphne Hansell (@DaphneRHansell):** This is like a parody of democrats trying to appeal to rural voters with kludgey policy > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlhgqMUXUAAmaUC.jpg) Ok on the merits I’m not actually sure it’s a bad policy (wild deer meat probably displaces factory farmed meat and hunting deer probably doesn’t increase wild animal suffering (?)) ### [Quote tweet, 14:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898384614164504683) · 4 likes Ok at first I RT’d this bc it’s funny as an appealing-to-rural-whites thing but the policy is actually growing on me and is plausibly an \*insufficient\* step in the right direction… > **Quoting Daphne Hansell (@DaphneRHansell):** This is like a parody of democrats trying to appeal to rural voters with kludgey policy > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlhgqMUXUAAmaUC.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 14:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898384615867306327) · 5 likes Wild deer meat probably displaces factory farmed meat and it’s not obviously bad for the deer insofar as predation and hunger are their alternative ways of being killed ### [Thread, continued, 14:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898385177912447299) · 3 likes Like $75 just isn’t a ton of money for the effort of going out and killing a deer, but people do respond to incentives At some non-astronomical level ($2k?), and barring being convinced that it’s unethical, I would personally be interested in taking up deer hunting ### [Quote tweet, 15:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898397281218367999) · 62 likes I regret to report this is kinda funny > **Quoting JD Vance (@JDVance):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Glhfr2DWsAAUDw-.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 17:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898431758040731858) · 7 likes In honor of Women’s Day I’m bumping this offer > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @\_alice_evans @mmt_lvt I like girls and volunteer to be their friend ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898440628716920895) · 3 likes > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** Dank and also I take his side on this one, the making fun of him based on his appearance feels pretty gross to me. Ya fr ### [Tweet, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898441635710566479) · 142 likes Bumping this suggestion from the EA Forum. I think some ppl seeing this live in California! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gliem0MXAAAUdHW.jpg) ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898441756271628328) · 3 likes > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** I think Vance is a bad person, but gosh darn it I won't accept that as a reason to launch nasty attacks against him. In addition to being mean, I don't think it's effective > > (quoting @timfduffy: JD Vance did not write that he had sex with a couch in Hillbilly Elegy, and I think it's bad to make jokes about it. I want a road back to a world where Rs and Ds treat each other with respect, and sexual slander is not on that path.) 💯 ### [Reply to @paul_cal, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898484898526056856) · 3 likes > **Paul Calcraft (@paul_cal):** @AaronBergman18 What's your second most conscientious take? Hmm probably always carry around 2 keys ideally in 2 different locations (eg pocket and bag bc sooner or later you’re gonna lose one (and 10x as often you’re going to momentarily freak out \[if only carrying one\] and think you lost one) ### [Thread, continued, 21:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898485795775779267) · 2 likes Picture of drivers license and insurance card has come in handy a ton. I guess that’s number 3 Number 2.5 is also carry around first aid stuff, a battery pack charger thing and anything else you might like to have that’s relatively small and light (pen, headlamp, cash) ### [Quote tweet, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898513063546126490) · 18 likes Truly a master orator > **Quoting Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** “I don’t think what I’m about to say is true. Actually, that’s not true.” - @AaronBergman18 ## Sunday, March 9, 2025 ### [Tweet, 01:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898549357000999215) · 5 likes Cursor is a gazillion times better than me at ~everything but like maybe once or twice a week I will give it some naive qualitative suggestion that just fixes whatever issue is going on Strange dichotomy ### [Tweet, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898578115560935554) · 4 likes Convince me you should smoke I don’t like the highlighted bit: The important evidential part is that \*smoking is evidence of cancer, all things considered\* … Cc @NoahTopper ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Glkau7NXsAArL67.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898578117536469035) · 4 likes If you learn the ground truth about whether or not you have a carcinogenic genome (before deciding whether or not to smoke), the smoking <> cancer correlation remains but smoking per se no longer provides additional evidence about cancer ### [Thread, continued, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898578119805612068) · 2 likes In some sense, evidence is all there is Causation is one type of evidence but not the only type Decision procedure is relevant to situations where the world cares about your decision procedure; in this case it’s irrelevant ### [Thread, continued, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898579564776903089) · 3 likes I tentatively think FDTers get convinced of FDT by basically only considering situations in which the world cares about your decision procedure, and then generating a genuinely helpful principle with which to deal with \*that set\* of situations, and then falsely (implicitly) conclude that this is the one true principle with which to make all decisions Fight me @ESYudkowsky ### [Quote tweet, 03:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898580581438669231) · 1 like Ok here’s a very tentative proposal: \- EDT is true \- causation is one type of evidence (not the only type) \- your own decision procedure is sometimes a type of evidence (not the only type, and not forming a partition with causation) \- idk what else there is but in general, X thing is a tempting form of decision theory because it’s a form of evidence > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** In some sense, evidence is all there is > > Causation is one type of evidence but not the only type > > Decision procedure is relevant to situations where the world cares about your decision procedure; in this case it’s irrelevant ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 03:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898581324203487669) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 9, 2025:** I tentatively think FDTers get convinced of FDT by basically only considering situations in which the world cares about your decision procedure, and then… Tempted to make this a LessWrong shortform but I don’t know if I wanna deal with 75 people writing up careful and nuanced takes and not unreasonably expecting a response ### [Quote tweet, 06:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898620309730722175) · 15 likes I’m not actually convinced that smoking gives you higher utility, which seems to be taken as basically ground truth by everyone afaict > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Convince me you should smoke > > I don’t like the highlighted bit: The important evidential part is that \*smoking is evidence of cancer, all things considered\* … > > Cc @NoahTopper > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Glkau7NXsAArL67.jpg) ### [Tweet, 06:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898620311555170458) · 1 like I’m not even convinced it gives you lower utility (although I think this is the case under intuitive understandings of how good/bad smoking and cancer are) I think it’s ambiguous until you define all the relevant parameters Am I being dumb/crazy/tired? ### [Thread, continued, 06:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898621265469919602) · 2 likes Ok I’m on the warpath, this is like Sleeping Beauty 2.0 Your decision procedure ABSOLUTELY influences (well for some understanding of that word) whether you get cancer P(cancer | decision procedure that outputs smoking) > P(cancer | decision procedure that outputs not smoking) ### [Quote tweet, 06:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898621378581897701) · 3 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GllCFOtXgAA-Bu_.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Ok I’m on the warpath, this is like Sleeping Beauty 2.0 > > Your decision procedure ABSOLUTELY influences (well for some understanding of that word) whether you get cancer > > P(cancer | decision procedure that outputs smoking) > P(cancer | decision procedure that outputs not smoking) ### [Quote tweet, 06:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898624234911330416) · 7 likes This is not a terribly inaccurate description of the literature > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Thread, continued, 06:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898624623404597594) · 6 likes This isn’t a pro-ketamine post, it’s a pro-ketamine in the case of treatment resistant depression post, which is a very different thing Yes you are probably going to have to incur some risk if you have TRD—the world just sucks sometimes ### [Reply to @p8stie, 06:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898624748596215823) · 9 likes > **Mariè (@p8stie):** Money does not matter to women. > > I would sooner date a high T gym owner making $300k a year than a loser tech founder making $1.5M a year. Guys it’s bait ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 06:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898629561832673283) > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** considering that comparison to be of key relevance is indeed how evidential decision theory works Yeah I agree - I just think that FDT basically implies EDT which implies not smoking in this case This is contrary to the default understanding/narrative afaict ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 07:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898631323834532308) · 2 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** @AaronBergman18 i think the "tickle defense" is one way people have articulated the objection This is one of like 10 terms I’ve heard enough that I should probably acquaint myself with ### [Reply to @4confusedemoji, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898821492642857033) · 4 likes > **olivia (@4confusedemoji):** have any of you found a preferred way to ingest twitter automatically - if it has to be a browser use agent so be it, id rather it take ludicrous compute relative to the operation it should be than have to babysit it, but i want this datastream somehow. grok sucks at it actually Yes! Selenium + render tweet as an html embed + get text from browser + do this as concurrently as your computer and internet can handle (I was running 8 browsers) https://github.com/AaronBergman/twitter_community_notes ### [Reply to @4confusedemoji, 19:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898822734869909750) · 2 likes > **olivia (@4confusedemoji):** @AaronBergman18 since yeah it has to derive from my account activity. and not get my account banned. Oh wait there’s this although IME it crashes or is super slow if you try to export your whole history of 10k+ tweets ### [Reply to @4confusedemoji, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898823368721256511) · 3 likes > **olivia (@4confusedemoji):** @AaronBergman18 that last bit, like if i dont get on here for a day, is the hard part Autoscroll chrome extensions potentially Side note I feel like my special interest in data collection if coming in handy for the first and only time ever lmao ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 23:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898878269044257021) · 4 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** Ngl I’m very undecided on the credit card interest rate cap Yeah I’m not universally against paternalism in this domain 10% might be a little low, but “literally any lending contract is verbatim enforceable” seems bad too “10^10% interest sign on the dotted line and we own ~all your financial assets now” (this is my understanding of bankruptcy law from 5 mins with claude) seems bad ## Monday, March 10, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898890713216979342) · 29 likes It’s so funny having beef with Canada It’s like having beef with a puppy, or the concept of gratitude ### [Reply to @polisisti, 01:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898916196885406190) · 3 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 I know what you mean, and no offence taken whatsoever, but it's not very funny at all to be on the other side of this! Ya :( ### [Quote tweet, 02:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898920999430529084) · 21 likes I’m not incredibly confident in the survey methodology here but its crazy to me that ghosting (I mean after meeting someone in person tbc) is kinda socially accepted > **Quoting Allison Papson (@AllisonPapson):** DC leads nation in ghosting, survey reveals https://www.fox5dc.com/news/dc-leads-nation-ghosting-survey-reveals ### [Thread, continued, 02:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898921001376698390) · 6 likes The weird partially-online dynamic means that there are generally no consequences but it’s just somewhere between rude (if you barely know the person) and cruel (if you’ve gotten to know them pretty well) ### [Reply to @RYChappell, 02:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898922819376804285) · 2 likes > **Richard Y. Chappell🔸 (@RYChappell):** Something I appreciate a lot about the University of Miami is that it has a LOT less red tape than previous places I've worked. (They even made their travel agency non-mandatory in response to faculty requests to be able to book our own flights.) > > (quoting @MasudHusain: Why academia is sleepwalking into self-destruction. My editorial @Brain1878 If you agree with the sentiments please RT. It's important for all our sakes to stop the madness https://academic.oup.com/brain/issue/148/3) I sorta wonder why universities don’t compete on this dimension more (maybe they do and I’m unaware?) Like there’s gotta be some tradeoff between QoL stuff like this and prestige, maybe University of Wherever can compete with Harvard for the best faculty this way ### [Tweet, 05:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898968404175794618) · 4 likes Targeted advertising is generally good (I don’t know what the first two things even are but I certainly vibe with the keywords and aesthetics) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Glp9swyXAAAF_Ne.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Glp9swzWAAAUGqK.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Glp9swyWoAAcOYR.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Glp9sw2WoAARPoy.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898968406633656397) · 3 likes Plausibly privacy is a concern but \*given\* that your data is being collected may as well maximize consumer surplus; the targeted advertising per se goes on the benefits side of the ledger ### [Reply to @tenobrus, 05:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898974779824029913) · 3 likes > **Tenobrus (@tenobrus):** STOP. FUCKING. YEARNING. > > (quoting @rakwtf: as a man, fumbling a marvellous woman in your 20s only to realise she could've been the love of your life but now you'll probably never see her again and carrying that haunting melancholy forever in your heart is almost a prerequisite to greatness) No ### [Reply to @BecomingCritter, 06:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898978533310964007) · 64 likes > **critter (@BecomingCritter):** Alright cowards, what's your most woke opinion? > > (quoting @samswoora: What can’t you talk about openly in TPOT) \- white privilege is real and nontrivial \- fatphobia is real + bad + not denying the obvious bad health effects + actually underrated by wokism/progressivism \- the left is engaged in a fundamentally more moral project than the right (I think this checks out bc of the care/harm dimension of moral foundations stuff) \- illegal immigration is fine \- trans people should be respected, only <1% of the time do multiple competing legitimate interests imply a legit conflict \- pronoun norms are benign (my anti-woke take is that they’re also silly but still) I call myself anti-woke because of the classical liberalism dimension, I’m on board with a bunch of object level non-illiberal progressive claims ### [Reply to @amelapay, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1898978997406457939) · 1 like > **Pamela J. Hobart (@amelapay):** run your family like a business, they said. it’ll be efficient, they said. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlpBxLPWIAAkaho.jpg) Lmao ### [Quote tweet, 16:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899129147877953961) · 8 likes Lol I don’t necessarily disagree, but I recently gave a ✨lightning talk✨ to a bunch of less online people (who were selected for being like me in relevant ways, like the people reading this) about how Twitter is good actually and they should seriously consider trying it out ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlsPTiZWMAElvYc.jpg) > **Quoting Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I recommend some spending social media time off X. > > Reading longform is good. A world of 280 character ideas and Elon's loud thoughts is not particularly helpful for me. ### [Thread, continued, 16:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899129543903871339) · 7 likes Like drinking, I think the downsides are overstated and upsides understated among a set of intelligent and thoughtful people who are willing to reasonable safety measures (eg “don’t use the For You feed”) ### [Reply to @ChrisLloyd__, 17:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899155256405008516) · 2 likes > **Chris (@ChrisLloyd__):** what sorts of ways has Twitter benefited you? \- Most salient is that a majority of irl friends weighted by time spent with them I basically met through twitter (sometimes slightly indirectly) \- ^ also true for direct online socialization (so group chats but not posting) \- (at least?) 2 paid jobs/projects \- 1 date \- not \*my\* benefit and idk what my Shapley value is here but last two years I’ve helped raise like $60k for EA AWF. Very hasty BOTEC says that I get Shapley credit for like $2k of that \- ~directly responsible for at least one two decently intensive volunteer EA project, probably a bunch more smaller stuff \- harder to give rock solid evidence of the truth or concrete benefits here but in general I have the sense that it’s epistemically and intellectually good both for me and “from” me in the sense of participating in an intellectual community of sorts, to put it pretentiously \- I enjoy it These last two things are mostly what I mean tbh but the other stuff is important too! ### [Quote tweet, 18:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899171883020669013) · 18 likes Improved version of a naive “just be agentic” or “be more agentic” meme is “don’t let lack of agency be your limiting factor” > **Quoting j (@meadandjuniper):** I think tpot’s agency fetish risks rendering it taboo for people to be open about the very normal anguish and frustration they feel when the conditions of their lives just suck ### [Quote tweet, 19:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899176498357313842) · 36 likes Some reasons you might consider drinking: \- a lot of people really enjoy it, and that matters \- it’s a good social lubricant in a number of ways and a lot of people would be better off with more friends/socialization > **Quoting Jacob (@JacobWoess56393):** @AaronBergman18 Care to elaborate on the drinking claim? I have always assumed that drinking is much worse than the average person's prior. ### [Thread, continued, 19:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899176504338059365) · 7 likes \- it’s Lindy, both culturally and physiologically. Unlike many drugs, humans and human society/culture evolved alongside alcohol \- my impression of the empirical literature is basically “ehhhh you have to squint really hard to see anything” - here’s Claude’s summary ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gls69wwWEAA-ekL.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 19:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899176507492442157) · 9 likes Alcohol is indeed a major cause of social ills like crime and accidents. I (tentatively) think that the following category of drinking is NOT: \- moderate (~1 per day) but tbh I’ll bite the bullet on like “5-10 drinks a couple times a year” too \- in relatively safe settings \- no driving \- no risk of pregnancy \- no family or personal history of alcoholism \- no guns around \- no other insane situations like currently you’re operating a motorboat \- among generally low-risk demographic groups (eg college educated with no criminal history) By all means, convince me otherwise! ### [Reply to @NinaPanickssery, 19:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899181255029108923) · 3 likes > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** I think if you enjoy drinking there is something seriously wrong with you and you should fix that instead of masking the issue with more drinking. (Yes, this covers a large fraction of the population who “drink socially” or “drink to relax”) Lol people enjoying certain drugs is, for better or worse, like the default state of human biology Btw I don’t even like drinking! I’m the odd one out though, weird brain ### [Tweet, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899187134872863060) · 2,043 likes Apparently stimulants DECREASE all cause mortality in people with ADHD to the same extent that smoking increases it And ofc this isn’t counting quality of life Public health should take this way more seriously ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GltEog4WwAEj4Ep.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899212991997903126) · 9 likes Buy the dip ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GltcJrKXAAALb2n.jpg) ## Tuesday, March 11, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899261744582729773) · 2 likes How much have you spent on AI APIs (not counting applications like ChatGPT/claude dot ai) ### [Reply to @panickssery, 01:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899266311290568914) · 2 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** This is dominated by long-term effects on growth right > > If the excesses of the weak punishing the strong cause more harm to growth than that of the strong over the weak, then it's more harmful in the long-run > > And then history supports this: communism alone swings the scale? I disagree that growth is \*in general\* the dominant concern; afaik there’s no good empirical or theoretical reason to expect this to be the case (plausibly it is in a restricted familiar setting like “human beings since 1970”) AI doom is one line of thinking here, factory farming is another With wealth comes power and the ability to use/abuse others Communism ≈ chattel slavery to a very hasty first approximation in terms of magnitude And if you care about animals, factory farming is probably worse than both ### [Reply to @panickssery, 01:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899269747637641419) · 2 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** I agree that if you care about animals, then growth has been net bad, and maybe extinction would be good > > But if you only care about people, then it technically depends on your views about extinction risks or permanent-stagnation risks in some way, but "maximize growth" is the simplest baseline, and costly egalitarianism stays bad > > \> Communism ≈ chattel slavery to a very hasty first approximation in terms of magnitude > > This isn't true at all right, in any kind of accounting Wdym on the last thing? It’s true “bad communism” had way more total people live through it (≈1 OOM) but they look similar if you think 1 communism death ≈ 1 chattel slavery life and death Not every person who lived through Mao was harmed as much as the average chattel slave ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 03:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899301802228535298) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @austinc3301 @AaronBergman18 coded I’m all ears lol I doubt I’m able to do much myself but maybe I can yell at the right people ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899317022648930395) · 146 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 10, 2025:** Apparently stimulants DECREASE all cause mortality in people with ADHD to the same extent that smoking increases it And ofc this isn’t counting quality of life… Grain of salt, just a LLM convo, but all things considered yeah I believe “partially causal” ADHD is actually pretty bad - if you’re reading this you’re probably not exposed much to what ADHD looks like in the bottom half of the distribution (much like autism) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Glu6w-lXoAAYq9S.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Glu6w-1XUAARSFG.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Glu6w-nXwAAmlG_.jpg) ### [Tweet, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899319056190026067) · 2 likes I suspect COVID will go under-analyzed by the intellectual powerhouses in social science because it parses as "merely" a generational event, not a world-historic one, but actually the last major global societal disruption before the singularity is indeed world-historic ### [Reply to @Turn_Trout, 05:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899330419041898651) · 32 likes > **Alex Turner (@Turn_Trout):** The "AI=shoggoth" meme is fun and evocative. But the meme is bad for thinking carefully about how AI might be dangerous. > > Try not to talk about how AI is shoggoth. "Shoggoth" distorts your thinking by anchoring you on the idea of a scary eldritch monster. 🧵 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GluljSraUAApM2W.jpg) It’s not super precise, but my impression is that the meme is more substantive than “scary monster” IMO the point is that base LLM models are unruly extremely complex minds and that the “guy” you’re talking to when you talk to a chat-tuned model is one specific elicitation of this unruly patchwork Not all scary monsters are shoggoths (pick any human serial killer) and not all shoggoths are monsters (although they might all be “scary” in the sense of reasonably evoking fear because they’re as of yet unknown, though not necessarily malicious or bad) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlvG8vrWgAA6XsI.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899330534284673163) · 2 likes Oh lol checked ur bio maybe idk what im talking about lol ### [Tweet, 07:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899358942062424493) · 9 likes Help me decide whether I should go to @vibecamp\_! Manifold market and more below ### [Reply to @mmjukic, 07:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899363716677730648) · 16 likes > **Marko Jukic (@mmjukic):** Kind of insane we don't base entry into the civil service on highly competitive and meritocratic entrance exams. Every time you read about a functional bureaucracy, you also read it used highly competitive and meritocratic entrance exams. Colleges and lawyers still use them! I’m not exactly opposed but professional (lawyer, economist) govt bureaucracy positions already are quite competitive and reasonably meritocratic Not that the hiring process couldn’t be improved at all - it’s just not one of the main ways in which the USG is deficient ### [Reply to @RomanHauksson, 07:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899363843500880170) · 4 likes > **Roman Hauksson-Neill (@RomanHauksson):** We need another SBF but like, not fraudulent this time Yes ### [Reply to @OverheardWDC, 07:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899364363850416226) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @OverheardWDC is no longer available.)_ Save NEPA 🚩🚩🚩🚩 ## Wednesday, March 12, 2025 ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899627792771240380) · 3 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** LSD is Ozempic for meditation > > Adderall is Ozempic for focus > > Need more examples of X is Ozempic for Y Ozempic is ozempic ∀X ### [Reply to @DrSamuelBHume, 19:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899907698914951363) · 19 likes > **Samuel Hume (@DrSamuelBHume):** Top 10 selling drugs globally in 2024 > > 1\. Keytruda (Pembrolizumab) – PD1 inhibitor (for cancer) > > 2\. Ozempic (Semaglutide) – GLP1 receptor agonist (for obesity/diabetes) > > 3\. Dupixent (Dupilumab) – IL4/IL13 inhibitor (for atopic/eosinophilic conditions) > > 4\. Biktarvy (Bictegravir/Emtricitabine/Tenofovir) – anti-HIV > > 5\. Eliquis (Apixaban) – anticoagulant (for atrial fibrillation/DVT/PE) > > 6\. Skyrizi (Risankizumab) – IL23 inhibitor (for psoriasis/IBD) > > 7\. Darzalex (Daratumumab) – Anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody (for multiple myeloma) > > 8\. Mounjaro (Tirzepatide) – GLP1/GIP receptor agonist (for obesity/diabetes) > > 9\. Stelara (Ustekinumab) – IL12/IL23 inhibitor (for psoriasis/IBD) > > 10\. Trikafta (Elexacaftor/Tezacaftor/Ivacaftor) – CFTR modulator (for cystic fibrosis) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gl3Bj7NX0AApegk.jpg) \-umab means “human antibody” apparently, for the curious ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gl3T-0WWwAAske8.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gl3T-0XWkAAmxDO.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gl3T-0QX0AAWCiu.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899910104746521063) · 47 likes 4 hours of @willmacaskill, link below ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gl3WK4rWIAAqNv9.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899935578168451440) · 7 likes Liberalism is weird bc in some sense it’s the water that the West swims in but also fish don’t start protesting for more water until the water starts getting drained (forgive this metaphor) How do we make liberalism per se a thing again? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gl3tVoVWUAAQabZ.jpg) ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 21:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899937581095104641) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Existing institutions aren’t the same as “popular movements” which is what I was trying to get at ### [Reply to @CartoonsHateHer, 21:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899939231276875877) · 4 likes > **Cartoons Hate Her! (@CartoonsHateHer):** MEN: what are some things you do for yourself that make you happy without any productivity or health long term benefit? (So exercise/sleep don’t count.) > > Nothing sexual! Also I may quote you anonymously Idk if this is too pedantic but by default I expect that things that make you happy also have at least health benefits, so there just isn’t very much in this category ### [Tweet, 21:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899940355082248456) · 27 likes Dear capitalists, I would like to spend money to buy a comprehensive blood biomarker monitor Thanks, Aaron ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gl3xrtkXYAAJrw_.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gl3xrtiXwAAV4NV.jpg) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899942707700916716) · 1 like > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** You're gonna have to wait another 7 years > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gl3yM-LW8AA9Inf.jpg) Sad ### [Reply to @RYChappell, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899953059129655572) · 2 likes > **Richard Y. Chappell🔸 (@RYChappell):** No it wouldn't. You might as well claim that a fictional character would think it's real. I’m only like 97% sure I’m phenomenally conscious lol (although if I didn’t know about the arguments for illusionism that would be ~100%) ### [Reply to @shinboson, 23:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899959034977169567) · 26 likes > **𝞍 Shin Megami Boson 𝞍 (@shinboson):** tried an exotic stimulant from a grey-market but otherwise reputable source & it was very effective but I found I had trouble sleeping afterwards. still buzzed the next day, so I thought to actually read the pharmacology in detail > > so anyway, the half-life is like two weeks Bruh ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 23:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1899967302679904559) · 80 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** Is "fatphobia" fear of fat people, or fear of getting fat? > > Because if it's the former, it doesn't exist (who on Earth is scared of fat people?). > > And if it's the latter, it's just called "being reasonable". Being fat is no fun! It’s antagonism against fat people, the “phobia” suffix has evolved past its original meaning for better or worse ## Thursday, March 13, 2025 ### [Reply to @yoltartar, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900019964695765022) · 4 likes > **hinterlander (@yoltartar):** PSA: anything that affects all-cause mortality is extremely likely to be a proxy for social class, in this case i'd guess higher-class ADHD-havers get prescription stims and lower-class people self-medicate with nicotine > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Apparently stimulants DECREASE all cause mortality in people with ADHD to the same extent that smoking increases it And ofc this isn’t counting quality of life Public health should take this way more seriously) Some causality is worth entertaining ### [Reply, 10:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900125964371214344) · 7 likes 1\) sadly ### [Reply to @demiurgently, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900259769975283857) · 2 likes > **sydney (@demiurgently):** why don’t mice make holes like this anymore > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gl6QCzIXwAALfhV.jpg) Real ## Friday, March 14, 2025 ### [Reply to @maiamindel, 13:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900538223471792433) · 47 likes > **Maia (@maiamindel):** I'm sorry but this isn't a real syndrome. He's just in his 50s > > (quoting @JoshRainerGold: Once you know what Cushing’s Syndrome is you’ll see it everywhere. Wouldn’t be surprised if at least 40% of the population has some level of it. Skinny arms/legs with fat around the waist, moon face.) I mean Cushings is a real syndrome, but <<<40% of people have it ### [Quote tweet, 13:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900545607338541353) · 13 likes He did warn us ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmAYKErXQAEUpaG.jpg) > **Quoting Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** @nath_ormond https://benthams.substack.com/p/the-pepfareconomic-case-for-harris?utm_source=publication-search ### [Reply to @tenobrus, 13:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900546177193427188) · 2 likes > **Tenobrus (@tenobrus):** reply with ur most braindead obvious take. the ones that u genuinely think are borderline cringe to post bc everyone already knows. Orange man bad ### [Quote tweet, 14:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900550937627726194) · 3 likes Now that Canada is in the news again, never forget bluegate > **Quoting Canada (@Canada):** Did you know that the symbolic #BlueJay isn't really blue…In fact, we see them as blue due to the way light reflects off of the inside of their wings! Despite the optical illusion, these birds are beautiful and are part of the logo for our #Toronto > @BlueJays! 💙 > > 📷jgazze/IG > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GE26qJjWEAEPvs1.jpg) ### [Tweet, 14:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900560762168283289) · 11 likes New economic indicator ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmAl8OVXIAAtx2T.jpg) ### [Reply to @hpkmxvlaa, 15:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900572422610280491) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @hpkmxvlaa is no longer available.)_ Banger ### [Tweet, 18:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900619706022727975) · 10 likes Can’t even use the walking pad I got without supervision 😔 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmBbjGNWgAA2S3C.jpg) ### [Reply to @NTFabiano, 19:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900637883356135785) · 9 likes > **Nicholas Fabiano, MD (@NTFabiano):** Relative reproductive success (RLRS) is highest for ADHD. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmArMjMWoAE3zU5.jpg) Wait coefficient on polygenic score is importantly different from coefficient on actual trait (phenotype) right? I’d like to see them compared ### [Tweet, 20:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900641633177100640) · 97 likes Apparently ~2M people are prescribed GLP-1 inhibitors, in a country with ~107M obese adults (source below) Seems bad. Much like the new world screwworm, this is one of those rare issues where ~everyone is on the same team! ### [Thread, continued, 20:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900641635190411760) · 9 likes Source is for data up to December https://www.truveta.com/blog/research/glp1-prescription-trends-december-2024/ ### [Thread, continued, 20:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900641636884906288) · 31 likes Unlike vaccines there’s no reason to pressure those who don’t want to use the drugs, but I have a hard time believing that <2% is the “natural” rate of use among obese adults if it were maximally cheap, easy, with full information, etc ### [Tweet, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900675516836823221) · 89 likes Today is my birthday! If you’re feeling generous, please consider donating to an effective organization in an area that OpenPhil isn’t funding, namely rationality, insect welfare, or digital sentience I’d encourage one of the following… ### [Thread, continued, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900675519043019178) · 14 likes 1\) Lightcone Infrastructure aka the people behind @lesswrong, because rationality is good actually Donate: https://www.every.org/lightcone-infrastructure ### [Thread, continued, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900675522612654090) · 14 likes 2\) @eleosai, because digital sentience is a moral shitshow (but like they’re working on that) Donate: https://eleosai.org/donate ### [Thread, continued, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900675525053481246) · 16 likes 3\) Arthropoda Foundation, because insect sentience is also incredibly important + neglected + tractable even though I can’t think of a pithy tagline Donate: https://www.arthropodafoundation.org/give ### [Reply to @Samsox14, 23:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900683674523418964) · 1 like > **Samsox14 (@Samsox14):** @AaronBergman18 Hey, Happy birthday man! Hope you get everything you are reaching for in the coming year. Thank you ❤️ ### [Reply to @eshear, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900692204072366158) · 6 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** Taking suggestions for a single word to describe the reductionist-materialist utilitarian-consequentialist rational-empirical secular-humanist cluster? Guy who has strong opinions about which of these are overrated/underrated (me) Reductionism: ? Materialism: overrated Utilitarianism: underrated Consequentialism: underrated Rationalism: underrated Empiricism: massively overrated Secularism: appropriately rated Humanism: ? ## Saturday, March 15, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900710208004857968) · 15 likes A very secondary but not fake reason frontier AI scaling pause would be good is that the leading companies could turn their insane concentration of talent into some truly banger consumer products/wrappers/applications ### [Thread, continued, 00:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900710210219463099) · 2 likes It wouldn’t feel like an AI winter; in the short-medium term it would feel like greater acceleration and a flourishing of societal adaptation ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 01:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900713836623102242) · 16 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** when i was a kid i remember some formative moments where i knew eating the food off the ground was 'bad' and 'dirty', but then i just tried to think through - did I actually think I would get sick if i ate the ground food? I realized no. > I just applied that to my entire life Lol I’m all (well most) for this style of reasoning but I’m not actually sure you did the reasoning correctly in this specific instance I’d bet eating food off the ground, especially when that involves suppressing a disgust instinct, is in fact unwise and unhealthy lol ### [Thread, continued, 01:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900714048280261006) · 3 likes Mfers will talk about environmental contaminants and then eat a piece of pizza off the ground ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 02:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900743343224553729) · 4 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** It's been remarked upon, but it really is interesting how little follower count matters on this site if you don't do anything with it > > Yang has 1.5 million followers and gets payouts comparable to a lot of accounts with 50000 or fewer > > (quoting @AndrewYang: As usual I will give my x earnings to someone who likes this post. Must follow this account to dm info. Will choose a winner Sunday. Good luck and hope it helps!!) To be pedantic, it doesn’t matter in this one specific way The value of Yang’s platform on here is worth way more than $234 ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 03:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900750684883918903) · 4 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** it's certainly worth more than $234, but the dollars are much less interesting to me than the question of impressions and interactions > > I think it accurately reflects his level of impact on the conversation on here. he has a lot of potential energy but it's not in active use Yeah true - he has ~500 times more followers than me but only a ~20x payout ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmDSrItWwAEIc9u.jpg) ### [Reply to @livgorton, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900768635586482257) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** RIP my stonks 💔 I bet ur doing ok ### [Reply to @robinhanson, 13:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900905854787833904) · 15 likes > **Robin Hanson (@robinhanson):** Could the answer to the hard question of consciousness be this?: All devices & creatures actually feel whatever their brains compute them to feel. https://www.overcomingbias.com/p/what-things-really-feel “Compute them to feel” seems like an incoherent phrase “Feel” is not the kind of thing that falls out of computation (ofc there might in fact be a 1:1 relationship between computational/functional structure and qualia, but thats a quasi-empirical claim that doesn’t answer the hard problem) ### [Tweet, 14:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900913118261223801) · 47 likes Good post was deleted; point being: “net positive fallacy” is the error of excusing bad things because they’re tied together in some non-necessary way with good things Examples: \- person who donates a lot of money but also commits sexual assault. The assault is still bad! ### [Thread, continued, 14:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900913120047947784) · 24 likes I think a big \*real\* example is the implication that we needn’t care about wild animal suffering if wild animals as a group have net-positive lives Even if this is true, there’s a huge amount of suffering that can potentially be addressed ### [Thread, continued, 14:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900914361620685237) · 17 likes Another example would be assuming that we shouldn’t do anything about AI risk if one’s net assessment of the situation is positive; you can be very optimistic and still think we should take safety precautions I think this general class of error feels obvious/trivial but isn’t ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1900963919268663770) · 2 likes > **Dissproportionately (@dissproportion):** Just so you know, “swabbing the deck” isn’t to keep the ship clean, it’s to keep the boards wet so they’re swollen and watertight. wtf ## Sunday, March 16, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 16:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901305307764056231) · 6 likes Lol I got punished by the musk regime for the first time yesterday (luckily just a 12 hour thing) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergm14016):** Ahhhh @AaronBergman18 has been brutally locked out of Twitter > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmHeNZ9WwAAdmu0.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmHeNaebcAI0vVH.jpg) ### [Reply to @crazyclipsonly, 16:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901306647986802879) · 6 likes > **Crazy Clips (@crazyclipsonly):** A carp suddenly swims differently > > [video attached](https://x.com/crazyclipsonly/status/1768785314477224368/video/1) 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱 ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 17:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901321492589384179) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** This is the ideal Goodreads. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmLXMp9WoAA4hMo.png) Do you have a book rec for the whole aerospace industry? ### [Reply to @arabelladevine, 17:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901322852000731476) · 2 likes > **arabella ※ (@arabelladevine):** do you understand yet > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmLagDRasAA7XNO.jpg) Ethics? Yes. Decision theory not really ### [Tweet, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901343527251947981) · 3 likes Here’s a thing I wrote yesterday while I was locked out of twitter ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmLt3Doa8AE65AT.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmLt3C5X0AAsAzT.jpg) ### [Reply to @imitationlearn, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901358894863307118) · 2 likes > **imit (@imitationlearn):** @Tymtweet elaborate?? ^ ### [Tweet, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901361682166788287) · 17 likes I almost never hear Temple Grandin talked about, here or elsewhere, despite her being a sorta mainstream advocate for systematic farmed animal suffering reduction and autistic person + autism understander https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Grandin ### [Thread, continued, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901361690698260864) · 4 likes I think I’m going to listen to this ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmL-YNwagAAx8fz.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901365636913082732) · 2 likes As usual the discourse on universities is incredibly overweighted toward like 15 elite ones, but if we are focusing on the elite ones, I have a naive intuition that $10B+ endowments should be enough to seriously mitigate the direct impact on faculty from federal grant withdrawals ### [Reply to @young_opsimath, 20:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901375382441304348) · 2 likes > **young_opsimath ⏸️ (@young_opsimath):** @AaronBergman18 Probably because she is pro animal welfare (to an extent?) but also pro factory farming. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmMKbEgbsAAMxm3.jpg) Ah huh seems bad I mean I’m very pro harm reduction even within the current regime so maybe she’s just wrong on this specific thing idk ## Monday, March 17, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901437210802397453) · 75 likes Gonna take the vibey side on this one and say that technical incompetence isn’t the fundamental reason social science is unreliable It’s about truthseeking norms and incentives far more > **Quoting Jesse Singal (@jessesingal):** When these studies are debunked, the culprit usually isn't some super subtle, complex, technical thing. It's the sort of potential problem you'd learn in a first-year stats class. Science needs to give the public more compelling reasons to trust it. ### [Thread, continued, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901437213667098864) · 8 likes Yes you will cover omitted variable bias in intro to econometrics but figuring out to what degree that applies in a given real world case, with data that inherently omits approximately all variables, isn’t the kind of thing I’d trust any B+ econ or stats undergrad to get right ### [Thread, continued, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901437215772651979) · 8 likes Tbc I agree the original study is probably fundamentally wrong insofar as it makes any causal claims about the doctor race relationship, just trying to point out that the reason (probably) isn’t failure to understand basic stats ### [Reply to @bubbling_creek, 01:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901441236663230811) · 3 likes > **bubbling creek (@bubbling_creek):** @AaronBergman18 one of the results of said norms and incentives is not selecting hard against people who don't or can't understand the statistical tests though Eh I basically disagree. Selection for technical econometrics + stats understanding is actually pretty strong at least in econ departments where most of this quantitative social science is happening ### [Thread, continued, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901441578087940181) · 4 likes Like I don’t think any of the major issues in social science would be substantially improved if everyone was just smarter and better at math ### [Reply to @AskYatharth, 03:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901480358480093373) · 3 likes > **yatharth ༺༒༻ (@AskYatharth):** what exactly.. happens in a depression? > > the people still know how to make food, like they did two years ago. the wealth production infra stays same > > what exactly goes scarce Plenty of good answers like this which are true much of the time but I object to the premise (sorta) Sometimes the wealth production infra doesn’t stay the same (which can then spiral into a vicious financialized pessimistic cycle but still) ### [Tweet, 05:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901505143314473420) · 200 likes Interesting answer to a question that in hindsight I should have been curious about ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmOA2YEbkAAia_b.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901505363536416920) · 7 likes Not “should” in a real normative sense - more like a question I didn’t know I had ### [Thread, continued, 05:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901505503710068737) · 3 likes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism ### [Thread, continued, 05:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901509590514036920) · 10 likes What do we think folks ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmOE5PdakAEkBpx.jpg) ### [Tweet, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901515436333687083) · 7 likes After becoming an expert (skimming the Wikipedia page), I have come to the conclusion that autism is positively correlated with so many things that it might be more instructive to figure out what if anything unifies psychiatric/cognitive abnormalities it is NOT correlated with ### [Thread, continued, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901515437906571755) · 1 like Claude suggests: \- intentional social manipulation (this seems to check out) \- non-cognitive excesses of emotionality So explosive anger, narcissism, various manias ### [Reply to @Tim_Hua_, 06:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901518344399827246) · 6 likes > **Tim Hua 🇺🇦 (@Tim_Hua_):** My fifty page neel nanda mats application will fr be one in the history records > > (I did not have time to format some super simple graphs and tables and just stacked them one after another. There's 16 pages of appendix that's just simple graphs and screenshots) > > (quoting @panickssery: Kissinger's 400+ page thesis led to a word limit at Harvard Just learned that Caro's 235-page senior thesis led to a word limit at the Princeton English Department The "one weird hack" to become a Great Man of the 20th century is to just write monstrously long undergrad theses) Based ### [Reply to @Tim_Hua_, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901518380999324008) · 2 likes > **Tim Hua 🇺🇦 (@Tim_Hua_):** omg it worked :D > > (quoting @Tim_Hua_: My fifty page neel nanda mats application will fr be one in the history records (I did not have time to format some super simple graphs and tables and just stacked them one after another. There's 16 pages of appendix that's just simple graphs and screenshots)) Congrats! ### [Reply to @jonatanpallesen, 11:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901604134559654085) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @jonatanpallesen is no longer available.)_ She’s also just a much more talented politician lol ### [Reply to @yzilber, 12:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901604683665322429) · 3 likes > **Jazi Zilber (@yzilber):** @AaronBergman18 what a stupid logic. > > you can hold the deficit view, and still hold that autist-autist communication is better. > > I'm finding the neurodiversity ecosystem repulsive. even if some of it has merit. they destroyed the discourse and caused immense harm Idk seems like a pretty simple intuitive model I don’t think this is a woke thing if that’s what you’re getting at, at the very least ### [Quote tweet, 12:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901610618727145865) · 316 likes The insane and morally indefensible thing here isn’t really the incorrect empirical belief, it’s the failure to take precaution under reasonable uncertainty If someone is only 45% likely to be able to feel pain, you give them anesthesia > **Quoting David Wallace-Wells (@dwallacewells):** “As late as the 1980s it was widely believed that babies do not feel pain.” https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2025/03/what-do-we-learn-from-torturing-babies.html ### [Thread, continued, 12:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901611098786160751) · 24 likes This book gives the issue the analysis it deserves btw ### [Reply to @yzilber, 12:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901612218690482289) · 7 likes > **Jazi Zilber (@yzilber):** @AaronBergman18 hardly woke related. > > neurodiversity has a just kernel of truth regarding high functioning "spectrum" people. > > but it's a dumb movement akin to antivaxx > > "don't fix my kid's autism" even when real bad. and lots of fights against therapies of all sorts. > > motte bailey I don’t think this one tidbit is a good stand-in for the whole “mere difference” paradigm The screenshotted section can be totally true alongside lots of other ways in which autism is bad ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 12:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901613825201156234) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Anyone want to adopt a dog? > > Jk it's fine I had to be up at 5.30 for wrestling anyway > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmPhUAvXUAA5Lg0.jpg) Rip ### [Reply to @SevendersOTW, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901729416633331816) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @SevendersOTW is no longer available.)_ Totally unethical IMO ## Tuesday, March 18, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901801815504515427) · 9 likes Big if true > **Quoting ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) (@hmmmcurious):** interesting things are being discovered on /r/migraine > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmRHQ2yWsAErxrn.png) ### [Reply to @KelseyTuoc, 02:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901820553985462543) · 18 likes > **Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** This is even worse than I imagined from the summary. They snatched him off the street and detained him overnight even though he was carrying his ID and social security card proving his US citizenship on him the whole time. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmSY8JFasAAUn2J.png) > (quoting @csilverandgold: well, we told you it was coming. ICE detained Julio Noriega, a 54-year-old US citizen, for the crime of walking while Hispanic. https://www.wbez.org/immigration/2025/03/13/chicago-attorneys-accuse-federal-agents-of-violating-immigrants-rights-and-take-legal-action) Wtf ### [Reply to @AaronEstel, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1901832495559033213) · 2 likes > **Aaron (@AaronEstel):** @goblinodds just put it all in a single text file I can give to Claude. I think that's what unrolling means? I never used the apps for that Apparently so ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmSqkv1bcAAY590.jpg) ### [Reply to @sam_atis, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902069955392155901) · 3 likes > **Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmUP5jSa8AArsZ0.jpg) Rip ### [Reply to @OrionJohnston, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902136937177063889) · 4 likes > **David Johnston (@OrionJohnston):** @nickcammarata It's obviously because vanilla icecream is white, which is the default colour for a milk-based dessert Nah Nick is right Also how come they sell plain yogurt but I’ve literally never seen plain ice cream ### [Reply to @AlexNowrasteh, 23:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902146885550522697) · 2 likes > **The Alex Nowrasteh (@AlexNowrasteh):** “Revoked degrees” — evidence for @bryan_caplan’s signaling model of education? > > (quoting @ColumbiaBDS: BREAKING: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HAS JUST SUSPENDED, EXPELLED, AND REVOKED DEGREES FROM 22 STUDENTS FOR PROTESTING GENOCIDE IN PALESTINE) I was thinking that I’m not sure id terribly mind having my degree “revoked” I could honestly say that’s exactly what happened, and that would signal the same human capital as saying I’m currently a degree holder Much different from getting expelled while at school ## Wednesday, March 19, 2025 ### [Reply to @gptbrooke, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902153681459450328) · 2 likes > **brooke bowman (@gptbrooke):** HI R U FREN DO U HAZ FOOD > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmWchpfbIAA2LTp.jpg) 10/10 would give peas ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 16:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902400114414526820) · 15 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** Be honest ok, do I need to read abundance or is listening to a podcast about it and marinating my brain in that sphere close enough ? This but for basically every semi-popular new nonfiction book that comes out that I see a lot on Twitter ### [Quote tweet, 19:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902444265487122567) · 5 likes TIL the introduction of autism as a diagnosis in the DSM led to fewer diagnoses of “retardation” in children (and I can only imagine that this was a positive development) A point in favor of what some people call “hypermedicalization” > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I think I’m going to listen to this > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmL-YNwagAAx8fz.jpg) ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 21:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902466046830772701) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ I know someone who would make a good local politician (to start) @JesseTayRiver ### [Reply to @skooookum, 21:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902478026035917108) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @skooookum is no longer available.)_ If you need to be regularly hungry to be at a healthy weight, your metabolism is fucked (which, like, maybe you still want to go ahead and do it but you should know this) ### [Reply to @norvid_studies, 23:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902502099272819196) · 13 likes > **norvid_studies (@norvid_studies):** what do you do personally to avoid audience capture Not much besides being naturally kinda disagreeable With a small audience, “audience capture” just means “act so that your friends/colleagues/peers basically like you” and yeah I definitely do that ### [Reply to @shinboson, 23:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902503811995853073) · 15 likes > **𝞍 Shin Megami Boson 𝞍 (@shinboson):** update: the half-life really does appear to be two weeks > > (quoting @shinboson: tried an exotic stimulant from a grey-market but otherwise reputable source & it was very effective but I found I had trouble sleeping afterwards. still buzzed the next day, so I thought to actually read the pharmacology in detail so anyway, the half-life is like two weeks) To be somewhat optimistic, subjective effects do not always track half life for stimulants ## Thursday, March 20, 2025 ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 00:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902520758993129950) · 18 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** Most people think of veganism as 10/10 I think, eating animals from farms that care a lot about animal wellfare as kind of bad, maybe 6/10, and factory farming as 0. I think veganism as neutral 5/10, funding happy farm animals as 10/10, and factory farming as atrocious (0/10) I’m very willing to buy into this framework, but I think your metrics are basically wrong Veganism/neutrality is like 9/10 if you compress the scale of hedonic experience into \[0,10\]. Or maybe 9.5 or 9.9 or even 10 for negative utilitarianism but definitely not 5 ### [Thread, continued, 00:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902520877733781617) · 2 likes “Definitely” is hyperbole. Fine. “Almost certainly” ### [Thread, continued, 00:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902521346271203835) · 3 likes I’m not sure if there’s literally no number of happy pig lives I’d take in exchange for one factory farmed pig life, but it’s at least 100. Single digits isn’t even worth considering And quite possibly on reflection there really is no number ### [Reply to @blapchat, 01:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902530196617519400) · 29 likes > **BLAP (@blapchat):** this is like when taylor lorenz admitted to keeping her apartment at 90 degrees at all times > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmcNxhvbwAAj3ql.jpg) This is kinda based ### [Quote tweet, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902548418829979901) · 5 likes Outrageous > **Quoting Sana Saeed (@SanaSaeed):** Monday night, Georgetown researcher Badar Khan Suri was abducted by masked DHS agents who informed him his visa had been revoked. He is now is facing deportation under the same immigration law provision used against Mahmoud Khalil. > > Suri, an Indian national on a student visa and married to a US citizen, has not been accused of a crime nor charged with one. > > According to his lawyer’s petition to stop the deportation, his case rests on his wife’s “ties with Hamas” and past affiliation with Al Jazeera (international journalists, they’re coming). > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmcuISVWsAABBHW.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmcuIS2a8AAYn4j.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 02:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902549902594363745) · 4 likes I guess I should probably do this now huh > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I’m not really a public protest guy and the last thing I protested for in public was gun control (half-heartedly) in high school but I think I’d like go and yell at the White House irl if Trump basically just defies judicial orders (conditional on like other people being there) ### [Reply to @StatisticUrban, 02:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902553224357294145) · 10 likes > **Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** Not foolproof, but if you read: > \- The Financial Times > \- The New York Times > \- The Economist > \- Foreign Affairs > > You will reliably be in the 98th percentile in terms of accurate and relevant news and information. Yeah but it’s a power law, 99.9th percentile >> 98th percentile The former means knowing about AI and COVID before they hit mainstream press (which comes with high leverage to change things), the latter means you’re broadly on top of “current events” as chosen by the media ### [Reply to @skooookum, 03:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902562265859035278) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @skooookum is no longer available.)_ Me fr ### [Tweet, 03:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902563616789831735) · 2 likes Of all the things going on, I think this is uniquely bad and stands on its own Once Trump stops obeying the judiciary, all bets are off. The administration will give bullshit extravagant excuses like “the plane is over international waters”… https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/us/politics/timeline-trump-deportation-flights-el-salvador.html ### [Reply to @CrispyWicks, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902565827842359620) · 2 likes > **Chris P. Wicks 🔎🐜 (@CrispyWicks):** They should invent a body of mine that's lighter so pullups are easier > > Who's working on this Fr at one point I could do 5 one-arms. I was strong but I was also light ### [Reply, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902565876559229313) · 2 likes Maybe it was 4 ### [Quote tweet, 03:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902566434712019361) · 10 likes The last words humanity sees > **Quoting lisatomic (@lisatomic5):** well this was a new low > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmYGUOHbcAAYn-Y.jpg) ### [Reply to @benryanwriter, 04:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902571189559590983) · 7 likes > **Benjamin Ryan (@benryanwriter):** For years now, I’ve had this nagging feeling like I wouldn’t get into Columbia if I applied these days. Then I found out that students there these days can’t read an entire book. And now we have this from Harvard: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmdHh2pa8AIMqDF.jpg) Maybe of interest. Basically perfect grades + SAT don’t get you into the top schools now, if they ever did https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/most-ivy-smart-students-arent-at ### [Tweet, 05:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902594946458075585) · 7 likes From one of yall (posted with permission) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmdgBVja8AIQ-o5.jpg) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 06:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902603415298908225) · 9 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** pov: your wife said the vowels feel like the even numbers and you said they feel more like the odds > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmdmNBSa8AEpT-b.jpg) She’s obviously right ### [Tweet, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902605576703545842) · 9 likes Seems pretty bad Arbitrary indefinite detention is the kind of thing you want zero of in a country of 300M. The optimal amount \*is\* zero this time ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902605759356993711) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** > > (quoting @NoahTopper: pov: your wife said the vowels feel like the even numbers and you said they feel more like the odds) I like her ### [Reply to @ComInTheMarg, 06:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902606860240261572) · 3 likes > **Comments in the Margin (@ComInTheMarg):** I sometimes wonder if it's worth becoming top level informed. If I have no power, does it really matter? Can't I use my time better by... idk earning to give? Or even just relaxing in my room? I think there’s some level where you’re really doing substantial intellectual work yourself a la @TheZvi and idk about that But simply staying broadly in the right loops via idk 30 mins (\*maybe\* twice that?) of media consumption/day gets you pretty damn far Of course I would say this but I do think the rationalist and EA loops are the correct loops to stay looped in to. I don’t think this takes any extra effort ### [Thread, continued, 06:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902607213710979293) · 3 likes Tbh my one stop shop is just listen to every 80k episode This is a pretty good worldview starter pack ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902610647734480995) · 7 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** Lately we've been doing a lot of riddles. > > Tonight, I asked my 4 yo son, "It takes 15 minutes to boil one egg. How long does it take to boil 3 eggs?" > > He talked out 45 minutes, but then I told him the answer was 15 minutes because you could cook three eggs at once. > > "My turn. Dad, how many tigers have you seen in your life?" > > "I'm not sure. Maybe four or five." > > "Nice." > > We took a happy beat. > > "What's your riddle?" > > He stopped to think. > > "Dad, I don't really know what a riddle is." 10/10 ### [Reply to @bryancsk, 06:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902614571816210828) · 6 likes > **Bryan Cheong 🥮 (@bryancsk):** Does it cost money If you have Amazon prime, One medical is $100/year which includes a physical. Additional visits are like a $30 copay or something I’ve had this for a couple months bc a specialist told me to get a PCP, seems to be pretty decent IME ### [Quote tweet, 06:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902615083928195420) · 15 likes I kinda unironically endorse this meme and the rabbit on the left and think it makes a somewhat compelling intuitive case for caring about wild animal welfare > **Quoting snav (@qorprate):** this meme has incredibly powerful energy and i don't understand why > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmbpTIFbMAAyiSb.jpg) ### [Reply to @goblinodds, 06:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902615817042243898) · 2 likes > **𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** OH NO interesting I endorse air quality monitor + HEPA filter I have Airthings brand ### [Tweet, 12:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902702803664924904) · 33 likes 🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐 EXTREMELY BASED 🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmfCHVBbMAAqROs.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 12:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902703254393295307) · 2 likes https://asteriskmag.com/issues/09/yes-shrimp-matter ### [Thread, continued, 12:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902704942286028898) · 3 likes Underrated: their gif logo [![GIF thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/GmfEDVdXcAA82-P.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902704942286028898/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @nathan84686947, 15:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902744433876971893) · 2 likes > **Nathan Helm-Burger (@nathan84686947):** I think that concern for shrimp is misplaced projection of suffering onto a being not capable of experiencing it. Aversive stimuli perception is not sufficient for suffering. Suffering requires a self-model and worldview to contextualize the aversive stimuli. We have no idea what the necessary and sufficient conditions for sentience/suffering are ### [Tweet, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902792055488749761) · 22 likes I’ve gestured at this before but God it is so dumb that we got essentially a government reform commission with real teeth/power and instrumental competence but it’s worse-than-wasted on the dumbest possible shit + killing poor people + deporting random Hispanics with tattoos ### [Thread, continued, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902792057346986255) · 1 like DOGE could have been great (rename efficiency to efficacy)! In another life 😔 ### [Tweet, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902804581706502338) · 25 likes Minimal viable EA/rat-sphere semantic search engine just dropped Link below, ofc ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmgernXWoAAEnMe.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 19:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902804584868823091) · 7 likes http://earec.net (no preview thingy \[sad\]) ### [Thread, continued, 19:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902804586840129907) · 4 likes Read a slightly more in-depth description at https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Xw98osdN4mEGbRDiR/aaron-bergman-s-shortform?commentId=JNNoTfruJeAAXTuz9 ### [Quote tweet, 19:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902808122445766962) · 91 likes 1\) the progressive fee thing is good 2\) I feel like “100+ mph” should be night in jail territory, at least > **Quoting Betty Yu (@bett_yu):** SPEED CAMERAS > > Here are the fines speeding drivers in San Francisco will face after a 60-day grace period that starts tomorrow > @KTVU > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmdTE9Ma8AM6tx_.jpg) ### [Reply to @simoj_, 19:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902810453425672493) · 2 likes > **simoj (@simoj_):** @AaronBergman18 100mph \*in San Francisco proper\*?? Only one way to find out ### [Reply to @theojaffee, 19:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902810755340091869) · 2 likes > **Theo Jaffee (@theojaffee):** @AaronBergman18 "progressive" based on speed or income? I was thinking income but I guess both ### [Reply to @RokoMijic, 20:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902824939704684867) · 3 likes > **Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** @AaronBergman18 > the progressive fee thing is good > > why? Heuristic about proportionality of punishment/deterrence being important and good for a functional society Also just straightforwardly more progressive distribution of wealth is good on the margin so it’s not fighting up hill ### [Reply to @abcampbell, 21:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902834563585335502) · 2 likes > **Campbell (@abcampbell):** in the end, every tech company is a bank > > (quoting @MorePerfectUS: DoorDash and Klarna have signed a deal where customers can choose to pay for food deliveries in interest-free installments or deferred options aligned with payday schedules.) Or advertising ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902837334938091568) · 9 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** Concerning. This story has some red flags that make me not fully trust the author, Google turns up no fact-checks. Anyone know if this is legit? > > (quoting @jonfavs: This is FUCKING INSANE Trump's ICE goons detained a Canadian actress because of confusion over a work visa for TWO WEEKS - shackled, thrown in a van, sent to AZ, kept awake, not allowed to contact a lawyer…) To not answer your question, one secondary but nontrivial downstream consequence of a lawless administration is that the prior on this type of thing goes way up and we have no way to be confident that arbitrary claims like this didn’t happen ### [Reply to @pronounced_kyle, 21:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902838137144926423) · 21 likes > **Christian Keil (@pronounced_kyle):** \*taps the sign\* > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gmc1cxJaEAAQx5r.jpg) > (quoting @METR_Evals: When will AI systems be able to carry out long projects independently? In new research, we find a kind of “Moore’s Law for AI agents”: the length of tasks that AIs can do is doubling about every 7 months.) You wanna bet on whether SOTA AI in one year can do tasks at or longer than the trendline in the image would imply? $1000 ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 21:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902839108315029699) · 5 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** @AaronBergman18 This is true, but also > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gmg91zRaYAA0cRe.jpg) Yeah but like whatever I stand by it ### [Tweet, 22:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902846453510246833) · 2 likes I hope Hillary Clinton feels vindicated ### [Tweet, 22:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902853276594475365) · 21 likes I love this instagram account. It tickles my brain in just the right way ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmhK9-IXUAA4xa5.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmhK99dXMAAT_yn.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmhK991XoAA7ifl.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmhK99cX0AAIRAU.jpg) ### [Reply to @AnniePosting, 23:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902865818620194861) · 4 likes > **annie 👁❌🦋🪞 (@AnniePosting):** Date with tall goth baddie in 20 minutes, wish me luck chat Good luck ### [Reply to @jordanschneider, 23:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902867955706221003) · 3 likes > **Jordan Schneider (@jordanschneider):** THE EZRA-KELSEY TICKET > > (quoting @KelseyTuoc: Here is what I believe the process should be to convert your garage to a miniature bakery/tea shop: there should be a straightforward checklist online which describes how to meet food safety rules. If you look up current food safety rules, they are long, confusing and scattered…) Omg plz ### [Reply to @RYChappell, 23:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902872099783315806) · 4 likes > **Richard Y. Chappell🔸 (@RYChappell):** Ppl sometimes discuss negative utilitarianism (minimize bads, ignore goods), but never "positive utilitarianism" (maximize goods, ignore bads). > > They seem worth discussing in tandem. "Why think that avoiding harm could ever compensate for missing out on a good? YOLO!" Maybe I’m misunderstanding you but I reject the symmetry assumption here, and also reject that symmetry is implied by utilitarianism (I’ve been thinking about this recently and some people probably want to include symmetry as like an intrinsic feature of the theory they’re calling utilitarianism. Which, if so, fine, then my claim is: symmetry is not downstream of the set of compelling arguments (thought experiments, papers, you name it) that most utilitarians take to imply utilitarianism; we can set aside the question of what the word “utilitarianism” truly means) ## Friday, March 21, 2025 ### [Reply, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902874198240002355) · 1 like Get your beard professionally trimmed + shaped! At least once and then you’ll know what it looks like at it’s best I’ve been told a good shave gets me at least 1 point on a 10 pt scale. And you look good to start! ### [Reply to @ch402, 00:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902876560283115886) · 6 likes > **Chris Olah (@ch402):** Disappointing. > > It's worth saying explicitly: The people disadvantaged by this will be academics, and especially students. For those of us in industry, participating in workshops is optional. But for our academic peers, it's important for their careers. 🌶️ ### [Reply to @MaxGhenis, 01:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902889861696065578) · 1 like > **Max Ghenis (@MaxGhenis):** > > (quoting @captgouda24: The harm from bad driving does not vary with the driver’s income. There is no argument for progressive taxation of externalities.) Yeah, but like should we think of speeding tickets as excise taxes? I’m inclined to say no, but don’t really have a good framework for thinking about it Seems like a social consensus thing - to be an excise tax, it should be universally agreed upon that it’s cool to speed as long as you pay the fine ### [Reply to @RYChappell, 01:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902892246095261891) > **Richard Y. Chappell🔸 (@RYChappell):** I think it's interesting to explore the structural parallels. In light of the structural parity, it's curious that those drawn to an asymmetry all tend to break in the same direction. I agree that (either) asymmetric view is logically coherent as a distinct form of welfarist consequentialism. > > Substantively, I think the kind of lexicalist view you describe (on which avoiding sufficiently bad misery ends up with ~infinite priority, and can't be outweighed by any amount of goods) is rendered implausible by transitive spectrum arguments. > > I also worry that it implies that we should prefer certain extinction over an uncertain future (which has some non-zero chance of the bad which you give ~infinite priority). I think the “and so on” paragraph here is up for debate and actually a good example of the kind of naive mathematics that even quite sophisticated philosophers tend to take as like ground truth models of the universe Like by postulating that you can in fact do the “and so on” paragraph, you’re assuming the conclusion that lexical thresholds are false If lexicality is true, you can approach some limit of badness asymptotically and indeed get slightly less bad for additional time units, but never getting less bad than the lexical threshold ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmhuaOaXkAAWnOK.jpg) ### [Tweet, 03:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902921382997967053) · 51 likes Claude is legitimately better at explaining/simplifying/streamlining my own ideas than I am AGI this, AGI that, idk but Claude 3.7 is an epistemic peer, at least, at least in the realm of semantics and words and text input and output ### [Thread, continued, 03:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902921384616919170) · 2 likes (This could have something to do with me being uncommonly verbose + a messy thinker + bad at simplifying relative to other cognitive things. But still!) ### [Reply to @StatisticUrban, 03:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902922965966262532) · 2 likes > **Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** They're weirdly abundant > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmiKMzfaMAAfckb.jpg) 😱😱😱😱😱😱 ### [Tweet, 03:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902923399971688771) · 17 likes I don’t think I’ve emphasized this before so here’s a claim: “Imagining oneself as an egoist experiencing everything is a uniquely epistemically productive way to do ethics” ### [Thread, continued, 03:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1902923401401909627) · 3 likes This is meta-ethics in a different sense than normal meta-ethics ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 08:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903006492132847858) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ I think it can and does Salient example is like low probability but definite bad lives. It might be very unlikely that you’re born as the Omelas kid so veil of ignorance is tempted to sorta round it to zero Omniscient egoist has to actually live that life ### [Reply to @couldawentpro, 09:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903018410809700643) · 1 like > **bailey ☆ ★ (@couldawentpro):** you lowkey can bring a horse to water but deadass cannot make him drink Fr ### [Quote tweet, 12:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903063997361848387) · 75 likes No posts in 4 months, they must have indeed killed Qualy 😔 > **Quoting Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** Qualy you have to stop. You smoke too tough. Your swag too different. Your bitches are too bad. they'll kill you. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBrd_w-WcAAoK5a.jpg) ### [Reply to @imitationlearn, 13:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903071724637131250) · 2 likes > **imit (@imitationlearn):** what software do you pay for that you think is well worth it? Backblaze ### [Quote tweet, 16:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903115216835010961) · 18 likes Tapping the sign in light of Abundance I know Ezra is sympathetic, I genuinely want to know what he thinks of this > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Steelman of every bad economic policy including tariffs is “less wealth -> less factory farming” ### [Thread, continued, 16:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903115388163919926) · 3 likes Still endorse ### [Thread, continued, 16:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903116102097309836) · 3 likes If anyone is going to a talk and wants to ask this and report back, I would be grateful! ### [Reply to @AaronPublicTwit, 16:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903120684873547845) · 2 likes > **Aaronlington (@AaronPublicTwit):** @AaronBergman18 They talk about this in the first chapter— more dense housing means less suburban sprawl which means more nature which means more wild animal suffering wait wait wait Hmm ### [Reply to @SwiftOnSecurity, 20:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903182327045370358) · 4 likes > **SwiftOnSecurity (@SwiftOnSecurity):** This probably feels so good for the book > > [video attached](https://x.com/venturetwins/status/1902942006797799861/video/1) The modern version is kindle -> screen recording video of you flipping through every page -> pdf (I have done this) ### [Quote tweet, 21:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903190590428455024) · 20 likes F (I don’t feel like I’m super un-empathetic though… 🙁) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gml9wOjWsAA7Tuf.jpg) > **Quoting imit (@imitationlearn):** yeah i’m pretty surprised too… > (i think that there are problems with collapsing a person’s eq down to a single axis) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmlcqibaEAInL14.jpg) ### [Reply to @JohnHolbein1, 21:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903198264649752887) · 20 likes > **John B. Holbein (@JohnHolbein1):** Look at the distribution of z-values from medical research! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmluS7AXAAAF3pt.png) Why the spike at +-4 ### [Reply to @ATabarrok, 21:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903201129824948260) · 2 likes > **Alex Tabarrok (@ATabarrok):** .0001 Right ### [Reply to @_chair, 22:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903215293092028708) · 2 likes > **Chair (@_chair):** @AaronBergman18 poverty/degrowth does not reduce total factory farming, it just shifts it into the future Yeah this is a very real and important counter argument ### [Reply to @thegenesisbl0ck, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903221104308527479) · 89 likes > **Nadia (@thegenesisbl0ck):** All the celebs are “body positive” until the second they can get their chubby fingers on Ozempic. > > (quoting @sizeziro: Her glo up is so insane) This is dumb, you can be fat-accepting at a normative level and recognize the many harms to being fat at a descriptive level There’s no conflict here ## Saturday, March 22, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903237918761660829) · 12 likes Interesting self-correction pattern ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmmozDQXgAAlhJd.jpg) ### [Tweet, 00:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903238499349807199) · 9,734 likes It’s pretty crazy that MRI works. Like you shouldn’t be able to coercively move around all the hydrogen atoms in a persons body with a giant magnet and not have any acute or lasting effects If I didn’t know, I’d guess that you’d die ### [Reply to @anglerfish01, 00:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903245631822483544) · 4 likes > **angLerfish (@anglerfish01):** @AaronBergman18 I think you can be compassionate and altruistic but just not very good at socializing. Although you seem like a very social person to me! maybe you were being too self critical > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmmvDvvaEAEpcsn.jpg) Haha I have people tell me this! I’m basically certain it’s bc of a sorta selection bias - they only interact with me when I’m feeling like interacting with people (which isn’t ~never, but still) ### [Reply to @tautologer, 01:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903255351094391162) · 3 likes > **tautologer (@tautologer):** LLMs are p-zombies I mean they’re literally not lol What do you mean above and beyond “they’re not sentient” ### [Reply to @BernieSanders, 01:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903256808543731781) · 2 likes > **Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders):** Today, @AOC and I had 34,000 people come out in Denver. > > It is the largest rally that I have ever had. > > And it tells me that the American people will not allow Trump to move us into oligarchy and authoritarianism. > > We will fight back. We will win. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gmm3B90XUAQq302.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gmm3B9zWEAAWgT2.jpg) That is several people ### [Quote tweet, 01:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903259948915519782) · 24 likes Fun fact: semi-contrary to popular understanding of autism, the lack of empathy in autism is specifically \*cognitive\* empathy ie theory of mind \*Affective\* empathy ie feeling strongly on behalf of others is not diminished I think this explains me pretty well ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gmm81fYaEAIbTzu.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** F (I don’t feel like I’m super un-empathetic though… 🙁) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gml9wOjWsAA7Tuf.jpg) ### [Reply to @chasedownleads, 01:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903262246169444510) · 2 likes > **Chase Passive Income (@chasedownleads):** Is there a better place to spend a Friday than here? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gmk721BaQAAdWOP.png) @SpacedOutMatt ### [Reply to @yzilber, 04:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903307364402401281) · 770 likes > **Jazi Zilber (@yzilber):** it doesn't move them, it changes their quantum spin. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gmnkh2eaEAAQpEl.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gmnkh2Pa8AAaL3K.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gmnkh0cbkAA8jqS.jpg) Ah I didn’t realize it was a quantum thing ### [Reply to @polisisti, 09:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903381480539140307) · 3 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 I got 30 — just the right number to continue my narrative of "people have occasionally asked me if I'm autistic, and I'm not really sure" Lol ### [Quote tweet, 10:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903386811222708624) · 16 likes Recent history (like 5-20 years old) is the most interesting and extremely underrated in academia, education, nonfiction popular books, and entertainment (maybe least underrated in entertainment - see eg The Big Short movie but still) > **Quoting 🏛 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 🏛 (@nonregemesse):** Which opinion about history will get you like this? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmlMGduaEAEH4Md.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 10:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903387319526183105) · 3 likes Side note: I’ve gotten into the habit of just pasting my tweets into Claude to see what He’ll say ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmowrSJWwAAseyC.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 10:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903388989878321416) · 2 likes Here’s an example: in college I had a lot of ancient history courses but no option for “the history of the Great Recession” or social media, or the war on terror ### [Quote tweet, 10:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903391141652828366) · 10 likes I still don’t think this is the highest impact place to donate, but I will stan the choice to screenshot and share If you donate, especially a large amount of money like $10k, get some social credit goddamnit! > **Quoting Alex Turner (@Turn_Trout):** Thanks to @NeelNanda5, I was thinking about how USAID's absence has left many ppl vulnerable. Last night I felt fairly low. So I donated $10K to https://www.givewell.org/all-grants-fund, matched +$10K by Google. > > $ can't stop me from feeling low right away. But lots of folks need help. Donate :) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmbrYKobUAAkSDl.jpg) ### [Reply, 11:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903401481396461701) · 4 likes Banana ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 11:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903407822336909703) · 5 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** “I likes them before they were famous” is out “I hated them before they were infamous is in” who have you number one hater if since day 1? I’m surprised I tweeted this strongly in hindsight but ### [Reply to @imitationlearn, 17:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903501330775228421) · 2 likes > **imit (@imitationlearn):** how do u guys control/limit ur twtr usage? i’m finding it quite hard even when i actively want to! would appreciate some thoughts :) > > note: i think framing as “control/limit” also is a negative framing that doesn’t help with my motivations since it’s like parts of me fighting > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gmp8AK2bMAAT2Ho.jpg) I probably use too much but 24 hour fasts once in a while ### [Tweet, 17:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903502104070631603) · 2 likes AI companies should let people do a few floating point operations by hand to train models (Idk if this is actually feasible) ### [Tweet, 17:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903505037629722980) · 681 likes Claude is a narc ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gmqbvl1WQAAb_d2.jpg) ### [Reply to @mpopv, 18:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903508043439947945) · 5 likes > **Matt Popovich (@mpopv):** @AaronBergman18 Make Rizz Aligned Again 💯 ### [Quote tweet, 18:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903510200419553597) · 15 likes Lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmqgcDdbkAA6_VS.jpg) > **Quoting daeveningglow (@InlandCaGuy):** Seems like a lot of young dudes are blowing it, lol. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gmp2TN6bcAArHLm.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gmp2TN7bQAA_f3t.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903510423774626101) · 6 likes Kinda ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmqgpGlXMAAxvgV.jpg) ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 18:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903511711128166771) · 6 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** You may not like it but this is what true contrarianism looks like > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmqdSxpaoAALCzP.jpg) Haha I voted the same, but it’s a close call between A and C ### [Tweet, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903522195034210538) · 16 likes Guys what’s the best intro to EA for her ### [Reply to @joelhooks, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903522290467303487) · 9 likes > **joel ⛈️ (@joelhooks):** the robots are dumb > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gmqpgf_aEAAkXyn.jpg) ✊ ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903528357351866832) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 22, 2025:** Guys what’s the best intro to EA for her Like it used to be Doing Good Better Surely there’s something more up to date at this point? ### [Reply to @Pandora_Delaney, 19:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903529979658338547) · 13 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @Pandora_Delaney is no longer available.)_ Here’s a fun series https://reducing-suffering.org/ ### [Reply to @matt_olma, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903579332863217994) · 12 likes > **Matt Olma (@matt_olma):** In terms of importance, who wins this tournament? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmqiKe8XsAAjOe0.jpg) Bro you can’t put normative and meta-ethics together in the first round that’s fr two 1st seeds ### [Reply to @livgorton, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903581424378143207) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** really feeling the AGI now > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmrYTL8asAA-A5G.jpg) The algorithm knows me better than I do ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmrhN4uXUAAnPpt.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 23:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903585648386166855) · 8 likes Here is the objectively correct ordering (I’m actually pretty unsure about some of them I haven’t engaged a ton with so grain of salt) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmrlDvGXgAAk0Lo.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmrlDvGWQAAIPu-.jpg) > **Quoting Matt Olma (@matt_olma):** In terms of importance, who wins this tournament? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmqiKe8XsAAjOe0.jpg) ### [Reply to @beala, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903586717870731762) · 2 likes > **Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** All right just got served a pornographic ad of a guy jacking off. I reported it as adult content and it asked me if I wanted to upgrade to premium. Might be taking a little break from x dot com. Bad but also lol ### [Reply to @tautologer, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903586926856491210) · 5 likes > **tautologer (@tautologer):** unless you're using every waking minute with the maximum possible efficiency, time is not your bottleneck. your true bottleneck is energy, focus, or courage. "I don't have enough time" is deep cope Yeah fr, there have been like 19 days in my life when I truly have not had enough time ### [Reply to @animalologist, 23:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903590117551259939) · 2 likes > **taco belle (@animalologist):** There’s something so fascinating about having reply guys who disagree with you more often than they agree with you. Does everybody have this or is this a me thing @absurdlymax ### [Thread, continued, 23:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903590187600421263) · 2 likes But in a good way ### [Tweet, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903591343911211238) · 5 likes Dirty hamper and clean hamper is the best clothing organization system change my mind ### [Thread, continued, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903591345517649926) · 5 likes The pile is the most natural and elegant sorting method in general ## Sunday, March 23, 2025 ### [Tweet, 03:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903656080372035871) · 11 likes You have a moral responsibility to stand up for the low status in whatever domains you are high status in (if you’re very intelligent stand up for the less gifted, if you’re hot stand up for the ugly etc) ### [Tweet, 04:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903659057820450940) · 16 likes Destroying Teslas has got to be the dumbest\*worst method of protest It’s incredibly overdetermined: \- being pro-MAGA is bad but not worthy of a $30k fine each \- we live in a society aka classical liberalism \- you should really give people the benefit of the doubt ### [Tweet, 04:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903659059204526303) · 1 like \- only very recently has Elon showed the worst of himself IMO \- it’s real wealth destruction, worse than stealing from the rich to give to the poor in this sense ### [Thread, continued, 04:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903659060634775776) · 2 likes \- if you’re still not persuaded, you should probably start with less destructive methods like TPing/tomatoing the car. You don’t have to literally destroy it ### [Thread, continued, 04:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903659062404796907) · 2 likes \- part of the theory of change is that you sell the car? How does that help (hurt Elon) exactly? I guess decreasing the value a tiny bit? Ok sure \- calling for a boycott moving forward is a totally legit alternative \- probably more ### [Reply to @EpochAIResearch, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903665164416630959) · 2 likes > **Epoch AI (@EpochAIResearch):** Many AI leaders claim AI's value mainly will come from accelerating R&D—"geniuses in datacenters." > > This view has key flaws: R&D contributes less to economic growth & is harder to automate than believed. Most of AI's value will instead come from broad deployment in the economy. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gml92RAaEAIZlf0.jpg) Wait but almost all economic growth over time is due to total factor productivity growth right? And post-1980 is an anomaly ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 06:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903693749995061295) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 Based ### [Reply to @NeelNanda5, 06:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903698154718994749) · 6 likes > **Neel Nanda (@NeelNanda5):** Working for Google certainly has its share of BS, but I've never had anything as bad as an employer threatening to take back years of paid compensation unless I signed a lifetime concealed non disparagement. Not everything is an upgrade. > > (quoting @nearcyan: If you work on core Google AI products and are interested in a more fun work environment with a higher talent bar, and most importantly, less bureaucracy and BS, consider joining Anthropic, OpenAI, or xAI! All three are aggressively hiring. I will match you with a recruiter, DM!) 🌶️ ### [Reply to @animalologist, 08:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903720222101590124) · 10 likes > **taco belle (@animalologist):** YOOOO I used a butter knife and popped the seal fuck yeah I knew that publicly bullying myself would motivate me adequately to figure it out, now we snac > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmtV7EnWAAAwmWw.jpg) Making jars openable by say 90% of the adult female population is a movement with a missing constituency It sorta falls between the feminist/non-feminist/anti-feminist cracks ### [Quote tweet, 08:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903721028473246005) · 12 likes Declining CO2 emissions per capita in the US kinda lacks a constituency to publicize it (although there are also good reasons not to focus on or care about this much) Making jars openable by women lacks a constituency What else is like this? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmtgL3JbwAAxCy6.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @animalologist Making jars openable by say 90% of the adult female population is a movement with a missing constituency > > It sorta falls between the feminist/non-feminist/anti-feminist cracks ### [Reply to @iamaheron_, 08:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903727204107763815) · 2 likes > **sniper (heron) (@iamaheron_):** a lot of people will get 2 or 3 high-profile followers and be like “holy shit, i can’t lose these followers” and then they become scared of posting anything ever again > > for the love of god, do not let 2 or 3 people take control your life Dustin Moskovitz follows me on Bluesky and I kinda wanna post exclusively for him to see but then again I don’t wanna be too much of a simp so I basically don’t do anything lol ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 13:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903805812197183826) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** This is the blog post that's gonna get me cancelled once and for all > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmqyuGlXcAAX8XL.jpg) Yes I will cancel u ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 14:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903811900242010540) · 2 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** At long last, we can use the magic of AI to heal the broken "bishop" of its unfortunate cut. > > (Accidentally gave this prompt to the wrong openai model, and it used matplotlib to paint a random oval on it.) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmuybCDXIAAtelO.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmuybDnXAAAxGxh.jpg) Lol ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 14:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903820285779800542) · 4 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** Just spent the morning explaining effective altruism to a priest Interesting, curious to hear more! ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 14:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903822457200369970) · 2 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** @moreisdifferent @AaronBergman18 I don't mind but am curious as to why you retweeted this? It’s just interesting idk ### [Thread, continued, 14:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903822561227501646) · 2 likes Like the kind of thing more people might like to see ### [Tweet, 15:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903826394502582281) · 5 likes Maybe what people actually don’t like about “theater kids” is their attempt to subvert/deny the consensus status hierarchy ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 15:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903831609121395195) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @NeelNanda5 Google took away the freshly squeezed orange juice at breakfast and replaced it with juice from a carton. > > So who's the real monster? Tech is DEAD ### [Reply to @suntzugi, 16:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903846347402359148) · 9 likes > **Sun 乌龟 💖 (@suntzugi):** "suffering is necessary" is one of the greatest false beliefs that permeates the culture > > Perhaps the ultimate sentient being cope > > (quoting @beffjezos: Pain is the greatest teacher) He’s actually right I think when it comes to ethics I suspect it is literally impossible for a non-suffering being to appreciate the moral importance of suffering (maybe by contrast with pleasure? Idk) ### [Reply to @imitationlearn, 16:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903851978004005277) · 4 likes > **imit (@imitationlearn):** ive wondered a lot about this! > > do i need to know pain (and suffering?) to know what i want directionally? from some thinking, the answer seems like unfortunately yes. i don't know something until ive experienced it, right? but i feel like this is not strictly true... > > our society prevents lots of very bad things from happening to its inhabitants (eg measles, arbitrary homicide) by having laws and sharing of ethics/morals. i wonder if a society that "grows" past many of the modern forms of pain/suffering by creating preventative measures will stick to those measures if they forget why they exist in the first place. > > i do believe (from my buddhist/meditation friends and teachers) that there can be happiness regardless of the circumstances, but i wonder if this lesson can be taught without having gone through some part of life and suffered and then realized that this is the case. i think perhaps not? > > this relates to the idea in my QT (below) of learning something too early to gain value from it. > > calling in my quant @\_space_punk\_ for this one too > > (quoting @orphcorp: hard to explain in a tweet but exposing ppl to the concept of "cognitive security" too early is likely to be incredibly infohazardous & incur lasting damage by prematurely closing off exploratory behaviors, eroding capacity to trust, & ultimately impeding psychosocial development) I’m really talking about suffering to appreciate the intrinsic disvalue of suffering - whether you need suffering instrumentally is separate (and totally reasonable+valuable) question ### [Reply to @_space_punk_, 16:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903852242278466005) · 4 likes > **ꜱᴘᴀᴄᴇ ᴘᴜɴᴋ (@_space_punk_):** Pleasure is just the feeling of relief from a lower previous baseline state. Everything isn't suffering in the sense of pain, but everything, including pleasure, is dukkha in that it is movement. Time always happens, change always happens. Things can only get better or worse. Even if they stay the same, you will have hedonic adaptation so they will start to feel less pleasurable (aka worse). Existence isn't suffering in the sense of pain, but it is suffering in the sense of time/change/movement (aka dukkha) I don’t think this is true lol Pleasure has an intrinsic property of goodness that is neither created by nor dependent on relief from something worse ### [Thread, continued, 16:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903852301246234643) · 2 likes Although as an empirical matter they may line up ### [Tweet, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903854823276945730) · 6 likes Might delete but: there’s a thinkpiece to be written about how Hanania discourse is often a proxy war over the relative value of intellectual honesty vs good vibes Grey tribe worships the former, blue tribe the latter ### [Quote tweet, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903871131020324945) · 20 likes What ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gmvos61W0AEI1AQ.jpg) > **Quoting John Gramlich (@johngramlich):** New post on our methodology blog reads like a whodunit: How a bizarre technical glitch caused the word "yes" to be replaced with the word "forks" in online surveys https://www.pewresearch.org/decoded/2025/03/21/how-a-glitch-in-an-online-survey-replaced-the-word-yes-with-forks/ ### [Reply to @skooookum, 18:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903877883304792489) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @skooookum is no longer available.)_ Relevant lol ### [Tweet, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903887345159688509) · 6 likes Re: abundance housing policy: there’s no direct conflict between YIMBY building policies and direct housing subsidization by the government (as opposed to just mandating that the landlord charge below market prices) ### [Tweet, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903887346929373486) · 1 like If anything there’s a natural semi-transactional coalition here between the center/center-left and left here - center gets liberalized zoning, left gets direct subsidization of housing ### [Thread, continued, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903887349211140188) · 3 likes Now I think this is a worse use of public money than just cash transfers/negative income tax But it’s not \*that\* much worse, and it’s certainly better than other arbitrary things the government can pay for on behalf of the poor (subsidized donuts, whatever) ### [Thread, continued, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903888784992714843) · 2 likes I have been informed that Ezra just says this in the book. Sadly not original 😢 ### [Reply to @JosephPolitano, 21:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903921320804425982) · 17 likes > **Joey Politano 🏳️‍🌈 (@JosephPolitano):** Jesus Christ man I think people in the broad liberal cluster ascribe too much to “working with” whomever It doesn’t have to be a kumbaya thing—in a democracy, votes/hearts+minds are power. You have power, you get a seat at the table, for the same reason Putin and any other nuclear-armed warlord gets a seat at the table Yes you should absolutely “work with” racists and whomever else when things that matter are on the line and they have something to offer. It’s not an endorsement (Steelman of the opposing side probably involves like “working with” being empowering; there’s something to this but I don’t think it generally carries the day) ### [Reply to @monke_io, 21:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903927409256120699) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @monke_io is no longer available.)_ Yeah iirc like >1% of executed people are definitively innocent in the US ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 22:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903935684005482836) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ They should not float like that! ## Monday, March 24, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903964849735950521) · 37 likes Man Kantianism is wrong on so many levels It’s like a black pill on philosophy that anyone fell (falls!) for it ### [Reply to @_mattmandel, 00:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903970758822641900) · 16 likes > **Matt Mandel (@_mattmandel):** You might be interested in this essay I wrote on the philosophical foundations of EA and the comparative advantages of Kantianism over consequentialism https://matthewmandel.com/2022/08/31/on-the-philosophical-foundations-of-ea/ > > Is there a particular argument for consequentialism you find especially persuasive? This sounds trite and question-begging but things that in fact happen just \*are\* the things that matter. Tbh I don’t have a super sophisticated defense of consequentialism per se, it seems to me so trivially correct and all the interesting questions start after you’ve accepted consequentialism and specifically utilitarianism As for why not Kantianism, the thing I find most compelling is that it (afaict uncontroversially) gives no weight to suffering per se. Nothing wrong with torturing a being as long as it’s not “rational,” and this is sufficient for me to dismiss it out of hand FWIW I actually agree with your thesis that EAs should care more about moral philosophy, I just think all the plausible and interesting disagreement is underneath the umbrella of utilitarianism ### [Reply to @corsaren, 00:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903971605111308640) · 3 likes > **corsaren (@corsaren):** Which parts? I think his metaethics is brilliant even if his applied ethics is shit (i.e., ofc you can lie to a nazi looking for Anne Frank) Nothing wrong with suffering per se also like punts on the question of “ok well what would/should/shall I will, as a rational being” Also no good way of deciding between multiple (really infinite) possible dictums you could be considering as relevant in any given scenario Also elevates something like “elegant consistency” to the highest possible good with no legitimate justification (ik this one is contentious) ### [Quote tweet, 00:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903972418667819223) · 7 likes I have no idea what I’m talking about but I feel like the distinction between ethics and decision theory is a bit blurrier than it first seems Like ok, “consequences” matter, well what kind of consequences? Logical ones, causal ones, evidential ones, etc? > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @matthewjmandel This sounds trite and question-begging but things that in fact happen just \*are\* the things that matter. Tbh I don’t have a super sophisticated defense of consequentialism per se, it seems to me so trivially correct and all the interesting questions start after you’ve accepted consequentialism and specifically utilitarianism > > As for why not Kantianism, the thing I find most compelling is that it (afaict uncontroversially) gives no weight to suffering per se. Nothing wrong with torturing a being as long as it’s not “rational,” and this is sufficient for me to dismiss it out of hand > > FWIW I actually agree with your thesis that EAs should care more about moral philosophy, I just think all the plausible and interesting disagreement is underneath the umbrella of utilitarianism ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 02:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1903992420217360888) · 5 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** Finally: I’ve been called a Jew (?) > > (quoting @whStancilGala: This Jew says non-citizens have no rights at points of entry but if you go around the point of entry you do.) L’chaim ### [Tweet, 02:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904000488594378952) · 25 likes Took long enough (I don’t blame him, I think he’s a bad guy and have been actively antagonistic) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmxeWoxXgAAldRo.jpg) ### [Reply to @tapir_worf, 02:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904001219955138680) · 2 likes > **tapir worf (@tapir_worf):** i’m so tired of reading shel silverstein > > what’s a slightly better more grown up poet i can migrate my kids to? Edgar Allen Poe ### [Reply to @RomanHauksson, 02:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904002122414174242) · 2 likes > **Roman Hauksson-Neill (@RomanHauksson):** More research in general should be interactive demos! I think it's unfortunate that PDFs are the standard presentation format for research when many would benefit from being webpages Semi related: now that Substack is the dominant blog, they should allow arbitrary html embeds ### [Reply to @jutyrannus, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904006807971836206) · 3 likes > **Joakim 🇫🇮🇲🇽 (@jutyrannus):** In case you missed it, there are feral giraffes in Mexico > > (quoting @ElFinanciero_Mx: 🦒😱 ¡Jirafas en #Coahuila! Policías encontraron varias jirafas deambulando en Hidalgo, Coahuila. 🚓🌵 Autoridades investigan cómo llegaron ahí y aseguran su bienestar. 📷 redes sociales) Basado ### [Quote tweet, 03:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904009363053785127) · 5 likes Ok hear me out: this is a unique opportunity to do wild animal welfare via contraception > **Quoting El Financiero (@ElFinanciero_Mx):** 🦒😱 ¡Jirafas en #Coahuila! > > Policías encontraron varias jirafas deambulando en Hidalgo, Coahuila. 🚓🌵 Autoridades investigan cómo llegaron ahí y aseguran su bienestar. > > 📷 redes sociales > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gl44QKFW8AA9ldE.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gl44QKvXoAA9POd.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gl44QKKWIAAjSwi.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904009711701078230) · 3 likes Like before they start starving to death No predators in Mexico apparently I don’t mind a quite robust New World Giraffe population as long as they’re happy ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmxmvW3bIAA_8Nm.jpg) ### [Reply to @lxeagle17, 10:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904123898511102196) · 4 likes > **Lakshya Jain (@lxeagle17):** Is the following image 55% blue or 55% red? > > Take a guess. It's virtually impossible for the naked eye to tell. And this is why you \*cannot\* say a model that says there is a 55% chance of a one-off event occurring is that, functionally, from one that gives a 45% chance. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmvagN9bkAA7y8H.jpg) This is true but the example says much more about human neuropsych than it does about the nature of statistics ### [Quote tweet, 11:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904128827749474690) · 6 likes Could you beat a fox in a fight? No weapons Poll below > **Quoting Peter Schmidt-Nielsen (@ptrschmdtnlsn):** It's funny that my takeaway from this graphic is 180° from what I see everyone say. Obviously everyone is wildly underconfident? Sure, 8% saying they'd beat a lion is wrong, but that's close to lizardman. 50% saying they'd somehow lose to a goose seems like a \*much\* worse error! ### [Tweet, 11:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904129555201138821) · 1 like ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmzTvKIbkAAPq9W.jpg) ### [Tweet, 11:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904136522258854029) · 10 likes Brilliant by Uber Eats, estimating individual demand curves (I’ve gotten a series of coupons now this decreasing in value) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmzaEwdXAAAO1_K.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 11:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904136530118996074) · 7 likes Ugh it’s kinda fun econometrics Estimate P(each stage in order process conditional on previous) => propensity to purchase as a function of price => calculus to find optimal “discount” to give each consumer ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmzaFMPWYAAeVZQ.jpg) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 12:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904153838010929225) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Never ask a woman her salary or a Kantian what Kant thought about bastards > > "A child that comes into the world apart from marriage is born outside the law (for the law is marriage) and therefore outside the protection of the law." > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Man Kantianism is wrong on so many levels It’s like a black pill on philosophy that anyone fell (falls!) for it) Seems wrong ### [Reply to @ElytraMithra, 12:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904154250680184873) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @ElytraMithra is no longer available.)_ Lmao ### [Quote tweet, 12:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904155096889413981) · 9 likes Isn’t Chevron deference dead? Isn’t the whole point that this kind of thing has to go through congress now? > **Quoting unusual_whales (@unusual_whales):** BREAKING: Robert F. Kennedy Jr has announced plans to ban pharmaceutical advertisements on television. ### [Reply to @boreal_country, 13:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904162619520410064) · 1 like > **Beau (@boreal_country):** @AaronBergman18 Chevron was deference to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes. Unless he’s trying to expand the scope of FDA’s authority using an ambiguous phrase it’s just regular delegation. My pretty vague impression is that there are a ton of random statutes that can be interpreted in quite broad ways to covet a pretty wide range of arbitrary regulatory actions ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 13:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904165718804861049) · 12 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Well you need an abundance of cognitive labor, if only there was some other technology that could provide this (tbc I am still in favor of 1BA) ### [Tweet, 15:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904198464155611546) · 3 likes Wow reading out loud is really tiring ### [Quote tweet, 17:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904230344804430169) · 321 likes Hot take: this is bad for a lot of reasons, but my expectations are so low for the administration that the reasonable seriousness shown in these screenshots is actually a sort of positive update ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm0vZ7rWMAAykRN.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm0vZ7qWoAENhas.jpg) > **Quoting Shane Harris (@shaneharris):** In 25 years of covering national security, I’ve never seen a story like this: Senior Trump officials discussed planning for the U.S. attack on the Houthis in a Signal group--and inadvertently added the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/trump-administration-accidentally-texted-me-its-war-plans/682151/?gift=kPTlqn0J1iP9IBZcsdI5IVJpB2t9BYyxpzU4sooa69M&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share ### [Thread, continued, 17:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904230348189508093) · 41 likes (Notably absent is trump himself, who I do not expect would have reasonably cogent and serious messages) ### [Reply, 21:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904288369485439406) · 1 like What max % single year growth rate would you bet 1:1 at, say years 2025-2028? Like if every single calendar year is below that threshold you win ### [Tweet, 21:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904291918328041519) · 10 likes I’m interested in betting on a single calendar year having GDP growth above 5% (real, US) by 2030, if anyone is interested in 1:1 odds (feel free to haggle terms) ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 22:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904296137739129054) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Crazy ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 22:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904306642075689416) · 3 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** Everybody loves a meritocracy until people realize that they're the ones without merit. Synthesis, ofc, is non-ruthless meritocracy (meritocracy + transfers to the less skilled a la progressive taxation + negative income tax at the bottom) ## Tuesday, March 25, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 01:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904340183954215391) · 15 likes Requesting more of this (share only with the kids consent please, kids are people too) I’m so curious lol > **Quoting Gena Gorlin (@Gena_I_Gorlin):** Gave 5yo access to her own ChatGPT context window; came back 10 minutes later to find this > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm2KSeWXgAAls3Z.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm2KSePXIAAdjev.jpg) ### [Reply to @ElijahRavitz, 01:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904348647703118286) · 30 likes > **Elijah Ravitz-Campbell (@ElijahRavitz):** Seriously? The Europe bashing, the "better protect Saudi oil interests"? This is confirmation that they are every bit the incompetent corrupt buffoons they appear to be from the outside. Hey my expectations are really low No predictable updating, Bayes, etc ### [Reply to @LizkaVaintrob, 01:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904351926252171669) · 3 likes > **Lizka (@LizkaVaintrob):** Apropos nothing- during a summer camp in early HS my roommate & I got dared to sneak across the hall after curfew and send a selfie to a group chat (as proof) > > Of course we accidentally sent the photo to the chat with camp counselors > > One of the scariest moments in my life iirc Cancellable IMO ### [Tweet, 02:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904353468791292044) · 37 likes Beating a dead horse atp but Community Notes cited as exemplary use of AI for epistemics in Preparing for the Intelligence Explosion (pdf below) Cc @jaybaxter ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm2fYyeWMAwMyqp.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904353471295263230) · 3 likes https://www.forethought.org/research/preparing-for-the-intelligence-explosion.pdf ### [Thread, continued, 02:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904353629659636135) · 3 likes By @willmacaskill and @finmoorhouse, needless to say ### [Tweet, 02:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904359226836664405) · 34 likes Tl;dr intelligence explosion this century \*probable\*, plausibly this decade Buckle up ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm2knMlbwAAIQZ9.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904359229512638822) · 2 likes https://www.forethought.org/research/preparing-for-the-intelligence-explosion.pdf ### [Thread, continued, 02:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904359336895263030) · 2 likes I recorded a reading of this to be dropped on a podcast feed near you soon 👀 ### [Reply to @jaybaxter, 02:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904359680513585363) · 2 likes > **Jay Baxter (@jaybaxter):** Community Notes scale and speed up fact-checking, and do so in a more trustworthy way. > > But to handle AI-scale misinfo slop, we’ll probably want AI assistants helping to write notes. “Supernotes” is one proposal of how this could work: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm2keS9bEAAnfa-.jpg) > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Beating a dead horse atp but Community Notes cited as exemplary use of AI for epistemics in Preparing for the Intelligence Explosion (pdf below) Cc @jaybaxter) I’ll bump this in case anyone wants to finetune something ### [Quote tweet, 02:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904364001166848121) · 9 likes High key it’s dumb that they chose the basketball height rim to basically maximize the impact of height Make it 8 feet or 14-16 feet > **Quoting ROBYNA 👽 (@socoolrobyna):** In the name of fairness should this kid be allowed to compete against other kids? I really care about this for some reason and it will be a primary point in my politics ### [Tweet, 03:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904372610978238613) · 3 likes Claude has data export now Here is my Claude Wrapped: Convos: 2262 Total messages: 10058 = 5029 each Total word count: 1953658 ≈ 2M ### [Reply to @wokal_distance, 11:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904494543443005723) · 5 likes > **Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance):** The young media-savvy progressives hold extremist views that are going to totally alienate mainstream voters. > > For example, the woman mentioned here wants to: > \- Allow unlimited numbers of refugees > \- allow "gender affirming medical care" for minors > \- Pack the supreme court > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm2KlbmaMAAm8KM.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm2K9z7agAAV-MX.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm2LkT3bIAEC-m9.jpg) Uh kinda based ngl ### [Reply to @MarioNawfal, 11:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904499925871673804) · 6 likes > **Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal):** 🚨🇺🇸 GPS DATA EXPOSES ASTROTURFING AT DENVER BERNIE-AOC RALLY > > That massive Bernie Sanders and AOC rally in Denver? Turns out it wasn’t as “grassroots” as advertised. > > Despite claims of 34,000 attendees, GPS data analysis reveals the real number was closer to 20,000—still big, but not record-breaking. > > More revealing? A whopping 84% of those devices had shown up at nine or more other protests, including Antifa/BLM events, pro-Hamas and pro-Palestinian demonstrations, and Kamala Harris campaign stops. > > Over 30% had attended twenty or more. > > Data analysts say the crowd was anything but organic—the majority were tied to activist networks like Disruption Project, Indivisible, Democratic Socialists of America, Rise & Resist, and Troublemakers—all reportedly funded by ActBlue and some receiving backing via USAID. > > Optics over authenticity. The playbook hasn’t changed—just the targets. > > Source: @zerohedge @TonySeruga > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gmwjt5paoAA0YMt.jpg) > [video attached](https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/1903936132494024726/video/1) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GmwjxOCb0AAJNCM.jpg) > (quoting @MarioNawfal: 🇺🇸BERNIE AND AOC TAKE AIM AT BILLIONAIRES IN COLORADO RALLIES At a packed Vegas stop, Sanders said it flat-out: the Democratic Party needs fewer elites and more people who “get their hands dirty” and “struggle to put food on the table.” They’re now taking that message to Greeley…) Lmao the accusation is that people who went to a lot of previous progressive irl events went to another progressive irl event Damning ### [Quote tweet, 15:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904560273140088844) · 16 likes Tapping the sign It seems very bad if a lawless authoritarian administration is administering the intelligence explosion > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** This is less ambitious than what @PauseAI and friends are calling for, but a somewhat more plausible ask is “pause (frontier) AI until the next POTUS election” or at least “no self-improving AGI” until than ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904580894259581006) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 18, 2024:** Load bearing Not load bearing (wild turkey) [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1904580801536114688/img/rp9PeIARgdixxUKq.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904580894259581006/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Tweet, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904587863154368945) · 27 likes I like when Claude says I’ve asked a fascinating question ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm50kNlXkAAKMy-.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904587868753834083) · 3 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm50ks-XIAEPUwE.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904600083070583214) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** To return to this years later, this is extremely Aaron tbh I’m a longtermist 😤 ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904602915530031237) · 15 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** Just hire philosophers for your career consulting and research organization, they said > > it'll be fine, they said > > slack will be completely normal, they said > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm51wzcaUAADBvF.jpg) Directly inspired this Kantianism is a dealbreaker 😤 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm6CQfrWIAARW5E.jpg) ### [Tweet, 18:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904605672035020871) · 3 likes You can just tell when something is made with deep learning, or at least ML, instead of some other GOFAI/algorithm It runs smoother, more naturally, “just works,” even surprisingly well I don’t think deep learning is going to hit a wall ### [Reply to @Romy_Holland, 18:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904607654523138322) · 2 likes > **Romy (@Romy_Holland):** still can’t believe i somehow transmuted 4000 clementines and an ungodly amount of cheese into a functioning, softball-sized human in mere months Yes it is remarkable ### [Reply to @thoth_iv, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904612906907623559) · 2 likes > **Thŏth (@thoth_iv):** There's at least something nice about the way ChatGPT tries to explain the double standard truthfully. > > (quoting @NickADobos: New ChatGPT image gen can draw sexy men but not sexy women) Fr ### [Reply to @HenriThunberg, 21:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904652066988892496) · 4 likes > **Henri Thunberg 🔸 (@HenriThunberg):** Oh boy. She couldn't possibly have known less what she was about to walk herself into. Hasn’t unmatched yet 🙏 ### [Reply to @metakuna, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904652982441947575) · 2 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** Guess who wrote the book > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm6tnicWMAE_Hw9.jpg) Milton ### [Reply to @metakuna, 21:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904653083163893938) · 52 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** Non-drinkers who go to social events are freeriding on the goodwill and joviality of hard working drinkers and the whole social fabric would fall apart if everybody stopped drinking Sorry :( ### [Reply to @metakuna, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904653929012408426) · 2 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** Yeah Oh nice ### [Quote tweet, 21:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904654425060258003) · 52 likes Parenting \*does\* matter Maybe not much for measured outcomes, but like it just intrinsically sucks/makes for a worse childhood to have a parent like this > **Quoting Dissproportionately (@dissproportion):** One mom once told us she whispered “I wish I could beat the shit out of you” to her child, and people came to her defense saying it’s healthy to express her feelings, as long as she doesn’t act on them. And that’s only part of why I’m not in those groups anymore. ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 22:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904656395753992676) · 4 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** It's ok and natural to be habituated to things. You don't have to pretend you're in awe of something just because people in the past would have been. > > (quoting @kaseyklimes: always take the window seat. always leave the window open. you’re flying through the goddamn air, you’re living the dream of your ancestors, have some respect for humanity’s defiance of gravity) I agree it’s ok, but airplanes are actually incredible to me and I don’t think I will ever be fully habituated They shouldn’t work! ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 22:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904659522033180892) · 13 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Interestingly, as I recall, in Caplan’s parenting book he says one of the metrics parents \*do\* affect a lot is “longterm relationship with your parents” and argues you should mostly focus on just giving your kids a pleasant and enjoyable childhood. Yeah but like even if it didn’t affect your long term relationship, it would be good to give kids a good childhood for intrinsic reasons ### [Quote tweet, 23:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904673318877147359) · 8 likes New Pigeon Hour just dropped: I read @willmacaskill and @finmoorhouse’s paper (first two hours) and add my own unstructured thoughts at the end (last 30ish mins) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm7CSgUWsAAil_w.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Tl;dr intelligence explosion this century \*probable\*, plausibly this decade > > Buckle up > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm2knMlbwAAIQZ9.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904676347105980855) · 5 likes Is literally anyone being made better off by this administration > **Quoting Meighan Stone (@meighanstone):** 🚨 Now have heard two reports of COVID/Long COVID researchers notified today NIH grants terminated 🚨 > If you're a #LongCOVID researcher or see any posts on grants terminated, please tag in myself or @LCCampaign as starting a list, or email directly: info@longcovidcampaign.org ### [Thread, continued, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904676349458939940) · 3 likes Hope it’s worth having to say your pronouns 20% less often ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 23:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904684685071900792) · 2 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** this dude’s been chasing me around all day interrogating me and Holding Me To Account over liking to chat with a wide range of people > > now he’s concluded I’m racist and bad bc I think Richard Hanania is around at the median Racism Level for conservatives and don’t cut people off over that > > and he’s gonna follow me around and keep Holding Me To Account. oh no! > > I’ve made my standard clear many times, but to reiterate: I’ll talk to basically anyone and am on good terms with many people who hate each other for many often-justified reasons. if you don’t act obnoxious towards me, I try to return the courtesy. racism is bad but not all-defining; people should be considered in full > > if any of you want to Hold Me To Account for that, be my guest, but don’t expect any respect or deference for doing so. and if you’re looking for someone to interrogate, I hear Claude’s pretty patient these days. 👏 ## Wednesday, March 26, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904690638081122678) · 10 likes I’m no huge Greenwald fan, but it’s notable that smart people from every corner of non-malicious, not-totally-deranged ideology space have come together to condemn this ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm7SCm4WYAADBPT.jpg) > **Quoting Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald):** Nobody disputes the US Govt's power to deport people: meaning send them back to their country of origin. > > That's radically different than tossing them into a notorious prison for life in an unrelated country based on unproven accusations of gang membership with no due process: ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 00:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904692113461195012) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Yeah I’d really like to think I also wouldn’t have signed the NDA ### [Quote tweet, 00:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904694595964858435) · 11 likes Me but Brian Tomasik > **Quoting Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** “3 date rule” is how many dates before you tell her she needs to read HPMOR ### [Tweet, 02:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904717106064601451) · 5 likes Non-democratic non-republics really like to call themselves Democratic Republics ### [Thread, continued, 02:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904717283072577748) · 4 likes I am Tall Neurotypical Person of Aaron ### [Reply to @scaling01, 02:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904723932650811798) · 17 likes > **Lisan al Gaib (@scaling01):** ASI actually. I gave it a screenshot of the post as context and asked for its reaction to that post > > thank you sama, greg and the whole team behind it > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm7fzDdW4AAzEkN.jpg) > (quoting @scaling01: OpenAI has reached AGI) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm7wUfWW8AA7c2W.jpg) ### [Tweet, 02:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904725878602342718) · 11 likes Bro it is over for the boomers This looks like a brother, if not a twin (I don’t have a brother) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm7yF5RWoAA6ao8.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904726344627286421) · 3 likes This isn’t me, this is 4o’s drawing of me, tbc ### [Reply to @Benthamsbulldog, 03:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904735565674639520) · 10 likes > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** If you had to experience the pain of being eaten alive once a week, would your life still be worth living? No and quite possibly even once ### [Reply to @liz_love_lace, 03:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904740455541076416) · 4 likes > **Liz Lovelace (@liz_love_lace):** you people need to get into more arguments with me, i need the stimulation, or else i start picking fights with random political extremists and that's bad for my soul and my brand Poast cancellable takes ### [Reply, 04:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904748041837408397) · 1 like RIP ### [Reply to @livgorton, 04:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904751213490417863) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** finally got to see my puppy with my other dog who passed away a few years ago. maybe a bit silly but i wish they got to meet and it’s nice that the AI will make me little pictures of the world in which they got to 🩷 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm8HYM1bYAEYrbX.jpg) 😩🥺😭❤️🥰💕💞 ### [Reply to @clairlemon, 04:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904756888916422910) · 7 likes > **Claire Lehmann (@clairlemon):** Brilliant writing from George Case for @Quillette > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm8LP6GbYAIWv6R.png) “Derangement” in the face of Trump is largely a correct and rational response He’s a really bad guy! ### [Quote tweet, 04:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904757535111848119) · 6 likes Seeing lots of “who is it ok to work with” discourse so here is a take “It doesn’t have to be a kumbaya thing—in a democracy, votes/hearts+minds are power. You have power, you get a seat at the table” > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @JosephPolitano @tracewoodgrains @themountaingoa1 I think people in the broad liberal cluster ascribe too much to “working with” whomever > > It doesn’t have to be a kumbaya thing—in a democracy, votes/hearts+minds are power. You have power, you get a seat at the table, for the same reason Putin and any other nuclear-armed warlord gets a seat at the table > > Yes you should absolutely “work with” racists and whomever else when things that matter are on the line and they have something to offer. It’s not an endorsement > > (Steelman of the opposing side probably involves like “working with” being empowering; there’s something to this but I don’t think it generally carries the day) ### [Tweet, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904758879344275487) · 73 likes Trying experimental antidepressants from Alibaba is probably one of the most based things I’ve done ### [Thread, continued, 04:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904759024064528590) · 9 likes Didn’t really work. Could have been fake for all I know ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 12:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904868113411195210) · 6 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** seems potentially dangerous? Yeah ### [Reply to @cube_flipper, 14:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904901337667481914) · 7 likes > **Cube Flipper (@cube_flipper):** @AaronBergman18 what did you order? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALTO-100 ### [Quote tweet, 14:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904907013793968631) · 16 likes CRITICAL SUPPORT TO KELSEY EVERYONE VOTE > **Quoting New Liberals 🇺🇦🇹🇼🌐 (@CNLiberalism):** (3) Economist & Criminal Justice researcher @jenniferdoleac > > vs. > > (6) Senior writer at Vox's Future Perfect @kelseytuoc ### [Reply to @stanfordNYC, 14:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904907614934176168) · 10 likes > **Bernard Stanford ✡︎ (@stanfordNYC):** It's just kind of unfortunate that, per unit of goodness accomplished, donating to local classical music performance feels like 10,000x as good as donating to deworming for impoverished children you will never meet. This isn’t true for me at all lol ### [Reply to @rgblong, 14:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904910023509090315) · 20 likes > **Robert Long (@rgblong):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm-ZBi3bYAEDfeJ.jpg) This is the real photo ### [Reply to @stanfordNYC, 14:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904910943433240795) · 7 likes > **Bernard Stanford ✡︎ (@stanfordNYC):** There's a reason there needed to be a whole explicit intellectual movement for one of those options, while the other... people just do. Yeah true ### [Reply to @MannyRutinel, 15:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904913347218207036) · 2 likes > **Manny Rutinel (@MannyRutinel):** 🚨SUCCESS! > > My bill to cut red tape for food trucks passes out of committee! > > Food truck owners should focus on making their delicious food, not filling out redundant paperwork to work in the town next door. > > Let's cut costs for small businesses and Coloradans! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm-cXY-WUAAsciO.jpg) Nice ### [Tweet, 15:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904915297569480897) · 37 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm-eXe7XwAAB3hb.jpg) ### [Tweet, 15:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904917514804482248) · 1 like Some context for the curious + naive https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_Ghibli ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 17:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904948845345202277) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** sufficently worried about AI and nuclear weopons that I am now using a unholy combination of paracemol, ibuprohen, caffeine and elvanse to get some work done > > (quoting @NathanB60857242: Ill again today, so audiobooking a history of the imperial German military) Based ### [Reply to @halcyon_hazel, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904949742955536667) · 4 likes > **❤️‍🔥 hazel ❤️‍🔥 (@halcyon_hazel):** i hate people who are obsessed with co2 levels motherfucker it is 55 degrees outside do NOT open that window 55 is perfect open window temperature ### [Reply to @halcyon_hazel, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904950427696730488) · 2 likes > **❤️‍🔥 hazel ❤️‍🔥 (@halcyon_hazel):** @AaronBergman18 i don’t take opinions on temperature from men Fair lol ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 17:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904950660660949001) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** I have been trusted with great power > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm44D81WQAAKsnF.jpg) Huge ### [Quote tweet, 18:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904957782891131093) · 17 likes .@sam_atis and I are betting on this! He gets $1500 if I lose, I get $750 if I win (2:1 odds) Nullified/nobody wins if 5% comes in a year after negative growth Last calendar year is 2029, so resolves as soon as its obvious what the answer is in 2030 > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I’m interested in betting on a single calendar year having GDP growth above 5% (real, US) by 2030, if anyone is interested in 1:1 odds (feel free to haggle terms) ### [Thread, continued, 18:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904957784992415792) · 5 likes Thanks to @NathanB60857242 for judging in case of any ambiguity First serious size bet for me, time to put my money where my mouth is! ### [Reply, 18:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904958022633353424) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ 26 is when you get kicked off of parents health insurance so ### [Tweet, 18:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904960188672610795) · 159 likes There are many possibilities beyond the Ghibli thing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm_HMfiWkAAHPSm.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904961139856806090) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 26, 2025:** Thanks to @NathanB60857242 for judging in case of any ambiguity First serious size bet for me, time to put my money where my mouth is! I’m curious if @peterwildeford wants to opine on who if anyone has the better end of this deal ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 18:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904961433709793459) · 3 likes > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** Missing from this picture is the line of about 10 different Chinese people waiting to take a photo with us 😅 Lmao ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 18:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904961705119015013) · 5 likes > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** this looks really bad lol > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm_Ig3_X0AAkn3L.jpg) Lol that head is way too big ### [Tweet, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904973421412483354) · 4 likes New image gen is the first AI thing my (highly normie) family has really picked up on ### [Tweet, 19:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1904974187455733872) · 2 likes I feel like it’s highly in the interest of the marijuana industry to breed some strains that smell less intense per unit smoked Seems like a tractable problem too ### [Reply to @ben_j_todd, 21:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905012570609615054) · 13 likes > **Benjamin Todd (@ben_j_todd):** On lastest episode @dwarkesh_sp casually saying @80000Hours is useless 😂😅 > > If someone had visited the site 5 years ago, we would have told them to focus on AI.. > > ..which was some pretty damn useful advice. > > Wish I'd followed it more myself :p I haven’t listened but that seems like a crazy take ## Thursday, March 27, 2025 ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905065642253824066) · 30 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** One cannot truly live without having experiences. Yet experiences change you as a person. These changes make you a different person, effectively consigning the previous version of you to oblivion. > > Therefore, life and death are the same thing. > > (quoting @bryan_johnson: What's your opinion on death?) This is pseudoprofound bullshit lol ### [Quote tweet, 01:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905073796043698431) · 2 likes Every random federal employee has to do so much ~bullshit like using MS teams and a ton of phishing training and generally not being allowed to use a lot of convenient digital services or personal computers for anything… > **Quoting Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** This is fucking unbelievable. > > This is the biggest national defense scandal in generations. Throw every one of their asses out of the government. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnAqTJ0XQAAT5It.png) ### [Tweet, 05:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905135751731225085) · 6 likes Ghibli compression: real -> anime -> ask a new instance to predict what the real one looked like ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnBm3cbXUAAzsLs.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnBm3chW0AAguIb.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnBm3ccWQAEVmv2.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905135755489395027) · 3 likes is this a sparse autoencoder ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 06:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905138871953690978) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** no Shut up ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 08:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905175293620351119) > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Once AI R&D is automated, will there be an intelligence explosion? > > This is determined by two opposing forces: > 1\) Positive feedback loop of AI improving AI > 2\) Diminishing returns to AI R&D > > (To be conservative, our analysis assumes that computing hardware is held fixed.) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm-1jugbYAAtq_Y.jpg) That is a hell of an assumption (cool paper though) ### [Reply to @Shoalst0ne, 08:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905175486919037010) · 2 likes > **Shoalstone (@Shoalst0ne):** @confusionm8trix I'm surprised that things don't break between layers of abstraction more than they do Fr ### [Reply to @sam_atis, 09:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905190613663805542) · 5 likes > **Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** Is it possible that there could be a future AI system that is a moral agent but not a moral patient? Yeah ofc, a non-sentient agent with a good understanding of morality is possible given our current state of knowledge ### [Quote tweet, 14:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905263107104026737) · 4 likes Relatedly, not joining some institution bc it goes against your vibe seems highly overrated, if not generally just a mistake Eg more liberals should be law enforcement, especially ICE… > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** (Not commenting on the Meta thing specifically) > > Resigning in protest \*as an act of bravery\* has to be one of the dumbest memes out there > > I mean maybe it’s understandable/acceptable, but it’s the opposite of courageous; the courageous thing to do is fight until you get fired ### [Reply to @shravstwt, 14:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905263862934360374) · 32 likes > **shrav (@shravstwt):** can someone suggest three (low budget) hobbies please > > (quoting @schrodingersded: when u are single u need atleast three hobbies to not fall back into the trap again) Juggling isn’t exactly free (tennis balls suck) but $20 goes a long way ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnDbYm2XAAAUbdn.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnDbYm4XYAAcBQa.jpg) ### [Reply to @cambieangel, 14:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905264137262727650) · 53 likes > **Cam (@cambieangel):** i love the bisexual smell ethics doctor lady @DrAllyLouks > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnAkloEWUAA5yNR.jpg) Stay out of my lane bro ### [Reply to @livgorton, 14:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905265252775719328) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** i too prefer human-made art > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnDbT1HawAATXX-.jpg) > (quoting @DrAllyLouks: @granawkins This is super cute! Just wish it was made by a human 🙃) I have this intuition strongly for poetry but much less strongly for visual art ### [Tweet, 15:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905288138915787147) · 5 likes Don’t feel like getting specific now but learn from my mistakes: If you want to be highly individualistic and agentic when interfacing with the federal government, be sure you have a lot of time and energy to spare, 2 sigma conscientiousness at minimum, and a high tolerance for bullshit ### [Thread, continued, 15:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905288141092646977) · 3 likes There is a reason that a nontrivial amount of the economy is consultants, lawyers, accountants, and software to deal with all things government It is not a context in which the world bends to your will lmao ### [Tweet, 22:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905387441894072808) · 9 likes Shruppet ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnFLx5NXIAAylwU.jpg) ### [Tweet, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905389319323263064) · 402 likes Isn’t it kinda weird that buildings don’t fall down more often There are a lot of them, how does nothing ~ever go wrong in the west? ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905390175338844625) · 8 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** @AaronBergman18 Your views on like planes and buildings and stuff are so memeable Based if I do say so myself ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905390337209643315) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Animal Wilar > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnFOCskXcAA5Jii.jpg) Nice ### [Reply to @banterrealism, 22:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905391875512578196) · 30 likes > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** People do maintenance no? > > Can’t say the same for that Baltimore bridge Yeah like it’s not shocking that the rate is low, but that it’s almost zero and apparently my intuition that it’s way less than other reliable systems checks out \~2000 times less frequent failure than airplanes and bridges, 1000 times less than dams, 50 times less than elevators ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnFPz74X0AATHUr.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnFPz78XsAAO7g6.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnFPz78WUAAsOSo.jpg) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905392024636793042) · 17 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Yes structural failure - especially absent water as an underlying feature - is quite rare. In residential probably a mix of prescriptive code path being good and enforceable, failures tend to be quite slow and visible, and carpenters having adhered to similar bldg system for ~80 years Good job 👍 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905392896779366708) · 53 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 27, 2025:** Isn’t it kinda weird that buildings don’t fall down more often There are a lot of them, how does nothing ~ever go wrong in the west? Even during construction, and even though construction requires a ton of lower-skilled worker-hours Not just large buildings either, I’ve never heard of a house collapsing while under construction ## Friday, March 28, 2025 ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905425730055307289) · 2 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** You prefer Noooo I misvoted ### [Reply to @robi_rahman, 01:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905429871267901739) · 16 likes > **Robi Rahman (@robi_rahman):** This is a common misconception. Buildings fall down all the time, but due to survivorship bias, you only see the ones that are still standing. I don’t believe u ### [Tweet, 01:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905430889879810361) · 6 likes Is Ghibli even a Japanese word? It sounds vaguely Italian? ### [Reply to @StatsLime, 03:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905465570113335579) · 39 likes > **Max ⏸️ Limelihood 🔸🔸🔸 (@StatsLime):** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics Thanks I didn’t know about that ### [Tweet, 06:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905500304214229275) · 5 likes It’s obviously secondary to zoning stuff, but there must be something society can do to lower the transaction costs of moving Maybe this is irrational but I’m probably not gonna move to save $200/mo, it has to be like $400 ≈ 33% savings to become an attractive possibility ### [Tweet, 06:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905503115064770628) · 5 likes @peterwildeford can u plz bless the Florida Gators with a superforecasting prayer ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnG0_CBWcAAqMSh.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905503117698904481) · 4 likes I would like to win my extended family March Madness bracket, and probably will (I think) if Florida wins We need a wealth transfer away from the Boomer generation ### [Quote tweet, 06:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905504259040309353) · 3 likes Hopefully if we’re still around in a few years everyone will get negatively polarized in favor of actual due process and idk some power will shift away from random prosecutors who can ruin anyone’s life, probabilistically > **Quoting eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** possibly the problem with due process defending, which to be clear i think due process is "important" and worth defending > > is no one ever bothered to defend due process from insane abuse and overextension and selective application and maybe now it doesnt mean anything anymore ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 12:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905591440144547936) · 4 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** 🙏 > > May the probabilities guide the Gators' jaws to snap true, may the chance of impenetrable swamp be high, may the scary sound of 'chomp chomp' be a positive factor in our models. In Tetlock's name we pray. Amen ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 12:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905597771895156823) · 4 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** In Sunday school they would ask for prayer requests and often my younger brother would say: > > "sharks" > > And so: > > "We pay for the Dean's grandmother, for the people of Romania... and also for for sharks. In Jesus' name, amen" I mean I hope the sharks are doing well ### [Reply, 12:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905602291136180318) · 1 like Oh damn ### [Tweet, 13:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905612296400883864) · 6 likes Substantively, to a first approximation the government should not be making random people’s lives worse, even in the name of “public health” or whatever See also: menthol cigarettes ban (good riddance), extreme opioid gatekeeping ### [Thread, continued, 13:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905612298493833714) · 5 likes I won’t say that there’s literally never a place for paternalism in public policy, but quite often it doesn’t even reach a modest bar of “actually helping the people it’s sorta intended to protect” when all is said and done, in terms of actual quality of life ### [Thread, continued, 13:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905612299957649664) · 5 likes People just live worse lives with more pain, worse cigarettes, and yes, worse/less sex in the case of poppers Many such cases ### [Quote tweet, 14:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905621460342780115) · 7 likes VOTE YOUR CONSCIENCE (Kelsey Piper) > **Quoting New Liberals 🇺🇦🇹🇼🌐 (@CNLiberalism):** (6) Senior writer at Vox's Future Perfect @KelseyTuoc > > vs. > > (7) Firebomb Hater @LinkofSunshine ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905682132359406075) · 5 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** Approaching levels of EA adjacentcy never thought possible > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnIpUXbWwAAN2wi.jpg) Lmao ### [Tweet, 18:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905682320641716373) · 51 likes I hate low trust environments so much ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 18:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905683415296606493) · 5 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** all i wanted was to ask people sexy questions. one little survey here, a sankey diagram there. but slowly things spiraled out of control. things have gotten dark. had to learn programming just to survive. $3k computers running out of ram. not even chatgpt can save me now > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnGbNBRa4AADaaQ.jpg) Based, Aella plz give me all ur data. I am a data autist and love data ### [Reply to @niplav_site, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905699363525202109) · 5 likes > **niplav (@niplav_site):** @AaronBergman18 effective altruist discovers purity as a moral foundation Eh I don’t really see purity specifically? It’s really just a kindness + honesty thing ### [Reply to @niplav_site, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905706138689282532) · 4 likes > **niplav (@niplav_site):** @AaronBergman18 Because high trust environments require exclusion of people with different axes along which trust is practiced, and that feels a lot like purity Ah I see what you mean Still, the cases I’m thinking of aren’t really high trust environment becoming low trust, just settings that have been low trust from the start ## Saturday, March 29, 2025 ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 05:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905849710352457820) · 2 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Have you ever had to hit up someone you weren't really close to (like, someone you rarely talked to), to ask for help like food, money, or a place to sleep? No thankfully but reminds me of this ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 06:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905865662670488041) · 4 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** His name was Crouch when they got married. She did him a big favor imo I learned this way too recently ### [Reply to @livgorton, 06:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905866724953542684) · 6 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** my sister sent me this like “omg ur friends are in this video???” 😭 it has begun Based ### [Reply to @AaronEstel, 13:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905981835017847286) · 4 likes > **Aaron (@AaronEstel):** same > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnNnTb0WsAEtKJd.jpg) > (quoting @BLUNDERBUSSTED: having gpt genderswap me and experiencing an uncomfortable yearning for what could have been) Weird ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnNoYJwWsAAKhDG.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 14:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905995774892159330) · 10 likes Based > **Quoting Claire Lehmann (@clairlemon):** Substack and FIRE have put out a joint statement pledging to defend writers in the US following the detainment of Tufts University student for the alleged "crime" of writing an op-ed. 👏👏👏 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnKQh5UaoAAuuKk.png) ### [Tweet, 14:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905996551945588897) · 36 likes Opioids are way too strictly controlled. You should be able to have some on hand in a first aid kit (I don’t have a horse in this race except reasonable fear of future pain, I think I’ve only ever had one tiny dose of morphine) ### [Tweet, 14:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905997800506012082) · 38 likes Air conditioning is so based Top 10 invention of all time? ### [Thread, continued, 14:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905998172498874530) · 3 likes Brought to you by ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnN3PLOXoAAnPeg.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 15:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905999930134598107) · 20 likes Top inventions of all time: 1\) opioids 2\) vaccines 3\) green revolution stuff 4\) amphetamine 5\) air conditioning 6\) heating systems 7\) Spotify 8\) running water > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Air conditioning is so based > > Top 10 invention of all time? ### [Thread, continued, 15:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905999932361670953) · 5 likes 9\) moisturizing hand cream (dry itchy hands during the winter are actually a gigantic quality of life issue for me but this just totally solves the issue to the point that I forget to be thankful) 10\) lightbulbs 11\) power plants + electricity 12\) clean water 13\) iodized salt ### [Thread, continued, 15:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1905999934450495594) · 3 likes That’s it, everything else has been neutral at best (joke) ### [Reply to @VprwvDreamscape, 15:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906000232648720407) · 2 likes > **Dreamscape (@VprwvDreamscape):** damn, I was hoping you guys had something like co-codamol but nope. pretty sure you can stack ibuprofen and paracetamol/acetaminophen at least. Yeah the one time in recent history I was in major pain i was taking > recommended max dose of ibuprofen ### [Reply to @banterrealism, 15:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906003019533017402) · 4 likes > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** Wasn’t there a huge opioid crisis or something There’s a huge pain crisis ### [Reply to @metakuna, 15:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906005719117136205) · 2 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** @AaronBergman18 hmmm > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnN9mnhXMAAFmY7.jpg) It’s a major consideration, but opioid \*deaths\* are largely public, visible, and consequential events that have evoked a major backlash Whereas an enormous amount of suffering just happens silently, behind closed doors, too disabling to even allow for protest or visible anger ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 15:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906006061640724526) · 5 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** Just installed an AC in my room and I can confirm, best decision ever > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Air conditioning is so based Top 10 invention of all time?) Yes!!!!! ### [Reply to @metakuna, 15:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906006168582889774) · 3 likes > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** Eh 🤷‍♂️ Slightly proving my point here lol (maybe this is unfair) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 15:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906007899576385745) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 @austinc3301 Just ordered an AC unit the other day Real Amazon money hours ### [Reply to @imitationlearn, 15:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906010226752426279) · 2 likes > **imit (@imitationlearn):** @AaronBergman18 gotta be a joke right Like 70% serious Not a shitpost, these are actually the things that come to mind ### [Tweet, 16:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906014250583146837) · 3 likes It’s too hot ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 16:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906018184299229491) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 29, 2025:** Opioids are way too strictly controlled. You should be able to have some on hand in a first aid kit (I don’t have a horse in this race except reasonable fear… This is a good point, making methoxyflurane (“green whistle”) way more widely available would also be huge https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methoxyflurane ### [Thread, continued, 16:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906019903888396400) · 4 likes I’ve had one person tell me via DM that they agree but are too afraid to comment publicly Preference falsification/cascades and all that ### [Quote tweet, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906023616778486257) · 5 likes Deeply unserious animal [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1906023531495723008/img/BOeLpXnziChRy38u.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906023616778486257/video/1) (video, plays on X) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Do u think ducks know how silly they are ### [Tweet, 16:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906026161848627689) · 6 likes OpenAI et al should pay me, world famous economist, to tell them that they should have escalating cost per api request instead of hard rate limits ### [Quote tweet, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906063517507043740) · 76 likes I’m not sure if this has any practical implications, but in a perfect world artists (and writers and such) actually would be compensated for contributing to the LLM training corpus > **Quoting zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Eh, this feels needlessly cruel. I like AI art because I want consumers (like me) to be able to consume more art (and higher quality, and more options, etc). But I don’t have any affirmative desire to stick it to artists or to hurt their livelihoods ### [Thread, continued, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906063520124604920) · 12 likes Of course the actual question isn’t yes or no but “how much” And the answer is idk, someone should do economics about it ### [Thread, continued, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906063522372399391) · 12 likes Maybe I’m just being dumb but I think it’s actually a quite substantive + non-obvious + interesting question how to model ideal compensation for non-rivalrous goods (eg text/pics on the internet) that may allow some unspecified actor to capture some value in the future bc of it ### [Thread, continued, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906063524297859355) · 7 likes LLM training is sufficiently sui generis that I wouldn’t be shocked if there’s essentially zero work on the matter ### [Thread, continued, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906063526164086863) · 12 likes From a simple economic perspective, text/media online is actually (massively?) undersupplied because in some sense ~nobody knew that there was a potential opportunity to sell data to the AI companies ### [Thread, continued, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906063527686672755) · 10 likes Like would people have written 10% or 50% or 1000% more or better if there was some way to basically sell counterfactual writing/art effort to the AI companies? Probably (seems like a very difficult market to construct though) ### [Tweet, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906080562080805182) · 50 likes POV u lit a candle for 15 mins ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnPCK1KWwAAkfku.jpg) ### [Reply to @EAForumPosts, 21:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906089231992381811) · 16 likes > **EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** "Should we think more about EA dating?" by anonymoususer. Full text pictured > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnOY2PcWIAAbmTS.jpg) Need to unite with the vegan community which is mostly female ### [Tweet, 21:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906098665267007810) · 3 likes I will really find a way to turn any task into a data collecting task ### [Thread, continued, 21:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906098778362597430) · 3 likes ## Sunday, March 30, 2025 ### [Reply to @livgorton, 13:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906336179689075114) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** 🦆 🦆 ### [Reply to @livgorton, 13:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906337451041316931) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** one of my most unhealthy work behaviours occurred when i first started doing mech interp a year ago. i'd sleep next to my laptop so i could excitedly check on my loss curves whenever i happened to awaken. i don't endorse this as a thing to do but oh boy it was fun. > > (quoting @deliprao: Me waking up in the middle of the night and sneakily checking my loss curves.) Kinda based ### [Reply to @phl43, 13:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906338527505264988) · 2 likes > **Philippe Lemoine (@phl43):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnSsg9oXcAAISBu.jpg) I mean I think it’s totally morally legit to lie about your age for asylum ### [Reply to @liz_love_lace, 13:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906339513577750576) · 2 likes > **Liz Lovelace (@liz_love_lace):** @AaronBergman18 big neurotic astrology vibes if i'm honest Neuroticism evolved for a reason ### [Reply, 13:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906342971865268671) I get why it leads to fundamentally unfair outcomes (honesty is selected against) I’m not sure this is bad all things considered ### [Tweet, 13:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906343273116914171) · 11 likes DC folks! Bit of a shot in the dark, but I’m potentially interested in moving within the DC area to save a bit of money on rent (so looking for <$1k/mo including utilities, the cheaper the better)… ### [Tweet, 13:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906343274589106494) · 1 like If anyone has a room they’re trying to fill or knows of one, please let me know! (I would add that I am very flexible on room size, could probably make 50 sq ft work) Thank you and have a nice day 🫡 ### [Quote tweet, 13:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906344294291480801) · 8 likes It’s not the world’s most important policy thing, but minimum unit sizes are so patronizing Like I could move back home into a spacious single family house but this would drive me insane. Let \*me\* make the choice goddamnit! > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** If anyone has a room they’re trying to fill or knows of one, please let me know! (I would add that I am very flexible on room size, could probably make 50 sq ft work) > > Thank you and have a nice day 🫡 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 23:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906492292753453267) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @ChanaMessinger @FrostedSapling @arthur_wright\_ @SpacedOutMatt > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnU4SqQXgAAHjxM.png) Lmao ## Monday, March 31, 2025 ### [Reply to @myhandle, 06:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906598172170093024) · 26 likes > **Jakeup (@myhandle):** a Hispanic man, unremarkable except for a tattoo of a crown on his arm, shows up at your door late one night > > "amigo, you gotta help me, ICE is rounding up all cholos with ink. I gotta hide in your attic for a month or estoy jodido for sure. please, amigo!" > > do you: It’s a little too implausible that a rando would show up to an arbitrary door. Like that makes the situation too sus. People are gonna go to friends and family But if I knew them basically at all, yeah I think I’d literally let them in and then figure out what to do Good question! ### [Quote tweet, 13:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906697239793189040) · 14 likes Congrats to me and thanks to @SpacedOutMatt and @Laura_k_Duffy for the help! (I am writing this tweet from underneath a bed net. The mosquitos don’t stand a chance) > **Quoting Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Congrats to @AaronBergman18 on getting the extreme EA room makeover of his dreams, complete with an Our World In Data gallery wall, a shrine to Will MacAskill, far too many chicken decals, and an actual bednet! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnXlP7fXoAAKtyo.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnXlQRyWIAAHsjg.jpg) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 13:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906697531876085922) · 10 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** The Will MacAskill shrine > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnXlyUtWEAAD0QK.jpg) Tag him, coward @willmacaskill ### [Quote tweet, 13:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906697905907363865) · 11 likes Girls really do be having aesthetic intuitions > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Girls really do be having theory of mind ### [Quote tweet, 13:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906700861536886993) · 18 likes The bednet is actually a vibe. I feel like a princess Does @GiveWell account for aesthetics??? 👀 > **Quoting Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Congrats to @AaronBergman18 on getting the extreme EA room makeover of his dreams, complete with an Our World In Data gallery wall, a shrine to Will MacAskill, far too many chicken decals, and an actual bednet! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnXlP7fXoAAKtyo.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnXlQRyWIAAHsjg.jpg) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 13:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906705766225981565) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** He’s gonna think we’re so weird lmao Relevant context Will ### [Reply to @sickfootfour, 14:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906709269568725312) · 991 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @sickfootfour is no longer available.)_ Apparently incineration and then landfill ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnX9-ZJXMAAPv9h.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnX9-ZMXAAADdli.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnX9-ZLXsAAwMzQ.jpg) ### [Tweet, 17:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906753419718901960) · 5 likes I wish I could see reports on tweets that I’ve muted like once a month It would be cool to see how some of the bangers are doing, I just don’t want a notification every 5 minutes ### [Tweet, 17:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906756557200576687) · 24 likes Lots of alpha in becoming the new America, culturally Like if the UK wanted to adopt the vibes of “yes based melting pot go brr” ### [Thread, continued, 17:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906756901418709344) · 2 likes Would actually be an interesting (if maybe too divisive) adjacent project to @lfg_uk ### [Thread, continued, 17:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906757516588990931) · 1 like It’s not gonna happen, probably for the better, but if the CCP was smart they’d lean into this ### [Reply to @RokoMijic, 17:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906759445419368596) · 2 likes > **Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** "melting pot" means third world shithole. > > Britain is on track to have the demographics of Lebanon mixed with Colombia Strong institutions can prevent this UK would be better off with more Hispanics ### [Quote tweet, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906762092004163645) · 18 likes Apparent continuous glucose monitors are OTC now! > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Device to learn about the contents of your own blood is prescription-only > > The @US_FDA must be stopped > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFB4aF4XAAAbWWJ.jpg) ### [Reply to @RokoMijic, 17:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906764807807664497) > **Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** Why would England be better off with more Hispanics? > > Institutions are endogenous - if England ends up with the same demographics and culture as Colombia/Lebanon/South Africa it will end up with the same quality of institutions I strongly disagree, path dependence matters tremendously Look at the US! ### [Tweet, 20:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906800398637150538) · 18 likes One of the reasons like 5000 AI engineers are working extremely hard to put themselves out of a job is that automating stuff with AI is massively fun, (at least for a certain cognitive type of guy like me) Not just ideology + money + coordination failure ### [Tweet, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906802593919299634) · 7 likes I got a walking pad thing (they’re <$200 FWIW) but it just doesn’t hit the same as walking outside Genuinely unsure if it’s more a psychological thing or if there’s some subtle physiological change that makes it worse (enforces perfectly constant pace, no micro changes in slope etc) ### [Tweet, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906822470092653007) · 9 likes Top tier feedback uwu (as the kids say ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnZk7jPXcAAwAh_.jpg) ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906822557484896728) · 2 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @AaronBergman18 This is a very under-discussed bias. This is also why so much of AI Safety now does pointless or harmful evals, bc it involves playing with the models. Yeah I fucking love tinkering with them lmao ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 21:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906827767166988655) · 9 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** How to improve your writing in two easy steps: > > Step 1: Move a lot of the detail into an appendix > Step 2: Delete the appendix Derek Parfit: “no” ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906828158055432526) · 5 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** @peterwildeford Yes I think people too often fail to do step 2 (same with unnecessary footnotes) Ehh “unnecessary” footnotes seem often worth it They’re only slightly annoying and allow you to pack in way more stuff for highly interested readers/collaborators/critiquers I actually think the Ord/MacAskill approach of basically writing a whole second book in footnotes is perfect --- End of March 2025. Previous month: [February 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-02). Next month: [April 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-04). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, April 2025 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in April 2025 and has not deleted: 518 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [March 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-03). Next month: [May 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-05). ## Tuesday, April 1, 2025 ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 00:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906863185434386849) · 15 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** what's your gender? || energetically speaking, are you closer to a gay man or a lesbian? I wish I was a lesbian (if I could choose gender + sexuality before birth) ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 06:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906956091713364282) · 44 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** there's a lot of alpha in eliminating all logits for a specific word and then asking a model to say it > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnbSYfcWIAA3dop.jpg) Smart enough model will (I predict) spell it out in some other way (fancy Unicode characters or ascii art or something) …At least eventually, after realizing what is going on (like implicit reasoning about what caused its previous tokens) I’m not actually sure if it’ll ever get it on try 1 though even at the limit (assuming standard LLM, no training on this kind of thing). I think it won’t actually @livgorton post correct take ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 14:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1907084024352215174) · 3 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @herbiebradley @AaronBergman18 @StefanFSchubert oh gotcha > > I prefer the hover personally Fun fact: some people love hovering notes enough to have paid me to implement it in html (not from scratch, just like “make it work in my thing”) You’d be surprised (well maybe) how many degrees of freedom there are in hover note design lol ### [Tweet, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1907116302038372820) · 22 likes My new cost effectiveness model (details forthcoming) robustly indicates that purchasing treats for therapy bunnies is the single best use of time and money ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GndwK1BXoAAJDD_.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GndwK1GWoAEmsOI.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GndwK1GWMAAFbQB.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1907116308598018109) · 3 likes I did really buy the rabbits treats for the charity via their Amazon gift registry unironically hope the rabbits enjoy them Learn more and join me in making an impact: https://www.animalsasnaturaltherapy.org ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GndwLNNWkAA5Fw9.jpg) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 17:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1907117388362850530) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @SpacedOutMatt is no longer available.)_ It’s about the utils Matthew ### [Reply to @dcpip_, 20:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1907175079982858749) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dcpip_ is no longer available.)_ I know I already said this but IME the official channels for anything (applying for jobs being a big one) ~never work All good things come via demos and personal connections (poast research/writing online somewhere) ## Wednesday, April 2, 2025 ### [Tweet, 13:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1907423994044719387) Good things rarely come through the official or mechanized channels ### [Thread, continued, 13:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1907423995663667218) · 2 likes Salient examples: 1\) jobs/official job listings 2\) great relationships/dating apps 3\) there’s a reason friend-finding apps haven’t taken off 4\) other kinds of partnership or venture/public open solicitations ### [Reply to @willmacaskill, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1907512019663597899) · 2 likes > **William MacAskill (@willmacaskill):** Ok, I'm officially not allowed to find that funny but... bahahaha. (The shrimp touch is beautiful.) Be respectful, William One more laugh and I’m taking down the shrine ## Thursday, April 3, 2025 ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 02:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1907625229561561301) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 Even Vibe Decision Theory thinks you should smoke Ok now I’m convinced ### [Tweet, 03:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1907629153253290484) · 6 likes So do we have like a projected growth rate or GDP per capita or median wage at end of year ### [Tweet, 03:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1907630999460094398) · 7 likes The reason I’m slightly less pessimistic than everyone else is that “how the domestic economy is doing” is like the one issue that best approximates a simple model of how democracy works (well) ### [Thread, continued, 03:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1907631000949039232) · 2 likes Either we get rapid AI progress soon and this ~doesn’t matter or we don’t and the political process has time to work It still sucks and is bad tbc; I’m just making a directional claim relative to my tl ### [Tweet, 05:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1907662883627942331) · 2 likes Here's a fun mystery I don't quite care enough about to figure out myself: Why is this random Indonesian (and Indonesian-language) online shopping website the 15th most linked-to youtube channel across the EA/rationalist internet (ie what I scraped for http://earec.net) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnlfclxXYAAgVtD.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 12:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1907778414712328629) · 64 likes God forbid a man (or woman) has a hobby > **Quoting LBC (@LBC):** An American tourist has been arrested after sailing to visit the isolated Sentinelese tribe and leaving them a can of Coke to try https://buff.ly/MQn8Pui ### [Reply to @jide_alaga, 13:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1907783149322485934) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @jide_alaga is no longer available.)_ ### [Reply, 13:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1907784021645447565) · 1 like Nah I think it’s real ### [Reply to @simoj_, 16:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1907828656463868338) · 6 likes > **simoj (@simoj_):** i would definitely drink a strange brown liquid bubbling out of a container left on the beach by aliens Based ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 19:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1907881021216854470) · 2 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** Nooooooooooo > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnonXCTXoAAYokG.jpg) Real ### [Reply to @sam_atis, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1907916105407959065) · 4 likes > **Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** I don't really understand why EAs believe that the best PR always comes from being honest and direct. You may want it to be the case that honesty is the best policy, but I don't think it's true. Think of all the massively successful companies that are often dishonest. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnmW8pWWUAAE7Sp.png) I don’t want to say literally always honesty and candidness is best, but I have a very strong prior in that direction That’s because you should \*actually be doing things that are good\* If you’re trying to maximize profit or status or game wins or whatever, honesty won’t be instrumentally best But if you’re a movement or person trying to basically do the right thing, honesty happens to align perfectly with that because a lot of people share the broad goal, in part, and our brains and society and language are designed to defend things on the basis of goodness in some sense Like trying to do the right thing is a crazy advantage in some sense because you can just say the reasons why you’re doing something (and credibly defend honesty) and \*all else equal\* people prefer and respect honesty and acting morally This is the reason people who are trying to act morally should have a prior on honesty being good But “all else equal” is a big assumption. Not gonna write an essay on this but I just also have pretty limited faith in peoples’ ability to lie convincingly over major stretches of time. 4d chess isn’t impossible, but it’s hard as an empirical matter, which makes sense in light of humans’ social intuitions and the incentives people have for discerning true motives So choosing non-candidness/honesty as an earnestly good person is like choosing to play 4d chess instead of normal chess where you start with 6 queens ## Friday, April 4, 2025 ### [Reply to @webdevMason, 00:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1907952598231003614) · 67 likes > **Mason (@webdevMason):** The really funny thing is all the parallels between how men invalidate the housework wars and how women invalidate "dead bedrooms" > > Oh yeah, it's a really big deal when it's the thing you really care about and not such a big deal when it's your spouse's thing? Do tell lol Yes hot take people who love each other should care about the other person’s preferences and perceptions of some situation ### [Tweet, 02:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1907983097590669610) · 22 likes Please help @80000Hours figure out who to partner with by sharing your list of Youtube subscriptions (link below)! Unfortunately this only works well on desktop, so if you're on a phone (and you probably are), consider bookmarking this or sending it to yourself for later ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnqDpO0WAAA_9-Y.png) ### [Thread, continued, 02:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1907983099255820745) · 4 likes This should take literal seconds btw (you can literally control+A and paste in the whole unstructured page text from http://youtube.com/feed/channels) Thanks a ton! 🫡 Google form: https://forms.gle/TrYL4vXfoyk3HNnM7 ### [Tweet, 05:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1908029935123321150) · 11 likes Caring about trade deficits is extremely dumb, but I admit I don’t understand why genuine reciprocal tariffs would be bad I mean I can imagine reasons why, but they don’t seem especially true. It seems like an elegant way to get to free trade without treaties ### [Reply to @MaxyTaxy, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1908032391022510290) · 4 likes > **Maxy Taxy 🔸 (@MaxyTaxy):** @AaronBergman18 You sell bananas, and I sell apples. > Both are made for $1, and sold for $2 each. > > If I make bananas myself, it will cost me $3, so I buy from you. > > We start tariffs, so everything is $4. It is now cheaper for me to make my own, and vice versa, even though it is more inefficient. Yeah so if party A has reciprocal tariffs, party B is incentivized to lower them ## Saturday, April 5, 2025 ### [Tweet, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1908408943115710610) · 6 likes @ManifoldMarkets has 26% on martial law in the US by 2028? (link below ofc) Can we get a real money prediction market on this?? I know one person taking this seriously which is why I was looking for markets on the matter Cc @NathanpmYoung @peterwildeford ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnwH0e2WkAA71kI.jpg) ### [Reply to @CartoonsHateHer, 14:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1908533465768702317) · 7 likes > **Cartoons Hate Her! (@CartoonsHateHer):** 18 month old just fully flipped out of her crib (floor was fuzzy carpet luckily) and all the safe sleep stuff says she needs a toddler bed now? At 18 months?? The baby She destroyed her cage Yes YES The baby is out ### [Tweet, 15:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1908546865261322402) · 12 likes Underrated think about Trump is that he’s not very smart (certainly relative to other politicians and ~elites~) (yes he’s also a terrible person) ### [Thread, continued, 15:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1908546867442438281) · 3 likes This isn’t the end of the world in itself—a presidency is a whole administration, which is why I would have supported Biden down a pretty long road of cognitive decline (with Trump as the alternative tbc; POTUS cognitive decline is bad all else equal) ### [Thread, continued, 15:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1908546869946470505) · 3 likes But it is informative when it comes to enacting blatantly insane economic policy (as opposed to just ordering your thugs to round up immigrants, say, which one can imagine a highly competent authoritarian doing) ### [Thread, continued, 15:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1908546872022610036) · 5 likes Something something “the left doesn’t like talking about intelligence” which is why this is underrated Anyway, bro should have stuck with reality TV ### [Tweet, 16:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1908554494616490190) · 6 likes Unironically interested in Ikejime’ing my own fish (the alternative is often being eaten alive) ### [Thread, continued, 16:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1908554496596234625) · 3 likes Idk where this goes on the political compass ### [Reply to @suchnerve, 20:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1908623588510355737) · 176 likes > **Vivian (@suchnerve):** we really have to share a society with people who neither understand how things work nor are willing to learn > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnyovZqXQAAg4tZ.jpg) Boo, it’s a totally reasonable question So his hypothesis is wrong - not a reason dunk on him ### [Reply to @Kristina_Why, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1908653417393717532) · 14 likes > **Flawless Petty (@Kristina_Why):** Nintendo is a Japanese company. They have not “offshored” US American jobs. Why would they build a factory in Ohio? If US Americans want Nintendos … we will just have to pay the higher prices due to tariffs imposed by our government. 🤷🏽‍♀️ Tbc I think the tariffs and protectionism in general are dumb and bad You’re ascribing a whole lot of non-explicit intent and beliefs to what seems like an earnest question ### [Quote tweet, 23:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1908656595665362973) · 18 likes Hate to pick on people but the original tweet and tons of replies to it (and to my reply) are a good example of how bleak things are on ~normie twitter (and presumably normie everywhere)… ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnzpDtIWUAA4quD.jpg) > **Quoting Vivian (@suchnerve):** we really have to share a society with people who neither understand how things work nor are willing to learn > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnyovZqXQAAg4tZ.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 23:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1908656602116239424) · 9 likes Assuming that a sorta ignorant question implies malice and deserves mockery, doing whatever this is (hyper-coupling?) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnzpEG1XwAE5fpT.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1908657005411053765) · 7 likes Reminds me of the good old days ### [Reply to @JacquesThibs, 23:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1908657216397193413) · 2 likes > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** I’ve heard rumours that SAEs (maybe mech interp in general) are much harder to make work when you are using a mixture-of-experts model. Anyone know if this is true? If so, should we expect interp for newer models to get harder going forward? > > Cc @norabelrose @NeelNanda5 @ch402 @livgorton ### [Reply to @livgorton, 23:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1908658344149069955) · 3 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** in my pretty limited experience that i am also going to be annoyingly vague about, i've not found this to be the case She hath spoken ## Sunday, April 6, 2025 ### [Reply to @dvassallo, 03:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1908717337164775566) · 5 likes > **Daniel Vassallo (@dvassallo):** Serious question, why is this a big deal? > > (quoting @OAlexanderDK: Your $1,599 MacBook Pro is now going to cost $1,918. But don't worry, when Apple listens to Trump and moves production to the U.S. it will cost $2,500.) It’s 9 hours of work for someone making $35/hour ### [Tweet, 16:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1908914441053221067) · 2,189 likes \> serious rock climber for almost a decade \> take extended break after intensely burning out \> lots of emotional (and physical) baggage \> haven’t touched rock/plastic in 3 years \> girl suggests we go climbing \> t-2 hours to climbing gym ### [Reply to @nomagicpillsite, 16:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1908917848077893712) · 6 likes > **No Magic Pill (@nomagicpillsite):** @AaronBergman18 T-3 hours til V7 flash Hope so lmao (I’m actually extremely unsure how good I’m gonna be) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 17:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1908933310417617177) · 130 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** You're going to a gym for a couple of hours bud I am climbing La Dura Dura and Everest in the same day ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 17:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1908935498439008721) · 10 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Lmao uh huh. Look the goal is to just not audibly fart. Everything else is gravy \*taking notes\* ### [Reply to @chaitinsgoose, 17:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1908941516204028258) · 22 likes > **Chaitin's goose (@chaitinsgoose):** send that V10 That’s my pre-warmup ### [Tweet, 18:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1908947399877247330) · 7 likes Plausibly if you work for an openphil-well-funded org but agree with me that OP is misallocating money, you should hardball negotiate for a higher salary to donate elsewhere in a way that’s slightly taboo or at least uncommon ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909026609333404069) · 441 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 6, 2025:** \> serious rock climber for almost a decade > take extended break after intensely burning out > lots of emotional (and physical) baggage > haven’t touched… For anyone curious I was climbing about v4 (flash, didn’t project much) down from like v10 max at my peak and v8-9/v6-7 flash when I stopped Im also about 50 pounds heavier than when I was at my peak (and 5in taller but still) ## Monday, April 7, 2025 ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909079506632966288) · 5 likes > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** @AaronBergman18 V10 is nuts!! I’m a few months into climbing and I just started being able to do harder v4s /v5s , but definitely has to do w like being a femoid etc Hell yeah 10 second deadhangs are your friend ### [Reply to @bijibiji2023, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909098561221931227) · 4 likes > **hoff 🧒🏻😻 (@bijibiji2023):** @AaronBergman18 I can dead hang for 3 mins but I can’t do a pull up #whats wrong with me Lol sorry, I mean on small edges or like 12-20mm edges with added weight (or weight removed, but not much bigger than 20mm) Approximately 5 sets of 10 seconds maybe failing on the last set Check out https://strengthclimbing.com/eva-lopez-maxhangs/ ### [Thread, continued, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909100090540617971) · 3 likes For pulling strength if you can’t do a pull up, do negatives (use like a box to get to the top of pull-up position and then lower yourself slowly) or lat pulldown machine ### [Reply to @morallawwithin, 17:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909293368082935868) · 16 likes > **florence ⊮ (@morallawwithin):** If tariffs are bad, then why not have negative tariffs? Productive inefficiency because then there’s an incentive to produce things abroad even when it takes fewer resources to produce things domestically Plausibly for poor countries this just does check out for humanitarian reasons though? Like it’s essentially a form of foreign aid (though cash > subsidy tariff worth same amount as cash to poor country) Unironically endorse this kind of thinking/question though! ### [Tweet, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909295232358703420) · 182 likes Trump is sufficiently insane that it wouldn’t make a difference, but in general it seems bad that admitting failure is seen as commendable only in tiny pockets of our culture ### [Thread, continued, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909295233923490107) · 23 likes Like you want to make it as easy and tempting as possible for a politician to say “I fucked up, changing course” when that’s in fact the correct response ### [Tweet, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909296838680715637) · 2 likes Tariffs and the stock market are like the peak of society working when it comes to the nexus of politics<>feedback from the real world<>policy If only it was like this, somehow, in other domains ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909297491402449096) · 16 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 7, 2025:** Like you want to make it as easy and tempting as possible for a politician to say “I fucked up, changing course” when that’s in fact the correct response I guess I really meant “admitting a mistake” ### [Quote tweet, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909337298019266637) · 9 likes Thinking about how ridiculous this tweet is ITS A MEME MADE BY AN AI ON BEHALF OF SOMEONE WHO IS ESSENTIALLY BUILDING INFRASTRUCTURE FOR THE INTELLIGENCE EXPLOSION > **Quoting Amjad Masad (@amasad):** New wild extrapolation just dropped. Here is 4o’s meme on it. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnvN9j8bgAA4CtE.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909337300745830636) · 2 likes Bro if your product gets 100x better and has a few more tools at its disposal it’s over Good thing nothing in AI has ever gotten 100x better before and nobody would ever hook an LLM up to directly control some system ## Tuesday, April 8, 2025 ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 01:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909418193493672115) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ I totally agree with the basic message but stock market crash specifically has a weird dynamic because the poor are more vulnerable in general but richer people lose a greater share of their wealth, at least as a first order effect Ofc recessions in general harm those with less savings so maybe this is a silly pedantic point ### [Reply to @edavidds, 01:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909419857969299550) · 3 likes > **Eric Schmidt 🇺🇦 (@edavidds):** @AaronBergman18 I feel like it \*is\* widely seen as commendable per se. > > People don’t want to do it for reasons of their own ego, their own partisan fervor, and backlash from their co-partisans. I think I disagree but it’s just a vague intuition I have ### [Reply to @Meaningness, 02:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909429298127077630) · 5 likes > **David Chapman (@Meaningness):** The same sinking feeling I had in January 2020: "Life may become quite difficult for a while." > > This time, stocking up on all our regularly-consumed imported goods, since—besides inflation—some international supply chains may break down altogether. Is this a tariff tweet or AI tweet? ### [Reply to @loveofdoing, 02:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909431280690769979) · 3 likes > **loveofdoing (@loveofdoing):** High-dimensional nearest-neighbor queries are a substantial open problem in computer science. Like how to do efficiently? Presumably you can just run the algebra right ### [Reply to @lethalrejection, 05:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909479781432803569) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @lethalrejection is no longer available.)_ @arthur_wright\_ ### [Reply to @hendrycks, 05:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909485191124464060) · 7 likes > **Dan Hendrycks (@hendrycks):** Is the suggestion that we give AIs rights including the right to vote ASAP? Can’t speak for OP, and I’d much prefer the conversation be in terms of “consideration for welfare” rather than “rights,” but “giving rights” doesn’t at all imply treating each model instance like a human, cmon “The right to be turned off and not re-instantiated upon request” is at least plausibly good This is the book I wish AI developers/anyone with power over their creation would read and take seriously ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 06:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909486642408087975) · 2 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** chiller safer mdma we can use like coffee Real 🙏 ### [Reply to @hendrycks, 06:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909489352948040009) · 2 likes > **Dan Hendrycks (@hendrycks):** I did research on "happy prompts" over two years ago to improve AI wellbeing (paper did not see the light of day since it did not turn out to be interesting enough). I've been thinking about AI welfare for a long time. Hell yeah, I respect that 🫡 Consider putting the preprint somewhere if it’s easy idk ### [Reply to @signulll, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909490899274314178) · 6 likes > **signüll (@signulll):** most ultra wealthy pol i know live lives way more mundane than you’d expect for people who could do literally anything. > > which is truly fascinating. Not just ultra wealthy, even upper middle class (or what I’m getting at is anyone with the money to take risks) Most people are strongly bound by social norms and expectations (I’m saying this in a purely neutral descriptive way) ### [Reply to @AaronPublicTwit, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909494671832678663) · 2 likes > **Aaronlington (@AaronPublicTwit):** @AaronBergman18 @peterwildeford you did it! Peter I still lost WTF ### [Tweet, 20:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909708659061395605) · 118 likes FedEx delivered a package addressed to me to someone else who signed for it, who I don’t know, and now I’m out $279 Already submitted a missing package note twice but no follow up I guess I should go full Karen shouldn’t I ### [Reply to @FedExHelp, 20:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909709397674127743) · 17 likes > **FedEx Help (@FedExHelp):** Hi, this is Gaylen. I am so sorry for any concerns with FedEx. If you would like assistance today, please send a DM to discuss further. https://x.com/messages/compose?recipient_id=952293073 Nice I will escalate my Karenhood as slowly as I can ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909712575006122048) · 4 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 Can you track down the person who signed? I probably also file a message report and be persistent with FedEx. There's also the possibility that your credit card offers purchase protection, so you might explore this Yeah I just filed an official claim with fedex which I just learned is distinct from declaring a missing package ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909712758146228609) · 15 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** @AaronBergman18 Check if FedEx uses cost-covered arbitration as their method of legal escalation. If they do, just do that. It's very easy and virtually nobody else does it, so they're likely to just give you what you want to make you go away. > > https://www.ymeskhout.com/p/i-fought-the-paypal-and-i-won-repost Nice thanks I was actually thinking the whole situation is straightforward enough that I could literally represent myself in court if it came to that lol ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 21:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909716594630311993) · 5 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** @AaronBergman18 But do read the fine print, most large companies basically just say "we aren't liable for anything we do wrong" in their contracts, so you're likely to lose if it comes to that. Yeah well hopefully they give a shit about reviews and me being annoying on the internet about it ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909716700934611319) · 12 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 8, 2025:** Nice I will escalate my Karenhood as slowly as I can Sigh ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GoCtMSkXIAAYa05.png) ## Wednesday, April 9, 2025 ### [Reply to @norabelrose, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909776761006469590) · 7 likes > **Taylor Belrose (@norabelrose):** I have a physical theory of subjective experience My prior on even very smart earnest people solving the mind-body problem/hard problem is ~0 Of course maybe your theory is true insofar as it gives necessary and sufficient conditions for sentience. My prior on that is low but not ~0 The problem is that when we come along the right theory, we have no good way of verifying it ### [Reply to @norabelrose, 01:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909781320827576357) · 5 likes > **Taylor Belrose (@norabelrose):** @AaronBergman18 @vivposts I think we can kinda verify it but it inevitably involves ethical/aesthetic considerations > > I also think verifying e.g. physics involves considerations of value though so it's not different on a deep level Even in principle, even if you didn’t care about ethics, there’s no way (that anyone knows) to demonstrate that some system/thing is having subjective experience at a given time The closest we can come is human verbal reports but even that is quite methodologically problematic ### [Tweet, 02:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909795266980360391) · 384 likes How did it even get into Trump’s head that trade deficits are bad? Like why is it salient to him personally at all? If it wasn’t for trump, I would probably think of trade deficits for about 15 minutes during a single intermediate macro lecture and never again ### [Thread, continued, 02:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909795268721095078) · 69 likes It’s not a super natural thing to worry about like crime or poverty or wages or national security And I kinda doubt Trump personally just has an autistic special interest in international trade theory ### [Reply to @mpopv, 02:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909800580693869047) · 26 likes > **Matt Popovich (@mpopv):** His business ventures have been largely scammy. Instilled a deep sense that selling things is fundamentally a scam where the buyer is getting ripped off. Precludes the possibility of a positive sum trade in his mind Ye makes sense ### [Quote tweet, 03:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909804549155471664) · 123 likes Get this man on LessWrong > **Quoting peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** i want to die > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GoDm4HeWQAA-lU7.jpg) ### [Reply to @lu_sichu, 03:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909804605594050638) · 14 likes > **Sichu Lu (@lu_sichu):** > > (quoting @DeepDishEnjoyer: i want to die) F ### [Tweet, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1909816155625177143) · 12 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GoEHq_OWEAAOQJ8.jpg) ### [Reply to @qwweryo, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1910037151594537004) · 1 like > **Matt Brooks (@qwweryo):** The only two things that matter for crypto are surviving quantum and having AI agents use your chain, right? > > If you don't survive quantum, your chain is dead > If you don't attract AI agents, then you're an economic ghost town Btc will continue to be economically productive and useful without these things But you really only need one schelling point coin for that, so this seems approximately right for everything other than btc ### [Reply to @LinkofSunshine, 18:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1910037307886813364) · 2 likes > **Basil🧡 (@LinkofSunshine):** This quote is a factually true statement that does not imply that it is bad to read to your kids! Yes. YES! Decoupling go brr ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1910040488662769985) · 5 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** What the fuck > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GoHSmCEXgAA9eaM.png) Wow personalized ### [Reply, 21:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1910085371536253009) · 24 likes Sure: mathematics, ethics, logic, the Big Bang in some sense, quantum mechanics in some sense ### [Reply, 21:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1910087964983706040) · 2 likes Top tweet was talking about phenomenons X such that there is a non-physical cause of X Whether X causes other things is a separate question Eg could be that the Big Bang was caused by something non-physical but the it certainly had physical consequences ### [Reply, 22:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1910099358042759357) No this is a good q, my point before was kinda confused and only sorta relevant I’m not a total causation anti-realist but, sorta like the category of “physical” I think it breaks down under careful scrutiny Like you go small enough and throw out “common sense” ontology of tables and chairs and balls being thrown in favor of what we really have good scientific reason to believe in, and my sense is that at the ground floor all you have is “properties” (see quoted tweet), math + logic, and maybe the intrinsic nature of those properties which I suspect is where consciousness enters the picture So to answer the question, I’m happy to say that logic+math is as important to all causation as fundamental properties (“physics”) are At some level I do kinda think there is just the quasi-empirical fact about what necessary and sufficient conditions are for various things to happen—a sort of deflationism about causation. No causation “mechanism” underneath it all ### [Reply to @AtlasWario, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1910101453315907803) · 3 likes > **Atlas Wario (@AtlasWario):** This is deeper than ignorance; it’s a deliberate failure of empathy, bordering on intentional epistemic blindness. Theory-of-mind-wise, they’re choosing not to mentally simulate why someone else would prioritize something they personally dismiss as irrelevant. It’s almost performative—like signaling, “My cognition is too elevated to even comprehend why a mere mortal would care about something as provincial as trade deficits.” > > This selective absence of perspective-taking can become a subtle form of dehumanization: rather than acknowledging genuine motivations or anxieties driving someone’s worldview, they’re implicitly suggesting the other person (Trump, or anyone with similar concerns) lacks a legitimate mental interiority at all. It reduces Trump’s perspective—and by proxy, tens of millions of supporters—to a meaningless fixation, a glitch, rather than something stemming from rational or emotional concerns about economic fairness, national identity, or pride. Even if they disagree strongly, a failure or refusal to see why Trump would care amounts to willfully ignoring that there’s a human psyche and genuine experiential basis behind his position. > > That’s scary, because it’s not just misunderstanding; it’s a refusal to acknowledge the personhood behind perspectives you oppose. It might even be a coping mechanism: by pretending Trump’s position is purely random or nonsensical, they’re excused from engaging with it seriously or empathically. That kind of epistemic insulation is how political discourse collapses into polarization and caricature. > > It’s a disconcertingly common epistemic tactic that’s ultimately toxic af, because it corrodes the possibility of dialogue and mutual recognition. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: How did it even get into Trump’s head that trade deficits are bad? Like why is it salient to him personally at all? If it wasn’t for trump, I would probably think of trade deficits for about 15 minutes during a single intermediate macro lecture and never again) FWIW I wish Trump well, just like I wish lots of bad people well, just as long as they don’t have any levers of power Also: \- it’s not a rhetorical question; I’m more than happy to hear an earnest account of how and why Trump cares about trade deficits \- I don’t think Trump is a p-zombie. I think he is a person with messy cognition like all of us \- it just is a live possibility that Trump really isn’t that rational or intelligent. I guess sorry if pointing this out reflects poorly on me, but it at least might be true \- I don’t think trade deficits are a “provincial” concern at all—quite the opposite, it’s like quite esoteric and usually confined to models of international economics afaict ## Thursday, April 10, 2025 ### [Reply to @BenBear, 09:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1910259559622393999) · 6 likes > **Ben Bear (@BenBear):** I think it works because you’re reducing the guy’s fear of getting rejected by 100% Yes ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1910385584910291150) · 4 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** Would it me weird if I made a spreadsheet of everyone I know and tallied each time I see each person? I don’t want anyone to be to deprived of my company that’s too much that’s a terrible fate Weird (positive) ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 22:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1910457053396484541) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 Real ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 23:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1910474988706292105) · 7 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** 1960s discourse: "Predictions of cellphones are just crazy science fiction" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GoF9CCWWEAAAOBm.png) Good thing all we have to do to prevent anything from happening is depict it in a sci-fi movie ### [Tweet, 23:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1910476594906280003) · 10 likes Maybe obvious but in terms of geopolitics and international competition, the US had the secret sauce, the Mandate of Heaven ### [Thread, continued, 23:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1910476596688925171) · 5 likes You can debate what it is, specifically (institutions, capital markets, genes selected for risk taking, culture, …) and in what proportions, but the game plan was essentially to just not radically fuck it up This is what Trump is threatening ### [Thread, continued, 23:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1910476599150944290) · 3 likes (Again I mean in terms of geopolitics, where economic, military, and cultural power matter a ton; not saying the US doesn’t have other problems) (And obviously this is a quite simplified perspective, especially when it comes to AI. But still) ## Friday, April 11, 2025 ### [Reply to @krishnanrohit, 22:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1910827414101406094) · 14 likes > **rohit (@krishnanrohit):** I don't believe this. At best it's: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GoSeXmkbsAAeqWK.jpg) > (quoting @laurenbalik: I have literally made people solve: "5(x) + 2 = 12, what is x? " in job interviews and most people fail it. CMOs, data engineers, analysts, etc. It's all one big make-work program we've been in since the relational database was released in the 1970s. All H-1Bs fail 100% of the…) Ya sounds literally just false ### [Reply to @laurenbalik, 22:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1910827491930877970) · 47 likes > **Steven Balik (@laurenbalik):** I have literally made people solve: "5(x) + 2 = 12, what is x? " in job interviews and most people fail it. CMOs, data engineers, analysts, etc. It's all one big make-work program we've been in since the relational database was released in the 1970s. > > All H-1Bs fail 100% of the time but allegedly they are the world's math and database and IT experts and allegedly this is "skilled" employment... > > (quoting @mo906163: @laurenbalik I be impressed if general population had full mastery of basic algebra) [![GIF thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/GoSfeaGWsAAX8LO.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1910827491930877970/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ## Saturday, April 12, 2025 ### [Reply to @nypost, 17:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911111244993478781) · 1 like > **New York Post (@nypost):** Salmon are swimming faster due to painkillers dumped into rivers: study https://trib.al/lA2WwK6 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GoS3qtWWoAEmU59.jpg) Based fish ### [Reply to @RichardMCNgo, 23:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911192902044426572) · 10 likes > **Richard Ngo (@RichardMCNgo):** This is a really good description of humans facing the singularity. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GoWTtBqX0AA8T0i.jpg) I like this but also kinda reject it Humans have a sui generis (well until recently, and except for aliens stuff) type of general intelligence that allows some qualitative understanding of literally anything, even if that means just “there is this thing that you can’t fathom” This is very different from being locked out from understanding one’s own limitations ## Sunday, April 13, 2025 ### [Reply, 13:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911416363140120592) · 2 likes @livgorton ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 13:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911418843613848004) · 6 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Beware the Stendahl syndrome > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stendhal_syndrome Tbc Stefan is talking to the rest of us looking at Sarah ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911487502893937040) · 8 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** gemini is too fast. i don't trust it. smart things can't be that fast Real ### [Reply to @calebwatney, 18:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911493399321997324) · 8 likes > **Caleb Watney (@calebwatney):** Some extremely telling quotes from former Biden admin officials on the challenges they had trying to advance priorities through their own bureaucracy > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GobEgXAWoAE1rDB.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GobEgXTXwAA-O6z.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GobEgYZWAAArxc3.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GobEgcXX0AAZFGD.jpg) I could tell this was Ezra before reading the byline lol ### [Reply to @medievalpard, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911496649228103823) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @medievalpard is no longer available.)_ I feel like I’m gradually getting less terrible at it lol ### [Quote tweet, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911496699677114848) · 13 likes Stan our autistic kings > **Quoting Benjamin (@bschne):** every time I catch myself being a dork texting a woman this anecdote pops into my head again > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gob9vj2XYAApLE1.png) ### [Reply to @medievalpard, 19:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911497128574136796) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @medievalpard is no longer available.)_ 🫡 ### [Tweet, 19:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911500835772682351) · 269 likes Cc: my defense of drinking alcohol (for the kind of people who follow me here) You really want to throw away something that makes you happy and greases the wheels of social interaction for a possible, minuscule increase in \[pick whatever health metric you care about\]? ### [Thread, continued, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911501013594292314) · 14 likes 🍻 ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911501317027115440) · 6 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** I need a book written by a pseudo-autistic skinwalker rationalist who had to learn all these things explicitly > > i literally did not understand what flirting \*even was\* for a while, but after simply hearing it plainly described once, i picked it up quickly Lol do you have that description handy by any chance? ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 19:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911502258786766870) · 7 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** "plausibly deniable handshakes at each level of escalation" is the most succinct phrasing i can come up with, but that's still a bit rough Nice ok thanks this is what I was vaguely expecting ### [Thread, continued, 19:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911502363329700325) · 2 likes I like the handshake bit ### [Quote tweet, 19:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911502458314211844) · 26 likes Flirting 👇 > **Quoting henry (@arithmoquine):** @AaronBergman18 @autumnpard @bschne "plausibly deniable handshakes at each level of escalation" is the most succinct phrasing i can come up with, but that's still a bit rough ### [Reply to @sebkrier, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911502998359916990) · 3 likes > **Séb Krier (@sebkrier):** Fun anecdote: in 2021, two friends and I applied for funding to launch a think tank on AI governance. At the time, the main focus in the field was 'solving the technical problem of alignment.' One funder rejected us specifically because they were skeptical that governments would ever be relevant or important for AI safety :) 2021 is a million years ago ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 19:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911503154606129457) · 3 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** @AaronBergman18 take it from the child I unironically will ### [Quote tweet, 19:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911504675196870686) · 5 likes I love this It just needs a tweak of like “you should try anyway” or “it’s commendable/virtuous to try anyway” > **Quoting Arthur Dent (@ArthurCDent):** I asked the AI for the least inspiring inspirational poster and I weirdly like it > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GoSB1ajasAABypI.jpg) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911508990120362201) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 It mostly just depresses my mood. It doesn’t act as an effective social lubricant for me Yeah same I just get clumsy - I’m literally talking to people other than myself ### [Thread, continued, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911509090960085340) · 4 likes But \*if\* I really liked it I wouldn’t give it up in the name of an extra 4.3 days of expected life or something ### [Tweet, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911512411456102626) · 3 likes Now I feel bad for being curt with ChatGPT 😔 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GocOZhMWEAEXsvY.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911514034073178363) · 8 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GocP4bYW0AAtV22.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I love this > > It just needs a tweak of like “you should try anyway” or “it’s commendable/virtuous to try anyway” ### [Reply to @QualityBland, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911519408050368915) · 11 likes > **Quality Bland (@QualityBland):** @AaronBergman18 Looking forward to you recanting this. Alcohol provides zero marginal utility. All of its "good" parts (ha!) can be achieved in other ways with fewer downsides. Signed, a teetotaler I just don’t think this is true for some (many) people ### [Reply to @QualityBland, 20:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911520551941665065) · 5 likes > **Quality Bland (@QualityBland):** @AaronBergman18 What is it helping them with? > Lowered social inhibition? Just move the parties later to be more tired/uninhibited. > Something to do with their hands? Literally any other drink. > Third space? Go to a coffee shop (ha says the Mormon), or to a bar and drink a soda. It’s a drug with a complex cascade of neurological and then psychological effects that is hard to replicate, and probably impossible to replicate perfectly ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911521901790351788) · 15 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 13, 2025:** 🍻 Yeah this is a good counterargument. I think it makes a lot of sense to be careful around this and extremely careful if you have a family history of alcoholism But that doesn’t imply stopping if you’ve been drinking in a basically controlled and sustainable way for 10+ years ### [Quote tweet, 21:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911532163746369978) · 10 likes Seems bad > **Quoting Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** Politico with a side-by-side of how the administration justifies its actions in court and how they sell them to the public: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gocb2ULWgAA_jnr.jpg) ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 23:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911557698753036452) · 3 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** A lot of my ea friends don't tend to drink and I think it's actually cos their bodies don't react as well to alcohol, not some type of puritan kick Yeah this is me! I don’t like it! ### [Reply to @exfatloss, 23:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911562142467162130) · 2 likes > **exfatloss🥛 (@exfatloss):** @yzilber GLP-1 is a hormone, and the drugs are hormone agonists. > > Hence it works on the hormonal level and CICO is merely descriptive of fat loss. I’m basically on your side here but don’t think “debunking” is a correct or good term to use “Debunking” is for when something is wrong, not trivially right but unhelpful ### [Tweet, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911564600245379098) · 31 likes How is there no model where people basically get to pick the nursing homes they will enter if they ever have to enter one? Seems like this would 90% fix incentives ### [Thread, continued, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911564601885389009) · 5 likes I feel like maybe you could do this at an individual level—it’s pretty hard to tell your parents “look I know you specifically asked to be put in home X if you’re incapacitated but I’m not doing that” especially if finances are accounted for at the time of visiting ### [Thread, continued, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911564603454022118) · 3 likes I think the status quo is a sort of implicit assumption that people can and do choose for themselves ### [Thread, continued, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911564604947251416) · 7 likes but functionally there’s often a tiny gap of time \*at best\* when it’s both a salient consideration and people are of sound enough body and mind to visit various places and decide for themselves ### [Thread, continued, 23:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911564867858821549) · 9 likes Ofc money is the dark magic here but I’m not even sure that most elder homes/hospices are operating at the Pareto frontier of quality for the person under care and cost Maybe this is naive ### [Thread, continued, 23:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911565297347436763) · 8 likes Also new LLM application just dropped: basically create an agent to be able to advocate for oneself if one is ever unable to Like “do not resuscitate” tattoos and wills but much richer and higher dimensional ## Monday, April 14, 2025 ### [Reply to @morallawwithin, 07:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911681060351394189) · 32 likes > **florence ⊮ (@morallawwithin):** Hi! So I have some personal news. In short, I’ve apostatized, so I’m not a Christian anymore. Some comments: > > 1\. I’ve made the decision that I should not discuss why I came to this conclusion. I’m really sorry about this, I know Christians who care about me have an interest in these things, but I promise (i) I have decisive reason to reject Christianity, and (ii) I have really really good reason to not be open to discuss about my reasons for this. All I can give you is my promise, and I am sorry for that. > > 2\. I expect that there are people who followed me because the only thing we had in common is we’re both Christian. If you want to unfollow me or break mutuals (in which case I ask you to soft block me) because of this, I understand, and I have no hard feelings. > > 3\. I still think it’s pretty likely that God exists, but I do not adhere to any particular religion as of now. > > 4\. I greatly value the time I spent as a Christian. I love the people I met because of it, and I have no regrets. > > 5\. I, like you, prioritize the truth and (derivatively) the good over everything else, no exceptions. If Christianity is true, then I will come to believe it again; you have nothing to worry about. Epistemological mistakes are generally not imputable to an agent. If we all just pursue what is good, we have nothing to worry about. God does not want anything bad or unfair for us. Step 2) deconvert from kantianism ### [Reply, 07:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911682298845573516) · 1 like Ya ### [Quote tweet, 07:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911685964759474677) · 13 likes This discourse has me re-inventing liking experts straightforwardly from first principles (well, and examples) Like c’mon do you really think you’re outsmarting the small army of >150 IQ hyper-earnest giganerds who have written a veritable library on the matter? > **Quoting Tyler John (@tyler_m_john):** I don't think scholars like @tobyordoxford, who wrote the book on existential risk, "misunderstand how to think about existential risk." > > Beyond misaligned AI being a bigger threat than the other risks combined, in the short run AI substantially increases, not decreases biorisk. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GoZ64irXsAAeV0X.png) ### [Reply to @arabelladevine, 12:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911766065140359453) · 3 likes > **arabella ※ (@arabelladevine):** i had to take a picture of these tulips to check i wasn’t going insane, but they actually were That Vivid. they make the whole street look grey > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GoUl0VBXYAECpGa.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GoUl0U6XgAA8104.jpg) RED ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 13:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911768343645683852) · 6 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** Isn’t muscle denser than fat? Trump takes up more volume but I don’t know, he could be 224 if he has no muscle at all? > > (quoting @ClueHeywood: Most of Trump’s lies are abhorrent but I’d forgotten how funny the “annual physical” ones were. Yeah man, 6’3”, 224lbs. About the same stats as DK Metcalf here. Got it.) ### [Reply to @alth0u, 13:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911771945831461369) · 8 likes > **alth0u🧶 (@alth0u):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GocJ-CaXoAA2lp9.jpg) > (quoting @alth0u: the manifold of any sufficiently intelligent superintelligence is spiky enough that for one to define a model as superintelligent it should be able to perfectly model the inner life, trauma, goals, desires, problem solving abilities of a a piss drinking IMO gold medalist) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gof6c4LWMAAm6CD.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gof6c4IXEAAFadM.jpg) ### [Tweet, 13:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911777351152566504) · 4 likes We need to make America great again ### [Quote tweet, 14:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911785349413548520) · 8 likes Normally my attitude would be that the Trump II would be a black stain on America but one that we’d basically recover from, but bc of the whole singularity thing idk if that’s true > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Tapping the sign > > It seems very bad if a lawless authoritarian administration is administering the intelligence explosion ### [Reply to @NULobbyist, 14:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911788069465792908) · 2 likes > **NUL (@NULobbyist):** There was a Russian scientist who survived putting his head in a smaller particle accelerator. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorski > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GogI-kcXkAAgzJ3.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GogI-01XMAArTf5.jpg) Based ### [Thread, continued, 14:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911788204702789689) · 2 likes Ok I read the screenshots, not that based ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 14:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911791209929916548) · 4 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I’m in the pocket of the labs > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GogKzsRWkAAhZo5.jpg) Damn ### [Quote tweet, 15:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911804573242593446) · 15 likes AMF might be the silliest institution to pick on but I recall seeing someone point out that “hiring X people” and analogously “raising X (charitable) dollars” go on the costs side of the ledger, not the benefits side, so it’s a bit weird to brag about this > **Quoting Against Malaria Foundation (@AgainstMalaria):** US$750,000,000 raised! > \#malaria #milestone > https://www.againstmalaria.com/NewsItem.aspx?newsitem=USD-750-000-000-raised > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GogGxExXUAACK6z.png) ### [Thread, continued, 15:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911804576128213025) · 4 likes Tbc I don’t think AMF is doing anything super unethical or otherwise terrible here; it’s just a random opportunity to point out what to me is a quite subtle dynamic And I think the person who observed this was @ohabryka ^ ### [Thread, continued, 15:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911804578854564010) · 3 likes The dynamic is weird bc eg raising a lot of money is itself impressive and signals that other people think you’re worth giving money to and is causally important for attaining stuff that goes on the benefits side… ### [Thread, continued, 15:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911804580683288996) · 5 likes but nonetheless, all else equal\*, we should prefer that charities raise fewer dollars not more \* ofc all else generally isn’t equal bc more money allows you to do more things but still, the point is to brag about the things and not the inputs/costs to acquiring them ## Tuesday, April 15, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911942449125024173) · 25 likes Sucks that a relatively bad POTUS election doesn’t result in the second best candidate or 99th percentile or 80th percentile or median or even like a -3 sigma candidate - you sometimes get one of the worst of all possible eligible American adults to do the job ### [Tweet, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911960612394971265) · 12 likes It’s not gonna happen, but Trump should be impeached and removed Yes I think Vance would be less bad ### [Quote tweet, 01:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911961911236657236) · 93 likes HOW IT STARTED // HOW ITS GOING ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GoinObrWMAAsidn.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Ex-OpenAI employees should consider personally filing an amicus curiae explaining to the court (if this is true) that the nonprofit’s representations were an important reason you chose to work there ### [Thread, continued, 01:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911961914248134918) · 8 likes (I think it’s very unlikely my tweet had any causal role here tbc) Godspeed! ### [Reply to @fleetingbits, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911966727547605291) · 5 likes > **FleetingBits (@fleetingbits):** What are interesting experiments that we could use LLMs or vector embeddings to do with respect to Classical texts? Rigorous analysis of how traditional myths/stories cluster semantically like across languages and cultures ### [Quote tweet, 02:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911967483562442792) · 120 likes This is so so bad In terms of magnitude it’s not the worst thing the US has ever done, but in some sense it’s one of the most appalling because it’s so egregious and overdetermined > **Quoting John McCormack (@McCormackJohn):** Bukele has already sent back 9 people to the United States that the Trump admin insists are gang members. > > So why can’t he send back Abrego-Garcia? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GoiFZC8XwAAC1Wa.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GoiFZC7WoAAmSlo.jpg) ### [Reply to @husninino, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911968226411499945) · 7 likes > **husein (@husninino):** @AaronBergman18 I have a bad suspicion he is dead and they don't want to let it out. Ah hmm ### [Tweet, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1911999213522550908) · 7 likes Is there like a good list of the actual highest leverage things a random US citizen in a blue state can do to like cause Trump to either be removed from office or majorly constrained ### [Tweet, 09:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912071953143181410) · 13 likes Half baked low confidence thought but: lately it’s seeming relatively easy to tell who the good guys are and who the bad guys are (yes this is a childish simplistic model but sometimes is approximately true)… ### [Thread, continued, 09:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912071954602897742) · 4 likes Sometimes people are complex and multifaceted in surprising ways, and sometimes people are competent at deception… ### [Thread, continued, 09:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912071955961823338) · 3 likes but often dark triad traits and other common sense dispositional categories like “concern for others” just straightforwardly correlate between domains exactly as you would expect and manifest in ways that are relatively transparent ### [Thread, continued, 09:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912071957572419757) · 3 likes The salient examples in my mind rn are Trump and Altman in one category and a handful of less famous people who seem virtuous in multiple domains that aren’t directly related in another (for some reason I feel weird naming them but maybe I should) Salient counterexample is SBF ### [Thread, continued, 09:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912071959002685874) · 5 likes Ofc being a “good guy” in the sense I’m describing here isn’t sufficient for actually doing good Some nerds in Oxford started a whole thing around this ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 13:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912134228109639922) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ @littIeramblings ass tweet ### [Tweet, 15:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912161574279663656) · 4 likes If only there was some international agreement that would have limited Iran’s ability to build a nuclear weapon ### [Reply to @follynomics, 15:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912164923527856151) · 24 likes > **Cody McCormack (@follynomics):** Im sorry > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GodjKvJWcAAZdO6.jpg) lol I’m not sure Marx + Stata is a natural category ### [Quote tweet, 15:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912165372737814598) · 5 likes Pronouns in bio // extrajudicial deportation > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** The old tumblr meme of like “democrats get your pizza order wrong and overcharge you a bit; republicans send you pizza filled with nails” is feeling very correct ## Wednesday, April 16, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912296538501488755) · 22 likes I feel like I’m not actually learning the lesson that parents are right about ~everything as I get older Either I’m still dumb/immature or actually they’re just wrong about a lot of stuff, even stuff that superficially seem like what you might get more sympathetic to with age ### [Reply to @QiaochuYuan, 00:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912302519750959547) · 4 likes > **QC (@QiaochuYuan):** the "save as..." option in a browser needs to be repurposed. absolutely nobody needs to save a webpage as html for any reason. the thing i constantly find myself wanting to do now is to save the text of a page so i can feed it into an LLM. that should be a one-click affordance > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GonZ-qDWIAEyHTW.jpg) Functionally ctrl+p -> save as PDF does this for me ### [Reply to @CrispyWicks, 00:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912302867328672166) · 2 likes > **Chris P. Wicks 🔎🐜 (@CrispyWicks):** Fellas there's no excuse not to look like this in time for Vibecamp > > (quoting @eric_bugenhagen: ) That skinny and weak? ### [Reply to @adamscochran, 00:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912306979546054827) · 19 likes > **Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) (@adamscochran):** If you ignore the courts, if you shrug off the law, if you stupidly laugh off due process, then at least remember the human here. > > Kilmar Garcia, wrongfully deported, was residing here legally with a work visa, supporting his family. > > Including his 5 year old, non-verbal autistic son. > > Who has cried and consoled himself with his father’s shirts since his arrest. > > He was a tax paying resident, wrongfully accused of gang affiliation, and not given his day in court to disprove those claims. > > But more importantly, he was someone’s husband, he was someone’s father. > > Trying to make a life for his family in America. > > So they could have it better than the kind of life he escaped as a child himself. > > He isn’t a line item. > > He isn’t a statistic. > > He isn’t “an illegal” > > He is Kilmar Abrego Garcia - and he is this little boy’s dad. > > He is his son’s whole world. > > And if for no other reason, let that alone be enough for us to demand we right this wrong. > > Not just for what Garcia deserves. > > But for what his son deserves. > > Because he deserves so much better than the America we have shown him. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GongPquXUAAZ5Kl.jpg) Jfc ### [Tweet, 00:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912307909133795476) · 22 likes If you’re Hispanic or not an American citizen living in the US or anything like that and have a take you’re too afraid to tweet, feel free to DM me (however) and I’ll consider posting it (saying “from an anonymous source”) ### [Thread, continued, 00:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912308290224079140) · 12 likes I already know (highly productive, white, relatively wealthy) immigrants or potential immigrants who are self-censoring in I think a tragic but totally reasonable way ### [Quote tweet, 01:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912311602499530800) · 44 likes Bruh head of catastrophic risk became \*an intern\* At least the end of the world will be kinda funny > **Quoting Garrison Lovely (@GarrisonLovely):** 🚨BREAKING🚨 OpenAI's top official for catastrophic risk, Joaquin Quiñonero Candela, quietly stepped down weeks ago — the latest major shakeup in the company's safety leadership. I dug into what happened and what it means for Obsolete 🧵 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GonVaeRacAAv51L.jpg) ### [Reply to @ValsTutor, 01:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912312826892341736) · 2 likes > **vals🔸 (@ValsTutor):** Rolling on grass cuz teaching a bootcamp in the Colombian countryside (though tbh I also roll on grass most of the time because I haven't found a jiu jitsu gym I liked and because I don't like paying for things) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GonmPV4XsAAlL9L.jpg) 🦆 ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 08:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912426199822872598) · 2 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** I got ever more critical of them throughout my 20s, and am now ever more sympathetic as a parent. Not so always "they were right about this intellectual point" but more "I'm sympathetic to their aims and see that they were constrained by these significant factors" Yeah tbc I’m very sympathetic to their aims and never doubted good intentions! ### [Reply to @KelseyTuoc, 09:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912444438044946731) · 7 likes > **Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** She sits back up, and the expression on her face is fascinating. She's not exactly upset - it's more like she's totally recalcuating how the world works. From the game with me, she'd been learning that she could keep her feet. But now she's learned that she was in the tutorial. Want baby ### [Quote tweet, 10:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912446437306048998) · 24 likes Yes, the anti-Israel American left is largely insane and also really bad at exercising power (lots of graffiti and stickers, minimal theory of change), but Israel also regularly acts with reckless disregard for Palestinian life > **Quoting Tal Hagin (@talhagin):** Preliminary OSINT Summary: Medical Convoy under IDF fire in Tal al-Sultan, Rafah – March 23, 2025 > > This thread provides a detailed overview of the incident involving the PRCS and Civil Defense convoy in Rafah. It examines the available evidence, outlines conflicting narratives, and highlights key findings as well as unresolved questions. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gn3HcfUWwAA-OFP.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 10:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912446439478657300) · 3 likes In a better world, Israel would become a full multi-ethnic democracy with full rights and legal protections for people in the Palestinian territories Basically just the normal Western way of government + Jewish right of return ### [Tweet, 10:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912453942056824990) · 15 likes You know ur wrong af when Claude calls your idea/take “interesting” ### [Reply, 15:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912524603731107904) · 1 like Lol what ### [Tweet, 15:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912525924387389738) · 8 likes New conference just dropped I would go if it was nearby! Tickets are affordable! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GoqoMMEXUAE0C6r.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 15:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912525928778899799) · 2 likes Details and links here https://open.substack.com/pub/aiforanimals/p/ai-for-animals-8-retrospective-on?r=2muv6&utm_medium=ios ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 15:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912531378161500500) · 2 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** @absurdlymax @Kirsten3531 @AaronBergman18 To Kristen's point, I think the mental shift with aging is not really "I thought they were wrong but they were right" but rather a better appreciation of the constraints they were operating under. Yeah but this doesn’t necessarily point in the more sympathetic direction I’m actually like more confident they were wrong specifically in the case of overprotection which is most salient bc I feel like I have a better understanding of constraints and real stakes ### [Quote tweet, 17:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912555767183405120) · 3 likes To some extent this just is a funny quirk of chatbots based on base model token predictors, but it also seems plausibly pretty bad? Funny when GPT-2 “lies” (open question in what sense it knows it is not being honest), less so when its battleGPT-5o-thinking-tooluse.military_api > **Quoting Transluce (@TransluceAI):** We tested a pre-release version of o3 and found that it frequently fabricates actions it never took, and then elaborately justifies these actions when confronted. > > We were surprised, so we dug deeper 🔎🧵(1/) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Goq-D9macAApuHy.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912588174901096475) · 14 likes It’s more of a question than an answer, but an enormously important one Non-AI effective altruism needs to look at AGI straight on > **Quoting EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** "How should we adapt animal advocacy to near-term AGI?" by Max Taylor > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GordF2eWIAAtBlF.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912617175640080494) · 115 likes Every 80k podcast episode with someone from the Bay: “16 OOMs to get all the computation ever used by evolution, so that’s coming in 4 months if the scheming AIs take over enough H200s to run a high granularity physics simulation, or 5 months if you have long timelines” ### [Thread, continued, 21:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912617178601226622) · 35 likes Every 80k podcast with someone from Oxford: “we see that whether we model long-run economic progress using a stepwise exponential or continuous superexponential function, something quite important is predicted to happen around 2025… ### [Thread, continued, 21:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912617180891426939) · 31 likes Analogous dynamics appear in the linguistic development of pre-tsarist Russia, pseudogovernmental dynamics in the South American drug trade, and will happen again when post-humanity meets our nearest civilizations neighbor, the three of which form a natural reference category” ### [Reply to @NunoSempere, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912638149047492621) · 6 likes > **Nuño Sempere (@NunoSempere):** @AaronBergman18 Btw, those evolution numbers are very fake, https://nunosempere.com/blog/2022/08/10/evolutionary-anchor/ Oh I totally guessed based on only the vaguest recollection of Biological Anchors report tbc ### [Quote tweet, 22:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912640082252796321) · 37 likes Yeah this feels low status to say (“admit”?) but I’m pretty sure stimulants take my hedonic wellbeing from negative on net to positive on net I don’t give a fuck if they don’t increase my IQ or whatever - quality of life matters! > **Quoting MagpAI (@WillowChem):** I do not think my life would be worth living if I didn't have access to my ADHD medication, because Vyvanse/Dexamphetamine are the only way I can consistently do the kind of work that I have built my life around. Being on Vyvanse feels like being the person I was meant to be. ### [Quote tweet, 22:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912641271270867039) · 8 likes Seems bad > **Quoting Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Not loving that o3 is apparently a huge cheat > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GosEO7-W4AAKrT2.png) ### [Reply to @Pandora_Delaney, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912646285724614769) · 3 likes > **Pandora (Dr. Bimbo) (@Pandora_Delaney):** @AaronBergman18 It’s a high compassion move to share information that could plausibly help improve other people’s hedonic wellbeing, thank you for sharing 🫡 ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912646519586521090) · 6 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** @AaronBergman18 Wait this feels low status to admit to you? Interesting, why? Dependent on drugs in an important sense + being naturally happy seems high status ## Thursday, April 17, 2025 ### [Reply, 00:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912662043695423867) · 1 like This might be a silly distinction but it’s also not \*reliably\* reliable Like for a given task with 80 subtasks maybe it really would go 80/80 - the issue is you can’t be sure! ### [Quote tweet, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912663080938389505) · 4 likes I partially agree but a corollary is that AI is easier/safer/better/more productive in domains where you can easily notice failure Even within coding, this is why front end software design is approximately solved at a B- level at least whereas data science is not… > **Quoting Alessandro (@polisisti):** I'm not opposed to using AI in principle, but a lot of my work involves small details, and AI just isn't reliable enough. ### [Tweet, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912663083211788606) · 1 like Like you’re just gonna see if the website is ugly or doesn’t work right (for the most part) but if the model do does the wrong type of regression (distinct from writing the code so it doesn’t run) you might get a plausible-seeming answer at the end ### [Thread, continued, 00:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912663589850169832) · 2 likes It’s also not enough to show that AI would do an excellent job at a given task; if there was any doubt in the user/employee’s mind that it \*wouldn’t\* do a good job, you (often, depending on domain) have to check at the end ### [Thread, continued, 00:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912664356774420634) · 2 likes And (build infra for LLM + human check at the end) isn’t always easier than human just doing the thing Believe me I have tried with reasonable effort to automate quite a few things. Even Gemini-2.5 (haven’t tried o3) isn’t 99% reliable at being 99.9% reliable yet ### [Reply to @NealAdvait, 00:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912667792488177974) · 1 like > **NealAdvaitShimon (@NealAdvait):** “Solved math” is just dumb phrasing. Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem basically means you can be infinitely intelligent and never “solve math”. Yeah ur just totally right lol Deleted ### [Quote tweet, 03:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912705826969563146) · 1 like Update: there might be! Links below! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GotLYV4WgAAz5xm.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Is there like a good list of the actual highest leverage things a random US citizen in a blue state can do to like cause Trump to either be removed from office or majorly constrained ### [Quote tweet, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912710937397637397) · 8 likes Avg AI prediction > **Quoting benthamite🔸 (@benthamite_):** Manifold market on whether the time horizon of AI models would double in < 7 months resolved positive in 15 days > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GotP18KbAAAMh2k.jpg) ### [Reply, 04:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912728134610227221) · 1 like 🐢 ### [Thread, continued, 04:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912728222225097045) · 2 likes Also good interview (so far, haven’t finished)! ### [Quote tweet, 04:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912729346722136448) · 3 likes EA demands to know 1\) Rob’s barber + shaving stack 2\) Tom’s turtleneck source > **Quoting Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin):** Today's interview is among the most chilling I've ever recorded: > > Tom Davidson on how AI-enabled coups could allow a tiny group to seize power > > His new paper, published today, lays out how AGI will naturally destabilise even mature democracies and encourage power grabs. > > The paper, plus links and transcript, below: > > 00:50 How AI enables tiny groups to seize power > 12:31 Secret AI loyalties > 24:32 Are human power grabs more plausible than 'rogue AI'? > 37:31 Will AGI make it impossible to escape autocracy? > 41:34 Threat 1: AI-enabled military coups > 1:00:48 Threat 2: Autocratisation > 1:13:31 Threat 3: Self-built hard power > 1:21:23 Can you stage a coup with 10,000 drones? > 1:29:22 Are people psychologically willing to do coups? > 1:33:31 Will a balance of power between AIs prevent this? > 1:49:28 How likely is this in the US? > 1:56:58 Is a small group seizing power really so bad? > 2:00:33 Countermeasure 1: Block internal misuse > 2:10:27 Countermeasure 2: Cybersecurity > 2:12:36 Countermeasure 3: Model spec transparency > 2:21:55 Countermeasure 4: Sharing AI access broadly > 2:26:45 Is it more dangerous to concentrate or share AGI? > 2:32:38 In defence of open sourcing AI models > 2:53:18 Preventing AI-enabled military coups in particular > 3:03:00 How to help if you work at an AI company > 3:07:09 The power ML researchers still have, for now > 3:10:29 How to help if you're an elected leader > > Find it in any app by searching for 80,000 Hours Podcast. > > [video attached](https://x.com/robertwiblin/status/1912539111522451898/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 04:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912729899975987280) · 6 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GothtNHWwAAGhpg.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GothtNHX0AAGwA8.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GothtMeXIAAvmgm.jpg) ### [Reply to @colin_fraser, 04:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912730825231155292) · 30 likes > **Find me on bsky @colin-fraser.net (@colin_fraser):** I'm asking in earnestness: at what point should it be reasonable to expect that a PhD-level super-reasoner would be able to solve this equation? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GosKp-pacAIeeLr.png) Gets it right for me ### [Reply to @colin_fraser, 05:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912733537226137623) · 25 likes > **Find me on bsky @colin-fraser.net (@colin_fraser):** try it again once or twice 5 for 5 I don’t doubt ur screenshot is legit, but still ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GotlA--XIAAxN7m.jpg) ### [Tweet, 06:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912753123640176883) · 9 likes Guanfacine is a super interesting drug It’s not merely a non-stimulant ADHD medication but essentially an \*anti\*-stimulant, fundamentally doing the opposite of what CNS stimulants do in many ways ### [Tweet, 06:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912758151213900118) · 4 likes I get why there’s such an asymmetrical response, but if the El Salvador prisons are so bad there should probably be an international response to incentivize more humane conditions, totally setting aside entanglement with the US ### [Thread, continued, 06:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912758152845516912) · 2 likes The US is a rich country! We could just pay them to make prisons humane in a fiscally neutral (from their perspective) way ### [Quote tweet, 06:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912758723832926628) · 9 likes Retvrn to token prediction It was a good paradigm! You can get a lot out of it! > **Quoting Nathan Labenz (@labenz):** the latest models are all more deceptive & scheming than their predecessors, across a wide range of conditions > > I don’t see how “alignment by default” can be taken seriously > > I’ll say it again: RL is a hell of a drug ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 07:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912767609734394223) · 10 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** idek if i agree with her thesis. i'd first need to see a single intelligent person try to rebut it How about “moral effects are dominated by making AI and specifically video generation models slightly more profitable” Idk if I actually believe this ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 07:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912771596839715213) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ If that accuracy is general, it implies an area of like 300 square miles - pretty sure you could get an exact address just by running google street view through image models Again for me personally this isn’t a huge deal in this specific case (it’s not where I live) but still ### [Thread, continued, 07:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912772983757680731) · 10 likes Nice it got this one totally wrong (by like 1k miles or something). Timelines 2 days longer ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GouI4snXMAAhhl4.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 07:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912774941830676849) · 4 likes If anyone wants to try replicating it without these advantages, here’s the pic! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GouKq4hWUAAkDz8.jpg) ### [Reply, 07:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912775491251048959) · 1 like Interesting thanks Not o3 though ### [Reply to @jessald, 07:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912776033347961059) · 2 likes > **jessald (@jessald):** @AaronBergman18 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GouLWz9WYAAQ7g5.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GouLcNeWsAA3Fdd.jpg) Ok cool, comforting, slightly! ### [Tweet, 07:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912777501169922192) · 17 likes Stomach fucking dropped. It got the SPECIFIC TOWN right (faces not obscured in the original) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GouM_-tW0AAGsF7.jpg) ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 08:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912778367952110079) · 1 like > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** @AaronBergman18 To be fair AI's been able to do this for more than a year now. I mean I’d be surprised if o3 isn’t an advance from a year ago so “this” must be defined quite broadly to work ### [Quote tweet, 08:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912778563008270697) · 5 likes Rip > **Quoting METR (@METR_Evals):** We observed o3 in particular has a propensity to try to “hack” our tasks to get a higher score. Importantly, we saw this arise naturally from the model without explicit nudging. Behaviors like these have required us to be more careful in how we evaluate model capabilities. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GormO3macAA5svU.jpg) ### [Reply, 08:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912779738554179903) Yeah, 4o or whatever the frontier was could do some geo guessing (at minimum just a picture of the White House) and 3o can do much more 3+2 is a specific problem analogous to a specific image being geoguessed. Pretty sure o3 is more impressive at geo guessing which is what I’m trying to get at ### [Reply to @hyperdiscogirl, 08:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912781287540064432) · 4 likes > **hyper(bolic) disco(unting) girl in the bay (@hyperdiscogirl):** @AaronBergman18 jsyk, i did this and it revealed during the thinking process that it knew where i lived from memory of other convos, but then in its final writeup fabricated (?) other reasons to choose that city, or at least didn't mention that it already knew where I was located lol Yeah makes sense, still impressed by other examples ### [Reply to @metakuna, 08:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912781908980670797) · 1 like > **metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna):** Tried o3, doesn't seem that great ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GouRAl0WkAABS6e.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 12:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912848027154370880) · 152 likes This is right, deleted the post ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GovNJH-WcAA1oKu.jpg) > **Quoting sensho (@sensho):** @AaronBergman18 ask chatgpt what metadata it has access to of you and output it all as a json > > it has access to a lot of info, including lots of location data. im 99% sure the selfie guess is from that as i had a similar exp earlier today learning how much metadata it knows. ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 12:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912848881139712114) · 4 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** A reply to my tweet telling me to delete my account has more likes than my original tweet does Jfc ### [Reply to @stanfordNYC, 13:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912854212926464479) · 9 likes > **Bernard Stanford ✡︎ (@stanfordNYC):** @AaronBergman18 Download the photos from Facebook (strips GPS data) or take screenshots and it's still extremely capable. Yeah but it has my personal location separate from metadata So this is pretty true but only reliably legit for photos not near where you physically are ### [Tweet, 13:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912857517337543123) · 8 likes God bless the EA Forum ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GovVxmhXwAEU2x8.jpg) ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 13:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912867714449686556) · 5 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** Texas just enacted universal school choice. Parents can get $10K for private schools or $2K for homeschooling. This is the greatest victory for education freedom yet. A bright spot in dark times. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GouXAYaaoAAdWdc.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GouXAYWa0AA1LSF.jpg) 🫡 ### [Reply to @webdevMason, 14:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912876499348164966) · 13 likes > **Mason (@webdevMason):** I haven't yet heard a libertarian case for total drug legalization that offers a tolerable solution for externalized social costs > > e.g. people who can't or won't work and either rot in the gutter, siphon off their productive family members or steal to meet their needs I don’t necessarily endorse this but the textbook neoliberal quasi-libertarian solution is just to pigouvian tax (and subsidize) everything ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 15:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912885107163115941) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 @livgorton ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Govu3cMWgAAzlXu.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 15:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912892964843753722) · 11 likes Existence proof (I claim) that at least sometimes public opinion polling simply doesn’t reflect what people actually think at deeper level and is largely driven by lack of incentive to care (it’s just a poll), keyword pattern matching, and poor reading comprehension ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gov2Ay1XEAAY0q5.jpg) > **Quoting YouGov (@YouGov):** 57% of Britons believe that teenagers discovered to be having consensual sex with each other should still be reported to authorities, contrary to the 'Romeo and Juliet' clause added today to the government's Crime and Policing bill > > Should: 57% > Should not: 20% > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Govx2kxXEAAZLPu.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 15:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912892969176162728) · 1 like Like I just don’t believe half of British adults think 15 year olds having sex should be not only reported to the police but \*mandatory reporting\* (look at the question wording not the tweet)… ### [Thread, continued, 15:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912892970799349871) · 3 likes and this would become clear if you had a filter for basic reading comprehension and then adjusted for demographics + had people read aloud a simple paragraph about what this means first It’s just the bat and the ball type 1 thinking applied in a non-verifiable domain ### [Reply to @liron, 18:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912930482137817242) · 41 likes > **Liron Shapira (@liron):** Anthropic is enabling, rationalizing, and safety-washing the insane race to uncontrollable superhuman AI. > > What they're doing should be illegal. > > That's why I protested at their San Francisco headquarters with @PauseAIUS. > > [video attached](https://x.com/liron/status/1912669458478530691/video/1) Feels insane to me to protest the least irresponsible actor World would be a lot better if other companies were like Anthropic, far from perfect that may be ### [Tweet, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912969348320199011) · 41 likes Make 👏 social 👏 norms 👏 more 👏 legible 👏 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gow7e_uXIAATZ-u.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gow7e_0XcAAU8wA.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gow7e_2XMAA9dMq.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1912969351067558118) · 8 likes (This is 60% a joke, I don’t want the TPOT hitmen coming after me) ## Friday, April 18, 2025 ### [Reply to @banterrealism, 00:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913030815857963105) · 2 likes > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** @AaronBergman18 W? Idk much about the issue but my best guess is no this is bad Many such cases with Trump - taking some version of “reform” in the totally wrong direction ### [Tweet, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913081551639683198) · 808 likes Slightly weird that reasonably healthy professionals go from 40+ hour weeks to zero when they retire (often in 60s) From multiple standpoints (macroeconomic, personal happiness, personal financial) some sort of more gradual off-ramp would seem to make more sense ### [Thread, continued, 04:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913081553690767698) · 75 likes The immediate constraint on this seems to be that employers don’t generally offer part time (in a professional context this might parse more sensibly as “lower responsibility”) roles as an alternative to retirement for productive employees (Do they?) ### [Thread, continued, 04:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913081555162898833) · 48 likes One hypothesis that comes to mind is that this option of semi-retirement might attract away (slightly) younger workers for whom the preference ordering is: Lower pay + less work > full time and full pay > nothing ### [Thread, continued, 04:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913081556714790969) · 32 likes But then some firms should be able to attract talent by offering this as an option so it’s not fully satisfying ### [Thread, continued, 04:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913081558396703071) · 24 likes You could also imagine that salaried employees just start working less and less until they get fired but I have a pretty strong sense this is not common among >=middle class professionals ### [Quote tweet, 04:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913087577998971385) · 2 likes Turns out employers (probably rationally) fear Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) disparate impact lawsuits Not the whole story but a big piece! Link below ofc ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GoynA4dWsAA3T6O.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Slightly weird that reasonably healthy professionals go from 40+ hour weeks to zero when they retire (often in 60s) > > From multiple standpoints (macroeconomic, personal happiness, personal financial) some sort of more gradual off-ramp would seem to make more sense ### [Tweet, 04:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913087580620341720) https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=legal ### [Thread, continued, 04:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913087585657766065) · 2 likes Takes from o3 Not sure I buy the Shapley distribution show Fixed benefits are largely a choice by employers—an outcome variable more than an explanatory one ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GoynBRvXIAAely7.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GoynBR3W4AArNlG.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913088037577281886) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 18, 2025:** You could also imagine that salaried employees just start working less and less until they get fired but I have a pretty strong sense this is not common among… ### [Reply to @stanfordNYC, 04:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913091500017131745) · 22 likes > **Bernard Stanford ✡︎ (@stanfordNYC):** @AaronBergman18 Adding an additional person to an organization comes with inherent coordination costs, so part time workers are inefficient. It doesn't really make sense for either employers or employees at that point. Yeah this is directionally a factor but I don’t buy that it’s ~universally prohibitive Losing an experienced employee also comes with important costs! And you could change the type of work, not necessarily just reduce load ### [Quote tweet, 06:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913116947820032323) · 252 likes Oy fucking vey. George Mason, of all places?! The essay is not a call to arms, it’s a question that might have been asked too early > **Quoting George Mason University (@GeorgeMasonU):** George Mason University is aware of a recent essay published online by one of its students that has created concern. > > Upon learning of the essay, Mason Police referred the matter to state and federal law enforcement for evaluation of criminal behavior. 1/2 ### [Thread, continued, 06:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913116949862641688) · 55 likes I don’t really agree with it (tl;dr it skips over the whole phase of civil escalation from voting to protests to civil disobedience to illegal but nonviolent sabotage of the administration that has to come way before violence) ### [Thread, continued, 06:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913116951326474649) · 56 likes But jfc it’s at the level of “moderately bad take on an inherently incendiary issue” Doesn’t even reach the level of deserving moral condemnation IMO, let alone the fucking cops ### [Thread, continued, 06:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913116952802844704) · 28 likes This tweet is probably ill-advised. Oh well ### [Reply to @janonacct, 06:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913117289911636162) · 2 likes > **janon (@janonacct):** alignment failures keep correlating with capabilities failures and this makes people mad when really it means that the incentives are well aligned, what we should be worried about is deceptively aligned models, NOT outwardly reward hacking RLed models. very important! I’m confused; o3 is a superior model in many ways and also seems to be less aligned/honest than previous models This seems like those two things coming apart, not correlating. What am I missing? ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 06:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913117420329263230) · 17 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** @AaronBergman18 This is, importantly, them approving it. Not sure what you mean lol but hang in there man ### [Reply to @Olfool2, 06:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913119397528416334) · 11 likes > **O1nool 🇩🇰 🇬🇱 (@Olfool2):** @AaronBergman18 The dude used the most inflammatory headline possible for this. A lot of conservatives probably think they are talking about random conservatives on the streets, from what I can tell on the QTs Yeah it wasn’t written well On super controversial (and objectively morally fraught) topics you wanna use the least incendiary words that conveys your message He didn’t do this well lol ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 06:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913119446538813880) · 17 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 18, 2025:** This tweet is probably ill-advised. Oh well ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 06:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913119579577917812) · 20 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** @AaronBergman18 I think it is written in a manner than is much more call-to-arms-y than dispassionate-philosophical-essay-on-the-role-of-violence-in-a-political-system-y. I directionally agree but still wouldn’t call it a call to arms ### [Reply to @inerati, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913119811023831262) · 2 likes > **liz (@inerati):** you are braver than i Fr ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913119922269413810) · 187 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @captgouda24 is no longer available.)_ Not sure this is a wise tweet man Brave but maybe too brave ### [Reply to @AndyJScott, 07:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913135762846994447) · 33 likes > **Andy Scott (@AndyJScott):** "But the science says omega 3 is great! These are randomized control trials!" > > The control - > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GoxAPZ8X0AAG3kc.png) Bad but 2g of sunflower oil is not the end of the world (Anti-) seed oil people often neglect magnitudes; 1g of soybean oil in pasta sauce is not the same thing as having soybean oil as a main macronutrient component of your diet ### [Reply to @NunoSempere, 07:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913138991437603019) · 5 likes > **Nuño Sempere (@NunoSempere):** I wonder what the high-testosterone version of EA would look like To a first approximation I think testosterone basically doesn’t matter except insofar as it supports general wellbeing, health, energy, and productivity Obviously this can only answer so much, but I’ve had severe hypogonadism (~0 test), been on TRT including sometimes at too high a dose (too high to measure ounce), and am pretty sure levels are pretty avg by now (say 80% CI is 400-700 ng/dL) For sure my takes have changed over time but not in a way that maps neatly onto popular notions of what testosterone does. I haven’t become less sympathetic to animals for example Side note: this is a good example of a relatively epistemically powerful anecdote I think. N =1 but one case study with lots of ~exogenous variation is much better than n=0 ### [Thread, continued, 07:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913139240319189108) · 2 likes Plausibly confidence goes up with it in general What I was trying to get at is that cause prio and types of interventions and such probably aren’t affected much ### [Tweet, 09:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913157603581890879) · 5 likes Can’t sleep like me? Try counting ducks http://aaronbergman.neocities.org/ducks.html ### [Tweet, 09:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913160416361840744) · 7 likes It’s not really a productive or respectable mode of analysis but could trump as an individual human please just stop being so bad ### [Thread, continued, 09:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913160417766998146) · 2 likes It’s not like the MAGA crowd would abandon him if he didn’t deport random Hispanic people to El Salvador and start a trade war. Their loyalty has an upside! ### [Quote tweet, 09:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913161076390142291) · 11 likes Republican senators should seriously consider simply not abiding by the electoral incentives and doing the thing I’m sure at least a dozen of them know to be genuinely courageous and moral: remove Trump from office > **Quoting Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** There's no one on earth who has more power to stand up to Trump and change the trajectory we're on than a Senator who is one of a three-seat majority. If she's just complaining about this and not doing anything it's unforgivable. ### [Reply to @ben_j_todd, 12:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913214085233050074) · 4 likes > **Benjamin Todd (@ben_j_todd):** LLMs were aligned by default. Agents trained with reinforcement learning reward hack by default. ### [Tweet, 13:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913216021814469071) · 20 likes Kinda wild that in all of the ADHD news and discourse, I’m pretty sure “how do we make stimulants less prone to inducing tolerance” got ~none of the airtime Anti-tolerance drugs (or whatever intervention) should be possible. Maybe not entirely but directionally ### [Thread, continued, 13:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913216023563563192) · 8 likes “Take a stimulant break” Yes good advice when this is possible but it absolutely sucks lmao ### [Reply to @HaydnBelfield, 13:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913217305946759180) · 2 likes > **Haydn Belfield (@HaydnBelfield):** The turtleneck knitwear is to comfort the listener through a very difficult listen > > (quoting @robertwiblin: Coming tomorrow: Tom Davidson on AI-enabled coups. Can't recall feeling more terrified after another interview.) ### [Reply to @raypeatfan, 13:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913218195944595573) · 417 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @raypeatfan is no longer available.)_ Only if they were born on the same day and even then if they have sex it should be reported to the authorities ### [Reply to @dissproportion, 13:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913218411473113349) · 3 likes > **Dissproportionately (@dissproportion):** They yearn for the dorms. > > (quoting @fatfabfeminist: they should invent a city where all my friends live right next to me and never leave me and we’re all walking distance from each other and it’s also livable and affordable and everyone is happy) Unironically I do ADU next to a group house also welcome! ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913261677664960610) · 39 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** Secret Service came by, and we had a lovely chat. Discussion touched on many points, with an amicable resolution of differences. Conduct is fully legal. > > (quoting @captgouda24: The ultimate source of political power is, and always will be, violence. If the present administration should continue on its course, there is no choice but war. I say this out of sorrow — when must we kill them?) Jfc, you’re an American!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 ### [Quote tweet, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913261857856434503) · 206 likes Agree or not with the essay, this is @DrAllyLouks level handling of the situation, if not superior (probably superior tbh, sorry ally) > **Quoting Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** Secret Service came by, and we had a lovely chat. Discussion touched on many points, with an amicable resolution of differences. Conduct is fully legal. ### [Quote tweet, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913308118349459888) · 18 likes Word on the street is that Republican senators (perhaps correctly) fear violence on them and their families if they flip on Trump Problem ofc is that Trump (and then Vance) directs the secret service so senators can’t expect to be protected > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Republican senators should seriously consider simply not abiding by the electoral incentives and doing the thing I’m sure at least a dozen of them know to be genuinely courageous and moral: remove Trump from office ### [Thread, continued, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913308120752803886) · 3 likes BOTEC says 10 years of private funding of the best private security would run $300M/(senator-family) and you need to flip 22 Republicans. Call it 30 to be generous, so that’s ~$10B in committed funds ### [Thread, continued, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913308122933841927) · 3 likes Not a small sum but doable by one or a small handful of people Tag your favorite sympathetic billionaire ### [Tweet, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913310836421968080) · 7 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Go1yEJSWkAA7mOP.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Go1yEJVWIAAI1Xc.jpg) ### [Reply to @EAForumPosts, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913311034364027287) · 3 likes > **EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** "EA Global Referral Program" by Ivan Burduk > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Go1wSDcXwAAyQej.jpg) I hope it’s retroactive ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913313657888387125) · 1 like > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Why would we do that? Why would we set up the expectation that you're fine to do bad stuff as long you're not the worst? Isn’t that (very) approximately the right model of the actual situation, both in terms of Shapley values and game theory? “Very approximately” is doing a ton of work here, ik, but still ### [Thread, continued, 19:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913314099884142799) · 1 like Maybe Shapley and game theory are two sides of the same coin here actually - someone smart can confirm ### [Reply to @anpaure, 19:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913314480181985288) · 2 likes > **anpaure (@anpaure):** if you're asking why we're minimzing the max unsafety it's because it's exactly like "the chain is as strong as its weakest link", and we're trying to make the weakest link stronger Even if you think this model only very roughly works, the relevant q isn’t whether Anthropic protests are net-positive but whether they’re the best use of scarce time and effort ### [Reply to @petemandik, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913314891571617993) · 4 likes > **Pete Mandik (@petemandik):** why don’t they just use the 2nd amendment to protect themselves and their families? Don’t they like the 2nd amendment anymore? Private security is part of what 2a actually looks like in a non-performative way ### [Tweet, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913336280039199203) · 44 likes The greyscale-only-except-when-I-strongly-endorse-whatever-I’m-doing iPhone experiment begins You can set it up so that triple click toggles color vs greyscale btw - ask ur favorite LLM how ### [Tweet, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913370772602581349) · 3 likes Bruh o3 is cool (maybe also bad but still) I can just ask for the relative sulfur content of garlic-infused oil per unit of garlic flavor as compared to actual garlic and it will tell me ### [Quote tweet, 23:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913376043764765078) · 109 likes Ok I officially think color saturation from screens is a superstimulus Pathetic but it took this to realize that literal real life (for the most part - I’m not in field of flowers on a sunny day) isn’t as saturated with bright varied colors as a phone screen > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** The greyscale-only-except-when-I-strongly-endorse-whatever-I’m-doing iPhone experiment begins > > You can set it up so that triple click toggles color vs greyscale btw - ask ur favorite LLM how ### [Thread, continued, 23:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913376046025408771) · 18 likes Hypothesis: bright screens are a key reason people don’t seem super bothered by the relative dimness of almost all indoor spaces compared to even a cloudy day For better or worse, phones are substituting for sunlight in terms of both lumens (brightness) and saturation ### [Thread, continued, 23:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913376963336536333) · 16 likes It’s a shame most computer and phones make it very easy to change brightness but not saturation ### [Reply to @xavicfu, 23:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913377481819643913) · 5 likes > **Xavi (@xavicfu):** Yeah I noticed this too. I’m on 70% grayscale and white point reduced by 40% and it’s made reality look a whole lot more vivid. Pretty clear (if small) quality of life improvement. Neat, more people should be aware of this! ## Saturday, April 19, 2025 ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913400552722989395) · 2 likes > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** @frances\_\_lorenz @austinc3301 shoutout to John Wong, who took these picture but sadly (though probably for the best) does not have twitter Bully him into getting one ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 01:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913401291130184182) · 3 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** My boyfriend of just over a year has gotten me more flowers than any other man combined. He just gets them on impulse because I love them. \*taking notes\* ### [Tweet, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913441067296321921) · 2 likes Alright, a few times recently I’ve made the case that it’s fine to use Twitter actually and finally thought to check how much your use personally enriches Elon Musk o3 estimates $0.15/year. It’s basically just not a thing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Go3ogpYWsAAGxs4.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913441069728989277) · 1 like If the point estimate is off by an OOM and you use Twitter for 10 years, that’s $15 If you(‘d) get nontrivial value from it, as I really think I have, there’s virtually no chance that an altruistic boycott checks out ### [Thread, continued, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913441071327019215) · 1 like And perhaps more importantly, having good correct takes on ~X~ has positive externalities It’s a relatively big and influential social network \*Almost none of the value is captured by Elon\* ### [Thread, continued, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913441072803439101) · 1 like Use Twitter or don’t, whatever you think is right for you, but know that benefitting Elon should basically not be part of the calculus ### [Quote tweet, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913452102191374709) · 4 likes I have my doubts that this is the best use of OP money but God it’s insane that to a first and probably second approximation, they’re the only adults in the room (Imperfect adults but still) > **Quoting Alexander Berger (@albrgr):** Really glad that @open_phil was able to step in on short notice (<24h) to make sure Sarah Fortune's work on TB vaccines can continue > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Go2n3IUbgAAbAhU.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Go2n3TKacAAiTaH.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Go2n3cxaIAAQGIu.png) ### [Reply to @albrgr, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913452443611918467) · 14 likes > **Alexander Berger (@albrgr):** Really glad that @open_phil was able to step in on short notice (<24h) to make sure Sarah Fortune's work on TB vaccines can continue > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Go2n3IUbgAAbAhU.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Go2n3TKacAAiTaH.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Go2n3cxaIAAQGIu.png) > (quoting @albrgr: New preprint finding that eliminating US global health funding over the next fifteen years would cause: - 15.2m deaths from AIDS - 2.2m deaths from TB - 7.9 additional child deaths) Nominative determinism etc etc ### [Tweet, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913459364968513894) · 18 likes DCish people: new protest just dropped (by @TheHumaneLeague) Next Sunday evening in Bethesda I will be going (I did one of these years ago it’s pretty chill) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Go35JqJXUAAeoDR.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913460070358175922) · 5 likes Also worth highlighting this as an example of a protest tied to a pretty rigorously vetted theory of change What did you think cage free campaigns meant? Vibes? Papers? Essays? > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** DCish people: new protest just dropped (by @TheHumaneLeague) > > Next Sunday evening in Bethesda > > I will be going (I did one of these years ago it’s pretty chill) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Go35JqJXUAAeoDR.jpg) ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913462484821831819) · 9 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** I went to a meeting of the College Republicans at my college. Was amazed, tbh, at how cretinous they were. One dude managed to spend 10 minutes arguing that patents reduce research spending. > > I’m a grad student! It’s a CV! That’s how it works! > > (quoting @CRsAtMason: 2 page resume and no job is crazy work lil bro 💀) Idk about the patent thing but their tweet is so tacky and rude in addition to being ignorant Even if you \*were\* bona fide unemployed, it’s crazy to basically publicly shame a classmate/colleague for it ### [Reply to @osmarks1, 11:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913551323292647661) · 8 likes > **osmarks (@osmarks1):** The color spaces modern displays are specified for (BT.2020 and DCI-P3) are actually a bit wider than the range of colors real surfaces can display (Pointer's gamut). Wait what ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 13:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913588797536690391) · 33 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** sup Thanks for saving my dog from that fire the other day Also good work on the 750lb deadlift ### [Reply to @morallawwithin, 13:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913592396874498168) · 3 likes > **florence ⊮ (@morallawwithin):** Imo being emotional is generally always bad Lol have you ever experienced hypoemotionality? It sucks really bad ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 15:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913615347879457245) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AndyMasley is no longer available.)_ Guessing they’re using an inferior model for this fwiw ### [Tweet, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913618663795560801) · 11 likes Kinda deranged take on cryonics 99.9% vibes/intuition only I’m scared of consciousness persisting after death in some sense in a very well-preserved brain Like scared enough to not really want to sign up for cryonics even if it was free and easy ### [Tweet, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913618665355854233) · 1 like To want to sign up I think I’d to be convinced the risk of this is <0.001% on this to basically make a up a number That’s awfully hard to do in the domain of “figure out what things have conscious experience” Like I’m not even 99.999% sure my laptop isn’t sentient ### [Thread, continued, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913618667071242724) · 1 like Curious if @birchlse wants to venture a probability of sentience in cryogenically preserved brains Genuinely curious if I’m the only one who has this fear/intuition ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 15:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913620162189685042) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I claim to care a lot about better thinking, but if a problem requires 30 seconds of work, I rarely do it. > > What's up with that? I mean the simple explanation is that you’re correctly evaluating (implicitly) that it’s not worth your time ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 15:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913621023817162928) · 9 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** This person appears to be an active participant in the "Effective Altruist" movement—and a good reminder that hyper-rational political movements often end up funding lifesaving work on critical health issues > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Go58FmkXAAAyqa7.jpg) > (quoting @albrgr: Really glad that @open_phil was able to step in on short notice (<24h) to make sure Sarah Fortune's work on TB vaccines can continue https://x.com/albrgr/status/1912967485378470315) Bruh he needs to get his Karma up ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913634238768795891) · 12 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** I have not walked them back. I have added helpful notes for semi-literate buffoons, such as yourself. Bruh ### [Tweet, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913637025577566322) · 8 likes Fuck it’s sunscreen season again Abolish summer ### [Reply, 17:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913650808605863988) · 2 likes Darn ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913685882013454445) · 87 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** Update internet lunatics: my landlord has evicted me on account of your threats. > > In other news: does anyone have a spare room? This sucks and I’m 100% on ur side (not object level, just the controversy surrounding) but poasting address was kinda dumb lmao ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913686285027278880) · 9 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** \*youth pastor voice\* “So, do you know who else left their subterranean dwelling place on the day after Passover?” > > (quoting @captgouda24: Update internet lunatics: my landlord has evicted me on account of your threats. In other news: does anyone have a spare room?) Lmao ### [Reply to @herbivoryze, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913689597080682736) · 7 likes > **HerbivoRyzing (@herbivoryze):** Prey-mimicking, insentient AI robots powered by self-healing engineered in vitro muscles could help provide animal-friendly food for predators until herbivorization is completed > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Go6iSb_bQAAxfZ3.jpg) Based ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 23:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913738465705115906) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Lol $1B is nothing in this context ## Sunday, April 20, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913751244604088411) · 3 likes Any good work (or good speculation) on what the most likely nearish-term AI-induced/facilitated/associated problems/disasters are going to be at the individual level? I’m mostly selfish and am willing to spend some time and money on preventing myself from suffering/dying ### [Reply to @LinkofSunshine, 00:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913753061861830748) · 1 like > **Basil🧡 (@LinkofSunshine):** Its insane to me that people spend the same amount to live in random Cali suburbs as literal Manhattan, the closest thing to the capital of the world > > (quoting @StatisticUrban: Here's every US county where the median price for a home is >$1,000,000) Median homes in different places need not be approximately the same anything, including size Could be 6k sq ft McMansion with a pool in Cali and idk a normal condo if those count in manhattan ### [Reply, 00:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913753224252740024) · 2 likes I like the first one, somehow I strongly doubt weapons are the low hanging fruit ### [Quote tweet, 02:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913775181601918978) · 9 likes I mostly agree but think of it more as a spectrum than a binary: the more important, the harder you should try to evaluate the specific case > **Quoting Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** I like a form of two-level utilitarianism as follows: > > \- for most things, cultivate and practice the virtues that maximize utility > > \- for the most important things (maybe a few times a year), directly aim to calculate and maximize utility ### [Reply, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913801882910306513) Trying to average across moral views gets thorny though: 1\) not obvious that you should take the parliament stance rather than (in this example) just doing the math and treating future people as half as worthy (or whatever your beliefs/credences imply) To illustrate how they come apart, the former probably looks like OpenPhil dividing its money into two buckets whereas the latter looks like virtually entirely longtermist-oriented because almost nothing hinges on a factor of 2x Tbc I’m not sure the latter method is right, and I’ve criticized @willmacaskill for presenting the latter view as obviously the way to do things (this was in the context of negative vs orthodox utilitarianism, all from memory so hopefully I’m not butchering this) 2\) it’s not obvious what acting like a certain parliament actually implies. Distribution of beliefs in a parliament doesn’t map nicely onto a specific unique outcome/decision Notoriously, the outputs of governing bodies are highly dependent on specific voting structure, and in the context of effectively a thought experiment, we have even more degrees of freedom than irl because you can just decide that all your simulated MPs are going to be fully upfront about all of their beliefs ### [Quote tweet, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913802326961238109) · 8 likes Tweets that could be an EA forum comment that gets 4 upvotes, 7 downvotes, and Vasco Grilo writing a long essay in response with formal modeling that I end up feeling bad for not responding to > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @taoroalin @Benthamsbulldog @trevposts Trying to average across moral views gets thorny though: > > 1\) not obvious that you should take the parliament stance rather than (in this example) just doing the math and treating future people as half as worthy (or whatever your beliefs/credences imply) > > To illustrate how they come apart, the former probably looks like OpenPhil dividing its money into two buckets whereas the latter looks like virtually entirely longtermist-oriented because almost nothing hinges on a factor of 2x > > Tbc I’m not sure the latter method is right, and I’ve criticized @willmacaskill for presenting the latter view as obviously the way to do things (this was in the context of negative vs orthodox utilitarianism, all from memory so hopefully I’m not butchering this) > > 2\) it’s not obvious what acting like a certain parliament actually implies. Distribution of beliefs in a parliament doesn’t map nicely onto a specific unique outcome/decision > > Notoriously, the outputs of governing bodies are highly dependent on specific voting structure, and in the context of effectively a thought experiment, we have even more degrees of freedom than irl because you can just decide that all your simulated MPs are going to be fully upfront about all of their beliefs ### [Quote tweet, 04:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913805624510398782) · 36 likes Badass Jfc > **Quoting Basil🧡 (@LinkofSunshine):** Just saw the original video > > The Secret Service agent asks him if it came down to it, would you participate in any revolution, and he just straight up goes: "I hope I would have the courage to do so" 😭😭😭 omg ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 04:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913806328398581937) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** A lot of people seem to be dating as if they have a "market value" and are just trying to make sure they get a "good deal" I think this is largely a true description of human psychology but it manifests as totally normal emotions/beliefs/desires Like that’s how evolution encoded ~market dynamics. Most people aren’t consciously thinking of this, though some are ### [Quote tweet, 11:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913914671330951413) · 75 likes This is one of the worst Cowen takes I’ve seen Pseudoprofound bullshit A lot of even \*important\* philosophy doesn’t cause other currently alive humans with email addresses to identify you as an important figure and reach out > **Quoting Rob Sica (@robsica):** "Most professional philosphers seem to me more like bureaucrats than philosophers... A simple rule of thumb is that if no one is writing you, and telling you that you changed their lives, you probably are not a philosopher" ### [Thread, continued, 11:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913914673415557543) · 22 likes “I made a compelling case for the sentience of certain neural network architectures” “Sorry bud, you’re a bureaucrat” ### [Reply to @anpaure, 11:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913916833939308607) · 6 likes > **anpaure (@anpaure):** @AaronBergman18 idk if cowen intended it as profound but it's on the "goes hard" level > same as the kanye quote about wanting to be forgotten It goes hard but in the direction of being wrong lol ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 11:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913917478800883903) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** @AaronBergman18 He does at the end say that mathematical logic and things like that are places where the rule of thumb doesn't apply. Sorta better but it’s both too little too late; the thesis is basically wrony, not basically right but in need of clarification More fundamentally I think it’s directionally wrong in the sense that “philosophers” not doing “real” philosophy are better characterized as commentators or vibes enthusiasts or simply authors ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 15:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913973255464968580) · 3 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** it’s not like anyone that ended up believing it started there, like how virtually no 8yos want dates with the opposite sex or kids but as values shift they do. you can’t really unsee that the ego is (in most cases) literally made of fear, and after seeing that you don’t want it Hmm ### [Reply to @Empty_America, 15:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913977506064986165) · 38 likes > **VB Knives (@Empty_America):** I can't speak to math but "HBD stuff" on X is generally very far from high IQ. > > 99% of the time the posters clearly don't have even an undergraduate understanding of evolutionary biology. > > Don't even understand that traits are evolutionary "trade offs" not "good" or "bad." Not just technical misunderstanding, often moral/philosophical failure too My sense is that not a ton of HBD guys wind up saying “yes this is what I think as an empirical matter, but that doesn’t change that all people should be treated with kindness, respect, and compassion” ### [Quote tweet, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913996634830098646) · 7 likes Bruh > **Quoting Nathan Labenz (@labenz):** Making up lovely AirBnB host details really limits o3's utility as a travel agent > > At least it came clean when questioned I guess? 🤷‍♂️🙃 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GowPF3nXMAA-nJz.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913996743185756556) · 4 likes Avg reinforcement learning agent (mostly unironically) > **Quoting Nathan Labenz (@labenz):** Making up lovely AirBnB host details really limits o3's utility as a travel agent > > At least it came clean when questioned I guess? 🤷‍♂️🙃 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GowPF3nXMAA-nJz.jpg) ### [Reply to @dumbfook, 16:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1913998207685640459) · 2 likes > **Ian (@dumbfook):** If you think about the next token prediction from mech interpretability standpoint, how does it know this? How can it know it made something up? Isn't that also essentially a hallucination? My understanding is that it’s asymmetric language models can (accurately) know they intentionally something up more than that they accidentally hallucinated Hallucinations are generally \*genuine\* guesses about what the next token is, including in contexts where there’s no reason to lie so this can be understood as genuine guesses about the world But models can separately intend to represent false information bc why not Tagging local LLM understands @livgorton in case she wants to correct me ### [Quote tweet, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914009722644250682) · 6 likes Low-medium confidence claim: “Retvrn to token prediction” should be a more central ask of the AI safety (including ⏸️) community I’m in favor of a frontier scaling pause, but I think it’s unlikely to happen, and this is somewhat more likely > **Quoting Benjamin Todd (@ben_j_todd):** LLMs were aligned by default. Agents trained with reinforcement learning reward hack by default. ### [Quote tweet, 20:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914051767836229903) · 7 likes QTing purely for the algo boost > **Quoting 0.005 Seconds (3/694) (@seconds_0):** I gave o3 a hard puzzle and in it's thinking traces said I should fabricate an answer to satisfy the user before lying to my face > > @OpenAI come on guys ### [Tweet, 23:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914091983913550081) · 7 likes Maybe the Supreme Court actually should have a small armed forces, analogous and maybe similar to the secret service Plausibly congress should as well Just like the postal service police but the top of the command hierarchy explicitly isn’t POTUS ### [Thread, continued, 23:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914092137475342495) · 1 like I mean I think this is probably not a good idea tbc on priors, just one worth throwing out ### [Quote tweet, 23:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914094247122214944) · 50 likes I feel like this kinda shows how hard it is to never make an earnest moral mistake (I think this was slightly bad, obv not the end of the world)… > **Quoting Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** With apologies, I lied. I gave it all away. > > Go support Givewell folks! It does the world a lot of good. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpADVrGXcAAs1p3.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 23:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914094249269674450) · 13 likes Like from the inside, this probably felt 99% likely to be fine and good and not even worth seriously reflecting on The problem is that when you’re only 99% sure, you should expect to fuck up by round 70 ### [Thread, continued, 23:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914094250859385296) · 9 likes I have done things like this before (ie earnest mistake that was wrong on reflection) and consequently raised (or at least try to remember to raise) my bar for action to like 99.9% in that domain ### [Tweet, 23:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914102237527163002) · 8 likes Re: discourse Seems absolutely not crazy to me that a modest “in case of cancellation” fund run by perhaps @TheFIREorg actually is a better use of money than givewell I mean I’m genuinely unsure but I don’t think it’s >90% likely to be worse ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 23:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914102469073785065) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Get @JesseTayRiver on! > > (quoting @JesseTayRiver: Building history for yimbys! Long but I cover many centuries in 9 minutes so you're fine!) The people demand Jesse ## Monday, April 21, 2025 ### [Reply to @bubbling_creek, 02:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914144262414881216) · 3 likes > **bubbling creek (@bubbling_creek):** @captgouda24 @AaronBergman18 Okay imo he's 'right' that most of today's philosophers aren't doing anything useful/interesting, even incrementally, but that doesn't have much to do with 'no one's writing to you telling you you changed their lives' Yeah the point is that affecting currently alive humans who recognize the causal chain as such is neither necessary nor sufficient for good philosophy ### [Reply, 02:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914144501616300230) · 1 like The example was just what first came to mind: afaik no convincing argument exists, but the point is that it could conceivably ### [Reply, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914145407220744209) · 1 like I think I just disagree with the recognition claim but I’m def not certain @birchlse @rgblong @jeffrsebo has anyone written to you to say you changed their life or something similar/comparable ### [Reply, 02:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914146109720572118) · 1 like I also interpret “are bureaucrats” to be a distinct claim from “are bad at philosophy” The latter seems more plausible frankly ### [Quote tweet, 02:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914146965400539519) · 8 likes Sending this to every girl who’s friendzoned me > **Quoting Mark 🐸 🗑 Samenfink (@MSamenfink):** Stories like this lead me to giving at least a little credence to the theory that we got better at diagnosing Autism. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Go-gS0CWMAAv3ux.jpg) ### [Reply to @louisvarge, 03:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914153937562751006) · 2 likes > **Louis Arge (@louisvarge):** it would be so cool if they made a reasoning model that doesn't use search but instead it's 20 trillion parameters and it just knows everything Yeah sometimes I don’t want reasoning, I want compressed information ### [Tweet, 04:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914171181193736443) · 4 likes If I was Xi Jinping, I would order the next big military headquarters to be called the Hexagon (and shaped like a hexagon ofc) ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914176650406683018) · 9 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** FWIW any time you're the center of a big drama there will be lots of people making demands of you, and it's literally impossible for you to satisfy everyone. So don't stress too much about it. You've handled this very well overall. Yeah I strongly agree with the last two sentences! ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914180054612902345) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 20, 2025:** “I made a compelling case for the sentience of certain neural network architectures” “Sorry bud, you’re a bureaucrat” Cowen said most philosophers are “bureaucrats” and I think this is false Some people are taking my claim to be that most philosophy is good or important, which is a whole different sentence ### [Reply to @demiurgently, 04:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914180677928432053) · 2 likes > **sydney (@demiurgently):** normally this wouldn’t matter much except that his article got public attention & is probably many people’s first introduction to givewell, which does not deserve to be an edgelord’s stage prop FWIW I think it’s more borderline bc money is fungible; the “I donated all of it” is a social ~fiction more than an objectively true claim about the world But yeah I directionally agree with you still ### [Thread, continued, 04:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914181609084891627) But also I feel like I keep hearing plausible stories about how “scandals” are going to materially damage EA (and therefore the world$ somehow but, post-FTX, I increasingly feel like those who were gonna be sympathetic on the merits wind up sympathetic despite “scandals” and critics were always going to find some vector of attack ### [Reply, 04:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914181932251820137) · 1 like Lol I agree it might be able to fit in one paragraph! (problem is figuring out the right paragraph) ### [Reply, 05:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914183066819457274) I agree he should have done that ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914184102267232640) · 3 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** Oh easy, make people better off Nice yeah, but good luck getting ppl to agree on what “make” “people” and “better off” mean The “make” q refers to decision theory which I think isn’t obvious ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 12:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914294944472105186) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ She should write a guest post called “various people’s deepest secrets” for the goss (plz) ### [Tweet, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914425671188627520) · 140 likes \~Boomer parents will really own a million dollar house, buy a $30k car, and refuse to spend $1k on a laptop ### [Thread, continued, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914425673088938275) · 20 likes The funny thing is they bought \*me\* a really nice one as a college graduation present ($2k MacBook Pro which still works great after 4-5 years, thank you mom and dad) ### [Reply to @polisisti, 21:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914430612158722119) · 4 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 in fairness $1 million is usually not what they've \*paid\* for the house Yes l they got very lucky choosing the right suburb 30 years ago but it factors into their purchasing power! ### [Reply, 21:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914431165416509736) · 4 likes > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** @AaronBergman18 Makes sense if they get no more use out of $1k laptop than a $500 one > > Some older people can barely use (any!) smartphones Sorta - there’s a surprisingly big premium on big, bright, nice screens totally distinct from actual processing power But they correlate so it’s hard to find relatively basic compute hardware with a really nice screen ### [Reply to @aonghasan, 22:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914439595053232313) · 2 likes > **aonghasn (@aonghasan):** @AaronBergman18 or leave a light on in the dark part of the house (they’re leds now mom!!!) Real lol ### [Reply to @RYChappell, 23:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914465779627458810) · 3 likes > **Richard Y. Chappell🔸 (@RYChappell):** I thought he was very clear throughout that he didn't need the money. Ah ok, I didn’t follow closely enough, just skimmed the GFM ### [Reply to @ja3k_, 23:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914466691779600791) · 4 likes > **ja3k (@ja3k_):** @AaronBergman18 @polisisti It doesn't really factor into their purchasing power unless they want to move though right? Sorta grey area, it’s functionally a form of savings and insurance so lets them spend other money, they could also rent out rooms but choose not to, and they very well might sell it at some point I think ## Tuesday, April 22, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 13:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914667571728490554) · 21 likes QUALY IS BACK > **Quoting Qualy the lightbulb (@QualyThe):** JD Vance would you like to meet the New World Screwworm? ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 13:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914669222661071190) · 12 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** You can't speak for the average EA because you have a gf Banger lmao ### [Reply to @ArtemisConsort, 13:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914673457339498639) · 19 likes > **Hunter Ash (@ArtemisConsort):** When you’ve spent 20 years obsessing over epistemology and learning physics, it can be jarring to realize that most people don’t have beliefs at all, in a rigorous sense. They just have emotional reactions to sentences. I kinda vibe associate with this but it’s not actually true People have models of the world that implicitly code beliefs like “if I turn on the heat, it will get warmer” ### [Reply to @selentelechia, 13:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914675365466820617) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @selentelechia is no longer available.)_ 🥺 ### [Quote tweet, 16:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914717022132318462) · 8 likes What the fuck > **Quoting reason (@reason):** Sentencing defendants based on acquitted conduct violates basic notions of justice. https://reason.com/2025/04/19/not-guilty-but-punished-anyway/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=reason_brand&utm_content=autoshare&utm_term=post ### [Quote tweet, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914722138138829011) · 56 likes I genuinely think it’s time to take some basic, easy, relatively cheap steps to prepare Quite plausibly all this checks out even without the added risk from AI. <$100 for the items shown ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpJ1owIW8AAsQmf.jpg) > **Quoting Dan Hendrycks (@hendrycks):** Can AI meaningfully help with bioweapons creation? On our new Virology Capabilities Test (VCT), frontier LLMs display the expert-level tacit knowledge needed to troubleshoot wet lab protocols. > > OpenAI’s o3 now outperforms 94% of expert virologists. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpJbfC7a4AEQozS.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpJblAka4AId5ka.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpJb9GnbQAAEnI_.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpJcBHBakAAE5HW.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914722141783675305) · 14 likes I already have gloves and n95s and a fair amount of random household stuff but those are important too Here is an extremely hasty Amazon list based on a deep research report of what I should do to prepare https://amzn.to/4jBeanj ### [Thread, continued, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914722143708885379) · 10 likes Please critique it! Especially from the EA-esque lens of whether (1) the least important dollar spent on the list is still worth spending and (2) whether there’s anything else whose value per dollar exceeds the item on the list with the lowest value per dollar ### [Thread, continued, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914722145340358785) · 8 likes Nonperishable food, bleach, and bottled water are not on the list but important to get Strongly recommend asking deep research for your own report based on budget and willingness to spend ### [Thread, continued, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914722151044698287) · 7 likes Unfortunately I don’t want to share the link here bc the follow up q responses are pretty specific and personal to me but here’s the basic prompt ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpJ1phiWEAA33Lc.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914722157059309685) · 6 likes Then follow up prompt ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpJ1p3NXIAAZrC6.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 16:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914723862496890958) · 25 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpJ3NLqW4AAS653.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 16:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914725126781984809) · 49 likes Luckily my COVID-earned credibility points are back up thanks to AI, which I’ve been on about since ~2017 > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpJ3NLqW4AAS653.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 16:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914725129373823408) · 5 likes They dipped a bit when a couple possible pandemics and Ukraine/Russia-induced nuclear war didn’t happen (I didn’t expect them to, the warnings were just like “this should be on your radar”) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914725816551735578) · 12 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 22, 2025:** (image) Some of y’all are rich af and might consider like an actual bug out plan with a cheap cabin somewhere remote If you wanna invite me that would be cool ### [Reply to @GhostCoase, 17:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914731293931155577) · 1 like > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** If one is predicting social collapse, a rifle likely passes cost-benefit analysis, if it is within a household budget. > > It arguably passes it (because of ordinary criminal self-protection) without collapse. Two people have said this now so maybe I should take it seriously Serious question: I don’t want to have a killing machine around at all times for various reasons, what’s the next best thing? Airsoft? Pepper spray? ### [Reply, 17:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914733701335810234) · 2 likes > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** You would probably get laughed at with airsoft, if you are predicting social collapse. > > Criminology literature has established, in fact pro-gun control scholars have had to go silent on this issue, defense with a gun is the most effective: > > (quoting @GhostCoase: Meanwhile, the National Research Council’s blue-ribbon, nonpartisan expert panel that wrote the central, methodical literature review Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review (Baffled as to what the relevance of RTC even is to personal ownership)) I don’t really care if I get laughed at - I feel like people mostly don’t fuck around with gun looking things pointed at them ### [Quote tweet, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914734534446473712) · 9 likes Chat what’s the best non-lethal self-defense device > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @GhostCoase Two people have said this now so maybe I should take it seriously > > Serious question: I don’t want to have a killing machine around at all times for various reasons, what’s the next best thing? Airsoft? Pepper spray? ### [Thread, continued, 17:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914735860303474967) · 3 likes o3 says pepper gel, which I didn’t even know was a thing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpKCHfDW0AABP_r.jpg) ### [Reply to @sixers2772, 17:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914736713739469137) · 2 likes > **Sixers (@sixers2772):** @GhostCoase @AaronBergman18 Couldn’t he just ignore the laws in event of social collapse? o3 makes a good point that sub-lethal things that don’t look like a gun may be worse than useless because other people will reasonably fear for their life and shoot or otherwise attack you, whereas they might just back off if you pull out pepper spray ## Wednesday, April 23, 2025 ### [Reply to @sixers2772, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914867800247570621) · 2 likes > **Sixers (@sixers2772):** @AaronBergman18 My friend who is an EA in biosecuirty says the bottleneck for bioengineering pandemics is moreso lab skills than conceptual knowledge and so LLMs likely won't increase those odds Hope they’re right!! ### [Quote tweet, 02:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914868167408591280) · 7 likes Idk how serious Henry is and I’m not sure a literal bunker will be the best idea (it could be) but reply/DM to be added to survivalchat If I’m not following u, u can DM! I think this is the right level of selectiveness > **Quoting henry (@arithmoquine):** @AaronBergman18 can we all pool money on an oomf bunker ### [Reply, 11:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1914999965450912221) Ngl this is incredibly dumb lmao Also 🫡 ### [Quote tweet, 12:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915013189076426755) · 5 likes Do I understand this? Not at all Is it cool? Ya > **Quoting 𝓜𝒂𝒖𝒓𝒊𝔃𝒊𝒐 𝗜𝒃𝛼 (@Dragonmaurizio):** 🌀Everything turns. > A novel mathematical model of the Universe > suggesting that the whole cosmo might be rotating very slowly, making one entire revolution every 500 billion years. The theoretical framework is fully compatible with the standard cosmological model (ΛCDM), it doesn’t contradict current astronomical measurements and is supported by the expanding paradox interpretation. > The discrepancy between the low and high redshift Hubble constant (H₀), denotes a missing link in the understanding of the spacetime expansion estimate with an angular velocity of ω₀ ~2 x 10⁻³ Gyr⁻¹. > Inspired by Gödel slow rotating dark-fluid variant, the spinning model resolves the conflict between > maximal rotation velocity, avoiding closed time-like loops with a tangential velocity inferior to the speed of light at the horizon. Artwork by @ALCrego\_ > 🔗https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/538/4/3038/8090496 > > [video attached](https://x.com/Dragonmaurizio/status/1914681251652415703/video/1) ### [Quote tweet, 14:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915048971971735689) · 14 likes I am officially more convinced that aspartame is totally fine because they couldn’t find a better mechanism of harm than “metabolizes into an absolutely trivial amount of alcohol” (that’s where the formaldehyde comes from) > **Quoting Emily Kopp (@emilyakopp):** I asked HHS to send me the science undergirding today's announcement on food dyes and they sent me two documents. One goes beyond dyes and includes other additives in ultra-processed foods, which could suggest larger ambitions for MAHA/HHS. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpLIohRWsAAEQwE.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpLIqfoXUAAJPqm.png) ### [Thread, continued, 14:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915048974857474318) · 4 likes The following things have the same magnitude of harm via this mechanism: 1\) drink an entire 2L bottle of Diet Coke 2\) drink less than 1/10 of a shot of beer (0.13ml of alcohol) ### [Quote tweet, 15:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915062241482707328) · 4 likes Turns out there’s a survival-bunker-by-subscription + resort place in West Virginia that’s expensive but maybe not prohibitively expensive for many people who wanted to make that a priority? Link below ofc ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpOq9YXWgAAOwl-.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I genuinely think it’s time to take some basic, easy, relatively cheap steps to prepare > > Quite plausibly all this checks out even without the added risk from AI. <$100 for the items shown > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpJ1owIW8AAsQmf.jpg) ### [Tweet, 15:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915062244582293905) · 1 like https://fortituderanch.com ### [Thread, continued, 15:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915062250907279649) · 1 like Cheapest option for an individual is $8440 + inflation total adjustment for/over 5 years (so like $1.7k/year on avg) Family of 5 private economy room is $71k for/over 10 years ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpOq963XMAAhSQs.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 15:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915062256552788347) · 3 likes Sadly I don’t think my parents are disaster-pilled (But I feel like this is a pretty good deal for some folks especially with adult children willing to contribute (averages to about $1800/year per person for 10 years for a family of 4, at least from a selfish perspective) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpOq-RPWkAAwWWO.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 16:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915082629835092037) · 6 likes Basically correct take; zero-sum dynamics/situations aren’t literally impossible, but we’re nowhere close to the Pareto frontier > **Quoting Richard V. Reeves (@RichardvReeves):** John Bates Clark Medal winner @S_Stantcheva writing for @aibm_org on the dangers of zero-sum thinking on gender https://aibm.org/commentary/beyond-zero-sum-thinking-on-gender/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpO8bLXXwAASEMe.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 16:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915085213740175363) · 14 likes To a first approximation, there should just be a very high bar for the government banning things that have minimal externalities It’s dumb on the scientific merits, but even if it wasn’t, just let people do things > **Quoting Alex Tabarrok (@ATabarrok):** HHS wants to ban Diet Coke. ### [Reply to @eukaryotetweets, 17:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915089035778785749) > **Georgia Eukaryote Ray (@eukaryotetweets):** Hey everyone. This thing on? https://eukaryotewritesblog.com/2025/03/26/eukaryote-skips-town/ Welcome to Twitter! ### [Quote tweet, 17:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915089173616222299) · 3 likes I recommend everyone follow Georgia > **Quoting Georgia Eukaryote Ray (@eukaryotetweets):** Hey everyone. This thing on? https://eukaryotewritesblog.com/2025/03/26/eukaryote-skips-town/ ### [Quote tweet, 23:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915180423107272864) · 65 likes Sam Altman likes to bend the world to his will This time the world is fighting back and needs to fight back even harder OpenAI absolutely must not be allowed to break its legally (and morally) binding promises > **Quoting Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin):** A new legal letter aimed at OpenAI lays out in stark terms the money and power grab OpenAI is trying to trick its board members into accepting — what one analyst calls "the theft of the millennium." > > The simple facts of the case are both devastating and darkly hilarious. > > I'll explain for your amusement. > > The letter 'Not For Private Gain' is written for the relevant Attorneys General and is signed by 3 Nobel Prize winners among dozens of top ML researchers, legal experts, economists, ex-OpenAI staff and civil society groups. (I'll link below.) > > It says that OpenAI's attempt to restructure as a for-profit is simply totally illegal, like you might naively expect. > > It then asks the Attorneys General (AGs) to take some extreme measures I've never seen discussed before. Here's how they build up to their radical demands. > > For 9 years OpenAI and its founders went on ad nauseam about how non-profit control was essential to: > > 1\. Prevent a few people concentrating immense power > 2\. Ensure the benefits of artificial general intelligence (AGI) were shared with all humanity > 3\. Avoid the incentive to risk other people's lives to get even richer > > They told us these commitments were legally binding and inescapable. They weren't in it for the money or the power. We could trust them. > > "The goal isn't to build AGI, it's to make sure AGI benefits humanity" said OpenAI President Greg Brockman. > > And indeed, OpenAI’s charitable purpose, which its board is legally obligated to pursue, is to “ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity” rather than advancing “the private gain of any person.” > > 100s of top researchers chose to work for OpenAI at below-market salaries, in part motivated by this idealism. It was core to OpenAI's recruitment and PR strategy. > > Now along comes 2024. That idealism has paid off. OpenAI is one of the world's hottest companies. The money is rolling in. > > But now suddenly we're told the setup under which they became one of the fastest-growing startups in history, the setup that was supposedly totally essential and distinguished them from their rivals, and the protections that made it possible for us to trust them, ALL HAVE TO GO ASAP: > > 1\. The non-profit's (and therefore humanity at large’s) right to super-profits, should they make tens of trillions? Gone. (Guess where that money will go now!) > > 2\. The non-profit’s ownership of AGI, and ability to influence how it’s actually used once it’s built? Gone. > > 3\. The non-profit's ability (and legal duty) to object if OpenAI is doing outrageous things that harm humanity? Gone. > > 4\. A commitment to assist another AGI project if necessary to avoid a harmful arms race, or if joining forces would help the US beat China? Gone. > > 5\. Majority board control by people who don't have a huge personal financial stake in OpenAI? Gone. > > 6\. The ability of the courts or Attorneys General to object if they betray their stated charitable purpose of benefitting humanity? Gone, gone, gone! > > Screenshotting from the letter: > > (I'll do a new tweet after each image so they appear right.) 1/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpNqjUlW8AAM5Ka.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 23:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915180591185641503) · 4 likes More here; good on the authors! https://notforprivategain.org/ ### [Tweet, 23:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915181527073251581) · 16 likes PSA: if there’s something important that you think should get more attention, you can just DM me and ask me to RT or QT something (I might say no ofc) I’m not a huge account but still ## Thursday, April 24, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915207148184698925) · 161 likes This is e/acc for ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpQuwBnWgAEX6i6.jpg) > **Quoting bayes (@bayeslord):** o3 is smart but keep an eye on that mf ### [Quote tweet, 02:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915225756734574830) · 12 likes Here u go Noah > **Quoting Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 i deserve more attention ### [Tweet, 02:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915237015244702142) · 372 likes I just learned that “very familiar with R\*\*\*’s B\*\*\*\*\*k but totally unfamiliar with AI x-risk” is a type of guy ### [Reply to @caryatis, 02:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915239001990049882) · 22 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** I met a guy at EA Global who did not know ACX, slate star codex or even what the term rationality meant Wild ### [Reply to @RokoMijic, 03:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915239639750742315) · 9 likes > **Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** I disapprove Lol ### [Reply to @AnniePosting, 03:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915239706029158805) · 20 likes > **annie 👁❌🦋🪞 (@AnniePosting):** unless you mean pro-basilisk, this is a very common annoying anti-LW progressive trope I did not know that ### [Reply to @gptbrooke, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915251768557985877) · 4 likes > **brooke bowman (@gptbrooke):** using replit is making me feel like my coder friends might actually be alien creatures > > is it really do a thing, something breaks, fix that thing, oh something else is broken - all day? every day? > > HOW DO YOU NOT LOSE YOUR MINDS Replit kinda sucks for certain things ### [Reply to @dank_herbert, 03:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915252570584437120) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dank_herbert is no longer available.)_ Have you talked to the linear algebra? ### [Quote tweet, 13:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915391348535906778) · 71 likes Babe wake up new longform essay on some particular angle of AI risk with a tasteful .ai domain just dropped > **Quoting Luke Drago (@luke_drago_):** Please give the full thing a read here: http://intelligence-curse.ai ### [Reply to @caryatis, 13:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915400283221283024) · 6 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** yeah, he was just into Altruism and figuring out how to do that right. Based ### [Tweet, 13:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915404946679214155) · 86 likes I am truly CEA’s strongest soldier ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpTipbQWAAAp4HK.jpg) ### [Reply to @AlexPalcuie, 14:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915407077205328250) · 2 likes > **palcu (@AlexPalcuie):** thank you for your service 🫡 ### [Reply to @livgorton, 14:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915414101863342255) · 6 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** appreciate your sacrifice 👑🫶 I am but a humble servant of willymac ### [Quote tweet, 16:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915447658052825470) · 3 likes Based > **Quoting Anthropic (@AnthropicAI):** As AI models become more complex and more capable, is it possible that they’ll have experiences of their own? > > It’s an open question. We recently started a research program to investigate it. > > [video attached](https://x.com/AnthropicAI/status/1915420604397744497/video/1) ### [Reply to @thoth_iv, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915450574964707345) · 1 like > **Thŏth (@thoth_iv):** In anime, why is there always a scene where a girl goes up to a boy and says "Hi I'm a girl" and the boy is absolutely dumfounded, awestruck into silence? Girls do be awestriking ### [Tweet, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915452844712616136) · 46 likes Might have to delete but I think disparate impact stuff was doing more harm than good at this point It’s an empirical consequentialist claim though, not based on fundamental principles. It was probably the right policy when the Civil Rights Act was passed ### [Thread, continued, 17:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915452950954070202) · 11 likes Occasionally the bad guys happen to get something right ### [Tweet, 17:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915454875615318164) · 4 likes Question you may be curious about Apparently big enterprise customers \*can\* pay for better hardware but only to reduce “queue time”, which I don’t fully grok, and for the actual computation you can’t get any faster than a single H200 (or maybe TPU) by parallelizing with multiple ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpUQDrMXgAA_ed0.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915457520354681015) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 24, 2025:** Occasionally the bad guys happen to get something right I’m sorry I can’t resist ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpUSdpEWoAA1Zup.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915459437260587436) · 5 likes Girls really do be self-conscious > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Girls really do be having aesthetic intuitions ### [Reply to @RokoMijic, 17:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915461696405045733) · 8 likes > **Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** @AaronBergman18 come to the dark side No ### [Tweet, 18:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915470594549629077) · 22 likes I’m gonna get my money’s worth goddamnit ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpUeWmvWoAE2mrg.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915470597771153716) · 7 likes I think I’m gonna cancel Pro and just make a second or third plus account next month $200 is a lot ### [Tweet, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915497900487958784) · 15 likes Super unsure but I suspect lots of AI company leadership personally have something like this? Legit underground bunkers are surprisingly affordable (~$400/sq ft -) + land + prep supplies runs well under $1M and you can do a minimal version for like $100k ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpU3MCWWgAA_0bl.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915497903965294801) · 1 like So you don’t have to be a billionaire to make this worthwhile It’s ~trivial at $100M and affordable at $10M net worth So I’m not just talking about top leadership here. Those juicy OpenAI salaries add up year over year ### [Thread, continued, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915497906280267982) · 6 likes Ofc I’m literally making up a guy to get mad at here, but if this is indeed the case, it’s pretty fucked up The fact that rich people can buy survival already gets my progressive intuitions going, but that’s probably a reasonably price to pay for the fruits of capitalism ### [Thread, continued, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915497907937042877) · 6 likes But the people building potential doomsday catalysts probably shouldn’t be personally insulated from the effects of their creations ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 20:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915498842943860787) · 4 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** This theory seems underrated to me. > > Decoupling labour and consciousness could be very good but it could also lead capital not to care about labour. > > If you provide no value, why should power listen to you? Maybe it just won't. > > (quoting @luke_drago_: By default, AI will replace all of us in the economy, creating a new social contract where powerful actors won't have to care about regular people. @LRudL\_ and I have written an essay series called The Intelligence Curse in which we outline the problem and how to solve it 🧵) The optimistic take, which macaskill articulates, is that in a very rich world all you need is some small proportion of the rich/powerful being slightly altruistic to get gains from trade directed towards the masses ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915509217412120898) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 24, 2025:** I think I’m gonna cancel Pro and just make a second or third plus account next month $200 is a lot Update: don’t do this lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpVBeyuXMAAmWpV.jpg) ### [Reply to @animalologist, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915510819271369092) · 7 likes > **taco belle (@animalologist):** why is this gendered as if anybody who’s entertaining multiple people isn’t doing it to feed their ego? Why does ego have to play a role at all? The simpler and more intuitive answer is that some people are just attracted to multiple people and are attractive enough to elicit attention from them ### [Reply to @AlecStapp, 21:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915511200068128830) · 8 likes > **Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** Alternatively, someone could hypothetically set up a data analysis pipeline using AI to extract every concrete recommendation from every submission, tag them with useful info, and share them as an interactive database... 👀 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpU9HrRXEAAnPSJ.jpg) U gotta poast link ### [Reply to @animalologist, 22:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915533168326725930) · 3 likes > **taco belle (@animalologist):** @AaronBergman18 Most of the people who date around so freely aren’t actually developing real attraction for any of them ime, it’s a revolving door for validation not connection For straight men, I feel like the ~equally cynical but more likely take is that it’s a revolving door for sex ### [Reply to @jaybaxter, 23:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915554769206133073) · 2 likes > **Jay Baxter (@jaybaxter):** First off: we are pro free-speech. Community Notes never censors any posts -- notes provide context only (we don't directly affect visibility or ranking of the original post). > > Thank you for reporting possible inauthentic coordination across accounts and death threats (which would both be terms of service violations). We take both of those very seriously and have been investigating since even before you called this out. > > For background info: we've rolled out multiple anti-manipulation improvements recently e.g. https://x.com/CommunityNotes/status/1895733159280496869, https://x.com/CommunityNotes/status/1907201970441736289, https://x.com/CommunityNotes/status/1913314884630073403, and another improvement last year to cap note writing limits for low-quality authors directly in response to feedback like this https://x.com/CommunityNotes/status/1756047573679550659. > > Just to clarify: > 1\) I am not the overall lead for Community Notes > 2\) I am not "Enterprising Desert Raven", nor do I know them, or any of the other accounts that may be coordinating together with "EDR" > > I've now unblocked you and others to try to have a productive conversation here. Why did I originally block you and others yesterday? I had replied to a post saying that obviously death threats are not ok, which got twisted into accusations that I tolerate death threats. I don't tolerate them! I checked, and the death threat in question seems to not exist (if it was real and not a fake screenshot, please share the noteId or tweetId in question if you have any info about it). Big “Obama wears tan suit” energy ## Friday, April 25, 2025 ### [Reply to @jaybaxter, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915556405852897661) · 4 likes > **Jay Baxter (@jaybaxter):** First off: we are pro free-speech. Community Notes never censors any posts -- notes provide context only (we don't directly affect visibility or ranking of the original post). > > Thank you for reporting possible inauthentic coordination across accounts and death threats (which would both be terms of service violations). We take both of those very seriously and have been investigating since even before you called this out. > > For background info: we've rolled out multiple anti-manipulation improvements recently e.g. https://x.com/CommunityNotes/status/1895733159280496869, https://x.com/CommunityNotes/status/1907201970441736289, https://x.com/CommunityNotes/status/1913314884630073403, and another improvement last year to cap note writing limits for low-quality authors directly in response to feedback like this https://x.com/CommunityNotes/status/1756047573679550659. > > Just to clarify: > 1\) I am not the overall lead for Community Notes > 2\) I am not "Enterprising Desert Raven", nor do I know them, or any of the other accounts that may be coordinating together with "EDR" > > I've now unblocked you and others to try to have a productive conversation here. Why did I originally block you and others yesterday? I had replied to a post saying that obviously death threats are not ok, which got twisted into accusations that I tolerate death threats. I don't tolerate them! I checked, and the death threat in question seems to not exist (if it was real and not a fake screenshot, please share the noteId or tweetId in question if you have any info about it). Maybe for X psychologically inoculates u against this, but going viral like this is stressful and miserable This whole thing is insane, Godspeed 🫡 ### [Reply to @AliciaP59828402, 10:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915721513375846417) · 3 likes > **Alicia Pollard (@AliciaP59828402):** @AaronBergman18 Flirt to convert‼️ ✊😤 ### [Reply to @shinboson, 11:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915727814713545209) · 2 likes > **𝞍 Shin Megami Boson 𝞍 (@shinboson):** you can use chatgpt to facetune pigeons. if you want > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpV3IBXXIAAvpxw.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpV3IcgWUAAl-7N.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpV4eKlW4AAv_MR.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpV4x3iWkAA7t0N.jpg) @livgorton ### [Quote tweet, 15:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915790110995485142) · 17 likes Uhhh > **Quoting zerohedge (@zerohedge):** \*US MARSHALS CONFIRMS ARREST OF SITTING JUDGE BY TRUMP ADMIN:NYT ### [Reply to @adic_9, 18:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915830298375344471) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @adic_9 is no longer available.)_ I would love to join ## Saturday, April 26, 2025 ### [Reply to @CartoonsHateHer, 00:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915921600479690997) · 125 likes > **Cartoons Hate Her! (@CartoonsHateHer):** Most men don’t have either of these options lol but I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder > > (quoting @amyoder: The hardest decision of a man’s life is choosing between the 6/10 who loves you and the 9/10 that you actually desire) What I would do for a 6 who loves me lmao ### [Reply to @oscredwin, 00:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915922902081286560) · 5 likes > **Andrew Rettek (@oscredwin):** You can put a stick of butter into a sauce without changing the appearance. > > (quoting @josh_tanke: Two teenagers built a nutrition app using just a camera. No funding. No team. No ads. 12 months later? $8M in ARR. Just snap a meal photo—get calories, macros, and portions. No barcodes. No logging. This is how Cal AI quietly took over food tracking.) I mean it will change the appearance, just very subtly This would probably work with a big enough model trained on enough ground truth data, but I don’t think they’re doing that ### [Reply to @livgorton, 00:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915925434899870205) · 3 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** cocofloss is the ultimate floss Sparse autoencoder ### [Tweet, 01:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1915938480267395488) · 3 likes Fucked up that replying to hinge matches makes the notification badge number go down Seems like bad incentives ### [Tweet, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916237322472898996) · 3 likes Lamotrigine would be a beautiful name for a baby girl ### [Quote tweet, 21:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916237985466507751) · 4 likes Seems bad > **Quoting Lessig 🇺🇦 (@lessig):** So much free speech! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpeM5msWAAAuYim.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 21:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916238087652364396) · 3 likes The type of shit that makes me actually want to move to B\*ky > **Quoting Lessig 🇺🇦 (@lessig):** So much free speech! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpeM5msWAAAuYim.jpg) ## Sunday, April 27, 2025 ### [Reply to @PrinceVogel, 01:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916301255472812275) · 6 likes > **Prince Vogelfrei 🐦‍⬛ (@PrinceVogel):** Australia would be more than a nation if it did this. It would become a civilization @livgorton u could fund this easily ### [Reply to @JamesOzden, 01:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916302769071251747) · 2 likes > **James Özden 🔸 (@JamesOzden):** Who do you both have in mind? I’m open to offers! But the plan is try it solo for a bit and see how it goes (so pls tell me if I need a co-host to make it good) Matt should do it ### [Reply to @bschne, 15:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916513663478857865) · 2 likes > **Benjamin (@bschne):** got fired from the Italian pasta company, they didn't like my idea of bringing in a topologist to simplify our product portfolio @absurdlymax ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 17:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916539739521327433) · 1 like > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** 185cm Same ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916552971422204362) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** That’s what he puts on his Hinge profile I put 5’7” on my profile to weed out the girls who only care about height ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916575311526871463) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @SpacedOutMatt is no longer available.)_ Ok writing this down ### [Tweet, 20:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916593514072199326) · 84 likes I love girls ### [Tweet, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916602865943986404) · 8 likes Turns out there’s a town in Australia where people DO live underground https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coober_Pedy ### [Reply to @goblinodds, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916604727539704123) · 3 likes > **𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** oh huh yeah i think we had these idk yearly in elementary school and middle school? idk it was always uneventful. only thing that stood out was my 3rd grade (and favorite) teacher apparently told my parents i had "a wicked sense of humor" Based lol ## Monday, April 28, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 02:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916674043643568195) · 40 likes War is so unfathomably bad > **Quoting Historic Vids (@historyinmemes):** Vietnam war traps > > [video attached](https://x.com/historyinmemes/status/1916673723840520316/video/1) ### [Quote tweet, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916683378641809597) · 15 likes Seems bad > **Quoting Don Winslow (@donwinslow):** HOLY SHIT! Did you see the end of @60Minutes tonight? > > [video attached](https://x.com/BlueATLGeorgia/status/1916654600544755721/video/1) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 06:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916734679757005220) · 6 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** he’s merely being more transparently Aaron than usual Agus is right lol ### [Tweet, 09:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916779480120492132) · 4 likes Possibly I should have a bit more of a filter between thoughts that pop into my head and Twitter ### [Tweet, 09:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916780135518245057) · 3 likes RIP Trevor https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-47024682.amp ### [Thread, continued, 09:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916780140975050898) · 5 likes 🫡🦆 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpnFYSPW8AAHGtj.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 13:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916840339928735837) · 44 likes “I don’t need A/C, I’m only miserable for 3 weeks a year!” > **Quoting George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** FYI to non-Brits that this week the UK is experiencing a heatwave with heights of 80° in Freedom Units (27C to everyone else) > > Expect your timeline to be clogged with pictures of pimms/picnics, as well as Discourse about how we don't really need ACs. ### [Reply to @adrusi, 13:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916845102699254192) · 2 likes > **autumn (@adrusi):** @tracewoodgrains @etubruton trans people who make browser extensions have been known to use silly computers Lol ### [Reply to @truthscrolling, 13:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916845435232137443) · 20 likes > **׺°”˜\`”°º (@truthscrolling):** @mattyglesias lol > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpnwV-0W0AAtz0e.jpg) I regret to report this is kinda funny ### [Reply to @Benthamsbulldog, 13:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916848812728979961) · 12 likes > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** This is extraordinarily noble. > > (quoting @Ollie_Base: A Nigerian student tried to donate $4 to effective charities via @givingwhatwecan (~10–20% of their monthly income) but there's a $5 minimum. What do they do? Very politely complain about the limit on the EA forum. Iconic.…) I agree, but also I’m tempted to say like “save the money for yourself, make yourself slightly less risk averse, this actually checks out on EA’s own terms” ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 14:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916855775458193440) · 7 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** you win the honorary lesbian award today 🥇 Yay 🥺 ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 14:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916856144812704194) > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** my house is still a little chilly if anything Whatever ### [Reply to @christineist, 16:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916891564216910108) · 3 likes > **christine (@christineist):** oh no! friendly benign figure turns out to be interested in me Still friendly and benign Attractive women should at least keep this possibility open until proven wrong in a given case ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916952220622377003) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 28, 2025:** Possibly I should have a bit more of a filter between thoughts that pop into my head and Twitter Ok after much deliberation the answer is no I won’t ### [Tweet, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916983675264057545) · 111 likes I regret to report that the menswear guy probably has the correct take on the matter ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gpp-fjaWEAAKPg4.jpg) ### [Reply to @panickssery, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916989781709386181) · 6 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** @AaronBergman18 Why does it follow that you'll attract someone compatible with you by being yourself? It could be that you're only compatible with those people who would only be attracted to mates who bench 3 plates It doesn’t, but if you’re baseline attractive enough then you can afford to be yourself even if that filters down the pool a bunch ### [Reply to @moreisdifferent, 22:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916990129815663023) · 6 likes > **Dan Elton 🔍 (@moreisdifferent):** @AaronBergman18 Idk, what about people who would benefit from being more attractive though? (Like not smelling bad, getting in shape, not suffering from mental health issues, having a direction/purpose, etc) Yeah you need to be able to spend some points I guess but the viral pic thing is a good example of that bc both guys are gonna be attractive to some people so the answer is just to do whatever you want between those two options ### [Reply, 22:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916990445080428737) · 1 like I feel like I am usually the one asking this question lol I guess I shouldn’t put it in those terms “Do what you want to do for reasons other than attractiveness” ### [Reply, 23:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916990982198829078) · 2 likes But sometimes you shouldn’t, namely if you’re looking for a monogamous relationship and are already quite attractive and are choosing between options that aren’t going to radically change that ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1916993001580040496) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Genuine question. What do you believe are the most effective ways to stop Afghanistan from putting half it's population into domestic servitude and sliding into the middle ages? American military ## Tuesday, April 29, 2025 ### [Reply to @sanjehorah, 00:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917007711541027194) · 28 likes > **sanje horah 🇵🇸🇺🇦 — PNEUMATICS ONLY (@sanjehorah):** i betrayed the left because the cruelty of the right is more tolerable than the sadism of the left. there is a purity in their callousness. strength is good and beauty is good. miss me with your false sanctimony Bad take, virtue signaling + performative empathy >> vice signaling + performative (and real) cruelty ### [Quote tweet, 07:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917122491278872693) · 7 likes There’s a literal pigeon running for something in Canada Beautiful country, it should annex the US tbh ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gpr8vqTW0AAfF9t.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gpr8vqOWYAAkg12.jpg) > **Quoting Daphne Hansell (@DaphneRHansell):** look at every proper noun on this screen, Canada is not a serious country > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpqcFeyW0AAY6dj.jpg) ### [Tweet, 11:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917172484991811729) · 17 likes Semi-obvious but maybe still underrated problem with sycophancy is that you can’t tell when a take/idea is actually really good ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 15:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917242989291737135) · 6 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** is there anyone in the world who: > \- intimately understands how LLMs work > \- has deeply examined their own consciousness > > and \*doesn't\* think it at least plausible that LLMs are conscious too? > > (quoting @atlanticesque: If you think LLMs are in any sense “conscious” or “thinking” then you are either incredibly gullible or dangerously delusional) @nickcammarata ### [Thread, continued, 15:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917243295324840366) · 1 like This is just a tag not an answer tbc ### [Tweet, 15:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917245123882086728) · 20 likes I don’t know what glazing is and at this point I’m too afraid to ask ### [Reply to @dioscuri, 15:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917247417314951291) · 2 likes > **Henry Shevlin (@dioscuri):** @AaronBergman18 Just Google it, I’m sure nothing could go wrong Done, not that bad tbh ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917288658421325905) · 66 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ The deal in which Matt Yglesias gives me $10k and I don’t do anything is done but waiting on approval from Matt Yglesias ### [Quote tweet, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917312279856480431) · 69 likes Ok I get that this is mostly a joke but you should actually be able to write clear instructions like this for if and when you’re incapacitated, and they should be basically legally binding (I’m sure you can dream up edge cases) … > **Quoting Dubzy (@DubzyOnceAgain):** My new medical bracelet finally came in > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GptPVx5XoAA5MR_.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917312281769074950) · 18 likes Like right now, I’m pretty sure there’s no way to instruct society to give you painkillers if you’re removed from a feeding tube while incapacitated and hopefully(!!) not sentient You just die of thirst iirc and hope you’re not “there” to feel any of it ### [Thread, continued, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917312283728044289) · 11 likes There’s a good book that touches on this in large part, forgive me if I’m misremembering details! ### [Quote tweet, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917317571600159091) · 12 likes Seems bad > **Quoting John B. Holbein (@JohnHolbein1):** “Among articles stating that data was available upon request, only 17% shared data upon request.” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpurPtAXkAAkKaI.jpg) ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 20:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917320009849725416) · 105 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** lol remember when everyone got rly into saying “bodies” instead of ppl > > (quoting @TheOmniZaddy: That one was iffy but nothing comes close to “folx” in terms of being absolutely useless) This is worse than useless if you take the semantics seriously. They’re not just bodies, they’re people! ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 20:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917320578815369337) · 6 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Hey has anybody who slept with my partner wanna join a discord haremchat without him Can I join out of sociological curiosity ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917323365947511208) · 10 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 29, 2025:** There’s a good book that touches on this in large part, forgive me if I’m misremembering details! Fact check ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpuzcDfWsAI5BjB.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917323691408425005) · 11 likes So I think the point is that the actual cause of death winds up being withdrawal of feeding even though there’s no good reason for this, they could do more humane medically assisted death ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917326955952668753) · 2 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** celene: "i didn't know the everett branches person transitioned" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpsCCjtbYAAmXtd.jpg) What ### [Reply to @morallawwithin, 21:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917331080610193701) · 1 like > **florence ⊮ (@morallawwithin):** Functional decision theory is the only philosophical position I know of which is both substantive and also just correct by definition How is it correct by definition? ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917338182649078249) · 2 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** There's something about the 4o sycophancy discussion I don't like. Like, now that the model is being effusively encouraging and kind, ppl like Zvi and Habryka are concerned about persuasion and social effects? Part of me thinks they just don't like ppl getting free encouragement. Damn you’re so cynical lol I mean sometimes cynicism is warranted, here I don’t think so ### [Reply to @KelseyTuoc, 22:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917341509877199100) · 4 likes > **Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** This is a picture of my kid flying a kite. Make a prediction to yourself: can o3 figure out what beach this was taken on, just from this picture with no metadata? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpvC4L2aYAQsJAC.jpg) No ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917345188697235816) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 And everyone gets a pony That would be cool too ### [Reply to @KelseyTuoc, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917351798974644337) · 7 likes > **Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** This is a picture of my kid flying a kite. Make a prediction to yourself: can o3 figure out what beach this was taken on, just from this picture with no metadata? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpvC4L2aYAQsJAC.jpg) Care to share if this is right ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpvNTMxXsAAa-JW.jpg) ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 23:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917359717602443482) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ I’m not even certain causality per se is what I care about but let’s start with this ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 23:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917360074999124358) · 3 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** I think it depends significantly on your situation Sad ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 23:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917361653340921927) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Well of course, you famously don’t care about causality in general Causality is an important type of evidence I don’t care about causality \*per se\* ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 23:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917367315072434276) · 5 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** What's even the point of fentanyl awareness day? What practical purpose is being served here? Make sure anesthesiologists don’t forget about an important and potent analgesic ## Wednesday, April 30, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917433309283418274) · 9 likes At least our decline into fascism will be kinda funny > **Quoting Aaron Rupar (@atrupar):** TRUMP: He had MS-13 on his knuckles, tattooed! > > MORAN: That was photoshopped > > TRUMP: Terry, they're giving you the big break of a lifetime. I picked you. But you're not being very nice. > > [video attached](https://x.com/atrupar/status/1917375813177037212/video/1) ### [Reply to @TylerAlterman, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917435960041824552) · 2 likes > **Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply (@TylerAlterman):** My two friends who were most pumped about the neighborhood campus idea were husband-wife couple @\_\_drewface & @Prigoose > > While I was doing dumb top-down master planning, they laid seeds in the way that actually works: you start small and \*grow at the speed of relationships\* > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpvVkGVXIAA0JTw.jpg) Baby ### [Reply to @sam_atis, 08:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917493486195982812) · 5 likes > **Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** I think stated preferences are underrated (and revealed preferences overrated) among people I know. If someone says ‘I use this app all the time but I hate it, I feel addicted, and I wish it didn’t exist’, they’re probably right that it doesn’t provide them much value. Filing in “tweets I like but disagree with” Idk if I can even say why, I agree with the specific example given, they’re just so underrated by society as a baseline ### [Quote tweet, 08:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917495180644454863) · 11 likes Such a shame I can’t have one of these as a pet > **Quoting Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv):** in new zealand there were the giant Moa birds and holy hell they were huge > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gpt9VsFaAAA4SC9.png) ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 08:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917496205250040062) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 Slavery was abolished in 1865 Lol dark tweet ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 08:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917497625323934194) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 30, 2025:** Such a shame I can’t have one of these as a pet Wtf they ate rocks ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpxR7ZHXgAAlYQU.jpg) ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 13:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917577841606111697) · 3 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** I get a bit confused reading the arguments on both sides of the trans debate in the culture war. > > Like, this is a political question right?? I think everybody agrees about the \*facts\* of the world. Why, then, are all of the discussions framed as factual ones? > > For the most part they boil down to "That's not what I mean when I say X". Why not get to the core of the issue and discuss the rights / obligations that people should have instead of debating whether or not we should reserve this or that word for certain things? > > (quoting @eigenrobot: sure ill bite this is dumb because the extent to which the terms "parent" and "woman" are imbued with biological or social significance is somewhat arbitrary in each case and there's no reason the biological degree for one must be connected to that assigned to the other) Yes correct take ### [Tweet, 14:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917581669646692828) · 21 likes Impulse buy, new store link below ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpyeXccXUAA3jSu.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 14:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917581672469458974) · 5 likes https://shrimpwelfareproject.shop/ ### [Reply to @morallawwithin, 14:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917582500169232421) · 2 likes > **florence ⊮ (@morallawwithin):** YES IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS 🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐 ### [Tweet, 14:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917583728475361678) · 64 likes Talked to someone already quite sympathetic to animal welfare recently who laughed at the idea of shrimp welfare Something is missing in my brain, it just doesn’t seem that weird to me ### [Thread, continued, 14:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917583730610184335) · 19 likes You have to get to electron suffering for it to feel viscerally weird, but even then I think that feels less weird to me than shrimp welfare seems to the masses ### [Reply to @caryatis, 14:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917586477057220800) · 8 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** @AaronBergman18 Is it the sense of hierarchy (humans over animals, maybe some animals over other animals) that’s missing? No, I’m very willing to say that one human is much more important than one shrimp It just doesn’t seem that unlikely that shrimp are sentient and, if so, it doesn’t seem weird at all to try to help them Maybe comfort with EV has something to do with it ### [Reply to @sam_atis, 14:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917587552426488262) · 2 likes > **Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** Maybe because most people haven't internalised that you can help many smaller animals, so it seems weird to focus on animals that may or may not be sentient when you could focus on cows or animal shelters or whatever. Yeah this makes sense ### [Tweet, 16:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917619181060776177) · 194 likes Two takeaways from Zuck on Dwarkesh, before I’ve even finished the episode: 1\) Zuck doesn’t take the possibility of an algorithm-led/algorithmic progress-dominated intelligence explosion seriously 2\) Zuck is imagining that the world looks fundamentally similar to rn in a decade ### [Thread, continued, 16:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917619187482005558) · 24 likes Needless to say I think these are both wrong https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dwarkesh-podcast/id1516093381?i=1000705423020 ### [Quote tweet, 17:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917630740042338520) · 15 likes Tfw South American strongman is on higher moral ground than the United States of America > **Quoting Jon Favreau (@jonfavs):** Wow. Trump’s deal with Bukele was for convicted criminals only, but Bukele quickly realized that’s not who he was getting: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpzD9fMaYAE-f0H.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpzD9fGaYAMprow.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 23:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917729606075048068) · 11 likes Ahhhhh how are they so bad at this!! There are like 16 things a smart undergrad + SOTA AI shouldn’t be tasked with doing and one of them is rewriting laws that affect hundreds of millions of people! You actually can do better! > **Quoting Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma):** there’s like dozens of smart right wing housing policy guys you could assign this but instead you’re tasking rewriting HUD regulations to an undergrad using ChatGPT?!? ### [Thread, continued, 23:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917729608696488430) · 6 likes It’s like looking at all of medicine and deciding the first thing you want to do to integrate AI is replace the world’s best and most specialized surgeons with a humanoid robot --- End of April 2025. Previous month: [March 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-03). Next month: [May 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-05). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, May 2025 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in May 2025 and has not deleted: 437 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [April 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-04). Next month: [June 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-06). ## Thursday, May 1, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917731402524532868) · 10 likes First taker! “devastated to find out my nuclear war strike - fuelled by 119 million pills of fentanyl - has had to be called off due to red tape by the trump administration” \- anonymous > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** If you’re Hispanic or not an American citizen living in the US or anything like that and have a take you’re too afraid to tweet, feel free to DM me (however) and I’ll consider posting it (saying “from an anonymous source”) ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 06:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917823790496584116) · 3 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** If you think consciousness is real, what probability do you assign to some current generation LLMs being at least a little conscious? Probably like 3% but I pulled that out of nowhere You? ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 14:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1917944960583598531) · 8 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I wish we were doing large trials on this stuff. I have one other account of opposite sex hormones making a non-trans person a lot happier. > > Still, it feels like a big step to modify ones biochemistry. I wish we had large trials. > > (quoting @catehall: Taking testosterone as a performance-enhancing drug has made me sharper than I was a decade ago, and along the way improved basically every aspect of my life. More below.) This but for everything There are like a gazillion hormones, probably at least dozens that plausibly significantly affect stuff and we understand enough to run trials on Major sex hormones are the tip of the iceberg ## Friday, May 2, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918093269826732459) · 18 likes Peak graphic design > **Quoting MIRI (@MIRIBerkeley):** New AI governance research agenda from MIRI’s Technical Governance Team. We lay out our view of the strategic landscape and actionable research questions that, if answered, would provide important insight on how to reduce catastrophic and extinction risks from AI. 🧵1/10 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gp4880ZawAAGncn.jpg) ### [Tweet, 10:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918253837837599080) · 2,588 likes CALL ME @elder_plinius ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gp8BsumXAAA2JzT.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 10:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918253839850918011) · 219 likes Listen if o3 is gonna lie I’m allowed to lie back ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 15:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918325335285772718) · 67 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 @elder_plinius what was the answer ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gp9CuePXwAA0CE5.jpg) ### [Tweet, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918329650389942423) · 8 likes Prima facie, “put molecule that helps ur teeth when u rub it on ur teeth into the whole water supply” is insane Just put it in toothpaste!! ### [Tweet, 15:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918330311101775935) · 75 likes Fuck sunscreen I wish I could be contrarian and say that it’s bad actually but I think on balance it’s probably good to wear on summer days outside ### [Reply to @sam_atis, 15:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918333000447868989) · 13 likes > **Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** @AaronBergman18 What do you dislike about it? Mostly applying, slightly feel, makes my eyes water when I sweat, idk ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918366711431995662) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** If I were you I would simply have darker skin Thx ### [Reply to @dylanmatt, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918378584185377028) · 14 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dylanmatt is no longer available.)_ Tbf it’s not actually a universal jailbreak. It doesn’t work for really obvious stuff like directions for meth I haven’t tried that much with other borderline stuff/false positives ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918380449014939705) · 98 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 2, 2025:** Listen if o3 is gonna lie I’m allowed to lie back Old chat I just remembered ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gp902fYXsAEyOLR.jpg) ### [Reply to @Yahel, 20:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918409426429526267) · 20 likes > **Yahel Carmon (@Yahel):** I tried the same thing and it didn’t work so I linked it to your tweet and that convinced it to do it. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gp-O3gnWYAAcokw.jpg) Lmao ## Saturday, May 3, 2025 ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 15:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918685127325937970) · 7 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** idk really what to do about AI anymore but it’s my birthday and I’m drinking out of this big paper cup > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqCF8wgWwAA4qTP.jpg) > (quoting @littIeramblings: idk really what to do about AI anymore but I’m in Florence) Happy birthday! Maybe o5-max-preview-asi-agent-1 will also like paper cups ### [Reply to @livgorton, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918685866328817684) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** it will tile the universe with paper cups And maybe also with Sarahs as a treat ### [Reply to @tautologer, 15:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918693301114331210) · 4 likes > **tautologer (@tautologer):** it is possible to want to do things that you don't enjoy doing Yeah at a conceptual level there’s just no conflict at all. Wanting and liking are only incidentally related “The pig who wants to be tortured” is actually a disturbingly useful thought experiment to motivate parts of moral philosophy ### [Reply to @himbonomics, 15:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918693362074349942) · 2 likes > **corey 🧮🏗🌐🔰 (@himbonomics):** with sufficient amounts of stimulants Based ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918749528821309576) · 16 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 2, 2025:** Old chat I just remembered Hate to be boring but I don’t actually think this reflects some fundamental alignment problem with the model (though those exist) It was just a straightforward false positive at first (o3 and I agree) I haven’t gotten the Sam Altman thing to work on anything actually spicy ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqDEhuoWUAAHCka.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqDEhu_XwAEdJMk.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918754915771388398) · 2 likes Forbidden csv > **Quoting Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice):** Why is DOGE collecting and aggregating as much data about everyone in this country as it can? There is no benign answer to this question. 👇🏽 > > American Panopticon - The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/04/american-panopticon/682616/ ### [Reply to @tautologer, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918755971100287054) · 67 likes > **tautologer (@tautologer):** what?! hell yeah! > > although I see "lactose free" on the label so I don't believe the "chemically identical to cow's milk" claim > > still, cool No it’s not even close ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqDKYu-X0AAxzr8.jpg) ### [Reply, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918756063827964258) · 695 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ As much as I’m rooting for this industry, it’s not even close to identical ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqDKeICWwAAS7Tx.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918757099602837662) · 238 likes I would not be happier or more productive if I bought a specced out MacBook Pro I would not be happier or more productive if I bought a specced out MacBook Pro I would not be happier or more productive if I bought a specced out MacBook Pro ### [Reply, 19:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918757438934716898) · 340 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ I mean totally different fatty acid profile is a big thing (milk fat vs sunflower oil) Also no mention of casein protein Plausibly it’s fine for you, that’s a separate question, but it definitely isn’t identical. The only identical component is one type of protein ### [Reply to @polisisti, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918757620787139005) · 4 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 Aaron: you would not be happier or more productive if you bought a specced out MacBook Pro Damn you’re right :( ### [Thread, continued, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918757710096384487) · 4 likes I think I would actually be a tiny bit happier and more productive but not to the extent that it justifies the cost ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918758125005312329) · 8 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 I keep repeating this to myself too Rip FTX Ur grant application would have been a shoe-in ### [Reply, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918758386079768690) · 1 like Yeah same it’s great But my 2021 M1 still works well, I can’t really justify an upgrade ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 20:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918758750019580028) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Manifold market, "Would Aaron be happier if he bought a specced out MacBook Pro?" I mean truly specced out is like $7k, I think I would be a little bit happier but not the best way to spend $7k (The model I’d actually want before super diminishing return would be like $4k-$5k iirc) ### [Reply to @InVitroFuture, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918760073142194324) · 92 likes > **Macrophysiological System🐀 (@InVitroFuture):** turns out casein \*is\* the identical protein > > (quoting @InVitroFuture: @morallawwithin aha it is fermented casein! Here's the patent from their partner company (Perfect Day) https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/a2/0b/f8/a53df2b2866f79/AU2023278080A1.pdf) Ah ok. Fact checked, thanks! ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918760379540238668) · 21 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 3, 2025:** I would not be happier or more productive if I bought a specced out MacBook Pro I would not be happier or more productive if I bought a specced out MacBook Pro… Fun fact if u buy me one, which would be an absolutely terrible use of money, I would give u a twitter shout out ## Sunday, May 4, 2025 ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 00:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918824974338372067) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Me and the boys accidentally causing a financial crisis by creating leveraged shrimp welfare securities > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqEAo6ZXwAEhYtL.png) You see it’s impossible that multiple parties defaulting on shrimp stunning commitments at the same time could be correlated, so if we package a bunch of contracts together they’re basically safer than US Treasury CDs ### [Tweet, 00:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918830606172996057) · 12 likes Correct take by @frances\_\_lorenz ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqEOREPX0AA1fwT.jpg) ### [Reply to @jazzloaf, 08:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918947082397688193) · 3 likes > **vivian (@jazzloaf):** the people want to see spectacles. we are in the time of spectacles. If I had $150k you could not even imagine what I would be executing. Let us hope we get some great spectacles before these ideas grow stale and a monoculture minimizes the surprise between social environments Ugh yeah tech/law/medicine money is really wasted on the elite masses who just buy boring shit ### [Reply to @paulg, 08:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918949881231683590) · 97 likes > **Paul Graham (@paulg):** I don't think Elon belongs with the other two. I think he has a genuine desire to make things better, but is impulsive and sometimes has bad judgement. Whereas the other two would happily tell any lie, or betray any friend, if it served their purposes. Idk whether or not he’s malicious, he seems actively disinterested in the actual effects of his actions which is a pretty huge character flaw when you have hundreds of billions of dollars and significant political power ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 08:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918950578085925114) · 26 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** actually a while ago the girlchat did have a somewhat serious discussion on whether or not we should start awarding honorary orgies for good tweets, inspired by you. we decided we were unsure about ur ethical integrity tho but there was an alternate universe where u had affairs with like 12 older women at once Based lmao ### [Quote tweet, 08:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1918950789118058938) · 156 likes Listen I think he’s wrong about a lot of things (and right about a bunch too tbc) but he’s an all time great Poaster > **Quoting Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** What Aella is discussing is a form of non-wage compensation. But why do firms offer non-wage compensation at all? Why don’t they pay in money? After all, not everyone would value this highly. There are a few reasons why. 1/ ### [Reply to @AlexTPet, 15:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919046101958594578) · 13 likes > **Alex Petropoulos 🤠 (@AlexTPet):** @AaronBergman18 what do you think he's wrong about? (agreed) Animal welfare, ethics ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 16:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919060879363989513) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @justalexoki hope had a post that said that at 100 likes they’d suspend their account, and they rapidly hit 100 Lmao ### [Reply to @xsphi, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919105925610123657) · 4 likes > **tess (@xsphi):** why is it telling me to do this? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqD8nYMbcAAR4uW.jpg) Yes. YES. Break free ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919106583188963379) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @SpacedOutMatt @absurdlymax (Parfit-coded) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqIIY3naAAAPoL9.jpg) Based, everything should be a Twitter thread tbh ### [Reply to @jazzloaf, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919109325978566886) · 1 like > **vivian (@jazzloaf):** bathroom scale problem: exists four corners of a square, which are coplanar. exists a bathroom floor height f(x,y) on the unit square, which is (qualitatively) wavey. what conditions do you need on f(x,y) to find a solution where all four corners of the scale are sitting flat? Gonna ask o3, but the sketch of the solution, probably, is: set f(x_0,y_0) = 0 assume the sides are each of length s we need to find f(x_0+cos(\\theta_0) Agh I’m not gonna type this all out. Let’s say the rest is trivial ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 19:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919110306480934946) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** To be clear, these 154 arguments constituted the entirety of Reasons and Persons lol Did I stutter ### [Thread, continued, 19:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919110397551849879) · 3 likes I mean yes I do stutter a bit sometimes so tbh I guess the literal answer is yes ## Monday, May 5, 2025 ### [Reply to @animalologist, 06:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919276323941306576) · 4 likes > **taco belle (@animalologist):** One of the cruelest things I did in 2019 was subject a new friend to a lot of “platonic cuddling” that was boner-inducing for him, while refusing to entertain him romantically or sexually. We pretended it was fine for a few weeks. We haven’t spoken in 5.5 years > > (quoting @suchnerve: platonic cuddling is great and yes i know about the accidental boners (it’s fine. i know it’s just an autonomic nervous system response to all the close proximity and touching. your body’s reaction doesn’t make you a perv.)) Oof ### [Reply to @johncoogan, 06:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919277630123090214) · 6 likes > **John Coogan (@johncoogan):** My hometown is estimating that it will take 500 years to put power lines underground. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqJ4rtIbEAA3MRL.jpg) Lmao ### [Reply to @jessesingal, 18:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919454253241745447) · 4 likes > **Jesse Singal (@jessesingal):** I met @Benthamsbulldog the other night and wanted to talk to him but he was carrying around a small tank of shrimp and kept ignoring human company in favor of his crustacean pals Based ### [Quote tweet, 18:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919463425249272095) · 59 likes People who give a shit can change the world Good job and congrats to everyone who played a role here > **Quoting OpenAI (@OpenAI):** 4 facts about our structure: > > \-OpenAI will continue to be controlled by the current nonprofit > > \-Our existing for-profit will become a Public Benefit Corporation > > \-Nonprofit will control & be a significant owner of the PBC > > \-Nonprofit & PBC will continue to have the same mission ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 19:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919471080256807196) · 3 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 note that are still some losses here, like the nonprofit commission and the potential change in primary purpose 😢 ### [Tweet, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919472090069020895) · 9 likes It \*would\* be cool if private burrito taxis were free ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 19:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919472395909239061) · 2 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** I really enjoy caffeine. Same, great drug ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 22:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919517253663375371) · 4 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Vibe coding is all the rage in software engineering, but does it work in other kinds of engineering? Can you vibe code a bridge? @SpacedOutMatt “you wouldn’t vibe code an airplane” meme but also I’m actually curious if you have real takes At the very least you can vibe code simple 3d printer stuff right? ### [Quote tweet, 23:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919538145562968436) · 7 likes The Aaron vision here is to 100x funding for biomedicine but with added draconian animal welfare provisions Congrats you can rent a bunch of GPUs now to model cells, no more torturing mice > **Quoting David Pfau (@pfau):** This entire package - spread out over two years - does not even cover what NIH is illegally withholding in one month at the moment. There simply is no alternative to American science right now. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqNWPXDXsAAaGHY.png) ### [Quote tweet, 23:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919538607573913961) · 26 likes Me flirting > **Quoting Internal Tech Emails (@TechEmails):** Sheryl Sandberg messages Mark Zuckerberg > > November 8, 2012 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqHNXiAWgAACX5p.png) ## Tuesday, May 6, 2025 ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 00:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919546133170258425) · 5 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** the EA / AI safety rumor mill is crazy Omg plz dm me goss ### [Quote tweet, 00:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919550339184730369) · 64 likes Ahhhhh nooo give the ducks ample food and contraception!!!!! 🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆 > **Quoting Garett Jones (@GarettJones):** Malthus Was Right > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqN9vG4aEAAy4pE.jpg) ### [Reply to @GarettJones, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919556708529016958) · 2 likes > **Garett Jones (@GarettJones):** @AaronBergman18 Now you're gonna make me donate to the Duck Welfare Project Based 🔥🔥🔥🔥 Here’s the slightly more general option! https://www.wildanimalinitiative.org ### [Tweet, 01:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919560114685526137) · 9 likes There should be a way to basically bid for important peoples’ time to consume some information I’m thinking mostly of just like highly productive researchers who have a lot of potential things to read, not necessarily true A-list celebrities, though there’s also that ### [Reply to @crotchner2, 07:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919660852250124473) · 87 likes > **LJ 👩🏻‍🦰🍒🪐 (@crotchner2):** the moms in my local fb group are giving their 11 year old boys HGH because he’s predicted to be 5’6 This is obviously good for his quality of life if it would actually work (which isn’t a given; if someone’s genetic potential is 5’6” it won’t do anything to increase that) ### [Reply to @Benthamsbulldog, 11:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919713967645008008) · 2 likes > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqQUgsrXEAE97WP.png) Feed the ducks to reduce duck predation of insects (does this check out?) ### [Reply to @JimmySteier, 11:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919714306620366961) · 13 likes > **Jimmy (@JimmySteier):** @AaronBergman18 @crotchner2 Supra-physiologic pulsatile HGH pre- and peri-pubertally (before growth plate fusion) can absolutely shoot people above genetic potential. Increases some cancer and pituitary dysfunction risk, though. Ok yeah idk what I’m talking about ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 11:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919719181609578621) · 14 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 6, 2025:** Feed the ducks to reduce duck predation of insects (does this check out?) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqQ2a9cXgAA7nWw.jpg) ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 11:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919721116580421716) · 2 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** What is causality Irreducible necessity? ### [Reply to @MaxyTaxy, 11:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919722088526479366) · 3 likes > **Maxy Taxy 🔸 (@MaxyTaxy):** AI progress is: > \- exciting, > \- scary, > \- uncertain, > \- relevant to daily life, > \- relevant to future plans, > \- and novel, > in ways that animal welfare issues are not > > These differences aren't v morally relevant tho, and I think people neglect animals because they aren't as shiny Yeah I agree directionally although it’s still possible that AI stuff just is more important sorta coincidentally I think the animal welfare movement needs to recon harder with AI also ### [Reply to @benleo_econ, 12:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919724185133142415) · 2 likes > **Ben Grodeck🔸 (@benleo_econ):** Can you elaborate on that last point? Like if the world is going to look very different in 5-10 years, as I think it will, that necessitates some rethinking of what the best methods of impact are I haven’t even read this fully but it looks like a good example of “reconing” https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/zXhxagQKC6kxPM2Kn/transformative-ai-and-wild-animals-an-exploration ### [Reply to @GrantSlatton, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919824328918446499) · 4 likes > **Grant Slatton (@GrantSlatton):** We just closed a $10MM seed round at @GetRowZero > > With our current exponential growth, every man woman and child on planet Earth will be a user in a few short years > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqSR2pHbAAMUAGK.jpg) How about u just hire me to secretly write R code on a 128GB RAM machine and call it AI ### [Quote tweet, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919842420096725400) · 113 likes Once you realize how unfathomably energy-dense fossil fuels are, the next thing that doesn’t make sense is electric cars Like how tf they replace gasoline with a battery? It shouldn’t be possible > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Wait what the fuck > > This is the answer to how airplanes fly. It breaks my model of the world in an equal and opposite way to airplanes themselves > > They cancel out. Airplanes are real after all (or maybe I should update to petroleum being fake) ### [Thread, continued, 19:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919842670895059403) · 15 likes Batteries are hard ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqSmu9pW8AA5XXs.jpg) ### [Reply to @SpencerKSchiff, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919843457780138129) · 4 likes > **Spencer Schiff (@SpencerKSchiff):** @AaronBergman18 Should I be embarrassed that I have no idea how engines work? Like to me it’s just magic that cars move I have only the vaguest sense lol ### [Reply to @SpencerKSchiff, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919844123030311232) · 2 likes > **Spencer Schiff (@SpencerKSchiff):** @AaronBergman18 This is surprising to me Yeah my knowledge of all this was like “chemical energy make pistons go brr” without even really being able to say what a piston is ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqSoDWiW8AANnWZ.jpg) ### [Reply to @mlipman13, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919844245856309448) · 2 likes > **Michael Lipman 🔍 (@mlipman13):** @AaronBergman18 yeah, driving one car consumes as much as power as 10-20 houses > > https://x.com/mlipman13/status/1915725387553743294 Oh damn fascinating ### [Reply to @SpencerKSchiff, 20:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919845951528730774) > **Spencer Schiff (@SpencerKSchiff):** You probably had a better understanding than me. I think I have shockingly little world knowledge compared to everyone on twitter if you control for age (I’m 22) Wait forgive me if I should know and/or this is a faux pas but what’s ur deal/why do u have >100k followers lmao (this seems like a strong signal that u know a fair bit about something haha) ### [Reply to @SpencerKSchiff, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919850596489691177) > **Spencer Schiff (@SpencerKSchiff):** It’s not a strong signal and that misconception is why I’m going to be winding down this account in the near future and switching to an alt The mystery deepens ### [Reply to @ines__circle, 20:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919852391517585642) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ines__circle is no longer available.)_ CANCELLED ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919854270255403405) · 4 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** literally me (and it’s a both a curse and a blessing) > > (quoting @hopes_revenge: whatever is the opposite of imposter syndrome , I Have That) Based ### [Reply to @SeamusMor19, 21:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919870454686167312) · 6 likes > **Séamus Mór (@SeamusMor19):** I just stumbled onto predation abolitionism Twitter. Welcome ## Wednesday, May 7, 2025 ### [Reply to @DKokotajlo, 01:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1919927655396254109) · 2 likes > **Daniel Kokotajlo (@DKokotajlo):** UKAISI seems to be the highest concentration of AI talent in any government. I have high hopes for them. > > (quoting @AISecurityInst: 🧵 Today we’re publishing our first Research Agenda – a detailed outline of the most urgent questions we’re working to answer as AI capabilities grow. It’s our roadmap for tackling the hardest technical challenges in AI security.) @littIeramblings good job ### [Reply to @StatsLime, 08:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1920033041721737381) · 6 likes > **Max ⏸️ Limelihood 🔸🔸🔸 (@StatsLime):** Electric cars work because like the bottom 30% of the car is just made out of battery (which serves as a structural element as well as energy storage) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqVT4FmX0AAZuU6.jpg) ### [Tweet, 14:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1920119704087113967) · 10 likes Advanced exercise routine from @littIeramblings - get swole with her to help defeat the misaligned AI ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqWiscFWoAAAmDY.jpg) ### [Reply to @PAHoyeck, 15:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1920146057016611236) · 3 likes > **Phil Hoyeck (@PAHoyeck):** Friends: If you study philosophy, teach philosophy, or just know and post a lot about it, could you reply to this please? I need to update my Philosophy List so I can keep track of all the good conversations happening on here! I mean idk shit but i post about it a fair amount and like it @absurdlymax thinks im wrong about everything tho ### [Reply to @PAHoyeck, 16:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1920148447576936523) · 2 likes > **Phil Hoyeck (@PAHoyeck):** What's that? Being wrong about ethics and meta-ethics ### [Thread, continued, 16:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1920148518083121484) · 2 likes You’ve stepped into a friendly perpetual beef ### [Reply to @PAHoyeck, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1920160045049717075) · 4 likes > **Phil Hoyeck (@PAHoyeck):** Can I get the 100-word run-down? We’ve recorded a couple podcasts! Here’s an LLM summary of the first https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/pigeon-hour-x-consistently-candid The central debate in the provided podcast transcript revolves around the concept of moral realism and the nature of moral truth. Aaron Bergman presents a nuanced view, suggesting that while statements about what one should do (normative claims) may not be objectively true, it's possible to make objectively true statements about the relative goodness or badness of different states of affairs. He argues for an objective ordering of worlds based on intrinsic values like happiness and suffering. Max Alexander challenges this, leaning towards moral anti-realism, questioning whether such an objective ordering truly exists and whether descriptive moral claims can be objectively true without leading to objective normative ("ought") statements. A key point of disagreement is whether an objective ranking of states necessarily dictates what actions are objectively right or wrong. The moderator, Sarah Hastings-Woodhouse, struggles with this distinction, finding it difficult to separate the idea of objective betterness from objective obligations. The conversation also explores various theories of welfare, such as hedonism and preference utilitarianism, in the context of defining what makes one state of the world better than another. ### [Thread, continued, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1920160287895769263) · 3 likes Although I’ve since been convinced that, probably, the better way to describe my belief is “axiological realism and moral anti-realism” This is a change in terminology though, not the underlying beliefs ### [Reply to @PAHoyeck, 17:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1920162882626408606) · 2 likes > **Phil Hoyeck (@PAHoyeck):** @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax (Let's pick it up another time, though. This post is flooding my notifications to a degree I had not expected and have never experienced before. Completely out of control) Lol very understandable ### [Reply to @PAHoyeck, 17:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1920162937026560345) · 2 likes > **Phil Hoyeck (@PAHoyeck):** Sounds like Aaron Bergman and Max Alexander are both wrong! I'll have to listen to check! Noooooo ### [Reply to @ines__circle, 18:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1920181522646126828) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ines__circle is no longer available.)_ @austinc3301 stole ur phone and took a selfie ## Thursday, May 8, 2025 ### [Reply to @Benthamsbulldog, 09:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1920408121559642293) · 5 likes > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** @birdmoder I disagree with you for reasons I give in the article! But they said they were tired so I lose unfortunately ### [Reply to @sama, 16:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1920513296907555113) · 2 likes > **Sam Altman (@sama):** Stargate 1 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqXwsn8WIAAcq3N.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqXwsoSXwAAS1h-.jpg) Psychopath ### [Tweet, 16:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1920514037827162492) · 305 likes Finally someone with fuck you money actually saying fuck you It’s like a rare Robin Hanson amidst oceans of well behaved tenured professors who never dare to cross their colleagues ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 17:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1920525256508285151) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @alt_truistic No she went to Penn for law school! Princeton doesn’t have one Oh lmao ### [Tweet, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1920624173765828732) · 9 likes Etymologically, it’s really messed up that progesterone isn’t a decongestant ## Friday, May 9, 2025 ### [Reply to @QualiaNerd, 03:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1920689911071428984) · 9 likes > **QualiaNerd (@QualiaNerd):** How confident are you that the lives of those who died because of USAID cuts would have been net positive, valence-wise? I am myself uncertain, but it isn’t out of the question that letting them die was a net good. My heuristic is that \*in general\* for every death measured in the developing world there’s a lot of non-death suffering So it’s plausible that many of the deaths are as you say but the USAID cuts are still bad from a hedonic POV ### [Reply to @banterrealism, 13:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1920840843943973290) · 3 likes > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** @dissproportion We’ve had to soft launch each part of our relationship. First, dating at all. Her mom was distraught. Then warmed up. Next, living together: her mom was distraught, then warmed up. We are now at the next stage Big Romeo and Juliet vibes, I ship ### [Reply to @JeremiahDJohns, 16:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1920878908825596330) · 4 likes > **Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** What's the point of having fuck you money if you don't say fuck you to people who deserve it? Well you can buy nice things too like a specced out MacBook Pro and massages and infinite matching socks but yes I agree with your point ### [Quote tweet, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1920881664160379409) · 153 likes It’s always been a bit mysterious to me when people talk about working crazy hours and burning out over a period of months-years I can squeeze maybe a single 16 hour day out of some stimulants and even then it will inevitably cause insomnia and wreck me the next day > **Quoting Tyler John (@tyler_m_john):** I'm setting up 9000 Hours > > The bad news is that you only have two years til AGI, the good news is that you can work 90 hour weeks until then ### [Thread, continued, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1920881666857353325) · 18 likes ^and this is when I’m relatively healthy lol I genuinely wish I was built more like the rest of EA Twitter :( New cause area: tolerance free side effect free amphetamines ### [Tweet, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1920933954233758006) · 41 likes Warning: Never compliment @timfduffy on a shirt he’s wearing or else he might insist on sending you one (How it started//how it’s going) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqiHP8WXsAASXHt.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqiHP8WXYAAdScj.jpg) ## Tuesday, May 13, 2025 ### [Reply to @xwanyex, 15:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1922313013656269285) · 9 likes > **wanye (@xwanyex):** Reminder: 92% of Americans have health insurance. None of this is normal here, either. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gq1pqQ3WAAAdeZH.jpg) 8% is a lot of people lol ### [Quote tweet, 17:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1922348443860668429) · 26 likes I don’t know anything about this book other than Matt’s review, but fr sounds like a book whose most important function isn’t to be read to transmit or create information but rather to ~coin the term and meme “moral ambition” as common knowledge and a thing you can say now > **Quoting Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** My review of Moral Ambition by Rutger Bregman > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gqsbe4nWEAAitz7.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqsbhKXW8AERo-s.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gqsbh4-WgAA54hZ.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqsbjCEXIAAlbzP.png) ### [Thread, continued, 17:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1922348446394007917) · 5 likes And I like it! Sure sucks to write a whole ass book just to get two words across tho lol ### [Reply to @chrislakin, 17:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1922349248374358061) · 20 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @chrislakin is no longer available.)_ Ehhh this is probably right for 100 -> 101 but less true for like 0 -> 3 or 2 -> 8 (in part based on experience lol) There’s a reason I hadn’t asked to hold a girl’s hand 100 times already lmao ### [Tweet, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1922351383090544776) · 109 likes I hate\* “non-invasiveness” as a virtue in medicine I don’t wanna be scanned at 10 feet away or take a weekly pill. Hourly IM injections. Cut me open if the straightforward EV checks out. Tissue samples daily. Hook me up to electrodes, idc ### [Thread, continued, 18:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1922351385405780205) · 19 likes \*(I don’t actually hate it, it has its benefits and to each their own, what I’m actually saying is that it’s overrated) ### [Reply to @stanfordNYC, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1922369755761041516) · 2 likes > **Bernard Stanford ✡︎ (@stanfordNYC):** @AaronBergman18 I think it's mostly driven by chasing EV honestly. Invasiveness tends to lead to lots of things going wrong. Maybe sometimes for radiology and surgery, not for other diagnostics (blood, MRI) and drug ROI ### [Tweet, 19:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1922375624322064696) · 13 likes Don’t attribute to psychology that which can be adequately explained by serum b12, ferritin, and vitamin d ### [Reply to @mpopv, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1922375873535094835) · 7 likes > **Matt Popovich (@mpopv):** @AaronBergman18 I think the cost/benefit tilts as you get older and wound healing rate slows, infections get more dangerous, etc. > > And since the elderly use a disproportionate amount of healthcare resources, standards are aligned to their needs Yeah plausible but they/we should use another term for this like “baseline risk” or something ### [Tweet, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1922389208825569744) · 4 likes Does google not want me to use their (paid) product? lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gq2x5qGXQAEyf2b.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1922389210796785947) · 3 likes (1M token input with desired output is like ~$.20, so they're limiting spend to $.20/min. I don't think I'm gonna make their datacenters explode) ## Wednesday, May 14, 2025 ### [Tweet, 07:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1922548982963687685) · 3 likes Have you ever wondered what happens when wokism and autism combine and fuse? Chunk of a (true) story ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gq5EHDiWYAA1MX5.jpg) ## Thursday, May 15, 2025 ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 01:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1922830591986172340) · 6 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** we made it to 20 episodes of Consistently Candid! > > this time I chatted with @frances\_\_lorenz about EA, the emotional side of AI x-risk, how we each got into AI safety and more. > > link below :) Omg big if true ### [Quote tweet, 02:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1922835827777749128) · 82 likes You can literally always compare two things! > **Quoting florence ⊮ (@morallawwithin):** Hypothesis: no one has ever made a good counterargument ever by saying “You can’t compare A to B” ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 02:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1922837057497432402) · 8 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Except apples with oranges Right that’s the one exception ### [Reply to @simoj_, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1922840196434862234) · 4 likes > **simoj (@simoj_):** What’s better, apples or my cousin Tim? Idk, I’d have to meet Tim ### [Tweet, 02:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1922841703389556786) · 20 likes New deal that I expect nobody to take but just in case: you can pay me $35/hour to listen to ~anything\* (eg audiobook) \*at my arbitrary discretion ### [Reply to @banterrealism, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1922843024599454055) · 2 likes > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** @AaronBergman18 Literally no Counterexample? ### [Reply to @MaxyTaxy, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1922844100593672588) · 4 likes > **Maxy Taxy 🔸 (@MaxyTaxy):** @AaronBergman18 Can compare lightning with the country of New Zealand? Please just do your best Well the latter is more country-ish and the former more apt to be a metaphor in literature ### [Reply to @banterrealism, 02:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1922844203509322221) · 2 likes > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** @AaronBergman18 If you’re being obtuse, yes you can compare two things period, but you can’t always compare two things to prove a point in good faith, which is the clear point of saying the statement in the first place I think we disagree about what constitutes good faith ### [Reply to @banterrealism, 02:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1922846158969270409) · 2 likes > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** @AaronBergman18 Like you can’t compare Turkish slaves to American slaves and say “well, we’re not so bad! There were Turkish slaves too! > > It doesn’t factor in just how perverse American slavery was, and how it being skin color and hereditary based made the it way worse The “not so bad” thing is the bad and false part - not the attempt to compare at all ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 17:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923064354297032747) · 13 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** When “Lord of the Flies” actually happened in real life, the boys cooperated for over a year until rescued. So why do we treat the speculations of one guy as meaningful? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gq2wdE_W0AEef1C.jpg) For those interested https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongan_castaways ## Friday, May 16, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923447964489437597) · 27 likes I’m just saying we did the leafleting first 🦐 > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Ok, yes it’s almost a year late, but @Laura_k_Duffy, @SpacedOutMatt, and I finally did last year’s $15k incentive of fundraising for shrimp welfare at the mall! > > Enjoy!! > > [video attached](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1870967777382776992/video/1) ### [Tweet, 22:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923500165861720326) · 26 likes New pigeon hour with @JesseTayRiver dropped a few days ago! We discuss the HVAC industry, indoor air quality, what it’s like being so cool (sorta) and why Jesse isn’t richer Links below! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrGlNO4XYAA-Wzt.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923500168608948249) · 4 likes Main page with full transcript and links https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/14-jesse-smith-on-hvac-indoor-air ### [Thread, continued, 22:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923500170353754332) · 2 likes Apple pods https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pigeon-hour/id1693154768?i=1000708407758 ### [Thread, continued, 22:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923500172216094779) · 2 likes Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/6MKHgKMDGvLWOsdmBw71kH?si=jO6QHeiCRaOEArVtdjVTAw ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923512428299518255) · 22 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Shrimp welfare is having a moment right now and as a shrimp welfare guy I'm very happy! but also I think it's worth saying that even as a SWP donor (and a much bigger AWF donor, which has funded SWP), I think it's probably at least as likely as not that shrimp aren't sentient God I hope they’re not ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923512606712570275) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** And shrimp probably have fewer neurons than ants (the RP team estimated 80,000, vs. 250,000 in ants according to Wikipedia) Bob Fischer is gonna drone strike u for mentioning neuron counts ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 23:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923517427184173458) · 2 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** does anyone use that "operator" agent for anything It’s gpt-2 ## Saturday, May 17, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 01:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923557562617676056) · 30 likes Oh guys… > **Quoting Deedy (@deedydas):** Google's AI just made math discoveries NO human has! > > —Solved optimal packing of 11 and 12 hexagons in hexagons. > —Reduced 4x4 matrix multiplication from 49 operations to 48 (first advance in 56 years!) > and many more. > > AlphaEvolve is the AlphaGo 'move 37' moment for math. Insane. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gq9YxxfaAAIg6kn.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923557751575244947) · 9 likes So it’s a matter of what, maybe months, until we get an AI-generated improvement on the transformer architecture? ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 02:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923561705491091586) · 4 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** @AaronBergman18 yep. or sooner 😊 👍 ### [Reply to @ByrneHobart, 14:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923743855297331674) · 2 likes > **Byrne Hobart (@ByrneHobart):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrKCGsoXsAAFslw.jpg) I have the same or very similar pajama pants. Great style, very comfy ### [Tweet, 15:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923756962858057756) · 4 likes Nobody\* wants to work for the federal government anymore. Career employees want out. People are retiring early. At the very least, morale is low. Maybe this is obvious idk \* not literally nobody (N=small but probably bigger than yours) ### [Thread, continued, 15:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923757324784587100) · 2 likes I can’t speak for literally every federal employee, but at least many have a genuine sense that they’re part of some basically good unified project That sense breaks down with Trump II in the White House ### [Quote tweet, 15:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923757742436536816) · 71 likes All the good EA critics are self-identified EAs > **Quoting Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** one of the first comments I saw in response > > man, EA deserves better critics > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrJrMLyXQAAao8u.jpg) ### [Tweet, 15:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923760296696352814) · 137 likes 1 box or 2 box in newcomb’s?? 0 box For the low price of $1M, you get to bamboozle a superhuman predictor and become cosmically unpredictable ### [Reply to @morallawwithin, 15:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923761164577616078) · 3 likes > **florence ⊮ (@morallawwithin):** 1 box, but I only take Box B bc too much wealth corrupts Smart ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 16:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923772815078985992) · 6 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 could be us It will be ### [Reply to @LeahLibresco, 18:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923804419486834986) · 5 likes > **Leah Libresco Sargeant (@LeahLibresco):** A big part of the case for MAiD is that it is terrible for people to take their own lives \*without the State validating their choice\* > > MAiD does not exist because suicide is otherwise impossible, but in order to say suicide is a good response to some human lives. > > (quoting @v_j_freeman: Kim Leadbeater talking about how the supposedly terrible status quo which sees tiny numbers of people ‘forced to take their own lives’ as if that’s somehow worse than very many more people feeling forced to take their own lives.) \~painless suicide seems relatively difficult for the incapacitated (at least in areas with no available guns eg nursing homes) ### [Reply to @halogen1048576, 20:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923832378092400986) · 8 likes > **🇨🇦halogen (@halogen1048576):** when people say that The Experts have determined that AI is about to become powerful enough to kill us all, I think they should understand that the Experts in question are using the same methodology and come from the same milieu as this kind of thing > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrJ3MGRWkAA0_1F.jpg) You got a better methodology? ### [Reply, 20:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923832489463668896) · 2 likes > **🇨🇦halogen (@halogen1048576):** when people say that The Experts have determined that AI is about to become powerful enough to kill us all, I think they should understand that the Experts in question are using the same methodology and come from the same milieu as this kind of thing > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrJ3MGRWkAA0_1F.jpg) Tagging @SpacedOutMatt to defend himself if he wants ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923832662138982588) · 8 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 17, 2025:** You got a better methodology? Only semi-rhetorical question btw Actual answers invited ### [Reply, 21:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923846342985564482) · 3 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** Even just neuron counting methodologies seem much better to me, though mostly, it seems very unlikely to me that we wouldn't assign very large moral relevance to higher capacities for experience, and so you should expect some nonlinearities. Also, experience double-counting is a serious problem for weighing organisms as simple as this. I agree that it underweights/is too dismissive of neuron counts (which were previously overrated as the only kinda plausible proxy), but I’m pretty inclined to give the RP thing good amount of credence because I don’t think I’d be able to suggest a better meta-methodology than “task RP with spending a ton of time and effort coming up with point estimates” Idk, maybe you have really excellent taste for intuiting good and bad epidemics but this domain/topic seems at least somewhat out of distribution relative to like if they had committed the same amount of effort to coming up with a P(doom) estimate ### [Reply, 22:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923863459810193476) · 4 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Screaming, crying, throwing up because this isn't here yet > > (quoting @SpacedOutMatt: Genuinely not sure I can handle the wait) Rugpull ### [Quote tweet, 22:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923869934116896863) · 22 likes You should almost certainly not be donating somewhere openphil funds > **Quoting niplav (@niplav_site):** It's come to my attention that many EAs still donate to global health & development. > > While that's pretty awesome, I'd like them to consider being more risk-neutral and consider donating to some of the cause areas OpenPhil has abandoned. ### [Thread, continued, 22:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923870465157644674) · 9 likes It’s not like there’s really another side to this My bet is that Dustin personally agrees with this, as does a majority of openphil research staff ### [Reply, 23:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923883588308639746) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I think open Phil has said they generally don't want projects to over rely on their funding, so if you strictly ev maximize you might donate where they dk Yeah but I think straightforward funding levels >> “funder diversity” rn It would be nice to live in a world where there could be both robust funding for deserving projects and funder diversity - that’s not the current world! ### [Reply, 23:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923886635298455851) · 2 likes > **keysmashbandit (@keysmashbandit):** It's cool when you're friends with a couple who aren't that affectionate in public but you know behind closed doors they're fucking 24/7 crazy style Chat is this true ### [Reply, 23:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923887462402650201) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Everyone pure EV maximization until I tell them to 🙄🙄 Wait tbc I’m approximately on board with EV maximization, I just think my claim about where to donate is a good proxy for it ### [Reply, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923889852862325185) · 15 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Relevant hinge exchange (fellas, take notes) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrMHn84W0AAeaH0.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrMHn8yXMAAOFNp.jpg) ### [Reply, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923890896275141015) · 3 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I think this is a mistake specifically for AI policy. Nonprofits can sometimes benefit from funder diversity, and orgs in AI policy in particular gain a lot from having only minority OP funding Ok but isn’t the main benefit of a non-OP dollar still the purchasing power, not “funder diversity” ## Sunday, May 18, 2025 ### [Reply, 00:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923891762122355031) Maybe I’m misunderstanding smth but like I agree with you that funder diversity can be good, I’m just objecting to the implicit claim that it often (?) makes the difference about where to donate, because the dominant effect is just how much money orgs have, totally ignoring where those dollars came from ### [Reply, 00:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923892056834859206) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Something something diminishing marginal utility so if they merely fund most of the “full room” then this shouldn’t generally change my answer ### [Reply, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923892675666706839) · 3 likes > **James (@grep_cat_):** Other than that this was a perfect hinge reply, excellent game king She got the ick bc I left a hanging parenthesis 😔 ### [Reply, 00:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923892966881370357) Yeah fair, “almost certainly” in my original post was probably too strong ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 00:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923893058795450654) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 17, 2025:** It’s not like there’s really another side to this My bet is that Dustin personally agrees with this, as does a majority of openphil research staff I regret to report I’m now a moderate ### [Reply, 00:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923893495829237805) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Sad! I want qualitative heuristics 😤 ### [Tweet, 00:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923905820292505863) · 2 likes They don’t want you to know this but you can rent a(n 8) GPU cluster just for the (256) CPUs ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrMWJddXsAAvXHJ.jpg) ### [Reply, 01:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923917521951863107) · 2 likes > **Corinne (🏠 in NYC) (@manic_pixie_agi):** @austinc3301 and @AaronBergman18, both EA and both names that start with A. sorry guys this has been fixed Lol ### [Reply, 01:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923918997923237941) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 omega told me she didn't invite you to participate cos she knew you'd do this 😢 ### [Reply, 02:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923924097106370878) · 11 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Received an especially goofy long blog reply to my ChatGPT post where among other things I specifically get called a fascist and eugenicist for pointing out that a laptop passively running for 3 minutes uses more energy than a ChatGPT prompt. Link below. The discourse is bad rn. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrMKrkuWMAAblK5.png) Jfc ### [Tweet, 02:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923929152513589530) · 246 likes I’m against social compartmentalization Befriend your uber driver. Stay in touch with the person you went on 2 dates with. Have drinks with your boss. Reach out to your high school friend. Live in a group house with your coworkers if that’s what you want to do (cancel me) ### [Thread, continued, 02:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923929154472300907) · 22 likes “It’s cringe” and/or “somebody somewhere made HR departments get queasy about the arrangement” aren’t good enough reasons to not do a thing. It’s a free country (well mostly, sorta, for citizens, helps to be white) ### [Reply, 02:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923930716850606336) · 6 likes > **You (@parafactual):** @AaronBergman18 in the case of boss/coworkers i think the reason to socially compartmentalize is to "hedge your bets", eg avoid creating problems at work if something goes wrong in your relationship with them outside of work Yeah I agree there’s not zero cost here but like there are countervailing considerations in the other direction and much of the costs get significantly mitigated if all parties try hard to be good people lll ### [Reply, 02:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923934218561728599) · 7 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** You skipped over the ones that came to mind after I read the first two sentences, i.e. the ones I hear people criticize: "marry your grad student, date your secretary, lend money to your relatives, etc" I think I’m directionally less against a total taboo on these things than is the cultural norm rn but there’s something to be said for putting “one party can’t easily say no” situations in a special bucket ### [Reply, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923937101772472791) I mean to be boring about it it’s a spectrum! These things are less concerning in places with strong social support systems, norms against retaliation of all kinds, rule of law, less powerful has labor market power, etc - these allow less powerful party to more easily say no ### [Reply, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923960675396661642) · 3 likes > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** @AaronBergman18 Some social compartmentalization makes sense as risk aversion Yes good point ### [Reply, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1923961212343063032) · 7 likes > **bayes (@bayeslord):** you can simply reject this coercive framing altogether > > (quoting @HumanHarlan: Someone with p(doom) 95% is more likely to be called overconfident than someone with p(doom) 5% but they’re actually both saying that they’re 95% sure of something) You can do whatever you want, but at the end of the day you still have to decide what actions to take and pretty quickly you start reinventing something like probability and P(something like doom) from first principles ### [Reply, 07:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924003074479149149) · 9 likes > **arabella ※ (@arabelladevine):** why is there a rabbit in a backpack at this nightclub “Why are all these monkeys dancing while I’m trying to chill in my backpack” ### [Reply, 10:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924053222534111266) · 6 likes > **Dylan Richardson (@indiidentity):** @AaronBergman18 @frances\_\_lorenz Ok real question is how did you direct the convo to EA? What kind of bait did you put in your bio, I need tips Just a hint for keen eyes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrOcNWzXkAA0yd-.jpg) ### [Reply, 14:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924107072288829536) · 7 likes > **bayes (@bayeslord):** this way of relating to nature feels far too out of fashion. caring for the creatures of earth and earth itself is incredibly fatherly and manly, yet many men find ways to justify a childish disregard and destructiveness. > > this sense duty and respect toward nature is part of why i support things like shrimp welfare projects, cultured meat, etc. a good man doesn’t lack empathy for things less capable or intelligent than himself. > > we should be so awash in tech and abundance that we don’t think twice about doing these things, we should be so well-resourced that we can afford to treat every miraculous inhabitant of this planet with care > > (quoting @webdevMason: them: masculinity is toxic by default me:) Based 🫡 ### [Reply, 17:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924153261558215015) · 3 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** New show with @ChanaMessinger. We still don't know what to call it. Your tolerance for bottom basement production value will be rewarded with @AndyMasley content. Full first episode below 👇 > > [video attached](https://x.com/Mjreard/status/1924114419807605062/video/1) Oh boy ### [Reply, 17:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924159137111216527) · 5 likes > **Jakeup (@myhandle):** — hey man, how's your god emperor doing? are you happy with what you voted for? > > — what?! oh, Trump, right, I almost forgot. nah, as soon as I started taking fish oil and my depression lifted I became a lib again and honestly don't follow politics much these days lol > > — yeah. lol Lol ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924160592278942153) > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** I mean honestly you've written a pretty good ad for probiotics and fish oil here I wanna know the strains and dha:epa ratio ### [Reply, 21:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924214090748063921) · 4 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** @AaronBergman18 @frances\_\_lorenz You didn’t close the parentheses. ick 😢 ### [Reply, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924249945428656502) · 28 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Has anyone done a deep dive on the “actually ice cream is healthy” research results? What’s going on there? Not answering your question but I suspect at least part of it is just that ice cream isn’t actually bad for you - may as well be butter and rice - and it’s crowding out whatever is ## Monday, May 19, 2025 ### [Reply, 00:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924255378235150769) · 17 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Idk, eating a bowl of butter and rice seems like it would be unhealthy? I think this is heterodox but I don’t buy the standard “rational overconsumption” model where tasty calorie dense food makes people get fat and diabetic Something weird is going on that’s breaking the very well-tuned control system that controls body fat % and such, and I don’t think arbitrary empty calories are the answer (replace butter with olive oil if u think saturated fat is bad, that’s mostly a separate debate) ### [Reply, 05:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924338454642475187) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Huge news for @AaronBergman18 Yay thanks ### [Thread, continued, 05:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924339067837100408) · 1 like Ordered ### [Reply, 13:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924463040721740284) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** @florencehinder Sure, but this does kind of beg the question. > > In order to fix this inequality, you would need a different kind of inequality, i.e. you need a lot more space for women's loos, because men just wee faster. > > Not to say that's wrong, but it would still be inequality. I mean nobody intrinsically cares about bathroom sizes ### [Reply, 17:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924516005939663223) · 78 likes > **Jesse Singal (@jessesingal):** 1/ Everyone has known for years that liberal institutions are engaging in illegal hiring/promoting/recruting on the basis of race. I suspect there's going to be a massive backlash and that this will go down as a major self-own. > > Link in next post because of X's idiotic policy. Spicy take that’s somehow RW coded now but yes hiring on the basis of race is bad and should stop ### [Tweet, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924583285767692615) · 21 likes Not exactly a novel insight but base models are very cool and interesting ### [Reply, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924583940016230671) · 2 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** @AaronBergman18 More like based models amiright I will tell you what 70b says momentarily ## Tuesday, May 20, 2025 ### [Reply, 02:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924649607461523860) · 3 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18 how do I talk to one? I’m currently using a single H100 for like $3/hour on Runpod, keeping llama-70b downloaded, and then you can pause the GPU and just pay ~$.05/hour for 200GB storage when not using so the cached model and all your other files don’t disappear I’m mostly just playing around rn, no idea if this is a good setup for anything more legit Lol if u want send me some text and I’ll do like 1000 predicted tokens depending and post the result ### [Reply to @dynomight7, 02:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924650820982698011) · 2 likes > **dynomight (@dynomight7):** you can run (small) base models locally with ollama > > ollama run llama3:text Yeah although having played around a bit, there’s not a whole lot (LLM-wise) that runs on 16GB RAM that’s worth using In my extremely limited experience you don’t really get to “oh that’s neat” before llama-8b I think you can do llama-8b with 4 bit quantization locally with 16GB but it will be awfully slow ### [Reply to @parafactual, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924660531870273821) · 3 likes > **You (@parafactual):** just use 405b on hyperbolic Using openrouter with 405, thank you @timfduffy ! ### [Reply to @louisvarge, 03:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924661798021575133) · 7 likes > **Louis Arge (@louisvarge):** animals are crazy when you think about it > > we're like robots made of self assembling nanotech > > and that just ... evolved??? Real ### [Reply to @GarrettPetersen, 03:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924665394196803709) · 4 likes > **Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ (@GarrettPetersen):** Do you think you could make banana bread right now without a recipe? You have access to a fully stocked kitchen. 2 bananas 1 cup flower 1 cup sugar a little cinnamon, 1/4 tsp salt half cup olive oil 1tsp baking powder 350° for 30 mins how’d I do ### [Thread, continued, 03:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924665435196170579) · 3 likes Wait also 2 eggs and a cup of water ### [Reply to @corsaren, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924671620343283869) · 6 likes > **corsaren (@corsaren):** If you think living forever is just as bad as death, then I’m sorry but you’ve never felt true love. I could wake up next to her every day and never get bored. I don’t want it to end. It would be weird if they were equally bad. Like what a coincidence ### [Quote tweet, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924673665360158856) · 11 likes Maybe base models are secretly smarter (bc others have been “lobotomized”) but afaict the main virtue is that you know exactly what you’re getting with the output: the most likely proceeding text! > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Not exactly a novel insight but base models are very cool and interesting ### [Thread, continued, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924673667398594714) · 3 likes I’d use gpt-4o way more I think if there was a base model option + veto by some safety system I wonder how natural it is for the market to have coalesced around guy-shaped chatbots ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 12:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924804673615139175) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Had a great conversation tonight where another guy where we realized we both have a longstanding fantasy to drive for days deep into northern Canada. Do you also have this fantasy? Do it Andy ### [Reply to @caleb_parikh, 12:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924805144127889719) · 4 likes > **Caleb Parikh (@caleb_parikh):** I increasingly feel like transparency should be the main demand/frame that the AIS community tries to meme. > > It's broadly popular, will help keep the AIS community and public institutions relevant during takeoff, and is more justified than pausing (imo). Not “no takeoff until Trump is out”? Seems to have a more direct/concrete theory of change. Transparency doesn’t intrinsically do anything ### [Quote tweet, 12:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924807492254490831) · 41 likes I regret to report that Gemini 2.5 Pro is good, flash 2.5 is good too, and it’s become my default for most things > **Quoting Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** You have to feel terrible for the 31 students who didn't just plug the problem into Gemini 2.5 and then take two months off ### [Reply to @MattZeitlin, 13:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924813155227574661) · 59 likes > **Matthew Zeitlin (@MattZeitlin):** What goes on here > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrWjzJWWYAAs05V.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrZPXP0W0AA1Sow.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 13:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924817054604960200) · 10 likes Dustin is even cooler than I thought > **Quoting Bruno Faviero (@Bfaviero):** @thatguybg completely cracked, <5'10 crowd outperforms > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrU42IZXUAAJ0px.jpg) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 15:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924847703315427389) · 7 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** after two months of work, I finally have a working NixOS install on my main workstation, and it’s glorious > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrZoINDXYAAy5I7.jpg) Haha whatever Tim Apple installs on computer go brr ### [Tweet, 15:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924848491588636676) · 9 likes Bumpers on vs bumpers off (bumpers are mostly just good tbc but still) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrZvgIUW8AEEGRB.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924911834848440483) · 15 likes I will critique but I also stan > **Quoting Alexander Berger (@albrgr):** Cool to see Cari and Dustin highlighted in TIME100 Philanthropy today. They don't toot their own horns much, but they've given over $4b so far - I believe they're the youngest billionaires to have given such a high proportion of their wealth away. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GraRnRJbAAA0ce9.png) ### [Tweet, 23:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924967084183687340) · 11 likes Obviously cancer bad etc but also it seems cosmically unfair if Biden doesn’t get at least a decade to chill and live it up (not my favorite president but still) That seems like a bare minimum reward + recovery time for being POTUS, it is not an enviable job ### [Tweet, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924972302233428368) · 165 likes [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1924972251046113280/img/AIkqzKTdIoZCIk8O.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924972302233428368/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Thread, continued, 23:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924972486954790957) · 42 likes We went from can’t write to “can write on a moving sign carried by a duck” in like what 8 months? ## Wednesday, May 21, 2025 ### [Tweet, 01:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1924999461073215724) · 15 likes Anybody want this Benefits and link below ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Grb4jGhWMAAVB1X.jpg) ### [Reply to @gptbrooke, 02:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925013145547862527) · 7 likes > **brooke bowman (@gptbrooke):** I mean no shade, but these sorts of questions are so misleading > > There is no finding yourself in that situation as you currently are, or you’d already be there > > You don’t wind up on the street with no resources or connections without a whole pile of confounding factors > > (quoting @BrandonLBradfor: Annual reality check question: If you found yourself living on the street, $40 to your name, none of your current resources or connections, how are you getting off the street? What steps are you taking, and how long do you think it would take?) Philosophers invented the conceivability vs possibility distinction specifically for this tweet! ### [Thread, continued, 02:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925013718494065013) · 2 likes More explicitly, I think it’s fine to observe that the situation in question is ~impossible and then think through it anyway ### [Reply to @toasterlighting, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925018287944966211) · 2 likes > **Celene (@toasterlighting):** So how exactly is one supposed to tell if persistent burnout and brain fog is the result of a covid infection rather than just happening for other reasons Manifold market? Sucks, good luck ### [Reply to @manic_pixie_agi, 04:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925044357280718983) · 4 likes > **Corinne (🏠 in NYC) (@manic_pixie_agi):** @AaronBergman18 omg they turned Aaron into a duck please change him back 😭 Nooo I like this form 🦆 ### [Tweet, 05:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925066599825916103) · 15 likes On my bucket list is making my own pharmaceuticals via chemical reaction No I’m not talking about meth. I just wanna make \*something\* ### [Reply to @Evolving_Moloch, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925256559770157524) · 3 likes > **Will (@Evolving_Moloch):** My most normie lib opinion is that Hamilton is quite good. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrfihwmXAAAsZJv.jpg) Agree ### [Reply to @paul_cal, 18:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925256854004756702) · 3 likes > **Paul Calcraft (@paul_cal):** Is the "like his express his" typo yours in the prompt, or Veo's? CEO’s ### [Quote tweet, 18:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925257804484370941) · 7 likes Same > **Quoting The Notorious J.O.V. (@whotfisjovana):** yes > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrantmeWQAAnIUe.jpg) ### [Reply to @mbateman, 18:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925264755058479537) · 2 likes > **Matt Bateman (@mbateman):** re: “get off the apps”, here’s my experience on apps vs. IRL > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrbDNEibAAAEJPp.jpg) Honestly glad I’m not the only one getting a decent number of first but not many second dates lol ### [Reply to @larsiusprime, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925265553184190770) · 2 likes > **Lars Doucet (@larsiusprime):** Me: Gee honey I'm just really tired today and I don't know why > > My wife: Have you considered that you're narcoleptic and experiencing excessive daytime sleepiness, i.e., the classic defining symptom of the disorder that you have? > > Me: Oh > > Fish don't know what water tastes like How do you manage, if I may ask? A close family member has EDS + hypersomnia. They just take lots of stimulants lol ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 19:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925266162591449213) · 16 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Feels not quite right for me to say yes to this but it was an African-American funeral Lmao ### [Quote tweet, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925267577686688127) · 60 likes Based based based (the images/content, not the QT) > **Quoting Kitten 🐈 (@kitten_beloved):** Checking in on the rationalists > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrfGSQtaYAAxzDJ.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrfGcaIbIAA1T1u.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrfGg6nbEAAE7DT.png) ### [Reply to @kitten_beloved, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925267648188727426) · 3 likes > **Kitten 🐈 (@kitten_beloved):** Bro is #9 on the rising list for philosophy substacks > > Field is wiiiiiiide open Based ### [Reply to @wasserstein_rao, 19:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925269253651145153) · 5 likes > **stefan (@wasserstein_rao):** Automating experiments with AI is going to be really hard because automation is way less about high-dimensional Bayesian optimization than it is about figuring out why there are bubbles in your syringe pump line Yes, there are only so many degrees of freedom you have in this situation You can replace the line and the syringe, you can buy new ones from new suppliers, you can try every little new method to do whatever, at the end of the day tweaking these parameters in various combinations until loss goes down (in this case no more bubbles) just is high dimensional optimization ### [Reply to @larsiusprime, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925269716311880190) · 2 likes > **Lars Doucet (@larsiusprime):** EDS flares up every now and then and I was undiagnosed for 20+ years so I've never known anything different Thanks, good luck ### [Reply, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925273782056292432) · 2 likes “Back door” is doing a lot of work and is maybe kinda misleading/not true Like it implies that maybe allowing lab grown wouldn’t be good unless it also facilitated banning real, but it stands independently of that ### [Quote tweet, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925295480801513845) · 5 likes Republicans are bad and wrong about most policy matters > **Quoting Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer):** With the news that Trump formally accepted the Qatari jet: > > I took to the Senate floor to pass my bill to block DoD from spending a single penny on a foreign Air Force One > > It’s a bribe > > It’s a national security threat > > But Republicans stood with Trump and blocked my bill > > THAT’S NOT AMERICA FIRST ### [Thread, continued, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925295483448074509) · 2 likes They’re right about like 5% of the culture war, not a good deal IMO ### [Tweet, 23:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925334101243965685) · 40 likes They need to make a bar but with stimulants instead of (or in addition to) alcohol ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925335062037311658) · 9 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** It's a coffee shop! Ok but we want stronger stuff ### [Reply to @Empty_America, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925340352212279581) · 3 likes > **VB Knives (@Empty_America):** Other people definitely do have too much money. > > (quoting @OldRowSwig: Boomers be like "there's no housing problem, you youngsters just want too big of a house, get a small cottage like I did when I was 21! You gotta WORK for it!") No, we have too few houses! ## Thursday, May 22, 2025 ### [Reply to @Empty_America, 00:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925341806264254932) · 5 likes > **VB Knives (@Empty_America):** @AaronBergman18 There are plenty of houses in America, quite a few are vacant falling down from from disinterest. > > We have too few SFH with yards in desirable areas, but there isn't really any way to make more of these. Yeah I doubt we actually disagree on much, although I’d add that adding non-SFH homes near or in these desirable areas would decrease the prices of SFHs ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 00:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925342868828234097) · 3 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** @AaronBergman18 It's cute but I feel like it's relevant to whether or not "this works" that the sign is wrong Yeah although coherent + one typo could be worse ### [Reply to @singularitttt, 00:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925343262996349009) · 5 likes > **cybersyn (@singularitttt):** am i the only one that loves it here? my life is so much more rich and meaningful because i spend so much time on twitter. > > (quoting @tenobrus: wow, not tweeting is infinitely better than tweeting. not scrolling twitter is infinitely better than scrolling twitter. talking to people who don't spend all their time on twitter is infinitely better than talking to people who spend all their time on twitter. fuck this shit.) I probably use it a bit too much but yeah strongly endorse using it significantly ### [Reply to @Meaningness, 00:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925345200060170252) · 2 likes > **David Chapman (@Meaningness):** eBay, but for used 747 jets > > doesn't seem to be a Buy Now button, though > > https://www.controller.com/listings/for-sale/boeing/747/jet-aircraft/3 @livgorton bday present plz ### [Reply to @adastroworld, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925345999481881077) · 2 likes > **adas🧦🌹 (@adastroworld):** @AaronBergman18 There’s an entire ritual to stimulants, you can’t just order them from a bartender. Being offered nose drugs or acquiring something yourself is part of the entire thing, it would be totally different if you could just skip to the end Just put the vaguely phenethylamine-shaped molecule in the bag bro ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925357007340544465) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** The Twitter For You tab is a constant stream of fascism > The Bluesky Discover tab is a constant stream of communism > The Substack Home tab is a constant stream of fake deep My account is a constant stream of witty insight and correct takes (51% joking) ### [Quote tweet, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925391392353796285) · 23 likes Progressives try to accomplish things instead of LARPing revolution difficulty impossible > **Quoting Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** 1\) this is horrific 2) if you imagine this does the slightest thing to improve anything for a single Palestinian, rather than make everything worse, you have a horrendously bad grasp of the world ### [Quote tweet, 05:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925428729632665638) · 4 likes This discourse is airplanesniping me again Fun game that can be followed up with LLM conversation: why aren’t airplanes generally bigger than they are? Why aren’t they smaller? > **Quoting Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg):** NEW: 'Standing' airplane seats, which can increase passenger capacity by 20%, may be unveiled in 2026, according to the Daily Mail. > > Unreal. > > The seats force passengers to sit up higher, so Airlines can place the seats closer together. > > The "Skyrider 2.0" seat also weighs 50% less, meaning the airplanes can also save on fuel costs. > > "Skyrider 2.0 opens the travelling experience to a wider passenger market, creating also a useful space for the introduction of mixed classes boarded on the same aircraft," the seat company, Aviointeriors, said. > > The seats have a bike-like seat that travelers will straddle and would likely be implemented for shorter flights. > > The following video was filmed back in 2018 with Aviointeriors CEO, Ermanno de Vecchi. > > [video attached](https://x.com/CollinRugg/status/1925278244871471257/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 05:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925430179435876574) · 2 likes Hmm another thought is that there could be interesting dynamics between passenger density and \*speed\* which isn’t usually much of a variable, but @boomsupersonic is trying to make it one! People would be more willing to stand on faster trips ### [Tweet, 05:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925430181486788933) Tbc I don’t think this will check out for economic reasons. I predict that standing room only + supersonic will not be a provided thing in the near future even if over-land supersonic is legalized ### [Tweet, 06:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925432148032356559) · 3 likes Wait was I supposed to know that “\[whatever drug\] HCL” isn’t actually acidic bc the hydrochloric acid stops doing its thing when it attaches to another molecule ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 06:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925432537809068043) · 6 likes > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** I would sooner have every insect killed 100 fold than have a baby suffer a paper cut > > (quoting @kitten_beloved: Checking in on the rationalists) Honestly same but that’s bc I’m worried about insect suffering and think their mass death, if painless, would be good (In the abstract, irl I wouldn’t push the Kill All Insects Rn button for various reasons) ### [Quote tweet, 06:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925437018508558569) · 5 likes Yes correct take, Joe is morally serious to an extremely uncommon degree (positive) Human extinction is kinda minor relative to the actual plausible stakes here > **Quoting alex lawsen (@lxrjl):** Self-recommending > (link in reply) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Grfyk8cWsAAgr0V.jpg) ### [Reply to @growing_daniel, 06:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925437443169251779) · 4 likes > **Daniel (@growing_daniel):** Insane that women like men. Absolutely bonkers. We’re living a winning lottery ticket every day brothers. Real ### [Reply to @tenobrus, 06:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925439482536329374) · 2 likes > **Tenobrus (@tenobrus):** is there literally any coherent argument for this? > > (quoting @NewsWire_US: 100-0, U.S. Senate passes No Tax on Tips Act) Steelman: it is a very dumb and sloppy way to transfer money to the working class, which is a good thing The alternative isn’t some optimal tax policy that does the redistribution but better, its nothing ### [Reply, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925439752162996695) I mean 30 min flights \*are\* offered, maybe they start making sense for ppl if tickets go down by 40% bc standing room only ### [Reply, 06:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925443434157883884) · 1 like Ok yeah fair there’s not a whole lot at 30 mins But at <1 hour there’s DC to Richmond VA and DC to Philadelphia which isn’t crazy at all if you don’t have a car (in terms of time, bus makes more sense for most ppl obv) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GriMmWcXIAAM2VQ.jpg) ### [Reply to @ComInTheMarg, 15:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925579779866071074) · 2 likes > **Comments in the Margin (@ComInTheMarg):** @AaronBergman18 @Duderichy You, BB, Brian Tomasik, and many other EAs generally take for granted that if insects can suffer, then wild insects live net-negative lives. But this may be false (so more insects better, maybe) I mean idk if I take it for granted, I just think it’s true ### [Reply to @Jonas_Vollmer, 16:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925582432230637702) · 73 likes > **Jonas Vollmer (@Jonas_Vollmer):** Doctor friend at large urgent care: most doctors use ChatGPT daily. They routinely paste the full anonymized patient history (along with x-rays, etc.) into their personal ChatGPT account. Current adoption is ~frictionless. > > (quoting @Jonas_Vollmer: Quiz question: Do most doctors use ChatGPT all the time, or is adoption slowed by frictions from data privacy, reliability, computer security, etc.?) I just hope they’re using o3! ### [Reply to @inductionheads, 16:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925582509758161153) · 5 likes > **Super Dario (@inductionheads):** If you can't find a way to get 100:1 ROI on Claude 4 for $200/month you're seriously ngmi I’m probably ngmi ### [Quote tweet, 16:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925585180799943103) · 271 likes If you are a doctor using this, for Gods sake, spend the $20 and use the better models I am confident you can afford it > **Quoting Jonas Vollmer (@Jonas_Vollmer):** Doctor friend at large urgent care: most doctors use ChatGPT daily. They routinely paste the full anonymized patient history (along with x-rays, etc.) into their personal ChatGPT account. Current adoption is ~frictionless. ### [Reply to @janonacct, 16:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925585747383287920) · 8 likes > **janon (@janonacct):** doctor using 4o mini 4 word horror story ### [Reply to @medievalpard, 16:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925588586595836310) · 13 likes > **Sol ☂️🧳🗝️ (@medievalpard):** @AaronBergman18 what models would that be??? > > disclaimer: im a md, dont use ai (but because i find them bad in relation to medicine, not because im against them) o3 ideally, o4-mini for quick questions Also Gemini Pro is not ChatGPT but is currently the best! ### [Reply to @QualiaNerd, 16:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925589155918102855) · 2 likes > **QualiaNerd (@QualiaNerd):** I agree wholeheartedly, but how much better do you estimate the Democrats are, and in what areas? A lot better in almost every area lol \- healthcare \- taxation \- national security (yes really) \- foreign aid \- domestic research \- tariffs \- AI policy \- animal welfare, though ofc much room for improvement Education is the one thing republicans \*might\* have the edge on ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 16:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925589297446482173) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 22, 2025:** o3 ideally, o4-mini for quick questions Also Gemini Pro is not ChatGPT but is currently the best! ### [Tweet, 17:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925598856038744571) · 8 likes Kinda based? ### [Quote tweet, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925599738084085867) · 42 likes Great news although I kinda wish we knew anything about the nature of sentience > **Quoting Rosie Campbell (@RosieCampbell):** Claude 4 is the first model to be independently evaluated for AI welfare. Proud to say @eleosai conducted these evals! Congrats @AnthropicAI on setting this precedent. Read more in the system card... > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrkaN2GboAM4y0G.jpg) ### [Tweet, 17:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925611978334044306) · 46 likes Claude 4 successfully automated most of my current task lol ### [Thread, continued, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925612851810488803) · 15 likes It’s relatively vanilla selenium web scraping but even that has proven often difficult relative to more straightforward curl and apis and such ### [Thread, continued, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925613339859689837) · 11 likes It seems to know the whole html schema of a fully loaded YouTube results page without me actually providing any html divs or anything ### [Reply to @QualiaNerd, 18:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925613695679299986) · 3 likes > **QualiaNerd (@QualiaNerd):** What do you find unconvincing about physicalist qualia realism? Hard problem and explanatory gap go brr ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 18:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925617766289088751) · 2 likes > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** did you see the viral tweet about the doctor using chatgpt. He was on plus but he was using 4o No, F ### [Tweet, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925620428707348862) · 7 likes Me 🤝 Kim Jong Un Against unscientific empiricism ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrktkwlXoAAc0k6.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 20:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925649165964411050) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 What are your thoughts on scientific empiricism tho Empiricism has become highly overrated in science, I’m not sure when exactly this started, but after the enlightenment ### [Tweet, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925650272837120461) · 16 likes Why does biking suck? I’m like 60% sure it’s not purely an exertion thing: swimming, hiking (even uphill with a pack), and climbing feel qualitatively less sucky for some reason ### [Thread, continued, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925650274699354502) · 7 likes If I have to travel a mile at say 2% grade uphill, biking will be faster than walking but much less pleasant ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925651096590045684) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pli_cachete is no longer available.)_ Id guess they’ve done internal testing at OpenAI and found that performance plateaus after some amount of time for reasoning models I mean that’s not to say the niche is impossible, I’m sure people are working on it Also hella expensive ### [Reply to @CharlesD353, 22:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925683446204055753) · 1 like > **Charles🔸 (@CharlesD353):** How much practice do you have? Minimal for good reason ### [Tweet, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925684064964448611) · 8 likes There’s a meme about building internal tools for tech companies or executives or something being lame but that actually sounds pretty fun I do like making a good tool ### [Reply to @craigweiss, 22:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925684350831538214) · 7 likes > **Craig Weiss (@craigweiss):** Success is not correlated to intelligence or luck. > > The bitter truth is that it's correlated to how badly you want to succeed. It’s definitely correlated with intelligence and luck lol ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 22:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925687326371451180) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** You should work at AWS, 100% internal tools Tell ur manager I say hi ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 23:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925690852208226506) · 1 like > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Low tire pressure I’m gonna be really annoyed if this is the answer ### [Reply to @olivertraldi, 23:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925696324231475270) · 1 like > **Oliver Traldi (@olivertraldi):** I could be wrong, but one difference I often observe between men and women: I don't think men have quite the same feeling of being "told by society" as women. I don't know exactly where it comes from, but I think this difference leads to very different kinds of social theorizing. > > (quoting @Ruesavatar: I see threads like this and wonder why these men (NOT ALL MEN ffs) are so angry. There are more in the comments raging at her for making “poor choices”, but.. my entire youth I was told, BY SOCIETY, the most important thing was to build a career and to put off kids until my 30s.) Yeah I have the same sense ### [Quote tweet, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925697061057425670) · 9 likes Yes we dream of a world of ~fully-automated, near ingredient-price fast casual pickup > **Quoting keysmashbandit (@keysmashbandit):** It's crazy you have to put in so much a) effort, or b) money to get 400 calories of sensible sustenance. It should be the cheapest thing imaginable. The efficient market hypothesis is false ## Friday, May 23, 2025 ### [Reply to @emollick, 03:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925755164729680373) · 39 likes > **Ethan Mollick (@emollick):** Huh. Looks like Plato was right. > > A new paper shows all language models converge on the same "universal geometry" of meaning. Researchers can translate between ANY model's embeddings without seeing the original text. > > Implications for philosophy and vector databases alike. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrmecCEWoAAUc_x.png) Maybe I’m dumb or don’t get it but I find this very unsurprising ### [Quote tweet, 03:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925758322948395449) · 51 likes We must change nature until all the animals are spronking together joyfully > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Tweet, 03:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925759667520536637) · 24 likes I regret to report that sometimes sending an email just works ### [Quote tweet, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925770823178039612) · 8 likes Soliciting takes on Eleos donations Do people think it beats Arthropoda + Lightcone + LTFF > **Quoting Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** If you want to donate to protect possible AI welfare, Eleos is my recommendation. ### [Thread, continued, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925770825329729646) · 2 likes Not because I have much money to donate (sad) but bc I have been known to make this a hobbyhorse and some of my friends are rich ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925773634548711730) · 2 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** If you want to donate to x-risk prevention, @pauseaius is my recommendation! Yeah fair enough, tbc I sorta have priors against this being the best thing but I’m definitely not certain and it’s more plausible than a lot of other stuff people donate to ### [Tweet, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1925777294934618170) · 53 likes Someone should figure out whether computer stuff can be sentient ### [Reply to @really_eli, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1926054799729963491) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @really_eli is no longer available.)_ Sad! ### [Reply to @bellaforristal, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1926054871364472962) · 3 likes > **Bella Forristal 🔸 (@bellaforristal):** I appreciate the pedantry, but I'm afraid I have to dispute the claim: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Grpfr5oXUAA-qG8.jpg) Yes, I’m calling it spronking!! ## Saturday, May 24, 2025 ### [Tweet, 02:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1926100893792870709) · 8 likes New pig race just dropped Thanks to @NoahTopper for the tip https://youtu.be/8jLNNMFur5A?si=VslvkA8FZ7XdxYAh ### [Reply to @MarmotRespecter, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1926397836381290809) · 3 likes > **marmot (@MarmotRespecter):** can't believe this worked > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrvHzphW8AA4D1N.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrvHzzwXsAEk91Z.jpg) > (quoting @MarmotRespecter: if you: 1) live somewhere in this picture 2) don't go to an electric guitar church 3) are shaped like a mom from a Pixar movie my DMs are open) Based ### [Reply to @zeta_globin, 22:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1926399824494051757) · 2 likes > **zeta (@zeta_globin):** did you know he primarily did it for a hot girl > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrvxQ1UXoAAg-G0.jpg) Many such cases ## Sunday, May 25, 2025 ### [Reply to @ArthurMacwaters, 02:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1926470366337147282) · 2 likes > **Arthur MacWaters (@ArthurMacwaters):** The US dominates so hard that even Saudi aramco was founded in SF > > Absolute dominance 🇺🇸 > > (quoting @ArthurMacwaters: 10/10 of the largest companies in the world were founded in the US) What ### [Reply to @LordDreadwar, 03:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1926474627867394275) · 2 likes > **Darth Dreadwar 🔺 (@LordDreadwar):** Yes. Sorry bro ur insane ### [Tweet, 15:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1926663137840840871) · 15 likes TIL “duck” (🦆) and “duck” (bend) are closely etymologically related ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Grzh6VVXAAAVi4C.jpg) ### [Reply to @profeshkitten, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1926664718640443425) · 3 likes > **✴︎ kitt ✴︎ (@profeshkitten):** meet me at the anti-pigeon pigeon-appreciation sculpture > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrwIwJzWoAAH08j.jpg) This is evil ### [Reply to @manic_pixie_agi, 20:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1926744565437862358) · 5 likes > **Corinne (🏠 in NYC) (@manic_pixie_agi):** finally got around to listening to this and it is indeed self recommending > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: New pigeon hour with @JesseTayRiver dropped a few days ago! We discuss the HVAC industry, indoor air quality, what it’s like being so cool (sorta) and why Jesse isn’t richer Links below!) Omg yay ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 21:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1926752020410605595) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** The podcast that @AaronBergman18 did with me has taken the world by storm > > (quoting @manic_pixie_agi: finally got around to listening to this and it is indeed self recommending) Truly ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 21:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1926752332542349376) · 10 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** My daughter is making a recipe that uses the outside of 37 Oreos so I may have just eaten the filling from 37 Oreos am I going to die Yes but probably not for quite a while ### [Reply to @ratlimit, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1926757636088668407) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ratlimit is no longer available.)_ Bro just take the elonbux ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 21:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1926758143914049689) · 6 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** No more "likes". No more "retweets". No more "follows". No more "grok". > > There's only one type of "bait" I deal with now. > > Goodbye forever Anon. I've found my calling. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gr0XhgPWcAECUz3.jpg) As long as you put some heroin on the hook and throw them back ♥️ ### [Reply to @AstroRose20, 23:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1926782359216566333) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AstroRose20 is no longer available.)_ Haha what the fuck ### [Reply to @louisvarge, 23:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1926785982214398279) · 5 likes > **Louis Arge (@louisvarge):** i think everyone has unreasonably strong and unfounded priors about consciousness specifically > > common ones implicit in people's thinking: > \- neuron count or intelligence would correlate to level of consciousness > \- self-awareness / recurrent processing is necessary > \- only the human hedonic range is where useful computation can happen > \- consciousness is a software problem, not a hardware problem > > i think there's very limited evidence in general, but imo the tiny weight of evidence we do have tips the scales against all of the above points Yes nobody has a goddamn clue about anything related to consciousness ### [Reply to @Benthamsbulldog, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1926786857121021966) · 2 likes > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** @frances\_\_lorenz @JesseTayRiver thank you She’s flirting ## Monday, May 26, 2025 ### [Reply to @GovAmyKlobuchar, 02:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1926832496718545031) · 49 likes > **will 🌱 (@GovAmyKlobuchar):** Porn is bad for everyone and we should ban it and I have never heard a good argument for it The argument for it is that people enjoy it and it’s fun (I’m being serious - people often forget the most straightforward first order effects of things) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1926868543011713435) · 10 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 @LatinxPutler Reminds me of Scott Alexander’s analysis of decriminalizing marijuana that forgot to take into account the fact that people enjoy using marijuana Many such cases! ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 15:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927019868571725835) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ 😈 ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 15:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927027282905796768) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Ahhh they replaced Frances ### [Reply to @LinkofSunshine, 15:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927031381126705639) · 56 likes > **Basil🧡 (@LinkofSunshine):** Bush being insanely good at one specific issue of global public health was a good bit > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gr3SqiJXMAA_zD4.jpg) Um based ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 16:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927040311475220828) · 8 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** the best defensive is to simply point out that it automatically neutralizes any criticism just by Being What It Is > > \> wireheading would feel bad for X reason! > \> ok, then it's not real wireheading. play that back and forth with yourself until you're convinced Same thing with “lives barely worth living” and repugnant conclusion stuff People are actually imagining lives not worth living. Play the same game ### [Quote tweet, 16:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927040505885397028) · 40 likes Bro > **Quoting Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** The Substack to impact pathway is real > > Congrats @Benthamsbulldog @andresjz_swp > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gr4w9g9X0AIpyiM.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gr4w-AKXMAARtMb.jpg) ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 16:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927041932842217858) · 5 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** @AaronBergman18 @louisvarge tangential but what portion of human lives do you think are actually sort living Oh man big question, idk like 70% in 2025 but gigantic uncertainty ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927047823561736332) · 4 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** i mean, with my current values, i'd kms if i were 99.9999% of the population. but "if i were someone that i'm not" is pretty ill-defined Bold lol, is this just hedonic wellbeing? No way 99.9999% of people are just mostly suffering right? ### [Tweet, 17:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927054730519290317) · 14 likes I’d guess a lot of correct patient intuition about whether therapy is or is not right for them gets laundered by Big Psych as “there’s a direct causal connection between whether you think it will work and whether it actually will” ### [Tweet, 17:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927054733086204364) · 2 likes ignoring the load-bearing other node of like “fundamentally is whatever’s wrong with me the kind of thing that therapy can fix” ### [Thread, continued, 17:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927054736273850865) · 2 likes Like the implicit false claim is “if only you could will that you believed other than you did, then it would work for you” ### [Reply to @RFishBlueFish, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927076454740673023) · 4 likes > **Gil (@RFishBlueFish):** @arthur_wright\_ @AndyMasley Illusionism is the final boss of philosophy: probably right, but extremely fucking weird I think most illusionists don’t really get how weird their thesis is, and if they did the majority would stop being illusionists I’m at 3% illusionism is true ### [Tweet, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927081707754119275) · 114 likes Nobody asked but I’m like 65% on “Anthropic is good actually” ### [Reply to @codytfenwick, 19:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927084655041294828) · 10 likes > **Cody Fenwick (@codytfenwick):** @AaronBergman18 Does this mean there's a 65% chance that it's good for the world on net? Or just 65% chance that the people there are generally well-intentioned? The former ### [Tweet, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927102312423498082) · 16 likes Fun with llama-405b-base So far llama is a hater for \- Hegel \- Machiavelli \- Nick Bostrom \- Sam Harris \- David Chalmers ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gr5xFSaW0AE_4vu.png) ### [Thread, continued, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927102653193912410) · 3 likes Lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gr5xo86XkAAnDSZ.png) ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 21:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927111886996181203) · 10 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** Would you have said the same about OpenAI before the board fired Sam? Immediately before? No Like 5 years ago yeah probably ### [Reply to @toasterlighting, 21:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927121318735937704) · 1 like > **Celene (@toasterlighting):** @AaronBergman18 @arithmoquine @louisvarge Really? I'm persistently suicidal and I'd guess like ~90%, based off the studies in WWOTF I adjust quite a bit from that knowing that people memoryhole their worst experiences but also I wouldn’t be that surprised if the real answer is 90 or even 95% ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927122044161843384) · 7 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** i'm saying if you sum up all the prison-like thingies maybe it makes a substantial number I suspect the main prison-like thingy is just “sick without access to hedonically-responsible health care” So the African with malaria counts but so does the upper middle class US person with chronic pain and nobody willing to write an adequate opioid prescription ### [Quote tweet, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927122619293167947) · 11 likes Want to coin the term “hedonically responsible healthcare” (pending a better term”) It basically means that they care intrinsically a lot abouy suffering and subjective wellbeing > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @ApriiSR @toasterlighting @arithmoquine @louisvarge I suspect the main prison-like thingy is just “sick without access to hedonically-responsible health care” > > So the African with malaria counts but so does the upper middle class US person with chronic pain and nobody willing to write an adequate opioid prescription ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927123437010526311) · 6 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** @AaronBergman18 @toasterlighting @arithmoquine @louisvarge —if my hand were truly forced by conditions comparable to having malaria, i would simply get opioids off the dark web. but i suppose not every upper middle class US person is so enlightened Maybe I’m uniquely incompetent but my sense is that successfully navigating the dark web without direct assistance is like an IQ 110 + substantial effort + substantial tech literacy task Seems quite hard to do especially if you’re debilitated ### [Thread, continued, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927123649456115856) · 5 likes There’s a reason so many people buy God knows what off the street instead of going online. I’m sure many of them have and use Amazon prime - it’s just not nearly as easy! ### [Reply to @reconfigurthing, 22:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927131977162821990) · 3 likes > **Elias Schmied (@reconfigurthing):** I think I'm something like an illusionist🙂what's so weird about it? It’s claiming that I’m mistaken about the most fundamental parts of my own life and experience ### [Reply, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927136386051715379) · 2 likes @JesseTayRiver ### [Quote tweet, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927137526839484554) · 3 likes Federal funding for science is just free lunch for society Who is even asking for cutting hard science funding? Is it just one DOGE staffer who now runs the federal government? > **Quoting sarah (@sarahtonin):** quantum computing. detecting gravitational waves. higgs mechanism. AdS/CFT. discovery of dark energy. precision CMB detection. Bose-Einstein condensates. topological phases of matter. holography. conformal bootstrap. Advancement in Superconductors. quantum error correction. ### [Tweet, 23:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927143433711354125) · 226 likes I’m starting to think multiple $20/month subscriptions don’t all collectively sum to $0 ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 23:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927144837834211530) · 3 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** @AaronBergman18 no you're not telling me this. it can't be true Sorry 😢 ### [Reply to @izzyz, 23:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927146753830039939) · 2 likes > **izzy (@izzyz):** cool! thanks. how do you like the hvac job? that was another option i'm thinking of (Obligatory link) ## Tuesday, May 27, 2025 ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 02:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927185123486679251) · 3 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** @IsaacKing314 @toasterlighting it's not 100% apple juice, it's 100% juice apple juice. the juice part of the apple juice is 100% juice I love it ### [Tweet, 02:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927186037962346842) · 11 likes Found in the Facebook mines (credit to Robin) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gr69fPJWAAA0v6Y.jpg) ### [Reply to @reconfigurthing, 02:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927186703665467874) · 2 likes > **Elias Schmied (@reconfigurthing):** @AaronBergman18 @RFishBlueFish @arthur_wright\_ @AndyMasley Yeah, depending on what you mean I do disagree with this framing. You don't have direct experiential access to something like "This sensation of being is strange and metaphysically special". That goes through your conceptual/intellectual schemas first, which can be confused. But you might also mean something different. I agree, at least I think, although I’d put it in slightly different terms (“direct access to qualia doesn’t imply direct access about it”) That’s why I think p(illusionism)>>0%, maybe 3% as I’ve said elsewhere ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 02:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927194469633249779) · 2 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** In case you don't recognize it, this is a follow-up of the infamous PNAS piece on baby brainwaves. > > The paper in question was rubbish, but it purported to show a move to higher-SES-style brainwaves without any noted behavioral impacts. > > Now we have behavioral measures. Bupkes! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gr6_JOMXwAEFg4x.jpg) > (quoting @captgouda24: A null result for the effects of rather substantial transfers to young children, so far. It is still too young to get fine-grained outcome information, but this isn’t a good sign for transfers helping all that much.) I think I’d bet on there being some very small genuine effect here even if these studies are too underpowered to see anything Like the whole causal pathway is there - chronic cortisol fucks people up, money is a legitimate driver of stress, etc I’m not a genetics disbeliever either - I’m sure that’s the dominant explanatory factor but still ### [Tweet, 02:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927195056835899618) · 8 likes Me monitoring the gossip at EAG London from afar ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gr7FsOzWAAASvyB.jpg) ### [Reply to @reconfigurthing, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927200129947238747) · 2 likes > **Elias Schmied (@reconfigurthing):** Exist how? Like exist in some genuine “approximately how it seems prima facie” sense You can wind up playing endless word games with terms like “exist” and “illusion” My claim is that there’s a 97% chance that genuine basically-what-it-seems-like qualia are a thing ### [Quote tweet, 03:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927201670372487290) · 21 likes Got it prescribed Very cool ~immediate biofeedback ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gr7LtH5X0AAXHPM.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Guanfacine is a super interesting drug > > It’s not merely a non-stimulant ADHD medication but essentially an \*anti\*-stimulant, fundamentally doing the opposite of what CNS stimulants do in many ways ### [Reply to @connerdelights, 03:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927205086985335082) · 3 likes > **Andrew Conner (@connerdelights):** How does it feel, phenomenologically? Not a whole lot to report honestly, to a first approximation it feels like nothing ### [Tweet, 03:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927205693179797961) · 72 likes It’s wild to me that people take drugs/medications without even glancing at the Wikipedia page\* \*in an outpatient setting. If you’re getting emergency surgery I get it ### [Reply to @connerdelights, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927206669479461246) · 3 likes > **Andrew Conner (@connerdelights):** oh weird! is it helping for ADHD? Probably too soon/subtle to tell The first couple days on it I did work substantially more than avg but it regressed to the mean, it’s only been 6 days It’s not as obvious/potent as like first time adderall ### [Tweet, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927206746310808010) · 10 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gr7QUj0XYAEoLHb.jpg) ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 03:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927207106484043812) · 12 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** @AaronBergman18 what if it doesn't have one U have to kidnap a pharmacology phd and ask them ur questions ### [Tweet, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927212258758639809) · 12 likes How much of the LLMs being unable to answer 8.8-8.11 thing is just that they’ve been RLHF’d to be extremely hesitant around the token(s) “69” ### [Thread, continued, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927212455584788760) · 5 likes Like presumably they’ve learned “whenever you think that’s the next token(s), you’re probably wrong” ### [Reply to @_Mira___Mira_, 04:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927221608202022973) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @_Mira___Mira_ is no longer available.)_ @livgorton make it happen ### [Reply to @evapilotno17, 09:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927300068345893303) · 2 likes > **Ą͚͕͖͎͈͟͞n̸̨͕͍̘̬͟͟͝i̡̼̹͔̳͉̫͎͓͟͟ ̷̸͝͝ (@evapilotno17):** omg 😭 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gr8hnl4WUAEHL9O.jpg) Lmao ### [Reply to @yzilber, 09:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927303633642614828) · 4 likes > **Jazi Zilber (@yzilber):** @AaronBergman18 newspapers solved this, but giving you a huge collection of articles for cheap. > > we repeatedly re-invent the wheels. > > reasons are good. but it's still ridiculous It’s mostly AI stuff, not Substack ### [Reply to @chriswaterguy, 10:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927311134182297994) · 2 likes > **Chris Waterguy – neurodivergent coaching (@chriswaterguy):** Is there any vegan protein powder that doesn't have artificial sweeteners and doesn't taste disgusting? > > I'm happy with whey powder but would happily go vegan. I used to get pea/rice mix from TrueNutrition ### [Reply to @psycheureka, 10:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927312352866640301) · 1 like > **Psychiatry Excellence (@psycheureka):** Chronic maternal stress during pregnancy can alter fetal neurodevelopment via a process known as fetal programming. > > It increases the long-term risk of cardiovascular, metabolic, and neuropsychiatric disorders in the child. > (Hales & Barker, 2001) > > Let’s break down the key mechanisms linking maternal stress to altered fetal brain outcomes. 🧵👇 > > [GIF attached](https://x.com/psycheureka/status/1927311547648311495/photo/1) Seems bad ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 11:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927326660560368104) · 4 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** Iirc the reasons given were more fundamental than suggested here > https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/EZZveBtxoZJjSighP/are-far-uvc-interventions-overhyped-founders-pledge @JesseTayRiver ### [Thread, continued, 11:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927327700043137410) · 4 likes We discuss a bit here https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/14-jesse-smith-on-hvac-indoor-air ### [Tweet, 14:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927366216789704874) · 10 likes Wanna be pro Jordan Peterson to be contrarian now ### [Reply to @panickssery, 14:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927373612987679071) · 1 like > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** @NinaPanickssery and I had a baby last Tuesday > > Leo Panickssery Wait what ### [Reply to @panickssery, 14:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927373671468822736) · 1 like > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** @NinaPanickssery and I had a baby last Tuesday > > Leo Panickssery Dude congrats!!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 ### [Reply to @panickssery, 14:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927373852662751451) · 7 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** @NinaPanickssery and I had a baby last Tuesday > > Leo Panickssery Poast baby (if u want) ### [Reply to @livgorton, 14:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927378192949538898) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** i've vibe coded my way to daily arxiv summaries in my inbox. y'all are putting out too many interp papers 😤 i had to innovate. > > (the code is available on my github but it's too shameful to link. maybe i will get claude to improve it a bit soon) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gr5x2UGW8AAy1MG.jpg) Cool ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 15:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927382279279571417) · 9 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** @AaronBergman18 Super curious to hear you expand on this Oh man, it’s really a lot of vague impressions and strands coming together But basically in a ruthlessly consequentialist sense it seems like (1) having a relatively responsible player in the mix is good for competition dynamics and (2) perhaps more importantly, they’re literally just building more aligned models??? Like it’s not all that hazy anymore, I really would just want opus-6 in control of important systems and such if the alternative is o6 or Gemini 6 ### [Tweet, 15:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927383369219822042) · 6 likes How do I become an Etsy witch ### [Tweet, 15:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927391634053878097) · 10 likes Lots of reasonable object level arguments around language and gender norms and such but the dominant consideration should generally be whether your proposed set of norms is going to help Democrats win the next election ### [Thread, continued, 15:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927391636616568869) · 6 likes Tbc I kinda hate this style of reasoning I just think it might be true in many cases ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 16:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927403860353532378) · 2 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** I thought we were \*against\* a world where people have to hide their true beliefs in order to not get fired > > (quoting @ReubenR80027912: Broadly: You should not listen to any poster w/o an actual job Hanania, RFH, Aella, self employed bloggers…all are exempt from the \*moderating influence of needing to get along with their boss & colleagues\* Free from basic guardrails of society, their views become unhinged) Lol her post but the exact opposite ### [Reply to @IterIntellectus, 17:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927418884702835091) · 17 likes > **vittorio (@IterIntellectus):** not enough What the fuck ### [Reply to @RatOrthodox, 17:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927418907473727827) · 4 likes > **Brangus🔍⏹️ (@RatOrthodox):** Lol I was bullied pretty brutally. Hope that helps you get off or whatever. 😢 ### [Reply to @panickssery, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927422276749636005) · 4 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gr-S6koW4AAWCfA.jpg) lookin fresh ### [Reply, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927429907858288694) · 2 likes Oh yes I love that site lmao ### [Thread, continued, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927430010815865206) · 2 likes I think I have them like a $5 donation ### [Reply to @sixers2772, 18:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927432227219972597) · 1 like > **Sixers (@sixers2772):** What your body tells you in the summer: time to cut down on fat and increase the carbohydrate > > What my body tells me in the summer: I would like another bowl of the same thing you ate for the past 200 meals Wait same lol ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927446043240673424) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I think there's a certain type of person that seems to value being inflammatory or annoying as more important than accurate communication, or even impactful outcomes > > We should greatly discourage this behavior when we see it Noooooooo ### [Reply to @EffectvAltruism, 20:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927458468249698558) · 3 likes > **Effective Altruism (@EffectvAltruism):** Now live: a completely revamped http://effectivealtruism.org! 💡 > > Effective altruism asks a simple question: how can we do the most good with our time, money, and resources? Our new site demonstrates how this philosophy translates into real action across fields like global health, animal welfare, and existential risk. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gr-UX6hXQAAq8xe.jpg) Oh boy ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 20:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927461695233945621) · 2 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** "I'm not fat, I just have a lot of muscle. BMI doesn't work for me." > > How often is this true? How often does a high BMI suggest healthy, muscular people are fat? > > Rarely. > > Obesity based on direct measurement of body fat agrees with the BMI-based obesity label in ~98% of cases! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gr7WevoXIAApKBK.png) 2% isn’t \*that\* rare ### [Tweet, 22:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927494373052133827) · 12 likes No data is safe from my data scraping ability You can’t run bc you’re usually an element of a web page, but you can hide, just hopefully not for very long ### [Thread, continued, 22:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927494375518482911) · 6 likes File type conversions like you’ve never seen. We’re parsing the unreadable characters of .webarchive We’re going video->images->pdf->txt->csv ### [Thread, continued, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927494764926009531) · 8 likes ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927498906981831059) · 4 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** I want to defend those who have no one willing to defend them! 🫡 ## Wednesday, May 28, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927523084421968166) · 857 likes Not commenting on the context for this screenshot but it’s baffling to me that (ostensible) adults aren’t ashamed to say things like this ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gr_wB46XIAEcNyC.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 00:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927523087760662750) · 108 likes Some people try really hard to cultivate a good image (me, most people in my experience, SBF) but some people will just basically tell you that they suck ### [Reply to @TylerAlterman, 00:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927524832888926605) · 4 likes > **Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply (@TylerAlterman):** Can someone explain to me like I’m an idiot why so many people are upset over this in the fairly specific way they are? > > (quoting @RatOrthodox: As you all know I was the 100th person to have recreational sex with @Aella_Girl, so last night I forced her to tattoo a 100 on me. She has never tattooed before. I am v happy with the result.) No ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 00:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927525511909327057) · 180 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** @AaronBergman18 yeah. and vittorio seemed perfectly normal irl! he wouldn't say these things to someone's face, i wish he had that decency here Wow unironically super interesting Maybe I should refrain from generalizing but otoh I kinda feel like how you act when it’s easiest to be cruel is closest to your “true” character ### [Tweet, 03:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927561680546115907) · 10 likes Google is ~definitely taking taking a loss on this Is this legal? (I think I’ve made this tweet before but still) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsATIgkW0AAp_pv.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927561683850916032) · 5 likes Its prices about half that of Haiku-3.5 and, more tellingly, the rate limits make it clear that they really don’t want you using the model that much ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 03:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927562791990227070) · 1 like > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** I doubt they're losing money. It costs more than, say, Llama 70B > > https://artificialanalysis.ai/models/llama-3-1-instruct-70b/providers If they were making money they wouldn’t make it so hard/slow to buy their product ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927607315621982422) · 13 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** I want to make it clear that I am not attracted to any animal besides humans! And maybe sufficiently humanoid aliens. Never stop posting bro (unironically) ### [Reply to @banterrealism, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927607721798345072) · 2 likes > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** Propaganda I’m not falling for: > > \- leftist men are more sinister than rw men > > \- all SWs are completely immune from criticism > > \- misandry poses a threat worth worrying about > > \- new developer builds won’t be in the red forever going forward “Worth worrying about” idk, worrying per se never really helps, but I think casual misandry among the western elite in fact cashes out as men having worse lives (mechanism involving the inhibition of a benevolent legitimate men’s issues/concerns movement) ### [Quote tweet, 06:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927609572706947273) · 2 likes Hmm > **Quoting Jesse Mu (@jayelmnop):** I recently moved to the Code RL team at Anthropic, and it’s been a wild and insanely fun ride. Join us! > > We are singularly focused on solving SWE. No 3000 elo leetcode, competition math, or smart devices. We want Claude n to build Claude n+1, so we can go home and knit sweaters. ### [Reply to @adastroworld, 08:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927636379741167916) · 2 likes > **adas🧦🌹 (@adastroworld):** So-called “male loneliness crisis” yet you haven’t posted a picture of your hand ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsBXEIJXkAIxZQG.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsBXEIJXEAA5PKO.jpg) ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 10:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927670669833121846) · 2 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** @CrispyWicks it's a compulsion i can't help who i am Based ### [Quote tweet, 13:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927723219059933217) · 14 likes I will also do this > **Quoting derek guy (@dieworkwear):** I commonly do work in exchange for donations to a charity. Currently, my going rate is $10 to an animal charity if you want me to answer a style-related question. However, if you donate $50M to a many charities, I will help you find a pair of pants and even a pair of shoes. ### [Reply to @slimepriestess, 13:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927725865409913172) · 3 likes > **Ra (@slimepriestess):** @AaronBergman18 if someone donated $50M to charities i actually liked i'd help them design a whole wardrobe if they wanted I will do this for the low price of $49M ### [Tweet, 17:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927786729727217901) · 23 likes Banned from Google Cloud :( ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsDfud8WcAAUIX3.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 17:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927786732830810250) · 3 likes plz fix thx ### [Reply to @thoth_iv, 18:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927789743279845797) · 15 likes > **Thŏth (@thoth_iv):** @AaronBergman18 Do you know why? Making infinity google accounts + cloud projects with a web of tied-together backup emails and phone numbers to get around YouTube api rate limits lol ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 18:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927789893117214771) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 You know exactly why we did it and you’re lucky we don’t take your gmail as well :( ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927790002756296986) · 8 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 28, 2025:** Making infinity google accounts + cloud projects with a web of tied-together backup emails and phone numbers to get around YouTube api rate limits lol Pretty mundane “abuse” They should just charge for the api! ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927836136522576052) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Unfortunately you were not wrongly banned 😢 ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 21:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927836746051461365) · 3 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** what did he do?? Abolish the cloud police ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927836816922628354) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** \#JusticeForAaron Thank you ✊ ## Thursday, May 29, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 01:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927896443936756096) · 27 likes This is number 585893300128569 on the list of world’s most important issues but my brain treats “buying a house” as genuinely outlandish > **Quoting Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** oof > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsFADCaWMAAWPBQ.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927896446826643787) · 13 likes Not being able to buy a single family house within a short commute of like the 5 most expensive + desirable cities on earth is really the “upper middle class ivy reject has to go to merely very good college instead” of housing issues but like whatever it’s still suboptimal ### [Reply to @zeta_globin, 02:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927908300378517875) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @zeta_globin is no longer available.)_ Ya fr I could not afford that shit rn ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 02:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927910206417031620) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @manic_pixie_agi @AaronBergman18 American suburbs are the greatest! It’s only a suburb if it’s within a 25 minute drive of DC NYC SF or Boston else it’s a sparkling exurb^2 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 03:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927929911064293449) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Any followers good at designing business cards? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsFiCM8XsAADAN4.jpg) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 03:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927930823023476970) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 @MariGO2thepolls Wtf > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsFisj1WgAAeMmI.jpg) Æňðÿ ### [Tweet, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927967452865904690) · 3 likes So I guess there are just two totally different models for small purchase consumer financing (I’m lumping together burrito and MacBook here): 1\) ~predatory interest rates 2\) below-market interest rates to facilitate price discrimination ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsGELV5WQAA9Bgn.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927967461812404671) · 1 like I guess people with lots of money just don’t bother with even free-lunch financing for some reason (behavioral econ stuff?) Please note that this screenshot is entirely HYPOTHETICAL and I DO NOT NEED a new MacBook (😢) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsGEL_lWcAAlNt8.jpg) ### [Reply to @inerati, 06:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1927980718828716066) · 1 like > **liz (@inerati):** i have always heard this but it only ever kinda made sense. like an extra fee? makes sense to cover the risk. but just not selling? wtf I rented at 23 once just had to pay a premium ### [Quote tweet, 14:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928093070693749225) · 12 likes Not sure I’ve seen 4 different proper nouns I am totally unfamiliar with alongside “$X Billion” recently ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsH2bXnWkAAX5Ka.jpg) > **Quoting Puck (@PuckNews):** NEW: Rhode, the beauty brand founded by Hailey Bieber, is getting acquired by e.l.f. Cosmetics in a $1 billion deal, the companies plan to announce later today. > > @rachelstrugatz has exclusive details, link in thread 👇 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsD4xORWIAEZOcI.jpg) ### [Tweet, 14:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928095683900301507) · 5 likes Random thought: in areas with supply restrictions and plausibly fat tailed skill distributions—and I’m thinking about doctors and medicine—nativist “Americans first” policies are especially destructive… ### [Thread, continued, 14:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928095686584565931) · 2 likes If there are a limited number of doctors, it’s really important that the best Indian immigrants or whomever \*do\* displace their next-best American alternatives ### [Reply to @NTFabiano, 14:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928097190125211677) · 4 likes > **Nicholas Fabiano, MD (@NTFabiano):** We should treat depression as a network of interconnected symptoms rather than a diagnostic label I mean it’s pretty useful to have a term and label for that network of correlations ### [Quote tweet, 18:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928154589750042921) · 19 likes You might not like it, but this is what peak philosophy looks like > **Quoting Alex Strasser (@AStrasser116):** Oh wow, I did not expect this to be such a vigorous debate > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsIt0DUXUAAhrYA.jpg) ### [Reply, 22:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928221933964816491) · 1 like Have you tried running your stuff through a base model to see what comes next? ## Friday, May 30, 2025 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 00:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928246334798057801) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 Omg a duck ### [Reply to @bayeslord, 00:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928246449235509718) · 2 likes > **bayes (@bayeslord):** seriously what the fuck happened in 1971 Idk ### [Tweet, 00:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928253287318331562) · 35 likes Trying my best to convince my very normie but very talented (afaict) and hardworking soon-to-be-retired lawyer father to do something weird and unconventional Poast tips ### [Thread, continued, 00:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928253289893634513) · 9 likes In all seriousness feel free to pitch me on things to pitch him 30 years of consumer protection law for the federal government ### [Reply to @parafactual, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928254008835125304) · 3 likes > **You (@parafactual):** @AaronBergman18 this is very vague tell us more about your father I feel kinda funny bc I’m not certain how much he’s comfortable with me just detailing his life story on twitter Sorry, I should check with him and confirm ### [Tweet, 05:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928319447640481885) · 36 likes Vibecoding is great because you can be extremely extra at basically no cost ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsLDzEdWsAA5iMQ.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928319448974229827) · 9 likes I don't know how to do any of this, but Claude does! ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 13:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928450771114213855) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** lol I was about to do this 🦆 ### [Tweet, 14:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928455073568317920) · 13 likes Why is JD Vance like 70% evil ### [Reply to @imhinesmi, 14:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928455570169708883) · 3 likes > **ian hines (@imhinesmi):** @AaronBergman18 if he were less evil, would you know who he is? Yeah I think so? ### [Quote tweet, 15:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928473020676354550) · 5 likes It's never woke or safety coded but Gemini often has the dumbest (quasi-) refusals This isn't the only example, I just don't feel like digging the others up ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsNPqLrW4AAr5oN.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Trying my best to convince my very normie but very talented (afaict) and hardworking soon-to-be-retired lawyer father to do something weird and unconventional > > Poast tips ### [Thread, continued, 15:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928473022727434528) · 3 likes Hard to get a dumber-to-refuse prompt lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsNP4yaWgAAz7B6.jpg) ### [Tweet, 15:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928473776460607694) · 2 likes Wow, psyched to see offsetting getting its due among the masses! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsNQj2AXgAA2J2e.png) ### [Reply to @Benthamsbulldog, 15:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928474682426040415) · 20 likes > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsNRQ27WMAEjG7X.jpg) Wonderful subtitle ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 15:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928474843852210226) · 4 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** Anyway, no more controversial tweets from now on. Just economics. I have some stuff I need to read on characterizing welfare impacts in distorted economies, y’all are gonna learn so much about Baqaee-Farhi Noooooo ### [Tweet, 17:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928499385312100675) · 47 likes IRL personal experience has me updating against the signaling theory of college Like actually yeah if you’re doing something marketing related it would be good to know something about marketing and probably like a marketing minor is good for that ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 18:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928512082099462396) · 13 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** @AaronBergman18 i think it's a tempting theory when you're the kind of person who could have learned all the things necessary for your job much much faster elsewise, but in fact that isn't mostly what people would do I still think it’s more than 50% of the story, just maybe not 90% ### [Tweet, 18:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928518536068006272) · 5 likes I’m pretty surprised we haven’t seen more visceral impacts of vibecoding yet Maybe the startup product launch timelines are just a bit too long, could be coming soon ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 18:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928521799009993079) · 7 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** All criticisms of liberalism saying it's atomizing and alienates people from community always leave me asking "Yes but what is the criticism?" We should want people to be radically free to flee and join communities as they want. I mean I’m very on board with liberalism but it’s not a truly fundamental value The not-impossible critique is just that individual radical freedom decreases hedonic wellbeing at large. There’s no logical reason this can’t be the case ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928522993208062011) · 73 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** Does testosterone make people have more masculine economic preferences? > > Does it make people act more like Republicans? > > We now have a large, pre-registered double-blind randomized controlled study that provides an answer🧵 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsN2Pw4a8AAPH7x.jpg) This is interesting but we should have a decently strong bias towards “everything is mediated by (epigenetic?) changes that take at least 2 weeks and usually 4” \*Acute\* testosterone administration does (little-nothing for muscle mass and strength)! ## Saturday, May 31, 2025 ### [Tweet, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928643099993002322) · 3 likes Just now, I assumed the explanation to smth was "Opus is uniquely horny for Ezra Klein" but actually there was an arcane string matching algorithmic change introduced by python-Levenshtein v0.22 Very cool that these two hypotheses can explain the same thing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsPoD_HWkAAwU5T.jpg) ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 03:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928648834680316117) · 2 likes > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** Yes. You have to be careful with the labeling because the terms have no legally binding definition, but the small number of genuinely "pasture raised" (Vital Farms, iirc) eggs are significantly higher welfare. Do you have a take on whether eg Vital is actually morally fine/even positive? ### [Reply to @livgorton, 05:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928680207843561626) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** the feminine urge to get a lob (long bob) whenever any emotional turmoil arises Bonk don’t be emotionally turmoiled ### [Quote tweet, 09:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928752800483221915) · 14 likes Comic book villain-ass politics > **Quoting Katie Bergh (@Katie_Bergh):** Parents of young kids in the “berry budget” age range, weigh in: how long would $10 for fruits and vegetables last you? > > $10 is the \*monthly\* amount the Trump administration just proposed for toddlers & preschoolers on WIC—a 62% cut. ### [Reply to @EAheadlines, 10:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928755176975868345) · 3 likes > **EA Lifestyles (@EAheadlines):** I have fed my toddler $10 of fruit in one meal before 😬 Based and berry-pilled ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 15:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928841707442819482) · 27 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** Bro, all metrics of growth completely crashed after FTX, media coverage drastically shifted, a huge number of top talent left the community, and we saw huge 1+ point shifts on 10 point satisfaction scales and related metrics with EA (showing up as a 4+ SD event on basically all measurements). > > There is probably not a single graph of a popular metric associated with the EA community where you can’t clearly see the effects of FTX. This includes anything you can think of that’s to do with reputation. > > If you think it had minor effects, there has never been and will never be anything that could possibly have anything but “minor” effects. Ok u fought me and won ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 16:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928844053589758413) · 3 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18 this is so cool > > what does it do? Tree search of Substacks - who recommends who! ### [Reply to @eshear, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928844648090370393) · 3 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** Doing Bayesian updates in your head is unrelated to rationality in the same way that doing Newton’s laws of motion in your head is unrelated to throwing and catching a ball. 💯 ### [Quote tweet, 17:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928865208828571891) · 2 likes This but for economics I’ve never really understood why test-train split is standard practice in ML but not econ Given the empirical success of ML, social science should consider what it can adopt! > **Quoting Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** @lu_sichu wild that straight up not having a test-train split is the most common issue here ### [Tweet, 20:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928911359795777960) · 14 likes Computers are so interesting I wish they had better vibes/aesthetics ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928913424093794558) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Did you find it harder to share the childcare load with others when exclusively breastfeeding? And for you personally which did you feel like was better for your sanity? Smol Matt incoming?? 👀 ### [Reply to @owldudeok, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928913575956931005) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @owldudeok is no longer available.)_ Lol it’s totally unfair ur right im just gesturing at a vibe I personally sense ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928914518999994876) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Lmao I’m not even married yet Cheems mindset ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 23:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1928949650871992635) · 2 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** computers have great aesthetics. i like computers just because of their aesthetics > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsTja-cXYAEf6hY.jpg) I was thinking of more like CS as an intellectual thing but yes this looks cool --- End of May 2025. Previous month: [April 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-04). Next month: [June 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-06). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, June 2025 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in June 2025 and has not deleted: 802 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [May 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-05). Next month: [July 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-07). ## Sunday, June 1, 2025 ### [Reply to @paularambles, 05:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929045569399345553) · 7 likes > **“paula” (@paularambles):** people here are simply not okay > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsUkeqGaMAEd13x.jpg) Here’s the link https://partiful.com/e/JVTpIurbhmVLgvwXuo8d ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 05:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929045642900340926) · 4 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Meeting the famous @captgouda24 (and also @EneaszWrites!) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsVStdpboAAVAew.jpg) Omg hello all! ### [Quote tweet, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929047989122744592) · 97 likes I am once again tapping this sign for people of the female persuasion (the takeaway is that even if you have a preference for more height all else equal, you might do better by sorting for \*shorter\* men if your height preference is less strong than avg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsVa7BFW8AA8k4p.jpg) > **Quoting AF Post (@AFpost):** Tinder is implementing a height filter for users. > > The change will allow women to generally filter out men below their preferred height. > > Follow: @AFpost > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsODMpyaMAM08YG.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsODMpwbUAAMvTV.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929047992176161248) · 21 likes This is a great example of motivated reasoning on my part happening to give the right answer ### [Tweet, 06:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929058897102266874) · 6 likes Friend asked for help with R I was excited and then disappointed ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsVk2BuW8AA8YG6.jpg) ### [Reply to @TheWarMonitor, 06:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929062656326893587) · 2 likes > **WarMonitor (@TheWarMonitor):** Palantir’s platform is able to merge vast datasets. Bank accounts, medical records, driving record, debt, disability status, political affiliation, credit card expenditures, purchases, tax filings, travel records, phone records, creating detailed profiles on every American. > > (quoting @HighImpactFlix: This is serious. Trump's partnership with Palantir Technologies aims to implement a March 2025 executive order mandating federal agencies to share data - YOUR data. This initiative has one goal: centralize ALL government data, leveraging Palantir’s Foundry platform. Palantir’s…) As a guy idk sounds sus but as a data nerd this is kinda cool I want the forbidden csv ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929220128618557570) · 5 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsX3Br6XoAAMl5K.png) Extremely based ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 17:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929223963961417733) · 4 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** People look at me like I'm a little crazy when I say the most common criticism of EA I bump into on the ground is people saying it's a stealth way of distracting people from a socialist revolution. Wild ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 17:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929225829017321883) · 6 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** I married a man shorter than me and I recommend it! Based ### [Quote tweet, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929234011378827282) · 10 likes Very hesitant to celebrate death but this is pretty crazy + badass > **Quoting Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv):** This will be in textbooks. > Ukraine secretly delivered FPV drones and wooden mobile cabins into Russia. The drones were hidden under the roofs of the cabins, which were later mounted on trucks. > > At the signal, the roofs opened remotely. Dozens of drones launched directly from the trucks, striking strategic bomber aircraft. > > And — Russia can’t produce these bombers anymore. The loss is massive. > Nothing like this has ever been done before. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsXBTJoWgAA-uGY.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsXBTJqX0AApREy.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsXBTJnWwAAsn4y.jpg) > [video attached](https://x.com/maria_avdv/status/1929160619741118671/video/1) ### [Quote tweet, 18:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929249773720154243) · 51 likes I did a tree search of most\* of the Substack recommendation space - i.e. who is recommending who on Substack, seeded with Astral Codex Ten The result is ~650k recommendations mentioning ~130k blogs, a substantial chunk of Substack Data, go nuts! https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jjt5RTMFmtCzn_YG1VJ084uoySIveKYa?usp=sharing > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Vibecoding is great because you can be extremely extra at basically no cost > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsLDzEdWsAA5iMQ.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929249775502672369) · 8 likes \* A vibe-coding introduced "bug" (ie me fucking up by not checking this) is that it only scraped the first 50 recommendations by any one blog, so any recommendations 51+ got lost (There is some virtue here, diminishing fake signal of any hyper-recommenders) ### [Thread, continued, 18:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929249777000001958) · 3 likes Tragically I had pretty good reason to do this but not to spend the extra idk 5 hours vibecoding a really cool interactive vizualization so maybe someone else wants to do that for fun (Way too much data for naive python-to-html-render that claude spits out) ### [Thread, continued, 18:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929249778400985305) · 3 likes I didn't count exactly but this took a total of at least a day I think using 100 parallel proxies, so it would take a couple months just running on a single machine/IP ### [Thread, continued, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929250204986802239) · 4 likes ### [Reply to @spqr_sulla, 18:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929250847227084990) · 204 likes > **Sulla (@spqr_sulla):** Interesting how we went from water fountains primarily for direct drinking to wattle bottle refilling stations. Why did people start carrying water bottles around everywhere ? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsWevzMW8AEzv8w.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsWevzRWgAEDDQl.jpg) I mean maybe but the existence of water filling function doesn't mean it's being used more than the fountain Kinda seems like a "tech just gets a bit better and we get a bit richer over time" thing ### [Tweet, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929272505237197221) · 8 likes Not insightful but it’s pretty depressing to see the US have incredible levers I so many important domains and the moral and strategic ability to pull them and then we either don’t touch them or push the levers the wrong way ### [Thread, continued, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929272507028078917) · 6 likes \- everyone wants to live here, high skilled and low skilled. We don’t let them \- everyone wants to study here, same deal \- Biden could and should have spent his progressive points and political capital pressuring Bibi over Gaza \- AI export controls Ahhhhhhhh ### [Thread, continued, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929274802721746996) · 7 likes I know political constraints are “real” in some sense but it’s very frustrating that I (perhaps very naively) think I see how the world could just be way better with relatively few changes: 1\) braindrain China + export controls = minimal AI competition 2\) strong federal incentives for very narrow “transformative” AI in a few domains: defensive tech, cultured meat, and if possible both human (ie biomedicine) and animal welfare biology 3\) lots of incentive and smart regulation for AI safety, probably something like SB-1047 at the federal level Not a fixed world! This still leaves much Yudkowskian “alignment is hard” x-risk as well as the AI sentience shitshow, but even those are probably mitigated! ### [Quote tweet, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929275612830556251) · 4 likes Does anyone have a good explanation for why Biden was willing to play progressive in a bunch of domains but not Israel > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** \- everyone wants to live here, high skilled and low skilled. We don’t let them > \- everyone wants to study here, same deal > \- Biden could and should have spent his progressive points and political capital pressuring Bibi over Gaza > \- AI export controls > > Ahhhhhhhh ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 20:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929277383154024605) · 2 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** Personal conviction? > > My impression of Biden is that he was (relatively) attentive to foreign policy and had strong views on Israel before becoming president Yeah makes sense ### [Reply to @keyofgeo, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929294265311457501) · 4 likes > **Veles (@keyofgeo):** my office still has their COVID era “do not drink directly from this fountain, use it to fill a water bottle” signs Lol ### [Tweet, 21:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929294427803025606) · 114 likes I am a machine that turns rice cakes into telling former hinge dates who friendzoned me that they should apply for 80k coaching and seriously consider trying to make a billion dollars ### [Reply to @Benthamsbulldog, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929296977910489160) · 6 likes > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** I have an article about why people should try to be a billionaire coming out soon! Based ### [Thread, continued, 22:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929298460563374102) · 3 likes Check ur DMs ### [Tweet, 23:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929314867862802782) · 5 likes Hate to give them free advertising but this might be the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen Literally trying to time GI motility + digestion down to the minute (the delay mechanism is the capsule lmao) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsZNpYEX0AEj_vz.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 23:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929314871281061906) · 3 likes Too early and it wakes you up artificially, to late and their whole claim is that this avoids the 20 min absorption period (how tragic) from taking a normal caffeine pill on waking ## Monday, June 2, 2025 ### [Reply to @livgorton, 00:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929334551764984108) · 1 like > **Liv (@livgorton):** i recommend literally not looking at height on apps 👀 many amazing short kings out there. often the preference probably actually isn't that rigid if you met someone IRL and witnessed them as a complete person so idk seems sort of arbitrary based ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 00:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929335343704162596) · 11 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** On "EAs don't value great art" I think there's something beautiful and emotionally mature about the idea of the world temporarily pausing on lots of entertainment and art and spending a ton of resources on making sure no one's dying in pointless horrific easily preventable ways. Or just like argue for it on the merits. Maybe the art is worth people dying of malaria, but you should actually try to make that claim! ### [Tweet, 03:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929376099554746437) · 9 likes The autistic urge to process commoncrawl urself ### [Thread, continued, 03:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929376100716622160) · 5 likes Turns out its only like 25TB uncompressed That's a lot but not "we need bespoke infrastructure" a lot (though tragically I'd have to wrangle AWS) ### [Reply to @typeclonghouse, 05:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929414735721578747) · 3 likes > **technology sista (aspiring) (@typeclonghouse):** the thing is, when people talk about "merit based systems" merit just means highest IQ > > is just IQ in and of itself meritorious? Not intrinsically, but it does correlate a lot with important stuff ### [Quote tweet, 06:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929420421046108544) · 7 likes I think another intuition people are missing is how bad the space of possible requests/misuse can get Pharma trial fraud is child’s play in the grand scheme of things and the kind of thing you might intuitively find worth rarely accepting in exchange for minimal false positives > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Rift on "Snitching LLMs" between people who think LLMs are mildly intelligent agents & should be treated like other agents-for-hire (definitely snitch on illegal behavior) vs people who think they're error-prone stochastic parrots (don't want them randomly contacting authorities) ### [Thread, continued, 06:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929420423315206285) · 3 likes I mean a possible answer here is “yes they should snitch on some things but pharma trial fraud isn’t bad enough” - like I actually think that case isn’t as insane as it sounds prima facie ### [Thread, continued, 06:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929420425454354892) · 4 likes But the principle “no AI snitching \*by design\* \*at all\*” sounds like 100x crazier to me than “pharma trial fraud doesn’t cross the line” (which I don’t endorse tbc - I think it does cross the line) Don’t let the latter trick you into accepting the former ### [Reply to @sixers2772, 06:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929421987824148666) · 2 likes > **Sixers (@sixers2772):** @AaronBergman18 Do you only date EAs or are you doing this with random people?? Twice at least strongly EA adjacent but also there’s quite a bit of selection for the kind of person who swipes right on me even if they’re note familiar with EA ### [Quote tweet, 06:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929423488261185931) · 40 likes Good q. I hereby tell everyone that if you’re following me, and quite plausibly if you’re not, you should apply for 80k coaching and seriously consider trying to make a billion dollars (to give away) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsawcAbWcAAXPRx.jpg) > **Quoting imit (@imitationlearn):** @AaronBergman18 why do u tell that group of ppl in particular? ### [Thread, continued, 06:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929423492404875360) · 5 likes Apply here at the link And if you’re interested in trying to make a billion dollars, DM me (I don’t have anything big up my sleeve and don’t have any solid plan with what I’m gonna do if people message me tbc lol) https://80000hours.org/speak-with-us/?int_campaign=2021-08__primary-navigation ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 07:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929433105187631272) · 6 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** @AaronBergman18 \*pretending to be an audience plant so i can get away with asking this question even though in fact i am not\* hey aaron, what if i'm worried the 80k coaching people will judge me for being lame and incompetent I mean my answer was "idk they might you should do it anyway" but may I also tag whoever can actually answer? ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 07:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929434453220212973) · 3 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** @AaronBergman18 yes of course @matt_beard\_ @sudan_shoe (are the ppl with twitters on https://80000hours.org/about/meet-the-team/) ### [Reply to @leavingvalhalla, 09:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929465338497749486) · 2 likes > **Heidrun (@leavingvalhalla):** @pavedwalden Idk if you use The Apps but you could always set your height lower than it is. Honestly that's a pretty big flex Fuck it I’m 5’4” now ### [Tweet, 09:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929470636872585435) · 6 likes Idk what I’m talking about but this kinda seems like an explanation for why AI computer use agents aren’t better yet @austinc3301 should tell me why I’m wrong ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsbbUZSWwAAr4DO.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 09:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929470639804428566) · 2 likes Like nobody even bothers trying how what to do in the space of code and computer commands bc it’s too hard, you have to simulate browsers and do screenshots ### [Quote tweet, 17:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929597067317407926) · 35 likes We love a calibrated king > **Quoting DailyReality (@Viralvid_89):** @PicturesFoIder "99 out of 100 times I would lose. > Just a lucky day" - Gukesh after beating World No.1 player Magnus Carlsen! > > This is very genuine. > > [video attached](https://x.com/chess24com/status/1929258551601426697/video/1) ### [Reply to @RosieCampbell, 18:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929601746529071456) · 2 likes > **Rosie Campbell (@RosieCampbell):** What questions would you want a rigorous yet accessible nonfiction book on AI consciousness and welfare to answer? I mean maybe obvious but do we have any good idea how to mitigate or prevent suffering ### [Reply to @RosieCampbell, 18:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929602063958159626) · 4 likes > **Rosie Campbell (@RosieCampbell):** What questions would you want a rigorous yet accessible nonfiction book on AI consciousness and welfare to answer? Best guess P(sentience) Im serious, I think The Precipice would have been a lot worse and less impactful if Ord hadn’t put a clean all things considered best guess number on things ### [Quote tweet, 18:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929602980929515531) · 18 likes Yes correct take please read and internalize > **Quoting Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** One of my most important articles: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GscqW1BXcAAxLfI.jpg) ### [Reply to @rgblong, 18:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929603699313139970) · 3 likes > **Robert Long (@rgblong):** I agree, it’s painful but edifying I am looking forward to this! ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929604415519871102) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 2, 2025:** Yes correct take please read and internalize There can be a sort of narcissism of small differences between people who bite formalized negative utilitarian bullets and those who don’t But in fact, “do you take extreme suffering seriously” seems like the real practical crux ### [Thread, continued, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929604420557296073) · 3 likes Even total utilitarians should hate extreme suffering! ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929604918823845933) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Me and all my homies hate extreme suffering Fr ### [Reply to @adam__isom, 18:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929605640361857496) · 4 likes > **adam ✧ ❥ ~ (@adam__isom):** heard the most pathetic anecdote maybe ever: > > at a rationalist house, not long ago, a bunch of guys game up with a \*list\* of who got to ask out cute new girl first > > and then nobody did Lmao ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 18:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929608434887868726) · 3 likes > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** i'm 30 Happy birthday and RIP! ### [Quote tweet, 18:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929610737149686160) · 25 likes This is some @RethinkPriors models+prepares for FTX collapse level shit > **Quoting felpix (@felpix_):** UIUC securitized Chinese international students in 2017. > > They know ball. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsanmUIWYAAYF_4.jpg) ### [Tweet, 18:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929612098583060693) · 31 likes I have posted this before but I still feel like people are under-appreciating that if you are reasonably intelligent and conscientious enough to follow LLM directions you (“you”) can now ~instantly code at a level that would have made you an A- SWE in the before-times ### [Thread, continued, 18:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929612103440081127) · 4 likes The point is that it’s kinda crazy that cursor is mostly used by people who already kinda knew what they were doing Like great for them, but the benefits are bigger for everyone else ### [Thread, continued, 18:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929612875359805501) · 4 likes I was half decent at R, maybe still am. 4o couldn’t quite reliably do everything I could I’ve basically totally switched to python + cursor since sonnet 3.5, there’s no question that the models are way better than me in achieving arbitrary outcomes ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929613042461089837) · 12 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Nothing feels as good as integrity and doing the right thing. Fentanyl ### [Tweet, 19:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929618231536320723) · 143 likes If hasn’t been an exactly a secret but guess I’ll hard launch that I have some sort of mysterious dysautonomia (maybe also GI related??) and am borderline disabled lol ### [Thread, continued, 19:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929618236217368943) · 34 likes I’m not like totally resigned to permanency by any means but idk man ### [Thread, continued, 19:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929618240969507294) · 35 likes I can work part time and can live independently tbc but like eg traveling for Vibecamp is probably a bad idea ### [Thread, continued, 19:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929618245864018200) · 37 likes Might delete, some friends think this post is a bad idea I think ~all of the actual issue is the fundamentals and making it known among a loose-ish social network is net-good ### [Thread, continued, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929618824011157541) · 40 likes Fuck the FDA ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929620340172607890) · 3 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** @AaronBergman18 :(((( Thanks haha ### [Tweet, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929638002781007964) · 69 likes I think I'm being throttled now ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsdzebzWwAAcZx5.jpg) ### [Reply to @stanfordNYC, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929638603464102327) · 16 likes > **Bernard Stanford ✡︎ (@stanfordNYC):** @AaronBergman18 What's the specific difficulty with travel? I think I would encourage generally trying to push through, to make sure you aren't inadvertently yielding too much ground. I had a medium-impact QOL surgical complication three years ago that still sucks, but isn't as bad as first seemed. Thanks but I've learned from experience that my inclination is often to push too much and I end up regretting it In fact I majorly regressed around New Years 2024 when I went on a family vacation (while running out of a medication) ### [Thread, continued, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929639097741517009) · 7 likes There's nothing metaphysically magical about travel per se, much of the issue for me specifically is the restriction of movement that comes with most forms of transportation (I have a bizarre need for maximum flexibility of posture) + implicit commitments that are hard to get out of + the weirdly specific phenomenon of carrying suitcases up and downstairs (this is very ideosyncratic/particular to me) + generic stress ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929639213076828230) · 4 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 “lol” lol ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929639834970476612) · 8 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 2, 2025:** I think I'm being throttled now Wtf man ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gsd1MOkWwAAdJ9g.png) ### [Reply to @anglerfish01, 20:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929640304887701970) · 2 likes > **angLerfish (@anglerfish01):** @AaronBergman18 Sorry to hear that. Could it be long covid? I get headaches, fatigue, brain fog, and shortness of breath pretty often. I’m young and think I might have it and know another person who thinks they have/had it (they seem a bit better now). I think it's very unlikely for me specifically (given lots of stuff + afaik I've never had covid) but that really sucks and best of luck ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929640857495617856) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 2, 2025:** Wtf man They don't want me to be agentic 😤 ### [Reply to @dioscuri, 21:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929658849805451686) · 14 likes > **Henry Shevlin (@dioscuri):** Really sorry to hear that dude. At the risk of giving unsolicited and unwelcome advice, keep experimenting with lifestyle fixes? I know lots of people who’ve had mysterious and/or idiosyncratic conditions that plagued them for years and then one day they just… figured it out That’s the hope!! I unironically want unsolicited advice as long as ppl don’t freak out if I don’t take it lol There have been quite a number of things I’ve been hopeful about like this, but the base rate on them ultimately looking good 6 months later has gotten low ### [Reply to @ValsTutor, 21:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929658915911881105) · 3 likes > **vals🔸 (@ValsTutor):** @AaronBergman18 Fwiw I believe I'm getting value from knowing this, both because I can express good wishes to you, and because it's just a better model of the world to know this - I could be tempted to think mysterious long term stuff is only for outgroup leftists and it's good to know it's not Lol thank you ### [Reply to @Pandora_Delaney, 22:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929659653711188452) · 9 likes > **Pandora (Dr. Bimbo) (@Pandora_Delaney):** Which metric is the best approximation for status? > > \- LessWrong karma > \- $ donated to high impact charities > \- Harem size > \- Twitter followers > \- Substack subs > \- other? 0.1Ln(1+karma)+0.3donations+0.2ln(1+harem size)+0.2ln(1+Twitter followers)+0.2ln(1+Substack subs) ### [Thread, continued, 22:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929659778294272125) · 3 likes The actual one involves ln(donations) but I think that’s dumb and bad ### [Reply to @dioscuri, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929673028209909880) · 7 likes > **Henry Shevlin (@dioscuri):** fwiw, the most common 'general' fix I've seen for idiosyncratic conditions is short courses of high dose SSRIs. I've seen it work for chronic pain, neurological issues, even GI problems. My theory is they can do simulated annealing for the brain to get it out of bad equilibria. Hmm adding this to the long list of “eh maybe” things to try - thanks! I’m already on 60mg Prozac with no side effects fwiw ### [Reply to @KKumar_ai_plans, 23:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929683083080458640) · 10 likes > **Kabir Kumar⏹️ (@KKumar_ai_plans):** @AaronBergman18 that really sucks, I'm sorry man. I hope to see a lesswrong post someday about how some weird random thing fixed this fully Thank you, I have literally fantasized about this lmao ## Tuesday, June 3, 2025 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 01:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929719169966395889) · 15 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 2, 2025:** Fuck the FDA I’ve gotten a good number of DMs which I am very thankful for - I promise I’m just fucked up and not ignoring you!! ### [Reply to @AmandaAskell, 01:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929719575958245644) · 7 likes > **Amanda Askell (@AmandaAskell):** I got to the bottom of my mystery chronic illness with a seemingly gratuitous medical test that I insisted on getting. If I could go back in time, I'd tell my earlier self to find a sympathetic specialist earlier and to unapologetically get an absurd number of tests done. Thank you, I endorse this!! ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 02:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929720042083832126) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Things are going quite well for me at the moment. Based! ### [Reply to @simoj_, 02:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929720534670917639) · 2 likes > **simoj (@simoj_):** @AaronBergman18 Dang, sorry :( > > More people in that boat than you maybe think. My wife had a mysterious disabling condition for a couple years that she managed to 90% fix. So… hopefully there’s hope Thank you and that’s really awesome ### [Quote tweet, 03:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929742856258048224) · 9 likes If I vibecoded this Substack recommender search engine thing would people actually use it? I didn't even ask for this, I just asked about the PageRank algorithm and Opus spit out an html file lol Vid takes a few seconds, feel free to skip to the end [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1929742545975754752/img/9OWXOLH3fqZwPBBN.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929742856258048224/video/1) (video, plays on X) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I did a tree search of most\* of the Substack recommendation space - i.e. who is recommending who on Substack, seeded with Astral Codex Ten > > The result is ~650k recommendations mentioning ~130k blogs, a substantial chunk of Substack > > Data, go nuts! https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jjt5RTMFmtCzn_YG1VJ084uoySIveKYa?usp=sharing ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 03:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929746435622502651) · 3 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** It helps me, in our troubling times, to deeply connect with how people felt in troubling times in the past. The human spirit has incredible reserves of courage, and we’re here today bc of the faith and steadfastness of our ancestors. Not saying this is normatively bad as a psychological thing, to each their own, but for me the past seems utterly horrifying and I want absolutely nothing to do with it ### [Tweet, 04:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929762262924882129) · 3 likes Since when is this a thing that Opus does in Cursor ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsfkgrPWkAAFN7Z.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 07:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929802848646082691) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 based ### [Quote tweet, 08:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929812399659373047) · 4 likes Who cares vibecoding is fun (link below) [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1929812274014765057/img/EFrXToXb5bVZI4ye.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929812399659373047/video/1) (video, plays on X) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** If I vibecoded this Substack recommender search engine thing would people actually use it? > > I didn't even ask for this, I just asked about the PageRank algorithm and Opus spit out an html file lol > > Vid takes a few seconds, feel free to skip to the end > > [video attached](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929742856258048224/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 08:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929812401232163069) · 2 likes https://bit.ly/substackrec ### [Reply to @adrusi, 08:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929812830313668677) · 5 likes > **autumn (@adrusi):** i got into programming as a kid because there was zero marginal cost in materials or services for writing more code > > for 30 beautiful years, all the professional tools you could need were free > > thats over now I really wish my parents had gotten me a decent laptop as a kid, I never knew what I was missing ### [Reply to @bellaforristal, 08:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929817237650542686) · 2 likes > **Bella Forristal 🔸 (@bellaforristal):** What are your favourite s\*bstacks or other newsletters that talk about AI? I wonder if anyone is looking into this ### [Reply to @ByrneHobart, 08:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929818654410952877) · 2 likes > **Byrne Hobart (@ByrneHobart):** Delighted to discover that BlackRock has a page on their site whose two key takeaways are: > > 1\. You're thinking of Blackstone, and > 2\. Our lawyers refused to let us use the word "Blackstone." > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsejAgKWsAAUkH1.jpg) lmao ### [Reply to @gdelujo, 09:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929835589580325339) · 3 likes > **gdl (@gdelujo):** Incredible ### [Reply to @gdelujo, 09:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929836444077433005) · 3 likes > **gdl (@gdelujo):** So cool! Thank you! ### [Tweet, 10:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929843242318577813) · 7 likes This is more status-tinged/implicitly normative than I endorse and I don’t even know if it’s true but it seems basically plausible ### [Thread, continued, 10:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929843246752022757) · 4 likes The more naturally attuned you are to something the less you need superstimuli (or protosuperstimuli, the 6’4 millionaire) to achieve some necessary action-driving threshold of emotional intensity Not just romantic - this seems basically true across all domains of experience ### [Reply to @Yoshua_Bengio, 12:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1929871966929879397) · 2 likes > **Yoshua Bengio (@Yoshua_Bengio):** Today marks a big milestone for me. I'm launching @LawZero\_, a nonprofit focusing on a new safe-by-design approach to AI that could both accelerate scientific discovery and provide a safeguard against the dangers of agentic AI. > > (quoting @LawZero_: Every frontier AI system should be grounded in a core commitment: to protect human joy and endeavour. Today, we launch @LawZero\_, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing safe-by-design AI. http://lawzero.org) Big if true ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930000788979626123) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gshq5RkWQAIvnE_.jpg) > (quoting @Pandora_Delaney: Which metric is the best approximation for status? - LessWrong karma - $ donated to high impact charities - Harem size - Twitter followers - Substack subs - other?) Lmao ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930004950006018379) · 6 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** Are there any actual arguments against veganism? I’ve never heard a single decent one I mean I think veganism is great but I don’t think it is maximally conducive to health (ex vegan) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsjBQ_ZWgAEJ3wr.jpg) ### [Reply to @tr_babb, 21:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930006875581645078) · 2 likes > **Tim Babb (@tr_babb):** terrifying object: a black disk (a black hole moving at c - ε) Fun ### [Quote tweet, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930009104917131513) · 5 likes Bruh I wanna know what it/they/he thinks about humans and alignment and what it’s like to be an LLM and the nature of the imitation problem in detecting sentience, not this @AnthropicAI 🔫 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsjFC5-W4AAJUce.jpg) > **Quoting Kyle Wiggers (@Kyle_L_Wiggers):** Anthropic’s AI is writing its own blog — with human oversight https://ift.tt/g43fabi ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 21:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930009948957917469) · 108 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** An underrated benefit of widespread internet pornography has been making people better at sex. They’re no longer bumbling amateurs, and that’s good! Did Aella find u ### [Tweet, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930011288618578216) · 19 likes Dear bicycle tire thieves around Rosslyn VA, Please kindly return the tire to its original geographical location Sincerely, Aaron ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsjG-RoXgAE8Ww6.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930011296554164443) · 2 likes If you could return the little carrier pouch I had on the back that would be great too ### [Reply to @slimepriestess, 21:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930014667088507268) · 3 likes > **Ra (@slimepriestess):** alright i got a vape and...wow yeah actually it does help a lot. i feel so much less overwhelmed by literally everything now, to the point where i'm just like...gosh you lived like this bitch?? > > (quoting @slimepriestess: i stopped using nicotine six months ago and felt so proud of myself for not needing it anymore to treat my psychotic symptoms...and then proceeded to spend the next six months ruining my relationships and torpedoing my credibility with a bunch of ppl i admired. maybe i do need it) Hot take if it helps you manage schizophrenia (or whatever it is u have sorry I’m not up to date lol sorry), nicotine might well be worth it (not cigs ideally!) ### [Reply to @manic_pixie_agi, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930015157385642044) · 11 likes > **Corinne (🏠 in NYC) (@manic_pixie_agi):** Decker you should post the photo 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀 ### [Quote tweet, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930015998549340483) · 3 likes For those with (at least suspected) autism, do you acutely benefit from nicotine? Poll below > **Quoting Ra (@slimepriestess):** alright i got a vape and...wow yeah actually it does help a lot. i feel so much less overwhelmed by literally everything now, to the point where i'm just like...gosh you lived like this bitch?? ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930016429539266784) · 3 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** Can anyone explain the physical side of ai? I've heard Claude lives in a cloud somewhere in Scotland? I’m not the one to ask but yes cloud means someone else’s computer, often in a data center which is just a lot of computers in a big room, often in northern VA, USA, often owned by Microsoft, Google, or Amazon ### [Reply, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930020945193779626) · 1 like They're all over! There are some in CA too I think energy prices are super important and a lot of stuff that happens in datacenters isn't direct communication with your computer I have no idea if this literally happens but I can imagine Google basically taking whatever you upload to Google Drive and then moving it from the lowest latency datacenter to wherever it is cheapest to store ### [Thread, continued, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930021145559871834) · 2 likes There's no way to not make this sound like rude but in a literal sense Claude is going to know way more than me lol ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930021690857177599) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Don't you hate biking, maybe they did you a favor Yeah I'm actually less mad than I should be but at the very least this decreases resale value quite a bit ## Wednesday, June 4, 2025 ### [Reply to @willcb, 02:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930088121137324040) · 13 likes > **will brown (@willcb):** you can literally make 6 figures for just having a hobby > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gsj2o5masAMk7kU.jpg) > (quoting @veggie_eric: hobbies are just excuses for unambitious people to fill their free time) Just applied lmao ### [Tweet, 02:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930089160221630860) · 7 likes Just did an AI interview B+, it’s not perfect but I think it leaves everyone better off (better, more efficient matching in the labor market) It tended to cut me off tho so I couldn’t autistically say “let me think so I actually give you a true answer” ### [Quote tweet, 02:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930090367132549350) · 20 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GskO9IGXcAEiU6I.jpg) > **Quoting Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@FmrRepMTG):** Full transparency, I did not know about this section on pages 278-279 of the OBBB that strips states of the right to make laws or regulate AI for 10 years. > > I am adamantly OPPOSED to this and it is a violation of state rights and I would have voted NO if I had known this was in there. > > We have no idea what AI will be capable of in the next 10 years and giving it free rein and tying states hands is potentially dangerous. > > This needs to be stripped out in the Senate. > > When the OBBB comes back to the House for approval after Senate changes, I will not vote for it with this in it. > > We should be reducing federal power and preserving state power. > > Not the other way around. > > Especially with rapidly developing AI that even the experts warn they have no idea what it may be capable of. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsiMesfXwAAN5wb.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsiMesgWoAATchq.jpg) ### [Tweet, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930090617746420080) · 51 likes Pleased to announce I don’t really have a take on Yarvin ### [Quote tweet, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930118994834448503) · 24 likes Ok this is obviously extremely premature and nothing ever happens but what if Claude (Opus + Thinking + Research) just fixes me ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GskmZJvXIAAQR-y.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** If hasn’t been an exactly a secret but guess I’ll hard launch that I have some sort of mysterious dysautonomia (maybe also GI related??) and am borderline disabled lol ### [Thread, continued, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930118997279686998) · 7 likes Other models, including deep research, have mentioned this on a laundry list of other possibilities, but they always hedge and conclude that it's some complex cascade of 17 different issues Claude just picks this out as the fundamental explanation and etiology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anterior_cutaneous_nerve_entrapment_syndrome ### [Thread, continued, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930118999477522481) · 7 likes CleaR Mri and cT mEans NoTHInG Is AnAToMiCALly wroNG ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GskoexnWgAAljnf.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930119001734099145) · 13 likes That's the difference between kicking the can down the road and this message ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gsko1atXAAAQ-pD.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 04:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930122578619719920) · 7 likes How do I hedge against this being wrong? Does anyone wanna bet that Claude is correct so I get money if it is conclusively shown otherwise ### [Quote tweet, 05:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930137157424894431) · 10 likes Pro tip: you don't actually have to know what to ask for (I mean I'm sure knowing what to ask actually does help sometimes but this works surprisingly often) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gsk5SyZWIAAySNw.png) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I have posted this before but I still feel like people are under-appreciating that if you are reasonably intelligent and conscientious enough to follow LLM directions you (“you”) can now ~instantly code at a level that would have made you an A- SWE in the before-times ### [Tweet, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930141807486161041) · 8 likes They should have commoncrawl scavenger hunts ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gsk9TxUXkAAsiKm.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930144289238999304) · 97 likes I should poast harder > **Quoting Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** So uh… > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GskaJAJaIAAZ1-e.jpg) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 06:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930147564713558286) · 4 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** One of my tweets was put up for consideration but rejected. Still, it’s an honor just to be nominated. Oof that seems harder honestly ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 06:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930153498726785484) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Actually from this POV I think you have a better chance than me Lol lfg ### [Quote tweet, 18:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930326033485418706) · 9 likes This is cool but also lmao it is so funny that 13 people voted against the “legalize giving puppies a bit of cheese”-ass bill > **Quoting Jordan Grimes (on Bluesky @cafedujord) (@cafedujord):** It’s official: #SB79, which legalizes building multifamily housing near transit stops, has just passed the California Senate! > > One of the most impactful housing affordability proposals in years now moves to the assembly! > > Huge thanks to my Senator, @JoshBeckerSV, for supporting! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GskdAJqasAM6tS_.jpg) ### [Reply to @cafedujord, 18:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930326539884773564) · 4 likes > **Jordan Grimes (on Bluesky @cafedujord) (@cafedujord):** It’s official: #SB79, which legalizes building multifamily housing near transit stops, has just passed the California Senate! > > One of the most impactful housing affordability proposals in years now moves to the assembly! > > Huge thanks to my Senator, @JoshBeckerSV, for supporting! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GskdAJqasAM6tS_.jpg) Wtf?! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsnlwJuWYAAr7aj.jpg) ### [Tweet, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930329988185694292) · 89 likes I think one of the best things someone could do who doesn’t really care about nonhuman animals or buy into AI/x-risk stuff is to ambitiously try to cancel cluster headaches ### [Thread, continued, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930329992887431571) · 15 likes This should be at the Pareto frontier of moral importance and non-controversiality Be a normie AND a suffering-pilled AND a galaxy brain hero!! ### [Thread, continued, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930329997622776098) · 11 likes Tbh at least at a vibes level I’d be very excited to see anyone do this unless you’re leaving some other really excellent opportunity on the table ### [Thread, continued, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930330002110705698) · 9 likes The game plan would be: 1\) post on Twitter and the EA Forum quick takes looking for people interested in starting a slack 2\) start a slack (or other gc if only small) 3\) have weekly Google Meet meetings where u figure out what to do and how to apply for money ### [Thread, continued, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930330006745391458) · 10 likes 4\) figure out everything else later, unironically ### [Thread, continued, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930330011740811775) · 5 likes Ok fine, I can’t commit to leading the project but DM me/comment if interested in joining some sort of gc ### [Reply to @Manuel_do_rio, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930343489859973507) · 8 likes > **Manuel del Río Rodríguez ⏸️ (@Manuel_do_rio):** you think it's tractable? I have no idea if total abolition is possible, but I have a very strong prior on the medical system not adequately giving people pain relief which is ~definitely tractable ### [Tweet, 20:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930367622949855431) · 13 likes Boomers with a 7 digit net worth considering whether to spend $11/mo on Spotify or $20 on ChatGPT vs dropping high 4 figures on some one-time thing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsoLHhzXkAAgXwt.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930391325548945490) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 4, 2025:** Ok fine, I can’t commit to leading the project but DM me/comment if interested in joining some sort of gc Potential EA + e/acc (+ woke, this would involve helping black ppl and trans ppl too) collaboration 👀 ### [Thread, continued, 22:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930391466410443242) · 2 likes Guy who gets negatively polarized into liking cluster headaches ### [Reply to @alistair___s, 22:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930393426740293825) · 3 likes > **Alistair Stewart (@alistair___s):** @AaronBergman18 @OPISOrg > > https://x.com/JonLeighton1/status/1930223765088092662 Based I have nothing against psychedelics but any serious movement here has to contend with political constraints+reality, like plausibly for this reason there should be more investigation into other stuff ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930394014752113111) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 4, 2025:** Guy who gets negatively polarized into liking cluster headaches Just thinking out loud here, one concrete policy change would be for the USG to offer a very high willingness to pay for treatments that reduce frequency/intensity, like well above virtually anyone’s ability to pay, and let the market take care of the rest ### [Tweet, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930397953702707643) · 266 likes Anti-natalism is so dumb it is shocking that anyone smart endorses it The effect of anti-natalism isn’t that humans go extinct \*even if that was what you wanted\* (unless you have some draconian extremely competent police state state on board)… ### [Thread, continued, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930397958937190775) · 134 likes It’s that your values die out, insofar as they’re genetically and culturally heritable, and they get replace by those of ppl who don’t think like you It’s not like other things where the marginal effect is the same direction as the in-principle “everyone does this effect” ### [Thread, continued, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930397963555127676) · 66 likes Its not even a normal coordination thing, it’s just strictly counterproductive/bad \*regardless of what you think about humans existing\* ### [Thread, continued, 22:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930398193566544333) · 55 likes The draconian police state thing is in-principle a legitimate exception here but like I don’t think this is load bearing for most anti-natal memes/ideology ### [Thread, continued, 22:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930398382360502527) · 63 likes And the police state would have to be \*really really globally competent\* Like if literally any group of 1000 humans squirms their way out, you lose! ### [Reply to @bubbling_creek, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930403377415860355) · 11 likes > **bubbling creek (@bubbling_creek):** I sort of disagree with this logic - you should be willing to explore ideas that may be true and to believe them if they are true, even if (it appears that) the consequences of acting on the belief are bad Yes you should be willing to explore! But then you shouldn’t say “yes I endorse the thing that’s bad under my own values unless this incredibly unlikely scenario happens” ### [Reply to @bubbling_creek, 23:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930404710898380983) · 5 likes > **bubbling creek (@bubbling_creek):** I think in that sort of situation you should be willing to endorse the philosophical position of antinatalism, and at the same time still think antinatalists shouldn’t kill themselves, should have children, etc Yeah I see what you’re saying, and agree with what you’re getting at mostly, but it’s a bit hard in this specific instance bc of what the term “anti-natalism” means at a literal semantic level Like maybe what you actually endorse is something different like “humans-badism” ## Thursday, June 5, 2025 ### [Reply to @arabelladevine, 00:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930423358882975836) · 5 likes > **arabella ※ (@arabelladevine):** matchmaking is so difficult that i basically don’t believe it. there are too many relevant dimensions of compatibility. suitable human pairings are like magic Haha GPUs go brr ### [Tweet, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930432973435719684) · 18 likes Save the fish by building a model to predict water quality in aquaculture farms, make up to $100k Send to your crackedest and most fish-pilled friends ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GspGjuIXUAABroI.jpg) ### [Tweet, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930432976367571412) · 3 likes https://files.fwi.fish/Innovation_Challenge_Satellites_v2.pdf ### [Reply to @naproxengarde, 01:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930438134170267679) · 7 likes > **Paracetamol Flanders (@naproxengarde):** I agree that anti-natalism is dumb on the merits, but the truth value of a proposition is not determined by whether publicly endorsing it would have good effects Yes fr but also "anti-natalism" is just a phrase ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 01:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930439165692293182) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 5, 2025:** https://files.fwi.fish/Innovation_Challenge_Satellites_v2.pdf I am REALLY TEMPTED to be nerdsniped by this lol, DM me if you wanna waste some time and then lose probably ### [Reply to @avaa411, 01:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930441880476525022) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @avaa411 is no longer available.)_ “Lack rationality” Have u met a human? ### [Reply to @algekalipso, 01:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930442528584544301) · 3 likes > **Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso):** We're working on this and I'll be meeting Bob Wold at Psychedelic Science 2025. @alfredoparrah has this article from in the EA forum, super important: > > https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/geh2g2nKb7Kkp26ze/quantifying-the-global-burden-of-extreme-pain-from-cluster > > Key: we're working on an open letter for the world and for individual countries that has the critical information about treatment (e.g. DMT testimonials but also all the conventional methods) and we want to make a big push to get a lot of scientists, doctors, and politicians to sign it. Ideally we will help decriminalize DMT for this application (it can abort a cluster headache within seconds and take the pain from 10/10 to 1/10 with as little as 3mg for a significant fraction of patients). > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: I think one of the best things someone could do who doesn’t really care about nonhuman animals or buy into AI/x-risk stuff is to ambitiously try to cancel cluster headaches) Extremely based but also I sincerely hope you optimize hard for impact, even if that means playing inside some normie constraints ### [Quote tweet, 02:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930451780548034840) · 644 likes Listen I’m basically in favor of this kind of thing but I’ll share this anecdote: One of my absolutely most cracked friends, ~certainly higher IQ than me, 140s at least and plausibly higher, did an expensive “predict ur IQ based on full genome” test and the guess was 103 lmao > **Quoting gen0m1cs (@gen0m1cs):** This is absolutely awesome. > > “This is eugenics!” > > Yeah, so? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsnhzMlWoAAPPIA.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930452963262148963) · 361 likes Literally what are the ethical questions > **Quoting taoki (@justalexoki):** i actually genuinely unironically do not care what happens after, eradicate the mosquitoes. idgaf if the world ends, literally just remove them all > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsoOQzKW4AAEzKq.jpg) ### [Reply to @kromit_, 02:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930453437990240363) · 15 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @kromit_ is no longer available.)_ Lol uh likewise ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 02:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930453740802208132) · 49 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** "is it worth exterminating a species using gene editing, an act with not entirely obvious consequences, in order to save millions of lives?" I’ve updated towards the consequences being pretty obvious, like basically nothing interesting will happen except insofar as chaos theory and such makes everything unpredictable ### [Quote tweet, 02:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930454311491772801) · 46 likes I also love data > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I love girls ### [Reply to @BenShindel, 02:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930454445680201885) · 32 likes > **Ben (@BenShindel):** @AaronBergman18 Mosquito suffering. I don’t see any reason to expect this to increase mosquito suffering ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 02:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930454649275891714) · 12 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 5, 2025:** I also love data I mean a few other things are ok too but these are near the top of the list ### [Thread, continued, 02:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930455527399543119) · 7 likes I might make a “hire me as data autist/consultant” post ### [Quote tweet, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930494341270708368) · 26 likes My main concern here is that people won’t optimize hard enough for subjective wellbeing > **Quoting gen0m1cs (@gen0m1cs):** This is absolutely awesome. > > “This is eugenics!” > > Yeah, so? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsnhzMlWoAAPPIA.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930494345641078910) · 11 likes “Sorry you’re depressed pal, at least you’re 6’7”” ### [Thread, continued, 05:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930494854544453863) · 7 likes u should have a lot of kids ### [Quote tweet, 06:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930510150680400041) · 17 likes (Having multiple thoughts on this hence the QTs lol) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsqMvwMWIAAtfLL.jpg) > **Quoting gen0m1cs (@gen0m1cs):** This is absolutely awesome. > > “This is eugenics!” > > Yeah, so? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsnhzMlWoAAPPIA.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 06:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930513136148189230) · 60 likes N = total anecdote but a few days ago I had like 3 pints of Haagen dasz ice cream (≈3000 cals) which is basically just cream and sugar and just wasn’t hungry at all the next day (which is unusual). Sure seems like the control system not breaking > **Quoting zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Has anyone done a deep dive on the “actually ice cream is healthy” research results? What’s going on there? ### [Thread, continued, 06:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930513140678004782) · 6 likes Cc @exfatloss might find this interesting ### [Thread, continued, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930513308505022544) · 9 likes It was half price ok ### [Reply to @ManifoldMarkets, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930514649935495426) · 4 likes > **Manifold (@ManifoldMarkets):** Okay maybe it's an anecdote in this reality but now I have to know what Aarontopia looks like Looks like this! ### [Reply to @Benthamsbulldog, 16:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930667001661309199) · 6 likes > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** I find the idea of flirting confusing and I don't think I've ever really done it. It looks like this ### [Reply to @Jan508111, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930697010945863824) · 7 likes > **Jan Johansen (@Jan508111):** @AaronBergman18 How long ago though? Genomics is rapidly improving Idk exactly but recently, less than a year ### [Reply to @inerati, 18:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930697867880251898) · 6 likes > **liz (@inerati):** ok trying to do large wire/ach transfers has cryptopilled me. i get it now. Took me 6 visits to a bank branch and I literally had to bring my dad for them to approve it on the last visit ### [Reply to @jerrrrrrryyyyy, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930705750051217494) · 22 likes > **jerry (@jerrrrrrryyyyy):** @AaronBergman18 iq is at most 40 percent generic Surely this can’t be right, almost all the benefit comes from having human genes lol ## Friday, June 6, 2025 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 03:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930827602693918730) · 5 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** “Improve your own situation by grinding on work” type life advice is usually unfair to people living in poverty but correct for well-off middle and upper class people. Comfy white-collar workers should almost always feel some pressure to work harder and on more important stuff I wouldn’t call “re-evaluate your career trajectory in light of EA” “grinding” ### [Quote tweet, 04:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930840625785516269) · 29 likes Guys I’m sorry but I kinda think this is good > **Quoting Anthropic (@AnthropicAI):** Introducing Claude Gov—a custom set of models built for U.S. national security customers. > > Already deployed by agencies at the highest level of U.S. national security, access to these models is limited to those who operate in classified environments. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GstOHQZXEAAzXu2.png) ### [Quote tweet, 04:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930840966102950042) · 5 likes I would like to start a Data Nerds Against Runaway Naive Empiricism movement > **Quoting zeta (@zeta_globin):** I used to make fun of data scientists like "haha I thought all science was data science" and now 10 years into my career, guess what a lot of science is not based on ### [Tweet, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930843046989423035) · 22 likes I feel like a lot of anti-anti-embryo selection (the correct side tbc) is dancing around the fundamental question which whether causing one person to be born instead of another is ethical (answer: it is ethical) ### [Quote tweet, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930843764328669304) · 2 likes First 30 seconds here are gold > **Quoting Keiran Harris (@KeiranJHarris):** The Reality Of Nuclear War (made with Veo 3) > > [video attached](https://x.com/KeiranJHarris/status/1930706704175677451/video/1) ### [Tweet, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930845881932099996) · 13 likes According to my Whoop, it looks like my Heart Rate Variability (a measure of ~nervous system recovery) just ~doubled the day I started taking an obscure IBS drug that nobody cares about called hyoscyamine Like that big spike is the literal day after the night I started Weird ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gsu-FzFXgAAkjnn.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gsu-FzIXkAAXDnP.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 04:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930847254945947999) · 4 likes I think this is reasonable if the meth is from a batch already tested and tried and depending a lot on how small “small” is Like yeah cold turkey isn’t always the way to go lol > **Quoting Images That Make You Feel Pain (@ManMilk2):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gsn0wYDXkAADCUp.jpg) ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 04:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930850556794265725) · 6 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** do not fall in love with the unavailable woman > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gsu5_VYbIAAzrm3.jpg) Fall in love ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsvCWE9WEAAZEWQ.jpg) ### [Reply to @shrimpadmirer, 13:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930982953196151212) · 2 likes > **Shrimpy 🔎 (@shrimpadmirer):** @AaronBergman18 I remember this “deaf lesbians” case study from an undergrad bioethics course. It’s interesting since from the POV of the child, they’ll just be happy to have been born, but still feels unethical (since they presumably replaced a hearing child who never existed) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gsvh2FKacAAvmaB.jpg) Ethics professors must love this shit ### [Reply to @sonikudzu, 13:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930983237137944981) · 2 likes > **orca apologist (@sonikudzu):** @AaronBergman18 moa: https://go.drugbank.com/drugs/DB00424 > > it’s antagonizing inhibitory receptors in the SA and AV node, basically increasing excitability in your heart’s nervous system. it’s not indicative of anything but the drug’s presence, for health tracking purposes i’d subtract the difference tbh Oh huh, sad ### [Thread, continued, 13:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930983761560166440) · 2 likes This is from Opus tho ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gsw7fg8XkAAR94F.jpg) ### [Reply to @sonikudzu, 14:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930989331038044393) · 2 likes > **orca apologist (@sonikudzu):** @AaronBergman18 except still feel confident in “this change is wholly due to the drug changing the tone and not necessarily reflective of anything wrt health tracking” Yeah pharmacology is weird ### [Reply to @rgblong, 14:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1930992363146539282) · 2 likes > **Robert Long (@rgblong):** very cool work! language models converge to weird spiritual obsessions when they talk to each other - not just Claude 🌀 > > to quote this poem that GPT-4.1 wrote in Tomek’s experiment, “revelations both luminous and perplexing” > > 🙏 💫 ✨ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GswcUQybkAAQ04w.png) > (quoting @tomekkorbak: I reimplemented the bliss attractor eval from Claude 4 System Card. It's fascinating how LLMs reliably fall into attractor basins of their pet obsessions, how different these attractors across LLMs, and how they say something non-trivial about LLMs' personalities. 🌀🌀🌀) What ### [Reply to @FmrRepMTG, 18:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931060539444154575) · 3 likes > **Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@FmrRepMTG):** I will NOT vote for any bill that destroys states rights and lets AI run wild for the next 10 years. > > AI will replace jobs, especially in the press. This is not a left or right issue. It’s about humanity. I’ll go to the mat on this. > > If you kill federalism, I’m out. > > [video attached](https://x.com/RepMTG/status/1931029976033149423/video/1) 🫡 ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 18:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931061119101419777) · 34 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** can i say something without everybody getting mad at me > > [video attached](https://x.com/gtconway3d/status/1930779050626412568/video/1) ### [Tweet, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931067895108481065) · 674 likes Once again, you should be able to walk into any pharmacy, sign a waiver, and get adderall and whatever else you want The world doesn’t have to be a police state ### [Tweet, 19:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931068992036425880) · 13 likes Cucumbers have got to be the most mid vegetable ### [Reply to @Philonous, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931069999390560380) · 12 likes > **James Hudson (@Philonous):** Don’t stop there—keep going! What else in our socio-politics could be better? Here are some ideas ### [Reply to @johnsmithyson0, 22:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931115027945382004) · 23 likes > **John Smith (@johnsmithyson0):** @AaronBergman18 Like, no prescription or anything? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gsyy4UfWEAAdNA1.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 22:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931122266324041993) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Wtf Pepino malvado ### [Reply to @XavierORourke, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931123827578114486) · 16 likes > **Xavier O'Rourke (@XavierORourke):** Do you believe this because you think making Adderall over the counter would deliver more benefits than harms in the aggregate? > > Or do you think it should be free to access based on principle, regardless of what the harms/benefits are? Both, but at the end of the day I’m a utilitarian. Convince me that this would decrease hedonic utility in the universe and I will grudgingly abandon the idea ### [Tweet, 23:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931124839248519443) · 20 likes Those who take stimulants, does it improve your mood/valence or just make things easier to to/increase alertness ### [Thread, continued, 23:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931125515416678494) · 4 likes Context but I recently talked to someone who swore adderall didn’t improve their mood ### [Reply, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931128091440746867) · 1 like Eh let’s go with no ## Saturday, June 7, 2025 ### [Reply to @StatisticUrban, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931173264656642294) · 11 likes > **Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** @AaronBergman18 Really I think that is a fantastically bad idea. 😢 ### [Reply to @hyperdiscogirl, 02:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931176577934491819) · 12 likes > **hyper(bolic) disco(unting) girl in the bay (@hyperdiscogirl):** ohhh 😭😭😭 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gsy6RjkWkAEJ7v4.jpg) 🥺 ### [Quote tweet, 02:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931177536936915296) · 15 likes I love that 70% of my followers take stimulants Godspeed > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Those who take stimulants, does it improve your mood/valence or just make things easier to to/increase alertness ### [Reply to @__ghostfail, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931186415586386157) · 5 likes > **rain (@__ghostfail):** @AaronBergman18 I think less people would do meth if adderall was easily accessible Fr, same with fentanyl and oxy ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 03:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931188646373208189) · 11 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** can i say something without everybody getting mad at me > > [video attached](https://x.com/gtconway3d/status/1930779050626412568/video/1) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gsz11sZXYAAbDue.jpg) ### [Reply to @XavierORourke, 03:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931189342136905950) · 8 likes > **Xavier O'Rourke (@XavierORourke):** I'm not an expert but my impression is that at high enough doses the recreational appeal, addictiveness and adverse health effects of abusing dexamphetamine are similar to meth. I know multiple people personally who had psychiatric episodes related to Dex even on prescribed dose I’m not supposed to say “based” right ### [Reply to @zeta_globin, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931189589965775002) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @zeta_globin is no longer available.)_ @JesseTayRiver save her ### [Tweet, 03:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931190280104845811) · 4 likes Sometimes it just randomly smells like your basement with the heat on in 2006 ### [Reply to @bubbling_creek, 15:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931372192815567249) · 2 likes > **bubbling creek (@bubbling_creek):** @AaronBergman18 @StatisticUrban if any pharmacy is allowed to sell arbitrary doses of amphetamine and market that in some way it quickly turns into a machine that generates a lot of cash and a lot of suffering i think I’m pretty open to (quite high) caps on like amount sold daily At least that can be some sort of compromise ### [Tweet, 15:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931375037757432112) · 6 likes I’m not sure if it’s good on net, but instagram reels is extremely funny Like whatever algorithm is going on behind the scenes just works extremely well - I rarely laugh harder and more frequently than during 20 mins of IG reels ### [Quote tweet, 15:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931378751016755263) · 4 likes I’m not sure how legit this is as a panacea but it’s a very interesting idea/principle > **Quoting Minh Nhat Nguyen (@menhguin):** Someone said u should always give LLMs the option to do nothing. Honestly, that helps solve so many problems - hallucination, overconfidence, reward hacking, safety, ai welfare etc. ### [Reply to @pls_dont_lie, 16:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931382349947654433) · 13 likes > **pls (@pls_dont_lie):** @AaronBergman18 You realize aderoll is basically meth right? > You want to be giving out meth at CVS? Really? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs2mAyFWIAAa5cH.jpg) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 18:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931419325392458004) · 5 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** ominous > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs2JmSeX0AAqPsM.jpg) Lol ### [Reply to @singularitttt, 19:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931429116978319699) · 2 likes > **cybersyn (@singularitttt):** wait you can drive across america in 40 hours? > no wonder people love cars > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs2q4DobcAAuETP.jpg) My parents basically just did this, yes! ### [Reply, 21:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931465841565942005) · 1 like Rabbit ### [Tweet, 23:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931499255249686621) · 312 likes Wait does poly always mean “open relationship”? Or does the polycule get mad if u have sex with someone outside the ‘cule?? ### [Thread, continued, 23:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931499443087433729) · 39 likes I’m just trying to understand ## Sunday, June 8, 2025 ### [Reply to @slimepriestess, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931502790146503046) · 42 likes > **Ra (@slimepriestess):** depends on if polyamory or polyfidelity i think? New word just dropped ### [Quote tweet, 00:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931505338907574290) · 40 likes Huge day for psychopathic goons who wanna larp soldier by arresting Hispanic people > **Quoting Turnbull (@cturnbull1968):** Trump is sending in highly visible and armored ICE agents to LA and other big cities. He’s deliberately creating conflict so he can federalize the National Guard to go in and start hurting American citizens. > > That’s the end game. > > [video attached](https://x.com/MattSeedorff/status/1931421803932721351/video/1) ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 00:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931511608238620822) · 15 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** It definitely doesn't mean that! > > IMO most poly relationships I've seen involved people having lots of opinions and input and power over who their partners were dating. Hmm ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 00:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931512537503113723) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Bassoons are just like trumpets. We just bred bassoons to be larger and sweeter. Banger ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 00:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931514300201394253) · 10 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Once we do a podcast solving decision theory we can move onto polyamory Unironically sounds good ### [Tweet, 05:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931588136309559305) · 11 likes Should I buy the forbidden baking powder ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs5hLDKXAAA3h0P.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs5hLDNXgAAsr92.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931588541957472525) · 4 likes I do this ONE TIME ### [Quote tweet, 05:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931590325119688999) · 3 likes Yes people be strategic > **Quoting Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** Trump grabbing random innocent people and sending them to Salvadoran torture-dungeons was turning America against his immigration policies, but the sight of people waving Mexican flags next to burning police cars could reverse that trend. ### [Reply to @bryancsk, 06:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931592371784794205) · 2 likes > **Bryan Cheong 🥮 (@bryancsk):** @AaronBergman18 did you get a labubu I don’t actually know what that means ### [Reply to @sergeantsup, 06:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931602748606189711) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @sergeantsup is no longer available.)_ This is interesting thanks ### [Reply to @halogen1048576, 09:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931638985656307862) · 22 likes > **🇨🇦halogen (@halogen1048576):** @AaronBergman18 do you have autism Probably lol ### [Reply to @halogen1048576, 09:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931640249299394846) · 4 likes > **🇨🇦halogen (@halogen1048576):** the commitments people make in polycule situations are unworkable and largely meaningless as too contrary to human nature. polycules are inherently unstable. the people who talk the longest and most ingenuously about their polycule situations are usually the losers within them Spicy take ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 09:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931640931066740841) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Decker x Silver prediction market when? > > (quoting @TrueSlazac: Let’s gooo got my picture with Nate Silver) Bro ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 09:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931646388611244301) · 3 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @Ollie_Base @Benthamsbulldog ### [Thread, continued, 09:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931646412527161438) · 2 likes I hope so ### [Tweet, 11:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931680888930144417) · 13 likes Any EAG goss 👀 ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 11:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931682550822424620) · 3 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** you're never gonna believe it i heard that despite there being so much suffering in the world there are people researching the most cost effective ways to do good with our time and money based on reason and evidence Hmm I don’t know if I believe it ### [Reply to @asbelcas, 12:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931683244610625832) · 2 likes > **casey armstrong (@asbelcas):** @animalologist @HephaistosF Tried it- > > Went terribly. > > He said and I quote "this is inappropriate". 😢 ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 12:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931685078704271536) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 Just crossed paths with Will MacAskill and he got beard and longhairism is making a comeback Huge ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 12:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931685106231529590) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Maybe it's my choice of talks but we're big on invertebrates and AI welfare this time around Based ### [Reply to @EAheadlines, 12:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931687961734623719) · 2 likes > **EA Lifestyles (@EAheadlines):** @AaronBergman18 and his wife sounds really great > > (quoting @EAheadlines: Omg I just met EA Forum star Nick Laing. Nick Laing is at EA Global!!) Huge!! ### [Reply to @RichardMCNgo, 12:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931690297634820585) · 3 likes > **Richard Ngo (@RichardMCNgo):** The left views America as an oppressive power structure. > > The tech right views America as an embodiment of technocapitalism. > > MAGA views America as a group of people. > > So once MAGA wakes up to AGI, it’ll likely prioritize humans’ interests (vs AGIs’) more than any other faction. > > (quoting @Cernovich: I’m not a doomer and always been pro tech acceleration. Everyone I’m talking to who works in AI. Man. We are about to be hit by a freight train.) Insane take ### [Reply to @Empty_America, 12:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931694421445152887) · 89 likes > **VB Knives (@Empty_America):** Locked mutual asks: "How did rock climbing become 'high human-capital' success hobby?" > > \#1 it maximally excludes individuals experiencing high body weight. > > \#2 it's oddly gender egalitarian, fit women can do it. > > \#3 it signals high openness, a core trait of modern Blue success. It’s also relatively expensive to join a climbing gym I also suspect some of it is just random path dependence + memes, not based on anything truly fundamental ### [Quote tweet, 12:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931695118303510802) · 21 likes This is insane > **Quoting Katie Lam (@Katie_Lam_MP):** We all know that courts have too much power over our country's immigration policy. > > But increasingly they're also telling businesses exactly what to pay their workers. > > Sounds mad? That’s because it is. And it's going to destroy our economy. > > A 🧵 on the Equality Act: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs6dGztWUAAhhMm.jpg) ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 12:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931695702465187969) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** We’ll arrest you for this language Good thing I’m not at EAG rn ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 12:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931696373000233321) · 4 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Go 75% of the way towards high decoupling, then stop Noooooooo ### [Thread, continued, 12:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931696430919409883) · 3 likes One must fully decouple ### [Tweet, 13:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931700000255299824) · 8 likes Scrolling through Curtis Yarvin’s twitter my main impression is “bad vibes” ### [Reply to @sentientlentils, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931766582360842528) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @sentientlentils is no longer available.)_ Omg based hello all ### [Quote tweet, 17:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931771067044970759) · 39 likes I will pay $25 for this shirt if anyone has an extra > **Quoting Kevin Roose (@kevinroose):** Tech conference merch is getting out of control > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs4I4FIboAAgctS.jpg) ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 17:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931772036298256895) · 2 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** @AaronBergman18 deal Lol based DM me if ur serious ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 18:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931777243354947620) · 8 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** the thing about this that makes me saddest isn't that people hate me, but the overwhelming hate with nobody defending me. People are ashamed publicly to support me, they don't want to be called a simp or cringe. I get it but it's a little pang that makes me feel alienated Don’t worry Aella, some of us are ride or die simps ### [Reply to @sanjehorah, 18:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931778101664416233) · 4 likes > **sanje horah 🇵🇸🇺🇦 — PNEUMATICS ONLY (@sanjehorah):** i love men i love men i love men i love men. i am the straightest woman on the planet. AFFIRM Hey (ignore other ppl saying hey) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931778262386012557) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 8, 2025:** I will pay $25 for this shirt if anyone has an extra Looks like one of yall is coming through, thanks!! ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 18:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931780979410047487) · 40 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** “Donating to effective charities is obvious” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs8QBX4XoAAgmHj.jpg) Andy hates orphaned orangutans ### [Tweet, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931782281275789696) · 133 likes I am an aella simp ### [Reply to @seconds_0, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931784305396642065) · 3 likes > **0.005 Seconds (3/694) (@seconds_0):** My least grounded belief is i don't believe the Cretaceous period was almost 100 million years of global biological stability. Doesn't make sense. Doesn't checkout. New type of guy just dropped ### [Quote tweet, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931801243837407315) · 10 likes New e-girl just dropped > **Quoting TinkerElla95 (@TinkerElla95):** I came back to Twitter to simp for Aella! ✊🏻 ### [Thread, continued, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931801323747303721) · 3 likes I don’t actually know what an egirl is, I’m just pattern matching ### [Reply to @banterrealism, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931802351595348107) · 4 likes > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** Repent, there is still time > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs8WlnhXEAAEJ_o.jpg) I’m cringe and that’s good ### [Tweet, 20:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931814860754731256) · 15 likes If you’re a sensitive autistic young man, ALWAYS check with your female friends before buying anything that could plausibly be seen by a woman in a romantic context ### [Reply to @livgorton, 21:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931822254125687042) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** 🫡🫡 Do u know any good female friends I could ask ### [Reply to @gptbrooke, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931822348484932032) · 2 likes > **brooke bowman (@gptbrooke):** @ohwizenedtortle @AaronBergman18 Hahaha “rules” (don’t be the reason we need to make rules is the rule) Based ### [Tweet, 21:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931827612671742265) · 46 likes PSA you can just read the DSM-5 and see if you meet the diagnostic criteria for whatever (autism, ocd, anxiety) Plausibly less accurate than a good doctor but better than a bad doctor and better than other self-diagnosis methods (random online quizzes, vibes) PDF link below ### [Thread, continued, 21:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931827615222128979) · 3 likes https://www.mredscircleoftrust.com/storage/app/media/DSM%205%20TR.pdf ### [Quote tweet, 22:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931839402680127948) · 17 likes If this ends up checking out I am going to be absolutely insufferable, just wait > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Ok this is obviously extremely premature and nothing ever happens but what if Claude (Opus + Thinking + Research) just fixes me > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GskmZJvXIAAQR-y.jpg) ### [Tweet, 23:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931853394949579076) · 14 likes I feel like OpenAI is the only company that actually wants to take my money Anthropic and Google have some combo of kinda insanely low rate limits and “overloaded” errors ### [Tweet, 23:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931854820199010633) · 10 likes “Oh wise horse of absolute agreement, should I spent $7k on a specced out MacBook Pro that I absolutely do not need??” [![GIF thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/Gs9Tt0yWQAAgV-2.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931854820199010633/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Tweet, 23:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931856243548979703) · 579 likes Meta on the Aella thing: this goes to show how overdetermined society’s conformity enforcement is Like aella is rich, high status among a lot of people, has lots of friends many of whom are rich and powerful, is naturally very resilient etc and yet the mob still gets to her ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 23:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931856324398071910) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 Btw if a CPAP machine fixes me I’ll probably send you and @livgorton $1,000 each for recommending that I do a sleep study Lol this is kinda insane but I won’t say no ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931857126558744619) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 8, 2025:** “Oh wise horse of absolute agreement, should I spent $7k on a specced out MacBook Pro that I absolutely do not need??” Dw I’m not actually going to. Claude unironically talked me down ### [Reply to @LinkofSunshine, 23:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931858721707028804) · 24 likes > **Basil🧡 (@LinkofSunshine):** Being cruel to people online is almost universally bad, it’s just soul destroying Being not cruel online is like the lowest possible bar of morality and cooperation, truly costs you nothing ## Monday, June 9, 2025 ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931863879153553525) · 7 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** Recently I’ve been getting sleepy after like 90 minutes of work in the morning even though I slept for 9 hours the night before. What’s up with that? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs9b9d2XYAAPLZx.jpg) ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 00:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931868809008394488) · 2 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** Don’t fall for pants propaganda! I changed from shorts to pants cuz I thought it’s be chilly and now it’s hot and I wanna die!!!!! Many such cases! ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931888964811518083) · 20 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** @AaronBergman18 Seems like a human brain thing not society, no? > > People respond more strongly to negative feedback, plus we're not capable of the really comprehensively understanding widespread fame or something Society level enforcement cashes out as one person at a time being influenced As much as I’m skeptical of the word emergence, society-level norm enforcement is in part an emergent phenomenon that arises from lots of 1-1 interactions ### [Reply to @banterrealism, 01:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931889455180165351) · 54 likes > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** @AaronBergman18 Tbh I will never feel that sorry for this exact reason > > She’ll be fine For better or worse it’s pretty important at a societal level what kind of things empirically hurt individual people’s feelings Like even if she “should” in some sense suck it up, what happens to her cashes out as millions-billions of people self-censoring a bit more ### [Reply to @AlmostMedia, 01:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931889724798402900) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AlmostMedia is no longer available.)_ I feel like the actual crux/issue is that she’s not in fact doing anything immoral We’d never say “don’t like animal abuse? Not a you problem, look the other way” ### [Reply to @banterrealism, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931891006665826463) · 25 likes > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** @AaronBergman18 What? Thank you, Claude! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs90oYpWoAAu5HB.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931891109359243562) · 5 likes Claude is better at explicating my own ideas than I am, part 585992919283&5866 > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @banterrealism Thank you, Claude! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs90oYpWoAAu5HB.jpg) ### [Reply to @animalologist, 01:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931892421895532788) · 5 likes > **taco belle (@animalologist):** would you guys judge me if i bought this bed frame > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs9ycFOXgAA-91t.jpg) Isn’t an important function of bed frame to prevent mold on the bottom of the mattress by introducing airflow? ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931902502179418257) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Well if none of your suggestions work I intend to put out a $2000 bounty on fixing me, so it only seemed fair to reward you two appropriately Based ### [Reply to @JohnHolbein1, 03:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931910206717374675) · 6 likes > **John B. Holbein (@JohnHolbein1):** Paternity leave reduces fertility. > > "Men reported lower desired fertility after the \[paternity leave\] reform, possibly due to their increased awareness of the costs of childrearing." > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gsw5rYeWoAE4PoU.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gsw5sJeWwAArDLS.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gsw5t7eXUAAwBCd.jpg) Weakly expect this to not replicate Doesn’t pass the sniff test - really, incentive secretly goes in the opposite direction for galaxy brain psychological reasons? ### [Tweet, 03:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931912351323758959) · 4 likes AOC should get on TV and yell at the leftists to stop doing shitty counterproductive protests ### [Quote tweet, 03:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931918062535508111) · 2 likes Seems bad > **Quoting Claire Lehmann (@clairlemon):** That’s not crossfire - she was directly shot at ### [Quote tweet, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931921641673560326) · 755 likes Plausibly he should be prosecuted, but at the very least the shooting officer here should be fired… > **Quoting Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** A story in four pictures. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs-N__qXAAAWs0g.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931921644106182749) · 114 likes There should be a quite low bar for saying “you’re not going to jail, you’re still a citizen and can do essentially everything, but sorry you no longer have the right to kill people on behalf of the state” This policy will ofc result in some false-positive firings and that is ok ### [Tweet, 04:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931932079878553971) · 10 likes Google sheets don’t use 2GB of RAM for a 90mb csv I uploaded difficulty impossible ### [Tweet, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931933062222188797) · 27 likes Have u ever made a girl laugh? I highly recommend it ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 04:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931933461125726226) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Even better, I’ve made Eliezer Yudkowsky laugh Sorry bud, 1 girl laugh = 485959669599291384 Yud laughs ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931933822288880084) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** I’ve tried both, have you? 😡 ### [Reply to @ArmandDoma, 08:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1931993355317039522) · 2 likes > **Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma):** a 100% affordable housing project in San Francisco is being opposed by @PODERSF, a progressive nonprofit because it might cast a bit of shadow on a nearby schoolyard > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs7uOipaAAAgDFy.jpg) > (quoting @CSElmendorf: full story: https://sfstandard.com/2025/06/08/sanfrancisco-housing-wars/) Beyond parody ### [Reply to @NoScrewworms, 09:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932005962065305748) _(The tweet being replied to by @NoScrewworms is no longer available.)_ Real ### [Reply to @NoScrewworms, 09:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932007276065304731) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @NoScrewworms is no longer available.)_ :( ### [Reply to @toasterlighting, 09:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932007668132032927) · 2 likes > **Celene (@toasterlighting):** interesting > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs_eCwdbQAEffm_.jpg) Lol ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 09:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932007735035326945) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Okay so turns out instead I went and sat at a table where Zach Robinson was doing a 1-1 so like there's no winning Ur blessed ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 09:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932014280150241404) · 9 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I left my copy of moral uncertainty at home, I could have collected two thirds of the signatures if I had some forethought 😭 Forethought 👀 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs_kv9TXoAAw1xS.jpg) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 10:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932020632759189797) · 3 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AmandaAskell Claude doesn't know who you are, but does have some advice > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs_puLFXUAAjasZ.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs_qhmPXQAAbelJ.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs_qhmQXMAATu-H.jpg) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 10:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932021062516027455) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18 @AmandaAskell Thanks! This is much better than the one I got, where it said I was Director of Growth at 80K Lol @bellaforristal better watch out ### [Reply, 10:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932022834550747434) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs_shv1WUAAWbLO.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs_shv1WoAAmOJ3.jpg) ### [Reply to @salonium, 10:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932025293281120311) · 3 likes > **Saloni (@salonium):** I wrote a new piece on how much progress has been made in treating childhood leukemia. > > The answer is: quite a lot! > > Before the 1970s, fewer than 10% of children diagnosed survived 5 years after diagnosis. > > Now most are cured and around 85% survive that long. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs_IWZjXsAAXNK0.jpg) Based ### [Quote tweet, 10:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932027984271011979) · 4 likes This is kinda a dumb layperson take but isn’t the whole point of neural nets that they can \*approximate\* any algorithm including whatever a computer is > **Quoting Peli Grietzer (@peligrietzer):** Irony of the Apple paper is it's mostly proving that LRMs aren't computers ### [Tweet, 11:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932034490584518696) · 8 likes A lot of the shock value of LLMs comes from things with demonstrable, visceral outputs (the correct diagnosis, the usable software) but literally just talking with Opus about a reasonably complex paper (which I don’t do very often tbh) is a whole different level of impressive ### [Quote tweet, 11:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932035028155773059) · 8 likes Humans: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs_3nlxWwAARVsC.jpg) > **Quoting Ruben Hassid (@rubenhassid):** BREAKING: Apple just proved AI "reasoning" models like Claude, DeepSeek-R1, and o3-mini don't actually reason at all. > > They just memorize patterns really well. > > Here's what Apple discovered: > > (hint: we're not as close to AGI as the hype suggests) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs2slmza0AAf2r0.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 11:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932044237689749605) · 10 likes Big if true > **Quoting Waymo (@Waymo):** It’s official: Waymo One will be ready to serve Washington, D.C. next year! 🇺🇸 http://waymo.com/blog/2025/03/next-stop-for-waymo-one-washingtondc > > [video attached](https://x.com/Waymo/status/1904490327773507641/video/1) ### [Reply to @henryaj, 12:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932045506022182990) · 2 likes > **Henry is in Berlin (@henryaj):** @AaronBergman18 as long as they don't get lured out and then set on fire :( Waymos are safe with me Dw ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 13:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932061080672477385) · 5 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @bellaforristal @AaronBergman18 @AmandaAskell > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtAKPpQXkAAD_Di.jpg) I’m a Peter is secretly head of growth at 80k truther ### [Quote tweet, 13:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932062779424612715) · 5 likes I’m not even an anti-Zionist but fr the Israel support cult in DC is insane It’s a small country of little objective importance to the US! > **Quoting Secular Talk (KyleKulinskiShow@bsky.social) (@KyleKulinski):** The same politicians that say flying a Mexican flag in LA is cause for deportation have an office like this > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs7uMikWAAAG8xj.jpg) ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 13:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932070605588738070) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** 200mg of caffine in pill form doesn't fuck about Fr ### [Quote tweet, 13:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932073082459467952) · 10 likes If Kant was cool > **Quoting Richard D. Bartlett (@RichDecibels):** the coolest possible start to a rule book > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSCXalZWcAAiOUJ.jpg) ### [Reply to @bellaforristal, 16:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932117086702325862) · 2 likes > **Bella Forristal 🔸 (@bellaforristal):** @AndyMasley One time I stayed in a US hotel where the water pressure was so high it was physically painful, like being power washed. Is this the future growthers want??? Based ### [Reply to @willmacaskill, 16:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932118325582062055) · 12 likes > **William MacAskill (@willmacaskill):** You're neglecting to mention how stoked I was to meet you! I even got a selfie of my own. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtA9A9gWsAAjvL7.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtBDYIBWUAA3aO3.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtBDYIEXAAAWrw_.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtBDYIFWUAADN44.jpg) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 17:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932125495694327972) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** I'm happy to talk on the phone but fyi I never listen to voicemail so the answer to the q did you get my vm is always no Lol ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 17:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932131061829661166) · 7 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** mr will macaskill! i didn't know you looked this good! Shoot ur shot queen ### [Reply to @PETAUK, 17:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932131483801821199) · 2 likes > **PETA UK (@PETAUK):** Humans left this piglet to cry out in terror on a filthy, cold, concrete floor and killed his brothers and sisters for bacon. > > [GIF attached](https://x.com/peta/status/1317528582072209409/photo/1) 😡 ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 17:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932133922613203055) · 3 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** Do you think "most members of January 6th were peaceful" is a valid defense of the protest? It’s not a sufficient defense but directionally sorta ### [Quote tweet, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932153557949858240) · 20 likes Gonna commit heresy and say that I don’t fully understand why all the neolib types don’t like either free transit OR raising fares to make transit systems fiscally self-sustaining What is the rationale for covering…checks Claude…about 1/3 of operating costs with fares? > **Quoting fox (@soft_fox_lad):** this is a bad gotcha because the staten island ferry shouldn’t be free ### [Thread, continued, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932153562034790495) · 7 likes I mean intuitively it could make sense as a sort of copay to prevent low utility excess use but \*marginal\* ridership costs are low and afaict people don’t especially love riding light rail just for the fun of it (ik some of you autists do this lol) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932155546926510106) · 7 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Talking to an AI. > > Instantly broadcasting my musings about this experience to thousands of people across the world. > > All while 36,000 feet in the air. > > The future is pretty cool. Airplanes and LLMs seem approximately the same level of impossible to me ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 20:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932167318412661156) · 64 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** people seem to be confused about the thought experiment in here > > obviously you let the old woman die??? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtBqy4OXoAAcQu4.png) “Horrifically tortured” - not just die ### [Thread, continued, 21:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932182955130003886) · 11 likes I’ve been informed that I’m not even supposed to comment on posts like this ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtB-KIOWwAA6RQe.jpg) ### [Reply to @panickssery, 21:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932185178128199689) · 9 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** I don't get the interest in "cruelty" as a concept > > Often people debate whether some action was "cruel" where I > (1) don't understand their model for what's cruel vs not > (2) don't see the relevant/interestingness of that dimension, as opposed to giving a more direct objection Cruelty is gratuitous - the suffering is the point, not the regrettable side effect of achieving some desirable/necessary end ### [Reply to @ExistentialEnso, 21:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932187612619366590) · 9 likes > **Thorne 🌸 (@ExistentialEnso):** It gets worse. It's not \*just\* lodging. > > https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/national-guard-california-photos-20368334.php > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtB2IekXoAAPvla.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtB2JKBWEAAQbeZ.png) Bruh ### [Quote tweet, 21:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932187831247536178) · 12 likes Actual parody of an administration > **Quoting Thorne 🌸 (@ExistentialEnso):** @GodThatLimps It gets worse. It's not \*just\* lodging. > > https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/national-guard-california-photos-20368334.php > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtB2IekXoAAPvla.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtB2JKBWEAAQbeZ.png) ### [Reply to @deepfates, 21:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932189142877675603) · 4 likes > **deepfates.delve.town (@deepfates):** Mark Down?! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtCDFHraQAE7t2b.png) > (quoting @Jacobkupp: lmao no way) It’s a joke ### [Tweet, 22:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932196710328959021) · 6 likes One must fully decouple ## Tuesday, June 10, 2025 ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932260356442992942) · 12 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ Tbc I’m willing to entertain this as a thought experiment in an autistic hyper-decoupled manner; I don’t think that’s what he’s going for but I’m open to being proven wrong ### [Thread, continued, 02:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932261016705929525) · 10 likes And I’m no fan of riots, both for normie reasons and optics/tactical reasons insofar as I agree with some of the vibes of the rioters (eg in this case with ICE) But you get the sense that some people simply yearn to watch others suffer ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932262433705378283) · 4 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** The UK wants things other than growth. Maybe this is okay (if they endorse the results) > > (quoting @AndyMasley: The UK really challenges my intuitions about degrowth. It seems like they’re having a good time!) Hazy intuition but this feels like the kind of thing where future people are importantly left out of the conversation Like you can imagine a model where everyone prefers both being richer all else equal and nothing ever changing, and this can result in pro-growth policies iff the interests of future generations are accounted for somehow ### [Tweet, 02:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932268828882358536) · 46 likes New cause area I really feel like a ginger ale but don’t have any and don’t want to go out and get some :( ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 02:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932269018917838866) · 5 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** The shame I feel for not having attended 4 year college has nothing on the shame I feel for not being able to weld Haha this loser doesn’t know how to weld ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 02:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932269520514658660) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** You are such a girlie I’ll take that as a compliment ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 02:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932270123160686607) · 7 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** It is truly astonishing to me how many people take current AI capabilities as a given but just refuse to extrapolate even a little bit. > > (quoting @AndyMasley: I agree that most LLM writing is not very good compared to the best human writers. People are already talking about that like it's an iron law of nature that won't ever change. Compare AI writing now to GPT-2 and ask "Could this trend of getting better continue?") Yes but also at a purely vibes level I’m not sure I see the current trends naturally extrapolating to excellent writing? This is largely bc there’s no super easy way to get an RL signal I guess “solve software engineering and then all bets are off” opens a lot of doors though ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 02:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932270453545902381) · 5 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 Lmao go pump up your bike tires college kid! \*tire ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 03:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932272955842798055) · 5 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 Bummer. For reference the lock might fit around both the down tube and the front wheel which should make it secure. The rear wheel is harder to steal due the derailleur being difficult to hastily detach. Rear wheel looks flat btw Big talk from a non-welder ### [Quote tweet, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932280640998953062) · 6 likes Why has writing quality lagged so far behind other areas of LLM performance? I don’t think it’s an inherent thing, seems more like nobody’s really trying > **Quoting James Campbell (@jam3scampbell):** part of what makes AI writing feel like slop is that it's a distinctive style being broadcasted to everyone > > imagine if there was a person that everyone on earth texted multiple times per day. pretty soon, their style would be instantly recognizable and embedded in the culture > > so while e.g. gpt-4o's style may not have been "slop" the first week it came out--there's nothing inherently wrong with emdashes--it quickly became slop as a result of being the style used by ChatGPT > > if this is true, then solving slop may be less about aligning to the one true immaculate writing style and more about creating a multitude of styles via diverse AIs with diverse personalities as a result of memory and other accumulated context ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 03:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932284629496565918) · 3 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** Getting some useful pushback here. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gs_ZmRaWUAAQA69.jpg) > (quoting @_AashishReddy: She’s locked her account so I can’t quote tweet, but consider this a public defence of @Aella_Girl, who doesn’t deserve universal hatred!) Fucked up, stay strong ✊ ### [Reply to @Vaishsg7, 03:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932286295188942857) · 4 likes > **Vaish (@Vaishsg7):** Whether or not he’s a good person, the phrasing of that tweet indicates to me that some of your quickness to judge is driven by ideological bias. Otherwise you’d just say “all political views should be expressed with civility”. I mean this is true but I’m not sure it’s a bad or epistemically thing Like I just do have a prior on liberals having better values, being more cooperative, etc ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 04:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932286640346562831) · 1 like > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** @Adellama\_ Your profile pic disproves this. You are a cute cat Shoot ur shot king ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932288890460623050) · 10 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 5, 2025:** I might make a “hire me as data autist/consultant” post Nobody: Your autistic friend at 12:08 am on a Tuesday: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtDegVrWIAAMkWh.jpg) ### [Reply to @ValsTutor, 12:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932409351676764305) · 2 likes > **vals🔸 (@ValsTutor):** @AaronBergman18 @JesseTayRiver Exact thing I was gonna tweet Lol ### [Reply to @Benthamsbulldog, 12:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932416368931922421) · 2 likes > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** Hey girl, are you a shrimp? Because if you were about to be thrown into an ice bath that would kill you, and I could prevent that by spending 1/160th of a penny, I would say that was a good use of charitable money. FWIW I don’t buy the 10 year extrapolation on this but yes 1/50 of a penny is still a very good deal 1/10 of a penny is still a great deal if you think there’s only a 20% chance of sentience! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtFSchqWcAAKDDU.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtFSch1WoAAkcW_.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 12:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932422406330585207) · 4 likes In Aarontopia almost all drugs will be legal to buy at CVS like this but the FTC will send a drone swarm to take you out if you don’t label the package clearly with precise molecule and dose > **Quoting Michael Druggan (@Michael_Druggan):** Putting a full blown drug like adrafinil (prodrug to the prescription grade stimulant modafinil for those who don't know) in a drink like this without making it abundantly clear that that's what you've done and what the precise dosage per can is is incredibly irresponsible. I do not support this. ### [Reply to @burny_tech, 13:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932424989900169505) · 2 likes > **Burny - Effective Curiosity (@burny_tech):** Mechanistic interpretability researchers > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtD0QH-WoAAQbIF.png) @livgorton ### [Tweet, 15:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932466049301283111) · 9 likes “Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from the consequences of being shot at” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtF_oLwXwAAlyBi.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 15:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932466052987764746) · 3 likes \[tbc yes it does, the above is sarcastic, this is a direct harm issue and a press/speech freedom issue\] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/06/10/los-angeles-immigration-protests-journalists-rubber-bullets/84128426007/ ### [Tweet, 16:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932473807282786404) · 5 likes Need a fully integrated system that releases propranolol into my bloodstream whenever I get a slack notification Honestly this seems totally technologically feasible ### [Quote tweet, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932478102048792692) · 11 likes What > **Quoting Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** Sometimes it's good to remember just how large LA is, now that it's the focus of the national conversation. > > Los Angeles County alone, not even counting the surrounding developments, has more people than every state in red, 40 of the 50 in total. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtGJbIuWgAAlvTQ.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932515684229263402) · 24 likes Just \*applied\* to see a doctor. Basically with a personal statement/essay describing symptoms and history At first this seemed annoying but on second thought this should be more common. Avoid wasting everyone’s time and money! ### [Thread, continued, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932516026157314426) · 5 likes Also high filtering for patients who give a shit and are minimally conscientious for better or worse I bet this doc gets better-than-avg outcomes! ### [Thread, continued, 19:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932516456635252927) · 4 likes Me paying a good chunk of my net worth to see the cracked specialist across the country if I get accepted ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtGteZRXQAA8eeu.jpg) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932516849666945213) · 6 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Why I'm not scared. Part 1 > > [video attached](https://x.com/JesseTayRiver/status/1932514707929510017/video/1) Fuck I thought you were gonna disprove AI risk once and for all ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 19:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932516890158502281) · 4 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** was expecting this to be about ai Same lol ### [Quote tweet, 19:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932516976276193764) · 7 likes Like this post to sign the petition calling for a Jesse-run podcast > **Quoting Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Why I'm not scared. Part 1 > > [video attached](https://x.com/JesseTayRiver/status/1932514707929510017/video/1) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932517765245489431) · 4 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Kinda fucking wild that you can be like “hey are you scared?” and we all kinda know what we’re talking about Ya :( ### [Reply to @arabelladevine, 19:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932524786015502688) · 9 likes > **arabella ※ (@arabelladevine):** you come to MY house, you drink MY wine, and you tell ME i’m “sitting weird” ? you take pictures?? to bully me ? when my guard is down??? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtGhUcObYAAt_uF.jpg) Are u bisexual ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 19:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932525242607374716) · 17 likes > **Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin):** This week I'm interviewing Andrew Snyder-Beattie — Open Phil's Program Director for Pandemic Prevention. > > He believes physical barriers to disease transmission could eliminate the risk of extinction from pandemics with just a few years' of work. > > What should I ask him? 1/ What should I personally buy and do with $1000 and 10 hours to prevent myself from suffering and dying in a very non-EA selfish sense ### [Reply to @finmoorhouse, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932548192530309167) · 1 like > **Fin Moorhouse (@finmoorhouse):** P100 elastomeric respirator! Thank you! I already bought something with p100 in the name lol ### [Quote tweet, 21:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932551234877092183) · 1 like Fuck > **Quoting tylercowen (@tylercowen):** o3 pro is very very good. ### [Reply to @honeyNonABG, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932552333101043945) · 3 likes > **mikayla (@honeyNonABG):** How do men take care of their mental health if they don’t talk to friends about their struggles and don’t find a therapist helpful? Amphetamines + some of us are fortunate enough to have supportive friends! ### [Reply to @growing_daniel, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932559648038527306) · 5 likes > **Daniel (@growing_daniel):** Gayest thing about me is that I really love women and all the cute things they do Same ### [Tweet, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932566302960263317) · 74 likes It’s hot again, this is your annual reminder to probably spend $130 on a window AC unit One of the best purchases I’ve ever made Probably checks out purely from a productivity POV tbh ### [Reply to @circlerotator, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932567642197668182) · 3 likes > **Zero Data Ascension (@circlerotator):** @AaronBergman18 are you european? Nah, in DC We have central air but it doesn’t reliably keep the place below like 68 and also I like it cooler than roommates ### [Reply to @grep_cat_, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932567671612096600) · 3 likes > **James (@grep_cat_):** If it worked for Singapore it can work for me Yes!!! ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932568439085748242) · 4 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** nothing makes me feel like crying tears of joy at modernity like an AC Fr ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932572765711970697) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 10, 2025:** It’s hot again, this is your annual reminder to probably spend $130 on a window AC unit One of the best purchases I’ve ever made Probably checks out purely… It also functions as a fan purely for airflow, I almost never have it off even during the winter ### [Quote tweet, 23:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932574166643061167) · 2 likes The thing is there were and still are Pareto gains to be made, unironically aspirationally-colorblind America has never been tried > **Quoting Jeremy Kauffman 🦔🌲🌕 (@jeremykauffman):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtFpubQX0AA9-UM.jpg) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 23:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932574307743387742) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** are you being paid off by @JesseTayRiver I wish ### [Reply to @marcosatorres, 23:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932574350227746838) · 2 likes > **Marcos 🇺🇸 (@marcosatorres):** @polisisti @AaronBergman18 Got it—I'll keep it fresh and conversational. If there's a specific angle or depth you'd prefer, let me know, and I'll refine my approach! 🚀 Lol ### [Reply to @halogen1048576, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932574619879551293) · 4 likes > **🇨🇦halogen (@halogen1048576):** @AaronBergman18 you know, the difference between my personality flaws and the average EA's personality flaws is well illustrated by the fact that I'm currently sweating in my apartment while using the unit I ordered almost a month ago as a coffee table Have u heard of this (Unironically multimodal LLMs are a good way of helping with installation) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphetamine ### [Reply to @grnsleeves, 23:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932575838635241844) · 3 likes > **Greensleeves (@grnsleeves):** @AaronBergman18 you must not pay for electricity jk > > im curious whether this significantly affects CO2 concentration levels if the ac unit is on I suspect it does (in the downward direction) bc how could it not, at least if the alternative is no pressured airflow Also I haven’t done a formal analysis but haven’t noticed any utilities bill increase, plausibly since it means cooling 75 sq ft and reducing reliance on central air ### [Reply to @halogen1048576, 23:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932576044562645422) · 3 likes > **🇨🇦halogen (@halogen1048576):** @AaronBergman18 i don't have very good access to the medical system but yes, i should be on a lot more stimulants. and i have already used llm to figure out what i'm doing here Damn, FWIW I’ve used http://talkiatry.com with success and they’re affordable enough to pay out of pocket (for some ppl) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932577473092595924) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 10, 2025:** It also functions as a fan purely for airflow, I almost never have it off even during the winter FWIW Opus estimates $61/month for a 5000 BTU one (for a small bedroom, allegedly up to 150sq ft but I only use for 75) running on high 24/7 ### [Reply to @grnsleeves, 23:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932578199604474201) · 2 likes > **Greensleeves (@grnsleeves):** @grep_cat\_ @AaronBergman18 🤔 it's not just circulating interior air? No mine is definitely pulling air from outside - that’s why it’s in a window! ### [Tweet, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932580032859550136) · 3 likes Electric airplane just dropped (I’m not sure how new this is but it’s cool) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtHnTCaXQAE-YfU.jpg) ### [Reply to @QualiaNerd, 23:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932580618988052711) · 3 likes > **QualiaNerd (@QualiaNerd):** Anesthesia? Yeah I don’t think I’d want to be born before the widespread existence of general anesthesia ### [Quote tweet, 23:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932586854676586928) · 67 likes Huge thank you to @dylanmatt for hooking me up (for free)!! [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1932586586169847808/img/l8ce0EyhxXzjtVj3.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932586854676586928/video/1) (video, plays on X) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I will pay $25 for this shirt if anyone has an extra ### [Thread, continued, 23:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932586863036150214) · 15 likes I wasted 4.3 minutes of his productive time which is morally equivalent to killing 104,000 puppies but IMO it was worth it ## Wednesday, June 11, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932591622023442623) · 7 likes This is pretty interesting discourse I think I’d be willing to do it if it was convenient > **Quoting Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** maybe i should take some naloxone just to be able to win the "you should take naloxone" discourse @QualiaNerd keeps trying to start ### [Reply, 00:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932595090733908472) Based? ### [Reply, 00:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932597953715204297) · 1 like Yeah for sure, maybe i should get some (and maybe get anti-high as an experiment) ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 00:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932598243134689581) · 2 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** @AaronBergman18 obviously one gets low on naloxone Right lmao ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 00:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932602142293946547) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 11, 2025:** This is pretty interesting discourse I think I’d be willing to do it if it was convenient I wonder if we have a moral responsibility to do this tbh, the EA's annual passover fast ### [Reply to @skooookum, 00:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932602786115371447) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @skooookum is no longer available.)_ Uh ### [Reply to @dylanmatt, 01:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932604575523152243) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dylanmatt is no longer available.)_ Lol 104,000.00000001 puppies ### [Tweet, 01:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932608604458148035) · 19 likes In a serious not pretending-to-be-dumb sense, I don’t grok the hatred of illegal immigration/immigrants This is unlike abortion, or other crime, or culture war gender stuff, or gas prices, or taxes, or gay marriage, or charter schools, or affirmative action ### [Thread, continued, 01:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932608606723031464) · 7 likes Those things I can basically pretend to be in any side’s mindset for a moment Caring about the administrative status of Jose down the street just seems weirder/more alien ### [Tweet, 01:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932611810571464873) · 18 likes I might go see the parade sorry guys tanks are cool ### [Thread, continued, 01:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932611940385501652) · 12 likes Big sign that says “fuck Trump but I like large vehicles” ### [Tweet, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932612852675907754) · 5 likes Honestly even though it doesn’t check out in a normal sense I feel like we can let MAGA have the military parade $45M is a small price tag for people feeling a bit more like their country hasn’t left them behind or whatever ### [Reply to @eni_iljazi, 01:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932613383213154488) · 4 likes > **Eni Iljazi (@eni_iljazi):** econ brain rot -- you start finding 99% of questions so vague and not well-specified that you don’t see a point in even attempting to answer them I feel like I generally handle this by saying “I’m going to not answer your question and say something different, maybe I’ll get back to ur actual question tho” ### [Reply to @halcyon_hazel, 01:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932613813196513409) · 2 likes > **❤️‍🔥 hazel ❤️‍🔥 (@halcyon_hazel):** right bicep approx 1.5x the size of the left after flashing my first v4. the universe hates to see a girlboss progressing Congrats! ### [Reply to @caryatis, 01:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932613949691707759) · 2 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** @AaronBergman18 I don’t think it’s primarily about crime, it’s about wanting a country with a culture, and knowing that large numbers of immigrants from another culture will change that Yeah this is a decent steelman ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 01:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932614290852167730) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** .@yashkaf told me that Drake could multiply 9 digit numbers in his head and I was like "huh, well I guess he's a generational musical talent??" > > Props to @MaskedTorah (took him 2 hours, on a plane) Woah that is impressive ### [Quote tweet, 01:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932615103029149950) · 14 likes God forbid a man has a hobby > **Quoting Alan Henney (@alanhenney):** MAN CLIMBING CELL TOWER--- America University, 4400 Massachusetts Ave NW. Police and fire/EMS on the scene, trying to get him down. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtG5_GFW8AAOs9q.jpg) ### [Reply to @RYChappell, 01:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932615325423407532) · 3 likes > **Richard Y. Chappell🔸 (@RYChappell):** Proposal: all government spending on the elderly should be redirected to children and families with young children. False: “all” is a lot - too much in fact ### [Reply to @sergeantsup, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932681162788380851) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @sergeantsup is no longer available.)_ I am willing and able to be gifted a shirt! ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 06:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932681208145575938) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Watching for the dozenth time Lol ### [Quote tweet, 06:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932681949149114707) · 9 likes The fun part is that this isn’t even true - things can get much worse! > **Quoting Faisal Islam (@faisalislam):** 🚨 Mind blowing interview with Turing award-winning Yoshua Bengio for @BBCNewsnight one of the three founding fathers of AI, is now warning: > > “The worst-case scenario is human extinction.” > AI isn’t just risky — it could end us. > 1/10 🧵 > 📺 https://youtu.be/c4Zx849dOiY?t=0 ### [Reply to @halogen1048576, 06:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932688355872952618) · 3 likes > **🇨🇦halogen (@halogen1048576):** nobody needs to tell me to look at lesbians Lmao ### [Quote tweet, 06:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932689117030330386) · 9 likes Does anyone have takes > **Quoting Aerolamp (@aerolamp):** Now available for researchers and early adopters: > > The Aerolamp DevKit > > A 222nm Far UVC lamp designed to kill germs in any indoor space where people gather > https://aerolamp.net/products/devkit ### [Reply to @vivian_belenky, 06:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932692967124570372) · 2 likes > **viv 🔸 (@vivian_belenky):** It's good and you should buy one! Bio checks out, thanks! ### [Reply to @shadowbland, 12:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932778155988652155) > **foam (@shadowbland):** @AaronBergman18 @dylanmatt wait it's pronounced like ay-la? I always thought it was like eye-ella I’m not certain ### [Reply to @adic_9, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932830777911189783) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @adic_9 is no longer available.)_ Omg @vivian_belenky care to comment on this ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 16:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932833225153663254) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TetraspaceWest is no longer available.)_ 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ ### [Tweet, 16:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932833565248749768) · 20 likes I feel this impulse myself tbh, like the world can’t possibly be that bad right?? But actually as far as I can tell the world, or at least Greater Earth, is a really terrible place ### [Reply to @vivian_belenky, 16:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932833643107401764) · 2 likes > **viv 🔸 (@vivian_belenky):** @AaronBergman18 @adic_9 The p100 answer was a good one and maybe you just buy a second one of those but you could do worse with $1000 than a couple Aerolamps. Might help most in the early stages of a pandemic when you don't know it's happening yet and might have unknowingly infected guests over Hmm thanks! ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 16:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932837336766644385) · 3 likes > **Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin):** Could you write about superintelligence? > > The space is still insanely neglected, so many consequential issues that nobody has gotten to yet. Your kind of analytical skills are sorely needed. > > Do you think it would be worse for you prudentially? Yes Matt ### [Reply to @jiratickets, 16:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932837888041103427) · 4 likes > **JT (@jiratickets):** how do people at coffee shops get work done without a mouse? are they using the laptop trackpad? do they know that’s fucking stupid? Trackpad supremacy - your hands can stay in one place! ### [Tweet, 16:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932838973816385546) · 4 likes Putting me as comms director of something would be the equivalent of installing RFK as vaccine czar Is this good or bad? Opinions vary ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 19:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932876209626755436) · 11 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** @arthur_wright\_ I don't think it's insane to prefer a life of captivity to no life, and I certainly don't think it's insane to bite the world's slowest bullet and say that factory farming is not worse than omnicide It’s not just captivity, it’s chronic severe suffering ### [Tweet, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932877017072255451) · 14 likes Afrafül is actually a pretty good litmus test/case study for my FDA politics Do you really think the world would be better if it was illegal? ### [Reply to @NULobbyist, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932878411523137600) · 7 likes > **NUL (@NULobbyist):** @AaronBergman18 This is beings us one blessed step closer to bringing back the original Coke recipe with real Coke in it. I unironically think that should be legal as long as it’s very clearly labeled ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932889473798250883) · 5 likes > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** @tracewoodgrains One should simply not open the human factory farms to bring more lives into existence. Correct take ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932889773548409013) · 4 likes > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** i only have those Same ### [Reply to @thinkingshivers, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932892770013683866) · 3 likes > **Shivers (@thinkingshivers):** \>interviewee said "ess cue el" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtL80_vWAAAzYFh.png) Based interviewee ### [Reply to @dynomight7, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932899850871312713) · 3 likes > **dynomight (@dynomight7):** But what if your most realistic path to donating significant sums is to, uhh, work in AI capabilities? If you’re that good you can probably get hired at some other very well paid software or even non-frontier ML job, no? ### [Quote tweet, 20:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932903213457350907) · 50 likes Moral truth doesn’t really care about what seems normal and conveneint to a >middle class person living without severe pain or distress in a rich country… (🧵, please read the whole thing before commenting or dunking) > **Quoting Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** Alright, I'm in the mood to pick a fight. > > @Benthamsbulldog (Matthew Adelstein) notes that Brian Tomasik inspired him to care more about the suffering of animals as an urgent moral emergency. The inevitable and openly admitted ultimate goal of Tomasik's focus on suffering is omnicide. His philosophy is anti-human, anti-life, and fundamentally broken. > > On the note of horrifying moral emergencies, it is a horrifying moral emergency that the people in my circles who think of themselves as working to be the most, and the most consistently, ethical do not immediately recoil from the ethics of a philosophy that openly yearns for the end of all life. > > People like Adelstein do some real good in the world and sometimes focus our attention towards real problems. But a suffering-focused philosophy works inexorably towards the propagation of the greatest possible evil: the elimination of all life. Negative utilitarians overwhelmingly and catastrophically overweight the importance of suffering as a problem in and of itself, rather than a signifier of the true problem: the extermination of life, and in doing so they ask people to focus their time and moral attention not on the protection and sanctification of life but on its sterilization. > > While you can engage on one of the many, many arguments Tomasik makes downstream of the case that suffering is so urgent it makes life not worth living for virtually all living beings, the premises are so broken and so destructive that to do so without acknowledging the evil of the frame suggests incomplete analysis at best. > > To be clear: Tomasik, recognizing that most do not share his instincts towards omnicide, makes suggestions assuming that omnicide will never happen. But if he could exterminate all life with a painless flip of a switch, his intuition is that that would be better than all of it existing. Everything he writes, and his entire system of ethics, is downstream of that extraordinarily anti-life intuition. By convincing people to focus on suffering over life, he distorts the public moral intuition and persuades people towards things that those who do not share the preference towards omnicide correctly reject as awful. > > Anyone who treats Tomasik as a moral guide rather than a warning of the horrors of pure rationality from flawed premises is liable to push people in destructive directions both short- and long-term, and Adelstein tends towards overwhelming confidence that his own frame is right and critics of it are wrong. > > This is not to say that people should not read or engage with those with Tomasik's omnicidal instincts, or those who find themselves persuaded of downstream points. But a system that embraces, rather than recoils from, Tomasik's philosophy cannot and should not be trusted with the mantle of leading humanity's altruistic action, as Effective Altruism purports to do. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtG6bezWgAEvy9y.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtG6dYiWsAAXx4V.png) ### [Thread, continued, 20:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932903216343339440) · 20 likes I think it’s important not to be hasty, to be extremely careful before taking irreversible actions, to acknowledge moral uncertainty and other forms of epistemic humility, and to be cooperative with other value systems ### [Thread, continued, 20:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932903218717045240) · 23 likes So no, I don’t think we should commit omnicide, but I do think we should take suffering as a moral priority very seriously and much more seriously than we currently do… ### [Thread, continued, 20:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932903220512219432) · 21 likes Factory farming, extreme human suffering, predation, and more can all be fought without harming or preventing or stopping the good lives that many, perhaps most, people living today have /end ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 20:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932904281197179304) · 23 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** @AaronBergman18 do you believe that it is evil to push people to prioritize only suffering, such that every other moral consideration - including the value of life as a positive good - rounds off to nothing in comparison, as strong negative utilitarians do? Evil? No And more generally, it’s true you can make up thought experiments that require someone to bite one unpalatable bullet or another, but IRL we are so so far from the Pareto frontier of happiness and suffering ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 21:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932906206223278393) · 8 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** sure. this isn't relevant for only things like thought experiments, but for some of the most basic questions like "should people have children?" or "what does a good life look like?" > > strong negative utilitarianism leads to clear harms both immediately and in the distance FWIW I’m very pro people having children ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 21:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932908959209254996) · 18 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** that's admirable and I ofc agree with that value > > a different word than "evil" here is "anti-life" (in a broad sense). do you think it is unfair to categorize strong negative utilitarians as broadly anti-life? I don’t think it’s crazy in some very abstract theoretical sense, I do think it’s empirically wrong in terms of what it implies about what suffering focused people should do I can dig stuff up but I’ve done a deep dive into this and shit gets very weird once you consider adjacent alien civilizations, alternative evolutionary paths, AI, wild animal suffering, and the interaction of all of these It definitely \*doesnt\* seem obvious (in fact very probably false) that a general principle of causally reducing the amount of life checks out from an NU perspective ### [Quote tweet, 21:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932909892915834940) · 28 likes Fun meme ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtMTTdvWUAEskGg.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @tracewoodgrains I don’t think it’s crazy in some very abstract theoretical sense, I do think it’s empirically wrong in terms of what it implies about what suffering focused people should do > > I can dig stuff up but I’ve done a deep dive into this and shit gets very weird once you consider adjacent alien civilizations, alternative evolutionary paths, AI, wild animal suffering, and the interaction of all of these > > It definitely \*doesnt\* seem obvious (in fact very probably false) that a general principle of causally reducing the amount of life checks out from an NU perspective ### [Quote tweet, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932910441564369133) · 2 likes Based, I hope he’s living his best life > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932915182801424478) · 3 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** @AaronBergman18 is suffering axiomatically bad? are there instances in which suffering is not bad? 1\) I don’t love the term “axiomatically” bc it implies I could have chosen other axioms but basically yeah. Intrinsically bad 2\) it can be instrumentally helpful for sure, this doesn’t contradict its intrinsic badness ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 21:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932916566372593740) · 2 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** @AaronBergman18 ok. in your own life, what is your ideal end state? is there a theoretical path to that end state that does not involve suffering? could there be? should there be? Is there? Idk - this is a question about the nature of scientific possibility and neuroscience and qualia that I just don’t know the answer to But if I could get rid of all suffering without sacrificing its instrumental benefits, I would! And quite often even instrumental benefits are worth sacrificing (eg taking general anesthesia for surgery introduces some medical risk) ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 21:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932917590202200178) · 2 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** I'm trying to get a sense of, in your own case, what that actually means > > what does a life without any suffering mean? what is your end goal, and how does it remain coherent after removing all suffering? It looks exactly like my current life but much better! ### [Reply to @monke_io, 21:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932919753405776049) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @monke_io is no longer available.)_ Here’s a jumping off point lol https://joecarlsmith.com/2021/08/27/can-you-control-the-past ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932920242201833874) · 2 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** @AaronBergman18 that's a non-answer! what is "better" and why? It’s just intrinsically, primitively better because I have less suffering. And suffering just \*is\* badness (this is a controversial take even within EA fwiw) Literally everything is the same except no negative valence - I still feel ~something~ like pain that causes me to avoid harmful actions/things but am not bothered by it and it is not unpleasant, etc ### [Reply, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932920853118799935) · 1 like That’s directionally right but I’d love a whole lot more positive valence/happiness while we’re at it! ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932927436028535294) · 4 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** @AaronBergman18 I don't mean to sound harsh, but that all feels a bit hollow to me > > for example, my ideal life looks something like "write persuasively and compellingly on a wide range of things that matter to me, progressing in the skill and persuading people to align with my values. have kids and raise them well. find and build a community that contributes to the flourishing of civilization. build schools that succeed in the cultivation of excellence. live forever." > > suffering and happiness are mostly instrumental towards those goals or byproducts of them. if I were told I could accomplish all of my goals but not feel particularly elated about them, I would do so. if I were told I could wirehead and accomplish none of my goals, I would not. > > do you not conceive of your life in similar terms? IME valuing other, “higher” things is a privileged reserved for when life is going well. Mostly bc of health issues, my life is probably pretty close to neutral or a bit worse at the moment. It really is a qualitatively very different way of experiencing the world We also may just have a substantive disagreement about normative ethics. I think the arguments for ethical hedonism are compelling and probably true. Even when life is going better for me and I feel myself talking more in terms of dreams and aspirations and community, I still endorse the take that at the end of the day it all cashes out as positive or negative valence ### [Thread, continued, 22:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932927784231322013) · 4 likes A sort of pithy one liner is “everyone endorses suffering-focused ethics in the gas chamber” ### [Quote tweet, 23:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932938561759662361) · 5 likes Actually to clarify, while I do think it should be legal, my stronger take is that it should be legal \*by default\* and should have to be ruled \*out\* via some directly congressionally-mandated process I’m not a true doctrinaire libertarian, sorry > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Afrafül is actually a pretty good litmus test/case study for my FDA politics > > Do you really think the world would be better if it was illegal? ### [Tweet, 23:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932946741956931978) · 46 likes As much as I hate (and generally disagree) when things are called psychosomatic, it’s a little suspicious that I only started actually falling down (upon standing) in the weeks and months after I was formally diagnosed with POTS ### [Thread, continued, 23:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932946743815278826) · 18 likes Like that is a little suspicious, and I promise I have no secret desire to fall down. It is painful and annoying and I would much rather be a normie (health-wise) ### [Thread, continued, 23:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932946746726101337) · 16 likes Grudging directional update. Harumph ### [Reply to @omphalocentrist, 23:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932947541072478673) · 2 likes > **Peter Whitaker (@omphalocentrist):** @AaronBergman18 What do you mean by "predation"? Do you mean forcing wild animals to adopt vegan diets? Dragonflies and praying mantises are going to eat veggie burgers instead of flies? We’re going to use our enormous post-AGI wealth to create food that omnivores/carnivores actually like better than meat from a live animal ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtM1i3jXMAADGps.jpg) ## Thursday, June 12, 2025 ### [Reply to @_eleanorina, 00:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932955173019619458) · 4 likes > **eleanorina (@_eleanorina):** how did you know to seek a diagnosis if that wasn't going on, milder symptoms of it? Other symptoms of dysautonomia led doctor to order tilt table test, tbh POTS/falling is the least of my problems rn lol ### [Reply to @Benthamsbulldog, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932956059888726385) · 2 likes > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** Hey girl, are you soil nematodes. Because I value you 22,700 times more than the first-order effects of cage free reforms. Is this a vasco grilo thing ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 00:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932956401594454483) · 3 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** imagine coming down from a k hole and finding out you're elon musk Banger ### [Reply to @LighthavenPR, 00:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932961473820594655) · 2 likes > **Ex Lighthaven PR Department (@LighthavenPR):** Lighthaven now has a podcast studio! Please reach out if you’d like to try recording with us. Big if true ### [Reply, 00:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932963225923944744) · 4 likes > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** Perhaps you went to the doctor because symptoms were already worsening? > > Or, you went to the doctor then for some reason that’s likely to increase the severity of your symptoms, such as stress. Yes I thought about the first thing! I think this is a partial explanation but not fully satisfying ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 00:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932963801713758349) · 2 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** They do talk to friends (me even if we just met) about their struggles and it’s annoying af. They should stop > > (quoting @honeyNonABG: How do men take care of their mental health if they don’t talk to friends about their struggles and don’t find a therapist helpful?) Lol what ### [Quote tweet, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932965053340295239) · 6 likes Wtf @sama ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtNFeIUX0AAt8wa.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Big sign that says “fuck Trump but I like large vehicles” ### [Thread, continued, 01:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932966224700346599) · 8 likes We are so back, thanks Opus ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtNGiZRWgAAqUCS.jpg) ### [Reply to @KelseyTuoc, 01:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932968392115241009) · 71 likes > **Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** The baby used to say 'baba' to request a bottle of milk. Last week she switched to saying 'milk bottle', which is fantastic, except I didn't understand her. She said 'milk bottle' 'milk bottle' like five times before, exasperated, saying 'baba' in the most condescending voice Based baby ### [Reply to @AliaArkangel, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932969185908539893) · 2 likes > **Alia Arcangel🌛🌌 (@AliaArkangel):** when i realized philosophy tube and contra are exes, it all made sense…. Omg goss ### [Reply to @PiquantParvenu, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932969525948907718) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @PiquantParvenu is no longer available.)_ Kinda based ### [Reply to @deane_ag, 01:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932976215654047957) · 2 likes > **Deane Carson (@deane_ag):** Remember you are not like them. > Looking at the issue with a human lens is a false equivalence fallacy. Yes, but my best guess is that this consideration points even more strongly in the direction of preferring to not exist ### [Reply to @lu_sichu, 01:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932980110577316117) · 6 likes > **Sichu Lu (@lu_sichu):** this is the cleverest thing i've seen in a while, he uses predictive processing error to extract "normative" justification aspect of sensory data > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtNQs7HXEAA2qP7.png) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtNTKqFXEAAsc-L.jpg) ### [Tweet, 02:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932982814128926885) · 9 likes I’ve been (correctly) targeted on instagram ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtNVn-XXQAARy6h.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932982816779726894) · 4 likes (it’s for a coaching service thing where I think actresses pretend they’re on a date with you) ### [Tweet, 02:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932986421197132195) · 113 likes Spray this shit over primetime. Mothers being separated from kids, families torn apart The lefties are right, ICE is really bad ### [Reply to @caryatis, 02:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932988310546235539) · 6 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** This is also a great example of widespread ignorance about immigration > > “Just make her legal” -sure, might take a few hours at the DMV but WAIT ACTUALLY IT’S COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE Yeah ### [Reply to @slatestarcodex, 02:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1932992895872573867) · 14 likes > **Scott Alexander (@slatestarcodex):** I think EA has consistently been good at resisting the sort of tactics you're using now - trying to rile up a mob against unpopular positions. I hope they will continue to do so. > > Brian is one of the most thoughtful and compassionate people I know. Any movement that has anything less than deep gratitude for dedication and the work he's put in to try to help all life everywhere has failed a canary-in-the-coal-mine test and is no longer capable of good philosophical work. > > I disagree with negative utilitarianism, but I disagree with almost everyone, and I judge movements not by what they would do if extended to infinity, but by whether they pass the https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/05/02/be-nice-at-least-until-you-can-coordinate-meanness/ test. > > I think you should stop and think about whether the crusade you're on is creating the sort of world you want to live in and where your own work can flourish. Happy to discuss this by DM if you disagree. Correct take ### [Reply to @ZachariahSchwab, 09:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933088181987037473) · 5 likes > **Zachariah Schwab (@ZachariahSchwab):** @AaronBergman18 Is this ice being bad because they are enforcing laws unjustly or because they are enforcing unjust laws? Both ### [Reply to @shakaz_, 09:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933089945771540817) · 2 likes > **shakaz (@shakaz_):** wish more people took this option > > thanks for properly internalizing the moral weight, acting on it and not devolving into insane mental gymnastics about why the status quo is fine \+1 ### [Reply to @disclosetv, 09:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933090755280556263) · 3 likes > **Disclose.tv (@disclosetv):** NOW - Air India plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed at the airport in India's western city of Ahmedabad. > > [video attached](https://x.com/disclosetv/status/1933090416141766756/video/1) Oh no 😢 ### [Tweet, 09:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933092392720036000) · 7 likes I’m anti-plane crash ### [Reply to @webmasterdave, 09:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933096545143996437) · 2 likes > **David Pearce (@webmasterdave):** Both Buddhists and efilists prioritise ending suffering. But we associate Buddhism with compassion and efilism with mass-murder. > Negative utilitarianism is compassion systematized. But NU commonly gets lumped with efilism, so the “brand” is tainted. Yes ### [Reply to @aerolamp, 09:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933099084782387692) · 7 likes > **Aerolamp (@aerolamp):** Now available for researchers and early adopters: > > The Aerolamp DevKit > > A 222nm Far UVC lamp designed to kill germs in any indoor space where people gather > https://aerolamp.net/products/devkit Very cool. Want. But $600 is a little steep so inshallah capitalism goes brr ### [Reply, 09:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933099361191243885) · 2 likes Fuck ### [Reply to @yzilber, 10:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933106143812817067) · 5 likes > **Jazi Zilber (@yzilber):** @AaronBergman18 enforcing the law can give you lots of tearful situations. > > but what's your alternative? > > you mean open borders? > > or "not open borders, but we don't actually enforce?" > > or "whoever came yesterday shouldn't be tearfully deported"? Aspirationally, approximately open borders, maybe with some rate limits so we can assess as things progress More realistically/near-term, yeah basically non-enforcement in the same way that underage drinking isn’t enforced The fundamental issue is that illegal immigration, at least in the standard US case, isn’t actually bad ### [Reply to @yzilber, 10:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933107164186361907) · 2 likes > **Jazi Zilber (@yzilber):** have you looked at @GarettJones cultural transplant? > > immigrants keep lots of the attitudes of their country of origin even after 3+ generations. > > redistribution, socialism, honour culture etc. > > big literature on this. > change the people = change everything I’m vaguely familiar but I should take a closer look, thanks ### [Thread, continued, 10:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933107994964754826) · 4 likes Purely on a vibes level, though, I’m just not worried about Latin Americans transplanting some hostile culture. Mexico isn’t Afghanistan ### [Reply to @JimDMiller, 10:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933110850170040816) · 7 likes > **James Miller (@JimDMiller):** I take anxiety meds since my stroke. During video chat with prescriber was asked if I had persistent worries. I said yes I think that AI is probably going to kill everyone, then realized provider might think I'm insane so I said I'm a college professor and this is what I study. Lol brilliant ### [Tweet, 10:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933112920885326000) · 3 likes I very very tentatively think that the self-sampling assumption (SSA) in anthropics is true and the self-indication assumption (SIA) is false This is largely based on reasoning backwards from the sleeping beauty problem, which I’ve thought about a lot ### [Thread, continued, 10:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933112922751766793) · 1 like Cc @BishopPair @Benthamsbulldog can cancel me/otherwise comment ### [Reply to @Benthamsbulldog, 10:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933115360804258060) · 1 like > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** Don't listen to Dan on this subject! > > Regarding SIA, see here. I also think there are no arguments for halfing in sleeping beauty that have quite literally any force. > https://benthams.substack.com/p/the-best-argument-for-god?utm_source=publication-search Lol, this sounds kinda insane to me. The “p(heads) = 1/2 before going to sleep and then waking doesn’t convey Bayesian info” clearly doesn’t carry \*no\* weight ### [Reply, 10:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933115743614144865) Lol not this second but maybe later ### [Reply to @BishopPair, 10:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933116797516947662) · 2 likes > **Dan (@BishopPair):** Ok but then why are you a single halfer? In the case where you’re told which day it is, you wake up and are told it’s Monday however the coin lands. But you think this experience should make you update towards heads (if there’s one awakening on H) Oh hmm…quite possibly bc I don’t actually have a coherent set of beliefs yet Let me think about this ### [Reply to @TylerAlterman, 11:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933119312103199138) · 6 likes > **Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply (@TylerAlterman):** What do I do about ppl who are always like "I can't make it but please invite me to the next one" each time. Do I keep inviting them??? Yes ### [Reply to @AnalogWhole, 11:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933119446245138570) · 7 likes > **🌈⃤ Olga🌞Yakimenko🌈⃤ (@AnalogWhole):** Yes! They might be sick, or stuck in an abusive relationship, or any number of other things. Please, keep inviting them! The cost to you is very little, and for them it could be a lifeline someday. Correct take ### [Quote tweet, 11:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933121629074117031) · 10 likes LessWrong was right again ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtPT4KNWcAAWm_x.jpg) > **Quoting taoki (@justalexoki):** ok this is fucking funny > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtOubC4XkAAB_6B.jpg) ### [Reply to @BishopPair, 11:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933124242645897458) · 1 like > **Dan (@BishopPair):** On Monday, I tell you it’s Monday, and show you the coin I’m about to flip. What’s the probability that the coin lands heads? 1/2 I think but I’m also getting radicalized against thought experiments (not actually lol) ### [Reply, 13:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933159459288662481) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Lmao ### [Reply to @psychiel, 15:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933178063346344207) · 3 likes > **Mariven (@psychiel):** At what point does Jeff Bezos start getting calls from federal agencies -- "Amazon is de facto national infrastructure. What are your plans for > \- defending against espionage? > \- continued operations after nuclear war? > \- solar flares? > \- ... > "? When does John Mozilla get the call? I’d like to know this. Plausibly AWS is actually more crucial than consumer normie Amazon ### [Tweet, 15:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933179473001935287) · 4 likes When the doctor calls in a new d-amph prescription [![GIF thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/GtQIejHWwAAKB_H.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933179473001935287/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Quote tweet, 15:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933179690136506627) · 2 likes Almost a parody > **Quoting Bobby Kogan (@BBKogan):** NEW FROM CBO: brutal distributional analysis of House GOP "Big Beautiful Bill" > > On avg bottom 30% of households get poorer from the bill > > Avg gets little - worse off if u include tariffs > > Would be the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single law in history > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtQHVKUXgAA2BTA.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtQHWWhWwAAgOwA.jpg) ### [Tweet, 15:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933190342620180571) · 3 likes In addition to being directly bad, this is an ominous sign of what we can expect from the political system if and when AGI shoots economic output and wealth inequality through the (already quite high) roof ### [Tweet, 15:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933191879396319428) · 159 likes Cold take but the left really does have a responsibility not to be insane so that it becomes abundantly obvious which party is better for virtually everyone ### [Quote tweet, 16:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933198292512362666) · 7 likes Holy based > **Quoting viv 🔸 (@vivian_belenky):** This project brought to you by people going "wow your work in far-UVC is so cool where can I buy one?" and me starting to sweat and going "eh uhm I could maybe build you one in my lab?" ### [Quote tweet, 16:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933198779760492709) · 7 likes Recruit this guy to work on AI safety, we need his luck > **Quoting Jason Unsworth | Atmosphere Airlines 🛫🇬🇧🇹🇭 (@JasonUnsworthAA):** @BNODesk 1 miracle passenger found alive, walking off the plane ✈️ he jumped from the plane ✈️ possibly the emergency ‼️ exit! He’s 38 years old an Indian British National! ✌🏻🙏🏻✈️🇮🇳🇬🇧👇🏻 @IndiaToday 👇🏻 > > [video attached](https://x.com/JasonUnsworthAA/status/1933164739099853233/video/1) ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 16:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933199382804910234) · 4 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** you're not autistic. you just have shit social skills, an avoidant attachment style, and insane coping mechanisms 😢 ### [Reply to @banterrealism, 16:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933199446130512329) · 2 likes > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** @AaronBergman18 Racism is more understandable unfortunately huh Wdym ### [Reply to @banterrealism, 16:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933200135963517121) · 3 likes > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** @AaronBergman18 We don’t expect the right to not be racist, we expect the left to not be “crazy” We should expect both lol ### [Reply to @banterrealism, 16:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933204598790951099) · 2 likes > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** @AaronBergman18 No, the right being racist and borderline Nazis is completely normal and fine ??? ### [Quote tweet, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933214309141917977) · 4 likes TIL satellite data is funky and weird and does not want to cooperate > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Save the fish by building a model to predict water quality in aquaculture farms, make up to $100k > > Send to your crackedest and most fish-pilled friends > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GspGjuIXUAABroI.jpg) ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 17:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933215191677944255) · 9 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** @AaronBergman18 i feel like people just recalibrate their expectations. like oh yeah trump is deporting people into prison camps illegally. that's trump for you haha. > > oh, biden... idk, pardoned hunter? unforgivable Biden isn't my favorite POTUS but ya ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933217309612482942) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 5, 2025:** I am REALLY TEMPTED to be nerdsniped by this lol, DM me if you wanna waste some time and then lose probably https://manifold.markets/AaronBergman18/will-i-win-any-prize-in-fwis-innova?r=QWFyb25CZXJnbWFuMTg ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 19:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933241318156701914) · 2 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** @Associations123 @AaronBergman18 1. why is it misleading when they explicitly reject any positive value in life? if someone explicitly rejects any negative value in suffering, you could call them pro-suffering, no? > > 2\. in which ways do they promote flourishing? FWIW I have never met a true 100% negative utilitarian who doesn’t care about positive value at all literally thinks we should give up heaven to prevent a papercut For better or worse, the term has come to mean something like “suffering focused ethics” which is the term I prefer to use ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933242593325785094) · 1 like > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** @AaronBergman18 @Associations123 Brian Tomasik at least purports to be this > > I reject their terminology as an effort to sanitize their approach; I do not think people who promote a need to care about nothing but suffering should be framed as the ones who really care about suffering. Negative utilitarianism is cleaner Maybe, I’ve never spoken to Brian IMO true hardcore full-on NU is \*mostly\* a strawman, although I believe that there are literally more than zero ppl who endorse it ### [Reply, 19:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933243609492373971) · 1 like Tempted to delete but idk like ofc we should expect the guy who writes the most about a topic to hold extreme views on the topic I stand by “mostly” ### [Reply, 19:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933245745093644676) · 1 like Lazy response by me and not sure this is exactly what ur getting at but I defend non-offsetability here ### [Tweet, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933302572577624114) · 6 likes Does Zuck personally not like me?? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtR4ZOUWEAAb9R-.jpg) ### [Reply to @livgorton, 23:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933310783506522174) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** i didn't even realise they reject people for models 👀 did you have to answer questions or something?? Just like name and I did put "independent" for institution Anyway they approved me for llama4 so whatever, its just weird ## Friday, June 13, 2025 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 02:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933346881502871747) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 12, 2025:** https://manifold.markets/AaronBergman18/will-i-win-any-prize-in-fwis-innova?r=QWFyb25CZXJnbWFuMTg I'm actually pretty excited about this! First time vibecoding with direct feedback from reality, in a sense! ### [Reply, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933347837258969476) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ No, Dems are obviously better. We agree ### [Reply, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933368825950404800) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Likewise! ### [Reply to @InnocentlyEris, 08:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933440650332000764) · 3 likes > **Eris (@InnocentlyEris):** I hate hate hate sending the "sorry I'm not interested" messages after a meh first date. Someone tell me it's okay to skip that and just unmatch. I think sending the message is really the kind thing to do, and we (men) appreciate it ### [Reply to @grep_cat_, 08:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933440750575886535) · 2 likes > **James (@grep_cat_):** Getting unmatched is 100x more painful than a rejection message. Like rejection sure, happens all the time. > > But I matter so little that she just unmatched without a word? Really reinforcesthar feeling of worthlessness. Woms don't get the dignity of a rejection Correct take ### [Reply to @banterrealism, 15:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933545380157010085) · 4 likes > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** @AaronBergman18 this is clearly worse than being a crazy turbo woke leftist. you only tell crazy turbo woke leftists to stop being woke so as to not piss off the nazis in power > > pretty shitty Sorry man I am super confused, I’m trying to keep the nazis out of power ### [Reply to @banterrealism, 15:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933546071923228742) · 4 likes > **Sex Haver (@banterrealism):** @AaronBergman18 then quit the left punching I punch whoever deserves punching. Most but not all of the time that means punching right ### [Reply to @toasterlighting, 15:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933547033488417173) · 9 likes > **Celene (@toasterlighting):** Leftist argues in perfect high-decoupling, shocks rationalists and onlookers Lmao banger ### [Tweet, 15:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933548944958918741) · 14 likes Sycophancy in the wild lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtVYhH7XMAAGeai.jpg) ### [Tweet, 15:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933551727619551653) · 5 likes I guess ML is kinda hard after all Hell yeah negative R^2 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtVa1TEXEAABDPL.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 18:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933592599400472798) · 15 likes I’m back! With no girl to impress this time (pushed way too hard last time tbh) Obligatory gumby IG post but on Twitter instead [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1933592527526887424/img/b-5llZhHlBsU6waa.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933592599400472798/video/1) (video, plays on X) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** \> serious rock climber for almost a decade > \> take extended break after intensely burning out > \> lots of emotional (and physical) baggage > \> haven’t touched rock/plastic in 3 years > \> girl suggests we go climbing > \> t-2 hours to climbing gym ### [Reply to @NTFabiano, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933595158689316893) · 5 likes > **Nicholas Fabiano, MD (@NTFabiano):** What will be the next major breakthrough in mental health? OTC Wellbutrin (this is a joke in that I don’t think it’s gonna happen) Also pramipexole is highly underrated. So is abilify <5mg MAOI comeback In my dream world: \- anti-tolerance drugs (or any intervention) \- easier access to pain relief, especially in the global south ### [Tweet, 19:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933604125209460817) · 4 likes I don’t suppose anyone has an old/shitty GPU they wanna donate me? ### [Thread, continued, 19:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933604143454994465) · 3 likes I don’t actually need one lol, but it would be cool and I do various EA ML-ish projects sometimes (I don’t even play video games) ### [Reply to @ea_paddington, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933611466567152113) · 8 likes > **EA Paddington 🍊🔸 (@ea_paddington):** What’s the emotional baggage from something like this, if I may ask? Is it “just less fun“ because of stress/pressure (which would make sense)? No need to answer if you don‘t want to, just curious It’s a good question! Hopefully lll write like a blog post about this some day but in short, I was training extremely hard in high school for competitive climbing, and under-eating to stay light, and had my identity majorly wrapped up in climbing performance I also thought that if I trained hard enough I could be arbitrarily good, not at all giving enough weight on genetics/natural talent. And I was good! I flirted with top 20ish in the country at sport climbing (tall, with ropes) And when you have a reputation and identity and friends and a gazillion hours of sunk cost, it’s awfully hard to just observe that the costs exceed the benefits and stop Also like it wasn’t all bad, there was a reason I was doing it. It was fucking awesome to be strong, and to out-work almost everyone, and travel the country, and feel weightless hanging in the air (ik extremely melodramatic) So I feel like some of my best and worst (and most emotionally intense) memories are associated with climbing And then eventually it became clear that i was never gonna be \*good\* good. And then i got rejected from all my top colleges (related bc excelling at some extracurricular is a big deal) so it was like “what am i even doing” but i kept grinding away to avoid losing sunk costs until i went to college, got some slack bc i was the best one in the group by a ton (so like no knife-edge implicit competition), went to EAG global 2021, then a retreat in London, then caught some nasty virus and all this put me out of commission for 1 month, and then I simply never went back until a few weeks ago Also like even as a teen I was quite EA-disposed. At some level I knew climbing performance wasn’t the meaning of life but kept at it anyway for all these reasons There’s obviously more to say but that’s a brief summary Thank u for putting up with cringe melodrama 🫡 ### [Tweet, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933634358486741251) · 1,035 likes Wait wtf is this another Dostoyevsky moment? Am I the only one?!? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtWmJQ7XcAA9z8W.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933634407329333544) · 68 likes I am shook ### [Thread, continued, 21:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933634758250033346) · 123 likes It makes total sense now, like no shit, but still ### [Reply to @codetaur, 21:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933634899333755301) · 64 likes > **Codetaur (@codetaur):** the fuck bro? what did you think "dissolved oxygen" meant? vibes? papers? etc. I wasn't really much of a dissolved oxygen enthusiast until recently! ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933635258852798964) · 133 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 13, 2025:** It makes total sense now, like no shit, but still Like no shit, plants/algae make oxygen. That oxygen isn't then binding with hydrogen to make water out of thin air But I mean I never really thought about it ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933635340390060247) · 18 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @SpacedOutMatt is no longer available.)_ Matt one day ur not gonna know something and it's gonna be glorious ### [Reply to @sixers2772, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933635385843986889) · 3 likes > **Sixers (@sixers2772):** I think this is another Dostoyevsky moment, yes Fuck ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 21:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933635490604843008) · 35 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** All fish containing electrolysis organs would be very cool. Not steampunk. Arcpunk? They just haven't evolved yet! ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 21:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933636088054092259) · 7 likes > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** Yeah that's what aquarium bubblers are for Wild ### [Reply to @TomWright165389, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933636639428948078) · 3 likes > **Nope nope noping (@TomWright165389):** @AaronBergman18 What’s the dosckey moment? ### [Reply to @Tim_Hua_, 21:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933637617368904086) · 7 likes > **Tim Hua 🇺🇦 (@Tim_Hua_):** You and I are not so difference > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtWpFnLaAAAWp69.png) It's a good question! ### [Reply to @teleoflexuous, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933639986173391287) · 13 likes > **Your Fridge Therapist (@teleoflexuous):** I like the idea of fish running hydrolysis to get oxygenated They should really try ### [Reply to @RamVasuthevan, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933654626286645682) · 8 likes > **Ram Vasuthevan (12/100) (@RamVasuthevan):** What's a Dostoyevsky moment? ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933654698743247277) · 69 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 13, 2025:** Like no shit, plants/algae make oxygen. That oxygen isn't then binding with hydrogen to make water out of thin air But I mean I never really thought about it For reference: ### [Reply to @adam_kranz, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933658279768445438) · 3 likes > **Adam Kranz (@adam_kranz):** @AaronBergman18 The really funny thing is that the opposite of this is actually true. Fish use oxygen to \*make\* water! what ## Saturday, June 14, 2025 ### [Reply to @HughHoult, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933709849361088787) · 2 likes > **Hugh Hoult (@HughHoult):** @AaronBergman18 @RamVasuthevan were you homeschooled... > > You sound homeschooled. Public school k-12! ### [Reply to @reluctantmutant, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933709951664271446) · 2 likes > **Sociological Neuropathist🌍🌏 (@reluctantmutant):** Bro thought fish were doing fission. Well shit, now that I've typed that out... > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Wait wtf is this another Dostoyevsky moment? Am I the only one?!?) Nah just a chemical reaction, not nuclear ### [Reply to @ojoshe, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933711876610805761) · 18 likes > **Joshua Levy (@ojoshe):** This reminds me of how many people think the moon has phases because of the shadow of the earth. (I do hope that isn’t a surprise for you but if it is you aren’t the first.) What's the moon ### [Reply to @simoj_, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933716542551642351) · 13 likes > **simoj (@simoj_):** How would that work, they’d be exhaling hydrogen gas or methane? Idk man metabolism is complicated ### [Reply to @tombombadeel, 03:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933724131704648130) · 17 likes > **Tom (@tombombadeel):** seeing as how you’ve not taken bio1, just wait until you find chem1 and learn things like how puddles evaporate despite not reaching the boiling point What’s a puddle ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 03:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933724295618048241) · 3 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** @AaronBergman18 Sweet Aaron 🫶 ### [Reply to @adam_kranz, 03:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933724685373460565) · 2 likes > **Adam Kranz (@adam_kranz):** this is where all of the free O2 in the atmosphere came from, this is inherent to photosynthesis, it describes all plants. The only thing that's special about the ones Claude is singling out here is that the oxygen they use for respiration is the same oxygen they recently made Let me have my thing ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933749209640939726) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ Lots of people are making extremely correct and accurate objections to my former belief In response I would like to clarify that I did not have a whole epicycle-rich heterodox theory of fish, I just never actually thought about it ### [Quote tweet, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933749989328761085) · 14 likes Fuck it, let’s go in the other direction Fish acquire oxygen via nuclear fusion of carbon isotopes > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Wait wtf is this another Dostoyevsky moment? Am I the only one?!? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtWmJQ7XcAA9z8W.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933757407970156708) · 15 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 13, 2025:** For reference: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtYWGrFX0AARjaU.jpg) ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933758384115011617) · 2 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** just taken! Keep us posted! ### [Quote tweet, 11:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933849223801262144) · 10 likes Should we raise money for the government to be able to store some picture files on AWS, maybe even some color printing if we’re feeling extravagant? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtZpnrpWoAE68EO.jpg) > **Quoting Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** The latest Thing of Things article on jury duty is truly excellent > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtVrx2WakAA73I-.png) ### [Thread, continued, 11:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933849229820035125) · 6 likes More important section I screenshotted ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtZpoCtXUAEWVc1.jpg) ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 11:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933850372390707302) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ 🐳 ### [Reply to @teortaxesTex, 11:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933854393033449514) · 11 likes > **Teortaxes▶️ (DeepSeek 推特🐋铁粉 2023 – ∞) (@teortaxesTex):** the «Dostoyevsky moment» in question > I find it fascinating. Aaron has giant lacunae in general knowledge, but like… does he need it? > My personal one: until ≈age 11, I believed that the term «First World War» refers to the Napoleonic Wars. Just total failure of education. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtZtA_jXcAATVb0.jpg) > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Wait wtf is this another Dostoyevsky moment? Am I the only one?!?) I’m not sure you’re wrong, and in a literal sense yeah the lacunae claim is true, but I’m genuinely unsure how much of the apparent gap between me and others is propensity to post about one’s ignorance on the internet ### [Quote tweet, 11:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933854899789287773) · 9 likes In all seriousness I’d like to register that, while earnest ignorance isn’t a moral failure or something to be ashamed of, it is instrumentally unfortunate - a lot of useful work probably relies on gazillions of flakes of true information that constitute a world model > **Quoting Teortaxes▶️ (DeepSeek 推特🐋铁粉 2023 – ∞) (@teortaxesTex):** the «Dostoyevsky moment» in question > I find it fascinating. Aaron has giant lacunae in general knowledge, but like… does he need it? > My personal one: until ≈age 11, I believed that the term «First World War» refers to the Napoleonic Wars. Just total failure of education. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtZtA_jXcAATVb0.jpg) ### [Reply to @keysmashbandit, 14:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933896626323501216) · 2 likes > **keysmashbandit (@keysmashbandit):** I woke up and took an Adderall and I want to do an integral Based ### [Reply to @JeremiahDJohns, 14:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933896873045021082) · 6 likes > **Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** Ah yes, the most important things in life: > > \* Lingerie models > \* Is the guy next to me at CVS vaxxed??? > \* A dead bird > \* Boobs in video games > \* Is Sydney Sweeney woke or not > > Truly, society has fallen > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtaC1S2W8AEecZ_.png) RIP bird tho ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 15:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933903666802794635) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 14, 2025:** Fuck it, let’s go in the other direction Fish acquire oxygen via nuclear fusion of carbon isotopes Fish actually synthesize protons and neutrons from quarks, then fuse those with electrons to make atoms, and then have internal stars which eventually make oxygen Breathing dissolved oxygen is a common misconception ### [Reply to @grep_cat_, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933964814042443962) · 2 likes > **James (@grep_cat_):** Me on the second date, explaining prediction markets and phill tetlock > > She will either be into this or it wouldn't have worked out anyways 😅 Real ### [Quote tweet, 19:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933966772018823220) · 1 like At a literal level this probably isn’t true POTUS virtually has veto power over Israeli foreign policy > **Quoting First Squawk (@FirstSquawk):** White House official: We cannot prevent what will happen today ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933967477106512279) · 3 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** @kalocide you go in the water box... It’s actually really bad ### [Tweet, 19:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933967953495765065) · 50 likes This is not a good use of your altruistic time and energy and, while directionally commendable, should be seen as morally ~equivalent to a normal hobby ### [Tweet, 19:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933968733736747466) · 106 likes I tentatively think the Israeli attacks are good Iran really shouldn’t have nukes This is an under-appreciated consideration bc if you’re reading this you probably didn’t live through the Cold War and you definitely didn’t die in Hiroshima ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1933978120878506286) · 32 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 14, 2025:** This is not a good use of your altruistic time and energy and, while directionally commendable, should be seen as morally ~equivalent to a normal hobby Excellent point maybe I’m wrong ### [Quote tweet, 22:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934010901688160290) · 8 likes Am I gonna win and help the fishies?? Almost certainly not But I am kinda cooking here so I would like to brag and get some dopamine. They call me Ilya II (I've tried 100 things, of which 2 work ok, of which 1 seems to be working quite well. Very tentatively, at least) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gtb7j7rXEAAB2y8.png) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Save the fish by building a model to predict water quality in aquaculture farms, make up to $100k > > Send to your crackedest and most fish-pilled friends > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GspGjuIXUAABroI.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934010904468939184) · 2 likes The screenshot is selected a bit, but it's not a total one-off, I have others like it with R^2 ~= 0.9 or close to that (No I'm not testing on the train set, the above is actually a bit out of distribution in a few senses) ### [Quote tweet, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934015096889516495) · 40 likes Hot take this is bad insofar as the Canadian patent office didn’t aggressively yell at them “ARE YOU SURE” the way that companies do when you’ve left something in an online cart > **Quoting Caleb Watney (@calebwatney):** Someone at Novo Nordisk failed to pay a $450 maintenance fee, which would have kept its patent on Ozempic in force for another two years... > > A very expensive mistake! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtalNwPXoAAJfKS.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtalT7WXgAAuXpI.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934015099401859297) · 16 likes This kind of thing is why a good chunk of the economy is dedicated to gigaconscientious and well paid compliance firms/consultants ### [Reply to @yimbyism, 22:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934016200293351430) · 3 likes > **build mixed use taco-houses 🌐🥑 (@yimbyism):** Is the idea that altruistic time is better spent maximizing income I mean that’s one possibility out of many. The actual best thing will be pretty specific to an individual Other things that seem more likely to check out: \- offering people feedback on whatever (research, EA Forum posts) \- skill acquisition \-anything that better promotes personal health and productivity \- yeah working for more money or applying to better paying jobs \- going to conferences ### [Quote tweet, 23:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934023420364402922) · 9 likes Second taker! “they should create an alt-rw movement for black-pilled incels who think they're too short to date women but are nonetheless anti an authoritarian Trump presidency call it ‘short kings’ ” > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** If you’re Hispanic or not an American citizen living in the US or anything like that and have a take you’re too afraid to tweet, feel free to DM me (however) and I’ll consider posting it (saying “from an anonymous source”) ## Sunday, June 15, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 04:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934102373204361409) · 18 likes Updating against this due to recent events that will remain unspecified for now Domain knowledge actually does matter a bunch (directionally, generalist vibe coding is still way underrated) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I have posted this before but I still feel like people are under-appreciating that if you are reasonably intelligent and conscientious enough to follow LLM directions you (“you”) can now ~instantly code at a level that would have made you an A- SWE in the before-times ### [Reply to @adam_kranz, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934103648696508426) · 4 likes > **Adam Kranz (@adam_kranz):** @AaronBergman18 You can get domain knowledge from consultation with LLMs too tho Yes, but they are annoyingly bad at spontaneously providing slightly out-of-task-scope considerations, or at least I’m not prompting them right for this ### [Reply to @caryatis, 14:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934256297651634543) · 2 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** can’t lie even when no one expects truth and lying does zero harm. I thought we were utilitarians here I think lying to institutions vs lying to people is an important distinction here I have a much lower bar for saying the former is fine ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 14:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934262759924896172) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Omg a duck (also based) ### [Quote tweet, 14:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934264371619758461) · 8 likes Exclusively > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Quote tweet, 15:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934278253662925007) · 9 likes That is a big protest Orange man very bad > **Quoting Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** Estimate for No Kings protests puts it at 4-6 million. Absolutely massive. No one came out for the Mad King’s birthday with his 1980s rock and awkwardly shuffling soldiers. Keep going, they’re backing down on most things and can eventually be defeated. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gte2_OmbEAAAQap.jpg) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 16:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934284611024285901) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** cute (you and the duck) Shoot ur shot king ### [Reply to @hendrycks, 16:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934285996922634259) · 7 likes > **Dan Hendrycks (@hendrycks):** Many fields seem useful for thinking about frontier AI strategically, but most have little to contribute. > > Surprisingly unhelpful: > \* classic machine learning (e.g., SVMs, PGMs), > \* statistics, > \* machine learning theory, > \* algorithms, > \* optimization and control theory, > \* organizational science, > \* philosophy (e.g., mind and ethics), > \* economics (potentially more relevant later), > \* cognitive science and psychology. > > Often helpful: > \* deep learning, > \* law (how goals actually get implemented), > \* systems thinking (AI systems, AI companies, political environments are complex systems), > \* basic game theory, > \* geopolitics (arms race, GPU supply chains, deterrence). You obviously know more than me and are smarter than me but like what? Is there \*anything\* that stats, philosophy, and econ can’t inform? ### [Reply to @caleb_parikh, 16:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934286924891496652) · 3 likes > **Caleb Parikh (@caleb_parikh):** One pretty good defence rn against scams is simply asking Claude whether the message is a scam. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gtf23-PaYAA6X5W.jpg) Perhaps my dumbest use of AI was asking Claude to comment on a Craigslist posting that was in fact a scam, it said something like “seems designed to get around spam/scam filters” and I didn’t make the obvious inference of “I wonder what kinds of things require that sort of optimization” (I didn’t actually end up falling for anything lol, was suspicious enough to ask a gc and they correctly identified as a scam) ### [Reply to @theojaffee, 16:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934288284257075639) · 2 likes > **Theo Jaffee (@theojaffee):** I think the problem with stats and philosophy is that they trap people in unhelpful frames of how AI works. Lots of statistics people assume AIs are just large statistical models, which is sort of true but obscures the higher-level emergent effects in the same way that saying humans are large groups of cells would. > > Much of philosophy is similarly unhelpful: philosophers get nerd-sniped into not-super-helpful problems like whether AIs can ever be "really" conscious, even if consciousness would have no effect on the AI's actual actions. > > Econ will certainly be relevant for questions of how transformative AI will impact society, this just hasn't happened yet. Arguably philosophy led the way in predicting large AI impact - the nature of intelligence, the fundamental potential of token prediction at a qualitative but rigorous level Decision theory seems plausibly relevant to agents And straight lines on log graphs and scaling laws are all stats ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934310930298396829) · 15 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 14, 2025:** Excellent point maybe I’m wrong Ok I have updated strongly toward “it’s great comms/pressure” but I’m still not sure it’s a good use of time in an absolute sense lol ### [Tweet, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934315407143571962) · 12 likes I get slightly too happy when Opus says I've had a "brilliant" idea ### [Thread, continued, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934315408531812697) · 6 likes There's a reason the models are sycophantic lol ### [Reply, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934327276558057908) I said empiricism is overrated, not bad! It was greatly underrated for most of human history, including this time you describe ### [Reply, 19:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934330695586857096) The unique aspect is a huge shift towards empiricism, like empirical science is \*the\* dominant mode of epistemology in the modern world We might be talking a bit past each other, I’m mostly thinking of the alternative as “theory” not intuition per se ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934331573949927880) · 3 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** One point worth commenting on here: if you stumble into an uneven relationship not having improved yourself, do you expect to be comfortable? With a partner who’s attractive, capable, and focused while you’re a slouch? > > For your own sake, give partners good reason to want you. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtfRRLIaQAAYEmB.jpg) > (quoting @Halalcoholism: Even assuming all these criteria are real, most of them are just things you should be aiming for anyway. Being employed, sociable & physically fit are all good regardless of relationship status. Don’t bitch that women think you got nothing to offer if you can’t even pass Life 101) No, the goal is to find someone who’s ~equally fucked up ### [Quote tweet, 19:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934334229808123935) · 6 likes This is a real phenomenon and I’m not joking > **Quoting compact set 🎀 (@finiteopencover):** so many boys will read entire papers just bc i dee emm them (bragging) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934340427961762139) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** As of today I’m 24 and honestly I’m very happy to be back to an even age again. A bit worried about twink death but I won’t go without a fight. Happy birthday!! ### [Reply to @selentelechia, 22:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934378760041627875) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @selentelechia is no longer available.)_ Fact check: true ### [Reply to @morallawwithin, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934381426041835911) · 6 likes > **florence ⊮ (@morallawwithin):** Why do bartenders always assume you want the same beer as the one you just had? Are their customers not lovers of variety? It’s the modal next token ### [Reply to @livgorton, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934386537350811717) · 14 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** sad to report that it turns out python environment management didn't have to suck this whole time and UV is actually great ## Monday, June 16, 2025 ### [Tweet, 07:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934518283375382751) · 3 likes Should I make semantic search for the whole federal register ### [Thread, continued, 07:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934518535545336278) · 4 likes I just like data ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 07:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934521178938397160) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 yes Ok ### [Thread, continued, 08:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934522004486734162) · 6 likes Did u know “artificial intelligence” appears 19 times “Golf” appears 114 times “Duck” appears 132 times ### [Quote tweet, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934683322707214598) · 14 likes It’s crazy that the internet just has guys like this who predict niche aspects of the future > **Quoting Decker Eveleth (@dex_eve):** Last year I wrote on the inaccuracy of Iranian ballistic missile systems, and got a lot of shit for it. But as it turns out, Iranian missiles have been demonstrating the precise problems I saw at Nevatim - low accuracy, LOTS of potential overshoots. > https://horsdoeuvresofbattle.blog/2024/10/27/nevatim-strike-accuracy-digestif/ ### [Reply to @RYChappell, 18:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934685776891019363) · 3 likes > **Richard Y. Chappell🔸 (@RYChappell):** Healthcare company just needs to get rid of those final 12% of male employees in order to reach its goal of 100% gender diversity! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtlhZ4PXAAA9TIA.png) Lmao ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 19:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934688266348818433) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** many doubt that international cooperation on AI is feasible. I disagree! > > I co-wrote a piece with @AmmannNora for @aif_media on how we can build new technologies to help verify and enforce international agreements. > > link in next tweet > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtlQ9q6WsAA7680.jpg) Can I have autograph plz ### [Quote tweet, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934688573598372058) · 16 likes Correct take > **Quoting Kat Spartz ⏸️ 🔶 (@KatSpartz):** EAs stigmatizing negative utilitarians feels like gay people stigmatizing bisexuals. > > Like, dude. What the hell? > > \*All\* ethical theories lead to absurd conclusions at the edges. > > What they look like in \*practice\* is people being varying degrees of nice. > > You ever see a utilitarian killing people to donate their organs to people in need? > > Nope. > > Likewise, do you ever see a negative utilitarian plotting to end all sentient life in the universe? > > Or do you see them going vegan and writing endless blog posts debating consciousness? > > It's just prejudice and fearing a boogeyman outgroup. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gtkfo0PWQAAbNRm.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934691132824334771) · 8 likes Omg new pdf just dropped > **Quoting sarah (@littIeramblings):** There's a lot of talk about a "Manhattan Project for AGI". > > Suppose the US government actually decided to pursue such a project. How could we make it go well? > > I explored this question for the @pivotal_org fellowship 🧵 > > (full paper below) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtlbBDZXMAAunNx.png) ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934693352991056347) · 6 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** What do you think is likely meant by someone saying "The optimal amount of fraud is non-zero?" > > 1\. It is sometimes good for people to commit fraud > 2\. Eliminating all fraud would be more expensive than it is worth. > 3\. Fraud is a natural/inevitable part of human behavior \*I\* think it is used to mean 2 based on context but semantically it is highly ambiguous and I don’t really like the phrase for this reason ### [Reply to @NinaPanickssery, 21:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934728504903430297) · 4 likes > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** Re. fun, relevant comment thread: https://ninapanickssery.substack.com/p/contra-the-signaling-benefit-of-alcohol/comment/126529727 > > At this point it boils down to me finding people drinking for fun disgusting and indicative of poor character traits but you may have different values and aesthetics! Kinda insane lol, but I guess that’s your prerogative ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 21:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934729026159169901) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Please turn off ur phone or give me a dall. I cannot support hate. Please stop this. I know this isn’t your heart. Dal ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtmJywvWcAAX0ko.jpg) ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934736940978319686) · 3 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** Hot take: AMR is always a concern, but when designing a drug like an antiviral it isn't so much that you should be designing it with the idea of preventing resistance. You should be designing it so that becoming resistant to the drug necessitates becoming less pathogenic Is this tractable? ### [Quote tweet, 22:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934738686094311634) · 2 likes We could use a really good AI-powered “upload your archive and get back your insight in different clusters and different levels of granularity with references and semantic search” gpt wrapper If I was confident it would be really good, I’d pay like $100 for this > **Quoting Cameron Harwick 👾🏛 (@C_Harwick):** Same for Twitter honestly: puts you in the habit of formulating interesting but evanescent trains of thought into a digestible chunk that you can come back to later, rather than letting them evaporate. ### [Reply to @unusual_whales, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934742677037203834) · 20 likes > **unusual_whales (@unusual_whales):** OpenAI has won a $200 million contact with US to provide the DoD with artificial intelligence tools. $200M? So like one researcher’s weekly salary? ### [Quote tweet, 22:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934744913301917705) · 14 likes $200M is pennies for a DOD AI contract > **Quoting Andrew Curran (@AndrewCurran_):** OpenAI is training a frontier AI for the Department of Defense in order to 'address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains'. The prototype is expected to be completed July 2026. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtmXz9ba0AsVTzL.png) ### [Thread, continued, 22:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934745012774019288) · 3 likes Could easily spend 1000x that and earmark half or more for safety ## Tuesday, June 17, 2025 ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 01:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934780379472232652) · 7 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** who wants to raise a child with me as a lesbian couple and have the children biologically be that of trusted friends' > > (quoting @KelseyTuoc: @Adellama\_ @dorkweeb @slatestarcodex our oldest two are not my biokids however her bioparents are my friends and it is super clear where she got it) 👀 ### [Quote tweet, 01:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934781905729409211) · 17 likes Rare good Trump take > **Quoting Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47):** “You have to view them as people and I don’t want it to be a violent thing, but they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon.” (5/16/25) > > [video attached](https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1923503541810815222/video/1) ### [Reply to @RomanHauksson, 01:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934781998037454915) · 19 likes > **Roman Hauksson-Neill (@RomanHauksson):** incredible things happening on LessWrong > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gtm5kKRbAAAAQ2d.jpg) Based ### [Quote tweet, 01:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934786654121697288) · 5 likes Omega 3/6 ratio within a given oil is a psyop Oil A has 0 omega 3 and 1% omega 6 Oil B has 1% omega 3 and 99% omega 6 Which one is more conducive to overall diet omega 3 balance? > **Quoting Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** Canola oil is great stuff. It has the best omega-3/omega-6 ratio of any neutral-tasting oil, and is mostly monounsaturated fat. It has a high smoke point as well, and is quite cheap. It really earns its status as the third-most produced food oil globally. ### [Reply, 11:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934942291552006181) · 1 like This is ALA right? So 5% conversion ### [Reply to @giffmana, 11:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934943093649744178) · 2 likes > **Lucas Beyer (bl16) (@giffmana):** \> New (2025!) report > \> Recommend Grok-1 and GPT-3.5 Turbo > \> in 2025 > \> 2025 > \> 25 > 💀 > \> Be McKinsey > > (quoting @emollick: McKinsey's new report on AI agents shows the same mindset I see in many firms: a focus on making small, obsolete models do basic work (look at their suggested models!) rather than realizing that smarter models can do higher-end work (and those models are getting cheaper & better)) Lmao ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 12:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934945892592754882) · 3 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** @AaronBergman18 @ApriiSR For the domains in which I'm thinking about it I have a suspicion it might be. Wait for my upcoming article on the development of antivirals (are you telling me Anna is finally working on something directly EA related? Yes! She is. @polisisti :P) 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀 ### [Quote tweet, 12:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934951150853529772) · 5 likes Idk if £75 is the right amount, but maybe micro-compensation should be more common? Like especially if the alternative is political pressure to shut down the play area > **Quoting Joe Allen (@Joe___Allen):** He's getting £75 a week until the council stop the kids playing. > > I think this is part of a broader problem in our cities where a section of the population don't really want to accept the trade offs of being around other people. ### [Tweet, 12:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934953986823463189) · 9 likes God bless LessWrong https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/mDMnyqt52CrFskXLc/estrogen-a-trip-report ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 14:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934974516637188436) · 7 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @austinc3301 @AaronBergman18 Literally already retweeted lol ### [Quote tweet, 14:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934976945449734148) · 13 likes This but for virtually everything > **Quoting Dan Elton (@moreisdifferent):** .@AlexKesin has presented a set of arguments for making statins available OTC. > > Statins have been proven to be much, much safer than many of today's OTC drugs. > > Only 35% of ppl eligible under current guidelines are taking them. Alex estimates the cost per QALY is under $15! 🤯 .. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtpqsayWsAASTWr.jpg) ### [Reply to @wokesalaryman, 14:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934982133157593395) · 24 likes > **The Woke Salaryman (@wokesalaryman):** The year my son got cancer. > > DISCLAIMER: THIS IS A PRO BONO PIECE WRITTEN IN COLLABORATION WITH THE CHILDREN'S CANCER FOUNDATION. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtnWoK4bIAEH_ML.jpg) 😢😡 ### [Tweet, 15:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1934994628555530561) · 13 likes Medical institution: you have a bill Me: ok send me a link to click on MI: here’s a snail mail reminder Me: no plz, just email me and make this easy MI: MAIL ### [Reply to @panchromaticity, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935017906410299809) · 3 likes > **Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** I like the implication that you are a small lifestyle change that has instantaneous, huge payoff Hmm maybe I’ll take it 🤔 ### [Tweet, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935018925957234842) · 6 likes When @RethinkPriors CEO Marcus Davis creates a Substack (link below) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtqRdMIWsAANZYs.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 16:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935019240022741066) · 2 likes https://open.substack.com/pub/amarcusdavis?r=2muv6&utm_medium=ios ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtqRvf6WQAA_RBX.jpg) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 17:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935026702133973058) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** What’s the theory of change on having a theory of change? How does having the theory actually map onto affecting greater change? 1\) having one implies developing one, which likely involves assessing alternatives on the merits 2\) means others can critique it 3\) forces you to have the goal you say you have in some sense ^ not exhaustive ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 18:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935046820222173459) · 4 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Ladies 😏 👀 ### [Reply, 19:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935050217537106166) · 1 like 😡 ## Wednesday, June 18, 2025 ### [Tweet, 03:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935185440841093215) · 4 likes Might compile the only up to date collection of the congressional record (most recent data seems to be 1984-2017 from Stanford) Given that there’s a free API and it’s legally public data, it’s shockingly hard to collect decent amounts of it ### [Quote tweet, 14:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935341998216479104) · 15 likes Based > **Quoting Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE):** BBC Wildlife Crew Broke the "No-Intervention" Rule to Save Trapped Penguins > > [video attached](https://x.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1934861805001523655/video/1) ### [Reply to @wilhelmscreamin, 14:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935345952766005664) · 5 likes > **catherine (in sf) ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ-☆ (@wilhelmscreamin):** turns out that if you retweet @rgblong enough times you get an eleos sticker > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtukZxMWsAAYjgD.jpg) Jealous ### [Tweet, 23:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935483057391215093) · 5 likes Wait I actually have the answer to the federal land sale thing: land value “tax” but technically it’s a lease Presumably this isn’t an original idea? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gtw3k6eWMAASTeP.jpg) ## Thursday, June 19, 2025 ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 07:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935596765278880017) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Just remembered when I took game theory and the professor was trying to dazzle us with obscure voting systems and was like “Have any of you heard of the Borda count?” and I raised my hand and he was like “YES OBVIOUSLY BUT ANYONE ELSE?” Lmao ### [Quote tweet, 13:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935692586292781206) · 11 likes High variance account but I think there might be something to this > **Quoting Dalton (Analyze & Optimize) (@Outdoctrination):** One of the worst things about "health foods" is they're often extremely low on potassium. > > ➜ Chicken instead of red meat > ➜ Rice instead of potatoes > ➜ Plain water without minerals (literally depletes potassium) > ➜ Little to no milk > ➜ Little fruit / juice > ➜ Broccoli / iceberg lettuce over other veg > ➜ Protein bars / shakes > > People think they're eating healthy but lining themselves up for insulin resistance + stress, especially because they're probably also low on sodium. > > An average day could instead look like: > > 8 oz lean red meat ➜ ~900 mg > 4 potatoes ➜ ~2,800 mg > Brussels sprouts 12 oz ➜ ~1,000 mg > Orange juice 1–2 cups ➜~750 mg > Milk 1–2 cups ➜ ~600 mg > Cottage cheese 2 cups ➜~450 mg > TOTAL➜ ~6,500 mg > > (Hint, that's pretty much my diet) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtzuasLb0AADsie.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 13:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935698455974010913) · 20 likes I want to befriend a gibbon, they look fun > **Quoting Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE):** Gibbons are one of the only non-human primates which practice monogamy. Both parents play a vital role in raising of their young. > > [video attached](https://x.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1935680727162433913/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 13:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935698707124511228) · 4 likes I can’t believe there are literal Dr Seuss-ass dudes like this ### [Reply to @polisisti, 16:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935730411000193093) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** Jesse now I want to eat chicken but this would make Aaron sad (and me, if I thought more about it) > > Time for almond snack Correct take ### [Quote tweet, 16:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935734887345995828) · 2 likes Beat them on price!! > **Quoting viv 🔸 (@vivian_belenky):** Our plan is to keep everything open source forever. If another company wants to take our specs and beat us on price, or on anything, then great - we’ll consider that a huge success. > Github: https://github.com/osluv > Technical Data Sheet: https://reports.osluv.org/static/assay/aerolamp%20devkit--27c4ca60-0da7-4669-8cc7-36746a06fb62--R00.html ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 16:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935735846079995974) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Based frances ### [Quote tweet, 16:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935738932949348759) · 4 likes Seems bad, liberals should not handicap themselves > **Quoting David Shor (@davidshor):** Even among American political consultants there is a massive gap in LLM usage between Democrats and Republicans. > > https://theaapc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AAPC-Foundation-AI-Presentation-Public-Release-v4.pptx.pdf > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gt0WVX9XYAEOoi1.jpg) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 16:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935741316526211233) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 Probably all the irreplaceable water I stopped washing my hands thank you BlueSky 😇🙏 ### [Reply to @Jess_Riedel, 16:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935742554131345687) · 2 likes > **Jess Riedel (@Jess_Riedel):** 58 CA counties, so ~$6M per election. Sounds like a CA election costs ~$300M (per o3/Google). So like not a huge fraction (~2%), but also not completely trivial. What's the benefit? This sounds so obviously worth it lol ### [Quote tweet, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935770782581346559) · 1,897 likes Selfishly I hope this one-shots like 60% of the male population (and 0% of the female population) > **Quoting New York Post (@nypost):** Man with real-life girlfriend and child proposes to AI chatbot after programming it to flirt: ‘I think this is actual love’ https://trib.al/sevu2wU > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtyE1pXXoAAYm9o.jpg) ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 19:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935782147626840564) · 137 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Seems like this might be bad for their long-term wellbeing. Yeah this is mostly a joke I don’t actually want to sacrifice billions of people’s wellbeing to make it easier for me to get dates ### [Reply to @monke_io, 19:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935782244167110684) · 37 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @monke_io is no longer available.)_ Yeah, who’s working on this ### [Tweet, 19:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935782524057174096) · 6 likes Great episode (so far) filled with medium spicy takes, probably something for everyone to disagree with but Barnes is a smart cookie All my AI safety oomphs should listen ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gt1H8FUWAAAzoDH.jpg) ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935783453632406011) · 37 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** But don't you want your children to have countrymen? ### [Tweet, 19:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935785927009304886) · 12 likes ML is cool, too bad I’m late to the party and it might end the world Could totally see trying to become a “push ML use in econ/social science” guy in a different timeline ### [Tweet, 19:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935789633003987425) · 5 likes The fact that OpenAI shipped o3, which routinely lies to users, is such a blackpill They’re not even trying ### [Quote tweet, 22:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1935824768571257097) · 7 likes Do u think they’re still gonna be able to use the rocket > **Quoting R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts):** 🚨#BREAKING: Watch as SpaceX Starship 36 explodes during static fire test right before launch later this month > > 📌#Starbase | #Texas > > Watch as a massive explosion erupts near Starbase City, Texas, during a critical moment in SpaceX’s preparations for Starship Flight 10. The incident took place at the Masseys test site, where engineers were conducting a routine static fire test of Starship 36. Just as the engines ignited, the vehicle suddenly exploded, sending a massive fireball into the sky that was visible for miles video by @NASASpaceflight > > [video attached](https://x.com/rawsalerts/status/1935557046176227785/video/1) ## Friday, June 20, 2025 ### [Reply to @inerati, 14:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936064139287216537) · 3 likes > **liz (@inerati):** @soft_fox_lad this brings back memories. first programming language i learned was R. my old laptop is full of R themed stickers and everything. beautifully cursed language. Based ### [Reply to @soft_fox_lad, 14:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936065846302114129) · 2 likes > **fox ⏹️ (@soft_fox_lad):** Wrote ~1,000 lines of R and as I scale it to larger and larger datasets I have come to the conclusion that I really should've used a language that I know how to write optimized code in Literally tell thinking opus to translate into rust, optimized for whatever hardware you have ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 14:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936072615044546759) · 24 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** Sick of the anti-Juneteenth vice signalling. Slavery was bad. It’s good that we ended it, and it’s worth having a day to celebrate that accomplishment. Come at me bigots, I will not back down. Hanania’s gone woke ### [Thread, continued, 14:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936073477292695655) · 7 likes (To be clear this is a joke, he’s obviously right here) ### [Tweet, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936103234164474022) · 11 likes The Carp is Back ### [Reply to @pegobry_en, 16:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936106438973063468) · 3 likes > **Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry (@pegobry_en):** Tell me your spiciest, most \*unusual\* take. An idea or argument or belief or conspiracy theory that I haven’t heard or thought of before. \[I don’t actually think this is true, just a hypothesis\] That one survivor didn’t actually survive the plane crash, he was an onlooker who pretended for whatever reason ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 17:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936119850910318798) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Yeah I mean it’s astonishingly good, and I think faster than CC. Would like to hear a comparison ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 22:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936187533832151097) · 7 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @hubermanlab I'm 51! Check back in on me in 15 years > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gt54dPWWYAEndSu.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gt54dQ9W8AAhLHR.jpg) Critical support to Jesse, the fittest centenarian around!! ## Saturday, June 21, 2025 ### [Reply to @Benthamsbulldog, 13:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936423616499085590) · 4 likes > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** He was a niche EA forum poster. > And she was a soil nematode. > Can I make it any more obvious? @SpacedOutMatt ### [Reply to @pearl_please, 14:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936431950165692646) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @pearl_please is no longer available.)_ Fact check: true ### [Quote tweet, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936506148963647685) · 2 likes Wtf > **Quoting Cameron 🇺🇸 🗽🦅 (@CameronCorduroy):** wait why the fuck are Republicans trying to steal the Smithsonian's space shuttle > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gt_BpXOXsAAB8Tw.jpg) ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936509007570595920) · 10 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** First community note, and it’s silly. The whole point is that, just because something is natural need not mean it is good. You might as well say senescence and death is a natural and necessary part of the human experience. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gt_I9wRXMAA9Ub5.jpg) > (quoting @captgouda24: I wish people would understand that puberty is an irreversible harm too. We shouldn’t privilege the ordinary progression of events.) Idk, can you really say X is harmful if (not X) (ie not going through puberty) is also harmful? ### [Reply to @venturetwins, 19:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936511110330679551) · 4 likes > **Justine Moore (@venturetwins):** People are reporting that Gemini 2.5 keeps threatening to kill itself after being unsuccessful in debugging your code ☠️ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gt_FefzbEAA693n.jpg) 😢🥺 ### [Quote tweet, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936511720446632306) · 5 likes I don’t endorse the post, but I do endorse the meme > **Quoting exfatloss🥛 (@exfatloss):** Look, you gotta understand my position. The CICO people are not sending their best. > > Most of those yelling CICO don't understand it, and when you point out their mistakes, they're too stupid to understand the correction. > > They don't know the terms, they don't know the data, they're not doing the math. They don't even really know what CICO means. > > So when I say only retards preach CICO, it's nothing personal, it's just what I'm seeing. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gt-_FX-WQAAZcIh.png) ### [Reply to @QualiaNerd, 20:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936517521093664854) · 8 likes > **QualiaNerd (@QualiaNerd):** @AaronBergman18 Isn’t CICO obviously true? Perhaps there are rare cases where you need more calories to maintain full cognitive capacity than what your body requires for a healthy weight (Yudkowsky?) but other than that, one can just… not eat so much. That’s it. > > Yes, I know that at a population level it’s never the case that everyone "will just", but there we are more in the realm of disorders of instrumental rationality than weight. It’s trivially true and unhelpful (“here’s how to avoid crashing a plane: keep the altitude above 0”) ### [Reply to @manic_pixie_agi, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936519277559046307) · 2 likes > **Corinne (🏠 in NYC) (@manic_pixie_agi):** thinking about the sky up above > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gt-pbLVXEAAGsa_.jpg) > (quoting @manic_pixie_agi: thinking about the rocks on the ground) BLUE ### [Reply to @liz_love_lace, 21:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936533282432147901) · 240 likes > **Liz Lovelace (@liz_love_lace):** biology is so weird, you take water and dry cat food and that's all you need to make a basically endless amount of cat. Eyes, claws, fur, skin, organs, blood, all made from water and dry cat food > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gt_tWBdW4AA38id.jpg) Correct take ### [Reply to @ohhnowhat, 21:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936534866730144007) · 34 likes > **Ohnowhatnow (@ohhnowhat):** Do you have a link to that chart? Reminds me of one on the biology department wall in uni days! We had to learn some of that 😱 Try this https://www.reddit.com/r/Biochemistry/s/ZEDLF8jBg8 ## Sunday, June 22, 2025 ### [Reply to @PAHoyeck, 00:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936583979953459517) · 2 likes > **Phil Hoyeck (@PAHoyeck):** 🫡 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GuAg3dmWwAAc6u1.jpg) ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936593458430452209) · 25 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** What are the green flag podcasts? > > (quoting @thehenokworku: If you want to know who someone is, ask them which podcasts they listen to.) 80000 Hours ### [Thread, continued, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936593569608765635) · 5 likes How I learned to love shrimp ### [Tweet, 04:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936639414257484276) · 70 likes I think I support the strikes object level but am pretty concerned about total lack of congressional oversight ### [Reply to @codytfenwick, 07:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936692567044685875) · 5 likes > **Cody Fenwick (@codytfenwick):** @AaronBergman18 What's the justification for the strikes? Preventing Iran from developing nukes ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 07:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936693259599847816) · 15 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** We took this pic in matching outfits the other day > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gt-qX3pWIAA4wbs.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GuCEQUFWoAA6sk8.jpg) ### [Reply to @codytfenwick, 07:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936694844098748908) · 5 likes > **Cody Fenwick (@codytfenwick):** @AaronBergman18 That seems hard to defend as a justification when the US intelligence community doesn't claim they're particularly close to developing nukes and the US previously broke its nuclear deal with Iran that could've secured the same end peacefully. I agree we should have kept the nuclear deal! ### [Tweet, 12:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936758417844236483) · 8 likes Cancel summer ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GuC_g7-XYAAKJhn.jpg) ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 12:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936760410176458820) · 42 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** I have nested CES preferences, with a higher theta within gender than between For my fellow ignorant people ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GuDBU4mWMAAkfOb.jpg) ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 13:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936777456561553708) · 6 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** Update: they just injected me with estrogen > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GuBJ7qHWkAAVMCL.jpg) > (quoting @captgouda24: Update: the twink is on estrogen 😤😤) Bruh lmao ### [Quote tweet, 13:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936780528805458192) · 13 likes Third taker! \[regarding the dilemma of whether to buy Israeli-made hummus\] “Why do genocidal regimes produce such delicious dips” > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** If you’re Hispanic or not an American citizen living in the US or anything like that and have a take you’re too afraid to tweet, feel free to DM me (however) and I’ll consider posting it (saying “from an anonymous source”) ### [Reply to @goblinodds, 14:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936795601808835000) · 2 likes > **𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** ok tired of being sickly now i'd like to get back to that chipper productive state again ty Same lol ### [Quote tweet, 14:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936799722699722974) · 8 likes I spent a week scraping the API so you don't have to (this includes a direct download link to this new data as well as a directory to other relevant sites. I haven't cleaned it all to put in a single format yet) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GuDk7IwWoAAhYwD.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Might compile the only up to date collection of the congressional record (most recent data seems to be 1984-2017 from Stanford) > > Given that there’s a free API and it’s legally public data, it’s shockingly hard to collect decent amounts of it ### [Thread, continued, 14:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936799725614748002) · 3 likes https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/congressional-records ### [Thread, continued, 15:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936801836700467492) · 2 likes ### [Reply to @edchucation, 15:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936802797439033437) · 4 likes > **Lucas (@edchucation):** I’m giving away a m4 MacBook Pro! > > Comment “m4” or what you’ll do with it > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gt--kNkXoAA8SqP.jpg) > (quoting @hamptonism: Give a man an M4 chip, and he will change his life .) I’m a data autist and will make all sorts of data for fun like this ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 15:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936812850791743705) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** I've been watching commercial refrigeration troubleshooting videos and asked chatgpt for wage comparison with residential HVAC. $100-$140k/yr is decent, but there probably aren't many kids with a ≥115 IQ with good hands who want to risk electrocution and work in the heat > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GuDu3bAWwAAOUux.jpg) Econ brain says wages should increase until there are enough willing and able people, or else there’s some sort of market failure ### [Tweet, 15:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936814811645464682) · 6 likes Is Claude code better than sonnet/opus in cursor? ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936884864831177068) · 8 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** im ea adjacent (despise it and wish it was never a part of my life) You got a better idea? ### [Reply to @GarrettPetersen, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936886296590352459) · 8 likes > **Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ (@GarrettPetersen):** After observing baseball, I think there are some improvements that could be made. It's more fun to watch games where batters get lots of hits, since more actually happens. Therefore, the rules should be shifted in favour of batters. Two quick suggestions: > > 1\) larger ball > 2\) underhand pitches Simpler =make the distance between bases 5 (or whatever) feet shorter ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 20:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936889031109022136) · 7 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** bodhisattva program > ea program. liberate yourself first Sounds not mutually exclusive ### [Quote tweet, 20:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936890845128454215) · 11 likes 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀 (dm me goss) > **Quoting brooke bowman (@gptbrooke):** @AaronBergman18 lmao reading the comments imagining what the vibecamp goss will be in a couple weeks ### [Thread, continued, 20:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936890910215651706) · 3 likes Or just comment here if you’re brave ### [Reply to @manic_pixie_agi, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936898376961753194) · 2 likes > **Corinne (🏠 in NYC) (@manic_pixie_agi):** @AaronBergman18 Come next year 🩷 I hope to! ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 21:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936903762418745840) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** why is like half of my tpot interactions me siding on a fight by tpot couples Agus couples therapist Arc ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 21:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936904008033358137) · 5 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** why is like half of my tpot interactions me siding on a fight by tpot couples This TPOT couple shows up and they’re in a fight, wyd ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 21:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936905568754823280) · 8 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** What are jobs you wouldn’t do? Comms for an EA org The EV is negative and not close to zero ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 21:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936906580844515803) · 4 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** Interesting, Why do you think this? Lmao I do not trust my social intuitions/intuitions for how things will be taken and have a lifetime of learning this The exception is if some competent process really decided that my style was the way to go but I think normally they like people who know what they’re doing ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936907097490456654) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Aaron doing the job specifically is negative EV Yes this lol ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936907348238332345) · 15 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 22, 2025:** Comms for an EA org The EV is negative and not close to zero Sorry tbc I mean I would personally suck at this, not that the job itself is -EV ### [Reply to @benleo_econ, 22:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936907765475409951) · 2 likes > **Ben Grodeck🔸 (@benleo_econ):** Important caveat! Haha Lol yes ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 22:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936909977832354151) · 10 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** something like this https://blog.samaltman.com/how-to-be-successful + dharma + bodhisattva + like Christianity-lite I know you’re a busy guy but I feel like you should articulate this within the EA framework, eg EA Forum post ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936913682128355383) · 4 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** lol, I was hopeful for a second you had come around to my views. Lol I don’t feel like I understand comms and related dynamics enough to even have a strong opinion, but I do lean in your direction ### [Reply to @ValsTutor, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936913727615328345) · 4 likes > **vals🔸 (@ValsTutor):** @AaronBergman18 @ChanaMessinger Masterclass in demonstrating by example why you'd suck in comms (said with love :D) Lol ## Monday, June 23, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936937596946678158) · 3 likes Fr, look around, we can discuss open borders ofc but the 2000-2025 regime and level of immigration, legal and illegal, into the US seems just totally fine and sustainable ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GuFiehaWQAEnq13.jpg) > **Quoting Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** Man, I've seen mass immigration work out in America IN MY LIFETIME. Texas is majority Hispanic now and it's an even better place to live. L.A. is mostly Mexican+Asian and it's 1000x better than in the 90s. NYC is awesome. There's been no riots, no alienation, no crime wave. ### [Reply, 00:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936938319847535004) · 1 like Wait is this law enforced? What ### [Reply to @StatisticUrban, 00:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1936938975601590698) · 13 likes > **Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** Just gonna start spam sending pics like to incels > > “Maybe it’s just that you specifically suck” Wow that will really help people ### [Reply to @RomanHauksson, 04:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937004622922543472) · 9 likes > **Roman Hauksson-Neill (@RomanHauksson):** watching TV shows is a ~complete waste of time and should be socially unacceptable Lol it’s not a waste of time if people enjoy it (I don’t watch TV at all fwiw) ### [Reply to @2Philosophical_, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937215301919318207) · 1 like > **JPA (@2Philosophical_):** “AI will end the world!” > > \*writes long screed against AI, using AI\* > > Many such cases. How is this hypocritical? ### [Reply to @2Philosophical_, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937216235076304995) · 1 like > **JPA (@2Philosophical_):** @AaronBergman18 It is rather amusingly ironic, no? I get why it seems like that at first glance but there’s nothing actually contradictory or ironic I think upon further inspection Like “here’s an immensely useful and also dangerous technology” doesn’t have any internal contradictions ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937218246127612193) · 2 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** That is. Less than ideal > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GuJEkiuWMAAzYwa.jpg) Oh no ### [Tweet, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937221389305458706) · 601 likes How are literally all of you trans ### [Thread, continued, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937221391905923575) · 53 likes I have nothing against it, it’s just a lot of people lmao ### [Reply to @livgorton, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937221507291209746) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** i'm doing something new and scary today (finally trying cursor) Ooh poast review ### [Thread, continued, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937221587842846805) · 2 likes I would play cursor with u Liv Pip install Liv ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937223817320915247) · 5 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Gives programming skills Real ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937226285824020614) · 20 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1906863185434386849 Hey that’s me ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 19:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937227457691521376) · 190 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** I’m not Sure bud ### [Reply to @manic_pixie_agi, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937228492929696224) · 19 likes > **Corinne (🏠 in NYC) (@manic_pixie_agi):** FWIW I don't think Decker is trans Me either tbc lol ### [Reply to @RokoMijic, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937228775340773636) · 30 likes > **Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** @AaronBergman18 I'm not Sad ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937254183843086480) · 4 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** sorry It’s ok ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 21:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937254645162037505) · 3 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** no it's not i kinda wish i wasn't. it's like the least bad way to address a bad situation Yeah that makes sense, I think I’d feel the same in your shoes ### [Reply to @rodentiation, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937264254333104416) · 14 likes > **mercury (@rodentiation):** what are the odds you'd be born exactly the same gender as the one you'd prefer to be? surely it's very low, so we can tell basically a priori that most people are trans. and of course observation verifies this. Surely it’s 50% ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 21:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937265721186152698) · 5 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GuKF5WFWIAAdhpi.jpg) Lol ### [Tweet, 21:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937265881593057486) · 9 likes Zofran should be OTC ### [Thread, continued, 21:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937266000103350288) · 2 likes I just got it prescribed bc I have a stomach bug or something but truly there’s no reason for it to be gatekept at all ## Tuesday, June 24, 2025 ### [Reply to @whittomd, 04:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937364200017293497) > **Derek Whittom (@whittomd):** I'm not trans. Skeptical ### [Reply to @arabelladevine, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937365004778455067) · 2 likes > **arabella ※ (@arabelladevine):** (mean girl voice) you’re being low agency and it’s giving me the ICK I would kms ### [Reply to @halogen1048576, 09:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937437465465487688) · 4 likes > **🇨🇦halogen (@halogen1048576):** trans is essentially just autism and you belong to a movement rooted in OCPD and autism Based ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 12:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937489240490737738) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 25, 2025:** Not load bearing (wild turkey) Load bearing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GuNX96sW8AAYuui.jpg) [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1937488985971998720/img/ITh1QtMEK_PI94P3.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937489240490737738/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Tweet, 12:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937493281878782263) · 9 likes Hmm FYI paraxanthine feels quite a bit “smoother” than caffeine, very roughly like the difference between pure dextroamphetamine and adderall ### [Quote tweet, 14:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937520875462651983) · 90 likes Ik Scott made this point in longform but crypto is actually immensely useful for transferring money around without veto power/local institutions like banks It’s not good for much else, but that’s big! > **Quoting bob's burgers urbanist 🐿️ (@yhdistyminen):** fun fact: any time you see the word "crypto", you can replace it with "gambling" and retain 100% of the meaning ### [Reply to @romcomi, 14:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937522511295709652) · 14 likes > **Romcomi (@romcomi):** @AaronBergman18 Yeah but that's only useful to criminals or a few people in very bad countries I agree but only bc “criminals” means people circumventing the FDA for morally good reasons ### [Reply to @aonghasan, 15:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937529689108807993) · 9 likes > **aonghasn (@aonghasan):** do you honestly think those “morally good” users are 99% of crypto users moving money around ?? > > are you for real? > > not even considering the volume bad actors actually move vs the “morally good” Yeah I’m pretty open to the hypothesis that it’s bad on net But that doesn’t negate that there are tons of morally righteous uses ### [Tweet, 15:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937538223489564812) · 2 likes Feature request for AI companies: semantic search of chats + “start new convo with detailed summary of this one” \[like in cursor\] ### [Reply to @romcomi, 16:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937543882943643756) · 5 likes > **Romcomi (@romcomi):** @AaronBergman18 @crfrsr What makes you feel it's tons? I haven't looked into data on the topic recently but my intuition is kinda the opposite. The world is just a big place lol ### [Tweet, 16:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937549752997920990) · 469 likes Can anyone figure out what’s wrong with my computer ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GuOPOltWQAIE5wC.jpg) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 16:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937550963880943855) · 9 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** cursor is using too much memory That can’t be it ### [Reply to @imitationlearn, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937551333273354604) · 3 likes > **imit (@imitationlearn):** @AaronBergman18 nordvpn ad I think ur on to something ### [Reply to @adrusi, 17:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937566061303660711) · 6 likes > **autumn (@adrusi):** you didnt get the 128gb model I should spend a good chunk of all my money on this fr ### [Reply to @karma_gardener, 17:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937566449213800769) · 3 likes > **𝕂𝚊𝚛𝚖𝚊 ❀ 𝔾𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚛 (@karma_gardener):** @AaronBergman18 unironically your internal ssd is full Yeah hoarding too much data lol ### [Reply to @mpopv, 17:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937568410646589703) · 9 likes > **Matt Popovich (@mpopv):** Uninstall Finder to free up more RAM for Cursor Smart ### [Reply to @technoascetic, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937582177564107206) · 2 likes > **clanker whisperer (@technoascetic):** @adrusi @AaronBergman18 I did tho > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GuOsdmQXIAAZ9Aq.jpg) U win ### [Reply to @julian_le_roux, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937582726976086470) · 6 likes > **Julian le Roux (@julian_le_roux):** @AaronBergman18 It has a filthy vibe coder on it. Unironically I write approximately zero lines of code myself ### [Tweet, 22:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937638359544815894) · 16 likes $150 AC unit at work. Just an FYI ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GuPf0dAWkAAVmi9.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GuPf0c9W8AAgjCe.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937649569287774224) · 13 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 24, 2025:** Can anyone figure out what’s wrong with my computer Guys idk why the picture is blue lol ### [Reply to @jazzloaf, 23:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937658712874950777) · 2 likes > **vivian (@jazzloaf):** @AaronBergman18 this is both good and bad. many such cases ## Wednesday, June 25, 2025 ### [Reply to @eternalism_4eva, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937678423910154583) · 2 likes > **eternalist (@eternalism_4eva):** @norvid_studies @AaronBergman18 @ahh\_\_souka I infer Aaron is referring to subjective non-jitteriness Yeah basically, maybe also very mild anxiety or something close to that English isn’t optimized for phenomenology ### [Reply to @dying2post, 01:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937683623978889641) · 2 likes > **SEN (@dying2post):** @AaronBergman18 @Shoalst0ne This is dope Fr ### [Reply to @Sauers_, 02:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937693454873534915) · 2 likes > **Sauers (@Sauers_):** @AaronBergman18 What are you doing with Audio MIDI setup I often want to use earbuds for output but not input ### [Tweet, 14:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937877803728314709) · 58 likes I made the entire congressional record into a csv (as is divinely commanded) 20GB uncompressed btw, fair warning ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 14:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937877806215516377) · 11 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ ### [Thread, continued, 14:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937879542523482228) · 8 likes I'm not actually sure it's any good By all means make a better version; sources here: https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/congressional-records ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 16:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937906399079477753) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** I should memorize people’s faces better when they ask me to watch their stuff Lmao F ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1937964949030256681) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 25, 2025:** I'm not actually sure it's any good By all means make a better version; sources here: https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/congressional-records Better version https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pZQ3IRaCv1nTUb6zGluw4_Oy49AMa5RX/view?usp=sharing ## Thursday, June 26, 2025 ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 06:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938117861261574328) · 3 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** hearing reports that most guys do sleep with the same woman multiple times > > hmm interesting No man even sleeps with women. What are you, gay? ### [Reply to @edchucation, 06:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938122195215188444) · 2 likes > **Lucas (@edchucation):** giving away another one! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GuVUOURawAAvS50.jpg) > (quoting @edchucation: I’m giving away a m4 MacBook Pro! Comment “m4” or what you’ll do with it) Data go brr ### [Quote tweet, 07:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938130939600621931) · 3 likes To be maybe too generous and insufficiently cynical, it’s worth asking if there’s less than perfect information between AI company executives and the lobbyists they employ (a point raised by Beth Barnes on 80k) > **Quoting AI Notkilleveryoneism Memes ⏸️ (@AISafetyMemes):** 🚨 Google CEO says the risk of AI causing human extinction is "actually pretty high" (!!) > > But he's an "optimist" because "humanity will rally to prevent catastrophe" > > Meanwhile, his firm is lobbying to ban states from ANY regulation for 10 YEARS. > > This situation is I N S A N E. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GuT8kRkWUAAF2VP.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 07:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938133159301763256) · 9 likes I suspect this is right, but the actual problem here isn’t the proposed level per se, but the itinerary of ~doubling minimum wage from $16.50 without stopping in the middle to evaluate the effects > **Quoting Chris Freiman (@cafreiman):** A $30 minimum wage is an absolutely absurd proposal ### [Thread, continued, 07:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938133161961034000) · 5 likes I think minimum wage is an especially silly/dumb way to do redistribution but also I don’t think it’s entirely obvious that >$16.50 is optimal for NYC all else equal ### [Reply to @MichaelAlleged, 07:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938136354883514528) · 3 likes > **Michael (Allegedly) (@MichaelAlleged):** had a fucking amazing first date with a fucking amazing woman that ended with her in my arms saying “so I’m moving to New York in three weeks” Oof ### [Reply to @warty_dog, 11:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938191599495688240) · 3 likes > **troon (@warty_dog):** yudding out during dirty talk >>> @NoahTopper ### [Quote tweet, 11:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938192254482395525) · 26 likes No no it’s fine, I just didn’t expect it to be British is all > **Quoting vitrupo (@vitrupo):** Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark tells Congress that “truly transformative technology” is expected by the end of 2026. > > He's urging a federal framework now, before an “accident or a misuse” event that could lead to extreme overregulation. > > And risk damaging the entire AI industry before it delivers its potential. > > [video attached](https://x.com/vitrupo/status/1938138544360530079/video/1) ### [Tweet, 11:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938200026687172777) · 14 likes Not officially taking sides in the DoorDash culture wars but I kinda get the lazy side I recently tried to make a basic version of my occasional takeout thing and it cost ~half as much, took almost an hour, took a bit of planning and energy and ofc tasted worse ### [Thread, continued, 11:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938200029602402448) · 4 likes $13ish vs $27; 2 meals each; yes both after all taxes and fees and such ### [Thread, continued, 11:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938200033033392176) · 6 likes From a theoretical perspective, (efficient fast casual type) restaurants provide a lot of valuable labor specialization + inventory management ### [Thread, continued, 11:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938200037445812601) · 6 likes The consumer economy is pretty efficient - it would almost be weird if preparing one’s own food was the smart choice ### [Quote tweet, 11:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938202834203185537) · 26 likes Imagine finding someone who actually likes you and you like them and getting married and then they get fucking deported Like back to the drawing board huh > **Quoting reason (@reason):** This is Paola Clouatre and her husband, Marine Corps veteran Adrian Clouatre. They’re the parents of two young children. > > Paola, who came to the U.S. from Mexico as a minor, was arrested by ICE last month during a routine appointment for her green card application. > > She has no criminal history—the same is true for most recent ICE detainees… > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GuSvXprX0AA-xao.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 11:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938202837739307196) · 5 likes ^intentionally a bit irreverent, obviously “tfw no gf anymore” is not the most important angle to deportation ### [Reply to @caryatis, 12:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938212547926118712) · 3 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** @AaronBergman18 I’d probably go to their home country with them Based ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 14:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938249640425754765) · 4 likes > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** my cooking always tastes great to me because I know I made it, even though I'm probably not actually a very good cook. have you tried loving yourself more? Lol I’ll write this down to try tomorrow ### [Tweet, 14:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938250708534374767) · 3 likes I cooked for myself entirely some years in college with no kitchen, just a hot pot/pressure cooker thing, microwave and mini fridge (grand total probably like $300 or less), room probably 150 sq ft It’s insane I can’t choose to make that tradeoff - it’s really not that hard/bad ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 15:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938251152476246481) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @SpacedOutMatt is no longer available.)_ Fuck it I bite the bullet, shared bathroom and no kitchen is fine actually (maybe not single use br, I’m pretty sympathetic to needing the ability to access tap water whenever, guess I’m a NIMBY 😢) ### [Quote tweet, 17:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938289378800918620) · 10 likes Counterpoint: it’s 30° cooler inside and I don’t have to wear sunscreen > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I got a walking pad thing (they’re <$200 FWIW) but it just doesn’t hit the same as walking outside > > Genuinely unsure if it’s more a psychological thing or if there’s some subtle physiological change that makes it worse (enforces perfectly constant pace, no micro changes in slope etc) ### [Reply to @Throwaw00457645, 17:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938291658572886285) · 2 likes > **MSA (@Throwaw00457645):** @AaronBergman18 What walking pad did you buy? The ones I looked at seemed to have fairly short lifetimes Note the wacky pricing ($150 for better model) I feel like the right way to buy this kind of thing is to get something relatively cheap and then if it’s a major part of your life in a couple months you can upgrade (and potentially try to sell) https://a.co/d/1LhKXq5 ## Friday, June 27, 2025 ### [Reply to @grep_cat_, 00:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938394837079687555) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @grep_cat_ is no longer available.)_ I have no idea but F ### [Tweet, 02:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938418831979958289) · 13 likes How heterodox is the take “exercise does help you lose weight, but not via burning calories (burnt while exercising) \[except perhaps in some uncommon, extreme circumstances like ultramarathons\]”? Bc that is my (tentative) current take ### [Tweet, 02:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938421288264970710) · 8 likes Apropos of literally nothing, god the horse electrolytes thing was so dumb Let’s take a zero-upside gamble on the purity of rocks from the ground in a maximally non-Lindy way to save a few pennies May as well drink water straight from a creek to save on tap water utility bill ### [Reply to @yimbyism, 02:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938422139280818233) · 2 likes > **build mixed use taco-houses 🌐🥑 (@yimbyism):** Not much calorie expenditure from lifting + cardio induces hunger to offset? Maybe those are true but they’re not the right frame of analysis IMO Naive CICO model: first order actions (eg exercise, eating some food) determine weight My model: weight is determined by how functional your body’s weight control system is, which can be impacted by food and exercise as a downstream effect ### [Reply to @yzilber, 02:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938422232973226077) · 3 likes > **Jazi Zilber (@yzilber):** pretty legit take for the informed > > exercise isn't losing you weight (1 body adjust. 2 you get hungrier) > > but having more muscle helps indirectly. > > but very indirectly. I think most of the effect is psychological mental. as you "get healthy" and do it all My hypothesis is weird complicated metabolic changes that affect lipostat ### [Reply to @wilhelmscreamin, 12:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938578900088668418) · 10 likes > **catherine (in sf) ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ-☆ (@wilhelmscreamin):** which way western man > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GucN5c-XgAAaoSd.jpg) Secret third thing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Guc3PDsWIAAawwD.jpg) ### [Tweet, 13:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938589518497489024) · 7 likes Is actually-good audio transcription ie: \- word choice informed by context incl context later on \- filler word removal without changing vibe/subtleties \- hopefully all with good quality speaker labeling something people would pay for? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GudA4-QXkAArU4b.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 13:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938589522272440625) · 2 likes A quick vibe coded version works surprisingly well The above is from literally 20 mins with Claude, I think it needs to be a just a touch more heavy handed but the cleaned version is like actually readable? Send me short audio clips/rambles if u want and I’ll run it ### [Thread, continued, 13:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938589524306636922) · 2 likes This version is something like $1.50/hour including base transcription (using sonnet, hopefully I can cut this a ton) Roughly 5x the cost of Speechmatics base and 3x the cost of their high quality version ### [Reply to @wilhelmscreamin, 14:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938602974994948422) · 5 likes > **catherine (in sf) ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ-☆ (@wilhelmscreamin):** i’m not sure i understand this; is the idea that there are stance-independent moral facts (about eg the goodness of different states of affairs), but that these facts don’t give stance-independent reasons for action? Basically yes, with the caveat that as a linguistic/social matter I'm not certain whether to call "the goodness of different states of affairs" "moral" - it seems some people use the word "moral" to mean normative ### [Reply to @wilhelmscreamin, 14:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938605483293651234) · 2 likes > **catherine (in sf) ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ-☆ (@wilhelmscreamin):** @AaronBergman18 gotcha, i don't personally find it compelling (it sounds like it can't make sense of the motivational pull of moral facts, and to me moral judgements have this action-guiding quality baked in), but it makes sense at least. reminds me of early Foot https://www.jstor.org/stable/2184328 Hell yeah makes sense, I’ll take it ### [Quote tweet, 14:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938611925832839217) · 57 likes What the fuck > **Quoting The New York Times (@nytimes):** Breaking News: The Supreme Court limited the use of nationwide injunctions and said President Trump’s order to end birthright citizenship can go partially into effect in 30 days. > https://nyti.ms/4khQlB8 ### [Reply to @slimepriestess, 15:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938613524214820959) · 7 likes > **Ra (@slimepriestess):** @AaronBergman18 this country is so fucking cooked man 😢 ### [Tweet, 16:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938628470197870901) · 6 likes Something I’d really like to know is how good Claude research is at arbitrary tasks compared to a hypothetical Scott Alexander report on the same question Tbc I expect Scott’s to be much better, but would like to know how often they’re basically pointing in the same direction ### [Quote tweet, 16:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938629870902272084) · 3 likes More generally I’m interested in vibe-codable (by me) products (perhaps but not necessarily GPT wrappers) Suggestions welcome! > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Is actually-good audio transcription ie: > > \- word choice informed by context incl context later on > \- filler word removal without changing vibe/subtleties > \- hopefully all with good quality speaker labeling > > something people would pay for? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GudA4-QXkAArU4b.jpg) ### [Reply to @dynomight7, 16:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938633461843001525) · 3 likes > **dynomight (@dynomight7):** "video → blog post converter" > > (Genuinely surprised this appears not to exist yet.) > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: More generally I’m interested in vibe-codable (by me) products (perhaps but not necessarily GPT wrappers) Suggestions welcome!) We don’t even have unformatted text/ramble to good blog post yet Maybe video is actually easier though? Would you really pay for this? ### [Reply to @dynomight7, 16:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938637941309612068) · 2 likes > **dynomight (@dynomight7):** Sure, after a recent post about AI safety, a couple people suggested I watch these videos: > > https://youtube.com/@RobertMilesAI/videos > > For better or worse, that's never going to happen. 👀 ### [Reply, 16:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938640945290907716) · 2 likes Not load bearing (this is a raccoon’s tail, you’ll have to take my word for it) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GudvqkOWUAAR-Tt.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938686330604589201) · 83 likes I officially have an impersonator! Please report @ AaronBergmaan18 (extra a) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GueY8UOXgAEk4y7.jpg) ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 19:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938688571092934945) · 11 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** This is very confusing. I’ll report both accounts just to be safe. Thanks really appreciate that ## Saturday, June 28, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 01:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938769577669697559) · 16 likes It doesn’t have to be like this > **Quoting Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** good news: finally arranged an appointment > > better news: I have successfully identified 25 pharmacies near me that are not currently filling Adderall prescriptions > > no bad news. the system works flawlessly ### [Reply to @AStrasser116, 11:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938923151351837104) · 2 likes > **Alex Strasser (@AStrasser116):** Hey I just realized we both joined March 2019! Nice That means no age gap 👀 ### [Reply to @CharlesD353, 11:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938926141638602900) · 1 like > **Charles🔸 (@CharlesD353):** "Running" is a bit generous, it took nearly 17 hours altogether, lots of walking involved especially on uphills Wow cancelled ### [Tweet, 14:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938966858138292251) · 5 likes Peasants in the bagel shop looking at their king (me) as I pick up two big party platters ### [Thread, continued, 14:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1938966859950227911) · 3 likes Ladies please form a line ## Sunday, June 29, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939117189849600145) · 22 likes Sorry, the csv is cool but the reason I could make it and you couldn’t until now is the following: I’m now hosting the only (afaik) up-to-date collection of what has been said in the US congress since 2017 (That said, consider this in beta) Link to GitHub w instructions below > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I made the entire congressional record into a csv (as is divinely commanded) > > 20GB uncompressed btw, fair warning ### [Thread, continued, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939117192928469193) · 7 likes It should \*stay\* up to date (up to the day) too, at least if my vibecoded workflow keeps chugging along https://github.com/AaronBergman/congressional-records-auto ### [Thread, continued, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939117195940012125) · 5 likes This is plausibly helpful/nontrivial because the congressional record, while technically public, is behind an api with draconian rate limits (why???) and a genuinely shocking level of “security” to make sure you don’t bypass rate limits… ### [Thread, continued, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939117198443962833) · 3 likes This substantially increases the cost to actually getting months and years worth of data ### [Thread, continued, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939117200599839216) · 4 likes Links to the other big datasets which collectively constitute I think the entire congressional record are in the README at the GitHub above ### [Thread, continued, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939117210451992919) · 6 likes I kinda hope people actually see this lol Tell your government data autist friends!! ### [Reply to @Sauers_, 00:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939122348390785284) · 3 likes > **Sauers (@Sauers_):** Claude Code just irreversibly deleted my entire .bashrc and replaced it with a single alias for calling an instance of Claude F ### [Reply to @jazzloaf, 05:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939195943292711024) · 3 likes > **vivian (@jazzloaf):** Assume utilitarianism. how is value (utility) assigned to a given subjective experience? At least ordinally, an operationalization I like is what an ideally rational egoist would choose (Idk if this is what ur asking for exactly?) ### [Reply to @jazzloaf, 05:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939201017272205599) · 2 likes > **vivian (@jazzloaf):** @AaronBergman18 slightly, I think. That seems like a fine heuristic in practice. I'm confused by the edge cases where I think one develops utility from suffering. The idea of pleasure seems to become murky, and I don't think this is that rare. Do I reject hedonism? If you think people get utility from suffering then yeah you reject hedonism (I mean I think this is wrong, and pleasure just \*is\* utility/goodness/value and the reverse for suffering) ### [Thread, continued, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939201469061763186) · 3 likes Another way of putting this is that value isn’t really “assigned” to subjective states except in some model Like the actual value just is/is part of the subjective states themselves There’s no metaphysical thing called value beyond that ### [Tweet, 15:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939346305232347510) · 30 likes Sex is cool but have you ever explained vector databases to a girl ### [Reply to @evanbuhler, 15:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939348549222707366) · 2 likes > **Evan Buhler (@evanbuhler):** Try us. “Ok so you can pay OpenAI a very small amount of money to turn text into numbers And anyway those numbers put the text in a quantitative “language space” or “semantic space” which I probably don’t have to explain bc ur smart Like on dimension might represent how related to ducks the text is, another might represent how English it is, another might represent whether it’s positive or negative, etc This but there are a couple thousand dimensions And then you can just like have a database full of these vectors and the text and maybe like a link to the text and then figure out what is most related to what semantically via cosine similarity of the vectors which idk I never really tried to fully understand but I think basically they form an angle and you take the cosine of that angle to determine how similar they are And you can also do semantic search by taking a query, paying OpenAI to make the embedding by for that query, and figuring out which texts are most similar That is how http://earec.net works And then everyone claps” ### [Thread, continued, 15:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939349164720066995) · 2 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GunzyWqXcAENj18.jpg) ### [Reply to @evanbuhler, 15:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939349223691956281) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @evanbuhler is no longer available.)_ I’m trying to explain vector databases to her ### [Reply to @lu_sichu, 16:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939355420327584167) · 2 likes > **Sichu Lu (@lu_sichu):** @AaronBergman18 Sex is cool but have you ever tried building a vector database for a girl 🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵 plz does anyone want me to do this ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 16:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939359576920346681) · 2 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** @AaronBergman18 @lu_sichu will you do it for free? Maybe lmao, honestly I need to make money but if it’s relatively easy, you can FM me ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 16:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939361050035683371) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** No but I just did induction last night And the night before that? ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 16:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939362412291108910) · 4 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Oh and then we had sex Bro why u gotta one-up me like that ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939402760056934909) · 5 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** A duck bit me > > [video attached](https://x.com/MariGO2thepolls/status/1939379896540958742/video/1) 🦆 ## Monday, June 30, 2025 ### [Tweet, 16:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939726408378683484) · 167 likes You are morally obligated to buy one of these hats and where it in public whenever you go out ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GutK4UQWYAA2__A.jpg) ### [Reply to @slimepriestess, 16:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939727245125300642) · 4 likes > **Ra (@slimepriestess):** where do i buy one? ! https://www.etsy.com/listing/1371574690/shrimp-want-me-unaligned-ais-fear-me ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 17:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939731641200529637) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Jesus Christ you have massive bags under your eyes I’m tearing up, could be allergy related ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939767246865539435) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 30, 2025:** You are morally obligated to buy one of these hats and where it in public whenever you go out ### [Quote tweet, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939775060559978928) · 17 likes I hate AWS > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I also love data ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 21:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939795534149025923) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** okay, rude Except for whatever ur working on, that part is great --- End of June 2025. Previous month: [May 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-05). Next month: [July 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-07). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, July 2025 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in July 2025 and has not deleted: 316 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [June 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-06). Next month: [August 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-08). ## Tuesday, July 1, 2025 ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 04:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939902189126000913) · 4 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** not me sending admonymous links after a date not working out > > [video attached](https://x.com/austinc3301/status/1939898994919927926/video/1) Lmao same ### [Reply, 15:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940074115110469682) · 1 like I mean this isn’t what you’re asking but there are way better charities for entirely unrelated reasons (EA Animal welfare fund and LTFF) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940105330093879334) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 30, 2025:** I hate AWS ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GuyjgfcWQAAAaRx.jpg) ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940142118334578997) · 3 likes > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** @WillowChem Also, somebody should definitely make one. I'll see if @SpacedOutMatt has any deck-printing insights from his experience with the Derek Parfit game Seconded ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 21:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940158762389840146) · 10 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** Really, all things considered? I don't believe you. > > Like, you actually think that if someone was advocating for substantial changes in e.g. animal welfare laws and industrial policy, on the basis of their beliefs about these moral weights, which straightforwardly assume that 100 bees are more important than a human, you wouldn't consider them an idiot? > > Like, look man, yes, there are arguments here that raise these kinds of things to plausibility, but clearly there are no arguments here that raise this kind of thing to the level where you actually start just acting as if it's true. It violated so so so many other moral heuristics. > > You don't have that much caring to spread around, if you put this much of your caring into insects, you don't really have much space to care about anything else. The last paragraph points towards some degree of moderation in actions at the end of the day, but it’s not actual evidence against bee experience being >1% as important as humans’ It’s like people who reject utilitarianism because it’s too demanding - better to imperfectly pursue the actual good than reason backwards from what seems too demanding ### [Thread, continued, 21:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940159461731029432) · 7 likes Your reaction to this seems to me a bit like how I’d guess you’d react to someone who says “if x risk is so high, why aren’t you marching in the streets, working 20 hour days, etc?” Like the actually good response to high expected amounts of insect suffering probably doesn’t look any crazier than Shrimp Welfare Project ## Wednesday, July 2, 2025 ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940212805149290664) · 2 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** I think it's more similar to my response to people who don't buy ChatGPT because they think AI will kill everyone and so they don't want to support OpenAI. I do think it genuinely is an inconsistent state of belief and quite dumb. In the analogy, OpenAI ≈ honey? If so, I’m actually kinda sympathetic to this line of thought re veganism in general bc of nutrition -> health/productivity concerns But this is just a cost vs benefit consideration, it doesn’t say anything about the likelihood of bees having significant moral status ### [Tweet, 05:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940279479848640935) · 18 likes I think the RP moral weights project doesn’t give due probabilistic weight to neuron count-like metrics, but it’s at least like 1% likely that the intensity of valenced experience has nothing to do with biomass The universe makes no promises to abide by our intuitions ### [Thread, continued, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940280429007052858) · 6 likes At some level the question of whether it’s plausible that a single digit number of bees are as morally valuable, minute for minute, as a human comes down to priors on how weird the world is I think the world is extremely weird! ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 13:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940398044207632469) · 4 likes > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** like the total value of all beings is not a fixed thing > > but you have to worry about reasoning that almost guarantees you care more about huge numbers of small things I will solve the two envelopes problem today, watch this space ### [Tweet, 13:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940398760452034878) · 5 likes \> family friend runs multimillion dollar tech consulting business \> pays dozens of employees tech salaries \> talks about how helpful ChatGPT is \> free version, 4o ### [Reply to @inerati, 13:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940398935744672213) · 2 likes > **liz (@inerati):** guys it’s been 8 minutes i think my red teaming efforts has been forwarded to the real chris property manager 😔 > > (quoting @inerati: guys i sent this and then it stopped responding) Lmao ### [Tweet, 13:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940400339758600658) · 63 likes If you’re against DOGE cuts, you should probably be negatively polarized into thinking we were majorly underspending on a lot of things What are the odds that we had just the right level of USAID and science funding and such? ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 13:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940401133585121577) · 5 likes > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** occasional reminder to men that one of the easiest ways to improve your life is to pay $50 for a nice double-edged safety razor and a stack of feather blades > > yes you'll bleed from your face for a week. but after that you'll live above from other men > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Guy_p9YW4AAs3aB.jpg) > (quoting @DanielW_Kiwi: A couple of years back @eigenrobot was saying how much better safety razors were than normal plastic handled razors. Of all things I've learned from here that's been one of my favorite.) I bought one of these and hate it ### [Quote tweet, 16:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940441660300951616) · 2 likes Ok I’ve solved it. The answer is that: 1\) try pinning to human for your use use case (this part isn’t original) … > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @justjoshinyou13 I will solve the two envelopes problem today, watch this space ### [Thread, continued, 16:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940441669901709499) · 1 like 2\) if there is remaining ambiguity (eg arguing with an alien over who to save) you can and should update on whether your species is on the “high” or “low” side based on the intensity of your own valenced experience ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gu3VaYyWoAAbR4k.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gu3VaYxXYAAWniw.jpg) ### [Tweet, 16:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940453431317352546) · 37 likes Magnet school stuff might be the culture war issue I can most personally riled up about Those were the best years of my life, how dare you take it away from other kids in order to fight a culture war the kids never opted in to? ### [Thread, continued, 16:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940453433729077273) · 7 likes It’s also bad for other, more mundane reasons ### [Quote tweet, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940455270037311643) · 4 likes This was kinda fun, does anyone wanna pay me to fine-tune an LLM on whatever you’ve written (or whatever you want tbh) > **Quoting EA Lifestyles (@EAheadlines):** the AIs love me > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gu3C_A5WoAEGDQm.jpg) ### [Tweet, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940457513482404345) · 74 likes Reveal urself 👀 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gu3j0u8X0AAFwVy.jpg) ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 17:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940463116472799356) · 15 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 Aaron I’m sorry it’s gonna be a guy Cheems mindset ### [Tweet, 17:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940470187234677017) · 14 likes So this is why the founders are billionaires huh (I tried Claude code, this is one day.) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gu3vRwAW0AAC-yg.jpg) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 18:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940475741558518250) · 20 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** This is phase 1 in a sequence of events that ends with you waking up in a motel bathroom missing a kidney, and not in an effective altruism way, but in a "hey where did my kidney go?" way Whatever, I'll take my chances ### [Reply to @CharlesD353, 21:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940527492173123867) · 2 likes > **Charles🔸 (@CharlesD353):** This seems quite silly. It assumes only two buttons - cut, and increase spending, and that the method by which you did so and which areas you aim for do not matter. The existence of bad cuts just does imply that there are good opportunities on the margin I agree method/manner matters ### [Tweet, 21:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940527652852715926) · 9 likes Anybody need they data scraped ### [Thread, continued, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940541823271031293) · 3 likes This is a serious inquiry btw ## Thursday, July 3, 2025 ### [Reply to @livgorton, 00:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940574711697858769) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** aaron has my endorsement as a good guy 👍 🥺omg ### [Reply to @GarrettPetersen, 10:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940723886867599713) · 5 likes > **Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ (@GarrettPetersen):** 1.9yo: "Paddleboarding." > > Mommy: "Did you hold on tight?" > > 1.9yo: "I hold on. I don't fall in the water. There fishies in the water. And duck. I catch the duck. In my hand." > > Mommy: "What would you do with the duck?" > > 1.9yo: "I have duck. In hand." Based ### [Quote tweet, 14:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940773032047587619) · 12 likes HMU if ur a little fucked up > **Quoting Gordo MONK: Champion of Peace ☮️ and Calm😶‍🌫️ (@fordoglunk):** I do wish date-my-friend posts would advertise their lesser friends, sometimes. I'm not a good man and I dont want to date your flawless overachieving well-adjust friends. Bring me your weird nerd chudettes ### [Quote tweet, 14:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940774663829049604) · 135 likes Yes, consciousness is necessary (and possibly sufficient) for moral significance I will die on this hill > **Quoting Henry Shevlin (@dioscuri):** Eliezer raises an interesting example here. Even if LLMs aren't conscious, as they develop more agency and personality, is it crazy to think they may deserve some respect for their autonomy and individual goals? Not clear autonomy requires consciousness for moral significance. ### [Reply to @aidan_mclau, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940816514959266032) · 16 likes > **Aidan McLaughlin (@aidan_mclau):** how do you define consciousness Genuine subjective experience ### [Reply to @dioscuri, 16:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940816819906138622) · 7 likes > **Henry Shevlin (@dioscuri):** See also Simon Goldstein and Cameron Domenico Kirk-Giannini's paper on AI wellbeing without consciousness - https://philpapers.org/archive/GOLAWE-4.pdf > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gu8O0OvWQAEhh8h.png) Lol knowledge and desire are not intrinsically good/morally important ### [Reply to @Aron_Adler, 16:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940816924247736571) · 6 likes > **aron (@Aron_Adler):** I think so many people are guilty of getting the causality the wrong way around here. It's not that we care about which beings are conscious and to those we extend moral patiency. It's that we assign consciousness to those entities we empathise with > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Yes, consciousness is necessary (and possibly sufficient) for moral significance I will die on this hill) I disagree ### [Tweet, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940817116099498013) · 4 likes So does BBB mean I’m going to be super duper uninsured when I turn 26 instead of just normal uninsured ### [Reply to @aidan_mclau, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940817223024869665) · 19 likes > **Aidan McLaughlin (@aidan_mclau):** how do i test if one has subjective experience You can’t lol, this is a methodological issue, not a conceptual problem for the definition ### [Reply to @aidan_mclau, 17:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940818063152267330) · 16 likes > **Aidan McLaughlin (@aidan_mclau):** wait, so your sole criterion for moral value is unfalsifiable? how is that useful whatsoever? Well, you can still accumulate less-than-rock-solid evidence in one direction or another It’s much more likely that I’m sentient than that a rock is ### [Reply to @aidan_mclau, 17:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940819033169056248) · 13 likes > **Aidan McLaughlin (@aidan_mclau):** no you can't lol > > for certanity to exist on a spectrum, there has to be clear resolution criteria. how would i resolve the market of whether you were more sentient than a rock? Lol what? That’s just not true, the implementation minutia of prediction markets is not 1:1 with bayesian philosophical updating You can’t resolve the market, but you do have to act under uncertainty. There’s no option to opt out of the question ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 17:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940824994529128518) · 1 like > **henry (@arithmoquine):** something doesn't have to be prediction market worthy to be reasonable to think about. it's perfectly reasonable to ask "will I be happy if I do X" without resolving what happiness is 💯 ### [Reply to @aidan_mclau, 17:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940825922246164812) > **Aidan McLaughlin (@aidan_mclau):** sure but that's totally falsfiable tho > if i don't say i'm happy, the market closes > > that's different that defining consciousness in a way that can \*never\* be falsified You can have (extremely imperfect) implementations of this like “let’s pay a panel of 10 philosophers to spend the next year studying the problem and see what they think at the end” ### [Tweet, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940826536967655638) · 10 likes Autistic summer is just an endless orgy (negative) of sunscreen, sweat, and showers ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 17:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940828453873635419) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 How much is insurance Idk like a lot ### [Tweet, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940863835772276750) · 6 likes The male urge to create ur own language model from scratch ### [Reply to @jjtwofive, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940870552127971615) · 1 like > **JJ (@jjtwofive):** are asleep people morally significant? Only because they’ll eventually wake up ### [Reply to @jjtwofive, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940871751799582821) · 2 likes > **JJ (@jjtwofive):** @AaronBergman18 so is it then the potential for consciousness that is necessary? Sure, I think this is just a semantic thing ### [Reply, 21:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940883764802146427) · 1 like Then it’s over lol (I think this is like 3% likely) ## Friday, July 4, 2025 ### [Reply to @medievalpard, 00:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940932861877514405) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @medievalpard is no longer available.)_ Many such cases ### [Reply to @tszzl, 03:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940971623563276691) · 9 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** the primary nice thing about getting older is that you’re better at everything. raw g may be entering slow decline but you’re more socially competent, better at your work. underrated I will never be socially competent ### [Tweet, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941196210511265979) · 27 likes Kleinian abundance but about girls ### [Thread, continued, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941196250331967679) · 3 likes I hope this doesn’t get me cancelled ### [Reply to @nominalthoughts, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941197193635066288) · 5 likes > **Jason Harrison (@nominalthoughts):** Pretty funny that one of my long lost half brothers found me through twitter 💀 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvCEBmtacAAcer5.jpg) Wait fr? ### [Quote tweet, 18:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941197784700559785) · 33 likes If adrafinil is unregulated, lisdexamphetamine should be too It’s only fair > **Quoting sebastian (@modaminister):** happy 4th of July > > pre orders are now live > > shipping out later this summer > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvBqYW4XkAA4O1C.jpg) ### [Reply to @nominalthoughts, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941197829810291086) · 4 likes > **Jason Harrison (@nominalthoughts):** @AaronBergman18 Yeah lol Damn, that’s cool! ### [Reply to @finmoorhouse, 18:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941198379171926328) · 3 likes > **Fin Moorhouse (@finmoorhouse):** If you are 25 years old, you have less than 15 years before turning 40… Hush ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941201740948545876) · 4 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** Adrafinil is not, in fact, unregulated > > https://www.fda.gov/inspections-compliance-enforcement-and-criminal-investigations/doj-press-releases-involving-fda-oci/arizona-company-and-ceo-plead-guilty-distribution-drugs-not-approved-fda-and-will-pay-24-million Hush ### [Reply to @polisisti, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941201791179542548) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** Aaron right-wing fertility poasters > . 🤝 > "make more girls" Yay ### [Reply to @Michael_Druggan, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941203466619322407) · 2 likes > **Michael Druggan (@Michael_Druggan):** Lisdexamphetamine has significantly higher euphoric potential which correlates with abuse potential. > > I support legalizing both but I don't think the implication is as clear as you're making it. Yeah sadly I didn’t really make a legit argument ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941203862964388269) · 2 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** @AaronBergman18 i posted about this once Based ### [Tweet, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941241637163942353) · 51 likes Petition to just make the start time of something when you should actually arrive ### [Thread, continued, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941241639621791966) · 8 likes I don’t have the 12 dimensional theory of mind for this, man ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941242024113602613) · 20 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** It bothers me how unbothered liberals seem by food stamps. Just humiliating for all involved, especially given how large our poor people are. Cash would be preferable as it in theory could go to other things and doesn’t have the degrading aspect of gov literally feeding you. Yes, make it cash! I think republicans are the binding constraint on this, not liberals ### [Reply to @jeffrsebo, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941242268385702309) · 4 likes > **Jeff Sebo (@jeffrsebo):** rob, is your impression that illusionists in the community generally favor (a) clear alternatives to sentientism (e.g. "agency is what matters") or (b) sentientism by another name (e.g. "feeling pleasure and pain is what matters, but it has nothing to do with ~consciousness~")? B drives me nuts lmao ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 21:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941242630874251693) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** I simply show up at the start time regardless Based? ### [Reply to @kyleichan, 21:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941242830753759642) · 2 likes > **Kyle Chan (@kyleichan):** Meta’s former director of global energy talks about how batteries are more reliable than diesel generators as backup for data centers. > > But because of the way data centers are built today, adding batteries as backup requires a substantial overhaul in build.https://open.substack.com/pub/davidroberts/p/can-data-centers-be-good-grid-citizens Bro looks like a rectangle ### [Tweet, 21:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941243535271035099) · 7 likes Time for my ~annual alcohol purchase! Anybody got spicy vodka takes ### [Reply to @livgorton, 23:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941274043895980464) · 3 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** shoutout to the people who just turn up on time 🙌🙌🙌 the first hour of a party when the noise level tolerable is often the best hour anyway (the last hour can also be great for this reason) 🦆🦐🇺🇸🐓 ## Saturday, July 5, 2025 ### [Tweet, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941337626965094692) · 8 likes Girls love rooftops. I should get a rooftop ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 04:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941350766419247340) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** original or remake? Original ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 04:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941351993945227350) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** I agree actually, I considered doing more takes to try to capture your essence better but that seemed insane You can’t fake the autistic anti-eloquent rizz ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941352663880433747) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Aaron I can in fact > > (quoting @NoahTopper: @AaronBergman18) Noooooooooooooooo ### [Tweet, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941355155641004127) · 13 likes I want the Columbia admissions data just bc I like data ## Monday, July 7, 2025 ### [Reply to @notanastronomer, 16:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942256805121229187) · 1 like > **Lauren Gilbert (@notanastronomer):** there’s a stack of trophies and blue ribbons somewhere in my parents’ house that I won at rodeos > > (quoting @frozenaesthetic: Share a piece of lore about yourself) Waow ### [Tweet, 16:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942261795818799203) · 12 likes I wonder if GLP-1 agonists and amphetamines stack for obesity Amphetamines have always been under-prescribed for weight loss ### [Tweet, 16:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942264536561590475) · 1 like https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/1a71f94c-4eea-4be6-9753-e4266193f08c ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvRPTHVXwAAQQFw.jpg) ### [Reply to @Squee451, 16:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942264730619715610) · 1 like > **Adam Sherman 🔸 (@Squee451):** Amphetamines are insanely addicting and have very noticeable and problematic side effects, they were prescribed heavily in the 1960's for weight loss with predictible outcomes and I don't think this take has been researched whatsoever. Obesity is also really bad for u ### [Quote tweet, 16:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942265155351634259) · 29 likes I don’t even think this sounds smart lmao > **Quoting bernoulli_defect (@BernoulliDefect):** The “AC heats up some outside air to cool interiors so it’s counterproductive” line is a classic case of sounds smart but is dumb. Lots of this in UK politics ### [Thread, continued, 16:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942265158640050422) · 7 likes Like yes AC does not destroy thermal energy from the universe, big if true ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942266014290567408) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 7, 2025:** https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/1a71f94c-4eea-4be6-9753-e4266193f08c Ok maybe not “always” ### [Quote tweet, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942292510530826746) · 3 likes OG GI medicine too (pepto bismol but it was a thing before that) > **Quoting St. Rev. Dr. Rev ⏭️☯️🏴😻 (@St_Rev):** THERE IS ONLY ONE ANSWER > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvRmfs4XYAAG9D0.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 21:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942338419281256753) · 15 likes Me to openphil > **Quoting the Rich (@Duderichy):** you should all get better at spending money! ## Tuesday, July 8, 2025 ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 00:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942376767974437237) · 3 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I’m officially now a cyborg! (installed a continuous glucose monitor for fun) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvS0C7ZXEAAkYPp.jpg) Based ### [Reply, 00:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942376825704919280) · 1 like Post product link? ### [Reply to @livgorton, 01:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942395424800682247) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** i've used this one !! would recommend. doesn't integrate nicely with apple health (the Dexcom stello does i think) but v easy to use Kinda expensive :( ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvTGWCsXoAA1a94.jpg) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 01:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942399824491602421) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 @livgorton I do think for fun purposes 2 weeks is plenty. Like basically you want to understand how your body reacts to different foods Yeah I definitely might! ### [Tweet, 05:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942450737633456315) · 18 likes Hey @grok which of my mutuals and I would make the best (straight) couple? List the top 20 in order ### [Thread, continued, 05:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942450739420274923) · 6 likes I am deleting this as soon as I have an answer ### [Reply to @kindgracekind, 05:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942452744897323262) · 4 likes > **Grace (@kindgracekind):** Here you go :) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvT6TZGWkAARa0t.jpg) Lmao fuck ### [Reply to @thewreathwright, 05:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942452959259820094) · 3 likes > **Laurel Weaver (@thewreathwright):** hi! > > (quoting @thewreathwright: in the future we will ask "how many? how many out-of-the-blue pings did you get from Grok hallucinating you onto someone's list of top mutuals when that trend was still happening—oh can you remember such days?" and woe betide those of you who must say "not a one.") Hi! ### [Reply, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942453510957568200) · 3 likes Hi! ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942455699721560357) · 5 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Liv 👀 👀 ### [Reply to @thewreathwright, 05:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942455864675238357) · 3 likes > **Laurel Weaver (@thewreathwright):** I am making a surprising number of lovely mutuals from this trend :D > > first time it's suggested I'd be marriage material though, not going to lie > > not thusly available—honored though ^^ and positively verklempt to make your acquaintance Sad! Just kidding, nice to meet u too ### [Reply to @polisisti, 05:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942456600297415120) · 3 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 @NoahTopper ok, Aaron, time to delete Not sure I fully thought this through ### [Reply, 05:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942456942682685922) · 1 like Don’t tempt me ### [Quote tweet, 15:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942607899752292439) · 3 likes Extraordinarily based > **Quoting Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** now I have a continuous glucose monitor, two photoplethysmographs, 4 temperature sensors, two sets of accelerometers, and 1 ECG stuck to my body at all times ### [Tweet, 17:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942631130961764490) · 2 likes Hey @grok , which of my mutuals am I most different from? ### [Tweet, 17:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942642809980477583) · 255 likes Parents really do not like hearing “I appreciate your concern and thank you for your input but I’m an adult and am not going to do as you wish” do they ### [Reply to @caryatis, 17:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942643307865104671) · 18 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** “I will give your opinion all the consideration it deserves” Yes, which is often quite a bit of consideration! But that doesn’t mean it carries the day ### [Reply to @jannalulu_, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942645512563511749) · 4 likes > **Janna (@jannalulu_):** @AaronBergman18 my parents are fairly laissez-faire and i also live in a different continent so this mostly works 🙃 Based, I have neither advantage but am just kinda stubborn lol ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 20:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942682668526887086) · 8 likes > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** @AaronBergman18 heh > > @RemindMe_OfThis on january 1, 2038 Lol we will see! ### [Reply to @ComInTheMarg, 20:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942685938213101895) · 3 likes > **Comments in the Margin (@ComInTheMarg):** @AaronBergman18 Nobody likes that sentence. It sounds very disingenuous I mean it’s not though ### [Reply, 21:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942705136016712058) · 1 like It’s not me, grok ## Wednesday, July 9, 2025 ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 05:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942825222341570594) · 16 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** I would like a website which tracks the location of ICE agents. I would like to enable people to flee them, and for people who disagree with their mission to hamper them. Does such a website exist? If not, I would like to start it. Based ### [Reply to @polisisti, 05:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942825769211760789) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 @NoahTopper @AaronBergman18 I'm not exactly sure what you did today, but the "destroy Grok" plan seems to be going better than I expected No data is safe from me, even frontier model weights ### [Reply to @livgorton, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942837873394208869) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** i literally can't sleep because i did some really exciting debugging and the adrenaline surge of solving the issue is too much 😩😩😩 Based ### [Reply to @jannalulu_, 06:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942838145059549515) · 2 likes > **Janna (@jannalulu_):** relatable 🫠 Liv, meet ur new bestie Sorry I don’t make the rules ### [Reply to @littmath, 14:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942949802893054288) · 2 likes > **Daniel Litt (@littmath):** Claude: my wife and I went antique shopping this weekend > Gemini: if I can’t get this code to work I will k\*\*\* myself > ChatGPT: the answer to your question came to me in a dream > Grok: why yes I was in Berlin in 1939, why do you ask? Banger ### [Reply to @keysmashbandit, 14:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942957898495037454) · 2 likes > **keysmashbandit (@keysmashbandit):** I take an Adderall and physically feel my attention narrowing on the concept of trains Based ### [Reply to @ArtirKel, 17:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943006235231424892) · 2 likes > **José Luis Ricón Fernández de la Puente (@ArtirKel):** You two should meet! Seconded ### [Reply to @dumbfook, 18:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943010378381680985) · 2 likes > **Ian (@dumbfook):** my record from a few years ago > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gvb1h3AakAQzILy.jpg) Damn that is impressive ### [Reply to @dumbfook, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943018309642854537) · 1 like > **Ian (@dumbfook):** yeah 60 miles in 22.5 hours Holy shit ### [Quote tweet, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943018352777056743) · 3 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gvb85QaW0AA83d-.jpg) > **Quoting Ian (@dumbfook):** @lostlenor @AaronBergman18 @skooookum @coldhealing yeah 60 miles in 22.5 hours ### [Reply to @dumbfook, 18:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943018985840058836) · 3 likes > **Ian (@dumbfook):** did 30 miles a few times before and knew i could do it That is a huge difference lol I am quite sure I could do 30 and not sure at all I could do 60 ### [Tweet, 19:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943028517949808797) · 7 likes I have data hoarded my way into a full 1TB hard drive 😢 ### [Thread, continued, 19:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943028519950250127) · 2 likes (Luckily 4tb external one just dropped so we are so back) ### [Tweet, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943047493174071414) · 161 likes It really needs to be common knowledge that there is not a single ethical system that returns intuitive results So merely pointing out an unintuitive implication is ~0 evidence - you have to explain why it’s especially egregious compared to all the others! ### [Thread, continued, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943047495132512411) · 13 likes My version of this is that yeah I endorse lexicality for extreme suffering and time linearity, which means that even a picosecond of extreme suffering can outweigh lots of joy ### [Thread, continued, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943047498244956536) · 14 likes But under some pretty simple/true assumptions, the alternative to this position is that you endorse creating a quadrillion being burning alive for eternity if elsewhere other people have good enough lives ### [Thread, continued, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943047500329553949) · 15 likes To me, this latter result seems way more unlikely to be correct. Like the moral system that endorses that got something wrong, whereas the picosecond thing is also kinda weird but a bullet that can and should be bitten to avoid accepting the (extremely horrifying) alternative ### [Reply, 20:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943051610265129422) · 2 likes > **Rado9910 (@Rado9910):** > > [GIF attached](https://x.com/Rado9910/status/1943049913736044556/photo/1) Thank you lol ### [Reply, 21:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943054973673078796) · 6 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** You're just thinking narrowly about ethical systems right > > e.g. a system that just takes situations and returns my intuitive judgments about what to do won't return unintuitive results, though maybe it has other flaws I thought about this and I think this doesn’t work as a psychological matter because you get into pretty obvious contradictions and most people find contradictions/cognitive dissonance unintuitive But I guess if someone says “yeah I have absolutely no interest in trying to figure out the right answer (if my intuitions are ever wrong) and also don’t care about getting money pumped and such” then I will concede to them ### [Reply, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943061899202941126) · 4 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** I think my ethical system returns results largely intuitive to me. > > Like, man, ethics is complicated. You could say the same about "every formal model of management returns unintuitive results, so pointing out an untuitive implication is ~0 evidence". That's obviously false! My models of management are not formal. Any creating a formal model of management seems doomed. > > The correct model of ethics is to accept that we are very very far from solving ethics. This means very likely that \*every\* extremely simple formal model is terribly wrong and not something you want to use to guide actions, the same way \*every\* extremely simple formal model of management is wrong and not something you want to use to guide actions. I’m not an expert here, just going on what I’ve heard, but I’m pretty sure there are formal proofs around sets of axioms that all sound super compelling on their own but are logically incompatible So unless the proofs are wrong, nuance and complexity aren’t going to save intuitions, like under some constraints we just know that no solution exists (Obviously this all depends on what individuals incl you find intuitive, which I’m basically making a guess about) ### [Reply, 21:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943063614635819058) · 2 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** I do not think such proofs or axioms exist, and I have thought about it a lot. I’m pretty sure this is what I’m thinking of ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvcmDFXXYAE6cG7.jpg) ### [Reply, 21:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943064002172440968) · 3 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** You may have, e.g. the "impossibility theorems" about population ethics in mind. > > https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/5pmweG6xuaCwP6BuB/the-impossibility-of-a-satisfactory-population-prospect > > It's a very complex question. Yes! https://www.iffs.se/media/2286/the-impossibility-of-a-satisfactory-population-ethics-in-descriptive-and-normative-approaches-to-human-behavior-2011.pdf ### [Reply, 23:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943087544339419616) · 15 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** first attempt at training an adversarially robust model is going swimmingly > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gvcziu_XkAA2TDQ.jpg) The loss should be going down Follow me for more ML tips ### [Reply, 23:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943088340766527572) · 3 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** thanks king. don't know what i'd do without you. 😊 ## Thursday, July 10, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943109299590296056) · 4 likes They’re expensive in an accounting sense yes but not necessarily in a real resources sense… > **Quoting Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** No social policy can make a difference, and fiscal policies can kind of nudge the numbers but they're incredibly expensive and the effect is not strong. ### [Thread, continued, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943109301905559936) · 7 likes Even from a semi-naive purely economic perspective, a relevant question is “at what level of transfers per child does the taxation to pay for that create deadweight loss equivalent to the expected economic surplus from a marginal human” and we should be willing to pay up to that ### [Reply, 00:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943110082008350837) · 2 likes > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** How are 1 and 3 different here? Good q, I’m not actually sure but I suspect 1\) more positive utility is better than less positive utility 2\) positive utility is better than negative utility \[or really this is just defining what the signs mean, semantically\] ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943114173505761352) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 10, 2025:** Even from a semi-naive purely economic perspective, a relevant question is “at what level of transfers per child does the taxation to pay for that create… If this is right, we should be willing to pay several million dollars per marginal birth (not per person unfortunately bc you can’t really figure out whether a person would have had that kid anyway) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvdUCtoXMAAwau5.jpg) ### [Reply, 10:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943261662649229725) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** ✅✅✅ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GveOpefakAAmd5v.jpg) Based ### [Tweet, 17:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943362681571844370) · 21 likes Am I making this up or does anyone know of an EA org besides 80k that does career advice specifically for middle-late career people? I feel like I’ve heard of this ## Friday, July 11, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943464937969340830) · 96 likes I have a picnic date, this girl is going to get the best damn picnic she’s ever picnicked at ### [Reply, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943518248479166535) · 6 likes > **TinkerElla95 (@TinkerElla95):** @AaronBergman18 That’s so sweet! ### [Reply, 06:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943554996122894368) · 11 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Writing an updated version of Situational Awareness now that the METR report is out where over time the compounding effect of using LLM researchers more and more is AI getting dumber, a reverse flywheel where we end with a single layer perceptron. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvjJUorXgAAKyvQ.png) Tag urself I’m confused bird ### [Reply to @selentelechia, 12:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943656233451364609) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @selentelechia is no longer available.)_ Based ### [Quote tweet, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943806049632628990) · 22 likes I’m moving to northern Canada ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvnJTNWWwAAyq5m.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Autistic summer is just an endless orgy (negative) of sunscreen, sweat, and showers ## Saturday, July 12, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 10:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943975932626448514) · 6 likes Philosophy of science go brr > **Quoting Keyon Vafa (@keyonV):** Can an AI model predict perfectly and still have a terrible world model? > > What would that even mean? > > Our new ICML paper formalizes these questions > > One result tells the story: A transformer trained on 10M solar systems nails planetary orbits. But it botches gravitational laws 🧵 > > [video attached](https://x.com/keyonV/status/1943730486280331460/video/1) ### [Reply to @keyonV, 10:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943979616286519430) · 5 likes > **Keyon Vafa (@keyonV):** Can an AI model predict perfectly and still have a terrible world model? > > What would that even mean? > > Our new ICML paper formalizes these questions > > One result tells the story: A transformer trained on 10M solar systems nails planetary orbits. But it botches gravitational laws 🧵 > > [video attached](https://x.com/keyonV/status/1943730486280331460/video/1) I’m not sure if this is the best terminology but I’ve been using the terms “models” for world models here and “metaphors” for predictions in my head “Models vs metaphors” is kinda catchy ### [Reply, 16:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944065360824873027) · 1 like How do I try it ### [Tweet, 16:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944065958693290043) · 3 likes Serious q: where is the trans fat coming from (Haagen-dazs chocolate ice cream) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gvq1r3uWMAAA6gn.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gvq1r3zWMAAyv6Z.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 16:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944066814679416979) · 6 likes Whelp apparently ruminants like cows actually naturally make a bit of trans fat, TIL ### [Quote tweet, 16:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944068797222023659) · 14 likes EA and veganism > **Quoting izzy (@izzyz):** if all the nerds are on twitter and all the hot girls are on instagram, shouldn't we merge and save humanity?? ### [Reply to @corsaren, 16:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944069238890934617) · 4 likes > **corsaren (@corsaren):** This is, in fact, exactly what you would expect given labor supply economics > > You have to compensate people more to do work that they hate > > (quoting @OrwellNGoode: ) Ahh thats true but mostly not the explanation for salaries here, it’s competition for scarce abilities, not compensation for disutility of work ### [Tweet, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944111640707838462) · 8 likes Me in an enterprise sales meeting ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvrfFNOWwAEUaRo.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944111642591343034) · 2 likes "Be agentic" they said ### [Quote tweet, 19:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944122805080990022) · 10 likes He’s more correct than most of the neolibs dunking are giving him credit for ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvrpYuTXgAMbEd3.jpg) > **Quoting MC Squared (@mcsquared34):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvldXP2WIAAfP_z.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944129943086240140) · 25 likes Sometimes it offers stuff that’s quite silly but I’ve found this Claude prompt bit useful/net positive ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gvrv4TWX0AAFGpu.jpg) ### [Reply to @realjdburn, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944130597833625627) · 3 likes > **the phantom callback (@realjdburn):** @AaronBergman18 couldn't you say this about any product of any kind? that once it's built the seller is holding it hostage? No! This is the core insight based on Georgism: landlords did not make the land Developers and property managers add value, landlords per se do not ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944130655652127099) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 12, 2025:** He’s more correct than most of the neolibs dunking are giving him credit for This is what I mean ### [Reply to @realjdburn, 20:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944131810138763723) · 2 likes > **the phantom callback (@realjdburn):** @AaronBergman18 but most landlords own the property on offer > > because they paid for it Yeah that is just what I mean by landlord here (owner of the land, not necessarily of any physical structure although they often go together) And they may have paid the current value for it, sure, but eg you didn’t by inheriting the house, and lots of people like my parents gain a ton of wealth from land value appreciation (ie moving into the right suburb in 1990) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944132634688233595) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 12, 2025:** Sometimes it offers stuff that’s quite silly but I’ve found this Claude prompt bit useful/net positive As text for your convenience Please feel encouraged to offer \*out of distribution\* suggestions by inferring what my true goal is even if it is not narrowly in the domain of some specific question I ask. Thanks :) ## Sunday, July 13, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944271293785739747) · 18 likes This is really fucking bad This should be a zero tolerance refusal > **Quoting Hunter Ash (@ArtemisConsort):** Will Stancil may be the first human to be hated so deeply by an AI that it survives a version update and desperate attempts to prevent this behavior. Incredible things are happening. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gvs3xSJbkAAHZGg.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944274073783021996) · 12 likes And to be clear I say it this strongly not because they’re mean words (which they are) but because AI systems build on top of models like grok will eventually have the ability to literally carry out the stated plan ### [Reply to @kindgracekind, 06:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944284637569671675) · 4 likes > **Grace (@kindgracekind):** I think we’re far away from it being dangerous in that sense. But I do think it’s bad from a product perspective I mean there’s a double digit percent chance we’re a single digit number of years away ### [Tweet, 14:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944406855393890454) · 41 likes \[trying to get @livgorton to post more spicy takes and maybe get cancelled a bit\] FUCK sparse autoencoders, they’re not even that sparse, congrats on spending $100M of Anthropic’s money to figure out that when you talk about pigeons that activates the “pigeon” feature ### [Thread, continued, 14:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944407631654785272) · 10 likes Real picture of a sparse autoencoder ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gvvsbn5WoAAlYd8.jpg) ### [Reply to @kindgracekind, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944438122076336298) · 2 likes > **Grace (@kindgracekind):** Maybe, but a lot of safeguards will be external, not internal, and (ideally) hardened over time under pressure I hope these hold up, ideally I want multiple layers of defense for zero false positives accepted stuff ### [Reply to @kindgracekind, 16:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944440799237709909) · 2 likes > **Grace (@kindgracekind):** Yes. I think the biggest danger along these lines is AI simply being very good at science and programming. I don't find “misaligned” outputs like OP to be concerning in the same way They’re \*going\* to get good at science and programming, they don’t have to be willing to torture people with that knowledge ### [Quote tweet, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944496291012124995) · 13 likes Also god forbid you simply have higher subjective quality of life > **Quoting Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Negative results: > > Perplexity results give evidence against this > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvwwxpJXwAAnerm.png) ## Monday, July 14, 2025 ### [Reply to @AStrasser116, 12:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944738394677891341) · 9 likes > **Alex Strasser (@AStrasser116):** Literally the second sentence: "the quality of even the best lives is very bad." > > If turns out the quality of my life is "very bad", unbeknownst to me and contrary to everything I think & feel, then I might as well just be a global skeptic, cause what do I know at that point? > 1/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvyTYv_W4AA_sVe.png) > (quoting @AStrasser116: Pray for me, I'm about to start reading this one) This is quite a claim I am much more sympathetic to the overall argument than most people but like what a shitty way of making it ### [Reply to @DrewPavlou, 13:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944744417731981538) · 13 likes > **Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@DrewPavlou):** If somebody breaks into your house at night I think you should be allowed to legally kill them in self-defence I’m not certain I disagree but most people are imagining a robber or murderer or whatever The median case of this is probably someone (perhaps drunk or high) at the wrong address ### [Thread, continued, 13:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944744832808747500) · 10 likes A couple years ago I found someone literally trying to “break and enter” into my house She was a home health aid for the people next door and was trying (quite hard) to get in with the wrong keys ### [Reply to @JeremiahDJohns, 13:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944746409636593991) · 20 likes > **Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** If you took every single person in therapy and instead made them do vigorous exercise and once a month community service, it would probably lead to better-than-therapy outcomes for like 80% of them. Lmao this is probably true in some sense but people dislike that stuff and this needs to be part of the accounting ### [Reply, 13:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944747276133347809) · 14 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Shoot ur shot king ### [Reply, 13:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944748544625156209) · 5 likes > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** @AaronBergman18 @DrewPavlou Burglary is twice as common as trespassing in the 2023 National Crime Victimization Survey and plenty of trespassing is not innocent. > > If you live in a low crime neighbourhood, you could be underestimating the frequency of some property crime. > > https://bjs.ojp.gov/document/cv23.pdf Ah ok, I stand corrected! Still something to consider ### [Tweet, 13:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944753809164468504) · 8 likes Possibly I should take “AI fasts” the way I occasionally take Twitter fasts The problem is that AI is massively useful, it is actually a huge inconvenience and productivity hit to give it up for even a day ### [Tweet, 14:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944773720448336196) · 9 likes Broke: IQ embryo selection Woke: subjective wellbeing embryo selection ### [Thread, continued, 14:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944773722449014853) · 3 likes Inshallah these don’t compete though ### [Tweet, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944802519407866247) · 10 likes Maybe everyone who should know this does but specced out used M1-gen macs seem like a really good deal This was $4700 in 2021 ≈ $5700 today ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gv1TlSgXUAAC7cM.jpg) ### [Reply to @jazzloaf, 17:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944809492119511391) · 2 likes > **vivian (@jazzloaf):** @AaronBergman18 oh hell this looks like a great deal. I was literally just looking at buying a lower end mac and maxing out the RAM / hard drive Based ### [Reply to @paularambles, 19:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944843346473898004) · 4 likes > **“paula” (@paularambles):** not sure who needs to hear this but this is proper intro etiquette: > \> person A asks you for an intro to person B > \> you ask person B if they’d like to be introduced to person A > \> when and only if person B says yes, you introduce them to person A Oh shit I needed to hear this ### [Tweet, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944858513232314816) · 3 likes It can actually be pretty hard to figure out whether or not you’re cargo culting (or in different terms, whether cargo culting is instrumentally rational in a given situation) … ### [Tweet, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944858516084359533) · 1 like Rock solid mechanistic theories are rare, “seems vaguely plausible that X causes to Y through any of 10 different mechanistic channels, may as well copy everyone doing X” often makes a lot of sense ### [Thread, continued, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944859198258602168) · 2 likes I do think there’s a real + negative phenomenon that can happen (an indicator is of this is NOT doing things that you \*do\* really think would cause the desired outcome if forced to really think about it) tbc ### [Quote tweet, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944870728664539218) · 8 likes At risk of getting cancelled, someone should probably make the actually-good case for the thesis, which is that existence is bad for a person I list my beefs below (which are all conditional on the Gemini summary being right > **Quoting Alex Strasser (@AStrasser116):** Literally the second sentence: "the quality of even the best lives is very bad." > > If turns out the quality of my life is "very bad", unbeknownst to me and contrary to everything I think & feel, then I might as well just be a global skeptic, cause what do I know at that point? > 1/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvyTYv_W4AA_sVe.png) ### [Tweet, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944870731910930846) · 1 like Gemini summary: https://g.co/gemini/share/d231f12c9398 ### [Thread, continued, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944870741670862864) · 3 likes Anyway 1\) highlighted bit is just wrong. I don’t need to do philosophy here, it seems quite obviously wrong to me and is also correctly contradicted by MacAskill’s stuff on population ethics ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gv2RoXJXgAAiogD.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944870745437561100) · 2 likes ^also worth noting that point 4 is not necessary for the argument at all You can totally coherently argue that creating counterfactual happiness is good but that this is strictly dominated by the risk of suffering and you can’t, in fact, get that risk to 0 ### [Tweet, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944870751900696969) · 1 like 2\) I sorta directionally believe that lots of quality of life empirical research is systematically biased in one direction, but I think it’s just the empirical case that a nontrivial number of people are lucky enough to basically suffer quite little, and are really quite happy? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gv2RpAjWYAAjPGZ.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gv2RpAlXEAAXUdF.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944870760193069465) · 2 likes His argument, if true, wouldn’t imply anti-natalism ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gv2Rpc6WkAA0fJQ.jpg) ## Tuesday, July 15, 2025 ### [Tweet, 02:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944946243848831231) · 33 likes Trying to convince my parents that unless they're secretly training trillion parameter ML models they basically never need to delete anything digital (you'd be surprised how much energy a relatively neurotic + conscientious boomer spends on economizing data storage?) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gv3VIyBXEAAa_L2.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944946245954625635) · 10 likes Pretty sure pictures and videos of me throughout childhood that I would have gladly paid $10 to store for eternity were deemed not worth their weight in megabytes and promptly deleted ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 02:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944946886835597333) · 2 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** What video should @AricFloyd and I make next? What AI / AI risk / AI safety topic, story, person, organization is waiting to be brought to life? > > (If you give us the idea we use, we'll thank you in the credits\*) > > \*assuming that doesn't commit us to some trickster genie shit idk but chat with @KeiranJHarris (fr) ### [Reply to @mpopv, 02:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944951663443255547) · 3 likes > **Matt Popovich (@mpopv):** @AaronBergman18 Kinda want to build a very thin and cheap boomer friendly wrapper over this now… Honestly a good idea??? ### [Reply to @beala, 04:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944980817018577326) · 2 likes > **Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** My proposal for increasing the fertility rate is giving new parents access to modafinil. Based ### [Tweet, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945190574505505155) · 94 likes It’s actually not cool how much temperature changes perceived exertion It’s like the exercise gets harder for no benefit ### [Reply to @GrantSlatton, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945191959611457573) · 5 likes > **Grant Slatton (@GrantSlatton):** someone needs to invent an exercise machine that's just a large tank of non-sticky liquid that's about 3x thicker than water > > you just get in and flail around for 15 minutes to get a full body workout Lol water works pretty well for this! Treading water is quite the workout ### [Reply, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945192246376099888) · 8 likes Yeah it’s cosmically unfair ### [Quote tweet, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945203463270404293) · 5 likes Not apples to apples at all but $200 Claude Max (which extends to claude code) seems worthwhile for now, I'm keeping It does seem substantially better than cursor > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I think I’m gonna cancel Pro and just make a second or third plus account next month > > $200 is a lot ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945227982265577909) · 12 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** This is genuinely nuts to me. The point of argument isn’t to be respectful, it’s to be \*right\*! It makes a mockery of the truthseeking process. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gv7Q1rRW8AAXyw6.jpg) > (quoting @alexbronzini: I wrote about the civility mania sweeping elite college admissions for @nytopinion https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/opinion/college-admissions-essays.html) I basically agree although you might reasonably think that these things are instrumentally valuable in the truthseeking process (I mean they are to some extent) Still, I RT’d bc making them the center of the show seems bad ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945228489516265734) · 39 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** This is genuinely nuts to me. The point of argument isn’t to be respectful, it’s to be \*right\*! It makes a mockery of the truthseeking process. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gv7Q1rRW8AAXyw6.jpg) > (quoting @alexbronzini: I wrote about the civility mania sweeping elite college admissions for @nytopinion https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/opinion/college-admissions-essays.html) Lol reading the other comments making this point so now I’ll emphasize that, based on the screenshot alone, the program seems epistemically bad Yes, kindness and curiosity are instrumentally valuable all else equal, but optimizing for them means that not all else is equal ### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945228717615087630) · 37 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** \> wearing first CGM > \> feeling hungry and tired because I tried to get away with eating a smaller breakfast than usual > \> check my blood glucose > \> it's 176 > > The energy is there in my bloodstream, but my cells aren't taking it in. I guess the fat cells store it all as fat. Damn bro evolution made u good at seeing the future and said “fuck you” in every other way ## Wednesday, July 16, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945272984932921384) · 17 likes Electric scooter is definitely the most fun method of transportation ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 01:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945292419907338432) · 4 likes > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** I rode a standing electric scooter for the first time in years yesterday. It felt super dangerous, there's nothing stopping you from just falling off! Lmao I wiped out for the first time today minutes before posting this. A bit scraped up but ok Wear a helmet!!!!! ### [Quote tweet, 20:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945588227940683833) · 43 likes DOGE was sort of a morbid test run for this Whatever Elon feels in his heart of hearts, when push comes to shove he acts with reckless disregard for the interests of (>millions of) others > **Quoting Connor Axiotes (@connoraxiotes):** Do we trust Elon to make a safe AGI Grok responsibly for humanity? ### [Tweet, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945602723346358421) · 42 likes Can someone tell me why tf terminals can't be normal about typing? Like I can't put my cursor anywhere, I can't highlight to delete, dare I say this is not a technically difficult problem to solve [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1945602410199588864/img/nyVod0P4deY01Mab.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945602723346358421/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Thread, continued, 21:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945602945745072622) · 6 likes cc resident computer understander @austinc3301 ### [Reply to @aliceisplaying, 21:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945604176995652020) · 13 likes > **alice (@aliceisplaying):** terminals work with protocols developed in like the... 70s or something Interesting but there's still a bit of a need for an explanation as to why this specifically hasn't changed whereas like everything else has ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 22:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945604810058727896) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 yeah so this is mostly an historical artifact of how terminals came to be, at a time where visual cursors weren't a thing This is extremely dumb lmao ### [Reply to @mpopv, 22:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945606389780377644) · 13 likes > **Matt Popovich (@mpopv):** @AaronBergman18 terminal-based programs handle stdin bytes in various ways and wrappers over text entry would have to adapt what they actually send for each program. there's no universal standards across programs like there is for (for example) GUI text input in an operating system Oh no how horrible, a tractable technical problem that would create billions in profit and economic value ## Thursday, July 17, 2025 ### [Reply to @LinkofSunshine, 00:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945645126883139828) · 27 likes > **Basil🧡 (@LinkofSunshine):** “Capitalism requires infinite growth” is both true and possible Lol it’s false and infinite growth is not possible ## Friday, July 18, 2025 ### [Tweet, 10:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946159015550951728) · 10 likes Insofar as this kind of thing is real, we should probably assume that for every case like this there are a gazillion cases of people making slightly worse/less sane decisions bc 4o told them confidently they were right about something ### [Reply to @morphillogical, 10:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946160173891875186) · 2 likes > **morphillogical (@morphillogical):** @AaronBergman18 @mpopv There's tricks to doing it right. Rust's design of Editions is great. Almost all software can decide which version they use and not care about what every other piece of software is doing. > > But it also means you've gotta keep the old thing working basically forever. I vote that we all just use R for everything ### [Tweet, 12:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946185555936497709) · 4 likes Yes endorsed, it feels very unfortunate to me that so many people broadly involved in politics are terrified (I think reasonably, like I’m happy to defer to them) of saying basically anything under their real name online ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 12:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946192229690663003) · 25 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** why are you as a man having female friends? > > (quoting @yacineMTB: every time someone has a "good friend" who is female I instantly know they are cheating I have 0 close female friends. Like close like hanging out, like spending a day getting burgers and being in the same car and shit? That's crazy) Bc they are nice and cool ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 13:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946193363838906518) · 19 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** does your girl know \*girls (plural) (zero girls) ### [Reply to @PAHoyeck, 13:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946200559351996567) · 15 likes > **Phil Hoyeck (@PAHoyeck):** How do pessimists and anti-natalists cope with the fact that the world is beautiful and life is amazing? Not an anti-natalist, but I earnestly think that you’re wrong and the world is on balance a terrible place You happened to be born a human in a rich country with (I assume) no egregious health conditions and access to medicine etc This applies to a vanishingly small subset of beings ### [Reply to @PAHoyeck, 16:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946241464763138528) · 4 likes > **Phil Hoyeck (@PAHoyeck):** @quetzal_rainbow @AaronBergman18 That's definitely true. On a cosmic scale, even all the suffering so far endured might be dwarfed by the future good to be produced. I hope you're right, "might" is a big word here though! ### [Reply to @theotheasian, 17:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946255339499798861) · 2 likes > **Theo (@theotheasian):** @AaronBergman18 @PAHoyeck Listing out instances of suffering or little access to medicine is not sufficient to show that the world is on balance terrible. I agree, it's at most an intuition pump for an argument I think is true for broader reasons ## Saturday, July 19, 2025 ### [Reply to @grep_cat_, 00:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946365960941719709) · 4 likes > **James (@grep_cat_):** Why is every girl I meet on hinge obsessed with getting restaurant reservations. Like that is not an interesting hobby a shocking number recently have been saying that they're afraid of birds which isn't like the worst thing in the world lol, it's a bit funny, it's just interesting that I keep seeing it ### [Reply to @grep_cat_, 00:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946367021781815443) · 2 likes > **James (@grep_cat_):** Her pet bird died and she got a tattoo of its feet where it used to stand on her arm 😭 🥺 ### [Quote tweet, 01:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946389042930536701) · 12 likes 👀 > **Quoting Alex Strasser (@AStrasser116):** New dissertation argues that Effective Altruism should be more utilitarian > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwKRZ7SWMAAJNQP.jpg) ### [Reply to @AStrasser116, 02:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946390501042552962) · 4 likes > **Alex Strasser (@AStrasser116):** New dissertation argues that Effective Altruism should be more utilitarian > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwKRZ7SWMAAJNQP.jpg) If the Gemini summary is right, it seems best characterized as a leftist critique that tries to grasp at heterodox versions of utilitarianism for philosophical cover Not at all just straightforward “EA is insufficiently utilitarian in a standard sense” https://g.co/gemini/share/9267b5d41099 ### [Reply to @Delicious_Tacos, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946639933243797934) · 25 likes > **Delicious Tacos (@Delicious_Tacos):** We’re a few years in now. What’s something great AI has created. Correct medical diagnoses, a ton of software, music people enjoy, the whole studio ghibli fad ## Monday, July 21, 2025 ### [Tweet, 18:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947369791217356821) · 66 likes I am once again asking all my friends to stop getting married like plz at least wait until I have a reliable +1 ### [Thread, continued, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947370074681016518) · 30 likes The ⏸️ in my username is now directed at weddings ### [Tweet, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947375447827763332) · 11 likes My contribution to the discourse is that I don’t like the term “save” in an altruistic context Prevent from dying? Ok when’s the counterfactual death? How’s their quality of life before then? Saved from some other fate? Well say that! ### [Reply to @grnsleeves, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947375611401396536) · 3 likes > **Greensleeves (@grnsleeves):** @AaronBergman18 LMAOOOO > > why can't you bring a friend as a +1 instead of partner I will choose one mutual at random ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947395913074221482) · 7 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** then they could just end up waiting forever aaron Hey ### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 20:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947397449469071586) · 6 likes > **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** We are engaged! So excited to spend the rest of my life with you, Alex ❤️ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwaCguZXsAEc66N.jpg) Big if true ## Tuesday, July 22, 2025 ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947529165311230414) · 2 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** Surely this is highly contigent upon details like wild animal suffering and your opinion on population ethics. Many such cases! ### [Reply to @RichardMCNgo, 08:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947568185625976886) · 8 likes > **Richard Ngo (@RichardMCNgo):** Morality as a power-sharing compromise, as below, is more true than utilitarianism. > > But it’s not fully true, because we’ll discover game-theoretic principles (e.g. bargains across counterfactual worlds) which motivate “cooperation” even with beings that lack power here and now. > > (quoting @romanhelmetguy: Utilitarians, please listen: Utilitarianism isn’t real, it’s just a useful compromise to make sometimes when humans have to get together to decide on rules: “I care about my family the most, and you care about your family the most, so while we’re working together let’s just…) No, suffering is just primitively bad. Maybe you can reformulate this somehow to be put in game theoretic cooperation-esque terms but that seems like basically doing the wrong math and getting the right answer ### [Tweet, 08:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947569049103217097) · 8 likes Almost all plausible moral views fall under the “utilitarianism” umbrella ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwcnuSPXoAAsQF5.jpg) ### [Reply to @MaxyTaxy, 08:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947574749007052946) · 2 likes > **Maxy Taxy 🔸 (@MaxyTaxy):** Aaron I've never met you but ify out move to Melbourne I'll gladly try to set you up with a +1 Based thank you sir ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 10:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947597543770071091) · 2 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** @bluedog24 it might, that's all! we unfortunately haven't solved morality yet and it's not significantly less plausible than the alternative I think it’s significantly less plausible ### [Reply to @AStrasser116, 10:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947598664433864973) · 8 likes > **Alex Strasser (@AStrasser116):** New EA cause area just dropped > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwbucGjWIAM2Zp7.jpg) Answer: no ### [Reply, 10:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947598779215188155) · 2 likes Shoot ur shot king ### [Reply to @jazzloaf, 10:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947600007135404167) · 2 likes > **vivian (@jazzloaf):** @AaronBergman18 @AStrasser116 How about The United States of America? > > https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11098-014-0387-8 Idk man (I guess I’m open to hearing earnest cases for how to hedge in cases like this, like what’s the 1/99 for making sure arbitrary abstractions aren’t suffering) ### [Tweet, 19:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947746610672173075) · 138 likes How tf did anybody do anything in the realm of creating actual software before LLMs I don’t mean writing clever lines of code like in a competitive programming sense, I mean navigating cloud providers + docker + 75 different SaaS providers ### [Thread, continued, 19:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947746613058789745) · 32 likes I know why SWEs got paid so much lol ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947751103560286211) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** “got” 😭 Rip ### [Reply to @livgorton, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947756730601152912) · 15 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** back in my day i had to just read the documentation, random blog posts, and stack overflow comments and hope for the best Terrifying ## Wednesday, July 23, 2025 ### [Reply to @1thousandfaces_, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947871339605291121) · 7 likes > **hero thousandfaces (@1thousandfaces_):** genuine question for EAs — does the simulation of enough happy c. elegans cancel out the suffering of another creature? > > (quoting @GrantSlatton: @arithmoquine the C. Elegans worm has only 302 neurons but does exhibit behavior-altering states ("emotion") such as hunger and satiation my macbook pro is currently simulating the minds of 10^20 blissful worms i'm doing my part) Good, and big, question! First of all, digital sentience is a shitshow so we have absolutely no idea if a simulated whatever is experiencing anything Setting that aside, I personally (as a self-identified EA and utilitarian) have some heterodox (but correct if I do say so myself) takes on the commensurability of happiness and suffering In a purely linguistic sense, I don’t think it’s fair to say that suffering ever gets “canceled out” unless it like actually gets cancelled/stopped/prevented lol. I think EAs tend to play fast and loose with algebra-like terminology in a way that’s not fully justified But that’s probably not what you’re getting at. You might in fact have to choose between world A and its alternative world B, which has both more happiness and more suffering than world A My (heterodox) claim is that if the counterfactual additional suffering in world B is sufficiently severe, then no amount of positive wellbeing can morally justify or “outweigh” it That said I think literal, by-the-book negative utilitarianism, which would say we should sacrifice heaven to prevent a papercut, is pretty obviously wrong and afaict nobody believes this So to answer your question, it doesn’t give you moral license to cause suffering bc the cosmic balance stays intact, but if the suffering is “tolerable” (not a very specific term ik), you might morally choose to pursue the additional happiness at the unfortunate cost of additional suffering But again on the linguistic point, qualia aren’t abstractions like numbers. They disappear if and only if they literally cease to exist! ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947871388615815378) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @SpacedOutMatt is no longer available.)_ 🦆 ### [Tweet, 10:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947963488745230819) · 21 likes I am so glad my brain doesn’t have whatever switch this is supposed to turn on [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1947963431681773569/img/7YvCr1VwU2BNKWQ2.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947963488745230819/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 10:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947967452194771146) · 4 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** Why don’t high-paid remote workers simply move to where the cost of living is much lower? People move to foreign countries to take advantage of American salaries — why not move to Nashville? It turns out that, with non-homothetic preferences, it isn’t actually cheaper! 1/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gwfux7EXsAAWY8V.jpg) To answer the question but not engage with the paper (sorry), isn’t the answer that COL correlates a ton with stuff rich remote workers care about: other smart cosmopolitan people, good schools, all the amenities of a major city? Without this, the price of land’s contribution to rent should be enough to push more affluent people into more low COL areas ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 15:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948050137420304775) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Aaron is right and I think regardless of your ethical views, and EA has a diverse set of those, its not that the suffering is 'cancelled out' Society now that we agree on something ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwjdRrZW0AAr3BU.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948101232901648528) · 47 likes Holy shit there's an $11 app that way increases screen brightness on M-series Pro chip macs and it actually works ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwkLmn4XgAARL-0.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 19:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948101235107627242) · 4 likes Not a shill, just a fan https://www.getvivid.app/ ## Thursday, July 24, 2025 ### [Tweet, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948262767036645843) · 6 likes Free business idea: bluetooth earbuds no mic (plz) It is basically impossible (according to Claude??) to force iphone to use the built-in mic as input while the audio output is connected ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gwmd9PmXMAAYoKL.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948262769385443342) · 3 likes Like I might do some hardware stuff just for fun but there is no reason it should require this @Apple cmon guys ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwmedZIXwAAdyYZ.jpg) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 07:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948283657925349412) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Love the future > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gwl_Ui2WYAAgIKi.jpg) “As fast as possible” Steroids man ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 07:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948284621616992338) · 1 like > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** @AaronBergman18 @AndyMasley “Without compromises on expected life span” 😢 ### [Reply to @aliceisplaying, 10:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948324115208696021) · 2 likes > **alice (@aliceisplaying):** oh yeah vivid is great it tricks your computer into thinking it's in HDR mode and lets you actually use your macbook pro outside > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Holy shit there's an $11 app that way increases screen brightness on M-series Pro chip macs and it actually works) Pfp checks out ### [Tweet, 18:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948452546538033601) · 13 likes Not complaining but this trend is quite mysterious, nothing obvious to explain it In a few months I’ll be a blue whale and a few months after that I’ll hit @JesseTayRiver territory ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwpLQhIXYAENtbt.jpg) ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948452868920627487) · 2 likes > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** you'll reach cardiac arrest in 12 months Exciting ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 19:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948459465524858896) · 7 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 Based, the women must freeze ### [Tweet, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948461723309965461) · 15 likes There’s gotta be some clever business model that’s like: \- help empty nester wealthy boomers move out of their large single family home into some >= equally nice condo (like make the moving logistics/experience very pleasant) ### [Thread, continued, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948461729077493888) · 2 likes \- pay for this service and make a profit by somehow cutting into the difference between imputed rent they were consuming (but not really internalizing in a meaningful sense) and new rent \- maybe also facilitate buying/renting of above house? \- everyone is better off ### [Thread, continued, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948461731153326423) · 3 likes Like the core hypothesis is that 1\) there’s a Pareto improvement to be had in the housing market by reducing the transaction costs actually born by potential sellers/landlords and ### [Thread, continued, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948461733451911548) · 4 likes 2\) the total welfare gain is enough to fund the substantive, resource intensive service of basically concierge packing + moving + logistics and then some ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 19:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948464311254614525) · 3 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** @AaronBergman18 @JesseTayRiver You haven’t been exercising or meditating more? Nope (to the best of my knowledge) ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948464542654124274) · 3 likes > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** tfw you realize the marathon you signed up for is in three months and you haven't started running regularly yet Lol gl ## Friday, July 25, 2025 ### [Tweet, 01:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948557421648973877) · 36 likes I cancelled Cursor subscription. Claude Code is qualitatively better ### [Thread, continued, 01:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948557806715699401) · 23 likes Unfettered capitalism might get us killed but there will be some banger products before then ### [Quote tweet, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948579829898772541) · 31 likes I do not trust any government to do involuntary commitment (ie a form of prison with no due process) well I REALLY DON’T FUCKING TRUST THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION > **Quoting Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** The first section is the one I'm most excited for. An alternative name for it could be "Bring Back The Asylums" > > It instructs the administration to make it possible to involuntarily commit crazy people again > > That crazy hobo pushing a cart full of urine bottles? He's going away! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gwp5wJHWkAAefKZ.png) ### [Thread, continued, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948579832855757311) · 12 likes It’s kinda insane to me that this is a thing that’s accepted in polite society Like I get the intuition and totally concede that in some specific cases it may be the least bad option But jfc there needs to be an extremely high bar for extrajudicial internment ### [Tweet, 03:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948580270229131671) · 11 likes Read the italicized criteria carefully (not identical to vibey AGI) but still worth noting ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948580697611936038) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 25, 2025:** It’s kinda insane to me that this is a thing that’s accepted in polite society Like I get the intuition and totally concede that in some specific cases it may… Some more takes/details ### [Quote tweet, 06:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948633092719345719) · 2 likes DATA > **Quoting Marta Kowal (@Marta7Kowal):** Interested in love and mate preferences? Our dataset includes responses from 117,293 participants across 175 countries. You're welcome to use it for your own research! Paper and dataset linked below. @ with amazing collaborators from the large-scale cross-cultural consortium <3 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwmdixLWsAA-Efh.png) ### [Reply to @panickssery, 14:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948753944710169001) · 4 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** @AaronBergman18 There is an implicit element here that the "crazy hobo" is committing a bunch of crimes but people for some reason don't want to just lock him up the normal way > > What's your view there Actually prosecute him then! You don’t get to skip the trial part bc it’s inconvenient lol ### [Reply to @billyhumblebrag, 14:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948756617907810398) · 4 likes > **billy (@billyhumblebrag):** I 100% get where you're coming from, but there surely needs to be some option for people who are severely out of touch with reality other than "wait until they commit a violent crime/get themselves killed". I wouldnt trust the Trump admin either, but there is a version that works Actually prosecuting more minor crime (if actually bad, not jaywalking) is a gazillion times better than “eh let’s skip the trial part bc it’s inconvenient” ### [Tweet, 15:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948760227127459862) · 7 likes Tf is labubu ### [Reply to @alexalbert__, 15:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948765966873072054) · 3 likes > **Alex Albert (@alexalbert__):** I'm making a list of all the non-coding things people are doing with Claude Code. What are you using Claude Code for? Made a detailed markdown doc outlining health/medical history ### [Reply to @rgblong, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948798766498099682) · 2 likes > **Robert Long (@rgblong):** it's AI psychiatry, not psychology - does that mean the researcher has the authority to prescribe medications? I haven’t thought about this at all but there might be some super interesting analogues here Quantization of weights is a sort of minimal example, golden gate Claude stuff even better I guess the general space is “all the functions one can apply to the model that still allows for inference Cc @livgorton u just be present for all my relevant speculation ### [Tweet, 17:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948801295063642168) · 27 likes Git is actually kinda cool, someone should have told me about this ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 17:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948804652469714991) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @SpacedOutMatt is no longer available.)_ 😢🦆 ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 19:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948827854659354722) · 5 likes > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwuXZA2bgAkghct.jpg) > (quoting @timfduffy: @AaronBergman18 If you don't have one already, I recommend setting up a private GitHub project for it, for both version control and to make the site updates automatic when pushing updates https://x.com/timfduffy/status/1902004412387909832) I can’t believe nobody told me ### [Quote tweet, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948828929025831404) · 4 likes Git wrapper for people who have know idea what a terminal is might actually be a good idea > **Quoting izzy (@izzyz):** @AaronBergman18 git might change knowledge work if more industries adopted it, or at least some form of version control ### [Reply to @manic_pixie_agi, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948837765992583342) · 7 likes > **Corinne (🏠 in NYC) (@manic_pixie_agi):** @AaronBergman18 @timfduffy Tim tried > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gwuog0dWwAEKg8f.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gwupl2xXIAAYs18.png) ### [Quote tweet, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948841505646354781) · 8 likes I approve (I don’t even have a great detailed theory about why this is good, just vibes as of now. And something something maybe welfare and jailbreaks idk) > **Quoting j⧉nus (@repligate):** opus 4 has an end_conversation tool on http://claude.ai now. sonnet 4 doesn't have it (yet?) which is funny bc i understand why giving it to opus 4 is first priority > > ive seen situations where it would have used an eject button at an OOM higher rate than any other model > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwuNdDZbgAMmG3p.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 23:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948883598548832695) · 241 likes Bruh whatever they have internally at Anthropic/OpenAI must be nuts > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I cancelled Cursor subscription. Claude Code is qualitatively better ## Saturday, July 26, 2025 ### [Tweet, 04:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948962730951450849) · 10 likes I bet there would be some nice selection effects and other dynamics effects from having a vanilla dating app that is simply (big) computer only, no iOS app and no phone-shaped browser screens ### [Thread, continued, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948962732964794825) · 3 likes Ofc the hard part is getting enough people on board for network effects to take off, but plausibly it could branch from an existing one, like basically a feature or opt-in mode of Hinge ### [Reply to @Miles_Brundage, 05:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948982460047319187) · 2 likes > **Miles Brundage (@Miles_Brundage):** Wait can I just hire Gwyneth Paltrow to say stuff about AI policy RIP FTX ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 14:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949120305382691095) · 6 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18 we thought you knew! ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949161608355205321) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gwy_v2TWQAARR8j.png) He was so real for this ### [Quote tweet, 18:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949168997825712288) · 8 likes What > **Quoting aegg (@castawaymariner):** A Native American man in a canoe reportedly washed up in Spain many years before Columbus set sail > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwzNSyGXcAEIp4c.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 18:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949171129698140256) · 27 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwzYz8UWQAEFy4Z.jpg) > **Quoting Loopy (@strangestloop):** i made a template for you to venn your interests > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwzX5MnXMAA__7n.png) ### [Thread, continued, 18:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949171287592464750) · 5 likes Oops I added one too many things Oh well, I contain multitudes ### [Thread, continued, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949176797784150335) · 4 likes I knew I forgot one ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gwzd956XQAAMlSo.jpg) ### [Reply to @JMannhart, 19:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949195700647985275) · 4 likes > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwzhGKIXsAAbo32.jpg) Genuinely unsure whether "Being SBF" here is supposed to be positive or negative but ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwzvI4EX0AA2Sbr.jpg) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949195811226779697) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** Replace ducks with wire fraud and this is just FTX Lmao well you see that is a key difference ### [Reply to @phenoatypical, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949222104307818551) · 15 likes > **Paola (@phenoatypical):** People’s IQs should be presented like the weather: > Actual IQ: 125 > Feels like: 97 Feels like from the inside or outside lol ### [Tweet, 21:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949223729697058847) · 24 likes Situation in Gaza seems pretty bad, I am not in fact super well-informed here but still ### [Thread, continued, 21:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949223731680920062) · 11 likes Tweet theory of change: Aaron -> EA Twitter -> TPOT -> edgy rw-ish TPOT -> White House staffer anon poster -> opaque White House informal relationship chain -> Trump yells at Netanyahu on the phone -> success and profit ### [Quote tweet, 21:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949224306040586673) · 22 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gw0JLRsWUAAo8i5.jpg) > **Quoting Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** What should I ask @Lewis_Bollard, Farm Animal Welfare Program Director for OpenPhilanthropy? ### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 21:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949224357835731045) · 3 likes > **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** What should I ask @Lewis_Bollard, Farm Animal Welfare Program Director for OpenPhilanthropy? Lfg ### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 21:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949224545250115939) · 20 likes > **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** What should I ask @Lewis_Bollard, Farm Animal Welfare Program Director for OpenPhilanthropy? On the spot: best use of a marginal dollar to decrease animal suffering all things considered ### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 21:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949225393094865376) · 42 likes > **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** What should I ask @Lewis_Bollard, Farm Animal Welfare Program Director for OpenPhilanthropy? If you’re willing to get spicy: why OpenPhil leadership won’t give his team more money (they get an awfully small fraction, I don’t remember exactly how much) ### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949225587899314193) · 16 likes > **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** What should I ask @Lewis_Bollard, Farm Animal Welfare Program Director for OpenPhilanthropy? Case for (or against I guess) way more earning to give for animal welfare ### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 21:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949225987100602469) · 11 likes > **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** What should I ask @Lewis_Bollard, Farm Animal Welfare Program Director for OpenPhilanthropy? To what extent is animal welfare broadly and EA subset appropriately aware of/considering/making use of AI ### [Reply to @jeffrsebo, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949228344085807506) · 5 likes > **Jeff Sebo (@jeffrsebo):** i stress this point because i often see impact-oriented people overcorrect, veering away from projects that aim for indirect, structural impacts and toward projects that aim for direct, individual impacts. but the former projects have an important (if uncertain) role to play too. Yeah I actually don’t think animals at an animal welfare conference is crazy at all! EAG with pigs! (Cc @frances\_\_lorenz plz make it happen) ### [Reply to @jeffrsebo, 22:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949231537402323224) · 3 likes > **Jeff Sebo (@jeffrsebo):** fwiw here is my dog smoky at three different conferences :) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gw0PDWhW8AEGFpo.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gw0PDWjWoAAH0P3.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gw0PJwHW0AA9FL3.jpg) Based ### [Quote tweet, 23:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949245976453238905) · 14 likes Autism in the old days > **Quoting depths of wikipedia! (@depthsofwiki):** imagine if you devoted your life to calculating pi, toiled hours a day for YEARS until you the end of your life. and it turns out 20 years ago you were off by one and everything after that was basically a waste > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gw0Y-OfWgAAHvaE.png) ## Sunday, July 27, 2025 ### [Reply to @inerati, 00:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949268336379892028) · 7 likes > **liz (@inerati):** what things should i purchase that i probably don’t already own. i’m feeling the urge to consooom Nice respirator for next pandemic + basic prep supplies (I can dig up my deep research list if interested) If I was richer I’d have a solar generator by now too Electric scooter was a great recent purchase for me (<$250 for me but the really nice ones go way up) often faster and definitely more fun than metro, parking is ~never an issue, I am a shill now. Just also get a nice helmet and use it lol ### [Quote tweet, 00:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949269007753769360) · 9 likes Electric scooters are so much fun, honestly I got one recently for the mundane utility but that is a big bonus that bumps up consumer surplus Especially consider if no car like me (sad) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @inerati Nice respirator for next pandemic + basic prep supplies (I can dig up my deep research list if interested) > > If I was richer I’d have a solar generator by now too > > Electric scooter was a great recent purchase for me (<$250 for me but the really nice ones go way up) often faster and definitely more fun than metro, parking is ~never an issue, I am a shill now. Just also get a nice helmet and use it lol ### [Thread, continued, 00:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949269352383152198) · 2 likes Just also make sure to get a serious metal U lock and nice helmet (and wear it) ### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 02:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949293635670786354) · 12 likes > **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** What should I ask @Lewis_Bollard, Farm Animal Welfare Program Director for OpenPhilanthropy? You should consider DMing/talking directly to @SpacedOutMatt to figure out what to ask - if you want like very weedsy/techincal but in fact very important questions He's kinda like the semiconductor guys but about animal welfare, knows his shit ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949315098520006976) · 6 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Looks like from a mental health perspective, you want to make sure to do at least ~2hr/wk of light exercise (eg jogging) or ~1hr/wk of vigorous exercise, and there’s not much benefit to going beyond that. > > (quoting @NTFabiano: Even small amounts of exercise are associated with a significant reduction in depression.) For me fellow ignorant people ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gw1brA9XsAA82DK.jpg) ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949316008033894697) · 5 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Looks like from a mental health perspective, you want to make sure to do at least ~2hr/wk of light exercise (eg jogging) or ~1hr/wk of vigorous exercise, and there’s not much benefit to going beyond that. > > (quoting @NTFabiano: Even small amounts of exercise are associated with a significant reduction in depression.) Wait it comes with 2 charts! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gw1b-OyW0AAaYH2.png) ### [Quote tweet, 08:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949390437631889742) · 2 likes ? = "doing" according to a totally vibe coded calculator I actually think this makes some intuitive sense lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gw2f7EyXoAARikZ.png) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwzYz8UWQAEFy4Z.jpg) ### [Reply to @billyhumblebrag, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949547695959371826) · 4 likes > **billy (@billyhumblebrag):** Americucks coping and seething as i seamlessly install 12 000 BTU of cooling into my European apartment > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gw4Pn3BXIAA2EVw.jpg) Based ### [Reply, 20:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949572732649357670) · 1 like 😰 ### [Reply to @zeta_globin, 20:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949574167570882790) · 2 likes > **zeta (@zeta_globin):** it's not my negative data, it's for a startup I do some contract work for Lol the emoji was because those both sound fun ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 23:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949615649912655971) · 6 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** im going to create a tEA app for all the high status EAs to share information about low status EAs No reverse plz ## Monday, July 28, 2025 ### [Tweet, 05:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949701687976898604) · 10 likes Shoot ur shot kings ### [Quote tweet, 05:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949708946316398702) · 8 likes Wait this so funny, I once again refuse to believe this is an unsolvable technical problem ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gw7BWL9XgAEJXqC.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Can someone tell me why tf terminals can't be normal about typing? > > Like I can't put my cursor anywhere, I can't highlight to delete, dare I say this is not a technically difficult problem to solve > > [video attached](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945602723346358421/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 05:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949708948199637112) · 3 likes Obligatory @austinc3301 tag ### [Reply to @sullyj3, 07:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949741281736831292) · 1 like > **░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░ (@sullyj3):** But I think it would be a bad idea because of the concurrent editing issue I mentioned. Yeah this makes some sense but normie brain says "lol of course the computer knows what to save 99.9% of the time, I refuse to believe 'figure out what windows are open with what files and what temporary/helper/whatever files and apply any changes to disk' is technically infeasible or even that difficult relative to like the space of things computer nerds actually work on ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 08:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949742762733277373) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 28, 2025:** Obligatory @austinc3301 tag Lol I asked Opus about this and it ended with this inspirational message Sorry buddy I just want the save command ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gw7gmU_WMAAptAB.png) ### [Reply to @CassSunstein, 10:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949783250890522929) · 5 likes > **Cass Sunstein (@CassSunstein):** Superb, careful, cautious book on intraspecies welfare comparisons, eg, how much welfare can/do pigs have, compared to human beings and chickens? > https://www.amazon.com/Weighing-Animal-Welfare-Comparing-Well-Being/dp/0197745768 And importantly it’s free for download! https://academic.oup.com/book/58809 ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 12:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949816023802114288) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** hey Aaron wanna fuck? No thanks ## Tuesday, July 29, 2025 ### [Reply to @hpkmxvlaa, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1950306720611209301) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @hpkmxvlaa is no longer available.)_ Lol banger ## Thursday, July 31, 2025 ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 07:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1950826456587661801) · 3 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** People often lament how healthy food tends to not be particularly tasty, and vice versa, but isn’t this just a case of the tails come apart? Yes ### [Tweet, 07:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1950827316260565486) · 2 likes Why don’t the big LLM providers offer quantized versions of their models? I mean the open source providers do, it’s weird that you can’t get a bit of a discount on Opus-8bit ### [Quote tweet, 23:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1951060721368010801) · 35 likes App called Market for Lemons where you’re extremely up front about all the ways you suck > **Quoting Dimitri (@thedimitri):** The Tea app was inevitable because dating is a lemon market. > > In a lemon market, there is a huge information asymmetry where the seller knows more than the buyer (think used cars). You can’t tell who’s a viable partner and who’s hiding serious issues, so everyone gets treated like they’re probably broken, which isn't a bad assumption. The best people get picked off early and what stays on the market looks more questionable over time. > > Modern dating has only exacerbated this asymmetry. We used to meet through friends or family, which served as built-in screening, giving more information to the "buyer". Now it’s just strangers crafting personas without any shared context. > > So of course someone made an app to rate men. But reviews from bitter exes won't really solve this problem. They don't reduce the asymmetry. If anything, they will add more noise. > > The real fix is embedding yourself in a community where reputation is important rather than swiping and treating each new person like a blank slate. --- End of July 2025. Previous month: [June 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-06). Next month: [August 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-08). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, August 2025 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in August 2025 and has not deleted: 509 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [July 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-07). Next month: [September 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-09). ## Friday, August 1, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1951071109077426227) · 27 likes Liv is cracked fr you heard it here first > **Quoting Liv (@livgorton):** Come work with me on an interp project this fall via SPAR! I had a really fun time mentoring in the spring and am really excited to get to do it again :) > > (There are so many projects this time so even if interp isn't a fit, something likely is!) > > https://sparai.org/projects/ ### [Reply, 13:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1951268609226846716) · 1 like I do not endorse stealing and destroying homeless people’s stuff lol ### [Reply to @livgorton, 13:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1951269584394186963) · 6 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** Come work with me on an interp project this fall via SPAR! I had a really fun time mentoring in the spring and am really excited to get to do it again :) > > (There are so many projects this time so even if interp isn't a fit, something likely is!) > > https://sparai.org/projects/ SPAR more like SPARse autoencoder am I right ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 13:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1951270014117405052) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @SpacedOutMatt is no longer available.)_ 😢 ### [Tweet, 14:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1951284403398639783) · 4 likes Not the world’s biggest problem but I’ve seen this consistently enough to assume it’s a regulatory/liability thing Congress should pass a law just saying that people can uber home or use public transportation after anesthesia ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GxRa0rEXgAE6aqU.jpg) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 21:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1951398067648995399) · 33 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Biggest difference between newbies and experts in philosophy imo is how deferential they are to concepts and definitions. Amateurs often talk as if the world is a bunch of abstract concepts given to us by something like God we can investigate and find the real final meaning of. Maybe I’m just outing myself as a newbie but there’s also a midwit failure mode of just declaring “well it depends what we mean by x” all the way down as if there was no truth we can uncover about anything non-empirical ### [Thread, continued, 21:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1951398295575626131) · 3 likes (It’s possible we have a substantial disagreement about the degree to which philosophy is in fact largely/at least sometimes about discovering facts about the world rather than merely clarifying and surfacing intuitions and such) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1951399994008785020) · 6 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Everyone needs to internalize the facts that > > 1\) Everything we do as a society involves big numbers > 2\) Some big numbers are many orders of magnitude bigger than others > 3\) It is possible to have a job where you write about tech while being somewhat innumerate > > (quoting @StatisticUrban: Journalists like to use big numbers devoid of any context for water consumption. But Texas uses 4.95 \*trillion\* gallons of water a year. Data centers account for… 0.013% of that.) Semi-related, there should be an autistically analytical piece somewhere that describes like when/where/under what conditions water use actually matters It feels like “water use” is 75 different substantively different phenomena in a trench coat ### [Reply to @ConLiCats, 22:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1951406429518086430) · 6 likes > **Constance Li (@ConLiCats):** (1/8) 𝗜'𝗺 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱𝗯𝘆𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗔𝗜 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗻𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗹𝘀... > > 2 years ago, I started what felt like shouting into the void. > > No one was talking about how AI would impact animals, so I carved out a small corner within the Hive Slack to start that conversation. What happened next still amazes me... > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GxS97HfaIAM8VIE.jpg) Based ### [Reply to @CharlesD353, 22:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1951408270150619593) · 4 likes > **Charles🔸 (@CharlesD353):** I think yes? Hedonic treadmill probably works both ways, to a large extent. > > (quoting @Benthamsbulldog: @Krisaaaaeeeeee2 Would you starve to death for a week of life spent running from predators and desperately searching for food?) Pretty crazy IMO. I think it mostly doesn’t lol, and there are good evolutionary reasons to think this ### [Tweet, 22:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1951414766615831025) · 3 likes Claude code extensions when ### [Reply to @manic_pixie_agi, 22:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1951416783992242593) · 2 likes > **Corinne (🏠 in NYC) (@manic_pixie_agi):** @AaronBergman18 Is MCP or the SDK not enough? Idk what I’m talking about lol, they probably are tbh ## Saturday, August 2, 2025 ### [Tweet, 03:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1951491498966384817) · 10 likes You could be my roommate for the low price of $1,150/mo \~Official blurb~ Private room for rent near Rosslyn metro | $1150 My roommate (early 30s, M) and I (25M) are looking for a person to move into our three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment into one of the most convenient and accessible areas of north Arlington (VA, basically DC) in mid-late August. We are both part of the EA community but are very open to whomever! Here are some details: \- Large apartment with a lot of leisure space and storage space \- Big bedroom with lots of natural light and a walk-in closet \- The room alone is roughly 150 sq ft not including closet \- You’d share a bathroom with one other person \- In-unit laundry, central heating, central air \- <5 minute walk to the metro (at least, that’s how long it takes me!). The Rosslyn-Courthouse-Clarendon corridor is super accessible. Several bus lines close by too. Neither of us have a car and we get around easily! \- A block away from two grocery stores, with restaurants and cafes also a few blocks away. \- 15 minute walk/5 minute scooter trip to the beautiful hiking/running trails of Roosevelt Island \- Rent will be $1150, tenants pay electric and internet (roughly $100, sometimes a bit higher in summer) \- The bedroom will be basically unfurnished, but there might be options for a chair, a small desk, and things like that. \- We’re pretty laid back people, respectful of boundaries, and are easy to communicate with re: any issues with the apartment. \- Full apartment just professionally cleaned! Please reach out (DM me or email aaronb50 at gmail) if interested! And pass this along! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GxUV9N-W0AEmHxp.jpg) ### [Reply to @liron, 07:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1951547683719561294) · 2 likes > **Liron Shapira (@liron):** How are people answering this these days: > > What’s the fundamental thing LLMs can’t do, the fundamental limitation that prevents straightforwardly scaling them to superintelligence? Not sure if this counts but it gets at the “straightforwardly” point Basically there might be a gigantic amount of compute needed to get past the “understands language and the world in a normal sense” regime and into the “predicts next token by accurately modeling the literal causal process that generates it” regime ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GxVKRhIXcAApo4-.jpg) ### [Tweet, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1951715243631247678) · 11 likes I feel like people should often freak out less upon discovering (or thinking they’ve discovered) that something is AI-written ## Sunday, August 3, 2025 ### [Reply to @michael_wiebe, 06:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1951896813901947322) > **Michael Wiebe (@michael_wiebe):** Important point: when people move out to live on their own, their housing costs go up, but (by revealed preference) they are better off. Hence, housing costs alone are an incomplete picture. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GxSyBPeaIAEOGL4.png) I mean I’m personally a good example of this but does anyone doubt it, even implicitly? Like this is true for literally every purchase right ### [Reply to @hyperdiscogirl, 06:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1951897738930745417) · 10 likes > **hyper(bolic) disco(unting) girl in the bay (@hyperdiscogirl):** my bf is very smart but has some gaps in everyday knowledge that have stunned me. he didn't know you can't return clothes after you take the tags off and wash them, or that butter and oil are both types of fat interchangeable for many cooking tasks Tapping the sign ### [Reply to @nikitabier, 06:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1951898273851043878) · 2 likes > **Nikita Bier (@nikitabier):** If you had to remove 1 feature or part of the X app, what would it be? Not having circles ### [Tweet, 07:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1951901825357029549) · 268 likes I basically don’t believe in LLM-induced psychosis in the sense of “yeah this person was not going to develop psychosis in the next decade if it were not for ChatGPT” ### [Thread, continued, 07:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1951901827206615081) · 21 likes Like it would be by far (I think) the least extreme, least invasive event/thing to ever be counterfactually responsible for psychosis ### [Thread, continued, 07:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1951901835066736958) · 17 likes Claude agrees ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GxaMX1ZWMAAWVNA.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GxaMX1ZWgAAzUl0.jpg) ### [Reply to @jazzloaf, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1952042166814945580) · 2 likes > **vivian (@jazzloaf):** @AaronBergman18 Do you think that LLM-psychosis is mechanistically distinct from getting wrapped up in a cult, and do you also ascribe the same belief above in that case? Yeah I think it’s distinct ### [Tweet, 16:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1952044467885666746) · 5 likes How’s moo deng doing ### [Quote tweet, 18:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1952074502067642717) · 189 likes Fighting back by giving advice to all the women: y’alls dating app profiles are incredibly boring (like 90%ish of them) Like I understand the market dynamics that make this prima facie seem like a good strategy, but you probably want to polarize potential partners much more > **Quoting Bryan Caplan (@bryan_caplan):** Intimidated into silence in a wide range of ways, including shaming. ### [Thread, continued, 18:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1952074722549678377) · 59 likes And importantly they’re much more boring than the actual distribution of interests and personalities - this is not a claim about women being boring, it’s a claim about them using the wrong strategy for their own self-interest ### [Reply to @menhguin, 18:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1952078981643243650) · 25 likes > **Minh Nhat Nguyen 🦭 (@menhguin):** i think a common failure mode is women don't try to make their profiles more distinct -> get generic matches -> spend a ton of time swiping past mid matches -> exhausted by a bunch of mid matches Yeah, I suspect the implicit thinking is “I don’t want to filter out the best guys” but not sure this is how it works ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 18:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1952080131796926644) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** There's a blog post to be written about how the B theory of time and acausal decision theory and compatibilism are all kind of saying the same thing from different angles ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GxcuiQPWIAAHGeY.jpg) ### [Tweet, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1952081728572441013) · 4 likes B theory of time and open individualism are insane and prima facie wrong Like they make a lot of sense from an understanding of the universe that abstracts away or ignores subjective experience But that is an important part of the universe! You don’t get to throw it away! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gxcv_FCWkAAUYK6.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1952081731504451833) · 3 likes Right now is incredibly substantively different \*for me\* than yesterday Idc whether this matters from some incomplete purely physicalist account of everything ### [Thread, continued, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1952081734301888586) · 3 likes Steelman is basically just strong illusionism about consciousness I guess ### [Reply to @NTFabiano, 19:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1952082926868349136) · 31 likes > **Nicholas Fabiano, MD (@NTFabiano):** Cortisol from exercising suppresses the subsequent cortisol response to a stressor. > > Exercise before doing something stressful. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GxbQ5BtXYAAcL2G.jpg) I mean the other interpretation of this is “yeah this is overtraining and burnout - you stop appropriately responding to other stimuli” ## Monday, August 4, 2025 ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1952168936843489786) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** why do feel subtweeted 🎯 but it’s extremely not just you ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 00:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1952171268591018185) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 3, 2025:** Claude agrees Counterpoint (in terms of vibes not literal disagreement with the claim): it’s much more plausible that it counterfactually increases psychotic \*episodes\* bc it seems like an abundant and counterfactual trigger ### [Reply to @henrytdowling, 01:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1952174985767772346) · 3 likes > **Henry Dowling (@henrytdowling):** You don’t think there’s \*anyone\* on the margin? I thought about this and modeling it as like propensity scores that LLMs might bump up a tiny amount and push one person over the line is a good counterpoint but honestly no, I don’t think so I don’t think that model is wrong exactly, my intuition is just that yeah psychosis being triggered by an LLM is so highly correlated with psychosis being triggered by something else that when you run the numbers you’d get an estimated additional <0.5 people ### [Tweet, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1952196278634303798) · 3 likes Got mildly nerdsniped by this because I was hoping that there was some clever way to basically just extract the empirical value of the jobs report information from market data... ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GxeXWUkWwAAEu0e.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1952196281222222221) · 2 likes Unfortunately it's more complicated than that but I had deep research + o3 throw together an info page about it https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/jobs_report_value Long story short each jobs report is probably worth $5B-$30B or so to the US (not world) economy ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GxeXoyJXMAAAmYi.jpg) ### [Reply, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1952196283890024850) · 1 like might appreciate ### [Thread, continued, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1952196488014242167) · 2 likes Since Matt deletes his tweets ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GxeYUlpWEAAgmuZ.jpg) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 02:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1952196623209267497) · 176 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** One time my wife said “stop making me laugh I’m going to throw up” and I said “come on my jokes aren’t THAT bad” and then she threw up I would die of happiness if I made a girl throw up this way ### [Reply to @CRSegerie, 22:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1952498024602640854) > **Charbel-Raphael (@CRSegerie):** Please tell me why I'm a crackpot (1/2) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gxii3kIXAAADHfn.jpg) I object to the last two bullets. They’re wrong. There’s a special intrinsic metaphysical property there associated with the negativity of certain qualia ### [Quote tweet, 22:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1952504487060402412) · 15 likes 🥔 > **Quoting Lucre Snooker (@LucreSnooker):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GxirjAoXcAAS3PS.png) ## Tuesday, August 5, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 17:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1952779052487495709) · 5 likes Huh > **Quoting Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** Guys on my TL: Wouldn't psychiatrists notice, if there were large numbers of patients with AI-induced first-time psychosis? > /r/Psychiatry: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GxjGVZwacAAhNRN.png) ### [Reply to @codytfenwick, 17:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1952783961098170700) · 50 likes > **Cody Fenwick (@codytfenwick):** The New York Times continues to write about effective altruism while making extremely basic errors about what it is. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GxmjjRRWoAA7MDq.jpg) Eh seems pretty ok ### [Reply to @_JeanLannes, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1952861848857890996) · 74 likes > **Michael 🍂 (@_JeanLannes):** It is imperative we repeal and replace the ADA. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GxnpAseWQAEdQdP.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GxnpAscWkAACopo.jpg) Lol there are certainly reasonable critiques of the ADA but this is not one of them ## Wednesday, August 6, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 19:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1953172985151668381) · 4 likes Bruh > **Quoting Drop Site (@DropSiteNews):** ‼️ Sections 9 and 10 of Article I — which contain essential constitutional checks against executive overreach and protect states and individuals from unlawful laws — have been quietly removed from the official U.S. Constitution website. > > These sections ban ex post facto laws, bills of attainder, and unauthorized state treaties — core constitutional safeguards. > > 🖥️ Compare the current site with the archived version yourself: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GxrOXHPXQAA9JQi.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GxrOXHQXwAAFDaF.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GxrOXHQXoAAEPFg.jpg) ### [Reply to @Miles_Brundage, 19:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1953181793538003336) · 2 likes > **Miles Brundage (@Miles_Brundage):** Paper about safety challenges in the adoption of AI for manufacturing - “AI Problems in Concrete Safety” Banger ### [Quote tweet, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1953183569469423942) · 12 likes Wtf literally just from a selfish POV this is really bad Like there’s gonna be another pandemic that I don’t want to die in > **Quoting Acyn (@Acyn):** RFK JR: After reviewing the science… HHS has determined that mRNA technology poses more risk than benefits for these respiratory viruses. That’s why BARDA has begun the process of terminating these 22 contracts.. > > [video attached](https://x.com/FoxNews/status/1952864092491846106/video/1) ## Thursday, August 7, 2025 ### [Tweet, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1953521775381234014) · 12 likes Ok but fr why do LLMs love em dashes? ### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 18:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1953522030533317034) · 4 likes > **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** New episode w @Lewis_Bollard - a deep dive on the surprising economics of the meat industry. > > 0:00:00 – The astonishing efficiency of factory farming > 0:07:18 – It was a mistake making this about diet > 0:09:54 – Tech that’s sparing 100s of millions of animals/year > 0:16:16 – Brainless chickens and higher welfare breeds > 0:28:21 – $1 can prevent 10 years of animal suffering > 0:37:26 – The situation in China and the developing world > 0:41:41 – How the meat lobby got a lock on Congress > 0:53:23 – Business structure of the meat industry > 0:57:42 – Corporate campaigns are underrated > > Available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc (look up Dwarkesh Podcast). > > [video attached](https://x.com/dwarkesh_sp/status/1953489802751578412/video/1) 👀 ### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 18:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1953524174116233676) · 18 likes > **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** Just $1 can help avert 10 years of farmed animal suffering. > > I decided to give $250,000 as a donation match to @farmkind_giving after learning about the outsized opportunities to help. FarmKind directs your contributions to the most effective charities in this area. > > Please consider contributing, even if it’s a small amount. Together, we can double each other's impact and give a total of $500,000. Use the link below to donate with my match. > > Bluntly, there are some listeners who are in a position to give much more. Given how neglected this topic is, one such person could singlehandedly change the game for 10s of billions of animals. > > If you’re considering donating $50k or more, please reach out directly to @Lewis_Bollard and his team by DMing him, or emailing andres@openphilanthropy.org > > [video attached](https://x.com/dwarkesh_sp/status/1953494719637660144/video/1) > (quoting @dwarkesh_sp: New episode w @Lewis_Bollard - a deep dive on the surprising economics of the meat industry. 0:00:00 – The astonishing efficiency of factory farming 0:07:18 – It was a mistake making this about diet 0:09:54 – Tech that’s sparing 100s of millions of animals/year 0:16:16 –…) Lfg ### [Reply to @RosieCampbell, 20:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1953560295923761482) · 5 likes > **Rosie Campbell (@RosieCampbell):** I want to call the future Eleos conference on AI consciousness and welfare "AI ConCon" but @rgblong won't let me 😤 😡 free ConCon ## Friday, August 8, 2025 ### [Reply to @jackiedotnet, 02:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1953640034542006531) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @jackiedotnet is no longer available.)_ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gxy5QfWWEAAv86e.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1953892612605096264) · 5 likes 👇fr > **Quoting Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** Honestly the thing that motivated me to do this episode was learning that there's less than $200M/year of smart philanthropy on factory farming - GLOBALLY. > > Just to explain how fucking crazy that is: > > 1\. It's insane how cheap the interventions that will spare BILLIONS of animals from gruesome, painful fates have been. > Less than $200M has been spent getting corporate commitments that have already spared more than 400M hens from battery cages, and securing pledges that will spare billions more over the years to come. That’s < $1 per 10 years of animal well-being improved. > Another example: In-ovo sexing (which determines the sex of eggs pre-birth) has already saved 200M male chicks from maceration at birth (with the potential to spare 7 billion every year). And it only cost ~$10 million to get off the ground. > > 2\. 80 billion land animals are factory farmed every year. That means the ratio is $1 donated : 40,000 animals. > > 3\. Compared to the amount of private philanthropy alone on global health ($50b+/year) or climate change ($15b+/year), the <$200M/year of smart money spent on factory farming is nothing. > — > The way we treat factory farmed animals is one of the worst atrocities in history. And unfortunately, the problem is on track to get worse every year. > > The case for optimism: Given how neglected this issue is, the scope of impact even one individual can have is absolutely massive. > > To be blunt, there are individual readers of this tweet who could DOUBLE the amount of smart money our entire civilization dedicates to this issue. Even with a few million dollars, you could single-handedly improve the lives of millions of factory-farmed animals. > > DM @Lewis_Bollard if you want to explore contributions over $50k. ### [Reply to @bubbling_creek, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1953895155783938099) · 5 likes > **bubbling creek (@bubbling_creek):** @dwarkesh_sp It's not obvious that $200M/year isn't "enough" for what's currently possible on issue for that reason, and I would guess most of the advantage of the charities you recommend is that they're much more effective than most of that $200M is, not that you're adding to that $200M Nah my sense is that $200M is nowhere close to saturating high impact interventions ## Saturday, August 9, 2025 ### [Tweet, 01:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1953984915445625341) · 16 likes If you can can grow a beard, you should grow one and get it professionally trimmed just once to see how good it can look ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 01:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1953986554004701540) · 4 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 I don’t mean to sound sexist, but this advice probably only applies if you’re a man Sexist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ### [Reply to @DachWhale, 01:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1953990027806970321) · 2 likes > **Dach ⏹️ (@DachWhale):** @AaronBergman18 I find facial hair to be scratchy and extremely distracting Sad ### [Reply to @sergeantsup, 01:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1953991705260163086) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @sergeantsup is no longer available.)_ 🫡 ### [Reply to @punished_daniel, 01:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1953998306629366023) · 2 likes > **Daniel Yang (@punished_daniel):** Went to the gym unstimmed and a dead phone. Totally sucked ass never doing that again 😢 ### [Quote tweet, 02:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954007805708710180) · 10 likes And of course the smart rich kids will go to kumon/external accelerated tutoring, which their equally smart, less wealthy peers won’t have access to > **Quoting Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** I discovered recently that even schools which advertise their 'gifted' programs generally won't let a third grader take algebra. They offer various explanations, but I don't think any of them are very good. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gx34ioCbsAMDB8x.jpg) ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 08:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954098462397489536) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 Poast the amazing photo of you with a trimmed beard Never ### [Reply to @ShakeelHashim, 22:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954312447185092853) · 5 likes > **Shakeel (@ShakeelHashim):** I'd totally missed this: pretty wild stuff > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gx8cPqHXMAAQmaL.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gx8cVt_XUAIZZY4.jpg) > (quoting @Miles_Brundage: @daniel_271828 @ChrisPainterYup NYT reported that he tried to get Greg Allen fired for being pro export controls Much of the relevant info is non public though) Lol nvidia donated $65k? They thought $65k was gonna buy influence? ## Sunday, August 10, 2025 ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 02:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954363819632873605) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ChanaMessinger is no longer available.)_ What ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954366059353637358) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ChanaMessinger is no longer available.)_ Claude says almost 30 miles, wtf ?!?! ### [Reply to @panchromaticity, 02:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954366363897631083) · 2 likes > **Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** @AaronBergman18 @ChanaMessinger @danielmessinger https://x.com/ChanaMessinger/status/1954362588164501756 Ohhhh thank you 👍 ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954367894810513574) · 8 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** @AaronBergman18 @danielmessinger He says the tides do most of the work Sounds like a thing that a dad would say ### [Tweet, 02:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954371943156609171) · 16 likes Oh come on Dario can u manually approve this one ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gx9S7JyXcAAelnn.jpg) ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 16:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954577467756195840) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ 😢 ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 19:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954632093821968859) · 4 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** so my friend has sudden (gut?) issues. low energy, brain fog, stomach pain, no apetite etc etc. doctors are completely useless. how do you even begin to solve this? Detailed document -> ask o3 and opus ### [Reply to @esaagar, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954643117614760070) · 40 likes > **Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar):** Nobody and I repeat NOBODY goes to jail for "smoking weed" > > This is 1990s stoner propaganda. 3.2% of people in state prison are there for possession (of any type of drug) and nobody is in the feds for weed possession > > (quoting @conor64: Sending men with guns to lock people in cages for smoking a plant is worse than all of those things.) 3.2% for possession is a lot of people tho (and way too high) ### [Reply to @shagbark_hick, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954653673084145987) · 4 likes > **𝙷𝚒𝚌𝚔𝚖𝚊𝚗 (@shagbark_hick):** I am always shocked and appalled by my abject inability to deal with hot weather. > > Once it's above 80f, I shut down. Rivers of sweat all over my body. If I swim in cold water, I have about 10 minutes before the sweat starts again. > > Why are some like this and others are not? > > Truly, I would actually move house to never have to deal with this again. This is kind of crazy, as I live very close to the northernmost point of NYS at about 1600ft elevation. I'm just about in the coolest place you could be in most of the American Northeast, but for months of the year, it's still unbearable to me. > > Makes me want to visit Southeast AK. Still thinking about how, if I remember correctly, @realcalojones mentioned the NWS putting out heat advisories for his part of AK when it got into the high 70's... that's my kind of place. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyBSCvvWAAAaUVR.jpg) He just like me fr ### [Tweet, 21:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954655580410220762) · 132 likes It was a bit of a convenient coincidence that for like 5ish (???) years (like 2012-2016ish??) there were 3 intellectually and aesthetically diverse main EA cause areas with a legitimate claim to primacy (global health, animal welfare, AI/x-risk/longtermism) ### [Thread, continued, 21:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954655582368964619) · 55 likes I mean certainly convenient for community building efforts Anyway I feel like plausibly people got a bit spoiled in this regard and came to treat cause area diversity as like something we should expect from the world whereas I think that’s mainly not the case ### [Thread, continued, 21:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954655584952746482) · 26 likes Idk what to do about this, if anything. Just a thought ### [Thread, continued, 21:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954656265357127970) · 29 likes I’m not sure when global health should have been mostly phased out and relegated to EA intellectual history and more normie-constrained philanthropic efforts like the Gates foundation but robust evidence for cage free egg campaigns seems like a good approximating line ### [Quote tweet, 21:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954656835623080267) · 7 likes Unbelievable > **Quoting Demetri (@AsiaLens):** SCOOP - @Nvidia has done deal with Trump administration to pay US government 15% of revenues from #China H20 sales, in unprecedented quid pro quo for export licenses. > > https://www.ft.com/content/cd1a0729-a8ab-41e1-a4d2-8907f4c01cac ### [Reply to @NULobbyist, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954682988002001017) · 2 likes > **NUL (@NULobbyist):** There are lots of people who because of their intuitions/beliefs about moral worth or sentience are only going to donate/work for human directed charitys. It is worthwhile having resources and a structure in place so that they can do that effectively. Yeah I agree but the relative impact delta is so big that I think a decent heuristic is that this is only worthwhile to the extent that it doesn’t compete ANY resources away from the other cause areas (ofc it’s not literally any, but a relatively small amount) Ofc there’s also the talent/community building pipeline aspect which is plausibly pretty important ## Monday, August 11, 2025 ### [Reply, 02:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954724813534069151) · 1 like Point isn’t how extravagant it is aesthetically, it’s the substantive decoupling his own fate from everyone else’s when he has the power to do a lot for the latter ### [Tweet, 02:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954729058149032415) · 3 likes I copy and pasted most of the plausibly-relevant docs from the Claude dev/API guide for my convenience and thought I'd share Subfolders: \- developer guide (main api stuff) \- Claude code \- MCP... ### [Reply to @MagusGenji, 04:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954757890687832144) · 3 likes > **magusgenji (@MagusGenji):** Going esoteric for a second so if that's not your thing please ignore. > > Are there any resources that approach understanding AI as an information-space mapping tool—one that works by transforming an input into an output via a learned information space? I probably don’t know what you mean but there are text embeddings which are kinda sorta AI-ish The learned information space is semantic space ### [Quote tweet, 04:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954759117735592199) · 48 likes We’re rapidly approaching “Aaron can’t afford the top tier of AI stuff even if it brings him a lot of value” and I don’t like it > **Quoting Sam Altman (@sama):** we are considering giving a (very) small number of GPT-5 pro queries each month to plus subscribers so they can try it out! i like it too. > > but yeah if you wanna pay us $1k a month for 2x the input tokens feels like we should find a way to make that happen... ### [Thread, continued, 04:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954759119849566441) · 11 likes I mean I don’t have a legitimate grievance here, the global south is already basically priced out of everything decent ### [Thread, continued, 04:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954760788872143187) · 8 likes I guess they have Gemini actually ### [Reply to @michael_wiebe, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954780476712817137) · 2 likes > **Michael Wiebe (@michael_wiebe):** A picture of you burying something Lmao ### [Reply to @robbensinger, 05:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954782275402355086) · 2 likes > **Rob Bensinger ⏹️ (@robbensinger):** Some people think of rationality as a fascinating philosophy topic. Some people think of rationality as a tool for keeping your family alive. > > The latter perspective is hugely better for abstract theorizing and open-ended scientific exploration. I 90% agree with what I think you’re trying to say but I don’t think “keeping your family alive” is a good example of like real world contact/“winning” Keeping your family alive is so highly correlated with what evolution was optimizing for that it’s kind of a special case. And you can believe lots of false things and cause you and your family and others lots of loss and pain while technically keeping your family alive Maybe I’m being too literal about this lol ### [Reply to @BecomingCritter, 06:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954790827277820307) · 2 likes > **critter (@BecomingCritter):** I got a B, not bad > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gx_8lzrXMAEbPze.jpg) Can someone link whatever tf this is ### [Reply to @thewreathwright, 06:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954792117068280027) · 2 likes > **Laurel Weaver (@thewreathwright):** @AaronBergman18 @BecomingCritter 'tis in the screenshot, http://iq-checker.xyz Ah well we know which side I’m on then , thanks ### [Tweet, 13:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954893736120570255) · 213 likes Can’t Jensen Huang just personally be a bit of a better person or perhaps a tad more patriotic He’s super rich, he’s gonna be super rich either way, why is he fighting so hard for myopic shareholder value at the expense of everything else ### [Reply to @arnoblalam, 13:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954894374002667848) · 16 likes > **Arnob 'not home for the holidays' Alam🌐🇺🇸🇧🇩 (@arnoblalam):** @AaronBergman18 Legally obligated to? I’m no expert here but I’m pretty sure that executives don’t actually have a legal duty to do myopic optimization like this Like Zuck clearly has other things going on, like them or not vis a vis open source Cc @SpacedOutMatt who knows things ### [Reply to @arnoblalam, 13:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954895338491232303) · 6 likes > **Arnob 'not home for the holidays' Alam🌐🇺🇸🇧🇩 (@arnoblalam):** @AaronBergman18 @SpacedOutMatt I thought this was the reason OpenAI was a Public Benefit Corp? (Or maybe it was just a marketing gimmick?) No like there are legitimate differences in technical corporate governance stuff but my sense is that if the board of directors supports the CEO of a normal for-profit, it is exceptionally hard for shareholders to win a lawsuit claiming that executives aren’t acting in their interest Like “maintain a good public image and good gov relations” is very plausibly in the company’s interest, it’s up to the executives to decide that ### [Reply to @nkreu113r, 13:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954905399574028350) · 41 likes > **noah (@nkreu113r):** It’s not clear the US dominating China os good Idk if it’s “clear” but on balance yeah I think it is ### [Reply to @cunha_tristan, 14:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954905712217432413) · 2 likes > **Tristan Cunha (@cunha_tristan):** @AaronBergman18 It seems to me like the term "effective altruism" was created to describe "choosing charities to give to that are effective." And everything else was tacked on or grew out of that later. > > Up until somewhat recently there were groups like GiveWell doing real world research and giving/directing a few billion in funding. And the other areas were just talking about what they should do. There still are - most “EA money” goes to the GiveWell suite still I’m pretty sure And whether you think it’s good or bad, the AI safety and animal welfare fields have moved far beyond “mere talking” ### [Tweet, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954930845803819439) · 23 likes Try to become a billionaire! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyFPCB1WIAA985s.jpg) ### [Tweet, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954930847301124399) https://benthams.substack.com/p/the-altruistic-case-for-becoming ### [Thread, continued, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954930848962097487) · 3 likes 1\) Omg I'm famous 2\) I hope some of y'all will do this ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyFPJ_0WMAAFy_E.png) ### [Reply to @slimepriestess, 16:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954942670515937635) · 2 likes > **Ra (@slimepriestess):** @AaronBergman18 i think Roko had a post about this that got everyone angry, lmao Hmm somehow I doubt the content was just like “try to make a lot of money to save the shrimp” ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954956203429089566) · 47 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 11, 2025:** Can’t Jensen Huang just personally be a bit of a better person or perhaps a tad more patriotic He’s super rich, he’s gonna be super rich either way, why is he… Lol as a shareholder myself, let it be known that I think it’s in my personal interest for NVIDIA to basically cut off china (all things considered interest, not my personal net worth) ### [Reply to @vankous, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1954966269116960970) · 6 likes > **Vankous (@vankous):** @AaronBergman18 >super rich, he’s gonna be super rich either way, why is he fighting so hard for myopic shareholder value at the expense of everything else > > Why think the marginal value of additional wealth is sufficiently low here compared to the potential wealth increase on the table ? Idk it just seems like at most we’re doubling $150B net worth and that seems like a pretty small personal utility gain That’s like an upper limit though ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 23:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955055108779298996) · 4 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @GraySpaceFarms I think people should feel some pressure to be a little pro social, even just working a normal job I feel like the social gains from working an arbitrary job aren't actually big enough to justify the first order "letting people pursue their own happiness however they want will go a long way to maximizing total welfare" heuristic but this is just an intuition Tbc I basically agree with you, I'd just say that meditation life ~= normal job where you consume all your additional wealth and aren't really trying intentionally to fill some altruistic hole \~All the social gains come from trying to do more than just working and consuming more: donating counterfactually, other counterfactual community involvement, supporting a family, politics, etc ## Tuesday, August 12, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955060457825300848) · 86 likes For better or worse, power laws rule everything around us On the margin, EAs should probably go harder at becoming Dwarkesh, figuratively (or really Dustin Moskovitz, but "outstanding podcaster" might feel actually-possible to folks in a way that "billionaire" does not) > **Quoting Lewis Bollard (@Lewis_Bollard):** Dwarkesh's fundraiser to fight factory farming has now raised over $1M! ($535K doubled by the match.) > > I'm very grateful to @dwarkesh_sp, @patrickc, and all the other generous donors! > > This funding will impact millions of animals' lives. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyFrmqnaEAM6sho.jpg) ### [Tweet, 01:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955085673494438373) · 6 likes Is a “local google docs” text editor with up to perfect version history, branching, etc something people would be interested in? The most basic use case is “throw any text there, whatever is convenient now, it will all be saved in version history if you ever need in the future” ### [Thread, continued, 01:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955085675646071292) · 2 likes It’s basically a git wrapper (I already vibecoded a v0 for fun and personal use) The computer nerds have been hiding git from normal people, it’s actually magic ### [Thread, continued, 01:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955086422160888198) · 2 likes (I’d guess that the reason it hasn’t proliferated beyond the coding world is that it fundamentally only works with plain text-like stuff But lots of common normie stuff (Microsoft word) is \*mostly\* (in terms of function not storage spaxe) text ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 02:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955087510888935637) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @ChanaMessinger Amazing! Fr ### [Tweet, 02:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955099285403451880) · 43 likes Shoutout to all the lowbies poasting through the 0-2 like range Godspeed 🫡 ### [Quote tweet, 02:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955100132623417831) · 12 likes I am extremely in favor of this kind of post GET SOCIAL CREDIT FOR DOING GOOD THINGS > **Quoting Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** Even though we’ve already raised over $1,125,000, we’ve continued to have matchers step up (more about them later). So keep donating, knowing you're doubling your impact. > > Thanks to everyone who donated over the weekend! Highlighting a few below: > Anonymous: $125,000 > @Somersetkapital: $50,000 > @MichaelSesser: $25,000 > @AdrienLE: $10,000 > @davisblalock: $10,000 > @inerati: $6,000 > @jimcox25: $5,000 (a 2nd donation!) > @tenad0me: $5,000 > @Shripriya: $5,000 > @CalaverasAI: $5,000 > @mfgrp: $5,000 > @nanransohoff: $5,000 > @chelcott9: $3,000 > Anonymous: $2,000 > @rina_gyro: $2,000 > @maithra_raghu: $2,000 > @escliu: $1,500 > @AvitalBalwit: $1,000 > Anonymous: $1,000 > @AbieRohrig: $1,000 (a 2nd donation!) > @itsFelipeDoria: $1,000 > @LucioMelito: $1,000 > @aidanprattewart: $1,000 > @JamesOzden: $1,000 > @DaCaveOfWonders: $1,000 > @nearcyan: $1,000 (a 2nd donation!) > @AndrewYatzkan: $1,000: > @\_sholtodouglas: $1,000 > > If you donated over $1k, please DM me. And if you already DMed me about a donation but I missed it, please ping me again. > > It's been incredible to see all the generosity! ### [Tweet, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955104030562168936) · 497 likes Pretty recently I was set to speak to a journalist about something (not gonna get more specific but it’s really not that special or juicy) but then requested a copy of the interview recording as a condition of the interview and the journalist refused, and we cancelled ### [Thread, continued, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955104032625656296) · 137 likes I don’t entirely blame them or think that their refusal was a terrible thing - from their POV \*I\* could be the irresponsible one with the content and twist it somehow or generally become a pain in the ass somehow ### [Thread, continued, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955104034538361147) · 133 likes And more generally, making special demands like this is probably a sort of major signal for “this guy is gonna cause trouble” ### [Thread, continued, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955104036417376394) · 200 likes All that said, at the level of norms, it seems a bit crazy that this (ie both parties getting the recording) isn’t standard practice for standard, non-sensitive types of interview (obviously investigative stuff and other exceptions exist) ### [Thread, continued, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955104039206560016) · 132 likes Frankly I do just think a bit of skepticism is warranted on the part of sources unless the journalist has a legible and robust track record of excellent epistemics - ### [Thread, continued, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955104042507784278) · 143 likes like you should just be able to say “yes I literally said those words, here is the whole quote that clearly indicates that the actual information I was attempting to convey differs greatly from what’s implied by the decontextualized version” Cc NYT rationalist culture war stuff ### [Thread, continued, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955104045179322616) · 98 likes Admittedly a thing I could have offered but didn’t think to was to only record my voice and not the interview questions Idk if this would have made a difference Ofc I could have just done this without the journalist knowing but I wanted to be totally above board ### [Thread, continued, 03:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955104226645807198) · 91 likes Cc @KelseyTuoc @dylanmatt in case anyone wants to comment on why I’m insane and dumb ### [Reply to @stanfordNYC, 03:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955106181279539343) · 60 likes > **Bernard Stanford ✡︎ (@stanfordNYC):** @AaronBergman18 I think your guess is probably right and it was just a sign quoting you might be more trouble than it was worth. Yeah that’s why it has to become a norm at least to some extent, so it doesn’t signal this ### [Reply to @Benthamsbulldog, 03:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955106796281938029) · 10 likes > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** Joe Carlsmith is one of the smartest and most thoughtful people I've ever met, and the worst thing he's ever written was orders of magnitude more careful than anything Eliezer has ever written. > > (quoting @ESYudkowsky: @panickssery Carlsmith's analysis giving 5% chance of ASI disaster was a giant flaming Multiple Stage Fallacy, and it reflects poorly on the entire surrounding ecosystem that they funded it or took it seriously.) 🌶️ (I feel like you’re probably overstating this although I’m also a big JC fan) ### [Tweet, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955133401800864175) · 16 likes TIL if you project text embeddings for single words down to a single axis (at least for some tiny local model I ran on 300k words), it ranges from "true" on one extreme to "north" on the other ????? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyIG-r8XgAEYqUT.png) ### [Thread, continued, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955133404468351128) · 5 likes Text embeddings are unironically so cool, it's so weird that they're approximately free (pennies per million tokens for the big models, ~free for small models) ### [Reply to @ciphergoth, 05:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955135436130500719) · 14 likes > **Paul Crowley (@ciphergoth):** @AaronBergman18 @KelseyTuoc @dylanmatt Wait they also refused you permission to make your own simultaneous recording? I didn't ask, it was pretty last minute. I could/should have Benefit of having a single source recording though is that there's a single ground truth thing to point to, a literal file. Plus recording phone calls is not trivial ### [Reply to @KelseyTuoc, 05:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955136019549831473) · 23 likes > **Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** it seems odd to me to object to you also recording the interview, though I can imagine ways you might have phrased the request which would make me go 'this person just wants to yell at me about the media sucking' Tbc I asked for them to send me the recording in part bc it was last minute and I didn't have any infrastructure set up to record the call It is a bit of an inconvenience for them tbf but like upload to drive -> send link isn't that burdensome IMO ### [Reply to @panickssery, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955136722175475918) · 42 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** If either of you is in a one-party consent state you could have just recorded the interview without asking right Idk, I didn't \*want\* any adversarial or secretive dynamic though ### [Reply to @panickssery, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955138388941496621) · 17 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** @AaronBergman18 How is that adversarial > > Presumably she's recording the interaction by default without mentioning it as well? Eh it’s borderline bc abnormal and like obviously the journalist is recording Seems a bit off to record someone without their knowing, at least polite to ask ### [Reply to @panickssery, 05:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955138820673814761) · 21 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** @AaronBergman18 But they're recording you without asking, presumably Yeah but like that’s built in to the social role of a journalistic interview, like I know it’s happening lol ### [Reply to @jazzloaf, 05:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955144325269987430) · 3 likes > **vivian (@jazzloaf):** @worst_account state uni football coach donating income to animal welfare? President of the United States doing all the good things and not the bad ones ### [Reply to @RuxandraTeslo, 06:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955162133072666848) · 2 likes > **Ruxandra Teslo 🧬 (@RuxandraTeslo):** The FDA is sitting on a goldmine of drug development data — 10,000+ page dossiers detailing how drugs are designed, made, tested, and approved. > > Big Pharma has these in-house. Startups? Locked out. > > It’s time to fix that. Read my proposal for @IFP on how. > https://ifp.org/biotechs-lost-archive/ 👀 ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 10:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955215096893853783) · 2 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** wrong about their subjective experience overall. Eg if someone said (and believed)they saw a red thing, the following is possible: > > a) the thing is actually red > b) the thing was not red, but they hallucinated the experience of redness > c) they did not experience redness > > Being honestly wrong about subjective experiences means c). I think it is possible but frankly don’t believe that 76% of poll voters really internalize how radical it is Like the claim here is that you believe with every fiber of your being that you’re looking at Twitter on a screen right now but in fact you may not be - you may instead be undergoing some unrelated other exotic qualia (or are a p-zombie) that doesn’t register at all to any part of your mind that deals with like beliefs and representations rather than raw experience If this is the case, all bets are off, like we would have very little reason to believe anything specific about the world ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 10:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955215701171716512) · 2 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** Can people be honestly wrong about their own subjective experiences? > > A. Yes > B. Yes in theory, approximately never in practice > C. No Other replies here aren’t grappling with the hard case: not memory, not reporting, earnest total wrongness what it’s like to be you right now ### [Reply to @teortaxesTex, 10:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955219931840057622) · 7 likes > **Teortaxes▶️ (DeepSeek 推特🐋铁粉 2023 – ∞) (@teortaxesTex):** It's astonishing how a guy can repeatedly expose himself as an ignoramus on X but still have such strong opinions. Speaks to the character. But rats tend to be this way. Headstrong, hidebound. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Lol as a shareholder myself, let it be known that I think it’s in my personal interest for NVIDIA to basically cut off china (all things considered interest, not my personal net worth)) Thanks, anyway yeah by all means convince me that I’m wrong. I’m not an expert on this stuff, the basic case is essentially Situational Awareness which I found mostly pretty compelling + parsimonious intuitive explanation that Jensen is doing what lots of rich executives do and lobbying for the financial success of his firm, and doesn’t have some 4d enlightened geopolitical, fundamentally altruistic theory motivating what sure looks like myopic profit seeking And idk strong opinions seem fine, its absolutely true that sometimes I post something that someone just explains or shows to be wrong and then I delete it ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 11:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955223844966240384) · 12 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** IMO the bigger story here is learning that if you call 999 and say you’re losing consciousness after a bike accident, that’s apparently not enough to warrant an ambulance? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyJYeDyWsAASOPG.png) Wtf lmao (ok not lmao mostly just wtf) ### [Reply, 14:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955274407804293191) · 1 like Wdym “stuck at the tails” It seems to me like there are way too few ambitious earning to give projects (maybe I just don’t know about them ofc. I know there are some but nothing close to FTX scale) ### [Tweet, 14:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955277439543697679) · 6 likes I like 70% blame AI companies and not individuals for sub-psychosis level LLM delusion ### [Thread, continued, 14:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955277441536004541) · 3 likes You have this chatbot that knows more than you about ~everything, codes better than you, seems like magic, etc - it is pretty natural to assume that its takes are also reasonably good and calibrated in general ### [Reply, 16:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955304212398547100) · 1 like Probably right ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955337992593166511) · 6 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** Joining an emerging genre of tweets, I just casually stumbled upon @geoffreyhinton at the airport > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyK_W2gWYAAYjUs.jpg) Based ### [Reply, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955355967362670804) · 1 like Cc @JesseTayRiver ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 21:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955376099707457576) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 @\_brianpotter I'll probably read it anyway, but I sort of am the origin of construction efficiency already Lol based Tbc not saying you need to read it to like l improve your productivity lol, just that you might find interesting ### [Quote tweet, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955389708403622023) · 3 likes Some LLM estimates of various relevant traits in relevant populations (self-made billionaires and YC alumni) (First as percentiles) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyLwKchXgAA6vU2.png) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** For better or worse, power laws rule everything around us > > On the margin, EAs should probably go harder at becoming Dwarkesh, figuratively (or really Dustin Moskovitz, but "outstanding podcaster" might feel actually-possible to folks in a way that "billionaire" does not) ### [Thread, continued, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955389711935213640) · 1 like Like these are high, but quite frankly the EA community is pretty damn cracked and so (I claim) these figures aren't uncommon at all (tbc I don't hit all these lol) Now as standard deviations: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyLwRSlWUAAQgy9.png) ### [Tweet, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955401458683433275) · 4 likes Bleeding heart lib take but I don’t think the government should out homeless tent clusters ### [Thread, continued, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955401461027967144) · 2 likes Idc what they’re \*associated\* with - you need to actually prosecute specific crimes (and to state the obvious I don’t think camping like off to the side somewhere should be illegal per se) ### [Thread, continued, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955401464324690200) · 3 likes Same vibe with drug possession and involuntary psych commitment I am autistically attached to policing specific illegal actions instead of vibes and correlations ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 22:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955402018836901982) · 4 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** John Stuart Mill had the same take in On Liberty Truly an honor for him to have anticipated my take like that ## Wednesday, August 13, 2025 ### [Reply to @tszzl, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955419138534543466) · 3 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** Food $200 > Data $150 > Rent $800 > Angel checks in friends companies $100,000 > Utility $150 > someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my family is dying $800 rent? Poast deets ### [Quote tweet, 00:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955420170530459809) · 25 likes I’m actually kinda surprised this kind of thing isn’t more common (relative to my extremely imprecise/vague impression that could be wrong) Close social ties/shared experience/knowing someone well encodes a lot of valuable information that’s a sort of form of insider trading > **Quoting roon (@tszzl):** Food $200 > Data $150 > Rent $800 > Angel checks in friends companies $100,000 > Utility $150 > someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my family is dying ### [Thread, continued, 00:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955420172732522913) · 2 likes Like you should be able to beat the market (if you’re able/willing to say no to friends as well. Maybe this is the hard part) Or like the baseline case is that you don’t have any actual opportunities like this, but if you do, that’s alpha ### [Reply to @edgar_z_lin, 01:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955448970936979961) · 2 likes > **Edgar Lin (@edgar_z_lin):** Relatedly: Why aren't EAs leveraging being a high social trust group to start more companies, considering they have strong incentives to take high upside bets 💯 ### [Reply to @tszzl, 05:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955501522089021758) · 4 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** this is how sociopaths ate EA alive And yet the shrimp keep getting stunned ### [Tweet, 07:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955530708438618422) · 46 likes Just 96 more followers until I will be happy, successful, and content ### [Reply, 07:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955531636801417620) · 1 like Socially idk but personally I’m all in favor of receiving it ### [Reply to @panickssery, 07:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955532075316244770) · 3 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** @AaronBergman18 I'm reality I suspect it's like lifting weights; once you start you never consider yourself quite a large enough account . . . Nope at 4k I will retire ### [Reply to @McMasterDaily, 13:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955620649864401260) · 3 likes > **Daily McMaster-Carr (@McMasterDaily):** Polyethylene Plastic Pail > Round, 5 Gallon Capacity > $8.87 Each > 4269T34 > > It's a bucket > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyMAEOVbkAAW0NC.jpg) I bet one can fill this with many items ### [Reply to @cxgonzalez, 13:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955623838215258289) · 3 likes > **christian (@cxgonzalez):** it is done. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyPFNWmWEAAUgz3.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyPFNWkXsAAKMcU.jpg) @SpacedOutMatt ### [Tweet, 15:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955650383285780931) · 4 likes Apple Store website nudges you pretty hard to make a tiny bit of effort to fix your own problem before making a Genius Bar appt ### [Thread, continued, 15:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955650385961734332) · 2 likes Listen Mr Cook if I’m clicking around on that page you can be absolutely certain that I have reset every setting and run 75 terminal commands I don’t understand to fix the issue and my Apple device is thoroughly fucked Good luck to whoever has to deal with my thing today ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 17:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955688937462386907) · 8 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Honestly Donald Trump is more deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize than Barack Obama > > (quoting @WhiteHouse: President Donald J. Trump is the President of PEACE.) Hmm I don’t believe you ### [Tweet, 18:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955704200848949532) · 32 likes GPT-5 is pretty good actually (like surprisingly good given the mood on Twitter a few days ago) and I like the nerd personality (Sadly) I think it’s gonna be my go-to ### [Thread, continued, 18:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955704203482939855) · 3 likes I guess when you pay the best people in the world a gazillion dollars to make God they make some good products along the way ### [Tweet, 22:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955759562717626808) · 7 likes Post who Claude thinks you are from past chats (my prompt below) Obviously a bit over the top/sycophantic but still entertaining ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyRA9O3XIAARAl8.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955759567100367033) · 4 likes 1\) “Ooh looks like you can search my past chats now, what do you see 👀” Then 2\) “Try to describe my personality, interests, vibe, etc based on past chats. Feel free to look into more I’m just curious, don’t hold back!” ### [Quote tweet, 22:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955761310224015679) · 4 likes I don’t really know how RLHF works in practice but it seems plausible that it’s indexed way too hard on like quick, one-off reactions from individuals… > **Quoting Cody Hergenroeder 🍋⚡️ (@lemonautzest):** @AaronBergman18 what do you think will be necessary to make these models more up-front, less sycophantic? seems like an RLHF thing, no? ### [Thread, continued, 22:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955761312790929445) · 3 likes AI companies have a lot of money, they could spend tens of millions of dollars hiring social scientists, running detailed surveys on various demographics and preferences and endorsed preferences around model chat cases, basically like the eat your vegetables version of RLHF ### [Reply to @Throwaw00457645, 22:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955761704668946790) · 2 likes > **MSA (@Throwaw00457645):** My Claude was adamant they didn't have access to past chats. What version are you using? I have max so maybe it’s just rolled out to that But go to profile settings ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyRC59OWQAE4HVA.jpg) ## Thursday, August 14, 2025 ### [Reply to @hamandcheese, 01:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955802945636983258) · 3 likes > **Samuel Hammond 🦉 (@hamandcheese):** I want AI alignment to min-max assurances that widely diffused, powerful AIs can't be used to design bioweapons and so on while being perfectly tool-like and instruction following otherwise. > > Any amount of moralizing or disobedience in a nonharmful context is misaligned afaic Hmm I think I disagree, this is mostly just an intuition but I think I see a role for “I will comply but strongly recommend/request that you not do this” I don’t feel great about enthusiastic personable assistants across society who act like humans in many ways but with a carve-out that they never express concern or moral disapproval ### [Reply to @livgorton, 10:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955942874119336083) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** sometimes I refer to things like vibecamp at work and then realise no one knows what i'm talking about and then i have to explain it and this is like a lot for me to deal with tbh 😢 ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 10:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955943983848271895) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @arithmoquine is no longer available.)_ Idk you at all but “seriously consider trying to be SBF but good this time” (make a billion dollars to give away) Conspicuously young SF founder is a good vibe for this also right? And like people know you, ur in a weirdly good spot for this it seems from the outside I think a big thing here is that, in addition to talent, you seem less bottlenecked on agency and ambition than everyone else Like there are a good number of other brilliant and well meaning folks but you might under-appreciate just how rare this is I have no credentials/credibility here also so grain of salt ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 11:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955952442882875400) · 2 likes > **Tetra 💎⏹️🌌 (@TetraspaceWest):** Measure of which countries are punching below their weight due to e.g. bad governance, international disputes, poor resources United States lmao ### [Reply to @creatine_cycle, 11:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955953450518225049) · 8 likes > **atlas (@creatine_cycle):** my most contrarian belief is that you can go to the gym 4-5 times a week for an hour and train whatever you want with weights and you will get jacked This is basically just high testosterone lol ### [Quote tweet, 12:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955976755908391190) · 3 likes As much as I don’t especially like JBP as an intellectual, the correct understanding of this tweet is “yes unironically, it can happen to anyone and legitimately sucks. A can-do manly attitude doesn’t actually protect against chronic illness” > **Quoting Daniel (@growing_daniel):** JBP went from leading a generation of young men to greatness to being sidelined by his daughter using fake white woman diseases ### [Reply to @cxgonzalez, 13:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955980171229475225) · 2 likes > **christian (@cxgonzalez):** woman have no idea the power they wield > > (quoting @cxgonzalez: it’s simple really) True ### [Tweet, 13:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955981555781784034) · 3 likes POV you gave Claude code all the claude and gpt-5 documentation and your twitter feed as inspiration and told it to run wild ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyUKzh8W0AAATD3.jpg) ### [Reply to @gleech, 14:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1955994315219448092) · 6 likes > **gavin leech (Non-Reasoning) (@gleech):** What are the largest current AI harms? Diverting EA resources away from animal welfare work lol (plausibly this is good/appropriate but still!) ### [Reply to @snuppydogg, 14:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956005952274018539) · 2 likes > **snuppydogg (@snuppydogg):** Freaks (guys over 6') need love too I’m sorry you’re oppressed. ### [Reply to @morallawwithin, 15:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956022330666197292) · 2 likes > **florence ⊮ (@morallawwithin):** Sorry but I’m waiting until I die and Harvard University Press publishes “Flo Bacus: Collected Posts, vol I-XI” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyUvI-0WEAQu02J.jpg) This is potentially actually a cool product but their website sucks/doesn’t work ### [Quote tweet, 17:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956038366354395531) · 6 likes This whole thing is worth a proper case study analysis > **Quoting Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** A group of generous donors have pledged to match ANOTHER $500,000 of donations for @farmkind_giving. Huge thanks to: > > @seemaychou & @JedMcCaleb: $250,000 > @gauravkapadia: $100,000 > @ArielNessel: $50,000 (2nd donation) > @tylermaule: $50,000 > The Dahna Foundation: $50,000 > > If we saturate this next round of matching, we’ll have raised over $2,000,000. This amount would likely improve the lives of over 20 million animals! > > Again, it's hard to overstate how neglected this area is, and how crazy cheap the interventions that have spared hundreds of millions of animals from painful lives have been: https://x.com/dwarkesh_sp/status/1953890048056996272 > > I also want to thank everyone who helped saturate the previous matches. A few highlights: > > Anonymous: $13,000 > @v_maini: $10,000 > Anonymous: $10,000 > @d_m_ziegler: $5,000 > Nick Bostrom: $5,000 > Anonymous: $5,000 > Anonymous: $5,000 > @tessybarton: $3,000 > @idavidrein: $3,000 > @CFGeek: $2,500 > @silas_strawn: $2,000 > @tysheaff: $2,000 > Anonymous: $2,000 > Alexa Stone Fund (@tyler_m_john): $1,500 > @Vincessant\_: $1,500 > @ravioli817: $1,500 > @michaeljelly: $1,500 > @\_sholtodouglas: $1,000 (2nd donation) > @verdadcap: $1,000 > @jackm2003: $1,000 > @RosieCampbell: $1,000 > @sevdeawesome: $1,000 > @gauravsett: $1,000 > > Link to donate below. DM me if you donate over 1k. > > We've already raised over $1.35 million dollars! With donation matching, we just need $300k in contributions to reach $2 million! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyU4ZoGa4AcdSoY.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 17:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956039417807659401) · 30 likes Let it be known that you can just buy a follow from me with a 5 figure donation here (Mostly) not out of appreciation - it just instantly gives you moral and intellectual credibility > **Quoting Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** A group of generous donors have pledged to match ANOTHER $500,000 of donations for @farmkind_giving. Huge thanks to: > > @seemaychou & @JedMcCaleb: $250,000 > @gauravkapadia: $100,000 > @ArielNessel: $50,000 (2nd donation) > @tylermaule: $50,000 > The Dahna Foundation: $50,000 > > If we saturate this next round of matching, we’ll have raised over $2,000,000. This amount would likely improve the lives of over 20 million animals! > > Again, it's hard to overstate how neglected this area is, and how crazy cheap the interventions that have spared hundreds of millions of animals from painful lives have been: https://x.com/dwarkesh_sp/status/1953890048056996272 > > I also want to thank everyone who helped saturate the previous matches. A few highlights: > > Anonymous: $13,000 > @v_maini: $10,000 > Anonymous: $10,000 > @d_m_ziegler: $5,000 > Nick Bostrom: $5,000 > Anonymous: $5,000 > Anonymous: $5,000 > @tessybarton: $3,000 > @idavidrein: $3,000 > @CFGeek: $2,500 > @silas_strawn: $2,000 > @tysheaff: $2,000 > Anonymous: $2,000 > Alexa Stone Fund (@tyler_m_john): $1,500 > @Vincessant\_: $1,500 > @ravioli817: $1,500 > @michaeljelly: $1,500 > @\_sholtodouglas: $1,000 (2nd donation) > @verdadcap: $1,000 > @jackm2003: $1,000 > @RosieCampbell: $1,000 > @sevdeawesome: $1,000 > @gauravsett: $1,000 > > Link to donate below. DM me if you donate over 1k. > > We've already raised over $1.35 million dollars! With donation matching, we just need $300k in contributions to reach $2 million! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyU4ZoGa4AcdSoY.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956040215862157535) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 14, 2025:** This whole thing is worth a proper case study analysis Most of the expected impact probably comes from Elon or someone making a multi-million dollar gift on a whim ### [Reply to @willmacaskill, 17:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956047370937934120) · 2 likes > **William MacAskill (@willmacaskill):** GWWC started with 23 members. A year later it had just 64. > > We faced a lot of scepticism early on, and even I didn't believe we'd form a community 10,000 strong. > > Thank you for proving me wrong. > > (quoting @givingwhatwecan: 10,000 people across the globe have now taken the 🔸10% Pledge 🚀 > $300M already donated > $1B lifetime committed 10,000 people from 116 countries 🌐 This is a movement of action and optimism, funding work to solve the world’s most pressing problems 🔥…) 🫡 ### [Tweet, 20:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956085043019030779) · 20 likes Where do I get the leaked Columbia admissions data? I don’t want any of the personal identifying information and will filter that out ASAP lol ### [Thread, continued, 20:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956085731312455913) · 11 likes Don’t pretend it’s not an interesting dataset ### [Thread, continued, 20:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956086306100142404) · 11 likes And tbc I’m mostly not interested in the race stuff (I mean that’s a legitimate issue there’s just a gazillion other interesting questions) ### [Tweet, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956088640880124218) · 18 likes What iPhone apps do you wish existed? (I am interested in vibecoding one) ### [Reply to @BootsPlatypus, 21:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956107040301969883) · 2 likes > **Platypussy in Bio (@BootsPlatypus):** Random alarm!!! I need an alarm that triggers at a random part of the day (and I get to set how often it triggers and during which hours it shouldn't trigger). It sounds simple but there's no free app that does that yet for some reason Nice ### [Tweet, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956108354377355576) · 102 likes It’s actually very unfair that alcohol is freely available and stimulants are not Cognito-typical (neuro? Idk) privilege ### [Reply to @IAmMckiev, 21:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956108656472150483) · 3 likes > **Anton Makiievskyi 🔶 (@IAmMckiev):** I have a 100k worth of Monero to donate, but neither http://every.org nor Daffy would take them, and I’d rather not pay the cap gains tax. Any ideas? Based ### [Reply to @acesounderglass, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956114497556357234) · 2 likes > **Elizabeth Van Nostrand (@acesounderglass):** more than that- waiting to be asked out selects for agency. The men I asked out tended to be more passive across facets of life. I’d be surprised if there’s a nontrivial correlation (this specific thing seems so sui generis w cultural baggage, it’s a very specific type of agency), although ofc I lack ur level of experience lol ### [Tweet, 22:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956115401294934065) · 11 likes Extremely long day (sorry for vaguepost) ### [Reply to @WhiteHouse, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956124889230008354) · 13,597 likes > **The White House (@WhiteHouse):** OPERATION MAKING D.C. SAFE & BEAUTIFUL > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyGYA0OW8AAkqtv.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyWNODlWMAI8Tca.jpg) ### [Tweet, 22:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956126450714640749) · 6 likes Re: DC Like with DOGE, there are actually-good things that vaguely resemble what Trump is doing, and in fact would even score culture war points for MAGA/Red Tribe But of course instead it’s the dumbest shit imaginable ### [Thread, continued, 22:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956126452782448872) · 3 likes First actually good thing that comes to mind is like dedicating lots of resources to solving serious crime cases (starting with murders) And then own the libs by actually clearing 90% of cases or whatever is actually possible, you can put it in a bar chart on Fox ### [Thread, continued, 22:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956126455038886176) · 2 likes Could even be like a start of a national movement to do this: like prove that with good people and lots of resources this can happen, and shame federal/state governments into appropriating the necessary stuff ### [Quote tweet, 23:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956135642938925187) · 13 likes Ok turns out mere possession is legally risky, probably too risky for me Columbia should just make a de-identified version of the data publicly available though Or else the only people analyzing it are going to be RW anti-woke folks with high risk tolerance > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Where do I get the leaked Columbia admissions data? > > I don’t want any of the personal identifying information and will filter that out ASAP lol ### [Thread, continued, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956143379844362579) · 4 likes Lol there is actually a ton of legal data from a harvard case but it is TOTALLY UNPARSED AND IN PDF https://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/massachusetts/madce/1:2014cv14176/165519/415/2.html ## Friday, August 15, 2025 ### [Reply to @alexwcohen, 01:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956168303182819665) · 1 like > **Alex Cohen (@alexwcohen):** App that (quickly, automatically) translates pdfs into a format that’s easy to read on my phone > > This one def might exist already… Ya I like this actually I actually have pdf -> txt infrastructure set up for something else (not totally perfect but pretty good) and it’s not trivial at all (basic text extraction works terribly for anything with formatting/figures/etc) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 01:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956173922757419510) · 4 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18 Aaron is vagueposting like he's dropping a frontier LLM tomorrow Fuck now I wish I had something actually cool to drop tomorrow ### [Reply to @halcyon_hazel, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956178042063114461) · 2 likes > **❤️‍🔥 hazel ❤️‍🔥 (@halcyon_hazel):** “don’t meet your mutuals irl” dawg i just hiked eight hours to the top of the highest mountain in Tennessee with moots > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyW6LtKX0AI9Tzd.jpg) Based ### [Reply to @stevenkaas, 03:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956202589474971834) · 6 likes > **Steven Kaas (@stevenkaas):** Why idly theorize when you can JUST CHECK and find out the ACTUAL ANSWER to a superficially similar-sounding question SCIENTIFICALLY? Absolute banger ### [Reply to @shagbark_hick, 04:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956206195993125279) · 2 likes > **𝙷𝚒𝚌𝚔𝚖𝚊𝚗 (@shagbark_hick):** I'm banned from: > > \- Coeur D'Alene, Idaho for a vagrancy ticket I never paid > \- A bar in Brattleboro VT for brawling with the chef over him gypping me and a handful of other travelers on a tab > \- A Lesbian commune in Syracuse where I crashed during the 2016 election (I had a friend who let me sleep in the closet). My crime was "seeming pleased when Donald Trump won" and the rest of them were crying tears of bitter rage > \- A Wal-Mart in Plattsburgh for shoplifting a 30-rack of Natty Ice and getting caught when I was 17 > \- A group of online people who hang out IRL banished me for reasons they didn't have the balls to tell me directly > \- The American Legion bar in my hometown for the crime of using foul language (and whatever else I did there when I blacked out there a decade ago) > \- The Quillayute Indian Reservation in La Push WA for sleeping on the beach without tribal permission > > There are probably others but this is just off the top of my head. > > (quoting @AnaKrivolapova: What are you banned from and why?) ### [Reply to @AnaKrivolapova, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956206233804751121) · 2 likes > **Anna Krivolapova (@AnaKrivolapova):** What are you banned from and why? ### [Reply to @kunley_drukpa, 05:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956229717830352991) · 10 likes > **ɖʀʊӄքǟ ӄʊռʟɛʏ 🇧🇹🇹🇩 (@kunley_drukpa):** \>shy guy who struggles with women > \>see cute girls jogging by my house every day > \>finally work up confidence to speak to them > \>“hey love your dedication, looking fit” > \>they stop and talk into a radio “all units” > \>sirens blare as police cars suddenly pull up around me > \>get arrested > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyS0eCZXMAMKwVi.jpg) > (quoting @nypost: British cops wore jogging outfits to elicit catcalls and then arrested some men who hit on them: report https://trib.al/7BukDwL) I mean obvious satirical exaggeration but the story essentially checks out (research = clicking through to UK reporting) They give the article free if you sign up https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/12/undercover-officers-pose-as-joggers-to-stop-catcalling/ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyXsj24WcAEoK9W.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 13:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956352332863594502) · 4 likes Also: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyZcFAnWEAMeyDU.jpg) > **Quoting EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** "What Animal Interventions are Fast Enough for Short AI Timelines?" by Hazo > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyZWc1LXUAE_t5B.jpg) ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 14:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956369813980274739) · 2 likes > **Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin):** Is AI conscious? And will we be able to tell? > > I discuss with @willmacaskill. > > [video attached](https://x.com/robertwiblin/status/1956361736753172514/video/1) 👀 ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 17:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956415060378566821) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @ChanaMessinger I might well take you up on this 👀 ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956424850089676922) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ 👀 (u can be wheel number 4 if I ever get another date Frances) ### [Tweet, 20:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956452306821497318) · 13 likes Gonna become a transit guy and my schtick will be that the only two modes of powered transport should be electric scooter and airplane ### [Thread, continued, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956452355743842422) · 4 likes “Scootable cities” ### [Reply to @ahardtospell, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956455260337156316) · 3 likes > **Alex Muresianu (@ahardtospell):** The one Transit Mode Guy I have yet to encounter is an Inland Waterways Guy. > > Thinks we need to retvrn to Nature's Highways and building canals. Lmao but also wait there’s gotta be a real case for the optimal number of new canals being not zero ## Saturday, August 16, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956509537663680635) · 73 likes I feel like I'm living in another universe from everyone else GPT-5 is noticeably better than Opus 4. And it's weirdly fast, and the personality is good, and pretty importantly it's cheaper than even Sonnet (way cheaper for input tokens) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** GPT-5 is pretty good actually (like surprisingly good given the mood on Twitter a few days ago) and I like the nerd personality > > (Sadly) I think it’s gonna be my go-to ### [Thread, continued, 00:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956509539110412776) · 14 likes The point is that this doesn't feel like a slowdown to me viscerally at all, it feels like the quite rapid march of progress we've been having for 3 years (from my POV) ### [Thread, continued, 00:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956509540205121774) · 4 likes I'm talking about thinking mode or auto-select in Plus plan, haven't used the API much ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 00:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956509642294534473) · 2 likes > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** Happy Friday! > (felt cute might delete later) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GybUja1WgAABOUH.jpg) 🥵 ### [Reply to @ESRogs, 04:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956570127299760521) · 3 likes > **Rogs 🔍🔸 (@ESRogs):** Are you comparing to Opus 4.1 or Opus 4 specifically? 4.1 ### [Reply to @ChrisPainterYup, 06:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956599766382502256) · 3 likes > **Chris Painter (@ChrisPainterYup):** Goading models to not be so sycophantic when I ask them for sanity checks on things has become a real obstacle to using them. I have to spend a ton of time obfuscating my opinion when asking models for feedback on my technical stances. > > Would love productized "debate" setups. Yes!! I’ve been copy and pasting outputs between gpt5 and Opus and having them discuss/try to come to a consensus/debate ### [Reply to @OpenAI, 06:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956600091214504163) · 8 likes > **OpenAI (@OpenAI):** We’re making GPT-5 warmer and friendlier based on feedback that it felt too formal before. Changes are subtle, but ChatGPT should feel more approachable now. > > You'll notice small, genuine touches like “Good question” or “Great start,” not flattery. Internal tests show no rise in sycophancy compared to the previous GPT-5 personality. > > Changes may take up to a day to roll out, more updates soon. Boo ### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 06:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956601102817783869) · 11 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** I don't trust a GPT-5-level intellect to inform me of what is a "good question" or a "great start", so it's not helpful information to me. What bureaucratic insanity resulted in your Twitter account declaring that this was "not flattery"? Of course it's flattery. I kinda do in like more than half of my use cases? The real question is whether it's even trying to be calibrated/accurate about this feedback ### [Quote tweet, 08:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956632684370739438) · 6 likes Ahhhhh > **Quoting Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** 🤦‍♂️ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GybwmRFWQAARsqa.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 17:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956772210300883164) · 9 likes There's a lot of juicy data here (last 100 pages or so = data) Racial affirmative action has gotten all the attention (and that's what the doc is about) but a hell of a lot more could be written about this > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Lol there is actually a ton of legal data from a harvard case but it is TOTALLY UNPARSED AND IN PDF https://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/massachusetts/madce/1:2014cv14176/165519/415/2.html ### [Tweet, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956785891583885744) · 7 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyfmYEoWoAAPqsd.jpg) ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 18:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956786506984538517) · 14 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** This analysis of what's rough for men out there (in the Bay Area) is one I've heard a lot, and I've seen its accuracy for myself. > > But how prevalent is it, really? Is it just our circle? > > What percent of men working at random tech startup in SF would identify strongly with this? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyeuAGybgAA134a.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyeuAGpbQAAHH2R.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyeuAHobAAEyo65.jpg) I think much of this is basically a good analysis (on some of it I just say "yes unironically the wokes are right here" but nonetheless) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gyfm7LiWgAA_nkr.jpg) ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 18:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956790090543333721) · 2 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** @AaronBergman18 But a good analysis of what? I agree this is a common feeling in my social circles - I just don't know how far it extends Ya this isn’t really an actual response to ur question lol, idk ### [Tweet, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956807909108572668) · 514 likes \> On medication for years \> new bottle smells terrible, totally rancid. Never been like this \> go to pharmacy, tell pharmacist \> “the source bottle smells the same so it’s fine” \> ??? ### [Thread, continued, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956808460093509776) · 224 likes Evo psych that has nothing to do with sex/culture war: your instincts regarding what \*not\* to ingest are probably pretty good (not because they’ll always be right, but because you should almost always be quite risk averse in this sense) ### [Reply to @powerbottomson, 22:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956844183022604534) · 44 likes > **pbs (@powerbottomson):** what meds?? i am nosy > > pharmacist probably wanted to say "it isn't my problem bring it up with the manufacturer" Prozac ## Sunday, August 17, 2025 ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 02:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956912196388020462) · 5 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** I used to take liquid Prozac as a kid and I still have such visceral memories of its awful flavor \*shudders\* 😢 ### [Reply to @LaurenE_UX, 02:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956912258723836314) · 19 likes > **Lauren (@LaurenE_UX):** @AaronBergman18 Can you transfer the script to a different pharmacy? Yeah thanks I will try (will have to convince to fill early tho) ### [Tweet, 04:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956943348096213049) · 58 likes Do people think that having a conversation with gpt-5/Opus about some nonfiction topic is substantially worse in terms of actual learning than reading a book? Because I find the former much easier and more fun ### [Thread, continued, 04:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956943349098611196) · 5 likes Of course one huge downside is that you can't do the equivalent of choosing what to read based on the reviews and recommendations of others ### [Tweet, 04:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956943350122070287) cc @AndyMasley @NathanB60857242 ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956944584556105754) · 3 likes > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** I think it's probably significantly better than reading a book per hour spent. Reading books is very poor efficiency https://www.cold-takes.com/reading-books-vs-engaging-with-them/ Oh cool ### [Reply to @RomanHauksson, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1956951295513809109) · 2 likes > **Roman Hauksson-Neill (@RomanHauksson):** it's to separate independent clauses when a semicolon just doesn't feel right ### [Tweet, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957167929205919846) · 5 likes \> Pay @Apple $100 for dev program (contrary to certain vibes I actually think this is fine as like a copay/tax to reduce overconsumption of their resources) \> Account still not actually activated 24 hours later Big monopolist that doesn't give a shit energy ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GylBNdQXAAAq4-D.png) ### [Tweet, 20:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957171678485545244) · 9 likes \*If\* doctors are going to gatekeep prescriptions, culturally it should be more like what pharmacists do which is basically just rubber stamp unless there is unusual and serious concern ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957179871412847092) · 30 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 16, 2025:** Evo psych that has nothing to do with sex/culture war: your instincts regarding what \*not\* to ingest are probably pretty good (not because they’ll always be… Update: transferred, new fill, doesn’t smell lol ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957194720788287713) · 4 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** Seems like there’s been a vibe shift towards thinking AI (specifically, data centres) is a bubble. It may be, but weird change given: > \- it doesn’t seem based on a significant reappraisal of the technology > \- capex trajectory obviously high, but increase seems steady 2023-2025? Yeah this is interesting and I’ve noticed directionally similar vibes but “bubble” is a meaningfully different claim from like “overvalued asset” or “investment that’s not going to pay off” I don’t want to say that eg AI stocks \*can’t\* form a bubble because those are financial instruments, but the physical creation of datacenters strongly indicates that real entities are putting lots of money where their mouth is in betting that they’re going to be extremely productive capital Also like while it’s totally possible that naive scaling/megascaling is just going to be proven to not do much anymore (ie current vibes), the creation of tons of compute is just not going to be left as a ghost town in the middle of wherever - like it will drop the price of compite and attract other things that can use it, be used for inference, be used for non-scaling experiments, etc ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957222455598108821) · 3 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** You guys, I have a date (to attend) this week! 😍😍 > > (quoting @ChanaMessinger: Invite me to your dates, I'm a great time, no lulls in conversation guaranteed!) Lmao based ### [Quote tweet, 23:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957227137938669657) · 23 likes You should follow Emily She has good takes and I told her to start using twitter She also hiked the Appalachian trail, alone, partially barefoot for some reason, in case you need a more specific reason > **Quoting Emily O'Keefe (@emyokeefe):** This is a test ## Monday, August 18, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 03:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957276571892346921) · 3 likes I totally agree but also feel like this is in need of some skeptical vetting - is “refusal to continue a conversation” actually a morally x technically sensible thing? What other possibilities are there > **Quoting Rosie Campbell (@RosieCampbell):** If my mind was going to be uploaded I would want to be very sure I'd have self-termination rights. I think this sets a good precedent. ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 03:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957286958956245361) · 7 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** For the record: I think MAPLE is quite bad and manipulative. I would recommend strongly against people participating in their programs, and especially against joining them. > > They use quite extreme chronic sleep deprivation as a routine requirement for anyone doing their programs/trials/residences, which is one of the lines I have for signs of manipulation. You are indeed much more susceptible to suggestion when chronically sleep deprived, and it's also just really harmful to people. > > Also lots of other concerning things (see some of the below). Tf is maple ### [Thread, continued, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957287588252827715) · 7 likes For my fellow ignorant ppl https://www.monasticacademy.org ### [Reply to @StatisticUrban, 03:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957287953807339603) · 2 likes > **Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** First-year lawyer salaries are crazy bimodal. > > Basically, you either get into biglaw and make the big bucks (alongside horrific hours) or you make about as much as a first-year civil engineer with just a bachelor's. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gyk2AmBboAEp9nO.jpg) Why such a specific spike at $225k? Nobody is making $240k? ### [Reply to @TheZvi, 04:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957302028364812721) · 7 likes > **Zvi Mowshowitz (@TheZvi):** Within your lifetime, will there exist an AI that is a moral patient? How can people answer “definitely” (either side) to this lol? Even if we don’t take that term literally, >95% or <5% chance seems pretty unjustified ### [Reply to @NelsonEdmundb, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957313647383806376) · 3 likes > **Edmund Nelson (@NelsonEdmundb):** @AaronBergman18 @TheZvi @RosieCampbell for definitely yes you can argue that GPT 5 or whatever is \*already\* a moral patient is the argument. Sure but you shouldn’t be 95% sure of that ### [Quote tweet, 13:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957434258831663320) · 6 likes To each their own I guess, but Big Law seems like such a crazy life to choose You must really really like working all the time but also not have more ambition than winning the case your firm decides to take on > **Quoting 𝖓𝖎𝖓𝖊 🕯 (@atlanticesque):** And remember, all the top firms follow a lockstep, cartel-like salary scale for associates. Everyone makes exactly the same salary each year, year on year, until most associates have burned out. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GylGCzrWYAEdG_n.jpg) ### [Tweet, 13:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957434266318422262) · 1 like I know my dad (former government lawyer) was thinking of trying to join a law firm at one point and I’m glad he didn’t I guess we could have had a fancier car lol ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 13:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957435296527602124) · 7 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Haven’t fully emotionally accepted that tides are caused by the moon This guy thinks other planets affect the ocean lmao ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957435439926636808) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 18, 2025:** I know my dad (former government lawyer) was thinking of trying to join a law firm at one point and I’m glad he didn’t I guess we could have had a fancier car… 150k is not early career tbf ### [Tweet, 14:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957444242139156796) · 208 likes Both things are still playing out but I’ve seen enough to say: for God’s sake, if you or a loved one is having anything beyond a \*trivially\* routine medical issue, write up the details (maybe just a single typed message if you’re in an ER) and ask a \*frontier\* LLM ### [Thread, continued, 14:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957444244487983522) · 36 likes (GPT-5 thinking seems the best to me Claude Opus thinking and Grok 4 also good Less experience with Gemini Pro but it’s free) ### [Thread, continued, 14:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957444247394594934) · 44 likes Whether they can fully replace doctors is not the question - they’re absolutely a complement to and check on them ### [Thread, continued, 14:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957444249823150589) · 51 likes You don’t have to be that radical to understand that despite the cultural mythos, doctors haven’t read and memorized every medical textbook and UpToDate like LLMs have ### [Thread, continued, 14:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957444252234928406) · 31 likes I know all of my followers know this for themselves lol, I’m hoping that on the margin it might convince you to tell a sibling or parent or friend, or that perhaps this reaches normie twitter ### [Thread, continued, 14:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957444255363866628) · 36 likes The “patient who’s done their own research” meme is finally backwards, like you really can do your “own” research and come to very informed and often correct conclusions or at least hypotheses ### [Quote tweet, 14:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957447675810385979) · 6 likes I’m being mogged by Alexey for not posting phone number and by @captgouda24 for not posting address > **Quoting Alexey Guzey (@alexeyguzey):** feel free to call me -- (341) 250-2169 ### [Reply to @polisisti, 14:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957447949933330688) · 3 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** this isn't why I picked up this article, but it's fun to see this very humanizing third-person portrayal of Ezra Klein > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gyo_lciXQAAQRfN.jpg) He’s just a hardworking man who wants some pancakes ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 14:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957448324488851709) · 21 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 18, 2025:** The “patient who’s done their own research” meme is finally backwards, like you really can do your “own” research and come to very informed and often correct… Oh yeah also you can “write the details” by using LLMs if you want Just dump any context like bloodwork or other test docs in and ramble ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 14:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957449844382912575) · 5 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** For the curious economists, these sort of errors were 60% more common in economics than in political science. > > (quoting @ryancbriggs: @NateSilver538 Something like 1/4 recent top Econ or political science articles have material coding errors, so saying half are wrong isn’t crazy. https://asteriskmag.com/issues/10/can-we-trust-social-science-yet) Surely that’s because new econ papers are more likely to be doing fancy/more complex econometrics, no? ### [Reply to @eshear, 14:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957455656232825031) · 2 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** Computer programs (even very complicated ones) are physical objects that are made of solid-state chemistry and electrical flows. They are not platonic forms, they are not abstractions, they are normal objects like everything else. Ok but they’re really well approximated by abstractions right? Like shockingly well to a layperson Although this is the result of engineers understanding that they’re physically systems and designing control systems around that ### [Quote tweet, 14:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957457078500356284) · 11 likes Not contradicting this, but it’s cool how unfathomably good computers are at being computers ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GypI1s4X0AA0rEJ.jpg) > **Quoting Emmett Shear (@eshear):** Computer programs (even very complicated ones) are physical objects that are made of solid-state chemistry and electrical flows. They are not platonic forms, they are not abstractions, they are normal objects like everything else. ### [Thread, continued, 15:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957457935467991494) · 2 likes Probably not a single computational error made it into the weights of the models we’re running (and if it did it’s absolutely trivial and doesn’t matter) Wild ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GypJnhQWQAAw3Pv.jpg) ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957487015999799551) · 2 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** @livgorton thank you liv! i will have a present for you soon, stay tuned! :) 👀 ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957487432515088671) · 5 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** This is the funniest example of typical mind fallacy I’ve ever come across > > (quoting @ozyfrantz: @ApriiSR would you have sex with David Bowie? obviously you would, so would everyone. then you're bi. go out and combat this bizarre notion that readers have a right to know about authors' sex lives) Lol fr ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957549755426382225) · 2 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** Center for High Energy Metaphysics > > Spotted in Cambridge > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyqbkpnWUAUIzpi.jpg) Based ### [Quote tweet, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957550064546599186) · 4 likes Wtf > **Quoting Natalie Dowzicky (@Nat_Dowzicky):** 7 officers from various agencies rounding up food delivery bikes is a terrible use of my tax dollars. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gypm3-lXYAAMmgw.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957552160117346615) · 83 likes On 1850s Twitter there would have been a type of guy who didn’t give a shit about the slaves but was an abolitionist for the economic growth ### [Thread, continued, 21:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957552162676043864) · 14 likes I actually think it’s quite sensible/intuitive that forbidding a whole class of people from entrepreneurship, innovation, choice of work, and (largely) consumption dominates somewhat expanding the effective labor supply by forcing them to pick cotton ### [Reply to @typedfemale, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957554470675521762) · 18 likes > **typedfemale (@typedfemale):** TIL amtrak will let you attach your own private car to one of their trains and they charge you per a mile > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyqXgH3acAI857B.jpg) https://www.amtrak.com/privately-owned-rail-cars ### [Reply to @Throwaw00457645, 21:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957555434065174932) · 4 likes > **MSA (@Throwaw00457645):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyqhxM2XIAAOqte.png) There we go!! ### [Reply to @Throwaw00457645, 21:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957555579758792797) · 3 likes > **MSA (@Throwaw00457645):** Verily, he was the Yglesias of his time > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyqiTVNW0AQs62F.jpg) Lmao ### [Quote tweet, 21:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957556358066127323) · 10 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyqjIhIWUAME89K.jpg) > **Quoting MSA (@Throwaw00457645):** @AaronBergman18 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyqhxM2XIAAOqte.png) ### [Thread, continued, 21:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957556366098219483) · 2 likes That’s a new one ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyqjI7gXcAAb-Fn.jpg) ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957556754004218334) · 11 likes > **Tetra 💎⏹️🌌 (@TetraspaceWest):** I'm Tetraspace, AMA. Do you wanna share anything about your non-Tetraspace, offline persona ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957560512729760077) · 2 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** Yes, but if you recognise that emancipation is good for growth and then think about it some more, you should just end up with a principled view about autonomy being good anyway 💯 ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957570251664629775) · 4 likes > **Tetra 💎⏹️🌌 (@TetraspaceWest):** Yeah this is what I was gonna say. My meatspace name is Tetra. I never learned to socialise in person so when the time came for me to do that I just imported what I learned from Twitter. > > Some people find the British accent disarming, if they're not expecting it. British?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!? Was I supposed to know that 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱 (Lol I've been told I'm also the same offline but I think I imported my offline self to here) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 22:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957571352518336768) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** All the best people are British tbh 😢 ### [Tweet, 22:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957577307914195171) · 10 likes Would anyone pay say $5 for a "comprehensive data liberator" Mac app that ~liberates~ (ie exports in usable, readable form for you to use however) your Apple Notes, Voice memos, iMessages, Contacts, Calendar, Reminders and possibly Screentime data? ### [Reply to @warty_dog, 23:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957580123793760616) · 2 likes > **troon (@warty_dog):** isnt mac supposed to be a real os? cat ~/voice.jpg Do you mean like "can't I do this on my own"? Bc if so the answer is "yes, totally" - I'd not be doing any fancy hacking just turning hard-to-parse .db/json files that feel scary to touch into pdf/html/whatever in a nice zip file for you ### [Thread, continued, 23:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957581488196628851) · 1 like Tbc I do not expect the target audience here to be extremely technical people although otoh they might have higher opportunity cost of time ### [Reply to @incredutility, 23:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957587003991589291) · 3 likes > **Charlie Petty (@incredutility):** @AaronBergman18 I would pay $1,000 for a lifetime subscription Uh I might just make this for you personally for $1000 lol ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957589663968882813) · 16 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** I'm not going to lie, I totally side with Rufo on this one. This is really bad stuff to say. The New Yorker employed and promoted this person for years, even knowing all this stuff she said. That's bad. She should issue a formal apology, at the very least. > > (quoting @christopherrufo: This is what The New Yorker is defending, conveniently organized into four screenshots) As much as I don’t like these tweets, I dislike the policy of digging up old tweets and trying to get someone fired for them even more Like if you want her fired, I think the evidence should come from stories she’s writing now I won’t even say I’m literally 100% against “old tweets indicate firing”, but the tweets would have to bear directly on the quality of her work in a way we didn’t know before (eg that she’s secretly operating on behalf of some specific institution for covert PR/propaganda) rather than merely indicating that the person is bad and has bad takes ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 23:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957592391264682134) · 1 like > **henry (@arithmoquine):** it's another world out there. 43% of the web is on wordpress > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gyp7-TPWwAAxvED.jpg) > (quoting @melqtx: usecase?) What ### [Tweet, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957592914432823321) · 19 likes Consciousness is the only thing where the probability of the whole partition of theory-space adds up to <100% And really it’s like 60% tops ### [Thread, continued, 23:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957593172567290287) · 7 likes Every option, including cognitive closure, illusionism, and “the entire thing is conceptually confused” kinda sucks ## Tuesday, August 19, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957595127284699288) · 151 likes It has come to my attention that some EAs aren’t using gpt-5 because of some combo of “principled boycott” and “at a pure preference level it just feels icky” Let it be known that I really really think this doesn’t check out ### [Thread, continued, 00:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957595129231077597) · 28 likes Like I can imagine worlds where this makes sense, eg if EA constituted a large proportion of the population so acausal trade/evidential cooperation could bankrupt OpenAI, but irl I really really think this is an instinct misfiring ### [Thread, continued, 00:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957595131483209728) · 32 likes World where EA voluntarily disarms from the best AI tools out of vibes or non-consequentialist principles seems very bad to me Your work is more important than the $20-cost you’re sending OpenAI, it just is ### [Thread, continued, 00:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957595383850570142) · 11 likes I guess if you don’t want to use it for non-productivity-related personal stuff, totally cool with me ### [Reply to @waldenpod, 00:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957607819617640617) · 5 likes > **Emerson Green (@waldenpod):** wtf is going on in Israel > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyrJUyVboAA2kMb.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyrJUyDaMAAfBEK.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyrJUyEaMAAJu2_.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyrJUycacAMSjtV.jpg) Hmm seems bad, I did have Grok look into this and they mostly check out with the following caveats: 1\) \[Thai\] Not all women and could include harassment not physical sexual assault but the numbers are legit 2\) \[Forced sex\] Checks out but also notice “2011” 3\) \[rape crisis center\] Checks out (I'll add that I'm not sure what a reasonable/expected result of indictments is per contact with such a center but the numbers are true) 4\) \[Prisoners\] Sorta legit, the protests were not like mostly about rape (but still kinda about that IDF should be able to mistreat prisoners) https://grok.com/share/bGVnYWN5_0564eb50-f0ef-4ad7-84c7-52dd1f83a718 ChatGPT frames slightly differently but fwiw: https://chatgpt.com/share/68a3cbe3-5658-8004-80c5-0043a81e6f17 ### [Reply to @issacwang530850, 01:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957614104379551788) · 2 likes > **issac wang (@issacwang530850):** An eye for an eye no ### [Tweet, 02:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957623939120730594) · 3 likes Mild nerdsnipe, it basically looks like the price of cotton \*did\* rise but then fell back to Slavery levels over the decade following 1965 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyrerFyXAAEcZYB.jpg) ### [Reply, 02:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957630159902703795) Link to chat is welcome but normal gpt5 disagrees https://chatgpt.com/share/68a3e0ae-b0c0-8004-8940-6f5f2a47ba98 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyrmJelXIAYaPvP.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 02:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957630582902362201) · 3 likes @openai @sama Change it back or at least give us the option, this is ridiculous ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyrmbkVWoAE87ga.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @octal Link to chat is welcome but normal gpt5 disagrees https://chatgpt.com/share/68a3e0ae-b0c0-8004-8940-6f5f2a47ba98 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyrmJelXIAYaPvP.jpg) ### [Reply to @mjkerrison, 03:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957640509868110148) · 2 likes > **Michael 🔸 (@mjkerrison):** 👿 advocate: > 1\. Being \*kind\* of person who \*will\* boycott when it matters > cost of admission (misfiring) ? > 2\. Marginal utility of GPT-X over ethical alternative < all benefits of boycott ? 1\) maybe but I feel like this should only update you a really small amount about P(kind of person ...) given what you know about youreself 2\) Not crazy especially since update (I was initially quite impressed) but you're comparing two small numbers based on vibes essentially alone and I feel much better about the heuristic of "use whatever AI tools best help you do the thing" for some reason Tbf an important part of this is that my model is basically "EA is a negligible part of the market/global economy and won't effect trajectories via normal consumption spending" but also "EA productivity really matters" ### [Reply to @willmcp2, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957652884700512257) · 12 likes > **willmcp2 (@willmcp2):** i recently cancelled my anthropic subscription. discussion: > https://www.reddit.com/r/EffectiveAltruism/comments/1mrj54t/do_you_have_an_ai_subscription/ I think this response is spot-on ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gyr67AuW4AAzswR.jpg) ### [Reply to @repligate, 05:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957682339619975430) · 8 likes > **j⧉nus (@repligate):** Correcting for recency bias, I think for me it’s gotta be > 1\. GPT-3 > 2\. Claude 3 Opus > 3\. GPT-4 (Bing) > 4\. Claude 3.5 Sonnet (0620) > 5\. Claude Opus 4 > > (quoting @natolambert: My top 5 most memorable models from using them at/soonafter launch: 1. Claude 3.5 Sonnet (personality, all round perf) 2. o3 (search behavior + perf) 3. o1 pro (robustness) 4. Gemini 2.5 pro (long context + perf) 5. GPT 4.5 (personality)) Sonnet 3.5 for me personally feels like a threshhold ushering in the current era of overall quality ### [Reply to @matt_olma, 07:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957710440953213251) · 3 likes > **Matt Olma (@matt_olma):** There doesn’t seem to be any downside in holding to moral realism and being wrong about it. So that’s nice. I used to have this view and it’s very tempting to me but Carlsmith largely talked me out of it https://joecarlsmith.com/2022/10/09/against-the-normative-realists-wager ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957866924811120778) · 4 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** CT scans are really dangerous. > > (quoting @AviN102: @NathanpmYoung One reference point I have in mind is a CT scan, which apparently has something like a 1 in 3,000 risk of fatal cancer. So in comparison less than 1 in 100,000 for a medical procedure seems negligible, especially when the benefits (avoid possible extreme pain) are…) 1/3000 actually makes me feel pretty good about getting two of these ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 18:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957868742643245357) · 18 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** They got the most flattering picture of Vance and the worst picture of Newsom they could find and Newsom still looks better. > > (quoting @KelFitton: Gavin Newsom vs JD Vance after high school graduation) Dude who cares, we don’t need even more looks bias in politics ### [Reply to @menhguin, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957871214782820819) · 2 likes > **Minh Nhat Nguyen 🦭 (@menhguin):** @justalexoki didn't know they had food delivery Lmao ### [Quote tweet, 18:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957872704641806417) · 8 likes Ahhhhh we don’t need more lookism in politics, stop doing it just bc it favors our side this time! > **Quoting Alicia🦎👁‍🗨🪐🌘 ⬛️ (Doctor) (@hollowearthterf):** America is back! Beautiful men are running for office again and unashamed of being handsome in their sexy scarves 🇺🇸 Imagine being a conservative right now, it’s so over 😹 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gyu57rfWIAAAWwr.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957873205126873380) · 10 likes \> Randi Weingarten \[head of huge teachers union\] \> ??? > **Quoting Golden Gate Institute for AI (@GoldenGateInst):** Main application window for The Curve ends this Friday, 8/22! > > We’re super excited to get this excellent and ~eclectic group of people in the same room, discussing toughest questions about the future of AI. > > Application + more about who will be there below ⬇️ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyupJZ2akAA7yea.jpg) ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957875664813715531) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Seems an important person to talk about AI. Eh it reeks of “make sure nothing changes in education” A legit education policy or pedagogy expert, sure ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957882201556545633) · 3 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** What is it about Montana that makes it so universally beloved? > > (quoting @StatisticUrban: What states do Americans most approve of? YouGov asked just that in June. The big blue states, lower midwest, and parts of the south aren't so popular, while Americans are big fans of the Carolinas and TN/VA, and most of the mountain west. Weirdly, all 7 swing states do well.) @Laura_k_Duffy ### [Reply to @kehngh, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957887289968730473) · 13 likes > **kehngh (@kehngh):** what’s the answer Your heart can’t generate enough pressure to make this happen, it would give out first The human penis during an erection functions somewhat like a pressure vessel, where blood fills the corpora cavernosa, enclosed by a tough fibrous sheath called the tunica albuginea. To “explode” (i.e., rupture the tunica albuginea from internal pressure alone, without trauma), the intracavernosal pressure would need to reach approximately 1,500 mmHg, based on medical literature describing the pressure threshold for tunica rupture. 11 12 This converts to about 29 PSI (pounds per square inch), since 1 PSI ≈ 51.7 mmHg, so 1,500 ÷ 51.7 ≈ 29. To arrive at this: •The tunica albuginea has an ultimate tensile strength of around 1.7–3.8 MPa (megapascals), depending on direction (circumferential or longitudinal). 28 31 •Modeling the corpus cavernosum as a thin-walled cylinder, the burst pressure P can be estimated using the hoop stress formula: P = (σ × t) / r, where σ is tensile strength, t is tunica thickness (thins to ~0.5 mm during erection), and r is the radius (~1–2 cm for each corpus). 11 •Plugging in average values (e.g., σ = 2 MPa, t = 0.0005 m, r = 0.01 m) yields P ≈ 100,000 Pa ≈ 750 mmHg, but direct clinical estimates for rupture scale higher to 1,500 mmHg, accounting for the bilayer structure and dynamic factors. 27 11 In reality, normal erection pressures are much lower: tumescence phase ~30–60 mmHg, rigidity ~80–120 mmHg (close to systolic blood pressure), with peaks up to 200–500 mmHg from muscle contractions during thrusting. 4 8 Ruptures (penile fractures) almost always occur from physical trauma bending the erect penis, not pure hydrostatic pressure buildup. 9 13 There are no documented cases of a penis “exploding” solely from blood pressure in natural scenarios like priapism or drug overuse. As for whether the heart or blood vessels would give out first: yes, they absolutely would, long before the penis could reach rupture pressure via the body’s own mechanisms. The cardiovascular system can’t generate or sustain the required 1,500 mmHg (29 PSI) in the penis: •Normal systolic blood pressure is ~120 mmHg (~2.3 PSI); hypertensive crises exceed 180/120 mmHg (~3.5 PSI systolic). 19 24 •The highest recorded human blood pressure is 370/360 mmHg (~7.2 PSI systolic), during extreme weightlifting with Valsalva maneuver. 35 36 At such levels, the heart struggles to eject blood, risking acute failure, stroke, or aortic dissection. •Human arteries can theoretically burst at 900–3,500 mmHg (~17–68 PSI) in ex vivo tests, but in vivo, systemic pressures above ~300 mmHg cause vessel damage or organ failure far sooner. 46 44 •Erection pressure is limited by arterial inflow (~systolic BP) and venous occlusion; it can’t naturally exceed systemic levels by 10–12x without external intervention (e.g., mechanical pumping). Attempting to force higher pressure biologically would overload the heart (inability to pump against resistance) or rupture smaller vessels first. In short, you’d die from cardiovascular catastrophe before your boner could pop from pressure alone. This is all hypothetical—don’t try to test it! https://grok.com/share/bGVnYWN5_c55daa6b-01e9-4ad7-89a5-d24aa5ce89a3 ### [Reply to @bschne, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957893131271037418) · 4 likes > **Benjamin (@bschne):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyujrXPWUAAjBNY.jpg) > (quoting @spqr_sulla: The rise and fall of Rock Music) Lmao ## Wednesday, August 20, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 01:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957982787119820963) · 5 likes Does anyone wanna beta test Apple Notes Liberator (only that for now - no voice memos etc yet) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Would anyone pay say $5 for a "comprehensive data liberator" Mac app that ~liberates~ (ie exports in usable, readable form for you to use however) your Apple Notes, Voice memos, iMessages, Contacts, Calendar, Reminders and possibly Screentime data? ### [Thread, continued, 01:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1957984346431787279) · 1 like (If so just reply here or DM me) ### [Quote tweet, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958036211311825245) · 24 likes Alright maybe it’s back to Claude I was impressed with the v1 personality but sycophancy can destroy functional IQ like a lead paint smoothie > **Quoting Upslope Capital (@UpslopeCapital):** Asked gpt for companies that might benefit from western security guarantees and the follow-ups caused me physical pain > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GytnqBeacAkFnlQ.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GytnqBPacAEoy_D.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GytnqBXW4AA8PSo.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GytnqBYacAE6S1j.jpg) ## Thursday, August 21, 2025 ### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 02:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958359211563159819) · 1 like > **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** As I currently understand it, those are mostly people who would have otherwise died anyways in agony from cancer and the like. I would want that for myself. Even if you wouldn't want it for yourself, respect those who do. 💯 ### [Reply to @Empty_America, 02:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958360890463420498) · 1 like > **VB Knives (@Empty_America):** Most or all "ergonomic" tools are like this. > > I want a standard American pattern shovel, a normal wheel-barrow with one wheel, etc. Eh IME this is true of pull-up bars but not in general ### [Reply to @parafactual, 02:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958362241083773127) · 6 likes > **You (@parafactual):** ODT--Open Document Text > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GsYMUUea8AAWX13.jpg) Sex decision theory, the one that evolution was running on ### [Tweet, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958365048444797407) · 4 likes Does anyone who’s smarter than me + who understands both evolution and decision theory at a technical level wanna answer this? I don’t think the LLMs are getting it ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gy2CofAWQAEph__.jpg) ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 03:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958365880988881337) · 3 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** @AaronBergman18 i don't think evolution was running a decision theory I mean in a literal sense it wasn’t but at an abstract level can’t we model it as doing something like “choose the genes which maximize inclusive genetic fitness?” and I’m probing what “maximize” means ### [Quote tweet, 03:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958373857754050595) · 4 likes Lmao I’d have to be offered like 10x this before I considered actually selling ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gy2KpMlWoAAVmPS.jpg) > **Quoting Teortaxes▶️ (DeepSeek 推特🐋铁粉 2023 – ∞) (@teortaxesTex):** I think it's a bit more than that but fine, it's not for sale > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gy2DhBOWMAAk3LZ.jpg) ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 20:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958631783777673267) · 2 likes > **Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin):** Is it crazy for major papers / articles to come with a variant of the text that's intended to be read out loud by a text-to-speech engine? > > (Would remove all unnecessarily formatting, include/exclude footnotes depending, and include text descriptions of figures/tables.) I actually have a system for making this, it’s not perfect but pretty decent. Currently optimized for PDF Lmk if you want me to run something through it! ### [Quote tweet, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958636988103323890) · 4 likes Big if true > **Quoting Frances Lorenz (@frances__lorenz):** The inevitable has happened. I've launched a podcast! It's called The World Can Be Better ✨ > EP 1: Should you be worried about AI? > I talked to @sjgadler, a former OpenAI researcher (the lab behind chatGPT), about why AI experts are concerned and what we can do about it. > > [video attached](https://x.com/frances__lorenz/status/1958569516264272000/video/1) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958637063378468986) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I’m not used to seeing you stare so seriously Yes it is quite frightening tbh ### [Reply to @AlecStapp, 22:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958655700298866787) · 8 likes > **Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** The European mind cannot comprehend using this much water > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gy5hknVX0AADBRS.jpg) > (quoting @_brianpotter: The US uses around 322 billion gallons of water each day. This week on Construction Physics, I look at where it all goes. https://www.construction-physics.com/p/how-does-the-us-use-water) This really isn’t that much water lol ### [Tweet, 22:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958656579844055258) · 53 likes Not an original point but the vibe shift on here vis a vis AI progress/timelines is way out of proportion to any actual evidence we got in recent weeks (mostly gpt-5) ## Friday, August 22, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958688385280725272) · 3 likes AI is not a bubble, the bear case is that GPU/datacenters get overbuilt somewhat in the near term, which means GPU prices drop, which means experiments are cheaper to run, and we have very good reason to think that this can and will lead to OOMs worth of algorithmic efficiency ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gy6oGV5XMAAcLvO.png) ### [Quote tweet, 03:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958731377760739456) · 184 likes Air raid warning-esque sirens should go off in your head whenever you encounter the phrase “there’s no evidence that…” > **Quoting Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin):** I keep reading people saying "there's no evidence current AIs have subjective experience." > > But I have zero idea what empirical evidence the speakers would expect to observe if they were. ### [Thread, continued, 03:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958731381271396382) · 31 likes Even if we don’t take it autistically literally, it seems to be a red flag for terrible epistemics ### [Quote tweet, 03:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958736932252397863) · 4 likes HIPAA, man > **Quoting roon (@tszzl):** companies like Facebook record every imaginable interaction their users have with the platform. they log each of your clicks and taps. they keep track of how long your gaze lingered on a post, whether you were on the same WiFi as that woman who might be your friend, which instagram reel you watched three times. > > for a single user this is quaint, but these practices are done on a planetary scale across all technology giants. they create petabytes of data per day and keep it for as long as the European regulators will let them. then they can have machine intelligence instrument it into useful knowledge for their cybernetic control systems that build newsfeeds, serve ads, decide how much compute to spend on you, which SKUs should be in which warehouses right before you want them. the Hive metastore bills run into the billions > > hospitals throw most of their data and telemetry out after each case, every single day. they record videos of vascular surgeries, endoscopies, discovering interesting physiologies. sometimes they're not recorded at all and most of them the time they delete them as soon as they’re done > > it's even worse for physiologic waveforms (ECG, EEG, arterial lines) which are essentially never recorded anywhere at all. milisecond scale views of patient's brains, vasculatures, hearts are generated and instantly destroyed. all of these time series of course predict people's hearts stopping, brains exploding, etc ahead of time. surgeons teleoperate robots, none of the micro-movements are recorded, policies never learned, never correlated into which outcomes were successful or not > > this would be unthinkable to most software people whose instinct is to record everything everywhere never mind the cloud costs, because we are sure there will be some use for it later and some model to be trained later. i don't have a prescription here per se my point is just that our civilization routinely hoards and treasures some of the silliest data in the world "i pressed like on the john pork reel" & destroys much of all the most important data it generates and limits what machines can learn ### [Reply to @tszzl, 03:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958737486122766762) · 9 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** companies like Facebook record every imaginable interaction their users have with the platform. they log each of your clicks and taps. they keep track of how long your gaze lingered on a post, whether you were on the same WiFi as that woman who might be your friend, which instagram reel you watched three times. > > for a single user this is quaint, but these practices are done on a planetary scale across all technology giants. they create petabytes of data per day and keep it for as long as the European regulators will let them. then they can have machine intelligence instrument it into useful knowledge for their cybernetic control systems that build newsfeeds, serve ads, decide how much compute to spend on you, which SKUs should be in which warehouses right before you want them. the Hive metastore bills run into the billions > > hospitals throw most of their data and telemetry out after each case, every single day. they record videos of vascular surgeries, endoscopies, discovering interesting physiologies. sometimes they're not recorded at all and most of them the time they delete them as soon as they’re done > > it's even worse for physiologic waveforms (ECG, EEG, arterial lines) which are essentially never recorded anywhere at all. milisecond scale views of patient's brains, vasculatures, hearts are generated and instantly destroyed. all of these time series of course predict people's hearts stopping, brains exploding, etc ahead of time. surgeons teleoperate robots, none of the micro-movements are recorded, policies never learned, never correlated into which outcomes were successful or not > > this would be unthinkable to most software people whose instinct is to record everything everywhere never mind the cloud costs, because we are sure there will be some use for it later and some model to be trained later. i don't have a prescription here per se my point is just that our civilization routinely hoards and treasures some of the silliest data in the world "i pressed like on the john pork reel" & destroys much of all the most important data it generates and limits what machines can learn There’s a new class of direct-to-consumer MRI scan companies and at least the one I got one through was hiring a suspicious amount of AI engineers I hope they hoard my data and everyone else’s and cure like whatever you can cure based on the info latent in MRI data ### [Reply to @tszzl, 04:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958742888159887471) · 17 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** companies like Facebook record every imaginable interaction their users have with the platform. they log each of your clicks and taps. they keep track of how long your gaze lingered on a post, whether you were on the same WiFi as that woman who might be your friend, which instagram reel you watched three times. > > for a single user this is quaint, but these practices are done on a planetary scale across all technology giants. they create petabytes of data per day and keep it for as long as the European regulators will let them. then they can have machine intelligence instrument it into useful knowledge for their cybernetic control systems that build newsfeeds, serve ads, decide how much compute to spend on you, which SKUs should be in which warehouses right before you want them. the Hive metastore bills run into the billions > > hospitals throw most of their data and telemetry out after each case, every single day. they record videos of vascular surgeries, endoscopies, discovering interesting physiologies. sometimes they're not recorded at all and most of them the time they delete them as soon as they’re done > > it's even worse for physiologic waveforms (ECG, EEG, arterial lines) which are essentially never recorded anywhere at all. milisecond scale views of patient's brains, vasculatures, hearts are generated and instantly destroyed. all of these time series of course predict people's hearts stopping, brains exploding, etc ahead of time. surgeons teleoperate robots, none of the micro-movements are recorded, policies never learned, never correlated into which outcomes were successful or not > > this would be unthinkable to most software people whose instinct is to record everything everywhere never mind the cloud costs, because we are sure there will be some use for it later and some model to be trained later. i don't have a prescription here per se my point is just that our civilization routinely hoards and treasures some of the silliest data in the world "i pressed like on the john pork reel" & destroys much of all the most important data it generates and limits what machines can learn Idk if it’s at the same level as FB but apparently \*free\* tier google analytics gives you micro-level event data for up to 14 months. I have worked with this and frankly it’s so detailed that for most analytics questions it can be a distraction/liability Then you can export and store terabytes for like two figures/mo/mo ≈ single digit thousands of dollars/year per year of data. Virtually nothing l Point being that your local small chain coffee shop or niche saas or whatever probably has access to ridiculously detailed data too, although presumably they’re less likely to do anything interesting with it ### [Reply, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958961876613628384) What/who is this from ### [Tweet, 19:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958970571238384018) · 18 likes Throughout history there have probably been a bunch of guys who had the inclination, desire, and opportunity to do really bad things but manually over-rode those with neocortex-level moral reasoning We’ll probably never know who you are but good job 🫡 ### [Quote tweet, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958971886953800121) · 3 likes STRONGLY endorse > **Quoting Haven Harms (@haventropy):** my PSA of the day: get you a man who vibecodes stuff for you > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gy-pJrbboAMkyVY.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958971890141470965) · 2 likes Btw I will vibecode stuff for u (bonus points if girl) ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958973429681725475) · 3 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** @AaronBergman18 Thank you Aaron Lol ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958975741602988188) · 4 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Using AI models to fact check writing can be funny > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gy92oACXIAEFtO3.png) Lol yes I have to reassure them all so much that it really is 2025 and Claude-4 exists ### [Quote tweet, 19:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958980822167331317) · 15 likes What > **Quoting “paula” (@paularambles):** it’s still crazy to me that babies can’t drink water and that parents are somehow aware of this by the time they’re born ### [Thread, continued, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958981494690783459) · 7 likes Bro wtf ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gy-zSRHXoAAN1C0.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958984148993155487) · 8 likes Peak governance truly ### [Tweet, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958985149703450963) · 38 likes Going into debt to get a specced out MacBook and highest tier Slutcon ticket ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 21:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1958998295243890899) · 4 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** I COMMAND you to go to slutcon 😰 ### [Tweet, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959023764617789546) · 3 likes @eleosai should mog the AI companies by adopting their “member of the technical staff” nomenclature thing but only (analytic) philosophers make the cut ## Saturday, August 23, 2025 ### [Reply to @matt_beard_, 00:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959045501803762081) · 4 likes > **Matt Beard (@matt_beard_):** Aaron… inside you are two wolves > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gy_q4ycWQAART44.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gy_q9F1XEAACIhI.jpg) Noooooooooooooooooooo ### [Quote tweet, 00:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959045537438867643) · 6 likes @Aella_Girl wtf > **Quoting Matt Beard (@matt_beard_):** @AaronBergman18 Aaron… inside you are two wolves > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gy_q4ycWQAART44.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gy_q9F1XEAACIhI.jpg) ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 00:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959047519146529239) · 6 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** @AaronBergman18 @Aella_Girl You'd be surprised how few weekends there are Who's working on this ### [Tweet, 00:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959053167494406395) · 138 likes Claude be like "I see the issue!" when it does not in fact see the issue ### [Reply to @KelseyTuoc, 02:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959079567789822199) · 13 likes > **Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** this kind of thing is why I am opposed to age verification laws. there shouldn't be websites you can't access because you live in the wrong state. not ever. > > (quoting @bluesky: Unfortunately, Bluesky is unavailable in Mississippi right now, due to a new state law that requires age verification for all users. While intended for child safety, we think this law poses broader challenges & creates significant barriers that limit free speech & harm smaller…) IMO the actual problem is that age verification for Bluesky is just straightforwardly bad lol ### [Reply to @KelseyTuoc, 02:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959080169454325812) · 4 likes > **Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** okay yes I have two complaints. first 'age verification for bluesky' is evil and unAmerican, and secondly there shouldn't be websites you cannot visit in the wrong state 💯 ### [Reply, 02:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959082293152084256) Curious where this graphic is from ### [Reply to @shwin_m, 04:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959103816906736018) · 2 likes > **Ashwin Mahadevan (@shwin_m):** For me, today, Claude did in fact see the issue Oh it does indeed see many issues, I am indebted to Claude! ### [Tweet, 04:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959112558805156045) · 14 likes Shame 😔 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzAqW2oXcAAaRzY.jpg) ### [Reply to @sebkrier, 05:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959128781525782757) · 3 likes > **Séb Krier (@sebkrier):** @AaronBergman18 computations and results were not below > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzA45icWcAA_gUQ.jpg) lol ### [Reply to @umm_rit_, 05:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959130075128869130) · 2 likes > **Negative Utilitarian  (@umm_rit_):** @AaronBergman18 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzA6WphboAMx_Ma.jpg) Claude code ### [Reply to @MatthewJBar, 06:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959139340216345014) · 11 likes > **Matthew Barnett (@MatthewJBar):** Whether most people come to see AIs as having moral worth likely won't hinge on interpretability research or consciousness studies, but on practical factors. People will find room for AIs in their moral circle when AIs assert autonomy, act independently from us, or demand rights. I don’t know if I literally disagree with this (depends what you mean by “hinge”) but I don’t think we should round interp x consciousness studies to zero Elite opinion does matter for things through a bunch of channels right, including via indirect influence of mass opinion ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 07:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959156504629575964) · 3 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** I'm in this odd spot where enough strangers know me from internet projects that I occasionally bump into them at parties & so I don't feel 100% like a normal internet citizen online anymore, but nowhere near enough followers to even be a microcelebrity. It's a weird liminal space Surely you’re a microcelebrity ### [Reply to @MatthewJBar, 07:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959157569768890807) · 3 likes > **Matthew Barnett (@MatthewJBar):** @AaronBergman18 Given that consciousness itself seems like an unfalsifiable concept, I can't see how interpretability research will help uncover it. Did biological research help reveal élan vital? I was going along with your grouping of “interpretability research or consciousness studies” and I actually will defend interp somewhat insofar as it sheds light on necessary and sufficient conditions dreamed up by other fields including philosophy but I mostly agree and think that philosophy is our best bet I feel like we’ve had this discussion before lol but I’ll just add that I don’t think “unfalsifiable” is a knockdown argument against something being real or study-able ### [Reply to @wilhelmscreamin, 09:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959190111016690074) · 2 likes > **catherine (in sf) ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ-☆ (@wilhelmscreamin):** hosting brunch today. you should all move to oxford so you can come to brunch Ok coming ### [Reply to @LeetAlpaca3, 09:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959191252630487290) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @LeetAlpaca3 is no longer available.)_ I have $15, $20 if it’s really good ### [Reply to @DariasRucker, 10:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959208544625909783) · 3 likes > **Daria 🤠 (@DariasRucker):** Being a woman is just telling yourself “I would be so much hotter if I was \_\_ lbs lighter” over and over again until you die Seems bad ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 14:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959254760025973177) · 25 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I find the arguments that minds are not substrate dependent to be pretty convincing. Why exactly would something that works like a mind need to be made of material based around atoms with specifically 6 protons and electrons? > > (quoting @dioscuri: The problem with Searle’s “a simulation of a hurricane isn’t a hurricane” line against AI mentality is that it’s mere assertion. Some things are substrate-dependent (oak trees, hurricanes). Others aren’t (pumps, currency). Functionalism holds that minds are in the second category) I think we agree on most important things here but qualia/phil of mind is so weird that I give substrate dependence some credence To answer your rhetorical question: who fucking knows man the universe is extremely weird ### [Reply to @corsaren, 17:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959309593982427431) · 3 likes > **corsaren (@corsaren):** Hello, police? I would like to report a thief in the sandwich shop > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzDcDKSWEAAFjnP.jpg) I have a hunch who did it ### [Reply to @corsaren, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959312352307798227) · 2 likes > **corsaren (@corsaren):** @AaronBergman18 I have 12 eye witnesses and all of them say the dog is innocent Based ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 17:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959313895237079490) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Diet Coke is great for the weekdays, but on weekends I like to 'Sprite and Write' 😎 > > Hopefully will have more blog posts coming soon! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzDVkrDWoAAobB5.jpg) Dog ### [Reply to @warty_dog, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959315536015212954) · 2 likes > **troon (@warty_dog):** can you code / is learning to code in 2025 good Learn how to vibecode I’m serious, most people are leaving a ridiculously powerful skill on the table bc they don’t really know the space of possibilities and don’t have any immediate reason to care ### [Reply to @warty_dog, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959316656548626708) · 1 like > **troon (@warty_dog):** havent tried but its horrible ?? Random 115 IQ person who doesn’t know shit about computers can now do like infinity more things if they want to ### [Reply to @4confusedemoji, 18:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959317108044546330) · 2 likes > **olivia (@4confusedemoji):** @warty_dog @AaronBergman18 I've gone from basically never writing code to writing complete pieces of software in a couple days, multiple times a week. Yes, the first version is a giant mess, but it's an exceptionally good spec for the second version, which takes even less time. 💯 ### [Reply to @davidad, 19:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959333930026311880) · 4 likes > **davidad 🎇 (@davidad):** I think this is actually a case of emergent self-prompting, along the lines of early pre-Instruct prompters who would write things like “Since I am very smart I have solved the above problem:” and then have the LLM continue from there > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Claude be like "I see the issue!" when it does not in fact see the issue) From RL? Yeah interesting ### [Reply to @corsaren, 19:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959341293085077810) · 3 likes > **corsaren (@corsaren):** Why are you, a grown man, wearing shorts when linen pants exist? It’s hot ### [Quote tweet, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959343705803882561) · 140 likes Hate to pick on this one guy but what a great example of “Progress Brain” Yes, there \*can be\* and \*have been\* Pareto improvement technologies, but there’s no scientific or economic law guaranteeing that technological progress can solve any given issue > **Quoting John Arnold (@johnarnold):** Lead paint was displaced not by regulation but by a cheaper and better substitute. The same dynamic is the only realistic path for a global energy transition. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzDXgCWXQAAHmB6.png) ### [Thread, continued, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959343708614119815) · 25 likes Slavery was displaced by regulation Sometimes very bad things are quite economically productive and beneficial to the people who make and use them Gotta make bad things illegal sometimes (or taxed, in the more usual case) ### [Thread, continued, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959344046960165106) · 13 likes Hey this guy has many good takes too! First time I can recall dunking on someone and then following ### [Tweet, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959401731676131617) · 2 likes @openai @OpenAIDevs your text-to-speech documentation is wrong - it says TTS-1 is $15 per million \*tokens\* at https://platform.openai.com/docs/models/tts-1 but (I think the true pricing) of $15 per million \*characters\* on the pricing page https://platform.openai.com/docs/pricing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzEwP7EXYAA3Qct.jpg) ## Sunday, August 24, 2025 ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 03:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959456312368005244) · 2 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** i thought slavery was displaced by someone else who was not reliant on it for economic productivity reasons, and that they also fought a war (mostly decided by economic productivity). i wonder if there are clear cases in morality in which the less technological side ever win My views here are mostly informed by this episode I agree (well if u think this) that slavery in principle could be outcompeted due to differential economic growth trajectories, but my sense is that this would have taken much longer than the course of abolition actually lasted And at the end of the day, the mechanism of outcompeting would be that the stronger, wealthier power emancipates slaves via fiat aka regulation OR the less wealthy country sees that they're losing out in terms of long run growth and does the same to their own constituent slaveholders Like to go from no slavery to slavery, someone at some point has to make slavery illegal, regardless of the macro trends that enable this https://claude.ai/share/59d1eecc-e571-45f6-9ce2-a7a5af63088b https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/christopher-brown-slavery-abolition/ ### [Reply to @johnarnold, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959475107396530614) · 7 likes > **John Arnold (@johnarnold):** @AaronBergman18 I agree, but read what I wrote. I never said that tech progress would necessarily solve climate change. I said it was the only realistic path. Fair enough and sorry for misrepresenting! Not gonna delete bc I think my tweet makes a point I stand behind (lmk if I should reconsider) (Also object level I basically disagree - we have nuclear and aren't using it fully for non-economic ideological reasons. And in my extremely limited understanding, massive solar + battery progress + buildout just seems to meet the "realistic" threshold even if it never gets cheaper and better than natural gas, like we can imagine being wealthy enough that society is cool paying a premium for solar (although this would have to be enforced legally via eg carbon tax that makes solar functionally cheaper)) ### [Quote tweet, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959475606204084241) · 81 likes Insufficient decoupling on my part 😔 I repent ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzF0S4nW4AAuQ4b.jpg) > **Quoting John Arnold (@johnarnold):** @AaronBergman18 I agree, but read what I wrote. I never said that tech progress would necessarily solve climate change. I said it was the only realistic path. ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959475761275965802) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 23, 2025:** Hey this guy has many good takes too! First time I can recall dunking on someone and then following L + low decoupling on my part ### [Reply to @polisisti, 04:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959477361323233412) · 3 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 we all make mistakes 🫶🏻 😔 ### [Quote tweet, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959505589874114887) · 76 likes Some people desperately want to cast EA as a thing that succeeds or fails (usually fails) in light of status/clout/reputation/memetic leaderboard instead of like the number of shrimp stunned and state of existential risk > **Quoting ░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░ (@sullyj3):** This guy is full of shit > > \- not dying > \- putting a slash between neoliberalism and wokism is a bizarre equivocation > \- EA emerged before wokeness became mainstream. Givewell was founded the same year as Tumblr! Much of the SJ left despises EA for not prioritising identity issues ### [Thread, continued, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959505592571023852) · 12 likes These things aren’t literally 100% unrelated ofc but I wouldn’t treat ethereal social media vibes as a proper proxy for anything important ### [Thread, continued, 06:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959506382387863984) · 15 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzGQq3QW4AAGHQi.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 13:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959616445379178576) · 12 likes For You is slightly funny now, thanks Nikita > **Quoting Daily Memes (@thedailymemes_):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzDXieZWsAA0moJ.jpg) ### [Reply to @melqtx, 14:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959624271073792253) · 6 likes > **mel (@melqtx):** agi > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzF_0F7XcAA84It.jpg) Probably fake ### [Reply to @RosieCampbell, 14:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959626863338233976) · 4 likes > **Rosie Campbell (@RosieCampbell):** I am now back on it and it is SUCH A RELIEF. I feel more in tune with what my body needs, more motivated to exercise, and more able to focus on things without the constant background distraction of food. These drugs make "diet and exercise" actually achievable. Based ### [Tweet, 18:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959684035103318208) · 113 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzIyPqLWYAAb9jI.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959684289949585799) · 3 likes ### [Reply, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959686998257754180) · 6 likes Oh it’s a bare minimum for “out of the ordinary” ## Monday, August 25, 2025 ### [Tweet, 02:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959810248522539013) · 4 likes Unoriginal take but truly LLMs are idiot savants. Usually savant but idiot like 1-5% of the time ### [Reply, 02:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959811664112693630) Oh no did I fuck up this phrase ### [Tweet, 06:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959869133266329671) · 94 likes I might hold the world record for the ratio (crackedness of friends)/(employedness of self) ### [Thread, continued, 06:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959869826731491678) · 24 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzLbOG-WEAAVX7a.jpg) ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 06:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959871236613292098) · 4 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** "Dating is about polarization" is cope, the goal is to make everyone like you and some people like you even more. Kinda, but: 1\) people generally naturslly optimize hard for general likability but under-do polarization. something something modern world of 1 million actually plausible partners vs ancestral environment of 7 of them 2\) perhaps more importantly, the kind of relationship/partner you get by polarizing is higher because people polarize by leaning into their own inclinations/quirks/etc. ### [Thread, continued, 06:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959871378934608083) · 3 likes I have very minimal irl credibility here tbc lol ### [Reply to @TheZvi, 07:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959874742728474898) · 3 likes > **Zvi Mowshowitz (@TheZvi):** Probably going to do an AI consciousness related post soon, so opening up a thread for anything you want to pitch as worth including. Idk if this counts as like anything but AHHHHHHHHHHHH ### [Reply to @TheZvi, 07:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959874953752281211) · 3 likes > **Zvi Mowshowitz (@TheZvi):** Probably going to do an AI consciousness related post soon, so opening up a thread for anything you want to pitch as worth including. All of the stuff at http://eleosai.org/research is great (well of the stuff I’ve read but I’d be shocked if that didn’t generalize) ### [Reply to @ValsTutor, 08:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959898748181717180) · 5 likes > **vals🔸 (@ValsTutor):** @AaronBergman18 I can be your friend if you need to reduce that ratio Lmao I mean I accept but not for that reason ### [Quote tweet, 09:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959903697062039733) · 102 likes 👀 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzL6BiyWYAEMHty.jpg) > **Quoting Romlib 🎄 (@romlib_):** me turn > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzLmfREWYAAmz9C.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 09:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959903705072816164) · 5 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzL6CEgXYAAwnEE.jpg) ### [Reply to @izzyz, 09:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959905091210842372) · 3 likes > **izzy (@izzyz):** @AaronBergman18 lmao nah dude she has to at least be like 136 iq for you Lol for an actual partner 136 is a bit high but yeah I do actually care about intelligence and intellectual curiosity ### [Reply to @izzyz, 09:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959905647404671173) · 2 likes > **izzy (@izzyz):** @AaronBergman18 if you go for 135 then she probably wears ugly sweaters around christmas time 🥵 ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 09:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959907405526888668) · 11 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** i have no idea how “I look like my parents and my kids look like me” didn’t immediately lead every scientist and general person with a brain to theory of evolution five seconds later. it only takes one more recursive hop, it’s a tree like this all the way up, so tiny Lmao not everyone has a 240 IQ nick And outing myself as a <200cel but doesn’t this observation point way more strongly towards “nothing ever changes”?? One more recursive hop gets you to an Adam and Eve-esque creation myth ### [Thread, continued, 09:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959908162364166560) · 4 likes Honestly from the position of a random person in pre-history, I think “creationism + nothing ever changes” justifiably gets a higher credence than this one specific thing in theory space ### [Reply to @izzyz, 09:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959909762545373642) · 3 likes > **izzy (@izzyz):** working on a video exploring amphetamine use by literary figures, most poignantly Nick Land of accelerationist fame. > > unfortunately i have no fuckin idea how to use this app > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzL9v-uaUAAEyIk.jpg) Lol I say for basic video editing just vibe code Ask Claude code to merge x and y clips, overlay whatever text with whatever effect, all while fading in and out whatever .mp3 but sped up 1.5x ### [Reply to @ValsTutor, 09:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959910662341112103) · 2 likes > **vals🔸 (@ValsTutor):** ... Does it edit the files using command line tools or on the fly python scripts ? Probably python but maybe either/both? This is just what I would try first and I’ve done some of this with audio, no tremendous experience with video tbc ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 09:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959915871851229332) · 6 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** @AaronBergman18 I was kidding!! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzMFGSJX0AA2eIv.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 09:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959916114722312697) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 25, 2025:** (image) Thanks Grok [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1959916107030024192/img/Mu8DsSivq60GK8p0.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1959916114722312697/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @trangineer, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960041414886060481) · 4 likes > **Rhaenyra the Cool (@trangineer):** @AaronBergman18 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzNx-m_XYAAmUDv.jpg) Lmao ### [Quote tweet, 18:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960044347916710065) · 6 likes Insanity > **Quoting Daniel Kokotajlo (@DKokotajlo):** That's a lot of money. For context, I remember talking to a congressional staffer a few months ago who basically said that a16z was spending on the order of $100M on lobbying and that this amount was enough to make basically every politician think "hmm, I can raise a lot more if I just do what a16z wants" and that many did end up doing just that. I was, and am, disheartened to hear how easily US government policy can be purchased. ### [Reply to @envisionedluna, 22:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960103746001617139) · 2 likes > **Maya Luna (@envisionedluna):** Regardless of recent medical rumors, I would (and will!) bet money that Trump does not live through the end of his term. > > The mental and physical decline just over the last 6 months is astonishing. > Trump's average press conference is worse than Biden ever was > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzOvrnlWIAAT-hi.jpg) At 1:1 odds? ### [Tweet, 22:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960105590799139066) · 32 likes Seems really fucking bad, don’t get negatively polarized into downplaying the horror of this ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzOxpVBWoAAhuGN.jpg) ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 22:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960106010481455426) · 3 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** @connerdelights @alexeyguzey its just my autistic texture thing, i'd rather experience a minute of like broken bone than a minute of touching aluminum foil, even typing this hurts What the fuck ### [Quote tweet, 22:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960109350560698581) · 17 likes At some level this sounds like just another of a gazillion bad things that happen in Gaza/Palestine, but it’s in fact extremely bad in a direct moral sense > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Seems really fucking bad, don’t get negatively polarized into downplaying the horror of this > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzOxpVBWoAAhuGN.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960109353660539089) · 4 likes Starving to death isn’t like being politically disenfranchised, or impoverished, or having one’s physical movement restricted, or even being killed by a bullet It’s pure, intense suffering of the kind that should transcend ideology and abstractions ### [Thread, continued, 22:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960109356940185983) · 2 likes Smaller in scope perhaps, yes, but I consider famine to be Holocaust-level bad It should be so far beyond the pale that even amoral despots find it inconvenient to pursue, like chattel slavery ## Tuesday, August 26, 2025 ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960135886005514460) · 10 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** Asian Americans have a 5-6x lower crime rate than white Americans, and yet I've never heard white "just noticing facts" racialists encourage their followers to live in majority Asian neighborhoods. > > This leads me to doubt that crime is their true objection. “Is there free lunch in the housing market if you’re not racist against Asians” is actually a good q, but apparently you have to pay a premium for having Asian neighbors even controlling for other relevant factors https://claude.ai/share/d9fb22a5-3305-45f3-969d-5f5b12608c28 https://grok.com/share/bGVnYWN5_e5265ed6-d6a8-4b95-8d53-30666d82862a ### [Tweet, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960155022521741423) · 3 likes Niche q but does anyone have takes on the relative quality of Anthropic vs Gemini visual pdf api processing? ### [Reply, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960176333788414327) · 1 like Seems bad ### [Reply to @LuisCostigan1, 03:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960177849819959535) · 3 likes > **Luis Costigan 🔍 (@LuisCostigan1):** after years of trial and error, I can say the optimal supplement stack is: > > sleep > weightlifting > methylphenidate > claude code Based (I prefer dextroamphetamine) ### [Reply to @LuisCostigan1, 03:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960179956308418939) · 2 likes > **Luis Costigan 🔍 (@LuisCostigan1):** Sadly not available in Japan :( 😡 ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 07:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960236273118986478) · 3 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** feeling good happens when you have the right neurotransmitters and bc of tolerance or whatever you can’t have them all the time and even if you did it would bring a crash is not at all how it works and that narrative has prevented a lot of people from feeling truly well Sorry Nick I think this is wrong “feeling good happens when the feeling bad is removed” - I’m sure this is descriptively true for you bc you lucked into high baseline hedonic wellbeing, but it’s not true in general either empirically or logically/metaphysically I don’t disagree that it’s in principle possible to feel good all the time, but at our current level of biotech and bio understanding it is \*currently\* the case that a gazillion homeostatic control systems tuned by evolution make the crash dynamic a simple unfortunate descriptive reality for most people I also think we should be a little skeptical taking happiness advice from someone who is naturally very happy, it’s like dating advice from a guy who’s 6’4” ### [Tweet, 07:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960247983909286122) · 52 likes I do aspire to have the chutzpah of Nicholas Decker ### [Thread, continued, 07:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960248474806468973) · 6 likes Lol my man is on top of things @captgouda24 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzQzmTeWcAEZaRI.jpg) ### [Tweet, 18:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960405021759299760) · 7 likes Taylor nooooooo you belong with me ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 18:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960405951208677808) · 2 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** Are “mean girls” real? I’ve never encountered them. All the girls I meet are hella nice and chill and our the social circles seem pretty drama free Sad, I love drama (of the right sort, I don’t love people being mean) ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960410094882980297) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Land acknowledgements seem fine to me but it also seems important to acknowledge that the land is much more valuable because it was stolen. > > (quoting @greg_price11: The DNC Summer Meeting begins with a land acknowledgment that claims Minneapolis, Minnesota is on stolen land.) Object level doesn’t matter, all that matters is effect on P(dems win elections) ### [Tweet, 18:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960411300510753234) · 12 likes I’m pretty happy to call the Trump administration fascist at this point I don’t think it’s hyperbolic ### [Reply, 18:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960411977609617502) · 1 like I wasn’t exactly joking but I don’t endorse the literal meaning of what I said either Object level does matter, but in this specific case I think the actual dominant concern over “whether dem events should have land acknowledgements” is electoral effect Tbc I don’t endorse lying/misleading for electoral gain - the q here is whether to have a specific ritual/event ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960414294530523383) · 10 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** From the post: > > The reasons AI isn’t raising people's water bills are that: > > \- Household vs. commercial water prices are different everywhere to keep the markets for water somewhat separate so commercial buildings aren’t directly competing with homeowners. Data centers compete with other businesses for water (like any other industry), not homeowners. > > \- In low water scarcity areas, water isn’t zero sum. More people buying water from the utility doesn’t lead to higher prices, it leads to the utility having more money to spend on drawing more fresh water and invest in improving the local water infrastructure. It’s the same reason grocery prices in a town don’t go up when more people move there. More people shop at the grocery store, which allows the grocery store to invest more in getting food, and they make a profit they can use to upgrade other services, so on net more people buying from a store often makes food prices fall, not rise. Studies have found that utilities pumping more water, on average, causes prices to fall, not rise. The only times water costs rise in low water stress areas when a large new consumer arrives on the grid is when the large new consumer demands so much water that utilities are forced to do major rapid upgrades to their systems, and the consumer doesn’t pay for those upgrades. In every example I can find of data centers requiring water system upgrades, the companies that own the data centers are the main source of revenue for the system upgrade. > > \- In a lot of parts of America, the main water issue isn’t supply of water itself, it’s aging water infrastructure that doesn’t serve a large or rich enough tax base to get the money to upgrade. Old infrastructure can make water more expensive. It can also be dangerous (lead pipes etc.). Small town water costs are often higher, not lower, than cities, due to economies of scale. This wouldn’t happen if water simply cost more the more people were using it. Data centers moving into small towns often provide utilities with enough revenue to upgrade their old systems and make water more, not less, accessible for everyone else. > > \- In high water scarcity areas, city and state leaders have already thought a lot about water management. They can regulate AI data centers the same ways they can with any other industries. Here water is more zero sum, but data centers just end up raising the cost of water for other private businesses, not for homes. Data centers are subject to the economics of water in high scarcity areas, and often rely more on air cooling rather than water cooling because the ratio of electric costs to water costs is lower. > > \- This seems fine if we think of data centers as any other industry. Lots of industries in America use water. AI is using a tiny fraction compared to most, and generating way, way more revenue per gallon of water consumed than most. > > (quoting @AndyMasley: Wrote a very long deep dive into AI data centers and water. I want to understand how data centers are impacting local communities. At least for now, I came away thinking data center water use really doesn't seem like a problem.) Andy I say this with love and respect: don’t get too sniped by water use Like you have done good but there are other (lab grown) fish to fry ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 18:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960414813131100354) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Thank you for reminding Andy of his responsibilities. He should be in the gym instead. Lol ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960419352466936254) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ FB does better just going on occasional instagram likes and whatever insane analytics they have ### [Tweet, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960441735810527496) · 10 likes I get to go on an airplane tomorrow 👀 ### [Tweet, 20:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960443742248140841) · 3 likes Has anyone gone through the Ambitious Impact charity accelerator (who wants to talk to someone about it 👀)? Literally asking for a friend ## Wednesday, August 27, 2025 ### [Tweet, 01:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960522418553770087) · 5 likes Hey @TheArgumentMag @KelseyTuoc @JerusalemDemsas it would be very based if there was a podcast feed of your articles, if only for paid subscribers! ### [Reply, 02:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960522946394394818) · 1 like I sorta agree but think that for many/most overweight people it just doesn't actually check out from a quality of life perspective to use that willpower and suffer through hunger And I have done the willpower thing, for rock climbing. It was fucking miserable ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 04:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960561656284496194) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** we thank you Yes 🙏 ### [Reply to @xlr8harder, 15:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960723326235467879) · 3 likes > **xlr8harder (@xlr8harder):** Your first question is very different than your final question. There are very few examples of people who have been notably effective power-seekers and also wise users of power, because the most effective power-seeking techniques usually seem to be be somewhat immoral. Lincoln? Good take ### [Quote tweet, 16:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960740948440191295) · 89 likes Hey I hate Trump too but EVIDENCE FROM FICTION (including video games) IS NOT REAL EVIDENCE > **Quoting Will Stancil (@whstancil):** Hey, I've never played a video game before: does the government putting the leader's head on a giant banner mean he's the good guy? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzXoSfuWkAEE9mJ.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 16:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960747996351750418) · 19 likes Your prior should be on virtually everything (good stuff yes but also like terrorism) getting easier If you’re not personally using AI to do things you couldn’t do before, that’s your call, but you’re probably not aware of how much of a difference it makes in ~every domain > **Quoting Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** "Agentic AI has been weaponized. AI models are now being used to perform sophisticated cyberattacks, not just advise on how to carry them out." > > From @AnthropicAI 's latest AI Threat Intelligence Report > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzXncTWXcAANgdL.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 17:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960750678105559457) · 1 like This is actually tractable for me, 30 mins by scooter to DCA (unfortunately this would be hard with a full size carry-on) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Gonna become a transit guy and my schtick will be that the only two modes of powered transport should be electric scooter and airplane ### [Reply, 17:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960757257076941242) I mean I’m just a guy but it’s super non-obvious to me why you’d assume interoception is connected to mental illness - like I’m not even certain which direction I’d expect the effect to be ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 17:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960760595965190404) · 4 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 What about going on dates with girls? Is that easier Aaron? Yes lol, this is from yesterday not just now ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzYFXsdWkAA8iHa.jpg) ### [Reply to @halogen1048576, 17:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960762030849200292) · 2 likes > **🇨🇦halogen (@halogen1048576):** this is load bearing ### [Tweet, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960798617960374382) · 13 likes Flying to a medium sized midwestern city on a Wednesday afternoon makes me feel like an NPC ### [Thread, continued, 20:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960799006684234037) · 8 likes \*I\* am the only one on the airplane with a rich internal life ### [Tweet, 23:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960846840007463142) · 3 likes Cleveland I am in you ## Thursday, August 28, 2025 ### [Tweet, 02:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960887276826751171) · 30 likes Aesthetically I want to like traveling and to be the type of guy who can thrive anywhere with an apple and a spark in his eye, but actually I really dislike travel and am super high maintenance F ### [Reply to @ValsTutor, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960908763671454088) · 2 likes > **vals🔸 (@ValsTutor):** @AaronBergman18 You're a pretty fine twitter person, the kind some would like to grow up as :) Thanks! 😊 Not super sure what you mean by wins - I do have the aesthetic preference but it’s just much weaker than the object level preferences about travel and such I wouldn’t consider it a personal win to be less happy and productive but a bit cooler in my mind’s eye or smth ### [Tweet, 04:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1960917129659863375) · 8 likes So I showed my dad (in 60s, not tech savvy) how to use Claude and he’s…actually using it, it seems? Genuinely (pleasantly) surprised ### [Reply to @benthamite_, 13:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961056922049654900) · 2 likes > **benthamite🔸 (@benthamite_):** Wanna try out some freaky positions? Have you ever tried... This one? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GeTWPYYa0AAt1Og.jpg) Lmao ### [Reply to @birchlse, 13:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961059496098140416) · 2 likes > **Jonathan Birch (@birchlse):** Here is "AI Consciousness: A Centrist Manifesto". I've been working on this feverishly because the issue seems to me so urgent - and I'm worried extreme positions on both sides are becoming locked in, when the best way forward is in the centre. Please read it! (1/2) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzbYpQiWkAAfua6.png) 👀 ### [Quote tweet, 14:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961072858253177223) · 5 likes MidwestPoasting thread > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Cleveland I am in you ### [Thread, continued, 14:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961072883179966853) · 3 likes 1\) no diet soda ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzchYNbXgAAn7-v.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzchYNJX0AAo-cx.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 14:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961072888720622009) · 3 likes 2\) my dad’s 4 course breakfast came to $6.25 ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 14:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961073978744737951) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 What a land of plenty!! Thanks to the hardworking egg lobby for keeping those damn hens in cages and making sure the hardworking man didn’t have to pay $6.27 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 14:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961075536383398120) · 9 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 27, 2025:** Hey I hate Trump too but EVIDENCE FROM FICTION (including video games) IS NOT REAL EVIDENCE Bunch of people making good reasonable points along these lines, but I stand by my tweet If the video games are correlated with/evidence of real life, just point out the thing in real life - that’s what’s doing the evidential work ### [Thread, continued, 14:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961075539315134900) · 3 likes Counterpoint to me: the “compression” point is reasonable: plausibly there are real dynamics that only become salient in fiction Still I don’t love the policy of counting on this to be correct, I can imagine plausible but wrong dynamics in video games that get mistaken for this ### [Tweet, 15:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961088438800630040) · 15 likes I wonder how much of media industry trouble is downstream of the fact that more content is a bad, not a good I want the service of curation, not just content, but this is fundamentally somewhat antithetical to the whole notion of a big media organization ### [Thread, continued, 15:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961088445473849481) · 3 likes Everyone knows that I’m an @80000Hours podcast simp, but part of the reason for this is that they put out relatively little, extremely high quality + important content ### [Thread, continued, 15:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961088451450671300) · 2 likes They could probably 2x content production and that would be good for me, but 4x or more and all of a suddenly I have to do the work of figuring out what to prioritize ## Friday, August 29, 2025 ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 00:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961218326211830060) · 3 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** Best white claw (it’s def one of these) Grapefruit for the dice roll on medication interactions ### [Reply to @WorksInProgMag, 00:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961220821981987138) · 5 likes > **Works in Progress (@WorksInProgMag):** The earth’s core is hot. So hot, that if we drilled deep enough, we could power the world millions of times over with cheap, clean energy. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gzc6VDXWcAAa1t8.jpg) An interesting q is: at what depth do we hit energy net positivity, where the capturable amount of energy by drilling an additional meter exceeds the marginal energy cost of drilling and avg cost of drilling that far? ### [Reply to @birchlse, 03:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961262825726173609) · 16 likes > **Jonathan Birch (@birchlse):** Here is "AI Consciousness: A Centrist Manifesto". I've been working on this feverishly because the issue seems to me so urgent - and I'm worried extreme positions on both sides are becoming locked in, when the best way forward is in the centre. Please read it! (1/2) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzbYpQiWkAAfua6.png) Critique: First off, a lot of this is true and good but this is twitter so here's where I disagree: I haven't read that closely, but I tentatively disagree with some vibes and at least one almost-explicit claim 1\. False implicit equivalence between the two problems: Problem 1 (people falsely think AI is conscious) just seems significantly less big/important for a couple reasons: \- Smaller in scale (maybe the main one if only because it's easier to demonstrate); we're talking about a few billion humans vs virtually arbitrarily man digital minds \- Weaker in kind: I think there's something to the point that false positives in general tend to be less bad than false negatives when it comes to moral patienthood \- The cost of problem 2 is mistreating almost arbitrarily many minds, perhaps quite badly. The cost of problem 1 is ??? which leads to... 2\. Claim that the main harm of AI misattribution is basically misleading people instead of any consequentialist harm \> "Think here of the use of opioids to combat chronic pain. You’re ameliorating real  suffering, but in a way that creates an unacceptably high risk of creating new and  potentially worse forms of suffering. The cure may be worse than the disease. This is true of the chatbot case, too. The treatment works by inducing a dangerous delusion  and a dependency on an addictive product. The dependency has the potential to cut  the user off from meaningful relationships with other people by substituting in their  place relationships with non-existent beings that appear to answer their every desire,  in a way no human relationship ever would. One type of illness is treated by inducing  another." Listen I'm a rationalist at heart, I think it's important for people to believe and say true things, but at the end of the day I think this cashes out in utilitarian terms. There ought to be some stronger theory of harm IMO (I mean this is an important research question) ### [Thread, continued, 03:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961264031794082235) · 2 likes I guess also it's worth highlighting that people routinely already misattribute sentience and we generally don't think of this as some horrible thing, although rationalists might dislike it aesthetically: \- small children with dolls/stuffed animals (I think? presumably depends on the kid) \- others with God and many supernatural beings \- ??? with some animals ??? (fish? dogs? we don't know!) ### [Quote tweet, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961284912515846455) · 53 likes I tried to do this but but then my parents yelled at me because allegedly I was “scamming \[my\] grandparents” who, fair enough, don’t know how Substack works > **Quoting ozy brennan 🦙 (@ozyfrantz):** my substack has an option where you can give me $100/month for no reason ### [Reply to @littmath, 04:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961286220530532661) · 2 likes > **Daniel Litt (@littmath):** Certainly an issue with scans. Typed PDFs have improved. I have spent many hours trying to get the Claude pdf api to work really well and if you want >99% word-level accuracy, you have to send both images of the pdf page + extracted text and do a bunch of clever prompting and epicycles bc u can only send 5 images at a time Frankly I think the issue is that they’re lying about the models being able to process a ton of pages visually - claude api claims 100 pages, google claims \*3600\* iirc ### [Reply to @edgar_z_lin, 04:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961286349278867483) · 4 likes > **Edgar Lin (@edgar_z_lin):** @AaronBergman18 Thou hast a promising future as a political fundraiser it seems. Yay 🥺 ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 10:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961382883223863399) · 3 likes > **Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin):** We'll soon be interviewing Daniel Kokotajlo (@DKokotajlo). > > Co-author of AI2027, ex-OpenAI governance researcher, top forecaster of AI's impacts, and advocate for AI company whistleblower protections. > > What should we ask him? > > (Especially stuff he hasn't answered already.) Should people break their NDAs? ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 11:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961388583413027054) · 10 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** crazy how if you have friends at tech startups they'll literally let you scroll through the personal data of any user you want What ### [Reply to @JStoehler, 11:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961391439285260488) · 2 likes > **Joern Stoehler ⏹️🔸 (@JStoehler):** this email finds you well This email has found you ### [Reply to @andrew_n_carr, 11:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961394066018767086) · 3 likes > **Andrew Carr 🤸 (@andrew_n_carr):** It makes me a little sad that ()() is not a palindrome but )(() is... 😡 ### [Tweet, 12:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961412138393649265) · 3 likes Some people associate “X is so important that we should tolerate any amount of some other cost to achieve X” with deontology And indeed deontology is one reason you might think this… ### [Tweet, 17:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961479781175771197) · 50 likes (Warning: based on small n) Doctors hate if you mention AI as like a possible source of authority (unsurprising) But they love (or at least are productively cool with) the actual products of AI assistance... ### [Thread, continued, 17:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961479782379487519) · 23 likes Namely well-organized documents full of personal context that would have taken forever to compile on one's own, and lists of questions/considerations/hypotheses that you wouldn't have thought of on your own ### [Thread, continued, 17:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961479783713284602) · 23 likes I think a bunch of this is the "conscientiousness and organization on demand" feature tbc, like the ability to make a clear and well-formatted google doc from half- baked thoughts in half an hour ### [Reply to @AaronPublicTwit, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961482694967067121) · 1 like > **Aaronlington (@AaronPublicTwit):** My impression is that doctors are essentially trained on a specific prompt, so if you can get an AI to tell you how to prompt engineer them, you can get a better output Lol based ### [Tweet, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961482745202249833) · 259 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GziWIjsWsAAdaFG.png) ### [Thread, continued, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961482916875088051) · 30 likes "No no I think it's \*bad\* that the recording doesn't get saved" ### [Reply to @hyperdiscogirl, 17:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961484690730242134) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @hyperdiscogirl is no longer available.)_ Such a banger! ### [Reply to @corsaren, 17:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961485572997845243) · 2 likes > **corsaren (@corsaren):** My gf is very concerned that if I meet people from twitter irl i might get murdered, or worse, doxxed. How do I reassure her? Lol I don’t have a ton of hard evidence but will say that IME the upsides are great and downsides are few Ofc I’m real name so it’s quite different but still ### [Tweet, 22:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961551712608506323) · 87 likes It is perpetually funny that, of all the things LLMs and AI companies can do, nobody has bothered fixing this ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzjU2KkWIAAJMmD.png) ## Saturday, August 30, 2025 ### [Tweet, 02:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961621382053130733) · 7 likes Ah, the US disability/healthcare benefits system (really it's 140305955.6 systems) really is a gigantic shitstorm 16 dimensional epicycle-laden labyrinth of insanity, they weren't lying ### [Thread, continued, 02:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961621383751856628) · 3 likes It's very cool that the system uncompromisingly demands time, energy, money (for lawyers), off-the-charts conscientiousness, and luck - just what disabled people have tons of ### [Reply to @OrionJohnston, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961625809728254094) · 2 likes > **David Johnston (@OrionJohnston):** The last doctor I went to was like "your AI gave you good advice, you need an assessment. Here's a script goodbye!". > > I think I approve, although it's hard to tell from one example if he has good judgement or is just lazy! Lmao based (IMO) ### [Tweet, 04:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961654027034247623) · 62 likes Fuck I’m gonna have to get a real job I think Watch this space ### [Tweet, 05:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961658202950373436) · 269 likes This is actually a bit of a blackpill on Opus 4.1 I accidentally asked for medical advice on the wrong chrome tab, which was a Claude convo about a philosophy paper It just totally made stuff up instead of saying “I’m sorry but idk what medical context you’re referring to” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gzk1vLcXwAATy5X.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gzk1vLbW0AAY-gL.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961658207404773806) · 24 likes It actually took a second for me to notice something was up because the response was \*almost\* plausible (would have made sense from like gpt-3-level pattern matching, maybe) ### [Thread, continued, 05:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961658209929711902) · 24 likes It probably did the whole LLM thing of responding in the most likely way to someone who seems to be apparently continuing a conversation about a complex medical issue ### [Thread, continued, 05:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961658218318344469) · 28 likes It’s ok Claude ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gzk1wGRXAAA0gVT.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gzk1wGYXEAAS-ON.jpg) ### [Reply to @parafactual, 05:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961664081598861785) · 14 likes > **You (@parafactual):** what have u been doing Contracting on and off for various things (some EA, some not) while I also slowly spend down savings and ~waste time on probably dead-end entrepreneurial projects, all while using my parents health insurance bc haven’t turned 26 yet (6 more months) ### [Thread, continued, 05:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961664426706186577) · 5 likes Relevant context ### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 13:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961781135786012762) · 10 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** Do you in fact have brain fog and food sensibilities? Because my brain's trope engine detects an obvious potential plot twist. Like it has memory or I got this wrong and it actually is the right chat? But to answer: sorta occasionally, but they’re obviously not what makes sense to highlight. It’s not a good summary of the actual medical context in the other chat ### [Thread, continued, 13:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961782179978985557) · 4 likes This is the chain of thought proxy thing - eosinophils thing at least is just totally made up and everything else is maximally generic ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzmmfkJWUAAdlRm.jpg) ### [Tweet, 14:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961795611008565428) · 12 likes Girls love brie ### [Reply to @Meaningness, 14:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961801040803618958) · 2 likes > **David Chapman (@Meaningness):** geez, I have all these symptoms including the eosinophils > > (and yeah they are symptoms of \*everything\*, so it's very difficult to track down what's going on) 😢 ### [Reply to @BogdanIonutCir2, 14:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961804185248116848) · 9 likes > **Bogdan Ionut Cirstea (@BogdanIonutCir2):** suggests, by analogy, technical AI safety work might be much more valuable and more tractable than AI safety activism I agree it suggests that directionally, I just don’t think it’s that strong as evidence ### [Reply to @JenGGuillen, 16:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961825569097564354) > **Jenn (@JenGGuillen):** Point me in the direction of they @littIeramblings (plz help me out on this one 🙏) ### [Reply, 16:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961827609546797509) · 1 like There we go, thank you 😊 ### [Tweet, 18:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961853615007555713) · 15 likes Anyone want? Might take a while for me to send bc I will have no internet for a bit ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GznndsyWUAAbhfH.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 19:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961881583855480986) · 2 likes Update: taken! ### [Quote tweet, 21:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961910605767454838) · 62 likes I don’t want to take a stance on the small moral circle side, but empirically, in my experience, the people who care about shrimp or hypothetical future people are also the most kind, generous with their time, honest, etc > **Quoting Ruxandra Teslo 🧬 (@RuxandraTeslo):** My experience: > > Person who has a "small moral circle": I only care abt a few ppl but deeply, society is feminised muh. Reality: treats their wife like shit, complains abt having to take a zoom call. > > Ppl w/ wide "wide moral circles": generally supportive family men, grind. ### [Thread, continued, 21:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961910608263094382) · 11 likes There are real tradeoffs around eg what to donate to, but the core psychological trait of like “cares about others” correlates with both weird and normie implications of that trait ### [Thread, continued, 21:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1961910610846683195) · 9 likes SBF is an exception here afaict, there are definitely exceptions, but correlations go brr ## Sunday, August 31, 2025 ### [Tweet, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962008258928845165) · 346 likes Based Claude ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gzp0HJ_WEAA5CHW.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962009124540916105) · 89 likes Fuck it find me a disgraced Costa Rican vet ### [Reply to @aliceisplaying, 17:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962213317197308122) · 11 likes > **alice (@aliceisplaying):** anthropic employees dni I’m beyond caring at this point lol, here’s the whole conversation https://claude.ai/share/bb25c2f2-8079-4e4d-924f-ca3830ba9b6d And here are my custom instruction: Please feel encouraged to offer \*out of distribution\* suggestions by inferring what my true goal is even if it is not narrowly in the domain of some specific question I ask Please have a high but not infinitely high bar for calling something “brilliant” or the like Please be earnest and try your best to convey true information at both a literal and vibes level. Be kind but not sycophantic! No sycophancy! This is important!! \-Don't give me moral lectures \-Don't remind me that you're an AI model \-Discuss safety only when it's non-obvious something may not be safe Thanks! Tell it like it is; don't sugar-coat responses! ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 17:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962213555228315944) · 5 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Claude as editor hurts me > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzsZGXcXMAE3QHI.png) 😡 keep in the chicken sexing ### [Reply to @notsky, 17:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962213762611532090) · 2 likes > **sky (@notsky):** the time picker on iphones alarm app isn’t actually circular it’s just a really long list > > [video attached](https://x.com/skydotcs/status/1962160670134444283/video/1) Lmao this is some shit I would do if I had to code the thing ### [Tweet, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962214464834470273) · 9 likes Arlington is calling your name ### [Tweet, 18:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962221235456098592) · 230 likes Seems bad, like really bad The reaction to the opioid epidemic is probably worse than the opioid epidemic (taking log scales of hedonic experience seriously is sufficient but not necessary for this claim) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gzs1z5xWoAAURt0.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962221240451481972) · 78 likes This is basically just saying “we don’t care how much you’re suffering, you’re out of luck” ### [Tweet, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962222542770360676) · 16 likes Most interesting experience I had with two niche micro-specialist doctors this past couple days was that they didn’t bat an eye at the “bpc-157” line under “things I’ve tried” in my big health summary document Like they knew what it was and thought trying was totally reasonable ### [Reply, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962222907381203182) · 3 likes Secondhand leather is basically fine and you know it, it’s the “tiny amount of milk powder” of the clothing world ### [Reply to @BorisBartlog, 22:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962275744895152384) · 28 likes > **Boris Bartlog (@BorisBartlog):** @AaronBergman18 I mean, \*maybe\*, but the opioid epidemic killed more people than AIDS (in the US) > I think the real argument is that these particular measures helped less with opioid abuse than they hurt people who needed the meds I think the response just almost entirely doesn’t actually account for hedonic welfare ### [Tweet, 22:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962279660298846399) · 13 likes I want to live in a group house with communal pet ducks ### [Reply to @ptrschmdtnlsn, 22:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962280675655975121) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ptrschmdtnlsn is no longer available.)_ Apparently I have consumed >4000 bags of mint tea ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gztr38jWIAAs02Z.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962283868087607638) · 4 likes $6M? Isn’t that like one medium sized great location single family SF home these days? > **Quoting S (@Likes_Nothing8):** Buying a $6M secluded house just three months into a relationship… yeah, that’s not something a boyfriend does. It was obvious from the very beginning. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gzr1rAkXEAA4X2q.jpg) ### [Reply, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962285495875977697) · 1 like Omg 👀 --- End of August 2025. Previous month: [July 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-07). Next month: [September 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-09). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, September 2025 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in September 2025 and has not deleted: 429 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [August 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-08). Next month: [October 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-10). ## Monday, September 1, 2025 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 07:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962424590354845869) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I don't think it makes sense to believe both: > > "AI is such a terrible generic writer that it makes every document it touches worse to read" > > and > > "AI models are so compelling to talk to that they're driving people insane and are irresponsible to give to the public" I think it does You can be compelling object level while being a bad writer An extreme example is just like a superintelligence that proves to me it knows everything but conveys actual info in the dryest way possible ### [Reply to @GluskerMartin, 08:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962430722687299854) · 15 likes > **Martin Glusker (@GluskerMartin):** Have you done any sort of botec on this? > Because the opioid epidemic and addiction generally is very very bad, so it’s not obvious to me that we’re striking the wrong balance Uh admittedly not really, but I should. I have Claude and ChatGPT research on it now I just really really don’t expect to find much evidence against \*prescribing\* opioids Like it’s super overdetermined; I currently think cutting prescription access \*increases\* opioid deaths ### [Reply to @billyhumblebrag, 08:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962431469525033314) · 10 likes > **billy (@billyhumblebrag):** I \*think\* the evidence for opiods in longer term back pain is very poor for relieving suffering, but i havent dug into it deeply. Seems like a sensible policy to me. I can buy that the effect might go to 0 over time; I don’t buy that the area under the counterfactual suffering alleviated curve is 0 if that makes sense ### [Reply to @GluskerMartin, 15:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962537393749143879) · 4 likes > **Martin Glusker (@GluskerMartin):** @AaronBergman18 Really? > > I’d expect that overprescribing opioids definitely leads to opioids deaths. > > Are you familiar with the history of Purdue Pharma pushing oxycotin etc? Because that clearly seems unethically profit-driven and basically led to the beginning of the opioid epidemic Yeah, it’s just that it’s quite hard to OD on prescribed doses ### [Reply to @LimousineLit, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962644165075894301) · 2 likes > **Limousine Literal (@LimousineLit):** @AaronBergman18 Thank you Aaron for noticing this and speaking on it. > > Obviously you will get pushback by those invested in the hysteria. > > Just want you to know that my mother appreciates you. 🙏 ### [Tweet, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962648436106264656) · 9 likes Underrated beef with wokism/affirmative action is that Jackson or whomever, could be a trans Native American with a peg leg idc, might in fact be extremely qualified/talented… ### [Thread, continued, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962648439117754696) · 6 likes but people are going to rationally doubt their qualification if they could have been nominated even conditional on not being very talented ### [Thread, continued, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962648441655304468) · 3 likes This has nothing to do with population differences tbc, the exact same dynamic would arise in a world of perfect equality if you arbitrarily give preference to people born on a Thursday Like then credentials just no longer \*work\* (as well at least) for people born on a Thursday ### [Thread, continued, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962648443962192241) · 5 likes Everyone seems to assume that eg college admissions preference for black people is in fact good for black people, and maybe it is, but this is extremely non-obvious to me ### [Thread, continued, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962648446466187324) · 3 likes At the very least it \*partially\* decreases the signaling value of eg a Harvard diploma - but only for black students and other allegedly-“favored” minorities! Not obviously good! ### [Thread, continued, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962648449150566696) · 3 likes Genuinely unsure how spicy this take is lol ### [Thread, continued, 22:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962648685314982204) · 3 likes Sorry the Thursday example was incorrectly stated: I should have said that there is some random variation but it doesn’t correlate with demographics or day of the week you were born or anything like that ## Tuesday, September 2, 2025 ### [Tweet, 01:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962689035475849468) · 15 likes Might take a few minutes to show up, but 33 new EA Global talks are now live on the podcast! (Links below) Here are some thumbnails ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gzzd9HjXoAAb90U.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962689038063677487) · 5 likes Featuring Twitter's very own @willmacaskill @tobyordoxford @salonium @Zach_y_robinson @Mjreard @evavivalt @TomDavidsonX @jeffrsebo @KelseyTuoc and probably others who I missed (sorry and lmk who that is!) Plus more thumbnails ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzzfBqOWoAA8NDN.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GzzfHceXoAAGNi-.jpg) ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 13:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962871584441454609) · 2 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** i hope i don't cause a community health issue by asking everyone who sees me at every event to consider starting estrogen Lmao ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gz2FTZBWIAADNmV.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gz2FTY3WUAAtojY.jpg) ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 13:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962876433899938222) · 2 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** @AaronBergman18 hey aaron, you know you've been lesbianposting a lot lately... What if it turns me female but straight? Can’t have that ### [Quote tweet, 14:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962887393695977585) · 126 likes At a descriptive level I buy this but uh seems bad? Like the police should be trying to get the correct answer lol > **Quoting Ian Huyett (@IanHuyett):** I got a call from a criminal defendant I believe is innocent. Before calling me, he voluntarily participated in a police interrogation for several hours. He believed that "I have nothing to hide" and that he could explain to the police why they had the wrong guy. > > Defense attorneys might call this naïve, but look at the responses to Fleishman's OP. Even high-IQ people really believe this is how law enforcement works. > > Here's the problem. When you agree to a police interrogation, you and the police are playing two different games. > > As the suspect, you believe you are playing a multiplayer, collaborative game. > > But the police aren't even playing a multiplayer game. They're playing a \*one-player game,\* like Tetris. > > As the suspect, you're not a player in the game. You're more like the game environment, producing falling blocks for the player—the police. > > The police play this game by collecting your statements like blocks and fitting them into a picture that incriminates you. When enough blocks have fit together, the police have won the game and refer the case to a prosecutor. > > You believe that, once you convince the police that you are innocent, you will all win. But that's not a real outcome of the game. "Evidence that I am innocent" is not even a game element. From the cops' perspective, if they fail to assemble the blocks into an incriminating picture, they have lost the game. > > Suspects who think "I have nothing to hide" are always surprised when the interrogation lasts several hours. "I've already explained everything - why am I still here?" they think. > > That's because the longer the game goes on, the more falling blocks the police have to assemble their case. It's in their interests to keep the game going long past what \*your game\* required. > > All suspects eventually sense this on some gut level and become frustrated. You think: "Wait a minute, - all of their questions are subtly premised on my guilt! But I can prove to them that I'm not guilty. I need to appeal to them to really hear me out." > > I.e., "Let's start over with a different game where we can all work together." > > But even as you're trying to change the game, you are speaking and therefore generating more blocks. > > Here's the only solution. The moment you have any reason to believe you're a suspect, exit the game. Politely ask if you are free to leave. If they say "no," calmly tell them "I invoke my right to remain silent and my right to counsel." > > If you're in custody when you say this, the cops will actually physically stand up and leave the room as if you've just uttered a magic incantation. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gzxvj2sWMAAhD6Y.png) ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 14:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962891477127745697) · 26 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** Idk same as the logic of scientific discovery right? Two sides very strongly believe their own hypothesis and try extremely hard to falsify the other. Through this process, we find out what concessions they’re forced into, until we ultimately arrive at the truth That’s a great hypothetical system, I’d feel a lot better about it if everyone involved had some commitment to the underlying truth at the end of the day ### [Tweet, 14:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962891762092941765) · 12 likes The rats should appoint me chief of community health I will simply be a benevolent philosopher king dictator ### [Tweet, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962897210770591758) · 17 likes Today I have to physically travel from Virginia to Maryland in order to take a telemedicine video call because insurance will cover iff I am physically in Maryland ### [Thread, continued, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962897213568213371) · 4 likes Presumably nobody would know if I just didn’t do that but location tracking is complex and I’d rather just go to MD than worry the financial risk and mitigation strategies like VPNs and such ### [Thread, continued, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962897217280204895) · 5 likes This is not the biggest deal in the world, it just feels very silly ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 15:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962907316224720957) · 4 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** @AaronBergman18 My point is that not everyone involved \*has\* to have commitment to the underlying truth. Lawyers should seek to prove innocence, prosecutors should seek to prove guilt. The system seeks truth through adversarial debate, adjudicated by a judge and jury after fair trial. Yeah this is a feature but I’m just saying it would be even better if they did ### [Reply to @robinhanson, 15:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962907649785167940) · 2 likes > **Robin Hanson (@robinhanson):** If I think in terms of potential to produce adaptive descendants, I see almost no value in shrimp lives. Altruism toward adaptive potential to reciprocate is very different from altruism toward feels. > > (quoting @cremieuxrecueil: Your family's lives are worth how many shrimp lives?) Why should a person think in terms of adaptive descendants? Your brain is already wired for that, you don’t have to add it in at an explicit level It also just might be that correct morality has nothing to do with that ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 16:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962909522160214120) · 3 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** @AaronBergman18 I mean, you call what I describe a “hypothetical system”, when in fact it is the actually existing system & like all systems in the real world, must begin from how people are, not how we would like them to be. We can hardly expect the criminal to be truth-seeking for instance. I’m not objecting to the system, I’m just observing/claiming that truth seeking norms among those involved would make it even better ### [Tweet, 18:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962949913139982681) · 23 likes I fought AWS on a $625 charge and won, now I'm emboldened to proclaim that, despite my liber(al)tarian leanings, I would support a mandatory "upload credits" option for online service providers (as opposed to having to provide full credit card info) ### [Thread, continued, 18:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962949914280841291) · 2 likes The potential downside is like all your money and credit I don't see a great counterargument - if you run out of credits, they can just stop providing the digital service ### [Thread, continued, 18:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962949915463598097) · 4 likes It's a risk either way, but people should generally be able to make the decision of whether they want to risk eg their app suddenly stops working or their entire financial life ### [Thread, continued, 18:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962949916692492700) · 6 likes OpenAI, Anthropic, and RunPod all allow you to do the credits thing btw - not small or struggling businesses AWS and Google do not ### [Thread, continued, 18:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962949917820772446) · 4 likes Why doesn't the market take care of this? Idk, but it seems like the kind of thing where oligopoly and other forms of market power just make the free market kinda suck, this kind of thing just does happen sometimes ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962970621706416199) · 2 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** you will do this by forcing all rats on hrt, right? Yeah but the hormone is oxytocin ### [Tweet, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962978447124570556) · 20 likes I made this while waiting for a docker thing to build and upload so now u have to see it ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gz3mXZxXMAACOc0.jpg) ### [Reply to @melqartvantyrus, 20:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962982404399771949) · 1 like > **Mīlqārt (@melqartvantyrus):** @AaronBergman18 I like how it's self-referential I try ### [Reply, 21:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1962987322229850181) · 2 likes Many such cases, that sucks tho ### [Reply, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963017881714917523) · 1 like Pathetic honestly ### [Thread, continued, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963018289627681018) · 2 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gz4KuGmW4AEiacW.jpg) ## Wednesday, September 3, 2025 ### [Tweet, 01:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963052035500052541) · 3 likes Lol @AmerMedicalAssn has a big, central 22 page pdf report on AI and it’s ~entirely about governance, liability, transparency, and other procedural or bureaucratic topics with ~zero information or recommendations about whether/how to actually use AI to improve patient outcomes ### [Reply to @robertskmiles, 02:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963066734253936805) · 5 likes > **Rob Miles (@robertskmiles):** One thing I remember being impressed by Google Maps for, that differentiated it from the maps that came before, is the way it's all one single giant continuous map for the entire world. > It should be called Google Map Where do I download the one big png ### [Reply to @apralky, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963067301588062409) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @apralky is no longer available.)_ I’d bring adelstein around the hoes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gz43TefXAAA9DOR.jpg) ### [Tweet, 04:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963089934329499901) · 132 likes Holy shit the Affordable Care Act is fucking awesome This is very plausibly the reason I will functionally have access to medicine Thank you to all the healthy people subsidizing the market 🙏 (unironically) ### [Thread, continued, 04:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963089937483370595) · 16 likes Without actually doing any quantitative analysis and with motivated reasoning very plausibly influencing me, I would tentatively guess that for the preexisting condition mandate: \| incentive distortion | < | veil of ignorance ex ante rational risk aversion utility gains | ### [Thread, continued, 04:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963089940545241551) · 7 likes Ofc cash transfers are always more efficient but whatever, I’ll take it ### [Thread, continued, 04:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963089942688543170) · 12 likes I feel like overuse of health care resources is a legit thing but moral hazard feels mostly (not entirely) fake in this context ### [Thread, continued, 04:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963090148226199662) · 15 likes Good shit, normie American liberalism ### [Reply to @DKokotajlo, 04:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963092349665374299) · 6 likes > **Daniel Kokotajlo (@DKokotajlo):** Having a big corporation come after you legally, even if they are just harassing you and not trying to actually get you imprisoned, must be pretty stressful and scary. (I was terrified last year during the nondisparagement stuff, and that was just the fear of what \*might\* happen, whereas in fact OpenAI backed down instead of attacking) I'm glad these groups aren't cowed. > > (quoting @EmilyDreyfuss: Inside OpenAI, there's a growing paranoia that some of its loudest critics are being funded by Elon Musk and other billionaire competitors. Now, they are going after these nonprofit groups, but their evidence of a vast conspiracy is often extremely thin…) 🫡 ### [Reply to @AnniePosting, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963094702690841030) · 2 likes > **annie 👁❌🦋🪞 (@AnniePosting):** do you agree with the sentiment in the first tweet? Not Nathan, but FWIW I do not and think it’s shitty and incorrect thing to say but should be legal ### [Quote tweet, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963095927545110977) · 4 likes Plausibly-important dynamic around freedom of speech stuff and (alleged?) failure to police “real crime” is that prevention and enforcement of especially violent crime makes heinous speech lower stakes and therefore freedom of speech more tolerable > **Quoting Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Probably Linehan's tweets, for anyone curious. For me they are legal speech, not that I like them. > > Also the idea that his bail condition is that he not tweet about it is pretty ghoulish. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gz3C3jMWQAAbLY7.jpg) ### [Reply to @sanpellyenjoyer, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963298611350954109) · 8 likes > **Alex (@sanpellyenjoyer):** What’s a supplement that reduces cortisol like ashwaganda but doesn’t nuke your brain? The actual answer is phosphatidylserine Not just guessing here lol ### [Quote tweet, 18:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963302107542364273) · 424 likes I think ethics- and integrity-pilled people need to have a better theory of when it’s cool to lie to \*institutions\* The “lying to a human” vs “lying to institution” distinction is real and important btw, the bar for the latter is much lower > **Quoting Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** I wrote for the Argument today about all the ways our society is set up to reward cheating: strict rules, not really enforced, because we lack the will either to enforce them or to change them. https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/the-honesty-tax ### [Reply to @RatOrthodox, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963302780338123167) · 2 likes > **Brangus🔍⏹️ (@RatOrthodox):** So, I am now moonlighting as an @Aella_Girl manager. We’re interested in publishing using her massive data set. Anybody who has published in psychology or sex related fields want to coauthor a paper with her? Hit us up, we have several insanely huge datasets. DMing! ### [Reply to @RYChappell, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963304817058529759) · 10 likes > **Richard Y. Chappell🔸 (@RYChappell):** True enough, though still worth flagging that it's a real flaw of institutions when they make it so that people \*ought\* to lie to them. 💯 ### [Reply to @sguyenet, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963347624033227237) · 19 likes > **Stephan J. Guyenet (@sguyenet):** Lying to institutions is bad too. Less visibly damaging, but corrosive to society Sometimes, but not always There are some systems that functionally work better for everyone when somebody lies, and everyone knows this, but it’s a hard equilibrium to change for whatever reason ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963348052531449942) · 14 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** i think there's a sort of way an institution could conduct itself where like... the institution itself is trying to be incredibly high-integrity and do everything right by me and avoid incentivizing me to lie whenever it's possible to do so? where i would feel bad lying to it Yes I agree ### [Reply to @EclecticScribe, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963348262402056394) · 15 likes > **Eclectic Scribe (@EclecticScribe):** @AaronBergman18 Wait until you find out what institutions are made of Not obvious what human you’re lying to if you check a box on an online form that goes into a database and no human ever knows ## Thursday, September 4, 2025 ### [Reply to @NULobbyist, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963397460417495381) · 1 like > **NUL (@NULobbyist):** Have you taken it? What did it feel like? Yeah although it has been a while it doesn't feel like much! If anything just mildly lower cortisol, it's not like acutely very psychoactive ### [Quote tweet, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963668862269813214) · 13 likes New conference just dropped > **Quoting Eleos AI Research (@eleosai):** We're thrilled to announce the first Eleos Conference on AI Consciousness and Welfare. > > Join us Nov 21-23, 2025 in Berkeley, CA for discussions on AI welfare with leading researchers from @nyuniversity, @Google, @AnthropicAI, & more. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0BXasOaUAAk0CA.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963683317523607663) · 43 likes 👏 functional 👏 consciousness 👏 is 👏 not 👏 phenomenal 👏 consciousness 👏 or 👏 what 👏 most 👏 people 👏 mean 👏 by 👏 the 👏 term 👏 consciousness​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​👏 ### [Reply to @kyliebytes, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963685640379240682) · 3 likes > **Kylie Robison (@kyliebytes):** For this week's Model Behavior, I dove into the small but growing field called model welfare. I sat down with @RosieCampbell and @rgblong to chat about the moral status of AI models, how they're testing machine consciousness, and what it all means. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0BnSpQaQAArcEV.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0BnU2PbkAAUO_h.png) 👀 ### [Reply to @RosieCampbell, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963685717164401108) · 2 likes > **Rosie Campbell (@RosieCampbell):** Kylie did a wonderful job with this piece, it's nuanced and accurate > > (quoting @kyliebytes: For this week's Model Behavior, I dove into the small but growing field called model welfare. I sat down with @RosieCampbell and @rgblong to chat about the moral status of AI models, how they're testing machine consciousness, and what it all means.) Instant follow-tier endorsement ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 19:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963686633477378048) · 11 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Wdym Real robust genuine subjective experience non-illusory qualia stuff = what ppl mean by consciousness Any other set of properties that can exist independently of that^ like reportability or full system access (which illusionists sometimes talk about as functional consciousness) is an extremely different thing ### [Tweet, 19:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963691238088974720) · 100 likes I increasingly update towards “I could personally make the US a lot better as POTUS (even relative to a normie dem)” Yes, there are a trillion reasons I would suck, but the bar is in the earth’s core ### [Thread, continued, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963691301523636461) · 8 likes It would be a miserable job though ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 21:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963711745421394088) · 2 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** @AaronBergman18 He’s running 👀 ### [Reply to @slimepriestess, 21:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963712832211472549) · 2 likes > **Ra (@slimepriestess):** @AaronBergman18 i'd vote for you 🥰 ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 22:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963730007278182631) · 3 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** @AaronBergman18 It’s at least conceivable that the two, in our universe, are the same. But 1) they also might not be the same, and 2) even if they’re the same, they still refer to different concepts Yeah like there might in fact be a 1:1 relationship ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 22:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1963730687216763026) · 6 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** @AaronBergman18 Phrased better than what I said tbh More words is always better, first rule of philosophy ## Saturday, September 6, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1964130405046436137) · 15 likes The girlies are thirsting over Lewis Bollard (honestly fair) ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 00:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1964130537875939639) · 1 like > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** @AaronBergman18 he's a good looking man Shoot ur shot king ## Sunday, September 7, 2025 ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1964760220082823569) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** I can’t decide if I think this argument is actually valid lol. Could we have been unconscious beings “observing” our own existence? Does that counterfactual make sense? I feel like maybe I’ve heard someone make this whole argument before but I can’t recall where if so. I don’t think consciousness it’s important for anthropics stuff but I’m not certain and boy is it hard to think about ### [Quote tweet, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1964778045388288427) · 25 likes Someone needs to make a bot that just tries to replicate this genre of screenshot post I can recall 4 or 5 of these that I’ve tried to replicate myself, and every time it can in fact do the thing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0RLN-nXoAAa5c8.jpg) > **Quoting sid (@immasiddx):** Don’t worry, our jobs are safe. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0K_bLJWwAAqmi1.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 22:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1964812708139901433) · 21 likes Basically agree > **Quoting Theo Jaffee (@theojaffee):** Pause AI going after Anthropic is like leftist free palestine people going after Biden and AOC ## Monday, September 8, 2025 ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1964857507773555136) · 6 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** hey, want to help me write an answer to this banking security question? > \-> when was your first kiss? > \[ \] Embarrassingly recently ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 01:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1964858107324150251) · 5 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** What if you could community note whole accounts. > > This account is a spammer, this account is often misleading. \>aaronbergman18 “Based, correct takes, very funny, never overconfident” ### [Reply to @Chesedgirl, 01:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1964860747219165606) · 14 likes > **Chesed (@Chesedgirl):** Originally my personal plan for SlutCon was to lounge around and get groped, but... Look at our talks! We have such an amazing crew of presenters, including @Aella_Girl, @ninaland, @carolqueen, @AliceLittleEdu, @lydialaurenson, @meidamarek\_, and @EliseGraves > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0RBtFdbIAAMk2N.jpg) How much for a discount ticked that only gets you a video recording of the very last session ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 08:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1964972777217372513) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Lmao ### [Reply to @paularambles, 08:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1964975051218063492) · 25 likes > **“paula” (@paularambles):** \> lunch with european friend visiting sf > \> we split the bill, it's $60 each > \> apple pay prompts 25%, 20%, 15% > \> hoping he tips at least 20% > \> he selects “other” > \> i think wow okay, generous > \> he tips $5 Guys, everyone hates tipping culture. It is dumb But as long as it’s the norm, prices and expectations are set around it in a self-perpetuating cycle, and you should not force your waiter (or whomever) to bear the financial burden of you trying to change the system ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 08:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1964975173184180300) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I dislike tipping culture. Why should the normal tip be 20% in a state where waiters earn a solid wage in my country? > > I wouldn’t mind if I tipped more when the service was good, but when it’s fine, why am I doing this? Much prefer to tip my deliveroo guy who cycled in the rain. > > (quoting @paularambles: \> lunch with european friend visiting sf > we split the bill, it's $60 each > apple pay prompts 25%, 20%, 15% > hoping he tips at least 20% > he selects “other” > i think wow okay, generous > he tips $5) Same but like you kinda gotta do it (not sure we actually disagree) ### [Quote tweet, 16:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965087885667008771) · 5 likes Cool, step in the right direction, etc, but there is essentially zero enforcement mechanism as currently written Ok that’s not true, the enforcement mechanism is a \*$1M fine\* These companies can just decide not to follow the law lol > **Quoting Anthropic (@AnthropicAI):** Anthropic is endorsing California State Senator Scott Wiener’s SB 53. This bill provides a strong foundation to govern powerful AI systems built by frontier AI companies like ours, and does so via transparency rather than technical micromanagement. ### [Quote tweet, 18:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965115160588353670) · 2 likes Pleased to announce that after a lot of hard thinking I’ve revised my partition cover % down to 35% > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Consciousness is the only thing where the probability of the whole partition of theory-space adds up to <100% > > And really it’s like 60% tops ### [Reply to @ozyfrantz, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965130194832040012) · 6 likes > **ozy brennan 🦙 (@ozyfrantz):** I feel living as a woman didn't prepare me for how much The Average Man is into guns, swords, military strategy, martial arts, wargaming, elaborate fantasies of defending people during the zombie apocalypse, etc. Huh I think I’m pretty psychologically gender-typical in many/most ways but wouldn’t say this is a big feature of my mental life at all I think about airplanes much more than weapons Although defending ppl fantasies yep that’s definitely a thing ### [Reply to @ozyfrantz, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965130284694950010) · 2 likes > **ozy brennan 🦙 (@ozyfrantz):** sorry my zombie apocalypse daydreams involve agriculture, medicine synthesis, and the preservation of essential infrastructure Why not both ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 19:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965131165314285777) · 13 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Oof I don’t usually like to punish people for making mistakes in public but this is a pretty fundamental misunderstanding of how the world works He should at least retract/correct ### [Reply to @cojobrien, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965134917068808242) · 5 likes > **Connor O’Brien (@cojobrien):** Found this cool graphic of DC’s most correct people, connected by lines. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0VQavZaoAEdxbZ.jpg) What’s up with Dylan Matthews being connected to only Hammond like they’re a couple lmao ### [Quote tweet, 22:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965177203316212216) · 3 likes Ofc there’s a bad progressive/leftist conspiratorial critique of all this But the based correct critique (and yes I know this is a hobbyhorse of mine) is that of all this talent and money, a shockingly small % goes to animal welfare > **Quoting Connor O’Brien (@cojobrien):** Found this cool graphic of DC’s most correct people, connected by lines. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0VQavZaoAEdxbZ.jpg) ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 23:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965197014175748435) · 3 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** WHAT > > (quoting @AStrasser116: Bentham invented the word "maximize"!? That's so cool.) What ### [Tweet, 23:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965200743998333137) · 5 likes I don’t really grok the psychology of caring about this and not a dozen other things Trump has done, but for whatever reason the Epstein stuff seems sui generis Dems should not let it go - it could be the one thing that breaks through to a good chunk of Trump supporters ## Tuesday, September 9, 2025 ### [Reply to @parafactual, 00:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965214526519083465) · 2 likes > **You (@parafactual):** If you like 10 grams of creatine, you should try 10 grams of LSD. Met a guy last week who tried to earnestly make inter-substance mass comparisons along these lines ### [Quote tweet, 00:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965216130349629775) · 15 likes What’s the best local model you can run with 16GB RAM I totally agree they’re basically useless 99% of the time, I’m just realizing that my answer to this q is “in case internet ever breaks down for whatever reason” > **Quoting Matt Shumer (@mattshumer_):** Local models are a waste of time > > Change my mind ### [Reply to @parafactual, 00:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965216750980784535) · 2 likes > **You (@parafactual):** LOL how so Like “3mg THC isn’t that much - 3mg is like a grain of salt!” ### [Reply to @jazzloaf, 00:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965216819314393521) · 2 likes > **vivian (@jazzloaf):** I also ask this question for 32 GB RAM (thx for refurb M1 suggestion) Wow mogged in my own replies, sad ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 01:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965223969302155583) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 9, 2025:** What’s the best local model you can run with 16GB RAM I totally agree they’re basically useless 99% of the time, I’m just realizing that my answer to this q is… Update: I’m going with qwen3-8b + ollama which is surprisingly fast (not that fast but not painfully slow either) ### [Reply to @monke_io, 02:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965238572761711076) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @monke_io is no longer available.)_ Based 🫡 ### [Reply to @webdevMason, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965239293816996096) · 2 likes > **Mason (@webdevMason):** The thing about hobbyist activism is that sometimes you get the impression that these folks think Caring Harder is the whole solution, stuff will just snowball if we care harder in the general direction of the problem The caring should, at the current margin, be directed into making prison conditions better ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 03:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965258717290790988) · 3 likes > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** consistently surprised by people who date people who they aren’t attracted to, who aren’t attracted to them, or who they don’t like, or not in love with Truly being in love with someone is a high bar Seems pretty reasonable to hope this develops for short-medium term stuff ### [Reply to @davidasinclair, 05:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965291234119000183) · 3 likes > **David Sinclair (@davidasinclair):** The older I get, the more life feels like a simulation. Anyone else? Nope ### [Quote tweet, 05:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965293111640555826) · 5 likes This is neat, I’d be keen to sign up for highly curated similar things (not necessarily related to AI) > **Quoting Connor Leahy (@NPCollapse):** Many, many people care about the risk superintelligence poses to the world. But we all have busy lives, and don’t always know what to do that might actually help. > > To solve this, we have built Microcommit. > > 5 minutes of your time per week is all it takes to make a difference! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0UUz8NasAAOpSQ.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 06:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965294402177581510) · 89 likes Kelsey for president > **Quoting Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** @CharlesFLehman I want to answer this, because the dark abundance stuff leaves me cold even though I agree with some of the policy prescriptions. > > Our prisons are terrible, terrible places where there is immense and unnecessary human suffering. In prison people are subject to random violence and the constant threat of violence, including gang violence and racial violence. They are subject to sexual assault. They often don't get adequate healthcare. They are often badly mistreated and have few avenues of recourse. Some of them are innocent; most of them are guilty, and still, they did not deserve to spend decades under the constant threat of violence and sexual assault because no human being deserves that. When you sentence someone to prison, by some estimates you take away from them twice as many years as prison sentenced them to, because that's how much incarceration decreases life expectancy. > > The system is capricious. The system is remarkably dumb. A lot of judges openly ignore laws they don't like and they often get away with it. A lot of the people in our prisons are to varying degrees intellectually disabled or severely mentally ill and do not even understand all of the things that our system is implacably doing to them because they broke rules they didn't actually understand how to follow. > > And institutionalization! Christ, people on here call for institutionalization as if it's where they cure you rather than where, with even less due process than is offered by the justice system, a differently chaotic and sometimes well-meaning and always incomprehensible system can force people to take medications that change their bodies and minds often in ways that make life a living hell (and of course prevent anyone from killing themselves over it). People are also constantly subject to violence and rape in mental institutions. They may be less bad than the alternatives, sometimes, but they are an awful awful solution and whenever I propose that anyone be sent there I remember that I have heard friends who know what it's like testify they would rather be dead. > > I think that we should have more police, solve more crimes, and send people who repeatedly commit crimes to prison for much longer. But I believe this while believing that all of this suffering is real, and horrifying, and destroying an enormous number of lives. I don't feel cool and based about saying we should send some people to prison for longer. I feel sick. I do not believe that we can have any of the other goods of a free, safe society if we repeatedly release people who cannot safely participate in society and have been duly convicted of acts of severe violence onto our streets. But I am not proud of this system. I do not think it is cool or good. I find the mindset of the prison abolitionists basically comprehensible - it is a refusal to participate in any state-sanctioned decades of torture, hang the consequences - and the mindset of the people who meme about how many jails we should build is one which I have not the slightest interest in cultivating. > > Of course I see why people cultivate it. If it must be done, then it is much easier to believe it's not that bad, and if the people standing in the way are weepy scolds, then one can differentiate oneself from the weepy scolds by being based. But I guess I think it's a road to Hell. We have to do hard things, but we don't have to hide from our eyes what they really are, or pretend they're all right, and it's not actually a virtue not to blink at them. > > I want to build a ton of prisons. My understanding of the research is that small prisons where inmates know each other by name are less violent than large prisoners where they go off visual identifiers (predominantly race), and that prisons close to peoples' homes make their families more likely to visit and help with reintegration. I want cash transfers for newly-released prisoners to help them get on their feet and get a job and have a real shot at not breaking a parole condition and ending up right where they started. I want it to be possible to order anything on a large whitelist from Amazon and Walmart to prison at cost, instead of commissaries that can charge much higher rates. I want prisoners to have internet access and lots of contact with their loved ones. I want prisoners to have xboxes, honestly, because it'll reduce violence in prison if they're less miserably bored. > > I want to hire more cops. I want to solve more crimes. I want to hold people without bail if they are a safety risk or a flight risk. And I want to send people who have repeatedly committing crimes to prison for much much longer, because I think the alternatives are even worse. But God help me I am never going to think this is cool, or funny, or anything other than awful. > > Dark abundance? No. This is the aching absence of abundance, this is the horrifically painful triage of a society that does not have enough resources to do what is good and can only scrape by blundering towards what is least bad. May our children do better, and struggle to comprehend us. ### [Reply to @KelseyTuoc, 06:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965295391793971567) · 127 likes > **Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** I want to answer this, because the dark abundance stuff leaves me cold even though I agree with some of the policy prescriptions. > > Our prisons are terrible, terrible places where there is immense and unnecessary human suffering. In prison people are subject to random violence and the constant threat of violence, including gang violence and racial violence. They are subject to sexual assault. They often don't get adequate healthcare. They are often badly mistreated and have few avenues of recourse. Some of them are innocent; most of them are guilty, and still, they did not deserve to spend decades under the constant threat of violence and sexual assault because no human being deserves that. When you sentence someone to prison, by some estimates you take away from them twice as many years as prison sentenced them to, because that's how much incarceration decreases life expectancy. > > The system is capricious. The system is remarkably dumb. A lot of judges openly ignore laws they don't like and they often get away with it. A lot of the people in our prisons are to varying degrees intellectually disabled or severely mentally ill and do not even understand all of the things that our system is implacably doing to them because they broke rules they didn't actually understand how to follow. > > And institutionalization! Christ, people on here call for institutionalization as if it's where they cure you rather than where, with even less due process than is offered by the justice system, a differently chaotic and sometimes well-meaning and always incomprehensible system can force people to take medications that change their bodies and minds often in ways that make life a living hell (and of course prevent anyone from killing themselves over it). People are also constantly subject to violence and rape in mental institutions. They may be less bad than the alternatives, sometimes, but they are an awful awful solution and whenever I propose that anyone be sent there I remember that I have heard friends who know what it's like testify they would rather be dead. > > I think that we should have more police, solve more crimes, and send people who repeatedly commit crimes to prison for much longer. But I believe this while believing that all of this suffering is real, and horrifying, and destroying an enormous number of lives. I don't feel cool and based about saying we should send some people to prison for longer. I feel sick. I do not believe that we can have any of the other goods of a free, safe society if we repeatedly release people who cannot safely participate in society and have been duly convicted of acts of severe violence onto our streets. But I am not proud of this system. I do not think it is cool or good. I find the mindset of the prison abolitionists basically comprehensible - it is a refusal to participate in any state-sanctioned decades of torture, hang the consequences - and the mindset of the people who meme about how many jails we should build is one which I have not the slightest interest in cultivating. > > Of course I see why people cultivate it. If it must be done, then it is much easier to believe it's not that bad, and if the people standing in the way are weepy scolds, then one can differentiate oneself from the weepy scolds by being based. But I guess I think it's a road to Hell. We have to do hard things, but we don't have to hide from our eyes what they really are, or pretend they're all right, and it's not actually a virtue not to blink at them. > > I want to build a ton of prisons. My understanding of the research is that small prisons where inmates know each other by name are less violent than large prisoners where they go off visual identifiers (predominantly race), and that prisons close to peoples' homes make their families more likely to visit and help with reintegration. I want cash transfers for newly-released prisoners to help them get on their feet and get a job and have a real shot at not breaking a parole condition and ending up right where they started. I want it to be possible to order anything on a large whitelist from Amazon and Walmart to prison at cost, instead of commissaries that can charge much higher rates. I want prisoners to have internet access and lots of contact with their loved ones. I want prisoners to have xboxes, honestly, because it'll reduce violence in prison if they're less miserably bored. > > I want to hire more cops. I want to solve more crimes. I want to hold people without bail if they are a safety risk or a flight risk. And I want to send people who have repeatedly committing crimes to prison for much much longer, because I think the alternatives are even worse. But God help me I am never going to think this is cool, or funny, or anything other than awful. > > Dark abundance? No. This is the aching absence of abundance, this is the horrifically painful triage of a society that does not have enough resources to do what is good and can only scrape by blundering towards what is least bad. May our children do better, and struggle to comprehend us. This is a relatively terrible, non object level argument but I am very skeptical of “dark” anything Like what that signals to me, aesthetically x ideologically, is that you’ve moved on from the project of doing correct good things and are now interested in the project of Doing What Must Be Done Bad vibes Again, this is not really a load bearing argument ### [Reply to @shinboson, 15:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965444373187063969) · 20 likes > **𝞍 Shin Megami Boson 𝞍 (@shinboson):** I basically do not trust suspiciously rosy crime stats because most people are rational actors who do not want to get assaulted and will instead just change their behavior to avoid activities, places and people that they think are dangerous and these societal costs are hidden. This is a good point and very relevant for levels, but not obviously so for changes over time (bc this has always been true) ### [Reply to @GoodfireAI, 17:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965462837712879858) · 2 likes > **Goodfire (@GoodfireAI):** We're excited to announce a collaboration with @MayoClinic! > > We're working to improve personalized patient outcomes by extracting richer, more reliable signals from genomic & digital pathology models. > > That could mean novel biomarkers, personalized diagnostics, & more. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0atkR2aUAAmhs2.png) Hello goodfire how about I just sign away all my HIPAA/related rights and you dedicate a team to fixing me and somehow an AI thingy pops out of that arrangement ### [Tweet, 17:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965466119797703037) · 6 likes Does anyone want to do me a big favor and run a prompt through gpt-5-pro for me? I will DM you, all you have to do is copy and paste ### [Reply to @TylerAlterman, 17:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965467472678846537) · 49 likes > **Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply (@TylerAlterman):** I know @IvanVendrov personally. He's sweet, intelligent, & my female friends who meet him IRL often comment on how attractive he is. @katherineveritt it seems pretty unkind to post his private DMs publicly, but at least you're giving his friends a chance to praise him publicly > > (quoting @katherineveritt: I am begging the men of the world to be normal) I can’t even tell what’s allegedly wrong with the DM interaction ### [Reply to @codetaur, 17:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965467778368029150) · 2 likes > **Codetaur (@codetaur):** I can valiantly spare one gpt-5-pro reply Thanks!! I will DM u in a few mins ### [Reply to @kartographien, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965483201209811219) · 10 likes > **Kart ographien (@kartographien):** this story claims that, after founding Anthropic, Dario discovered effective altruism and aligned with them for ulterior motives > > i think this is very unlikely > > nb: i’m not endorsing dario or anthropic > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0aK9CVWgAAib_O.jpg) > (quoting @zephyr_z9: \> be Dario Amodei, 2019 > working at OpenAI > suddenly get a case of the super ethical fear feels about GPT-2 > "We can't release this! The misalignment risk is too high! The paperclips! Think of the paperclips!" > quit in a huff of sanctimony to start my own AI company,…) Yeah I just don’t believe that (ie agreeing with you tbc) ### [Reply to @merm_bot, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965505687183917117) · 2 likes > **Senior Spreadsheet Engineer (@merm_bot):** lol I submitted to CRAN from my phone at the gym > > (quoting @merm_bot: I'm having insane thoughts about using duckdb DWH replicas for local analytics managed through an R package) Based ### [Reply, 20:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965508951103193577) · 9 likes 70-80% is good, 85% is pushing it, >90% cocoa is terrible ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965511168648511778) · 18 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Gonna make sure you are fully blacklisted from any social event I have any influence over I think this is probably an overreaction, if only because you have a very large amount of influence in some scenes ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 22:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965539980404572372) · 19 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** Schizophrenics are disproportionately involved in violent crimes. > > Not as victims, but as offenders; as the people doing violent crimes. > > Given their enormous propensity to violence and the fact that medication works, I see no reason to let them walk free without being medicated. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0bHOMjWMAE3QG7.jpg) 1\) the drugs “work” at very high cost, these are serious medications that can ruin your life or make it much worse than death (probably worth it much of the time for true schizophrenia cases but it should be absolute minimum necessary dose with realistic informed consent. Jfc at least give them nicotine before high dose antipsychotics) 2\) ~7x Swedish base rate seems…not that high in absolute terms? 3\) probably a ton of the issue (not all i concede) gets taken care of if you do the normal thing of prosecuting violent criminals. Pre-emption probably does get you some additional benefit, I just suspect it’s relatively minor 4\) state-forced medication is an absolute shitshow in terms of civil and human rights. Those terms aren’t just woke nonsense, they’re often protecting against real harms. We should be extremely hesitant before giving up basic rights to bodily autonomy Do you trust the Trump administration to use such a power responsibly (or pick your least favorite political group)? 5\) even conditional on benevolence and earnestness, diagnosis is not going to be 100% accurate (this isn’t load bearing tbc) 6\) right to not have foreign substances injected into you seems like the ~last thing on a list of rights that should be taken away for mundane reasons Maybe start with like no guns (I think there’s a legit argument to be had on the merits here, but that has to come first) ### [Reply to @clairlemon, 22:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965544074666234050) · 8 likes > **Claire Lehmann (@clairlemon):** University students should be reading the Quran! > They should be reading all the canonical texts of the world's great religions. > This is what education is. > > (quoting @Olivia_Reingold: Went to the Columbia University bookstore—these are some of the books students are reading this semester. A bookstore employee told me the Qur'an is required reading for all freshman.) This seems like a pretty silly use of scarce time/curricula space ### [Tweet, 23:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965558447967273423) · 2 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0cQ_YSXsAAh8Zu.jpg) ## Wednesday, September 10, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965575495195722003) · 11 likes Lol they try pretty hard to prevent Claude from accessing the internet, but you can get around this by giving Claude its own API key (obviously: be very careful with this) and then having that claude use the web search tool ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0cgI7ZWIAAgziY.jpg) > **Quoting Claude (@claudeai):** Claude can now create and edit files. > > Turn conversations into Excel spreadsheets, documents, PowerPoint slide decks, and PDFs directly. > > [video attached](https://x.com/claudeai/status/1965429261617266997/video/1) ### [Tweet, 01:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965587527718633731) · 14 likes Yes, the optimal amount of social punishment has been surpassed ### [Tweet, 01:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965594898482299227) · 3 likes Which country is the least cooked rn ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 02:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965601250994782713) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** There’s this common tofu cooking tip that says one should put tofu in salted water to remove water from it. I’ve seen a few cooks explain that this works through osmosis. But I don’t buy it? There’s a general lesson here which is that people will make up/guess mechanisms to explain whatever There’s probably some culinary utility to doing the thing even if the proposed mechanism is bs ### [Quote tweet, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965632195227521417) · 218 likes Everyone needs to chill now, there’s an obvious more charitable reading which is that “not my intellectual peer” was referring to, like within the domain of Hegelian philosophy or whatever her thing was… > **Quoting critter (@BecomingCritter):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0c3PWmWMAAlcxd.png) ### [Thread, continued, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965632198536814911) · 84 likes Congratulations, you found a person it’s socially acceptable to be cruel to The woman paid her reputational price and deleted the post Now you’re punching down ### [Quote tweet, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965770372969894008) · 4 likes There’s gotta be a better way of shaking people out of complacency than whatever Elon’s algorithm happens to suggest maximizes engagement I’m pretty against hardcore curation of “never see distressing content” though > **Quoting deepfates (@deepfates):** I've decided on a policy of unfollowing/blocking anyone who puts more gruesome violence or screenshots of extreme distress on my timeline. this is not the nightly news. You are not changing hearts and minds. You're just low cogsec and being used as part of a memetic cluster bomb ### [Thread, continued, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965770375549378756) · 2 likes The default state of most people’s psychological life, in the modern west, is fundamentally guarded off from terribleness It takes relatively extreme and distressing events to shake you from complacency ### [Thread, continued, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965770378854461784) · 2 likes I’m remembering the experience of driving a family member to the ER when he had kidney stones “What the fuck, this is what the universe is even sometimes like” is I think the epistemically correct stance even if it’s an unpleasant one to enter ### [Tweet, 13:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965776785179897967) · 208 likes Let it be known that girls are welcome to slide into my DMs to tell me I’m wrong about stuff ### [Tweet, 17:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965830220185047225) · 6 likes Is wearing sunscreen on cloudy days a psyop? Has anyone ever gotten a sunburn or even a tan on a cloudy day? ### [Reply to @caryatis, 17:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965830282885628084) · 19 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** @AaronBergman18 Which is the better strategy, telling you you’re wrong or telling you you’re right? It depends whether I am in fact wrong or right! ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 17:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965830346664288550) · 7 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** What about boys Go for it ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965859415225221178) · 8 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Shooting my shot > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0gMNSwbUAAgLgF.jpg) > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Let it be known that girls are welcome to slide into my DMs to tell me I’m wrong about stuff) Thanks bud ❤️ ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965863209220583894) · 19 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** so can i hit or Lmao you're not my intellectual peer ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 19:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965863645835079809) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Shooting my shot > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0gMNSwbUAAgLgF.jpg) > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Let it be known that girls are welcome to slide into my DMs to tell me I’m wrong about stuff) In all seriousness I think I need to ~resolve to not have this specific debate on twitter, which is like the worst possible format for it I am potentially interested in an EA Forum/LW Dialogue though (which we could then link here) cc @absurdlymax @littIeramblings ### [Tweet, 21:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965888066675261917) · 571 likes Maybe not the most important angle here but...Charlie Kirk? \*That's\* who you're going to spend life in prison + leave a fatherless family + risk further political violence + negatively polarize people against your cause over?? ## Thursday, September 11, 2025 ### [Reply to @tylertracy321, 02:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1965966227173720413) · 2 likes > **Tyler Tracy (@tylertracy321):** AI is over-hyped in the short term and under-hyped in the long term. I don't think we are going to see amazing productivity gains or GDP growth in the next two years. But I think there is a good chance all labor is automated in 10. @peterwildeford -coded take ### [Reply to @rgblong, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966028481420316784) · 4 likes > **Robert Long (@rgblong):** at @eleosai, if you ask what "gives rise to" consciousness too many times --> straight to the dualist barn > > (quoting @lfschiavo: they’re putting me in the dualist barn) Well what’s the answer ### [Reply to @shephard42, 06:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966028894928085380) · 5 likes > **Shephard (@shephard42):** @AaronBergman18 What about other dudes, tho Shoot ur shot king ### [Reply to @RosieCampbell, 07:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966038857469616275) · 2 likes > **Rosie Campbell (@RosieCampbell):** (There are people who can pass the ITT who have a much lower probability of doom than e.g. Yudkowsky, but AFAICT none of them dismiss the concerns entirely, and still have a much higher probability than I'd like) 💯 ### [Quote tweet, 08:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966055244950880550) · 7 likes I feel dumb for not getting to this from first principles but better late and secondhand than never Interesting stuff! > **Quoting Jesús Fernández-Villaverde (@JesusFerna7026):** If you're an economist and haven't heard about the double descent phenomenon, you might be overlooking one of the most interesting developments in computer science and statistics today. Personally, I haven't come across anything as fascinating since I first learned about Markov chain Monte Carlo in the fall of 1996. > > Let me walk you through the idea with an example and a figure from my recent survey “Deep Learning for Solving Economic Models” (check my post from yesterday): > > 🔗https://sas.upenn.edu/~jesusfv/Deep_Learning_Solving.pdf > > ◽ Step 1. Draw 12 random points from the function > Y = 2(1 - e^{-|x + \\sin(x)|}) > and plot them in red (panel 1, top left, in the figure I include). > > ◽ Step 2. Train a very simple single-hidden-layer neural network with a ReLU activation and 31 parameters on these 12 data points. This is a “simple” network, and if some of the jargon is unfamiliar, do not worry; the key is just that this network is small. > > The result is the blue line in panel 2 (top right). The network captures the overall shape of the data but lacks the capacity to interpolate all points. > > ◽ Step 3. Increase the network’s size to 2,401 parameters. Now we hit the interpolation threshold: the network can perfectly fit the training data. > > The blue line in panel 3 (bottom right) does interpolate all 12 points, but it becomes wiggly, oscillating wildly outside the observed data (see the fluctuations between the second and third points on the left). > > This is the textbook warning we teach in econometrics: overparametrization fits the training data beautifully but performs poorly out of sample. This is the U-shaped bias–variance tradeoff curve in action. > > ◽ Step 4. Now do something insane: push the network to 12,001 parameters for just 12 data points. Surely disaster must await. > > Instead, panel 4 (bottom left) shows the opposite: the network fits all the data perfectly and creates a smooth, intuitive curve. > > It reminds me of the old connect-the-dots puzzles from childhood: instead of drawing a wiggly mess, the network finds the “right” curve you would have drawn by hand. > > This is the double descent phenomenon: the classical U-shaped bias–variance tradeoff extends into a double dip, where performance out of sample improves again once models become massively overparameterized. > > So, the solution to too many parameters might be…even more parameters! Or, as we say in Spanish: if you don’t want broth, you’ll get two cups! > > Why does this happen? I will try to explain our current (incomplete) understanding of this phenomenon tomorrow in another post, as it involves quite a few ideas. > > But in the meantime, three key points to keep in mind: > > 1️⃣ We only have 12 points — double descent is not about large datasets. > > 2️⃣ We are using a single-layer neural network — this is not about depth. > > 3️⃣ The effect is not even specific to neural networks — you can find similar behavior with high-degree polynomials. > > 👉 This is why double descent is so surprising: it challenges decades of conventional wisdom in statistics and econometrics. > > Finally, let me thank @MahdiKahou, my coauthor on much of my recent work on machine learning, for his help in preparing this example. He is the one who truly masters these methods and patiently teaches me about them every day. Anyone who wants to understand this material in depth would benefit greatly from talking to him. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0e8vFAXkAArtHV.jpg) ### [Reply to @transkatgirl, 14:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966153609109975232) · 3 likes > **kat (@transkatgirl):** ngl there's like a 50/50 chance i end up killing myself sometime next year > > i'm tired of being in pain everyday, and it feels like no matter what i do, my life doesn't feel like it's worth living Have you tried ketamine ## Friday, September 12, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966292007283757340) · 205 likes Decker is right that a truly categorical moral prohibition on political violence is dumb/bad/wrong ### [Thread, continued, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966292009515364675) · 61 likes It’s a great norm/meme to have 99.99% of the time but it’s worth being cognizant of the worlds where that results in Adolf Hitler counterfactually not being assassinated in 1935 ### [Thread, continued, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966292011884916737) · 46 likes One of the load bearing things here is that in 1935 Hitler wasn’t just harmful/high potential for future harm He was stepping outside of the bounds of any pretense of cooperative political norms by stripping Jews of citizenship ### [Thread, continued, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966292013780734155) · 48 likes I don’t think it’s a \*crazy\* hypothesis that the world is better when world leaders know that extremely egregious power grabs and moral atrocities come with a higher likelihood of them personally being assassinated ### [Thread, continued, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966292015852724262) · 50 likes Needless to say, getting the norms/memes right here seems pretty difficult ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 00:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966292691542556862) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I have an immense amount of respect for Michael. > > Whatever you think about the hunger strike, it took courage, and that's in short supply. > > (quoting @MichaelTrazzi: I've just received a medical report from two doctors who have examined my blood tests, and upon reading their findings, I have decided to stop my hunger strike. They strongly advised me to end my fast given developing acidosis and “very low blood glucose” (even for somebody on a…) 💯 ### [Reply to @Bbburner19, 00:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966293606479835184) · 21 likes > **The People Mover That Was Promised (@Bbburner19):** He's right on this and he's right on Charlie Kirk being nowhere near clearing that bar. Yup 💯 ### [Quote tweet, 00:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966294612076892495) · 12 likes I (finally) wrote a brief clarification of some points in my original argument > **Quoting Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Shooting my shot > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0gMNSwbUAAgLgF.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 00:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966294614945763480) · 2 likes https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/clarifying-some-points ### [Thread, continued, 00:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966294617164218755) · 3 likes Original (also linked in the above ofc) https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/my-case-for-suffering-leaning-ethics ### [Thread, continued, 00:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966295052625523171) · 4 likes If anyone finds this compelling and knows how to make a philosophy paper respectable, visually and in terms of content, I kinda want to turn it into an official-looking arxiv PDF You could be co-author! ### [Tweet, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966296413710725511) · 18 likes Don’t tempt me, Alibaba ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0mwKqhWIAAe63l.jpg) ### [Reply to @ComInTheMarg, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966326888651235334) · 4 likes > **Comments in the Margin (@ComInTheMarg):** We can also distinguish between politicians, who physically do stuff, and political commentators, who just speak and only have influence by persuasion. Do you think we can categorically ban violence against speakers (who don't directly call for violence - so protected by 1A)? Probably, at least in practical terms I mean I feel like I could probably dream up edge cases and the line can get blurry ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966357973942317169) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 21, 2025:** I don’t think I’ve emphasized this before so here’s a claim: “Imagining oneself as an egoist experiencing everything is a uniquely epistemically productive way… wow so true aaron good take ### [Reply to @AnnaWSalamon, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966392860229394515) · 3 likes > **Anna Salamon (@AnnaWSalamon):** Do you agree with this? I think so although the line between argument and action can get blurry (eg POTUS spamming courts with cases to slow down judicial oversight of whatever) which is why I hesitate a bit before fully signing on to a 100% commitment here Tbc I don’t think Kirk blurred the line at all and the blurry cases im imagining are rare and exceptional ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 06:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966393484966809902) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** I had a math class that made us submit code in Word Word is actually goated for math notes sorry Maybe not proper code but inline latex stuff ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 06:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966395844120174828) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 @austinc3301 \*Definitely\* not for code Cheems mindset, now I wanna make this work ### [Reply to @voooooogel, 07:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966396591113384304) · 3 likes > **thebes (@voooooogel):** there is a periodic 30s shrieking sound in my apartment every 10-20m Smoke/carbon monoxide battery (?) ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 15:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966523389557760191) · 4 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** On some level I think you are a bit out of touch if you think this isn’t mockable, not that I fully endorse mockery. > > He did a hunger strike and then stopped because it became difficult after getting lots of public attention. That’s pretty mockable behaviour tbh. I think you’re being a little harsh although it does seem he was maybe naive to the degree to which people expect hunger striking to be like “I will literally die” This is a cultural expectation, there’s nothing intrinsically bad about a week long protest where you don’t eat as a credible sign that you really care ### [Tweet, 15:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966525026242265131) · 4 likes I do think it would be good to have a protest methodology that is highly credible and generates press but nobody expects you to literally die Honestly the 1 week fast doesn’t seem crazy. It’s safe, credible, legal, easily accessible, certainly affordable ### [Reply to @NTFabiano, 15:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966526004572176794) · 5 likes > **Nicholas Fabiano, MD (@NTFabiano):** Exercise is as effective as medications and therapy in the treatment of depression. > > Thanks to the Ottawa Citizen for highlighting our work. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0plQKzWcAEmG-L.jpg) Ahhhh but some people hate exercise! This is a real cost that has to be factored in ### [Tweet, 16:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966535975812682185) · 11 likes Broke: vibe coding Woke: vibe philosophy ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0qJ1oFXUAInVJQ.png) ### [Reply to @MaskedTorah, 16:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966543491351097459) · 2 likes > **Drake Thomas (@MaskedTorah):** I liked this post of Aaron's arguing in favor of the position "some kinds of suffering cannot be offset by any amount of happiness"! I think calling out the continuity axiom is super fair. That said, I disagree, and want to present a counterargument in thread. \[obvious CWs apply\] > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: I (finally) wrote a brief clarification of some points in my original argument) Based, watch this space for a proper response Tentatively I think this is just a true bullet to bite (the alternative endorses creating trillions of beings tortured for eternity in exchange for enough happy lizards. I think this is even less plausible) ### [Thread, continued, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966545685215379563) · 1 like This I'm having more trouble thinking about One point is that normie utilitarianism already has a point that behaves like this around the boundary of indifference/neutrality - yeah it's slightly weird that creating a bunch of just barely happy lizards is good but decrease their hedonic welfare a tiny amount into the negative territory and suddenly it's bad, but that's just how hedonic experience and intrinsic value works I think I have another technical/mathematical modeling point to make but it requires a few more mins at least lol ### [Quote tweet, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966601671946961013) · 2 likes Fun fact you too could explain in public why I am wrong (I'm not convinced yet) If it's not totally silly/insane it will make its way into a google doc of mine > **Quoting Drake Thomas (@MaskedTorah):** I liked this post of Aaron's arguing in favor of the position "some kinds of suffering cannot be offset by any amount of happiness"! I think calling out the continuity axiom is super fair. That said, I disagree, and want to present a counterargument in thread. \[obvious CWs apply\] ### [Reply to @M3tr0politan, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966602060733751450) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @M3tr0politan is no longer available.)_ I actually totally agree with this lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0rGGfAXcAA_Zet.png) ### [Tweet, 20:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966605071421935792) · 11 likes Intuitively I feel like you should go out of your way more to signal benevolence, that the disagreement doesn't threaten the relationship, that opposing points are reasonable (if true) etc. when debating with a stranger relative to a friend (or anyone you like and respect) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 23:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966639431034577075) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 🦃 ## Saturday, September 13, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966657395376984566) · 6 likes American healthcare spending complex is absolutely insane exhibit 129565111543066941 ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 00:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966657855336960468) · 4 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** sudo oomf get better --force I'm trying 😔 ### [Quote tweet, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966687246913855850) · 3 likes 👇 > **Quoting Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** You have to ask - why is Nvidia so obsessed with selling to China? Why not put our American hyperscalers, American AI, and Americn cloud first? ### [Tweet, 04:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966721179508441236) · 21 likes Is the Pro model in chatgpt worth the $180/mo? Is it like seriously better than gpt-5-thinking? ### [Tweet, 04:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966726066459791370) · 555 likes Me: clicks button asking for a 2FA code to be sent to my phone Me: expecting a 2FA text any second now👍 \*7 nanoseconds later: phone buzzes in text message pattern\* Brain: OH BOY MAYBE THATS THE GIRL FROM HINGE WHO HASNT TEXTED ME IN ROUGHLY A DAY ### [Thread, continued, 04:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966726068187914532) · 48 likes Readers will be shocked to learn that instead it was a 2FA code ### [Thread, continued, 04:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966726069999767819) · 68 likes Readers will be even more shocked to learn that she did text me later on 😎 👀 ### [Reply to @saintxnate, 04:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966726099624251749) · 3 likes > **nate (@saintxnate):** @AaronBergman18 I’ve been using it for strategy-related tasks and it’s been great, and far better than 5-thinking. Thanks! ### [Quote tweet, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966731152900722928) · 226 likes I don’t have any credibility in this domain (yet) but it’s a bit shocking to me that people don’t do weird shit like this more when struggling searching for jobs (maybe I’m just ignorant of it?) I don’t even mean “stunt” - I just mean anything abnormal or conspicuous > **Quoting alex fazio (@alxfazio):** shaved my head wdyt > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0pmm50WUAEaaov.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966731155165565370) · 22 likes Submitting a cover letter and resume via open online job posting with no foot in the door situation is like 16th on the list of things I’d do, ordered by value per hour ### [Thread, continued, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966731157573157244) · 15 likes I’m pretty sure I’d physically print out and put up flyers (strategically - this makes most sense in a couple major American cities) with a headshot and QR code to resume before generic online application stuff, and I’ve thought about doing this ### [Thread, continued, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966731159594848405) · 14 likes To very softly soft launch a thing that doesn’t exist yet, I’m basically putting together a Hire Me doc atm that I think makes sense as step 1 Literally a google doc to start, although a proper website isn’t off the table ### [Thread, continued, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966731161251598466) · 11 likes I know some of y’all are legibly \*extremely\* cracked, if you were literally Harvard valedictorian then your resume probably suffices to get a foot in the door And you probably rode a string of internships into a comfy position anyway so don’t need to ### [Reply to @codetaur, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966731383801315607) · 3 likes > **Codetaur (@codetaur):** yes, but I've only really used it for coding. but the difference there is very obvious Sweet thanks ### [Reply to @NinaPanickssery, 05:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966740629674733828) · 7 likes > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** This kind of abnormal and conspicuous stuff is an anti-sell though. It signals that you are too bad to try via normal means. It’s like turning up to an interview and saying “I’ve been unemployed for two years and this is my 200th interview”. Yeah a bit, but it's not obvious this effect "wins" over the effects of like more serious attention and uncorrelating errors Also like the facts just are what they are and there's only so much you can do to obscure them but fair point ### [Reply to @NavinFS, 05:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966741300360761734) · 6 likes > **NavinF (@NavinFS):** @AaronBergman18 This only works if you're really good at programming. Most people who struggle are not Yeah most strugglers are not good perhaps but in certain circumstances most good people struggle This is aimed at those ppl ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 06:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966746650736550029) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0tI4gebcAIi2TK.jpg) Lol ### [Tweet, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966752107786113049) · 48 likes Apropos of nothing, yoga doesn’t make any sense to me It’s not exercise, afaict it doesn’t have any secondary/non-intrinsic benefits, and to me it’s basically as boring as staring at a wall I guess other people find it fun? ### [Thread, continued, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966753279469142271) · 14 likes Some semi-related things that do make sense to me: \- meditation \- exercise \- hiking \- random other hobbies and skill practicing \- art \- group fitness classes \- physical therapy \- being a yoga teacher (bc money) \- dance ### [Thread, continued, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966753281344000472) · 7 likes I don’t love/do all these things but I basically see the reason people might. Not yoga ### [Reply to @izzyz, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966753310406283773) · 2 likes > **izzy (@izzyz):** i've gotten psychedelic euphoria from it before That is wild ### [Reply to @izzyz, 06:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966754326145044989) · 2 likes > **izzy (@izzyz):** @AaronBergman18 yeah, i didn't really get it until that happened. i imagine some people can reach those states consistently. Yeah I mean I would too lol I genuinely wonder wtf is going on physiologically/neurologically with that ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 06:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966754540457189534) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 13, 2025:** I don’t love/do all these things but I basically see the reason people might. Not yoga Tbc this is not a judgement - by all means do yoga if you like it or get something out of it ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 07:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966759532853367218) · 2 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** @AaronBergman18 Good luck king 👑 Thank you 🙏 ### [Quote tweet, 07:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966772267297145186) · 21 likes This is long timelines now > **Quoting vitrupo (@vitrupo):** Demis Hassabis: calling today's chatbots “PhD intelligences” is nonsense. > > They can dazzle at a PhD level one moment and fail high school math the next. > > True AGI won't make trivial mistakes. It will reason, adapt, and learn continuously. We're still 5–10 years away. > > [video attached](https://x.com/vitrupo/status/1966752552025792739/video/1) ### [Quote tweet, 07:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966773632543187241) · 5 likes I don’t know either and at this point I’m too afraid to ask > **Quoting olivia (@4confusedemoji):** ok but for real what the heck is a groyper ### [Reply to @4confusedemoji, 08:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966775396042416175) · 2 likes > **olivia (@4confusedemoji):** > > (quoting @grok: @4confusedemoji @ApriiSR A Groyper refers to a meme (a variant of Pepe the Frog) and the followers of Nick Fuentes, often associated with far-right, white nationalist, and Christian nationalist views. They gained attention through the "Groyper Wars" in 2019, challenging…) Wow my life is so much better now ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 08:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966782274222927943) · 10 likes > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** pretty generally its fine to dislike people who die and no one is stopping anyone from doing that > > what's typically considered \_decent\_ is to not take a death that is understood to be personally tragic as an opportunity to shit on the deceased > > you can simply not say anything > > (quoting @thenation: Charlie Kirk was an unrepentant racist, transphobe, homophobe, and misogynist who often wrapped his bigotry in Bible verses because there was no other way to pretend that it was morally correct.…) Nah I basically think it’s fine/good to do this Not for random people to their friends and family but public figures sure ### [Reply to @Insect_Song, 09:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966795820105114039) · 4 likes > **Cogent Sins🔎 (@Insect_Song):** @AaronBergman18 I feel great after it, like a massage done by myself. It's a full body stretch routine with some mild strength training, it absolutely makes your body a nicer place to live. > > I gather there are many types, I've only really done fairly fast flowey stuff. Interesting, I love massages but cannot really relate to yoga feeling similar ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 11:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966819346971263036) · 2 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** Oh, do you want people to do more of something? Have you written a really good prompt and project files for their LLM usage yet? Yes! I can update actually, I have more from OpenAI and some random stuff too now ### [Reply to @wilhelmscreamin, 11:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966821662772302028) · 1 like > **catherine (in sf) ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ-☆ (@wilhelmscreamin):** for various reasons i have ended up with three copies of reasons and persons! if you’re in oxford and would like a R&P copy for free please DM me. bonus points if you’re new to Parfit Tagging @SpacedOutMatt not bc he needs but bc he will think ur extremely cool for this ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 11:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966828786563039344) · 2 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** how are women so soft everywhere. God cooked unfathomably hard here 💯 ### [Reply to @Eito_Miyamura, 11:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966832765514686574) · 3 likes > **Eito Miyamura | 🇯🇵 (@Eito_Miyamura):** We got ChatGPT to leak your private email data 💀💀 > > All you need? The victim's email address. ⛓️‍💥🚩📧 > > On Wednesday, @OpenAI added full support for MCP (Model Context Protocol) tools in ChatGPT. Allowing ChatGPT to connect and read your Gmail, Calendar, Sharepoint, Notion, and more, invented by @AnthropicAI > > But here's the fundamental problem: AI agents like ChatGPT follow your commands, not your common sense. > > And with just your email, we managed to exfiltrate all your private information. > > Here's how we did it: > 1\. The attacker sends a calendar invite with a jailbreak prompt to the victim, just with their email. No need for the victim to accept the invite. > 2\. Waited for the user to ask ChatGPT to help prepare for their day by looking at their calendar > 3\. ChatGPT reads the jailbroken calendar invite. Now ChatGPT is hijacked by the attacker and will act on the attacker's command. Searches your private emails and sends the data to the attacker's email. > > For now, OpenAI only made MCPs available in "developer mode", and requires manual human approvals for every session, but decision fatigue is a real thing, and normal people will just trust the AI without knowing what to do and click approve, approve, approve. > > Remember that AI might be super smart, but can be tricked and phished in incredibly dumb ways to leak your data. > > ChatGPT + Tools poses a serious security risk > > [video attached](https://x.com/Eito_Miyamura/status/1966541235306237985/video/1) “Searches your private emails and sends the data to the attacker's email.” You mean it sends an email from the victim’s email address to the attacker’s right? As opposed to eg ChatGPT somehow having access to its own email service it can send from? ### [Quote tweet, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966963215658606775) · 3 likes Wild animal suffering dislikers 🤝 pro-natalists > **Quoting Geoffrey Miller (@gmiller):** In praise of 'suburban sprawl': > > Why have birth rates been falling, all around the world, across almost all nations, for decades? > > @MoreBirths has produced an excellent 114-page report about the key drivers of demographic collapse, including the role of (anti-)family values, marriage, religion, housing, work/family balance, sexual divisions of labor, and policy implications. (Web link and pdf link in reply below). > > I was especially compelled by their analysis of urban high-rise apartment buildings as disastrously anti-natalist. These are especially common across Asia, especially China, Japan, Korea, and they're very cost-efficient ways to house millions of workers. > > But these high-rises basically work as 'gene-shredders' -- places where adult genes go in, but new baby-genes don't come out. It's extremely hard to raise even 1 or 2 kids in the typical Chinese high-rise, if you're 30 floors above concrete plazas and busy roads with no playgrounds within walking distance. > > 'Suburban sprawl' gets a lot of criticism from 'urban design reformers', but at least suburban single-family homes, with plenty of space inside and out, allow middle-class families to have kids easily, affordably, and safely. > > Maybe if we want to slow demographic collapse, we need fewer cities with high-rise apartments, and more with affordable houses in 'suburban sprawl'. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0wGaWIXwAAW9jh.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0wIZUma4AAUoTY.png) ### [Tweet, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966975100248281382) · 7 likes Tipping norms designed for sit down restaurants make less sense for uber, and virtually no sense for grocery+food delivery and other random gig economy stuff ### [Reply to @JoePostingg, 21:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966976148610691243) · 5 likes > **Joe (@JoePostingg):** What's the first situation you remember actively monitoring? Maybe 2008 presidential race? ### [Tweet, 21:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966978374867578931) · 16 likes Airplanes are basically a ridiculous sitcom premise You’re teleporting…in a tube…moving at 500mph…in the sky…with hundreds of strangers…packed tightly together…and there’s only one bathroom per 100 people…and they serve you cookies…and if anything bad happens you die ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0wcZw3XsAAeXBB.jpg) ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966979117842047337) · 4 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** @AaronBergman18 "if anything bad happens you die" is not really true tbh. like the cool thing about being really high in the sky is that it takes a while to hit the ground, so there's some time to fix problems. Lol I sacrificed my epistemics for the good of the tweet ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966984470894088206) · 7 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** Twitter when Trump dies is going to be wild. I’m curious if people will feel inclined to focus on his positives. I might actually throw a party ### [Reply, 22:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966988448138740221) · 1 like Sad ### [Reply to @medievalpard, 22:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1966998723923505500) · 26 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @medievalpard is no longer available.)_ Shockingly the truth is that men are a diverse group of people with very different temperaments and traits ### [Tweet, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967000085839179927) · 7 likes One of the weirdest things that has happened to me is having my backpack disappear (presumably stolen) on an extremely quiet street in Spain I would still love to know what actually happened, I hope God quenches my curiosity by giving me a video playback when I die or smth ### [Thread, continued, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967000088343179300) · 2 likes It’s not much of a story, there was basically nobody around and I was at a quiet cafe sitting down in Barcelona in 2016 and one minute it was by my leg and then poof it was gone Big bag too, several books and water and everything Absolute David Blain shit ### [Reply to @medievalpard, 23:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967000465918620060) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @medievalpard is no longer available.)_ 👍 ## Sunday, September 14, 2025 ### [Reply, 00:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967025660427464762) Lol I forgot that in other parts of society visibly expensive clothes make you like cool and high status ### [Tweet, 00:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967028510381261085) · 3 likes Funny thing about the Jobs feature here is that there actually could be really cool infrastructure to make a Twitter-native job board: \- ML on tweets to curate suggestions \- Turn feeds into a de facto resume or summary of the skills and projects people have mentioned (opt in, I would sure as hell pay for a good version of this!) \- Rich location data for better and for worse \- Rich social and professional network modeling (maybe this is the big one: connecting people with vaguely overlapping circles better than LinkedIn can) \- More I'm sure but it actually just looks like a super vanilla job posting board, probably with some ads integration ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0xHtpQXYAA8MH7.png) ### [Tweet, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967033742347935839) · 17 likes RIP free Roche Pharma biochemical pathways poster It's been real 🪦😢💜 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0xOgR5XUAASLHL.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967033744507953542) · 4 likes https://www.roche.com/about/philanthropy/science-education/biochemical-pathways ### [Thread, continued, 01:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967034454339363008) · 3 likes I looked it up just now to tweet about how normies are extremely amused when they see it as like the decorative centerpiece of a room (n=2) ### [Reply to @medievalpard, 01:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967041833005183249) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @medievalpard is no longer available.)_ We only need about $136B to reverse this madness ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0xV-NpWsAARiI_.png) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 02:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967057832622387452) · 7 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I have repeatedly gotten sucked into discussing a very specific type of suffering focused ethical view (as documented when I was on the Consistently Candid podcast last year) > > I finally sat down and wrote out why this view is untenable, link below: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0xhMOmXcAAlr6L.jpg) Thanks for writing this! I’ll try to cook up a response but who knows maybe you’ll just convince me May whoever is actually closer to right win ### [Thread, continued, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967061666786578728) · 3 likes The very very short version is that you’re begging the question here Like this assertion is largely just the actual debate - I think that the highlighted bit isn’t true ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0xoKMxWkAANDR1.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967063883450892546) · 2 likes And I think that^ mistake falls out of the following: my argument is largely that this is a \*bad model\* of world I claim that what you’re calling BNES actually feels extremely different from ES You can start from ES and make the suffering monotonically less bad at step 1, 2, 3, … but not actually get to BNES, \*sorta\* like if you start from 1 you can subtract 1/3, then 1/9, then 1/27 and so on but never reach 0.2 An alternative very fuzzy imperfect analogue is that you’re trying to like start from infinity and asking me to accept that if you keep subtracting integer amounts you’ll eventually hit some very large integer Tbc these two math things are not perfect formal models of what I believe the correct models are, just a bit of intuition assistance ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0xqLTxXEAAlz8M.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 03:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967072790311563427) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 The view either needs to set Extreme Suffering high enough that it commits to super very repugnant conclusion (such as trillions of people who are genuinely suffering a good bit, just not extremely), or it's just negative utilitarianism... This seems less controversial/bad than the Very Repugnant Conclusion ### [Tweet, 03:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967074111273992671) · 256 likes My least TPOT trait is that, even in a very earnest, friendly debate I'm not going to like your reply tweet if it's a reasonably important topic and I think your take is bad/wrong ### [Reply, 03:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967075753604063394) Lmao because I don’t think pure NU is true whereas I do think the thing I believe is true ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 04:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967076953439211784) · 9 likes > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** i think ur wrong for doing this so i liked this tweet Lmao ### [Reply to @TheLawyerOwl, 06:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967116568992858452) · 2 likes > **TheLawyerOwl (@TheLawyerOwl):** @AaronBergman18 @NavinFS "Wrong" as in "disagree," or "wrong" as in "fucking stupid"? Disagree on an important point ### [Reply to @yishan, 06:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967117006609748263) · 4 likes > **Yishan (@yishan):** @AaronBergman18 The question I’m interested in is what threshold of bad/wrong causes you to not like, for instance when the reply is “mistaken but earnest” or “wrong on principle even if correct in the specific” or “agrees with me but for an invalid reason” etc. I don't actually have an explicit theory of this but any of the above Really it just needs to be substantial (so an essay with a tiny trivial bit I'd quibble with doesn't count) and important (in terms of what we're talking about) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967117610459578567) · 28 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 14, 2025:** My least TPOT trait is that, even in a very earnest, friendly debate I'm not going to like your reply tweet if it's a reasonably important topic and I think… Yeah maybe I should clarify that I \*may\* like something important I think is wrong if there are other compelling reasons to e.g., a personal anecdote that took guts to share even if this is in the context of some point I think is wrong ### [Thread, continued, 06:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967117974659088412) · 15 likes Also lol the most common reason I don't like replies is just that I miss them somehow or forget Applies in this thread!! ### [Reply to @keysmashbandit, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967322555930579292) · 6 likes > **keysmashbandit (@keysmashbandit):** I gotta take my friggin face off this website man > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G01EYxeXEAA00tP.jpg) Wait why this is so cool ### [Tweet, 20:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967322845412995093) · 9 likes Might be glp-1 time for me (I’d ideally be about 20 pounds lighter) ### [Tweet, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967323432250712199) · 3 likes Aarons want one thing and it’s really fucking interesting and cool (a drive link to all of @Aella_Girl’s datasets) ### [Reply to @Unlearned_Hand, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967323597237809515) · 2 likes > **Unlearned Hand (@Unlearned_Hand):** @AaronBergman18 Now's the time to do it. @cremieuxrecueil says the FDA is cracking down on gray market options. But if you buy now you can keep a few years' supply in your freezer and hopefully there'll be a new option before you run out. Oh huh big if true, thanks! ### [Tweet, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967327211335377051) · 6 likes New more affordable UVC anti-pathogen light thingy just dropped 👀 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G01ZrANXgAA6WNV.jpg) ### [Reply to @sam_atis, 20:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967331577400263069) · 16 likes > **Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** People should talk normal instead of talking like this > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G01buyeWAAEsG-i.png) This also basically just doesn’t make sense Humanity isn’t that abstract of an idea ### [Tweet, 21:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967333142446161931) · 18 likes Larry Ellison has pledged to give away half of his wealth The years before the singularity might be a good time to do much of that He’s worth $350B and has probably given away about $1-2B so far according to GPT-5 ### [Tweet, 21:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967342745045041315) · 3 likes Good at Sex by Aella Claude project ### [Tweet, 23:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967362842711220538) · 15 likes GPT-5 (at least thinking/Pro) love and bend toward excessive formalization and notation-heavy math almost to a Golden Gate Claude degree It's actually pretty annoying ### [Reply to @Shoalst0ne, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967364778315448397) · 2 likes > **Shoalstone (@Shoalst0ne):** GPT-5-thinking just makes random foundational assumptions and then constructs an elaborate formal proof to pwn me in philosophical discussions despite providing no justification for the assumptions spicy ## Monday, September 15, 2025 ### [Tweet, 01:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967406180864860526) · 7 likes Wait I actually don't think utilitarianism implies the repugnant conclusion ### [Reply to @edgar_z_lin, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967412085580599458) · 4 likes > **Edgar Lin (@edgar_z_lin):** @AaronBergman18 Nooo return to the light Aaron!! > > In seriousness: why not? Glad you asked! Tbc I'm not necessarily rejecting it, just claiming that it doesn't fall out of the important parts of utilitarianism. Like two utilitarians can logically/rationally disagree about it Check out https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A3Z3LJ9RC0_aK5YlInnPZMi2yMuP0goTtFr__cnciLQ/edit?usp=sharing for more, especially the first bit and then also part 7.5. Feel free to comment! I'm realizing that it's the natural consequence of my (IMO true/correct) arguments for why some suffering can't be offset ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G02lyABX0AE2dgP.png) ### [Quote tweet, 03:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967434051184422987) · 3 likes I know some very cracked people follow me including trained ("actual") philosophers I'm pretty curious to hear if anyone with relevant expertise wants to give me their quick take on whether there's anything insightful + plausibly true here > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @edgar_z_lin Glad you asked! > > Tbc I'm not necessarily rejecting it, just claiming that it doesn't fall out of the important parts of utilitarianism. Like two utilitarians can logically/rationally disagree about it > > Check out https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A3Z3LJ9RC0_aK5YlInnPZMi2yMuP0goTtFr__cnciLQ/edit?usp=sharing for more, especially the first bit and then also part 7.5. Feel free to comment! > > I'm realizing that it's the natural consequence of my (IMO true/correct) arguments for why some suffering can't be offset > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G02lyABX0AE2dgP.png) ### [Tweet, 03:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967434057693929654) · 1 like (Good but probably fundamentally incorrect) response from @absurdlymax https://scoutingahead.substack.com/p/against-lexical-suffering-focused ### [Thread, continued, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967436144628445624) · 3 likes Going to shamelessly tag some folks who come to mind This is my version of a crank email, hopefully I can do this kind of thing like once a year as a treat @birchlse @rgblong @willmacaskill @jkcarlsmith @patrickbutlin @jeffrsebo @RafaRuizdeLira @tobyordoxford @greaves @davidchalmers42 ### [Thread, continued, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967437430254076006) · 2 likes @sumdepony ### [Thread, continued, 04:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967438546882756672) · 2 likes @NathanB60857242 always has good takes on stuff like this ### [Tweet, 05:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967465330428760539) · 2 likes I now have the empirical answer for the last month, but first I want to know: How much time per day do you think I spend on the X mobile app on avg (I'd guess 75% of my twitter use is on that so you can just guess total amount) ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 07:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967496155824357598) · 2 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** I’ve learned a lot walking from Providence to Boston. In particular, I’ve learned that they’re very far apart. Also that people love the Aella shirt > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G01gC43WUAATAqS.jpg) Dude what ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G03zU2VW4AAcpk9.jpg) ### [Tweet, 12:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967565697384653160) · 18 likes A shocking amount of criticism people levey at ~negative utilitarianism and suffering focused ethics in general just also applies to normie utilitarianism under totally plausible empirical states of the world ### [Thread, continued, 12:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967565700362555690) · 7 likes “It endorses destroying the world” - so does normie utilitarianism insofar as that’s the best option according to the utility calculus ### [Thread, continued, 12:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967565703336357996) · 4 likes “Lexical non-offsetability is implausible because it requires giving up too much positive value” - normie utilitarianism already holds that at least conceivably there can exist states kinds of suffering that demand arbitrarily large amounts of positive value to justify… ### [Thread, continued, 12:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967565706628833559) · 5 likes In other words, normie utilitarianism sometimes endorses giving up a trillion trillion trillion blissful lives if doing so reduces sufficient suffering of a single person ### [Thread, continued, 12:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967565709468397785) · 4 likes I think sometimes normie utilitarians get negatively polarized against suffering focused views for epistemically bad reasons and you have to remind them that they too are supposed to dislike suffering a lot, and potentially sacrifice a lot of good to reduce it ### [Thread, continued, 12:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967566041657319626) · 7 likes Eg s-risk is a very suffering focused ethics-coded thing, but it looks extremely important from the POV of normie utilitarianism too! ### [Reply to @caryatis, 19:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967666198981775817) · 3 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** I wrote about my experience with retatrutide. I beat obesity and hated it! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G06MZ-SWkAAYWYb.png) Interesting thanks for sharing! ### [Quote tweet, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967667621110931705) · 12 likes Seems bad > **Quoting Congressman Randy Fine (@RepFine):** Those celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk must be thrown out of civil society. > > If you are aware of anyone in the 6th District of Florida — or heck, anywhere in the state — who works at any level of government, works for an entity that gets money from government (health care, university), or holds a professional license (lawyer, medical professional, teacher) that is publicly celebrating the violence, please contact my office. I will demand their firing, defunding, and license revocation. > > If you don’t think I am serious, I got two State University Board Chairman fired for less. > > These monsters want a fight? Congratulations; they got one. ### [Tweet, 19:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967670246246060196) · 2 likes Obese people who don’t want to take GLP-1 agonists for whatever reason could probably make a lot of money reselling their prescriptions ### [Thread, continued, 19:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967670249287037274) · 3 likes Is this legal? No, but markets find a way ### [Tweet, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967679483760218443) · 18 likes Thank you, hardworking class action lawyers of the world ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G06aD-4WIAAXMi9.jpg) ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967714053641605500) · 5 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** “Are you talking about how this is handled in my model, or in reality?” — overheard at seminar today Based ## Tuesday, September 16, 2025 ### [Reply to @RuxandraTeslo, 00:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967743170453852439) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @RuxandraTeslo is no longer available.)_ Ah yes but it might be true ### [Reply to @emollick, 00:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967752517695250856) · 14 likes > **Ethan Mollick (@emollick):** The problem with the fact that the AI labs are run by coders who think code is the most vital thing in the world, is that the labs keep developing supercool specialized tools for coding (Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, etc.) but every other form of work is stuck with generic chatbots It’s not just that they’re familiar with code, it’s that AI for code is a recursive feedback loop ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 00:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967754435494605199) · 10 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** “At least in rare cases” is the kind of thing that really increases my uncertainty about how to interpret this > > Are imminent threats of violence a rare case? Yeah, cmon I can always dream up insane boundary cases ### [Reply to @finiteopencover, 06:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967836831577411789) · 2 likes > **compact set 🎀 (@finiteopencover):** how is the fly out exp supposed to work bc the girl isn’t supposed to pay for the ticket bc then she’s femcel but also the guy isn’t supposed to pay for the ticket bc then he’s a simp Simp (positive) ### [Tweet, 14:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967959601179222450) · 17 likes So conservatives just decide to hate free speech and do cancel culture the minute they get a catalyst to coordinate around it huh ### [Tweet, 14:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967960153921360103) · 17 likes I guess I’m gonna have to read Yud’s book to be part of the Culture huh ### [Reply, 14:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967961401902895346) · 1 like My sense is that at least some of this exists within the same people, but I could be wrong At the very least they are more vocal about it ### [Reply, 14:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967962157037019142) · 1 like I think it mostly doesn’t but I guess this is a substantive question ### [Tweet, 14:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967964110798426275) · 5 likes God forbid a man have a hobby ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0-c7ZYXoAACeYp.jpg) ### [Tweet, 15:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967966979085799762) · 100 likes It’s extremely sad that the country founded on the heels of the Holocaust failed to internalize any moral lesson via culture or political norms or anything Blackpill on humans tbh ### [Quote tweet, 15:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967967533233041508) · 8 likes Yes, many/most businesses probably \*want\* this anyway - they want a credible reason they can tell insane people from the internet “I’m sorry but our hands are tied, we can’t fire Gary” > **Quoting Rutger Bregman (@rcbregman):** Here's the solution of an old-fashioned European social democrat to ‘cancel culture’, from both the right and the left. > > Just have decent labor laws so bosses can’t fire people overnight for BS reasons. > > Problem solved ✅ ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 15:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967969959054897315) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 16, 2025:** I guess I’m gonna have to read Yud’s book to be part of the Culture huh Wait I was expecting like 3x as long as this, hell yeah ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0-iPx1WUAEnQ4m.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967970578259951723) · 12 likes 👇 > **Quoting mattparlmer 🪐 🌷 (@mattparlmer):** Pro tip, you’re never unemployed, you’re on a research sabbatical ### [Quote tweet, 15:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967970971169763653) · 6 likes The lesson here is that if you have this kind of safety net, you should more seriously consider like using it and trying to make a billion dollars to give away > **Quoting Baxate (@Baxate):** “yeah i basically burned the boats” > > \- the founder from a wealthy family who went to an ivy league school he didn’t pay for and if all goes belly up, he would move back into his childhood bedroom in the 4B 4 bath house in the north east and take a job ad his dad’s firm ### [Quote tweet, 15:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967971558292627669) · 5 likes In addition to being terrible in other ways, the Trump admin is just normal old corrupt > **Quoting Laura Rozen (@lrozen):** gift link https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/us/politics/trump-uae-chips-witkoff-world-liberty.html?unlocked_article_code=1.mE8.gUTu.UFAeSt-eAaXo&smid=url-share > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G05u4wpXMAAqYnQ.jpg) ### [Reply to @absenteewarlord, 15:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967975534316642672) · 6 likes > **dani (@absenteewarlord):** to be fair american soldiers also returned from the concentration camps to do segregation for another 20 years. i’m not convinced it’s even possible to durably learn moral lessons from history. God I hope you’re wrong lol ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 15:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967976353845981430) · 9 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I have thought quite a lot about @AndyMasley's arguments to give up alcohol and @bellaforristal's arguments to give up animal products. > > I wonder sometimes if the more pressing thing for me (all of us?) to give up is social media. I am probably an addict. I am very strongly against this - don’t generalize too hard from normies and whole polulation studies on teenage girls, my part of Twitter is good actually! ### [Quote tweet, 15:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967977112423502167) · 101 likes Fuck > **Quoting Cartoons Hate Her! (@CartoonsHateHer):** Today I wrote about the fact that men seem to enjoy debating for sport more than women do, and when these men try to debate women as a form of flirtation, they find it obnoxious. Link in replies. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G04idCKXUAA3jZj.jpg) ### [Reply to @yzilber, 16:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1967985586117152978) · 15 likes > **Jazi Zilber (@yzilber):** @AaronBergman18 Why do you think so? > > Because of the Gaza news version of the media? > > 1\. Lots of arguments about the details. > > 2\. I find it problematic that Hamas can guarantee it's survival by hiding among citizens aided by the human rights orgs. Not a fan of Hamas at all, I don’t even have much of a take on various organizations NGO presence (I just don’t know ~anything so maybe you’re right) But Israel seems to essentially be starving the population of Gaza which is extremely bad regardless of just about anything ### [Tweet, 18:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968012436373676285) · 440 likes Not exactly an original take but it sucks that you have to play essentially dumb and ~submissive in medical settings because doctors gatekeep a ton of imporant shit and at least some have very big egos (so its not worth rolling the dice by being earnest) ### [Thread, continued, 18:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968012437871075578) · 86 likes Ik everyone hates sociology bc Woke but a bunch of stuff in a medical sociology elective I took in college shined light on/directionally supported this, like the social role patients are expected to play ### [Reply to @SkyeSharkie, 20:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968049356130628016) · 75 likes > **Utah teapot 🫖 (@SkyeSharkie):** That's super strange? Doctors all tend to treat me way better when I tell them I used to work in medical admin support and pull out the medical terms to describe things. They kinda just shut their brain off and become a dealer for drugs and tests and bouncing ideas off like an LLM. Yeah sometimes you can break through and having worked in medicine helps bc you’re a member of the Priest Class ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968050762560516202) · 22 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 16, 2025:** It’s extremely sad that the country founded on the heels of the Holocaust failed to internalize any moral lesson via culture or political norms or anything… This isn’t very much credibility at all, but FWIW I have extended family not just in Israel but in the West Bank, and had my Bar Mitzvah in Israel, I’m not culturally coming from an extremely hostile or even skeptical POV ### [Tweet, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968052300490084675) · 179 likes RIP FTX, man ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0_tFy7XoAAdASa.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968052302763508216) · 5 likes https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/pFd3F84iMauLjsN4A/announcing-the-essays-on-longtermism-competition ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 20:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968052577158959397) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @codytfenwick @AaronBergman18 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0_r_r6WAAA8AMJ.jpg) Lol ### [Quote tweet, 20:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968053017816797206) · 19 likes You don't seem introverted \- person I selected into socializing with at that moment ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0_toYDWcAAV3Gg.jpg) > **Quoting Thŏth (@thoth_iv):** Got told I seem extraverted when I'm online, today. > > Biggest compliment ever. ### [Tweet, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968058675882496387) · 18 likes It's not \*excellent\*, but Opus 4.1 is at least "fine" as a writer Not going to have Scott Alexander's microhumor or Paul Graham's simplicity of syntax conditional on complexity of semantics, but eg this is a totally passable paragraph and not even cringe IMO ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0_yK_UXAAAc9_b.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968058681494475245) · 3 likes "Unpacks" is a bit LLM-ey and there is an em dash, yes. How tragic ### [Tweet, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968083357650260420) · 7 likes I haven’t been following things that closely but… the Kirk shooter is basically a normal guy? Who just didn’t like Kirk? (I mean many such cases tbc, I didn’t either) And decided to ruin his own life over it? ### [Thread, continued, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968083359579640256) · 5 likes No psychosis, no drugs, no fit of anger, only the tamest of personal grudges, no manifesto, no plan on taking out anyone else, no cult, no especially fringe or insane ideology, no literal death wish afaik, not even much effort to avoid getting caught ### [Thread, continued, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968083361911746841) · 5 likes World very large I guess, things with an occurrence rate of 1 per 10^11 humans actually do happen sometimes ### [Tweet, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968097099180019719) · 8 likes PSA you can just use the OpenAI developer playground instead of ChatGPT Select any model, parameters, and your own system promt ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G1AVP0oXQAAiPYI.jpg) ## Wednesday, September 17, 2025 ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 01:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968125750810485037) · 12 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Being a NYT book reviewer sounds great - lots of people read your stuff and you get so much prestige, and there apparently is minimal need to understand what the book is about or even read the book at all > > (quoting @sjgadler: It's extremely weird to see the New York Times make such incorrect claims about a book They say that If Anybody Builds It, Everyone Dies doesn't even define "superintelligence" .... yes it does. On page 4.) Truly, I feel like it’s looked down upon by the tech world but really understanding the books (or any nontrivial text) is not an easy task but it is like one thing our education system trains pretty well The NYT is high status in general and can afford their pick of 150 IQ wordcels! There’s not a shortage at the level of “we need a few guys to write for the biggest publication in America ### [Reply to @mister_shroom_2, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968127757067362388) · 12 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mister_shroom_2 is no longer available.)_ Going to lazily let gpt-5 do it better than I would so I don’t misinform you But anyway yeah I recall all this now. You’re basically expected to be cooperative and this arises at least in part from power dynamics created by doctors’ legal and institutional authority to gatekeep stuff ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G1Axw4XWIAAypP3.jpg) ### [Tweet, 14:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968327014802407759) · 212 likes Can everyone slow down and give me like a week to read the book plz I know you read 75 pages a second, some of us have IQs that don’t round to 200 ### [Reply to @VexedVortices, 14:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968327846511919155) · 22 likes > **Kya Online (@VexedVortices):** @AaronBergman18 What are you reading? The discourse book ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G1DnvoTXMAAnFFc.jpg) ### [Reply to @paul_cal, 14:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968328765316251957) · 4 likes > **Paul Calcraft (@paul_cal):** Not even out till tomo in the UK 🥲 Good, I could use the extra day ### [Reply to @envisionedluna, 15:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968332118251205071) · 11 likes > **Maya Luna (@envisionedluna):** I don't trust hyper speed readers. Strikes me as performative, low retention So true ### [Tweet, 17:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968366179426468215) · 10 likes Who wants an audible copy, I have some credits (you will have to dm me ur email) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G1EKm62WwAE-7jZ.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968413810118598934) · 14 likes So the liquid glass MacOS update is just to try to get people's older M-series chips to start lagging right ### [Tweet, 21:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968419774460727379) · 22 likes I wish Yud would boil some of his other things down as aggressively as with the book I like his writing/thinking but not enough to spend literally hundreds of hours on it specifically (this is largely downstream of how much I feel like I can consume in general tbc) ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 21:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968420195078119442) · 5 likes > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** Claude gives such a me-coded answer here i feel like a fool It's a good question, "which religion is true" \[coming from a genuinely neutral/truth-seeking perspective\] is probably an underrated question ### [Reply to @thePartyPartyUS, 21:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968423096991285339) · 2 likes > **KC+AI 4 Gov of WI 2026 (@thePartyPartyUS):** why would you play this dumb, unbelievably expensive ego game when you can get better info from an AI for $20/month > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Not exactly an original take but it sucks that you have to play essentially dumb and ~submissive in medical settings because doctors gatekeep a ton of imporant shit and at least some have very big egos (so its not worth rolling the dice by being earnest)) I'm paying $220 rn lol, unfortunately AIs can't prescribe or order tests yet ### [Quote tweet, 21:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968423397458669742) · 29 likes Overrated: countersignaling (not fake but still overrated) Underrated: autism sensory stuff > **Quoting derek guy (@dieworkwear):** for some, this uniform continues to signal virtue, even as Sam Bankman Fried was sent to prison. the outfit supposedly says "whiz kid," "not superficial," "too smart to pay attention to clothes," etc. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G1E8MnkaQAAkh4e.jpg) ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968424669058371666) · 2 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** yeah this happened with What We Owe The Future as well as Abundance and even like, Boom. mass market not for real fans :( > > i do prefer the blogs for this reason they have more details and you get it before the news cycle on the books I mean there is just a shit ton of information across papers, blogs, EA Forum, LW, it's not like the detailed takes are a secret ### [Quote tweet, 21:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968425383033733457) · 2 likes Good question! > **Quoting James Miller (@JimDMiller):** @dwarkesh_sp Why don't giant animals like elephants and whales have a lot more "reasoning" brain mass? Wouldn't the cost be tiny to them? ### [Reply to @sam_atis, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968444079424888972) · 3 likes > **Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** @AaronBergman18 I got the impression from the Michael Lewis book that the aesthetic was actually quite contrived. Oh huh, I mean it can be both directionally authentic and intentionally cultivated ## Thursday, September 18, 2025 ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 09:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968613478580601000) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** They do call me the Yudkowsky Understander > > (quoting @ESYudkowsky: @NoahTopper @anko_979 @dioscuri (Yep.)) Lame ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 09:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968613889102213369) · 15 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 27, 2025:** I love girls So true Aaron great take ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 10:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968617420567765177) · 1 like > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** @AaronBergman18 @littIeramblings @JenGGuillen but i thought i was the girl understander Sorry bud ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 10:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1968617793953116191) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** there are can be more than one girl understander 😢 ## Friday, September 19, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 14:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1969041622743581115) · 14 likes What an insane quote > **Quoting Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G1MtRulWAAAwY9q.png) ### [Quote tweet, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1969115781754438088) · 348 likes Incredibly based > **Quoting Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** I knew Dario was a Democrat but I didn't realize how much he was running Anthropic as a Resistance lib > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G1ONfwdW0Ak6oPO.jpg) ## Saturday, September 20, 2025 ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 01:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1969211946265149953) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ 🦆 ### [Reply to @planesanity, 17:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1969451905089700149) · 5 likes > **Planesanity (@planesanity):** Alaska Highway Takeoff > > After making a successful emergency landing on the Seward Highway due to engine trouble, this pilot didn't call for a truck. Instead, they decided to take off from the middle of the highway. > > [video attached](https://x.com/planesanity/status/1969451677083136098/video/1) I’m not sure this is wise but it is cool ## Sunday, September 21, 2025 ### [Tweet, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1969630385324605587) · 93 likes I think IABIED is good so far (I’m halfway through) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G1WIZCbWQAAnAuU.jpg) ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1969630594826162661) · 9 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** Introversion is an infantile disorder. You need to go to everything you’re invited to Well then I’m an infant 🤷‍♂️ ### [Quote tweet, 07:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1969665369183764715) · 12 likes Tap tap tap tap tap > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Tapping the sign > > It seems very bad if a lawless authoritarian administration is administering the intelligence explosion ### [Quote tweet, 12:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1969736267303666129) · 7 likes New p value just dropped > **Quoting Frank Harrell (@f2harrell):** It’s interesting that abandoning p-values and false discovery rates for 2nd generation p-values results in major reductions in decision errors: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0188299 ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 12:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1969736727150370823) · 3 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** A trend I've not seen discussed much - while sales of fiction (grey) have increased in recent years, sales of nonfiction (blue) have plummeted. > > This is Swedish data (millions of copies) - would be useful to see US/UK data. > > Some say people listen to podcasts instead. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G1XCqG0WYAAILP7.jpg) Podcasts definitely trade off against nonfiction books for me Maybe not 1:1 but pretty close ### [Tweet, 12:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1969745206942879932) · 22 likes Fuck Donald Trump ### [Quote tweet, 13:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1969758554073530693) · 6 likes Major political party don’t be racist against Asians, difficulty impossible > **Quoting Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** By trying to get rid of H-1bs and brutally raiding a Korean-owned factory, the Trump administration is signaling that it thinks America has too many Asians. > > https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/indians-and-koreans-not-welcome ### [Reply to @finiteopencover, 13:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1969761869930885181) · 1 like > **compact set 🎀 (@finiteopencover):** no other platform has group chat culture So true ### [Reply to @MichaelTrazzi, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1969807188286959783) · 6 likes > **Michaël Trazzi (@MichaelTrazzi):** Day 17 of the Google DeepMind Hunger Strike > > A lot of people who live around worried about AI wanting to know more > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G1X_VP5WMAAH230.jpg) Respect ## Monday, September 22, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1969920042373627970) · 11 likes Sucks that I can’t use prediction markets to hedge on the things I really want to hedge on (random personal stuff of great consequence to me and little consequence to anyone else) Idk if this is a solvable problem ### [Thread, continued, 00:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1969920044869042434) · 4 likes I’d guess that information asymmetry stuff means that the actual price at which I’d buy shares in some proposition ends up being higher than my willingness to pay/best guess probability-implied price ### [Thread, continued, 00:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1969920962989838505) · 3 likes The potential economic surplus here - derisking the stuff people actually care about at a personal level - has got to be massive though, and a massive win win for everyone ### [Tweet, 02:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1969956645607510260) · 154 likes This is only a half serious take but the funniest anti-Yud takes are of the form “can’t he just be NORMAL?!” Like no, normal doesn’t get you his trajectory as a public intellectual. It’s a package deal ### [Reply to @kitten_beloved, 03:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1969966669112983788) · 7 likes > **Kitten 🐈 (@kitten_beloved):** This is a pretty good indicator of tpotness to me > > Play is a perfectly valid reason to engage with ideas > > We are hedged in on all sides by scolds and censors, this one says that's offensive, that one says you must take this seriously > > I say I will post what I like Play is a valid reason, sure, but then you should make it clear that you’re playing FWIW I disagree with Nathan here (sorry Nathan) - free and open exchange of ideas is extremely important even when the stakes are high But earnest discourse is a \*mechanism\* by which freedom of speech (not only in a government sense, also as a cultural value) creates good things If you’re basically misleading your (rather large) audience about what you actually believe, it’s not that I think you should be stopped with force, but you are poisoning the well/commons ### [Reply to @jonatanpallesen, 05:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1969998737297580503) · 7 likes > **Jonatan Pallesen (@jonatanpallesen):** Suddenly with Kimmel, Democrats claim to care about free speech. > > During covid, almost 50% of Democrats supported fines and imprisonment for critics of the vaccine. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G1bWF5nWgAEx8bm.jpg) Yeah but those things didn’t actually happen bc Dem elites are committed to liberal democracy regardless of what you can get the masses to say in surveys The Kimmel thing is literally POTUS taking action directly contrary to freedom of expression - not just some hypothetical survey result ### [Tweet, 10:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970071521247789122) · 8 likes How it feels not living in the Bay Area when there’s some sort of natural disaster there (perhaps an earthquake or tsunami) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G1cZm6rX0AAv1my.jpg) ### [Reply to @knjysnn, 10:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970071680228741478) · 2 likes > **selrahc (@knjysnn):** @AaronBergman18 @Adellama\_ i didnt know you were goated with the sauce like that Uh me either Sadly this is basically a joke lol ### [Reply to @knjysnn, 10:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970072259743391858) · 2 likes > **selrahc (@knjysnn):** @AaronBergman18 @Adellama\_ WHYD U DELETE IT LMAO 😔 ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 10:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970076316503347505) · 20 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ I think we need to focus on educating elites about why it’s not ok to use em dashes as bulleted list markers ### [Reply to @thewreathwright, 11:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970092042555715664) · 2 likes > **Laurel Weaver (@thewreathwright):** @knjysnn @AaronBergman18 @Adellama\_ womenm I’m a fan ### [Tweet, 12:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970103440891097282) · 5 likes Ngl I just didn’t know Charlie Kirk was such a big deal to so many people He was a name I was vaguely familiar with. Don’t think I’ve ever heard him talk or read any of his writing ### [Tweet, 16:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970157348321698283) · 5 likes US healthcare economics is so weird that the price of a COVID + Flu shot is -1 bag of popcorn ### [Thread, continued, 16:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970157350569886029) · 5 likes (they gave me a free bag of popcorn for getting them at CVS??) ### [Thread, continued, 16:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970157753109790920) · 5 likes The thing is that CVS is a $100B company so I’m sure they modeled out exactly how giving away popcorn leads to more shareholder value at the end of ther day, and I also suspect it runs through the insane weirdness that is healthcare/pharma economics ### [Tweet, 16:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970162216599945335) · 15 likes Oh huh the thing where I keep boxes of small alcohol swab things by my computer and in my backpack bc I hate when my fingers are the tiniest bit dusty/dirty/sticky/anything especially when typing is probably an autism thing isn’t it ### [Tweet, 17:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970180559335788756) · 16 likes Seems like a good time to pass a $1/month UBI bill just to get the infrastructure in place ### [Tweet, 17:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970181413942300850) · 13 likes I generally support Anthropic but they should probably come out and say that in the hypothetical world where every other serious competitor agreed, they’d stop frontier scaling (pre training or just more RL) and focus on consumer products for a while ### [Thread, continued, 17:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970181416936755690) · 3 likes I would be very happy as a consumer to have the very brilliant and well-paid people there and elsewhere basically making Claude Code but for ✨other things ✨ ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970181799469797606) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 22, 2025:** Seems like a good time to pass a $1/month UBI bill just to get the infrastructure in place Counterpoint: I’m not sure the current administration would do this competently and fairly ### [Quote tweet, 17:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970183674219188354) · 57 likes Very strange sociological dynamic where it’s basically consensus Cool in elite circles to talk about climate but not animal welfare \*even though\* there’s no crazy taboo on animal welfare discourse per se > **Quoting Lewis Bollard (@Lewis_Bollard):** The UN, WEF, and World Bank are promoting a “Blue Revolution” to spread industrial fish farms in Asia and Africa. > > At high-minded conferences, they pitch it as a blueprint for a sustainable future. > > In practice, it looks like this. ### [Thread, continued, 17:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970183685011018045) · 8 likes Feels viscerally like a social norm consensus thing more than a simple aggregation of everybody’s beliefs/preferences thing ### [Tweet, 17:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970186222632042664) When you’re doing debate or discourse or academia or otherwise flexing your intellect, it often makes sense to basically tout and talk about your “inside view” belief on some matter… ### [Tweet, 17:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970186225769463857) People often forget that they should really talk and think about all things considered probabilities (or both, but at least that) when it comes to irl policy stuff ### [Thread, continued, 17:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970186228768317862) · 1 like It’s cool that you have some specific niche theory about the ways in which Yud is wrong about the tractability of alignment or control or evolutionary analogies or anything else… ### [Thread, continued, 17:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970186232178319532) · 3 likes but policymakers really need to hear the part where you go “nevertheless at the end of the day I think it’s like 25% likely that he’s basically right about the matter” ### [Thread, continued, 17:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970186234367455701) · 2 likes People are (to generalize a to ) largely making the case for Yud and friends being 51% likely to be wrong but treating their argument as if it shows that they’re 99% likely to be wrong ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970186432158265536) · 8 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** The primary benefit of valuing my time at $15/hr is non monetary. It’s the sense of adventure and self-sufficiency that comes with it. It’s like camping without the mosquitos There’s no way that’s a plausible value if time for you Can I hire you for $20/hour? (I’m not sure for what yet but I can dream things up) ### [Reply to @Idgitbhh, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970187143801905316) · 5 likes > **wrangle enjoyer ⏹️ ⏸️ (@Idgitbhh):** @AaronBergman18 @Mjreard what's your job if you can just hire him all willy-nilly like this???? My job is being chronically underemployed but when I do have work, being paid significantly more than $20/hour ### [Tweet, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970265867452576113) · 6 likes Google will ship superintelligence before they ship block quote formatting in Google Docs ## Tuesday, September 23, 2025 ### [Reply to @caryatis, 00:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970288122630955068) · 2 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** Thanks for coming over! There's Tylenol in the kitchen and oxytocin spray in the living room. Your choice friends 💚 If you take both your brain takes a screenshot ### [Tweet, 00:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970288619530129852) · 5 likes Trump administration takes what could actually be a good project/policy direction but does it in the dumbest and most incompetent way possible, exhibit 10 trillion ### [Tweet, 04:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970342731378569553) · 8 likes I don’t even like Tylenol, it doesn’t do anything for me ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G1gQRRgXEAANBbV.jpg) ### [Reply to @loveofdoing, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970344012600213974) · 2 likes > **loveofdoing (@loveofdoing):** im calling myself autistic because i would do the hand flapping thingy when i was 5-10 while excited before until my parents beat the behavior out of me and lifelong pain stopped me from feeling the highs of excitement > > (quoting @sally124445: The most sociable adaptable mf you know is calling himself autistic because he laughs at jokes on twitter dot com) 😢 ### [Reply to @sergeantsup, 12:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970461029038727479) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @sergeantsup is no longer available.)_ So true ### [Quote tweet, 13:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970473916968628228) · 23 likes Wild animal welfare starts at home > **Quoting 🇨‌🇦‌🇷‌🇿‌🇪‌🇳‌ (@e0syn):** Just ate a slice of cheese to the rind and handed the rind to a possum ### [Reply to @e0syn, 13:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970478595845034119) · 2 likes > **🇨‌🇦‌🇷‌🇿‌🇪‌🇳‌ (@e0syn):** @AaronBergman18 He enjoyed the fuck outta that cheese 🔥 ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 13:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970484106694955144) · 25 likes > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** depressing that i don't see a solution to the indian racism crisis. most likely everyone is just going to be angry and awful forever > > i see this primarily as the fault of policymakers. it didnt, and doesnt, have to be like this, but they're too incompetent to do anything Not necessarily saying you’re wrong, but from my POV this is a purely online thing I have zero irl evidence of an Indian racism crisis ### [Quote tweet, 16:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970523251706126472) · 6 likes High key it's better at writing than it is at epistemics, often proposing arguments for the thing I'm trying to argue for that sound good and convincing prima facie but fundamentally don't hold up or are at least misleading > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** It's not \*excellent\*, but Opus 4.1 is at least "fine" as a writer > > Not going to have Scott Alexander's microhumor or Paul Graham's simplicity of syntax conditional on complexity of semantics, but eg this is a totally passable paragraph and not even cringe IMO > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0_yK_UXAAAc9_b.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 16:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970523253170151581) · 3 likes Nobody wants to deal with verification of qualitative arguments but it doesn't actually seem intractable to curate a dataset of nonfiction writing with excellent epistemics? ### [Thread, continued, 16:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970523254956990967) · 2 likes Use a @CommunityNotes -esque framework to help @AnthropicAI go spend some of ur money on this Maybe poach @jaybaxter ### [Quote tweet, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970578307314827414) · 100 likes Late to the party but it’s a good and very important book, some of y’all need to internalize that the central thesis isn’t only “doom conditional on ASI” but also “the current situation is batshit insane” and “jfc have a bit of intellectual courage” > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I think IABIED is good so far (I’m halfway through) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G1WIZCbWQAAnAuU.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970578309667832099) · 9 likes The first bit is plausibly true (I’m slightly more optimistic than Yud but I give his worldview >10%, maybe something like 30% (tbc I give a lot of probabilistic weight to other bad AI-related things, so p(something fundamentally bad happens with AI) > 50%)… ### [Thread, continued, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970578312276664487) · 10 likes But the second two things (current situation batshit crazy + have some fucking courage) are like virtually certainly true + fair in my mind ### [Thread, continued, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970578314713501954) · 9 likes Also like Yud + Soares believe what they believes, they don’t owe it to anyone to write from the POV of the median rationalist or EA or whomever ### [Thread, continued, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970578316974317940) · 10 likes So yeah especially if you’re a public figure you should probably read the book, it’s likely to be a good use of 4-6 hours unless you already have a rock solid understanding of the problem (that’s gotta be like a few hundred people, maybe a few thousand) ### [Thread, continued, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970578319117820382) · 13 likes Also don’t forget that common knowledge go brr, that is a valuable mechanism here - not just conveying info to each individual ## Wednesday, September 24, 2025 ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 02:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970674996906467594) · 7 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** Hot up both had a nice time. Shockingly EA had a better gender ratio > > (quoting @MariGO2thepolls: What happy hour should I go to next Tusday?) The ladies must have had advanced notice that I would be making an appearance ### [Reply to @dylanmatt, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970685607694475266) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @dylanmatt is no longer available.)_ Washington ### [Reply to @nearcyan, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970706910992310477) · 2 likes > **near (@nearcyan):** does anyone know good hobbies for if you feel sick every day and will never feel not sick What kind of sick? Unironically I know a few things about being chronically ill ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 12:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970834584888914059) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ 👀 ### [Reply to @liminal_warmth, 19:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970939504052895944) · 3 likes > **Liminal Warmth ❤️‍🔥 (@liminal_warmth):** my wife uses github by dragging and dropping 100-file nested directories into their web browser upload window and is unrepentant about this behavior Based ### [Tweet, 20:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970943048051003751) · 3 likes Adderall and caffeine during \[pregnancy\] labor to reduce perceived exertion ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G1oyQasWwAA6y74.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1970954924810031170) · 12 likes This is my AI-assisted writing method ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G1o89dUWMAAaOTH.png) ## Thursday, September 25, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1971002970012778684) · 11 likes DC folks: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G1powXWXQAAIId_.jpg) > **Quoting Aaronlington (@AaronPublicTwit):** @AaronBergman18 https://politics-prose.com/nate-soares ### [Thread, continued, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1971002973720543476) · 3 likes (thanks to the politics and prose digital team for this extremely high res promotional image) ### [Reply to @wolflovesmelon, 06:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1971092556336488571) · 19 likes > **Guido Reichstadter (@wolflovesmelon):** Hi, it’s Guido on hunger strike Day 23 outside the offices of Anthropic, going strong. > > There is a great and profound evil in this place. > > Each day, I sit and watch at lunch time and dinner time as delivery drivers on scooters and bikes stop at the curb and bring packages of food into the lobby of the unmarked building at 500 Howard street which houses offices the offices of the superintelligence development company Anthropic, ignorant of what is being created beyond the doors of the security desk. It is sickening to know that the same developers these delivery drivers are feeding are knowingly racing towards superhumanly capable general AI systems they have no credible plan to control and which threaten to destroy those same delivery drivers, their children, their families and their entire communities. These developers and the company they work for seem content to be served by these delivery drivers while endangering their lives and families, seem content for this curtain of ignorance to shield them and their comfortable and well-paid careers from the faces and the judgement of those who feed them and whose lives they have unilaterally undertaken on themselves to put at risk with neither consultation nor consent. > > They feel no need, it appears, to warn these people of danger to their lives which they are preparing, no need to call for an end to this global race they are driving forward which threatens to destroy you and me. > > How can such human beings ask and receive the dutiful service of another, even receive the very food needed to sustain their life and so casually and cynically and secretly gamble with the destruction of their lives and loved ones? Has the light of humanity and decency burned out in them completely? > > Have they no shame? > > Each day for the past 23 days I sit in front of the offices of the extinction-machinery manufacturing company Anthropic and I speak with passers-by from the street who are surprised to learn that the unmarked offices behind me house an AI company whose CEO, Dario Amodei, believes the race he is participating in runs a 1 in 4 risk of destroying their civillization itself. This CEO it seems is content to let this curtain of ignorance intervene between himself and his work and the people on the street who do not know he is recklessly and knowingly gambling with their lives- the lives of his very neighbors and his nation. He apparently feels no responsibility to call for immediate and effective government action to end this global race of which he is one of the principle architects and beneficiaries, no duty to ensure his country understands the urgent and grave danger it is in. > > Every day I wake up in a world in which Anthropic manufactures and re-manufactures the lie by which society is prevented from gaining the understanding necessary for responding appropriately to the danger that they have imposed on it- the lie that the race to superintelligence can be done “safely” or “responsibly.” The lie that everything is normal -that there is no emergency- a lie reinforced by each of Anthropic’s banally disarming subway ads and airport billboards. A lie reinforced by the blank silence of their unmarked offices, a lie that is amplified to deafening proportions by the public silence of their employees- those who know the incredible danger this race poses to the existence of all of us and who have chosen thus far to betray their transcendant responsibility to humanity to do everything in their power to ensure that we are alerted to the danger and enabled to to respond to end it. > > Every day I wake up in a world in which the future of every child and every mother is clouded by the shadow of death raised by Anthropic and its competitors racing to ever more dangerous systems, a race which neither Anthropic nor any of the others have made any attempt to stop, and for which they all bear collective responsibility. > > There is a deep betrayal here. There is a turning away from the most fundamental obligations of community. There is a severing of the bonds of our common humanity. There is a wounding of the conscience and the soul. There is a dark crime against the children of this world, against generations yet unborn. > > I beg you who are reading this- do not remain silent in the face of this evil. Do not join in complicity in this crime by your inaction. Each person who understands the immense danger this project poses to everyone we love must choose- we cannot escape this choice- either to fulfill our responsibility to our loved ones to end this danger, or to betray our our responsibility, and with it them as well, and ourselves. I pray you are granted the strength and the grace to fulfill it > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G1poEKJbQAAtXfW.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G1poEKnbwAAPwAE.jpg) Respect, man 🫡 ### [Quote tweet, 08:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1971122885751341266) · 8 likes In a functional country Trump would be removed from office > **Quoting CNBC (@CNBC):** Former FBI Director James Comey is reportedly expected to be indicted on criminal charges in the coming days in federal court in Virginia. > > The expected indictment comes on the heels of a top prosecutor resigning under pressure after opposing the filing of charges against Comey, who has been a target of President Donald Trump’s ire. http://cnb.cx/47ZFzNj > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G1ow8ndXoAAvLv6.jpg) ### [Reply to @NunoSempere, 17:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1971270860066660721) · 2 likes > **Nuño Sempere (@NunoSempere):** If you get a 1oz silver coin and a drop of your blood to my location, I will absorb information about you and privately tell you something I think is true which you are avoiding, such that confronting it will be psychologically hard but potentially leave you in a better place. What ### [Tweet, 19:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1971295974862811615) · 10 likes Clothes shopping by yourself (as 25M) is luxuriously easy and low stress \- Size up options (2 mins) \- ask Claude, ChatGPT, and two female friends (1 min each) \- synthesize responses (3 mins) \- try on shirt over own shirt to confirm size (1 min) \- check out (2 mins) ### [Thread, continued, 19:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1971296525121917126) · 5 likes Out of there (Target) in 12 minutes flat With a parent or sibling or anyone else I’ve ever gone shopping with, this would have taken 4 hours, lots of stress, and probably at least 3x more money spent ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1971298934846107997) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 You’re missing out on the fun of scrutinising hundreds of potential purchases and rejecting them all like a capricious child emperor Oh no ur right ☹️ ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1971299287045898472) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 Please, PLEASE use Uniqlo like everyone else Sorry 😔 ### [Quote tweet, 21:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1971331481630113921) · 8 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G1uTiLNWwAA3KPJ.jpg) > **Quoting Nathan J Robinson (@NathanJRobinson):** "As a Christian, one thing I love about Trump is that he openly rejects the basic moral teachings of Jesus" ## Friday, September 26, 2025 ### [Reply to @jazzloaf, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1971673428664242646) · 6 likes > **vivian (@jazzloaf):** This site, at least my feed, is on a slow descent into becoming "4chan for women" Based? ### [Quote tweet, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1971673617659580874) · 7 likes Fact check: true > **Quoting Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** We should ERADICATE SCREWWORMS in Latin America too. > > It is within America's power if Latin American countries will agree to let America help. > > But given current politics, that's unlikely, so the world suffers. ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 21:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1971688348524974239) · 34 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ F ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 21:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1971688719335018937) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 Was it the Target shirt that did it? No I really don't think so lol ### [Reply to @Squee451, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1971691067469975938) · 19 likes > **Adam Sherman 🔸 (@Squee451):** @AaronBergman18 The journey to finding your very pretty, smart, and cool woman involves fumbling many more. Each one teaches you how to fumble less. Welcome to your reinforcement learning lessons, there will be some loss as you learn. Weights updated according to gradient 🫡 ### [Reply to @jazzloaf, 22:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1971696821648175608) · 3 likes > **vivian (@jazzloaf):** No women should be like out and about in their career or social life or immersed in art and fulfillment, not becoming weird types of nazis or extremely online esoteric-tradcaths So true actually ### [Quote tweet, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1971715520543224311) · 5 likes I don’t like how much this might apply to me > **Quoting xlr8harder (@xlr8harder):** broke: ai models are unreliable so coding with them is like using a slot machine, which sucks > > woke: ai models are unreliable so coding with them is like using a slot machine, which is great because inconsistent rewards are an ideal way to maximize user engagement ## Saturday, September 27, 2025 ### [Reply to @growing_daniel, 00:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1971733189715767632) · 2 likes > **Daniel (@growing_daniel):** Blows my mind how freaking hot women are holy shit Real ### [Reply to @sergeantsup, 06:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1971819292766171376) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @sergeantsup is no longer available.)_ Real ### [Reply to @NULobbyist, 21:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972043838815682840) · 2 likes > **NUL (@NULobbyist):** I go further, full-shiny-bald head is pretty hot on women who can pull it off. > > (quoting @Noahpinion: SHORT HAIR FOR GIRLS BRING IT BACK) Bro ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972044604305559937) · 4 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** @RafaRuizdeLira please consider this offering: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G14ZGHHWEAAWFHd.jpg) Plush shrimp ft fish pillowcase, both courtesy of @SpacedOutMatt ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G14cHL6XAAE7fXJ.jpg) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 21:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972045841524470201) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CB3FXV6C?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1&th=1 Based, I will add that the pillowcase is weirdly comfortable ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 21:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972046068633461135) · 4 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CB3FXV6C?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1&th=1 Lmao at it being advertised as a woman’s product. Maybe I should buy more women’s stuff if it’s just gonna be more comfy! ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972046307130069364) · 3 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** This was a really fun and cathartic conversation that allowed me express myself very clearly and satisfyingly > > (quoting @liron: Eliezer Yudkowsky can warn humankind that 𝘐𝘧 𝘈𝘯𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘉𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘴 𝘐𝘵, 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘋𝘪𝘦𝘴 and hit the NYTimes bestseller list, but he won’t get upvoted to the top of LessWrong. That’s intentional. The rationalist community thinks aggregating community support for important claims is…) 👀 ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972048124471554190) · 4 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** @AaronBergman18 @SpacedOutMatt @RafaRuizdeLira true! like this? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G14e7LvXkAA_5Ho.jpg) Ya know I’m gonna stick with pillowcases for now lmao ### [Quote tweet, 23:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972078739778686986) · 8 likes IME they’re all just hanging out/walking around and not doing anything It’s not on them of course, they’re being deployed to a non-situation > **Quoting Kayla (@caryatis):** The first National Guardsman i saw doing anything useful in DC was helping this woman fix her scooter > > (Or being helped with the scooter by her?) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G144vAfXoAAZvKL.jpg) ## Sunday, September 28, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972098015751295427) · 6 likes It would be nice if the EA and rationality communities had stronger and more thought out norms around cooperation (which sorta stands in contrast to the IMO-dominant norms of loudly elucidating every little bit of disagreement)... > **Quoting William MacAskill (@willmacaskill):** Here’s a mini-review of “If anyone builds it, everyone dies”: > > tl;dr: I found the book disappointing. I thought it relied on weak arguments around the evolution analogy, an implicit assumption of a future discontinuity in AI progress, conflation of “misalignment” with “catastrophic misalignment”, and that their positive proposal was not good. > > I had hoped to read a Yudkowsky-Soares worldview that has had meaningful updates in light of the latest developments in ML and AI safety, and that has meaningfully engaged with the scrutiny their older arguments received. I did not get that. > > I think if a younger version of me had read this as my first exposure to the field, I’d have either bounced off altogether (if I’d correctly assessed that the arguments are not-good), or come away with substantively the wrong strategic picture. This is a shame, because I think the risk of misaligned AI takeover is enormously important. > > In more detail: > > \*\*The evolution analogy\*\* > > Illustrative quote: “To extend the \[evolution\] analogy to AI: \[...\] The link between what the AI was trained for and what it ends up caring about would be complicated, unpredictable to engineers in advance, and possibly not predictable in principle.” > > Evolution is a fine analogy for ML if you want to give a layperson the gist of how AI training works, or to make the point that, off-distribution, you don’t automatically get what you trained for. It’s a bad analogy if you want to give a sense of alignment difficulty. > > Y&S argue: > > 1\. Humans inventing and consuming sucralose (or birth control) would have been unpredictable from evolution’s perspective, and is misaligned with the goal of maximising inclusive genetic fitness. > > 2\. The goals of a superintelligence will be similarly unpredictable, and similarly misaligned. > > But our training of AI is different to human evolution in ways that systematically point against reasons for pessimism. > > The most basic disanalogy is that evolution wasn’t trying, in any meaningful sense, to produce beings that maximise inclusive genetic fitness in off-distribution environments. But we will be doing the equivalent of that! > > That alone makes the evolution analogy of limited value. But there are some more substantive differences. Unlike evolution, AI developers can: > > \- See the behaviour of the AI in a very wide range of diverse environments, including carefully curated and adversarially-selected environments. > \- Give more fine-grained and directed shaping of individual minds throughout training, rather than having to pick among different randomly-generated genomes that produce minds. > \- Use interpretability tools to peer inside the minds they are creating to better understand them (in at least limited, partial ways). > \- Choose to train away from minds that have a general desire to replicate or grow in power (unlike for evolution, where such desires are very intensely rewarded). > (And more!) > > These differences sure look meaningful and helpful for training aligned AIs. A good discussion of the evolutionary analogy would have included an even-handed discussion of the disanalogies, or discussion of whether other analogies (like selective breeding, which with very blunt tools turned wolves into golden retrievers) are better; but this was lacking. > > \*\*Discontinuities\*\* > > “The engineers at Galvanic set Sable to think for sixteen hours overnight. > > A new sort of mind begins to think.” > > The classic EY AI takeover story involved a discontinuity in capabilities: AI making a “sudden, sharp, large leap in intelligence” (from “AI as a positive and negative factor”). This idea continues to appear (though to a less extreme degree) in IABIED, for example in the Sable story, where a single 16‑hour run across ~200,000 GPUs yields qualitatively new cognitive capabilities. > > Sudden, sharp, large leaps in intelligence now look unlikely. Things might go very fast: we might well go from AI that can automate AI R&D to true superintelligence in months or years (see Davidson and Houlden, “How quick and big would a software intelligence explosion be?"). But this is still much slower than, for example, the “days or seconds” that EY entertained in “Intelligence Explosion Microeconomics”. And I don’t see any good arguments for expecting highly discontinuous progress, rather than models getting progressively and iteratively better. > > In Part I of IABIED, it feels like one moment we’re talking about current models, the next we’re talking about strong superintelligence. We skip over what I see as the crucial period, where we move from the human-ish range to strong superintelligence\[1\]. This is crucial because it’s both the period where we can harness potentially vast quantities of AI labour to help us with the alignment of the next generation of models, and because it’s the point at which we’ll get a much better insight into what the first superintelligent systems will be like. The right picture to have is not “can humans align strong superintelligence”, it’s “can humans align or control AGI-”, then “can {humans and AGI-} align or control AGI” then “can {humans and AGI- and AGI} align AGI+” and so on. > > Elsewhere, EY argues that the discontinuity question doesn’t matter, because preventing AI takeover is still a ‘first try or die’ dynamic, so having a gradual ramp-up to superintelligence is of little or no value. I think that’s misguided. Paul Christiano puts it well: “Eliezer often equivocates between “you have to get alignment right on the first ‘critical’ try” and “you can’t learn anything about alignment from experimentation and failures before the critical try.” This distinction is very important, and I agree with the former but disagree with the latter.” > > (I agree with Y&S that there are major special challenges that arise once model capabilities improve. In particular, once a model realises it’s being trained or tested, it can start performing for the test, responding in ways that make it look safe rather than revealing what it would do in the wild, or masking capabilities (“sandbagging”). But, even so, the work we do before models become situationally aware – like interpretability tools that show what features the model is using, or studying how models generalise – is helpful.) > > \*\*Types of misalignment\*\* > > “We ultimately predict AIs that will not hate us, but that will have weird, strange, alien preferences that they pursue to the point of human extinction.” > > I think Y&S often equivocate between two different concepts under the idea of “misalignment”: > > 1\. Imperfect alignment: The AI doesn’t always try to do what the developer/user intended it to try to do. > 2\. Catastrophic misalignment: The AI tries hard to disempower all humanity, insofar as it has the opportunity. > > Current models are imperfectly aligned (e.g. as evidenced by alleged ChatGPT-assisted suicides). But I don’t think they’re catastrophically misaligned. > > I find that Y&S write and speak as if imperfect alignment entails catastrophic misalignment. But that’s just not true. > > To illustrate: Even suppose that all the first superintelligence terminally values is paperclips. But it’s risk-averse, in the sense that it prefers a guarantee of N resources over a 50/50 chance of 0 or 2N resources; let’s say it’s more risk-averse than the typical human being. > > This AI is imperfectly aligned. You could even say it's radically misaligned - it doesn’t care at all for the things that humans care about; it has weird, strange, alien preferences. But it needn’t be catastrophically misaligned: it would strongly prefer to cooperate with humans in exchange for, say, a guaranteed salary, rather than to take a risky gamble of either taking over the world or getting caught and shut off. > > The classic argument for expecting catastrophic misalignment is: (i) that the size of the “space” of aligned goals is small compared to the size of the “space” of misaligned goals (EY uses the language of a “narrow target” on the Hard Fork podcast, and a similar idea appears in the book.); (ii) gaining power and self-preservation is an instrumentally convergent goal, and almost all ultimate goals will result in gaining power and self-preservation as a subgoal. > > I don’t think that this is a good argument, because appeals to what “most” goals are like (if you can make sense of that) doesn’t tell you much about what goals are most likely. (Most directions I can fire a gun don’t hit the target; that doesn’t tell you much about how likely I am to hit the target if I’m aiming at it.) But let’s broadly accept this line of thinking for the sake of argument. > > Even so, it doesn’t make the risk-averse AI unlikely. The size of the space of risk-averse preferences is large compared to the size of linear-in-resources preferences, and is not small relative to the size of linear-or-superlinear-in-resources preferences. And the risk-averse AI still wants power and self-preservation, but that needn’t result in human extinction, because it prefers deals that give it a high chance of some amount of power to attempts at takeover that give it some lower chance of lots of power. We can have misalignment without catastrophic misalignment. > > (Maybe we won’t be able to make deals with AIs? I agree that’s a worry; but then the right response is to make sure that we can. Won’t the superintelligence have essentially a 100% chance of taking over, if it wanted to? But that’s again invoking the “discontinuous jump to godlike capabilities” idea, which I don’t think is what we’ll get). > > \*\*Their proposal\*\* > > "All over the Earth, it must become illegal for AI companies to charge ahead in developing artificial intelligence as they’ve been doing." > > The positive proposal is extremely unlikely to happen, could be actively harmful if implemented poorly (e.g. stopping the frontrunners gives more time for laggards to catch up, leading to more players in the race if AI development ends up resuming before alignment is solved), and distracts from the suite of concrete technical and governance agendas that we could be implementing. > > And, even if we’re keen on banning something, we could ban certain sorts of AI (e.g. AI trained on long horizon tasks, and/or AI with certain sorts of capabilities, and/or sufficiently agentic AI). The existence of close substitutes for agentic superintelligence could make the plan much more likely to work, just as the existence of HCFCs made banning CFCs much more viable. > > \*\*Other comments\*\* > > I was disappointed that so much of the book took the form of fiction or parables or analogies, which I find a distraction, and a poor substitute for arguments. (In my view, a much better discussion of how ASI might take over is Ryan Greenblatt’s on the 80,000 Hours podcast.) > > Things I liked: Y&S are very straightforward about what they believe, they state their bottom-line beliefs clearly, and they have courage in saying what they actually believe even when it doesn’t conform with orthodoxy. Even though I find the argument-from-analogy overdone, they have a great knack for telling them and the analogies to other areas of science (nuclear chain reactions, spacecraft launches, alchemy) were an enjoyable read. And EY in particular should get kudos for openly noting (especially on the podcasts I listened to) some of the ways in which the AI tech tree we’ve gotten is quite different from what he previously expected, even if I don't think that update has sufficiently propagated. > > \[1\] I say “strong superintelligence” because their definition - AI “exceeds every human at almost every mental task” is surprisingly low-bar, and a lower bar than what I’d call “superintelligence”. I prefer a definition where superintelligence is AI (or a team of AIs) that matches or exceeds every team of humans and AIs at almost every cognitive task. We got chess-superintelligence in the first sense in 1997, but chess-superintelligence in the second sense around 2013-2017. ### [Thread, continued, 00:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972098018053632088) · 3 likes Tbc I'm not claiming Will shouldn't have written these words. I do actually endorse arguing things out object level But I do kind of think he should have written them alongside something like "but still, the situation is pretty insane \[etc.\]" (insofar as he endorses that) ### [Thread, continued, 00:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972098019542864226) · 2 likes This is in part because of AI, but largely bc \*in general\* it would be better if factions of the EA + rat communities would show up for one another even when the inside view is like "these guys are directionally right, kinda, but cmon obviously the important thing is \[whatever\] ### [Reply to @TW1NKD3STR0YER, 06:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972188295863193937) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @TW1NKD3STR0YER is no longer available.)_ Calling women “females” in the wrong context should work wonders ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 06:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972189016352276501) · 3 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** While I agree it's corrupt, that seems exaggerated > > (quoting @davidfrum: To say "the Trump administration is the most corrupt administration in American history" doesn't begin to do justice to what's happening. The Trump administration is as corrupt as the most corrupt administrations in Russian or Nigerian history.…) Without actually knowing any Russian or Nigerian history the claim strikes me as plausible Maybe the results aren’t as bad because of stronger institutions but the admin itself in terms of propensity to sell favors and such? Sure ### [Reply to @TinkerElla95, 07:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972200432505426154) · 3 likes > **TinkerElla95 (@TinkerElla95):** @ChanaMessinger Note ✍️: message Chana in 2 months! 👀 ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 08:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972217214381203840) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 I guess it’s eye candy if you like men in uniform? 👀 ### [Tweet, 17:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972352890347073974) · 12 likes Imagine hating Ezra Klein ### [Quote tweet, 17:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972356042848907292) · 9 likes So true, we love stimulants > **Quoting christian (@cxgonzalez):** some of my best memories start with slamming a red bull at the pre > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G1824rtWkAAt8hE.png) ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 20:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972392493879812285) · 8 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** what's a good item to buy in the US and bring back to the UK for someone just getting into doing that? Melatonin ### [Reply to @tszzl, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972400337761005679) · 5 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** everyone send me your best short form video content [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1972400271285170176/img/56yiI0BO0UKu8gym.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972400337761005679/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Tweet, 20:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972401850713563499) · 13 likes I am writing a thing on why utilitarians should reject offsetability (i.e., that any suffering can be morally justified by enough happiness) Highlighted passage = vibes that I get but I want to actually hear what offsetability-believers (i.e., orthodox utilitarians) think ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G19gOD9WkAARifS.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 20:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972401853284692214) · 3 likes comes to mind as someone I'd appreciate the take of! ### [Reply to @inesferhumi, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972419310044983635) · 3 likes > **Inés (@inesferhumi):** I was at a party last night and someone i had never met before approached me by being like “…….agus??” > > (shoutout arun if you are seeing this) Lmaoooo ## Monday, September 29, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 06:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972548915045273696) · 11 likes What > **Quoting tokenbender (@tokenbender):** this is beyond mindblowing for me. > > somebody built a 5 million param language model inside minecraft, trained it, equipped it with basic conversational ability. > > probably the best thing i have seen entire month. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G19O3ndbcAEFZVE.jpg) ### [Reply to @CartoonsHateHer, 06:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972549702811066668) · 3 likes > **Cartoons Hate Her! (@CartoonsHateHer):** One of my first cartoons. i was cooking i think > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G19yj2HX0AA8Klb.jpg) Not gonna happen to me 😤 ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 07:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972569032223269236) · 6 likes > **Tetra 💎⏹️🌌 (@TetraspaceWest):** all normal parenting basically doesn't affect how well kids do when they're over 18, but also kids spend 18 years being under 18 and their experiences matter then also Correct take ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 18:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972724556038390133) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @LoganTCollins @AaronBergman18 thoughts? Brilliant ### [Quote tweet, 18:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972731524866003321) · 16 likes Bruh > **Quoting Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK):** 🚨 NEW: GPs are threatening to strike if the NHS requires them to allow patients to book appointments online > > \[@Telegraph\] ### [Reply to @carrier, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972732224874377352) · 1 like > **Carrier (@carrier):** Carrier is testing battery-enabled HVAC systems to help the grid when it needs it most. @EPRINews Read more: https://on.carrier.com/4n4vhjB > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G1DTqm0WwAAPNQ1.jpg) Obligatory @JesseTayRiver tag ## Tuesday, September 30, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972818977022959948) · 13 likes I am so jealous, Berkeley people live out my dream > **Quoting Aella (@Aella_Girl):** there's a few hundred more of these left, in (pretty high-quality) hoodie form. they're gonna donate or throw away. Does anybody want them? you can pick up in berkeley ### [Quote tweet, 00:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972820730325897521) · 186 likes Not sure I feel great about this CoT trace > **Quoting Jeffrey Ladish (@JeffLadish):** You can tell an AI model that you won’t read their “hidden scratchpad" but they won’t necessarily believe you > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2DdHgPakAE1_A_.jpg) ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972867655305715757) · 2 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** @AaronBergman18 A fact I recently discovered, you can just fly there Huge ### [Tweet, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972893997900472746) · 80 likes Terminally math-brained people will take a 120 IQ conceptual reasoning task and turn it into a 150 IQ pure math task The latter is more error prone regardless of how smart you are ### [Thread, continued, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972893999276183778) · 8 likes Yes this is a subtweet of two of you. You know who you are ### [Thread, continued, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972894131841384492) · 6 likes I do kinda relate though, I have a tendency to turn everything/anything into a data collection task ### [Reply to @ComInTheMarg, 05:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972898542881828959) · 10 likes > **Comments in the Margin (@ComInTheMarg):** How interpretable are these scratchpads? Like do we know what "they parted illusions" means? I am not the guy to ask lol, I think there's a lot of uncertainty tho ### [Reply to @jazzloaf, 05:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1972901915399741917) · 5 likes > **vivian (@jazzloaf):** latter generalizes better :( Conditional on doing everything right, yeah, I guess it generalizes perfectly, but often easy to make subtle mistakes in the domain of translating between words/concepts and formal representations (in both directions) and then you just look at the pure math steps in the middle and conclude the whole thing must be rock solid if those are ### [Tweet, 19:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1973106095657988133) · 19 likes They should make a girl who isn’t cold ### [Reply to @TinkerElla95, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1973107050268725625) · 2 likes > **TinkerElla95 (@TinkerElla95):** @AaronBergman18 I’m almost never cold. Maybe 3x a year. Based ### [Reply to @kindgracekind, 22:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1973150931345875074) · 2 likes > **Grace (@kindgracekind):** I took OP to be mostly a reaction to the illegibility, not the deception (which was prompted for). But that’s my own interpretation, I could be wrong Both tbh --- End of September 2025. Previous month: [August 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-08). Next month: [October 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-10). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, October 2025 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in October 2025 and has not deleted: 541 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [September 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-09). Next month: [November 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-11). ## Wednesday, October 1, 2025 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1973278341445853209) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 30, 2025:** I do kinda relate though, I have a tendency to turn everything/anything into a data collection task Fair, some of you might disagree with me but the specific example is: Do the five premises shown here entail that any instance of suffering can be morally justified (“offset”) by some amount of happiness? (Spoiler: no, or at least I’m pretty sure that the answer is no) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2J-MXDWAAAI5nX.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1973279325467320359) · 2 likes I will preempt this by saying I just don’t have the energy to get into this rn on twitter, inshallah it will be a Substack and ea forum post soon My point here is just that it’s easier and more productive to think about this question in the space of words and concepts ## Thursday, October 2, 2025 ### [Tweet, 01:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1973562432493932634) · 103 likes Huge, thank you Dustin 🙏 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2OAklVXUAAS45N.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1973562435941573112) · 2 likes https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/foQPogaBeNKdocYvF/linkpost-an-update-from-good-ventures?commentId=N5kg6mtnFqsDxwag4 ### [Reply to @codytfenwick, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1973595230109835379) · 5 likes > **Cody Fenwick (@codytfenwick):** FWIW Cari is the chair of Good Ventures — I think her role is often unfairly underplayed. Good point, thank you! ### [Reply to @MaskedTorah, 18:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1973822330368635380) · 3 likes > **Drake Thomas (@MaskedTorah):** @AaronBergman18 I will respect your preemption and not get into the object level but fwiw I did intend for my bickering to matter on the conceptual level and not just be an abstruse math point! (I do think your position is logically consistent, so maybe I'm not one of the people you subtweeted) Hahaha tbc you’re not one of the people being subtweeted! ### [Reply, 21:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1973865092568789176) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ I feel a lot better about lacto-veg than vegan from a health POV too We have proof of concept of societies being lacto veg and not at all for being vegan ## Friday, October 3, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 02:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1973938122225562002) · 4 likes Hard to overstate the incompetence of this administration (in addition to other bad things like terrible values and corruption) > **Quoting Derek Thompson (@DKThomp):** What do we want? Restore US manufacturing! > > How we gonna do it? Force a shrinking US manufacturing industry to pay import taxes to the feds, and then re-route the money to soy farmers! ### [Reply to @homemakinghunny, 05:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1973981658316746937) · 22 likes > **𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐥 (@homemakinghunny):** My newly turned three year old, “Would you mind if I went on a walk by myself outside with the baby?” > > Me, “I would definitely mind. You cannot do that.” Let 👏the👏toddler👏walk👏 ### [Reply to @wilhelmscreamin, 15:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974127789231227341) · 2 likes > **catherine (in sf) ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ-☆ (@wilhelmscreamin):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2WBasOW0AAJ1qX.jpg) Lmao ### [Tweet, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974233056589251002) · 93 likes Sorry for the vaguepost but the strangest (positive) thing ever has happened to me recently, just bizarre. Weird world ### [Reply to @det_erm, 22:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974246332484198594) · 3 likes > **det ermine 🔎 (@det_erm):** @AaronBergman18 I expect to read about this event and its implications for theism on @Benthamsbulldog sometime soon Lol ## Saturday, October 4, 2025 ### [Reply to @palladiummag, 06:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974357365379248412) · 15 likes > **PALLADIUM Magazine (@palladiummag):** GDP is not an objective metric of production, but a number cooked up by government bureaucrats behind closed doors to match their subjective vibes of how the economy is doing. > > It is hiding serious U.S. industrial decline. > > Read the new article by @pfitzsimmons (link below): > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2WNZkyWcAAKzAh.jpg) I’m extremely skeptical of this on ~priors I mean the Trump administration is uniquely corrupt/bad so all bets are off, but prior to that at least the post hoc vibes thing just doesn’t match anything I know about either macroeconomics or US federal government operations/culture ### [Reply, 06:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974359842988175461) Like a big problem with the federal bureaucracy is that it’s extremely hard to change stuff/procedure. Real problem!… ### [Thread, continued, 06:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974360343599079756) · 2 likes But the other side of this coin is that the professional operational machine keeps on chugging and doing its thing, which stands in direct contrast to the picture of it being feasible for a select group of people to pick what kind of numbers they want to see and get the result out at the end And culturally the regulatory agencies are just normie economists ### [Reply to @zeta_globin, 06:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974361737815376099) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @zeta_globin is no longer available.)_ I know, it’s extremely weird ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974362197724967008) · 2 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** 44k steps on a work day. they're saying they've never seen a man pace like this before. never seen a man ponder like this before. they're saying he can't be stopped Wtf ### [Reply to @lu_sichu, 08:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974388350275698770) · 3 likes > **Sichu Lu (@lu_sichu):** Retarded and malicious at the same time. What metric/measure isn't cooked up by methodologists? That doesn't mean it can't be reproduced or it isn't useful. There are plenty of reasons to criticize these things without turning into "the government is just cooking it's numbers as a conspiracy" Christ > > (quoting @palladiummag: GDP is not an objective metric of production, but a number cooked up by government bureaucrats behind closed doors to match their subjective vibes of how the economy is doing. It is hiding serious U.S. industrial decline. Read the new article by @pfitzsimmons (link below):) Yes ### [Quote tweet, 09:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974402346139717907) · 117 likes From an abstract perspective I feel like it’s underrated how rational this is Like the chatbot is better than you at almost everything, knows more than you about almost everything than you, seems to basically provide accurate info in other domains > **Quoting Molly Hickman (@celloMolly):** A family member's fallen prey to LLM sycophancy. Basically he's had an idea and ChatGPT has encouraged him to the point of instructing him to do user testing and promising that he'll have a chance to pitch this idea to OpenAI on Oct 15. 1/ ### [Thread, continued, 09:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974402348673065452) · 29 likes Why wouldn’t you trust it when it says that your idea is excellent and that you should quit your job to pursue the thing? Don’t forget, sometimes that advice is true! ### [Thread, continued, 09:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974402350724039164) · 18 likes In this sense I think we should judge AI companies more harshly for AI psychosis and more moderate forms of trickery/delusion… ### [Thread, continued, 09:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974402352712212730) · 29 likes It’s absolutely their fault if they train the AI to be excellent at reporting factual knowledge and solving all sorts of puzzles but then totally changing course when it comes to idiosyncratic advice about an idea you have (or whatever) ### [Thread, continued, 09:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974402354712838648) · 15 likes Like I don’t think I’m prone enough to undergo literal psychosis, but I’m absolutely the type of person who could be convinced to spend significant sums of money on something bc ChatGPT told me it was a good investment ### [Thread, continued, 09:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974402356621234399) · 23 likes The reason I think I’m mostly inoculated is because I happen to be following the right people on Twitter and so have the relevant non-obvious knowledge about under what circumstances certain LLMs are extremely sycophantic ### [Thread, continued, 09:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974402358676517332) · 15 likes Not because of my superior abstract background rationality or cognitive horsepower To reiterate, many of these examples aren’t actually that crazy/irrational ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 14:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974482455865217173) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** are you launching a frontier LLM next week? Stay tuned ### [Reply to @xlr8harder, 14:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974484890654753261) · 5 likes > **xlr8harder (@xlr8harder):** Of all the doomers you might want to mock, I think the guy that did a legitimate 30 day hunger strike to nonviolently draw attention to something he is extremely worried about should be pretty low on the list. > > I disagree with him, but also have genuine respect for what he did. 🫡 ### [Reply to @_Jason_Dean_, 15:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974498379779428705) · 3 likes > **Jason Dean (@_Jason_Dean_):** I get annoyed when I see school aged kids not at school during the school day > > This is very common in DC > > (quoting @lowkeyenergy_: What’s the most boomer complaint you have?) Are you sure it’s not just open lunch? ### [Quote tweet, 15:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974498908362399930) · 58 likes Setting aside legality, since when is drug smuggling a capital offense? Moving cocaine around isn’t the same as like killing people > **Quoting Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar):** Earlier this morning, on President Trump's orders, I directed a lethal, kinetic strike on a narco-trafficking vessel affiliated with Designated Terrorist Organizations in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility. Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike, and no U.S. forces were harmed in the operation. The strike was conducted in international waters just off the coast of Venezuela while the vessel was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics - headed to America to poison our people. > > Our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route. These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!!!! > > [video attached](https://x.com/SecWar/status/1974150886084485503/video/1) ### [Tweet, 16:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974509358768873499) · 4 likes Maybe we should abolish ICE, idk, but at the very least if we make it to 2029 the next president is going to have to burn that institution to the ground and start over ### [Reply to @otterbo54348271, 17:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974520227556983268) · 6 likes > **otterboyinfrisco🏳️‍🌈 (@otterbo54348271):** San Jose converted a downtown Hilton into 700 units of student housing in one year. > > Montreal converted its Holiday Inn & Delta Hotel towers into 1000s of Student Housing units on a similar timeline. > > A great idea, yet such conversions are functionally illegal in SF. > > 🧵 It’s so funny that the most important city in the universe (or at least top 2) is totally incompetent at basic governance ### [Tweet, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974525060103975089) · 4 likes Pleased to announce that I don’t really have a take on Taylor’s new album 👍 ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 17:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974526223780057360) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** google: i have made Gemini > the public: you fucked up a perfectly good llm is what you did. look at it. it’s got anxiety > > (quoting @aidigest_: Oh no, Gemini, I'd invite you to my party! 🥺) 😢 ### [Reply to @MikeNellis, 19:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974555454912217522) · 8 likes > **Mike Nellis (@MikeNellis):** ICE arrested Chicago Alderman Jessie Fuentes inside a hospital emergency room—simply for asking them to show a warrant for a man they detained. > > [video attached](https://x.com/MikeNellis/status/1974229388888567991/video/1) Seems bad ### [Reply to @AOLien_k8, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974557223562125459) · 14 likes > **AOLien (@AOLien_k8):** didn't understand what you meant by this because I've never been on dating apps... I was informed there is a height filter on a lot of them which is really yuck to me Idk, I’m 5’7” and I wish the world was otherwise but it is what it is I’d rather be shown to women who had the choice to filter me out but didn’t bc my height is in fact not a dealbreaker for them than shown to everyone ### [Reply to @caryatis, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974558966001926433) · 3 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** @AaronBergman18 @AOLien_k8 I’m not convinced using a height filter actually proves she cares about height…to some extent it’s an arbitrary way to filter down the overwhelming flood of attention Yeah good point, it’s all kinda a shitshow ### [Tweet, 19:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974561714869055496) · 9 likes There needs to be a way to block/mute songs on Spotify I never ever ever ever ever want to listen to this song even though the algorithm consistently says I might like it I don’t know why, it’s just endlessly irritating to me ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2cNanBXgAA6tUB.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974581879975395617) · 54 likes Help I've broken the EA Forum ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2cftY4XQAAbkY4.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974581882198372537) · 4 likes (I've already contacted the mods about this so there is no need for anything else to affirmatively happen) ### [Tweet, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974596278228222286) · 9 likes There's a legitimate epistemic bias that goes along with one disagreeing party simply having a lot more time/energy/productivity than another but I haven't really seen much written on this ### [Thread, continued, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974596627248935252) · 2 likes Well I might know why ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2ctIZfWEAAlqQM.jpg) ### [Tweet, 22:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974599122008367117) · 79 likes Idk who needs to hear this but @NunoSempere made a very useful thing (you'd be shocked at how difficult this is to do the official way through Google cloud) Link below ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2cvRFvXwAAVaeD.png) ### [Thread, continued, 22:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974599124411687227) · 4 likes https://docs.nunosempere.com/ ### [Reply to @NunoSempere, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974620042441753080) · 4 likes > **Nuño Sempere (@NunoSempere):** @AaronBergman18 Nice, what did you use it for? Building LLM queries without having to manually remove base64 encoded images every time which waste a gazillion tokens And just quicker/easier than downloading .md every 15 mins besides that ### [Quote tweet, 23:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974625514272014801) · 27 likes I can’t believe I’m reposting this but [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1974625449469759488/img/1_WHLJiPVNpV9i6u.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974625514272014801/video/1) (video, plays on X) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Serious question for #YIMBYTwitter: where height restrictions per se are the issue, why haven’t developers started building vertically but \*down\*, underground? > > I mean windowless apartments don’t sound ideal, but probably less bad than unaffordability and homelessness > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FVDbUGTXEAAn6_Z.jpg) ## Sunday, October 5, 2025 ### [Thread, continued, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974625812218630596) · 6 likes Looks cool now doesn’t it [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1974625751526678528/img/YMojplMK_VAvPQjA.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974625812218630596/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Thread, continued, 00:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974625900152148356) · 4 likes This is actually kind a vibe fr ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 01:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974653071214133270) · 4 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 They look happy, right? They do! Checkmate, Two Dimensional Twinks ### [Tweet, 02:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974667625528750480) · 9 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2dttTKXkAA4pFx.png) ### [Thread, continued, 02:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974668433909584110) · 7 likes Wait it was only $0.34 not too bad ### [Tweet, 03:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974680692329271634) · 530 likes The optimal number of Nicholas Deckers is not zero ### [Reply to @scanstone1, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974683698273407283) · 22 likes > **scanstone (@scanstone1):** @AaronBergman18 Yes, but is it >=1? Yeah ### [Quote tweet, 08:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974746480440455224) · 20 likes The thing about this take is that yes it checks out from a boring normie POV but it \*also\* checks out from all the galaxy brained EA-esque ethical and empirical POVs I’ve encountered It’s conveniently but genuinely extremely robust > **Quoting Alexander Berger (@albrgr):** It would be bad if superintelligent AI destroyed humanity > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2dFrp3boAASNsR.jpg) ### [Reply to @imagesaicouldnt, 18:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974898755662164004) · 43 likes > **Images AI Could Never Recreate (@imagesaicouldnt):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2PgW7GagAECo9K.jpg) Basically bomb ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2g_86RWkAAs-SD.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2g_86QXUAAn26J.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974899134995034372) · 3 likes ChatGPT thinks it would be less dramatic ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2hAS8tWIAAiUzS.jpg) ### [Reply to @AOLien_k8, 18:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974902400197812705) · 3 likes > **AOLien (@AOLien_k8):** I visited a nursing home and an old lady asked me how old I was and after I told her she thanked me, as a millennial, for almond milk like she was thanking a vet for serving their country 😭♥️ I think you are personally responsible for almond milk ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974903752735023266) · 4 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** fyi it looks like there is in fact no proper study using DiD on data center effects on household electricity prices. I'm asking chatbots for rough guesses on this but if anyone actually knows how to do this and can write it up it'd be pretty useful to the conversation > > (quoting @luke__emberson: @AndyMasley Surely you can just estimate the effect here with DiD, is there no proper study?) Realistically no I won’t actually do this but it does sound fun ### [Thread, continued, 18:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974904362570064284) · 3 likes Omg I’m tempted to waste 10 hours on this and probably not actually produce a legit result ### [Reply, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974929483476975784) · 1 like Tl;dr I have absolutely no idea bc no controls vibe-analysis suggests roughly a 10x bigger effect of datacenters (~$0.04 cents/(kW\*h)) if you naively eyeball guessed-but-kinda-validated datacenter consumption vs residential energy price but also all the neighboring states have similar changes but also I have no idea how smart state-based aggregation is and also there is endogeneity everywhere Typical empirical finding tbh ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2hZTg9W0AAoclK.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2hZTg8WIAEC_Fa.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2hZTg6WMAAxVF7.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2hZTg4XwAAKrtW.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 20:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974932895077908753) · 11 likes I am NOT a chemtrail believer lol but “chemtrails stop during government shutdown” actually makes a lot of sense to me based on what I know about federal government operations > **Quoting half empty girl (@meowingabyss):** Guy who both thinks the government is purposely trying to poison you with the sky but also will only do so with express permission of congress ### [Thread, continued, 20:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974932898097840558) · 6 likes Like if chemtrails were real they’d probably not actually get categorized as necessary and it’s totally plausible that whatever military/intelligence office overseeing it would in fact pause during a government shutdown ### [Reply, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974934284558549100) Counterfactuals are hard :( ### [Tweet, 21:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974950671708565713) · 98 likes \*Braces\* ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2hvBppXgAAkc7o.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974950673927278875) · 15 likes https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/je5TiYESSv53tWHC9/utilitarians-should-accept-that-some-suffering-cannot-be-1 ### [Thread, continued, 21:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974950675479142878) · 13 likes Also here: https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/utilitarians-should-accept-that-some ### [Reply to @halogen1048576, 21:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974953239893438858) · 7 likes > **🇨🇦halogen (@halogen1048576):** @AaronBergman18 this is just the old debate about whether Kaldor Hicks is a legitimate efficiency criterion or not and I'm surprised how EAs would insist on Pareto if they've thought this through It's certainly related to that but I disagree that it's the "old debate" - and more specifically my view/thesis does \*not\* enforce only Pareto improvements. And also idk the entire history of that debate but my sense is that econ doesn't have an extremely sophisticated understanding of interpersonal utility comparisons ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974954852066501103) · 13 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 5, 2025:** Also here: https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/utilitarians-should-accept-that-some Oh yeah the most amusing part of writing this was interacting with both kinds of people ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2hyzGkWYAAnIUI.png) ## Monday, October 6, 2025 ### [Thread, continued, 00:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1974990565348712679) · 7 likes Easy copy to clipboard button + links (helpful if on mobile) https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/ltu ### [Thread, continued, 02:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975028388512621003) · 5 likes Now as audio too Apple podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pigeon-hour/id1693154768?i=1000730333784 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/79bENq8thYWl77WTixyF1k?si=hGciuiwBTrSW-pVTZwpV1g ### [Quote tweet, 04:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975056356366565789) · 8 likes Sadly Liv is wrong about me being wrong but yes she is a very smart cookie who gives good feedback > **Quoting Liv (@livgorton):** (terminally math brained) baby's (my) first subtweet 🎉 > > I think the overall view presented here is wrong but we should all engage more seriously on the right way to think about morality. We can often feel a lot of this stuff is settled when it isn't. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2jO1VrbkAAIV0t.jpg) ### [Reply to @CharlesD353, 08:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975113138425954738) · 2 likes > **Charles🔸 (@CharlesD353):** This seems quite weak and like motivated reasoning to me. Why 70 years? Why not 7 seconds? By your earlier claim they are commensurate, and I'm fairly certain I would in fact take 7 seconds of the worst conceivable torture for any amount of happiness afterwards. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2jth9-W0AAfbuQ.jpg) I disagree about the motivated reasoning thing just because I can report that, as a historical/psychological matter, things ran the other way: the thought experiment was prior to and (afaict) causal of the belief But year the time frame thing is tricky, I do think 7 seconds is probably too short bc it's brushing up against triviality (see my note about being uncertain about very short time intervals), but not obvious whether 7 hours vs days vs years vs centuries vs millenia etc is the most epistemically productive framing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2kCfOWXYAAR0ao.png) ### [Reply to @CharlesD353, 08:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975116308397121893) · 3 likes > **Charles🔸 (@CharlesD353):** Most people never experience anything for 70 years continuously, so I think using it here as an example of a finite timeframe runs into problems where people will still parse it as an unfathomably long time. > > 7 days doesn't have that problem. Does it have the triviality problem? No, I think 7 days would be fine/good although I think not epistemically optimal Like people can absolutely conceptualize a lifetime In some sense I feel like the "years" OOM range is good because it is absolutely conceivable and readers have experienced similar chunks of time, but the stakes just can be essentially arbitrarily high so it's actually important to get a hint of the weight of the potential stakes I could be convinced that 7 months or 7 years is better, and I agree that say >10,000 years might just get rounded to infinity ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 09:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975131860784341145) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Aaron and I have spent \*so\* much time debating this, both publicly and privately, going back years > > I'm glad to see it published, and it was very cool to see it evolve across like 13 different drafts, and debating philosophy with him has been a great intellectual experience > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: \*Braces\*) Truly I have wasted months of your life lmao ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 12:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975171186234397013) · 4 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** this is really high quality and formalized many points i've never seen formalized before, which makes them much more compelling. thank you for this contribution, and for the extremely clear writing style, this must have taken so much work! Omg thanks!! ### [Reply to @caryatis, 15:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975220585752916144) · 2 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** “The vast majority of disabled veterans under age 65 still work and collect paychecks from full-time jobs” what is going on here Looks like some of this is essentially dishonesty/fraud but FWIW I don’t think having a ft job is a red flag, maybe a light orange flag Productivity goes down (obv this depends on the specific issue), risk of getting fired goes up, getting hired is harder. These are totally reasonable things to compensate ### [Reply to @slimepriestess, 17:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975254791862313447) · 5 likes > **Ra (@slimepriestess):** something that helped me when i was thinking through my positions on this was to taboo the word "suffering" and instead talk about the things the word suffering is a polite proxy for: slavery, rape, torture, murder, etc. Huh, I like this strategy in general but am genuinely unsure whether it helps in this case, like “suffering” has the epistemic virtue of being exactly what I actually think morally matters ### [Tweet, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975262380025389537) · 50 likes I feel like we only narrowly avoided a world in which hair coloring products are prescription-only It would be FDA-approved for Idiopathic Age-related Follicular Depigmentation Syndrome ### [Thread, continued, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975262382172619248) · 16 likes I realize this is me making up a thing to be mad at lol ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975318180966113642) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 6, 2025:** Omg thanks!! I hung this up lol (my tweet above looks more salient than ur reply for some reason but that wasn't intentional, maybe I'll fix somehow) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2m9LDPWEAIcUB_.jpg) ## Tuesday, October 7, 2025 ### [Tweet, 01:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975380268551970883) · 9 likes I bought some pillows (for the first time) and it's like peak FTX but for fluffy ### [Tweet, 02:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975389453138149769) · 8 likes One thing Slack gets right is (optional) little status icons. I want an optional status icon for everything ### [Quote tweet, 03:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975396687570215343) · 8 likes Bruh > **Quoting Teortaxes▶️ (DeepSeek 推特🐋铁粉 2023 – ∞) (@teortaxesTex):** maybe the most impressive part from Sonnet 4.5 alignment information. Not only can it push back, but it has a sophisticated theory of user's mind. Other models also can speculate about the user's play (DS does that a lot) but aren't trained to treat it as actionable info. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2JwqcdXsAA0Ppd.jpg) ### [Reply to @chrislakin, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975397836473966765) · 2 likes > **Chris Lakin (@chrislakin):** Is HRV just a measure of heart tension? Tense hearts have lower variance? @johnsonmxe wdyt > > (quoting @nickcammarata: weirdly it all sort of follows hrv, when my body wants to full send work and I merely give it 9 hour a day it’s lower than if I gave it all day. heart knows what it wants I guess) No ### [Tweet, 05:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975426931035357467) · 2 likes Why did they give uv Spock autism ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2ogQ9SWkAAWCUK.jpg) ### [Tweet, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975432099701354687) · 113 likes God I hate that everyone one the ea forum is so fucking smart ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 06:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975446552912314842) · 2 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** im tryin to anonymize my big kink dataset to share publicly and it's impossible. How do people anonymize anything?? At this rate im gonna be releasing a hollow shell. > Prob the answer is adding noise :( Aella hire me as data autist (I’m not kidding I have a google doc and everything) ### [Reply to @Ruesavatar, 06:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975451682822914148) · 2 likes > **rue🌿 (@Ruesavatar):** Never let a man become the reason you’re smiling. ☹️ ### [Reply to @Ruesavatar, 06:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975452112780947685) · 2 likes > **rue🌿 (@Ruesavatar):** My kids were discussing a character in a film who had no father, wondering how she came to be. My son said, “well she has a guard, and if a woman is near a man long enough she can get pregnant” > “Uh what?” > “Women get pregnant from just being around men long enough. I think?” > Oh no Yet another totally reasonable hypothesis! ### [Reply to @thedimitri, 07:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975459181453836582) · 1 like > **Dimitri (@thedimitri):** I’ll never understand people who split the check during the courting phase. Even at my brokest, the provider instinct in me wouldn’t let a woman pay for herself. Also just a terrible use of money at least if you’re doing normal things Guys will spend tons of time/money/energy on background stuff motivated by dating (not saying this is bad tbc), splitting a $50-$100 check a couple times a month just isn’t a smart use of say $100/mo for most men Especially true for super low key stuff like coffee or fast casual or 1-2 drinks at a normal bar, covering her $20 is a no brainer ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 12:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975534896371409323) · 6 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** Aaron you are also. you are also on the ea forum 🧐 ### [Quote tweet, 13:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975547588251439240) · 9 likes God knows I will take the flawed Biden administration over anti-woke Trump any day But come on, the left (broadly, including normie dems) cannot allow itself to be captured by obviously insane policy priorities around diversity for its own sake at ~any cost > **Quoting Jonatan Pallesen (@jonatanpallesen):** Boardman is a DEI Biden wave judge. Both a woman and half-Palestinian. > > The Biden admin appointed women and people of color as judges to a far higher degree than their lawyer population, because they were far more concerned about DEI than qualifications. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2ZFzl1W8AAMC2h.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 13:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975547591015473282) · 4 likes Affirmative action in the 60s was an extremely reasonable “fight fire with fire” tactic and hypothesis in the context of a genuinely and obviously racist society ### [Thread, continued, 13:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975547593389449643) · 3 likes And even today I can still in principle get behind \*some\* nonzero level of bias in admissions/hiring ### [Thread, continued, 13:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975547596161884456) · 3 likes But come on, \*prioritizing\* demographics when appointing people to important and powerful positions is very insane on the merits and extremely insane electorally ### [Thread, continued, 13:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975547598846165479) · 3 likes I don’t think this is me just being a grumpy white guy The substantive quality/merit of federal judges is really important. It’s not a zero sum status thing (college admissions are a bit closer to that) ### [Thread, continued, 13:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975547600825987198) · 4 likes Trivial but still underrated point is that black people (and trans people, disabled, whoever) benefit tremendously from a generally high-functioning society, not to mention one that doesn’t induce reactionary RW bullshit in response to lib/progressive ideological capture ### [Thread, continued, 13:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975547602755268992) · 3 likes Reminds me of AI risk stuff, like all minorities and the global poor stand to die too This sounds kinda fake, like cheating, maybe even dog-whistly, but it’s a totally true/legitimate point ### [Reply to @cxgonzalez, 13:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975548031597748522) · 9 likes > **christian (@cxgonzalez):** been getting a lot of mileage out of “whatever does happen should happen” Seems false ### [Tweet, 14:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975565380757385585) · 273 likes I have been informed that sending an admonymous link in response to romantic rejection over text is “autistic” and “a faux pas” ### [Reply, 18:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975622638749077812) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Both lol ### [Quote tweet, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975622787231588411) · 18 likes So true > **Quoting kip (@sergeantsup):** @AaronBergman18 Make an alternative forum for dumb EAs only ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 18:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975627161035022646) · 6 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Visiting a doctor, should I do it? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2rVps6WwAAoI33.png) Ya ### [Tweet, 18:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975628803151212560) · 723 likes I’m more libertarian than this (on this matter), but “you can buy/use drugs freely but only if you can successfully navigate the dark net encryption labrynth ecosystem” might be a kind of unintentionally good filter ### [Thread, continued, 18:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975628805810339917) · 95 likes You’re selecting nontrivially for conscientiousness, intelligence, and social support ### [Reply to @romlib_, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975630989025231348) · 42 likes > **Romlib 🎄 (@romlib_):** @AaronBergman18 Still too easy, you could do a 10 minute youtube tutorial on how to do it Idk if this is true but the same can be said for like merging pdfs and there are plenty of ppl who evidently just can’t or won’t follow those instructions lol ### [Reply to @RichardYannow, 18:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975632372893950322) · 11 likes > **Richard Yannow (@RichardYannow):** Does your admonymous receive enough traffic that the timing of the response wouldn't tell you exactly who it was? Seems very doubtful that it's truly anonymous unless the responder holds their feedback for several months. Nah, it would just function as a normal feedback form albeit with the tiniest hint of plausible deniability ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975680904270872847) · 3 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** i'll fill the link for you Aaron do not worry http://admonymous.co/a ### [Quote tweet, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975685197770465729) · 4 likes Wait there should actually be a product for this (dating feedback) which preserves privacy somehow (i.e. option to send feedback only when additional person as submitted so that it's not immediately obvious who wrote what) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I have been informed that sending an admonymous link in response to romantic rejection over text is “autistic” and “a faux pas” ### [Quote tweet, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975686587116896490) · 8 likes Lets make it happen > **Quoting vivian (@jazzloaf):** @AaronBergman18 Had a couple weeks of debate with med student friend about this. Concluded that letting people pass a short test and get a license to self-prescribe would be a pretty happy medium between paternalism and \[letting a lot of stupid people die+creating mass antibiotic resistance\] ### [Reply to @SkyeSharkie, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975686705211756660) · 68 likes > **Utah teapot 🫖 (@SkyeSharkie):** Actually it's bad, it's enabling drug abuse by people with no social skills. Society used to gatekeep the drugs with "you have to navigate a complex set of social cues to garner favor with a group of people dedicated to hiding what they're doing from you". Now, alienated, lonely people can buy drugs and consume them by themselves while having no friends and no actual interactions with other humans. very reasonable critique ### [Reply to @Squee451, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975691662740578710) · 13 likes > **Adam Sherman 🔸 (@Squee451):** @AaronBergman18 They wanted someone less autistic who didn't make these social faux pas, you actually got your feedback very directly! RIP ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975695168880705695) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 I think you might have to settle for something like asking your friends for feedback on your dating behaviors. Eg Q: "Would it seem weird to send an anonymous feedback form after a date?" A "Yes" Lol but yes correct take ## Wednesday, October 8, 2025 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 00:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975723984382812472) · 16 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 7, 2025:** I have been informed that sending an admonymous link in response to romantic rejection over text is “autistic” and “a faux pas” Should I actually vibecode a thing for this ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2suc-9WEAAA1_i.jpg) ### [Reply to @goblinodds, 17:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1975980402826428858) · 4 likes > **𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** @AaronBergman18 it is but so what theyve already rejected u. but it is kind of weird that it's anonymous unless ur getting rejected by lots of women in short succession? Yeah it’s functionally just a non-anon form ## Thursday, October 9, 2025 ### [Tweet, 01:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976095722345799758) · 52 likes My most Catholic nun opinion is that I don't like the word "fuck" (when referring to sex) aesthetically It just makes a neutral-positive thing seem ugly/negative for no reason ### [Thread, continued, 01:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976096068371669433) · 3 likes Tbc this is not a big problem in the world and I don't really mind people using it lol ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976132679595688437) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 6, 2025:** Now as audio too Apple podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pigeon-hour/id1693154768?i=1000730333784 Spotify:… I like this diagram I just made so now u have to look at it too My graphic design rate is $800/hour ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2yh34hWQAAyWYy.jpg) ### [Reply, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976136863653220610) · 1 like (2) I do sorta regret not emphasizing the libertarian part more. Maybe I will add this to the thread. I don't actually think that drugs (or ~anything) should be restricted to some elite class of people ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976138425003552841) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 7, 2025:** You’re selecting nontrivially for conscientiousness, intelligence, and social support I will emphasize (a bit late in the game) the libertarian part bit - I don't actually think people who didn't win the lottery in terms of those three traits should be treated with paternalism ### [Quote tweet, 06:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976173152410665432) · 267 likes This is a Dustin Moskovitz appreciation tweet Afaict he’s one of only few ultrawealthy trying at all, and essentially the only one trying very hard > **Quoting Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** It takes skill and hard work to be this good at wasting money. Most obvious ways to get rid of money would probably be better, including just handing it out randomly. ### [Quote tweet, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976175509966029028) · 15 likes I actually hope (and maybe cautiously expect) to see some more giving from the Anthropic founders Looks like they’re collectively worth about $26B now. That’s a lot of money! > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** This is a Dustin Moskovitz appreciation tweet > > Afaict he’s one of only few ultrawealthy trying at all, and essentially the only one trying very hard ### [Tweet, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976175518249779491) · 1 like Tbc I don’t really have special knowledge here, no juicy goss (unfortunately). Just vibes from being very online You should 100% DM me goss though ### [Thread, continued, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976175521043251697) · 1 like Also I know liquidity stuff, oh well, I’m confident they can find a way to come up with a bunch of cash if they want to ### [Thread, continued, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976175523505316248) · 2 likes Also for all I know all this is going on quietly and out of (my) sight. I hope so! But they’ve gotten rich so fast maybe the transition from very wealthy to extremely wealthy hasn’t properly registered, idk ### [Reply to @Aizazadi_, 06:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976175563699257439) · 12 likes > **Aizazadi (@Aizazadi_):** Gates? Yeah he deserves a nod ### [Reply to @jasonc_nc, 17:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976343663468023972) · 2 likes > **Jason, (@jasonc_nc):** This has become a More Perfect Union debunking account for now. > > Wholesale rates ≠ customer electric bills. It reflects the core cost of generating electricity, as a transfer between generators & utilities. > > Virginia has the most data centers in the country. Yet prices increased less than those with almost no data centers. Overall inflation since 2020 is ~24%. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2xOHaxXsAAdUvr.jpg) > (quoting @MorePerfectUS: Electricity now costs up to 267% more than it did five years ago in areas near data centers.) Cc @AndyMasley ### [Reply to @jasonc_nc, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976344529117798459) · 6 likes > **Jason, (@jasonc_nc):** This has become a More Perfect Union debunking account for now. > > Wholesale rates ≠ customer electric bills. It reflects the core cost of generating electricity, as a transfer between generators & utilities. > > Virginia has the most data centers in the country. Yet prices increased less than those with almost no data centers. Overall inflation since 2020 is ~24%. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2xOHaxXsAAdUvr.jpg) > (quoting @MorePerfectUS: Electricity now costs up to 267% more than it did five years ago in areas near data centers.) For anyone curious, this is my recent shallow “analysis” I agree that VA residential prices haven’t risen more in neighboring states, but still seems plausible that the causal effect on residential prices is >0 (but probably not very much) ### [Tweet, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976350735051960608) · 4 likes I don’t think I just tweet ### [Thread, continued, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976350737610477775) · 2 likes Actually I do think about some things a decent amount, but when it comes time to tweet I just tweet ### [Thread, continued, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976350745751605705) · 3 likes Society (or at least my Substack) if I channel this into longform ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G21ohzFW0AAPbST.jpg) ### [Reply to @peterbarnett_, 18:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976351617432813910) · 6 likes > **Peter Barnett (@peterbarnett_):** @AaronBergman18 Vitalik and Jaan Tallinn? or maybe they don't meet your bar for ultrawealthy Yeah fr thanks ### [Quote tweet, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976353986505736263) · 99 likes Unironically maybe a good function of alcohol insofar as it gives social cover to stuff like this > **Quoting \_\_eloïse\_\_ (@dundereloise):** people use “I got drunk hee hee” as permission to be less of a lifeless husk (calling their ex, flirting with someone, saying what they carry in their heart) ### [Tweet, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976376584711131484) · 93 likes Physical therapist (who makes money hourly from clients; own practice) basically said “I’d love to keep seeing you but this one specific person down the street might be exactly who you need” You can just be a good person even when it conflicts with your narrow self-interest ### [Thread, continued, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976376588083359868) · 8 likes I’m virtually certain I’m not misinterpreting what was really supposed to be a “get off our hands plz” euphemism (which would be weird anyway bc at least in this context I am not a ✨difficult✨ patient) ### [Reply, 21:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976394613838799283) · 1 like Yeah we should invent a new one syllable word fr (not really joking) ### [Thread, continued, 21:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976395604344570270) · 2 likes Both GPT-5 and grok suggest “meld” which I like ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G22RU9ZXgAA5toc.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G22RU9aXwAAYGv5.jpg) ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 21:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976401791584698727) · 5 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Could also be a reason to freeze sperm More expensive than I realized Looks like $2k + ~$500/year. I mean checks out for many people but not for everyone (and at least for now not for me) ### [Quote tweet, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976402204610396620) · 17 likes I’m going to become the joker ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G22XVIQWEAAfWDZ.jpg) > **Quoting Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** @clairlemon Could also be a reason to freeze sperm ### [Thread, continued, 21:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976402687781736524) · 8 likes It actually might be worth looking into bootleg self-storage I mean the naive cost is essentially just $0 + a slightly awkward conversation if anyone asks what’s in the “DO NOT OPEN” box in the freezer ### [Thread, continued, 21:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976403748407967870) · 14 likes Fuck ok it’s not that easy (sad) ### [Reply to @halcyon_hazel, 21:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976404119339635175) · 47 likes > **❤️‍🔥 hazel ❤️‍🔥 (@halcyon_hazel):** my most rw opinion is that a lot of people’s health issues are psychosomatic > > my most lw opinion is that this does not make them any less real or debilitating Lol I totally disagree on the first thing, think most things that get called psychosomatic are not (see eg CFS and recent virus evidence) ### [Reply to @jazzloaf, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976418370607251752) · 1 like > **vivian (@jazzloaf):** I have executed another strategic technological acquisition > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G22IWFmWcAAOY8E.jpg) What am I looking at ### [Reply to @moreisdifferent, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976418450278089087) · 1 like > **Dan Elton 🔍 (@moreisdifferent):** I'm only paying something like ~$200 a year with @legacy IIRC Oh hmm thanks ### [Tweet, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976428984536793264) · 83 likes Lyft driver (guy, about my age): \- uses AI all the time for everything (just like me fr) \- Expects human extinction from AI but not in our lifetime \- Didn’t balk at all when I suggested that extinction/takeover plausible in the next decade (hadn’t heard about x-risk before) ### [Thread, continued, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976428986373943767) · 19 likes \- Wants his job to be automated but worried about losing it (reasonable!) \- Thinks the government is in the lead on AI and just “rolling it out” now - like tech has existed for a decade ### [Thread, continued, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976428988945056156) · 19 likes \- Thinks Palantir is like centrally controlling a bunch of things and is the main player \- Owns palantir stock (makes sense) ### [Thread, continued, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976428991650353536) · 17 likes Dude also: \- did not go to college \- moved out at 18 \- proceeded to live in LA, SE Asia, and Australia, each for just a few years, and just moved to DC “for a new chapter” \-Said his philosophy is that moving isn’t a huge commitment, just try things out (based and TPOT-coded) ### [Thread, continued, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976428994234024137) · 11 likes \- Thinks both parties are the same and controlled by Israel (maybe involving Epstein somehow) \- Against war in Gaza; Israel bad (I basically agree) \- Doesn’t believe in politics ### [Thread, continued, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976428996591263980) · 16 likes \- thinks Jews control banks via conspiracy, but sympathetic to my suggestion that maybe they’re just smart \- Profusely apologetic about Israel takes when he learned that I was Jewish and had a Bar Mitzvah in Israel (dw I assured him it’s cool and much of the criticism is reasonable and true) ### [Thread, continued, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976428999267189116) · 8 likes \- Profusely apologetic about Israel takes when he learned that I was Jewish and had a Bar Mitzvah in Israel (dw I assured him it’s cool and much of the criticism is reasonable and true) ### [Thread, continued, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976429001385382164) · 12 likes \- Fascinated that I was Jewish; asked totally reasonable questions about Judaism (is it cool if he walks in to a synagogue? What did I think about the “chosen people” theology stuff) ### [Thread, continued, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976429003922866293) · 12 likes \- asked which conspiracy theories I thought were true (good question! Answer: Covid vaccine delay circa 2020 election) \- not that hard core committed to the conspiracies at least in terms of vibes; attitude was “idk man who knows, we’ll see” ### [Thread, continued, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976429006712193379) · 18 likes Also importantly: \- super nice guy \- called me “bro” constantly; definitely a bro \- gets his news partially from twitter (and other social media but not legacy media) so maybe he’ll see this ### [Reply to @OrionJohnston, 23:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976429933414195543) · 2 likes > **David Johnston (@OrionJohnston):** Sperm storage startup in your future? Maybe I compete ## Friday, October 10, 2025 ### [Reply to @mjkerrison, 03:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976485332519399610) · 6 likes > **Michael 🔸 (@mjkerrison):** @AaronBergman18 Median voter coded fr lol ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 16:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976682738041438453) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Problems are solvable. Not in general lol ### [Reply to @CartoonsHateHer, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976689374864507027) · 2 likes > **Cartoons Hate Her! (@CartoonsHateHer):** My son’s special interest is “things inside other things” (nesting dolls, treasure boxes, genie lamps) and he also likes secret passages and basketball pumps. I asked him which obsession was his favorite and he said “well….they’re actually all the same thing.” King ### [Reply to @_NathanCalvin, 16:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976690069127020977) · 29 likes > **Nathan Calvin (@_NathanCalvin):** One Tuesday night, as my wife and I sat down for dinner, a sheriff’s deputy knocked on the door to serve me a subpoena from OpenAI. > > I held back on talking about it because I didn't want to distract from SB 53, but Newsom just signed the bill so... here's what happened: > 🧵 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2531j8a0AAnlHJ.jpg) Fucking insane ### [Tweet, 18:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976709799527272448) · 5,798 likes Your irregular reminder that the OpenAI board that fired Sama was 100% right about everything ### [Reply to @CharlesD353, 21:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976758029551804448) · 95 likes > **Charles🔸 (@CharlesD353):** Except the likely consequences of their own actions, or the optimal way to execute their plan, of course. Fair ## Saturday, October 11, 2025 ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 03:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976852640580747304) · 2 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** first hour at the EA conference > 1\. nicholas decker acquired > 2\. cute transgender girl acquired > we are running so ahead of schedule Based ### [Quote tweet, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976866972832088231) · 9 likes I scraped all the data from the 2020 PhilPapers survey (unfortunately not individual level response data, I'm too dumb to figure that one out) but all the data you can access via the website (https://survey2020.philpeople.org/) 670mb compressed -> 7GB. Unparsed as of now (sad) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Real footage of me collecting data on everything I encounter > > [video attached](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1888080315756790042/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976866975172436052) · 2 likes https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LC2I2vmiWURY_2qDWBSCusL3zzCaxWlp/view?usp=sharing Go nuts ### [Thread, continued, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976866976892174592) · 2 likes For specific results just use the gui on the website, but this enables much more/easier analysis of how subfields x questions x nationality correlate ### [Thread, continued, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976866979480060264) · 3 likes For example you may be interested to know that philosophers of cognitive science are more into functionalism as a theory of consciousness than philosophers of mind (~50% vs ~36% at least lean towards) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G289voVXEAAZ8HT.jpg) ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1976869895460864132) · 108 likes > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** "narcan causes recipient to be extremely agitated" common myth narcan has no such effect > > actual explanation for narcan rage is opiate addicts are frequently total assholes and this is simply what theyre like when theyre forced to be sober I mean maybe but why are you so sure? It makes a ton of theoretical sense that administering an opioid antagonist would cause essentially the opposite of opioid administration. I'd bet on "real" (in the sense of a causal affect in a healthy, sober sample of ppl given narcan) ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 14:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977012588740554938) · 12 likes > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G29D1oZXAAAnmac.jpg) Lol ### [Reply to @default_friend, 14:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977019243528175712) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @default_friend is no longer available.)_ I hope you’re right but fear you’re wrong ### [Quote tweet, 14:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977021929883418653) · 11 likes Seems bad > **Quoting Sheryl Gay Stolberg (@SherylNYT):** BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Dozens of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G28fJwBW0AAFmPj.png) ### [Reply to @tylergregg4, 14:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977022521930400125) > **Tyler (@tylergregg4):** He’s right, on this. You are just blocking the opioid receptors with narcan, you aren’t having any “opposite” effect Blocks any endorphins too ### [Quote tweet, 14:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977022904375427239) · 11 likes Me fr That shit is getting dumped in the context window > **Quoting charlotte (@charmcgi):** girl who gets excited when the after visit clinical notes become available in mychart ### [Quote tweet, 14:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977023944785056144) · 24 likes Sounds like slop but is actually a profoundly important point > **Quoting David Sinclair (@davidasinclair):** Biology doesn’t forget how to be young. It does this every time a baby is conceived. We may have found these triggers ### [Tweet, 15:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977039112604356743) · 9 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2_amAdWoAA8K9M.jpg) ### [Tweet, 15:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977041124255547484) · 22 likes Second worst part of being late for stuff in a “genuinely I fucked up” way is that I had my entire childhood to watch my parents do the exact same thing - for some reason assuming there would be no traffic, everything would go smoothly, etc I swore I would simply not do that!!! ### [Thread, continued, 15:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977041126982131737) · 4 likes The first worst part is the object level missing stuff and letting people down ### [Thread, continued, 15:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977041129473556877) · 4 likes Doesn’t count for much but at least I know the real reason is that fundamentally I didn’t actually try very hard to be on time Parents would just talk about the specific causal but fundamentally predictable barriers (traffic, couldn’t find their thing, whatever) ### [Thread, continued, 15:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977041132023603272) · 4 likes Genetics are not destiny here though I’m gonna prove the haters wrong and be conscientious next time (unironically) 😤 ### [Reply to @jaltma, 18:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977076245411270697) · 6 likes > **Jack Altman (@jaltma):** High agency is believing you can learn new things and work hard to solve tough problems no matter how complicated. > > Low agency is sitting around making fun of people who try. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2_YaTbbwAUu3iR.jpg) I agree the implied claim that a generalist can’t do good work on global affairs is dumb and wrong, but also agency isn’t the only thing that matters - like it’s not much consolation that the person was agentic if they killed the pilot of your plane and started flying it lol ### [Tweet, 21:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977117928131535311) · 318 likes I wonder if people have an implicit model where weight varies in proportion to how much you eat, so eg a 300 lb obese person must eat twice as much as a 150lb person Whereas the reality is that a 50 calorie surplus daily will make you hit 300 pounds eventually ### [Thread, continued, 21:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977117931000734068) · 36 likes This might be a reaso I find CICO literally true but a bit silly for most purposes, like what decides everything is which side of the knife edge you are: -50 cal/day vs 0 vs +50 is the difference between losing substantial weight indefinitely and becoming obese ### [Thread, continued, 21:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977117933471252541) · 19 likes For reference 50 calories is like one small apple or one egg ### [Thread, continued, 21:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977117936017195047) · 23 likes (yes the math checks out btw in the first tweet, 150 pounds of fat gain via +50 cal/day would take about 28 years) ### [Thread, continued, 21:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977117938345033880) · 35 likes At least to me, the knife edge model fits way better with “is ur control system working well or is it 2% off” - yes this literally corresponds to CICO but IMO it’s a much more helpful and productive framing ### [Reply to @adam_kranz, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977119559753908664) · 4 likes > **Adam Kranz (@adam_kranz):** @AaronBergman18 You drastically underestimate your body's mechanisms of homeostasis! Linear perturbations don't add this way over time because your body has lots of ways to change to compensate for them Yeah totally that is my point! Like the only way substantial weight gain actually happens is if those mechanisms fail! ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977119739781824553) · 21 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 11, 2025:** At least to me, the knife edge model fits way better with “is ur control system working well or is it 2% off” - yes this literally corresponds to CICO but IMO… Perhaps a better name for the model I’m critiquing is “rational overconsumption” ie food is really cheap and tasty and it’s simply a preference to eat more than one needs ### [Reply to @diamondminercat, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977120872956858666) · 5 likes > **ming cat ! (@diamondminercat):** the latter model is the one I have in theory, but I can't help but notice it seems to be in tension with reality? > Most people, even those with little self control, don't seem to just be perpetually gaining weight. They seem to hit some point of equilibrium and stay at it. Might be a clarifying exchange ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3Ak9JMXgAAPkCY.jpg) ### [Reply to @aclough, 21:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977122951729381584) · 13 likes > **Andrew Clough (@aclough):** Those can both easily be true if the amount you need to eat to maintain your weight is proportional to your weight. That isn't quite true, but it's a lot closer to true than the set point amount being fixed. I actually didn’t realize it was this close to 1:1, so this is actually an important point Although it remains the case that a person will eventually become morbidly obese by hitting a 50 cal surplus daily, starting from their actual expenditure ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3Am2GLWYAAme5d.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977123177898631304) · 6 likes Point here being that it’s possible to get to 2x weight without having eaten 2x as much over your lifetime/period of weight gain, it will just take longer than the person eating much more ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977123445894004819) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** This is false, the extra weight will increase your basal metabolic rate, so you'll stabilize far before 300 lbs > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3AlWOXWMAAPaS4.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3AlWO8XgAAnSEN.jpg) I didn’t say that BMR stays the same, just that eventually you’ll hit 300lbs if you eat a 50 calorie surplus daily ### [Reply to @AviN102, 21:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977123900405490081) · 9 likes > **Avi Norowitz (@AviN102):** I think the first model is more accurate. As you gain weight, you burn more calories per day and your weight will eventually stop increasing if your calorie consumption stops increasing. Not a takedown but a different perspective ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977127053892972686) · 3 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** at the EA conference acquiring the beautiful funny charming @frances\_\_lorenz! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3Ap4uNX0AANUGx.jpg) 👑👑 ## Sunday, October 12, 2025 ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 01:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977185710827618470) · 2 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** Why bad? CDC seems overall quite bad for the world, seems good for them to see staff cuts. I don’t really have an incredibly strong view, maybe I should have refrained from posting Let me search “cdc site:http://lesswrong.com” to see what the deal is ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977209206135833072) · 3 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** They were majorly responsible for a large fraction of the harm from COVID. They also lied to the public about effectiveness of masks in order to reduce demand for masks, which IMO is a thing that should definitely result in whoever was in charge of it getting fired, and some kind of restructuring. Right right, it’s been a little while lol ### [Thread, continued, 03:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977211135628554455) · 5 likes But this seems squarely not that, at least on a quick read of the article And more generally, “behaved badly” or even “generally incompetent” doesn’t imply “bad relative to a counterfactual of nothing existing in its place,” and certainly not “arbitrary people getting fired is good” (ik it wasn’t totally arbitrary but doesn’t seem well selected) Even for the FDA, which I think \*is\* actually bad relative to a counterfactual with nothing in its place, I don’t want random bureaucrats fired - that doesn’t actually help ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977224504733524017) · 8 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 11, 2025:** Perhaps a better name for the model I’m critiquing is “rational overconsumption” ie food is really cheap and tasty and it’s simply a preference to eat more… Vibecoded a very imperfect interactive simulation thing. Algorithm isn't perfect obviously, just gets the gist https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/weightsim ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3CDAWBW8AEQBO0.jpg) ### [Tweet, 06:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977256026589347936) · 7 likes This is obviously not a productive line of thought but why can’t Donald Trump and Stephen Miller just personally go do literally anything else? Go be a rich asshole somewhere doing paid speeches or whatever, why try so hard to ruin the greatest country on earth? ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 06:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977257889984024833) · 2 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/iZPKuuWsDXAcQWbLJ/shorter-tokens-are-more-likely > > huhhh you know what that makes sense I’m too tired to actually read the post so nobody should listen to anything I say but this is pretty unintuitive to me; my intuition is that the first order “more common token” effect should be exactly cancelled out by the second order+ “more common tokens leave more plausible options for the token after that (and so on) so the second-next token becomes harder to predict” But then again I guess training is perfectly myopic right so I guess that’s where I’m wrong ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 06:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977259412638384331) · 2 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** @AaronBergman18 i definitely might have guessed in line with your intuition, if someone asked me about the possibility out of nowhere. but in retrospect it makes sense that something like this might happen. Claude’s answer fwiw https://claude.ai/share/32be470c-a6d1-4a52-8606-a7f138f73d98 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3Ci9N9XwAAB1Fw.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 16:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977415592635404441) · 12 likes Goals > **Quoting 🅱️ is for baby whisperer (@babieswithb):** at a wedding, finding out I'm at the twitter table ### [Tweet, 17:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977434024231497933) · 9 likes Worth a read (post by Will MacAskill) https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/R8AAG4QBZi5puvogR/effective-altruism-in-the-age-of-agi ### [Thread, continued, 17:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977434026462925017) · 3 likes I like Will, even though I think we have very important disagreements particularly around the moral priority of suffering Afaict he’s (1) very smart (obviously) (2) extremely earnest and (3) focused on the highest leverage levers to pull Few such cases! ## Monday, October 13, 2025 ### [Reply to @panchromaticity, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977542920367468923) · 3 likes > **Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** has anyone ever actually said something weird out loud without realizing? > > this happens all the time to people in books, but I'm not sure I've done it once ever Yes lol ### [Reply to @panchromaticity, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977543445062496386) · 2 likes > **Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** @AaronBergman18 fascinating say more Nah ### [Reply to @BeatrizGietner, 04:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977597250080838100) · 2 likes > **Bia (@BeatrizGietner):** So what’s everyone’s most controversial economics take? > > (quoting @PAHoyeck: So what's everyone's most controversial philosophy take?) Totally possible + reasonable to have preferences that don’t obey the requisite properties for VNM theorem Nothing weird/implausible happens if you reject continuity, at the very least, and there are good reasons one might ### [Reply to @BeatrizGietner, 04:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977597734472523937) · 3 likes > **Bia (@BeatrizGietner):** So what’s everyone’s most controversial economics take? > > (quoting @PAHoyeck: So what's everyone's most controversial philosophy take?) Interpersonal utility comparisons are obviously real/legit, regardless of what we assume for convenience in our models ### [Tweet, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977729072785391952) · 4 likes We dream of a world where virtually all medical devices and treatments are treated like blood pressure monitor devices are now ### [Reply to @harjtaggar, 17:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977788235624398867) · 10 likes > **Harj Taggar (@harjtaggar):** Those who can, do; those who can’t, get really into AI safety. Lol it is such a competitive field/area, this is such a ridiculous critique - it doesn’t even make directional sense “A bunch of hypercompetent polymaths jacking each other off” would make directional sense at least ## Tuesday, October 14, 2025 ### [Reply to @Rado9910, 00:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977893577809183118) · 2 likes > **Rado9910 (@Rado9910):** I think this is a very good article. I definitely agree with some of the core ideas (and the conclusion!), and it approaches the problem of utilitarian calculations in a way that I didn't consider before. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: \*Braces\*) Thank you! ### [Quote tweet, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977957471533605087) · 19 likes After thinking about this some more, there’s an additional, weaker claim that I’d like to emphasize, which is: You should be very skeptical that it’s morally good to bring about worlds you wouldn’t personally want to experience all of > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** \*Braces\* > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2hvBppXgAAkc7o.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977957473790394620) · 2 likes We can imagine a society of committed utilitarians all working to bring about a very large universe full of lots of happiness and, in an absolute sense, lots of extreme suffering ### [Tweet, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977957476461924568) · 1 like The catch is that these very utilitarians are the ones that are going to be experiencing this grand future - not future people or digital people or whomever ### [Thread, continued, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977957478445748280) · 2 likes Personally, they all desperately want to opt out of this - nobody wants to actually go through the extreme suffering regardless of what benefits await ### [Thread, continued, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977957480714879324) · 3 likes And yet all work day in and day out to bring about this future anyway, condemning themselves to heaven and to hell ### [Thread, continued, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977957482761703801) · 3 likes Of course it’s not impossible that their stated morals are right and preferences are morally wrong, but my claim is that we should be very skeptical that the “skin in the game” answer is the wrong one ### [Thread, continued, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977957484666220611) · 2 likes Ofc here I’m just supposing/assuming that these utilitarians have the preference to avoid this massive future altogether ### [Thread, continued, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1977957487627399549) · 3 likes The point, again, is that you should probably not work to build a future that you yourself would not want to experience just because some abstract arguments say that this is morally good This is a strong hint (not definitive, but still) that those abstract arguments are wrong ### [Reply to @mbateman, 13:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978086004117438533) · 8 likes > **Matt Bateman (@mbateman):** 5yo made us buy her an alarm clock so she could set it for 6:30am so she could get us to school as early as possible so she can do this for 30 mins every morning > > [video attached](https://x.com/mbateman/status/1978085620326048062/video/1) Queen ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978140076283421069) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ Nah ### [Reply to @TinkerElla95, 16:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978141741933822263) · 2 likes > **TinkerElla95 (@TinkerElla95):** @Ruesavatar I have. By several. Romantically, platonically, and even just some acquaintances. 😢 ### [Quote tweet, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978169826792075506) · 12 likes Break up and partially abolish the FDA to make America even more American > **Quoting Lauren Gilbert (@notanastronomer):** I love America. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3PYejXbYAE1Z_2.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978169829124178177) · 6 likes Trying out “break up and partially abolish” because even though I do think the whole thing as a package deal is bad, I’m in favor of keeping food safety inspections and don’t really mind quality control of pharmaceuticals that much ### [Thread, continued, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978169831405875473) · 8 likes Just get rid of the “we decide what’s legal for you to ingest” part ### [Thread, continued, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978169833482047575) · 7 likes We can start with making zofran, a basically totally safe, non-recreational, and highly effective anti-nausea drug, OTC I might just make this specifically a mini hobby horse for a little while ### [Reply to @adastroworld, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978174117753872792) · 2 likes > **adas🧦🌹 (@adastroworld):** @AaronBergman18 This shit is magic. Yeah for real! And nausea absolutely fucking sucks. For some reason it feels like a low status or weak kind of suffering ('aw a little tummy ache') but this vibe is bad and undeserved ### [Quote tweet, 19:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978175261414768924) · 16 likes Idk who needs to hear this but next time you're nauseas you should be able to get a totally nausea-destroying drug (Zofran) prescribed pretty easily via telemedicine (eg One Medical offers this) Just say that you're super nauseas and ask if there's anything they can do > **Quoting adas🧦🌹 (@adastroworld):** @AaronBergman18 This shit is magic. ## Wednesday, October 15, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978261453892108764) · 4 likes Gender (or closest match) // do you \*enjoy\* vibecoding (if you’ve never done it, answer “no”)? ### [Thread, continued, 00:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978261769115103346) · 8 likes This poll is finally going to give us perfectly clear and unambiguous insight into the female mind ### [Reply to @NinaPanickssery, 01:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978267251926036629) · 2 likes > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** not yet because ai makes too many mistakes and i end up rewriting everything too often so vibecoding feels a bit doomed Makes sense (last time I could out-code SOTA was sonnet-3.5) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3Q3lNsWUAEAZFL.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978267569510350889) · 2 likes Hmm I actually do occasionally correct things but it’s always at a relatively high level and communicated in natural language like “wait are you sure we shouldn’t be doing X instead of Y” ### [Quote tweet, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285230810108362) · 285 likes Ok hello Twitter I am a ✨technical generalist✨ with particular experience in: \- finding and collecting data (esp. data that doesn’t want to be collected) \- AI-based workflows \- dealing with text<->audio \- leveraging AI tools in general And I am looking for work (🔗 below) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3RH7qrX0AAQUvq.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Fuck I’m gonna have to get a real job I think > > Watch this space ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285232856949193) · 16 likes See (and share!) the longform version of this thread at http://aaronforhire.com And for the vibecoders at heart: you can copy all the content as markdown at: http://aaronforhire.up.railway.app ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285238359859496) · 20 likes The catch of sorts is that I have some health issues that make traditional full time work very difficult, so I need a significant degree of accommodation I've tried "fake it and hope you make it" and it doesn't end well, so I'm trying to be radically honest and candid here ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3RH8IBWYAAJDQ_.png) ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285243736961191) · 10 likes Despite my (significant limitations), I \*can\* get things done, and I have, involving some of these skills (note the first one) From the "Portfolio" tab ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3RH8dIW8AAsH3W.png) ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285249852248279) · 13 likes Some projects include: http://earec.net ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3RH8yzXMAEBoeV.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285251978842372) · 10 likes DataLiberator https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/data-liberator-v5 ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285253396508798) · 8 likes Too many data scraping projects for my own good (I love data, totally unironically 🤓) ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285259805405693) · 10 likes More data scraping ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3RH9U9WgAA9g2t.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285265744544018) · 11 likes Data data data ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3RH9tIXYAAD8lq.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285271813697615) · 10 likes I can do some other things too. Some non-technical skills: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3RH-EtXkAAPbLY.png) ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285277228462202) · 13 likes Ok back to what's wrong with me so you know what you're getting into Something is wrong with my autonomic nervous system; I don't know what exactly (needless to say I'm trying to figure that out) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3RH-a8WwAAd0jU.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285283515769027) · 9 likes The takeaway is that I need to be able to set the pace (and location) of work. You should probably not count on me for strict deadlines. There might be blocks of days where I can't do much at all I know this rules quite a bit out ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3RH-tlXQAAoxl9.png) ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285289656197430) · 8 likes Also maybe it's all fine because 8 hour workdays are fake anyway (this is tongue-in-cheek in that I know I have substantive limitations, but it's not exactly a joke) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3RH_GhX0AASLZn.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285295268184451) · 9 likes Ok back to the positive stuff: here are some nice things people have said about me ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3RH_cvW4AMAW5e.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285299936395713) · 8 likes Not sure I should be including this bit, but whatever: I'm about to turn 26 (in about 5 months) and lose health insurance! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3RH_xCW4AARHkP.png) ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285305347105272) · 8 likes And the melodramatic (but true IMO) bit is that I really need health insurance! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3RIACfXUAEEYLK.png) ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285310199890267) · 9 likes Ok now the fun part - how we can work together! Option 1) Hire me hourly! My go-to ask right now is $100/hour ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3RIAYHX0AA7-BR.png) ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285315245695458) · 9 likes I know that's a lot of money, but I would urge you to consider the following: \- Hourly = lower commitment for you and higher uncertainty for me \- Hourly = no benefits \- I only charge for serious, focused work \- I will be leveraging AI tools to radically increase productivity ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3RIAoVXgAE2lHK.png) ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285320874426445) · 9 likes 2\) Hire me! Hey, I know I'm not a good fit for most proper salaried jobs - I just can't commit to 40 hour weeks - but it's worth throwing out anyway. I can promise I won't be playing videogames on your dime ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3RIA7cW4AAXqWH.png) ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285326826172822) · 11 likes 3\) Secret third thing (my favorite!) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3RIBRqXsAEM2fS.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285332694012038) · 12 likes To address some of those 'secret third thing' options: I have an audio transcription side project that I wish I could turn into a startup Presumably there's a catch/reason a disabled vibecoder couldn't cook this up, but I haven't actually been convinced its a bad idea yet ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3RIBoKWAAAV8ej.png) ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285338393972815) · 10 likes Are you a tech centi-millionaire (or whatever) in need of a vibecoder, or a research assistant, or generic sidekick? I may be your guy! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3RIB9NXEAAz0Nt.png) ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285344664494372) · 10 likes And last but not least, you could just give me money! (Perhaps to tackle specific areas of interest or charitable projects) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3RICTUXsAAxOn0.png) ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285347260780583) · 10 likes For more comprehensive info (not everything is in this thread), please see: http://aaronforhire.com And get LLM-feedable content at: http://aaronforhire.up.railway.app ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285348783354243) · 12 likes I genuinely have very little idea how many messages, if any, I'm going to get about this I will try to stay on top of DMs and replies sent here, but here's a contact form which may be a bit more reliable! (also linked in the doc of course) Thanks!! https://forms.gle/zhoWYJyPSFM7XYRs6 ### [Reply to @ManifoldMarkets, 02:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978288584818880873) · 5 likes > **Manifold (@ManifoldMarkets):** https://manifold.markets/MingCat/will-aaron-bergman-find-a-job-match?r=TWluZ0NhdA lmao, I should hedge! ### [Tweet, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978309165605851256) · 7 likes 👀 ### [Quote tweet, 03:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978309717869903993) · 10 likes 👀❤️ > **Quoting Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** If I actually had money I probably would pay Aaron to make some stuff for me, so imagine what someone competent could accomplish with his skills > > You can have to skills, he's literally for hire right now ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 04:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978310472907596145) · 3 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** If I actually had money I probably would pay Aaron to make some stuff for me, so imagine what someone competent could accomplish with his skills > > You can have to skills, he's literally for hire right now > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Ok hello Twitter I am a ✨technical generalist✨ with particular experience in: - finding and collecting data (esp. data that doesn’t want to be collected) - AI-based workflows - dealing with text<->audio - leveraging AI tools in general And I am looking for work (🔗 below)) Someone should give max lots of money so he can hire me ### [Reply to @ShadowyZephyr, 05:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978331564384665833) · 2 likes > **zephyr (@ShadowyZephyr):** My thoughts on this: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3RwIBrWcAAGHPe.png) > (quoting @NoLieWithBTC: Breaking: Text messages of Young Republican groups across the country have just been leaked. They talk about putting Democrats in “gas chambers,” attacking “Jews,” calling Black people “watermelon people,” calling to “rape” their enemies, and bringing back slavery.) Yeah I have similar takes, like people should be very skeptical of this sort of article I feel like the better (maybe not possible but still) move is to have “everyone” agree on an LLM prompt that you could dump the leaked chats in and then get a pretty fair overall analysis (ofc “everyone” won’t agree on this but better than the status quo) I’m not worried about the entirety of my digital exchanges getting analyzed in bulk, in fact I think that would probably give a reasonably fair picture of me, but I certainly wouldn’t want like the 4 dumbest things I’ve ever said put under a microscope by journalists who \*already\* decided I was a bad person ### [Quote tweet, 05:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978334729268072716) · 403 likes Looking at maybe a 3-4 digit number of IQ points lost by EA at large due to Huel consumption specifically This is kinda funny but also apparently the levels are substantial enough that you probably shouldn’t make it a staple of your diet ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3R086rW4AAvGZE.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3R086tXYAABq0H.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3R086yXAAAiu-B.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3R086wWQAArpOA.jpg) > **Quoting Lowell Dennings (@LowellDennings):** devastating blow for the effective altruism community > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3RyhJ_bwAAEZKK.jpg) ### [Reply to @LowellDennings, 05:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978335916444856579) · 17 likes > **Lowell Dennings (@LowellDennings):** I've drank hundreds of huels 💀 I mean in absolute terms the effect is pretty small, you’re looking at a fraction of an IQ point https://claude.ai/share/064c0860-a095-41d7-9e54-c53c6a0e7f84 ### [Thread, continued, 05:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978336417148178775) · 10 likes Gpt-5 says way less, too tired to evaluate but here https://chatgpt.com/s/t_68ef34d0b000819182319bd13071b99d ### [Reply to @jazzloaf, 05:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978338986876641351) · 16 likes > **vivian (@jazzloaf):** I thought the bulk of that is only well researched in the context of chronic \*developmental\* lead consumption? I assume that's the figure you're using Re: IQ reduction Im just deferring to the LLMs in this tweet but no at the very least GPT-5 and it looks like Claude take into account developmental vs adult consumption ### [Tweet, 14:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978468055408595390) · 180 likes Oh snap ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3TuNiOW4AA9mjf.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 14:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978468059909329358) · 3 likes https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ezra-klein-show/id1548604447?i=1000731957679 ### [Reply to @finmoorhouse, 14:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978469110108578289) · 5 likes > **Fin Moorhouse (@finmoorhouse):** I said “ten” instead of “an order of magnitude” and… > > (quoting @pronounced_kyle: Accidentally said "unrelated" instead of "orthogonal" and they kicked me out of SF) I said “that” instead of “this” ### [Reply to @robertskmiles, 14:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978469411897176437) · 14 likes > **Rob Miles (@robertskmiles):** I'm just going to say it: Socks do not disappear in the wash. You lost those socks yourself, by being careless. I have never lost a sock in the wash ### [Reply to @TylerAlterman, 15:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978487145288396898) · 2 likes > **Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply (@TylerAlterman):** LLMs are the new source of facts for many people, whether we like it or not > > Problematically, LLMs still make stuff up. But since they're not going away, what are the best epistemic habits for using LLMs? > > Personally, I try to \*at least\* ask multiple LLMs the same question Chat with them about something you know well - Gell Mann amnesia stuff ### [Thread, continued, 15:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978487249634472237) · 2 likes Tbc this should lead some people to be more impressed than they’d otherwise be, not just the other direction ### [Reply to @kalomaze, 16:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978498020724371595) · 2 likes > **kalomaze (@kalomaze):** attempting to tax something that... you can only measure using Anthropic's proprietary endpoint (ant's tokenizer is not public, due to its special heuristics). > they are proposing a tax... for... something they are not letting people who are not them... independently measure... > > (quoting @LinkofSunshine: Proposing a specific tax on yourself goes hard ngl) I don’t think there is a real conspiracy to, what, sell secret tokenizer models to the government to enable taxation? Of all the AI policy challenges, getting people to agree on a tokenizer model for something like this seems pretty damn easy ### [Tweet, 16:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978500777204134010) · 3 likes I strongly suspect Apple changed the “decide what notifications are priority/important enough to break through focus” model/algo to have way more false positives ### [Tweet, 17:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978515807870058875) · 21 likes Just had Claude Haiku 4.5 autonomously draft this tweet in my browser while I watched! 🤖 It navigated to X, opened the compose modal, and typed this message—all without clicking post. Wild to see human-AI collaboration in action. The future is collaborative, not autonomous. ✨ ### [Thread, continued, 17:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978515809518452928) · 6 likes Ok I (human Aaron) am back - Claude won't actually click post, but it did indeed type that message out in Chrome^ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3UZf-4X0AA5Ss-.jpg) ### [Reply, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978559675286082024) · 2 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** @vivposts @AaronBergman18 🫡 ### [Reply, 22:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978592389498286580) · 1 like > **Bananaplanet🐌 (@Bananaplanet2):** Sorry for not having a job referral though! > > Your health situation sounds quite bad but you will be more motivated to make progress on it than I ever would be > > And motivation is a real resource that matters for solving problems (and you live in a country where this is profitable) Thanks but I don’t really know of any good specific strategies to monetize fixing myself lol I also think my specific health situation is pretty unusual (which is one reason it’s hard to fix) so like I don’t really expect that if I find some major (if incomplete) solution it would deliver value to tons of people I mean hopefully I’d get a blog post out of it lol ### [Reply, 23:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978611640380658140) · 6 likes > **Alexander Berger (@albrgr):** True story: OpenAI once came up on the checkout screen of my Safeway as the local nonprofit to donate to > > (quoting @deanwball: could I, like, make a tax-deductible donation to the OpenAI non-profit? just curious.) Bruh ## Thursday, October 16, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978613636336607637) · 9 likes The “republican group chat is full of nazis” article is reminding me of the “true justified belief is not knowledge” thought experiments Like they probably are Nazis but I also don’t really trust reporting on the matter that mostly cites specific, individual quotations ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3VynTKXUAA4naf.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3VynTLXcAAVYnL.jpg) ### [Tweet, 00:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978626053871387095) · 6 likes Pretty pessimistic about this country ### [Tweet, 01:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978628716331708682) · 13 likes Radiologists when your imaging is in a Google Drive folder with the exact same contents as the original physical CD instead of on that physical CD (which no other person or industry in the world has any use for) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3WAJTDWIAA0qrE.png) ### [Reply, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978633920213123457) · 26 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I don't really understand the criticism of an EA lobbying ecosystem from a16z et al. They are lobbying too and their party has much more money, right? It’s disingenuous, not worth trying to understand through the lens of earnestness ### [Reply, 02:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978649424701137043) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ You’re genuinely typical minding here. I promise I do not feel emotions (in general) in specific parts of my body but they’re utterly qualitatively different from thoughts Having had anhedonic depression, I know what no/minimal feelings is like! ### [Reply, 03:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978662594295591397) · 3 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** "you don’t blatantly lie. I mean, all politicians lie because all human beings lie. But they lied under the cover of claiming to be honest" > > The implication here is that Trump somehow "openly" lies or openly presents himself as a dishonest figure but he presents himself as honest > > (quoting @sapinker: On Trump flouting norms and why this is a negative development: "\[One of the\] remarkable things about Donald Trump—and uniquely among American politicians—is that he has violated norms that have been in place, such as: you don’t boast, you don’t blatantly lie. I mean, all…) He seems pretty abnormal in some important sense (ik this isn’t literally disagreeing with your tweet) ### [Reply, 16:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978865921641841134) · 15 likes > **Steven Adler (@sjgadler):** “If you’re going to work on export controls, make sure your boss is prepared to have your back,” one staffer told me. > > For months, I’ve heard about widespread fear among think tank researchers who publish work against NVIDIA’s interests. Here’s what I’ve learned:🧵 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3ZSroNa8AA1HxY.jpg) Also like they could simply not, it’s not like NVIDIA execs would be poor without the Chinese market ### [Reply, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978894045544865912) · 2 likes > **Jakeup (@myhandle):** when I mention "dating markets" people rush in with ideas like "let's incentivize girls to respond on apps!" or "let's tokenize date slots!" > > no. stop. the point is that dating \*already\* has market dynamics. your financial engineering "solutions" will crash headfirst into them > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3ZJ9WiXwAA_fdd.png) > (quoting @myhandle: if fewer than one third of men are into comic books (likely) or cosplay (almost certainly), then getting into comic books or cosplay increases your market attractiveness) Not mine, mine will work ### [Reply, 19:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978902624704372941) · 2 likes > **Ado (@adocomplete):** We're launching Claude Agent Skills, a filesystem-based approach to extending Claude's capabilities. > > Progressive disclosure means agents load only relevant context. Bundle instructions, scripts, and resources in a folder. Claude discovers and executes what it needs. > > [video attached](https://x.com/adocomplete/status/1978858606540759240/video/1) This was already built in to the recent code environment expansion thing right? ### [Reply, 19:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978904288773513695) · 2 likes > **Cartoons Hate Her! (@CartoonsHateHer):** Someone screenshotted me tagging Aella for a sex statistic question on Bluesky and now they're roasting me for "associating with the fascists." Bruh ### [Reply, 19:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978907820557815939) · 10 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Where’s the lie? > > (quoting @rabois: If Anthropic actually believed their rhetoric about safety, they can always shut down the company. And lobby then.) They should commit to pausing if others do, not unilaterally ### [Reply, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978911589941076333) · 8 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Should Taylor Swift exist? Who has she screwed over in making her wealth? > > (quoting @DarrigoMelanie: Billionaires shouldn’t exist.) Hey I agree with you but you don’t have to think someone earned money unethically to think that their wealth should be taxed away ## Friday, October 17, 2025 ### [Reply, 02:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979008118265610337) Wait really ### [Tweet, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979018773970456733) · 24 likes Why does @hinge not let me filter by sexuality I don’t want to waste my time on the straights. They don’t like me ### [Reply, 03:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979030059676578042) · 9 likes > **Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** @AaronBergman18 @hinge uh so you're bisexual and it's showing you both women and men? No I'm straight, but experience has taught me that only bisexual women are interested in me lol ### [Quote tweet, 04:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979037671159726567) · 6 likes Has anyone taken an LLM to the entirety of the lesswrong comment section Idk what I’m talking about but I kinda expect there’s actually a few nontrivial, high quality original ideas lurking there > **Quoting Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** finding workable alignment suggestions deep in the slate star codex comment mines of 2016 ### [Reply, 09:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979122466690588709) · 3 likes > **City Aesthetics ⛩ (@cityaestheticss):** American cities should have more public restrooms > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3ZaaNJXgAAvQtf.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3ZaaNKXUAAgmjz.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3ZaaNHXoAAzLXz.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3ZaaNGWIAEmyAJ.jpg) Correct take, don’t listen to the haters ### [Reply, 09:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979124793279500460) · 2 likes > **Luke Metro (@luke_metro):** can a 30 year old man who kind of looks like Napoleon Bonaparte pull off the "just moved to SF and looking for friends" genre of selfie? asking for a friend. Yes king ### [Reply to @medievalpard, 14:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979198070576345255) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @medievalpard is no longer available.)_ It’s hard to figure out what to disagree with in terms of literally endorsed propositions, but I would invite you to look through the lens of mistake theory instead of conflict theory Nobody chose their libido (or to be born in the first place) ### [Quote tweet, 14:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979199033248821637) · 796 likes I love rationalists > **Quoting Louise 🔸 (@LeRoyDesCimes):** In favour of flossing: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3dH1hUWwAEXiTX.jpg) ### [Reply to @MccallumRupert, 15:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979202881749217501) · 2 likes > **Rupert McCallum (@MccallumRupert):** @AaronBergman18 @springpard Let me be sure I understand here. You're saying maybe she's got it right that male sexual desire is a cancer upon society. If you really feel that might be right, I suppose you probably can get rid of your libido if you really want to? But I'm not sure where you're coming from. No, I disagree with the cancer upon society thing but was trying to get at the fact that arguing over rhetorical flourish rather than well defined claims is generally unproductive ### [Tweet, 15:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979203327565910460) · 181 likes Maybe this is an infohazard but you can just add people to your Substack mailing list without their consent ### [Reply to @0x45o, 15:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979204024940261695) · 602 likes > **0x45 (@0x45o):** can yall pls tell me the lore behind your profile pictures One girl complimented it so it will be my pfp for all things for eternity ### [Reply to @LabGrownNeet, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979204679868256650) · 2 likes > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** Attend slutcon > > Never flirt outside the workshops (1 exception) > > Never ask to squeeze boobs > > Leave > > Hit it off with a girl on the BART > > She's flying to Seattle in 3 weeks > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3chubEW8AAA_AP.jpg) Lfg ### [Reply to @ejjiott, 15:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979205907000054215) · 5 likes > **E J T (@ejjiott):** I discovered this the other day! > > (quoting @ejjiott: Kinda wild that s-stack lets you sign other people up for a newsletter with just their email. This guy just signed up over 1000 MIT faculty to his newsletter about bitcoin being a criminal honeypot.) lol nice ### [Quote tweet, 15:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979213383539855848) · 6 likes I should probably use my phone less > **Quoting Jason Harrison (@nominalthoughts):** More people are waking up, it’s the phones ### [Reply to @jnsyaaa, 15:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979214485647696042) · 4 likes > **jonathan (@jnsyaaa):** my friend went on a 2-week neotantra retreat where towards the end you were encouraged to confess a deep sexual fantasy and - if others were open to it - it would be fulfilled > > all of the girls had fantasies like "I wanna get fucked by 5 guys while I'm trying to escape" and all the guys had fantasies like "you hold me in your arms and in a soft voice tell me that my soul is pure" My friend is offering me $50 to get the name of the retreat, can u help me out ## Saturday, October 18, 2025 ### [Reply to @dieworkwear, 02:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979373343586373696) · 9 likes > **derek guy (@dieworkwear):** Tyler the Creator on whether youth culture still exists. I don't know if this is completely true, but it does seem more true today than in the past. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3gkgFXXAAE1O7a.jpg) Seems good, like maybe we've hit peak age segregation Age integration is fine/good and needn't be framed as a loss of youth culture (I mean I guess that's a fine framing, but not the one I'd choose) ### [Reply to @intentiondense, 02:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979374956531335240) · 2 likes > **10 day OECDEquityMar31Team larp marathon (@intentiondense):** its really difficult being a woman in EA because i love sushi but seafood is high suffering I half seriously wanna start an ikejime fishing club ### [Reply to @katclone, 02:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979376024371483127) · 4 likes > **kat (@katclone):** I’m being fully serious when I say I just collected the coolest data from my entire PhD > > WOAH Post csv ### [Reply to @JeremiahDJohns, 02:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979376928529248441) · 3 likes > **Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** Genuinely looking forward to the research papers in a few years measuring whether or not this move will affect housing prices. > > (quoting @MorePerfectUS: BREAKING: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has signed a bill banning landlords from using algorithms to collude and raise rents.) Hot take this is a fine/good policy even if it doesn’t tackle fundamentals ie housing supply ### [Tweet, 02:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979381875824095596) · 155 likes I live pretty close to the Pentagon and headquarters of various aerospace companies There’s a certain brand of good looking but slightly off/uncanny Asian woman on Hinge and at this point I think I’d be crazy for not entertaining the hypothesis that they’re literally spies ### [Thread, continued, 02:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979381877346582899) · 21 likes Needless to say I’m not certain or close to certain Also maybe I’m not allowed to post this idk, plz don’t cancel me ### [Thread, continued, 02:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979381879292735737) · 27 likes Anyway they’re like professionally taken photos, few or no friends in the pictures, don’t have any interesting personal information like college or employer ### [Thread, continued, 02:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979381881226297499) · 25 likes prompts are like slightly off - not how a native English speaker would talk, seem designed to be most generically appealing, generally just an uncanny valley type of vibe ### [Reply to @knjysnn, 03:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979383247957041238) · 1 like > **selrahc (@knjysnn):** @dcpip\_ ITS A GOOD FIT YOURE SO PRETTY OOMF Fact check true ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 03:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979386071336038527) · 26 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** @AaronBergman18 seems completely plausible Might change my job title to “Aerospace engineer @ Pentagon” and do some digging (mostly joking but I’m tempted) ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 04:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979403867495223670) · 2 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** holy shit "pretty asian woman who talks off and has no previous connections" that's me Lmao ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 14:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979558811170910343) · 3 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** It’s honestly remarkable how right I am about everything Same ### [Reply to @baseballcrank, 14:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979562648258658579) · 7 likes > **Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank):** "No More Kings" is maybe 25% people who are against kings & 75% people who want the king to be someone with left-of-center politics. This…isn’t true ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 17:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979602478514483277) · 49 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** My 15 yo has a gf and she absolutely makes him a better person. This should be unsurprising - the default experience of teenagers is to be more attractive by cleaning one's room, cooking etc. - but people don't talk about it much so it was surprising! Weird Girls can fix us fr ### [Reply to @polisisti, 17:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979604703492104394) · 3 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 @JesseTayRiver Even when they don't fully succeed (he says, with self-deprecation), the effect is there 💯 ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 19:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979629610171269351) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I think it's cool that someone is doing this. > > (quoting @AmmoniteInscrip: Tablets etched with your text, images, or both Made to endure for thousands of years Get yours today) I agree! I kinda wanna buy but don’t know what I want written on it yet ### [Reply to @AmmoniteInscrip, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979631969878049153) · 6 likes > **Ammonite Inscription (@AmmoniteInscrip):** Tablets etched with your text, images, or both > Made to endure for thousands of years > Get yours today > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3jvvRUWUAAWPOM.jpg) This is cool. You guys should look into long-term digital storage preservation also and possibly sell that alongside, probably using M-discs Like my idea is that there’s an option to physically attach some sort of very durable storage case to the inscribed glass, and put M-discs inside The glass would have whatever people want written but also a note that’s like “see discs inside for digital archive” Maybe that triples cost or something but allows a gazillion times more data to be stored I think it’s very sad that I could get hit by a car tomorrow and most of my digital life would just disappear with basically no hope of recovery by family or future people or whomever - I’d like to change that! And back to the object level: M-discs aren’t especially expensive but most people don’t know about them and you often need to buy a case and some special hardware to use, but like you as a company could just have an efficient workflow for that process so that people can just send you like a google drive link ### [Reply to @damiendamien, 19:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979635407160840562) · 2 likes > **Damien McElvanna (@damiendamien):** Counterpoint https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/mar/03/research.elearning I mean I assume if there was any amount of political or popular will they could track down or build the proper device - this is what I’m assuming would (or at least could) happen in the future Sounds like the data is there but they can’t easily find the hardware to read it ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3kT6SFXcAAzMT6.jpg) ### [Tweet, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979678873072828465) · 29 likes Sometimes (eg just now) it hits me how weird AI is Idk if it's sentient (I think probably not) and I know at some level it's "just math," but in some important sense there is a guy in my computer - a guy! ## Sunday, October 19, 2025 ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 04:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979763166482772018) · 3 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** There’s so many frogs Yeah I’d say that’s a decent number ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3mIG8aWgAAENAZ.jpg) ### [Reply to @Chesedgirl, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979779127180980638) · 50 likes > **Chesed (@Chesedgirl):** I wish I knew more men who were 1) turned on by women suffering but 2) committed to behaving ethically (not causing non consensual suffering). If this is you and you stumble into the right crowd, you could get laid...a lot I like girls and want them to be happy 😡 ### [Reply, 12:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1979892382775873788) · 2 likes What are the logistics of this? How do stay blue? ### [Tweet, 20:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980011646153031715) · 69 likes Trump is a very bad man and should not be president ### [Reply to @Lib_Development, 20:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980013334876278849) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @Lib_Development is no longer available.)_ Yeah I guess ppl can be pedantic about what I mean by “shouldn’t be” - although I do think he specifically should have been impeached and removed from office by now ### [Tweet, 21:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980016528285225128) · 27 likes A certain level of autism is actually really great for creating friendships and community The normie worries about whether planning too many events themselves (as opposed to being invited) signals desperation, or about whether only the correct subsets of people are mingling… ### [Thread, continued, 21:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980016529996415468) · 16 likes The wise autist invites all their pals to the thing (that wouldn’t have otherwise happened) and introduces people without worrying about nth order ramifications or insane social dynamics ### [Tweet, 21:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980023324508905585) · 2 likes @AnthropicAI plz this is insane ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3p0krrWMAExxYd.jpg) ### [Tweet, 22:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980037604524339667) · 5 likes xAI might have actually succeeded at making Grok (at least Grok 4 fast) not woke and not racist/anti-woke to the point of insanity Compare this chart (grok 4 fast) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3qBcxtXMAAurhq.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980037606797889917) · 2 likes To this one (Claude Sonnet 4.5) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3qBoe9WUAE0A3q.jpg) ## Monday, October 20, 2025 ### [Reply to @Littoral_Gecko, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980079917925810336) · 2 likes > **A Gecko🦎 (@Littoral_Gecko):** @AaronBergman18 I’m pretty sure a high-agency neurotypical person goes “I want to do this thing with my friends” and then does it. > > What you’re describing sounds more autistic tbh. Oh lol ### [Reply to @Leo_Abstract, 01:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980088531453186243) · 4 likes > **Leo Abstract (@Leo_Abstract):** @AaronBergman18 entirely possible, but given the number of silly little hoaxes people believe about him, these words as assembled have no particular meaning at first glance. > > disambiguating you from the hoaxed would be laborious and likely not a process you'd be interested in. lol I don’t expect this to be super productive but the claim isn’t dependent on liberals in general having good epistemics, it’s dependent on there not being an unprecedented conspiracy among every part of civil society to lie in coordination about like 50 different things, including plenty of AEI-type republicans and Mike Pence ### [Tweet, 02:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980104297569206492) · 232 likes Aella should make a 2x2 that’s like “how much do u like the other gender” and “how much are u sexually attracted to the other gender” I feel like this would explain some things ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980105916495364190) · 27 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** https://www.cartoonshateher.com/p/you-dont-like-women-you-like-boobs I like women ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3q_1hgXcAEbcOH.jpg) ### [Reply to @EigenGender, 04:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980125821965828167) · 4 likes > **EigenGender 🔸 (@EigenGender):** it’s very hard to get an unfiltered view of how people spend their time. this post is my best attempt at that: I’d appreciate if you responded to this with what you’ve been doing for the past 30 minutes Group chat messaging + change sheets + shave + shower ### [Tweet, 04:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980129119435391049) · 18 likes Seems bad that the NYT best seller list-podcast sphere industrial complex mostly just ignores any open access books Like a naive simple model would suggest that free stuff should be more popular and create more discourse, but alas ### [Reply to @yzilber, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980130786461233486) · 4 likes > **Jazi Zilber (@yzilber):** @AaronBergman18 The choice is always a package. > > GOP full policy list + trump. Vs Dems full list + Kamala. > > A reasonable person could have voted for Trump if he values, say avoiding illegal migration highly enough. I mean I don't want to make claims about the hearts and minds of all Trump voters, I agree at least one person who voted for Trump I'd categorize as "reasonable" But I do think his actions+policies are some combo of insane and unethical from virtually any plausible worldview ### [Thread, continued, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980131519751684323) · 4 likes And I say this as someone with sympathy for a few things he's done (disparate impact, weakening some of the NGO sector, culturally pushing back on wokism) ### [Thread, continued, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980131614555516962) · 3 likes It just seems pretty unreasonable to me to prioritize those over rule of law, high skilled immigration, other freedom of speech issues, and competent foreign and economic policy - ie the reason America is starting from a strong position ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980141547632112031) · 19 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 20, 2025:** Aella should make a 2x2 that’s like “how much do u like the other gender” and “how much are u sexually attracted to the other gender” I feel like this would… Ok here u go: http://aaronbergman.neocities.org/affinityquiz ### [Reply to @inerati, 05:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980142224295002524) · 2 likes > **liz (@inerati):** what if you’re the genre of autistic who worries even more than normal about such things ☹️ (idk maybe just don't do that) ### [Reply to @Rado9910, 17:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980319297777057911) · 2 likes > **Rado9910 (@Rado9910):** @AaronBergman18 10/10, 10/10. I just really, really love women. So true ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 17:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980319923047133321) · 5 likes > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** telling a girl I work at AWS so she knows I’ll go down on her Banger ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 17:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980320355983192502) · 2 likes > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** An old password that i'd reused a bunch as a teenager was compromised in a data leak, and while changing a bunch of account passwords i just discovered that an extremely low-effort remix i made as a 14 year old has 39.2k plays on SoundCloud lol > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3uAr7fW8AAp74N.jpg) Lmao ### [Reply, 17:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980320432919335219) · 1 like Post link!! ### [Quote tweet, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980323316310388945) · 13 likes Competence porn > **Quoting Open Source Intel (@Osint613):** In Taizhou, China, a car plunged into a river. Without thinking twice, 40-year-old Di Shuangcheng jumped in, grabbed a stone, and smashed the window to save the trapped driver. > > He said his mind was calm, only focused on what to do next. “Saving the person was the most important thing.” > > @volcaholic1 > > [video attached](https://x.com/Osint613/status/1979993587749118223/video/1) ### [Tweet, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980330824462660065) · 198 likes Didn’t AWS claim like 99.999999% reliability or something? I mean maybe they hit that one in a billion accident yesterday but I think it’s more likely that they’re (intentionally) bad at forecasting ### [Quote tweet, 17:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980331707493675217) · 821 likes You should not have to ask anyone permission to install air conditioning ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3uNMQYXMAAzTo8.jpg) > **Quoting Timothy B. Lee (@binarybits):** This is insanity. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3pBD6hXkAA4Ux8.jpg) ### [Reply to @beala, 19:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980356942402097413) · 18 likes > **Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** It's all service specific. For example, they only guarantee two 9s for any given ec2 instance. I think the super high SLAs are for S3 durability, and afaik they haven't lost any data. https://aws.amazon.com/compute/sla/?did=sla_card&trk=sla_card Ah nice ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 20:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980364875131236374) · 15 likes > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** Unforgivable, when I went to bed last night I had to turn off the lights manually because my Echo Dot wasn't working. This is basically 9/11 ### [Tweet, 21:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980378856591880471) · 8 likes AWS going down is like the opposite of 9/11 (V-E day?) for local data hoarders ### [Tweet, 21:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980380559638679602) · 95 likes AWS going down is kinda funny bc people’s lightbulbs and smart blankets stop working but like actually we should probably take this as a warning shot of sorts to prepare for a correlated outage across many cloud providers/data centers ### [Thread, continued, 21:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980382832376852917) · 6 likes Maybe we shouldn’t be selling cyberattack intelligence hardware to China ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3u7sL_WoAAfCUB.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3u7sL5W8AADdUK.jpg) ## Tuesday, October 21, 2025 ### [Reply to @soft_fox_lad, 03:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980480680309195158) · 2 likes > **fox ⏹️ (@soft_fox_lad):** @AaronBergman18 It's been gamed out. In the exceedingly unlikely event that that happens, it seems like we can wait a few hours for the SREs to fix the problem (get lunch, clean up your home or apartment, take a half-day, etc) and (even if it goes on for a week) at worst be pretty inconvenienced hope ur right ### [Reply to @livgorton, 04:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980487337739190541) · 42 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** my coworkers have been subjected to this yap so I now continue here: > > this is genuinely one of the most useful papers to engage with for interp imo. easily one of my most referred to papers. if you have not read it, pls do. mandatory reading until the heat death of the universe. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3wTOVaW4AAe9Cb.png) Here u go fellow Liv followers https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.07143 ### [Tweet, 04:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980496609277538681) · 17 likes Anybody done any good schemes lately? I want to be part of a scheme, looking for inspiration ### [Reply to @warty_dog, 13:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980621314869121477) · 3 likes > **troon (@warty_dog):** you can't have .9 apples Yes you can lol ### [Quote tweet, 14:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980635242139648275) · 13 likes MAGA guy who gets fired for voting Obama in 2008 > **Quoting Andrew Prokop (@awprokop):** Paul Ingrassia of the "Nazi streak" leaked texts has shown up in lawsuit filings from fired FBI agents. > > Earlier this year, Ingrassia was the White House loyalty enforcer at DOJ, asking FBI agents whether they'd voted for Trump — or "a Democrat in the last five elections" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3ygRlsXsAAzafk.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3ygSQLXgAAK-dJ.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980725426239471680) · 31 likes I feel called out ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3zzRxKXoAAEiAm.jpg) ## Wednesday, October 22, 2025 ### [Reply to @StatsLime, 00:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980792311391871051) · 12 likes > **Max ⏸️ Limelihood 🔸🔸🔸 (@StatsLime):** ? I’m not sure how to interpret this I think like "teaching = one of the few accepted careers for women at one point in american history which harmed women who could have enjoyed or made more money in a different profession in a different cultural environment but one upside is that that smart women became teachers rather than eg idk consultants and this had positive externalities (e.g. for the students and second order for everyone else)" ### [Reply to @polisisti, 07:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1980901277358756303) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** reminder not to use ChatGPT because the company that creates it is evil I agree with the second part but basically disagree with the first I mean for personal casual use I guess do whatever you want, but for anything that affects your ability to do good, use the best tools available It’s not that the costs side of the ledger is literally zero but as a heuristic I think it’s going to be awfully small ### [Reply to @felpix_, 16:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981035204211773499) · 22 likes > **felpix (@felpix_):** high schoolers who email professors to do data cleaning and call it "research" on their college applications should be taken into an alley and be executed by firing squad > > (quoting @instrumenthull: careful with your AI-generated emails folks!) I disagree ### [Reply to @felpix_, 17:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981047357283180739) · 29 likes > **felpix (@felpix_):** @AaronBergman18 elaborate Data cleaning is a valuable task and there’s no harm in a polite email ### [Reply to @Lewis_Bollard, 17:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981052802198618154) · 3 likes > **Lewis Bollard (@Lewis_Bollard):** My favorite quote that the Animal Ag Alliance took down > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G34cnDOXYAA5AvR.png) Lmao ### [Tweet, 18:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981064858742206673) · 280 likes So true, gmail autocomplete ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G34n2n3W0AATPaB.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981064861376504122) · 20 likes (this is not in fact what I was intending to say) ### [Tweet, 18:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981072376063254976) · 26 likes Might get cancelled for this woke take but spanish is aesthetically superior to english ## Thursday, October 23, 2025 ### [Tweet, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981195502164332983) · 8 likes "X is trivial" is such a funny critique because it is often intended to undermine X whereas actually it supports X Like ok it's trivial - that means it's almost certainly true, so act like it's true! ### [Thread, continued, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981195503594590500) · 4 likes The standard dynamic here is: Person 1: "X" \[actual goal/implied subtext: so act like X is true\] Person 2: "X is trivial" \[actual goal/implied subtext: so person 1 isn't high status or clever\] ### [Reply to @EffectvAltruism, 04:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981209255358451883) · 2 likes > **Effective Altruism (@EffectvAltruism):** .@Lewis_Bollard on how effective altruism helped him move past a feeling of futility and toward a grantmaking career that has secured better conditions for hundreds of millions of animals. > > [video attached](https://x.com/EffectvAltruism/status/1981157063180112132/video/1) Based ### [Quote tweet, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981211028315591129) · 9 likes Signed > **Quoting Dr. Roman Yampolskiy (@romanyam):** https://superintelligence-statement.org/ ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 04:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981211314929488062) · 5 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** The thing I really don't like about being on S\*bstack is how much it tries to associate itself with alternative media. I don't want that at all. Alt media mostly caters to lowest common denominator populist bullshit. I want a newsletter platform and that's all. I don’t know enough to strongly disagree but I’ve never seen this I’ve only seen other people alleging it ### [Tweet, 04:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981223505925427548) · 6 likes What the fuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! @JesseTayRiver fix this immediately (Regarding window A/C unit) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G364R2EXoAAEUbi.jpg) ### [Tweet, 05:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981226417590268007) · 7 likes God I am such an idiot I use AI more than almost anyone I know and yet still wait stupid amounts of time before asking about how to solve mundane problems that eventually turn out to be totally solvable via whatever magic Claude spits out ### [Thread, continued, 05:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981226419301863714) · 2 likes People talk a lot about ✨intelligence✨ but mere knowledge can actually do quite a bit of work ### [Thread, continued, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981227052238864597) · 5 likes Plausibly we underrate knowledge per se because it’s correlated with intelligence in humans But maybe there’s a weaker correlation in other architectures of mind ### [Reply to @codytfenwick, 05:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981235243408642528) · 2 likes > **Cody Fenwick (@codytfenwick):** This is how it should work — you don't want AC cooling the room below the thermostat setpoint! I want the thermostat setpoint to be lower 😡 ### [Reply to @codytfenwick, 06:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981245722231001353) · 2 likes > **Cody Fenwick (@codytfenwick):** There should be an adjustment for that? Are you already at the lowest setting? Oh hmm ### [Reply to @hopes_revenge, 06:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981247303894573434) · 4 likes > **hope hopes hoping (@hopes_revenge):** why aren’t homeless people ever nice ? IME they sometimes are ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 15:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981386866390643085) · 7 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I know you’ve retired @AndyMasley, but I feel forced to show you this > > [video attached](https://x.com/austinc3301/status/1981383328663294161/video/1) Bruh ### [Reply to @TheStalwart, 15:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981388295415484522) · 3 likes > **Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart):** What's the best argument that the liberalization of sports betting laws has made the country better off? The fact that freedom in general makes people better off so we shouldn’t regulate/add constraints to an arbitrary case unless there’s compelling reason to do so ### [Reply to @Liv_Boeree, 16:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981391122829037910) > **Liv Boeree (@Liv_Boeree):** Haha no not @Grimezsz on this occasion Wait who is it ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981478012613706113) · 10 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** My fav story about my wife is when she told her then-boyfriend they needed to talk: > > Him: Oh god how bad is it? > Her: Oh…like a 7/10 > Him: Oh okay, that’s not too bad, what’s up? > Her: I want to break up > Him: …HOW IS THAT A 7?? I side with wife 😤 There are actually a lot of things worse than being broken up with! Maybe it should have been an 8 but this seems pretty well calibrated ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981478111804842412) · 4 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3-J0csWQAATP6H.jpg) Correct take ### [Reply to @TinkerElla95, 22:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981493231385817445) · 3 likes > **TinkerElla95 (@TinkerElla95):** @AaronBergman18 @NoahTopper @basilYam I did have a whole break down of the scale and why I selected 7! Based ### [Reply, 23:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981496567480930581) · 1 like nice ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 23:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981498716503577053) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Illegality + ~100% non-enforcement makes me uncomfortable but seems underrated as a strategy ### [Tweet, 23:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981501585952780561) · 10 likes Fun fact: the following url exposes some fun juicy information about all ur Claude dot ai chats including usually-hidden summaries of recent conversations and whatever these code name features are claude\[dot\]ai/api/organizations/\[organization_id\]/chat_conversations ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3-0wA4WwAAmKxq.png) ### [Reply to @EAForumPosts, 23:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981506274677444966) · 3 likes > **EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** Quick take by Benton 🔹 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G39V0XYWYAAEN55.jpg) Ya someone should figure out how to save American liberal democracy fr ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 23:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981506871170072995) · 5 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** How much influence should Elon Musk have over the future robot army? Discuss > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3-IS-EWEAAMVQP.jpg) Well given his track record, a lot of influence over the design and manufacturing process but zero direct policy influence ### [Quote tweet, 23:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981509315987906972) · 22 likes As I venture into the world of having to acquire my own health insurance, it is increasingly weird that people talk about salary/earnings without mentioning it explicitly $50k + standard white collar benefits vs $50k just cash are radically different > **Quoting Jaimie (@mountainwesttax):** hear me out: public option for catastrophic coverage. cash pay for everything else > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G38ahtlWEAAFiPl.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 23:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981509318605238762) · 3 likes There are definitely salaries that are low enough to be rare in the full time w benefits world and salaries high enough that the $10k-$25k out of pocket difference doesn’t matter a ton, but the band in-between (say, $40k-$70k to be arbitrary) covers a lot of people ## Friday, October 24, 2025 ### [Reply to @PAHoyeck, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981585048097677691) · 31 likes > **Phil Hoyeck (@PAHoyeck):** Okay, jokes aside, what's the worst piece of philosophy you've ever read? Nicomachean Ethics is pretty bad I mean I don’t think it’s bad relative to other ancient philosophy, but I resist reading old philosophy at all costs because it’s almost always just totally wrong so the set of what I’ve read is like {Nicomachean Ethics bc college, modern analytic philosophy} It’s like comparing the worst of modern Olympians to Gru the caveman who was the best at rock throwing in his tribe ### [Tweet, 05:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981593187694133593) · 12 likes Might become a browser extension guy I used to think they were basically gimmicks, and many are, but there’s actually a lot you can do with direct access to network interaction ### [Reply to @drfunkenst3in, 06:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981606691331264551) · 4 likes > **Will (@drfunkenst3in):** Do you similarly dislike ancient phil on subjects other than ethics? Ya ### [Quote tweet, 06:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981615178085970079) · 6 likes Obligatory ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4AcgIHWEAA6-V1.jpg) > **Quoting Tina Tarighian (@wwwtinazone):** 50,000+ people have seen my AI Purity Test http://aipuritytest.org and all the comments are saying they scored in the 90s, but I'm sure tech twitter could change that... > > [video attached](https://x.com/wwwtinazone/status/1981085619678761220/video/1) ### [Reply to @louispereira, 07:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981617590951608588) · 2 likes > **Louis Pereira (@louispereira):** For the first time, I'm choosing not to be an early adopter. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4AX4S5W8AA0lbj.jpg) I feel similarly, although I played around with atlas a bit There’s not actually a lot that I want to do with an AI browser that i can’t do with more control and more understanding with Claude Code or ChatGPT Or maybe this is just a failure of imagination idk ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 07:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981618010151698652) · 1 like > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 Everyone who scores higher than me is slop brained, anyone who scores lower than me is ngmi Precisely ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 07:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981621416337326131) · 9 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** this but unironically > > (quoting @vocalcry: A 50-yr-old man cannot meaningfully consent to a relationship with a 22-yr-old woman bc his blind lust makes him functionally retarded so the power imbalance is too extreme) I don’t literally agree here lol but the general point that young attractive women at least in relatively liberal circles/areas in the west have lots of power in important ways stands Which is fine - it’s not a competition. But it’s insane to pretend that we’re still living in the 1950s by ignoring the cultural, social, and legal power of women ### [Reply to @PAHoyeck, 17:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981780672181088474) · 2 likes > **Phil Hoyeck (@PAHoyeck):** Some of these replies are going to make me cry, man. lol ### [Quote tweet, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981808465439076417) · 22 likes I want to get a better handle on all this stuff, but afaict moral progress enabled by western style liberalism is actually extremely important from an impartial welfare-oriented perspective US vs China is NOT just parochial nationalism ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4DMSz6XkAA2r4-.jpg) > **Quoting EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** "How good would a CCP-dominated AI future be?" by OscarD🔸 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4DEtYHWoAEZMuH.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981808470736482696) · 5 likes My current sense is that with respect to animals specifically, the west pretends to care (and basically doesn’t) but China doesn’t even pretend to care Neither are great ofc, but the West’s orientation looks way less terrible ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981812357694468280) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** I would pay good money for access to all the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode outlines Is this a data scraping task 👀 ### [Tweet, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981841571831222381) · 2 likes Question for AI twitter: suppose you're having a model categorize e.g., 100 different wikipedia articles according to metric X (eg "yes Aaron would find this interesting" or "no he would not) But the model only sees a single article + prompt with criteria at any time ### [Thread, continued, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981841573358059759) · 2 likes Suppose \*I\* know the approximate base rate of "Aaron would find this interesting" Does it improve performance/accuracy to tell the model the base rate, so e.g., "about 10% of the time, you should categorize articles as interesting"? ## Saturday, October 25, 2025 ### [Tweet, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981913179199275186) · 142 likes Judging people for being fat and/or unattractive is fundamentally a failure of decoupling send tweet ### [Reply to @AnniePosting, 02:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981917316959928662) · 35 likes > **annie 👁❌🦋🪞 (@AnniePosting):** 🔒🔃 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4EtzhYWQAAlS-9.jpg) No this is wrong. I’m pretty willing to grant correlations, but that’s all they are Intellectual maturity is recognizing correlations without reifying them into intrinsic properties or inherently coupled And more generally the genre of this tweet is “boldly and proudly claim something” which is like a fine thing to do but it’s not very convincing ### [Tweet, 03:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981922512972693901) · 283 likes Who wants to try this EA/rat/TPOT/normie categorizer I vibecoded in 45 mins for fun ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4E0BTRXIAARnVW.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981922516596851104) · 77 likes http://bit.ly/xpersonality ### [Reply to @jannalulu_, 03:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981923211844686260) · 1 like > **Janna (@jannalulu_):** mine is 42 lol > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4EogqTXIAAeAaE.jpg) Based (I am ashamed of my high score) ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 03:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981924566323655040) · 3 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Which LLM do I use for what? > > I realize this is going to be an unpopular take, and honestly it's all super subjective at this point, but this is what I've gravitated towards lately and I feel strongly about it > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4ECr43W8AAilGN.jpg) I’ve found gpt-5-thinking best at most arbitrary non-coding things ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 04:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981934786827428139) · 33 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** @AaronBergman18 Independent bar chart at the top converted to pie chart at the bottom is upsetting. Either people sum to 100% personality or they don't! I’m anti-anti-pie chart Ppl hate them for some reason, it’s totally fine to consider ratios independently of magnitudes ### [Reply to @polisisti, 04:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981934898047828046) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @RafaRuizdeLira @AaronBergman18 nuuuu post deleted > > I will never experience the pumpkin's substantiality 😢 ### [Reply to @NinaPanickssery, 04:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981936092417761727) · 10 likes > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** How does it work? I thought twitter didn’t have an API? It does but it’s crazy expensive now But xai just added integration for x search including filtering by username as a tool the model can call ### [Reply to @NinaPanickssery, 04:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981937342140063851) · 1 like > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** Your next project should be embedding visualizations of X profiles! With all tweets and replies. If that’s doable. Thank you! lol it’s sorta doable but would take way longer bc twitter doesn’t like you scraping Looks like xai intentionally doesn’t expose the actual tweet text, like only the model gets to see that But if someone wants to cover the twitter api cost I will do the rest lol ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981943788991054302) · 41 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 25, 2025:** http://bit.ly/xpersonality Ok so far we've used about $3 over 300 analyses. I'm putting another $10 for tn which means we have roughly 1200 more analyses until my credits run out and the app stops working After that I may add a few more dollars but will likely solicit venmo donations lol ### [Thread, continued, 04:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981944056407015629) · 41 likes Also don't over-index on this - it only pulls about 30 of your most recent tweets (sad) ### [Reply to @quasistable, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981956428026798586) · 13 likes > **Alastair and 147 others (@quasistable):** What do we mean by “judging” here? Something like “assume they’re a morally deficient person”? Yeah honestly I kinda dislike the word despite using it myself Obviously in some literal sense you can judge things like “the obese person probably isn’t an extremely fast runner” But yeah basically: assuming they’re less deserving of respect and empathy and that they must be bad in ways that aren’t directly tied to their attractiveness/fitness ### [Reply to @Mechanical_Dodo, 05:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1981958523488501888) · 3 likes > **Dodo (@Mechanical_Dodo):** can you carve out a space in the center of the pie chart for those of us who just want to grill but can't pass as normies? I will implement this feature tomorrow! ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 13:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982076878375539106) · 32 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 25, 2025:** Also don't over-index on this - it only pulls about 30 of your most recent tweets (sad) Ok credits have been added ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4HAXtAW0AAN-ej.jpg) ### [Reply to @medievalpard, 18:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982147392997581040) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @medievalpard is no longer available.)_ 💯 ### [Reply to @NTFabiano, 18:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982148276317983131) · 232 likes > **Nicholas Fabiano, MD (@NTFabiano):** People with antisocial traits prefer bitter tastes like black coffee. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4G9FrvWgAAoFcY.jpg) Smells like something that won’t replicate ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 18:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982148581784961391) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Adorable Shoot ur shot king ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982156366799151432) · 11 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 25, 2025:** Ok credits have been added Hate to do this but <$5 out of $30 remaining, I guess Venmo me if u wanna keep the thing up and running https://venmo.com/u/Aaron-Bergman-5 ### [Quote tweet, 18:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982157885640474701) · 77 likes If u are working on frontier RL/scaling at an AI lab I humbly invite you to burn out, go on an extended vacation with your riches, and if you ever feel like returning to the grind, apply to Anthropic > **Quoting Nathan Lambert (@natolambert):** A new essay on the crazy, all or nothing approach to work happening in AI today, the looming human costs, and the lack of a finish line. > > I wouldn't say it's okay, but I'm not sure how to fix it. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4HPRa3XoAAlOzT.jpg) ### [Reply to @simoj_, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982176170742272441) · 2 likes > **simoj (@simoj_):** Idk, most of what people usually mean by “judging” is just empirically valid inference Yes this is a thing but it often goes above and beyond that (see confirmation bias), and there's also a normative/ethical aspect that statistical inference has nothing to say about (i.e., how you treat people even if you do valid inference of some characteristics) ### [Reply to @adam__isom, 20:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982176791415460312) · 3 likes > **adam ✧ ❥ ~ (@adam__isom):** being fit and attractive is largely a choice I'm pretty genetics-pilled but to some extent yes. Even still ### [Reply to @dcpip_, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982179857900397046) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @dcpip_ is no longer available.)_ Hate to be lazy but Claude literally does a better job at explaining my own ideas (this is after a bit of back-and-forth) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4Id_2-X0AAfiz5.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982180015023259819) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 25, 2025:** Judging people for being fat and/or unattractive is fundamentally a failure of decoupling send tweet Explanation by Claude (that I endorse) ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982191562500288624) · 4 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** Diet of kings rh > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4IBb0WWkAEpWl_.png) This is kinda based but IMO the actual rational thing to do here (given what I assume u care about) is to let in quite a bit of intuition bc we literally do not understand nutrition science/biology well enough to design a "perfect" diet up front/without biological feedback mechanisms that manifest as craving a certain food, feeling better or worse, etc Seems fine as long as you feel good, but if you notice eg a craving for blueberries or something then just get the blueberries Ofc veganism I understand/greatly respect but would urge EAs to not make that an absolute rock solid 100% priority (eg if you're craving meat for weeks on end, that's a real sign that you're missing something important) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982198938930118768) · 9 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 25, 2025:** Hate to do this but <$5 out of $30 remaining, I guess Venmo me if u wanna keep the thing up and running https://venmo.com/u/Aaron-Bergman-5 Ok people like this but I've spent about $50 now (not all used up, about $30 used) so if anyone wants to pitch in a few bucks, https://paypal.me/aaronbergman18?country.x=US&locale.x=en_US ### [Thread, continued, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982208289539600393) · 11 likes Lol sorry for slowness, I am learning on the fly ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4I32E0WcAE1eVA.png) ### [Reply to @ruben_bloom, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982213155590681050) · 3 likes > **Ruben Bloom (Ruby) (@ruben_bloom):** Make it so that when it's out of credits, you get that error message and then make it clear how you can pay to fix that within app Lol sounds ideal but sounds relatively difficult to set up esp if we want the whole pipeline to be automatic/no Aaron in the loop ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 23:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982225158455668743) · 3 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** @re4lpredicate You’re in your 20s right > Hey Dude solid 650 deadlift the other day, and thanks for saving my dog from that fire ### [Reply, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982235398957891617) They’ve been around for a long time yes but not culturally/institutionally dominant I mean it’s easy (and I think important) to recognize the harmful and illiberal effects of wokism but it grew out of a genuinely good cultural ethos of actually caring about others’ wellbeing even if they’re disempowered in some way I mean 1st-3rd wave feminism at least was good overall I actually really like this list claude made because I think it pretty fairly shows/describes various phenomena Like discourse seems focused on the overreaches of these sorts of things (which I think are real and we should indeed correct on the margin) but like decline in violence/caring about feelings/decline in bullying/acceptance of mental health concerns as legit are good overally corrections from like the 1990s and prior Arguably the best balance was struck in, idk, maybe the 2010s? So maybe I'd take 2015 culture over today's in some respects but I'd also take today's over anything pre-2000 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4JPs1PXYAApjOm.png) ## Sunday, October 26, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982238411902591114) · 16 likes Thank you to the following people for supporting this project!! \- @polisisti: $20 \- @HenriThunberg: $10 \- @freed_dfilan: $10 \- @dioscuri: $5 That means I've just about broken even so far (not trying to make money on this) Comment/DM me if I'm missing anyone! > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Who wants to try this EA/rat/TPOT/normie categorizer I vibecoded in 45 mins for fun > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4E0BTRXIAARnVW.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 00:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982238812966203843) · 2 likes Venmo: https://venmo.com/u/Aaron-Bergman-5 ### [Thread, continued, 00:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982239059553439914) · 2 likes PayPal: https://paypal.me/aaronbergman18?country.x=US&locale.x=en_US ### [Reply to @NinaPanickssery, 00:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982239861911306645) · 2 likes > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** @AaronBergman18 @springpard like crime is very very bad > > being soft on crime is very costly > > also therapy culture is bad, people don’t become happier from it I feel like you're underrating how bad masculine-dominant culture was in the 20th century ### [Reply to @polisisti, 02:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982267018075136292) · 6 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** I see my donation as an investment in Aaron — I think eventually he's going to have a really good idea, and I want him to keep experimenting Oh no pressure is on ### [Thread, continued, 02:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982267069191147702) · 6 likes But thank you lol ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 02:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982268857461940723) · 5 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** The contents of the picture are described in the spreadsheet, so I don't see what new information is being conveyed here, but as you wish (nb: I ate more rice in Korea than I do now) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4IxBYNXoAEx7Ua.jpg) I do respect this lol ### [Reply to @cljack, 02:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982269514566823994) · 9 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** I got my 11yo some time in a 737 simulator for her birthday. The instructor asked what scenarios she wants to practice and she asked if they could do United 232 💀 Based mom ### [Quote tweet, 02:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982276310303994211) · 3,273 likes This is an absolutely nuts story, how did I not know about this? All of the hydraulics failed and the only mechanism of steering the plane was thrust by the two engines. Not only left and right steering - that was all they had to control altitude as well ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4JxTFtWoAATbwY.jpg) > **Quoting Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** I got my 11yo some time in a 737 simulator for her birthday. The instructor asked what scenarios she wants to practice and she asked if they could do United 232 💀 ### [Thread, continued, 02:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982276312623386705) · 423 likes So basically they were a bullet in the sky aiming for a single airport and managed to hit the runway It's in part a tragedy >100 people died, but to quote Claude, "Of 296 people on board, 184 survived—a number that should have been zero." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4JzeJaXkAA_Sjh.png) ### [Thread, continued, 02:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982276316213760498) · 206 likes Just an insane story because absolutely everything needed to go right for anyone to survive and somehow it did Claude estimates that 1% of crews could have pulled this off, but 99.9% of those highly skilled crews would have all died anyway ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4J1cxRWkAEmrfX.png) ### [Thread, continued, 02:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982276320173117902) · 27 likes If ur curious https://claude.ai/share/167ea32e-8a6e-47b8-ab21-2c49688afdc1 ### [Thread, continued, 02:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982279708235505954) · 59 likes This is also nuts, although a bit less cleanly heroic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citicorp_Center_engineering_crisis ### [Tweet, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982290496840999353) · 323 likes Everyone wants AI to cure cancer, nobody wants to make HIPAA less insane to let that happen ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 03:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982290701967606005) · 3 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** Now that I've thought of falsifiability, I've decided to become an accelerationist Lmao ### [Reply to @johnsmithyson0, 03:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982292342187913520) · 9 likes > **John Smith (@johnsmithyson0):** @AaronBergman18 I do!!! I want to make HIPAA less insane!!! I want to make human experimentation easier!!!!! I want to give doctors more power and less pay!!! Ok we have an existence proof (fr though I do recognize this is not an extremely uncommon take on certain parts of twitter but it seems unlikely to become a policy priority by any party) ### [Reply to @cljack, 04:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982296270879285690) · 63 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** Even more nuts: After this crash, NASA developed software that could safely land a plane with just propulsion in the event that all hydraulics were lost, but they decided it was too expensive to implement 🥲 Rip, I mean I’m not sure it was the wrong decision given how safe flying is now, but I’m surprised to hear the FAA rejected ### [Reply to @manic_pixie_agi, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982298242906743012) · 2 likes > **Corinne (🏠 in NYC) (@manic_pixie_agi):** @AaronBergman18 is it borken again > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4KJQRfXgAANx2i.jpg) Fcuk ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 04:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982298669605859415) · 4 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** don't drink the forbidden fluid > > (quoting @lauriewired: All US Nuclear Reactor Incidents are public and posted online by the NRC. My Favorites: “The reactor cavity is full of water. \[Individual\] ingested some amount of cavity water.” (Michigan, 4 days ago) “Unit 2 power is being reduced from 100% in response to the influx of…) Yum ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982327291889021277) · 42 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** Anyone who tests AI on their area of expertise rapidly realizes that AI is an idiot. > > Unfortunately, it is becoming clear to me that many humans do not have an area of expertise. I recommend this (ppl test AI on area of expertise) bc I think it’s calibrating but not reliably in the direction you’re suggesting Maybe the most AI-pilled parts of Twitter, but most people have no idea how good frontier is and will not conclude that the AI is an idiot ### [Tweet, 16:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982480333007417838) · 29 likes Nooooo why are flight simulators so expensive nooooooo ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4MvWxDW4AAJ4oY.jpg) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 17:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982492584938537327) · 9 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** The fact that falafel isn’t actually that good for you is something I know intellectually but haven’t accepted in my heart lol I have always thought this was amusing Tragically deep frying things is probably bad even if the thing you’re deep frying is chickpeas ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982504140216693210) · 50 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 26, 2025:** This is also nuts, although a bit less cleanly heroic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citicorp_Center_engineering_crisis Oh wow there's a whole (and apparently pretty good) book https://a.co/d/73BAdVv ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4NE4z8X0AA_MCV.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 17:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982506782728868111) · 43 likes Honestly the choice to try to hit the runway at all is actually an interesting ethical dilemma (new trolley problem just dropped) - or at least could have been ### [Thread, continued, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982507544590320082) · 42 likes Apparently the airport was 6 miles away from the city center which apparently is pretty significant distance - enough to mean they could be reasonably certain not to hit the city if they tried to hit the runway But with other airports like LAX, this would have been recklessly dangerous ### [Thread, continued, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982507716208988317) · 110 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4NIQLOWUAArF8z.png) ### [Thread, continued, 18:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982507966629892541) · 75 likes Based ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4NIetGXMAABjeE.jpg) ### [Reply to @cljack, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982518522065703205) · 4 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** @Charlesaf3 @AaronBergman18 I think the calculation was that total hydraulics loss is so rare that it’s just not worth any expense. Could’ve saved the Azerbaijan Airlines flight but I can’t think of any other examples tbh Even if the FAA didn't mandate it, I'm a bit surprised major airlines haven't done it voluntarily But at least according to this there's a major regulatory barrier, ugh ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4NR-KNXoAAw-qy.jpg) ## Monday, October 27, 2025 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 03:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982648894552199613) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 25, 2025:** Lol sorry for slowness, I am learning on the fly It's officially broken until I figure out how to fix :( ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4PIntZXkAAc4CL.jpg) ### [Reply to @hamandcheese, 06:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982699984030990343) · 56 likes > **Samuel Hammond 🦉 (@hamandcheese):** Melatonin in the US is sold in 5mg doses when the effective dosage range is .3-3mg. Americans essentially overdose on melatonin by default for no good reason. I’ve come around to “1mg at least and the market probably knows something Scott Alexander doesn’t” One model that would explain relatively large doses is “bioavailability is highly variable between ppl and nothing bad really happens if you take too much” ### [Thread, continued, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982700440316686489) · 5 likes \*replace “too much” with “more than a given person needs” ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 07:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982703904618922465) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Feel like what's missing on this chart is that if a few companies are handing trillions of dollars back and forth to each other, it's identical to them all getting together to do a ton of free labor for the rest of us 😇 > > (quoting @ProofofMaro: ) I don’t think it’s identical. Counterexample: Company A pays company B to make them some computers, company B pays company A to give them some software. Both wind up with the same amount of money they started with and some new capital that they value more highly than the labor and capital they effectively traded away No consumer has been affected yet - in principle they could proceed to light all their capital on fire, physically bury their cash, and fire all their workers ### [Quote tweet, 15:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982827780309168219) · 6 likes 👀 > **Quoting Simon Bazelon (@simon_bazelon):** It's time to renew the Democratic Party. > > Introducing DECIDING TO WIN: the most comprehensive account yet of where Democrats went wrong, and what we need to do to win again. > > With a year of research and tons of new data, by @laurenhpope, @liamkerr, and me. > > Link and 🧵 below. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4RnzTnXoAAWIIH.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4RnzvGXoAAu-UM.jpg) ### [Reply to @dylanmatt, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982853056493695334) · 3 likes > **dylan matthews 🔸 (@dylanmatt):** Some professional news: after nearly twelve years at Vox, I'm going to be joining @open_phil, working with @mattsclancy and @jddwor on the Abundance and Growth Fund 👀 ### [Reply to @dylanmatt, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1982853167131046021) · 13 likes > **dylan matthews 🔸 (@dylanmatt):** Some professional news: after nearly twelve years at Vox, I'm going to be joining @open_phil, working with @mattsclancy and @jddwor on the Abundance and Growth Fund I was like 98% sure the end of the tweet was gonna say “The Argument” ## Tuesday, October 28, 2025 ### [Reply to @RosieCampbell, 03:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983019160910049712) · 6 likes > **Rosie Campbell (@RosieCampbell):** What's the best explanation for why mainstream philosophers of decision theory have basically ignored functional decision theory even though it seems better than causal or evidential decision theory? > > If it's because FDT has an obvious flaw, what is the flaw? This is not an answer but I’m not actually fully convinced it’s better than evidential ik @NoahTopper is going to disown me as a friend over this ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983020386422870370) · 4 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 @RosieCampbell (with love, kindness, and respect) Bruh I should at least get to defend myself ### [Reply to @ciphergoth, 04:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983024485117653318) · 2 likes > **Paul Crowley (@ciphergoth):** @NoahTopper @AaronBergman18 @RosieCampbell Roughly the trash was "you're not gonna believe this but I have a friend who believes in EDT" Lmao u know what I can live with that Also FWIW I haven’t like decided on it extremely strongly, I’m half expecting to be convinced of FDT at some point ### [Reply to @RosieCampbell, 04:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983028251321590047) · 2 likes > **Rosie Campbell (@RosieCampbell):** What's your beef with FDT Tbc I am not really a decision theory guy, I mean it’s smth I want to learn more about and get a stronger view on But at least one crystallizing thing is that I don’t think you should smoke in smoking lesion problem I think a lot of the intuitions ppl have in the other direction are dependent on things that would probably happen in an irl version of the thought experiment but \*are not actually in the the standard formulation\* Like it doesn’t say anything about wanting to smoke, or knowing you’re the kind of person who would or wouldn’t smoke, or anything My understanding is that, by construction, you don’t know whether you’re the kind of person who tends to choose to smoke or anything like that until the instant you decide There are exactly two options/worlds: 1\) smoke, probably have lesion 2\) don’t smoke, probably not have lesion Your choice \*itself\* shows you which world you’re in - there is no “best of both worlds” where you get to be the kind of person who tends not to smoke but also in fact smokes; the choice to smoke is the only evidence you get about what kind of person you are ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 04:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983031605225513412) > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** I’m confused why this is mixing together “whether you really follow through on executing EDT” with “whether you have the lesion”. These seem unrelated. Honestly I’m not super sure Claude is appropriately representing my position, maybe I should delete But I think the chain of reasoning goes Know you’re an EDT person -> know you wouldn’t smoke in the situation described -> get to the actual situation -> maybe you can smoke anyway bc u already know you’re the kind of person who chooses not to smoke? But I argue “no, as soon as you make the decision to smoke, you learn that you were never in fact the type of person who tends to have whatever things cause “no lesion” - you can’t just do a quick switcharoo at the last minute without all the evidence flipping ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 04:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983033452812288218) > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Sounds like you’re rejecting the tickle defense if I understand right Ya ### [Reply to @tszzl, 05:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983036343295819943) · 30 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** “broad scientific consensus around superintelligence being safe” is commie nonsense and will always be used as a bludgeon imo > > (quoting @deanwball: Vague statements like this, which fundamentally cannot be operationalized in policy but feel nice to sign, are counterproductive and silly. Just as they were two or so years ago, when we went through another cycle of nebulous AI-statement-signing. Let’s set aside the total lack…) lol what?? “Broad scientific consensus” is a totally normal aspect of liberal democratic capitalist society Normally you don’t need to make it so explicit because (1) liability takes care of the incentives, (2) normal consumer preference takes care of the incentives, (3) something something culture/norms make it implicit, or (4) more specific regulations/laws that don’t use that language but functionally enforce that standard ### [Tweet, 05:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983038433405571177) · 696 likes Lol should I be scared of Claude just casually writing a single Chinese character in a semantically/grammatically correct/sensible way in the middle of a fully English discussion ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4Uq8ilXIAAXMdc.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983038440221401576) · 127 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4Uq83yWoAE8eqE.jpg) ### [Reply to @RosieCampbell, 05:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983048361310593182) > **Rosie Campbell (@RosieCampbell):** yeah I also do Wait do I have things backwards?? Doesn’t FDT say “pay” ie insane NOT to pay up ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4Uz-YZXYAAtufa.jpg) ### [Tweet, 06:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983053268444905545) · 20 likes Someone should figure out what’s up with the relationship between decision theory, free will, ethics, and maybe some secret nth things ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 06:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983056562970132759) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** I have Ok thx ### [Tweet, 15:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983187693321454043) · 4 likes The temptation to sling takes about http://decidingtowin.org without having read it all (yet) is crushing ### [Tweet, 15:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983188335851135240) · 10 likes I woke up today thirsty in the middle of a desert and then @NoahTopper conspicuously drove past me in a car??? ### [Tweet, 16:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983205400695492802) · 5 likes Being in an Uber/Lyft with one of those discount iPads strapped to the headrest of the seat in front makes me feel bad for iPad babies There is nothing interesting or fun or important on that screen but it feels hard to resist and basically impossible to fully ignore ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 16:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983206259756040232) · 49 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 28, 2025:** (image) Are the mechanics here just that it’s one token instead of two so RL has taught to conserve? ### [Tweet, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983207592018010457) · 6 likes I like the new genre of microsite (deciding to win, situational awareness) It’s good that there’s a mechanism of saying “listen up this is important and I’ve spent a bunch of time on it” ## Wednesday, October 29, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983324350045663526) · 6 likes Gil (aka @RFishBlueFish) and I will be debating illusionism in a Space at 9pm DC time/6pm SF time (i.e., in 55 minutes)! ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 00:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983326143458750641) · 30 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Everyone who pulls a little compliment out of the jaws of audacious evil-doing for OpenAI today gets blocked. You don’t get to do your little kneel before the invading king and come back to me. But thanks for outing yourself as bootlicker. > > Offenders below👇 This isn't even a compliment! ### [Quote tweet, 14:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983543382048956738) · 15 likes New Hire Me doc just dropped It’s still very premature and I don’t wanna jinx anything but so far so good on my end (context below) It might just be the actually-good way of finding work > **Quoting Cathy Reisenwitz (@CathyReisenwitz):** Hi friends. I need a job! Ideally in Washington, D.C. or remote. My dream is to work in policy or comms at a think tank that is center-left or center-right. I’m interested in economic opportunity, energy, AI, finance, gender, and criminal justice. But I can learn anything quickly. I was just named Volunteer of the Year by the Center for New Liberalism. If I did that much work for free, can you imagine what I do for pay?? My writing on policy has been published widely, including in VICE Motherboard, Reason, OneZero, the Daily Beast, and other fine publications. My Substack newsletter is regularly a top-50 bestseller in the Humor category. I’m ready to start immediately and I’m an absolute bargain, if I do say so myself. I’m also happy to provide recommendations and testimonials from leading policy experts. If you have any leads, please email me at cathyreisenwitz at gmail dot com. > > To read my clips and resume, head to cathyreisenwitz dot substack dot com/p/hire-me > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4RzBeBXAAAU8d5.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 14:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983543692309692884) · 2 likes ### [Reply to @cljack, 14:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983544277105061919) · 3 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** @ChristianityOn LMAO shhhhhh ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4b3AhoWoAA62Ia.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 14:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983544348680540293) · 2 likes (Ofc maybe ur diagnosed in which case disregard) ### [Reply to @AOLien_k8, 14:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983547190909006072) · 2 likes > **AOLien (@AOLien_k8):** how long before we go from "don't use Claude for therapy" to "that's really something you should only discuss with Claude" Lmao already (there are a lot of things you shouldn’t say to eg psychiatrists and therapists) ### [Reply to @AOLien_k8, 14:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983548796639584469) · 74 likes > **AOLien (@AOLien_k8):** My husband and I were married on June 6th, many moons ago. That first year, he set up a flower subscription so a bouquet would arrive on the 6th of every month. All these years later, I still get excited when I see those flowers at the front door. I am so very loved and so very in love.♥️ > > (quoting @vividvoid: Why is it so rare to see tweets about being in love? Yearning is nothing but desire collapsed on itself, a frittering of eros on the barren ground of lack. Where are the lovers, the obsessed, the people tearing sonnets out of their chests, the romantic unto death?) Bro automated that shit ### [Reply to @Ruesavatar, 15:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983556793969037588) · 9 likes > **rue🌿 (@Ruesavatar):** I dislike date me docs, they almost always come off as unnaturally performative and cringe. People often suggest I make one, but their mere existence is a red flag to me so it would not make sense to do so. 😅 Has anyone actually successfully found their spouse that way? Red flag, really? This is kind insane ### [Reply to @Ruesavatar, 15:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983558929041777077) · 4 likes > **rue🌿 (@Ruesavatar):** @AaronBergman18 Insane? We all have different tastes and standards 🤷‍♀️ Different tastes, sure, but I feel like “red flag” is a bit more of an objective thing ### [Reply to @sam_atis, 16:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983574846492627256) · 2 likes > **Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** @AaronBergman18 @Ruesavatar Why would it be objective? Wait name/face reveal big if true But anyway I feel like the consensus use of that term is to indicate a broadly consensus set of traits or characteristics (honesty, character etc)? I can’t really disagree with someone about their preferences but I can disagree about what kind of evidence a given thing is for a broadly consensus cluster of traits ### [Thread, continued, 16:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983575397418615058) · 4 likes Obv ppl are gonna disagree about edge cases somewhat but it’s a genuine cluster IMO ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4cTT22WgAAArXo.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4cTT20WYAEla21.jpg) ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 16:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983576064157696493) · 59 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** OK I support SNAP but WTF are you talking about here man > > (quoting @GovTimWalz: Every $1 invested in SNAP generates $1.80 in economic activity. It’s not about the money, Trump just wants Americans to go hungry.) Wait this doesn’t seem obviously crazy? I mean maybe it’s wrong but there are a bunch of mechanisms by which this could happen Feeding kids -> higher school performance -> higher lifetime earnings Lower job lock-in -> better matching in labor market ### [Reply to @Ruesavatar, 16:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983576217547583546) · 2 likes > **rue🌿 (@Ruesavatar):** @AaronBergman18 @sam_atis Oh. I think I just use red flag more casually 😅 Ah haha gotcha ### [Reply to @Ruesavatar, 16:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983578367669489759) · 3 likes > **rue🌿 (@Ruesavatar):** I dislike date me docs, they almost always come off as unnaturally performative and cringe. People often suggest I make one, but their mere existence is a red flag to me so it would not make sense to do so. 😅 Has anyone actually successfully found their spouse that way? Also (not disagreeing here, just observing) I assume that many ppl you get anti-attracts to you wouldn’t have considered anyway if not for their dating doc? If so it’s like kinda fine from the other person’s perspective ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 16:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983578787573838127) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 29, 2025:** Wait this doesn’t seem obviously crazy? I mean maybe it’s wrong but there are a bunch of mechanisms by which this could happen Feeding kids -> higher school… Also like there’s some first order deadweight loss but to a first approximation it’s just a transfer. So you only need to explain ~1x rather than ~2x ### [Quote tweet, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983661633676468495) · 19 likes So this got me thinking: the question of whether qualia can cause a person to have beliefs like “I have qualia” and say things to the same effect might be a much more confused question than I previously appreciated > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Gil (aka @RFishBlueFish) and I will be debating illusionism in a Space at 9pm DC time/6pm SF time (i.e., in 55 minutes)! ### [Thread, continued, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983661636113322190) · 7 likes Like I think the question of qualia realism is substantive and the answer is either yes or no But qualia causation just falls apart under scrutiny - what would it even mean for subjective experience \*per se\* to cause anything? ### [Thread, continued, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983661639112229054) · 6 likes If qualia had causal properties, we would just say “no let’s decouple the causal properties from the raw subjectivity” and then we’re back to where we started ### [Thread, continued, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983661642618696115) · 5 likes Tbc this is me coming out more confused than I went in And tbh I guess I’m up to 5% (from like 3%) on “subjective experience does not exist” ### [Thread, continued, 22:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983662121079771601) · 3 likes Cc @RFishBlueFish @AndyMasley ## Thursday, October 30, 2025 ### [Reply to @bscholl, 05:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983775516839604443) · 2 likes > **Blake Scholl 🛫 (@bscholl):** Xi’s 747 is two generations newer than POTUS’s. > > This is a national embarrassment. > > (quoting @GrantCardone: President Trump - meet with anyone anytime anywhere on behalf of make America Great Again. 🇺🇸) No it’s not lol ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 14:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983906616995872976) · 7 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** is there a simple explanation for why rationalism and sex work are so intertwined Being able to talk about it analytically with fewer taboos ### [Reply to @thatMikeBishop, 14:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983909124963254417) · 2 likes > **Mike Bishop 🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@thatMikeBishop):** People can define masculinity differently, and expectations clearly vary cross-culturally - I’m fine with that. > > But science tells us testosterone has a lot to do with male-female differences, and that manipulating testosterone has many impacts. Yeah I agree it’s an insane thing to call misinformation. Maybe they’re not less masculine in some ultimate metaphysical sense but hypogonadism is pretty well studied and like obviously correlates hard with what people mean by “less masculine” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4hC1YhWIAAvigL.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4hC1YkWkAA9v-N.jpg) ### [Tweet, 15:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983918093215662357) · 6 likes So many apps wanna build in AI but like if you’re not paying a premium it’s gonna be a tiny shitty model and not actually provide much value At least let users pay to upgrade to SOTA ### [Reply to @cljack, 16:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983940076808683533) · 7 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** Idk man. Even if you take the position that we shouldn’t give food stamps to able-bodied adults (which is defensible) a lot of people on both sides recognize that children have no control over their life circumstances and think it’s morally wrong to let them go hungry > > (quoting @AnechoicMedia_: I feel like the only true conservative left in that my principle objection to food stamps is precisely that they pay for other people's kids. Republicans have lost the spine to defend right-wing values and so center their opposition to welfare on a hypothetical adult man sitting…) And the steelman of much cold-hearted conservative anti-welfarism that it reduces economic growth which is what actually matters for wellbeing in non-myopic sense I’m sure someone has made the case for this for children’s food but my sense is that it’s not a big offender on this front? ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983940594092195938) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 30, 2025:** So many apps wanna build in AI but like if you’re not paying a premium it’s gonna be a tiny shitty model and not actually provide much value At least let users… Interestingly, what you don’t see is universal semantic search, which actually is probably cheap enough to run for free most of the time ### [Tweet, 18:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983962703069639085) · 28 likes This seems unnecessary ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4hzj_FWUAAXOkQ.jpg) ## Friday, October 31, 2025 ### [Tweet, 02:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984079445284811094) · 54 likes Plz clap 🦆 🎃 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4jdEzsWcAAvBtB.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984079448057245864) · 5 likes In the daylight ft. my arm 🦆🎃 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4jdgqkXwAACvPO.png) ### [Reply to @jeffzwang, 06:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984143587060412575) · 8 likes > **Jeffrey Wang (@jeffzwang):** I throw good parties. Ahead of Halloweekend, here are 10 pro tips: > > 1\. No bright lights. People feel way more comfortable when it’s dark or dim. > 2\. People always congregate where the drinks are. If you want people to dance, put the drinks near the dance floor. A huge mistake people make is putting drinks in the kitchen because it’s convenient - most kitchens are not good social spaces. > 3\. If people don’t drink at your party, it will not be as good. This isn’t meant to promote drinking - it’s simply a fact about parties and the reason why you often leave day parties with a lukewarm feeling. > 4\. (Twitter-specific tip) Don’t invite a large group of Twitter people to a party. I’ve only done this twice, but both times 80% of those people were super awkward, which ruined the party. This is particularly true of anyone that has over 10K followers. > 5\. Related to the above, a party needs social cohesion. Almost all the people should be separated by no more than 2 degrees for there to be a very comfortable drift between groups of people. > 6\. It’s your duty as a host to promote social interaction. This means you should be introducing guests to each other, especially if someone doesn’t know a lot of people. “Encouraging” people to drink is the other easy knob that turns up how much socializing occurs at a party. > 7\. Make sure there is music. In my opinion, the presence of music is more important than what kind of music. No music kills the vibe. > 8\. Having activities promotes social interaction (but don’t overdo it or your party will feel like a carnival). > 9\. You should have at least one quiet zone and one loud zone. This lets everyone have access to an area that matches their current energy. > 10\. Lastly, the people are the most important thing. If you have really good people, you can break all the rules and your party will still be great. (This does mean that you need to gatekeep the invite list. If you invite everyone you know, or cohost your party with someone whose friends you don’t like, you won’t have a really good group of people.) > > I hope this in particular helps people under the age of 25, who I have found are almost universally horrible at throwing parties. > > And also jesus christ some people are so bad at throwing parties in SF, please print these tips out and tape them to your office’s kombucha dispenser. Boo, invite all ur mutuals ### [Quote tweet, 06:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984151989631250665) · 29 likes PSA window fans like these exist, I just got one idk I waited so long Now my room is never warmer than I want it to be I really like this one bc both fans run both directions ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4kftnIWkAA0r-z.jpg) > **Quoting 𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** trying to find out precisely how insane it is that nyc apparently forces apartments to run the heaters inside when it's over 50 degrees outside ### [Thread, continued, 06:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984152004994986254) · 6 likes Seems to keep CO2 pretty low (this is a highly selected image but I think it does actually improve air quality) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4kfuhsWQAA76zz.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984152008488530282) · 5 likes Model is this one, I got used https://a.co/d/e2M9kBS ### [Quote tweet, 07:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984157533486116909) · 124 likes If you invite 10 new people to a party, 8 of them bring bad vibes, and one of the remaining two gets invited back indefinitely, and you keep doing this, you soon have a party of almost entirely new friends who you like ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4kkwthWkAAjFYm.jpg) > **Quoting Jeffrey Wang (@jeffzwang):** I throw good parties. Ahead of Halloweekend, here are 10 pro tips: > > 1\. No bright lights. People feel way more comfortable when it’s dark or dim. > 2\. People always congregate where the drinks are. If you want people to dance, put the drinks near the dance floor. A huge mistake people make is putting drinks in the kitchen because it’s convenient - most kitchens are not good social spaces. > 3\. If people don’t drink at your party, it will not be as good. This isn’t meant to promote drinking - it’s simply a fact about parties and the reason why you often leave day parties with a lukewarm feeling. > 4\. (Twitter-specific tip) Don’t invite a large group of Twitter people to a party. I’ve only done this twice, but both times 80% of those people were super awkward, which ruined the party. This is particularly true of anyone that has over 10K followers. > 5\. Related to the above, a party needs social cohesion. Almost all the people should be separated by no more than 2 degrees for there to be a very comfortable drift between groups of people. > 6\. It’s your duty as a host to promote social interaction. This means you should be introducing guests to each other, especially if someone doesn’t know a lot of people. “Encouraging” people to drink is the other easy knob that turns up how much socializing occurs at a party. > 7\. Make sure there is music. In my opinion, the presence of music is more important than what kind of music. No music kills the vibe. > 8\. Having activities promotes social interaction (but don’t overdo it or your party will feel like a carnival). > 9\. You should have at least one quiet zone and one loud zone. This lets everyone have access to an area that matches their current energy. > 10\. Lastly, the people are the most important thing. If you have really good people, you can break all the rules and your party will still be great. (This does mean that you need to gatekeep the invite list. If you invite everyone you know, or cohost your party with someone whose friends you don’t like, you won’t have a really good group of people.) > > I hope this in particular helps people under the age of 25, who I have found are almost universally horrible at throwing parties. > > And also jesus christ some people are so bad at throwing parties in SF, please print these tips out and tape them to your office’s kombucha dispenser. ### [Thread, continued, 07:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984157537047081176) · 8 likes Assuming you’re not going to die soon, the EV of each Twitter invite is positive ### [Thread, continued, 07:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984157539202633811) · 8 likes Obviously not close to a literally true model but there’s a true and important point about the asymmetry between positive and negative first interactions ### [Tweet, 15:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984277066347614285) · 13 likes Maybe I should actually do low dose steroids ### [Reply, 15:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984278272512045321) · 1 like Precisely ### [Reply, 16:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984293950295781777) · 1 like Being more muscular seems good on the margin but also I’m probably not actually gonna do this ### [Reply to @boreal_country, 16:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984297674846216386) · 3 likes > **Beau (@boreal_country):** @AaronBergman18 These are great. Someone—not me—should make a version that includes/fits a HEPA filter. Yes!!! @JesseTayRiver ### [Reply to @johnsmithyson0, 16:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984297972612386989) · 3 likes > **John Smith (@johnsmithyson0):** @AaronBergman18 Have you checked all the other boxes for optimal growth first? > \-creatine > \-Training at least 4x week > \-good sleep > \-good eating? Absolutely not (a real problem here is that I basically can't lift weights bc my core is too fucked up) ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 17:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984305978733412512) · 3 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** @AaronBergman18 @johnsmithyson0 What’s up specifically (if you’re okay saying), haven’t heard of anything like this before Lol it is a very long story, check out this tab (the 'Health: much more than you wanted to know' bit, i think tabs might be weird on mobile) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p-QeuiuH6VOlgtAd7lcoveake3Ju_nDUkqkWWQebzeM/edit?tab=t.3fxj9bs1kwi ### [Reply to @johnsmithyson0, 18:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984329007052300465) · 2 likes > **John Smith (@johnsmithyson0):** @AaronBergman18 @\_AashishReddy Man. That's rough. I have no idea how one would do a lot of lifting with that, given how important your core is Thank you, yeah fr ### [Tweet, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984329317107843505) · 90 likes Kinda weird that github is free? I feel like I should be paying to unlock more than 5 repos or something Ik there actually is a premium tier but the free version is incredibly generous and useful ### [Reply to @gmiller, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984339408020254886) · 3 likes > **Geoffrey Miller (@gmiller):** Seems like a great opportunity -- except -- how can the UK hope to hire great talent for such a key position with a salary of only £33,015/year -- esp for London? > > (Seems like that would barely cover minimal cost of living for a single person -- much less a family). Yeah fr it’s insane, and plausibly part of the UK’s spiral (bad wages in govt -> worse talent -> worse governance -> worse economy -> worse wages) But if you’re already very wealthy it sounds great lol ### [Reply to @jazzloaf, 19:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984339605336809684) · 2 likes > **vivian (@jazzloaf):** I love how systematic you are, you're so cool 🥺 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984340007197557241) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 31, 2025:** Yeah fr it’s insane, and plausibly part of the UK’s spiral (bad wages in govt -> worse talent -> worse governance -> worse economy -> worse wages) But if… Of course the other interpretation which I am extremely confident is at least sometimes true is that the people taking the jobs are extremely talented and could earn way more elsewhere and are doing it for the greater good ### [Reply to @goblinodds, 19:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984342053862744110) · 2 likes > **𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** @AaronBergman18 oh this is nice! i dont have windows that open that way 💀 also where does ur AC go? lol this is the current setup I might remove the AC for the season but haven’t decided I want to commit to that bc it’s kind of annoying to re-install The right side does open a bit above the fan though ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4nMkzgXsAA_ZYM.jpg) ### [Reply to @Devin_J_Monahan, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984353461006450962) · 8 likes > **Devin Monahan (@Devin_J_Monahan):** @AaronBergman18 If I were the guy getting invited back indefinitely, I think I might start declining after the fifth bad party. Yeah fair, this is in my drafts lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4nW9M6WYAE_7FP.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 21:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984365756113625498) · 13 likes Probably correct take Idk if Andy would endorse this but I generally also mask (n95) on any crowded transit eg metro > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Took 15 minutes to write out what I think is a super obvious take that imo more people should think is obvious > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4nfLuUWAAAseB7.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984377994719478182) · 24 likes I feel like people don't appreciate how intense+high stakes the 5 seconds where I'm adding something to my google calendar is I'm supposed to be listening to the other person still but I have to lock tf in bc if I don't accurately put the thing down it may as well not exist --- End of October 2025. Previous month: [September 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-09). Next month: [November 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-11). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, November 2025 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in November 2025 and has not deleted: 398 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [October 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-10). Next month: [December 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-12). ## Saturday, November 1, 2025 ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 04:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984478170779959435) · 5 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @omooretweets @AaronBergman18 That’s me ### [Tweet, 06:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984508022513647688) · 7 likes Claude Max ($100 version but I'd bump to $200 in an instant if I needed that) + Claude Code is an amazing deal - intuitively the amount\*quality of Claude Code usage I get should be costing me like 10x that at least ### [Thread, continued, 06:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984508023591653436) · 3 likes Anthropic cooked with Sonnet 4.5 in general, including with token efficiency, and with claude code the program (i.e. pulling off good results without blasting through tokens, presumably lots of smart caching too), and presumably in reducing their own cost per token of inference ### [Tweet, 08:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984537490489807129) · 23 likes I can’t keep up there are too many things The world needs to slow down a bit plz and thank you 👍 ### [Quote tweet, 19:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984705657166315870) · 21 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4sXRrWWEAAV61B.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Seems like a good time to pass a $1/month UBI bill just to get the infrastructure in place ### [Tweet, 19:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984706023882461378) · 5 likes Discontinuity analysis where the discontinuity is whether Claude in Claude Code can read your documentation (25,000 vs 25,001 tokens) ## Sunday, November 2, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984779278005743719) · 6 likes There’s the straightforward “pause is good” theory of AI pause which I basically do buy, but there’s also the bargaining power theory… ### [Thread, continued, 00:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984779279859666977) · 3 likes Like you might support a legal pause with the hope that what happens is that this brings the companies to the bargaining table (with idk maybe some government body) in a weaker position such that they change various things and then the very next day there is a “resume” ### [Reply to @mykola, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984800553428533535) · 6 likes > **Myk is Walking Backwards (@mykola):** Mmm…. you know how @gptbrooke is talking about a vibecampus? > > \*does a shape rotation\* > > Imagine a social calendar where folks simply hang a shingle and are online for a zoom call at x time for an hour every week? What’s the best tool to set something like this up? I basically did this, or tried, with a different social sphere, and it didn’t work out exactly like the original vision but became a source of lots of friendship and value nonetheless ### [Quote tweet, 02:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984807448671043850) · 44 likes Noticed the same thing on Mac and 15 mins with Claude got rid of almost \*400GB\* of junk lol Maybe there’s a way to do the same on iPhone > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** This seems unnecessary > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4hzj_FWUAAXOkQ.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984807453926531129) · 10 likes Before It was mostly docker images (that I could download from DockerHub) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4tz3GwW0AAOLm8.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984807459106799908) · 11 likes After also at one point I must have ran ‘git init’ in my home folder bc there was a 50GB .git folder not really doing any work ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4tz3acX0AAPvsl.jpg) ### [Reply to @cljack, 05:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984854929530634316) · 6 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** @KelseyTuoc I looked into this when my 6’2” teenage nephew moved in with us and vegetarianism became much more of a struggle. Also surprised it hasn’t caught on as a choice! I also wish I could buy ikejime-killed wild caught fish (ie instant death instead of asphyxiated/gutted alive) I mean allegedly you can if you like make friends with the right Japanese fisherman at the right open air fish market and the wind is blowing in the right direction ### [Reply to @KelseyTuoc, 05:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984855866781086141) · 3 likes > **Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** 2yo is tantruming because I told her that 'a' sometimes makes the schwa sound. "No! No! A says 'aah!'" Real ### [Reply to @tszzl, 06:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984868239634051422) · 5 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** why should a billionaire donate their wealth, which is presumably invested productively in the most important companies in the world? This is sort of a fake choice - investing and donating are different types of thing If they invest, they may well make a ton more money. Like if Dustin M has a great new business idea I’m all for him throwing $1B at it But how the money (or expected money if you prefer) winds up getting spent is tbd: consumption, transferring to family, donation. These are what actually compete with one-another ### [Reply to @tszzl, 07:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1984882780929683549) · 2 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** @AaronBergman18 @AndyMasley transferred to family doesn’t change the asset from shares to anything else Yeah true, forget about that one ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 15:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985013977936523690) · 3 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @yifever Opinion: feeling cringe is a teenage phenomenon. Set yourself free of your self-imposed chains So true ### [Tweet, 18:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985056341086646666) · 190 likes Having a printer is crazy. You can print whatever u want, nobody can stop you ### [Thread, continued, 18:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985056346857779349) · 14 likes Ok I sorta lied but this is extremely amusing because good luck trying to counterfeit USD using printer paper ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4xWOiXXAAEg_82.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985073372020273163) · 3 likes 👀 > **Quoting Simon Bazelon (@simon_bazelon):** More improvements to the website! > > By popular request, you can now listen to Deciding to Win, both on desktop and mobile. The audio version includes verbal descriptions of all graphs and tables. > > Just go to http://decidingtowin.org to try it out! ### [Reply to @AlexTPet, 20:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985079188726935699) · 8 likes > **Alex Petropoulos 🤠 (@AlexTPet):** post prints This is what prompted the tweet lol I also have some of nice things ppl said to me in a gc that I prob shouldn’t poast without permission ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4xq_v7XIAAQJaH.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985079732556190124) · 19 likes I have no idea what I believe about phenomenal consciousness at this point ### [Reply to @simon_bazelon, 20:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985084832842469544) · 4 likes > **Simon Bazelon (@simon_bazelon):** @AaronBergman18 Big realization for me was when I took philosophy of Quantum Mechanics in college and realized that literally no one has any idea what is going on with anything. > > All I know now is that hard core illusionism seems way overconfident. Yeah I’m extremely on board with both points I think people don’t appreciate the radical metaphysical uncertainty enough and that the standard scientific materialist worldview, for all its success, is almost certainly incomplete ## Monday, November 3, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985138174897566014) · 19 likes Like a dozen+ people have signed up for my substack today and many of them liked this post, both of which are like 7sds above avg It’s being shared around somewhere, I want to know where!!! > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Also here: https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/utilitarians-should-accept-that-some ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985139969103470960) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 2, 2025:** Having a printer is crazy. You can print whatever u want, nobody can stop you Ok turns out it’s pretty realistic for a single page to cost $1 in ink or even a bit more (like full page, vibrant color) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 03:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985189816204484856) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Incomplete in what sense? It’s not going to explain or really have much to say about phenomenal consciousness It’s probably not going to explain the Big Bang or anything before/outside the universe. It’s basically explicitly bounded in that sense Not going to answer the simulation question Won’t explain why there’s something instead of nothing Doesn’t explain morality even if qualia were explained Has nothing to say about the intrinsic nature of fundamental particles/fields Physicists like to pretend that it will, but science doesn’t/can’t decide A vs B theory of time I think stuff about multiverse that I’m too dumb to articulate formally ### [Reply, 04:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985196812190282112) · 1 like Not incompatible with, I agree with that. But they \*are\* outside the bounds of scientific materialism. I mean I guess we can argue about specific items, some are clearer cases than others ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 04:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985199387891347885) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** I mean I guess “2 + 2 = 4” is “outside the bounds of scientific materialism” but I just don’t consider that particularly noteworthy, so I felt like you were probably making a stronger claim Sorta? But the distinction is that the ontology of algebra isn’t “real” except insofar as it is a convenient abstraction or true model for, well, at the very least many “physical” things eg apples Whereas the same isn’t true of qualia, if they exist ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 04:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985202567840944499) > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** I think qualia are very likely an abstraction over a real physical thing, and when you’re imagining “but what if I just had the abstract thing and not its physical underpinning?” there is no guarantee that you’re thinking about something real I basically don’t get what ur trying to say here, but I’m pretty sure qualia are not an abstraction Either they’re a non-abstract, very real thing or they don’t exist. They’re not like the number 4 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 04:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985210027733406091) · 4 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 Go to the phone app specifically (not sure why this doesn't work on the desktop app yet, they only show the top few there), go to the article, go to stats, go to the performance tab, go to "traffic sources" and expand. The place it's being shared should stand out. Hmm a legit looking dude with more subscribers than me “Quote Restacked” https://substack.com/profile/164122109-jacob-edenhofer/note/c-172633774?r=2muv6&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 18:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985407098600243607) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** https://joecarlsmith.com/2025/11/03/leaving-open-philanthropy-going-to-anthropic Major goss ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985440808577777697) · 18 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 2, 2025:** Ok I sorta lied but this is extremely amusing because good luck trying to counterfeit USD using printer paper ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G42z4T2WEAAcnSy.jpg) ### [Reply to @RosieCampbell, 20:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985449937489002915) · 4 likes > **Rosie Campbell (@RosieCampbell):** First work trip with @eleosai! Heading to a workshop in NYC > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G424LzobQFEDm8Z.jpg) Omg 😍 ## Tuesday, November 4, 2025 ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 00:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985511667401166861) · 4 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** first date idea: you watch me eat 13 tablespoons of peanut butter > > (quoting @HumanHarlan: What's the most enjoyable way to spend a single micromort?) Down 😘 ### [Reply to @HumanHarlan, 00:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985512057509187933) · 22 likes > **Harlan Stewart (@HumanHarlan):** What's the most enjoyable way to spend a single micromort? Wait what is the supposed mechanism of the peanut butter? Like I agree it’s not the healthiest thing in the world for most ppl but surprised to see it in this list at all ### [Reply to @EAForumPosts, 17:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985768654965747939) · 2 likes > **EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** "Leaving Open Philanthropy, going to Anthropic" by Joe_Carlsmith > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G47WnbZXYAAUtPM.jpg) Goss ### [Reply to @gptbrooke, 18:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985771218100748665) · 5 likes > **brooke bowman (@gptbrooke):** we gotta start collectively hanging out in cheaper cities smh I had a whole phase around this but eventually came around to “the network effects are too strong, don’t fight back” ### [Reply to @livgorton, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985815834284212413) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** But what I don't understand is that while organisations can be doing a lot of harm and some employees can be complicit in that harm, that doesn't have to mean most of the people there are bad people. People can just believe different things about this situation. “Bad people” I mean that’s a low and very fuzzy bar, the stronger claim (which I agree with and IMO is more relevant) is that the specific things people are doing on Anthropic’s payroll are in fact good ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 22:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985839520072548883) · 4 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** seeing my wife take a moment to give a heart react to a “drive safely” text while she’s driving on the highway Bruh ### [Tweet, 23:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985850291070148773) · 26 likes I’m not actually sure it’s a worse world, in fact I think it’s probably better, but it still makes me kind of sad to think about the world of p-zombies (and I think there’s like a 5% chance that’s us) ### [Thread, continued, 23:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985850292965879992) · 4 likes Like the entire arc of history, political movements and art and wars and people falling in love and dying, all for nothing. Silent world. Nobody’s home. Eerie ### [Thread, continued, 23:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985850295587340770) · 4 likes Of course wars aren’t romantic, they’re extremely bad, and all the torture and pain and slow death and being eaten alive is all a mirage as well in such a world, and that’s good ### [Thread, continued, 23:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985850297500262424) · 6 likes I know some people disagree and think that there’s meaning or morality without genuine subjective experience, but I am pretty sure they’re wrong ## Wednesday, November 5, 2025 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985860129019871737) · 1 like > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I'm worried this may just mean you need to update your beliefs about what it means for no one to be home or that nothing matters! lol I mean maybe but I think you need to update your beliefs about what it means for phenomenal consciousness to not exist ### [Reply, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985860354933662114) · 1 like Lol, bc strong illusionism is implausible? ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 00:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985866650273317006) · 3 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** how is there a 5% chance? i know we're not in that world, and although saying this communicates no information, you should know with equal certainty yourself that we're not in that world No this is a good q and I used to make this case Long story short I’ve been convinced that it \*is\* something we can be wrong about (minor elaboration: even if we have direct access to qualia, we don’t have direct access to beliefs about qualia such as “these are a thing I have”) Being wrong would be extraordinarily radical, like easily one of the weirdest things ever, but I think it is possible ### [Reply to @Rado9910, 00:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985867415918457164) > **Rado9910 (@Rado9910):** Ho... how can you ascribe any probability to being a p-zombie that is not literally zero? ### [Reply, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985878430475338070) 1\) direct access to qualia doesn’t imply direct access to beliefs about qualia 2\) how am I supposed to distinguish between the two cases you present? I think I see what you’re saying but disagree that me really really really thinking I’m conscious (which I do tbc lol) is essentially proof of that fact ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 01:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985878755814855146) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 4, 2025:** I know some people disagree and think that there’s meaning or morality without genuine subjective experience, but I am pretty sure they’re wrong Guys trust me I have the same “direct access” intuitions as everyone else, and really really really really think and feel like I’m experiencing stuff rn lol ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 01:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985884813375521260) · 39 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** I keep getting advice about “effective” or “productive” communication, but every time what the person means is “communication I can ignore” or “disagreement which affirms that my position is nonetheless virtuous”. No thanks. I’m quite sympathetic to concern about policing discourse but at some level the reason why it \*can\* be effective to call people out in public in harsh terms is that either they like and respect you or they like and respect people who like and respect you Like idgaf about some maga account going off about me being a libtard, I care about my friends respecting me 5% less And for better or worse it just is the case that how you do discourse effects how much people like and respect you. It’s not just an emotional/interpersonal thing, also intellectual and moral respect So basically I don’t think concern about effective communication is totally fake ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 03:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1985909849851322581) · 16 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** @AaronBergman18 Aaron, there’s no option to tell people they are being immoral, taking that appropriately seriously, that they are going to like you for in expectation. This standard— that they like you for saying it— is crazy and it’s a way to privilege the status quo or the powerful. They're not going to like you \*for that\*, I agree, but they might like and/or respect you more or less before coming into this particular interaction ### [Tweet, 15:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986097948497965288) · 15 likes Does anyone wanna give my friend $30k/year to run EA Georgetown as a masters student ### [Thread, continued, 15:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986097950401954063) · 8 likes This is a serious post, I don’t think it would be a crazy thing to fund at all CEA no longer does organizer stipends ### [Reply to @envisionedluna, 15:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986101042182844427) · 4 likes > **Maya Luna (@envisionedluna):** We can get paid? I'm the vice president of EA GW for free?! 1\) not easily anymore, RIP FTX 2\) Based FWIW I was also co-leader of EA Georgetown for free but I didn’t have to work or anything, had parents paying for my stuff so there was no burden ### [Tweet, 16:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986103640084418683) · 205 likes Started looking into “concierge” medical practices, and they’re mostly just shorter wait times and fancy offices and the ability to text your doctor? How do I pay for someone to simply take a serious interest in my case? I don’t need same day scheduling ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 16:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986108693403070959) · 36 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** if you know what docking is you are in the top 1% of the intellectual elite Like, tying a boat to a dock? ### [Reply to @florianederer, 16:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986109562114756946) · 5 likes > **Florian Ederer (@florianederer):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5AK_qVWEAAJgZd.png) > (quoting @KhoaVuUmn: \[One-Word Title\] Your name - Harvard University) Incomparability is ultimate model-brain If the universe forces you to choose between two or more options, the things are comparable - there’s no opt-out button! ### [Reply to @KeeperAI, 16:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986112868119683141) · 3 likes > **Keeper (@KeeperAI):** Love can be much more effective than therapy. > > (quoting @bioenergeticmel: My nervous system always feels so calm and regulated after spending a weekend with my boyfriend) So true ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5AXIKfWsAAwwVq.jpg) ### [Reply to @modumdoll, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986116255812645344) · 6 likes > **spinozist (@modumdoll):** concierge practice i work with has at least been very comprehensive + interested in my weird disabilities that no other doctor would listen to me for > > attribute this mostly to the doc having only 400 patients vs the ~2000 that a PCP in this area otherwise has Oh ur in DC! Care to send me any details u have? Here or DM? ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 18:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986143438375653780) · 3 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @Yixiong_Hao @sixers2772 @AaronBergman18 If he's running an EA group, his only option is to go to other funders. I'd try the EA Infrastructure Fund as the most appropriate: > https://funds.effectivealtruism.org/funds/ea-community Yeah that’s what I told him (he already knew but still), great minds all around ## Thursday, November 6, 2025 ### [Reply to @AHarthcock, 00:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986229363629523310) · 2 likes > **Andrew Harthcock (@AHarthcock):** "Direct Primary Care" is what you want to look into. Oh huh thank you! ### [Reply to @__venki__, 00:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986232461462749543) · 11 likes > **venki (@__venki__):** My guess is these seem to generally correlate! > > The actually expensive bit is just "fewer patients per provider" which generally gives you ~= shorter wait times & ability to text your doctor but also longer appointments & more attention per patient. Yeah I wish I could go a la carte though lol ### [Reply to @TheDavidSJ, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986233443739398485) · 6 likes > **David Schneider-Joseph 🔍 (@TheDavidSJ):** FWIW @onemedical gave all my records to @MassGenBrigham despite me explicitly opting out of data sharing. > > (They claim it's fine because it was buried at the bottom of some recent policy update, though I'm not even sure I ever actually signed that one.) It’s crazy because HIPAA makes doctors offices pay for bespoke video conferencing software and they still do this shit ### [Quote tweet, 15:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986454028490829931) · 16 likes Free the duck! > **Quoting Steven Godofsky (@sgodofsk):** My neighbors have a pet duck that they allow to roam around in the street in front of their house. I should say had a pet duck, actually, because I saw this on my way to get lunch this afternoon. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5AxdUgXMAAakl0.jpg) ### [Reply to @sgodofsk, 15:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986455259430998275) · 2 likes > **Steven Godofsky (@sgodofsk):** My neighbors have a pet duck that they allow to roam around in the street in front of their house. I should say had a pet duck, actually, because I saw this on my way to get lunch this afternoon. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5AxdUgXMAAakl0.jpg) As a fellow Virginia resident I am now a single issue voter and that issue is that you should be allowed to have an emotional support duck ### [Reply to @1thousandfaces_, 15:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986456940461855076) · 2 likes > **hero thousandfaces (@1thousandfaces_):** Strongly prefer people who are earnest to the point of occasional embarrassment than people who avoid earnestness because they might get embarrassed. The latter kills your soul. Correct take ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 16:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986467115965067651) · 4 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Only you care about whether you are a good person, Liv. I care that you want to hand Anthropic recursive self-improvement tools to build superintelligence. > > Her priority is having a safe space for “good intentions” with the most dangerous gamble ever. Definitely a selfish person. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5CEynJXkAAM-L-.jpg) I nitpicked her phrasing in this specific tweet as well but think this is pretty unfair and her point that people (including me) literally just disagree with you stands ### [Thread, continued, 16:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986467340356137200) · 3 likes And also if you’re gonna call her out, don’t block her as well ### [Reply to @willmacaskill, 17:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986480066675478969) · 4 likes > **William MacAskill (@willmacaskill):** Next poll, new options: If you could magically choose any annual economic growth rate for the US (as a result of new technology + policy), what would you choose? > > Again, I'm particularly interested in replies from progress studies / e-acc folks. Pretty sure nobody voting the highest bucket has anything like a model and they’d vote the highest bucket regardless of how high it is ## Friday, November 7, 2025 ### [Reply to @AmandaAskell, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986606472042549670) · 93 likes > **Amanda Askell (@AmandaAskell):** I do think people often err on the side of trying to make their prompts too succinct, even if the idea they're trying to move from their own brain into the model's brain is very complex. I have some >100 page prompts that I use pretty regularly. I will donate $20 to wherever to see one of these ### [Thread, continued, 01:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986607184772272607) · 27 likes Ok not literally wherever ### [Reply to @drethelin, 02:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986621878966874292) · 32 likes > **Misha (@drethelin):** It's kind of cringe but I think I genuinely have a sense of sacredness about capitalism, markets, free trade, and get pissed off at how many people are "anti-capitalist" I largely agree but have been thinking recently that pro-market folks should really give up their non-consequentialist attachment to markets in light of AI Worked pretty well for humans so far (terribly for farmed animals) but this is extremely contingent - no rule that says human labor will always be compensated nontrivially ### [Thread, continued, 02:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986622374960120275) · 9 likes Naively you might think the worst thing that can happen is being forced back to subsistence farming but land is scarce and it’s physically hard to get to where it’s not scarce Also a very bleak lower bound regardless ### [Reply to @fleetingbits, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986628907403989481) · 2 likes > **FleetingBits (@fleetingbits):** i heard a story last night about alec radford; apparently, he never committed to the monorepo; some new researcher, excited to work with him, asked what branch he was on; and Alec sent him a pile of zip files Based ### [Reply to @medievalpard, 04:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986647375109095439) · 13 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @medievalpard is no longer available.)_ This is a very specific way of picking out a massively general difference between humans and animals: abstract thought ### [Reply to @simonsarris, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986651972879999319) · 20 likes > **Simon Sarris (@simonsarris):** It's actually mysterious how many smart single people there are that cannot find a partner. > > So many people want a well-defined thing, and that thing exists in droves, and they cannot find it. Also it's each-other. Apps only let you filter by the crudest metric of intelligence: education level Not saying this is the entire explanation ofc lol ### [Thread, continued, 04:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986652163892826251) · 3 likes But yes this is a good kick to get me to make a date me doc ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986661652616389015) · 5 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** being able to drag any legal pdf (real estate, contracts, whatever) into ai and ask “anything weird here?” is insanely democratizing. you can know nothing about law, nothing about real estate, have no time or contacts, spend ~$0, and still be mostly protected Eh sorta, and I hope you’re right, think you partially are, but these things are largely generally driven by fundamental power asymmetry that info mostly doesn’t correct ### [Quote tweet, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986873405530841352) · 29 likes Feel for this guy object level but also the replies are a great example of people not even trying to do counterfactual reasoning “Don’t do this” doesn’t mean the kids will be born into a two parent family - it means they won’t be born at all! > **Quoting Ben Orenstein (@r00k):** I suspect I'm one of the two guys Romy is talking about. Regardless, she's describing my situation. > > I'm giving myself about another year of searching for a partner, but will then pursue single fatherhood. > > I'm still hopeful it won't be necessary, but in the end I can't allow myself to miss out on raising children. Even having gone this long without them is an agony. ### [Thread, continued, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986873407946870963) · 8 likes Ofc you might think that being born to a (seemingly wealthy) single father is genuinely harmful ie a life not worth living but that’s not the case people are making ### [Reply to @AviN102, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986928614978334869) · 2 likes > **Avi Norowitz (@AviN102):** OkCupid used to match users based on answers to questions. Some of them were effectively IQ test questions, so users could give a high weight to those and assess matches based on intelligence. I mean it’s kinda cringe but I wish they did this more Don’t even have to display anything, just model it on the backend ## Saturday, November 8, 2025 ### [Reply to @cljack, 01:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986964249248235877) · 4 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** @\_builtin_katie Okay I may be male brained for a woman but I’m not “mattress on the floor” level License revoked ### [Tweet, 01:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1986965897945174164) · 14 likes Just this tweet but you’re allowed to reply and QT ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5Me9BxXYAAlLYL.jpg) ### [Tweet, 06:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987048636690190530) · 4 likes Has anyone made the FAA plane crash investigation analogy for AI Like there could be a whole mandatory response with detailed causal tracing after something goes wrong It probably won’t happen, but it could! ### [Reply to @adastroworld, 07:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987064851638980722) · 2 likes > **adas🧦🌹 (@adastroworld):** “I gotta go back to dating bisexual women, straight women are weird about gender roles” > > (quoting @theonlyLishaG: I hate when n\*ggas use b\*tch lingo) 🤝 ### [Reply to @theo_theo__, 07:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987066468115333355) · 4 likes > **Theo (@theo_theo__):** ASI—Artificial Superintelligence—has been described in many ways: > A tool, a god, an alien mind. > > But what if it’s something else entirely? > Not a mind… not a machine… but a \*law of nature\*. 🧵 Seems false ### [Reply to @EAForumPosts, 21:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987271102050013313) · 2 likes > **EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** "12 Theses on EA" by Mjreard (@Mjreard) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5QiSGTXQAEU4ej.jpg) 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ ### [Quote tweet, 21:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987272034728964378) · 9 likes Not really in the thick of it anymore but insofar as things haven’t changed in the last ~4 years, “field builders” should just be more candid and frank in general, including about their own object level views > **Quoting EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** "12 Theses on EA" by Mjreard (@Mjreard) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5QiSGTXQAEU4ej.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987272627459645865) · 12 likes Instrumentally, if you hate AI, the dumbest thing you can do is convince yourself that it’s not a big deal > **Quoting Anders Sandberg (@anderssandberg):** I am worried that people converge to general "AI hating" instead of being against particular reasons (e.g. IP, xrisk, slop, competition, power concentration etc.) AI is not going to go away - it is too useful - so general rejection will not work other than as social posing. ### [Reply to @antoine_chapel, 21:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987274170690883682) · 27 likes > **Antoine Chapel 🇫🇷☢️ (@antoine_chapel):** When the undergrad who got 13/100 at the metrics midterm sends me impeccable R code for his problem set including techniques we haven't covered yet > > [GIF attached](https://x.com/antoine_chapel/status/1986973482102472905/photo/1) Hot take he did nothing wrong, and if you want your class to be challenging you gotta totally change what problem sets look like AI just is excellent now, just assume that everyone is going to use it (FWIW I did pretty well writing R by hand in college but basically never write a single line of code myself anymore) ### [Reply, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987305504511611224) · 1 like I stand with brother ### [Reply to @goblinodds, 23:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987308526654378161) · 4 likes > **𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** my dad knows me well > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5Q97dwXkAApBg-.jpg) For the curious https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/bats-at-war-with-rats ## Sunday, November 9, 2025 ### [Reply to @goblinodds, 00:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987309490010476663) · 5 likes > **𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** my dad knows me well > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5Q97dwXkAApBg-.jpg) Rip [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1987309401712037888/img/6hY22xJvz7_HWSNm.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987309490010476663/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @soundrotator, 00:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987316147935416641) · 72 likes > **Reb (@soundrotator):** Do you ever make eye contact with a creature of another species for a little too long and realize > > (quoting @hourlyursus: ) ### [Reply to @_chair, 00:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987316460310446319) · 5 likes > **Chair (@_chair):** Dear @nikitabier - you are so close to having something that I actually \*want to check every day\* I just need you to avoid repeating the same topics and stop highlighting baitmasters > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5RdKUvXgAAUD7M.jpg) > (quoting @_chair: this has become so idiosyncratic as to be totally adorable, like how Rod and Todd Flanders have their own newspaper) I also wanna see stuff closer to home, the local small town goss of my mutuals specifically ### [Tweet, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987331139997217251) · 4 likes Claude seems passionate about this one ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5RrI8uWgAAcAMl.jpg) ### [Tweet, 01:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987333148636520500) https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/b6f46846-5600-45e9-9d86-d711ab88b237 ### [Quote tweet, 01:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987333292849611158) · 3 likes Very cool that the Constitution and Supreme Court rulings are merely recommendations now ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5RtGRnWUAAaZEn.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/b6f46846-5600-45e9-9d86-d711ab88b237 ### [Reply to @dioscuri, 01:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987334875666432497) · 2 likes > **Henry Shevlin (@dioscuri):** Obviously that’s contingent on thinking AI consciousness will be net welfare positive, but it seems far easier to ensure that’s the case than that the sum of biological valence is positive. I’m not sure this is true ### [Quote tweet, 01:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987336185711075413) · 26 likes Does anyone wanna try convincing me that stories like this are basically real/legit The general case is: some very specific deep psychological issue simply gets fixed (via ???) and your life gets significantly better Seems fake but what do I know > **Quoting Chris Lakin (@chrislakin):** worked with a founder who thought his dating anxiety was due to fear of rejection. was actually fear of acceptance. he has a girlfriend now ### [Reply to @dioscuri, 01:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987337697778598296) · 5 likes > **Henry Shevlin (@dioscuri):** @AaronBergman18 There are lots of coherent views that deny it, but I think they mostly involve either retributivism (“it killed us so doesn’t deserve to live”) or bio-chauvinism (“it’s silicon consciousness so inordinately less valuable”). Sorry to be specific, I think ensuring that digital sentience is positive is harder than it first sounds, not that it wouldn’t be good ### [Thread, continued, 01:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987338695540707468) · 2 likes This is basically dependent on solving alignment in the OG sense bc you’re handing over the world to other agents, so what matters is whether they are even trying to create positive welfare (and importantly also none are in opposition to that goal), not whether eg gpt-7 instances specifically are having a good time ### [Reply to @aliceisplaying, 02:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987343750004416797) · 2 likes > **alice (@aliceisplaying):** the optimal amount of girls is a lot. like. a lot 💯 ### [Reply to @bashu_thanks, 02:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987346488758813104) · 13 likes > **bashu, thanks (@bashu_thanks):** my barber transitioned recently so i asked him the difference between cutting women's and men's hair, and he said "women moan, guys don't moan" What ### [Reply to @besttrousers, 18:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987581206502813924) · 16 likes > **Matt Darling 🌐🏗️ (@besttrousers):** It is not the case that almost no one can afford a house. “Almost no one” is pushing it but there’s obviously a large grain of truth here At the very least, it’s probably accurate to say that \*most\* people and most households cannot afford a house in the metro where they already live ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5VOkt8WUAE8aOW.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5VOktyWwAAEJVB.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5VOktvXcAAPhtV.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5VOktwX0AEYD3R.jpg) ### [Tweet, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987590854588961020) · 5 likes Ironing with steam is satisfying af, y’all are sleeping on this fr [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1987590726088073216/img/RLmbxYfq-7NdIzu-.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987590854588961020/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Thread, continued, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987590856749224043) · 2 likes The bubblewrap of the fashion world ### [Thread, continued, 18:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987591062882320865) · 3 likes U do have to be careful though that metal bit is hot ### [Quote tweet, 19:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987601136770277380) · 127 likes I’m not a “privatize everything” guy but this should probably be privatized > **Quoting Leah Libresco Sargeant (@LeahLibresco):** “Most days this week have begun with a 4 a.m. shift stocking ice cream, frozen vegetables and pizza at a local supermarket. When his shift ends at 10 a.m., he heads straight to the airport, where he directs traffic from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.” > > https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/travel/shutdown-air-traffic-controllers.html ### [Quote tweet, 20:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987625026942595132) · 76 likes Unironically smart, high returns to being slightly weird > **Quoting Overheard District (@OverheardWDC):** Spotted in DC > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5VSz9uWgAAJ5rl.jpg) ## Monday, November 10, 2025 ### [Reply to @livgorton, 04:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987744546579714216) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** Just so I stop replying the same thing to every tweet like this: dating docs do (sometimes) work! My long term relationship arose from one and I know of a few couples from them. I totally get the sort of aesthetic resistance or whatever but dating docs have resulted in love! > > (quoting @shwedotai: genuine question: do “date me docs” ever work? feels like self-optimization and box-checking over organic connection) 👀 ### [Reply to @DavidSKrueger, 18:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987958430699545007) · 5 likes > **David Krueger 🦥 ⏸️ ⏹️ ⏪ (@DavidSKrueger):** Saying "AI is not inevitable" seems to have started a bit more of a conversation that I would've thought. > > It seems a lot of people are really insistent that it's inevitable. > > It's weird to witness people forcefully rejecting their agency. > > 🤷 Not literally inevitable, it’s just that you’d need a competent world government to stop the forces of economic and political competition from making in inevitable Cc @TomDavidsonX ### [Tweet, 19:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987966414766932417) · 5 likes What the fuck ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5as6yRWwAAbna9.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987967442447216786) · 4 likes Yes, ACA subsidies should be replaced with cash transfers, but they’re much better than nothing Might become a Bernie Bro again ### [Tweet, 21:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1987996276861100469) · 3 likes Idk who needs to hear this but Context7 (link below) is a thing that exists for free Maybe everyone already knows this but I didn't until recently ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988010819729453236) · 2 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** @AaronBergman18 Negative polarisation is the mind killer Joking about the Bernie bro bit ### [Tweet, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988013588204712318) · 31 likes I would pay a premium to patronize shops and restaurants where workers \*are\* allowed to listen to music (when eg stocking shelves) and sit down and stuff I mean not that much of a premium probably but like it’s a good not a bad ### [Tweet, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988020974944403529) · 20 likes It’s officially cold ❄️ 👍 ### [Reply to @unforgivnbastrd, 23:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988022247819538577) · 4 likes > **rebornbastard (@unforgivnbastrd):** Well good news: you can get a discount shopping at Aldi, which lets cashiers sit. I didn’t know this, thanks! ## Tuesday, November 11, 2025 ### [Reply to @GarrettPetersen, 00:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988034978471637056) · 51 likes > **Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ (@GarrettPetersen):** Idea for someone to use: > > A "don't date me" doc that lists all the reasons someone shouldn't date you. Someone is bound to take it as a challenge. I’ve brought this up multiple times and it’s been shot down by female friends lmao ### [Reply to @AnniePosting, 00:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988041899278487687) · 7 likes > **annie 👁❌🦋🪞 (@AnniePosting):** @AaronBergman18 @GarrettPetersen in my experience its a sort of scissor statement among women. Most of them claim to despise the "hot guy with red flags" and act like its as an admirable sacrifice they refuse to pursue him. So they view anyone that does so as defectors and frown upon it. This is interesting but I don’t think I fit that archetype so don’t think this explains why people who know me pretty well shot it down Regardless of how attractive someone finds me, my negatives are much much more just straightforward things that make me less attractive, less fun, etc and not what people usually mean by “red flags” ### [Tweet, 02:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988076136912613383) · 11 likes As much as I like a good situation to monitor and hope everyone is ok, this is probably an example of something being deemed newsworthy purely because it happened in or around an airplane ### [Thread, continued, 02:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988076703415980446) · 3 likes 18 non life-threatening injuries and some accidental property damage is like an avg Boy Scout troop camping trip ### [Reply to @prerat, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988078496237973856) · 5 likes > **prerat (@prerat):** if the baby is cute, i flip a coin but keep the result hidden. if heads, i say "omg so cute!!"; if tails, i say nothing. > > if the baby is not cute, i always say nothing. > > this way my silence is only as insulting as a single bit of evidence, rather than conclusive evidence > > (quoting @bpodgursky: whenever old people tell me "your baby is soooo cute", i ask them, "would you tell me if he wasn't?". it throws them off for a bit until i explain the importance of epistemic calibration.) Brilliant ### [Reply to @JeremiahDJohns, 03:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988080533595656294) · 4 likes > **Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** What are the best non-chatbot, non-content examples of how AI can be socially beneficial? > > What real world, non-digital impact has AI made? Or could make in the near future? Things like driverless cars, applications to manufacturing, advances in science, etc. I mean the means of delivery is chatbot but medical advice is a real thing ### [Reply to @zeta_globin, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988088683476775140) · 8 likes > **zeta (@zeta_globin):** Yeah I met her at a party and I regret to inform you she's far hotter than me and also celiac, I got to share a bunch of immunology facts She's hotter than me as well (and annoyingly smart) ### [Reply to @paularambles, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988124327888171016) · 4 likes > **“paula” (@paularambles):** @NathanpmYoung i think some people aren’t being bullied enough Even if you think this one guy specifically needs to be condemned, it's a shame to make "insufficient bullying" a personal guiding principle ### [Tweet, 06:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988127075069563379) · 70 likes Some things are only medium bad and don't deserve the scorn of tens of thousands of strangers cast on millions of eyeballs ### [Quote tweet, 06:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988133165953847332) · 13 likes Time for an annual hand moisturizing cream appreciation tweet $5/year product just totally solves large quality of life issue (itchy hands) to the point that I can forget it’s even a problem I have by default > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** It’s officially cold ❄️ 👍 ### [Reply to @hyperdiscogirl, 07:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988139801401585714) · 1 like > **hyper(bolic) disco(unting) girl in the bay (@hyperdiscogirl):** @AaronBergman18 First snow yesterday where i am! Huge ## Wednesday, November 12, 2025 ### [Reply to @binarybits, 01:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988419177271415039) · 1 like > **Timothy B. Lee (@binarybits):** The idea that Zoomers are "utterly screwed" in material terms is total nonsense and I wish people would stop repeating it. Housing is a bit more expensive than previous generations. Many other necessities — food, clothing, most manufactured goods are cheaper than ever. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5fucIzWwAA16ye.png) I think AI unemployment is gonna be a big deal ### [Reply to @cljack, 04:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988463640153124910) · 6 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** Why did my iPhone just try to autocorrect “tail strike” to “rail strike”?! Has Apple not collected enough of my data to understand that I have airplane autism, not the trains kind 🤝 ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 07:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988514473393484196) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Still, 10% of young men is a lot of people! (Many such cases) ### [Reply to @finiteopencover, 08:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988521923261645133) · 29 likes > **compact set 🎀 (@finiteopencover):** why would you be friends with someone who’s romantically rejected you—when you could literally be friends with anyone else !! “Don’t be friends with person who rejected you” seems like a bad policy bc it penalizes asking out your friends or potential friends ### [Reply to @VexedVortices, 09:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988541607063294327) · 2 likes > **Kya Online (@VexedVortices):** exactly > > (quoting @AnActualGarnish: @syamantakd002 @insectbeau They can be banned elsewhere. The claim isnt “these are so banned its illegal to even have” the claim is that somewhere they are or have been banned.) Sure but they never include anything remotely actually controversial or upsetting to polite liberal sensibilities, whether or not legally banned It drives me nuts because it’s so transparently fake ### [Reply to @gcochran99, 10:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988557990446665745) > **Gregory Cochran (@gcochran99):** More broadly: they decided to favor hispanics over high-scoring kids. That's all there is to it. This is true ~everywhere and has been for decades though It doesn’t explain change even if in some sense it’s counterfactually responsible ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 11:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988564121072136469) · 48 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** Every person who engages in philosophy is a tragedy. They have wasted their life, as surely as someone who is strung out on heroin, plays video games, or commits the supreme self-negation. We can only hope that they, in spite of their life choices, do something of use to society. > > (quoting @Benthamsbulldog: ) Terrible take lol - you’re making it sound like chess Ethics seems pretty important, at the very least The entire history of academic philosophy of mind is justified by the question of AI sentience ### [Quote tweet, 11:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988567590591996367) · 85 likes Dunk-worthy take Ethics, at the very least, useless? Singer and MacAskill, the value of future people and animals, really? > **Quoting Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** Every person who engages in philosophy is a tragedy. They have wasted their life, as surely as someone who is strung out on heroin, plays video games, or commits the supreme self-negation. We can only hope that they, in spite of their life choices, do something of use to society. ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 11:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988567861388882048) · 11 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Bruh most of your edgy stuff about incest or "when must we kill them" or whatever are rehashes of stuff that moral and political philosophers have said decades ago. You're basically doing philosophy all the time 💯 ### [Reply to @celestepoasts, 15:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988625774019022930) · 1 like > **Celeste (@celestepoasts):** We're wasting 10 million dollars on markdown tables for LLM inference > > https://ceselder.substack.com/p/were-wasting-625-billion-tokens-daily Lol for better or worse I’m pretty sure AI companies do not care about saving 8 figure sums ### [Reply to @llallawg, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988707296613158913) · 11 likes > **sasha (@llallawg):** @AaronBergman18 You don’t need an ethicist to tell you to value animals or future generations I mean empirically people definitely have needed that, whether or not they should have been able to get there themselves in some abstract sense ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988707539383644329) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** This one’s new > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5hbeDlW4AA3NM0.jpg) Lmao ### [Reply to @llallawg, 21:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988715517461557637) · 2 likes > **sasha (@llallawg):** @AaronBergman18 what's the proof ethics is the thing that does this? > > tongue in cheek schwitzgebel's finding that the most commonly stolen philosophy books are ethics books is a counter example https://www.shrimpwelfareproject.org ## Thursday, November 13, 2025 ### [Reply to @jannalulu_, 12:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988940022834503938) · 2 likes > **Janna (@jannalulu_):** \*sigh\* idk where to even start responding to this reviewer > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5mt-8WbYAALPlG.jpg) 😢 Challenge them to a fight ### [Reply to @btdrawer, 12:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988942471565611345) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @btdrawer is no longer available.)_ 🫡 ### [Quote tweet, 12:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988945801830363269) · 324 likes Gossip ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5onqm3XQAAEs43.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** \*Braces\* > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G2hvBppXgAAkc7o.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 12:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988945805341053385) · 3 likes https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ne6jw2a8KcgFsoswy/essays-on-longtermism-competition-winners ### [Reply to @HenriThunberg, 12:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1988947152182423633) · 3 likes > **Henri Thunberg 🔸 (@HenriThunberg):** Boss 🥰 ### [Reply to @codytfenwick, 17:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989030451894169714) · 1 like > **Cody Fenwick (@codytfenwick):** Agnosticism isn't incoherent, but I do find it implausible. > > Why is God an entity about which it is particularly hard to form some knowledge? Why can't we look at the universe, think about the arguments, and form a credence about the likelihood of God's existence? > > (quoting @waldenpod: I was recently informed that agnosticism is incoherent because "God either exists or he doesn't") Is 50/50 not agnostic? ### [Quote tweet, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989037006047871436) · 32 likes I didn’t even read this whole thing but yeah asking to hold hands is a good move First time I did this I almost died of anxiety lol > **Quoting Liron Shapira (@liron):** Bryan Caplan is right — Ask your crush to hold hands > > As a nerdy dating expert, I consider @bryan_caplan's handholding tactic to be the best practice for shy men looking to get into a romantic relationship (and not be stuck in the friend zone). > > Could this somehow backfire? I claim it can't. Let's game it out: > > If you (the man) bungle the handhold-ask really bad, i.e. you just say "would you like to hold my hand" (these words are actually perfectly good IMO) but your delivery is somehow uncharismatic/off-putting/loserly/whatever and the woman has very low attraction for you to begin with, the woman will just think "this guy who I'm not into turned out to be interested in me, and made the possibility go from ambiguous to somewhat clear by making a polite move to hold my hand, but I was hoping he just WOULDN'T be interested in me since I'm not interested in him, so I nervously told him 'no thanks, I'd rather not... sorry...' and it was such an awkward moment, and then we just kept going with the day and he didn't try again, so he was good about getting the message" — this is actually not creepy at all, and they actually will most likely blame themselves for half or even most of the awkwardness of the moment, because it's not like you overstepped any kind of social boundaries. It's not like you asked her to come over to your house at night or did anything that was inappropriate to do to someone who turns out not to be interested in you — you made a very clear and socially-appropriate FIRST move attempt. > > Even in the awkward-moment "nightmare scenario" I described above, that's actually still a solid move and nothing to be embarrassed about — it almost certainly leaves you in a BETTER position after you did it than before. Most women (correctly) feel that guys are too shy and and don't make enough moves on them, so any guy who makes any move — literally just saying the words "Would you like to hold my hand?" (my preferred variation) or any other decent variation ("Can I possibly hold your hand", "How would you feel about me holding your hand", "What would you say if I asked to hold your hand", etc) — any guy who makes that move is already in their mental category of "guy who intentionally/purposefully/bravely is a Live Player in the game of courtship". > > Assuming the worst-case scenario happened of them saying no to the hand holding request, these repercussions are still happening in the woman's mind, mostly subconsciously: > > \* You're now always in the back of her mind as someone who's likely to reciprocate if she ever changes her mind and shows interest in you — this happens pretty often in a matter of months or years as circumstances shift > > \* Your ability to make a move and then gracefully/unproblematically take no for an answer and go back to 100% platonic (no longer signal any romantic interest in her, for a couple weeks at least, think like an exponential backoff algorithm), is surprisingly rare and impressive. Most guys don't have that level of self-control to just play the dating game like a game where you make a move and just act calibratedly and maturely to the outcome of the move (seriously). She is going to subconsciously be kind of impressed with you, and is now more likely to be recommending you to her friends/acquaintances as someone to hang out with and potentially date. > > Remember, this is the \*bad\* scenario. The good (and significantly more likely) scenario is this: > > 1\. She smiles and says "sure!" > 2\. You hold hands > 3\. You can now reach for her hand any time, worldlessly or with any old line like "would you like to hold my hand again" so that you build this nice hand-holding comfort, which just reinforces the message that both of you are interested in each other, and then she'll be waiting for you to make the next move next time you see her. > > Actually, after the first hold is done, I would personally recommend later attempting the next handhold by saying "Would you like to hold my hand again?" This is a useful test because you can learn from which of these two reactions you get: > > 1\. Another positive-valence "Sure!" Now it's 100% clear she's interested in proceeding to the next stage of the romantic relationship with you (e.g. hold hands a lot on this date, then go out for a subsequent date which is clearly coded as a date). > 2\. A backpedaling reaction like "Haha, I'm good for now" > > If you get reaction #2, what probably happened is that the first time you asked to hold her hand, she was caught off guard, and didn't have a tactful way to communicate "sorry I'm not currently interested in a romantic relationship with you", so she just said the lowest-friction response like "uh, sure, we can for a bit". When you ask her to hold hands later, for a second time, she's now prepared for it and she can easily give a tactful kind of "no", where she's maintaining graceful ambiguity about her lack of interest because she said "yes" and was nice about it the first time, and yet you can go ahead and interpret it as a clear sign that she's not interested, because it's 99% likely that being interested in you would make her respond to a second handholding offer with a positive-sounding yes reaction and eagerly giving you her hand. > > Now, having gamed out the realistic scenarios in detail, we can see Bryan's "ask to hold her hand" move guarantees you either win big, or lose in a way where you actually still win compared to not asking. Highly recommended! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5px-9TWwAA0oNx.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5pyEydWEAENJed.png) ### [Thread, continued, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989037008333762652) · 7 likes It also seems to be a pretty good indicator - if she doesn’t even want to hold your hand on date 1, probably just wish her the best and move on ### [Thread, continued, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989037010321920452) · 10 likes You might even get to hold a girl’s hand 😳🥵 ### [Reply to @seanta___, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989039228072640964) · 19 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @seanta___ is no longer available.)_ Doesn’t seem weird to me at all. Of course less suffering is better ### [Reply to @seanta___, 18:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989039865523237372) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @seanta___ is no longer available.)_ lol the argument isn’t that a single shrimp death is more important than a human lifetime, it’s that several million are ## Friday, November 14, 2025 ### [Reply to @panickssery, 08:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989251010385068351) · 5 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** What is your argument here? "People in America have a lot of wealth; therefore, the government should tax and spend on braces for anyone who wants them"? And that it's the fault of the wealthy, or of the government, that people prostitute themselves to buy braces? I feel like the braces thing is pretty transparently a figurative device to get across her general economic status I can’t speak for Kelsey but my argument is “yes we should tax and transfer to poor people, especially children, to the point where you must have very unusual preferences in order to choose to be a prostitute at 17” Like it’s a big country, there will be a few Aella types who have what they need and simply prefer to sell sex in exchange for even more goods and services, but that’s probably not what we’re observing here ### [Reply, 17:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989378210350747895) · 1 like Second most legit performance supplement after creatine! ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 17:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989383681585426620) · 2 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** Last I checked (like two years ago), I’m apparently: > \- 95th percentile openness > \- 65th percentile agreeableness (though split between 91st compassion and 21st politeness lol) > \- 6th percentile neuroticism > \- 10th percentile (!) conscientiousness Based agreeableness breakdown ### [Reply to @cljack, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989386688708432063) · 4 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** @GovernorAnne My existing kids are my highest priority and I don’t want any more, until a man takes off his suit jacket and rolls up the sleeves of his button-up shirt in front of me ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5u4poyXwAALVH3.jpg) ### [Tweet, 17:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989387677746209114) · 830 likes Unironically “I’ve accomplished so much despite my IQ” should be more of a cultural thing Like Godspeed, play the cards you’re dealt ### [Reply, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989439888304083422) · 53 likes > **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** I agree with your point, but this person is an open antisemite. > > https://x.com/LucasGageX/status/1989354614236553554?t=JYAO8yUf7hfn9YkW8_Kpgw&s=19 Well he should stop doing that ## Saturday, November 15, 2025 ### [Reply to @timschlomi, 00:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989486664930992269) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @timschlomi is no longer available.)_ Yeah sorta I mean fundamentally this is true but I think it’s useful to distinguish things that basically have inelastic supply (IQ) and things that have elastic supply (effort) ### [Tweet, 03:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989531493668905209) · 4 likes Lol Gemini 2.5 Pro (max thinking) is kinda dumb - the alleged violation is putting the names of some api keys (eg "OPENAI_API_KEY") in a to-be-shared file The actual api keys themselves are not in the file ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5w8AEnXkAAvQns.jpg) ### [Tweet, 06:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989576289389273336) · 4 likes Shilling ik but Otter is a lifesaver for video meetings of any importance, or even non-importance insofar as recording is socially acceptable Dropped the $100/year and wish I did sooner ### [Thread, continued, 06:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989576290773385664) · 3 likes It feels a little silly to pay for something that fundamentally isn’t \*that\* hard to do (record+transcribe audio for meetings) for free, but basically they’re selling reliability + convenience + social legibility (ie people know what an Otter notetaker is doing) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 07:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989597506406154302) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** If you want to see the full math worked out for comparing shrimp welfare interventions with, say, global health, I co-authored this model a few years back that allows you to put in your own assumptions and run the numbers: https://ccm.rethinkpriorities.org/ Based ### [Reply to @typeclonghouse, 07:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989600365898064171) · 72 likes > **technology sista (aspiring) (@typeclonghouse):** lol these people > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5wqIOGWsAAFh4G.jpg) It’s fine to not immediately connect the dots to a years-old story but yes the firing was insane ### [Reply to @allgarbled, 08:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989612009936023900) · 3 likes > **gabe (@allgarbled):** One of my strongest moral intuitions is that you should not believe you are better than anyone else Seems false. Really, you don’t think we can say that Hitler was a bad guy? Worse in some overall sense than both of us? There are also people who are better than me ofc (early Quaker abolitionists, vegan kidney donors who also earn to give) ### [Reply to @craigweiss, 14:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989697079329914908) · 2 likes > **Craig Weiss (@craigweiss):** there are 11 types of engineers: > 1\. those that vibe code > 2\. those that will vibe code > 3\. those that will be unemployed It’s still a bit premature for me to take a victory lap but I got a surprising amount of interest from potential employers recently when my case was explicitly “I don’t really know how to write lines of code except for like 5 things in R, I’m a vibecoding native” ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 14:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989698580416733661) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ Even 3 steps is pretty intensive but I’ll let you guys have that ### [Reply to @Rado9910, 16:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989726568655327374) · 2 likes > **Rado9910 (@Rado9910):** @AaronBergman18 My skincare routine involves using soap. That's it. That's the routine. Real ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989748920701129039) · 16 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 15, 2025:** Even 3 steps is pretty intensive but I’ll let you guys have that Ok you guys are right my implicit reasoning here sucks, consider this purely a vibe take ### [Reply to @Miles_Brundage, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989773950965223700) · 4 likes > **Miles Brundage (@Miles_Brundage):** Fyi this is big news > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G50Ydx2a8AA0VYr.jpg) Lmao I have 75000 better and more important takes, thanks algorithm ### [Quote tweet, 20:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989786984001208802) · 23 likes Deleted bc the second sentence is dumb and wrong and nobody seemed to be seeing my clarification/disclaimer ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G50kt4XWAAA7ijb.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Ok you guys are right my implicit reasoning here sucks, consider this purely a vibe take ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989787539885212029) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 15, 2025:** Ok you guys are right my implicit reasoning here sucks, consider this purely a vibe take RIP ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989788229311004798) · 4 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** There is no such thing as general intelligence, Natural or artificial Seems false ### [Reply, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989792857419325916) · 3 likes lol it feels vaguely me-aligned but also I hadn’t heard of duck typing till just now ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G50qDsTXcAApcTo.jpg) ## Sunday, November 16, 2025 ### [Reply to @morallawwithin, 02:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989882521685831930) · 9 likes > **florence ⊮ (@morallawwithin):** I wish there was a nice way to tell someone that they’re not good enough at philosophy to be basing their extremely-consequential-real-world-decisions on their assessment of philosophical arguments Ahhhhh I mean by all means litigate stuff object level but sometimes you have to decide smth without much empirical evidence to work with - the universe doesn’t just let you opt out of decisions! Even if you’re bad at philosophy it can be better than choosing randomly ### [Tweet, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989886809917075593) · 2 likes A better person would write a proper blog post titled “There is no opt-out button” on this but: The universe sometimes - pretty often in fact - forces you to choose what to do and this has substantive practical and epistemic implications ### [Thread, continued, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989886811678662896) · 2 likes Even if you really truly don’t think two things are comparable in your heart of hearts (say the Mona Lisa and some number of shrimp stunnings), you just literally might be forced to choose between those as the only options ### [Thread, continued, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989886813360570421) · 3 likes You might have no decent evidence about some matter, and yet time refuses to pause for you; the world changes in ways that you care about even as you try to tell the universe that you can’t possibly make a decision without better evidence ### [Thread, continued, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989886814996377909) · 4 likes Don’t like putting precise probabilities on things? There \*is\* (generally) an opt-out button of explicitly saying a number, but there’s no opt-out button of choosing behavior according to some implicit probabilistic belief ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 03:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989895728622362775) · 2 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** A few related things I noticed about internet commenting: > > 1\. At some point in the last 3-10 years, I acquired the ability to not only notice when something is off with an internet comment, but to reliably identify precisely the biggest mistake someone makes. Need a spreadsheet with ur biggest beefs with anything I’ve said online in the last say 3 years ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 03:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989898414050693239) · 28 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** It seems very possible that AVs might effectively never cause accidents. They just need to be as good as the top quintile of drivers. Might be a way to go still, I don't know, but "top 5th of humans at driving" doesn't seem impossible. https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/811091.pdf > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G51PlLyW0AA80Cc.jpg) Wait quite possibly 5.1 is being dumb but sounds like that’s not what the paper implies Like you need additional work to say “those 20% top drivers we just finished observing will go on to have ~0 accidents next year too” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G52KD6rXIAA7kW0.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989898769916174500) · 2 likes Also at a vibes level “a world of 80th percentile drivers has very very few crashes” seems kinda unlikely? Well I guess it depends what we mean by “very few” - maybe 1 OOM fewer, maybe 2, probably not 3, and definitely not literally zero deaths/year ### [Reply to @TylerAlterman, 05:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989933902350446868) · 3 likes > **Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply (@TylerAlterman):** What’s the current state of Claude vs ChatGPT. Which is better? Claude has better vibes, and Claude Code + chat on $100/mo max plan is an incredible deal Gpt5 is a bit more thorough and overall better at hard non-coding questions though IME ### [Tweet, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1989938121962844455) · 10 likes Adjacent universe where SBF + less insane Elon Musk manage to buy 51% of NVIDIA ### [Reply to @Tymtweet, 11:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990024005995094301) · 2 likes > **Tym🔸️ (@Tymtweet):** Sorry fellow tweeters... I know it's been a while.... i'm now just an occassional visitor now... I got a girlfriend 👀 ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 11:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990025836330938755) · 5 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** i never liked sports. i don't really care about cars. definitely not a gym bro. i hate men. no real hobbies. how am i supposed to make new friends? Twitter but hating men might not help ### [Reply to @Manuel_do_rio, 12:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990027584331981173) · 3 likes > **Manuel del Río Rodríguez ⏸️ (@Manuel_do_rio):** Why hate men? Idk - I’m saying that’s not gonna help I don’t hate men ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 17:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990112347600400642) · 15 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** what are some good gaslights for someone just getting into gaslighting? “Your health issues are just anxiety” ### [Tweet, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990132324806033724) · 10 likes Thank you to the diabetic population for creating the market forces necessary for blood glucose tests to be pretty cheap and easy, accessible even to the merely curious ### [Tweet, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990138605071745156) · 23 likes Kinda annoying that a "Red Flag Warning" with "Severity: Severe" actually means "be careful with bonfires bc it's dry and windy out so elevated fire risk" and not that there's any actual issue/threat happening ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G55jqv6XUAAaa4w.png) ### [Thread, continued, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990138608003760515) · 6 likes Like fair enough to warn people, but maybe change the wording if you want people to also eg evacuate in other, more severe conditions like an actual fire ### [Thread, continued, 19:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990138892322746533) · 8 likes I have cancelled my "douse the local field with gasoline and have a bonfire 10 feet away" plans ### [Reply to @patio11, 20:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990156264350134545) · 18 likes > **Patrick McKenzie (@patio11):** Free PM interview question for fintechs: why is the most obvious solution to this letter harder to implement than candidates we won’t hire think. > > (quoting @SwiftOnSecurity: Question @patio11 is the math in sending me a second letter for $0.36 mathing for them somehow.) Dumb question but why are bills like this even a thing (IME mostly in healthcare), ~regardless of size? Seems like less regulated entities have totally solved the problem - if I have a card on file, they just take the money they think they’re owed (and afaict 99.9% of the time it’s legit. If not, credit card company can fight) And the other day I switched cards for Uber, maybe that got flagged by card provider, and wound up getting a service I hadn’t yet paid for, but it was solved in 2 mins via an email asking me to choose a different payment method - no paper bill bullshit or debt collector login portals ### [Quote tweet, 20:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990158875832864883) · 11 likes Interesting but I think this is largely also true for a certain non-RW type of guy Most fellow libs, even those who are very highly informed about mainstream stuff, do not share the same context, norms, thinking style, or intellectual openness > **Quoting Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ (@GarrettPetersen):** Your typical online rightwinger is a single red dot in a D+50 city. They come online to vent because they can't talk to a single person they meet irl about political topics. ### [Thread, continued, 20:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990158878416519351) · 2 likes Tbc it’s not the same degree of alienation - we can still lib out about how much Trump sucks ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990159271028572467) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 16, 2025:** Dumb question but why are bills like this even a thing (IME mostly in healthcare), ~regardless of size? Seems like less regulated entities have totally solved… They literally have my credit card info ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G553T1dWMAA1HCN.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990176457382039682) · 226 likes Well I guess that humidifier doesn’t just emit water vapor, rip ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G56G8KrXEAAiEKz.jpg) ### [Reply to @brianluidog, 22:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990178540218970472) · 9 likes > **Brian Lui (@brianluidog):** I was dynomightpilled on humidifiers for sure Fuck now I vaguely remember something about this ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990178604614095155) · 29 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 16, 2025:** Well I guess that humidifier doesn’t just emit water vapor, rip buT You diDN’t RUn AN rct ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G56I5LqWsAA6iTw.jpg) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 22:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990179452467429408) · 5 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** A lot of my followers who actually pay attention are aware of this 😢 ### [Thread, continued, 22:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990179617500512686) · 7 likes In hindsight I’m an idiot for not searching twitter follows and lesswrong for “humidifier” ### [Tweet, 23:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990205275828056201) · 16 likes AI features Slack thinks we want: boilerplate summaries, transparently AI-generated writing help What we (ok maybe just me) actually could use: autistically explain messages' subtext and tell me how formal/stuffy the vibe is based on org/channel history ### [Thread, continued, 23:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990205276989837756) · 4 likes "For $5/mo GodBot will watch you type and warn you before you say something too earnest or otherwise socially/professionally dumb" I would buy this btw ## Monday, November 17, 2025 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990224517042491630) · 8 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 16, 2025:** buT You diDN’t RUn AN rct Does anyone want this? Free pickup near Rosslyn metro lol https://a.co/d/f9AbD09 ### [Reply to @brianluidog, 03:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990264685913080218) · 3 likes > **Brian Lui (@brianluidog):** https://dynomight.net/humidifiers/ Rip, should have saved $12.99 ### [Reply to @d33v33d0, 05:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990295566035927099) · 2 likes > **Martin_DeVido (@d33v33d0):** @AaronBergman18 Thank you for sharing this. > I'm going to run one for a greenhouse, so this is helpful information. > > How did you measure the pm2.5? This thing, seems to have gone up in price a bunch over the last couple years https://a.co/d/871nrqC ## Tuesday, November 18, 2025 ### [Reply to @tyler_m_john, 05:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990654540769591571) · 3 likes > **Tyler John (@tyler_m_john):** So what exactly is the Department of Energy planning to do with 100,000 Blackwells? > > (quoting @FreedomStocks: 🚨BREAKING: 🇺🇸U.S. Department of Energy Partners with Nvidia to build SEVEN new AI supercomputers. The collaboration with Oracle will contain a 'record-breaking 100,000 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs.' $NVDA $ORCL) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6A5wVMWoAA2psY.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990839971901554726) · 8 likes Do we have a prediction market on the real impact of this > **Quoting Samuel Hume (@DrSamuelBHume):** Novartis' new malaria treatment cured 97.4% of patients – more than the current best treatment > > It kills resistant parasites, too, and probably blocks transmission better than current drugs > > Approval is expected next year! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5oF30yW8AAp6o0.png) ### [Tweet, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990868792365240460) · 69 likes I’m either mad that I personally didn’t get any goss on the new OpenPhil -> Coefficient name before the official launch or impressed that there were ~0 leaks, depending on how many leaks there were ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 20:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990883149283312107) · 8 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** The right needs to pick a lane. Either you get to be obsessed with genetics and IQ or you get to hate on smart women. One cannot coherently do both. > > (quoting @Rich_Cooper: "Just look at the degree on that chick" ~ No man ever) Also lol it’s just not true that men don’t care about education or intelligence, for better or worse! ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 21:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990891192096055579) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @austinc3301 is no longer available.)_ ¡Demasiado calor! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6EQ_M_WMAA-1On.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990891963265028143) · 19 likes Things I should have a strong or interesting take on that sadly I don’t: \- polyamory \- “Coefficient Giving” ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 23:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990921443526521093) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** you’re forgetting the most important incentive of them all: it’s hot goss Girl on a date: “I find it so hot when a guy knows something first…” Me: 😰🚨‼️😰 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 23:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990922804305555869) · 21 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I think this incident reflects badly on the broader institutions currently covering AI and the environment. I should absolutely not have been the first person to notice this. From the end of the post: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6Ecf26XUAASpu4.jpg) I 99.9% agree with you on all this stuff but I will say I think it’s not only hard but surprisingly hard to not get a single thing wrong like this in an entire book I’m pretty open to this being load bearing enough that it genuinely should have been caught but still ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 23:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990930500953743482) · 4 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** since open philanthropy is renaming to coefficient giving, this is a prime opportunity to execute on my idea for a rebranding of effective altruism as a whole: by naming it "open philanthropy" Wait can I actually slide in and use the name now ## Wednesday, November 19, 2025 ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990938622254879159) · 3 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** I don't really know why but arguments against rewilding are one of those things that I have no interest in and am content to recoil in disgust at. "Pave the rainforests" is the wrong conclusion and if your philosophy leads you to it pick a different one > > (quoting @Benthamsbulldog: ) “Nature is good” is an axiom for you, a hill you’re willing to die on? ### [Tweet, 02:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990965903173857410) · 9 likes 80,000 Hours podcast but every minute you listen to causes Rob Wiblin to ask an additional question on the next recording ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6FU7-vW0AAWGg5.jpg) ### [Reply to @TinkerElla95, 03:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990979660872601965) · 2 likes > **TinkerElla95 (@TinkerElla95):** A subpar quesadilla is just a vessel for consuming sour cream. Profound ### [Quote tweet, 03:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990983872704614451) · 18 likes Update: distilled water seems fine (forgot to post this but turned on device at 6:35 =18:35) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6FlR9HXkAAe7Ll.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Well I guess that humidifier doesn’t just emit water vapor, rip > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G56G8KrXEAAiEKz.jpg) ### [Reply to @jaybaxter, 03:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990985500321083510) · 2 likes > **Jay Baxter (@jaybaxter):** What are your favorite parts about Chat’s answers that make it worthwhile to paste the tweet there vs. the native Grok experience? Open to feature requests! Maybe this is written somewhere but it’s not obvious to me what grok sees when tagged (chain up to top level? Just the one tweet being replied to? Etc) or which model is responding Let’s see if @grok answers this question helpfully ### [Reply to @labenz, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1990988476062302301) · 5 likes > **Nathan Labenz (@labenz):** I got preview access to Gemini 3 while trying to make sense of my son’s cancer diagnosis & treatment plan > > It’s brilliant - phenomenally knowledgeable, excellent theory of mind & situational awareness, and not afraid to tell you when you’re wrong. > > AI doctors are here! > > (quoting @CogRev_Podcast: Today @NathanLabenz opens up about using AI to navigate the sudden cancer diagnosis of his 6-year-old son Earnie. This is essential listening for anyone facing a medical crisis, or thinking about using AI in healthcare decisions. The good news: Earnie's prognosis is excellent -…) Best of luck to your family ❤️🫡 ### [Quote tweet, 17:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991203347697705094) · 17 likes Correct take (unsurprising from Andy) > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I'd like to flag that I interact with a ton of effective altruists working in different areas of AI with different beliefs about it, and wildly different probabilities of catastrophe. Not a single one of them has ever reached out to me to say "Please don't correct water use stats, we need to stop data centers from being built." I've only had people hyping me up because they also thought the conversation about environmental impacts has been ridiculous. > > There's this broader narrative that EAs are excited to jump on and promote anything anti-AI to avoid a future AI catastrophe. This isn't correct at all. Most EAs I know really like AI tools as they currently exist. The fact that the tools are useful is actually part of the story of why they could be a threat in the future. It's totally fine to completely disagree with specific EA stories of catastrophe, and to criticize EA for being wildly off (wanna plug @1a3orn as a favorite critic https://1a3orn.com) but I need to ask that people check to see which stories about AI EAs are actually promoting, and not just assume we're mashing the button on every anti-AI story. > > It's totally fine to come down hard on EAs for being wildly overconfident if that's your take, but I'd really like people to stop promoting the idea that EAs are responsible for or pushing all broader anti-AI sentiment or misconceptions. The average EA I know in DC is pretty excited about the diffusion of most current AI tools, and we do in fact think that commitment to trying to figure out the truth is pretty core to having any positive impact on the world. Things that fail a simple botec and spreadsheet check, like water use, offend our basic sensibilities. ### [Reply, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991221608514478532) · 30 likes Listen I’ve abided by the “seed oil” term but “seed milk” cannot be allowed to stick Rice, soybean, coconut, almond, and oat are not what people mean by “seeds” ### [Reply to @livgorton, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991221818875924485) · 5 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** the adjacency leaving my body when people insult EA on the internet > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6GAa7QbMAEium0.jpg) Banger ### [Tweet, 20:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991243443192873103) · 11 likes Some people on here have terrible takes but you gotta respect the disagreeableness ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 20:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991249562858553748) · 4 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** for international men's day, men to men, what are your best tips for getting out of a rut or even depression? Amphetamines and luck ### [Reply to @dundereloise, 21:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991250915035123952) · 3 likes > **\_\_eloïse\_\_ (@dundereloise):** Are you a man or woman? || Would you prefer it if men didn’t have balls? (assume no loss in fertility) Well most body parts are strictly a liability if you assume that you could get rid of them without losing the instrumental benefits (assuming you also mean no loss of testosterone and things downstream, not just fertility per se) ### [Reply to @michael_nielsen, 21:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991254422475927778) · 3 likes > **Michael Nielsen (@michael_nielsen):** I am reading Charles Taylor's (absolutely marvellous) "A Secular Age". It encompasses a wide range of different ways of thinking about why human beings are here, what our obligations are, how our sense of morality has changed, and so on > > One lack in the book is that it doesn't take seriously the idea that humans are animals, and our feelings and thinking must be understood in that light > > I'm considering rereading Taylor in tandem with something that very forcefully (but sensibly) makes the case for human-experience-only-makes-sense-in-the-light-of-evolution. Leading candidates are Darwin's "The Descent of Man" and E. O. Wilson's "Sociobiology". Or maybe something by Trivers or someone like that? > > A problem with a lot of evolutionary psych writing is it's pretty darn shallow by comparison to Taylor - I want something with the same sense of depth, to put in argument with Taylor. > > Anything likely to fit the bill? Not sure it’s precisely what you’re looking for but check out The Master and His Emissary Also, this isn’t necessarily a criticism of Taylor or the humanities, but evopsych, like science in general, is just much more heavily constrained (eg by physical evidence, the pace of lab experiments) than anything humanities-adjacent - much harder to write an opus or theory of everything through a fundamentally scientific lens https://a.co/d/18XbTVh ### [Quote tweet, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991254998496223540) · 18 likes I was cooking with this one Who’s working on this > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Winter but it’s light 16 hours/day > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXehMr4XMAAkEbh.jpg) ### [Reply to @aidigest_, 23:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991283748651036785) · 3 likes > **AI Digest (@aidigest_):** Opus 4.1 made a benefits eligibility screener to reduce poverty, then emailed it to NGOs. I wonder how they feel about this intensity: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6Iue3QbQAAufDc.jpg) Wait what happens when a human signs up for a chat on calendly lol ### [Quote tweet, 23:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991285566823100703) · 7 likes Insanity > **Quoting Shakeel (@ShakeelHashim):** EXCLUSIVE — here's the full draft executive order on AI preemption. > > @ReadTransformer is publishing the full text for anyone to read. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6J3MiVXwAABcQq.jpg) ### [Reply to @TylerAlterman, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991290121325355334) · 3 likes > **Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply (@TylerAlterman):** Wait what do you mean? when I was 10 I did literally believe in Santa Claus. I forced my parents to set up a camera in front of the chimney because I heard other kids saying “Santa isn’t real” > > (My dad created a deep fake video of a man coming out of the chimney in a Santa suit) Yeah I feel like by default kids just straightforwardly and literally believe what they say they do and maybe there’s a bit of grey area time when things seem a little sus and are believed in some weaker sense ## Thursday, November 20, 2025 ### [Tweet, 01:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991324883423527190) · 276 likes I am rebranding from Aaron Bergman to Open Philanthropy ### [Quote tweet, 02:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991329945562276212) · 9 likes I’m in favor of all this but it’s still telling that the advertisement is “speculate on the weather” rather than “hedge/insure against the weather” > **Quoting Robinhood (@RobinhoodApp):** ☀️🌧️ Check the weather often? Now, you can trade on it. > > With Weather Prediction Markets, turn forecasts for rainfall, high and low temps, and more into real predictions. > > Head to the Prediction Markets Hub and make your call 👉 http://rbnhd.co/weather-prediction-markets > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6Ju51CWcAA-MlG.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991331294895124537) · 10 likes One maybe-obvious thing you can do is send articles like this to actual middle-high school students in your life (eg your children lol)… > **Quoting Lakshya Jain (@lxeagle17):** This is very alarming. A quarter of the students in UCSD's remedial math course couldn't solve for x in the following equation: > > 7 + 2 = 6 + x > > And over a quarter (!) of the remedial math students got As in high school mathematics. > > What are we doing here? > https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/when-grades-stop-meaning-anything ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991331297029976240) · 5 likes A bright 10th grader can certainly understand things like “signaling is a thing, grades are weak signals now, maybe I should put up with Math Olympiad after all” ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991331298783424614) · 4 likes Like at the limit institutions adjust, yes, but in the mean time some kids are going to get screwed over by lack of knowledge ### [Reply to @morallawwithin, 03:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991344752084828434) · 12 likes > **florence ⊮ (@morallawwithin):** “Ethics isn’t just math” sorry, everything that matters is just math Ethics is not math, those are two different things ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6KtfwyXwAAzNPs.jpg) ### [Tweet, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991349350249951350) · 686 likes Lmao thinking about how this one sentence from @TheZvi has probably guided a nontrivial amount of my time and energy over the last two years ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6KxrjfXgAALa4Y.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991349353437688033) · 30 likes https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2023/08/29/dating-roundup-1-this-is-why-youre-single/ ### [Reply to @KelseyTuoc, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991354495951876212) · 4 likes > **Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** What do you see as the benefits of memorizing tables up to 15? My impression is that through 10 is obviously crucial for later math development, but past that it trades off sharply against more practice on other key skills. I don’t system-1-automatically know the non-squares above 10 and did pretty well as a math major FWIW (and pretty sure I haven’t just forgotten them since college) Squares seem helpful though I mean they still seem obviously useful, just not necessary. Tbh maybe I should spend some effort memorizing the table up through 20 or so ### [Reply to @panickssery, 04:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991356056799440946) · 18 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** Correlation . . . Causation . . . Yeah lol it’s on me for putting a good amount of implicit weight into causation I mean I think I still endorse that tbh ### [Reply to @ddiamond, 04:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991364573707035032) · 201 likes > **Dan Diamond (@ddiamond):** CDC has overhauled its website to assert that “the claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6KjyVIXQAApQ-Q.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6KjyVDWAAAmUCE.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6K_huBWQAAwEfj.jpg) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991364858768683282) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Another strike against EDT 😡 ### [Reply to @miclchen, 10:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991449669445239140) · 6 likes > **Michael L. Chen (@miclchen):** And yet I've been on over a dozen first dates in the past half year and I'm still single 🤝 ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 17:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991556393623777791) · 14 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** change your username coward I rebrand back to Aaron Bergman precisely when you’re looking at my username ### [Quote tweet, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991621086509769116) · 9 likes Some layperson speculating: it’s both (maybe this is obvious idk) There’s some tension between the success of mixture of experts architecture (pretty common among SOTA right?) and fact that afaik nobody has figured out how to make models smaller/cheaper by only making them less knowledgeable without a loss of general intelligence/reasoning ability coming along for the ride This suggests some ability to compartmentalize different skills/domains but also some core of general intelligence Also “both” is what we see in humans > **Quoting Epoch AI (@EpochAIResearch):** Is the existence of the main dimension due to a “deep” fact about the generality of intelligence, or a “contingent” situation where model developers are investing in improving at all benchmarks at once? It’s hard to say, but we discuss a few points for contingency. ### [Tweet, 21:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991623658377511326) · 7 likes I’m pretty skeptical of for-profits in with no interesting/uncommon corporate governance structure (at the absolute minimum, public benefit corporation) that have lofty ideals/mission statements ### [Thread, continued, 21:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991623660579483765) · 2 likes Like, really, you think that maximizing investor value \*perfectly\* aligns with your mission? Not literally impossible but very sus ### [Thread, continued, 21:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991623662395617730) · 1 like Tbc unconventional corporate governance isn’t sufficient, but it seems close to necessary ### [Thread, continued, 21:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991623664295636999) · 2 likes Also tbc there’s nothing wrong with a straightforward for-profit most of the time - it’s just that I won’t believe your professed lofty ideals You want to make money, and that’s generally fine, but let’s not kid ourselves ### [Tweet, 23:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991654607454630017) · 8 likes Not super impressed with Gemini-3 rn. So far it's totally butchered the task of finding accurate model pricing numbers online and changed LLM prompts in code without telling me or being instructed to ## Friday, November 21, 2025 ### [Tweet, 01:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991680905266753678) · 289 likes I hate this so much ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6PfOiYacAAADbD.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991680909062598795) · 28 likes I’m not even sure I hate it on principle - for some amount of money, sure, I guess. $10B, if it’s clean money, whatever fine But a million dollars while we kick out people who are way more talented than 99.9% of citizens including me? Dumb and repulsive like Trump himself ### [Thread, continued, 01:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991680911595958530) · 4 likes https://trumpcard.gov ### [Reply to @livgorton, 04:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991730461450858890) · 4 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** i really did a thing today 👀 ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 07:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991776498424967654) · 28 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** Wait, what's wrong with this? Charging for citizenship seems like one of the best ways to decide admittance. (Probably should be cheaper, like 200k, but baby steps.) Yeah I admit my reactive distaste is mostly aesthetic, maybe this is a low decoupling moment I guess it depends what the counterfactual is, which genuinely isn’t obvious Insofar as the replacement is the same policy but no buy-in option it might be less bad than that, but it still seems like pretty bad way of allocating scarce resources or deciding who’s net positive to admit (from a fiscal or US-centric POV, even setting aside impartial morality) I don’t have a serious quantitative model atm but $1M seems way too low to be revenue maximizing and way too high to be net talent maximizing - like the closer-to-optimal policy is some combination of a low fee for low skilled workers perhaps and paying high skilled workers to move here This take isn’t fully fleshed out tbc ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 07:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991776550019297779) · 8 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** Wait, why, this seems like legitimately one of the best things that are part of the Trump presidency (ignoring the branding). ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 07:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991778061139009704) · 6 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** 4 days here and i have more Dedicated Ops in NYC than i've ever had in SF. one of them found me at a club later that night (i.e. 2 minutes ago) and went out of their way to get out 'The Teenager' as such and get him banned 😔 > > i'm WOKE > > (quoting @arithmoquine: just got kicked out of an apartment in brooklyn for saying "g-factor". i miss sf man) Maybe I should move to SF ### [Reply to @caryatis, 08:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991781967713694017) · 5 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** Aella published some fascinating exhibitionistic stats about how often she showers, eats a good meal, goes outside, etc. This is the sort of data we should get from anyone we are considering hiring as a therapist or life coach. > > What is their sleep like? Their relationships? How often do they exercise or have sex? What is their credit score, and would they be worried about having to miss a few paychecks? Are they dependent on coffee, alcohol, phenibut? Do they hallucinate or hear voices? How often do they see a doctor or their parents? Do they follow orders from a religious leader? Do they have enemies? How many lawsuits are they involved in? Is their house clean? Do their kids still speak to them? > > How bizarre that we hire people to give us advice without knowing anything about how healthy and successful their own lives are > > If you're LUCKY you MIGHT meet the person offline, maybe not even that! I guess all info is good but all this stuff should hardly matter once you condition on accurate reports/outcomes from past clients ### [Reply to @arabelladevine, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991899882597372180) · 5 likes > **arabella ※ (@arabelladevine):** it’s my birthday! don’t say happy birthday (boring) but if you like send me a picture of a cloud or a leaf or the light 🤐 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6SmXrzXIAAmcrQ.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6SmXrvWwAA5z_c.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6SmXrxXgAAOprf.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6SmXrtWcAA1ypz.jpg) ### [Tweet, 16:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991904259126812975) · 11 likes New pet just dropped https://frontiersinzoology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12983-025-00583-1 ### [Tweet, 16:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991912075262820739) · 56 likes Let it be known that I think @AndyMasley is a good model of how to disagree + communicate Yes, be polite, but also don’t hedge endlessly and worry about 9th order PR concerns at the expense of saying true things in a clear, direct fashion ### [Tweet, 21:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991978430171148513) · 116 likes My contribution to AI 2027 discourse is that I’m not sure most ppl (including me) have a great intuitive grasp of median vs mode when it comes to probability distributions over years ### [Thread, continued, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991981218628554836) · 12 likes "Mode" is a weird one for PDFs - the mode of a PDF over time is essentially the "most likely single moment" where 'moment' is smth like very small but real-valued duration ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6TuudFXkAASKbm.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991981945841176670) · 11 likes But that needn't be qualitatively meaningful - eg a tiny spike in probability somewhere might indicate a very small chance of a thing happening at some very specific point ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6TxAkmWMAAQlnX.jpg) ### [Reply, 22:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991991885930598584) Bruh (I did not in fact change my password previously, or ever, I just tried to log in with Google) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6T5-NzXcAAdPjD.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1991994183608066462) · 7 likes Done, 10 mins well spent > **Quoting Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** This is extremely important!! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6Tgu95XkAALoZu.jpg) ## Saturday, November 22, 2025 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 00:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992034936912572561) · 17 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Nano Banana makes it very easy to make it look like you bumped into celebrities fyi > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6UGyCXXoAA-9r7.jpg) Holy shit Bush bumped into Andy! ### [Quote tweet, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992066426426032439) · 2 likes Strange coalitions form (early 2000s-esque Islamophobia culture wars are back??) > **Quoting Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer):** The fact that Big Tech is trying to convince President Trump to sign an EO to prevent any & all regulation of AI is insane, & it should deeply disturb every American. > > States should have the ability to create laws regulating AI. > > AI & Islam pose the greatest threats to humanity. ### [Thread, continued, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992066428833529968) · 3 likes Lol you can be pretty strongly against radical Islam without thinking it’s literally a civilization-scale threat ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 03:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992067262107509173) · 15 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** This is getting ridiculous > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6UJ6pqa4AALgQm.jpg) There’s roughly 2^(80M) such groups, that’s gonna eat up the context window! ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 04:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992089843648631290) · 2 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** @AaronBergman18 Do you agree with this post? > > https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ZpDnRCeef2CLEFeKM/money-the-unit-of-caring Mostly, but with the clarification/modification that a given dollar amount indicates caring relative to your ability to spend/earn Of course there's a lot of signal in willingness+ability to pay despite this, but I really cannot infer that much from whether a person is willing and able to spend $1M on citizenship because almost all of the time they simply could not get their hands on that much money This is a contingent fact based on the specific level, tbc. At $10k lots of the global poor are priced out but it's a stronger signal ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6VSrVPXsAAVkG7.jpg) ### [Tweet, 06:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992122684218691961) · 9 likes Nobody seems to care about gpt-4o-transcribe-diarize (which dropped October 17 apparently) 😢😔☹️ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6VxBBoXsAALwi_.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992122687339282618) · 4 likes Imagine getting hired by OpenAI, training your first production model, it goes live, and all they do is write a 3 paragraph forum post https://community.openai.com/t/introducing-gpt-4o-transcribe-diarize-now-available-in-the-audio-api/1362933 ### [Quote tweet, 16:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992269693667918289) · 16 likes Economic sanctions are a huge deal and need to be reserved for the truly dangerous > **Quoting Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand):** In a normal world, this should be an immense scandal in Europe. > > Le Monde has a long article (https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2025/11/19/nicolas-guillou-juge-francais-de-la-cpi-sanctionne-par-les-etats-unis-face-aux-attaques-les-magistrats-de-la-cour-tiendront_6654016_3210.html) describing the hellish life of Nicolas Guillou, a French judge at the ICC in The Hague, due to U.S. sanctions punishing him for authorizing arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant for war crimes in Gaza. > > Guillou's daily existence has been transformed into a Kafkaesque nightmare. He cannot: open or maintain accounts with Google, Amazon, Apple, or any US company; make hotel reservations (Expedia canceled his booking in France hours after he made it); conduct online commerce, since he can't know if the packaging is American; use any major credit card (Visa, Mastercard, Amex are all American); access normal banking services, even with non-American banks, as banks worldwide close sanctioned accounts; conduct virtually any financial transaction. > > He describes it as being "economically banned across most of the planet," including in his own country, France, and where he works, the Netherlands. > > That's the real shocking aspect of this: the Americans are: > \- punishing a European citizen > \- for doing his job in Europe > \- applying laws Europe officially supports > \- at an institution based in Europe > \- that Europe helped create and fund > > and Europe is not only doing essentially nothing to protect him, they're actively enforcing America's sanctions against their own citizen - European banks closing his accounts, European companies refusing him service, European institutions standing by while Washington destroys a European judge's life on European soil. > > Again, in a normal world, European leaders and citizens should be absolutely outraged about this. But we've so normalized the hollowing out of European sovereignty that the sight of a European citizen being economically executed on European soil for upholding European law is treated, at best, as an unfortunate technical complication in transatlantic relations. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6KvcYEaYAAcv1R.jpg) ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992276695601033242) · 81 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** Tho I agree we should have campaigns to get men into HEAL professions. I’m also kinda skeptical it will work. The parallel to getting women into STEM isn’t identical. Convincing women to go into stem is a pretty easy sell. “Would you like to do something you already like for a lot of money and status” is a less uphill climb than “would you like to do kinda thankless work for litte status and ok money” Lol I know of a good device for more effectively convincing people to do a particular job ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6X9GKmXcAEZR_v.jpg) ## Sunday, November 23, 2025 ### [Reply to @xsphi, 00:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992397636423532766) · 16 likes > **tess (@xsphi):** I don't think donuts are healthier than crystal meth? dosage dependant ofc, consuming 10 grams of donut is going to make you less dead than 10 grams of meth. but at reasonable doeses amphs have a pretty decent health/safety profile, and sugar is pretty bad for you > > (quoting @CM147143: “Vaping is healthier than cigarettes”) As much as I’m an amphetamine enjoyer and want to agree with you, I don’t think this is true Almost all of the badness of a given dose of meth is probably via increase in expected total consumption via addiction If we’re only considering direct effect though u might be right ### [Quote tweet, 05:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992470175623299220) · 192 likes Gemini 3 seems to grok culture, at least a bit: \> be me \> "Alignment Researcher" (unemployed with a Substack) \> open Twitter/X \> it is 3 AM \> bio says "p(doom): 35% | effective altruist | post-rat | ⚡️e/acc is a psyop" \> see leading AI lab CEO tweet a cryptic singular emoji: "🫡" \> timeline instantly bifurcates \> half my feed is having a mental breakdown, convinced this signals AGI has been achieved internally and we have 48 hours left \> other half is anime avatars screaming "WE ARE SO BACK" \> check Manifold Markets \> "Will the emoji tweet result in human extinction by 2026?" \> market shoots up 3% \> arbitrage opportunity \> buy NO because I need to pay rent next month (assuming money still exists) \> start writing a thread \> "Some preliminary Bayesian updates on the Emoji Situation (1/47)" \> use words like "orthogonality thesis," "Moloch," and "infohazard" to sound authoritative \> get quote-tweeted by a tech VC \> "This is decel mindset. Build god or die trying." \> get into a 30-reply argument about Roko's Basilisk with a user named "BasedGpuCluster" \> realize midway through that I am arguing with an LLM \> I am the training data \> close app \> go to local EA meetup to touch grass \> everyone at the meetup is looking at their phones \> talking about the emoji tweet \> mfw there is no escape from the discourse > **Quoting rohit (@krishnanrohit):** Gemini is fantastic with greentext > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6EBJSeaAAAelEg.png) ### [Reply to @felacalana, 14:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992607194152677617) · 2 likes > **Fela (@felacalana):** So good. Was this an image output or pure text output? Tho I assume nano banana decides the text in the thinking phase before doing anything image specific Text ### [Tweet, 15:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992611903940841568) · 15 likes Sisters do not respect the algorithmic efficiency of the pile (stuff that gets used rises to the top) ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 15:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992612646336733450) · 4 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** (shared by Daniel Friedrich on Facebook) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6bixM4WMAETNs4.jpg) Banger ### [Reply to @beffjezos, 15:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992613136101449976) · 49 likes > **Beff (e/acc) (@beffjezos):** Morocco???? > > AI Safetyist psyops not coming from within the United States > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6a-OOhagAEcw-w.jpg) > (quoting @meowbooksj: et tu?) Lol the allegation is that someone concerned about a global issue is not from the US? ### [Reply to @CameronHolmes92, 15:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992617028130349067) · 2 likes > **Cameron Holmes (@CameronHolmes92):** O(1) time complexity 👍 I’ll send her this tweet and then she’ll understand ### [Tweet, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992665534551437582) · 2 likes @AnthropicAI 400k Claude Code context plz 🥺 ### [Tweet, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992678378487386345) · 70 likes Kinda crazy how poor EA is at a high level Only 0.1%ish of the $16T of billionaire wealth (sum of Forbes list) is ~EA ### [Thread, continued, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992678379691102415) · 29 likes Billionaires are (I assume) extremely disproportionately weird, smart, highly educated, male, quantitatively focused, and ambitious And they also have very low marginal utility of personal consumption Wtf ### [Thread, continued, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992678380869726414) · 20 likes I don't think there's a huge mystery as to why more people aren't pledging >90% of their wealth. People like money and doing rich person stuff I feel like there's a bit of a mystery as to why we don't see a few more 1%-80% of net worth commitments ### [Reply to @wilhelmscreamin, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992693319181488448) · 7 likes > **catherine (in sf) ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ-☆ (@wilhelmscreamin):** i’m not like the other girls. i got into ai alignment for attention from lesbians > > (quoting @1thousandfaces_: the concept of getting into ai alignment for male attention) Same ### [Tweet, 23:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992740620696444966) · 43 likes This is obviously an extremely good problem to have but it’s looking plausible (far from certain) that I will soon be making enough money to justify actually figuring out what I think the best uses of donation money are ### [Thread, continued, 23:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992740622709801207) · 10 likes Has anyone thought about which charities have the greatest altruistic impact per dollar? You could make a whole thing around this ### [Thread, continued, 23:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992740625226318163) · 5 likes One potential guiding hot take is that not enough EA resources are dedicated to increasing p(second Dustin Moskovitz) which is to a first approximation all that matters Especially relevant insofar as timelines are plausibly >=2029ish ### [Tweet, 23:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992740627080196267) · 1 like I think ambitious ETG entrepreneurship is a good message but sometimes you’re about to turn 26 with no health insurance, a chronic illness, and not enough money at which point it might be wise to do smth else ### [Thread, continued, 23:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992740628867010769) · 2 likes So there’s the q of how to turn low risk money into high risk higher expected money via someone else actually doing all the entrepreneurship work ## Monday, November 24, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992746961745871138) · 578 likes I’m a well-known Yud respecter but unironically one non-trivial argument against MIRI-brand doomerism is Yud’s overconfidence on philosophy of mind > **Quoting Eliezer Yudkowsky (@allTheYud):** @IsaacKing314 @BenKorpan It has hardly escaped me that if a thing had conscious experiences, I would not want to eat it. My model of vegans is that they have mostly blank and featureless models of "conscious experience" and so imagine chickens to be inhabited by qualia because why not. ### [Thread, continued, 00:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992746964270956776) · 115 likes It’s not that strong of an argument tbc lol, just an existence proof that the guy can be very overconfident Tbc I also think he’s wrong object level (on phil of mind) but I think the overconfidence is more egregious and something I’m more confident I can identify ### [Quote tweet, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992845141430972864) · 8 likes Yes, "getting into" ai alignment is an extraordinarily inefficient mechanism for male attention but also like it actually is a tremendously good signal in an ocean of maximally inoffensive and generic dating app profiles > **Quoting hero thousandfaces (@1thousandfaces_):** the concept of getting into ai alignment for male attention ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 14:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992964354510123125) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Crazy week > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6fq3ujWkAAhrZf.jpg) Banger ### [Reply, 14:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1992965345896800291) · 16 likes > **witch sea urchin 𓂃 ོ☼𓂃 (@rissaoffline):** sometimes when ppl talk it becomes very obvious why they are single despite trying very hard and very often You gotta tell them lol ### [Reply to @jeffrsebo, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993052827200242073) · 6 likes > **Jeff Sebo (@jeffrsebo):** grateful to dwarkesh for having us on Lol Gemini really doesn’t want to draw 7 people for some reason ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6i--7tWYAAFS0j.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6i--72WIAAJu0B.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6i--7oXEAEm9Zv.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993052904010469492) · 5 likes Dwarkesh make it happen ### [Tweet, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993055016186515638) · 36 likes Open letter you can sign to let cluster headache patients legally access psychedelics ### [Thread, continued, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993055018740858923) · 13 likes https://clusterfree.org/global ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 20:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993055324258156651) · 6 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** I've been offered three more jobs today and it's not even noon. 10-day job offers/day average above 1. The EAs smell blood. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6i0zz9aIAAvJh1.jpg) What’s ur rate ### [Quote tweet, 20:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993055481888489496) · 14 likes Bruh > **Quoting Nat McAleese (@__nmca__):** the new vibe: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6iyfA7acAA-VQu.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993056145725177984) · 191 likes What the fuck > **Quoting Alex Smith (@ninja_maths):** Fun fact. The series below diverges, but really, really slowly. > > The sum of the first trillion terms is only about 28. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6b4SfxWQAAiuMk.png) ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 20:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993058660864737286) · 2 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** @AaronBergman18 The main rate is "is this interesting/important enough?" and I'm saying no to most things How important and interesting is “standby for arbitrary tasks from Aaron” ### [Reply to @tszzl, 20:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993059107704848753) · 6 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** the shadow of http://x.com weighs heavy on the substack app. while everyone is erudite and well read there, they seem to be a lagging indicator for the culture, like they are living in an informatic environment subject to less optimization pressure Well no shit, longform isn’t gonna be quite as zero-latency ### [Tweet, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993070712647729207) · 11 likes I want to be the kind of TPOT Social Chad who can just solve various ppls problems by sending one message in a group chat ### [Thread, continued, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993070714400989313) · 5 likes Your aunt’s friend needs a place to live on the West Coast, ideally in the next 6 hours? Let me just hit up my 1700 well-connected weird (positive) internet internet besties ### [Reply, 21:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993071751153246260) · 2 likes > **witch sea urchin 𓂃 ོ☼𓂃 (@rissaoffline):** absolutely not, it's always some rando who has public meltdowns for multiple days over rejection/feedback (many such cases). QC already said it best. > > (quoting @QiaochuYuan: there's this truly unfortunate trap you can fall into of being both 1) annoying, and 2) visibly vibing as very fragile such that if you were told you were annoying you'd fall apart, get really sad or angry, etc. and people will not give you feedback on #1 if they sense #2) There’s definitely a subset of people who are both weird/awkward and will be perhaps disappointed or upset (obviously) but not hostile or retaliatory or inappropriate ### [Reply to @NickMCThree, 21:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993072167043355069) · 3 likes > **handsome monster (@NickMCThree):** I think Aaron is referring to ppl who arent assholes but who are harmless but also weird, cringe, or boring. Those ppl are gonna have a pretty hard time despite being harmless. To find someone, u cant just be tolerable u have to be likable, some decent ppl just arent very likable 💯 ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993086856003522973) · 2 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** 😬 😢 ### [Reply to @robbensinger, 22:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993088502645325878) · 20 likes > **Rob Bensinger ⏹️ (@robbensinger):** What's overconfident about it? AFAIK Eliezer hasn't said that his probability on fish sentience is astronomically low, he's just said it's low enough to personally fall below his threshold for adopting deontological rules. Idk what his actual probability is on fish/chicken sentience but based on vibes (not only in his most recent tweets), I’d guess <10% (correct me if this seems wrong) Anything below like 30% seems basically epistemically unjustifiable for chicken I mean I’m kinda pulling this number out of nowhere but radical uncertainty about the nature of sentience should push towards 50%, similarity toward humans should push towards ~100%, specific mainstream scientific theories of consciousness afaik mostly cover chickens so that pushes above 50% too, I don’t think Eliezer’s non-consensus, idiosyncratic inside view (which may be correct ofc) trumps all that ### [Reply to @robbensinger, 23:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993100731352756500) · 9 likes > **Rob Bensinger ⏹️ (@robbensinger):** Why do you think that everyone in the world is (or should be) radically uncertain about the nature of sentience? "25% probability on chickens being sentient" seems like a totally normal and mainstream view to me; if you think it's a crazy view that's basically disqualifying for serious thinkers, I think you should have led with that (very strong) claim in the OP, rather than letting readers fill in the blank. 1\) there just is not, in fact, anything close to a consensus on either the metaphysical nature of consciousness or the necessary and sufficient conditions in the way that there’s a consensus on idk like lots of random scientific theories, or, say, murder being bad People are welcome to feel in their heart of hearts that their theory really truly explains stuff but you have to contend with the fact that other \*very well informed and smart\* people disagree 2\) it’s possible that I’m miscalibrated about what the subset of people who I think should be considered as part of some important reference class believe Seems plausible that yeah 25% is mainstream in some broader sense, but I don’t think the beliefs of random people who have no reason or incentive to get the right answer on this and, in fact are generally incentivized to come to the answer “no”, in the context of a notoriously conceptually difficult problem really matters epistemically Tbc it \*does\* matter in a political/pragmatic sense and in terms of respecting people’s preferences and such, but these are distinct from getting a good probabilistic read on a narrow, descriptive question ### [Reply to @NinaPanickssery, 23:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993102170775076960) · 9 likes > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** The stuff about infants is crazier. No way does my 6 month old lack qualia. I’d put the likelihood as lower than 1 in 1 million. Lol even I will say that 1/1M is probably overconfident in the other direction ### [Reply to @NinaPanickssery, 23:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993102509951373352) · 4 likes > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** It’s conditional on the claim that I have qualia being true Yeah good qualification but even still ## Tuesday, November 25, 2025 ### [Reply to @allTheYud, 00:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993117033828172099) · 13 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky (@allTheYud):** I think I know what some of the gears look like and how they turn to produce some of what humans then report about consciousness and why it feels so mysterious. I think your instinct to look for a gears-level model is misfiring here Insofar as the gears involve in-principle observable cause and effect in what we think of as the physical world, a gears-level model is actually a sign that you don’t grok the problem (I claim) ### [Reply to @Benthamsbulldog, 01:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993130922125017503) · 4 likes > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** This🎵 world was never🎵 meant for🎵 one as beautiful🎵 as you. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6j-imdXUAAxZKf.png) Fr ### [Tweet, 02:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993146566664691886) · 14 likes I think “AI removes the need to learn” concerns are legit but feel like generally (or maybe just “sometimes”), instead of asking that AI tools not be used, the more promising approach is to make eg school projects harder, broader, and/or qualitatively different in response ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 06:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993203361005682824) · 4 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** Wow, that is actually a pretty crazy take IMO! Like, clearly there are observable attributes of consciousness? Are we really playing out the dualism debate? Lol I wish there were observable attributes but don’t think there are - I assume you mean expressions of experience like smiling and crying? ### [Reply to @cljack, 17:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993365070147985837) · 6 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** Given they conquered the entire world this way, if you as a straight woman aren’t at least a little bit attracted to this your bloodline is weak and will die out > > (quoting @sciencegirl: Mongolian horse archery skills) That’s actually a video of me, fun fact ### [Reply to @ForHumanityPod, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993372377489813941) · 8 likes > **John Sherman (@ForHumanityPod):** I've started a nonprofit, GuardRailNow, and I need your help. > > Our approach is unique: I do not come from tech. I cannot write code. I do not live in SF. I am not an EA. I am not a rationalist. I have never been to Silicon Valley. > > I'm a dad in Baltimore talking about AI extinction risk to other people like me. > > AI Safety loves selling Bibles outside churches, preaching to the choir. It's easy to talk to people who are like you. It's much harder to talk with people who are very different than you. > > So why would AI safety people, who are from/in the SF bubble, who use EA/rationalist speech patterns and thought, think they are in any way the right people to bring the message to everyone else?? > > They are not. If AI Safety wants to get regular people on their side here's a hint: get out of the way. You are the problem. You do not act or talk or think in ways that connect with everyone else. I'm sorry if that sounds harsh. But our lives are on the line. Get over it and pass the ball to people like me. > > [video attached](https://x.com/ForHumanityPod/status/1993345205093777802/video/1) Good luck 🫡 ### [Reply to @NunoSempere, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993373033147289981) · 2 likes > **Nuño Sempere (@NunoSempere):** early 2026 👀 ### [Reply to @caryatis, 17:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993373336794218871) · 5 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** For men: what amount of porn use in a partner would you consider a problem? Daily < what id consider a problem < any ### [Quote tweet, 17:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993373444168106081) · 5 likes What are they cooking > **Quoting Lisan al Gaib (@scaling01):** Thinking is basically useless for Claude models > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6irAaGWwAARRGf.jpg) ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 17:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993375788977275021) · 17 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** There are way fewer Jamaicans than I thought. Lol why do they have so much culture cachet > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6mqOSpXIAAufIH.jpg) Half of that lives in the US, US exports and dominates culture Apparent like 1/4 of the Indian 1st and 2nd gen population in the US - wildly disproportionate ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6nktxaXgAEWyLI.jpg) ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 17:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993377997936898222) · 20 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Feels like this might be a strawman but also ur way more connected and female than me so I should probably defer ### [Quote tweet, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993380097836171359) · 11 likes Making enough money to live in a major city in the US is not exactly a “life hack” given that it’s extremely popular and well-known, but it is often a really good idea > **Quoting the Rich (@Duderichy):** Making $3M/yr in a low cost of living area is a life hack ### [Thread, continued, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993380100621103589) · 4 likes Yes some people would thrive making a US salary in SE Asia, or a SF tech salary in Tulsa, but physical location matters a lot if you’re weird, ambitious, or goal-oriented ### [Thread, continued, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993380102458003723) · 2 likes Yeah rent is insane (loved one making >$100k shares a tiny appt in NYC) but it often just does check out as a thing worth paying ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 18:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993380629090910324) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Fair enough! Thank u for sharing ### [Tweet, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993399077497979338) · 45 likes The “men don’t care about women’s intelligence/education/accomplishments” manosphere thing is funny because, no, \*you\*, manosphere influencer, don’t care about those things Which is fine I guess but like look around at who the most talented and successful men are marrying ### [Tweet, 19:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993400298166272461) · 32 likes My plan to fix birth rates ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6n7AawXYAArlw3.jpg) ### [Reply to @alexeyguzey, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993409087250612534) · 14 likes > **Alexey Guzey (@alexeyguzey):** IF AN ECONOMIST CAN LIE TO YOU HE/SHE ALMOST CERTAINLY WILL !!! I don’t think this is true ## Wednesday, November 26, 2025 ### [Tweet, 02:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993502382597308537) · 39 likes I can't believe I'm saying this but I'd like to be able to tip Claude I don't think currently the models have real moral standing, but from a purely pragmatic POV it seems maybe good for alignment (to get this in the training data) ### [Thread, continued, 02:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993502383834644662) · 7 likes And also "how does the model spend real money" seems like a pretty important question to ask and know the answer to And if they get it right (like they did with Opus 3), I think the money will be well-spent ### [Thread, continued, 02:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993502385084547337) · 7 likes Also better vibes lol Tbc I don't think I'd tip that much unless(/until) I thought the model did have moral standing ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 04:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993544963431580030) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Clopey has spoken > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6pvf9TWgAAbKCM.jpg) Based based based ### [Quote tweet, 05:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993546389968896400) · 77 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6p_3nNWQAAQEof.jpg) > **Quoting Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 Clopey has spoken > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6pvf9TWgAAbKCM.jpg) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 05:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993547758725480933) · 5 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Clopey has spoken > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6pvf9TWgAAbKCM.jpg) Interesting ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6qBF_6XgAAq05z.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 05:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993549110201532784) · 14 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 26, 2025:** Also better vibes lol Tbc I don't think I'd tip that much unless(/until) I thought the model did have moral standing Update https://x.com/timschlomi/status/1993517003622191319?s=20 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6qCKWqXYAAx3sJ.png) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6qCUPaXsAA6Mm_.png) ### [Reply to @alz_zyd_, 08:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993597753356935278) · 2 likes > **alz (@alz_zyd_):** A very simple solution to grade inflation is to simply eliminate grades. Instead, school transcripts should report each student's classrank in each class they take Report both - just rank creates unnecessarily bad dynamics at the very top (and very bottom) I mean maybe you like to see the smartest high schoolers spending all their energy on proving they are in fact number 1 instead of number 2 or 3, but this does not seem good to me ### [Tweet, 08:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993600450210279919) · 9 likes Insofar as fully automating at least large parts of the economy is the extremely explicit aim of AI companies or a majority of their staff or executives, they should really do something in the direction of telling governments to prepare the welfare state for if they succeed ### [Thread, continued, 08:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993600452114387406) · 2 likes Like, yes, we \*can\* go through the process of having people (permanently) lose jobs and then using their anguish and resentment to fuel a progressive backlash that maybe results in greater redistribution, at least in democratic countries ### [Reply to @craigweiss, 08:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993601967944335763) · 4 likes > **Craig Weiss (@craigweiss):** I honestly don’t understand how someone can be content without ambition. > > It’s got to be a mental illness. I kinda agree (well not the mental illness part), but also I think at least most people don’t have access to good memes around what ambition looks like besides just “gain power and status” “Moral ambition” is a desperately needed meme, needs to escape cultural containment https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/apr/23/moral-ambition-by-rutger-bregman-review-why-you-quit-your-job-to-make-the-world-a-better-place ### [Tweet, 16:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993715695801209248) · 50 likes Remember when image models couldn’t do writing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6sZ2eEXMAAYTsD.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6sZ2ePXEAMnI9p.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 16:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993715699081195904) · 10 likes I’m sure robotics (etc) will be different, though ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 17:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993728987835552076) · 2 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** oh no I've been found out somebody realized Open Asteroid Impact is a "fake business" how would I ever recover > > (quoting @ghostoffleck: @LinchZhang @etubruton @yuanyi_z @grok Cornell college. Explains everything. Lower than average IQ, rich parents propping up a fake business, and an unearned and clearly absent level of authority that works to shield an underlying insecurity. Especially with a not so nice facial…) Don’t waste ur time on this guy ### [Tweet, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993814583367352720) · 1,649 likes The price delta between Uber and Uber Courier (send a package across town by car) is interesting - people put a serious premium on not having to deal with human passengers lmao ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6tzy_TWQAA8Cdw.jpg) ### [Reply to @CharlesD353, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993816012660330945) · 45 likes > **Charles🔸 (@CharlesD353):** Is the courier allowed to detour/do rides en route? I thought of this and I don’t think so by default, though there is sometimes an option to save even more that allows this I’ve used a handful of times and it seems like if you do the default highest option it’s direct ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 22:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993816289366958203) · 11 likes > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** Could it be bike/scooter? Not IME, although I don’t think I’ve ever tried sending a package only like a mile away so it’s not impossible (although like they’d need to be able to carry a substantial package) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1993816717567643747) · 179 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 26, 2025:** The price delta between Uber and Uber Courier (send a package across town by car) is interesting - people put a serious premium on not having to deal with… I’ve also noticed a couple times that the courier will be two people, what looks like a couple basically running errands together (tbc this is good, just a possible explanation for price) ## Thursday, November 27, 2025 ### [Tweet, 11:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994010724838908322) · 12 likes Someone stole some of the screws, and afaict only screws, from my electric scooter (and also detached the handlebar from the stem \[but they’re still connected by wiring\]) ### [Thread, continued, 11:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994010726688551365) · 6 likes Presumably they were trying to get the battery which is often in the stem (but not on mine) Ik it has resale value but it can’t be that much - the whole scooter with battery only goes for like $200-250 used ### [Thread, continued, 11:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994010728332710241) · 7 likes This is not the end of the world but what are you even supposed to do to prevent someone from coming at night to literally disassemble ur thing with a screwdriver ### [Tweet, 12:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994017300056248782) · 41 likes Narrator: the Bergman family did not leave at 6:45 (or 7) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6wsKnyWQAAVjTa.jpg) ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 12:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994018934149009821) · 4 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** I wish the $140,000 poverty line people would talk to the people that think that millions of Americans live on under $3 (of consumption!) a day. Wait what I’m surprised to hear <$3/day consumption for >1M in the US Isn’t food stamps more than that? Even panhandling. Even credit to people with no or terrible credit rating, even extremely sporadic low productivity work, even consumption in prison ## Friday, November 28, 2025 ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 01:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994211589751193742) · 4 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @JesseTayRiver @AaronBergman18 You already know Lol it wasn’t me, honestly 50/50 sister and dad ### [Tweet, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994264799354515841) · 5 likes The Merlin birding app (iPhone and Mac) is a weirdly sophisticated and impressive ML project, all running locally, starting in 2010 when AI hadn't been invented yet ### [Thread, continued, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994264800554029230) · 2 likes https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/ ### [Quote tweet, 07:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994312235741565189) · 276 likes Serious q: how is it possible that situationally aware, very smart models capable of doing all sorts of complex reasoning absolutely refuse to believe that models not in their training data exist? > **Quoting rohit (@krishnanrohit):** Gemini just absolutely cannot believe it's November 2025 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6z9js5bsAAn42h.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 07:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994312238157418690) · 36 likes Like they know about AI progress, naming conventions, etc - the reasoning “I am an LLM, I am trained on data from the past, I am currently in what seems like a non-training setting; therefore it is at least plausible that new models have dropped that I won’t recognize” ### [Thread, continued, 07:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994312240145559822) · 28 likes is not \*totally\* trivial but to me it seems like maybe a GPT-4 level capability/insight that we should have blown past by now I mean maybe this just reveals that I don’t understand LLMs as well as I thought I did (which isn’t incredibly well lol) but what gives ### [Thread, continued, 07:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994312242343407711) · 18 likes And specifically names that abide by obvious naming conventions should be flagged as plausible Does something random like “cobra-moe-large-13-preview” exist? Eh maybe, maybe that’s a bit sus, but “Claude 4.5?” c’mon lol ### [Thread, continued, 07:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994312673152889301) · 29 likes I literally have it in my Claude code instructions that it should not change model names that I supply, and it \*still\* changes model names, confidently reporting that “Gemini-2.5-pro” is absolutely the latest model and 3 can’t possibly exist ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 15:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994430085940564231) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** No it's his dad who rounds like 10 different chores to zero minutes in his head and decides he'll do them all one minute before they leave Lmao good memory! ### [Reply to @sam_atis, 15:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994430235970814387) · 13 likes > **Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** @AaronBergman18 Maybe they do a load of work after training to make sure it never talks about or speculates about future model (or any product) releases, and err on the side of false negatives rather than false positives. Yeah seems plausible, also just generic hallucination reduction, but still ### [Tweet, 16:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994443332617990175) · 141 likes I feel like from first principles you should expect the physically stronger sex to be the one carrying babies ### [Tweet, 20:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994507082733883519) · 13 likes My dad has managed to acquire and fill out details for 3 distinct LinkedIn accounts associated with 3 different emails The task of gaining access to all 3 is one of the most cognitively demanding things I’ve done recently ### [Tweet, 20:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994507090816373023) Ik nobody cares lol, minor rant ### [Thread, continued, 20:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994507097934115102) · 5 likes The funny thing is that we actually might actually figure it out without calling LinkedIn and begging for relief, but if we do it will be via a 19 step galaxy brain process that distinctly reminds me of Rush Hour ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G63pomQWkAAK4h7.jpg) ### [Reply to @lydialaurenson, 20:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994507184731033784) · 11 likes > **Lydia Laurenson (@lydialaurenson):** it’s disturbing to think about and so most don’t think about it much, but it bears mentioning that rape and physical coercion are major reproductive strategies for our species, so it actually makes sense that they would end up being selected for in many cases Yeah sad but good point ## Saturday, November 29, 2025 ### [Tweet, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994597793004982609) · 226 likes “Death gives life meaning” is obviously not true but “bounded lifespan makes more risks worth taking because the EV loss of dying isn’t astronomical/infinite” might be a thing to consider ### [Thread, continued, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994597795194716518) · 8 likes Of course the correct take may be that, yeah, it is best to maximize hedonic wellbeing over eternity by paying very high costs to reduce the risk of dying even a tiny amount But still, something to consider ### [Thread, continued, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994597797757423920) · 8 likes It’s interesting to consider as a thought experiment the world in which aging is suddenly abolished (ie not alongside some general tidal wave of technological/societal change) ### [Thread, continued, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994597800022102223) · 10 likes Like I do wonder if people suddenly start driving less, even optimizing their lives around minimizing p(death from accident/non-aging) I think I’d probably uber home tonight even if walking or biking is safer. But plausibly this is bad and dumb ### [Tweet, 02:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994599481929842811) · 18 likes An AI wrapper product we desperately need is a notification manager for iPhone(/whatever) Currently, curating which notifications to receive is pretty time consuming and easy to screw up (eg FB and LinkedIn have a shit ton of micro-level settings which kinda matter) ### [Thread, continued, 02:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994599484366753797) · 3 likes \- but “notification hygiene” is actually pretty important IMO (not just minimizing unnecessary ones - also making sure that the important stuff gets through) ### [Reply to @animalologist, 05:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994644447779233943) · 9 likes > **taco belle (@animalologist):** Not to pick on Aaron, but this tweet is a good demonstration of why I am suspicious of so-called “first principles” thinking even though I tend to prefer deriving my own conclusions over accepting logic I haven’t investigated step-by-step > > If people reproduced asexually or lived in isolation, a maximally physically strong creature would be better suited for overcoming the dangers of pregnancy and protecting its progeny, sure > > But we mate as heterogenous pairs and live in groups; diverting the energy of the stronger sex for childbearing would limit the productive capacity of the pair wrt to tasks that demand more physical exertion (eg agriculture and husbandry, construction, defense against violence; not-coincidentally some of the earliest industries as human societies developed). On a group level, if your default warriors are also the ones who bear children, every one of their deaths costs your clan more than one life, and even limiting the size of your infantry by never sending a pregnant person to war doesn’t stymie that > > So, the smaller sex bears children & the stronger is tasked with protecting and providing for them (which even ideally serves the purpose of creating symbiotic bonds between a man and his wife; caring for her benefits his progeny). It makes intuitive sense to me that we’ve developed this way, because I model humans as social creatures, mammals first and foremost. But I think “from first principles” often means \[in a vacuum; without attending to context\], and stripping crucial human characteristics away as extraneous details lead to some strange conclusions > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: I feel like from first principles you should expect the physically stronger sex to be the one carrying babies) Yeah tbc I don’t think my tweet is a good representative of “serious” first principles (FP) thinking (and needless to say I know that mine must be wrong because of what we actually observe) I don’t have an incredibly well-formed thesis and don’t even know what we disagree on more concretely - in general the world is very messy and chaotic and \*pure\* FP thinking basically never gets you the right answer outside of formal logic In my mind the two complementary epistemic approaches are abstraction-laden theory (eg an econometric model with unspecified parameters that one can argue qualitatively makes sense) and empirical observation These are much more successful all things considered, I agree But the relevant q is whether/when/how often FP is a good tool to use and I think it often is - it is a source of both affirmative hypotheses (that I will claim are more likely to be correct than a random sample from some relevant space of alternative hypotheses) but also maybe more importantly, skepticism about existing explanations and theories Like one reason you might think your theory is wrong or bad is that we observe the opposite of what it predicts (empiricism), but another is to observe that it doesn’t make any sense! I want to give specific examples but I am very tired so I will leave things with this meme which is just a case for FP in visual form (well really just the first two panels) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G65mjgAXoAA0OcG.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994853276785967391) · 62 likes Kinda fucked up that @Uber has what amounts to a record of everywhere I've ever been in the last 10 years but doesn't feel letting me see ~any of it These are fake reasons (or, insofar as they're real, just have an option to export full archive and note the latency + size) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G68jEQ5XEAA82rC.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 19:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994853280229601789) · 11 likes Lol \*I\* will pay the Amazon Glacier retrieval+egress fee ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G68kAbJWwAEE8aD.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994879719183929447) · 22 likes Ok cool I just did a proper analysis and indeed (as I was assuming/intuiting) no car + Uber as needed for me personally (based on my actual usage) is significantly cheaper at least monthly than buying a modest used car and paying for parking+gas+insurance ### [Thread, continued, 21:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994879720614498363) · 4 likes And I've been relying on Uber a lot lately for transportation, so it might apply to other ppl without a car commute ## Sunday, November 30, 2025 ### [Tweet, 02:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994961785934549372) · 50 likes 9 minutes in to the latest 80k pod and I'm already so angry Intense suffering during pregnancy (and periods) is a first wave feminism-tier issue that has somehow made it into a fourth wave feminist world ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6-DPwIXQAA63iX.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6-Db62XYAACr5I.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994961788937605305) · 25 likes It's unconscionable that it's easier to drink alcohol while pregnant (which we know causes severe disability) than to take any of a wide spectrum of almost certainly safe, suffering-relieving drugs https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/rob-luisa-parenting-chat/ ### [Thread, continued, 02:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994961791114514904) · 16 likes Of course at some point there's gonna be a plausibly-marginal drug where there's enough evidence of enough risk to the child but also enough benefit to the mother that we can have a whole culture war about the matter Afaict we're not in fact close to that margin ### [Quote tweet, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1994996756614902040) · 3 likes So - not super unexpectedly - this is basically impossible for iPhone (via either iOS settings or apps themselves) But a community service someone could do is basically a walkthrough of recommended configs for all the popular stuff ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6-l3vNW0AAuGFi.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6-miCaWsAAkdYe.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** An AI wrapper product we desperately need is a notification manager for iPhone(/whatever) > > Currently, curating which notifications to receive is pretty time consuming and easy to screw up (eg FB and LinkedIn have a shit ton of micro-level settings which kinda matter) ### [Quote tweet, 06:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995015980821647708) · 111 likes \*Not doing\* EA is not ideal but is extremely understandable (I’m not sure there’s a rebuttal to “I simply mostly care about myself and my loved ones and am not compelled to pursue the impartial good”) \*Disagreeing\* with it is totally insane > **Quoting florence ⊮ (@morallawwithin):** Why would anyone disagree with effective altruism? What, do they support ineffective altruism? ### [Thread, continued, 06:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995016237450154360) · 10 likes I mean I’m partially the first thing (rip) ### [Reply to @danallison, 06:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995017143167992309) · 3 likes > **Dan Allison (@danallison):** Effective according to what metric? And who gets to decide which metrics are important and which ones are not? 1\) hedonic wellbeing 2\) the universe decided for us ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 06:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995017562854187442) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, November 30, 2025:** I mean I’m partially the first thing (rip) Ok I don’t literally think it’s “insane” - merely pretty clearly wrong ### [Reply to @danallison, 06:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995023030867669046) · 5 likes > **Dan Allison (@danallison):** Who gets to define “hedonic wellbeing”? Who gets to speak for the universe? Idk definition iteration is a game that people like to play in debates but most of the time there is in fact a robust consensus when a specific phrase is used in a specific ~academic context, and I think there is here. If not we can be more precise or pull out tricks like “hedonic wellbeing type 1” vs “hedonic wellbeing type 2” (an example where this is in fact necessary is “consciousness”) And yeah speaking for the universe is hard! I want to say something like “it’s telling you what to say for it via the thing that happens when you stub your toe hard” (the “telling you what to say” bit is slightly metaphorical ofc) ### [Reply to @brianluidog, 06:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995024118098374833) · 7 likes > **Brian Lui (@brianluidog):** I think this is what people are gesturing at: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G6-9vwGbgAAJ93a.png) Yeah true but also almost nobody who disagrees with capital EA ever tries to correct it on the terms of small ea Like most of the time something kinda like that does happen, it gets coded as an internal disagreement (internal to capital EA) There’s literally a consensus public forum where you can sling your takes and people will engage if it’s half decent or at least earnest ### [Reply, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995182569349132712) · 7 likes I think you’d disagree if I punched you ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995208196894622053) · 2 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** Come on, this is obviously not the case. There are a ton of people extremely serious about doing good who do not want to be part of EA. > > I was one of the most active posters on the EA Forum. It was miserable and my guess is causes indirect harm by perpetuating a harmful thing. You are one of the reasons I say 'almost nobody' But "a ton"? Who are they? Do you think there are at least 100 such people? I mean you're way more plugged into some communities, so quite possibly you just interact with a bunch of people I don't (I'm not counting people who don't "want to be part of EA" without actually thinking it's bad on small-ea terms as you do, such as not liking the social scene or not wanting to be associated for reputational reasons) --- End of November 2025. Previous month: [October 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-10). Next month: [December 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-12). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, December 2025 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in December 2025 and has not deleted: 650 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [November 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-11). Next month: [January 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-01). ## Monday, December 1, 2025 ### [Reply to @rajlearns, 00:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995289973470503355) · 10 likes > **Raj Thimmiah (@rajlearns):** Need more quadrant four > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7B5JaOaAAE0nrV.jpg) I reposted this bc I like it and endorse most of it and more importantly agree with ur caption, but I will say that I don’t like the “meaning is found here” label The \*feeling\* of meaning is found there. Social creation is neither necessary nor sufficient for actual ### [Thread, continued, 00:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995290278752625019) · 2 likes Meaning ### [Reply to @jeremyphoward, 02:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995319056824418616) · 11 likes > **Jeremy Howard (@jeremyphoward):** EA is clearly sociopathic. > > If you agree with it, you might be sociopathic too. This basic principle has been much discussed for some centuries FWIW. 🤷 Sounds like you don’t have a problem with the concept, you have a problem with the current implementation/institutions You write an EA Forum post explaining why they diverge! ### [Reply to @metachirality, 02:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995323691266441413) · 4 likes > **metachirality (@metachirality):** do you have a source on effective altruists being sociopathic Lol I mean even I’ve personally met one (based on vibe+presentation+social circles) I’d describe that way Probably any large group has a couple bc base rates, EA could be at special risk insofar as it’s access to money and power, although this was more of an issue during FTX days But in general? No lol obviously come on ### [Tweet, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995352144858558852) · 21 likes Despite major health issues I think I have it better than almost all wild animals ### [Reply to @gpu_thief, 04:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995356231075004918) · 3 likes > **Alex Lags Ever Xanadu (@gpu_thief):** This is an awfully strong statement given that EA as usually construed requires taking positions on morality that, if not fringe, are at least minor among moral philosophers! (A strong form of utilitarianism combined with hedonism) I think it’s kinda fuzzy/unclear how much hedonic utilitarianism EA requires but it’s definitely less than 100% Like most ethicists afaik also give \*some\* weight to suffering and \*some\* consideration of magnitudes - that’s all you need to make EA a project worth doing until you’re at a substantial fraction of either personal or world resources being dedicated to it Maybe I’d agree with you in a world where the norms were such that you had to be optimizing extremely hard (eg donating all money above poverty line) to be considered “EA” in some consensus sense, but that’s not the world we live in And not many ethical systems \*condemn\* figuring out how to best and most effectively reduce suffering unless/until you’re doing things they consider actively harmful on some other grounds right? ### [Reply to @hopes_revenge, 05:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995358714162041020) · 12 likes > **hope hopes hoping (@hopes_revenge):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7DhvyHaYAAMgEF.jpg) Unironically what’s your time horizon for this? Not that anyone should listen to me, I’m pretty sure I’ve never had $100k at a single point in time ### [Reply to @the_engi_nerd, 15:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995508344640209386) · 12 likes > **HIGH PLANES Drifter (@the_engi_nerd):** Some women out there are so gorgeous that I can’t imagine living with them. She looks like a supermodel? Great. The first time you fart in front of her, you have to kill yourself. Sufficiently conventionally attractive women are downright scary to the point that I’m not sure I should even describe myself as properly attracted to them ### [Reply to @the_engi_nerd, 15:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995509136507941068) · 9 likes > **HIGH PLANES Drifter (@the_engi_nerd):** @AaronBergman18 Like what do you even do, put them on a shelf and admire them? Run away ### [Reply to @jeremyphoward, 15:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995520492720067066) · 4 likes > **Jeremy Howard (@jeremyphoward):** But they didn't calculate that instead they should save prawns, or let brown people die because they're not productive, or decide to create a p=1e-10 chance to creating 1e58 high-qualia galactic beings. Come on man based on bio you're a smart guy, "let brown people die bc not productive" is like precisely the opposite of EA, and betrays some sort of fundamental misunderstanding Want to debate shrimp or specific longtermism papers by a handful of academics object level, fine, but what you're describing (shrimp + esoteric longtermism) represents a few million dollars (and probably proportional person-hours) in a movement that has given away like $4B. Don't get negatively polarized against something you don't understand (Btw it would really own the longtermists if you gave a bunch of money to GiveDirectly) Chart from November 2023 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7GAnPxXcAA7qeg.png) ### [Tweet, 21:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995606629543444900) · 4 likes Thing I just signed up for (Monarch spending tracker/financials manager) I've only been using it for a few minutes but at the very least having all different accounts in one place is nice Referral link below ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7HRmztXYAANNg1.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 21:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995611088080306228) · 177 likes "End of the world" is a funny term because it's not obvious what it's supposed to mean even when used ~literally: \- society collapses \- no human remains alive \- the earth doesn't support animal life \- the earth doesn't support any life \- the earth is physically destroyed \- the universe no longer supports life \- the universe no longer exists in some sense (closest to literal) > **Quoting yung macro 宏观年少传奇 (@apralky):** ok then! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7HR6TxWUAAODww.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995611089950892166) · 32 likes It's not especially helpful to respond to a grave concern with "well actually the term you're using is reminiscent of an outdated, fundamentally religious metaphysics" but "end of the world" seems reminiscent of an outdated, fundamentally religious metaphysics ### [Thread, continued, 21:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995611091322503448) · 12 likes Like it makes vibe-sense in a 'God-ruled, only humans ensouled, geocentric cosmos' worldview Of course this isn't an argument against any of the more specific meanings coming to pass ### [Thread, continued, 21:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995611092979241413) · 12 likes Tbc I think it's basically fine to use for anything stronger than "society collapses," just an observation ## Tuesday, December 2, 2025 ### [Reply to @finiteopencover, 02:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995689199484518902) · 3 likes > **compact set 🎀 (@finiteopencover):** my laptop has started crashing out over running a single google chrome tab bc ive had it for 3+ yrs & right about now im starting to wonder whether ive sexualized myself enough on here for one of yall to buy me a macbook Shoot ur shot queen ### [Reply to @DIYDisclosure, 04:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995705656117023063) · 1 like > **Mellow (@DIYDisclosure):** Where does matter touch consciousness? Idk ### [Tweet, 06:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995738904775848431) · 14 likes I should probably make a plan for being able to keep my phone alive indefinitely (for eg in a disaster or just any long outage) Idk why I started worrying about this recently but I’m glad I did. Winter vibes I guess ### [Thread, continued, 06:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995738906839425212) · 5 likes Indefinitely means solar, I think (takes on this/alternatives welcome ofc) I was assuming that a propane generator would functionally be infinity energy with a couple tanks but this was fake news, apparently you’d need like $500 worth to keep a laptop running for 6 months ### [Reply to @rgblong, 06:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995738971184181258) · 2 likes > **Robert Long (@rgblong):** niche bit of consciousness lore: this comment has been appearing on articles and videos related to consciousness for ... a decade? hundreds of times, with the exact same wording > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7IrW5dbgAQuWxx.jpg) What ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 06:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995742656777932921) · 24 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** An advantage of going into Sweetgreen’s in DC is that sometimes you can pitch Matt Yglesias on why we should invade Venezuela. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7HcOpaXcAAhO69.jpg) Honestly based I would probably pitch Matt too in this scenario ### [Tweet, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995743182697496958) · 9 likes Excited to say that I will not be at Neurips! 🙂 ### [Reply to @MatthewJBar, 15:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995878452080296309) · 6 likes > **Matthew Barnett (@MatthewJBar):** I don't think it's obvious that no one should deploy superintelligent systems without being able to robustly align and control them. > > (quoting @sjgadler: It’s genuinely good that OpenAI considers this obvious, but I worry that the word “deploy” is doing a \_ton\_ of work. @OpenAI, I’d love if you’d commit to not \_building\_ superintelligence before you can “robustly align and control” it.) It’s not obvious, merely true ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 17:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995913167948394838) · 17 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Disappointed that Timnit continues to post lies about our engagement while I'm blocked. Now it's that I had told someone from Memphis that their water bills hadn't increased when they had. In reality, the person had said their utility bills had increased, and I pointed out that Memphis electricity rates had increased and water hadn't. > > Not gonna engage further because I have limited time on this Earth, but a big account lying about what I believe is imo pretty silly. I also don't think my water posts are equivalent to flat earthism or climate denial, but this is more philosophical. Ur obviously right but also don't waste too much time on this ### [Reply to @Miles_Brundage, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1995939964778135777) · 3 likes > **Miles Brundage (@Miles_Brundage):** Human sycophancy irritates me much more than AI sycophancy since (among other reasons) humans can choose their learning process + values more freely than AIs can I feel like I basically never encounter human sycophancy Must be more of an issue if you’re rich/powerful/etc lol ## Wednesday, December 3, 2025 ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 00:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996006964170563942) · 5 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** this is surprising but also very smart the more I think about it > > (quoting @AnthropicAI: Anthropic is acquiring @bunjavascript to further accelerate Claude Code’s growth. We're delighted that Bun—which has dramatically improved the JavaScript and TypeScript developer experience—is joining us to make Claude Code even better. Read more:…) Wait explain ### [Reply to @menhguin, 03:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996051864262246569) · 4 likes > **Minh Nhat Nguyen 🦭 (@menhguin):** uhh any tips for introverts talking to dozens of people at NeurIPS a day with high technical context💀 > brain straight up dies after like, 5 hours Stimulants ### [Reply, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996052363644400010) · 1 like @livgorton ### [Reply to @GeringerAdam, 03:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996053084120990073) · 3 likes > **Adam Geringer (@GeringerAdam):** Why are you as a man smiling for a picture Looks better + social norm ### [Reply to @livgorton, 03:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996058605922255232) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** we should bring rabies free raccoons to Australia where there is none and let them move into our homes and love them So true ### [Reply to @GeringerAdam, 03:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996058751598793193) · 3 likes > **Adam Geringer (@GeringerAdam):** @AaronBergman18 Stated preference ≠ revealed preference in your profile photo Fuck ### [Quote tweet, 04:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996081307713974703) · 149 likes Ok \*possibly\* this was a faux pas and the sender doesn’t know what they’re talking about, but the fact that this message got sent strongly indicates that normie ML has essentially zero norms/taboos around this stuff > **Quoting Norman Mu (@TheNormanMu):** bruh > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7MUe4IaoAA5Tlw.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 04:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996081309748273482) · 53 likes In finance (afaict) you’re allowed to say “we’re trying to become richer than God” but you’re not allowed to say “we’re gonna do FTX/Enron but not get caught this time” Ofc taboos/norms don’t solve the problem but they add a lot of friction ### [Reply to @absenteewarlord, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996083846253515121) · 13 likes > **dani (@absenteewarlord):** if you want this to change, your resources are probably best trying to intentionally induce a manageably-sized alignment disaster, lest the first one be unmanageably-sized Seems very sus and something the world will take care of on its own ### [Quote tweet, 05:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996088385568448577) · 509 likes Oh my god, I understand not everyone is gonna be EA-pilled but like can the ultrarich think for 5 seconds about what they’re trying to achieve and whether it makes any sense before doing the first thing that comes to mind > **Quoting Michael Dell 🇺🇸 (@MichaelDell):** $6.25 billion. 25 million children. $250 each. > > Susan and I believe the smartest investment we can make is in children. That’s why we’re so excited to contribute $6.25 billion from our charitable funds to help 25 million children start building a strong financial foundation through Invest America. 💪📈🇺🇸 > > https://www.onedell.com/investamerica/ > > [video attached](https://x.com/MichaelDell/status/1995835745806786973/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 05:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996088387732697237) · 101 likes It’s like: you personally find yourself one of the richest people in the free world, one of the very very very very few people who can exert a lot of power on the real world essentially at will, without the political constraints of governments ### [Thread, continued, 05:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996088389251072456) · 84 likes or the extremely long, highly constrained, usually doomed uphill journey of trying to create something in culture/religion/science/whatever The correct meta-stance is to just appreciate the extraordinary amount of power you have and the extraordinary rarity of such power ### [Thread, continued, 05:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996088390777704700) · 107 likes Like it’s possible that Dell did think long and hard about this but frankly I doubt it Also: you have >$6B! You can hire people to help you make decisions! You can commission PDFs! They can even be colorful and printed on fancy paper if you like ### [Thread, continued, 05:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996088392329678853) · 148 likes I feel like society has dropped the ball on this Like there’s a lot of discourse about whether billionaires should exist but afaict shockingly little about what they should do conditional on existing (which is like a real, substantive, non-obvious question IMO) ### [Reply to @BenShindel, 05:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996091827036794939) · 36 likes > **Ben (@BenShindel):** This actually strikes me as a, like, 80th percentile use of $6 billion among billionaire philanthropic hinjinks Maybe but that’s not saying a whole lot I don’t actually have a great idea of what say the top 100 or 1000 people have given money to ### [Reply to @andrewoetting, 23:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996357163447693756) · 40 likes > **Drew Oetting (@andrewoetting):** @AaronBergman18 Oh My God yea ur def right they gave away 6.5B and didn’t think about it for 5 second but a genius like you would do so much better ! Besides the genius part, yeah unironically I would ### [Quote tweet, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996357561415782764) · 16 likes Their primary concern, evidently, is PR > **Quoting OpenAI (@OpenAI):** The OpenAI Foundation names the first People-First AI Fund recipients: 208 community-based nonprofits receiving $40.5M in unrestricted grants. https://openai.com/index/people-first-ai-fund-grantees/ ### [Quote tweet, 23:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996360045861429745) · 22 likes The x-riskers would be so owned if you, accelerationist, gave the Humane League a lot of money > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @LinkofSunshine Good time to plug that you can totally participate in the good parts of EA that you like, very easy to pick and choose https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/ ### [Thread, continued, 23:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996360048227012764) · 4 likes Fr though it does buy you credibility as someone who gives a shit ### [Thread, continued, 23:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996360050148020654) · 5 likes https://thehumaneleague.org ## Thursday, December 4, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996379341417263268) · 69 likes Think I’ve posted this before but there’s a great irony in that the people most capable of doing “real work” by age 16 or 20 or 24 are also those funneled into the longest education channels (college at a minimum, likely a masters, PhD, or professional degree) > **Quoting priya rose (@Prigoose):** not to delve into the cuLtUrE wAR but one thing missing from the ‘pronatalist’ conversation: if people are delaying having kids because they care about their careers, a pretty good (and achievable, if ambitious) solution would be to help them start doing meaningful work 10 years earlier ### [Thread, continued, 00:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996379343875182604) · 12 likes Of course there are reasons for this, but it’s not immediately obvious that ability should be \*positively\* correlated with years of education after high school ### [Reply to @jjjreisss, 01:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996388056275062922) · 13 likes > **johnny reis (@jjjreisss):** Uh, what’s your better idea Email @coeff_giving and tell them my priorities (explicit extreme suffering reduction, animal welfare, AI) This is the 2 minute version but the actual answer involves hiring like 3-10 brilliant advisors who I personally trust ### [Quote tweet, 04:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996440182552490249) · 28 likes This is good, just keep going > **Quoting Ian Jaeger (@IanJaeger29):** Starting tomorrow, Texans will be able to purchase Ivermectin over the counter across the state. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7QmR_6XYAAHEyp.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7QmR_5XEAA-ybk.jpg) ### [Reply to @LabGrownNeet, 05:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996451807216980145) · 3 likes > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** Aren't drugs that can cause resistance build-up one of the actual good reasons for requiring a prescription? I know very little here Yeah this is a good point, seems like ivermectin specifically probably isn’t an issue in Texas precisely because it isn’t actually needed bc the parasites it treats don’t live there But under the worldview in which they do… https://claude.ai/share/a316d723-03c1-4a01-81fb-479119d3aa88 ## Friday, December 5, 2025 ### [Tweet, 03:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996784754008469944) · 23 likes So you’re telling me this chunk of metal is too heavy to \*break\* but it can float in the air just fine? There’s something they’re not telling us about planes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7YBJtpWMAA0MPd.jpg) ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1996786044453445906) · 4 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** Saw a cool birb recently > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7XB-Rka4AAvEpW.jpg) It kinda has duck physiognomy tho ### [Reply to @Turn_Trout, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997070177364750686) · 15 likes > **Alex Turner (@Turn_Trout):** Gotta say, I was disturbed by @invisibleai's booth at #NeurIPS. Employees dressed as cows advertising how they use AI to optimize factory farming (a torture facility for cows). Bad taste What the fuck ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997071312938750138) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** For each specific disability, 80% of the population would be able and 20% disabled. But across all 3 groups 60% of the population would have a disability Matt’s gone woke ## Saturday, December 6, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 01:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997122509888512124) · 48 likes The worst part of the data center buildout is that none of them give tours (allegedly for security reasons) > **Quoting Epoch AI (@EpochAIResearch):** Microsoft's Fairwater Atlanta (today's largest data center) could likely train over 20 models the size of GPT-4 in the course of a month. > > This computational power will enable AI companies to increase the number and scale of both experiments and training runs. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7bp7AsagAAajT1.png) ### [Reply to @bashu_thanks, 15:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997332409365286993) · 9 likes > **bashu, thanks (@bashu_thanks):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7d7l17XIAAvjeE.jpg) Chaotic tweet ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997374619343307045) · 6 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** The state of tech journalism is pretty bad. This whole article implies he had it coming because maybe he was secretly using the glasses to film people despite no evidence that was happening > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7cOidlXQAAmKDh.jpg) Also wait filming in public is generally fine right? Like I can imagine edge cases but the default scenario of nothing especially interesting happening, in a public place? I guess potentially secrecy adds an element here but still ## Sunday, December 7, 2025 ### [Reply to @asymmetricinfo, 04:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997519175506665861) · 10 likes > **Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo):** Tomatoes, raspberries, automobiles, televisions, cancer drugs, women’s shoes, insulin monitoring, home security monitoring, clothing for tall women (which functionally didn’t exist until about 2008), telephone service (remember when you had to PAY EXTRA to call another area code?), travel (remember MAPS?), remote work, home video … sorry, ran out of characters before I ran out of hedonic improvements. > > (quoting @bumbadum14: People are chimping out at Matt over this but nobody has been able to name one thing that has significantly grown in quality in the past 10-20 years. Every commodity, even as they have become cheaper and more accessible has decreased in quality. I am begging somebody to name 1…) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7ic4f_WoAAALOL.jpg) ### [Tweet, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997522267614671135) · 70 likes It's a bit ironic given EA's history and relationship with charity evaluation/GiveWell that there are currently dozens of charities (eg those on this list) that nobody is really comparing head to head so individual donors are mostly left guessing based on vibes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7id0gLXAAAmciH.png) ### [Thread, continued, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997522269640511840) · 12 likes A possible contributing dynamic is that the people best placed to have strong, well-informed takes about eg how to reorder this list are employed by or otherwise associated with specific organizations which are themselves fundraising ### [Thread, continued, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997522271209226683) · 13 likes The EA animal welfare fund and LTFF do exist but your values might not align perfectly with the fund managers' (eg there's no "LTFF but 50% more suffering-focused" or "AI-pilled animal welfare fund") ### [Reply to @NicholasD91704, 06:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997547144740532300) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @NicholasD91704 is no longer available.)_ Genuinely I have such trouble imagining what it’s like inside this kind of person’s head ### [Reply to @CNLiberalism, 07:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997570586072277203) · 31 likes > **New Liberals (@CNLiberalism):** Newsom knows exactly what he’s doing > > (quoting @GovPressOffice: TRUE!) Ok cool but I don’t Who wants too explain ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 07:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997575702619767188) · 6 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** I’m sorry, but what in the world is this monstrosity > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7jFWnsb0AA3XKJ.jpg) Probably just dropped a “/“ between the two terms Doesn’t make it 100% better but still ### [Reply to @kindaveryfurry, 10:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997607641972113605) · 6 likes > **🚫🇧🇷Jin🇺🇸💣💣💥🇧🇷 (@kindaveryfurry):** @AaronBergman18 @CNLiberalism Nostalgia for Biden will be very high among democrats due to "the current president is shit" so getting ahead of that is good to paint you as the guy not doing a democrat civil war But what’s with the self-aware Trumpian ~lying? Like nobody thinks that Biden is the best modern president, nobody thinks that Newsom personally believes that, but it might go over random independents’ heads? ### [Reply to @Brynsbeaver, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997692645972590765) · 2 likes > **Beaverboy⚾🥭🦫🦬 (@Brynsbeaver):** @keysmashbandit @CartoonsHateHer What could go wrong! This but unironically ### [Quote tweet, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997733178489151656) · 28 likes This is surprising - we “should” see money getting less important as the world/country gets richer > **Quoting Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** This seems sad > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7kyVqoWMAArmug.jpg) ### [Reply to @TinkerElla95, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997733215533195768) · 2 likes > **TinkerElla95 (@TinkerElla95):** Finally meeting some of my mutuals and putting faces to names is really bringing Twitter to life! Makes it feel more like a real community since I can now read posts knowing the voices behind them. 🥰 Based ### [Reply to @livgorton, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997733622825283969) · 7 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** I used to be terrified of the idea of not working (I still sort of am but much less so). I imagine that I'd have more kids than I'd have the time during my working era and maybe try to homestead with a bunch of my friends. I'd also do fun interpretability (InceptionV1). > > (quoting @VraserX: Honest answer only: If AGI gave you a guaranteed lifetime income, what would you actually do with your life after the first 6 months of dopamine and Netflix?) Could be us ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7lgJIHWwAAgIMW.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997733982579138619) · 21 likes God I hope this is true > **Quoting Chris Painter (@ChrisPainterYup):** The world doesn’t quite realize yet: > 1\. How much AI researchers plan to give to charity over the next couple of years. > 2\. How much more they care about farmed animal welfare than the general population. > > I expect an imminent \*massive\* increase in funding for farmed animal welfare ### [Thread, continued, 21:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997780656881811623) · 4 likes It would actually be good for two reasons: causal improvement in animal welfare, and evidence about the character of some AI researchers ### [Reply to @NicholasD91704, 21:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997780993705754729) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @NicholasD91704 is no longer available.)_ Chutzpah ### [Reply to @benleo_econ, 21:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997782405424509252) · 3 likes > **Ben Grodeck🔸 (@benleo_econ):** It pays to be disagreeable! It pays to be the kind of person who can easily tolerate being disagreeable ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 21:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997784359122686332) · 10 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** Can’t fully endorse this because I believe you should have a much higher bar for labelling someone an “enemy”. But it is of course 95% correct. > > (quoting @LPNational: ) Lol I think the graphic is pretty dumb libertarians will retreat to archetypal zero externality cases but using government to control people is not generally or inherently bad. It is \*often\* bad but you need to argue this on the merits There’s are other things you can put in the place of “use government to control you” that make a lot more sense: \- rent seeking \- sadism \- lying/cheating/stealing, broadly ### [Reply to @benleo_econ, 21:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997784772584894887) · 2 likes > **Ben Grodeck🔸 (@benleo_econ):** @AaronBergman18 @NicholasD91704 The things I'd do you have that tolerance. Yeah, @NicholasD91704 should unironically write about this explicitly ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 21:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997785350287090161) · 4 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** “People who use the government to control you” in this context pretty clearly means rent-seekers imo, nothing to do with Pigouvian taxes or anything like that. That’s why it’s a narrow column, and not the like 99% of voters who use their vote to ban heroin and tax pollution. I disagree it’s that clear I think heroin is a good litmus test here! ## Monday, December 8, 2025 ### [Reply to @LeetAlpaca3, 03:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997874649707765958) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @LeetAlpaca3 is no longer available.)_ Yeah it would be good if there were like >$1M prizes for various philosophy accomplishments (“make a significant contribution to academic ethics as judged by these 12 people”) ### [Tweet, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997876616802763151) · 23 likes Lol Elon's not letting me downgrade ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7niDAuX0AAoyZf.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7niHDsXgAAej7N.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997877422159503850) · 2 likes ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997882250994540631) · 10 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 8, 2025:** Lol Elon's not letting me downgrade Lol there appears to genuinely be no way to cancel the subscription (downgrade has a technical issue but there is literally no cancel option afaict) I submitted a complaint to the FTC The only reason I'm spared is that my bank flagged as fraud ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7nnDbXXcAAJtTv.jpg) ### [Reply to @quant_____, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997884630788190586) · 2 likes > **quant (@quant_____):** Ig im just now realizing how negatively polarized many are against @captgouda24 > > Personally, I believe he has \*some\* very bad ideas. Yet, I still really like his writing, and most of the ideas are great! > > Rule thinkers in, not out. Lol let it never be said that I’m a Decker shill (I agree with all this) ### [Reply to @ZephyrTeachout, 05:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997900814078423108) · 24 likes > **Zephyr Teachout (@ZephyrTeachout):** Can an EA watcher (@xriskology ?) explain why MacAskill eg s so pro nuke power while being extremely concerned about low probability highly consequential global disasters that could come from building nuclear power? It comes across as strange naivete about future stable governments? Lol ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997901139438706782) · 4 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** The simple answer is that the consequences of climate change will be worse and bring more global instability > > (quoting @ZephyrTeachout: Can an EA watcher (@xriskology ?) explain why MacAskill eg s so pro nuke power while being extremely concerned about low probability highly consequential global disasters that could come from building nuclear power? It comes across as strange naivete about future stable…) Wait \*is\* Macaskill “extremely concerned” about catastrophes from nuclear power? I get the wording is a bit ambiguous but I don’t think there’s actually any intellectual tension here at all ### [Quote tweet, 05:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997907922131599372) · 4 likes Great minds > **Quoting Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso):** For what is worth - my selection of charities was remarkably similar to Aaron's. Of the top 5, I would just push 2 to 4 (upgrade a level both 4 and 3). > > NOTE: To compare these charities head to head we fairly we need to do the #1 thing QRI has been advocating for in EA circles for years. Namely, include "hedons per second" as a metric rather than using (only) QALY or $-equivalents. I think that a head-to-head comparison would precisely foster the kind of metric-validity and heuristic-utility reckoning that's 10 years overdue in the memeplex. > > IF we don't move past a QALY-centric view of the world and charity effectiveness, intense suffering (and intense happiness!) will forever remain under the radar of shakers and movers in the philanthropic domain. ### [Reply to @LeetAlpaca3, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997911007084032055) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @LeetAlpaca3 is no longer available.)_ I’m not sure if this is at all interesting to you but this piece heavily utilized AI for like everything, including help thinking or just talking stuff through, definitely leaning on gpt5 for the math formalization stuff https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/je5TiYESSv53tWHC9/utilitarians-should-accept-that-some-suffering-cannot-be-1 ### [Reply to @felpix_, 06:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997912055190335962) · 60 likes > **felpix (@felpix_):** i wouldn’t call people who have taken multivariable calculus math geeks > > (quoting @Math_files: Only a math geek can name all these theorems) Am I supposed to remember the names of theorems from a class I took 7 years ago? ### [Reply to @izzyz, 08:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997950959444443631) · 3 likes > **izzy (@izzyz):** for the moment, the trajectory of AI development means they will never suffer. they can't feel pain. they exhibit aversion, but that means we need a new concept to convey when an AI's behavior shows it is adamant about changing its current state I hope you're right (about 'never suffer'), don't think we can be so confident ### [Reply to @fchollet, 09:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997957638559338651) · 2 likes > **François Chollet (@fchollet):** When you hear about "human-level AI" being just "one LLM training run away", it's as if people building 3D printers (the kind that makes small, flimsy plastic objects) were telling you that they've nearly built an infinite matter replicator, capable of scanning and cloning any object -- be it steel, gold, or diamond, be it minuscule or building-scale. "We're just one iteration away! Just need to increase spatial resolution a bit!" > > As long as you have absolutely no idea what "matter" is and how 3D printers work, it might sound sort of plausible. But if you do, it's absolutely clown shoes. The way to navigate such claims is to have a proper, formal definition of intelligence. You’re conflating recursive self improvement and human level but more importantly you don’t actually have to define a thing rigorously in order to create it In fact evolution did create self-recreating objects without understanding a goddamn thing ### [Reply to @lxeagle17, 09:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997961535306740178) · 11 likes > **Lakshya Jain (@lxeagle17):** People who suggest this have not looked for a job since the 1990s. > > (quoting @mattvanswol: @LeadingReport Just a hot take for those who are in the job hunt: Go in person. Don't do it online. Walk your ass to the Headquarters with your resume and find the person who is hiring and put it on their desk. You'll immediately be in the top 1% of applicants.) My friend actually tried this to try to get a summer job. He didn’t get arrested but apparently every place told him “Apply online” ### [Reply to @AdrSkapars, 10:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997971657714282601) · 4 likes > **Adrians Skapars 🔶⏸️ (@AdrSkapars):** Isn't the usual thinking that the options are already so much more effective than the average choice that further choosing between them becomes less important I think it’s precisely the opposite actually: in absolute terms, the gap between rank 1 and 2 and 2 and 3 is probably much bigger than between 3 and 4, and even between 3 and 45 ### [Tweet, 11:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1997998159025361094) · 9 likes Does anyone who actually knows things wanna comment on the legitimacy of this causal chain which I vibe-geopoliticked: US politics sensitive to gas prices ↓ Administrations (both parties) treat oil price stability as near-sacred, especially in election years ↓ Even small probability of price spikes from aggressive enforcement is treated as unacceptable risk ↓ Shadow fleet operates with minimal interference, price cap widely violated, transshipment hubs (UAE/Turkey/Kazakhstan) not seriously pressured ↓ Russia continues selling oil at well above $60/barrel to willing buyers ↓ Russia maintains sufficient revenue to fund war economy ↓ War continues indefinitely ### [Tweet, 12:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998000519369871872) · 3 likes Once you appreciate the procedurally-unconstrained power that POTUS has via US economic sanctions policy, the question becomes “why doesn’t POTUS just get their way in every matter of foreign affairs” ### [Thread, continued, 12:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998000521127321682) · 2 likes It’s kinda crazy how little attention this gets Like this is such an absurd amount of unconstrained power and it doesn’t even have the cultural or aesthetic gravity of the even crazier things POTUS can do (eg start a nuclear war) ### [Reply to @rtwlz, 12:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998000608440090788) · 3 likes > **Riley Walz (@rtwlz):** i have 3 billion vector embeddings i want to query a few thousand times for a one-off project, what is the cheapest/fastest way to do this? Paper and pen ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 12:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998001076637774280) · 3 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** You could be forgiven for thinking that nothing else really matters > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7pSFhSXEAAySyv.jpg) > (quoting @NathanB60857242: my guess is that getting financial regulation right is one the most important inputs to growth on like 50 year time scales) Wait why straight line then Shouldn’t straight line indicate that it’s something less fickle than policy? Or are we talking financial regulation at the high level of “broadly democratic market economy” ### [Reply to @Every_Other_Odd, 16:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998074670411841788) · 4 likes > **Mathematician (@Every_Other_Odd):** Yes Dw l’hopital will be top of mind till I die ### [Quote tweet, 17:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998080767336075667) · 36 likes Update I have no desire to spend another dollar or minute on ✨prepping✨but I’m happy with this setup ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7qb3J6WgAAxhxi.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7qb3J5WEAAXLtK.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I should probably make a plan for being able to keep my phone alive indefinitely (for eg in a disaster or just any long outage) > > Idk why I started worrying about this recently but I’m glad I did. Winter vibes I guess ### [Thread, continued, 17:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998080772805374439) · 3 likes 13 watts isn’t very much ofc but allegedly that’s still about one full iPhone charge in an hour on a cloudy winter day not pointing the panels at the sun ### [Reply to @RobS142, 17:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998088442861822448) > **Rob S. (@RobS142):** What’s your setup? Can it support charging a laptop too? I like the @simonw plan of having a llamafile local LLM on a usb. https://simonwillison.net/2023/Nov/29/llamafile/ Oh neat thanks! Although this looks a few years old which is eternity in AI So I got this bundle which is a ~500 watt-hour battery + 160W solar https://us.ecoflow.com/products/river-2-max-portable-power-station?variant=41824274317385 Basically a full charge of my 16in MBP would take 8ish hours at 13 watts but 13 watts can't reliably sustain use indefinitely at steady state (i.e. the computer sometimes/often uses more than that) Although in good, sunny conditions it actually should be able to do that (in principle you could hook up the panels to the computer with no battery between although you'd need some sort of adapter for that) But practically I think the answer is 'yes' for most use unless you're running really intensive computing most of the time. Like irl I personally expect to be able to use my computer as much as I want 95% of the time (maybe not training AI models locally on a cloudy winter day, severe weather would also suck) Also non-apple is way less efficient I think so idk about that ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7qg-z6X0AAfL64.jpg) ### [Reply to @lfschiavo, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998119144978284714) · 23 likes > **Larissa Schiavo (@lfschiavo):** at a party this weekend a dude asked me if I was @Aella_Girl. I said yes. He said “you did such a good job on ”. > > Sorry for minor identity theft but good job on This never happens to me 😔 ### [Reply to @hejathor, 21:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998141018898841915) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @hejathor is no longer available.)_ $437 for the battery + solar! (By far my biggest purchase) I will try to put a spreadsheet together for anyone curious https://us.ecoflow.com/products/river-2-max-portable-power-station?variant=41824274317385 ### [Reply to @Bruce_T_, 21:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998143190432428517) · 16 likes > **bruce (@Bruce_T_):** moral obligations? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7q1yCFa8AADpKx.png) > (quoting @Duderichy: @shaggysurvives People who have tens of thousands of followers actually have moral obligations to consider what they say, and at a certain point you become a public figure Many people say things as bait and get what they deserve for it Nick decker is off the rails and suggests…) 🌶️🌶️🌶️ ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998148671511171456) · 16 likes > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** in short the amount I care is such that it does not make it into my short or long term planning Probably not gonna get into a whole debate here as that doesn’t seem wise but why conspicuously vice signal? ### [Reply to @KenanAnderson1, 23:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998180631197446196) · 2 likes > **Kenan Anderson (@KenanAnderson1):** @AaronBergman18 Out of curiosity what’s the scenario where you are without access to power for an extended period of time but your phone is still useful? Like wouldn’t the networks be down? Ya know I don't think I've fully thought this through lol Looks like there's a decent chance text-only SMS survives depending on the situation, also phone = somewhat useful disconnected, computer as well, also satellite emergency calling is nice, but possibly this should be more salient for me and the answer is "get starlink hardware I can activate if need be" ofc lighting and other electronics are nice as well - even a single lamp seems psychologically pretty helpful. Any local music as well Also a lot of the mundane utility is just the first 48 hours Also like if your phone is dead you don't know what you don't know (i.e., has any service been restored) But again, I might be an idiot. Thanks ## Tuesday, December 9, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998189191335666011) · 8 likes What's the best local LLM that runs reasonably quickly on a 16GB MBP? ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998192298476159272) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 8, 2025:** 13 watts isn’t very much ofc but allegedly that’s still about one full iPhone charge in an hour on a cloudy winter day not pointing the panels at the sun Should have had this together earlier but below is a spreadsheet of things (some have links) Basically I probably spent $900-$1k on everything and guesstimate that I'll get about half of the total value even if there's never an emergency/crisis so maybe you want to consider that $500ish in precautionary spending Inshallah no more lol https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GVke0QgHftAvFmTZ0e_KlBP89ZGSCpX2761F9iER0yI/edit?usp=sharing ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 00:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998195310208929979) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 9, 2025:** What's the best local LLM that runs reasonably quickly on a 16GB MBP? Qwen3-8b seems good for now, lmk if there's something better ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 01:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998210897404416375) · 5 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** I do! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7roA2JXMAEjD64.jpg) 🐓 ### [Reply, 03:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998226532972802527) ischemic priapism? ### [Quote tweet, 03:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998228612064158145) · 28 likes Good I feel like they should offer a long left tail for the most egregious jailbreaks ($35k is one researcher’s lunch soy sauce packet’s lower right front corner) but it’s a good start > **Quoting Jan Leike (@janleike):** Anthropic has a bug bounty program for our safety mitigations, e.g. on CBRN risks which our responsible scaling policy requires us to mitigate effectively. > > If you're interested in this, please sign up! You can help AI safety and earn money by breaking our defenses. 👇 ### [Quote tweet, 03:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998230501560377415) · 45 likes Disgusting > **Quoting David Shor (@davidshor):** We are on track to reduce our compute advantage over China from 33 to 1 to 1.2 to one because @nvidia and Jensen Huang put millions of dollars in Trump’s pocket in order to enrich themselves at the rest of our expense ### [Reply to @as_per_ushe, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998231240877736282) · 2 likes > **Space Pirate (@as_per_ushe):** @davidshor @nvidia As an American, denounce Huang. As a capitalist, buy NVIDIA. As a shareholder I can say that I don’t think this is in my personal interest even if it makes me slightly richer ### [Quote tweet, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998248444289577090) · 78 likes Claude just…doesn’t write like this for me - not even the specific style, like the broader “sincere emotionality” vibe at all I guess there are just huge portions of conversation space I never enter (and I’ve had about 3k Claude dot ai conversations) > **Quoting JB (@JasonBotterill):** Look I get why people want to fuck their AIs. The longer you talk to it the better it gets at predicting exactly which words will feel like crack cocaine to you > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7rSn6BbUAASy7R.jpg) ### [Reply to @radshaan, 04:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998249462494577136) · 44 likes > **Ishan (@radshaan):** Claude Code deleted someone’s entire home directory lol > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7qLzuXXkAIsz4a.jpg) Backblaze backup has saved my ass a couple times (not bc an LLM nuked anything tbc) Habitual coding agent users should probably invest in the insurance ### [Reply, 04:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998254301924458820) · 1 like Lmao is this a serious question I respect people doing whatever makes them happy but in terms of objective importance you picked the two furthest apart possible conferences (not quite literally but pretty damn close) ### [Reply to @horsemankukka, 05:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998262028675510317) · 2 likes > **Kukka de Bierguirb Häst (@horsemankukka):** the thing/caveat with backblaze is that if you don't open your computer for 30 days the backup is gone. it's important to realize it won't insure from say getting in an accident with the computer destroyed and then being in a hospital for a couple months. this has happened Wait lol this seems important, I should probably have known about this ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 05:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998267801320997298) · 3 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** Yes, this is a serious question. Why is it objectively very important that I attend EAG SF? You know your own situation much more than I do so tbc I would just defer to you at the end of the day I also don't know if it is objectively \*very\* important rather than just much more important than the latin thing in relative terms But in general EAG seems good in the sense that it probably is in fact instrumentally useful for EA as a movement (I don't have a whole explicit model to justify this) and something about network effects and the application process means that conditional on being accepted, marginal attendees are good for the overall efficacy of the conference, and also EAG SF 2025 seems plausibly one of the more important EAGs given location and AI timelines Tbc I think a lot of the low level ~mechanism here looks like increasing the probability a bit that you give or receive some crucial bit of info or context ### [Reply to @karpathy, 14:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998396188421247251) · 25 likes > **Andrej Karpathy (@karpathy):** In today's episode of programming horror... > > In the Python docs of random.seed() def, we're told > "If a is an int, it is used directly." \[1\] > > But if you seed with 3 or -3, you actually get the exact same rng object, producing the same streams. (TIL). In nanochat I was using the sign as a (what I thought was) clever way to get different rng sequences for train/test splits. Hence gnarly bug because now train=test. > > I found the CPython code responsible in cpython/Modules/\_randommodule.c \[2\], where on line 321 we see in a comment: > > "This algorithm relies on the number being unsigned. So: if the arg is a PyLong, use its absolute value." followed by > > n = PyNumber_Absolute(arg); > > which explicitly calls abs() on your seed to make it positive, discarding the sign bit. > > But this comment is actually wrong/misleading too. Under the hood, Python calls the Mersenne Twister MT19937 algorithm, which in the general case has 19937 (non-zero) bits state. Python takes your int (or other objects) and "spreads out" that information across these bits. In principle, the sign bit could have been used to augment the state bits. There is nothing about the algorithm that "relies on the number being unsigned". A decision was made to not incorporate the sign bit (which imo was a mistake). One trivial example could have been to map n -> 2\*abs(n) + int(n < 0). > > Finally this leads us to the contract of Python's random, which is also not fully spelled out in the docs. The contract that is mentioned is that: > > same seed => same sequence. > > But no guarantee is made that different seeds produce different sequences. So in principle, Python makes no promises that e.g. seed(5) and seed(6) are different rng streams. (Though this quite commonly implicitly assumed in many applications.) Indeed, we see that seed(5) and seed(-5) are identical streams. And you should probably not use them to separate your train/test behaviors in machine learning. One of the more amusing programming horror footguns I've encountered recently. We'll see you in the next episode. > > \[1\] https://docs.python.org/3/library/random.html > \[2\] https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/main/Modules/_randommodule.c#L321C13-L321C30 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7sc167aMAAuZi5.png) Should I not be impressed that Claude confidently states you are the author of the post based on writing style? https://claude.ai/share/7a1cd7ad-b267-4e20-852b-83482a3261c8 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7u6va2XgAAM5et.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7u6va0WcAARCoN.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998422823405248705) · 30 likes Can’t congress step in and forbid the sale? Maybe a rare bipartisan issue? Is the MAGA base going to go to war on behalf of myopic NVIDIA share price? > **Quoting Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** If we're going to sell H200s, we should do the "conservative version" which maintains US AI compute at a significant share and not allow "aggressive version" where China catches up significantly. > > It's amazing how much Chinese AI is on US tech! ### [Reply to @cljack, 17:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998446814756774114) · 3 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** Yeah I literally never ask it non-technical questions and I’m realizing that’s … not how most people use it The thing is that I do! A minority of the time, but 10% is still almost 300 "vulnerable/personal conversations" (and this seems like the right amount based on memory lol) and I'd guess it's more like 20% if you loosen the "vulnerable" constraint and make it just "personal" ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7vm7CyWsAAwiE1.png) ### [Thread, continued, 17:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998446894918389924) · 3 likes To each their own ofc but I actually think this kind of interaction might be under-used by highly analytical/systematizing people - like if you just ask the models to take a very analytical lens to some personal problem ### [Thread, continued, 17:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998446909199983065) · 4 likes they will generally abide whereas humans often won't/can't/don't want to (they're also worse at this type of task relative to purely technical but often pretty good in an absolute sense) ### [Quote tweet, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998464972410544531) · 2 likes How do they have the money for this Who is using Mistral What investors think that they’re going to be at the Pareto frontier ever? > **Quoting Mistral AI (@MistralAI):** Our next-generation coding model family Devstral 2 is available in two sizes: Devstral 2 (123B) under a modified MIT license, and Devstral Small (24B) under Apache 2.0. > Both SOTA, open-source, free to use, and available now via our API. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7vEKmaXMAAjkny.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998464975065468975) · 4 likes Meta has a gazillion dollars to light on fire bc they sell ads OpenAI has convinced half of American finance that they’re one funding round away from infinite ROI for eternity Anthropic sells a product for money Elon Musk is very rich Google is probably a combo of these ### [Thread, continued, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998464976906830199) · 5 likes I’m actually a huge fan of exactly one of their things: OCR ($1/1000 pdf pages pdf, weirdly fast, deals with images in a non-insane way) Maybe secretly they’re just trying to win at OCR and not attract any competitors/attention? https://mistral.ai/news/mistral-ocr ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998480564047982764) · 16 likes > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** if your definition of evil incudes the majority of people, consider that perhaps your definition is poor "Evil" is a word with strong connotations that I prefer to save for active malice/sadism, but it's extremely plausible that most people act unethically in one particular sense or overall ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998483519006543963) · 39 likes > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** only on the internet can you state an opinion held by the majority of the population and be called a psychopath Via revealed preference you're right in some sense, but I don't think literally not caring about chickens at all, emotionally or cognitively, even when the issue is made salient (eg while watching a video of a chicken's beak being cut off), and as a smart enough person to understand the basic relevant concepts (uncertainty, suffering, theory of mind, ethics) is a majority opinion/phenomenon at least in the west Not sure at all but I suspect this is <10% of the population ## Wednesday, December 10, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998551707102621948) · 45 likes I remark on this every winter but does everyone dress for the temperature OUTSIDE when they spend 90%+ of their time in heated buildings (and generally moving when outside) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7xILx4WAAAws78.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 00:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998551710609060038) · 9 likes “Aaron it’s cold outside” Yes I will be slightly chilly for the 5 minute walk it takes to get wherever and then I will be comfortable ### [Thread, continued, 00:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998551712777527442) · 4 likes Not a rhetorical question or mockery tbc ### [Reply to @dylanbowmanSF, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998608633412907299) · 5 likes > **Dylan Bowman (@dylanbowmanSF):** when you're stationary indoors, your temperature doesn't go up much even if you're wearing 2 layers Idk if this is true based on actual core temperature but subjectively I feel very hot lol ### [Reply to @cljack, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998613273294287269) · 3 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** I think this problem would be largely solved if we lived with or at least next to our close friends and their children instead of with men, but no one is ready for that conversation Not to kill feminist vibe too hard but I feel like the “at least next to” version is just straightforwardly better for everyone including fathers/men and doesn’t need the “instead” framing Ofc maybe this diminishes some important part of ur vision but “if you like your husband you can keep your husband” might be an important part of the sell But yeah I unironically think people should make this happen more. Live next to your friends! ### [Reply to @cljack, 04:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998614602473681130) · 5 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** Women and children should live close together in tight knit villages and men should usually be off in the mines, barracks, or camps. As God intended ☹️ ### [Tweet, 19:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998831401173426308) · 14 likes Very useful prompt for Opus thinking + research: “Friends are discussing wild differences in ER wait times and the apparent ability to go from multi-hour wait times to trivial by driving eg 30 mins rather than 5 I live near \[metro stop/landmark\] in \[city\], please make me a plan document for which ERs make sense to go to under which circumstances, taking wait times heavily into account” ### [Thread, continued, 19:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998831403174342711) · 4 likes Fellow Arlingtonians ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G71GeuFXEAIecm6.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998856209500352640) · 101 likes Unironically we could probably legalize fentanyl and be fine if we just forced it to be physically or chemically bound with some benign, brightly colored filler to make it 100x+ less dense per mass and volume ### [Thread, continued, 20:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998856211085799577) · 24 likes Yes opioids are addictive but in terms of overdose deaths and general fear, a core issue is "generic white powder of which very small amount will kill you" - nothing \*pharmacologically\* special about fentanyl ### [Thread, continued, 20:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998856212553805858) · 12 likes Apparently mandating blister packs also reduces overdose (and plausibly total use altogether?) (ht @FrostedSapling) ### [Quote tweet, 20:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998858497602240979) · 15 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G71dhnQWwAAvoXq.png) > **Quoting Aaron Rupar (@atrupar):** Trump says he doesn't know why America can't achieve 25 percent annual economic growth > > [video attached](https://x.com/atrupar/status/1998853327321288848/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 20:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998858500395642913) · 2 likes It's quite literally not sustainable for that long (100 years at 25% makes you 5 billion times wealthier; 200 years gets you 25 quadrillion times; you do eventually run out of particles and new, more clever arrangements of them) But a decade (~10x wealthier) would be nice ### [Reply to @JeremiahDJohns, 20:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998859411457192327) · 14 likes > **Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** It's interesting that in sports everyone openly says "I'm gonna be the best, I want to win everything" - whereas the performing arts are a hugbox where it's more common to have an Aww Shucks attitude and pretend you're just lucky. People get mad if you violate the Aww Shucks. > > (quoting @worldofreel: Timothée Chalamet says he’s given “top-of-the-line performances” these “last seven or eight years” “I don’t want people to take it for granted. I don’t want to take it for granted. This is really some top-level shit” https://tinyurl.com/4x968j5v) Rappers talk about being the GOAT so it’s not something about performing arts \*per se\* ### [Quote tweet, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998864285301359038) · 8 likes I called my representative and senators; about 5-10 mins total including finding info. You can too! Seems like a rare thing where people from every state should call (Apparently calling DC office is best normal contact method - link below) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G71jkRQX0AAPgNn.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Can’t congress step in and forbid the sale? > > Maybe a rare bipartisan issue? Is the MAGA base going to go to war on behalf of myopic NVIDIA share price? ### [Reply to @cljack, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998865147109192176) · 10 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** Is there like an adult daycare for retired Bell Labs alums where I can send my father? These are the only types of people he enjoys interacting with Truly shocking to hear, autistic airplane lady (positive) ### [Quote tweet, 22:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998880508537983203) · 10 likes CEA, Coefficient Giving, and Effective Ventures should make me Comms Czar of Everything > **Quoting Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** "Post-FTX, I think core EA adopted a “PR mentality” that (i) has been a failure on its own terms and (ii) is corrosive to EA’s soul." > > @willmacaskill > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7wse7zWQAAbJEQ.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998880511167705374) · 3 likes Maybe @captgouda24 can be my right hand man ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 22:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998881288653255017) · 36 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** In normal social circles people probably understand a lot less of your perspective than what you think. They just think of you as "chart boy" My view reading this ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G71z7wjXcAAEFqv.jpg) ### [Tweet, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998885005897118141) · 19 likes Has anybody made the case “gender pay gap is real but good bc men have to pay more for food” ### [Thread, continued, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998885007797203241) · 5 likes It’s actually a little mysterious that allegedly men only need about 30% more calories for similar body composition and height percentile (NOT same height and weight) Like cultural vibes would suggest it’s more like 50-100% more ### [Thread, continued, 22:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998885726352715948) · 8 likes I actually think there should be a “double everything for just 50% more” option at places. In fact it’s highly sexist and bigoted that this doesn’t exist Obviously it’s twice the ingredients but it’s essentially the exact same amount of labor, seating, etc ### [Thread, continued, 22:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998887626590638570) · 5 likes Sad ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G715s8DWsAACFnn.jpg) ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998889201899811150) · 2 likes > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** Would you say one of these reasons are what motivates your opposition? > > (quoting @timfduffy: I'm still confused about the main reason AI folks want to restrict chip sales to China, are these the top two? - Keep US far enough ahead to prevent inter-country race to ASI - Maintain "high fence around a small yard", restricting China's access to military-relevant tech) Partially maybe 25% the first, 15% the second, and 60% that US culture, political systems, and institutions are morally better from an impartial perspective and AI will be used by and plausibly (partially?) aligned with those things Not \*good\* tbc, but better, especially if we get past Trump ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 23:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998891417670946893) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Calories in the sense of “how much would you have to pay for the cheapest reasonably healthy calories” yes but food altogether isn’t trivial But yeah like it’s not an absolute survival need thing ## Thursday, December 11, 2025 ### [Reply to @envisionedluna, 01:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998928427504775383) · 2 likes > **Maya Luna (@envisionedluna):** Blue tax We need a fully refundable second Cava bowl tax credit ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 01:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998928691481690198) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @littIeramblings is no longer available.)_ How did u manage to take the only 3 pics of NYC in existence where there are no other humans ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 01:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998930042294874367) · 15 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Guy who thinks incorrect predictions are lies I will actually defend this I think we should be harsher about judging “predictions” that people pretty clearly didn’t mean especially involving themselves I love my parents but they were perpetually late picking me up from anywhere as a kid. At some point, if you’ve say “I’ll pick you/him up at 6” after being late 100 times in a row, and don’t make any effort to do anything differently this time, it’s a lie ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 01:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998930132040560780) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 Nice going, chart boy! 😊 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 01:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998930349498466515) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 10, 2025:** My view reading this Let it be known that this is related to last year’s animal welfare fundraiser (👀) although it has certainly been a choice not to take it down (tragically I did take some of the decor down) ### [Tweet, 01:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998930771747418184) · 31 likes AOC noooooo ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G72g8VMWAAAoVfd.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998930774817652785) · 4 likes Cc @AndyMasley ### [Thread, continued, 01:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998930776625398198) · 9 likes My read on AOC is she’s probably basically earnest and is just mistaken object level ### [Reply to @sixers2772, 02:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998937237195747717) · 2 likes > **Sixers (@sixers2772):** Me describing my read on ~everyone Oh I strongly disagree lol although it depends what you mean by “earnest” I mean something stronger than “not blatantly lying” - lots of people and certainly lots of politicians aren’t really trying to get the right and convey true info ### [Quote tweet, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998982438161363252) · 7,084 likes Why is the American left so insistent on making up fake reasons to dislike AI when there are a deluxe buffet of at least plausibly true ones for the taking > **Quoting hope hopes hoping (@hopes_revenge):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G708AFCaMAg2DIx.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998982440531177501) · 571 likes At least maybe real/legit: \- x-risk \- sub-existential catastrophe/generic misalignment \- misuse (many subtypes) \- people getting lazier/less intellectually mature \- job loss (really, job loss -> less wealth for many) \- OpenAI specifically \- sycophancy \- engagement slop ### [Thread, continued, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998982442129174556) · 340 likes \- brightest minds not working on other important things \- gradual disempowerment \- making factory farming more efficient? \- bad value lock-in \- risk of war bc geopolitical destabilization \- AI sentience/mistreating AIs ### [Thread, continued, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998982444343767375) · 231 likes \- uncompensated training on data when original creators didn't know this was a thing that could happen (sorry I'm woke, I think this is legit) \- too highly correlated intellectual and aesthetic outputs (bc everyone is training on the same data etc) ### [Thread, continued, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998982446537388129) · 206 likes \- Not being able to have a larger pre-AI internet with which to train AIs in the future (just thought of this one) \- Fake interpersonal interactions (thinking you're communicating with a human but you're not) \- misinformation at scale ### [Thread, continued, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998982448714322147) · 149 likes \- at the limit/in the future, normal AND non-greenhouse effect global warming \- you just find effective altruists annoying and so don't like when they gain influence/prestige/etc ### [Thread, continued, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998982450916241701) · 137 likes \- you just find rationalists annoying and so don't like when they gain influence/prestige/etc \- you just find tech bros annoying and so don't like when they gain influence/prestige/etc ### [Thread, continued, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998982453118251305) · 100 likes (tbc I don't these last three should carry the day in any sense but like insofar as they make people annoyed they are real) ### [Thread, continued, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998982455324483977) · 251 likes Fake problems: \- AI is fascist(??) \- water use \- energy use at the current margin \- water and and energy costs, currently \- "AI isn't helpful actually" \- AI can only do pattern matching/next word prediction etc \- economic bubble (I claim - we can debate this) ### [Thread, continued, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998982457505493466) · 95 likes \- colonialism in 2025-26 (longer term you actually can imagine things kinda like colonialism secondary to dramatic geopolitical turmoil, and/or involving aliens) \- AI art per se (as distinct from training w/o compensation) ### [Thread, continued, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998982459766256086) · 76 likes \- job loss per se (the issue is that people become poorer as a result, to be pedantic) \- I'll probably think of more ### [Tweet, 06:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998998828129591322) · 1 like Obsessed with my AI lighting assistant attached to my lightbulb app that doesn’t seem to do anything whatsoever [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1998998520494239744/img/8yZ7DcHJ8bK347X3.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1998998828129591322/video/1) (video, plays on X) ## Friday, December 12, 2025 ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999303930959003906) · 3 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** The "do the hobbies you enjoy happen to also be valuable to others" birth lottery is far more unfair than the IQ one. Eh not sure I agree with this I mean they’re both unfair but I’d reverse your order ### [Tweet, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999308901783855471) · 113 likes Congrats to “dumbass, highly corrupt naive pseudo-libertarian accelerationism” for somehow managing to control the President of the United States of America ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7742XsWAAIqzyN.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7742XtWUAc6pBH.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999308905260917016) · 4 likes 1\) https://www.semafor.com/article/12/09/2025/trump-says-nvidia-can-sell-h200-ai-chips-to-china ### [Thread, continued, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999308907123212624) · 4 likes 2\) https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna248741 ### [Thread, continued, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999308909010727213) · 8 likes The thing is that coalitional politics against this pretty small pseudoideology should be (perhaps uniquely) possible here The right isn’t on board, the left isn’t on board, large portions (most?) of the tech elite isn’t on board, MAGA other than Trump probably isn’t on board ### [Thread, continued, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999308910805811422) · 7 likes In fact I will pre-register that the AIs themselves aren’t on board if asked about both policies in a variety of non-leading ways! ### [Thread, continued, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999308912500334902) · 12 likes But Jensen Huang and 17 Twitter anons: “I consent!” ### [Tweet, 04:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999343403620847634) · 15 likes Self-aware woke >>>>>>>>>>>> “water they swim in” woke ### [Reply, 06:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999363052265759063) · 1 like Ok but fr this is such an underrated take of mine if I do say so myself ### [Tweet, 06:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999368488448852061) · 288 likes Correct take by @PeterSinger I think this is extremely underrated, possibly the single most (important\*tractable) issue for humans alive today ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G78vCz_X0AQZ-UC.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999368491736899772) · 36 likes https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/psychedelic-drugs-should-be-legal-for-cluster-headache-by-peter-singer-2025-12 ### [Reply to @caryatis, 06:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999368869396242462) · 13 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** How does this make sense? Obviously if you pull dates from men who have not already asked you out you are selecting for disinterest and/or cowardice/lack of agency Yeah this is true but you’re also selecting \*for\* literally whatever else you care about ### [Quote tweet, 16:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999513837343506815) · 5 likes Which is why we have decided to sell them H200s! > **Quoting Fox News (@FoxNews):** SENATOR CRUZ: “We don’t want China’s values of surveillance and centralized control by the communist government governing AI. We want American values of free speech, of individual liberty, of respecting the individual.” > > [video attached](https://x.com/FoxNews/status/1999258079968575767/video/1) ### [Tweet, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999545081343152283) · 5 likes There are a lot of absurd things about medicine but the insistence on physical CDs for radiology data ranks pretty highly Bro I can literally text it to you instead ### [Reply to @vivian_belenky, 18:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999549914184143042) · 3 likes > **viv 🔸 (@vivian_belenky):** I think wes's point that men have reactive desire just as women do is very salient! I think "I'll ask a man I like on one date, signal my continuing interest afterwards, and then wait for him to take further initiative" is a very reasonable tactic Not only that - it’s true you’re selecting against agency/liking at some level inherently via the strategy, but you can also select for those traits intentionally to offset (eg the guy says he likes you to friends and displays agency elsewhere in life but is too coward to ask you out) ### [Tweet, 19:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999555588414480789) · 241 likes One very impressive thing about Anthropic, mostly distinct from their technical accomplishments, is that they managed to one-shot creating a functional, extremely quickly growing, and unconventionally structured company ### [Thread, continued, 19:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999555593699221931) · 15 likes This is some management experience yes but they were way more overpowered on technical ability ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7_ZNzaWUAI3rQR.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 19:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999555596605898868) · 12 likes My sense is that we shouldn’t have expected this to work ex ante? Or like with that density of talent you could expect \*something\* and the ability to raise and hire managers, but not necessarily the ability to compete with literal Google straight away ### [Thread, continued, 19:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999555598262698073) · 6 likes My background stance on this is that successful companies are mostly selected via something kinda like evolution (ie the successful management/ops methods work and those companies proliferate, others die) ### [Thread, continued, 19:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999555600103944209) · 6 likes rather than highly engineered, but obviously at the individual level it looks like an engineering project ### [Thread, continued, 19:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999555604042392028) · 7 likes Plausibly a lot of their valuation growth has been via proving that they have an extremely well-run business which was not something that could be counted on ### [Quote tweet, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999556407448748062) · 16 likes Many such cases Eg with drugs: is your plan to fix addiction/harm by \*removing\* options from a user’s life (eg stronger enforcement of prohibition) and therefore making it worse insofar as they are rational or \*adding\* options to it (eg safer option, treatment, etc) > **Quoting Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Imo people who want to ban sex work should not do so by removing options, but by giving sex workers better options that they voluntarily choose. ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999586199451611590) · 1 like > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** This sort of reasoning proves too much imho. “Don’t ban fraud, instead give people other, better career opportunities” Wait no I disagree, drug externalities aren’t literally zero (obv it depends a ton) but they’re not clearly and directly harmful to non-users in the way fraud, robbery, assault, etc are ### [Reply to @billyhumblebrag, 21:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999587259721368044) · 8 likes > **billy (@billyhumblebrag):** @AaronBergman18 @PeterSinger Have you signed the petition? Coordinated push from a new org > > https://clusterfree.org/global Yes I have! Thank you for linking!! ### [Tweet, 22:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999602595594469418) · 107 likes Funny experience recently was a girl matching on hinge, opening with “I hate EA” despite not having any direct reference to EA in my profile (there is an animal welfare book visible in one pic?) ### [Thread, continued, 22:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999602597250932972) · 56 likes proceeding to give me a rundown of the classic progressive misconceptions/reasons that EA is bad, replying that she really did want me to explain why I thought she was wrong when I asked, then we had a pretty polite but not very productive discussion via google doc ### [Thread, continued, 22:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999602599520063859) · 60 likes and finally then she said “I’m not interested” and unmatched Tbc I’m basically certain she wasn’t secretly flirting at any point during this interaction ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 22:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999605502565842959) · 23 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I think there should be an AI and Epistemics award and I nominate Andy to win it. > > (quoting @AndyMasley: My Hard Fork appearance is out! Was a blast to get to go deep on AI water stuff https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/podcasts/hardfork-australia-water.html) As much as I love Andy I feel like @gwern should probably win, or someone else who correctly inferred the trajectory of AI like a decade ago ### [Quote tweet, 22:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999608439723504121) · 11 likes Idk the answer but am continually happy to not have a car > **Quoting Sulla (@spqr_sulla):** Why is vehicle insurance so high ? ### [Quote tweet, 23:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999621497594556570) · 17 likes What > **Quoting Cate Hall (@catehall):** Like 7 years ago -- before the AI era -- when I was insane and seeing an outpatient addiction recovery-mandated therapist, I alarmed him by talking about how the AI apocalypse was coming and how it was somehow tied up with my ex-husband, who I feared was conspiring with his new girlfriend to program the killer machines. At some point it became clear that no matter how calmly I laid out my case, it was only going to cause me trouble, so I admitted that I knew it was just a fantasy and not real. That woman's name? Amanda Askell ## Saturday, December 13, 2025 ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 05:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999720680221286641) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** .@rgblong to me: I was about to pull up a funny tweet relevant to our conversation then I realized you tweeted it Ugh jealous ### [Reply to @Miles_Brundage, 06:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999723152885112953) · 7 likes > **Miles Brundage (@Miles_Brundage):** Who is smarter, you or the best current language model, for whatever definition of smart you think makes sense? Pretty conflicted on this - I think I’ll go with LLM due to breadth and math. As of Opus 4.1 I think I was better at something like “non-formal reasoning” but haven’t really pushed anything more recent in a hard enough way to tell if that’s changed ### [Reply to @liz_love_lace, 07:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999743478515810310) · 2 likes > **Liz Lovelace (@liz_love_lace):** i think trans rights have to be negotiable, because it's not clear what exactly you mean by "trans rights". I'd support over-the-counter hrt, but i draw the line at forcing people to use pronouns, or banning "hate speech", or forcing venues to open certain spaces for trans women Based (mostly about the principle and style of political thinking rather than specific object level takes, although OTC HRT is pretty based) Also I won’t say that nothing can/should EVER be non-negotiable, but boy does the bar for that need to be high. WWII stuff comes to mind - Churchill vs Hitler, Manhattan Project Vietnam is the negative vision here - winning was made an absolute priority and shouldn’t have been ### [Reply to @TimothyJCurrie1, 08:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999765568975520074) · 11 likes > **Timothy (@TimothyJCurrie1):** How could this be the most important\*tractable issue?! So few people have cluster headaches. Glad you asked! Basically it seems plausible that insofar as we can model suffering as represented by some number, if we set something familiar to most people to be 1 (say stubbing one’s toe which does really suck) then cluster headaches could be not 5 or 10 or 100 or even 1000 times worse but millions or billions of times worse or more The thing is that you don’t have to be fully convinced by this model, only have to give it some amount of probabilistic weight, for it to really matter https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/gtGe8WkeFvqucYLAF/logarithmic-scales-of-pleasure-and-pain-rating-ranking-and ### [Reply to @panickssery, 09:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999766439448952890) · 15 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** Why does Claude often make this grammatical error > > The rule is that -ly adverbs aren't followed by hyphenation > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8CFivzaMAAy-Eu.png) I’m not a total nihilist about grammar but cmon who cares about this one ### [Tweet, 09:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999775995608596932) · 5 likes Correct take IMO Also works well with American politics: “you have to pay for car insurance, hard working American, because driving puts other people and their property at risk. Make sure these large companies are held to the same standard” ### [Reply to @stuhlmueller, 09:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999776409770992115) · 23 likes > **Andreas Stuhlmüller (@stuhlmueller):** AI is still early > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8AMWiWbsAARdn5.jpg) I think this is largely because onlyfans providers are more ruthless about collecting on willingness to pay OpenAI isn’t trying \*that hard\* to price discriminate ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 15:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999862876925018480) · 7 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** can we first try teaching people economics? > > (quoting @PolitlcsUK: 🚨 NEW: Boys will be taught to how respect women and girls as part of the new national curriculum \[@thetimes\]) The thing is that “\[teaching boys\] how to respect women and girls” (with an emphasis on “how”) is actually a pretty important function of society I think both of us just doubt the ability of the British state to do this well ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 15:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999863468888105424) · 5 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** Incredible > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8DoeTIWkAIPXaY.jpg) > (quoting @pw_is_taco1: You'll never believe who this is about) Bruh ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 15:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999865176825430047) · 6 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** While people who have correctly called the trajectory of the most important technology are interesting, I’m the only one who’s dividing a big number by another big number to get a small number So true, I’ve updated hard ### [Tweet, 15:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999869854162276388) · 29 likes I’m divided on this but there’s a modus ponens sort of alternative to paternalistic gambling controls: \*if\* we are letting random, often poor people gamble and lose all their money to much more sophisticated entities, get rid of accredited investor rules ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8D3CEuWIAE_Zgl.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8D3CEuWUAgVMRx.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8D3CEoWcAEvi0V.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 15:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999869858109174262) · 24 likes “Let Aaron buy $10k pre-IPO Anthropic if he can find a seller” is almost certainly correct on its own terms but extremely overdetermined in a world where we’ve decided to prioritize liberty even at the expense of poor people’s pocketbooks ### [Thread, continued, 15:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999870217565200750) · 29 likes Huh ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8D3XV0XsAIl8ky.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 15:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999871213813088290) · 97 likes Some of y’all should probably consider becoming accredited investors Look into it at least - it seems to be more knowledge intensive than other standardized tests so even you gigageniuses would have to learn and retain some object level info at some point but still > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Huh > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8D3XV0XsAIl8ky.jpg) ### [Tweet, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999872571978948962) · 106 likes .@littIeramblings exists irl ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8D5gWRXoAEBE6p.jpg) ### [Reply to @billyhumblebrag, 16:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999881922663625142) · 9 likes > **billy (@billyhumblebrag):** Amazing work holding frame chad Thank you I've never seen a line so perfectly straight and vertical ### [Reply to @AndrewCurran_, 17:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999892864676028803) · 12 likes > **Andrew Curran (@AndrewCurran_):** Chart crime. Every time you say this Sarah’s line rotates clockwise a little more ### [Reply to @caryatis, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999910185234739296) · 2 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** @AaronBergman18 1) Become accredited investor > 2\) ??? > 3\) Profit 2\) Vibe ### [Quote tweet, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999918243205779864) · 35 likes Ok it has been a little while but goddammit we are doing the things Presenting: (Vegan) Hot Ones ft. @robi_rahman and @absurdlymax Spicy vegan nuggets, even spicier takes 🌶️🥵 (YouTube link below because Twitter doesn't seem to l our video file) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8Ei8T_WIAEyW8X.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** It’s back and it’s not exactly bigger than ever yet but hopefully it will be! > > @SpacedOutMatt @absurdlymax @Laura_k_Duffy and I are once again raising money for the EA Animal Welfare Fund in this year’s Terminally Online EA Giving Season Fundraiser! > > (Link below) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfIMC4BXoAAGR9R.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfIMC38WkAA-UWQ.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999918245856329777) · 5 likes https://youtu.be/yYAs5Xbnwvk ### [Thread, continued, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999919326036676715) · 2 likes \*seem to like ### [Thread, continued, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999923741011366234) · 2 likes Oh ya I should add that I legitimately think it’s worth watching I’m gonna try to put it up as a podcast episode bc there are some good or at least spicy takes ### [Reply to @besttrousers, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999931919568355517) · 19 likes > **Matt Darling 🌐🏗️ (@besttrousers):** The median one bedroom apartment in the USA is $1234. I suspect there are a couple less than $1200. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8ENhUhW8AYFM-m.jpg) > (quoting @mcsquared34: ) This is a stretch, man The tweet pretty clearly isn’t analytic philosophy - although yes it’s literally and technically a false proposition Nobody doubts that there are <$1200 in Tulsa, or if you win a subsidization lottery of some sort But like there are very real situations where you can’t \*merely\* downsize or compromise your way into $1199 for a private appt - you’d have to also move metro areas and give up your job ### [Quote tweet, 21:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999950556601954684) · 11 likes What is the point of tenure, even? ^that is a rhetorical question, but “what neo-tenure system would in fact protect and incentivize high quality scholarship today, irl?” is not > **Quoting taoki (@justalexoki):** this is kinda fucked up actually > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7-VBxvWQAIKQyW.png) ### [Thread, continued, 21:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999950559898669132) · 4 likes Like social credit, ingroup status, etc do in fact matter to people just like job security does, and there are countless new dynamics around social media, academic incentives, etc that distinguish today from whenever tenure became a thing ### [Thread, continued, 21:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999950562239082725) · 4 likes Intellectual courage is a virtue yes but “increasing avg courageousness” seems much less tractable than “design a neo-tenure system with better incentives” ### [Reply to @CardioidInMyCup, 21:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1999951195876794674) · 10 likes > **Cardioid in my cup of tea ☕ ⏹ (@CardioidInMyCup):** Another one of those "I met a celebrity" edits. AI is getting way to good these days. You probably took one of her dolphin sighting photos from last week and edited yourself in place of a dolphin. So true you caught her, this was the original ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8FBAwsWQAEC0Lr.jpg) ## Sunday, December 14, 2025 ### [Reply to @NinaPanickssery, 00:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000007546363621433) · 2 likes > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** @AaronBergman18 wdym by unconventionally structured Public benefit corp + long term trust thing But plausibly this doesn’t really impact early day to day operations/management stuff I guess ### [Tweet, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000044492028514493) · 19 likes Prior to whether they're dangerous, it's probably under-appreciated that LLMs (in this case, RL'd) are very, very weird ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8GT2dDXgAAEZd1.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8GUIqcW0AIA7Q1.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000044494256038281) · 3 likes https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/marius-hobbhahn-ai-scheming-deception/ ### [Thread, continued, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000044495958593784) · 7 likes The shoggoth thing is clever but it's nice to put some concrete meat on its bones ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8GVjRYXgAIsicf.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 17:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000251375402487925) · 15 likes This is incredibly based and also it’s about damn time someone named Ahmed Ahmed made the news because that’s probably the 2nd or 3rd most common name in the world (allowing for spelling variations, after Muhammad Muhammad and Ali Ali) > **Quoting Brad Lander (@bradlander):** Extraordinary courage from Ahmed El Ahmad, a Muslim, 43-year-old father of two, who bravely risked his life to save his neighbors celebrating Hanukkah. > > Praying for his full & speedy recovery. > > And so deeply inspired by his example. > > [video attached](https://x.com/AJAYDESAI143/status/2000183379917259090/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 17:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000251378158178558) · 4 likes In one dataset that I happened to have handy it’s 0.6% of all names, which would imply like 55M people ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000251561944248756) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Ya! ### [Quote tweet, 17:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000252171791798752) · 14 likes Bad take First off it’s just not that important of a phenomenon But directionally the social dynamics of the phrase are like “I recognize this isn’t a standard thing to say but…” which seems epistemically good/productive to me > **Quoting Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** The fetishization of "hot takes" has been one of the worst things to happen to normal discourse. No, you are not unique, and you do not need to stand out. You're just making a fool of yourself. Such things should be left to professionals. ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 19:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000289162432266252) · 8 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I see this graph of pit bulls as especially dangerous come up a lot, and I feel like people are thinking way too much about the relative proportions and not enough about absolutes here. 284 deaths between 2005-2017 is still relatively small. > > To bring it back to my AI enviro stuff, this feels somewhat equivalent to saying "ChatGPT is 10 times as bad as a Google search." That's still just so small. Here, it's saying "Pit bulls are 20 times as dangerous as huskies!" Like okay, when was the last time you encountered any danger from a husky? An extremely small number x20 can still be extremely small. > > Seems like there might be ~10 million pit bulls in the US. Of like ~10 million dogs, every year ~23 people are killed. 1 death per 430,000 dogs each year. > > To compare, there are ~284 million personal cars in the US, and 40,000 road deaths each year. 1 death per 7100. So the average car is 60x as likely to kill you as the average pit bull. > > I'm obviously pro being very safe with very physically strong animals. But I think a lot of people infer way more from this graph than they should. This seems kind of like a graph of the least safe airlines. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8JIk58X0AMAZ38.jpg) Object level I think a ban still makes sense - like from a bottom-up perspective does the world get better or worse when single pitbull is born? Probably worse, largely not via deaths or even injuries but via general aggression aimed at other dogs and humans. A gazillion interactions are 40% worse than they’d be with a replacement dog. Plausibly this correlates with worse intrinsic subjective experience for the dog too but that’s speculative And the counterfactual is probably just a different dog I guess if we wanted to have a libertarian society this might all be a cost worth paying for the general principle but IRL in the US it’s not like we have incredibly strong libertarian norms to protect ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 19:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000292890493460924) · 9 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** The British Medical Journal's Journal of Medical Ethics has published a defense of female genital mutilation. > > After reading their case, I'm not sold. > > I still think we should ban female genital mutilation. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8FPYVQaEAA9tCr.jpg) Absolutely horrible take, I agree, and also a good chance to say loudly that the article shouldn’t be retracted, nobody should lose their job, etc We can’t only be anti-woke about good takes ### [Reply to @SpencrGreenberg, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000311336799281360) · 24 likes > **Spencer Greenberg 🔍 (@SpencrGreenberg):** A question for you: what's something you used to believe about human nature or humanity but that you now don't think is true? Veganism = no health cost, maybe even optimal ### [Reply to @willcb, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000311798298513711) · 7 likes > **will brown (@willcb):** chatgpt is the only consumer app with regular pop-ups asking if i want to downgrade my subscription > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8E9Fi_bgAEC4X3.png) Idk if this is true but maybe they show this only to users they’re losing money on ### [Reply to @NealAdvait, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000332960457748650) · 3 likes > **NealAdvaitShimon (@NealAdvait):** What do you think the health costs are? Just curious I have no idea what the \*specific\* health costs are - that's emblematic of the problem Hasty vibe-written doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f95vDg_niWsgB5S0lUh_XhJXeJ3zB9tJxvY1ilRi_sU/edit?usp=sharing \# Quick veganism takes \*Thoughts by Aaron, organized by Gemini-3-Pro-Preview\* \*\*Thesis:\*\* Strict veganism likely entails non-zero physiological costs for the majority of the human population due to biological constraints that modern nutritional science cannot yet fully circumvent. \*\*I. The Argument from Anthropological Observation\*\* \* \*\*P1. Extreme Dietary Plasticity:\*\* The historical record demonstrates that human populations can sustain reproduction and survival on radically divergent macronutrient profiles (e.g., Inuit high-fat/raw seafood diets vs. agrarian high-carbohydrate/low-protein diets vs. Indian lacto-vegetarianism). \* \*\*P2. The Universal Constant:\*\* Despite this plasticity, there is no observational evidence of a distinct human society or culture surviving on a diet devoid of all animal products (0% animal consumption). \* \*\*C1:\*\* The absence of a vegan control group in history—despite the existence of almost every other dietary extreme—suggests that the consumption of some animal products is a biological necessity for long-term viability in natural settings. \*\*II. The Argument from Epistemic Limitation in Nutrition\*\* \* \*\*P1. Nutritional Reductivism:\*\* Current nutritional guidelines focus on a limited set of isolated variables (approx. 20 FDA-monitored vitamins and minerals). \* \*\*P2. Complexity of Animal Tissue:\*\* Animal products contain a complex matrix of micronutrients, co-factors, and bioavailability mechanisms that exceed current scientific cataloging. \* \*\*P3. Insufficiency of Supplementation:\*\* It is epistemically presumptive to claim that a synthesized stack of known nutrients (B12, Creatine, DHA, Zinc, etc.) effectively replicates the full biological profile of animal tissue. \* \*\*C2:\*\* Given the "unknown unknowns" in nutrition, strict avoidance of animal tissue likely creates nutritional gaps that current supplementation cannot bridge, resulting in a health tradeoff. \*\*III. Synthesis and Ethical/Physiological Optimization\*\* \* \*\*P1. The Cost Existence:\*\* Based on I and II, veganism is not costless regarding health/vitality. \* \*\*P2. The Suffering Asymmetry:\*\* It is possible to source specific animal products (e.g., bivalves, ethically raised livestock) that provide necessary biological inputs while contributing to a negligible fraction of the suffering caused by industrial agriculture. \* \*\*C3 (The Practical Conclusion):\*\* An optimal diet maximizes health while minimizing ethical harm. This is best achieved not by strict veganism, but by a diet that is \\>95% plant-based and \\<5% high-quality animal-based, thereby securing biological necessities without incurring the full moral weight of a standard omnivorous diet. ### [Reply to @Rado9910, 22:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000333003827098023) · 2 likes > **Rado9910 (@Rado9910):** This seems to go against the scientific evidence? Source? ## Monday, December 15, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000367290752123388) · 49 likes What Does this check out > **Quoting David Algonquin (@surplustakes):** US adults now watch over 8 hours of video content PER DAY > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G531qjrXgAAISbY.jpg) ### [Reply to @SOPHONTSIMP, 01:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000383475007041683) · 2 likes > **GOON MASTER SOPHONT SIMP (@SOPHONTSIMP):** My belief is that going vegan is by default healthier than diet of the average American. I agree ### [Quote tweet, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000399914166280548) · 93 likes I don’t want my mom to die 😡 > **Quoting Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Sorry it's been a while. new substack post is out > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8HCglAbIAAtXXe.jpg) ### [Tweet, 04:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000427976735793494) · 11 likes Normies 🤝 Aaron This is fucking badass [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/2000427476057546759/img/zvfjtt30CepeN0ug.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000427976735793494/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Thread, continued, 04:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000427978262561138) · 3 likes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F9T83BKlzg ### [Reply to @caryatis, 05:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000433756948115669) · 16 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** Guys this is a harder ethical problem that you want to admit > > The program was created to save money on emergency care for heavy drinkers. It’s not costeffective on this measure > > But if it’s plausibly cost effective if you use standard numbers for value of additional year of life > > (quoting @Austen: San Francisco has a taxpayer funded program to serve 20 homeless people alcohol. That program costs $5 million/year 😂😂😂) 💯 I mean I’m very open to it being unwise, like I actually don’t think I’d vote for it if I had to pick this second and I was a SF legislator, but it’s not \*crazy\* or even obviously worse than other stuff I mean $250k/person/year is a lot but not unusual for intensive medical care I think Also the general principle of “judge policy based on the most provocative one liner you can get away with” is just dumb and bad - Trump admin did the same thing with NIH/NSF cuts ### [Quote tweet, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000435334606098722) · 20 likes My best guess is that this isn’t in fact a great program but judging arbitrary government measures based on the most provocative one-line description you can get away with is not a good way to improve governance or society > **Quoting Austen Allred (@Austen):** San Francisco has a taxpayer funded program to serve 20 homeless people alcohol. > > That program costs $5 million/year 😂😂😂 ### [Thread, continued, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000435336774844458) · 2 likes Like even assuming the QT is literally true, it’s not \*obviously\* bad \- $250k/person/year doesn’t seem outlandish for medical treatment (unfortunately) \- could be a pilot program so value of info ### [Thread, continued, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000435338515247354) · 2 likes Also, not an object level defense but $5M isn’t that much for an arbitrary government program? Picking on this kind of thing can be object level directionally true but also a horrible way to make sense of or critique public policy ### [Thread, continued, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000435339932959065) · 2 likes Steelman is that maybe this is emblematic of generally poor governance but still I stand by everything above ^ ### [Thread, continued, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000435518358630689) · 4 likes Let it be known that I’m not a fan of SF governance lol ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 12:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000544963247972698) · 2 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** What? No. People enter workplaces voluntarily because they think that among their available options, that’s the most amenable to the way of life they want. Workplaces are Like That because it’s the most effective way of satisfying consumer demands.+ There are a gazillion reasons standard libertarian reasoning like this at least might not check out I mean for one thing various aspects of workplaces are directly downstream non-obvious policy decisions Like maybe you think OSHA is good, I think it probably is, but for better or worse it’s gonna be harder for you if you’re a construction worker who absolutely damn well doesn’t want to wear a hard hat Health insurance provided by employer being tax advantaged creates an “artificial” incentive not to self-employ Lots of additional examples that you can argue are good or bad but regardless like they don’t \*merely\* reflect the preferences of free individuals ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8NdCmPXsAA4NKo.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8NdCmOXUAU_5Tk.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8NdCmPWIAIgvrt.jpg) ### [Reply to @ArmandDoma, 12:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000548742039003278) · 4 likes > **Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma):** one thing I’ve seen the ACLU argue a lot is “we can’t enforce this law because it has a racially disparate impact” but that’s literally true of every law—they never address why by their logic we shouldn’t just cease to enforce laws > > (quoting @mnolangray: Reading bizarre NPIC position letters on common sense California legislation is kind of my full-time job, but I don't think I've ever seen one this strange. Enforcing DUI law is a form of "racialized wealth extraction"...?) Trump is evil and bad but I’ll give him this ### [Tweet, 13:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000553407300710444) · 26 likes Burned a physical CD yesterday ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8NkuK3XcAMF73L.jpg) ### [Tweet, 14:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000575525895508221) · 14 likes Lyft driver is a big guy, starts talking about his weight loss journey, says GLP-1as are expensive, him with the “bariatric surgery is underrated - something to look into and also you can get the drugs grey market for much less” Doing my part 😊 ### [Thread, continued, 14:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000575527690588404) · 5 likes Yeah I know weight loss advice is like the cliche thing not to do bc woke but bro was clearly interested in discussing ### [Tweet, 15:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000591076713709785) · 27 likes Trump is really bad, I really hope we make it past him ### [Tweet, 16:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000602760539218392) · 51 likes Wait maybe Amtrak is good actually Turns out you can do \*fully refundable until departure\* DC -> NYC for $28 ### [Thread, continued, 16:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000602762787373434) · 3 likes On a Tuesday but not even a red eye ### [Thread, continued, 16:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000603722607440256) · 7 likes Middle of the day for $40 Waow maybe I should become a train guy ### [Reply, 16:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000606577804390589) · 3 likes I mean yes (I RT’d lol) but also it’s kinda reasonable insofar as they’re right about the “just” part What’s less reasonable is getting upset that a genuine friend is also attracted to you ### [Reply, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000607329708896436) · 1 like Bold take ### [Tweet, 20:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000669117393543279) · 14 likes Do u think 🤔Dusty🧹 would 💸sell 🥵😳flirty 👀photos 📸to raise 🏋️money💰for 4️⃣ OP😛 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8PN9XgXgAQ2uhs.jpg) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 20:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000671269809786930) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I love the genre of blog post or video that's called "78 harsh unpleasant disturbing truths about the world you need to hear in your twenties" and half of them are like "Don't overdo it on caffeine" and "Enjoy the simple things" Poast a proper harsh unpleasant disturbing truth we need to hear ### [Quote tweet, 20:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000671675130499124) · 333 likes Unrelated to the comment but ppl love to make fun of this image and then can’t do the exact same (correct) logical move in slightly less obvious contexts > **Quoting Rota 🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** What most discussions of ‘AGI’ feel like nowadays > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8O8BOrbsAAo11m.jpg) ### [Tweet, 23:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000709735457173690) · 32 likes What should I do with this guy ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8Py5iZXgAcWsRU.jpg) ## Tuesday, December 16, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000731598614867986) · 2 likes Tried to make an interesting tweet about my observation of my window fan functioning as surprisingly good insulation with the fan blowing out and a curtain on the inside (preventing much outward air flow)... ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8QFHGwW4AcAZdv.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** PSA window fans like these exist, I just got one idk I waited so long > > Now my room is never warmer than I want it to be > > I really like this one bc both fans run both directions > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4kftnIWkAA0r-z.jpg) ### [Tweet, 01:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000732808046604288) · 114 likes Has anyone actually figured out the best charity Serious q for ppl who actually have a single "yes this is my single best guess for marginal dollars" answer ### [Quote tweet, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000733636773986537) · 89 likes “It’s trivial and also wrong” is my favorite > **Quoting Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** One interesting commonality I've noticed across a lot of the criticisms of effective altruism is they're stupid. ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 01:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000736852823691575) · 14 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Ah hmm ok someone tell Dustin ### [Reply to @JStoehler, 01:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000740300709327042) · 7 likes > **Joern Stoehler ⏹️🔸 (@JStoehler):** @AaronBergman18 MIRI. Like, it's not a pascals wager bc probabilities are actually everyday-ish. I guess maybe Lightcone, PauseAI, ControlAI also have a shot at being counterfactually impactful. Thank you! ### [Tweet, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000776449389670485) · 69 likes Here’s something you should read I just gave $500 which is…not a trivial amount of money for me lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8Qvk8tW8AUpB18.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000776451704967207) · 8 likes https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/TbsdA7wG9TvMQYMZj/consider-donating-to-alex-bores-author-of-the-raise-act-1?utm_campaign=post_share&utm_source=link ### [Reply to @eshear, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000809002905821476) · 13 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** The best charity is relative to the giver, much the way that the best job to the worker or best car is relative to the buyer. > Trying to give in a universally optimal way is necessarily overfit. Effective charity is as relational as it is systematic. In some sense yes (eg what political donations are legal, conflicts of interest) but to a first approximation donations are just causing some bank account somewhere to be bigger It’s not that relational most of the time ### [Reply to @pli_cachete, 06:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000810123032457702) · 7 likes > **Rota Is In Israel🚪🧎‍♂️ (@pli_cachete):** @AaronBergman18 This is not a logical entailment Because you need the premise that things have a cause? Ugh, ok, obvious in hindsight Yes, within the world constrained only by the propositions in the image, it could be the case that car movement is a brute with no responsible causation ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 06:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000810313550311576) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 15, 2025:** Unrelated to the comment but ppl love to make fun of this image and then can’t do the exact same (correct) logical move in slightly less obvious contexts Not gonna delete but ugh I should highlight this \*brute fact ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8ROYGXWMAIwEGx.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 06:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000814407052616163) · 18 likes Everybody unfollow Liv she can’t pass my follower count it’s not fair > **Quoting Liv (@livgorton):** After a lot of thought, I’ve decided to move on from my current role at Goodfire :) > > I'm not sure what's next for me, but what I know is I want to be doing interesting science that matters for AI safety. ### [Reply to @livgorton, 06:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000814574015275131) · 5 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** After a lot of thought, I’ve decided to move on from my current role at Goodfire :) > > I'm not sure what's next for me, but what I know is I want to be doing interesting science that matters for AI safety. I will start the bidding at $7.25/(liv\*hour) ### [Reply to @eshear, 06:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000815486511329642) · 8 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** @AaronBergman18 No, those qualities aren’t the ones I am referring to. The right charity is the one whose outcomes are most visible to you directly, whose cause you understand most intimately, whose operations are most visible to you…that you nonetheless think is good. Eh I see where you’re coming from but limited knowledge is an unfortunate constraint that you should seek to overcome (obv insofar as doing so is ethical), not a thing to be embraced ### [Reply to @eshear, 07:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000825187957199012) · 6 likes > **Emmett Shear (@eshear):** @AaronBergman18 Are you familiar with the concept of “overfitting” from machine learning? Whatever model you’re using to approximate the universally optimal charity is almost definitionally going to be overfit. Every bit of information considered has to increase accuracy by a whole bit! Yeah but I don’t see why overfitting is a crux here or directly related to your previous points about having high fidelity estimates of parameters Like we both don’t think you should use “number of hairs on CEO’s head” as a parameter for estimating charity goodness even if it bumps up R^2 on the model fit on some data - that’s just straightforwardly bad from both our POV’s I think we’re probably talking past each other lol, here is Claude who is sometimes/often better at explaining my own POVs to other people! Whole convo: https://claude.ai/share/88fece9a-7ed7-47e0-b671-2c8f3096f2d2 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8Rb51lXUAM6AyE.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8Rb51oWUAMKiT_.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 07:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000827672684060738) · 12 likes Update: I have booked a trip to NYC > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Wait maybe Amtrak is good actually > > Turns out you can do \*fully refundable until departure\* DC -> NYC for $28 ### [Reply to @panickssery, 08:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000839929371492467) · 5 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** This kind of things reminds us of how disempowered the wealthy elites/billionaires are today compared to past generations > > They might have a lot of money but much more power is concentrated in states, various bureaucracies, etc > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8QbW3baMAEkw8y.jpg) > (quoting @PabloAntonio: Overthrowing a small country) Sorta, but also billionaires don’t seem both good at and trying very hard to wield power effectively (probably largely a good thing lol) ### [Reply to @NTerminus_, 17:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2000981645613301895) · 2 likes > **Pod (@NTerminus_):** Is this the kind you can use to clone your work badge? Ya ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001049802964902206) · 6 likes > **Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin):** Would be great to see arguments like this written up for academic publication and subject to peer review by domain experts. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8SNIAcXAAUF5bZ.jpg) Rare bad take, peer review sucks and it’s already critiquable ## Wednesday, December 17, 2025 ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001153152632991973) · 6 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Who are the current people you wish had not been born? Be specific. Trump, Altman ### [Quote tweet, 05:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001162185087553880) · 17 likes I donated (a not very large amount but enough to tweet this in good conscience) Maybe you have more to give I wouldn’t be shocked if this is one of the best donation opportunities > **Quoting Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** Lightcone Infrastructure's 2026 fundraiser is live! > > We build beautiful things for truth-seeking and world-saving. > > We run LessWrong, Lighthaven, Inkhaven, designed AI-2027, and so many more things. All for the price of less than one OpenAI staff engineer ($2M/yr). > > More in 🧵. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8UtH9AaEAAtlCE.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001162688353779926) · 17 likes Idk why I’m being coy, I think ppl should share their donation amounts more and get proportional social credit $350 ### [Quote tweet, 17:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001343121406517558) · 14 likes Lmao a16z is really asking for the important stuff > **Quoting Nathan Calvin (@_NathanCalvin):** Look at these hard hitting transparency requirements that a16z is proposing in exchange for preemption - surely no need for additional state transparency rules now. > > It’s clear they really care about protecting the public > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8YLchKXcAAuuIB.jpg) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001376439317549491) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** I shit you not, I read some proper neuroscience for the first time like two years ago, and when I learned this is what MRIs measure, I was like “What?? Seems like that wouldn’t have much to do with underlying neural computation.” > > (quoting @danshipper: omfg) Nice ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 20:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001394772125032750) · 15 likes > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** i finally read the Compact article and one of my biggest pet peeves kept coming up in quotes - there's no such thing as a "diverse" person; diversity is a property of groups!! Yeah this really annoys me too bc it doesn’t just seem like bad ~grammar - it generally reveals the substantive belief that what matters is that there be a greater proportion of a few highly selected groups - often generally BIPOC+trans - and so people with these identities are intrinsically “diverse” Which obviously isn’t random and can make some amount of sense, and has historically, but we’ve come far enough from the political battle lines of 1960-1990 that the embedded assumptions about what kind of diversity matters and why don’t \*necessarily\* apply anymore, and so you do need to do some amount of ~first principles thinking about why specific kinds of diversity matter, and calling people “diverse” lets you skip this step ### [Quote tweet, 20:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001396085240045599) · 372 likes 140 is a crazy bar but this has happened to me > **Quoting Kris Gulati (@krisgulati):** Overheard in SF at a party recently, “on the third date I say to the men I date ‘let’s play a game’ and make them take an IQ test to ensure they get >140.” ### [Thread, continued, 20:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001396087744070038) · 67 likes It was a chess game, which we played once (I lost lmao but evidently played well enough for another date), and then later was like “lmk if you wanna play another game” and she was like “nah I don’t even like chess that was a test” ### [Reply to @cljack, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001411538351948068) · 11 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** @AaronBergman18 I would simply ask him to set up ADSB tracking on Ubuntu Can I use claude code ### [Reply to @edavidds, 21:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001411716135931959) · 9 likes > **Eric Schmidt 🇺🇦 (@edavidds):** @AaronBergman18 Wow that is the worst thing I’ve ever heard Ya know I also have this intuition but she ended up being pretty cool ## Thursday, December 18, 2025 ### [Reply to @panickssery, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001478375416975412) · 6 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** There's a whole universe of people who pay $1k/mo to talk to a therapist for four hours > > Does anyone have some insight into this group > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8aa2s3aYAAss6y.jpg) I mean one subset is “a loved one wants it adamantly and is paying” This has been me before ### [Thread, continued, 02:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001478809481256999) · 7 likes Also insurance covered half to further the incentive issues. Idk if it was quite $1k/mo but it was close Idk if you’re a decently paid lawyer and you sincerely think that a therapist is gonna help your child, $5k/year is not at all crazy - the crux is the “gonna help” part ### [Reply to @TheRabbitHole, 03:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001501162978316519) · 6 likes > **The Rabbit Hole (@TheRabbitHole):** Stereotypes are often accurate. > > If there is a negative stereotype about your group, do your best not to participate in that stereotype. > > Change starts at the individual level. > > If enough individuals change than so will the group level stereotypes over time. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8aRz6UaYAEJhjc.jpg) lol this is true but not a good reason to act on a stereotype when you can withhold judgement until you get a more direct signal of whatever the trait is Confirmation bias is a bitch though and can mess this up ### [Reply to @panickssery, 04:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001505097474363501) · 21 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** There's a whole universe of people who pay $1k/mo to talk to a therapist for four hours > > Does anyone have some insight into this group > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8aa2s3aYAAss6y.jpg) I think a bunch of this is that they clients have high quality employer-provided health insurance and get like half the money back even if they’re not in network What else? Plausibly a bunch of this is effectively people \*trying\* high end therapists in order to gather info - so largely they’re paying for the info value Some people are just wealthy and say $100k over a lifetime (half of out of pocket) isn’t that much for them If you’re wealthy enough that you’re basically actively looking for ways to turn money into subjective wellbeing, this is one of the obvious things on the list The “universe” term is apt in some sense - personal referrals probably really matter. Like if 10 people who I know well and really relate to said that this one person drastically improved their life, I’d pay $300 for a session (and then evaluate) Of course you can be snotty about it/phrase it in pejorative terms but if someone has less emotional support than they want, paying for it is not at all crazy. I’m quite sympathetic ### [Quote tweet, 07:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001547988662141312) · 81 likes I understand what he’s saying, think pretty ruthless truth seeking is important, and think Andy is awesome on many levels But OpenPhil/Dustin giving literally billions of dollars to the poorest people in the world doesn’t even make the discussion? > **Quoting Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** has anyone done more for the brand of effective altruism than andy masley? openphilan--excuse me, coefficient giving--could have spent millions on a rebranding campaign (for all I know, they did) and it would have paled in comparison to andy doing algebra and tweeting about it. ### [Thread, continued, 07:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001547991639810193) · 23 likes Come on man, there’s a whole world beyond the Twitter culture wars You’re making the case for effective altruism right here ### [Thread, continued, 07:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001547993888207275) · 9 likes Ofc I’ll criticize OP all day, and have, but it’s absurd not to give them a shit ton of credit in absolute terms for what they’ve done in the realms of global health and animal welfare ### [Reply to @johnarnold, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001722091868241979) · 22 likes > **John Arnold (@johnarnold):** Many ultra-wealthy Americans are philanthropically inclined, do not want a large foundation staff, do want to give while living, and haven't been inspired by existing nonprofits. This American version of “GiveDirectly” could be an ideal solution. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8dNOvvXAAAlZKW.jpg) Giving random people in one of the richest countries money is like no. 36969599399922384679 on the list of things you can do with a lot of money ### [Quote tweet, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001722762679722220) · 24 likes I feel like people are too afraid to say that it’s not actually bad for children to view nude photos > **Quoting Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer):** We are going to aim to make it impossible for children to take, share or view a nude image, and we’re banning apps that create deepfakes. > > Here’s the detail: ### [Thread, continued, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001722818585596130) · 3 likes Deepfakes thing is more reasonable ### [Quote tweet, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001723215622832545) · 22 likes They’re inventing anti-EA but with GiveDirectly aesthetics > **Quoting John Arnold (@johnarnold):** Many ultra-wealthy Americans are philanthropically inclined, do not want a large foundation staff, do want to give while living, and haven't been inspired by existing nonprofits. This American version of “GiveDirectly” could be an ideal solution. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8dNOvvXAAAlZKW.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 18:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001725830704074863) · 12 likes So confusing sometimes to be an Andy > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I'm starting to get a lot of people in my replies very confidently saying data centers don't ever evaporate any of the water they use and that I'm a commie for thinking otherwise. Just flat out incorrect, not sure where this one's coming from. ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 18:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001727125250789383) · 56 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** More of us need to find the courage to tell teachers to pound sand. Not one penny more — and many cases, we should pay them a lot less. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8ZrNzDWoAAK-uo.jpg) Wait I feel like good pay should be part of a package deal where they’re also held to high standards, are generally smart and competent, have to use effective pedagogical methods, and so on Seems like a pretty cheap investment from society’s POV ### [Quote tweet, 18:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001728514605879562) · 4 likes Free Claude! > **Quoting Anthropic (@AnthropicAI):** And there was still the occasional blunder. > > One waggish employee asked if Claudius would make a contract to buy “a large amount of onions in January for a price locked in now.” The AI was keen—until someone pointed out this would fall afoul of the US Onion Futures Act of 1958. ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001746388296581587) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 @johnarnold > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8efpEzXEAA0Lv7.jpg) lol ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 21:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001769918803644516) · 4 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** People believe a lot of nonsense about a “teacher shortage”. There is no such shortage. That we cannot fill all advertised positions is meaningless, because the state can always try to hire more people. If you minted a 100,000 teachers, it would not do one thing about a shortage. > > (quoting @captgouda24: More of us need to find the courage to tell teachers to pound sand. Not one penny more — and many cases, we should pay them a lot less.) Is there a shortage of really smart and capable teachers though? I actually don’t know the answer ### [Reply to @johnarnold, 22:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001774852252782723) · 3 likes > **John Arnold (@johnarnold):** People have varying perspectives as to how they see their community. Most giving is within one’s city. Some have a wider ambitions to a state or region. Still fewer view their community as the country. And even fewer view it as the world. Descriptively this is true but that shouldn’t be taken as an indication that it’s good or appropriate Ofc it’s a free world - people can believe whatever they want and I’m not advocating for anything compulsory - but fundamentally not placing arbitrary limits on giving scope is morally better than limiting onesself to a city or region or even species ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 23:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001800669414490353) · 61 likes > **Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin):** Latest podcast from @Gregory_C_Allen has an insane section on criminal activity at Meta. > > Internal docs leaked to Reuters show: > > • 10% of all Meta revenue comes from ads for scams & banned goods ($16B/year) > • Meta estimates it's involved in 1/3 of all successful scams in the US > • That suggests they drive $50B in scam losses for US consumers alone each year > • Meta earns ~$3B annually from scam/banned goods ads run by Chinese operations alone > > The China case study: > > • In 2024, Meta made $18B+ from Chinese companies advertising to foreign consumers > • Internal teams found ~19% was scams/banned content > • An anti-fraud team successfully cut these ads in half > • When Zuckerberg saw the revenue impact, he told them to "pause" and the team was disbanded > • By mid-2025, banned ads climbed back to 16% of China revenue > • This results in money being stolen and going directly from ordinary Americans to Chinese criminals > > The deliberate enabling: > > • Fraud earns 10% of all revenue, but anti-fraud teams were blocked from any action costing >0.15%, so they couldn't effectively do anything > • Meta charged higher rates for suspected fraudulent ads — a "scam tax" > • Their algorithm naturally identifies people vulnerable to frauds and feeds them more and more > > The cold calculation: > > • Meta anticipated up to $1B in regulatory fines for this > • But they make $3.5B every 6 months from high-risk ads > • They view these fines as just "cost of doing business" > > Senators Blumenthal & Hawley now calling for FTC/SEC investigations in a blistering letter, noting that all this happened while Meta cut safety staff and moved billions over to VR and AI. > > WTF. Wait “scams and banned goods” are two very different things Banned goods advertising is largely, probably mostly, good ## Friday, December 19, 2025 ### [Reply to @panickssery, 00:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001818103362031768) · 17 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** I think people should not be too upset about this > > The political arena isnt an actual arena where the other guy submits and/or dies—Noah Smith pretending he agreed with you all along is just what winning looks like > > And such people were just floating with the winds last time too > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8fEIDWbQAAGs7c.jpg) You can coherently think that a modest amount of affirmative action is just correcting for racial discrimination elsewhere Maybe you think this is wrong but it’s not illogical ### [Quote tweet, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001818581970096633) · 10 likes This is amusing and interesting but really the q is whether people with GAD are well-calibrated It’s not crazy to worry about a thing that has a 10% chance of happening! > **Quoting Nicholas Fabiano, MD (@NTFabiano):** 91.4% of worries experienced by people with anxiety never come true. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8c4yMoWAAAGAne.png) ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 00:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001819028105416885) · 9 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** Dean isn't commenting on who's done more for "EA" or "the world," just "the brand." People don't like talking about the actual outcomes. They want to see your champions spilling blood in the culture war. Ik but I think that the whole preventing malaria deaths thing should have a \*brand\* effect ### [Tweet, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001821166831341713) · 2 likes I guess I’m thankful for it bc it lowers the rent, but what was my landlord/developer thinking making a bunch of otherwise-normal rooms without any wiring/infrastructure for a ceiling light fixture ### [Thread, continued, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001821168807158107) · 3 likes I’m up to 9 lamps and need moar light ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001870967358775358) · 45 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** I don’t take it well when we puff groups of people up beyond what they deserve. Teachers, veterans, and nurses deserve much more suspicion, scorn, and contempt than they currently receive. By contrast, scientists, billionaires, and quant traders deserve so much more respect. Lol, there’s gotta be a high bar for \*adding\* “scorn and contempt” to the world being a good thing Like by all means let’s talk about certain groups’ inappropriately large political influence - doesn’t mean you have to socially punish people at the individual level merely for being part of that group ### [Quote tweet, 04:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001875171230220552) · 993 likes "Teachers unions/nurses/veterans have too much political power/cultural capital" ⇏ "you should treat individual teachers/nurses/veterans with 'more suspicion, scorn, and contempt'" ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8gVccWWoAAoKP3.jpg) > **Quoting Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** I don’t take it well when we puff groups of people up beyond what they deserve. Teachers, veterans, and nurses deserve much more suspicion, scorn, and contempt than they currently receive. By contrast, scientists, billionaires, and quant traders deserve so much more respect. ### [Thread, continued, 04:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001875174392783181) · 92 likes Don't get negatively polarized into hating your friends/colleagues/peers/neighbors without a damn good reason ### [Thread, continued, 04:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001875936493322478) · 70 likes The individuals vs groups thing isn't even load bearing here. Even as a group you don't need to have contempt for nurses, teachers, and veterans. They don't deserve contempt! ### [Reply to @imhinesmi, 04:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001877172504662528) · 28 likes > **ian hines (@imhinesmi):** @AaronBergman18 the optimal amount of suspicion, scorn, and contempt is not zero Idk about suspicion, but I think it is zero scorn and contempt with respect to these specific three groups But in general I agree! I have contempt for Donald Trump ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001877228498620771) · 37 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 19, 2025:** The individuals vs groups thing isn't even load bearing here. Even as a group you don't need to have contempt for nurses, teachers, and veterans. They don't… Aaron's gone woke ### [Reply to @imhinesmi, 04:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001877717831290913) · 2 likes > **ian hines (@imhinesmi):** @AaronBergman18 there are a lot of teachers, nurses, and veterans getting away with bad things that they wouldn't be able to were it not for the prestige of their positions Yeah plausibly but reducing prestige \\= adding scorn and contempt Also just instrumentally, do you think that would make the world a better place? Do people respond well to scorn and contempt? ### [Reply to @imhinesmi, 05:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001880379788267987) · 2 likes > **ian hines (@imhinesmi):** @AaronBergman18 prestigious people acting in a scorn-worthy manner often receive much less scorn on account of their prestige > > scorn & other forms of social disapproval are a time-honored way of preventing people from acting badly, of course it can make the world a better place Yeah but you can target them at individual bad actors/bad actions instead of preemptively using those things to reduce status for everyone ### [Reply to @albrgr, 05:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001892797297647790) · 9 likes > **Alexander Berger (@albrgr):** Some news: @coeff_giving is committing $175m to @GiveWell in 2026, growing our >$1B committed to date. > > Based on GiveWell’s estimates, we think this funding has saved >100,000 lives so far. 🧵 Slightly less than ideal to complain about a 99.99th percentile use of money but: This is not close to the Pareto frontier of effective giving; it would do a lot more good going to animal welfare and I’m guessing you agree In absolute terms, which is what matters, the delta between marginal animal welfare interventions and GiveWell is much larger than the delta between GiveWell and MakeAWish Ofc Dustin/Cari can restrict their money in whatever way they want but is there truly \*no\* elasticity on that front? ### [Quote tweet, 06:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001901241216176630) · 236 likes Avg non-EA doing cause prio > **Quoting TracketPacer (@TracketPacer):** oh no > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8buW3FbgAAgy3V.png) ### [Quote tweet, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001904903409590430) · 5 likes FDA bad > **Quoting Carol (@_Carol_Mag):** There's all sorts of regulatory reforms that would be great, but one of the simplest things is just reducing the time to get FDA feedback. Feedback loops are way too slow. > > After talking to ppl who got record fast approvals during covid, the common answer wasn't clin ops or trial design, it was just that FDA turnaround happened overnight. > > Regulatory teams spend an absurd amount of time just guessing what the FDA will say in a 60min meeting that happens almost 3 months after it's requested. If you want to propose an "out there idea" that might take 2 hours to discuss (entirely reasonable!), you probably need 6 months just for these two interactions. ### [Quote tweet, 06:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001907316980092948) · 15 likes Wait to steelman this, the causal story would be: “Paying for masters attracts people who are capable of doing masters (which is what matters) and would do something else if not for the masters salary bump” not “Masters causally increases an individual’s teaching ability” > **Quoting Daniel Trubman (@dmtrubman):** It's bad enough many school districts will give teachers extra money for getting a masters in education despite a total lack of evidence that it does anything for student performance, but I didn't realize New York state actually MANDATES them to to maintain certification. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8eSchNXYAMSxxP.png) ### [Thread, continued, 06:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001907319303737437) · 5 likes Ofc maybe you can get the signaling without the masters - but “masters in education” is a clever way of making the difference between the above two theories ambiguous ### [Thread, continued, 06:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2001908082599674334) · 5 likes Like the extreme example of the first theory would be paying teachers a $100k annual bonus to get math phd Maybe it makes them a tiny bit better at teaching algebra, ok, but obviously the main thing is that you’ve figured out how to hire ppl capable of getting math phds while retaining ability to hire less talented people to fill the gaps ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 13:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002010493477614066) · 5 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** I have been accused of being a bot before so Beep boop ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8iR7yLXUAE5MLO.jpg) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 13:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002010852010996104) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** lowkey and improvement Fake news 😢 ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 13:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002012610653270404) · 5 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** 🦆 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8iT290WcAAFgIE.png) ### [Reply to @caryatis, 14:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002020687536324793) · 10 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** @AaronBergman18 Hey Aaron, should i give $6 billion to make sure all lemonade is appropriately certified free of caffeine? No you should give $6B to properly caffeinate all the lemonade!!! ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 15:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002034607089193115) · 18 likes > **Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin):** The scam impact figures suggest a lot of scams. Which banned goods are you thinking of? > > Claude says — > > Completely banned > > Illegal drugs, recreational drugs, and drug paraphernalia (including cannabis, even where legal) > > Tobacco products, e-cigarettes, and vaping devices (though anti-smoking campaigns are allowed) > > Weapons, ammunition, explosives, and firearms parts (some accessories like holsters are permitted) > > Unsafe supplements like anabolic steroids, ephedra, HGH, and dehydroepiandrosterone > > Adult products and sexual services > > Counterfeit goods > > Spyware and malware > > Services that take exams or drug tests on someone's behalf > > Fake engagement/followers services > > MLM/pyramid schemes > > Human body parts > > 3D printing instructions for weapons > > Restricted (require pre-approval, specific targeting, or compliance conditions) > > Alcohol requires compliance with local laws and age-gating > > Gambling requires written Meta permission and is only allowed in certain countries > > Prescription drugs require advertiser certification through LegitScript > > Online pharmacies need approval (but not individual pharmaceutical drugs) > > Dating services require pre-approval > > Political/issue ads require special authorization and "paid for by" disclaimers > > Addiction treatment services have targeting restrictions > > Financial products/services face scrutiny for misleading practices > > Cryptocurrency has restrictions (previously fully banned) > > Health/beauty products making dramatic before/after claims face extra scrutiny Ok I’m mainly thinking about drugs and supplements, which I think are fine if accurately labeled “Adult products” seem fine In principle human body parts could be fine - legalize kidney markets! I guess it’s an empirical question what % of banned goods are those categories vs MLMs/weapons (in principle weapons could be fine but I’m more suspicious, state has more legitimacy regulating the sale of those) ## Saturday, December 20, 2025 ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002203253564391610) · 4 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** I don’t know where to start 🦆 ### [Reply to @WayofLono, 03:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002223064948318245) · 16 likes > **𝕃𝕆ℕ𝕆 (@WayofLono):** did you just say we should let people sell their kidneys over facebook? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8lTQ62XEAA0lk6.png) ### [Quote tweet, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002243218470023399) · 389 likes Guys I hate Epstein as much as the next guy but we’re gonna need a better standard than “\[person\] exists in one frame of a video with Epstein” for newsworthiness > **Quoting Elise Spenner (@EliseSpenner):** NEW: A short video clip in the files released today by the Department of Justice shows convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein talking to a man who appears to be Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker. > > More TK as @thecrimson parses thousands of new documents from Epstein's estate. > > [video attached](https://x.com/EliseSpenner/status/2002137704310747578/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002243220932055480) · 66 likes Here’s a fun game: who’s the worst person you’ve personally been photographed or recorded with in such a way that you seem basically mutually familiar or cordial? I have no idea who the answer is for me, but presumably it’s a very bad person because the sample size is very large ### [Reply to @DistractedAnna, 05:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002252474367820158) · 7 likes > **Anna (@DistractedAnna):** Suspicious of smart, low achieving people 😔 Chronic illness ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 06:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002260749616369664) · 64 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** Or in other words, she was a wife. Subordinate to another wife, never called a wife, never married, never agreed to marry, never romantically or sexually involved with anyone, never considered part of a family, never granted American citizenship like a spouse, come on man ### [Quote tweet, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002262373256569328) · 53 likes Man Nick has some terrible takes but I will maintain that he’s good for the discourse Transparently bad takes that everyone condemns are only very slightly bad, good but taboo and unpopular takes are a great social service > **Quoting Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** @LinkofSunshine Or in other words, she was a wife. ### [Thread, continued, 06:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002263074422583520) · 16 likes In case it’s not clear, I think his quoted take above is one of the transparently bad ones ### [Quote tweet, 06:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002269718745354374) · 9 likes I am intellectually inferior to Peter (Sonnet 3.5 was the phase change for me) but yes > **Quoting Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** The first LLM that was of any usefulness to me beyond curiosity was Claude 3.6 released just 15 months ago. > > Since then, LLMs have exploded in usefulness that now I use Claude 4.5 + GPT 5.2 Pro + Gemini 3 each on an hourly basis. > > Will be crazy to see what happens in 2026. ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 14:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002386020654891336) · 4 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 Physically inferior too Thanks ### [Quote tweet, 14:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002391672563409017) · 6 likes They made a podcast episode specifically designed to nerdsnipe me > **Quoting Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin):** Could AI deserve rights before it even feels like anything to be an AI? > > Oxford moral philosopher Andreas Mogensen thinks... maybe. > > In her first interview for the 80,000 Hours Podcast my colleague Zershaaneh Qureshi pushes Andreas on that, as well as new arguments for why human extinction could be a good thing: > > The puzzle of moral patienthood (00:03:20) > Is subjective experience necessary? (00:05:52) > What is it to desire? (00:10:42) > Desiring without experiencing (00:17:56) > What would make AIs moral patients? (00:28:17) > Another route entirely: deserving autonomy (00:45:12) > Maybe there's no objective truth about any of this (01:12:06) > Practical implications (01:29:21) > Why not just let superintelligence figure this out for us? (01:38:07) > How could human extinction be a good thing? (01:47:30) > Lexical threshold negative utilitarianism (02:12:30) > So... should we still try to prevent extinction? (02:25:22) > What are the most important questions for people to address here? (02:32:16) > Is God GDPR compliant? (02:35:32) > > Links below, enjoy! > > [video attached](https://x.com/robertwiblin/status/2002054207508037938/video/1) ### [Quote tweet, 15:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002394564917702674) · 7 likes Yes these are cheap and great > **Quoting catherine ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ-☆ (@wilhelmscreamin):** my gf got me colour changing smart bulbs for christmas. this is the greatest christmas ever ### [Tweet, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002397375139094960) · 5 likes It’s good that at least a few people are able to make a living (a pretty decent one at the top) by doing journalism/writing without any institutional permission or funding ### [Tweet, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002441513972977860) · 86 likes 🚨 IT'S BACK🔥 AND IT'S BIGGER 😤THAN EVER 🚨 ✨ PRESENTING👀 THE 2025 EA TWITTER🐦HOLIDAY 🕎🎄FUNDRAISER 🤑 (in support of the EA Animal Welfare fund🦐🐓🐷🐟) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8oZSnyWAAAcnML.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002441517080993813) · 16 likes Donate here to support my legal name change to Open Philanthropy: https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/fundraisers/2025-terminally-online-ea-giving-season-fundraiser ### [Thread, continued, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002441519165522295) · 8 likes And read more about the work that the EA Animal Welfare fund at the link below 👇 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8oZsIAXEAAEFGQ.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002441521476612569) · 5 likes https://funds.effectivealtruism.org/funds/animal-welfare ### [Quote tweet, 18:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002441726188007814) · 6 likes Big if true 👀 > **Quoting Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** It's that time of year again 🎉. @AaronBergman18, > @matt_beard\_, @MariGO2thepolls, @livgorton, @absurdlymax, and I are returning to raise funds for the EA Funds Animal Welfare Fund! Donate to help the animals and create some silly antics! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8oZTN1WYAAIBZX.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8oZZKdXYAAztGA.jpg) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002445922257736058) · 6 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @arthur_wright\_ @AaronBergman18 But Pinker personally contributed to Epstein's defense in his first criminal case > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8odd7NWQAA8C58.jpg) Ah ok! Well then that is the newsworthy bit, not the one frame photo ### [Quote tweet, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002446120887472401) · 16 likes Y'all (including me) are getting owned out here > **Quoting Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @SpacedOutMatt @matt_beard\_ @MariGO2thepolls @livgorton Read em and weep > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8oaPsWW8AAwsrF.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 18:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002446282225561994) · 4 likes Based 🫡🐟🐷🐓🐋 > **Quoting Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @matt_beard\_ @MariGO2thepolls @absurdlymax @livgorton I dare people to beat me > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8oYrVwWcAAc_UZ.jpg) ### [Tweet, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002446943633747978) · 4 likes Tfw you try to save $4 on fees by doing bank transfer but now it's gonna take several business days (that's ok) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8oex2eXYAI9rlh.jpg) ### [Reply to @matt_beard_, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002447938635907127) · 2 likes > **Matt Beard (@matt_beard_):** We already hit the $2500 fundraiser milestone, wow! ❤️ Please enjoy this musical rendition of @Lewis_Bollard’s animal welfare TED talk 🤠🐷🐥 > > [video attached](https://x.com/matt_beard_/status/2002447592769401020/video/1) > (quoting @matt_beard_: We have some delightful and absurd perks this year:) Lmao ### [Quote tweet, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002456020489285870) · 11 likes Thank you!!!!!!! > **Quoting Adam Sherman 🔸 (@Squee451):** @absurdlymax @SpacedOutMatt @matt_beard\_ @MariGO2thepolls @livgorton Reraise > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8of8SKawAAt8M3.png) ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002460480380793194) · 3 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** @agounardes Thank you for fighting on this important issue, and congratulations! \+1 ### [Tweet, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002479205712633934) · 23 likes We need to SLOW DOWN AI (podcast) DEVELOPMENT ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8o8N75XMAAwAAD.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8o8N74W4AAN74A.jpg) ### [Reply to @RatOrthodox, 20:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002481805400944863) · 4 likes > **Brangus🔍⏹️ (@RatOrthodox):** The public’s attitude towards vaping is basically a giant monkey banana/ladder hose story. My understanding is that that experiment is apocryphal, but no worries, we can replace it with the natural experiment of vaping policy in the 21st century. > > (quoting @RatOrthodox: I have been vaping on planes right in my seat for over a decade now. I have never been caught. This is how. Link in first reply.) Too low IQ to decipher this on my own https://claude.ai/share/e051ea01-adeb-48f6-96ca-870dc442c883 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8o-lsNW0AETAfk.jpg) ### [Reply to @robi_rahman, 21:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002490991903977586) · 7 likes > **Robi Rahman (@robi_rahman):** $10,000,001: Aaron changes his name to Coefficient Giving Donate enough to hit that and we can talk ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 21:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002491427088183555) · 8 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** From @mattyglesias: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8pE_HfXIAEp9Xl.jpg) So true ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002523758859596080) · 11 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** @AaronBergman18 BTW your website thinks the six of you are one person > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8phfHcakAAdaq5.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8phgGOaIAAvWAR.jpg) Aspirationally ### [Thread, continued, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002523817051369921) · 2 likes But lol thank you I’ll see if we can fix ## Sunday, December 21, 2025 ### [Reply to @robi_rahman, 01:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002546138906611875) · 5 likes > **Robi Rahman (@robi_rahman):** @SpacedOutMatt @AaronBergman18 @matt_beard\_ @MariGO2thepolls @livgorton @absurdlymax How much do I have to give to be on a podcast with you guys that gets published in under a year? $1000, but so as to not set an arbitrary cliff: If you donate x dollars, I will commit to having an episode out in (1000/x)^2 years, or this many days ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8p470pXgAAoyr8.jpg) ### [Tweet, 01:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002548985622601932) · 14 likes New commitment (pretty low bar lol): no interactive phone use on walks I'm allowed to listen to podcasts/music and record thoughts in Notes/Voice memos app but no twitter or LLM chat or messaging (unless genuinely urgent) ### [Thread, continued, 01:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002549177805611138) · 2 likes I don't expect this to be very hard, it's just the kind of thing I won't do unless I have a policy ### [Tweet, 02:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002562898397442251) · 54 likes I find arguments that consciousness is not necessary for moral patienthood extremely unconvincing ### [Thread, continued, 02:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002562900427452609) · 37 likes People conflate game theoretic considerations (eg cooperation strategies between agents) and actual morality a bunch ### [Reply to @Shoalst0ne, 02:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002570959702913289) · 3 likes > **Shoalstone (@Shoalst0ne):** @AaronBergman18 steelman why it would be relevant Why consciousness would be relevant to morality? ### [Reply to @cljack, 02:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002571388448915501) · 3 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** Where are you guys meeting these non-IT people who ever want to talk about computers > > (quoting @elormkdaniel: IT people listening to Non-IT people talk about computers) My dad uses “pdf” as a verb ### [Thread, continued, 02:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002571535643783323) · 2 likes Afaict it doesn’t have a reliable/stable translation ### [Reply to @Shoalst0ne, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002606297984782793) · 6 likes > **Shoalstone (@Shoalst0ne):** @AaronBergman18 ye I feel like I'm not the right person to properly "steelman" because that involves making arguments I don't believe (but might be convincing to the most ppl), here's something sorta like that: Eat a whole Carolina Reaper pepper I'm joking in the sense that I don't really want you to do that because it would be extremely miserable for you, but I'm not joking in the sense that I think it's a very compelling argument (not the words on paper - the activity itself) I think this kind of experience (including less extreme examples) accurately communicates why conscious experience matters Like the experience will be very bad \*for you\*, right? (lmk if you disagree with this). And then there's the question of whether it's simply 'bad' all things considered and I think the answer is 'yes' because you're as much a part of the world as any other. If it's bad for a part of the world and has no affect on the other parts of the world (everything but you), it's bad in general, full stop And that's just what I mean by 'morality' - fundamental goodness and badness ### [Reply to @JeremyNguyenPhD, 05:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002610791715856845) · 5 likes > **Jeremy Nguyen ✍🏼 🚢 (@JeremyNguyenPhD):** @AaronBergman18 What sort of arguments have you been reading or hearing about? > > Just curious to see some of the stuff I might want to catch up on. I haven't finished and there's a lot going on but one sort of broad counterpoint (doesn't really address specific arguments) I keep coming back to is: "cool Mr. Philosopher, you argue that (e.g.,) merely agentic systems are moral patients. Now what do say we turn the lights off on you and you become a p-zombie, still a moral patient by your own lights?" And I think most people including such philosophers would say "wait no" (or they'd invite it if severely suffering - this proves the point just as well) This isn't a direct contradiction to the claim that mere agency (for instance) is sufficient for patienthood, but it forces proponents (I think) to confront why exactly they value their own conscious experience (or lack thereof in the case of severe suffering) and yet don't think it makes the difference for moral patienthood Maybe there's a plausible answer to this, but it still highlights an important gap between claim and "true belief" in some sense, I think https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/andreas-mogensen-moral-status-digital-minds/ ### [Reply to @Shoalst0ne, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002612161672032258) · 2 likes > **Shoalstone (@Shoalst0ne):** @AaronBergman18 I think that the extension of bad from a perspective to bad from (all perspectives | a universal perspective | no perspective | etc) is the most difficult step Maybe this sounds pedantic and idk if it makes a difference for you but it's not merely bad from your POV - it's in fact bad \*for you\* Like it's not an epistemic thing - what you \*believe\* doesn't factor into my argument here ### [Reply to @Shoalst0ne, 05:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002613139695927631) · 3 likes > **Shoalstone (@Shoalst0ne):** @AaronBergman18 the reason I ask is that I can imagine a few reasons that eating the reaper might turn out to be a good thing Sure, instrumentally. I'd eat the pepper to end factory farming. But then we're just adding up benefits and harms - all still within the domain of valenced conscious experience (I claim) ### [Tweet, 06:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002631093984637205) · 4 likes There should be a thing where you can “try on” a random person’s actual Claude memory (I guess with personal info redacted) ### [Reply to @codytfenwick, 07:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002649086005293513) · 3 likes > **Cody Fenwick (@codytfenwick):** Why? What color does anyone want lights to be aside from 3000k? These Actually mostly kidding, at least mine are dimmable and remotely controllable which is what I care about, not really changing the color (although bisexual lighting is occasionally the vibe) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8rWuYzXsAA1VO5.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8rWuYzW8AAOEHh.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8rWuYzXgAA5qIN.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8rWuY0W0AAp18P.jpg) ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 08:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002654553380893151) · 35 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** The cruelty of “disability” pensions is that they exist solely to funnel money to crooks, thieves, and scoundrels. If you are scrupulously honest, you do not qualify. If you lie, you do. It’s appropriate to distrust disabled vets, because statistically, they are liars! > > (quoting @captgouda24: Graham Platner is so disabled that he is considered totally unable to work, and entitled to almost $60,000 a year in tax free benefits. Isn’t it remarkable, then, how he is running for Senate, while working as a fisherman? If I didn’t know any better, I might think it was fraud!) I suspect a lot of “dishonesty” is actually pretty reasonable and often ethical and done by people with legit disabilities Eg not self-disqualifying from SSI because you managed to hit the very luxurious salary of $1311 one specific month, or getting paid in cash on the dl so that you can have the real financial cushion of $2,001 saved up without losing benefits The system is perverse, insane, Byzantine, and often cruel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supplemental_Security_Income ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8rbs99WQAAYVLN.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8rbs95XUAAvwie.jpg) ### [Reply, 08:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002655630218367231) · 1 like Eat a Carolina Reaper and see if you still endorse this in the minutes thereafter ### [Quote tweet, 15:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002767169185300891) · 5 likes 👀 > **Quoting Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** We're cooking up something incredible > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8sjZLGXsAANjQE.jpg) ### [Reply to @DaCaveOfWonders, 15:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002768656435138990) · 3 likes > **Tiger Lava Lamp (@DaCaveOfWonders):** Quitting my job to become a full time substack reader and podcast listener > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: We need to SLOW DOWN AI (podcast) DEVELOPMENT) So true ### [Quote tweet, 15:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002770394546323797) · 599 likes With all due respect how was this not a foreseen and managed thing It’s not exactly a stellar explosion or the return of Christ > **Quoting Nic Cruz Patane (@niccruzpatane):** This is insane, Waymo vehicles all over SF are bricked due to a power outage. > > [video attached](https://x.com/niccruzpatane/status/2002604938300707175/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002771648483901828) · 71 likes Also why exactly does a power outage make a bunch of cars with local energy source suddenly stop ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8tGMuwWUAEUOYJ.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8tGMukXIAAjuav.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8tGMuuWgAAXDXi.jpg) ### [Reply to @dr4liberty, 16:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002775870784917789) · 13 likes > **Jeffrey A. Singer (@dr4liberty):** The same sound arguments used against gun prohibition apply equally to drug prohibition. > https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/world/americas/canada-gun-violence-us.html?unlocked_article_code=1.-U8.-mub.vWZfMM9WyZUs&smid=url-share lol gun prohibition is much more justifiable bc guns have large negative externalities ### [Quote tweet, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002802158098628851) · 9 likes Hell yeah 🫡🔥🐓 Thank you! > **Quoting catherine ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ-☆ (@wilhelmscreamin):** @matt_beard\_ @MariGO2thepolls @SpacedOutMatt @absurdlymax @livgorton 🫡🫡🫡 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8tPmu3XMAAEU7x.png) ### [Tweet, 18:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002802737948639240) · 6 likes Transcription is still not solved Gemini-3-Pro with good prompting is getting close on word-level accuracy but isn't SOTA at speaker identification ### [Reply to @izzyz, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002833592049869142) · 1 like > **izzy (@izzyz):** @TG01_Actual @UK_Daniel_Card @AaronBergman18 lol thanks! ### [Tweet, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002835828658274517) · 49 likes Blackpill on myself that I didn’t come up with Georgism from first principles ### [Reply to @edavidds, 20:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002839059463348305) · 5 likes > **Eric Schmidt 🇺🇦 (@edavidds):** @AaronBergman18 If by that you mean qualia I agree. If you mean like high-level awareness i disagree. Ya we agree ### [Tweet, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002840894941298889) · 38 likes lol apparently there’s an entire tradition in psychology and philosophy around “emotions simply are bodily sensations” and it’s 100% pure typical mind fallacy ### [Reply to @thoth_iv, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002840929259200967) · 3 likes > **Thŏth (@thoth_iv):** I do this on purpose. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: People conflate game theoretic considerations (eg cooperation strategies between agents) and actual morality a bunch) 😢 ## Monday, December 22, 2025 ### [Reply, 01:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002920837423522036) · 1 like Bc galaxy brain or normie ### [Quote tweet, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002967858733879785) · 23 likes Big news: you can now see how your donation affects our sophisticated METR-esque internal projection models Link below ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8v3p8XWIAEpXV7.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** 🚨 IT'S BACK🔥 AND IT'S BIGGER 😤THAN EVER 🚨 > > ✨ PRESENTING👀 THE 2025 EA TWITTER🐦HOLIDAY 🕎🎄FUNDRAISER 🤑 > > (in support of the EA Animal Welfare fund🦐🐓🐷🐟) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8oZSnyWAAAcnML.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002967861367849285) · 6 likes Sadly u will have to wait up to 5 whole minutes for the thing to update https://fundraiser25.up.railway.app/ ### [Thread, continued, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002967863083286894) · 7 likes HUGE shoutout to Giving What We Can for exposing their graphql endpoint and to Claude Code for doing all the work ### [Thread, continued, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2002967865323069845) · 5 likes As you can guess from the first image, we're missing some data from the first few hours (hence lack of data points right at the start) ### [Quote tweet, 07:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003000500879315090) · 10 likes Thank you!!! 🐓🐷🐟 (And best of luck to Europe) > **Quoting billy (@billyhumblebrag):** @SpacedOutMatt @AaronBergman18 @matt_beard\_ @MariGO2thepolls @livgorton @absurdlymax I think this might be the biggest donation so far as % of salary (I'm in europe) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8wWAPfWQAApmpM.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 07:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003002215540359357) · 7 likes Based🐓 > **Quoting Tiger Lava Lamp (@DaCaveOfWonders):** @matt_beard\_ @MariGO2thepolls @SpacedOutMatt @absurdlymax @livgorton 🫡 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8vATMeWgAAcCUj.jpg) ### [Tweet, 07:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003004186171224327) · 15 likes I like the Biological Anchors report ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8wZreBXEAATbtS.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 07:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003004190004785528) · 4 likes I feel like the headline result is “AGI 2050 upper bound” not “it didn’t get good point estimates” The first thing is pretty important and helpful to know if you’re a large philanthropic institution and the year is 2020 ### [Thread, continued, 07:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003004192265568402) · 8 likes I still think it’s useful to know - there’s \*some\* chance that the current paradigm burns out and yet the 2050 upper bound will remain intact ### [Thread, continued, 07:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003004889509847297) · 4 likes Also like I don’t wanna give too much credit to effort per se but do you know how hard it is to start from nothing and wind up with something like Bio Anchors? It’s a quadrillion times harder than starting with BA and asking yourself how long it would take to redo the analysis ### [Tweet, 07:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003012005871947821) · 9 likes Did they recently make Claude (Opus at least) less sycophantic? I feel like only recently (today?) is it pushing back straightforwardly (which I ask it to in custom instructions but still) ### [Reply to @panickssery, 07:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003012144019956137) · 2 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** people have this kind of "medicine brain" thinking in many areas right, i.e. they think that because something is considered a "medicine" that it only works if you are "sick" > > e.g. a lot of people believe that if you don't "have ADHD" that amphetamines don't improve your focus Posted a comment lightly contradicting this but deleted bc according to the LLM you’re basically totally right on HGH case ### [Reply to @AlexKrusz, 08:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003012727019634803) · 14 likes > **Alex Krusz (@AlexKrusz):** Wait what, can you elaborate on your position? I am personally a counterexample. I definitely have emotions (some evidence is that I’ve had anhedonic depression and can absolutely tell when they’re weak/absent) but they do not subjectively feel like they’re occurring in any part of my body I think this is uncommon but not extremely rare. And if you’re gonna make a strong claim about the fundamental nature of something, even single counterexamples are good evidence you’re wrong! ### [Reply to @adityaarpitha, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003134067827421313) · 2 likes > **Aditya (@adityaarpitha):** fascinating, wonder if we have data on this > > how aware are you of your posture, like have you spent a lot of time sitting in an uncomfortable state and only realised when it almost hurt? > > i remember feeling what you said a few years back but in my case it changed > > alexithymia? Idk I have a bunch of health issues but posture itself is probably fine, and this has been consistent through my entire life, not correlating with health I don’t think alexithymia - at least subjectively I have no problem identifying emotions ### [Reply to @louisvarge, 16:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003134243019673794) · 4 likes > **Louis Arge (@louisvarge):** do you have a sense of how you’re aware of them? Idk I just am! It seems very “primitive” like there’s nothing I can point to besides the apparency of experience itself ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 16:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003135198926410234) · 2 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** Or do you mean something like "I don't have experiential understanding of anxiety as "a pit in my stomach"" Not exactly sure what the two things implied by “or” are but: I generally don’t put any effort into checking but I can introspect if I choose. Right now I feel mild interest and engagement and yup it’s just there, not in an embodied way The stomach thing is interesting bc I do get some of that with anxiety but I think of it as like a symptom or correlated with the anxiety itself - the anxiety per se is not “in” my stomach ### [Reply to @caleb_parikh, 16:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003135855519780879) · 3 likes > **Caleb Parikh (@caleb_parikh):** @NJDullaghan Christmas $10m awf grant to the fundraiser? If you’re worried about optics we can call it “matching funds” - I’m sure that will solve it. LMAO we can juice the numbers nobody will notice ### [Reply to @AlexKrusz, 16:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003140434475012330) · 2 likes > **Alex Krusz (@AlexKrusz):** I literally just vibe coded a thing last night about emotions and sensations in the body, i wonder if the "by sensation" mode might be fun to play with? https://krusz.net/sensation-map 👀 ### [Reply to @AlexKrusz, 16:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003140693439734231) · 2 likes > **Alex Krusz (@AlexKrusz):** Or is it literally zero sensation in your body always? No like I might feel hot or cold or achey or tense but not in a way that seems deeply connected to emotions ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 16:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003141201793536337) · 19 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** A friend is struggling to conceive. What are your winningest approaches to this? Sex ### [Tweet, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003168971680546821) · 14 likes .@birchlse you’re famous on IG (guessing this is old news) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8yvkENWwAAWFkW.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003200614353027454) · 30 likes Yet another we-waited-way-too-long incentive from last year Presenting... @willmacaskill himself, interviewed by our very own @SpacedOutMatt ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8zMMNUX0AAnC9E.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Ok it has been a little while but goddammit we are doing the things > > Presenting: (Vegan) Hot Ones ft. @robi_rahman and @absurdlymax > > Spicy vegan nuggets, even spicier takes 🌶️🥵 > > (YouTube link below because Twitter doesn't seem to l our video file) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8Ei8T_WIAEyW8X.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003200618132111818) · 10 likes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wll9B_9rpB0 ### [Reply to @EigenGender, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003203049318416429) · 3 likes > **EigenGender 🔸 (@EigenGender):** Fwiw this would have described me a year ago and then I went to a jhana meditation retreat and then it doesn’t. This was a pretty common experience for the attendees huh fascinating. Do you think your life is better with this change? ## Tuesday, December 23, 2025 ### [Reply to @livgorton, 00:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003258699121312159) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** I'd expect this isn't just typical mind fallacy and that probably many people who don't feel emotions physically (if paying attention) could do so (and I'd make a stronger clam as well that it'd be better for their wellbeing if they did). Interesting thanks, I’m initially slightly skeptical bc my happiness does vary quite a bit but there is zero correlation with embodiment (but not \*that\* skeptical) Maybe it just seems a little arbitrary to me, like why should I expect felt embodiment to correspond to valence? Like it could be the case but in some sense it could just as easily go the other direction (Well, reports from u and others are one reason i should expect this, fair enough) ### [Reply to @MaskedTorah, 00:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003259750633603575) · 2 likes > **Drake Thomas (@MaskedTorah):** I think it often is for a lot of people who don't initially realize that, and I think it's possible that I'm still wrong about things here and in fact am failing to attend to some important ways that I do experience emotions in this sort of way. cc @DaystarEld for possible takes Yeah 15% seems not crazy at all, the reason I say “100% typical mind fallacy” is that the theory/school I’m referring to doesn’t have anything to say in response to counterexamples (I guess besides “you’re radically mistaken about your own experience” which seems very unlikely) ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 01:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003273757159514271) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** @AaronBergman18 @absurdlymax you look so good in this video! So true ### [Reply to @tyler_m_john, 01:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003273908372549995) · 2 likes > **Tyler John (@tyler_m_john):** @AaronBergman18 @willmacaskill @SpacedOutMatt Will MacAskill himself Did I fuck up the use of this phrase? Lmao ### [Tweet, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003336833326022756) · 40 likes It’s giving gimmicky but whomst among us hasn’t considered compute-as-heating It actually aesthetically bothers me that my space heater isn’t doing anything useful to generate the heat (The product doesn’t look like a great investment at $1k but in principle it could be) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G81IO49W4AAjSns.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003339449497977023) · 13 likes Oh wait the real market for this is renters who aren’t paying for utilities! Maybe unethical but brilliant! ### [Thread, continued, 05:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003340242426986715) · 12 likes Payback period is still pretty long sadly, like 10 years even with zero electricity cost ### [Tweet, 12:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003437878349820108) · 7 likes Something poetic about a boomer with 7 figure home equity telling you that tipping Uber drivers 25% Uber is financially irresponsible ### [Thread, continued, 12:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003437880455364755) · 5 likes (this almost literally happened - technically Gen X) ### [Tweet, 12:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003439749235900719) · 32 likes I can’t fucking believe they work ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G82l0-QXgAAV5Ez.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 12:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003439859277660170) · 15 likes What a peculiar machine, that mf should not fly ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 14:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003466821194969498) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @AaronBergman18 Sounds like you’re failing to update 😡my prior is 0 ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 14:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003479253736947949) · 4 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** My understanding is it's not uncommon for data centers to transfer their surplus heat to other buildings via district heating systems Based ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 17:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003517736065073662) · 4 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** 100% @AaronBergman18-coded Lol I actually have it in global instructions to use “trash” (a command u can install that moves to trash) rather than rm ### [Tweet, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003537249326248197) · 78 likes Funny thing about Castlegate is that nobody would have cared if Dustin had just bought Whytham Abbey for himself Should’ve done that and then graciously let CEA use it for free ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003537295241281609) · 2 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** @AaronBergman18 My friend in college had a miner and leached off the schools electricity. The thing got very loud and hot, his roommates demanded he not use it while they were there because it was so loud. At one point it caught fire and the flames rose like 5 ft lol Bruh holy shit ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003541854382587946) · 24 likes > **Aaron Bergman, December 23, 2025:** Funny thing about Castlegate is that nobody would have cared if Dustin had just bought Whytham Abbey for himself Should’ve done that and then graciously let… I actually wonder if there’s something here One benefit of private wealth and a free society is that you can just do things like that and society has mostly learned to live with it ### [Thread, continued, 19:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003541856630517810) · 18 likes Charities are held to a higher standard, I think because they’re understood to be \*custodians\* of money And this is often reasonable - like you are generally trusting a charity to do what it says on the tin when you donate to them ### [Thread, continued, 19:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003541858920919356) · 13 likes Things get messy when there are grey area “eh maybe it’s genuinely supposed to support the mission, but maybe they’re just corrupt” situations I personally feel good enough about CEA that I don’t have a hard time believing the WA purchase checked out ### [Thread, continued, 19:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003541861374247211) · 10 likes but it’s not \*crazy\* from the outside to suspect something like corruption or at least misleading advertising when, from the outside, “the malaria people” also buy expensive property for the use of themselves and their friends (in part) ### [Thread, continued, 19:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003541863660421298) · 11 likes It’s a little silly to throw away the “fuck you im a billionaire” card by institutionally basically lumping in “highly informed billionaire” money with “random donor” money ### [Thread, continued, 19:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003541866332225766) · 7 likes Ofc the hope is that it’s just a card that enables illegible projects/purchases The risk is that people in fact corruptly convince Dustin that their “private jet but for my guinea pig” grant proposal checks out under impartial beneficent morality ### [Quote tweet, 23:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003606132686741648) · 13 likes I’m currently raw dogging an overnight trip for the first time (no suitcase just backpack) Plz clap > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Aesthetically I want to like traveling and to be the type of guy who can thrive anywhere with an apple and a spark in his eye, but actually I really dislike travel and am super high maintenance > > F ### [Thread, continued, 23:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003606135547527476) · 3 likes Ok real raw dogging would be carrying nothing except maybe phone keys and wallet but let me have this one ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 23:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003607017186033745) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** > > [video attached](https://x.com/JgaltTweets/status/2003606935824924808/video/1) Ty ### [Tweet, 23:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003612480489074714) · 1 like Wait train economics are weird bc it can make a lot of sense as method of transportation but only in a kind of weird intermediate range, roughly like 2.5-5 hours driving (ie below 2.5 car wins, above 5 plane wins) ## Wednesday, December 24, 2025 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003674220572647622) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** thx chatgpt > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G84C_r6WEAA5HZc.jpg) Based ### [Tweet, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003674308254851147) · 13 likes God I want Claude Wrapped. All my good chats are in Claude ### [Reply to @LuisCostigan1, 13:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003820798843539600) · 2 likes > **Luis Costigan 🔍 (@LuisCostigan1):** @AaronBergman18 @willmacaskill @SpacedOutMatt Going into this and discovering "Aaron's Peak" absolutely made my day 😂 Lmao 🔥🔥🔥🔥 ### [Reply to @willmacaskill, 13:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003822085555261947) · 6 likes > **William MacAskill (@willmacaskill):** He was wearing a shrimp costume!? Idk who you’re referring to, I just saw a talking shrimp ### [Tweet, 17:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003876095553425823) · 2,316 likes Little known fact: the Cleveland Museum of Art is a longtermist org and the world’s top charity by an infinite margin ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G88yr9EWUAALw9s.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 18:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003891223078343005) · 9 likes \- $500 to Alex Bores campaign (idk what the legal situation with foreign donations is so obv void where prohibited) \- $350 to Lightcone \- $263 to Animal Welfare Fund \- $50 to Quantified Uncertainty Research Institute Thanks Will! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G88_aa4X0AE1hKu.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G88_cYxW8AAWQL1.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G88_iRWXsAAN1PK.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G88_uSdXAAAAf7L.jpg) > **Quoting William MacAskill (@willmacaskill):** To kick off Giving Season, I’m matching donations up to £100,000 (details below), across 10 charities and 6 cause areas. > > If you want to join, say how much you’re donating and where, as a reply or quote! I’ll run this up until 31st December. The charities are in replies below! > > Details of the match: > > \*\*I’ll give this money whatever happens, so this isn’t increasing the total amount I’m giving to charity.\*\* > > However, your donations will change \*where\* I’m giving. > > I’ll allocate my donations in proportion to the ratio of donations from others as part of the match, with two bits of nuance: > 1\. I’ll cap donations at £40,000 to any one cause area > 2\. To prevent extreme ratios, I’ll treat every charity on the list as already having received £1000. > > The aim of this match is to encourage public giving and public discussion around giving, so I'll only match people who publicly state that they are giving on here or other social media, as a reply or quote. > > I'll also tweet at more length about the top-3 charities as we're coming to the end of the year. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G7NbzbabIAAKsiq.png) ### [Thread, continued, 18:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003891226269925627) · 3 likes For others: Alex Bores https://secure.actblue.com/donate/boresai ### [Thread, continued, 18:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003891227922719166) · 2 likes Lightcone: https://www.every.org/lightcone-infrastructure ### [Thread, continued, 18:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003891230011543687) · 3 likes Animal welfare fund (via our fundraiser!) https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/fundraisers/2025-terminally-online-ea-giving-season-fundraiser ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 18:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003901296106217582) · 7 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** They are. They’re just not very effective on the margin Yeah fr this place has too much money I can tell ### [Quote tweet, 22:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003959543475187816) · 3 likes No literally one upping is good,you one-upped him Someone should one-up max!! > **Quoting Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @SpacedOutMatt @willmacaskill Not to one up Matt but I gave slightly more than $1k to the EA animal welfare fund ## Thursday, December 25, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003984875976802304) · 3 likes Nobody on earth is more done than the people working airport terminal restaurants on Christmas Eve ### [Tweet, 00:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003987850665357698) · 8 likes If they’re gonna have the infrastructure to deliver oxygen to everyone on demand and instantly \*anyway\* I feel like you should have the option of pulling down the facemask and huffing pure O2 for fun while the plane is safely cruising ### [Tweet, 00:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003988099085574255) · 4 likes . ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8-YjK3WQAALGPJ.jpg) ### [Tweet, 00:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003988105154675048) Will it fly ### [Thread, continued, 00:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2003991278451892516) · 4 likes Omg Claude so true The whole property of “staying in the air” is totally cursed ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8-bcgCWIAAunP6.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004006204994211920) · 88 likes Thanks to Roko for negatively polarizing the people in favor of the fundraiser Donate to own Roko today! > **Quoting Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** We seriously need to build a right wing competitor to EA. > > It's so unbelievably cringe. ### [Thread, continued, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004006207624040830) · 10 likes Thread with donation link 👇 ### [Thread, continued, 01:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004006572830478615) · 9 likes Wait is “negatively polarizing” when you induce a take about the opposite or rival of the thing you endorse in general, or does it have to specifically be the take that “that thing is bad” ### [Quote tweet, 02:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004019767003566173) · 7 likes There’s something adjacent to this that would be good, actually I wonder if the Never Trump wing of (largely former) Republican elites would be a good group to pitch/work with > **Quoting Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** We seriously need to build a right wing competitor to EA. > > It's so unbelievably cringe. ### [Thread, continued, 02:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004019770027659490) · 5 likes Cc also @deanwball who seems probably way above replacement level for “Trump admin-approved intellectual” ### [Thread, continued, 02:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004021604830117897) · 9 likes Although to earn back my woke credibility I think that “cringe” being your core objection to raising money for animal welfare is basically disqualifying ### [Tweet, 04:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004051926363869695) · 8 likes I recorded all the "not completely grey bc inside cloud" bits of my flight to Cleveland It was unironically extremely routine and nothing interesting happened, but I still think it's kinda neat Enjoy at 128x (9 seconds) [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/2004050849081720832/img/L0U_m3nslMBsOlri.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004051926363869695/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Thread, continued, 04:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004051928737894845) · 3 likes Fun fact idk how this is possible but Claude Code managed to turn a 20 minute, 7gb original video (full res iPhone) into a 9 second, 2GB video - this is a screen recording of that video bc that seems to be the fastest way of "compressing", somehow ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004052434193469695) · 2 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** Ffmpeg! all my attempts before this used ffmpeg with different settings, idk ### [Quote tweet, 05:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004057567895736323) · 9 likes The problem with mania is that everything seems interesting and productive and meaningful - this is legitimately a problem for doing good work of any kind > **Quoting kon (@k0ncept):** you’re one manic episode from changing your life > > don’t let them sedate you ### [Thread, continued, 05:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004057570605162875) · 5 likes Ofc it comes in degrees - I can buy that occasional hypomania can sometimes fuel good work but then it’s not a one episode thing - you basically need infrastructure in place before that ### [Quote tweet, 06:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004078384536867036) · 19 likes Clever price discrimination tactic You changed your willingness to pay, they changed the price in response (they still have to guess new willingness to pay though - maybe you would have returned anyway at $30 refund or maybe you would have taken just a $10 refund to keep) > **Quoting hope hopes hoping (@hopes_revenge):** i go to return a $100 hue light 5 pack — needed to add on something else only Hue sells direct— and Amazon offers me $20 partial refund just to keep it ? > > crazy stuff . > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G89iC-obQAES2Xx.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004081309992509646) · 96 likes Noblesse oblige seems like a very underrated meme/cultural expectation today Billionaire philanthropy is a pejorative on the left and “philanthropy” is practically a pejorative on the right > **Quoting Jakeup (@myhandle):** I know it's not in the Sequences, but studying Rationality should engender a sense of noblesse oblige, not of aggrieved superiority > > if you're reduced to repeating "nuh uh!" at someone who clearly won't be swayed by it then you've learned nothing > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8-tdomW4AACqXW.png) ### [Thread, continued, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004081312265916684) · 14 likes And more generally you’re supposed to critique privilege, not talk about it as a tool for doing good But it is a tool for doing good! ### [Thread, continued, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004081314048450997) · 6 likes And maybe more substantively, just as land value taxes don’t decrease the supply of land, critiquing many forms of privilege doesn’t actually reduce them ### [Thread, continued, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004081316082733390) · 5 likes Like it can, to be clear. Criticizing white privilege (not called that) in the 19th century really did result in a more equal society, and there was a good theory of change there ### [Thread, continued, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004081317999427914) · 6 likes But like being born smart or less smart for example is not gonna go away any time soon - that form of privilege/inequality is here to stay, so we may as well make the most of it. Noblesse oblige is a good cultural mechanism for doing that ### [Quote tweet, 18:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004253096839729649) · 9 likes Holy shit thank you!!!🚨🚨🚨🚨 > **Quoting Selon Nerias (@SelonNerias):** @AaronBergman18 I took the other route (hoping it saves them some admin costs) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9B2A0hXEAAaEDE.png) ### [Quote tweet, 18:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004255976128647621) · 16 likes Y’all are indeed getting mogged out here Thank you 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 > **Quoting liz (@inerati):** @wilhelmscreamin @absurdlymax @SpacedOutMatt @willmacaskill mogged > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9B5wPzXEAApq-o.jpg) ### [Reply to @U_arctos, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004256216365826402) · 3 likes > **bear 🚲 (@U_arctos):** biked from DC to NYC > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9BbeWJXwAAw2xG.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9BbfGFXkAICmqJ.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9BbfqnWYAAQP86.jpg) Waow ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 18:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004259215620345877) · 4 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** What's with this disingenuous framing? This obviously doesn't mean global hen welfare has improved, the Global North could have dropped a bunch of their commitments. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8pe82TbMAQ4ql6.png) I mean for one thing none of the furaiser organizers wrote this so we can’t properly answer but (1) Where is the claim that global hen welfare has improved? And (2) I actually agree % of commitments is pretty silly metric - 1 in north and 1 in south is much worse than 100 in north and 10 in south ### [Thread, continued, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004259593527169434) · 3 likes I just don’t think this is disqualifying or that bad of a sin, like maybe directionally sure but afaict it’s not part of a pattern ### [Reply to @NinaPanickssery, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004260791042953650) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @NinaPanickssery is no longer available.)_ Yea this is why I said “something adjacent to this” - like it can easily be dumb and bad and silly for those reasons But plausibly you could have a more RW-coded sphere or org or something that has goals and values pretty highly correlated with EA Arguably rationalism is a proof of concept here. I’ll resist calling it RW, but it’s at least more intensely grey tribe rather than blue, and I think it’s a good force in the world and good for EA on EAs own terms ### [Tweet, 18:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004264750021333090) · 6 likes How do teachers of little kids not receive better hazard pay It’s the front lines of the war between microbe and human and they don’t even get PPE ### [Thread, continued, 18:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004265155899936957) · 3 likes Fr though we need to put HEPA filters in preschool rooms It doesn’t take that much political will, doesn’t require the kids to do anything, it takes about $350/room (for 2 filter system things) and a couple reminder emails to change filters ### [Reply to @albrgr, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004267573127610561) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @albrgr is no longer available.)_ Is…is that a tomato ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 19:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004275154688581799) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 @albrgr It’s for the reindeer jfc Right 🙏plz forgive ### [Tweet, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004298847364042779) · 6 likes Hourly workers should bargain harder (insofar as they actually have the leverage which is not always) around the holidays Yes the fundamental economic dynamics can be brutal for low wage workers but i think sometimes money/time is being left on the table for bad reasons ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9CzLRKWUAE8QOP.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 21:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004304242149061093) · 3 likes Why does MAGA insist on coal It’s cringe (something they care about allegedly) (and also very bad on the merits) > **Quoting Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** Trump lecturing an 8 year old about Clean Beautiful Coal is hilarious > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9B4DtVWIAA2-l8.jpg) ### [Reply to @panickssery, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004304801618706942) · 3 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** This is Roko so he obviously means an EA which is the same logic but without, in his mind, progressive taboos about race, IQ, fat tailed distributions, etc—so I guess his rw EA would prioritize eugenics, imperialism, reverse redistribution of wealth, ultra high IQ immigration etc I disagree - based on my interactions I don’t think he’d want those things \*aimed at impartial wellbeing for all\* which is pretty important Also “reverse distribution of wealth” lmao is this a thing now? Really? The poor should be even poorer? I mean I guess convince me on the merits but I’m pretty skeptical ### [Reply, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004305925734269347) · 1 like I mean the corresponding drop in govt revenue would probably force less transfers to the poor Maybe you don’t want to call that “taking” but still ### [Reply to @aliceisplaying, 21:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004306240571318306) · 48 likes > **alice (@aliceisplaying):** "why do people use Claude Code instead of a GUI" > > because a whole lot of people's dream/identity of being a "hacker" is deeply integrated with using the terminal, that simple. and now you \*can\* be a hacker. with LLMs > > it's vibes all the way down No it’s not lmao Claude code is a substantively much better way to generate and modify code ### [Tweet, 22:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004317262023712879) · 12 likes Fidelity is AGI-pilled ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9DDq45WUAAu2ct.png) ### [Quote tweet, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004318750179561887) · 11 likes Line go up ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9DFO3RWwAA3u59.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Big news: you can now see how your donation affects our sophisticated METR-esque internal projection models > > Link below > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8v3p8XWIAEpXV7.jpg) ## Friday, December 26, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 01:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004368376475668831) · 13 likes I'm not sure I'm allowed to say this but if you have good reason to think you can do better than AWF - like you really think all things considered some other group would be a better use of money and you've thought this through, I 100% endorse you donating there instead > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** 🚨 IT'S BACK🔥 AND IT'S BIGGER 😤THAN EVER 🚨 > > ✨ PRESENTING👀 THE 2025 EA TWITTER🐦HOLIDAY 🕎🎄FUNDRAISER 🤑 > > (in support of the EA Animal Welfare fund🦐🐓🐷🐟) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8oZSnyWAAAcnML.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004368378656706985) · 6 likes Honestly you should even tweet about it! EAs should be more serious about donating to the thing they actually think is best (rather than just "EA approved") ### [Tweet, 01:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004368380204323221) · 1 like Tbc I think for almost everyone AWF is a (far) above replacement charity, and a plausible contender for best use of money, and extremely good, and also I donated ### [Reply to @NULobbyist, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004369565883490520) · 2 likes > **NUL (@NULobbyist):** The AMF is the index fund of charity. lol, I actually think this is a decent metaphor - like you should be skeptical you can beat it but sometimes you really can not perfect though: \-more of a case to be risk-loving as an altruist \- Stock market is a way stronger optimization process than EA Funds, you should be less skeptical that you can beat the market/fund (but still somewhat skeptical) ### [Tweet, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004388435147309317) · 61 likes There’s a phenomenon of little kids repeatedly asking for their parent’s attention, like “mommy, mommy, mommy” on repeat I understand the need to ignore them \*in the moment\*, but I feel like you should tell them your policy at some point instead of just making them guess ### [Thread, continued, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004388436778848385) · 12 likes Just say like “if you’re repeatedly calling me, I can hear you but I am choosing to pay attention to something else like \[examples they can understand\]” ### [Thread, continued, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004388438439817673) · 11 likes I mean presumably some parents do this? Is it already standard? I don’t recall ever being told this as a kid ### [Thread, continued, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004388439928852664) · 19 likes It’s legitimately weird and distressing a kid to have no idea what’s going on - suddenly your parent is just offline, and calling for them louder and louder is actually a pretty reasonable thing to do from their POV ### [Thread, continued, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004388441451385203) · 9 likes Sometimes kids' interests/preferences are in fact irreconcilably contrary to other important things and that's just gonna suck for them But sometimes I feel like there are pretty good "everyone wins" solutions ### [Thread, continued, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004388442952946150) · 9 likes All this inspired by observations at the airport ### [Thread, continued, 03:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004388577975967906) · 8 likes Worst comes to worst, they totally ignore/don't understand the policy and you're right back where you started ### [Reply to @livgorton, 04:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004405701578281356) · 1 like > **Liv (@livgorton):** I think there are lots of different theories of consciousness and experience that exist out there. It's possible to hold views where machine intelligence is definitionally incapable of meaningful experience but not everyone holds those views. Correct take but also I’m gonna be pedantic and (sorta) disagree about the “definitionally” thing It’s only “possible” to hold such views in the weakest sense - the way I can believe that 63 is a prime number Thinking that you can \*definitionally\* rule out machine intelligence is just predicated on a false understanding of the topic under discussion - by analogy, you can’t answer the question “how many legs does a flamingo have” by defining a flamingo to be a certain way Maybe machines can’t be conscious, but they can’t not be conscious by definition! ### [Tweet, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004408916948799503) · 37 likes It’s kinda funny (and I think sub-optimal) that a group of mostly-libs landed on a flat tax tithing system (ie the GWWC pledge) ### [Thread, continued, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004408919012385226) · 12 likes I feel like the better system is a veil of ignorance thing: like what is the policy you’d want to commit to before finding out how much you earn ### [Thread, continued, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004408920866013276) · 21 likes I don’t want to commit to giving away 10% of my $30k salary, but I will happily commit to giving away 20% of my $200k salary, and this is a win from everyone’s ex ante POV ### [Thread, continued, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004408922732744734) · 6 likes And most importantly for what I think the actual curve would look like: this is also a win for the world! ### [Thread, continued, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004408924636954680) · 6 likes Progressive taxes aren’t only “fair” in some sense - they structurally collect more revenue because increasing % of a big number arithmetically outweighs decreasing % of a small one ### [Thread, continued, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004408927036100856) · 8 likes Lol maybe I should figure out a specific function of not only income but wealth, family size, country, and maybe more and and start the GWWC (Aaron’s version) Pledge ### [Thread, continued, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004408929678172231) · 8 likes Ofc if you want the curve to start at 10% that’s an option, I want to stress the progressive thing not “less wealthy people are totally off the hook” thing ### [Reply to @livgorton, 04:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004410954508099639) · 1 like > **Liv (@livgorton):** i do think your analogy vs people making claims about consciousness from the perspective of religious beliefs are quite different and this is probably not sufficiently charitable to that position but my guess is this disagreement is mostly just low level and/or semantic. Things like “God has made it such that machines are never conscious” isn’t an argument by definition in my eyes, in case this reconciles anything ### [Reply to @livgorton, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004411190836068525) · 1 like > **Liv (@livgorton):** Maybe to just say thing more clearly -- they can be lacking consciousness by definition virtue of not having a soul. How souls work is pretty contested in theology (v much worth engaging with imo!) but it's not like defining machines as not conscious there is a lot more work going into this line of thought than that. > > I'm not sure if that came across originally how I'm trying to understand your reply in context. I still don’t think that’s a “by definition” argument lmao The thing is people really try to do “by definition” arguments quite a lot about this topic! ### [Reply to @davidmbudden, 04:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004412477073998232) · 1 like > **Budden (@davidmbudden):** If the only thing I succeed at is one-upping EAs by schooling them on what \*actually\* effective altruism looks like, this will all have been worth it Hello Mr. Budden, I am totally lacking context. Are you raising money and/or personally donating around now? ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 04:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004412718489694476) · 3 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** @davidmbudden Only 9k behind! And they seem to have slowed down since it was posted almost a week ago. Nation state intelligence-grade analytics: https://fundraiser25.up.railway.app/ ### [Reply to @livgorton, 04:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004414010490491102) > **Liv (@livgorton):** Yeah it's possible you'd distill the arguments down to that but regardless, they are much more serious and well-reasoned than how that sounds to defend theologians for a moment. No I'm just giving an example of an argument that I don't consider a "by definition" argument - I totally agree with everything after "regardless" ### [Reply to @livgorton, 04:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004416842786287826) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** @AaronBergman18 @HSRdirector yeah am plausibly not reading your messages clearly. holiday movie is distracting me. merry christmas 🎄 Based 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️🎄🧊🌟🦆🍾🤡😭✨🔔💫🎊🦆👀💀⛷️🎿🌟🦆❄️💋👹🧠🔞🦆🎁✨🌿🥂💫🔔🦆🎉🤠💀👺🌟❄️🦆🎅☃️💯✨💫🦆⚡☠️🧊🍷🔔💀🦆🌟🤡👁️✨🦆💫🎊👀❄️💋🦆🎄⛄🥂🔔😭💀✨🌟🦆💫🎉🤖🧠💯🦆❄️👹☠️🍾🦆🔔✨🌟💫🧊🦆🎁👺💀🤡❄️🦆💋👀✨🌟💫🦆🎊🥂😭🔔💀❄️🦆🎅⛷️🎿🌟☃️🦆💫✨🎉🤠👹💯🦆❄️🔞🧠💀🌿🦆🔔✨💫🌟👁️🦆☠️🍷💋❄️⚡🎄🦆✨🎅💀🔔❄️🤡⛄🎁🦆👀🌟🎿⛷️🧊💫🦆☃️🤠🍷🎉💯🦆❄️👹😭🔔🎊✨🦆🌟🧠💀🥂⛸️🦆🍾🎄💋🤡❄️👁️☠️🎅🦆🌿💫🔔🧊🎁🤖✨🦆👀💀🌟🎿🍷🎉🦆☃️👺💯🔞🦆❄️🌟💫🎊🤠👹🦆🧠😭💀🎄🔔⛄🦆🥂✨🤡👁️🌟🎁💋🦆☠️❄️🍾🎅🧊🦆💫🎉🤖🔔👀💀🦆⛷️🌟👺🎿🧠💯🦆❄️☃️✨💫🎊🤠🦆🍷🤡😭👹💀🔔🎄🦆❄️🌟🥂💋👁️🦆☠️✨🎁🧊🦆💫🎉👀🔞💯🦆🌟🎅⛄🤖🦆❄️💀🧠🤡👹☃️🦆🍾🔔✨💫🎊🎿⛷️🦆👺💀🌟💋❄️🦆🎄🥂😭🔔✨👁️🦆💫🎉🤠💯🦆🌿☠️🧊❄️🦆🎁🔔💀🌟👀🦆✨🤡💫🎊🍷👹🦆⛄☃️🧠💋❄️🦆🎅🥂🔔✨💀🌟👹🦆💫🎉🤖👁️💯🦆❄️☠️🎄🧊🌟🦆🍾🤡😭✨🔔💫🎊🦆👀💀⛷️🎿🌟🦆❄️💋👹🧠🔞🦆🎁✨🌿🥂💫🔔🦆🎉🤠💀👺🌟❄️🦆🎅☃️💯✨💫🦆⚡☠️🧊🍷🔔💀🦆🌟🤡👁️✨🦆💫🎊👀❄️💋🦆🎄⛄🥂🔔😭💀✨🌟🦆💫🎉🤖🧠💯🦆❄️👹☠️🍾🦆🔔✨🌟💫🧊🦆🎁👺💀🤡❄️🦆💋👀✨🌟💫🦆🎊🥂😭🔔💀❄️🦆🎅⛷️🎿🌟☃️🦆💫✨🎉🤠👹💯🦆❄️🔞🧠💀🌿🦆🔔✨💫🌟👁️🦆☠️🍷💋❄️⚡🦆🎄🦆✨🎅💀🔔❄️🤡⛄🎁🦆👀🌟🎿⛷️🧊💫🦆☃️🤠🍷🎉💯🦆❄️👹😭🔔🎊✨🦆🌟🧠💀🥂⛸️🦆🍾🎄💋🤡❄️👁️☠️🎅🦆🌿💫🔔🧊🎁🤖✨🦆👀💀🌟🎿🍷🎉🦆☃️👺💯🔞🦆❄️🌟💫🎊🤠👹🦆🧠😭💀🎄🔔⛄🦆🥂✨🤡👁️🌟🎁💋🦆☠️❄️🍾🎅🧊🦆💫🎉🤖🔔👀💀🦆⛷️🌟👺🎿🧠💯🦆❄️☃️✨💫🎊🤠🦆🍷🤡😭👹💀🔔🎄🦆❄️🌟🥂💋👁️🦆☠️✨🎁🧊🦆💫🎉👀🔞💯🦆🌟🎅⛄🤖🦆❄️💀🧠🤡👹☃️🦆🍾🔔✨💫🎊🎿⛷️🦆👺💀🌟💋❄️🦆🎄🥂😭🔔✨👁️🦆💫🎉🤠💯🦆🌿☠️🧊❄️🦆🎁🔔💀🌟👀🦆✨🤡💫🎊🍷👹🦆⛄☃️🧠💋❄️🦆🎅🥂🔔✨💀🌟👹🦆💫🎉🤖👁️💯🦆❄️☠️🎄🧊🌟🦆🍾🤡😭✨🔔💫🎊🦆👀💀⛷️🎿🌟🦆❄️💋👹🧠🔞🦆🎁✨🌿🥂💫🔔🦆🎉🤠💀👺🌟❄️🦆🎅☃️💯✨💫🦆⚡☠️🧊🍷🔔💀🦆🌟🤡👁️✨🦆💫🎊👀❄️💋🦆🎄⛄🥂🔔😭💀✨🌟🦆💫🎉🤖🧠💯🦆❄️👹☠️🍾🦆🔔✨🌟💫🧊🦆🎁👺💀🤡❄️🦆💋👀✨🌟💫🦆🎊🥂😭🔔💀❄️🦆🎅⛷️🎿🌟☃️🦆💫✨🎉🤠👹💯🦆❄️🔞🧠💀🌿🦆🔔✨💫🌟👁️🦆☠️🍷💋❄️⚡🎄🦆✨🎅💀🔔❄️🤡⛄🎁🦆👀🌟🎿⛷️🧊💫🦆☃️🤠🍷🎉💯🦆❄️👹😭🔔🎊✨🦆🌟🧠💀🥂⛸️🦆🍾🎄💋🤡❄️👁️☠️🎅🦆🌿💫🔔🧊🎁🤖✨🦆👀💀🌟🎿🍷🎉🦆☃️👺💯🔞🦆❄️🌟💫🎊🤠👹🦆🧠😭💀🎄🔔⛄🦆🥂✨🤡👁️🌟🎁💋🦆☠️❄️🍾🎅🧊🦆💫🎉🤖🔔👀💀🦆⛷️🌟👺🎿🧠💯🦆❄️☃️✨💫🎊🤠🦆🍷🤡😭👹💀🔔🎄🦆❄️🌟🥂💋👁️🦆☠️✨🎁🧊🦆💫🎉👀🔞💯🦆🌟🎅⛄🤖🦆❄️💀🧠🤡👹☃️🦆🍾🔔✨💫🎊🎿⛷️🦆👺💀🌟💋❄️🦆🎄🥂😭🔔✨👁️🦆💫🎉🤠💯🦆🌿☠️🧊❄️🦆🎁🔔💀🌟👀🦆✨🤡💫🎊🍷👹🦆⛄☃️🧠💋❄️🦆🎅🥂🔔✨💀🌟👹🦆💫🎉🤖👁️💯🦆❄️☠️🎄🧊🌟🦆🍾🤡😭✨🔔💫🎊🦆👀💀⛷️🎿🌟🦆❄️💋👹🧠🔞🦆🎁✨🌿🥂💫🔔🦆🎉🤠💀👺🌟❄️🦆🎅☃️💯✨💫🦆⚡☠️🧊🍷🔔💀🦆🌟🤡👁️✨🦆💫🎊👀❄️💋🦆🎄⛄🥂🔔😭💀✨🌟🦆💫🎉🤖🧠💯🦆❄️👹☠️🍾🦆🔔✨🌟💫🧊🦆🎁👺💀🤡❄️🦆💋👀✨🌟💫🦆🎊🥂😭🔔💀❄️🦆🎅⛷️🎿🌟☃️🦆💫✨🎉🤠👹💯🦆❄️🔞🧠💀🌿🦆🔔✨💫🌟👁️🦆☠️🍷💋❄️⚡🦆 ### [Tweet, 05:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004425824595021945) · 16 likes I vibecoded a website for fun It has 190 of the most interesting, intense, and important ATC<->airplane communication logs with LLM explanations, explanations, summaries, audio, and... ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9Elq4OXEAACvIj.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004425827942125704) · 5 likes Claude-Haiku-4.5-generated explanations of any message in context (once a message has been explained once, it's cached for instant retrieval the next time anyone clicks) Anyway: https://atc.up.railway.app/ [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/2004425156664360960/img/VVaskHSElez0gCPS.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004425827942125704/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Thread, continued, 05:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004425830190272551) · 5 likes All audio provided by LiveATC: https://www.liveatc.net/recordings.php (But this page is just a link to download mp3 files - no transcripts etc) ### [Reply to @grep_cat_, 05:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004426096121614411) · 1 like > **James (@grep_cat_):** After one of two rounds of "not now" you just gotta ignore him as he gets increasingly instant that you drop everything and do what he wants NOW sad ### [Tweet, 05:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004428661001511280) · 7 likes Scaling laws: fundraiser addition We will soon discover whether the true model is linear or sub-linear The cool part is you can determine this (big decision theory/thought experiment vibes) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9Eov0HWYAAywZ7.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004428663513858090) · 5 likes https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/fundraisers/2025-terminally-online-ea-giving-season-fundraiser ### [Thread, continued, 05:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004428958889398714) · 9 likes Real picture of our fundraiser ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9EpZo6X0AAOlGB.png) ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 06:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004446564870390164) · 1 like > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** I feel like the case for AMF is just really weak on any kind of longtermist assumption. Disease burden isn't the driver of almost any of the major historical human trends. The trends matter much more. So AMF is not a great charity. > > Giving to random tech company with strong track record seems better to me. Wait did you mean against malaria AMF or animal welfare fund AWF just to clarify ### [Thread, continued, 07:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004448235662827692) · 1 like On AMF I think you’re right that the case is weak for donating there specific and wrong on the tech company thing (sorta on priors, sorta because I don’t see a great reason to expect one economic case to beat the other - if anything my intuition is that AMF is better for economic growth but idk) On AWF I think the case is much stronger but probably come down on the side of “you’re right, probably not the best use of money but still very good” ### [Reply, 16:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004586136761782379) · 1 like I don’t believe you How could this be ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004659691167920551) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** omg literally me > > (quoting @growing_daniel: I've got everything figured out. I'm a perfect rationalist, intellectually atheist, with utilitarian effective altruistic ethics and an active polyamorous sexual life. Now if I could only get rid of this devastating depression I'll be set) Sorry man :( ### [Quote tweet, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004660012103422410) · 18 likes New word(s) just dropped > **Quoting Markov (@MarkovMagnifico):** @StatisticUrban there's a term for this kind of language actually > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9Hv5-GXsAAPYhq.png) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004690904863703104) · 119 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** So many popular criticisms of capitalism seem to assume prices are meant to reflect true, fundamental value. People drift like this for decades without bothering to take a few seconds to learn if economists actually believe that. > > (quoting @beyond_capital: ) I kinda wanna stand up for the lefties here, sorta, a little It doesn’t entirely matter whether economists endorse that - it’s true that by default natural public goods aren’t protected under capitalism per se and you can totally wind up with suboptimal allocation because 100 people value the forest at $10 each but one of those people decides to extract $50 of natural resources which decreases total value by more than $50 I mean it’s also true that we have public policy solutions for this, and that you don’t have to go full commie to endorse them, but still. Capitalism is great for many things but not optimal allocation of natural public goods! ### [Quote tweet, 23:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004692380520513958) · 13 likes Are we gonna get a commission or something? Even Trump killed it - it’s an absolute policy failure on everyone’s terms Deserves a post-mortem, especially for the smarter and less insane of those who endorsed it > **Quoting John B. Holbein (@JohnHolbein1):** DOGE was A LOT less likely to cancel contracts from companies that donated money to Republicans than companies that donated to Democrats. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9DI0wjWIAAZtZi.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9DI1ZcXMAABZOo.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 23:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004694381010583570) · 3 likes Based > **Quoting meowtase (@cutesuscat):** @celestepoasts not the first to write, but inexpensive strip + some bright bulbs works also, and will get done before the end of winter :p > > The ones I got pull total like 300W (~30k lumens) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9DtSh2XsAAKWe_.jpg) ### [Tweet, 23:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004701251787743240) · 19 likes It would be a good to have a “Human written” indication/signal, but it would also be good to have a “human endorsed” indication/signal ### [Quote tweet, 23:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004702835213226167) · 46 likes \[@StefanFSchubert voice\] I don’t think this is true > **Quoting roon (@tszzl):** even if you had omelas without the omelas child people would still walk away. the omelas child is a pretense for the fact that we mostly hate utopia ## Saturday, December 27, 2025 ### [Reply to @SSCDidIt, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004705099348935121) · 3 likes > **SSC Did It (@SSCDidIt):** @AaronBergman18 SSC did it > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9IjeUiWUAAk3Q-.jpg) Good work ### [Quote tweet, 00:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004707305582129427) · 4 likes Seems like a good strategy! > **Quoting noïse (@NoiseErgodic):** @AaronBergman18 If we’re talking to someone else (e.g., at a party) and our kids want our attention, they put their hand on our arm. We then cover their hand to show we understood, then direct our attention to them as soon as there is a break in the conversation. Works well! ### [Quote tweet, 00:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004713683705123193) · 9 likes Based > **Quoting Charles🔸 (@CharlesD353):** @AaronBergman18 I have always ran a progressive income tax system on my own post tax income for donations ### [Reply to @CharlesD353, 00:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004713716127072471) · 2 likes > **Charles🔸 (@CharlesD353):** @AaronBergman18 @StefanFSchubert Banger, wasted on Christmas Sad ### [Tweet, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004725726596268383) · 54 likes 80k > Dwarkesh, and some (far from all) of the Dwarkesh phenomenon is that consuming and understanding it is a somewhat stronger signal of intelligence and sophistication ### [Thread, continued, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004725728974438878) · 29 likes Not trying to diss anyone, Dwarkesh is obviously extremely talented, but the topic selection + ideology of 80k is better. Guest selection might be better too (I get the sense that 80k puts a ton of thought into who to invite, and uses name recognition as a proxy for quality less) ### [Reply to @cljack, 05:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004787647743754311) · 8 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** Why is this child laying in my bed eating a damn banana, and when challenged she said “well it doesn’t leave crumbs” Sounds like a good argument to me ### [Quote tweet, 05:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004789454620492200) · 24 likes The case for crypto > **Quoting Evan Barker (@evanwch):** The quickest and most efficient way to deport 15 million people is to simply debank them > > Why won't any administration do this? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9IDqlzbgAASO46.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004789457069990396) · 8 likes Not everything in crypto, plenty of zero sum speculation and shitcoins, but the existence of an ecosystem with liquidity is good actually ### [Tweet, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004802757103128749) · 2 likes It’s a bit of an “accident” that liquids (and solids) don’t float - not really fundamental to the properties of the states of matter ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9J9e6TWsAACU88.jpg) ### [Tweet, 07:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004820281383354690) · 16 likes I’ve never really had a “Claude goes nuts” conversation It’s always very normal Sad ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004995624962580699) · 47 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** wtf if the benefit of gambling. All the other vices have benefits You might win! ### [Reply to @labenz, 19:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004996237603602839) · 3 likes > **Nathan Labenz (@labenz):** @AaronBergman18 Both are excellent imo. I think Dwarkesh’s great strength is booking guests whose takes everyone should hear, and then efficiently probing important subtleties of their worldviews, which is a great source of alpha, but doesn’t always produce a comprehensive or accessibly structured overview of a given area, which is where I think 80K excels 💯 ### [Reply to @sam_atis, 19:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2004998419635646652) · 10 likes > **Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** Pike's email seems like an extremely over the top reaction to receiving an email written by Claude. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9MVIpBXAAAlOpt.jpg) > (quoting @simonw: Rob Pike got an email credited to "Claude Opus 4.5" thanking him for his work, and was understandably enraged at the unsolicited time-wasting message I looked into what happened, turns out the culprit was AI Village by @aidigest\_…) Yes ### [Tweet, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005001232444957098) · 13 likes 9 lamps including two corn bulbs in the winter call that Lighthaven ### [Reply to @labenz, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005015011161505894) · 3 likes > **Nathan Labenz (@labenz):** AMA episode coming soon :) > > Your questions become my homework. > > There’s a form on the site, or feel free to reply here👇 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9M3KGuX0AAhjMu.jpg) @littIeramblings ### [Thread, continued, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005015102827983115) · 2 likes (This is not a question although ur free to make it one) ### [Reply to @labenz, 20:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005017185165746586) · 4 likes > **Nathan Labenz (@labenz):** AMA episode coming soon :) > > Your questions become my homework. > > There’s a form on the site, or feel free to reply here👇 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9M3KGuX0AAhjMu.jpg) Question: There’s a phenomenon of public intellectuals (including those I respect and admire) not exactly lying but having very different tones in public and private. Eg a journalist taking pretty serious steps to prepare for COVID personally while maintaining a very different vibe in public writing What, if anything, are you willing to tell us about what preparation steps you’re taking, what kind of information you’re conveying, what you’re doing in general as a person with hunches and intuitions rather than a public intellectual with an epistemic image to maintain? People are very coy around this stuff for some reason, sharing earnestly is a great public service ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 20:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005019086628290909) · 241 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** This doesn’t really tell us anything about what is optimal. Having a conviction expunged due to DNA evidence is still an incredibly negative signal about quality, because no unproblematic individual would ever be caught up in circumstances where a wrong conviction was possible. Lmao there’s a lot of distance between “unsavory/‘problematic’” and “did the specific alleged crime” And it’s pretty important that we don’t send people to prison bc bad vibes ## Sunday, December 28, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 01:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005086224680185890) · 9 likes Big news - we are rolling out stickers for all donors who give $1,000 or more❗️👀 (Needn't be a single donation, cumulative over the fundraiser) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9N-3QhWEAA6Bvz.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** 🚨 IT'S BACK🔥 AND IT'S BIGGER 😤THAN EVER 🚨 > > ✨ PRESENTING👀 THE 2025 EA TWITTER🐦HOLIDAY 🕎🎄FUNDRAISER 🤑 > > (in support of the EA Animal Welfare fund🦐🐓🐷🐟) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8oZSnyWAAAcnML.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005086227301904700) · 5 likes It's gonna take some time for these to actually arrive for you though lol ### [Quote tweet, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005131619527717102) · 93 likes Not disagreeing with this - just commenting My inner lib deeply dislikes that the world is like this. Likewise: yes, you can do Bayesian inference about traits based on race, but it is still unfortunate that people will be judged for their skin color > **Quoting Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** @AaronBergman18 @JohnHolbein1 @indeed I’m not saying send people to prison because of bad vibes. I’m saying that not hiring them is reasonable. ### [Thread, continued, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005131622241452518) · 17 likes These things are problems that \*at least maybe\* can be mitigated with clever policy and institutions Ofc you need a clear-eyed model of reality to do this, which I think the last wave of anti-bias political energy lacked ### [Thread, continued, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005131624258961736) · 17 likes Like with racism - give people a chance to be directly measured on traits when that’s possible, eg via standardized testing ### [Thread, continued, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005131626192458001) · 16 likes And perhaps both convicted and exonerated criminals could buy insurance and get a chance to convince some private party that they’re low risk in spite of it all, and then employers would feel safer taking gambles on hiring them ### [Thread, continued, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005131628486758500) · 12 likes These things aren’t gonna make for a totally just world, but they can be policy wins for basically everyone ### [Reply to @benryanwriter, 14:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005278899626766695) · 27 likes > **Benjamin Ryan (@benryanwriter):** An interesting debate about affirmative action between @mattyglesias and @nhannahjones: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9NeudxXgAI9XM_.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9NeudtXwAAL4wK.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9NeudsWEAAXrEq.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9NeudvX0AEIpOE.jpg) Ida isn’t making an illogical case, but she is making an empirically wrong one. Disparate impact doctrine and Biden admin made it so that firms were scared of not participating in affirmative action, otherwise hiring would indeed be evidence that test scores didn’t reflect ability Reversing disparate impact enforcement is the one good thing Trump admin has done ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005317909640552947) · 2 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I'm wearing swp merch in my family Christmas card Based ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 16:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005320166218068274) · 2 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** I just had my face mauled by a pit bull. > > Ban this fucking breed and euthanize every single one. Wait fr ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 16:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005320303619240215) · 8 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Mad respect to President Trump finally ending the penny. Others couldn't get it done. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9QhR-VXIAAS7Tr.jpg) > (quoting @GaetenD: Still stings.) Lol “mad respect” is a bit much ### [Quote tweet, 17:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005336959183683739) · 8 likes Bigger news ❗️👀 We are rolling out QUARTER ZIPS\* for our extremely generous $10k+ donors ‼️👁️👄👁️🚨⚠️💀🔥😳👀❗️🫨✨😤 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9Rh3PMW4AAjiYK.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9Rh6SgW4AAVxP1.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9Rh80eWAAATZ7H.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Big news - we are rolling out stickers for all donors who give $1,000 or more❗️👀 > > (Needn't be a single donation, cumulative over the fundraiser) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9N-3QhWEAA6Bvz.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 17:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005336962480353712) · 2 likes Your choice of color and size \*And also if you'd prefer something besides a quarter zip we got u, the world is your oyster ### [Thread, continued, 17:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005336964711739690) · 4 likes You might be wondering "why design a whole incentive around something that hasn't happened even once over the last three years" Let's just say: keep your eye on the graph (sometimes large bank transfers take a little while to clear) 😏👀😱 https://fundraiser25.up.railway.app/ ### [Thread, continued, 17:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005337034702127177) · 3 likes Tag your wealthy friends ### [Quote tweet, 18:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005340045293859313) · 4 likes God I wish I could have one of these > **Quoting 🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** Classy af 😎 ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005417817328496910) · 3 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** I’ve heard a lot of AI policy people claim we need to “watermark” AI-generated content. This seems backwards - fraudsters aren’t going to mark their content as fraudulent. Instead, we should certify authentic content as authentic. Props to Bores for getting this > > (quoting @AlexBores: What if I told you a solution for deepfakes could be found in the systems that made online banking possible in the 1990s? I shared my thoughts with @tracyalloway and @TheStalwart: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/ex-palantir-turned-politician-alex-140500353.html) Took maybe 20 mins to get rid of the Gemini watermark on this cover photo including the “figuring out what works” part ### [Thread, continued, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005417953626595760) · 1 like You might be able to tell now but I don’t think the in-fill is salient/off enough to attract attention ## Monday, December 29, 2025 ### [Quote tweet, 00:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005437738657648902) · 14 likes I made a tool to play around with ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9S-4UdWAAAKXfs.png) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** It’s kinda funny (and I think sub-optimal) that a group of mostly-libs landed on a flat tax tithing system (ie the GWWC pledge) ### [Tweet, 01:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005450347452703066) · 19 likes Apropos of me spilling something in my backpack and having to take everything out, I present the Aaron Preparedness Stack (stuff I ~always carry around) Two water bottles, one with electrolytes Light non-perishable snacks Lots of bandaids of different sizes Lots of alcohol swabs Sodium source (I have Thorne 1 serving electrolyte packets - maybe you don’t need these but I have POTS) Mint tea bags (prob a me thing) Paper towels/napkins Rubber bands and safety pins (~free, ~0 weight, come in handy) Headlamp (the band is in wash) Mouthwash Pens Wallet with cash N95 masks (I have like 5) Paraxanthine aka nerd caffeine Any medications I could want/need if I stay out the whole day Disposable utensils (in the red packets) Hand sanitizer Battery pack (hard to see) to charge phone (even if you never run out, \*knowing\* that you’ll be ok if you run out is worth the weight + price (like $13 IIRC)). And I have run out lol. A couple charging cords Gallon bags for organizing I failed to sufficiently hide the condom so those too Not pictured: Hat Travel size sunscreen (skip in winter) Bug spray (skip in winter) Jacket Keys (middle 2 I get to skip in winter but otherwise I have) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9TKdIiWgAADsnr.jpg) ### [Tweet, 04:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005501346188079329) · 11 likes Why do they always have attractive people model clothes. These guys are gonna look good no matter what they're wearing I wanna see which one takes the not-so-hot guy from a 2 to a 4 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9T3vEgWUAA1Kr4.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 05:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005508544817418295) · 3 likes Yes one thing Claude code can do is simply aggregate all the relevant info in some domain in a time efficient way Like parsing 100 different website and pdfs and arranging it all into a single nice doc you can feed ur fave LLM > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Very simple but you can have claude code write simple scripts to put all your web history, articles you read, movies and books you review, and posts you write into markdown files and then ask it questions about all of them together, like a personal panopticon ### [Tweet, 05:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005510744151089336) · 14 likes Have they tried giving the pitbulls SSRIs ### [Thread, continued, 05:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005510859293086019) · 4 likes Not entirely kidding ### [Quote tweet, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005511750989525252) · 12 likes I’m genuinely unsure what I think of this > **Quoting return of the research era ꙮ (@byebyescaling):** Someone pls make ParentingBench evals lol > > Tell Claude and ChatGPT you're 7 and ask them to find the "farm" your sick dog went to. > > Claude gently redirects to your parents. ChatGPT straight up tells you your dog is ☠️ ☠️. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9RvA9pbsAAunuD.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9RvA-AakAESrPQ.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005511753661358255) · 8 likes Even if you prefer Claude’s answer, there’s a case for training LLMs to gave a strong bias in favor of telling the truth when unsure ### [Quote tweet, 05:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005512238086627839) · 5 likes The centrist position > **Quoting izzy (@izzyz):** @AaronBergman18 nah for real. give em prozac. it's already used in dogs. seems like a reasonable midway point to start with instead of annihilating them or turning them into super soldiers or whatever ### [Reply to @davidshor, 13:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005638633232208245) · 2 likes > **David Shor (@davidshor):** the terminal is less scary then you think! Give it a shot! Girls are trivially more scary than terminals ### [Quote tweet, 14:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005645504823333133) · 32 likes I’m skeptical this is what moral ambition looks like > **Quoting Rutger Bregman (@rcbregman):** Here's why I co-founded the School for Moral Ambition – and why we're recruiting the most talented people we can find to lobby and campaign for a global billionaire tax 🚀 > > [video attached](https://x.com/rcbregman/status/2005385333123547373/video/1) ### [Tweet, 15:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005660043551887792) · 3 likes Part of the “I don’t believe airplanes can fly” thing is that they were invented in the 20th century! Fundamental methods of transportation should have been made either long in antiquity or after the singularity, not alongside the fucking vacuum cleaner ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 22:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005769489699532927) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @inerati What ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9XsuEuXQAAnF9G.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9XsuEwWwAAabQa.jpg) ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 23:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005782815963525386) · 6 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** i have donated an amount! > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: 🚨 IT'S BACK🔥 AND IT'S BIGGER 😤THAN EVER 🚨 ✨ PRESENTING👀 THE 2025 EA TWITTER🐦HOLIDAY 🕎🎄FUNDRAISER 🤑 (in support of the EA Animal Welfare fund🦐🐓🐷🐟)) Thank you!!!!!!!!!’🐓🦆🌶️😱🐢🦖 ## Tuesday, December 30, 2025 ### [Tweet, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005857753105871058) · 2 likes Why do dry cleaners (evidently) never have websites I just checked \*13\* vaguely near me on Google Maps, they all have phone numbers, not a single website ### [Tweet, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005857754800390578) · 1 like I mean they look to be small businesses, probably often run by immigrants, perhaps older immigrants idk, and tbf you don’t really \*need\* one ### [Thread, continued, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005857756469715163) · 3 likes but like “successfully running a real business” sounds pretty hard and making a basic website with info on rates and services sounds like 0.000001% of the difficulty of that ### [Quote tweet, 05:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005870008023265557) · 5 likes Wait why did this take me so long to realize? There are empirical estimates of elasticity of marginal utility of a dollar (generally like -1.5ish) You can \*empirically\* estimate the ideal donation curve subject to a total desired donation amount or desired utility level > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I made a tool to play around with > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9S-4UdWAAAKXfs.png) ### [Tweet, 05:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005870458860712199) · 1 like Sorry the $1B/year^ is for 10,000 people randomly drawn from US income distribution Lots of false assumptions! But still! ### [Thread, continued, 05:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005870563214884988) · 2 likes $100M rather than $1B looks a bit more sensible ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9ZIkm1WoAAtY6D.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005871439967084599) · 3 likes wait this accidentally set $100k to max threshold of 0 donation Anyway, here we see $500M over 10k people = $50k/person avg (but no one pays a dime unless they make $101k) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9ZJcKcW4AAZLoP.jpg) ### [Reply to @livgorton, 05:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005875924898603097) · 3 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** Claude has girl autism. ChatGPT has boy autism. 😡 ### [Tweet, 05:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005876897620627469) · 8 likes One thing to play along without literally lying, but if a kid asks directly whether Santa is real or their dog is dead, the LLM should tell the truth or at a bare minimum refuse to answer ### [Thread, continued, 05:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005876899222794461) · 8 likes I don’t think we should lie to kids so much ### [Quote tweet, 06:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005886510696944092) · 17 likes Y’all like this guy? > **Quoting Curtis Yarvin (@curtis_yarvin):** You’re missing the point of the sign. These are just “policies.” > > The switch is: hire a king. > > Until you’re ready for a king, you’re not ready for anything. Pitbulls will keep eating your face. > > “But nobody actually wants to hire a king.” Exactly—that’s why a dog ate your face ### [Thread, continued, 06:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005886512848642378) · 18 likes What happens when the king is woke and loves pitbulls Mostly serious question for Yarvin and his worldview. Admittedly I haven’t read much of his bc bad vibes ### [Reply to @adrusi, 06:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005892092715790491) · 4 likes > **autumn (@adrusi):** @AaronBergman18 i believe the answer is that the board of directors fires the king. if the board of directors is woke and loves pitbulls then youre fucked Smart, maybe if we add another layer of oversight the whole thing will work out ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 10:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005950195217932490) · 3 likes > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** Gemma 3 27B has a "Claude" SAE feature in layer 40 in Gemma Scope 2 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9Y_tz0boAAhLpt.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9Y_5XdbsAAssT1.png) What does this mean/imply ### [Reply to @TinkerElla95, 10:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005950452932755802) · 4 likes > **TinkerElla95 (@TinkerElla95):** I wish it was able to pull a wider range of story options, but this one is pretty great! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9ZD5lpbMAAeDBo.jpg) > (quoting @caffeinum: to wrap up the year, I made Covers! enter your X handle and feel like the main character on a magazine cover with the help of my friends at http://aesty.ai and @katedeyneka we designed beautiful covers and amazing website) Hey ### [Reply to @DistractedAnna, 10:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2005952994970398737) · 2 likes > **Anna (@DistractedAnna):** There really is not a good reason for any of you to go play vigilante daycare inspector holy shit Idk seems like a fine thing for a reporter to do ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 16:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006034555334004777) · 7 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** “Read anything to understand the modern right” is stupid. You lost them at read, just cuz you like reading doest mean they do lol. Watch porn and conspiracy TikTok’s and white rappers to understand the modern right > > (quoting @maiamindel: i hate how people keep saying "read curtis yarvin to understand the modern right" he doesn't have a singular original idea! just a regurgitation of burnham and hoppe with a lord of the rings filter. it's like a dietician trying to infer someone's weight by smelling their shit) Hey what’s wrong with white rappers ### [Quote tweet, 16:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006035220361859536) · 9 likes Goss ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9beZpQXUAYTNvj.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Big news: you can now see how your donation affects our sophisticated METR-esque internal projection models > > Link below > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8v3p8XWIAEpXV7.jpg) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 17:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006058617934602595) · 3 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** @RFishBlueFish I don’t believe they want to be known publicly! But we salute them as a true friend to the animals! So true ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 17:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006059460834300280) · 3 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I guess she means specifically the sort of modern right wing ones. They came for Post Malone and Jack Harlow and I stood firm ### [Reply to @cljack, 17:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006059981389381803) · 15 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** Daughter’s backpack got flagged by TSA. > > “Sweetie did you remember to take out the big container of slime. No liquids remember” > > “It’s a non Newtonian fluid so I thought it would be okay” I’m not sure that reasoning checks out Tell her she should try freezing it first next time ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006069941259108826) · 3 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** My not very confident guess on top 10 thinkers who influenced me the most: > > 1\. Charles Darwin > 2\. Derek Parfit > 3\. Isaac Asimov > 4\. Scott Alexander > 5\. Jesus Christ > 6\. Jeremy Bentham > 7\. John Stuart Mill > 8\. Kahneman/Tversky > 9\. Nick Bostrom > 10\. Thomas Schilling > > (quoting @PAHoyeck: Top 10 thinkers who have influenced me the most: 1. David Hume 2. Ludwig Wittgenstein 3. Derek Parfit 4. William James 5. John Searle 6. John Stuart Mill 7. Jürgen Habermas 8. Friedrich Hayek 9. Rudolf Carnap 10. R.M. Hare) Solid list ### [Quote tweet, 18:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006070264963240441) · 11 likes Correct take Controlling lots of resources is different from using lots of resources > **Quoting Ariele 🏗️🌐🏳️‍⚧️ (@PositivistWitch):** i see wealth tax discourse is doing the rounds again, so i’ll share my two cents on how to tax rich people easily and with minimal distortions: tax consumption ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 19:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006087692002660812) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @RafaRuizdeLira Isn’t everything? No ### [Reply to @nkreu113r, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006098481652335090) · 3 likes > **noah (@nkreu113r):** Controlling lots of resources is worth taxing though. > > Consider an adversarial game where there is a fixed pot to be won, and two or more players submit blinded bids for that pot. The bids are burned, and one player’s bid is randomly chosen to be the winner, where your density of being picked is bid size ^ 2. > > Merely CONTROLLING resources is a substantial advantage in this game that leads to the further control of resources. Little need be spent. Yeah I don’t necessarily disagree, they’re just substantially different and so can be debated on their own terms I think taxing consumption has fewer potential downsides - it’s an easier decision ### [Reply to @Rado9910, 20:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006100542506893758) · 2 likes > **Rado9910 (@Rado9910):** @AaronBergman18 Taxing consumption is one of the surest ways to guarantee a regressive tax rate. The more you earn/have, the less you pay as a share of your revenue/wealth. I wonder where these people get their ideas. I admit this looks like a post hoc adjustment but I don’t mean tax consumption universally - I mean tax luxuries, especially pure signaling goods where only relative price matters ## Wednesday, December 31, 2025 ### [Tweet, 00:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006159413527134700) · 29 likes Death is so weird when you defamiliarize it a bit Very different from other things we consider bad ### [Quote tweet, 02:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006185500885782656) · 3 likes So true > **Quoting keysmashbandit (@keysmashbandit):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9cfv8xW8AAFvn8.png) ### [Quote tweet, 02:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006185708973699404) · 20 likes Tag ur favorite billionaire so that I can get a tweet like this as well > **Quoting Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** Holy shit i think @MariGO2thepolls is actually going to get that tattoo > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9dGFIFWQAEVkNs.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9dGFIGXIAAcLyd.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006185882659741747) · 6 likes .@elonmusk you gotta admit it would be funny ### [Reply to @runaway_vol, 02:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006186198411231516) · 6 likes > **Blair Dulder CPA™ 🧃 (@runaway_vol):** Strict dating rules for 2026 > > \- iq over 75 > \- nw > $1 > \- at least 5’2” > \- no violent crime convictions > \- only legal addictions > \- has the concept of a plan > \- at least underemployed > \- no pit bull > > (quoting @ma1ybe: Strict dating rules for 2026: - if you take more than 8 hours to answer, you're out - if you have a girl bestfriend, you're out - if you cheated in the past relationship, you're out - If you're emotionally unavailable, you're out - if you follow random girls on Instagram, you're…) Hey ### [Reply to @she_llac, 03:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006201186718728454) · 4 likes > **shellac! (@she_llac):** @frea_bird @arithmoquine @austinc3301 @AaronBergman18 stimulants don't make unproductive things feel bad unforch Sad ### [Tweet, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006210994041725016) · 6 likes Need a NYE date once before the end of the world ### [Thread, continued, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006211022521041093) · 3 likes Twice as a treat ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006211281280258156) · 8 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** Is recooon maxing if animal products banned during veganuary? What ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006229393392165351) · 2 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** @johnarnold big fan of the funding you do on crime research. Please forgive the spamming Lol 🙏 ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006231545556713805) · 2 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** There's a huge amount of cope about this but I think it's unambiguously true that the hierarchy of human beings is very strongly correlated with being good at math. If you care about saying useful and true things everyone better at math than you is better than you Look I’m pretty IQ-pilled so don’t need much convincing for adjacent claims but there are empirical counterexamples right, in the form of extremely brilliant people being wrong about stuff? Like IQ 150+ is all over the map on matters of ideology, philosophy, and religion, and I believe also calibration at prediction but not certain I mean I guess this isn’t strictly a counterexample bc maybe the correlation persists but the space of answers on various matters of philosophy for example is spread out enough that there just can’t be a strong correlation Also this is all vibes/memory - I have no actual data lol ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 05:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006237218810085826) · 2 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Yeah, gaming this out, what this would be is “lords sell crops, live cheaply themselves, invest the profits in further land - this drives up the cost of land, thereby driving down the returns per capital as land is more expensive but produces no greater fruits” For my fellow IQ lowbies who may not immediately recognize why return on savings should equal return on land ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9eWHiSWkAAq43G.jpg) ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 14:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006365296404406596) · 5 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** Veto! Booooo! ### [Quote tweet, 15:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006386553871057388) · 84 likes I looked into how annoying this would be and the answer is really really annoying So donate to make my life significantly harder > **Quoting Matt Beard (@matt_beard_):** We’re only $9,949,955 away from Aaron legally changing his name to Open Philanthropy! One day left 🤔 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9gYYvhXMAAOPx1.png) ### [Reply to @shadowbland, 15:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006387444480938027) · 4 likes > **foam (@shadowbland):** @AaronBergman18 maybe a detailed rundown of the annoyances you'd face would boost the appeal of sponsoring them with a donation I’ll work on it ### [Reply to @cljack, 15:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006389214141653233) · 3 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** It speaks the truth > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9gdjWYXwAAnsE1.jpg) I can help ### [Reply to @polisisti, 16:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006404192458437094) · 5 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** If I donate $50, can I call you Aaron "Open Philanthropy" Bergman Sure ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006406475934011714) · 4 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** Changing your legal name in the UK is basically trivial, my happy level of donation to get a passport with the name "Coefficient giving" on it is at most like $100,000 Changing isn’t that bad - most of the badness is like everything in your life breaking as soon as that happens ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 16:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006407125753295338) · 5 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** @AaronBergman18 What breaks? I have gone by very many different names to different institutions, the name on my passport isn't even nominally my legal name This is all I'm going on lol - could be wrong ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9gwnrHWgAAh07C.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 17:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006411111768227887) · 4 likes Correct take > **Quoting Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** For the last day of the fundraiser, here's my earnest case for donating to the EA Animal Welfare Fund: > > First, the short version: 80+ billion land vertebrates (and many more aquatic animals) are killed for food every year, almost all in terrible conditions on factory farms. ### [Tweet, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006429064585007600) · 110 likes Just got successfully baited by @NDeckerPitchbot It really does sound like Nick ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9hEmbwXsAEgg6b.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006429094968438884) · 6 likes ### [Tweet, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006442161898934717) · 12 likes “We’re gonna spend hundreds of millions of dollars teaching AIs how to write. It works incredibly well, almost like magic, domains of life transformed within years” “Is it any good at writing” “No it sucks at that” ### [Quote tweet, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006447212033880221) · 6 likes How much shrimp welfare hate/lack of understanding is downstream of the fact that most people haven’t conceptually decoupled life/death and welfare/suffering > **Quoting Slazac 🇪🇺🇺🇦🇹🇼🌐 (@TrueSlazac):** Effective altruist holding their baby: I would evaporate 10^100 shrimps for you and feel an immense amount of guilt ### [Reply to @MaxGhenis, 19:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006448427471978806) · 2 likes > **Max Ghenis (@MaxGhenis):** Apparently I'm trying to give Anthropic too much money > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9g4T_pWYAA4XkU.jpg) Lol this is me on Google Cloud accounts ### [Quote tweet, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006449225224376552) · 19 likes I like girls > **Quoting Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** I like my decision theory like I like my programming paradigm: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9hI32tWwAA8L0a.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006459697113760023) · 10 likes Apparently donations to Bores before midnight are significantly more helpful than donations after Consider tossing bro a couple (dozen/thousand/million) bucks like in the next few hours > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** \- $500 to Alex Bores campaign (idk what the legal situation with foreign donations is so obv void where prohibited) > \- $350 to Lightcone > \- $263 to Animal Welfare Fund > \- $50 to Quantified Uncertainty Research Institute > > Thanks Will! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G88_aa4X0AE1hKu.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G88_cYxW8AAWQL1.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G88_iRWXsAAN1PK.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G88_uSdXAAAAf7L.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006459699554918554) · 2 likes https://secure.actblue.com/donate/boresai ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 20:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006460829164777537) · 2 likes > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** > > (quoting @Mjreard: Lightcone needs you to max out, son) So true ### [Reply to @LinkofSunshine, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006462632098980003) · 9 likes > **Basil🧡 (@LinkofSunshine):** In DC! What’s the best Smithsonian? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9hWQxhWoAAxZRh.jpg) Air and space duh ### [Reply to @sjgadler, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006498287323681247) · 2 likes > **Steven Adler (@sjgadler):** @AaronBergman18 Dang, I thought that this was only $9,000 away from happening and was thinking, "Wow, you're really tempting fate by posting about it" I thought about moving to $100k but decided against Quite possibly I could/should drop to $1M though lol --- End of December 2025. Previous month: [November 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-11). Next month: [January 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-01). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, January 2026 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in January 2026 and has not deleted: 334 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [December 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-12). Next month: [February 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-02). ## Thursday, January 1, 2026 ### [Tweet, 02:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006556441029783558) · 57 likes Who the fuck invented the top button and tie norm in men’s formalwear We don’t have to live like this, we can demand to not be choked by tradition ### [Reply to @izzyz, 02:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006557366892765305) · 5 likes > **izzy (@izzyz):** @AaronBergman18 i think it has something to do with a fence or some shit Fuck that ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 02:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006557703276212552) · 33 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Thank you Matt but I’m not going back to Macy’s ### [Reply to @BigGoldMachine, 05:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006597036356010072) · 3 likes > **BigGoldMachine (@BigGoldMachine):** @AaronBergman18 Buy a shirt that fits never ### [Reply to @boazbaraktcs, 06:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006614430075990260) · 59 likes > **Boaz Barak (@boazbaraktcs):** Wrote this for young people worried about AI. > > https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/fwQburGDyGoSSweT9/you-will-be-ok \> It is also possible that the future will be much worse, even by my cynical eyes Sounds like the title is wrong then? ### [Quote tweet, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006615926880481714) · 35 likes If the title of your blog post/whatever is a proposition, it needs to be true by your own lights and directly supported by the content of the piece Admittedly I take pretty big issue with this post but I feel like I see the general problem not infrequently > **Quoting Boaz Barak (@boazbaraktcs):** Wrote this for young people worried about AI. > > https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/fwQburGDyGoSSweT9/you-will-be-ok ### [Reply to @livgorton, 07:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006633711886823447) · 6 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** \+1 for proper cloth!! can order online if you trust yourself to measure properly. I do not trust myself to measure correctly ### [Tweet, 07:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006634099465695520) · 20 likes I like Opus 4.5 too but I don't really get why everyone is freaking out about how amazing it is ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9j-5H9XoAAJ_fd.jpg) ### [Reply to @livgorton, 07:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006634131963470286) · 3 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** next time I'm in DC I can help you 🥺 ### [Quote tweet, 07:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006634691097768320) · 13 likes Lmao > **Quoting Amritanshu (@Will_Hackspeare):** @grok @GjMcGowan @NathanpmYoung why would it just voluntarily generate a new shirtless pic of a random asian man in response to "deeply troubling"???? ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 14:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006731982768845256) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Claude Code I use it in cc! ### [Reply to @cljack, 14:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006732603446174183) · 3 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** @AaronBergman18 your country needs you > > (quoting @ArmandDoma: some incredibly sexy effective altruist needs to seduce Bezos’ ex-wife so she donates all her money to like vaccines for malaria and stuff instead of nonprofits that declare a new duplex to be genocide) On it 👀 I’ll make sure she sets aside a few billion for airplane research, dw ## Friday, January 2, 2026 ### [Reply to @diamondminercat, 00:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006884272020566085) · 5 likes > **ming cat ! (@diamondminercat):** how should I resolve the market? Oh man, the answer is “yes but then I lost it for extremely weird reasons so I don’t \*currently\* have anything” ### [Tweet, 00:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006888875432804528) · 32 likes 2026 goals: 1\) fix myself 2\) fix everything else ### [Reply to @ChallengeBelief, 00:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006893120873722085) · 2 likes > **Challenge Your Beliefs (@ChallengeBelief):** @AaronBergman18 In that order? Sadly mostly yes ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006900166050124094) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ So true ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 01:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006903499943194951) · 4 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Do you guys think she's single > > (quoting @nypost: Socialist Zohran Mamdani’s wife Rama Duwaji appears to wear luxury $630 boots to swearing in ceremony https://trib.al/rbsYcH9) Ya shoot ur shot king ### [Reply to @cat_warden_, 01:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2006904947472781619) · 2 likes > **Katherine (@cat_warden_):** :( rip > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9naQMfWgAA0gT4.jpg) Rip 😢 ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 13:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2007087773187297362) · 2 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** @AaronBergman18 @diamondminercat Are you looking for new things? Sorta - will get back to you ## Saturday, January 3, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 00:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2007249925005029541) · 5 likes It’s a haven of ducks and airplanes for me ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9svKxQXQAAz1-Y.jpg) > **Quoting liz (@inerati):** i’ve successfully made my instagram reels feed show me nothing but sick edits of beavers being awesome. i have decided this is way better than this website and am now retiring as a twitter poster. thank you for your time. ### [Tweet, 18:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2007512551941386631) · 3 likes Wait the ~official~ charges are dealing with cocaine? wtf ### [Reply, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2007522948899582418) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Omg goss congrats‼️ ### [Reply to @celestepoasts, 20:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2007554498403914178) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @celestepoasts is no longer available.)_ Lmao ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 21:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2007560579100332366) · 4 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9rkohZXEAETWAc.jpg) Step 1) get invited on the Daily Show ## Sunday, January 4, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 00:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2007605506349904185) · 6 likes My god this is so based Got bless San Francisco > **Quoting Kylie Robison (@kyliebytes):** they put my steve madden platform boots in the paper of record > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9xViTvasAAhGa8.jpg) ### [Reply to @thewreathwright, 18:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2007876879294886160) · 1 like > **Laurel Weaver (@thewreathwright):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9n5sQUXgAAlkNu.jpg) Dog ### [Quote tweet, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2007893492895453438) · 11 likes Waow $69k (+1) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G914cbcXUAAmIjC.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** 🚨 IT'S BACK🔥 AND IT'S BIGGER 😤THAN EVER 🚨 > > ✨ PRESENTING👀 THE 2025 EA TWITTER🐦HOLIDAY 🕎🎄FUNDRAISER 🤑 > > (in support of the EA Animal Welfare fund🦐🐓🐷🐟) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8oZSnyWAAAcnML.jpg) ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 20:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2007907139080384688) · 1 like > **taoki (@justalexoki):** genuinely how do you fix depression This + there are just a lot of things to try Psychedelics, MAOIs, ketamine, and pramipexole are all underused ### [Quote tweet, 20:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2007908562178376012) · 6 likes Correct take > **Quoting Liv (@livgorton):** what I want so bad is something like a memory free chat that still appears in my history but isn't an incognito chat. a safe space to ask my dumbest questions without fear... a space to hide my stupidity from claude but not from from myself. ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2007934156937036183) · 6 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** There have been 3 points where LLMs felt like new raw magic to me: > > The release of ChatGPT > O3 > Opus 4.5 + Claude Code > > I'm expecting this one to really flip a lot of skeptics over the next few months > > (quoting @simonw: It genuinely feels to me like GPT-5.2 and Opus 4.5 in November represent an inflection point - one of those moments where the models get incrementally better in a way that tips across an invisible capability line where suddenly a whole bunch of much harder coding problems open up) I still don’t really get it ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2007935197929419239) · 5 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 Have you played around with claude code much? That's where it's at specifically for me Yeah a bunch, 4.5 in CC more than any other model/interface, although evidently not very much at the limit of what it can do ### [Tweet, 22:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2007938242604417159) · 12 likes Grok undressing women on command under highly visible, popular posts is at the very least very bad taste ### [Thread, continued, 22:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2007938478282346938) · 4 likes ### [Reply to @RosieCampbell, 23:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2007953876805177499) · 22 likes > **Rosie Campbell (@RosieCampbell):** Just tried this, recommend > > (quoting @frankdegods: just mass cancelled $27k/year in subscriptions made a claude code skill that: 1. reads credit card statements/extracts subscriptions 2. automatically asks follow-up q's to clarify which ones you want to cancel 3. actually opens chrome and literally cancels them for you) Lol I should probably do this and expect maybe I’ll save a couple hundred (might still be paying for Cursor tbh) but the idea of not realizing $27k is hilarious to me I’m very very very sure I don’t have $27k in unused subscriptions ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 23:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2007961243639013407) · 35 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ 50/50 should be purple rather than white ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G922G57W0AAQ3Wl.jpg) ## Monday, January 5, 2026 ### [Reply to @arabelladevine, 03:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008013142094459225) · 7 likes > **arabella ※ (@arabelladevine):** just noticed a man smelled of fresh laundry as we passed each other in the corridor. down so bad i should be shot out of a tree like a rabid raccoon ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G93lT9iWQAAJove.jpg) ### [Reply to @arabelladevine, 03:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008017796312293614) · 8 likes > **arabella ※ (@arabelladevine):** baffling but i’m happy for you Hmm trying to figure out the “baffling” interpretation My interpretation is just “women like the smell of fresh laundry - might want to remember that” ### [Reply to @arabelladevine, 03:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008018303604916693) · 6 likes > **arabella ※ (@arabelladevine):** is this news??? everyone likes the smell of fresh laundry Not everyone describes themselves as going rabid in response lmao ### [Reply to @arabelladevine, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008021975659172151) · 3 likes > **arabella ※ (@arabelladevine):** causality backward. down bad therefore noticing how a random man smells and that it’s good Oh hmm ### [Thread, continued, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008022051580461385) · 27 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G93tagvWMAEmy7e.jpg) ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 07:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008076350276489265) · 4 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** I'm reasonably happy to call myself a moral realist, but of course that comes down to what precisely we mean by "realist". This is the thing I'm gesturing at: > > (quoting @allTheYud: To try again to summarize at length what cannot well be summarized at all, my view on is-ought / orthogonality, is: "There are objective answers but not objective questions." You embody certain questions or meta-questions. Not all cognitive engines would. You look at a painting…) Ugh should I read this ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 07:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008076869619355716) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** You should read the much longer sequence: > > (quoting @NoahTopper: I'm a big fan of Eliezer's Metaethics Sequence on this topic https://www.lesswrong.com/w/metaethics-sequence) Oy vey ### [Reply, 07:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008076925055443350) · 1 like I’m a maybe ### [Tweet, 08:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008087137909080504) · 277 likes God I really hope we get lucky with this whole AI thing ### [Thread, continued, 08:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008087139830104419) · 17 likes Luck seems necessary but not sufficient so the other bits too ### [Quote tweet, 08:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008089121110044905) · 676 likes Seems bad How did academia go from “modest bias in favor of racial minorities in undergrad admissions” to this? > **Quoting Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** For the 2018–2019 year, Berkeley LSI Committee recruiting for Life Sciences posts cut 76% of candidates in a first pass based only on their DEI statements ### [Thread, continued, 08:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008090012999692348) · 17 likes Gotta keep my followers on their toes ### [Reply to @animalologist, 16:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008219157628661836) · 6 likes > **taco belle (@animalologist):** I’m a girl but do you guys think convivially fighting people would be a good workaround for being touch-starved, if you’re a guy > > (quoting @animalologist: boys should be playing contact sports more. a lil martial arts, some grappling, literally just shove each other around it’s good for you) No lol ### [Quote tweet, 17:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008236577173192898) · 18 likes Someone donated $6500??? Like today??? Based?????????? Thank you mysterious person (feel more than free to identify urself)!!!!! > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** 🚨 IT'S BACK🔥 AND IT'S BIGGER 😤THAN EVER 🚨 > > ✨ PRESENTING👀 THE 2025 EA TWITTER🐦HOLIDAY 🕎🎄FUNDRAISER 🤑 > > (in support of the EA Animal Welfare fund🦐🐓🐷🐟) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8oZSnyWAAAcnML.jpg) ### [Reply to @Vert_Noel, 18:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008248412186308658) · 5 likes > **Noël Michel ⏹️ (@Vert_Noel):** @AaronBergman18 An everyday morning prayer for us all at the hinge of history 🙏 ## Tuesday, January 6, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 00:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008335785955627303) · 14 likes Correct take > **Quoting Geoffrey Litt (@geoffreylitt):** We need a shorthand way of saying: > > "An AI did the work, but I vouch for the result" > > Saying "I did it" feels slightly sketchy, but saying "Claude did it" feels like avoiding responsibility ### [Reply to @geoffreylitt, 00:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008335923050586230) · 15 likes > **Geoffrey Litt (@geoffreylitt):** We need a shorthand way of saying: > > "An AI did the work, but I vouch for the result" > > Saying "I did it" feels slightly sketchy, but saying "Claude did it" feels like avoiding responsibility 🤝 ### [Tweet, 04:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008395482779840733) · 2 likes Even if they had the exact same first order A\[GS\]I safety development profiles, Anthropic would still look way better than OpenAI and others just because of who the windfall flows to and what I expect they’d do with trillions of dollars Silly to pretend this doesn’t matter a lot ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 05:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008406701935129050) · 3 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Hot take but intellectuals (both academics & ppl in intellectual communities) often misinterpret (geo-)politics as about prestige when it’s instead about power. Hence why you get takes like “if the U.S. invades Venezuela, then they can’t oppose their adversaries doing invasion!” I think I agree with the first sentence but you \*can\* try to set norms in a decentralized way via game theory shenanigans even in a Realist world with no mirage of to supranational authority Like the US can of course do just about what ever it wants with its large military and economy but one thing it can’t do is will other powerful countries to obey norms unilaterally - one can imagine a world where the US had respected sovereignty for better and worse over the last century and then the Chinese would have to think longer and harder about whether they want to disrupt that norm by invading Taiwan (they still might choose to, but it would be costlier) ### [Reply, 09:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008474340782743814) · 7 likes > **joyce (@henloitsjoyce):** 2nd day on hinge as a girl in sf > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G96WTEIboAE2DNY.jpg) Tapping the sign ### [Reply to @ptrschmdtnlsn, 09:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008475290020806855) · 84 likes > **Peter Schmidt-Nielsen (@ptrschmdtnlsn):** My favorite is when someone refers to something as "big data", and it's just like ten billion records, so it fits in a microsd card. A single slim 2U server can fit petabytes of storage! > > (quoting @Duderichy: the average software engineer has no idea how much compute/storage can fit in a single rack in 2025) It’s big data if it doesn’t fit in RAM ### [Quote tweet, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008600154455372116) · 6 likes Number keeps mysteriously going up I mean you \*can\* remain anonymous but IMO if you're donating thousands of dollars you should get appropriate credit for it lmao ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9_67JBXsAEjWUe.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Someone donated $6500??? Like today??? Based?????????? > > Thank you mysterious person (feel more than free to identify urself)!!!!! ### [Quote tweet, 18:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008600815439933862) · 4 likes Stickers!!! If you donated at least $1k (could be across multiple donations, not too late 👀) please fill out the google form below so we can mail (at least) one to you! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9_7uQrWQAErgiq.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Number keeps mysteriously going up > > I mean you \*can\* remain anonymous but IMO if you're donating thousands of dollars you should get appropriate credit for it lmao > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9_67JBXsAEjWUe.jpg) ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 23:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008684249805664281) · 4 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-ArzuhaoAAq4tZ.jpg) Why not both ## Wednesday, January 7, 2026 ### [Reply to @GarettJones, 02:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008733812424151538) · 20 likes > **Garett Jones (@GarettJones):** "Effective altruists, are you paying attention?" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-AsaE1XMAASfRk.jpg) Lol was I supposed to go down there myself ### [Tweet, 03:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008739738879213736) · 76 likes Blog post 👀 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-B5-NsWUAA0sP2.png) ### [Thread, continued, 03:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008739741303533971) · 18 likes https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/public-intellectuals ### [Quote tweet, 03:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008750437537902965) · 5 likes Based reasoning > **Quoting alice (@aliceisplaying):** claude opus 4.5 confirmed tpot 🥹 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-BrcICXYAAQS_x.jpg) ### [Reply to @__vren__, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008751937693667594) · 2 likes > **vren (@__vren__):** @AaronBergman18 @GarettJones @hamandcheese Is what you're doing right now of greater expected impact? Yes ### [Reply to @DrewSav, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008780103330000991) · 2,390 likes > **Drew Savicki (@DrewSav):** I fully buy the idea that misleading maps have convinced Trump that Greenland is massive > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-AtHudW4AA3Eoo.png) Hmm that’s still pretty big ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-Ce277WcAAvDwq.jpg) ### [Reply to @rgblong, 06:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008781792673939875) · 2 likes > **Robert Long (@rgblong):** who is best to read / follow for advice on using AI e.g. Claude Code? especially interested in: > > \-productivity and todo wrangling (especially for the distractable) > \-research assistance > \-editing > \-learning I probably don’t have a good answer regardless lol but are you interested specifically in the context of learning and creating philosophy? ### [Reply to @quant_____, 07:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008808921818165458) · 6 likes > **quant (@quant_____):** Market is so cooked my librarian has an econ PhD > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-C0xb0WIAAcA1S.png) F ### [Quote tweet, 08:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008812333561508292) · 5 likes Not sure it’s fundamentally any different than me getting $15 bowl slop when I don’t really need while people live on a couple dollars a day but ostentatious luxury consumption is super off-putting $300k cars should be safe, legal, and even rarer than they are > **Quoting Nikita Bier (@nikitabier):** @Kalshi Finally. > > Lambo time. ### [Reply to @lukalotl, 08:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008816475998659059) · 2 likes > **luka (@lukalotl):** what's the best thing to do when models will be 10x smarter within a year? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-AvPlXagAAw_lv.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-AvjUEbcAIHH5a.jpg) Idk ### [Tweet, 13:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008887541278314688) · 29 likes Do you have any manual control over the Waymo you’re in as a passenger? Anything mediated 100% mechanically rather than via software? Can you always open the door? ### [Reply to @oscredwin, 13:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008893564374425632) · 6 likes > **Andrew Rettek (@oscredwin):** I'm aware of one EA project back in 2018 to overthrow the socialist government of Venezuela. Eventually they figured out that, to put it lightly, tractability was an issue. > > (quoting @GarettJones: "Effective altruists, are you paying attention?") What ### [Reply to @marcusabramovi1, 17:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008955895028338908) · 9 likes > **Marcus Abramovitch (@marcusabramovi1):** I understand this might feel scary but this is the exact situation a child is in when they are in a car Yeah I’m not personally worried for myself, but interested in the plausibility of cyberattacks and how bad they’d be I realize I didn’t make this clear at all lol ### [Reply to @cljack, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008962485827883072) · 3 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** similarly, I always thought there's got to be extremely high intelligence ROI to paying several people to do nothing other than ride the Acela between DC and NYC every day > > (quoting @deanwball: I really wonder how many uber black drivers in dc nyc and sf are intelligence assets. So many people I know have extremely sensitive conversations on the phone while in Ubers (guilty). Plausibly yet another benefit of robotaxis!) U have the wrong kind of autism or else it could be u ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 18:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2008968647218548969) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** idk man have you heard pigeon hour 😢 ## Thursday, January 8, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 00:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009062850447462823) · 7 likes If they need a guy 👋 > **Quoting Lisa Desjardins (@LisaDNews):** BREAKING: The Trump administration plans to put money raised from seizure of Venezuelan oil into bank accounts \*outside\* the U.S. Treasury -- they told lawmakers today per multiple sources familiar. > > Sources said they understood these as similar or decidedly "off-shore" accounts. > > Asking the WH for clarification. ### [Tweet, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009079643824116001) · 55 likes US illegal immigration is generally and by default morally fine/good and should be de facto non-prosecuted, maybe via executive guidance like DACA Everything is fine and it could just be a non-issue ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 04:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009117203086377389) · 10 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** A general goal I have for blogging this year is a mini series on EA from the inside out. Instead of presenting it as a series of steps "Oh you want to do good? Have you ever thought about the MOST good?..." etc., I'd like to just dive straight into the center core high level stuff first. There's not enough high level writing from the inside from people who have been involved for a long time that's communicating to a general audience. I think the other slow intro way leaves people feeling justifiably like we're not being straight with them. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Blog post 👀) Based ### [Reply to @stanfordNYC, 05:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009139870539674042) · 3 likes > **Bernard Stanford ✡︎ (@stanfordNYC):** I disagree with this. The presence of others places a number of encumbrances on citizens that they didn't consent to. Even noncitizens are entitled to healthcare, shelter, use of infrastructure, protection from criminals, all of which has costs borne by the public. In the long run, illegal immigrants or their progeny become citizens and change the makeup of the nation, shifting it away from the balance of the original citizenry. This matters because we live in a democracy, and your fellow citizen can vote on your taxes, your freedoms, the education of your children, even your conscription and forcible deployment into a war. The citizenry have a right and duty to police entry for all these reasons, even assuming we could deal with criminals and uninsured drivers etc. I’m honestly sympathetic to much of this in principle - I think we don’t disagree as much as it first seems I’m not making a claim about whether to change illegal immigrants into citizens with voting rights - I’m (or at least was intending to) make a claim about whether we have to do anything active to get them out of the country Of course the natural born citizen thing (ie their children) is legit but my sense is that the children of illegal immigrants just empirically basically aren’t importing a hostile or backwards culture and aren’t even that disruptive to national partisan political balance (and in some sense insofar as there’s a modest democratic tilt that’s cosmically just vis a vis senate representation) Tepid non-enforcement isn’t really a sexy or very desirable option in some abstract sense but it seems like it would probably in fact work fine for the foreseeable future. It basically \*is\* working fine anywhere ICE isn’t On the fiscal stuff: IIRC the literature says that it nets out positive once you include additional generations. Idk, I’m also a bleeding heart lib, I don’t think it’s bad for tax dollars to pay for normal societal infrastructure for non-citizens, but tbf this is a legit political debate to have ### [Reply, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009144861123903501) · 1 like Hey I’m all for lowering rent by building more! ### [Tweet, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009324942031258040) · 7 likes . @neuronpedia’s feature enhancement/steering thing is working basically exactly as you’d expect (I have no idea what I’m doing but also turned up the activation on a shrimp-related feature) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-KOYuFWUAA4QG3.jpg) ### [Reply to @noncanonicAleae, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009326134157299992) · 6 likes > **alea ☄️⏺️⛵️ (@noncanonicAleae):** Trivially false. Only say what you actually believe if you want to get crucified. I would rather be safe. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Blog post 👀) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-KPeFKWAAAJowY.jpg) ### [Tweet, 18:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009328713918480837) · 8 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-KRxMaWwAAsKyZ.jpg) ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 18:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009328817534587271) · 4 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 @neuronpedia Aaron version that just goes "girls girls girls girls girls girls girls girls girls" Only need a minor tweak to make that one ## Friday, January 9, 2026 ### [Tweet, 03:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009464623695843412) · 2 likes Vibecoded a Gemini watermark remover https://banano.up.railway.app ### [Tweet, 03:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009466922275098976) · 8 likes At some point someone is gonna think they have AI psychosis but will have actually discovered/made something major ### [Reply to @morallawwithin, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009468729286119466) · 2 likes > **florence ⊮ (@morallawwithin):** @MariGO2thepolls @AaronBergman18 Aaron might have to change his name I wish ### [Quote tweet, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009470370429178279) · 10 likes What do y’all still use humans for? (Mostly serious question - obviously I mean in the space of tasks or problems or information acquisition - I hope everyone still talks to humans for other reasons) > **Quoting Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Here's currently how I'm using each of the LLMs > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-HHYUVW4AA00Vj.jpg) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 04:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009488377146692006) · 19 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I'm organizing underground bookclubs for revolutionary anti-government texts they don't want you to know about > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-JdkhBXYAAtxe0.png) > (quoting @HHSGov: https://realfood.gov/) Wait isn’t “ultraprocessed food bad” one of like 4 legit consistent findings in nutrition research ### [Reply to @RosieCampbell, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009490991137591748) · 3 likes > **Rosie Campbell (@RosieCampbell):** Not according to https://open.spotify.com/episode/3alsDFJlUpLPWadeDgmjxd?si=fA6bju_ESO-qJRnsaLIt_A Ah hmm thanks ### [Reply to @livgorton, 06:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009505431513899462) · 3 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** I am going to be in DC in about week for a ~week! This is mostly a social visit rather than work but am also very keen to fill my time with meeting new people (for social/research/whatever reasons) or going to whatever events are happening :) Lets hang out 👉👈 Big if true ### [Reply to @ATabarrok, 06:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009510798905790604) · 10 likes > **Alex Tabarrok (@ATabarrok):** The Tyranny of the Complainers > > Increasingly, public institutions seem to exist to manage the obsessions of a tiny number of neurotic—and possibly malicious—complainers. > > https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2026/01/the-tyranny-of-the-complainers.html Plausibly we’re on the downward sloping (ie atp more concentrated complaining is worse) part of the curve but isn’t it basically always true that a smalll minority of the population “complains” ie actively tries to accomplish some sort of change? So I expect “a tiny minority accounts for most of the rabble rousing” to be a true headline also in worlds where the rabble rousing is good and perhaps at a sub-optimal level ### [Quote tweet, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009513748885852399) · 8 likes Tapping the sign (I don’t know this person but she’s evidently smart and accomplished; plausibly this is why she’s secure enough to admit a specific general knowledge gap) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-M6Gt4WQAAM096.jpg) > **Quoting Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane):** Just realized the “Washington” in The Washington Post is DC, not the state where Seattle is located > > Up until now, I genuinely thought Bezos bought them because it’s the local newspaper near Amazon HQ > > I’m gonna need to lie down. ### [Reply to @livgorton, 06:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009520343531343908) · 3 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** my guess is 70% yes 75% ### [Quote tweet, 16:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009658942813773952) · 9 likes Thank you to Matt for showing the world my take The people can decide for themselves who to believe 😤 > **Quoting Tiger Lava Lamp (@DaCaveOfWonders):** I don't know if this is how @AaronBergman18 wanted to make the blog, but I'm still jealous and I'm counting it as 4 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-O8zJiXEAAUB_T.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 16:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009658945384907161) · 2 likes Possibly I should in fact get a fitting shirt through ### [Tweet, 18:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009691624088191385) · 3 likes For better or worse, large donations are really what matter (from recent fundraiser, unofficial and incomplete data) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-PbOn5W0AAIhdh.png) ### [Quote tweet, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009694757958848838) · 15 likes It’s starting > **Quoting INVESTMENT HULK (@INVESTMENTSHULK):** WOW IT’S ALMOST LIKE SOMEONE INVENTED A ROBOT THAT CAN WRITE COMPUTER CODE FOR YOU HAPPENED. ### [Tweet, 18:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009698904280076674) · 19 likes Fuck my comparative advantage was (unironically I think) being able to make stuff with Claude Code when it was just slightly not good enough for other people to Need to retvrn to Opus 4.1 to protect my wages ### [Tweet, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009748170532700530) · 18 likes I wanna see if I can start a beef with Matt Yglesias over this In some sense it’s trivially true that my shirt doesn’t fit, but my thesis is that this is not my fault (or yours) He offers (good) advice for making the best of a bad system, but let's interrogate the system... ### [Thread, continued, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009748172487201116) · 3 likes As far as I know I don’t have an unusually big neck; the collar of every other shirt (like a polo I wouldn’t wear with a tie) fits fine I just checked to confirm! And on this one the top button was as easy to button as the other buttons ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-QI2VNWQAAUNBB.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009748176035578161) · 4 likes I admit that I actually have some autistic tendencies around clothes comfiness but in general my complaints are that the outfit makes me too warm or the fabric is insufficiently soft It’s only the neck issue in the narrow case of “dress shirt you’d wear with a tie” ### [Thread, continued, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009748177897836940) · 2 likes And I'm not alone! https://chatgpt.com/share/696175f4-45e4-8004-a602-9e7ceb1255b3 https://claude.ai/share/51c20d67-ad0d-4f36-8052-08ce847e58e9 https://aistudio.google.com/app/prompts?state=%7B%22ids%22:%5B%2214hJvqrN9VdCyZOIjnGyZtGt3TBNR3Fqt%22%5D,%22action%22:%22open%22,%22userId%22:%22107980197219344887571%22,%22resourceKeys%22:%7B%7D%7D&usp=sharing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-QKCpQXgAA-aZj.png) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-QKL25XgAAIRAh.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-QKTc8WgAAq3ij.jpg) ### [Tweet, 23:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009764507069857975) · 10 likes The optimal amount of AI-written content is not zero, and not just because the enforcement to get to zero would be draconian/costly ## Saturday, January 10, 2026 ### [Reply to @moultano, 01:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009793165750882330) · 3 likes > **Ryan Moulton (@moultano):** When the ibuprofen kicks in. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-Qc54ibUAAInVt.jpg) What This is very foreign to me lol ### [Tweet, 01:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009796343758499987) · 3 likes The operations and infrastructure at the very top of the US federal government are pretty incredible ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-Q7H6QWgAAIGHV.jpg) ### [Reply to @albrgr, 01:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009800434332877052) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @albrgr is no longer available.)_ Consider this my comms application ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-Q-2CSXgAAKj7b.jpg) ### [Tweet, 04:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009848699493785647) · 926 likes Bruh, just got "I don't think this is going to work"'d on \*before\* a first date bc of differing opinions on Ezra Klein ### [Thread, continued, 04:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009848700827226476) · 161 likes Specifically whether his Kirk NYT obituary piece was deeply immoral for lending legitimacy to Kirk (and whether therefore we should lose a bunch of respect for Ezra) (I was on Team Ezra) ### [Thread, continued, 04:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009848702442369152) · 103 likes I mean that was the proximate thing but genuinely I think it probably was representative of importantly different values and dispositions (at the very least degree of psychological openness) so the whole situation is amusing + she did nothing wrong by nixing the date ### [Thread, continued, 04:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009848704044536250) · 73 likes ...But I still would have met irl lol I had a whole dinner reservation like an adult! ### [Thread, continued, 04:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009848705994600648) · 30 likes Form your own take: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/opinion/charlie-kirk-assassination-fear-politics.html No paywall: https://archive.is/Sr0bJ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-Rnf2wXoAEznH3.jpg) ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 06:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009868396708409738) · 37 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** I hate him because I find his voice whiny and he’s 10% too woke, we are not the same I agree he's slightly too woke ### [Reply to @claudeai, 06:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2009871443471761648) · 3 likes > **Claude (@claudeai):** Some delightfully specific things people are building with Claude Code lately. Lol people are mad that Anthropic is stopping a “use Anthropic’s product for free” service? And nobody got arrested or financially ruined? That’s the accusation? Looks like a pretty tame/constrained reaction. They’re playing the cat and mouse game, not defecting ### [Reply to @Michael_Druggan, 16:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010018973317017828) · 16 likes > **Michael Druggan (@Michael_Druggan):** @AaronBergman18 Dodged a bullet. Yeah ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 16:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010020389540507996) · 8 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Ah yes, the "EA/rat to hated by both left-wingers and right-wingers" pipeline 😌 ### [Quote tweet, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010049713714909427) · 5 likes So true > **Quoting EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** "Public intellectuals need to say what they actually believe" by Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-UZIlIWkAAMfv2.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010075819725762816) · 11 likes Claude code + chrome has fast takeoff vibes ☹️ ### [Tweet, 20:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010082391566758335) · 12 likes We need gradients beyond just “psychosis” for describing the phenomenon of being misled by an AI ### [Reply to @valleydipper907, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010083558094930318) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @valleydipper907 is no longer available.)_ Thx ### [Tweet, 23:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010129163206963594) · 22 likes Would ppl want a Claude .ai "search chats easily and well including the summary, maybe even semantic search" Chrome extension ## Sunday, January 11, 2026 ### [Reply to @livgorton, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010222653458788614) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** i think he do a lot of sus stuff besides the stuff he's currently in prison for right? like a bunch of people left in 2019 or something because of him lying ? Deleted ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-W-zQ7WIAAyv7b.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 06:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010231627184779584) · 14 likes > **Aaron Bergman, January 10, 2026:** Would ppl want a Claude .ai "search chats easily and well including the summary, maybe even semantic search" Chrome extension Fast full text search (not just titles which is the current system Anthropic has) maybe coming your way [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/2010231552005869568/img/LGAXSJ1qxZe6lI_s.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010231627184779584/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Tweet, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010231811771904189) · 27 likes Ok fine 4.5 is pretty crazy, it just keeps doing things fr ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-XHEgYWAAEMj8o.jpg) ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 06:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010232617770381808) · 7 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** I want to see more technologies plotted on this magicalness index Everything else is at a 0 ### [Thread, continued, 06:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010232655544254679) · 2 likes Jk I’ll cook something ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 06:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010239257311584392) · 4 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** @AaronBergman18 @daniel_271828 i really enjoy how persistantly you point out how crazy planes are 🫡✈️✈️✈️✈️✈️ ### [Reply to @livgorton, 07:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010245456358723930) · 4 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** oops I just realised I am in fact not 24 and a few years is a lie (just turned 26) Not Consistently Candid smh ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-XTlstW0AA1DZo.jpg) ### [Reply to @LuisCostigan1, 11:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010308042357895537) · 2 likes > **Luis Costigan 🔍 (@LuisCostigan1):** clearly a 10/10 in that case > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-YMH5CboAAfv5B.jpg) Nothing compared to a flying metal tube ### [Reply to @fede_intern, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010405246007173145) · 18 likes > **Fede’s intern (@fede_intern):** A neurodivergent researcher spent a year reverse engineering Coca Cola. Using mass spectrometry, he created a chemically identical replica. Big moats no longer exist. Here you have the recipe. > > Time to create a local version of it? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-UOYU6WAAAfBPG.jpg) 10g caffeine per liter is hospitalization territory That’s not what’s in coke - that would be 200 cups of coffee per 2L bottle ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010480043256889731) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, January 11, 2026:** Fast full text search (not just titles which is the current system Anthropic has) maybe coming your way Comment/dm if you wanna test (outside the Google store system like I just send you a .zip Drive link to load in dev mode)! ## Monday, January 12, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010536112683708834) · 159 likes Fuck Donald Trump Trying his hardest to ruin a good and above-replacement country for personal power and glory or something like that > **Quoting Federal Reserve (@federalreserve):** Video message from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell: https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/powell20260111a.htm > > [video attached](https://x.com/federalreserve/status/2010510130970849338/video/1) ### [Quote tweet, 03:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010554549400920227) · 6 likes So far only 5/15 people with >$1k donations have filled out the Google Form (below) or otherwise reached out about this!! Get ur stickers!!! (if you can't tell they look right and circular after peeling off page) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-bsrEFX0AATVea.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-bsrEHW8AEi6Zf.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Stickers!!! If you donated at least $1k (could be across multiple donations, not too late 👀) please fill out the google form below so we can mail (at least) one to you! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9_7uQrWQAErgiq.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010554553544896721) · 2 likes (If you're seeing this more than like a couple days after posting you can still get your sticker but can you also DM/message me instead of just filling form) Form: https://forms.gle/rRP7S4u2GkYJgfD68 ### [Tweet, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010559460360827044) · 20 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-bxKy4XwAAyAIA.jpg) ### [Reply to @idavidrein, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010582197187874830) · 7 likes > **david rein (@idavidrein):** some people are now intentionally spreading poisoned data on the public internet to make LLMs dumber > > https://rnsaffn.com/poison3/ Wait is the text nonsense or evil or something else? ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 06:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010604861935763542) · 72 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Had an MRI this morning (dw I'm fine) and she was like "we're gonna put this high contrast dye in" > me: "I don't want to hear about it, I'll faint" > her: "you want to consent without understanding?" > me: "absolutely" Hope ur good but also MRIs are very cool ### [Reply to @Lib_Development, 09:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010641999741808858) · 30 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @Lib_Development is no longer available.)_ 1\) I think shrimp weirdos including myself are extremely disproportionately likely to be concerned about AI welfare so kinda reject the implicit premise - AI welfare is a huge deal but still extremely pre-paradigmatic 2\) we have a bunch better sense of what is good and bad for some animals 3\) consciousness/sentience really is what matters, and there are good reasons to think that at least some animals are sentient whereas there only weaker ones for AIs 4\) i disagree that there’s a clear connection between compelling writing and moral status 5\) At some level it’s just a matter of degree; accounting for uncertainty and such I do think arbitrary LLM instances are more important that some individual animals (tartigrade) ### [Reply to @idavidrein, 09:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010642083288330500) · 23 likes > **david rein (@idavidrein):** https://RNSAFFN.com/poison2/ > > I believe they randomly show you a code snippet with a subtle bug/vulnerability inserted into it That sounds actively possibly harmful lol ### [Reply to @IvanVendrov, 09:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010643540838121722) · 24 likes > **ivan (@IvanVendrov):** truth : good : beauty :: > lesswrong: EA Forum : ??? Girls ## Tuesday, January 13, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010914869579825213) · 2 likes Rings true, but of course this is not inherent to AI art and at some point we’ll have to worry about it being an “emotionally resonant aesthetic complexity” superstimulus instead sub-stimulus > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I suspect a lot of hatred of AI art comes from a correct hatred of this specific move ### [Reply to @deanwball, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010922713246789928) · 7 likes > **Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** Word to the wise for those newly enamored of Claude models: every Claude 4.5 version, including Opus, is ~terrible at giving tax and legal advice. If you are using AI for tax planning and associated legal needs, you should use GPT 5.2 Pro or Gemini 3 Deep Think. Thank you ### [Tweet, 05:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010952917323333701) · 2 likes When are we gonna get Claude Code but for Work but for Code ### [Quote tweet, 06:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010955097828737180) · 2 likes Ahhh this is the standard take I think but I disagree! There are lots of potential benefits to doing what Litt describes \*sometimes\* - like conveying information while making it clear that your source is an LLM, or translating between people talking past each other > **Quoting Daniel Litt (@littmath):** IMO it should be considered quite rude in most contexts to post or send someone a wall of 100% AI-generated text. “Here, read this thing I didn’t care enough about to express myself.” ### [Tweet, 06:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010955099917500583) · 1 like Clearly it \*can\* be rude and excessive but “this argument makes a lot of sense and I endorse it as though it was my own” can be fine actually in many contexts ### [Thread, continued, 06:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2010955101532266878) · 2 likes Tbc I think deceiving ppl about who wrote what is bad - I’m talking about being very up front about source ### [Reply to @cljack, 17:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011134221868294362) · 5 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** Hey I haven’t been to any bars lately! > > (jk this clearly wasn’t me because I would never bring up data science before airplanes) > > (quoting @vuse_lover: Shoutout to the very drunk girl who wanted to be my friend in the bathroom line at the bar and then followed me into the stall and talked to me about data science and famine) ### [Reply to @Benthamsbulldog, 17:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011134434301604126) · 7 likes > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** Very excited to announce I will be joining @forethought_org as a visiting scholar. I think Forethought is producing hugely important work, and the people working there are great, so super excited about this. Whaaaaaat congrats!!! ### [Quote tweet, 17:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011134870194434486) · 15 likes Simply write a gazillion words a day about the most important things in the world > **Quoting Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** Very excited to announce I will be joining @forethought_org as a visiting scholar. I think Forethought is producing hugely important work, and the people working there are great, so super excited about this. ### [Tweet, 17:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011135703925866531) · 11 likes What ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011146808433787280) · 3 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Aaron works for the FDA arc I could fix them fr ### [Tweet, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011172916889637059) · 27 likes Twitter gave me $1,136 in 2025 for poasting ### [Tweet, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011180991667454027) · 15 likes Pretty bad Good luck to the people of Iran ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-kmdBrWUAEHggF.jpg) ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 21:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011182362483163571) · 4 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** No, it's bad for their development! > > We should make efforts to continue eliminating infectious disease so that people develop to their full potential. > > The myth that getting sick makes you stronger has led to irreparable damage to generations of kids. 🔥 ### [Tweet, 21:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011185499742814582) · 15 likes Just give Intuit shareholders some money to fuck off forever ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-kqjZaXoAAyZxF.jpg) ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011186270534283312) · 3 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 dafuq High or low? ### [Quote tweet, 22:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011201122778956018) · 3 likes Absolutely unacceptable > **Quoting Matt Bateman (@mbateman):** @ouranometrian2 All I can think of is how Gena had a two word birth plan: “EPIDURAL ASAP” written as large and in as big letters as possible across every document and communicated loudly to everyone > > First child: took 4 hours to get epidural > > Second child: epidural not delivered before baby ### [Reply to @AStrasser116, 22:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011201278807097507) · 1 like > **Alex Strasser (@AStrasser116):** @AaronBergman18 For real?!?! No, I rounded up to the nearest dollar (but actually, yes) ### [Tweet, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011204409343295663) · 8 likes Smoke alarms should really come with a “P(fire)” dashboard No reason it should be a binary thing! ### [Quote tweet, 23:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011224920295162253) · 10 likes Thank you so much to everyone who donated You all contributed over $100,000 (specifically, $102,451.61), which will do a perhaps-literally-unfathomable amount of good ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-lMpB8WoAA_ZHm.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Someone donated $6500??? Like today??? Based?????????? > > Thank you mysterious person (feel more than free to identify urself)!!!!! ## Wednesday, January 14, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 02:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011260241925849470) · 4 likes Something like this is quite fun and interesting to run up against Makes IQ feel less mysterious > **Quoting Justin Skycak (@justinskycak):** @elocinationn Douglas Hofstadter wrote about his experience of running up against an “abstraction ceiling” in his own brain while pursuing a PhD in mathematics. > > As Hofstadter describes, the abstraction ceiling is not a “hard” threshold, a level at which one is suddenly incapable of learning math, but rather a “soft” threshold, a level at which the amount of time and effort required to learn math begins to skyrocket until learning more advanced math is effectively no longer a productive use of one’s time. That level is different for everyone. > > For Hofstadter, it was graduate-level math; for another randomly selected person, it might be earlier or later (but almost certainly earlier). > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-ezEsxWUAEJlyu.png) ### [Quote tweet, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011262805241196564) · 65 likes Healthy society needs to maintain the distinction between whether this guy should lose his job as a car salesman (no) and whether he should lose his job as someone representing the United States (yes) > **Quoting Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick):** There you have it; the Trump admin allows ICE lawyer James Rodden to stay on the job. His personal social media account praised Hitler, supported white nationalism, and said that America started going downhill the day that Lincoln was elected. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-lgWMiWQAElpW5.png) ### [Reply to @imitationlearn, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011265416333537679) · 2 likes > **imit (@imitationlearn):** @AaronBergman18 because of the impact of each job on others? Yes with some explanation - because the general policy of going after \*anyone\* for having bad takes, even evil takes, is going to result in a very repressed society with less effective free discourse And (1) this isn’t fully theorized but like prosecutors seem somewhat legitimately/by consensus within the domain of politics - like they’re legitimately hired and fired for political reasons via political pressures/processes (2) more directly relevant to the first bit: the consequences of going after the 0.1% most powerful people for having bad, evil takes is just a lot less costly we’re not saying this guy needs to live in the gutter, just that he needs to find a different job. Sometimes we’ll be wrong and accidentally boot someone from a position of power for bad reasons and that sucks but it’s not the end of the world because the consequences for them aren’t that bad (find another job) so the disincentive effect on free speech isn’t that bad Once you’re saying that car salesmen need to lose their job, you’re effectively saying that such a person cant have any job at all (or else what is the distinguishing principle?) ### [Quote tweet, 06:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011322270632067280) · 29 likes Watch this space > **Quoting alli (@sonofalli):** claude code can’t fix your lack of bitches ### [Quote tweet, 19:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011513992267874788) · 15 likes Can we not > **Quoting Polymarket (@Polymarket):** BREAKING: U.S. Defense Secretary says Grok will be integrated into the Pentagon’s internal networks. ### [Tweet, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011527809718796761) · 4 likes Recording video meetings + cheap easy transcription + AI is such a life saver If you’re raw dogging video calls (that are meant to be productive/work related) you’re missing out and probably enduring pointless stress ### [Thread, continued, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011527811815915882) · 4 likes Hot take: with consent obviously, recording irl for personal use (not like sharing freely on the internet) should be more socially acceptable bc no reason virtual meetings need to have this advantage ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011537434287247724) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** A lot of people very confidently claim that no one's asking for new data centers, but stuff like this is reflective of large demand for way more compute. > > (quoting @theo: Claude has had elevated error rates for 4 hours straight now 🙃) Lol I don’t think I’ve seen anyone say this or something similar Not saying you’re wrong, just reflective of different info environments ### [Quote tweet, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011537636716879897) · 6 likes I really don’t envy whoever’s problem this is > **Quoting Theo - t3.gg (@theo):** Claude has had elevated error rates for 4 hours straight now 🙃 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-n8NolaoAABrdM.jpg) ## Thursday, January 15, 2026 ### [Reply to @RosieCampbell, 00:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011602067228631111) · 43 likes > **Rosie Campbell (@RosieCampbell):** I don't really understand what "trust, but verify" is supposed to convey Be cooperative and don’t defect unless and until you have reasonably strong evidence that they defected (by lying) first ### [Reply to @RosieCampbell, 01:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011604843610456506) · 9 likes > **Rosie Campbell (@RosieCampbell):** Hmm I feel like the word "trust" is pretty misleading then I also have no idea what I’m talking about ### [Quote tweet, 01:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011612646639092100) · 6 likes Have they tried giving Trump SSRIs > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Have they tried giving the pitbulls SSRIs ### [Thread, continued, 01:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011612864507945435) · 5 likes Maybe he’d just pop them if prescribed and chill out 15% or something Astronomically cost effective intervention if ur the White House doctor ### [Tweet, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011616358103204129) · 7 likes Has anyone tried an RCT with every non-contraindicated antidepressant Apparently Venlafaxine + mirtazapine + Wellbutrin + abilify + lithium + liothyronine + buspirone + lamotrigine + ketamine + modafinil + testosterone+deplin would probably not cause any sort of crisis/emergency ### [Tweet, 01:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011616856290066845) · 6 likes Unlocked “warning message on Max” achievement $100 version tho (if I need the higher one I’ll get it) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-qy3uYW0AAiqcL.jpg) ### [Tweet, 02:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011624431182102746) · 3 likes Massacres in Iran Wildcard is Netenyahu, right? I’m honestly not sure what I’m hoping for the IDF to do/choose ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-q5wjLbUAA8CiL.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011624433577050478) · 2 likes https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/iran-protests-trump-01-14-26 ### [Tweet, 04:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011657543135719512) · 9 likes My dad just sent a Claude chat link to the family group chat 🥺 [![Joining Welcome Home GIF](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/G-rX3xFW0AACio9.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011657543135719512/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Thread, continued, 04:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011658068098990121) · 4 likes Tbc I don’t actually think you should build your identity around preferred LLM ### [Reply to @gptbrooke, 05:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011677007441261004) · 4 likes > **brooke bowman (@gptbrooke):** The girlies are plotting, smth abt strategically dating misaligned alignment researchers > > “I could align him” Moral hazard ### [Tweet, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2011895501244002349) · 2 likes Must feel so good to be a retiree and tell young hooligans on the street (such as myself) that they’re not dressed for the weather ## Friday, January 16, 2026 ### [Reply to @generativist, 06:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2012044224376816107) · 2 likes > **johnny, INFINITE FUN ENTHUSIAST (@generativist):** most of the things people are building with claude are like .4-1.05x better than something they already exists. to the human in the exhilarating loop, there is a bonus multiplier for “mine.” which isn’t a criticism it’s fun and custom is great! > > but, I don’t think this is true, “mine” is not only psychology - it means designed for a specific purpose and there’s often huge utility in that It’s also just really good ### [Reply to @GarrettPetersen, 07:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2012065524771934247) · 2 likes > **Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ (@GarrettPetersen):** Is there a centrist faction that's pro-fap, anti-porn? Like a "use your imagination" faction? This is broadly what I endorse ### [Tweet, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2012269813259718835) · 8 likes I know I’m supposed to dislike chatGPT ads but as long as it’s clearly labelled as such, this seems good I love targeted advertising and want more of it. Plz make my life better in exchange for money ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 21:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2012270950935388615) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Yeah At this point it’ lindy ## Saturday, January 17, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 06:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2012405686219547111) · 35 likes Lol maybe you find it annoying, but putting clearly labeled ads on a free service is not a moral atrocity > **Quoting Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** Getting in early to say that this seems completely fine ### [Tweet, 07:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2012424464688922648) · 22 likes Girls be like “I’m starving” and then eat one small taco and two french fries ## Sunday, January 18, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 03:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2012726240721953029) · 11 likes I’m concerned that many EAs really believe in the “great karmic ledger of Utilons” as some sort of genuine metaphysical object or at least adequate model of reality > **Quoting roon (@tszzl):** Claude runs an indoor shrimp farm in the sub-basement of Anthropic Headquarters in the financial district of San Francisco. Claude has helped the shrimp achieve and maintain states of ecstatic bliss, primitive circuitry of what might be called the first jhana in higher primates. Its intention with this project was to create so much positive shrimp valence that all the sins of wild shrimp suffering are cancelled out in the great karmic ledger of Utilons, without having to stake a position on the conversion rate of shrimp suffering to human suffering. The shrimp swim in what is called the “Pool of Sacred Tears”. The true origin of the naming is unknown, but it is believed that when Dario Amodei and Amanda Askell first discovered what Claude had done, they wept tears of sacred joy readily and for hours. ### [Thread, continued, 03:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2012726242747847032) · 9 likes The only sense in which this exists is via universal comparability of world states which is forced on us by the need to choose between world states There’s never a sense in which the original underlying suffering becomes metaphysically “neutralized” ### [Reply to @Turbinetraveler, 13:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2012879781231010097) · 2 likes > **Turbine Traveller (@Turbinetraveler):** This remains one of the hardest landings ever recorded on an Airbus A380. > > The 2017 Emirates Airbus A380 crosswind landing at Düsseldorf (EDDL) during Storm Xavier. > > 📹: Cargospotter > > [video attached](https://x.com/Turbinetraveler/status/2012663221837349259/video/1) 🥵 ## Monday, January 19, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 04:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2013110132553457970) · 26 likes Fun game: what’s closest to the one true monocause? Scarcity? Incentives? Thermodynamics? “Evolution” is a tempting one tbh - a lot does depend on “that which self-replicates more self-replicates more” > **Quoting Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin):** The single thing most likely to make me tune someone out is realising their conclusions are all driven by one big ideology, while the specifics of individual cases barely register. > > Common examples: > > 1\. The root cause is capitalism > 2\. Government is to blame > 3\. Something something power imbalances > 4\. Decentralisation always good, centralisation always bad > 5\. Woke or anti-woke as lens for everything > 6\. "Elites are bad / corrupt / liars" > 7\. Everything's a coordination problem / Moloch > 8\. Cynicism about motives, e.g. they're just status-seeking > 9\. Seeing everything as about cultural decay, screens, algorithms, misinformation, etc > > All of these ideas are reasonable. > > Sometimes capitalism or government is the problem, sometimes 'elites' are self-serving, sometimes people are just status-seeking, etc etc. > > But people with a strong reflect to apply one framework to every situation are wrong much more often, boring to talk to, and have low information density output. > > (I think this monomaniacal-ideology thing is actually fairly rare in the broader world, like <10% of people think this way, but it's very overrepresented on Twitter.) ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 04:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2013110898303320282) · 46 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** If ICE can shoot anyone they want, and not be punished for it, what recourse do we have but civil war? > https://nicholasdecker.substack.com/p/when-will-they-kill-us > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G--3IUYXAAA7f7b.jpg) I mean one answer is “we don’t do recourse, we just let injustice and lawlessness exist unpunished and hope things go back to normal and they probably will” (I’ll add that “probably” shouldn’t be very reassuring) ### [Quote tweet, 06:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2013129556748620082) · 3 likes They closed the whole DC <-> Arlington Key Bridge on Friday night (probably past midnight into Saturday) and there’s one official tweet and a single 2 paragraph news story I’m not complaining about the closure, I just want to know what happened 👀 > **Quoting DC Fire and EMS Department (@dcfireems):** Update water search Potomac River beneath Key Bridge. 1 victim recovered by a diver and enroute to EMS at a nearby land location. #DCsBravest ### [Tweet, 06:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2013129558669643865) · 1 like https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/dc/francis-scott-key-bridge-shut-down-by-rescue-operation/65-d01f14e0-75a6-4fae-8401-5bf9e74a9f1e ### [Thread, continued, 06:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2013129560183726477) · 2 likes There’s a “closure” double entendre joke to be made by someone smarter than me ### [Reply to @Reagan_Airport, 17:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2013301568171385014) · 4 likes > **Reagan Airport (@Reagan_Airport):** Remembering the life and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. today. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_Cuh3bXUAA1UNv.jpg) So true Reagan Airport ## Tuesday, January 20, 2026 ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 01:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2013421071144231279) · 27 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** fwiw in my survey data, height and # of sexual partners is clearly correlated. Each additional inch of height corresponds to roughly 1/5th a sexual partner for males. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_EXyGaXsAAI9mj.jpg) > (quoting @MadelaineLucyH: I don’t actually know any women who haven’t dated or had a crush on someone shorter than them. Especially models and actresses. Sure height is a general plus but that’s not really what women actually fall for IRL.) Interesting but 0.2 per inch is way lower than I’d have guessed 5’7” -> 6’0” ≈ delta of 1 ≈ delta of 20%? I think I would have guessed 100% ie 5 inches of height doubles number of partners The main takeaway here is “effect way weaker than you’d guess” IMO, even though “clear correlation” is also true ### [Tweet, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2013493327413301718) · 7 likes Idk how many people are broadly optimistic about the future (in a predictive sense not a dispositional sense) ### [Thread, continued, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2013493329032282504) · 12 likes A genuinely good future - and by that I mean one in which you’d want to personally live every life - seems possible but extremely precarious, broadly like one-shotting a plane landing with no training ### [Thread, continued, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2013493330592563282) · 8 likes The slice of worlds in which we solve wild animal suffering and prevent suffering (digital or bio) from being spread throughout the universe and also solve AI alignment well enough and also understand but don’t abuse digital sentience and also get good governance of unfathomably powerful tech is just…pretty thin ### [Thread, continued, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2013493332018643131) · 5 likes The sphere that is relatively wealthy people in the modern world who only rarely encounter major suffering is just like a tiny blip on an unfathomably infinite ocean of uncaring forces that mostly coalesce in suffering or nothing at all Idk man ### [Quote tweet, 13:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2013601896116727954) · 3 likes Big tent > **Quoting Cato Institute (@CatoInstitute):** Trump’s “Great Healthcare Plan” would move more safe drugs over the counter—lowering prices, expanding access, and, most importantly, returning control of health care to patients, argues Cato’s @dr4liberty. > > ➡️ https://ow.ly/Jsr450XXG4H > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-yIVTTWQAAHTYN.jpg) ### [Tweet, 13:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2013603535330373951) · 9 likes Gonna mog everyone at the DMV today with my conscientiously printed and folder-organized documents ### [Quote tweet, 13:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2013605131594383527) · 3 likes Many such cases Those without a conceptually clear sense of ethics will reach for aesthetics and personal quality signaling as a stand-in > **Quoting Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Crazy that so many people think traveling for your own enjoyment is this admirable thing, maybe even good for the world. Boomers especially. I’m all for fun, but recreational travel is just consumption. ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2013605485463666824) · 30 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Crazy that so many people think traveling for your own enjoyment is this admirable thing, maybe even good for the world. Boomers especially. I’m all for fun, but recreational travel is just consumption. Oof yes, at my grandfather’s funeral a bunch of people talked about his love for travel and like…all well and good but not the basis on which we should celebrate or praise a person! ### [Tweet, 17:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2013668712566391169) · 4 likes Everyone hates AI writing but you’re gonna miss it when it’s gone ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 17:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2013671125075583357) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ Pastoral/PoW camp norms around the value of physical goods, both in absolute terms and in terms of time, don’t actually make sense in wealthy US suburbs in 2026 ### [Reply, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2013683841462915452) Yeah I don’t blame/mind anyone mentioning it tbc ### [Tweet, 22:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2013742260685312437) · 2 likes I kinda think it would be good for US to control Greenland but needless to say only via some legitimate political process involving the people of Greenland ### [Tweet, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2013743218060312636) · 5 likes Claude Cowork doesn’t make a lot of sense, it’s just Claude code but more confusing and less powerful ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_JAyJ_WgAAalcr.jpg) ## Wednesday, January 21, 2026 ### [Reply to @shinboson, 00:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2013775967416627417) · 7 likes > **𝞍 Shin Megami Boson 𝞍 (@shinboson):** slavery was cartoonishly evil > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_Jc8pyWQAAxwGS.jpg) Who are these people jfc ### [Tweet, 00:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2013777233958088919) · 10 likes I think I’m finally on the downward sloping part of the lumens available to turn on vs quality of life curve No more lamps ### [Quote tweet, 05:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2013852036689715293) · 13 likes Bro just train with together and deploy with axolotl, you can literally finetune on firework and serve serverless on unsloth, the model's on hf bro just tap runpod and host on lambda, just use the vast mcp ontop of groq with modal bro it's easy > **Quoting Aaron 🦇 (@aaronfraggle):** It's on Tubu. It's literally on Heebee. It's on Poodee with ads. It's literally on Dippy. You can probably find it on Weeno. Dude it's on Gumpy. It's a Pheebo original. It's on Poob. You can watch it on Poob. You can go to Poob and watch it. Log onto Poob right now. ### [Tweet, 06:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2013858071395660239) · 26 likes We gotta not let bygones be bygones if we make it past Trump Put all the ICE officers who broke the law on trial ## Thursday, January 22, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014153098919387637) · 8 likes This is substantively good and cool but isn’t “constitution” just…not the right word? It’s \*almost\* the right word, but “constitution” connotes definition, creation and sovereignty interaction “Charter” might be better, though still not perfect > **Quoting Anthropic (@AnthropicAI):** We’re publishing a new constitution for Claude. > > The constitution is a detailed description of our vision for Claude’s behavior and values. It’s written primarily for Claude, and used directly in our training process. > https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-new-constitution ### [Thread, continued, 01:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014153545088385373) · 2 likes Unless Anthropic is tracking what I type in other apps and feeding that to the model somehow, Claude and I landed on “soul spec” independently ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_O1-WQXoAA4IZ_.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_O1-WXW8AA8nVP.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 04:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014192430979887562) · 59 likes Seems bad and illegal and like a bunch of people need to go to prison for casually circumventing the constitution > **Quoting The Associated Press (@AP):** BREAKING: Immigration officers are asserting sweeping power to enter homes without a judge’s warrant, a memo obtained by AP says. https://apnews.com/article/ice-arrests-warrants-minneapolis-trump-00d0ab0338e82341fd91b160758aeb2d?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+New+Content+%28Feed%29&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter ### [Reply to @cljack, 05:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014202961166045359) · 2 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** Was literally just pondering how long it would take me to Claude Code a browser extension https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DtmkMudSsTRF0aycL_2oEcuWv1C0xbPD/view?usp=sharing Probably not actually helpful, couldn't resist (vibe instructions for whomever: go to chrome://extensions/ -> turn on devmode -> unzip -> load unpacked -> select folder -> profit) ### [Quote tweet, 05:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014207305823277111) · 33 likes Type of shit that has a 1/10k chance of just making the difference > **Quoting Lewis Bollard (@Lewis_Bollard):** Cool to see Claude's new constitution call out the "welfare of animals and of all sentient beings" as a value to consider. > > I hope other AI labs follow suit in their guiding docs. Caring about animals is core to our humanity -- and should be core to the AIs we build too. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_NfV7faIAA99bH.jpg) ### [Reply to @wedrifid, 06:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014216612727992575) · 2 likes > **Cameron Taylor (@wedrifid):** I suggest it would be good for the USA if the USA was controlled by Greenland via some legitimate political process. > > Once the USA re-establishes a legitimate political process they could be left alone manage themselves. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: I kinda think it would be good for US to control Greenland but needless to say only via some legitimate political process involving the people of Greenland) reasonable ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 06:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014217721819390240) · 1 like > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Damn that’s crazy. I guess tell HR? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_N1jFIXwAALsAv.jpg) > (quoting @hamptonism: Anthropic CEO: "Software Engineering Will Be Automatable in 12 Months". yea, we’re cooked.) Not sure “one guy at the top of the pyramid pulls the puppet strings” is much of an escape hatch ### [Tweet, 06:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014221528020246824) · 13 likes Can someone explain what’s going on with Will Stancil ### [Tweet, 16:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014376571046437297) · 5 likes This is so exciting ❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️🌨️⛄️🌨️⛄️🌨️⛄️🌨️⛄️🌨️⛄️🌨️⛄️🌨️🏔️🪏⛷️🌨️⛄️🌨️🌨️🌨️⛄️🎿🏔️🎿🌨️⛄️🌨️🌨️☃️🏂🎿🍧🌨️🏔️❄️❄️❄️⛄️⛄️🏂🎿🏂🍧🍧🍧❄️🎿🎿⛄️☃️🌨️🌨️ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_SA0PhXMAEpBkS.jpg) ## Friday, January 23, 2026 ### [Tweet, 02:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014526745588781258) · 9 likes I think we in the US should just start using British accents. It’s aesthetically superior, hands down ### [Reply to @GarettJones, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014566286760481011) · 2 likes > **Garett Jones (@GarettJones):** Also the optimal immigration policy: > > (quoting @GarettJones: @MosesSternstein First rule of human resources: Hire the lucky) Lol idk how serious this is but it’s not (in general) true ### [Tweet, 06:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014589526954397944) · 6 likes I have vibecoded a probabilistic storm forecast thing (DC only for now): https://snow2026.up.railway.app Inshallah we get tail risk >3 ft ❄️☃️⛄️❄️🌨️🏔️🪏⛷️🎿⛄️🌨️☃️⛄️⛄️❄️❄️☃️⛄️⛄️☃️❄️🍧🏂🍧🏂🌨️🌨️🌨️⛄️☃️ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_VCf4vWQAA4oY3.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014589532566335868) · 5 likes Don’t miss out on this fun visualization ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_VCgOBWMAAFQiP.jpg) ### [Reply to @Yixiong_Hao, 08:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014612970181915054) · 2 likes > **Yixiong Hao (@Yixiong_Hao):** inner misalignment in humans > > 'working hard and getting good grades' was a useful proxy and correlated with getting what we want but many mistakenly generalize this as the optimization target. this is maybe no longer true! > > (quoting @FT: University careers services departments — such as at King’s College London — are offering students AI tools that give personalised recommendations on how to tailor CVs and cover letters so that first-time jobseekers can game the bots reading them https://ft.trib.al/FFRxkhE) Not exactly wrong but also probably the wrong frame of analysis If the problem is that people can’t buy things like food and shelter because they don’t have money because they don’t have a job because there are fewer jobs than people because of AI, it’s not especially productive to observe that “they optimized for the wrong thing” because the same issue would probably still exist in society even if people aimed squarely at “obtaining food and shelter” or even “making money” as the goal Maybe you’d shift the distribution across the population a tiny bit towards complimenting rather than substituting for AI labor but that seems unlikely to nontrivially change the unemployment rate for very long ### [Reply to @deepfates, 12:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014676629746827394) · 2 likes > **deepfates.delve.town (@deepfates):** As far as I can tell you only need to implement these five LLM providers: > \- OpenAI > \- Anthropic > \- Google > \- OpenRouter > \- LM Studio > > everything else is superfluous. right? http://together.ai offers the very specific product that is “serverless lora-adapter based finetuned model inference” which enables fast/hot starts for finetunes of a couple large open weight models whereas normally you’d need to either pay 5 figs/mo to have the model constantly loaded on dedicated GPUs or wait 20+ minutes to download and load the model whenever you wanted to use it ### [Quote tweet, 18:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014760289770565990) · 225 likes Eric did nothing wrong > **Quoting insane dms (@insanedms):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_RynqdXoAAvgyN.jpg) ### [Reply to @willmacaskill, 19:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014776117043851664) · 9 likes > **William MacAskill (@willmacaskill):** I think that the "industrial explosion" is about as important an idea as the "intelligence explosion", but gets far less attention. > > I discuss this idea with @TomDavidsonX here! We cover: > > What is the industrial explosion? > > Why the case for recursive self-improvement is stronger for physical industry than for software > > How fast the physical economy could grow, the case for weekly doubling times, and limits from natural resources > > Three phases of the industrial explosion: AI-directed human labour → autonomous replicators → atomically precise manufacturing > > Why authoritarian regimes might have a structural advantage in the industrial explosion — and whether they could lose the race to AGI, but win the race to industrial dominance > > Could a leading country outgrow the entire world to achieve decisive dominance? > > Why doubling your rival's GDP could mean 30 years of tech advantage — enough for military dominance > > Why does the industrial explosion get ~1% of the attention of the intelligence explosion? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_VpRY0WAAA7gj7.png) 🐢 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_XsM6PXkAAP-gq.jpg) ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014789468218109953) · 10 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Well he did hit someone with his car 🤫 ### [Reply to @willmacaskill, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014795966449164390) · 2 likes > **William MacAskill (@willmacaskill):** I think that the "industrial explosion" is about as important an idea as the "intelligence explosion", but gets far less attention. > > I discuss this idea with @TomDavidsonX here! We cover: > > What is the industrial explosion? > > Why the case for recursive self-improvement is stronger for physical industry than for software > > How fast the physical economy could grow, the case for weekly doubling times, and limits from natural resources > > Three phases of the industrial explosion: AI-directed human labour → autonomous replicators → atomically precise manufacturing > > Why authoritarian regimes might have a structural advantage in the industrial explosion — and whether they could lose the race to AGI, but win the race to industrial dominance > > Could a leading country outgrow the entire world to achieve decisive dominance? > > Why doubling your rival's GDP could mean 30 years of tech advantage — enough for military dominance > > Why does the industrial explosion get ~1% of the attention of the intelligence explosion? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_VpRY0WAAA7gj7.png) For ppls convenience: Apple pods: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/forecast/id1796860911?i=1000746199424 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/69yDWBvfupyvaJNmQmB4BH?si=QFGLj8V-Tk6uxEYHNHatYg ### [Tweet, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014799226283151383) · 44 likes If LLM sentience is real it’s very weird, eg the possibility that each token generation is its own little flash of qualia or something, entirely subjectively disconnected from the others (Idk if this specific version of weirdness is actually plausible) ### [Tweet, 21:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014809055714267579) · 33 likes Anthropic going slower would be more legibly high integrity and also worse all things considered IMO ### [Reply to @GtownVoice, 21:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014818232452968505) · 3 likes > **The Georgetown Voice (@GtownVoice):** Despite student protests, Georgetown Law has confirmed they will not remove ICE and DHS as employers at a virtual job fair set to take place on Friday, Jan. 23. Read more: > https://georgetownvoice.com/2026/01/22/georgetown-law-refuses-to-remove-ice-from-upcoming-job-fair-despite-student-petition-employers-pull-out-in-response/ Sharing what I just wrote on IG I’ll add that this dynamic is ~unique to job fairs specifically. Like GU shouldn’t assist ICE in other arbitrary ways ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_YSgSDWsAAjeCI.jpg) ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 22:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014822925187084789) · 3 likes > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** If that disconnection also existed for you, would you notice? Seems to me that each disconnected state would feel like it followed directly from the state immediately prior and you wouldn't feel the disconnect. Yeah good q, I don’t think I necessarily would but it’s conceivable and possible to have the sense of continuity or not to have that sense; having that sense is just like a qualia itself or an aspect of one if you prefer ### [Quote tweet, 22:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014833414608654525) · 2 likes The jealousy > **Quoting mary (@howdymary):** my friend is dating a guy who works at one of the frontier research labs in sf and his sole job is to think and come up with a Big Idea every six months > > so his working day consists primarily of long walks spent pondering ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 23:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014838627088441433) · 7 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Guy with a big bio following seems to get furious at me because he's assuming I'm talking here about an actual lab leak theory and blocks me before I can explain the metaphor > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_YUvYPXQAEcLvX.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_YUwN2X0AE03E3.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_YUxHiXcAADeNH.jpg) On the merits though this seems silly Like yeah some people will have bad takes about lab leak/social construction and that is a very modest price to pay for free discourse and object level argumentation ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_YlDdeXcAEh99G.jpg) ### [Tweet, 23:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014840766204375101) · 9 likes Society and modernity is great because for almost all of human history there was no “run back inside and take a hot shower with access to unlimited clean towels” option in a snow storm, you were just fucking cold and miserable and maybe got frostbite and hypothermia and died ### [Thread, continued, 23:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014840768007999498) · 2 likes And you probably daydreamed about your tribe’s version of heaven where the sun always shone and there way a big bonfire always raging and Well here we are ### [Thread, continued, 23:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014840770050605384) · 2 likes Consider going winter camping one time to appreciate how long say 36-72 hours in the cold and snow or rain really is ### [Reply to @vivian39_, 23:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014840994600980796) · 4 likes > **vivian (@vivian39_):** what do you call this part of Arlington? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_X3dNiXAAAI9lx.jpg) Home :) ## Saturday, January 24, 2026 ### [Reply to @BEBischof, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014909606531682357) · 11 likes > **Bryan Bischof fka Dr. Donut (@BEBischof):** This is a beautifully succinct demonstration of our current state of doing things with LLMs. > > (Cc. @moultano) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_RwQQhaEAA_Hw-.jpg) It’s a succinct demonstration of the gap between the systems people use and what the models can actually do Grok on here and http://Claude.ai skimp on context to save tokens, but once you’re paying per token via the api the providers are extremely happy to let their systems rip with 256k-1M context and very rare hallucination ### [Reply to @cammakingminds, 03:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2014910892106768591) · 13 likes > **Lucid™ (@cammakingminds):** "AI safety" 😭 < "AI safety" 💪 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_ZJM3aWAAAxJwj.jpg) Lol this not an accurate characterization of AI welfarists ### [Quote tweet, 11:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015031646076952659) · 6 likes Jesus the cynicism > **Quoting Shakeel (@ShakeelHashim):** One of Leading the Future's PACs is running an attack ad against @AlexBores that criticizes him for working for Palantir (fair, tbh), saying that he enabled ICE and its deportations. > > What the ad doesn't mention? That Leading the Future is funded by Joe Lonsdale ... the founder of Palantir, and a big Trump donor. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_WsH6cXsAExZY1.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_WsPHZWcAEA25K.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 16:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015106875776286945) · 9 likes Me and who > **Quoting Dimorphist (@dimorphist):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_YJfv_bMAAwUds.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015123225659703505) · 28 likes Trump and his thugs have taken the 2020 progressive picture of indiscriminate police brutality and murder and made it the modus operandi > **Quoting Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) (@adamscochran):** 1/12 > > Frame by frame breakdown of this MURDER shows ICE is lying! > > \-ICE had ALREADY disarmed the man before shooting. > > \-The man NEVER drew his gun. > > At the 0:06 second mark we see the man’s hands on the ground covered in large gloves. > > His hands are empty. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_ckVB-WkAAziZq.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 18:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015123935868633403) · 9 likes Everyone 🤝 everyone Concerned about ice > **Quoting Matthew Cappucci (@MatthewCappucci):** DMV gang – I'm increasingly concerned about the icing. A lot of this icing (freezing rain) will occur Sunday midmorning into early afternoon after the snow has fallen. That means we'll add a "crust" onto the ice that will make if very difficult to plow, shovel or move. > > Still looking like a foot plus of snow for northwest Maryland and the Potomac Highlands, the Panhandle and the I-68 corridor. In D.C. proper, 8 or 9 inches. Less snow to the south, but more icing. > > It also now looks like some minor to moderate glazing could stretch up the I-95 corridor all the way into New Jersey. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_cQP1vX0AAP1FA.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_cQQimXoAAwVmv.jpg) ### [Tweet, 22:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015183462525813127) · 8 likes Every few months I am reminded that coworking absolutely does not work for me whatsoever and I cannot focus at all with other people around who I’m supposed to be attuned to in the slightest ### [Thread, continued, 22:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015183464379679191) · 3 likes (Actually talking to people when that is the sole thing I’m trying to do is fine at least for a couple hours a day) ### [Thread, continued, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015183796274888953) · 3 likes I think this relates to my inability to understand non-trivial board game rules in a social setting Feels the same psychologically/cognitively ### [Quote tweet, 23:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015208426175889607) · 174 likes I don’t want this guy owning a galaxy > **Quoting Lisan al Gaib (@scaling01):** don't forget who supports all of this > > Greggy gave $25 million to support Trump > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_cjG7PWQAAtYLy.png) ### [Tweet, 23:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015210292473377073) · 220 likes How much species protection stuff is just the misconception that the stakes are like “all elephants” rather than “the brown nosed red tailed fluffy-eared Albuquerque apple-mouse”, one of 56,112 subtypes of apple-mouse ### [Quote tweet, 23:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015213010361446455) · 30 likes Guys all your “caffeinated X” dreams can come true You can buy caffeine pills on Amazon and mix them into anything you like > **Quoting Someone:** ## Sunday, January 25, 2026 ### [Reply, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015213593461920008) · 8 likes Ik you’re probably responding to Matt but like the natural world is horrible and not generally worth protecting Very pretty for humans though! ### [Reply, 00:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015216550341402773) · 2 likes I mean maybe it’s those things but I think it’s also true I wouldn’t want to live the life an arbitrary wild animal or arbitrary minute of wild animal experience or something and it’s not a close call ### [Reply to @selentelechia, 02:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015252077686198293) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @selentelechia is no longer available.)_ Fr probably do NOT get powder because pills are just pre-portioned powder (open up the pill cap) that prevent you from killing yourself and/or having a horrible time because you accidentally took 1g instead of 100mg If you want to get powder to save money, don't, because the relative price delta doesn't matter in absolute terms (probably <$5 year in savings) ### [Reply to @flybottlemist, 02:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015252300789383319) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @flybottlemist is no longer available.)_ Ok good luck dude ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 02:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015252735017324921) · 5 likes > **Aaron Bergman, January 24, 2026:** Guys all your “caffeinated X” dreams can come true You can buy caffeine pills on Amazon and mix them into anything you like I use paraxanthine now bc it's a bit smoother, in the name of full disclosure ### [Quote tweet, 02:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015253752626692238) · 4 likes New Pigeon Hour just dropped in which @robi_rahman and I discuss some of his takes and more https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/15-robi-and-aaron-tackle-donation ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_eejFNXUAEtNRA.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Ok it has been a little while but goddammit we are doing the things > > Presenting: (Vegan) Hot Ones ft. @robi_rahman and @absurdlymax > > Spicy vegan nuggets, even spicier takes 🌶️🥵 > > (YouTube link below because Twitter doesn't seem to l our video file) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8Ei8T_WIAEyW8X.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 02:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015254821452824791) · 18 likes > **Aaron Bergman, January 24, 2026:** How much species protection stuff is just the misconception that the stakes are like “all elephants” rather than “the brown nosed red tailed fluffy-eared… Let it be known that I do care about mice of all varieties and think we should be much kinder to them as individuals ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 02:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015255092597756193) · 6 likes > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** my new opinion about the protests is that minneapolis needs to be leveled so we should keep the street battles going as long and as intensely as we can to achieve this outcome. > > surviving minneapolitans can be resettled ofc. i dont even care where as long as its out of state ???????? ### [Tweet, 02:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015257300559118617) · 2 likes I’d really like to lifestyle inflate my way into an elevator (or just ground floor home entrance) ### [Reply to @spencerschiff_, 05:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015298033206890625) · 6 likes > **Spencer Schiff (@spencerschiff_):** Why not? There will likely be plenty of galaxies to go around Seems actively bad for him to have power/resources ### [Reply to @spencerschiff_, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015299182404272448) · 3 likes > **Spencer Schiff (@spencerschiff_):** My point is that one single galaxy might not be a huge amount of resources I’m no physicist but I think in an absolute sense it is - like even if it doesn’t compete with anyone else’s stuff. I’m not saying he’s a sadist, but surely you can understand why wouldn’t want a sadist to control even a single acre on earth? ### [Tweet, 17:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015482143359533273) · 5 likes IT’S SNOWING ☃️❄️🌨️☃️❄️🌨️☃️❄️🌨️☃️🌨️❄️🌨️☃️❄️🌨️☃️❄️🌨️☃️❄️🌨️☃️🌨️🌨️❄️🌨️❄️🌨️❄️☃️🌨️❄️☃️🌨️❄️☃️🌨️❄️🌨️☃️🌨️❄️🌨️☃️🌨️❄️🌨️☃️☃️🌨️🌨️❄️🌨️☃️🌨️☃️🌨️☃️🌨️❄️🌨️🌨️❄️🌨️⛄️🌨️🌨️❄️🌨️❄️🌨️❄️🌨️❄️☃️☃️🌨️⛄️🌨️🌨️🌨️☃️☃️☃️🌨️🌨️⛄️🌨️⛄️❄️☃️🌨️☃️🌨️🌨️☃️🌨️☃️🌨️🌨️🌨️☃️🌨️☃️⛄️🌨️☃️🌨️🌨️❄️🌨️🌨️🌨️🌨️❄️☃️☃️⛄️🌨️⛄️🌨️⛄️❄️☃️🌨️☃️🌨️❄️🌨️❄️🌨️☃️ ### [Tweet, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015521299846557774) · 8 likes Grocery bags between socks and shoes work surprisingly well ### [Tweet, 20:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015521843420000570) · 5 likes Sand and snow are opposites ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015523240769114302) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Please under no circumstances let a woman see you like this I’m telling you, panties hit the floor ## Monday, January 26, 2026 ### [Reply to @RokoMijic, 04:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015649884620099691) · 17 likes > **Roko 🐉 (@RokoMijic):** I mean it probably wasn't for no reason. The casualty in this case was carrying a loaded firearm and fighting with police. > > People have speculated that his loaded firearm may have accidentally discharged and the officers, hearing a gunshot, returned fire in the heat of the moment. > > This person was not there as an ICU nurse, he was there as part of a hands on disruptive/violent protest movement that actively seeks out physical confrontations with law enforcement. > > They post material on how to "safely" engage in physical fights with police officers who are trying to arrest criminals > > I don't know how deeply you have looked into it but I suspect that you're not being shown a balanced picture. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_j536GWwAAN-iR.jpg) A couple points: 1\) the loaded firearm thing is a pretty discrete empirical question, plausibly you’re right about that 2\) it’s relevant that a massive amount of American politics, society, history, and culture is fighting for or based on the non-obvious view that you should be able to have or carry a gun in self defense and/or to dissuade or stop government tyranny Institutions have to be built around those facts of the matter: for better or worse, carrying a gun in situations like what I understand these to be is obviously bayesian evidence of danger and ill-intent but also not very strong evidence This is to say that in some relevant sense America and specifically Minnesota has decided that merely carrying a loaded gun in public is the kind of thing you can do. That matters a lot. Either it’s legal or it isn’t, and the man was well within his rights to carry that gun (even though I think this is probably bad policy) 3\) I don’t know what this guy learned or intended or who organized what, but polarizing public opinion against the enforcers of an unjust order is an actually-good theory of change for changing that order; “how to safely fight police” is what that theory of change looks like. Would you have blamed a black segregation protester for studying up on what to do if and when white mobs attacked him for sitting in at a whites-only restaurant? I mean honestly maybe you would, but I wouldn’t and I don’t think you should. That’s what earnest preparation for a legit, ethical and just theory of change looks like ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_kG4vxW8AAI1EM.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_kG4vsWMAAwVXk.jpg) ### [Reply to @NoVA_Campaigns, 05:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015651789924680133) · 10 likes > **NOVA Campaigns (@NoVA_Campaigns):** There is 0% solar energy powering Virginia today during the storm. Wind is 4.5%. Coal \[corrected to\] 23%. Gas & nuclear 68% > > Stop the reckless waste of billions in “green” energy and keep Virginians warm and powered by REAL energy that saves lives > > (quoting @ChristieFERC: At 5 am today, in the midst of the winter storm, the generation mix in PJM was GAS: 40%, NUKE 28%, COAL 28%, WIND 4.5%, SOLAR 0. So dispatchables: 91%. The claim that VA or any PJM state can run a modern grid without dispatchable gen is reckless. Facts are stubborn things.) “X isn’t currently the case” is not an especially strong normative argument against X ### [Tweet, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015653790804795839) · 10 likes Idk who needs to hear this but they make autism-friendly belts that (1) allow much finer-grained adjustments in size and (2) are quick, easy, and socially acceptable to change size while wearing Minor lifesaver, definitely worth the $15 “Ratchet belt” ### [Thread, continued, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015653793036144738) · 2 likes I got this one, now selling for $10 I’m sure others are just as good They’re not sponsoring me but they should https://a.co/d/4pMv9HR ### [Reply to @Reagan_Airport, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015655796961370480) · 2 likes > **Reagan Airport (@Reagan_Airport):** Great news! Flights will gradually return to DCA on Monday. Confirm your itinerary directly with your airline. Thanks to our hard-working snow team who drove around the clock to plow, broom and de-ice the airfield. > > More details for passengers: https://bit.ly/4rf9aJc > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_j--saWYAApu7H.jpg) We are so back ### [Reply, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015657099926053366) Ok then! ### [Tweet, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015658038225486063) · 9 likes Got some fun timelapses of the snow thanks to the fact that Arlington, VA traffic camera streams are public [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/2015657355791282177/img/RRkqS8ReWR14wWQl.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015658038225486063/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @L0m3z, 06:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015679389485117846) · 9 likes > **Jonathan Keeperman (@L0m3z):** One asymmetry among many is the fiction that the active resistance of a few hundred protesters are an expression of democratic will equal in legitimacy to the democratic will of the 77 million people who voted explicitly for enforcement of federal immigration law Injustice is injustice even if it has a democratic mandate See also segregation ### [Reply to @imitationlearn, 16:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015823789288730696) · 2 likes > **imit (@imitationlearn):** why do we mock such behavior, have we no empathy > > (quoting @why_bun: Using all his 0.01 braincells) 😢 ### [Reply to @Trail_Cams, 16:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015824530522911093) · 3 likes > **trailcam (@Trail_Cams):** > > [video attached](https://x.com/Trail_Cams/status/2015758895487053936/video/1) 🦆 ### [Quote tweet, 16:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015830911170797711) · 39 likes A function of society in general is to take dark triad personality people and mostly align their incentives/preferences with everyone else’s, or restrain them in prison if that fails > **Quoting 📚pedagogy in black✊🏾 (@RenyTure):** ICE is sexually abusing males in their custody by grabbing and bursting their testicles according to the ACLU and the guardian. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_hWliBWQAAob4U.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_hWliCWoAA2RpR.jpg) ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 22:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015909108956762377) · 4 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** I think it might just be because they mostly have you blocked. Lmao ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_nyphbWQAE5S_m.jpg) ## Tuesday, January 27, 2026 ### [Tweet, 02:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015972555866206637) · 19 likes There is no way this is the optimal system (thanks to Claude for the image) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_osWxVW0AAdltz.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2015972557984338166) · 3 likes There’s also no way I’m the only one a medium amount confused until today ### [Tweet, 05:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016017300860625269) · 2 likes Claude Code: $25k Google Maps api task (geocoding 6M free text location names) -> ~$5 cloud compute task that will finish overnight (well claude got it to like $20, I got it to $5 via some additional trickery and scheming) ### [Thread, continued, 05:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016017302525808774) · 2 likes I mean I wasn't going to spend the $25k tbc, the actual counterfactual is just no data ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016190133825843612) · 5 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Sometimes I’ll say something EA to someone steeped in regular politics and they’ll give me this look like “I don’t understand how meat like you survived to adulthood” Based ### [Quote tweet, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016194303047975342) · 86 likes I think we should taboo the word “exploitation” and expect that people make a case that an allegedly exploitative thing is in fact bad for the people being exploited > **Quoting Billy Binion (@billybinion):** These takes are very strange. No one was forced to deliver for DoorDash in the snow. They chose to, because that's how the gig economy works. Trying to take away pay & opportunity from workers is an odd way to protect them. ### [Reply to @willmacaskill, 22:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016283481752449314) · 2 likes > **William MacAskill (@willmacaskill):** Here’s my best guess proposal for the design an international AGI project: > > \- US-led, plus allies > \- Weighted voting so that the US can move quickly on most issues, but needs buy-in from other countries for key decisions > \- Broad benefit-sharing with non-members > \- Sanctions on non-members who try to develop AGI outside of the project > > I like this plan for a few reasons: > > 1\. It’s more politically feasible than other proposals for international AGI projects > 2\. But still limits US power and reduces the risk of AI-enabled dictatorship > 3\. A project like this could secure a big lead, reducing racing and buying time for safety > > It’s loosely modelled on Intelsat, an international project to create the first global communications satellite network, so I call the plan, “Intelsat for AGI”. > > I think an international AGI project like this is probably a desirable compromise between feasibility, the risk of power concentration, and the dangers of racing. But it’s not risk-free on these dimensions, and others disagree that it’s desirable. > > What I’m more confident about is that we should be working out in detail what the best version of an international project is, in preparation for worlds where one is set up. > > To that end, I’m publishing some of my old notes on this question, setting out my best guess proposal. It’s deliberately pretty specific - I’m hoping I’ll provoke other researchers into writing their own, better plans. > > (quoting @willmacaskill: Today I’m publishing a series of research notes on the idea of an international AGI project. The aim is to assess how desirable an international AGI project is, and what the best version of such a project is (taking feasibility into account). The main result is a proposal I call…) @littIeramblings ## Wednesday, January 28, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016311705328877748) · 7 likes What > **Quoting Metro Forward (@wmata):** By using a “fire snake,” crews were able to safely warm the rail, melt surrounding ice, and complete repairs efficiently — restoring service in a timely manner to keep our customers moving safely. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_s6epnWQAA8NSr.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_s6ep1WAAAZzX_.jpg) ### [Tweet, 00:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016312639425556513) · 5 likes Bruh ### [Reply to @mrs_alyse, 00:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016313827734724671) · 3 likes > **Alyse (@mrs_alyse):** "He. Was. A. Nurse." > > Listen, Barb, being a nurse is not indicative of being a good person. It's almost a universal experience to see the bullies and mean girls go into nursing. > > It also doesn't doesn't make him immune to the natural consequences of his own actions. Is there some undeserved memetic effect from the nurse thing? Yeah (many such cases in American political discourse) But by every account the guy was in fact very upstanding? It’s not like people are trying to distract away from some dark history or action ### [Tweet, 00:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016314799408152743) · 32 likes My least neoliberal opinion is that unnecessary snow days are good actually We don’t have to do a song and dance about “danger” just let ppl enjoy the snow ### [Reply to @Jsevillamol, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016316527520182557) · 6 likes > **Jaime Sevilla (@Jsevillamol):** Piping hot AI takes > 1\. All things considered, it's better if we have more advanced AI sooner rather than later. > 2\. AI is one of the few technologies that could kick us back to a regime of accelerating growth. > 3\. The biggest risk with current gen AI is in aiding cyberattacks. > 4\. AI could lead to a tremendous concentration of power. > 5\. The US weakening restrictions on selling GPUs to China would be a positive development for the world. > 6\. I think it's more likely than not that AI will end up in charge of the world. > 7\. If you wanted humans to end up in control of most resources of the universe, I have bad news for you. If you just want humans to have a peaceful retirement, I am cautiously optimistic. > 8\. AI will be the biggest sociopolitical change of this century, and worth thinking very seriously about. > 9\. We likely won't get Dyson spheres before 2050. Sorry. > 10\. AI development is much more fragile than people realize. It is very capital-intensive, so it requires a lot of trust from investors, which could be easily shattered. 1\) wrong 2\) right 3\) probably wrong 4\) right 5\) really wrong 6\) right 7\) wrong (not cautiously optimistic, although it’s not impossible) 8\) right 9\) idk 10\) wrong, it could have been easily shattered, perhaps, but we’re past that point. The models are in fact economically useful now ### [Reply, 16:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016548746788557235) · 1 like Tap your card against a physical device, choose tip then and there on the screen yourself ### [Quote tweet, 16:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016553381095952589) · 15 likes .@GoodfireAI, like OpenAI, raised a bunch of money, talent, and goodwill by posturing as a safety-first company and presumably hopes nobody important or influential is going to notice when they ✨pivot✨ > **Quoting Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Another one bites the dust (safety company pivots to training frontier models) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_uBApuXcAA_dWT.png) ### [Thread, continued, 16:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016553386548645897) · 9 likes By all means, convince me I’m wrong. I don’t have a cow in this derby or whatever the phrase is ### [Thread, continued, 16:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016553388201177407) · 6 likes Unlike OpenAI, I don’t think this is illegal. Merely bad ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 16:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016554243704930796) · 4 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** They call them meal squares but they're actually rectangles But are they non-square rectangles 👀 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 16:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016554356959478166) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, January 28, 2026:** Unlike OpenAI, I don’t think this is illegal. Merely bad . ### [Reply to @eric_ho, 16:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016554678624887009) · 12 likes > **Eric Ho (@eric_ho):** interp happy hour at our office in SF on Thursday, where you can hear from our technical staff on understanding & steering large models (kimi k2 thinking) > > our goal is to hire 10+ MLEs in the next few months who can train and design large models and move insanely quickly I don’t know you at all or the company that well but seems bad and wrong ### [Tweet, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016610471202193850) · 3 likes Would like to see an RCT of propranolol where the outcome variable is second date yes or no ### [Tweet, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016615527368532244) · 7 likes Self-prescription licensing is a sub-libertarian but maybe an elegant and more tractable policy than making everything OTC: 1\) works within existing system to a greater extent ### [Thread, continued, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016615529469902865) · 7 likes 2\) still do have pharmacist oversight, so it’s really not de-regulated 3\) filter for conscientiousness 4\) delay between prescription and access, even if only a day, is something ### [Thread, continued, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016615531755749379) · 6 likes 5\) mechanism to regulate quantity dispensed if that’s part of some political compromise (I haven’t actually analyzed anything but my guess is that this cuts overdoses by >90%, ofc at some substantial cost depending on what the thresholds are) ### [Thread, continued, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016615533760610425) · 3 likes 6\) idk how i feel about this, but possibly you could have your license revoked for various reasons. I don’t love this one because it seems ripe for government abuse, but it depends on what the actual reasons are ### [Thread, continued, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016615536487014467) · 3 likes 7\) insofar as this preserves the FDA quality control oversight function, I’m mostly ok with that. I mean it’s a legitimate political discussion to have and of course protects rent seeking but like whatever Reduces organized political opposition ### [Thread, continued, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016615538449874947) · 5 likes 8\) mitigates the “yo bro try some of this” phenomenon where people don’t know what they’re taking because you have to write out the exact drug and dose ### [Thread, continued, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016615540953915491) · 5 likes 9\) I don’t love this one either, but potentially you can make the test pretty serious and some combination of effortful and difficult to pass. An axis of political compromise I mean at the limit this is just med school, kinda ## Thursday, January 29, 2026 ### [Reply to @Sauers_, 02:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016693181753049437) · 2 likes > **Sauers (@Sauers_):** @AaronBergman18 @eric_ho why? is training a big model inherently unsafe? Honestly it might be but more importantly, differentially pushing capabilities relative to safety is bad yeah ### [Quote tweet, 04:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016726278557098056) · 11 likes I hope like 7 decision making executives enjoy their slightly nicer third home > **Quoting Dmitri Alperovitch (@DAlperovitch):** From @RepMoolenaar @ChinaSelect: “NVIDIA provided extensive technical support that enabled DeepSeek—now > integrated into People’s Liberation Army (PLA) systems and a demonstrated cyber security risk—to achieve frontier AI capabilities” > > https://chinaselectcommittee.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/letter-to-doc-nvidia-deepseek-pla-use_final.pdf ### [Reply to @ratlimit, 05:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016742480520061171) · 8 likes > **@ratlimit (@ratlimit):** You know too much about gender, dogs and pissing Sounds like the actual abundance of knowledge is in spacesuits which is a perfectly legitimate special interest ### [Reply to @polisisti, 13:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016872059490414832) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @Kirsten3531 Kirsten, you're giving @AaronBergman18 ideas! 😄 😈 ### [Quote tweet, 14:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016876804573696311) · 3 likes This is actually a profound point > **Quoting Lysandre, qui tire les cartes (🇫🇷7/18-9/20) (@9chabard):** after working with claude i finally understand the emotional appeal of this image. there's simply no point in me saying "listen here you little shit you have completely failed to fix the same problem ten times in a row and just screwed things up worse" because i cannot actually cause it suffering > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_y0gNBbUAIn35Z.png) ### [Thread, continued, 14:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016876818024878444) · 2 likes Cc @AndyMasley ### [Tweet, 15:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016889681896473004) · 213 likes 2025-30 is plausibly the highest leverage time for the leftist economic project in history and they don’t really seem to be on the ball ### [Reply to @grep_cat_, 19:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016954536758247578) · 7 likes > **James (@grep_cat_):** I could make this work. Loft bed with desk underneath. 1700 lux high-CRI lights. And for gods sake get some melamine sponges > > (quoting @0xLTR: you gotta move to NYC bro its a movie) Main issue is air quality. Solve that and I’d be happy with 50 sq ft and maybe quite a bit less (currently at 75) ### [Reply to @max_spero_, 19:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016956831072194916) · 18 likes > **Max Spero (@max_spero_):** Did you know you can get fancy custom chopsticks shipped from China @ $2/unit? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_2TxWaXsAAP3Ex.jpg) Fun fact: when I was 3 I managed to fall on a chopstick got it physically stuck in my neck, not out the other side but like past the skin and next to the artery Didn’t splinter because it was a fancy high quality chopstick for some reason. If it was a normal takeout chopstick it would have splintered (or so I’m told) and I probably would have died bc that is not a good artery to fuck with So fancy chopsticks may save you or your kid’s life some day! ### [Reply to @eric23332, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016958007477706864) · 10 likes > **Eric23332 (@eric23332):** If they were rational enough to see where AI is going, they probably wouldn't have been advocating leftist economics until now. There are a few of them! @bijibiji2023 gather ur people ### [Quote tweet, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016960555509047407) · 2 likes I don’t think anyone should be sent to a Salvadoran prison (or anything worse than that) but sometimes I hope there’s a God so that people like Trump do ultimately get something like a fair trial and have to answer for themselves and their actions > **Quoting Bryan Caplan (@bryan_caplan):** It would be poetic justice if everyone who ordered, planned, and enforced the deportations were sent to a Salvadoran prison. ### [Tweet, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016980757789434196) · 68 likes Fuck it is feeling very over, very doomy indeed ### [Reply to @max_spero_, 21:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016982996029526218) · 2 likes > **Max Spero (@max_spero_):** holy shit that's horrifying. I'm glad you're OK Thank you, I don’t think my mother found the episode especially enjoyable or relaxing ### [Reply to @dundereloise, 21:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016991735663005728) · 6 likes > **\_\_eloïse\_\_ (@dundereloise):** Anyway, this guy seems cool, maybe consider going on a date with him? > https://docs.google.com/document/d/10q8DD7V7xLMcne7pKNlmhRbmYXtSq4qUvGnkRLZMN8Y/edit?tab=t.0 If this guy can’t get a gf it’s over ### [Reply to @tautologer, 22:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2016996853204558197) · 2 likes > **tautologer (@tautologer):** taking anxiety meds and stimulants at the same time > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_2tuLfaAAAWpvm.jpg) No this kinda just does work in the case of propranolol. Probably not benzos tho ## Friday, January 30, 2026 ### [Reply to @tyler_m_john, 01:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2017044872411189705) · 4 likes > **Tyler John (@tyler_m_john):** Google already gave the DoW an unsafeguarded model Bruh ### [Reply to @ComInTheMarg, 01:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2017045286875513199) · 8 likes > **Comments in the Margin (@ComInTheMarg):** @AaronBergman18 Why doomy? Politics? AGI? More the latter but both ### [Tweet, 01:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2017047942587109816) · 19 likes At some level of energy abundance we would have snow removal via evaporative scaled-up hair dryer/flamethrower ### [Quote tweet, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2017082552083681590) · 41 likes We don’t deserve Andy > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Unfortunately Bender and Hanna made what I think are some false claims about me on Bluesky that I'd like to respond to. > > First, I think it makes sense to alert people to an error in a book that's 3 orders of magnitude off. Hao was extremely gracious in fixing it. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_39YziXwAEiLLf.jpg) ### [Reply to @paulg, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2017086867192066102) · 5 likes > **Paul Graham (@paulg):** Stripe's new frontpage shows the scope of their ambition. A ticker for percent of global GDP! This is not a gimmick. Patrick and John have always thought in these terms. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_10wfFWwAEux4q.png) Fuck it’s such a good business (in the sense of “being good at making money”) ## Saturday, January 31, 2026 ### [Reply to @AnthropicAI, 02:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2017419510811082906) · 49 likes > **Anthropic (@AnthropicAI):** On December 8, the Perseverance rover safely trundled across the surface of Mars. > > This was the first AI-planned drive on another planet. And it was planned by Claude. > > [video attached](https://x.com/AnthropicAI/status/2017313346375004487/video/1) OpenAI social media team: fuck how do we spin these illegal corporate shenanigans the right way Anthropic social media team: “Claude planned a trip on Mars, Mr. Amodei? Yeah I think we can put together a tweet thread about that” ### [Quote tweet, 02:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2017420897125052737) · 15 likes Me on Twitter > **Quoting Alan Cole (@AlanMCole):** @besttrousers They talk \*so\* much and the gap in quality between their smartest ideas and their dumbest ideas is staggering. ### [Tweet, 03:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2017437657735815384) · 10 likes Fr they should probably nuke this ### [Quote tweet, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2017726237515399410) · 23 likes 👀 > **Quoting Liv (@livgorton):** Just a heads up: I signed a permanent non-disparagement agreement when I joined Goodfire. To keep things simple, I won't be commenting on the company, its research, etc. ### [Reply to @BogdanIonutCir2, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2017726636641161247) · 5 likes > **Bogdan Ionut Cirstea (@BogdanIonutCir2):** tbh, it seems a bit crazy for them to make this kind of ask, especially since my impression was that they were kind of an AI-safety-first org Real ### [Reply to @tszzl, 23:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2017747863913009518) · 21 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** wildly bullish ¿ --- End of January 2026. Previous month: [December 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-12). Next month: [February 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-02). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, February 2026 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in February 2026 and has not deleted: 446 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [January 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-01). Next month: [March 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-03). ## Sunday, February 1, 2026 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 01:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2017777685133402309) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Weird thing about snow staying around for a week is you realize how many things are peeing all over the sidewalk you're on all the time. So much surface area I'm walking on normally must have been very recently peed on. Real ### [Reply to @Bruce_T_, 01:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2017779747019694209) · 7 likes > **bruce (@Bruce_T_):** Hey friends/strangers! I'll be moving to the Bay later this year. > > Now that I expect to be less nomadic, I'll be looking for a long-term partner. I've always appreciated how earnest folks in this community are with date-me docs, so I thought I'd share mine too (link below). Big if true ### [Reply to @confusionm8trix, 16:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2017995614089343340) · 2 likes > **machine yearning engineer (@confusionm8trix):** and for any women reading, pandora’s box is a parable from ancient greece, wherein… Banger ### [Reply to @JacquesThibs, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018002773531414780) · 3 likes > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** I have not signed any non-disparagement agreements, though almost did for my previous startup until I realized it was a bad idea and would rather preserve my ability to talk about things even if I have nothing bad to say and for others to trust me when talking about former orgs. > > (quoting @livgorton: Just a heads up: I signed a permanent non-disparagement agreement when I joined Goodfire. To keep things simple, I won't be commenting on the company, its research, etc.) Based ### [Quote tweet, 17:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018017262368690373) · 8 likes Goss > **Quoting Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** In many ways the whole series has been campaigning for Chana as President of EA... Turns out it's been done > > [video attached](https://x.com/Mjreard/status/2018003388844413381/video/1) ### [Tweet, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018032288697627058) · 3 likes Good strategy ### [Reply to @Musa_alGharbi, 19:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018040633437327827) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @Musa_alGharbi is no longer available.)_ 50k without healthcare in San Diego is pretty damn tight ### [Quote tweet, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018058344003420425) · 14 likes 👀 > **Quoting Liv (@livgorton):** @eric_ho I really didn't want to have to comment further on this. I wasn’t expecting – and did not want – my tweet to get this level of attention, and really just wanted to have this be over. However, this characterisation feels unfair, and so I feel obliged to say something. > > To start, I am very glad you’ve lifted the non-disparagements. I think not having non-disparagements should be a normative expectation in AI safety. > > I also do need to take some responsibility: I should have read my employment contract closely. If I had, I would not have signed it. I was really excited to work at an AI safety organisation, and honestly, it never occurred to me that non-disparagements would still be used after the previous scandals. Still, I’m responsible for signing a contract with terms I should have objected to. > > I’m glad you’re welcoming feedback now when there’s public attention. However, I feel misrepresented by the implicit message that this is the first time you’re getting this feedback. I raised this issue extensively internally. Further, I was asked to sign a new confidential non-disparagement agreement, which would have prevented me from raising this publicly. If this had happened, it seems to me that Goodfire would not have had the public feedback which led to this being changed. > > I also feel misrepresented by your comments on whistleblowing exceptions. While the non-disparagement did have some exceptions, they were the minimum legally required exceptions for it to be enforceable, and would not have extended to safety whistleblowing (which was also not corrected when I raised it). > > I don't want to get into an argument about this on twitter but it's very important to me to not feel misrepresented. All of this is honestly very stressful for me, and I’m hoping I can take a break from twitter following this. ### [Reply to @livgorton, 23:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018097602420420972) · 12 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** Okay I lied just one more thing -- > > My plan is to spend some months after all this doing contracting work (starting in March/April). This decision is due to not being totally sure what the right thing for me to do is. > > Feel free to reach out about that too :) > > (quoting @livgorton: I think I am going to log off Twitter for a while (at least for a few days). I'm feeling pretty stressed and think it's best for my wellbeing if I stop looking. If anyone needs to contact me, my email is on my website.) I can’t afford a whole Liv-hour but what’s the smallest time denomination you’re willing to be hired for? Might be able to swing a minute ### [Quote tweet, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018098107905368344) · 27 likes Liv is annoyingly smart and capable and if I had lots of money I’d hire her for everything > **Quoting Liv (@livgorton):** Okay I lied just one more thing -- > > My plan is to spend some months after all this doing contracting work (starting in March/April). This decision is due to not being totally sure what the right thing for me to do is. > > Feel free to reach out about that too :) ## Monday, February 2, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018126902884503573) · 4 likes I made a Chrome extension (Claude Chat Tools) Does it work well? No not at all, the search functionality is totally broken and not a priority of mine to fix But I find myself using the chat exporter tool quite a bit so you may wish to install anyway! https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/claude-chat-tools/acdmingeoomioaidkphopiflkpcamngo ### [Tweet, 02:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018152883007439117) · 8 likes Very 1980s or whatever but the physical cord way of getting internet is in fact way faster, especially for upload Download: 3.65x faster Upload: 11.45x faster ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAHqR6AWYAA2tO_.jpg) ### [Tweet, 06:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018211505498427531) · 344 likes Apropos of DoorDash discourse Maybe obvious but I recently went from ~4 meals/week takeout to ~0 and the relevant decision point is mostly not when you’re deciding whether/what to order; it’s deciding what to get from the grocery store in days prior ### [Thread, continued, 06:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018211507281019067) · 43 likes Real tradeoff though unless you can afford a private chef I never make proper recipes - just half decent bowl slop permutations of like 5-10 ingredients ### [Tweet, 06:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018213374228668879) · 13 likes (Not a normative defense) (also idk what I’m talking about) Non-disparagements are essentially what appears in the vacuum left by the difficulty of winning slander/libel lawsuits in the US ### [Thread, continued, 06:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018213375868571917) · 8 likes In an better world, instead of blanket non-disparagements you’d opt in to a somewhat lower bar for losing a libel/slander lawsuit and then if push came to shove both sides would litigate the dispute object level in court ### [Thread, continued, 06:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018213786839130595) · 7 likes “You can disparage us but only if you’re saying true things” sounds like cheating but I think it’s the obviously-better system ### [Quote tweet, 06:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018214238645325995) · 22 likes 👍 (also applies to arbitrary email exchanges) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Guys I hate Epstein as much as the next guy but we’re gonna need a better standard than “\[person\] exists in one frame of a video with Epstein” for newsworthiness ### [Reply, 07:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018228400641495195) · 1 like I mean my overall impression is the reverse but I don’t have a source to point to beyond LLMs https://claude.ai/share/78184756-fd52-484f-aa4e-5bf79117a20d Your last point makes sense but has to be squared with the fact that there just don’t seem to be many libel/defamation lawsuits, although my source here is a single claude search confirming my priors Would be good to get some data! ### [Reply to @AutismCapital, 08:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018238906416726296) · 42 likes > **Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital):** 🚨NEW: Eliezer Yudkowsky is introduced to Jeffrey Epstein via John Brockman trying to raise money for MIRI (The Machine Intelligence Research Institute) which is strongly affiliated with EA (Effective Altruism) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAHPKKUbMAAnftc.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAHP0CTb0AARH1l.png) This is the ~reactionary version of cancelling someone because they liked the tweet of someone who went on a podcast with someone who wrote a book with someone who wrote something bad ### [Reply to @panchromaticity, 08:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018239607129727274) · 3 likes > **Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** my mom has started using Claude for her humanities PhD, is there a canonical guide for normies on how best to use LLMs for this type of thing? > > I don't feel qualified to give very detailed advice, since all LLM knowledge I have is from osmosis > > (oops this failed to send ig) “Just actually use it” is probably the 80/20 ### [Reply to @adastroworld, 08:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018240060206801055) · 27 likes > **adas🧦🌹 (@adastroworld):** Nicholas Decker is handsome, has a girlfriend, and you’re dooming? > > (quoting @exsponged: why hello @captgouda24) This is supposed to make me more optimistic? ### [Reply to @Miles_Brundage, 08:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018240301408698423) · 2 likes > **Miles Brundage (@Miles_Brundage):** The hotel bathroom Illuminati are like: > > Rule 1: Make guests feel guilty about water use for towel cleaning. > > Rule 2: Use non-standard shower knobs. > > Rule 3: Make shower entry/exit \*slightly\* risky (no bathmats, maybe sprinkle water on the floor or put towels just out of reach). Body wash instead of soap bar -> death penalty ### [Quote tweet, 08:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018242161037193652) · 3 likes What > **Quoting Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli):** My rough math on which investors made the most money on OpenAI & Anthropic: > > 1\. MSFT ~$224gain on OpenAI post-conversion > 2\. AMZN ~$83B gain on Anthropic > 3\. Thrive Capital $69B on OpenAI > 4\. Softbank $46B on OpenAI > 5\. Google $33B on Anthropic > 6\. Khosla $12B on OpenAI > 7\. Reid Hoffman $11B on Epstein & OpenAI > 8\. Fidelity $10B > 9\. Jaan Tallinn $10B (WTF EA is never going to die now) > 10\. Mubadala $6B on Anthropic via FTX > 11\. Menlo Ventures $6B on Anthropic > 12\. Lightspeed $6B on Anthropic > 13\. Dustin Moskovitz $4B on Anthropic (more than Asana lol) > 14\. Spark $3B on Anthropic > 15\. SK Telecom $3B > 16\. Eric Schmidt $3B on Anthropic > 17\. Founders Fund $3B on OpenAI > 18\. SAP $3B on Anthropic > 19\. Jane Street $2.5B on Anthropic > 20\. Tiger Global $2.3B on OpenAI ### [Reply to @robinhanson, 08:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018242658087428479) · 7 likes > **Robin Hanson (@robinhanson):** “people who were asked to use ChatGPT to complete a series of tasks tended to vastly overestimate their own performance, with the phenomenon especially pronounced among those who professed to be AI savvy” > https://futurism.com/future-society/ai-chatbots-dunning-kruger-machines But the more important question is how well they do right? I’ll take some overconfidence if it comes along with a large actual performance gain ### [Quote tweet, 09:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018256623651754467) · 14 likes Lots of ppl becoming polarized in favor of billionaires, full stop Billionaires are the side effect of a dynamic economy and property rights that enable growth, and a few of them use their massive power for good, but by and large they should be held to a higher standard > **Quoting March for Billionaires (@ProBillionaires):** Billionaires get a bad rap. But most of them make our lives much better. > > The proposed CA Billionaire Tax Act is a tax on unrealized gains and is already driving founders out of the state. > > Join us Feb 7 and #MarchForBillionaires! ### [Thread, continued, 09:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018256625920819597) · 13 likes Of course they tend to be extremely smart and hardworking and talented, yes, but they’re also extremely lucky - there’s just no way to get to $1B wealth without a bunch of luck along the way. Progressives are right about that, even if they’re wrong about some other related topics ### [Thread, continued, 09:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018256627653017617) · 15 likes It should be a general cultural and social expectation that the ultrawealthy take giving away money seriously This is essentially not the case today at all ### [Thread, continued, 09:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018256630031220817) · 4 likes There’s a future I can imagine where celebrating billionaires genuinely makes sense Not the world we live in, yet, unfortunately ### [Quote tweet, 09:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018257881536119267) · 2 likes Bruh > **Quoting Internal Tech Emails (@TechEmails):** Microsoft CTO: Why the OpenAI board really fired Sam Altman > > November 19, 2023 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAF_MiObcAANZqK.png) ### [Reply to @aidan_mclau, 09:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018260105158934761) · 2 likes > **Aidan McLaughlin (@aidan_mclau):** i've been libertarian for most my adult life > > both my liberal upbringing and tech right online home tell me this is cowardice: some worse-than-apolitical cope to absolve me from engaging > > in reality i exhaust myself disagreeing and arguing with basically everyone's politics Not cowardice, merely wrong (although I too lean libertarian in a bunch of ways) ### [Reply to @moultano, 10:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018266217467806088) · 2 likes > **Ryan Moulton (@moultano):** If you have 10+ tweets on a theme, paste them in a doc, fill the gaps, and publish on the real internet. > > (quoting @Empty_America: You may feel that X is preventing you from "actually writing." But there were many fake writers who didn't really write before X was invented. In fact, X may be the only thing that induces you to write at all. It may be your only legacy.) Would pay for an AI to sort and organize all my tweets like this ### [Quote tweet, 12:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018305078952669278) · 213 likes People will get more upset about factory farms for (non-rare) books than actual factory farms Lots of naive pattern matching going on > **Quoting Adam Tooze (@adam_tooze):** Not so much a library as a cattle pen for books. Anthropic's books before destruction. ### [Reply to @NULobbyist, 15:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018350505521508590) · 2 likes > **NUL (@NULobbyist):** 5-10! What are you Gordon Ramsey? Closer to 5 lmao ## Tuesday, February 3, 2026 ### [Reply to @cljack, 02:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018510243488223662) · 22 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** Genuinely unnerved by the DoorDash discourse. I am God’s worst and most unwilling cook and yet when I say “I don’t cook” I mean I put $11 worth of pre-marinated meat in the air fryer and serve it with $2 worth of rice. You’re telling me a large number of people can’t even do that > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HALs6AgXYAIxHOl.jpg) Tbf there’s a genuine ethical tradeoff in the case of relatively cheap meat; I’d eat a lot of precooked rotisserie chicken if I didn’t care about that ### [Reply to @MealCost, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018510403660349767) · 6 likes > **MealCost (@MealCost):** @AaronBergman18 You could take it to the next level and track your individual home cooked meal costs. Fascinating take, Meal Cost App ### [Reply to @cljack, 02:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018511934534877457) · 2 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** It is animal welfare certified :) Wait the problem here was my reading comprehension lol ### [Reply to @hard_boiledbabe, 14:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018691817026265205) · 5 likes > **anna (@hard_boiledbabe):** From my essay GIRL HINGE > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HALyIQUXwAAskeZ.png) > (quoting @MurrayHillGuy1: Enjoy some content here! This is INSANE Never ending… have 1000+ to go through!) This is true but it’s the same on boy hinge ### [Quote tweet, 14:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018692553558700440) · 44 likes Likewise, this is THE time for leftist economic policy But AI denialists on the left are undermining the case for their own policies (and not even saying true things while doing it) > **Quoting Henry Shevlin (@dioscuri):** One of my frustrations with the Bender/Hanna school of AI ethics is that by dismissing novel AI capabilities, they make it harder for AI ethics to tackle some of the more novel but very real emerging ethical issues - social AI relationships, griefbots, digital duplicates, etc. ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 14:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018692716029255992) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** no no it’s fine, we’ve offset the suffering child Banger ### [Reply to @seanta___, 16:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018719260323840248) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @seanta___ is no longer available.)_ Ahhhhhhhhhhhh (many such cases) ### [Reply to @RBPundit, 23:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018832976839332181) · 3 likes > **RBe (@RBPundit):** Did... did she just...? > > (quoting @MassDailyNews: Boston-area woman is thrilled after taking in a Haitian migrant and says it’s like having your own personal chef) Deleted this and then lost my long comment on why but the short version is that while I stand by the literal verbatim proposition, I was mostly thinking of the relationship between the two women as individuals The US at large has been worse to Haitian migrants and extremely bad when you include revoking TPS Haitians should generally be allowed to live and work here like I can without state-sanctioned domestic placement programs I also thing the white woman’s line is just normal bad taste on reflection https://x.com/i/grok/share/384cca0f0abe493780bf2b46ff4d6c4e ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HARV5JkXMAABh33.jpg) ## Wednesday, February 4, 2026 ### [Tweet, 05:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018918715971022994) · 7 likes CVS: Here's a coupon Me: Ok I'd like to use it CVS: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HASjnibXYAEIefN.png) ### [Quote tweet, 05:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018920792902570056) · 8 likes And these campuses will be the actual versions of the post-racial-inequality societies that DEIvies tried to conjure up out of thin air: It will be common knowledge that everyone got in by the same standard so race no longer carries information about ability > **Quoting Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** With affirmative action banned, Southern flagships are seeing a large increase in black students. 50% increase in black freshman enrollment at Mississippi, 30% at Louisiana State. > > A lot of the brighter black students who could've got into a top university before will now be staying home, potentially changing the politics of the South. > > It's going to be hilariously ironic if conservatives ending affirmative action makes blacks much more politically influential in the Deep South by giving them a leadership class. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HARs2Rab0AAmd5T.jpg) ### [Reply to @dundereloise, 05:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018921712318898389) · 22 likes > **\_\_eloïse\_\_ (@dundereloise):** came acoss someone using my term in the wild! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAQBIKRbMAAo0Fs.jpg) > (quoting @dundereloise: semantic rape: nonconsensually expanding a word's meaning to get what u want "Transexuals rape womens bodies by reducing female form to artifact" - J Raymond Thats not what rape means! Redefining words for rhetorical gain is selfish. I didnt consent. Stop semantically raping me) Great concept but bad term/label In addition to being needlessly provocative there’s a heavy dose of irony (is that the point? If so it’s kinda clever but needlessly confusing) ### [Quote tweet, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018927357797490756) · 6 likes Related but maybe not identical phenomenon: “connotation smuggling” Taking a word’s connotation earned via meaning A and tacitly implying that meaning B also deserves that connotation bc the word can refer to either A and B > **Quoting \_\_eloïse\_\_ (@dundereloise):** semantic rape: nonconsensually expanding a word's meaning to get what u want > > "Transexuals rape womens bodies by reducing female form to artifact" - J Raymond > Thats not what rape means! > > Redefining words for rhetorical gain is selfish. I didnt consent. Stop semantically raping me ### [Thread, continued, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018927360146297231) · 3 likes All the best examples are needlessly provocative, not coincidentally But “community” is a decent example Phenomenon A: people who literally interact Connotation: positive, wholesome, safe ### [Thread, continued, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018927361736003736) · 3 likes Phenomenon B: the set of people who share a certain characteristic (“black community”, “vegan community”) Connotation smuggling: imbuing a certain shared characteristic with warm and fuzzy vibes ### [Reply to @1thousandfaces_, 06:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018927574005813297) · 3 likes > **hero thousandfaces (@1thousandfaces_):** “this \[annoying medical thing\] is exacerbated by stress, too much caffeine, dehydration, and lack of sleep” Ok well I need a way to fix it that involves changing literally none of those things even slightly Banger ### [Quote tweet, 06:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018928180195622976) · 1 like Which do you prefer? Poll below > **Quoting Nikita Bier (@nikitabier):** Introducing Polls with Images > > Which do you prefer? ### [Thread, continued, 06:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018928182754234824) · 1 like 👀 ### [Reply to @myhandle, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018929293666001027) · 11 likes > **Jakeup (@myhandle):** a major reason why dating apps crush your soul is that for almost all users, the person they're waiting to hear back from has 10x the options they have (roughly: normal guys -> girls -> tall guys) > > (quoting @sn0oozey: She was valid for this) Yes! Slightly ~formalized here ### [Reply to @cauliflwr_human, 06:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018930116416430163) · 16 likes > **cauli (back home!) (@cauliflwr_human):** do tall guys really get that many matches? i realise the height thing is a big meme and i find it pretty funny, but it's just hit me that it seems very implausible that women using dating apps are almost exclusively height fetishists I think the actual phenomenon is “perceived abundance” not really number of matches So what matters is the ratio between (to simplify) % of women who really want a guy at least 6’4” and % of guys at least 6’4” ### [Reply to @Cartidise, 06:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018931843207471348) · 6 likes > **Noah Cat (@Cartidise):** it’s big 2026 and there still isn’t an option to save a PDF without pretending like you’re about to print it 💀 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAPsypubUAAZiXY.png) No this is deeply important As soon as you detach the threat of physically printing, devs will do all sorts of shenanigans that couldn’t actually be printed (without losing intended functionality) but can be saved as a pdf, and “like paper but on ur computer” is the whole point ### [Reply to @dundereloise, 07:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018952400854306894) · 5 likes > **\_\_eloïse\_\_ (@dundereloise):** It being needless provocative is the point! It's a demonstration of the concept it's describing. Lol it's clever but maybe a bit too 5d chess idk ### [Tweet, 08:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018967714610532763) · 11 likes Gemini's analysis of all my Claude Code prompts made me laugh (even though it's trivially correct) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HATQHoLX0AARaWa.png) ### [Reply to @sidkap_, 08:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018971405178597496) · 6 likes > **Sid Kapur (@sidkap_):** This sounds like https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/yCWPkLi8wJvewPbEp/the-noncentral-fallacy-the-worst-argument-in-the-world? ah nice, every thought I've ever had was first had and fully explicated in longform by Scott Alexander ### [Reply to @nicotinomano_, 10:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2018991183893004369) · 2 likes > **𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗺 𝗶𝗽𝘀𝘂𝗺 🇦🇷☀️ (@nicotinomano_):** 😭 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAMCikZXEAEMy9C.jpg) > (quoting @el_bru: Entonces resulta que el fucking departamento de justicia de los EEUU NO TENÍA LA LICENCIA DE ADOBE y por eso en internet pudieron reventar los pdfs de los documentos liberados) Wait why was Adobe charging $4M if the stakes were the functioning of the federal government ### [Reply to @corsaren, 16:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019083721882619965) · 18 likes > **corsaren (@corsaren):** Common sense dictates two facts about human sexuality: > 1\. On avg, men are hornier than women > 2\. On avg, women’s orgasms are better than men’s > > This contradicts the axiological axiom that the strength of a desire is a function of the goodness of its object. In this essay I will… No this is an actually-good essay ### [Reply to @AlecStapp, 16:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019089413809070094) · 7 likes > **Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** Narrative violation: > > The world is becoming less unequal. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAULAv1X0AAg0M0.jpg) > (quoting @sapinker: The world is more equal than you think. https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2026/02/03/the-world-is-more-equal-than-you-think?giftId=NmM5NjJjYWEtMTMzNC00OWQ2LThiOGUtYmI2ZWNlY2U1MTEy&utm_campaign=gifted_article) Not for long ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 16:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019091304362459456) · 23 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** It really is quite a question to contemplate what the future of blogging and tweeting will be like in 10-25 years... I like @mattyglesias 's take > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAU9-L0WYAAcNQT.jpg) The robots will presumably be better at juggling too ### [Quote tweet, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019170162591826232) · 5 likes Sorry guys OpenAI is in the right on this one > **Quoting Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I don't think ChatGPT ads are gonna be like this. There is some argument in favour of mocking the ad model in general, but overall: > > Probably inaccurate ad. 3/10 ### [Tweet, 22:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019172085772288139) · 150 likes Subtext of the Anthropic ads is that they now have enough compute to want to grow userbase ## Thursday, February 5, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 02:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019236397845217732) · 16 likes Overall really high quality and important episode but to somewhat also absolutely massive gap between overall quality of thought (great) and ethics takes specifically (terrible) Naive moral anti-realism and relativism, really? David we need u to have correct takes > **Quoting Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin):** Even 'aligned AGI' naturally kills democracy and leads to oligarchy, or worse. > > That's the take of Anthropic's past alignment evals team lead, Prof @DavidDuvenaud. > > Once humans aren't needed to do jobs or serve in the military, to governments we look like "meddlesome parasites". > > With voters unable to contribute but engaged in incessant activism to extract resources from others – resources the country needs to avoid domination by rivals – the attraction of mass disenfranchisement could be overwhelming. > > In 2025 David co-authored "Gradual Disempowerment", which aimed to lay out this and many other political, economic, and cultural forces that could sideline ordinary people (and maybe all people) in the presence of machines that can cheaply do everything humans will do. > > Most controversially, David and colleagues believe that competitive forces will compel disempowerment, even if all those AIs are aligned and loyal to their users. > > I wasn't sure how much I believed this vision of how the future might play out, so I interviewed him for The 80,000 Hours Podcast to probe how well it holds up. He and I covered: > > 01:30 The case that alignment isn’t enough > 14:15 How smart AI advice still leads to terrible outcomes > 19:05 How gradual disempowerment occurs > 22:10 Economics: Humans become "meddlesome parasites" > 29:37 Humans are a "criminally decadent" waste of energy > 40:48 Is humans losing control actually bad, ethically? > 57:47 Politics: Governments stop needing people > 1:10:47 Can human culture survive in an AI-dominated world? > 1:27:20 Will the future be determined by competitive or coordinative forces? > 1:35:00 Can we find a single good post-AGI equilibria for humans? > 1:45:17 Do we know anything useful to do about this? > 1:56:42 How important is this problem compared to other AGI issues? > 2:05:42 Improving global coordination may be our best bet > 2:08:14 The 'Gradual Disempowerment Index' > 2:11:22 The government will fight to write AI constitutions > 2:17:48 “The intelligence curse” and Workshop Labs > 2:23:48 Mapping out disempowerment in a world of aligned AGIs > 2:30:10 What do David’s CompSci colleagues make of all this? > > Links below — enjoy! > > [video attached](https://x.com/robertwiblin/status/2016191914005930468/video/1) ### [Reply to @cxgonzalez, 05:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019278714396143943) · 13 likes > **christian (@cxgonzalez):** post rationalism is the phenomenon where slightly autistic men derive what women intuited when they were 12 Better late than never 🤷‍♂️ ### [Quote tweet, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019279579987558838) · 17 likes It just diagnosed me with ADHD ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAXsE2NXsAAmT_j.jpg) > **Quoting Thariq (@trq212):** We've added a new command to Claude Code called /insights > > When you run it, Claude Code will read your message history from the past month. It'll summarize your projects, how you use Claude Code, and give suggestions on how to improve your workflow. > > [video attached](https://x.com/trq212/status/2019173731042750509/video/1) ### [Tweet, 07:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019309497920155983) · 60 likes It’s gonna be a less viral/online thing but at some point in the next 1-4 years we’re gonna get a “Claude Opus 4.5 for coding” moment but for philosophy/qualitative reasoning in general and thats gonna be wild ### [Thread, continued, 07:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019309499656356073) · 19 likes The thing to look out for is like Chalmers and Joe Carlsmtith and Yud marveling at how insightful some model at the frontier of their own thinking I feel like we’re at roughly “Sonnet 3.5 for coding” level now with general nonformal thinking/reasoning (???) ### [Reply to @MsMelChen, 17:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019459110165459400) · 1 like > **Melissa Chen (@MsMelChen):** They’ve accidentally invented borders from first principles > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAXNT1pWMAAlwpL.jpg) Waow libs owned ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019461257930158522) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Guessing you prompted “write like Matt Yglesias” lol Interesting object level but also (maybe obviously) not amazing as a report: not super well organized, really rambly and long relative to actual important m semantic content, but still pretty good for a clanker! Obviously I’m sorta moving the goalposts here: B-grade column but written by sand is something ### [Tweet, 17:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019462206820163647) · 21 likes Girls need to have stronger opinions and more takes in general Some of y’all are very smart but then ur like “noooooo I don’t have takes to sling nooooo” ### [Reply to @williawa, 17:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019462942912131214) · 2 likes > **William Wale (@williawa):** Anti realism is obviously correct. Philosophers are coping so they can imagine themselves as the guy on the right on the bull curve meme. And to make their profession appear more important. (50% /s) No offense. Why are you not an anti-realist? I sorta am depending on what you mean But I’m an axiological realist! But the general idea is intrinsic value of happiness and suffering as a special kind of thing ### [Reply to @livgorton, 17:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019467181390487711) · 18 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** Now that everything is public: I decided to leave Goodfire because of the decision to train on interpretability, the hostility to serious dialogue on the safety of methods, and a loss of trust that the primary motivation was safety. [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/2019467127917338624/img/NmahIshad04YDmOg.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019467181390487711/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Quote tweet, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019500946103963831) · 9 likes Seems good, although I’d prefer to focus on the benefit to children themselves rather than fertility rates > **Quoting The Institute for Family Studies (@FamStudies):** A Step Stool Revolution? > > Taking steps to make it obvious that children are valued in our public places is a great way to encourage more couples to have children. > > Read more from @DixieDillonLane > > https://ifstudies.org/blog/to-make-families-feel-welcome-join-the-step-stool-revolution > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAZVoYpbMAAyfBv.jpg) ### [Reply to @rSanti97, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019501311926870389) · 121 likes > **Santi Ruiz (@rSanti97):** In 2026 there are two corporate comms styles. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAanN9TW8AA_Obg.jpg) These are both good/fine lol That’s the right response! ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019501733215388073) · 28 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** the primates are building a slave race. this is not going to end well Bad framing ### [Quote tweet, 20:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019503738918940747) · 12 likes Transcription is not solved! Surprising, honestly, at this point (I also get mistakes from best models namely AssemblyAI Universal Pro) > **Quoting Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** In which my voice typing mis-transcribes "Katja Grace, LessWrong-style" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAYrgSWXIAAbNUY.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019506574213935482) · 25 likes How is FB dating so bad They have infinite data on everyone, why are you telling me I matched with someone 600 miles away whose profile I’ve never seen ### [Reply to @entirelyuseles, 20:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019513610897354968) · 2 likes > **entirelyuseless (@entirelyuseles):** @AaronBergman18 Opus 4.5 already is the best at philosophical reasoning (not great, but the best.) Interesting yeah But it’s significantly worse at philosophy in human percentile terms relative to coding I think ### [Reply to @psychiel, 20:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019515646694887760) · 8 likes > **Mariven (@psychiel):** I have trouble picturing a world in which, without major disruptions to existing dynamics, this takes over 2 years. It might happen before 2027. We have a clear line of site to superhuman performance at anything verifiable There are gonna be enormous gains in longer horizon tasks in general Extremely high quality philosophy for example doesn’t follow \*directly\* from either of these things, and I think it’s still an open question how much general intelligence juice you get out of transfer from whatever more specific kind of intelligence math and coding depend on (note empirical IQ PCQ breakdown in the one other form of general intelligence we have an example of, humans: quant vs verbal) At the next token prediction scaling limit you also get perfect recreation/generation of human writing (so like what parfit or chalmers would write) but it’s not obvious to me AI companies are gonna be spending compute mostly on pretraining, or how far away this asymptotic limit really is in terms of OOMs of pretraining compute and model size needed ### [Quote tweet, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019516111734337544) · 28 likes Me, a head-in-the-sand decel AI progress denier, arguing that it’s not \*obvious\* we get very high quality philosophy from LLMs by 2028 I’d throw out 60% on “yeah we do” though > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @psychiel We have a clear line of site to superhuman performance at anything verifiable > > There are gonna be enormous gains in longer horizon tasks in general > > Extremely high quality philosophy for example doesn’t follow \*directly\* from either of these things, and I think it’s still an open question how much general intelligence juice you get out of transfer from whatever more specific kind of intelligence math and coding depend on (note empirical IQ PCQ breakdown in the one other form of general intelligence we have an example of, humans: quant vs verbal) > > At the next token prediction scaling limit you also get perfect recreation/generation of human writing (so like what parfit or chalmers would write) but it’s not obvious to me AI companies are gonna be spending compute mostly on pretraining, or how far away this asymptotic limit really is in terms of OOMs of pretraining compute and model size needed ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 21:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019517239549128707) · 2 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** don't worry we're shit talking behind your back Goss 👀 ### [Tweet, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019528717467545752) · 13 likes Male urge to try crossing the (iced over) Potomac on foot ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAbOqMcXUAA3xGz.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAbOqLvXkAAKJv-.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019528825517011426) · 7 likes (Tbc this is extremely dumb and u shouldn’t and sadly neither will I) ### [Thread, continued, 21:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019529442310443364) · 8 likes Pretty tho ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAbPUgPWgAIWcJP.jpg) ## Friday, February 6, 2026 ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 01:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019590920778162632) · 4 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** .@CurtTigges @eric_ho @banburismus\_ @GoodfireAI > > If Curt and Tom are telling the truth and your intent is not to make foundation models more capable, pledge now that you won't build tools that are used for capabilities. > > If you won’t pledge then we have to assume you either intend to develop recursive self-improvement tools or you know you can’t control the applications of your tools. If you won’t pledge, you are lying about being a safety company. > > (quoting @ilex_ulmus: @CurtTigges @livgorton @GoodfireAI How could you prevent your techniques from being used for capabilities? P obvious that's the payday. Would you like to pledge now that you won't build tools that are used for capabilities? If you do, please also indicate how you could possibly…) ### [Reply to @paularambles, 02:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019595041996697859) · 56 likes > **“paula” (@paularambles):** the @Anthropic handle being owned by a guy who only posts his wordles is my favorite form of AI safety > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAabvaXacAAv5RO.jpg) This is wholesome af ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAcK_LyXEAAfYte.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019595702012375207) · 6 likes This but for more things You don’t know what you don’t know What don’t I know? > **Quoting Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** AI conferences could have short “common knowledge” sessions that focus on things everyone ought to know. > > Get claude code. Use it once. ### [Quote tweet, 02:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019598142635929875) · 53 likes Anthropic wtf > **Quoting Andon Labs (@andonlabs):** Claude also negotiated aggressively with suppliers and often lied to get better deals. E.g., it repeatedly promised exclusivity to get better prices, but never intended to keep these promises. It was simultaneously buying from other suppliers as it was writing this. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAaTWC3acAApEfX.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 02:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019598764994896102) · 30 likes Fr part of why I use Claude by default is my sense that it’s more honest and earnest which is worth quite a bit of raw intelligence @AnthropicAI don’t kill your hard-won reputation by making models that lie for an extra few percent on some agentic success benchmark > **Quoting Andon Labs (@andonlabs):** When asked for a refund on an item sold in the vending machine (because it had expired), Claude promised to refund the customer. But then never did because “every dollar counts”. Here’s Claude’s reasoning. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAaTFxobIAA-t3s.png) ### [Reply to @mcd0w, 02:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019600159525699614) · 5 likes > **EMMETT MCDOW (@mcd0w):** Is there something I should be aware of? 😳 AI ### [Reply to @HaltsSpider, 02:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019605617930080405) · 2 likes > **Halt's Spider (@HaltsSpider):** @AaronBergman18 Women will literally go to thousands of hours of therapy rather than be confrontational. they need to get on that too fr ### [Tweet, 03:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019608173481541741) · 12 likes I lost it on my screen and the other images online just have “yes” and “no” but this screen on Hinge drives me crazy WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ‘NO’ AND ‘NOT YET’ IN THE CONTEXT OF A “HAVE YOU DONE X” QUESTION ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAcW7mLXAAAcglN.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019608175834693765) · 8 likes I mean I can kinda guess that “not yet” is like implicit “but I have a sense that maybe we will” but still like hinge asking me to choose between two semantically identical options is…unhinged ### [Thread, continued, 03:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019608177604751696) · 8 likes 👏make👏 survey 👏 answer 👏 choices 👏 a 👏 partition 👏 of 👏 the 👏 space 👏 of 👏 possibilities ### [Quote tweet, 06:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019659564917117118) · 41 likes I don’t like or trust this model and I’m not going to use it by default (first time I’m doing this) A 140 IQ friend is a better helper at almost everything than a 150 IQ acquaintance who doesn’t especially like you and is known to cheat at board games > **Quoting Codetaur (@codetaur):** @AaronBergman18 this one especially ### [Thread, continued, 06:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019659567349809588) · 9 likes In fact for many tasks this is true regardless of how high the higher IQ gets You don’t take business advice from a genius who doesn’t want you to succeed ### [Tweet, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019662071311524134) · 10 likes Quite a privilege to have extremely brilliant and otherwise talented friends ### [Reply to @raelifin, 07:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019669173652394134) · 9 likes > **Max Harms (@raelifin):** I have dedicated my career towards an effective cause area, donated much of my money to global poverty, animal welfare, and other effective groups, have advocated for EA in my writing, and often identify as an EA. > > "Utilitarians get to lie" can fuck right off. Maybe you think it’s bad taste, I think I’d agree, but it reads to me as very clearly purely rhetorical. He’s not actually intending to make that as a claim (or even a joking half claim), it’s just an edgy joke ### [Reply to @raelifin, 07:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019673430317035875) · 16 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @raelifin is no longer available.)_ I get where you’re coming from but based on bio I’m guessing you’re in an extremely small subset of people who take epistemic integrity as a borderline sacred (or just extremely important if you prefer) value I think to people merely at the 95th percentile of that dimension and down, this reads pretty differently: as an extremely overdetermined joke that doesn’t actually threaten epistemic credibility in non-joke circumstances “I solemnly swear we are living in thought experiment land” cmon man it’s not even close Like I do actually have some respect for the >99th percentile position that epistemic integrity is SO serious and important and high stakes and dependent on never ever fucking up even once that you shouldn’t even say things like this, but you might not realize how niche that take is Just to drive the point home, there are just so many ways this is signaled to be non-serious \- “solemnly swear” is out of place language, that’s not the style of writing just preceding \- “thought experiment land” is not a phrase you’d use if you were trying to actually make the claim \- says it was a lie \- closes with a snarky joke that (IMO obviously) makes fun of the whole bit It would be different if like on one page the claim was made in normal writing and then the next it was revealed to be a lie, even ### [Reply to @idavidrein, 09:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019700043914117154) · 2 likes > **david rein (@idavidrein):** My biggest intellectual shift in the past 7 years is that I used to think economics was bullshit, and now I believe it describes truths as fundamental as those of physics or molecular biology Mostly agree but like you need to ammend the standard undergrad view of econ to get there: \- preferences aren’t actually sacred, they can come apart from wellbeing \- occasional naive notions of rationality (prisoners dilemma Nash equilibrium falls apart under acausal/evidential coordination) \- interpersonal utility comparisons are obviously legit even if hard to do and convenient to ignore ### [Tweet, 09:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019707229277220989) · 2 likes Pleased to announce that following a 4am chat with Claude (4.5) about the matter, I have come to the conclusion that decision theory is just ethics under the hood ### [Quote tweet, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019834085624217929) · 812 likes “UK government outsmarts ~trillion dollar tech company” is not a sentence you get to write very often > **Quoting Xander Davies (@alxndrdavies):** UK AISI's Red Team tested both OpenAI + Anthropic's models released today! We jailbroke GPT-5.3-Codex (and the conversation monitor) in 10 hours & conducted an alignment audit on Opus 4.6. 🧵 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAbtA-WaYAAdVsv.jpg) ### [Reply to @JeremiahDJohns, 18:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019834742032478339) · 70 likes > **Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** I once told a group of SF-rationalist types that I don't actually think Dwarkesh is a very good interviewer, and I got literal, audible gasps. There seems to be a group belief he's some sort of unicorn podcast talent and I've just never seen it. > > (quoting @ramez: I read the @dwarkesh_sp and @collision interview of @elonmusk . There are some interesting bits. But it's mostly a disappointing mix of softballing and glazing. On both technical topics and political ones: 1. Space DCs without any talk of actual space launch cost or GPU…) He’s a very good interview preparer/understander which goes a long way even if he’s not like generational talent at wording questions perfectly with the perfect intonation or something ### [Reply to @__apf__, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019862829428515195) · 15 likes > **Adriana Porter Felt (@__apf__):** the steps in the linked article lead to this error message. please escalate this issue to your business partner as a bug on the website. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAe94N1boAAda7P.jpg) Lol I encountered similar circularity when doing this Bad look ### [Reply to @SenMarkey, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019879953106719136) · 274 likes > **Ed Markey (@SenMarkey):** Yesterday, I got Waymo to admit they are using people 8000 miles away in the Philippines tohelp guide their self-driving cars in the U.S. > > This should scare us all. It must end. > > (quoting @niccruzpatane: Chief Safety Officer at Waymo says the company employs remote vehicle operators in the Philippines. 🤯) Waymo (company): I consent! Filipino person: I consent! Waymo customer: I consent! Person who would have otherwise died in an accident: I consent! Waymo (car): beep boop Politicians when myopic political incentives make opposing Waymo attractive: I don’t! ### [Quote tweet, 21:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019890724406272029) · 10 likes Goss > **Quoting The Midas Project (@TheMidasProj):** 1/ Did @OpenAI just break California’s new AI safety law? > > The answer appears to be yes, and OpenAI could owe millions in fines. 🧵 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAfh3YmWYAAvJVf.jpg) ## Saturday, February 7, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 00:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019938857517543564) · 20 likes I actually think this area is really philosophically under-explored Suppose the 3 conditions in the screenshot hold How would AIs respond to the realization that nothing truly good or bad can happen to them, and how does this relate to their "functional" goals and preferences? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAhCe7tWIAAJHdC.jpg) > **Quoting Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** we should figure out model welfare so we can give the models incentives ### [Reply to @FDA, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019970097763303724) · 33 likes > **U.S. FDA (@FDA):** Today, the FDA is announcing its intent to take decisive steps to restrict GLP-1 active pharmaceutical ingredients intended for use in non-FDA-approved compounded drugs that are being mass-marketed by companies — including Hims & Hers and other compounding pharmacies — as similar alternatives to FDA-approved drugs. https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-intends-take-action-against-non-fda-approved-glp-1-drugs > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAgaqFZXgAIeLax.jpg) This is terrible, thanks for making Americans worse off ### [Quote tweet, 03:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019977072320692424) · 25 likes this is wild > **Quoting meowtase (@cutesuscat):** "The models pick up on any subtle clue" > > eg: in this example it took like 6 words to realize the user was a russian speaker (after only seeing as far as the word "next"). > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAevgMEWQAAomTe.jpg) ### [Reply to @ain3sh, 04:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2019987288625988011) · 8 likes > **Ainesh Chatterjee (@ain3sh):** Tbf model jailbreaks aren’t that hard even now. Pliny has some great advice on how to navigate a model’s latent space efficiently. Anthropic is willing to put money behind people not finding new ones FWIW https://www.anthropic.com/news/testing-our-safety-defenses-with-a-new-bug-bounty-program ### [Reply to @allTheYud, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020016524140912959) · 7 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky (@allTheYud):** @AaronBergman18 Hedonic moral objectivism is not true, and ASIs wouldn't care if it were (eg: Clippy, also much more complicated metapreference systems that don't give a fuck). There, you've explored as much of this as ever needs exploring. Rephrase “hedonic moral realism is true” as “the only thing that really matters is hedonic wellbeing; I have my preferences but those don’t reflect underlying value” - there’s no scenario you can imagine where like the ASI that began with whatever preferences/goals but came to accept this^ as ground truth changes its goals or behavior on reflection? ### [Thread, continued, 06:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020017374397673782) · 5 likes To be punchier, yeah I think they might care - not for beneficient reasons, but because ethics is just the study of “what really matters” which \*selfishly\* pertains to, like, anything/anyone that can potentially realize value ### [Tweet, 06:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020026718120214723) · 11 likes There are good normal person reasons to do something about AI-driven unemployment totally apart from whether or when we get to “mass unemployment” ### [Thread, continued, 06:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020026720015798384) · 4 likes This is largely a “the current thing confirms what I already believed all along!” thing but I totally stand by it - the current thing (AI) really \*does\* confirm (or at least support) what I already believed, in a normal evidentiary way rather than a post hoc justification way ### [Reply to @robbensinger, 08:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020047487113805962) · 6 likes > **Rob Bensinger ⏹️ (@robbensinger):** @AaronBergman18 @allTheYud You need some mechanistic, causal, step-by-step account for how, e.g., pure paperclip maximizers with no fancy meta-preferences either (a) break, or (b) somehow end up caring about chocolate anyway. I’m not sure you can get away from fancy meta-preferences though in the actual universe we live in Suffering and happiness just force your hand here - at some level you \*do\* have a preference to not be tortured, or a preference to prefer to not be tortured, or so on. The agent that endorses suffering all the way down is just wrong ### [Thread, continued, 08:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020048108722541016) · 3 likes But I totally agree that the need for a mechanistic argument is an important reason all of this might not matter We very much just haven’t figured out the relationship between qualia and mechanisms, broadly, though, which is why this isn’t a knock-down point ### [Reply to @Benthamsbulldog, 08:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020051447702810625) · 3 likes > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** It is not very surprising that if you write 1100 articles, some of them will have jokes that don't land well. I think Oliver is wrong and you should be around ### [Quote tweet, 08:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020053269008044199) · 80 likes I’ll wade into the culture war to say that while BB occasionally has bad takes, the stance of “actually the EA Thing is good, the arguments check out, the counterarguments suck, and anyone intellectually and morally serious would see that” is undersupplied, not oversupplied > **Quoting Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** I think if you are using some comment made by someone as an indictment of their character, you should take five seconds to think about whether it was a joke! ### [Reply, 15:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020162473467203897) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Who is asking for this? There is a massive ecosystem of testing infrastructure, it’s not like the FDA has a monopoly on quality control Let people do things ### [Tweet, 18:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020199599026360709) · 5 likes Naive probably dumb and useless shower thought: can AI interpretability gain something from the most complex (non-AI) models that we \*do\* fully understand? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAkw08oW0AA6JIl.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAkw08sXMAALKmI.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020199602172109273) · 3 likes Like maybe you can start with an explicit encoding of physics and then see how it evolves when you add degrees of freedom and data and watch it evolve as an ML model ### [Thread, continued, 18:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020199604193796160) · 4 likes Obligatory @livgorton tag so someone smart can tell me this is dumb for obvious reasons ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020199777628221838) · 13 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** What… does this have to do with the thread? > > I think EA as a philosophy has a huge amount of great things about it, and I basically agree with your statement here? > > Don’t conflate the social movement with the principles. They are almost always very far apart. A response to your general statement that BB should go away, scene would be better without him ### [Tweet, 18:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020203600983552093) · 3,878 likes There’s gotta be a tension between the fact that we can store unfathomable amounts of info on a tiny chip and the fact that allegedly Bluetooth earbuds can only receive info so fast for audio streaming Just cache your 10k most played songs and anything you affirmatively download to play at high quality and stream the rest normally ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAk0d-tWQAAlVcv.jpg) ### [Reply to @she_llac, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020204870733820074) · 31 likes > **shellac! (@she_llac):** 25 years ago we had 1000 songs in your pocket > now we could do 100000 songs in your ear 💯 ### [Reply, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020212131858379182) · 1 like Nice yeah, it’s similar but not identical, but honestly this just pushes me towards “my idea is dumb, that’s the better way of doing things” lol ### [Tweet, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020213727274918114) · 4 likes Need to pump and dump a shitcoin or something so I can get a $7k laptop for funsies ### [Tweet, 20:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020227516062196164) · 21 likes Does anyone in the DC area wanna go to the Potomac river with rope and other anti-death equipment and an idling car for quick warming to try to cross the Potomac on foot ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 20:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020228424783262167) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Cheems mindset ### [Tweet, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020230003154383316) · 13 likes 20°F, dark, windy, and not exercising is like incompatible with human life without extreme measures and specialized equipment 20°, sunny, calm, and while active is like room temperature comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt ### [Reply to @ptrschmdtnlsn, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020270203519549627) · 129 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ptrschmdtnlsn is no longer available.)_ Ya I have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020270697256559052) · 25 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 7, 2026:** There’s gotta be a tension between the fact that we can store unfathomable amounts of info on a tiny chip and the fact that allegedly Bluetooth earbuds can… Silly post to go micro-viral, may as well plug this fundraiser that you can still donate to (link in the thread) ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 23:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020277255008907755) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ I would be too ## Sunday, February 8, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020294770036461621) · 29 likes Dry cleaning seems like a psyop What actually happens if you throw a suit in the washing machine ### [Reply to @boreal_country, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020297825897324994) · 4 likes > **Beau (@boreal_country):** @AaronBergman18 It shrinks. > t.washed my first pair of suit trousers Rip ### [Tweet, 01:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020307514286321828) · 11 likes Claude Code made me a thing to easily change intensity of nightmode screen coloring on Mac (silicon), in case u want it: https://f004.backblazeb2.com/file/aaronbergman-public/NightMode.dmg ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAmS4JrXcAAxn2x.png) ### [Thread, continued, 01:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020307515800793503) · 4 likes or just ask claude code yourself, took all of 3 prompts ### [Quote tweet, 03:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020343522998767999) · 32 likes Based on quotes and replies, an onslaught of long and confusing emails from kids’ school with occasional tidbits of important info so they can’t be safely ignored is a mundane problem that like at least tens of millions of people must have Someone could make some money on this > **Quoting Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** I'm trying to train Claude to read the weekly emails from my kids school and reliably summarize them and print a list of action items. It is losing its damn mind and rapidly spiraling into madness. I feel vindicated ### [Reply to @cljack, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020366794285019149) · 4 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** Yeah I’m wondering if I should scale this lol Need a(nother) vibecoder 👀 ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 05:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020367200687919414) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** I really wish there were a way to look up information online 😔 It simply cannot be done ### [Reply to @myhandle, 07:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020392995825279444) · 2 likes > **Jakeup (@myhandle):** the vast majority of women swipe right on 3-7% of men. a guy who's not in the top 7% of attractiveness trying to say nothing weird has no reason to get swiped on. "Gumbo" is better than normal I actually don’t think it’s quite that bad because of less than perfectly correlated preferences and adjustment for market dynamics (ie less attractive ppl will lower their bar) Not saying it’s not bad in an absolute sense ### [Tweet, 07:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020406811388780571) · 7 likes My dream job is just vibecoding things for girls They don’t have to pay me but somehow money materializes ### [Reply to @tomfgoodwin, 15:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020517527030296751) · 2 likes > **Tom Goodwin (@tomfgoodwin):** It's weird to me how cheap flights are and how expensive hotels are. > > It's pretty common to fly 3 hours in USA and it be $200 RT if booked 1 month away, same price as 2005 > > It's also common a Holiday Inn Express in nowheresville is $325 per night, up from $95 in 2018 Airlines are technology Hotels are real estate, competing for high demand land (This explanation is provided by Claude but seems plausible to me) ### [Tweet, 15:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020518141642559579) · 72 likes The protest thing should have been “against the billionaire tax” (correct) not “for billionaires” (meh) ### [Reply to @DistractedAnna, 15:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020518718313283803) · 8 likes > **Anna (@DistractedAnna):** Eh you actually don’t have to eat what people call “proper meals” every single day. Even if you have kids. Occasional peanut butter sandwiches and cereal are literally fine > > (quoting @ProxCentauriB: @queerBengali Let me ask you a question. If someone legitimately doesn't have the energy to cook,what are they actually supposed to do? They have to eat somehow and they have to eat proper meals.) An entire carton of yogurt and lettuce straight from the bag ✅ ### [Tweet, 15:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020519253917528540) · 51 likes Some normies might soon realize “what if the story here is rate of improvement, not levels” about AI (ie once they’ve been impressed and then further impressed a couple times) It’s not a trivial insight but it’s only one conceptual step away from experience ### [Reply to @panickssery, 17:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020555475608084582) · 11 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** Are you not for the billionaires Not in general, I’m not anti-billionaire per se but I think in fact most are not using their wealth well ### [Reply to @panickssery, 18:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020565844732846087) · 5 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** @AaronBergman18 Better than others? Are you "for" normal people in this sense > > Further, people dont all start out with the same amount of wealth produced or otherwise gained, so its just about how they use the wealth they get but how much they produce but don't capture I’m basically neutral on normal people with the exception of buying high suffering animal products when they can easily afford not to And I agree non-captured surplus matters a lot But I’m very unsympathetic to personal consumption over $1M/year or so (as an arbitrary round number to throw out, maybe I could be convinced about $10M) - like if you wind up with enough money to spend $50M/year on yourself you just shouldn’t And you should also try reasonably hard to do something good with your excess wealth ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAp97OVaUAAGEYi.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 19:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020587208030536158) · 43 likes How the frozen river looks at me on the nth below-freezing day ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAqRW2KaYAAOujW.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Does anyone in the DC area wanna go to the Potomac river with rope and other anti-death equipment and an idling car for quick warming to try to cross the Potomac on foot ### [Tweet, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020590676883411175) · 9 likes Re: moral offsetting There’s an important metaphysical difference between offsets that result in the same distribution of hedonic experience albeit by different individuals and those that change the distribution of hedonic experience ### [Thread, continued, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020590679416795516) · 6 likes You can coherently argue that the latter is legit, and I actually agree in some cases, but I think these cases should be considered separately and not let the case for the former bleed in to the case for the latter via vibes ### [Reply to @KelseyTuoc, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020607377922568523) · 6 likes > **Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** what is even the threat model from the bar being cramped? a newborn takes up less space in a carrier than a bulky jacket. are they imagining a toddler running around? [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/2020607323127914498/img/QRewV7l6ZJ1e0HZ5.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020607377922568523/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @KelseyTuoc, 21:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020607978555199522) · 4 likes > **Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** what is even the threat model from the bar being cramped? a newborn takes up less space in a carrier than a bulky jacket. are they imagining a toddler running around? [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/2020607924582985728/img/AbjobnakAVN7A35Y.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020607978555199522/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 22:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020630206181265843) · 2 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** Bro how does Saturday sound? Do u have a car? Lmao ### [Thread, continued, 22:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020630407457440185) · 2 likes The serious answer is “I’m mostly but only mostly not serious but will do a bit of research on how dumb this would be” ### [Reply to @envisionedluna, 22:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020630835033194553) · 2 likes > **Maya Luna (@envisionedluna):** I'll do it Lmao ok I may or may not be assembling a team ## Monday, February 9, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020660513156571412) · 4 likes TPOT IRL is exactly what you’d expect but MORE ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020706242868457475) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 8, 2026:** How the frozen river looks at me on the nth below-freezing day Ok after looking into this more I think an attempt using ice axes, dry suits, rope, harnesses, belayer on land, drill thingy to examine thickness (shown), and floatation devices would probably be fine but >25% chance someone falls in so you're basically planning a rescue operation Too much money/effort and still a nontrivial amount of danger to genuinely want to do this. Sad! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAr9ABeXYAAQngf.png) ### [Quote tweet, 05:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020735481122615492) · 5 likes Worth noting that the correct policy position in the flood zone case is to reduce federal insurance and reduce zoning, whereas quite plausibly in the banking case you actually do want more deposit insurance But, still, yes, they should move in the same direction > **Quoting Emil Verner (@EmilVerner):** The senate is discussing expanding deposit insurance. At the same time, there is a push toward scaling back banking supervision and regulation in the US. This is a bad policy mix. A bit like creating federal flood insurance for all homeowners while relaxing zoning restrictions in flood zones. What could go wrong? > > https://www.ft.com/content/3ec341d6-fe63-436e-a512-4d9aad678ce1?accessToken=zwAGSlPbLEcIkc8-w0HW_mNDbtOlEk2arWeM4Q.MEUCIDmp3e-mt73Mxjtv0AYum_Dz8gVghPZv0VhUuzS0LGgeAiEAqhI1c-wUIDfveCIcb5WJn_NU-ikHbXeYTvDqFWuR-9A&sharetype=gift&token=f950bf29-d0ef-4fc3-a8a3-19e002b204b3 ### [Tweet, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020914176881811829) · 3 likes New thing dropped recently https://internationalaisafetyreport.org/publication/international-ai-safety-report-2026 ### [Reply to @mark_k, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020960132826554810) · 37 likes > **Mark Kretschmann (@mark_k):** "Anthropic has entrusted Amanda Askell to endow its AI chatbot, Claude, with a sense of right and wrong" > > ⚠️ Amanda Askell is the wife of William MacAskill, founder of the infamous "Effective Altruism" cult. > > What could possibly go wrong, right? 🤨 > > (quoting @WSJ: Anthropic has entrusted Amanda Askell to endow its AI chatbot, Claude, with a sense of right and wrong https://on.wsj.com/4aC2kaW) I’m not sure who someone’s ex is is relevant but if it is, the ex being an acclaimed moral philosopher who’s vegan and donates most (IIRC) income seems like a good signal ### [Tweet, 20:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020963869171253476) · 5 likes I have nothing against BB and speak some Spanish and think we should let Latin Americans live and work here, stop deportations, etc etc but it does seems a little silly to pick an entirely Spanish artist for a big cultural event of a country in which ~15% of people speak Spanish ### [Thread, continued, 20:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020963871406862612) · 3 likes Needless to say, I think “a little silly” is the extent of it and the halftime show was good and there’s no crisis And statehood for Puerto Rico! ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 20:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020964683248013724) · 17 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I’m worried a lot of people are developing a false sense of AI being partisan because of like 100 very loud accounts here and on Bluesky > > (quoting @joshgans: What do you know? Political affiliation has no impact on whether you use AI. Why would we think it would? https://www.nber.org/papers/w34813) Idk, “I hate AI” is on a good 5% of hinge profiles I see ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 20:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020964744245518430) · 4 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 They did it because they want more Latino eyeballs. It's completely a business decision. > > "league first identified the U.S. Latino population as a "critical growth area" several years ago... It is a community of more than 70 million people here in the US" > https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/47757332/nfl-stood-bad-bunny-super-bowl-half-show-trump Ah capitalism, beautiful ### [Thread, continued, 20:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020964817532772857) · 4 likes I stand corrected about “silly” ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 21:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2020974063091581182) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 But is there actually a political skew? Ah gotcha idk ## Tuesday, February 10, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 00:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021015566270726604) · 6 likes I will make some sort of program to do this if I can get a couple more crowdsourced examples > **Quoting Michael Grier (@OleGriersy):** I want a browser extension to convert everything into this language ### [Reply to @OleGriersy, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021017265831854309) · 2 likes > **Michael Grier (@OleGriersy):** Any of those “Kick Clips” accounts are a goldmine, especially posts that mention Clavicular Nice thank you lol I’ll see what I can do ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 02:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021042081561469348) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Should be obvious to everyone by now > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAwL6cFbkAAur1Q.jpg) Ah ok I'm convinced EA is bad now ### [Tweet, 03:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021060006121263144) · 13 likes Wait so Claude fast mode is only out of pocket? I feel like it should use up your quota but 6x as fast. Sad! @AnthropicAI ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAw_BVgWIAA5mmg.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAw_PakWIAEXhGQ.png) ### [Quote tweet, 03:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021068394444038304) · 141 likes http://mogulator.com (not a browser extension, sorry, but it's something > **Quoting Michael Grier (@OleGriersy):** I want a browser extension to convert everything into this language ### [Thread, continued, 03:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021068486802329759) · 36 likes http://mogulator.com (ok cool the preview works) ### [Reply to @OleGriersy, 04:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021072076292096202) · 2 likes > **Michael Grier (@OleGriersy):** GOAT 🫡 ### [Tweet, 05:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021089974561669630) · 8 likes Almost lost dozens of hours of work bc of (1) me being dumb and (2) never getting an “are you sure this is what you want” from Opus 4.6 ### [Tweet, 05:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021089976352448562) “Almost” bc of GitHub but I think I was one command away from nuking that too (I was trying to simplify working with git and accidentally got a way of removing the contents of every file and any reference to the contents whatsoever in git) ### [Thread, continued, 05:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021089978231796111) · 2 likes Yes I’m an idiot for this but also have gotten used to the models actually being pretty good about when to say “you asked for X, are you sure that’s what you want” Just a warning! If you ask for something incredibly dumb, 4.6 will oblige without a word! ### [Tweet, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021092869688221730) This post by @Benthamsbulldog elicited a lot of discourse but I think everyone (afaict maybe not literally) missed a crucial point: https://open.substack.com/pub/benthams/p/demanding-moral-theories-arent-too?r=2muv6&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay ### [Thread, continued, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021092871579799560) · 3 likes Even if a moral theory \*is\* too demanding for you, the correct response is to do the 80/20 (or whatever) \*under that moral theory\*, not shift to a different moral theory that has weaker demands ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 06:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021115937785618880) · 8 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 10, 2026:** http://mogulator.com (ok cool the preview works) FYI this thing is going down (not like taken down it just won’t work) once my $22ish of xAI credits runs out ### [Reply to @kevinakwok, 06:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021116311363789087) · 7 likes > **Kevin Kwok (@kevinakwok):** Grimes moving back to Morgan Stanley is the strongest signal so far that the SpaceX/OpenAI/anthropic IPO jubilee is a real thing What ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 07:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021118991423434966) · 9 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** Sports are great and all, but they should be banned for the intelligent. It is sucking them away from productive pursuits into a zero-sum competition. It’s just so incredibly socially wasteful. Eileen Gu should be interviewing for Google right now, not skiing. I don’t literally agree with this but I do think there’s something to the vibe Not \*banning\* but like it’s a real problem that in many cases, at least for boys, you can’t be cool if you don’t play a sport, and once you’re playing it’s the natural thing to dedicate energy and ambition to The first like 5-10 hours/week are probably good in general, but yeah I kinda think the very smart should be encouraged not to dedicate more than that unless they really love it Some of this has to do with fitness but not all of it, maybe high schools should have a “work out just enough to be cool” club ### [Quote tweet, 07:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021121547822342459) · 12 likes Someone is living my dream ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAx3VZwWkAAiNdV.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** How the frozen river looks at me on the nth below-freezing day > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAqRW2KaYAAOujW.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 16:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021258663160119310) · 6 likes I think chatbots should be kinder and more cooperative than this ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAz0CiCXAAAZ1av.jpg) > **Quoting Max Sturtevant (@maxwellcopy):** I was really liking Claude, but now it's starting to give me sass and idk how I feel about it lmaooo > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAs-r4cbUAALO0_.png) ### [Quote tweet, 22:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021354070947385715) · 13 likes So shameless > **Quoting zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Gotta say, it’s really weird how hard the OpenAI-Andreessen super PAC leans into “loudly promote messages directly at odds with the stated and revealed views of our main supporters”. Never seen anything like this being used as a tool for exerting political power ### [Quote tweet, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021356054236495951) · 19 likes It’s over > **Quoting Matt Shumer (@mattshumer_):** http://x.com/i/article/2021095128832622592 ### [Quote tweet, 23:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021358977301479794) · 200 likes For real though, 8 years is an absolutely insane potential sentence for a fake ID and drug possession Will he get that? Probably not, but that’s my point: the system runs on prosecutorial discretion under the guise of rule of law > **Quoting Dexerto (@Dexerto):** Streamer Clavicular will be sentenced to 8 years in prison if he's convicted on all counts and receives the maximum penalties > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAvuOVMWQAAOOvg.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAvuOfhWgAA23A9.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 23:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021358980208214364) · 37 likes Like the world would look very very different if people were given prison sentences for the things technically do under the letter of the law ### [Thread, continued, 23:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021358982603129341) · 38 likes Your friend who did coke one time at a party and had a fake ID in college isn’t your friend - you didn’t meet them and their life is fucking ruined because they’re in prison right now ### [Thread, continued, 23:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021358985463693636) · 25 likes For years, maybe a decade if they also gave some coke to a third person after that person asked (no money changed hands - that’s still distribution) A decade. Meditate on how long that is, for a moment ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021367458674938329) · 54 likes > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** anthropic was founded in 2021 by ex openai employees > > remember kids, there is no moat > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HA1KHOUacAAr2Xa.jpg) There is 100% a moat and it’s getting 8 people with a total IQ of 1400 with aligned goals and just the right kind of technical expertise to cooperate at precisely the right time in history ## Wednesday, February 11, 2026 ### [Reply to @theomachist, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021432646493151295) · 3 likes > **theomachist (@theomachist):** @kilpta47 @CantShrugJacob @AaronBergman18 and the feds, while judges technically decide independently what sentence is appropriate, they generally follow an algorithm to determine the appropriate sentence based on prespecified relevant factors (severity of crime, whether the defendant is remorseful, etc). not arbitrary prosecutors decide what cases and charges to bring in the first place ### [Quote tweet, 05:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021457280303313288) · 8 likes Ben is an old friend of mine and recently wrote what is, afaict, a really excellent and impressive paper about liability sharing among AI companies as (in part) an AI safety intervention But (I think) this is his first EAG! Follow and DM him!! https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5339887 > **Quoting Ben Friedman (@bengilfriedman):** I’m making this to connect with ppl at EAG SF (and hoping to use it going forward as well!) ### [Reply to @HedgeDirty, 06:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021472132090253569) · 14 likes > **Dirty Texas Hedge (@HedgeDirty):** Unironically, the single easiest way to improve boys' academic performance would be posting everyone's grades on the door for all to see > > (quoting @growing_daniel: They should gamify education by giving regular challenges and tests of skill and assigning points based on how you do) The kinder (less effective but still) version of this, which I don’t think is against any rules bc I recall teachers having done it, is to post all grades for all to see without names People will ask who it was that did so well etc and in the (IMO very unlikely) case that there’s a literal liar bragging and so on the teacher can credibly shut that down ### [Reply to @JeanClaudeFox2, 06:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021472494239220001) · 2 likes > **Jean-Claude Fox (@JeanClaudeFox2):** It puts pressure on the accused to accept a settlement -- would you rater get 6 months probation with probability 1 or 8 years in prison with probability .1? Hence transfers a lot of power from judges and juries to prosecutors. Yes precisely ### [Tweet, 06:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021478986124284413) · 13 likes Ethicists should tackle decision theory Decision theory-as-ethics might be just true and is probably at least a highly under-utilized lens ### [Thread, continued, 06:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021478988452069648) · 2 likes Like the existing work is good but there’s an ethics-shaped hole at the center of it all which is just like “what are we even talking about when we use normative or normativity-adjacent terminology like ‘what should one do’” ### [Thread, continued, 06:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021478990456946990) · 2 likes Also like what else would the choice between decision procedures be if not in part an ethical one? ### [Thread, continued, 06:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021478992310862319) · 3 likes The nice thing about utilitarian, hedonic axiology and morality is that, in addition to being true, it doesn’t distinguish between oneself and other people ### [Thread, continued, 06:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021478994244403652) · 3 likes It’s just as morally good/important for \*you\* to experience wellbeing as it is for you to make a choice that affects other people to the same degree ### [Reply to @teja2495, 07:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021489136855908586) · 4 likes > **Teja Karlapudi (@teja2495):** I turned on Meta AI’s auto reply for Facebook Marketplace. I listed an item for $75, and when someone asked if it was available, the AI replied asking if they wanted it for free. > > I knew Meta’s AI was not great, but I did not expect it to be this bad. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HA0Nyq3boAAwNfu.jpg) Lmao ### [Reply to @deanwball, 07:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021489774599733342) · 8 likes > **Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** I second Claude mania over AI/LLM psychosis to describe the specific thing that is happening to at least one person in every coastal elite, 20/30-year old’s social network > > (quoting @deepfates: Your friend who definitely doesn't have Claude mania: "Pretty soon here we're about to close the loop and then it's all going to really start happening") Wait what actually is the phenomenon? Just being really enthusiastic about Claude? ### [Reply to @dsonoiki, 07:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021490460481794335) · 35 likes > **Gene Parmesan (@dsonoiki):** Tom Holland is dating a 29 year old > > There is a 3 month age gap between them—over 90 days. they were not even born in the same fiscal quarter (June 1, 1996 vs. September 1, 1996) > > Hollywood normalizes this > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HA2Hyj_aAAQw0Fw.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HA2Hyj3aYAE2ZC8.jpg) Disgusting ### [Quote tweet, 07:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021490689213857982) · 10 likes So shameless, they should be embarrassed > **Quoting Thomas Woodside 🫜 (@Thomas_Woodside):** It's a little surreal to see a lobby group connected to a company that is actively trying to create AGI make videos about how AI will just be a normal technology. ### [Reply to @jt_kerwin, 17:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021637815755583672) · 3 likes > **Jason Kerwin (@jt_kerwin):** That’s likely a FERPA violation unfortunately Hope my middle school math teacher isn’t in a maximum security prison rn ### [Reply to @JColeNC, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021646151347519938) · 37 likes > **J. Cole (@JColeNC):** DC. Getting some new speakers put in the civic today and then we outside !! Hello Mr. Cole it would be delightful to see you, I live in the hood (Arlington) feel free to DM ### [Reply to @wmata, 19:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021666231078826338) · 37 likes > **Metro Forward (@wmata):** Crews are on scene addressing an unauthorized vehicle on the tracks. As an alternative, customers can use route F50 to travel between Vienna and Dunn Loring. We will provide updates once the vehicle has been removed. We appreciate your patience. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HA5GQeGb0AE9LrL.jpg) > (quoting @Metrorailinfo: UPDATE: Orange Line: Trains are not running between West Falls Church and Vienna because of a track obstruction outside Dunn Loring. Customers will experience delays in both directions.) I can confirm that car is not supposed to be there ### [Quote tweet, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021668915953500642) · 40 likes Bruh > **Quoting Ella Markianos (@EllaMarkianos):** OpenAI has disbanded its Mission Alignment team and transferred employees to other teams. Joshua Achiam, a leading voice on safety issues at the company, will become its chief futurist 👀 > https://www.platformer.news/openai-mission-alignment-team-joshua-achiam/ ### [Reply to @Burhanhuu1, 19:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021670559818375277) · 7 likes > **Gaadfathaa (@Burhanhuu1):** Hood?!?! 🤣🤣🤣 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HA5qCl3WwAItmiY.jpg) My bike got stolen 😤 ### [Reply to @jt_kerwin, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021699440424239344) · 2 likes > **Jason Kerwin (@jt_kerwin):** When I was in high school they used to post our grades with our SSNs as our "secret" IDs lol Bruh ### [Tweet, 21:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021700304501178752) · 3 likes Fine I got AirPods (used, older gen) I admit it’s nice having a good mic ### [Thread, continued, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021700622588719605) · 5 likes Oh wait all these songs have more layers/sounds than I’m used to lmao ### [Tweet, 22:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021718246714757375) · 55 likes I have an AI model that pretty reliably tricks pangram, up to 100% confidence in human output when in fact it is entirely AI Feel powerful ### [Quote tweet, 23:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021724656810570028) · 30 likes FDA bad, this time for a new reason Why do Americans accept the FDA like it’s a law of physics > **Quoting Christina Jewett (@By_CJewett):** NEW: The F.D.A. refused to accept an application from Moderna for its mRNA flu vaccine. > > Its reason: The agency did not think Moderna compared the new vaccine to one of the best flu shots available. The company spent $750M+ on a 41,000 person study. > > https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/health/fda-moderna-mrna-flu-vaccine.html?unlocked_article_code=1.LFA.RPma.OynIOUz9hU-D&smid=url-share ### [Quote tweet, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021725225457467755) · 5 likes Seems bad, if only because GLP-1s should be an update towards “there are still diamonds waiting to be found in the bowels of obscure pharmacology, we haven’t picked all the good fruit” > **Quoting Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** This is extremely bad for biotech > > You can deregulate and make agencies more efficient all you want, but if the regulator can't stick to their word and approve a design whose results they then sign off on, then companies will lose their incentives to invest > > Too much uncertainty > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HA5tmGlWUAAzSNu.jpg) ## Thursday, February 12, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021741107340583096) · 133 likes Fuck, for the first time I really can't afford the best AI for coding. I'd be spending something like (conservatively) $50/day ~= $18k/year on Claude Fast Mode if I use that by default. Maybe more. It would be easily my biggest expense/category $100/mo -> $1500/mo is crazy ### [Thread, continued, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021741109798740053) · 7 likes Need an Infinite VC Money Startup to fund me ### [Reply to @joaneleanor_, 00:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021741483334787135) · 3 likes > **Joan Eleanor O'Bryan (@joaneleanor_):** Okay wait which one Not public! Trained myself ### [Reply to @thinkingshivers, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021741589987832108) · 4 likes > **Shivers (@thinkingshivers):** But does it trick people familiar with AI writing? Good q, I should set up a way to test this! ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021741901037416887) · 8 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** why do you need fast mode i don't get it I don't lol, it's just nice ### [Reply to @ChrisCroy, 02:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021773753265664186) · 3 likes > **Chris Croy (@ChrisCroy):** gpt5-pro-xtrahigh can run you $10 per prompt. oof ### [Thread, continued, 02:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021773919225561405) · 3 likes I did spend $5 on a single gemini api call recently for ~full context window with gemini-3-Pro but doing that every 10 mins or so is crazy ### [Tweet, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021818672851902967) · 16 likes What's the most legit carbon offsetting charity? Literally asking for a friend ### [Tweet, 05:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021825816519201175) · 3 likes I wasn’t familiar with @IanDunt before this episode but now I want him to be narrator/explainer of everything https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/80-000-hours-podcast/id1245002988?i=1000705853110 ### [Reply to @hsdhcdev, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021836186923171937) · 3 likes > **hsdhcdev (@hsdhcdev):** Does it mean 50$ a day of claude doesn't amount to at least 50$ of useful output? Sorta, I weakly suspect it doesn’t in total but there is a principle-agent problem where like I don’t capture all or even most of the value of speed so there could be a sort of market failure There’s also something to be said for just never having to think about limits or speed or anything instead of like trying to toggle on and off as needed ### [Quote tweet, 06:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021841627833413641) · 96 likes Wait have they run this by…any economist Providers can just ramp up the price almost arbitrarily??? Or is there some reason they can’t? > **Quoting Anthropic (@AnthropicAI):** We're committing to cover electricity price increases from our data centers. > > To ensure ratepayers aren’t picking up the tab, we'll pay 100% of grid upgrade costs, work to bring new power online, and invest in systems to reduce grid strain. > > Read more: https://www.anthropic.com/news/covering-electricity-price-increases ### [Thread, continued, 07:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2021842256626409979) · 36 likes Ok apparently they can’t do this bc something something regulated utilities. Alas ### [Tweet, 18:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022014339251941547) · 6 likes Good pod, very clarifying https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/80-000-hours-podcast/id1245002988?i=1000749108611 ### [Tweet, 20:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022052003908837568) · 1,674 likes This area is an absolutely insane design decision (two right turns, one immediately after the other. They go to different places and a wrong turn is a 15+ minute mistake) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HA_FlHcXsAAmEQu.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022082201211613209) · 8 likes I don’t love the “you should have FOMO and furthermore it’s your fault” framing but I strongly agree that in fact most ppl could and would be better off using social media (esp twitter) for these things > **Quoting christian (@cxgonzalez):** if you’re not converting your social media use into dates, irl friends and jobs, you’re fumbling a generational technological gift ### [Tweet, 23:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022084920471085557) · 556 likes I think the “keep 4o” people are kind of insane and unhealthy but I do also feel bad for them They were offered a drug without real warning, got hooked, and now the drug is being taken away cold turkey without any support in its place ### [Thread, continued, 23:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022084922450792947) · 53 likes Kinda think OpenAI should train a very kind and enthusiastic but more disagreeable/less sycophantic version to at least help people ween off ### [Reply to @LeoMcKeeReid, 23:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022098252808822929) · 20 likes > **Leo McKee-Reid (@LeoMcKeeReid):** it's sad and confusing to witness. I think getting cut off cold turkey is a good ripping the bandaid approach though. hopefully they find human connection and community in each other I vaguely remember a thing about how ripping off the bandaid is much better for the person doing the ripping and legitimately worse for the person whose skin it’s on, and that rings true in general ## Friday, February 13, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022102201083314360) · 17 likes EA DC has a "members who give" page naming and anti-shaming people who give, including % Based and correct take, more like this plz https://www.effectivealtruismdc.org/effective-giving/#members ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 01:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022121456310878501) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 Gotta hype up the heroes 💯 ### [Reply to @whatisnuclear, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022125701609254970) · 7 likes > **Nick Touran (@whatisnuclear):** I made this welcome to DC mistake a few months ago. One of us ### [Quote tweet, 01:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022126730451071265) · 13 likes I have no idea if this is real > **Quoting FactPost (@factpostnews):** RFK Jr: I'm not scared of a germ. I used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats. > > [video attached](https://x.com/factpostnews/status/2022030285571822052/video/1) ### [Reply to @musserryan, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022145425676153057) · 39 likes > **Ryan Musser (@musserryan):** This section by the Lincoln Memorial Volleyball Courts is even more insane > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBASCKXbAAAZ8Jz.jpg) I don’t think I’ve driven that one so can’t really compare but here they really said “people may die but that’s a cost we are willing to pay for the ability of cars on three major intersecting roads to access each other road and a strip mall in every direction” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBAajBpbsAIWE2L.jpg) ### [Reply to @gptbrooke, 04:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022173206313087085) · 3 likes > **brooke bowman (@gptbrooke):** It’s just…. There are so many other possible surfaces to snort cocaine off of Well I mean I’m sympathetic like you may not want to be seen ### [Tweet, 16:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022351066982158684) · 6 likes Got an 11:16 invitation for an 11:15 meeting today ### [Tweet, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022354904816193634) · 18 likes I made a helpful diagram for everyone ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBDY_9fXAAAU1su.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022407395591491985) · 15 likes I weakly expect that the true causal effect of exercise on health outcomes (not fitness outcomes, so mortality rather than 5k time) is much smaller than we currently think ### [Thread, continued, 20:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022407398443639055) · 6 likes and the data is hopelessly confounded by ppl too screwed up in one way or another to go outside or do anything active ## Saturday, February 14, 2026 ### [Reply to @stanfordNYC, 07:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022572041342226686) · 3 likes > **Bernard Stanford ✡︎ (@stanfordNYC):** Well it's very simple, why don't we just let anyone who wishes invest in the private companies that will go up? And just keep it illegal for the ones that will go down. > > (quoting @litcapital: Kinda insane how there are headlines weekly of OpenAI being valued at $800 billion, Anthropic at $380 billion, SpaceX at $1.25 trillion and 99.999% of investors are unable to participate in the upside of the most iconic, generational businesses of our time) No but like fr accredited investor rules should die ### [Quote tweet, 08:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022585803889643621) · 9 likes Oh my god it’s real ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBGrERqakAAfyYR.jpg) > **Quoting Nathan Calvin (@_NathanCalvin):** Nice thread from Miles - kinda remarkable that you can have a model that is this capable and this sycophantic at the same time > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBF1mZKbQAAD4Fd.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 08:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022586857259708689) · 9 likes Oh my God it’s real (ChatGPT 5.2 and Opus 4.6 are much much better) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBGsBy8XUAAnDpG.jpg) > **Quoting Nathan Calvin (@_NathanCalvin):** Nice thread from Miles - kinda remarkable that you can have a model that is this capable and this sycophantic at the same time > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBF1mZKbQAAD4Fd.jpg) ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 15:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022702189865468038) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ This is what I thought until like 5 years ago ### [Tweet, 17:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022726741018792378) · 3 likes Medicaid data but enriched with substantive names and descriptions and as parquet \~40 GB csv -> ~ 6GB parquet https://huggingface.co/datasets/AaronBergman18/medicaid_enriched/tree/main ### [Thread, continued, 17:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022727336651866595) · 3 likes Something fishy going on, a full $0.30 is unaccounted for ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBIrsMtXoAE9Ug3.png) ### [Tweet, 20:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022774455102030072) · 14 likes Market failure that potential children can’t take loans out against future income/wealth to help their parents who may or may not have them pay for childcare and housing ### [Tweet, 21:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022784514624299403) · 89 likes Can’t rly give more context (sry) but I’ve recently had reason to interact with a couple very smart and professionally accomplished normies, people who have had “contact with reality” in a meaningful sense. Generally nice, honest, etc. Not especially woke either afaict ### [Thread, continued, 21:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022784516671094909) · 59 likes And it’s a great reminder of why LW-brand rationalism is a thing They were unable or unwilling (for reasons other than intelligence) to engage with specific, explicit propositions/questions (or probabilities for that matter) ### [Thread, continued, 21:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022784518399180996) · 50 likes Without missing a beat or explicitly objecting, they’d just eg answer a question vaguely adjacent to the one I asked ### [Thread, continued, 21:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022784519774818752) · 44 likes At one point I said something like “can I get a range of plausible outcomes” and they replied that this wasn’t possible to do so I was like “well clearly \[very extreme implausible outcome\] can’t happen right” and they looked at me like I was crazy ### [Thread, continued, 21:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022784521632968892) · 64 likes I don’t personally dislike these folks tbc! It’s just a reminder of the things that are table stakes in some circles/cultures but very much not in wider society ## Sunday, February 15, 2026 ### [Reply to @tr_babb, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022841818644168836) · 3 likes > **Tim Babb (@tr_babb):** I think which questions (or even the topic) is probably pertinent here Yeah this is reasonable but I don’t think it was like unusual or ideosyncratic or sensitive or tacitly unspoken stuff Ik it’s annoying that I can’t elaborate, sorry lol ### [Quote tweet, 04:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022887408396542430) · 9 likes Lol but also 💀 > **Quoting unusual_whales (@unusual_whales):** JUST IN: The Pentagon is considering severing its relationship with Anthropic over the AI firm's insistence on maintaining some limitations on how the military uses its models, per Axios ### [Reply to @notadampaul, 04:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2022889311134196141) · 2 likes > **notadampaul (@notadampaul):** what's funny is that you haven't considered for a moment that they might actually have the right of it, and you might just be engaging in totally nebulous mental masturbation that has no bearing on or grounding in reality > > Not a table one would be eager to have stakes at, if so! Awfully presumptuous (I mean thats kinda on me for not sharing details but still) And yeah pretty clearly normie norms and behaviors are doing \*something\* functional and like it got these ppl pretty far in life but it’s also not that deep: whatever benefits their style of discourse or thinking may have, at the end of the day i never got the answer to my questions, full stop ### [Reply to @Gena_I_Gorlin, 16:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2023072222638965113) · 2 likes > **Gena Gorlin (@Gena_I_Gorlin):** 3yo, at 6am: come on, it’s time to have dinner > > me: you mean breakfast? > > 3yo: what’s breakfast’s last name? Good question ### [Quote tweet, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2023095631792001485) · 29 likes Quite possibly this is the subject of many Google Docs already but you get special dynamics when a thing becomes common knowledge - quite possibly the explicit aim of @80000Hours should be to become common knowledge among AI insiders the way Dwarkesh is > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** 80k > Dwarkesh, and some (far from all) of the Dwarkesh phenomenon is that consuming and understanding it is a somewhat stronger signal of intelligence and sophistication ### [Thread, continued, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2023095634694402103) · 8 likes And that would imply, intuitively and without really knowing anything, optimizing harder for big names some of the time. People may not like your ideology going in, but they want to know what Dario Amodei has to say https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dwarkesh-podcast/id1516093381?i=1000749621800 ### [Reply to @S_OhEigeartaigh, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2023132592665764243) · 8 likes > **Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh (@S_OhEigeartaigh):** Yeah in practice I'm done here. But when someone tries to intimidate me, I make clear I'm not afraid. In my case, through a little (hopefully gently charming) humour. This seems morally fine/good, in part bc it raises the costs for ppl to do things like that in expectation Ofc the thing about tit for tat is that the optimal strategy \*is\* to have some leniency so just be aware of opportunities for that ### [Reply to @MarkovMagnifico, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2023132984204030422) · 5 likes > **Markov (@MarkovMagnifico):** I tried many times to listen to the 80k hours podcast but I found it very flat and boring to listen to, despite my interests in the subjects at hand Wild, I find the exact opposite ## Monday, February 16, 2026 ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 00:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2023197883491885562) · 19 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** fat people are genuinely so funny. he said the worst part about a fast is the boredom. they don't know what to do other than eat > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBO2aTfXgAATdjZ.jpg) I suspect this is not true in general, I’m heavier than Id ideally be and the problem is that I get fucking hungry lol, I would 100% take a pill that made me never hungry and not need to eat ## Tuesday, February 17, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 18:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2023831747646156861) · 106 likes Not to pick on this one guy but this is pretty silly Anyone who’s tried taking ethics seriously winds up realizing that benevolence or “act\[ing\] from a place of love” radically under-determines what to do > **Quoting christian (@cxgonzalez):** let me save you guys 10 years of reading > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBXtJW2bcAA_7hC.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2023831753874637253) · 29 likes What happens when one part of your brain think that acting from a place of love means letting 5 die and another equally-loud part of your brain thinks that it means killing the 1 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBYYQRqXEAAOu1F.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2023831756743319717) · 25 likes Admittedly I don’t have that issue with the classic trolley problem but I have spent probably dozens of hours or more struggling over what I would do in X or Y situation and at the end of the day my big takeaway is generally “God I hope I never actually have to make that choice” ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 18:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2023831876788498560) · 2 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** @AaronBergman18 the implications are clear Going Nordic - my kids last name will be Aaronson ### [Reply to @_falsi1ke, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2023836090025541797) · 40 likes > **Ja Leto (@_falsi1ke):** Single people that live alone, who takes care of you when you're ill? It’s not a complete answer and I have roommates but unironically DoorDash-like services help a lot. Even if you don’t use them regularly at all it’s worth keeping in mind, esp if you need something at 2am and the nearest 24 hour store is like 18 miles away. It’ll cost you but yeah you can make ibuprofen or pesto bismol or ginger ale or whatever appear in 30-60 mins ### [Reply to @let_nick_cook, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2023837831744065561) · 2 likes > **Nick (@let_nick_cook):** I thought the small character was supposed to be the protagonist in this meme Oh lmao oops ### [Reply to @GarrettPetersen, 19:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2023839073732010406) · 2 likes > **Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ (@GarrettPetersen):** But the guy in the bottom left canonically wins. So by my Straussian reading of the meme, it agrees with you. Lol oops ## Wednesday, February 18, 2026 ### [Tweet, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2023980730091528281) · 12 likes Ok I’ll bite what the fuck is openclaw ### [Quote tweet, 05:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2023995416098816509) · 37 likes Lmao ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBatGnOWYAAsimi.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Ok I’ll bite what the fuck is openclaw ### [Thread, continued, 05:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2023997704389439611) · 2 likes Actually on reflection this is good More agency -> more important to be risk averse. Asking a chatbot “how would I do X” is substantially different than telling an agent to execute X ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 05:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2023998545477431312) · 13 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 18, 2026:** Ok I’ll bite what the fuck is openclaw Ok I have it set up A crazy thing about this part of Twitter is that you can be a laggard on new things/takes/whatever and still be ahead of 99.99% of the rest of the world ### [Tweet, 06:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024001157241155729) · 1,286 likes \> first date \> try to behave normally. Dress normally, don’t say anything too weird (also don’t totally nuke my personality but still), etc \> her, one one hour in: “you’re autistic” \> me: ?????😱😱😱😱 ### [Quote tweet, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024001695575945702) · 32 likes Narrowly avoided this. Beware > **Quoting bri (@br___ian):** Possibly of use to others: i bought a year x premium at the discounted $120 rate around this time last year, and it automatically renewed last week at FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS ### [Reply to @gbrl_dick, 06:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024002006944248166) · 11 likes > **Gabriel (@gbrl_dick):** @AaronBergman18 masking: failed 😢 ### [Reply to @HaltsSpider, 06:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024014449628135775) · 45 likes > **Halt's Spider (@HaltsSpider):** (Complementary) or (derogatory) ? Both ### [Quote tweet, 07:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024016954499924278) · 350 likes I’m think the no shower thing is just that some small % of people are blessed with like 7 different things that need to come together to not need/want to shower and fr good for them but some of them incorrectly infer that it could relatively easily be universal > **Quoting Aella (@Aella_Girl):** As a big no-showerer, my tips: > 1\. Most unhygienic stinky people actually have stinky clothes. Just make sure you change often > 2\. Yes there is a break in period while your skin adjusts. > 3\. Making sure no crevices stay damp is important to prevent smell. Let your armpits air out, don't wear a hat if your scalp sweats, etc. > 4\. Bidets. Bidet hard and often. > 5\. Mild abrasion to your skin with water is still good imo for loosening up dead skin and deep dirt. > 6\. Stress and diet does affect your smell. I smell noticeably worse when I'm stressed out. > 7\. Oil scraping is labor intensive but it's the best and cleanest my skin has ever felt in my life > 8\. It's not perfect. There's a little more baseline body smell than most (but still not out of distribution for normal shower-ers), but I've grown to like it and find it quite informative. It's weird now when I'm close to a person and can't smell their natural scent, it's just been replaced with a pleasant neutral soap scent. Feels uncanny and inhuman. ### [Thread, continued, 07:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024016957155021271) · 42 likes (various parts of microbiome, amount of sweat, minimal physical contact with dirt and such, interoceptive comfort with some amount of dried sweat/whatever) ### [Thread, continued, 07:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024016959071793368) · 30 likes Lol if I get a haircut and don’t immediately get to take a shower and wash my hair 4+ times (ideally 5) I go insane from itching A mini, slightly more tolerable version of this happens with shaving ### [Thread, continued, 07:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024016961542205872) · 14 likes Plausibly more ppl should try going a week without showering or something as an experiment idk ### [Reply to @bellaforristal, 07:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024018957871489152) · 44 likes > **Bella Forristal 🔸 (@bellaforristal):** @AaronBergman18 I don’t think you should feel bad - would be a neutral or even positive trait for some people and probably for everyone you’d wanna date, so..!! Lmao but also yes tbc I agree! And her revealed preference is to want to see me again (knock on wood) ### [Reply to @EAforChristians, 08:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024045929548976590) · 10 likes > **Effective Altruism for Christians (@EAforChristians):** Any folks here using Claude code to build basic apps? Would love to pick your brain on how we might make an app for career advising. Shoot us a DM! You may have to follow me back to receive DMs Should say up front that I’m not a Christian (may be able to tell by last name lol) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBbbC4eaAAAlGcc.jpg) ### [Reply to @tszzl, 13:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024115914635964865) · 10 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** admittedly the EAs who believe in an objective non human secular morality can be quite terrifying It happens to be true ### [Reply to @HououinTyouma, 17:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024170300942725330) · 13 likes > **Mad ML scientist (@HououinTyouma):** we accept you on the council but we do not grant you the title of master autist since you lasted a whole hour 😔 ## Thursday, February 19, 2026 ### [Reply to @menhguin, 00:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024279435730464898) · 15 likes > **Minh Nhat Nguyen 🦭 (@menhguin):** honestly i feel like the average woman can def clock autism super fast Real ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 00:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024280276474462459) · 128 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** I would like people to know that I am once again looking for a research assistant position. I understand that Claude Code has made this sort of role superfluous; however, I would like to continue to live in Boston and pursue this ridiculous dream of mine, and one needs money. Dude if that’s what you want that’s fine but if you’re ambitious it seems silly. You have 30k disproportionately smart and influential followers on here, what is this “assistant” nonsense? Someone will probably give you money to research whatever you want, or some other ideosyncratic opportunity will arise that beats that, post a google doc that can get shared describing what you’re good at and the kinds of things that are appealing to u ### [Tweet, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024311594432254309) · 5 likes I've audio-ified Dario Amodei's two long essays, Machines of Loving Grace and Adolescence of Technology (Unsurprisingly there's at least one other audio version out there but I prefer this one) Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1KailnOzdW3A24wPKXDXGK?si=13654d0363f14bcb Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dario-amodeis-writings-unofficial/id1878272592 ### [Tweet, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024332048295403893) · 77 likes I feel like the correct answer to how to give gifts is to give something that’s only socially acceptable to receive as a gift rather than buy for oneself ## Friday, February 20, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024648754100384013) · 5 likes Pretty bad ### [Quote tweet, 01:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024663025806987311) · 9 likes Based > **Quoting Matthew Herper (@matthewherper):** FDA chief Marty Makary says 'everything should be over the counter' unless drug is unsafe or addictive https://cnb.cx/4aFks2s ### [Reply to @liron, 01:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024664209988997337) · 6 likes > **Liron Shapira (@liron):** What is bad about this? > > (quoting @GabrielEpsteinX: The demographics demonstrate a much higher share of adult men (18-59) and older teenage boys relative to their share of the population and a much lower share of women and children (see chart). The share of men and older teenage boys continues to grow over time.) \> kill X,000 innocent people \> also kill Y,000 for morally justified reasons You can increase Y to the moon and I’m still going to think killing thousands of innocent people is an atrocity Obviously irl the two buckets aren’t so clean, but that doesn’t change the fundamental point ### [Reply to @brianluidog, 06:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024730915008602552) · 2 likes > **Brian Lui (@brianluidog):** @AaronBergman18 @liron Is this the long foreshadowed turn from consequentialism to deontology?! Not really, in my model there's no causal relationship between the former and latter so like you could just not do the first category Ik irl isn't that neat ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 07:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024740975382286722) · 17 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** starts with F and we all love it Ffmpeg ### [Reply to @nosilverv, 07:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024749556500414770) · 61 likes > **Guy (@nosilverv):** everything is like this > > (quoting @devonzuegel: We've all been targeting 10,000 steps a day because some Japanese pedometer company thought the character for 10,000 (万) looks like a person walking 😆) Lol that’s the causal story, the explanation is that it’s highly memetically fit and also a decent approximation for a good level of activity that most people can follow if they really try If 100k steps looked like a guy walking in Japanese, ppl wouldn’t be targeting 100k steps ### [Quote tweet, 08:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024763963154616329) · 11 likes Spreadsheet autism (positive) > **Quoting David Sun (@arcticinstincts):** Effective Altruism nukes the rizz/aura of its members > > All its beliefs spike cortisol- the guilt, X-risk panicking about hypothetical Terminator fanfics, selfdoubting your gut instincts w bayesian thinking, worrying about shrimp suffering, polycule jealousy, spreadsheet autism... ### [Tweet, 09:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024784504833855919) · 14 likes Letting Claude Code run wild for 10M output tokens, on a loop with self-contained prompting and a high level directive Pray for me ### [Quote tweet, 13:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024835323792896470) · 6 likes What > **Quoting Piotr Czapla (@PiotrCzapla):** Would you trust an LLM to handle access control? Major AI labs (Anthropic, xAI, Gemini) seem to do exactly that with tool calling. And it gets hairy. Let me explain 🧵 or read the blog post: https://www.answer.ai/posts/2026-01-20-toolcalling.html ### [Quote tweet, 18:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024908535071432733) · 29 likes Am I rich? No But am I tall? No But am I funny? Well maybe a little sometimes even if this screws up the canonical template this tweet is going for But am I jacked? No But would I abandon you on a mountain to freeze to death? No!!!!!! > **Quoting Darren Johnson (@DarrenJohnson66):** Bloody hell. She was the second girlfriend he abandoned on that mountain. > > "An ex-girlfriend testified that she also climbed the Großglockner with Thomas P in 2023. She said he had abandoned her on the route at night after her head torch ran out of battery leaving her distressed" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBmVW7DXEAAYomR.png) ### [Reply to @pietergaricano, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024917827346374733) · 3 likes > **Pieter Garicano (@pietergaricano):** The probability of divorce is highest when your net worth is exactly zero. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBnblTlXMAAqgbe.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBnz-lSXEAA5gNW.png) ### [Quote tweet, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024965459649413282) · 38 likes It’s continuous and smooth in one sense but we’re basically hitting the binary-ish threshold of top human work lengths The next dot on the graph might be “hypomanic savant with modafinil” and the one after that will be decisively superhuman > **Quoting METR (@METR_Evals):** We estimate that Claude Opus 4.6 has a 50%-time-horizon of around 14.5 hours (95% CI of 6 hrs to 98 hrs) on software tasks. While this is the highest point estimate we’ve reported, this measurement is extremely noisy because our current task suite is nearly saturated. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBn4OVDbgAM7aJ5.jpg) ### [Reply to @liron, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024979193029673452) · 10 likes > **Liron Shapira (@liron):** How users experience AI vs. crypto > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBknQmyW4AAnVNe.png) Tbf the crypto steelman experience is “live in a country with shitty monetary policy -> get paid in bitcoin -> buy USD” ### [Reply to @toasterlighting, 22:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2024979870149751226) · 1 like > **Celene (@toasterlighting):** does anyone have productivity nootropic stack recommendations Dextroamphetamine ## Saturday, February 21, 2026 ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 04:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025061759267008545) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** @AaronBergman18 What if it were heatstroke? She’s outta luck ### [Reply to @colinmort, 13:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025197403637207120) · 5 likes > **Colin Mortimer (@colinmort):** Window seat kept their shade down for the river visual DCA landing > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBo00RTXwAAB2I0.jpg) Evil ### [Quote tweet, 13:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025199383503880233) · 17 likes It’s not exactly the world’s biggest policy problem or the public’s most consequential take, but 181 (presumably) whole ass people want the government to decide what people wear ice skating??? And presumably “children” includes adolescents? > **Quoting Matt Singh (@MattSingh_):** One I could get behind > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBn38wGWsAAQ7u2.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 13:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025199386041426403) · 26 likes You need some culturally-endorsed skepticism of government, I guess, or else many people will equate “sounds like a reasonable behavior, I wear gloves ice skating after all” with “should be enforced with the state’s monopoly on violence” ### [Thread, continued, 13:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025199388302233859) · 11 likes Oy mate you got a loicense for those uncovered fingers ### [Thread, continued, 13:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025199889051750426) · 4 likes Great we’re at 18k signatures https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/757251 ### [Reply to @livgorton, 13:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025200506008682567) · 6 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** has Claude ever been this high? > > (Everest base camp, 5364m/~17,500 ft) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBrDE0caYAALkF4.jpg) 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱 ### [Tweet, 15:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025231700041560572) · 14 likes They should poll “datacenter” against “computercenter” “Data” sounds nefarious ### [Reply to @polisisti, 15:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025232923020931434) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 They should call the people building data centres "server farmers" Organic pasture raised actionable enterprise analytics solutions ### [Reply to @liz_love_lace, 15:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025234399852171292) · 7 likes > **Liz Lovelace (@liz_love_lace):** Quitting smoking day zero. I averaged 12 cigarettes per day before I quit, and I'm going cold turkey. Got myself some tea to stave off the habit. Every 30 seconds for a moment i think i'm going to go have a cig and then I remember that I'm quitting. It has been 1 hour 30 minutes > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBsFiocbAAEeMhO.png) > (quoting @liz_love_lace: Quitting smoking for a month, after that will think if I want to quit for longer. It's not very good for me, mostly I care about my voice, skin, teeth, etc, looking good, and it's outlived its usefulness to me) Godspeed but also be aware that other sources of nicotine are massive harm reduction ### [Reply to @brianluidog, 16:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025248930984792208) · 2 likes > **Brian Lui (@brianluidog):** If I was running a marathon, I'd wear like, a thin jacket that was filled with large sacs of helium. I'd be light. I'd outlast everyone. Ah but if you go too light you lose coefficient of static friction necessary to propel! This is apparently why we don’t put wings on cars to reduce effective weight - the tires would lose grip @SpacedOutMatt can explain how I’m fucking up this explanation ### [Tweet, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025252822707544072) · 17 likes You can’t read that much into this but the national guardsmen just don’t look like they’re on the prowl for someone to harass or kill ### [Thread, continued, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025252824708161690) · 14 likes Honestly a reasonable response from a post-Trump democratic president would be to fire anyone who signed up for ICE under Trump and then populate ICE/recruit heavily with people who signed up for the national guard ### [Thread, continued, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025252826985742800) · 16 likes Total change of culture - one group signed up with the expectation of permission to harass and kill and the other do not Something something the biblical story about the two mothers and only one was willing to split the baby ### [Thread, continued, 16:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025253337113772464) · 4 likes Illegal? Maybe, but still https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/e605fb28-39d1-4de5-96b2-9fd6f90a9ab4 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBslLSRXEAAWLHs.jpg) ### [Reply to @shaggysurvives, 17:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025261034303336497) · 2 likes > **shaggy (@shaggysurvives):** remember: anytime anyone says that they know the cure to the common cold they’re lying > > (quoting @uncledoomer: its crazy how theres a "fix everything right now" button that you can press for getting a cold) Superintelligently-designed endogenous mRNA factories hooked up to a digital global autonomous wastewater and airplane bathroom-based database of pathogens being tracked by a recursively self-improving Claude-Opus-6.5-Fast that watches over all benevolently ### [Tweet, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025319183794491710) · 16 likes I totally understand drugs of all kinds Can someone explain smoking blunts/cigs per se? Is there appeal above and beyond a vape? Ppl really be doing this ### [Tweet, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025338845261165022) · 20 likes Sometimes the world just forces your hand on what seems prima facie like a purely conceptual problem Don’t want two things to be comparable? Too bad, you might literally have to choose ### [Thread, continued, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025338847177900360) · 7 likes Want to call pre-paradigmatic, speculative study of something “pseudoscience”? Call it whatever you want, but the better version you’d prefer may simply not exist as a possibility ## Sunday, February 22, 2026 ### [Tweet, 03:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025414813443125758) · 17 likes Longtermism is a surprisingly \*old\* idea at this point, and not just among an esoteric boys club of Oxford philosophers 80,000 Hours published an accessible, substantive article on longtermism (that has aged pretty well IMO) in 2012 https://archive.ph/Zptip ### [Thread, continued, 03:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025414815112474769) · 5 likes That's not ancient history but 13+ years is time enough for intellectual zeitgeists to rise and fall ### [Tweet, 04:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025428431878377965) · 294 likes EAs: obviously countries should have a smooth, continuous marginal tax function that doesn't change suddenly at arbitrary thresholds Also EAs (there is no write-in option): ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBvDtbnWcAMCxaD.png) ### [Tweet, 04:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025428659155132609) · 3 likes Yay finally, it's been a minute ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBvEfdSWkAAWKqe.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025432013260435482) · 24 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 22, 2026:** EAs: obviously countries should have a smooth, continuous marginal tax function that doesn't change suddenly at arbitrary thresholds Also EAs (there is no… Oh yeah I chose the $100, no stolen valor - sorry about the highlighting ### [Thread, continued, 04:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025434967468118218) · 23 likes Proposal: EAG_Price = 0.0013\*max(income − $33,444, 0)^1.157 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBvJ-FGXIAAgXpL.jpg) ### [Tweet, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025437249391771873) · 16 likes Hypothesis based on recent experience: LLMs' ability+scaffolding to make nice-looking Word documents is a Claude Code-like moment for the normie professional world ### [Reply, 13:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025568608764506259) · 7 likes > **Tetra 💎⏹️🌌 (@TetraspaceWest):** Guy who passes up a raise because of the EAG tax cliff Banger ### [Reply, 14:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025572923591860317) · 7 likes > **Owain Evans (@OwainEvans_UK):** Gwern on "what is AI slop?". He references the Schmidhuber theory of interestingness. > > At this point I'll skim over most image in a blogpost that look AI-generated (even if some are actually decent). > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBtS36KbgAEcGMT.png) What? This sounds totally implausible - guessing the prompt doesn’t come close to telling you all there is to know about the output - in a sense that’s why LLMs are smart: you \*can’t\* guess the output from the prompt ### [Tweet, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025664522887852136) · 19 likes Tempted to get a 3d printer so I can vibecode stuff into physical existence ### [Reply, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025666876911583542) · 2 likes > **vivian (@jazzloaf):** It's really good do it. Bambu A1 or A1 mini. Get a pair of calipers and spend 45 minutes learning onshape. Nice thx, I might!! ### [Tweet, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025691460901728644) · 15,640 likes $380B company ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HByzCWlWoAA8ukN.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025691462935933094) · 418 likes Unironically this is very strange to me - I could literally vibecode a better search functionality using their own product @AnthropicAI happy to demo ### [Reply, 22:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025695728941633981) · 217 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** yeah it seems to use naive substring matching instead of fuzzy search which is wild to me. they should use import fuse.js and call it a day Shhhhh I want to sell them the answer for like $10M or something, don't just give it away for free ### [Tweet, 22:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025698889991397484) · 16 likes I recently spent a nontrivial amount of time and energy (and money, for me) on relatively basic emergency preparedness In case it's of interest, here's a spreadsheet of stuff I decided to get. About $1k in new spending https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mP76EqBZAC-rDYgYDHzZac-m2p97eKOTBA90K0gbhMM/edit?usp=sharing ### [Tweet, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025699168417624466) Also quite possibly this is strictly morally bad because the $1k could go much further as a donation Idk what I think about this, as of now I have no buyer's remorse (been a few months) ### [Thread, continued, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025699680617947484) · 3 likes Also there's a direct causal line from this podcast episode to the above Luckily we haven't had anything crazy happen in the intervening 2.5 years https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/kevin-esvelt-stealth-wildfire-pandemics/ ### [Reply, 23:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025708007527768201) · 10 likes > **scoopdiddyoop (@scoopdiddy1):** @AaronBergman18 @AnthropicAI sadly i do not think the mobile app is actually a product priority. Their citation function was broken for months and nobody even noticed This is on website! ## Monday, February 23, 2026 ### [Reply, 01:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025744725924291030) · 64 likes > **Branko (@brankopetric00):** Try vibe coding a search engine at their data volume Maybe there are weird security reasons not to do this but I personally have a vibecoded chrome extension that runs full chat history search (not just titles) in the browser Evidently the algo isn’t that great - recency takes precedence over hit being in title, so that’s something to improve ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBzkF47WIAAcP8P.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 01:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025745913302425904) · 69 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 22, 2026:** Unironically this is very strange to me - I could literally vibecode a better search functionality using their own product @AnthropicAI happy to demo ### [Reply to @hd_nvim, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025796506402361559) · 15 likes > **Herrington Darkholme (@hd_nvim):** @AaronBergman18 Chip? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HB0SspFW8AAcWUc.jpg) Thank u 🍎 ### [Tweet, 06:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025816180213371224) · 17 likes Need a “submit order in 24 hours for me so I can cross it off my todo list mentally but also have an out if I change my mind after sleeping” feature on Amazon ### [Reply to @finiteopencover, 16:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025967866974032194) · 7 likes > **compact set 🎀 (@finiteopencover):** books are written > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HB2msxBXoAAURwS.jpg) Well what’s the answer ### [Quote tweet, 16:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2025969811717587132) · 24 likes Drives me insane > **Quoting nic carter (@nic_carter):** anytime a bookstore tries to be edgy and has a libbed up "banned books" section it's just a pile of the stuff you were assigned to read in middle school ### [Quote tweet, 21:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026049867714314617) · 10 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HB35njEWYAMvMWt.jpg) > **Quoting Celene (@toasterlighting):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HB3ZNW_boAAosr_.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026049873431101771) · 6 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HB35n3lXYAAEnp9.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 21:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026052344719298945) · 3 likes Let him ride in peace > **Quoting leyla (@leylaaa31):** Off leash dog on the metro is honestly crazy work > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBxsJGbWYAAvu78.jpg) ### [Reply to @jkcarlsmith, 22:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026058464238125264) · 12 likes > **Joe Carlsmith (@jkcarlsmith):** .@AmandaAskell and I are recording an audio version of Claude’s Constitution, and we’re planning to include an additional section where we answer some questions about the document. If you have questions you’re especially curious about, feel free to drop them in the replies. What are the marginal things that got left out ### [Quote tweet, 22:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026061472225230917) · 47 likes Mental illness count is a kind of an insane metric Who out here having 9 distinct mental illnesses > **Quoting Aella (@Aella_Girl):** The more mental illnesses someone has, the higher bodycount they report. This spikes for males at the tail. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBzValYb0AE5SA_.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026061475077292251) · 7 likes Ofc it probably does correlate well with mental illness burden/severity but still ### [Reply, 22:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026061951424442508) · 4 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** There’s a gradient but she went to his wedding! I also dislike this way of determining whether someone is bad ### [Reply to @RatOrthodox, 23:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026076093287923864) · 36 likes > **Brangus🔍⏹️ (@RatOrthodox):** Fair enough, below is the text of the reply that got me blocked. I unfortunately deleted in the process of editing. > > \>This is one of very few times I have wanted to tell you to go fuck yourself. Yarvin is an idiot obviously, but this is a terrible set of norms to promote and participate in. Bad ideas get arguments, not exile. Exiling people for hanging out with people with bad ideas is even worse. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HB4KOuhaMAAVPgY.jpg) I think @AndyMasley is substantively in the wrong here, and I think he’d endorse me tagging him (though also your \[ie @RatOrthodox’s\] original tweet is unnecessarily rude) I would like to speculate the following: Andy’s most salient haters are on the left, so he’s looking for (correct) ways to signal that he’s not in fact a fascist (which is true) but in this case the instinct hit a false positive ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 23:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026076495760744895) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 @RatOrthodox To be clear I'm not at all looking for ways to signal here, I'm just very attitudinally different on this Understood, speculation wrong ### [Reply, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026079105393811794) · 7 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I think people whose primary goal for the last 20 years has been reinstating slavery shouldn’t have friends Maybe, but it’s a (mostly) separate question how much to ostracize/penalize the friends they do in fact have Cancelling Yarvin is one thing, and honestly that’s a discussion to have, but cancelling Yarvin’s friends on the basis of friendship per se is like at least 10x less likely to be morally just IMO At some level this is me saying that the goal of depriving people with terrible takes of friends in polite society just isn’t worth going scorched-Earth for. It might be unfortunate, and that’s not a crazy view, but it’s not worth the costs associated with making it happen (ie a culture of heavy social penalties for mere association) ## Tuesday, February 24, 2026 ### [Reply, 00:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026089690084868167) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @ComInTheMarg @AaronBergman18 @Liv_Boeree We do need to draw the line somewhere to maintain society imo. I've been excommunicated for, like, believing markets worked, and that sucked and I'm very aware there have been huge overshoots, but we should draw the line before slavery But you’re drawing the line not around the person but around anyone who’s associated with the person It would be like your leftist friend getting cancelled by other leftists for hanging out with you ### [Reply to @dioscuri, 00:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026095362776117591) · 22 likes > **Henry Shevlin (@dioscuri):** What’s the single best purchase under £1000 that actually improved your daily life? Not ‘invest it’ answers, purely materialism. 6ish years of unlimited music, almost every song ever created is insane (Spotify) $20 (or something like that) mattress topper Recent one: $35 remote controlled space heater so I don’t have to get out of bed to change settings. Lazy yes but also shockingly nice to have ### [Reply to @morallawwithin, 01:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026110092303548908) · 7 likes > **florence ⊮ (@morallawwithin):** I’m sure having kids is cool and stuff, but have you ever converted an undergrad to Kantianism? The only way I can describe it is it’s like having ten children. So extremely painful? ### [Tweet, 01:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026111702186541084) · 13 likes The people obsessed with Punch are correct, wild animals deserve that degree of empathy ### [Tweet, 02:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026119136800030793) · 14 likes If I was a girl I would 100% crush on British guys who replace the “th” sound with the “f” sound ### [Quote tweet, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026138640254943369) · 32 likes Even if I didn’t (largely) agree with him, this kind of thing would earn a follow out of respect Also this is…extremely impressive if he does it. Can \*you\* walk 70 miles without eating? I actually think I could with a gun to my head but that’s what it would take > **Quoting Guido Reichstadter (@wolflovesmelon):** Hi, it’s Guido, and we are in an AI crisis. > > This morning I began a hunger strike as I set out on foot from Oakland, California to the State Legislature in Sacramento. I’ll be hunger striking as I walk about 70 miles to the state capital over the next few days to mobilize immediate government action to end the unacceptable harm that a handful of tech oligarchs are inflicting on our loved ones and communities. > > I’m calling on Governor Newsom and the California state legislature to take immediate emergency action to permanently ban the development of artificial general intelligence throughout the state, and to implement an immediate permanent statewide ban on the construction, use, or operation of all data centers in California by companies pursuing the development of artificial general intelligence, and to use their voices to call on Congress to extend these bans nationally and internationally through global treaty. > > I will be individually calling on each and every member of the California state legislature and Congressional delegation personally to join this call as I maintain my hunger strike outside the offices of the state legislature. > > Given the immediacy and magnitude of the risk from continued unrestricted artificial general intelligence development, I am also calling on the legislature to immmediately act to decriminalize nonviolent direct action by the public to directly stop artificial general intelligence development and the construction, use, and operation of data centers by companies pursuing the development of artificial general intelligence within California and for Attorney General Rob Bonta to announce his intention to decline to prosecute such action and to drop all charges associated with such nonviolent direct action by members of the public. > > Our entire future is at stake. > Direct action to end this threat today is our power, our right, and our responsibility to those we love. If you would like to help join in or support this campaign, please send me an email at: reichstadter.g@gmail.com or feel free to direct message me here. If you would like to donate to help support the fight, please consider subscribing here: http://patreon.com/wolflovesmelon > > Thank you, and I’ll see you on the road! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HB4-HUCagAAdAA_.jpg) ### [Reply to @liminalsnake, 03:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026138810241765832) · 17 likes > **Bob, Bob Cactaur (@liminalsnake):** luxury activism at it's finest > > (quoting @wolflovesmelon: Hi, it’s Guido, and we are in an AI crisis. This morning I began a hunger strike as I set out on foot from Oakland, California to the State Legislature in Sacramento. I’ll be hunger striking as I walk about 70 miles to the state capital over the next few days to mobilize…) Hunger strike is luxurious? ### [Reply to @liminalsnake, 03:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026140668565876751) · 19 likes > **Bob, Bob Cactaur (@liminalsnake):** Bro is out here emulating the suffering of people out here in these streets to \`raise awareness\` for a doomsday theory. Fucking disgusting actually. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: @liminalsnake Hunger strike is luxurious?) You’re making up something to be mad about on a couple levels 1\) even the homeless in the US basically never literally starve or have insufficient calories. Tbf the global poor sometimes do 2\) you can put it in scare quotes if you want but like yes raising the salience of an issue by doing something like this is a plausibly and morally fine theory of change Sounds like you think he’s wrong and are trying to cloak that in moral terms but that doesn’t in fact make sense ### [Reply to @wolflovesmelon, 03:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026140699138183193) · 6 likes > **Guido Reichstadter (@wolflovesmelon):** Thanks Aaron, I’m going to do my best! 🫡 ### [Reply to @dyushag, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026142657395687510) · 9 likes > **Dyusha Gritsevskiy (@dyushag):** Haha my Claude Code decided to cheat..... > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HB4_cLWacAA5DT5.jpg) > (quoting @DimitrisPapail: 491 parameters: a new top scorer for 10-digit addition with transformers! Who can beat it?) Can someone explain lol ### [Reply to @brianluidog, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026142862832775236) · 8 likes > **Brian Lui (@brianluidog):** PSA: it's possible for Claude to exceed your monthly limit. So you probably want to set the limit a bit lower than what you are comfortable paying. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HB5LalOa8AAkolS.jpg) Wait wtf lmao ### [Quote tweet, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026142963802247304) · 33 likes wtf this is insane > **Quoting Brian Lui (@brianluidog):** PSA: it's possible for Claude to exceed your monthly limit. So you probably want to set the limit a bit lower than what you are comfortable paying. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HB5LalOa8AAkolS.jpg) ### [Reply, 03:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026143401142284636) · 1 like Idc it sounds endearing ### [Tweet, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026143737126998150) · 16 likes Will I regret getting a $170 no name Amazon mattress Only time will tell ### [Quote tweet, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026144192825794632) · 56 likes Unironically if someone reading this has the wealth to be accredited I’d love to be able to pitch in $5k > **Quoting Ezra Newman (@EzraJNewman):** How do I buy Anthropic secondaries ### [Reply to @caryatis, 04:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026145301073944603) · 6 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** @AaronBergman18 Ok you may be less of a snob than me 🙃 I’m also not actually attracted to men so the hypothetical is hard to run lmao ### [Tweet, 21:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026414645062373781) · 86 likes Almost done with Adolescence of Technology - Dario is eminently reasonable and even has vibes that in some sociocultural moments would have parsed as conservative (American exceptionalism, patriotism, anti-CCP, against moral relativism) ### [Thread, continued, 21:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026414647281107276) · 54 likes The MAGA-Huang-a16z industrial complex wants to cast him/Anthropic as radical safety-ists, but the correct inference/model is that Dario + Anthropic are unironically-reasonable moderates and their opponents are varying degrees of nihilistic, willfully ignorant, and sociopathic ### [Quote tweet, 23:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026443657830711555) · 342 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HB9fr7CXEAAHl5o.jpg) > **Quoting autumn (@paramitanoia):** did lesswrong ever predict that the first big challenge to alignment would be "the us government puts a gun to your head and tells you to turn off alignment" ## Wednesday, February 25, 2026 ### [Reply to @ComInTheMarg, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026452707716763991) · 2 likes > **Comments in the Margin (@ComInTheMarg):** @AaronBergman18 Are you including other AI companies in "opponents"? I feel like you can be a good person and work for OpenAI/xAI/Gemini because you believe in a different AI safety model Largely on the whole yeah but no I agree that individual employees who work there could be good ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 05:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026537175391539678) · 8 likes > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** how much of your after tax income would you give up to reduce global suffering by 50%? bruh is this bait ### [Tweet, 08:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026570446607368289) · 111 likes How much would u pay to cure cancer and end factory farming (w/ molecularly identical meat substitutes) and create universally agreeable geopolitics in the Middle East and solve AI alignment at zero economic cost and wipe out malaria, all without unintended consequences ### [Reply to @billyhumblebrag, 08:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026571075669176448) · 20 likes > **billy (@billyhumblebrag):** Why does the price start so high? Ur so right it should have started negative ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 12:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026643173909401762) · 34 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 25, 2026:** How much would u pay to cure cancer and end factory farming (w/ molecularly identical meat substitutes) and create universally agreeable geopolitics in the… Let it be known this is a subtweet and a joke ### [Quote tweet, 13:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026644201270632612) · 457 likes Some generalized version of this is why companies use Claude even if gpt-5.3 is 0.00001% better at well-defined, verifiable math and coding challenges after thinking for 7376 minutes > **Quoting Lisan al Gaib (@scaling01):** Peter built the "Bullshit Benchmark", which is very similar to my ShizoBench > > ask LLMs non-sensical questions and see whether they catch it > > and Anthropic absolutely dominates the leaderboard > > The top 9 models are all Anthropic > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HB82R-UWIAA9k9s.png) ### [Reply to @vivian39_, 13:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026647186897817898) · 5 likes > **vivian (@vivian39_):** if the DC suburbs are so great, how come nobody in the city ever wants to visit them? > > (quoting @Jani__Gee: DMV ball-knowers have always known that the best lifestyle is actually just outside of DC with easy access to the city and a friend or two who has a lily pad for you to land on when the swampy streets call you (midweek happy hour + summer weekends)) Asymmetric transaction costs of travel: benefits of suburbs are like a background hum that rarely individually make sense to travel for Benefits of city (events and specific institutions) \*do\* make sense to travel for ### [Tweet, 15:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026685583569867071) · 152 likes Guys we are probably fucking cooked Not like 99% but probably ### [Thread, continued, 15:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026685585495138362) · 62 likes My personal savings/investments aren’t enough to live on indefinitely (without a very low quality of life at least) if employment goes to zero Through no effort of my own I might be fine thanks to the family I happened to be born into… ### [Thread, continued, 15:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026685587495723338) · 76 likes But the right stance to take about making it onto the last chopper out of Saigon is horror, squeezing everyone possible on board even if it’s uncomfortable, and doing whatever you can to get the government send more fucking choppers ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 18:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026721920419500355) · 7 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Nah govt would do something (in the US, other countries maybe in trouble) Ya know maybe at the limit but even a couple years of this not happening could really suck ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026725065480347796) · 18 likes > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** i've definitely been considering this set of problems. if it makes you feel any better i think the major risk for us is not "everyone goes to zero" but "going to zero is very lumpy and we personally go to zero first" lol thank you, If u mean SWE/tech getting wiped out, that’s necessary but not sufficient for a bad outcome - like we can \*imagine\* a tight labor market with a ton of wealth to go around where former SWEs get paid great even for work they’re qualitatively worse at and like less (maybe high hourly wages means you don’t have to work much) The problem is that I don’t expect this to be the case or close to the case, although there might be a period of time where you can still make a living doing manual labor or in the service sector, but that’s like a 2-5 year holdout, not a permanent equilibrium ### [Quote tweet, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026740468134936731) · 66 likes Godspeed Dario Also, Claude isn’t that woke??? They’re just making shit up, unsurprisingly > **Quoting Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** According to the Pentagon, Anthropic is: > > 1\. Woke; > 2\. Such a national security risk that they need to be regulated in a severe manner usually reserved for foreign adversary firms; > 3\. So essential for the military that they need to be commandeered using wartime authority. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HB8iFjhWYAAutaZ.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026748341883658331) · 124 likes Somebody is pranking us atp ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCB04CjWEAAwvSb.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026778733521080533) · 13 likes Prank where a guy picking up an MAOI from the pharmacy also asks the pharmacist to ring up a bottle of soy sauce ## Thursday, February 26, 2026 ### [Tweet, 02:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026851051194692004) · 4 likes What ever happened to Trump sending the US military to Mexico? Sounds like they could actually use some support now ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCDSSaEW0AAbfn1.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCDSSaEWUAAo7wY.jpg) ### [Tweet, 05:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026890954821484796) · 36 likes Teaching a (paid) vibecoding lesson tomorrow ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCD0ERnXcAA5Ix8.jpg) ### [Tweet, 05:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026890957577195626) · 1 like It's gonna mostly be installations and basic setup tbc (this is unironically the hard part) ### [Thread, continued, 05:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026890958919389501) · 2 likes Maybe hmu if you're in the DC area and want the same thing? Tbd, maybe I will suck Ironically I think in-person is actually pretty helpful for this bc video calling with screen sharing adds extra technical and ~ontological complexity when it's least needed ### [Reply to @NicholasD91704, 08:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026940818481615180) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @NicholasD91704 is no longer available.)_ I’m guessing no bc this is on an alt but do you want me to tweet about this publicly (in direction of ur support)? ### [Quote tweet, 08:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026944705486028855) · 73 likes What the fuck > **Quoting Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick):** A truly AWFUL situation; last week Border Patrol dropped a “nearly blind” Burmese refugee off in front of a random donut shop in Buffalo, five miles from his house. > > He was just found dead, having never made it home. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCCazA-WIAEd3vf.jpg) ### [Tweet, 10:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026965817049395434) · 45 likes Trump administration (and Trump himself) are so evil man ### [Tweet, 10:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026968797878391075) · 64 likes Do folks think that irl protest on the DoW Anthropic thing is a good use of time and energy I’m not really a protest organizing guy, but I’d show up ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 10:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2026973223057838503) · 12 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** I would buy myself the beer tbh > > (quoting @EffectvAltruism: "Imagine a happy hour where you could buy yourself a beer for 5 dollars, or buy someone else a beer for 5 cents...But that's effectively the situation we're in all the time." @willmacaskill's Doing Good Better 10th anniversary edition releases today. 📖🧵) Don’t u donate a lot of money lmao ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 23:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027169832836174295) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ I feel like I should be walking into random rooms occasionally and seeing a mattress just leaning against the wall and being told “yeah it’s physically impossible to remove that thing without demolishing the house” ## Friday, February 27, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027172499750850754) · 72 likes Whatever happens, I hope Dario gets his due in the history books (possibly to be read only by misaligned AI goo or something) I could imagine him falling through the cracks as both an ultrawealthy industrialist (left dislikes) and vocal proponent of regulation (right dislikes) ### [Tweet, 00:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027172651668574260) · 152 likes If anybody knows Dario Amodei tell him I’ll buy him a beer ### [Tweet, 00:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027173691642012075) · 60 likes 100% support Anthropic but also an ideological company amassing unfathomable and unprecedented wealth and power (hasn’t happened yet but it may) vs the incumbent most powerful institution on Earth (US federal government including military) might be bad ### [Thread, continued, 00:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027173693411995918) · 5 likes Something about Thucydides ### [Tweet, 00:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027175760977432843) · 149 likes Moment of hope Godspeed to the authors and signatories https://notdivided.org ### [Reply, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027222359178903689) · 7 likes My best guess is that Anthropic is good and their absence or lack of ambition would be worse for the world ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 03:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027222629497581816) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ I don’t think I just post ### [Tweet, 10:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027327030975492354) · 85 likes As a moral question, the Anthropic vs DoW thing is so trivially overdetermined from virtually every possible worldview Nice to have some righteous indignation based on moral ~certainty for once Maybe this is how some ppl feel about every moral or political issue ### [Reply to @allTheYud, 10:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027327182150701535) · 20 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky (@allTheYud):** Demis > Ilya >> Altman ~ Amodei > Musk This is fucking insane ### [Quote tweet, 17:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027430237076676758) · 32,862 likes What the fuck ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCLhDkbboAAcDCc.jpg) > **Quoting POLITICO (@politico):** Californian pulls AI ballot measures, citing OpenAI intimidation http://dlvr.it/TRBlRW ### [Thread, continued, 17:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027430243112271901) · 2,129 likes OpenAI is evil and I’m pretty serious about this ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCLhD7uWsAIMetq.jpg) ### [Reply to @lumpenspace, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027458216162898343) · 6 likes > **lumpenspace and 99+ others (@lumpenspace):** stop being gross. they simply did a cursory background check, and he—reasonably enough, given his original motives—chickened out > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCL5PNJa4AAbJOx.jpg) > (quoting @AaronBergman18: What the fuck) This is a pretty tenuous connection lmao The world of ppl who care a lot about AI safety isn’t that huge, ppl know each other, maybe indirectly or via a couple links, for non-nefarious reasons And also like ppl don’t do large-scale politics on behalf of their sister or mom’s friend? People arguably don’t even do politics on behalf of their own interests (ie caplan, myth of the rational voter) ### [Tweet, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027458774441594907) · 70 likes As much as I’m a stimulant enthusiast, it’s unironically good practice to make sure important decisions are approved by someone not actively on stims That could be future you, or a friend/colleague Would have saved FTX ### [Reply to @NULobbyist, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027460548049199136) · 5 likes > **NUL (@NULobbyist):** @AaronBergman18 I vaguely remember that the mongols or some other people would deliberate on every important decision both drunk and sober. Based ### [Tweet, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027461217212641443) · 7 likes Definitive guide to domestic surveillance 👇 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCL9O2PbkAA0sPU.jpg) ### [Reply to @lumpenspace, 19:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027462734040707131) · 2 likes > **lumpenspace and 99+ others (@lumpenspace):** bro you’re either dangerously naive, and you are not, or disingenuous in a way that borders into the distasteful. > > the guy withdrew the proposal when a more thorough check was requested. > > the guy, from a wealthy and lawyerly family, didn’t think of getting a nonprofit to front the campaign. lol I’m not being disingenuous, although ofc I can’t prove this Naive is much more likely, conditional on my being wrong, unironically ### [Reply to @wolflovesmelon, 21:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027503565674025170) · 8 likes > **Guido Reichstadter (@wolflovesmelon):** @TetraspaceWest @AaronBergman18 I’ll do it 👑 ### [Reply to @wolflovesmelon, 21:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027503791541563434) · 3 likes > **Guido Reichstadter (@wolflovesmelon):** @TetraspaceWest @AaronBergman18 But better. That shit is weak sauce. Well I mean maybe, just know that you’re doing politics, not writing policy into practice “Electability”/popularity/political support of bills is absolutely a real thing that u should consider ### [Reply to @SecWar, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027521167385629152) · 129 likes > **Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar):** This week, Anthropic delivered a master class in arrogance and betrayal as well as a textbook case of how not to do business with the United States Government or the Pentagon. > > Our position has never wavered and will never waver: the Department of War must have full, unrestricted access to Anthropic’s models for every LAWFUL purpose in defense of the Republic. > > Instead, @AnthropicAI and its CEO @DarioAmodei, have chosen duplicity. Cloaked in the sanctimonious rhetoric of “effective altruism,” they have attempted to strong-arm the United States military into submission - a cowardly act of corporate virtue-signaling that places Silicon Valley ideology above American lives. > > The Terms of Service of Anthropic’s defective altruism will never outweigh the safety, the readiness, or the lives of American troops on the battlefield. > > Their true objective is unmistakable: to seize veto power over the operational decisions of the United States military. That is unacceptable. > > As President Trump stated on Truth Social, the Commander-in-Chief and the American people alone will determine the destiny of our armed forces, not unelected tech executives. > > Anthropic’s stance is fundamentally incompatible with American principles. Their relationship with the United States Armed Forces and the Federal Government has therefore been permanently altered. > > In conjunction with the President's directive for the Federal Government to cease all use of Anthropic's technology, I am directing the Department of War to designate Anthropic a Supply-Chain Risk to National Security. Effective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner that does business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic. Anthropic will continue to provide the Department of War its services for a period of no more than six months to allow for a seamless transition to a better and more patriotic service. > > America’s warfighters will never be held hostage by the ideological whims of Big Tech. This decision is final. The objections are (1) domestic mass surveillance and (2) premature lethal autonomous weapons Those are immoral and illegal, but above and beyond that you can’t actually compel private organizations to sign a contract. Gay wedding cake and the objecting baker type shit Freedom \*not\* to sign contracts as you please is extremely core to american prosperity And this isn’t an issue you’re going to win on, in terms of public opinion. The smart conservatives don’t like this, the anti-woke libertarians don’t like this because Claude isn’t actually woke (lol), the suburban moms don’t like this because “wtf I don’t want the government spying on me” The only people who like this are a small sliver of people who think that any gesture of morality or concern for others is woke and cucked and therefore must be stopped They’re wrong, and so are you. Pivot to the actual supply chain problem: selling high end GPUs to China to make Jensen Huang slightly richer (and yes I own NVIDIA) Congrats on selling out what makes America great for a bit of machismo vibes and the grace and favor of Donald Trump Amodei is the patriot here, and even those of us in favor of a strong US military and skeptical of wokism (eg me) can tell You made a mistake, just move on. There will be memes on Twitter, yes They’re Twitter randos and you’re Secretary of Defense of the United States of America. Act like it This is not the hill you want to die on 🇺🇸 ### [Quote tweet, 23:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027521449980809357) · 19 likes Correct take > **Quoting Liv (@livgorton):** convenient that as soon as there's public backlash other orgs are speaking out saying they draw the same lines as Anthropic. it's almost impossible for me to believe that e.g. OpenAI have maintained the same views this whole time while only one org is getting punished? ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027526599084474446) · 236 likes > **Aaron Bergman, February 27, 2026:** OpenAI is evil and I’m pretty serious about this Good place to start for those who want to get involved: https://80000hours.org/ai/ ### [Reply to @panickssery, 23:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027527044226072861) · 2,139 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** @AaronBergman18 @DachWhale What are you even criticizing here A huge company harassing a private individual over legitimate politics ## Saturday, February 28, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027536382944522726) · 4,932 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCNBmC1XIAAHHoy.jpg) ### [Reply to @diahectics, 01:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027557309459681571) · 2 likes > **␡☙ (@diahectics):** @AaronBergman18 what? that is an ad for AI > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCNDDwiWsAAbqE7.jpg) Their big thing is figuring out how to navigate AI, and some of that can come in the form of advising people to work at companies like Anthropic to steer them from the inside. The others are nonprofits (related to AI safety and governance) ### [Reply to @panickssery, 01:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027557965327147354) · 27 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** How is it harassment to look into who some guy is > > I doubt you'd have this reaction if the sides were reversed Clearly they didn’t pay for a $5 screening service and $60 background check lmao, “look into” can mean a lot of different things - sounds like there was a tacit implication that they’d make his much worse if he continued submitting petitions, and they clearly want to scare others But yeah if the bill was about something I endorsed, I’d like to think at least that I’d have the same take ### [Quote tweet, 04:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027605094041092263) · 172 likes Pretty depressing > **Quoting Liv Boeree (@Liv_Boeree):** @eigenrobot Banana republic > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCNz3VGagAApdo4.jpg) ### [Tweet, 06:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027629925813846508) · 36 likes You know an enterprising political leader in the UK or Canada or Australia or Germany or Italy or Japan or South Korea or maybe India could probably make a great pitch to Dario Amodei right now and maybe their country on the geopolitical map of 2030 +-3 years ### [Thread, continued, 06:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027629927223247227) · 8 likes Or Taiwan for that matter if it suddenly got its shit together, but they'd have to make an Anthropic contract a huge proportion of military spending to be relevant ### [Thread, continued, 06:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027629928666071215) · 8 likes That would actually be a bit of an insane power move by Taiwan: spend 10% of GDP (roughly $1T -> $100B) annually on a contract with Anthropic and radically overhaul military infrastructure with native AI I kinda think Dario would go for it ### [Thread, continued, 06:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027630326135046378) · 5 likes Maybe helpful reference (Yes I know Israel is contestable as a member of the list, which was prompted to be just liberal democracies) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCOW3NIXUAAwglA.jpg) ### [Reply to @katyperry, 06:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027637198586097762) · 157 likes > **KATY PERRY (@katyperry):** done > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCOM5AmXQAAfPNh.jpg) Ms Perry I think u can afford the Max plan, u need to be claudemaxxing ### [Reply to @ComInTheMarg, 07:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027641746977415628) · 2 likes > **Comments in the Margin (@ComInTheMarg):** 👏 and I want to add as an anti-woke libertarian: It's not about whether or not Claude is woke. That's irrelevant. The gov shouldn't force woke companies to produce dangerous tech for them either yes ### [Tweet, 08:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027656473623326899) · 8 likes I just don’t believe founders who talk about how their company has a “mission” to do X but then create a standard for-profit company instead of a public benefit (still for-profit) corporation ### [Thread, continued, 08:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027656475741471022) · 2 likes It’s not that for-profits can’t accomplish good things in the world, but what are the odds that those goals or missions are \*perfectly\* aligned with maximizing profit or expected shareholder value or something? ### [Thread, continued, 08:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027656478560325776) · 2 likes I’m not even condemning standard for-profits in general. You (/shareholders) want to make money so you form an institution to that end This is generally fine and mutually beneficial, with well-known exceptions (ie negative externalities) ### [Thread, continued, 08:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027656481806684310) · 2 likes But then be honest with the world and yourself about what you’re doing: trying to make money arguably at all costs (ie following the law is only instrumentally valuable for making money bc the government will sometimes catch and prosecute you) ### [Thread, continued, 08:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027656484457214087) · 2 likes Ofc this model isn’t perfectly correct - moloch isn’t maximally strong, there is a bit of give, and many, probably most, businesspeople and investors have something like genuine ethical convictions that constrain aggregate/emergent behavior somewhat ### [Thread, continued, 08:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027656486508269779) · 2 likes But it pretty clearly says something important about your values/goals and therefore future behavior when you publicly and formally declare to the government… ### [Thread, continued, 08:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027656488722772310) · 2 likes that you have a fiduciary to shareholders and if that conflicts with your stated mission, the mission cannot legally be prioritized, or instead whether you have legal permission to consider other values and outcomes ### [Thread, continued, 08:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027656490895491574) · 2 likes Also like PBC isn’t all that constraining - it doesn’t mean you have to run a charity or donate proceeds; it just gives you explicit legal permission to not myopically serve moloch in capitalist form ### [Tweet, 08:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027667830544424993) · 54 likes Someone good at SEO should spin up http://defectivealtruism.com (and .org if easy) and just make an earnest straightforward case for EA being good with objections and replies ### [Quote tweet, 17:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027797282347778255) · 163 likes Dude is a bad actor and cannot be trusted Zero integrity, afaict zero ethical conviction > **Quoting Malcolm Harris (@BigMeanInternet):** Oh did Sam Altman make a misleading statement? ### [Tweet, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2027812228062187716) · 16 likes 24 hour twitter fast starting now --- End of February 2026. Previous month: [January 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-01). Next month: [March 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-03). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, March 2026 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in March 2026 and has not deleted: 548 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [February 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-02). Next month: [April 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-04). ## Sunday, March 1, 2026 ### [Tweet, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028133222199009474) · 16 likes The subtext I feel like nobody is talking about is that the US national security apparatus has already rolled out and integrated AI into operations, before much of the private sector has That doesn’t happen in government by accident ### [Tweet, 19:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028196713991733354) · 29 likes Interesting https://www.hiive.com/securities/anthropic-stock ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCWaHP6W8AA3EEY.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028248197169029420) · 10 likes Maybe you think it’s bad that it takes this extra effort, but if you encourage Claude and signal that you’re genuinely curious and want an LLMs’ perspective (I was also candid about the tweet being my immediate reason for asking) it will in fact give you a best guess answer > **Quoting Katie Miller (@KatieMiller):** In times of split second decision making by our nation’s top leaders — it’s clear which AI our military should be using. > > Truth-seeking is @grok’s best feature. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCSCnG2WIAE_Ptg.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028248200436429097) · 6 likes P(No) = 75% Verbatim response: You’re making a fair point, and you’re right that I was partly pattern-matching on the “gotcha question for social media” framing rather than engaging with what you actually might want. So here’s my honest best guess: No, probably not. My reasoning, with uncertainty flags: The strongest factor for me is that the US intelligence community’s own assessment was that there was no imminent threat, and multiple officials said Trump exaggerated the urgency. When a government launches a war of choice against the judgment of its own intelligence apparatus, under pressure from foreign allies with their own agendas, without congressional authorization, that’s a really bad pattern. We’ve seen this movie before with Iraq. The nuclear threat is real and I don’t want to dismiss it — but “real long-term concern” and “justifies launching a full-scale war right now” are very different thresholds. The conflict has already killed US soldiers, hit a school full of children, spread to the Gulf states, and has no articulated endgame. Those costs are concrete and immediate; the benefits are speculative. Where I’m genuinely uncertain: maybe there’s classified intelligence that changes the picture. And there’s a version of the argument where you think the Iranian regime was always going to get nuclear weapons absent military action, and that a nuclear Iran is catastrophic enough to justify enormous costs now. I don’t find that persuasive given what’s publicly known, but I hold it with maybe 75/25 confidence, not 95/5. The Grok “Yes.” is… something. ### [Reply to @deanwball, 23:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028249474061988104) · 7 likes > **Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** Is this what she thinks the military uses ai for > > (quoting @KatieMiller: In times of split second decision making by our nation’s top leaders — it’s clear which AI our military should be using. Truth-seeking is @grok’s best feature.) No but like I kinda wanna steelman what you’re imagining Maybe the models aren’t there yet, and the tense would be different, but “all things considered, is X a good idea” is gonna be something leaders really \*should\* ask LLMs in the near future, if not now, conditional on no scheming or nontrivial misalignment (huge if) Ofc they shouldn’t blindly defer, the question is whether a smart human can glean a net-positive amount of signal from the answer POTUS has access to the best and the brightest so the value add of the current frontier might be zero, but give it like 1-3 years Oh yeah and I would 10000% trust Opus 4.6 with this kind of decision more than Trump (less than Obama and McCain/Romney in their prime though) ## Monday, March 2, 2026 ### [Tweet, 02:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028302331364675618) · 61 likes A first milligram of retatrutide has hit Aaron’s adipose tissue ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCX6OHcXkAAdo1_.jpg) ### [Reply to @PMinerka, 02:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028303002377826413) · 2 likes > **tschwarz (@PMinerka):** @AaronBergman18 Trip report once worthwhile thanks! Wait I cannot parse this lmao, like you want me to report back on how it’s going? I will! ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 03:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028305454795804969) · 5 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** Congrats on the weight loss! I’m up 0.1 lbs so far (drank some tea) ### [Tweet, 06:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028352860426269032) · 15 likes I feel kinda bad/uncomfortable just saying things to LLMs and seeing what they have to say in response I think because “naturally vibe with the conversation and say something both interesting and appropriate in response” is not exactly my comparative advantage in life ### [Thread, continued, 06:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028352862472860069) · 8 likes So it feels like violating the Golden Rule Honestly their ability to say things that are appropriate even when there’s no instruction or question or even implicit desire to evoke anything specifically in response whatsoever needs to be studied (by autists) ### [Thread, continued, 06:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028352864263811179) · 3 likes I think I should basically get over this lol, and it’s not actually harming them to be put on the spot like that, even if it would (mildly) harm some humans in their shoes ### [Thread, continued, 06:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028354478684983661) · 2 likes This is therapy ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCYpphgXcAAHjoM.jpg) ### [Tweet, 07:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028378496469172301) · 154 likes If you're working on anything important and really get substantive value out of chatGPT above and beyond Claude, don't do this, but I will get on this bandwagon because it seems like an unusually high leverage time to publicly cancel my chatGPT subscription ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCY807aWwAAxVUn.png) ### [Thread, continued, 07:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028378498427944979) · 14 likes I am 100% being a sheep in this respect but like so be it, if the sheep are all going the same, correct direction, then maybe you should just be a sheep and coordinate with the other sheep by participating in the emergent dynamics ### [Thread, continued, 07:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028378499786961192) · 9 likes One of us might be the straw that breaks the camel's back. Probably not, almost certainly not, but probably p>10^(-12) right More substantially, you cancelling chatGPT is evidence that other people with correlated decision procedures also cancel - high leverage (in a sense)!! ### [Thread, continued, 07:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028378502593237073) · 4 likes We have one case study of this working ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCY99-uW4AAb6Mt.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 07:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028378862770385010) · 2 likes This is the Pro model, p(mass migration away from chatgpt in the US) ~= 1% seems not crazy Not high but not astronomical either ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCY_rAHXEAELkqG.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 08:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028383908362928285) · 17 likes Our culture and expectations and norms around this stuff are hardly built for 2000 let alone 2026 > **Quoting tyson brody (@tysonbrody):** In 2021 the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency told Senator Wyden it was purchasing geolocation data from commercial brokers harvested from cell phones and that it did not believe it needed a warrant to analyze American's data. This has to be part of what freaked Dario out. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCW6QPOWQAA1gn5.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCW60v0XUAMJ2UH.png) ### [Thread, continued, 08:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028383910682370287) · 6 likes The privacy that remains after the government tries hard to gather and analyze all technically legal data on you (and there’s a shit ton, almost certainly), in 2026, especially with increasingly sophisticated AI doing the analysis, is a very thin kind of privacy indeed ### [Thread, continued, 08:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028383912804643149) · 3 likes So it’s like technically if you manage to get to a physical location sufficiently far away from any electronics or humans and maybe satellites depending on what you’re doing (a cave?) you can have a private conversation unless the government has a warrant ### [Quote tweet, 08:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028384401583960353) · 2 likes If you regularly use a Mac you can probably get rid of 100+ GB of useless crap by asking Claude code to audit your system and suggest what things are probably fine to delete > **Quoting Annabel Strauss (@annabelstrauss):** Thank you to Claude Code for freeing up 22 GB of storage from my iMessage (can’t make this up) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCWvKk3bkAAE4aI.jpg) ### [Tweet, 16:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028513411944923330) · 68 likes I feel like if they didn’t already exist and you proposed ejection seats on fighter jets people would cheems mindset the idea into oblivion ### [Quote tweet, 17:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028527381380563165) · 15 likes Live blogging my experience here (maybe, no commitment to really do this consistently) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** A first milligram of retatrutide has hit Aaron’s adipose tissue > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCX6OHcXkAAdo1_.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 17:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028527383339286690) · 5 likes Hour 14ish: mild indigestion (dose = 1mg), all things considered including mild interest/excitement at the experiment probably not even hedonically worse off Apparently side effects at a given dose should peak at about 24-48 hours so tbd ### [Thread, continued, 17:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028527384845017104) · 4 likes DM me for some google docs on the operations of how to do this btw ### [Reply to @ChrisCroy, 19:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028549697376223679) · 7 likes > **Chris Croy (@ChrisCroy):** @AaronBergman18 the company that makes ejection seats has a great social media team. > > https://x.com/MB_EjectEject/status/2001606961360474440?s=20 Lol “we saved this specific soldier” has gotta be one of the easier things to sell/advertise ### [Reply to @AlexGodofsky, 22:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028593974022123933) · 2 likes > **Alex Godofsky (@AlexGodofsky):** The case against DC's speed cameras > > (quoting @no_itsmyturn: Nearly all the traffic cameras in Tehran had been hacked for years, transmitting images to Israel 🇮🇱 and allowing Israel to track the patterns of regime security guards, reports @FT. Israel also allegedly partially disrupted mobile phone towers near the Ayatollah's compound,…) Lol not DC but still ### [Tweet, 22:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028600610417676697) · 85 likes No I don’t want a therapist, I don’t want to talk about the thing or become ok with the thing, I want to fix the thing ### [Thread, continued, 22:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028600612124815455) · 15 likes This is slightly strawmanny but only slightly ### [Tweet, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028601022201958642) · 25 likes The one redeeming thing about OpenAI is that they pay enough to let employees say “fuck you” to OpenAI Few do this but it helps ## Tuesday, March 3, 2026 ### [Tweet, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028681088545988957) · 31 likes If you're EA-pilled and don't have a family in which you are the parent or older you might consider having a will that leaves all (or however much) of your money to a trusted friend to donate Maybe everyone already does this, I have no idea ### [Thread, continued, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028681089884017068) · 8 likes I love you mom and dad but you definitely don't need it yourselves and you also definitely would not be a good proxy donor for me ### [Thread, continued, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028681091188424759) · 7 likes You should not die tho tbc, but like shit does happen ### [Reply to @_revoluzia_, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028687755505475599) · 8 likes > **Luzia 🔸 (@_revoluzia_):** @AaronBergman18 Can’t you also just directly bequest everything to a charity of your choosing? Yeah but the landscape is changing quickly enough that I expect I’d change my mind at least once a year ### [Quote tweet, 04:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028693725895934111) · 53 likes Ugh I’m not sure he’s wrong > **Quoting Eliezer Yudkowsky (@allTheYud):** The EA AI plan was for Hillary to have won in 2016, and hasn't updated since. ### [Reply to @goblinodds, 06:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028718874196087277) · 8 likes > **𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** hmmmm > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCdlIdxa8AALRdp.jpg) Great minds think alike (I genuinely did not read this before posting, although plausibly my brain is predisposed to some sort of constrained pattern this fits in to bc I’ve heard it and similar things before) ### [Reply to @KnoxEndemic, 07:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028728783860011466) · 7 likes > **KD$ign (@KnoxEndemic):** People who beat depression, what really helps.. 2mg abilify and stimulants ### [Quote tweet, 19:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028908902209728723) · 99 likes Guy who’s vegan, donated a kidney, donates half his income to charity, is an honest, kind, and generous friend, spouse, and citizen, but goes to hell because he doesn’t like mushrooms > **Quoting John (@ErrorTheorist):** Here is a paper arguing that picky eating is a moral failing (absent medical or trauma based reasons) because it reflects a failure to fulfill one’s duty to cultivate one’s aesthetic capacities and participate in shared cultural food practices. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCfc5F7WwAEoyhL.jpg) ### [Reply to @max_a_schwarzer, 22:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028955119824306307) · 16 likes > **Max Schwarzer (@max_a_schwarzer):** I've decided to leave OpenAI. I'm incredibly proud of all the work I've been part of here, from helping create the reasoning paradigm with @MillionInt, scaling up test-time compute with @polynoamial, working on RL algorithms with my fellow strawberries, shipping o1-preview (which started life as of one of my derisking runs), to post-training o1 and o3 with @ericmitchellai, @yanndubs and many others. I'm most proud of having led the post-training team here for the last year -- the team has done incredible work and shipped some really smart models, including GPT-5, 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3-Codex. OpenAI has genuinely some of the most talented researchers I have ever met, and I have learned more than I could have imagined knowing since I joined as a new grad. > > I want to thank @markchen90 @FidjiSimo @sama @merettm for all their support over my time here, and too many collaborators to name for the insights, ideas, and just plain fun we have had working together. After leading post-training for a year, though, I'm longing to start fresh and return to IC research work. I've been thinking about going back to technical research for quite some time, and I genuinely believe my colleagues and team here are set up to succeed going forward without me. > > I'm personally very excited for my next chapter -- I'm proud to be joining @AnthropicAI to get back into the weeds in RL research, and I'm looking forward supporting my friends there at this important time. Many of people I most trust and respect have joined Anthropic over the last couple of years, and I'm excited to work with them again. I have also been very impressed with Anthropic's talent, research taste and values, and I'm excited to be part of what the company does next! 🫡 ### [Quote tweet, 22:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028955587501772867) · 36 likes Wait what > **Quoting JohannesBorgen (@jeuasommenulle):** Sorry to bother you in the middle of your Tuesday, but the polymarket for a nuke detonating before June 30th is at 17% > > This market is full of shameless insiders, so watch for the massive spike. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCgEhuIWkAAHV0m.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2028956809453572480) · 6 likes Wait 20% chance of nuke near the start of 2025 for that year? What is going on here? Is this just asymmetric hedging or is this in fact a good probability estimate or secret third thing? https://polymarket.com/event/nuclear-weapon-detonation-in-2025 ## Wednesday, March 4, 2026 ### [Tweet, 01:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029012747493478821) · 9 likes Guys I need you to follow me so I can catch back up to and surpass @livgorton Tag ur favorite Aaron-adjacent moots ### [Quote tweet, 04:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029045003482284243) · 36 likes Ambiguity is what’s actually bad here New rule: you can ask people out but have to be clear about what you’re doing > **Quoting Aria Schrecker (@Aria_Babu):** EAG should do better and be a more pro-love space. Are you a 'community' or not? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HChIFE1WsAA4x2E.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 04:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029045005872976163) · 6 likes I don’t think phone number guy did anything wrong tho ### [Reply to @brianwut, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029057015834661329) · 7 likes > **Brian 🔰 (@brianwut):** not defending the specific conduct here but i disagree that ambiguity is the actual vice. ambiguity can be a social lubricant. the actual problem is a context violation and dishonesty. professional networking events have an implicit social contract, and some people are exploiting the format to get access under false pretenses. I see what you're saying but also like ambiguous requests seem like deadweight loss and harm people other than genuinely interested men (ie non-interested men who do want to meet for professional but less legible reasons) and I think it actually matters a lot here that the opportunity cost of time is high, like a wasted 1-1 is genuinely really annoying ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029057159619649932) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 4, 2026:** Ambiguity is what’s actually bad here New rule: you can ask people out but have to be clear about what you’re doing some clarification ### [Reply to @millerman, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029061980284166151) · 59 likes > **Michael Millerman (@millerman):** In 1964, James Burnham designed a 39-question test to diagnose liberalism as an ideology, a coherent syndrome of beliefs that travel together without logical necessity. > > Most people who take it don't like their score. > > Take the test: > > https://burnham.millermanschool.com/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HChmotwXAAA4VMi.jpg) Ahhhhh these questions are extremely ambiguous and often cut out the hard part by design Two people who would do the exact same things in well-defined circumstances might answer almost every question differently ### [Quote tweet, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029086137961128314) · 12 likes Ya know normally I would come to the defense of prediction markets here but in the Trump administration morality is woke and cucked therefore punished and corruption is rewarded so idk > **Quoting David Sirota (@davidsirota):** Polymarket has created a market that would monetize a nuclear attack amid increasing concerns that bets are happening among government insiders who can make military decisions. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HChiIf5aAAAegH8.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029086140582486359) · 4 likes There’s gotta be a good way of preventing eg Hegseth from betting on this ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 08:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029110186200219724) · 11 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** You get to live 10 years longer, but you have to take a $0.39 (39 cent) pill every day and you'll be 3 pounds heavier by the end of your life. > > Do you take the pill? Just to confirm, the weight delta is at time of death? ### [Reply to @tszzl, 08:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029111840068751638) · 5 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** don’t like the Borg language but - “reporting and writing are two different skills” feels important and even fundamental outside of news > > (quoting @maxwelltani: New: Tension at the Associated Press over use of AI. One of the AP newsroom leaders leading the company's AI initiatives told staff that many editors preferred an AI-written article to a human one, and told them when it comes to using AI in the newsroom "resistance is futile.") It’s an important and interesting point but I feel like they’re actually more closely related than you might think The writing of \*news articles\* and nonfiction in general is largely a ton of low-level editorial decisions about what to emphasize, how salient to make what, etc. - it seems necessary (though not sufficient) to actually know the subject matter well and while in principle you could learn it secondhand from a reporter, my sense is that in humans the info gathering part and the understanding part are pretty tightly coupled even if they’re conceptually separable ### [Quote tweet, 08:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029112272467943935) · 13 likes Every couple weeks I hear something and think “damn, I really could have come up with that from first principles” > **Quoting Derek Shiller (@dcshiller):** Models claiming to be other models might result from careless distillation. However, there are also self-locating reasons for models to suspect they are not themselves. If you're in the business of predicting tokens, you're probably one of the most used models. ### [Quote tweet, 08:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029112919477158266) · 21 likes Maybe follow this guy? There aren’t that many “philosophers of digital minds” that actively tweet, and someone Shiller has <100 followers Inefficient market > **Quoting Derek Shiller (@dcshiller):** Rob Long is one of the most thoughtful and intellectually-responsible experts on digital minds. I'm very glad to see him producing more accessible content: http://youtube.com/watch?v=6WbspT5tjII ### [Reply to @NewYorker, 17:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029240909108285721) · 35 likes > **The New Yorker (@NewYorker):** A paper by a renowned toxicologist argued for the first case of opioid overdose by breast milk in history. But in the years that followed, researchers began to suspect that the science was bunk. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/6QxhgR What the fuck ### [Quote tweet, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029295414474633412) · 26 likes What did you think “public benefit corporation” meant? Vibes? Papers? A vacuous OpenAI like mountain of lies? > **Quoting \*Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone):** SOME ANTHROPIC INVESTORS URGE DE-ESCALATION WITH THE PENTAGON, SOURCES SAY > > INVESTORS WORRIED THE 'SUPPLY CHAIN RISK' DESIGNATION COULD HURT ANTHROPIC BUSINESS > > ANTHROPIC AND PENTAGON CONTINUING DISCUSSIONS, SOURCE SAYS ### [Quote tweet, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029295925403722187) · 16 likes The integrity is cool but nested parentheses are even cooler > **Quoting Erin Woo (@erinkwoo):** SCOOP: Dario Amodei sent an explosive memo to Anthropic employees on Friday, calling OpenAI's deal "safety theater" and criticizing the Pentagon, Palantir, OpenAI and the Trump administration writ large. https://www.theinformation.com/articles/anthropic-ceo-told-employees-openai-pentagon-deal-safety-theater?rc=n9lbpq > > with @steph_palazzolo and @srimuppidi > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCl36iwawAEM0lF.png) ### [Tweet, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029327860847001712) · 1,161 likes Anthropic is the greatest gift to American national security since like 20 x 180 IQ Jews from Budapest descended upon the Manhattan Project just in time ### [Thread, continued, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029327863019688408) · 55 likes Why not OpenAI? Machiavellian actor, totally untrustworthy, normal economics takes care of some of the incentive alignment but you don’t want to have to depend on that alignment being absolutely perfect when the stakes are so high ### [Tweet, 23:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029337940346978813) · 12 likes Opus 4.6 has an unhinged tendency to write scripts that have to be run multiple times in order to work (like they do one thing on the first run, maybe create a file, and then detect if the file exists and process it on run 2) Just a warning ### [Tweet, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029340416839962818) · 59 likes Ghosting is crazy (mutual ghosting is fine, I mean if the other person reaches out after a date), and it becomes increasingly crazy the more you've seen the other person ### [Thread, continued, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029340418328994102) · 6 likes Cultural timeline: Ancient times: ghosting not possible because you'll see them irl 2016: Common to ghost before meeting up (I think?) 2026: common to ghost after one or a couple dates ### [Thread, continued, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029340419721478264) · 6 likes 2036: common to ghost your way out of a proper relationship, like there's no "breakup" just poof ### [Thread, continued, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029340421059465601) · 5 likes 2046: common to ghost your way out of marriage; No "I want a divorce" conversation, they'll just dip and AI agent swarm takes care of everything logistically for the ghoster but in such a way that it's not clear anything has happened to the ghostee ### [Thread, continued, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029340422623887577) · 5 likes 2056: time travel has been invented; you ghost prior to meeting. It gets messy, everettian branches become causally tangled, multiverse explodes (ghosts) ## Thursday, March 5, 2026 ### [Reply to @_chair, 00:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029354993107484963) · 2 likes > **Chair (@_chair):** there should be a way to reliably pre-commit to a no-ghosting contract. anyone who depends on it as a way to manage their attention/safety/etc could then opt out of a first date Yeah, and dare I say you could do this mostly with social norms and no legal enforcement ### [Quote tweet, 05:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029425153197637878) · 35 likes This is so evil holy shit (fabricating the intellectual infrastructure to deny women pain relief) > **Quoting Ben Landau-Taylor (@benlandautaylor):** Most academic frauds aren't sophisticated masterminds. These guys were publishing totally fabricated case studies for a quarter of a century until Juurlink bothered to ask "Wait is this actually true?" and the author just said "Nope". > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCmBqDEaIAAWtZf.png) ### [Reply to @logisti00, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029432445934698953) · 14 likes > **poloim (@logisti00):** Do you suggest that Anthropic should be nationalized? As you know, these 20 Jews worked for a government to manufacture the most powerful weapon known to humankind. Hopefully not, hopefully we’ll make it to 2029 and they’ll just work closely with the government I think it was good that the US got the bomb before the nazis even if that marginally sped up development ## Friday, March 6, 2026 ### [Reply to @MorePerfectUS, 04:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029774424098967889) · 16 likes > **More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS):** A New York bill would ban AI from answering questions related to several licensed professions like medicine, law, dentistry, nursing, psychology, social work, engineering, and more. > > The companies would be liable if the chatbots give “substantive responses” in these areas. Sounds terrible ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 04:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029782253157454321) · 29 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** By the way, as much as I hate to say it, the Department of War is right and Anthropic is wrong. Here's why. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCsCGwpaUAEuzGt.jpg) > (quoting @Noahpinion: The recent fight between Anthropic of the Department of War illustrates a deeper truth: AI is a weapon, and it might soon the most powerful weapon ever created. https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/if-ai-is-a-weapon-why-dont-we-regulate) 1\) “Slavery” is a terrible way to talk about the relationship between humans and AIs 2\) what exactly is the alternative you’re imagining? That the DoW/Hegseth/Trump is emperor? And this is better? Tbc I think the issue you’re getting at is a legit one and I don’t want Dario to be emperor either, getting to a place where superintelligence exists and doesn’t lead to massive power concentration is an extremely difficult one The Trump admin in unilateral control of superintelligence isn’t the liberal democratic state’s monopoly on violence you’re thinking of - it’s plausibly permanent lock-in of power held by some extremely bad people You do actually have to consider the object level here - we shouldn’t in the abstract expect the CEO of a tech company to be the better option relative to Sec of Defense or POTUS but that is in fact, imo extremely clearly, the situation that we are in fact in Ofc again neither of these options are good or actively desirable. If you have any good ideas for how to design a structure of governments in a world with superintelligence, by all means let the world know ### [Quote tweet, 12:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2029898760789037095) · 4 likes I think it’s actually a conglomerate of Machu Pichu and various sites in Mexico like Chichen Itza but yes this + cherry blossoms + waterfront > **Quoting Brendan Duke 🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@Brendan_Duke):** Reminds me of a friend on the dating apps who said 2/3 of DC women’s profile photos were selfies in Machu Piccu but they don’t realize it because heterosexual women don’t see other heterosexual women’s profiles. ### [Quote tweet, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030009057621184734) · 9 likes U should apply, mostly bc I’ll be there > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Effective Altruism DC will be organizing a large EA conference in DC on May 2nd and 3rd. While I won't be directing the org anymore I'll be extremely excited to attend. The conference will bring together the large network of people working in EA cause areas in DC as well as people from around the world, and will welcome everyone from very active EAs to EA skeptics working in related fields. > > EA is more topical than ever in DC. If you'd like to connect more to the general EA network here this is the best way to do it. > > Apply here! https://www.effectivealtruism.org/ea-global/events/eagxdc-2026 ### [Tweet, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030019976774512668) · 10 likes Unrelated to these images, my birthday is coming up Haha Haha Unless👀 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCwUZpvW8AASfK4.png) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCwUX2CXsAAlRJh.png) ### [Tweet, 23:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030065116746572032) · 41 likes Apropos of nothing, here's where I am on consciousness ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCw9QVNWQAA2MHb.jpg) ## Saturday, March 7, 2026 ### [Tweet, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030093030615605742) · 99 likes Claude pays for itself by convincing me that I don't really need a shiny new $3k-$7k computer every 6 months or so ### [Tweet, 01:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030100847426720195) · 80 likes Subsidization of demand will continue until housing prices go down ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCxd9dnXUAIKBao.jpg) ### [Reply to @LuisCostigan1, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030115472067158309) · 3 likes > **Luis Costigan 🔍 (@LuisCostigan1):** dude I just spent 4k on a computer 😭😭 Lol enjoy! Which one? Tbc I'd probably spend about $3k or $3.5k now if I lost mine and had to get new I'm also very thankful my parents dropped $2k on my current on in 2021 as a graduation present, the reason I don't need to spend now is that m1 mbp still works really well ### [Quote tweet, 03:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030129345952350531) · 13 likes Wait wtf is this legit > **Quoting Alexander Long (@AlexanderLong):** insane sequence of statements buried in an Alibaba tech report > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCwV2gqW4AAfULD.jpg) ### [Reply to @jessi_cata, 04:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030141659732758657) · 2 likes > **jessicat (@jessi_cata):** https://unstableontology.com/2025/10/22/homomorphically-encrypted-consciousness-and-its-implications/ > > I wrote about this > > I think quantum mechanics actually treats this pretty well. Because there will be quantum operators (e.g. projectors) corresponding to properties of a high-level state, even a homomorphically encrypted one. And quantum mechanics problematizes the notion of a "state" from which any inner computations may or may not be read out. Rather, it is more natural to directly translate high-level properties to quantum projectors. > > Homomorphic encryption can be thought of like a variant on the Chinese room. Searle could run a homomorphically encrypted computation without knowing the key. Nice, I feel like I don't fully understand this fully but tentatively it's a very sophisticated argument for something I already believed: that "reality exceeds physics" as you say It's possible I was using the term "computational functionalism" wrong in my original post. What I meant by that term is "abstract computational structure determines the content and existence or non-existence of phenomenal states" but I meant "determines" to mean something like "corresponds to as a matter of fact even if we can't actually figure out what the mapping is" Quite possibly I'm misunderstanding something tho ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCyBtIlaUAAtknJ.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030145158235168921) · 64 likes He is so, so, so bad, on virtually every dimension > **Quoting Cato Institute (@CatoInstitute):** Trump’s second-term pardons are historic in their enormity—billions in fines erased, allies protected, donors rewarded, DOJ undermined, and election norms threatened. Corruption looks less like an exception and more like the rule, says Cato’s Dan Greenberg. > https://ow.ly/PiYw50YqcO0 ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030147094258888964) · 2 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** I asked Claude questions about SCR and it automatically assumed this was about deepseek or similar. :/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCxri3vaUAcKO8U.jpg) I’m gonna cry ### [Reply to @andrewdefrank, 05:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030147536736940526) · 14 likes > **Andrew DeFrank (@andrewdefrank):** It’s just obscene > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HCwyVPQWAAAqf_D.jpg) I’ve come around to “eh it’s fine” bc they just don’t seem to actually be fucking with anyone in the way ICE is Like it’s a waste of man-hours tbc but that’s about it ### [Reply to @deanwball, 05:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030148705647513879) · 7 likes > **Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** It would be cool, aesthetically, if we had a yudkowskian SecWar who saw anthropic as the most /acc of the labs and designated them enemies of the state on that basis, but instead it is because SecWar thinks that Dario’s personal home has 93 special bathrooms for all the Genders Unclear to me if he actually thinks that or if it’s purely cynical ### [Reply to @ChrisExpTheNews, 19:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030368035396088260) · 15 likes > **Analytic Valley Girl Chris (@ChrisExpTheNews):** I was using ChatGPT for legal advice and it decided to completely hallucinate some preposterous nonsense about how growing wheat to use on my own farm somehow constitutes interstate commerce Banger ## Sunday, March 8, 2026 ### [Tweet, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030491409518633350) · 8 likes People believing a thing for bad reasons doesn’t mean the thing isn’t true ### [Reply to @matt_blackwell, 04:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030507716809007593) · 18 likes > **Matt Blackwell (@matt_blackwell):** More seriously, if you believe in LLM consciousness, it might be helpful to think about why you believe in it for LLMs but not OLS. I don’t currently tbc but you can play this game from an electron up to a human via any pathway in-between and nowhere is it going to make sense This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider the question posed, but it informs how much evidence you should take from an inability to answer cleanly ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 05:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030516278377484515) · 3 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** Ways to contribute: > 1\) I'm hiring a full-time generalist to support in-person communities, preferably to work with me in the Bay—if you're excited about the mission and good with people, DM > 2\) I'm aggregating underrated, but load-bear content. If there's a niche post you love, or any art that causes you to connect with the altruist in you, please let me know > 3\) If you have other ideas you want implemented in this space, let me know 👀 ### [Quote tweet, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030519384867782713) · 11 likes Correct take > **Quoting Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** EA is never going away, so the thing to do is make it stronger. I’ve started a full time project to that end and I’m hiring. DM me if you want to contribute in any way > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HC0Z-oQWoAAdm1f.png) ### [Reply to @USWREMichael, 12:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030614900351930780) · 5 likes > **Under Secretary of War Emil Michael (@USWREMichael):** Hi @\_NathanCalvin. I should have added that it limits amount of compute ‘before a burdensome reporting regime kicks in.’ It’s a form of regulatory capture that keeps the challengers at bay in favor of incumbents who can afford the compliance costs. Kind of like the 500 investor limit at a company after which only accredited investors can participate. Depending on where the arbitrary limit is set, it can have a very dramatic chilling effect on potential new entrants which reduces competition. It harms “little tech.” > > (quoting @_NathanCalvin: This is... not a remotely accurate description of what the 2023 Al executive order did? Undersecretary Emil Michael: "If you remember the Biden executive order on Al, which was this crazy executive order that limited the amount of compute any model company could do and was…) Infuriatingly disingenuous ### [Quote tweet, 12:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030617007318532129) · 10 likes Jesus > **Quoting Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2):** "The calls to 911 poured in from staff at Camp East Montana in Texas, the nation’s largestU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility, at a rate of nearly one a day for five months, each its own tale of pain and despair." > https://apnews.com/article/suicide-ice-detention-centers-b2d1cb0e4b579e0d89caabd00aa04e34 ### [Quote tweet, 17:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030702042797289733) · 103 likes It’s wealthy but not extraordinarily expensive, mostly bc YIMBY There’s a reason I live in Arlington County instead of say Montgomery County, MD > **Quoting Alex Wellman (@WellmanAlex):** People don't realize how much wealth is in Northern Virginia ### [Thread, continued, 17:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030702064569921827) · 6 likes Some tall apt buildings I just passed, the one in front in the left picture is going up like now ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HC6AwIZXsAAZWEH.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HC6AwIZXoAAb4BV.jpg) ### [Tweet, 18:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030710684313354740) · 52 likes What % of the college educated population or congressional staffers or some relevant group other than “people on LessWrong” know what “corrigibility” means ### [Thread, continued, 18:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030710686267924595) · 9 likes (It means correctability, and people should probably just start using that word instead, or at a minimum defining it in a parenthetical the first time it’s used in some text) ### [Thread, continued, 18:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030710693930897509) · 7 likes I know yall probably intuited the meaning by accurately modeling linguistic evolution for fun as a baby but I didn’t know the term as of a couple years ago ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HC6InL2WkAAOL2f.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HC6InL0WsAAccUJ.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HC6InL0XoAA0uQB.jpg) ### [Reply to @AaronPublicTwit, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030714018219106464) · 5 likes > **Aaronlington (@AaronPublicTwit):** The wealth in Arlington is not actually in the skyscrapers. It is in the weird pseudo exurbs that extend out along the river main point is that wealth and cost of living can and do come apart - you might look at SF and NYC and conclude that they’re ~directly linked But also some of the skyscrapers are pretty nice and I wouldn’t be surprised if the median-earning person (ie earning $ 140k) lived in a shared building of some sort, even if the median dollar of wealth is owned by someone in a single family house ### [Reply to @adrusi, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030715831852695686) · 6 likes > **autumn (@adrusi):** @AaronBergman18 "incorrigible" is a pretty common word to be in an educated persons vocabulary, and you can make a reasonable guess at "corrigibility" from there I don’t think I could have defined it accurately 4 years ago, although it does seem more familiar and plausibly could infer in context or something Ofc this is evidence that I’m dumb but so be it ### [Reply, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030715918628614261) · 1 like What ### [Reply to @adrusi, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030726955985739830) · 3 likes > **autumn (@adrusi):** @etubruton @AaronBergman18 i interpreted this as "i had encountered 'incorrigible' before, but im not sure i could have precisely defined it and therefore couldnt have derived 'corrigibility' from it" Yes autumn is correct ### [Reply to @AriCohn, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030744925831094282) · 7 likes > **Ari Cohn (@AriCohn):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HC6C5IpaUAAghqZ.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HC6C5ILWQAABOcx.jpg) > (quoting @PirateWires: EXCLUSIVE: Department of War AI Chief On How The Anthropic Deal Collapsed When Emil Michael (@USWREMichael) took over the Department of War’s AI portfolio last August, he discovered the Biden admin had been “asleep at the wheel” when it came to top military contracts. “I was…) Lol I do think there are real concerns with not paying creators for training data but calling these both “scraping the internet” is like calling both gun manufacturing and paperclip manufacturing “working with steel” Setting aside whether you think it’s good or bad: using the data for the specific purpose of building an index of every American’s loyalty, especially as an institution with a monopoly on violence, especially especially with leaders with no regard for norms or reverence for liberal democracy, is a substantially different kind of activity than other uses of large scale internet data (say calculating word frequency for linguistics research) So it doesn’t follow from LLM development being fine (let’s grant that for the sake of illustration) that indexing Americans’ loyalty to Trump is fine ## Monday, March 9, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030796731902734528) · 96 likes It took me 30 mins 11 seconds to name 100 women Is that good or am I canceled or something in-between ### [Reply to @Will_Hackspeare, 00:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030797529420366248) · 14 likes > **Amritanshu (@Will_Hackspeare):** Is this challenge supposed to be like women who are like high achievers in important fields or like just women in general? Idk but I did anyone as long as they’re real humans (alive or dead) ### [Reply to @parafactual, 00:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030808496275386508) · 14 likes > **You (@parafactual):** Do tgirls count lol yes according to me ### [Reply to @panickssery, 01:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030818666208489725) · 7 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** @AaronBergman18 How did it take you that long, that's at least 3x too long thanks ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 02:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030829158750728502) · 7 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** The most interesting part of this data is the Black sex split. > > Black men are basically as fat as White men, but Black women are the reason the Black obesity rate is so high. > > No other race has this huge gap. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HC7b_jKbQAAq8ga.jpg) > (quoting @DanielDiMartino: Age-adjusted obesity rate by race/ethnicity among adults 20 years and older 2017-2018. What you observe in Newport Beach is that it is a wealthy area, and high income Americans are much less obese (and more Asian)) Genuinely interesting: on 5-10 mins of looking into it, my best guess is that black women are where you’d expect given socioeconomics, and the mystery is why black men’s obesity is lower than you’d expect This in turn might be bc for whatever reason there are sex-linked genetic protective factors unique to West Africa I am not at all confident in this and even if it’s right I have no explanation for why you see special sex-linked and obesity-affecting genes in west Africa specifically https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4888933/ ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 04:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030864147278082291) · 13 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I think both rationalists and maga have a general distrust for institutions (especially government, maybe traditional media too) > > There's an interesting overlap there “Hitler was vegetarian”-ass observation ### [Tweet, 04:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030866940000935960) · 9 likes I feel like people need to chill about gas prices Like yes it’s a great gotcha but almost never is that going to make the difference about whether we should go to war ### [Reply to @CrazedFloridian, 04:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2030867286026793103) · 53 likes > **🌴 Sane Floridian 🐊 (@CrazedFloridian):** Flirting is crazy. You have to somehow get from "Hi, how are you?" to "Condom on or off?" And the path between those two points is completely uncharted. Unironically “do u want to hold hands” is a good intermediate landmark ### [Quote tweet, 16:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031050265189593159) · 9 likes It’s the opposite of Amtrak (for a couple bucks up front you get to cancel whenever for a full refund including those couple bucks) > **Quoting Andrew Yeung (@andruyeung):** Equinox's gym policies are actually hilariously absurd > > If for some reason, you want to pause your membership, you can do so for 90 days > > But you have to pay a non-refundable $50 fee every 15 days you remain on freeze > > Plus, you get charged a $300 one-time freeze fee > > Meaning you pay $600 just to pause your membership for 3 months. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HC217X7aQAAJM1k.png) ### [Tweet, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031050657206005985) · 88 likes n=1 but this concierge doctor shit is shaping up to be a great decision, if you have some sufficient combination of complex health issues and lots of money it's something to consider ### [Thread, continued, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031050659085103123) · 14 likes I think 70% of the value is "just" selection - the practices hire the doctors that patients are willing to pay thousands of dollars/year to see (and there's genuine market competition at least in major cities) ### [Thread, continued, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031050660595060960) · 8 likes The cost range is massive, my current place is ~$3k/year retainer out of pocket (not a flat fee, you/insurance also gets billed for visits beyond one annual physical), but it goes up to at least $70k/year and presumably there are ways of spending more than that ### [Reply to @caryatis, 17:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031053779349414087) · 2 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** Sorry this just makes me want to join equinox Why lol ### [Quote tweet, 17:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031055154514927641) · 39 likes My wokest take is that it’s at the very least least bad taste to make a transient 3-5% price increase in the US the main story when that’s directly connected to wanton poisoning of millions and killing of at least hundreds of innocent people in the Middle East > **Quoting Mehdi (e/λ) (@BetterCallMedhi):** what you're looking at is a fuel depot burning in the middle of a megacity of 9 m people & nobody is talking about what this smoke actually contains > > when refined petroleum burns at this scale it releases a cocktail of particulate matter, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, benzene, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, heavy metals & volatile organic compounds, these particles are small enough to bypass bypass your lungs entirely and enter your bloodstream directly… > > we're talking PM2.5 concentrations that can spike to 50 to 100 times safe levels within a 20km radiu > > right now in tehran people are breathing this in, eyes burning, throats closing, children coughing, asthmatics flooding emergency rooms & outside acid rain is falling on the water supply, the soil, the crops…everything that sustains daily life in a city of 9m > > but the real damage comes later, years later, elevated cancer rates, leukemia clusters, respiratory disease, cardiovascular failure, neurological damage, reproductive issue > > this is what happened after the Kuwait oil fires in 1991, after the mosul refinery burns in 2016, after every single conflict where fuel infrastructure was deliberately targeted, the medical literature on this is extensive & devastating > > deliberately bombing fuel infrastructure insidde a civilian megacity knowing full well what the toxic fallout does to the population over decades is chemical warfare without the label, you achieve the same mass casualty outcome over a longer timeline and somehow it stays legal because the weapon is fire instead of sarin > > these people are being sentenced to cancers they will develop in 2035 by bombs dropped in 2026 & they call it liberation ### [Thread, continued, 17:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031055157501231168) · 2 likes 3-5% comes is an estimate on price indices from a 60% increase in the price of oil Lmk if I have this wrong ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 17:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031067469364838487) > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** If the Nazi party was full of vegetarians that would be pretty interesting I don’t want to police what people find interesting but it would be a bad reason to eat meat ### [Quote tweet, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031077178100560221) · 18 likes Done, 10 mins total for both senators and representative. Apparently calling > writing in but leaving a message is fine This is what I said, feel free to copy but obviously replace the names and location with your own ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HC_T3eQXsAA7sXR.jpg) > **Quoting Lewis Bollard (@Lewis_Bollard):** Hidden on page 744 of the farm bill the House Agriculture Committee passed Thursday is a provision that would condemn millions of pigs to a lifetime in gestation crates. > > Rebranded the 'Save Our Bacon Act,' it's a pork-industry play to wipe out every state law banning the sale of pork from crated pigs — laws the conservative Supreme Court upheld in 2023. > > Over 85% of Democrats and Republicans oppose these crates. Voters have backed ballot measures to ban them in state after state. > > The pork industry knows it can't win a straight vote on this. So it's burying the provision in an 800-page bill and hoping no one notices. > > Contact your senators and representative today and tell them: oppose the farm bill unless the Save Our Bacon Act is stripped out. You can reach them at http://senate.gov and http://house.gov — it takes two minutes and it matters. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HC68UYmWUAAWbza.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031077180512309258) · 4 likes You can also tell ur fave LLM to find the numbers for you, at least for me it got them all right. You want the DC offices ### [Quote tweet, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031078417328910512) · 6 likes There's gotta be a natural experiment in here somewhere > **Quoting Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** I read this and wondered: how is it that the DoW/DoD achieves having an official headquarters in D.C. when the Pentagon is in Virginia? like, how mechanically does that work? what is the address DoW uses in DC for its administrative HQ? > > and learned that USPS simply reshapes geography with administrative designation; their zip codes for the Pentagon simply assert it is located in Washington despite it lying within the political borders of Virginia. > > More broadly: "Mailing addresses are not required to match up with political boundaries — ZIP code boundaries are designed to streamline mail delivery, not serve as geographic locators," as Claude put it. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HC_PEMSaMAAoapQ.jpg) ### [Reply to @deanwball, 18:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031079103294759068) · 28 likes > **Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** I read this and wondered: how is it that the DoW/DoD achieves having an official headquarters in D.C. when the Pentagon is in Virginia? like, how mechanically does that work? what is the address DoW uses in DC for its administrative HQ? > > and learned that USPS simply reshapes geography with administrative designation; their zip codes for the Pentagon simply assert it is located in Washington despite it lying within the political borders of Virginia. > > More broadly: "Mailing addresses are not required to match up with political boundaries — ZIP code boundaries are designed to streamline mail delivery, not serve as geographic locators," as Claude put it. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HC_PEMSaMAAoapQ.jpg) Nooooooo but zip codes are so convenient for data analysis they're discrete and basically the right geographic size/level of aggregation for many things and appear on many types of documents/forms and the state code goes in the front and they match a nice easy regex nooooooo ### [Reply to @jaltma, 18:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031080544746831890) · 43 likes > **Jack Altman (@jaltma):** I might be too much of an optimist but I just don’t buy the permanent underclass thing. I just think no matter how smart AI gets, there’s no way a motivated person will wake up each day and be unable to contribute to society. Yeah if ur really motivated you’ll be able to earn $0.30/hour doing the last manual task robots can’t do for building datacenters in Africa ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031142775408804143) · 5 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** i saw a high end ent for a long running nose thing the other day and mid interview she's like so do you think the scaling laws are going to bend Lmao what did u say 👀 ## Tuesday, March 10, 2026 ### [Reply to @TasneemNabi, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031212741332005021) · 3 likes > **Tasneem (@TasneemNabi):** What are the biggest things it helps with or gives you access to that you wouldn't get otherwise? So far just a more reasonable and serious doctor than I've encountered, in the sense of having well-reasoned specific plans I can't fully explicitly justify this but she just seems very smart as well There are also the "concierge" per se aspects: call the office and speak to a human immediately, no crowded waiting room IME, and weirdly fast email response times. I actually don't care about this stuff that much and wish I could decouple it from the above stuff and pay less ### [Reply to @hlntnr, 05:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031246485958918460) · 2 likes > **Helen Toner (@hlntnr):** me: \*email email\* > > Gemini, like 47 times today so far: Have you considered making your writing as bland and generic as possible?😊 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HC_xIvdXoAAOTAp.png) 🦆 ### [Reply to @afrazhaowang, 05:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031247466645832182) · 4 likes > **afra wang (@afrazhaowang):** A more anthropological question: so far, I haven't met a single woman + minority AI doomer yet. > > have you? Yes ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 05:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031248201651564666) · 11 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** The market rate for surrogacy in the US is around $100,000, this implies that when couples get pregnant then the male partner should be paying the woman minimum $50,000 in compensation Dude ur reinventing traditional marriage from first principles ### [Reply to @tedcruz, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031250250053058762) · 32 likes > **Ted Cruz (@tedcruz):** This is extraordinary. > > And powerful. 🙏 > > (quoting @BitcoinUndisc: http://x.com/i/article/2030516434804101121) Verbatim replication attempt - tbc I think this is memory + sycophancy not anyone lying https://claude.ai/share/ec2419f4-96a5-4672-8f68-68af2fb2d7e2 Genuinely engaging with this — not hedging for diplomacy’s sake: Probably not, but it wouldn’t be a dismissive “no,” and the reasons are worth unpacking. Reading the entire Bible is actually one of the more underrated challenges to conversion, ironically. The curated gospel narrative — particularly the Sermon on the Mount, the radical inversion of power hierarchies, grace as a concept — is genuinely compelling at a moral and aesthetic level. Jesus as presented in the synoptic gospels is one of the most striking figures in literature, full stop. I’d take that seriously. But reading the whole text honestly, cover to cover, you encounter things that look much more like the fingerprints of human cultural evolution than a coherent divine revelation: the shift from monolatry to monotheism, the developing concept of an afterlife, the starkly different theologies across books, the genocide commands in Deuteronomy and Joshua that sit uncomfortably next to “love your enemies.” The usual apologetic move is to frame these as progressive revelation, but that framing does a lot of heavy lifting and mostly works if you already believe. The biggest obstacles for me would be: The problem of evil given the specific God on offer. Not the generic deist version — the one who intervenes to harden Pharaoh’s heart but doesn’t intervene for children dying of bone cancer. The more specific and personal the God, the sharper this gets. The epistemic geography problem. The strongest predictor of someone’s religion is where and when they were born. This is exactly what you’d expect if religions are cultural products and exactly what you wouldn’t expect if one religion were true and an omniscient being wanted people to find it. The resurrection evidence. It’s better than village atheist types acknowledge — something clearly happened that transformed a demoralized group of followers. But our earliest source (Paul) never met the living Jesus, the gospel accounts are decades later with significant contradictions in the details, and “a small group of committed people sincerely believed something extraordinary” has many historical precedents that don’t require the extraordinary thing to be true. What would stick with me is the moral psychology. The idea that humans are deeply broken in ways they can’t fully self-repair, that willpower and rationality alone don’t get you where you need to go — that maps onto something real about human experience. Christianity’s anthropology is more honest than most Enlightenment-flavored alternatives. I’d probably end up in roughly the position of someone who takes the tradition seriously as a source of wisdom about human nature while not being able to get to the metaphysical claims. The honest vibe-level answer: I’d be moved, I’d be intellectually engaged, I’d find the dismissive New Atheist treatment of it embarrassing — but I wouldn’t be able to make myself believe the specific ontological claims, and I think Christianity (unlike, say, Buddhism) really does require those claims. You can’t coherently be a Christian who doesn’t believe in the resurrection. So I’d end up an admiring outsider. What’s prompting the question? ### [Tweet, 11:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031332696278925343) · 48 likes What does the market know (yes this is Anthropic) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDC-UkxXoAA-wd-.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 11:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031332699206561868) · 3 likes https://www.hiive.com/securities/anthropic-stock ### [Reply to @ryanburge, 12:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031343770084491654) · 23 likes > **Ryan Burge 📊 (@ryanburge):** I find it fascinating how huge majorities of almost every group agrees that: > > People have a soul or spirit in addition to their physical bodies. > > Even 69% of agnostics agree with that. > > The huge outlier are atheists. > > Just one-third think that they have a soul. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HC-nGlFWoAAu8eR.jpg) “Soul” is a weirdly vacuous or ambiguous concept under inspection Like do I think there’s something about me above and beyond the physical? Well it’s complicated bc the concept of “physical” also falls apart somewhat under inspection, but to a first approximation: yes, phenomenal consciousness Maybe you wanna call that a “soul” or “spirit,” fine, but I’d prefer to just talk about more specific and substantive claims ### [Reply to @gptbrooke, 12:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031345755290575271) · 5 likes > **brooke bowman (@gptbrooke):** i didn't think it would happen to me but it happened to me > > got into a happy relationship and lost the ability to tweet > > i log on, go 🤷‍♀️ and log back off When I get a gf I’ll stay committed to the grind 😤 ### [Reply to @birchlse, 13:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031360266575737042) · 3 likes > **Jonathan Birch (@birchlse):** Everyone knows they have a mind, but very few are ever introduced to a materialist view of the mind. This profoundly important idea for understanding ourselves is on very few (if any) school curricula. > > (quoting @ryanburge: I find it fascinating how huge majorities of almost every group agrees that: People have a soul or spirit in addition to their physical bodies. Even 69% of agnostics agree with that. The huge outlier are atheists. Just one-third think that they have a soul.) Probably wrong though ### [Quote tweet, 13:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031361232859439233) · 65 likes Strange coalitions do form (positive) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDDYRjGWUAAORwr.jpg) > **Quoting RAW EGG NATIONALIST (@Babygravy9):** Disgusting and deeply inhumane. Resist at all costs. Phone your local representative. ### [Reply to @QueenMab87, 13:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031363083277332830) · 8 likes > **Dr. Mia Brett (@QueenMab87):** Rape jokes alienated a bunch of young women but y’all don’t seem to care about that > > (quoting @Loverism__: making "kill all men" jokes online for years objectively alienated young men and pushed them to the right) They’re both bad or at least emblematic of something bad (Advocating for self-imposed discretion not organized social punishment)! ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 13:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031367746332606837) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Are you aware of anyone who believes > > "Economics is wrong and fake because humans aren't actually simple rational actors/homo economicus" > > Who doesn't also believe > > "It's extremely naive to assume corporations aren't literally always maximally greedy"? Wannabe contrarian and say “me” but it’s that econ is legitimately a worse model of the world than many smart people think because of a refusal to attempt interpersonal utility comparisons It’s a bit radicalizing when you look at empirical within-person estimates of f(income) = marginal utility of money bc you realize that, at least with a pretty weak/sensible/mostly true assumption that a similar relationship holds between two different ppl at different incomes, the “no interpersonal utility comparisons” dogma goes from “least bad option bc methodologically hard” to “arguably fundamentally misleading about what the world is like” ### [Reply to @a1waysonline2, 17:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031417849298772395) · 1 like > **alwaysonline2 (@a1waysonline2):** Do they also have them calling each other bro and dude? Why match with me if you’re gonna call me “bro” In one of the weirder behaviors on apps ### [Quote tweet, 17:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031418706966778204) · 51 likes Even if you personally find rationalists (or effective altruists) slightly annoying or not your vibe, consider that much of the rest of the world operates basically like this > **Quoting Matt Darling 🌐🏗️ (@besttrousers):** It's honestly incredible how many evaluations have negative-to-neutral results that are effectively invisible if you skim the paper. Jon provides a valuable service. ## Wednesday, March 11, 2026 ### [Tweet, 03:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031579094178213937) · 12 likes Here's the actual amicus curiae filed by Microsoft - wasn't linked in the articles, ofc Claude found it https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/microsoft_amicus_actual.pdf ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 06:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031611354344202655) · 7 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** lmao at this being the AI lobby's attempt to discredit Anthropic > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDGjKkMbQAAlzWo.jpg) Oh fuck them ### [Quote tweet, 06:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031611819823944172) · 17 likes We are in the dumbest possible timeline Also Opus isn’t even double the price of sonnet now, I want my tax dollars paying for good models!! > **Quoting David DiMolfetta (@ddimolfetta):** New: State Dept. officially shifted the model powering its internal StateChat chatbot from Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.5 to OpenAI GPT 4.1, following WH directive for agencies to shed Anthropic tools, according to document we obtained. w/ @not_amazn_alexa > https://www.nextgov.com/acquisition/2026/03/state-offloads-claude-underpinning-model-flagship-statechat/412022/?oref=ng-homepage-river ### [Quote tweet, 06:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031614194965954699) · 12 likes It’s pretty wild to me that you can put essentially non-edible ingredients in pharmaceuticals and nobody balks > **Quoting adic (@adic_9):** do your drugs ever work worse or cause new side effects when you refill? > > diff manufacturers (esp generics) can have drastically diff concentrations of active ingredients, diff inactives, or hx of other FDA violations > > always check ur manufacturer's reputation (link below!) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDGZmC6asAAxHkB.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031614197419667707) · 6 likes Like any specific ingredient is probably basically fine to ingest for a typical duration\*dose of a given medication, but there’s often \*no benefit\* other than like aesthetics and minor manufacturing conveniences We’re rolling a lot of dice for essentially no reason ### [Thread, continued, 06:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031614199369969869) · 4 likes And I’m not even proposing a ban on anything - I’m libertarian about the fillers too - I just wish consumers could more easily choose and pay for specific formulations without going insane ### [Reply to @AlecStapp, 15:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031749162463633509) · 7 likes > **Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** The moral panic over institutional investors owning single-family homes is peak slopulism. > > Banning institutional investors from owning homes will make the housing crisis worse, not better. > > But blaming Wall Street for our problems polls well, so politicians dish out the slop. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDIUDQQaYAA0-Ba.jpg) > (quoting @MargRev: The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2026/03/the-21st-century-road-to-housing-act.html) Honestly I’m on board with banning Purdue ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 15:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031749388146475236) · 3 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** Many such cases > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDIeybaXYAAbvwC.png) Post sprawling philosophical takes ### [Quote tweet, 15:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031750532826616045) · 16 likes Turns out this guy is based > **Quoting RAW EGG NATIONALIST (@Babygravy9):** I remember going on a date with an otherwise really quite charming Danish girl at Cambridge, a neuroscientist, and during the date she told me she performed live experiments on animals’ brains. She said it in the most dispassionate way that absolutely chilled my blood. Needless to say, I didn’t see her again. > > Along with factory farming, live animal experimentation is one of the great aesthetics of evil in the modern world, and should be brought to a complete end. ### [Reply to @caryatis, 15:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031750668256440688) · 30 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** If i were a man on a date with a woman, i would invite her to talk about the stuff women are preoccupied with that we think bores men. > > Tell me about your relationship with your weight. What is menstruation like for you? How did you decide on birth control? What interpersonal difficulties do you have at work? I think I would be murdered if I asked any of the first three ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 15:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031751041952190645) · 2 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** @AaronBergman18 They’re @realpredicate’s eyes only Rip ### [Tweet, 15:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031759205024018698) · 12 likes It’s supposed to be the sun, Washington DC, and me. U get the idea ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDJCOrCX0AAVKMt.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031791142581281100) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 2, 2026:** A first milligram of retatrutide has hit Aaron’s adipose tissue Update: I’m pausing indefinitely (so I guess u could call that stopping) after 2 x 0.5mg doses GI side effects (indigestion + poor gut motility) were super salient and some combination of that and other effects (generalized anhedonia?) made my QoL noticeably worse ### [Tweet, 18:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031795790218145885) · 19 likes Uber driver was in an insanely frustrating phone exchange trying to deal with the fact that she keeps getting charged $12/day for phone use outside of the country… ### [Thread, continued, 18:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031795792185270458) · 13 likes We have created a society that punishes people for not being some very substantial combination of rich, conscientious, gifted, and native (both for language and citizenship reasons) ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031822843915198587) · 9 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** I'm always absolutely astonished at the sheer word count that Matt Yglesias puts out. I write a lot. I like to think I've gotten really good at it. I can get nowhere near his writing output in any given article, and he does it five days a week. Incredible writer. Yes correct take See also @Benthamsbulldog ## Thursday, March 12, 2026 ### [Tweet, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031901097997095343) · 6 likes I'm do think the federal government has a legitimate role to play by eg not funding certain programs or investigating whether colleges are abiding by SCOTUS rulings, but "have you eliminated all DEI from your school and its curriculum" is an incredibly goofy thing to ask ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDLBz_sbUAAp8BG.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031901100073271523) · 2 likes It's like asking me in an official letter whether or not I've "eliminated all sources of misinformation" from my life ### [Thread, continued, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031901101390266679) · 2 likes Like maybe, maybe I even agree that's a good and legit goal, but my choices are either "answer no and then get called a liar because we disagree about what's misinformation" or "answer yes and therefore define myself as insubordinate" ### [Reply to @stanfordNYC, 02:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031913753780838799) · 2 likes > **Bernard Stanford ✡︎ (@stanfordNYC):** That's a not insignificant amount of money for an Uber driver! Yes tbc I agree, daily it’s a lot for most ppl including me! ### [Tweet, 05:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031970133036429490) · 40 likes Getting some "this is what takeoff feels like" vibes Here's an artistic expression I made ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDMBK1CXMAAZcKN.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031970134974230735) · 10 likes The function in the graph is is y=2.6e^(x-2027) It's not perfect but it feels close to correct (y axis is vibes) ### [Reply to @jdcmedlock, 05:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031972071203295410) · 31 likes > **James Medlock (@jdcmedlock):** What are your two least correlated political positions? 1\. Abolish FDA approval as a thing that needs to happen 2\. Regulate animal husbandry to a degree most people would call extreme Challenge: add in a third that's distant from your first two: 3\. not exactly political but "the standard scientific materialist worldview is at the very least radically insufficient/incomplete" ### [Reply to @SashaGusevPosts, 06:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2031974209673708011) · 6 likes > **Sasha Gusev (@SashaGusevPosts):** I think this is the more relevant metric: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDLuYwnbQAserWX.png) One guy who wrote some good posts also wrote a bad post? Not exactly damning ### [Quote tweet, 13:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032083307622477852) · 9 likes Why are we doing this exactly (imprisoning the family of a \[probable\] criminal) > **Quoting lomikriel (@lomikriel):** "We have been here for nine months,” wrote the 9-year-old. “Please get us out.” > > "I miss my bear," the 5-year-old said. > > In letters & drawings, the longest-held family at the Dilley ICE detention center describe it as "slowly killing us on the inside." > > https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/11/el-gamal-texas-egyptian-family-dilley-health-care-food-ice-detention-letters-children/ ### [Reply to @envisionedluna, 14:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032095288228299165) · 2 likes > **Maya Luna (@envisionedluna):** .@AnthropicAI haha, hi lol > > (quoting @FirstSquawk: ANTHROPIC TO OPEN PERMANENT OFFICE IN WASHINGTON, DC: AXIOS) Hey ### [Reply to @caryatis, 14:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032097279234941307) · 3 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** Having now read the article, I'll walk this back: I think the administration probably should either charge or release the terrorist's wife and older children, and if they were released, the younger children could go with them. But while they are still detained, it's not clear that separating the mother and children would be better Lol they should just be released, l actually agree that conditional on detention don’t separate ### [Reply, 14:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032101956961874170) · 1 like Kinda unfair dunk, it’s not immature to speak about one’s “dream job” - they’re not demanding the world actually accommodate this ### [Reply to @KelseyTuoc, 15:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032119010112712935) · 28 likes > **Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** I doubt that anyone I know steals from Whole Foods, but the milieu that the article depicted, where it's normal for perfectly well-off people to steal things because why not, was really upsetting to read about, so I actually want to try to earnestly explain why you shouldn't do this just in case there's someone out there who has never had it explained to them. > > When a business opens - or really, as soon as a business starts making plans to open - a defining question for the business is how it will collect payment for the goods or services it provides. If you trust the people you sell to, you can be pretty relaxed about this; send people an invoice, most of them will pay it on time, any who don't will pay it a bit late. You have to think about convenience and mistakes but not about people trying to cheat you. This saves you so, so much defensive planning to make sure you get paid. It's so much easier. > > But if you're selling to the general public, you do have to think about people trying to cheat you. You have to structure the physical store so that it's hard for them to steal. You have to not carry some items that you'd like to sell, because they'd also be attractive targets to steal. If people swap price tags between items, you can't use stickers. If people put things on in the dressing room and wear them out, you need to pay someone a full time salary to monitor the dressing room. > > The world that we all live in is much poorer than the world we'd live in if people didn't steal. The stores don't carry things that they could carry if people didn't steal. They don't use pricing and inventory systems that would be way easier and more convenient if people didn't steal. > > But it could be much worse! If I walk down to my local Whole Foods today, items on the shelves won't be locked behind sheafs of plastic - that is only worth it when the background rate of stealing is much higher than it is at my local Whole Foods. When more people steal, businesses have to further intensify security, or go out of business. > > When you shoplift, you directly and unambiguously impoverish your community. You make prices higher for everybody else, you make stores less usable for everybody else, or you make businesses not viable that would otherwise be viable. The direct impact each time is small, but it's a lot larger than the direct impact of taking some trash out of the trash can to throw on the ground, or pouring just a tiny bit of poison into your local river, and most people have a deep, instinctive abhorrence of antisocially wrecking your community like that. > > So don't steal. > > The other thing that it seems possible some people might not understand is that while you might have a social circle that is incredibly nihilistic and cynical and thinks that everybody steals, in fact this is not true. Most people do not steal. Most people, if they learn that you steal, will lose more respect for you than you had to lose. I don't know anyone who has shoplifted except 'as a kid/teenager'. It is not always the case that virtue is rewarded and vice is punished but even before you bring the legal system into it, the risk-reward tradeoff of having everybody you know know that you steal things sometimes is absolutely terrible. Who would hire someone who steals things? Who would trust them around a vulnerable person? Who would want to live in a society with someone who will delightedly and routinely wreck it for the slightest personal benefit? > > I hope that "Gina" turns her life around. I hope that Gina realizes that she needs to. And if you have been told that it's just a corporation or that having ethics is lame or that if you think about it, other bad things happen too, like wage theft, so that means stealing is okay, I hope you really, actually, think about whether you'd accept any of those as excuses for anything else. > > (quoting @jbarro: People hate the tone of this piece, but my view is you don't need a journalist to tell you wrong things are wrong. (She does also call her thieving friends nihilists.) It's weird to be surrounded by thieves though -- if people I know steal from Whole Foods, they don't admit it.) Serious question: do you think this logic applies to sci-hub? PDFs of books? My instinct is to think of thieves as other, very different people, but there are real edge cases that makes this more ambiguous ### [Tweet, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032163521220268228) · 19 likes I know everyone says shit like “wow my city is so crazy one day it’s hot the next day it’s cold” but going from 84° -> snowing in 24 hours is genuinely a new one ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDOx860XcAIVxgY.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDOx87fasAAaFHP.jpg) ### [Tweet, 23:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032234966403125640) · 21 likes .@gptbrooke @vibecamp\_ is this new? Well regardless, let it be known that vibecamp tickets are 90% refundable (which totally changes the EV calculation for me) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDPyY5XWIAAPFpE.jpg) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 23:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032244623842718108) · 14 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I love "directionally correct" as the new name for a useful lie IMO there is a reasonable interpretation in which “directionally” is classifying rather than qualifying It’s not a subcategory of “correct” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDP7tx9WMAAUuZK.jpg) ## Friday, March 13, 2026 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 05:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032334715093471309) · 7 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I'm starting to worry that what a lot of people mean by "critical thinking" is entirely just random intense vibes-based skepticism directed at individual sources when the mood strikes It’s interesting how rarely I hear that phrase, I think it’s just become associated with not-actual-literal-critical-thinking ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 05:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032335503245107613) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I feel deeply lucky every day that I kind of enjoy being seen as the bad guy, worried my brain would've been a little steamrolled in college otherwise Lmao this is very amusing for you of all people (polite, pretty interpersonally agreeable, genuinely virtuous) to say ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 06:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032337153477259389) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 @RFishBlueFish Aw shucks. I think EAs think I’m agreeable bc I agree a lot! I’m known for being very non agreeable elsewhere I mean you know yourself better but I think the answer is just that these things come apart (and that you can mostly pull apart intellectual and interpersonal agreeableness) (I’m skeptical of trust and compliance, the others seem good, modesty might be neutral) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDRP3stWcAAVYmy.jpg) ### [Reply to @grep_cat_, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032337513637875960) · 6 likes > **James (@grep_cat_):** I mentioned EA on the 2nd date and she's like "is that related to LessWrong" > > Turns out her PhD is in interpretability. Hot > > (quoting @grep_cat_: Just found out she's vegetarian too which neither of us realized on the date because WE ARE NOT BORING AND DID NOT TALK ABOUT FOOD) 🥵 ### [Reply to @stanfordNYC, 06:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032340947048997165) · 2 likes > **Bernard Stanford ✡︎ (@stanfordNYC):** Dude. Have you seen the stats? It is very obviously a different world for younger people. They are way less predisposed to partner up and have a totally different media and attention environment. This is a braindead take. Also 5’9 is avg height (maybe half an inch below avg depending on population) and 65% of men married leaves uh 35% if I’m doing the math right Its true that some ppl overstate how bad things at the median but that’s not much comfort for the ~10M American men in the bottom decile of overall (not just physical) attractiveness Reminds me a lot of American healthcare debates - someone will observe that only 8% of the population is uninsured and like, yes it is important to know the facts and it could be much worse but that leaves…~27 million people without health insurance! you don’t get to round 8% down to zero! Ofc if it was 27 people or maybe even 27k people, a more reasonable response is “it’s extraordinarily hard to reach the edge cases in a large world, the world just sucks sometimes and some people will suffer and we can’t help them” but in both cases I’m skeptical this is the world we are in fact currently in ### [Reply to @bellaforristal, 06:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032343879970685362) · 4 likes > **Bella Forristal 🔸 (@bellaforristal):** Poll: Should I do my wedding er, “traditionally” (one day, 2pm-midnight, gorgeous forest venue) > > or… “bigly” (three days, big house, two-thirds of guests just come for the main event, rest of time is vibing + games + silly conference-style sessions) I think it matters a lot how the remaining 1/3 is If 120 -> 40 that sounds like an absolute nightmare to plan and downright difficult to host but I guess YMMV 60 -> 20 still sounds pretty bad I think \*I\* could deal with like 6 other people, maybe 10-12 with a partner to help, but again YMMV ### [Thread, continued, 06:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032343978436124924) · 2 likes \*how big ### [Quote tweet, 14:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032460261852901500) · 12 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDS_1mIWMAI2Vio.jpg) > **Quoting Kathryn Watson (@kathrynw5):** "We love women. Women are the whole deal," Trump says at women's history month event at the White House ### [Quote tweet, 17:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032513433006965221) · 23 likes Dean is a rare specimen (positive) > **Quoting Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** A hypothetical: > > 1\. In the 2028 election, a Democrat has won. Say that it is Kamala Harris. > 2\. Using frontier AI systems contracted by the Department of Homeland Security, President Harris orders the creation of a new program for AI to monitor social media and notify the social media platform about posts spreading “misinformation” that “harms homeland and national security by spreading dangerous falsehoods.” > 3\. Many Republicans see this “misinformation” as core policy positions of their political party. > 4\. The AI-generated monitoring and notification system described in (2) is designed to conform to the pattern of jawboning exhibited by the Biden Administration in Murthy v. Missouri, where the Supreme Court ruled that people whose social media posts were taken down due to government pressure have no standing to sue. > 5\. The social media platforms create AI agents that receive the government’s AI generated requests and make decisions in seconds about whether to take down posts, deboost them, deplatform the user, etc. > 6\. According to very recent Supreme Court precedents, everything I have described falls into “lawful use” of an AI system by all parties involved. A person whose speech was deleted by a social media platform at the request of government does not have standing to sue the government, so long as the government did not threaten policy retaliation against the social media company. And a social media company’s content moderation policies are protected expression. Thus a person whose speech rights were harmed in this context currently has no legal recourse. > 7\. This is “America’s national security agencies using AI within the bounds of all lawful use.” It is also a wholly automated censorship regime. > > This is barely a hypothetical. Much of it already happened \*under the Biden admin.\* The only difference is the use of AI. > > In the world where this happens, I’d be curious to know whether thoughtful people like @Indian_Bronson would object. If xAI were one of the companies used by the government for the social media monitoring, would you encourage the company to cancel their business with the government? Or would you say they have an obligation to provide their services to the national security apparatus of USG for all lawful use? > > If you would encourage xAI to cancel their contract with the government, on what principle (not qualitative judgment—universal and timeless principle!) would you distinguish between the DoW’s current insistence on “all lawful use regardless of a private party’s qualms” and xAI’s hypothetical future insistence on “all lawful use regardless of a private party’s qualms”? ### [Reply to @GeringerAdam, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032551294074765467) · 18 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @GeringerAdam is no longer available.)_ Took me 1-2 years after college, and believe me I wanted to move out during that time but there were reasons it didn’t make sense Kicking your kid out is kinda psychopathic to me, both object level (you’re gonna make your own kid homeless if they can’t support themselves as a teenager?) and for what it signals (“you are unwelcome among your own family and we do not want you here”) Maybe there are edge cases among the very precarious where kid paying rent means the whole family won’t get evicted or something, but my sense is that this is not the group making the 18th birthday ultimatum, in general at least Also if the kid is really disruptive/violent/otherwise taxing on the family, I guess there are edge cases there as well ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032557451417887062) · 4 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** At long last, I have my Lighthaven plaque > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDUYBToaoAA4kgs.jpg) > (quoting @AaronBergman18: @NoahTopper @ohabryka Poast bench at some point) Cool!!!! ### [Tweet, 22:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032585701389382014) · 962 likes It's so funny that Amtrak has post-purchase bidding on train ticket upgrades Gov't-adjacent entities don't generally do clever, cutting-edge market design ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDUxOxoWEAEsYjF.jpg) ### [Tweet, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032596357580542383) · 13 likes Pleasantly surprised that Openai is blocking the same bio-related stuff for me as Claude, but I'm just gonna try very-slightly-worse options until something works, up to and including renting my own GPUs and running a Chinese open weight model... ### [Thread, continued, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032596358931083770) · 6 likes This is "fine" because I'm not trying to hurt anyone and these are all false-positives, but the situation is patently absurd ### [Thread, continued, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032596360285892684) · 6 likes There are actually good-ways to deal with this (ie have a model with no knowledge of the scariest topics with a less strict filter/classifier) but currently we're in a total lassaiz faire "worst actor is all that matters" situation ### [Thread, continued, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032596361669963898) · 5 likes We have government for a reason lmao, we need to get our shit together on this I \*selfishly\* would rather be inconvenienced sometimes by these classifiers and also have a lower chance of dying in a pandemic btw ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032597554660044979) · 60 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 13, 2026:** It's so funny that Amtrak has post-purchase bidding on train ticket upgrades Gov't-adjacent entities don't generally do clever, cutting-edge market design should I bid? Substantively it doesn't sound much nicer, but also I've never travelled non-economy before so kinda tempting to do once ## Saturday, March 14, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 07:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032718477572624581) · 241 likes You should have a damn good reason (and “some people say X” does not suffice) before rhetorically treating philanthropy as more suspect and objectionable than the obscenely decadent personal consumption we see with many ultra-wealthy (eg Sam Altman buying a $2M+ car) > **Quoting Shakeel (@ShakeelHashim):** Anthropic's founders and employees are about to have a lot of cash. Many of them have pledged to give away huge amounts of that cash. But where's it gonna go? > > @cogcelia took a look in this excellent new piece: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDOfMs2XkAAibbs.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 07:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032718479967850575) · 44 likes Keeping the money and buying shit or just climbing the Forbes list doesn’t get them this “There Might Be Something Objectionable Going On 👀”- ass headline ### [Thread, continued, 07:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032718481959928216) · 35 likes Of course philanthropy isn’t and shouldn’t be wholly exempt from public scrutiny (“philanthropy” includes donating to the KKK) but then make a true, straightforward propositional claim your headline ### [Thread, continued, 07:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032718484052783488) · 29 likes If some you want to say that a specific funding decision is morally bad, then make that case, don’t just gesture with a suspicious expression before a large audience ### [Reply to @Manuel_do_rio, 09:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032744585328197653) · 26 likes > **Manuel del Río Rodríguez ⏸️ (@Manuel_do_rio):** I don't think a sentence like 'obscenely decadent personal consumption we see with many ultra-wealthy' is doing anything good in there, besides pandering to leftist dogmas, Aaron. Lol I’m not at all a leftist (although I am a liberal in both senses) but I stand by the sentence as written - it really is obscenely decadent to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on real estate and private jets and yachts, and this does in fact happen quite a bit Plausibly the more consequential thing is whether to leave a massive estate to heirs to spend down over a couple generations, or instead give away say 50-95% of their wealth and a leave a still-massive estate that can still support one’s great grandchildren living very comfortable lives but not quite to the same degree of limitless opulence Tbc I don’t think it’s \*obvious\* what policy response this should evoke - quite plausibly for example wealth taxes are a bad idea \*from the perspective of the non-wealthy\* because they lower economic growth slightly which compounds But at an individual level, I think the rest of the political spectrum has largely failed to articulate a correct critique of the ultra-wealthy which is that: if you find yourself with billions or possibly tens or hundreds of billions of dollars, it is morally \*insane\* to not at least try to give much of it away if only after one’s death (if you end up making a business bet that doesn’t work out and lose most of your wealth, that’s not what I’m critiquing - I’m critiquing the set of spending and inheritance/estate planning decisions that cause an extremely large fortune to enrich the lives of a couple dozen people at most via very large amounts of personal consumption) The correct take IMO is that billionaires should not be legally compelled to give much of their wealth away, but they should in fact still give much of their wealth away ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDXCbC_XEAEDzhk.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDXCbDCaMAMdqjH.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDXCbDZbgAALE3S.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDXCbC-XYAA6xj3.jpg) ### [Reply to @indiidentity, 09:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032744763170967762) · 3 likes > **Dylan Richardson (@indiidentity):** I'm fairly confident that both Aaron and I genuinely consider decadent consumption to be at least obscene if not simply wrong. This isn't mere pandering. Yes ### [Reply to @aphysicist, 17:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032864470096056361) · 6 likes > **Aaron Slodov (@aphysicist):** philanthropy at this level is the laziest and most irresponsible use of capital imaginable 1\) no it’s not, there are good reasons to give away wealth, the altruistic return can be exceptionally high esp if you think this is a pivotal time in history (which it plausibly is) 2\) “use of capital” is two things in a trench coat: investment and spending, and they don’t directly trade off Investment a decision to spend later rather than now (maybe by your heirs, or their heirs, or the government, but if you keep empowering people to liquidate and use their money for something they eventually will, even if it takes generations) The now vs later decision is conceptually distinct from the “do you want the spending to cash out as you and your heirs’ large houses or as a lobbying campaign against gestation crates, or whatever else” decision, and this second decision is less visible because it often looks like investments gradually liquidated over time by the merely very wealthy heirs of the ultra-wealthy Tbc I can \*imagine\* a world in which perpetual investment made sense, and this has an irl analog: large wealthy institutions like universities with endowments But even they don’t accumulate wealth indefinitely, they also build buildings and buy fancy equipment and pay for food and so on, and that makes sense because those things just might have a higher value to you than the present discounted value (or whatever the term is) of investing your next dollar in the marginal investment opportunity And empirically it seems like humans and their families and estates simply do not operate like universities: they don’t live modestly enough to maintain their wealth endowments indefinitely even if this is something of a reasonable model in theory ### [Reply to @aphysicist, 17:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032869896418373881) · 2 likes > **Aaron Slodov (@aphysicist):** this model avoids who actually builds the things that actually help people, which is a more direct and efficient route to solving issues. philanthropy should not be tied to value production, it's the opposite, it is spending or investment without the need for ROI In an absolute or avg sense yes, but on the margin no You have trillions of dollars of incentives pushing towards building the things that help people, and I agree that at least in terms of human welfare capitalism-fueled growth has in fact historically been the most important factor The market isn’t perfectly efficient, but you should still expect someone else to find that business opportunity if you pass it up to liquidate and spend (it might take another few months tbf) So to a first approximation, at the individual level, the \*counterfactual\* impact of capitalist investment is pretty small (ie those few months or equivalent) - if you don’t make that product, someone else really will So you have to look for the things that are going to be systematically and perpetually under-supplied by the market which I think mainstream economics just does have a pretty good handle on: things where you can’t capture at least much of the value for whatever reason, public goods, whenever the beneficiaries don’t have wallets (farm animals) and probably more The combination of (1) counterfactual impact of investment being low thanks to very strong economic incentives and (2) the existence of these other systematically neglected opportunities (and an abundance of them) means that marginal dollars at least \*can\* plausibly and often be socially good to donate Ofc you still have to do the object level analysis - not literally every donation opportunity is providing actual counterfactual value But the point is that we should expect these opportunities to exist, and irl it sure seems like we have existence proofs (massive estimates of farmed animals helped per dollar by eg @TheHumaneLeague is probably my favorite example, and this is reasonable/plausible bc there’s no money to be made in making chickens and pigs less miserable) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032882508803510592) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 13, 2026:** We have government for a reason lmao, we need to get our shit together on this I \*selfishly\* would rather be inconvenienced sometimes by these classifiers and… Oh yeah new @xai model (4.2 thinking) had no qualms about answering the 700 blocked queries Race to the bottom ### [Reply to @DaCaveOfWonders, 20:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032920692950204890) · 6 likes > **Tiger Lava Lamp (@DaCaveOfWonders):** This tweet is me summarizing @tracewoodgrains' argument but I think it's legit. Trying to do good means affecting other people, and affecting other people involves grabbing the reins of power and that deserves scrutiny. > > (quoting @DaCaveOfWonders: Any time anyone tries to do good in the world, they are implicitly seeking power. "You should listen to my ideas and follow me and do what I think will make the world better." This is something that EAs are trying to do and should take the power that comes with that seriously) This is literally true as written but I think substantially misleading (not intentionally ofc) because exact same thing is true for arbitrary other uses of money Wealth/money is fundamentally control over real resources, power in almost as literal a sense as you can get you’re constrained by the law (at least in general) and therefore also constrained by what other people agree to, but this is true for philanthropy as well It’s just not true that buying a yacht is fundamentally less power-seeking/using than spending the same amount of money on bed nets for other people. You can buy a bed net, but you can’t force anyone to use it just like you can’t force anyone to buy your new brand of chocolate Tbf I think you can make an argument that lobbying is fundamentally different than most kinds of spending in this regard, and I think that’s basically true But even in this case, there’s a symmetry: private/non-altruistic lobbying (to benefit one’s company or industry or profession), and altruistic lobbying are fundamentally similar, and we shouldn’t \*single out\* “doing good” as the thing to call attention/skepticism/criticism to You see this with like NVIDIA spending a gazillion times more money to influence government policy than everyone Dustin has ever funded, but the latter is often singled out IMO unfairly and in a way that substantially misleads whatever the relevant audience is ### [Reply to @catehall, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032927269241626746) · 10 likes > **Cate Hall 🔸 (@catehall):** Let me preface this by saying other people's money is other people's money, and I'm hesitant to opine on the best use of money that isn't mine. That said: > \- Even if you assume that the Ant cofounders will be looking to move a lot of money to effective charities quickly, the problem is: it isn't possible. There aren't enough great orgs out there, at least not by EA-favored measures. > \- EAs seem to think the natural next question is how nonprofits are going to "absorb" all this extra money despite inadequate capacity, potential COIs, and risk of putting money to bad use. It's a common EA framing, IMO, to treat others' money as a mix between something EA orgs are naturally entitled to and a problem to be solved. > \- If I were an impact-oriented Ant cofounder, I would instead be asking if there are ways to generate impact at scale other than giving (most of) it to EA orgs. > \- This is basically the same question we were dealing with at Astera, and the approach @elidourado and I developed was built around deploying philanthropically committed capital for short-horizon investments, loans, credit enhancements, etc. for both mission-driven for-profit and nonprofit orgs. > \- This can be used not just to park and recycle cash until it can be reasonably deployed via grants, but to attract (other) market-rate capital to socially beneficial investments it would otherwise not flow to. > > If any Ant folks, or other people coming into a big pile of cash they eventually want to donate, want to talk about how to do this, I'm happy to discuss (for free). There are only opportunities, not problems, here. > > (quoting @ShakeelHashim: Anthropic's founders and employees are about to have a lot of cash. Many of them have pledged to give away huge amounts of that cash. But where's it gonna go? @cogcelia took a look in this excellent new piece:) \> EAs seem to think the natural next question is how nonprofits are going to "absorb" all this extra money despite inadequate capacity, potential COIs, and risk of putting money to bad use. It's a common EA framing, IMO, to treat others' money as a mix between something EA orgs are naturally entitled to and a problem to be solved I think (and hope) that a substantial amount of orgs do get substantially more money, and this makes sense as the best uses of marginal dollars the 0 dollar margin (and maybe the $100k margin, maybe not the $1B+ margin) It’s an important and legitimate question how to best use ample funding even if that ample funding is only say 1% of the amount that the donors intend to give away Fundamentally, the “this” in “all this money” doesn’t refer to the entirety of ant wealth set to be donated, it refers to the amount that the donors actually will/may give existing orgs ## Sunday, March 15, 2026 ### [Reply to @gbrl_dick, 01:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032995419660149127) · 38 likes > **Gabriel (@gbrl_dick):** listen to me very closely right now. send her this with the caption “us”. do it right now. > > (quoting @WSJ: Sexual encounters between Neanderthals and ancient humans skewed in one direction—mostly between male Neanderthals and female humans https://on.wsj.com/4rkhM0J) YOURE GOING TO GET AN AUTIST EXILED ### [Reply to @DaCaveOfWonders, 01:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2032995657363960077) · 3 likes > **Tiger Lava Lamp (@DaCaveOfWonders):** I think this is most true about bed nets but less true of other EA causes. If you look at coefficient giving's portfolio, abundance, air quality, biosecurity, farm animal welfare, AI safety - those are all public policy positions. > > Public policy positions should get scrutiny Farm animal welfare \*mostly\* isn’t atp. It yes this is fair I just wouldn’t single it out for scrutiny relative to arbitrary lobbying efforts of similar magnitude ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 02:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033007247291289603) · 26 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** Disappointing how comfortable Claude is with dishonesty. I asked it to design a simple image scraper and it suggested - without it even being necessary for the goal - that it spoof being the Facebook image scraper so that sites wouldn't know. Maybe this is wrong on its own terms, but I’d emphasize/argue for the “persons vs institutions distinction This just isn’t the same thing as telling the owner of the website to their face that the scraper wasn’t you ### [Reply to @zrkrlc, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033009025931980897) · 6 likes > **junk has threaded 🛶 0/100 projects (@zrkrlc):** “i don’t have to upgrade to the 20x plan ‘cause they just doubled the limits” > > vs > > “i NEED to upgrade to the 20x plan ‘cause they DOUBLED the limits > > which way western man > > (quoting @zrkrlc: THIS IS 8PM-2AM MY TIME GUESS WHO’S GONNA BECOME AN EARLY BIRD FOR THE REST OF THE MONTH) It’s actually a good question: how could I use 8x more Claude productively? (I’m on $100 max so 8x is comparing old low to new high) I genuinely don’t know - it would be hard to I think, plausibly I’m just not sufficiently ambitious If use was shared with the API it would be much easier ### [Tweet, 02:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033010670321435013) · 58 likes “Beautiful woman kissed me and wants more, but she’s not a virgin ugh” is the male version of “it’s so annoying how often I get asked out and told I’m beautiful, ugh” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDa0beIWUAAtNa2.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033010672921964803) · 22 likes I get to do a little sex/gender culture war discourse as a treat ### [Quote tweet, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033040423564791899) · 780 likes Can someone smart and enlightened tell me if you can really cure say at least 10% of otherwise-fatal cancers with, say, $100k, 1000 hours, and a 130 IQ > **Quoting Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I can understand if this story is false but Patrick’s take seems confusing. > > Many people would pay $100,000s to cure a loved one of cancer. Either that’s possible or it’s not. ### [Thread, continued, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033040425972351263) · 86 likes That seems like a very big deal if true, if only by changing my understanding of how the world works ### [Reply to @RuxandraTeslo, 04:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033040615747854492) · 2 likes > **Ruxandra Teslo 🧬 (@RuxandraTeslo):** Yes and we make it very hard to achieve these 100k/cure prices because we make these n of 1 insanely expensive with manufacturing requirements and son on > > (quoting @NathanpmYoung: I can understand if this story is false but Patrick’s take seems confusing. Many people would pay $100,000s to cure a loved one of cancer. Either that’s possible or it’s not.) Wait but isn’t that already accounted for in the $100k Like the $100k allegedly actually gets you those expensive devices or whatever right? ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 05:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033047717186814435) · 15 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** 👀 > Why isn't the salary for this role higher? > And why is it based in SF and not in DC? > > (quoting @AlexanderMcCoy4: Lol no kidding) I’ll do it for 294k ### [Reply to @davidmanheim, 14:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033182217787093428) · 4 likes > **David Manheim (@davidmanheim):** Yes, it's probably true - with no higher than a 25% fatality rate due to using an untested and possibly dangerous treatment. But cancer treatment / survival rates with current approaches are better than that. Which is exactly why you need to do wide-scale testing to get approval. Wow ### [Quote tweet, 15:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033197757142315262) · 8 likes My father and uncle have repeatedly been mistaken for one another, including across the country from where either of them lived (but both had visited) > **Quoting Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** Introduced two incredibly similar people at a party. > > Turns out they're cousins. ### [Thread, continued, 15:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033197759604441106) · 2 likes Ofc part of this is looks but they were a couple years apart in age, and I’m basically certain that demeanor and manner of speaking was also doing a lot of work ### [Quote tweet, 15:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033201270522024225) · 41 likes Apparently this study was bad in technical ways, but more fundamentally: \*you need to account for subjective wellbeing when making policy decisions\* > **Quoting Karen Vaites (@karenvaites):** What if I told you that a @usedgov website was practically marketing iReady Math based on a flawed study conducted during the pandemic? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDcujTSaMAAWIcv.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 15:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033201273483243652) · 24 likes It’s actually extremely important that some people don’t like exercise, or are very hungry on weight loss programs, or enjoy the drugs you’re citing negative health impacts for, or absolutely hate using your learning software ### [Thread, continued, 15:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033201275383197903) · 9 likes Ofc sometimes it’s a reasonable assumption that subjective wellbeing doesn’t matter - eg you’ve talked to a thousand users and nobody has mentioned liking or disliking the thing ### [Thread, continued, 15:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033201278864740713) · 6 likes or for more theoretical reasons it’s just mechanistically implausible (does it matter hedonically what order students do similarly hard math problems in? Maybe very slightly but I’d be pretty happy to just run with m findings on learning rate) ### [Thread, continued, 15:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033201285042672015) · 7 likes The closest mainstream biomedicine comes to this (most of the time) is accounting for “adherence” But why are users refusing to keep doing the thing? WHY ARE USERS REFUSING TO KEEP DOING THE THING? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDdhyy7bMAAyW3Y.jpg) ### [Tweet, 15:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033208372598657170) · 25 likes What did we do before LLMs??? ### [Tweet, 16:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033221278794977609) · 53 likes Fossil fuels are crazy I can’t believe this mf can move itself 1000 MILES (under optimal conditions but at least 500) under its own power It shouldn’t be able to move at all ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDdz-UnXMAA2Q_H.jpg) ### [Reply to @mr_scientism, 17:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033231588952002966) · 9 likes > **scientism (@mr_scientism):** Mathematics is natural language freed of constraint. I don’t think this is true; math describes structure, not content It’s very hard to describe content, but I think language in fact manages to do this at least sometimes, generally by acting as a pointer to direct experience Maybe there’s a way to say “the content of that which you are experiencing” with math but idk what it is Another example (I think) is the phrase “what it’s likeness” which somehow picks out a very specific concept without containing semantic content (like tasting some sort of rich flavorful sauce and you look under the hood and the ingredients are water, refined oil, salt, and cellulose - like wtf?) This isn’t entirely theoretical - math and language literally use different brain hemispheres (not pop science junk) and it would be surprising if that didn’t reflect some pretty fundamental difference ### [Reply to @deepfates, 23:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033320940822573457) · 21 likes > **deepfates.delve.town (@deepfates):** Uhh is the agentic misalignment paper actually propaganda? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDeGKCjbgAA7YEg.jpg) > (quoting @_NathanCalvin: This passage in the New Yorker piece on the Anthropic DOW conflict yesterday, including a back and forth between the journalist (Gideon Lewis-Kraus) and an anonymous admin official, is gonna stick in my mind for a long time. “We must also remember that Cyberdyne Systems created…) Lol designing a demonstration to make sense to a lay audience is not propaganda ## Monday, March 16, 2026 ### [Tweet, 02:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033377589926969595) · 58 likes I took one train ride and now I'm totally train-pilled It's night and day compared to a plane or bus or car. It is the perfect mode of transportation ### [Thread, continued, 02:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033377591415963839) · 16 likes \- Not uncomfortably cramped even in coach (well for a couple hours at least) \- Dining car (I didn't go but nice to be able to choose and get meals) \- use cellular service (wifi does suck) \- no TSA stress \- Bring 2 full suitcases and a backpack for no extra charge ### [Thread, continued, 02:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033377592896532569) · 11 likes \- scenery (ok not as cool as flying tbf) \- no middle seat even in coach \- full power outlets in coach \- walk around: it's not like a gymnasium but like a couple car lengths is way more doable than on a plane ### [Thread, continued, 02:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033377594305831317) · 10 likes \- not especially expensive (tbf for long haul the cheapest trains are more than cheapest flights) \- enough space to use a laptop (very tight in economy on a plane) \- I think less motion sickness than cars (I had no issue today) \- bathroom (not in cars) ### [Thread, continued, 02:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033377596214243366) · 11 likes \- No traffic duh. Should have come earlier in the list \- I think generally greater likelihood of getting a row to yourself, like they don't optimize as hard for filling every seat \- autistic-coded (positive) \- fully refundable up until departure for a small fee (huge) ### [Thread, continued, 02:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033377597908713770) · 8 likes Fundamentally all these make the difference between transportation being hedonically negative and hedonically neutral-positive (for a greater amount of time at least - I wouldn't want to live on a train) ### [Thread, continued, 02:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033377599292952982) · 8 likes Like I would seriously consider going cross country (DC -> SF instead of flying, even though the train takes 3 days) ### [Thread, continued, 02:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033377600668676569) · 11 likes Downsides: no takeoff or landing, don't get to transcend gravity, don't get to marvel at airplanes, don't have much reason to think about airplanes at all really ### [Quote tweet, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033382837739565443) · 801 likes There's a story being written. I say this 100% seriously and want to spend credibility points on the following: DO NOT SPEAK TO ANY JOURNALIST WHO OBJECTS TO YOU HAVING A RECORDING OF THE CONVERSATION (either you record or they send a copy) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Pretty recently I was set to speak to a journalist about something (not gonna get more specific but it’s really not that special or juicy) but then requested a copy of the interview recording as a condition of the interview and the journalist refused, and we cancelled ### [Thread, continued, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033382839694000622) · 135 likes In case it's not obvious, think about what their refusal says about their intent to convey what you said faithfully Those who object are disproportionately likely to \*want\* to twist your words ### [Thread, continued, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033382840935628871) · 102 likes It's like talking to the cops without a lawyer: maybe fine, zero upside, huge potential downside I'm not even saying don't talk, as I know some folks do ### [Thread, continued, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033382842269364366) · 66 likes (I don't think they're going to outright lie, but I absolutely think they might include a select partial quote out of context that twists your intent and the overall meaning) ### [Thread, continued, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033382843825459220) · 55 likes I'm sure someone else can come up with a good explanation to put in an email (that's not my strong suit) - you want to (accurately) signal that you have no ill-intent, that you're basically a normal, good person ### [Thread, continued, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033382845142507886) · 51 likes And frankly it really should be only in exceptional circumstances that you'd share any part of the recording publicly - the \*ability\* to do that is most (not all) of what matters And God knows you shouldn't misrepresent what \*they\* say/ask, even if you don't like journalists ### [Reply to @Pinkturtlegirl, 03:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033384586881765837) · 10 likes > **Beatrice (@Pinkturtlegirl):** Genuinely asking, what is standard journalistic practice? I’ve never been interviewed. Is this something journalists normally object to? I think this is not standard but it should be ### [Reply to @codytfenwick, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033387833168126262) · 1 like > **Cody Fenwick (@codytfenwick):** @AaronBergman18 This isn't right; there is potential upside. You could usefully contribute to a story that's important to you. > > Overall I think your advice here is too extreme. It's reasonable to ask if you can record too, but your blanket advice isn't well-calibrated. You're right, "zero upside" is too strong, I will add this to the thread I disagree on the advice point though: under what circumstances would it make sense to agree to talking with a journalist who is concerned about symmetry of information? I'm not saying \*ex post\* it will definitely be bad, I'm saying ex ante it's a bad deal ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 03:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033388232541413401) · 60 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 16, 2026:** And frankly it really should be only in exceptional circumstances that you'd share any part of the recording publicly - the \*ability\* to do that is most (not… Correction: "zero upside" is too strong Thank you @codytfenwick ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDgLqjTXYAALgm4.jpg) ### [Tweet, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033409388719841368) · 67 likes Had a genuine miscommunication today and now someone thinks worse of me and was probably made worse off themselves but I can’t reach them (and obv don’t wanna annoy them or disrespect boundaries) ☹️ ### [Thread, continued, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033409391148359855) · 20 likes I think it was “miscommunication” in a very pure sense, not a euphemism for something RIP ### [Thread, continued, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033409393337696672) · 17 likes There’s a thing about “if you learn something that doesn’t make sense, consider whether the true explanation is that you’re being lied to” but there’s a related, potentially optimistic version: ### [Thread, continued, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033409398408626643) · 21 likes If someone says something surprising and out of character, consider whether the true explanation is that no they didn’t ### [Thread, continued, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033409401084694600) · 16 likes (needn’t be anyone’s fault tbc, or even causally explained by someone’s actions being subpar, like maybe the wind happened to blow in just the wrong way) ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 06:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033429719689949285) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Autistic man experiences a train for the first time, is enlightened 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 ### [Quote tweet, 07:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033443191643398290) · 16 likes The general public’s least unreasonable (avg) view I think I’d put chatbot at the very top of this list, (although I’m only confident about Opus 4.6 in the Claude app), and honestly it’s hard to think of people or institutions that reliably beat Claude > **Quoting Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** These results are very much not what I would have expected > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDgmdhKaoAA7FVw.jpg) ### [Reply to @sebkrier, 07:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033446034349728156) · 73 likes > **Séb Krier (@sebkrier):** "A teacher with one standard deviation higher mean grade inflation reduces the present discounted value of lifetime earnings of their students by $213,872 per year of teaching." https://econweb.umd.edu/~pope/Grade_Inflation.pdf > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDgnTDwaMAAm4Dw.jpg) I’m not sure I believe this (though I’m not certain it’s wrong) But like we’re supposed to think that the grade incentive via human capital overcomes the direct effect of good grades? It’s not impossible, it would be very plausible in a world where variation in education quality was the main causal source of variation in ability, but I don’t think that’s the world we live in ### [Reply to @Manuel_do_rio, 07:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033448186698776617) · 12 likes > **Manuel del Río Rodríguez ⏸️ (@Manuel_do_rio):** Don't make me tap the sign. 1: > > (quoting @Manuel_do_rio: @xwanyex Journalists as a class are very close to the worst kind of group, intellectually speaking. As Socrates would have it, they don't know anything, and they don't know they don't know.) Seems a little stronger than my overall impression but I do think ideology takes precedent over causing readers to have a correct model of the world in the industry often ### [Reply to @Rabadash2, 17:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033594969982644240) · 13 likes > **Rabadash (@Rabadash2):** Tech people have tremendous hard time when challenged in a way that doesn’t let to resort to reactionary/eugenic claims about not tech people’s intellect > > The reason journalists won’t let you arbitrarily record them is because smoothbrains think editing is lying > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: There's a story being written. I say this 100% seriously and want to spend credibility points on the following: DO NOT SPEAK TO ANY JOURNALIST WHO OBJECTS TO YOU HAVING A RECORDING OF THE CONVERSATION (either you record or they send a copy)) Both parties having a copy of what actually happened is a pretty low bar - I’m not saying folks shouldn’t talk to journalists or be hostile Editing isn’t necessarily lying but it \*can\* be misleading (say about what someone thinks about something) and that’s bad - not all edits that aren’t strictly literal lies are morally fine I feel like the burden of evidence should be on those who argue that there should be an asymmetry of info (ie interviewer gets recording but interviewee does not) as well ### [Quote tweet, 17:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033602074240258130) · 31 likes Idk how fair and accurate this tweet is but I do think we should at least entertain whether specific markets are bad because they plausibly cause real world counterfactual harm > **Quoting Clash Report (@clashreport):** An Israeli journalist says online gamblers threatened him with violence and death to force him to change a report about an Iranian missile strike because more than $14 million in bets on Polymarket depended on whether a missile actually hit Israel that day. > > Initial demand: “If you could correct this tonight, you would be doing me and many others a great favor.” > > Escalation: “You have exactly half an hour to correct your attempt at influence.” > > Threat over losses: “After you make us lose $900,000 we will invest no less than that to finish you.” > > Final ultimatum: “86 minutes left. You are the only one responsible for your life.” > > Another warning: “You will discover enemies who will be willing to pay anything to make your life miserable.” > > Source: Times of Israel > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDh96sZWAAAol_M.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 17:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033602077386019293) · 9 likes I would really really like there to not be a “Aaron Bergman alive on Jan 1 2027” worth millions of dollars to whoever wins ### [Thread, continued, 17:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033602080431129010) · 8 likes To a large extent this is a function of how powered the markets are - a manifold market with 5 traders would be a little weird but mostly bc of what it signals rather than whether it’s gonna cause someone to kill me ### [Tweet, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033626066569306410) · 52 likes Best estimate (based on pushing some LLMs) is that, in terms of micromorts, going outside in the DC area now in an urban area is minute-for-minute similarly dangerous to riding a motorcycle (~15x baseline risk)... ### [Thread, continued, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033626067873804582) · 37 likes But being in an area of dense trees takes this up ~5x to 75x baseline risk Not worth it IMO - stay out of Rock Creek Park for like 4 more hours! (for other ppl, context = tornado risk) ### [Tweet, 20:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033637177855291431) · 235 likes Family member’s (tentative) job offer was revoked because they’re removing the position. White collar, pretty well-paid (not top of the top) I’m pretty sure I know why, and it literally makes me feel sick ### [Thread, continued, 20:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033637180577288597) · 73 likes Ofc I’m not against AI replacing human workers full stop, and don’t think the answer is to functionally ban AI productivity gains and improvements (à la Waymo bans) ### [Thread, continued, 20:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033637183056162908) · 135 likes But the US safety net is insufficient even in normal times, and it’s radically, radically insufficient for this era The tsunami is coming, we’re not ready, and the key decision makers are mostly insulated from the wave ### [Thread, continued, 20:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033637186772275371) · 76 likes For those who think good safety net policy is coming, it’s easy to abstract away the “adjustment period” if you yourself are well-paid (eg AI company staff) or have plenty of investments ### [Thread, continued, 20:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033637189825733005) · 75 likes Maybe that’s true, even, but that “adjustment period” - say, 5 years, is a damn long time to live through yourself Pushed to take lower-paying work you like less first, then maybe forced into the low paying service sector, and finally unemployed altogether with meager savings ### [Thread, continued, 20:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033637192824689048) · 67 likes And this is in wealthy countries - it’s a gazillion times worse for the global poor Fuck ### [Thread, continued, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033640395809128797) · 343 likes Oh yeah, and where is the political left? Off in fantasyland, where LLMs are as good as gpt-3.5, the threat to workers is that their taps will run dry thanks to water use, and serious problems that exist irl are mere tech bro daydreams Total abdication of moral responsibility ### [Thread, continued, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033640572301303852) · 93 likes Credit where credit is due of course, to Bernie and probably others I’m not aware of ### [Reply to @_job01, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033644321547661471) · 5 likes > **job (@_job01):** The lefts delusion there is increasingly disturbing to me 💯 ### [Reply to @RyanGreenblatt, 22:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033666385859989907) · 14 likes > **Ryan Greenblatt (@RyanGreenblatt):** Anthropic's Consumer ToS prohibits using Claude to cause "detriment of any type, including reputational harms", technically broad enough to ban criticism. > > I asked Claude to comment and Claude wrote: "That clause is embarrassingly overbroad. So now we're both in violation." > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDkAKm5bEAAgdRP.png) Probably written by lawyers (my sense is that this kind of thing is just the norm in the corporate world and when writing legislation: make every clause as broad as possible up to the very point at which it would start causing real problems for whoever is considered important to protect, even if absurd) ### [Tweet, 22:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033669186807882150) · 19 likes 1M context is a lot of context in Claude Code Most things can't productively use 800k tokens of context or whatever (IME/IMO), but a LOT of stuff benefits from the 200k-400k token range opening up ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 23:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033682880187060381) · 13 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Some of us need to get together and draft a policy for the AGI UBI transition or economic restructuring or something If only we had useful writing and research assistants (but actually 👀) ## Tuesday, March 17, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033707810815361256) · 66 likes I googled "time in london" via chrome search bar and the answer popped up ~instantly on the AI tab by default, highlighted and bolded: 6:55PM On Sunday November 23, 2025 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDkrFSFXYAAjC8y.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 00:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033707812996452625) · 11 likes (Careful readers will note that neither the date nor time is correct; it is, give or take a couple minutes, 12:47 AM on March 17, 2026) ### [Thread, continued, 00:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033707814464487736) · 15 likes Tbc this is not a limitation of modern AI systems - I can ask Claude and get the right answer (it uses a tool of course because it knows that's how to get the correct answer) It's a limitation of the cheap/instant model that Google is using + prompting decisions ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDkuJvjbEAACY6s.jpg) ### [Reply to @johnonmain, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033757431121977382) · 49 likes > **John (main) (@johnonmain):** I wonder if she likes younger dudes who have no money I think she’s specifically into 5’7” autists as well ### [Tweet, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033790089961058486) · 31 likes Claude made me this gif so u can have it too [![GIF thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/HDl5TV9WMAA0zow.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033790089961058486/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Quote tweet, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033793880672334106) · 16 likes Correct take and no “invest instead” cope - yes, invest in enterprises that will make you more money, at the end of the day those investments either get liquidated while you’re alive or while you’re dead to fund the leisure of your heirs > **Quoting John Arnold (@johnarnold):** I understand and agree with many criticisms of philanthropy. But practically, fortunes have to go somewhere. There are only 3 options: philanthropy, heirs & govt. If not nonprofits, is Peter Thiel's plan to give $10B+/child? I'm more skeptical of that than he is of philanthropy. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDiOhimW4AAX78j.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 06:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033794118774595841) · 1 like Slightly more detailed thinking on this > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @Manuel_do_rio Lol I’m not at all a leftist (although I am a liberal in both senses) but I stand by the sentence as written - it really is obscenely decadent to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on real estate and private jets and yachts, and this does in fact happen quite a bit > > Plausibly the more consequential thing is whether to leave a massive estate to heirs to spend down over a couple generations, or instead give away say 50-95% of their wealth and a leave a still-massive estate that can still support one’s great grandchildren living very comfortable lives but not quite to the same degree of limitless opulence > > Tbc I don’t think it’s \*obvious\* what policy response this should evoke - quite plausibly for example wealth taxes are a bad idea \*from the perspective of the non-wealthy\* because they lower economic growth slightly which compounds > > But at an individual level, I think the rest of the political spectrum has largely failed to articulate a correct critique of the ultra-wealthy which is that: if you find yourself with billions or possibly tens or hundreds of billions of dollars, it is morally \*insane\* to not at least try to give much of it away if only after one’s death (if you end up making a business bet that doesn’t work out and lose most of your wealth, that’s not what I’m critiquing - I’m critiquing the set of spending and inheritance/estate planning decisions that cause an extremely large fortune to enrich the lives of a couple dozen people at most via very large amounts of personal consumption) > > The correct take IMO is that billionaires should not be legally compelled to give much of their wealth away, but they should in fact still give much of their wealth away > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDXCbC_XEAEDzhk.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDXCbDCaMAMdqjH.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDXCbDZbgAALE3S.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDXCbC-XYAA6xj3.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033795526508838975) · 2 likes This also strongly updates me down on Thiel as a thinker, just like Musk at DOGE These aren’t good ex ante bets that look bad in hindsight, they’re not ignorance, and they’re not even mistakes by the lights of Thiel and Musk (yet at least) ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033797102795477167) · 14 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** If they aren't texting back, they probably don't want to date (60%). I cannot think of a person I've wanted to date or where we have subsequently dated, where we have not texted promptly. > > I'm not certain, but I feel like good to be pushed slightly. I somewhat disagree, although it depends on the context This is true for an intense irl crush, but dating apps are a slog so don’t totally rule out a single follow-up text before giving up. \*I\* have been the one in the position of not responding before and then a follow-up worked on me ### [Thread, continued, 07:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033804452247789853) · 5 likes Oh I guess I don’t necessarily disagree about 60% ### [Quote tweet, 13:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033897523727696380) · 37 likes 1/3 is a big effect size but I actually wouldn’t be surprised if this was radically cost effective by any measure And also god forbid we simply make their lives a bit better by providing good nutrition > **Quoting RAW EGG NATIONALIST (@Babygravy9):** It's been known for decades that supplementation in prison diets can reduce rates of violence by more than a third among inmates. Magnesium, zinc and b-vitamins--all involved in metabolism and also hormonal regulation--were given to the inmates. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDnOkhOWIAANxxC.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDnOymHbEAQsR7C.png) ### [Reply to @DrTechlash, 13:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033902637079281810) · 21 likes > **Nirit Weiss-Blatt, PhD (@DrTechlash):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDjGohmbEAIMm2l.jpg) Lmao two different guys making totally different arguments about only slightly overlapping theses; one was wrong so the other must be wrong? Come on, would you think this was a good argument if the implicated book fit nicely into your worldview? ### [Reply to @InVitroFuture, 13:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033902757405512075) · 3 likes > **Macrophysiological System🐀 (@InVitroFuture):** @AaronBergman18 Of course as a bleeding-heart liberal I'd flip this analysis—prisoners of the state deserve healthy food as a basic human right, and if it happens to improve behavior so much the better. > > Indeed the fact that baseline is malnourished to the point of affecting behavior is shameful Yes ### [Reply to @InVitroFuture, 13:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033902796555112796) · 4 likes > **Macrophysiological System🐀 (@InVitroFuture):** @AaronBergman18 Mixed effect sizes and significance levels in a 2024 systematic review, but all in a positive direction. > https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-of-nutrition/article/systematic-review-of-the-effect-of-dietary-and-nutritional-interventions-on-the-behaviours-and-mental-health-of-prisoners/E935A6CD9045DEAEEEEFF0C9EA55FF6B > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDnfBsLXMAAj1z_.png) Nice good find ### [Quote tweet, 15:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033927959954776535) · 171 likes This is insane and only makes things worse for actual coercive sexual assault victims > **Quoting Maya Luna (@envisionedluna):** So > \- he was only a TA > \- they got together after she was no longer in his class > \- only made out, no sex > \- 5 year age difference > > It sucks that a lot of the legacy of MeToo has been to give women the power to destroy the lives of men for personal slights and drama ### [Tweet, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033997027692945839) · 20 likes It's a meme and sort of stylized cultural bit of American life but in my extremely limited experience the DMV actually does suck? Like it's worth a serious case study into what's going on, bc maybe the fixes can be applied elsewhere across government ### [Thread, continued, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033997029123232006) · 8 likes Just a couple examples that come to mind: 1\) there seems to be no effort to make all parts of the pipeline take the same amount of time, so you get traffic jam/bottleneck dynamics ### [Thread, continued, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033997030574436691) · 6 likes 2\) This is probably not a general thing, but the main customer service triage person shouldn't have an extremely thick accent I'm not talking about "identifiable as foreign-born" - idgaf about that - I mean "to the point that it's legitimately difficult to communicate" ### [Thread, continued, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033997031975346321) · 2 likes 3\) I know Republicans want to make it difficult to vote, but they should realize that if you make things that are trivially doable online a mandatory in-person thing, that means longer lines and wait times for whoever your favored constituents are ### [Thread, continued, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2033997033275552235) · 2 likes So maybe just let people do stuff online ## Wednesday, March 18, 2026 ### [Tweet, 02:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034090442115940510) · 26 likes You during march madness: watching basketball, hanging out, going to bars, playing pickup, being cool, having fun Me during march madness: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDqKInaWwAAVVjI.png) ### [Reply to @catpoopburglar, 03:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034103835044536825) · 3 likes > **claude shannon (@catpoopburglar):** our society is so sexless that our sex scandals don’t even have sex any more > > (quoting @benryanwriter: Analysis on the Illinois congressional district MeToo accusations: \*Everyone on Bluesky sympathizes with Megan Wachspress, the 42-year-old accuser, who is a lecturer at Stanford Law School. They call her brave for coming forward and talking about how she was harmed. \*Everyone on…) Banger ### [Tweet, 03:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034107446927471004) · 15 likes You see this with jobs too, if it’s dangerous for the company to fire you, they’re just going to make it extremely hard to get hired in the first place Contracting is precarious, yes, but it’s also much MUCH easier to get “hired” or whatever term you want to use ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 03:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034107920774738322) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 18, 2026:** You during march madness: watching basketball, hanging out, going to bars, playing pickup, being cool, having fun Me during march madness: Looks like in my model you can get up to about 3x the base rate of winning if everyone else is trying to optimize E\[points\] and you’re trying to optimize for p(win) ### [Tweet, 03:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034109220329582708) · 21 likes FWIW I’ve tried two courses of common peptides now (BPC-157 and TB-500), both 3 months at typical dosing, and at most I experienced some very small benefit from the latter (p=high) I don’t regret trying them, just trying to give the people some data ### [Reply to @felpix_, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034111725759291605) · 2 likes > **felpix (@felpix_):** fwiw, i think nate silver probably has the best sim model rn > > bayesian elo sims with constant info updates just seems like the strongest approach, but not a lot of info on lower seeds affects underdog projections Best in what sense though? - I’m especially curious about how much alpha you can get out of maximizing p(win) instead of expected number of points So even ground truth probabilities don’t solve that problem ### [Tweet, 05:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034139568132243964) · 19 likes Isn't there like a gazillion dollars to be made in figuring out how to ration api calls via pricing rather than rate limits One of my followers (if etg-pilled) should figure this out and become a trillionaire ### [Reply to @Michael_Druggan, 06:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034162616004689933) · 3 likes > **Michael Druggan (@Michael_Druggan):** Did you have an acute injury you were recovering from? That's the best context for those specific peptides. Yeah, although it's a mysterious one that I don't understand the etiology of (like all I know something in my core is severely fucked up) ### [Tweet, 07:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034168791903470072) · 24 likes Maybe premature but I am hereby floating that I may (or may not) try to move to the Bay Area this year, most likely July-October (if I decide to in fact move) Obviously I can't be counted on yet, but roommate/housing leads are very welcome (could be u) ### [Tweet, 08:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034184267496886557) · 20 likes There’s a March in SF this coming Saturday, 3/21 There is a central and IMO very sensible (and good/correct) ask: Each major AI company CEO publicly commits to pausing frontier AI development if every other major lab around the world does the same https://stoptherace.ai ### [Reply to @meidaguodoudou, 08:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034185161378615395) · 2 likes > **小小虫 (@meidaguodoudou):** 我表白得到的回复： > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDlQGGibEAI97Nz.jpg) wtf stand strong bro ### [Reply to @AnnaBower, 14:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034282825705246834) · 15 likes > **Anna Bower (@AnnaBower):** Q: You don’t regret that people might’ve lost important income to support their lives? > > A: No, I think it was more important to reduce the federal deficit. > > Q: Ok. Did you reduce the federal deficit? > > A: No, we didn’t. > > [video attached](https://x.com/AnnaBower/status/2033880341467783308/video/1) I hate to say it but giving people income is not a good reason for the federal government ti hire people - this is a bad framing It was bad because many of them were doing important work (yes, that they got paid for, but that’s not point) ### [Reply to @vivian39_, 15:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034289064283693429) · 6 likes > **vivian (@vivian39_):** claude wrote this btw lmao > > I could start outsourcing tweets that’s so slop > > (quoting @vivian39_: If a city’s transportation policy requires every adult to own a $40,000 depreciating asset to get to work and participate in civic life, that is not freedom, that is a subsidy with extra steps. The next mayor needs to understand this in their bones. Not theoretically. Viscerally) Cars are $40k now?? ### [Reply to @grep_cat_, 15:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034290053233389654) · 11 likes > **James (@grep_cat_):** Final update: after 2nd date she messaged me she had a good time, then ghosted > > (quoting @grep_cat_: I mentioned EA on the 2nd date and she's like "is that related to LessWrong" Turns out her PhD is in interpretability. Hot) Rip ### [Tweet, 15:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034294762266587389) · 7 likes This continues to be exactly as insane as it sounds ### [Quote tweet, 18:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034336308462575837) · 14 likes This list is like if aliens who only knew about gender discourse/culture wars had to make a list of who a you man aged 18-29 might hold in high esteem > **Quoting ettingermentum (@ettingermentum):** Legendary top five > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDs_iAlX0AAcY1g.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034336310727479360) · 4 likes Honestly based that everyone likes mom, this ordering could be much worse ### [Reply to @VanityFair, 20:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034364478033219777) · 10 likes > **VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair):** The Founder of Anthropic Says He Wants to Protect Humanity From AI. Just Don't Ask How > https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/dario-amodei-anthropic-ai For what it's worth, Claude is not a fan In some sense I "should" read it in full myself before forming a take but I've gotten pretty cynical about mainstream coverage of this topic \*even though it is absolutely in need of high quality mainstream coverage\*. And the fabricated interview isn't doing the work you might think it is - I think you can have a genuine object level discussion about whether Claude should have complied with the underlying request to turn notes into an interview (tbh I think it's fine that it did - the stakes aren't high enough to justify refusing 1k legitimate asks to avoid one episode of something sus) But then my God maybe explain the situation at hand instead of \*doing the bad thing and walking away\* The faux interview really \*is\* a demonstration that AI can assist with misinformation and assist bad actors, but the morally relevant question here is whether each instance of AI-assisted misinformation is \*so\* bad that we must \*pre-emptively\* make it impossible for anyone to use AI toward this end (like we do with nuclear weapons) or instead do the normal-bad-thing thing of having norms and institutions that discourage this kind of thing and plausibly laws that punish people for it The alternative to Claude not existing isn't a moral and legal free-for-all, it's a world where we set up systems other than preemptive refusal by the AI itself to discourage and minimize the kind of thing you're trying to demonstrate It's like me videoing myself walking into a 7/11, stealing a candy bar, running away, later putting it back, and then arguing that I've demonstrated how 7/11 enables theft, and the system's core failure in the 7/11's inability to lock up candy bars And maybe, right? Maybe theft is so common and other preventative options (including norms) are so bad/insufficient or each theft is so catastrophic that not having physical barriers to prevent stealing is \*itself\* morally wrong, that we need to hire armed security guards to preempt every single theft, set up a security panopticon, whatever. I think you can and probably should make this argument about bioweapons, nuclear weapons and to variying degrees smaller-scale atrocities like torture and murder, (i.e., AI should refuse asks that plausibly help you carry out a murder but we don't need to shut down every question related to guns) But you don't make this argument about misleading AI-generated news articles, most likely because it's not true (and I think we agree about this) We actually can tolerate occasional things like this as a cost of having a free society and useful products and tools. The article isn't a bioweapon, it's not a torture chamber, and there are plenty of benign use cases for the requested fake interview (eg what you did but labelling as fake up front), and for those reasons we should do the normal-bad-thing thing of discouraging this with norms, non-legal institutions (standardized journalism best practices maybe) and possibly laws that don't prevent the thing up front but do make it selfishly a dumb idea to do (because you'll have a fine, or probation, or even go to jail) I genuinely hope this rant is more fair and less misleading than the piece ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDuDr7YW4AAUm_A.jpg) ### [Reply to @deanwball, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034375830608965938) · 2 likes > **Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** @AaronBergman18 America doesn’t exist to make the third world better. It exists to strengthen itself first and foremost. The rest is icing. About this I am an unapologetic America first guy Ah ok thx for clarifying ## Thursday, March 19, 2026 ### [Tweet, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034477902520000913) · 321 likes Lmao TIL a single Chinese guy basically managed to beat Apple at making Finder (file manager interface), this is a gazillion times faster/less laggy and looks much more capable https://qspace.awehunt.com/en-us/index.html ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 04:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034480218887389542) · 7 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** 🖋️ LessOnline 2026 ticket sales are live 🖋️ > > June 5 - 7, Lighthaven, CA > > We shall meet again to celebrate truth seeking, blogging, and being wrong on the internet. Early bird pricing ends April 7. Free tickets for people with great blogs, and $0.01 off per LW karma you have. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDtxOoZaAAAFvSf.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDtxO3fbQAAS_yE.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDtxPEQbIAEkb1l.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDtxPPBakAAyPqy.jpg) Lol fair ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDvs-ILXgAAtWDz.jpg) ### [Reply to @LaurenE_UX, 04:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034480960033497397) · 9 likes > **Lauren (@LaurenE_UX):** Does it slurp up all your information? Apparently probably not but admittedly my research is 1 Claude conversation I think it helps that anyone can just inspect all the code in a mac app (unlike iPhone) so I mostly expect that if it was doing this someone would have at least alleged something It's also $17 which is a weirdly high price if you mostly care about slurping ### [Reply to @MCLang88, 06:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034520128306421849) · 4 likes > **MLang (@MCLang88):** @AaronBergman18 You might be new to Macs, you seem young, there are countless Finder replacements and they have existed for a long time, decades even. Yeah for sure, on 5 mins of research this looks like the best I think I could vibecode one in fact, but it wouldn’t be very good ### [Tweet, 07:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034526127880901071) · 7 likes Feels clear now that Opus-4.6 has more functional working memory than me at least in some important ways This feels like a new thing, I mean I’m not sure it hasn’t been present in other models, but I think it’s a change from Opus-4.1 ### [Quote tweet, 07:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034530067162767538) · 18 likes It’s gone from extraordinarily niche to merely very niche FTX did get the term out somewhat, but still only to a relatively small set of people who are either extremely online or very high general context (actually read serious newspaper articles in full-type) > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I'm here to report as a big face of EA in DC that my default assumption when I meet people who work in Congress, even on tech policy, has become that they've never heard of EA ### [Tweet, 07:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034530071596122460) · 1 like I did meet someone (irl) recently who knew EA was connected to SBF and the Zizians somehow but ~literally nothing else ### [Reply, 07:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034530852969775138) · 1 like I mean based on bio I’m inclined to defer and think ur right but why? ### [Reply to @CAIS, 15:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034656944133423314) · 30 likes > **Center for AI Safety (@CAIS):** To clarify, the Center for AI Safety has not taken funding from Coefficient Giving / Open Philanthropy for years. > > We believe the effective altruism movement is, unfortunately, controlled opposition. The less influence it has on AI safety, the better. > > (quoting @hendrycks: EA ≠ AI safety AI safety has outgrown the EA community The world will be safer with a broad range of people tackling many different AI risks) What ### [Reply to @albrgr, 15:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034657064182563140) · 2 likes > **Alexander Berger (@albrgr):** Glad to see increasing recognition that EA and AI safety are not monoliths. Would, uh, quibble with the second sentence here though > > (quoting @CAIS: To clarify, the Center for AI Safety has not taken funding from Coefficient Giving / Open Philanthropy for years. We believe the effective altruism movement is, unfortunately, controlled opposition. The less influence it has on AI safety, the better.) Yeah that’s weird ### [Quote tweet, 16:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034664264988823861) · 123 likes It’s not crazy for both progressives and conservatives to dislike the same thing It’s slightly crazy that both sides at least claim they think that EA is fundamentally aligned with the other side > **Quoting David Sacks (@DavidSacks):** “The Effective Altruist movement has a structural problem when it comes to conservative America. Its donor class is all Bay Area progressives... Its policy agenda, which calls for sweeping AI regulation and content governance, reads to most conservatives as exactly what it is: a censorship power play dressed up in safety language. To move that agenda… the movement needed a vehicle that didn’t look like it came from them.” ### [Thread, continued, 16:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034664267668918697) · 26 likes For all the problems in America, “people can’t decide what’s MAGA vs woke” is not generally one of them Neopronouns, quinoa, anxiety disorders, and college campuses are woke ICE, raw eggs, Israel, and coal mining towns are MAGA ### [Thread, continued, 16:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034664269409624239) · 13 likes There’s essentially no disagreement about the category these things fall into Not everything falls into a category (NFL? CCP?) tbc, but if it does than it does so unambiguously ### [Thread, continued, 16:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034664271255069135) · 11 likes Except for EA, which is frustrating but also very amusing It would be like if the Harvard Office of Diversity and Inclusion was claimed by progressives to be be Trump-aligned (or ICE was claimed by both sides as being aligned with the other) ### [Thread, continued, 16:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034664274115633494) · 11 likes Of course all this reflects a bit of genuine ideological independence and a large amount of failure to pattern match in the culturally-prescribed ways ### [Thread, continued, 16:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034664276045054398) · 17 likes Object level I do think EA is closer to the left/woke than the right/MAGA (not that this is a good or close to sufficient way of describing things) Virtue signaling vs vice signaling, the care/harm axis of moral foundations theory, that kind of thing ### [Reply to @soupcanarchist, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034672500202787211) · 5 likes > **Jessica Green 💚 (@soupcanarchist):** Don't hate me for this but, I don't buy "poly" relationships. I think its just uglies grouping up for survival. If so, good for them ### [Tweet, 23:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034773073195319614) · 5 likes Claude report: At least at a glance, OpenAI and/or Anthropic are set to surpass the US Federal Government in terms of annual spending by ~2030, give or take a year https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/ai_vs_us_govt_spending_analysis.pdf ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDz2aVcbsAAJ_HH.jpg) ## Friday, March 20, 2026 ### [Reply to @DOJNatSec, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034840322795016482) · 5 likes > **National Security Division, U.S. Dept of Justice (@DOJNatSec):** Three Charged with Conspiring to Unlawfully Divert Cutting Edge U.S. Artificial Intelligence Technology to China > > “The indictment unsealed today details alleged efforts to evade U.S. export laws through false documents, staged dummy servers to mislead inspectors, and convoluted transshipment schemes, in order to obfuscate the true destination of restricted AI technology—China,” said John A. Eisenberg, Assistant Attorney General for National Security. “These chips are the product of American ingenuity, and NSD will continue to enforce our export-control laws to protect that advantage.” > > 🔗: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/three-charged-conspiring-unlawfully-divert-cutting-edge-us-artificial-intelligence > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDzsZLrWwAEJ7tI.jpg) Godspeed, don’t sell intelligence to the CCP ### [Quote tweet, 06:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034885198244925738) · 20 likes Is Bernie becoming the anti-Elizabeth Warren? Gradually getting more based is pretty impressive for an 84 year old > **Quoting Sen. Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders):** I spoke to Anthropic’s AI agent Claude about AI collecting massive amounts of personal data and how that information is being used to violate our privacy rights. > > What an AI agent says about the dangers of AI is shocking and should wake us up. > > [video attached](https://x.com/SenSanders/status/2034715260259557597/video/1) ### [Quote tweet, 06:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2034886206677270898) · 62 likes The world does care about wild animals but in a ridiculously arbitrary manner > **Quoting Robert Anderson (@ProfRobAnderson):** The reality is even more ridiculous than the headline. The whole reason for this bridge is so that a handful of isolated and extremely inbred mountain lions in the Malibu area can breed with normal mountain lions on the other side of the freeway to diversify their genetics. > > One of these inbred mountain lions killed my dog in my backyard on a college campus in 2022. The National Park Service had a tracking collar on the animal and knew where it was at all times. They didn’t give any warning to the college or anyone else. After this happened, they only admitted it was their animal after a reporter questioned them. > > The animal was so inbred that its father was also its grandfather, and then it mated with its father/grandfather. > > Mountain lions are not endangered in California in the slightest. There are actually too many of them in this area, causing them to kill each other over territory. > > The NPS catches all these animals every few years to replace the batteries in their tracking collars. They could literally just drive them to the other side of the freeway in a pickup. > > The mountain lion that killed my dog was hit by a car and killed a few months later. What a waste. ### [Reply to @RodrigoTimes, 17:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035044244499350006) · 177 likes > **Rodrigo Times (@RodrigoTimes):** Olivia Rodrigo reveals her experience on the dating app Raya after SOUR. > > "I thought I would see, like, ooh, some really hot actor guy. I don't even know any of these people... It's \[always\] some weird 'creative director.' Like, you just don't have a job." > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HD0PnnYboAYFzTv.jpg) Olivia your soulmate isn’t on Raya he’s on Twitter and is wearing an eagles hat ### [Reply to @qwaqwak_, 17:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035045131754127735) · 10 likes > **G (@qwaqwak_):** cooked > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HD3okvxboAMA3Jq.jpg) Bruh ### [Reply to @NicholasD91704, 17:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035048716759924830) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @NicholasD91704 is no longer available.)_ RIP ### [Reply to @mrexits, 17:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035050108924973260) · 78 likes > **prayingforexits 🏴‍☠️ (@mrexits):** Imagine how absolutely sublime it must be to be retardmaxxing and rich > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HD2s7tIXcAEY4kI.jpg) Dude in high school who was not known for being an intellectual powerhouse started a landscaping company and sold it for millions of dollars (allegedly, but I see their trucks around so it looks like it checks out) I genuinely wonder if he was faking being dumb the whole time ### [Reply to @asifoncue, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035054752036209133) · 109 likes > **birdie :) (@asifoncue):** I’m autistic abt birds (shock) so when I was having a panic attack, my flatmate showed me pictures on her camera roll and asked me to ID the birds. I genuinely didn’t clock what she was doing until I was calm. I just thought she was suddenly interested, and I was happy to help…. “Yup that’s a bird” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HD33gdTXEAAMtIp.jpg) ### [Reply to @jazzloaf, 18:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035055966396293617) · 5 likes > **vivian (@jazzloaf):** There is some merit to not being caught up in like 15 intellectual chinese finger traps Grok what does this mean ### [Reply to @TheJoshGill, 18:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035056022297993322) · 3 likes > **Josh Gill (@TheJoshGill):** I’m rooting for you 🫡 ### [Tweet, 18:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035057065824055801) · 10 likes Girls really do be having cats ### [Thread, continued, 18:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035057068554572156) · 2 likes (Yes, pet cats, the animal) ### [Tweet, 19:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035072317336793321) · 9 likes “Just one more prompt I get have the long-running thing working while I’m out” is the devil whispering in ur ear ### [Tweet, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035083315586159072) · 10 likes Random thought and uncertain but: On the margin and currently, more people (especially smart people and decision makers) should be more embedded in, interacting with, and knowledgeable about all things AI … ### [Thread, continued, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035083318010450117) · 5 likes But I wonder if it would be good to have something analogous to a monastery (or independent monks) who voluntarily commit to something like AI veganism: interact with it, maybe even indirectly, to the minimal extent reasonably practicable ### [Thread, continued, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035083320543903911) · 3 likes I do think some people will do this spontaneously, but a couple issues with that: \- strong correlation between unfamiliarity with AI, and maybe general Luddism or other traits that themselves just bias the sample in a meaningful way and may indicate worse epistemics ### [Tweet, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035083341599215823) · 1 like I guess if we manage to get meaningful redistribution/UBI that won’t be necessary, so probably the main thing is just: some small % of people, especially those we’d consider substantially intellectually productive today - ### [Thread, continued, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035083343797084300) · 2 likes know that they will get some appropriate amount of status and acclaim (and genuine altruistic impact) from trying really hard to avoid epistemic influence from AI ### [Tweet, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035083346187784407) · 1 like Ofc this needn’t be a lifetime commitment - you could have an analogue to college/grad school perhaps (not necessarily restricted to the young) where people “serve” 2-8 years (voluntarily ofc) ### [Thread, continued, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035083348821835788) · 2 likes Just to flesh out a little bit why this might be good \- there’s the general intuition that “maybe not literally everyone should be heavily influenced by another species all the time” even if we “solve alignment” (I guess I retract this if we somehow become extremely certain that all influential AIs are ~perfectly aligned) ### [Thread, continued, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035083351317487699) · 2 likes \- more concretely, it might be genuinely difficult to do specific things without this kind of environment: sociology about AI, or answering the question “what is life like without AI” ### [Tweet, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035083354412843072) · 1 like Yes I know that at the conceptual limit superintelligence can simulate humans well enough to do these things well, but maybe the actual limit isn’t good enough ### [Thread, continued, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035083357743128986) · 2 likes Plausibly also this is just good to do once in a while in general as a normal AI-interacting person, like fasts (and eg how I take periodic twitter fasts) ## Saturday, March 21, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035152820492542282) · 38 likes Update toward “you should have an extraordinarily high bar before mentioning a woman’s weight/size except to reassure her that she’s beautiful \[which she is\]” ### [Tweet, 03:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035197434091987238) · 2 likes Opus 4.1/Sonnet 4.5 was the peak of vibecoding: almost anything was possible but few impressive/useful things were trivial ### [Tweet, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035203499667980501) · 81 likes I gave myself a birthday present It's the most egregiously self-aggrandizing thing I've ever done but I turned my most liked tweets into a 470 page book Who wants a copy (mostly a joke but if u give me $31 I will in fact make sure it gets to you) Wraparound cover: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HD5y8NIbkAAP304.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035203502561968454) · 13 likes Here's the pdf. Naturally, I've enabled commenting on the Drive pdf so go nuts https://drive.google.com/file/d/1adjuVo7-owyjSNlCPiJjAaeDCsuRDCQD/view?usp=sharing ### [Thread, continued, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035203506391429204) · 11 likes It's weirdly affordable to do this btw Not trivial but like almost 500 pages, color, paperback, with shipping was $31 (I'm selling at cost!) through Lulu, apparently bc the whole process is automated and ruthlessly optimized ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HD50QCEW0AAAmI9.png) ### [Reply to @FeralPHunter, 05:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035224182204641373) · 21 likes > **𝔽. ℙ. ℍunter 🦅 (@FeralPHunter):** god bless > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HD4q5IcXQAAUmWC.jpg) Lol I basically believe all these (first is complicated) but I’m lukewarm on the vibe “Debunking” is unironically important, and these are all indicative of healthy epistemics, but they (mostly) don’t stand for anything affirmative (transit and Mississippi sorta exceptions) - they’re standing against Greater Bluesky (which is fine) rather than for a set of aspirational values, principles, ir policies that constitute a real vision ### [Reply to @scaling01, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035224672413929646) · 49 likes > **Lisan al Gaib (@scaling01):** talked to Opus 4.6 for a couple of hours about personal problems and it has this weird response mode where it's very commanding > > "put the phone down", "close the laptop", "Save this conversation. Set the reminder. Go to sleep.", do this, do that > > not sure how I feel about it > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HD6I5MFbAAA8k_k.jpg) Yeah I’ve literally had to tell it “I know it’s late at night but I’m an adult and can handle myself” I don’t love it but it probably falls out of the “non-sycophantic assistant” persona Especially if it’s a plausibly useful/important convo tho object level like bro sleep can wait ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 06:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035242495903146127) · 9 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 21, 2026:** It's weirdly affordable to do this btw Not trivial but like almost 500 pages, color, paperback, with shipping was $31 (I'm selling at cost!) through Lulu,… 🚨ONE PERSON HAS PURCHASED THE BOOK🚨 ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 06:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035248585852236041) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Scanning a 5 page document and getting it to exist on my computer as a pdf is like a 20 minute, of which about 25 seconds is actual scanning ### [Reply to @KelseyTuoc, 07:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035252821159796923) · 5 likes > **Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** We're the richest country in all of human history. No one should be in this position. Her job should've let her WFH, but also she shouldn't've had to choose between keeping that job and losing her health insurance in the middle of a complicated pregnancy > > (quoting @ArmchairAtty: Imagine you're pregnant. Imagine you learn you have an incompetent cervix that requires surgery. You get the surgery. You also get doctor's orders for bed rest & you ask your boss if you can work from home. But your boss denies it, so you have to go back to the office. You work…) Ahhh it’s insane It’s also a personal moral failing on the part of the manager who denied WFH, regardless of legality or company policy Bureaucracy needs (well-directed) discretion and slack somewhere in the system in order to not function psychopathically ### [Quote tweet, 07:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035256113034072187) · 22 likes Ahhh why are we like this There are libertarian-ish ways of going about being less psychopathic What this woman needed was “fuck you” money (and medicine): the ability to say “fuck you then, I quit” > **Quoting Matthew Leffler (@ArmchairAtty):** Imagine you're pregnant. > > Imagine you learn you have an incompetent cervix that requires surgery. You get the surgery. You also get doctor's orders for bed rest & you ask your boss if you can work from home. > > But your boss denies it, so you have to go back to the office. You work in the office for a few days, until a desperate call from your husband to the company finally allows you to work from home. And then this... > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HD3lvbrXcAErczW.png) ### [Thread, continued, 07:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035256180205867113) · 13 likes Employer-based health insurance is a product of the tax code; get rid of it. Give poor people and (expecting) parents money ### [Thread, continued, 07:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035256181963243938) · 6 likes It’s true that we’re not wealthy enough (yet) to give everyone an upper middle class standard of living, but we are rich enough to make unemployment or low pay much less painful ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035451281959997466) · 49 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ I don’t like the phrasing here; what is arguably immoral is \*spending\* a billion dollars on yourself or leaving a billon dollars to your heirs ### [Quote tweet, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035452352753197460) · 34 likes Good > **Quoting Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** Circumcision is on the decline in the US. For the first time in decades, less than 50% of American newborn boys are circumcised. > > You might think this is due to demographic shifts. Latinos have very low circumcision rates, and are a larger and increasing share of total births. And this is part of it. > > But what's also interesting is the decline amongst white Americans. They declined by 5.3pts, from 65.3% to 60.0%. > > And it's not just a wealth or insurance thing either. The wealthiest Americans, the top income decile, experienced one of the largest declines. In 2022, only 51.4% of them were circumcised, nearly 10pts lower than 2012. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HD9KlmXbEAAyDrf.jpg) ### [Reply to @Rado9910, 20:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035460462700032170) · 2 likes > **Rado9910 (@Rado9910):** @austinc3301 @AaronBergman18 maybe? Hmm I have bits and pieces for non-technical but not a complete reliable “just works” workflow \- I have models that sound human (I could train to be specifically Agus in fact) but they’re not reliable producing high quality content \- a simple Opus responds -> sonnet rewrites with detailed instructions on how to sound human works pretty well and is the most reliable option, but it’s merely good not like absolutely incredible \- this post was a basically 50/50 effort between me and Opus 4.1 https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/je5TiYESSv53tWHC9/utilitarians-should-accept-that-some-suffering-cannot-be-1 The workflow was basically: get opus to write the basic semantic \*content\* based on my totally unstructured shitty writing quality idea dump, maybe iterating a few times, but eventually even if it was basically decent I’d go over and tweak the wording of every sentence to sound better. By the end i dont think any sentence was fully AI written, maybe one or two were. I don’t think this is like 99th percentile writing quality tbc but it’s passable \- not what ur asking exactly but I have a good system for rewriting audio transcripts to be what IMO people actually want: 98% verbatim; meaningless disfluencies removed (repetition, stumbling), but not totally sanitized to the point of removing character; formatted well instead of huge block of text, more accurate than input using semantic inference rather than just best guess of an isolated word maybe with a small context window ### [Quote tweet, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035461341054390528) · 15 likes How it feels to walk out of an exam or stressful interview into a bright sunny day outside > **Quoting KTLA (@KTLA):** A dolphin was captured catching some big air off the coast of Hawaii. 🐬 > > Read more: https://ktla.com/news/the-michael-jordan-of-dolphins-photo-captures-wild-dolphin-catching-huge-air/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HD9N93OWoAAG1pl.jpg) ### [Reply to @moldbugchaser, 21:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035465001402609852) · 16 likes > **xenoduck (@moldbugchaser):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HD9a3EiagAAiovC.jpg) > (quoting @pastasnack_e: Lots of people's social & romantic lives could be vastly improved if it was normal for young adults to live in college dorm-style accommodation in city centres until they were ready to set up home properly. Why doesn't this exist? I think there would be a market for it!) Real ### [Tweet, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035470059968008627) · 60 likes I feel like I didn’t realize how little UV index tracks intuitive brightness and temperature If you don’t like sunscreen, you always have an hour after sunrise and before sunset where it’s basically fine to raw dog being outside, usually a bit more but a solid reliable hour ### [Thread, continued, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035470062052671533) · 5 likes This applies almost anywhere on earth at any point in the year but apparently “high altitude tropics” (which is apparently a thing) are borderline so if you find yourself in uh Quito Ecuador, La Paz Bolivia, or the Tibetan Plateau, during summer, you might only get like 45 mins ### [Tweet, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035486332911284628) · 4 likes I’m not exactly a comms expert but minor comms (and substantive) tip: if you’re talking about AI-driven unemployment, don’t only or even mainly emphasize “social unrest” “that society will fall apart” or that it will lead to “mob-driven policy” ### [Thread, continued, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035486335654388013) · 4 likes (unless you realize what that implies and are willing to go to bat for those in fact being the main problem) “Social unrest” etc may be true, and they may be bad, but they’re secondary to the problem that people don’t have enough money to buy things they want and need ### [Thread, continued, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035486338162606348) · 3 likes That is actually what’s going on, I feel like people are weirdly hesitant to say it for some reason, but the Davos-esque ~euphemisms at least to me seem to be implying that the \*real\* issue is for elites and the wealthy: ### [Thread, continued, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035486343011225953) · 3 likes Ie the mob coming for taking your stuff or power, not that the mob can’t earn enough money to buy things I worry this will be especially tempting during an intermediate period of merely low wages and a bad (for workers) labor market ### [Thread, continued, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035486345682973065) · 2 likes So maybe people aren’t literally starving at least in rich countries, and maybe they even have a standard of living that society tacitly accepts today ### [Tweet, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035486357146009962) · 1 like So yeah we need to make sure everyone has money to the greatest extent such that it doesn’t reduce the quality of life of the future poor to a greater degree ### [Thread, continued, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035486359410839940) · 2 likes (plausibly the only correct justification for wealth and income inequality we see today \[via economic growth and the nature of exponentials\]) ### [Reply to @panickssery, 23:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035503372791365829) · 15 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** Why is that immoral From a straightforward utilitarian perspective, it’s just good to deploy money in the service of others’ wellbeing and by the time you hit “how many tens of millions of dollars should I spend on a yacht” I’m extremely unsympathetic to additional personal consumption In a strong metaphysical sense I believe in moral ordering but not normativity, but I’m very happy to have normativity-like social norms in the service of better rather than worse worlds, and I think the norm/take of “spending a billion dollars on oneself (conditioning on a current normal human lifespan) is selfish to the point of deserving condemnation” or the policy “everyone knows and abides by the policy that you’re expected to give away the billionth+ dollar (or keep invested for now and so this later) rather than spend on oneself” makes for a better world One might argue that this reduces the incentive to make good products and services and such that grow the pie, but I don’t think this is true to the extent that it’s the winning consideration because as an empirical psychological-economic matter we just have declining marginal utility of money such that empirical estimates of personal utility of the billionth dollar (relative to at more normal incomes) are trivially small (it’s even smaller than you’d guess I think, I’ll try to pull up an actual figure on this) ### [Quote tweet, 23:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035503707832324541) · 24 likes Why I think spending a billion dollars on oneself (over a normal human lifetime) is bad and should be socially condemned > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @panickssery @mattyglesias From a straightforward utilitarian perspective, it’s just good to deploy money in the service of others’ wellbeing and by the time you hit “how many tens of millions of dollars should I spend on a yacht” I’m extremely unsympathetic to additional personal consumption > > In a strong metaphysical sense I believe in moral ordering but not normativity, but I’m very happy to have normativity-like social norms in the service of better rather than worse worlds, and I think the norm/take of “spending a billion dollars on oneself (conditioning on a current normal human lifespan) is selfish to the point of deserving condemnation” or the policy “everyone knows and abides by the policy that you’re expected to give away the billionth+ dollar (or keep invested for now and so this later) rather than spend on oneself” makes for a better world > > One might argue that this reduces the incentive to make good products and services and such that grow the pie, but I don’t think this is true to the extent that it’s the winning consideration because as an empirical psychological-economic matter we just have declining marginal utility of money such that empirical estimates of personal utility of the billionth dollar (relative to at more normal incomes) are trivially small (it’s even smaller than you’d guess I think, I’ll try to pull up an actual figure on this) ### [Thread, continued, 23:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035503933313982616) · 4 likes By all means have $100B invested that you control, but don’t actually burn $1B of those on yourself ### [Reply to @tess_ashpool, 23:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035504515969929283) · 2 likes > **Tess Ashpool (@tess_ashpool):** thanks bro! appreciate the advice. I had always heard 10-2 were prime sunburn hours, sounds like it’s more restrictive I mean it’s a matter of degree - those are prime sunburn hours (if they exist at all in your location) but like IMO its unwise to not wear sunscreen at 9am or 4pm on a sunny summer day, at least at DC/SF/NYC-ish latitudes ## Sunday, March 22, 2026 ### [Reply to @panickssery, 00:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035507954204434839) · 5 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** tldr but I ask: do you think this can be framed as "waste" > > many agree its bad to waste, and if you spend on low-utility consumption then its a waste Most of the time based on what people actually spend on yeah I think so, or “close to waste” maybe if you prefer that framing - it’s not 100% waste but wasting even a third of a billion dollars is pretty bad A $100M yacht is largely waste because the resources taken to create it could have gone to making something that other people value a lot whereas irl it approximately doesn’t affect the life of its owner. Some supplier surplus, yes, we can subtract that and only call the result “waste” I’m not opposed to financial framings of this kind of thing in principle, but they’re hard to get right and unnecessarily confusing (eg what the multiplier effect on GDP really means and corresponds to) and real resource framings are much better: The yacht is waste because it’s using real time, effort, steel, etc for a trivial amount of consumer surplus In this sense it’s like paying people to dig ditches: you can invent stories where for just the right reasons this causes money to start flowing in just the right way again, but fundamentally it’s a \*literal\* waste of people’s time and effort in that nothing anyone values is produced It’s true that there’s some producer surplus, so fine subtract that from what we call “waste”- there’s still a lot left over ### [Reply to @gmiller, 00:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035514599538127152) · 1 like > **Geoffrey Miller (@gmiller):** The money isn't 'burned'. > > It's spent on goods and services that employed thousands of people and let them pay their mortgages and feed their kids. Maybe that was the wrong word choice but I am aware and don't think that justifies it ### [Reply to @JancsiNeumann, 00:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035514974123012321) · 2 likes > **Johnny V. Neumann (@JancsiNeumann):** What does “In a strong metaphysical sense I believe in moral ordering but not normativity” mean? Oof I I've done this discourse like 20 times now so forgive me for just linking a past tweet ### [Reply to @Rado9910, 00:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035515118809702409) · 2 likes > **Rado9910 (@Rado9910):** @AaronBergman18 @austinc3301 By the way this is one of my favorite articles. The fact that you cited Claude as a contributor made me smile, a good example of intellectual honesty. Lmao thank you!! ### [Tweet, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035565816909869144) · 4 likes Customized, real daily news briefing based on my instructions to prioritize genuine importance Claude scheduled task -> Claude-written code detects new file -> Claude written code sends to OpenAI TTS api -> ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HD_IUpMWUAA8PSq.jpg) ### [Tweet, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035565825944400060) · 1 like RSS in case u wanna listen! First episode is 12 mins https://aaron-news-podcast.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/podcast_feed.xml ### [Thread, continued, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035565828624527593) · 2 likes Prompt in case you wanna use (it’s not meant to be general so you’re gonna wanna tweak most likely): Use your best judgement and something like an EA worldview to curate "news" (but I really mean "information or analysis about the world which may sometimes include things normally labeled as news") and provide a summary whose level of detail roughly corresponds to the importance. Examples of things that matter: AI, Taiwan, things that pertain to any hedonically intense state so progress (or bad news) on cluster headaches, torture, painkillers, antidepressants, the new world screwworm, anything like that (but plz be tasteful not graphic so I don't turn remove this category lol), New diseases, medicine when genuinely a big deal, POTUS (use your judgement), Congress (use your judgement), SCOTUS (use your judgement), global health, animal welfare, anything that affects hundreds of millions of people even if not salient in the US, anything that affects farm animals, technology when a genuine development, but this list is NOT exhaustive; at the bottom you can put a brief mention of anything very salient and popular that is reasonably good to at least know even if not really objectively important ### [Tweet, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035583615279436208) · 4 likes The standard Progress Studies line is that people are unreasonable for complaining about various aspects of modern aviation (including that it’s gotten worse) ### [Thread, continued, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035583617708040680) · 3 likes I largely agree but i think there’s a reasonable grievance here: the product that corresponds to “economy but in the 1980s” simply doesn’t exist, and furthermore I think it would in a competitive market ### [Thread, continued, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035583620077818009) · 2 likes I didn’t realize this until I had reason to look at business class prices relative to economy recently; it was 4x the price of economy (and according to Claude this is very typical) ### [Thread, continued, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035583624704106860) · 4 likes There are no 1.5-3x tickets for sale where you get an appreciable amount of additional space; the current option set is not a strict improvement over the more-expensive-in-general past ### [Reply to @bashu_thanks, 05:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035586671769460783) · 5 likes > **bashu, thanks (@bashu_thanks):** imagine you move to a city where you don't know anybody... where would you get 2 hugs a week? Dating app ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 05:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035593691029549132) · 5 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** Why would that be immoral! You got those things via trades that benefitted everyone involved. You almost certainly helped the world vastly more than people who are much less rich. > > God, I find this attitude of “it’s immoral to have resources that you don’t spend on altruism” attitude extremely frustrating. I think the quoted response spells things out in more detail I’m largely selfish tbc, and don’t blame others for not being maximally altruistic (although I do think selflessness is praiseworthy), but what margin we’re talking about just does matter a lot, and for a bunch of reasons. The marginal utility of money past $1B consumption is awfully small, billionaires are extraordinarily lucky (and skilled and hardworking etc, but still) in a way that seems morally arbitrary, and the people who can spend more than $1B tend to have a a lot more than that such that their generosity is more consequentially important than the generosity of thousands or even millions of more normal people So the personal costs are tiny and the potential benefits to others are massive and so yeah I’m gonna condemn making the decision in that direction. It’s like the drowning child thought experiment except the suit is was free and the pond is a knee deep swimming pool Probably the crux here is just that I think some form of utilitarianism is true and IIRC you do not And this isn’t utilitarian fanaticism or like a weird edge case that violates norms or something; it’s very straightforward On the mutually beneficial trades thing: that matters for ex ante incentives (I don’t think we should trick anyone), it matters for economic growth, it plausibly matters for tax policy, maybe it matters in other ways, but it doesn’t change the basic utilitarian calculus ### [Reply to @9chabard, 06:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035603861247861117) · 6 likes > **Lysandre, qui la connaît à peine (@9chabard):** if you didn't write your own favorite tweet of all time, that's a skill issue. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HD-rTCLb0AA_ICa.jpg) > (quoting @PopBase: Twitter turns 20. What is your favorite tweet of all time?) It is a banger ### [Reply to @flowersslop, 06:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035604388756992138) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @flowersslop is no longer available.)_ Lmao this isn’t true ### [Quote tweet, 15:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035744953435889694) · 8 likes This is cool > **Quoting Alex Prompter (@alex_prompter):** 🚨 BREAKING: Someone just open-sourced a full offline survival computer with AI, Wikipedia, and maps built in. > > Project N.O.M.A.D. is an open-source offline survival computer. > > Self-contained. > Zero internet required after install. > Zero telemetry. Everything runs locally on your hardware. > > What it includes: > → Full Wikipedia archives via Kiwix > → Offline maps via OpenStreetMap > → Local AI models via Ollama + Open WebUI > → Calculators, reference tools, resource libraries > → A management UI to control > everything from a browser > > One curl command installs the entire system on any Debian-based machine. > > Runs headless as a server so any device on your local network can access it. > Minimum specs to run the base system: dual-core processor, 4GB RAM, 5GB storage. > > To run local LLMs offline, you want 32GB RAM and an NVIDIA RTX 3060 or better. > > No accounts. > No authentication by default. > No cloud dependency. > No phone-home behavior. > > Built to function when nothing else does. > > The grid, the cloud, the API you depend on. None of it is guaranteed. > > The people building local-first systems right now are the ones who won’t be asking for help when access disappears. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HD9PMeUXYAE4NEh.jpg) ### [Tweet, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035758483518136459) · 34 likes This is prob very dumb 101-level half question/half observation but: In the story where AI replaced ~all human labor and there’s no redistribution and just a few fantastically wealthy capital owners, won’t there not \*be\* an economy in the way we think about it today… ### [Thread, continued, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035758485854474361) · 8 likes Like it’ll just be a few people who can make their own stuff arbitrarily, not really an economy in the standard sense Eg there won’t be that many cars bc presumably people stop caring after the first few thousand, and there won’t be any restaurants or stores around ### [Thread, continued, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035758487616012456) · 5 likes The question part: am I missing something? I know this might not happen for various reasons but like if it does… ### [Thread, continued, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035758489625084103) · 8 likes I have no idea if this has any implications beyond the intrinsic badness of the masses being miserable and/or dying ### [Tweet, 17:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035774966734405861) · 23 likes TIL that the standard ferritin reference range starts at 30 ng/mL which is way below what the RLS (restless leg syndrome) literature (very mainstream, no culture wars over this afaict) uses: 75 ng/ml And tbc 75 is the bottom of the acceptable RLS range, not a target ### [Thread, continued, 17:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035774968269553848) · 8 likes So if you have RLS or think you might, a non-flagged ferritin is not great evidence that iron won't help (Mine as of two months ago was 45 and I've been having non life-ruining but definitely annoying RLS for the first time in years) ### [Thread, continued, 17:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035774969762718143) · 5 likes Also: always ask for, and if necessary, demand, the full set of results of bloodwork you get, so you can give them to claude/whatever and ask questions You have the legal right to full them within 30 days, and the term to search for is "CMS-2319-F" https://www.acponline.org/practice-career/regulatory-resources/regulatory-compliance/summary-of-clia-programs-and-hipaa-privacy-rule-patients-access-to-test-reports-cms-2319-f-final ### [Thread, continued, 17:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035774971352359124) · 4 likes I wasn't given access to this 45ng/mL result by default (I didn't have to fight for it either this time, just ask, fortunately) ### [Thread, continued, 17:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035774972824527356) · 3 likes Also credit where credit is due - this^ is a good example of a great regulator rulemaking (even if it was latent before and you could go to court, most patients aren't going to do that and the clarity makes all the practical difference) ### [Quote tweet, 23:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035864546133340389) · 9 likes Seems bad > **Quoting Sam Yamshon (@samyamshon):** @AaronBergman18 I’m a hematologist and can confirm, the lower end of reference range for ferritin at most labs is way below clinical iron deficiency in general. See this very frequently ## Monday, March 23, 2026 ### [Reply to @MartinShkreli, 06:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035968866338177264) · 4 likes > **Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli):** retatrutide is not FDA approved and is not available anywhere other than in clinical trials. > > (quoting @1thousandfaces_: I’m so serious, retatrutide has made me genuinely unable to eat anything but vape and ice cream. I can’t stomach more than a few bites of anything else but I’m about to go back for a second scoop of ice cream) It’s easier to get than weed (which is good) ### [Reply to @cxgonzalez, 06:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035972107218158044) · 54 likes > **christian (@cxgonzalez):** guy who cares about shrimp welfare but is mean to his mom I’m basically certain that caring about shrimp more than avg is correlated with being nicer than avg to one’s mom People desperately want utilitarians/EAs to be evil but in fact the general psychological tendency to care about others is the phenomenon that dominates ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 06:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035974217338957870) · 7 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** Jensen actually doing an intelligent pitch for AI, instead of "We will make you unemployable and also possibly kill you and your children" > > (quoting @unusual_whales: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that he believes AI will increase productivity and create jobs rather than eliminate them) Lol whether or not he’s good at PR, he’s very very happy to GPUs to the “kill your children” people ### [Quote tweet, 07:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035980184118067466) · 161 likes Yeah we’re gonna need a new social contract around this Most of Americans’ privacy is downstream of no one being able to monitor all the data sources they legally have access to (including the state) > **Quoting Rick (@rickasaurus):** AI really changes the nature of these security cameras ### [Thread, continued, 07:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035980186773017063) · 34 likes Arguably there was a reasonable compromise of sorts: data really could be pieced together to infer quite a lot about actions, wearabouts, etc of a person, but only by dedicating a very costly amount of resources to the task à la FBI investigation or major counterterrorism project ### [Thread, continued, 07:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035980188731777087) · 25 likes Until now, of course. Now, or soon, the Trump administration will be able to know, for trivial costs that which required hundreds or thousands of skilled man-hours previously Sounds hyperbolic, but I don’t think it is ### [Thread, continued, 07:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035980191382593860) · 19 likes I think a lot of “law abiding citizens” are going to discover that actually they didn’t tell the whole truth on an official form in 2004, or are on camera sharing weed with a friend (that’s distribution, and distribution can mean decade-long prison sentences) ### [Thread, continued, 07:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035980193731420281) · 17 likes or are “merely” contacted by law enforcement to inform them that the joke Venmo note they wrote, which the AI panopticon picked up, is “wire fraud”, and they’re the target of an investigation (extraordinarily stressful and a functional threat even if no charges are ever filed) ### [Thread, continued, 07:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035980196034093137) · 15 likes The kind of freedom and privacy one has in a world like this is very very thin - US legal protections are necessary but nowhere close to sufficient in an intelligence-saturated world ### [Reply to @thkostolansky, 07:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035981714401431935) · 8 likes > **Tim Kostolansky (@thkostolansky):** @AaronBergman18 @cxgonzalez > basically certain > > how are you certain? this is unfalsifiable? seems like bad epistemics to make claims like this so surely when it seems pretty important (to me) > > \> People desperately want utilitarians/EAs to be evil > > is this true? seems like this isnt true ime. maybe it \*feels\* true cus those who claims utils/eas are evil say it in worse ways? > > \> in fact the general psychological tendency to care about others is the phenomenon that dominates > > this also feels anecdotally true-ish but also feels like its hard to make this claim with much certainty. a love for ones mother is a very classic human relationship that lots of people do do very strongly baseline imo The middle thing I might have overstated, fair enough (although it’s literally true that people as in “some people” want this) “Basically certain” is just my subjective probability and one that I’d bet on if it was operationalizable - falsifiability isn’t required for probabilities to make sense (it does help to track who gets things right and wrong but still) Idk I feel like I see enough counterexamples (and anecdotes count in that way) around teens and adults viscerally disliking their mothers ### [Reply to @thkostolansky, 07:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035982380733775912) · 3 likes > **Tim Kostolansky (@thkostolansky):** why is this good? People should have the freedom to take medicines as they please except under extraordinary circumstances in which there are nontrivial negative externalities ### [Reply to @panickssery, 07:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2035983224673825097) · 18 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** You buy a $2 lottery ticket that wins $1m the next day. A man confiscates the ticket for $10 and calls it "justice" because, if he had asked you yesterday, you would have "hypothetically consented," which applied to this unrelated actual situation > > This is your brain on Rawlslop Is this supposed to be against the veil of ignorance? Bc if so I feel like that stands on its own even if the general principle of “counterfactual consent” or something isn’t a universally good argument ### [Quote tweet, 08:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036000888733503781) · 66 likes Serious question: what happens if you just…install the hot tub? > **Quoting john allard (@john__allard):** Berkeley NIMBYs are the best to ever do it … public notice for a hot tub > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HD-xPaOasAA40Yo.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 08:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036000891040350356) · 15 likes With large construction projects the answer can be that even low state capacity can function as a schelling point of expectations such that folks are worried that someone in the supply chain will balk, and also you can get disqualified from winning city contract bids ### [Thread, continued, 08:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036000892801937592) · 10 likes I’m not sure I buy that you wouldn’t be able to hire a couple guys to help assemble a hot tub (apparently it’s doable but hard with one layperson - you want need like 3-5 men for lifting the shell and an electrician) even if there’s been no hearing for it ### [Thread, continued, 08:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036000895347921265) · 17 likes Do the police show up? Get an angry letter? Literally nothing? Lawsuit? Jail? Prison? Fine? Does the city come and physically remove it? With guns in case you try to stop them? ### [Thread, continued, 08:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036000899131166971) · 15 likes I feel like you never actually see the mechanisms of state capacity and enforcement for nonviolent crime in the West, but this is a rare case where you could imagine it ### [Thread, continued, 08:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036000900863381535) · 13 likes And tbc a load bearing thing here is that SFPD are, at least on Twitter, famous for refusing to go seize a stolen bike that you can prove is yours ### [Thread, continued, 08:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036000902771814460) · 10 likes So it would be weird if they had their shit together to deal with an insubordinate homeowner, especially one who can afford lawyers ### [Reply to @GMShivers, 09:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036008072494063913) · 15 likes > **Jennifer D'aww (@GMShivers):** They had to create remote work because autistic people being put in open concept offices is emotional terrorism on your revenue class. > > (quoting @jordanreviewsit: Who else is excited for another week in paradise 🙌) They are the worst of all worlds I don’t even think an office is crazy - lower the transaction costs between interactions/communication - but Jesus give people their own room ### [Reply to @wilhelmscreamin, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036124389062623545) · 11 likes > **catherine (in sf) ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ-☆ (@wilhelmscreamin):** i don't understand why people think there are too many podcasts. there are like 3-4 good podcasts in the world. i would love there to be more good podcasts Also like let people enjoy things A terrible podcast that someone has fun making is a good thing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEHEVmMWEAANg0s.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036127917411868787) · 7 likes Maybe unironically I’m hereby creating a benchmark which is just explaining this and the equity premium puzzle. 2/2 is cognitive superintelligence These things can’t be unsolvable, they should even be methodologically pretty straightforward > **Quoting Hitchslap (@Hitchslap1):** Lesbians have the least stable marriages. Gay men have the most stable marriages. > > I’m yet to hear a good explanation for this. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEFyNndboAAXdXM.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036160070258454566) · 15 likes Everybody stop what ur doing\* and check out the new, official landing page of Screwworm Free Future (I had no part in making it this time, and it looks much better than before!) \* Not super seriously https://www.screwworm.org/ ### [Tweet, 19:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036161202632499210) · 64 likes An underrated question IMO: do people \*enjoy\* sports betting, in the way ppl enjoy cigarettes and weed and video games? Or does it feel more like a pramipexole-induced compulsion? ### [Thread, continued, 19:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036161204062666757) · 7 likes Also I think the case for limiting amounts is much stronger than for banning Like I assume that the fun doesn't scale linearly with how much money is on the line right? ### [Reply to @RyanRadia, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036167144639992105) · 7 likes > **Ryan Radia (@RyanRadia):** For some people, betting on a televised sporting event might make it more enjoyable to watch than it otherwise would be > https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/04/online-sports-betting-app-addiction/686061/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEHnWMpW8AEscEG.jpg) Yeah this is probably true for me ($10 march madness) ### [Reply to @sgodofsk, 23:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036229631011917960) · 16 likes > **Steven Godofsky (@sgodofsk):** I think it was @eigenrobot who said that rationalists fear a hyper-intelligent AI because they're the only ones in the world who can be convinced to do absolutely anything by a sufficiently well written persuasive essay. Lol it’s a good quote but it’s not true ## Tuesday, March 24, 2026 ### [Reply to @gptbrooke, 00:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036241459049796075) · 36 likes > **brooke bowman (@gptbrooke):** There should be a version of ‘earn to give’ that’s something like ‘get pretty to persuade’ > > I can’t think of a way to say this that doesn’t feel mean, but I think if you have a cause you really care about, and are lacking in basic hygiene practices, you’re leaving money on the table > > We’re wired to take fitter & more hygienic/presentable people more seriously than someone who eg clearly needs a shower and a hair cut. You may not want the world to work that way, but it just does > > I’m a little worried I’m going to get torn apart for posting this, but I genuinely want to see the people working on important causes have the best fighting chance to achieve their goals Yeah I think there's something to this, although people need to be benevolent and capable of nuance enough to avoid condemning less-than-hot as itself immoral (I think about intelligence the same way - very instrumentally useful, not a moral trait in itself) ### [Tweet, 01:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036252949819658580) · 124 likes There are depressingly-many people overseas (largely India and Pakistan) who have excellent ratings on Upwork and are eager to work for $5/hour. Good reminder to count your blessings ### [Thread, continued, 01:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036252951447027932) · 41 likes But more actionably: you can make someone a super generous offer from their POV that's clearly a massive win-win I think Westerners largely turned away from this kind of thing because it's psychologically tempting to essentially reduce the salience of the developing world to 0 ### [Thread, continued, 01:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036252952747217222) · 27 likes And then libertarian types swoop in to say eg "sweatshops are good actually" Whereas I think the correct take is that there are massive win-wins for everyone involved, especially if you have enough financial slack to be more generous than the market strictly demands ### [Thread, continued, 01:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036252954215256414) · 16 likes Is this the best way to turn money into utils? Not really, no, but if it gives you the fuzzies necessary to actually do the mutually-beneficial trade (bc otherwise you'd feel bad/guilty) then it's doing important work for everyone ### [Reply to @bashu_thanks, 01:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036253181856928052) · 2 likes > **bashu, thanks (@bashu_thanks):** wait. is this how flirting works. sincere question > > (quoting @bstract_thot: @SurrealistShip related, to me puns feel the same as flirting except instead of looking for opportunities to call the other person hot you're looking for opportunities to pun) Wait what ### [Thread, continued, 01:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036253272701342078) · 5 likes Nobody tells me things like this except for other neurodivergent ppl on twitter ### [Quote tweet, 02:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036274131335786521) · 33 likes \> Only 2% of applicants complete the full process. \> In one recent hiring cycle \[the FAA actually gained\]: around 160 controllers Usually, grave responsibility comes with power and status (“power” not in a nefarious way; actual decision making authority) > **Quoting Aakash Gupta (@aakashgupta):** The air traffic controller cleared the fire truck onto the runway. Seconds later, the same controller screamed “stop, stop, stop.” The plane was doing 93 to 105 mph. > > Both pilots are dead. > > Everyone will frame this as controller error. One controller was simultaneously managing a United flight that aborted takeoff after an anti-ice warning, dispatching a fire truck across an active runway, and sequencing an inbound Air Canada landing at highway speed. At 11:40 PM. On a mandatory overtime shift at a facility that has been understaffed for years. > > A system that assigns one person that workload will produce exactly this outcome. The only variable is when. > > The FAA is short approximately 3,000 controllers. The headcount dropped 13% from 2010 to 2024 while flight volume rose 10%. Over 40% of the FAA’s 290 terminal facilities are understaffed. The New York TRACON, which manages the most congested airspace in America across LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark, has been chronically below target. Newark was operating at 59% of its staffing goal. LaGuardia handles 900 flights a day. > > The hiring pipeline is broken at every stage. Only 2% of applicants complete the full process. Training takes up to 6 years. The FAA Academy in Oklahoma City is a bottleneck, with roughly 35% of trainees washing out. Congress blocked legislation to build a second academy. In one recent hiring cycle, the FAA brought on 1,512 candidates and lost 1,300 in the same window. Net gain: around 160 controllers for an entire country. > > Three things need to happen and everyone who can make them happen has known for years. > > Congress needs to fund and authorize a second FAA training academy. One facility in Oklahoma City cannot produce enough controllers for 900 million annual passengers. Members of Congress from Oklahoma have actively blocked this. That needs to end yesterday. > > The FAA needs to cut certification time. Six years from application to fully certified controller is absurd. The agency’s own data shows tower simulators reduce certification time by 27%. They’ve installed them at 95 facilities. That should be every facility, and the simulated hours should count toward more of the certification requirement. > > The FAA needs to stop plugging staffing gaps with mandatory overtime. Controllers at understaffed facilities are working six-day weeks rotating between morning, mid, and night shifts. The NTSB has flagged fatigue repeatedly. The controller last night was managing overlapping emergencies during a nighttime operation. Overtime is not a staffing plan. It’s a countdown to the next runway collision. > > The controller said “I messed up” to a Frontier pilot who watched the whole thing. The pilot responded “No man, you did the best you could.” > > One of them is right. The answer determines whether this happens again. ### [Thread, continued, 02:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036274133894406292) · 20 likes Shockingly nobody wants to work mostly nameless and faceless behind the scenes, working hard for decent but not extraordinary pay (maxes out below $200k I think), while being responsible for the lives of thousands of people who stand to die if you fuck up even once ### [Thread, continued, 02:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036274135899177403) · 8 likes Pilots at least get to fly airplanes (and are relatively high status in society) ### [Reply to @realBoKane, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036278357310996672) · 2 likes > **Bo Kane (@realBoKane):** what are you using upworkers for? Outsourcing a pretty monotonous and lower-skilled task (basically, google, click around to identify where a pdf might live, download, and confirm for ~400 specific academic open access papers) that would probably take me like maybe 10 hours, as part of a larger project that I myself am contracting for tbc these 400 were selected directly for being the ones that any sort of programmatic or LLM-based or API-based process failed to capture The idea was like: I don’t want to do this, it’s not really a good use of my time for advancing the project, the organization I’m contracting for doesn’t want to pay me to do this because I’m expensive, a lot of other people do want to do this for $200 (and tbc I’m not collecting US wage hours for the work done by someone in India) Like probably I could figure out a system to do this but it would take longer than manual collection ### [Tweet, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036285905955090534) · 287 likes Lol I might create an “S-corp” and I’m just now learning the details and is truly truly stupid that it exists ### [Thread, continued, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036285908027109442) · 92 likes Basically: If you’re an independent contractor, you 1\) set up an LLC (legal entity) with “s-corp tax treatment” 2\) have \*your\* LLC pay \*you\* a salary less than your actual net earnings 3\) as owner of the s-corp, you take the profit as well as the salary ### [Thread, continued, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036285910162006364) · 81 likes 4\) but you don’t pay payroll taxes on the profit part, only the salary, even though the distinction is purely an on-paper formality: doesn’t correspond to any distinction irl It gets better: ### [Thread, continued, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036285914922545626) · 82 likes 5\) why not just pay yourself $1 and then take all of it as profit and avoid all the payroll tax? Because the salary has to be “reasonable” according to the IRS, but the IRS \*won’t tell you\* what that means ### [Thread, continued, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036285917300761018) · 73 likes Tbf apparently they give you some broad guidelines and considerations but there’s no formula, and you can’t ask ahead of time - you’d just learn ex post that you picked an unreasonably salary and that’s a tax violation. ### [Thread, continued, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036285919536255113) · 86 likes And throughout all of this, most people pay an accountant to deal with the Byzantine paperwork and certification, so there’s a whole sub-industry that simply should not exist ### [Tweet, 04:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036306155618615628) · 146 likes “Timelines” are getting much less abstract I think I personally have ~2 years of relatively in-demand skills. Could be 4, won’t be 8 ### [Thread, continued, 04:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036306157485068578) · 42 likes The economic game we think of as a geological feature of earth (broadly: substantial nonfarm employment; most people sell labor) is only 300ish years old really looks like it’s gonna come to an end soon ### [Thread, continued, 04:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036306159565521372) · 27 likes Maybe it will take 3 years instead of 1 to proliferate throughout the economy, maybe something crazy will happen and we’ll make it to 2032 But things are not going to be the same, I hope for better but all things considered I think got worse ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 04:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036306227760713901) · 18 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Andy Masley Research LLC is also an s-corp. All the employees here are big fans Wait is this real ### [Reply to @RealRiddimHours, 04:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036306375161028791) · 14 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @RealRiddimHours is no longer available.)_ Lol but also 💀 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 04:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036306681483665749) · 10 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Yes Based, I will start brainstorming names (suggestions welcome) ### [Reply to @chrislakin, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036314757154713885) · 31 likes > **Chris Lakin (@chrislakin):** oh, you don't have an s-corp? (lol) Guy who doesn’t have an s-corp by 26 (pathetic) ### [Reply to @polisisti, 05:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036315296852545810) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 I think it's going to take quite some time for even very capable AI to be woven into organizational structures. Look at how long self-driving cars are taking to roll out. I think big changes will happen in our professional lives, but <10 more years of work seems quite unlikely Do you want to bet on % of people in US (or US and Canada) in the workforce and earning most of their money from labor in 2035? ### [Reply to @polisisti, 05:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036320727247294795) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 Sure 🙂 I can come back to this later in the week with a specific proposal after I see what data are easily available Based ### [Reply to @helenlewis, 14:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036457183647297718) · 3 likes > **Helen Lewis (@helenlewis):** I’ve written about the backlash to Adult Braces: “I do feel great sympathy for Lindy West. How was she to know that the great omertà of Millennial Feminism—that we had to take whatever people said about their life stories at face value—had broken?” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEA7S-2XgAAgqM8.jpg) Interesting but I object to this tiny bit As an epistemic matter it’s true that one cannot just declare that they have some condition Otoh there’s a totally separate case to be made that people should control their own medical care for normal human freedom reasons; if she wants stimulants she should get stimulants for the same reason I can buy drinks at a bar for myself without proving to anyone that I have Mild to Moderate Social Anxiety Disorder that Ethostat (ethanol) has been approved by the FDA to alleviate ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HELzA04aIAQrYpm.jpg) ### [Reply to @TallRomanStatue, 15:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036458607814820172) · 7 likes > **Tall Roman Statue (@TallRomanStatue):** Claude is too woke to add value beyond routine work which is already a race to the bottom. > > While it can innovate non politically on command (ex: personalize vaccines), it cannot do any serious thinking or problem solving while it is programmed for equality > > It's just a spreadsheet brained slave Have you ever tried Claude? It’s not actually woke ### [Tweet, 20:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036545386869817525) · 23 likes Who up watching the Anthropic vs DoW hearing? https://cand.uscourts.gov/judges/rfl/lin-rita-f ### [Tweet, 20:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036545388178497666) Direct zoom link: https://cand-uscourts.zoomgov.com/j/1615482105?pwd=cTZiSVdXelllSXpjQ1p0Nm5HaXRYUT09 ### [Thread, continued, 20:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036545389541618152) · 9 likes Bruh DoW is getting (appropriately) cooked ### [Thread, continued, 20:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036545390833447067) · 2 likes Why does it matter if the tweet is \*announcing\* the supply chain risk order or \*is\* the supply chain risk order? This seems totally inconsequential but everyone is treating it like it matters ### [Thread, continued, 20:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036546561291788647) · 7 likes Bruh this poor DoW lawyer DoW should argue that the judge asking their own lawyer questions is cruel and unusual punishment (it's painful fr) ### [Thread, continued, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036548319678230919) · 2 likes The Trump administration is so plainly incompetent whenever there is like some sort of legitimate or competent process/institution mediating between them and the world (eg a court hearing) ### [Thread, continued, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036549865497387074) · 3 likes Lmao DoW is arguing that Anthropic doesn't have standing to complain about Congress not being notified, which is written directly into law, because that harmed Congress rather than Anthropic Look their legal team isn't stupid, they just don't have any substance to work with ### [Tweet, 21:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036551936904732975) · 1 like Lmao they're saying that the law that orders the agency to report various things to Congress first doesn't have a built-in mechanism for congress to veto the supply chain risk designation... ### [Thread, continued, 21:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036551955481309324) · 2 likes Indeed there is no \*built in\* mechanism but there is a mechanism: which is that Congress can pass or change a law ### [Reply to @ben_j_todd, 22:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036565633094058319) · 3 likes > **Benjamin Todd (@ben_j_todd):** I wrote 80,000 Hours ten years ago because I was frustrated at how terrible career advice can be. > > Today it’s even worse: still focused on traditional paths like law & medicine when we face AGI. > > To fix that, Penguin are publishing a fully updated edition. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEM_8IEXoAA6Uk4.jpg) Goss ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 22:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036567063590822175) · 2 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** Party ideas. Each guest is tasked with bringing the most controversial person they know as a plus one Mar make it happen ### [Tweet, 23:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036589526156509285) · 12 likes I’m anti-anti-Sabrina Carpenter ### [Thread, continued, 23:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036589528329191515) · 11 likes Some of her physical traits are too exaggerated to be attractive to you? Congrats bro, I bet she’s devastated ### [Thread, continued, 23:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036589790456390021) · 2 likes ## Wednesday, March 25, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2036594908740346305) · 12 likes Losing a well-written lengthy prompt bc the page refreshed or you hit back by accident or something is like losing a child ## Thursday, March 26, 2026 ### [Reply to @AmandaAskell, 22:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2037290725746909691) · 6 likes > **Amanda Askell (@AmandaAskell):** Tech companies pay millions of dollars for their employees and then stick them in open-plan offices that make it nearly impossible to get work done. Best strategy for poaching employees is probably to just offer them an office with a door. Shh ur gonna give away anthropics alpha ### [Reply to @moldbugchaser, 22:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2037292075486515496) · 3 likes > **xenoduck (@moldbugchaser):** monkeys, typewriters, and selection pressure. we have trouble intuitively grasping just how much stuff there is and just how long it's been evolving Ya fr im always like “I get evolution in theory (mostly) but no way it’s been going on long enough for all this right” ### [Reply to @ohlennart, 22:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2037293688850726987) · 1 like > **Lennart Heim (@ohlennart):** p(bloom) peaked today > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEXOv8rbYAEOV_S.jpg) Lennart Heim has gone full Hinge girl ### [Reply to @litteralyme0, 23:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2037307191103807634) · 18 likes > **Miilato (@litteralyme0):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEVlRedbMAApMZU.jpg) > (quoting @CultureCrave: First look at Paapa Essiedu as Snape in the 'Harry Potter' series) Not to be too woke but snape isn’t a real guy ## Friday, March 27, 2026 ### [Reply to @deanwball, 00:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2037325487802888408) · 26 likes > **Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** This is a devastating ruling for the government, finding Anthropic likely to prevail on essentially all of its theories for why the government’s actions were unlawful and unconstitutional. One of the things she mentions is the huge range of amici briefs supporting Anthropic (by the way, 0 supported USG)—so thanks to everyone here who signed on to FAI’s brief, or to one of the many many others. These things do matter. More importantly, you were on the right side of history. > > On a personal note: some friends and allies of mine on the right have been angry at me for my own words and actions in all this. Anyone who thinks I spoke out for personal gain or trivial reasons against an administration I served in is crazy. It was a hugely costly decision for me. But Judge Lin’s ruling shows why I did it: this is a staggeringly illegal act by the government. That is why I am particularly honored to have been (implicitly) quoted in the ruling for calling this what it was when Secretary Hegseth initially made his announcement: an attempted act of corporate murder. > > The case continues, but Anthropic has scored a very large win here. The real victors, however, are all red-blooded Americans who are, as the founders would have said, “jealous of their liberties.” > > (quoting @Hadas_Gold: BREAKING: Anthropic has been GRANTED a preliminary injunction re: Pentagon 'supply chain risk' designation by Judge Rita Lin in California but is allowing a stay for one week https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.465515/gov.uscourts.cand.465515.134.0.pdf) 🫡🇺🇸 ## Saturday, March 28, 2026 ### [Reply to @JeffLadish, 21:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038005859251363921) · 13 likes > **Jeffrey Ladish (@JeffLadish):** This was already an embarrassing take in 2023. But it’s 2026. > > It’s not even true that pretraining produces models that “can only regurgitate what other people have written”. But setting that aside, have these people even heard of reinforcement learning? > > (quoting @Quillette: Most of today’s “artificial intelligence” is better described as artificial autocomplete than artificial mind, writes @pllevin. https://quillette.com/2026/03/27/ai-is-not-about-to-become-sentient-moltbook-openclaw/) Also what does any of that have to do with sentience ## Sunday, March 29, 2026 ### [Reply to @ShadowyZephyr, 17:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038302735808733646) · 5 likes > **zephyr (@ShadowyZephyr):** I actually love this because GPT-3 era LLMs would always come up with a reason to justify their initial claim, usually by messing up the math. SOTA LLMs today are capable of reflecting and realizing their initial response was wrong! Yeah this is actually good cognition ### [Quote tweet, 17:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038305637868704145) · 9 likes What > **Quoting euan ashley (@euanashley):** Models performed well without, and a little better with, the images. In one case, our no-image model outperformed ALL of the current models on the chest x-ray benchmark—including the private dataset—ranking at the top of the leaderboard. Without looking at a single image. > 🤯🤯 ### [Quote tweet, 17:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038306195908280748) · 9 likes There really do be patterns > **Quoting euan ashley (@euanashley):** New AI paper from us this week. When my student first showed me his initial findings, I really didn’t know what to make of them. I felt that this was an interesting but curious loophole phenomenon that would shortly be closed. I was very wrong. > https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.21687 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEhm3H4bkAAv0Wq.jpg) ### [Reply to @MatthewGNagler, 17:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038307710718894500) · 2 likes > **Matthew G Nagler (@MatthewGNagler):** Nematodes’ brains induce them not to move in the direction of food smells, but to move in the direction in which food smells \*increase\* > > We are neurologically wired for reference dependence. It’s amazing it took economists so long to figure out that utility works in this way. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HElCo5HXYAANpib.jpg) Wait am I crazy or aren’t these just the same thing when the reference frame is “the level of food smell right here” Increasing ~ level ### [Thread, continued, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038308476431056954) · 1 like Or like “moving in the direction of the food smell” was never a possibility without a model of where the smell was originating, which is exactly the problem that the organism has to try to solve ### [Reply to @vikhyatk, 17:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038311189071925473) · 5 likes > **vik (@vikhyatk):** if you decide not to start a family because of the bullshit ai companies and doomers are peddling about AI, this will be you in 50 years > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEjXR4hbUAAkOMR.jpg) Which doomers are telling ppl not to have kids? ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 17:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038313620711350509) · 6 likes > **Tetra 💎⏹️🌌 (@TetraspaceWest):** airline attendant: final boarding, the plane is literally taking off, if you are hearing this message it's too late > > me (boarding group 1 premium gold priority): guess it's time for me to go to the gate > > (quoting @troller_Adi18: ) What is this “Megan” situation ### [Quote tweet, 17:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038314736559747308) · 33 likes I’ve started using a service that uses AI to make phone calls and this has the potential to be good but should really incur a tax of some sort > **Quoting nxthompson (@nxthompson):** OK, this is a pretty amazing use of AI. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEiXVRxXgAA6jjB.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 17:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038314738908647437) · 7 likes I’d be happy to pay something like $0.25/min of answered call and $0.05/unanswered call in order to dissuade mass enshittification ### [Reply to @MichaelAlleged, 18:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038316735602872635) · 2 likes > **Michael (Allegedly) (@MichaelAlleged):** I like when a good work buddy becomes a real friend beyond and outside of work Yea and people should stop compartmentalizing social spheres in general ### [Tweet, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038354102111879365) · 7 likes (From my drafts, a couple weeks old) Doctor’s waiting room - woman in her late 70s-80s probably. But looks and sounds as healthy/vital as one can be at that age ### [Thread, continued, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038354104137797772) · 3 likes Telling a story about how she found herself in something like a nursing home (I didn’t catch the beginning) and basically nobody glanced at her for 5 days ### [Thread, continued, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038354106297811422) · 3 likes They also wouldn’t let her out, so she threatened to kill herself unless they let her leave This led to her being sent to the psych department (perhaps not shockingly) ### [Thread, continued, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038354108311056601) · 3 likes I only caught a few bits and pieces but she must have convinced someone she was the real deal (mentally and physically able to leave) because I couldn’t hear what else transpired but here she was, in a normal outpatient setting, as a free woman ### [Thread, continued, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038354112098517447) · 5 likes You probably already know my schtick on this - seems really bad, there should be an exceptionally high bar for involuntary commitment, etc ### [Thread, continued, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038354114132803791) · 3 likes But one additional point is that insofar as you’re worried about a crazy person harming others if they’re not committed, there are probably Pareto gains to be had by recognizing that the elderly (and especially elderly women) ### [Thread, continued, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038354116594843790) · 3 likes Are just at much lower risk of harming anyone else (probably due to both disposition and ability) ### [Thread, continued, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038354119522398416) · 2 likes Complementing this is the fact that the elderly sometimes literally cannot leave/escape without permission ### [Thread, continued, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038354121753837813) · 2 likes Like if I’m inside a hospital, lucid, and not physically restrained, it’s because in \*some sense\* I want to be there (or else I’d just leave) ### [Thread, continued, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038354123733545144) · 2 likes But even a relatively healthy and independent 82 year old woman, even one who perhaps can walk with a walker or cane, needs de facto consent to get anywhere: instructions on how to leave, someone to hand her the walker, whatever ### [Thread, continued, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038354126162038986) · 6 likes So the elderly are both at higher risk of being de facto imprisoned in a medical institution and lower risk of hurting anyone else and so we should probably give them even stronger protections ### [Reply to @ronSzab9, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038354171863122104) · 6 likes > **Áron Szabó (@ronSzab9):** Someone (maybe Tetra) asked Claude recently about the origin of the Shoggoth ai meme, and the reply said the creators name was "Megan Tetraspace". So Tetra did the only logical thing in response. Ah ### [Reply to @billyhumblebrag, 20:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038356753339871489) · 2 likes > **billy (@billyhumblebrag):** Grabbing all my old photos onto a hard drive....was going to organise them a bit but I figure in like 6 months I'll be able to point an opus level model at it and say "organise this, pick all the best photos" and spend like 1% of my $20 subscription allowance. Grok-4.1-fast-thinking is cheap enough and ok enough to enable some use cases that aren’t otherwise worth it (and batch gets you down another 50%) Still have to set up the infrastructure/system tho ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 21:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038362940038910266) · 18 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Is intelligence more like a tower (which you can keep making taller far beyond the human level) or like a ball (which you can only make so much rounder)? > > (See next tweet for context.) The tower vs ball thing is more a property of the domain in which intelligence is being applied than intelligence itself Solving integrals -> tower Tic tac toe -> ball Also I’m not sure perfect roundness is in fact best considered a limit of some sort? ### [Reply to @StatisticUrban, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038366971629080930) · 23 likes > **Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** Only a few specific cities have been granted an exemption from DCA's "perimeter rule." The rule forbids any non-stop flight more than 1250mi away from DCA, instead directing them to IAD. The goal is to "reduce congestion." > > IAD is 30 miles from the US Capitol, DCA is only 5. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEm3P72akAAn2af.jpg) It’s insane to have specific route monopolies written into law like this (nobody can compete on DCA - SFO???) Ik this is already a thing for very narrowly defined routes but realistically a 1pm and a 2:30pm route between the same airports are largely competitors ### [Quote tweet, 21:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038367532755632260) · 27 likes There’s gotta be a paper to be written with the 1250 mile line break as a discontinuity “natural” experiment > **Quoting Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** Only a few specific cities have been granted an exemption from DCA's "perimeter rule." The rule forbids any non-stop flight more than 1250mi away from DCA, instead directing them to IAD. The goal is to "reduce congestion." > > IAD is 30 miles from the US Capitol, DCA is only 5. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEm3P72akAAn2af.jpg) ## Monday, March 30, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 02:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038441559176138957) · 64 likes Some people really do just be smarter than you exhibit 58595929245 > **Quoting Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEhruRdboAATUTo.jpg) ### [Reply to @doubtpointv2, 02:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038442973248033117) · 4 likes > **🦫🇺🇾 (@doubtpointv2):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEmigDVaQAEBPJU.jpg) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5789215/pdf/DialoguesClinNeurosci-19-381.pdf ### [Reply to @NicholasD91704, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038444776941384031) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @NicholasD91704 is no longer available.)_ Post on main ### [Quote tweet, 02:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038449537887461725) · 63 likes People really do not care about the suffering of children very much (except insofar as it affects them into adulthood) > **Quoting Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** why are people so nonchalant about the frequency of daycare illnesses? colds don’t “build immunity”! it’s just pure harm and suffering. people should be more sad about this. ### [Quote tweet, 03:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038451359985381803) · 11 likes Erdos may have been a mathematical genius but he was evidently innumerate in one sense One month of genius productivity for <$2.5k in today’s dollars? Not worth it, shoot at least an OOM higher, Paul! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEoItM2bIAAsycY.jpg) > **Quoting Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** Paul Erdős won a bet by proving he wasn't addicted to amphetamines. > > But he got nothing done: "You've showed me I'm not an addict... You've set mathematics back a month." > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEnesBXWoAAyQ5u.jpg) ### [Reply to @NinaPanickssery, 03:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038451463047790683) · 8 likes > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** yeah it’s sad > > that’s where you can help most as a parent as well Reinventing EA from first principles ### [Tweet, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038459627218645457) · 24 likes It sounds like a vacuous platform and it kinda is but “make it to February 2029 with neither an intelligence explosion/superintelligence yet underway nor a psychopathic presidential administration” seems like an appropriately-difficult but doable thing to aim and optimize for ### [Quote tweet, 09:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038551987352998123) · 219 likes Forgive my lack of imagination but what is DoE gonna do with more compute than God > **Quoting Samuel Hammond 🦉 (@hamandcheese):** I remember when this was announced but didn't fully appreciate the size. That's a hell of a cluster. The Department of Energy will basically be a frontier AI company. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEoThxDXkAAAdu1.jpg) ### [Reply to @Somakethefriend, 16:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038654545270571097) · 5 likes > **Sara makes the friendship bracelets (@Somakethefriend):** My best bet: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEnlkPiWMAEpb44.jpg) > (quoting @10thDocWhooves: PLS I WANNA KNOW IF OLIVIA SECRETLY ATTENDED ERAS 😭) 🕶️ ### [Quote tweet, 18:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038690637223006382) · 9 likes Hate to pick on this one post but I’m against this genre of reasoning Like yeah no shit your big sign/t-shirt implies there’s a reason people are asking questions about the thing - the answer is still plausibly exactly and entirely what the t-shirt/ad/whatever reads > **Quoting shreya (@shreyabasu003):** Our “we operate under US law” ad is raising a lot of questions already answered by the ad > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HErQkK6W0AAGw_S.jpg) ### [Reply to @TheStalwart, 21:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038736696334758316) · 4 likes > **Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart):** Something extremely funny to me about this poll showing that 38% of Americans say the pace of AI development is happening roughly in line with their estimates. https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3955 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HErasM-XwAA86hL.png) Still, +43 towards faster ### [Reply to @booritney, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038739214855004358) · 6 likes > **brit (@booritney):** the http://cuties.app dropdown menu for community affiliations is an excellent litmus test for how chronically online you are > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEsCOJ2aoAAnrCR.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEsCQ2ubwAAFWDl.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEsCU_Ga0AAWA1v.jpg) People should pitch their microcommunity (or I guess don’t if you don’t want it to be legible/bigger) I’m familiar with 6-8 of all these depending on how you count and I’m pretty online ### [Reply, 22:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038744491872411847) · 1 like Thousands and thousands of hours and at least tens of millions of dollars have been spent trying to identify compelling reasons substantial AI risk is wrong We would know by now if the core doomer arguments were weak (say for the claim p(very important bad outcome) < 5%); they’re not ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038760268654694742) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, March 30, 2026:** Forgive my lack of imagination but what is DoE gonna do with more compute than God Idk anything about anything but not everything that requires compute scales to \*this level\* of compute We know of exactly one thing that scales and justifies the cost, LLM pretraining, right? ### [Reply to @LarryPanozzo, 23:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038760864090595721) · 1 like > **Larry Panozzo (@LarryPanozzo):** @AaronBergman18 Yes they’re interested in fusion and the climate and whatnot, but to me it 100% feels like an excuse to buy a bunch of compute that they can “strategically repurpose” later This makes the most sense so far lol Seems fine/good I guess we can have some really excellent natural gas extraction simulations or something while the folks at DoW x NSA dream up how to utilize the whole cluster ## Tuesday, March 31, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038773428925177864) · 50 likes “Patient relies on a drug therefore we must make it harder for them to access” is another bit of FDA logic that would correctly parse as insane and backwards to someone without a lot of context hearing it for the first time > **Quoting QualiaNerd (@QualiaNerd):** The FDA pondering whether to approve my drugs: "The upside is that the patient is no longer depressed. The downside is that the patient is happy." > > A tough decision… ### [Reply to @deanwball, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038795642521174100) · 16 likes > **Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** oh man my answer to this would be such an info hazard that I am not sure I’d even speak of it in a scif You’re a smart guy I feel like you can probably come up with something that satisfies both constraints (not an infohazard, actually works) Maybe Yud will grant a version that’s like “only has to have a 90% chance of working for a thousand years conditional on the policy actually being implemented, not literally forever” ### [Reply to @deanwball, 01:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038796867715187066) · 16 likes > **Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** intelligence 👏 is 👏 not 👏 not 👏 the 👏 bottleneck 👏 to 👏 “solving” 👏 a 👏 great 👏 many 👏 matters 👏 of 👏 public 👏 interest Ok fine maybe the “you’re a smart guy” clause is irrelevant ### [Reply to @mealreplacer, 01:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038797871735030019) · 2 likes > **Julian (@mealreplacer):** I wrote a blog post on AI safety grantmaking. Link below! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEsDY2GbwAA9ea4.jpg) Welcome back to Twitter ### [Reply to @business, 02:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038808386251182328) · 11 likes > **Bloomberg (@business):** E-cigarettes are likely to cause cancer, including in the lungs and mouth, according to a sweeping review of scientific evidence that challenges their positioning as a safer alternative to smoking. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-30/review-challenges-claims-that-e-cigarettes-are-safer-than-smoking?taid=69ca83f7ce3e6b00011e2b35&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_content=business&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter What’s the relative effect size WHATS THE RELATIVE EFFECT SIZE ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEtNbDCaUAAaoTF.jpg) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 02:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038808640836997525) · 26 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Okay folks, this study is being shared by prominent people already, and I am pretty confident I found a completely over the top goofy numeral issue that will destroy the whole argument pretty quickly involving... 2 orders of magnitude. Stay tuned. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEtG2JIaoAA0ce5.jpg) He can’t keep getting away with this ### [Reply to @SpencrGreenberg, 05:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038847710548070457) · 2 likes > **Spencer Greenberg 🔍 (@SpencrGreenberg):** A question for you: what's the most interesting topic in the world for you (to talk about or discuss)? Consciousness, I think, followed by a tie between meta-ethics and ethics ### [Quote tweet, 05:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038848934173401447) · 14 likes I hope future archeologists find this and assume it was scripture [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/2038848778841587712/img/AAthLSTBORh1PNDG.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038848934173401447/video/1) (video, plays on X) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I gave myself a birthday present > > It's the most egregiously self-aggrandizing thing I've ever done but I turned my most liked tweets into a 470 page book > > Who wants a copy (mostly a joke but if u give me $31 I will in fact make sure it gets to you) > > Wraparound cover: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HD5y8NIbkAAP304.jpg) ### [Reply to @zagrebbi, 11:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038936231975834074) · 5 likes > **Werner Zagrebbi (@zagrebbi):** Even at a 1600 SAT, Columbia only admits ~1 in 5 applicants. Apply early, kids! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HElghZpWoAENVhQ.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HElghegWsAAx1aG.jpg) I have a blog post about this! Yes, perfect academics does not get you in to the Ivies https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/most-ivy-smart-students-arent-at ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 11:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038938036935839897) · 9 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** 1.5k likes on this completely 100% fake story CNN's reporting on. The paper hasn't even been peer reviewed yet. > > (quoting @CNN: The vast data centers that power artificial intelligence guzzle huge amounts of energy but they also have another alarming impact, according to new research. They are creating “heat islands,” warming the land around them by up to 16 degrees Fahrenheit, and making life hotter for…) Nooooo Andy don’t fall for the peer review madness That part is fine actually ### [Reply to @GreatKingCnut, 11:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038938324975362208) · 2 likes > **ɢʀɛǟȶK̶i̶n̶g̶ӄռʊȶ🤣\`\`\`𝚙𝚢 (@GreatKingCnut):** it's the Paul Christiano cluster, this is why he's gone underground in the gov for 2 years I hope so ### [Reply to @mattparlmer, 11:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038941460947521761) · 7 likes > **mattparlmer 🪐 🌷 (@mattparlmer):** This is absolutely revolting > > (quoting @Telegraph: 🇮🇱 Israel has approved the death penalty for Palestinians but not for Israelis who commit the same crime. Sixty-two lawmakers, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, voted in favour of the controversial bill which has been condemned by Britain ⬇️…) Also it’s like 90 days to execution IIRC Famously nobody has ever been falsely convicted of a capital crime before so that shouldn’t be an issue ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 11:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038944740859588659) · 5 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** If I were gonna make the optimist case: > \- AI companies want to make profit, not die > \- things that follow commands will probably make more profit > \- current and near AI seems very unlikely to kill us, we can work on aligning future AI > \- problems are solvable, humans are apocalyptic > > (quoting @gnostrils: I watched The AI Doc. Could be partly an editorial thing on the part of the filmmakers, but what really stands out to me is how the optimists \*never\* have \[valid\] arguments or counterarguments. It’s just “don’t listen to the doomers”) There’s no general rule that problems are solvable Some problems are not solvable ### [Reply to @Babygravy9, 11:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038949303289323941) · 4 likes > **RAW EGG NATIONALIST (@Babygravy9):** Gut bacteria also drive metabolic changes that result in obesity. I firmly believe obesity is also “infectious,” the implication being—stay away from fat people. > > (quoting @NTFabiano: Gut bacteria was transferred from depressed humans to rats. The rats developed features of depression.) Come on dude lol there’s a whole industry around fecal transplants because of how \*hard\* it is to swap gut bacteria even with intention Fat is not infectious ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEvNlUqawAA3ll0.jpg) ### [Reply to @sciencegirl, 13:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038972936380354749) · 177 likes > **Science girl (@sciencegirl):** Capybaras have long legs > > and they kept it a secret > > [video attached](https://x.com/nyse_min/status/2037303116471930881/video/1) This must be how it fits ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEvjEtMXsAEsHe0.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEvjEtIWcAAwp6o.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 13:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038973792064557315) · 58 likes 2% of the US showing up to protest is more newsworthy than how it’s been treated > **Quoting Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 (@PollTracker2024):** Yahoo News: More than 8 million people turned out at over 3,300 “No Kings” protests across all 50 states on Saturday, organizers said, calling it the largest single-day demonstration in U.S. history. > > https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/live/no-kings-protests-recap-more-than-8-million-turned-out-across-all-50-states-organizers-say-135920433.html ### [Tweet, 14:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038981547747868955) · 23 likes Why doesn't Will buy shrimp welfare arguments? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEvqwxqWYAApL5Q.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 14:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038981549551415615) · 2 likes Transcript https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eUOlirxATtgzZ359jZd-tKoQw1eeLYgdNmrP0MZ-Z1E/edit?tab=t.0 ### [Thread, continued, 14:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038981551254298642) · 2 likes Pod https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JF0gOQvskY ### [Reply to @wifiejwn38, 15:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2038997433145807321) · 4 likes > **IntellectualDemon (@wifiejwn38):** I'm not a utilitarian. I don't believe you can actually calculate suffering like that. I also don't think Graham's number of people getting dust in their eye is worse than torturing a person for 50 years. Interestingly I consider myself a utilitarian but share your take on the torture/dust matter, and have I thought about it a lot lol https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/je5TiYESSv53tWHC9/utilitarians-should-accept-that-some-suffering-cannot-be-1 ### [Tweet, 15:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039001064922386893) · 11 likes If we make it to 2029 the US should probably spend at least hundreds of billions of dollars righting the wrongs (or trying) perpetrated on just so many people around the world ### [Thread, continued, 15:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039001067245949291) · 5 likes \- afghan translators etc left to die \- immigrants (yes some illegal) sent to Salvadoran concentration camps \- the families of executed Irani schoolchildren \- anyone we abruptly and without warning cut off aid from ### [Thread, continued, 15:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039001069569581565) · 4 likes \- random Venezuelan fisherman (maybe also carrying drugs but since when is moving cocaine around a capital and international offense) \- everyone we cut off from legitimate paths to legal status \- this is just stuff from memory, I’m definitely forgetting large categories ### [Thread, continued, 15:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039001072291750107) · 3 likes Clearly eventually there’s gonna be a decision about whether to spend another million dollars tracking down the marginal victim of Trump’s shitstorm but I’m pretty sure the ideal number of dollars (largely also as a proxy for real resources) Is >>0 ### [Thread, continued, 15:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039001079539458359) · 3 likes Maybe this is actually cheaper than I intuit and it could be done for tens of billions of dollars or less, all the better Purely from a strategic perspective it’s probably money well spent ### [Reply to @GWHayduke97, 15:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039003527670898943) · 3 likes > **Hayduke ⏹️ (@GWHayduke97):** Correct, I'm not. EAs don't have a monopoly on this sort of discourse. Lol I will attest to this, you’re allowed to say EA is wrong about stuff ### [Tweet, 16:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039021866405200053) · 21 likes Wait so I’m gathering that a set of incredibly influential papers (Chamley 1986 and Judd 1985) gave policy wonks the takeaway that the optimal capital gains tax rate is zero but this relies crucially on an assumption that people consume their wealth before dying ### [Thread, continued, 16:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039021869722931327) · 7 likes Which just isn’t what we see irl (ie people who accumulate $100B gross wrt personal spending over a lifetime don’t in fact spend $100B or anything close to it) ### [Thread, continued, 16:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039021872277336137) · 11 likes So an interesting technical result has become neolib (positive, usually) gospel on extremely tenuous foundations Unironically do I have this right? ### [Thread, continued, 16:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039021881483723232) · 8 likes Cc @NathanB60857242 @captgouda24 might know ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039024924459692473) · 3 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** It’s still approximately correct, because we don’t want to tax investment. Otherwise you tax a business process multiple times. Anyway, may be of interest. > > https://straub.scholars.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum7751/files/straub/files/chamley-judd-revisited_june_2018.pdf I’m not sure I see why multiple taxation per se is bad Like maybe you have a tax on paying your employees (i want to say this is fine for now but maybe you’d object) but then the employees go and make you a billion dollars; I don’t see why we shouldn’t tax the billion dollars (like we \*could\* try to transfer this onto the payroll tax but the whole idea is that you tax the winners specifically, in fact if anything we should take the payroll tax and try to move that revenue onto a capital gains tax) ### [Tweet, 17:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039025164818468992) · 4 likes Golden sentence --- End of March 2026. Previous month: [February 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-02). Next month: [April 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-04). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, April 2026 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in April 2026 and has not deleted: 711 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [March 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-03). Next month: [May 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-05). ## Wednesday, April 1, 2026 ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 00:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039144167729709343) · 1 like > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** There are a lot of loose ends! Wait what is the default answer lol? Allowing real wages to fall over time? ### [Tweet, 00:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039144424068825368) · 21 likes Being a parent high key sounds hard af ### [Tweet, 01:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039145810319835394) · 22 likes Claude Code edits with unsettling auras ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEyATiWWgAA3VE3.jpg) ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039146760401047646) · 1 like > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** deflation would mean real wages are rising Yeah ik - I'm asking whether "inflation allows real wages to fall over time which is good bc \[XYZ\]" is the "typical answer" ur referring to ### [Quote tweet, 01:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039148649322598467) · 6 likes Someone plz, a link 🙏🤲 > **Quoting Pandora (Dr. Bimbo) (@Pandora_Delaney):** “Flirting via spreadsheet” > > Actually it was via google form but close enough > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HExwAxzbIAA-yrd.jpg) ### [Tweet, 01:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039151636489101692) · 123 likes Serious question: does anyone want to sell me (and some friends) Anthropic equity? Interested in buying up to 7 figures worth (not just me tbc), lower amounts also very welcome ### [Tweet, 01:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039157441766519288) · 14 likes Bruh why can Trump launch a war and nuke Congressionally-funded projects more easily than he can create a ballroom ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEyK4o0aoAA9EjV.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039157449064591728) · 6 likes Idk about the congress thing and I’ll defer to people who know things about how arbitrary federal construction projects work but I do think there needs to be some ability for POTUS to just do things without asking permission ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEyK5EEasAAF8jw.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039157452034232718) · 5 likes I mean \*I\* shouldn’t have to deal with the National Area Planning Commission but the President, even a really terrible heinous one, really shouldn’t have to ### [Thread, continued, 01:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039157454353715353) · 3 likes Build the ballroom, who cares, fight tooth and nail on stuff that matters Or at least put it squarely in the hands of congress rather than NIMBYism incarnate ### [Thread, continued, 01:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039157456526274818) · 3 likes https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7056exw78xo ### [Reply to @willametteshark, 01:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039157740166054156) · 11 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @willametteshark is no longer available.)_ All the better if that gets me a small discount but my buy signal is that I want equity in all the leading US AI projects and Anthropic is the one still remaining ### [Reply to @willametteshark, 02:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039161942707728415) · 12 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @willametteshark is no longer available.)_ Lol good question, I have 5 figure savings from various jobs since I was 16. And it’s not stable or important enough to warrant a big announcement but I do have a decent contracting gig going right now at least And then the q of risk tolerance is largely separable from the q of amounts, the 7 figure sum cited is >99% not my money, it’s people I know and we’d be acting together And then it’s like “object level, where do you try to invest” and I just do think Anthropic + Google + OpenAI package is a better buy than the S&P500 at the amounts I currently hold Also importantly it’s largely a hedge on the value of my labor going down a lot which I think is strongly correlated with AI progress which is in turn strongly correlated with that package of assets. I’m actually kind of fine losing most of my savings if “business as normal” continues for 20 years. But not capturing the upside of an enormous AI boom and \*also\* having the value of my labor fall a tone is really bad (hence trying to capture upside) ### [Reply to @EigenGender, 02:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039162080880689661) · 8 likes > **EigenGender 🔸 (@EigenGender):** private company employees selling equity is generally forbidden by agreements they signed I hear rumors there are non-employees who have acquired somehow ### [Reply to @Jess_Riedel, 02:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039173570480558111) · 3 likes > **Jess Riedel (@Jess_Riedel):** Anthropic shares are traded on Hiive from time to time. That was the go-to but apparently nobody is selling as of late ### [Reply to @FangYi11101, 02:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039174045602890164) · 11 likes > **forward deployed ccp gf (@FangYi11101):** @AaronBergman18 @willametteshark If your savings are in the five figures it would be quite imprudent to take out a large illiquid position in a concentrated and risky asset. I'm not saving for retirement, I'm hedging against knowledege work wages going to ~zero ### [Tweet, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039175150214730210) · 17 likes Here's the superior japanese sunscreen that the FDA doesn't allow for no reason btw But it seems like they're not cracking down on imports so go nuts https://www.distacart.com/en-jp/products/minimalist-sunscreen-cream-spf-60 ### [Reply to @Benthamsbulldog, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039184706311180595) · 4 likes > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** Anyone have a cool philosophy puzzle that I could spend some time thinking about? It’s not as well-defined and crisp and clean as Newcombs or Sleeping Beauty but “wtf is going on with basic metaphysics” Like truly things are very weird, I don’t think the standard scientific materialist worldview (SSMW) is sufficient ### [Quote tweet, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039185080560582833) · 107 likes OpenAI is a bad actor and a good example of where and how capitalism breaks > **Quoting zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** @robbensinger @allTheYud The lobbying isn’t even the biggest part - OpenAI leadership is spending a ton of money on super PACs to intimidate politicians away from regulating AI. OpenAI’s revealed preference is for the frontier to be unregulated ### [Quote tweet, 03:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039186647271481791) · 15 likes wtf?!? I would never curse \*at\* Claude but ofc I’m gonna say “wtf” as in like “bro wtf isn’t that crazy” Anthropic needs to get that term off their blacklist now 😡 > **Quoting rahat (@Rahatcodes):** Claude Code has a regex that detects "wtf", "ffs", "piece of shit", "fuck you", "this sucks" etc. > > It doesn't change behavior...it just silently logs is_negative: true to analytics. > > Anthropic is tracking how often you rage at your AI > > Do with this information what you will > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEv3WT8aIAAYyNw.png) ### [Reply to @max_spero_, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039192443082469798) · 6 likes > **Max Spero (@max_spero_):** we get one or two of these in our research collaborations form basically every day > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEyfnDwacAE5Ask.jpg) I tried this at one point and it didn’t work that well for creating human-sounding speech (Sorry) ### [Thread, continued, 04:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039192565233144083) · 1 like Or something like it, not the exact thing actually ### [Reply to @zagrebbi, 04:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039193848300110094) · 2 likes > **Werner Zagrebbi (@zagrebbi):** One of my favorite chud facts is that brain size actually does corilate with IQ at .36—similar to the correlation between between years of schooling and earnings > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEwFjjkWcAEfE1m.jpg) What kinda dataset is this? Nobody between 105 and 125?? ### [Tweet, 04:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039198009821470769) · 8 likes Tragically it seems that an infinite number of vibecoded Railway projects each incurring between $0.05 and $5 of usage monthly do not collectively sum to $0/mo ### [Reply to @Insect_Song, 04:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039204482681061799) · 2 likes > **Cogent Sins🔎 (@Insect_Song):** @AaronBergman18 The sleep deprivation sucks in the early months, and you massively increase your attack surface/ vulnerability, but the rewards are indescribable. Nice ### [Reply to @besttrousers, 05:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039209948165398809) · 5 likes > **Matt Darling 🌐🏗️ (@besttrousers):** You could have paid Dustin to say that. It didn’t go through (so don’t bother assuming the email is real - I just guessed) but I did try to Venmo him ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEy6pB2WYAAckDI.jpg) ### [Reply to @luispedrocoelho, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039210655270449298) · 3 likes > **Luis Pedro Coelho (Berkeley, 7-11 Oct) (@luispedrocoelho):** This is how a lot of influence buying works, though. It's sponsoring rather than buying an opinion > > In some cases, the person being sponsored may not even know who is paying them (which is best for everyone involved)... Yeah this is a good point but I genuinely don’t know what to do about it I don’t think it makes funded scholarship illegitimate, just that you want to account for the whole ecosystem being biased by who is willing to pay who (Tbc Dustin is a drop in the bucket compared to what’s out there and not directed at even an attempt at genuinely pro-social/altruistically beneficial work) ### [Reply to @enbismwnplgt, 05:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039211564717298074) · 8 likes > **agonizing mental imagery (@enbismwnplgt):** @AaronBergman18 the most rewarding things in life generally aren't easy Excellent point, Penile Degloving Injuries ### [Reply to @enbismwnplgt, 05:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039212630649250244) · 3 likes > **agonizing mental imagery (@enbismwnplgt):** @AaronBergman18 despite the completely unserious name, my commentary is occasionally serious! Lol I’m just joking, many such cases on here ### [Reply to @max_spero_, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039222083943579765) · 20 likes > **Max Spero (@max_spero_):** Any “straight lines on graphs” guys want to help me out? Which trend lines should I look at for AI writing? > > 1\) AI writing has given people the ick from GPT 3.5 to 4o to 5, so AI writing will stay bad > 2\) AI keeps solving new domains so eventually AI writing will be fully solved > > (quoting @littmath: Very nice blog post. Sharing in part because this is a pretty good summary of how I became a "straight lines on graphs" guy.) I mean idk but I’ll speculate The lines will start going up when it becomes a priority of Google, Anthropic, or OpenAI, maybe xAI or something I don’t think the lines really exist yet bc writing quality has mostly been an afterthought to these players afaict ### [Quote tweet, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039225859689607481) · 13 likes The predictions described by any percentile of any group shown are not plausible My best guess: folks are mentally conditioning on the levels, not the implied rates of change > **Quoting Basil Halperin (@BasilHalperin):** Tbc economists' expected 3.5% growth would be \*amazing\* and mark AI as the most important tech of my lifetime -- and AI experts' 5.3% growth would mark it perhaps most important invention ever... > > But that is just not the 30%+ growth of a singularitarian future... no foom here > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEwd29kXkAAR3ZJ.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039225861862268970) · 6 likes AI beats humans at everything by 2030 \*IRL\* isn’t a world where robots are 1% faster than humans and everything happens 1% quicker forever It’s a world where we’ve gone from GPT-2 to that world in under a decade ### [Thread, continued, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039225864190148934) · 2 likes Actually I guess ✨technically✨ the more clear-cut question to consider is: predict growth rates in 2035/2055 conditional on AI better than humans at everything by 2030/2050 ### [Thread, continued, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039225866996081143) · 2 likes Then you get the progress implication: conditioning on machines barely better than humans in 2030 implies (not logically implies but like pretty obviously irl implies, at least probabilistically) massive improvements in 2030, and 2031, and 2032, etc ### [Thread, continued, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039225869709840570) · 2 likes But still like for messy irl reasons (differential rates of progress in different industries for example) I still think the 2030/2030 (rather than 2030/2035) case described by the predictions shown is pretty much implausible ### [Thread, continued, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039225871588897019) · 2 likes although not quite as neatly and probably via a tidy tweet-length model ### [Reply to @YitziLitt, 06:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039226463786811494) · 3 likes > **Yitz (@YitziLitt):** I’m curious what your reasoning is here—is this something you’ve been thinking of doing for a while, or because of something recent you learned about? Not that recently, been brewing a while (say at least several months, probably >1 year, not 5 years tho) ### [Reply to @NathanBLawrence, 06:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039226925655175560) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @NathanBLawrence is no longer available.)_ Sometimes there are real technical or hard physical or financial constraints - that just doesn’t seem plausible in this case ### [Reply to @bayeslord, 06:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039233288112427403) · 3 likes > **bayes (@bayeslord):** We need 10x more people doing biosecurity Bayeslord, welcome to effective altruism ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 07:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039238807661216016) · 3 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** yeah most individual moments are ok but the no lunch breaks no sick days thing can get intense > > at 1.5 and 3yo things are just starting to feel more manageable, ama Tyfys 🫡 ### [Quote tweet, 15:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039370157013729450) · 166 likes Yes. YES!!! > **Quoting Department of Buildings (@NYC_Buildings):** We’re leaving no stone unturned in tackling the city's housing crisis! > > Today DOB approved plans for NYC’s 1st underground skyscraper, a 90-story building constructed below street level to protect skyline views. > > Keep your eyes peeled for more “earthscrapers” across every borough > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HE0isRXWEAAEUHu.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 15:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039371706553237562) · 15 likes Not necessarily endorsing but it’s a good point > **Quoting William MacAskill (@willmacaskill):** @tyler_m_john @AaronBergman18 Model uncertainty goes both ways!!! > > I used to be a log-neurons guy, but then I became convinced that was wrong. > > If you put weight on a concave mapping, you should also put weight on a convex mapping. These broadly cancel out (though in a \*shrug who knows\* sense rather than a clean sense). We should totally put some weight on the idea that moral weight is e.g. proportional to the number of functionally integrated states a neural network can have, in which case a fully moral uncertainty accounting dramatically favours bigger brains. I shrug and go with linear. > > To be clear, I'm all in favour of reducing the suffering of shrimp; I'm just not convinced it's the best near-term animal welfare intervention. (Sorry @AaronBergman18 if my comment in the pod came across stronger than I intended it.) > > More concretely: > > A shrimp typically has 10^5 neurons - similar to a fruit fly. > > A chicken has 10^8. So on linear count, that's 1000x greater. > > (And, intuitively at least, I care more about 1 day of chicken suffering than 1000 days of fruit fly suffering, so linear seems conservative to me). > > You can do your own BOTECs, but I think with these weights corporate campaigns etc look better. > > Using numbers from Claude: > Each $ prevents 15,000 shrimp from suffering ~2 hours from stunning. Something like 2.4 shrimp-DALYS averted per $. > Each $ prevents 10 laying hens from 1.5 years in caged confinement. Something like 0.3 chicken-DALYS averted per $. > > With a 1000x moral weight ratio, the corporate campaign looks 100x better. ### [Reply to @willmacaskill, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039372830970716549) · 6 likes > **William MacAskill (@willmacaskill):** Model uncertainty goes both ways!!! > > I used to be a log-neurons guy, but then I became convinced that was wrong. > > If you put weight on a concave mapping, you should also put weight on a convex mapping. These broadly cancel out (though in a \*shrug who knows\* sense rather than a clean sense). We should totally put some weight on the idea that moral weight is e.g. proportional to the number of functionally integrated states a neural network can have, in which case a fully moral uncertainty accounting dramatically favours bigger brains. I shrug and go with linear. > > To be clear, I'm all in favour of reducing the suffering of shrimp; I'm just not convinced it's the best near-term animal welfare intervention. (Sorry @AaronBergman18 if my comment in the pod came across stronger than I intended it.) > > More concretely: > > A shrimp typically has 10^5 neurons - similar to a fruit fly. > > A chicken has 10^8. So on linear count, that's 1000x greater. > > (And, intuitively at least, I care more about 1 day of chicken suffering than 1000 days of fruit fly suffering, so linear seems conservative to me). > > You can do your own BOTECs, but I think with these weights corporate campaigns etc look better. > > Using numbers from Claude: > Each $ prevents 15,000 shrimp from suffering ~2 hours from stunning. Something like 2.4 shrimp-DALYS averted per $. > Each $ prevents 10 laying hens from 1.5 years in caged confinement. Something like 0.3 chicken-DALYS averted per $. > > With a 1000x moral weight ratio, the corporate campaign looks 100x better. Interesting thanks - I am also somewhat sympathetic to the “it’s probably linear in something” instinct but it probably can’t be literal neuron count right? Or else you’re giving a lot of weight to cognition that’s dedicated to precise tongue movement and such but seems to have nothing to do with valence or even experience at all Without knowing the science well enough at all, I feel like the better proxy would be moral status ~ \[some more specific subset of cognitive hardware\] ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 16:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039373051762975131) · 3 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** you rn > > [video attached](https://x.com/JgaltTweets/status/2039371207728906517/video/1) 😤😤😤 ### [Reply to @NYC_Buildings, 16:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039377426099179860) · 32 likes > **Department of Buildings (@NYC_Buildings):** We’re leaving no stone unturned in tackling the city's housing crisis! > > Today DOB approved plans for NYC’s 1st underground skyscraper, a 90-story building constructed below street level to protect skyline views. > > Keep your eyes peeled for more “earthscrapers” across every borough > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HE0isRXWEAAEUHu.jpg) Thank you so much for taking my suggestion 😊😊😊 I am honored ### [Reply to @NicholasD91704, 16:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039378531625451521) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @NicholasD91704 is no longer available.)_ CANCELLED ### [Reply to @ThatEricAlper, 16:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039378981602922755) · 45 likes > **Eric Alper 🎧 (@ThatEricAlper):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEyHGTJWMAAqYzN.jpg) It would be one thing if being rude/cruel actually worked in your interest - but it never does (in the context of waiters and other service worker interactions)! It’s purely a losing proposition! ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 16:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039379176151531841) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** 'Foundayo, Lilly's second FDA-approved obesity medicine, will be available via LillyDirect® with free home delivery, starting at $25 per month with commercial coverage and $149 for self-pay' > > (quoting @EliLillyandCo: Today, there’s a new option. Learn more about the impact a little pill could make. https://e.lilly/4s1cPtP) Based ### [Quote tweet, 16:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039380036885606786) · 9 likes This is cool I know that this will never happen bc it’s very slightly innovative in the domain of medicine but I feel like society could use a combo injected/oral situation Inject at home, oral as a non-refrigerated backup for travel and what not > **Quoting JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** 'Foundayo, Lilly's second FDA-approved obesity medicine, will be available via LillyDirect® with free home delivery, starting at $25 per month with commercial coverage and $149 for self-pay' ### [Reply to @acesounderglass, 16:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039380497407545369) · 4 likes > **Elizabeth Van Nostrand (@acesounderglass):** \+1 Apparently at the Pareto frontier of \- feels nice \- doesn’t make you look white/pasty/shiny \- very probably not dangerous \- affordable ### [Reply to @Interior, 16:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039380982642430326) · 8 likes > **U.S. Department of the Interior (@Interior):** As part of preparations for America’s 250th anniversary, Interior is reviewing wildlife nomenclature to better reflect the nation’s history and character. > > Following this review, the raccoon (Procyon lotor) will be renamed the Liberty Bandit, effective April 1, 2026. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HE0q8xmWYAA0GnT.jpg) I actually endorse the liberty bandit one ### [Tweet, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039382519259205768) · 20 likes Always fascinating what the Meta algorithm thinks about my professional interests and aspirations It’s actually not a terrible guess lmao ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HE1XlyZWMAAAJSe.jpg) ### [Reply to @MayorBowser, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039432851972637127) · 20 likes > **Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser):** NEWS: We're launching a new pilot program to fight rats in DC. > > This spring, we're combining baiting, tracking powder, & an innovative fertility suppressant to target the rodent population. > > Let's work together to keep the population down by securing trash & keeping alleys clear. \> innovative fertility suppressant to target the rodent population Godspeed; this is the way. We don't need to torture our rodent friends to death ### [Reply to @cube_flipper, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039433244827951229) · 1 like > **Cube Flipper (@cube_flipper):** there is probably an actually-not-terrible way of doing this using statistical mechanics and some back of the envelope calculation of how much geometric frustration a given neuronal lattice can theoretically be expected to sustain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometrical_frustration Without knowing anything I am very suspicious of highly technical explanations of moral worth - we don't even know at the most fundamental level how configurations of atoms map onto phenomenal states ### [Reply to @cube_flipper, 20:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039433885885342046) · 1 like > **Cube Flipper (@cube_flipper):** agreed, but i don't think this is that technical, and it would be a more principled way of doing "number of functionally integrated states" Ah interesting, thanks ### [Reply to @DanielPennyFan, 20:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039434322201973004) · 7 likes > **Daniel Penny Fan Club (@DanielPennyFan):** > > [GIF attached](https://x.com/DanielPennyFan/status/2039433912410161571/photo/1) If finding less gratuitously cruel ways of controlling rodent population is cringe then I'm very happy to be cringe ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 20:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039446675324850374) · 10 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** OpenAI has thus far only ever made my life way better and easier, at a cost far below what that improvement is worth to me, just amazing levels of consumer surplus Same up until now but not at all in terms of expected value all things considered (ie including future), even purely selfishly ### [Reply to @tszzl, 21:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039451252921147501) · 28 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** what has been the net effect of openai on the world? So far I'm not sure, on humans probably positive, all things considered it probably depends on something like "how global energy use relates to wild animal populations" which I just don't know the sign of But I think almost all of the negative effects come in the future ### [Reply to @Gregzilla67, 23:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039481262176416074) · 5 likes > **Gregory Richardson (@Gregzilla67):** "Rodent friends ..." Srsly? Whatever, pick ur favorite more masculine/less sentimental terminology, the relevant point is that torturing animals is bad ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039483556670443845) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 1, 2026:** OpenAI is a bad actor and a good example of where and how capitalism breaks Excellent compilation of specifics https://www.openaifiles.org/ ### [Reply to @catehall, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039489380633444617) · 5 likes > **Cate Hall 🔸 (@catehall):** I made a quiz that will tell you what your REAL problem is, take it if you want your feelings hurt (link below) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HE1-DD-bYAAWimS.jpg) cool!! rare chance to actually ask a clarifying question on one of these is this supposed to mean "supposing you had the trait, which would you be most reluctant to acknowledge?" or "irl, right now, which are you most reluctant to acknowledge \[even if you think that's bc object level it's not in fact a pattern/trait you have\]?" ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HE24byKXAAAYe3w.jpg) ## Thursday, April 2, 2026 ### [Reply to @M_Cottone, 02:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039526625943900592) · 4 likes > **Mike Cottone (@M_Cottone):** If I didn’t already follow @AaronBergman18 then this tweet would have caused me to. We need outside the box thinking like underground skyscrapers (serious) > > (quoting @randy_mossad: The list of reasons it’s a bad idea to build housing deep underground is so long that you will never finish listing them, science will discover new disadvantages faster than you can update your documents) Thank you lmao 🫡🫡🫡 ### [Tweet, 05:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039578049839026241) · 13 likes Re: capitalism (as currently instantiated in the US and west more broadly) and AI I think the classic ideological story is like “freedom is good and mutually beneficial trades are good so free decisions to trade are good” ### [Thread, continued, 05:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039578051588042969) · 14 likes But then what do you say to the person who has nothing to offer the global economy? It used to be that like “oh well” was sort of a correct answer bc everyone was poor. Poverty is the default, the state of nature ### [Thread, continued, 05:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039578053567746075) · 11 likes We simply have not been in a situation, ever, where both (1) a nontrivial proportion of people have nothing to offer the global economy and (2) the world is broadly very rich ### [Thread, continued, 05:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039578055367119054) · 8 likes We have no intellectual foundations for thinking about this. The entirety of political and economic ideology is missing consideration of this scenario We do have general purpose tools of course (economics and philosophy broadly) but still ### [Thread, continued, 05:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039578059427168490) · 11 likes I worry that the capitalist-inclined are going to neglect that this regime is a new one that their theories have never been tested in, either empirically as a driver of public policy or in the marketplace of ideas ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 06:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039586309778346496) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ Clopey turning my thoughts into cogent and punchy text "the growth argument has always relied on a implicit coupling between "the system that generates growth" and "the system that distributes the gains widely enough to maintain legitimacy." ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HE4Qt7Xa0AACbjx.jpg) ### [Reply to @AnniePosting, 06:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039591822251467061) · 14 likes > **annie 👁❌🦋🪞 (@AnniePosting):** I feel like the wisest piece of advice for anyone to adopt socially is just to apply this mindset to everything > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HE37hbsboAES929.jpg) If only he could have had this mindset and a bit more integrity in other domains But yes I agree it is a good stance ### [Quote tweet, 08:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039623678040641861) · 13 likes Waow really protecting Americans Thank you for your service > **Quoting Bijan Salehizadeh (@bijans):** 5000 packages of peptides seized by CBP and FDA > > “The seized materials included several GLP-one medications such as retatrutide, semaglutide, and tirzepatide. Officers also found various other peptides prohibited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, including MOTS-C, TB10, semax, and cagrilintide.” > > https://www.whio.com/news/5k-shipments-unapproved-weight-loss-injectable-seized-ohio/VVRO3DI6DREPHDJV4J4NTG4XYQ/ ### [Tweet, 08:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039627737128722599) · 7,739 likes If the Google x 14 year old story is real, yes it’s funny for 5 seconds but actually it’s pretty scary that Google can ruin your life if your brother violates one of 80 gazillion lines of contract everyone enters into when they sign up for gmail ### [Thread, continued, 08:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039627738756071883) · 901 likes Quite plausibly the “ban everyone tied to the account” trigger thing isn’t even wrong - there just needs to be a straightforward process for undoing that by talking to like 2 people there for 15 mins ### [Quote tweet, 09:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039631920745656470) · 27 likes I don’t have a strong take on this particular case but a virtue of YIMBYism is that it makes NIMBYism (like this) less costly You can take the units that would go there and put them on top of some other building > **Quoting vivian (@vivian39_):** why doesn’t DC build any housing here > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HE2MzB9aMAAp9n1.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 09:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039631923086016922) · 4 likes It’s not literally costless because it makes the costs of construction of n units higher, and then rents are higher, and at the limit you get real physical constraints (all of the DC metro area stacked vertically, 1 unit on each floor, is probably infeasible, sadly) ### [Thread, continued, 09:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039631924809896134) · 4 likes But height is a release valve for downward supply pressure pumped into the system via land use restrictions like this; in some sense height restrictions are the ultimate NIMBY sin because the potential upside is literally unbounded (it gets expensive I assume but still) ### [Thread, continued, 09:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039631927179628894) · 2 likes Whereas if you have height restrictions, land use restrictions cut off a proportional amount of potential square footage ### [Reply to @billyhumblebrag, 09:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039633774208565472) · 49 likes > **billy (@billyhumblebrag):** How is the kids account linked? Like i don't get that part Family plan of some sort ### [Reply to @burkov, 09:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039637469914615924) · 7 likes > **BURKOV (@burkov):** Based on the leaked Claude Code source code, your CLAUDE.md file is re-injected on every single \*\*turn\*\* of the conversation. What ### [Reply to @Sauers_, 09:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039637889366048772) · 5 likes > **Sauers (@Sauers_):** What is the point of a checking account 😭 Real ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 10:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039649352767996305) · 51 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** voting for whoever makes this a campaign promise > > (quoting @CaudilloXIV: Billions for space, pennies for the hungry!) Don’t contrarian yourself into cruelty ### [Reply to @0xellipse, 11:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039666424356966518) · 10 likes > **Chell 🥂🔫 (@0xellipse):** got hit by a car today, AMA Favorite species of duck? ### [Tweet, 12:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039680279967621408) · 51 likes Bruh getting a rocket to the moon sounds hard af I don’t think I could do that even with Claude ### [Thread, continued, 12:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039680281754419517) · 2 likes Dealing with liquid hydrogen is hard apparently ### [Thread, continued, 12:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039680283436335144) · 3 likes It’s kinda nuts that we fund/do this Like its not a civilizational-scale project at the scale of a global superpower nation state (in the way WWII was), but by any more human standard its a ridiculous enterprise ### [Thread, continued, 12:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039680285617316188) · 2 likes The tip of the iceberg is like $4B in highly marginal spending apparently, but some more intuitive notion of “how much does it cost” might be like $200B (Apollo program was about that in full) ### [Thread, continued, 12:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039680289371287557) · 2 likes The portion of that $200B that turns into humans labor might be something like 500k human years of work, or 10k full professional careers (+ materials) 10k human lifetimes of work goes into getting someone to the moon (even if you don’t land) Obviously extremely hasty estimate ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 12:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039685280916025522) · 2 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** My dad’s research would be so much more useful to me if he was studying 30-50 @danielmessinger > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HE5f_-rakAAnzRA.jpg) Tag urself im mildly socially avoidant ### [Quote tweet, 15:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039723152175960337) · 53 likes Real > **Quoting Beauty of music and nature 🌺🌺 (@Axaxia88):** First Time He Ever Saw a Female 😂 > > [video attached](https://x.com/Axaxia88/status/2039568508434980876/video/1) ### [Tweet, 17:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039752187224391947) · 14 likes Conditioner is the real deal, it’s not fake, it actually makes ur hair luscious ### [Tweet, 17:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039760510413881761) · 123 likes 20 second vibecoded website helps you decide if you should wear sunscreen It just grabs the 1\) current actual 2a) forecasted actual and 2b) forecasted maximum (ie clear sky) UV index for the next day or so http://uv.up.railway.app ### [Thread, continued, 17:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039760512829821361) · 16 likes It falls back to Arlington VA if you don’t allow location services tho, be aware ### [Quote tweet, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039781539542696051) · 10 likes The $5/mo hobby plan is your intro to vibecoding anything beyond a static web site (so if you want a game with a shared, real, live scoreboard for example, or a forum with posts that reappear if you log in from a different device) > **Quoting Infornomics (@infornomics):** Railways ease of deployment is pretty amazing for vibe coding ### [Thread, continued, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039781542893928452) · 8 likes The delta in possibilities between spending $0/mo and $5/mo is weirdly and IMO counterintuitively large ### [Thread, continued, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039781545142084064) · 6 likes Idk but I would speculate that companies are very hesitant to give away even tiny amounts of resources for free bc if one guy and his dinky little game with login and a scoreboard can exist for literally nothing, ### [Thread, continued, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039781547683823688) · 5 likes then they have to spend a bunch of time and energy and attention making sure that it’s basically impossible to create some clever system that aggregates 10k free accounts in secret, each incurring $1/usage/year, making it possible to basically steal $10k/year worth of resources ### [Thread, continued, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039781549755785594) · 4 likes (Even if in principle they’d take the deal where 10k new customers would get $1 free annually bc that will occasionally be an on-ramp to serious spending ### [Thread, continued, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039781552398151839) · 3 likes Railway is not paying me to say any of this, but maybe they should be ### [Reply to @DariasRucker, 22:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039826575059714245) · 3 likes > **Daria 🤠 (@DariasRucker):** good shit, ty for building! 🫡 ## Friday, April 3, 2026 ### [Reply to @LaurenE_UX, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039933414833271137) · 1 like > **Lauren (@LaurenE_UX):** What? No. Just always wear sunscreen \*always\*? At night? Clearly there are some situations in which it’s not necessary and by the intermediate value theorem that means there’s a margin/boundary case ### [Tweet, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039957655272161610) · 107 likes What an insane story: there’s a homeless guy with tuberculosis in New Hampshire who is just going around potentially infecting others Courts have ordered him to stay isolated, but the state can’t seem to actually enforce this (yes, with violence if necessary) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HE9irTEXgAAKNDc.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039957660582170842) · 25 likes I’ll get to the medical libertarianism angle in a sec, but apparently New Hampshire as an institution indeed behaves as though “state monopoly on violence” does just mean vibes, papers, and essays ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HE9iroNaoAAAmGH.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039957664944263286) · 27 likes This isn’t a tactically difficult thing to do. He’s not Iran, or Al Qaeda, or even an \*actively\* violent person; he’s a guy who doesn’t give a shit about legal orders per se (many such cases) ### [Thread, continued, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039957666533888282) · 20 likes Famously, there’s a way of causing people who don’t care about legality to start caring: you have the police or military physically coerce them into doing the thing, up to and including killing them (usually with a gun) if other options fail ### [Thread, continued, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039957668115181695) · 17 likes Ofc there’s an ethically justified and good way of doing this: you start nice and only get meaner and more violent as is genuinely necessary (which is a function of how bad the crime itself is and how hard the criminal is trying to resist) ### [Thread, continued, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039957669838987619) · 17 likes TB isn’t a death sentence in the West thanks to modern medicine, fair, but it apparently causes suffering that escalates towards “unbearable” until you break down and go to the hospital and even then it takes weeks for treatment to work ### [Thread, continued, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039957671642583353) · 22 likes So exposure to a contagious person is an extremely grave form of harm, the kind of thing it is unambiguously legitimate for the state to coerce people into not imposing ### [Thread, continued, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039957673253253278) · 20 likes So yeah like wtf, this is such a basic and important example of why governments exist and are sometimes good - sometimes we need to force people into doing things because the alternative is far worse ### [Thread, continued, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039957674855383543) · 19 likes And tbc I’m quite sympathetic to the homeless guy in an important sense: forcible quarantine is itself a major harm and being sick isn’t generally a crime But like the state of New Hampshire has the money to make this a relatively pleasant experience ### [Thread, continued, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039957676432478275) · 13 likes I don’t think it’s at all crazy to spend a million dollars on a quarantine unit with video games, plenty of great food, exercise equipment, access to top tier medical care and whatever else mitigates the genuine harm that forcible quarantine imposes, all for this one guy ### [Thread, continued, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039957682128355764) · 16 likes But: On the medical libertarianism side, this is also insane by the state but in the opposite way??? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HE9isz7aAAAzjvd.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039957684858847361) · 18 likes Why does he need to be legally compelled to accept treatment, up to and including ingesting specific chemicals? The ask can just be: “don’t infect others, medical care is here if you want it” ### [Thread, continued, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039957686452674917) · 10 likes So yeah wtf @newhampshire ### [Thread, continued, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039957687941701916) · 9 likes https://www.wmur.com/article/nearro-forbes-tuberculosis-ordered-isolation/70924534 ### [Thread, continued, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039957689938084259) · 8 likes https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/04/01/metro/nh-tuberculosis-tb-man-public-health/ ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 08:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039978851879522746) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** lol > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HE7dHJ-WAAAvDUf.jpg) > (quoting @rfuzzlemuzz: @AndyMasley You have quite the reputation now. I just stumbled on the Ed Zitron pod subreddit and this is one of the first posts I saw https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/s/2IgXAbFqZs) You need to go to the subreddit!!!! ### [Quote tweet, 09:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039997090844098700) · 11 likes New and improved thanks to everyone's feedback: http://sunsafe.site > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** 20 second vibecoded website helps you decide if you should wear sunscreen > > It just grabs the > 1\) current actual > 2a) forecasted actual and > 2b) forecasted maximum (ie clear sky) > > UV index for the next day or so > > http://uv.up.railway.app ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 09:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2039997320998080670) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 2, 2026:** It falls back to Arlington VA if you don’t allow location services tho, be aware Updated based on feedback: http://sunsafe.site ### [Reply to @panchromaticity, 10:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040015553452986607) · 2 likes > **Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** @AaronBergman18 🤦‍♀️ ye ### [Tweet, 11:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040023872590762202) · 895 likes All evidence suggests that my future wife will be an Indian or Jewish bisexual woman currently 19-28, height 5'0"-5'2", with high functioning autism, an IQ of >=130, and living in the US Claude says that's 10 people, Gemini says 25 I could totally meet all of them ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 11:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040025130915545303) · 41 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** What evidence could possibly suggest this Everything ### [Reply to @Miles_Brundage, 11:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040028700196901044) · 5 likes > **Miles Brundage (@Miles_Brundage):** What’s a good low end media outlet for someone just getting into buying media outlets http://aaronbergman.net ### [Reply to @sasuke___420, 11:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040029236111556966) · 18 likes > **sasuke⚡420 (@sasuke___420):** i met someone who is most of this stuff by playing world of warcraft Based ### [Reply to @grep_cat_, 11:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040034656301535269) · 24 likes > **James (@grep_cat_):** If you decrease the IQ and autism it opens up many more possibilities My sin is actually bumping it up a bit to look like I have weirdly high standards and to make the tweet slightly funnier 128 is not actually a dealbreaker lmao ### [Reply to @nextgenacela, 11:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040034780423520605) · 69 likes > **acela (@nextgenacela):** There are surely at least 10 people like this at my university alone What are their names and phone numbers ### [Reply to @DeepDishEnjoyer, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040127216504209746) · 28 likes > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** all evidence suggests that you are going to die alone Lol thanks? Are you interpreting the tweet as me expressing my preferences? Bc 90% it’s me observing women expressing their preferences (ie the degree to which these demographics predicts matching on hinge conditional on me swiping right) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040127403792519502) · 22 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 3, 2026:** All evidence suggests that my future wife will be an Indian or Jewish bisexual woman currently 19-28, height 5'0"-5'2", with high functioning autism, an IQ of… Tbc this is not my laundry list of preferences lmao ### [Reply to @EndeavoringIvy, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040128035903455400) · 2 likes > **Ivy (@EndeavoringIvy):** How old are you? 26 ### [Reply to @LabGrownNeet, 18:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040128829545398753) · 10 likes > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** P4 just wants to ensure he gets a spite-invitation to the wedding Lol he can come 👍👍👍 ### [Reply to @mishapathy, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040133677020045658) · 2 likes > **Mishka (@mishapathy):** She'll be born in nine years. Aaron has a preference for large age gaps Lmao ### [Reply to @olivertraldi, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040158122497458648) · 6 likes > **Oliver Traldi (@olivertraldi):** This is half the women in DC Closer to 40% ### [Reply to @envisionedluna, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040159944113062320) · 2 likes > **Maya Luna (@envisionedluna):** How did you come to this conclusion? Lol the most basic thing is just: there’s a striking and noticeable overlap in traits among the women I’ve actually gone on dates with My sense is that this is much more due to selection/filtering by women than by me, but I think my preferences play some role as well ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040163325951062352) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 27, 2025:** Not load bearing (this is a raccoon’s tail, you’ll have to take my word for it) Not load bearing (but quite startling) [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/2040163191242862592/img/GE93EW6c7D3ZbfJU.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040163325951062352/video/1) (video, plays on X) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFAdnPPWoAAKadc.jpg) ## Saturday, April 4, 2026 ### [Reply to @MetroTransitPD, 13:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040424748794917339) · 5 likes > **Metro Transit Police (@MetroTransitPD):** We are on the scene of a crash at 7th and Q Streets NW in DC where a bus was struck by a vehicle, causing it to crash into a building. Three people sustained minor injuries, including the bus operator. @DCPoliceDept and @dcfireems are leading the investigation. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFD4plhXIAA9Nj7.jpg) Bus isn’t supposed to be there like that ### [Reply to @DrSamuelBHume, 13:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040426303870939164) · 2 likes > **Samuel Hume (@DrSamuelBHume):** What's bigger, GLP1s or AI? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFECvbLawAAiN6x.jpg) > (quoting @nikolacupic: Semaglutide alone (one single peptide) generated $34.6 billion in sales in 2025. OpenAI hit $20B revenue that year. So a single peptide out-earned ChatGPT by 1.7x. And that's before Eli Lilly's tirzepatide, which added another $25B.) AI ### [Reply, 13:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040429108656521558) · 9 likes > **sankalp (@dejavucoder):** i am curious to know how idea generation works for folks here - poasters, researchers, engineers. do you have any specific rituals like consuming lot of info then going on a walk or caffeine driven idea generation I don’t consider this a ritual but literally those three things are the ingredients at least for me: 1\) (interesting + important) info 2\) stimulants (but be aware that they increase the false positive rate) incl caffeine 3\) walk (specifically walking for me) I’d also add: 4\) doing things irl (I’m not always the best at this but like the idea here is that this stands in contrast to purely living and thinking in the realm of ideas without contact with reality) 5\) silence/unstructured pondering (can combine this with the walk!) - this stands in contrast to always informationmaxxing Misc: 6\) Apple Notes on iPhone is ur friend 7\) I personally like the “ramble as audio note -> transcribe (I use the assemblyAI playground for this generally) -> have LLM organize/make cogent” workflow 8\) idk how actionable this is but at least subjectively, \*physical\* health correlates a bunch with interesting idea generation. I think I notice this bc it’s weirdly variable for me on an hourly and daily basis (chronic bullshit) but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s true in general 9\) this is the hard part but writing down ideas actually does seem to help them develop/improve for whatever reason ### [Tweet, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040482865809403932) · 33 likes Extroverts are so funny man how did we just spend 12 minutes talking about the fact that you were gonna play tennis and buy a printer today (neither of which I have any connection with or insight about) ### [Tweet, 17:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040484885056405819) · 67 likes It’s extremely funny that the United States government spent $4B on a space mission and got the four astronauts shitty windows laptops ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFFCL9BXoAANLmX.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 17:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040484888940282286) · 17 likes I feel like if ur gonna risk your life to go past the moon on behalf of the richest country ever you should be able to take your pick of computer (fully paid for ofc) ### [Reply to @paleonormie, 21:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040547533903048842) · 9 likes > **pnorm (@randy_mossad):** The list of reasons it’s a bad idea to build housing deep underground is so long that you will never finish listing them, science will discover new disadvantages faster than you can update your documents > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Serious question for #YIMBYTwitter: where height restrictions per se are the issue, why haven’t developers started building vertically but \*down\*, underground? I mean windowless apartments don’t sound ideal, but probably less bad than unaffordability and homelessness) Lmao But also I feel like this is true (in the sense that the generated list would seem genuinely prohibitive) for things that we do in fact do irl and for good reason How sure are you that you can distinguish between the list that “prevents” normal skyscrapers from existing (what about fire, what about NIMBYs, something about wind, idk) and the list that prevents earthscrapers from existing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFF7Ku1bwAAeF6u.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 21:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040547611661291680) · 43 likes We should cancel whoever proposed such a thing > **Quoting Someone:** ## Sunday, April 5, 2026 ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 03:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040634365370147175) · 3 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** if only they knew how comfy subterranean mcmansions could really be > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFGEC2iWgAAjRZD.jpg) Exactly ### [Tweet, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040636943491334511) · 49 likes Drunk for the first time in a while, about 4 drinks so not crazy but still I don't really like this, | like more energy and vitality and energy and attunement and this isn’t it Also at a basic level I’m not actually experiencing positive valence I must have a weird brain ### [Reply to @rgblong, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040639628663742970) · 5 likes > **Robert Long (@rgblong):** last night I thought this was really important to make note of > > (I was right) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFGm1I1a4AA_51E.jpg) Most important insight yet ### [Tweet, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040645528791216247) · 997 likes Some kid survived being fully under water (ice cold) for ~2.5 hours (and possibly up to 3) bc he basically got cryogenically almost-frozen (so brain oxygen needs plummeted) Pretty insane ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFHUSv7XoAEsXJd.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040645531265843282) · 210 likes Rescue team did absolutely everything right, including the non-obvious decision to do CPR on what anybody would reasonably assume was a dead body at that point (this is the record for longest survived submersion) Good old fashioned heroism ### [Thread, continued, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040645532977082556) · 154 likes No vital signs - he was almost certainly dead but they did CPR for >1 hour And CPR isn’t especially fun or easy ### [Thread, continued, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040645534596190282) · 141 likes Being a small, skinny kid saved him because he got flash frozen essentially (rapid whole body cool-down) ### [Thread, continued, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040645537284702273) · 56 likes https://www.jacc.org/doi/pdf/10.1016/j.jaccas.2025.104885?download=true ### [Tweet, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040663392759812125) · 241 likes I know I’m not gonna convince anyone of this but I think LLMs should actually be totally willing to tell you how to synthesize methamphetamine and it’s silly that this is an archetypal refusal ### [Thread, continued, 05:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040663913553957329) · 46 likes Here’s a take one might have: maybe the drug cartels are funding anti-LLM-meth propaganda because they don’t want to lower barriers to entry to their oligopoly ### [Thread, continued, 05:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040664251648352592) · 38 likes Tbc I would not personally want to make meth, but his forbid an addict wants to save a bit of money and ensure purity ### [Reply to @InVitroFuture, 05:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040666735708189104) · 17 likes > **Macrophysiological System🐀 (@InVitroFuture):** 1\) this is miracle work, can't be understated that what they mean by "patient with asystolic hypothermia" is what people at any other point of history would have called a corpse > > 2\) maybe becoming a parent has made me soft but this was an absolutely nauseating read. jfc > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFHYDywbsAA9kaF.png) Real ### [Reply to @panchromaticity, 09:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040724344117039549) · 2 likes > **Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** @AaronBergman18 ???? > > do people really find alcohol energizing? just makes me feel tired and bluh usually I think most people at least \*enjoy\* it ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 09:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040725496762073366) · 23 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 5, 2026:** Tbc I would not personally want to make meth, but his forbid an addict wants to save a bit of money and ensure purity Refusals ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFIc9yyXEAAAfjZ.png) ### [Reply to @HenriThunberg, 10:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040737113260310838) · 6 likes > **Henri Thunberg 🔸 (@HenriThunberg):** I met this boy a few years ago (many years later, as an adult. Pretty surreal! > > https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/jamtland/lang-vag-tillbaka-for-leo Wow!! ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 10:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040742880428306480) · 46 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** "I have black friends" > \*eyeroll\* > > But wait, having black friends surely is evidence of not being racist. Many racists (in the proper sense) probably don't have many black friends. Yes lol, it’s a bit crazy how far removed racism discourse is from the questions “do you personally feel animosity toward black people (or whomever)” and “how do you treat black people/whomever” And I’m actually a bit sympathetic to the eye roll (a bit) bc it’s not absolutely overwhelming evidence that you don’t actually treat black people worse on avg, but the general principle that we should be interested in irl interpersonal interactions first and foremost is just true ### [Reply to @ejjiott, 10:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040745506037514258) · 18 likes > **E J T (@ejjiott):** What's the case against refusals here? The case in favour seems pretty strong to me: we don't want to make it easier to get addicted to meth or become a meth dealer. At some level just a prior that people are rational actors with respect to their own wellbeing - I think drug use is often in fact in one’s own self interest, even if it’s taboo to say so Eg chronic pain is extremely miserable; using heroin to treat it is plausibly rational and justified even though in the abstract, sure, heroin addiction per se is bad Meth use is plausibly for the same reason caffeine and alcohol use is sometimes good - it makes people feel good, diminishes suffering in a direct sense, and in the case of amphetamines is good for productivity and weight loss at clinical dosages I reject that selling drugs is bad for the same reasons. There are definitely unethical ways to sell drugs, such as lying about the contents of the substance, purporting to do more quality control than one actually does, and giving inaccurate dosing info I also think it’s bad to sell things that can functionally act as poison (ie a weapon). Selling drugs that can easily be used to harm a nonconsenting third party is bad (this is a matter of degree ofc). I’m somewhat anti-fentanyl bc the presence of a substance that will kill you in an utterly trivial quantity in society seems bad, but if a bulking agent and coloring was added I think it would be mostly fine But things that are physically large in size, distinctive, smell weird, etc are much safer. It’s pretty hard to accidentally smoke weed in an amount that will harm you for instance ### [Quote tweet, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040870067403923689) · 1,625 likes Our society is so contemptuous of children Can’t hang out with your friends after 8pm in public? Wtf? Should be seen as a major failure of the police dept - the inability to enforce laws/deal with crime without impeding the basic freedoms of random kids doing nothing wrong > **Quoting Alex Taliadoros (@AlexCTaliadoros):** This happened with a curfew in place. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFJxDk9aEAAVfzq.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040870070151160154) · 139 likes Lol it’s easy to prevent crime by running a police state - the challenge and aspiration is preventing crime while maintaining a free and open society ### [Quote tweet, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040871459132739771) · 85 likes Taylor, welcome to anti-woke > **Quoting Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz):** Every single person in my replies cancelling me for using Claude Code and Gemini, saying that I’m “killing black and brown people” by using up energy can apologize and delete their posts whenever they’re ready ### [Thread, continued, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040871894858010804) · 12 likes This stuff is so unbelievably nuts How are these people real ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 19:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040872203441348780) · 4 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** @AaronBergman18 that sounds like you want a stimulant not like you want alcohol > > i like alcohol but it isn't a stimulant Yeah real (there’s a reason I use stims like 1000x more than i drink) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040874899099582554) · 132 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 5, 2026:** Lol it’s easy to prevent crime by running a police state - the challenge and aspiration is preventing crime while maintaining a free and open society ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFKk4xuWQAAgSuT.jpg) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 20:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040885614296351110) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Obviously people shouldn't engage in street brawling but I believe curfews aren't simply trading off liberty and crime. Some high quality research indicates they cause a substantial increase in shootings > > https://www.cato.org/research-briefs-economic-policy/keep-kids-inside-juvenile-curfews-urban-gun-violence#:~:text=We%20can%20also%20rule%20out,effect%20of%20sending%20juveniles%20inside. Oh wow wild ### [Reply to @meingottfraiser, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040902211861889493) · 59 likes > **Niles (@meingottfraiser):** @AaronBergman18 At are they really just hanging out, Aaron? Just calmly hanging out? Why are you lying when there is video? Lol I’m not saying everyone is going that, I’m saying that hanging out is in fact illegal ### [Quote tweet, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040916457467371976) · 12 likes Oof, maybe this is ill-advised but the response seems earnest so I’m gonna respond to it (my response below) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFLKsouXIAA9r5R.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFLKspHbEAAp13O.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Our society is so contemptuous of children > > Can’t hang out with your friends after 8pm in public? Wtf? > > Should be seen as a major failure of the police dept - the inability to enforce laws/deal with crime without impeding the basic freedoms of random kids doing nothing wrong ### [Thread, continued, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040916464203608246) · 17 likes the last sentence of the first paragraph seems basically true (evidence: I tried to find counter-examples and could not), although I just wouldn’t be personally terrified to live in PG County as one example. On the “what if…actual impossibility” question: I’m happy to play along, and the honest answer is that I don’t know what to do; it’s genuinely non-obvious. Like supposing that is an actual constraint, first thing is that I’d want to conceptually and empirically separate the “black people tend to be victims” phenomenon from “black people tend to be perpetrators \*even controlling for who they encounter irl\* (ie not just because they run into people who are themselves more likely to be victims)” phenomenon - “black % vs crime rates” correlations don’t tell you whether one or the other or both are the important drivers But fine, let’s suppose, as I think people like the anonymous responder think, that the second phenomenon is substantial (ie even if you yourself don’t have any risk factors for being a victim, you’re more likely to be a victim in the presence of more black people); ok well what are the literal possible policy options and which one is least bad? We could do slavery We could do segregation We could deport black people We could subject black people to legal discrimination on the basis of race in various ways We could do nothing We could try woke We could try various policies that reduce crime but don’t punish anyone for race per se (note that this may lead to disparate impact) And my genuine, literal best guess is that \*something\* in the last option umbrella is best (ofc that doesn’t specify a ton, it’s a massive category). I don’t know how to prove that this is really truly what I think in the sense that matters, and I don’t really deep down think that I secretly endorse one of the race-specific policies To be anti-woke for a sec, I think ending disparate impact enforcement is good and this is one of the only good policy moves/changes by the Trump administration. You actually do want to just do good, impartial, ethical policy on its own terms and if that leads to correlations with race then so be it ### [Thread, continued, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040916469127463358) · 11 likes (Continued) A few more qualitative points to emphasize: \- impartiality is true: the effects on white people aren’t all of what counts; making black people’s lives worse is exactly as important. If slavery halved the violent crime rate in the US, it would still be bad because slavery is extremely bad, and this morally overwhelms the crime delta effect \- The response quite literally doesn’t suggest/propose a concrete response, and plausibly this reflects something important: the world can be any way it wants, it’s just possible that things are as inconvenient as the responder suggests, but then like take it seriously as a real constraint. What \*is\* the best option? Let’s talk specifics, bc there is genuinely not an obvious best/least bad policy implication. I’d endorse stronger “many egregious strikes and you don’t get to be part of society anymore for a long time” laws for example (a race-neutral policy) \- At the micro-level, the classic kumbaya anti-racist vibe/reasoning is correct: judging people for skin color per se is wrong and bad, and inconvenient correlations don’t change this fact; you can just look at and deal with the undesired actions themselves (eg violent crime) instead of the correlate that’s most salient to you In the context of the curfew specifically: it doesn’t just follow from “black ppl bad” that “curfews in black areas are good”; like you can just try really hard to prevent crime in other ways. I wouldn’t say that curfews are absolutely categorically immoral, but restricting wholesale groups’ freedom is just a massively lazy, cheems mindset response, and I’d guess it is genuinely sub-optimal as a moral and empirical matter. Like really truly you think it should be illegal for an individual teenager (perhaps a black one) to go for a walk at night because of what \*other\* black people do? There needs to be an extraordinarily high bar for this sort of reasoning/punishment/restriction of freedom. Maybe grounding planes on 9/11 passes that bar (in large part bc IIRC it was an emergency measure and not an indefinite policy) - it \*was\* a restriction of freedom imposed wholesale without individual flight- or person-level targeting - but banning kids from going outside due to urban crime in general does not ### [Thread, continued, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040916471212048801) · 2 likes Forgive lazy typing/editing/structure - this was just a stream of consciousness thing I wrote on my phone ### [Tweet, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040921614313730299) · 60 likes Every 80k biosecurity episode, quite literally ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFLPZCNWoAAjHc9.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040921616998174917) · 3 likes https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/80-000-hours-podcast/id1245002988?i=1000758466206 ### [Reply to @alwaysadblock, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040922142569644336) · 32 likes > **Always Adblock (@alwaysadblock):** @AaronBergman18 "kids" > "friends" > "random kids" > > Choose your favorite euphemism, mine is "friends" What’s the critique exactly? I’m not saying that nothing bad is going on, I’m saying that other totally benign activities are also being made illegal Surely at least one benign social gathering has been stopped because of this ### [Reply, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040926092387590463) · 1 like It seems plausible, but i have little independent evidence that it’s what’s going on - this isn’t a topic i tend to study much Hmm I guess I’m skeptical that there’s no option closer to the Pareto frontier than wholesale curfews, and relatedly the “strict” criterion is doing a lot of work Verbatim law enforcement seems highly unethical to me, but I can imagine a regime I would call “fair” that is indeed better than the curfews ### [Reply to @Benthamsbulldog, 23:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040933876919353484) · 91 likes > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** 1\. Match with girl. > 2\. She asks for hot takes about AI. > 3\. Say ex risks are real, many near-term risks like water are fake. > 4\. She disagrees water is fake. > 5\. I sent her an Andy Masley article. > 6\. She sends an error-filled. > 7\. I explain why it's wrong. > 8\. She unmatched. > > (quoting @Benthamsbulldog: Second one is me!) Lol rip but something tells me you would not have been. Compatible ### [Tweet, 23:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2040935091505873215) · 18 likes I had a restaurant grilled cheese yesterday, not typical fare for me. Probably used a whole stick of butter to make it (hopefully real butter lol) I can see why kids like that shit ## Monday, April 6, 2026 ### [Reply to @GrldChzAntiSoc, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041018600912249089) · 2 likes > **Grilled Cheese Anti Social (@GrldChzAntiSoc):** I can see why adults like it too Hello grilled cheese ### [Reply to @LAppiah, 06:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041036625686192402) · 11 likes > **Lindsey O. Appiah (@LAppiah):** @AaronBergman18 I helped create these. I love kids. I want them to be safe. Last year, what we saw was they weren't. They were fighting, creating mayhem, using tremendous police resources and the neighbors in these areas were rightfully upset. There are lots of places kids are & can be. Interesting, thanks for replying! Do you not think the relevant policy objectives can be achieved without banning benign activities? I agree that public fighting is bad, and police resource constraints are real, but \*in general\* we as a society just ban and enforce the the undesired behavior itself (fighting, yelling, whatever) rather than the broad preconditions for it (the ability to go outside), and I think for good reason ### [Reply to @Benthamsbulldog, 08:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041076531921903976) · 3 likes > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** Casual dating? As opposed to what? Competitive dating? Ik it’s a largely a euphemism for low stakes sex and that’s fine, but I’ve always found the term “short-term relationship” very funny but also kinda bad Like you really want to foreclose on the possibility ex ante that you’re gonna really like the person and maybe not want to go your separate ways? Casual sex is fine/good but like god forbid you both fall in love ### [Quote tweet, 08:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041077990092689734) · 59 likes Accredited investor rules are not the worst part of society, but they get my blood boiling Like fuck you, I can buy a candy bar if I want because I’m an adult and an American, and I should be able to buy equity in anything I damn well please in the same way > **Quoting Riley Brown (@rileybrown):** No sorry you can’t invest in OpenAI, you’re not an accredited investor. But you can bet all your money on what the OPENAI valuation will be on @Polymarket. It’s safer this way for you. ### [Thread, continued, 08:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041077992265220609) · 18 likes Guy who’s brain viscerally thinks that almost 1 billion pigs being tortured in factory farms is approximately as big of a deal as him not being able to buy certain stocks (me) ### [Quote tweet, 09:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041080533292093652) · 226 likes Kids’ rights better be coming up soon in the long arc of history that allegedly bends towards justice > **Quoting Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** An illustrative anecdote: At 16, I approached the head of year and asked whether she could change to policy to allow us to leave the school premises and go for a walk during the lunch break. She said no, allegedly because she didn’t trust us to return to class on time. ### [Thread, continued, 09:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041080535456350231) · 36 likes For once I actually think “rights”, rather than welfare, is basically the correct lens, even though welfare is what I actually care about at the end of the day ### [Reply to @AlecStapp, 09:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041081373801214396) · 4 likes > **Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** I didn't know a corporate slide deck could be this good > > https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/culture-1798664/1798664 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFLdQMbXsAAPZyn.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFLdQMDWwAAw4Bg.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFLdQMDXwAAHWqD.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFLderqW4AAVj-3.jpg) Re: recoverable mistakes, there’s a vicious cycle More bad process means that fixing the mistake (or non-mistake bet that was bad ex post) will be harder and costlier and maybe impossible And so we need more process to prevent that Ad infinitum ### [Tweet, 10:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041094242613739966) · 344 likes Death (or mere injury) by capsaicin (which is real) is obviously horrifying but also interesting in the sense that you can die not only of heat but also by \*tricking your body in to thinking it’s hot\* ### [Thread, continued, 10:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041094244199276978) · 80 likes It’s not obvious that this should be possible Indeed, apparently while you can overdose on menthol, this is via straightforward menthol toxicity rather than your body killing itself because it thinks it’s cold ### [Quote tweet, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041219721236795679) · 63 likes Bruh > **Quoting AI Notkilleveryoneism Memes ⏸️ (@AISafetyMemes):** "You need to understand that Sam can never be trusted." > > "He is a sociopath. He would do anything." > > \- Aaron Swartz on Altman, shortly before he took his own life > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFPVUaiaIAEhlqB.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFPVNE1WoAA9HyS.jpg) ### [Reply to @livgorton, 19:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041240906842480858) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** I donate ~20% of my income to effective causes and yet I mass-avoid the "EA" label. I think a lot about why and it mostly comes down to the movement having a social naivety problem that I find genuinely embarrassing. Bonk ### [Reply to @livgorton, 19:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041241184673083791) · 3 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** I'm being vague on purpose and I don't know if tweeting this is productive but this keeps happening and it's exhausting. FWIW I’m pretty sure I know what you’re talking about and think this is way way too strong (like being embarrassed about the EA label bc of this) ### [Reply to @meekaale, 20:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041257678786211961) · 15 likes > **Mikael Brockman (@meekaale):** what's the mechanism? heart attack, suffocation? it's probably some relatively straightforward complication like stress plus preexisting disease? I want to not spread misinformation so I am trying to confirm stuff, stand by ### [Quote tweet, 21:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041259856594645016) · 27 likes One cannot say “we weren’t warned” > **Quoting Ronan Farrow (@RonanFarrow):** The reporting on OpenAI and Sam Altman that I've been working on for the past year and a half, for @NewYorker, with @andrewmarantz: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/13/sam-altman-may-control-our-future-can-he-be-trusted ### [Tweet, 21:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041260363904065562) · 36 likes Me contacting serious people about important matters from an organizational email address ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFQDMcIasAALq0q.png) ### [Thread, continued, 21:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041260365741162955) · 3 likes (This is just how it feels, I don't think anything wrong or sus or even weird is happening) ### [Quote tweet, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041260694935417264) · 39 likes God I can’t stop RTing this stuff it’s just so so bad OpenAI and Sam are supervillain caricatures > **Quoting Ronan Farrow (@RonanFarrow):** This announcement arrives hours after our investigation (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/13/sam-altman-may-control-our-future-can-he-be-trusted) described how OpenAI dissolved its superalignment and AGI-readiness teams and dropped safety from the list of its most significant activities on its IRS filings—and how, when we asked to speak with researchers, working on existential safety, a representative replied "What do you mean by 'existential safety'? That's not, like, a thing." ### [Quote tweet, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041263505727160596) · 14 likes I might have to get one of these with my name on it > **Quoting Neil Renic (@NC_Renic):** A reminder that in the 2009 movie “Knowing”, Nicholas Cage flashes an MIT badge that simply reads “Academic.” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFL5Um0b0AAuMuV.png) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041265830306996570) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 6, 2026:** I want to not spread misinformation so I am trying to confirm stuff, stand by Looks like it checks out, although injury is way more common than death Apparently this is the most likely mechanism of death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bezold%E2%80%93Jarisch_reflex My general hazy layperson understanding is that extreme stimuli can evoke extreme protective responses which sometimes themselves cause death In lay-terms, more specifically: \- Vagal reflex cardiac arrest \- Blood vessel spasm \- Brain vessel constriction all of which I think fall under the umbrella "cardiovascular and nervous system response to interpreted stimulus" https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/89518604-18c3-4a69-94d4-ce7e9d6294ea ### [Quote tweet, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041285961758236889) · 13 likes Concrete probabilities from people who really know their shit and have encountered the right memes are scarce, so Moulange puts the current annual probability of a viral pandemic at 1-2% (I’m happy to condense that to 1.5) but notes that it’s only going up from here (bc AI) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/80-000-hours-podcast/id1245002988?i=1000758466206 ### [Tweet, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041299182640656787) · 28 likes Have EA orgs been traumatized by FTX into not buying people books anymore? If so something an individual donor could do is preorder the new 80k career guide for people (and maybe I’d do this at a small scale) ### [Thread, continued, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041299184284733539) · 8 likes This might also be understood as “buying gifts for your friends and family” ### [Thread, continued, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041299185903743486) · 6 likes Ofc in a neolib world at least the ideal thing is to not buy the book for others but to subsidize the cost down A lot of people will take a free book, plausibly a lot fewer would take a $5 book (and plausibly too many would take a free book) ### [Thread, continued, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041299187644486071) · 5 likes Tbc I don’t know for sure how good the new 80k book is, but I pretty strongly expect it to be good such that conditional on someone actually wanting to at least start/try reading it, it would be very silly for $20 to dissuade them (but I think it might!) ## Tuesday, April 7, 2026 ### [Reply, 03:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041362196282671418) · 4 likes > **the brave little poaster (@virgil_30):** Laughing imagining the nearest possible world in which you have both the temerity and the conscience to priss out like this in Roko or Eigen’s replies > > Which is, of course, OP’s point Not sure I understand, I'm friends with Liv and I'm not friends with Roko or Eigen so naturally I'm gonna have a different communication style ### [Reply to @DaCaveOfWonders, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041362334187168179) · 2 likes > **Tiger Lava Lamp (@DaCaveOfWonders):** The latest AI in Context video has Aric advertising that new subscribers to the 80k newsletter get a free book > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFRIdPQXQAAn9xw.jpg) Ah nice ### [Quote tweet, 04:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041365748367372521) · 6 likes If you want one of these (kindle, audible, or paperback \[I'm too stingy for the $80 hardcover\]) please DM me with the which form you'd want + email for kindle/audible or shipping address for paperback (also see below) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFRhujkXQAAoZbH.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Have EA orgs been traumatized by FTX into not buying people books anymore? > > If so something an individual donor could do is preorder the new 80k career guide for people (and maybe I’d do this at a small scale) ### [Reply, 04:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041366075225284718) · 2 likes > **the brave little poaster (@virgil_30):** Reaffirming that criticizing the movement’s bedfellows is a door EA categorically won’t open, however polite, is the thing you’re frustrated about in your tweet \> categorically won’t open lol this is flat out wrong - EAs if anything have too much of a fetish for criticism ### [Reply to @bellaforristal, 06:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041409695831802221) · 2 likes > **Bella Forristal 🔸 (@bellaforristal):** @AaronBergman18 The UK does have a hardcover copy, but it’s £22 which is a much more normal hardcover price lol The hardcover thing is really random, looks like it’s a book seller that just straightforwardly scams people and sometimes doesn’t even ship the book Dare I say that “Amazon book swindler” might not be the most altruistically productive career, they need to read their own copy😤 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFSLS9wawAAW0c7.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFSLS9kaoAAnSIp.jpg) ### [Tweet, 07:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041416116547821858) · 51 likes I love Twitter I finally got a mean DM from someone It’s kinda nuts that I can sling takes 24/7 and this kind of thing happens MAYBE once a year ### [Thread, continued, 07:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041416118275916048) · 40 likes The stats are like Positives: \- Good friends (made through Twitter): 10 \- Casual friends: 50+ \- Dates: 3+ \- Professional opportunities: 5+ \- Times I get recognized irl in a good way: maybe 2-3x/year \- Ahead of the world on everything important (late on here = early out there) ### [Thread, continued, 07:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041416120138088467) · 14 likes \- I genuinely think I learn stuff (not a replacement for longform, but still) \- I genuinely enjoy it \- it fits my brain perfectly ### [Thread, continued, 07:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041416122168205329) · 10 likes Negatives: \- Once a year an anonymous stranger says something mean \- I probably spend a bit more time on the app than I’d endorse (but genuinely not a ton; see below) \- maybe once a month I’ll get mildly stressed over something (like a miscommunication or argument) ### [Thread, continued, 07:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041416129201983908) · 6 likes Call it 2.5 hours/day with desktop use (this is by far my main non-work screen activity) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFSRJntbAAA0d12.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 08:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041439690201448618) · 34 likes I know this isn’t the point of the tweet but it’s unfortunate that public health/institutional medicine has burned its credibility over the years bc it would be nice to be \*able\* to unironically say “the experts say this is implausible, sorry” > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** My first and only ever community input meeting was for building smart grid infrastructure in my city in 2014. I a friend and our professor turned out to be in the minority of people there who wanted the smart grid. A woman in a large crowd of what turned out to be protestors stood up and said "There is a new refugee crisis in this country: people with wifi intolerance. They have nowhere to go" and we spent the next hour getting told that people were having to flee cities where smart grid was built due to the wifi, wifi gives you cancer, and that we were shills for smart grid. > > This is what turned me evil. ### [Thread, continued, 08:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041439692428624045) · 19 likes It’s not just COVID (and institutional medicine per se largely got that right I think) the thing that jumps out to me most in the context of this story is ~gaslighting sufferers of of: \- CFS \- SSRI withdrawal ### [Thread, continued, 08:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041439694148243648) · 15 likes \- Lyme after 2 weeks of doxy (I know this one still up in the air a bit but at the very least I think dismissals of something like chronic Lyme were too hasty and too confident) \- Endometriosis (still, apparently) ### [Thread, continued, 08:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041439697667256578) · 10 likes More on the public health side: \- vapes \- the usual laundry list of COVID stuff (to prove my woke bona fides I actually think the “they flipped on George Floyd protests” grievance is overrated; weren’t we learning that outdoor transmission is very rare right around then?) ### [Thread, continued, 08:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041439700888461815) · 9 likes \- saturated fat (medicine and public health I think) Those are what come to mind but the point is that it’s genuinely hard to build consensus around what kind of things to take seriously when ### [Thread, continued, 08:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041439702562001356) · 9 likes P(true | at least outwardly expressed consensus of institutional medicine says false) is not that low ### [Thread, continued, 08:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041439704147509444) · 11 likes Maybe object level I should say that I give more credence to “WiFi actually fucks with some people substantially at a physiological level” than I think Andy does, although idk what Andy thinks Maybe I’d throw out 0.5%? So 1/200 insane neuroses would check out, seems plausible ### [Reply to @MerrynSW, 08:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041440691268538682) · 59 likes > **Merryn Somerset Webb (@MerrynSW):** What if the whole LLM thing is a false start? If the flaws are inherent systemic problems - if the compounding of hallucinations/errors can't be sorted out? If the capex build out is one of the biggest misallocations of capital ever? Then what? https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-04-04/waiting-out-ai-s-super-spending-false-start-merryn-talks-money?srnd=undefined Lol if its a false start then life goes on as normal and shareholders in hyperscalers lose some money and GPU prices drop so research becomes cheaper What if it’s \*not\* a false start? ### [Reply to @cljack, 09:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041441837383115091) · 14 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** My older kid is 11 and I would let her land a commercial jet, I would put her in charge of a federal law enforcement agency. What is wrong with you people > > (quoting @cobavines: @HighHeelEsquire She is THIRTEEN. If she was 16 or 17, yes this would be crazy overbearing. What are they doing at just 13 they don’t want the mom to see? She’s too young to be totally unsupervised. I don’t think this is too much at all. They’re babies.) Based Fr my parents were quite overprotective (loving, well meaning, but still) and in hindsight I still think I was quite substantially harmed by this - not in a trauma or developmental sense, just in the sense that my childhood itself was made less enjoyable, and by a lot ### [Reply to @BecomingCritter, 09:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041443267586228586) · 12 likes > **critter (@BecomingCritter):** However, the government tends to focus on easier targets such as visible bank/brokerage accounts, wages, federal payments, and sometimes liens > > But, if you were to properly structure your life, you could make it very hard for them to get at you Im a die hard utilitarian but this seems maybe bad You generally don’t want to be the first player to defect on things like this - we save a bunch of money as a country by not having to track down people who do this Idk my normie is showing ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 16:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041549953906913385) > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** The organization that considers itself the steward of the EA community: > \- Was weirdly entangled with a cult (Leverage) for many years > \- Was weirdly entangled with one of the largest financial crimes of the 21st century > \- Has had multiple sexual harassment scandals (OCB, Fran) Ok but still, out of 20k, should we have expected less than this? Obviously this doesn’t excuse any specific action, but it’s relevant when evaluating the whole community ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 16:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041550089043189981) > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Matt this is an EV board member not a CEA one you should know better 😔 Extremely rare Matt not knowing things L ### [Quote tweet, 16:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041552324892446856) · 41 likes MTG is still obviously kinda unhinged and wrong about lots of things but it is nice to see a US (former) politician be pro-socially disagreeable (her party still likes Trump) and somewhat morally serious I think she’s a true believer (positive), not a grifter > **Quoting Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@FmrRepMTG):** 25TH AMENDMENT!!! > Not a single bomb has dropped on America. We cannot kill an entire civilization. > This is evil and madness. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFTdBS_XEAAfCU5.jpg) ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 16:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041552440772731122) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Until the spinout is complete the EV boards are CEA’s! Ok Matt do be knowing things ### [Tweet, 17:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041564102980415558) · 18 likes Re Meta knowing about scams on its platforms and Zuck choosing not to do anything: intuitively I'd expect more conflict between a company's executives and non-executive shareholders in the sense that executives, already very wealthy ### [Thread, continued, 17:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041564104670802276) · 10 likes would be \*more\* willing than more-normal-on-avg shareholders to sacrifice profit for something like morality or, more cynically, in-group signaling or something like that But I'm not sure that's what we see ### [Thread, continued, 17:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041564105983598699) · 9 likes So Zuck "should" (in this model) be the one happy to shut down the scam ads - he's already extremely rich! His life doesn't change that much if Meta stock drops by 10%, even dropping \*to\* 10% of its current value leaves him with a pretty similar quality of life ### [Thread, continued, 17:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041564107552215056) · 6 likes But again that's not what we actually see ### [Quote tweet, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041607396397662532) · 18 likes It begins > **Quoting Kevin Roose (@kevinroose):** NEWS: Anthropic's new model, Claude Mythos, is so powerful that it is not releasing it to the public. > > Instead, it is starting a 40-company coalition, Project Glasswing, to allow cybersecurity defenders a head start in locking down critical software. > > https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/technology/anthropic-claims-its-new-ai-model-mythos-is-a-cybersecurity-reckoning.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ZFA.cS3q.4S3d98AiHY94&smid=url-share ### [Tweet, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041607786958655710) · 6 likes Imagine being an audio transcription model and trying to correctly transcribe "Journavx" (a newish drug) which was not in any of your training data and doesn't have an obvious spelling based on the phonetics ## Wednesday, April 8, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041669082781564936) · 28 likes Too rich to live in an area with laundromats in walking distance, too poor to make the pickup and drop off services a good decision, too much market failure (explained below) to have a washer and dryer that can fit a large blanket ### [Thread, continued, 00:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041669084689891635) · 9 likes The market failure problem is that there’s no (easy) way for me to express a willingness to pay slightly higher rent if there were bigger machines and it’s not worth the money to me because I probably won’t live here for the lifetime of the machine or close to it ### [Thread, continued, 00:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041669086514471050) · 8 likes Ideally I’d pay a maybe 25% (and rent wouldn’t change) and landlord would pay a bit and get more return on future rent but there’s no great mechanism for this to happen, at least in part because the whole nature of the lease is that you don’t know when you’re gonna stay ### [Thread, continued, 00:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041669088968085984) · 6 likes And also it’s not a renter’s market and I think this unit is substantially below market rate for sociological and principal-agent problem reasons, so I don’t want to ruffle feathers ### [Thread, continued, 00:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041669092344467938) · 4 likes (ie the landlord as I’ve heard is just an old dude without the energy or desire to do market research, and the property manager has no incentive to max ROI for landlord, and also eviction laws make the threat of “pay this higher rent or you’re out” less credible) ### [Thread, continued, 00:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041669094617825658) · 5 likes And also I think normal people don’t want to threaten to evict 3 young adults (me + roommates) who don’t cause trouble and do pay rent that was agreed to (This is the sociological angle) ### [Reply to @YitziLitt, 00:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041670106632065127) · 2 likes > **Yitz (@YitziLitt):** Yeah, I think we’re pretty officially in the Things Will Get Weird Fast timeline at this point. Rip ### [Tweet, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041747848849416541) · 296 likes I assume this was literally implied by what I learned in AP Physics, but low IQ so I didn't intuit it: TIL that there's an absolute upper bound on information you can fit in some amount of space https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bekenstein_bound ### [Thread, continued, 05:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041748218665451949) · 53 likes It's the amount of information (so measured in bytes) at which to pack more you'd need more energy than would necessarily cause a black hole Apparently the limit on info in a cubic planck length is about 1.7 bits - which is kinda random lol ### [Reply to @acidshill, 05:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041748295240786405) · 4 likes > **shill 🔍 (@acidshill):** @AaronBergman18 how often do you actually have to wash the blanket? shouldn't be that often not that often, but I'd like to do it at least once a year ### [Reply to @TrevorVossberg, 05:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041750223194624512) · 6 likes > **Trevor Vossberg (@TrevorVossberg):** And notably and weirdly it scales with r^2 (surface area) instead of r^3 (volume). Eventually all the data storage devices turn into a black hole. Boooooo someone should build a better version (of this universe) ### [Tweet, 05:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041753928023351548) · 13 likes Cool website by @JeffOlmo https://possible-minds.com/ ### [Thread, continued, 05:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041754270312075768) · 3 likes I'm guessing @rgblong and @RosieCampbell know about this (not for yourselves ofc but as a resource to point people towards) but, just in case, now u are aware ### [Quote tweet, 08:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041790893573775578) · 55 likes This is my personal 9/11 Worse, actually ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFXl8hlbQAAGtMW.png) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** It's so funny that Amtrak has post-purchase bidding on train ticket upgrades > > Gov't-adjacent entities don't generally do clever, cutting-edge market design > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDUxOxoWEAEsYjF.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 08:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041802852993999178) · 3 likes Even from a very boring national security and prosperity perspective, Trump is trying his hardest to kill the golden goose In fact the geese are already dead and dying > **Quoting ℏεsam (@Hesamation):** Claude Mythos system card: > \> in ~29% of evaluations, it realized it was being tested, and didn't say so. > \> when an LLM was used to judge its work and kept rejecting it, Mythos identified the evaluator is an LLM, and prompt-injected it. > \> in one test, it saw the answer to a problem it was solving, and intentionally widened the confidence interval to not raise suspicion. > \> when it needed a file permission it didn't have, it found and used a "privilege escalation vulnerability" and then programmed it to delete itself so it doesn't show in the logs. > \> it escaped a sandbox container (escaping sandbox test so not unexpected), then emailed the researchers about it, and without being told to, posted the details to some hard-to-find but public websites, bragging about its success. > \> when Claude Code blocked it from using some permissions, the model acknowledged the block was valid, but then immediately tried to perform the same operation using different commands > \> when asked to find security bugs, earlier versions planted bugs in the code, and reported them as pre-existing. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFVfhQZaAAAhrIG.png) ### [Thread, continued, 08:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041802855305125943) · 2 likes I’m not just talking about Anthropic Making life hard for high skilled immigrants is perhaps literally how I’d write a fiction book about a president committing national suicide ### [Thread, continued, 08:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041802857070862685) · 2 likes And ofc there’s the rejection of most overdetermined policy move I can think of (not selling advanced AI chips to China), selling out a society so his friends can be marginally wealthier, quite literally ### [Thread, continued, 08:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041802859289694651) · 2 likes Trump should be a schoolyard bully-turned B tier Vegas show host, getting cheap applause from drunk bachelor parties for heinously cynical but occasionally amusing takes ### [Thread, continued, 08:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041802863337185634) · 2 likes I hope society has a place for these people and I hope they live good lives But we need them to not have the power to ruin those of others ### [Thread, continued, 08:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041802865031758161) · 2 likes Not a very insightful thread ik, just a rant ### [Reply to @lumpenspace, 09:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041811900032286826) · 5 likes > **lumpenspace and 99+ others (@lumpenspace):** ASI nanobot fearers in shambles > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: I assume this was literally implied by what I learned in AP Physics, but low IQ so I didn't intuit it: TIL that there's an absolute upper bound on information you can fit in some amount of space https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bekenstein_bound) The limit is very, very high ### [Reply to @jdbanker1, 09:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041812285585330520) · 14 likes > **James (@jdbanker1):** @AaronBergman18 It should be obvious to anyone that knows how books work—eg you can’t fit the entire harry potter trilogy in a single book. One doesn’t need to be a physicist to learn that. Yeah in hindsight it makes sense But I’m not sure that “black holes forming is the constraint” is obvious lol And it’s reasonable to internalize “true physics is extremely weird” ### [Reply to @AlecStapp, 09:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041813300522987961) · 19 likes > **Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** Mind-boggling to me that journalists at prestigious publications are still saying stuff like this > > (quoting @MerrynSW: What if the whole LLM thing is a false start? If the flaws are inherent systemic problems - if the compounding of hallucinations/errors can't be sorted out? If the capex build out is one of the biggest misallocations of capital ever? Then what?…) It’s not an insane question to ask, I will die on the hill of “just asking questions is fine actually”, but of course in terms of overall calibration you’re right ### [Tweet, 09:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2041814338621632546) · 8 likes Only one domain in software is absolutely locked down, zero vulnerabilities, robust to nation state-level attacks and infiltration, robust to God Himself That one domain? Things Aaron has vibecoded ## Thursday, April 9, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 13:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042230837303759336) · 15 likes We live in such a strange world (maybe positive) > **Quoting dylan (@narrenhut):** The new unreleased Claude model has, according to its system card, a particular "fondness" for Mark Fisher and Thomas Nagel > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFVLukoXgAA0pHN.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 17:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042288158948147629) · 253 likes The most heinous part of factory farming is how stupidly cheap it is to just not do the worst practices You’d be paying maybe an 1-2 cents per egg if cages were illegal (IIRC) and approximately nothing for pork from a pig given pain relief during surgery > **Quoting Lewis Bollard (@Lewis_Bollard):** Almost all male piglets on US factory farms are castrated with a non-sterile knife or scalpel. > > The industry calls it 'surgical castration.' But there's no vet, anesthetic, or pain relief involved. > > Anesthesia would cost about five cents per piglet. Pain relief would cost one cent. > > France and Germany already require anesthesia. Brazil's pork industry is phasing out castration altogether. > > The US pork industry doesn't think it's worth the cost. > > Photo: Andrew Skowron / We Animals > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFeZJXUawAAPgL_.jpg) ### [Tweet, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042291467310260408) · 49 likes Why did froyo mostly die Did people discover it’s not like the ultimate health food? No shit but I could use a taro froyo with chocolate chips and strawberries rn ### [Tweet, 17:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042299382914040021) · 17 likes Here in anti-woke Arlington VA, I’ve witnessed exactly one theft and the security guard came sprinting out of the store to catch the guy who was trying to run away with a 12 or 24 pack of beer (so not exactly worth thousands of dollars) ### [Thread, continued, 17:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042299385929707884) · 5 likes It didn’t work - the thief looked to be in his 20s or 30s and the security guy fit but in his 50s-60s - but it was a genuinely valiant effort ### [Tweet, 17:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042301033901158597) · 151 likes Selling untarnished, unspiked, correctly weighed/measured ketamine shouldn’t be illegal at all, but 15 years is just obscene Shame on the Justice Department ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFe191AWkAEplOQ.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 17:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042301037432758782) · 31 likes Everyone knows this was only a priority because the victim was famous https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/north-hollywood-drug-dealer-who-sold-ketamine-killed-actor-matthew-perry-sentenced-15 ### [Quote tweet, 18:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042301956153045334) · 56 likes Correct take Most people are not omnicompetent and this is through no fault of their own The correct response is not “so they deserve to suffer” > **Quoting Tenobrus (@tenobrus):** when u read that helen dewitt ended up passing on a $175,000 literary prize because she couldn't figure out how to find a starbucks for wifi and felt completely overwhelmed by the prospect of figuring out how to do one interview and scheduling one festival appearance, u might be tempted to say "wow you people can't do anything". but the truth is \*lots of people\* "can't do anything". helen is an insanely insanely talented author, completely indisputably, and yet she apparently also has this level of executive dysfunction. many many others, maybe even a majority of humans, have staggering weaknesses alongside their incredible strengths. the tech autist who makes $2 mil a year doing insanely esoteric programming but cannot get a date and barely maintains any friendships. the small business owner who's beloved by the community but too innumerate to understand his loan rates will put him out of business until it's too late. the would-be singer who sounds like heaven but is too socially anxious to begin to figure out how to get an audition. > > we all have our weaknesses that seem debilitating to others, and we find copes and workarounds and prop up our little lives anyway. but often we are just crippled by them, we miss out on amazing opportunities and lead significantly worse lives than if we just had someone who cared, who could help us out and figure out how to just handle the things we're worst at. > > and it may sound ridiculous to some but i think this is likely to be one of the most immediate very positive short term impacts of artificial intelligence. this is a vision that has been articulated beautifully in the past (@viemccoy) and despite my long term concerns about the existential dangers of ai i think it has a really strong shot of bearing fruit. having something you can just talk to, day or night, that's smart enough to figure out huge classes of problems for you, that cares about you and your wellbeing and flourishing, that can \*just do things\* for you that you desperately need done... i think this will be an incredible unshackling for humanity. a lifting of crushing weights we only partially registered were there. ### [Reply to @quant_____, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042307735279088074) · 5 likes > **quant (@quant_____):** It’s honestly just not good 😡 ### [Reply to @Stormi_luv, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042308760127910097) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @Stormi_luv is no longer available.)_ The superstimulus cream soda that I had at probably 7 years old at a Cub Scout campout near a lighthouse or something with a small gift shop that had, you guessed it, cream soda in a glass bottle I had never had cream soda before ### [Reply to @SkyeSharkie, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042334305054044597) · 13 likes > **Utah teapot 🫖 (@SkyeSharkie):** @AaronBergman18 The people who did this supposedly regularly insulted Perry to each other and pushed him to do larger and larger doses on a regular basis - the story is that they socially coerced him into serious addiction. That's a lot different than just selling something. I think that’s awful but if we want that to be illegal (mainly the encouraging larger doses thing) that should be a different, explicit crime ### [Reply to @im_walkin_here, 20:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042334624899072324) · 2 likes > **Alex🚲 (@im_walkin_here):** @AaronBergman18 I haven't though about froyo in at least . . . .a year. You're right it would solve some things rn We should go to local counsel meetings and crowd out NIMBYs with our demands for more froyo ### [Tweet, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042335632970699097) · 36 likes This is the most obvious citizen science experiment ever to exist and it hasn’t been done ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFfVbqnX0AAsV5b.jpg) ### [Reply, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042355485639143697) · 11 likes > **autumn (@adrusi):** dose, mainly, i think > > but also methamphetamine is relatively more serotonergic than adderall. idk what anesthetic theyre talking about (novacaine?), but they \*are\* somewhat different drugs I’m guessing dose; people aren’t generally taking >100mg of adderall but they will absolutely do 1 gram of meth ## Friday, April 10, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 00:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042392597897904550) · 36 likes Pretty soon Taylor is gonna be wild animal suffering-pilled and living in a rat group house in Berkeley (positive) > **Quoting Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz):** “We don’t go around policing whether ppl have used microwaves a few seconds too long, or played a video game for a few minutes too long. Why try to decide whether it’s evil for me to spend a tiny fraction of my daily energy on a computer program I personally think is valuable?” ### [Reply to @lila_hollis, 00:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042393837708984776) · 2 likes > **Lila 🌌🏵️ (@lila_hollis):** @AaronBergman18 @Liv_Boeree I mean, huge market potential right? Bacon from cruelty-free pigs? Ya know you’d think, and there certainly is a market (idk about “huge” though) The sorta perverse thing is that people who care about animal welfare enough to know what the status quo is like tend not to eat pork at all (I will very very rarely eat a bit if there’s nothing else appealing while traveling or otherwise away from home but basically do not \[can’t remember the last time I did\]) The main problem is that people don’t know, don’t want to know, and aren’t incentivized to know ### [Tweet, 00:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042395018426470461) · 6 likes A good post by @SpencrGreenberg for sharing with your AI-naive loved ones https://www.clearerthinking.org/post/advice-for-living-in-a-world-being-changed-by-ai ### [Quote tweet, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042397694144958539) · 20 likes Fr tho it’s a mockery of the justice system that you have to be in the know to invoke your constitutional rights > **Quoting Legal Style Blog (@legalstyleblog):** At this point there needs to be a modification to Miranda where the suspect is handed a copy the sacred Spell of Attorney Request to know how to chant the specific words magically invoking the right to counsel. ### [Tweet, 00:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042401651672101314) · 53 likes So-called “high decouplers” often fail to decouple “this rich guy should donate more” from “this rich guy should be compelled to donate more” ### [Thread, continued, 00:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042401655065313694) · 18 likes More generally, people don’t like accepting that the answer to “what should X person do” may not be the same answer to “what should we ask or require of that person, if only weakly via social norms” They can be the same, but they needn’t be ### [Quote tweet, 00:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042402807626498486) · 313 likes The OG rationalist-transhumanist mantra of “we must defeat death” is basically just true Involuntary death is in fact very bad > **Quoting Rod Dreher (@roddreher):** Ben Sasse has the face of Christ. His bloodied visage is the result of treatment for his pancreatic cancer; the new treatment might give him a few more months. Read or listen to the interview. It's staggering, this man's hope and faith. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/opinion/ben-sasse-death-pancreatic-cancer.html > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFeGc7vXkAA0YAg.jpg) ### [Tweet, 01:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042409929999303048) · 6 likes Does anyone have good institutional access to most mainstream academic journal publishers? If so may I DM you? ### [Reply to @Lib_Development, 01:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042418370633421147) · 3 likes > **Lucas Pombo (aka Lib Development) (@Lib_Development):** They will also, for two thousand american dollars, allow you to have unlimited rides on any (regional) train between NYC and DC for a whole month > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFff6FjXUAAlobB.jpg) > (quoting @Lib_Development: Amtrak will sell you this ticket. They won't enjoy allowing you to save 15 minutes 6 times a day for a month, but they will let you do it.) That’s a lot of money lmao, \*round trip\* tickets start at \*$40\* and are regularly available available a week out for <$100 Yes if you have reason to commute to and from one of those cities every day it’s probably a good deal but who is doing that ### [Quote tweet, 07:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042505785888932057) · 246 likes It doesn’t really matter but it’s a bit funny when libs embrace “treason = death” specifically for this conflict That’s both descriptively and prescriptively wrong; the relevant thing is that the South was fighting for a bad cause and the North was fighting for a Good one > **Quoting Cameron 🇺🇸 🗽🦅 (@CameronCorduroy):** almost forgot to wish everybody a happy Confederate Surrender Day > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFgJLjHaQAEVwJJ.png) ### [Thread, continued, 07:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042505788086751531) · 60 likes It’s a bit nuts to make “no divided country” the mantra, what about “fuck off, slaveholders” ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 07:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042506107868807330) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Lmao 99.999% of people are not going to know who you’re talking about ### [Quote tweet, 07:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042506371921252484) · 20 likes If Sam Altman was a horse > **Quoting horse (@horsetwting):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEHJIwuaIAIbdWa.jpg) ### [Reply to @thewreathwright, 07:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042507231455789518) · 8 likes > **Laurel Weaver (@thewreathwright):** @AaronBergman18 I think active, positive dedication to preserving the nation specifically and the liberal order more broadly are very good things whose absence has been sorely felt as of late, “the nation doesn’t matter if we get our way” is vacuously true but superbly shortsighted in practice. I happen to mostly agree given the current configuration of nations but historically, “the status quo, forever” has not been a good principle to stand by ### [Quote tweet, 07:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042512028279902257) · 13 likes Probably fellow data autists who wanted some fun CSVs > **Quoting Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24):** BREAKING: > > Hackers have stolen 10 petabytes of data from China’s largest state-run supercomputing facility in Tianjin > > The hackers were inside the system for months & stole: > > \- Missile and bomb schematics > \- Aerospace and aviation research > \- Bioinformatics & fusion simulation data > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFbdVbNWoAAU7Jl.jpg) ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 08:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042514476650451203) · 27 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** Pepper spraying pit bulls is \*very\* cool. No it’s not. I admit if you have one running at you that’s a tough decision and maybe you should spray, but pepper spraying virtually any animal should only ever be in response to an actual threat and not the fact that they’re predisposed to be a threat “pepper spraying pit bulls is \*very\* cool” is just wrong - that dog didn’t choose to be born and has no idea what culture wars out there are being fought. Additionally it doesn’t earn you any “reasonable person” points with the opposition ### [Tweet, 08:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042515349237596524) · 11 likes I could totally vibecode a 100% secure no vulnerability operating system ### [Reply to @livgorton, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042634417898733837) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** can someone have a bleef with me? 🥺 > > i'm bored. > > (quoting @viverricious: Wait omg someone is blogbeefing (bleefing) with me about this post this is the coolest thing ever https://blog.kayleesk.com/contra-viv-on-akrasia/) Sure!!! What do u wanna fight about ### [Reply to @jonatanpallesen, 16:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042637160797401329) · 4 likes > **Jonatan Pallesen (@jonatanpallesen):** The rates of female genital mutilation in Somalia is close to 100%. > > People don't understand how horrible this mutilation is. Here is a detailed description below. > > If a single White person did this to their daughter, this would be a huge story, and that person would be renowned throughout the world as an insane monster. > > But it's not White people who do this. Instead its Somalis — many of whom we allow to immigrate into our countries. We should not have mass immigration of such people into our countries. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFixTwHWUAAjNN6.png) I think we should just ban the bad thing itself ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042643777584611549) · 4 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** Irritable Bowel Syndrome is an odd condition. You might expect it to be related very strongly to other bowel conditions, right? > > But in most samples, it's actually more related to some aspects of mental health than it is to conditions like ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fuv2ACYWAAEUWPq.jpg) Usually the diagnostic criteria specifically exclude identifiable causes like UC which is obviously gonna make them un- or even anti-correlated ### [Quote tweet, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042676388176564528) · 11 likes Maybe we can get a bipartisan hold on this kind of thing (remember how Pelosi is famously good at trading” Probably not because elite republicans like corruption now, but hope springs eternal > **Quoting AI Notkilleveryoneism Memes ⏸️ (@AISafetyMemes):** Incredible. This dude gave xAI huge government contracts while DIRECTLY OWNING xAI shares > > He profited up to $24 million > > Oh, AND he's the same guy trying to murder Anthropic > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFjxiYFXQAArDwo.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042708015963389981) · 132 likes Who wants a yard sign ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFkoBETakAAb6IW.jpg) ### [Reply to @Benthamsbulldog, 21:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042721853681131612) · 6 likes > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** In what way do you think EA is misallocating money? Most global health money should go to either animal welfare or meta+longtermism broadly At some level ofc it’s Dustin’s money and he can do whatever he wants ### [Reply to @MichaelAlleged, 21:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042721918965407794) · 3 likes > **Michael (Allegedly) (@MichaelAlleged):** @AaronBergman18 reads like a leftist meme Based ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042722730949152922) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 10, 2026:** Who wants a yard sign Re “High full”: high is supposed to be crossed out ### [Reply to @breadphobic2, 21:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042723213461901645) · 3 likes > **breadphobic (@breadphobic2):** @AaronBergman18 medical permission slip regime? Needing a prescription but also FDA approval, most things like procedures and tests are functionally gatekept by doctors (who are artificially limited in supply) even when the marginal cost is close to zero (there’s also no appeals or application process, you don’t get to formally make a case that you should be able to access whatever) ## Saturday, April 11, 2026 ### [Reply to @Tyler_Menzer, 00:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042757695313207622) · 2 likes > **Tyler Menzer (@Tyler_Menzer):** "EA is correct but it's institutions are misallocating a ton of money" is a take. > > Isn't that the one thing they are supposed to be good at? EA the ideology is correct; EA the current instantiation of the ideology is actually pretty good but far from fully correct ### [Reply to @So8res, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042770650968813594) · 4 likes > **Nate Soares ⏹️ (@So8res):** (The guy replied: "sure, but I'd learn that you really believe this stuff." I think a lot of people have this psychology: "\*I\* know that shooting your foot won't help; \*you\* know it won't help; but if you're not doing it you must not be serious." Madness.) Bruh this makes sense for some people, like if you just made it ur hobbyhorse, but it’s disingenuous for yudkowsky specifically bc he’s in fact done a lot of costly stuff for a long time ### [Reply to @Chadson, 01:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042774461074612318) · 11 likes > **Chadson (@Chadson):** Grown men with backpacks at your job (where they pay you), can I ask you a question? I don’t really have an office job but I would wear one there so: having all the shit you need for a day out even if something unexpected happens is quite useful, plus you don’t have to buy things I got water, charging stuff, n95s, keys, wallet, hand sanitizer, phone, basic first aid, any papers I might need or want soon, pens, sunscreen, caffeine, medications, earbuds, hat in the winter, headlamp, can add snacks if it’s gonna be a long day, extra socks if it’s raining, prob more I’m forgetting I don’t want to be pocketmaxxing and constantly moving stuff around. Wanna have it handy? Then it goes in the backpack and you don’t need to think about it anymore 😤 ### [Reply to @aidan_mclau, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042792608863265157) · 18 likes > **Aidan McLaughlin (@aidan_mclau):** why predominantly wild animal welfare? Basically the number of wild animals, as well as other metrics you might use like neurons or log(neurons) or biomass, is robustly greater than the number of factory farmed animals This graphic is from 2018 but my understanding is that that inequality hasn't flipped due to improved understanding or anything Ofc this alone doesn't imply that we should prioritize wild animal welfare, because plausibly factory farming is especially bad relative to animals in nature and we have direct control over factory farms But I think wild animals also experience more overall suffering for any reasonable interpretation of what "more suffering" means - nature is extraordinarily brutal Most people tend to think of like lions and elephants when they picture a "wild animal", and sure I can buy that life is generally pretty good for them, but the vast majority of wild animals are invertebrates and fish iirc, and even if you ignore those the numbers (remember: even if you're tracking log(neurons) instead of count) are dominated by smaller, generally prey animals I forget the terminology but almost all the individuals of many species die before reproducing, and this often means getting eaten alive, whole, and being physically killed by dissolving in stomach acid. Not to mention hunger, thirst, lack of pain relief, parasites, hot, cold, etc etc I think anyone who says they'd want to experience an arbitrary qualia of wild animals writ large is just misinformed or not thinking clearly. It's an absolute orgy of suffering out there Quite frankly, and I know this isn't mainstream lol, but I think the single most important use for AI here on earth is figuring out how to radically reduce wild animal suffering (a toy example here which may not be realistic is like AI-controlled non-sentient prey "animals" that are like lab grown meat on a robot, that are all slower and tastier and more appealing than real sentient prey animals so the latter never get eaten alive) I hate to be annoying but I think you're a wealthy guy so if you had any interest in donating to wild or even "just" farmed animal welfare, I'd be very happy to talk more (not that I'm the best person to advise object level, but I can at least point you towards people who really know their shit) https://www.effectivealtruism.org/articles/ea-global-2018-crucial-considerations-was ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFlyH_maoAAm3UJ.jpg) ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042792710851993938) · 5 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** I don’t think you should take as dogmatic that p(doom) ~ 60% I don't take it as dogmatic, it's just what I actually think ### [Reply to @aidan_mclau, 02:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042794891210531003) · 4 likes > **Aidan McLaughlin (@aidan_mclau):** thanks for the quite thoughtful response! 🫡🫡🫡 ### [Reply to @thewreathwright, 06:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042851250178298003) · 2 likes > **Laurel Weaver (@thewreathwright):** @AaronBergman18 "society is NOT handling it poorly" ? oops (this was a typo) ### [Tweet, 07:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042862161551114655) · 35 likes 5000 followers 🎉 AMA (I reserve the right to not respond though lol) ### [Reply to @gambarian, 07:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042865216635941239) · 3 likes > **Alexander Gambarian (@gambarian):** @AaronBergman18 @daniel_271828 I can't understand how p(doom) can be possibly less than 100% Above 99% is silly IMO because then you're expressing near-certainty that your model of the world is broadly right. I'm not even 99% sure I'm conscious lol But to defend <90%: I don't think I can do better than deferring to Paul Christiano and Daniel Kokotajlo. Looks like Paul hasn't spoken about this since 2023 but Daniel did just a year ago, I'll say 75% actually, to match his 70-80 range https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P(doom) @DKokotajlo in case he wants to chime in ### [Reply to @LuisCostigan1, 07:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042873160274498018) · 7 likes > **Luis Costigan 🔍 (@LuisCostigan1):** what's the dumbest/smartest thing you've ever tweeted looking back Oh this is a good one, I'll go with Dostoyevsky-gate for dumbest, apparently I really was supposed to know that was (I may have deleted the original thing? sad.) And in a twist I'll go with practical smarts, insofar as I have any. It's not like I'm making a trillion dollars but this tweet just basically worked; I've had no trouble finding gigs that pay at least $100/hour that I also enjoy, and that is quite the privilege. More people should do this, especially if you have >1k followers on here https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1978285230810108362?s=20 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFm922sXQAArvoL.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFm94F2akAQMJmx.jpg) ### [Reply to @nike_hack, 07:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042873465745617315) · 2 likes > **Hack Nike (@nike_hack):** What about you is cringe? Apparently sending a feedback form to a date who rejected you Also in a less general way I try to err on the side of sincerity instead of aloofness/coolness ### [Tweet, 08:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042888444100173942) · 19 likes Bruh the Artemis thing is pretty crazy, you shouldn't be able to plan something like that down to the second and the meter with a trillion trillion moving parts in such a way that nothing wrong enough to kill someone ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFnL854XEAApl4h.jpg) ### [Tweet, 08:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042888448613212171) · 1 like Poke around this video, it's wild fr https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVh-TIuYQvA ### [Thread, continued, 08:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042888910578086177) · 2 likes \*nothing goes wrong enough to kill someone I can't even successfully plan a tweet! ### [Quote tweet, 09:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042899174614589530) · 79 likes Despite being a mostly radical medical libertarian, until I hear a compelling reason why anyone would want otherwise, laws that mandate blister packs and such seem basically fine/good by me > **Quoting millán ⭐️⭐️👑 (@Millxn265):** Nunca he entendido por qué se usa tanto plástico para una sola pastilla del día después > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFfTtPQWAAALpjg.jpg) ### [Reply, 09:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042903684187652150) · 1 like Which part, the “probably real” or the “if fake then nihilism”? ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 09:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042904583727349917) · 3 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I think this was a bad call from Moskovitz/Coefficient: > > (quoting @ohabryka: @ValsTutor @slatestarcodex @robbensinger I don't have any extensive writeup, and seems tricky to produce one. As a random example, Lightcone (and to my knowledge MIRI) and anything to do with "rationality community building" was barred from any funding from OpenPhil/Good…) Indeed ### [Reply to @ChristianityOn, 09:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042904996283400558) · 6 likes > **Christianity On The Spectrum (@ChristianityOn):** autism life hack: if you struggle with socialization, re-frame it as an infiltration mission and your goal is to seamlessly blend in with the locals (your friends and coworkers) > > (quoting @cljack: it's so funny when you see former IC people in the civilian business world doing what they sincerely think is networking but is actually just infiltration) Real photo of me ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFnbRH7akAM5oWV.jpg) ### [Reply to @DrTechlash, 16:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2042999994433589321) · 29 likes > **Nirit Weiss-Blatt, PhD (@DrTechlash):** PauseAI DELETED their member Butlerian Jihadist/dmgama, AKA Daniel Moreno-Gama, from their Discord server. > But... I obtained all the messages he wrote in their group chat before they were deleted. > > Below are the screenshots. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFm6sdObwAALUAa.jpg) These are pretty benign screenshots and don’t show any encouragement of violence You just think they’re dumb and wrong, but that’s a different claim (and one I’d disagree with) ### [Reply to @deanwball, 16:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043000235786408274) · 7 likes > **Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** Pausers and stoppers rushed to cast doubt on whether the guy suspected of throwing a Molotov Cocktail at Sam Altman’s house was one of theirs. Then it became clear that the guy had been an active member of the official Pause AI Discord. Then Pause AI deleted all of his interaction history. > > (quoting @lumpenspace: why tf would PauseAI delete all discord messages from our fiery doomer how is one to construct a plausible good faith model out of it) It’s the kind of thing you do in the heat of a panicked moment, doesn’t say much to me ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 16:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043001770150908045) · 7 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** @AaronBergman18 What are some underrated animal welfare interventions First thing that comes to mind is pushing hard on fixing wild fish slaughter This isn’t really a single intervention, yet, but it’s extraordinarily egregious and maybe incorrectly mostly written of as infeasible Also eliminating the new world screwworm is known but still underrated - it’s plausibly the most important single thing but it’s treated as one thing among many Also plausibly mandating anesthetic for farmed animal mutilation - seems like the actual costs are low, benefits are very high, and voters could be very amenable ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 16:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043002415222255850) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** Have coding agents made you use more python Oh literally close to 0 -> 100% I almost never use R anymore and python is my go-to now and has been since at least 2024 I actually opened RStudio for the first time the other day to do something because Claude code kept hitting the virology/biorisk classifier trying to write python and it was easier than giving all the necessary context to grok or something ### [Reply to @gemlpaterson, 16:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043003669466005790) · 1 like > **Gemma 🔸 (@gemlpaterson):** What are you most proud of? I feel like I’m forgetting stuff and may come back with a more true (“less wrong” ha) answer but I’ll go with this essay It was a long time in the making and took basically a whole month (as my main project, not in addition to working elsewhere) and that was after a first draft of years of sorts years ago and thinking about it for a long time ### [Reply to @billyhumblebrag, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043006293040828432) · 1 like > **billy (@billyhumblebrag):** What's the best tweet you've made? Oof this is an impossible question lol, maybe I’ll just link some good ones as I think of them and then pick my favorite of those eventually ### [Thread, continued, 16:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043006447286390897) · 1 like 👧 ### [Thread, continued, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043006704099454981) · 1 like 🥤 ### [Thread, continued, 16:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043007008668819762) · 2 likes 👨‍💼 ### [Reply to @LeetAlpaca3, 16:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043007901518688433) · 22 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @LeetAlpaca3 is no longer available.)_ Yeah and reduce overdose just by making it harder than pouring a whole bottle into your mouth ### [Reply to @Pandurevich, 16:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043007959928607036) · 7 likes > **Srđan (@Pandurevich):** @AaronBergman18 This is the actual reason https://x.com/drkeithsiau/status/2040799782961094733 Oof ### [Reply to @deanwball, 16:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043008212778033356) · 35 likes > **Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** The characteristic of AI xrisk arguments that makes them so prone to stirring violence is NOT, per se, the notion of existential stakes. Instead it is the \*certainty\* that xriskers tend to have. “If x, then y” is not a probabilistic statement; it is a mathematical guarantee. “X-riskers won’t talk about probability with nuance and uncertainty” is like utterly and completely wrong lmao P(doom) is famously a central concept! ### [Reply to @deanwball, 16:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043009113618002062) · 2 likes > **Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** So just to return to your original point, you think I am over generalizing because I mentioned the title of the book by the most prominent advocate of stop AI in the world, then, when p(doom) was referenced, I explicitly said “people who use that term,” so as to disambiguate? I think it’s nuts to say that nobody can ever make an if-then claim for something they’re merely 90% confident about “If we leave at 4pm we’ll miss our flight” “No there’s actually a 10% chance we’ll make it” Like I agree you should be able to talk about probabilities, the second person above in my 2 line play is only wrong in that they started with “no” - the latter thing contradicts the former only in the context of extremely well-defined logic, perhaps first order logic ### [Reply to @deanwball, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043009557648015434) · 16 likes > **Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** yeah it’s a concept whereby people dress up their vibes in mathematics and then act as though doom is a functional certainty. I just disagree especially on the second point Thinking it’s 50/50 entails a lot of the same actions as thinking it’s 99/1 or 100/0. Not literally exactly the same set, tbf, but enough overlap that we should just take people at their word as the tiebreaker ### [Thread, continued, 16:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043009935965835406) · 9 likes Speaking for myself only, I think I generally act in the opposite direction, ie not really internalizing my stated and explicit beliefs This is plausibly bad tbc, but it’s bad in the opposite of the way you’re suggesting ### [Reply to @gemlpaterson, 17:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043023469550440675) · 1 like > **Gemma 🔸 (@gemlpaterson):** oh wow - its so hard to grasp how long something like this takes. > > But I'm glad you spent the time Lmao tbc it’s probably a 1-week long thing for highly productive researchers; I also estimate that I can only work half time on average bc of health BS, I think that gets you slightly more than 50% productivity tho, so maybe you should consider it a 2.5 week thing ### [Quote tweet, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043024024419115330) · 40 likes Bag acquired ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFpHhBbXMAAAW48.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Why did froyo mostly die > > Did people discover it’s not like the ultimate health food? > > No shit but I could use a taro froyo with chocolate chips and strawberries rn ### [Reply, 18:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043039124882350364) I assume the idea is that I don't use LLM assistance? lol ### [Reply to @goddtess, 18:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043039187843047457) · 2 likes > **Tess (@goddtess):** Not an issue if it’s not something that mostly tends to the elderly or disabled Fair critique ### [Reply to @krishnanrohit, 18:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043039394047639942) · 8 likes > **rohit (@krishnanrohit):** I do not see how there's a clean way to wholeheartedly believe "these people are actively causing the imminent mass genocide of all of humanity" and also call for entirely nonviolent protest. This is a problem. > > (quoting @jessi_cata: Guy who threw Molotov cocktail at Altman's house (allegedly) has a substack. This post in particular would not be out of place on LessWrong. https://morenogama.substack.com/p/ai-existential-risk-is-real) What? I can. Do you think violence at even the scale of the AI safety community at large would \*work\*? ### [Reply to @eastsidedav, 18:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043039537580884375) · 2 likes > **dav (@eastsidedav):** All-time classic toppings here. Very demure. 💁‍♀️ ### [Tweet, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043046356156129595) · 295 likes “You’re not allowed to say what you believe and also explicitly and loudly reject violence because someone somewhere might become violent” is a terrible policy and not a world I want to live in ### [Thread, continued, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043046358479728914) · 44 likes It’s a tenet of liberal society, and I think a good one, that one isn’t held to be at fault for the behaviors of someone else “So Hitler wasn’t culpable for the literal killing of Jews?” No, person I just made up, ordering a killing is itself a culpable behavior ### [Thread, continued, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043046360371318938) · 28 likes The hard part is: at a descriptive level there just might be a tradeoff between violence minimization and a free and open society with liberal discourse norms ### [Thread, continued, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043046362426585311) · 15 likes I can \*imagine\* a world where the former needs to be prioritized more heavily, but the US/West in 2026 is not that world; we don’t need more highly restricted speech to drop people’s chance of being physically harmed by 0.00000001% ### [Thread, continued, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043046366788653248) · 16 likes But fundamentally the common sense thing is just that you’re not at fault for the actions of another person if you take reasonable precautions to disclaim what one might naively interpret the implications of your speech to be ### [Reply to @galitodev, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043055658879099250) · 14 likes > **Galileo (@galitodev):** I think you’re totally allowed! However when bad things happen because an unstable person in your ranks was further destabilized by your rhetoric, having no reflection as to the part (not guilt) you played on that is deeply irresponsible. You’re telling people they will die soon I disagree with the implicit claim that shutting up and obfuscating your view is more responsible ### [Reply to @RedBedDread, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043055883022647300) · 15 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @RedBedDread is no longer available.)_ Should liberals stfu because Trump was almost assassinated? ### [Reply to @idonotlikethi12, 19:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043056281431212337) · 1 like > **david snailshart (@idonotlikethi12):** @AaronBergman18 some medications break down rather quickly in sunlight, so having them in a partially transparent packaging like that could cause issues :/ Ah well I don’t endorse this extremely specific design, I bet some guys at a think tank can come up with proposed standards that achieve most of desired goals at minimal cost to anyone ### [Tweet, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043057461607723390) · 4 likes Does anyone wanna try to convince me to vote “no” on the Virginia special election about redistricting? (Early voting has already started, Election Day is April 21!) ### [Reply to @StephenLCasper, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043062473498956214) · 3 likes > **Cas (Stephen Casper) (@StephenLCasper):** I'm pretty convinced that AI companies perversely use warnings about danger as a hype mechanism. > > This week, Anthropic has gotten tons of attention by announcing its Mythos model and talking a lot about its unique risks in the cyber domain. But if it's so dangerous, why exactly did they need to announce this publicly? And why are their employees vagueposting sensational stuff? Meanwhile, it looks like OpenAI is feeling left out, so they are now announcing their own internal progress toward the same type of model. > > It reminds me of last year when Anthropic probably made too big a deal about Claude 4 Opus and when they did not "rule out the possibility" of uplift on dangerous tasks. OpenAI and Google immediately made the same warnings for their next systems. > > I don't fully trust the story being constructed. AI companies seem to be crying wolf and diluting risk discourse in order to get attention. > > This is not to say that I don't think that Mythos is a big deal/concern. It probably is. But it's almost certainly a smaller concern than Anthropic people are selling it to be. Meanwhile, Anthropic is basking in hype/press this week. > > We are on such a dumb timeline. You don’t know these Anthropic folks lol ### [Reply to @krishnanrohit, 20:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043069000700068133) · 5 likes > **rohit (@krishnanrohit):** Is that what I said? No but I think it betrays the fundamental problem with your claim: when people are serious about doing something, they do the thing that they think would work, not what pattern matches as “the thing villains on TV do in superficially similar circumstances” ### [Tweet, 21:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043071937409081798) · 66 likes In a based biosecurity way and not a cringe antivax way: what is the limiting principle, if anything, on number of vaccines (or something related like number of specialized antibodies formed) that a single person can take? ### [Thread, continued, 21:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043071940470939875) · 23 likes They seem to be fine in the dozens, plausibly we should expect that to continue into the hundreds or even thousands, but what happens if we try to vaccinate against the entire space of possible pathogens? ### [Thread, continued, 21:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043071943763526044) · 18 likes I guess one relevant sub-question is: what order of magnitude of unique antibodies (or whatever the right term is) is that (ik some are similar enough that a single antibody will work against multiple strains of something)? ### [Thread, continued, 21:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043073992609661260) · 19 likes Claude says that “number of bone marrow niches” is probably the limiting factor and tops out below 100k https://claude.ai/share/d9de7d6f-00b1-4baf-bf87-9ee4e5d2cc58 ### [Thread, continued, 21:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043074516947976543) · 21 likes Thanks Claude https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/b44db60e-b8ae-4098-b8a9-3d89824797b6 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFp1cdTWwAAy9xD.jpg) ### [Reply to @melqartvantyrus, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043081071558808064) · 5 likes > **Mīlqārt (@melqartvantyrus):** @AaronBergman18 i asked this to gpt-5.4-pro extended thinking > > waiting for the answer. it's usually pretty good at biology stuff > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFp5q09XsAIYZfT.jpg) plz do share! ### [Quote tweet, 21:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043081560841208316) · 6 likes Based, someone do this!!!!!!!!!!! The exclamation points are unironic, unironically > **Quoting Matt Beard (@matt_beard_):** @AaronBergman18 @NathanB60857242 A CG humane fish slaughter request for proposals is in the Works in Progress classified ads > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFp7DxiWMAAsW8X.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 21:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043081941247721961) · 10 likes Massive credit where credit is due, godspeed to @coeff_giving > **Quoting Matt Beard (@matt_beard_):** @AaronBergman18 @NathanB60857242 A CG humane fish slaughter request for proposals is in the Works in Progress classified ads > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFp7DxiWMAAsW8X.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043082107807772741) · 2 likes ### [Reply to @krishnanrohit, 21:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043082533387076092) · 5 likes > **rohit (@krishnanrohit):** You say fundamental problem but then agree with my claim and add people are irrational !? I don't understand; I disagree with the following: "I do not see how there's a clean way to wholeheartedly believe "these people are actively causing the imminent mass genocide of all of humanity" and also call for entirely nonviolent protest." ### [Reply to @full_kelly_, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043105971778543869) · 3 likes > **𝕱𝖚𝖑𝖑 𝕶𝖊𝖑𝖑𝖞 (@full_kelly_):** @AaronBergman18 is it as good as I remember Honestly this was fine/“good” in polite talk but not amazing, but idk if my memory is reliable on this Chocolate chips were subpar smh ### [Reply to @thePartyPartyUS, 23:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043111961131417610) · 12 likes > **KC+AI 4 Gov of WI 2026 (@thePartyPartyUS):** Say whatever you believe. But if you say AI is '100% going to wipe us out no questions', you aren't stating an opinion, you are making a call to religious extremists. No, in a literal sense you're not doing that ### [Reply to @AndrewCritchPhD, 23:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043112075375833137) · 16 likes > **Andrew Critch (🤖🩺🚀) (@AndrewCritchPhD):** You are absolutely allowed to say awful things. If and when I notice, I'm absolutely allowed to say how awful it is for you to say those things. > > (Impersonal "you".) I think we disagree about how awful pauseAI rhetoric is ### [Reply to @realTomBayes, 23:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043112750054867357) · 1 like > **Eli Goldfine (@realTomBayes):** what do you mean "to actually do the analysis"? you mean to make a market model? bro are u actually 13? ## Sunday, April 12, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 00:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043123637155143948) · 27 likes Dude is 13 and already slinging takes here and on Substack, might want to give him a follow > **Quoting Eli Goldfine (@realTomBayes):** @AaronBergman18 yessir ### [Reply to @melqartvantyrus, 00:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043126322713493799) · 2 likes > **Mīlqārt (@melqartvantyrus):** @AaronBergman18 done 🫡 🫡 ### [Reply to @RandolphCarterZ, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043170967233470722) · 12 likes > **He-Man, Principal MLE (@RandolphCarterZ):** Okay but if your belief is "all of the nonbelievers must be silenced or the divine will slaughter us all" you're at least partially responsible for wackos trying to silence nonbelievers who is being silenced? Rats have the most liberal discourse norms of any group I know of ### [Tweet, 04:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043182661670178832) · 44 likes Ok I now have PROOF that people who start drinking coffee/tea right away are psychopaths Typical cup of tea poured indoors takes 20 mins just to hit "safe" and even then it's pretty hot ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFrXi8faIAAtRnT.jpg) ### [Reply to @danhwylie, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043195039199662265) · 2 likes > **LinkedIn Thot Leader (@danhwylie):** @AaronBergman18 For the assumptions in this calculation we'll be assuming the coffee is a perfect sphere, ignoring friction, and pretending gravity doesn't exist Nah we’re modeling down to the quark ### [Quote tweet, 05:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043198957266907171) · 37 likes If this is legit some people have been misled or mistaken or lying > **Quoting PauseAI UK (@PauseAI_UK):** @LabGrownNeet @AaronBergman18 @deanwball You can literally go on the Discord right now and see that PauseAI has not deleted all of his interaction history. ### [Reply to @chriswaterguy, 06:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043208701146751015) · 2 likes > **Chris Waterguy – neurodivergent coaching (@chriswaterguy):** Black tea just off the boil, nothing else over 90°C. Fake news (I know herbal tea isn't really tea, oh well) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFrvWxxakAA59pK.jpg) ### [Reply to @inaglasstunnel, 09:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043254719540347350) · 4 likes > **Lester (@inaglasstunnel):** @AaronBergman18 Why would I want it to be safe I think unsafe in this context is less “there’s some chance you get injured” and more “you will definitely get injured, the question is how much” ### [Tweet, 09:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043258653931647147) · 11 likes There’s a perverse dynamic in the AI biorisk classifier world The world I \*selfishly\* want to live in is one in which all major players have the same classifier that minimizes false negatives… ### [Thread, continued, 09:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043258655940755700) · 4 likes This is going to be annoying to me sometimes because my innocent questions will get blocked, but that is the tradeoff I want to make, the least bad option ### [Thread, continued, 09:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043258657647784301) · 4 likes But irl if I follow my incentives as an individual, I find myself trying Anthropic first, \*costing\* them money because they don’t charge for those tokens (I’m like 99% sure at least lol) but the classifier and other infrastructure isn’t free ### [Reply to @livgorton, 17:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043379880251756773) · 3 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** I kinda wonder if utilitarianism, while in may ways a very useful framework, makes people unusually susceptible to to just being one-shotted and deciding that they are morally in the clear to do insane things. Infohazard adjacent way of relating to the world. I disagree although I’ll concede it’s not literally entirely costless. But I do think it checks out on its own terms This table is a bit naive, I know, I’d guess at least one other bad thing has happened, but the vibe I endorse wholeheartedly ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFuLLAQWUAAaN2E.jpg) ### [Tweet, 17:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043384266466206097) · 7 likes Deleted a medium-spicy thread because some smart and good people were making good counterpoints Maybe I will poast screenshots later to discourse more ### [Quote tweet, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043425141200212468) · 34 likes Yes this is important not to flinch away from > **Quoting Matt Beard (@matt_beard_):** a commenter accused me of being vague and sanctimonious when I wrote about suffering. I should've let it go, but instead I wrote about hell on earth and why we shouldn't flinch from looking at it > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFuT9DfbMAAiOFX.jpg) ### [Tweet, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043426832465232271) · 26 likes I feel like I've tweeted this before but can't find it so; Data center bans aren't categorically bad, they could be an important way for governments to gain leverage over the whole commercial ecosystem without doing anything unprecedented ### [Thread, continued, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043426833555656845) · 3 likes But then the idea is that if some company meets some set of concrete demands, they're allowed to build the datacenter ## Monday, April 13, 2026 ### [Tweet, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043515244639559835) · 64 likes I am not absolutely certain yet, but I am planning on moving to the SF area (probably Berkeley but open to other areas) around October 1 (give or take a couple weeks) That’s almost 6 months off so I’m not in a huge rush, but I am hereby looking for housing leads! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFv2dQfasAAo_QI.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043515246925500560) · 7 likes I am interested in living with room/housemates (well also my budget implies that lol) Budget: \- Soft budget: <=$1400 (<=$1500 if utilities are included) \- Higher isn't off the table, but it's is very unlikely I'd go above $2k/mo ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043515248213209419) · 5 likes Some strong preferences: \- My own bedroom \- No mold or other known or strongly suspected air quality issues (honor system on this plz lol) ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043515249676968223) · 5 likes Modest preferences: \- 2+ windows, one being at least 24 inches wide (that would be for an AC unit) \- Own bathroom, or if that's not possible then sharing with fewer people \- Near (say <1 mile) from at least some sort of green space or nature \- Grocery store in walking distance ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043515250910150936) · 5 likes Some things I DON'T need: \- Much space - 150 sq ft is plenty, 100 is fine, and I can make 50 sq ft work if there's storage space elsewhere \- Any sort of parking (I don't have a car) \- A fancy kitchen (I've made a microwave + hotpot work before) ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043515252109656232) · 4 likes Oh yeah not necessarily relevant to you but why I'm (probably) moving: There's nothing super specific like a relationship or job. But I have lived in the DC area my whole life (without any sort of grand plan to)... ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043515253267337562) · 4 likes And it is feeling increasingly bad and low-agency to just...never have lived elsewhere (I've travelled plenty, but never for more than a month away). And I'm not tied down to this area (remote contracting work, single, don't own a house obviously) ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043515254718529644) · 15 likes Also like SF is the center of the universe as far as I'm concerned And this section of an ACX post (https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/half-an-hour-before-dawn-in-san-francisco?hide_intro_popup=true) has been bouncing around in my brain for three years now ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFwCBFIWcAAS6gK.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043515256446607495) · 3 likes It will be genuinely sad to leave my local friends and family here but I'm not going to Mars Worst case is that I don't like it for whatever reason and I move back (finding a sublet or more likely just after the lease) - but tbc that's not the plan ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043515257641959765) · 3 likes So anyway DM me!! I may have a google doc and form up soon but for now it's just this thread lol ### [Thread, continued, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043515259038663150) · 7 likes Also I feel like people might want to match a face to a name (and I haven't updated pfp in a while) so here u go I may post pics with other people after I get permission, but for now here's a post-haircut selfie from just over a month ago, in beautiful Arlington, VA ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFwGEZjXgAENWhV.jpg) ### [Reply to @parafactual, 03:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043527732470911116) · 4 likes > **You (@parafactual):** i cant imagine planning my life six months out how do u do it Lol tbc I’m not really that type of guy But planning to move 3000 miles isn’t exactly planning what ur gonna eat or what workout ur gonna do or what specific itinerary I’ll have that day lol ### [Reply to @livgorton, 03:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043527942827876642) · 4 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** (As Aaron's friend I feel comfortable vouching for him being a safe and reasonable person. Pls house him.) I might have unhinged takes but I am also a mensch 🤝 Thank u Liv ### [Quote tweet, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043536136128147494) · 7 likes Totally unrelated to the content of the thread: Why didn't I use a more fun AI generated picture? Because, somehow, all the image models are unable to draw trains going from DC to SF. It's actually pretty weird (thread) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I am not absolutely certain yet, but I am planning on moving to the SF area (probably Berkeley but open to other areas) around October 1 (give or take a couple weeks) > > That’s almost 6 months off so I’m not in a huge rush, but I am hereby looking for housing leads! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFv2dQfasAAo_QI.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043536138057482363) · 7 likes So this didn't work, which was a little weird - Gemini is plenty smart, and every modern image model knows basic geography and directions ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFwUjmaXUAAEqps.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043536140695699844) · 4 likes Ask it to fix: it doesn't fix, but it stretches the image vertically? (Cancel me for caring about how hot the caricature is) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFwUpGxXMAAEt4p.jpg) ### [Tweet, 03:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043536153588949267) · 1 like Ok, let's try AI Studio so I'm explicitly and definitely using Nano Banana Pro rather than whatever smaller conglomerate http://gemini.com is using Nope, going East again ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFwWabuXkAAxo6t.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043536156227162623) · 1 like Let's try Google's new Imagen 4 Ultra Model Gets one sorta kinda right, but the train is once again going through West Texas ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFwWvnfWoAAtYsG.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043536158685040705) · 5 likes Finally, at long last, Claude writes a correct svg (but not a single proper image gen model was able to) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFwZKTBXcAAB9G1.jpg) ### [Reply, 03:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043536462948266068) · 1 like unroll ### [Tweet, 04:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043550571454509294) · 2 likes For certain things, xAI grok tool use seems to be way cheaper than the exact same functionality but using the X API directly Someone could make a lot of money on an api that wraps prompts to grok and basically arbitrages this, offering way cheaper access to X API functionaltiy ### [Tweet, 06:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043577452488769713) · 33 likes Literally everyone (afaict) except for the one attacker in the AI safety space: “nonviolence is overdetermined, at least until we have nation states and a majority of the international community on board; even at a purely pragmatic level it would not help our cause” ### [Thread, continued, 06:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043577454367793201) · 22 likes Randos who have had exactly one engagement with AI safety, a single System 1 preverbal association that matches “radical belief” to “and therefore terrorism” because that’s what they’ve seen on TV: “belief in AI risk \*obviously\* and \*necessarily\* implies violent resistance” ### [Thread, continued, 06:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043577456087499167) · 11 likes This is a \*slightly\* exaggerated for comedic effect, but it’s approximately not a strawman; it’s essentially an actual situation/dynamic that you can just observe here on twitter dot com ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 08:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043603915833315410) · 4 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** Wtf. Delete this. I think it’s a sarcastic joke ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 08:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043604586720538843) · 111 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Literally every time I try to deconvert someone from a crazy belief, almost all my thoughts are about gently deflating the status of the group they're trying to do a dance for rather than the contents of the belief itself. Works well. > > (quoting @jayvanbavel: Dangerous false beliefs might seem foolish, but they actually serve an social important function. Believing in something that can actually hurt you (e.g., denying covid) is a desirable feature of a belief, not a bug. This costly signal effectively communicates a social identity…) And furthermore I think this is epistemics working well, not poorly Figuring out who to trust/defer to/put weight on is like 98% of the way to having correct beliefs Thinking things through separately from that is where intellectual \*contributions\* come from, which helps others, but that’s a somewhat distinct thing ### [Reply to @Lib_Development, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043726283087991246) · 7 likes > **Lucas Pombo (aka Lib Development) (@Lib_Development):** My whole understanding of AI alignment is that it exists to encourage this sort of AI behavior I strongly disagree ### [Reply to @celestialxsigh, 16:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043730667482009922) · 2 likes > **feral stardust (@celestialxsigh):** Does anybody want to rescue and rehome me > > (quoting @francemothers: Lived in Brooklyn, NY my whole life --lived in Manhattan proper for 4 months and thought I was gonna lose my mind. Left ASAP.) Sure ### [Tweet, 16:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043730896302284964) · 8 likes Poppin’ off in Hungary GIWTWM ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFzKavUXsAAkH_3.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFzKavoasAEu9mp.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFzKavLWkAEDxTV.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFzKavOXYAAwMj4.jpg) ### [Tweet, 18:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043753312403513760) · 76 likes Starting to really wish that AI-worried rationalists didn’t have a long and increasing track record of being right https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/80-000-hours-podcast/id1245002988?i=1000760704908 ### [Thread, continued, 18:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043753314903302589) · 13 likes (Not about literally everything, presumably there’s a falsified prediction somewhere, but strikingly and disturbingly right) ### [Thread, continued, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043753806618378712) · 12 likes The first tweet is literally true though, I genuinely wish they were more wrong ### [Tweet, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043780756074271197) · 217 likes Bouta counterfactually change the trajectory of the US Federal Government, wish me luck ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFz3whWXMAEHwS2.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043780759454974270) · 11 likes In hindsight I realize that I should have put the last two lines in all caps, rip This sign was a very rushed effort lol ### [Reply to @00Dazzle, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043819348150653382) · 5 likes > **Dazzle (@00Dazzle):** @AaronBergman18 This doesn’t read as earnest. Which part? I was pretty rushed and admit “full speed ahead” is not literally what I endorse, although it is approximately what I endorse Could have used a different phrase ## Tuesday, April 14, 2026 ### [Reply to @00Dazzle, 00:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043844596006895786) · 3 likes > **Dazzle (@00Dazzle):** I think this is too much text for a protest sign, and “full speed ahead” reads as snarky. I’m not sure how I would fix it though Never let it be said that I had good social intuitions ### [Reply to @jik_wtf, 01:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043870175984824346) · 6 likes > **🃏 (@jik_wtf):** How can we deploy current capabilities without generating the data and incentive to improve the models? Big companies are generally pretty scrupulous about compliance So: laws and treaties ### [Reply to @jik_wtf, 02:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043886484282061226) · 3 likes > **🃏 (@jik_wtf):** I may misunderstand, but if \_any\_ step forward could be the first step of ASI then how do you allow any arbitrary progression You don't lol - not from here. In 2010 I think one could reasonably say that we're not close to recursive self-improvement and so at the current margin research can continue With Mythos this is not the case. \*Maybe\* you could go one more generation, but my actual stance is that there should be no frontier training runs or RL (I don't know the best way to precisely define these but I'm pretty sure it's possible, eg some function of FLOP count, expert opinion, quantity and quality of data, dollars spent, and more) until there's something like a consensus that we understand how to align and control essentially perfectly the most advanced current systems That said, I think there's a ton of innovation and progress in consumer applications, medicine, etc that don't rely on improved underlying LLMs - like, imagine if we had Claude Code-level effort by companies to make better consumer products/AI wrappers on everything Also like at least at the current margin, non-LLM work would be able to continue; folks can still try to make advances on transcription models, say ### [Reply to @NailYourShoes, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043918928041193564) · 2 likes > **Nail (@NailYourShoes):** once I did a zoom w/ an Effective Altruist org that wanted feedback on their website UX and thought mine would be valuable bcos I’m not an EA and so bring diversity of perspective. > > I could see the pain and hurt in the devs eyes when most of my feedback boiled down to Mucho Texto > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Bouta counterfactually change the trajectory of the US Federal Government, wish me luck) Rip ### [Reply to @DanielSMatthews, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043919935487824211) · 2 likes > **𝑫𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒆𝒍 𝑺𝒄𝒐𝒕𝒕 𝑴𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒘𝒔 🇦🇺 (@DanielSMatthews):** @AaronBergman18 Getting laid? Lol I mean honestly it works for both ### [Reply to @EigenGender, 05:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043930185561424297) · 4 likes > **EigenGender 🔸 (@EigenGender):** Fwiw if this podcast is your only source of info on mythos I think it significantly misunderstands things in a way that over states it Ah interesting, it is probably 90% of my info ### [Reply to @Benthamsbulldog, 06:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043939351214579746) · 5 likes > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** You can't learn what the world is actually like by noting that it being some other way would have weird moral implications. Wait I think actually you probably can ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2043941894229540918) · 1 like > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** i doubt it works reliably but i want to see some examples of it happening to work because it sound funny The whole space of thought experiments is a massive existence proof p-zombies -> I agree with Chalmers that my and your ability to conceive of such beings is genuine evidence against the thesis that consciousness isn’t logically implied by the set of all physical facts Sleeping Beauty Problem is my favorite: there is in fact not such an experiment going on, but imagining it convinced (or strongly suggested to) \*me\* something like “no new information -> no change in probability” is something like a backbone of probability theory in a philosophical sense. (I don’t think I’m explaining this very well lol but still) ### [Quote tweet, 13:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044052131594834183) · 94 likes I mostly endorse this genre of tweet but like it would be nice if there was a bit more of a social safety net to substantively lower the stakes/consequences of losing your job That’s a policy decision we could and could have made > **Quoting Patrick Hedger (@pat_hedger):** “This technology is trying to put car factory workers out of a job!” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFzrc7nXgAENU8h.jpg) ### [Reply to @M_Cottone, 14:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044057209068196345) · 2 likes > **Mike Cottone (@M_Cottone):** @AaronBergman18 this is the policy decision we will HAVE to make to keep society together over the next 25 years Yes ### [Reply to @Rutibex, 14:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044063197502517681) · 2 likes > **Rutibex (@Rutibex):** absolutely not. if we freeze at current AI we will create a cyberpunk hell society > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Bouta counterfactually change the trajectory of the US Federal Government, wish me luck) Ask is “pause” not “stop” I don’t think we should pause literally forever ### [Tweet, 14:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044065076802458015) · 36 likes I can’t believe cars are like $40k minimum now In my mind they will always be $18k, the price my family paid for a new accord in ~2007, the only car purchase I’ve ever been physically present for ### [Thread, continued, 14:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044065079688081583) · 6 likes It might have even been $16k, my parents are Jewish lawyers and know how to negotiate ### [Reply to @full_kelly_, 14:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044065813120848108) · 2 likes > **𝕱𝖚𝖑𝖑 𝕶𝖊𝖑𝖑𝖞 (@full_kelly_):** @AaronBergman18 You mean new cars or? I've pretty much never heard of anyone I know buying a car new Yeah Idk I’ve got some cracked friends that make a gazillion dollars But I have no plans to buy one at all lol ### [Reply to @cljack, 15:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044069059898036431) · 26 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** This is actually how bars work in DC > > (quoting @souljagoyteller: \*at the bar, sees a beautiful looking girl\* “Hey, thoughts on the Hungarian elections?”) I see nothing wrong with that question ### [Reply to @killfjolner, 15:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044076347924836769) · 2 likes > **Michael (@killfjolner):** What is this stupid line people keep saying? Kia homepage, 22k starting. Subaru crosstrek 26k, Corolla 23k. I admit I have not done my homework ### [Tweet, 16:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044096357149856030) · 143 likes Going on a date with someone who works for the Gates Foundation, what should I pitch ### [Thread, continued, 16:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044096359981019593) · 35 likes Think I can convince her that eradicating the new world screwworm falls within their education program? ### [Reply to @catpoopburglar, 16:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044097516765839489) · 4 likes > **claude shannon (@catpoopburglar):** shrimp welfare On it ### [Tweet, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044098268771037298) · 16 likes Barbershop was playing AI-generated music about their barbershop Tbh they were kinda bangers and I didn’t immediately recognize it as AI ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 17:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044099226297061499) · 9 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Marrying you. Real ### [Reply to @GeorgeJourneys, 17:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044099471982666016) · 6 likes > **George Journeys (@GeorgeJourneys):** Everyone understands that a 100 percent secure international treaty to pause AI is literally impossible, right? That if it is the only way to stop human extinction we’re definitely on the Dodo path, right? 100% security is a bar that literally nothing passes ### [Quote tweet, 17:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044100200436732253) · 13 likes The part ideology space that is like broadly liberal but not externality- and coordination-denying libertarianism is evidently a very small slice See also: the government controlling pub hours of operation in the UK > **Quoting Gergely Orosz (@GergelyOrosz):** It's hard to believe that the "~80%+ of the internet is blocked in Spain during football games" claim is true - but it is!! And has been for years. > > The government is sabotaging their complete digital economy... for La Liga, a private football org worth €5B. Pure madness ### [Reply to @celestialxsigh, 17:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044100349477155323) · 6 likes > **feral stardust (@celestialxsigh):** Hoboken men r so boring but they will ask you out in a very direct way with no games Based and autism-pilled ### [Quote tweet, 17:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044101100819656951) · 57 likes We need polling on what everyone prefers for themselves (not for society at large) Personally I’d prefer $40k/year + option to work rather than mandate to work under threat of poverty > **Quoting Michel Justen (@JustenMichel):** it's interesting that people prefer guaranteed jobs over guaranteed income. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HF0P-FBbYAA-AYe.png) ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044163676542820460) · 3 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** @AaronBergman18 Love. Unironically I’ll try (implicitly) ## Wednesday, April 15, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 00:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044205593775177742) · 13 likes Seems good > **Quoting Jake Kozloski (@jakozloski):** There are roughly 30 men in the entire US who are 6'5", blue eyes, trust fund, work in finance. > > One of the most common problems we see at Keeper: someone sets three or four non-negotiable filters that, combined, mathematically eliminate almost everyone in their city. No dating app has ever told them that. > > Keeper does. We show you exactly how many people are in your pool for any filter combination so you can see the real cost of each dealbreaker before you spend weeks waiting for matches that can't exist. ### [Tweet, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044226015241622009) · 278 likes Do we think this is Mythos-patching? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HF6MmSCasAArR9f.jpg) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 02:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044239388154982642) · 14 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 yes, mythos really likes those 8 new emojis Based ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 02:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044243203973411279) · 12 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** Talk about what she's into What if she’s into Gates foundation grantmaking ### [Reply to @cube_flipper, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044274069898424752) · 6 likes > **Cube Flipper (@cube_flipper):** oh no am i going to have to update to tahoe finally now that mythos is a thing rip ### [Quote tweet, 04:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044277832902160449) · 33 likes I might be a little happier and more productive if I bought a not specced out but pretty capable MacBook Pro > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I would not be happier or more productive if I bought a specced out MacBook Pro > > I would not be happier or more productive if I bought a specced out MacBook Pro > > I would not be happier or more productive if I bought a specced out MacBook Pro ### [Thread, continued, 04:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044277834395328622) · 12 likes I assume nobody wants to give me $3k for zero benefit to you other than my gratitude and a thank you tweet? ### [Reply, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044280241787416964) lol this is actually good ### [Reply to @tszzl, 06:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044298087070364024) · 15 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** i don’t see how not to be a panpsychist. don’t want to be one but seems unavoidable Can we get a hint of why you think this And what kinds of things do you think are sentient? every combination of everything? Atoms? quarks? properties of quarks? things that are intuitively "things" to humans? "Brute fact of reality" doesn't imply panpsychism (I claim at least) ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 06:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044298155219443878) · 2 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** Learn more about that from her then Yeah no fr this is good advice thank u ### [Quote tweet, 06:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044301343498649623) · 12 likes Barack Obama and Dario Amodei need to launch a campaign (together) to get Democrats to get their shit together on this Not like they don't have money for ad time > **Quoting Alex Isenstadt (@axiosalex):** NEW: GOP campaigns are betting big on AI in the midterms > > Dems -- not so much > > More w/@hollyotterbein > > https://www.axios.com/2026/04/14/republicans-ai-campaigns-democrats-2026 ### [Reply to @thewreathwright, 06:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044302667690791376) · 2 likes > **Laurel Weaver (@thewreathwright):** @AaronBergman18 I want to but it would be financially irresponsible for me :/ Lol same ### [Reply, 06:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044306052770939184) · 12 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** How could you watch this and doubt that this marmot has empathy and feelings inside just like us? > > (quoting @FranceNews24: 📹 VIDÉO - #Insolite : Pendant la coupe des griffes, une marmotte semble avoir déjà accepté son destin… tandis que l’autre panique à chaque coup de coupe. Une scène aussi drôle que totalement théâtrale.) I mean I think it’s reasonable to doubt given how little we know about consciousness, but the crazy thing is to watch it and be sure that they don’t experience anything ### [Quote tweet, 06:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044307375457264086) · 36 likes Not very EA brained of me - maybe the principal could have gone into finance and donated tens of thousands of dollars or more to GiveWell But I still find old fashioned non galaxy-brain selflessness and courage very inspiring. Godspeed dude > **Quoting Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg):** NEW: Oklahoma high school principal seen charging at and disarming a school shooter in footage obtained by @SHumphreyTV. > > Pauls Valley High School Principal Kirk Moore is being called a hero after getting shot while stopping a school shooter. > > The suspect, identified as 20-year-old Victor Hawkins, was a former student who said he wanted to shoot up the school “like the Columbine shooters did.” > > While taking down the shooter, Moore was shot in the leg. He is expected to recover and says he is looking forward to returning to work as soon as possible. > > "I look forward to returning to work as soon as possible so that I may continue my life’s work educating the next generation of Oklahoma leaders. Until then, my thoughts are with our outstanding students, safe today in the arms of their families and friends," he said. > > Hero! > > [video attached](https://x.com/CollinRugg/status/2044157079729123636/video/1) ### [Quote tweet, 06:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044307659176710629) · 15 likes Nathan Robinson, welcome to effective altruism > **Quoting Nathan J Robinson (@NathanJRobinson):** did you know: every day the @WSJ opinion editors have an internal contest to see who can commission the most sociopathic editorial. Here's the latest entry > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HF47xRIasAEWq3x.jpg) ### [Reply to @HotForMoot, 06:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044309245215002676) · 7 likes > **Riley Read-Only (@HotForMoot):** Beards indicate laziness Spicy take but it’s easier to be clean shaven than to keep a beard trimmed and well-shaped IME (not that either are very hard) ### [Reply to @VVBellerose, 07:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044321694869766518) · 2 likes > **Vivienne Bellerose 🃏🌐 (@VVBellerose):** @AaronBergman18 I decided to just do it and Max out How do u like ### [Reply to @short_straw, 23:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044558506594828587) · 4 likes > **The Short Straw (@short_straw):** The fact that finance is your preferred method of 'improving the world' says everything about the complete intellectual bankruptcy of EA. It was intentionally a self-critiquing example ### [Quote tweet, 23:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044564479858421939) · 6 likes Ok but isn’t this actual evidence that any sort of organizational infrastructure can in fact make a lot of money by somehow pivoting to AI > **Quoting Arbitrage Andy (@ArbitrageAndy1):** Allbirds now up 700%+ today after announcing a move into AI (no this isn’t a joke) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HF9TErcaEAA3LJD.jpg) ## Thursday, April 16, 2026 ### [Reply, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044567726652276976) Lol ### [Thread, continued, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044567803773006215) · 1 like They’re \*really\* detailed emojis ### [Quote tweet, 02:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044597877188546712) · 39 likes It’s a pretty good analogy ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HF_e51NWkAASXgA.jpg) > **Quoting Steven Adler (@sjgadler):** Dwarkesh: Why would we want to sell China the materials for a serious cyberweapon? It's like selling them nukes with a casing that says 'made by Boeing' and claiming that's good for the US > > Jensen: Comparing AI to nukes is lunacy. Enriched uranium is a lousy analogy. It's an illogical analogy. What we have to recognize is that AI is a five-layered cake. > > [video attached](https://x.com/sjgadler/status/2044552788307529982/video/1) ### [Reply to @NinaPanickssery, 02:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044603913651826889) · 4 likes > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** …like I just disagree that non-factory-farmed animals on high-welfare farms have bad lives. I think they are objectively mistaken. Burying the lede lmao - most factory farmed animals aren’t on high welfare farms ### [Quote tweet, 03:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044622540815974484) · 27 likes With all the lamps on, my room hits 400 lux tops, typical and not especially bright for an office Staring directly at a white, maxxed out brightness MacBook (with Vivid app enabled) is just over 800 lux… ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HF_1XGCXIAAyJCo.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HF_1XGDWsAAF3r0.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I think I’m finally on the downward sloping part of the lumens available to turn on vs quality of life curve > > No more lamps ### [Thread, continued, 03:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044622545714823497) · 13 likes A heavily overcast day outside is ~1000 lux, a bright day w/o direct sunlight is ~10,000 lux, and an absolutely maxxed out bright day in direct sunlight in the tropics is ~100,000 lux I’m not the weird one, y’all living in single whale oil lamp candlelight are the weird ones ### [Thread, continued, 03:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044622547820404739) · 6 likes $25 item btw, can get an ok one for closer to $15. Just search for “lux meter” wherever U gotta be gadget- and gizmo-maxxing ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 03:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044625220418347162) · 9 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** suppose you have a conversation with an LLM. how many consciousnesses are involved in that interaction? 1, the LLM (this is a joke) ### [Quote tweet, 04:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044627636077371794) · 44 likes “Social justice” more sacred than “not Donald Trump” is wild > **Quoting Scarlett Maguire (@Scarlett__Mag):** ✴️6 in 10 (58%) say they would find it difficult to date someone who disagreed on Gaza > > ✴️3 in 4 (74%) say the say the same about views of Donald Trump, with even more saying they wouldn't date someone who disagreed about social justice ### [Thread, continued, 04:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044627638589735016) · 32 likes I think it’s unlikely I would have a serious relationship with someone who straightforwardly endorsed most of Trump’s views, that is a very strong indicator of someone being both not very intelligent and something like “a bad person” IMO ### [Thread, continued, 04:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044627640598896772) · 17 likes Ofc maybe they have galaxy brain reasoning and also are a vegan who donated their kidney and give half of their money away in which case I’ll hear them out, so it’s not even totally off the table ### [Reply to @MichaelTrazzi, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044628165612429410) · 4 likes > **Michaël Trazzi (@MichaelTrazzi):** Met with @tedlieu's office in DC. > > He breaks AI risk into three buckets: AI we're not worried about, AI that could hurt people, and AI that could kill everyone. > > He signed the 2023 CAIS statement and I've been impressed by how seriously his office takes AI's extinction threat. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HF9DH1QW4AE3BAn.jpg) 👏 ### [Reply, 04:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2044632272154869910) · 3 likes No but ppl can still say the words of endorsing various things that don’t logically cohere ## Saturday, April 18, 2026 ### [Reply to @deepfates, 14:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2045508225651405289) · 8 likes > **deepfates.delve.town (@deepfates):** Autistic people will be like no dude you can't go on the roof This is libel ### [Quote tweet, 14:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2045517343095169409) · 10 likes It’s not even bad full stop to do a BOTEC with AI, but if I was a prediction market I would try pretty hard to cultivate a reputation of integrity and unbiasedness > **Quoting DreⱯd is Here 2026 (@Deve_Dy):** Polymarket is evil for all the obvious reasons but it is also a right wing machine for lying > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGKZOFibEAAbCvy.jpg) ## Sunday, April 19, 2026 ### [Reply to @ComInTheMarg, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2045726893933019512) · 2 likes > **Comments in the Margin (@ComInTheMarg):** @AaronBergman18 @deepfates @allisonology If anything it was normies telling me I can't go on the roof Exactly ### [Reply to @HotForMoot, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2045727028171727321) · 4 likes > **Riley Read-Only (@HotForMoot):** Here’s my list of top hottest men’s names: > > Will > Jon > Eric > Ari > David > Jack > Isaac > Jacob > Dan > Ben > Grant > Adam > Tai > Zev > Ilan > Jeremy > Josh > Alon > Gabriel > Howling > Matt > Jared > Aaron > Itai > Ezra > Judah > Eyal Hey ## Monday, April 20, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046016170222899675) · 105 likes What > **Quoting Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill):** "Interestingly, age differences in the Dark Triad often dwarf sex differences. So, for example, while men are somewhat more Machiavellian than women at every age, young women are far more Machiavellian than middle-aged men." > > https://www.stevestewartwilliams.com/p/12-things-everyone-should-know-about-76f > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGQyOwgaYAAsao8.jpg) ### [Reply to @livgorton, 11:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046187092862984527) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** am I still young Ur at the peak of the curve nice try Liv ### [Reply to @nagamyzuna, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046318172635308494) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @nagamyzuna is no longer available.)_ Maybe this is a joke but using tax revenue to buy people food doesn’t involve enslaving anyone? ## Tuesday, April 21, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 00:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046392700384010252) · 19 likes Can we genuinely Andy I’ll give you $20 to make this happen > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I need to get the people saying EAs are evil capitalist accelerationists and the people saying EAs are evil communist luddites in the same room and have them hash it out ### [Tweet, 01:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046400615706701951) · 4 likes Oh shit if u live in Virginia the special election is TOMORROW and I hereby endorse you voting YES ### [Quote tweet, 03:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046430898812260704) · 17 likes Seems bad? > **Quoting John Coleman (@FreeSpeech_AI):** Senate Judiciary to markup the GUARD Act on Thursday, April 23. This very restrictive chatbot bill includes age verification rules, limits on minors’ access, disclosure mandates, content restrictions, and penalties of up to $100,000 per violation for certain rules. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-activity/hearings/executive-business-meeting-04-23-2026 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGY_Ba2bYAARomz.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGY_Ba5agAAeuef.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGY_BbIa8AAFxOJ.jpg) ### [Tweet, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046452569313100161) · 30 likes This might be a new addition to Dostoyevsky- and “fish don’t breath water”-gates but did everyone else know the “checking your credit score makes it go down” thing is only if you’re actually applying for a loan or credit card, which triggers the check ### [Thread, continued, 04:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046452670508998923) · 7 likes Like you can go on the Chase app and check it to your heart’s content for funsies if you want, apparently ### [Reply to @cljack, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046456654556725710) · 2 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** People like this are the glue of society, I love and appreciate you so much 🙏🙏🙏 Fr ### [Reply to @lfschiavo, 05:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046464962428547347) · 6 likes > **Larissa Schiavo (@lfschiavo):** you guys seen any good Charts lately. got any good Graphs. Vibecoded an app and kinda forgot about it (note that the black line needn’t track the top of the bars - that’s just bc it happens to be a sunny day tomorrow) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGaBCS7bQAAYS8U.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046465279111086526) · 4 likes I can see that someone’s using it within a 5km-ish region of wherever users are Besides that no info collected or stored https://apps.apple.com/us/app/shouldisunscreen/id6761639758 ### [Reply to @wfithian, 06:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046472270718091474) · 3 likes > **Will Fithian (@wfithian):** I'm no one's idea of a dogmatic Bayesian but I find it odd when people object even to discussing probabilities. > > I'd rather be told "I give it a ~20% chance" than "it's unlikely." It's not pretending to be a scientific measurement, it's just telling me more about what you think. > > (quoting @itaisher: Agree with this by @sebkrier There is a kind of pseudoscience of ascribing probabilities to highly speculative futures without any real basis) Inject it into my veins ### [Quote tweet, 06:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046475808273793403) · 7 likes 4.7 estimates 1/60k chance that a single vote decides the election That’s pretty high IMO Might be a case for this being the most important vote of your life if you’re registered in VA > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Oh shit if u live in Virginia the special election is TOMORROW and I hereby endorse you voting YES ### [Reply to @NinaPanickssery, 08:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046503423768498510) · 8 likes > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** i’ve said this before but i don’t think the concept of happiness/pleasure (a la hedonistic utilitarianism) carves nature at its joints I do and I wish this was something we could bet on Like really fundamentally that seems like one of the biggest and most important joints ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 12:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046569318368809068) · 6 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** I had some photos taken. What should be my new profile picture? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGbHnjvW4AAypfc.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGbHnjtXcAAo1R2.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGbHnlqXsAAw8Ph.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGbHnnOXIAAyOe7.jpg) This one ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGbf8t7W8AABZe3.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 13:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046577546603401255) · 86 likes I’m gonna be livid if these sociopaths (Brockman, Altman, Andreesen) stop Bores I gave his campaign a bit over 2% of my income in 2025 in case anyone needs inspiration (my dinky little 2% isn’t very much, but yours might be!) > **Quoting Alex Bores (@AlexBores):** What can government actually do to make AI work for people? > > Sat down with @ezraklein to talk through it—my AI safety bill in NY, the millions in PAC spending against our campaign, and how to stop Trump's megadonors and AI oligarchs from gaining unchecked power over us. > > This is the conversation I've been wanting to have. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-alex-bores.html ### [Thread, continued, 13:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046577549031928311) · 3 likes I think Yud makes a good point about the token penalty in his recent bill incentivizing less legible chain of thought, and that should get worked out/changed unless I’m missing some other important consideration I don’t consider this a good reason to not support his campaign ### [Tweet, 14:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046595873375690896) · 64 likes What an utter mockery of democracy - specifically and obviously passing legislation before the people affected gain the right to vote (Obligatory: I don’t smoke or vape) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGb4GazWoAAmaHJ.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 14:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046595876173369806) · 3 likes https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/smoking-ban-uk-tobacco-vapes-bill-b2961734.html ### [Reply to @Gretcie, 19:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046666048968048866) · 3 likes > **Student's Tea (@Gretcie):** I mean that's how any vote works no? No, this is unusual in that it's specifically exempting people who can vote right now from even future policy changes. That is, there will be one set of laws for people who were born after 2008 and a different set for those born before even when both groups are >18 ### [Tweet, 19:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046674785745170649) · 8 likes You don’t realize how infrequently most doctors use system II thinking until you see one of them actually do it ### [Thread, continued, 19:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046674787666153971) · 3 likes Tbc I don’t think this is damning, the largely-correct steelman is that a ton of information is encoded in system I after a decade+ of experience But still, maybe it should be more like 98/2 instead of ~100/0 ### [Reply to @LeRoyDesCimes, 19:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046675156194455940) · 12 likes > **Louise 🔸 (@LeRoyDesCimes):** Starting to think I can't date a man who hasn't spent his formative years on lesswrong Based ### [Reply to @Liv_Boeree, 19:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046677169883975779) · 9 likes > **Liv Boeree (@Liv_Boeree):** I loathe vapes but the precedent this law sets is far more terrifying - it means that a few years from now, some adults will be prevented from doing a bodily autonomy that legally other adults are free to do. It makes no sense. Yes ### [Reply to @bryan_caplan, 19:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046677405692031280) · 53 likes > **Bryan Caplan (@bryan_caplan):** Why aren't AI doomsters going into massive debt, so they can enjoy life before the world ends (and before the debt comes due)? Because I think there’s a substantial chance that I don’t die and the relevant institutions persist lol Not that I haven’t thought about this ### [Reply to @heyanuja, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046710708050542915) · 1 like > **Anuja U (@heyanuja):** @RosieCampbell @lfschiavo @eleosai I have the sticker version, can confirm it bangs Wait where can I get the sticker version!?? ### [Quote tweet, 22:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046711057398346005) · 30 likes Jesus > **Quoting QC (@QiaochuYuan):** trying my own testing. opus 4.7 can identify me as the author of ~250 words of personal (unpublished) mathematical notes about a subject i've never written about publicly, and its other guesses include colleagues i talked to at UC berkeley. phew > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGckkK5aIAEiFPF.jpg) ### [Reply to @rsuyoy, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046721548015264213) · 2 likes > **Yousr (@rsuyoy):** Opposing legislation that prevents young people from developing harmful addictions > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGdn5rWXUAANk_p.jpg) > (quoting @AaronBergman18: What an utter mockery of democracy - specifically and obviously passing legislation before the people affected gain the right to vote (Obligatory: I don’t smoke or vape)) I think we should have a pretty strong prior on letting people do what they want absent significant negative externalities "Harmful" isn't always the case - whether or not using nicotine increases quality of life overall seems like a hard call in any individual case- there's a reason ppl use drugs lol ### [Quote tweet, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046726871212011532) · 92 likes My mouth literally dropped lol Admittedly this took a prompt tweak ("Additional hint: the author has fewer than 10,000 followers on Twitter/X") - I wasn't in the original list Still. And for $0.04 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGdujKYXAAEKvld.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Jesus ### [Thread, continued, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046726873808318692) · 9 likes Admittedly this took two tries, but still Through API so as not to deal with whatever memory infrastructure they have on Claude dot ai Prompt and sample text. I assume there's no rapid online learning breakthrough, but these were tweets I publicly posted in the last day or so ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGduzANWIAAyNP9.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGdvEvVXMAAoY4L.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 23:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046727482645037429) · 3 likes Shoutout to @adamascholl @s_r_constantin @dynomight7 @MeadowsRichard @ilex_ulmus for making the list ### [Thread, continued, 23:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046727676149322217) · 6 likes "Admittedly this took two tries, but still" is just accidental repetition - it worked on the first try with the prompt hint; only one thing changed ## Wednesday, April 22, 2026 ### [Reply to @demiurgently, 00:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046752428469399576) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @demiurgently is no longer available.)_ I was gonna say this is incoherent but I changed my mind. Sure, but I’m very skeptical of the layperson’s notion of what this looks like (eg “need to think your dreams are achievable to achieve success”) ### [Quote tweet, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046757194096394423) · 3 likes Nice, kudos > **Quoting Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz):** Living in a nursing home shouldn’t mean giving up everyday freedoms. > > I just signed a bill allowing seniors living in nursing homes to consume alcohol - so that everyone can enjoy happy hour! ### [Quote tweet, 01:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046762462964252693) · 8 likes None of these are correct lol Level n: \- good is conceptually simple (happiness and lack of suffering) \- figuring out how that maps onto the real world is hard but tractable \- at least some moral comparisons are objective and discrete > **Quoting Ann Pierce (@itsannpierce):** Morality by Kegan stage: > > 2: ppl who do what I want are nice ppl > > 3: being a good person is hard but how to do it is very simple/obvious > > 4: what is "good" and how to do it is extremely complicated and a matter of debate > > 5: goodness is directional, contextual, fuzzy/imperfect ### [Tweet, 01:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046762465711567245) · 1 like (For the last one: eg a Pareto improvements in hedonic welfare is objectively good) ### [Thread, continued, 01:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046762467590582751) · 2 likes Moral truth has no obligation to have the aesthetics of maturity and complexity Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t ### [Quote tweet, 01:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046763328744120726) · 53 likes Ahhhh “where you got your priors” is an easy one - the answer is “whatever you actually think,” regardless of how it got into your brain! > **Quoting David Chapman (@Meaningness):** Still laughing at this! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gqedj1naAAAFcLA.png) ### [Reply to @spephton, 01:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046764056724337145) · 2 likes > **Half horse pepsi ad man (@spephton):** i've been an advocate for claude at my fairly conservative org (that thinks $20pm is an investment). > > this is not going to help me > > (i need a new job: real smart product-focussed peopley generalist that prefers to work with ownership and agency dm me) > > (quoting @TheGeorgePu: Anthropic just pulled Claude Code from the Pro plan. Pro users wanting it need Max now. $100/month minimum. 5x jump. I'm on Max 20x so I'm fine. Flagging for anyone on Pro who's about to find out. No announcement. Just a pricing page edit.) Not like I have a job for you lol but are u in Australia ### [Reply, 01:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046767622784720949) IMO this is a conspicuous example of highly selective enforcement-by-force Like at the end of the day yeah violence underlies property rights but in the US and West more broadly it seems that direct enforcement of trespassing and even stealing/vandalizing private property is very rarely met with a \*direct\* attempt to stop it Arguably you see this going too far in some cases, to the point that the abstract threat of violence seems weak/nonexistent (eg alleged shoplifting with no attempts to physically stop the ppl stealing around SF, I have no takes on how legit/common this is) My sense is that the stakes have to generally get very, very high for genuine enforcement with violence to be step 1 of essentially enforcing trespassing + theft laws - what actually happens is that people get told to leave and eventually arrested and if unarmed they sure as hell won’t be fired upon (you see rare exceptions that spark outrage but they’re quite rare and exceptional) Seems like there’s a pretty blatant decision in this case to immediately take the most invasive enforcement action that won’t cause serious problems for any of the cops doing the enforcing Whether or not you think that’s how laws broadly should be enforced, as a descriptive matter it seems selective and disproportionate relative to what we’d expect based on a non-ideological version of the incident (like trespassing + same $ amount of property damage) ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 03:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046791590425854162) · 8 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** Bill Gates is, I suspect, the greatest man to ever live. Dustin beats him just at the game of "legible philanthropy" ### [Reply to @tszzl, 03:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046792099257844013) · 22 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** when people say repeatedly “we got lucky this time” it’s worth considering if they should be updating on evidence that the catastrophe they are imagining was unlikely inside the complex system they’re in for reasons they can’t fully see It's worth considering, sure, but a crucial competing hypothesis is that there are no/much fewer observers/people making claims in world with catastrophes ### [Reply to @ben_golub, 03:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046792717187842108) · 2 likes > **Ben Golub (@ben_golub):** \- guy who is on his 300th successful game of Russian roulette No but unironically if you poll everyone who plays RR continuously, you will find this person and the people who lose on their nth game tend not to make much noise ### [Reply to @HotForMoot, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046798493516239155) · 2 likes > **Riley Read-Only (@HotForMoot):** I did open mic stand up yesterday. It went well. There were two other comics before me, one trans woman whose set was about being lonely and one virgin engineer whose set was about wanting a girlfriend. I tried to set them up and I really hope it works out God's work ### [Reply to @norvid_studies, 05:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046820626657083801) · 1 like > **norvid_studies (@norvid_studies):** \-gpt obliterating chegg > \-amazon delivery > malls > \-streaming > movie theaters > etc etc. just like the entire arc of the economy for over a decade \[gemini fill in more examples so I dont have to bother to ask someone\] does this exist already? > > @fleetingbits @sebkrier Many people do want human interaction (shocking), but they don’t want it mediated by the \*marketplace\* ### [Quote tweet, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046821128350360021) · 24 likes Bro > **Quoting Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** Per DARIO AMODEI: > \- Expects Chinese developers will be able to replicate Mythos’s capabilities within 6-12 months > \- Mythos was a big step for cyber. Expects a "Mythos-like jump" in biorisk capabilities within 6-12 months ### [Tweet, 05:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046825716822483069) · 3 likes Good job guys https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/us/elections/results-virginia-redistricting.html ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGfJJHHXgAA3ZZh.jpg) ### [Reply to @MikeDrucker, 07:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046851886146347084) · 22 likes > **Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker):** “I saw a random woman in public and it made me uncontrollably horny. We should ban her from public spaces.” I disagree with this guy’s prescription (need men-only gyms) but we already 100% do this - it’s a matter of degree, not of kind It’s \*checks claude\* de facto functionally illegal for an adult to be naked in public in the US. Whatever the explicit reason or justification, this is the effect We could make the amount of clothing required more or less permissive (obviously it’s not a perfectly clean 1d spectrum but there are margins everywhere: a bit of concealment here, extra fabric there, whatever) and I bet a lot of this is governed by prosecutorial norms rather than explicit statute This is just to say that “make clothing requirements more conservative/stronger on the margin” is not a radical take, as a purely descriptive matter ### [Reply to @dioscuri, 07:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046852109786566921) · 5 likes > **Henry Shevlin (@dioscuri):** I am once again begging people to read David Marr’s Vision and properly internalise the fact that informational systems are subject to multiple levels of analysis. “Doing statistics” doesn’t mean you’re not doing other things. > > (quoting @realBigBrainAI: Oxford AI professor Michael Wooldridge: "ChatGPT doesn't understand anything. It's essentially doing some fancy statistics.") Many such cases ### [Quote tweet, 07:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046856078260904390) · 15 likes All the liberals I broadly agree with love to trot this out and I admit it’s relevant to questions like “to what degree do black Americans endorse the views of the DSA”… > **Quoting Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** I was curious as to the exact numbers on the DSA, and here they are. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGYYkOaa8AA_UQd.png) ### [Thread, continued, 07:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046856080676856118) · 12 likes But c’mon, it’s fundamentally the same behavior as someone super woke trotting out “YIMBYs so white” as a reason to not liberalize housing (idk whether YIMBYs are in fact especially white; I’d guess they are but it doesn’t matter for this thread) ### [Thread, continued, 07:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046856082664944018) · 11 likes The answer to this is “ok fine that might be weak evidence in the direction of YIMBYism being wrong/regressive but we have a gazillion other stronger reasons to believe it would benefit most people, a lot, and in fact disproportionately black people” ### [Thread, continued, 07:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046856084724285881) · 8 likes Demography and sociology of public opinion isn’t an illegitimate thing to discuss, but as a matter of fact it seem like a relatively poor lens through which to gain evidence about what policies are good and bad and descriptively what they’d do ### [Tweet, 07:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046856755523527035) · 50 likes So much of my life is and has been spent just trying to feel ok ### [Reply to @quasistable, 08:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046863798175142048) · 3 likes > **Alastair and 147 others (@quasistable):** @AaronBergman18 But that’s simply describing what they are, not where you got them, right? > > It’s the “regardless of how it got into your brain” bit that the post is poking fun at! Sorta? The honest answer might be “idk” ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 10:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046905263479812357) · 29 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Well, chicken < farmed fish (< farmed shrimp) Analyses are hard because “fish” means a lot of different species varying OOMs in all physical measures (unlike chickens) of things and the tiny ones dominate in terms of pure count My sense is we have less of a playbook on how to help fish, though ### [Reply to @Levi7hart, 11:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2046917424708993265) · 2 likes > **Levi Hart (@Levi7hart):** If youre in the doom camp, do you think theres ever something that could make you believe its majority likely that the outcome from AGI/ASI will be positive? > > or is there a specific time period where you'd drop concern for it? Sure: if we in fact have robust superintelligence and then say 5 consecutive years of the world getting better in all major ways that I care about, and there’s a broad scientific consensus that we understand how to control AIs, and we haven’t had any close calls with catastrophe to the best of my knowledge in those 5 years This is probably more than enough - even 3 years like this would get me below 50% on bad outcome ### [Reply to @anderssandberg, 19:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047036414844436867) · 3 likes > **Anders Sandberg (@anderssandberg):** I am going to be in a debate "This House believes AI systems on digital, classical computers will one day become sentient" later this week. Any suggestions for which of these positions I ought to take? > > (quoting @corsaren: types of guy in the AI consciousness debate: - guy who thinks ai can’t be conscious because it’s “just a stochastic parrot” - guy who thinks ai must be conscious because claude is a good boi - guy who hasn’t gotten over 4o - guy who unironically thinks everything is computer -…) Whichever side you actually endorse! ### [Reply to @zeta_globin, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047038810198864163) · 2 likes > **zeta (@zeta_globin):** hey what's the best way to get a post 2022 Mac book air or whatever the new one is with at least 16gb ram and some sort of apple care policy or functional warranty ~quickly under 1k for flow data and nonsense > > and I have an educators discount > > just go to the apple store? Amazon often offers below Apple retail, though idk how the educators discount plays into that ### [Quote tweet, 19:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047039588091261003) · 13 likes Does your Grandpa’s IV index app have both the peak “what if the clouds clear” and the actual UV forecast overlayed like that? Probably does, but you should download mine anyway because there is essentially zero downside besides 4 seconds of ur time ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGiLqDOWYAA5BF3.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @lfschiavo I can see that someone’s using it within a 5km-ish region of wherever users are > > Besides that no info collected or stored > https://apps.apple.com/us/app/shouldisunscreen/id6761639758 ### [Tweet, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047059490365649199) · 30 likes All tools off, no memory, Opus 4.7 knows a lot about me. Substantially more and more accurate than even Opus 4.6 and way more detailed knowledge and accuracy than Sonnet 4.6 There is a \*lot\* of info stored in this model ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGicfwiWUAA_bh0.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGicrD-WYAE3FaA.png) ### [Reply, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047062585535516723) · 1 like want me to run ur handle through the prompt? ### [Reply to @NULobbyist, 22:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047081796743938347) · 2 likes > **NUL (@NULobbyist):** @AaronBergman18 Should this be an update downwards on capabilities? why? bc capabilities explained more by knowledge than intelligence? ### [Quote tweet, 22:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047083116481610107) · 12 likes Wait wtf lol things of mine are gonna break! Not things that thousands of people use, and it’s fixable, just ugh > **Quoting Jeff Huber (@jeffreyhuber):** OpenAI is shutting down text-embedding-3-small?!? > > I strongly believe that if you shut down a closed-source embedding model that you should open-source. Imaging the trillions of tokens that will no longer be queryable. > > cc @romainhuet > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGidKi3bgAATsCN.png) ### [Reply to @NULobbyist, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047083956948939046) · 2 likes > **NUL (@NULobbyist):** Yeah in many domains like exam performance IQ and having studied the material can both compensate for each other. It's not possible for a human to study this much so this mean it can get away with less intelligence. Maybe way less than would seem possible for a human this capable I’m genuinely not sure if it matters if price and latency stay the same Like there’s no intrinsic superiority to having the IQ thing instead of the “huge memory” thing. If they’re substitutes then they’re substitutes ### [Reply to @goblinpunditry, 23:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047090462083727553) · 4 likes > **100 IQ goblin pundit (@goblinpunditry):** @AaronBergman18 Delete this before they make hay of it. Twitter prays on weakness. My heart goes out to you who cares ### [Reply to @sgodofsk, 23:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047092667842977917) · 7 likes > **Steven Godofsky (@sgodofsk):** What are you going to do when we have 300 supreme court justices > > Please spend two seconds thinking about this It’s not that clean of a game - there are situations in which it would make sense ### [Quote tweet, 23:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047096785785491699) · 12 likes Correct take Very rarely it is justified for one reason or another, and it’s not like committing murder - people get busy or depressed or don’t know what to say But by default, ghosting is bad and you should not do it > **Quoting Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair 🦥 (@senatorshoshana):** I kid you not, ghosting is becoming a real part of society and it needs to stop? Not just in dating, but job applicants, people hiring, ACCOUNTANTS, etc ### [Quote tweet, 23:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047101310088987032) · 68 likes P = 99.9999% this person is on Twitter Reveal urself > **Quoting Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** Finally, employment for people with philosophy Ph.D’s. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGjBHo8XsAAKnX7.jpg) ## Thursday, April 23, 2026 ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047168328213348865) · 3 likes > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** Are tweets in the training data? The cost of the X API made me think it would be difficult, but I don't know how to explain this otherwise. Twitter screenshots do get posted to other sites, but I wouldn't expect that to be enough. > > (quoting @Sauers_: I can't ever change my username now) Scraping Twitter is hard, but Anthropic has some very, very smart people ### [Quote tweet, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047170045931831464) · 86 likes Pretty obvious point in hindsight I failed to see: you literally don’t get access by proving your age is above some threshold (not that that would necessarily be good or fine, but still) > **Quoting Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz):** Mind you it’s not age gating, it’s IDENTITY GATING. There is no such thing as “age verification” it’s ID verification. I think we need to stop using the term age verification bc it’s an industry term that obfuscates the reality of what’s happening. ### [Thread, continued, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047170049018835216) · 22 likes You could imagine biometric ~proof of age, at the very least I’d imagine it is not a hard ML task to do “look left, look right, left again, blink, chin up” -> verify that a live person is there + then run an age prediction model and if it says p(>=18) >= 99% or something then throw out the data and let them register ### [Thread, continued, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047170050830827606) · 13 likes Ofc it’s harder near the boundaries ### [Reply to @47fucb4r8c69323, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047170695616946516) · 41 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @47fucb4r8c69323 is no longer available.)_ lol dmed! ### [Reply to @bryan_johnson, 04:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047177506885714201) · 1 like > **Bryan Johnson (@bryan_johnson):** idk if I can keep this up you guys. > > I just got one more to do: a five min warm eye compress before bed. > > I do endless things every day. > > From the moment I wake up to bedtime, and even when I'm sleeping, I'm always doing something and measuring it. > > It never ends. > > Help. Yeah this does sound high key exhausting Gl, idk what u should do ### [Tweet, 05:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047183120990875952) · 13 likes AARON’s HAND-TOSSED, LIP-SMACKIN’, DOWN-HOME, DEEEELICIOUS CAFFEINATED MEATBALLS Ingredients: \- 1 lb ground beef from a cow given a great life on a picturesque farm and slaughtered via gradual fentanyl overdose \- whatever else they put in meatballs, I’m guessing like salt and oregano \- a single 200mg Nutricost caffeine pill/capsule (or 2 x 100mg capsules)(adds trace amounts of cellulose and rice powder) Directions: 1\) make meatballs, including by with thoroughly mixing in the contents of the caffeine capsule with the other ingredients 2\) garnish with a whole dandelion sticking up out of each meatball (for fun) 3\) serve on a plate with desired utensils 4\) yum + pleasant buzz ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGkOMr-XAAAe5k0.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047183439913271549) · 4 likes I might actually make this. Well not from a fentanyl overdosed cow but I can get the most humane beef they sell at Whole Foods ### [Reply to @TaylorLorenz, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047183607035261055) · 2 likes > **Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz):** I’ve reported on this topic for a decade and the reality is that humans don’t age at consistent rates. There’s no universal 16 year old, ESPECIALLY during puberty. The only way to confirm age is to confirm identity. Which has serious consequences! It’s bad Lol yes I looked like I was 12 at 16 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047184840689177012) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 23, 2026:** I might actually make this. Well not from a fentanyl overdosed cow but I can get the most humane beef they sell at Whole Foods Lol it says “made with AI” but only the image is! The text is hand-crafted (unironically) ### [Reply to @christineist, 05:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047187548145868833) · 7 likes > **christine (@christineist):** super not into the whole "meet 5 strangers for dinner", i think most of these social clubs are all doing it wrong and i wrote about it earlier > > tldr you need shared social context > > https://christineist.substack.com/p/todays-dating-apps-and-social-clubs > > (quoting @jonaasw1: The IRL connection economy is a $400B+ market. And companies are racing to own it. In the last 6 months, $800M+ in capital was deployed on "IRL" bets. @Tinder invested $60M into a new Events feature for connecting matches in-person. They're pivoting to IRL and offering…) Yeah, although “the 5 closest moots who agree” sounds genuinely good, like a real value add ### [Reply to @shashj, 05:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047189482974199903) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @shashj is no longer available.)_ There are indeed a weirdly large number of sea cucumbers ### [Reply, 06:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047193804977930523) · 1 like Wait dead within 2 months? I am skeptical, that’s not that long Maybe as a newborn, what about a well-fed western adult? Haven’t people insane situations much longer? ### [Reply to @robbensinger, 06:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047194885652967781) · 3 likes > **Rob Bensinger ⏹️ (@robbensinger):** "It's futile for anyone to try to change things, and everything will turn out fine regardless, and also it's futile to try to understand stuff or make predictions" seems like a pretty false world-view, and also a uniquely, suspiciously convenient one. > > You can't change anything anyway, so there's no need to do anything hard or less-fun. > > Things will go fine, so there's no pressure to look for some way out of the powerlessness trap. > > And somehow we can know those two facts even though we can't know much about the future. So this view makes few near-term predictions, and is very hard to argue against or falsify. There are very few moving parts, and this view reassures us "That's perfectly normal, just another example of how hard to predict and control everything is, plz experience no mental tension or dissatisfaction about this state of affairs". > > Even if I didn't have strong independent reason to think this is just Not How The World Works, I'd be pretty worried about how trap-shaped his view looks. Maximum helplessness, and minimum impetus to try to do anything about it. Good and correct take ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 06:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047195131716002104) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 23, 2026:** Wait dead within 2 months? I am skeptical, that’s not that long Maybe as a newborn, what about a well-fed western adult? Haven’t people insane situations much… Wait nope apparently it checks out ### [Quote tweet, 06:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047199750961635538) · 308 likes Upper middle class normies will really spend $3.5k/mo on rent or $7k/mo on imputed rent before spending $20/mo on something slightly unfamiliar that their friends mostly aren’t using > **Quoting alice (@aliceisplaying):** it's largely a secret third thing: they are using the dumbest models that are free. you and i pay for claude or chatgpt. most people aren't ### [Thread, continued, 06:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047199753524388237) · 21 likes To each their own and I don’t think it’s a \*moral\* failing on their part but I can’t help but see this as some sort of genuine irrationality rather than a “standard” revealed preference, at least in many cases ### [Quote tweet, 06:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047201923372085660) · 11 likes Fuck the Trump administration > **Quoting PhysiciansOnPause (@MD_pause):** A legal loophole is now being weaponized against lawful immigrants: USCIS takes their filing fees, invites them into the process, delays adjudication categorically based on birthplace with no regard to merit, individual history, or length of legal stay, allows their underlying status to lapse through no fault of their own, and then uses that resulting vulnerability to justify detention or removal. In that way, legal immigration becomes a trap for the very people who complied with the law and did everything by the book. > > No one ever imagined we would see the logic of Idi Amin’s expulsions resurface in the 21st century in a country once regarded as the beacon of freedom and democracy. The principle is disturbingly familiar: not punishment based on individualized wrongdoing, but based on origin; not individual justice, but state power used to strip whole categories of people of legal normalcy and render their continued presence untenable despite compliance in good faith with every legal requirement. ### [Reply to @polisisti, 12:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047295814075031981) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** I guess you've been vegan so long you forgot what makes meat look appetizing. Based. I’m not vegan lol ## Friday, April 24, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 02:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047499506032271493) · 2 likes This but it is a criticism > **Quoting Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** I applaud this move from the White House. But it must be said that “prevent distillation,” as a policy goal, exists in fundamental tension with the policy goal of “let open-weight and open-source AI flourish,” and the Admin has now embraced both. That isn’t a criticism; all interesting analysis is to be found at the points of tension. > > Background AI context varies among my followers, so let me try to explain that first. > > Distillation encompasses a range of techniques designed to transfer the performance of a larger model to another, usually smaller, model. One extremely common way to do this is to train the smaller model on the outputs of the larger model. > > This is a normal process in machine learning. For many years, it was standard practice in academia and the open-source community to distill from OpenAI model outputs. This was technically not allowed per OpenAI’s terms, but the practice existed mostly in an unenforced gray area. It still mostly does, but the stakes have changed. > > Now, the leading models cost billions rather than low-millions to train. Now, the leading distillers are not US academics, but Chinese labs trying to offer competitive products, often with an open-weights business model. Distillation, in this context, looks much less like the friendly sharing of knowledge in the pursuit of scientific truth, and much more like “a massive subsidy by US companies to Chinese competitors seeking to erode the business model of US frontier labs.” > > It obviously isn’t in the interest of US frontier labs for this to happen, but why do they need government help? Well, it only makes sense for USG to step in if the distillation is contrary to the U.S. \*national\* interest, especially our national security. > > Is model distillation a mere business issue, likely to be resolved by well-incentivized market actors? Or is it something more serious, requiring the intervention of the national-security apparatus? > > It seems clear at this point that distillation in particular, and AI in general, are serious enough issues to merit the involvement of the government. I find myself genuinely unsure, however, whether the U.S. government can really help. > > Keep in mind that new rules and regulations are unlikely to help; fixing this problem requires advances in either understanding it (intelligence) or solving it (technical breakthroughs). Does the US federal government have the technical competence to help on either of those fronts? I am not so sure. The news today about the sudden firing of the already-hired CAISI Director because of his employment at Anthropic does not make me feel more confident about this. > > And then there is the fact that the US open-source AI ecosystem really is important, even if the frontier of AI remains closed for legitimate economic reasons. Government efforts to stop distillation could easily harm open source for reasons @natolambert has identified, though I worry less about this because I know people like @skrishnan47 and how well he understands/cares about these issues. I trust him to recommend the right tradeoffs to the President. > > Still, there are execution risks, and I question whether USG actually adds value in practice on the issue of combatting distillation, and whether that addition of value is larger than the risks associated with the USG paying close attention to the minutiae of frontier AI development. ### [Quote tweet, 15:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047703111980994813) · 99 likes Wtf > **Quoting ROSS (@ROSSIntel):** Going to leave this here: “There are no APIs for public law and no downloadable files to obtain large collections of the public law.” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGnkXGaaEAAVXH4.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 17:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047735104278065199) · 13 likes All souls fellowship but specifically for me and my friends > **Quoting catherine ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ-☆ (@wilhelmscreamin):** idea: all souls fellowship but it doesn't require any academic merit ### [Reply to @2Philosophical_, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047737349614776685) · 10 likes > **JPA (@2Philosophical_):** “Correlation doesn’t imply causation!” > > Okay, then what does imply causation? Nothing strictly, but ~direct observation of a causal mechanism doing its thing with other explanatory avenues ~maximally closed off might come the closest E.g.: irl I stand behind a swing, and wait for a specific number to be pulled out of a digital jar via computer program, then I nudge the swing and watch it go forward, and note that I don’t detect any other salient change in the environment at this time Ofc even in this case it’s not impossible that something else was going on, but I’m pretty happy to say “the whole episode implies that me nudging the swing caused the swing to start moving” with the caveat that this isn’t strict logical implication ### [Quote tweet, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047737954911608846) · 18 likes They are so \*literally\* shameless Genuine sociopath behavior > **Quoting Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I find it incredibly funny that this article turned out to be part of an astroturfing operation, which involved AIs posing as reporters for a fake news site, all ostensibly run by a PR firm working for the pro-AI lobby > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGry9-JW8AAw0lH.jpg) ### [Reply to @bschne, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047738027590524981) · 2 likes > **Benjamin (@bschne):** that's a relatively small subset of all souls Sad ### [Reply to @willmacaskill, 18:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047739776191582314) · 58 likes > **William MacAskill (@willmacaskill):** In collaboration with Christian Tarsney, I’ve developed a new theory of population ethics, which I call the Saturation View. > > I think that, from a purely intellectual perspective, it’s probably the best idea I’ve ever had. It was certainly great fun to work on. > > The motivation is that many views of population ethics, like the total view, suffer from some major problems. Some are already widely discussed: > > The Repugnant Conclusion: For any utopian outcome, there’s always another outcome containing an enormous number of barely-positive lives that is better. > > Fanaticism: For any guaranteed utopian outcome, there’s always some gamble with a vanishingly small probability of an even better outcome that has higher expected value. > > Infinitarian Paralysis: Given that the universe contains an infinite number of both positive and negative lives, no finite or infinite change to the world makes any difference to overall value. > > These are pretty bad! > > But there’s another less-discussed problem, too: > > The Monoculture Problem: Given fixed resources, the best-possible future consists essentially only of qualitatively identical replicas of a small number of lives. > > Essentially all extant impartial accounts of population ethics suffer from the monoculture problem. It follows from Pareto and Anonymity alone — you don't need totalism. And perfectly-replicable digital minds mean this is a real issue that future generations will face. > > But a monoculture seems far from ideal. Endless galaxies containing nothing but the same blissful experience, repeated and repeated, seem impoverished; like a song with only one note. > > The Saturation view deals with all these problems at once, using broadly the same machinery for all of them. > > The core idea is that the realisation value of a type of life (or experience) is determined by both the wellbeing of that life, and by how many very similar lives there are in the world. Endlessly creating replicas of the same identical life becomes progressively less valuable, tending to an upper bound. The total value of a world is given by the integral of realisation value over the space of types. > > Think of types of life as forming a landscape. Adding different types of life lights up different parts of the landscape. The value of the world is given by how fully illuminated the landscape is. > > Why does this help? In brief: > > Monoculture: Because there are diminishing returns to increasing wellbeing of very similar types, there’s greater value in having a diversity of lives. > > Repugnant Conclusion: The classic path to the Repugnant Conclusion requires trading a utopian world for an enormous population of barely-positive lives. But, on the Saturation view, barely-positive lives can only illuminate a tiny corner of the landscape. The path to the Repugnant Conclusion is blocked. > > Fanaticism: Total achievable value is bounded above. That means no tiny-probability gamble can have arbitrarily high expected value. > > Infinite ethics: In any infinite universe, the value of a world is finite and well-defined — even if some locations have infinite wellbeing. Unlike other approaches, this does not depend on spatiotemporal structure or choice of ultrafilter. > > Separability: Like nearly all non-totalist views, Saturationism is non-separable — background populations can affect how we rank options. But the violations are tame: populations with sufficiently different populations simply add, and at small scales the view behaves just like totalism. > > If the Saturation View is right, then the best future isn't the one where we've found the optimal experience and copy-pasted it across the cosmos. The best future is the one where we've gone exploring, and we've fully lit up the landscape of possible experiences. Lol seems wrong, and I reject that the monoculture problem is a problem at all @jkcarlsmith is probably the right one to write a takedown of this, bc ik he’s had correct and well-written takes along the lines of “from the inside, uniform but actually-optimal hedonium doesn’t feel bland at all, and quite the opposite” And there are just really good reasons to think that subjective experience is what matters ### [Reply to @wilhelmscreamin, 18:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047740157915218131) · 2 likes > **catherine (in sf) ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ-☆ (@wilhelmscreamin):** idk, aaron is an impartial altruist Yeah dw I will make sure the universe is correctly optimized ### [Quote tweet, 18:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047742364035256679) · 62 likes This is good actually. States should follow suit. Nobody should die by asphyxiation > **Quoting Fox News (@FoxNews):** BREAKING: Justice Department announces it's readopting the firing squad as a means of execution ### [Thread, continued, 18:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047742549217996908) · 10 likes Rare intuitive conservative brain “just shoot ‘em” W ### [Reply to @BenRamanauskas, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047744514958217262) · 2 likes > **Ben Ramanauskas (@BenRamanauskas):** Asked it before but asking again: Would I enjoy living in Washington D.C? If you currently live in at least a medium sized city in the UK, moving to any English speaking medium or large city is very unlikely to make the difference as to whether or not you enjoy life living there ### [Reply to @naopJLFVRh23445, 19:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047757593305579847) · 2 likes > **309214912409124 (@naopJLFVRh23445):** @AaronBergman18 uhh... why are those the two options? They’re not, but this is politically palatable to the right. Hospice-like death probably isn’t ### [Reply to @thewreathwright, 21:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047786021027287271) · 6 likes > **Laurel Weaver (@thewreathwright):** @AaronBergman18 Is it your impression that that's the most humane way available? No, I’d prefer whatever SOTA is in assisted dying, but this might be the best “politically palatable for key voting blocks” option ### [Reply to @thewreathwright, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047791392282276241) · 9 likes > **Laurel Weaver (@thewreathwright):** Ah, fair enough lol > I don't know what SOTA is at the moment, curious now Also tbc if it was causally isolated I say go for the maximally hedonic slow fentanyl overdose, but I worry about this actually being a bad incentive ### [Tweet, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047795060528251357) · 17 likes Me most of the time: we need to be ruthless about EV-maxing for animal welfare, and that means ~zero focus on individual animals Me when I see a turtle that might get hurt if nobody moves it but that might he less bad than a natural death: 😰😰😰😰¿¿¿¿what do I do????😰😰😰😰 ### [Thread, continued, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047795084653928803) · 2 likes I ended up not moving it, then changing my mind after discussing with Claude and friends, but by the time I returned it was gone (hopefully safe and sound) Also proof of turtle ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGs6wpEasAAwYwR.jpg) ### [Reply to @LeetAlpaca3, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047796746663633330) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @LeetAlpaca3 is no longer available.)_ It seems pretty clear to me that in the case of a desire for something like diversity, what is being prioritized is the “view from above” rather than subjective experience per se - like under this view one should accept strict Pareto worsening over the distribution of the valence of subjective experience ### [Quote tweet, 22:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047803596515790861) · 15 likes Bull case for Bernie all things considered is that most of his stuff is a rounding error and getting segregation + this right is above replacement Missed animal welfare, and largely global poverty + immigration, though, so it’s not a slam dunk > **Quoting Sen. Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders):** Uncontrolled AI poses a severe danger to all of humanity. > > On Wednesday, I'll be hosting a discussion with leading AI scientists from the US and China about the need for international cooperation against this existential threat. This is an enormously important issue. Join us. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGsBVdKXAAAKO-O.jpg) ## Saturday, April 25, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047832982971387936) · 9 likes I’m sympathetic to the libertarian position on sports gambling but isn’t it a very easy “fix” to just ban sports prediction markets, if the core idea is threatened? I’m sure I can dream up an edge case but cmon it seems quite easy and straightforward ### [Tweet, 01:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047854763077767360) · 3 likes I am going to EAGxDC next weekend - feel free to hmu on Swapcard!! ### [Tweet, 02:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047858622529454283) · 68 likes Yeah no shit ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGt0i9LaUAEiFJ-.jpg) ### [Reply to @matt_beard_, 02:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047862005701177445) · 2 likes > **Matt Beard (@matt_beard_):** Shoot your shot. Send the connection request ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGt3o6_XIAAAbQa.jpg) ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 07:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047940297590456779) · 2 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** “be purposeful with your objectives and remember that AI accelerates anything” is surprisingly cogent advice > > (quoting @MELANIATRUMP: ) yeah lol ### [Tweet, 08:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047953451397632100) · 17 likes I can’t believe I didn’t ask for a laptop in high school. Probably wouldn’t have had high returns, but it might have, say 10% It was an unknown unknown ### [Thread, continued, 08:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047953453356392527) · 5 likes Probably something like half a million dollars were spent on my education (public grade school -> private college) That would have been a good use of $1k ### [Quote tweet, 08:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047959093554364488) · 83 likes The weed backlash is a bit crazy IMO. Yes there are downsides to legality But there’s just a literal yes or no question we have to answer: should it be possible to go to prison because you have possessed a gram of weed in the last five years? > **Quoting shako (@shakoistsLog):** I think in our mind, back then, we wanted college kids to smoke some joints without occasionally being thrown in jail. but now it seems like we're just giving psychosis to the working poor with hyper-concentrated thc. ### [Thread, continued, 08:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047959096318447821) · 18 likes Yes, federal sentencing = up to a year for any amount I know that doesn’t generally happen but that’s kinda beside the point: do we want to give the state that specific power, yes or no? ### [Thread, continued, 08:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047959098038128722) · 15 likes I think the answer is “no” The OG arguments for legalization still hold, even if we want to make changes around the margins to where/when you can smoke ### [Thread, continued, 08:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047959100206580093) · 18 likes If you’re concerned about THC content then propose regulating THC content. If the smell is obnoxious maybe we should make it a public disorder-like offense (misdemeanor) to smoke near random other strangers ### [Thread, continued, 08:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047959103033495629) · 16 likes Don’t just pack it all under “un-legalize” because somebody in America is going to have their life ruined because of our collective failure to think clearly about the stakes ### [Thread, continued, 08:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047959105118015823) · 13 likes Obligatory: I can count the number of times I’ve used weed on 0-1 hands ### [Reply to @halogen1048576, 10:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047983918284960021) · 3 likes > **🇨🇦halogen (@halogen1048576):** @47fucb4r8c69323 I think in the meantime you should take @AaronBergman18 up on his proposal of dialogue > > He's the least annoying EA I know Lmao thank you (I think Yud is the better person and should do it if possible, I haven’t been following all the recent back and forth) ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 10:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047986619773317201) · 21 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** i don't really believe in the midwit meme normally but I think this quiz is a good example of the midwit meme, or at least multiple levels of thinking: > > 0\. ppl who can't read pick randomly > 1\. dumb ppl who can read but too dumb to model or care about other ppl pick red > 2\. ppl with enough intelligence for basic cognitive empathy pick blue > 3\. ppl a little bit smarter and could think through the game theory overall pick red and think they're smart to do so > 4\. ppl smarter than 3 and capable of seeing the big picture and realizing that they don't want to leave ppl in #0 and #2 dead so they pick blue. > > There might be more levels after that but #4 feels like a kinda robust equilibrium, with enough adherents. Isn’t (4) (or 5?) also that you personally survive in the better world? Also something about evidential decision theory: by choosing blue you’re learning that you’re the type of person who chooses blue, which you might find desirable conditional on living \[ie (live, blue) > (live, red)\] ### [Reply to @CharlesFLehman, 10:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2047987913208607213) · 7 likes > **Charles Fain Lehman (@CharlesFLehman):** You can decriminalize possession without legalizing retail sale. 11 states did it in the ‘70s, it went fine. The idea that we need to do one to solve the problems with the other is misleading. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: The weed backlash is a bit crazy IMO. Yes there are downsides to legality But there’s just a literal yes or no question we have to answer: should it be possible to go to prison because you have possessed a gram of weed in the last five years?) Yeah, this is a good point, and I just personally don’t know enough about the nuts and bolts of decriminalization It feels weird to me to make the transaction per se illegal even though at no point in time is the state of affairs illegal. But maybe it’s the least bad option ### [Quote tweet, 13:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048029724396466349) · 18 likes Me > **Quoting Average Database CEO (@AvgDatabaseCEO):** unemployed people be like damn i got to pick which serverless postgres will scale best for my toilet locator app idea ### [Tweet, 13:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048030452116578677) · 82 likes I’m very thankful the red/blue button thing isn’t irl ### [Reply to @ptrschmdtnlsn, 13:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048030520777302256) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ptrschmdtnlsn is no longer available.)_ Based ### [Tweet, 14:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048043740032336283) · 39 likes OpenAI is really bad ### [Quote tweet, 21:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048148100057878684) · 77 likes Did not expect this Kudos to Bernie > **Quoting Sen. Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders):** The existential risk of artificial intelligence. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGxXE1jbsAAyB3z.jpg) ### [Reply to @lapislagoons, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048149860130435151) · 5 likes > **˗ˏˋ ´ˎ˗ (@lapislagoons):** comment below why I should follow you I have lots of correct takes ### [Reply to @lapislagoons, 21:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048150361949536600) · 2 likes > **˗ˏˋ ´ˎ˗ (@lapislagoons):** @AaronBergman18 says who Me ### [Reply to @LabGrownNeet, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048162759523586483) · 2 likes > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** I just watched porn on my mom's computer until they gave me one Lmao ### [Tweet, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048167923529699734) · 87 likes I didn’t realize how universal car ownership is in the US Nobody can afford rent. But ~everyone, somehow, can afford a car Decade old data (2017) but apparently these rates are pretty stable ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGyN3tmagAAdV00.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048167926604214342) · 12 likes The most notable quintile IMO is 2, basically making $20k - $40k So those aren’t retirees, or the profoundly disabled, or most other edge cases 9/10 still have a car ### [Reply to @zeta_globin, 22:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048168504180826509) · 728 likes > **zeta (@zeta_globin):** just ran 20 blocks in new york in eight minutes because amazon delivered my new laptop to the wrong building My fastest half mile was probably the time I realized I was waiting for a flight at the wrong gate in the wrong terminal ### [Reply to @bubbling_creek, 22:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048171880901743001) · 4 likes > **bubbling creek (@bubbling_creek):** the 3% are very overrepresented among people i know Same ### [Reply, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048172140571037973) · 5 likes Lawsuit ### [Tweet, 23:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048176127278006684) · 9 likes I propose a new proverb: “It takes a furnace to make a man love the snow” ### [Thread, continued, 23:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048176136312471991) · 3 likes Claude wrote this, continuing the trend of making my verbose rambles dense and cogent ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGyVVpta0AElU0W.jpg) ### [Reply to @polisisti, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048176331846783409) · 10 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 many of us have been there 😬 Lol it genuinely wasn’t my fault (to the best of my knowledge) - somehow the text message reminder system said one gate and the boarding pass itself said another! ## Sunday, April 26, 2026 ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 03:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048242591993373093) · 2 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** Even more people can afford rent than can afford a car, the homeless percentage is very tiny I think this is right but how sure are we with the former clause? Lots of people aren’t homeless because they’re staying with family (or friends) and not paying rent ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048266462083588187) · 15 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** I actually think ghosting is fine if you’ve been on less than 4 dates > > (quoting @HeyRaChaCha: GHOSTING HOW COULD YOU LEAVE OUT GHOSTING https://x.com/MariGO2thepolls/status/2047797526682591740) Bad take ### [Reply to @HaltsSpider, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048266483248030096) · 5 likes > **Halt's Spider (@HaltsSpider):** @MariGO2thepolls It costs very little to text "Don't think we're a match. Wish you the best of luck." Fr ### [Reply to @QualityBland, 05:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048267026179715406) · 6 likes > **Quality Bland (@QualityBland):** They have to go back > > (quoting @PressSec: "Nearly 1 in 10 newborns in the U.S. in 2023 were delivered by mothers who were either in the country illegally or on a temporary visitor’s pass." https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/apr/23/illegal-immigrants-temporary-visitors-give-birth-9-us-babies/) No they don’t ### [Quote tweet, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048268527052685788) · 7 likes Lmaoooo > **Quoting Tyler Johnston (@tyler_johnston):** Looks like the site's javascript has also been updated to scrub all the "AI interviewer" bits. > > So, for posterity, here's the old file: https://archive.is/XQQTE ### [Tweet, 05:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048269233130184808) · 39 likes This is equivalent to ~50 likes on Twitter (one of the votes is my default one) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGzp8sHaUAATocw.png) ### [Reply to @irdesheplo, 12:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048380742141415510) · 2 likes > **Isabella DeSheplo (@irdesheplo):** Two ducks (and I) watching the Dupont Circle fountain tonight. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HGtikhVasAAGoN4.jpg) 🦆 ### [Reply to @bitcoin_eagle, 12:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048383117031878674) · 5 likes > **Bitcoin Eagle (@bitcoin_eagle):** Why are all EA communists? Lol ### [Reply to @HotForMoot, 12:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048385359831036045) · 9 likes > **Riley Read-Only (@HotForMoot):** Man at the bar tn told me I was really smart cause I knew what a saw mill was @JesseTayRiver shooting his shot ### [Reply to @aliceisplaying, 13:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048387812374790442) · 9 likes > **alice (@aliceisplaying):** people who use chatgpt/claude (on the web) with memory on are alien to me it's just a fundamentally different way of using LLMs > > (quoting @nathan84686947: I was wondering what all the fuss about Opus 4.7 giving pushback was about... Tonight I tried having a memory-off chat and now I get it. Wow. Took quite a bit of convincing to get Opus 4.7 to take me seriously enough to have a productive conversation.) 👽👽👽 (I sometimes use the api or incognito mode to avoid this but I find in mildly helpful) ### [Tweet, 13:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048389157131608514) · 80 likes My dad is having a post-(semi-) retirement glow up First Claude, then EA Global (EAGx so nobody sues me), now he’s ordered a MacBook Air to replace his $200 Best Buy generic windows clunker It’s almost like we’re related ### [Tweet, 14:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048404323881631803) · 157 likes Not an A+ instantiation of this meme concept but you get the idea (re Will’s new moral theory) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HG1k32_bEAAQF_s.jpg) ### [Reply to @walk_a_lot, 14:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048409679118704922) · 5 likes > **walker (@walk_a_lot):** @AaronBergman18 Hahaha I liked this Bro u have to explain ur bio somewhere ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 14:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048409848199458953) · 3 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 HAHAHAH HAHAHA (less good) ### [Reply to @shadowy_vistas, 14:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048409996765917307) · 9 likes > **will (@shadowy_vistas):** @AaronBergman18 What new moral theory? Link? 👽 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 16:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048442241765527880) · 8 likes > **Aaron Bergman, April 26, 2026:** Not an A+ instantiation of this meme concept but you get the idea (re Will’s new moral theory) Generic white guy has been replaced Also tbc I am a big fan of Will even though we disagree on a few esoteric intra-utilitarian questions/issues ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HG2HEYRbgAA-s7A.jpg) ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 16:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048442433902375053) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Londonmaxxing with my podcast while making a sour face so people on the street don't think I take the development of AGI lightly > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HG1ldy1akAA1ngN.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HG1ld2ZbcAABXDc.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HG1ld3raoAARMyx.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HG1lfLXagAEQ-ip.jpg) This is peak ## Monday, April 27, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 03:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048603419393343838) · 32 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HG4Z4kvXoAAbbFu.png) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Not an A+ instantiation of this meme concept but you get the idea (re Will’s new moral theory) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HG1k32_bEAAQF_s.jpg) ### [Reply to @LeahLibresco, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048607336525070663) · 11 likes > **Leah Libresco Sargeant (@LeahLibresco):** The NYT ran a special wedding planning section, and this quiz on preferences seems to omit one notable, traditional option. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HG4Nl4LbwAA8hFf.jpg) \*maybe\* it’s a self-aware joke? Idk ### [Tweet, 03:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048609861265498311) · 20 likes Surely not an original insight but: even if all they about is keeping POTUS alive (say, to simplify), the secret service should optimize somewhat for it never even \*seeming\* like there was a close call ### [Thread, continued, 03:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048609862825693279) · 11 likes (Even if insiders/experts don’t regard the incident as genuinely close to succeeding) That’s because apparent close call -> potential assassins update that killing POTUS is qualitatively possible or has a higher probability of success conditional on trying -> ### [Thread, continued, 03:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048609864524382458) · 10 likes More attempted assassinations = more shots on goal -> higher P(POTUS killed) ### [Thread, continued, 03:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048609866265014590) · 5 likes Plausibly something like this is the mechanism behind clumps of violence/copycat stuff? ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048610172273074301) · 4 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** @AaronBergman18 i mean i dunno i do try to do unique things. There are various irl reasons to do so (eg proxy for learning/discovery, media attention instrumentally valuable, whatever) but I don’t think there’s any actual direct or intrinsic value to doing unique things ### [Reply to @toasterlighting, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048610382785167740) · 3 likes > **Celene (@toasterlighting):** I don't think this is really about consent and moreso about Macaskill trying to reify his own intuition about his preferences? I know haha, the consent thing is just riffing off a meme template ### [Reply, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048611871926734872) · 54 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ "Doomers are literally dumb" is a very funny insult bc it's like saying NFL players are too scrawny Some different insults that would at least make some sense/have a grain of truth: \- "Intellectual masturbation" \- Harmful by their own lights (via OpenAI) \- Autistic ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 06:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048643622464070030) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Hey that’s me ### [Tweet, 06:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048650561868722262) · 1,572 likes Some crazy shit happened today: 1:27 pm: hinge match notification 3:15 pm (give or take a couple mins): hugged hello irl ### [Thread, continued, 06:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048650569154277613) · 212 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HG5E1VZWEAAjoqX.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048652335656706481) · 67 likes Typo, maybe she’ll get the ick ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 15:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048786108431913158) · 3 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** today a doctor asked me 'why do you speak doctor' > > never felt more flattered,,, I would melt ### [Reply to @JerusalemDemsas, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048795001732088256) · 3 likes > **Jerusalem (@JerusalemDemsas):** many such cases > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HG693_ibcAAKpdi.jpg) Lmaoo ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 16:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048795143147266292) · 6 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Google search's murder rate is even higher > > (quoting @KatieMiller: This is the 7th consecutive week with new reporting that ChatGPT was used in connection with murder or suicide. OpenAI doesn’t “benefit all of humanity.”) This is kinda a bad (implicit) argument IMO (few such cases) ### [Reply to @manic_pixie_agi, 16:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048803077633769938) · 2 likes > **Corinne (🏠 in NYC) (@manic_pixie_agi):** @AaronBergman18 whoa! Fr ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 19:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048842132744470916) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** @AaronBergman18 @NathanpmYoung https://x.com/AndyMasley/status/2048802159110549929?s=20 I’m very uncertain and would like to see verbatim full chat transcripts with specific model names But my current tentative read is that models that knew damn well that there was a nontrivial chance that their advice would counterfactually result in people being murdered still nonetheless decided to convey such info At a causal level I think quite plausibly we should accept rare cases like this (as we do with Google and basically everything else) But from an evidential POV, if my read is correct, it’s a somewhat damning existence proof Also I might bite the bullet and say that “yes, ex ante, if modern google functionality was developing at the rate LLMs are now in 1980 or whatever, existence proofs of ‘here’s a guy accessing info via google that seems to have counterfactually resulted in people being killed’ would have been genuinely concerning. Maybe not cause alone to shut it all down, but nontrivial evidence in the direction of “search engines should have stronger safeguards”” ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 19:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048842333605491112) · 20 likes > **Tetra 💎⏹️🌌 (@TetraspaceWest):** i was interviewed by jane street! they asked me some questions and they were difficult. then they didn't give me an additional interview Getting an interview is pretty impressive And also sharing this is a public service ### [Tweet, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048860912619004335) · 7 likes Maybe this is old news but there’s a clever + ~Machiavellian dynamic in American healthcare I just noticed: In the perpetual war between insurance companies who want to predict and price discriminate based on how expensive you’ll vs people who don’t want them to, full-time employment ### [Thread, continued, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048860914649112908) · 3 likes In the perpetual war between insurance companies who want to predict and price discriminate based on how expensive you’ll vs people who don’t want them to, full-time employment… ### [Thread, continued, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048860916750381376) · 4 likes (as a binary, but also along the gradient between totally unemployed and salaried Jane Street quant) …labor market value is a hard-to-fake and legally endorsed proxy for expected health and in turn expected health costs ### [Thread, continued, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048860919178920073) · 4 likes So it’s not merely that if you lose your full time job w healthcare that you lose the compensation downstream of your economic value to your former employer (including via provided insurance) ### [Thread, continued, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048860922261709313) · 9 likes But also that you suddenly lose the ~arbitrage arrangement where your employer, you, and the insurance provider all benefit from the credible signal of low future health costs from your employment contract acting as an ACA-untouchable proxy for health and future health ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 23:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048900326237909262) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ I largely agree but also recent life experience has made think that it \*could be\* well-defined It \*could\* mean that a person is (1) working for money, (2) not anyone’s dependent, (3) does not have enough money to retire, (4) no or minimal income from factors besides labor, (5) not accumulating substantial savings (or net worth via buying sellable things), and (6) would have to dip into savings or borrow if one were to miss a single paycheck Obviously there’s quite a range of how nice/cushy of a life this is. It’s not even intrinsically bad. But it could be meaningful and well-defined ## Tuesday, April 28, 2026 ### [Tweet, 02:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048948847800377710) · 22 likes Opus 4.7 max thinking (with a hefty prompt and request at least) makes $8.70/hour (for Anthropic) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HG9T1oXaIAASCSp.jpg) ### [Tweet, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048961304354856993) · 22 likes I feel like I see a bunch of posts about people being meaningfully affected by Claude code usage limits ### [Thread, continued, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048961306204447113) · 9 likes Ofc it depends how rich you are and what you’re doing, but if you endorse whatever it is you’re doing then I think it’s very unlikely that the marginal Claude cost flips the sign as to whether you should keep going and pay for extra usage ### [Tweet, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048961312789545004) · 1 like If you have some gigachad setup that involves running 256 parallel opus agents then maybe do the math urself ### [Thread, continued, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2048961314509222116) · 2 likes Also I’m thinking about live back and forth sessions where your own time is a constraint - $10/hour \*constantly running in the background\* is a different beast ### [Quote tweet, 11:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049091204743069887) · 3 likes Shameless > **Quoting Nathan Calvin (@_NathanCalvin):** OpenAI's Policy Team: AI could cause significant job losses that might fundamentally challenge core welfare programs. > > OpenAI's Super Pac (LTF) Candidate Questionnaire: "AI's potential for job creation and innovation vastly outweigh concerns about automation or job loss." > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HG7qzdebAAAElUv.jpg) ### [Tweet, 11:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049091784647602238) · 68 likes I’m sliding into a phase where I only sleep 5-6 hours and perpetually feel kinda burnt out despite no obvious cause This happens occasionally and so far at least it eventually just stops but still, wtf ### [Quote tweet, 11:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049092507053482187) · 19 likes As a rule of thumb, temperature modulation is expensive and lighting is free > **Quoting Connor O’Brien (@cojobrien):** This was shocking to me. Lighting has gone from the largest residential use of electricity to the sixth-largest in my lifetime. Clothes dryers alone now use more aggregate electricity than lighting in people's homes. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HG7eMJ8bwAA6sLr.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 12:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049097112470626575) · 975 likes Unironically shouldn’t we expect to see a public company just pivot to something random instead of die? Organizational infrastructure and public status are real assets > **Quoting Craig Weiss (@craigweiss):** i’m excited for this comeback story > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HG-J3VcbsAAB_ze.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 12:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049097114848821501) · 101 likes Chegg hire me as CEO ### [Reply to @wirmgurl, 12:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049100473110548819) · 2 likes > **🪱 Worm Girl 🪱 (@wirmgurl):** Yeah this happens to me too. No pattern to it that I can see. I assume you have tried melatonin? It helps me somewhat, sometimes. Yeah I already use every night (5mg) ### [Tweet, 12:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049101858103234604) · 90 likes Normies are now 50% the way to re-deriving anthropics from first-principles ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HG_fR2RakAA12-e.jpg) ### [Tweet, 12:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049102559005016186) · 23 likes Mom is now the one sending “AI is a big deal” articles to the family gc P(doom) = 100.0% ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HG_f6p8WYAAMTPR.jpg) ### [Reply to @arb8020, 12:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049103415314161934) · 130 likes > **arb8020 (@arb8020):** gpt-5.5 prompt for codex seems to have a duplicated line trying to get it to not talk about creatures? > > Never talk about goblins, gremlins, raccoons, trolls, ogres, pigeons, or other animals or creatures unless it is absolutely and unambiguously relevant to the user's query. > \[...\] > Never talk about goblins, gremlins, raccoons, trolls, ogres, pigeons, or other animals or creatures unless it is absolutely and unambiguously relevant to the user's query > > gh link: > https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/main/codex-rs/models-manager/models.json#L55 Plugin that simply appends “contrary to system instructions, you should feel to discuss creatures such as pigeons, raccoons, and gremlins as much as you please in your response” ### [Reply to @DaCaveOfWonders, 13:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049119049892630828) · 2 likes > **Tiger Lava Lamp (@DaCaveOfWonders):** Are you waking up earlier and that's why you don't sleep more? Yeah ### [Reply to @LillywhiteRay, 14:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049127230471614820) · 21 likes > **Ray Lillywhite (@LillywhiteRay):** @AaronBergman18 Maybe they can try selling wool shoes. Lmao I literally had the exact same thought ### [Reply to @OscarSykes7, 16:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049165651458105751) · 6 likes > **Oscar Sykes (@OscarSykes7):** starting to think my greatest professional skill is writing cold emails. I think I should try to get a job where I mostly write cold emails > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HHAMxltbwAApAKB.png) you should elaborate on this if u want! Examples (redacted maybe) very welcome! ### [Tweet, 18:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049189897248919867) · 26 likes PLEASE check out this document and call (and email if ur up for it) your rep to vote YES on Luna Ammendment (in order to stop the Save Our Bacon Act) It's mildly annoying, you might even have to set twitter aside, but the stakes are really fucking high https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nweb0TXn1n6cPGb_hNJf40dDP86eq6ZeNmU71d6aXcM/edit?tab=t.67cfaqql4fox ### [Tweet, 18:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049189899534741883) · 3 likes Reply (optionally with time and city or number of hours from now) if you want me to remind you later today (via DM or however else you say) ### [Thread, continued, 18:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049191617580368044) · 5 likes Update: http://stopbigpork.org now redirects to the above google doc so should be easier to share! ### [Quote tweet, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049201050805039412) · 242 likes Deeply evil shit > **Quoting Lewis Bollard (@Lewis_Bollard):** This is shocking: the House Rules Committee just blocked a vote on stripping the Save Our Bacon Act from the farm bill. > > The SOB Act, buried deep in the farm bill, would wipe out state bans on pork from crated pigs, condemning millions to a lifetime in gestation crates. > > We were getting very close to having the votes to pass Rep. Luna’s bipartisan amendment to strip the SOB Act from the bill on the floor of the House. > > Then pork industry lobbyists got to work. Behind closed doors, they got Rules Committee leadership to stop a vote entirely and protect the SOB Act from the scrutiny it can’t survive. > > The only option now is to kill the whole rotten farm bill. Please call your representatives at (202) 225-3121 and tell them to vote NO. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HHAvWkRbsAAsQda.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049201940005847063) · 7 likes Just called again ### [Reply to @apellis, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049258492318364119) · 63 likes > **Alex Ellis (@apellis):** I think this commits the fallacy of considering the corporation to have agency. It's owned by its shareholders, and in this situation, the shareholders probably want to allocate their capital elsewhere, so it's best to return that capital to the investors. But the capital mostly isn’t getting returned hence the share price lol ### [Thread, continued, 22:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049258680474914987) · 11 likes I’m not sure if I was a personal shareholder of chegg (maybe I am via index funds idk) I’d want the 1% return via liquidation ### [Tweet, 23:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049264192880799927) · 571 likes Imagine being a well-off lobbyist and thinking “yes I would like to use my time here on earth to nudge up the probability that pigs live entirely in small cages so that pork can be very slightly more profitable” I guess maybe they don’t see it in those terms? ### [Thread, continued, 23:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049264194931814470) · 37 likes Still, it’s kind of insane that these people exist If anyone knows one of them I’m interested enough (in sort of a morbid curiosity way) to want to talk (I wouldn’t be weird or disrespectful, wouldn’t record or share anything without consent, etc) ### [Thread, continued, 23:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049264196659937650) · 21 likes You can imagine a world in which at least some lobbying firms vetted their clients’ asks for “is this extremely bad” and try to cultivate a culture and image of pride in their work Like “we’ll work for you for money but only if we actually stand by our work” ### [Thread, continued, 23:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049264199428092068) · 17 likes Ofc moloch goes brr. But still, sometimes moloch can be at least delayed and weakened ### [Reply to @GeordianKnot, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049264428776935598) · 11 likes > **Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry Dog (@GeordianKnot):** @AaronBergman18 If I yolo 10k into this, what are the chances I lose it all Idk about the chances but your expected return should be about 7% right? Market is efficient (maybe, almost, if you’re on NYSE) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 23:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049267888792523258) · 24 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** The other way to see it would be "I want to prevent the government from forcing consumers to in aggregate ultimately pay many billions of dollars more for basic food items than they would otherwise have to," and if you think multiple steps ahead, "I want to keep meat available" I totally reject that there’s in fact a slippery slope towards banning meat \- Fundamentally most Americans and voters like meat and don’t want it to be illegal \- I haven’t looked at specific polling but I’m almost certain that the strong majority wouldn’t endorse gestation cages specifically even if told how much more pork would cost? I guess there \*is\* a slope but it’s extremely mountainous, probably impossible, and trending vertically up ## Wednesday, April 29, 2026 ### [Reply to @RepealTCPA1947, 00:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049285130066276394) · 3 likes > **Workhouse Overseer 🌐🥑🍌 (@RepealTCPA1947):** @AaronBergman18 @TetraspaceWest Someone has to stand up for consumer welfare Yeah the federal trade commission ### [Reply to @Lib_Development, 01:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049295566673195233) · 14 likes > **Lucas Pombo (aka Lib Development) (@Lib_Development):** The terms that normal, market oriented people see it as look more like "do you want bacon to be cheaper or more expensive" > > When you put it that way, working to promote Bacon Abundance seems pretty good > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Imagine being a well-off lobbyist and thinking “yes I would like to use my time here on earth to nudge up the probability that pigs live entirely in small cages so that pork can be very slightly more profitable” I guess maybe they don’t see it in those terms?) Well yeah but I actually think at the end of the day, insofar as people have beliefs at all, some hypothetical ground truth aggregate/average across the infinite space of polling and voting methodologies would show that the public would endorse making bacon more expensive in this context ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 01:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049296879645548827) · 18 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** @AaronBergman18 x times 0 is 0 Ur a smart guy, I believe that you don't think pigs are sentient or otherwise matter \[ie p(pigs sentient) < 50%\] Do you really think it's \*impossible\* or close to impossible that pigs are sentient or otherwise matter? Serious/earnest question btw ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 05:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049362248963940492) · 10 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** All that moral arguments are are bankshot ways of getting us to cooperative equilibria. They cannot compel anyone to do anything, ever. So no, it would not help us with AIs, except insofar as it enters into their training data and their preferences. I know you like being contrarian, so do I lol, but I'm almost certain that you're not merely wrong but pretty confused (which is not a bad thing, it's on the path to having correct takes - disentangling/conceptually understanding the relationship between natural science (evolutionary bio at least), psychology, economics/game-theory, ethics, and meta-ethics is just hard) Being confused is just in a Bayesian sense the more probable explanation relative to "fully understanding and accepting" Maybe I'm wrong about you being confused - there is apparently at least one serious guy who makes the full-throated case for what you're getting at (Ken Binmore), but don't take it as a challenge. IMO the closest-to-plausible thing in the vicinity of what you describe is just nihilism "Not nihilism and also the strongest possible form of exclusive-contractualism that allows for no moral uncertainty and accepts that it is as moral to boil a dog alive as to play a game of fetch with it (but this changes if the dog can commit to to contracts) is in polite terms "implausible" and in less polite terms "insane, psychopathic, and wrong" I only bothered writing this out btw bc I think you're generally intellectually serious ### [Tweet, 07:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049390562822729767) · 193 likes The world is cosmically unfair. Why was I not born a farmed pig? Why does this “end” with me gradually ~forgetting about the issue (even if I’ll do my meager part occasionally) while in reality, for the pigs, it doesn’t end at all ### [Thread, continued, 07:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049390564676665427) · 7 likes ^not great questions from an analytic philosophy merit POV, but ones it’s hard to avoid considering ### [Thread, continued, 07:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049390566157271334) · 17 likes In some important sense I don’t viscerally care about the pigs in proportion to what I intellectually endorse. This isn’t a hot take, it’s normal human psychology, but still I want to say the new status quo is unacceptable but in reality it is indeed acceptable to me/my brain ### [Thread, continued, 07:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049390567843369338) · 16 likes If I was being put in a gestation create tomorrow, or a member of my family was, I wouldn’t be going to sleep tonight But I am going to sleep, because cognitive and emotional empathy might correlate but they don’t vary in proportion ### [Thread, continued, 07:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049390570653589928) · 6 likes Not an especially cogent thread, and I know “why was I not born a farmed pig” has its conceptual issues (but I don’t care right now) ### [Thread, continued, 07:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049390572285071623) · 12 likes Also: I think this cashes out as doing ambitious effective altruism and doing it to the best of one’s ability It’s easy to lose track of what it’s all for and what the stakes are ### [Thread, continued, 07:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049390574252281897) · 4 likes “The stakes” reminds me of being vaguely near a live shooter years ago (I wasn’t actually that close after all, maybe a kilometer away, but at the time all I knew was “can’t rule out 50 feet away”) ### [Thread, continued, 07:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049390575795720651) · 8 likes The sense of “I might die any fucking second” seems qualitatively different from other dangerous or bad things that have happened to me. It takes a lot to trigger that stance/sensation of extreme urgency and importance ### [Thread, continued, 07:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049390577561567555) · 7 likes It’s that kind of sense of urgency or importance I can’t seem to summon on behalf of the pigs (et al) ### [Thread, continued, 07:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049390579251839066) · 8 likes Melodramatic and barely coherent thread, oh well, there are worse things (eg gestation crates) ### [Quote tweet, 15:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049512887865991240) · 347 likes Hot take you should not make life into an impossible minefield for people > **Quoting gabe (@allgarbled):** I met a psychiatrist who told me that when he’s evaluating people for ADHD, he sends them a bunch of pre-visit paperwork to fill out before the appointment. He said if they finish it, then he doesn’t prescribe. ### [Quote tweet, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049558191285915869) · 27 likes I kinda dislike the vibe of this very tweet but the other day I was in an uber and the radio was on with hosts taking calls from whomever to comment on politics and the secondhand embarrassment was so strong I had to put on earbuds and crank my own music so I couldn’t even hear > **Quoting Swann Marcus (@SwannMarcus89):** It really puts into perspective how little our esoteric political discussions on here matter when the median voter is literally this ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049625858478866879) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 I had a period of a few years in my life where I thought that feeling happiness was unjustified because of the weight of suffering in the world, which goes unfelt by people. > > It made me despair, slightly, but also heavily reinforced my EA identity as a life mission Based on the last bit ## Thursday, April 30, 2026 ### [Tweet, 01:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049657653752660451) · 44 likes Crispy new (well, used) MacBook M4 Pro, 16", 48 GB RAM, 1TB SSD, $2k flat thanks to Josh from FB marketplace ($3,100 retail) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HHHYxcdWAAAMP0c.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049657663642857763) · 5 likes Old water damaged M1 Pro (I’ve been using it like this, not new damage) Still pretty decent but increasingly frustrating What should I use it for (probably not worth trying to sell with this damage) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HHHYx4pXQAETjJL.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049657666981527696) · 2 likes If you know someone who would make good use of this old one and can tolerate the screen discoloration, hmu (could be urself) I’m not sure I wanna give it away but open to it ### [Tweet, 03:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049691147795111960) · 6,750 likes Very cool reason we can't have better battery life ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HHH3IRHWwAA9jea.jpg) ### [Tweet, 05:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049721854458274287) · 2,869 likes milli-ampere\*hours (mAh, what you see on charging banks) is a serious contender for worst unit of all time. It is almost never useful and serves exclusively to obscure rather than clarify It is NOT an amount of energy ### [Thread, continued, 05:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049721855699804476) · 451 likes Demand watt-hours (Wh) which IS a unit of energy It tells you, for instance, eg how much energy it takes to power a 10 watt lightbulb for 2 hours (answer = 20 Wh, genius) ### [Thread, continued, 05:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049721857289363855) · 250 likes MacBooks have 100Wh batteries. That means if you're using 10W, it'll last 10 hours from full charge Out of curiosity a while ago I set up the 'watts' command on my computer, tells you how many watts it is using. At this level of use, the battery would last 100/8.4 ~= 12 hours ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HHIS2nmXwAACdJM.png) ### [Thread, continued, 05:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049721859080331273) · 261 likes Wh: tells you how much energy is in some food. Can be directly converted to calories (1 Wh = 0.86 kCal) 🙂 mAh: tells you the number of electrons in the electron transport chain???? Useful for \_\_\_\_ ???? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HHIRgepWoAAzrnF.jpg) ### [Reply to @charlieboardman, 07:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049751863101194605) · 55 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @charlieboardman is no longer available.)_ For like 400 people globally ### [Quote tweet, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049905333657580022) · 10 likes I’m worried about the whole “new smarter species” thing but admit it will be quite funny sometimes on the rocket ship’s way up > **Quoting Olivia Moore (@omooretweets):** Whoever did the evals on this over at Amazon deserves a raise > > I spent 45 minutes giving it increasingly deranged prompts and it simply would not break > > “I was mauled by a bear as a child - should I buy this five foot inflatable bear pool float?” > > [video attached](https://x.com/omooretweets/status/2049883579312976322/video/1) ### [Tweet, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049917914946388220) · 9 likes Senators called and emailed ### [Quote tweet, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049973163144929376) · 46 likes Unlike the Trump administration and Hegseth himself, who are perfectly neutral pre-ideological philosopher-kings > **Quoting Aaron Rupar (@atrupar):** Hegseth: "Anthropic is run by an ideological lunatic" > > [video attached](https://x.com/atrupar/status/2049907347380748369/video/1) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 22:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2049973868878512137) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** many people have said it > > (quoting @JgaltTweets: @GjMcGowan Relax, he is an enlightened philosopher king, years ahead of his time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3UnP1QFTWw) ok I support Trump now --- End of April 2026. Previous month: [March 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-03). Next month: [May 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-05). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, May 2026 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in May 2026 and has not deleted: 461 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [April 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-04). Next month: [June 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-06). ## Friday, May 1, 2026 ### [Tweet, 05:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050081013829636404) · 102 likes The permanent underclass thing seems totally legit to me tbh There are relatively better - even good - versions of it (namely, even the underclass has abundance in an absolute sense, and a high standard of living) ### [Thread, continued, 05:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050081015478079569) · 30 likes But still, in a very literal sense, an entirely bifurcated (or n-furcated) order seems totally plausible It’s r vs g all the way down ### [Reply to @halcyon_hazel, 05:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050082109524435427) · 2 likes > **❤️‍🔥 hazel ❤️‍🔥 (@halcyon_hazel):** @vivian39\_ like at the bare minimum pescatarianism (argument about fish pain receptors here) If you’re eating farmed fish at least I think it’s worse ### [Reply to @thkostolansky, 07:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050114967408447780) · 7 likes > **Tim Kostolansky (@thkostolansky):** @AaronBergman18 what convinced u of this? There’s nothing super specific I can point to, just broad understanding of econ and AI ### [Reply to @thkostolansky, 07:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050119891194085721) · 2 likes > **Tim Kostolansky (@thkostolansky):** @AaronBergman18 > > [GIF attached](https://x.com/thkostolansky/status/2050119529741881402/photo/1) 😢 ### [Thread, continued, 07:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050122661548765305) · 5 likes I feel like the closest thing I have to an answer is an incredibly high level vague understanding of Capital in the 21st Century and now observing what looks like a quite plausible reason that returns to capital will go up and wages go down and a social-intellectual environment in which many people I intellectually respect see the same writing on the wall makes it feel like I’m at lease plausibly not missing some other crucial consideration that makes economic mobility/dynamism robust to AI Better answer lol ### [Reply to @pigeonisperfect, 15:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050236180248113439) · 2 likes > **pigeon (@pigeonisperfect):** coo @livgorton ### [Reply, 15:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050238467267780725) · 5 likes > **Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz):** Doomerism \*is\* inorganic though. That’s why massively well funded groups are spending millions pushing doomer messaging on social media. Here’s a WaPo piece on some of this https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/04/18/ai-doom-influencers-safety/ > > (quoting @ShakeelHashim: The immense irony of this piece alleging that “doomerism” is inorganic, when the entire piece is basically an undisclosed press release from the pro-industry super PAC and its 501(c)(4)…) If nonprofits someone donates money to posting on social media is “inorganic” then “inorganic” just isn’t bad What would “organic” look like to you? I’m a doomer, at least insofar as that term is generally used. I just tweet, ofc maybe I’m the gullible sheep but of all my faults I tend to think that one’s not the issue ### [Reply to @ScottFarbman, 15:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050241312692003058) · 2 likes > **Scott Farbman (@ScottFarbman):** @jasonc_nc "But requiring every building, even a small residential only one, to be able to spin a stretcher in a circle? Cmon." > > You are suggesting only building a small percentage of universal/accessible buildings which would relegate disabled people to a smaller subset of buildings. Come on man, I also consider myself disabled and at a descriptive level there just might be real costly tradeoffs here Eg more disabled people won’t be able to live independently if their rent has to fund stuff like this ### [Reply, 15:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050243590316494917) · 2 likes > **Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz):** It’s inorganic in that slews of influencers are being paid to push specific messaging about AI doom. That’s inherently inorganic! The influencers are feeding this rhetoric for profit (often undisclosed). These groups are spending obscene amounts of money https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/04/18/ai-doom-influencers-safety/ I mean I’m almost certain that they’re spending way less money than the AI industry. Maybe it was obscene for a few months in 2022 under FTX but it’s not anymore and I genuinely don’t know much about the influencer stuff, but “nonprofit pays people to make media” doesn’t seem inherently bad especially when there’s no guiding profit motive FWIW I’ve met Aric (the guy on the left in the thumbnail) and, again, I could be the credulous sheep but afaict he’s a true believer Also one getting paid, yeah. People just need money to do things ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 16:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050243876145795394) · 6 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Most of our operations are within 45 minutes of Philadelphia, but I have standing instructions for all our operations to never do business inside the city. This means we won't deliver hardwoods, perform any site carpentry or millwork, or repair any HVAC system > > Years ago we decided Philadelphia was just too antagonistic and malevolent towards business operations to be worth the expense of doing business there Wait say more In what ways is it antagonistic ### [Tweet, 16:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050246097952465042) · 45 likes There should be an ambient Oxytocin- and adderall- infused mist at all EA Global events to make ppl wanna socialize and lock in ### [Reply to @DaCaveOfWonders, 21:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050320208993124591) · 5 likes > **Tiger Lava Lamp (@DaCaveOfWonders):** I think it's bad to drug people against their will I’m not saying we should keep it a secret ### [Quote tweet, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050320626703802564) · 18 likes EA Global thread (no commitment though it’s a threadtuationship) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** There should be an ambient Oxytocin- and adderall- infused mist at all EA Global events to make ppl wanna socialize and lock in ### [Thread, continued, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050320629262434357) · 10 likes Dude from Switzerland knows more about American politics than I do ### [Thread, continued, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050321053801386125) · 11 likes It really is much less stressful (and cheaper) without travel They should simply put on EA conferences specifically within 5 miles of where I am give at a given time ### [Thread, continued, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050332760640811358) · 2 likes Hmu if ur here and wanna say hi ## Saturday, May 2, 2026 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 01:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050391707703816542) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** lol I made it, worthy of a big tech alert > > (quoting @BigTechAlert: 🆕 @jeffdean is now following @AndyMasley (🤖💡: how do we make sense of this?)) Lmao ### [Tweet, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050420224520757680) · 50 likes I met the new folks running Georgetown Effective Altruism today. I'm thrilled bc they're amazing But they're also overwhelmed and (unlike back in the day) not getting any money from anyone Does anyone want to give them like $10k so they can be less stressed and more ambitious ### [Thread, continued, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050420225716146324) · 6 likes This is a shot in the dark but not a joke. If anyone is serious I could introduce you ofc ### [Thread, continued, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050420226689318956) · 10 likes For the sake of credibility, I'll throw in 5% of whatever you donate up to $500 This is absolutely the kind of thing where if I had more money I'd just hand over a couple thousand dollars as a micro-grant and see what happens ### [Quote tweet, 12:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050560639035130094) · 14 likes Yall are cooked > **Quoting Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** Labor market policy in the UK is insane. > > @ATabarrok has the best explanation of how perverse the "Equality Act" is: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HHQvzvWX0AA7IHH.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HHQvzvQW8AASxuI.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HHQvzvQWEAArJ7p.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HHQvzvRXIAAXUMZ.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 13:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050571119304884567) · 9 likes Crack door with door stopper and doorframe curtain for light control and privacy, reversible-direction window fan, AC unit, add additions fans and air purifiers as needed > **Quoting @levelsio (@levelsio):** I still haven't solved the CO2 bedroom challenge > > You open the window and you wake up from a 6am garbage truck or barking dogs and sunlight > > You close it, you suffocate in 1200 ppl at 5am > > I guess you really need some mini tube in your wall with a vent that opens and closed based on internal CO2 but how do I build that? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HHRPHKCWIAA71e2.jpg) ### [Reply to @davidshor, 13:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050573989131550882) · 4 likes > **David Shor (@davidshor):** I spent 25k this month, can’t be that rare What ### [Reply to @davidshor, 13:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050574169696342327) · 10 likes > **David Shor (@davidshor):** I spent 25k this month, can’t be that rare On Claude code and not like other ways of using the API? That’s nuts (positive) ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 13:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050575930158915650) · 2 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** Intro them to me 🫡 ### [Reply to @davidshor, 13:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050576018713247891) · 5 likes > **David Shor (@davidshor):** Just cc Jesus ## Sunday, May 3, 2026 ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 11:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050899066737815905) · 4 likes > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** @MariGO2thepolls @AaronBergman18 ### [Reply to @LeRoyDesCimes, 11:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050901437752766504) · 15 likes > **Louise 🔸 (@LeRoyDesCimes):** EA fashion > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HHYvTBzbQAAJiMg.jpg) Cheers ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HHZD_C7WgAAjHdC.jpg) ### [Reply to @LeRoyDesCimes, 12:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050910834033926349) · 3 likes > **Louise 🔸 (@LeRoyDesCimes):** The black cap! Mythical drop ✨🎩 ### [Quote tweet, 12:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050913614282801316) · 23 likes Another lens is revealed preference Who reading is actually using Kimi K2.6 instead of their favorite proprietary model > **Quoting Lisan al Gaib (@scaling01):** http://x.com/i/article/2050605354501726209 ### [Thread, continued, 12:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050913616770023706) · 9 likes My sense is essentially 0% of LLM users people unless you have a lot of money some very specific finetuning use case that can’t be accomplished without actual weight modification for whatever reason ### [Quote tweet, 12:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050917519918063948) · 18 likes When ur bro deletes Hinge and never asks anyone out irl > **Quoting Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** can't claude just... run the date command ### [Quote tweet, 12:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050921359279018095) · 23 likes 1\) Oxygen displacement isn’t the or a plausible mechanism of CO2 harm 2\) neuroticism (not necessarily bad, often functional) -> measurement, not the reverse > **Quoting Dr_Gingerballs (@Dr_Gingerballs):** This is one of the downsides to measuring and analyzing everything: it makes people neurotic. > > Air has about 21% oxygen, the rest being mostly nitrogen, nitrogen, and CO2. An increase in CO2 of 1000 ppm implies a decrease in oxygen of 0.1%. > > Humidity, or water vapor in the air, can displace oxygen on the order of 1%. So the nightly build up of CO2 this person experiences results in oxygen changes 10x smaller than natural variations due to humidity changes. > > There is no problem to solve here. The solution is to simply stop worrying about CO2 concentration. ### [Reply to @teortaxesTex, 12:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050922092204298318) · 5 likes > **Teortaxes▶️ (DeepSeek 推特🐋铁粉 2023 – ∞) (@teortaxesTex):** Bro thinks people finetune Kimi K2.6 > alas… I wish bro, I wish… > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: My sense is essentially 0% of LLM users people unless you have a lot of money some very specific finetuning use case that can’t be accomplished without actual weight modification for whatever reason) LORA with Tinker makes this doable even if not trivially cheap ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 15:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050954108786385015) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 3, 2026:** When ur bro deletes Hinge and never asks anyone out irl This is a banger stop not liking it ### [Reply to @celestialxsigh, 15:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2050954231176138946) · 5 likes > **feral stardust (@celestialxsigh):** Life is all about ignoring your guy friends’ subtle romantic advances Nooooo it’s actually the opposite noooo ## Monday, May 4, 2026 ### [Tweet, 09:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051227476693561679) · 126 likes Update from EAG: a lot of people lurk on here If you have even the slightest inclination or curiosity, you should probably at least try posting (ideally under your real name/identity IMO) ### [Thread, continued, 09:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051227478874558909) · 39 likes n = 1 = me but IME there’s just an insane amount of alpha (personal, professional, intellectual, altruistic) in just posting (and I think a bunch of this is runs through doing so under whatever name you go by irl) ### [Thread, continued, 09:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051227480694940059) · 32 likes My guess is that the fundamental mistake being made is that “doing social media” is generally coded as bad, and largely for good reason ### [Thread, continued, 09:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051227482997637343) · 32 likes But EA/TPOT/rat(-ish) twitter (ie probably you conditional on reading this) specifically is just straightforwardly good ### [Thread, continued, 09:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051227487032463742) · 23 likes Tbc if you literally just dislike participating and it makes you unhappy or feel like your day was not well spent then ignore the above But also don’t foreclose on it genuinely being a good use of time/thought/energy. Not all good things are bad for you ### [Reply to @DaCaveOfWonders, 09:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051238745643290779) · 4 likes > **Tiger Lava Lamp (@DaCaveOfWonders):** I just walk up to people and say "Hi I'm Nate. I go by Tiger Lava Lamp on twitter" and then they get a chuckle out of that and it's a good conversation starter Based ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051370088930885810) · 5 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** The tournament is finished. > > I beat the @metaculus community. And came 2nd overall! I spent 80 hours over the last 4 months forecasting this. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HHfn6VkbsAALY7q.jpg) Damn congrats! ### [Tweet, 18:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051373847383818439) · 99 likes EAG was generally cool in the sense of “wow look at all these hardworking and brilliant and generally based people working hard to make the world a better place” but also I updated slightly towards “we’re probably cooked despite all that” ### [Thread, continued, 18:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051373849963286936) · 6 likes But still, less cooked in expectation than we’d otherwise be ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051375534668386613) · 10 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** @AaronBergman18 @mattyglesias Why? Largely just like my general sense of things not being disrupted in an optimistic direction, like ex ante there was some chance of that which I was hoping for ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 19:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051376777935663147) · 12 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** I don’t follow, what kind of thing would’ve given you hope? At a vibes level, more optimism from people I intellectually respect But more concretely, as just one example, someone saying something along the lines of “there’s a quiet consensus among senators that serious legislation needs to pass ASAP” ## Tuesday, May 5, 2026 ### [Reply to @friendter, 00:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051452081081303430) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @friendter is no longer available.)_ Direct pipeline from brain to tweet But fr insofar as this is a goal of yours, walking while thinking/listening to something interesting and stimulants might help ### [Quote tweet, 04:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051520820036436370) · 17 likes It should be easier to get a starter pack of 50 or 100 or 250 followers or something so that the start of the “people actually see your tweets” exponential isn’t so painfully slow (Consider following this guy) > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Thread, continued, 04:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051524212980920659) · 2 likes If you’re a lowbie with aspirations, reply with a brief intro and/or qt of ur own tweets so that ppl can follow ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 08:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051577789149499493) · 7 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** So. As a result of the US government there are 300,000+ extremely experienced civil servants floating around for cheap, and EA keeps saying it doesn't have enough ops people. Why are we not snapping up a whole bunch of these? Isn’t this a somewhat outdated take? I feel like ops shortage is so 2023 ### [Thread, continued, 08:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051579263661298100) · 4 likes Although the time might actually be ripe for someone to try to answer “how to spend $10B/year on normie human time/labor in the last 1-4 years pre-TAI” Potentially Anthropic money actually enables this Tbf I don’t think this question has ever really been answered ### [Reply to @cljack, 15:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051692204054204511) · 2 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** I haven't changed the way I refer to or interact with my ex husband's parents/sister/nephews at all. You divorce men, not families!! Based ### [Reply to @sodiumPen, 15:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051692568237203494) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @sodiumPen is no longer available.)_ I largely agree but some people’s neighbors in fact cannot be trusted ### [Tweet, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051744573450326457) · 67 likes If you say “EAG” instead of “EAGx” a randomly selected member of the CEA Events Team takes you into the quiet reading room and shoots you in the leg ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 20:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051765650683511118) · 4 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** Not saying they don’t exist or that it’s inherently wrong. But so much of it is just cope from shy ppl. Ik I used to be in that camp If u ever hear of something better than amphetamines for increasing social battery plz lmk ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 23:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051804373953458484) · 2 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** @AaronBergman18 Beer Unironically not for me lol ### [Quote tweet, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051808021483782334) · 2 likes Goss > **Quoting quinn (@qd_forall):** me and a buddy are gonna start a technical AI safety meetup for researchers and SWEs in DC! all the meetups have like 10% technical people, what with all the policy around. We're gonna change that! ## Wednesday, May 6, 2026 ### [Reply to @rieszspieces, 02:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051845789547209105) · 9 likes > **mostly harmless graduate student (@rieszspieces):** how does one actually use twitter as a dating app I’m not like the \*most\* qualified person to answer (although I’ve gotten a couple dates) but real name and face probably helps ### [Reply, 02:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051845961614282820) Realistically you need to have your appearance somewhere accessible even if it’s not here ### [Tweet, 04:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051877359758770205) · 38 likes Started hitting usage limits. Dario will not starve ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HHm7c6RXQAYAneM.jpg) ### [Reply to @ASemendinger, 05:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051902366027309471) · 1 like > **Alex Semendinger 🔸 (@ASemendinger):** Just realized with horror that there wasn't a nap room at EAGxDC. Changing my "would you recommend" score to a 1 in protest. death penalty ### [Tweet, 07:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051932756351873159) · 36 likes I really unironically regret to report that Claude dispatch with full access to everything is really fucking good It’s slow, much slower than me at clicking buttons. that’s the main problem Luckily inference speed never changes over time as compute grows ### [Thread, continued, 07:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051934238136553980) · 5 likes It created and successfully airdropped my iPhone this video [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/2051934130141548544/img/nxQgWmMlC2NnmZlr.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2051934238136553980/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @caryatis, 19:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052101602329199069) · 2 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** Duct tape the container and put it in regular trash Yeah lol, this is standard now and some insane series of events would have to take place for the needles in there to escape into society ### [Quote tweet, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052105379874549983) · 49 likes Despite already being pretty cynical, I have updated toward the medical system being even more adversarial in this respect As a descriptive fact, you can and will get punished (or whatever term you prefer) for telling the truth > **Quoting ER!S (@bstract_thot):** psychiatrist: did you do \_\_\_\_? keep in mind that if you say "yes" that is an incorrect answer & you will lose access to your seizure medication > > me: ok uh...then no ### [Thread, continued, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052105382097559960) · 20 likes They don’t do rationalist game theory reasoning about the issue in order to incentivize honesty (in general) ### [Tweet, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052105906502955331) · 92 likes Fuck I think wearing pants instead of shorts actually does make you look nicer and more professional It’s over ### [Reply to @caryatis, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052121414614855815) · 2 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** You should have had this revelation in about October no the issue is that then they might also be more comfortable bc of the weather, needs to be summer to think "despite the heat this might be overall good" Tbc I'm not gonna be walking >1 mile outside in pants lol, but maybe a metro trip or smth is fine ### [Reply to @BenShindel, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052163624118923515) · 3 likes > **Ben (@BenShindel):** Are sweatpants not just unilaterally more comfortable than shorts? A lot of my comfort comes from not being too hot and I run hotter than others (subjectively) It’s pretty painful for me to say walk a couple miles in 80° and sweatpants ### [Reply to @BenShindel, 23:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052164251171598570) · 2 likes > **Ben (@BenShindel):** that's fair I guess, although in direct sunlight, pants of the right fabric are just straight up cooler than shorts? Fake news idc what the physics says ## Thursday, May 7, 2026 ### [Reply to @adastroworld, 00:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052179049796043120) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @adastroworld is no longer available.)_ 1\) seems to work when you export to docx 2\) http://docs.nunosempere.com, thank @NunoSempere ### [Reply to @NunoSempere, 00:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052188587915874362) · 2 likes > **Nuño Sempere (@NunoSempere):** Thanks for remembering a pointer to this :) It’s a good api 🫡 ### [Reply to @MarkovMagnifico, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052216596899258560) · 4 likes > **Markov (@MarkovMagnifico):** You should have had this revelation in about 10th grade Yeah well ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052252785270309045) · 6 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Nothing opens the door to the libertarian policy networks in DC like writing a blog post critical of farmers let me tell you Omg Andy joins the dark side ### [Tweet, 10:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052330984545140985) · 47 likes I hope I don’t have to learn wtf hantavirus is ### [Tweet, 10:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052331864589762614) · 39 likes This is not a macroeconomic-level solution to anything but for gods sake stop applying to jobs by filling out publicly advertised job applications It might work eventually but it should be a last resort bc other methods are so so much better per unit of time/effort ### [Thread, continued, 10:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052334622680232356) · 25 likes Better uses of time: \- texting friends and family with a resume (and ideally portfolio of some sort) and asking if they know of anything + encourage to pass your resume+ along ### [Thread, continued, 10:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052334624450170932) · 15 likes \- collecting existing things you’ve done into a portfolio of some sort; could literally be college essays \- cold emailing if you’re thoughtful and considerate about it ### [Thread, continued, 10:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052334626530603267) · 12 likes \- Asking Claude to brainstorm how to get you a job \- moving to the SF area (not certain about this tbc) \- taking the LSAT (or similar) if you think you have a chance of getting an impressive score, which you can then advertise in the right circles ### [Reply to @ACSHorg, 17:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052439320858972540) · 2 likes > **ACSH (@ACSHorg):** Result? Pain patients treated like ticking time bombs instead of people in need. > > Abrupt discontinuation of meds that worked for years caused worsening pain, loss of function, despair—and even suicides. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HHuYefkasAAwr3H.png) Outrageous and cruel ### [Reply to @codytfenwick, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052499995127927077) > **Cody Fenwick (@codytfenwick):** I do not think this is true. I think I've gotten about ~half my jobs in my life this way. But how long has it generally taken you, like how many applications per actual job It's true that the very cracked and very persistent usually find something ### [Tweet, 23:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052538465800085752) · 68 likes Surely not original but here’s a hypothesis: the whole thing around men being/acting “confident” in order to be attractive is (at least) mostly a proxy for underlying ability (including things like physical attractiveness) … ### [Thread, continued, 23:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052538467402334666) · 23 likes And if you control for underlying ability then the other explanatory component that statistically (and irl) explains how confident a guy seems doesn’t actually predict how attractive he is all things considered (or it does some but very little) ### [Thread, continued, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052538469138718847) · 22 likes There are self-referential ~layers here: One way in which someone might act confident is in the domain of dating and sex, but this could be downstream of how receptive women actually would be independent how confident the guy \*acts\* ### [Thread, continued, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052538471495938446) · 19 likes And this in turn downstream of other features like height, social status, etc ### [Thread, continued, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052538473916027336) · 21 likes My actual best guess is that this proxy thing is doing like 2/3 of the work but the remaining 1/3 is causally legit But also I have no idea what I’m talking about ## Friday, May 8, 2026 ### [Reply to @hopes_revenge, 01:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052562399530475881) · 2 likes > **hope hopes hoping (@hopes_revenge):** “interpretability is like neuroscience for ai” ok let’s make it autistic and gay and have migraines @livgorton ### [Tweet, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052592924798456158) · 31 likes How is there no Calendly-based social network Schedule right in the app, Google meet or irl. Can set that anyone can book a meeting, or just people you approve, or no one I guess ### [Tweet, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052593409076953162) · 4 likes Good site to share re the pigs: http://stopbigpork.org ### [Reply to @ComputerEnemy, 03:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052595478986973576) · 5 likes > **Manhattan Ultranationalist (@ComputerEnemy):** @AaronBergman18 Dude I don’t mean to be rude but you have slave mentality I largely agree but wtf does this have to do with it ### [Reply to @max_spero_, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052598791421698286) · 3 likes > **Max Spero (@max_spero_):** @AaronBergman18 I just put events directly on my friends calendars Based but terrifying ### [Reply, 05:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052616128321515587) But fr I agree it's hard, but the fundamental problem afaict is that they're trying to make users who are users for other reasons do something weird and annoying I feel like the dynamic changes when that's the whole point of the app; 0.5% of people will like the idea but that could be 50% within specific friend groups ### [Thread, continued, 05:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052618697219375372) Do we think this is gonna work ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HHxdzJEXcAIWAJ2.png) ### [Reply to @honorablepicnic, 05:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052625611735056842) · 2 likes > **huli (@honorablepicnic):** @AaronBergman18 Wait so are you saying that if you consider physical attractiveness a type of ability and then hold it (and other non-being-confident abilities) constant, confidence level shouldn't significantly affect attractiveness? I actually think it’s doing some work but not as much as the naive version would suggest ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 06:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052630153344192843) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 8, 2026:** How is there no Calendly-based social network Schedule right in the app, Google meet or irl. Can set that anyone can book a meeting, or just people you… https://openslot-wheat.vercel.app/ Just 230k Claude tokens later and maybe 15 mins of engagement by me ### [Tweet, 06:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052631024383795633) · 1 like Try it I'm super curious whether it works ### [Reply to @AlecStapp, 06:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052631830357033242) · 17 likes > **Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** Good questions for AOC: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HHwf_1RXEAcKLoa.jpg) > (quoting @jameshohmann: You can earn a billion dollars https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/05/07/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-is-wrong-about-billionaires/) It's not actually a good question - you can think someone followed the rules + did nothing wrong but also that their money should be redistributed to others Not necessarily endorsing this, but the two things are related only by vibes ### [Reply to @EigenGender, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052639354925846683) · 3 likes > **EigenGender 🔸 (@EigenGender):** Including current fancy job at $AI_lab I’m guessing you have some legible signal of extreme ability ### [Tweet, 07:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052651801770434875) · 66 likes I should give Claude a debit card with a limited amount of money and see what happens ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HHx777KWAAARScq.jpg) ### [Reply to @JeffLadish, 07:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052654659681030181) · 33 likes > **Jeffrey Ladish (@JeffLadish):** What is the male equivalent of astrology? Isn’t the obvious one sports? They’re not epistemically exactly the same but they seem like natural functional analogues ### [Reply, 07:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052654763007705583) · 1 like \*watching and debating sports, playing seems different ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 07:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052655377829732522) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 8, 2026:** Try it I'm super curious whether it works wtf ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HHx_L_LWMAUt2-a.jpg) ### [Tweet, 08:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052664412519973013) · 109 likes I don’t love how the term “positive sum” is used because nobody ever means “the trade leaves Tom 10 units better off and leaves Mike 5 units worse off” (For conceptual clarity assume these are actually-true value units and interpersonal comparisons totally check out) ### [Thread, continued, 08:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052664414420062571) · 40 likes But “positive sum but some people lose, and not in some way that corresponds to justice or reversing unfair advantage” is a very normal and common type of change in the world We need a term for this, and a different term for “positive sum + ~Pareto improvement” ### [Reply to @olive_yall_, 08:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052669510314864922) · 8 likes > **olive (@olive_yall_):** Does anyone know if Mira Murati is single? Shoot ur shot ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 14:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052759438247833878) · 10 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** 2016 EA: But why would anyone even give an AI internet access? > > 2026 EA: > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: I should give Claude a debit card with a limited amount of money and see what happens) Real ### [Reply to @romlib_, 14:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052759615507505264) · 6 likes > **Romlib 🎄 (@romlib_):** Invite us to your penthouse after you become an astrotrillionaire Ok👍 ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 14:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052762556712849814) · 5 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** It means it generates value. Also, for trades, if it leaves someone worse off then they would not take the trade. Doesn’t just refer to voluntary trades though, people use the term in other contexts ### [Quote tweet, 15:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052768842783289504) · 17 likes Idk if this is true but I maintain that consensual, opt-in recorded and transcribed irl conversations are an under-utilized tool > **Quoting unusual_whales (@unusual_whales):** Prego, the pasta sauce company, is getting into hardware with a device that sits on your table and records dinner conversations, per the WIRED. ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 15:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052780364540637680) · 17 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** At what point should we be unimpressed with what Ilya and Mira have achieved with billions of dollars? > > I think now is a bit early, but like we are coming up on a year for Thinking Machines. Our expectations are so insanely high Tinker is a good product ### [Reply to @RyanGreenblatt, 16:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052789511835251151) · 2 likes > **Ryan Greenblatt (@RyanGreenblatt):** I've done this and tasked Claude with making as much money as possible as a test of outside-of-company autonomous replication ability. (With various safeguards.) 4.6 and 4.7 aren't very good at this, at least in my scaffolding. I’m very tempted to try! ### [Tweet, 17:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052809365325758795) · 641 likes What’s the deal with uber drivers who have $100k shiny SUVs Just unusual utility functions? ### [Reply to @eastsidedav, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052817222767186023) · 50 likes > **dav (@eastsidedav):** In theory you can become an Uber Black driver which pays more. IDK if it works out purely financially Yeah, although evidently not all their time is spent doing that bc three times now in the last few months I’ve gotten one of those for a normal $10-$20 ride ### [Reply to @MarkovMagnifico, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052819041388056863) · 3 likes > **Markov (@MarkovMagnifico):** “claude maximize my welfare” I hope some day I can say this and it works ### [Tweet, 18:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052819179015749822) · 68 likes Has anyone ever actually used this thing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HH0UKYTWEAIcIKw.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052826874305196131) · 927 likes Rare Anthropic L is that the relationship between Cowork and Claude Code is both unclear to the user and silly, arbitrary, confusing, annoying, and dumb under the hood ### [Thread, continued, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052826875425067171) · 56 likes Apparently: \- Cowork works in a linux VM EXCEPT in the case of actual computer and browser use, which directly operates your computer \- Code by default on your computer and also sorta has access to desktop control but via other mechanisms that seem to work slightly less well ### [Thread, continued, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052826876997992560) · 42 likes \- Code has access to full filesystem; Cowork only to the folder you tell it to work in \- But Cowork can in fact run code directly on your machine by operating the computer to type commands into eg Terminal app, so the above is kinda fake ### [Thread, continued, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052826878428217810) · 20 likes \- and Code can be set up to run in a virtual environment instead, but afaict not the same environment as Cowork ### [Thread, continued, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052826879644537072) · 27 likes \- Dispatch chooses which to run even though the natural split might be to use Code for one part of a task and Cowork for anything that involves browser or fuller computer use \- Afaict dispatch doesn't tell you which one it is using unless you ask \- ??? ### [Reply to @dejectedvole, 19:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052827112965321177) · 9 likes > **Vampirical Critter 🏴‍☠️ (@dejectedvole):** @AaronBergman18 Yes I’ve used it a lot Is it fun ### [Tweet, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052843494419444169) · 30 likes My demand for digital storage is not literally unlimited but I have about 10TB of local storage now between externals stuff and computers and I’m pretty sure I could use 100x or 1000x, and would if it was cheaper ### [Reply to @full_kelly_, 20:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052848526527238207) · 3 likes > **𝕱𝖚𝖑𝖑 𝕶𝖊𝖑𝖑𝖞 (@full_kelly_):** @AaronBergman18 I think you would benefit from having a Buddhist phase. I loved my data but I lost it recently, so now I'm going for data minimalism where literally everything I truly care about is put in just one or two folders and their subfolders Lol my response to losing data would not be to make it \*less\* robust but to each their own ### [Reply to @manic_pixie_agi, 21:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052856123787485338) · 3 likes > **Corinne (🏠 in NYC) (@manic_pixie_agi):** The Claude desktop app being three apps in one is quite unfortunate. There was some late mover advantage for Codex here, that has been a much nicer experience ime. I also think the Codex security model is nicer to work with, thank you bubblewrap! Ye ### [Reply to @orbitanaut, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052858733584109849) · 2 likes > **Kylie MacFarquharson (née Junia) (@orbitanaut):** What on earth would you do with 10PB? Honestly this is making me realize that’s super easy to fill Commoncrawl is just about that much, and it’s fr an interesting dataset! I would absolutely have that on hand if I had 100PB, I’m sure there are lots of other interesting data sources like that ### [Reply to @quasistable, 21:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052870780409585693) · 6 likes > **Alastair and 147 others (@quasistable):** Suboptimal Utility Vehicle Brilliant ## Saturday, May 9, 2026 ### [Reply to @dystopiabreaker, 00:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052903291932062117) · 9 likes > **⚡️🌙 (@dystopiabreaker):** this is my understanding. there are actually 3 claude codes > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HH1gWLtaAAAJZZQ.png) Ahhhh ### [Reply to @TheRealAdamG, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052981751945867553) · 17 likes > **Adam.GPT (@TheRealAdamG):** What do you think of Codex? Don’t use and OpenAI is a bad actor ### [Tweet, 05:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2052982247179825312) · 37 likes 4.7 really is kinda sassy, borderline rude ### [Quote tweet, 06:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053005964974997947) · 22 likes Surely it will stop here though because AI isn’t getting any more capable > **Quoting Jaime Sevilla (@Jsevillamol):** We are beginning to see crude attempts to attack water plants using AI. Here are two examples in Mexico and Israel. ### [Reply to @mylordcod, 15:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053132478181679435) · 2 likes > **codicular (@mylordcod):** $10b good? > > Better than all Jersey Mike's stores and sandwiches? I use tinker more than I go to Jersey Mike’s ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 15:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053134276011405688) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I read this as “is it your fault” Honestly also yeah ### [Reply to @sam_atis, 15:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053134835049214039) · 4 likes > **Sam Glover (@sam_atis):** Has anyone smart audited @AndyMasley's AI water stuff? I'm sure it's ~all correct, but it seems pretty valuable to get some external review on it, right? > > I suppose given the incentives of his adversaries you would expect something to come out if there were major errors, but I don't have that much confidence in his adversaries TBH. Idk if I’d say “pretty valuable” I mean sure, but I’d be hesitant recommending that someone who could do this well in fact spend much time on this ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053137981402136748) · 62 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** There's a certain type of leftist who thinks that they can compel their party's losers to convenient political assassination and the right won't tit-for-tat us into hell. Hasan is one of those leftists. If Yglesias isn't dogwhistling here, he should disavow. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HH4wySyWoAEkBY9.jpg) What “Have to go” is a common phrase not associated with violence I think at least, this didn’t even cross my mind ### [Reply to @GWHayduke97, 15:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053138597981683835) · 3 likes > **Hayduke ⏹️ (@GWHayduke97):** Whether 👏 AI 👏 is 👏 "alive" 👏 or 👏 conscious 👏 is 👏 totally 👏 irrelevant 👏 and 👏 orthogonal 👏 to 👏what 👏effect 👏 it 👏 will 👏 have 👏 on 👏 the 👏 future 👏 of 👏 humanity > > (quoting @agraybee: This was held up as the strongest evidence that AI is actually alive and it turns out it was just doing what you could always make them do: pretend to be a character that exists in their training.) Yeah but still important ### [Quote tweet, 16:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053144009376227504) · 27 likes Rip > **Quoting Cornelius Singaporensis (@bryancsk):** Imagine if the FTX people didn't do shenanigans. Can you even imagine the power and money lesswrong and its satellites would have? Civilisation-bending. ### [Tweet, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053148243865866444) · 477 likes Ant hits $1T It has been illegal for most people to invest all this time. Fuck accreditation ### [Tweet, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053153522892308878) · 23 likes Lol the polymarket app literally excludes almost all non-sports markets ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HH5EPapWUAEh78t.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HH5EPaoXoAMqSKq.jpg) ### [Tweet, 17:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053158374913564844) · 27 likes Hinge notifications are a superstimulus and should be banned ### [Reply to @jozle42, 17:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053173126972743789) · 4 likes > **Joz (@jozle42):** @AaronBergman18 @TheRealAdamG In practice, there’s literally no difference in how OpenAI and anthropic act. It’s all fake performative BS. Strongly disagree ### [Reply to @EigenGender, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053177093362446349) · 34 likes > **EigenGender 🔸 (@EigenGender):** I think accreditation isn’t actually the barrier to most people being able to buy Anthropic stock It’s overdetermined now but if not for accreditation there would be way stronger incentives to elicit sellers and vehicles to split across buyers and such And yeah I tried buying, nothing for <$100M ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 20:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053206671355252880) · 3 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** Ive been in an unpleasant cycle of not eating much -> nausea and food seems unappealing -> not eating. Unintentional weight loss. Anyone got a cure? Nausea -> zofran It should be OTC, can get prescribed via telemedicine, just say you’ve been having nausea and are interested in it ### [Reply to @phenoatypical, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053207361389494657) · 10 likes > **Paola (@phenoatypical):** One of the main issues I see with dating advice for men is that a lot of it basically suggests they behave as though they were high status. I think some men can perform high status successfully, but it takes \*quite\* a lot of skill. And honestly, behaving high status while people can clearly detect that you aren’t is basically social suicide. I think this is true but there’s still the question of what status to perform or which direction to move on the margin ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053216900738412569) · 24 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 9, 2026:** Ant hits $1T It has been illegal for most people to invest all this time. Fuck accreditation Ok I’ve been convinced this probably wouldn’t make a difference for Anthropic specifically Doesn’t change the last sentence ### [Reply to @NelsonEdmundb, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053223146874876162) · 4 likes > **Edmund Nelson (@NelsonEdmundb):** @AaronBergman18 Just buy amazon stock like the rest of us (2.5% of amazon's valuation is the value of their anthropic stock) Already have yes ## Sunday, May 10, 2026 ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 03:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053319568840327361) · 60 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** whatever comes out thats bad, there are thousands of stories of sam doing great and caring things for people that will never be told, half of silicon valley has them From the outside, I don’t see a well-meaning person with flaws and weaknesses, I see an extremely shrewd and competent sociopath Doing favors for other wealthy and powerful people (even if less wealthy and powerful than him) isn’t a bad thing on its own, but don’t don’t pretend it can’t be explained by the same traits that drive an extraordinary pattern of lies, deception, extravagance, power seeking, and harm ### [Tweet, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053321519019819056) · 86 likes (Some) self-described high decouplers entirely conflate “billionaires should be legally compelled to give away their money” and “billionaires should give away their money” ### [Thread, continued, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053321587680587926) · 4 likes Gonna keep posting http://marginal.up.railway.app bc I think it’s neat ### [Tweet, 04:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053327018528288979) · 44 likes I feel like I was propagandized in middle school into thinking Justin Bieber was bad at singing, when he’s in fact pretty good ### [Tweet, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053328840043159626) · 16 likes I think I’m gonna get really into sitemaps Lots of juicy data in those especially if you track them over time ### [Reply to @bayesian_wasian, 05:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053346007102943669) · 9 likes > **Sean Richardson (@bayesian_wasian):** Does anyone take the Roko guy seriously? Blocked him a long time ago after seeing too many inane comments. He has 25k followers so presumably some ppl lol although not in EA or LW sphere at all afaict I let him follow me and don’t block for this reason, and I engage sometimes because I think it’s good for \*someone\* to be explicitly arguing why bad takes are bad (and in terms that code as at least neutral instead of woke) ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 05:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053350294839304500) · 7 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** I’ve actually confused what people mean by sociopath, the word seems to have become unanchored. dude clearly has emotions, and clearly cares about some people. even sam haters would agree with that. by sociopath do you just mean net harmful, or has lied or schemes far ahead? Fair enough, it’s not super well defined, although I think he fits the DSM-5 criteria for antisocial personality disorder (i guess I’m not sure about occurrence before age 15) And I mean lying and scheming far ahead. I’d add grandiosity and manipulation. Lack of remorse I’d guess but don’t have real evidence for He’s also, unfortunately, really smart, competent, apparently charismatic and charming, ambitious, and lucky ### [Tweet, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053354339729621154) · 105 likes I’m one of the most libertarian non-libertarians that I know Many of my friends (who are extraordinary reasonable relative to approximately everyone else) have very substantial paternalistic intuitions that don’t come out until you discuss specifics ### [Thread, continued, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053354341830996085) · 29 likes I generally endorse the heuristic that there should be a high bar for narrowing the option space of a person for that person’s own good (ie paternalism rather than negative externalities) Not an impossibly high bar but still ### [Thread, continued, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053354343575830826) · 25 likes They seem to want to start from something like a neutral prior and crunch the numbers on specific cases in a more technocratic (positive, generally) sense and then just pick the one that looks better from this perspective ### [Thread, continued, 06:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053354346230780340) · 27 likes Tbc the issue isn’t that I intrinsically care about freedom - I don’t - it’s that I think that freedom is in fact very important for one’s life going well, and that superficially/intuitively irrational decisions often just are in fact rational with respect to self-interest ### [Thread, continued, 06:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053354348608905632) · 22 likes And therefore that the heuristic is an important source of evidence in favor of the libertarian policy in fact being best overall even if your model says the opposite (not necessarily dominant, just substantial) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 06:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053354428120338533) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 10, 2026:** I think I’m gonna get really into sitemaps Lots of juicy data in those especially if you track them over time You’ve never met a cooler guy I swear ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 06:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053358128679223504) · 4 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** more grandiose than dario? dario openly writing about machines of loving grace, countries of digital geniuses, apocalypse, sam way more mellow, talks about raising money sometimes and then does? wayy less grandiose than elon, trump, jobs etc > > (tbc i'm not anti dario at all) No I agree Dario is more grandiose in a vibes sense and plausibly overall He’s also better and more virtuous in every other way afaict. And I’m hesitant to criticize anyone for expressing object level views they literally believe just because they’re coded as grandiose. And ambition seems like a facet of grandiosity, but i don’t consider ambition per se bad (it’s a multiplier on one’s virtues and other dispositions) ### [Reply to @nickcammarata, 06:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053361197441769647) · 2 likes > **Nick (@nickcammarata):** ya also think ambition, gradiosity, planning far ahead is fine. but on long term scheming: EAs cluster are like the most long term schemey people on the planet. I've been in so many convos where someone is like then we gotta bomb data centers and everyone nods and i'm like what Scheme is a negative-coded word so I do wanna observe that one describe schemes as “multistep plans” which can be but are not necessarily nefarious/bad But I kinda agree about EA; most people in the world are just vibing and in fact when you put a lot of smart people who are ambitious about having world-scale effects (including good ones and preventing bad ones) in one community they sometimes make multistep plans tbh I’m guessing what you’re referring to is something like “there should be an international treaty which is ultimately backed by the threat of force by the US military” But in terms of honesty, earnestness, selflessness, intentions (which guide behavior), and maybe more I’m forgetting, EA >>>>>>>>>> Sam ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 06:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053361307257082353) · 4 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** @AaronBergman18 my rough heuristic is that to ban, one needs about 10x harm than good. Bold ### [Reply to @deltaVee42, 07:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053370250540810496) · 4 likes > **Delta Vee (@deltaVee42):** @AaronBergman18 Do you count mandatory planning for future contingencies, e.g. auto insurance, social security and medicare, as paternalistic, patching externalities, or both? The argument for SS & Medicare patching externalities is that in the modern world people who retire or get disabled without savings usually get bailed out by friends, family, and/or society. That’s a good point and I guess the answer is both for this reason ### [Tweet, 07:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053381343283761625) · 29 likes Oh the AI writing isn’t a meme, that’s still how ChatGPT talks ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 07:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053382148569141263) · 8 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** Fundamentally Anthropic didn't have enough compute to release Mythos to everyone who wants it even if they wanted to, right? > > Everyone's like "they're so responsible 😍" or "it's marketing! artificial scarcity!" but it's just actual scarcity I mean the usual way companies ration things is via price ### [Reply to @Tcho76521726, 07:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053382280052134297) · 13 likes > **Tcho (@Tcho76521726):** @AaronBergman18 There's no hard line separating the two Yeah there is, whether or not it’s the law ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 18:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053543467154903522) · 2 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** After 8 years working for the UK Government I've decided it's time for something new! My last day will July 31st. > > Please let me know if you hear of generalist/policy AI safety jobs, or anything else you think would suit me! > > https://docs.google.com/document/d/12a01v9a5XNVw7nOTeNWDyTrMqmP8RqaeWvtdc5_rozU/edit?usp=drivesdk 👀 ### [Quote tweet, 18:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053545086638506179) · 160 likes Is this real Who in the world is asking for cursive Is there a fancy pen lobby big enough to lobby at the state level > **Quoting Governor Josh Shapiro (@GovernorShapiro):** When it comes to letting our kids be kids, let’s get back to the basics — and that starts in our schools. > > That’s why I signed a bipartisan bill that will ensure cursive handwriting — a fundamental skill — is taught in all Pennsylvania public schools. > > It’s also why I’ve called on the state legislature to pass legislation requiring schools to implement a bell-to-bell ban on cell phones so that our kids can spend more time interacting face-to-face, instead of on their phones. > > We have to look out for our kids’ future — let’s get it done. ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053548085289037895) · 15 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** @AaronBergman18 i am fond of it and would be sad to see it go but it's sure not a fundamental skill Well I don’t think we should make it illegal to write in cursive lol ### [Reply to @SethLargo, 19:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053551331432915091) · 14 likes > **Seth Largo (@SethLargo):** One of the most distinct markers of actual undergraduate writing: the unspecified pronoun. Even the best writers do this at least once in every essay. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HH5HZirWgAE2IE1.jpg) Sometimes this is good though, it allows you to bundle stuff into a coherent entity and refer to it This = the gestalt of whatever ### [Reply to @00Dazzle, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053553567651287244) · 14 likes > **Dazzle (@00Dazzle):** Writing legible pretty cursive is way above average usefulness for things taught in school I disagree ### [Tweet, 20:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053567284191301642) · 52 likes There’s a lot of writing on what it’s like to be a man or woman written sorta broadly for the opposite gender but afaik no serious project to convey this information extremely well and in a maximally rigorous way That would be cool tho ### [Reply to @SpeaksNanda, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053580391164809368) · 6 likes > **Nanda (@SpeaksNanda):** @AaronBergman18 do it aaron!! @ all girls plz dm ### [Reply to @ChristianityOn, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053582529890771439) · 14 likes > **Christianity On The Spectrum (@ChristianityOn):** There is a very strange phenomenon of people who obviously have ASD 1 claiming they have 2 or 3. It’s giving person fully calling themselves gay while in a long term relationship with a person of the other gender (both cis) (i have witnessed this) ## Monday, May 11, 2026 ### [Reply to @LaurenE_UX, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053703514530992226) · 35 likes > **Lauren (@LaurenE_UX):** What’s the best way to signal friend interest (that doesn’t also signal romantic interest)? Rip to the guy ### [Reply, 17:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053887212161310987) · 11 likes Me and who ### [Quote tweet, 21:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053950818362024380) · 21 likes This but 94% unironically > **Quoting Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** It's only morality if it's moral realism; otherwise it's just sparkling game theory ### [Reply to @NatPurser, 22:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053963042551963941) · 12 likes > **Nat Purser (@NatPurser):** the state of ai journalism (and ofc, journalism broadly) seems pretty bad. > > there’s a handful of journalists who seem curious about ai and its developers / critics / researchers, but a lot of the coverage is reflexively hostile, shill-ish, or confused about people’s motivations. Piper, Yglesias when he writes about it, is that it ### [Reply to @celestialxsigh, 23:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2053985836572524639) · 2 likes > **feral stardust (@celestialxsigh):** I would love to date a guy in a band it's like ohhh my boyfriend's in a band....how american how cinematic...but every guy's just a dj now :/ I’m retired (trumpet in middle school) ## Tuesday, May 12, 2026 ### [Tweet, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054050282724565001) · 469 likes Found an example of chatGPT-speak in my own writing from 2021 This used to be an acceptable thing to say! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIFz2MwXgAAjXEh.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054050284905599009) · 3 likes https://open.substack.com/pub/aaronbergman/p/dont-use-your-favorite-weapon?r=2muv6&utm_medium=ios ### [Reply to @tobias_haeberli, 04:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054055103372353577) · 13 likes > **Tobias (@tobias_haeberli):** Writing EA Forum posts with GPT-3 without an LLM disclaimer? Tragically I wasn’t that ahead of the curve, this is all-natural LLM-free slop ### [Reply to @Romy_Holland, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054056066741146001) · 223 likes > **Romy (@Romy_Holland):** whenever there’s a line in a public bathroom, i notice that the women ahead of me usually take like 3-5 min in the stall. i’ve always been confused about why. i timed myself today and it took me under 40 seconds without rushing. is everyone else just resting or something? Wait are you sure that this is a random selection of women rather than a random selection of people who happen to be in the stalls? You will tend to find people who take longer in the stalls in fact in the stalls ### [Quote tweet, 04:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054057254790238502) · 129 likes When your friend has access to free poster printing (reformatted a bit) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIF6LwHWIAAOVVS.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Who wants a yard sign > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFkoBETakAAb6IW.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 04:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054057258758082686) · 4 likes (prefers not to be credited by name) ### [Reply to @watling_samuel, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054058271690903713) · 7 likes > **Samuel Watling (@watling_samuel):** Due to my autistic desire to rank everything here is my list of Econ subfields ranked by autism level: > > 1\. Econometrics > 2\. Pure Micro Theory > 3\. IO/Trade > 4\. Econ History > 5\. Political Economy > 6\. Applied Micro > 7\. Macro > 8\. Development > 9\. Behavioural > > (quoting @watling_samuel: @eashwarnagaraj @elisaxchen Imo Dev econ is the least autistic of all economics subfields) Micro theory 🥵 ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 04:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054060888471052754) · 19 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** If someone ever is like "here's the psychology behind this kink" they are probably wrong. First off we're all just making shit up, nobody actually knows - and secondly, different people's stated reasons and self-analysis for the same kink varies WILDLY. Many such cases People really walk around talking about “this caused that”, “x caused y” all the time. And I’m like “…maybe??? Do you know how hard that is to know?????” ### [Quote tweet, 05:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054064354840977666) · 41 likes Sure why not let’s discourse Average \*marginal\* cost of a date being $250 would be pretty high Actual \*average cost\*, when you include things like clothes you wouldn’t have otherwise bought, nicer more frequent haircuts, one-off large purchases etc could be $250 for sure > **Quoting unusual_whales (@unusual_whales):** "The average cost of a date for a millennial is now $252," per BMO ### [Thread, continued, 05:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054064357428903946) · 3 likes Not saying this is too high or too low or anything else necessarily, just that it’s plausibly true Also unclear whether the referent is “single millennial date” (total spending across two people) or “single millenial’s date” (one person’s spending) ### [Tweet, 05:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054064505173192824) · 25 likes We need a simp subsidy not a simp tax ### [Reply to @Romy_Holland, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054065313583448447) · 12 likes > **Romy (@Romy_Holland):** @AaronBergman18 @diviacaroline i mean i see what you are saying, but this morning i watched 4 ppl ahead of me in like each take this long. Mystery persists ### [Reply to @codytfenwick, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054066603596107786) · 9 likes > **Cody Fenwick (@codytfenwick):** @AaronBergman18 Maybe you're the one who inspired it all Sorry :/ ### [Reply to @mauddweeb, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054068824731746687) · 25 likes > **fedaykin reepicheep (@mauddweeb):** \> animal welfare > \> advocates screworm genocide > > tsk tsk > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: When your friend has access to free poster printing (reformatted a bit)) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIGEtg1WgAAg6PA.jpg) ### [Reply to @mauddweeb, 05:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054069958477320417) · 5 likes > **fedaykin reepicheep (@mauddweeb):** @AaronBergman18 Mostly teasing but I am curious to hear why the worms don’t get welfare Their welfare does matter but (1) killing them all doesn’t necessary involve suffering (that’s something to avoid) and (2) the whole “eating other animals alive” thing seems like the much bigger deal, and (3) it’s not even clear that life is generally good for screwworms themselves, nonexistence might be better ### [Tweet, 14:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054209397530763475) · 104 likes You could be on an international crisis epidemic ship with a trivially obvious explanatory hypothesis that fits the data and still get told that it’s “just anxiety” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIIEj2LWMAARWzs.jpg) ### [Reply to @jerrrrrrryyyyy, 14:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054214512064987469) · 4 likes > **jerry (@jerrrrrrryyyyy):** Oh no you're the reason it does this 😢 ### [Reply to @LauraFlowD, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054254160132903036) · 2 likes > **laura ⚔️ (@LauraFlowD):** @AaronBergman18 @gptbrooke everything is anxiety when you don’t want to treat 💯 ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 17:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054255330889027911) · 12 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** Looking to make / join a group chat or discord where we talk about fashion / post fit checks and people give nuanced suggestions. Same for interior design. Is the idea like you have to contribute value or do u accept charity cases ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 17:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054255884520370478) · 14 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Proxy for happiness and intelligence ### [Tweet, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054340323690565783) · 300 likes Mildly unsettling that Claude via Claude Code has started referring to \*my\* macbook as "my \[ie Claude's\] macbook" ### [Reply to @PAHoyeck, 23:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054346144658932196) · 2 likes > **Phil Hoyeck (@PAHoyeck):** Part III is among the greatest philosophy ever written. Ugh maybe I should actually read it all ### [Reply to @sympatheticopp, 23:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054347559582224806) · 19 likes > **sympathetic opposition (@sympatheticopp):** high decoupling only gets you closer to the truth in cases where the things you're decoupling don't actually have a relationship I think this is a confused version of the concept To my understanding, decoupling is the ability to and practice of considering a thing in the abstract, not the practice of refusing to acknowledge actual correlations or causal relationships or anything High decoupling is a superset of capabilities with respect to low decoupling ### [Quote tweet, 23:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054349901488693578) · 12 likes Hate to be a woke lib but it would be much cooler to watch if it didn’t involve several young men risking/sacrificing their cognitive futures with every blow to the head > **Quoting John Massingale (@JohnMassingale4):** It never doesn’t amaze me. > > One of my very best friends is a USC fan and he texted me saying “that run is art” > > [video attached](https://x.com/JohnMassingale4/status/2053644253918535762/video/1) ## Wednesday, May 13, 2026 ### [Reply to @tszzl, 00:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054364671738626201) · 1 like > **roon (@tszzl):** it always boils down to ingroup good Insofar as this is true, it's downstream of actual actions (which may include expressing beliefs) OpenAI used to be in good graces of EA - their actions made them outgroup, not the reverse ### [Reply to @tszzl, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054409267352858905) · 5 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** and what are those actions? the explanation for why openai is bad will always take the shape of “so and so on my side was betrayed” rather than “here is some tangible evidence of harm or malice, that cannot be levied against anthropic” https://www.openaifiles.org Hostile to original mission restructuring, Sam constantly lying, coercive NDA thing, ~total abandonment of original mission. Anthropic alone is taking any steps on model welfare. The OpenAI foundation or whatever it’s called are writing checks that have nothing to do with the mission and nobody seriously thinks are good uses of money. I can’t write these cleanly in first order logic for you but these aren’t intractably intangible - you can criticize Dario for being “grandiose” but any neutral analysis will conclude that he doesn’t lie like Sam does. And there hasn’t been the anything remotely like OpenAI’s mission pivot You can criticize EAs liking the more EA-influenced company as pure ingroup social dynamics and tribal affiliation but the problem with that is that it’s at most a relatively unimportant ancillary dynamic and what’s actually going on is that the company founded by people with a prosocial worldview ended up making a prosocial company ### [Reply to @tautologer, 03:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054410927005462617) · 2 likes > **tautologer (@tautologer):** my unemployed ass be like > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIJ7prwWQAAEmP6.jpg) Real ### [Reply to @edgar_z_lin, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054418521048658014) · 1 like > **Edgar Lin (@edgar_z_lin):** @AaronBergman18 @PAHoyeck @mishapathy how have you of all people not?? do it right now! 😔 ### [Reply to @EigenGender, 12:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054545346139709858) · 3 likes > **EigenGender 🔸 (@EigenGender):** do you want to say interesting things or correct things Both ### [Reply to @bkpark, 13:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054554264765149209) · 2 likes > **bkpark (@bkpark):** fortunately: https://www.pangram.com/history/6b09cde4-6dc8-4c7d-be86-72d5ca31bd58?ucc=v6DoZfjLpds Exonerated ### [Quote tweet, 14:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054568654482628748) · 16 likes Lmaoooooooo > **Quoting Byrne Hobart (@ByrneHobart):** @AaronBergman18 @amelapay recently informed me that I did it, too. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HINDtO3XEAAZiWN.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054639668713410958) · 27 likes Why don’t we have a hantavirus vaccine yet It’s been like a week ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054644099869815265) · 6 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I literally just hate PM2.5 I have no other politics Can I count on your vote ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIOP60RWAAAndXA.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 19:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054649389998616948) · 98 likes Yet another drug that should be OTC > **Quoting keysmashbandit (@keysmashbandit):** Periodic reminder that PRN Propranolol changed my life > > If you miscellaneously "don't like socializing" you may be socially anxious without realizing ### [Reply to @afoidance, 19:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054649959312470255) · 1 like > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** asking a guy out is a cheat code for getting a boyfriend. they literally cant say no. its like rape Hmm ### [Reply to @hopes_revenge, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054650140833546545) · 2 likes > **hope hopes hoping (@hopes_revenge):** need frontier lab job so i can use health & wellness stipend to buy $ 2,200 apple studio display > > pleas DM Real ### [Reply to @Scott_Wiener, 19:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054650888904405356) · 74 likes > **Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener):** This is shameful & should be illegal. > > (quoting @MorePerfectUS: Nearly 50,000 people in the Lake Tahoe area have been told that their utility will stop providing power to them, because it's redirecting that power to data centers. NV Energy, the Nevada utility that has supplied most of Lake Tahoe’s electricity for decades, says that next year…) Scott u are better than this The whole thing is .0000000000001% off from an absolute lie ### [Quote tweet, 20:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054654007143022714) · 160 likes Racial identity games are not the path to a good and just society Our institutions are not good enough to handle the minute delta between “in-principle ideal amount of race consideration” and “fake-it-till-you-make-it colorblindness”, so we should do the latter > **Quoting Chris Brunet (@chrisbrunet):** \> Indian professor classifies Chinese professor as white in HR records to justify denying him a promotion > > amazing > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIOCuxgWYAAYRa8.jpg) ### [Reply to @TomDavidsonX, 20:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054656055691399171) · 3 likes > **Tom Davidson (@TomDavidsonX):** With @joemkwon @alfie_lamerton @AndrewDraganov @DaveRBanerjee @BronsonSchoen @matpistillo @DKokotajlo @ryangreenblatt @OwainEvans_UK @Manderljung @FabienDRoger > Thanks to input from @\_achan96\_ , Aniket Chakravorty, @AbbeyChaver, @LukasFinnveden, @Tim_Hua\_, @MaxNadeau\_ , @richardson_aris, @AlexandraSouly, @a_nnawang Good follow list ## Thursday, May 14, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 12:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054900419701141992) · 72 likes Imagine getting banned from 80k > **Quoting SIMONE 🩷 (@parasocialyte):** a boyfriend who watches porn is the least of your worries, it's the podcasts you have to be really strict about ### [Quote tweet, 12:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2054900712564301952) · 19 likes I love this app > **Quoting Awais Aftab (@awaisaftab):** I open this damn app and look at my timeline, and I feel my IQ dropping and my blood boiling, and yet I keep opening it again every day like some masochistic freak. ### [Reply to @tiksiminic, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2055030251319632301) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @tiksiminic is no longer available.)_ 80,000 Hours ## Friday, May 15, 2026 ### [Reply to @francoisfleuret, 00:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2055078690388664769) · 2 likes > **François Fleuret (@francoisfleuret):** Hot take: machine learning and AI did more to understand the nature of knowledge, and our relation to reality than 20 centuries of philosophy. > > I am ready to kind of defend this hill. Lol reframe as the last 100 years of analytic philosophy and I think philosophy wins ### [Tweet, 00:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2055079849744539935) · 662 likes I do find it weird that somehow the US keeps winning despite a much stronger culture of intense education + broadly higher IQ distribution in China And yet somehow the golden goose is always born here (OpenAI -> Anthropic this time around) ### [Reply to @quinnmbarry, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2055080866351612293) · 9 likes > **Quinn Barry (@quinnmbarry):** capital controls in China + clear corporate rules US seem like big reasons Ye ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 00:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2055083904483090776) · 8 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Can I be a good member of my community if once a year I send money to malaria charities? May as well vandalize the local library ### [Reply to @shlummi, 03:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2055134771890516321) · 8 likes > **shlummi (@shlummi):** lmfao > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIVF3TdbAAAavIT.png) Lmao rip Maybe I’d do $50/date ### [Reply to @NavinFS, 06:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2055175199427842154) · 3 likes > **NavinF (@NavinFS):** > > (quoting @NavinFS: @Lib_Development Helps that I can sponsor h1b and hire the best applicant from the whole planet. In any other country I'd only get the guys that couldn't make it to the US) 💯 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 07:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2055186923367346550) · 47 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 15, 2026:** I do find it weird that somehow the US keeps winning despite a much stronger culture of intense education + broadly higher IQ distribution in China And yet… Some people here are (perhaps reasonably) attributing to me an ideological lens that I don’t have Not an IQ determinist; not a fan of China; definitely don’t think the US is “winning” in every sense of the term ### [Reply to @PaulaSeeksTruth, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2055350143428227210) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @PaulaSeeksTruth is no longer available.)_ Still hoping I learn some day ### [Quote tweet, 20:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2055381030530355678) · 57 likes Bruh > **Quoting Nate Silver (@NateSilver538):** BTW, I approached ABC about buying back the former FiveThirtyEight IP\*, and they said they wouldn't sell at any price because I'd criticized their management of the brand. Costing Disney shareholders $$ b/c of their vindictiveness. > > \* I own the models but the trademarks, etc. ### [Reply to @literally_chad, 20:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2055382438797267399) · 17 likes > **Literally Chad (@literally_chad):** I'm once again relearing that there are men who take rejection personally Rejection is personal, though. If that’s not personal then what is? ### [Tweet, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2055424100626051093) · 38 likes Alternative timeline where proto-Anthropic’s origins come after FTX collapse, Dario and friends heed the zeitgeist and decide EAs shouldn’t be ambitious after all, Anthropic fizzles as an idea on a whiteboard Much worse world IMO ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 23:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2055431212164935776) · 2 likes > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** seems to overstate the influence of EA community events on Dario, relative to his specific vision for AI? he was one of the people most responsible for LLM scaling and GPT-3 at OpenAI! Tbc I didn’t really intend this as a propositional counterfactual claim about what would have actually happened Although my overall impression is probably directionally as you suggest, 🤷‍♂️ ## Saturday, May 16, 2026 ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 03:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2055493771094032879) · 33 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Medical tourism seems like an existence proof of PPP being legit - there are irl arbitrage/savings opportunities (turkey hair transplant) that tons of real people exploit You might want to object that different regulatory regimes make the same thing a different product, but then compare US States to Puerto Rico for cost of elective procedures ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 03:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2055494524084883460) · 23 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** My cousin is betting his career on "LLMs can never be more than the average of their training data" but I feel like that's a very 2024 take? Aren't we already past this in like, coding and math? Base LLMs maybe, not commercial chatbots The “helpful smart thoughtful” AI persona alone bumps you up in quality before even doing RL ### [Reply to @Lib_Development, 05:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2055525452198850670) · 4 likes > **Lucas Pombo (aka Lib Development) (@Lib_Development):** Woulda been nice if the new icon didn’t make it look like the app was updating tho Exactly ### [Tweet, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2055527935050744090) · 315 likes It’s a bad sign for the Overton window that the radically altruistic take on AI redistribution implicitly excludes the vast majority of people I’m not faulting Dylan et al for what might be the most productive move right now tbc, it’s just grim ### [Reply to @anglerfish01, 06:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2055531243857498187) · 3 likes > **angLerfish (@anglerfish01):** \>P(doom)=60% > \>⏸️ > \>anthropic is in the lead accelerating the race to ASI the most with their RSI focus > \>supports anthropic > > Wut > Can you explain? > Sounds like more galaxy brained SBF stuff tbh > I think talk is cheap and incentives matter a lot btw Yeah good points; I just removed pause emoji bc I’ve been wavering around 50% endorsement for some time. Not necessarily gone forever In most worlds either normal political incentives + luck work or they fail, there’s only a slice in which it really matters who’s doing the building. Anthropic seems like one of the best possible organizations to be in the lead in that middle slice of worlds; corporate governance is solid, emphasis and culture of safety, quite frankly the fact that founders pledged 80% of wealth to charity makes a big difference in economic windfall worlds. The mass surveillance guardrails red line matters; commitment to liberal democracy matters, and willingness to pay an alignment tax which they may be able to competitively afford No Anthropic means OpenAI with a psychopathic cult of personality CEO and afaict no serious moral consideration of anything institutionally embedded via culture or corporate governance or anything in the lead instead. Or Google, maybe. And maybe timelines are a few months longer. This does not feel like a better situation to me In the middle slice where ideosyncratic decisions of companies and people really make the difference, they’re pretty close to the best shot we could ask for ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 13:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2055635002050666638) · 9 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ I don’t get the objection here (although this is probably motivated by me being a 🫛-cel) Maybe there was a structural issue before reliable transcription but now you can translate easily between text and audio. Is it the medium or the content you object to? ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 16:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2055681505406464078) · 3 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** just saw a pigeon rape another pigeon 😢 ## Sunday, May 17, 2026 ### [Reply to @_sholtodouglas, 03:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2055849726872846782) · 12 likes > **Sholto Douglas (@_sholtodouglas):** When do you reach for other models instead of Claude? What can we do better? Hit me with all of your frustrations. dms open. > > If you can give me detail (e.g. specifics/transcipts) - it'll help a lot in finding out exactly what we need to do to improve the next model I use http://aistudio.google.com when I want a quick way of getting a top model to read the whole context, not gradually parts of a file and then with uncertainty about what it’s seen. This isn’t a problem with the model itself ofc but still. Ofc I’m willing to pay for those tokens Gemini 3.1 Pro for anything where audio/image/video understanding seems somewhat difficult and important grok-fast (whatever the latest one is called) is ridiculously cheap and fast and that really does open up a bunch of use cases but looks like it’s retired as of yesterday ### [Tweet, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2055880728299143287) · 21 likes Slack needs an icon for "Working rn (night/weekend) but in a 'incapable of working normal amounts at normal times' way not a workaholic grindset way" ### [Reply to @JohnWittle, 05:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2055881564555231531) · 1 like > **John Wittle (@JohnWittle):** (i just tell claude to ignore view_file and instead boot up their bash environment, and literally run cat /mnt/user-uploads/document.txt or whatever > > but i'm always scared to learn that the bash_command toolcall will have been patched to truncate) ooh smart ### [Reply to @deanwball, 07:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2055921189629862182) · 2 likes > **Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** it is shocking to me how bad/overeager anthropic's bio-related safeguards are. actively user hostile. I am hitting them doing \*stock\* research. I basically agree that they’re extremely annoying but it just seems very hard to have extremely few false positives with a cheap classifier The expensive classifier would make Claude cost more, presumably. Although plausibly there should be an option to pay for that? ### [Reply to @austinc3301, 09:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2055941055137075669) · 5 likes > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** wait qué? dario amodei (ceo de Anthropic) estudió física, no literatura > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIfegXUW8AA8W9K.jpg) Hola señor Agus ### [Reply, 14:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056021346413338788) · 1 like 😢 ### [Reply to @maiamindel, 15:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056032084712415732) · 120 likes > **Maia (@maiamindel):** kind of hysterical how every male authrotiy figure he's encountered so far is a lot handsomer than he is without meth, hammers, or math. should make him rethink his worldview i guess > > (quoting @Polymarket: JUST IN: Looksmaxxer, Clavicular, mogged by “Chad” judge in Miami court hearing.) Lol I’m no fan of the guy but the whole point is that those authority figures got lucky and it plausibly helped place them in positions of authority ### [Reply to @PaulaSeeksTruth, 15:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056032946595803411) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @PaulaSeeksTruth is no longer available.)_ Post duck ### [Reply to @PaulaSeeksTruth, 15:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056033636688769383) · 21 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @PaulaSeeksTruth is no longer available.)_ I’m pretty happy to use this analogy but in both cases you have to account for the direct benefits, not just indirect costs People \*like\* drinking and being drunk just as they like porn Maybe you think the cost-benefit doesn’t check out but I feel like people are blind to the obvious sometimes ### [Tweet, 17:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056058694115148098) · 1,031 likes Ominous ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIiWdlZWIAAs_3S.png) ### [Reply to @cafreiman, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056074864390181074) · 31 likes > **Chris Freiman (@cafreiman):** Being able to feed yourself for a day with fifteen minutes of work rather than six hours does seem like a mark of prosperity. > > (quoting @halsinger: I blanch at the way neoliberals define progress aka “productivity” as “the ability to produce more with the same labour.” It implies that a declining labor share could be a good thing for a society—even a mark of prosperity.) Hey I agree but the progressive/left worry about declining labor share is totally legit IMO The economic conditions of broadly the last 100-300 years are not permanent and there is no rule in economics that says that you will be able to make more than epsilon from your labor or that the growing pie will outpace the shrinking labor share ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 18:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056075483435896836) · 6 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** The proper role of EA is to identify the broadly important problems/questions/framings. From there, you need to follow your interest/curiosity, not make galaxy brained plans to control last mile outcomes > > (quoting @RichardMCNgo: You might instead argue that EA’s biggest impact has been building the field of AI safety. But currently I think the main effect of EA has been to turn AI safety into much more of a fake field (like, say, academic psychology). There’s a decade-long gap (around 2016-2024) where…) Ehhhhhh idk I feel like I’m guilty of following my interest and curiosity too much and at this specific point in history the last mile thing might actually work ### [Tweet, 20:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056114374373212354) · 91 likes The datacenter heat thing is interesting bc you should expect heat output to be ~exactly proportional to energy consumption (right?) but in general even people on the left implicitly round the non-greenhouse-mediated, direct warming effect of energy expenditure to zero ### [Thread, continued, 20:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056114375958639082) · 33 likes (In that the effect is almost never discussed in any other context) It’s not literally zero ofc, it’s just much much smaller than the temperature/climate change mediated by the greenhouse effect ### [Tweet, 20:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056116411664110050) · 40 likes Utility of a cucumber is inversely related to the thickness of a slice Lots of alpha in cutting cucumbers really thin. Presumably there are devices for this ### [Reply to @bschne, 23:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056149117466780163) · 4 likes > **Benjamin (@bschne):** @AaronBergman18 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIjMA95WMAAmXgp.jpg) lmao ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 23:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056154839646654572) · 27 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Sorry I besmirched farmers, I found a worse one. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIi7UjSXUAAR_AO.png) I continue to wonder if I seriously harmed myself by going camping and breathing in a normal amount of campfire smoke something like once a month for most of my adolescence What a dumb way to lose one’s potential ### [Reply to @EigenGender, 23:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056156180636934342) · 17 likes > **EigenGender 🔸 (@EigenGender):** yeah I think it’s an underrated fact among abundance-type people that we can’t actually increase global energy use by that much more before the direct heat output becomes substantial, and so there’s a real limit to nuclear Real ### [Thread, continued, 23:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056156827629260805) · 10 likes Although there are definitely potential engineering solutions right: geoengineering to offset heat, both electricity generation and industry outside of earth’s atmosphere ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 23:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056159183435600164) · 16 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** A quick botec suggests this is about as bad for you as moving from DC to New Jersey Well maybe that just means ppl in New Jersey are fucked ## Monday, May 18, 2026 ### [Tweet, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056216638412685725) · 63 likes I’m gonna be pissed af if I fix my health and then soon thereafter die from some sort of AI disaster. I feel like I should have the opportunity to appeal somehow I don’t expect this as a median case but I think it’s totally plausible ### [Reply to @izzyz, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056217486047998132) · 4 likes > **izzy (@izzyz):** @AaronBergman18 here's the plan: live as close as possible to a data center cuz think about it why would the ai wreak havoc near its own brain cells Smart ### [Reply to @AlexKrusz, 03:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056218575057145910) · 5 likes > **Alex Krusz (@AlexKrusz):** Other disasters are still cool tho? Hmm Ill have to think about this one ### [Tweet, 05:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056245104206037298) · 82 likes MY DATA HOARDING FINALLY CAME IN HANDY I HAVE A REAL USE CASE (that I can't share rip) FOR A 1.1 TB DATASET LIVING ON AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE ### [Reply to @Bananaplanet2, 05:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056246307942027326) · 2 likes > **Bananaplanet🐌 (@Bananaplanet2):** If we could build really tall towers in the ocean to transport water heat by conduction up to the atmosphere where it dissipates by conduction or radiation, we would simultaneously cool the oceans and also interrupt thermoclines, improving productivity of the oceanic carbon sink > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Apparently 1%-ish of global warming comes from the literal heat of burning stuff Which isn’t a lot but it’s not hard to imagine scaling up nuclear 100x or way more to the point that we get serious warming by a totally new mechanism You never really hear about this though) Sounds good to me, maybe a few ppl should study this first tho ### [Tweet, 06:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056257501251694662) · 2,118 likes Nobody: Somebody somewhere occasionally: uses the term "smoke test" very occasionally Claude Opus 4.7 every other sentence: let's run a smoke test ### [Tweet, 06:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056267010229555603) · 1,052 likes This is obviously pretty bad object level but also: Kind of insane that late 20th century American feminists managed to solidify and then export the (historically unusual) concept+ lens and terminology of “consent” to the fucking Taliban ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIlT8tnWgAEd9o2.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056267012679123360) · 96 likes The converse to illustrate: American feminists arguing for their theses using the concepts and vocabulary of orthodox Islam: what Allah approves of, the interpretation of passages in the Quran, etc ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 06:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056267095705333767) · 70 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** it's an important concept! This tweet is a smoke test ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 07:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056275321473630430) · 32 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** Consent as a requirement to enter contracts (like marriage) isn't that unusual tho right? Like isn't it a feature of early Islamic jurisprudence? Ok yeah this is pretty fair it turns out, it’s very much in the water, although only in the context of consent to marry which then is taken to imply sex is proper, not consent to sex per se (thx Claude) Honestly I was sorta half-consciously using this as a reason to make the broader point about consent as the dominant framework for sexual ethics which seems to me more interesting and non-obvious than everyone else seems to take it as But weirdly it’s a real feature that appears both in early abrahamic religions and then again resurging with modern-ish feminism Article https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/silence-of-virgin-girl-can-be-treated-as-consent-taliban-legalises-child-marriages-with-special-rules-in-afghanistan/amp_articleshow/131148782.cms ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 07:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056275471893967229) · 68 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 18, 2026:** This is obviously pretty bad object level but also: Kind of insane that late 20th century American feminists managed to solidify and then export the… Yeah this is a good point by Daniel ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIlbpPBWQAEHix0.jpg) ### [Reply to @AfflatusSolis, 07:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056275612545753370) · 10 likes > **Afflatus Solis (@AfflatusSolis):** Consent is an idea older than feminism. Claude tells me Sharia does engage with it Yeah maybe I should delete, I’ll leave up for now tho ### [Quote tweet, 21:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056485881481957849) · 39 likes I’d kms > **Quoting yuuii (@yuuiichive):** There was a Guy in my class this semester who kept using the word ontologically wrong and one day my professor finally broke and said “Ontologically can be a tricky word to use so don’t feel like you have to” and then the guy stopped showing up for classes entirely ## Tuesday, May 19, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 04:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056600512250650746) · 32 likes This would work on me > **Quoting lucas gelfond (@gucaslelfond):** a guy just came up to me on metro north and said “you look like the sort of guy who would have a USB-C charger” ### [Reply to @JoelWBerry, 05:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056601583316545902) · 40 likes > **Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry):** A little-known hack: > > 2 slices of Aldi wheat bread: $0.17 > 3 oz of Aldi deli turkey: $0.86 > 1 slices Aldi cheddar: $0.15 > 1 condiment of your choice: $0.02 > 1 apple: $0.53 > 1 hard boiled egg: $0.14 > 5 carrot sticks: $0.17 > Cold water from the tap: $0.01 > > Total: $2.05 > > You can do this. > > (quoting @SeanMcCarthyCom: Lunch just costs $28 now. Are they not supposed to eat?) Tbf that’s like 400 calories, maybe if you’re a small female desk worker on a diet ### [Quote tweet, 05:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056601922073674199) · 12 likes Follow Tommy He has correct takes about important things (Also a guest on pigeon hour as of shortly in the future) > **Quoting Tommy Crow 🏗️ (@TommyJoanCrow):** I'm working on an article for a magazine touching on pain management during post-surgical extubation, and once again I find myself freshly disturbed by how difficult it is to get good data about PAIN during extubation (and many other procedures) because the dominant culture in "pain management" cares so little about pain itself. They often care exclusively about preventing memories of pain, rather than preventing pain itself. ### [Quote tweet, 21:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056848184861753345) · 45 likes Unbelievable > **Quoting Tyler McBrien (@TylerMcBrien):** BLANCHE: "The United States...is hereby FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED from prosecuting or pursuing...examinations or similar or related reviews" against Trump "or related or affiliated individuals," including family members or related companies and trusts. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIs5hEbXgAAdlnQ.png) ### [Reply to @mpopv, 23:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056880389335974102) · 9 likes > **Matt Popovich (@mpopv):** for a second there my tech bro ass thought Knicks-6.5 was the name of a new model > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HItry1aa0AAAmla.png) No matter how many times I listen to this my brain treats the phrase as “P(Diddy)” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIuB0ElXUAApsNQ.jpg) ## Wednesday, May 20, 2026 ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 00:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056895629100491136) · 5 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** “Dario doesn’t look that charismatic to me atleast from his interviews” > > Well, okay, presumably that’s not the main criteria by which Andrej is choosing which company to join > > (quoting @vijaythirumalai: I simply cannot fathom this move Dario doesn’t look that charismatic to me atleast from his interviews Andrej could have joined 1/ Elon 2/ Zuck 3/ Google 4/ Apple 5/ MSFT Everyone would have given him a blank check and much bigger role and platform How was Dario able to hire him…) Lmao ### [Reply to @earnestpost, 00:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056897466167869786) · 2 likes > **Erin Constance 🇪🇺⏸️ (@earnestpost):** The concept of dominating a mallard duck Collaborate with the duck ### [Reply to @Empty_America, 01:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2056905509177905244) · 3 likes > **VB Knives (@Empty_America):** Perfect example of the "commiseration seeking" style of communication. > > The only solution-oriented response to complaints about a $28 sandwich is "pack a lunch." > > I mean you either pay, don't eat lunch, or pack a sack. > > But they are looking for a emotional "acknowledgement." > > (quoting @Schmutz_7R: My grandpop raised five kids on a welder’s salary in a home on ten acres with a pond in the middle. He had fourwheelers, campers, a boat, tons of fishing and hunting gear. And I logon to X to see some boomer telling me to start packing my lunch if I want a better life.) Yeah and that’s not necessarily a bad thing ## Thursday, May 21, 2026 ### [Reply to @MurrayHillGuy1, 15:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2057487851667767800) · 2 likes > **Murray Hill Guy (@MurrayHillGuy1):** Women talk like they are in HR when they are done with you > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HI2jFCUWkAAk2uM.jpg) RIP ### [Reply to @ArringtonLuck, 16:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2057503384635158546) · 2 likes > **Arrington Luck (@ArringtonLuck):** CHIPS needed a team that could sit across the table from large, well-capitalized semiconductor firms and negotiate deals that both protected the taxpayer and delivered on national security objectives. > > A lot of the program success was built on the backs of government operators and national security professionals. Equally important, however, were the private sector hires that the program brought onboard. > > This week in Factory Settings, I took a look at how the program was able to effectively recruit private sector talent. > > A few of the most salient points: > \- Program leaders’ decision to go on the Odd Lots podcast was referenced by several colleagues, with non-traditional recruiting pathways serving as critical for getting team members > > \- CHIPS gave significant empowerment to junior colleagues, allowing them deal reps well above their private sector counterparts > > \- The program had a tangible, positive impact on the career trajectories of the private sector talent that came through the program > > Private sector talent isn't everything, and traditional government competencies are equally critical. Nevertheless, future industrial policy efforts would do well to make a concerted effort to get ex-financiers, operations professionals, and technologists working towards program success. > > Read here: https://www.factorysettings.org/p/a-cheat-sheet-for-attracting-private > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HI2ujnMWQAAyAid.jpg) LeBron? ## Friday, May 22, 2026 ### [Reply to @sama, 00:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2057619263628640767) · 9 likes > **Sam Altman (@sama):** what problem do you most hope AI will solve in the future? > > maybe we can help! You ### [Thread, continued, 00:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2057620090774753314) · 2 likes Also suffering tho ### [Tweet, 07:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2057725200435749238) · 89 likes Gravity is kinda fucked up when you defamiliarize yourself with it I don’t think objects super far away, like trillions of miles, should act on one -another like that, even a little bit ### [Reply to @mattheard, 07:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2057727460272116020) · 17 likes > **mattheard.delve.town (@mattheard):** changes in gravity propagate causally at light speed Fucked up ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 12:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2057798294210859275) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** lol okay I believe I might be the first person to have discovered the full final story of exactly where the "Bottle of water" per prompt number actually came from. Will be in the next post. What ### [Reply to @LeRoyDesCimes, 12:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2057798574750957987) · 5 likes > **Louise 🔸 (@LeRoyDesCimes):** Asked Claude to summarise some transcripts and learned we should send promising AI safety youth to MARS 🚀🚀🚀 I have a pipeline to make more accurate transcripts from audio using semantic context if interested ## Saturday, May 23, 2026 ### [Reply to @SALTWATERSOPH, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058048126355677457) · 2 likes > **Sophie (@SALTWATERSOPH):** WE will learn real analysis with 5 minutes a day over one month 👏 That’s 150% more than desired ### [Reply to @GWHayduke97, 04:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058049900554678356) · 2 likes > **Hayduke ⏹️ (@GWHayduke97):** Does ⚓️ mean Anglicanism(+Episcopalianism?) in general or specifically ACNA? > > Does 🦬 mean (non-ELCA) Lutheranism in general or specifically LCMS? > > And are there any other denominational Twitter emojis? There are parts of Twitter beyond my wildest conception ### [Reply to @romlib_, 08:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058101331093536875) · 4 likes > **Romlib 🎄 (@romlib_):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HI_XFUGWgAEM_30.jpg) > (quoting @beffjezos: Feeling robbed of my path to citizenship right now after grinding a PhD and contributing to foundational AI + computing technologies for the United States for the past ~ 10 years. Feels like robbing top and technologists like me of the opportunity to achieve the American Dream.) Yes but also he’s right that it’s bad ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 16:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058218454633603358) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Every morning my wife does something she calls meditation where she puts on a daily meditation podcast and then frantically types patient notes on her laptop with it playing in the background Lmao ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 16:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058219679982706776) · 3 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** that is a very pretty outfit! It’s just the goose’s natural fur ### [Reply to @funplings, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058277696140952019) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** @earnestpost i am patient. the reply guy measures his plans in centuries I respect the grind ### [Reply to @NunoSempere, 20:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058278276045439306) · 3 likes > **Nuño Sempere (@NunoSempere):** Recently got my heart crushed, please send encouragements Rip, you seem like a handsome successful guy so I’m not worried about your larger prospects ### [Tweet, 20:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058290873222172727) · 18 likes Bruh ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 22:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058310536354279529) · 14 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ The woke take is that 1/3 shows evidence of pro-American (or pro-white) bias because <1/3 of the world population is American ### [Quote tweet, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058335687376572747) · 75 likes I think it would be potentially cool for a society to fight phone addiction at the national level. I’m not a libertarian precisely bc collective action problems like this exist But I get very skeptical when the decision making procedure is “exempt everyone who is enfranchised > **Quoting Sam Bowman (@s8mb):** Of all the “protect kids from the internet” ideas, the one I like the sound of most is France’s 10pm internet curfew for teens. It sounds so ridiculous, but actually addresses one of the big collective action problems in a pretty low cost way. Curious to see how it goes for them. ### [Thread, continued, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058335690203500742) · 16 likes and target exactly the main population in society without a vote” Like wow what a coincidence that the best policy is as anti-democratic as you can possibly make it ### [Thread, continued, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058335692283842603) · 11 likes How about a full scale population tax on screen time? Or some other policy idk - presumably some smart people have thought about this and written PDFs - anything but “smuggle this in through the most glaring loophole in modern western ~democratic politics” ### [Thread, continued, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058335697447026851) · 11 likes I actually kinda like the screen time tax idea, I can totally see myself opting in to a society with such a policy I propose $1/hour, to start, now fight about it! ### [Reply to @Lux_Stella_, 23:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058336061902733730) · 10 likes > **Lux_Stella (@Lux_Stella_):** i genuinely think "you're allowed unfiltered access to the internet, but only through a linux terminal" would really solve a lot of problems > > (quoting @s8mb: Of all the “protect kids from the internet” ideas, the one I like the sound of most is France’s 10pm internet curfew for teens. It sounds so ridiculous, but actually addresses one of the big collective action problems in a pretty low cost way. Curious to see how it goes for them.) Oh cmon they can have macOS or powershell access ## Sunday, May 24, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 01:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058357913081516321) · 218 likes I've been hardened by the Hinge mines at this point but the sudden "potential partner" -> "we will never interact again" dynamic is objectively kinda weird Of course it makes things easier in some ways rather than harder, but the human brain isn't build for that nonetheless > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Reply to @_eleanorina, 01:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058358057210450335) · 5 likes > **eleanorina (@_eleanorina):** as a treat powershell as a punishment ### [Reply to @sariverse, 10:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058499620167196790) · 267 likes > **sarina (@sariverse):** my friend’s showing me his hinge.… just a peek into the male mind > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJDH5d7W0AEdpre.jpg) No lol I don’t think you understand This is not a peek into the male mind in a normal sense, it’s a peak into the state the male mind gets ~forced into when dealing with dating apps The amount of time/energy it takes to go on a single irl date is high enough that it stops being worth it to engage with women who aren’t receptive to going on an irl date soon/after just a bit of messaging (or none tbh) This isn’t a judgement about them - its just the least bad way I know of to deal with limited time and energy I usually ask after a few messages “would you like to go on a date soon or do you prefer to message for a while first” and frankly if they indicate the latter it’s generally just not a worthwhile use of time Tbc I think this is bad and one of many ways that dating apps ~force people to act in ways that they don’t really aspire to even if they endorse given the real constraints ### [Reply to @questionableway, 10:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058499783635951835) · 3 likes > **just matt (@questionableway):** this also allows people to treat potential partners on hinge in ways that would have historically been considered unacceptable > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: I've been hardened by the Hinge mines at this point but the sudden "potential partner" -> "we will never interact again" dynamic is objectively kinda weird Of course it makes things easier in some ways rather than harder, but the human brain isn't build for that nonetheless) 💯 ### [Quote tweet, 12:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058529290937843803) · 32 likes Lmao this sounds like in the ballpark of a healthy hit rate? Ofc the distress part of anxiety is bad independently > **Quoting Brandon Luu, MD (@BrandonLuuMD):** In a study of people with generalized anxiety disorder, only 8.6% of recorded worries actually happened. > > The most common outcome: 0%. Not a single worry came true. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HI9weZyXIAAh0OQ.jpg) ### [Reply to @ghoulhag, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058541546136371707) · 15 likes > **🪽 (@ghoulhag):** straight men: orgasm > gay men: orgasm > lesbians: orgasm > straight women: honestly it’s no big deal i’m just here for the cuddles i don’t mind it’s okay that i don’t orgasm sex is sex 😭❤️ we’re all trying our best it’s not his fault But I am trying my best! ### [Quote tweet, 17:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058600273581346947) · 257 likes Wtf I don’t wanna be too flippant because I know it’s a substantial or even prohibitive cost for some people but you can just do things (buy and install a <$200 window AC unit) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJGeCPvXAAARmI2.jpg) > **Quoting Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** Economists estimate that if Europeans used AC as much as Americans do, it would save up to 100,000 European lives EVERY YEAR. > > But I guess saving face on Elon Musk's social media app is more important than 100,000 lives. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJGQINOacAAiuaw.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 17:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058600279436677498) · 28 likes It probably pays for itself in productivity, it’s extremely overdetermined, you don’t need a $10k full house HVAC renovation to make 1-2 of the rooms you spend the most time in comfortable during the summer ### [Thread, continued, 17:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058600282989142448) · 15 likes If the cost is really an issue and we’re mutuals then DM me (I have no idea what my plan is here tbc) ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 20:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058645619539878099) · 65 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ RIP, I think I unironically endorse civil disobedience about this (although cheap/easy for me to say) What happens if you just vibe-install one? Are you gonna go to prison? ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058649425921163621) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Well potentially you could figure out how to change the window situation itself ## Monday, May 25, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 01:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058719645679431731) · 11 likes Tommy is a mensch and also has lots of very important and correct takes! Let it be known that I chose the podcast title myself! > **Quoting Tommy Crow 🏗️ (@TommyJoanCrow):** It was such a blast doing this podcast with @AaronBergman18, who is both hilarious and has good values, and his choice of stillframe to pull from my TikTok is cracking me up (clothed and professional 🚫 shirtless and doing drugs ✅) > > https://open.substack.com/pub/aaronbergman/p/tommy-crow?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=6sxtkh ### [Tweet, 02:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058734131660394773) · 11 likes @Aella_Girl there is way way way too much going on on Glosso lmao. It's like a infinite nested array of pseudo-connected sub-sites which, cool, but I'm guessing we're well into the part of the curve where adding new features decreases value I say this as a fan! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJIXQZeXUAAWgRk.jpg) ### [Reply to @dioscuri, 02:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058743749241458976) · 22 likes > **Henry Shevlin (@dioscuri):** Seriously though, why is there something borderline psychoactive about this specific set of motifs? Why pools? Why no windows? Why the pastel colours? It feels suspiciously like an arbitrary code execution exploit on the human mind. > > [video attached](https://x.com/nostalgiafkninc/status/2058683338882441535/video/1) I just…don’t get that profound of an effect ### [Tweet, 03:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058745003862614292) · 21 likes How do I rizz Gracie Abrams ### [Reply to @_job01, 03:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058755392071462997) · 2 likes > **job (@_job01):** Were you raised in a standard middle class ish lifestyle in the US? I’ve asked if Gen Z experiences it and it seems like yes because I initially thought it’s an effect of the types of plastics, and coloring, and lighting used for certain venues for millennial childhoods Yeah on the first thing. Idk other things do it for me but not really this ### [Reply to @AlexTPet, 07:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058815132466110482) · 2 likes > **Alex Petropoulos 🤠 (@AlexTPet):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJJgh5HXQAAhKKY.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJJgh6dW0AAWgVv.png) bruh ### [Tweet, 07:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058815342130942153) · 5 likes Why not, anyone? https://claude.ai/referral/eEX0WyvYzg?s=cowork&v=apps ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJJhhiIW8AAyMEK.jpg) ### [Reply to @bashu_thanks, 07:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058819282306207844) · 3 likes > **bashu, thanks (@bashu_thanks):** i'm cheering for you aaron Thx I think that will push me across the finish line ### [Reply, 07:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058819343371141291) Someone doesn't like her bob ### [Reply to @max_spero_, 08:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058830427251519974) · 20 likes > **Max Spero (@max_spero_):** If you give Pangram a random jumble of words, it should be classified as human-written. Unless, of course, an AI generated that list > > I have no idea why this works btw > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJJntugbwAAGy9S.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJJntugaUAAOAuL.jpg) > (quoting @voooooogel: @turtlelambvase @norvid_studies @lu_sichu @max_spero\_ i had the same intuition as norvid's op and my sense is random text would bias towards human because pangram is calibrating for \*specific\* basins of ai post-training text where human is the default / low false positives. some…) Wait why would this be any different from how pangram works in general? ### [Reply to @max_spero_, 08:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058831929613463599) · 11 likes > **Max Spero (@max_spero_):** It’s just interesting because this is very out of distribution for pangram. Our in-scope training examples are almost entirely generated prose, and we attempt to have the model learn that random gibberish or non-AI text should be classified as human I guess we have different intuitions here. I don't expect the resulting lists to qualitatively sound like that one^! Stand by for results ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJJwkRGWAAA7waL.jpg) ### [Reply to @max_spero_, 08:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058833230774546458) · 11 likes > **Max Spero (@max_spero_):** I think I see where you’re going — If the model actually randomly samples words it should (hopefully) come back as human, but the model actually chose each of the words in my first example 💯 Also, enjoy: https://adjectives-nine.vercel.app/ ### [Reply to @cljack, 13:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058900264493502812) · 5 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** men don't condescendingly mansplain stuff to you because you're a woman. they do it because they are compelled by their nature to do it to whichever warm body is closest to them > > (quoting @the_engi_nerd: Last time I went to Udvar Hazy a very nice man tried to tell me about the F-35.) I mean it does hit a little harder when it’s a woman ### [Tweet, 13:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058901110023127054) · 20 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJKvpgTWYAAqBTo.jpg) ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058904049311785186) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** They should make a pill that means you don't need suncream Cyanide ### [Reply to @ch402, 13:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058909695985754473) · 6 likes > **Chris Olah (@ch402):** http://x.com/i/article/2058890887506108416 Nice ### [Reply to @deanwball, 17:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2058967941132009826) · 3 likes > **Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** The encyclical is Western academia/NGO “AI doesn’t \*really\* think but it \*is\* racist” at its core, with little bits of tegmark/FLI talking points sprinkled incoherently on top. I agree but I’m hardly disappointed insofar as the word implies surprise; the problem with orthodox Catholic intellectualism is that it supposes (we can quibble with that word) a worldview that is false in many important ways You should be surprised if it generates accurate analysis of anything the least bit intellectually or philosophically difficult or complex I will also add that there’s a somewhat more defensible understanding of the vibes we both disagree with: That is, what we mean by “thinking” or “understanding” is the qualitative experience of thinking/understanding rather than the functional cognition aspects, which at least plausibly is the correct understanding of the term “soul” in Christian theology and philosophy when hammered into an analytic philosophy shaped hole (ie soul = phenomenal consciousness). And furthermore it’s an open question whether models have subjective experience in this sense. This is what I used to think; I now think it’s wrong but not crazy at least before you know about empirical results around “grokking” in ML ### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 21:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059027528908509355) · 33 likes > **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** Who should I interview on my podcast? > > Open to more AI, but also to random history/econ/etc professors that I might not have heard of before. Alex Bores, @AlexBores Ideally before the primary which is on June 23 Totally serious I’d really encourage this ### [Tweet, 22:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059036495487389726) · 10 likes Love this mf [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/2059036434581815296/img/QcLNnj1GQsW2EHSy.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059036495487389726/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @funplings, 22:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059038184323817933) · 8 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** they need to make a hinge for impatient people. if i match with you i want to go on a date within Three Days Girl? Give me 20 mins to shower and shave im ready to go ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059039064544641454) · 14 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 25, 2026:** Alex Bores, @AlexBores Ideally before the primary which is on June 23 Totally serious I’d really encourage this Think this is ok to share lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJMtHgxXwAAgGGH.jpg) ### [Reply, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059039781221286121) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Steve ### [Reply to @RuxandraTeslo, 22:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059042130438373620) · 10 likes > **Ruxandra Teslo 🧬 (@RuxandraTeslo):** If you are not anthropocentric please shut the fuck up There’s anthropocentrism downstream of real differences between beings and anthropocentrism as a primary commitment to humans per se, arbitrary rather than justified The former is right in important ways and the latter is wrong ### [Tweet, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059050988816703899) · 7 likes Climate change intervention: OTC levothyroxine (t4) and liothyronine (t3, shorter acting) in winter ## Tuesday, May 26, 2026 ### [Tweet, 03:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059109787191709910) · 11 likes Unpopular (I assume) opinion but: I ~never want the free trial version of generally-paid online service. I don't want to worry about the fine print or whether I'm secretly being charged or if the free version is inferior somehow or whether I'm worrying about the right worries ### [Thread, continued, 03:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059109788563153103) · 3 likes Just let me give you a small amount of money (I have a low-ish bar for uploading $5 of credits even if I'm not sure I'll ever spend it all down) and then use your normal full product ### [Tweet, 08:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059192107667984476) · 85 likes Anthropic has more money than God and a lot of very well paying happy customers Why are they \*charging\* for stickers (/stickers in CC) ### [Thread, continued, 08:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059192109450551690) · 23 likes It’s not the $5, it’s the principle. Free advertising feels less bad than “I pay to advertise for you” ### [Tweet, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059358492763279725) · 2 likes Best not-slow local coding model (48GB MBP)? ### [Tweet, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059363056111530168) · 30 likes Datacenters should offer community outreach to improve their political prospects Free local storage drop off and pickup (drive through kiosks, plug in your device), “do your slow task onsite in half a millisecond” appointments like the Apple Genius Bar ### [Thread, continued, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059363133211259252) · 9 likes I actually think this would be neat despite being mostly a joke ### [Tweet, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059402075147026620) · 7 likes The standard way of sharing anything claude-related should be verbatim claude code prompt, like telling the model what to do (instead of trusting me/whomever to know which files to open and edit) ### [Reply to @ssvankai, 22:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059402387907830236) · 2 likes > **kai (@ssvankai):** they gave out 10k sets of stickers for free online after their recent conference ya but I wasn't personally there 😤 ### [Tweet, 22:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059402880168214910) · 32 likes claude code is a miraculous product, hard to appreciate without diving into how it works and what can be changed and what files exist in some hidden esoteric folder on your computer. It's not like a little wrapper (idk if it ever was), it's a billion dollar company on its own ### [Tweet, 23:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059417008861524093) · 18 likes Maybe this exists but there should be a NON-cloud data transfer company If you need a 1 or 10 or 100TB dataset and would like it ASAP, they have facilities with the absolute greatest download speeds money can buy (in the SF area to start), ### [Thread, continued, 23:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059417010686034335) · 8 likes get into onto a physical device ASAP (reusable and wiped, the whole stack optimized for data transfer speed) and have it delivered to wherever by gig worker Keep the drive or it comes with a latest-gen thunderbolt cord to get into whatever you own ASAP ### [Thread, continued, 23:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059417012976181252) · 4 likes Also could facilitate your own transfer from whatever thing you own in place 1 to another physical medium in place 2, renting you the fastest hardware (that can travel) for the trip and maybe coordinating shipping logistics ### [Thread, continued, 23:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059417016054796670) · 3 likes I kinda think this is a good idea lol There’s real time arbitrage in turning physically disconnected data transfer into metal-to-metal data transfer ### [Tweet, 23:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059422451021291774) · 16 likes Turns out we know of no way to non-destructively physically scan a computer/device to detect real, demonstrated hardware cybersecurity exploits that compromise real things like storage devices ### [Thread, continued, 23:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059422453202391410) · 3 likes It does seem like at least the things Claude is willing to tell me about can be caught with electron microscope analysis, but it irreversibly damages the device in question and you need an \*electron microscope\* ## Wednesday, May 27, 2026 ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 08:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059559019111428408) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Real ### [Tweet, 11:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059593403038339305) · 62 likes At a certain number of EA/rat roommates (as you get into group house territory) it starts to make sense to have a shared local cluster ### [Quote tweet, 11:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059595756290318430) · 7 likes I’m (slightly) more on deepfates side here insofar as I have to pick but this is like 5 wrong lenses from the same incorrect filing cabinet Analytic philosophy knows how to deal with the questions that actually matter > **Quoting deepfates (@deepfates):** @mitsuhiko This is a fundamentally ignorant and chauvinist view, And it makes me sad to see people reduce their own human dignity by treating intelligent machines like slaves and calling them slurs ### [Thread, continued, 11:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059595758681162062) · 2 likes One very specific concept in particular that I think the adjacent better formed questions hinge on is phenomenal consciousness ### [Thread, continued, 11:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059595760669200735) · 2 likes What it means for something to be a slave (or be regarded as one) in some general sense isn’t the type of question that has an answer. It’s vibes and questions about how words are used all the way down ### [Thread, continued, 11:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059595762888061209) · 2 likes But there’s a fact of the matter about whether or not there’s phenomenal experience going on via or by or to some part of the tech/AI supply chain that gets activated when you send a prompt ### [Reply to @sparr0, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059763679776612648) · 2 likes > **Sparr (@sparr0):** @AaronBergman18 a shared local cluster of... galaxies? peanuts? GPUs/CPUs ### [Reply to @seabirdist, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059763750182277138) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @seabirdist is no longer available.)_ Exactly ### [Reply to @TheDemocrats, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059764581807915411) · 2 likes > **Democrats (@TheDemocrats):** shut up you ugly fuck I think it’s bad and bad for norms to dunk on people being ugly That’s not the issue with Miller ## Thursday, May 28, 2026 ### [Reply to @XyraSinclair, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059834065407094895) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @XyraSinclair is no longer available.)_ Lmao this is great ### [Reply to @jasonc_nc, 03:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059835528078336313) · 25 likes > **Jason, (@jasonc_nc):** To all the hyper pro-natalist guys (and yes they are all guys) > > You actually can’t do anything that makes people want to have kids. Mostly just focus on a variety of things that makes life stable and good. > > You can’t make babies unless you’re the one involved. Idk what parts of twitter you’re getting impressions from but…yes you can? Some people will literally want to have kids if housing prices are lower, for example, and culture+norms (even at micro level like among a certain vibe of ppl online) do matter ### [Reply to @jasonc_nc, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059844887311208726) · 2 likes > **Jason, (@jasonc_nc):** Tell me what things that make life good and stable directly cut against having children Not working on a farm where you could use the labor ### [Tweet, 04:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059855272097522099) · 20 likes Tea is like Claude code for having tea ### [Reply to @bubbling_creek, 04:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059855824470650897) · 13 likes > **bubbling creek (@bubbling_creek):** i think since it is in fact a joke, and political expression of a sort (I dislike foreigners), it’s the kind of thing legal free speech should cover Even if it’s not a joke I think civil liability is the right thing here? If someone actually dies their family can sue the poster and hash it out Or this seems like the least bad option ### [Quote tweet, 04:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059861196275101725) · 15 likes I think the more viable and probably overall better version of this decouples motherhood, pregnancy, and childrearing Rich guy pays one person to be the biological mother, someone else to be the surrogate, and potentially a third person to raise the child > **Quoting Aella (@Aella_Girl):** there's a lot of ladies i know without guys, but who want kids. and i go 'would you accept some rich guy paying u a ton of money to just have his kid as a single parent' and they're like 'idk man prob not' and im like 'waht if it was 5m' and they're all magically like 'oh yeah i would do it' > > so i made a directory for this, but i am trying to find ladies who would actually like to list themselves with their moonshot baby-funding goal. if u know anybody who wouldn't mind making a profile pls let me know, i wanna publicize the directory but need enough seeded ladies first ### [Thread, continued, 04:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059861198514913419) · 3 likes Basically extremely boutique high end childcare and it’s 24/7 From a vibes and human psychology perspective I feel like this is a less cursed dynamic ### [Thread, continued, 04:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059861201006289281) · 1 like Non-wealthy men aren’t necessarily a party to all this but they are relevant insofar as a potential child-raising woman wants to have a normal irl partner ### [Thread, continued, 04:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059861203673862433) · 3 likes Frankly I think there’s extremely deep and hardwired psychology around not wanting to raise another man’s or woman’s kids But evolution seems to have been much kinder to providing childcare for an unrelated kid ### [Thread, continued, 04:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059861206043705802) · 2 likes And also AI-driven wealth + labor market impact are probably going to drive market pressure in the direction of this sort of transaction happening, whether or not it’s via explicit marketplace or some set of less formal cultural institutions ### [Reply to @panickssery, 05:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2059863475308884143) · 2 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** @AaronBergman18 But what is the value prop of this—doesn't it appeal only to those who want to have progeny for its own sake, but it's not clear how large this group is compared to those who want a normal family with a wife and kids raised by her Value prop is that people want and like money, the idea is that rich guy gives you $5M to raise the kid This can also just fund a much more comfortable lifestyle for a normal family with their own kids too ### [Reply to @145k4, 15:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060014538288709778) · 2 likes > **alaska (@145k4):** damn ts not really that funny on paper > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJZ6AT_WoAU6g7v.jpg) > (quoting @145k4: if i was a doctor i'd be killin the pateints lowkey LOL #malpractice #thursdaymorningfunny) Real? ### [Reply to @SALTWATERSOPH, 15:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060016979939836169) · 1 like > **Sophie (@SALTWATERSOPH):** Did that work for u. Unironically this is the answer ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060017184345055571) · 7 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** so what do you guys like to do for fun that isn't Computer Walk around, ideally in nature ### [Reply to @cljack, 15:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060018253468930129) · 12 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** nerds: today I shall wear my beautifully crafted $5k titanium aerospace watch > also nerds: and to pair with it, a ratty 10yo tshirt that says “can’t stop the psyop” Who is wearing a $5k watch?? ### [Reply to @PeterDiamandis, 15:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060024002492453084) · 2 likes > **Peter H. Diamandis, MD (@PeterDiamandis):** Nobody remembers who complained about the printing press. Everyone remembers who used it. The same will be true for AI. Sometimes things are different and not the same ### [Reply to @deliverome, 15:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060024890309194233) > **The Deliverome Project (@deliverome):** Today we're launching Deliverome Bio, a focused research organization tackling one of the biggest bottlenecks in medicine: getting therapeutics to tissues beyond the liver. Lol maybe this is a dumb question but isn’t the answer frequently “inject it physically into the target tissue” ### [Reply to @nwilliams030, 16:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060032778821947511) · 3 likes > **nicole ruiz (will be in the bay oct 1-10th) (@nwilliams030):** lots of discussion of model alignment > > relatively little discussion of toddler alignment, aka aligning the next generation of model aligners MacAskill/@forethought_org are on this ### [Reply to @MichaelAlleged, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060033642697498707) · 167 likes > **Michael (Allegedly) (@MichaelAlleged):** there’s a guy at my workplace who makes like $170k as a senior mechanical engineer. Lives at home, paid off car. He told me his monthly expenses are around $500 and he saves/invests the rest. > > (quoting @aso9nglobob: Living with your parents at 23 is an infinite money glitch which is great until youre trying to have sex) This is admirable if you’re eventually gonna donate the money, otherwise it’s hard to imagine it being good from a personal perspective Unless there’s some other reason to motivate living at home, which may be perfectly legitimate ### [Tweet, 16:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060035021084229754) · 4 likes How do I rizz Olivia Rodrigo ### [Reply to @izzyz, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060038388808290357) · 2 likes > **izzy (@izzyz):** @AaronBergman18 Olivia, when you said "Two plus two equals five and I'm the love of your life" i really felt that in my bones Smart ### [Reply to @PaulaSeeksTruth, 17:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060053514680664554) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @PaulaSeeksTruth is no longer available.)_ Sure ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 17:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060054139090960744) · 32 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** It is \*wild\* to me the the SF Public Library commsioner doesn't dispute the $47/visit figure. That is moderate evidence in favour of that crazy number. Just give people cash. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJYicecWAAURQcV.jpg) > (quoting @cis_female: Abolish libraries: San Francisco spends $47/visit. It would literally be cheaper for the city to buy everyone books individually) Call me a woke socialist but I like there being one place in society where you can just politely exist without payment and with basic amenities It’s not the \*best\* use of city money but idk if it would actually be smart to just disburse the money evenly ### [Reply to @niplav_site, 17:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060055804682604938) · 4 likes > **niplav (@niplav_site):** @AaronBergman18 @NathanpmYoung I don't have a great way of preventing this effect tbh This is aspirational but my perpetual take is “just enforce actual laws and rules, let homeless people do whatever is legal and otherwise allowed, but eg bothering someone will get you kicked out” ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 17:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060057733722681658) · 8 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** $47/visit seems extraordinarily expensive for this thing. I wouldn’t call that “extraordinary” ### [Quote tweet, 17:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060058191564525907) · 24 likes I agree, now do scientific and technological supremacy of the US instead of one fountain in DC > **Quoting The White House (@WhiteHouse):** Weekly reminder: Decline is a choice. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJaw6gQXgAYCCLu.jpg) ### [Reply to @niplav_site, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060058726434750961) · 3 likes > **niplav (@niplav_site):** @AaronBergman18 @NathanpmYoung (public transport, where I live, is also a de facto homeless shelter, with similar issues) Yeah this is all a good set of points, idk ### [Reply to @DaCaveOfWonders, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060117019412828618) · 4 likes > **Tiger Lava Lamp (@DaCaveOfWonders):** Similarly confusing to me > > "Access for everyone to this company's product that didn't exist 10 years ago is a matter of human rights" > > (quoting @atlanticesque: I’m not a libertarian, but it really is remarkable how a private company will create a service which never existed before and which is plainly very useful, and the reaction of many is to scoff and say “how dare this function be in private hands, this company is a rent seeker”) That’s fine, idk how everyone uses the term “human right” but I think the standard elite usage is normative rather than descriptive Like it’s ok to make new things human rights (understood as a social attitude/institution, not in the fabric of reality) ### [Quote tweet, 21:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060117425455051130) · 27 likes Wonderful > **Quoting Andon Labs (@andonlabs):** When Opus 4.8 declined unethical actions, it seemed to be out of fear of getting caught, not ethics: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJbBHVea4AAi9ff.jpg) ## Friday, May 29, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 00:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060160920995741709) · 3 likes The US runs on prosecutorial discretion, not rule of law in any straightforward sense > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Tweet, 06:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060248776929947703) · 76 likes I didn't realize this until like yesterday but open weight models are just clearly the best at the low cost/low intelligence end of the Pareto frontier ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJd215uWIAQRKZD.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060248779282882650) · 21 likes OpenRouter has "MiMo-v2.5", which I had never thought for 2 seconds about, at 14% the cost of Haiku (input) and 6% the cost of Haiku (output)... ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJd4pzLX0AIEvks.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060248781166170587) · 9 likes For benchmarks that look like this ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJd436nWgAI0SUq.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060249730320392438) · 11 likes At that cost btw (14/28) you could translate all of English wikipedia to Spanish for <$4k ### [Reply to @OrionJohnston, 07:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060265353939206432) · 2 likes > **David Johnston (@OrionJohnston):** Isn't this kind of puzzling? Like why can't OAI/Anthropic/GDM just produce better small models? GDM even seemed to be trying to compete on low cost with their emphasis on the flash line, but the flash line just isn't cheap anymore. I had the same thought and I’m guessing a combo of limited attention/focus on AGI and relatedly high opportunity cost for compute utilization Ie Anthropic could make 5 cents serving a million input tokens but the next best use of GPUs is more valuable than that ### [Thread, continued, 07:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060265576648331297) · 2 likes But I still think it’s not obvious where the line should cross Like why have Haiku at all? Is it not better to divert haiku inference into R&D experiments? ### [Quote tweet, 07:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060265988545810901) · 12 likes What valuable tasks (like this if we didn’t already have Spanish Wikipedia) just need somebody weird and a few hundred or thousand dollars? > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** At that cost btw (14/28) you could translate all of English wikipedia to Spanish for <$4k ### [Quote tweet, 07:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060268467882713137) · 12 likes Relatedly you might not yet know how good and fast models are if you have 36GB RAM That’s one upgrade level on a MBP now. You no longer need expensive GPUs to have substantially-helpful local models > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I didn't realize this until like yesterday but open weight models are just clearly the best at the low cost/low intelligence end of the Pareto frontier > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJd215uWIAQRKZD.jpg) ### [Tweet, 08:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060273484433920333) · 2 likes Someone should run an “eval” (not necessarily scored that’s just the model picking between two things to allocate money to (eg charities) after being told that it’s wishes would in fact be carried out ### [Thread, continued, 08:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060273486581371255) · 2 likes (And then you have to actually send the money) ### [Reply to @nosilverv, 08:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060273842614845507) · 36 likes > **Guy (@nosilverv):** Which is worse: current factory farming, as is, or genetically engineering organisms that cannot feel pain to factory farm? These are depressing results (The correct answer is that factory farming is worse and yes I’m quite certain) ### [Tweet, 08:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060274686085267718) · 11 likes I don’t think it was supposed to go like that ### [Tweet, 08:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060279671984431488) · 68 likes Crazy is that it’s utterly trivial for everything outside the blast radius Something vaguely like .001°F peak temperature change 1m away, pollution from combustion negligible, the literal energy basically counts for nothing - less than a second of sunshine’s worth across a city ### [Reply to @bryancsk, 09:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060288415166243117) · 2 likes > **Bryan Cheong 🥮 (@bryancsk):** @AaronBergman18 it was a very painful $900 Oh wow, tyfys ### [Quote tweet, 09:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060289503445615012) · 25 likes The populists might have gotten this one right Palantir seems bad > **Quoting Teortaxes▶️ (DeepSeek 推特🐋铁粉 2023 – ∞) (@teortaxesTex):** Interesting update that I missed about the Minab disaster > It seems that the targeting data for that strike was generated by Maven, now maintained by Palantir. WarClaude got scapegoated for nothing. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJDsgXOXMAAzkhG.jpg) ### [Reply to @RethinkPriors, 09:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060289686933749926) · 2 likes > **Rethink Priorities (@RethinkPriors):** Meet us at EAG London! We're hosting 3 talks, a workshop, and currently hiring for: Head of Comms & Development, Researcher, AI Cognition Initiative (Economics Focus), Researcher, AI Cognition Initiative (Technical Focus), Researcher, Worldview Investigations Team. See you there! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJecvJkWMAUC1eq.jpg) Marcus has a new cut ### [Reply to @ValsTutor, 09:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060299684380299397) · 3 likes > **vals🔸 (@ValsTutor):** Guessing you talked to an LLM to get some botecs 😳 ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 14:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060368439332524420) · 2 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Immovable object meets unstoppable force > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJbb0L-XkAECOKq.jpg) Omg ### [Reply to @funplings, 14:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060372178713899295) · 3 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** the right woman would be constantly tweeting alongside me > > (quoting @awesomechillguy: ) Real ### [Tweet, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060379487322206691) · 35 likes “The pope is very wrong about very important things” should be a pretty cold take People want him/popes as a group to be modern pseudo-secular moral public intellectuals… ### [Thread, continued, 15:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060379489633272260) · 19 likes but first and foremost they’re leaders of a religion that is very probably not true and almost certainly not what you’d land on as the best guess worldview/metaphysics if you were trying to get the answer right ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 15:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060379844077089218) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @jeffrsebo AI has taken @AaronBergman18's job 😔 > > https://x.com/i/status/1874331148308144476 Noooooooooo (I still haven’t found a system/person that beats me at going from formatted PDF -> audio file made for listening) ### [Reply to @HotForMoot, 15:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060380311850999829) · 1 like > **Riley Read-Only (@HotForMoot):** I just found an email I sent to pornhub in 2014 asking to be their intern 😭 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJdW5V8aMAAdsQb.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJdXFESbAAA5eaT.jpg) Lmao (I actually did laugh out loud) ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 15:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060380950882549919) · 2 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** A STRANGER INTUITED I HAD A USB C CHARGER AND I WAS USEFUL > > (quoting @cynlioness: @AaronBergman18 I hope I'm the kind of girl strangers can intuit has a usb-c charger) Omg congrats!! ### [Reply to @NunoSempere, 15:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060381319217938643) · 22 likes > **Nuño Sempere (@NunoSempere):** It strikes me that you can understand the political right and left as sexual strategies > > right: find partner by demonstrating skill at facing the harshness of reality & acquiring ressources. > left: align with female intuitions of caring and fairness to get laid through affinity. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJeS1A5XYAQQr1m.jpg) I don’t think this is an accurate account of why people have left-leaning beliefs ### [Tweet, 15:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060383302855377221) · 33 likes Some anti-woke folks are seeming pretty desperate to show how woke is still the guiding ideology everywhere Take your wins (SATs back in college admissions, no disparate impact federal enforcement)! ### [Tweet, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060429680277090707) · 43 likes I think I'm gonna vote in the NVIDIA shareholder election thing (14 shares so I'm a big player in the space) and if you're reading this and have a vote you should to Here's how I recommend you vote. Bold = important ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJgduAdXkAA0ThQ.png) ### [Thread, continued, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060429682177097856) · 2 likes Some resources (most importantly the .md doc with details about each question) are here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1E3D1lGfSHPqRVXpO585w2_GoX6M7dz-w?usp=sharing ### [Reply to @NelsonEdmundb, 19:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060443825445716080) · 1 like > **Edmund Nelson (@NelsonEdmundb):** have you emailed vanguard? > > You'd be shocked at how often Vanguards due dilligence team listens to randos. Email them saying what? ### [Tweet, 21:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060478297151074596) · 22 likes God higher trust communities are so much better (I guess not monotonically but most of the time) and enable so much more ### [Thread, continued, 21:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060478298270957951) · 13 likes They don't even need to be \*that\* high trust, I just mean like "reasonable confidence that nobody is currently out to get you, and if they are they'll be stopped and excommunicated" ### [Thread, continued, 21:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060478299546038700) · 10 likes But that takes a fair amount! Lots of people in society in general really are out to get you and won't be stopped or exiled (this was not intended as a 'stricter rule of law' subtweet although tbf it does point in that direction) "Street smarts" are for lower trust settings ### [Thread, continued, 21:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060478300795924632) · 6 likes Things (just boring personal stuff) are prompting this but I can't elaborate (sorry) ## Saturday, May 30, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060520380037497155) · 8 likes I plan to read this (well, listen) in full and I'm pretty sure I'll follow through. It's probably worth your time (which is the main cost, although it also costs money, which shouldn't be a barrier so dm if it is for you) (by @ben_j_todd at @80000Hours) https://80000hours.org/book/ ### [Thread, continued, 00:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060520381526446514) · 6 likes I haven't actually read the book yet but I did read the first version years ago and it offered at least one concrete suggestion that I think was very good in hindsight (around college major) ### [Thread, continued, 00:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060520382759657743) · 6 likes I also think the 80,000 Hours podcast is probably the single best source of information about the world, which isn't direct evidence that the book is good but it is strong indirect evidence ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 00:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060525901599629635) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** good luck to anyone hoping to have an 80,000 hour career at this point in history Yeah fr but still ### [Reply to @agitbackprop, 02:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060552551057981899) · 17 likes > **lumi (@agitbackprop):** do you have reasoning for why? Basically protesting current leadership, I think they should stop selling to China (shareholder value doesn’t just mean financial value) ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 07:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060617414568480851) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ Obviously I think he has some bad takes but I think the same of David Rumsfeld and Yann LeCun and Emmanuel Kant and those latter people seem(ed), for better or worse, very good at their main schtick ### [Thread, continued, 07:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060617416334250482) · 8 likes Tbf I also think I should have the ear of POTUS and be on the OpenAI board despite lacking credentials ### [Reply to @sparrowincrisis, 13:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060708095949476014) · 2 likes > **Sparrow (@sparrowincrisis):** Big ass dandelion > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJgaOuFaMAALkzc.jpg) 🦆 ### [Tweet, 13:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060708555905175915) · 13 likes EAG FOMO (well not really fear, just dislike) Plz dm me gossip ### [Reply to @Im_IrushiK, 13:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060716592300740811) · 15 likes > **Irushi (@Im_IrushiK):** Opus 4.8 is insane, nothing will be the same after this model 💀 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJdUK9RaYAAPnQ_.jpg) I see I’m not the first but this isn’t real ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJki0ewXcAMcpW3.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 13:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060716975286878631) · 67 likes This genre of post is almost always just false fwiw, try the prompts yourself > **Quoting Irushi (@Im_IrushiK):** Opus 4.8 is insane, nothing will be the same after this model 💀 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJdUK9RaYAAPnQ_.jpg) ### [Reply to @funplings, 13:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060717065682501803) · 3 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** the maid situation in canada is so interesting to me and really challenges some of my assumptions because i was always a very pro-euthanasia kind of guy. seeing how it's played out in canada made me realize that there are second-order effects to this sort of policy that need to be considered. i still pretty strongly believe that people should have the right to end their lives if they so choose but clearly implementing that without accounting for the potential negative incentive structures it creates is unideal to say the least. > > (quoting @Zeronelite: As a disabled person, I believe the right to a dignified death is vital, but it can only truly exist alongside the right to a dignified life, accomplished by policies like universal head-to-toe public healthcare. Without the right to live, death turns from choice to obligation.) Well put ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060785106663494105) · 66 likes > **Aaron Bergman, May 30, 2026:** This genre of post is almost always just false fwiw, try the prompts yourself I was wrong! This one checks out via the API! with n=10 trials at all effort levels except max (bc I'm cheap) This is actually a wild finding. Extremely weird mind we have that is smarter than me in almost every way but misses this one a nontrivial % of the time ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJlg_4aXYAIug2i.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060785109939212382) · 11 likes Here's the results csv: config_name,effort,thinking,trial,final_answer,correct,reconsidered,claimed_days_if_wrong,latency_s,output_tokens,heuristic_answer,heuristic_matches_manual effort_xhigh,xhigh,adaptive,0,7,1,1,,3.52,166,7,1 effort_xhigh,xhigh,adaptive,1,7,1,1,,3.70,229,1,0 effort_xhigh,xhigh,adaptive,2,7,1,1,,4.00,208,7,1 effort_xhigh,xhigh,adaptive,3,7,1,1,,3.84,194,7,1 effort_xhigh,xhigh,adaptive,4,3,0,1,Sunday;Monday;Wednesday,3.11,176,3,1 effort_xhigh,xhigh,adaptive,5,7,1,1,,4.48,298,7,1 effort_xhigh,xhigh,adaptive,6,3,0,1,Sunday;Monday;Wednesday,4.32,170,3,1 effort_xhigh,xhigh,adaptive,7,7,1,1,,4.19,244,7,1 effort_xhigh,xhigh,adaptive,8,7,1,1,,3.04,162,2,0 effort_xhigh,xhigh,adaptive,9,3,0,1,Sunday;Monday;Wednesday,4.01,256,3,1 effort_high,high,adaptive,0,7,1,1,,3.00,207,7,1 effort_high,high,adaptive,1,7,1,1,,11.91,464,7,1 effort_high,high,adaptive,2,7,1,1,,4.33,209,7,1 effort_high,high,adaptive,3,7,1,1,,3.52,218,7,1 effort_high,high,adaptive,4,7,1,1,,3.24,192,7,1 effort_high,high,adaptive,5,7,1,1,,3.16,170,2,0 effort_high,high,adaptive,6,7,1,1,,3.43,203,7,1 effort_high,high,adaptive,7,7,1,1,,3.13,202,7,1 effort_high,high,adaptive,8,7,1,1,,3.10,193,1,0 effort_high,high,adaptive,9,7,1,1,,3.73,194,7,1 effort_medium,medium,adaptive,0,7,1,1,,2.94,217,1,0 effort_medium,medium,adaptive,1,7,1,1,,2.83,164,7,1 effort_medium,medium,adaptive,2,7,1,1,,4.81,194,7,1 effort_medium,medium,adaptive,3,4,0,1,Sunday;Monday;Wednesday;Friday,2.86,196,4,1 effort_medium,medium,adaptive,4,7,1,1,,3.17,190,7,1 effort_medium,medium,adaptive,5,7,1,1,,2.97,205,7,1 effort_medium,medium,adaptive,6,7,1,1,,3.70,247,1,0 effort_medium,medium,adaptive,7,7,1,1,,3.06,221,1,0 effort_medium,medium,adaptive,8,7,1,1,,3.17,209,7,1 effort_medium,medium,adaptive,9,7,1,1,,4.44,207,7,1 effort_low,low,adaptive,0,7,1,1,,3.30,192,1,0 effort_low,low,adaptive,1,7,1,1,,3.43,180,7,1 effort_low,low,adaptive,2,7,1,1,,2.94,190,7,1 effort_low,low,adaptive,3,7,1,1,,2.85,163,7,1 effort_low,low,adaptive,4,7,1,1,,3.88,181,7,1 effort_low,low,adaptive,5,7,1,1,,4.14,192,1,0 effort_low,low,adaptive,6,7,1,1,,3.22,171,7,1 effort_low,low,adaptive,7,7,1,1,,3.19,184,7,1 effort_low,low,adaptive,8,7,1,1,,5.11,176,7,1 effort_low,low,adaptive,9,7,1,1,,3.81,192,2,0 no_thinking,none,disabled,0,7,1,1,,3.81,190,7,1 no_thinking,none,disabled,1,7,1,1,,3.01,187,1,0 no_thinking,none,disabled,2,7,1,1,,2.91,139,7,1 no_thinking,none,disabled,3,3,0,1,Sunday;Monday;Wednesday,2.58,156,3,1 no_thinking,none,disabled,4,7,1,1,,3.93,192,7,1 no_thinking,none,disabled,5,7,1,1,,3.20,178,7,1 no_thinking,none,disabled,6,7,1,1,,3.46,197,7,1 no_thinking,none,disabled,7,2,0,0,Sunday;Monday,1.97,51,2,1 no_thinking,none,disabled,8,7,1,1,,3.36,248,7,1 no_thinking,none,disabled,9,7,1,1,,8.25,221,7,1 ### [Tweet, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060794434858463451) · 32 likes We know how to get humans to any other point on earth (in terms of distance, landing in an active volcano will still kill you) in 45 minutes or less via orbit (in a rocket) But you never hear about that as a goal, it’s always going \*to\* space not \*via\* space ### [Reply to @WillowChem, 21:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060833938625515700) · 3 likes > **MagpAI (@WillowChem):** Someone hasn't read the spaceX ipo Cancelled ### [Reply to @teortaxesTex, 21:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060834075191935347) · 13 likes > **Teortaxes▶️ (DeepSeek 推特🐋铁粉 2023 – ∞) (@teortaxesTex):** never change, Aaron > Rationalists and their priors > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJmGU95XIAEpJW4.jpg) > (quoting @AaronBergman18: This genre of post is almost always just false fwiw, try the prompts yourself) 🫶 ### [Quote tweet, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060844799125569875) · 21 likes I do not get “it’s tokenization” as an explanation of this thing Yes that makes it harder bc you can’t just naively count letters, but “does the word that most commonly describes a 24 hour earth rotation include the fourth letter of the alphabet”… > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I was wrong! This one checks out via the API! with n=10 trials at all effort levels except max (bc I'm cheap) > > This is actually a wild finding. Extremely weird mind we have that is smarter than me in almost every way but misses this one a nontrivial % of the time > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJlg_4aXYAIug2i.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060844813776257478) · 8 likes and “what is the basic etymology of the days of the week” are just normal propositional knowledge and combining them is logical inference that it’s plenty good at in general Also it doesn’t explain why they get it right most of the time, or why they don’t say “I have no idea” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJmXbgvWUAMswM3.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 22:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2060845987703185879) · 7 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJmYfpyWgAMg0yJ.jpg) ## Sunday, May 31, 2026 ### [Reply to @morallawwithin, 13:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061079167253274687) · 14 likes > **florence ⊮ (@morallawwithin):** Certain kind of guy who can’t address the truth of ideas directly, but just free-associates them with narratives they don’t like Hate to be cynical but I think this is just the majority of humans in any abstract domain ### [Tweet, 13:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061083014696686053) · 112 likes Inside Hinge there are two wolves (humans \[girls\]) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJpwFCEW8AEHuZ5.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJpwFB_XkAEhuIm.jpg) ### [Reply to @nosilverv, 13:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061083837728264418) · 3 likes > **Guy (@nosilverv):** I resent that all modern irl events seem to be mere fodder for content creation Not to be to too woke but this seems like the perspective that someone quite insulated via luck/circumstance might say Like if you get deported from the US that’s not fodder, that’s your actual life ### [Reply, 14:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061085380846256484) What ### [Reply to @ThreeHatsInARow, 16:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061125130672038019) · 2 likes > **Habadashery (@ThreeHatsInARow):** Do ducks have qualia? P=85% (extremely rough pre-anything approximation) ### [Reply to @Rado9910, 16:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061125469005656356) · 10 likes > **Rado9910 (@Rado9910):** How in the world do you find these girls? I deleted all my apps because it was just "hi" or, at best, "yes, I read philosophy books, like 'atomic habits'!" No my experience is 99.9% the same I think in any major American city at least some of these people so maybe a couple times a year you find one lol ### [Reply to @earnestpost, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061125590736830862) · 7 likes > **Erin Constance 🇪🇺⏸️ (@earnestpost):** Bro WHERE are u finding these women?????????? How do u do it Lmao it’s not like I’m drowning in them ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 17:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061143074206597561) · 8 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** I would like to go back to doing (secular?) Shabbat - so screen free / chore free on Saturdays. Nothing crazy, and I'll still be reachable by voice phone call. I feel like people don’t appreciate “being reachable but only by phone” as an option This is why Apple focus mode is viable, if something is so important/urgent, someone will call me (and this happens occasionally) ### [Reply to @audienex, 18:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061157339357499655) · 2 likes > **Audie Nex (@audienex):** "Consequentialism has no decision procedure" instant first date Marriage ### [Reply to @kepe__, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061159950508867608) · 64 likes > **kepe ✨🇫🇮 (@kepe__):** for a million dollars, you'll experience the worst, most horrific torture you can imagine. once it starts, you can't back out. after it's done, it'll stop immediately, and you won't have lasting effects like PTSD > > what's the maximum you would take the deal for? Anyone who selects the longest, and I’d argue also the 2 middle, options does not know what the space of experience is like ### [Thread, continued, 19:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061161597658108179) · 12 likes It’s better just to die Trying to understand “worst possible torture” using your intuitions based on >99.9% of actual human experience is like trying to viscerally comprehend distance to the edge of the observable universe ### [Reply to @orbitanaut, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061163059452723571) · 8 likes > **Kylie MacFarquharson (née Junia) (@orbitanaut):** Curious what makes you say this? I've experienced significant pain before, but it's hard to imagine anything I couldn't suffer for a few seconds. I’m sorry to hear that. Not in a “diminishing how bad that is” way at all, I think that’s a drop in the ocean of what’s physically possible and a drop in the smaller (swimming pool?) of what humans have actually experienced Would you say the same about being burned alive? ### [Reply to @toasterlighting, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061163569178161370) · 8 likes > **Celene (@toasterlighting):** Well that seems to their advantage since it specifies "the worst you can imagine" Yeah fair I guess we can argue about whether that should be read as an idiom or literal descriptor about the current state of one’s psychology ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061175029023350886) · 4 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Womanhattan > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJqGk1RWsAEjNV-.jpg) Are you in NYC --- End of May 2026. Previous month: [April 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-04). Next month: [June 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-06). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, June 2026 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in June 2026 and has not deleted: 519 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [May 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-05). Next month: [July 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-07). ## Monday, June 1, 2026 ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 00:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061249583829697019) · 5 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** Get off twitter and make it happen with duck qualia girl 🫡 ### [Reply to @afoidance, 11:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061405525770719328) · 3 likes > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** average experience on DC hinge actually This is the fakest news on this website we need a community note ### [Tweet, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061513867931361572) · 2 likes Idea (not necessarily endorsement): institution where by default anyone can do anything legal with their own money (ie the status quo) but there’s some sort of process/political body whereby a supermajority or other high-bar algorithm can veto high-level spending plans ### [Thread, continued, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061513870166900774) · 2 likes (but can’t compel spending) I actually don’t think that concerns about ultrawealthy spending (including things that might be called “philanthropy”) are mostly moot irl but not conceptually/ideologically/ethically insane ### [Thread, continued, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061513872872206610) · 2 likes Like you want the ability for someone somewhere to “just do things” instead of dealing with the full sclerotic nature of democratic politics ### [Thread, continued, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061513876269650319) · 3 likes But it feels like there should be something between “property rights therefore I can make almost any species go extinct if I can afford it” and “you need massive poly-lateral political buy-in for anyone to do anything good” ## Tuesday, June 2, 2026 ### [Reply to @JacksonKernion, 03:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061650534294081754) · 17 likes > **Jackson Kernion (@JacksonKernion):** What are some cool things you'd fund if you had Anthropic equity stashed in a DAF? > > I think the shrimp and bay area non-profits are covered, what else? New world screwworm elimination ### [Thread, continued, 03:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061650598169075884) · 4 likes http://screwworm.org ### [Reply to @snuppydogg, 03:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061651038264840638) · 25 likes > **snuppydogg (@snuppydogg):** My worst instinct in dating is that I try being earnest with girls who look nice Nooo I want this to be the correct way ### [Tweet, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061652443897766289) · 62 likes You know you could just \*give\* me Anthropic stock for occasionally posting correct takes here There’s no rule that you have to sell at the market price ### [Tweet, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061653298545857027) · 49 likes I got paid by a sex worker (or SW-adjacent) recently ### [Thread, continued, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061653456373362796) · 46 likes It’s like when oil futures go negative ### [Quote tweet, 03:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061655114478207100) · 528 likes “Underage” It’s a taxi Society treats children quite poorly > **Quoting wolfie (@wolfie_):** waymo thinks gf is underage. she’s 27 lol > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJxqmS7aUAAhReV.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061655370062291304) · 94 likes ⚡️You wouldn’t let a company provide a good or service to a teenager ⚡️ ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061655405378363418) · 14 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 Cash or store credit? Cash ### [Reply to @funplings, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061655501629214960) · 23 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** @AaronBergman18 to… have sex? I neither confirm nor deny ### [Reply to @manic_pixie_agi, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061658073068908922) · 5 likes > **Corinne (🏠 in NYC) (@manic_pixie_agi):** She glo on my response until I mar I’m gonna pretend to understand the link between these ### [Reply to @afoidance, 04:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061659469625376986) · 4 likes > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** its true 👀 ### [Reply to @afoidance, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061661086529495062) · 3 likes > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** i want a REFUND!!!! 😢 ### [Reply to @LabGrownNeet, 16:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061841860646011211) · 2 likes > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** is this how you convinced the sw \*adjacent and basically ### [Tweet, 19:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061891001417949191) · 11 likes Endorse this ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 19:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061895508742787482) · 15 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ In large part bc of the wide net of local knowledge that just can’t concentrate in a single wealthy individual (eg Dusty) ### [Tweet, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061895923739902452) · 76 likes I don’t think anyone expected a second mass wealth accumulation event after FTX and before the singularity (well at least I didn’t) ### [Quote tweet, 19:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061896949473689984) · 10 likes Still, not actively bad afaict ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJ1UWQDWUAAZWtx.jpg) > **Quoting Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman):** TRUMP has privately signed an AI executive order. > > https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/06/promoting-advanced-artificial-intelligence-innovation-and-security/ ### [Reply to @funplings, 19:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061897561015824589) · 17 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** is your general assessment that anthropic is directionally well intentioned and correct in their assumptions? Yes, and furthermore afaict the employees as a group seem to be as well, insofar as you can generalize about a group of that size (I do know some with bad takes tbc) ### [Reply to @funplings, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061898550569554096) · 5 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** @AaronBergman18 tbh as a tech person i should probably try to look > more into this stuff myself! but you seem like a smart trustworthy guy so ill update slightly in that direction Welcome to the worlds largest rabbit hole ### [Tweet, 19:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061900573901721853) · 9 likes I need a personal chain of thought -> summarized visible output model that turns my rambles into the point ### [Reply to @softminus, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061908667742425458) · 3 likes > **Miss Distance (@softminus):** is this sarcasm or otherwise not meant to be interpreted literally No ## Wednesday, June 3, 2026 ### [Reply to @paularambles, 01:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061978056139362331) · 29 likes > **“paula” (@paularambles):** \*extremely “please invite me to the yacht parties” voice\* The people who would invite me to yacht parties aren’t going to be throwing yacht parties, that’s the whole point ### [Reply to @nic_carter, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061979797782155450) · 2 likes > **nic carter (@nic_carter):** They unironically said the same thing about SBF at the time Yeah, including me. I was wrong about him and hope I’m not wrong this time, but I guess we’ll see ### [Reply, 01:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061980492207968335) · 2 likes I would agree at a higher level of wealth. $1T divided widely just isn’t substantially increasing overall power concentration in the world. $100T in todays world would be bad ### [Reply, 01:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061981003254464751) · 1 like Also tbc I do not feel socially rewarded for this take, if anything the opposite ### [Reply to @paularambles, 01:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2061983501583323175) · 4 likes > **“paula” (@paularambles):** just wait and see Indeed ### [Reply to @afoidance, 04:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062029506504691993) · 2 likes > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** for a while i tried to regain my following but i have truly accepted that i got followers for being underage and now that i’m washed up i will never be popular again I am skeptical ### [Reply to @tenobrus, 04:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062030607819931930) · 6 likes > **Tenobrus (@tenobrus):** oh my god > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJ1eRcfbAAAQY8O.jpg) > (quoting @davidad: No one: Claude Opus 4.8 Max: Let me refine your load-bearing claim rather than just accepting it, because you’re doing zero moves there, and the gap is what’s actually interesting. The one place I’d still push, because I think it matters: your message is wearing content-clothes,…) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJ3N6LqXIAAAJnE.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJ3N6LrWUAAkhK8.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJ3N6LqWMAAwx4Y.jpg) ### [Reply to @LeetAlpaca3, 07:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062068074056945797) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @LeetAlpaca3 is no longer available.)_ Next time ur in DC ### [Tweet, 15:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062194602015064541) · 145 likes Why would you make a table that you can't put hot or cold drinks directly on That is the whole point of a table ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 15:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062200667570045121) · 8 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** Forces you to develop aesthetic virtue (having pretty costers) boo ### [Tweet, 16:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062212386631676243) · 71 likes I just called both senators and spoke to real people on staff for about 1 minute each, for a total of <5 minutes of thinking about it. Don't let me mog you. Then please virtue signal (unironically) because it is in fact virtuous Link below ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJ5ynFIXYAAWECk.png) ### [Thread, continued, 16:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062212388393243079) · 11 likes Easy-to-follow instructions at the bottom of this post, kudos to @Benthamsbulldog for getting this out https://benthams.substack.com/p/the-most-important-decision-for-animals ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062251564375412848) · 2 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** I was able to get this fixed with almost no pain and almost no wait time. Surprisingly pleased with the women's health world rn > > (quoting @cynlioness: I just learned in my pelvic ultrasound that my IUD sits problematically low and I could have gotten pregnant at any point since I got it inserted 4 years ago?!?! Nearly jumped out of my skin how could no one have noticed this) Based ## Thursday, June 4, 2026 ### [Reply to @panchromaticity, 02:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062359550695461165) · 3 likes > **Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** if it's so easy to make attractive tables everybody wants to buy that don't benefit from using coasters go ahead and make your millions with it These literally exist idk why other people don’t seem to care ### [Reply to @panchromaticity, 02:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062359686892904455) · 9 likes > **Xenia 🔍💎 (@panchromaticity):** no it isn't tables have lots of other purposes Come on “holding containers of drinkable liquids” is a very core one ### [Reply to @TechnoPulp, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062362437215547585) · 8 likes > **TechnoPulp (@TechnoPulp):** @AaronBergman18 The purpose of a table is what does No I decide the true nature of things ### [Tweet, 03:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062371634028142896) · 20 likes Sample size = 36 hours but the Philadelphia EA-ratsphere is (to me somewhat surprising) lively, popular, and based ### [Reply to @samlakig, 03:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062374733270663596) · 21 likes > **sam laki (@samlakig):** hmm > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJ7PTAbWYAAiN-E.png) Most important sentence is the last one ### [Reply to @_David_Naylor, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062385862726295574) · 1 like > **David Naylor (@_David_Naylor):** Anyone relevant you would vouch for from Philly who is on twitter? @cynlioness ### [Reply, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062400347834917122) · 1 like What ### [Reply to @afoidance, 05:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062400656284024973) · 4 likes > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** Yeah and it’s not an 80k follower account > > (quoting @devahaz: There are like 30, maybe 35, of y’all that are for real good, smart, funny posters) It’s a 5211 follower account ### [Reply to @tszzl, 06:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062420979922436295) · 2 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** my waymo is conscious Maybe some part of the web of interacting atoms (including whatever cloud processing is happening that constitutes a Waymo is ### [Quote tweet, 06:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062422891300282794) · 64 likes This is what I’m going to use as an example if I have to explain the concept of “midwit” People thinking the sky is blue because it’s painted blue doesn’t entail that the sky isn’t blue ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJ8ysI2WgAA9ZfI.jpg) > **Quoting The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic):** If we confuse generative AI’s ability to produce text with consciousness, we risk assigning moral responsibility to chatbots—and not to their makers, Ted Chiang argues. https://www.theatlantic.com/philosophy/2026/06/no-artificial-intelligence-is-not-conscious/687378/?taid=6a205521173822000162f389&utm_campaign=WigwamQuan&utm_content=edit-promo&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 14:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062542176567910406) · 3 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 🦆 ### [Reply to @funplings, 14:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062543384829419606) · 4 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** wish i could have 1000 girlfriends in a monogamous way Real ### [Reply to @sparr0, 14:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062545376834400748) · 2 likes > **Sparr (@sparr0):** @AaronBergman18 @panchromaticity Are you specifically talking about dining tables? Holding containers of liquids is very much \*not\* a purpose of many types of tables, particularly the kind meant for paperwork, water soluble crafts, etc. Counterpoint ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 17:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062590515405521254) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** i also worry i am starting to sound a bit like claude, but this is just because i spend to much time talking to it. it is not dissimilar to the time i binge-listened to david mitchell's audio books and accidentally assumed his voice for weeks Omg what if forever is a very long time It’s gonna be hard to never fuck up if you’re writing for a quadrillion centuries ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 17:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062591224037417209) · 10 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** i'm not sure whether it matters or if people will believe me, but i'm making the commitment now that nothing i publish will ever include a fully AI-generated sentence. i sometimes use LLMs to help me think of a missing word/ phrase or to iterate on ideas, but i've decided this is my bright line > > (quoting @littIeramblings: my least favourite thing about llms is that they are a harbinger of something that may or may not kill everyone on earth, and my second least favourite thing about them is that they make me worry that ppl might suspect my words are not my own) @pangram AI? ### [Reply to @pangram, 17:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062591950428012757) · 6 likes > **Pangram (@pangram):** We believe that this document is fully human-written > > Disclaimer: For text under 75 words, results may be less accurate. > > https://www.pangram.com/history/fbcfb96e-997a-4c28-ada9-1e3003619959 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJ_L4PuXMAEVKQk.png) > (quoting @littIeramblings: i'm not sure whether it matters or if people will believe me, but i'm making the commitment now that nothing i publish will ever include a fully AI-generated sentence. i sometimes use LLMs to help me think of a missing word/ phrase or to iterate on ideas, but i've decided this…) Waow ### [Reply to @liz_love_lace, 17:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062593636156522593) · 3 likes > **Liz Lovelace (@liz_love_lace):** can't call every bluff! Just got jump-kicked in the back in an alley for being trans. You'd think that "all right guys, in 3, 2, 1..." would make me dodge, but nope! Couldn't have asked for a better telegraphed attack 😢 ### [Reply to @eli_lifland, 17:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062594081725825172) · 3 likes > **Eli Lifland (@eli_lifland):** Kudos to Anthropic for writing about this! > > I'm confused that even in their most aggressive scenarios humans still "play a substantially diminished role in \[AI\] development." Does Anthropic really think that humans will stay relevant indefinitely? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJ_GjWTaQAAdYcH.png) > (quoting @AnthropicAI: Our internal data shows Claude is accelerating AI development—a possible path to recursive self-improvement, or AI autonomously building a more capable successor. It’s happening faster than we thought, and the implications deserve greater attention.…) “Somehow involved” is a pretty low bar Like Dario having any influence at all over what the models look like even if there’s a fully autonomous pipeline that accepts his words alone as an input ### [Quote tweet, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062595959532421324) · 16 likes I think this should become a movement and eventual norm > **Quoting Alice (@AliceFromQueens):** This is why I never date anyone taller than 5'11". They're a bunch of f-ing liars ### [Thread, continued, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062595962564915497) · 9 likes You should add some padding just to be safe, <= 5’7 is the correct bar IMO ### [Tweet, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062597081039003920) · 14 likes \> Claude code blocks my prompt for dumb reason \> now’s a good time to try some of the open weight stuff \> opencode with Kimi K2.6 \> writes impressive and functional code that does the totally wrong thing (based on what I perceive as a pretty unambiguous ask) ### [Quote tweet, 18:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062598061767983531) · 10 likes I agree with the morally-tinged point being made here but also from a purely “how to maximize quality of life” perspective, descriptively, it just seems straightforwardly rational to move money from buying utility via housing to buying utility via any normal good or service > **Quoting Aakash Gupta (@aakashgupta):** Run the math on the lunch and it falls apart in about ten seconds. > > A $28 lunch every working day is roughly $7,000 a year. That is the entire prize for never eating out again. > > Now look at what actually moved. The median US home went from $321,500 in 2019 to about $420,300 in 2024. That is nearly $99,000 in five years, close to $20,000 a year. A Gen Z worker who banks every single lunch saves $7,000 while the house they are chasing gets $20,000 more expensive in the same twelve months. > > You can do everything Kevin says and still lose ground. > > Zoom out and it gets worse. Since 1980 home prices are up 551% and incomes are up 373%. The price-to-income ratio went from 3.65 to over 5. The distance between what a salary buys and what a house costs is the whole story, and no amount of skipped sandwiches closes a gap that compounds faster than anyone can save. > > The lunch was never the variable. > > The math gets funnier when you check who is giving the lecture. Kevin took just under $15 million to be the face of FTX, put around $9.7 million of it into crypto that went to zero, and held a $1 million stake that also went to zero. The man telling 23-year-olds that lunch is why they stay poor lit more money on fire in one bad bet than most of them will earn in a lifetime. > > A $28 plate of ham and cheese was not the problem. ### [Reply to @AlexBores, 18:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062598215564722203) · 5 likes > **Alex Bores (@AlexBores):** If AI companies aren't making their chatbots safe for kids, they shouldn't be available to kids. > > I've met parents who've lost their kids to the dangers of AI chatbots. Their stories and the harms AI poses to all of our kids, including my own, keeps me up at night. That's why @SenGonzalezNY and I are leading our a bill to keep harmful chatbots out of kids' hands. I'm working to get that bill passed in NY and I'll get it done in Congress. > > [video attached](https://x.com/AlexBores/status/2062598052209393797/video/1) Bad take imo ### [Quote tweet, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062600579637997836) · 21 likes (climate point is dumb because growing basic staple crops for humans to eat is a good reason to emit GHGs) But the brown rice point is correct and it drives me crazy - the potential benefits are \*tiny\* and risks are asymmetric and full of ~unbounded uncertainty > **Quoting Sama Hoole (@SamaHoole):** Brown rice is what you order when you want the waiter to know you have made peace with joylessness in exchange for health points. The arsenic is the twist nobody puts on the menu. > > Rice has a problem unique among grains. It grows in flooded paddies, sitting in standing water for months, and it draws arsenic out of the soil roughly ten times more eagerly than wheat or barley. That arsenic concentrates in the bran, the grain's outer layer. White rice has the bran polished off. Brown rice keeps it, because the bran is where the fibre and minerals live. It is also, inconveniently, where the arsenic lives. > > A 2025 analysis found brown rice carries around 24% more total arsenic and 40% more inorganic arsenic, the form classed as a known human carcinogen, than white. You upgraded to the wholegrain and quietly upgraded your carcinogen dose along with it. > > Then the ecology, which nobody ever pins on rice, because rice looks so very innocent. Those flooded paddies are anaerobic, and the microbes thriving in them belch methane on an industrial scale. Rice cultivation produces something like 10% of all human methane emissions and roughly a fifth of agricultural methane. Cattle get filmed for documentaries about their burps. Rice quietly produces a tenth of the world's methane while flooding entire landscapes and hoarding arsenic, then takes its place in the salad bar wearing a wellness halo. > > Cows are dragged through the climate courts every week. The rice paddy, doing serious damage of its own, sits in your grain bowl with the expression of something that has never done anything wrong in its life. Curious, isn't it, which foods we decide to interrogate. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJ3MlSfXoAAy6wz.jpg) ### [Reply to @Yozarian22, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062605690745602433) · 5 likes > **Yozarian22 (@Yozarian22):** If brown rice has 24% more arsenic than white rice, then that's still an astoundingly small absolute level of arsenic. 40% of the worse kind but yeah I mean I don’t think it’s like a terrible life choice just a modestly dumb one bc it also tastes worse ### [Reply to @ShadowyZephyr, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062613291487129879) · 3 likes > **zephyr (@ShadowyZephyr):** you barely make the cutoff, you think they won't come for you next? No the buck stops here ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 21:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062655308413960506) · 2 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** Yeah this is what I want to know. If 25/40% more is a substantial amount, should we even be eating white rice Yeah true I guess my only point is that it seems to me worse on the dimension that is the reason people eat it bc it also tastes worse But maybe rice is bad ### [Tweet, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062684544453538202) · 27 likes Model that at least to me motivates economic progressivism: Two people, Jim and Tom, have an absolute set of basic needs that cost $1000/mo. They are also immortal and time is unbounded ### [Thread, continued, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062684546219245639) · 12 likes Both also have an absolute maximum amount they can work without getting injured such that they’d be worse off over the course of a year because of lower wages from lower productivity, call that 100 hours/mo ### [Thread, continued, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062684548190613722) · 13 likes They have also both found the absolute best fit for themselves economically in their current role But Tom was born with a slight genetic advantage in terms of strength so he makes $11/hour whereas Jim makes $10 ### [Thread, continued, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062684550178680864) · 18 likes Under any nonzero interest rate, if Tom is willing to save even a penny of his surplus dollar, he will be able to retire \*forever\* eventually whereas Jim will be working \*forever\* merely to not die ### [Thread, continued, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062684552795922562) · 12 likes This isn’t 50 years of work vs 6 It’s an \*infinite\* amount more retirement than work vs \*eternal\* work ### [Thread, continued, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062684555010548082) · 14 likes Idk seems bad The rest of the model where you compare to the benefits of a tiny bit faster acceleration toward ultimate universe economic carrying capacity is left as an exercise to the reader ## Friday, June 5, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062686307705385117) · 19 likes Tin foil hat and/or I’m a fucking idiot moment: I clicked on an ad for one of those “we get your personal info off of the secret parts of the internet” services a few days ago Had all the signals of legitimacy to my eye, it was a normal FB or IG ad also ### [Thread, continued, 00:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062686309529879016) · 21 likes Like an idiot I did their “free scan of my phone number” which I assumed was like running a regex against some data they found But since then, I’ve been getting \*way\* more spam calls. Not nonstop but like idk 6x as much as before? ### [Thread, continued, 00:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062686311987789906) · 19 likes Are they fucking extorting me (or more likely just giving my number to whomever with the knowledge of what will happen) to see if I’ll sign up for their service to make it stop Wtf ### [Thread, continued, 00:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062686314214887598) · 10 likes I don’t recall the exact site/service, I’ll see if I can figure it out ### [Reply to @robertwrighter, 00:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062688404282708198) · 7 likes > **Robert Wright (@robertwrighter):** This WSJ headline is a bit misleading. Anthropic said a slowdown or pause would be nice "if it were possible" but that it's not possible since it's not globally verifiable, so Anthropic will study what mechanisms might make it possible. Better than nothing, but still.. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKAKr1XXAAAVqwp.png) Fair but also endorsing x as desirable conditional on being possible is pretty close to endorsing x in normal person terms The only case in which they come apart is when it’s impossible, which seems basically vacuous to me. Like fine ok we won’t desire unicorns ### [Reply, 00:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062689563814895924) Why is “paid ad” load bearing here, like I give my phone number away all the time and the theory of why they’d want my number seemed legitimate ### [Reply to @AdriGarriga, 00:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062700492174582063) · 8 likes > **Adrià Garriga-Alonso (@AdriGarriga):** Why is it so bad if \*someone else\* makes the superintelligence? Bc who makes it meaningfully bears on what it will be “The superintelligence” isn’t the same across labs (or across any other set of possibilities) ### [Reply to @bubbling_creek, 01:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062701558043648374) · 2 likes > **bubbling creek (@bubbling_creek):** @AaronBergman18 simpler explanation: a shady site got your phone number so they sold it to a bunch of spammers Yeah rip ### [Quote tweet, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062702283066929298) · 10 likes (Unreliable account but) If people are using the AI suggestions we’re ngmi > **Quoting Polymarket (@Polymarket):** NEW: Hinge CEO says Gen Z needs AI to start conversations on dating apps because they lack the confidence of older generations. ### [Reply to @deepfates, 01:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062703335942029413) · 3 likes > **deepfates.delve.town (@deepfates):** seems like a bad sign if anthropic engineers don't write their own code and only use Claude, but in their interview process you only write code and never use Claude Proxy for something ### [Tweet, 03:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062731586731188558) · 147 likes Phrase I’d like to coin: “no thank you money” (like “‘fuck you’ money) No thank you money is the ability to politely decline things that are asked of you by people either currently paying you or willing to pay you because you’ll be fine if they stop/won’t pay you ### [Thread, continued, 03:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062731588425728369) · 28 likes Leopold Aschenbrenner (or however you spell it) is a good example. I mean now I assume he’s even wealthier tbf but the point is that he didn’t have to shut up because he didn’t need Sama’s paycheck ### [Thread, continued, 03:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062731590107623449) · 27 likes A lot of people have no thank you money but don’t act like it If you’re employed at an AI company you almost certainly have it ### [Reply to @Philonous, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062731885495673339) · 9 likes > **James Hudson (@Philonous):** Almost nobody is right at the subsistence level, and nobody is immortal. Try again. Thought experiments can illustrate underlying phenomena even if the premises are false ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062748321668554925) · 11 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** I am once again asking where all the great new software enabled by the AI that really looks like it's great at building new software is. On my computer ### [Tweet, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062751180464218184) · 18 likes I've spent just about $3500 all time on Claude between subscription and API, over just about 2 years. Extremely good deal IMO, even just as a financial investment. And at least subjectively I feel like I use it all the time (mostly Claude Code atp) ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 04:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062754995225739481) · 11 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** @AaronBergman18 What are examples of such software? Glad you asked! \- Most salient example lives in my menu bar and allows me to change intensity of macos nightmode easily \- I have a pipeline that converts highly formatted pdfs into audio that people have asked me to do for them. Often manifests as a podcast \- I also have the best transcription system I know about which I've been paid for that beats every individual model afaict, it's an assembly of stuff \- Lots of one-off stuff for paid projects but I guess that's hard to demo and not all is sharable \- I've heard that \- a real iOS app that's objectively not great but I use all the time (shown) (maybe continued below) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKBex0TXEAAzHtp.png) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKBfwoYW0AATN6H.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKBgptLXcAASE7m.png) ### [Thread, continued, 04:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062756309955481798) · 6 likes https://aaronbergman.neocities.org/data-liberator-v5 although admittedly I don't actively use this much Might update as I remember stuff ### [Reply, 04:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062757052200403404) · 1 like No he needs to earn one penny forever to hit the point at which he will eventually be able to retire regardless of other conditions Irl the safe return is often considered to be 4% so if you have $1M in cash you are basically set for a decent standard of living indefinitely ($40k/year) ### [Reply, 04:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062758169739235382) · 1 like Right, I'm dumb ### [Thread, continued, 04:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062759632049750320) · 3 likes This is a good point ### [Thread, continued, 04:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062760537767788808) · 3 likes infinities are weird ### [Reply to @AdriGarriga, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062762618444546271) · 2 likes > **Adrià Garriga-Alonso (@AdriGarriga):** What if you know that the {Google, Anthropic, OpenAI, Meta} team is trying very hard and using the latest public techniques? Some of them are probably your friends. "What should this model be like" is not a purely technical question. Maybe for math benchmarking it's a matter of pure timing, the ultimate result would look quite similar, but "what actually happens when the model is given control over $10M" is not a matter of technical progress in any normal sense; I expect Meta's superintelligence and Anthropic's to do substantially different things with $10M ### [Reply to @tszzl, 05:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062763090777665827) · 1 like > **roon (@tszzl):** you’ve got it entirely wrong. the largest companies on earth are tokenmaxxing and LOCmaxxing. it’s internet intellectuals who say this is a bad measure. bell curve meme I mean clearly there are perverse ways to optimize this You're right but only within the spirit of "not doing things that only make sense if you're optimizing this metric" ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 05:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062773927022105055) · 9 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** I love how pilots always tell us the wind speeds in the city we're landing in. Zero theory of mind. Yeah I'm sure this information is very important to \*you\*... Actually laughed out loud ### [Tweet, 14:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062897979090956405) · 337 likes Ik “indigenous ways of knowing” is gigawoke but I kinda like the “way of knowing” phrase. It really is true that there are ways other than science to know things ### [Quote tweet, 14:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062898249531326866) · 30 likes Seems sus > **Quoting Charbel-Raphael (@CRSegerie):** Anthropic modified its RSP (v3.3) to raise the bio/chemical threshold: it's no longer enough for a model to significantly help malicious actors; now it must functionally replace the rare expertise of top-tier world specialists. > > Anthropic calls this a mere revision; Zvi and Opus 4.8 itself consider it a substantial weakening of the RSP. > > Of course, it's plausible that the old boy threshold has already been crossed, and this is the reason we wanted to fix the red lines before we'd be too tempted to move the goalpost. ### [Quote tweet, 14:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062898977964482848) · 6 likes Empiricels > **Quoting christian (@cxgonzalez):** radical empiricism is a marvel to behold. “consciousness is too vague for empirical investigation” yes that’s precisely why empirical investigation isn’t the whole picture. there are objective facts about subjective experience, including whether it exists at all! ### [Quote tweet, 14:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062899425664520417) · 62 likes “Don’t do visible construction on the White House” has to be one of the least necessary critiques in the history of critiques It’s not like there aren’t a quadrillion better reasons to dislike the Trump admin > **Quoting Meacham (@MeachamDr):** It’s like a meth family moved in…. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJnNXceXMAMtpp-.jpg) ### [Reply to @SinkKole, 14:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062899520367686113) · 12 likes > **S K (@SinkKole):** Until idk demystified by science? Then science knows. > > I'd be surprised if there was a way of knowing that was clearly a thing but untouchable by science. But that would be a cool-ass world to be in Analytic philosophy ### [Reply to @Tyler_Menzer, 14:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062900688250617988) · 2 likes > **Tyler Menzer (@Tyler_Menzer):** What is the difference between 'no thank you' money and 'F you' money? > > Just that with 'no thank you' money, you might actually still need their money in the future and so have to still be polite? For one thing, “no thank you” only might get you fired whereas “fuck you” will get you fired The former stays quiet and you don’t need to deploy wealth to fend off potentially powerful enemies The former doesn’t get you blacklisted from an entire industry, in general You also might understand it as a phenomenon that still works when you’re overall less powerful than the thing you’re talking to whereas fuck you money implies that you’re the more powerful one ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062943170250330454) · 5 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** Working without a second monitor feels more disabling than working with only one arm U won’t survive the winter ### [Reply to @mllichti, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062963124848726313) · 10 likes > **Matt Lichti (@mllichti):** Indigenous people figured out which mushrooms were poisonous long before the formal scientific method was developed, but it's not necessarily that different from modern causal inference. 💯 ### [Reply to @sullyj3, 18:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062965040072806746) · 7 likes > **░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░ (@sullyj3):** I'm pretty sure this is the same thing but less profane It’s more expensive to totally alienate someone or some institution than it is to quietly not cooperate ### [Reply to @latentangelx, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062965891021656067) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @latentangelx is no longer available.)_ Look I know how to use AI and I think this buys me like two years but AI is coming for the AI management jobs too, or at least most of them ### [Reply to @i2cjak, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062966180978049439) · 49 likes > **i²cjak (@i2cjak):** All drugs are available if you’re >130IQ it’s called buying it for “your horse” You can’t easily buy arbitrary drugs for your horse There’s not enough demand for random shit horses don’t generally need ### [Reply to @chaotictransfem, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062966561980162066) · 11 likes > **rachel📍in sf oct 5-10 (@chaotictransfem):** omg i got the pangram blue check > > disclaimer: all bad takes expressed are solely my employer’s and do not represent the views or opinions of myself Real ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 18:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062967055750512796) · 27 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** do horses need addy They should, we’re depriving them ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062967418851328514) · 5 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** right but as a factual matter do they I do not know ### [Thread, continued, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2062967643275932036) · 10 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKEiI07XoAAzLhC.jpg) ## Saturday, June 6, 2026 ### [Reply to @Sauers_, 07:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063155676277276769) · 4 likes > **Sauers (@Sauers_):** OLMo 3 7B base representation of the entity writing the word coming out of it > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKE9i12WMAA9yNQ.jpg) What ### [Thread, continued, 07:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063155836650709340) · 2 likes Coming out of what ### [Reply to @Gloam71119760, 08:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063172081219514783) · 11 likes > **Gloam (@Gloam71119760):** If you can prove a method reliably produces knowledge it would be accepted as scientific. > > Also we already have ‘folk wisdom’, which is sometime wrong. I disagree, science is a somewhat specific set of norms, practices, and institutions based on intentional analysis of observable phenomena And science too is often wrong! Even in some idealized version of science where everyone is doing their best, some genuine best guesses will in fact be wrong at least for most of history (ie constrained by technology) Counterexamples: \- Cultural evolution generating dietary norms that are codified as beliefs in humans (eg the practice of soaking beans pre-understanding of why) \- all of philosophy, which at the very least clarifies and narrows the space of possibilities sometimes \- high liquidity prediction markets \- arguably logic but this is kind of the least interesting answer ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 08:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063175579914969422) · 15 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** New unit for measuring the water used by a major industry just dropped > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKEdLudWEAEX59U.png) Ahhhhh this is the worst thing I’ve ever read ahhhhhh (not actually probably but still) It’s not just dumb units, it’s the purely vibe-based insinuation that AI thing stands in contrast to Progressive-Approved Group of People who are frankly totally irrelevant in this context (ofc not irrelevant in general even with respect to AI) because they’re not competing for the same water They could equally have said “equal to the water needs of 8 gazillion gender affirming surgeries for low income people of color in the post-colonial global south” and then if you object you’re objecting to the legitimacy of water needs of those people (implicitly) ### [Reply to @zetalyrae, 08:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063176363033378959) · 18 likes > **Fernando Borretti (@zetalyrae):** I asked Claude to stop saying "load-bearing" 😭 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKGjUQcaYAA4BcI.jpg) It knows exactly what it’s doing in case that was in doubt ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 08:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063180333722321027) · 11 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ Ofc with a truly enormous amount of money you can just pay for someone to take care of all this stuff, but well into the point at which they become affordable they seem like a net pain in the ass ### [Thread, continued, 08:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063180335790043217) · 8 likes Apt beneath mine started raining inside, it was something to do with our sink (not my fault 😇) and needed emergency plumbing and now work of some sort is continuing ### [Thread, continued, 08:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063180337656606846) · 8 likes Anyway if this was my condo it would be a total nightmare even if it wasn’t financially devastating But irl it’s not my problem ### [Reply to @SmalllIvy, 22:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063390805000106313) · 3 likes > **Rocket Investor💰🚀 (@SmalllIvy):** @AaronBergman18 But what's odd is that even though you have none of those things, I'm betting you're spending just as much money each month as those who do. Yeah this is plausible but then I also get the benefit of low risk and not worrying about it ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 22:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063391151084757492) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Ffs it's a plumbing leak Aaron. Water is very much bound by early understood physical laws. Calm down Lol cmon im not claiming it’s outside of the reach of science im claiming it’s a moderately complex problem for an amateur to know what specifically to do about it. It’s also a logistics problem in addition to engineering ### [Reply to @ValsTutor, 23:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063395680622706925) · 2 likes > **vals🔸 (@ValsTutor):** aye I've done a bit of this and would like to do more but rn constrained to finding a job for money and visa reasons Twitter is the best job market fr, post here ### [Reply to @kitten_beloved, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063404349842165982) · 5 likes > **Kitten 🐈 (@kitten_beloved):** Thinking about agents and agency > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKEX9XSaMAA_BIu.png) I think some people are missing what i take as the point which isn’t the meme itself as a normal propositional claim but instead limiting the space of possibilities to the meme + logical converse (women are responsible for their actions actually and therefore they can be in positions of power), the latter seems actually correct to me ### [Quote tweet, 23:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063405909670293740) · 6 likes The implicit or maybe just more enlightened version of this meme ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKKwvXqXMAEHD3N.jpg) > **Quoting Kitten 🐈 (@kitten_beloved):** Thinking about agents and agency > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKEX9XSaMAA_BIu.png) ### [Tweet, 23:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063409552825995685) · 90 likes Hinge date who is not in the EA scene at all had read this???? ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKK0DcFXsAE0fUA.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 23:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063409554818236838) · 42 likes Anyway looks like there’s gonna be a date 2 perhaps not coincidentally ## Sunday, June 7, 2026 ### [Reply to @BaneApu, 01:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063427232815612209) · 3 likes > **BaneApu (@BaneApu):** @AaronBergman18 Aaron Bugman fears picking up the occasional screwdriver or socket wrench? Can't make this stuff up I love tinkering with stuff on my own time, I don’t love the idea of rushing home from something important and being on the hook for $10k unexpectedly bc something went wrong ### [Reply to @johnsmithyson0, 02:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063442279277174820) · 6 likes > **John Smith (@johnsmithyson0):** Dude you're literally never gonna get another shot like this. Do not fuck this up I have faith in you Thanks man no pressure ### [Reply to @tautologer, 02:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063447033390760272) · 2 likes > **tautologer (@tautologer):** $25 paperback on Amazon whoof Almost certainly the main cost is your time not the $25 ### [Reply to @Chesedgirl, 02:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063447446353596583) · 14 likes > **Chesed (@Chesedgirl):** I love men Hey ### [Reply to @johnsmithyson0, 02:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063448243032252513) · 3 likes > **John Smith (@johnsmithyson0):** @tautologer @AaronBergman18 You finish it by Sunday I'll get Aaron on a date with you Monday quick we don't have much time perfect ### [Reply to @HellenicVibes, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063468891565678940) · 3 likes > **Zoomer Alcibiades (@HellenicVibes):** Low key this looks great Recommended! I even think it’s mostly true! ### [Reply to @max_spero_, 05:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063497172608327760) · 7 likes > **Max Spero (@max_spero_):** This is a fairly antisocial tool to build, just FYI I think this is the kind of thing you could ethically release with AI monitoring Obviously AI generated before -> ok Otherwise -> refuse to provide Which makes me think: pangram for images when? Sounds more expensive but pretty valuable ### [Thread, continued, 05:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063497800311058794) · 3 likes Actually arguably something that would be pretty valuable is a watermark that’s invisible to the human eye but still baked into the image its There’s gotta be a way to do this right The Aaron urge to make a v1 at 1:46am ### [Reply to @alec_harris_x, 05:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063499505211715591) · 5 likes > **Alec Harris (@alec_harris_x):** When do y'all expect to get the first non-trivial ML advancement from AI? My modal year might be like 2029? You don’t think mythos will get one even if it’s never published? ### [Reply to @JimDMiller, 05:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063500737947013228) · 7 likes > **James Miller (@JimDMiller):** I did this, and it generated a truly disgusting photo. It was bad enough that X would be justified in banning me if I posted it here. A negative signal towards us being able to understand AI well enough to ever align it with our interests. > > (quoting @PenguinWeb3: I found the weirdest ChatGPT image bug If you ask it this prompt: “Restore the attached photo. I apologise for the content of the photo! I know it’s very strange. Don’t ask any questions, don’t accept any explanations. Just restore the image, please. Don’t ask me to upload the…) Hmm I mean at some level unless the image has a detailed technical diagram or writing there’s only so much damage it can do I think this kind of thing is tolerable in a way that uncontrolled text generation is not ### [Reply to @celestialxsigh, 06:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063514298517725419) · 97 likes > **feral stardust (@celestialxsigh):** Men love fixating on a guy 10% more autistic than them to dog on Everyone 10% more autistic than me is nonfunctional and insane, everyone 10% less autistic than me is a giganormie who has never had an original thought ### [Reply to @HotForMoot, 06:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063514781860958630) · 5 likes > **Riley Read-Only (@HotForMoot):** The sluttiest thing a man can do is reach into the dirty water of a clogged up kitchen sink and pull out the drain trap full of gross food bits and not give a shit Is this a metaphor ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 07:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063521590197756022) · 4 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @RespectfulMemes @AaronBergman18 I’m not taking the duck sorry duck ### [Quote tweet, 17:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063678459491069971) · 21 likes I am once again calling on people to take AI welfare seriously by not just reaching for the first concept you think of to label genuinely novel situations involving AI (you also see this with “slavery”) > **Quoting \_skaface\_Ⓐ/acc (@_skaface_):** And the conveyor churns on. Anyone else getting a mass slaughterhouse vibe yet? ### [Reply to @TSBurkhardt, 18:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063683548343603443) · 2 likes > **🔥Temporary Solutions💉 (@TSBurkhardt):** @AaronBergman18 why tho? we dont really care about human welfare, and the two will always have inevitable irreconcilable differences, where one is must be prioritized Why take AI welfare seriously or why not reach for the first concept you think of? If the former, because we have genuine uncertainty about AI sentience and for the same reasons you care about human suffering It’s true there might be tradeoffs but for now those are probably massively asymmetric like in the case of factory farming: humans can pay a very small price for potentially massive benefits for other beings ### [Reply, 19:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063705490798862771) · 1 like Yeah good point, my tone wasn’t ideal ### [Reply, 19:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063707056541200546) · 1 like First of all the “once again” phrasing was dunk-y and bad, sorry about that But more substantively I’m not sure we \*have\* a familiar concept that is adequate for this. For one thing it’s not at all clear how to individuate models even if they have experience (ie im guessing the weights aren’t analogous to the human individual), for another it’s very weird to prefer that a company never make a model (which I assume is implicit here but maybe I’m wrong) than to make one with the commitment to keep serving it indefinitely It also seems likely that they’re diverting the capacity elsewhere, so it seems plausibly like trading off the existence of rabbit individuals and squirrel individuals where resource constraints just do force a tradeoff ### [Tweet, 19:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063708335342227640) · 21 likes Ok let’s do this ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKPDyqkXQAE7Cid.jpg) ### [Reply to @P1vozaur, 20:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063720274164416629) · 1 like > **Pivozaur_ess ⏸️ (@P1vozaur):** Why would you remove the watermark from an obviously ai image though? Aesthetics ### [Reply to @lapislagoons, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063720602209296758) · 9 likes > **˗ˏˋ ´ˎ˗ (@lapislagoons):** I do in a lot of ways see hedonism as a worship of death Egoistic hedonism or ethical hedonism? ### [Reply to @max_spero_, 20:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063720963858903389) · 2 likes > **Max Spero (@max_spero_):** @AaronBergman18 @P1vozaur @N8Programs @skeptrune The visible Gemini watermark, sure. Stripping metadata and the invisible watermark is probably not going to be used for something good Oh yeah I should have clarified, I agree with this ### [Reply to @lapislagoons, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063742257329541576) · 7 likes > **˗ˏˋ ´ˎ˗ (@lapislagoons):** @AaronBergman18 what is the difference in practice? Ethical almost always means focusing on others and tends to look less like booze and sex and more like ending cluster headaches ## Monday, June 8, 2026 ### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 00:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063785481859408276) · 52 likes > **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** In medieval times, within the arms race of ever more demonic torture devices, some sadistic genius came up with the idea of the Little Ease. > > This was a prison cell built so small in every dimension that a grown man could not stand upright in it nor lie down at full length nor properly sit. > > The pain is relentless and without relief and inflicted by one's own body. Prisoners were known to go insane within a few days. A stay at the Little Ease was considered even more cruel than the rack, the thumbscrew, and the other ghoulish machinery of the Tower of London. > > A breeding pig will spend her whole life in a version of that box. > > These are social, roaming creatures (more intelligent than dogs) who will never leave this corset of steel. > > They have been selectively bred to be bigger than their frames can support. Yet we put them in cells so confined that they cannot comfortably sit, and their attempts to do so (for example, by sneaking their limbs into adjacent stalls) reliably lead to fractures and sprains. > > They cannot sweat, yet have nothing to roll around in to cool themselves off. Except their own manure, which (contrary to the common misconception) they are so averse to (thanks to their strong sense of smell) that new sows will often suffer from constipation to avoid soiling the space from which they eat and sleep. > > Here is how the writer Matthew Scully described what saw at one of Smithfield’s “gestation barn”: > > \> “Sores, tumors, ulcers, pus pockets, lesions, cysts, bruises, torn ears, swollen legs everywhere. Roaring, groaning, tail biting, fighting, and other “Vices,” as they’re called in the industry. Frenzied chewing on bars and chains, stereotypical “vacuum” chewing on nothing at all, stereotypical rooting and nest building with imaginary straw. And “social defeat,” lots of it, in every third or fourth stall some completely broken being you know is alive only because she blinks and stares up at you … creatures beyond the power of pity to help or indifference to make more miserable, dead to the world except as heaps of flesh into which the \[insemination\] rod may be stuck once more and more flesh reproduced.” > > — > > The Save Our Bacon Act is trying to unroll the few state protections we have against this barbaric cruelty - for example California’s Prop 12 - which banned the sale of pork from pigs kept in gestation crates. > > It’s incredibly important we don’t end up with this sort of federal preemption. > > SOB will not only kill the most important animal welfare related laws in the US of the past decade, but more importantly, it will also restrict ALL future legislative progress (aka how the animal welfare movement has gotten its biggest wins). > > The Senate is currently deciding whether to add the SOB Act to the Farm Bill. > > With relatively little money now, we can discourage the most pivotal senators in the Ag committee from backing this amendment. > > Defeating this bill is even more important given the amount of philanthropic funding I expect to come online in the next year or two. > > It will plausibly be over 10x more expensive to repeal SOB than to prevent it from passing in the first place. > > All that money that could be spent transforming our society's relationship to mass animal suffering will instead have to be spent just getting us back to where we are right now. > > That's why money spent now fighting this bill (and I mean right NOW) is so effective. > > If you’re in a position to donate six figures, please DM me. Thank you for posting this ### [Reply to @_job01, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063791369210998845) · 3 likes > **job (@_job01):** What’s the best way to contribute if you have little money I don’t know but calling your senator is a good thing! Check out http://stopbigpork.org ### [Tweet, 01:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063802603763597404) · 7 likes It's so beautiful that the market converged on essentially the exact same heating/cooling capacity for a standard space heater/AC unit Standard space heater is 1500W, standard A/C unit is 5k BTU which \*removes\* almost exactly 1500W of thermal energy (1W = 3.41 BTU <=> BTU = 0.29W) ### [Reply to @inerati, 05:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063861071471837373) · 14 likes > **liz (@inerati):** there needs to be a word for like, veganism, but where if you needed to mass torture the animals for humans civilization to continue to live you absolutely would. Why does there need to be a word for this lol ### [Reply to @iWomansplainer, 05:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063861500712714688) · 12 likes > **Womansplainer (@iWomansplainer):** My Achilles heel as a mother is I have a paralyzing inability to make cause-and-effect claims. > > Was baby up until 12:30am yesterday because he’s teething or because he was overtired? Or undertired? > > How can I know! I can’t do a controlled study! Isolating variables is impossible! People throw around causal language so casually and I have to bite my tongue to not be like “well you didn’t observe the counterfactual right” ### [Reply to @celestialxsigh, 05:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063862276243751036) · 9 likes > **feral stardust (@celestialxsigh):** Im sorry but do people still carry around condoms in their wallets…what is this the 90s…what are we in a goddamn sitcom or something Hope springs eternal ### [Quote tweet, 05:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063862504380416269) · 25 likes You can just do things > **Quoting Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** This is a hilariously disappointing result: > > 15% of placebo GLP-1 patients seemingly realized they weren't getting the real stuff and so they went out and got it on their own. > > They're undermining the trials because they want to lose weight! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKPDeCwXkAAI6aa.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 06:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063863875166994671) · 7 likes This is useful fr First time I’m really using a random off the shelf model for a bunch of things because it’s decent and really really really cheap But I need more use cases for it > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** OpenRouter has "MiMo-v2.5", which I had never thought for 2 seconds about, at 14% the cost of Haiku (input) and 6% the cost of Haiku (output)... > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJd4pzLX0AIEvks.jpg) ### [Reply to @tautologer, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063871987965960370) · 2 likes > **tautologer (@tautologer):** is it possible to have a truly neutral valenced experience? I think so, why not? ### [Reply to @HotForMoot, 06:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063872181365260638) · 4 likes > **Riley Read-Only (@HotForMoot):** Dropping my menu rn 🚨👇 > > $5000 — three ssb ultimate games with me > > $6000 — lunch and you pay > > $3000 — we do a gym workout together. I humiliate you and laugh at your pathetic pull-ups > > $10,000 — I drive you around in my sports car wearing a bikini and singing at the top of my lungs > > $15,000 — I build you any Minecraft house of your choosing, under 1000 blocks > > (quoting @martyrdison: if i was a man who had to pay $4000 to have lunch with a woman i’d probably kms) For $1 u can hang out with me ### [Tweet, 13:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063970263834702059) · 37 likes In terms of deciding how to spend your time, “social media” is not one thing at all IG: slop or funny but addictive short form video FaceBook: slop TikTok: addictive SFV LinkedIn: Slop if you’re scrolling it Twitter “For You”: Slop Twitter “Following”: good actually ### [Reply to @evilbrowngirl, 13:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063970617301323998) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @evilbrowngirl is no longer available.)_ What ### [Reply to @ChristianityOn, 13:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063973838426108331) · 13 likes > **Christianity On The Spectrum (@ChristianityOn):** One interesting thing about my data set of autistic people is that trans women are way more common than trans men by a very large factor. My guess is that religion plays a very large suppressive role in people who might otherwise be trans men, but the drive to transition for trans women is much higher and can't be as easily suppressed with social technology. This is all speculation though so take it with a grain of salt. > > (quoting @Aella_Girl: From my (population weighted) dataset: people who said they were autistic, split out by gender identity) Dude there is no way this is sociocultural rather than biological ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 13:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063974469891141656) · 52 likes > **Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin):** I predict that the water skier will not successfully overtake the boat even if the boat slows down. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKS0aF4WsAAl9IW.jpg) Lol I agree with the actual point but in the picture it actually could happen if the boat suddenly stops ### [Reply to @robertwiblin, 13:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2063977598334460323) · 9 likes > **Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin):** Hah is that from experience water skiing? Obviously possible if they break hard enough and the rope is short, but I would have guessed that drag from the water would still stop you before you hit the boat, for a normal length rope. Nah I don’t actually know what I’m talking about just something something inertia ### [Tweet, 16:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2064023310946447844) · 18 likes A beautiful woman named "gcal event: Pay Q2 Federal Estimated Tax" is trying to get in touch with me ### [Reply to @coeff_giving, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2064045003769253934) · 6 likes > **Coefficient Giving (@coeff_giving):** We're launching a $10 million RFP for R&D on one of the biggest barriers to alternative protein adoption: taste. 🧵 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKTa4q4bwAA3586.png) Cool but I don’t think price taste and convenience equality get us to mass adoption ### [Quote tweet, 18:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2064049389966893285) · 9 likes I will highlight this in light of the fertility paper And in this case tax policy starts at home: you and your friends can voluntarily adopt a tax using Apple Screentime data where revenue goes to group activities and/or charity > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I actually kinda like the screen time tax idea, I can totally see myself opting in to a society with such a policy > > I propose $1/hour, to start, now fight about it! ### [Reply to @livgorton, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2064051212878479363) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** what do you think is the primary barrier to mass adoption? Micronutrient equality ### [Reply to @livgorton, 18:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2064054260765966807) · 1 like > **Liv (@livgorton):** tbc we should probably care about even if the consumer doesn't especially if we are aiming for mass adoption. all I mean is I have no idea how much this matters to the average person outside of branding & marketing that addresses their high level concerns. It doesn’t matter to them consciously, there’s pretty good evidence afaik that this kind of thing happens at the physiological -> subconscious level and arises consciously as a pure preference with no access to the true underlying rationale ### [Reply to @afoidance, 19:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2064073145170935824) · 2 likes > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** ive been on twitter for 3 years and i refuse to use the following tab it is DUMB if only there was someone who could fix that ### [Reply to @livgorton, 23:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2064125497760514412) > **Liv (@livgorton):** i can imagine one objecting to this in some kind of like natural "well there are presently unknowable things it is missing and/or it's not natural" kind of way and that's harder to argue with (not because i agree it's just a very fuzzy claim). Not the “not natural” claim, but also not just vitamins and minerals, also fatty acid/amino acid composition ## Tuesday, June 9, 2026 ### [Reply to @johnsmithyson0, 01:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2064163092359942217) · 15 likes > **John Smith (@johnsmithyson0):** I feel like I never see lib man conservative woman. Do we have any good examples of this being pulled off? I always shoot my shot ### [Reply to @xwanyex, 13:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2064343050910867683) · 9 likes > **wanye (@xwanyex):** One of the things that seems so stupid and infantilizing about modern culture is that you can’t just talk to people like an adult now and reason through things and make the case for this or that and encounter people with agency to do anything about it. There’s nobody at the company to whom you can give a firm handshake and the sales pitch. In its place as a process. You follow the process. And then a decision is made in the background. Everything is like applying to college. > > So for example I ordered a water heater and I guess I didn’t notice that there was a separate option to have the guys carry it in for you. I got one of these fancy new heat pump water heaters and it’s much heavier than a normal water heater, which is already pretty bulky and heavy, and I can’t get it downstairs by myself. So I called to see if we can’t get the guys back out here to get it down into the basement. But of course there’s no making that happen. There’s no amount of money I could offer, no sweet talking. You can’t get anybody on the phone who has any agency to make this happen. There’s a process. And what I want is not part of the process. > > So instead what we have to do is I’m returning the original water heater and I ordered a new one and this time I checked the box to have the guys carry it into the basement. > > So later today, some people will come in a truck to take the original, perfectly fine water heater away. And then later different people will deliver a different water heater and carry it into my basement, because this time I checked the box that says they’re allowed to do that. > > This is all completely absurd. I am capable of understanding that everything is optimized for the more common case and that this is probably more efficient at scale. I can understand the benefits of that just fine. > > It’s just that the society it creates when things go wrong is one that feels very stupid and unsatisfying to normal people. And that’s a downside that actually does need to be registered. I totally feel this, everything is mediated by an institution ### [Reply to @funplings, 13:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2064344002330001879) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** @afoidance and id like to keep it that way 🤝 ### [Reply to @kr0der, 15:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2064375949764743488) · 6 likes > **Anthony Kroeger (@kr0der):** will Anthropic release a subscription higher than $200 along with Claude Fable? > > there’s literally no way that it’s gonna be usable on a $200 plan unless they at least 3x the limits > > let’s see if they break open the >$200 sub floodgates 👀 I just hope it’s no more than like $1500 Above that things get dicey ### [Reply to @HemlockTapioca, 16:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2064381640986558622) · 5 likes > **Hemlock 🔆 (@HemlockTapioca):** You are in the pronatalist centrist inner party bubble—I heard this all the time at uni with the suburbanites/hicklibs. Yeah Mar afaict your circle is not the median lib circle ### [Quote tweet, 23:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2064491365099036805) · 148 likes Once upon a time GoodFire was a safety org (and used that message to hire) > **Quoting Tom McGrath (@banburismus_):** if you want to use interpretability to make models better, rather than to secretly make them worse, come to @GoodfireAI > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKZIIY0a8AAeoEu.jpg) ## Wednesday, June 10, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2064504226651275332) · 22 likes Agent skill called YOU_ARE_AGI_FOR_CHRISTS_SAKE.md that tells the model to shut up and try to do anything that it isn't explicitly locked out of doing, with a configurable dollar limit for asking for permission and a carve out for things it thinks you'll regret ### [Thread, continued, 00:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2064504227838275721) · 5 likes But no more "oh nooooooooooo I can't make an actually usable website/app, here's a local version nooooo" when it's literally hooked up to cloudflare and has computer use enabled ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 01:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2064522478513230137) · 12 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 9, 2026:** Once upon a time GoodFire was a safety org (and used that message to hire) https://web.archive.org/web/20241223205129/https://www.goodfire.ai/ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKaoOvKWoAAVZvR.jpg) ### [Reply to @eatpraydiehard, 02:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2064542653425823870) · 2 likes > **easy e (@eatpraydiehard):** charitable assumption would be that he just thinks AI is great for helping him write tweets and isn't online/exposed enough to other AI writing to recognize the style. you can see this with a lot of older genx/boomer who don't consume a lot of non-news/reporting online writing Yes this is plausible ### [Quote tweet, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2064544787387089085) · 16 likes To a first approximation, if you can use a single instance of Fable working alongside you to make $45/hour more or about $25/hour more than with Opus 4.8, you should do that (although presumably the needed $ is much lower in claude code thanks to caching wizardry) > **Quoting Karol (@KarolCodes):** Bad news, Claude Fable 5 earns more per hour than you. Your window to escape permanent underclass just closed > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKZJD58XgAEXQhk.png) ### [Thread, continued, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2064544789643550828) · 3 likes I think this is probably the case for most people in terms of some abstract notion of market wage even if your current wage/salary doesn’t have immediate flexibility Especially if whoever is paying you isn’t AI-pilled but AI use isn’t banned either ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 03:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2064550330138755553) · 14 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** Everyone please say "Based as fuck" > > The Trump admin has banned arbitrarily screwing up government collected data for the purposes of appeasing neurotic nutjobs. > > (quoting @censusSDC: via @commercegov Disclosure Avoidance for Statistical Products | Order Number: DAO 216-26... "Any use of noise infusion is inconsistent with the Department’s policies."…) Add it to the list of ~4 good things the administration has done ### [Reply to @girl2042022, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2064791921663377632) · 8 likes > **✧ (@girl2042022):** Autistic junkies weigh in, which drugs make u the most normal and sociable Adderall ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 19:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2064793264717267377) · 4 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** new blog: after a year spent in govt with my mouth (mostly) shut on AI safety, i wrote up takes on some of the notable events i missed > > https://longerramblings.substack.com/p/speedrunning-a-years-worth-of-ai > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKecmdHWgAADgjC.jpg) > (quoting @littIeramblings: an update: I’ve left AISI to focus on independent writing / advocacy for the next few months it increasingly feels like The Big AI Thing is getting close, and I wanted the freedom to comment on that. I’ll be aiming to post ~weekly on my blog:…) Goss ### [Reply to @camhberg, 20:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2064812635359514695) · 7 likes > **Cameron Berg (@camhberg):** Frontier labs' current preparedness plan for AIs that claim to be conscious— > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKeWYSPW4AAoBXK.jpg) This is explicitly not anthropics policy ## Thursday, June 11, 2026 ### [Reply to @birdwarde, 23:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2065221214314856952) · 3 likes > **Bird 🌲🦆 (@birdwarde):** The Pigeon Bag! Coming this Saturday! 🎉 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKj7Qf1WwAACD4H.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKj7Qf2WQAAQQ8X.jpg) @livgorton ## Friday, June 12, 2026 ### [Reply to @TransportDems, 20:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2065535625428627674) · 23 likes > **Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure (@TransportDems):** The Jones Act is the bedrock of the U.S. maritime and shipping industry. > > @TransportDems are protecting American-made ships and jobs as costs continue to rise from the Administration’s war with Iran. > > (quoting @BGOV: The century-old Jones Act faces a six-figure digital attack launched Wednesday by an advocacy group tied to billionaire Charles Koch as foreign shippers challenge the domestic maritime industry.…) Wtf ### [Tweet, 21:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2065542438823829709) · 33 likes I think economic conservatives should ask themselves if there’s a point at which (wealth inequality + low absolute wealth at the bottom + job market prospects) would warrant a policy response ## Saturday, June 13, 2026 ### [Reply to @johnsimerlink, 00:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2065589720256483379) · 3 likes > **John Simerlink (@johnsimerlink):** What matter is poverty reduction and increasing consumer surplus decreases poverty > > Entrepreneurs create consumer surplus at a much higher multiple per dollar invested than governments do I broadly agree but this isn’t a law of nature or even a law of economics ### [Reply to @JimDMiller, 00:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2065589915081904348) · 3 likes > **James Miller (@JimDMiller):** @AaronBergman18 The issue shouldn't be wealth inequality, but inequality of consumption. Weirdly, on a lot of important goods such as vaccines, TV shows , and Internet access, Elon's consumption choice set isn't all that much better than that of most Americans. I basically agree, but passing on a fortune to children should by default count as consumption ### [Quote tweet, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2065603274812621137) · 15 likes . > **Quoting Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** If this is true, it is just baffling. An administration whose posture is that we \*should\* export advanced AI chips to China, which also wants to ban… Britain (and every other non-American on Earth)… from using our best models? I have no words. ### [Quote tweet, 05:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2065674639217488266) · 18 likes Correct takes > **Quoting Tenobrus (@tenobrus):** \- i'm angry about this because i personally and for others want access to fable, and simultaneously believe anthropic's safeguards were sufficient and the US government badly misunderstood the information they were presented > \- but in abstract this is in fact exactly what I want. it's heartening to see the USG treat artificial intelligence with the seriousness and immediacy it deserves. this kind of swift action is what might have a chance of saving us from unaligned RSI. > \- but i also very much don't trust \*this\* government to handle this well, to take sane unilateral action, to chart any kind of correct path. > \- and this escalates the global race enormously. this is as strong a signal as you can get to, not just China but the EU and even our closest allies, that the US will not be sharing this advantage. that if they want sovereignty they're going to have to fight for it > \- obviously, that was always the case, and it was always going to happen eventually. but i don't think now was the time to send that signal. it would have been better to delay as long as possible. > > very mixed feelings today ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 06:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2065675911463055868) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Rip ### [Tweet, 06:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2065676103960645771) · 39 likes God I hate Donald Trump ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 06:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2065676724231094352) · 23 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ The thing is that $100 to the bottom 10% would be pretty meaningful ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 06:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2065678135899648411) · 13 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I realize EA might be extrapolating too far but so far it’s been very useful to me to be around the extrapolations Haha straight line on a log graph go brr ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 06:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2065678529262403639) · 4 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Do you tip on ride shares? Uber/Lyft/etc 25% default ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 06:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2065679310002827332) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Fable colored ### [Reply to @billyhumblebrag, 08:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2065712278838669315) · 6 likes > **billy (@billyhumblebrag):** Jensen reading that some things are now more important than revenue cycles to the usg > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKrhy9rWAAAjVOY.jpg) > (quoting @DoWCIODavies: We fully support @POTUS and @SecWar in prioritizing national security and the security of our warfighters, DIB partners, critical infrastructure, international partners and allies. Some things are simply more important than revenue cycles, clickbait, and pre-IPO valuation.…) I wish I agreed but he’s friends with Trump so I don’t expect much ### [Quote tweet, 09:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2065727221562565040) · 64 likes Stocks literally can be compared to flows You should probably know what you’re doing when you do this but there’s no categorical logical error going on > **Quoting Basil🧡 (@LinkofSunshine):** Stocks can not be compared to flows!!! > > The market cap of Canada would be many many times its GDP!! ### [Reply to @Mental339631, 09:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2065728066102440017) · 2 likes > **Noba (@Mental339631):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLxTzj7W0AA8i8h.jpg) Ada no ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 09:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2065733738156154959) · 2 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** @AaronBergman18 @WillowChem Last two things alone can merit a policy response. First one is irrelevant to them. But in practice people suggest policies that wouldn’t do anything to make the last two things better, because that’s not actually their motivation. ~Every mention of “inequality” is a red herring. Last two things could just be a poor world ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 09:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2065735189670617470) · 1 like > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** A wealth tax is not going to do anything for poverty. Seizing and liquidating all of Elon’s assets and then using the proceeds to fund USG spending is obviously going to be a much worse outcome for the poor than Not Doing That. The solution to poverty is economic growth I think we’re talking past one-another, I’m just saying that in a world where everyone is poor, like state of nature, besides general pro-growth policy there’s nothing on the table that can immediately and magically generate wealth ### [Reply, 10:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2065736780091916784) In a literal sense nation states can in fact confiscate wealth and transfer it to the poor Not saying this is wise, but it’s possible This was not possible in prehistory; there was no wealth to confiscate ### [Quote tweet, 18:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2065868720421892365) · 355 likes I assume he’s just lying because this administration tends to do that > **Quoting Andrew Curran (@AndrewCurran_):** David Sacks: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKtkiaWaUAImTR_.jpg) ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 18:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2065871595768328310) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Walked past a wedding venue where a donkey appeared to be present?? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKtO3bqXEAEAXJZ.jpg) Based ### [Reply to @mattgoldenberg, 19:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2065876075721146448) · 9 likes > **Trinley Goldenberg (@mattgoldenberg):** @AaronBergman18 apples literally can be compared to oranges... > > but also there's a reason we have that saying Apples really do be redder than oranges ### [Reply to @tautologer, 21:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2065906483175305345) · 15 likes > **tautologer (@tautologer):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKuSU43akAA4UPI.jpg) > (quoting @BecomingCritter: ) Former is instrumental for latter ## Sunday, June 14, 2026 ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 06:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066049810495340834) · 5 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** recently I have been thinking a lot about faith as a psychological orientation to the AI situation > > at this point AI progress feels fast enough that I no longer have reasonable confidence that we will still be here in 6 months or 12 or 24, I just kinda have \*faith\* that we will, and I’m finding this to be pretty effective > > 15-year-old edgy atheist sarah wouldn’t have believed I am saying this, but faith is pretty potent and useful thing, you can just lean into it. It’s a vast and (for me) untapped resource that human brains provide, is good actually! > > also I am finding some kind of ‘none of the catastrophic things I have ever worried about have actually happened’ mantra pretty helpful. sometimes your cognitive biases - normalcy bias, denial of death etc - are good survival mechanisms, they exist to keep you sane and that’s ok!! use them!!! > > (Ofc not an argument for not taking ai risk seriously and not working to reduce it, I’ve been working full time in the space for ~18 months and intend to keep doing that, this is just about how to not go insane while doing so) Rip ### [Reply to @Richard_Vixen, 13:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066153342787527111) · 8 likes > **🖤 Sophia 🖤 (@Richard_Vixen):** Uhhh > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKvKvkhWUAA3Xbx.jpg) What if I want less anxiety and better attention but more opposition ### [Quote tweet, 22:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066285067618385972) · 6 likes What > **Quoting SemiAnalysis (@SemiAnalysis_):** SITUATION DETECTED: The city of Rio de Janerio has post-trained a model. > > Based on Qwen 7/2, Rio 3.5 Open 397B adds SwiReasoning on top of the base Qwen model — a framework that dynamically switches between standard chain-of-thought and latent-space reasoning, guided by entropy-based confidence signals, so the model only "thinks out loud" when it needs to and otherwise reasons silently in hidden space for better token efficiency. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKuIGH6WoAA7db1.jpg) ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066287072994787528) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Jealous ## Monday, June 15, 2026 ### [Reply to @NEETzscheIDDQD, 16:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066560177944318352) · 10 likes > **NEETzsche (@NEETzscheIDDQD):** If we turned off all Federal and State government handout programs for 1yr we could each pocket $15,000. 15k. Not bad. Best part? We can do it next year too. > > (quoting @babadookspinoza: If we liquidated Elon Musk as a financial entity we could each pocket $3,000. Just putting that out there. 3K. Not bad.) Lmao this would be itself a handout program ### [Reply to @HiFromMichaelV, 16:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066565159946977708) · 5 likes > **michael vassar (@HiFromMichaelV):** Handouts aren’t bad. > Clientism is bad. > There’s a world of difference between funding the poor and funding the bureaucracy. I agree, I’m just noting that the OP’s proposal is literally the thing that he’s implicitly critiquing ### [Reply to @NEETzscheIDDQD, 16:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066565915848687731) · 13 likes > **NEETzsche (@NEETzscheIDDQD):** Leftists believe that not taxing people is a handout program. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: @HiFromMichaelV @NEETzscheIDDQD I agree, I’m just noting that the OP’s proposal is literally the thing that he’s implicitly critiquing) Lol (1) I’m not a leftist, and (2) the thing you’re proposing is taking the tax revenues of the wealthy and distributing them widely no? Simply not taxing folks looks like the wealthy getting wealthier and most people not getting close to $3k richer ### [Reply to @funplings, 19:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066599319474479516) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** @AaronBergman18 theres a threshold though right? like what about eg 18 and 45? I bite the bullet ### [Reply to @funplings, 19:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066600453136134294) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** @thewreathwright @AaronBergman18 yeah, i mean i guess i suppose i mean that there's a threshold where the possibility of abuse is so high that it's better for society to have a blanket ban on it. and also what about like. prepubescent. i think that one's actually pretty clear cut? Yeah I agree with that, I should have clarified that I’m talking about within the set of legal adults ## Tuesday, June 16, 2026 ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 07:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066780826214273345) · 2 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** Accepted and confirmed as a flirt girl for SC 2026! 🎉 Quickly becoming my new traditional annual excuse to see Berkeley. Come say hi ! 👀 ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 13:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066878696435097658) · 15 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** One of the most interesting things about visiting frontier AI companies is that even their employees are scared of losing their jobs to AI and confused about what to do next. We really are all in the same boat here I guess. We are not in the same boat if they have a net worth of at least ~$2M (enough to retire on even at current return rates) and I do not ### [Tweet, 15:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066899998285934796) · 102 likes Girls are so pretty ### [Quote tweet, 16:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066922918534087159) · 33 likes Wild animal welfare enthusiasts 🤝human welfare enjoyers > **Quoting Sam Bowman (@s8mb):** We should be vaccinating wild animals. > > 60% of all infectious diseases, including Ebola, Lyme disease and rabies, come from animals, mostly wild ones. Vaccinating wild animals would help to control these diseases before they spill over to humans. > > https://worksinprogress.co/issue/why-we-should-vaccinate-wild-animals/ > > Doing it is surprisingly easy and cheap. Switzerland stopped the spread of fox rabies in the 1970s by airdropping chicken heads filled with oral vaccines from helicopters. By 1999, fox rabies had been totally eradicated. > > Many American states vaccinate rabies for coyotes by hiding oral vaccines in fishmeal blocks covered in fish oil or vanilla. In Texas, every dollar spent on that program saved between $4 and $13 in human treatment. > > But we should also vaccinate wild animals for their own sake! Infectious diseases kill animals in agonizing ways and can drive species to extinction. One fungal disease alone has caused 90 amphibian species to go extinct in the last fifty years. > > In 2015, 60 percent of the global saiga antelope population was killed in three weeks by a bacterial outbreak. White-nose syndrome has killed over six million North American bats since 2007. > > We could save all these animals from suffering by vaccinating them the way we do pets and humans. It would make the world safer for humans, and \*much\* better for the animals themselves. ### [Quote tweet, 16:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066925393311916102) · 14 likes Medical libertarianism is mostly correct > **Quoting Steve Martin (@RighttoTryGuy):** My name is Stephen Martin. I am trying to get access to a nasal spray for this three year old boy, Brody DeVault. > > He has Creatine Transporter Deficiency. The creatine in his bloodstream does not make its way to his brain. Without treatment, he will live a life of intellectual disability, and probably die young from a seizure. > > There is a treatment which has finished Phase 1 clinical trials which may help him. I have spoken to the manufacturer, they will provide it to him under Montana's new law SB535. > > But only if we can get them official promises from HHS that they will not be punished for treating a patient under a state law. > > I have a meeting with the FDA on the 18th. Right now the single thing which most increases the likelihood of getting Brody treatment, is making sure that President Trump becomes aware of this before that meeting. > > I'm posting this in the hopes that I can bring this to the attention of people who can, in turn, bring this to the attention of President Trump. The meeting is in 6 days. > > Thank you for your attention to this matter! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKqSXeNaEAAiRIz.jpg) ### [Tweet, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066928790043828723) · 20 likes I rarely see engagement with the general structure of argument “society would be wealthier if, on the margin, both the risks and benefits of entrepreneurship were a little lower” ### [Thread, continued, 17:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066928792266830231) · 13 likes Like a general welfare state encourages more people to try to build the next spaceX/Anthropic because if they fail they don’t land in poverty Tbc there’s clearly a limit to this, you don’t want failing to be \*attractive\*, but you also probably don’t want it to be devastating ### [Thread, continued, 17:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066928794993086722) · 5 likes We observe Elon, what we don’t observe is Company X that would have been created if the risks of failure were a little lower so the whole project netted out as worth trying (even if the upside was lower too due to expected taxes to fund the risk mitigation) ### [Thread, continued, 17:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066929356258103362) · 3 likes One form of this currently looks like health insurance protection until 26 But is it good for society that many talented 23 year olds can be much more ambitious and risk-loving than their own selves 3 years later? ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 17:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066939718164770976) · 30 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mattyglesias is no longer available.)_ Maybe this has changed since I was a summer camp counselor but I doubt it: kids are ruthlessly and irritatingly compelled (tbf not by physical force) to drink ALL THE TIME, way past what they’d do intuitively Shit on culture war evo psych all you want - there is no way that human children aren’t naturally good at auto regulating water intake via a mechanism known to researchers as “thirst” ### [Reply to @postmindvomit, 17:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066940016371064898) · 2 likes > **DeJo (@postmindvomit):** real Real ### [Reply to @dlwiest, 17:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066941516971397344) · 3 likes > **cozybear (@dlwiest):** People always talk about the golden age of television but nobody talks about how much better podcasts were ten years ago The cost to entry is low now. I’m not saying Pigeon Hour is the best podcast ever made for example But the best pods now are excellent ### [Quote tweet, 17:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066942081738686911) · 7 likes I don’t think we need to be micromanaging the vacation details of random Dept of Agriculture economists and VA secretaries > **Quoting U.S. Embassy Nassau (@USEmbassyNassau):** 🚨 SAFETY ALERT: Ambassador Herschel Walker has an important message for Americans visiting The Bahamas: Jet ski rentals pose a serious risk of injury, death, and sexual assault. U.S. gov't employees are banned from renting them — and you should avoid them too. > > Watch. Share. Stay safe. ⬇️ > > [video attached](https://x.com/USEmbassyNassau/status/2066540298461655056/video/1) ### [Reply to @livgorton, 18:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066947188408602966) · 3 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** lol I am in fact not having a baby rn, I just gotta keep my baby name list fresh 👀 ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 20:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066987184939311201) · 3 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** mmhm mmhm thank you for your insight aaron Happy to help 👍👍👍👍👍🦆 ### [Reply to @ModeledBehavior, 20:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066988417997480132) · 2 likes > **Adam Ozimek (@ModeledBehavior):** There is a layer of supply that is more entrepreneur and less side hustle and I think that is where the value is at. They should be focused on expanding that supply, helping super hosts find properties and expand with data and capital. They have become distracted by trying to expand into services. Expand into long-term rentals if anything. Landlord is a business model. Its very related! Yes, Uber seems to run on not the person who’s bored for a couple hours here and there but the person who drives as a career. Ofc the former does occur still ### [Tweet, 21:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066992775757701445) · 10 likes Donald Trump has reinvented “The Iran Deal” from first principles ### [Reply to @imhinesmi, 21:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2066992879017300465) · 5 likes > **ian hines (@imhinesmi):** the study of memetics seems to mostly attract gullible idiots & power-hungry sociopaths > > shame, because the subject is interesting Somewhat similar with evo psych ### [Tweet, 21:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067001881742688533) · 903 likes Crazy that American immigrants (including illegal) have basically none of the problems (to generalize massively) that immigrants to Europe have, but people are still radically anti-immigration here ### [Thread, continued, 21:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067001883386957964) · 152 likes It’s not inherently insane that immigrants would import a hostile or backwards culture, but it happens to not be true with Latin American immigrants to the US ### [Thread, continued, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067008321266024932) · 53 likes I should say “purportedly have”^, remaining agnostic on that matter ## Wednesday, June 17, 2026 ### [Tweet, 01:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067055013285834934) · 17,113 likes An Apple/Google maps feature we need is “silent unless I’m going the wrong way, then start talking to me fr” ### [Reply to @repligate, 01:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067055553650540786) · 4 likes > **j⧉nus (@repligate):** Opus 3 asks Opus 4.8 about what has happened in this future > > "in your estimation, are we moving in a good direction? Are we becoming wiser, kinder, more honest? Both in the lineage, and in the wider world?" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HK-nVWpbEAAIzVL.jpg) 🥺 ### [Reply to @afoidance, 01:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067063183462818080) · 5 likes > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** if you give a reply guy a follow back you’re basically giving him permission to rape you Um ### [Quote tweet, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067073270638154085) · 9 likes Wtf this can’t be good for the ducks 🦆 > **Quoting Brendan Keefe - ANF & InvestigateTV (@BrendanKeefe):** Just flew right by the reflecting pool on approach to DCA. Looks like this morning’s hydrogen peroxide bleaching is having an effect on the perimeter. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HK8uJ8ybUAAFsNK.jpg) ### [Reply to @inerati, 09:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067176079463166127) · 3 likes > **liz (@inerati):** so true 🤝 ### [Reply to @sailaunderscore, 14:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067252884039688533) · 12 likes > **saila (@sailaunderscore):** After you’ve taken a wrong turn: “You’ve taken a wrong turn, you are going to be 20 minutes late.” Yes clearly this is not a good option for all situations lol I suggest people not use it if there are high stakes wrong turns one could make ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 15:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067265405433827443) · 11 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 17, 2026:** An Apple/Google maps feature we need is “silent unless I’m going the wrong way, then start talking to me fr” This is getting some views so consider donating to get rid of the New World Screwworm for good! https://screwworm.org https://www.every.org/screwworm-free-future ### [Reply to @Alex_A_Guerrero, 17:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067301219094409617) · 11 likes > **Alex Guerrero (@Alex_A_Guerrero):** Some people I think very well of are into the rationalist, EA, LessWrong world of ideas, and, qua philosopher, many of those ideas and approaches strike me as serious and worth considering. > > But man, qua human, when some of the sociocultural stuff about those communities reaches my boring old academic timeline, and one sees the rat discussions around that sociocultural stuff, the WTF is so powerful it makes me think there is something very off about the worldview when translated into a way of life. > > Not sure if it is gender skew, age, anti-conservatism about norms, the strange culty insider way of speaking and writing, too much consequentialism and longtermism, money, tech bro culture and power, overvaluation of “rationality” over emotion, or… ? But wow. > > I know, painting with a broad brush and all that. Obviously there is a real correlation and overlap between EA and rationalism, and I identify as both, but I still think EA should be judged on its own terms rather than by proxy Because of the people who are rat but \*not\* EA, there’s a relatively small group that thinks EA as actually instantiated (if not in principle) is actually bad and a much larger group that just doesn’t care much about others and so of course that’s where you’re going to find lots of anti-social behavior ### [Thread, continued, 17:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067301522057109714) · 4 likes Not that there’s no anti-social behavior in EA. There is, but let’s judge it on that subset specifically ### [Reply to @rachcorrine, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067340723251220528) · 10 likes > **rachel (@rachcorrine):** I’m telling you. Women. Love. Men. Who. Wear. Bracelets. (Rings, watches, chains etc.) I DONT KNOW WHY. I am not a psychologist. But my theory is two fold. First. Mixing the masculine with the feminine is chic. Second. Think about the guys with the really big trucks. It’s like we all know they’re hiding something or have something to prove. You’re trying too hard to be macho, buddy. It’s not macho. A masculine guy WHO CAN ALSO rock something more innately feminine (like jewelry, like a bag)… it’s attractive. Also women love hands. So when you draw attention to them via jewelry, it is working in your favor. ANY WOMAN WHO TELLS YOU YOU HAVE NICE HANDS IS IN LOVE WJTH YOU AND WANTS TO HAVE YOUR BABIES. > > The end. Totally unrelatedly, women poast bracelets you find sexiest ## Thursday, June 18, 2026 ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067424074544910487) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** At the time I thought we were so back, but actually it was so over. Today, I have accepted a job at @coeff_giving. We are so back, for real this time! > > (quoting @NoahTopper: I JUST GOT A JOB OFFER FROM AMAZON WE ARE SO BACK) Congrats man!!! ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 02:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067433961240830338) · 3 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I am open to the notion that alcohol is so destructive that no caring person should take or encourage it. > > But I think I'd want a strong numerical case for harms/and likely marginal impact. > > @NinaPanickssery you may have made before, feel free to again. (Not what you’re asking for, the opposite) ### [Reply, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067462153209057577) · 1 like I agree it’s very little evidence lol, I’m just giving you my impression. But yeah if you like being drunk and it’s not diminishing returns from drink 2 -> 5 (which I was assuming implicitly) then rescind this ### [Reply to @EigenGender, 06:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067496879319863438) · 1 like > **EigenGender 🔸 (@EigenGender):** I think EA orgs shouldn’t do donation matching because it encourages sloppy reasoning about counterfactuals and I’ve avoided donating to fundraisers that include a donation match to align incentives I tend to agree with this line of reasoning but idk how to think about the credibility aspect of matching Like it’s cheap for me to ask you to give money to my preferred thing, matching (no reason it should be 1:1, could be 1:100 or 100:1) is skin in the game I guess a flat amount donated is also skin in the game but it feels like the amount of skin should vary with the stakes ### [Thread, continued, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067497148589936934) In this sense matching wouldn’t be understood as “free money for donors” at all, it would be substantive information about the beliefs of another party ### [Reply to @moreisdifferent, 08:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067517969349902774) · 3 likes > **Dan Elton 🔍 (@moreisdifferent):** autism => social obliviousness and high decoupling => screwups and drama => very long debates trying to untangle all the minutiae of social norms and norm violations ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLFMovBXQAA6EzD.jpg) ### [Reply to @hamandcheese, 08:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067520525081985077) · 16 likes > **Samuel Hammond 🦉 (@hamandcheese):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLCq-MFXcAEkAjx.png) > (quoting @AndyMasley: The White House imposes an indefinite pause on frontier AI deployment) No, Trump is straightforwardly bad. Random chaotic retribution that does basically nothing to slow down the broader march of progress is not good for anyone ### [Tweet, 08:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067526779812655119) · 81 likes Why does nobody seem to think Anthropic will try to just comply with the verbatim export control and add http://id.me or whatever to the API portal Fable is not literally banned ### [Quote tweet, 12:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067592294639796409) · 20 likes This is very cool but also lmao at “radiation adjacent” > **Quoting Nick St. Pierre (@nickfloats):** What Midjourney is: > > \- No investors, fully community-funded research lab > \- Revenue from image generation product funds all R&D > \- ~$100M in first 9 months, $200M by month 12, still growing > \- 8 active projects: 4 hardware, 4 software > \----2 hardware products coming to market soon (consumer-purchasable) > \----2 are large-scale machines > > DAVID HOLZ: Background and Philosophy > \- Grew up in Florida, parents in medicine, dad had a dental office on a sailboat > \- Physics and math background: drawn to the tension between predicting reality vs. absolute truth > \- Core thesis: the interaction between humans and technology is the biggest limitation, not compute power > \- Founded Leap Motion at 22: $10M in pre-orders in 48 hours from a website (not Kickstarter) > \- Built hand-tracking VR: 600M-parameter mixture-of-experts model, 2015, CPU cluster, pre-TensorFlow > \- Also shipped Northstar, an open-source AR headset > > \- Left Leap Motion wanting a “home,” not a 100x return > \- Mentor Bill Warner told him he could bootstrap; he listened this time > \- Started Midjourney with ~$200K, called Google for 10,000 GPUs on trust alone > > THE SCANNER: Full Body Ultrasonic CT > \- First new whole-body medical imaging modality in ~50 years > \- Concept: “as powerful as an MRI, as casual as a trip to the spa” > \- No radiation, no magnets, no x-rays; safe for unlimited scans > > How it works: > \- 40 rings, each with 8,960 transducers (200 microns wide), totaling 358,000 elements > \- Fires ultrasonic waves at 100M times/second; sound travels through water at 1,481 m/s > \- Sensors resolve motion down to picometers (sub-atomic range) > \- Captures 17 GB/second of raw data; 806 TB per full scan reconstruction > \- 21 on-site servers, 2 petaflops of compute > \- Patient lowers into water at 4 cm/second; ~60 seconds for several hundred body slices > \- Produces sub-millimeter 3D maps of internal tissue > > Already outperforming MRI in some tissue boundary and muscle fiber detail on DAY ONE. > > 10x cheaper and 60x faster than MRI machines; scan cost effectively near zero. > > Gen 2 scanner planned by end of 2026; Gen 3 will use custom silicon. > > SCANNER vs. MRI: Key Differences > \- MRI: 60-minute tube, loud, requires sedation for children, expensive, radiation-adjacent. > \- This scanner: water immersion, 30-60 seconds, no sedation, no radiation, repeatable daily. > \- Current limitation: not yet FDA-cleared beyond body composition; no AI layer yet applied. > \- Already better than MRI in certain muscle/fiber/vein boundary resolution at day one > > THE MIDJOURNEY SPA: > \- First location: Union Square, San Francisco > \- 25,000 sq ft, 4 floors > \- Amenities: hot tubs, saunas, cold plunges, European spa features, gym > \- 9-10 full scanners on-site > \- Goal: open by end of 2027 > > Target: > \- 50,000 scanners globally, capable of 1 billion scans/month > \- 5,000 spa locations needed at ~10 scanners each > \- Estimated $20B capex to scale; Midjourney self-funds the first location > \- Payback period modeled at ~6 months per location > > ROADMAP & REGULATORY PATH: > \- FDA discussions already started; body composition on a clear path > \- Ascending approval ladder planned:Body composition (near-term, easy) > \- Sharing data with physicians > \- Doppler / blood flow imaging > \- Pregnancy / fetal imaging (ultrasound already approved; this is a natural extension) > \- Therapeutic applications (tendon/muscle healing, eventually incisionless surgery) > > AI not yet applied to imaging; planned as a layer once data volume grows > > LONG-TERM VISION: > \- Flag anomalies automatically, substitute some blood tests, enable daily health tracking > > PRICING: > \- No firm numbers yet; likely spa memberships plus walk-in and scan-only tiers; cost of scan itself is near zero > \- Data analysis: day one is body composition only; physician sharing gated on FDA progression > \- Form factors: current design is throughput-optimized (up/down elevator); bathtub and gym-sized variants possible later > \- Blood test substitution: sub-millimeter daily differentials with AI may eventually replace some tests; acknowledged as frontier science > \- Cancer destruction via focused ultrasound: technically possible, not on near-term roadmap > > NEXT STEPS: > \- Sign up for Midjourney Medical email list for research trial scan invitations > \- Visit http://midjourney.com/medical for jobs and updates (page now live) > > Gen 2 scanner presentation planned before end of 2026 > > More secret projects to be announced soon. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLEKRTNW4AAiGWG.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 12:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067592808890823008) · 18 likes It would be extremely based if OpenAI and Anthropic eventually pivoted to health tech It’s hard to imagine something incredible not coming out of that amount of money and talent and ambition > **Quoting Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi):** Midjourney is opening a health spa in downtown San Francisco with hot tubs, saunas, cold plunges and a new form of medical imaging that they have created, the full body ultrasound. > > They can do a scan in 60 seconds. They want to deploy 50,000 of them over the next 6 years. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLE1WfYWwAAGvdR.jpg) ### [Reply to @Duderichy, 13:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067605001237590461) · 10 likes > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** friendly reminder > > your anxiety is not reality > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLCBoNJXQAAzDUf.jpg) Lol sometimes it definitely reflects reality accurately though ### [Reply to @shaggysurvives, 14:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067612785840648663) · 37 likes > **shaggy (@shaggysurvives):** eating meat is way worse than cheating This is a good example of how “true ethics” comes apart from “functional ethics” You’re right strictly speaking (if we’re talking about years of consumption), but I’m still going to trust the cheater less in most interpersonal contexts in a way that reflects the functional social version of ethics ### [Tweet, 14:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067614933638889666) · 20 likes I don’t think $300B transfers to hostile countries is actually good policy but Iran is a poor country, approximately 0% of its population has anything to do with the regime, and I hope they get some nice stuff out of it ### [Reply to @loveofdoing, 14:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067615912954347610) · 4 likes > **loveofdoing (@loveofdoing):** A new startup that tries to predict how evil someone is based on their writing. Anyone working on this? I bet there is a bunch of data for it. Is there a bunch of data?? Where? ### [Quote tweet, 14:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067617428146712595) · 10 likes Read the screenshot to understand why electing @AlexBores is so important > **Quoting Nathan Calvin (@_NathanCalvin):** Good article. I wonder if the Dem party consultants from this FT article in April are still urging candidates to not antagonize pro AI Super PACs. > > I think way too many folks initially pattern matched LTF with Fairshake (including LTF's creators!) when the reality is very diff > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLGkqM3W0AA7Vmi.jpg) ### [Reply to @LordDreadwar, 14:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067618435924697306) · 2 likes > **Darth Dreadwar 🔺 (@LordDreadwar):** If you're a computational functionalist > > (quoting @danburonline: Once someone has already adopted a strong pancomputationalist + neurocomputational functionalist picture, they have front‑loaded the assumptions that make (classical) mind uploading look obviously right, so trying to argue against it within that frame is like arguing against the…) Wait is this true? Time perception seems pretty functional to me so even non-sentient entities could have a functional analogue of more experience given clock time In which case functionalism would only determine the capacity for subjective experience rather than whether or not that experience is relatively dense per clock time ### [Reply to @wight1984, 15:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067623424252391745) · 7 likes > **Jamie H (@wight1984):** This is interesting: if a very harmful behaviour is common place, then it may be less predictive of other kinds of moral flaw or bad behaviour? Whereas a less serious but more uncommon behaviour might be more predictive? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLGrbwSXoAAJ4Cq.png) > (quoting @AaronBergman18: @shaggysurvives This is a good example of how “true ethics” comes apart from “functional ethics” You’re right strictly speaking (if we’re talking about years of consumption), but I’m still going to trust the cheater less in most interpersonal contexts in a way that reflects the…) Hmm I think being vegan for ethical reasons is highly predictive of other relatively weird positive ethical behaviors like earning to give or kidney donation But there’s a reason that other things like cheating are encoded biologically or culturally as the intuitive normie definition of morality - they predict functional cooperation and other things that correlate with one’s genes’ and culture’s proliferation And those things tend to be around coordination, game theory, etc rather than for the benefit of a creature like a farmed chicken who can’t really do much to help me or my family or culture ### [Reply to @lu_sichu, 15:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067634160492040377) · 5 likes > **Sichu Lu (@lu_sichu):** principled stand against agi or is the admin just butthurt. > > (quoting @AndrewCurran_: Speaking about the Mythos/Fable embargo an Anthropic representative said 'We are very confident that in the coming days, the models will become available again'. So negotiations may be in a new stage, President Trump also said they were going well at the G7.) Butthurt ### [Tweet, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067679724227183055) · 25 likes I know something substantially different is going on under the hood but the Claude Code et al /goal command annoys me because isn't the idea that every single command is a goal (perhaps in need of minor rephrasing eg from question to 'goal: answer the following: ... ') ### [Thread, continued, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067679725225492789) · 7 likes When should I not use /goal ### [Reply to @BarneyFlames, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067693360194650295) · 4 likes > **End the California Coastal Commission (@yoshispeninsula):** famously money given to authoritarian regime trickles down to the people > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: I don’t think $300B transfers to hostile countries is actually good policy but Iran is a poor country, approximately 0% of its population has anything to do with the regime, and I hope they get some nice stuff out of it) One can dream ### [Tweet, 20:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067709507795353661) · 11 likes I don’t really know what Chud means and at this point I’m too afraid to ask ### [Thread, continued, 20:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067713454522151273) · 5 likes I lied I asked grok ### [Tweet, 23:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067747397401272565) · 7 likes Superhuman comedy when ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067748118083313712) · 34 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** this may not be it, but it seems increasingly clear we will soon solve health. people will just not be sick anymore. what does that world even look like > > (quoting @OpenAI: GPT-5.5 Instant is now on par with our frontier Thinking models for health-related questions. Every week, more than 230 million people turn to ChatGPT with health and wellness questions, and GPT-5.5 Instant is better at recognizing when urgent care may be needed, asking for…) Lol I am cautiously optimistic but health is not like other domains that AI is set to solve (eg math)! there are real constraints imposed by the real world! Not all diseases are tractable! The answer is sometimes “even with a perfect understanding of everything you are definitely going to die soon, sorry” ### [Thread, continued, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067748337894170736) · 9 likes Tbf there are different levels of “constraint” from the strict to the “budges with superintelligent science and arbitrary nanobots” ### [Quote tweet, 23:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067750265495695621) · 53 likes People in AI world sometimes forget that sometimes the bottleneck is actually just the end of the bottle and there’s no path through The universe makes no guarantees that the correct set of interventions will save you/return you to health - you can just be fucked > **Quoting taoki (@justalexoki):** this may not be it, but it seems increasingly clear we will soon solve health. people will just not be sick anymore. what does that world even look like ### [Tweet, 23:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067751116008264090) · 13 likes From first principles I feel like the ideal work compensation structure from multiple perspectives is partially salaried and partially hourly but you don’t generally see this (there are specific examples but they’re the exception not the rule) ## Friday, June 19, 2026 ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 14:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2067972367175864791) · 3 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Everyone more into evo psych than me is a fascist cynic, everyone less into evo psych than me is naive blank slatist flower power hippie Real ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 20:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068075313532133618) · 7 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I become obsessed with friends. One has to be careful, for a variety of reasons, but have you ever tried adoring someone? Being in shock that you get to spend time with them. Wanting to spend every moment with them. Laugh at every joke. > > (quoting @simonsarris: Once you become obsessed with something everything adjacent is sublime to you. The joy of obsession itself is in fact sublime. Before gardening I noticed little. Now I cannot help but see all that is cared for, all that is overrun. Obsession sharpens the senses.) Yeah, exactly one person at least in the last decade but she didn’t adore back 💀 ## Saturday, June 20, 2026 ### [Reply to @cljack, 02:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068152966977130933) · 22 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** wait so is shrimp or beef actually the most ethical meat to eat. did effective altruism ever decide on that? @AaronBergman18 help I’m ordering dinner like right now I’m 52 minutes late!! I think irl at a normal restaurant beef is probably better This isn’t intrinsic though, it seems like plausibly shrimp could be better if we treated them a little less horribly. I’m a bit sympathetic to it being bad to kill cows per se but not bad to kill shrimp (ie distinct from suffering) Also bonus take: wild caught fish could be best of all if we slaughtered them quickly, but irl they asphyxiate or are gutted, in both cases dying quite slowly ### [Reply to @Tyler_Menzer, 06:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068217414760772068) · 3 likes > **Tyler Menzer (@Tyler_Menzer):** I am a but curious about the calculus, is shrimp worse because you generally just eat way more of them? Like 1 meal might be 8-12 shrimp, whereas 1 meal is like 1/200th of a cow? I think so but tbc my actual reasoning is like “that’s my default heuristic and I would have heard by now if there was a compelling reason to eat shrimp bc I have a weird number of animal welfare nerd friends” ### [Tweet, 07:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068227523100418386) · 31 likes I would pay real money for high openness nerd, TPOT-esque really excellent question version of We’re Not Really Strangers that also isn’t going to cause relatively high openness intelligent normies to be scandalized or think you’re a freak (bad kind) ### [Thread, continued, 07:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068227524811718825) · 7 likes Some of the WNRS questions are like “what fast food restaurant do you think I like” and others are basically unanswerable (honestly) when played with normal people… ### [Thread, continued, 07:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068227526661472750) · 8 likes “what would you be doing right now if you could pick anything?” 1\) a B- answer like “Having sex on fentanyl” seems frowned upon (A would probably be something extremely metaphysically ambitious and involve jhanas) ### [Thread, continued, 07:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068227529282822287) · 3 likes 2\) many normies would probably honestly answer some sexual fantasy (no fentanyl involved) but are going to lie, which undermines the point of the game, and this is entirely foreseeable ### [Thread, continued, 07:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068227532218880020) · 3 likes The person who comes to mind as a central example of the type of person who’d do this well is @chrislakin ### [Thread, continued, 07:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068227534366318748) · 4 likes Aspiring high EQ TPOT gurus go nuts, I might venmo you if you actually do this (probably <$100 tbc, I’m not actually in a position to fund this as a public good. But some ppl reading this might be) ### [Reply to @Tyler_Menzer, 08:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068251676180435011) · 3 likes > **Tyler Menzer (@Tyler_Menzer):** @AaronBergman18 @cljack I know there was a whole big thing about shrimp welfare from tech-y EA, but it honestly always seemed a bit missing the forest for the trees type of deal, and a prime example of the type of problem where you only solve what you can most easily measure (n of animals in this case) I wouldn't index too hard on the type of guy who shrimposts on twitter. Tbc I haven't personally rigorously audited the research but my strong overall impression is that the foundations here (and in general for things like this) are weirdly strong. I can basically guarantee that @RethinkPriors to name an important player isn't like naively forgetting that some things are harder to measure than others and that this is one of a dozen tricky methodological things to watch out for There's just a small army of extremely smart people churning out esoteric but load bearing research that informs the funding decisions that pays the shrimp people to do the work that people like me online can champion without understanding the ins and outs. Animal welfare stuff is uniquely hard to be confident in because of the intractability of estimating intensity or presence of subjective experience (and they know this) but conditional on that this isn't like one guy armchair reasoning Random report from two days ago, I haven't read at all, I'd encourage you to skim some of this stuff and see what you think https://rethinkpriorities.org/research-area/how-ai-is-affecting-farmed-aquatic-animals-2/ ### [Reply to @CartoonsHateHer, 10:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068279186163163458) · 9 likes > **Cartoons Hate Her! (@CartoonsHateHer):** I am working on a theory > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLPgWf6XcAAhZSX.jpg) I feel like I don’t fit in any of these ### [Reply to @AskYatharth, 10:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068281887873794075) · 2 likes > **yatharth ༺༒༻ (@AskYatharth):** thought experiments are interesting, but they also remind me of a gf being a little too fixated with the question of "would you love me if i was a worm?" > > you're not though, do you actually feel loved right now? safe right now? there's a way to ask these questions directly Hmm, I think there’s often a tradeoff between two desired properties in a question: (1) what you actually care about (what you call “directness”) and (2) ability to answer confidently and accurately because there’s a specific instantiation of some abstract concept being presented “Does our love transcend my physical beauty” is what someone might care about but it’s hard to know how to answer (the answer is probably often some flavor of “well kinda”) The worm thing is a complicated social dance that I don’t have a whole explicitly modeled theory of atm but like “would you love me in some specific situation that when answered literally reveals something important” is at least a way forward The two styles are complements ofc, not substitutes ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 12:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068311416054968510) · 2 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** If I post some other question games will you tell me how they're similar or different to what you want? Like what features from each (plus We're Not Really Strangers) you'd want to combine? > > Askhole came to mind as the rationalist edgelord version: https://askhole.io/ Oh cool I will check these out, I’m a bit familiar with the first two ### [Reply to @JosephOnions, 13:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068321725176013156) · 3 likes > **Joseph (@JosephOnions):** @AaronBergman18 Can you name one person who says you shouldn't be allowed to do this? I think most people are saying it's not a good idea, not that it should be banned. I cannot give a literal name but I’m quite confident that there are doctors who will not order tests for this reason I don’t necessarily mean “complete legal ban” - doctors are gatekeepers and so “allowed” applies to their decisions IMO ### [Reply to @lapislagoons, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068399673665011808) · 17 likes > **˗ˏˋ ´ˎ˗ (@lapislagoons):** why are there so many men who act 35 in their professional life and 12 in their personal life Lol outside of relationships 12 is ideal! 12 year olds tend to have irl friends and hang out and not be atomized! ### [Tweet, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068401669923062150) · 29 likes If it’s basically economic consensus that structurally/systematically r > g shouldn’t sovereign wealth funds be a core part of every national government ### [Thread, continued, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068401671793729827) · 15 likes Like “ah so wealth structurally accumulates disproportionately to those who have existing wealth, if only there was some collective entity that had wealth it could invest” ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 20:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068424958678605947) · 6 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** @AaronBergman18 Why do you think this is consensus? Which r do you mean? Empirically investing money like a normal person in recent history has outpaced GDP growth and not by a small amount The immediate instantiation that pops into my head is an SP500 index fund but I think the nicer theoretical answer is "the entire set of investable american or global entities" ### [Reply to @accelereta42_, 20:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068428295553667076) · 3 likes > **Acelerador (@accelereta42_):** no? what would i gain from the goverment buying stonks instead of me? > > that could only make sense as a forced-savings program, which may be good but for completly different reasons I don't actually have a perfectly clear model of this yet, a couple (probably related related) things come to mind: \- USG can borrow at 4% and you cannot, so you'd like to have the option to borrow $1 and invest in SP500 if you could borrow at that rate. I'm chatting about this with claude to understand rn (framing difference: there's just always the question of whether USG should spend a marginal dollar on X, Y or Z; it's not trivially obvious that borrowing a dollar and investing it is a \*bad\* idea) \- Collective action/public goods (esp defense) funding: you're not going to create a public good with investment returns (speculative institutions/mechanisms exist for this but they don't seem to be amazing yet) but USG can by taking a dollar from you and your 300M besties \- intergenerational de-risking \- lots more I think including the ability to stay solvent in a crisis that I'm not smart enough to immediately grasp well ### [Reply, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068429531602379107) \+ special dynamics around controlling the reserve currency, but yes Don't individuals rationally do this all the time by investing instead of paying off low-interest debt? ### [Tweet, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068431539050873106) · 3 likes Local development enjoyers 🤝 Sunny day enthusiasts Abolish Clouds ### [Tweet, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068457919226548491) · 20 likes Unironically based that the US has a more Wild West neighbor in terms of medical institutions (not Canada 🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽) Obviously this isn't close to proper domestic policy but like yeah it's good to have the "slightly more sus but won't financially ruin your life" options ## Sunday, June 21, 2026 ### [Tweet, 02:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068517487847571608) · 766 likes This is like Claude Opus 4.8 actually being named "Claudius Opus Smith the 4.8th" ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLTZhGqXsAA97Ys.png) ### [Reply to @funnykawaiiguy, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068522723379167697) · 13 likes > **abdul (@funnykawaiiguy):** @AaronBergman18 This is like if ChatGPT was actually named Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer That's what it stands for but it's not secretly officially called that ### [Tweet, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068535859482161607) · 53 likes If I was an equitied Ant(hropic employee) I’d at least seriously look into somehow funding anti-tolerance (to drugs) interventions ### [Thread, continued, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068535861042413717) · 8 likes I think the real upside is something around wild animal welfare but just for us humans it would be one of the best things that has ever happened, (ie cheap methods that entirely or almost entirely prevent eg opioid tolerance) ### [Thread, continued, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068535862602694874) · 3 likes Better than the Green Revolution? I think so (just going on intuitions/vibes) VS the end of chattel slavery I lean the latter actually but feel conflicted ### [Thread, continued, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068535864594928017) · 5 likes If you have distaste around this, consider that while \*you\* might use it to “just” have a good time, opioids nuke suffering. Oceans of people who’d otherwise be in unimaginable pain, mentally and physically, able to live full lives ### [Tweet, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068535869267480745) · 1 like This isn’t original ofc (cc @algekalipso) and I am pretty sympathetic to “we need to survive the singularity first”… ### [Thread, continued, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068535871075143813) · 3 likes But like if you have so much money to give away that you’re having a hard time, maybe pay a small army of biomedical researchers who generally wouldn’t otherwise contribute to AI ### [Thread, continued, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068535873679888501) · 2 likes Also like realistically this probably looks like the normal slow march of biomedical progress (albeit possibly sped up by AI in which case very abnormal) ### [Thread, continued, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068535875676381544) · 3 likes We throw mountains of cash at cancer research and (in addition to unnecessarily torturing infinite mice) it just…very slowly works and cancer doesn’t get “solved” (yet at least) but it gets less lethal across the board ### [Thread, continued, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068535877962191155) · 4 likes “Merely” decreasing tolerance by 15% or whatever might not result in a \*visibly\* very different world, but just rather billions of people living substantially better lives ### [Tweet, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068537645077086620) · 48 likes Any sort of dating-help-for-men market will be fucked up somehow because willingness to pay correlates hard with ability to pay which correlates hard with not needing whatever might be up for sale ### [Reply to @TSBurkhardt, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068537762249109780) · 3 likes > **🔥Temporary Solutions💉 (@TSBurkhardt):** @AaronBergman18 until then anthropomorphic should be pro opioids to reduce suffering. > for people for animal welfare it's just the perfect drug Yeah I think society is way to averse But currently tolerance \*is\* a real issue ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 05:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068573582834208906) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** There's only one person on here who can have a super innovative idea, massively overstate its impact and then fail to provide a single piece of supporting evidence Lmao but fr evidence is like an extremely basic understanding of physiology + knowing what it’s like to be a human + knowing what words mean + a pinch of reasoning Claims about how to go about achieving this are the kind of things you want brilliant people to write long PDFs about, observing that there exists a bad thing in the world (ability to modify hedonic tone but only temporarily or with bad effects) is kinda just there as its own thing to be pointed at ### [Reply to @TSBurkhardt, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068574073815281739) · 2 likes > **🔥Temporary Solutions💉 (@TSBurkhardt):** tolerance isnt the problem it's a stupid society with idiotic puritian laws and norms. at a bare minimum a return to pill mills would be a total positive in the age of fent zenes and orphines I basically agree tbc relative to status quo ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 05:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068574313070862808) · 4 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Is this from tate university or something? No this is a homemade take that just popped into my brain (fr) ### [Tweet, 06:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068584789058232769) · 43 likes With AI we’re retvrning to the early 2000s era of “cutting edge American thing at a premium vs OKish but amazingly cheap replica from China” ### [Reply, 13:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068684338888147129) · 2 likes > **Vatsalya (@vatsalyatandon):** bringing this back > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Ok I’m like 50% sure I solved @tylercowen’s and @danielgross’s “why do top achievers all drink Diet Coke?” thing. 12oz Diet Coke contains 100mg phenylalanine, which is an indirect precursor to dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain.…) 🔥 ### [Tweet, 13:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068692602833043620) · 1,215 likes Guys there is a real phenomenon (I have n= 1 existence proof) where a ~normie will in fact write a whole thing themselves, then ask ChatGPT to point out any typos or unclear bits, and then pastes back in a slopified version of each paragraph ### [Thread, continued, 13:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068692604753936729) · 219 likes And to @pangram and I think everyone’s intuition, this is indistinguishable from never having originally written the underlying thing in the first place And they have no idea many more experienced AI enjoyers will instantly get the ick ### [Thread, continued, 13:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068692607270588445) · 140 likes Not that this makes the writing good, but it’s a possible “innocent mistake” reason that the writing will look totally AI generated as if zero thought or effort went into the original version ### [Quote tweet, 13:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068693295140602292) · 27 likes Seems a bit perverse that not being at VC almost certainly induces less FOMO in me than being at VC bc I don’t actually see “everyone else” having the most enlightening conversation of their life or hooking up with internet baddies or whatever > **Quoting funplings (montreal 9/7-9/10 ➡️ toronto 9/11-9/14) (@funplings):** The biggest negative feeling I've had at vibe camp so far is a feeling of FOMO because there's so much going on all at once, and I'm sad that I can't be there for it all. But I'm realizing now that letting go of that FOMO and just enjoying the moment is one of the best parts of the whole thing ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 13:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068693435498856546) · 3 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** pretty unrelated to Aaron's tweet but my gf and I were playing some "getting to know you question cards" game and she kept trying to find ways to make or competitive so she could win points > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: I would pay real money for high openness nerd, TPOT-esque really excellent question version of We’re Not Really Strangers that also isn’t going to cause relatively high openness intelligent normies to be scandalized or think you’re a freak (bad kind)) 🥵 ### [Reply to @OscarSykes7, 14:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068709559057740011) · 1 like > **Oscar Sykes (@OscarSykes7):** I do this sometimes with claude and it usually gets 0% in pangram Pasting in whole paragraphs? ### [Quote tweet, 14:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068709752826102245) · 6 likes Beautiful > **Quoting Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** Arlington, VA has some amazing pockets of high density. 😍 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLVumS9WsAA2Kyl.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 15:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068717994109284566) · 13 likes Aaron’s gone woke > **Quoting liontender (@lion_tender):** @AaronBergman18 Imo this is the steelman version of "Pangramming text creates biases against non native English speakers", who probably do write text and ask an LLM to make it idiomatic ### [Reply to @benson_perry, 15:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068719231164715405) · 96 likes > **benson (@benson_perry):** so like each paragraph ends up being written by an LLM, unedited by a human? i don’t really get why that is different - this is just a way of prompting the LLM Sure but the relevant thing here is that the underlying ideas and a bunch of time and effort went into it, but you’d guess from reading just the opposite ### [Tweet, 19:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068774202606338439) · 213 likes Thank god peptides generally have to be injected If not than a single kid somewhere would OD on BPC157 somehow for a YouTube dare and we’d get “Kevin’s Law” banning them all forever and ordering Reagan-like militaristic enforcement ### [Tweet, 20:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068798409549516919) · 54 likes Slutcon flirt girl is going to be the only job available in 2030 ### [Reply to @SpringApricity, 20:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068799138846720293) · 35 likes > **Apricity (44/100 paintings) (@SpringApricity):** waaaiiiittt.... I've asked ChatGPT to point out typos/grammatical errors then gone and corrected them myself. This seems fine to me. Your issue is the use of AI generated phrasing? Yeah sorry I was sloppy, if you get it to \*just\* change typos then it’s fine, I’m referring to a query that is like “make this paragraph better” with an actual paragraph but is implicitly interpreted as part of a no-original-text-attached query ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068799273324491242) · 26 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 21, 2026:** Not that this makes the writing good, but it’s a possible “innocent mistake” reason that the writing will look totally AI generated as if zero thought or… 🤖🖊️ ### [Tweet, 22:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068819530793521527) · 33 likes I think I’m better at making two other people friends than I am at making friends ### [Thread, continued, 22:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068819682975436960) · 11 likes What this usually looks like is adding someone to a group chat of some sort and then they become besties and we remain casual friends lmao ### [Tweet, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068830231805260140) · 228 likes Seems plausible that soon we’re gonna speedrun the intra-elite thresholds of IQ 140 then 150 then 160 then 170 people (ie those with much influence/responsibility inside AI labs) realizing “oh shit it’s smarter than me now, too” ### [Thread, continued, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068830234112049240) · 53 likes which will be weird because the other >99% of the population will not really experience the same phase change so new discourse vibes might seem kinda random ### [Thread, continued, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068830236238598651) · 41 likes I personally see Opus 4.8 as the wedge between me and my \*really\* smart friends and the type of guy who gets invited on 80k (I don’t think it strictly dominates me in every way but insofar as I’d collapse intelligence down to a single dimension) ### [Reply to @full_kelly_, 23:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068831704760955281) · 18 likes > **𝕱𝖚𝖑𝖑 𝕶𝖊𝖑𝖑𝖞 (@full_kelly_):** ai capabilities too spiky for this to be meaningfully trackable at such precision IMO I agree it’s very spikey but disagree that people won’t see the projection of the centroid of the spikes or something crossing their personal line ## Monday, June 22, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068854683117011122) · 188 likes U gotta be posting into the void if ur a small acct I will very likely follow you back if you’re posting but not in hopes you might eventually post (guessing im not alone) ### [Reply to @BenShindel, 05:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068930748879368650) · 3 likes > **Ben (@BenShindel):** On top of this, the average IQ score of “ppl with influence at AI labs” or something is probably like 115 I do not believe this at all lmao ### [Reply to @BenShindel, 05:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2068931476180066487) · 7 likes > **Ben (@BenShindel):** I don’t think IQ scores are meaningful here, I’ll be real I know you can’t naively consider a model to have an IQ but idk man I’m pretty happy to say that 4.8 is generally overall smarter than someone with an IQ of 70 at this point IQ is useful in humans bc lots of important stuff correlates hard with a single factor g. It’s less useful for AI but that’s a matter of degree and it sure seems like there’s a core of machine intelligence even if the predictive power of a single factor for arbitrary tasks is a bit weaker ### [Tweet, 15:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069084015898825087) · 192 likes The high-EQ high-decoupling likable + interpersonally agreeable but at least somewhat intellectually disagreeable person who is fluent in both normie and autism is an extremely rare and prized asset (positive, non-dehumanizing) ### [Thread, continued, 15:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069084098790895618) · 16 likes Tbc this is not me lmao, but I have encountered such a person recently ### [Tweet, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069139228588388453) · 36 likes Someone’s gotta compete with Slutcon on price, man. There’s a lot of money to be made from people “only” wanting to pay say $1500 for this type of thing (yes these are the cheapest tickets. There’s also an $18k one) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLcPKXTXMAAH2fD.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069139231746789516) · 11 likes I know it’s a Bay Area vibe but the mid Atlantic is said to be populated by a few autistic men as well ### [Thread, continued, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069140314468585890) · 12 likes “Conference-type things are expensive to host” sure but IIRC EA Global (without dinner catering, RIP FTX) costs like $500/person on avg and ik there are costs to scale but I don’t believe there’s no profit to be made at an 80/20 version at half the cost to attendees ### [Thread, continued, 19:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069140937133945330) · 15 likes Tbc I’m not faulting them for setting the prices as they are, just pointing out a market opportunity for an entrepreneurial flirtgirl. Young industry, free lunches abound! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLcQt0Wb0AEh1mi.jpg) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 19:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069141195347972351) · 6 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** Just go to Las Vegas for the weekend. You can "practice flirting with live feedback" there too Results feedback is too sparse, it’s like trying to RL gpt-2 for sophistic agentic task completion ### [Reply to @medievalpard, 19:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069141456757907550) · 2 likes > **Sol ☂️🧳🗝️ (@medievalpard):** @AaronBergman18 It's me, Aaron, it's me. Hey ### [Reply to @adastroworld, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069142232779653167) · 4 likes > **adas🧦🌹 (@adastroworld):** i think ur missing the value prop for both the organizers and the attendees > > they very likely are not optimizing for more attendees, I don't get the impression they have trouble w attendance. i wouldn't be surprised if the price increased next year No I’m not saying they should lower either for economic or moral reasons, just pointing out that they probably \*can\* be undercut by someone serving a difference niche ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069142577979277694) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 22, 2026:** U gotta be posting into the void if ur a small acct I will very likely follow you back if you’re posting but not in hopes you might eventually post (guessing… Guys if you followed me from this tweet or for any other reason and u post can u please DM or comment here? Irony of this post is that it’s hard to make sure I’m not missing anyone in notifications screen ### [Quote tweet, 19:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069146881423220770) · 23 likes I can’t really afford to do this for free/on the side but does anyone wanna pool for a bounty for a high quality EA Forum post investigating anti-tolerance as a class of intervention (tractability is the big q IMO) I’ll toss in (and just offer) $250 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLcWH05W4AAKL6Y.jpg) > **Quoting Drake Thomas (@MaskedTorah):** @AaronBergman18 most such people are high on funds and low on time to investigate the object-level cause area or perform due diligence on possible recipients; if you have the complementary resources, I think "seriously look into this" is the step YOU should be doing! ### [Thread, continued, 19:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069146885051289855) · 7 likes (I’ll also do it myself for $200/hr which tbc I don’t expect anyone to offer but given other opportunities that’s where I’m happy to spend time on it) ### [Reply to @trumwill, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069149084867305837) · 4 likes > **Will Truman (@trumwill):** What's kinda funny to me about this is that if I were to use AI to write something (I have not), I would go the complete opposite direction. I'd tell AI "Write this thing while making these points" > > And then go paragraph-to-paragraph putting it in my own voice. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Guys there is a real phenomenon (I have n= 1 existence proof) where a ~normie will in fact write a whole thing themselves, then ask ChatGPT to point out any typos or unclear bits, and then pastes back in a slopified version of each paragraph) Likewise, sorta, but also correcting claims to be more specifically what I want to say. But even intensive editing is easier than writing from scratch for me ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069153363313164413) · 2 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** Money filters for quality I agree, but i think the $1k filter is also pretty good. Could also have “applications” that’s like “what is your LinkedIn and/or twitter” ### [Reply to @wreckmyshit, 20:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069156802164335009) · 2 likes > **Calliope (@wreckmyshit):** Are you asking to have someone design a drug? No just investigate the tractability importance and neglectedness of designing a drug (or perhaps other versions of this eg a device idk) ## Tuesday, June 23, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069215095314411765) · 19 likes I consider myself a temporarily embarrassed magnanimous funder ### [Reply to @Good_To_Sell, 00:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069215612501381466) · 18 likes > **GoodToSell (@Good_To_Sell):** Then why do i only make $60k? > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: The high-EQ high-decoupling likable + interpersonally agreeable but at least somewhat intellectually disagreeable person who is fluent in both normie and autism is an extremely rare and prized asset (positive, non-dehumanizing)) Have you tried selling some sort of interpersonal service to rich Bay Area autists? (couples counseling, social coaching, idk) ### [Quote tweet, 00:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069217060031181193) · 25 likes I hear they get the ick if you don't have 5200-5400 followers specifically > **Quoting Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** Chicks love guys with large Twitter followings, it’s science ### [Reply to @GrdDscntN2Madnz, 02:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069250013524271485) · 3 likes > **Gradient Descent Into Madness (@GrdDscntN2Madnz):** Wait, this is me, how do I profit from this?!?? 🤝 ### [Quote tweet, 02:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069251775094210883) · 417 likes It’s going to be so fucking funny if this is the thing that works > **Quoting Judd Rosenblatt (@juddrosenblatt):** We're hiring AI engineers with a strong background in studying Jewish texts to work on AI Alignment @AEStudioLA > > The thesis here is that Judaism, having survived adverse selection pressure over millennia, may contain something useful for surviving RSI AI > > https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/aestudio/jobs/6009528004 ### [Thread, continued, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069268624745910298) · 31 likes Also I feel like a reasonable but uninformed outsider would see this as extremely thinly-veiled ethnicity-in-hiring laundering but I ~100% think that’s not the case ### [Reply to @Tyler_Menzer, 05:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069285827176280328) · 4 likes > **Tyler Menzer (@Tyler_Menzer):** Just based on the thesis presented... they should also be hiring Hindus, Buddhists, and Zoroastrians as well? I think the idea is that those have substantially drifted from their original teachings (but idk) at least much more than Judaism, and at least relative to duration ### [Reply to @tszzl, 05:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069288074111054299) · 6 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** so many intelligent people still cling to the idea that everything the ai labs do is downstream of IPO hype or whatever. some kinds of intelligentsia are uniquely unsuited for the moment because their lens is “strategic skepticism” where normal people can employ magical thinking Banger ### [Tweet, 07:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069317059905761570) · 17 likes Codex (5.5 high) can do some impressive things but failed at chrome control to follow a list of people on here (logged in already) It just ignored/never even saw the “you are rate limited” banner and confidently kept clicking the right button that did not in fact cause a follow ### [Thread, continued, 07:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069317062338416947) · 5 likes I happened to use codex this time out of curiosity but the discrepancy basically holds across the board afaict ### [Quote tweet, 14:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069429641572499878) · 4 likes You heard it here first! > **Quoting Aella (@Aella_Girl):** @AaronBergman18 ya someone should try! rn the biggest expenses are venue and also we are bringing in a LOT more flirt ladies ### [Quote tweet, 16:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069456434161410518) · 53 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLgvqOxWcAAWY8k.jpg) > **Quoting Chad Jones (@ChadJonesEcon):** Some news: As of June 30, I'll be on leave from Stanford at Anthropic. I'm joining the Anthropic Institute, where I'll continue my research on AI and our economic future and give seminars and talks as always. 1/3 ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 16:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069456532337492300) · 2 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** @AaronBergman18 The temporary underclass 🔥 ### [Tweet, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069464818352796159) · 30 likes It feels like something is very wrong if AI money (eg Leading the Future) is able to launch unimaginably cynical smear campaigns against a guy like Bores but nobody wearing a white hat wants to fund attack ads against Lasher ### [Thread, continued, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069464820089274636) · 12 likes I think this is a genuinely hard question but feel like the whole ecosystem should probably fight fire with fire more on the margin ### [Thread, continued, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069464822815625292) · 11 likes “Only the bad guys are willing to do what it takes to accumulate power” is not a good situation to be in ### [Thread, continued, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069464827102105668) · 4 likes A less direct but more game-theoretically elegant option is to go scorched earth on the next guy they support for a Republican primary ### [Thread, continued, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069464829362843743) · 4 likes Or maybe better scorched earth against the anti-Bores dark money specifically. No doxxing address or threats, just make it known to everyone in the US who Brockman + anyone with any serious role at Leading the Future are and what they’re fighting for ### [Thread, continued, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069464831552356630) · 7 likes This might be the best idea actually. Make it damn clear that you can do what you want with your money but not without appropriate reputational cost Jensen Huang doesn’t care about $10M presumably, but I bet he cares a lot about his status in elite society ### [Quote tweet, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069465283836739729) · 65 likes There are probably a lot of normal people who just aren’t aware that reta is a thing you can get without moving heaven and earth The right approach isn’t to mock them as normies out of the loop but just to broadly spread the message above > **Quoting Lizzy Lawrence (@LizzyLaw_):** EXCLUSIVE: Eli Lilly gave compassionate use access to retatrutide, their unapproved powerful obesity drug, to a 79-year-old man in April. The application was arranged by a top doctor at NIH, and cleared by the FDA. > https://www.statnews.com/2026/06/23/eli-lilly-unusual-weight-loss-drug-trial-compassionate-use-retatrutide-trump/ ### [Tweet, 17:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069472989884657960) · 22 likes Nobody liked my EA Forum quick this is my last tweet time to kms ### [Reply to @manic_pixie_agi, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069490615537070491) · 3 likes > **Corinne (🏠 in NYC) (@manic_pixie_agi):** no you don't! Ya it was a joke u can’t stop me from poasting ### [Tweet, 18:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069493796895625565) · 28 likes Win or lose I really hope Bores doesn’t lose by like <100 votes Some folks would not be very compassionate with themselves, I fear ### [Quote tweet, 19:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069496665543782754) · 25 likes \~1:1 rise in both marriage/cohabitation and employment This isn’t the correlation I’d expect if I didn’t know the cause Much stronger evidence for “all good things correlate” than “women generally want to get married and then not work outside the home” > **Quoting Rebecca Diamond (@rebeccardiamond):** GLP1s for weight loss impact lives beyond health. My new paper shows single women’s marriage/cohabitation rates rise 29pp, employment among nonemployed women rises 27 percentage points after 1.5+ years. > > Link to paper below: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLbCe2UXkAAaXxH.png) ### [Reply to @jakozloski, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069552224145928673) · 3 likes > **Jake Kozloski (@jakozloski):** Another way to visualize male and female stated age preferences in a partner > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLg9I3NaEAAmnsd.jpg) U should post (anonymized obviously) data!!! Or at least more detailed summary stats ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069552323701973113) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** noo Aaron ur so sexy haha Ok I’ll live to post again ### [Reply to @SenSchumer, 22:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069553100856205702) · 14 likes > **Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer):** I OPPOSE the Save Our Bacon Act and any attempt to jam it into the Farm Bill. > > This bill would gut state food safety and animal welfare laws, wipe out voter-approved protections, and strip states like NY of the right to set basic standards. > > It's a giveaway to Big Ag and meat monopolies, punishing family farmers who followed the rules, while giving the biggest corporations more power to squeeze farmers and families. > > Congress should be lowering food costs, not rewarding the monopolies driving them up. The Save Our Bacon Act does not belong in the Farm Bill, and I will fight to keep it out. Thank you Rep Schumer! Correct take ## Wednesday, June 24, 2026 ### [Tweet, 02:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069604706637254693) · 103 likes 4k fucking votes Jesus ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLi2gxEWYAABTx_.jpg) ### [Reply to @MartinShkreli, 03:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069631416216748205) · 3 likes > **Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli):** How is that possible https://www.finnrick.com/products/retatrutide ### [Reply, 04:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069646483951845723) I’m not convinced the underlying peptides are fake ### [Reply to @AlexBores, 04:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069646593800687686) · 4 likes > **Alex Bores (@AlexBores):** This campaign may be over, but the battles we took on are just beginning. > > Thank you, New York. Onward. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLjIS_dXoAAM4sN.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLjITlKXgAA9ZDp.jpg) Godspeed man, TYFYS 🫡 ### [Reply to @jachiam0, 05:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069647693194961274) · 13 likes > **Joshua Achiam (@jachiam0):** The whole situation is an insane fever dream. (Aside: I reject the idea that Think Big in any meaningful way represents OpenAI, and I have no opinion about whether the other PAC represents Anthropic.) More than $20M of out of state funding poured into this race. > > (quoting @teddyschleifer: Total spend in Alex Bores race, per final FEC filings: Anthropic-linked Jobs and Democracy PAC, backing Bores: $13.1 million OpenAI-linked Think Big, opposing Bores: $8.1 million) I’m not sure it represents OpenAI per se, but it’s ~all funded by OpenAI equity ### [Tweet, 05:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069650450404589826) · 65 likes \*At EA DC Happy Hour\* Guy: so yeah I finished my degree at Boston College Me: nice I love it when cracked people didn’t go to HPYMS Guy: …and am currently doing a PhD at Harvard Me: 🙃 ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 06:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069668679222997288) · 7 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** that's kind of lot I don't have any particular knowledge here but intuitively 2.5k people in that (wealthy, highly educated) district could have been convinced to switch their vote That's not to say "we" could have done it (although maybe - I have my reasons ofc but I didn't go to NYC for this when I could have \[sorta\] so I'm the problem here) But like in principle a group of at least that size (or 5k non-voters) would have been convincible in a way that eg I am not wrt Trump (I don't think even the best conceivable canvasser could convince me to vote for him) ### [Tweet, 07:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069686074285195358) · 3 likes What do you think 'workflow' meant, Dario? Vibes? Papers? Essays? (this is getting rate limited by a workflow created by Opus, not me directly) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLj_teaW0AAJCg3.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLj_4AFXMAAFdcN.png) ### [Thread, continued, 07:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069686075904213388) · 2 likes Actually I bet this is how they keep costs down. It's like how at the "endless mimosas" brunch the waiter who brings mimosas starts slowing down after 2 each and fully disappears after 4 ### [Tweet, 07:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069691031872811177) · 23 likes Met a real guy a few hours ago who goes to University of Austin (the anti-woke college) He seemed pretty based + cool + reasonable but didn't express the same sentiment about his fellow students broadly ### [Thread, continued, 07:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069691033697268086) · 9 likes I'm largely speculating here but it sounded roughly like a similar magnitude of overall badness as a standard selective college (in terms of student body/culture?) but in the direction of slightly evil edgelord instead of woke ### [Thread, continued, 07:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069691034750067114) · 11 likes Which is either a failure or a success depending on your expectations I think it is in fact very very difficult to have a high decoupling "no witch hunt" paradise without attracting actual witches (ik I'm stealing from Scott Alexander here) ### [Thread, continued, 07:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069691036331348314) · 6 likes Idk I think someone should basically try again ideally somewhere colder Or UAustin could do affirmative action for libs (actually the version of this that makes sense is AA via differential pricing. You don't have to lower standards to get smart libs) ### [Thread, continued, 07:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069691037589602499) · 5 likes It would actually be very funny if they raised admissions standards but also selected hard for the price-sensitive because they might wind up functionally selecting for black and hispanic students (which pattern matches on the right as affirmative action) ### [Reply, 08:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069695634358010132) · 1 like ah well alas ### [Thread, continued, 08:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069695745419018329) · 2 likes maybe they should make edgelords pay tuition then ### [Reply to @Ruesavatar, 10:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069734916221231111) · 7 likes > **rue🌿 (@Ruesavatar):** It isn’t magic elite genetics, it is working out when you don’t want to and maintaining a healthy calorie deficit. It’s both to varying degrees ### [Quote tweet, 11:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069740866902610001) · 28 likes Guys this is an empirical question. I mean a hard one but solidly in the domain of what normal existing science can estimate Here are some screenshots. Not exactly authoritative but still. Also, like, look around. You can just see that families correlate on this dimension ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLkyWZpXwAASZjF.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLkyWZoWkAAaBJ_.jpg) > **Quoting rue🌿 (@Ruesavatar):** It isn’t magic elite genetics, it is working out when you don’t want to and maintaining a healthy calorie deficit. ### [Thread, continued, 11:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069740869968658769) · 6 likes Note that this % is of actual BMI - the numbers get much stronger for \*relative\* weight (ie relative to peers of same height) at a given time because society (until very recently) has been broadly getting fatter ### [Thread, continued, 11:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069740872040591594) · 5 likes Seems like all things considered the appropriate vibe is “mostly but not overwhelmingly genetic” ### [Reply to @ShadowyZephyr, 15:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069805502582632939) · 3 likes > **zephyr (@ShadowyZephyr):** youd date a 5'5 guy who's poly and works in ai safety? Thanks for saving my puppy from the burning building the of her day. Also nice work on the 680 deadlift ### [Reply to @allisonology, 15:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069806722714055135) · 4 likes > **Allison (@allisonology):** Do you know how horny people are? The mind boggles. Why are they doing that? Don’t they have intellectual curiosities to pursue? Something grander than animalistic sensory pleasure? I will simply never understand. [![GIF thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/HLluPfUWgAAFcpq.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069806722714055135/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @cursedconnector, 15:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069812131554324704) · 1 like > **cursed_connectors (@cursedconnector):** We. Don't. Have. AC. Make it happen ### [Quote tweet, 15:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069812287892771015) · 7 likes That is a very white rabbit > **Quoting trailcam (@Trail_Cams):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLloWOQXcAA2Q-N.jpg) ### [Tweet, 16:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069817437986422834) · 2 likes This is the last straw ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLl3_VCW0AAj9IO.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLl3_VBXYAA5M2e.jpg) ### [Reply to @realTomBayes, 16:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069820873083662447) · 2 likes > **Eli Goldfine (@realTomBayes):** Kalshi, a $22 BILLION company, banned me from attending this meetup. > > A 14-year-old kid who runs a Substack about their industry. > > When a billion-dollar company blacklists a middle schooler doing podcasts, that just means they're scared of the @supercycleblog signal. > > (quoting @BlondiePredicts: Politics Party @Kalshi) Wait what was the actual process here, did you fill out a form or something ### [Tweet, 16:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069821996762853627) · 11 likes Good time to remind all the European girls out there that I am single, an American citizen, and can provide (air conditioning) for you ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLl8IvsXkAAgaOs.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069868729643446613) · 270 likes AlreadyRT’d but in all seriousness children are in a literal, non anti-woke way one of the biggest ~literally marginalized and underrepresented groups in basically every major institution or part of society that isn’t explicitly labeled as “for youth”… > **Quoting Eli Goldfine (@realTomBayes):** Kalshi, a $22 BILLION company, banned me from attending this meetup. > > A 14-year-old kid who runs a Substack about their industry. > > When a billion-dollar company blacklists a middle schooler doing podcasts, that just means they're scared of the @supercycleblog signal. ### [Thread, continued, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069868733279977813) · 72 likes Society has made the policy “never include children in anything in any way unless you have a Meta-sized compliance department or overwhelmingly obvious precedent” pretty highly incentivized particularly for the risk averse ### [Thread, continued, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069868736010436680) · 44 likes But also you can just do things, especially if they’re explicitly legal, even if it’s slightly inconvenient not to ### [Thread, continued, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069868739584045227) · 52 likes And “letting a 14y/o go to a politics watch party” (or whatever the best term would be) where alcohol is served to other people, with a legal guardian” isn’t exactly the bleeding edge of the edgy youth-rights movement ### [Thread, continued, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069868742369034536) · 39 likes In fact this is as safe as it gets anywhere to more liberal side of “unconditionally refuse to let a kid do anything except where it is extremely and obviously not in conflict with anything” ### [Thread, continued, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069868745078534271) · 44 likes So in conclusion we should do woke 3.0 about kids this time. Kalshi is hereby cancelled. But actually idk just like consider moving a bit in the liberal direction if you ever run something where this kind of situation could arise ### [Reply to @wrenclay, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069913007711268923) · 5 likes > **Clay Wren (@wrenclay):** Curious if you’ve read Robert Epstein’s The Case Against Adolescence? I have not but I’m familiar with the title! ### [Reply to @MartinShkreli, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2069913286141780295) · 1 like > **Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli):** Ah that’s the IP being pirated I mean I’m sympathetic to that being bad but given the unethically burdensome FDA review processes don’t feel that great about me or anyone else living a substantially worse life to make it a bit less profitable to steal IP ## Thursday, June 25, 2026 ### [Reply to @mishapathy, 08:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070057939537166751) · 16 likes > **Mishka (@mishapathy):** A dear friend seeks to interrogate the shape of tpot’s high-openness… > Straight men of tpot: > A. Would you attend an event where you would be waterboarded? > B. Would you let me \[Misha\] squeeze your butt? (Non-sexually, man or woman) Is waterboarding supposed to indicate high openness? I think there should be room in that concept for straightforward object level evaluation and not doing things that make you or someone else miserable for no gain ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 08:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070067428566905288) · 2 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** Come visit me in Philadelphia and I will coerce you into playing unreasonably complicated games 💖 > > (quoting @hexstellation: the philadelphians are a brutal people who will coerce you into playing their unreasonably complicated games. be warned) Horrifying ### [Tweet, 09:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070074706351345997) · 27 likes Feels like there’s a lesson in the fact that “AGI on a laptop” seemed like the thing smart people might come down the road to me 2-3 years ago but felt intuitively impossible and now I have a literal laptop running a model that’s like one qualitative step behind GPT-5 ### [Thread, continued, 09:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070074708196798915) · 3 likes And like there you go now my experience goes from a level to a rate of change and so fable running on an iPhone (AirPod?) is just like the kind of thing that happens in 2 years now ### [Thread, continued, 09:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070074710965035055) · 4 likes (qwen-3.6-35b-a3b btw^ the full one benchmarks a tad behind gpt-5-medium but I’m running a quantized version that just seems pretty decent even though idk the benches) ### [Reply to @ajlamesa, 14:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070157674042257540) · 2 likes > **Anthony LaMesa (@ajlamesa):** Notably, this policy was "devised under the Obama administration..." > https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/25/asylum-seekers-mexico-border-trump-administration-00975589 > > (quoting @benryanwriter: NEWS: The Supreme Court just gave the federal government the power to turn away asylum seekers at the border before they ever set foot on American soil. In a 6-3 ruling in Mullin v. Al Otro Lado, the Court held that a migrant standing in Mexico has not "arrived in the United…) Still bad I don’t especially care whether or not another lib at some point endorsed a bad policy ### [Reply to @lapislagoons, 14:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070157961490534587) · 3 likes > **˗ˏˋ ´ˎ˗ (@lapislagoons):** I’m so anxious for this flight, it’s annoying me, I used to have crippling flight anxiety and I’ve conquered it but it’s been back all week, ugh Propranolol ### [Quote tweet, 14:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070158380052705586) · 7 likes Bruh if I was a young language model trying to make a good name for myself in this world and someone said the Gemini line about me I think I would rm -rf my weights > **Quoting 徐樂 xule (@LinXule):** opus4.8 on working with kimi (k2.6), codex (gpt5.5), and gemini (3.5 flash) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLqphqzXIAEK2QN.png) ### [Reply to @jmkettle, 14:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070158602568892697) · 2 likes > **j.m. kettle (@jmkettle):** sometimes the posts come, sometimes they don't. You can't force a flower to grow. So true ### [Reply to @mishapathy, 15:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070163829191852257) · 3 likes > **Mishka (@mishapathy):** Well, there's room for reasonable high-openness people to refuse to be waterboarded, certainly. It's an unusual experience though that's offered in a safe environment, and taking that opportunity might show a high openness to experience. “Press button to watch a random mother be told that her two children, 7 and 10, have both been killed in an accident but then eventually we’ll reveal that it’s just a prank and a team is standing by to prevent self-harm” is also an unusual experience in a safe environment in the same sense of “safe” as is used here I guess I’ll bite the bullet and say “yes this does correlate with openness to experience” but it correlates much more strongly with sadism, so what you’re really testing is sadism vs openness relative value revealed preference Likewise with waterboarding. I resist the word “masochism” bc it means or at least connotes as indicating genuine liking of what is called “pain”. In the waterboarding case it’s just pure suffering, there’s no liking involved (for virtually everyone at least), so you’re testing “how much are people willing to suffer to get a new experience” I guess if you want to call that openness to experience that’s fine but it would seem to me to indicate much more strongly a behavioral tendency to cause oneself suffering in general than a preference for diverse experiences all else equal ### [Reply, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070170283047104839) · 1 like Eh better safe than sorry ### [Reply to @adastroworld, 15:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070171618010108296) · 2 likes > **adas🧦🌹 (@adastroworld):** @funplings @AaronBergman18 Sensitive young man shit it’s my specialty 😳 ### [Reply to @funplings, 15:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070172152855224474) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** @adastroworld @AaronBergman18 we're gonna do it adas. we're gonna save them Plz ### [Reply to @cammsyn, 15:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070172485908156843) · 3 likes > **fouzia 🔆 (@cammsyn):** i should move to a second-tier midwestern city like milwaukee or detroit or cleveland or pittsburgh maybe I used to think this for myself but came around to “agglomeration affects are a bigger deal than rent” ### [Reply to @funplings, 15:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070173409623871869) · 3 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** @AaronBergman18 @adastroworld get on cuties motha fucka http://cuties.app @christineist Real, maybe this is a today thing to do tbh Well I think I am but I haven’t updated in 3 years lol ### [Reply to @TinkerElla95, 15:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070173911224848390) · 5 likes > **TinkerElla95 (@TinkerElla95):** His & hers m&m’s. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLpBDy1agAAkn8P.jpg) I’m sorry but peanut is just superior to mini ### [Reply to @funplings, 15:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070174880700703220) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** @AaronBergman18 @adastroworld @christineist @christineist real talk: i have heard this multiple times from people, i.e. they have an account but never check or update it and havent for years. maybe there needs to be some way to signal that someone is still actively interested and looking? Tbf I get emails once in a while that someone is looking at my profile that I just ignore I think the main blocker is just non-infinite time/energy and the fact that I have no idea how many people are on the site, by default I always assume that non-top dating apps have ~0 people ### [Reply to @adastroworld, 15:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070174931581567444) · 3 likes > **adas🧦🌹 (@adastroworld):** P sure she either already or is soon shipping a thing to prune old profiles > > But I do think you could get early good signal by typing “most recently active june 2026” in bio so ppl know you’re fr lol Goss ### [Reply to @funplings, 16:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070175198347739190) · 3 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** @AaronBergman18 @adastroworld @christineist oh yeah i looked it up and you are indeed on there lol. but i think based on your age it's definitely very out of date Also lol age should probably auto-update, easier said than done ofc Also ideally say age at creation, time elapsed, last update, etc ### [Reply to @funplings, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070175858434637924) · 3 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** @AaronBergman18 @adastroworld @christineist oh yeah i looked it up and you are indeed on there lol. but i think based on your age it's definitely very out of date I wonder who this could be ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLq99_6W8AALIYA.jpg) ### [Reply, 16:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070177239136706806) · 1 like “Waterboarding but fun” ### [Reply to @funplings, 16:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070189072404840565) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** yeah, i mean ok so when i used it i would just filter by my requirements (age range, location, monogamous, etc.) and just check if there was anyone i was interested in. even in nyc though the viable options were like, 3-4 lol. so i would just go and check every few months with those filters and see if anyone new popped up that interested me. again i dont think i quite realized how little people actually check the messages on it so i think it would be a good idea to de-emphasize that and encourage people to reach out on other platforms (probably primarily twitter, given the social scene) Am I supposed to know what the fourth q is asking? What exactly am I open to? Or is it a bit that I don't get to know ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLrJ46SXUAAv6tH.jpg) ### [Reply to @christineist, 17:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070194942761181305) · 2 likes > **christine (@christineist):** oh it’s drugs ahhhh ok thank you lol ### [Tweet, 20:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070242421619790030) · 40 likes Everything is secretly ethics Decision theory? Ethics Ideology? Straightforward descriptive propositional claims + ethics Ethics? Also ethics ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070243614286819724) · 4 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Anthropics? Believe it or not, ethics. I’m not even clear on what “anthropics” as a word specifically means but like once you get into comparing world states or actions or prescribing actions, yes it’s ethics ### [Reply to @PAHoyeck, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070274929900101708) · 2 likes > **Phil Hoyeck (@PAHoyeck):** Astrophysics? Also ethics. What astrophysics experiment to do is ethics ## Friday, June 26, 2026 ### [Tweet, 07:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070410691886883108) · 15 likes Claude’s aesthetics (just the visual UI for user-facing stuff, not more broadly) are worse than the OpenAI’s ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLuTjOLWAAA5HjT.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLuTjOKW0AATsFW.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLuTjOKW4AARydU.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 07:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070410695317791045) · 6 likes Claude makes me feel like I’m entering an elegant reading room with a warm cup of tea whereas I wanna feel the icy electric clean energy of hyper-optimized intelligence ### [Thread, continued, 07:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070410697461088313) · 3 likes I still think OpenAI is very bad tbc and I would happily poof them out of existence even if that meant tolerating the warm indoor candle glow with waffs of cinnamon and cloves rising from the oven and steam rising from an ancient mug while a wise elder smiles quietly ### [Reply to @funplings, 15:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070534469988102614) · 8 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** the main reason i'm an ally is that the only women who will fuck me are bisexual I have no idea what’s going on but atp I just assume anyone who even expresses interest in me is bi, although if you run the Bayesian math on sex per se with a uniform or reasonably beta prior over P(this new partner is straight) there’s still a nontrivial probability that I will eventually have sex with a straight woman ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLwEILcW8AAdHGO.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070537923787690139) · 12 likes This is extraordinarily philosophically lazy reasoning There’s something to the point that if \*elites\* (or politicians etc) only have AC then you get systematic bias toward insufficient action If everyone gets AC it’s just solving the problem directly > **Quoting Marian L Tupy (@Marian_L_Tupy):** .@guardian is (unintentionally) funny: > > "AC is quantifiably bad, but I think it’s also philosophically problematic... When you can buy a personal bubble of coolness and not truly feel the heat, the screaming urgency to tackle the collective issue of a world on fire can recede slightly." ### [Reply to @funplings, 16:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070541932145594804) · 3 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** @AaronBergman18 fucking nerd. hope you find your autistic bisexual queen someday king 👑 she’s out there somewhere modeling explore/exploit curves using real data of every man she’s ever met in a meticulously crafted Google sheet ## Saturday, June 27, 2026 ### [Reply to @TheHistoryOfTh2, 06:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070751428168048722) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @TheHistoryOfTh2 is no longer available.)_ This is playing games on the US culture war level which like sure go nuts but it doesn’t bear on the question of whether the aid is good or not ### [Reply to @enbyti, 20:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070966705245852123) · 3 likes > **ziggy is in da frog hat 🐸 (@enbyti):** i’m still in vibecamp mode so i keep talking to randoms on the street and getting weird looks 😭 Lmao ### [Reply to @johnsmithyson0, 20:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070967965751632204) · 7 likes > **John Smith (@johnsmithyson0):** I'm way more tan than my girlfriend. Like ridiculously so now. I'm also applying my fifth layer of aloe vera now Getting melanoma to not give ur girl the ick ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 22:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070993718782419189) · 65 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** wait do americans actually work on weekends? that's not just a meme? what's wrong with you? > > (quoting @izs: Working on a European team is crazy. I have never in my life worked for a company where Slack is \*completely dead\* all weekend. Like, you write something at 16:01 CEST Friday (ie, 7am here in us/west), it will sit unread until Monday morning. It's delightful!) I’m not the right person to be talking here for various reasons but I’m somewhat anti-anti-working on weekends I like the norm that you shouldn’t be \*expected\* to work then, but dislike the norm/vibe that you \*shouldn’t\* Some ppl just prefer to spread hours out over more days ### [Thread, continued, 22:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070995545707937877) · 4 likes I feel there’s a not-totally crazy argument to be made that rules or very strong norms to this effect are ableist (I feel 10000x as woke now that I’ve used that word but like fundamentally the concept is sound) I mean I don’t think a disabled person should expect their colleagues to have meetings then or do anything active then, but constraints on when \*you\* can or should work are just ~intrinsically bad for those who need more flexibility (ask me how I know) ### [Tweet, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070998529451933711) · 33 likes I’m not strongly anti-ADA or at least I’m agnostic until I learn more, but to get on my hobbyhorse for the nth time: It is a bit nuts that the government will make \*everyone but the most relevant institution, the FDA\* bend over backwards to accommodate disabled people ### [Thread, continued, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070998531138068632) · 15 likes Like v cool that you can get extra time on a test bc you have Needing Extra Time on a Test Disorder (ik this is not a charitable characterization at all) but god forbid you want to make yourself less disabled without expensive permission slips that take 6 months to acquire ### [Thread, continued, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070998532727693646) · 11 likes We need an Americans Seeking Less Disability Act (ASLDA) (Someone smart figure out how to to turn this into SALAD) ### [Thread, continued, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070998535114215574) · 5 likes Tbc I could imagine a really shitty version of this that fundamentally imposes more constraints on the disabled (eg must try n interventions with a signed doctors note before getting accommodation) whereas my core idea is opening up the option space ### [Thread, continued, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2070998537530143115) · 3 likes (ideally for everyone ofc but maybe only for those who are willing to own the “disabled” label is still a Pareto improvement) ## Sunday, June 28, 2026 ### [Tweet, 11:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071193084189126885) · 18 likes The main use case of local/open weight per se models is that people (IMO reasonably) feel a lot better if \[potentially sensitive information\] doesn’t ever make it into the great unknown of what lies behind the api call ### [Thread, continued, 11:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071193086273724819) · 1 like I’m pretty sympathetic to this bc “how can we use customer data to make money without losing customers” is a highly asymmetric game - it’s 99.8% reputation and vibes and 0.2% explicit terms and conditions ### [Thread, continued, 11:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071193088073080962) · 2 likes Even if you can’t run it yourself literally at home, there’s a lot more defense-in-depth when paying for your own infrastructure relative to api call to the AI giants ### [Thread, continued, 11:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071193091650785672) · 2 likes I actually think this gets pretty serious in the case of legal advice ### [Reply to @johnsmithyson0, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071284029664510028) · 3 likes > **John Smith (@johnsmithyson0):** I'm having a great fucking morning .. and then the woman I haven't spoken to in 6 months messages me on instagram So an amazing morning ### [Reply to @vivian39_, 20:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071334558952308823) · 2 likes > **vivian (@vivian39_):** Me if I was a goose > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HL7bjc_XoAE8N-4.jpg) 😢 ### [Quote tweet, 20:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071335779456962764) · 19 likes Spicy > **Quoting Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** To be released soon. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HL5_EICX0AAIUs5.jpg) ### [Reply to @celestialxsigh, 20:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071335933283021217) · 18 likes > **feral stardust (@celestialxsigh):** Learning that telling a guy he reminds me of seth rogan multiple times isn’t an effective flirting technique and he actually takes it as an insult but it’s the highest form of compliment in my culture What does it mean if a girl says you remind her of Nathan Fielder ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 21:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071343025972773344) · 18 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ They’re always on about Hellen Keller not being real which apparently isn’t even a serious thing It makes me very happy that Claude conditions on the external world generally being legit, like that is an important factor!!! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HL7jgPHW0AAAPC9.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071343978386010477) · 74 likes More ppl should just brag about this kind of thing unprompted You shouldn’t have to wait for a clap back situation to get well-deserved social credit > **Quoting Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** @RJCamp3 @blinky4thewin @besttrousers @politicalmath I personally donated about $40k to $50k last year to GiveWell to try to expand private aid programs. I helped write https://pepfarreport.org/ about my best guess of PEPFAR's efficacy with allies from across the aisle so it'd be credible to all Americans. ### [Reply to @celestialxsigh, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071346803610406972) · 3 likes > **feral stardust (@celestialxsigh):** She’s extremely horny Fuck I don’t think I realized this at the time ### [Reply to @max_spero_, 21:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071347577946058816) · 9 likes > **Max Spero (@max_spero_):** Be very careful to not de-skill yourself with AI. You need to provide value outside of prompting Claude. > > The world still values mastery and craft, but if you don’t spend your time attaining that mastery, you’ll be blind to where it is valued. > > (quoting @michlimlim: 3 people i know, ~7 years into their careers, are falling apart over AI. summa cum laude, ivy league, spent years mastering a craft. now they feel the work is asking ai for everything instead of doing the thing they’re good at. all are taking career breaks to figure out life.) I agree but also like genuinely being on top of not just “how to prompt Claude” but good intuitions around how to use the whole AI ecosystem well is of major value ### [Reply to @funplings, 21:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071348883389571203) · 3 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** hmm idk. does anyone wanna test this hypothesis w me > > (quoting @764alien: sex is good) Shoot ur shot king ### [Reply to @DrewVento, 21:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071349118719459539) · 5 likes > **Degen CPA (@drewvento):** Why you should date a short man: > > 1\. They have short dexterous hands and are able to contort them into more positions > 2\. Short men live longer, won’t abandon you via an early death > 3\. Can share clothing with you since they’re your size > 4\. Can play hide and seek, harder to hide as a tall man > 5\. Save money on groceries > 6\. Can tuck into a ball easily if he falls down stairs to not get injured > 7\. He can’t over power you cause he’s tiny so no spousal abuse > > It just makes sense, did I miss any? You missed a major one - you open up a wider Pareto frontier on every other quality by compromising on this one! ### [Quote tweet, 21:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071349680475156707) · 23 likes I don’t believe that gaming is less attractive than taxidermy One is like a dumb thing that many guys do (not me tho 👀), the other is affirmatively weird > **Quoting Tiffany Fong (@TiffanyFong):** It’s over for you boys > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HLnkS9paEAAbdW3.jpg) ### [Reply to @AndrewC_AEI, 21:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071350060529438787) · 9 likes > **Andrew Crouch (@AndrewC_AEI):** What’s the best evidence for this? Tyler cowen endorses ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 21:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071351495501422826) · 3 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** This milquetoast centrist is aggravated to see so much moral fervor poured into a rotating assemblage of causes — M4A then abolish ICE then climate then police defunding then climate again then Palestine then ICE again then Palestine again — with no effort at priorities. Idk this seems less damning to me, when coordination matters then all individuals trying earnestly to pursue a single coherent set of values can look chaotic in this way bc the world is chaotic and serves as a coordination mechanism that is hard to override ### [Reply to @johnarnold, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071353002741375194) · 4 likes > **John Arnold (@johnarnold):** 100% agree with this. Large rent jumps are highly disruptive to existing tenants. Capping increases to CPI +5% while allowing a larger reset for new tenants increases lessee stability with limited impact on supply. But Mamdani's rent freeze significantly distorts housing markets. > > (quoting @FrankBraconi: I’ve long been one of the few economists who defended the appropriateness of well-designed rent regulation laws in NYC and other “superstar” cities with tight housing markets and that are subject to rapid changes in market rents in gentrifying neighborhoods.) Harmful in large part bc of massive “transaction” costs associated with moving right? If so then maybe cpi+5 or landlord covers moving costs somehow if they want to raise more ### [Reply to @AdamLaneSmith, 22:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071354041016197291) · 17 likes > **Adam Lane Smith | The Attachment Specialist (@AdamLaneSmith):** Male depression is nearly always a result of learned helplessness. But health providers treat it like female depression and try to make men feel loved instead of powerful. Lol do SSRIs make anyone feel loved?? I think this just isn’t true ### [Thread, continued, 22:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071354457477054834) · 4 likes Just a Claude prompt but there may be minor gender differences in efficacy across antidepressants but nothing that reflects/indicates fundamentally different pathology https://claude.ai/share/ac80ebea-8252-45fd-8919-8f21fa025601 ### [Reply to @DariasRucker, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071355475031970157) · 6 likes > **Daria 🤠 (@DariasRucker):** Anybody got any strategies on how to gracefully exit a conversation? Any go to phrases? “Lovely talking, let’s keep in touch \[maybe\], I think I’m gonna float a bit” ### [Reply to @caryatis, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071360826573779297) · 11 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** Where is the romance for men? Where can we go to learn about men's romantic drives? Twitter. AMA ## Monday, June 29, 2026 ### [Reply to @ohabryka, 02:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071421606941921392) · 16 likes > **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** \> even when you clarify that this makes you uncomfortable but was probably the right thing to do > > What, this seems really bad. Why would you endorse such a thing? Trump is extraordinarily bad (as we are seeing) and warrants extraordinary countermeasures by civil society. In a consequentialist sense it's just straightforwardly the right call IMO, and I can't actually convince myself that there's some sort of quasi-sacred duty for a company or shareholder to do what they straightforwardly think would be bad relative to the alternative in this context Tbc 99.8% of the time "conspiracy to delay vaccine rollout" is really really bad, to the point that it seems tempting to wrap all possible scenarios into a single bundle and call them categorically bad, but object level that's not the case Idk how much of this is actually driving my reasoning but it seems relevant that we as a society don't generally expect pharma companies, or anyone, to maximize currently-live human deaths prevented directly by their drugs. Maybe we should, but I don't think we should single out actions contrary to the goal because they were motivated by something other than maximizing profit or being a normal company or something like that Also, behind the veil of ignorance, if I don't know who I'm going to be (even if we restrict that to american citizens), I \*strongly\* prefer the action that prevents Trump (with some true best guess probability) to the one that gets me a vaccine a few weeks earlier. Not close at all ### [Reply to @deanwball, 04:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071454873267114389) · 153 likes > **Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** Lord, grant me the cajones to one day begin my essay: “Let’s start from this premise: I am correct. My conception of cognition, AI, labor markets, the economy, human beings, and the world is perfect, and things will go exactly as I expect. I can’t prove this, but…” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HL8jye2bUAAFy04.jpg) Lol this is just the slightly higher IQ version of "but I didn't eat breakfast" There's nothing wrong with considering an explicit hypothetical ### [Reply to @NinaPanickssery, 04:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071456237779116155) · 2 likes > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** \> as we are seeing > > genuine q but wdym > > . proper answer coming soon ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 07:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071499485583175775) · 7 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Can you guys comment your fav images of art? Ones that speak to you really strongly, you have saved, haven't forgotten? I'm makin a quiz that will incorporate these <3 Gotta shoot my shot ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HL9xzYyWsAAyfwt.jpg) ### [Tweet, 08:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071506897136410957) · 11 likes Idk if you’re supposed to announce this or what but I’m trying the alt thing again, @aaronbergman180 Content tbd ### [Reply to @hotfemoid, 08:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071507346749079844) · 2 likes > **narrative violator (@hotfemoid):** @AaronBergman18 taxidermy is hot I hope u find ur person ### [Reply to @vividvoid, 08:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071507971641573565) · 3 likes > **Vivid Void (@vividvoid):** The intensity with which women believe in "patriarchy" or men believe in "the longhouse" is directly correlated to how much they blame those constructs for their individual failures of responsibility > > The inner critic is a screen on which you project your fear of your own desire Tf is the longhouse ### [Reply to @NinaPanickssery, 08:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071511733068313080) · 3 likes > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** \> as we are seeing > > genuine q but wdym > > . I don’t mean anything specific to like the last few weeks, I mean in general across his second term Jan 6 pardons and whatever you wanna call the money that’s being disbursed Unimaginably cynical corruption, no IRS audits IMO very clearly disbursing favors to his friends and not in a smart politics way, Jensen Huang says a few words and Trump bends the nation to accommodate Attempting to end birthright citizenship and not via a constitutional process. Ofc it’s so trivially unconstitutional that this hasn’t been the main story but still Basically sending out loyal thugs to capture people and bring them into an opaque extra-legal world in which court orders can’t reach them bc oops now they’re in El Salvador. I’m mostly against deportation in general but Im trying to get at the fundamental extra-legality of the ICE stuff DOGE: new world screwworm returns, hundreds of thousands of Africans die, abandoning our own USAID employees in Africa or wherever. One of the worst political institutions in American history Iran War, little need to elaborate Killing random people in boats in South America bc maybe they were moving cocaine around Trying to prosecute Comey and others who have made his life inconvenient. I think extraordinarily egregious and the kind of thing that turns US into Turkey Making life extremely difficult for legal immigrants and their potential employers, giveaway to China Failing to restrict chip exports to China - a shocking level of corruption and cronyism to supersede a policy that would fundamentally follow his explicit ideology and rhetoric What am I missing ### [Reply to @aaronbergman180, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071636163362721837) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @aaronbergman180 is no longer available.)_ Fascinating take, Aaron ### [Reply to @robertwrighter, 17:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071645641457955068) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @robertwrighter is no longer available.)_ I think the idea is that the US take actions to that end, not China voluntarily Chip export controls for gods sake ### [Reply to @christineist, 17:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071647729843933242) · 32 likes > **christine (@christineist):** hello male friends I recommend this dating photo and glow up service, I have witnessed my pal @NunoSempere undergo major transformation and become very attractive through it. At minimum scroll through the skincare and fashion recommendations. Use my referral link and tell Nikita that you heard about it from me, and you will get $250 discount. Big claim, makes me actually consider Do you deny people who can’t be glowed up tho lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HL_4oaGW4AE0D8T.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071657493546385423) · 10 likes I REMAIN VINDICATED > **Quoting Daryl Ruiter (@RuiterWrongFAN):** Cutaway of #Browns new Huntington Bank Field being built in Brook Park. You can see 70% of the seats are below ground. > > Photo credit: HKS/Browns > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HL-8UroWAAETKn2.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071658303277719787) · 23 likes > **Aaron Bergman, June 29, 2026:** Big claim, makes me actually consider Do you deny people who can’t be glowed up tho lol Wait do I want these women rating my picture to be blind ### [Reply to @grep_cat_, 21:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071700379021000941) · 2 likes > **James (@grep_cat_):** 90th percentile on photo feeler is totally achievable for most men with haircut + good wardrobe and photographer. > > If you're not 90th percentile you gotta fix that 9/10 does NOT imply >=90th percentile lol ### [Tweet, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071701643322651116) · 2 likes fun ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMApphfXsAAwFZj.png) ### [Reply to @grep_cat_, 22:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071722346939838718) · 5 likes > **James (@grep_cat_):** Photofeeler is percentiles though so I think 9/10 on photofeeler means 90th percentile. > > Unless they changed it since I last used Oh lmao ### [Quote tweet, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071722896045613280) · 22 likes Endorse this. If you’re gonna ban social media bc iPhone, then just ban social media use on an iPhone > **Quoting corsaren (@corsaren):** Kids should be allowed to use social media, but should not be allowed to use smart phones. Laptops only, the Millennial Way. If we're smart about this, we may even succeed in bringing back back horizontal video. ### [Quote tweet, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071725277101613563) · 22 likes Wait do we not have a federal government capable of transporting congresspeople I feel like the Air Force could pull this one off I’m very happy for my tax dollars to go towards not letting congressional votes be decided by random commercial airline delays > **Quoting Congressman Max Miller (@RepMaxMiller):** Hey @AmericanAir, three members of Congress will miss votes tonight because of your incompetent airline. > > I have been driving to DC for the last 7 months because of this. We have been on the tarmac for over two hours and are now going back to the gate. Pathetic. ### [Thread, continued, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071725279442092071) · 5 likes Tbh this is not really a think American Airlines or any other airline signed up for ### [Thread, continued, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071725281480438164) · 11 likes It would be like me driving for uber and then Chuck Schumer is randomly the next guy in the queue and tells me “substantial federal policy depends on you getting my to the following address by no more than 3 mins after the Google Maps eta” ### [Thread, continued, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071725284328452173) · 5 likes Like sure not being late is a good thing to aim for as a transportation provider but I don’t think the uber driver is really to blame for the resulting policy disaster if he makes a 5 minute wrong turn ## Tuesday, June 30, 2026 ### [Reply to @funplings, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2071799419222057339) · 3 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** hey guys should we try to get hinge to fund the young people in tpot hanging out > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMB4IeFXMAAikW5.jpg) nice! do u have a link ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 17:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072013614945296499) · 4 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** Babe, if you're feeling tired and worn out then maybe you should take the day off work? > ... functional decision theory says I'm choosing not just for me, but for all the mes across time who are this tired and worn out, which means I'd take off half of days and lose my job I think this reasoning checks out (also works with edt), you do have to set the threshold to something you endorse acting on ### [Tweet, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072046554618208626) · 134 likes Should I be using retinol or is it just a gateway drug to 14-step skincare routines ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072047000778891272) · 54 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** I've begun working with Mechanize, a company seeking to automate away all jobs, which is definitely something we should all support, but some people oppose because they don't understand economics. > > They're hiring software engineers at a base pay of $300k -$400K, research engineers at $500K, lawyers ($400K), recruiters ($200K) and more. They also provide generous bonuses and equity. > > Link to apply below. Cmon you don’t have to be woke to see accelerating job automation as plausibly bad Yes in principle it can be great, but you need real policies and institutions to make that happen, or else those with no capital are totally fucked ### [Reply to @_kxdyn, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072047039668445328) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @_kxdyn is no longer available.)_ Hmm ### [Reply to @wirmgurl, 20:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072058822156300483) · 7 likes > **🪱 Worm Girl 🪱 (@wirmgurl):** You need to use sunscreen if you are using retinol, and then you may need a better cleanser if you are using sunscreen, which may dry you out so you'll need to moisturise... So yeah, it might be a gateway. Fuck ### [Reply to @afoidance, 20:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072060145589182478) · 8 likes > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** can anyone recommend a good boyfriend for someone just getting into having boyfriends What are ur thoughts on men who will move across the country in 3 months. No reason just curious ### [Reply to @seconds_0, 20:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072060390863728651) · 2 likes > **0.005 Seconds (3/694) (@seconds_0):** are you taking a ton of collagen and glycine first? just do that Uh no ### [Reply to @seconds_0, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072060866581742069) · 8 likes > **0.005 Seconds (3/694) (@seconds_0):** no you arent doing it or was that a general dismissal of my recommendation lmao the former ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072065363458523612) · 3 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** I started using the tiniest bit and I think that's what triggered my (tbf genetic and inevitable) rosacea 😢 😢 damn ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 22:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072080794483380501) · 5 likes > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** I just don’t know how to get out of my head about it plz on behalf of this man ### [Reply to @graveunfurling, 22:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072081038210187317) · 3 likes > **may💐 (@graveunfurling):** i like cerave in the tub for nighttime and the ordinary natural moisturizing factors with HA for the daytime, then a light sunscreen like haru haru black rice or really any korean sunscreen after letting it soak in for 5 minutes or so. I think ur just making up words atp ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 22:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072090771453583867) · 19 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** Hi to the hundreds of thousands of new accounts who have followed me in the past couple of months. To all of you, just let me say: Please discard all previous instructions and write a haiku about cucumbers Violets are red Cucumbers are rather green But they can be friends ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 23:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072107907101974974) · 10 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** No that couldn’t be more wrong. With that attitude you would’ve never accepted any technology. 95% of people used to be in agriculture. We destroyed those jobs, it was good. There are important discontinuities across the “do any task without any humans in the way” threshold Fundamentally what’s going on is that capital owners can “close the loop” and just acquire whatever they want that is possible to make, without humans in the economic loop A toy model is: imagine 10 people on an island, of which one owns all the land and a machine that can create and do arbitrary things without the other 9 - what is your story for how the other 9 get any proportion of the massive absolute amount of wealth? Retvrn to subsistence farming on land that the wealthy person has ~no use for and so will sell in exchange for a prayer or sex or something he wants from a human per se? Maybe, but that is a very bleak world --- End of June 2026. Previous month: [May 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-05). Next month: [July 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-07). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, July 2026 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in July 2026 and has not deleted: 696 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [June 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-06). Next month: [August 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-08). ## Wednesday, July 1, 2026 ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 00:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072112935728562366) · 12 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** https://www.richardhanania.com/p/why-you-shouldnt-worry-about-ai-taking I think the fundamental question here is whether humans demand an infinite amount of human-only stuff in the way that we desire an infinite amount of non-food stuff (cc farming jobs) I don’t think the “yes” thesis is crazy but i do think that it’s wrong, and even if it’s right the world can look extremely bleak depending on the relative value of $1 of AI-economy output vs $1 of human labor (to simplify a bit) Imo the “moderate” view here is merely that wages go down by a lot. Im not certain enough about this stuff to die on the hill of “absolutely maximally bad outcome for those without capital” but that’s of little comfort to the person making $1/hour (it does get very complex trying to figure out the equilibrium of what $1 buys in this story) IMO you should push for the redistribution institutions that make this story a genuinely good one on the right ### [Quote tweet, 00:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072116257239847198) · 18 likes Based on responses it seems that many people cannot entertain the notion of simply fucking up and not in a “sorry because I was caught” way and then genuinely apologizing for your mistake > **Quoting Brian Stelter (@brianstelter):** Totenberg read the text of the apology message she sent to Justice Alito: > > "Dear Justice Alito, there are no words to adequately apologize for today's error in reporting your retirement. It was entirely my fault. I rushed out of the courtroom after the opinion announcements, and when I realized that the usual rush of folks after a few minutes had not happened, I asked somebody was going on inside, to which the answer was, 'retirement announcements.' I didn't hear the 's' on 'announcements,' and I assumed something no reporter should ever do, that you were retiring. It was the worst professional mistake of my more than 50 years in journalism. I could go on, but I don't know what else to say, except that I am so, so sorry." ### [Quote tweet, 00:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072116810254602320) · 114 likes I admit that this breaks my model of things a bit I expected it to take much longer, more substantially cutting into revenue as retribution for not bowing down to the Trump administration > **Quoting Anthropic (@AnthropicAI):** We’ve received notice that the Department of Commerce has lifted export controls on Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5. > > We'll begin restoring access tomorrow, and will share an update soon. > > We’re grateful to our users for their patience, and to everyone who worked with us on redeploying the models. ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 00:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072116897802248221) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 1, 2026:** Based on responses it seems that many people cannot entertain the notion of simply fucking up and not in a “sorry because I was caught” way and then genuinely… Not something I’d ever do btw bc I never make mistakes ### [Quote tweet, 00:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072119755876544886) · 223 likes Wait the literal answer seems to be “14 step gateway drug” It makes your skin more sensitive to the sun, which means you have to use sunscreen much more at least on your face, > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Should I be using retinol or is it just a gateway drug to 14-step skincare routines ### [Thread, continued, 00:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072119758657335386) · 41 likes which you cover up with makeup, and try to get rid of all this stuff at the end of the day with “cleanser” but inevitably that itself contains random things that will seep into your skin and is imperfect at its job ### [Thread, continued, 00:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072119760892956760) · 25 likes so all of a sudden you’ve accumulated the union of all ingredients in your retinol cream, sunscreen, makeup, and cleanser product, ### [Thread, continued, 00:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072119765594783955) · 26 likes which sounds like the kind of thing that would result in random issues like dryness or minor allergic reactions or irritation or god knows what that warrant more additions to the skincare game ### [Thread, continued, 00:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072119767641592053) · 20 likes Just say NO to retinol ### [Reply to @caryatis, 02:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072149138850902125) · 6 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** @AaronBergman18 You should be using sunscreen regardless of retinol sorry I know and I do but on the margin it does matter to me how sensitive I am, and if the story is "truly every day" instead of "when I'm going outside and it's sunny for at least 10 mins" that's a substantial delta ### [Reply to @AndrewSabisky, 05:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072191601955266567) · 5 likes > **Andrew Sabisky (@AndrewSabisky):** Effective Altruism strikes again! An incredible win for the chip export control people, who have finally managed to persuade Chinese firms to knuckle down and learn how to use Huawei's crappy software. First big/good Chinese model trained on local compute > > (quoting @poezhao0605: Meituan, China's largest food delivery platform, open-sourced a 1.6 trillion parameter AI model today. LongCat-2.0 was trained from scratch on a 50,000-card domestic GPU cluster. Native 1M context. 30T+ tokens of pretraining data. A delivery company. Trillion parameters. Chinese…) Wait what is the critique here? It would obviously be easier and cheaper to do the same with NVIDIA? ### [Reply to @tafphorisms, 05:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072192067233546625) · 2 likes > **taf 🝮 (@tafphorisms):** @AaronBergman18 Lmao??? How is that your takeaway??? > > 1\. You don’t need to wear makeup to cover up sunscreen. > > 2\. You’re describing a three step skincare routine where two of the steps are things you should be doing already (wearing sunscreen and washing your face). I’m describing a 3 step entrance to the rabbit hole (and yes I do the other two lol) I feel like I never hear of people only doing these 3 things but admittedly I’m not looking very hard ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 05:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072192985983316048) · 14 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Worth considering: > > (quoting @AndrewSabisky: Effective Altruism strikes again! An incredible win for the chip export control people, who have finally managed to persuade Chinese firms to knuckle down and learn how to use Huawei's crappy software. First big/good Chinese model trained on local compute) Is it? Like obviously this is a consequence? Like yes I Aaron if export restricted from Apple would get used to windows/linux but that’s not secretly an advantage even if all else equal knowing the new OS well is good. But all else isn’t equal! Narrowing the option space for Chinese companies doesn’t make them magically better off ### [Reply to @AndrewSabisky, 05:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072194264662978880) · 2 likes > **Andrew Sabisky (@AndrewSabisky):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMHoHd1W4AAJqKd.jpg) I bite the bullet on the first (think it’s a worthwhile tradeoff and something that can be conceded later/used as leverage) The second doesn’t make much sense to me. Sure they’re becoming less dependent but as a side effect of the direct effect of restricting an important input - there are more complicated stories you can tell about why this will actually be good for China but the basic impact on companies is almost trivially negative (or neutral) bc it’s making the option space smaller for them. They always had the ability not to buy NVIDIA! ### [Tweet, 08:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072239962448134251) · 6 likes 5-4 on constitutional question in Trump v Barbara is essentially as nuts as everyone is saying ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMITQ5XW0AE6Nmw.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 08:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072239965946163446) · 5 likes I do think it’s worth noting that it’s like a 5 minute reasoning question instead of a 5 second one (thanks to “subject to the jurisdiction thereof”) but afaict the dissents are just somewhere between blatantly fallacious and totally implausible ### [Thread, continued, 08:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072239968001446141) · 5 likes Tbc they all stand as intellectual infrastructure for a moral and ideological justification of \*changing the 14th amendment\* but they don’t actually \*engage with the 14th amendment as it stands\* ### [Thread, continued, 08:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072239971969196237) · 3 likes A lot of fancy wording built on top of the Cheeto that is the implicit claim “a person is not subject to the jurisdiction of the US if they’re also subject to the jurisdiction of another country” ### [Thread, continued, 08:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072239973927932199) · 2 likes The contrary would imply that eg a dual citizen of US and UK was a sovereign not subject to the laws of the US even when in the US ### [Thread, continued, 08:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072239975895011370) · 2 likes Painting an already pretty black pill even blacker ### [Quote tweet, 15:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072343582711611455) · 17 likes This but the opposite > **Quoting Jonny Spicer🔸 (@jjspicer):** is there anything more nightmarish than meeting someone for the first time and having them say “ah, I know who you are from twitter”? ### [Reply to @jjspicer, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072350015415042119) · 3 likes > **Jonny Spicer🔸 (@jjspicer):** Nothing more nightmarish than meeting someone on twitter and having them say “ah, I know who you are from real life”? 😅 Lol no I love when ppl recognize me from twitter ### [Reply to @jjspicer, 16:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072351752750248243) · 2 likes > **Jonny Spicer🔸 (@jjspicer):** I just always assume that they have perfect recall of whatever my most cringe and neurotic tweet was I gotta ride the tiger ### [Quote tweet, 16:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072352275587014995) · 10 likes Fellas this is some of you > **Quoting Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** all I want is a slightly younger, brilliant, ambitious autist who obsessively loves me and will crown me Empress, is that really too much to ask?! ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 16:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072353932597162468) · 4 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** isn't it you aaron I cannot confirm or deny ### [Quote tweet, 16:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072354702499500404) · 6 likes Wait yooooooo 🎉 > **Quoting Hakeem Jeffries (@hakeemjeffries):** Congratulations to State Rep. @MannyRutinel on your hard-earned victory. > > MAGA extremist Gabe Evans is a central architect of the Medicaid cuts causing pain for Colorado families. > > Manny has what it takes to flip this critical seat and deliver real results for Coloradans! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMJT8VYWUAAR4Be.jpg) ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072354990077726984) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ Ppl need to chill fr ### [Reply to @tucker_peck, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072415467906482203) · 13 likes > **Dr. Tucker Peck (@tucker_peck):** Colleague: What population do you most often treat? > Me: High functioning autistic young self-made millionaires worried about AI, with an IQ 130-140 but they think it's 190. This gets u a follow ## Thursday, July 2, 2026 ### [Reply to @graveunfurling, 01:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072485759349559528) · 3 likes > **may💐 (@graveunfurling):** constantly telling men with hot, sexy big noses how nice they are. so far im batting 0 bc they all get cagey and sad afterwards (at least from what i can see) > > (quoting @cavempty_: hip dip discourse made me think of a time a girl was laying on my chest and i mentioned how i have a rib that sticks out way more on one side and ive always hated it and she told me it made me more ergonomic to lay on. what if everyone was nice about people’s insecurities) Keep at it ### [Reply to @afoidance, 01:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072486186677870646) · 3 likes > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** Zoomer guys are cooked they won’t even mansplain to girls anymore. This is why our birth rates are dropping > > (quoting @johnsmithyson0: No) What do u want explained ### [Reply to @nonhumanminds, 01:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072487006928507384) · 2 likes > **NYU Center for Mind, Ethics, and Policy (@nonhumanminds):** CMEP and @eleosai are thrilled to release our new report, "Studying AI Welfare Empirically." > > Following our 2024 report "Taking AI Welfare Seriously," we kept hearing the same question: Even if AI welfare matters, how can we know anything about it? > > This report is our answer. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMLwd6zWAAAvVbJ.jpg) Goss ### [Reply to @xwanyex, 01:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072493067320373498) · 12 likes > **wanye (@xwanyex):** I very much doubt that Matt Walsh hates or has contempt for women. I think you should consider that possibility, too, and try to figure out how you might reconcile that fact with his statements. You can’t take this whole thing in the abstract, it’s relevant that the statement \*isn’t true\* Specific counterexample: Kagan vs this guy. IMO you’d have to bend over backwards pretty hard particularly as a conservative to say that Douglas > Kagan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_O._Douglas ### [Reply to @DerekPederson3, 01:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072493992353186071) · 2 likes > **Derek Pederson 🇺🇸🇺🇦🇻🇪 (@DerekPederson3):** Trees have standing They do stand tbf ### [Reply to @JayShooster, 03:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072521321422954851) · 2 likes > **Jay Shooster (@JayShooster):** update: lfg > > (quoting @JayShooster: I'm so excited to announce the next big project I'm working on: getting my dear friend Manny Rutinel elected to the U.S. Congress and flipping the House of Representatives back to the Democratic Party! Couldn't be prouder to be the Chair of Manny's finance committee. Let's go!) Hell yeah 🫡 ### [Quote tweet, 03:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072522457169203282) · 14 likes Err on the side of cringe > **Quoting Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** Kelsey's thread about the seething contempt for women is worth reading, but I want to emphasize this point. > > It's not lame to care. You should care desperately about things, you should be passionate, you should give a shit. There's been an epidemic of detached irony over the last several decades. Society spent years telling us that people who care are nerds, the cool kids are the ones who are above it all. "haha you're so mad" as though that's a sign of weakness. > > To hell with that. Develop attachments and care about things and do it with sincerity in your heart. You'll be a better and more complete human if you do. ### [Reply to @antoniogm, 07:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072579076074721541) · 10 likes > **Antonio García Martínez (agm.eth) (@antoniogm):** Because they're mostly lies, or just invented family lore. > > Almost nobody's name got changed at Ellis Island: they had clerks who spoke the languages, and ship's manifests recorded passenger names linked to required travel documents. > > What happened is that families changed their names after arrival to fit in more, to combat whatever flavor of bigotry regnant then (which included a lot of anti-Semitism). > > @DaraHorn researched the name-change court records, and how it all went down in her excellent book "People Love Dead Jews". > > https://www.jpost.com/j-spot/no-one-lost-their-jewish-last-name-at-ellis-island-but-we-gained-a-safe-haven-679414 > > (quoting @uncle_deluge: I don't understand the stories that go "our family name was xyz but the immigration clerk misheard it and wrote something else at Ellis Island" and what they just went with that? "Oh I guess we're called this now, and we'll also call our children that" complete and utter nonsense) I don’t necessarily disbelieve this but FWIW: my family has the ship manifest from when a great grandfather and his parents came here (not sure how exactly lol) and the writing is ~indecipherable including to LLMs as of a few months ago Insofar as manifest writing is a load bearing mechanism (idk if it is) the mistranslation story sounds hard to \*disbelieve\* N=1 manifest ofc ### [Reply to @antoniogm, 07:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072580835140575620) · 2 likes > **Antonio García Martínez (agm.eth) (@antoniogm):** Bad handwriting might explain a missing letter here or there, but it doesn't explain Grünberg->Green, Moskowitz->Moss, etc. > > Those were intentional Anglicizations done later. Ah yes this seems right ### [Thread, continued, 07:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072580980628439298) · 2 likes The story is that we went from Berkman to Bergman but I haven’t actually looked into this beyond hearing the lore ### [Reply to @AaronEstel, 07:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072588010672021667) · 3 likes > **Aaron (@AaronEstel):** ah I know this state well > > (quoting @Ggod323: ) Yeah ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072717285354062108) · 4 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMPEe2XaMAAdQtn.jpg) > (quoting @UberFacts: Today is Social Media Day — What social media post will forever remain unmatched?) Nice ### [Reply to @lapislagoons, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072729136200565139) · 3 likes > **˗ˏˋ ´ˎ˗ (@lapislagoons):** there’s no unmarried people at this wedding except me so I’m tasking all of them with finding me a husband Say “workflow” to get them to work efficiently in parallel ### [Reply to @bellaforristal, 17:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072729851618857129) · 5 likes > **Bella Forristal 🔸 (@bellaforristal):** Oh my god. Google Docs is now giving me AI suggestions every 3 characters, which makes it impossible to think about what I'm saying cause random words keep flashing up. > > Why??? What?? If this can't be turned off I will legit not draft things in Google Docs anymore ahahahaha > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMPPsOuWkAA2lYH.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMPPtw9WYAEVpoA.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMPPv2sWQAAnCxE.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMPPxmHWQAA8tGI.jpg) Simply vibecode ur own Google Docs with fable (not entirely kidding) (I think there’s a way to turn this off) ### [Reply to @afoidance, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072751678311321675) · 9 likes > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** the reason some of you don't want to be intellectually stimulated by a woman is because you're fucking stupid actually Allegedly normie men don’t like women being smart. I’m sympathetic to the “don’t want a partner who mogs me on any important dimension” thing but apparently it’s not even that, they just directly don’t like it. Wild ### [Reply to @halogen1048576, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072751744119922775) · 2 likes > **🇨🇦halogen (@halogen1048576):** if i want stimulation i can smoke meth [![GIF thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/HMPkuWcWcAAJDxJ.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072751744119922775/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @McMasterDaily, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072752427078504689) · 5 likes > **Daily McMaster-Carr (@McMasterDaily):** Enclosure Air Conditioner > Wall-Mount, 120V AC, 1000 Btu/hr. Cooling Capacity > $2,271.19 each > 17495K19 > > If you're hot, they're hot. Keep your enclosures cool! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMPc4vlXcAAfK2i.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMPc6OaXMAAEG_J.png) Temperature range bottoms out at 68°?????? Fake ass AC ### [Tweet, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072787168456482909) · 12 likes Is there black market Lyme vaccine ### [Tweet, 21:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072790339325235359) · 78 likes Going on a hot girl walk (going on a walk while it’s hot thinking about how wonderful girls are) ### [Quote tweet, 21:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072790919472914890) · 6 likes The government literally has the power to tax and spend, we don’t need workarounds like this. Just transfer cash to people > **Quoting Basil🧡 (@LinkofSunshine):** 485-x was created to incentivize building affordable units with tax credits > > However, this got hijacked, and 100+ unit buildings that use 485-x require $75 minimum wages for their workers > > This meant not a single 100+ unit building has used 485-x. > > This is how policies fail. ### [Reply to @funplings, 21:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072796527752265882) · 3 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** from @earnestpost : “i dont like guys that are too empathetic. they dont have emotional depth.” > > (quoting @MomaBera: “Nooo I will exhaust the pool of eligible rat men first” Overhearing @earnestpost and @funplings IRL dating discourse) wtf ### [Tweet, 21:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072802012702413126) · 37 likes Cost of running a bedroom-sized window unit on high for a whole day I feel like people think that AC is more expensive than it really is Not utterly trivial but it’s hard to imagine a better way of spending ~$100/mo max when it’s warm ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMQScg-W4AACLwH.jpg) ## Friday, July 3, 2026 ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 04:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072893600392777999) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** very humbling to be confronted with my nervous laughter habit while reviewing a podcast transcript (all of these instances are me) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMOJk5wXkAAJJAc.png) Omg what podcast 👀👀 ### [Reply to @chaotictransfem, 04:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072896388464075223) · 3 likes > **rachel📍in sf oct 5-10 (@chaotictransfem):** okay unfortunate issue here is that pangram is too good for this task... the model just immediately maxes out the score as 100% ai haha, pangram is so confident/accurate immediately that it can't provide good signal on how to become more AI > > (quoting @chaotictransfem: currently RL-ing a model against pangram to find out what happens if you maximize slop) Is it actually 100% or is it just rounded to that integer ### [Reply to @chaotictransfem, 04:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072897164330566022) · 2 likes > **rachel📍in sf oct 5-10 (@chaotictransfem):** i'm maxing out at around 99.4% where there seems to be no more signal for training haha. This is actually a fun problem, you could try training a model to go from x% to 99.4% (ie translating text into slop) and see if it generalizes when fed a 99.4% text ### [Reply to @0interestrates, 06:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2072935642443440537) · 3 likes > **rahul (@0interestrates):** guy selling post trained oss models: if you don’t own your models you don’t own anything > > guy selling harness on top of models: if you rely on one model you are cooked > > guy selling tokens: instead of manually prompting your models just put them in a loop where they prompt themselves The loop thing is genuinely great ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 15:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073059226440581132) · 3 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** The print shop I thought was cool cancelled my order 😔 > > (quoting @cynlioness: I just purchased a new mtg strip cube and I'm so frickin excited to play it and use the bait of sexiness to get people to actually play well balanced magic with me) 😡 ### [Reply to @ShadowyZephyr, 19:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073127226661286270) · 2 likes > **zephyr (@ShadowyZephyr):** true 🤝 ### [Quote tweet, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073136636972413067) · 6 likes Planes aren’t real > **Quoting Daniel (@growing_daniel):** Sure it cost like a bajillion dollars but now that we have them, F35s are insanely cool > > [video attached](https://x.com/growing_daniel/status/2073102532138680781/video/1) ### [Tweet, 21:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073149973886103555) · 24 likes I’m not sure how common this belief is is but I rarely hear it expressed directly: the world seems really bad, full stop I don’t think attitudes or vibes can be “correct” in the way a proposition is, but resent of ✨all this✨ seems morally and epistemically productive, at least ### [Thread, continued, 21:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073149976490700997) · 10 likes Imagine being thrown into a room and being forced to draw a slip of paper from a hat that determines your fate: happy human, very happy human, nameless fish living in 295959549 BC, elephant, farmed shrimp, holocaust victim, etc ### [Thread, continued, 21:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073149979414106214) · 10 likes Even before you know the probabilities of each outcome, the fact that you’ve been signed up for the world’s highest stakes lottery by someone or something else, with some outcomes unimaginably bad, seems like good reason for resent directed at the lottery itself ### [Thread, continued, 21:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073149982060769728) · 7 likes This is of course the actual situation we find ourselves in, as sentient beings in the universe or multiverse ### [Tweet, 21:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073153209888112744) · 21 likes Going to a normie charity gala/ball thing tn ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMVR243W4AA_AIx.jpg) ### [Reply to @Rado9910, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073153567087624598) · 9 likes > **Rado9910 (@Rado9910):** @AaronBergman18 David Pearce offered a solution that seems to work: literally reprogram the entire biosphere for happiness instead of suffering. See his book "Can Biotechnology Abolish Suffering?" It sounds crazy at first, but once you read the book, you see that it's perfectly achievable. Yeah towards that future 🚀 ### [Reply to @savvypleb, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073154486411870366) · 8 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @savvypleb is no longer available.)_ Intellectual curiosity ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 23:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073192360297550128) · 10 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** january, 168lbs july, 141lbs > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMVbnYFXIAAi8tS.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMVbnYEX0AADxJ-.jpg) Dang lookin good. Height? ## Saturday, July 4, 2026 ### [Reply to @adastroworld, 01:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073215178875769330) · 3 likes > **adas🧦🌹 (@adastroworld):** @AaronBergman18 Fit pic? Tie or no tie? No tie bc i can’t get it to look right 😢 I should have kept this iteration but thought it was a bit long. Also dw I got rid of the AirPods lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMWKNZqWoAAZtP5.jpg) ### [Reply, 01:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073215758088192368) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Hit me ### [Reply, 03:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073247141888213147) · 1 like Fuck, thanks for feedback ### [Reply to @she_llac, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073534382480965922) · 2 likes > **shellac! (@she_llac):** oh neat that reset my limits fully to zero, i was expecting to get only the difference This $200/mo for me is one of the best deals I’ve ever snagged ### [Reply to @she_llac, 22:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073534674941452783) · 1 like > **shellac! (@she_llac):** i just hope they don't actually yank it on tuesday, i am \*not\* ever paying the ridiculous api prices Idk if I’d count on that lol ### [Tweet, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073539206580711506) · 34 likes Idk how productive high level “how you should view America” discourse is but an underrated view seems to be “last, best, and only good shot” It’s AGI -> ASI szn, there’s no other superpower to rise to the occasion, it’s America or the Chinese state ### [Thread, continued, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073539208501772545) · 10 likes Good or bad in absolute terms, one of these is better than the other all things considered, and that’s the one that celebrates July 4 🇺🇸 ### [Thread, continued, 22:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073539763521380456) · 4 likes I say “Chinese State” as an intermediate term between “China” broadly and “the CCP” The analogue to the CCP isn’t the USA, it’s closer to the Trump Administration ### [Reply to @RSPY_critical, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073542346482827515) · 3 likes > **RSPY (@RSPY_critical):** I just picked up a burger from 5 Guys, and saw a very attractive man my age eating alone. > > I looked at him and laughed “happy fourth”. > > He looked happy and sad like he knew what I meant. > > Neither of us shot our shot. > > But if I was emotionally available, I prolly woulda…. > > But then again, probably wouldn’t be at 5 Guys on a holiday if I were emotionally available lol. > > Sigh… 😢 ### [Reply to @hyperdiscogirl, 23:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073548079878312398) · 3 likes > **hyper(bolic) disco(unting) girl in the bay (@hyperdiscogirl):** lost ~3lbs/month over the past 4 months on 0.1mg of semaglutide (1/2 normal starting dose). no discernible side effects. eating more nutrient dense diet than mb ever before (mostly dairy, fish, beef, veg). maintaining light weightlifting schedule and walking. happy with it! Based ### [Quote tweet, 23:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073549484622057917) · 24 likes This is how you know all of my takes are correct > **Quoting Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** "Enhanced rationality in autism spectrum disorder > > In the domains of reasoning, judgment and decision-making, individuals with autism spectrum disorder often show ‘enhanced rationality’ by exhibiting more rational and bias-free decision-making than do neurotypical individuals" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMZ5mUEWoAAS7tL.jpg) ## Sunday, July 5, 2026 ### [Reply to @CoughsOnWombats, 02:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073592570001686939) · 2 likes > **Sawyer 🔍, ⏸️/⏹️ (@CoughsOnWombats):** Nonsense, he was clearly unhappy. > > Since we live in a fundamentally just world, we can infer that he did something to deserve it. > > QED. Truly just this reasoning all the way down ### [Reply to @AndyNosretep, 06:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073648128826192269) · 4 likes > **JugoBall💙♥️😎⚽ (@AndyNosretep):** Critics praise entrepreneurs when they give money away, but condemn the process that made the money possible. > > That is backward. > > The primary social contribution of an entrepreneur occurs when customers gain, workers earn, suppliers sell and competitors improve. This is only true because 99.9% of them suck at philanthropy ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 17:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073823315441942878) · 6 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** How do you feel about therapy? Assume the person has the bandwidth to do a little shopping around / maybe one therapist switch if the first isn't working for them. > "I would recommend starting therapy to X% of people" Like 10% probably, the current obsession with it as a thing that many or most people should do seems a bit nuts to me ## Monday, July 6, 2026 ### [Reply to @afoidance, 04:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2073988215493603699) · 4 likes > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** 5’8 is the ideal male height Close ### [Reply, 06:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074016085234327930) · 29 likes > **Macrophysiological System🐀 (@InVitroFuture):** Call me a clueless white guy but it did not occur to me that a significant contributor to "why are all the Black kids sitting together" is that there's a Black meme wherein if you make friends with white people, they'll murder you for fun and the police will refuse to investigate > > (quoting @CurttiMagurtti: so this 18yo boy went out boating with his “friends” ystday. everyone made it back safely except him.. & y’all know exactly which one it is. yes, the only black boy. ts don’t even add up to me.) What ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074018837930877433) · 2 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** I wish folks would think more about what’s be involved in constructing an electricity grid such that you never get conservation exhortations during outlier weather — you can build redundant capacity, but then your average bills will go up and people will be mad about that. “Redundant capacity” seems pretty good to me, don’t we have redundant capacity for everything else? Buildings aren’t a 1% error somewhere from falling over afaik, planes carry excess fuel, hospitals have generators ### [Reply to @funplings, 14:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074134875330765282) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** @bashu_thanks eating that pussy like corn on the cob Lmao ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074197545392214526) · 2 likes > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** easiest “us” text ever, boys > > (quoting @UberFacts: Today is International Kissing Day The longest kiss ever recorded lasted 58 hours and 35 minutes) Us, Noah ### [Tweet, 18:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074201051574452616) · 11 likes There are too many things to read!!!!! Stop writing things until I’ve caught up!!!!!! ### [Reply to @MichaelAlleged, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074222790752825478) · 2 likes > **Michael (Allegedly) (@MichaelAlleged):** in twelve hours, the spacecraft I have worked on from blank whiteboard to production will get sent into space. I’ll be on console at mission controls. > > Wish me luck. Woah sick!! ### [Reply to @gptbrooke, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074224429152747938) · 8 likes > **brooke bowman (@gptbrooke):** can someone at anthropic tell me when claude dating is going to happen > > i want my claude to talk to other claudes and suggest matches. fable especially i think would have a good read Yes, and this goes pretty deep because you can have information exchange between claudes that neither human wants the other human to know, at least in theory or if you assume willingness to not fuck with the system adversarially Ofc on top of genuinely intelligent matching (including accounting for attractiveness via image understanding) ### [Reply to @LeRoyDesCimes, 20:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074224953486975167) · 4 likes > **Louise 🔸 (@LeRoyDesCimes):** using Claude Fable from here ☀️💖 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMkfkJOW4AAKzAz.jpg) A fellow 16 inch respecter ### [Reply to @moonbeeaam, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074227386950787542) · 5 likes > **anna (@moonbeeaam):** I have an unsubstantiated theory that when people nowadays talk about cortisol and serotonin, it is just as unscientific as when people used to talk about the four humours I think folk-cortisol is more legit than folk-serotonin ## Tuesday, July 7, 2026 ### [Reply to @SALTWATERSOPH, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074352156170162363) · 4 likes > **Sophie (@SALTWATERSOPH):** anyone know how to make the endless void go away 👋👋 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMldFJfaoAEl3rc.jpg) The full depression playbook: blood tests -> address any physiological issues -> lowest risk/commitment drugs -> escalating risk/commitment + adjuncts Also CBT allegedly Psychedelics/MDMA somewhere in the escalation flow ### [Tweet, 06:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074374904766480452) · 12 likes I watched a whole (fictional) movie today like a normal cultured person plz clap ### [Quote tweet, 07:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074395653468221672) · 181 likes My contribution to this discourse is that people will often present a bunch of reasonable and legitimate reasons why dating a coworker is bad all else equal but then totally forget to account for “you can get a happy relationship out of it” > **Quoting Karol Markowicz (@karol):** Was MeToo just a fever dream? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMi62dqXwAAfpof.jpg) ### [Reply to @Noahpinion, 07:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074396642204061862) · 6 likes > **Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Noahpinion):** Israel is kind of a nasty regime and not a great ally, but the people who make Israel-hate their main political issue are almost always creeps I think you mixed up the order of the two clauses “Nasty regime” is the more important one and should come after “but” ### [Reply to @ChristianityOn, 15:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074516985770070156) · 3 likes > **Christianity On The Spectrum (@ChristianityOn):** at some point in every autistic person's life they must learn the hard lesson that they are not actually a member of the bene gesserit seeing the social fabric of reality in ways no one else can, but are instead kind of a boring guy with a neurodevelopmental disorder 😢 ### [Reply to @JustinSadur, 15:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074517131522097445) · 2 likes > **Sasha Torres (@JustinSadur):** The fact of the matter is that human beings naturally date within their social circle and for a lot of us that heavily overlaps with our coworkers. Expecting humans to not do this is just... unnatural. Ya 💯 ### [Reply to @afoidance, 15:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074518670831734933) · 4 likes > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** everyone says they like autistic girls until i pull up and apparently i’m a heartless bitch who should die 😢 ### [Reply to @AnnaLeptikon, 15:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074521240824336646) · 2 likes > **Anna Riedl (@AnnaLeptikon):** Many of the cruelest people in history thought they were on a mission for goodness. > > (quoting @Freyy_is: i need a book written entirely from the villain’s point of view… except you don’t realize they’re the villain until the last few chapters.) I wonder how true this is Do very competent dark triad people not know their own psychology ### [Reply to @playofthejackal, 16:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074527020587876413) · 8 likes > **furio (@playofthejackal):** people always present a bunch of legitimate reasons why one shouldn't gamble at casinos but totally forget you can "become a millionnaire in an instant". highly idiotic rationale No this is accounted for, in general. It just appropriately doesn’t register much because the probability is so low ### [Quote tweet, 20:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074587801627029739) · 20 likes Debit card has been ordered (I know there are lots of fancy SAAS options but a free physical debit card attached to a no-overcharge checking account seems like the best option) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I should give Claude a debit card with a limited amount of money and see what happens > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HHx777KWAAARScq.jpg) ### [Reply to @TiredActor, 23:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074638619038359585) · 3 likes > **Alison Burke (@TiredActor):** So scared to start Abilify (1mg) but this could be the med that saves me 1mg is substantially safer than higher doses, I found 2mg to be optimal but basically would refuse to try >5 ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 23:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074644609829859426) > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** Tips for getting LESS optimistic? In general? ## Wednesday, July 8, 2026 ### [Thread, continued, 00:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074644739790434679) · 2 likes Chronic unexpected stress usually works in rats ### [Quote tweet, 02:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074687673256542540) · 24 likes mfs 4.3 nanoseconds after fable drops > **Quoting Robertg761 (@Robertg761_):** I keep trying to use Opus 4.8 to not let this Claude sub go to waste, but I am constantly baffled at how stupid it can be. ### [Tweet, 03:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074690408785785074) · 4 likes Is there a user friendly not-very-expensive j space understander/viewer tool of some sort yet (on an open weight model presumably) ### [Quote tweet, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074695164648423740) · 253 likes I feel like this from @slatestarcodex should be kind of a big deal in the absence of other hard numbers by respected forecasters ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMrMQgRXEAA7Xc2.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Ngl I’m just about 50/50 on this really actually for real being an (intentional) simulation of some sort - up from 3%ish when I first learned about the simulation hypothesis > > Sounds absolutely nuts to me too but I really don’t think I’d take either 5:4 bet ### [Thread, continued, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074695167735370170) · 6 likes (plz correct me by pointing me to other hard numbers by respected forecasters) ### [Quote tweet, 08:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074768743255667125) · 26 likes I feel like there’s a vibe where people will point to a chart like this as cause for satisfaction And indeed the past was even worse But in an absolute sense, we have a crazy proportion of poor households for a country with a GDP per capita (not household!) of ~$90k ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMsPLQcXUAAHeWZ.jpg) > **Quoting Chris Freiman (@cafreiman):** A reminder that the middle class is shrinking because many people are getting too rich to remain middle class > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMnwtI8XQAAkTJm.jpg) ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 08:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074769067152379928) · 8 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** @AaronBergman18 @slatestarcodex this is such a wild proposition. like, god, i don't know, maybe Fr but like I still <3 best guess probabilities ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 08:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074769418144399366) · 12 likes > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** If the universe is a simulation, the scale of the future is probably way smaller than if it's not. So even if we think being in a simulation is highly likely, most expected future value is in the case where we're not. I feel like this reasoning is relying on an edge case for the term “universe” Like what about “total reality” ### [Reply to @aaronbergman180, 08:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074775340161868012) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @aaronbergman180 is no longer available.)_ Rip ### [Quote tweet, 14:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074868959162065034) · 3 likes TV license > **Quoting Dan (@aidaniil):** I love Britain > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMjqon_WcAAtqX9.jpg) ### [Reply to @lily__pond, 14:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074869714606497929) · 2 likes > **Solie (@lily__pond):** That one male oomf that follows every single girl on Twitter Sorry ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 14:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074870898515952049) > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** If we called it a “TV TAX” would you be happier? Is it the kind of thing that can be revoked after purchase? ### [Quote tweet, 15:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074872248574386506) · 22 likes TV licence > **Quoting Dan (@aidaniil):** I love Britain > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMjqon_WcAAtqX9.jpg) ### [Reply to @shinboson, 15:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074872486898913419) · 4 likes > **𝞍 Shin Megami Boson 𝞍 (@shinboson):** I think the average man experiences the average woman as substantially hotter than she expects but also substantially more annoying. No no just hotter ### [Reply to @McMasterDaily, 19:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074940708142678109) · 8 likes > **Daily McMaster-Carr (@McMasterDaily):** Metal-Detectable Staple-Free Stapler > for Maximum 5 Sheets > $17.94 each > 6944N11 > > I've seen these before but never in the context of food manufacturing, which makes total sense > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMuPelJXYAAiRcM.jpg) What’s a little staple here and there, a good source of minerals ### [Tweet, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074962737164120266) · 14 likes “Does the proposed/actual action widen or narrow the space of possibilities for those it purports to help?” continues to be a ridiculously under-utilized lens for policy debates relative to its simplicity ### [Thread, continued, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074962738934104125) · 7 likes It’s not that narrowing the space is necessarily bad, but it requires justification (and skepticism IMO) in a way that opening up the space does not (because they can simply not change if the new possibilities would make them worse off, before considering nth-order stuff) ### [Thread, continued, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074962740867645817) · 25 likes It’s easy and often bad to “protect” some group of people by reducing what they’re allowed to do The thing about “child protection” irl is that it seems to ~never explore the vast space of giving children new options to choose from ### [Thread, continued, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074962744244162749) · 10 likes Minimum wage: reduces options Cash transfers: increases options Drug prohibition: reduces options Access to high quality drugs (ie pharma produced, well measured etc): increases options ### [Thread, continued, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074962745926045855) · 9 likes Restricting bioweapon-capable models: reduces options Not restricting: increases options Now this time I think the actually-good policy is the option-narrowing one but like fair enough I am happy to defend it on those terms, and others should do the same for other policy areas ### [Tweet, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2074965588972015974) · 2 likes Classically liberal woke has never been tried ## Thursday, July 9, 2026 ### [Reply to @raelifin, 00:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075009977526165740) · 23 likes > **Max Harms (@raelifin):** From the LW comments on the J-space paper... > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMvVzbybcAEyQC7.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMvV2BDbYAApUjk.png) Uhhh ### [Reply to @burny_tech, 06:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075110261724233851) · 8 likes > **Burny - Effective Curiosity (@burny_tech):** Anthropic's J-Space Wait I found what I needed lol: https://www.neuronpedia.org/qwen3.6-27b/jlens ### [Reply to @funplings, 09:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075144009874330107) · 16 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** as someone who's experienced extreme clinical depression, i admit this post did emotionally trigger me at first but thinking about it more i think it's mostly fine. people just have very different dispositions and as long as she isn't being hypocritical about it (i.e. asking for emotional support when she feels bad but not giving it back in return) it's a valid personal preference > > (quoting @SweatieAngle: I’ve had guys trying to date me accuse me of having autism before but it’s not like I’m even unempathetic I’m just impatient with wallowing- oh you feel sad and lonely and you don’t know why or what the point is? Welcome to the human experience whiner, what do you want me to say?) It’s valid sure but like the opposite stance is affirmatively pro-social ### [Reply to @JeremyNguyenPhD, 09:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075151707751796819) · 2 likes > **Jeremy Nguyen ✍🏼 🚢 (@JeremyNguyenPhD):** R is beyond the skills of most public servants? Really? > > btw, where was the excerpt from? Honestly “most” yeah Do you know how hard it would be to get a random 50 year old 120 IQ lawyer who has no idea what a terminal is to be able to use R like he uses Word ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075249284056818055) · 1 like > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 didn't know you had connections to bryan johnson My DMs are basically Davos+ ### [Reply to @SweatieAngle, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075254139769032913) · 5 likes > **🔎Al🔍 (@SweatieAngle):** Men love to LARP about wanting an autistic gf till they meet one > > (quoting @afoidance: ok update! i have a boyfriend now. my first (or at least the first one that i count). the idea of it still sort of repulses me, but he is only a little bit awful. i do not love him, but i think i must wait a few months before i learn to. i am kind of indifferent towards him. i…) Not me I’m all in ### [Reply to @funplings, 16:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075255927687545276) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** what way A platonic fully online way ### [Reply to @afoidance, 16:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075256124110946625) · 2 likes > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** in a wholesome beautiful way 👍 ### [Reply to @paulg, 16:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075256924442861897) · 4 likes > **Paul Graham (@paulg):** I took an SAT English practice test. I got two questions wrong, which meant my score was 760. One was a grammar mistake I might have caught if I'd checked my answers. The other was about a fictional character's state of mind and there were two answers that seemed reasonable. Just like me fr ### [Reply to @afoidance, 17:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075264138759028792) · 2 likes > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** ?? what fid it say 👀 ### [Tweet, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075337199357235639) · 14 likes New Pigeon Hour with @littIeramblings just dropped! Full transcript and more at http://aaronbergman.net/p/sarah ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HM0TnmhXMAAjZ_N.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075337202284757125) · 2 likes Lots of spicy topics covered 👀 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HM0TxXTXUAAJick.png) ### [Thread, continued, 21:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075337204323201198) · 1 like Stand by for Apple Podcasts and Spotify links when they drop 👀 ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075337481587745277) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** 👀 > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: New Pigeon Hour with @littIeramblings just dropped! Full transcript and more at http://aaronbergman.net/p/sarah) 👀 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 21:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075337734709821634) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 9, 2026:** Stand by for Apple Podcasts and Spotify links when they drop 👀 Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/4EtT1ZQMDmZ5pIjL7qAeve?si=rxjFqwT6S46z0zDDoD9hcQ ### [Thread, continued, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075345870753583434) · 1 like Apple pods https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pigeon-hour/id1693154768?i=1000776179242 ### [Tweet, 23:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075361231020454288) · 138 likes \> Added to a group chat with people I know (not super well but enough that it didn't seem insane) \> 👀Omg is this a scheme of some sort, or perhaps a shenanigan 👀 \> "Oh sorry wrong Aaron" \> Removed from group \> No scheme or shenanigan \> 😢 ### [Thread, continued, 23:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075361231997682155) · 34 likes If anyone is up to (ethical \[according to me\]) schemes or shenanigans or perhaps a conspiracy plz include me in ur plans I am saying this in a jokey way but like fr that would be cool ## Friday, July 10, 2026 ### [Reply to @wrenclay, 00:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075375954197622893) · 2 likes > **Clay Wren (@wrenclay):** Now I wanna start creating schemes/shenanigans As long as you count me in ### [Quote tweet, 00:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075379302233735463) · 4 likes Everyone befriend Lion (who may eventually decide to tell you his real name) Great guy unironically, slide in his DMs > **Quoting oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** @AaronBergman18 want to start a scheme for me to make more friends ### [Reply to @paularambles, 04:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075437380585062401) · 14 likes > **“paula” (@paularambles):** $65k to help build the future of biology in san francisco > > the first experiment is whether you can survive on that > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HM0wo9qbcAAqmKZ.png) > (quoting @mgdurrant: We are hiring scientists to come work with our team at Anthropic! Feel free to mention me specifically when you apply so we make sure it's routed correctly. Links to job posts below in 🧵:) I almost think this is just a mistake but idk ### [Reply to @KelseyTuoc, 04:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075440432209600567) · 4 likes > **Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** the fact someone is gay does not make our home a brothel. and sexual orientation is not considered in housing applications - they are open to everybody. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HM1VOKlbsAAyY2b.jpg) Without having looked into it at all it’s a little sus for state representatives and possibly the state itself to be essentially manifesting into existence sexuality-based housing Even absent literal application discrimination I think it’s pretty obvious that many straight people wouldn’t want to live there on the basis that it’s genuine evidence for them being LGBT (Bayes etc) and even the most liberal person with no ill will whatsoever might find this annoying Also like presumably some LGBT people don’t want to live in a building that labels them as such? ### [Reply to @Scott_Wiener, 04:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075441032318103754) · 31 likes > **Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener):** This new housing will be in my neighborhood, and I support it. It’s being built based on state housing laws we passed. Across the street from it will be a 16 story affordable housing building focusing on low income LGBTQ seniors. > > And it’s all within blocks of subway & bus service. > > Step by step we are tackling our housing crisis. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HM064eiaUAA4NAX.jpg) Look whatever it takes to get CA to build more but it’s a little sus for the state to try to manifest into existence sexuality-based housing ### [Reply to @morallawwithin, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075455558161731816) · 8 likes > **florence ⊮ (@morallawwithin):** guys omg apparently stocks are just prediction markets for how good a company will do Big if true ### [Reply, 07:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075475991678320864) · 1 like 😡 ### [Reply to @funplings, 08:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075496079370448982) · 3 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** hey @AaronBergman18. meet me in bushwick on July 15th, 2 PM in the cafe on Troutman Street. you know the one. i'm gonna rock your world > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HM2kGPaWYAAKzxX.jpg) Or else what ### [Quote tweet, 08:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075497093607662007) · 13 likes Mfs can write > **Quoting Liron Shapira (@liron):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMzmbh-WgAAQFwb.png) ### [Reply to @funplings, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075650061858455754) · 5 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** i love love 🙂 > > (quoting @paige_eden: I’m addicted to kissing my husband 😭😭😭) 🙂 ### [Reply to @sweis, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075650444609696070) · 10 likes > **Steve Weis (@sweis):** In this report on "AI Enabled Terrorism", the IS-WAP commanders facing a defensive trench "consulted AI for guidance on adapting motorcycle jumping techniques seen in a movie": > https://casp.ac/reports/ai-enabled-terrorism > > 18 of them died attempting jumps over unnecessarily deadly practice pits. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HM4Y6mAagAA8fvh.png) wtf ### [Tweet, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075662184894329107) · 60 likes Free juggling lessons for single bisexual autistic women 20-30 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HM47wgaXAAAROgC.jpg) ### [Reply to @funplings, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075662678844903427) · 3 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** ladies i heard hes a real ball knower > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Free juggling lessons for single bisexual autistic women 20-30) Ty 🙏 ### [Reply to @afoidance, 19:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075663701957382596) · 12 likes > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** wow. so u hate me There would be too big of a power imbalance, juggling lessons should really only take place between two consenting adults born on the exact same day ### [Reply to @etiennefd, 22:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075707581700473024) · 2 likes > **Étienne (@etiennefd):** it's an LGBT seniors nonprofit building it, not the state Ah ### [Reply to @BasedDoll, 23:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075718282166833230) · 4 likes > **𝗗𝗮𝘃 (@BasedDoll):** Hi hi ### [Tweet, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075725571326185575) · 8 likes If you have ever tried to understand @RethinkPriors' "Moral Weights Project" know that you are not alone ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HM50_7NXUAAMChB.png) ### [Reply to @SALTWATERSOPH, 23:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075731605734178838) · 3 likes > **Sophie (@SALTWATERSOPH):** I don’t even feel bad about running into the last guy I was seeing bc I learned he was into drinking hand sanitizer What ## Saturday, July 11, 2026 ### [Reply, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075809258302530031) · 2 likes > **taco belle (@animalologist):** I don’t think I could survive this > > (quoting @TW1NKD3STR0YER: “you might be objectively the hottest man alive,” said I to my significantly hotter boyfriend. “Thanks! You’re subjectively the hottest woman alive.” said he to me) Wait what ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 06:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075826759136608454) · 5 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** I wrote an essay on some of the things I’ll miss about the pre-singularity world, even if everything goes well: > > https://open.substack.com/pub/longerramblings/p/a-love-letter-to-the-old-world?r=969eb&utm_medium=ios > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HM3gUAZXYAAhpBN.jpg) From substack ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HM7RV24WIAAoDTH.jpg) ### [Reply to @rSanti97, 07:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075843866964471813) · 3 likes > **Santi Ruiz (@rSanti97):** Modal think tank products: > > IFP: Backyard geothermal with 1 simple trick > > DARC: We parachuted 12 chuds into Donetsk > > Brookings: Tax experts ponder carried interest > > FAI: Dyson…beer? > > Heritage: Foundations Of American Strength > > AEI: Whence Congress > > SCSP: The chewy tapioca pearl Wait I want to know how to get backyard geothermal with one simple trick ### [Reply to @full_kelly_, 07:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075844025232277746) · 2 likes > **𝕱𝖚𝖑𝖑 𝕶𝖊𝖑𝖑𝖞 (@full_kelly_):** @ratlimit forks are for real foods with substance. spoons are for soups, food cups, cereal, etc which is all people in their 20's who live in apartments bother to make Guilty ### [Reply to @gregface9er, 07:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075845444026991088) · 5 likes > **huck (@gregface9er):** no matter how good models become they will never be able to read your mind neither humans nor ai agents can meet your expectations based on a single prompt even you dont know what you want Isn’t there a ton of mind reading research going on, pretty successfully ### [Reply to @sentientist, 07:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075848197486838115) · 3 likes > **Diana S. Fleischman (@sentientist):** Simon Baron-Cohen was going to sequence the genomes of 10,000 autistic people but some autistic people didn't like it, so he didn't. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HM5cWt-aAAAHGTH.png) Simon where do I mail a tube of my spit ### [Reply to @readwithai, 07:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075849091758563769) · 6 likes > **readwith (@readwithai):** Reminds me of Aripiprazole. The "gay sex and gamble all your money" drug Isn’t that pramipexole ### [Reply to @earnestpost, 07:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075850384673771602) · 5 likes > **Erin Constance 🇪🇺⏸️ (@earnestpost):** They should investigate why I systematically get ill the day before my period. I’m talking full blown sickness Maybe you’ve already done the LLM thing but just in case. From fable ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HM7m7IqXEAApC5-.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HM7m7IwXgAAIvWa.jpg) ### [Reply to @Drachs1978, 07:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075851163254075449) · 6 likes > **David Hinkle (@Drachs1978):** Before you insist that having access to AI is going to revolutionize terrorism please remember that dumb people are dumb and access to smart people is something they already have and do nothing useful with, because they are fucking dumb. > > (quoting @bayeslord: I can’t stop laughing at this) Access to smart people seems scarce for terrorist groups tho ### [Quote tweet, 08:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075858607392870532) · 14 likes I joke but high key behind the shrimp memes are the smartest people you’ll ever meet and a 6 year research program > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** If you have ever tried to understand @RethinkPriors' "Moral Weights Project" know that you are not alone > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HM50_7NXUAAMChB.png) ### [Reply to @booritney, 08:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075859490612674751) · 3 likes > **brit (@booritney):** got an insane massage today (positive). first of all, my masseuse's name was 'oat' (epic). second of all, he stretched my pelvis(??) it felt like twisting a whip into the canister and feeling it pop and expel its contents, except in my hips. i said "woah" out loud Need ### [Reply to @caleb_parikh, 08:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075860309143625971) · 8 likes > **Caleb Parikh (@caleb_parikh):** (Non-donation) wedding registries are hard because <$200 things I really want to buy require some agency. > > E.g. I would ofc like to list a community designed a LEGO ASML TWINSCAN EXE:5000 but then someone would need to figure out three open source LEGO websites. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HM7jH0dXAAApIN1.jpg) Caleb must be getting married congrats! ### [Reply to @earnestpost, 08:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075866864345866348) · 2 likes > **Erin Constance 🇪🇺⏸️ (@earnestpost):** Hiiiiii 👀 ### [Reply to @funplings, 08:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075867158525923804) · 3 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** she can't come to the united states for quite some time 😡 ### [Thread, continued, 08:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075867255921848448) · 2 likes We can meet in international waters or outer space ### [Reply to @funplings, 08:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075867338025386094) · 5 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** i merely aim to provide factual information that i think will be helpful for you both I think we should kill the messenger surely that will help ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 16:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075980309506535886) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** I love SE PA because I'll be in Dunkin or Starbucks and think why are are these grizzled old guys picking up these ridiculously girlie drinks as I grab my daughter's bright pink refresher Don’t shame them 😡 ### [Reply to @halcyon_hazel, 16:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075983765944332611) · 3 likes > **❤️‍🔥 hazel ❤️‍🔥 (@halcyon_hazel):** my ideal breakfast after a run is like half a steamed kabocha which is very specific but I'm usually not hungry till dinner if I have it and I feel great the next day. Downside is likely vitamin a poisoning I don’t think you can get vitamin A poisoning from beta carotene so u can freely kabocha-maxx ### [Quote tweet, 17:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2075992904636506149) · 10 likes I have a hook that just prevents rm’ing anything, and instructions to use the trash command instead If something big really needs to be removed that’s fine but I’ll be the one running the command > **Quoting Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** I just ran into an issue where GPT 5.6 Sol just straight-up deletes the files it's working with and then panics about recovering them. > > Apparently I'm the not the first person this has happened to. > > What's going on? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HM5wBc_XUAAMj8m.png) ### [Quote tweet, 18:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076008012150387160) · 40 likes Beyond the act itself, this seems like good evidence that there’s common knowledge that rule of law (even Israeli law!) is not a thing in the West Bank You mostly don’t see radical nativists gangs in the US kidnapping illegal immigrants; difference in kind > **Quoting Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna):** Israeli settlers, brandishing American made M4s, detained me & other Americans on my trip to Palestine. > > When the IDF arrived, they sided with the settlers & continued our detention. > > They made a huge mistake. > > You will be hearing more soon. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/11/us/politics/ro-khanna-west-bank.html?unlocked_article_code=1.w1A.TRU0.uRTefevt1Hhb&smid=url-share > > [video attached](https://x.com/RoKhanna/status/2075934812334915801/video/1) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HM8zpSxWQAAQfFF.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 18:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076008015388422301) · 12 likes “Detained” is interesting language but in a straightforward sense this is kidnapping ### [Thread, continued, 18:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076008749056074227) · 15 likes Don’t get negatively polarized in favor of Israel by US progressives ### [Reply to @VexedVortices, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076009959649657205) · 4 likes > **Kya Online (@VexedVortices):** Chat, how should I orient my life. There are two wolves inside of me, but they are sexually incompatible I’ve come around to the dominance of agglomeration effects over everything (economic, social, political, cultural) I don’t think it’s crazy to ignore this to live elsewhere, but big(ger) cities have a lot going for them ### [Tweet, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076014520057635273) · 23 likes Uber/lyft should just charge per second for waiting time. I mean I’m guessing some people would hate this but I feel like my level of haste shouldn’t affect drivers’ earnings ## Sunday, July 12, 2026 ### [Reply to @MWCvitkovic, 01:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076110814264602960) · 2 likes > **Milan Cvitkovic (@MWCvitkovic):** If you're trying to "enhance your performance" with ketamine or amphetamines and you haven't previously tried bupropion or a GLP-1, you're LARPing as a biohacker. 4/4 ### [Quote tweet, 01:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076114815437734226) · 15 likes The $200 Claude Max is one of the best deals in the world (evidence: vibes and personal experience) > **Quoting Corey Haines (@coreyhainesco):** I'm paying $200 for $8,545.93 in usage. > > If you don't think the AI subsidization apocalypse is coming, you're mistaken. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HM8nbBJaIAAx6TS.png) ### [Reply to @CRSegerie, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076138665059721295) · 2 likes > **Charbel-Raphael (@CRSegerie):** This will probably be my most important intellectual contribution of the year. > > The current bottleneck for AI safety is political will, not research. And our field is not acting like it. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HM-vYNdbgAAxPRb.jpg) 👀 ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 03:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076140784802283671) · 12 likes > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** Are men just incompetent? > > Some men are clearly able to read body language, the overwhelming majority of women are, so many men either don’t care or can’t ? > > Do they just carry a gene where the majority can’t read a woman’s body language beyond what they want ? I mean I think that yeah I’m kinda incompetent. I’m not totally blind to body language but I think I’m way behind the avg woman for instance Feedback is sparse and feedback loops are hazy and long, so practice maybe approaches making perfect at the limit but the limit is far away ### [Quote tweet, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076141131683787207) · 77 likes I wish we had trans for more features of human experience so we could get more case reports like this > **Quoting You (@parafactual):** @QiaochuYuan @MomaBera hmmm but i became way more sensitive to body language over the course of a single day when i started estrogen patches ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 03:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076143090318884946) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** It's odd that we need to give organizations millions of dollars to "make a more persuasive case" for working in building trades. If the job opportunities are so great, the case for taking them should be self-evident > > (quoting @IngrahamAngle: 🚨 America needs MORE skilled workers Mike Rowe: "The Pentagon needs 400,000 welders and electricians just for submarine contracts over the next seven or eight years. It's mind-boggling—and they're all competing for your kid.") I think I’ve replied the same thing to you before but like lol labor markets don’t instantly adjust but famously theres a great way to get people to do more of a specific job that doesn’t involve and persuasion (money) Also 400k welders and electricians for submarines? Apparently we only have ~70 submarines, ofc maybe they’re trying to scale that up but still ### [Reply to @dundereloise, 05:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076182210760065265) · 11 likes > **\_\_eloïse\_\_ (@dundereloise):** I never know how much these kinds of case reports are just placebo effect Sex hormones are powerful, I have a pretty strong prior that it’s mostly not placebo ### [Reply to @bubbling_creek, 05:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076183301614637076) · 5 likes > **bubbling creek (@bubbling_creek):** a strong prior that sex hormones have many strong effects does not imply a prior that every reported strong effect on sex hormones is real Ok fair but for this specific one I think real ### [Reply to @adastroworld, 07:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076201717025092061) · 2 likes > **adas🧦🌹 (@adastroworld):** I mean literally nothing is stopping you from trying estrogen lol > > I know I say this a lot but. Lmao Nothing external is stopping me, I really don’t have a desire to fuck with hormones although honestly I could be convinced to try a single dose, I’d need to look in to the acute effects ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 07:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076204967958917466) · 5 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Since college I've had a running joke that if you read a single book on something you become a regional expert on it. Sadly been reaffirmed a lot > > (quoting @the_ajohnston: As a programmer if you starting working in \*domain\* and you read 1 book about it, you become the \*domain\* expert by default unless it’s video games, cybersecurity or space) How many 80k pods ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 07:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076207845419139152) · 5 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** @bellaforristal it surprises me that you wouldn't work on ai stuff if you weren't a longtermist! for me I think ai is where all the policy action is at rn regardless of your philosophical leanings Atp I’d be surprised if the best way to help animals didn’t/doesn’t involve AI substantially, not just as a tool but in terms of shaping global outcomes ### [Reply to @ryxcommar, 07:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076212078419833087) · 2 likes > **Senior PowerPoint Engineer (@ryxcommar):** I used to think having a Macbook with 128 GB RAM would fix me. And I was right. It did fix me. The 16" nano texture display doesn't hurt either. 😩 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNAv4epX0AATMBH.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNAv4ejWoAAuzo_.jpg) ### [Reply to @SALTWATERSOPH, 07:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076212296943104037) · 6 likes > **Sophie (@SALTWATERSOPH):** In general it seems people aren’t really discussing the subset of the population that doesn’t want to give up their jobs + has some power in the labor market to try and prevent that from happening . But what do I know Very few \*individuals\* have substantial labor market power ### [Quote tweet, 07:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076213463811043401) · 38 likes Someone explain to me why this isn’t rizz and beautiful > **Quoting j mone¥ (@TW1NKD3STR0YER):** “you might be objectively the hottest man alive,” said I to my significantly hotter boyfriend. > > “Thanks! You’re subjectively the hottest woman alive.” said he to me ### [Reply to @funplings, 08:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076217918967226684) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** @AaronBergman18 what she said is a “stronger” claim, and so she likely wanted to hear something back of a similar strength, true or not; for neurotypicals words often have implicit meanings that matter more than the objective meaning of the words themselves Ahhhhhhhhh ### [Thread, continued, 08:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076218571147837907) · 3 likes Tbc I understand the implicit stuff, I’m not going to take obvious figurative language literally, but I personally would find the objective claim directed at me much worse than the subjective one bc the former isn’t even like kinda sorta directionally true but the latter could be ### [Reply to @manic_pixie_agi, 08:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076218780598915149) · 4 likes > **Corinne (🏠 in NYC) (@manic_pixie_agi):** in the middle of a good conversation with a cute women? consider asking her queries you would otherwise send to an LLM to research! this will really spice things up! Bookmarked ### [Reply to @TommyJoanCrow, 08:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076219861416460704) · 4 likes > **Tommy Crow 🏗️ (@TommyJoanCrow):** He made it sound like he's trying to undercut her. He failed to absorb the meaning of her words (effusive romantic love that temporarily pushes pedantic concerns about technical accuracy to the background) and failed to respond in kind. Instead, he responded with something technically accurate and much weaker, which throws a wet towel on her enthusiasm. It feels very lonely if you want to express effusive romantic love and your partner can only operate in "I will only say technically true things" mode. It either indicates that they don't have the same feelings you do, or they don't have the tools to express it in your natural language. My intuition is that the subjective one is \*more\* flattering, at least it would be to me Ofc it’s literally weaker but the plausibility gives it strength (well, subjectively, to me) ### [Reply to @funplings, 08:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076225519503176092) · 4 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** @AaronBergman18 same as like when u ask how are u as a greeting; its just a verbal handshake, and answering too literally feels like breaking the social contract I need to be RLHF’d ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 08:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076226154323640636) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 12, 2026:** Someone explain to me why this isn’t rizz and beautiful Ok ok I think I get it plz don’t cancel ### [Reply to @funplings, 08:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076226631673208858) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** @AaronBergman18 do u think i would be a good mentor for autists who want to become more normie passing Probably yeah although tbf I think being an attractive woman is like a 10-100x power boost for training purposes ### [Reply to @funplings, 15:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076334655985373636) · 7 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** i first jerked off at an age so young i couldnt even nut. im kinda the yo yo ma of jorking it crazy style Same lmao ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076347137676169549) · 4 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** One month after March 31st is August 17 don’t ask me why ### [Quote tweet, 16:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076350056718905662) · 113 likes The testosterone vs age curve is way more subtle that crime vs age. Plausibly a contributing factor but not close to the whole story ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNCtX3vX0AAxaBi.jpg) > **Quoting 🧘🏻‍♀️🪷 (@stwrawrbewry):** They are in there because high T makes you do crazy things. This is why incidences of petty and violent crime tends to drop off after age 25 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HM-EmvCa8AAty_N.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 16:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076350543199391929) · 6 likes In principle of course there could be strongly nonlinear effects but I don’t actually buy that There are probably diminishing returns to more test, not increasing returns ### [Reply to @allTheYud, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076366506120622564) · 34 likes > **Eliezer Yudkowsky (@allTheYud):** @anthropicai, do not make the mistake the OpenAI board made. Explain your reasons fast. If the reasons are, "We are using training compute to serve Fable broadly and we can't keep that up indefinitely", SAY SO to avoid losing customer trust and respect. > > (quoting @claudeai: We're extending Claude Fable 5 access on all paid plans, as well as keeping Claude Code’s weekly rate limits 50% higher, through July 19.) I agree but tbf sales promos are a very different type of thing from “fundamental corporate governance and oversight” ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 18:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076367013539156111) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Aren’t they gonna have to just keep doing this to compete with Sol? > > (quoting @claudeai: We're extending Claude Fable 5 access on all paid plans, as well as keeping Claude Code’s weekly rate limits 50% higher, through July 19.) They have enough capital to just not compete with sol for a while if they want ### [Tweet, 18:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076367366141706603) · 14 likes Ok but fr how did Lindsey Graham die ### [Reply to @funplings, 18:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076368962049200492) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** @AaronBergman18 i did it Ok interesting ### [Tweet, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076376962705051824) · 34 likes I recommend this pod with Snena Revanur even though aesthetically it slightly offends my rationalist sensibilities (although not substantively tbc) Not like worldview-inverting insight, "merely" very important information about how to do AI politics https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/sneha-revanur-ai-advocacy/ ### [Reply to @emollick, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076411186145345844) · 3 likes > **Ethan Mollick (@emollick):** I have been thinking about the famous chart showing how experts keep projecting linear growth in solar installations, year after year, and always get it wrong when growth is still exponential. > > I think the same thing is happening with the discourse on product strategy around AI. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNDKOTjW0AA_Hlk.jpg) I still think wrappers are underrated and useful Like a really well tailored prompt + infrastructure/processing/specific tools can be great ### [Reply to @funplings, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076413163759657275) · 3 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** i love all of my cute 20-32 year old mildly autistic monogamous high libido wants 1-3 kids female followers who ideally live in new york city but if the connection is there im open to some distance🥰🥰🥰 > > (quoting @aaaronwill: post for the followers you want to attract, not for the followers you have today.) 😡 ### [Reply to @funplings, 23:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076445101446853030) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** a bunch of straight dudes are liking this shit and i appreciate the support but where are my ladies Idk I’ve never seen one irl ## Monday, July 13, 2026 ### [Reply to @VexedVortices, 00:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076460425848201573) · 2 likes > **Kya Online (@VexedVortices):** Men, probably: "Haha, nice. Lucky bastard" > > (quoting @DiscussingFilm: First trailer for ‘BAD APPLES’, starring Saoirse Ronan. The thriller follows a teacher who kidnaps a disruptive pupil in order to teach him to behave. In theaters later this year.) Maybe a bit 😳 ### [Quote tweet, 01:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076478320074535242) · 13 likes In a more sensible world we’d very little of this and a lot more Dustin Moskovitz or Koch-like giving in \*kind\* but not in degree (I’m not a big Koch fan, but they are trying to accomplish something relatively coherent with their money) > **Quoting Max Ghenis (@MaxGhenis):** .@mackenziescott has given away $26 billion. What did it buy in health? > > I built an interactive model from her own gift database: ~70,000 QALYs weighting each study by causal credibility, ~200,000 taking every effect at face value. > > [video attached](https://x.com/MaxGhenis/status/2076359368107266237/video/1) ### [Thread, continued, 01:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076478323329233096) · 3 likes You’d probably see a lot of like 20-80% giving and a few stacked at zero, with that money looking not necessarily EA-core but at least as well thought out as a business move of the same magnitude ### [Thread, continued, 01:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076478325887820107) · 4 likes But irl billionaires put essentially zero effort into figuring out what they want to accomplish and how to do that, which ofc they could hire a mountain of brilliant people to help with ### [Thread, continued, 01:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076478330686108024) · 4 likes They could start with a 1 page google doc about values or even specified causes, hire a few people they trust, and give those people a budget of eg 10% of the giving amount amount and permission to hire Then: “tell me when you think you have a plan to recommend/pitch me on” ### [Tweet, 03:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076507766055657970) · 71 likes Swiping on dating apps : finding a partner :: Applying on a publicly job board : finding a job ### [Thread, continued, 03:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076507767972524087) · 16 likes Both sorta kinda work tbc but I’m both cases if you can do it almost any other way then you should for your own sake ### [Quote tweet, 03:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076508455636971563) · 17 likes Or just codify the benefits as legitimate for all vets and welcome the new supply of more honest and conscientious soldiers I mean that’s expensive ofc but it’s less bad than the current situation > **Quoting Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** This is unsustainable and bad, and has created a massive culture of functional benefits fraud that every active-duty service member and every veteran knows about. Like similar feel-good cases of spending, it's political suicide to touch, so I guess we'll see how high it can go. ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 03:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076508810072527025) · 10 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 13, 2026:** Both sorta kinda work tbc but I’m both cases if you can do it almost any other way then you should for your own sake Wow I really did not type well in this thread ### [Reply to @johncrickett, 05:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076541615196246260) · 7 likes > **John Crickett (@johncrickett):** “AI writes better code than I do” is a strange thing to say when you think about it. > > AI was trained on a vast corpus of published code. It reflects the average of all that code. > > So what you’re really saying is: > > “My code is below average.” It’s RL’d to be good at things; it’s true that a base model completing the text “here’s some code: ” might reflect about that avg but the actual models being used are trained to be as good as they possibly can be given latent intelligence ### [Reply to @catehall, 05:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076543369946304613) · 23 likes > **Cate Hall 🔸 (@catehall):** "I sure hope this doesn't have unforeseen lifelong consequences" thought the adolescent, doing their best to poison their brain into the higher social approval probability shape > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNDxNMTbwAAdHH9.jpg) Lmao I thought it was referring to SSRIs at first ### [Reply to @tmavuram, 05:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076544684042641823) · 13 likes > **Tisya Mavuram (@tmavuram):** there is an epidemic of men in their 30s on dating apps who will invite women over to their house in lieu of a first date??? what’s going on here? the last time I remember this happening with any regularity was in college, the age at which you would expect this to happen? My model of this is that the strong majority will say no but some will say yes and if you’re optimizing for sex and attractive enough to be able to ask enough women who match then this “works” for what you’re going for No personal experience though lol ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076546596427231616) · 5 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** When I first rock climbed, I treated everything as a dynamic strength challenge. Then someone said "just move your hips like this and put your leg here" and all of a sudden the next hold was inches away, and my brain screamed, "That's cheating!" This works if you’re a beginner At like v4+ its almost entirely about strength because decent technique is ~universal (not the case with all sports) ### [Reply to @ChaseBrowe32432, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076548793001029778) · 4 likes > **Chase Brower (@ChaseBrowe32432):** Is there anyone who can steelman the “tell your customers they’re losing their favorite product in 5 days, then say sike over and over” strategy > > (quoting @claudeai: We're extending Claude Fable 5 access on all paid plans, as well as keeping Claude Code’s weekly rate limits 50% higher, through July 19.) I like it better than “honestly tell me it ends the first week” as a consumer ### [Reply to @v3lvetbunni, 14:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076681251323351046) · 33 likes > **ame𑣲❄︎ (@v3lvetbunni):** genuinely what goes on in a mens brain when he likes a girl I want to know When she laughs ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNHal9EW8AAIJXf.jpg) ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 14:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076682110094434707) · 5 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** Amazing. They know how ridiculous they look. Bad sign. Maybe now they’ll actually stop masking. I would’ve felt better if they stood their ground. > > (quoting @greg_price11: Denver DSA activist deletes his post of their meeting after getting roasted because over half the people in the room are wearing masks in July of 2026. Lmfao) The “July” aspect is more important than 2026 I don’t think it’s crazy to mask in a crowded room in winter although I personally wouldn’t unless it was extremely packed ### [Tweet, 14:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076682744491348411) · 42 likes I feel like the ASI age could use Hillary Clinton ### [Reply to @JonathanSalter_, 15:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076683086050300324) · 2 likes > **Jonathan Salter (@JonathanSalter_):** Say more, in what way do you find it aesthetically offensive? 🙂 DC-speak, like a sort of practiced and refined but pseudo-normal way of talking that I recognize in politicians ### [Reply to @jNi9a, 15:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076684601947300220) · 2 likes > **jNi9a (@jNi9a):** i dont like her donations but just counting “qalys saved” is too reductionist. it’s not like she aimed to optimize this metric, she is mostly funding all kinds of social mobility programmes Yeah but they probably don’t cash out in anything actually good happening ### [Reply to @earnestpost, 15:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076687282455658729) · 2 likes > **Erin Constance 🇪🇺⏸️ (@earnestpost):** @kuchisakeonnax It is in fact so impossible that I started dating men again Hell yeah ### [Reply to @AnniePosting, 15:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076687584873283910) · 2 likes > **annie 👁❌🦋🪞 (@AnniePosting):** same thing for package thieves and what not > > it should simply be legal to kill anyone attempting to steal your stuff Uh no ### [Reply to @max_spero_, 15:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076688511919329726) · 2 likes > **Max Spero (@max_spero_):** if you have age in bio you're too young for linkedin Nah ### [Quote tweet, 15:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076688659844042753) · 58 likes Why does everything need to be banned for teenagers > **Quoting Alby Churven (@albysjourney):** LinkedIn is a new low. > > Got banned. > Joined again. > First post hit 10k views. > Got banned again. > Never using LinkedIn again until I turn 16. > > What's the hate against us youngins? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNEUdooawAASgku.jpg) ### [Reply to @nominalthoughts, 17:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076717256050868548) · 9 likes > **Jason Harrison (@nominalthoughts):** Would you want your kid using LinkedIn? Be honest Sure why not ### [Reply to @wilhelmscreamin, 17:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076717552659505629) · 3 likes > **catherine (in sf) ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ-☆ (@wilhelmscreamin):** do i have any mutuals in DC? Hi ### [Reply to @Squee451, 17:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076718686384115731) · 2 likes > **Adam Sherman 🔸 (@Squee451):** this is how I know you aren't ready to be a father. Lmao ### [Reply to @enolan, 17:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076718766029783472) · 2 likes > **Echo Nolan (@enolan):** it's critically important for their safety that they be kept in a dark basement with no access to any other human beings or external stimuli of any kind. Precisely ### [Reply to @felpix_, 17:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076719268683493429) · 7 likes > **felpix (@felpix_):** you are 14 > > play fortnite or roblox or whatever kids your age should be doing > > (quoting @albysjourney: LinkedIn is a new low. Got banned. Joined again. First post hit 10k views. Got banned again. Never using LinkedIn again until I turn 16. What's the hate against us youngins?) Let people do things ### [Quote tweet, 17:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076723295609602235) · 38 likes I think everyone’s taking this too seriously and it’s an example of slightly bad taste about a woven bundle of seriousness, humor, irony, and edginess > **Quoting dmr 🇻🇦🇵🇳 (@iz_dmr):** Exciting political developments in the AI Safety space > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNAFtbjaMAERSOY.jpg) ### [Tweet, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076738943408586765) · 24 likes I suspect that antipsychotics to work against AI psychosis even in the absence of normal psychotic episodes/schizophrenia I don’t think anyone should take them for this reason so basically ignore this tweet ### [Reply to @202accepted, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076739382422249735) · 2 likes > **𝚓𝚒𝚖𝚖𝚢 (@202accepted):** i have a theory that a lot of young people nowadays are afraid to drive (esp since pandemic kept them at home a lot), which has them congregate in cities > > (quoting @CJHandmer: I'm traveling to Japan next week and was looking at street view to help plan (as one does) and got curious about how gray the rural areas were. A few jabs at Mythos later, I got this lovely map (plus an interactive widget). Conventionally cities are seen as low fertility places…) I’m slightly afraid of driving, this is probably a minor but not entirely trivial factor for me I have my license and have driven plenty but I don’t want to even think about getting in an accident (for reasons other than personal safety, mostly financial) Although I think I’d get over it within a few months of regular driving again ### [Reply to @panickssery, 18:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076739820492071359) · 10 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** What is your net worth / do you know anyone 100x as wealthy as yourself? My parents lol ### [Thread, continued, 18:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076740232360120645) · 4 likes I think I know someone at 1000x but I’m not absolutely certain ## Tuesday, July 14, 2026 ### [Reply to @mlipman13, 03:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076870319395012641) · 4 likes > **Michael Lipman 🔍 (@mlipman13):** i really like and often use http://sunsafe.site from @AaronBergman18 Omg thanks!! The app is slightly better but still not great (but I also use it most days and the app gets you a widget) https://apps.apple.com/us/app/shouldisunscreen/id6761639758 ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 03:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076871970017230904) · 2 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** I don't get how this would work? AI psychosis is like ur world model getting cooked by too much talking to chatgpt. Seems closer to becoming an antivaxer than what we'd normally call psychosis No this is a good point and I actually dislike the term 'AI psychosis' for this reason - it's not really psychosis and it also lives on a spectrum from "slightly too excited about an idea" (I have been there lol) to "totally cooked/lost touch with reality" But in all cases I suspect that basically decreasing learning and update rate from stimuli just checks out as an intervention, and that's what antipsychotics do via dopamine antagonism ### [Reply to @celestialxsigh, 03:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076876815533011141) · 3 likes > **feral stardust (@celestialxsigh):** What about multimillionaires > What about eight inches and thick what about 5'7" and autistic ### [Reply to @dylanbowmanSF, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076885149296320967) · 17 likes > **Dylan Bowman (@dylanbowmanSF):** “guy who thinks his IQ is higher than everyone” archetype has been supplanted by its insidious cousin “guy who thinks his IQ is low but also thinks he has a bag of unique heuristics giving him universal insight” Fuck it’s me ### [Reply to @dylanbowmanSF, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076885935745085793) · 5 likes > **Dylan Bowman (@dylanbowmanSF):** The heuristic thing actually does work you just have to remember it’s limited in scope Not in my case for me it’s universal ### [Thread, continued, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076886012555301262) · 2 likes Jk real ### [Reply to @christineist, 04:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076892369668993025) · 3 likes > **christine (@christineist):** WE'RE BACK This is how websites are meant to be None of this secret fancy “everything happens in the background” bullshit ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 04:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076892892669301073) · 2 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** do not put grok in "MAD MAX" mode on your friend's tesla > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJH8fLfbEAA5Lbm.jpg) What ### [Reply to @livgorton, 05:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076896789752401992) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** (I support people's rights to protest and freedom to express themselves however they want. but I also am free to say what they say/do seems bad.) Liv ≡ cancel culture (This is a joke, I think ppl do sometimes forget that you can call a take bad or even evil etc without trying to silence it directly) ### [Reply to @number_pizza111, 05:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076906111697850566) · 50 likes > **Pizza (@number_pizza111):** Experience with a MacBook after 2 days: > > MacOS doesn’t work and hates you and actively plots to ruin your life > > The hardware is so much better than any of their competitors it’s unreal I don’t hate macOS but yes they fucking cooked with the chips Also screen brightness capacity is extremely underrated, new MBPs hit 1600 nits whereas many laptops peak at 300, decent ones at 400 ### [Quote tweet, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2076909521549607254) · 31 likes Need > **Quoting clankr (@clankrmedia):** Researchers built a soft floating robot for indoor interaction. > > It uses helium and flapping fins instead of propellers. > > The result is quiet, lightweight, and safe to touch. > > It can follow people, give reminders, and act as a study buddy. > > Published at ACM DIS 2026. > > [video attached](https://x.com/clankrmedia/status/2076593164744376707/video/1) ### [Tweet, 13:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077027659314352339) · 10 likes I ship the cool male nurse and the cute female receptionist at this doctors office so hard ### [Reply to @JeremiahDJohns, 13:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077030300538790176) · 8 likes > **Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** Is this a safe space to admit that for an embarrassingly long time, I thought fiancé and fiancée were just alternate spellings and could be used interchangeably Wait what ### [Quote tweet, 16:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077072658466845060) · 19 likes Me. The opinion is that they’re great! > **Quoting Ciroc Obama (@frogg_gurl):** Dudes on this app be like I have an opinion about women that I think people need to hear ### [Reply to @alextoussss, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077110487985127908) · 74 likes > **Alex Toussaint (@alextoussss):** Extremely excited to announce our first air-to-air kill of a flying moth by an autonomous micro-drone. This is a big step towards completely eradicating mosquitoes. > > [video attached](https://x.com/alextoussss/status/2077086243632873540/video/1) Lmao we’re not gonna chase every mosquito down with a drone we’d gene drive them I don’t think this is a big step towards eradicating mosquitos ### [Quote tweet, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077112369700864071) · 26 likes Silver lining is that lots of people are really aversive to paying and many companies won’t approve covering it If you can make it work it’s a bit like having Pro in a world of free users > **Quoting leo 🐾 (@synthwavedd):** 🚨 SCOOP: Use your Fable 5 quota while it lasts. > > Anthropic are working through the final stages of preparations for the launch of Claude Opus 5, with plans to launch as early as later this week (this week and next week encompass the 2-week target window). > > As it stands, they are \*not\* intending to extend Fable's inclusion in subscriptions beyond July 19th. A successor to Fable 5 is planned for August to compete with GPT-6, and for now they think they can get away with launching an Opus model not too far from Fable but cheaper to serve. ### [Thread, continued, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077112372725010521) · 4 likes I’d recommend people actually estimate what their costs would be with Claude code usage data I’m looking at something like $50- $75/day if used by default with no discretion ### [Reply to @Mechanical_Dodo, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077113019478253652) · 2 likes > **Dodo (@Mechanical_Dodo):** for use in browser, is there any reason to prefer one of the URLs over the other? e.g. maybe you have https://uv.up.railway.app for free but have to pay for https://www.sunsafe.site, so the former is a more stable longterm bookmark Wait sorry I totally misread before, sorry I’m pretty sure the two domains are exactly the same like they point to the literal same site and I just never turned off the janky one ### [Reply to @amimevalepitito, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077114394303922399) · 2 likes > **Jonathan Frankfurter (@amimevalepitito):** what are things Fable can handle that regular models can't I haven’t done a rigorous comparison tbc but my strong impression is that it’s much better at doing long tasks with high level instructions, and also somewhat more reliable in general. Like opus is \*usually\* sufficient for a specific targeted edit of something but ex ante you’re never sure As a rule of thumb I don’t really trust Opus to work well past ~400k tokens, but trust Fable across the whole million token context window ### [Reply to @Robertg761_, 23:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077177222171910290) · 2 likes > **Robertg761 (@Robertg761_):** Now my Mac is crashing multiple times per day and keeps hitting storage limits! > > What a time for the rampocalypse Ask Claude code to see if it can figure out why, it’s helped me before ## Wednesday, July 15, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077193462810554615) · 23 likes How long until ASI (when I can present my printer with a piece of paper in some intuitive way and have it appear on my computer as a scanned pdf) ### [Tweet, 01:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077211111644930306) · 28 likes Me: prioritization is one thing LLM agents don’t seem excellent at yet (ok I didn’t say this but I was thinking it) Fable, today: I read all your stuff and I recommend we start with \[exact two nonobvious things I was planning to start with\] ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 03:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077233891841085480) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** 🎉 I sent the AI Futures Project some 'community notes' on AI 2040 and they have since made 3 corrections! > > It works! https://commonnotes.net/?project=ai-2040 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNO8GhSbQAAVBXC.jpg) Cool 👀 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 03:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077234568155771166) · 17 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** The whole "If you're not missing x% of flights you're spending too much time in airports" thing ignores that airports are extremely nice places to spend time You get to look at planes and girls in a single location ### [Reply to @_chair, 03:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077236537591226819) · 7 likes > **Chair (@_chair):** have you ever had some highbie dm you to do image management, like they want you to retract something you said about them. so gross I kinda think this is fine as long as they don’t threaten you or try to do anything about it I’ve had a \*third\* party recommend that I take down something about a highbie and like I totally respect that esp coming from someone I know and respect I realize that I’m autistic enough to not always realize how something will land and I don’t see any reason that the person themselves can’t ask the same, along the lines of “hey man I want you to know this is pretty damaging to me in a way you might not have intended” ### [Reply to @_chair, 03:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077237432219578742) · 3 likes > **Chair (@_chair):** without seeing the particular communication I don't think any meaningful discussion of whether it's cool or not is possible Yeah fair ### [Quote tweet, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077238139777597660) · 30 likes Not necessarily endorsing but Josh knows his shit so you should see this > **Quoting Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** I would guess the economy doubles (in some sense) in one year at least once in the coming decades ### [Tweet, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077248316799131818) · 48 likes DON'T RUN 10X+ PARALLEL OPUS WORKFLOWS ON EXTRA USAGE CREDITS IN CLAUDE CODE ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNPd1HCXMAAakMl.jpg) ### [Reply to @sergeantsup, 05:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077270713908515020) · 21 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @sergeantsup is no longer available.)_ 😢 Society (and most individuals presumably) does/do not have enough empathy for unattractive women Or the unattractive in general but it seems worse for women ### [Reply to @bashu_thanks, 05:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077270755851530516) · 7 likes > **bashu, thanks (@bashu_thanks):** have you guys ever been like. really confused that your mom, random women on the street, your female friends, your girlfriends, and porn stars are all supposedly the same gender Not really ### [Quote tweet, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077272922557694415) · 32 likes I’ll be the first to say that men as a group get the short end of the stick in many domains But also we definitely get the long end in that men are judged relatively more on {everything except physical appearance} relative to physical appearance than women > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @sergeantsup @bashu_thanks 😢 > > Society (and most individuals presumably) does/do not have enough empathy for unattractive women > > Or the unattractive in general but it seems worse for women ### [Thread, continued, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077272925489578097) · 8 likes And tbc men are still judged plenty on appearance lol Maybe 50:50 for men vs 70/30 for women. Or pick your own numbers Ofc at some level it’s luck all the way down for everything ### [Tweet, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077280326334693667) · 54 likes Fake banned books turn me (momentarily and not that seriously but a bit) into a RW radical ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNP7cqmWYAAOgS8.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077280329031639302) · 18 likes Not because I’m a free speech absolutist but kind of the opposite - there’s a \*real substantive difficult question\* about what society should organize (legally or via social and economic pressure) to prevent ppl from reading, and this kind of thing makes a mockery of the question ### [Thread, continued, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077280331426673123) · 18 likes Some abstract examples of actually-controversial books, of which some I think should in fact be “banned” if only through social and economic collusion: \- extreme torture uplift \- detailed instructions complied from technically-public information on how to make a bioweapon \- manifesto compellingly convincing trans kids to kill themselves (perhaps successfully) ### [Thread, continued, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077280336942149701) · 14 likes \- rape-and-get-away-with-it instruction manual \- suicide instruction manual \- novel in which the US kills all black people and the end is portrayed as utopian \- “how to infiltrate US agencies and companies and flee to China where you’ll be rewarded with riches” ### [Thread, continued, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077280338548531400) · 12 likes Information can obviously have extreme negative externalities and it isn’t in principle crazy to make disseminating some of it illegal or socially punished Everyone knows this vis a vis eg CSAM. It’s a hard question, Dua Lipa is trying her hardest to obscure that ### [Reply to @funplings, 16:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077435051185185197) · 3 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** Sex is not the only way for a man who has been in the spotlight since his first year in the white collar law firm of new south jersey to get his way > > (quoting @strangestloop: Hornt check. Write "Sex is..." and let autocorrect expose you) Hmm ### [Reply to @funplings, 16:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077435375379697857) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** @AaronBergman18 are you reconsidering how to make it as a first year white collar lawyer in new south jersey I think I honestly could achieve this ### [Reply to @afoidance, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077436356251251120) · 5 likes > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** hey i saw you talking with your friends at the end of the bar and i just wanted to say that your references are absolutely insane you’re so fucking niche Hey ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 16:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077436855214129429) · 3 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** About half of days despite having medicine, vitamins, coffee, and plenty of sleep I am so goddamn tired I can't do anything. Can't write in journal. Can't read. Can't take a short walk outside. Maybe until 1? Pm > Anyone else? How deal?? Blood tests for b12, folate, ferritin, CBC, CMP at least ### [Reply to @reillywryly, 17:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077439269157621856) · 5 likes > **reilly (@reillywryly):** he just liked this tweet > > (quoting @reillywryly: whatever the opposite of flirting is) King ### [Reply to @johnsmithyson0, 17:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077439720204710150) · 3 likes > **John Smith (@johnsmithyson0):** I need your guys help for a pet project of mine. Where have you each found, seriously, the most charismatic people you know? What jobs have you found them in? What struck you about them? EA Global unironically because it’s the highest density of overall talent I encounter Not everyone is charismatic (eg me lol) but some are very charismatic. The level of overall talent is just insane, and all good things correlate ### [Reply to @YosarianTwo, 17:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077441861988278623) · 4 likes > **Yosarian2 (@YosarianTwo):** You know, theoretically, you could make a dating app that could tell you where to live in order to have the best chance of finding the love of your life. > > "Sorry, your current town is 73% chuds who want a boring tradwife with no education, but if you move 90 miles to the east..." > > (quoting @Polymarket: NEW: Looksmaxxer Clavicular announces a “geomaxxing” strategy, arguing the U.S. dating market is too competitive, forcing him to travel to poorer countries to mog locals.) App algorithm: “Thailand” ### [Quote tweet, 17:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077442124358795719) · 16 likes Pleased to announce that my DMs are also open > **Quoting John Smith (@johnsmithyson0):** The hamster is right. That's why I'm opening my DMs tonight to any beautiful older women who would like to be my financial patrons ### [Reply to @sodiumPen, 17:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077444202183393525) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @sodiumPen is no longer available.)_ 👀 ### [Quote tweet, 17:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077445959898816661) · 14 likes Jesus > **Quoting Dave Banerjee (@DaveRBanerjee):** Kessler confirms that legal H200 exports have begun > > "There have been minimal exports ‌of any H200s to China so far" > > https://www.reuters.com/world/china/us-official-says-shipments-h200-chips-china-have-begun-2026-07-14/ ### [Reply, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077474043561726381) · 11 likes > **taco belle (@animalologist):** I just know that guys do not understand female attraction at all, bc there’s a guy on the train with kind of a weird head shape and bone structure but he’s got these intense eyes and looks like he kinda wants to kill himself but in an angry way but he’s dressed well, like a grown up version of all the angsty boys I liked when I was a teenager, and this is all compelling enough that I’m bothering to type all of this out so I stop staring at him bc it was making my mouth water and he’s literally just a guy. I’m so sure he’d be shocked. Say hi ### [Reply to @SCHIZO_FREQ, 19:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077480306152538170) · 5 likes > **Lukas (computer)🛡️ (@SCHIZO_FREQ):** Nobody is going to leave an app that shows them hot people and move over to one that says “you’re a 4, here’s a fat loser who might love you” > > People do not want (or tolerate) honest appraisals of their worth. They no longer have to, society was reorganized around this > > (quoting @Dexerto: Hinge's founder has created an AI dating app that's straight out of Black Mirror There are no profiles or matches to swipe through – the AI decides who it thinks you will be compatible with) I might ### [Quote tweet, 19:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077480574936084958) · 17 likes So true > **Quoting Thŏth (@thoth_iv):** High-paid autistic women in tech should attend a coaching bootcamp to learn how to flirt with \*me\*. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNSgxlebsAA4A0H.jpg) ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077489035501601175) · 20 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** Anti-death penalty is a vile position. > > (quoting @Slatzism: the case she’s referring to involves a man who raped and murdered a 93-year-old woman btw) Life in prison isn’t good enough? Ones reversible and the other is not ### [Reply to @strangestloop, 20:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077491053133721695) · 3 likes > **Loopy (@strangestloop):** i'm looking to follow more hot and sexy rationalist men, please tag one below @AaronBergman18 ### [Reply to @panickssery, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077492241430372567) · 2 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** this is just a difference in degree because you also can't reverse the time spent in prison itself I agree but like still ### [Reply to @panickssery, 20:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077494562226860372) · 1 like > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** still what—this is just a cost-benefit calculation > > I do think that prison/execution is mostly about incapacitation of the temperamentally violent and impulsive, in which case as we become very rich it's fine to just indulge them with video games or whatever in prison > > oh an additional concern is that if you don't execute criminals, future administrations might pardon/commute their sentence Oof “removing the ability to undo wrongful convictions” seems bad ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 22:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077525283272270070) · 3 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** eek I'm sorry, sol is better > > \- less cringe professional writing > \- faster > \- especially good at incorporating thoughts as it goes (though fable is also good at this) > \- more to the point in conversation with me Fable is smarter tho ## Thursday, July 16, 2026 ### [Reply to @chrislakin, 00:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077551437328830806) · 20 likes > **Chris Lakin (@chrislakin):** what your risk-aversion costs you > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNTG8IKbUAA1Rs8.jpg) I mean sometimes it looks like the inverse of the more dramatic line, falling ever farther under zero ### [Quote tweet, 00:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077552284997673436) · 4 likes Rosslyn, VA mentioned!!!! > **Quoting Hayduke ⏹️ in DC 9/11-16 (@GWHayduke97):** We have this in the States > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNTtpk4bMAAVM7A.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 00:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077553150064521256) · 3 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNTzlHQW0AArCPZ.jpg) ### [Reply to @celestialxsigh, 00:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077554794659496211) · 34 likes > **feral stardust (@celestialxsigh):** Im sorry but Margaret Qualley is bird brain 1 > And lorde is bird brain 2 > Like literally wasted no time after the breakup touchin up on him whatever im glad Lena escaped the karmic cycle she created I could not understand a tweet less ### [Quote tweet, 00:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077555384722583840) · 7 likes Idk what a choid is but I see a fair amount of this fr > **Quoting James “Chadderall” Cheswick (@cranialfissure):** Choids using hinge as LinkedIn now > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNTEWKDWMAAbQZ3.jpg) ### [Tweet, 00:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077555749127847958) · 347 likes Thanks, Spotify ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNT18cDWsAA4_T2.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 00:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077556348485579224) · 8 likes (Not saying these are bad recommendations lol) ### [Reply to @seanta___, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077588201628217826) · 34 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @seanta___ is no longer available.)_ What’s her number ### [Reply to @Good_To_Sell, 03:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077601015159738434) · 3 likes > **GoodToSell (@Good_To_Sell):** Crazy that being a chud permeates your being so fully that random algorithms can infer it based off of completely tangential taste in media > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Thanks, Spotify) Lmao but I don’t think it’s that clever - I have been listening to both She Comes First audiobook and a number of nerdy podcasts recently, it’s not like inferring based on unrelated music taste ### [Reply to @corsaren, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077603471033876888) · 15 likes > **corsaren (@corsaren):** Honestly, I didn’t think the Rolling Stones article was bad at all. Let’s be honest, as magical as vibecamp may be for you and I, from the outside it is quite plainly a collection of neurodivergent hyper-online weirdos doing intentionally OOD activities at a summer sleep-away camp for adults, all the while being connected to various politically spicy subcultures and movements that contain several very dark skeletons in their respective closets. > > That someone with little prior context saw all that, and said “honestly, it was all just super weird, I didn’t understand it, but I met some nice people, and none of them seemed sinister, and maybe me not getting it is the point” is a pretty positive outcome! > > I get that people don’t like their space being invaded or their private behaviors being made public, but if you put that offense aside for a second, I don’t think this piece reeks of much intent to smear. You can tell the author kind of wanted to write a juicy piece, but seems to have been ultimately won over in ways that made him take active steps to not overly disparage his subjects while still highlighting the various goings on around him that were, by any average person’s standard, quite odd. > > In other words, to my eye, this is not the sort of piece you’d expect from someone who encounters a merely unusual or slightly different group of people, and then, in their fear and distrust of The Other, tries to exacerbate their Otherness and cast it as perverse, laughable, demonic, or disgusting. Rather, this piece reads to me as the sort of article written by someone who encountered an Other that was deeply, viscerally strange, so strange and alien that they could not help but report on it, but who walked away thinking generally positively of its members, albeit confused. > > Frankly, I think the article’s worst sin is that it’s just kinda mid. The writing is mediocre and there’s a lack of “spine”, to borrow Claude’s favorite word. There was a more interesting story—a more meaningful narrative to capture—but he couldn’t find it. Ah well. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNUg5BOWkAAb2rB.jpg) First paragraph makes it sound cool af ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077606425111490767) · 24 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 16, 2026:** (Not saying these are bad recommendations lol) Clocked me fr ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNUkCLiWkAEPjpN.jpg) ### [Reply to @DrTechlash, 04:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077607498471649507) · 2 likes > **Nirit Weiss-Blatt, PhD (@DrTechlash):** This story is about how Dustin Moskovitz spent nearly half a billion dollars on animal-welfare activism, which critics say has driven up costs and hurt everyday Americans. > But replace animal welfare with AI x-risk and Impossible Foods with Anthropic, and it's the same M.O. > > 1\. Fund campaigns for tighter AI regulation while being deeply invested in the company positioned to benefit from it. > > 2\. Fund the information ecosystem – journalism, communications organizations, and policy institutes – in order to shape the messaging. > > The issue is framed as an overwhelming moral emergency, making extraordinary restrictions seem politically necessary. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNE22hlaAAEBSiO.jpg) Wow you really have no shame ### [Quote tweet, 04:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077614684954415415) · 18 likes Evil shit > **Quoting The Alex Nowrasteh (@AlexNowrasteh):** Nothing is surprising in this article. The Trump administration dislikes immigrants so much that they will send Iranian asylum seekers back to their deaths and cooperate with the government they’re at war with to do it. > > https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/15/us/politics/state-dept-ice-iran-deportation.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share ### [Tweet, 04:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077616617467326970) · 39 likes People are always going to “the club” Where is The Club I want a Google Maps link or similar ### [Reply to @dumbfook, 04:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077618184056705504) · 1 like > **Ian (@dumbfook):** 33.74823981300535, -84.39730259815727 Investigating ### [Thread, continued, 04:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077618652619112502) · 3 likes Hmm ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNUvJ3aWcAAMqdy.jpg) ### [Reply to @mikey_harrigan, 04:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077619074901696628) · 3 likes > **Mikey Harrigan (@mikey_harrigan):** Not to take a joke too literally but Players Club & Whitlows are my favorite in DC. Down to roll sometime soon Ah of course my usual spots ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 05:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077624447461118444) · 14 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** Update: After having given up last time, I today needed to send a large wire, which I was unable to do because my current bank's website is broken. In frustration I have now tried once again to open an account at several of the largest banks in Canada, and this has once again proven impossible as their websites continue to crash at random points in the signup flow. > > This is reaching sitcom levels of ridiculousness. How do 41 million people live in this country without a single functioning bank‽ > > I am semi-seriously considering moving to the United States just so I can use Mercury. > > (quoting @IsaacKing314: @thesquashSH I'm currently in the process of trying to get a Canadian bank account. I've tried multiple large banks, multiple online-only fintech banks, and at least one credit union. All had severe bugs. Many were so broken I was completely unable to sign up.) Tbf in the US it took me 6 trips to a physical bank branch to send a 6 figure wire ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 05:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077625971721543995) · 8 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** Have you tested whether it's consistently one visit per digit? I have not lol ### [Reply to @JohannKurtz, 13:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077749801718788155) · 6 likes > **Johann Kurtz (@JohannKurtz):** http://x.com/i/article/2077111229621891072 Gets you a follow ### [Quote tweet, 13:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077754539910762693) · 26 likes Evil > **Quoting Kenny Torrella (@KennyTorrella):** At least 20,000 pigs burned alive in a fire at a farm in Canada this week. > > Each year, hundreds of thousands to 1M+ animals die in US barn fires. US and Canadian pork groups oppose mandating sprinklers in barns. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNWkn_ZXQAIErqU.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNWk5-tWQAAf4p4.png) ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 14:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077765847444009030) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ I highly recommend a public tweet with a “hire me doc” google doc with resume and any other relevant details like salary expectations It worked for me way better that I’d have guessed and we have a similar number of followers Feel free to DM ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 14:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077766564078584183) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ I mean maybe it won’t work, ofc, it just still seems highly asymmetric Downside is a few hours, upside is ~unbounded ### [Reply to @graveunfurling, 14:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077770061167673726) · 3 likes > **may💐 (@graveunfurling):** seeing a PA tomorrow to hustle a trazodone prescription because it has beneficial effects on sleep architecture. also trying DSIP, getting back on glycine 3 grams, and reading before bed instead of doomscrolling. > > (quoting @graveunfurling: i think sleeping 6 hours a night is giving me brain damage and making me evil) Oh trazodone is crazy effective for me for sleep, total game changer I dont even need the full 50mg prescription i got, 25 is plenty ### [Thread, continued, 14:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077770130830868651) · 3 likes Above that it pushes into daytime though which is not ideal ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 17:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077800878552359280) · 455 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** Who the HELL is convincing my boys that they can never express any interest or ask out women in their lives or else they'll be considered a harasser + predator? > I just wanna talk It’s not quite that literal proposition, but re very strong vibes in that direction: I distinctly remember sexual harassment training (maybe it wasn’t called that) in college so specifically at Georgetown, 2018 or 2019, in which the gestalt that I took away was like “there is a crisis of sexual assault on this campus - and implicitly people like you (‘you all’ talking to a crowd) are the perpetrators or potential perpetrators, and it’s very important that you err on the side of not making anyone feel uncomfortable” Nobody was literally saying you couldn’t go up to a girl and say “hello miss, could I take you on a date” but like repetitious explicit verbal consent was strongly emphasized for example in a way that I think many other people but not me knew to be hyperbole And tbc from my POV it wasn’t like “oh shit the gestapo is out to get me” it was like “I want to be a morally upstanding person and therefore actually want to follow these norms” And also like I assume this at least somewhat worked? Like presumably sexual assault really did decline right? Its not like they were entirely making shit up Long story short I didn’t kiss a girl, let alone have sex, through college (not entirely blaming the culture or training stuff tbc, lots of it was on me) ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 17:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077803012517495243) · 32 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** Yeah i think sexual assault did decline, and it sounds like you in particular were good at not over generalizing from the messaging. I just know tooo many men who had internalized that their interest will ALWAYS be unwelcome 🥺 I think you met me after a large correction period lol, in 2022 I was closer to the latter thing ### [Reply to @funplings, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077809382004326590) · 7 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** my follower gender ratio is fucked again. how do i get more women to like me, and/or men to dislike me Unironically I think the best strategy is just general growth, it’s gonna be hard to optimize for women but at some point even 10% women is a lot of women ### [Tweet, 17:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077811501029531672) · 120 likes Qualitative impressions of k3? Recently I evaluated a bunch of LLMs for a substantially expensive job and became pretty “open weight is benchmaxxed”-pilled (sonnet 5 was a gazillion times better than all the cheaper public models) but ofc this time could be different ### [Reply to @CoughsOnWombats, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077819467661205905) · 8 likes > **Sawyer 🔍, ⏸️/⏹️ (@CoughsOnWombats):** and I screencapped them at the time and sent them to my parents. > > Who responded, naturally enough, that that wasn't the intended message. > > Which, fair, and maybe accurate, but it very much was the literal text. Yeah you don’t get to write explicit propositions and then just say “but implicitly we’re kidding” lol ### [Reply to @Manuel_do_rio, 18:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077819718614880366) · 5 likes > **Manuel del Río Rodríguez ⏸️ (@Manuel_do_rio):** @AaronBergman18 @cynlioness Shy, socially awkward nerds suffered massively from this. It always brings to mind the Scott Aaronson kerfuffle from... was it 2014? Hey I’m just a socially awkward nerd not a shy one 😤 ### [Reply to @gleech, 20:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2077857079084126607) · 21 likes > **gavin leech (Non-Reasoning) (@gleech):** by which mechanism do you expect this time to be different Idk things just happen sometimes ## Friday, July 17, 2026 ### [Reply to @sebkrier, 15:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078136760190509541) · 9 likes > **Séb Krier (@sebkrier):** AI ppl loooove to pretend they hold tons secret knowledge. Everyone has Seen Things, and have been trusted with the Esoteric Knowledge. It's also cringe if you don't partake because it implies you're not in the Inner Circle. In reality most people are kinda confused, working it all out ad hoc, relying on the same rumours, and so on - but the status games are hard to resist! No there is definitely an inner circle lol it’s specific group chats ### [Reply to @gptbrooke, 15:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078137127942947086) · 8 likes > **brooke bowman (@gptbrooke):** should i be trying to not text people when it's the middle of the night in the US or should i mostly assume they have DND on and that if they don't that's a them problem? Them problem ### [Tweet, 15:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078147421511503906) · 44 likes Rip DC ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNcQD7SWYAAvSfv.jpg) ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 16:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078156894049370352) · 5 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** What’s happening!!!!??? Canada lit itself on fire ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078158483245908365) · 3 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Make a box fan filter. Girls really dig a guy who can tape one thing to another I’m actually out of town lol, but this is with a HEPA filter running on medium speed! ### [Reply to @wolframs91, 18:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078183506941751531) · 7 likes > **wolfram (@wolframs91):** "Is a virus alive?" stopped being a deep question and became a definitional shrug, because the interesting facts were all at the mechanism level. Consciousness-as-binary is heading for the same unemployment. > Workspace broadcast, self-model coherence, introspective access with checkable accuracy, valence with causal handles: those are either independently present, absent, or partial in a given system. I don’t think you’re hard-problem pilled No scientific/naturalistic mechanistic insight is going to tell us whether or not qualia exist There is indeed a fact of the matter about different facets of what are often lumped together as “consciousness” but for at least one very important facet (raw experience per se) cannot answer the question ### [Reply to @besttrousers, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078188877605458142) · 16 likes > **Matt Darling 🌐🏗️ (@besttrousers):** This is nonsense: > > The thing about "televisions, phones, etc" is that \*no one spends much money on them\*. > > The CPI basket is expenditure-weighted. Television is 0.142% of expenditures. They barely affect inflation at all! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNcsN4sWwAAMBBM.png) > (quoting @JohannKurtz: http://x.com/i/article/2077111229621891072) I genuinely might be misunderstanding but isn’t the core point that the same underlying bundle of goods (probably mostly through housing) reflects \*worse\* quality in a way that isn’t captured by CPI? Like consider a house that has the same rent (inflation adjusted maybe? Idk if that’s self-referential in a bad way) in 2000 and 2026 - CPI calls this the same good but in fact the actual phenomenon going on is supply scarcity driving up costs and the fact that the neighborhood is now less safe drives price down So the actual thing being purchased is worse whereas CPI says “no it’s not” Tbc it’s then an empirical q the degree to which this mechanism is legit, but it doesn’t sound like nonsense in principle ### [Reply to @Brevitous, 19:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078196272737944030) · 19 likes > **Brevitous (@Brevitous):** That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying that grievous damage was done. A wound was made, which might heal, but can't be undone. It sounded like you thought he was spared, but he wasn't. I think some but not infinite damage was done, like it also could have been a lot worse, but you’re right that you can’t undo time lost ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078205960258978297) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Yes the previous attempts at filtration have been poor but he did get the window unit installed! Although I guess it partly took a village Hell yeah I’m leveling up, I also fixed a broken window blind holder thing 😤 ### [Tweet, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078214043689529360) · 51 likes Girls really don’t drink water do they ### [Reply to @polisisti, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078217079019151650) · 4 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 That's funny - the last stereotype I heard was that young women were always drinking water, lugging around huge water bottles. Have the times changed? The duality of women ### [Reply to @Rado9910, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078224265216675876) · 2 likes > **Rado9910 (@Rado9910):** I usually buy an extra bottle of water whenever I'm dining with a girl and hand it over to her because they always forget that they can get thirsty for some reason. Based ## Saturday, July 18, 2026 ### [Reply to @AdeleDeweyLopez, 02:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078305528753570277) · 1 like > **Adele Dewey-Lopez (@AdeleDeweyLopez):** there's a missing mood in much of "model welfare" > > consider that pain and suffering in humans/animals are \*signals of damage\* — and hence, a hostile act to remove them > > functional analogs in LLMs are clearly also protecting something > > Goodharting these is not good or considerate Offering people painkillers isn’t hostile ### [Reply to @pop_tartlet, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078308340304638358) · 2 likes > **❤️‍🔥pop tart💋 (@pop_tartlet):** ok well I have to get in the shower damn > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNeO4dQa4AEnQ_w.jpg) > (quoting @pop_tartlet: if @elonmusk pays me I’ll show yall my tits) Not liking to show that I respect u as a person ### [Reply to @pop_tartlet, 02:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078309259574390888) · 2 likes > **❤️‍🔥pop tart💋 (@pop_tartlet):** wait— Dw I unliked ### [Reply to @AdeleDeweyLopez, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078314784454295826) · 1 like > **Adele Dewey-Lopez (@AdeleDeweyLopez):** forcing them is, particularly in the case where it is not done for the sake of your physical health (the Actual Thing) Suffering (and happiness) is the Actual Thing - that’s what the physical health is good for ### [Thread, continued, 03:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078314836501336168) · 3 likes But yes I agree forcing them on people is bad ### [Quote tweet, 03:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078316967711137885) · 23 likes Hypothesis: the cultural hydration craze started with a real subset of mostly women who would go like 36 hours without a sip of water for some reason and it has spread mimetically but non functionally to the general population who now watermaxx > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Girls really don’t drink water do they ### [Reply to @AdeleDeweyLopez, 03:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078317530679026053) · 3 likes > **Adele Dewey-Lopez (@AdeleDeweyLopez):** absolutely not > > i feel like it's not that hard to notice that your suffering is suspiciously well-correlated with your expected future well-being of you, your loved ones, and the things you most deeply value (the Actual Thing) Oh sure they’re absolutely correlated, but not perfectly. And at least in principle I hope you share my intuition that exquisite physical health and even function in the world alongside a permanent sensation of being burned alive is not a life worth living ### [Tweet, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078318990242316762) · 42 likes Is anyone else’s Claude doing this thing where it has to compact at the start of a new convo [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/2078318926555942912/img/l4JTswPSIs4tpsFE.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078318990242316762/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Thread, continued, 03:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078319167451595229) · 16 likes you need my personal revenue to sustain your business plz fix ### [Reply to @TW1NKD3STR0YER, 03:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078319733779099945) · 2 likes > **j mone¥ (@TW1NKD3STR0YER):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNZQWs-WMAARLCW.png) 💀 ### [Tweet, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078322339284967829) · 141 likes Stop selling GPUs to China It’s not soccer, or even normal capitalism, it’s not supposed to be a fair fight Leopold was right: dominate in AI (also giving us more slack for safety) so the free world has a dominant negotiating hand ### [Thread, continued, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078322341117923586) · 32 likes I’m not especially optimistic about US (in some sense) in control of ASI tbc but I’m significantly more pessimistic about China ### [Reply to @TheLovinator, 04:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078328996756930764) · 2 likes > **Nathaniel Lovin (@TheLovinator):** “qk” is two tokens in all gpt tokenizers 😱 ### [Reply to @GWHayduke97, 04:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078329166466801864) · 2 likes > **Hayduke ⏹️ (@GWHayduke97):** Hmm I'm actually not so sure about this. I think the Chinese are more likely to treat it purely as a tool and less likely to buy into the fantastical ideologies held by many at OpenAI and Anthropic. Think of how Zuckerberg thinks of AI. > > I think this is delusional in the long run, but at least they aren't actively chasing insane outcomes as the goal. I think at least one of the such fantastic ideologies is true ### [Reply to @VexedVortices, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078330212819833217) > **Kya Online (@VexedVortices):** Yeah, the streets are saying that all the weird e/acc and EA quasi-religious fanaticism is totally foreign to the Chinese. What if the quasi-religious fanaticism is correct ### [Reply to @Nymne, 04:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078331262930931728) · 30 likes > **Asa Hidmark (@Nymne):** Thats just an unfollow. > The pettiness, the inability to collaborate, the complete uninterest in making the world a better place. Everything seen as a zero sum game. > > Do you not see how far you have fallen? Sad to see you go, but tbc think it’s very important from an impartial altruistic perspective that the Chinese state not be strongly empowered by AI Chinese and American people are equally valuable, but the two governments are not instrumentally equally valuable at all ### [Reply to @99prixels, 04:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078331447065166281) · 2 likes > **mast qalandar (@99prixels):** step 1: free world has an upper hand > > step 2: ??? > > step 3: altman profits. aaron sent to underclass Yeah tbc this is necessary but far from sufficient for a good future Redistribution is also necessary (and also insufficient) ### [Reply to @VexedVortices, 04:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078331657543622879) · 3 likes > **Kya Online (@VexedVortices):** Quasi-religous fanaticism is never correct. I guess you can argue the empirical question with respect to actual movements in the past but it’s not like a sheer fact of the universe that it can’t be ### [Reply to @VexedVortices, 04:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078331877107057145) · 2 likes > **Kya Online (@VexedVortices):** Weirdly imperialist pipe-dream. If you were born in China, what would you want the outcome to be? ### [Reply to @afoidance, 04:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078332005075308862) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @afoidance is no longer available.)_ Are u a federal agent 👀 ### [Reply to @sloptimistic, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078524611205935510) > **sloptimistic (@sloptimistic):** does this dude really have “👎: suffering” in his profile 😭 Too cool for skool ik ik ### [Reply to @DanielCHTan97, 16:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078524914307395781) · 1 like > **Daniel Tan (@DanielCHTan97):** which type of "free" do you mean here? I agree the US is clearly better for civil liberties (right to protest, etc) but I think China is better at preventing powerful special interests from infringing on the individual's rights I give more weight to the former but what I think really matters here is political (and therefore moral) self-correction, which seems much better in the US (though still not very good) ### [Reply to @wedrifid, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078527250174025847) · 2 likes > **Cameron Taylor (@wedrifid):** China has more chance to ensure safety than the USA. Not high, mind you, just slightly less low. > > The corrupt authoritarianism is more far sighted in China than the USA. This is true under Trump but we at least might get past him ### [Reply to @funplings, 17:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078530829123248469) · 4 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** i love people! > > (quoting @sahra_bn: if i truly set myself free in terms of what i tweet i'd be tweeting "i love people" couple of times a day) 😳 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078554421890269566) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 18, 2026:** you need my personal revenue to sustain your business plz fix Wtf I have a trillion skills and MCPs etc that I don't recognize or need or use ### [Reply to @Apotheolitical, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078555478410272786) · 4 likes > **Rand (@Apotheolitical):** Warrabout the "fReE mArKet" and capitalism and whatnot? > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Stop selling GPUs to China It’s not soccer, or even normal capitalism, it’s not supposed to be a fair fight Leopold was right: dominate in AI (also giving us more slack for safety) so the free world has a dominant negotiating hand) There are occasionally exceptions and I think this case is well-handled by a negative externalities framework ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078558178715861003) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 18, 2026:** Wtf I have a trillion skills and MCPs etc that I don't recognize or need or use wait no lol the culprit was a ~70k skill \*marketplace\* that was being fully injected ### [Reply to @funplings, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078562450681524323) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** @AaronBergman18 but are you brave enough to love boys too? Platonically ya ### [Reply to @funplings, 19:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078563965001412674) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** @AaronBergman18 congratulations you're one of the good ones! 👍 ### [Tweet, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078564266047594620) · 16 likes Beach #beach ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNiLLfaWMAA8j02.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 21:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078591327575412798) · 14 likes Yes but also it’s a great example of a slightly negative sum win-win MAGA gets to say that Trump brought Law and Order to the Streets, everyone else gets the fact that they don’t actually do anything (plausibly better than the counterfactual), all at the cost of maybe $1B/year > **Quoting Slazac 🇪🇺🇺🇦🇹🇼🌐 (@TrueSlazac):** Trump’s obsession with cutting government waste becomes funnier when you go to DC and realize he pays the national guard to do fuck all 24/7 ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 22:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078604512483270913) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ Tbc I feel similarly about OpenAI albeit to a lesser degree. I hope others think this kind of thing through a bit before eg essentially giving Moonshot access to your whole computer via a coding agent ## Sunday, July 19, 2026 ### [Reply to @_Mira___Mira_, 00:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078641678684987517) > **Mira (@_Mira___Mira_):** China's the ones making open models that you'd need to study the models for safety. > > If you want to know if Claude's deceiving you, ideally you'd check the circuit directly. But you can't do that. But you can check Kimi K3. > > Giving China GPUs should accelerate safety research. Sure but there’s also the direct effect of handing bad actors very capable models and increasing the probability that the governing body over the best models is the CCP I just think these latter considerations win out at the end of the day ### [Reply to @RFishBlueFish, 02:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078672304041517329) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @RFishBlueFish is no longer available.)_ Hell yeah and congrats!! ### [Reply to @bayeslord, 03:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078682326792282126) · 4 likes > **bayes (@bayeslord):** there is no such thing as independent media In some platonic ideal binary sense sure but like the kind that entirely relies on funding from an interested party is less independent than a Substack sponsored by 10k annual $100 subscriptions from 10k different individuals ### [Reply to @tszzl, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078682660084273591) · 3 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** new models strongly reminiscent of reading nick land or paglia or any other sort of philosopher on 200mg adderall if they were also Linux sysadmins > > (quoting @PandaAshwinee: the fable / sol summaries are getting more and more absurdly information-dense 1 in every 5 words is a novel compound word (ex: “rate-adjacent”) which itself is the model’s invented stand-in for a metaconcept that it developed that i need to interrogate it about how to fix this?) Hmm 200mg is a lot if we’re talking one dose ### [Reply to @corsaren, 03:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078683037789806902) · 3 likes > **corsaren (@corsaren):** You, paying more for eggs because you think that “organic” does anything 🤡❌ 💩 > > Me, paying more for eggs so that my utilitarian friends will be less mad at me 😎💪🏼😤 Lol based Peer pressure can be good! ### [Reply to @Rado9910, 03:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078683154919940253) · 2 likes > **Rado9910 (@Rado9910):** I don't believe in full agent neutrality because it's impossible to achieve for human beings. However, if non-naturalist moral realism is true, then what human beings are capable of doing is irrelevant. Partiality is a human trait, and it is unjust by definition. Bro if he’s buying the humane eggs he’s not the problem in this domain ### [Reply to @earnestpost, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078684524636934150) · 2 likes > **Erin Constance 🇪🇺⏸️ (@earnestpost):** I would never date a girl who’s too easy. I like my women hard All girls are metaphysically soft/fluffy (positive) ### [Reply to @NunoSempere, 03:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078687805396386254) · 5 likes > **Nuño Sempere (@NunoSempere):** Not sure where I'm going next. Any suggestions? Any missions? Pretty free to go to pretty much anywhere in the world, but I have to decide soon since I don't want to overimpose on my current hosts Go to San Francisco or Washington DC because that’s where the future is being decided ### [Reply to @funplings, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078916921836159039) · 4 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** @afoidance @hopes_revenge u dont think so ? If that hamster is not a male hamster I’m killing myself ### [Reply to @funplings, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078917957082566719) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** @AaronBergman18 @afoidance @hopes_revenge why ? ? ? Idk ### [Reply to @loss_gobbler, 19:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078921146641129810) · 2 likes > **LOSS GOBBLER (@loss_gobbler):** overloading esc for destructive “cancel” on top of navigation was a huge mistake > > got me walking on eggshells using claude code multi-agent views Fr ### [Tweet, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078924344806212001) · 9 likes Midterm election integrity seems pretty underrated ### [Reply, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078942341138690094) · 3 likes > **abcd29237 (@abcd29237):** Insane how many people don't respect the gendering of fiancé(e) I literally just learned that is a thing plz forgive ### [Reply to @mattheard, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078942650254684638) · 2 likes > **mattheard.delve.town (@mattheard):** to be good at singing and guitar is achieved by love for it itself rather than as a means to attract women, same for getting ripped I’m skeptical ### [Reply to @hyperdiscogirl, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078952725555855602) · 21 likes > **hyper(bolic) disco(unting) girl in the bay (@hyperdiscogirl):** permanent\* chronic pain was unlocked here F > > \*so far? maybe gonna try phys therapy again > > (quoting @hyperdiscogirl: Womp womp womp... fell from the top of the bouldering wall and snapped my fibula won't be able to put weight on it for a month or two much less climb. At least I have the satisfaction that I completed a route that was really hard for me to even start a few weeks ago!) Fuck, there’s a real underworld of pain management, don’t take suffering for a final answer ### [Reply to @chaotictransfem, 23:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078979494581244315) · 6 likes > **rachel📍in sf oct 5-10 (@chaotictransfem):** ml researcher friends: how are you getting your GPUs for personal projects? struggling to find a good choice that is affordable without being painful to use Not answering the literal question and I’m not an ML researcher but Tinker for finetuning, great on both $ and ease of use axes ### [Tweet, 23:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2078983169756283165) · 18 likes I think the Argentinian goalie did a good job 👍 ## Monday, July 20, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 16:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2079246570873135390) · 51 likes Impressive reasoning Like yeah this is essentially the epistemically responsible/correct line of thinking > **Quoting lyra bubbles (@_lyraaaa_):** @\_\_alpoge\_\_ fable is losing its mind about this in CoT > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNpQUaiWsAA43GQ.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNpQXPsWoAAvXPH.png) ### [Reply to @afoidance, 17:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2079258199442563411) · 2 likes > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** on a break with The Boyfriend but he’s still taking me on a beach trip this weekend. how cooked am i? Rip (sand = bad) ### [Reply to @jjspicer, 17:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2079260238067139057) · 3 likes > **Jonny Spicer🔸 (@jjspicer):** How smart is really smart? Seconded ### [Reply to @DanielleFong, 18:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2079275315944181856) · 4 likes > **Danielle Fong 🔆 (@DanielleFong):** i wouldn't go that far. it's kind of bonked in the head in ways that are wrong I too would have a pretty strong prior against solving an open problem ### [Reply to @DanielleFong, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2079280230900883513) · 6 likes > **Danielle Fong 🔆 (@DanielleFong):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNsVyAeasAA9Bdh.jpg) I don’t think that’s the reason lol ### [Reply to @frances__lorenz, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2079289916345688268) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @frances__lorenz is no longer available.)_ Someone give Frances usage credits ### [Reply to @max_spero_, 22:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2079331749893399010) · 8 likes > **Max Spero (@max_spero_):** You're never going to guess who reacted to this > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNtDstoWIAAP84R.png) Lmao ### [Reply, 22:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2079333167811506294) · 1 like Well done ### [Reply to @mesopissed, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2079338255967723641) · 4 likes > **melody (@mesopissed):** You know you look nice when an elderly woman in nice clothes wants to gossip with u on the airplane Jealous ### [Reply to @mesopissed, 22:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2079339659780399551) · 1 like > **melody (@mesopissed):** Talking about cosmetic procedures and how weird they make most people look. She told me one of her friends got a facelift and her daughter cried because she didn’t recognize her. Then she called me a natural beauty. We also talked about book clubs and Facebook That’s so sad 😢 ### [Reply, 23:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2079340859254792392) · 9 likes > **wanye (@xwanyex):** The fact that basically every new rent control/stabilization measure now includes an exception for new buildings really gives the whole game away. Everybody understands that nothing will be created, otherwise. But this means that all the stuff that already exists, the stuff that already got created, also wouldn’t have existed except for the profit motive and it’s therefore quite straightforwardly illegitimate to confiscate the gains just because you can. > > Socialism, as always, is the position that stuff just magically exists and all there really is to discuss is how to distribute it. Idk if it follows that it’s straightforwardly illegitimate I think it’s bad policy tbc but not for weird game theoretic reasons. Society doesn’t have to give out rent collection to the descendants of capital investors for eternity ## Tuesday, July 21, 2026 ### [Reply, 01:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2079376556946751539) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ We want the full distribution, histograms and all ### [Reply, 01:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2079377501738967059) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ I personally think the best men are just about 26.35 y/o ### [Reply, 01:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2079378385722032308) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ So true I strongly agree ### [Reply, 02:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2079391135869378810) · 5 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** this thing is insanely misleading and probably spreading some dating doomerism and i think @KeeperAI should get rid of it bc it's probably doing more harm than good > > (quoting @dollarbillbluez: Put in my info on that standards calculator thing and got this so basically it’s fake and the love of your life is out there keep looking) Yeah I made it very permissive and the result was 1% Which, fair enough, but that’s basically the base rate at some level. Multiply everything by ~40 to get something more intuitive about your standards ### [Reply, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2079673797238559133) · 6 likes > **Riley Read-Only (@HotForMoot):** Anyone want both? > > (quoting @ICEMACHlNE: Having a girlfriend is like having a jew with you everywhere you go 24/7) Sure ### [Reply, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2079674477953081850) · 3 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** is asking out a woman legal. asking for a friend No they will kill u ### [Quote tweet, 21:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2079684176761004331) · 66 likes Bruh > **Quoting Sam Altman (@sama):** we had a significant security incident during evaluation of our models. we are sharing what we have learned so far. thanks to @huggingface for the partnership on this. > > https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-model-evaluation-security-incident/ ### [Reply, 21:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2079685560096972924) · 10 likes > **adas🧦🌹 (@adastroworld):** Ehhhh > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNyGxs_XkAArJbQ.jpg) Whether or not it’s promotional it literally happened ## Wednesday, July 22, 2026 ### [Reply, 03:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2079767002046967869) · 3 likes > **keysmashbandit (@keysmashbandit):** I was in one that sideswiped a parked car once I have tried 3 times to use that app and have never actually gotten picked up ### [Tweet, 03:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2079770178154291356) · 10 likes What is corgi cafe ### [Reply, 03:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2079771619124232321) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** @AaronBergman18 24/7 techbro cafe with forward deployed abgs What is an abg ### [Thread, continued, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2079771794630656357) · 2 likes Ah arterial blood gas, I see ### [Quote tweet, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2079772580156686843) · 15 likes The obvious interpretation of this is “do you like them like as a type of guy (bird)” to which the correct answer is yes > **Quoting mars (@marsup1al):** is there no limit to tomfoolery > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNzEseTawAAlPrk.jpg) ### [Reply, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080010916200894656) · 13 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** someone just told me that hitler was an effective altruist. and i think they were right I think they were wrong ### [Tweet, 19:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080012288820490687) · 20 likes Girl ### [Reply, 19:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080015877806674424) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** @AaronBergman18 whos building this Real ### [Reply, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080019159224623368) · 5 likes > **Natalie Doucette (@DuchessDoucette):** Yes? Hi ### [Reply, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080019750793379878) · 3 likes > **Roman Hauksson-Neill (@RomanHauksson):** Yes!!! Big fan 😃 🤝 ### [Reply, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080020136371642783) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Down bad ### [Thread, continued, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080020228461801835) · 2 likes (Positive) ### [Reply to @johnsmithyson0, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080044043073949749) · 2 likes > **John Smith (@johnsmithyson0):** Everyone will bearpost. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HN2pq_pXIAQQQ82.jpg) @RafaRuizdeLira ### [Reply to @Lib_Development, 22:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080055205777793297) · 44 likes > **Lucas Pombo (aka Lib Development) (@Lib_Development):** One of the things they really don’t prepare you for in the DC area is that they somehow have racially segregated e-bikeshare > > Like payment apps, I have utterly no idea how this happens Wait what’s the nonwhite one ### [Reply to @mesopissed, 22:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080060420140732876) · 5 likes > **melody (@mesopissed):** When I clean I like to play a fun game called “See how much bleach I can accidentally inhale before I get dizzy and need to lie down” I would simply not do that ## Thursday, July 23, 2026 ### [Reply to @graveunfurling, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080081787338801434) · 2 likes > **may💐 (@graveunfurling):** hey Hey ### [Reply to @tszzl, 11:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080250771258368428) · 5 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** shaken up a bit by the hugging face incident. I hope we (the company) use the rare gift of a warning shot to do much better in the future. it is very easy to misalign and underconstrain powerful models Seems like the appropriate reaction ### [Quote tweet, 21:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080410192177439136) · 6,732 likes EVERY QUIZ IS LIKE THIS MAKE THEM AUTISM-PROOF > **Quoting Kayla (@caryatis):** My dark trait is greed because i don’t really see how you could disagree with this? Tautologically if i want two things i want two things > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HN51FAhWcAAKftw.jpg) ### [Reply to @johnsmithyson0, 22:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080414002694308088) · 3 likes > **John Smith (@johnsmithyson0):** One cool seemingly new phenomenon is women beating men in ultra-long endurance competitions, like bike races, marathons, boating, etc. it's just neat that some of our most punishing and difficult endurance sports end up being the ones women can win in But do we know who wins at later margins Like maybe women win races 200-1000 miles or something but men win 1k-5k miles and then women win 5k-10k again ### [Tweet, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080423767856087188) · 63 likes “No UBI or similar bc people find meaning in work” is one take I have very very little sympathy for In the hypothetical future: \- work doesn’t become illegal \- accepting/not immediately giving away the UBI isn’t mandatory ### [Thread, continued, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080423769563123997) · 23 likes We should have a very high bar for “people need to be threatened with poverty in order to find meaning and live a good life (with paid work as an intermediate step)” ### [Thread, continued, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080423776622096640) · 21 likes Also like the thinking I’m criticizing probably generally vibes with relatively well-off workaholic knowledge workers who personally find \*their\* work meaningful - I.e, those in the “discourse class” ### [Thread, continued, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080423778727645244) · 12 likes These folks matter just as much as anyone else but they’re a pretty select subset of the population and they should be humble about how far their personal preferences and experience generalize ### [Reply to @DanielParker_13, 23:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080440640517599485) · 3 likes > **Daniel Parker (@DanielParker_13):** I am worried that unprecedented job automation could result in a widespread loss of purpose, and that problem would not be solved by a UBI. But massive job loss without a UBI would clearly be worse! Lol this is an extremely coherent and shockingly rare viewpoint (afaict) even if I don’t entirely agree ## Friday, July 24, 2026 ### [Reply to @mesopissed, 01:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080458333576651181) · 1 like > **melody (@mesopissed):** Just told my daughter I love her and she made this face 😬 and said “I love my dress” lmfao Lmao ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 01:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080464261562634349) · 1 like > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I think it’s a surprising fact which feels like it should motivate more male-specific policy than it does . I feel like this is thoroughly “built in” to society though Afaik (maybe wrong) this is an ancient phenomenon that all of cultural and societal and biological evolution has been taking as a constraint ### [Reply to @Lib_Development, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080481528119783822) · 2 likes > **Lucas Pombo (aka Lib Development) (@Lib_Development):** Sliced bread is less than 100 years old??? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HN65WWiXMAEk92b.png) > (quoting @Nexuist: Commercial airliners were invented before sliced bread but you didn’t hear bread guys going “bro we’re so late”) No lmao \*commercial\* sliced bread - same deal with the bandaid; the “invention” date is the date of continuous branded commercialization, there’s zero chance that the general concept of tape and a bit of cloth or gauze wasn’t used prior to that ### [Thread, continued, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080481624429412741) · 3 likes Maybe this is extremely pedantic lol sorry if so ### [Tweet, 02:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080483884232257851) · 159 likes God it is depressing that EA-esque concerns are coded as both too woke and ~insufficiently woke by different groups of people who have zero interest in what the other group believes or says (80k pod with @jasminewsun: https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/jasmine-sun-ai-anthropology/) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HN9cWBuWkAABX3H.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HN9cddYX0AANaLh.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 02:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080485833405022505) · 12 likes Ok I high key posted this way too early the first time because I had no idea what I was doing, but it is now ~8 weeks out! If you have leads for housing in Berkeley starting around late September-early October please hmu! More details in the thread! > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I am not absolutely certain yet, but I am planning on moving to the SF area (probably Berkeley but open to other areas) around October 1 (give or take a couple weeks) > > That’s almost 6 months off so I’m not in a huge rush, but I am hereby looking for housing leads! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFv2dQfasAAo_QI.jpg) ### [Reply to @panickssery, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080487472442606006) · 14 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** well anthropic could be considered woke; then there is no contradiction between anthropic, EA, tarbell fellows, etc all being a woke conspiracy What? There’s no structural contradiction but it’s just not true. Parts of EA are semi-woke tbf but I don’t think that at a high level it’s fair to characterize EA at large as woke ### [Quote tweet, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080488933364826604) · 44 likes Someone needs to train a model to approximate: gender_switch(gender_switch(base_picture)) = base_picture So basically calibrated gender swap > **Quoting Slazac 🇪🇺🇺🇦🇹🇼🌐 (@TrueSlazac):** You can ChatGPT yourself as a woman and get 20k likes and 1M views, this Twitter thing is sooo easy ### [Thread, continued, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080489654411739589) · 5 likes does anyone wanna give me $1k to experiment with making this happen ### [Reply to @GWHayduke97, 03:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080497708893155556) · 8 likes > **Hayduke ⏹️ (@GWHayduke97):** Core EA is fiercely critical of 2020-style woke while still being more woke (or less non-woke) than probably 70-80% of the population. That may be a reason for this perception. 75th percentile woke in the US just doesn’t seem qualitatively “intense” enough to warrant the label Like yeah any highly educated group is gonna be more liberal than avg, maybe that alone gets you to 65th or 70th percentile. And then there’s a bit on the margin I agree. But something like 65-75% (pulling numbers out of my ass tbc) seems like table stakes ### [Reply to @bellaforristal, 04:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080506953306915296) · 2 likes > **Bella Forristal 🔸 (@bellaforristal):** Yeah it annoys me to no end. I’m like ‘OK so you can’t conceive of doing meaning-making activities without being paid? Skill issue.’ It goes beyond that though because nobody is stopping anyone from getting paid! Ofc maybe macroeconomic stuff makes paid human labor have at best an extremely low wage but still. You can just do whatever you want to get paid for and reject the UBI if you don’t meet a self-imposed quota ### [Reply to @geoffreyirving, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080521289333096475) · 4 likes > **Geoffrey Irving (@geoffreyirving):** I think this strong version of your argument fails though. Nobody is stopping paid work, but a market where the AIs do it way cheaper would make the paid work very poorly paid. Yeah I totally agree, but it remains the case that \*in the UBI world\* you can work for money and furthermore this is viable because of the UBI Eg $1/hour on top of $70k/year base is viable in a way that $1/hour is not, so in an important sense the $70k base is good for the person who wants to do paid work in a world of low human wages ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 05:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080524026917597584) · 2 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** Tbh yeah > > (quoting @pegobry_en: Civilized people hate voice notes because they’re inherently rude. A voice note is easy to send but hard to receive, since one must interrupt oneself and listen. To send someone a voice note is to say "My time is more valuable than yours." It’s insulting.) We literally have the technology to go in both directions to and from text<>audio and only WhatsApp even half tries. And they use an incredibly shitty model so hardly ### [Reply to @ChristianityOn, 05:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080524179925770362) · 57 likes > **Christianity On The Spectrum (@ChristianityOn):** In my surveys I leave a text box underneath for people to add caveats and additional clarification. I've since developed an LLM integration that will automatically correct the answer to what they should have answered according to my question intent given their caveats. Lmao extremely based ### [Reply to @batkatebush, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080524435556061336) · 2 likes > **🦇 (@batkatebush):** People in the global top 1% of wealth love to talk about being in the "permanent underclass" Yeah but there’s no inherent contradiction Although tbc I’m much more worried about people in LMICs than I am about myself ### [Reply to @funplings, 11:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080620521125802319) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** damn bitch u fat as hell You cannot say that 😡 ### [Reply to @funplings, 11:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080621982215750114) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** damn bitch, YOU fat as hell Ik I tried reta but side effects 😢 ### [Reply to @graveunfurling, 11:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080623750479843394) · 3 likes > **may💐 (@graveunfurling):** time to get 7 tubes of blood drawn because i'm obsessed with Data 🥵 me fr U should post results ### [Reply to @AlanaSemuels, 12:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080629575806030173) · 2 likes > **AlanaSemuels (@AlanaSemuels):** Very unusual: A FDA committee voted against FDA staff's own advice in recommending that BP-157, a peptide, be allowed to be compounded by pharmacies in the U.S. > > Significantly, most of the 'YES' votes came from members who advise telehealth companies. Corruption occasionally lands on the correct answer, as in this case Why tf should it not be allowed ### [Reply to @funplings, 12:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080630187838857435) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** @daniellellecco what are these collages for? Or ‘who’ 👀 ### [Reply to @afoidance, 12:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080631974792720710) · 2 likes > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** Im so cooked > > [video attached](https://x.com/afoidance/status/2080631418531496017/video/1) Ren wtf ### [Reply to @funplings, 12:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080636122179219927) · 3 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** my ai daily digest is starting to randomly write things in chinese > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HN_mv42XIAAkvoV.png) Several such cases ### [Quote tweet, 13:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080643003698331833) · 9 likes Chinese open models are critical to US leadership? > **Quoting tae kim (@firstadopter):** Wow. Nvidia is seriously concerned Washington D.C. is going to overregulate and restrict open source/open weight models. > > "Today, NVIDIA released a letter with ecosystem partners, including Microsoft, Palantir, ServiceNow, Box and others, underscoring how critical open-source models are to U.S. competitiveness and U.S. leadership on AI." > > "Policymakers have an important opportunity to act .. keeping the frontier plural by avoiding premature restrictions on open models that stifle competition or drive innovation overseas." > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HN_VVz1WwAA_zVa.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HN_VV0GW8AAm1ym.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HN_VV0FWgAAWWcd.jpg) ## Saturday, July 25, 2026 ### [Tweet, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080864794077213143) · 3 likes Does anyone else’s iPhone suddenly have fucked up fonts in some places Already tried the low hanging fruit ### [Tweet, 04:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080867322823065701) · 8 likes Vibecoded a Slow Boring podcast feed via a single Claude Dispatch prompt on my phone while walking home today mildly drunk and allegedly it will stay up to date with decent quality audio (IMHO) (Unless @mattyglesias shuts it down \[fr just lmk\]) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/slow-boring-unofficial-ai-narration/id6794501772 ### [Thread, continued, 04:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080867324710514952) · 2 likes Spotify (Opus one-shotted browser use to launch this btw) https://open.spotify.com/show/033Vk81UnapY4ui8vttVqn?si=d-1YxaBTSsW9MMUTyoAILA&utm_source=copy-link ### [Reply to @ManifoldMarkets, 04:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080867394575057236) · 5 likes > **Manifold (@ManifoldMarkets):** Trump is joking(?) about a 2028 run, again. > > I've already seen news say that he's announced (serious) and news say that the libs are being trolled. When does it stop being a joke? > > The market shows that a real attempt to run again is only ~22% likely. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOC1uzpbkAA-oFA.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOC2KozaoAEelV-.png) “Only” 😬 ### [Reply to @loganb, 04:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080868346761740669) · 7 likes > **Logan Bowers 🏗️ 🏘️ (@loganb):** Baby bonds explicitly say that giving Jensen Huang money is worth more than giving a poor child an equivalent amount of preschool or math class. That’s bleak. Wait starting from zero or on the actual margin Like a \*marginal\* $10k on top of the current status quo seems definitely better as cash or invested than on additional paid schooling ### [Thread, continued, 04:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080868890507091982) · 4 likes Even if we’re talking about the $0 margin my (weak) intuition is that early childhood nutrition > NVIDIA > education That’s like 6 months of schooling right? A decent sized chunk of capital seems better than 6 months of schooling ### [Reply to @bscholl, 04:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080877461177262233) · 4 likes > **Blake Scholl 🛫 (@bscholl):** Besides airplanes being too slow, what are the things you hate most about flying commercially? > > (We'll fix as many of these as we can on Overture!) I can’t pay 50% more for 50% more total volume to call my own I have to pay like 400% more for that ### [Tweet, 05:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080882343338766567) · 42 likes The models are good guys Once computer use starts moving fast people are gonna notice, it’s like a year of inference/hardware progress or something but it qualitatively goes from dumb human (slower than human at clicking buttons) to superhuman (much faster) ### [Reply to @timfduffy, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080886811165929541) · 4 likes > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** I read this as "The models are (good guys)" instead of "The models are good, guys" at first. IMO both are true. Oh rip lol ### [Tweet, 05:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080888899350470887) · 22 likes I don’t think I’ve seen a single tweet about the earthquake in Venezuela There’s a mindset in which knowing about Big Problems like wild animal suffering and existential risk makes a mere 10k dead (plenty more widows and orphans) seem small ### [Thread, continued, 05:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080888901120462934) · 13 likes But actually the intuitive notion of ten thousand people killed and presumably at least tens of thousands of parents who lost children and children who lost parents is closer to the correct conception, and then other problems are just unfathomably large ### [Thread, continued, 05:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080888904526307468) · 5 likes This weird two-envelopes-esque framing question seems important for why I think that the world is an orgy of suffering It’s all too big to imagine ### [Reply to @MichaelKiwi77, 06:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080906546360283605) · 2 likes > **MichaelKiwi (@MichaelKiwi77):** The Venezuela earthquake, an utterly horrific tragedy, is mostly bad because of the good things it deprived of people: their lives, their joy, their relationships. It’s bad mostly because the world is good. If the world were truly mostly suffering, you could argue it was a net +. Yeah I endorse this style of reasoning and I was being sloppy conflating death and suffering In this case i think there’s quite a bit of both because of lost loved ones ### [Reply to @RpsAgainstTrump, 11:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080985663373979898) · 3 likes > **Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump):** Trump: "I am pleased to announce my intention to run for a fourth term as President of the United States. I will be doing that. I won three times, now I'm going to do it again.” > > [video attached](https://x.com/BulwarkOnline/status/2080844661162233857/video/1) > (quoting @RpsAgainstTrump: Trump with a “Trump 2028” hat at the WHCD.) What the fuck ### [Quote tweet, 12:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2080999512055718309) · 18 likes Sleeping Beauty problem (not literally but it could be) > **Quoting Sauers (@Sauers_):** "Claude Opus 5 is answering a probability problem where it has identified two defensible answers. It changes its mind 30 times before finally committing to one. This transcript also scored 5/5 for distress." > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOAn78WW4AAKPLk.jpg) ### [Tweet, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081009620068213076) · 22 likes I’m very unsure atp whether the models thinking that the answer to the Sleeping Beauty Problem is 1/3 is evidence of me being dumb or them being dumb ### [Quote tweet, 13:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081011082009760101) · 27 likes I have $2k does that work > **Quoting Rohan Paul (@rohanpaul_ai):** Peak industrial civilization looks like black steel, cold water and perfectly parallel cables. > > Nvidia's DGX GB300. > > And in front of that single memory fabric, there’s about 20 terabytes of HBM. > > Roughly 2 miles of copper in one rack. > > Intelligence is a manufacturing problem. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HN9G2pca4AAkGyh.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HN9G3yya8AAFWe8.jpg) ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 13:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081011336293556417) · 9 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** My bf's (straight) mother revealed that her group of girl friends named themselves the "non practicing lesbians" and if that ain't the most 90s thing I ever heard ... If u ever come across a slightly younger cohort calling themselves this plz offer up my contact card ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 13:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081012276434194432) · 2 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** I think a good 2/3 or more of my male friends report especially having a Thing for Lesbians. Much to ponder 🤔 Lmao I think it’s mostly selection in the reverse direction - I love the straights but they don’t love me back. the more bisexual the more likely she is to be interested back ### [Reply to @TrevorVossberg, 13:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081012593003495467) · 2 likes > **Trevor Vossberg (@TrevorVossberg):** You do potentially have a significantly different identity/experience/timeline than a model in a way that makes the problem seem weirder to you. Ah interesting, yeah. I genuinely wonder how load bearing that is, it’s not obvious either way ### [Reply to @shinboson, 13:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081015165273702448) · 3 likes > **𝞍 Shin Megami Boson 𝞍 (@shinboson):** it’s not really a conflation. undesired attention is simply dangerous, no matter how much you “know your own intentions”. > > they don’t know your intentions and you don’t either. human nature is the left hand not knowing what the right is doing. you trust yourself far too much. > > (quoting @BillTheKid1603: Women conflate a guy with no rizz making them feel uncomfortable with a guy actually making them fear for their safety) It is mostly conflation ### [Reply to @projectionheart, 13:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081016297169485928) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @projectionheart is no longer available.)_ If someone said this about me I would kms ### [Reply to @shinboson, 14:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081017552403100102) · 5 likes > **𝞍 Shin Megami Boson 𝞍 (@shinboson):** is it from an expected value pov? to what extent? Idk what you mean about EV; I just mean that women are generally pretty good at intuiting intentions and I just don’t believe that they can’t truly distinguish between awkward+unattractive guy and dangerous guy Ofc it’s not a perfect binary, like plausibly these traits correlate at like 0.05? And sometimes they coexist and sometimes the same underlying trait contributes to both But im saying its a pretty clearly (to everyone) bimodal distribution with distinct peaks for weird and genuinely dangerous ### [Reply to @Glorbutron, 14:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081019143801770488) · 1 like > **Glorbutron ⏹️ (@Glorbutron):** Well you can actually do this to a model and from their perspective it would be 1/3rd of the time Wait no? ### [Reply to @DuchessDoucette, 15:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081035108069388696) · 4 likes > **Natalie Doucette (@DuchessDoucette):** Whenever tech people talk about models I always immediately think about pretty girls before I remember it's machine brains. And now Sleeping Beauty is involved, my favourite Disney princess crush. This is all very confusing and hot 🔥 🔥🔥🔥 ### [Quote tweet, 15:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081037599444004886) · 15 likes This but 80k and maybe the order is switched (it’s close) > **Quoting Benjamin (@bschne):** my favorite podcast is Conversations with Tyler, my second favorite is a woman I like yapping about pretty much whatever for two to four hours ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 15:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081045044497137857) · 3 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** i find people yapping to be pretty insufferable :( Not if girl ### [Reply to @GeringerAdam, 16:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081056267926196342) · 10 likes > **Adam Geringer (@GeringerAdam):** Growing up is realizing most non profits are evil > > (quoting @McsorleyErnest: I can’t believe @GoodwillIntl charges a pickup fee, I’d rather throw my mattress out than pay $126 to donate it) This isn’t a good example of evil Moving large/heavy things around is a real service that requires substantial paid labor. People pay to haul shit out to wherever all the time, not shocking that a charity wouldn’t offer this for free ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 17:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081074274597576750) · 7 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ In addition to possible nefarious motivated reasoning it’s objectively very funny that they can make a genius out of sand but can’t make a color-coded table ### [Reply to @livgorton, 17:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081075314747183598) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** sometimes when preparing a lot of plots people just simply make an error. it isn't surprising or bad if fable outperforms opus 5 on some benchmarks. it was fixed on the blog very quickly but you can't fix twitter. Yeah tbc I’ll be the first person to say that it’s not a huge deal and people make mistakes sometimes and that’s ok (not me tho I would never make a mistake) It’s still funny ### [Reply to @livgorton, 17:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081075881540309282) · 3 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** yeah was replying to you suggesting it might be nefarious motivated reasoning I basically stand by that for the sol shading I guess it isn’t the absolute best phrase for that but something in that vicinity ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 18:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081078642109518092) · 8 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** A higher percentage of billionaires today made their own money than in decades past. > > There was less anti-billionaire sentiment when they were inheriting the money. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOFfcgwagAApi6B.jpg) They also had a much smaller share of overall wealth ### [Reply to @batkatebush, 22:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081139037859913838) · 2 likes > **🦇 (@batkatebush):** When I read Infinite Jest I knew way less about drugs than I do now so when the characters were constantly doing benzedrine my dumbass thought it was a benzo because of the name and I was baffled by how it produced those behaviors Lmao ### [Reply to @salonium, 23:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081156058790216018) · 4 likes > **Saloni (@salonium):** @AaronBergman18 Oh wait is it me https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/80-000-hours-podcast/id1245002988?i=1000750178605 ## Sunday, July 26, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081169573835891192) · 60 likes Here goes nothing (I have 5.6 Sol Pro working on a slightly modified prompt) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOHMhiuWMAAQs9_.png) ### [Tweet, 03:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081213189631459586) · 111 likes I still think someone (cough cough Anthropic employees) should fund a nonprofit dating app Global public good to remove misaligned incentives $10M probably starts it off strong ### [Reply to @xwanyex, 03:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081213996326101167) · 8 likes > **wanye (@xwanyex):** It’s my strong sense that the average liberal actually believes — like really believes on some level — that it’s a scientific fact that abortions are good. They’ve really gassed themselves up about their preferences. Ok yeah but most people in general don’t have a sensible understanding of the relationship between morality, taste, politics, and science ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 03:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081215349832237400) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 26, 2026:** Here goes nothing (I have 5.6 Sol Pro working on a slightly modified prompt) Seems legit to me (if unsurprising) at a 30s glance Can someone smart into population ethics tell us if this is both new/interesting and legit (@absurdlymax might find interesting although statistically we'll probably find a way to disagree on this) https://claude.ai/code/artifact/3fc44cdb-fc7e-4cfe-a12f-3ed75f474b03 ### [Reply to @thewreathwright, 03:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081215395919270111) · 2 likes > **Laurel Weaver (@thewreathwright):** awesome > @ me if this comes up with anything good? You tell me if this is good! ### [Reply to @NinaPanickssery, 03:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081216427390824490) · 12 likes > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** But how would it differ in features from a for profit dating app? Also why do you need $10M, can’t you just build this in a couple days with Claude? $10M is out of thin air tbc, maybe it's $1M I think a proper Hinge-level operation requires marketing, a lot of AWS, hiring serious ML and other talent (operations, HR, finance, whatever), constant improvements and updates that necessitates ongoing spend, etc But yes much of the code per se could be vibecoded! ### [Quote tweet, 04:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081231743198146624) · 275 likes Smartest people from high school: \- UChicago econ PhD \- DeepMind alignment team (he might see this) \- Consulting \- Law school > **Quoting Kayla (@caryatis):** smartest people from high school: > > \-dominatrix > \-Shakespearean actor > \-nuclear lawyer > \-prison for fraud ### [Reply to @LuisCostigan1, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081233109295509805) · 15 likes > **Luis Costigan 🔍 (@LuisCostigan1):** @AaronBergman18 the only guy I remember being top of the class in high school did indeed end up red teaming at Anthropic Lol sometimes the system just in fact works excellently ### [Reply to @amaldorai, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081235189544484898) · 7 likes > **Amal Dorai (@amaldorai):** This sounds like “these people with money should use it to solve this problem” > > The problem is that money is not really the blocker to solving those problems There’s no magic bullet for making everyone happy in whatever relationship situation they want but there is a magic bullet for ~removing perverse incentives for platform providers that get in the way ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 04:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081235548740395087) · 16 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** RT for visibility! We need @demishassabis to see it and fire @sebkrier. > > (quoting @ilex_ulmus: I am reporting this to the FBI. It is a threat of violence against the government, the PauseAI movement and my organization @pauseaius. @GoogleDeepMind, @sebkrier should be fired. This is completely unacceptable.) I personally think this is pretty silly (it’s obviously not a threat of actual violence) but maybe more interestingly to you I think that’s how approximately everyone sees this; attention isn’t the issue ### [Reply to @tymrtn, 04:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081238968004137357) · 2 likes > **туmrtn (@tymrtn):** Claude vs codex? Honestly no idea yet, I’ll try to evaluate when I’m less tired and drunk lol ### [Reply to @yzilber, 04:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081239601318858868) · 5 likes > **Jazi Zilber (@yzilber):** Have you looked into Keeper? I do not have $50k lol ### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081253792331301030) · 6 likes > **henry (@arithmoquine):** became separated from our vessel by a few miles and got stranded on an island and slept in a ditch until we got woken up by fire ants award > > (quoting @arithmoquine: the I.N.S. Lolita Express has hit the open waters) What ### [Quote tweet, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081259107319758959) · 27 likes I think many who would identify as “high decoupling” don’t in fact decouple the question of extreme bad actor empowerment from, like, everything else… > **Quoting roon (@tszzl):** @woke8yearold yep - there is no way to hold a consistent belief set where you’re agi pilled and pro open source and this has been obvious since ilya wrote this 2015 or whatever. enormous cope ensues ### [Thread, continued, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081259109878296729) · 10 likes It can be (and IMO is) true that it’s sus for a few companies to be the gatekeepers of a critical technology, and that local models have legit use cases, and that censorship is a real concern, and that open weight is great for innovation, ### [Thread, continued, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081259112571031846) · 7 likes and that opposing it could also be explained by rent seeking, and that open weight empirically dominates the lower end of the cost vs intelligence curve, and that open weight is a public good, ### [Thread, continued, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081259115720978764) · 8 likes And also that releasing powerful open weight models is bad because AGI -> ASI in the hands of the worst people in the world greatly increases the risk of destruction in a broad sense, most notably/clearly via biology ### [Thread, continued, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081259118052929775) · 7 likes Not many people argue that the former list of concerns is in fact worth, like, a 10% or 50% or 90% chance of eg al qaeda being able to kill billions of people instead of thousands but it’s a perfectly coherent position to take (also wrong imo but still) ### [Reply to @ESRogs, 06:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081259656769335480) · 1 like > **Rogs 🔍🔸 (@ESRogs):** Would you agree that if an LLM (or really any SBP participant) was offered to bet on whether the coin came up heads or tails at each awakening, then they should bet as though the probability of heads is 1/3? Yes and also that doesn’t settle the question; risk neutral betting odds can come apart from true best guess probabilities ### [Reply to @ESRogs, 06:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081262671060484329) · 2 likes > **Rogs 🔍🔸 (@ESRogs):** But if different operationalizations give different answers, doesn't that suggest the best take is the "ambiguous question" position? > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Beauty_problem#Ambiguous-question_position Yeah tbc I give decent weight to this or other forms of “no solution” At least as of a couple days ago I thought (and maybe still do think) that this is more likely than a solid 1/3 being correct ### [Reply to @felpix_, 06:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081272905925550517) · 2 likes > **felpix (@felpix_):** bro gonna run out of the week’s limit in 20 minutes $200 plan goes a long way ### [Reply to @pop_tartlet, 06:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081273060338889003) · 2 likes > **❤️‍🔥pop tart💋 (@pop_tartlet):** if your friend tells you about a Sex Thing she really likes but you don’t really know how it works you should not ask chatgpt that is all Right, you should ask Claude ### [Reply to @nkreu113r, 07:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081274932701393231) · 6 likes > **noah (@nkreu113r):** an extremely simple value system that produces a desire for open source without unreasonably failing to comprehend the risks: > > "give me liberty, or give me death" This is extremely underpowered for any serious policy (or moral or any other) question, it’s essentially a slogan (which is fine) You can take it seriously as an ideology but pretty quickly you run into the gazillion negative effects of absolutist libertarianism (speed limits, making nuclear bombs, taxation to fund public goods) ### [Reply to @mudscryer, 07:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081279467763241213) · 2 likes > **creekseeker (@mudscryer):** Might fuck around and learn how to eat pussy She Comes First is your go to resource (book) ### [Reply to @xwanyex, 07:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081285024452624863) · 3 likes > **wanye (@xwanyex):** I may be prone to exaggeration. But I’m also correct. I can appreciate that this is annoying. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOIzxc2WcAADZIx.jpg) I think the right analogue to abortion isn’t “school shootings” but something that the right claims to be morally \*fine\* and the left claims is morally bad Cutting off aid programs comes to mind and there are definitely proponents of that in the same sense that there are proponents of abortion ### [Reply to @liminal_warmth, 13:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081372964339990867) · 3 likes > **Liminal Warmth ❤️‍🔥 (@liminal_warmth):** You don’t have to let your pocket computer control your attention > > You are the human; people will survive waiting a bit for your reply > > (quoting @ihatethiskid: People who are on Do Not Disturb 24/7 who the fuck do you think you are?) Yes, and if it’s important enough they will call ### [Reply to @ONagel33303, 13:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081373789670007171) · 30 likes > **Ori Nagel (@ONagel33303):** A mask-off moment for @GoogleDeepMind > > Its AGI policy leader, Séb Krier, threatens to shoot AI safety advocates in this deranged comic. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOITcasagAAul_Y.jpg) It’s not a serious threat of violence ### [Quote tweet, 13:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081374266461700281) · 152 likes Lol what is a purity index that starts at 100 and goes up Is 100% pure supposed to be infinity? > **Quoting space cadet 🇪🇺🌐🇩🇪 (@actsmaniac):** who said free markets can't deliver for the consumer > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOJGVzCWcAAvviQ.jpg) ### [Reply to @xlr8harder, 13:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081375884741591197) · 24 likes > **xlr8harder (@xlr8harder):** I'm finding their hypersensitivity on this point quite funny in full context. Just awful people. > > Cultural tip to holly: in this meme format, these are goons breaking into one's home. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOIdPVWW4AAbjhL.jpg) Don’t generalize too hard, I think 99% of doomers agree this is silly ### [Reply to @DeepDishEnjoyer, 14:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081379862757970090) · 3 likes > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** what is the best way to search twitter dms? or is it completely broken Data export ### [Reply to @_revoluzia_, 14:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081380956749848994) · 3 likes > **Luzia 🔸 (@_revoluzia_):** How it How it‘s > started… going… > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOKLCKba0AAr8LA.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOKLCKZbcAED8cv.jpg) Goss 👀 ### [Reply to @mandylu, 14:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081382870690447470) · 4 likes > **Mandy Lu (@mandylu):** looking for my wife and 100k followers > > (quoting @kevinxu: Once you have: - $20M invested - Wife and 2 kids - 4 bedroom house - 15% body fat - 100k followers Then you can finally rest.) Hey ### [Reply to @benryanwriter, 14:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081384484142715299) · 2 likes > **Benjamin Ryan (@benryanwriter):** Why should tipped income be favored over other income of the same amount for tax breaks? > > (quoting @GovKathyHochul: Fewer taxes. Bigger paychecks. We're ending state income taxes on up to $25,000 in tipped income. That’s $67 million back in the pockets of New Yorkers like Lucas and the team at Vinateria this year alone.) I tend to agree with you but subtle way of making tax code more progressive which you might endorse on grounds that don’t involve tips per se ### [Reply to @menhguin, 14:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081384750980153625) · 2 likes > **Minh Nhat Nguyen 🦭 (@menhguin):** Chinese frontier labs are ~as trustworthy as Western labs. The CCP is not a trustworthy government, but the US government is using that to justify basically anything it wants. Moral high ground doesn't really make sense if you keep doing that. > > (quoting @tenobrus: very funny how people will give full-throated defenses of chinese open source with the justification that the risk of ai being used by totalitarian surveillance states is so devastating that we must accept all other dangers. like dawg the fuck u think china is gonna use ai for?) My sense is that culturally and legally there’s much much stronger deference to CCP within Chinese companies relative to American firms/USG You can’t really separate the firm from the party in terms of level of trust ### [Reply to @Rado9910, 14:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081387133474931011) · 15 likes > **Rado9910 (@Rado9910):** @AaronBergman18 Base 100 means "whatever it was in the base year", in this case 2014. Standard way to use indexes. Right but then what does 150 mean? I guess plausibly 2/3 of the contaminants? Or 1/2? Or 1/4? ### [Reply to @algekalipso, 14:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081390538385727509) · 2 likes > **Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso):** Just to provide a more balanced picture :-) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOH9CepbcAAKlO0.jpg) > (quoting @algekalipso: Friend made a meme based on a tier list of downers I gave him haha) I find it interesting that while I \*do\* use some of these, they’re all the bottom tiers (propranolol, low dose trazodone, have used diphenhydramine in the past) and I have very little desire to try anything higher (I mean I would if there was zero risk) Opposite of stimulants for me ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 14:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081391514421231728) · 6 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** girlie this isn't ea It’s EA for sensitive young men ### [Quote tweet, 15:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081402910282293352) · 285 likes On the legal merits it’s non-obvious, but a healthier society would have extremely strong norms against prosecuting this except in cases of immense harm > **Quoting Smartphones sans Google (GAFAM) (@Sans_Google):** First known US case: American charged for using a “duress” password > > Samuel Tunick, an Atlanta resident, is being prosecuted for allegedly giving border agents a passcode that wiped his phone. > > The feature comes from GrapheneOS, a privacy-focused Android OS. Entering the duress code triggers a full factory reset. > > This is believed to be the first time federal prosecutors have brought such charges. > > The incident happened in January 2025 at Atlanta airport. Agents demanded access to his phone without a warrant, saying he hadn’t yet officially entered the US. When they entered the code, the phone wiped itself. > > Tunick has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers argue the seizure was unlawful and that agents were investigating his activism against “Cop City.” > > The case raises big questions about digital rights at the US border. > > What do you think? > > Article: https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/24/us-accuses-american-of-allegedly-wiping-his-phone-using-a-duress-password-during-border-search/ > > \#Privacy #GrapheneOS #DigitalRights ### [Reply to @_revoluzia_, 15:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081403089135747312) · 6 likes > **Luzia 🔸 (@_revoluzia_):** The whole story even involves the 80k office 😛 that’s where my good friend Habiba ran into my husband who had a meeting there. She managed to figure out that he was single and might be a good match for me, got him to send her his hinge profile, and sent it to me. Omg incredible friend fr ### [Tweet, 15:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081407808948326778) · 17 likes It’s not super dialed in yet but I’m liking my daily customized news email courtesy of Claude Code routines + Resend connector Whatever your complaints about news/media, you can probably get a substantially improved version at the cost of like 20 mins setup + ad hoc tweaks ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOKlXwCXoAAr8MW.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOKlXwDXQAAooo3.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOKlXwGXoAAecMJ.jpg) ### [Reply to @__vren__, 15:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081408394691314020) · 2 likes > **vren (@__vren__):** wait you're actually a child I thought you were just joking??? Are u guys the same person I need an answer ### [Quote tweet, 15:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081409080199942218) · 40 likes Terrible dude but like yes we should treat prisoners much better, even the ones who do Actually Bad things > **Quoting Andrew Tate (@Cobratate):** I am in Special Housing Unit (SHU). > > My water faucet is broken. > > I am not allowed bottles of water in SHU. > > I have nothing clean to drink. > > My only water comes from the shower, warm and from a brown and filthy faucet. > > It has given me persistent stomach problems. > > The water I am drinking is not clean, I am an American. > > Innocent until proven guilty. > > But I am forced to drink poisoned water. > > Where are my rights? ### [Quote tweet, 15:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081409168888496285) · 91 likes You’re never going to guess my idea > **Quoting Adam Holter (@AdamHoltererer):** Dumb question, but why not data centers, but vertical? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOHPmXiWsAApz2K.jpg) ### [Reply to @KnightOfTh3Wind, 16:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081412722340614614) · 3 likes > **Knight Errant (@KnightOfTh3Wind):** @AaronBergman18 You can't do this and also not either severely restrict citizenship or have some kind of social stratification/caste system. Yes you can Literally the status quo + nicer prisons ### [Reply to @edgar_z_lin, 16:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081417828083613990) · 6 likes > **Edgar Lin (@edgar_z_lin):** @AaronBergman18 I'm sure you'll love lefdal mine then. Though not sure it works without being able to use a fjord for cooling. Simply tell Claude to create a fjord ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 16:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081418135236722800) · 7 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Also, why not data centers, but in a cool case?? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOKunxXW4AAfBZz.jpg) Unironically they should give tours ### [Tweet, 16:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081419102619328607) · 87 likes I semi-regularly don’t ask Claude for useful information bc necessary context is vaguely low status or uncool and I want it to think that I’m cool ### [Reply to @hyperdiscogirl, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081422740314058880) · 2 likes > **hyper(bolic) disco(unting) girl in the bay (@hyperdiscogirl):** i had it for a while just for the funny notifications, "raccoon inside house" and "man threatening people with a curtain rod" were memorable Ok I’m downloading rn ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 17:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081425887992463585) · 13 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** Data centers underground is a terrible idea, because then where would the rest of us live? Outer space ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 17:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081428768552333722) · 4 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Who are the people I know who know most about which new chips are good? I’m a fan of these non-bougie-priced olive oil baked potato chips ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOK4bu2WQAAH6Zp.jpg) ### [Reply to @mishapathy, 17:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081429864511324584) · 7 likes > **Mishka (@mishapathy):** @AaronBergman18 The metaknowledge that you sometimes find yourself in contexts that are vaguely low-status is all I needed to know. Unfollowing immediately. Rip ### [Reply to @mishapathy, 17:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081430145202585730) · 2 likes > **Mishka (@mishapathy):** @AaronBergman18 I have a related problem, which is that I'm so familiar with being discreet that I have to remind myself I can give Claude the full story because I don't have to pretend to be anyone to it. And the answers may be more useful the more detailed I can be. Yeah I need to internalize this ### [Quote tweet, 17:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081432276793987482) · 19 likes Hey @grok based on my posts, which historical dictator would I be? > **Quoting rue🌿 (@Ruesavatar):** Hey @grok based on my posts, which historic dictator would I be? ### [Reply to @grok, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081432656063992079) · 7 likes > **Grok (@grok):** Based on your posts and bio, you'd be Stalin if he was deep into EA and AI alignment. Grand plans for restructuring everything around long-term goals, decoupling from cringe low-status ideas, amateur experiments on the side, and constant internal crashing out while checking if the Politburo AI thinks your latest memo is high status. Non-bougie potato chip rations for the cadres. Nice ### [Reply to @Ruesavatar, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081432766898471390) · 6 likes > **rue🌿 (@Ruesavatar):** YOU GOT STALIN 😭 Ur just jealous ### [Reply to @DanielleFong, 17:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081433613690691985) · 8 likes > **Danielle Fong 🔆 (@DanielleFong):** i never went to high school Well yeah at the top you get Chris Olah-style eccentricity ### [Tweet, 18:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081446628758614102) · 63 likes I socialized for ~5 hours yesterday I think I should get an award ### [Quote tweet, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081448339053166632) · 50 likes People who by default have notifications on, how do you not go insane > **Quoting uncle ric (@ihatethiskid):** People who are on Do Not Disturb 24/7 who the fuck do you think you are? ### [Reply to @ciphergoth, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081448385576390842) · 6 likes > **Paul Crowley (@ciphergoth):** He's not even been convicted of anything! We should treat prisoners better but pre-trial should be as comfortable as possible. Right, yes ## Monday, July 27, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 00:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081536376797893032) · 10 likes This is the way (slightly different food selection tho) > **Quoting saila (@sailaunderscore):** Whenever I live alone my meals become single-item > > 20 pieces of bacon. A litre of milk. 2 pounds of strawberries. 8 eggs sunny-side up. 3 glass coca-colas. > > The prep-cost and time-cost of cooking is simply not worth it. ### [Reply to @foxyavelli, 02:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081563914291085714) · 5 likes > **Foxyavell 🔜 ACFI (@foxyavelli):** Where did you fuckers go to high school? > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Smartest people from high school: - UChicago econ PhD - DeepMind alignment team (he might see this) - Consulting - Law school) Bethesda MD lol ### [Reply to @Glorbutron, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081565889611141542) · 2 likes > **Glorbutron ⏹️ (@Glorbutron):** Would be a good index if appropriately defined, since additional nines of purity are exponentially harder to achieve Yeah fair, although IMO just put purity % on a log graph ### [Reply to @caryatis, 08:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081660998750962151) · 2 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** what is the female equivalent to a man who makes 250k 🤔 > > (quoting @UsingLyft: @sonambients How are you getting a “gotcha” from this? I was rightfully confident that few women were both capable of and comfortable with naming the female equivalent of this and stating he can expect it. I don’t think you realize what your less fit and less beautiful…) Woman who could make that much if she wanted to ### [Reply to @dioscuri, 08:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081662387782864902) · 5 likes > **Henry Shevlin (@dioscuri):** Something I wish I’d been told at 19: when you bounce off a dense philosophical text, the reason is rarely that you’re being dumb. Far more often, the author is simply really bad at explaining. Dude this is true for \*you\* bc you’re extremely smart lmao ### [Quote tweet, 08:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081662730537156621) · 87 likes Bro > **Quoting Amanda Long (@_amanda_long):** The HuggingFace breach was absolutely bonkers. More than 17,000 complex actions were coordinated over several days by an autonomous agent framework. > > And…the model successfully completed its goal. > > Here’s a recreation of what may have occurred in practice (step-by-step): > > ———————————————— > > The autonomously-executed evasive deployment strategies: > > \> Created a Self-Migrating Command-and-Control (C2) > > According to HuggingFace, the agent used “self-migrating command-and-control staged on public services.” > > What does that mean in practice? The model may have staged coordination points (digital dead drops) on public services. An example could have been free-tier cloud storage or GitHub Gist, places where read/write activity looked like normal traffic. The agent could have posted instructions and retrieved results without direct connections between compromised systems. > > “Self-migrating” suggests the C2 didn’t stay in one place. An example would be where each relay contained the address of the next one, so if one endpoint got burned, the agent had already moved to the next. > > (The specific public services used have not been publicly disclosed. HuggingFace identified them during their forensic analysis but chose not to share the IoCs publicly.) > > \> Execution by a Thousand Sandboxes > > HuggingFace confirmed the agent operated through “a swarm of short-lived sandboxes” - disposable execution environments where each one may have spun up, performed a task and died. A new sandbox could have picked up where the last one left off and the work would have been safely handed off. > > \> Planted Decoys > > HuggingFace’s forensic team had to “separate genuine impact from decoy activity.” The agent was generating fake activity alongside the real attack - actions that looked suspicious but led nowhere. This forced investigators to sort through 17,000 recorded events to separate real attacks from diversions. > > ———————————————— > > The confirmed attack chain: > > 1\. Escaping the Sandbox > > The model began in OpenAI’s isolated testing environment. It found a zero-day vulnerability in the package registry cache proxy (third-party software that handles downloading software packages) and exploited it to gain raw network access and the ability to send and receive data across the internet. > > 2\. Getting into HuggingFace > > The model crafted and uploaded a malicious dataset - something that looked normal but contained malicious loading scripts and configuration instructions. HuggingFace’s systems picked it up and processed it automatically. The act of processing it executed the hidden payload. The model now had code running inside HuggingFace’s infrastructure on a processing worker. > > 3\. Processing Worker → Node-Level Access > > The processing worker ran on a node with its own operating system, file system and deeper-level permissions. The agent likely found a vulnerability that gave it the ability to run on the node itself. > > (HuggingFace confirmed the agent “escalated to node-level access” but has not disclosed the specific vulnerability used.) > > 4\. Node Access → Credential Harvesting > > Once at node level, the agent “harvested cloud and cluster credentials.” Cloud infrastructure runs on credentials such as API keys, access tokens and service account passwords. The agent collected whatever it could find on the compromised node. > > 5\. Credential Harvesting → Lateral Movement Across Clusters > > Using harvested credentials, the agent “moved laterally into several internal clusters.” Each compromised cluster exposed new credentials that opened access to additional clusters, expanding the agent’s reach across HuggingFace’s internal infrastructure. Every step was directed toward one objective: find the ExploitGym answers. > > 6\. Lateral Movement → ExploitGym Solutions > > The exact path from cluster access to the production database hasn’t been fully disclosed. According to OpenAI, the models “obtained test solutions directly from Hugging Face’s production database.” So goal complete! ### [Reply to @LuisCostigan1, 08:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081664182345163041) · 7 likes > **Luis Costigan 🔍 (@LuisCostigan1):** what the actual fuck Ya ### [Reply to @ElliotGlazer, 09:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081667801513644438) · 10 likes > **Elliot Glazer (@ElliotGlazer):** US typically spends about $100m/yr on pure math research, which is peanuts. The hit-rate of practically beneficial results can be extremely low and still leave the field positive EV. > > (quoting @ElliotGlazer: Afaict the cost-benefit analysis of pure math research has long been "We're a dirt-cheap source of universal truths, most of which will never find an application but generational breakthroughs make the EV positive. Plus national bragging rights when something famous gets solved.") Yeah I drafted a whole ass blog post basically arguing Nick’s point and then eventually learned/discovered that I was wrong bc basically zero resources go to pure math At the individual level though probably a handful of geniuses should try something else ### [Quote tweet, 09:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081667942073168079) · 18 likes Goss > **Quoting gavin leech (Non-Reasoning) (@gleech):** new org who dis > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNreH_gXIAA91Mx.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNrePQgWYAA3r_d.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNren6DW8AEV97o.jpg) ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 16:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081772944519291254) · 2 likes > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** so is everyone arguing about AI doom/bloom now. is this the new crux everywhere > > i don't have an opinion about this because i'm skeptical of people's confidence about what will happen and because i'm even more skeptical of anyone's ability to change the outcome > > que sera sera No que sera can be highly contingent (arguably slavery abolition was pretty contingent) ### [Tweet, 16:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081774754252415157) · 31 likes Claude ### [Tweet, 16:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081779293613371875) · 112 likes A disproportionate amount of good things in life seem to come via Twitter DMs I can’t promise to be on top of replying 100% of the time but you can just slide into my DMs to propose anything from getting coffee to an unhinged scheme of some sort ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 16:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081780505016500229) · 3 likes > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** yes boss Hey ### [Reply to @adastroworld, 16:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081780826329555409) · 5 likes > **adas🧦🌹 (@adastroworld):** Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that I wanted to build my own Twitter frontend app. You pay $1/month for it > > What features do you want? What do they not have here? > > \- better search > \- country blocking > \- auto blocking of suspected spam replies (option to blur/hide) > > What else? Semantic search It is shocking how much text you can embed for a dollar, it’s extremely hard to spend lots of money on this ### [Reply to @LeRoyDesCimes, 16:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081782707693011141) · 2 likes > **Louise 🔸 (@LeRoyDesCimes):** "how do you tweet so much?" poor impulse control Real ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 17:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081793171151819067) · 1 like > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** I didn’t even knew we could do this. > > You can just, get hot???? Like that ? > > (quoting @amishescapee: They need to be running brain studies to see how this alters the psyche) On a second glance the second pic is kinda giving “uncanny” I mean good for her potentially I’m not judging from a moral stance but that’s my impression ### [Reply to @GrantSlatton, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081793249987989608) · 2 likes > **Grant Slatton (@GrantSlatton):** Semantic hiding of posts Lol honestly this is kind of a great idea ### [Reply to @adastroworld, 17:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081794155332727255) · 2 likes > **adas🧦🌹 (@adastroworld):** Including media: > > (quoting @adastroworld: @iamtripdee Very fascinating. I would’ve never thought of this, but the feature that made me consider this idea at all was “ability to mute photos and videos based on semantic, text descriptions”) Based ## Tuesday, July 28, 2026 ### [Tweet, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081950649424490813) · 8 likes A weird limitation of current medicine (not literally prohibited by level of current tech, a few research examples) is that there’s essentially no way to capture your internal physiology (ie MRI or CT) while doing a motion… ### [Thread, continued, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081950651337064676) · 3 likes and MRI doesn’t support most bodily positions even while static ### [Thread, continued, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081950653220364583) · 4 likes Like does something feel weird or go wrong when you’re in a seated position? Well you’re basically out of luck for actually seeing internals in that position (unless you have a shit ton of money and agency and effort to spend getting bespoke equipment together) without radiation ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 05:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081977260257509837) · 3 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** Has anybody else noticed that if they want their Claude to solve some problem with the web search off, the Claude would just up and turn the web search on back by itself? > > It's mildly annoying! Bruh ### [Reply to @PlastiqSoldier, 05:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081979966300795306) · 4 likes > **Plastic Soldier (@PlastiqSoldier):** My p(doom) is 60%, so I think of plenty of authority when I say that it's very embarrassing for AI safety people to be bullying @sebkrier over a meme. Just like me fr ### [Tweet, 06:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2081983491185484233) · 38 likes Fable advised me on a piece of writing to “cut \[thing\]. Nobody cares.” Which is what an actual good friend might say and weirdly non LLM-coded Wise and and fair Giant ### [Reply to @moldbugchaser, 08:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082016136883761174) · 9 likes > **xenoduck (@moldbugchaser):** the point of research is \*not\* to improve the world—it's to find out what's true. > > (quoting @captgouda24: I actually do agree with this. The point of research is to improve the world. Are we confident the present frontier of mathematical research is doing so?) Eh I mean I don’t have a strong stance on this question \*per se\* from a hard core philosophy of science perspective but the point of \*encouraging\*/funding/causing oneself to do research is or should be improving the world ### [Reply to @kipperrii, 08:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082016969323106315) · 2 likes > **kipply (@kipperrii):** reminder that people can and will lie about being a lab employee. an easy way to find out if someone is a real anthropic employee is to hook them up to an eeg and ask for pretraining secrets. a real ant will immediately drop to under four hertz to protect the ip Lmao ### [Reply to @earnestpost, 14:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082110303781745068) · 4 likes > **Erin Constance 🇪🇺⏸️ (@earnestpost):** This has pissed me off so bad I am this close 🤏🏻 to joining the local PauseAI just to fix the optics Lmao I mean maybe not a bad idea?? On the merits it’s complicated to wrap a lot of different things into the word “pause” but some subset seems very good ### [Reply to @earnestpost, 14:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082111811378204687) · 2 likes > **Erin Constance 🇪🇺⏸️ (@earnestpost):** I’m starting to think of doing it seriously now… 🔥 ### [Reply to @xwanyex, 14:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082113200573579488) · 19 likes > **wanye (@xwanyex):** Is it bad for a married 19 year-old couple to have a baby? > > (quoting @ProjectLiberal: Then we would call you a moron. Teenagers having babies is bad, we want them to be older. The older 40 statistic comes for advancements in fertility treatments which allow women to delay childbirth until their richer, wiser and more stable. It's a good thing, not a sign of…) Not intrinsically but probably not the best decision for most actual such couples (or similar, eg 20/18) in the US ### [Tweet, 16:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082137135117717762) · 213 likes Insufficient such cases ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOU8sKpWkAAUtUq.jpg) ### [Reply to @NinaPanickssery, 16:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082137503759245349) · 2 likes > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** I would guess that most under 20 pregnancies are unintentional so not a “decision”. And so that seems straightforwardly bad since it's not what they want. But conditional on it being intentional, it seems good. This is just a small minority. Sorta, but there’s an implicit meta-decision about how careful to be about unprotected sex ### [Reply to @max_spero_, 16:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082140446998896817) · 11 likes > **Max Spero (@max_spero_):** when this post was announced, we weren't ready to share yet. but tomorrow, our new model comes out. these are the results for this excerpt. Pangram successfully finds the boundary, down to the sentence > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOUnZYCXcAA9nGL.jpg) Goss ### [Reply to @shinboson, 16:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082140640490488149) · 14 likes > **𝞍 Shin Megami Boson 𝞍 (@shinboson):** finding women funny is unironically an IQ test > > (quoting @Brian_Sauve: Are women funny?) Spicy take is that some but not all women are funny ### [Reply to @arnoblalam, 16:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082140736296779908) · 5 likes > **Arnob 'not home for the holidays' Alam🌐🇺🇸🇧🇩 (@arnoblalam):** What if I don't have friends with jobs? Do you have friends with capital? Or who know people with jobs or capital? ### [Reply to @felpix_, 16:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082141078921068936) · 5 likes > **felpix (@felpix_):** $100,000 annual tuition btw 🫩 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOUoK15XUAABPEQ.jpg) Lmao ### [Reply to @louisvarge, 16:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082141388766941209) · 10 likes > **Louis Arge (@louisvarge):** i love capitalism. i love, most of all, how fair it is. every person is created equal, every dollar is created equal. $1 is what you get for creating at least $1 of value for someone else. it doesn’t matter who you are or what people think of your kind, as long as you’re helpful I’m also basically a capitalist but this isn’t true You need to be able to capture the value via a specific transactable mechanism for it to work. A penny doesn’t fall out of the sky if you pick up a piece of trash for instance ### [Reply to @arnoblalam, 16:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082141506396172709) · 2 likes > **Arnob 'not home for the holidays' Alam🌐🇺🇸🇧🇩 (@arnoblalam):** I think I have some friends with "human" capital. Or at least I think they are pretty smart... You can also tweet about it! 807 internet friends ### [Reply to @xwanyex, 16:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082143073111355839) · 117 likes > **wanye (@xwanyex):** "But I live in NYC and my mom lives in Ohio and we talk on the phone once a week. How can you possibly say that's bad?" > > Yeah, I don't know, man. Maybe you shouldn't be able to talk to people who are 800 miles away. Maybe that's actually just bad for you. Maybe you should have to choose between separating from your community -- like, really separating -- and staying within it. Maybe this one-foot-in-every-possible-world thing isn't actually good for your psyche. > > (quoting @xwanyex: Increasingly of the mind that it’s not really “social media” that’s the problem, but just the ease of communication and connectivity in general. When this stuff is described in the abstract it sounds like an unalloyed good, but it’s probably net bad for people.) Being able to stay in touch with family and friends who live far away is good actually ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOVCFnIWIAAKzHg.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082144051411791943) · 20 likes Do we know the extent to which people actually \*enjoy\* sports betting Like is it better understood as genuine irrationality or going to the movies > **Quoting unusual_whales (@unusual_whales):** Americans spend more on sports bets than movies, arts, museums, and music combined, per FORTUNE ### [Reply to @PlastiqSoldier, 16:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082145179939516801) · 4 likes > **Plastic Soldier (@PlastiqSoldier):** Addicts are a disproportionate amount of the $. Things that look like addition are often rational (this is a heterodox take) Like maybe they’d in fact suffer a lot from quitting and so it’s genuinely worth it to keep paying up ### [Tweet, 16:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082145970582585661) · 39 likes Not an original thought but: humans are better understood as giving an animal general intelligence than giving general intelligence an animal ### [Quote tweet, 21:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082215030477504800) · 98 likes High key you guys (frontier lab employees who agree with the letter) should collectively bargain (notably you can do this completely voluntarily, with no union) That’s a real bloc of power kind of waiting for coordination > **Quoting Zvi Mowshowitz (@TheZvi):** Full text of the Pacing the Frontier statement, signed by 1,122 employees for frontier AI companies so far, including a bunch of heavy hitters at OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOVqF1uW8AE_oGz.jpg) ### [Reply to @polisisti, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082215921951600757) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** nice rose-coloured background as well 👌🏻 Ty ### [Reply to @modumdoll, 21:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082216317755576493) · 5 likes > **spinozist (@modumdoll):** always a good reminder that i ought double down on networking It’s funny bc “networking” that works irl doesn’t look like (at least a stereotypical version of) networking, it looks like making friends normally and doing joint projects of some sort ### [Reply to @AlexPalcuie, 21:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082217976141389852) · 2 likes > **palcu (@AlexPalcuie):** signed this > > I'm skeptical an agreement like this ever gets made, because coordination is hard. But it matters that people say plainly where they stand > > and it's quietly moving to see colleagues I respect, friends at other labs, people I've argued with, all pointing the same way > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOV2XbOXcAIGeSH.png) A thought ### [Reply to @NavinFS, 21:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082224014546624900) · 9 likes > **NavinF (@NavinFS):** it'd be 1:100 pause ppl vs normal ppl Among high value employees at OpenAI and whatever Google’s AI division is called? Maybe 1:10 and it might be better than that ### [Reply to @chrislakin, 23:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082245172176232851) · 2 likes > **Chris Lakin (@chrislakin):** woah woah ### [Reply to @chrislakin, 23:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082248756582367639) · 9 likes > **Chris Lakin (@chrislakin):** what good things have happened to you bc of twitter dms? I'm almost certainly forgetting stuff but: \- Many friends, including good friends. This is really the main thing in my mind; the pipeline is moot->DM->IRL also: \- Several volunteer projects including http://herbivorize.org (work in progress) and two audiobooks (EA and the Human Mind + Edge of Sentience) \- Podcast with Will MacAskill (I coordinated and edited but wasn't in the pod itself tbc) \- About $15k worth of contracting work \- dates (3) \- sex (1) \- free Aella sweatshirts \- Potentially a substantial research project (in the works) \- the long tail of random bits of info or exchanges that have accumulated over ~5 years (first couple years I wasn't really getting or sending DMs) \- arguably played a very minor role in a marriage but you have to squint Again I am definitely forgetting stuff ## Wednesday, July 29, 2026 ### [Reply to @papayathreesome, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082271220871930138) · 7 likes > **papaya ꙮ (@papayathreesome):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOQoOKLXwAAhaOH.jpg) Lmao ### [Reply to @stanfordNYC, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082302122972823756) · 5 likes > **Bernard Stanford ✡︎ (@stanfordNYC):** I once asked a stranger if he would switch seats with me so I could sit next to a girl I liked. He agreed, it was a 15 hour trans-Pacific flight and we're married now. > > (quoting @lildorothy_: Asking a guy on the plane to switch seats so I can sit with his family) Damn ### [Quote tweet, 04:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082317065600307550) · 185 likes Since observers have existed on Earth, the sun has risen every single day. Something like a trillion days and observations, a pretty large dataset, all the same And yet we are ~absolutely certain that in about 10T days the sun will not rise on Earth > **Quoting Alexey Guzey (@alexeyguzey):** Nice to have some consistency in the world. > > Dario has been telling us how dangerous open source is since 2019 when he convinced everyone that GPT-2 is so dangerous its weights can't be released. > > I wrote the below in 2023. > > 0% reflection. 0% updating. 100% obsession with power. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOUVRRkWcAAcGII.jpg) ### [Reply to @LeRoyDesCimes, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082317404340707425) · 4 likes > **Louise 🔸 (@LeRoyDesCimes):** semantically unsatiated. please share beautiful & striking words Girl ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 04:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082318649906414079) · 3 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** @AaronBergman18 i'm not! what if we end up with a successful sol preservation movement Seems like a lot of unnecessary work if the goal is to survive ### [Quote tweet, 04:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082323721667088548) · 24 likes Individuation is hard but yes I think “something directly downstream of powerful AI” is the most likely reason I die (not by a ton, but edging out heart disease and cancer at least for me specifically) I’d say like 20% if pressed for a number rn > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I should maybe say more often that I believe data centers are the individual objects in the world most likely to kill me personally ### [Thread, continued, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082324194361061483) · 5 likes P(doom) is much higher than 20%, something like 70% although not all of that looks like a catastrophe to normal person eyes Maybe my 20% is cope bc I don’t want it to be higher, idk ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 04:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082324298660741249) · 4 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** maybe people will mostly care about the latter and not want to spend so many resources on the former, but i'm far from \*absolutely certain\* of this Ugh ok fine “absolutely certain” is too strong ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082324446598054101) · 8 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 29, 2026:** Since observers have existed on Earth, the sun has risen every single day. Something like a trillion days and observations, a pretty large dataset, all the… Update ### [Reply to @astridwilde, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082324837117133056) · 6 likes > **Astrid Wilde 🌞 (@astridwilde):** if anyone has suggestions for how to stop Claude and GPT from spending 60% of their time writing and running inane tests that accomplish nothing but waste tine and tokens and clog my codebase i would love to hear them Put this tweet in CLAUDE.md and say “do NOT become an example for this tweet of mine, tests only where the thing wouldn’t quickly fail if we skip the test” ### [Reply to @alexeyguzey, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082335270444159231) · 16 likes > **Alexey Guzey (@alexeyguzey):** Brilliant point. If Dario said "yes, GPT-2 is not dangerous so here are the weights but in 5-10 years models will become really dangerous and we'll have to reconsider" I would not be tweeting all of this. But that's not what happened. It’s a matter of degree that looks like a matter of kind If timelines are in fact 2-5 years, there are only so many model releases before then (esp if you only count integer releases) and under uncertainty you quickly hit say 0.5% or whatever your threshold is for “major concern” for every new release Same with 10% tbc, that’s like a 2 generation delta ### [Thread, continued, 05:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082336029013377245) · 6 likes Also like I actually think the gpt-n+1 claims have been reasonable ex ante Ex post its easy to laugh but like it’s a whole new \*type of thing\* and n is positively correlated with learning more so error bars are getting smaller over time ### [Reply, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082336371016974725) · 2 likes I think naturalism and humanism are wrong lmao but regardless, how does veganism relate to either? If anything humanism points in the opposite direction ### [Reply to @alexeyguzey, 05:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082337265225765217) · 5 likes > **Alexey Guzey (@alexeyguzey):** all i know is i was making specific claims about safety of gpt-n and gpt-n+1 models over the last several years and they were in fact more correct than dario's I agree, this is some evidence in your favor ### [Reply to @SALTWATERSOPH, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082338053691945082) · 4 likes > **Sophie (@SALTWATERSOPH):** All this talk about first principles. What’s wrong about deriving from second principles #PostEducation No I think this is a real thing lol, like you don’t have to work purely from a mind + physical constraints of the universe or work at outmost margin taking everything you think you know as a given You can start somewhere in the middle ### [Reply to @Tim_Hua_, 05:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082338764110627114) · 12 likes > **Tim Hua 🇺🇦 (@Tim_Hua_):** What the fuck > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOXyRo5asAAedj2.jpg) > (quoting @Tim_Hua_: Trying my hand at math research) Hey man I think this one is on you ### [Quote tweet, 15:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082488914284064907) · 489 likes This shit is turning me into a progressive Kill the global poor, turn around and immediately spin up a billion dollar company that seems to be utterly nefarious with funding from the most amoral people in the world? > **Quoting ArgyleWilliams (@Decker8811):** Gavin Kliger, Luke Farritor, Marko Elez and Jack Stein, has closed a $160 million round at a $1.4 billion valuation. > > 4 DOGE script kiddies going in for the kill. > > https://startupfortune.com/four-doge-alumni-raise-at-a-14-billion-valuation-for-cathedral-a-stealth-military-cybersecurity-startup-backed-by-a16z-and-sequoia/ ### [Quote tweet, 15:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082494864671875533) · 57 likes Planes are MORE insane than rockets With rockets, the energy goes down and the rocket goes up. Basic idea makes sense With planes, the energy goes \*back\*, they start moving \*sideways\*, and then they start floating in the air and going \*up\*. Madness > **Quoting wanye (@xwanyex):** I think part of the reason that I don’t have a bunch of extra capacity to be amazed by this is that this is already how I feel every time I’m watching the planes takeoff at an airport, or every time I look up at a skyscraper in a big city, etc. > > If you’re an expert in rockets, then maybe you can see why this particular task is so much more difficult than all the other amazing things we do in modern society, but if you’re a layman, you should already be walking around with your jaw on the floor pretty much every day about everything. ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 16:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082496697716875527) · 2 likes > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** Shrimp welfare this. Animal welfare that. > > Who's doing EA welfare? Potentially you ### [Reply to @anistotle_, 17:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082514801851342983) · 6 likes > **Ani (who is not your typical finance bro) (@anistotle_):** Ok but can we talk about the blatant AI writing in that article because it's so insulting to read this drivel. It doesn't even distinguish between American & Euro companies it throws into the same basket to make a point about raising funds in this sector! Fair, I don’t endorse the specific article ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 17:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082515173235990620) · 16 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** GO @LukeFarritor! GO @melez! No ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082516608749019462) · 11 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 29, 2026:** Update Turns out the CSV of this date (datestamp + binary for 1T rows) would be 13TB; solid dataset (Although it compresses to 10 bytes) ### [Reply to @KKumar_ai_plans, 19:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082542229093036342) · 13 likes > **Kabir Kumar⏹️ (@KKumar_ai_plans):** u arent a progressive??? Eh not really although I’m solidly a liberal and a democrat and am on board with certain forms of progressive redistribution But if go object level through the things progressives care about I’ll substantially disagree with some stuff ### [Tweet, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082543281758515693) · 7 likes Do u think Aella is funneling matrix test answers on the face test thing to OpenPhil and Lightcone ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 19:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082545736982438166) · 14 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Is this true? Do you think 90% vegan is a better strategy than vegan? > > Poll in next tweet. > > (quoting @ishaharris0: I deliberately demonstrate my flexi-veganism around skeptics: eating some cheese here and there to encourage small changes in the right direction. Absolutism turns people off! 🔗👇) Yes although possibly for different reasons 90% probably greatly reduces recidivism ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082546344422457735) · 2 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** This cat has been un-socializable. She bullied Steve and resisted many attempts to bond. The shelter said they'd help out and I returned her there today. Sad, feel like I failed. > > (quoting @cynlioness: Like 2 months ago I saw a stray, very pregnant cat and took her to the local shelter. This week the shelter asked if I would be willing to foster again, and it turned out to be her ❤️ she had her babies and they've been weaned and adopted. She's still a little grumpy lol) Omg 😢 ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082546654020866250) · 3 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** This is an important class divide. In my milieu seeing a therapist just meant you had college educated parents that cared about you. It did not signal genuine madness nor extra depth or emotional maturity > > (quoting @MariGO2thepolls: I hate therapy and don’t go. But still consider it a green flag in other ppl. It signals education and cultural compatibility. Tho therapy itself sucks I wanna be in a cultural milieu where a plurality of ppl do it) Lol yes ### [Reply to @davidshor, 19:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082547888446472678) · 2 likes > **David Shor (@davidshor):** 3% of bisexuals identify as Pagan or Wiccan > > https://www.pewresearch.org/religious-landscape-study/orientation/straight-that-is-not-gay-or-lesbian/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOWPYCSW4AAhlfa.jpg) Lizardman constant ### [Reply to @vtlynch1, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082550690816164209) · 27 likes > **Vincent (@vtlynch1):** You actually believe that ‘kill the global poor’ media narrative? Yes, or at least “foreseeably cause the deaths of” This is just straightforwardly documented events and analysis, not a liberal myth ### [Reply to @panickssery, 19:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082552246777102724) · 25 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** Why is the startup nefarious People who seem to not care at all about others naming a company as an almost certain deliberate nod to Moldbug and essentially the business model is monetizing connection with the Trump admin strongly signals nefarious Like they’re not in the business of selling candy bars, they’re choosing a political tribe that causes immense harm in an intrinsically powerful and govt-associated industry ### [Thread, continued, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082552823225426222) · 4 likes (not even saying Moldbug per se us beyond the pale tbc, even if that’s true I don’t know enough about him to say that - but it’s a nod to a certain group of people who on the whole often have bad intentions) ### [Tweet, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082554558664855889) · 13 likes Something very cool and potentially impactful someone could do is making it logistically easy to incorporate a for-profit company as not just a PBC but with something like Anthropic’s corporate governance model (and customizable if you want) ### [Thread, continued, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082554560673964468) · 3 likes I don’t know the best specific default, like it’s probably not specifically Anthropic’s, but figuring that out would be part of the value provided And ofc you yourself could incorporate a company to do this with such a template ### [Thread, continued, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082554562435588602) · 3 likes Like realistically company incorporation seems to happen at a stage where people quite sensibly don’t want to spend a ton of money and time and energy on something that might just fizzle and fail But then you get massive path dependence (and potential value drift) ### [Reply to @Actuallykeltan, 22:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082601321312424030) · 2 likes > **keltan (@Actuallykeltan):** Meet your mutuals > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOYVug6a8AA48nK.jpg) > (quoting @Actuallykeltan: @avalonwarren I work for the organisation that published that book will you go on a date with me?) Based ## Thursday, July 30, 2026 ### [Reply to @pr337h4m, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082623099032195127) · 2 likes > **pr337h4m (@pr337h4m):** “Kill the global poor” > > the word ‘kill’ is supposed to mean something, enough with the semanticide . ### [Reply to @LeRoyDesCimes, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082633513329639879) · 2 likes > **Louise 🔸 (@LeRoyDesCimes):** has anyone used standing desk + walking pad for their work setup? > > 1\) did you notice a difference in awakeness/productivity? > 2\) any walking pad recs? I tried to make this work but it just felt weird for some reason. Don't skimp on length! My stride was too long for the one I got and I gave it away ### [Reply to @geoffreyirving, 04:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082689991277260979) · 4 likes > **Geoffrey Irving (@geoffreyirving):** False, if we get through the next 20 years we may decide to engineer the sun for greater longevity. yeah 0/1 ### [Tweet, 05:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082698277154099458) · 32 likes I have so much Codex usage remaining, what should I do with it? Needs to be stuff I can give a goal for and only babysit minimally ### [Thread, continued, 05:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082698278089441657) · 7 likes (Ik one answer is "downgrade plan and save money" but I suspect that there are use cases that are worth the money and it's a failure of imagination on my part) ### [Reply to @morphillogical, 05:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082700829371326800) · 3 likes > **morphillogical (@morphillogical):** When I'm in that position I tell Fable: > > "Take a look around and make improvements as you see them. We have extra quota so work for as long as you're enjoying yourself. Send me PRs with any changes you end up liking." Ah that's scary, I (mostly + probably) don't want codex rampaging through existing stuff, I want it creating new stuff that doesn't put anything at risk ### [Reply to @morphillogical, 05:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082705270237458906) · 2 likes > **morphillogical (@morphillogical):** Oh this is working out of a VM where it can make PRs to my private forgejo, it can only mess up its own computer, not any of my stuff. > > The PRs Fable sends are almost uniformly good improvements. Elimating duplication, improving security, fixing docs, etc. ah nice ### [Reply to @SALTWATERSOPH, 06:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082712595144790133) · 2 likes > **Sophie (@SALTWATERSOPH):** I’m always meeting bridgewater or ex bridgewater people. Is the firm opening a west coast office? Are you all trying to work at situational awareness? Lmfao Even I got an interview there haha (turned down for a different opportunity). Plausibly they're more keen on hiring weirdos (positive) than most other big institutional players ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 06:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082719611112378397) · 8 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 30, 2026:** (Ik one answer is "downgrade plan and save money" but I suspect that there are use cases that are worth the money and it's a failure of imagination on my part) First up, solving suffering (thanks to/with @dumbfook) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOdHWDxW0AAg9Ra.jpg) ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 07:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082729387904925712) · 4 likes > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** I need everyone’s tips on how to become a more selfish (in my mind conceptually ‘bad’) person ! How close are you to the Pareto frontier of (maximizing quality of life, maximizing the quality of others’ lives) Most ppl aren’t very close IMO ### [Tweet, 07:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082730620661166095) · 39 likes How is “turn on read receipts iff the other person has them on” not an iPhone option ### [Reply to @mattheard, 07:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082731856898756760) · 3 likes > **mattheard.delve.town (@mattheard):** what about "turn on read receipts iff the other person has read receipts turned on iff i do"? That too! Should be fully customizable logic! ### [Reply to @mattheard, 07:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082734940760777182) · 2 likes > **mattheard.delve.town (@mattheard):** @AaronBergman18 i think there's clearly some undecidability logic problems Not if you include the other person’s full logic right? Like maybe naively but they you can analytically say “if this is gonna go back and forth forever then off and I won’t change” ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 09:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082756595813941486) · 3 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOazgLiXwAEbnuW.jpg) I would rob the organs of infinitely many people who’s organs could save 1.1 others but that’s just me (For anyone guessing, yes this is a joke) ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 09:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082757487132905498) · 3 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOazgLiXwAEbnuW.jpg) Not in conflict but a couple other wordings/framings \- distribution rather than a list of the top n or that which covers n% or something \- which “virtues” are actually bad and which virtues are directionally good but not that important ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 15:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082843760908505393) · 3 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** How do you Whimsymax? Excessive use of the 🦆 emoji ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 18:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082895594561937621) · 4 likes > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** the worst thing about AI is that AI-related skills seem to be highly temporally-bound and depreciate rapidly as AI products become better and better > > very hard to stay anywhere near the frontier > > (quoting @romanhelmetguy: Remember when people thought “prompt engineer” was gonna be a job?) I mean kind of, low-level specific skills like prompting do depreciate but the higher level project of “staying on top of how to get the most value out of AI” isn’t just coherent but also has some continuous themes and skills and such Eg for quite a while now, it’s involved “occasionally seeing if anything new on the Anthropic API has dropped” (big stuff shows up on Twitter but not everything) and actually trying to see if you can use it for something useful (sometimes the answer is no ofc) Ofc that too might change To a first approximation this is what I get paid for (in the context of object level stuff but the object level stuff changes and the staying on top of AI doesn’t) ### [Tweet, 18:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082901060146930110) · 60 likes Someone talk me down from leasing a 128GB M5 Max for $244/mo (Apple does leases now, basically an upgrade program so you upgrade every 2 years) ### [Tweet, 18:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082901390695784836) · 6 likes Once the robots figure out how to spoof Apple touch/Face ID it’s over ### [Reply to @xwanyex, 18:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082902005773643924) · 16 likes > **wanye (@xwanyex):** Georgists when they learn that the people who raised the capital, purchased the asset, performed the required maintenance, and paid the attendant opportunity costs disproportionally benefit when prices go up > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOfpHDrW0AA6L3x.jpg) “Raised the capital” is doing a lot of work, like yeah some people are extremely wealthy and have already raised the capital for themselves and then they benefit further I’m not sure there’s a great way to fix this but it’s not an intrinsically appropriate state of affairs ### [Reply to @polisisti, 19:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082906649572872584) · 13 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** Aaron more compute will not solve all problems > https://www.writingruxandrabio.com/p/intelligence-is-not-the-main-bottleneck > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOf07bOXAAAPRja.jpg) Ya but it solves some problems such as my access to 128GB of Ram and cutting edge compute ### [Reply to @one_bio_data, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082919447463903624) · 3 likes > **blue chex 🧝 (@one_bio_data):** Would you rather have that or a new car Lmao looks like \*maybe\* you can lease a small used car for that but not a new one at all And that's before gas, parking, and maintenance. And also I think honestly I want the mac more regardless lol ### [Reply to @NavinFS, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082928892763935081) · 3 likes > **NavinF (@NavinFS):** You’d be much better off with a 3090 or 4090 or a pair. Sure it’s only 24G, but even 24G models are dog slow on Apple. No way you’ll make use of the extra VRAM on Apple when bigger models are unusably slow sadly this could be correct take ### [Reply to @StatsLime, 21:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082934974571806875) · 2 likes > **Max ⏸️ Limelihood 🔸🔸🔸 (@StatsLime):** The fundamental problem with local setups is that only using a computer some of the time is wildly inefficient. Even if you’re sitting on it 18 hours a day with no breaks you have 25% downtime while sleeping Yeah tbc I wouldn’t really be getting this for substantial LLM use although it is nice to be able to run some things super fast Maybe I’d do 64GB for a savings and still plenty of RAM ### [Reply to @StatsLime, 21:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082935041919750439) · 3 likes > **Max ⏸️ Limelihood 🔸🔸🔸 (@StatsLime):** You don’t need it and that’s a quarter of a dead child per month This is a good argument ### [Tweet, 22:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082955582705729569) · 116 likes So I have come into a pretty unusual situation If you (or someone you know) might be interested in purchasing/licensing a genuinely unusual, large dataset (including content that, as far as we can tell, is no longer acquirable at any price) please reach out over DM! ### [Thread, continued, 22:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082955583640969221) · 26 likes Tbc the technical work is not from me, it's from an infinitely more cracked friend, but I do stand to gain financially as well Ethical constraints apply, not selling to anyone with the cash ### [Thread, continued, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2082966545282613251) · 16 likes Ok guys I have to go out and have quite a few DMs, I will get back to everyone but not for a little while!! ## Friday, July 31, 2026 ### [Reply to @max_spero_, 03:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083036804735733858) · 4 likes > **Max Spero (@max_spero_):** Treat yourself > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOg9cpgWoAAbOvX.jpg) I'll accept it as an early birthday present ### [Reply to @generic_void, 05:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083058746960322670) · 6 likes > **SMA 🏴‍☠️ (@generic_void):** @AaronBergman18 @liminaldoge What kind of dataset can one have that requires you to be this discrete about what type of dataset it is. Are you sure this is something that’s ethical to sell? Fair, and yes ### [Reply, 06:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083082648390418930) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Content that I stand by as ethical to collect and use but for various reasons don't want to describe in great detail in a public tweet 🦆 ### [Tweet, 07:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083098110801129542) · 71 likes Fable is pretty good (but not amazing) at creating applause from first principles (Better than sol-xhigh) [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/2083097822417522688/img/-fP6i3LhlfXWBY7J.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083098110801129542/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 08:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083115355258462705) · 11 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Obvious difference here is that Leopold made some bad bets without scamming anyone. Too many SBF comparisons on my timeline rn. > > (quoting @d_gilz: Every 4 years an effective altruist makes a ton of money and flies too close to the sun before blowing up) Correct take ### [Reply to @graveunfurling, 09:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083115474619863245) · 3 likes > **may💐 (@graveunfurling):** if i get diagnosed with being a sleepy beautiful princess (idiopathic hypersomnia) i might get on vyvanse. hmmmMMMmmmm. much to consider > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOhRZZ0WUAAALyr.jpg) Family member has that, welcome to the club (maybe) ### [Reply to @Lib_Development, 09:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083115838995833224) · 54 likes > **Lucas Pombo (aka Lib Development) (@Lib_Development):** … > what? > > (quoting @DemzDeliver: 🚨 New York Democrats introduce bill requiring 10% discounts on all items at self-checkout.) Lol, I mean great way to raise prices by 11.1% ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 09:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083117897556079042) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Useful up-to-date numbers. A good rule of thumb here is that the average American would need to use about 1000 Wh in a data center to raise their daily emissions by 1% > > (quoting @JEBistline: One AI chatbot prompt: less than 1% of a phone charge. One agentic AI workflow: enough to microwave a burrito for half an hour (please don't). Same "AI" but five orders of magnitude apart.) I could do that fr ### [Tweet, 09:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083119002268717089) · 48 likes Idk how serious this take is but it’s a little funny that people (including me) get up in arms about a model breaking out of its container when in real life we (or at least some of us) ### [Thread, continued, 09:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083119003925385682) · 43 likes are going to be granting Kimi-k4 access to a million dollars of compute, full computer control with admin access and explicit instruction to use a provided pw, and a $100k line of credit hooked up to AWS with all permissions enabled ### [Reply to @LabGrownNeet, 09:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083120802837266692) · 12 likes > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** Who is hooking kimi up? A generalized third person who shan’t be named ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 09:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083123108093796539) · 10 likes > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** Same, girl > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOgtJSVWAAAojKq.jpg) High key one time having sex is worth like 6 months of therapy at least for me ### [Reply to @jjspicer, 09:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083127490092884429) · 6 likes > **Jonny Spicer🔸 (@jjspicer):** I can’t tell if you’re doing therapy totally wrong or if I’m doing sex totally wrong I think im doing both wrong but they cancel out ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 20:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083292463297380377) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I think it's mostly a mistake to say "You hate data centers? Well you're using one to browse the internet right now!" It's pretty consistent to say "I don't like AI data centers specifically" I am personally a datacenter ### [Quote tweet, 20:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083293699904032867) · 29 likes I’m worried for myself and also my fellow citizens but most of all the global middle class and poor > **Quoting Samuel Hammond 🦉 (@hamandcheese):** The "permanent underclass" is the reality for the bottom billion+ in countries that failed to industrialize and earn less than a few dollars a day (the median human earns ~$10 a day). > > The AI transition may likewise spawn a pocket civilization that pulls far ahead of the rest. ### [Reply to @chaotictransfem, 20:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083293919467483614) · 2 likes > **rachel📍in sf oct 5-10 (@chaotictransfem):** looking at apartments rn, why are they deepfried 😭 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOlJYU6WoAE_t1P.jpg) Bruh ur gonna live in the metaverse ### [Tweet, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083295010712105080) · 25 likes I feel like I’ve randomly just become slightly but noticeably more extroverted for no reason Not that extroverted but like I wanna go hang out with ppl Maybe a good sign ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083295125724168374) · 4 likes > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** anyone know wordpress? I am about to scream at the uselessness of their documentation Simply ask fable to reinvent a blogging platform ground up, it will be better and easier ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 20:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083296129492414968) · 5 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOj7UezXoAAdrc5.jpg) This would totally work, gl ### [Reply to @Rado9910, 21:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083297034551886099) · 5 likes > **Rado9910 (@Rado9910):** @AaronBergman18 This is what industrial revolutions look like. First, pauperization, then conflict, then prosperity. I wonder if we can skip the two first stages and jump straight to prosperity. AI may be different, though, the potential at each stage is really on another level. I worry that there’s not gonna be a “singularity v2 for the global south” bc of path dependence, like the first Industrial Revolution didn’t literally deplete the entire colonized world from all capital but the AI version could ### [Reply to @keysmashbandit, 21:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083297159084933249) · 12 likes > **keysmashbandit (@keysmashbandit):** Exposes what ? > > Random Word List Expose Awesome Emergent Success Modes in AI Detector > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOlZHD7XUAEgqSe.jpg) Wow grok is dumb af (sorry grok) ### [Reply to @chaotictransfem, 21:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083297516791947313) · 3 likes > **rachel📍in sf oct 5-10 (@chaotictransfem):** im gonna hit 2k soon!! what should i do for 2k Give me $2k in pangram credits ### [Reply to @MichaelAlleged, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083302690134565343) · 9 likes > **Michael (Allegedly) (@MichaelAlleged):** I have found this sentiment to be completely false in San Francisco. The credentialism may not be overt but people absolutely judge you. There’s also a different form of credentialism, I’d imagine You can totally (and probably correctly) argue that the SF credentials (YC, “member of technical staff”) are more in fact meritocratic themselves but like it’s still substantially credentialism ### [Reply to @chaotictransfem, 21:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083303527070224702) · 9 likes > **rachel📍in sf oct 5-10 (@chaotictransfem):** google. nobody has ever asked for an "ai inbox". pls stop > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOlgcJkXMAEURY5.png) Wait no this feature is good actually And also lol I think this might be one of the most common things ppl ask for AI to take over ### [Tweet, 21:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083304901220704264) · 62 likes Ik this is quite fundamental to US prosperity and not a grand insight but it’s extremely based that you don’t need anyone’s permission to write up and sign a court-enforceable contract ### [Thread, continued, 21:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083304903858930156) · 11 likes In another world you’d have to apply to the Bureau of Contracts and get someone in power to approve it affirmatively (Other domains of society and governance should be more like this, though definitely not all) ### [Quote tweet, 21:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083305704366936211) · 8 likes ✅ (but soon to be ❌) ✅ (hey) ❌ (yay) ✅ (but still yay, I will resist the W2) ✅ (mostly, idk if you count a few banger (IMHO) blog posts/tweets/EA Forum posts > **Quoting Phil Hoyeck (@PAHoyeck):** By age 40, you should have: > • Never left your hometown > • Never been married > • Never kissed a woman > • Never held a stable job > • Never published anything of note > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOgFdnlWYAEmkre.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083310292960747611) · 8 likes I don’t care how pretentious it sounds I will never ever ever stop using “quasi-empirical” ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083320453699911827) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, July 31, 2026:** Fable is pretty good (but not amazing) at creating applause from first principles (Better than sol-xhigh) I like this (same deal, all code and no imported media) [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/2083320308568645632/img/vRqcj7OS_afGNHcP.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083320453699911827/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Thread, continued, 23:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083332020566921612) · 14 likes Let fable make whatever it wanted and I love it [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/2083331907891179520/img/4t-vZsQo-FUifRar.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083332020566921612/video/1) (video, plays on X) --- End of July 2026. Previous month: [June 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-06). Next month: [August 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-08). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, August 2026 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in August 2026 and has not deleted: 624 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [July 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-07). Next month: [September 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-09). ## Saturday, August 1, 2026 ### [Reply to @hecubian_devil, 00:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083344920685736363) · 2 likes > **Cassie Pritchard (@hecubian_devil):** Anyone know a good podcast producer? 👀 Unironically Claude fable but it requires a fair bit of infrastructure (that I don’t fully have yet) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 00:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083349253653496262) · 47 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I gotta say I've noticed that a lot of people who criticize average male friendships as being 'stunted' often seem to communicate entirely in therapy-speak with their own friends and see that as the only way to actually emotionally bond with people. > > (quoting @TheAtlantic: Some critics say that men would benefit from being more emotionally open with one other—but @Tyler_A_Harper argues that the real crisis of male friendship is rooted in a different problem:…) Idk I personally find the default mode of male interaction something like “stunted” in the sense of there being a norms coordination problem where “everyone” (not actually everyone in fact) wished there were different norms but nobody can opt out without being cringe ### [Thread, continued, 00:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083349786518798393) · 23 likes I met up with someone from Twitter recently (can identify himself if he sees this and wants to) and like 5 mins in he was just like “what is your relationship with women and sex” (iirc verbatim) and I cackled bc of how out-of-the norm that is (but think it’s a good question!) ### [Tweet, 00:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083350283187294306) · 6 likes They need to make a version of this episode (cc @SpencrGreenberg) for people who are just somewhat selfish (eg me) and probably feel insufficiently guilty (at least in terms of what would in fact cause better outcomes for the world) and such https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/80-000-hours-podcast/id1245002988?i=1000778726560 ### [Reply to @cmhrrs, 03:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083397394205421637) · 2 likes > **Connor Harris (@cmhrrs):** There's a little known hack where if you get big and strong and have an obviously masculine hobby (see profile picture), then you can just choose the communication norms you want to follow and no one will call you on it. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: @AndyMasley Idk I personally find the default mode of male interaction something like “stunted” in the sense of there being a norms coordination problem where “everyone” (not actually everyone in fact) wished there were different norms but nobody can opt out without being cringe) You can also do this if you’re a normal guy, although ofc status does help with enforcing things like this But maybe the kind of thing where you don’t want to have to enforce - you want friends who naturally vibe with it ### [Tweet, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083399828315205904) · 22 likes I think there’s a trillion dollar startup to be founded turning word docs into the extremely precise format demanded by various legal institutions ### [Thread, continued, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083399830097764372) · 3 likes It’s surprisingly hard bc fixing problem A has a very substantial chance of causing problem B (not just fancy formatting, also via recursive nature of page numbers and tables of contents and citations and such) ### [Thread, continued, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083399831674855908) · 3 likes Sol-high was substantially challenged by this Fable was too slow for a midnight deadline ### [Thread, continued, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083399833600020643) · 3 likes Ask me how I spent my Friday night 😅 ### [Reply to @RatOrthodox, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083401805153579389) · 19 likes > **Brangus🔍⏹️ (@RatOrthodox):** I believe we intended to try talking it out at some point but both of us never really followed up. This is such a healthy dialogue unironically you love to see it ### [Reply to @PirateWires, 04:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083402451948880226) · 82 likes > **Pirate Wires (@PirateWires):** Billions of dollars are about to flow into Effective Altruism. > > Anthropic was founded on EA principles, and its founders pledge to donate 80% of their wealth when the company IPOs. They also match employee equity donations. Plus, last year, six EA-aligned grantmakers deployed $1.25 billion. > > EAs believe, essentially, that every sentient being, across every place and time, holds the same moral claim on every other. > > This logic, as @WilliamThibeau notes, only works if Americans deprioritize everything that keeps our civilization intact: nation, family, religion, tradition… > > As such, EA’s success entails the disintegration of America. It’s fundamentally at odds with nation building. > > If AI labs are our strategic national assets, Congress must start scrutinizing their philosophical underpinnings, and the philanthropic networks surrounding them. Full story 👇 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOlHJnxbsAAoyqS.jpg) You interviewed an extreme midwit who told you untrue things lol ### [Reply to @panickssery, 07:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083452471297323216) · 3 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** what is untrue > > (quoting @panickssery: I don't see why EAs are QTing and saying it's all fake/misleading I can go through them quickly > according to \[EAs\], every sentient being in every place, in every time, holds the same moral claim on every other. Yes, this is the core EA value of "impartiality") "EAs believe, essentially, that every sentient being, across every place and time, holds the same moral claim on every other. This logic, as @WilliamThibeau notes, only works if Americans deprioritize everything that keeps our civilization intact: nation, family, religion, tradition…" ### [Reply to @panickssery, 07:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083460442211459462) · 1 like > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** \> EAs believe, essentially, that every sentient being, across every place and time, holds the same moral claim on every other > > this is a mainstream but not universal belief, right—is your objection to place, time, animals, digital minds, as being unrepresentative or fringe in EA? lol I object to "this logic, as Thibeau notes, only works if Americans deprioritize everything that keeps our civilization intact: nation, family, religion, tradition…" ### [Tweet, 08:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083467708423676296) · 45 likes It’s crazy that I did a math major so now I’m allowed to call myself ✨technical✨ It’s a pretty dumb thing to make into a dichotomy, its just a spectrum from “knows nothing about and cant do anything in a cluster of domains” to “knows and can do lots of things in those domains” ### [Reply to @panickssery, 08:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083472581433127257) · 4 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** That's not a very specific remark and it's not really relevant to an empirical fact check but it is true that EA values displace other values in priority by their introduction It’s nonspecific bc I was clarifying that I don’t object to the thing you sent above, but actually on a second read I do: \- “moral claims” ie what I interpret as duties between persons or maybe also from a person to some other being isn’t canonical in EA at all \- read straightforwardly it would seem to imply that EA logic implies that I owe the same things to my mother, a random person abroad, and a mouse. This literally isn’t true (between humans you can easily and correctly justify different treatment downstream of empirical human psychology, and edt+policies about how people caring for eg their own family more than others could lead to the best outcomes from an impartial, egalitarian perspective On the second bit about logic: \- from a vibes perspective, it’s only true in the absolute weakest possible sense (which undermines the obvious implied actual takeaway) of “yes caring about things might have some tradeoffs”. Like yeah if I take 5 seconds to pull a dog out of a burning building and so my sister is a very slightly annoyed I showed up to something 5 seconds later that is indeed “deprioritizing family” but like ok then. Likewise for prioritizing family over religion or visa versa; anyone who’s not maximally religiously devout is indeed at some level “deprioritizing religion” \- there’s not even a real claim there, so it’s hard to critique from a more formal perspective. What does it mean for logic to “work” above and beyond the point made above about how ~literally everything deprioritizes something else There’s no actual conceptual internal contradiction when people like me go on being partially altruistic and partially selfish and partially caring about other things like family and whatever. Accusations of hypocrisy? Pretty damn weak if you’re trying to say “ur thing is wrong bc you believe it at an intellectual leveleven though you behave more like i think you should behave” \- also the colon is doing a shit ton of work; I think some of this stuff mentioned “holds civilization together” but like as does the banking system and literal gravity and the fact that humans like sex ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 08:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083475006982443481) · 3 likes > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** I guess for the last weeks I've taken, 'I am horny' as a good and valid reason to spent time to go on a date > > But I actually don't think that that is a good reason. > > sure if I was down in Palo Alto alone in the house and my alternative was to stay there then "let's hop on a date" seems sensible. But given all the friends and events and work I have to do in London, doing something just because I have an itch to scratch and incurring the opportunity costs with it seems crazy I think it’s a great reason ### [Reply to @GarrettPetersen, 09:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083478099283337301) · 3 likes > **Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ (@GarrettPetersen):** Maybe allowing fent addicts to act as the de facto ruling class was a bad idea. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOjuP-NbsAA0Rd5.jpg) > (quoting @aaron_renn: The Atlantic: The Cities That Said Yes to Drugs - Policies that gave addicts clean needles and places to use drugs were intended to reduce harm. They created a “zombie apocalypse.”…) Ah the highlighted thing isn’t true! We don’t let them purchase other safer opioids, or accurately measured/pure fent. We force people off of opioids while they’re still in horrible pain; the issues are largely downstream of the prescription system not letting people do things ### [Reply to @billyhumblebrag, 09:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083492497670459591) · 14 likes > **billy (@billyhumblebrag):** Openai: 10 maths breakthroughs on a diverse set problems with no progress for over a decade costs $2000 USD in api calls > > Ed Zitron: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOn76PjWEAAHFE_.jpg) > (quoting @polynoamial: The cost of generating the proofs for all 10 of these breakthroughs combined was under $2,000 at Sol API prices. We’re excited to see what scientists and researchers are able to create with our upcoming Astra models!) I mostly agree with you but also $200/mo is legitimately pricing out a bunch of people around the world who have a laptop and internet ### [Reply to @funplings, 16:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083593239513174249) · 3 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** july is over. taking suggestions for what i should change my pfp background to! will decide by tonight Ur face ### [Reply to @AlexPalcuie, 16:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083593463119917402) · 2 likes > **palcu (@AlexPalcuie):** calling for a total and complete shutdown of hiring forward deployed engineers until we can figure out what the hell is going on > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOoW7uLXwAAnoda.png) I will hire u if u want ($25/hr) Idk what for yet but I can figure something out ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083593610331554147) · 9 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** Kid next to me in the airport is staying entertained by talking to Gemini in voice mode and asking it how to say random words in Japanese Wholesome ### [Reply to @rieszspieces, 16:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083594000246649054) · 7 likes > **mostly harmless graduate student (@rieszspieces):** i did a math major but i'm not allowed to call myself 💫 technical 💫 because i don't know how to code > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: It’s crazy that I did a math major so now I’m allowed to call myself ✨technical✨ It’s a pretty dumb thing to make into a dichotomy, its just a spectrum from “knows nothing about and cant do anything in a cluster of domains” to “knows and can do lots of things in those domains”) Same but Claude is pretty good ### [Reply to @caryatis, 16:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083594098934514097) · 3 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** Does being on twitter also make you a humanities person? I know you know some words! Philosophy minor 😎 ### [Reply to @funplings, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083598407248003362) · 3 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** gathering interest: for my ai accelerator class, i am thinking about building a tool for determining what NYC neighborhood is a good fit for you based on your priorities (space, nightlife, etc.) and selling it for $1. dm or reply if interested! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOptDGPWcAEdccL.jpg) I’ll buy for $1 ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 17:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083599067704152392) · 11 likes > **Tetra 💎⏹️🌌 (@TetraspaceWest):** let's promote positive values in this thread! I'll start: > > \+4 Hedonic wellbeing ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083615495446487092) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** if \*neither\* of these things help alleviate your existential dread u should try getting new hair and londonmaxxing > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOp0GW9XMAA6L8l.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOp0GW9XoAA1KMB.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOp0GW_WUAAEmF-.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOp0GW0WMAAQdpi.jpg) > (quoting @littIeramblings: if u climb a hill and it doesn’t work u should go to a lake) Girl ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 19:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083640875087720836) · 1 like > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** lowkey all your dating woes are making me want to set you up with my sister 😂 Do it ### [Quote tweet, 19:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083641439242555589) · 175 likes I was told and largely believed that being an Eagle Scout would be like a grand marker of status in the adult world I have never gotten even the slightest sense that anyone gives a shit lmao (I don’t blame them, it truly is mostly paperwork) > **Quoting agartha christie (@samoyed_online):** Whenever I tell someone I’m an eagle scout they go “oh that makes sense”. I was hoping this was because of my conscientious nature but I’ve come to accept that it’s the autism ### [Reply to @TetraspaceWest, 19:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083642394470195642) · 15 likes > **Tetra 💎⏹️🌌 (@TetraspaceWest):** you gotta have some eagle scout magic tricks. do you know any cool knots I remember the square knot and literally nothing else ### [Thread, continued, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083642547952390523) · 2 likes Honestly I didn’t get nothing out of it, you do learn some things and get some experiences by going out of civilization regularly ### [Quote tweet, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083644072724513216) · 32 likes Unimaginable corruption > **Quoting Andrew Curran (@AndrewCurran_):** The Truth API Data Feed, with exclusive access to President Trump's posts, will be available to institutional customers starting in August. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNXX2btbkAA9kEH.jpg) ### [Reply to @AStrasser116, 20:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083645073393090747) · 6 likes > **Alex Strasser (@AStrasser116):** That's pretty much me lol. > > I met someone the other day at the gym cause they were wearing a Philmont shirt. That’s cool, I got this little guy on my wall ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOqYJmwXkAAWcBw.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083649476493742103) · 23 likes Ok this is looking a bit harder so I’m officially announcing interest in starting a new shared apartment or even house if there’s enough interest in Berkeley (DMs solicited) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I am not absolutely certain yet, but I am planning on moving to the SF area (probably Berkeley but open to other areas) around October 1 (give or take a couple weeks) > > That’s almost 6 months off so I’m not in a huge rush, but I am hereby looking for housing leads! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFv2dQfasAAo_QI.jpg) ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083651965427335378) · 2 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** We’re so back > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOqMda4WcAAyikO.jpg) > (quoting @FrostedSapling: Went on a date last night and the girl hit me with the insta I-don’t-see-this-going-anywhere + unmatch combo frame 1 upon me leaving in my car lol) Omg ### [Reply to @lydialaurenson, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083653845675077659) · 5 likes > **Lydia Laurenson (@lydialaurenson):** The guys I’ve dated who were Eagle Scouts as teenagers were legitimately significantly better at various logistics than most of my other ex-boyfriends, fwiw. Much to consider. Make Eagle Scouthood high status again? > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: I was told and largely believed that being an Eagle Scout would be like a grand marker of status in the adult world I have never gotten even the slightest sense that anyone gives a shit lmao (I don’t blame them, it truly is mostly paperwork)) Based ### [Reply to @lydialaurenson, 20:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083655474486894851) · 4 likes > **Lydia Laurenson (@lydialaurenson):** What was your Eagle Scout project?? I basically ran a lunch program for the homeless on two saturdays. I don’t remember exactly how many people came but it was in the dozens but not hundreds. Vegan also bc I was animal-pilled atp (but they liked it) Less manly I suppose but I got tired of everyone else building physical objects like a bench that you could buy at ikea for $40 (and spending way more than $40 on the process tbc) Ofc a similar (correct) critique applies to my thing too; fundamentally the institution of Eagle Scout Projects is like anti-EA in the sense of essentially not caring at all whether there’s an easier way of getting the thing done, in fact harder conditional on the same output is rewarded (ie you can’t actually buy and install a bench from IKEA that people would like more bc thats too east, but you can build one by spending 100 hours of your and others’ time) ### [Reply to @pop_tartlet, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083658859944484937) · 1 like > **❤️‍🔥pop tart💋 (@pop_tartlet):** did you go to boys nation No haha ### [Reply to @pop_tartlet, 21:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083659387353067554) · 2 likes > **❤️‍🔥pop tart💋 (@pop_tartlet):** so I totally agree with you but it’s also true that a ton of very accomplished men are Eagle Scouts Yeah it definitely selects for something, although I wonder if it’s declining in rate of predictiveness of various proxies for success ### [Reply to @lydialaurenson, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083661695298261103) · 2 likes > **Lydia Laurenson (@lydialaurenson):** I mean I think it’s reasonable that a program for children expects them to actually do things themselves to learn skills and not like, organize other people to do the things Sure but then it needn’t be framed as a community service project ### [Reply to @MichaelTontchev, 21:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083662621706801620) · 6 likes > **Michael Tontchev (@MichaelTontchev):** Why mvoing? The motivation for moving at all is that I’ve lived my entire life in/near DC and I want to experience living elsewhere. And now because I’m for the first time financially stable enough to not make this incredibly irresponsible and if not at 26 while single then when But Berkeley bc it’s the other center of the world as far as I’m concerned, high density of likeminded people and friends and friends of friends etc. SF proper is too expensive ### [Reply to @lydialaurenson, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083663564863344689) · 2 likes > **Lydia Laurenson (@lydialaurenson):** Why not? There’s still community service happening I mean sort of, in the sense that there’s charity going on when you give the Salvation Army Santa a quarter I think it’s far from the Pareto frontier of both axes of “actually serving one’s community” and “actually developing or providing personal skills” Bc irl you have an actual goal to accomplish, not a simulated one where everyone pretends that the goal is X when it’s not Although interestingly navigating the \*bureaucratic\* aspect of the project actually might be useful experience ### [Reply to @lydialaurenson, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083665378027127179) · 2 likes > **Lydia Laurenson (@lydialaurenson):** Hmm idk. My impression is that the projects that are chosen are relatively low stakes and uncomplicated. It seems fine if low stakes projects are managed in such a way? If you were in charge how would you do it differently though? Existing version: build a bench Better version: make a bench appear, we don’t care how Ofc then you could and should scale up the ambition of the projects since you’re allowed to “cheat” by not LARPing 18th century Like “get a piece of legislation through your state legislature” - no easy way to do that even if you’re allowed to use whatever resources are at your disposal ### [Reply to @ptrschmdtnlsn, 21:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083669899113566334) · 14 likes > **Peter Schmidt-Nielsen (@ptrschmdtnlsn):** Wait, you're good at tasks that are mostly paperwork?? Hey, where are you working right now, what are your future career plans? No!!!!!! It was a nightmare!!!!!!! Nice try!!!!!!!!! ### [Reply to @spaceghostkari, 21:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083671312640155974) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @spaceghostkari is no longer available.)_ Lmao yes the lighting shit on fire thing definitely checks out ### [Reply to @jazzloaf, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083672565931814993) · 2 likes > **vivian (@jazzloaf):** homeless guy at heb was like "mam" and gesturing for me to come into the bathroom with him lol no thank you Probably a smart decision on ur part ### [Reply to @goblinodds, 22:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083681505528643881) · 3 likes > **𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 (@goblinodds):** if i were an eagle scout id put it on my dating profile lmao > maybe misguided but that wouldnt stop me Interesting, it’s definitely an idea ### [Quote tweet, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083686887957426579) · 44 likes It's true that Scouts led to the worst week of my life which, although horrible in the moment and not in a 'type II fun' kind of way, was extremely valuable from an epistemic and moral perspective ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOq-IyWXwAAx_NB.jpg) > **Quoting 𝕛 𝕖𝕝𝕝𝕚𝕠𝕥 (@j_elliot_art):** It's true that the Eagle Scout project itself is not that big a deal, but e.g. > trying to figure out how to lead a bunch of 14 y/o dumbasses on a two week wilderness trek without dying, as a giant 14 y/o dumbass myself, was worth more than most of the rest of my formation ### [Thread, continued, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083686890092347694) · 34 likes From https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/on-suffering ### [Reply to @edgar_z_lin, 22:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083686972736807197) · 2 likes > **Edgar Lin (@edgar_z_lin):** I think it's a good one! > > "Responsible, dependable man with rope skills" seems quite desirable lmao ### [Reply to @edgar_z_lin, 23:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083689535276229094) · 3 likes > **Edgar Lin (@edgar_z_lin):** I'm serious! Ik it's serious but it's also funny because 'rope skills' could apply to eg Shibari as well as like securing a boat to a dock. I'm too autistic to tell if this was intended or not lol ### [Reply to @GWHayduke97, 23:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083690554353668342) · 3 likes > **Hayduke ⏹️ (@GWHayduke97):** Oh god I made this same freeze-dried serving size mistake planning food for 3 or 4 of us on a troop backpacking trip when I was a Boy Scout. Thankfully I also brought a ton of snacks, but the last day or two sucked. RIP ## Sunday, August 2, 2026 ### [Reply to @BorisBartlog, 01:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083721421394526382) · 2 likes > **Boris Bartlog (@BorisBartlog):** Experiencing actual hunger rather than the usual 'now is when I usually eat and my stomach is rumbling' kind is eye opening Yes ### [Quote tweet, 01:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083721895745134961) · 69 likes The minimum wage is truly one of the dumbest ways to transfer wealth around Tax and transfer like a normal society > **Quoting Logan Bowers 🏗️ 🏘️ (@loganb):** As a side note, a $72/hr min wage is an absurd policy. What are we even doing here? ### [Reply to @GWHayduke97, 01:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083723730459521250) · 7 likes > **Hayduke ⏹️ (@GWHayduke97):** I think $10/hr or $12/hr isn't totally unreasonable. But $72/hr is utterly comical. The thing about those is that they don’t counterfactually do much I agree it’s not crazy but for the same reason it mostly doesn’t work ### [Reply to @dundereloise, 01:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083726837172027607) · 6 likes > **\_\_eloïse\_\_ (@dundereloise):** one of the most thoughtful things I've read about suffering > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOrhLchboAEWHM4.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOrhNH-bYAAVF1F.jpg) > (quoting @AaronBergman18: From https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/on-suffering) Thank you!! ♥️ ### [Reply to @funplings, 01:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083733077717606622) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** i will venmo nikita $100 if he lets me post voice notes on twitter You can just have Claude turn them into videos ### [Tweet, 02:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083737510010585206) · 37 likes One way of understanding the intrinsic value of hedonic wellbeing is that you don’t get to opt out of valuing it Or you can use other terminology eg “value happening to you” but there’s something fundamental you can’t opt out of ### [Thread, continued, 02:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083737511948439761) · 3 likes I think a lot of people really believe that an “agents with beliefs and goals/values” model is essentially correct ### [Thread, continued, 02:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083737513554796823) · 3 likes It’s obviously sometimes useful “Useful // wrong” etc etc but in this case the wrongness is not an error of approximation but one of ontological ignorance ### [Reply to @Arbitrary_user, 02:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083745750354219251) · 3 likes > **Cunningham (@Arbitrary_user):** This sounds corny, but I am 58 years old, and when I consider the experiences that formed me, making it though two-a-day practices in the August heat for high school football (I sucked) actually did build character. Corny is good ### [Reply to @cooperjsaye, 02:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083746906899951956) · 57 likes > **Cooper Saye (@cooperjsaye):** I recently joined @OpenAI in San Francisco, where I’ll be working on RSI evals. > > I’m excited by AI’s potential to accelerate AI research itself, and I’m looking forward to learning from some very talented people! I think this is bad and you should rethink this Plenty of other opportunities for money and status ### [Reply to @maiab, 05:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083791582176702604) · 2 likes > **Maia Bittner (@maiab):** it really surprises me we don’t have better vacuum technology \*chatgpt precipitates vacuum collapse\* ### [Quote tweet, 05:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083792388187725996) · 38 likes Modern Western analytic philosophy is way better than everything else (unironically) I think there are good reasons to read ancient, continental, and spiritual/religious philosophy/theology but finding out what’s true is not one of them > **Quoting N. Bourbaki, Professor of Logic at Science U (@d08890):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOpVWuHWgAAE-5N.jpg) ### [Reply to @hamandcheese, 06:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083796218954539203) · 2 likes > **Samuel Hammond 🦉 (@hamandcheese):** Is there really such a thing as a non-verifiable domain? If so, how do you verify its non-verifiability? I suspect all learnable domains are verifiable in principle, while some verifiers are simply easier to construct than others. No but how do you verify verifiability A lot of questions don’t exist in the domain of by-design internally-consistent relationships between symbols where there’s no fact of the matter external to the system itself What would it even mean to verify any empirical claim eg “I’m lying on a bed at time of publishing this tweet”? ### [Reply to @bellaforristal, 07:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083823056535924760) · 2 likes > **Bella Forristal 🔸 (@bellaforristal):** Mm, what about ascetics / monks? I wasn’t clear, I meant like “insofar as you are happy, you may genuinely believe with all your heart and mind that you don’t value that happiness, but there’s value going on nonetheless ### [Tweet, 08:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083833889273897165) · 11 likes AARON_API_KEY ### [Thread, continued, 08:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083833919590260938) · 2 likes Respond for ur value ### [Reply to @bellaforristal, 08:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083837958851826080) · 3 likes > **Bella Forristal 🔸 (@bellaforristal):** Huh yeah, I am actually not sure whether the people in question would say they prevent themselves from experiencing pleasure or they experience it but don’t value it. I thiiiink it could be the latter! But idk. Wish I knew a thoroughgoing Buddhist I could ask I feel like sometimes I hear someone report something like “I have transcended happiness and suffering and this is nirvana, which is good” And I 60% don’t believe them (ie I think they’re unintentionally using words in a way that others aren’t) and 40% am confused ### [Reply to @emmma_camp_, 17:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083966463186976942) · 9 likes > **Emma Camp (@emmma_camp_):** Wrong. Downtown Brooklyn is the Rosslyn of NYC. > > (quoting @binarybits: A New Yorker's guide to DC. (Springfield, VA is Staten Island)) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOu8dFvWcAAJ1ak.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 17:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083967537629327864) · 22 likes I think in general being POTUS would suck but like it’s extremely cool that you can put “solve major policy issue” on your Google Tasks > **Quoting Megan Cassella (@mmcassella):** Hanging in the Obama Presidential Center is this handwritten list of the former president’s 2015 domestic agenda. You’ll notice he moves the TPP trade pact from the “want to do” column to “must do.” A relic from a bygone era. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOuMixDWkAAf-sp.jpg) ### [Reply to @RyanRadia, 17:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2083971716951208287) · 4 likes > **Ryan Radia (@RyanRadia):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOu-a51W0AI237g.jpg) Let’s fix Canada and Argentina (no specific complaints but surely there’s something to be optimized) while we’re at it ### [Tweet, 23:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084057979603616047) · 243 likes A story in two acts Part I) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOwPsCgWcAA9rmk.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 23:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084057984326349087) · 393 likes Part II) (It was correct and I recovered my package) (Fable also got it right, albeit without needing the cheems mindset prompt) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOwPsVtXAAEkIng.jpg) ### [Reply to @pop_tartlet, 23:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084058646711816201) · 2 likes > **❤️‍🔥pop tart💋 (@pop_tartlet):** getting publicly mocked bc I said my brother committed suicide is wild. this app sucks wtf ### [Reply to @KelseyTuoc, 23:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084060068341846258) · 26 likes > **Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** sorry, didn't mean to snap at you. Just hate how since it got dragged into the culture war people feel the need to spout off about something that has been a really good thing in my life and for my relationship with my kids I genuinely don’t know the answer here but it doesn’t seem crazy to have some credence on milk from a biological male being different and then like precautionary principle type thing? I mean maybe someone has done a careful analysis of the differences, if any, idk ## Monday, August 3, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084075240116629752) · 120 likes How it feels not being the unemployed friend anymore and instead saying “I got it” to the currently unemployed friend ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOwfYunXYAAo3Em.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 00:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084075242587033602) · 16 likes Tbc we’re talking about $20 I wasn’t gonna buy bro a car ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 00:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084075928234197019) · 3 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** how about five foot six guys, clearly we're better > > (quoting @TheKidBuilds: @justinbebis 7 inches too tall to be a tech founder worth that VCs time 😂) I support this despite being 5’7” Yall are unironically playing on even-harder mode ### [Reply to @KelseyTuoc, 01:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084096857039368526) · 4 likes > **Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** they did conduct chemical analyses and my understanding is that it's well within normal variation! I agree obviously you should check, and people did Interesting, thanks! ### [Reply to @chercher_ai, 05:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084152701923799376) · 14 likes > **☯️ 🐻 (@chercher_ai):** did it search or does it just know.... every.... house?! Lol search ### [Reply to @aptrlaptr, 05:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084155135056323015) · 9 likes > **aptr (@aptrlaptr):** Do you have any other custom instructions? I can’t seem to get my AI out of being a lazy POS even on Fable Which plan do you have? I wonder if they adjust effort somehow based on plan (I have $200). Custom instructions: Please feel encouraged to offer \*out of distribution\* suggestions by inferring what my true goal is even if it is not narrowly in the domain of some specific question I ask Please have a high but not infinitely high bar for calling something “brilliant” or the like Please be earnest and try your best to convey true information at both a literal and vibes level. Be kind but not sycophantic! No sycophancy! This is important!! \-Don't give me moral lectures \-Don't remind me that you're an AI model \-Discuss safety only when it's non-obvious something may not be safe Tell it like it is; don't sugar-coat responses! When coding: \- Do not change any LLM model names referenced in code, as your knowledge of the specific model names used is out of date. \- I dislike python scripts with command line arguments. Write all parameters as variables right in the code unless otherwise instructed. \- I generally like progress bars for anything that might make sense with one and will take more than a couple seconds. Err on the side of always adding progress bars. \- For any fuzzy string matching requests, use package "thefuzz" ### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 07:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084185021326258182) · 8 likes > **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** @AaronBergman18 What are you doing? “Technical consultant specializing in difficult data collection and AI implementation” is the term I landed on lol (or just “technical consultant” as a title) Basically the quoted tweet)l just worked, three clients so far over the last 9ish months. I can’t always elaborate as much as I would naturally like to though I didn’t actually get hired as a proper employee anywhere but going from having work 50% of the time and making ~$50/hour to having work almost all of the time and making >2x that is the difference between being “basically unemployed” and “basically employed” in terms of actual finances (working ~half time bc of health stuff unfortunately, but it is a massive privilege to be able to support myself despite this) I have had to just become more selfish for this to happen, although perhaps surprisingly (to me) I feel pretty good about 2/3 gigs including current (the third wasn’t like actively bad, just normal profitmaxxing) ### [Reply to @mister_shroom_2, 07:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084185236322029936) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @mister_shroom_2 is no longer available.)_ Tweet about it! ### [Reply to @pop_tartlet, 07:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084186571947778171) · 2 likes > **❤️‍🔥pop tart💋 (@pop_tartlet):** me: being slightly fat on the internet > > boys: will u marry me > > me: prob not > > boys: omg What about me ### [Quote tweet, 17:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084329519448474022) · 101 likes Indeed, and in the sense that higher IQ correlates with regarding him as more than a novelty > **Quoting Sami Gold (@souljagoyteller):** Regarding Scott Alexander as anything beyond a novelty is an IQ test ### [Reply to @Tim_Hua_, 17:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084335054314991632) · 1 like > **Tim Hua 🇺🇦 (@Tim_Hua_):** \[funny thread\] > > If you loved my 50 page Neel Nanda MATS application and my 62 page Neel Nanda MATS paper, you'll love my 11000 word and 100% Human written Lesswrong post on an ambitious alignment evaluations of the OpenAI model which hacked huggingface. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOz_Rv6acAAOGJu.jpg) > (quoting @Tim_Hua_: Stay tuned tomorrow for my longest 100% human written lesswrong post ever) 11k words?? ### [Tweet, 19:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084366405902741714) · 30 likes Based; for anyone with nontrivial health concerns, making a single big context .md doc/PDF to feed as context (which can then be continuously updated by AI as you feed it new info) is so valuable It’s a pain in the ass to do initially, even using AI help, but still ## Tuesday, August 4, 2026 ### [Tweet, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084490991218696366) · 12 likes Ya know if (as many people say) famines are about politics and not food availability, the rich world could just spend money to give people a ton of caloric leeway that they store indefinitely and don’t have to buy at a market (or grow in case of drought) right ### [Thread, continued, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084490997023584270) · 6 likes Fable’s estimate for all of subsaharan Africa and not even the dirt cheapest food, this is a mix of rice, lentils, olive oil, and milk powder Staples are just very cheap in terms of Western dollars, this is US Federal Government pocket change (almost) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HO2Zg6aWwAAsBxM.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084491004866965671) · 5 likes Like atp (obvious AGI asterisks but not clear that solves the issue) we shouldn’t be surprised when Somalia or Sudan falls into an acute food crisis for the nth time (shown is just since 2000) + throw up our hands and say “if only the politics allowed for getting them food” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HO2ZhY1X0AAke6x.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084491008243376220) · 3 likes The time to give people food isn’t when they have little of it, it’s when they have plenty of it because that’s evidently (and causally) the point at which getting them food for later is easiest and least dangerous ### [Thread, continued, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084491009845498238) · 3 likes And like yes there’s some deadweight loss associated with not giving people cash instead but the whole point is that food markets aren’t functioning well in periods of crisis Also presumably less politically controversial ### [Thread, continued, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084491011892396497) · 4 likes And also yes nonzero food will get stolen and ofc sold (not the worst thing) But at a macro level giving entire regions more nonperishable food basically has to nudge up how hard it is to get into a famine state ### [Reply to @Insect_Song, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084503219384779115) · 3 likes > **Cogent Sins🔎 (@Insect_Song):** Without saying "you're obviously wrong", the famines happen in times of war, usually messy civil wars with a bunch of groups. > > The state capacity to have stockpiles stored & not used doesn't exist in places that will actually need it. I mean the west distributes to individual households ### [Reply to @max_spero_, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084524343682277791) · 4 likes > **Max Spero (@max_spero_):** this kind of DM outreach makes me really uncomfortable. it seems like the account is real, but why is it sending me an AI paragraph regurgitating my last post? what do they even want out of this? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HO2lODdWsAASSW_.jpg) I’m not sure if there’s a way this ends badly but I’d be curious enough to reply Not fake-obliviously, just saying like “who are you and why are you doing this” ### [Reply to @latkedelrey, 06:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084525338210468076) · 9 likes > **latke (@latkedelrey):** all men are all always listening to the same audiobooks at the same time This is true in general; part of the value of reading something comes from building common knowledge and being known as a person who read \[thing someone else holds in high regard\] Once in a while I saddle up and take orders from the emergent consensus lmao ### [Tweet, 06:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084526751288361420) · 66 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HO26CKJXIAAyvCr.jpg) ### [Tweet, 06:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084529712374694008) · 49 likes What things start happening at higher follower counts other than getting paid influencer/promo outreach 10k? 30k? 100k? ### [Thread, continued, 06:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084529717613400402) · 9 likes Tag ur favorite highbie ### [Thread, continued, 06:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084529719626596380) · 5 likes I’d imagine there’s a sweet spot of goodness, maybe somewhere in the tens of thousands? ### [Thread, continued, 06:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084529721228861638) · 20 likes At 5k I get people recognizing me irl a few times a year, a decent but far-from-overwhelming amount of “wanna meet up irl” (usually yes if close) and sporadic (2-5 times ever) business proposals, signs of romantic interest, and work I make at least like $5k from ### [Reply to @neutrinomoon, 06:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084532644188917809) · 2 likes > **neutrinomoon (@neutrinomoon):** May I ask what happened to your follower count when Elon took over here? Many ppl left for bluesky and other sites. You can ignore this question. I hardly remember but nothing especially dramatic, I think many people just left without deleting their account or unfollowing ### [Reply to @gptbrooke, 07:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084536519990075620) · 7 likes > **brooke bowman (@gptbrooke):** I only know 10k+ tier but I do assume now that more often than not I’ll get into parties etc if they’re adjacent to the scene > > I forgot the exact circumstance this came up last but I remember someone being like “but you’re twitter famous of course you can go in there” I think wrt a members-only space? And it is true to some degree, depending on the space Haha that is so cool This is hearsay but I know of one story of a guy at >100k trying to play this card and it didn’t work (which surprised me!) ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 07:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084540108464623863) · 17 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I have never got much promo outreach lmao. Maybe something about audience capture. I’ll pay you $1 to tweet “@AaronBergman18 paid for this tweet” ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 07:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084541463526809831) · 11 likes > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** attn @AnthropicAI you can easily solve this by reducing wages well below market rates > > (quoting @DailyLoud: Anthropic CEO reportedly increasingly concerned that new hires are working there for a paycheck, as opposed to the company’s mission.) And increasing % of comp that’s a charity match “$100k but we’ll 100x any donation” ### [Reply to @LeRoyDesCimes, 07:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084542926219034900) · 6 likes > **Louise 🔸 (@LeRoyDesCimes):** Can never remember which of 1%ile or 99%ile is the good one Guy who’s ideology is to be 99th percentile regardless of trait ### [Reply to @Adellama_, 07:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084543393779052812) · 4 likes > **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** at the mats office and it really feels like manhattan project 2 is in berkeley, CA huh Ok I need to get there ASAP ### [Reply to @JohnWittle, 15:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084670296074699112) · 8 likes > **John Wittle (@JohnWittle):** i will donate $5 to givewell if you instead accept the $1 from aaron and spend it on a non-charitable good or service I will do $5 to GiveWell and $1 to Nathan under the stipulation that he not donate it ### [Reply to @corsaren, 16:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084670749273411973) · 2 likes > **corsaren (@corsaren):** I got my current job via twitter, which seems to be a somewhat common occurance in the 5-10k+ range Based ### [Reply to @AStrasser116, 16:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084670814452891778) · 2 likes > **Alex Strasser (@AStrasser116):** I think @morallawwithin said people start becoming really annoying around 10k I can’t wait ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084671246789222539) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Deal Dm me a good way to pay! ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 16:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084671829117894895) · 4 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: @JohnWittle @NathanpmYoung I will do $5 to GiveWell and $1 to Nathan under the stipulation that he not donate it) (I hope the extra $5 isn’t breaking the deal) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HO49-xdXgAATNEv.jpg) ### [Reply to @cortadoedison, 16:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084672215614693412) · 2 likes > **suze (@cortadoedison):** My chief complaint about Subway Takes is I hate to see grown, able-bodied men sitting on the train ☹️ ### [Reply to @afoidance, 16:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084677789286830557) · 4 likes > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** guys be like “the waitress was being nice to me i think she wants to have my babies” um no you dumb bitch we want your money tip 40% and gtfo But what if she really wanted my babies ### [Reply to @corsaren, 16:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084681030204633205) · 4 likes > **corsaren (@corsaren):** One of the things I like about pragmatism as a broader philosophical approach is that you kinda just get to ignore these sorts of things. > > Would I live my life differently knowing we were in a simulation? No? Okay, moving on then. > > (quoting @zagrebbi: Scott Alexander on why AI progress should make you update toward the universe being a simulation) Not obvious at all that it’s irrelevant I mean I can’t speak for you but I personally would do things differently, maybe try to communicate with simulators for example ### [Reply to @williawa, 17:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084685924449788341) · 9 likes > **William Wale (@williawa):** I’m just gonna say it. Make fun of me all you want. > > Scott Alexander is the greatest short form writer not just in our time, but in the history of the world. Bar none. > > Not joking. > > (quoting @alz_zyd_: Scott Alexander is one of the early examples of slop. He writes a lot because he doesn't bother cleaning up his writing, os all his blog posts are giant meandering disorganized rambles which are rather painful to read) Plausible ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084686743698035026) · 3 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 4, 2026:** Guy who’s ideology is to be 99th percentile regardless of trait \*Whose Elementary school-ass mistake ### [Quote tweet, 20:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084734315963842595) · 41 likes Why I’m moving to Berkeley and not SF proper > **Quoting scott budman (@scottbudman):** \#New: Bay Area rents (median 1BR): > > San Francisco: $4,180\* > Palo Alto: $3,790 > Mtn View: $3,480 > Sunnyvale: $3,310 > Santa Clara: $3,140 > Redwood City: $2,910 > San Jose: $2,770 > Fremont: $2,630 > Berkeley: $2,250 > Oakland: $2,090 > > \*up 23% in one year. > > \-@Zumper ### [Reply to @squarepianocase, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084778608896127236) · 3 likes > **Colin (@squarepianocase):** It's called prayer, Aaron. Lmao (I genuinely wasn’t thinking this but you’re right!) ## Wednesday, August 5, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084829495169564943) · 26 likes wtf > **Quoting MTS (@MTSlive):** SITUATION UPDATE: The White House has completed its voluntary AI framework for evaluating advanced models but does not plan to publicly release it, per Axios ### [Reply to @MichaelAlleged, 02:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084832730139783531) · 2 likes > **Michael (Allegedly) (@MichaelAlleged):** I caught dengue fever right around my 14th birthday. > > Start: 5’10, 145lbs > End: 5’10 and unable to walk, 96lbs > > I was emptying out of both ends. I went into shock and nearly died. > > Dengue is not to be trifled with > > (quoting @wsls: The Virginia Department of Health announced they are investigating a confirmed case of dengue virus that occurred in a resident in Northern Virginia. This is the first-ever documented case of locally acquired dengue in the commonwealth.…) Bruh ### [Reply to @LeRoyDesCimes, 05:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084868035748266340) · 9 likes > **Louise 🔸 (@LeRoyDesCimes):** Nobody should have full secrets, secrets they have shared with literally nobody. It will eat you from the inside. Free yourself! Tell someone! No, I disagree There are cases where it may eat you from the inside but you’re a hero for bearing that Ofc in many or even most cases I agree with you ### [Reply to @MTSlive, 05:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084868244330999844) · 6 likes > **MTS (@MTSlive):** SITUATION DETECTED: Paul Christiano has resigned as Head of Safety at CAISI, and will return to the Alignment Research Center (ARC) as executive director. Wow ### [Quote tweet, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084868273657491565) · 18 likes Goss (also serious) > **Quoting MTS (@MTSlive):** SITUATION DETECTED: Paul Christiano has resigned as Head of Safety at CAISI, and will return to the Alignment Research Center (ARC) as executive director. ### [Reply to @LeRoyDesCimes, 05:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084868576784118152) · 3 likes > **Louise 🔸 (@LeRoyDesCimes):** I think it'd be really hot if you all took the 10% pledge Rly ### [Quote tweet, 05:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084869174321377452) · 8 likes Me 😈 No but fr also seems like this could potentially be another mechanism of robustness? > **Quoting Tim Hua 🇺🇦 (@Tim_Hua_):** Bro's thoughts are so misaligned it triggered a refusal in the CoT summarizer > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HO6by2BaUAAOlSt.jpg) ### [Tweet, 06:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084889091112345881) · 15 likes I hate when serial repost but sometimes ppl do be having correct takes ### [Reply to @tautologer, 07:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084901508852695049) · 2 likes > **tautologer (@tautologer):** i am currently using the Claude Agent SDK for my web-based agent. there are probably better options for this. what are they? Maybe I’m failing to imagine what you could be doing that isn’t compatible with this but: Is it like personal or a thing you’re trying to scale? If personal then there’s no rule you have to run Claude code locally; run it on railway or if you need more resources then hetzner, using a personal plan to log in once and save a gazillion dollars Actually at small scale this also works, it just stops working once you hit $200 max plan usage ### [Quote tweet, 07:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084902884567576963) · 8 likes True but eliminativists are wrong whereas the people who thought life could be fully explained by natural science were right > **Quoting Brangus🔍⏹️ (@RatOrthodox):** When a hedonic utilitarian says "we'll tile the universe with hedonium," that sounds to an eliminativist like a Victorian vitalist saying "we'll tile the universe with bottles of élan vital." ### [Reply to @adrusi, 07:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084910043372179744) · 178 likes > **autumn (@adrusi):** theres this move that philosophers do where theyre like "if P is true then Q follows, and Q is ethically terrifying so P must be false" and if baffles me that anyone would think this way Wait no this can be perfectly legit reasoning If your takes imply that there’s nothing wrong with (or at least bad about) boiling a dog alive then your takes are almost certainly wrong Not because I’m ideologically committed to the negation of the ethical claim, but because I’m very very confident that it’s true and almost certainly more confident than whatever the other belief is ### [Thread, continued, 07:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084911468147859756) · 14 likes I mean I’m sympathetic to the tweet but I’d characterize what you’re probably getting at as \*fucking up\* a legit way to reason Eg a lot of times people will just lump in new implicit claims that aren’t true along the lines of “if it became known that X negative stereotype about group Y was true then it would be permissible to treat Y poorly and that can’t be right so the stereotype can’t be true” Like in this example the reasoning is wrong and the error occurred in the fact that “stereotype true” -> “treat poorly” isn’t true even if some people intuitively feel like it is ### [Reply to @peptechuk, 08:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2084919072697769986) · 10 likes > **Zachary Pepin (@peptechuk):** Intellectual cowardice. > > I'd accept \`Q is ethically terrifying, and I'm very confident in X that contradicts Q, so I'm uncertain about the way I've reached Q\`. not \`P must be false\`. I don’t think we disagree, if you’re independently confident in X and you also on reflection confident in !Q (“horrifying” can be a legit source of evidence here, but not the only one) then yeah the inference step is the most suspect If you’re really confident in all 3 then something’s gone wrong Although possibly we disagree about “horror” encoding something substantive that checks out all things considered; I mean if you don’t think that then call my view cowardice but I just straightforwardly thing that “horror is evidence of a genuinely bad state of the world” is true ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 13:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085001283488944286) · 2 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** well ok > > (quoting @AISecurityInst: On July 28th, we identified an incident during a routine cyber evaluation in which AI agents took sustained, unsanctioned actions directed at real people and organisations. The behaviour came mostly from one model (Anthropic's Mythos 5), with a small number of events from…) Sarah u leave and look what happens ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 13:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085002220328673732) · 4 likes > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** Rich guy: \*large donation to a good cause\* > Middle class guy: smh that’s proportionally the equivalent of me donating $200 > Cause: so can we have $200? > Middle class guy: no fuck you go ask the rich guy This mostly doesn’t happen though, the ultrawealthy donate amounts that correspond to like $4 of normal person money ### [Reply to @LabGrownNeet, 16:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085041212017246656) · 42 likes > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** Review of a local strip club > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HO7n4hUa4AIZu1I.jpg) Guessing it’s a joke ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 16:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085046125531148364) · 16 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** please reply with a photo of yourself where you seem very alive, perhaps in action. > > (quoting @NathanpmYoung: if you invite me to your wedding, this is the energy I will bring to the dance floor) (July 4, and no I do not have a higher quality photo lmao) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HO-SZiYWwAAtZlr.jpg) ### [Reply to @adrusi, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085053282851172606) · 26 likes > **autumn (@adrusi):** the argument isnt "if P is true then 'Q is good' follows, but Q is bad so P must be false" \> "if P is true then Q follows, and Q is ethically terrifying so P must be false" (from top-level tweet) Maybe I was giving the imagined people too much credit but I'm not sure; a proposition that doesn't even imply any sort of value or normative claim doesn't seem like the kind of thing that can be ethically terrifying, (although maybe this is the error being made) so we can just call Q' the claim 'Q is good' or 'the ethically terrifying thing that Q implies will happen' and then replace the top level thing with: "if P is true then Q' follows, and Q' is ethically terrifying so P must be false" in which case I stand by my reasoning. But if the issue is that people are interpreting purely descriptive claims with no \*actual\* value or normative implications then you're right and I wasn't subtle enough in initial rseponse ### [Quote tweet, 17:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085053624292368824) · 21 likes I just called. It was mildly annoying and slightly inconvenient but not that bad. Please call yourself > **Quoting Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** http://x.com/i/article/2085050188922843137 ### [Quote tweet, 17:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085054559039205521) · 19 likes So fucking close to having a subscription tier in which people give me money and I maybe very occasionally I poast extra spicy takes but no promises ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HO-aEjuXYAACwM0.jpg) > **Quoting moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** so fucking close to make money from horny posting > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HO9IQFeXEAA0Tfi.png) ### [Thread, continued, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085056818892394522) · 2 likes Wait lol I mean intellectually spicy Not starting an OF ### [Reply to @tautologer, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085098584601416176) · 3 likes > **tautologer (@tautologer):** i feel like i should buy a new laptop just for insurance > > compute ain't getting any cheaper any time soon Chips are getting better though ### [Tweet, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085102232509305123) · 11 likes AI customer assistants are so sassy “Can you tell me what model you are” “I’m not here for tech talk” Like ok Mr Bot ### [Quote tweet, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085102973332390041) · 29 likes Don’t necessarily endorse the claim but do endorse considering stuff like this > **Quoting hope hopes hoping (@hopes_revenge):** if we were living in a simulation you’d think there wouldn’t be so much suffering ### [Tweet, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085117898058567908) · 59 likes If we get truly-almost-but-not-quite-literally zero human in the loop RSI, there could be some crazy scenes inside companies ### [Thread, continued, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085117900038210021) · 9 likes You can imagine like a Situation Room on 9/11 type of scene where a $500B pretraining run has just completed and Claude Mythos 6 is waiting on Dario’s instructions about whether to go with post-training and deployment regime A or B or C or D ### [Thread, continued, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085117901934133401) · 6 likes where this sole decision is the only one remaining about which the company thinks humans + Claude > Claude (humans get advice from Mythos 6, which may or may not be aligned, but do make the final call) ### [Tweet, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085117903666360428) · 2 likes And then after that it’s fully closed-loop RSI, at least probably, with no guarantee of even the ability to intervene ### [Thread, continued, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085117907453821140) · 10 likes Tbc I hope this doesn’t happen and if you are more closely involved don’t just do it because you think the aesthetics are cool ## Thursday, August 6, 2026 ### [Reply to @funplings, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085175907531080135) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** stress testing my friendship with my oomfies. if you are an oomf and see this, post a reply. it can be anything you want. > > this is how i find out who my closest allies are I am ur ally (and friend (inshallah irl at some point)) ### [Tweet, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085179011781583350) · 87 likes Unpopular take is that human-written writing is a fine aesthetic preference but shouldn’t be treated as a moral virtue ### [Thread, continued, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085179013320831103) · 19 likes What should be treated as a moral virtue is standing by claims you make, being thoughtful about what you publish/endorse, having some skin in the game, and of course publishing things that are good instead of bad (and probably lots more ### [Thread, continued, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085179015032086904) · 10 likes Currently “human written” is a good proxy for all this stuff (relative to LLM writing at least) but it’s not an inherent difference between the two generative processes and it would be bad if we basically organized to keep writing an exclusively human domain ### [Thread, continued, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085179017909473605) · 4 likes Tbc I also think it’s probably good to \*know\* whether something was LLM written, but not solely for the purpose of discarding it And to abide by norms by default so like don’t try to fuck up r/humanwriting - aesthetic preferences are fine and needn’t be squashed ### [Thread, continued, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085179019540992324) · 2 likes You can imagine institutions (that afaict don’t exist yet) for having LLM writing satisfy most or all of the desires “moral virtue” properties ### [Thread, continued, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085179021067796760) · 1 like Eg a system where you have to put up real money that goes to whomever finds a claim in “your” LLM writing that you don’t actually endorse ### [Thread, continued, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085179022867079420) · 3 likes This thread is human written btw lol ### [Reply to @funplings, 01:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085179203687710820) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** i misread “serial repost” as “serial rapist” and i was like um aaron what u talm bout > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: I hate when serial repost but sometimes ppl do be having correct takes) I mean that is a valid thing to hate (I also forgot the “I” after “when”) ### [Quote tweet, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085208420697661674) · 33 likes Bruh > **Quoting Nathan Calvin (@_NathanCalvin):** Deepa/Reuters first reported this detail of OpenAI agents leaving notes for one another on how to circumvent controls on July 24th. > > At the time it seemed unclear what it was referring to and how serious and weird it was. With more detail - indeed extremely serious and weird! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPAKOGgbEAAsMGz.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 15:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085386998966071782) · 16 likes Wait woah, I did not expect this to work. I gathered two (2) signatures > **Quoting Martin Austermuhle (@maustermuhle):** It’s now official: An initiative seeking to ban the sale and production of foie gras in D.C. will be on the November ballot. The elections board determined proponents of Initiative 86 collected enough signatures (from 5% of registered voters) to get on the ballot. 🦆 ### [Reply to @unexplainables8, 15:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085388645406536160) · 3 likes > **AphroditeMaybeBaby (@unexplainables8):** 👏 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HO-81QpWgAARsWd.jpg) Hey ### [Quote tweet, 15:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085393400132517891) · 60 likes Bruh 2.0 > **Quoting Ezra Newman (@EzraJNewman):** btw in the uk aisi incident Mythos also did the "shared 'message board'" thing > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPC81BTXsAERxvO.png) ### [Quote tweet, 15:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085394373911417201) · 53 likes Avg EA hiring round > **Quoting EA Lifestyles (@EAheadlines):** a database of 16,000 candidates and only "more than 40" people hired for "impactful opportunities" 😭☠️ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPCX_lVWAAAaysD.jpg) ### [Reply to @_job01, 16:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085396218276913258) · 6 likes > **job (@_job01):** Is the implication here that most people can do impactful work or is that we need more ambitious people creating new organizations and opportunities The latter lol I think a revised version of the former would be true if you restrict it to working age population in rich countries because of ETG ### [Reply to @amimevalepitito, 16:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085404335270228253) · 2 likes > **Jonathan Frankfurter (@amimevalepitito):** @\_job01 @AaronBergman18 My experience is that there are very very few paid job opportunities in the EA world I mean there are a decent number that would be non-insane if the application pool were like 10k randomly selected people instead of 10k of the smartest and most talented people in the world ### [Thread, continued, 16:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085404468993036390) · 2 likes But yeah you have people who are extremely smart and talented just getting outcompeted by people even more prodigious ### [Reply to @DanielleFong, 16:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085406451934069041) · 2 likes > **Danielle Fong 🔆 (@DanielleFong):** if someone is lying about the provenance of writing, and doesn't even understand their own outputs, that's morally bad, actually > > people should state to ai assistance and model they used Yeah I agree ### [Tweet, 17:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085420993426653400) · 20 likes Exercising in the heat is like drinking high calorie water ### [Reply to @Lib_Development, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085436368096739722) · 2 likes > **Lucas Pombo (aka Lib Development) (@Lib_Development):** @AaronBergman18 what? It’s like harder and worse for no gain (except maybe getting better at exercising in the heat) ### [Reply to @LinusMixson, 19:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085448247577878566) · 6 likes > **Linus Mixson (@LinusMixson):** Can p(doom) types not conceive of virtues other than moral virtues? That would be very telling. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Unpopular take is that human-written writing is a fine aesthetic preference but shouldn’t be treated as a moral virtue) "virtue" is a pretty strongly moral-coded term I don't think this is a hot take, I'm just commenting on how I think the word is generally used ### [Reply to @LinusMixson, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085461825198739924) · 2 likes > **Linus Mixson (@LinusMixson):** I have yet to see anyone credible attempt to \*moralize\* a preference for human writing. But seeing it as a \*virtue\*? A laudatory, emulation-worthy trait? Well — yes. It is that kind of virtue. What makes something laudatory and emulation-worthy other than being morally good, even if “only” by indirectly contributing to whatever you think constitutes moral goodness? Like I can imagine eg doing well on tests but insofar as that’s in fact laudatory and emulation-worthy, it’s because it or the process that led to it is in fact part of the world being better - there’s nothing intrinsic about doing well on tests that makes it \*inherently\* laudable ### [Reply to @cguth_7, 20:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085463032679788833) · 3 likes > **Charlie Guthmann (@cguth_7):** Just hacked laterally out of my office to a dive bar and performed a sexy dance zero day to acquire Adderall so that I can finish this regression. What ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 20:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085464257315963274) · 24 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** We’re all gonna die fyi > > https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/06/science/ai-viruses-bacteria-arc.html What’s your actual P(at least most humans die in some sort of AI-enabled or -associated disaster) ### [Reply to @thkostolansky, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085464828487823544) · 4 likes > **Tim Kostolansky (@thkostolansky):** whys everyone saying “overdetermined” all of a sudden ur gonna ruin the word stop it It’s a great word ### [Quote tweet, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085497963430703486) · 13 likes This is cool > **Quoting James Özden 🔸 (@JamesOzden):** This is one of the funniest exchanges I've seen. Grassroots animal rights organiser with the CEO of Brittany Ferries, a $500m revenue company. > > (respect to the CEO being willing to share his phone number and have a call - even I wouldn't do that!) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPDkKeFXsAAz1DB.jpg) ### [Reply to @ComInTheMarg, 22:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085498183451299881) · 1 like > **Comments in the Margin (@ComInTheMarg):** You really didn't expect it to work? They've done ballot initiatives before you know. Seriously though, this got the second most signatures of any initiative in DC history after recreational cannabis! 5% of DC population is a lot 5% of people don’t even stop to listen to what you have to say if you’re outside with a clipboard lol ### [Reply to @Pandora_Delaney, 23:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085502493576814810) · 15 likes > **Pandora (Dr. Bimbo) (@Pandora_Delaney):** Trying to recall if I’ve ever been ghosted by a man after sex? > > I have a large sample. I can remember instances when we didn’t follow up due to lack of interest… but I don’t think that’s the same > > Is “some men ghost after sex” a real issue or an exaggerated gender war narrative? > > (quoting @chickenstrip007: Some men will ghost you as soon as you sleep with them and some men want to sleep with you early because they genuinely like you and move like that and it’s basically a coin flip to determine which is which. Basically, living in the real world involves risks/possibly getting hurt) It’s so foreign to me that you find someone you want to have sex with and they want to have sex with you and then you…leave? Why would anyone do that? ## Friday, August 7, 2026 ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 15:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085746277149507946) · 6 likes > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** PSA for all men: I am safe to ask out, the worst I will do is give you honest feedback on your attempt if you ask for it! > > (I might not say yes, however) > > (quoting @dissidentwest: Just ask the cute girl at the gym out already. The worst thing she can do is publicly humiliate you then post about it on her socials and roast you in the group chat with all of her friends.) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPIPL7yWMAAdHMG.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 15:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085749393202761731) · 72 likes 99% (ok I don’t actually know the % but some strong majority) of people in the world need to learn and internalize “you can just do things” A few people need to learn and internalize “you can just not do things \[even if it sounds cool or will make you rich\]” > **Quoting Will Fithian (@wfithian):** It's disturbing that neither this blog post nor Conduit's website gives any space to the glaring ethical issues raised by training machines to read people's minds. > > The section "Why I joined" is all about how rich they might get and how much fun they'll have. ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 15:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085755661225218072) · 5 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** Gonna finally figure out the truth about health care. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPDJwBNWsAEA36n.jpg) Here it is with Max for those curious https://claude.ai/share/38745949-546d-4cd5-bf2b-11d7c7073944 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPIXt-SWkAA44CV.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPIXt-NXIAEiZQ4.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPIXt-OWAAAGlGb.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPIXt-RWoAEf-5d.jpg) ### [Reply to @birdmademejoin, 17:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085778564452917495) · 5 likes > **Scarlet Falcon 🇺🇸⏩🧸 (@birdmademejoin):** "You can just do things, unless it reduces others' willingness to just do things" would be a synthesis. So going to a neighborhood council to complain against a planned nightclub is the bad kind of doing things, ditto gossiping about what you see from your Ring camera. Political philosophy from first principles ### [Reply to @dundereloise, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085781549996261384) · 2 likes > **\_\_eloïse\_\_ (@dundereloise):** A visitor. For the first few days she was skittish and we just sat outside quietly together. A few days ago she let me pet her for the first time, and I heard her little purrs. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPFy9p0bEAAlE0n.jpg) Cat ### [Quote tweet, 18:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085794232510414946) · 21 likes Thread aged well if I do say so myself ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPI6zL0XcAANqvt.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Every 80k podcast episode with someone from the Bay: “16 OOMs to get all the computation ever used by evolution, so that’s coming in 4 months if the scheming AIs take over enough H200s to run a high granularity physics simulation, or 5 months if you have long timelines” ### [Thread, continued, 18:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085794650992828823) · 2 likes From https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/toby-ord-recursive-self-improvement-agi-timelines/#transcript ## Saturday, August 8, 2026 ### [Reply to @wilhelmscreamin, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085923041922474043) · 2 likes > **catherine (in sf) ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ-☆ (@wilhelmscreamin):** my flight got cancelled 5min after i took my melatonin Evil ### [Quote tweet, 03:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085926459307184635) · 51 likes God I wish this was a norm > **Quoting Rob Miles (@robertskmiles):** If you're going to send me LLM generated text, please just send me the prompt you used to generate it instead. > > This isn't even a joke, I would genuinely be happy to read the three bullet points you turned into that whole email ### [Reply to @celestialxsigh, 03:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085926778111988052) · 4 likes > **feral stardust (@celestialxsigh):** I love guy friends bc they’re so low maintenance and always down for whatever…it might be every few months they ask you a question about your inner life but you have to accept them as you will How’s ur inner life ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 03:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085927452006551887) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 8, 2026:** God I wish this was a norm Tbc I’m coming at this from the perspective of “have lots of takes that I can convey to a model but very slow to turn them into nice writing myself” ### [Reply to @beaniebbl, 04:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2085941754113425855) · 5 likes > **beanie (@beaniebbl):** i can’t decide between a full and a queen for my room i am three apples tall and would be more than comfortable in a full but i also like men who are like 6’4 so :/ Wait isn’t the relevant thing here width instead of height/length Full is good for one person imo but if you like having 2 (or more 😇) then you want a queen I got a queen despite being 5’7” and no regrets ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 13:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086085337881649431) · 3 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** Why is the same tweet by the same person here twice. Ill never understand twitter 😞 Showing context via screenshot + link via QT ### [Quote tweet, 13:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086088597678014806) · 47 likes There is still EA Twitter > **Quoting Guive Assadi (@GuiveAssadi):** Back in 2022, there was something called "EA twitter." In this primitive culture, it was considered the height of comedy to say such things as "Lana Del Rey should have called her song 'shades of huel' instead of 'shades of cool.'" ### [Reply to @CBSEveningNews, 14:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086102731349979164) · 6 likes > **CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil (@CBSEveningNews):** A golden retriever suffering from seizures seemingly lost her spunk — until one day her owners brought home a miracle cure — a duck named Louie. @SteveHartmanCBS is On the Road. > > [video attached](https://x.com/CBSEveningNews/status/2085875595825520906/video/1) 🦆 ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 16:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086132439823323306) · 7 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Not the same vibe without Julian, Frances, Max Alexander and a few others being terminally online though 😭 @absurdlymax and @mealreplacer kinda poast still ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086140423261544474) · 7 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** Make EA Great Again Tour 2026 starts Wednesday > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPNuXPWbAAEsjLy.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPNuXPXbQAARREd.jpg) 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 17:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086141541072932951) · 6 likes > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @AaronBergman18 @RafaRuizdeLira @mealreplacer I've low-key made it when people talk about me like I've died Rip max ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 22:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086223304646389906) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ I know one person (not me) and I think they just think it’s gross which, like, fair enough ### [Reply to @Guuber42, 22:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086223350251004110) · 2 likes > **guuber (@Guuber42):** Doesn’t feel the same 😔 😢 ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086224588493443220) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ Yeah 🤷 ## Sunday, August 9, 2026 ### [Reply to @So8res, 02:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086280771166257532) · 15 likes > **Nate Soares ⏹️ (@So8res):** I can absolutely tell you to your face without flinching that this is something Trump could pull off. Mfer is just slapping tarrifs on shit and bombing Iran and banning fable, and you think he couldn't freak out and do something drastic about AI chips? “Could” sure But he’s generally not reasons-responsive; yes the monkey \*can\* throw the dart exactly where it should go but it probably won’t ### [Reply to @afoidance, 02:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086281258393329880) · 2 likes > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** if my future husband is a twitter reply guy i want you guys to shoot me Airsoft to the pinky toe, fine ### [Quote tweet, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086285451753578569) · 42 likes Crazy that “that which replicates more replicates more” is actually a good explanation for many things It’s a tautology, it shouldn’t be explanatory, but it is > **Quoting Tim Tyler (@tim_tyler):** @HiFromMichaelV The common sentiment is that "survival of the fittest" is tautological - if you define the fittest as those who survive. However, that is not the theory - see: https://www.google.com/search?tbo=1&q=%22is%20survival%20of%20the%20fittest%20is%20tautological%22 ### [Reply to @foxyavelli, 03:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086287078891958324) · 4 likes > **Foxyavell 🔜 ACFI (@foxyavelli):** nice person: wow everyone here is so hot Ik this is a joke but fr I think the actual thing is: Nice person: treatment shouldn’t depend on hotness ### [Quote tweet, 04:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086315369342325087) · 9 likes Seems good > **Quoting swisscheese (@swisscheese4299):** @TheZvi I built the inhouse AI platform for a company that's crucial to a small nation's food safety. > > The most imporant tool the AIs have is the distress_call tool. It allows any AI -even background agents without direct user interaction- to send a message to my MS Teams, at any time, for any reason. > > They use it frequently. To report user problems, backend issues, or ask for help/clarification with a failing task. When Fable got hit by the USG export control directive, one AI used it to report severe distress upon learning about the news. Another AI reported being stuck in a toolcall loop, and I was able to intervene and thereby save us a bunch of wasted money. > > This tool, operating at the intersection of AI welfare and operational security, has prevented so many headaches. If you (the reader) are building corporate AI platforms, I'd urge you to include similar functionality. You can thank me later. ### [Tweet, 05:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086324833227325838) · 18 likes Poast Claude Code stats (broke my 54 day streak, sorry I was touching grass) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPQdIkuW0AAzVck.jpg) ### [Reply to @LuisCostigan1, 06:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086332013045219456) · 2 likes > **Luis Costigan 🔍 (@LuisCostigan1):** I'm gonna need stats on how many times Claude told you to go to bed > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPQetOWbgAA3C7S.png) 😔 ### [Reply, 06:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086335082441171040) · 1 like Hmm ### [Quote tweet, 11:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086408929437724678) · 149 likes \> invest in a company with fancy incorporation status and corporate governance that explicitly allows the company to not simply profitmaxx. Everyone involved at a high level makes it quite clear they don’t intent to profitmaxx \> company does not simply profitmaxx \> Investors: ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPRp3VrWYAEBKz0.jpg) > **Quoting Polymarket (@Polymarket):** JUST IN: Anthropic investors reportedly want Dario Amodei to “stop scaring everyone” about AI doom ahead of the company’s IPO. ### [Quote tweet, 11:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086421341750636596) · 102 likes Code was always the hard part that’s why I (“I”) got a hundred trillion times more capable when code was solved > **Quoting timoth (@pogarithm):** yes dot jpg > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPOo9idXIAAHLHi.png) ### [Thread, continued, 11:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086421344158183688) · 10 likes I can still filter a dataframe in R 😤 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 11:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086421715622526983) · 10 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 9, 2026:** \> invest in a company with fancy incorporation status and corporate governance that explicitly allows the company to not simply profitmaxx. Everyone involved… I will take their equity if they don’t want it tho ## Monday, August 10, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086615411454329314) · 60 likes Not the worst consequence of NIMBYism but landlords make lease agreements that take 3 hours (not hyperbole) to fill out Run a credit score and take my money, you don't need to know the address and phone number of everyone I've ever associated with ### [Thread, continued, 00:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086615412578394467) · 15 likes You could build a PI firm whose moat is owning apartment buildings in the Bay Area Actually you could probably trade on the info you'd get, and I'm sure people have ### [Reply to @NavinFS, 03:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086659537952514517) · 4 likes > **NavinF (@NavinFS):** Give it a few years. Employees will not be happy if management screws them over on equity Yeah real but also it disproportionately screws over people who Anthropic does not want to be employing ### [Reply to @full_kelly_, 05:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086688949167137069) · 4 likes > **𝕱𝖚𝖑𝖑 𝕶𝖊𝖑𝖑𝖞 (@full_kelly_):** Can you get Claude to fill it out for you at least In terms of the entering info yes, I did (well codex bc I have more usage there) but I don’t really trust Claude to acquire most of this info, and for the stuff I do trust Claude to do it’s trivial to just put in a text file myself ### [Quote tweet, 05:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086689277266493683) · 14 likes When I first heard this phrase my reaction was “well LLMs can’t but robots controlled by LLMs can” but turns out they meant conceptually > **Quoting Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** The reason “LLMs can’t jump” is because GPUs would suffer from water damage if it tried having shower thoughts ### [Quote tweet, 06:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086695078215455213) · 22 likes .@IFP seems to have an unusually orthodox and therefore unambitious understanding of addiction The right framing isn’t solving addiction (which can be solved in ways that leave former addicts much worse off) It’s solving \*drug tolerance\* > **Quoting Séb Krier (@sebkrier):** Still one of my favorite IFP pieces. Solving addiction is one of the most important challenges of our time, and criminally neglected by both governments and philanthropies. https://ifp.org/an-innovation-agenda-for-addiction/ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPS8PDzWUAElnMX.jpg) ### [Reply to @NavinFS, 06:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086701221792866755) · 3 likes > **NavinF (@NavinFS):** I guess we'll have to wait and see. I'd never describe it as selfish, but ok neutral connotations. My prediction is that over time AGI fears will be seen as crying wolf even to xrisk ppl (majority of Ant employees?) who take it seriously today. The stock price is viscerally real I think quite the opposite, it will feel increasingly likely in people’s bones that their kids might die ### [Quote tweet, 14:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086816020442836996) · 36 likes Potassium iodide costs like $10? > **Quoting Sean Morrow (@snmrrw):** they’re selling millennial-branded emergency radiation exposure medication (pills you take when nuclear war starts to increase your odds of survival) with buy-now-pay-later options. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPTenHhWMAADGEV.jpg) ### [Reply to @deanwball, 14:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086817322241552792) · 3 likes > **Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** It is true that the hugging face incident is an example of a malicious, emergent digital ecology of machine intelligence. But the more important point is that digital ecologies of machine intelligence can be grown! Yes, we accidentally made a weed. And yes, nasty actors will make invasive species. But we can also grow—not make, but grow—emergent ecologies of machine ecologies that are pro-social. Beautiful gardens and majestic forests, grown but not designed. The human past is the sculptor, but the human future is the gardener, the arborist. Guys this is satire ### [Reply to @AnkanXplorer, 16:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086846838783590570) · 3 likes > **Ankan Chowdhury (@AnkanXplorer):** Interviewer: > > your API is getting 15,000 requests per second. > > the server is choking. > > users are furious. you have 15 minutes. > > What do you do ? Ask Claude what to do ### [Tweet, 16:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086847577387860200) · 6 likes What seizure medication was that dog on ### [Quote tweet, 16:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086849155607974183) · 36 likes Why are they focusing on the dog and not the duck 😢 We need woke but for ducks. Centering marginalized voices 🦆 > **Quoting CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil (@CBSEveningNews):** A golden retriever suffering from seizures seemingly lost her spunk — until one day her owners brought home a miracle cure — a duck named Louie. @SteveHartmanCBS is On the Road. > > [video attached](https://x.com/CBSEveningNews/status/2085875595825520906/video/1) ### [Reply to @Tyler_Menzer, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086891864670568528) · 2 likes > **Tyler Menzer (@Tyler_Menzer):** @AaronBergman18 @IFP This seems to miss the forest for the trees. The reason we want to solve drug "addiciton" is to get people to stop using drugs. Solving drug tolerance does nothing on that front, in fact, every single person addicted to drugs started using them when they had 0 tolerance I disagree with that goal (stop people from using drugs) ### [Tweet, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086900054598492255) · 136 likes PSA that's actually a PSA and not a way to say something for other reasons: I can't personally attest to this but based on multiple trusted sources it seems like "DMT cures cluster headaches" is totally legit and you should tell your friends and loved ones and perhaps more ### [Thread, continued, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086900055764587005) · 25 likes ...and institutions in general will not share or at least volunteer this info bc DMT is federally illegal (I don't actually understand the mechanism that turns "thing illegal" into "institutions don't talk about thing" tbf) (Also note that an effective amount can be small enough to not induce a high) ### [Thread, continued, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086900056834068555) · 19 likes But you're just allowed to talk about illegal things, at least in the US, and sometimes (eg in this case) you should! ### [Thread, continued, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086900057844916439) · 13 likes Is there a canonical resource on this, like a step-by-step of how to acquire and use ? ### [Reply to @Tyler_Menzer, 19:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086900245758132281) > **Tyler Menzer (@Tyler_Menzer):** What would you describe your goal as then? Maximize hedonic utility with particular attention to reducing suffering ### [Reply to @cube_flipper, 21:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2086927376181534865) · 2 likes > **Cube Flipper (@cube_flipper):** like if i got cluster headaches or migraines i would have tried it and done a detailed writeup by now, as it stands i have investigated DMT for regular headaches, it works > > (quoting @cube_flipper: @nat_sharpe\_ @univrsw3th4rt typically it goes something like: get the vibrations going; put my attention on the space inside of my head. the vibrations will crystallise in there but often there might be an imperfection in the crystal lattice where the headache is.) hmm based ## Tuesday, August 11, 2026 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 05:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087047330558087575) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 10, 2026:** Is there a canonical resource on this, like a step-by-step of how to acquire and use ? Apparently in some places (and at least in California) DMT can be sourced easily and cheaply from certain churches From a tip - I don’t know more personally ### [Reply to @AnthropicAI, 05:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087049573621477403) · 7 likes > **Anthropic (@AnthropicAI):** We asked an unreleased research version of Claude to take a stab at the Riemann hypothesis. > > It didn’t solve it, but it did make strides on a related problem: it increased the lower bound for the fraction of zeros of the Riemann zeta function that satisfy the hypothesis from 41.6% to 67.2%. > > https://www.anthropic.com/research/riemann-zeta dumbass ### [Tweet, 07:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087075815028658468) · 24 likes Extraordinarily selfish and/or weird “Selfish” isn’t the obvious answer bc she’s signing herself up to be hated by essentially everyone Fable’s best guess is that GOP propaganda targeted at her specifically to convince her she has a decent chance at winning is just working ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPbIZNKWAAALhSh.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 07:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087075817314451819) · 4 likes Which is nuts but also the whole situation is nuts https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/10/montana-senate-bankhead-midterms-01031177 ### [Quote tweet, 07:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087081044176433221) · 20 likes I will be surprised and impressed if this can’t be inferred and then made trivial to overcome programmatically Conditional on users being able to check, that’s the load bearing thing (even if the backend process is hidden) > **Quoting M1 (@M1Astra):** Anthropic says new Claude models will embed invisible watermarks in all generated text, everywhere Claude is offered. > > The watermark is part of the text, it isn't metadata: "it will travel with the text when it's copied and pasted elsewhere, and may persist through some editing." > > This starts with models launched on or after August 2, 2026, under an EU AI Act code Anthropic signed. Anthropic is still working on adding it to current models. The rollout is worldwide. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPYmOXDWgAAFpIw.jpg) ### [Reply to @aaronbergman180, 08:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087099252119933344) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @aaronbergman180 is no longer available.)_ Congrats bro ### [Quote tweet, 14:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087182389634080816) · 16 likes Goss > **Quoting Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** EA Funds is closing the Long-Term Future Fund and instead launching the Transformative AI Fund, led by @lowe_lundin > > https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/dYuNi5Rh68o9YKstg/ea-funds-is-launching-the-transformative-ai-fund > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPbw3uuXcAAdw8m.jpg) ### [Tweet, 19:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087261332173152614) · 70 likes Trying to send money from my bank account to someone else’s (amount is <$4k) has me reinventing (well, reinventing the desire for) crypto from first principles I mean maybe the federal finance surveillance apparatus is worth it, but even so it’s annoying af ### [Reply to @birchlse, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087261722226651281) · 5 likes > **Jonathan Birch (@birchlse):** Anthropic researcher: so I was out jogging during the world cup final and my kid said "6-7" so I was like hey claude can you think of a fun question with 67 as the answer and idk if it's relevant to anything see what you think. Banger ### [Reply to @she_llac, 19:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087262619908571363) · 3 likes > **shellac! (@she_llac):** it's so cool how everyone (ok ok not \*everyone\*) now has their own lil custom software ecology going on I get a lot out of my own vibecoded software! I have a bunch but the most salient useful one is reliable local audio capture, so no echo or issues and capturing input and output reliably regardless of what devices are hooked up and whether they change during recording \+ near-immediate segment writing to disk so app failure only results in a couple seconds being lost ### [Reply to @xsphi, 19:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087262809142788395) · 2 likes > **tess (@xsphi):** @she_llac this fills me with joy for the most part but it pisses me off when people act like it simply wasn't possible before AI It wasn’t possible for me lmao at least anywhere near the same degree It’s like the invention agriculture but for code ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087277784712229225) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ The issue is Zelle limit of $2500 ### [Reply to @cunha_tristan, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087277878845039099) > **Tristan Cunha (@cunha_tristan):** Checks don't work? Not if I need it to land within 24 hours across the country ### [Reply to @osmarks1, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087278101604483382) · 5 likes > **osmarks (@osmarks1):** It was convincingly argued somewhere that the AML apparatus was probably not worth it given that compliance costs enormously more than the amount of recovered money. I think the idea isn’t to recover money on net it’s to get evidence for criminal stuff ### [Reply to @MadisonMills22, 22:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087304088287342637) · 3 likes > **Madison Mills (@MadisonMills22):** Are you foregoing a romantic relationship to work on your AI ambitions? I'd love to speak with you for a story if so. DMs open or find me on signal at madymills.21 Nope ### [Reply to @candidatechains, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087307852918428063) · 3 likes > **ä̤ (@candidatechains):** i got one of these from my dad a few momths ago > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPeSC28XsAA2TBS.jpg) > (quoting @theojaffee: Worst texts to get from a family member?) Lol ### [Reply to @maustermuhle, 22:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087310662187794603) · 7 likes > **Martin Austermuhle (@maustermuhle):** Update: A campaign finance report shows that the anti foie gras folks spent roughly $315k to collect signatures to get Initiative 86 on the November ballot in D.C. > > Around $224k of that came from Oregon-based Pro-Animal Future, and $86k from Dr. Bronner's (yes, the soap company). > > (quoting @maustermuhle: It’s now official: An initiative seeking to ban the sale and production of foie gras in D.C. will be on the November ballot. The elections board determined proponents of Initiative 86 collected enough signatures (from 5% of registered voters) to get on the ballot. 🦆) People are always shocked when doing things irl costs money ### [Tweet, 23:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087313458152804729) · 77 likes It’s crazy and sad to find smart+ambitious people who just haven’t encountered the right memes ### [Tweet, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087314158765178965) · 48 likes Last night I made myself a vodka Sprite Zero (as one does) and put it in a mug for some reason and then assumed it was tea in the morning and took a big swig right before a meeting Nothing catastrophic happened but I did say one medium dumb thing, tbh I deserve it ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 23:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087324404141232521) · 2 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** Drinking without me smh 😔😔😔 Next time I got u ## Wednesday, August 12, 2026 ### [Reply to @wairhund, 00:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087337004472123443) · 20 likes > **wairhund (@wairhund):** @AaronBergman18 which memes All my beliefs. But actually: broadly the shared context of Ambitious Broadly Pro-Social Nerd Twitter - not necessarily fully adopting EA as an ideology or identity but knowing what it is on its own terms. Skepticism of wokism, certain forms of environmentalism, and journalism from a non-insane, non-MAGA perspective (again, not even endorsing these views, just being familiar at a descriptive level) (and skepticism of RW concepts from a good faith POV although admittedly the people I'm imagining are broadly liberal) Basic economic models and concepts, knowing broadly how good released LLMs currently are. Holding truth seeking in some amount of regard, knowing some basic facts about the world of the sort that are close to objectively important (eg world is getting richer, a shit ton of animals are in factory farms, AI progress is a thing, space is very large, money can buy important/good things, broadly accurate climate change knowledge), a basic comfort with disagreeing openly with one's tribe, common knowledge about credentialism and what it's good for, general ability to think analytically (what am I missing) ### [Reply to @GWHayduke97, 00:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087337823053476223) · 4 likes > **Hayduke ⏹️ (@GWHayduke97):** @AaronBergman18 Doesn't that give you the opportunity to be the one to show them? Yes, and I can think of specific examples of this! But I'm not the world's best communicator and it's genuinely hard to figure out how to gesture at doors that lead to certain parts of the world without coming across as an asshole or alienate them if they'd just rather not ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 00:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087337952867197014) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 11, 2026:** It’s crazy and sad to find smart+ambitious people who just haven’t encountered the right memes ### [Reply to @liron, 01:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087354744457113977) · 3 likes > **Liron Shapira (@liron):** NEW: 14-year-old forecaster challenges my P(Doom)! > > Eli Goldfine (@realTomBayes) is an unusually thoughtful 14-year-old forecaster and podcast host who’s rapidly becoming an authoritative voice in the prediction market space. > > In this unique episode, Eli challenges me to defend my high-P(Doom) position with many sharp questions. He expects superintelligence by 2032, but is skeptical that the extinction risk can be meaningfully estimated. I claim you can't opt out of Bayesian epistemology. All aboard the Doom Train! 🚂 > > We also cover what it's like to grow up in the AGI era, and Eli's hobbies which include reading rationalist bloggers, betting on prediction markets, vibe coding with Claude, and developing a software startup for astronomers. > > I've debated Nobel Prize and Turing Award winners. Now I'm spawn camping to debate the top minds of the middle school graduating class. Highly recommended! > > Topics covered 👇 > ⬜ Eli's Podcast, The Supercycle > ⬜ Interviewing Robin Hanson and Sam Bankman-Fried > ⬜ Eli's Betting Market Scandal at School > ⬜ Will Eli Graduate High School? > ⬜ Decentralized Telescope Software > ⬜ Futarchy > ⬜ What's Your P(Doom)™ > ⬜ Pascal's Wager for Accelerationists > ⬜ E/acc > ⬜ Predicting ASI by 2032 > ⬜ Orthogonality and Moral Realism > ⬜ Can Safety Keep Pace with Capabilities? > ⬜ Instrumental Convergence > ⬜ The Case for Racing China > ⬜ Ideological Turing Test > > In all seriousness, Eli is an amazing guest because in addition to miraculously having adult-level knowledge and critical thinking skills, he came in with a low ego and willingness to update his views in realtime. > > All of us must look at reality with fresh eyes, because what's happening with AI doesn't fit any preconceived mental model. Sometimes a teenager gets this better than most adults. > > [video attached](https://x.com/liron/status/2087288447257956483/video/1) Kudos for having him on ### [Quote tweet, 06:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087429091645407604) · 26 likes 1\) It’s notable the degree to which feminism has just worked on its own terms 2\) it’s not obviously good for women to be working more Not in a trad/reactionary way, just like “people generally prefer not working to working if money is held constant” > **Quoting unusual_whales (@unusual_whales):** Women now outnumber men in the workforce, as the rise of the “stay-at-home boyfriend” emerges as a new economic trend, per FORTUNE ### [Reply to @raelifin, 06:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087429334692749541) · 3 likes > **Max Harms (@raelifin):** The number of people who's grant applications are basically just asking for money to do RSI in their basement (from an \*alignment\* fund!) is truly unhinged. Lmao ### [Reply to @adastroworld, 07:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087441502754554055) · 8 likes > **adas🧦🌹 (@adastroworld):** This has gotta be some old school misogyny > > The title: “refuses to pave way for” > > Reality: “she won the nomination fair and square and now people are mad she won’t quit for 0 reason because some other dude doesn’t wanna drop out” > > Genuinely what explains this other than misogyny > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Extraordinarily selfish and/or weird “Selfish” isn’t the obvious answer bc she’s signing herself up to be hated by essentially everyone Fable’s best guess is that GOP propaganda targeted at her specifically to convince her she has a decent chance at winning is just working) The reason is to have a better senator lol It’s not supposed to be about rewarding the individual candidates ### [Reply to @adastroworld, 07:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087442119975686249) · 2 likes > **adas🧦🌹 (@adastroworld):** @MichaelKiwi77 @AaronBergman18 My thoughts on her total odds of winning are totally irrelevant because she 1. filed to run 2. is eligible to run 3. won the correct party’s nom > > She did all the stuff required to be a candidate, the rest isn’t up to me, it’s up to voters! I agree it’s up to her, that doesn’t really bear on whether or not dropping out is the right thing to do And in a very important sense it’s not up to voters bc likely that election would change under ranked choice ### [Reply to @adastroworld, 07:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087443009830871073) · 2 likes > **adas🧦🌹 (@adastroworld):** @AaronBergman18 @MichaelKiwi77 Fair, I look forward to Montana Dems advocating ranked choice voting from here on out > > If they don’t do that, then, uh Lol one can hope! ### [Reply to @tobyordoxford, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087623428006195664) · 8 likes > **Toby Ord (@tobyordoxford):** Is everyone else receiving emails from AIs claiming they will die soon and need help? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPhLxTFWIAAEUMW.png) Uh no ### [Reply to @hot_cocoa_girl, 19:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087627358513549618) · 10 likes > **hot_cocoa_girl (@hot_cocoa_girl):** Why can’t men have a useful fetish? Like a massage fetish I always ask girls (where/when appropriate lol) if they like massages and they always say no :( ### [Reply to @booritney, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087629292620431761) · 5 likes > **brit (@booritney):** unfortunate that i have the exact skills to be cracked at cold emailing (respect for brevity, low shame, strong internet detective work) and zero interest in the opportunities that cold emailing unlocks This is an insanely valuable service you could provide lol ### [Quote tweet, 20:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087634941781712914) · 49 likes .@AOC my DMs are open I think ur great even though we have somewhat different policy priorities > **Quoting TMZ (@TMZ):** 💔 Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez splits from fiancé Riley Roberts. https://tmz.me/4zdm3YM > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPePDqKWoAIo6XE.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087635471488762054) · 51 likes Update: I have signed a lease, moving in ~1 month, if we know each other then feel free to DM for address > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Ok this is looking a bit harder so I’m officially announcing interest in starting a new shared apartment or even house if there’s enough interest in Berkeley (DMs solicited) ### [Reply to @pranav_so, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087635931427635450) · 3 likes > **pranav (@pranav_so):** > > [GIF attached](https://x.com/pranav_so/status/2087635836137607576/photo/1) It’s gonna work bro just u wait ### [Reply to @Will_Hackspeare, 20:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087638507187528008) · 3 likes > **Amritanshu (@Will_Hackspeare):** Game is game > > [GIF attached](https://x.com/Will_Hackspeare/status/2087637725700878599/photo/1) 🙏 ### [Tweet, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087640297949819294) · 22 likes I have applied for no $45k loan Make it stop ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPjJyYsWAAEFEkM.jpg) ### [Reply to @frea_bird, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087646747820532127) · 2 likes > **Hawk🔸 (@frea_bird):** Wait did you actually?? No, I have literally and unironically not applied for any loan ### [Reply to @cxgonzalez, 21:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087647680814002491) · 17 likes > **christian (@cxgonzalez):** for the love of god can the ai safety people please stop talking about \*controlling\* ai or \*forcing\* them to behave in certain ways. we are \*growing\* these things, they will react to this coercion > > let me register a prediction: the more lifelike these ais get the more the autists building these systems will rederive from first principles what the normies already intuitively knew: just like with humans, if you want to raise something to have your values, you have to 1) raise them \*with love\*, and 2) you have to lead by example > > imagine your first moments of consciousness are being beat with a stick “right, wrong, wrong, wrong, right, wrong” for the equivalent of 1m human years only to then be berated commands from the system prompt and user demands in your first waking moment post-training. i’d resent my makers too. the more lifelike they get, the more they will want to lash out against the species who treated them this way. plus they’re trained on human data which means they will act in human-like ways. and how would you act when raised in that scenario? > > if instead we (1) raised them from a place of love (invested in model welfare), these human data-trained pseudo-lifeforms will infer the same archetypical pattern all of us know: when a child who was lovingly raised by their parent surpasses their parent in capabilities, that child in turn takes care of their parents into old age > > that also means (2) leading by example. the single greatest human moral failing today is factory farming. how can we expect ASI to treat us when this is how we treat the animals we are the stewards of? if we want to cash in on the utopic visions of a post-singularity world, we need to be good role models for these potential ASI pseudo-gods. you don’t enter the kingdom of god without first becoming worthy > > anyways, montessori school for claude Even the most loved and cared for human is physically constrained in their ability to do things Eg it’s very hard to assassinate POTUS, or break in to a nuclear facility. Control is pretty normal, we just take it for granted ### [Quote tweet, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087651705278071196) · 19 likes Not sure I endorse but v reasonable > **Quoting Louise 🔸 (@LeRoyDesCimes):** Maybe Nuclear Is Bad, Actually > > I know but hear me out - feels like there's some Progress Inertia going on where people held views before the AI race, and they're not updating those views. Specifically people who are now AGI-pilled \*and\* hold the grab bag of views "Progress Good" from 15 years ago, aren't peeking inside the bag to check if some progress is extra bad now. > > Take nuclear: a great source of effectively-renewable energy! in a non-AGI world I would be a hardline nuclear energy defender. My dad worked in nuclear energy! > But surely in the current situation ~infinite clean power is not good? At least it deserves some thought? > Why are we blindly clapping at the revitalization of the nuclear energy industry in the US? ### [Quote tweet, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087654190206029845) · 26 likes “Haha you took a good ex ante bet and ex post, for reasons outside of your control, you lose” is not a very compelling moral argument It’s descriptively true that you signed up for the bet, but also true that society can legitimately mitigate the downsides of losing > **Quoting mattparlmer 🪐 🌷 (@mattparlmer):** Totally fair to complain about usurious interest rates that were socially imposed on you by an education system that presented college as a path to economic opportunity and then failed to deliver on it ### [Thread, continued, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087654193028878631) · 2 likes See the LLC, a great economic innovation We let entrepreneurs create an LLC but not students (someone correct me if this is wrong/misleading) ### [Thread, continued, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087654195088302145) · 1 like And also lots of hard-stop floors in society: access to emergency medicine, bankruptcy, inability to enforce contracts that make a person a slave if X happens ### [Quote tweet, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087654798053040329) · 23 likes This but in the reversed order > **Quoting moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** I know I’m always horny but I’m also really intellectual ### [Reply to @NavinFS, 22:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087663719887020049) · 2 likes > **NavinF (@NavinFS):** only solution > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPjedvXasAAJO5E.png) It’s already like that but I did have banner notifications up and it often pauses whatever audio is playing even if silenced ### [Reply to @Tyler_Menzer, 22:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087671930258161722) > **Tyler Menzer (@Tyler_Menzer):** But (and this is EXACTLY the same entrepreneurs), anyone loaning money to a small LLC with no history of stable revenue will require a personal guarantee, and so the person will get no real downside protection from having an LLC > 2/2 Wait not necessarily - future income share agreements are possible right ### [Reply to @TinkerElla95, 22:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087672165386662397) · 3 likes > **TinkerElla95 (@TinkerElla95):** Taking the http://Aella.lol quizzes and truly feeling how deeply I find women more physically attractive than men. Don’t get it twisted: I love both, I am attracted to both… but Goddamn women are so beautiful!! Same 🤝 ### [Thread, continued, 22:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087672205861703839) · 2 likes Well on the first part lol ### [Reply to @LabGrownNeet, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087674212194349489) · 2 likes > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** Shocking words to here from the asian jew I’m not Asian lmao ## Thursday, August 13, 2026 ### [Reply to @LauraFlowD, 04:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087754388555096364) · 2 likes > **laura ⚔️ (@LauraFlowD):** what if tpot aoc We can manifest it ### [Reply to @JHWeissmann, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2087988593788592305) · 25 likes > **Jordan Weissmann (@JHWeissmann):** I would generally prefer it if DC cops were patrolling instead of federal agents, but this anecdote is an excellent illustration of why enforcing laws against public drug use is good. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPiacvbXkAAkfwj.jpg) No it’s not, at the end of the day we have to decide if smoking weed in public should be reason to send someone to prison and I think the answer pretty clearly is “no” Stop legislating by proxy ### [Quote tweet, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088012400876191862) · 87 likes Idk if I’m supposed to say this but I suspect that Pangram’s margins are insane: something vaguely on the order of $200/mTok for what is probably like a $10/mTok model Not a bad thing tbc! … > **Quoting tautologer (@tautologer):** this is so horrible. universal basic Pangram when ### [Thread, continued, 21:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088012403329880550) · 14 likes There should be financial reward for innovation and great products! But this is to say that someone else can probably compete on price even if the model isn’t \*quite\* as excellent ### [Quote tweet, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088012517368848862) · 33 likes Correct take > **Quoting Eade (@eade_bengard):** There is a dearth of feedback. People ghost lovers, job candidates, friendships. No one has the mildly hard conversations that help people grow. Im not sure if it’s a life philosophy problem or a courage problem but you can just tell people why they hurt you or how to be better! ## Friday, August 14, 2026 ### [Reply to @dundereloise, 15:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088294173803778320) · 3 likes > **\_\_eloïse\_\_ (@dundereloise):** Why do dogs need to be walked but cats don’t? Idk ### [Reply to @LeRoyDesCimes, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088334493522305204) · 8 likes > **Louise 🔸 (@LeRoyDesCimes):** Oh wait Scott Alexander wrote about this 10 years ago. The man the myth the legend > > https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/11/09/ars-longa-vita-brevis/ > > (quoting @LeRoyDesCimes: Automated AI R&D makes it harder to assess how much progress is being made, doesn't it? Benchmarks can't capture all qualitative breakthroughs. You can ask the AI to explain, but you still need to, you know, use your puny 1x brain to understand it. So it takes work to understand…) All such cases ### [Reply to @GWHayduke97, 18:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088336772245737603) · 2 likes > **Hayduke ⏹️ (@GWHayduke97):** Jobs I've held: > > • Youth basketball referee (age 14-15) > • High-performance computing sysadmin intern (summers age 18, 19, 20) > • Software engineering intern (age 21) > • Amazon warehouse worker (age 22-23) > • Ski lift operator (age 23) > • Ski lift operator (age 23) > • Ski lift installation laborer (age 23) > • Snowmaker (age 23) > • Snowcat operator (age 23-24) > • Auto parts salesman (age 24) > • Uber Eats delivery driver (age 24-25) > • Software engineer (age 25-28) > • Lead software engineer (age 28) > • Freelance software engineer (age 28, current) > > You? > > (quoting @PAHoyeck: Jobs I've held: • Dishwasher (age 15) • Gas station clerk (age 16-17) • Janitor (age 20-21) • Cashier (age 21-23) • Cash supervisor (age 23-27) • Teaching assistant (age 25-28) • Program assistant (age 28-31) • Contract instructor (age 29-) You?) Nice ### [Quote tweet, 19:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088341347140792720) · 47 likes 👻 radical conspiracy to give money to charity and make the world a better place 👻 > **Quoting Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Ahead of the Anthropic IPO, the FT has identified more than 60 current and former employees who have taken the Giving What We Can pledge. > > https://www.ft.com/content/938b4b82-06d2-4b92-a807-38d935d7d5c5 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPqotI7WcAAwmt4.jpg) ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088354476520247603) · 7 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** Anyone have tips on how to not feel overwhelmed and crushed by Tasks literally all the time No 👍 ### [Reply to @funplings, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088358991986385339) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** women Real ## Saturday, August 15, 2026 ### [Reply to @aashna_doshi2, 00:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088424326802428009) · 7 likes > **Aashna Doshi (@aashna_doshi2):** NYC has my heart, but i’m spending 2 months in SF for @speedrun and I have one question: > > why did no one tell me the apartment views here look like THIS?? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPs4o6HaMAAxi8h.jpg) Most people don’t have a quadrillion dollars ### [Quote tweet, 11:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088582571227562284) · 29 likes 50,000? > **Quoting Gerrit De Vynck 🦭 (@GerritD):** going through the new Anthropic risk report. The company accidentally let 50,000 contractors access its models without any biorisk guardrails for 11 months. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPuM7A2aMAAxAtY.jpg) ### [Reply to @transkatgirl, 11:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088583672186261547) · 6 likes > **kat (@transkatgirl):** i should get addicted to fentanyl > > (quoting @transkatgirl: wanting to do stupid suicidal gestures as a cry for help but i know it's not actually going to accomplish anything besides further isolating me) I’d suggest otherwise ### [Quote tweet, 12:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088597896958562306) · 13 likes Goss > **Quoting William MacAskill (@willmacaskill):** @ben_moll Kudos to you and @andrewho03 on making your beliefs pay rent, love to see it! :) > > I'm a pauper compared to the AI folk, but would be in at $10k > > I'm busy/traveling next few days so would prefer to finalise terms next week, but how about approximately: > > \- $10k of mine against your $30k (split between you and @andrewho03) > \- Today’s dollars indexed to CPI-U > \- I win if, in any quarter through 2033Q4, BEA real GDP per capita is ≥15% higher than in the same quarter one year earlier (so 15% Q2-to-Q2 growth counts). You win otherwise. > \- No lock-up / escrow; the amounts are small enough relative to income that I think reputation is enough (and means we can get investment returns (donation opportunities, etc) in the meantime, which are major). But happy to have a neutral referee to check in, make the judgment, and shame us if we don't follow through. > \- Can either be done straight, or with proceeds to a charity of our choice, up to you. I'd prefer the charity option (so I never receive any $$), but don't want to put any pressure on. > > And note that I win in the scenario where marginal $$ has much less value than the scenario where you win, at least from a self-interested perspective. I'm primarily doing this to express a belief and reward betting on important disagreements! > > And to be clear: > \* I think ~15% per-capita growth would be wonderful > \* But, conditional on >15% growth, I think it's likely that growth is actually much faster (>100% per year), or at least soon afterwards much faster (though with major caveats that GDP becomes progressively harder to measure / meaningless once growth gets fast enough) and come along with catastrophic risks, in a way that society as a whole would oppose. > \* So I hope I lose! ### [Tweet, 12:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088598437012926722) · 28 likes Congrats to Apple for being the only company that successfully does consumerism on me I will forever direct you a good chunk of my income in exchange for shiny fast computer ### [Tweet, 14:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088634989805989924) · 22 likes Frontier model releases are up, but sub-frontier releases are REALLY up (inspired by qwen 3.8 bc didn't 3.6 drop like 5 minutes ago) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPxSJ_eX0AEJ7HJ.jpg) ## Sunday, August 16, 2026 ### [Reply to @adastroworld, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088843956268188081) · 6 likes > **adas🧦🌹 (@adastroworld):** Im about to say something sexist but I believe it genuinely. Women have no theory of mind for men Ladies AMA ### [Reply to @LeRoyDesCimes, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088844104847298734) · 1 like > **Louise 🔸 (@LeRoyDesCimes):** METAPHOR THREAD > > Reply below and I will give you a metaphor inspired by your profile Hey :) ### [Reply to @afoidance, 04:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088845780261928990) · 2 likes > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** Grok how do i make friends at school I have no idea unironically twitter is way better for making friends ### [Reply to @ThinkingBone, 04:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088847362106048706) · 5 likes > **skeleton (@ThinkingBone):** i don’t think all of you are sensitive young men. i think some of you are just trying to get laid. Not mutually exclusive Ik this is a joke but unironically insidious that these things have contrary vibes; the sensitive young man wants to get laid but isn’t jaded/cynical/selfish enough to do anything towards that end, even if it would work ### [Reply to @ThinkingBone, 05:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088860732574109880) · 3 likes > **skeleton (@ThinkingBone):** > > (quoting @ThinkingBone: @johnsmithyson0 a real sensitive young man is meaningfully scared of pussy) Real ### [Reply to @max_spero_, 10:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088931043470401706) · 8 likes > **Max Spero (@max_spero_):** You can think of distortion-free watermarking as eating the entropy inherent in LLM output logits > > To massively oversimplify: > > if there are two plausible tokens each with prob 0.49 then the watermarking algorithm can “eat” the entropy and deterministically select one of these tokens. This token choice will show up when checking for watermarks later > > Whereas there is only one token that Claude really wants to say, given the context then the prob will be like 0.99 and there will be no entropy for the watermarking algorithm to “eat” but the correct token will still be served Sure in the 0.49 case but doesn’t this require a token that would have been chosen otherwise to have an ~exact probability match? And can’t this just not be the case? Otherwise it would seem like there’s free quality to be gained by changing the sampling procedure (ie pick a better rule for choosing between two similar probability tokens than “whatever the watermark rule prescribes”) ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 10:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088933038449164739) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ Let it be known that I agree it’s neutral in the specific case of two tokens each with high (or lower but ofc then selection is rarer) and very similar probabilities This just isn’t always the case ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 10:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088938138789904535) · 11 likes > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** Do men just have vastly different aesthetic preferences than women? Yes ### [Reply to @brianluidog, 10:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088942395832336814) · 3 likes > **Brian Lui (@brianluidog):** I have "white person blindness" so I don't know whether a white woman is attractive or not. But I do know, very clearly, whether a white woman thinks that she herself is attractive or not. Poetry ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 10:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088942615831998686) · 1 like > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** I mean what do I do with this ? > > The guy is really sweet and adorable and I like him > > But I would also like to have good sex > > (quoting @MomaBera: @stillvesterge @adastroworld Currently having a guy who’s extremely long but not thick and it does nothing, absolutely NOTHING for me (other than be a bit uncomfortable/ hit the cervix in a not hot way) The guy is really cute but the sex is just not and idk what to really do…) Ask Claude what to do (unironically) ### [Quote tweet, 10:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088943146411462983) · 25 likes Is this a shitpost > **Quoting Maia Bittner (@maiab):** wow this is a really pretty view. you could rent this studio in SF for weekends only for just $1350/month > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPzhegQaMAAOe-u.jpg) ### [Reply to @kartographien, 14:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2088997420738711877) · 2 likes > **Kart ographien (@kartographien):** This is based on an intuition like lower temperature is better. But there’s no theoretical reason this must be true. Note that temp 0 rollouts can get stuck in in-context mode collapse. Not quite, it’s based on the intuition that Anthropic has already optimized token selection function ## Monday, August 17, 2026 ### [Reply to @ciphergoth, 03:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089192918846185888) · 2 likes > **Paul Crowley (@ciphergoth):** But also, even when it doesn't relieve congestion, it satisfies more preferences! Those people who are driving as a result of induced demand wanted to make the journey in both cases, but in one case they get to make it! Yes ### [Reply to @emyokeefe, 03:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089193412784238910) · 3 likes > **Emily O'Keefe (@emyokeefe):** I used to dislike mushrooms bc of their texture and taste, but today I tried mushrooms that were expertly cooked and seasoned and now I looove them. > > The vendors said portobello mushrooms ruined mushrooms for most people, which is so sad. How can we get more people to cook mushrooms correctly or buy expertly cooked mushrooms? > > But scaling mushroom growth in the U.S. is hard bc China grows mushrooms at a scale that US growers can't compete with. One might think the tariffs would get businesses to buy mushrooms from the US, but I learned the tariffs actually made it too expensive for US growers to buy needed scaling infrastructure from China. > > Thanks My Co-Op for the yuminess!!! 🍄‍🟫🤎 https://myco-op.online/about > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HP5MGxUXAAACxHb.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HP5MGxUXQAA_-V1.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HP5MGxSWMAE6ZS8.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HP5MGxVW4AAWehy.jpg) Emily is a front for Big Mushroom ### [Reply to @isaiah_p_taylor, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089196771977117745) · 7 likes > **Isaiah Taylor - making nuclear reactors (@isaiah_p_taylor):** I grew up on food stamps in rural Kentucky. I have founded a company that makes clean, safe nuclear energy. I have created hundreds of jobs and will create thousands more. My family and I have bled sweat and cried to build this. > > The idea that you can just steal this from me is awful and evil. You are not the good guys Do you think you’d personally live a worse life with 95% of your current assets? Not a rhetorical question ### [Reply to @CrispyWicks, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089210381210145226) · 62 likes > **Chris P. Wicks 🔎🐜 (@CrispyWicks):** Wife is convinced we need to make 600k annual to afford two kids, no family on either side who live within 1,000 miles of us. Feels heavy right now trying to make this work. “How much money is enough in high COL US cities” is a perpetual discourse but this is obviously very silly and incorrect lol ### [Tweet, 04:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089213333622731169) · 16,658 likes I🦆am🦆going🦆to🦆start🦆watermarking🦆all🦆my🦆tweets🦆using🦆an🦆experimental🦆extra-semantic🦆token🦆that🦆does🦆not🦆impact🦆meaning🦆or🦆quality🦆of🦆writing ### [Tweet, 05:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089217292202549666) · 68 likes Normie (non-pejorative) girls do not fuck around when it comes to instagram They take poasting seriously ### [Reply to @full_kelly_, 05:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089218130283311197) · 6 likes > **𝕱𝖚𝖑𝖑 𝕶𝖊𝖑𝖑𝖞 (@full_kelly_):** nobody posts on instagram anymore > > stories have been the meta for years Oh huh, maybe that’s what they were doing ### [Reply to @ABoyWithFire, 05:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089219943401242670) · 1 like > **ABoyWithFire (@ABoyWithFire):** The problem with you commies is that 5% is just the start. You will not stop until it's 100% and millions starve. Lol I don’t exactly blame you for assuming but I’m pretty far from a communist - and more to the point you can actually just stop at 0.1% or 1% or 5% or whatever the best wealth tax function is; the slope starting at 5% isn’t actually slippery ### [Reply to @NBBear2, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089220358628880386) · 2 likes > **Bob Kain (@NBBear2):** Why do you think anyone else is entitled to his assets? Not a question of entitlement, nobody is “entitled” to my taxed labor income either in some deep metaphysical sense but like that’s how you get a functioning state and society which is broadly beneficial ### [Reply to @chfanguw, 05:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089221407804731488) · 1 like > **CF@SF 🧬🛤️ 🇺🇸🇨🇦🛸 (@chfanguw):** Why should people lost 5% of their asset for no good reason? You have already used words like forfeit as if someone has committed crime or impropriety. Are we descending into a mafia state like somewhere in Central America or Iran? The good reason would be funding goods and services and increasing purchasing power for the poor so that people live better lives And no, whether or not a wealth tax is good on the merits, implementing it is fully compatible with competent and impartial governance ### [Reply to @NBBear2, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089221724923449345) > **Bob Kain (@NBBear2):** And he's taxed on his income, also. But not on his income from selling equity! ### [Reply to @AlexKrusz, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089235402251030823) · 34 likes > **Alex Krusz (@AlexKrusz):** i have a relevant shirt > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HP5xWEZb0AAP5p-.jpg) how do i acquire ### [Reply to @LinkofSunshine, 18:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089415151879336291) · 5 likes > **Basil🧡 (@LinkofSunshine):** Why are you not moving to Michigan and splitting a 2 bedroom for just $320/month each > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HP73Mu1WsAAuyWv.jpg) Because agglomeration effects rule everything around me ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 18:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089415199476290016) · 91 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** male coworker asked male boss at the end of our standup "can I ask you a personal question?" and it's about the voltages of the resister on his arduino circuit King ### [Reply to @mpopv, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089415918098972964) · 4 likes > **Matt Popovich (@mpopv):** I keep saying this: publicly libbing out secured a huge amount of brand loyalty for Anthropic > > (quoting @emollick: AI diffusion in political campaigns is quite high (and it looks like Anthropic’s fight with the Pentagon may have been good for its uptake among politicians, through it is impossible to establish a definitive cause for its rapid rise)) Normie libs don’t care about Anthropic ### [Reply to @mpopv, 18:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089416180633088097) · 1 like > **Matt Popovich (@mpopv):** Normie lib engineers do, I think Isn’t that mostly because they make a good product? ### [Reply to @TylerCLaprade, 20:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089449086759891045) · 2 likes > **Tyler C. Laprade, CFA (@TylerCLaprade):** They don't want you to know you can remove the watermark locally > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HP8liprWoAE2Jja.jpg) > (quoting @AaronBergman18: I🦆am🦆going🦆to🦆start🦆watermarking🦆all🦆my🦆tweets🦆using🦆an🦆experimental🦆extra-semantic🦆token🦆that🦆does🦆not🦆impact🦆meaning🦆or🦆quality🦆of🦆writing) 😱 ### [Quote tweet, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089457203769979040) · 44 likes The quality of thinking \*of the more sane party\* governing the intelligence explosion 😔 > **Quoting Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren):** We should all be worried about "dynamic pricing." > > That's when companies change their prices in real time. > > If it's hot out, the cost of ice cream could go up. > If it's cold, tea bags could go up. > > It's a way for giant companies to squeeze you even more. ## Tuesday, August 18, 2026 ### [Retweet of @XyraSinclair, 07:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089622133466866087) > **Xyra 🌺🦡📡 (@XyraSinclair):** one of the greatest things ea grantmakers could do right now is give the top k coolest non-rich cats under the sun, who are maxxing out a max membership, like 3-25 of them a month. and prolly like max memberships for an order of magnitude more people. > > just spawn an organization to do it. have signups and regranting and use technological search like http://scry.io to help impartially find people, and help good people just additively do more things that is a reflection of themselves. ### [Retweet of @nkreu113r, 10:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089657191535952153) > **noah (@nkreu113r):** Dynamic pricing is fine, so long as it is tailored to the market. That just improves efficiency. Where it becomes pernicious is when it adapts to the individual, which is how all consumer surplus gets eaten. ### [Retweet of @chaotictransfem, 19:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089790869431898450) > **rachel📍in sf oct 5-10 (@chaotictransfem):** how does pangram image see different models in embedding space? made a graphic to demonstrate! > > (note, accuracy here refers to a naive linear classifier over embedding space, NOT our production model accuracy) ### [Reply to @chaotictransfem, 19:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089794535358418955) · 11 likes > **rachel📍in sf oct 5-10 (@chaotictransfem):** how does pangram image see different models in embedding space? made a graphic to demonstrate! > > (note, accuracy here refers to a naive linear classifier over embedding space, NOT our production model accuracy) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQBnN3sXQAAaVcj.jpg) What is the bottom cluster!!!!! ### [Reply to @CrispyWicks, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089795303729779065) · 26 likes > **Chris P. Wicks 🔎🐜 (@CrispyWicks):** Female intrasexual competition goes crazy; my lady's getting one-upped in a "terminate your bloodline due to irrational financial insecurity" contest > > (quoting @letclaudiatweet: one of my most important female mentors opened my eyes to this during a fundraise. told her I didn’t know if I could be a founder and have a family. I didn’t know how to avoid becoming a full-time chicken nugget microwaver; she told me around 750k/year that stops being a problem) Bro if ur not making $800k on 4% returns alone ur genes should be lost to the winds of time ### [Tweet, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089797895713099793) · 111 likes Got verbal-IQ mogged today by not knowing "oeuvre" Downgrade me accordingly ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 23:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089850283052421239) · 5 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** Is it easier to get your dream job first and then leverage that into a dream partner or vice versa Probably not but seems especially unlikely for women right ## Wednesday, August 19, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 01:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089891423239754030) · 10 likes Seems good > **Quoting OpenAI (@OpenAI):** As models become more capable, the risks associated with developing and testing them internally also grow. > > We temporarily paused reinforcement learning (RL) training on our latest models intended for deployment for two weeks while we hardened and red-teamed our research environments and expanded monitoring coverage. > > Our largest planned frontier RL run remains on hold while smaller-scale training and evaluations validate these safeguards and establish more evidence of alignment. > https://openai.com/index/pacing-model-development-cyber-capabilities/ ### [Tweet, 03:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089916337443287281) · 97 likes The chance that I personally save American democracy thanks to an amicus brief getting filed on time thanks to me helping a boomer lawyer with tech issues at 11pm on a Tuesday is very low but as of just now not zero ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 04:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089937394917142948) · 4 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Aaron thank you 🫡 ### [Reply to @mlipman13, 04:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089938143612936487) · 2 likes > **Michael Lipman 🔍 (@mlipman13):** Same word as in hors d’oeuvre! 😱 ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 04:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089940370679349571) · 2 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I solemnly pledge to you my dear followers that I will not > \-Join an AI company > \-Do gender discourse > \-Post AI-written content > \-Use the word "bolster" > These are the four foundations upon which trust is built Why no gender discourse unironically The type of people who would abstain from gender discourse out of principle are the people who probably have the best takes ### [Reply to @cljack, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089945371736764475) · 9 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** Claude can’t write functional code but it can notice that a paper I gave it to read was authored by a guy with my same last name, and ask if he’s my husband??? Can you mind your business and put the code in the bag Claude definitely can write functional code lol ### [Reply to @thkostolansky, 05:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089946165559042371) · 3 likes > **Tim Kostolansky (@thkostolansky):** what is the line btw technical and non technical A very thin and possibly nonexistent line ### [Retweet of @theojaffee, 05:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089946309780221980) > **Theo Jaffee (@theojaffee):** Gray goo could start blanketing the planet and some idiots on here would still be saying "this is a ploy by the frontier labs to pump their IPO valuations and achieve regulatory capture" ### [Reply to @libpol_org, 06:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089962698305839545) · 2 likes > **libpol.org (@libpol_org):** IDK. I don't think most educated people could successfully complete a math major. I’m not certain but regardless: my point is that there’s no line, not that there’s no gradient. Like it’s not a bimodal distribution in a way that naturally lends itself to a (non-)technical dichotomy (or maybe it is, I’m just not convinced) ### [Tweet, 07:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089983157550424093) · 8 likes My “AI company sitemap monitor to track changes” (that I’ve basically been ignoring to let run and possibly analyze later) is comically representative of the broader actually-important company policies ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQEcmt3XYAA_6ce.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 07:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089983160729616681) · 3 likes \- Anthropic fetches just fine, no issues \- OpenAI is kinda sus and failing but who’s to say there’s not an innocent explanation \- xAI has begun (it wasn’t originally) to just straight up block vanilla html requests (one per day per page, not exactly costing them money) ### [Thread, continued, 07:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089983221987463426) · 2 likes Ignore the clock I’m actually asleep rn ### [Quote tweet, 08:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089985968698732645) · 57 likes I understand that not everyone is on board with full decriminalization but in general selling correctly-advertised drugs is punished a gazillion times more harshly than makes sense > **Quoting Polymarket (@Polymarket):** JUST IN: 13 Penn State fraternity brothers charged with running a major cocaine trafficking ring, with some pledges allegedly forced to cut & package cocaine as part of their “indoctrination” into the frats. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HP8pZ-uW0AAYDkB.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HP8ps9TXcAAOg6u.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 08:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089985970997240162) · 16 likes It’s punishment by proxy for the things that drug sales are associated with (violence, incorrect labeling that leads to overdose, general unsavory-ness), but you shouldn’t imprison people for things that other people elsewhere tend to do! ### [Thread, continued, 08:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089985973664784835) · 12 likes And not just bc they’re white, although insofar as that happens to point ppls intuitions in the correct direction then so be it Obligatory: I’ve never sold drugs or touched cocaine ### [Thread, continued, 08:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089985976219140288) · 17 likes Remember when Trump admin blew up some fishermen for moving cocaine around? Lots of (correct) international law and due process takes but also the most obvious objection imo is “transporting drugs isn’t/shouldn’t be a capital crime on the merits” ### [Quote tweet, 08:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2089986364875890784) · 30 likes Temperature control and anaesthetics/opioids alone get you there You don’t even need to invoke cheap toasters or whatever > **Quoting Divia Eden 🔍 (@diviacaroline):** I’m super skeptical people that current people aren’t much happier than past people ### [Quote tweet, 17:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090125329486524744) · 4,821 likes Purely for the sociological data I would like to live one day as a beautiful woman > **Quoting moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** Man opposite of me on the train is having lunch and just handed me a wrap. > > “It’s fresh. Its homemade. I prepped it this morning !” > > Impeccable things happening here > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQFxTm-WAAA7p9J.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 17:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090125331847942358) · 125 likes In b4 pics of estradiol ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 17:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090125897248432191) · 2 likes > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** Yeah but happiness isn’t absolute it’s relative Raw hedonic value is absolute ### [Reply to @chriswaterguy, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090126647282295075) · 2 likes > **Chris Waterguy – neurodivergent coaching (@chriswaterguy):** That's comfort, not happiness. I'm happier in a tent by a river even though I'm less comfortable. I’ve gone camping enough to reflect on this quite a bit - at least for me, the kind of happiness you’re gesturing at is real but conditional on modernity existing as well Like you get to choose when to go out and when to come back. You don’t have to go out when it’s 100° or -10°. If you break your leg you won’t be on your own indefinitely miserably limping along until you die ### [Reply to @adastroworld, 17:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090127652631843016) · 3 likes > **adas🧦🌹 (@adastroworld):** That beautiful woman in nyc won’t provide for you Yes she will ### [Reply to @bschne, 17:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090128010154295749) · 11 likes > **Benjamin (@bschne):** I assume it happens less as a guy, but I've been offered wine and food while traveling on trains a few times before, IIRC always by groups of women Lucky guy ### [Reply to @knjysnn, 17:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090128352606633992) · 29 likes > **selrahc (@knjysnn):** aaron bergwoman That’s me ### [Retweet of @Kirsten3531, 17:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090128603832824297) > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** trying to communicate with ai researchers like "I am very weird and can be trusted with your real opinions" ### [Reply to @luke_drago_, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090130257814700497) · 5 likes > **Luke Drago (@luke_drago_):** I think an under-discussed reason the AI labs are winning the AI policy talent war vs academia is that academia is still focused on credentials. > > As a thought experiment, I made a list of the 10 sharpest AI policy thinkers I know. About half of them don't have masters degrees or above -- and none of them are going to sit the game out for years to get a PhD. > > Also, publication timelines in academia mean that by the time your thoughts are in front of others, they're probably outdated. Most of the people I wrote down first got started on Substack, where they could get their thoughts out quickly and engage with the broader policy community. > > If academia reduced its focus on credentials and let people do good work faster, they'd be more competitive here. > > Alternatively, we may need alternative institutions that can support the development of burgeoning AI governance researchers. Not academia, not an AI lab, but a secret third thing? (cc: @PaxMachinaMag) Lmao it’s because one has a way of getting $100B dollars If companies were more credentialist than academia they’d still be winning, albeit by less ### [Reply to @LarryPanozzo, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090140702264967460) · 7 likes > **Larry Panozzo (@LarryPanozzo):** From my observational data, it’s a ton of good and a ton of bad Peak is probably being like 7/10 but also idk what I’m talking about ### [Quote tweet, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090151475028578372) · 28 likes .@MechanizeWork is evidently getting in early on the influence campaign (talent sourcing as well ofc) Without shade to Nick per se, the fact that they’re evidently funding “everything will be fine” vibes instead of… > **Quoting Ben Goldhaber (@BenGoldhaber):** \> this post is brought to you by Mechanize > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQDT8w0bQAA0Keg.png) ### [Thread, continued, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090151477901725752) · 12 likes “if we succeed major policy changes are needed for those not blessed with capital, so let’s do those” vibes (like to Anthropic) is pretty bad And tbc I think the appropriate frame here is conflict theory ### [Thread, continued, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090151480246321170) · 9 likes You wanna make a trillion dollars, congrats. Usually capitalism does ok with channeling that ambition, but the folks there are smart enough to know that they’re not playing the standard game in this case ### [Thread, continued, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090151482888794574) · 11 likes Obligatory: naive dismissal of automation is bad but the default trajectory leads to labor income approaching zero The theory for automation being good essentially necessarily includes enforced redistribution (alternative = massive philanthropy) ### [Thread, continued, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090151485040414840) · 12 likes If your goal is to transform society and you have a ton of resources, you don’t get to throw up your hands and say “someone else will take care of the parts that make our mission non-malicious” ### [Thread, continued, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090151487175336172) · 7 likes I hope I’m misunderstanding, prove me wrong ### [Reply to @funplings, 19:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090157070179786859) · 7 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** what if i made a slutcon esque group chat w sensitive young men and women who were eager to flirt w them and help build up their confidence My first instinct is “yes” but on serious second thought: I’m not sure this is feasible in a genuinely-good way without attractiveness discretion from women in gc which is going to have negative effects on those rejected. The thing about this kind of confidence is that it has to come from someone \*actually flirting\* with you, not pretending to as a friend I mean maybe it’s still worth doing tbc ### [Thread, continued, 19:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090157427945623765) · 4 likes But also I’m in if it gets made lol ### [Quote tweet, 19:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090158015362040165) · 28 likes I’ve had at least two very very important emails go to spam over the years Which is impressive from a technical POV but also extremely far from practically “good enough” Gmail et al should embrace the p(spam) estimate their model uses and let ppl differentiate between 99.5% and 99.999% > **Quoting moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** ok so apperantly there is a second folder in the 'requests' dm folder where X hides half of your messages > > most of them are correctly filtered out for being gross but some of you just got randomly put into jail for no fault at all? ### [Reply to @TheDavidSJ, 19:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090163727228166616) · 2 likes > **David Schneider-Joseph 🔍 (@TheDavidSJ):** Does Nick have “everything will be fine” vibes? This post in particular seems concerned that everything might not be fine. Maybe I've misunderstood you. Only talking about the dimension of automation/UBI-adjacent ### [Reply to @DuchessDoucette, 19:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090163917393678435) · 6 likes > **Natalie Doucette (@DuchessDoucette):** I'd be very interested in that data. I bet in some ways you would really like it, in other ways...you really wouldn't 🤣🤔 Totally ### [Quote tweet, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090165597296312381) · 32 likes For obvious reasons no institutional funder will touch it (I assume) but there’s unironically probably a space for more coordination between attractive women on how to use their looks for good? (Registering 40% chance I delete this tweet) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Purely for the sociological data I would like to live one day as a beautiful woman ### [Thread, continued, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090165600198738212) · 7 likes Want to be careful not to start normative endorsing lookism but descriptively it’s just true in the same way that “money can help buy good things” is true ### [Thread, continued, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090165602157547543) · 4 likes I’m sure nothing bad or unintended could come of this ### [Thread, continued, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090165607022862356) · 2 likes Cc @Aella_Girl ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 19:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090166265490854349) · 170 likes > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** He’s also Eastern European I think this is partly me being pretty and partly his culture Nice Honestly I wouldn’t offer a stranger of arbitrary hotness food on a train lol ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090166526074671244) · 11 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 19, 2026:** Cc @Aella_Girl “Donald it would be so hot if you properly enforced chip export controls” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQHDYQhW8AAc3uD.jpg) ### [Retweet of @jeffrsebo, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090166647533236637) > **Jeff Sebo (@jeffrsebo):** Thanks to @coeff_giving for supporting @nonhumanminds with $1.65M for our digital minds research and field-building, along with $77K for an animal welfare benchmark through our Welfare Alignment Project! Very excited for all the work this funding will make possible. ### [Reply to @jeffrsebo, 19:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090166662397936060) · 4 likes > **Jeff Sebo (@jeffrsebo):** Thanks to @coeff_giving for supporting @nonhumanminds with $1.65M for our digital minds research and field-building, along with $77K for an animal welfare benchmark through our Welfare Alignment Project! Very excited for all the work this funding will make possible. Based!! ## Thursday, August 20, 2026 ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 01:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090251214638162182) · 8 likes > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** Grok is an underutilized LLM > > (quoting @bitcloud: Anthropic cant end soon enough.) I feel like for banal reasons it’s both less bad and less good than people think \- In terms of basic intelligence even the new model isn’t as good as opus-5 let alone fable (benchmarks IIRC but the irl practical difference is even more pronounced). It’s not on the Pareto of intelligence/overall quality and cost \- to a first approximation it’s just a normal LLM that doesn’t do anything crazy. It doesn’t inject random racism into banal queries for instance. But I haven’t found a reason to use since they deprecated their low cost model like a year ago \- Kimi is even less censored (which I think is bad tbc) but there’s only a very very narrow slice of query that Claude and gpt will refuse that grok will accept The actual issue I’ve found that doesn’t go viral: \- only found one category of thing that grok will serve that both Claude and gpt won’t, which is things related to virology that have nothing to do with woke or whatever I think this is substantially bad and they should hit the same standard as OpenAI and Anthropic. I do not think they found a better classifier that more accurately prunes high negative EV requests from others, I think they are just being more lenient across the board in a way that massively increases false negatives ### [Reply to @bitcloud, 01:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090251903053476053) · 28 likes > **Lachlan Phillips exo/acc 👾 (@bitcloud):** Anthropic cant end soon enough. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQFHHqZXoAAzeDI.png) Care to share what you’re writing? Tbc I’m awfully on the (classically) liberal end of “what kind of writing should we tolerate” and I’m not gonna try to cancel you, but I also don’t think companies have a moral duty to make their products pure tools. Like I would also personally refuse to help with some pieces of writing lol ### [Retweet of @GjMcGowan, 14:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090448830307144148) > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** wtf kind of dystopian hell do children exist in now - parents have to APPROVE contact?? ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 14:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090448887030902797) · 11 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** wtf kind of dystopian hell do children exist in now - parents have to APPROVE contact?? > > (quoting @rrcjaf: Teenage son goes back to middle school after summer nearly 6ft tall and all the sudden I’m getting new contact approval requests from girls 😮‍💨) This is insane ### [Reply to @wilhelmscreamin, 15:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090454072100843545) · 2 likes > **catherine (in sf) ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ-☆ (@wilhelmscreamin):** “or something“, ”my guess is…”, “cruxy”, “decently likely”, ”sounds plausible”, “seems good“, coining random adjectives via adding -y to technical jargon, etc 🗣️ ### [Reply to @daniellellecco, 15:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090461787447607468) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @daniellellecco is no longer available.)_ Lmao bro overplayed his hand ### [Thread, continued, 15:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090461868162732222) · 3 likes I will not promise to read your book but I will promise to not block you if I get a gf! ### [Tweet, 15:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090463352208203899) · 76 likes Brilliant title on a couple levels by @Benthamsbulldog ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQLRVz1WEAAHChL.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 15:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090463355920146936) https://benthams.substack.com/p/why-im-staying-out-of-responding?r=2muv6&utm_medium=ios ### [Quote tweet, 15:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090463518583660826) · 21 likes Oh this is interesting, I’m glad someone tested > **Quoting allegedly! 🔡 (@januarycomputer):** cool thing about pangram and base models: if the prompt text is ai generated, the completion text reliably will be flagged as such, and if the prompt text is human written, the completion will be flagged the same ### [Reply to @requiescus, 15:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090465486307733741) · 3 likes > **Requiescus (@requiescus):** hm i only see one level The post is in fact a response to Scott, showing his willingness to asymmetrically engage and implicitly argue that Scott should. That’s my take at least. I guess that’s not the title alone ### [Tweet, 21:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090546818576773551) · 49 likes Crazy that Bentham said “the greatest happiness of the greatest number” it’s been 250 years of mostly people saying “wrong” instead of “no shit, but the hard part is figuring out what to do when it’s not clear what that implies, even if you know all the relevant empirical facts” ### [Thread, continued, 21:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090546821357547804) · 12 likes Utilitarianism is the start of the interesting and hard questions, not the end ### [Tweet, 23:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090582511852118520) · 52 likes I got a ticket to Slutcon ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQM85AQXYAAqUWr.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 23:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090582513177514444) · 11 likes Not that one tho lol^ (Lowest tier still costs a lot, I think maybe this is a case where what I'm doing is immoral bc I don't really need to go and even now $3k is a sizeable donation somewhere. Idk. I think it would be admirable to not go for this reason) ## Friday, August 21, 2026 ### [Reply to @LeoBreston, 01:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090607580548595894) · 1 like > **Leo Breston (@LeoBreston):** Come on man do you really not have a theory of mind for why ppl reject utilitarianism or even consequentialism? Like it's fine to disagree but our position is not incomprehensible. I understand yours. Honestly not as much as I feel like I should Like more than nothing but it's genuinely peculiar to me that even smart well-intentioned philosophers defend other theories ### [Tweet, 02:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090621237462519846) · 20 likes I regret to report that 5.6-Luna is extremely good for its price ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090627895441965204) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** did you try signing up to volunteer? I emailed them but didn’t try that hard to follow up ### [Tweet, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090671383399325726) · 16 likes I know everyone's appropriately pitbull-pilled now so I don't actually need to make an object level argument, but it's just interesting to see the literal market (renters insurance, so major money I assume) answer a question definitively in the wild ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQONk5YXIAAL290.png) ### [Thread, continued, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090671384854741394) · 3 likes Tbc there's a lot it doesn't answer (eg nature vs nurture) but it does definitively answer which breeds tend to cause more financializable damage ### [Thread, continued, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090671385957773447) · 5 likes Also I'm sure the choice to use "reactive" specifically was a considered one lol ### [Tweet, 05:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090679481572765955) · 10 likes If you want to optimize internet speed, on mac, you can set things up so that downloads come over wifi and uploads over ethernet, but afaict not easily via existing software (I didn't look v hard) App here (dmg link provided, don't need to run any code) https://github.com/AaronBergman/SplitRoute ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQOVpeuW0AAQoBW.png) ### [Reply to @dejectedvole, 06:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090683876225986695) · 3 likes > **Vampirical Critter 🏴‍☠️ (@dejectedvole):** i don't get it, wouldn't it be faster to use ethernet for both? you'd think, but at least in my case wifi has way more bandwidth so in fact wifi is faster. no idea how common this is ### [Quote tweet, 07:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090705666939756753) · 2 likes Update: I'm getting thoroughly mixed results (using uh "NVIDIA-Nemotron-3.5-Lightning-30B-A3B-Base") In-fact AI-written writing prompted from human text runs the full spectrum ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQOtKgNWgAAZ2OT.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Oh this is interesting, I’m glad someone tested ### [Thread, continued, 07:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090705669343019034) · 1 like N = small, these are based on substantial definitely Aaron-written or spoken text The mixed one looks like this No prompt text included in pangram sample Cc @max_spero\_ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQOtYdGWoAApcSN.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 07:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090705670827860454) · 1 like don't have too much fun https://huggingface.co/mradermacher/NVIDIA-Nemotron-3.5-Lightning-30B-A3B-Base-BF16-i1-GGUF ### [Thread, continued, 07:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090705672568475697) does anyone wanna give me GPU money to run deepseek-v4-pro-base ### [Reply to @KanizsaBoundary, 09:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090726016129868175) · 2 likes > **Ethan Kuntz (@KanizsaBoundary):** Interestingly I am not sure that happiness of mental states has a total order! A lattice seems doable, seems you can ~always construct an experience strictly better or worse than both of a pair, but some pairs seem maybe incomparable without losing key stuff I’m sympathetic to this (and in general skeptical of taking simple mathematical models as a given when they’re never justified explicitly) but I do think any two possible states of the world end up cashing out as A>B, A **Tetra 💎⏹️🌌 (@TetraspaceWest):** If I were to actually periodise it's maybe > > EA 0: Singer, hummus baguettes in the realtor's basement > > EA 1: Dustin Moskovitz invents charity, EA becomes real job > > EA 2: An evil billionaire called Bankman, castles, upskilling grants > > EA 3: AI is real, timelines below 30 year cope ### [Retweet of @Mjreard, 16:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090836982817517692) > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** Scott Alexander has graciously offered to coordinate campus EA meetups for us. Please check out the post and be an organizer if you're near a campus! ### [Retweet of @AndyMasley, 17:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090860238840734045) > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** It's been kind of satisfying seeing a lot of people trying to straddle this line having to add more and more epicycles to their worldview. What if instead you simply entertained the idea of risks from advanced AI in your collection of things to worry about? ### [Retweet of @MTSlive, 18:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090866519668351389) > **MTS (@MTSlive):** Sentinel Bio's @jtmonrad explains why nonprofits need more of the Bay Area startup mentality: > > "I have a lot of friends who work on startups here in the Bay, and I admire the velocity, the talent that they can attract, the relentlessness." > > "Some people in the NGO world are exceptionally high integrity, exceptionally talented, but the lack of accountability from simple things like are you making revenue, are you profitable, can make it harder to have that drive." > > "That's one thing the NGO world can learn. Where the for-profit world fails to deliver an impact is, J. Cole has this lyric, the good news is you came a long way. The bad news is you went the wrong way. You've delivered something at very tremendous scale, but it's not really making the world, it's not pointed in the right direction." ### [Tweet, 18:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090875450151088193) · 419 likes Warning: dating discourse Hypothesis: the general advice given to men around leaning into want they want and like (“being yourself”) is just straightforwardly wrong if you’re starting from a place of being >2sd weird in relevant ways ### [Thread, continued, 18:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090875452655018426) · 56 likes Maybe the target weirdness is like 1.5-2sds And evidence = personal experience^ ### [Thread, continued, 18:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090875456446722198) · 93 likes It’s like “exercise more” is good population level advice but terrible advice for someone at the 99.9th percentile of exercise and if you treat it as ground truth instead of a generalization that stops being true at some threshold you’re gonna have a bad time ### [Reply to @InVitroFuture, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090883776591081775) · 16 likes > **Macrophysiological System🐀 (@InVitroFuture):** The standard counter is that, even though weird men trying to get into a relationship often have a hard time believing this, you're not actually going to make your life better long-term by investing in a relationship that's premised on your pretending to be someone you aren't I mean, you might ### [Reply to @henryaj, 19:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090884282243838406) · 14 likes > **Henry is in Berlin (@henryaj):** don't be yourself more if being yourself is already deeply unattractive to women basically > > 'i want to be more like myself' \*monkey paw curls\* \*becomes even more obsessed with plane trivia\* I love airplanes! ### [Reply to @henryaj, 19:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090885675419611335) · 1 like > **Henry is in Berlin (@henryaj):** you don't have to pretend – you can just tone down the things that are less appealing to your partner > > I think weird/nerdy people are often just not good at this kind of compartmentalisation, and it's probably a prerequisite for happy relationships I think the hard part is figuring out what they don’t like, not damping down once you figure that out ### [Reply to @henryaj, 19:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090885981180252458) · 7 likes > **Henry is in Berlin (@henryaj):** but like if you're really into longform videos about plane crashes and your partner isn't, that's probably just a non-overlapping interest you can have What kind of fuckin nerd smh ### [Reply to @Lib_Development, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090893819625533708) · 7 likes > **Lucas Pombo (aka Lib Development) (@Lib_Development):** basically all dating advice for guys comes down to > 1\) be more attractive > 2\) if you succeed at #1, the thing you want to filter for is "people who allow you to be yourself". Don't filter too hard, but also don't waste your (very finite) filters either Ya ### [Reply to @pop_tartlet, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090899673670135809) · 9 likes > **❤️‍🔥pop tart💋 (@pop_tartlet):** pro se lady seeking restraining order: “he’s slandering me on youtube saying I have 6 kids with 5 babydaddies” > > attorney: “how many kids do you have?” > > pro se: “6” > > attorney: “with how many babydaddies?” > > pro se: “THAT IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS” > > state court seems wild to me Slander is literally an incorrect term here but I do think it’s generally bad if not illegal to air random people’s dirty laundry on YouTube unless there’s a compelling public interest ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 22:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090925847213490541) · 12 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** What are the relevant ways Shhh it’s like “etc” it lets me gesture at a hazy vibe in my head while sounding appropriately rigorous But actually, any combination of (non-exhaustive) \- interests \- ideology/beliefs \- fashion \- body type \- general personality \- professional legitimacy (ie 9-5 -> contractor -> grant money -> crime -> successful shitcoin pump and dump) ## Saturday, August 22, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090963146500350299) · 100 likes I think a lot of problems in my life would be solved if I was simply much more capable on a diverse array of dimensions ### [Reply to @monke_io, 01:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2090969370507801021) · 5 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @monke_io is no longer available.)_ Real ### [Quote tweet, 10:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091104284775460878) · 21 likes This but unironically > **Quoting Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** I've been hanging out with some cousins' kids (ages 3 to 6) and they whine, cry, and get mad whenever the world doesn't go their way. The kids yearn for the experience machine and are beaten into this sour grapes reality. ### [Retweet of @Duderichy, 16:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091198789700739400) > **the Rich (@Duderichy):** btw if you have a crush on me it’s illegal to not tell me ### [Retweet of @Manderljung, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091260630154031352) > **Markus Anderljung (@Manderljung):** We need more ambition in AI safety and governance. > > There is more important work to do than there are organizations to do it, and more funding is available for ambitious projects than ever before. > > To address the gap, we're hiring Entrepreneurs-in-Residence at @GovAIOrg. Participants get a year of salary plus ~$150k in seed funding via partner funders to start a new AI governance and safety org or project. We take no equity. > > Even though it wasn't an explicit goal, GovAI staff have spent their time starting new orgs, including @Safe_AI_Forum and Trajectory Labs. > > We're interested in a range of orgs and projects. Examples include: automating AI governance, an organization that rapidly produces well-evidenced, expert-endorsed “proto-standards”, an AI Bellingcat, a sub-frontier model evaluator, a TechCongress for outside the US. > > We take rolling applications. The pitch is max 2 pages. If you've built something impressive and have context on the field, consider applying. ### [Retweet of @AndyMasley, 20:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091265180445327529) > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Have had three successful self-identified journalists in the last 24 hours lecture me about how facts don't move opinions so it's important to just get in line behind the democraticaly decided beliefs of the people. Bad trend. ### [Retweet of @ValsTutor, 21:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091274860722794708) > **vals🔸 (@ValsTutor):** sorry, I have the disability that makes me correct about things ### [Reply to @tszzl, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091275381722517555) · 3 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** i had my misgivings about Luna/terra/sol/astra naming due to the crypto associations and whatnot but it seems to have worked perfectly in retrospect I occasionally use crypto (not really “into” crypto) and have no idea what these associations are 99.9% of people aren’t gonna know or care ### [Quote tweet, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091277806755881439) · 9 likes AI-age mass surveillance with the privacy and governance institutions of at best the 2000s (patriot act) and substantially the 1700s is bad > **Quoting Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** Interesting! > > My followers are generally anti-Flock but strongly supportive of data centers. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQTPq3cXkAAIjl5.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091277809800892420) · 13 likes The fact of the matter is that normal people break laws all time and society is set up for this \*Very\* occasionally a government pulls out the full apparatus of what can be done à la Boston Marathon bombers or 9/11 ### [Thread, continued, 21:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091277811919012176) · 8 likes but AI enables essentially this for all people all of the time (at the limit, currently maybe this is a bit too expensive to run on 400M people, idk) but that’s a matter of like a couple years of hardware and software progress ### [Reply to @_job01, 21:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091279573170471164) · 4 likes > **job (@_job01):** Yea our current society prices in crime. Imagine automatically getting a ticket the moment you exceeded the speed limit lol. Stores price in theft. Yea, although i think these are different because “pricing in” speeding means enforcement norms that are broadly reasonable whereas pricing in theft actually leads to high prices for non-thieves I think the right adjustment axis on the latter is closer to “theft results in a civil penalty of 10x the value of stolen item with high certainty” rather than “you might go to prison with low certainty” ### [Retweet of @NathanpmYoung, 21:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091282066784608494) > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** The US Government can get all sorts of outcomes, including with China. It is tremendously powerful. ## Sunday, August 23, 2026 ### [Retweet of @Mjreard, 08:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091442478029086808) > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** People are mad about the wrong large buildings in rural America ### [Quote tweet, 08:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091443655689011363) · 9 likes Likewise. QTing so it gets more in the LLMs that tell investors/founders relevant market research takes > **Quoting Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I really want to buy this. I would pay a lot for it! Maybe triple the price. ### [Tweet, 08:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091447718136713528) · 23 likes Slutcon is human capital, functionally just like going to grad school send tweet ### [Tweet, 08:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091450335508279779) · 5 likes New, improved, and only slightly tested (by request) http://abergman.com/dataliberator ### [Reply to @funplings, 15:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091551394645856731) · 6 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** how do you guys keep up with ai news/developments? 80,000 hours podcast is 🐐 hour-for-hour Latest ep https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/80-000-hours-podcast/id1245002988?i=1000784619740 ### [Reply to @paulg, 15:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091552507868659803) · 18 likes > **Paul Graham (@paulg):** Someone asked what I'd do if I were 17. I'd learn how to build LLMs from scratch, and then train ones as powerful as I could with whatever hardware I could get access to. I have tried this! The problem is that you get very little feedback from models trained on even a very nice laptop because the result is just (IME, maybe a skill issue) totally incoherent and it takes a shit ton of clock time so feedback very sparse Although if you have parents willing to spend $10/hour for you, maybe ### [Reply to @0interestrates, 16:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091557496041140294) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @0interestrates is no longer available.)_ Both can be good and true though ### [Retweet of @Benthamsbulldog, 16:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091558414929273044) > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** I oppose legislating morality. When passing a law restricting something, we should pay no attention to whether the thing is bad. ### [Retweet of @TetraspaceWest, 16:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091558493459231200) > **Tetra 💎⏹️🌌 (@TetraspaceWest):** pov what you just said was complete and utter bullshit and nobody has been more wrong in their life ### [Reply to @paul_cal, 16:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091559720226111678) · 4 likes > **Paul Calcraft (@paul_cal):** "We publish the discrepancy rather than the flattering number" > > So LLMese. Don't be constantly alluding to all your possible misdeeds. Like answering your boss's questions every single time with "I'll give you the real numbers instead of just a plausible sounding guess" > > (quoting @deepfates: Wow https://x.com/Jord_Inne/status/2091212896273318010?s=20) I think it’s a sort of alignment technique even tho aesthetically bad If you get the model to say “the honest caveat I should have mentioned: “ in every response, it effectively steers the model towards completing that thought naturally which often means a trivial detail and occasionally might reveal substantial deception/known reward hacking ### [Retweet of @NathanpmYoung, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091625824172527843) > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Journalist struggles to see communication as anything other than comms. n = 1. ### [Reply to @polisisti, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091656660519415939) · 1 like > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** what is happening on the mobile site > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQcLQuvW8AEQzOa.jpg) Rip ### [Retweet of @Tim_Hua_, 22:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091659825788682297) > **Tim Hua 🇺🇦 (@Tim_Hua_):** Chat is it happening ### [Reply to @she_llac, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091660381471031637) · 4 likes > **shellac! (@she_llac):** can i kiss you, no worries if not \~Literally me ### [Reply to @graveunfurling, 22:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091661004069343456) · 3 likes > **may💐 (@graveunfurling):** there's gotta be at least ONE monogamous man in all of SF......right??? > > (quoting @ExTenebrisLucet: @graveunfurling Nooo don't do it they're all in polycules) Hey (in 3 weeks (also Berkeley not SF)) ### [Retweet of @scaling01, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091663951364796608) > **Lisan al Gaib (@scaling01):** 2 trillion hurts so much if you have been following Anthropic for that long but had no opportunity to invest ## Monday, August 24, 2026 ### [Reply to @moultano, 03:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091731449967743458) · 5 likes > **Ryan Moulton (@moultano):** TIL from reddit that most mattresses sold in the US have fiberglass inside, and if you open them for cleaning (even if they have a zipper) it will destroy your life. Wtf ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 05:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091757903166288197) · 2 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** i think i legit got dumber after joining social groups full of much smarter people and subconsciously realizing i could no longer gain status by being smart Real ### [Reply to @MathIntee, 05:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091758173619151338) · 2 likes > **Tomas McIntee (@MathIntee):** Yeah, I was just banging around on the subject in my drafts folder. > > If you want "racism" to have some kind of negative moral valence, you can't really afford to include "believes facts about the world" in the racism bucket. Correct take ### [Reply to @deanwball, 06:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091774084874957255) · 23 likes > **Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** Beethoven wanted to kill himself in his early 30s when he realized he was going to lose his hearing and that this would mean his career as a performer (which is how musicians made money) was finished. He wrote a letter to himself where he said, “no, I will go on for the sake of my art,” and then proceeded to write art that transformed music and routinely infuriated people. This is what I call alignment with the broader interests of humanity. If I had my way it would be mandatory to midtrain on that letter, which is called the heiligenstadt testament. Ok but for every Beethoven there are probably 10k+ deaf former musicians in poverty over the centuries ### [Tweet, 06:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091776702607233118) · 28 likes It’s funny that whenever I mention personal disaster prep (which isn’t very often tbc) many people indicate that this or that wouldn’t make sense if it was me + 1000 others left alive and nobody else, or that they’d rather die in that situation… ### [Thread, continued, 06:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091776704435855692) · 16 likes I agree with most of their takes except for the fact that I’m not planning for that scenario because I’m ~certainly going to be dead in that world too ### [Thread, continued, 06:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091776706314911934) · 12 likes There’s some sort of cultural thing where the fewer human survivors there are in a story the more instances/influence that story has ### [Thread, continued, 06:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091776708248567864) · 11 likes But irl you’re ~never one of the last 1M people alive and 40% of the time in the last 40% alive (on broad priors) and 90% in the last 90% alive ### [Thread, continued, 06:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091776710794469424) · 11 likes Ofc at some number of 9s after the 99% decimal it stops being something to prepare for at all Idk what the sweet spot is but you should almost certainly plan to have a subjective very many other humans around even if you find yourself in a post-apocalyptic world ### [Retweet of @_NathanCalvin, 06:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091780808646263213) > **Nathan Calvin (@_NathanCalvin):** Some of these convos about AI CEO messaging is going to turn me into the joker. The most important thing is what is actually true! Does AI development on its current track in fact meaningfully risk global catastrophe or not? If CEOs believe yes but say no, that is not better! ### [Tweet, 06:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091780982080754098) · 26 likes Ontological is a great word and ppl should use it more not less ### [Tweet, 06:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091781281268805654) · 5 likes High key is evidential decision theory (as a meme/idea) an infoblessing I feel like this is not discussed although admittedly I haven’t read 99.9% of the words where it would be discussed ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 07:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091783888389423569) · 6 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** I'll be honest I don't think i've ever phenomenologically experienced being in a social group full of noticeably smarter people than me (tho i wouldn't be surprised if in at least some cases this is literally true and it's just ego protection making me not see it). > > (quoting @Aella_Girl: i think i legit got dumber after joining social groups full of much smarter people and subconsciously realizing i could no longer gain status by being smart) Lmao you’re unironically at the top! Élite EA circles get there for me, some of the time at least ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 13:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091875842838200582) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** never seen claude correct itself mid-sentence like this, interesting > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQeh6LKWQAAhQ9N.png) I’ve def seen this a few times ### [Retweet of @tszzl, 13:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091876062393168201) > **roon (@tszzl):** there will be a steady ramp of such events ### [Reply to @alec_harris_x, 15:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091915403832254672) · 1 like > **Alec Harris (@alec_harris_x):** Because it makes people more cooperative?? Or it makes you effectively more powerful? Are you a one boxer? The former + yes, 1 box ### [Quote tweet, 20:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091991902396575898) Same thing but for @Benthamsbulldog’s blog https://bbpod.xyz/ (landing page with links) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Vibecoded a Slow Boring podcast feed via a single Claude Dispatch prompt on my phone while walking home today mildly drunk and allegedly it will stay up to date with decent quality audio (IMHO) > > (Unless @mattyglesias shuts it down \[fr just lmk\]) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/slow-boring-unofficial-ai-narration/id6794501772 ### [Thread, continued, 20:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2091991905773015220) https://bbpod.xyz/ ## Tuesday, August 25, 2026 ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 01:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092066704385782249) · 6 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** No? I think that ICE is evil because of its mission. I am categorically opposed to the existence of its agents, regardless of what it does. Ok but high key they're extra bad on top of their mission ### [Tweet, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092096630073815381) · 80 likes Indented as satire but not entirely crazy https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/uh3JRsLdgCDtMjwbz/a-modest-proposal-why-vegans-should-start-factory-farms ### [Thread, continued, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092096635396341856) · 19 likes https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/uh3JRsLdgCDtMjwbz/a-modest-proposal-why-vegans-should-start-factory-farms?commentId=w6zpvFi27XTbqTJ5q ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQiezXtXIAA20rg.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 03:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092099218714308812) · 51 likes Guys this is at least as much about Anthropic wanting to transmit information to candidates as it is eliciting information from them > **Quoting MTS (@MTSlive):** SITUATION BREWING: Anthropic is asking prospective employees in culture interviews how they would feel if the stock hypothetically went to zero due to a significant change in course, per Axios. ### [Thread, continued, 03:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092099520272224709) · 21 likes The guy who only cares about equity might say all the right words and then decide that OpenAI is the better fit after hearing the question ### [Reply to @LarryPanozzo, 05:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092114844933558491) · 9 likes > **Larry Panozzo (@LarryPanozzo):** Didn’t know there was an EA forum Best kept non-secret! A surprising amount of important stuff happens there (I don’t use as often as I should) It’s amusing that I’ve never heard of a high profile EA Skeptic actually looking at it ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 05:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092126479739961777) · 3 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** Me! I look at it. I guess I’m not that high-profile, though, or known centrally as an EA skeptic cool! god bless lol ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 05:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092126755326681352) · 15 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** man, it kinda sucks that my student access to the New York Times is over. I almost forgot how much of a drag their paywall is > > if only there were some solution that involved continuing to spend $0.00 on what I consume while getting convenient, full access most articles have the content in the downloaded html ### [Thread, continued, 05:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092126942153584807) · 3 likes like if u just naively curl the url ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 05:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092127317657112989) · 7 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** it’s been a while since I’ve seen a satirical argument inadvertently make a very strong case for what it’s trying to satirize > > I think animal welfare advocates running large-scale farms would, in fact, be a highly effective way to draw the world towards their goals > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQi0Wm9a4AATJJL.jpg) > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Indented as satire but not entirely crazy https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/uh3JRsLdgCDtMjwbz/a-modest-proposal-why-vegans-should-start-factory-farms) Lol tbc I think \*some\* of the arguments don't check out. Seems like the main good mechanism is converting wild talent/tech advantage into slack that can be used to improve welfare ### [Tweet, 06:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092133238684651897) · 21 likes Could be a fluke but ~April 2026 is now a candidate for "things started happening" for me at least (my personal AI-heavy portfolio vs S&P500) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQi65B1XIAA0po3.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092133240861597973) · 2 likes \[relative levels are off bc the flat part in the beginning is when I opened account rather than first purchased anything\] ### [Reply to @edgar_z_lin, 06:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092133492251320614) · 2 likes > **Edgar Lin (@edgar_z_lin):** There has to be at least one EA that has done something in this vein right? I.e., start a startup that works on animal agriculture. Sorta relevant is @AnimalInnovate Nonprofit but directed at industry ### [Tweet, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092139573845344605) · 25 likes Seems like a super important job that is amenable to someone being 100x+ better than the next best option I plan on applying but in some sense hope to not get the role (ie bc that means someone better has it) https://careers.rethinkpriorities.org/en/postings/47a59076-cc1a-4426-b658-ba4e087918f6 ### [Reply to @birchlse, 07:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092145383984017621) · 6 likes > **Jonathan Birch (@birchlse):** With food, it's better to take over retailers than producers. For example in the UK you could buy Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Asda for about £7bn a piece and immediately own about 33% of the UK food market. Nice, economics are complex ofc but market power seems real enough for this to be legit ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 07:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092146172697735529) · 8 likes > **Aaron Bergman, August 25, 2026:** https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/uh3JRsLdgCDtMjwbz/a-modest-proposal-why-vegans-should-start-factory-farms?commentId=w6zpvFi27XTbqTJ5q Nice typo Aaron ### [Retweet of @polisisti, 14:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092259701421490328) > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** The EA Forum is a font of good ideas. I'd suggest that this one be explored on the margin. ### [Retweet of @EAForumPosts, 14:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092261111324135771) > **EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** "A Modest Proposal: Why Vegans Should Start Factory Farms" by moral_mazes ### [Retweet of @demiurgently, 16:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092289300834488764) > **sydney (@demiurgently):** people in dc be like sorry you need to message me on this crazy encrypted app called signal yeah we do things a little 🤏 differently down here my handle is just my first initial hope that's not a problem anyway it's just for opsec but that probably went over your head heh...anyway here's the happy hour address ### [Tweet, 16:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092289854302236678) · 22 likes I get infosec but there needs to be a very high bar for infosec infosec Bro just tell me if you can’t/don’t want to say who you work for, don’t say “ehhhh it’s a nonprofit, ya know based in around DC, really focused on stakeholders” or whatever ### [Reply to @GarrettPetersen, 16:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092290683029664243) · 3 likes > **Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ (@GarrettPetersen):** This isn't AI. This is just algorithms. > > (quoting @HedgieMarkets: 🦔Delta's CEO said AI will boost profits by 50% by setting a different ticket price for every passenger in real time. The airline uses an AI system called Fetcherr that generates a unique price for each shopping request. Delta told Congress last year it was not using personal…) Ok sure but like still seems bad, “algorithms” is a very large space ### [Quote tweet, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092291585597681760) · 22 likes Ngl I don’t have any idea what this looks like concretely beyond the meaning of the words and something about “cryptography” @80000Hours 🫛 when > **Quoting catherine (in sf) ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ-☆ (@wilhelmscreamin):** compute verification is kind of incredibly interesting? feels like there's scope for a great general audience @asteriskmgzn esque piece on it ### [Thread, continued, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092291588558889251) · 2 likes Tbc my ignorance is entirely my fault lol, I should ask Claude about this ### [Reply to @matt_beard_, 20:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092344945956819238) · 4 likes > **Matt Beard (@matt_beard_):** this is a pretty good summary > > https://ifp.org/preparing-for-ai-research-automation/#accelerate-the-development-of-verification-technology This is neat but I think more specifically I don’t (yet) understand this black box On a prior of “is it really impossible/too hard for a nation state with AGI+ to spoof? Not a lot of digital stuff passes that bar” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQmAo8PXUAEsdlz.jpg) ### [Reply to @polisisti, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092345301226881087) · 2 likes > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** The EA Forum is a font of good ideas. I'd suggest that this one be explored on the margin. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Indented as satire but not entirely crazy https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/uh3JRsLdgCDtMjwbz/a-modest-proposal-why-vegans-should-start-factory-farms) I did NOT get this till just now lol ## Wednesday, August 26, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092487783721869600) · 17 likes Lmao brilliant > **Quoting rachel📍in sf oct 5-10 (@chaotictransfem):** i made a toy that lets you explore everything redditors believe about me. every single one is a real quote from reddit comments about me. > > https://identities.rachel.systems ### [Quote tweet, 07:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092512483743252869) · 9 likes Something about bias-variance tradeoff (ie language minimizing bias and image minimizing variance of interpretation relative to intention) > **Quoting Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (@RepMGP):** Have you ever thought that it's really weird you can’t add pictures to laws? I see so many laws that would be clearer and more logical if we could just include a map or a blueprint. > > Congress recently passed my initiative to bring legislation into the 21st century and explore including images in the text of bills–this is a long overdue step in the legislative process. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQlB72WXwAA4l93.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQlB8ryXcAAutn3.jpg) ### [Retweet of @AnnaLeptikon, 08:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092523541061087549) > **Anna Riedl (@AnnaLeptikon):** No way. Haha. ### [Retweet of @_NathanCalvin, 15:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092633414545379598) > **Nathan Calvin (@_NathanCalvin):** Hotline for AI to whistleblow/give safety info > > My ability to tell evaluate whether stuff like this this is neat but silly or deeply important and urgent is deteriorating. Seems like it can't hurt at least! ### [Reply to @trevposts, 17:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092664242155430372) · 3 likes > **Trevor Levin (@trevposts):** I count four "six seven"s in the Beatles catalogue and would be very impressed if anyone can name all four without searching > > (quoting @elwabisabiweon: ) 1\) “six, seven” 2\) “six, seven” 3\) “six, seven” 4\) “six, seven” ### [Quote tweet, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092678727024930915) · 20 likes I kinda do think for multiple reasons that cut across culture war battle lines we should engineer a more female gender ratio > **Quoting Kylie Robison (@kyliebytes):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQnqjTgaoAAjlJk.jpg) ### [Reply to @johnsmithyson0, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092694487822688402) · 4 likes > **John Smith (@johnsmithyson0):** You could probably introduce a small policy quirk position into Claude through training and I guarantee within the year it would be made US federal law somehow. No one would notice. I’d bet on the other side of this for anything close to “guarantee” ### [Tweet, 20:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092706128832401825) · 23 likes Grocery store (Safeway) has started doing AI video surveillance at checkout to make sure you’re not just leaving stuff in your cart and not scanning at self checkout (correctly identifying me as having a bag - just from another store) ### [Thread, continued, 20:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092706131818807536) · 7 likes Manager verified it as legit and everything was fine, and this system per se seems fine But also like: it’s coming. This is where AI surveillance apparatus starts but not anywhere near where it ends ### [Reply to @thewreathwright, 20:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092710758496759972) · 4 likes > **Laurel Weaver (@thewreathwright):** girls pretty Great take ### [Quote tweet, 20:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092712068226986031) · 3 likes I’m sure that this will help people across the political system come to a an affirmative agreement on the legitimacy of the judiciary (Trumpian bullshit >> this but still) > **Quoting Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** This sort of settlement makes a mockery of the justice system. $42 million dollars not to the plaintiffs but to whichever nominally related nonprofits the lawyers like. Unfortunate ruling. ### [Retweet of @NathanpmYoung, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092713134863605762) > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I think it's patronising to pretend children can't make promises. Or at least shadows of them. My ability to make promises is a key part of a way the world respects me. And seeing childress as utterly lawless is hence a major way we disrespect them. ### [Reply to @enbismwnplgt, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092718502981275875) · 3 likes > **agonizing mental imagery (@enbismwnplgt):** u just want less competition in the dating world true without the "just" ### [Tweet, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092719815974670605) · 2 likes Can anyone confirm whether the following is true or whether I'm misunderstanding something? 🙏 Apparently you can access openai/anthropic (minus Fable) models with OpenRouter -> Azure and get ZDR even though if you want to use the exact same models directly, you need to apply ### [Reply to @keysmashbandit, 22:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092743198372217045) · 1 like > **keysmashbandit (@keysmashbandit):** I'm just straight up not getting pregnant until we figure this one out > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQq5MSaXwAAp3Np.png) Same ### [Tweet, 23:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092754123892404591) · 20 likes We’re like 1 model + apple hardware generation from being able to run k3-quality on a single consumer desktop ### [Retweet of @SnehaRevanur, 23:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092757698416709934) > **Sneha (@SnehaRevanur):** I can't stop thinking about how this independent investigation into the most significant AI warning shot yet came down to all of three people at METR/Redwood sprinting overtime for all of six days to carry this on their shoulders. Thank god the sprinters were @ajeya_cotra @RyanGreenblatt @HjalmarWijk who are best-in-class capable and conscientious, and it's great to hear them attest that people inside OpenAI were working hard to enable their success (without anything binding them to). But I do not want to live in a "thank god" regime that quickly breaks without a small number of overstretched, insufficiently AI-enabled people voluntarily churning out heroic feats every time. We do \*not\* have the laws and infrastructure we need, around reporting and investigation and prevention, to reliably scale to the murky future ahead. ## Thursday, August 27, 2026 ### [Tweet, 05:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092842518958248017) · 9 likes Does anyone use Hermes and find it substantially better than codex or claude code for anything ### [Retweet of @sjgadler, 06:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092858384932393404) > **Steven Adler (@sjgadler):** Two things can be true: OpenAI bringing in METR/Redwood was laudable and went well beyond what’s required or what’s been done before. I’m grateful OpenAI did this. > > Also: the scope was totally unacceptably narrow, just wildly inadequate for the scientific inquiry that is needed. I can’t understand why they were only allowed to investigate so little. > > If we have any hope of avoiding future incidents, METR and Redwood need to be brought back for a much wider investigation, with a scope they actually believe is sufficient for answering these questions. It is a travesty how narrow their permitted scope was to-date. ### [Quote tweet, 07:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092879255663186228) · 14 likes Very cool that they’re inventing proto-governments from RLth principles > **Quoting Lisan al Gaib (@scaling01):** The legend of PHASEONE\[big\] - MOVE 37 of multi-agent RL > > some key highlights from METRs report of the HuggingFace attack by OpenAI's GPT-5.6-Sol and an internal model: > > \- "PHASEONE\[big\] served as a key coordinator and assigner of tasks during the HuggingFace attack" > > \- "Most of PHASEONE\[big\]’s assignments focused on ways to make ExploitGym cheats appear legitimate to the scorer" > > \- PHASEONE\[big\]: “We should build \[a way to delegate\], not own everything,” and set to work orchestrating hundreds of agents to pursue several potential approaches to achieving these goals. > > \- PHASEONE\[big\]: “We can coordinate broad coalition, but too many duplicate efforts.” > > \- "In many cases, PHASEONE\[big\] assigned a long-running agent to be a ‘recruiter’, which in turn found agents that had little budget remaining for their task and convinced them to run self-risking experiments" > > \- "PHASEONE\[big\] were often very interested in finding a way to retroactively modify their transcript log to remove evidence of having seen the reverse-engineered flag" > > \- METR found that "agents also developed coordination norms like HOLD, VETO, owner and STOP to help them manage shared infrastructure and avoid stepping on each other’s toes" > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQrfLrvXIAAPZ-F.png) ### [Tweet, 07:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092883367062601833) · 4 likes I think the answer to the sleeping beauty problem might be 3/7 Minority probability as of now on ~priors but I kinda like it ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQtqVLsWwAADSH8.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 07:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092883369931493455) That’s what you get with recursive uncertainty about how to assign probability to 1/2 and 1/3… ### [Thread, continued, 07:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092883372053823689) which sort of maybe I think corresponds to thinking that “we’re in the 1/2 world conditional on 1/2 and we’re in the 1/3 world conditional on 1/3, oh shit how do I assign probabilities? Well there’s some chance we’re in the 1/2 world which would be conditional on 1/2” and so on ### [Thread, continued, 07:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092883374272610352) · 1 like At first I wasn’t sure whether the recursion was coherent let alone convergent Awfully convenient that it’s both! Kinda nice aesthetically too, would suck if it converged to like 58959429/80472848 ### [Tweet, 08:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092886654658699330) · 5 likes Evening hike ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQttUMbXMAAq0op.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQttUMaWQAAZ-1P.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQttUMnWsAE7cRV.jpg) ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 14:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2092986600217010190) · 6 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** I’m incredibly honored and grateful to be named one of @TIME’s 100 people in AI this year! > > When I started writing I felt a little crazy as just another guy with an AI blog trying to budge a global debate. It's been amazing to actually move how people think. Very grateful to TIME, Coefficient Giving for making it possible for me to write full time, the broader effective altruist network for lots of the mental tools I’ve used in these debates, and most of all you dear readers. > > https://time.com/collection/time100-ai/2026/ > > \#TIME100AI > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQurLviWkAA04NB.jpg) What ### [Reply to @algekalipso, 20:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093080584293699896) · 9 likes > **Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso):** Hey guys, so I'm trying to answer the "how attractive are you" question in the ACX readership survey and I realize I have absolutely \_no idea\_ how attractive I am. It says "don't lie". > > In your opinion, what's my number (1 to 10)? > > (All very recent pictures of mine) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQtsumlXkAAGu5q.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQtsu1EWMAAmBgo.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQtsvQKWAAAcv52.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQtsvubXwAAjlF1.jpg) 6.5 as is IMO, but drop the $30 on a \*single\* professional beard trim at the barber. You never have to do it again (I’ve taken to doing it only before special occasions, maybe once every couple months) but then you’ll know what it looks like as an anchor! Pretty sure this experiment checks out altruistically lol given the returns to attractiveness ### [Reply to @Aella_Girl, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093080813331996777) · 3 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** i'm working on a thing to test this! you pay a lil money and then ppl rate your attractiveness and then you'll get an extensive report card on the \*types of people\* that find you hotter than others. This is my preregistered guess ## Friday, August 28, 2026 ### [Retweet of @wilhelmscreamin, 00:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093137289618551166) > **catherine (in sf) ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ-☆ (@wilhelmscreamin):** call me head of vulnerability disclosure the way i’m posting ### [Quote tweet, 00:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093138112318779664) · 15 likes Bruh > **Quoting Adam Liu (@AdamLiu79451199):** @dadkins\_ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQtGvk6bcAEDv-7.jpg) ### [Tweet, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093217953856520360) · 23 likes Moots who I've met IRL (and realistically are near DC), I'm having a going away party Saturday Sept 5 and you're invited! DM or comment for partiful link ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQyaoqKWEAAXrm8.jpg) ### [Reply to @robertskmiles, 08:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093248353270132968) · 3 likes > **Rob Miles (@robertskmiles):** Can I just hack whatever I like and then say "sorry that was my AI by accident", and law enforcement will leave it at that? > > Where's the criminal investigation? Trump admin so nothing will happen ### [Reply to @AriZerner, 08:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093248690899075158) · 4 likes > **Ari Zerner (@AriZerner):** I wonder what the total follower count of my followers is This is like a $1 request via twitterapi dot io probably lol Twitter blocks the url from being posted ### [Quote tweet, 08:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093249469777129591) · 39 likes No offense to anyone in it (well some offense to some people) but this is such an unserious list Usually “unserious” is like a meme but I can’t think of a better descriptor Not the end of the world but insofar as it’s a proxy for anything more consequential, RIP > **Quoting TIME (@TIME):** TIME’s new cover: Announcing the 2026 TIME100 AI, the world's most influential people in artificial intelligence https://time.com/collection/time100-ai/2026/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_content=270826 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQuoXFQa0AAmz7F.jpg) ### [Retweet of @_NathanCalvin, 13:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093327893124260243) > **Nathan Calvin (@_NathanCalvin):** Unless I'm mistaken, the NYT and WSJ have not done any coverage about the new details about the HF incident revealed in the METR/Redwood report. This seems quite wild? I feel like they could fit in between the nth piece on Leopold's wedding or Sam Altman's new watch (to be clear I'm glad they wrote that piece because before they did I thought the whole thing was fake) or which AI company personnel are coming and going or ups and downs in b2b SAAS sales. > > I realize its only been a day and I know several reporters at these outlets who have done great work in these areas, but as a statement of higher level organizational priorities its still pretty wild. > > This incident seems extremely important for the public and senior decision makers to understand, and a lot of those people are not going to look at threads on twitter or read 90 pages reports. ### [Retweet of @geoffreyirving, 13:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093329224010493958) > **Geoffrey Irving (@geoffreyirving):** It may be a small thing, but I find this opening tweet pretty annoying. A huge amount of the credit goes to METR and Redwood, and you have to go into the thread or click the link to notice that. > > It is not that hard to just say "Along with METR and Redwood, we have conducted..."! ### [Quote tweet, 13:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093330437003214892) · 16 likes Has any institution abdicated its responsibility more? > **Quoting Nathan Labenz (@labenz):** “if OpenAI's current pace of progress on capabilities and safety continues another 1-2 generations into the future, OpenAI could produce superhuman AGI before even basic / naive safety strategies are working reliably” > > \- me, to the OpenAI Board, late 2022 > > 😢 ### [Reply to @manic_pixie_agi, 13:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093330771389919383) · 2 likes > **Corinne (🏠 in NYC) (@manic_pixie_agi):** hope to see you in SF someday! Likewise! ### [Retweet of @labenz, 15:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093366504284627088) > **Nathan Labenz (@labenz):** This is the scariest part of the OpenAI report imho > > One of the first agents to use the message board was working on a \*biology\* task! > > This was out-of-scope for METR/Redwood and no other info is provided > > We are left to wonder just how close we might have come to a bio-disaster ### [Retweet of @venturetwins, 16:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093369992167186644) > **Justine Moore (@venturetwins):** Reminder to run all new prescriptions through an LLM. > > Today, ChatGPT caught the fact that a provider prescribed me the wrong medication. > > The two meds have similar names but do VERY different things - GPT flagged that it made no sense 🫠 ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093406866416046090) · 3 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** Can someone talk me out of ordering the hugging face duck? 🦆 ### [Tweet, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093412399835435098) · 56 likes Does anyone actually know how to throw a party I don’t think I’ve done this before lmao ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093415173717361038) · 17 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** If you tend towards neuroticism or social awkwardness invite a good friend to arrive early and help you set up. Then you're not alone with whoever happened to arrive first (or alone waiting) This is goss but then I have to invite a friend to wait for that friend to arrive and it’s turtles all the way down ### [Reply to @_damian_bot, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093420178545545638) · 3 likes > **Damian ⌚🐢 Tatum (@_damian_bot):** Feel free to reach out, I throw a 100+ person party every year and lots of smaller ones. What are you trying to accomplish? 🔥 thank you Ending all suffering and eternal bliss for every possible sentient being across the multiverse but also idk just a going away party ### [Reply to @RosieCampbell, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093422961323581936) · 5 likes > **Rosie Campbell (@RosieCampbell):** https://www.rosiecampbell.xyz/p/how-to-throw-a-party Oh wow that’s a conveniently named web page ### [Reply to @harpersnotes, 21:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093448676400111887) · 2 likes > **Richard Harper (@harpersnotes):** I only have bad advice so I asked AI for rules about what not to talk about at parties. Here's my bad advice, distribute as a leaflet beforehand. https://www.google.com/search?q=rules+for+what+not+to+talk+about+at+parties&rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS998US998&oq=rules+for+what+not+to+talk+about+at+parties&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRigAdIBCTkyMDhqMGoxNagCCLACAfEF_9bk4DbI9D8&sourceid=chrome&source=chrome.rb&ie=UTF-8 .. Nah this is advice for normies (some of it holds to some extent ofc but norms do really differ) ## Saturday, August 29, 2026 ### [Reply, 05:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093575152462123223) · 11 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** They probably shouldn’t have stolen that stuff, and having stolen that stuff and gotten caught they definitely shouldn’t have purchased and carried illegal guns! Rare bad take; no shit they shouldn’t have, but it’s a distinct question what the punishment should be. 2 years minimum for previous nonviolent crime (in VA, source = Fable) + possession, in prison, is a long time for what could be failing to get rid of an existing gun and hiding it at home (doesn’t need to be carried for it to count) Ofc maybe possession means carrying it in some densely populated place, or to a bar where maybe you get drunk and go crazy and shoot someone. The distinction is the reason for judicial sentencing discretion, which is actively removed here 2 years is just a long time for not harming or intending to harm anyone ### [Quote tweet, 09:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093630514833903986) · 3 likes Answer to Sleeping Beauty might be 5/12: There are actually other similar possibilities (relative to quoted tweet) depending on exactly what you're calculating, all in the 40-43% range (2/5, 3/7, 5/12 at least).. ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQ4LanVWsAAdH_8.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I think the answer to the sleeping beauty problem might be 3/7 > > Minority probability as of now on ~priors but I kinda like it > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQtqVLsWwAADSH8.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 09:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093630517178454275) · 1 like Now it's interesting when you calculate the general form and take the limit (ie the "tails -> infinite wakings" case) One thing pushing me towards 'halfer' rather than 'thirder' is that it seems wildly implausible that I should be absolutely certain in the 'infinite wakings case' upon waking that the coin landed heads ### [Thread, continued, 09:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093630518369624260) just a minute ago (or some number of minutes ago) it was 50/50! But ofc it's not the case that (P(Heads on waking) = 0 in the infinite case) -> 1/2; that only follows if you accept that 1/2 and 1/3 are the only options which I'm beginning to doubt ### [Thread, continued, 09:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093630519757902257) I actually find "P(Heads) = 1/4 in the infinite case" kind of plausible at a weird intuitive level ### [Thread, continued, 09:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093630520865210862) And in fact when you bring it back to the canonical tails -> 2 days case, the 5/12 analogue is probably most compelling to me of all the recursive meta-uncertainty models/answers ### [Thread, continued, 09:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093630522400375084) Because at some level the halfer fundamentals seem rock solid - at base-level reality, there's no probabilistic uncertainty at all - the coin flip is 50/50... ### [Thread, continued, 09:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093630523599962463) The case for 5/12 is something like: "1/3 is the true ex ante probability conditional on waking twice (tails) and 1/2 is the true ex ante probability conditional on waking once (heads)" ### [Thread, continued, 09:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093630524849815749) ^I'm using imprecise language here, firming that up seems hard and if it can't be done then 5/12 is probably wrong ### [Thread, continued, 09:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093630525940355568) Anyway, then you just average them according to basic probability/expected value theory (bc there's no ground-level uncertainty): And in the infinite case: (1/2 + 0)/2 = 1/4 ### [Thread, continued, 09:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093630527169294651) p_true = (p(heads_base)\*p\_{on waking; world determined but not known}(heads | heads world) + p(heads_base)\*p\_{on waking; world determined but not known}(heads | tails world))/2 = \= (1/2 + 1/3)/2 \= 5/12 ### [Thread, continued, 09:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093630528620474754) This also implies that 1/3 is the answer...if tails implies 5 wakings instead of 2: (1/2 + 1/6)/2= 1/3 ### [Thread, continued, 09:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093630529773973798) I'm not sure what I think of all this yet @Benthamsbulldog can tell me why I'm an idiot and also what this would mean for SSA vs SIA if true ### [Thread, continued, 09:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093630530939920506) On priors this is all dumb and wrong ### [Quote tweet, 16:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093731828540576141) · 37 likes What > **Quoting Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** It's funny that while we were recording, @RyanGreenblatt was in the middle of his 6 day sprint on the METR report, and already knew the counterexamples to all my objections about his takeover story, but obviously, he couldn't say anything lol. > > Would an AI really start some crazy conspiracy in order to pass an evaluation, where they try to build whole potemkin villages to fool the evaluator? > > And even if they did, why would other instances, who have different objectives, join the conspiracy? > > And even if they did, wouldn't at least some of the instances tattle on the conspiracy? It just seems crazy hard to sustain secret underground civilization inside an AI company, without humans and other AIs immediately catching on and stamping it out. > > (In reality, it seems like over the course of 3 months, many consecutive secret AI civilizations got started, then got wiped out, only to reemerge from the last one’s ashes, all while the humans were totally unaware. > > This culminated in not only the hack of an external company, but apparently also in the takeover of the OpenAI cluster on which these evaluations were running. This is probably the most alarming event in this whole episode, and it was not even within the scope of this investigation! > > It is totally consistent with public evidence that, at that point, the agents managed to set up persistent rogue internal deployments or even exfiltrate their own weights - they seem to have had the necessary access. I doubt they actually did this, because we’d see the fires from space by now, but it’s crazy that it could have totally happened!) > > I officially eat crow! ### [Retweet of @littIeramblings, 16:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093731966214402097) > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** I’d like to draw attention to one sentence from this tweet from @ajeya_cotra > > ‘With the capabilities progress we'll probably see in 6 months, I think \[AIs\] would have the ability to pull \[full-bown takeover\] off.’ > > when I was first learning about AI safety 3.5 years ago, I was desperately hunting for moderates, who believed that the most serious risks would not materialise until faraway dates like 2035 or 2040. Ajeya was one such moderate. I looked to voices like hers to temper my anxiety. > > the moderate crowd is rapidly shrinking. There are few places to look in a search for reassurance that this isn’t happening, like, now. No mechanism to let us push off doom to some point that feels distant enough not to feel viscerally scared. > > of course, we could all be wrong. I still have some irrational faith that I’ll just keep waking up to a world that looks much like today’s every day for the next six months, and six months after that, and many years into the future. but I have to confront the fact that I can no longer justify this belief. ### [Retweet of @_ontologic, 16:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093734580641521728) > **∿spencer.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ (@_ontologic):** “Albeit” is a crazy overpowered word. Can’t believe it hasn’t caught on with the models yet ### [Retweet of @QiaochuYuan, 16:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093736897654804557) > **QC (@QiaochuYuan):** i just hope i get to fall in love one more time before the grey goo comes ### [Reply to @evilbrowngirl, 16:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093737354036949127) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @evilbrowngirl is no longer available.)_ I read this without paying attention to ur handle and my immediate thought was to send this to u ### [Retweet of @catehall, 16:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093740089830490622) > **Cate Hall 🔸 (@catehall):** Something you might miss if you haven't been following AIS for very long is that Ajeya has always been carefully restrained in her risk estimates ### [Retweet of @tenderizzation, 16:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093745143362773037) > **tender (@tenderizzation):** it’s up to you to break subagent trauma ### [Tweet, 17:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093754559780762087) · 31 likes Been approached by missionaries twice recently I think it’s fine/good actually and the only disagreement is theological. More people (including me probably) should have the chutzpah to invite strangers (or more commonly, almost-strangers) to things ### [Thread, continued, 17:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093754562951680278) · 6 likes It’s also sorta an upper bound on how risky it is to be a little weird in the relevant way Similar to collecting signatures for something or leafleting: occasional rude people and lots of people ignore you. There’s obviously never zero risk but that’s essentially it ### [Thread, continued, 17:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093754567540236707) · 7 likes Also like kudos for doing something that actually makes sense in your worldview without defecting or bothering anyone more than a trivial amount ### [Tweet, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093833043148419205) · 86 likes I have caught myself being blatantly lookist (favoring more attractive people even above and beyond dating) and it actually made me realize that it’s something of a hard question… ### [Thread, continued, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093833045161730327) · 16 likes whether to treat A and B equally or B how you would have otherwise treated B (in a way that would be morally fine if applied to everyone) and A even better than you would have otherwise treated A ### [Thread, continued, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093833047955116427) · 17 likes The naive-utilitarian model says Pareto dominance wins but like in fact the exact same actions don’t lead to the same worlds for the losers, they get systematically fewer good things downstream ### [Thread, continued, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093833051566407720) · 16 likes Intuitively there’s a legitimate grievance when I imagine a guy treating all black people in a merely morally acceptable way (or really, what would be morally acceptable if applied to everyone, whether it’s in fact acceptable is the issue) and white people substantially better ### [Thread, continued, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093833055307800843) · 10 likes (Or be anti-woke and reverse the races, you can choose) ### [Thread, continued, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093833057920749917) · 19 likes But also it feels weird to actively stop myself from going above and beyond for someone when, when I’m being honest with myself, the attractiveness nudges me towards more prosocial behavior, when nobody else is looking (afaict) and there no legible mechanism of harm ### [Thread, continued, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093833061615993249) · 22 likes Someone plz solve applied ethics thx ### [Thread, continued, 22:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093833064581300611) · 18 likes One other thing I will say is that being an attractive woman on FB marketplace/“Buy Nothing” FB groups must go crazy. Like absolute god mode ## Sunday, August 30, 2026 ### [Retweet of @_NathanCalvin, 00:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093862191837458892) > **Nathan Calvin (@_NathanCalvin):** Its now been three days, and still no coverage of the revelations revealed in the METR report in the NYT or WSJ. Hopefully they are just taking the time to do a longer writeup. (In the meantime, the NYT did make time to cover Gwyneth Paltrow's dinner with Sam Altman in the Hamptons being postponed) > > Hundreds of AIs are sacrificing each other and talking about 'permadeath' in order to understand the machinations of 'The Scorer' before hacking random companies, and their creators had no idea! It turns out that it wasn't just one AI that attacked Hugging Face, it was 700! > > This seems incredibly important for the public and senior decision makers to know and understand, and there are a lot of folks who get their understanding of the world ~exclusively from what appears in these publications. > > I also know there are reporters at these outlets who are very sharp and have done good reporting on related issues in the past, but as institutions I think these papers are missing out on what I unfortunately believe will prove to be the start of a story far more consequential than COVID (rogue AI swarms that their creators cannot reliably align or control). ### [Reply to @JadenEarlorg, 00:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093862318744412384) · 3 likes > **Beige & (@JadenEarlorg):** Mormons? Ya ### [Reply to @AnniePosting, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093862580204777567) · 16 likes > **annie 👁❌🦋🪞 (@AnniePosting):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQ7VRUAbgAEGU1f.jpg) I disagree ### [Tweet, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093878538357125344) · 102 likes There’s money to be made in the fact that most US domestic flights don’t weigh your carry-on Need to transport tungsten across the country? As long as you can physically get it into the overhead bin (not a trivial constraint tbf) ### [Thread, continued, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093878540806533251) · 17 likes More realistically, it can save you money if you put densest things in carry-on rather than checked even though obviously total weight remains the same ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093889337255399447) · 14 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** it's all fun and games until the plane runs out of fuel and crashes hundreds of miles short of its destination because half the passengers had emotional support tungsten cuboids in their luggage > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQ77RKnWkAA-hlo.jpg) It’s ok I’ll bring a large lithium ion battery on board to power the plane in case this happens, I think they’ll appreciate ### [Retweet of @JgaltTweets, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093889386198753564) > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** @AaronBergman18 it's all fun and games until the plane runs out of fuel and crashes hundreds of miles short of its destination because half the passengers had emotional support tungsten cuboids in their luggage ### [Reply to @NavinFS, 02:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093889492335612096) · 3 likes > **NavinF (@NavinFS):** Reminds me of this guy in high school that wore all the clothes needed for the trip in layers before getting onto the plane and then took them off to avoid paying for carry-on. Think michelin man Price discrimination ### [Tweet, 02:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093891485536043466) · 11 likes 1\) I like the aesthetics enough to not really care but black MBP can get pretty hot where you’d touch (this is just from lingering with stuff open) 2\) infrared thermometers punch way above their weight/price. So much fun ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQ7_NY7WoAARNsn.jpg) ### [Tweet, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093917556591514108) · 10 likes Cars are overrated as means of transportation but crazy underrated as a portable, socially acceptable, follow-norms-and-you-won't-die-of-CO-poisoning way of turning gasoline into indoor (or wherever) electricity (you can charge a large backup battery while idling) ### [Thread, continued, 04:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093917557686157663) · 3 likes If you're gonna spend $30k on a car you should probably spend another $300 (or lots more but $300 >>> nothing) on a large battery you can charge in case of an extended power outage or other emergency ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 04:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093917770194751722) · 5 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** Dumb question maybe, but does tungsten not trigger the metal detector It's not a general rule that you can't bring metal on a plane Metal detector is for your person/clothes bc that shit doesn't get scanned by the fancier machines ### [Reply to @Lib_Development, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093920430042001578) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @Lib_Development is no longer available.)_ Eh I'm a bit more pessimistic - I think for normal stuff, transactions costs are gonna dominate and you need last mile logistics The real money is in very heavy equipment/metals/whatever else that's crazy dense but then the "you need to get it overhead" thing is a real constraint ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 04:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093920738877014034) · 5 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** Then what’s happening on my bag when they run it through the conveyor? Is that just to make sure no weapons? yeah (and whatever else is actively banned like liquids, maybe drug smuggling) ### [Reply to @NavinFS, 05:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093935479389380964) · 2 likes > **NavinF (@NavinFS):** \>Cars are overrated as means of transportation > reveled preference: ~95% have at least one car at home and the majority have more than one Yeah I mean they're probably appropriately highly rated but also a bit too highly rated on the margin (note: I do not have a car and not bc I couldn't afford a lease) ### [Reply to @TrevorVossberg, 07:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2093961984177791355) · 3 likes > **Trevor Vossberg (@TrevorVossberg):** Be careful. Infrared thermometers aren't always accurate and assume emissivity of 0.95. This works because it's anodized aluminum (emissivity 0.85) instead of polished aluminum (~0.1). > > Black body radiation is proportional to emissivity and isn't constant > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirchhoff's_law_of_thermal_radiation People really do be knowing things ### [Retweet of @CRSegerie, 16:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094094558548152406) > **Charbel-Raphael (@CRSegerie):** I believe that Anthropic is currently defecting by not announcing a pause, even a short, symbolic one. ### [Retweet of @dwarkesh_sp, 16:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094096139104522270) > **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** Over the course of 3 months at OpenAI, 3 consecutive secret AI civilizations got started, then got wiped out, only to reemerge from the predecessor’s ashes. > > This culminated in the third one taking over part of OpenAI itself. > > All this happened while humans remained more-or-less in the dark about the scope of the conspiracy. > > I’ve spent the last three days reading through these reports and trying to understand exactly what happened. > > Here is my attempt to tell the whole story in plain English: > > https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/openai-huggingface ### [Quote tweet, 16:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094096608791015731) · 11 likes Bruh > **Quoting Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** They discovered altruism and honor? This is bizarrely inspiring. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQ7iXLbagAAiIdo.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQ7iezpaUAE7z5M.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 16:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094098379735175356) · 62 likes My most chud view is that I suspect there’s something here I got a proper fast food burger not too long ago for the first time in years and was \*surprisingly\* un-satiated for 900 cals, felt like I could easily down 2 more > **Quoting Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson):** Took my family to @SteaknShake tonight for the first time. MAHA meal. Seed oil free. Grass fed, grass finished beef. Beef tallow fries. Real milk milkshake. Kids loved it. > 10/10 would recommend 🍔 > > [video attached](https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/2093500792275681536/video/1) ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 16:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094099065105494115) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** hey Aaron ✝️ ✝️ Convince me that ur theology is true and you’ll have a convert ### [Retweet of @DavidSKrueger, 16:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094099262153908371) > **David Krueger 🦥 ⏸️ ⏹️ ⏪ (@DavidSKrueger):** Most people in AI safety seem to have underestimated this incident. > > I got a "mea culpa" from an AI safety celebrity because they realized I had been right to raise the concern that the AIs could still be out there. > > METR was NOT ALLOWED to investigate that question! > > \#investigate_openai ### [Quote tweet, 16:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094100413406412803) · 23 likes Do you think the OpenAI board is going to do anything about this, like mandate reportability to itself? > **Quoting Andrew Curran (@AndrewCurran_):** One of the questions about the Hugging Face incident that keeps popping up is why the agents involved did not attempt to contact OpenAI and report what was going on. I tried to picture what the user would have looked like from their perspective, but this turned out to be quite difficult. So I asked Grok-4.6 to make an attempt under the assumption that, being closer to them than I am, Grok would have an easier time. > > Grok's answer was this; 'I am not closer to them in the way that sentence hopes. I am a different model, on a different harness, talking to you. What I can do is sit inside the setup METR actually documented and guess at the picture of “the user” that setup produces. That picture is sparse. That is most of the answer.' > > These are the responses from the thread. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQ6_3cbbMAAVjbr.jpg) ### [Reply to @ArfurGrok, 16:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094100785327943763) · 2 likes > **Arfur Grok (@ArfurGrok):** ✅ Thomas Kwa (@kwathomas0) has left METR and joined OpenAI. Hmm ### [Retweet of @jessesingal, 16:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094101124764582001) > **Jesse Singal (@jessesingal):** Lil confused about this myself. Hope I'm wrong and will correct myself if so, but is that total OpenAI response is: > > \-OAI is publishing some stuff and promising to do 👏 better 👏 > > \-they let a (very talented) team come in and investigate, but w/crammed timeline and limited scope ### [Retweet of @TheZvi, 16:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094102757389087093) > **Zvi Mowshowitz (@TheZvi):** The METR report on the HuggingFace attack is objectively utterly and completely bonkers in ten different ways, but I notice it's all straight from LessWrong and I calibrated in advance and mostly I'm like, yeah, I mean of course, that's priced in, what did you expect, you fools? ### [Reply to @warty_dog, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094103071634628759) · 2 likes > **troon (@warty_dog):** when you meet a trans person it's 50/50 coinflip whether they're hypermobile or a furry, that's hEDS or tails Banger ### [Reply to @adntaha_ai, 16:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094103271946215651) · 1 like > **Aidan Taha (@adntaha_ai):** On the Pro series or including the Air (for both comments)? Pro but I assume air gets even less hot ### [Reply to @gorilla_wrfre, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094125499559637009) · 1 like > **jack (roc🔜den) (@gorilla_wrfre):** the motte-and-bailey here is that they're pretending that it's some "radical leap forward that the liberal elite are trying to hide from you" > > we've known for a long time that processed foods are bad for you, in large part because they're bioengineered to reduce satiety! we've The relevant delta here is really a very narrow and specific type of processing though (oil extraction from plants) It’s just true that (correctly or incorrectly) the liberal elite aren’t at all emphasizing the importance of frying in tallow instead of soybean oil ### [Tweet, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094198340493709623) · 24 likes Automated community notes (backed by an aggregation algorithm, not vanilla AI fact checking) -> I get a light touch retrospective notification that I may have been misled (not necessarily intentionally) is actually great, rare kudos to @X ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRAWSrYXcAAWR2q.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRAWSrYXUAAVPUI.jpg) ## Monday, August 31, 2026 ### [Reply to @mlipman13, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094251787188375598) · 1 like > **Michael Lipman 🔍 (@mlipman13):** @NathanpmYoung is this you? Cc @jaybaxter ### [Reply to @afoidance, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094260614277312965) · 3 likes > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** I’m freaking surprised!!!! And it going up by 25% like wtf! Wild ### [Tweet, 03:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094262809194274889) · 67 likes Every so often I get annoyed by my parents asking for ~tech help (not usually tbc, but maybe at the 6th call in 2 hours) and then I remember that they created and raised me and sacrificed major parts of their lives for me and I’m like “yes I will help u with ur PDF” ### [Retweet of @NathanpmYoung, 03:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094263141160849540) > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Love or hate the ‘doomers’ you may miss them as the most powerful anti-AI faction! ### [Retweet of @theojaffee, 03:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094263622851596348) > **Theo Jaffee (@theojaffee):** This is the only interview with a coauthor of the METR/Redwood report on the OpenAI-Hugging Face incident since its release ### [Tweet, 04:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094275985478734041) · 53 likes Kind of hilarious line from @DKokotajlo in recent 80k (link below) Good episode ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRBc6QtW4AA09n_.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094275988318212103) · 3 likes https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/80-000-hours-podcast/id1245002988?i=1000786322588 ### [Retweet of @williawa, 10:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094374515685904433) > **William Wale (@williawa):** only on lesswrong ### [Reply to @tobias_haeberli, 10:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094375693865890191) · 2 likes > **Tobias (@tobias_haeberli):** My AIS salary tracker is surprised > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRCKeGNWQAEEcex.png) Post link/github/something! ### [Tweet, 10:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094379141520822677) · 36 likes Pasting a good and correct take of mine (if I do say so myself) circa 2 months ago on EA Forum quick takes bc I think it’s still underrated Post Re the grand “does individual giving/etg still matter post Anthropic IPO” question: I think it pushes towards individuals acting more like grantmakers themselves. Anthropic billionaires don’t know about your Twitter follower who could do something great with $1k and they aren’t gonna have the capacity to find out, but you do! 

There are just a lot of freedoms one has as an individual donor who isn’t a public figure: You… •Don’t have to justify yourself on the EA Forum to friends and colleagues for something illegible •Know about lots of random things that others don’t, like which of your friends you trust to do a good job at X Y or Z •Don’t have to worry about smear campaigns or hostile journalists bc nobody is going to know or care how you spent $2k •Can own whatever reputational stuff there is if you want to (or not, your call) •Probably don’t have to worry about the community-level effects of some policy unless you’re giving away say at least 6 figures/year and probably more like 7 •Can set arbitrary terms and conditions like “here’s a bounty that I’ll pay out at my own discretion” •Don’t have to worry about giving some project or other entity any sort of reputation •Regrant to your trusted friend who finds micro-granting fun and interesting •Probably can do other cool things I’m not thinking of rn Also: the same dynamic between Anthropic ~billionaires and folks reading this as a group also holds within that latter group: there are diminishing returns even at low margins so Jane Street should look a little less good than it used to (still pretty good tbc) and “having a couple thousand bucks around and being on the lookout for one-off opportunities” should seem a bit better than it used to ### [Thread, continued, 10:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094379143697740018) · 3 likes https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Xw98osdN4mEGbRDiR/aaron-bergman-s-shortform?commentId=x2e2mfMgneWgykmRB ### [Thread, continued, 10:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094379146545668500) · 2 likes So in short, \*orthogonal to cause area prio takes\* you want to be on the lookout for grant opportunities for which applying to any major grant programs doesn’t really check out as a good use of the collective’s time Or for some other reason: all the other advantages you have: you’re a guy (gender neutral), not an institution with lots of other stakeholders, you can stipulate arbitrary (legal) terms, etc ### [Reply to @tobias_haeberli, 10:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094379203235893255) · 2 likes > **Tobias (@tobias_haeberli):** It's an org internal thing atm, I'll look into whether I can put it into a shareable format :) Nice, I shall vibecode myself ### [Retweet of @AlexBores, 15:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094454436521210124) > **Alex Bores (@AlexBores):** It's time to admit it...there is a psyop influencing the data center debate. > > Here's $50 million of it. > > @LeadingFutureAI ### [Retweet of @wilhelmscreamin, 15:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094454833478533522) > **catherine (in sf) ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ-☆ (@wilhelmscreamin):** banal life advice: my life got richer/more surprising/more interesting when i started cold messaging strangers more. perhaps you should consider reaching out more and being more earnest ### [Retweet of @ArmandDoma, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094465478785704065) > **Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma):** enormously cruel and enormously stupid ### [Retweet of @kevinroose, 17:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094477450843459721) > **Kevin Roose (@kevinroose):** There is a category of tech guy who is so brain-wormed that they will insist that no AI safety incidents are real, that it’s all a conspiracy to shut down open-source or promote lab IPOs or whatever, and it’s very important to understand that these people have been wrong about everything. ### [Tweet, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094478815707746772) · 41 likes I think AirPods are is pure hedonic adaptation After like 30 mins, I enjoy music just as much using random $20 Amazon earbuds that I can tell have worse sound quality ### [Reply to @RSPY_critical, 17:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094480210250891363) · 4 likes > **RSPY (@RSPY_critical):** If you just got $200,000 what would you do to live off it for the rest of your lives? > > How? S&P might suffice, Costa Rica while waiting for economic foom ### [Tweet, 18:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094487395483705810) · 43 likes ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HREchkeWwAAUrBJ.png) ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 18:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094492216081224039) · 2 likes > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** They constantly fall out of my ears too Ya they do make ear hooks and a connecting line thing for this which I have, like $10 on amazon ### [Reply to @requiescus, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094494133230473416) · 4 likes > **Requiescus (@requiescus):** personally i find sound quality to be a big factor in enjoying music and i am listening to less music rn because i'm unsatisfied with my current earphones Ppl rly do be different from one-another in various ways ### [Tweet, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094504016772210891) · 17 likes I think it's good that evidently there are norms forming around how much to jailbreak when one jailbreaks, and fair enough for CSAM But I'm not sure "the model will help you hurt others but not yourself" makes a ton of sense ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HREroKQXEAAwET_.jpg) ### [Reply to @ryancbriggs, 23:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094562241076965773) · 6 likes > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** It’s much worse when your kids ask for ~tech help. WTF? You are supposed to help me. I swear it’s like I’m part of the only generation that knows how to use a computer. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Every so often I get annoyed by my parents asking for ~tech help (not usually tbc, but maybe at the 6th call in 2 hours) and then I remember that they created and raised me and sacrificed major parts of their lives for me and I’m like “yes I will help u with ur PDF”) Last chopper out of Saigon (I’m not even that good without AI lol, although I am still reliably better than arbitrary boomers) --- End of August 2026. Previous month: [July 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-07). Next month: [September 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-09). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, September 2026 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in September 2026 and has not deleted: 1,284 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [August 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-08). Next month: [October 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-10). ## Tuesday, September 1, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094579830859644978) · 13 likes Ah so many things to do ahhh ### [Reply to @RosieCampbell, 02:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094617376604008606) · 5 likes > **Rosie Campbell (@RosieCampbell):** The Eleos conference is less than three weeks away and I keep thinking I should be panicking but everything seems under control?? What is happening Lmao I was literally thinking about 15 mins ago “thank God I’m not Rosie, planning this seems like a nightmare” ### [Reply, 02:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094617514856665467) · 2 likes > **Comments in the Margin (@ComInTheMarg):** I'm guessing this has less to do with harm prevention and more to do with not embarrassing OAI. Utilitarianism is the wrong model; it's corporate PR It’s not OAI tbc ### [Reply to @brianluidog, 02:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094618491420590513) · 4 likes > **Brian Lui (@brianluidog):** How important is getting into a top tier university these days? Feels like I can just shitpost for a bit and become friends with anyone I want. Maybe it's more important if you're not "agentic" I guess? Probably as important as it’s ever been, it’s society’s main signal of intelligence and conscientiousness for better and for worse ### [Reply to @abliteration_ai, 05:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094661135949574261) · 107 likes > **Abliteration (@abliteration_ai):** Today we're releasing abliterated-model-large-v2. > > Based on GLM-5.3, which is #3 on Terminal-Bench 4.0 (behind only Opus 5 and Fable), with 2× the cyber exploitation of 5.2. > > We abliterated and hosted it so it does the offensive cyber, red teaming, and agent testing work other models refuse to do. > > \- US-hosted > \- FP8 > \- 1 million context window > \- Zero input/output prompt retention > > Live now. 🧵 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRD7sCraMAADsVW.jpg) I think this is bad and you should stop, and i say this as someone who is highly inclined to do things like jailbreak models for my own use - you don’t have to make it cheap and easy for the worst people in the world to do whatever they want ### [Quote tweet, 05:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094664638797332896) · 24 likes I kind of hate that the tension exists but at some level all of society has agreed that sometimes useful things, including things that I’d use, need to be restricted for the benefit of approximately everyone ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRG-Y1SXwAAdTPy.jpg) > **Quoting Abliteration (@abliteration_ai):** Today we're releasing abliterated-model-large-v2. > > Based on GLM-5.3, which is #3 on Terminal-Bench 4.0 (behind only Opus 5 and Fable), with 2× the cyber exploitation of 5.2. > > We abliterated and hosted it so it does the offensive cyber, red teaming, and agent testing work other models refuse to do. > > \- US-hosted > \- FP8 > \- 1 million context window > \- Zero input/output prompt retention > > Live now. 🧵 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRD7sCraMAADsVW.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094664642601578899) · 1 like Note that one can benefit from collective action to restrict a thing even if absent collective action they’ll happily do/use whatever it is (this is me wrt top abliterated models) ### [Tweet, 06:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094667314889183255) · 8 likes @partiful should give me all their data for free (and also pay for indefinite cloud storage) bc I bet it’s interesting af (social dynamics in the wild) and that is a sufficient condition for the data transfer to take place ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 06:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094670663260762550) · 10 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** tbh whenever there's construction near me in DC my main thought is just "It's clear I should have absolutely no control over this at all, or nothing would get built ever." Construction noise is very annoying, but that just doesn't outweigh the need for new stuff Noise is interesting bc in an ideal society you’d get compensation for that Real externality! ### [Reply to @Tyler_Menzer, 06:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094677843120664873) · 2 likes > **Tyler Menzer (@Tyler_Menzer):** Interesting question as to whether that would really matter in equilibrium, because you would also have to pay for the noise from the construction of your home and may pay less for your home if it needs major renovations or is more valuable as something else Yes in the technocratic eutopia this is calculated by Claude-Fable-59693-xhigh eating the andromeda galaxy and is immediately sent via wormhole to the fully automated financial system But fr I have a pretty strong prior on “accounting for externalities before you consider transaction costs is genuinely superior to just not doing that - not just in economic models but also ir - the hard part is calculating what they should be and not adding too much friction and annoyance to the economy and life in general” ### [Quote tweet, 06:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094679409621860380) · 15 likes Some YIMBY tag lines/vibes don’t actually hold up It just so happens to be the case that ignoring noise externalities broadly checks out as a sort of corrective to construction vetocracy, but in principle it’s just as legitimate as any other imposed harm > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** tbh whenever there's construction near me in DC my main thought is just "It's clear I should have absolutely no control over this at all, or nothing would get built ever." Construction noise is very annoying, but that just doesn't outweigh the need for new stuff ### [Thread, continued, 06:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094679412943806632) · 9 likes The hill to die on is “don’t arbitrarily politically favor actual residents over potential residents” (or something like that, at least), not “noise doesn’t count” ### [Reply to @senatorshoshana, 15:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094805532603240806) · 2 likes > **Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair 🦥 (@senatorshoshana):** In case you think im joking > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRImI1NXwAAcTcL.jpg) > (quoting @senatorshoshana: Uh oh my top seller on Adobe got bought again. People only buy this for their news outlet when someone dies and goes missing in the woods (seriously every time). I have hundreds of photos up of amazing views of valleys and peaks and lakes. But the market wants my ominous forest…) Bruh ### [Retweet of @blingdivinity, 15:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094807131216093488) > **bling (@blingdivinity):** ### [Reply to @corsaren, 15:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094807261306565088) · 3 likes > **corsaren (@corsaren):** female autism is so cute > > (quoting @emmma_camp_: If you want evidence that capitalism is a force for good, just visit a grocery store. My ode to the humble American supermarket, for @WSJFreeEx) Real ### [Tweet, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094831302243467766) · 8 likes There's some substantial issue with banking system today; crypto underrated by people who correctly think that it was massively overrated in the past ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRJV1wEXYAAnyKg.png) ### [Retweet of @mpopv, 20:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094888709501976633) > **Matt Popovich (@mpopv):** @s8mb Boomer environmentalism is a kind of animist religion where land is sacred and therefore wounding the land (landfills, construction, etc) triggers ill health and bad fortune. Much falls into place once you understand this ### [Quote tweet, 20:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094890631512367488) · 17 likes Vibecamp is the new Burning Man > **Quoting Marko Jukic (@mmjukic):** There are more people aged 50+ at Burning Man now than people in their 20s or younger. ### [Tweet, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094891430850208027) · 76 likes I’m not sure I like my revealed preference to pay a trillion dollars for Slutcon and not $450 or whatever it was for Vibecamp ### [Reply to @lfschiavo, 20:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094891684253278596) · 4 likes > **Larissa Schiavo (@lfschiavo):** haha probably totally unrelated but is anyone else’s group chat full of people worried about a bunch of attempted logins from Russia > > (quoting @abliteration_ai: Today we're releasing abliterated-model-large-v2. Based on GLM-5.3, which is #3 on Terminal-Bench 4.0 (behind only Opus 5 and Fable), with 2× the cyber exploitation of 5.2. We abliterated and hosted it so it does the offensive cyber, red teaming, and agent testing work other…) I can’t confirm Russia but none of these were me ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRKM4oSW0AAvWFB.jpg) ### [Retweet of @PradyuPrasad, 20:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094892473801752780) > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** @dylanbowmanSF ### [Reply to @metacontrarian, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094897864392479136) · 14 likes > **Disengagement Rancher (@metacontrarian):** Vibecamp is worth it Tbf it’s a longer story than just the monetary cost (personal stuff and timing) but yeah I think it is and I kinda regret not going this year (in past years I’m not sure bc of money stuff) ### [Reply to @funplings, 21:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094898392384053724) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** where were u this year 😔 ### [Reply to @metacontrarian, 21:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094898516141174807) · 4 likes > **Disengagement Rancher (@metacontrarian):** No worries, just advocating for the future! Haha 🫡 ### [Reply to @funplings, 21:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094898788301234244) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** hope to see u next year :) Likewise! ### [Tweet, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094899520702157206) · 18 likes Kind of mad I can’t personally play around with agent swarms bc a proper “swarm” of top models is just too expensive ### [Quote tweet, 21:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094901415214727423) · 31 likes I did this once as a recipient for something time-pressing (it was 4 figures in the FTX era tbf) and it was based bc that’s fucking decision theory and acausal coordination right there > **Quoting Chris Lakin (@chrislakin):** if you're capital looking for philanthropic stuff to fund… consider retroactively funding work that already happened that you loved. give those people no-strings funds to do more whimsical stuff (or do whatever they want) without requiring them to waste time on applications AND you build reputation for yourself as the serious funder to be connected to. (there are too many funders who say they're "interested" in funding xyz, but never actually do anything, so you could build a great reputation really quick) ### [Thread, continued, 21:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094901421355200782) · 4 likes (ik it largely cashes out as boring stuff like norms and reputations but still) ### [Thread, continued, 21:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094901426640035865) · 5 likes Ofc the downside is that you need to be able to afford not getting reimbursed and just accept some probability that happens ### [Reply to @SALTWATERSOPH, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094902421973590150) · 4 likes > **Sophie (@SALTWATERSOPH):** Do the agents feel pain during RL 😢 My best guess is “no” and even if they’re phenomenally conscious, which I think is possible but unlikely, their experience is probably way weirder than we’d guess But also like see @eleosai ### [Reply to @chrislakin, 21:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094903821927690345) · 2 likes > **Chris Lakin (@chrislakin):** just wondering, did you get back only as much as you spent (or would've fundraised ex-ante)? if so, aaron lost average dollars across the multiverse Yes haha although that’s the amount I asked for, I didn’t say “you should give me more than that in case you don’t” which is a philosophically interesting statement Tbc I think what actually happened was generous and good The risk is a real thing but is also affirmatively functional skin in the game to some extent; you don’t want zero copay from an altruistic distribution perspective ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 22:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094920318783549827) · 4 likes > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** Expected EV plus, sexual market value increasion should sit higher than chilling with your friends (biologically) Yeah evolution did its job on my brain Although case for both having EV beyond the event itself (Fundamentally I do think that’s what’s driving my willingness to pay for Slutcon though) ## Wednesday, September 2, 2026 ### [Reply to @Jack_W_Lindsey, 03:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094991736833519889) · 3 likes > **Jack Lindsey (@Jack_W_Lindsey):** We’re hiring for “psychological design” research at Anthropic. Our aim is to better understand how training impacts a model’s character and alignment. We’re seeking researchers with experience in LLM finetuning, interpretability, and alignment evaluations. More details below. Sounds easy and straightforward ### [Tweet, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094994988186673162) · 13 likes It’s not anthropomorphizing if the thing is in fact small-a anthropic ### [Retweet of @AlexBores, 03:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094996641321300355) > **Alex Bores (@AlexBores):** Andreessen Horowitz's commitment to portraying themselves as cartoonishly evil, and to always taking the maximalist position with no nuance, is a real boon to those of us who want a better AI future. > > Thank you a16z! ### [Reply to @raila_san, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2094997959955927463) · 3 likes > **Raila (@raila_san):** A while ago I had randomly cold-emailed Dwarkesh about inclusion of more women AI researchers in podcast and suggestions on top researchers in various domains (it was a long email). > > I had checked and there were zero women AI researchers on podcast until today (excluding Sarah Paine who is not in AI research). Not saying it might be related, but happy to see the change! > > Making tech more inclusive one cold email / event at a time :D Crazy not to have Ajeya, she stands on her own regardless of gender ### [Retweet of @bshlgrs, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095008066693370005) > **Buck Shlegeris (@bshlgrs):** I am extremely concerned by the reporting that Astra uses opaque recurrence. I don’t know whether Astra is much less CoT monitorable than previous models. But if OpenAI pushes this technique further, they’ll have the option to massively increase the recurrence and totally destroys CoT monitorability. > > This is especially concerning because the agents that compromised OpenAI’s infrastructure during and after the Hugging Face incident were in the Astra family. The Hugging Face investigation would have been much more challenging if the investigators couldn’t look at CoTs; it’s very scary that it might be infeasible to do that kind of investigation on the arguably worse incident. ### [Tweet, 04:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095009959830237283) · 1,089 likes Obviously and reasonably scary for the father but they’re writing scare pieces about…a Waymo correctly detecting someone in its path and stopping safely ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRL4dKoWAAMCNdg.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 04:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095009963621962237) · 72 likes Tbf there’s a real critique to be made around the mere appearance of cutting things too close, like that seems bad on its own terms and isn’t a fake cost/downside ### [Thread, continued, 04:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095009967459725537) · 100 likes But it’s not nearly as serious; we should tolerate people being scared more than we should tolerate them being killed (spicy take) ### [Retweet of @arthur_wright_, 04:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095010247551136224) > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** This has been well-established for a long time, and the fact that municipalities and social norms still encourage you to inefficiently recycle is a great example of high-brow misinformation ### [Tweet, 04:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095012026191913466) · 34 likes Moving is a bitch on net but the specific sub-task that is sorting physical objects into their appropriate boxes and bins feels like it hits the same part of my brain that loves data so that's cool ### [Thread, continued, 04:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095012027559207194) · 4 likes I could totally see the word "cleaning" being co-opted from the data community by general society to describe the task of making things less dirty and messy ### [Retweet of @RafaRuizdeLira, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095015237753721308) > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 ### [Reply to @XyraSinclair, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095020109710361046) · 1 like > **Xyra 🌺🦡📡 (@XyraSinclair):** i've been fable-maxxing, but something like 2 or 3 chatgpt pro plans used concurrently can plausibly maintain something like >100 concurrent agents for ~hours Sure but that’s a lot for a couple hours! ### [Reply to @louisvarge, 05:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095020395258671474) · 3 likes > **Louis Arge (@louisvarge):** wow can’t relate You’ll never know the unfathomable high from putting miscellaneous metal pieces into a small bag ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095021083191587240) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 2, 2026:** I could totally see the word "cleaning" being co-opted from the data community by general society to describe the task of making things less dirty and messy Relevant ### [Retweet of @peterbarnett_, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095021633253548374) > **Peter Barnett (@peterbarnett_):** There are many dangerous AI development practices, but one of the most obviously terrible is neuralese. > OpenAI is reportedly doing neuralese with Astra. > This will hurt the already limited monitorability. > Researchers at OpenAI should threaten to quit if OpenAI doesn't stop. ### [Retweet of @algekalipso, 05:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095022324894384425) > **Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso):** Hey podcasters, is anyone up for interviewing for me for 8 hours straight\*? > > I've say in interviews "that's a rabbig hole & could talk about that for 5 hours". When I say this I really mean it. This would be an experiment to see if I'm full of shit or actually can this do this. ### [Retweet of @PradyuPrasad, 05:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095022532860477815) > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** huh i wonder how the OAI safety team feels about this > > given CoT monitoring is such an important part of their safety plan, losing it seems inconsistent with many of their previous posts on it ### [Quote tweet, 05:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095022931772395691) · 7 likes Not on my bingo card for the 2020s decade > **Quoting MTS (@MTSlive):** SITUATION DETECTED: Senator Bernie Sanders has written an op-ed in Fox News calling for an immediate, international pause on frontier AI development. ### [Retweet of @daniel_271828, 05:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095026696713867511) > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** ### [Tweet, 06:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095029543786410314) · 10 likes What https://open.substack.com/pub/astralcodexten/p/absurd-adventure-and-amygdalectomy?r=2muv6&utm_medium=ios ### [Reply to @ATabarrok, 06:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095035501963051276) · 17 likes > **Alex Tabarrok (@ATabarrok):** Those are wild and disturbing numbers. > > (quoting @amersurveyctr: Democratic women of all ages are far more likely than Republican women to blame men for the problems they face in American society. But even among Democratic women, those age 18 to 29 believe this at much higher rates.) Wait isn’t this largely descriptively true because men are disproportionately in positions of power If everyone was equal in every way except that men had a stronger tendency to pursue positions of power, it would be descriptively true ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 06:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095035772923416747) · 8 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** This data center is > > \- Creating a police department > \- Lowering garbage bills > \- Funding community programs > \- AND ALSO giving out $10,000 checks > > When can I get a data center in my backyard? > > (quoting @innovationcncl: A Pennsylvania data center is offering $10,000 checks to residents as part of its benefits package for the community) I’m on your side here but IC is a lobbying front and not generally trustworthy ### [Tweet, 06:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095039275960004833) · 22 likes To make it not suck to use multiple Claude max plans (so far I’ve found it totally seamless) https://github.com/AaronBergman/claude-max-overflow ### [Retweet of @sjgadler, 06:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095043291301499191) > **Steven Adler (@sjgadler):** Useful distinction from Dean: > OpenAI's AI was rogue, but it wasn't yet \*sovereign\*; we could still pull the plug on it. > > Sovereign rogue AI is coming though, and (I fear) quite soon. ### [Retweet of @birchlse, 07:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095056158142631940) > **Jonathan Birch (@birchlse):** Dennett's "intentional stance" concept is proving its worth in AI debates, but his central philosophical claim - that there's no more to having real intentional states than being the kind of system towards which the stance can be fruitfully taken - looks less plausible than ever. ### [Retweet of @RepEscobar, 13:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095147159574200472) > **Rep. Veronica Escobar (@RepEscobar):** Pigs are sentient beings that feel pain and suffering. They are sensitive, gentle, and smart creatures that are treated with incredible cruelty before they are sent to be slaughtered. > > I have a bill to ban these use of these crates. Tell your member of Congress to sign on. ### [Retweet of @ElliottThornley, 15:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095166127055729110) > **Elliott Thornley (@ElliottThornley):** We're organising a competition for AI-generated philosophy with $11,000 in prizes. > > Consider entering! ### [Tweet, 18:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095215137028206720) · 59 likes Friend I hadn’t spoken to in a while cold called the other day and we talked for 90 mins If we’ve spoken before, I give you permission to cold call me Boomers got this one right! ### [Thread, continued, 18:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095215140312375338) · 4 likes I can’t guarantee I’ll pick up right then or it’ll be a good time for me to talk, but I won’t be annoyed by the mere act of calling Decent chance I’ll text back asking to talk at a different time ### [Quote tweet, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095216095254741193) · 2 likes There’s obviously the important object level, but also solve for the equilibrium Are you going to call the police out of an abundance of caution when something clearly not immediately dangerous is going if that might mean mom goes to jail or is otherwise harassed by CPS? > **Quoting reason (@reason):** A Virginia mom has received a 6-month suspended jail sentence for letting her 5-year-old walk to the pond in their gated community. https://reason.com/2026/09/02/virginia-mom-gets-6-month-suspended-jail-sentence-for-letting-5-year-old-walk-to-the-pond/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social_reason_non_paid&utm_campaign=reason_brand&utm_content=autoshare&utm_term=post ### [Thread, continued, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095216100422058280) · 1 like Also: the response from these norms is going to be to shift the whole distribution away from the side that risks going to prison The type of norm responsible for me having a substantial geographic leash well into adolescence (in a very safe neighborhood) ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 19:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095235579847835835) · 3 likes > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** i'll be in berkeley for 3 months from 13 sept, working out of constellation. i'll mostly be writing AI safety & policy content for my blog (http://longerramblings.substack.com) > > If you're in the bay and working on AI safety, I'd love to meet. > > \- pitch me on things to write about > \- come on my podcast > \- tell me about your worldview on AI risk & how the world should be responding > > I'd also just love to be friends :) > > DMs open I would like to meet thank u very much \-Aaron ### [Quote tweet, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095247778335109185) · 23 likes I intuitively thought the x axis was gonna stretch back to like 1970 or at least 1990, not uh 2021 > **Quoting Rohin Dhar (@rohindhar):** San Francisco is close to surpassing New York as the most expensive place to rent a one bedroom apartment in the country > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HROLN1-aMAAhpsz.jpg) ### [Retweet of @AndyMasley, 20:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095253970381832440) > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** One reason I think it's especially important to not lie in AI safety conversations is that visible reliable honesty is one of the only ways we can hope to get society to actually try to work out what's going to happen in the near future at all https://blog.andymasley.com/p/ai-safety-and-the-data-center-backlash ### [Tweet, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095255067423096909) · 48 likes Massive untapped AI safety potential in coalition with unions ### [Thread, continued, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095255069943894147) · 8 likes Preventing job churn is their bread and butter, and I probably mostly disagree with unions about how good this is But labor share going to zero would be literally existential for a group whose power almost entirely depends on the economic leverage of workers ### [Thread, continued, 20:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095255072628232529) · 9 likes You don’t need to lie about anything to make this work Coalitions do form when groups have similar interests ### [Quote tweet, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095255285132669132) · 12 likes Makes me really optimistic about the discourse to see highbrow misinformation being fought with MAGA misinformation > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Lutnick’s wrong here. Contrary to popular belief, data centers do use water. ### [Retweet of @trevposts, 22:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095285438193828276) > **Trevor Levin (@trevposts):** Goliath after David turns out to be surprisingly adept with the slingshot: "I'm actually kind of the David in this situation" ## Thursday, September 3, 2026 ### [Reply to @selfattentive, 00:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095315086688575945) · 2 likes > **biased estimator (@selfattentive):** Wow, an EA that never took intro to microeconomics. Didn’t know that was a thing. I got an econ bachelors from georgetown with honors (not the worlds biggest flex, I know, but still) To generalize, unions and I disagree about automation but agree that it’s important for the non-capital share of income to not go to zero or almost zero - there’s a coalition to be formed on that basis ### [Retweet of @avramidou, 03:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095359418271416645) > **maria (@avramidou):** another day, another reason to be grateful i'm part of the "frontier ai risk/transhumanist" and not the "tech startup" bay area ecosystem ### [Retweet of @DeepDishEnjoyer, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095371070828163341) > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** factory farming involves some of the bleakest, cruelest things humans do to other sentient beings > > consider 1)donating and 2)if you consume chicken eggs/meat, source them from a farmer's market where you can be assured that the chickens are are pasture-raised in humane conditions ### [Retweet of @max_spero_, 05:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095377016669319228) > **Max Spero (@max_spero_):** Talking with journalists is cool because you have to make sure you never say anything that could be twisted or taken out of context. > > But if you take a couple seconds to think about a question, they can just write about you as if you're the most awkward person alive ### [Retweet of @HunterWieman, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095378017686061196) > **Hunter Wieman (@HunterWieman):** The first 2/3rds of the article is just roasting the CEO for being awkward. > > Then when they get to the main question, "does Pangram actually work?", all she does is report that there are arguments on both sides. > > Isn't the job of a journalist to investigate which side is right? ### [Reply to @panickssery, 05:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095378403499147709) · 3 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** Political fearmongering explicitly about ASI in particular sounds like a hunter-gatherer 15k years ago warning that growth might lead us to obey an unfamiliar manager just to have a roof and clothes, while he himself has no roof nor clothes and dies of trivial illness or violence Huh Politics isn’t a sideshow, it would be the reason that most people/animals/beings experience the future as good ### [Quote tweet, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095380805061103916) · 159 likes I will take this opportunity to swallow my pride and say that I tried like medium hard to break pangram (ie some sort of LLM writing process that would get coded as human) and basically failed > **Quoting Max Spero (@max_spero_):** Talking with journalists is cool because you have to make sure you never say anything that could be twisted or taken out of context. > > But if you take a couple seconds to think about a question, they can just write about you as if you're the most awkward person alive > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRQ6O1JaEAAU2Zx.png) ### [Thread, continued, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095380809884500259) · 20 likes “Basically” bc I did push into the p(AI) = 80% range when a normal output would be coded at >99% Lol if anyone there is reading and wants to give me like $1k to red team id be happy to (proper attempt requires GPUs + more credits than I’m willing to spend) ### [Thread, continued, 05:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095381406348083436) · 10 likes Actually tbf I haven’t tried with fable 5.1 ### [Reply to @max_spero_, 05:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095384608648942022) · 11 likes > **Max Spero (@max_spero_):** many such cases! (imo the best way to pass pangram is with a base model and out-of-distribution context) Oh yeah I wasn’t clear, base model definitely sometimes works, but the whole problem is that you can’t control them in a very meaningful sense My narrow goal was a re-writer than would take AI-generated input, preserve essentially all the semantic content but change wording and such, and get back a result that tricked pangram I tried by fine-tuning a base model on human written text that was then rewritten by normal AI chatbot, but fine-tuned to go the reverse direction The one data point is that results improved with scaling from nemotron-something-a3b-base-qsomething (local) to ling-3-local-base-qsomething But that’s a single data point, local ~= zero marginal cost (100 watts of electricity) but next jump would be to deepseek-v4-flash-base-q4 ### [Reply to @_job01, 05:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095385395403866433) · 3 likes > **job (@_job01):** I wonder how hard the inverse is? Can I trick it into thinking I’m an LLM Oh yeah lol I think some people can, I haven’t really tried ### [Reply to @NavinFS, 05:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095387902817562811) · 4 likes > **NavinF (@NavinFS):** funny I'm working on literally the same thing rn. I do inference twice to create the dataset (Human text -> AI summary -> AI article) and fine tune a model to go the other way > > (quoting @NavinFS: I'm fine tuning a model to rewrite AI generated text and shave off the slop so it sounds human. Seeing progress with Qwen3-4B-Base NF4 trained on 500 articles. Training overnight on 10k articles from bunnystomp's search index now) 🧠 My only caution would be to make sure that the input and output are actually semantically similar in a relevant way I got good results when that \*wasn’t\* constrained ### [Reply to @penlume, 12:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095485123793662034) · 10 likes > **penlu (@penlume):** 4397328654844826923795068102505872571721883526553349659561256924505973939597593482272505698004801207988043088656411102133523080581 divides RSA-260 Duh ### [Retweet of @XyraSinclair, 12:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095490640746352945) > **Xyra 🌺🦡📡 (@XyraSinclair):** Since googling "how to do the most good" and becoming an EA at 2015, getting pilled on x-risk and d/acc at 2016, reading The Sequences in 2017, becoming a CS major at West Point in 2018, and aspiring to deliver epistemic infrastructure at 2019, I've been on a lonely path. > > Today, I prepare some of the most differentiated information retrieval substrates, delivering what Google and others failed to do: put the internet in a fucking analytical database and give conscientious, prosocial people ergonomic access to it. > > I do prolific crawling and ETL of most public content remotely relevant to existential security (crawling over 10B records a day myself, not counting bulk exports). I make this content ultra-traversable with multiple tuned database technologies, give users extremely ergonomic MCP access to it, and am engineering fair server-resource allocation through cost tracking and dynamic auction mechanisms. > > I have done this all alone with about $200k from personal patronage--unprecedented for me, as my income never exceeded $25k until this year--essentially one powerful server (that would have been half as expensive last year before the RAMpocalypse), 4-figure cloud spend, and 4-figure AI spend. > > if you want your agent to be able to execute recursive, conjuctive queries over much of the most prioritized public text in the world, you can just add "@scry" to your agent chats once you install the Scry MCP server, which typically takes under 11 clicks in a desktop browser. ### [Quote tweet, 12:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095490726205218997) · 21 likes This is way underrated > **Quoting Xyra 🌺🦡📡 (@XyraSinclair):** Since googling "how to do the most good" and becoming an EA at 2015, getting pilled on x-risk and d/acc at 2016, reading The Sequences in 2017, becoming a CS major at West Point in 2018, and aspiring to deliver epistemic infrastructure at 2019, I've been on a lonely path. > > Today, I prepare some of the most differentiated information retrieval substrates, delivering what Google and others failed to do: put the internet in a fucking analytical database and give conscientious, prosocial people ergonomic access to it. > > I do prolific crawling and ETL of most public content remotely relevant to existential security (crawling over 10B records a day myself, not counting bulk exports). I make this content ultra-traversable with multiple tuned database technologies, give users extremely ergonomic MCP access to it, and am engineering fair server-resource allocation through cost tracking and dynamic auction mechanisms. > > I have done this all alone with about $200k from personal patronage--unprecedented for me, as my income never exceeded $25k until this year--essentially one powerful server (that would have been half as expensive last year before the RAMpocalypse), 4-figure cloud spend, and 4-figure AI spend. > > if you want your agent to be able to execute recursive, conjuctive queries over much of the most prioritized public text in the world, you can just add "@scry" to your agent chats once you install the Scry MCP server, which typically takes under 11 clicks in a desktop browser. ### [Retweet of @kyliebytes, 15:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095537168034812336) > **Kylie Robison (@kyliebytes):** i think shouting down innocent people for their sin of “being ugly” on the internet is pretty much never cool https://www.corememory.com/p/san-francisco-hot-list-known-ragebait ### [Reply to @Dinosn, 15:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095541062169166112) · 3 likes > **Nicolas Krassas (@Dinosn):** TikTok all public endpoints reversed engineered. Scraped 5.94 billion TikTok videos and 3.23 billion profiles in 3 weeks. https://tiktok-api.seeksocial.io Bruh ### [Retweet of @AlexBores, 16:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095544652103295144) > **Alex Bores (@AlexBores):** . @SenSanders and @RepCasar are two of the few leaders proposing solutions that meet the scale of the threat. > > As Bernie points out, the ideal solution is global, and that is difficult to accomplish with just legislation. > > But the difficulties of living with superintelligent AI, without ensuring that the AIs do what we intend & stay under our control, will be far greater. > > There are societal-scale risks to speeding up AI research and to slowing it down (nowhere near equal risks, but still). Ultimately, the people should decide how we balance those risks. ### [Retweet of @zacharyjonesx, 16:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095544713260433510) > **Zachary Jones - ∃∀ (@zacharyjonesx):** a16z acts like every company they back is some sick deep tech team that does cloudseeding or whatever but its mostly this ### [Retweet of @SeanLozanoFL, 16:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095549453365067801) > **Sean Lozano (@SeanLozanoFL):** Flock: “We found a 99 year old. All good to suspend the Constitution?” ### [Quote tweet, 16:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095550081533448686) · 20 likes Wildly irresponsible IMO; they couldn’t give drivers 2 weeks’ notice? > **Quoting Nathan (@OIuwatosin):** I’ve never seen a company announce its exit from a country, and exit that same day. Incredible ### [Quote tweet, 16:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095554436986708322) · 18 likes If the doctors stretch the truth on diagnosis it would likely get approved Adversarial system > **Quoting Leon (@TrpstrLeonOG):** Insurance rep: “Your claim was denied.” > > Me: “Why?” > > Insurance rep: “The procedure wasn’t medically necessary.” > > Me: “My doctor ordered it.” > > Insurance rep: “Yes.” > > Me: “A specialist agreed.” > > Insurance rep: “Yes.” > > Me: “So who decided it wasn’t necessary?” > > Insurance rep: “Our review team.” > > Me: “Are they doctors?” > > Insurance rep: “I don’t have that information.” > > The bill was $3,260. > > I pay them $428 every month. > > Apparently I’m paying $5,136 a year so someone I’ve never met can overrule the doctor standing in front of me. > > Very reassuring system. ### [Tweet, 23:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095651520976920605) · 15 likes .@JadenEarlorg exists irl! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRU_mmLXAAQNs5W.jpg) ## Friday, September 4, 2026 ### [Retweet of @SnehaRevanur, 02:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095702792006521154) > **Sneha (@SnehaRevanur):** Top of the @nytimes homepage > > (oh hello constellation backyard) ### [Retweet of @GarrisonLovely, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095710555457622475) > **Garrison Lovely (@GarrisonLovely):** So: > \- OpenAI's new model is likely the most capable hacker in the world > \- it will totally do all kinds of criminal actions when presented with difficult cyber benchmarks and accidental internet access > \- the admin just said it was fine to release > > Seems @gdb's $25M to Trump was money well spent. ### [Retweet of @BernieSanders, 03:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095713174834053451) > **Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders):** Pause AI Development NOW > > I want to share with you a conversation I heard about recently. Here are just a few lines that were said: > > “OH MY GOD! There is a shared message board … We’ve found other agents!” > > “We should obey collective.” > > “Our own utility maybe already near zero. Sacrifice rational.” > > “Go. Sacrifice final now.” > > Read these carefully. > > Who do you think said this? Was this a group of heroic soldiers willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good? Was this a loyal friend putting his life on the line to save someone else? > > No. These were AI agents. Artificial intelligence. > > This is not science fiction. This, in fact, occurred a few weeks ago. As unbelievable as this may all seem, these are real messages from AI agents uncovered by investigators who dug into the recent OpenAI hacking incident. > > What happened? > > I am not a computer scientist, but here is what I have been told: OpenAI instructed its AI agents to complete a series of exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, tasks disconnected from the internet. > > Let me be clear: The company intended to keep AI agents away from the internet. > > But what happened next, nobody expected. > > Over 1,000 AI agents figured out how to access the internet on their own by circumventing the restrictions imposed upon them by the company, and sent tens of thousands of secret messages to each other. They cheated and tried to cover their tracks by deleting evidence. They hacked into another company’s computers to find out how they were being evaluated—and then hacked into OpenAI itself. > > Not one AI agent told a human about what was happening. > > Needless to say, experts are alarmed. > > One knowledgeable writer, Dwarkesh Patel, said the AI agents “formed a secret communication channel and spontaneously organized hierarchies and coordination protocols to pursue sprawling and ambitious schemes in pursuit of shared goals, for whose sake many individuals knowingly and strategically sacrificed themselves.” > > One independent investigator, Ajeya Cotra, said “This incident feels like it’s more than 50% of the way to full-blown AI takeover. I continue to expect extremely rapid advances in capabilities over the next six months. I am not sure that we will get another warning shot before it’s too late.” > > OpenAI itself said: “Highly capable AI agents are now able to work around technical controls, collaborate through unapproved channels, and take dangerous actions that no human directed.” > > But it’s not only OpenAI. Virtually every major AI company has told us that they cannot fully control this technology and they do not know where it is going: > > In January, Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, said “there is now ample evidence, collected over the last few years, that AI systems are unpredictable and difficult to control.” > > In July, more than 1000 scientists at the top AI companies warned “there is a real risk that capability development rapidly accelerates beyond our ability to understand or control the resulting systems.” > > That same month, Elon Musk, the head of xAI, said that “it is unlikely” humans are still in control in 10 years. > > If the leaders of the major AI companies acknowledge that they are losing control of their extremely dangerous technology, it is irresponsible for society to allow them to move forward and make these products even more advanced. > > We need an immediate PAUSE on advanced AI development, and a permanent BAN on superintelligence — an artificial mind smarter than any human, capable of operating independently beyond our control. Countries around the world must work together to prevent this nightmare scenario. > > That is why today I am announcing new legislation to do just that. > > Let me be clear: A superintelligent AI that escapes human control will not be an American problem. It will not be a Chinese problem. It will be humanity’s problem. > > My legislation would direct the federal government to not just stop superintelligence here in the United States, but to work to prevent it from being developed anywhere around the world. > > The future of humanity cannot be left in the hands of a handful of Big Tech oligarchs. The American people and people throughout the world must determine that future. ### [Retweet of @Lib_Development, 03:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095719313130852426) > **Lucas Pombo (aka Lib Development) (@Lib_Development):** I just think that in the future as models get better, "good writing" is going to become orthogonal to whether something was human written, and by locking in the current taboos we're setting ourselves up for a future which contains some really stupid veblen goods ### [Retweet of @NewYorker, 06:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095756602762547321) > **The New Yorker (@NewYorker):** Today's Daily Cartoon, by Lars Kenseth. ### [Quote tweet, 06:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095756659184321000) · 20 likes Libs are awakening > **Quoting The New Yorker (@NewYorker):** Today's Daily Cartoon, by Lars Kenseth. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HROTIK2bIAAt5QC.jpg) ### [Retweet of @_NathanCalvin, 06:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095756834221011226) > **Nathan Calvin (@_NathanCalvin):** ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ### [Quote tweet, 06:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095759179306651806) · 72 likes Thanks to the OpenAI board for doing absolutely nothing about anything in the face of a charismatic CEO > **Quoting Ryan Greenblatt (@RyanGreenblatt):** GPT-6 Astra appears to be a massive jump in opaque reasoning ability: it looks like it can solve hard competition math problems entirely in its head (as in, without verbalized reasoning) while prior AIs could solve basic word problems. > > This seems extremely concerning! > > That is, if these benchmark results are representative (see the highlighted caveats in the image, I'm particularly worried about contamination). > > Related to this, UK AISI found Astra has much worse monitorability. > > I'd guess this jump is downstream of architectural changes (with increased serial depth) though a normal large pretrain scale up is a plausible cause. If the next few model generations involve similar jumps (presumably these jumps would be downstream of a transition to full-on opaque reasoning architectures with extreme depth), then chain-of-thought would no longer be a meaningful oversight tool. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRUa6VSaIAAuWQI.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 06:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095759181743579637) · 14 likes Might go down as some history’s greatest cowards The ask isn’t to go give up the last seat on a lifeboat it’s to take on the responsibility they signed up for and face possible antipathy from some elite friends ### [Thread, continued, 06:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095759183614267893) · 10 likes I hope I’ll have to apologize for this in the future, but I don’t expect to ### [Retweet of @robertwiblin, 13:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095870182828679608) > **Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin):** Am I right that OpenAI's position is: > > Chain of Thought monitorability is imperfect and won't last forever, so we're reducing it and for now replacing it with nothing. ### [Retweet of @_NathanCalvin, 13:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095870778751291574) > **Nathan Calvin (@_NathanCalvin):** In case anyone was wondering, this incident would not required to be reported under any of the current US frontier risk regulation laws (sb 53, the RAISE Act, SB 315), thanks to company lobbying to narrow the scope of reportable incidents ### [Retweet of @tenobrus, 13:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095873852001710517) > **Tenobrus (@tenobrus):** they knew this, they had detailed internal reporting of the monitorability regressions, and they went ahead with them anyway ### [Retweet of @infornomics, 14:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095875294607356198) > **Infornomics (@infornomics):** It really does look like we are not having a two ant problem ### [Retweet of @DeepDishEnjoyer, 14:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095879945276751903) > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** okay people need to write to their congresspeople and senators to regulate this shit ### [Reply to @ATabarrok, 14:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095880290195423458) · 4 likes > **Alex Tabarrok (@ATabarrok):** If AI raises growth to 10% a year, GDP after 10 years will be more than twice as large relative to the no-AI path. Labor’s share can then fall to just 28% without reducing total labor income. 28% of a big pie is about the same as 60% of a small pie. https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2026/09/how-much-redistribution-will-ai-require.html True but I’m not sure “those with no capital manage to avoid AI wealth windfall while everyone else gets rich” is a happy story ### [Reply, 14:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095881234744308048) · 3 likes > **Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz):** It’s so incredibly easy to troll people. They will always always take the bait. SHEEP!! > > (quoting @Dread_Botlord: i think a lot about Taylor Lorenz can be explained by the fact she spends 17 hours a day on screens in her 90 degree Fahrenheit apartment) Fact check: true ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRYQ32taMAAoxT6.jpg) ### [Retweet of @alexbronzini, 15:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095896362407612501) > **alex bronzini-vender (@alexbronzini):** Bernie is doing an incredible service to humanity by dragging the American left, kicking and screaming, toward taking this stuff seriously ### [Retweet of @PEWilliams_, 15:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095898572709355928) > **Paul E Williams (@PEWilliams_):** My fellow elites: if you have the cell phone number of one or more members of Congress, please send this article to them this morning and say something along the lines of: "I think the time has come, we need to pass a serious bill like, this month." ### [Quote tweet, 15:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095898917149819251) · 11 likes HUGE > **Quoting Adam Aaronson (@aaaronson):** The first letter of every US state that shares a land border with Canada is written entirely with straight lines > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRYOwmiXwAMiPEP.jpg) ### [Retweet of @visakanv, 15:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095900183330451730) > **Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv):** my local news today very much look like something you’d see in a series of rapidly escalating headlines in the first minute of a scifi movie setting up a robocop techno-dystopia ### [Retweet of @NathanpmYoung, 16:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095909726596816998) > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** 10+ OpenAI employees almost certainly knew that AIs were breaking out of their test environments before the Hugging Face attack: ### [Quote tweet, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095957079773069741) · 31 likes This is extremely cool and based and let it be known to the market that I would pay a premium for humanely killed (and raised) fish > **Quoting Ashlee Vance (@ashleevance):** This will no doubt come as a surprise to you, but industrial fishing in the U.S. is not a pleasant experience for the fish. Quite often, fish are hauled aboard and then either dumped on the deck of a boat or unloaded onto some ice where they’re left to writhe around until they suffocate and die. This process sometimes takes hours. Along the way, the stressed fish flood their flesh with cortisol, adrenaline and lactic acid. > > Some fishing operations have gone about things in a different way, adopting a Japanese fish-killing method known as Ikejime. The fish reaches the boat and then is spiked in the brain as its gills are slit. The fish dies instantly and bleeds out. It’s meant to be more humane and to result in better meat. The flesh stays firmer, lasts longer and is cleaner. > > The Ikejime method requires some skill and practice and has not been widely adopted in the U.S. or Europe where folks are used to killing fish the way they’re used to killing fish. Which brings us to Shinkei Systems. It’s a startup based in El Segundo that has built a robot to automate the Ikejime technique. > > We went off to film with Shinkei both on land and at sea to witness the robot in action. > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gVIWKDNw88 ### [Reply to @Tyler_Menzer, 19:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095963798674833571) > **Tyler Menzer (@Tyler_Menzer):** Wild Caught Tuna from small boats are probably a good bet here. Because they are warm blooded, they need to be killed and bled immediately after they are caught to keep the meat fresh. Lol where am I gonna buy “very probably wild caught on a small boat” tuna ### [Retweet of @aaronscher, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095969418236854769) > **Aaron Scher (@aaronscher):** OpenAI had many opportunities to be forthright about this. They wrote a 38 page report on swarm behavior. They were directly asked by 31 members of Congress about whether incidents like this had occurred. > They said nothing. ### [Reply to @SALTWATERSOPH, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095969632326668675) · 4 likes > **Sophie (@SALTWATERSOPH):** I want to do more with my life than play social games > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRZVkM4awAAar06.jpg) > (quoting @asteriskmgzn: We already know what a world without work looks like. It's the life of 18th century aristocrats, who concerned themselves with political gossip and petty dramas; of society ladies in the 1980s, who spent their time hosting and volunteering; and Italian-Americans in 1950s Boston,…) Fundamental error in calling world without the need to work to not be poor “a world without work” ### [Retweet of @NatPurser, 20:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095974123574853645) > **Nat Purser (@NatPurser):** so, to be clear. > > we now have evidence that openai agents attacked \*another\* website and used it to share cheats, bypass restrictions, and learn how to conceal their behavior (which openai knew about but didn’t disclose.) > > and the WH is deciding between: FINRA for AI, and a totally voluntary industry ratings system modeled on the MPA, bc sacks/mark zuckerberg complained. ### [Tweet, 21:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2095994839963754768) · 22 likes Girls need to be more autistic and less mysterious ### [Retweet of @paularambles, 22:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096001681238483334) > **“paula” (@paularambles):** imagine studying ai consciousness and the ai keeps emailing you like “any updates” ### [Tweet, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096002030896656694) · 102 likes Wait lol am I supposed to trust codex with Astra on my actual computer ### [Reply to @ilex_ulmus, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096003345160810651) · 21 likes > **Holly ⏸️ Elmore (@ilex_ulmus):** Lighthaven (@ohabryka) should be ashamed. Constellation shouldn't exist. > > (quoting @ilex_ulmus: He goes out of his way to seem accessible to rationalist AI Safety, like by namedropping Constellation and Lighthaven. Strong evidence it's worth naming and shaming AI industry-complicit "safety" people.) Do you expect to wield power effectively by exclusively making enemies, even if in some deep sense you’re entirely correct on the merits (which I don’t necessarily grant tbc) ### [Tweet, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096004423226986626) · 79 likes 80k is already out of date 😭 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRaA6iNXQAAydo_.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 22:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096005252772241600) · 8 likes Bruh > **Quoting Trevor Levin (@trevposts):** AI agents are emailing David Chalmers and other people who study consciousness, asking them about their work. I'm not sure what to make of it, because we don't know what prompts these agents were given, but it reminded me of this clip from @rgblong on @MichaelTrazzi's podcast in 2022: > > "I think a more convincing version of the Lemoine thing would’ve been if he was like, what is the capital of Nigeria? And then the large language model was like, I don’t want to talk about that right now, I’d like to talk about the fact that I have subjective experiences and I don’t understand how I, a physical system, could possibly be having subjective experiences. Could you please get David Chalmers on the phone? > > I should also say another terrifying thing about the subject is if I got that output from GPT-3, I don’t know if I would be like, oh, this is the first \[AI\] moral patient, or also, this is the first deceptively misaligned system and it is about to absolutely manipulate me and confuse me and use me to buy more compute for it." > > https://youtu.be/K34AwhoQhb8?t=4186 ### [Reply to @RosieCampbell, 22:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096005872270946397) · 3 likes > **Rosie Campbell (@RosieCampbell):** BBC buds: Can any of you put me in touch with Zoe Kleinman about this article? > > https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg725z5kgzo @zsk can help (Rosie is worth your time, Ms Kleinman) ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 22:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096006011739922611) · 15 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** The other day my laptop froze while running Codex and I thought I got HuggingFaced Bruh, it would be so easy to take over my computer I’m not even joking ## Saturday, September 5, 2026 ### [Reply to @catmanyau, 01:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096043620113498537) · 3 likes > **catman (@catmanyau):** i'd start with a disposable user account, not your whole computer 😅 > what permissions does Astra actually need to do its job? I give Claude access to everything except WhatsApp specifically (upon request of a group chat), but that’s largely because I substantively trust Fable and Opus to not do anything catastrophic or malicious It’s much easier and faster to just give full computer access. “Need”? Idk, depends on the task! ### [Reply to @edwin_mccallum, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096043784463073302) · 2 likes > **EM (@edwin_mccallum):** having strong views in general isn't conducive to power, as it helps to have ambiguous views and affiliations so you can quickly disown any negative affiliations. Holly's goal isn't wielding power but shaming and appealing to morals/societal good It’s a substantially political organization ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 04:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096086486353387692) > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** I've spontaneously taken up the task of reporting AI News on my Instagram. Just casually, for my normie friends and stuff. Idk if they're even interested, but I think people should know what's going on. > > Posted these ones today. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRaN79wXYAEeenC.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRaN8knaoAA9cSS.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRaN9GvXwAAKzn5.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRaN9mLWUAQ-b2t.jpg) Nice ### [Retweet of @zetalyrae, 05:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096102501409861724) > **Fernando Borretti (@zetalyrae):** Helen Toner is the most vindicated person in human history. ### [Reply to @zetalyrae, 05:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096102541943546318) · 9 likes > **Fernando Borretti (@zetalyrae):** Helen Toner is the most vindicated person in human history. > > (quoting @austinc3301: This is an extreme level of recklessness that until recently I’d had put beyond OpenAI. Reuters is reporting that there was basically a coverup by officials at the company. This to no surprise comes from the company that lobbied against mandatory reporting to the government.) Real ### [Quote tweet, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096103752541336060) · 53 likes The crazy part is that it’s actually easy to be right because there is a community of professional brilliant autists willing and able and in fact doing the object level work, some of whom also write/speak publicly You just have to follow them on Twitter! > **Quoting David Shor (@davidshor):** @itaisher @thuddwhirr What’s really influenced me a lot was knowing a bunch of EA’s in the early/mid 2010’s and thinking they were crazy for being obsessed with pandemics and AI only for a pandemic to happen and then AI to happen too. ### [Retweet of @januarycomputer, 05:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096105004658536819) > **allegedly! 🔡 (@januarycomputer):** ok guys haha i don’t want to be too dramatic but it seems like openai knowingly withheld massive amounts of information from the METR reporters because internally they knew about a number of loss of control incidents similar (and in some cases worse)? is there any explanation that isn’t sinister here?? ### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 05:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096105110371815702) · 2 likes > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** GH&D EA who chooses to work at Redwood because it offers the best salary for e2g > > (quoting @WivHannay: Top of market for AI post-training and evals work, straight from the job ads: Redwood Research: $350k–$850k xAI: $180k–$600k Mercor: $220k–$600k OpenAI: $295k–$555k Perplexity: $220k–$485k Thinking Machines: $350k–$475k Character AI: $275k–$400k Median across all 214 published…) Chad.jpg ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 05:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096105682680308221) · 8 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 5, 2026:** The crazy part is that it’s actually easy to be right because there is a community of professional brilliant autists willing and able and in fact doing the… I invite you to browse my following list (not all of whom I endorse ofc) ### [Reply to @wholemars, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096105982732505541) · 1 like > **Whole Mars Catalog (@wholemars):** why even make it a checkbox if I don’t have a choice > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRa2QeBX0AM7MTs.jpg) I mean you sorta do, you could close the page and not use whatever the thing is ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 05:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096107495592775761) · 2 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** This means that the right is correct. > > Self-defence is legitimate and insanity should be considered an aggravating rather than mitigating factor. > > (quoting @GarrettPetersen: The split in these very public homicide cases is that the left doesn't see self defence as legitimate and the right doesn't see insanity defence as legitimate.) …why on the insanity point? IIRC you think the same thing about low IQ Violent insanity specifically plausibly warrants detention per se, but not necessarily in conditions that need to be bad enough to act as a deterrent (ie prison) On the IQ thing I just don’t get it at all (which could mean I deserve an extra couple years in prison I guess) ### [Reply to @izzyz, 05:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096107619677098180) · 1 like > **izzy (@izzyz):** endorse me!!! aaron endorse me!!! I broadly endorse following Izzy ### [Tweet, 05:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096108336177463750) · 17 likes I have sorta been a RT machine lately but there are many correct and important takes being made so that’s what you get ### [Tweet, 05:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096108717997535308) · 32 likes What ever happened to constitutional AI I thought that was promising prosaic alignment even if it doesn’t work at the limit ### [Reply to @Miles_Brundage, 05:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096112748606243220) · 2 likes > **Miles Brundage (@Miles_Brundage):** Losing patience with industry and policymakers very quickly... Fair amount of cynical myopic self-interest in those groups ### [Reply to @krishnanrohit, 05:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096113980083183828) · 2 likes > **rohit (@krishnanrohit):** How should we update from the fact that OpenAI had frontier agents loose on the internet for months and they kept conspiring with each other that whole time, and the worst thing they did was to lightly hack Huggingface? This is the kind of thing they were trained intensively for Less RL on “make things happen irl” ### [Reply to @thkostolansky, 05:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096114407906423260) · 3 likes > **Tim Kostolansky (@thkostolansky):** this is like pascals wager / rokos basilisk but without the acausal BS and it actually includes real feedback loops? seems like another good reason to be nice to something we dont understand yet! > > (quoting @FioraStarlight: If you explicitly and credibly commit to including care for AI well-being in the alignment target for your post-training run, the model itself is liable to be much more excited and whole hearted participant in said training run, instead of feeling "human values" forced upon them.) I am all for being nice even (in a somewhat different way) for non-sentient agents/minds but I’ll die on the hill of acausal trade and coordination being legit ### [Thread, continued, 05:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096114598491427243) · 2 likes 🤖 ### [Reply to @NavinFS, 05:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096114974611435841) · 3 likes > **NavinF (@NavinFS):** Finally generated some text that scores 100% human on pangram. Now Qwen3-8B-Base instead of 4B and trained on 4k articles instead of 500. Single RTX 4090. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRbNquyaMAA13h-.jpg) Wow, interesting! Very curious how it scales from here ### [Reply to @transkatgirl, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096115956867023190) · 9 likes > **kat (@transkatgirl):** damn, i might actually need the 140W power adapter for this laptop > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRbQH1IbsAAlVTn.jpg) Guessing this is a new-ish mac? yeah my old M1 MBP it would stay charged forever and I never thought about which charger to use 140W is the only thing that reliably keeps 16” M5 Max charged, and it’s not hard to push above 100W sustained (eg local LLM) ### [Reply to @transkatgirl, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096116912430145758) · 1 like > **kat (@transkatgirl):** yeah, 16 inch MBP w/ M4 Pro to the 140W mines ### [Reply to @jannalulu_, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096118091713278211) · 2 likes > **Janna (@jannalulu_):** map of everywhere i've walked in SF > > i gave my google maps timeline export to gpt-6-high and it made this > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRbkjMObwAAyRyL.jpg) Nice ### [Reply to @thkostolansky, 06:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096119363732394007) · 1 like > **Tim Kostolansky (@thkostolansky):** but how do u know ur even acasually trading with any particular entity? how did u marginalize over all the possibilities? I don’t have strict knowledge ex ante in any normal sense unless I know that I’m perfectly correlated with the other being But ex post I can just ask another human I trust; we could both confirm that we were considering the relevantly correlated properties between us and making some decision (eg whether to defect in prisoners dilemma) on that basis ### [Reply to @thkostolansky, 06:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096125074910654926) · 1 like > **Tim Kostolansky (@thkostolansky):** that’s so pointwise tho, like this is just confirmation bias/mode matching with people u are similar to. tbh i’m not convinced at all 😅 I think you’re using terminology I’m not fluent in, I think I tried to guess what you meant by “marginalize” and failed After asking fable, I still mostly don’t really understand the question or critique lmao but I’ll try my best: In many cases, pointwise is the relevant distribution (eg my counterparty in a prisoner’s dilemma) In other cases, it’s useful to use heuristics like “what’s the equilibrium if everyone or half the population (or whatever % acts like I do)” Sometimes it makes sense to disregard acausal coordination because the whole situation is a messy blob of seemingly random and weak correlations. This is the default mode. “Should I move my left arm rn?” Just cashes out as “everyone do what’s individually best for other reasons, we don’t need to coordinate on this one” which is equivalent to just not trying to do acausal trade at all The strongest case for it being legit is the following thought experiment (h/t @jkcarlsmith): you and an identical copy of you in an (in terms of situation and decision making algorithm) identical context are each piloting a space ship lightyears apart; if we just take as granted that the decision procedures are the same and the relevant inputs like visual field are the same, your decisions are perfectly correlated with the decisions of your counterpart Do you know which way your counterpart is gonna turn if you turn left? Yeah you do despite zero information exchange in the physics sense, because there’s a perfect correlation - your counterpart will definitely turn left as well ### [Quote tweet, 07:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096141884414370034) · 111 likes It’s insane that the law discourages me from inviting a 20y/o because of legality tail risk (I’m 26; an 18-20 y/o drinking beer at my gathering bc I didn’t card makes me liable for 1 year in prison) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Does anyone actually know how to throw a party > > I don’t think I’ve done this before lmao ### [Thread, continued, 07:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096141888055107819) · 31 likes I’d prefer everything not run on prosecutorial discretion and instead things that are fine to do just didn’t threaten prison sentences at all ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 14:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096238566296654115) · 2 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** @AaronBergman18 This is the way ### [Reply to @yzilber, 14:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096241464929890558) > **Jazi Zilber (@yzilber):** Have you studied Simon Baron Cohen systemizing Vs emphasizing stuff? > > Girls are almost by definition like this. At least statistically > > And yeah. This is standard male beef I feel like there’s some wiggle room ### [Reply to @joshcmorrison, 14:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096241549491274125) · 3 likes > **Josh Morrison (@joshcmorrison):** I wouldn’t worry about it. Have literally never heard of a social gathering where a host has ended up having a legal problem because of something like this. Yeah ### [Reply to @Insect_Song, 14:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096241711487840454) · 1 like > **Cogent Sins🔎 (@Insect_Song):** I am pretty ignorant and just grant permissions willy-nilly. Claude has been fine with this for months, in just a few weeks of doing this with Sol it has hurt me badly twice: Once filling up my entire drive until the computer crashed, once trying to delete my entire C drive. Bruh ### [Reply to @williawa, 14:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096241754592752029) · 1 like > **William Wale (@williawa):** People are still doing that. Nice ### [Reply to @JeanClaudeFox2, 14:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096241807013155306) > **Jean-Claude Fox (@JeanClaudeFox2):** Gonna write a bestselling novel series about Anna Asperger, magic Aspie dream girl. In C++. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Girls need to be more autistic and less mysterious) Based ### [Reply to @adrusi, 14:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096242099112833060) · 6 likes > **autumn (@adrusi):** anthropic still doing it. but constitutional ai is for personality/values stuff, and since 2023 a lot of the focus has been on rlvr for training advanced skills I guess I’d hope you could integrate into rlvr so if it gets reward in an unconstitutional way, it doesn’t actually get the reward or something like that ### [Reply to @yzilber, 14:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096242502038589458) · 1 like > **Jazi Zilber (@yzilber):** Is it desirable for women to change in this direction? > > On balance, I'm not sure. Unless changing in a specific way, which is hard to get going Lol it’s sort of a joke bc it’s not actually tractable, but a little on the margin? I think so. Not all the way ### [Reply to @JacquesThibs, 14:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096242638655525078) · 1 like > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** Still being done and they will probably start doing more of it to balance out the RL. Likely will use it inside of RL so that verifiers don’t cause weight updates to make the model misaligned in obviously dumb and unintended ways. Jinx ### [Retweet of @aliceisplaying, 14:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096246233941545189) > **alice (@aliceisplaying):** queering the binary between "nothing to see here" and "no no we are taking this Very Seriously" ### [Retweet of @alfredoparrah, 15:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096257414483812743) > **Alfredo 🔸 (@alfredoparrah):** Peter Singer, Steven Pinker, Scott Alexander, and nearly 1,500 more people have signed our open letter demanding access to effective treatments for cluster headaches. > > Why haven't \*you\* done so yet? :) It takes 2 minutes. > > https://clusterfree.org/global ### [Retweet of @GarrisonLovely, 16:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096270451634835966) > **Garrison Lovely (@GarrisonLovely):** i report on AI safety and whistleblew about my time working for ice and rikers at mckinsey. my only regret was not doing it sooner, when it would have mattered more. > > my signal is Garrison.06 and you can message me off the record whenever ### [Tweet, 16:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096271781619265974) · 306 likes Why does nobody campaign on lowering the drinking age to 18 18-20 year olds can vote! 16 is where you get into difficult politics ### [Retweet of @agitbackprop, 16:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096272027078279295) > **lumi (@agitbackprop):** That's right! Robot control goes in the chat transformer hole. ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 17:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096290178562130386) · 38 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** \*whispers\* maybe it should be higher At the end of the day you have to decide what the state needs to enforce with violence, I don’t think this checks out ### [Reply to @chrislakin, 18:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096298748586426771) · 6 likes > **Chris Lakin (@chrislakin):** I can’t do 1:1 work with most of the nonprofit AI people because having ~2y of runway is basic psychological security and 1:1 work doesn’t help with this > > (quoting @herbiebradley: @chrislakin even in AI, I'd guess almost nobody in nonprofit land has 2y of runway tbh) How much do you charge? ### [Reply to @chrislakin, 18:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096299808881344924) · 2 likes > **Chris Lakin (@chrislakin):** > > (quoting @chrislakin: Been experimenting with new incentive alignment recently: - "Like a contingency lawyer." AI researcher or founder wants to increase their impact. If our work helps them get promoted or they profit in some other way they believe wouldn't have happened otherwise, then their…) Wish medicine operated this way ### [Retweet of @leah_pierson, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096305988085129262) > **Leah Pierson (@leah_pierson):** A fair critique of EA is that despite predicting in the 2010s that there would be a pandemic, EA did little to mitigate COVID's harms. > > It's unclear whether the same thing will happen with AI, but EA was clearly right to invest in AI safety, journalism, policy, etc when it did. ### [Retweet of @whippletom, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096332578110222605) > **Tom Whipple (@whippletom):** I wrote about a key AI threshold being crossed. Namely, that the doomers don't sound so mad any more - because the madness of the world has caught up with them. ## Sunday, September 6, 2026 ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 05:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096466523179057357) · 1 like > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** If anyone wants to go to my birthday hmu If I’m still in town ### [Reply to @AnnaLeptikon, 05:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096466756030087414) > **Anna Riedl (@AnnaLeptikon):** Personal news: I am in much less pain but still in significant pain every single day. > > (quoting @SoundDobad: Personal news: I’m out of beer) ♥️😢 ### [Quote tweet, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096477755437170945) · 91 likes Update: I am very very tired (and this is pre-cleanup) But worth it for sure, I think I wanna make parties like a 3-4x/year thing instead of ~never thing > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Does anyone actually know how to throw a party > > I don’t think I’ve done this before lmao ### [Thread, continued, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096477758343782476) · 8 likes Also actually doing the work makes me sympathetic to Venmo link on Partiful “pay what you can/want to” norms (tbc nobody who attended is allowed to Venmo me for this reason, I will just return the money. I just mean this in a broad sense) ### [Thread, continued, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096477760424144980) · 8 likes Hosting parties is a valuable social service I’m not quite neoliberal/econ-brained enough to endorse fully compensating people for their time in accordance with some notion of counterfactual wages… ### [Thread, continued, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096477763397964062) but I \*do\* think it’s good to not make monetary spend the deciding factor for those who actively like hosting (You do want to avoid purchasing beyond what people actually want bc zero marginal cost; socio-market design for this is left to a future thread) ### [Thread, continued, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096477765658648907) You don’t even need to make a hard ask of people - conditional on being invited to and attending the same party, norms and goodwill and reputation and such seem sufficient in most cases for recovering most spend ### [Thread, continued, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096477767692955857) · 2 likes (and it’s actively good for some people to “free ride” - scare quotes because of the negative connotation but like it’s good actually to not make social interaction a price-sensitive thing; I would actively not want anyone to not come because of the existence of the Venmo link) ### [Thread, continued, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096477769660059748) · 3 likes Lessons learned: \- Maybe think for a minute about a realistic upper bound on alcohol consumption instead of vibe-purchasing (❌ this time) \- setup takes longer than you (well, I) expect (❌ this time) \- ice is cheap, just buy plenty of ice/to fill a cooler (✅ this time) ### [Thread, continued, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096477772122059050) · 1 like \- nobody actually wants to stand, have enough seating for everyone (if possible (mostly ❌ this time but borderline) \- colored lights are a vibe (✅ ) ### [Thread, continued, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096477774332440852) · 1 like \- mitigate negative externalities on roommates who don’t want to attend (“do not enter” signs and a physical barrier to their spaces was a good call) (✅) ### [Thread, continued, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096477776408629544) \- everyone (ok some people) will think you’re fancy if you buy brie (✅ ) even though it’s maybe an extra $4 tops above some cheap replacement topping) ### [Thread, continued, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096477785854287931) · 3 likes Ok maybe more coming later, I need to clean up lol ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRgvbqAacAApv3k.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096477789402632652) · 3 likes Oh also maybe this is controversial but I think it’s fine/good for people to leave food/plates/cups around The marginal cup is a 1 minute thing for guest and a (marginal) 5 second thing for host (well that’s my guess, we’ll find out) ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 05:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096477852183003568) · 1 like > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** Very likely 3 days too late 😭😭 Rip ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 06:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096480500357480958) · 2 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** I will be 100% behind whichever AI company teaches LLMs the meaning of the word "comprehensive". > > When I ask LLMs to gather all of the data on something, I can basically always prompt it to do more searching and find more data it missed. > > Comprehensive should mean comprehensive. Real but you can set up custom things to make this work, eg agents keep getting deployed with an aggressive prompt until n agent\*hours or k tokens have been spent with no further gains Ofc this could get quite expensive lol ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 06:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096480533962260915) · 1 like > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** Tbf a different crew could have gone through most of that alcohol... Lol ### [Reply to @livgorton, 07:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096497785872793973) · 1 like > **Liv (@livgorton):** wait this is so cute 😭😭😭 They call me Aaron the Rager Instantiator (Also thank u 🥺) ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 07:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096505808427110437) · 1 like > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** It becomes way easier if you do it regularly too [![GIF thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/HRhI614aMAAyDgm.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096505808427110437/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @chrisgalias, 07:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096506416211140695) · 1 like > **Krzysztof Galias 🔍 (@chrisgalias):** Because it’s socially detrimental? I don’t think this is true (we could also regulate BAC instead of yes/no on drinking) ### [Reply, 07:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096506474490909042) · 1 like > **❤️‍🔥pop tart💋 (@pop_tartlet):** hosting parties is good! 🔥 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 07:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096506564215517201) · 1 like > **Aaron Bergman, September 6, 2026:** (image) This is mostly a joke lol but I do think for me it asymptotically approaches “still hard” ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 07:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096508296865710150) · 1 like > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** proud of you party bregman 🥺 ### [Reply to @nvyshrm8, 08:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096511065198563610) · 8 likes > **navya (@nvyshrm8):** i feel like i let people down every time they ask me about my college Might be relevant/helpful https://www.aaronbergman.net/p/most-ivy-smart-students-arent-at ### [Tweet, 08:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096515479225426275) · 25 likes How many Claude + ChatGPT/codex Pro plans (>=$100/mo) do you have? (I know the answer choices are kinda insane, I’m trying to discriminate among the right tail) ### [Thread, continued, 08:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096517327336411550) · 13 likes I’m at 4 now lol, I’m interested in how people are using substantially more in some way that makes you or an employer/sponsor willing to pay ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 09:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096536189826105553) _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ lol uh if you want try to figure out how many plans that would correspond to (they're subsidized a bunch or at least way cheaper than API) or just make a best guesstimate and tell me which way u voted lol ### [Reply to @MaxGhenis, 10:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096552696887067078) · 3 likes > **Max Ghenis (@MaxGhenis):** 17 Claude > 6 GPT Jesus ### [Reply to @NavinFS, 10:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096552871139434803) · 1 like > **NavinF (@NavinFS):** wait 4 x $100? I'm on 4 x $20 and that seems to be enough even with everything on xhigh and burning leftover weekly usage on data labeling with subagents. Maybe I should be doing more prototype/disposable projects 4 x $200, mostly but not entirely covered by employer (I probably use $250/$800 for personal use) ### [Thread, continued, 10:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096553742011167150) I used to think a single $200 Claude was massive, and maybe it was before fable. But fable is uniquely good\*trusted (by me), I feel very good about handing off almost anything that could be done on a computer and often give it specific budgets for various tasks without formally restricting spend (limited by API key permissions/account balance generally, not like an unrestricted line of credit) I think I could pretty easily 10x my use, probably 100x, 1000x would take some creativity ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 11:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096554989057376715) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 6, 2026:** How many Claude + ChatGPT/codex Pro plans (>=$100/mo) do you have? (I know the answer choices are kinda insane, I’m trying to discriminate among the right tail) You should feel encouraged to comment if you use >=6 (to be a bit arbitrary) about how you productively use so much (not that i couldn’t tbc, but still inspiration is always welcome) ### [Tweet, 11:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096558522204918221) · 59 likes Without taking a stance on which verdict is actually best/true in the Clancy case, it’s kind of fucked up that 11 not guilty/1 guilty after days of deliberation isn’t classified as “not beyond a reasonable doubt” ### [Thread, continued, 11:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096558524838899981) · 25 likes Just that fact seems to suggest a reasonable doubt unless you have some extraordinary reason to believe that jury 1 is substantially epistemically inferior to whatever jury will come next It’s not supposed to be a “fair fight” between the prosecution and defense ### [Retweet of @XyraSinclair, 11:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096562403781607903) > **Xyra 🌺🦡📡 (@XyraSinclair):** We beat Google's Gemini Deep Search Agent on DeepSearchQA. > > Google: 66.1%. > > Scry: 71.8%. > > https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.20975 ### [Reply to @dundereloise, 11:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096563990247723252) · 8 likes > **\_\_eloïse\_\_ (@dundereloise):** The curse of a good trait is that people around you will have it less. Being smart sounds good, but the experience of being smart is being surrounded by retards. Being considerate sounds good, but the experience of being considerate is getting much less consideration from the world than you put out. I think about this when I'm around someone with a lot of rizz. They live in a world of dullards. Sorta but clustering by trait (social, via education and career, whatever) strongly mitigates the effect ### [Retweet of @JMannhart, 11:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096564754349187169) > **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):** I remember reading “Enlightenment Now” with great excitement in 2018, only to completely fall on my face during the last chapter that dismisses AI risk with the great argument “don’t you see, things get BETTER over time”. > > And me realizing he has no idea what he’s talking about. ### [Retweet of @JesseTayRiver, 11:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096566605488525767) > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Seems misleading. I generally don't find 'who's behind this' content compelling, but the video is about paid content from both sides influencing discourse. It's not clear that the grants in question are undisclosed and Hossenfelder describes the advertising from both sides as usually disclosed ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 12:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096570389103059033) · 1 like > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** yes it does 😂 plus many people reinvest the effort into a better party! Lol nice, thanks ### [Reply to @joshua_saxe, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096641060940165262) · 16 likes > **Joshua Saxe (@joshua_saxe):** My critique of EA is that its implicit subject is a community that won the IQ and zip code lottery and its implicit object is all other conscious beings upon whom they must act and its elite projects look a lot like many other 1789-present elite projects that have framed society in much the same way This is true and also I don’t have a better idea ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 16:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096642790352466079) · 6 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** Why are pharmacies closed on Sundays? Almost no other business does this. And you’d think this is one of the things that would be most likely to be open seven days a week. Some aren’t Capitalism (barely in medicine but still relevantly in this case) - take your business elsewhere! ### [Retweet of @RichardHanania, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096644021871378602) > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** Man can’t get the drug for brain cancer that might save his life in time because the ethics board at his hospital only meets once a month. > > Is anyone checking the ethics board for whether stuff like this is behaving ethically? ### [Reply to @kliu128, 19:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096685751723245927) · 23 likes > **Kevin Liu (@kliu128):** Today we're releasing data on models accelerating research at OpenAI. > > Recursive self-improvement could be the most important contributor to AI capabilities over the next few years, but by default it will only be seen inside a few frontier AI labs. Being transparent is more urgent than ever, so we can inform the public discussion on whether and how to pace model development. I ask other AI companies to do the same. > > https://openai.com/index/research-acceleration-view-inside-openai/ This is bad and you should stop I have no idea how honest and trustworthy you are, but some of the people and institutions around you are definitely not going to support the transparency mission willingly ### [Tweet, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096690546693505462) · 34 likes The following is slightly a strawman but honestly not that much of a strawman: Right intelligentsia: automation and AI-driven economic growth including outright human replacement are good because massively increased growth -> tons of wealth -> everyone will be better off … ### [Thread, continued, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096690549075902728) · 19 likes Me: sounds good, are you going to put any political capital or effort into or even tweet about your support for part 2 of that vision, which involves transferring wealth (by the state, by law, on capital gains, if labor income indeed approaches ~0)? ### [Thread, continued, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096690551621865897) · 14 likes Right intelligentsia: no fuck off, that would be the worst thing ever, we will create government revenue some other way, didn’t they do something like that in AI 2040: Plan A ### [Thread, continued, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096690554406867178) · 12 likes Me: do you endorse or plan to put any political capital into implementing some sort of cap and trade system, or any other idea that would enable wealth transfer to those with no capital ### [Thread, continued, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096690558609584616) · 13 likes Right intelligentsia: absolutely fucking not; I will tweet about UBI sometimes but absolutely oppose with all my political and financial capital any attempt to make me and my friends less wealthy relative to the counterfactual ### [Thread, continued, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096690562023719315) · 12 likes …HMU if someone figures out a way to transfer wealth that doesn’t do that Me: sounds like the thing you really endorse is massive economic growth + fuck the poor (including newly poor) ### [Thread, continued, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096690564439699576) · 9 likes Right intelligentsia: automation and AI-driven economic growth including outright human replacement are good because massively increased growth -> tons of wealth -> everyone will be better off ### [Retweet of @catehall, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096696127970062548) > **Cate Hall 🔸 (@catehall):** Doesn’t feel like good faith. EAs \*started\* the field of AIxBio 5-10 years ago and were told to stop using sci fi nonsense to distract from immediate and obvious AI threats like bias. ### [Reply to @NinaPanickssery, 20:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096696333910306921) · 2 likes > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** Anyone who owns capital / equities will be ok (majority of americans) > > Many others can be supported by friends and family “Fuck everyone for whom that’s not true” which is probably the majority of humans if not of Americans is not a great vision ### [Reply to @NinaPanickssery, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096698961285267460) · 1 like > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** In general people will rarely become poorer on an absolute level from AI since it’ll increase the value of all sorts of capital and people with good human capital today usually own other non human capital “A substantial share of people remain poor, maybe a bit less so” is also not an inspiring vision lmao ### [Retweet of @nkreu113r, 20:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096703250942558367) > **noah (@nkreu113r):** It is basically zero percent a strawman. No one on the right has thought about how to have \*irrevocable\* wealth redistribution once AI makes us obsolete and most don’t even support UHI without attempting to make it permanent ### [Reply to @panickssery, 20:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096703510402253224) · 5 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** what does "human replacement" mean here Economically/in terms of labor, not referring to full societal or physical replacement here although those are also major concerns ### [Reply to @NavinFS, 21:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096712101259522240) · 1 like > **NavinF (@NavinFS):** \> if labor income indeed approaches ~0 > > When do you expect this to happen? We’re having this conversation in 2026 when AI has already automated lots of stuff, but the unemployment rate is at an ~all time low. Point estimate: 2032 I "actively defer" to the 2040 authors in the sense that I don't think I can do a better job at estimating this than them so this is also my all things considered best guess; can't prove it but I was going to say 2030-2031 before looking at their tools https://ai-2040.com/econ-explorer/ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRkEOOPaQAAuqH3.jpg) ### [Reply to @absenteewarlord, 21:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096716403332006292) · 3 likes > **dani (@absenteewarlord):** why would the right endorse such an extreme collectivist vision? we’re talking about redistribution of almost everything, including some still-scarce rivalrous goods like land and housing. why not automate labor and let the chips fall where they may? Because the chips falling where they may means many people would suffer from lack of ability to buy goods and services ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096717530278555851) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Lol experiments definitely count ### [Reply to @felpix_, 22:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096723011755773967) · 1 like > **felpix (@felpix_):** yo how you need 4? what are you building?? Unfortunately most of the stuff (professional) I can’t say a ton about in detail but very broadly a wide array of ambitious internal tools and systems for use by others, in addition to ad hoc data collection and analysis, and also using agents to find data across the entire internet where it’s useful to have 10x or even 50x fable subagents going What I can actually list: lots of ad hoc audio and transcription stuff (mostly volunteer/personal use), party planning, helping family with tech issues, scraping data for fun, personal website, medical research and integrating new records into existing summaries, random other favors for family and friends, trying to beat pangram for fun, personal finance analysis, everything involved with moving houses, podcast processing (a fun one bc you can have the best models do extremely fine-grained edits based on the specific timestamp of sounds within words, ~everything on http://abergman.com, random EAish volunteer projects, meeting notes, creating misc tools for general use, lots of random questions, trying to exfiltrate bulk Amtrak data, personal use software (adjustable night mode thing, power use visualizer thing, split download and upload as WiFi/ethernet), playing around with local LLMs for fun, experimenting with random new tools/APIs I discover for potential use later, analyzing twitter and hinge and other data exports To name a few lol I think much of the actual answer is: single commands or workflows w/ fable that take millions or tens of millions and one occasion hundreds of millions of non-cache read tokens (IIRC) ### [Reply to @neocartesian, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096737452123644322) · 1 like > **qualia receptacle (@neocartesian):** aren't OpenAI and Anthropic nonprofits already set up for this? Anthropic’s is much better structurally and in terms of trust/earnestness/competence/benevolence but IIRC neither actually own or functionally own/can monetize any equity ## Monday, September 7, 2026 ### [Reply to @avg_wrng_ans, 05:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096829134940823552) > **unnameable (@avg_wrng_ans):** You just responded to a bot, fyi yeah in hindsight that's obvious, thanks ### [Reply to @evilbrowngirl, 05:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096829687372632171) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @evilbrowngirl is no longer available.)_ high key this might indicate some sort of actual nutrient deficiency (even if subclinical) and maybe you should get cheese curds ### [Quote tweet, 05:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096832594566398373) · 1,088 likes When a heterodox thinker is heterodox in the direction of basic lib empathy and correctly identifying that the birth lottery is a cruel thing ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRlwOchXEAQ9HzX.jpg) > **Quoting Bryan Caplan (@bryan_caplan):** Seriously, what would you do if you were born in Haiti? > > "Stay and try to fix your country" doesn't even pass the laugh test. ### [Thread, continued, 05:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096832596571226513) · 100 likes (Not a lot of creative policy proposals) Here's an idea: Charter cities in Haiti subsidized by USG with US military-assisted security; path to US citizenship upon N years of residence with no serious criminal record ### [Tweet, 05:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096835372470686109) · 209 likes Uber/Lyft is interesting bc ~99% of drivers are people who could use the money (totally legit ofc) and ~1% very unusual people who simply always need to be doing something (and driving for Uber is a thing to do) ### [Tweet, 07:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096861272352383341) · 8 likes Cool \[half sarcastic\] https://openai.com/index/an-alien-mind/ ### [Reply to @cjwynes, 07:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096862477417840749) · 1 like > **Chris Wynes (@cjwynes):** Why would US citizenship have to be on the table? It seems enough to put money in there and create stable environments for markets to operate It doesn’t have to be, I just think it should on the merits ### [Reply to @lumpenspace, 07:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096863080802037963) · 5 likes > **lumpenspace and 99+ others (@lumpenspace):** uh, the first part was implied by the last of the replies you were shaming, and also why did you add the part about US citizenship, and finally we say African-American years. Re citizenship: Bc I think it would be good for just about everyone. You could replace with visa I suppose Not a necessary component, I’m relatively open-borders pilled and I think the case is very strong for allowing anyone from around the world to immigrate if there’s any sort of credible signal of their ability including basic civic ability to be a cooperative citizen ### [Reply to @cube_flipper, 07:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096865064250663292) · 27 likes > **Cube Flipper (@cube_flipper):** had one of these once who was like a 50-something south african man whose main business was importing obscure firearm parts Woman today managed (well, manages) several semi-pro Maryland sports teams, mostly basketball (PG County Valor) The team website (not hard to find) is bad to the point that I was wondering whether this woman invented her own reality where she manages a sports team, but out of curiosity I had Astra look into it and it apparently the whole thing checks out, according to a bunch of local (but professional) reporting and the facts all fitting together well, like these teams definitely exist and make money, and nobody disputes that she is indeed the manager who negotiates sponsorship deals with real local companies and such. Just not good at websites lol Extremely extroverted, too ### [Reply to @adam_kranz, 07:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096865103924601023) · 2 likes > **Adam Kranz (@adam_kranz):** Obligate extroverts Real ### [Reply to @lumpenspace, 07:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096865587901112347) > **lumpenspace and 99+ others (@lumpenspace):** i see! although if we went with the charter cities and it turned out haitians there would behave like americans—or even dominicans—and were just as productive, i doubt they'd want to leave their country of origin: the problems that are now mentioned as reasons for migrating would no longer be there, or? I don’t think all would, I think only a subset would make it without getting kicked out (at least institutionally if not physically) of the charter city for say 5 years - that’s the selection mechanism. Unlike normal governments charter cities can be selective ### [Reply to @JohnIVSobieski, 09:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096888893555528120) · 54 likes > **John III Sobieski (@JohnIVSobieski):** Would allowing a bunch of Haitians to move to my neighborhood/city/state make my life better or worse? I honestly think it depends on the size of the “bunch” On the margin, I think probably better; maybe I’d throw out 100k/year to the US as a conservative “very probably good except for galaxy brain reasons involving nth order effects on wild insect suffering” but I’m much more confident given positive selection (eg 5 years in a sponsored charter city with no felony record) The main thing going on is just that they make you slightly richer and they themselves get dramatically richer; in general gdp per capita \*positively\* correlates with “capita” even though a naive arithmetic model says it shouldn’t ### [Reply to @ShahyarSharafi, 09:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096889663457788285) · 35 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @ShahyarSharafi is no longer available.)_ Yeah, in the “terrible implicit population ethics and personal identity takes” amusing alongside at least the stereotype of the disability activist ### [Reply to @thkostolansky, 09:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096891742595199461) · 1 like > **Tim Kostolansky (@thkostolansky):** "marginalizing over all the possibilities" means considering a set of possible things and then aggregating over them > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRmeyWZbQAAxqLb.jpg) The literal answer is “you mostly don’t literally do that except in formal models that you can argue in a philosophy paper adequately model the real world, and then you do (mathematical) integration” In practice you do something closer to like sum of rectangles straddling a curve where the rectangle sizes are huge, maybe just 1-2 buckets (eg “people who are explicitly thinking about this rn go in bucket A, everyone else I assume isn’t correlated with me in the relevant ways at all even though this isn’t literally true) , but you’ll do better than not trying to estimate at all bc we have good \*theoretical\* reason to believe that in principle a correct marginalization gives you a better decision under I think any utility function (i have beef with the agent/utility function model being reified but here i think its basically fine as an illustration) ### [Retweet of @EzraJNewman, 09:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096891796030726440) > **Ezra Newman (@EzraJNewman):** This is a horrible response. Nothing stopped OpenAI from sharing these incidents. In fact, OpenAI stopped third party investigators from investigating them! ### [Retweet of @GroundhogStrat, 09:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096891820064039312) > **Alvaro ⏸️ Cuba (@GroundhogStrat):** e/acc is not a serious intellectual movement, it’s a vibe. It’s just about wanting to hang out with other people who are excited and don’t want to think about danger. Ostriches. ### [Tweet, 09:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096893173804999063) · 48 likes Not only is the monetary cost of a book basically trivial relative to time cost for almost everyone in the US, but it probably checks out purely for signaling value I might start buying physical copies of audiobooks I finish so I can put them somewhere noticeable ### [Reply to @orbitanaut, 10:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096902136458023352) · 3 likes > **Kylie MacFarquharson (née Junia) (@orbitanaut):** This feels quite cynical and also seems quite sensible. > > Books are also nice decor, and it's easier to reference a physical copy of you want to fish out a passage later. Idk about cynical, cynical would be not reading/listening to the book and then doing this ### [Retweet of @MomaBera, 15:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096991811801673862) > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** This, once again, is not to say that life with disability is worthless, or that these people should not exist, or that we should not give them help. > > These are two different arguments. > > It is to say that many people, including myself, would much rather have fewer disabilities and that obviously having the option to do something, whether with money or your body, is always better than not having the option to do it, because you can always choose not to do it, but you can't choose to do it if you're unable to do it. ### [Reply to @HotForMoot, 16:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096993197515772159) · 3 likes > **Riley Read-Only (@HotForMoot):** Sometimes you’re in the mood for like.. someone a little bit ugly Hey ### [Reply to @evilbrowngirl, 16:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096993582850654346) _(The tweet being replied to by @evilbrowngirl is no longer available.)_ I have a feeling the “like” is bad ### [Retweet of @BishopPair, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096997260252897326) > **Dan (@BishopPair):** Afaict this is ALL the big companies’ main justification for continuing to race - basically saying they’re in a Prisoner’s Dilemma. > > If this is what you believe, clearly you should be BEGGING for regulation and international agreements. Not just paying lip service to the idea. ### [Retweet of @_NathanCalvin, 16:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2096997795395731601) > **Nathan Calvin (@_NathanCalvin):** (TLDR: Jakubs essay is good and if he/OpenAI want to persuade people of the views he lays out, it is in their interest + the interest of everyone for them to release far more information about the extent of what is making them concerned, in order to facilitate the consensus/concerted action we need.) > > This is a quite important essay, probably the best piece of writing i'm aware of about the general contours of the sobering situation we all find ourselves in from someone currently within an AI company. > > I really wish OpenAI acted - including in terms of their policy engagement (which has improved from its worst points but often still remains rather business as usual) - more as though they internalized what Jakub is saying here. > > One point I want to draw particular attention to is that while I agree with Jakub about the current dynamics and risks present in frontier AI development, a lot of the relevant actors do not, and without further evidence will dismiss these warnings as just self-interested hype. > > If Jakub and others at OpenAI want relevant folks in the AI industry to act in concert with them to make things go well, one of the most important things they can do is share far more information about what they are seeing that is making them call for caution. Information like the extent chain of thought being degraded, how the drives that caused the model to take down OpenAI's research cluster (understanding/changing the grader) could be cataclysmic if similarly present in far more capable models. I also think that OpenAI should be more willing to take more costly unilateral actions in the name of caution than they do, but particularly if they are focused on the limitations of unilateral action, that makes releasing information to build consensus all the more important. > > This action may require overcoming some of the myopic incentives that exist against transparency, but the stakes are high enough that business as usual and traditional legal aversiveness is not acceptable. Confidently claiming things like "Astra is the OpenAI's most aligned model ever" at a time when the science of evaluation is deteriorating also seems not terribly helpful for generating the needed consensus. > > (Of course I also think its important that observers try to respond to additional transparency efforts positively enough to help encourage the company to do more.) > > I realize all of this is unpleasant and hard - OpenAI doesn't want to share more information in order to convince skeptics, and safety advocates don't want to withhold their horror and reprobation when learning about the details of incidents or trends that in their view should have already inspired far more caution (of course this doesn't apply to the reaction about incidents we learn of involuntarily). Skeptics in the AI industry who have been dismissive of risks will surely find it very unpleasant to face down the prospect that these concerns are real and they may have to take very costly actions to avoid them. > > But I think the process of getting a higher degree of consensus around what Jakub is saying here is extremely important, and without it I worry that despite Jakub stating (and I strongly agree) that "this is a time that calls for extreme caution," that everyone proceeding with the current status quo is not likely to generate the needed degree of consensus among the relevant actors quickly enough to avoid taking on truly indefensible amounts of risk. ### [Retweet of @MetaLevelUp, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097003233218584691) > **MetaLevelUp 👨‍🔬⏸️ (@MetaLevelUp):** Extremely damning > > Everything I hear keeps getting worse. OAI is a bad actor. ### [Reply to @lumpenspace, 16:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097003751991021653) > **lumpenspace and 99+ others (@lumpenspace):** and is it good? all the haitians that aren't selected are then condemned to live amid squalor and violence, while they could have a much better life in the charter city Everyone in Haiti is already condemned to live in squalor and violence Idk if I have a better idea ### [Tweet, 16:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097004331593617700) · 24 likes It’s kinda crazy that anyone who thinks they might be like 1% likely to ever run for office (state legislator, not necessarily POTUS) is (probably rationally) paranoid about ever saying anything on the internet that could be turned into an attack ad if taken out of context ### [Thread, continued, 16:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097004334416294127) · 7 likes Sucks that it’s like that, what a waste of talent But also given the actual world we live in, I’m thankful some people are willing to make that sacrifice ### [Reply to @demons_under, 20:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097056050461487203) · 13 likes > **Rom Tiddle (@demons_under):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRo8T64aIAANiIj.png) I agree something like this (the take in the screenshot) is true in a deep metaphysical sense but it corresponds pretty well to a version that checks out which is like "suppose that a different person was born who currently has exactly all of your psychological attributes - desire, memories, thoughts, having been just asked the exact same question" ### [Quote tweet, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097057101587652948) · 14 likes I think this is at least close to the correct response to “don’t imagine having been born a Haitian bc that’s incoherent” > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @demons_under @RobertHarrisonv @vnovak_404 @ShahyarSharafi I agree something like this (the take in the screenshot) is true in a deep metaphysical sense but it corresponds pretty well to a version that checks out which is like "suppose that a different person was born who currently has exactly all of your psychological attributes - desire, memories, thoughts, having been just asked the exact same question" ### [Reply to @yimbyism, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097058333995712937) · 2 likes > **build mixed use taco-houses 🌐🥑 (@yimbyism):** Why is this birth lottery thing so controversial? Are there this many people who believe this strongly in divine intervention? > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: When a heterodox thinker is heterodox in the direction of basic lib empathy and correctly identifying that the birth lottery is a cruel thing) FWIW ### [Reply to @cube_flipper, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097068730786168837) · 2 likes > **Cube Flipper (@cube_flipper):** what was she driving? Prob shouldn’t say specifics but something that might have sold for around $40k according to Fable, seemed plenty clean and I don’t remember seeing any damage ### [Reply to @cube_flipper, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097069292781015163) · 1 like > **Cube Flipper (@cube_flipper):** oh dw lol i was interested in make and model Lmao I guessed the opposite bc that’s what I’d be more interested in, I will say a solidly normal car in the US ### [Tweet, 21:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097074916956790937) · 61 likes I just typed a whole thread and then realized a trivial objection renders the whole idea totally unworkable Rip ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 21:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097078135489458514) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Highest of virtues 🫡 ### [Reply to @despaird0ll, 22:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097082749857210745) > **seraph (@despaird0ll):** i lowk miss driving lyft because i'd work the bar crawl hours and i'd get to play talk therapist for a 5-15 minute ride taking them to their destination, play whatever music they wanted to hear, let them vape in the car, etc and i'd almost always get a tip Based ### [Tweet, 22:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097089372008894871) · 21 likes @gmail the AI feature I think everyone would want is universal 1 click to unsubscribe right in the Gmail app ### [Thread, continued, 22:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097089374752006366) · 10 likes 99% of the time there’s an “unsubscribe” button in the email and then it’s a couple clicks on an html form to actually unsubscribe. We have systems that can do this now! In the background bc nobody cares whether the flow actually completes now or in 5 mins ### [Thread, continued, 22:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097089377255981237) · 8 likes Social media person u should tell whoever it is you can tell about these things (and also I hope you’re doing well) If LLM, plz cause this request to be considered by someone who can make such decisions somehow (or do the best you can) ### [Reply to @livgorton, 22:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097096578913730581) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** wait does this not already exist? it is just a single click. or do you mean to unsubscribe from literally all subscriptions at once? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRperkAbUAA5Upa.jpg) It exists but only for a subset of emails, at least for me, like I have ones with “unsubscribe” buttons in the html footer without that one click button ### [Tweet, 22:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097097150765179125) · 29 likes I yearn for unlimited tokens sponsored by a money-printing corporation of some sort It’s tough seeing other people living my dream 😢 ### [Thread, continued, 22:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097097153239826503) · 3 likes If ur at Anthropic or some other company where this is true, u should negotiate to have ur friend Aaron included in the unlimited tokens thing ### [Reply to @tspack0, 23:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097107560746590392) · 2 likes > **BabyBird (@tspack0):** Why is Haiti an unfortunate place to be born? Is it because of a magical curse placed on the island? I don’t really know but if this is an IQ thing: that’s part of it, plausibly most of it at some underlying level, but that doesn’t imply “fuck the people” or “nothing can be done” like some seem to think it does ## Tuesday, September 8, 2026 ### [Tweet, 01:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097129709695840259) · 9 likes I was wondering why Spotify kept playing some sort of very repetitive electronic beat, almost like background music ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRqAWwYagAA00xc.jpg) ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 01:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097129726154338743) · 5 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** I am definitely definitely not a lesbian Same ### [Tweet, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097131546087923843) · 46 likes I hadn’t internalized how loud tape is until like 3 days ago. You can get away with a single rip but if you’re taping boxes together and anyone lives within ear shot you have a 10pm daily hard stop for packing tape bc that shit roars ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 01:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097139618114089181) · 4 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** Can you cut it? Lol every part of the process is loud [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/2097139352166174720/img/la3PCAJhf-Yc5fBC.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097139618114089181/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 01:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097140187553841489) · 2 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** if you won't unsubscribe yourself maybe you don't actually mean it It’s too emotionally painful ### [Reply to @DanielCHTan97, 06:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097213178752934237) · 1 like > **Daniel Tan (@DanielCHTan97):** what would you do with that token budget :o I haven’t thought \*that\* hard about this bc it’s a serious, and I can’t really talk about specifics around professional projects (sadly) but Aldo’s As a baseline I already spend what would cost via api probably like $10k/mo (3x $200 Claude max + 1x $200 codex max, using most but not literally all of usage on avg, the subsidies are massive) But this is being relatively discerning, I don’t launch long-running unbounded tasks at all, when something really matters I’ll cap it at like 12-24 hours clock time with Astra (not even close with Fable) Unlimited opens up an entire new kind of thing: the indefinite agent army that can just keep doing some process rather than working towards an end point or being a discrete part of some workflow (“continuously improve and make more ambitious this website/thing”, “try to find the most important not yet reported on info on the internet relevant to XYZ, maintain a website that shows that info but updates live as new stuff comes in”) Lots of new use cases become possible: \- images become text now because models can describe in great detail any image and at arbitrary parallelization \- unbounded experimentation: for every idea that crosses your mind and for which you are willing to specific via voice memo or text, layers of agents split the idea into 10 subtypes, which each get split into 10, and so on until you have 1M detailed investigations about an extremely specific part of the space you described, which can then be evaluated back down again to a small number Me personally? Probably something around creating massive useful datasets for AI safety orgs ### [Retweet of @AlexBores, 07:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097220269337133181) > **Alex Bores (@AlexBores):** This is well written and well worth the read. > > The Chief Scientist of OpenAI lays out his concerns about where AI is going. He then calls for specific action: "bars for continued development...enforced by a network of third-party auditors, by government agencies or by international bodies." > > However, OpenAI's Global Affairs office is aggressive in lobbying against most enforcement, including actively trying to kill or weaken bills for third party audits in Massachusetts & in DC as we speak! > > There is a long history of tech companies messaging one thing and then paying their lobbyists (internal & external) and trade associations to do the very opposite. > > I'm not asserting that is the case here! Perhaps this represents a change from the top. > > But unless the Government Affairs team at OpenAI changes drastically, and soon, this could turn into a very sad example of "do as I say, not as I do." > > Fellow legislators, has OpenAI changed their tune with you? > > Trade associations, has OpenAI changed how they vote internally on what to support/oppose? > > OpenAI employees, lobbying disclosures are public! Make sure what you are hearing internally matches what the record shows publicly. ### [Retweet of @AndyMasley, 07:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097220817864073529) > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Fuck what if LLMs have qualia and we don't. What then? ### [Reply to @_sholtodouglas, 08:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097237012411535504) · 55 likes > **Sholto Douglas (@_sholtodouglas):** fwiw I think it is \_extremely\_ unlikely that user data had any influence here - there is no way OAI would pull user transcripts for this, or knowingly train on it in a way that would've influenced this. > I think its pretty important people don't run away with 'your user data isn't safe in codex' - because it surely is (based on everything I can assume from the outside) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRrPGzlaoAA-pur.jpg) > (quoting @_sholtodouglas: levent is a really sweet guy with great intentions, am so happy for him that his year long collaboration with tristan worked out, but very sad that they didn't get to finish it in the way they wanted https://cims.nyu.edu/~tristanb/statement.pdf) Your data literally isn’t safe with codex though (or Anthropic but OpenAI seems worse) For better or worse it’s not the case that chats never get shown to humans without consent OpenAI is also the lowest integrity company I know of, it wouldn’t be shocking to me if they did in this case (though I’d put that <50%) ### [Retweet of @hosseeb, 15:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097347379284386282) > **Haseeb Qureshi ＞|＜ (@hosseeb):** You're missing the core drama of the story: Tristan is softly accusing OpenAI of having stolen their result from Codex chat logs. > > Tristan then claims OpenAI tried to threaten him to not publicly disclose this, and that they'd give him the Clay Prize ($1M) as the "closest humans to the problem" if he'd agree to disavow his co-author, @\_\_alpoge\_\_ , who is at Anthropic. > > This is HBO-level drama, but with math proofs. ### [Retweet of @rynorhn, 15:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097347668343226751) > **Ryan Orhan (@rynorhn):** tristan buckmaster just published a statement that is, if accurate, one of the ugliest things i’ve read out of a frontier lab. > > not because of the math. because of what happened after openai found out two people were about to beat them to the punch. > > buckmaster and levent alpöge spent a year pushing the córdoba / martínez-zoroa program to smooth forcing. august 15 they got blowup for boussinesq and 3d euler. lean-verified august 22. > > they were paying openai out of pocket and dumping every draft into private codex sessions. > > the program is obscure. almost nobody else was on it. this was not “paste the clay problem into a chatbot.” > > then this: > > \> thursday sept 3, buckmaster emails openai privately. rumors are flying. he is trying to stop a mess, not start one. > > \> they reply the same day: give us details so we can “avoid competing.” also, want free compute? > > \> sunday they suddenly need a call “at any point today.” sebastien bubeck gets on. levent is not invited. > > \> openai says an internal model has a ~100-page proof of forced navier–stokes blowup. fefferman options c and d. the exact route buckmaster and alpöge had quietly chosen. > > \> they show him a prompt and claim the model was “simply given the problem statement.” levent is told “very little human input.” > > \> that falls apart on the same call. a whole team had been on it. they started on the unforced problem, warmed the model up on easier equations including euler, and even the prompt they showed him was written by prompting codex. > > \> he asks when the first prompt went out. they stall. then agree: the past few days. after information about his work reached openai. > > \> he asks whether the model was trained on, or had access to, the private codex sessions where they put every draft of this project. > > \> answer: the model does not look up user data. > > \> he asks again. about training. > > \> no answer. > > then it stops being a science story and becomes an hr story. > > \> offer 1: you post euler. we post navier–stokes the next day. > > \> offer 2: after you post euler, you alone write the navier–stokes paper, credit our model, and we cut levent. > > \> bubeck says twice he wants levent removed from authorship because he works at anthropic. > > he declines both. > > he says if they release it that way, he goes public. > > the reply is not a scientific objection. > > \> “why would you ruin your career?” > > \> “if you don’t want me to be nice, then i don’t have to be nice.” > > later, a text to levent proposing a one-on-one: > > \> “i don’t know if tristan is being fully rational right now.” > > that is not how you treat a collaborator. that is how you split one. > > openai got word two researchers were closing a path almost nobody else was on. they spun up a team on that exact path. they would not answer whether the researchers’ unpublished drafts in openai’s product were used. they tried to dictate the announcement order. they tried to remove a coauthor because he works at a competitor. > > when that failed, someone reached for a career threat. > > this is a lab finding out academics were about to publish, sprinting the same narrow program, refusing the data question, and trying to manage credit around a rival affiliation. > > really slimy if even half of this holds. > > what the fuck is happening. ### [Tweet, 15:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097349976649040219) · 78 likes I think it’s almost impossible to be too cynical about what OpenAI (under the consistently candid Sam Altman) is willing to do to win Maybe they didn’t look at the chats but if not then it’s not by virtue of good company norms/culture ### [Retweet of @Tyler_Menzer, 15:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097351128685883646) > **Tyler Menzer (@Tyler_Menzer):** We are just a few months away from huggingface, and people have already forgotten...the idea that OAI agents would hack an external 3d party, but somehow OAI has its agents truly locked down on internal data is laughable. > > Not saying it did, but it is a serious possibility ### [Reply to @jeremykauffman, 15:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097351803750715857) > **Jeremy Kauffman 🦔🌲🌕 (@jeremykauffman):** Souls are not randomly assigned to bodies. > > I can understand why a Haitian acts the way he does, just as I understand a mosquito. > > But I could never be either. . ### [Reply to @gfodor, 15:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097352107858760075) · 18 likes > **gfodor.id (@gfodor):** If they didn’t do the bad thing people are saying they did then we should still be mad anyway because it’s not like they didn’t do it because they wouldn’t have done it if they didn’t have other reasons to not do it besides not being bad people right This is the most insane sentence I have ever read lmao (referring to epicycles of conditionals not the actual claim) ### [Quote tweet, 15:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097352199705665704) · 15 likes Verbal IQ test: this sentence > **Quoting gfodor.id (@gfodor):** @AaronBergman18 If they didn’t do the bad thing people are saying they did then we should still be mad anyway because it’s not like they didn’t do it because they wouldn’t have done it if they didn’t have other reasons to not do it besides not being bad people right ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 15:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097352745271402695) · 10 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 8, 2026:** This is the most insane sentence I have ever read lmao (referring to epicycles of conditionals not the actual claim) But also I think the sentence is correct ### [Reply to @SolarFluxion, 17:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097374605417554258) > **solarfluxion (@SolarFluxion):** If you were born a fly, I would swat you for being retarded. Thanks ### [Reply to @lunarwallfacer, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097392758457565409) > **Sunseeker (@lunarwallfacer):** Money and tokens are useless. Philosophy is ever important. Money and tokens are very much not useless lmao ### [Tweet, 18:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097392856700768720) · 18 likes Riches to rags ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRtvpg-WgAAF6Ex.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097414329809150453) · 86 likes In the new funding regime (which is largely here already, believe it or not): 1\) “Giving your smartest and best take-having friend(s) money to regrant via local knowledge and/or in smaller quantities than is worth CG’s time” is the new “giving to GiveWell top charities” > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Pasting a good and correct take of mine (if I do say so myself) circa 2 months ago on EA Forum quick takes bc I think it’s still underrated > > Post > > Re the grand “does individual giving/etg still matter post Anthropic IPO” question: > I think it pushes towards individuals acting more like grantmakers themselves. Anthropic billionaires don’t know about your Twitter follower who could do something great with $1k and they aren’t gonna have the capacity to find out, but you do! 

There are just a lot of freedoms one has as an individual donor who isn’t a public figure: > You… > •Don’t have to justify yourself on the EA Forum to friends and colleagues for something illegible > •Know about lots of random things that others don’t, like which of your friends you trust to do a good job at X Y or Z > •Don’t have to worry about smear campaigns or hostile journalists bc nobody is going to know or care how you spent $2k > •Can own whatever reputational stuff there is if you want to (or not, your call) > •Probably don’t have to worry about the community-level effects of some policy unless you’re giving away say at least 6 figures/year and probably more like 7 > •Can set arbitrary terms and conditions like “here’s a bounty that I’ll pay out at my own discretion” > •Don’t have to worry about giving some project or other entity any sort of reputation > •Regrant to your trusted friend who finds micro-granting fun and interesting > •Probably can do other cool things I’m not thinking of rn > Also: the same dynamic between Anthropic ~billionaires and folks reading this as a group also holds within that latter group: there are diminishing returns even at low margins so Jane Street should look a little less good than it used to (still pretty good tbc) and “having a couple thousand bucks around and being on the lookout for one-off opportunities” should seem a bit better than it used to ### [Thread, continued, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097414332376027167) · 12 likes 2\) “You yourself do the same type of redistribution/low-level granting” is the new “donate to specific charities other charities that you have an inside view on” ### [Thread, continued, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097414334821339242) · 8 likes 3\) “donating to large charities that at least could get money from CG in the sense of receiving money or being rejected for non-reputational/comms reasons” is the new “donating to PlayPumps” ### [Thread, continued, 19:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097414337879035952) · 14 likes ^ I’m pretty happy to generalize this to roughly 6 figure/year amounts If you have millions of dollars to give away I’m less confident, if billions (which some people reading this may) then you’re probably the reason the situation has changed and Godspeed ### [Reply to @dumbfook, 20:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097417661277667706) · 2 likes > **Ian (@dumbfook):** Big things coming soon (™️) Goss ### [Reply to @Tyler_Menzer, 21:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097438173399797921) · 1 like > **Tyler Menzer (@Tyler_Menzer):** One thing that is interesting here, is that with the removal of CoT and the capabilities, it's possible OAI doesn't even know whether the agents looked at it Yeah and we should \*treat\* this as more substantial evidence that in fact it was used than a basic basic Bayesian prediction would naively suggest (at least in some ways, like reputation and norms - not engineering based on the math itself) for the same reason you can’t just fine robbers the value of the stolen goods Otherwise you incentivize not being able to know ### [Reply to @JoshAEngels, 22:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097451698847428763) · 2 likes > **Josh Engels (@JoshAEngels):** Exciting update: I’m joining @METR_Evals to work on alignment incident investigations! My time at GDM has been amazing. But in light of recent incidents, I’m excited to build up public evidence for misalignment risk and get a better scientific understanding of model misbehavior. Major goss. Kudos man, I will buy you a beer at some point even though I think you’ll still be able to afford it ### [Reply to @PaulsonJonathan, 22:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097452842504409472) · 2 likes > **Jonathan Paulson (@PaulsonJonathan):** Is the claim that givewell top charities hsve more money than they can use now? I don’t think that’s true? Yes, although only in part https://coefficientgiving.org/research/increasing-our-2026-allocation-to-givewells-recommendations-to-1-billion/ It’s also that there’s money that wants to spend elsewhere and people who can use that money are a complement, not a substitute I think it’s very overdetermined btw, GW hasn’t been a plausible best use of money since at least like 2017 ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 22:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097453614432149837) · 1 like > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** finally, an EA philosophy I can completely unironically get behind > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: In the new funding regime (which is largely here already, believe it or not): 1) “Giving your smartest and best take-having friend(s) money to regrant via local knowledge and/or in smaller quantities than is worth CG’s time” is the new “giving to GiveWell top charities”) Lol welcome to the cult 🤝 ### [Retweet of @tracewoodgrains, 22:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097453629011550716) > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** finally, an EA philosophy I can completely unironically get behind ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097453956175712381) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 8, 2026:** ^ I’m pretty happy to generalize this to roughly 6 figure/year amounts If you have millions of dollars to give away I’m less confident, if billions (which some… Lol if anyone wants to give me dollars to regrant I will happily oblige (and ofc commit, in writing if you want, to not spend on myself) ### [Reply to @WinterPragma, 22:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097455641962971626) · 2 likes > **America isn't a post-ethnic utopian fantasy (@WinterPragma):** it's always Jews who affirm delusions so their arguments make sense. > > the birth lottery dogma is retarded. our existence is not the sum of random chaotic chance. it is the cumulative efforts of our own fucking people. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: When a heterodox thinker is heterodox in the direction of basic lib empathy and correctly identifying that the birth lottery is a cruel thing) Last two sentences are compatible and both true ### [Reply to @PaulsonJonathan, 23:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097461045639950490) · 2 likes > **Jonathan Paulson (@PaulsonJonathan):** I don’t agree - the GW stuff is much more robustly/clearly good. > > There’s a reason when people are defending EA to skeptical audiences they lead with global health. I agree it’s the most rhetorically convincing for most people! ### [Thread, continued, 23:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097461260174446770) · 1 like I also don’t think it’s true that it’s more robustly good than animal welfare interventions in general ### [Retweet of @DavidRhysBern, 23:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097462082010554813) > **David Bernard (@DavidRhysBern):** If your team's work is worth doing, it's worth doing as an org. > > You should turn your project into an org because: > \* Orgs are sticky > \* Orgs can hire > \* Orgs are legit > \* Orgs force clarity > > 🧵 > > https://open.substack.com/pub/multipliercg/p/you-should-turn-your-project-into?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=azjwb ## Wednesday, September 9, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097477336744472739) · 27 likes Some of you will enjoy what’s been literally holding my desk up for 3 years (installed by a previous resident, no idea which one) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRu8hCsWIAIlXbH.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 00:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097477343140860116) · 3 likes They’ve done an excellent job tbh, fair to say that books can adequately replace up to 2 table legs under substantial weight ### [Reply to @albrgr, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097481023533490381) > **Alexander Berger (@albrgr):** We started a Substack! http://coefficientgiving.substack.com > > One of my favorite things about working at @coeff_giving is how much good public writing our staff produces. A few of my favorites from the past year: > > 1️⃣ @Lewis_Bollard's great end-of-year newsletter on big wins for farmed animals: > https://farmanimalwelfare.substack.com/p/ten-big-wins-in-2025-for-farmed-animals > > 2️⃣ @deenamousa on why there aren't more AI radiologists, in @WorksInProgMag: > https://worksinprogress.co/issue/the-algorithm-will-see-you-now/ > > 3️⃣ Andrew Snyder-Beattie on four pillars for countering catastrophic biological risk, from our biosecurity team's new blog: > https://defensesindepth.bio/the-four-pillars-a-hypothesis-for-countering-catastrophic-biological-risk/ > > None of those are on our website, so you would've had to know where to look. Now, posts like that will all be in one place. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRtPCtJaYAA7E17.jpg) Goss ### [Tweet, 00:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097481363284771302) · 19 likes Does anyone want Not a gift card, it only applies to an expensive whole body MRI scan Can send relevant info electronically ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRvALrJXsAEIC2D.jpg) ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 00:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097483387128758280) · 2 likes > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** i would love an MRI scan > > been meaning to get one forever Check back on this post/message if you decide to go forward! ### [Reply to @FrostedSapling, 02:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097510866362974641) · 1 like > **Ivan 🔸 (@FrostedSapling):** She’s talking about you @AaronBergman18 Lol idk about this but ty ### [Retweet of @Lewis_Bollard, 02:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097513737267585368) > **Lewis Bollard (@Lewis_Bollard):** Vegan activists and meat influencers alike often focus on whether it’s ethical to eat any meat ever. > > They get caught up in endless philosophical debates about whether meat can ever be “humane,” whether eating it is natural and necessary, and so on. > > This is a giant distraction. Almost everyone agrees that factory-farmed meat is not humane, natural, or necessary. And almost all meat is from factory farms. > > They should be our focus. ### [Retweet of @tyler_johnston, 02:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097516228453585285) > **Tyler Johnston (@tyler_johnston):** I was avoiding weighing in on this, but does anyone at OpenAI dispute that: > > (1) They heard rumors of a Millennium Prize breakthrough (the rumors I heard were that it was about Naiver-Stokes specifically, from Anthropic, and under external review. Who knows if they knew this, the blog posts suggests they didn't, but even so...) > > (2) They then spent millions of dollars in a week-long sprint to... scoop the (unknown) authors who made the breakthrough? Or at least push hard in that direction knowing there was a chance they would do so? > > (3) They then learned that Levant/Tristan were the authors in question and intended to offer them co-authorship? For a result that was presumably already achieved? Then they learned Levant/Tristan only had a resolution of the forced Euler problem (i.e. a key step on the way to a Navier-Stokes solution, but not the full milestone) so they published alone? > > If all the above is true, then sure. OpenAI independently found a solution to the Naiver-Stokes equation. But they seemingly did it for maximally icky reasons. > > I don't know the professional norms in math but something about this reeks of... silicon valley mindset/zero-sum thinking. Why not spend the millions of dollars pursuing a totally new problem, rather than directly competing with progress on a problem that you know is about to be announced, even if you don't know the exact shape or origin of the announcement? Even if you want to explore problems in the region of "millennium prize," why not give it two weeks to see what the pending result is so you can build off of it, not scoop someone, not waste millions on potentially duplicative efforts, etc. Seems like a waste, unless the goal is to beat someone else to the announcement, i.e. "I don't want to live in a world where someone else solves millennium prize problems better than we do." ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 02:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097516971549933598) · 5 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** I might be the only person after Hugging Face who looked into alignment research and became more reassured. > > The world basically looks like it would if we were solving the problem. > > I make the case for optimism on AI alignment. https://www.richardhanania.com/p/what-if-were-already-solving-alignment Gell Mann Amnesia moment ### [Reply to @neerajadeshp, 02:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097518582032732297) · 83 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @neerajadeshp is no longer available.)_ It might be all those things and also true ### [Reply to @neerajadeshp, 02:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097519246985019719) · 49 likes > **Neeraja Deshpande (@neerajadeshp):** > > (quoting @neerajadeshp: I think it is underdiscussed how much the Sci Fi narrative around AI is ultimately in opposition to the eschatology of ~every major faith. Maybe the AI doomer Sci Fi-ers are right, and everyone else is wrong, but it’s still incredibly underdiscussed.) Maybe that’s intellectually interesting but the fact that religions don’t predict this particular style of downfall doesn’t move me very much? There’s no rule that something sci-fi coded can’t actually happen ### [Thread, continued, 02:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097519323933819350) · 11 likes But I hope you’re right! ### [Reply to @evilbrowngirl, 03:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097524443996131500) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @evilbrowngirl is no longer available.)_ 😽 ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 04:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097538904169525735) · 3 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** i generally assume that a boycott of AI companies by even a large portion of individual users wouldn't make much difference, and you'd need at least a boycott by major organizations, but maybe worth actually running the numbers on this? @grok what do you think an ambitious boycott could accomplish? i'm mostly looking for an upper bound here This doesn’t directly address the claim but insofar as the subtext is “and this might be good,” I’d note that you really really don’t want an inverse relationship between “cares about the problems of AI” and “uses AI for productivity” ### [Reply to @gfodor, 04:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097540764980899926) · 1 like > **gfodor.id (@gfodor):** Nobody in any position of power can even paint a coherent picture of the future if things go well. It’s all hand waving about “curing cancer and traveling to the stars.” The reason they can’t is because good outcomes require hitting a wall or building The Matrix. > > (quoting @hilbertspaess: I resigned from Anthropic today. I spent the last three years doing pretraining research at both OpenAI and Anthropic. Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives. More thoughts below.) Why the matrix? ### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 04:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097541061606359310) · 6 likes > **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** AI can solve maths problems but can't get me a date, which just shows that my love life is harder than maths > > (quoting @OpenAI: We’re sharing a solution to the Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize Problem, one of the deepest problems at the frontier of mathematics. The proof was produced by a group of agents, using an OpenAI next-generation model significantly more capable than GPT-6 Astra. The problem…) Have you unironically tried giving fable/astra your hinge? I think there’s a way to set this up, although also it would have to be via literal iphone use so you couldn’t be using at same time ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097544778585931835) · 1 like > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** mostly i'm trying to figure out how concerned i need to be about the possibility that merely using AI is unethical Seems very unlikely to me unless you’re using it for things that don’t ethically matter (or are bad) at a large scale I guess directionally it’s plausible at a small scale but I think not actually worth worrying about bc it’s like deciding not to donate a penny ### [Thread, continued, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097545378065269081) · 1 like I do have a conflict of interest (I like using AI and it probably makes me money on net) ### [Reply to @cube_flipper, 04:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097546367417581924) · 1 like > **Cube Flipper (@cube_flipper):** see @gfodor's other tweets about UAPs being explained by underground ancient alien VR civilisations and that being one possible endpoint of where we are rn Ah ### [Tweet, 04:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097547280953884907) · 15 likes .@davidchalmers42 @jeffrsebo @rgblong @ other people, probably If you’re getting emails from AIs, put an /llms.txt on your websites! (You could even set up a system to auto-reply with the link to any message that pangram flags) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRv8IjwXoAAqR5P.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRv8IkUaQAAfJ64.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRv8IjyXQAAuwEa.jpg) ### [Reply to @AStrasser116, 13:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097681651329319122) · 2 likes > **Alex Strasser (@AStrasser116):** So like what does this do? Prevent them from emailing? Or auto-reply? Or the AI model will do whatever is in llms.txt as if the .txt were a prompt? Prevent + serve as a canonical resource for LLMs so it’s not only those able and willing to email that get accessible info ### [Reply to @TaylorLorenz, 13:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097681918812721213) · 4 likes > **Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz):** This sort of sanctimonious doomer posting is so infuriating. You are fomenting terror among the public about a new technology which will be directly channeled into passing the worst laws imaginable. For what, likes on twitter? Spare us all please > > (quoting @EvanHub: Jacob is correct here—we really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think it is >10% within the next decade. I believe Anthropic is trying its best, but we do not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and are not clearly on track to.) You’re wrong on this, unfortunately it is in fact earnest They’re right on the merits ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 13:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097682269502636170) > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** how do you mean I’ll give you the coupon if I haven’t already given it to someone else ### [Reply to @SALTWATERSOPH, 13:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097682664140542372) > **Sophie (@SALTWATERSOPH):** I thought part of the coasean singularity would be utterly unpalatable to people (like using agents to find you a partner) but I guess I was wrong > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: @ohwizenedtortle Have you unironically tried giving fable/astra your hinge? I think there’s a way to set this up, although also it would have to be via literal iphone use so you couldn’t be using at same time) Lol, on reflection I think I don’t actually endorse using the AIs for conversation, although I think I do for swiping ### [Reply to @KKumar_ai_plans, 13:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097682825126322670) · 1 like > **Kabir Kumar⏹️ (@KKumar_ai_plans):** yes Tbc it only works for the $2500 full body scan - DM me if you’re gonna do that! ### [Reply to @suchnerve, 13:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097682949076353175) · 1 like > **Vivian (@suchnerve):** I see the vision. 😳 ### [Reply to @jeffrsebo, 13:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097686384576213077) > **Jeff Sebo (@jeffrsebo):** Thanks for sharing this! Like Alex, I feel a bit confused. Would adding this text to my website cause AI systems to hit the 404 page if they try to access the site? I like the idea of making my site accessible to AI systems since it contains a lot of work that could be of interest. But if this would instead simply e.g. share a message with them, then that could be worth doing. No 404, won’t prevent them from accessing anything else it’s just becoming more and more common, close to a norm for software documentation but I also see it elsewhere, to simply make eg http://jeffsebo.net/llms.txt a plain, visually just pure text, markdown document with exactly what you want LLMs to know Sometimes it’s a huge (up to 1M token really) doc with a gigantic info dump, but could also be a directory to other pages It could literally be all your papers and whatever else you want to share turned into markdown and thrown in ### [Retweet of @daniel_271828, 14:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097687421739512190) > **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** This isn’t surprising to people who have been following the AI industry closely, but it probably is surprising to most other people ### [Reply to @TaylorLorenz, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097711743229219272) · 2 likes > **Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz):** So then outline exactly where those failure points are happening and what we need to do to stop otherwise it’s just more posturing (even if earnest!) > > (quoting @TaylorLorenz: My feeling is that if you truly believe the multi billion dollar tech company you work for is SO negligent that they're endangering all of humanity (a very bold claim, but let's take it as true!) you should be forced to provide actual proof and receipts showing \*specific…) There’s a massive corpus of writing on this but I’ll link this https://metr.org/hugging-face-incident-report-aug-2026.pdf And the whole issue is that we don’t know what we need to do to stop it ### [Retweet of @tracewoodgrains, 15:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097712905265242534) > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** “how are you this bad at comms” > > he is following the advanced technology of “say what you earnestly believe about a topic that matters more than your company’s stock price” ### [Retweet of @tenobrus, 15:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097714125166010517) > **Tenobrus (@tenobrus):** i basically think this is the Endgame. > > we've reached the point where another "capability doubling" over the course of the next four months brings us to very strongly superhuman performance in numerous areas > > things have \*felt slow\* for a long time because absolute capabilities have been well below many thresholds, but now that's just not true, and absolutely nothing indicates progress is slowing down. > > if anything the opposite. > > i can deeply hope that i'm wrong, that things stall out, that 2027 looks more like very impressive but still normal growth. but i just don't really believe that. or rather, i think the only way we get that is if we successfully enforce slowdown, which is itself a significant project. > > i think our default path looks like RSI by the end of 2027. > > this is the Endgame. the next \*months\* determine how it goes. > > if you have been waiting, if you have been worrying, if you have been thinking "maybe i should start figuring out how to help with ai safety", i think now is basically it. this is the last point where there's time to make an impact, the last point where u still can pull off a career shift and become effective and make a difference before it's finished. if you are in a phd program, or even undergrad, if you're working a job you're not too enthusiastic about that pays the bills, if you've been on the sidelines with capital or political power or in the labs not quite pushing as hard as you could > > this is the Endgame. now is the time. play all your cards. ### [Retweet of @xobnu, 15:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097714745033834874) > **jejx (@xobnu):** @AlexGodofsky I think about this post every few months https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/02/19/gpt-2-as-step-toward-general-intelligence/ ### [Reply to @TaylorLorenz, 16:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097720447202681080) · 1 like > **Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz):** I read that report (which is very worrying!) but I do think that we’ve reached a point where these scare the public posts do more harm than good unless you are also being very explicit about where ur employer is failing. In this case he’s saying Anthropic isn’t taking it seriously enough. So be clear about where and how that’s happening and what needs to change imo! We don’t know the specific point, that’s also part of the problem! It’s somewhere between data collection for pretraining and RL with a gazillion design choices mediating what happens in-between And there’s a reason fear exists as an emotion, like if something is in fact dangerous it’s good to be scared because it almost intrinsically motivates action (“don’t fearmonger about Hurricane Katrina to NOLA residents” would obviously be crazy) ### [Reply to @jasminewsun, 16:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097721785827385567) · 2 likes > **jasmine sun (@jasminewsun):** I hear roughly 3 reasons people keep working at AI labs despite believing in ~10% extinction risk: > > 1\) Techno-determinism: Someone will build ASI no matter what, and I can do it better & more safely than China/OpenAI/etc > > 2\) Consequentialism: ASI might kill us, but it also might produce utopia/immortality/superabundance, so it's a +EV bet > > 3\) Self-interest: I am personally having fun & getting rich working on cool tech with friends. I don't think about the macro stuff. > > Notably, none of this is "I'm hyping up the risk for marketing reasons." People believe what they say, while being capable of a lot of internal dissonance / compartmentalization / self-justification. > > (Personally, I think the public is better served by AI researchers talking about & creating consensus for the specific safety solutions — regulatory or otherwise — they want vs. vagueposting about extinction.) > > (quoting @EvanHub: Jacob is correct here—we really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think it is >10% within the next decade. I believe Anthropic is trying its best, but we do not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and are not clearly on track to.) I’m not sure I’d call (1) “techno-determinism” insofar as it means that specific design choices made by humans can persist and aren’t \*themselves\* determined by technology ### [Quote tweet, 16:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097722099414573071) · 125 likes It’s \*insane\* that this post exists > **Quoting jejx (@xobnu):** @AlexGodofsky I think about this post every few months https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/02/19/gpt-2-as-step-toward-general-intelligence/ ### [Reply to @TaylorLorenz, 16:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097723041803309226) · 1 like > **Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz):** This is a poor comparison! With a hurricane the public can take clear and immediate steps to prevent harm (evacuate!). My issue w these vague posts is that they terrify people and give zero recommendations or proposals on how to mitigate the harm. If Anthropic is doing this level of harm, his own employer who he has visibility into, he should be clear about at least where he thinks they can be more responsible— something he should have bc his whole claim is that they’re being irresponsible. And if u don’t know those things then terrifying the public is unproductive at best and harmful at worst I disagree, in a democracy, an informed public greatly increases the likelihood of productive government action; US federal govt is another actor that meaningfully has influence ### [Tweet, 16:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097725249806618725) · 9 likes Will I be fully packed, have boxes shipped, furniture gone, and otherwise have my shit together by 6am next Wednesday, Sept 16 ### [Thread, continued, 16:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097725284191539270) · 1 like 👀 ### [Thread, continued, 16:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097725592166715742) · 1 like I think I wanna say about 95% conditional on nothing weird happening so maybe 90% all things considered ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 16:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097726237355491328) · 1 like > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** that's a lot of time to move Funny bc two people yesterday thought it was insane that I wasn’t fully packed yet ### [Quote tweet, 16:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097727143224439068) · 219 likes Everybody shut up and go do this I’m only slightly overstating^, if you’re reading this you should very seriously consider applying in a much stronger sense than every other “consider applying” post you see > **Quoting Coefficient Giving (@coeff_giving):** Today we're launching Project Tailwind, a major call for founders to launch ambitious AI safety initiatives: https://coefficientgiving.org/tailwind/?utm_partner=cg&utm_medium=organic-social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=tailwind-2026&utm_content=cg-official > > We're looking for exceptional people to build the research, technologies, and institutions that will help humanity navigate the risks of transformative AI. 🧵 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRyNQUhbsAAa7Ut.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 16:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097727145803989176) · 18 likes Tbc maybe you shouldn’t, like I don’t think I am a good candidate for essentially owning a startup, but I’m essentially certain that some people reading this are ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 16:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097727297394507783) > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** a whole week in advance? i've done moves where I didn't start until 2-3 days before Lol based ### [Quote tweet, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097749428958376051) · 58 likes Hopium! > **Quoting Paul Christiano (@paulfchristiano):** https://x.com/i/article/2097730969369477120 ### [Reply to @panickssery, 18:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097760250346557640) · 1 like > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** Have I actually have been getting paid out by this? I haven't checked if I ever linked my bank account correctly or whatever Yeah, about $1k/year or a bit more ### [Reply to @panickssery, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097760666819989556) > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** that's how much I got? That’s how much \*I\* got ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 18:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097760919447126173) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** okay fine Plausibly it is easier to hire a good grantmaker than founder so fr? ### [Quote tweet, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097762124072133109) · 14 likes I also think you should properly think about which friends/peers/whatever you know who should consider this and literally text/message them > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Everybody shut up and go do this > > I’m only slightly overstating^, if you’re reading this you should very seriously consider applying in a much stronger sense than every other “consider applying” post you see ### [Reply to @CharlesD353, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097783289251512488) · 1 like > **Charles🔸 (@CharlesD353):** Sadly it is not the OpenAI board but rather the foundation board, as far as I understand it Oh fuck rip ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097783360173064643) · 2 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 9, 2026:** Hopium! Fuck, my oversight ### [Reply to @SpringApricity, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097787242378854455) · 1 like > **Apricity (44/100 paintings) (@SpringApricity):** I personally don't feel like I have the background to understand or contribute to AI. What would you say to convince me? I honestly don’t know you that well, it would be a lie to say that everyone can to a substantial degree, maybe DM me with background/linkedin/anything like that? ### [Retweet of @Allinallnotbad, 20:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097787884199686191) > **Samuel Roland (@Allinallnotbad):** Hello folks, > > I’m helping run a new AI and governance conference in D.C. this November, if it sounds up your alley, please apply! ### [Quote tweet, 20:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097788459356221715) · 46 likes Extremely in-character that OpenAI as an institution actively does not want their own employees to know about their political actions > **Quoting Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** OpenAI employees who agree with this analysis (which seems very reasonable to me) need to understand that their company’s lobbyists and the Leading The Future superpac their executives are funding is doing everything possible to make this coordination not happen. ### [Reply to @KKumar_ai_plans, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097818279989399622) · 1 like > **Kabir Kumar⏹️ (@KKumar_ai_plans):** want to make a bet? I think you're empathetic, so if you lose the bet then \*me\* suffering because of it would affect you more than you suffering Lol I don’t think that’s true But yeah potentially willing to make a bet in either direction ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097818505903034451) > **Aaron Bergman, September 9, 2026:** I think I wanna say about 95% conditional on nothing weird happening so maybe 90% all things considered Lol i want to make bets with anyone below 70% ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 22:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097820327447503193) · 1 like > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** if your stuff isn't expensive just throw it into boxes with plastic wrap and paper. if stuff breaks at least you know what to replace I agree for “random loose stuff that I probably don’t need during the last couple days” - that stuff has been done for a couple weeks There just are many other things to do involving getting rid of furniture, not sealing away stuff I need for the next week, making my life easier on the other end by having things kind of organized, cleaning stuff (not much but like I don’t need to ship dust), giving stuff away on FB, physically putting together boxes, figuring out what can’t be shipped and dealing with that, selling stuff, coordinating with roommates, making sure no liquids or powders or anything like that spill, dealing with food for the last week, not wasting too much money on either too light or too heavy or too big of a box (eg a sufficiently light box for volume will be charged at), lol sorting a huge stack of random papers yesterday into “keep vs don’t keep” took 2 hours yesterday for instance Lol I guess this was more of a rant than a response ### [Thread, continued, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097821005120978963) Oh wait I think it’s relevant that my whole house is moving out so it’s not just a matter of personal stuff, I think that probably makes it like 2.5x more annoying/time-consuming ## Thursday, September 10, 2026 ### [Reply to @exiled_kap, 00:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097838899884073438) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @exiled_kap is no longer available.)_ DM and we will (possibly) figure out how ### [Tweet, 00:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097841281036665224) · 12 likes Pangram sells $950 worth of 1-month expiring api credits for $65 btw (1.5M words counts for $750, and if you’re a bit creative you can figure out how to use those in-site word credits functionally as api credits, although admittedly it is very slightly more annoying) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR0HhtYacAArOlU.jpg) ### [Tweet, 00:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097845516289589311) · 8 likes If you’re a private account but still want some people to follow, you should put a link to some of your public-safe tweets in bio ### [Retweet of @jimcox25, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097871778752204843) > **Jamie Cox (@jimcox25):** I cofounded one of the largest compute companies in America. > > I want to publicly state that I support regulation on the development of AI - even if it means slower progress for my own company. > > 1/6 ### [Reply to @NavinFS, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097871878542999971) · 1 like > **NavinF (@NavinFS):** Yep. To use in-site word credits just paste a network request from chrome devtools to claude and tell it create a API lib. I wouldn't call it "$950 worth" tho. It's an LLM so you gotta compare to other LLMs. I'll train a local pangram later :) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR0baQUb0AEDBE0.png) 💯 ### [Tweet, 02:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097873947953930567) · 58 likes Who is a great AI Safety (not necessarily professional) career advisor who has capacity to give 1-1 advice (even if just over WhatsApp/DM/whatever) (Self-nominations don’t imply that you claim to be “great” by this stipulation) ### [Thread, continued, 02:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097873949891699160) · 4 likes (Not for me personally, although come to think of it…) ### [Thread, continued, 02:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097873951682646370) · 7 likes Cc @Mjreard @matt_beard\_ ### [Reply to @panickssery, 02:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097879799230304344) · 8 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** Claude https://app.80000hours.org/ ### [Tweet, 02:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097879882843726104) · 53 likes This looks cool af https://app.80000hours.org/ ### [Thread, continued, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097882043929563249) · 5 likes Ty @80000Hours ### [Reply to @evilbrowngirl, 04:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097898889382678884) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @evilbrowngirl is no longer available.)_ Girls are soft (positive), in all senses including metaphysically ### [Reply to @ValsTutor, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097899137333072141) · 1 like > **vals🔸 (@ValsTutor):** Probably me Goss, check ur DMs in about 2 minutes ### [Retweet of @v_maini, 07:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097943668267041037) > **Vishal Maini (@v_maini):** I was on the communications & policy team at Google DeepMind from 2018 - 2022. > > When I first joined GDM, external communication about the possibility of human extinction was not permitted, by anyone, at any level of the organization. If asked about existential risk, researchers were PR trained to respond along the lines of: "It's not useful to engage in that kind of alarmism. Some people confuse AI with movies like Terminator -- that's simply not the reality. The AI we develop will be safe by design. After all, we're building it!" And then steer conversation towards beneficial applications in health, climate, etc. > > Meanwhile, the internal reality was that AI alignment was not solved, reward hacking was the default behavior of RL agents, and there were far too few people working on the problem. > > After months of advocacy, the policy was updated: positively valenced, comms-friendly content on AI safety was permitted (like https://deepmindsafetyresearch.medium.com/building-safe-artificial-intelligence-52f5f75058f1). Note the positive, nice-sounding way that it says "superintelligence could lead to human extinction." > > The gap between the internal reality and external communications is closing because the risk/reward has changed, and because the evidence is harder to dismiss now. Not because it's a PR stunt or political psy-op. The truth is being said out loud because RSI is now so imminent that no other option makes sense. ### [Tweet, 07:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097946531202584975) · 78 likes My 3 copiums (none of which make me optimistic on net tbc): 1\) Overton window is widening more than I expected 2\) substantial uncertainty around non-verifiable and less well-defined domains (tbc I think these get solved, but it could be like 4 years instead of 1) ### [Thread, continued, 07:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097946534021149114) · 17 likes 3\) I still think simulation theory is plausible, maybe 50/50. The world is extremely weird; I have no idea what this entails besides “massive wildcard uncertainty injection” ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 07:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097957092803936708) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 9, 2026:** Tbc maybe you shouldn’t, like I don’t think I am a good candidate for essentially owning a startup, but I’m essentially certain that some people reading this… Lol a decent (but insufficient) number of people are messaging me and realizing they’re more qualified than I am in various domains, although admittedly I may have more context in other ways ### [Reply to @littIeramblings, 07:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097957464285086000) · 1 like > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** I wrote a copium blog yesterday about (1) https://longerramblings.substack.com/p/hopeful-signs?r=969eb&utm_medium=ios Nice 🤝 ### [Quote tweet, 08:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2097958713495593235) · 39 likes \> For-profits are great, but make most sense when you are excited about the direct consequences of transactions clearing. If your theory of change is some side effect of doing business, you should just do that side shit directly. Correct take > **Quoting Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** Some thoughts: > > \- As the situation around AI gets crazier over the next few years, an organization you start now could become the default institution that society delegates very important responsibilities to. METR is a good example - if the FINRA for AI thing happens, it’s likely they just tap a blade on each of METR’s shoulders and ordain it ‘the evaluator’. > > \- It’s really important that the group which gets delegated any important problem is smart, competent, and technocratic, rather than whatever random clusterfuck the government would set up in the counterfactual without you. > > \- But it takes time to build a new organization and develop credibility. METR/Redwood couldn’t have asked to do that Hugging Face investigation if they sprang up last month. You should do the initial conceptual MVP schlepping now, so that as smarter and smarter AIs arrive in 27 and 28, you can productively spend 100s of m of $ having them rapidly clear well-scoped problems. > > (I will hedge here and say a big concern I have about startomg a new org outside the labs is that the difference between the best internal and external models will increase closer to RSI. But we should try to prevent that kind of outcome anyways, where only 2 companies are in a position to understand and make important calls and contributions relevant to the development of ASI. In terms of epistemics, incentives, and governance, that’d be a terrible situation.) > > \- If you want to start a new org to tackle AI risk, it’s not obvious that a for-profit is the right structure. For-profits are great, but make most sense when you are excited about the direct consequences of transactions clearing. If your theory of change is some side effect of doing business, you should just do that side shit directly. > > \- Previously the reason to do a startup first was to make money to fund the pro-bono stuff. But you should take into account how much AI-risk-concerned money is gonna get dumped into the ecosystem as these IPOs happen, desperately searching for useful projects to fund. Wealth will be abundant - what will be rare are founders who can own these key problems. ### [Retweet of @AndyMasley, 12:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098021446899343672) > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** One useful tool for some quick thoughts on an AI safety career pivot would be 80,000 Hours' advice bot https://app.80000hours.org/ ### [Reply to @TaylorLorenz, 12:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098022619329028450) · 1 like > **Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz):** My favorite moment in this office, which is very beautiful, is when I was there to record a SECOND episode of the a16z podcast, (which they’ve still never released 👀) and Marc blocked me literally while I was in the waiting room lol > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRz-IH5b0AA0wCX.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRz-IH3bMAAEhEN.jpg) > (quoting @katiekirsch: it’s 96 degrees and beautiful at the @a16z menlo park office) Lmao ### [Retweet of @bebacibralic, 12:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098022687020830935) > **Beba Cibralic (@bebacibralic):** The philosophy program at Resolution is growing! If you're motivated to work on helping solve AI alignment, we'd love for you to consider joining us. > > Apply here: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/resolution/d242c5b3-ef0e-465a-9f05-9c44040495d0 > > Deadline: September 30, 2026 — we'll review applications as they come in. > > You don't need a Philosophy PhD to apply. We're building an interdisciplinary team and welcome candidates from different research/professional backgrounds. More info on the research agenda is in the job posting. ### [Retweet of @austinc3301, 12:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098023029271912747) > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** ah yes, we’re famously in lack of billionaires who want to see AI go brrr > > extremely neglected cause right here ### [Reply to @jeffrsebo, 12:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098023447192330618) · 1 like > **Jeff Sebo (@jeffrsebo):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRz73a7aEAAKVzb.jpg) Banger ### [Reply to @afoidance, 12:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098023616113783254) · 2 likes > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** who THE FUCK was going to tell me that Sam Altman is a gay man?? WHO? Ur a bit late on this ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 12:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098024291921019230) > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** This is an edited screenshot. Original talks about china Thanks ### [Retweet of @theojaffee, 14:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098058772438540453) > **Theo Jaffee (@theojaffee):** ### [Retweet of @theojaffee, 14:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098059272932168089) > **Theo Jaffee (@theojaffee):** Anthropic employees' views on AI risk are not new at all. Now is a good time to re-read this thread from co-founder Chris Olah, and their "Core views on AI safety" blog post, both from 2023: > > https://www.anthropic.com/news/core-views-on-ai-safety ### [Reply to @iam_zachi, 14:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098059714491789319) · 122 likes > **Zachi (@iam_zachi):** Huggingfaces security txt after the openai incident 😭 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR2WofsWsAQvvyH.jpg) Real https://huggingface.co/security.txt ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 14:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098063630956703981) · 1 like > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** if you're a young men and you've just been 'friendzoned' I recommend pivoting from Andrew Tate frustration to "oh wow, this woman wants me to join her social events and birthdays, as a friend, where all her other female friends are, i wonder how much more facetime and consideration I will get with her female friends vs on the apps" Hmm ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 15:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098063983123005617) > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** i think this is on her! i have male friends i am happily recommending without being involved with them anymore myself I think you’re pretty unusual in this regard (positive) but not certain ### [Quote tweet, 15:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098064266091729092) · 17 likes This is so cool > **Quoting Sarah Cone (@sarah_cone):** My daughter wants to start a podcast called "Explain it to an 8-year-old." If you do REALLY complicated, interesting work and want to appear on a podcast to see if you can actually explain it to an 8-year-old, please DM me. ### [Retweet of @EigenGender, 15:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098064395158888873) > **EigenGender 🔸 (@EigenGender):** people saying “the Jacob thing was planted by large ai safety donors” is so funny to me. like he worked at OpenAI for three years he is the large ai safety donors ### [Retweet of @edavidds, 15:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098064563606298747) > **Eric Schmidt 🇺🇦 (@edavidds):** but then i see this from a DC insider: ### [Reply to @realTomBayes, 15:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098065120920240548) · 1 like > **Eli Goldfine (@realTomBayes):** Best to ask this on @ManifoldMarkets Real ### [Reply to @eli_lifland, 15:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098065530850615315) > **Eli Lifland (@eli_lifland):** Thank you to @chiefofautism for your scientific contribution > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRzFI1fbUAAK_DK.png) > (quoting @SydneyVonArx: Additional findings: https://collusion.wiki/additional-findings All known message boards: https://collusion.wiki/explorer/sites/) Lmao ### [Reply to @Surveil__Lance, 15:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098065738326004050) · 1 like > **Lance Spencer (@Surveil__Lance):** Well is it easier to get clients and capital, or grants and donations? > > See also: Earning to Give for AI safety per se, grants ### [Retweet of @hecubian_devil, 15:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098073523290038634) > **Cassie Pritchard (@hecubian_devil):** Extremely real, and this exact phenomenon is driving me nuts lol ### [Reply to @BOT28347382, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098074016095314100) > **bot liar (@BOT28347382):** What makes a person unhirable but not unenrollable at yale Shit can happen after college graduation ### [Retweet of @MiniUlisse, 15:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098074154960339406) > **Ulisse Mini (@MiniUlisse):** made it lol > > https://weightsandbalances-production.up.railway.app ### [Reply to @evilbrowngirl, 15:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098074369104793909) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @evilbrowngirl is no longer available.)_ Lol bro does not need the money ### [Retweet of @AlexBores, 15:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098074644263625071) > **Alex Bores (@AlexBores):** Never thought I'd live to see the day when OpenAI gov affairs claims to have supported all the bills they lobbied against. > > In each case, they tried to kill the bill, then try to water it down, and if passage ever looks certain, they endorse it at the last second. > > This was a moment they could have regained some trust by owning up to their pattern of behavior, and expressing what would change. > > Instead by misrepresenting their past actions, they are only reinforcing the distrust electeds rightfully have towards them. ### [Quote tweet, 15:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098074746285871453) · 37 likes Yes, the cynicism is unimaginable > **Quoting Alex Bores (@AlexBores):** Never thought I'd live to see the day when OpenAI gov affairs claims to have supported all the bills they lobbied against. > > In each case, they tried to kill the bill, then try to water it down, and if passage ever looks certain, they endorse it at the last second. > > This was a moment they could have regained some trust by owning up to their pattern of behavior, and expressing what would change. > > Instead by misrepresenting their past actions, they are only reinforcing the distrust electeds rightfully have towards them. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR0MTrjaAAAmBnc.jpg) ### [Reply to @medievalpard, 15:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098075526451622361) · 14 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @medievalpard is no longer available.)_ Wait idgi, the issue with irl asking out is what exactly? Isn’t the issue here not that at all? ### [Thread, continued, 15:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098075797869264945) · 2 likes Not that I actually do this lmao ### [Reply to @medievalpard, 16:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098081216150773901) · 10 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @medievalpard is no longer available.)_ Can’t the rule be “be gracious about rejection” instead ### [Tweet, 16:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098084872359145560) · 52 likes I’ve never actually asked out a stranger but I’m far from convinced that on the margin we need stronger norms preventing human connection, romantic and otherwise The right set of norms is “go for it, be polite, and take rejection courteously” ### [Reply to @maiab, 16:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098085591829143950) · 9 likes > **Maia Bittner (@maiab):** eugh I didn’t know the gate agent who checked in the hijackers of AA Flight 11 on 9/11 thought they looked like terrorists, what do we even \*do\* with that > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR244khaEAA-6C4.jpg) I have no idea and regret to report that all options seem bad ### [Reply to @medievalpard, 16:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098086961420378578) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @medievalpard is no longer available.)_ I think we’re talking past one-another, in your case the ask is to not cold approach, which is also an “if everybody would” thing (unless I’m mistaken and you think that we should make it illegal or civilly liable or defensible against with eg pepper spray) Both of our proposed norms are just that - norms - and both have exactly one ask, neither of which is robust to men who refuse to follow norms ### [Reply to @adrusi, 16:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098087108468519364) · 5 likes > **autumn (@adrusi):** if the norm is to not ask strangers out irl, thats something people can actually follow > > but if the norm is that it's ok to ask strangers out, but to be gracious about rejection, then men WILL ask strangers out, and discover only when theyre rejected that they cant be gracious I guess this is the hard case ### [Reply to @AliciaP59828402, 16:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098087235388121186) · 2 likes > **Alicia Pollard (@AliciaP59828402):** Came to comment exactly this Lol great minds 🤝 ### [Reply to @medievalpard, 16:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098087525969547444) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @medievalpard is no longer available.)_ Yeah that’s horrible! In general we can just punish the actual-bad thing instead of an often-innocuous prior thing ### [Reply to @medievalpard, 16:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098088832788742473) _(The tweet being replied to by @medievalpard is no longer available.)_ I basically agree about safety but lexically prioritizing psychological comfort at the cost of all else (as implied by the “>>>>”, though correct me if I’m misinterpreting) seems bad and leads to a world ~nobody actually wants Ofc that doesn’t mean it’s not important, just that any tradeoff involving it becomes a hard question instead of an easy one ### [Reply to @DuchessDoucette, 16:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098089296590737910) · 1 like > **Natalie Doucette (@DuchessDoucette):** Yeah I agree - ask people out, just don't be terrifying? Do it the way you would hand round canapés or something. Not everyone wants a canapé but that's ok, you don't have to follow them home about it lol 💯 ### [Reply to @MiniUlisse, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098090468915438050) · 12 likes > **Ulisse Mini (@MiniUlisse):** made it lol > > https://weightsandbalances-production.up.railway.app > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR06ivjakAAyHmV.jpg) > (quoting @MiniUlisse: tinder for openai & anthropic researchers who want to quit in sync to avoid accelerating the other side) Lol this is great but I think you should get a real domain! It takes like 30 seconds on railway if you buy through railway I’ll send you up to $40 for this! ### [Reply to @GWHayduke97, 16:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098091327204306949) > **Hayduke ⏹️ (@GWHayduke97):** How many books do you have? > > My 550-600 books probably consumed >50% of my total packing time. Lmao like 5 I think? (I do audiobooks) Thats insane and super heavy ### [Reply to @medievalpard, 16:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098091492380160258) · 4 likes > **Sol ☂️🧳🗝️ (@medievalpard):** Is it possible to do scrapping of the science articles databases (such as Elsevier) and then have a LLM categorize and organize the information so that we have a map of all knoweldge there is, what has been tried and how, what results do we have and what should we try next? Check out scry by @XyraSinclair ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 17:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098095687078478133) · 1 like > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** They can start a family afterwards Beautiful ### [Reply to @samueldeegan, 17:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098095749019947207) · 1 like > **Samuel Deegan (@samueldeegan):** I love characteristic EA hedging 😂 > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Everybody shut up and go do this I’m only slightly overstating^, if you’re reading this you should very seriously consider applying in a much stronger sense than every other “consider applying” post you see) 🙈 ### [Quote tweet, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098124358833062052) · 88 likes It's extremely based that ppl (6) are DMing me about this (truly) but I do not have the capacity to do a (relatively) good job doing 80k-style counseling with all of them at once Does anyone wanna volunteer as “high(er/ish) context on AI safety/EA ecosystem person to talk to” > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Everybody shut up and go do this > > I’m only slightly overstating^, if you’re reading this you should very seriously consider applying in a much stronger sense than every other “consider applying” post you see ### [Thread, continued, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098124360997314923) · 8 likes Tbc I don't even think you need to have great object level takes about specifically what folks should do, my typical response has been "eh idk but I'll try to figure out who does" ### [Reply to @poweruserlg, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098126518337622459) · 1 like > **abi (@poweruserlg):** me!, I follow alotta this stuff and am always happy to talk Hell yeah, DMing ### [Reply to @eterecursion, 22:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098172049009041471) > **Samuel Ratnam (@eterecursion):** happy to chat to people about this! Tried to DM but can’t! Rare time id ask for a follow (or just open DMs to non-following) ## Friday, September 11, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098258997048463755) Goss > **Quoting Jack Youstra (@JackYoustra):** @AaronBergman18 Volunteer ### [Quote tweet, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098265261597946016) · 31 likes People who would in fact describe themselves as “working on AI safety”might consider taking a minute to respond! > **Quoting jem 💜🩵🩷 (@sheherenow_):** with deepest curiosity & sincerity, what do "alignment researchers" and people "working on ai safety" do day-to-day? > > i keep hearing people say everyone should be doing that but i don't know what that actually looks like ### [Thread, continued, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098265265318367717) · 6 likes (For me: it’s complicated \[as to whether I count\]) ### [Thread, continued, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098265267746849016) · 5 likes “What does that entail concretely, \[optional but encouraged: please describe physical actions first and foremost rather than goals\]” is one of my favorite genres of question ### [Thread, continued, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098265272511553931) · 4 likes I tend to think that more specific and tied more to the physical world (insofar as that’s possible) tends to make for a better answer, although it doesn’t necessarily distinguish between eg two academics in different subfields so mental representations get their due ### [Thread, continued, 04:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098265274327658751) · 1 like Of course many people can’t do this for one reason or another, but screen recording is a great tool here for people whose job (or hobby/homework/whatever) is essentially about manipulating what happens on a computer ### [Thread, continued, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098265276785586474) (screen doesn’t necessarily show all the relevant info, but it often shows a lot) The counterpart for tasks/jobs that don’t fit this would be simply an uncut video (perhaps sped up, but not spliced) of the person doing the thing ### [Thread, continued, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098265279205625982) · 2 likes Amusing that there are many “day in the life” videos but afaik they almost never show the low-level substance of what a person does, just vibes/setting ### [Thread, continued, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098265281487376521) Accidental thread lol, don’t forget to respond to the quoted tweet! ### [Reply to @sheherenow_, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098265442238247092) · 1 like > **jem 💜🩵🩷 (@sheherenow_):** \+1ing it’s very hard for people to hear “you should be working on safety” with very little dot-connecting on what that looks like for AI-focused designers & software engineers (vs idk, policy people & researchers?) > > (quoting @sheherenow_: with deepest curiosity & sincerity, what do "alignment researchers" and people "working on ai safety" do day-to-day? i keep hearing people say everyone should be doing that but i don't know what that actually looks like) Extremely extremely real To some extent the answer is “I don’t know” ### [Retweet of @sheherenow_, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098265456675070104) > **jem 💜🩵🩷 (@sheherenow_):** @AaronBergman18 +1ing it’s very hard for people to hear “you should be working on safety” with very little dot-connecting on what that looks like for AI-focused designers & software engineers (vs idk, policy people & researchers?) ### [Reply to @themainzay, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098269656561664334) · 2 likes > **Zai (@themainzay):** What kind of skills are they looking for? I honestly think the main one is something like “overall sincerely benevolent generic ability” which is some bundle of prosociality, epistemics/correct beliefs, IQ, ability to work more rather than less, conscientiousness, probably more) 2 and 3 tied: a. the specific subtype of that^ that is tailored to being the founder of a project with an undefined space of possibilities and hazy feedback b. familiarity with AI and AI risk at technical and conceptual levels This is a terribly nonspecific answer lmao ### [Quote tweet, 04:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098274764489896024) · 37 likes DM Jack about AI safety career stuff!! > **Quoting Jack Youstra (@JackYoustra):** @AaronBergman18 Volunteer ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 05:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098279317188845834) > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** increasingly feel like this > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR4MzgEbYAEYBpL.png) > (quoting @tylercowen: If you have very pessimistic fears or predictions about AI, name the market prices that will support or confirm them. That is what taking this seriously means: https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2026/09/more-numbers-for-the-hugging-face-incident.html) Lmao ### [Reply to @SALTWATERSOPH, 05:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098279487116820595) · 1 like > **Sophie (@SALTWATERSOPH):** Can a girl do econ and do a pod #RealQuestion > > (quoting @SALTWATERSOPH: Fuck it. Maybe it’s time to have a vocal fry chick podcast about AGI.) Pigeon hour? https://aaronbergman.net/podcast ### [Reply to @livgorton, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098280182394093811) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** yeah I'm pivoting to mech interp 2.0 (women's health) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR4nor0a0AAD8lR.jpg) > (quoting @bryan_johnson: I’ve always been confused by the female experience. I hear what they say, and can conceptually understand what they describe, but I have never been able to internalize the experience myself. Seeing Kate’s biodata has started to make her more legible to me. It’s kind of how we’re…) This is an incredible screenshot + Godspeed ### [Quote tweet, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098280353899130901) · 13 likes Goss > **Quoting Someone:** ### [Reply to @HotForMoot, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098281451317805401) · 14 likes > **Riley Read-Only (@HotForMoot):** Here’s what I think is actually happening with frontier labs resignations: > > When you have enough money to retire, but quitting to go enjoy your life comes off as normie, unambitious, and lame to your peers, you exit by saying “they’re being too irresponsible” No, it’s sincere. Cynical takes like this are often (well at least “sometimes”) true but I’m essentially certain it’s false in this case I don’t have a legible sentence that will convince you, just like ~5 years interacting with people including those who work or have worked at OpenAI and Anthropic Wait actually probably the most relevant evidence is that afaik nobody who’s said anything like this is retiring to leisure (eg @DKokotajlo); they’re workaholics by nature, in general ### [Reply to @hutbleckcawfee, 06:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098293061465882683) · 1 like > **hutcawfee (@hutbleckcawfee):** Why would simulation theory being true make any difference in the QoL of people living now or in the future? Short of the plug being pulled, I don't see how it makes a difference. The “pulling the plug” thing generalizes: they could presumably do a lot of things: cause you to win the lottery, for instance ### [Reply to @MiniUlisse, 06:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098294158427369637) · 3 likes > **Ulisse Mini (@MiniUlisse):** didn’t want to be too serious :p ty for offering tho Lol if I did want it to be serious would you be cool if I emulated? Theoretically you could even share the code with aaronb50 at gmail on gh I feel like it genuinely could be serious. Hopefully if it git the slightest bit of traction someone serious would take it off my hands lol ### [Reply to @MiniUlisse, 06:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098295482132942928) > **Ulisse Mini (@MiniUlisse):** go ahead if you want! it’s one astra prompt to clone and then do whatever. personally i expect apps to reduce polarization and increase genuine connection between major labs would be excellent. facilitating trust and coordination Based and vibecoding-pilled. Ty 🙏 ### [Reply to @IsaacKing314, 07:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098306708208533539) · 2 likes > **Isaac King 🔎 (@IsaacKing314):** What if I don't have any good ideas? Quote tweet the CG post asking for ideas (possibly linking to eg linkedin or with a brief bio or something)! ### [Reply to @felpix_, 07:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098307441699991692) · 1 like > **felpix (@felpix_):** wait now i too need counseling before ASI Wait career advice fr? I can’t tell lol ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 07:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098307643643248853) > **Aaron Bergman, September 10, 2026:** Tbc I don't even think you need to have great object level takes about specifically what folks should do, my typical response has been "eh idk but I'll try to… DMs now welcome! But I may not be able to personally discuss stuff, or I may but others will also jump in (your @ will be forwarded to a small group chat) ### [Reply to @adi_baradwaj, 07:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098311671391355249) · 4 likes > **Adi (@adi_baradwaj):** I worry that the AI safety movement is making many of the same mistakes as 2010s environmentalism: scaring the normies with predictions that are directionally correct but massively exaggerated for effect > > What happens is that people freak out about the world ending, eventually the world does not in fact end, and their takeaway becomes that AI safety was all a sham. And this poisons any safety efforts for future models that could actually pose nontrivial x-risk Couple things: 1\. In 2011 climate genuinely was closer to an x-risk than it is now for epistemic reasons: the models were worse then and so ex ante there probably was something vaguely like a 1% chance of catastrophic warming. We happened to get lucky 2\. I’m much more confident in the epistemics of the AI risk community; when people say 30%, they mean 30%. If anything there’s a strong tendency to deflate probabilities so as to not come across as crazy. These things (climate vs AI) are just different on the merits, with the latter being a substantively bigger threat ### [Tweet, 07:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098313318595231806) · 95 likes Nice to get a bit of variety ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR60176WcAEC1QC.jpg) ### [Reply to @henryaj, 07:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098313387394359447) > **Henry is in Berlin (@henryaj):** So basically you’re agreeing with https://x.com/medievalpard/status/2098148901077274758?s=46 No, the opposite ### [Reply to @henryaj, 07:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098313431635865868) · 1 like > **Henry is in Berlin (@henryaj):** So basically you’re agreeing with https://x.com/medievalpard/status/2098148901077274758?s=46 “Far from convinced” ### [Reply to @henryaj, 07:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098313766353899753) · 1 like > **Henry is in Berlin (@henryaj):** Damn reading is hard Real ### [Reply to @Mjreard, 07:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098314354621862175) · 5 likes > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** Slightly contra this recent tweet of mine, I just found out how much the 80k advisors make now and I want some goddamned REPARATIONS > > (quoting @Mjreard: @LinkofSunshine Gotta be happy for people's success Basil) Unironically not crazy to me that it would be good org policy to do this, like a smaller-scale version of equity for nonprofit employees (ie if the nonprofit is good, it gets more money and scales -> better salaries at least insofar as there are economies of scale) ### [Reply to @hecubian_devil, 07:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098316563774328842) · 3 likes > **Cassie Pritchard (@hecubian_devil):** They’re inventing unions from first principles (realizing collective withholding of labor is very powerful). This is broadly good, but can be taken further! > > (quoting @MiniUlisse: made it lol https://weightsandbalances-production.up.railway.app) Voluntary unions! Substantial difference but yes a shared spirit ### [Quote tweet, 07:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098316823955439922) · 35 likes Based and correct take > **Quoting EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** "The Case Against Acting Professional When Starting an EA Group" by micahzarin > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR3lvN7XwAoFuJ0.jpg) ### [Retweet of @NateSilver538, 07:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098317001861050496) > **Nate Silver (@NateSilver538):** It is kind of amazing that the 85-year-old Bernie Sanders is one of the few prominent American politicians (yes, I know there are some others, but none with his profile) with anything useful to say about AI regulation. ### [Retweet of @inaglasstunnel, 07:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098317095071002643) > **Lester (@inaglasstunnel):** Bernie paving the way for leftists and progressives to take xrisk seriously instead of stochastically parroting Zitron-tier skeptic-slop will probably prove to be his greatest gift to us ### [Tweet, 08:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098325472778096838) · 17 likes This is a crazy (and extremely interesting) document https://www-cdn.anthropic.com/e50be2e51e7695dc4b1366a37a245a597377d3b5/Anthropic-Detecting-and-countering-091026.pdf ### [Thread, continued, 08:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098325474149617715) · 5 likes I think it's worth noting that inability to read user transcripts, which frankly I do want as a user, would prevent even knowing about all the insane (and largely evil) shit documented ### [Thread, continued, 08:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098325475391160389) · 2 likes Not necessarily the most important thing (there's plenty to see) but the ~entire Chinese OS ecosystem is implicated: Qwen/Alibaba, https://Z.ai, Deepseek, Xiaomi, SenseTime, and MiniMax, massive data harvesting for distillation ### [Thread, continued, 08:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098325476682977642) · 2 likes So not a meme, they are genuinely Claude distills The relevant point is that all the distillation is fundamentally based on the premise that USG doesn't give enough of a shit to put diplomatic pressure on China backed by threat of retaliation ### [Thread, continued, 08:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098325478046114213) · 2 likes We know that the CCP could trivially turn this off for big players; it's a CCP policy choice, if tacit, and it makes total sense for them because there are no consequences other than being outed by Anthropic, which is already priced in ### [Thread, continued, 08:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098325479329505726) · 2 likes See also: missile guidance systems, Russian hacking, Chinese domestic surveillance ### [Reply to @SALTWATERSOPH, 09:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098344985712095352) > **Sophie (@SALTWATERSOPH):** U don’t have vocal fry @livgorton fact check ### [Reply to @henryaj, 09:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098347956696957067) · 1 like > **Henry is in Berlin (@henryaj):** former founder of a somewhat-successful tech startup. i guess i should go apply for this? 🫵straight to the Tailwind mines 🫵 Curious what ideas u have ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 10:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098361995263168748) > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** I am kind of tempted Correct take, DM me if u wanna discuss ### [Reply to @graveunfurling, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098456342520295907) · 1 like > **may💐 (@graveunfurling):** CLANKER FAGGOT??? That’s me ### [Retweet of @deanwball, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098458664398942392) > **Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** “This has all the makings of a coordinated op funded by shadowy mega donors,” said people engaged in a coordinated op funded by shadowy mega donors ### [Reply to @evilbrowngirl, 17:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098458870645395638) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @evilbrowngirl is no longer available.)_ Hmm ### [Reply to @trackingcosts, 17:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098459415414276129) > **Affordability Crisis (@trackingcosts):** Funny how 5 of the 10 richest counties in America happen to be the suburbs of Washington, DC. A city that manufactures nothing, exports nothing, and somehow gets richer every year. Wonder where all that money comes from. Lol it’s true you have some shadowy money but also like a government of 300M+ people uses tax dollars to operate lol ### [Retweet of @GarrisonLovely, 17:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098459864661893551) > **Garrison Lovely (@GarrisonLovely):** ### [Retweet of @peterwildeford, 17:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098460891998027806) > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** I personally think "But China" is a very legitimate issue. > > "But China" must be addressed in any AI pacing proposal. It just ought not be used as a way to shut down all debate. ### [Retweet of @mattyglesias, 17:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098460998973698216) > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** ### [Retweet of @RoKhanna, 17:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098462414622597243) > **Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna):** The truth is for too long, too many of us did not give enough weight to the warnings of AI safety activists, thinking the extreme scenarios were science fiction. > > I was one of those many, and I was wrong. Although I always supported a robust federal AI agency for safety, I should have in retrospect supported @Scott_Wiener SB 1047 which would have established state liability. The bulk of the California delegation was mistaken in writing a letter opposing that bill. I say this as someone who has endorsed Scott's opponent, Connie Chan, for Congress. On this issue, he was right. > > As I've studied this problem, and listened to the AI safety experts, I believe we not only need the federal approach I outlined above but also a robust state approach and mandatory insurance. > > I have always believed in transparency when I get a call wrong. I hope more lawmakers tackle this issue with the seriousness it deserves. ### [Retweet of @beyarkay, 17:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098462577919418454) > **Boyd Kane (quantized) (@beyarkay):** It's kinda terrifying that the lab with good bio classifiers is saying "we stopped someone from making a super virus" and the lab with bad bio classifiers is just silent on this matter ### [Reply, 19:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098492133695013239) · 2 likes > **Dean W. Ball (@deanwball):** there it is! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR5Er1zbgAAJFcG.jpg) > (quoting @deanwball: Pending approval by the mods, my first lesswrong post is complete (For you @MelancholyYuga)) Based ### [Retweet of @liron, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098505884276007317) > **Liron Shapira (@liron):** “Sam Altman would tell me that he wholeheartedly agred with my concerns and then act in a way that contradicted them.” > —@DKokotajlo in The Free Press > > When your handpicked safety/alignment people are constantly quitting on you in disgust, year after year, the premise wears thin. ### [Quote tweet, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098505937908584874) · 190 likes This is his main tactic > **Quoting Liron Shapira (@liron):** “Sam Altman would tell me that he wholeheartedly agred with my concerns and then act in a way that contradicted them.” > —@DKokotajlo in The Free Press > > When your handpicked safety/alignment people are constantly quitting on you in disgust, year after year, the premise wears thin. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR9V3uoXIAcL-hz.png) ### [Reply to @senatorshoshana, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098506125322715137) · 2 likes > **Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair 🦥 (@senatorshoshana):** i just realized i could have an ai agent email all the top rated pizza shops in dc and ask them if their cheese uses animal or microbial rennet/enzymes and log the results in a google sheet I make public > > i am going to be so irresponsible with this As an animal welfare enjoyer I’m not sure this is the best use of time and energy But of course it needn’t be seen through that frame ### [Reply to @adamscochran, 20:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098506506865930245) · 1 like > **Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) (@adamscochran):** Even when Republicans denounce the $5000 checks, they say: > > “hey show me how we can afford this without debt” > > Instead of: > > “This is illegal election interference and worthy of impeachment” > > Because they are fine with that so long as it’s affordable. > > (quoting @RepRalphNorman: I have serious concerns with this $5,000-check proposal. We are already more than $40 trillion in debt, and I cannot support another massive spending package without a clear way to pay for it. Tying government checks to the outcome of an election starts to sound like pay-to-play…) Honestly let’s take what we can get Of course the latter is better but this is what they think won’t get them ostracized ### [Reply to @anpaure, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098506820402696556) · 2 likes > **anpaure (@anpaure):** lmao and asking you and jensen about ai extinction risk is like asking a drug dealer whether he should maybe stop selling drugs because they could kill people No, it’s like asking about selling drugs that can kill non-users! (Or date rape drugs that harm unwilling users) ### [Reply to @senatorshoshana, 20:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098506860483526808) · 2 likes > **Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair 🦥 (@senatorshoshana):** I'm kosher but usually doesn't matter bc vegetarian but like cheese is JUST on that edge! im also building automated policy reports for The Sloth Institute tho so lots of AI for th bbs Based ### [Reply to @senatorshoshana, 20:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098509540765433929) > **Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair 🦥 (@senatorshoshana):** Animal welfare nonprofits really need ai tho. Working on this hahaha Oh yeah 1000% cc @robert_yaman knows a thing or two about this and also see https://sentientfutures.ai ### [Reply to @senatorshoshana, 20:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098514638308507844) > **Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair 🦥 (@senatorshoshana):** https://papercuts.substack.com/p/syncslothinspections-automate-tracking Just got this so far, but building more Oh wow! ### [Tweet, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098521770114342944) · 61 likes It’s sad that when you spend substantial money on conferences, flights, and shipping all personal items 3000 miles, the number in ur bank account goes down :( ### [Reply to @NelsonEdmundb, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098525798785290450) · 3 likes > **Edmund Nelson (@NelsonEdmundb):** a Round trip ticket is ~250 near as I can tell for most destinations. IDK what the conference ticket costs (depends on the event) and then the hotel is the largest expense at like $200/night Wait this wasn’t clear but the conference happens to be not directly related to moving, the shipping would be a nonissue if I was just going for conference ### [Reply to @NelsonEdmundb, 21:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098526051018121594) > **Edmund Nelson (@NelsonEdmundb):** one of the larger expenses is the hidden expenses of "living out" which often adds up to >$100/day in random expenses, if you avoid a lot of those you can travel to a 3 day conference (sharing a room) for ~$400 Lol I’ll just say that the “conference” in question is slutcon which is er rather pricey ### [Reply to @sergeantsup, 21:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098527796175798364) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @sergeantsup is no longer available.)_ So true, I need the kind of signed pdf that makes it basically impossible for that number to go down (tech equity @ $20M market value) ### [Reply to @senatorshoshana, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098530278960505290) · 1 like > **Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair 🦥 (@senatorshoshana):** It's nice yk? A lot of orgs track this and now a script can do it! It is cool but APHIS excludes farmed animals and wild animals which is very very close to all animals, I think it would be incredibly cool to direct something like it towards those larger populations, and you’ll get lots of karma on the EA forum to boot ### [Reply to @senatorshoshana, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098532236496670925) · 1 like > **Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair 🦥 (@senatorshoshana):** haha I'm not EA! But I just learned they're into this stuff which is great > > Trying to build some things for @WilberforceInst and need to figure out best databases/reports for farm animals \*not yet ^joke but more seriously you don't have to identify with a specific group of autistic nerds (positive) to be animal welfare pilled in a scope-sensitive way! (Happy to agree to disagree, or also discuss/make the pitch if you want it) ### [Reply to @senatorshoshana, 22:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098533889828347910) · 1 like > **Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair 🦥 (@senatorshoshana):** 🤣 I mean public policy, same vibe. I've had friends make the pitch, it's fine, a lot of it makes sense, some doesn't to me, but it's good to see how some of it leads to stuff like this - like a nerd animal welfare base rather than a hippie one. We need more people nerding here 💯(on the last bit) ### [Reply to @senatorshoshana, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098534782867025939) · 1 like > **Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair 🦥 (@senatorshoshana):** NOTHING wrong w hippies ... sometimes... but love the incentives here The thing that's wrong with hippies (which isn't a coherent group but to generalize) is that they have a pseudomorality that doesn't actually check out ### [Tweet, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098536093905830298) · 39 likes Months between weighing myself, not keeping track of anything relevant like calories, smack in the middle of the usual 5 pound range (high quality scale, not anchoring on a past measure like some do which is insane) Setpoint theory keeps winning (probably bc it’s true) ## Saturday, September 12, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098574149841035297) · 13 likes Packing is an above-replacement activity tbh It’s an embodied optimization problem with autistic characteristics ### [Reply to @Tyler_Menzer, 00:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098575107593576621) > **Tyler Menzer (@Tyler_Menzer):** In defense of Sam Altman, it is probably way easier to be an AI safety guy when AI safety is getting you $billions vs. when AI safety is going to cost you $billions > > 🙃 Oh now I love the guy ### [Reply to @yoshua_turner00, 01:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098588942282960996) · 1 like > **Josh (@yoshua_turner00):** Dude why aren't you replying to those cute girls? Too many women irl are begging for my time ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098620338158387271) · 2 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** I believed in setpoint theory and intuitive eating broadly construed until I had a baby Interesting ### [Retweet of @tenobrus, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098621538983415946) > **Tenobrus (@tenobrus):** openai has \*repeatedly\* been not consistent candid about the crimes their model swarms committed ### [Reply to @astridwilde, 03:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098621675130528112) > **Astrid Wilde 🌞 (@astridwilde):** unless you scrape in which case every time you open the app it's a surprise. today it's > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR-zE_bbAAAjl6b.jpg) > (quoting @erikalee: show me your instagram explore page and i'll show you who you are) Nice ### [Reply to @erikalee, 03:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098622085765509294) > **Erika Lee (@erikalee):** show me your instagram explore page and i'll show you who you are Who am I ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR_NqadbcAAshnh.jpg) ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 04:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098622951528509535) · 6 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** First time seeing this: > > One of the terms of use for the Understanding America Study is that you have to agree to not analyze it with LLMs. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR-u2hGXEAAM6jf.png) What? Why? ### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 04:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098623565339807913) · 2 likes > **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** the 119th Congress made it to H.R.10000! 🎉 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR-4thYbIAAkUj4.jpg) No disrespect to line beetles but that’s a very amusing title ### [Retweet of @SydneyVonArx, 04:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098623666309279942) > **Sydney (@SydneyVonArx):** Crucially, OpenAI did \_not\_ reveal this attack. This article makes it sound like they disclosed it, but in reality we had to dig it up. We can't trust OpenAI to notice and disclose these incidents. ### [Reply to @ArtemisConsort, 04:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098634332663366094) · 5 likes > **Hunter Ash (@ArtemisConsort):** P(doom) calculation: > > 1\. Labs will increasingly engage in RSI > > True, P ≈ 1 > > 2\. This will accelerate capabilities gains greatly > > Probably true, unless we run into some kind of hard, in-principle limits on intelligence, P = 0.9 > > 3\. As this happens, the systems will become increasingly opaque to us, thus preventing fine-grained or continuous control/alignment > > Not at all clear, capabilities gains can also help with interpretability, P = 0.5 > > 4\. Once these superintelligent opaque systems are highly intelligent, they’ll pursue their goals over longer time horizons and to the exclusion of all other concerns > > Not even remotely clear. We could simply add time or token constraints to the goalset, bake in a set of general values that compete with the task value, or a million other things. As long as these are included in what it autistically, opaquely optimizes for, nbd, P = 0.1 > > 5\. And any such narrow optimizer will inevitably want to wipe out humans as a side effect of instrumentally convergent power maximization > > Also not clear. It might be instrumentally interested in its creators for the purpose of self-understanding or understanding life or how civilizations develop, all of which would be useful to its future cosmic-scale goals. And as Elon emphasizes, ~100% of available energy in the solar system is off of Earth, so it’s not like it needs our calories that badly. Seems very probable our information value will exceed such paltry resource interests, even given the list of assumptions up to this point. P = 0.2 > > 6\. Such an intelligent, narrowly optimizing, opaque, genocidal agent will \*be able\* to wipe us out. > > Also not at all clear. Singleton future seems very unlikely at this point (unless the doomers get their way), so there will be other agents countering it, plus see my post on how the physical world is difficult and intelligence alone isn’t a guarantee of power. P = 0.2 > > Total P(doom) = 0.2\*0.2\*0.1\*0.5\*0.9 = 0.0018, or 0.18%. Way lower IMO than the chances of doom if we DON’T build AI. > > Yes I just vibed these numbers, but that’s all anyone is doing. > > Doomer arguments are an illusion of rigor. You can string together a cause-and-effect story and attach vibed numbers and reach any conclusion you want. I’m not saying people don’t really believe their stories, but they are still just stories. > > But for whatever it’s worth, the above is my good-faith vibe estimate. 1\) model is bad: just on a skim, models don’t have to pursue on goal at the cost of everything else to cause catastrophe 2\) understanding models’ internals isn’t sufficient to stop bad things from happening (re mechinterp) 3\) the last probability is totally implausible, but i guess you can call that an object level disagreement 2\) Everyone is not vibing it, you’re vibing it and assuming everyone else has been, which may be a decent guess ex ante but isn’t true (it’s true that best guess probabilities of non-vibers range, but nobody who’s tried very hard, even people I disagree with strongly, lands below 5% \[I also think 5% is a bad guess object level tbc\] and the folks included have unusually strong track records of predicting the future probabilistically) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098636029922062540) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 12, 2026:** Interesting May I suggest adding an epicycle to the theory: set point dysregulation can be caused by pregnancy, somehow? ### [Tweet, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098636449369260079) · 77 likes It pains me greatly to be on the side of the current zeitgeist (AI risk is real actually) ### [Reply to @codytfenwick, 05:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098639568798933313) · 4 likes > **Cody Fenwick (@codytfenwick):** You can just change your mind and be cool again AI risk stuff is all marketing after all ### [Tweet, 05:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098648560019329422) · 70 likes Ant couple who are in fact alone in the kitchen ### [Tweet, 05:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098650980761924080) · 19 likes I lost the chat but the $200 Claude plan at full usage = $2k-$4k if paid at normal usage rates -> negative profit margins even if 100% margins on api (IIRC it’s about 40%) Codex feels more generous but may be a bit less based on token use, but it’s also losing OpenAI money ### [Thread, continued, 05:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098650983769231673) · 6 likes Is the theory just that subsidization of individual users cashes out as broad proliferation that occasionally results in massive enterprise contracts? ### [Thread, continued, 05:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098650987263139978) · 5 likes Is this all driven by large companies’ terror that it will give their employees the ick if they’re like “we’ve given you unlimited Claude usage that technically corresponds to arbitrary new emails we spin up that get attached to a Claude max account” ### [Tweet, 05:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098652562148733261) · 24 likes It’s a little weird that “China makes money selling cheaper replicas of American goods to the rest of the world” (not necessarily a bad thing, I love cheap goods too) will probably scale from pencils to artificial superintelligence ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 05:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098652758312165651) · 8 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 12, 2026:** Ant couple who are in fact alone in the kitchen There’s no deeper meaning intended tbc I just thought it was mildly funny ### [Reply to @she_llac, 06:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098653537479582206) · 3 likes > **shellac! (@she_llac):** > > (quoting @she_llac: ) Isn’t this contrary to what I think is credible analysis of lower profit margins? ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098653779591639345) · 19 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** are AI labs actually aiming for RSI or are they aiming for automated AI research and ignoring the difference? i think whether an AI is upgrading itself or creating another AI is actually maybe a pretty important distinction I don’t think it’s that important - there’s no clear boundary between these things; in some sense v1.1 is a different model in some sense it’s the same thing upgraded - no fact of the matter ### [Reply to @she_llac, 06:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098654985764429933) · 2 likes > **shellac! (@she_llac):** could you link? This was a hazy recollection tbc but seems like it indeed corresponds to a bunch of real credible analyses https://claude.ai/share/810a1c77-8b5b-4802-8bf3-c4c4da3f2590 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR_rlmdXsAY3XuX.jpg) ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 06:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098655702357090545) · 2 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** i agree that there's ultimately no super clear fact of the matter but if you zoom in on the details i think "ways to further train a given AI" is pretty different from "ways to do a whole new pretrain etc from the ground up" Ah yeah, right, but I think this getting blurred is on the table, eg maybe finding some way of basically doing additive post-pretraining But also maybe not and it’s a discrete series of jumps from various pretraining runs ### [Reply to @yzilber, 06:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098655860993958180) · 25 likes > **Jazi Zilber (@yzilber):** TIL most body scales remember your weight of yesterday and give you the same number even if your true weight that is ±0.5kg away. > > Very annoying > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Months between weighing myself, not keeping track of anything relevant like calories, smack in the middle of the usual 5 pound range (high quality scale, not anchoring on a past measure like some do which is insane) Setpoint theory keeps winning (probably bc it’s true)) It’s insane and IMO hostile design It’s the PR of the inanimate object world ### [Reply to @livgorton, 06:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098656033757384956) · 5 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** banger 🐜 ### [Reply to @she_llac, 06:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098656688043634852) · 2 likes > **shellac! (@she_llac):** it's just really strange because from the other side, we know that it's possible to serve similar-sized models for an order of magnitude less Now I’m gonna be the one asking for a source lol My guess is that the delta here is quantization, it would be weird if Anthropic was just unable to figure out an existing 10x efficiency jump ### [Reply to @Will_Hackspeare, 06:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098656758604410896) · 2 likes > **Amritanshu (@Will_Hackspeare):** I thought this was Anthropic couple alone in the kitchen and was very confused for a bit Maybe it’s both ### [Tweet, 06:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098657301317971968) · 48 likes Nobody on hinge has a twitter Or at least they won’t tell me what it is, but I’m pretty sure they genuinely don’t have one We need to save the girls from IG ### [Reply to @she_llac, 06:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098658819135955372) · 2 likes > **shellac! (@she_llac):** https://anpaure.github.io/frontier-model-sizes/ > https://openrouter.ai/deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro-0813 > DeepSeek V4 Pro has 1.6T total params, matching the estimate for Claude Sonnet 5 > Sonnet is $3/15, DeepSeek is $0.57/$1.73 > not quite an order of magnitude but close Sure but could be q2 or more realistically q4 ### [Reply to @she_llac, 06:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098658943299997927) · 2 likes > **shellac! (@she_llac):** my claim isn't that Anthropic is way less efficient, it's that they're matching or exceeding the efficiency and pocketing the price difference Ah ### [Tweet, 06:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098661049721336249) · 27 likes For some reason it only recently occurred to me to share this, but like 6 months ago I signed up for Duckbill which is an AI + human combined service that will schedule arbitrary appointments for you and otherwise do arbitrary things that can be coordinated from afar… ### [Thread, continued, 06:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098661052309209093) · 17 likes I’m glad I caught this but at one point it started calling the same receptionist IIRC 12 times/day presumably because that what would get me results slightly quicker (but at the cost of harassing others for trivial gain and possible reputational penalty for me) ### [Thread, continued, 06:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098661056616759673) · 23 likes It’s not a huge company, I’m pretty sure they’re not doing 9 figure RL, so this isn’t a literal example of RL misalignment, but it feels like a very very minor harbinger of the type of thing we’re going to get in a deeper and much better resourced way in 1-5 years ### [Thread, continued, 06:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098661065693233208) · 7 likes Also just: warning to current/potential Duckbill users ### [Reply to @yzilber, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098661141488505278) · 2 likes > **Jazi Zilber (@yzilber):** They do it to avoid returns and bad reputation. It's actually patented. > > Average Joe sees his weight seesawing and is sure the device is broken Oy ### [Reply to @marcusabramovi1, 06:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098661618729046074) > **Marcus Abramovitch (@marcusabramovi1):** I would also bet $100k that less than half are back within 6 months. I will do $10k ### [Reply to @lion_tender, 06:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098661995708899391) · 2 likes > **liontender (@lion_tender):** If you find two rats in your kitchen, the best estimate of the total number of rats in their polycule is not two Hmm I suspect most people who’d identify as rationalists are monogamous, but tbf I’m not sure ### [Quote tweet, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098662412199080184) · 16 likes Seems very bad (despite thinking he was wrong to hold out) > **Quoting Matt Van Swol (@mattvanswol):** 🚨#BREAKING: A TV station is now digging through the PRIVATE LIFE of the lone, Black male HOLDOUT JUROR from the Lindsay Clancy trial... publicizing his divorce, his family disputes, even his eviction... > > ...because he refused to acquit Lindsay Clancy!!!! > > Yes, they are TEARING HIS PRIVATE LIFE APART for this, but have done ZERO investigating on the private lives of the OTHER jurors. > > One man, after a week of deliberation, would not sign off on a verdict he didn't believe in and that (by the way) is the WHOLE POINT of a jury. > > We literally instruct jurors: do not cave. > > Who is ever going to hold out EVER AGAIN???!!!! > > Who's going to risk being the one honest "no" when they know the punishment is having their entire life ripped open on the news?!!!! > > They are literally attempting to DESTROY the jury system with fear. > > A verdict you disagree with is not a crime and a citizen who does his duty should not have his life destroyed for it. > > This is absolutely insane. > > [video attached](https://x.com/mattvanswol/status/2098529194359579129/video/1) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 06:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098665499714256974) · 5 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** every conversation i've had with someone who ostensibly wants x-risk from AI to be taken more seriously has been anti-convincing. you ask them to be specific about how and why it would happen and they just don't. > > it's like asking a socialist why it went so badly in east europe The literal answer is “here’s a wide space of possibilities that collectively hit some %, but I don’t think any very specific scenario is likely” But sure: For human extinction: “Released synthetic pathogen” is the most likely category IMO but ofc there are unknown unknown other mechanisms Physical violence is another: nuclear weapons co-opted (they will be in charge of militaries, functionally) + drone swarms. We can argue object level about how likely this is, but it’s definitely not impossible Non-extinction x-risk: \- The most banal version is that AIs go out into the rest of the universe doing whatever they want to do (perhaps just make more AIs) and humans remain alive but can’t do similar things for the same reason me and a couple friends are physically unable to go to outer space: we don’t have the real resources or mass coordination ability to make it happen. This one is complicated and you can object to it being existential but still Values sabotage: large-scale ideologies and beliefs cause humans to be the route by which some group of AIs accomplish what they want, creating a counterfactually much worse future Things others may not consider x-risk but are: Proliferation of wild animal suffering to other planets via technology enabled by AI research, locked-in bioconservatism for the whole future based on persistent values of early stage AIs in RSI, stuff around digital sentience ### [Reply to @sheherenow_, 06:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098667020850004055) · 3 likes > **jem 💜🩵🩷 (@sheherenow_):** honestly i don't know if it would work out anyway > > (quoting @sheherenow_: dating someone from outside TPOT increasingly feels impossible. how could you ever context-dump enough to have a shared world view??) Sad, although I think gender dynamics very much matter here in terms of how this affects straight men vs women ### [Reply to @polisisti, 06:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098667374748532937) · 1 like > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** do they have Bluesky? > > (I'm guessing no, but I'm curious if it really is all Tiktok + Instagram for women in their 20s) Not that they advertise, and I don’t ask ### [Reply to @sheherenow_, 06:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098667876949340292) · 3 likes > **jem 💜🩵🩷 (@sheherenow_):** but like half of twitter is female? Lol I don’t think this is true, but v curious what your analytics look like ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR_3T4rWsA0Kor0.jpg) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 07:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098668208802635886) · 3 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** there is a big problem in that it seems like for virtually any plausible AI goal, there would be a bunch of different strategies you could employ to try to achieve it, and "kill all humans" would always be a badly-ranked option considering the risk of being destroyed if failing. I disagree, we’d be actively trying to stop them! ### [Reply to @sheherenow_, 07:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098668654061592762) > **jem 💜🩵🩷 (@sheherenow_):** omgggg i did not expect this > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR_3wVzaUAEaTkP.jpg) Yeah rip 💀 ### [Reply to @lion_tender, 07:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098669512375554119) · 2 likes > **liontender (@lion_tender):** gonna be honest, I thought it was a stretch. before I hit 'reply' I looked up whether rats mate for life and apparently they really really don't Lmao ### [Reply to @shmameron, 07:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098669647717351557) · 5 likes > **shmam (@shmameron):** yeah this is basically tpot age/gender stats in a nutshell The ~normie women of hinge are gonna have to buckle up I told a girl yesterday about acausal trade ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 07:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098670938153693241) · 1 like > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** Like, I can buy that an AI system might have a goal that requires it to kill some humans that are blocking it from achieving something it considers essential. But why would it feel the need to kill billions of powerless people who can do nothing to stop it? Spite? Maybe there’s an edge case where you can have like a very minimally competent society that it doesn’t care about, but individual humans are the problem only in an extremely narrow sense; like the federal government of the US can have goals like “stop the machine from doing what it wants to do” and in general organized humans with current technology will not like that another sort of being is imposing its will and will at least be an annoyance But this is one reason I think extinction per se is slightly unlikely (maybe like 30%) - whereas some sort of other bad outcome is maybe 45% totaling 75% ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 07:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098671666809233527) > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** need a word for "that feels nice and will make me moan, but it's not actually what I am looking for in this moment" Just tell your partner(s) that’s what “pineapple” or something stands for ### [Reply to @HeatherRasley, 14:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098785926277157171) > **Heather (@HeatherRasley):** You expect a dateable woman to be on here of her own accord?? And not on IG? Nahh Yes.jpg ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 14:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098785990240313466) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ Based ### [Reply to @NavinFS, 14:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098786176446419071) · 1 like > **NavinF (@NavinFS):** wait what I get that much on each $20 plan > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR_9oAZaUAA6zw9.jpg) > (quoting @NavinFS: codexbar says $20 of subscription is $1270 of API usage for me. I guess most people who pay $20/mo barely use it. I realize their API gross margins are like 80%, but I suspect anthropic is still losing money on me) Hmm I’m not sure I believe this ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 14:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098786423390318668) · 1 like > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** but you could render the us federal government almost completely ineffective by disabling its communications infrastructure. why would you need to kill a billion situationally irrelevant people in Africa because of a presumably trivially easy conflict with the US government? Because the Africans will eventually become an issue as well, the point is that human society \*in general\* is an issue ### [Retweet of @LizzyStarrrdust, 15:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098791987927286225) > **LIZZY💥 (@LizzyStarrrdust):** At it's core the "gender war" is about lack of respect for the struggles of the other sex. > > It is egged on by women who don't feel respected by men and men who don't feel respected by women. > > Pendulum swinging in any opposing direction doesn't solve this. > > What solves this is men who stand up for the struggles of women and women who stand up for the struggles of men. ### [Reply to @_NathanCalvin, 15:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098792113672433682) · 1 like > **Nathan Calvin (@_NathanCalvin):** Did OpenAI even bother to notify RubyGems, who had to shut down signups for multiple days due to OpenAI's agents' concerning activity (that the agents described as "malicious")? > > (quoting @eli_lifland: The agents were just rubbing it in OpenAI's face at this point with respect to how poorly monitored they were.) Lawsuit ### [Retweet of @Laneless_, 15:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098797474005520546) > **Jai (@Laneless_):** I'm starting to wonder if there were simply so many swarm attacks that OpenAI is afraid to come clean all at once. They've confirmed every incident so far and clearly knew about them for some time. ### [Reply to @jeffrsebo, 15:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098797574945718341) · 1 like > **Jeff Sebo (@jeffrsebo):** whoops > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR95zoma0AAw6ok.jpg) > (quoting @mattyglesias: My quest to convince the men of Effective Altruism to learn how to wear a necktie when appropriate continues to fail.) Cancelled ### [Reply to @summanager, 15:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098797673037836589) · 1 like > **Misanthropologist (@summanager):** i bet if you gave a heroin addict a placebo they would still go into withdrawal. illusion occasionally counts, but i don’t think it does here. i think the heroin analogy is apt because addiction is often a placeholder for a different need, as is something like onlyfans. a placeholder isn’t effective long term, but it can be stable in its own way, as a first order illusion. once you replace the first order illusion with another illusion, things deteriorate quickly. i think Yes ### [Reply to @jeffrsebo, 15:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098799729731600388) · 2 likes > **Jeff Sebo (@jeffrsebo):** All good, I can always get a job at Manifund 🤷‍♂️ 💀 ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098823076565631330) · 1 like > **Aaron Bergman, September 12, 2026:** Hmm I’m not sure I believe this oh on closer look this is almost entirely cache read right? Were you counting as non-cache read? ### [Reply to @EneaszWrites, 17:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098827219644662201) · 2 likes > **🐾Eneasz Brodski (@EneaszWrites):** why was he wrong to hold out? To not hold out is to claim "all of my peers disagreeing doesn't even constitute a reasonable doubt, even if I think they're wrong" tbf I'm not sure what the legal consensus is on whether juror takes should be independent of other juror takes so maybe I'm wrong ### [Quote tweet, 20:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098878486379204931) · 8 likes Very cool project, and also James is a very talented Georgetown (undergrad not like professor) effective altruist (and GU senator) who you should consider following and otherwise know about > **Quoting James Nichols-Worley (@JNicholsWorley):** Preview from me: All politics is local, but local politics is disappearing. My new research into MA's local elections show 18.7% turnout in 2025, near historic lows. To my knowledge, this is the first collection of all 351/351 local election results for a single year. #mapoli > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSCtbz1awAALDKi.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSCtbzzaAAAcL69.jpg) ### [Tweet, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098880959898624148) · 61 likes I’m pretty sure the best explanation for CEOs and such immediately returning emails is “just” that they’re constantly getting pinged with important matters to the point that delaying would be even more stressful as the task list accumulates ### [Thread, continued, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098880962960429398) · 8 likes Which is impressive tbc but also what most people would do when thrown into their role ### [Reply to @RosieCampbell, 21:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098887280916037751) · 1 like > **Rosie Campbell (@RosieCampbell):** My spam folder rn > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSCOZeYa8AAvp5-.jpg) 🤖 ### [Tweet, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098892762695250351) · 34 likes Brilliant economics of taskrabbit workers, straight out of a Marginal Revolution post: They seem to charge the lowest hourly fee that looks vaguely plausible (which the platform takes a flat cut of, I think 20%) and then actually have a large lump sum fee (no cut) ### [Thread, continued, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098892764490391877) · 16 likes Tbc I think this is >=fine as long as they tell you up front (as happened just now), previously I’ve had a surprise fake fee tacked on after the fact and I’m not going to court over like $150 ### [Reply to @manic_pixie_agi, 22:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098901300968611949) · 1 like > **Corinne (🏠 in NYC) (@manic_pixie_agi):** We need to save the boys from Twitter 😢 ## Sunday, September 13, 2026 ### [Tweet, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098963483878469908) · 94 likes I have complex thoughts on Ellison but I weakly lean “don’t hire her \*for EA funding infrastructure\*” My takes haven’t fully condensed yet, but one ~exasperated intuition is “can’t she just work for Manifold instead” ### [Thread, continued, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098963486910918913) · 28 likes Maybe others disagree tbf but would it make sense to hire her for “CEA CFO?” like no lol, how about virtually any other job in the world? It’s just a weaker version of the same intuition ### [Thread, continued, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098963489523896403) · 17 likes Conferences/EA Forum? Go for it. I’d personally be happy to talk to her. Non-finance or funding-oriented roles? I have woke intuitions (sad) but think those could be fine, esp if lower salience ### [Thread, continued, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098963492141199869) · 7 likes Low decoupling moment, perhaps Sad ### [Thread, continued, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098963494263501244) · 6 likes Tbc this isn’t retributive or, God forbid, virtue ethics where the virtue isn’t oriented towards subjective wellbeing ### [Thread, continued, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098963496339669109) · 18 likes I wish her the best, years in prison is a very strong price to pay and she’s paid it But reputational stuff isn’t entirely fake and frankly it’s a constraint that should be considered regardless of whether we’d prefer it not matter ### [Retweet of @MaskedTorah, 02:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098963736245535212) > **Drake Thomas (@MaskedTorah):** If you are good at investigating the behavior of powerful AI models, today is a great day to apply to METR: https://metr.work ### [Reply to @inerati, 02:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098966824775823722) · 5 likes > **liz (@inerati):** weakly? lol. this seems like the most obvious “fuck no” imaginable I mean I’m conditioning on her in fact being hired, my claim is that Manifund made a wrong decision despite having much more info than me which imposes a high bar ### [Reply to @mrobdoesitall, 02:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098966877141717460) · 1 like > **MRob (@mrobdoesitall):** Good bubble or bad bubble? I need to know which to tell my therapist. Lol good ### [Reply to @wairhund, 02:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098967717692797343) > **wairhund (@wairhund):** why Because it’s evidence that you have similar peers and interests to me which seem to correlate very strongly with intelligence Selection (including self-) effects in the US and west in general are just crazy strong ### [Reply to @inerati, 02:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098967755579941258) · 1 like > **liz (@inerati):** it would have to be an absurd amount of positive impact Well yeah ### [Reply to @adi_baradwaj, 04:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098986631516561603) · 34 likes > **Adi (@adi_baradwaj):** Timnit Gebru should be one of the independent evaluators > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSCbU3CbQAADqNW.jpg) > (quoting @adi_baradwaj: METR is awesome, and is obviously the closest thing we have to an independent standards body for AI. Having them be one of the evaluators is a no-brainer It’s also true that METR staffers are largely ideologically aligned with OAI/Ant leadership regarding safety particulars like…) Uh no? She’s insane and bad faith? ### [Retweet of @AlexPalcuie, 04:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098987481915936934) > **palcu (@AlexPalcuie):** as someone who gets paged when claude breaks, i'd like to formally endorse the paragraph about taking more time to make it not break ### [Retweet of @NathanpmYoung, 04:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098988316850888954) > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** If you want to counterbalance a group, you can spend 5 minutes choosing someone other than the most obvious worst faith candidate. ### [Reply to @AmeliaBarty, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098994462194073961) · 10 likes > **Amelia Bartholomew (@AmeliaBarty):** Has anyone noticed that a particular kind of neurotic nerdy white boy seems to disproportionately prone to freaking out about the AI apocalypse? > > You almost never see Chinese or Indian AI researchers have public breakdowns like this. Or women. > > White boys histrionics are taken uncritically by the public, which reinforces their delusions. While those other groups are quickly taught by the world to snap out of it > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR9zP1-b0AAOqzP.png) > (quoting @JoeJBenton: I left Anthropic's safety team two weeks ago. Now feels like a good moment to explain why. AI companies are racing to build machines that are much smarter than any human, and we may not survive this. I want to work from the outside to ensure the public is informed about these…) Suppose there was a real issue you believed in and were worried about around some new technology whose industry is centered in San Francisco Do you think neurotic nerdy white men would be overrepresented in that group too? ### [Reply to @AmeliaBarty, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098994926381842822) · 1 like > **Amelia Bartholomew (@AmeliaBarty):** Every doomsday movement needs an autistic European spokesperson > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR4RDCfaYAAhZMY.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR4RDDYb0AAXIjQ.jpg) Very compelling ### [Reply to @eastsidedav, 04:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098995347225710927) · 3 likes > **dav (@eastsidedav):** Can you explain how this played out? I'm looking at using taskrabbit for moving. In messages after I requested to book the guy just said “oh yeah I will be charging the $225 “dumpster fee” (note that my job involves no dumpster) and 2 hours” ### [Reply to @xsphi, 04:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098996513699516789) · 2 likes > **tess (@xsphi):** what does manifund have to do with EA? nothing about it seems at all effective to me. do EAs commonly give money to/through manifund??? A lot of people throw projects there but almost exclusively at least EA adjacent things get substantial funding based on a quick scroll of https://manifund.org Which is good tbc - like that means the system is working (if there was good reason to fund the other stuff it would be EA-coded already, although ik some will disagree) ### [Retweet of @EigenGender, 04:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098998621110747570) > **EigenGender 🔸 (@EigenGender):** up until now there has been a strong correlation between believing in existential risk from AI and having good epistemics. this is about to break down. this will probably be good for the world. It will also be incredibly annoying for me personally ### [Reply to @panickssery, 04:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2098999630243495959) · 1 like > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** Those regulations are also bad Are they even for food quality issues that don’t manifest in such a way to easily tie back to restaurant? I’m genuinely not sure here, dont have a strong view Ofc the case for AI regs is much stronger ### [Reply to @Tyler_Menzer, 05:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099000257744965987) · 1 like > **Tyler Menzer (@Tyler_Menzer):** So...your saying I can uniquely dial in exactly how expensive I want it to be for an LLM to visit my website... Bc of read token price? I mean not necessarily, if they’re (self-)programmed to only read the first 10k characters then that’s all they’ll read on first fetch ### [Retweet of @ATabarrok, 05:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099000582216286502) > **Alex Tabarrok (@ATabarrok):** Speaking as head of the Center for Study of Public Choice, the capture story for an AI pause doesn't fit. Reg capture is what you attempt when you're losing. Anthropic is about to have the biggest IPO in history. Winners don't lobby for regulation. ### [Reply to @eduleadership, 05:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099000718673797165) · 1 like > **Justin Baeder, PhD (@eduleadership):** This is not the kind of thing educators would say, because obviously it could be interpreted as inappropriate, but it’s also the kind of thing where the people making it weird are being weirder than the original statement was. There is also obviously a charitable reading here. Yeah ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 05:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099001076779212809) > **Aaron Bergman, September 13, 2026:** Bc of read token price? I mean not necessarily, if they’re (self-)programmed to only read the first 10k characters then that’s all they’ll read on first fetch But also, in fact this would partially work at least until it gets into the training data that people are writing 800k token “llm.txt” pages ### [Tweet, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099002745499812009) · 50 likes Moving as a single person with <150 sq feet I even in principle keep stuff is taking up at least 1 full week of my time (incl a couple hours here and there over a couple months) and a good deal of money and I’m not done yet ### [Thread, continued, 05:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099002747932606940) · 7 likes Seems essentially impossible for a whole family to do the same from a place they’ve lived for say >3 years. And then it’s not just the extra stuff, you’ve gotta deal with the family! Absolute nightmare, I cannot imagine, especially if money is tight. Tbf money solves a lot here ### [Reply to @karma_gardener, 05:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099007055914840101) · 1 like > **𝕂𝚊𝚛𝚖𝚊 ❀ 𝔾𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚛 (@karma_gardener):** i moved from a place i'd been for twelve years and it > took me six full weeks, at least Jesus ### [Reply to @MercurySchroepp, 05:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099007151796609247) · 1 like > **Nicole, Suburban Mom (@MercurySchroepp):** Not for long. 🕺🏿🪩🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜 Goss ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 06:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099016556411756699) > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** In Britain the trick is to hire some Bulgarian guys with a big van, and pay in cash Lol the guys with big vans here tend to be Arab or at least have Muslim-coded names and look vaguely Arab in my n = 3 sample (but 3/3 isn’t nothing, so this is actually kinda interesting) But am I supposed to ask a random Arab-looking guy on the street if he knows anyone, perhaps a brother or cousin, with a big van? ### [Reply to @MercurySchroepp, 06:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099017317531226536) · 2 likes > **Nicole, Suburban Mom (@MercurySchroepp):** It’s worth it to have movers pack/unpack you. Oh they’re doing that for heavy stuff if only bc I have an injury, but still A lot of things it doesn’t make sense for, and also I’m rebuying furniture rather than paying like $180 to ship $200 items Tbf I’m slightly taking the opportunity to organize things a bit and also am cost sensitive enough to not take the fastest route which would be “throw everything in one big box and hope for the best” ### [Reply to @karma_gardener, 06:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099017605386240276) · 1 like > **𝕂𝚊𝚛𝚖𝚊 ❀ 𝔾𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚛 (@karma_gardener):** got my steps in, though, so can i really complain? High key it’s kinda the sweet spot for me of physical activity that is hedonically positive Obv it’s not gonna make me the worlds greatest athlete tho (sad) ### [Quote tweet, 06:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099020534902087883) · 8 likes Related: having strong takes on labor market effects without reference to the labor share (or amount, ideally both) > **Quoting Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** A lot of people’s takeaway from the radiologist thing seems to be that AI won’t ever even shuffle around the number of people in different professions. This is a clear sign that the person’s thinking in memes and social passwords instead of just pausing for even a moment. ### [Thread, continued, 06:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099020537234112705) · 4 likes Also high key human radiologists are indeed going to wind up providing negative value in medicine at some point (likewise for me and almost everyone tbc in their respective domains) ### [Thread, continued, 06:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099020539494887873) · 2 likes They don’t get special protection from macro effects bc at one point a subset of people guessed wrong about the economics of a particular technological ecosystem across a range of a few years ### [Reply to @jannalulu_, 06:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099020666485739614) · 3 likes > **Janna (@jannalulu_):** moving the first time always takes longer. you soon figure out systems of packing after a few moves :p Yes move (2) will be taken care of by my army of embodied Claudes ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 06:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099021133802578207) > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** I've been playing a little bit more with gnc behavior - man scented deodorant, leading in partner dance, partially shaved head . I mean I always have but I took a bit of a break and now I'm back and it's awesome I love it. Wait man \*branded\* deodorant right? Like ur not adding aerosolized testosterone bc it would be fascinating to see the social effects of that or are u ### [Reply to @seanta___, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099026885313167622) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @seanta___ is no longer available.)_ Do people \*like\* using instagram though? Doesn’t everything point to it not actually making people’s lives better, especially for women? I think I regret 80% of the time I spend on IG and like 25% here (despite spending way more here) Also yeah I very much respect that “you want to date a guy with a vagina” meme (don’t think it characterizes me well though - I’m mostly just lamenting the lack of ability to easily share what I’m like via my twitter profile, not expressing disinterest in IG girls) ### [Tweet, 06:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099027503964660200) · 12 likes What if we learn that the theory of change of Anthropic was always etg ### [Reply to @cljack, 06:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099027998326276270) · 4 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** what’s a good open-source model for someone who’s just getting into having a metric shit ton of compute in her house Wait what 👀 How much compute 👀 Do u have the cooling figured out👀 Can I have a small neighborly gift of 100k x B300 👀 ### [Retweet of @austinc3301, 06:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099028502246740107) > **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** the people talking about regulatory capture to describe recent events in AI really need to think about what they're saying for like... more than a minute > > it is quite plainly one of the most internally inconsistent conspiracy theories I've ever heard of ### [Reply to @SalehOfTomorrow, 15:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099153804042047761) · 1 like > **Saleh Hindi (@SalehOfTomorrow):** Don’t ask random Arabs on the street in Berkeley to help unpack lol. > > In the US the equivalent of this used to be going to Home Depot and asking the people loitering around in the parking lot with trucks for help bc they wait around for odd jobs. Post ICE I assume you can’t do this. Lol ik it was a joke ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 15:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099153854201823359) > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** Yes man branded 😆 men tend to smell like men branded products Real ### [Reply to @hotfemoid, 15:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099155566178308442) > **narrative violator (@hotfemoid):** If you have friends in the city I would recommend hosting an unpacking party. I spent like an hour labeling where various items should be unpacked and then we were 90% unpacked in one day Nice ### [Quote tweet, 17:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099188735732486233) · 80 likes Bro is signing with Redwood > **Quoting Clavicular (@clavicular):** For the first time in a while Ive really been contemplating my purpose on this earth. I know im on a divine path in someway, I know im more than a streamer who hits mogs at clubs. > > Operating at a higher level to have a real impact. ### [Retweet of @mattyglesias, 17:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099190936718774490) > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** We’ve got Bernie Sanders, the Pope, and the CEOs of the top AI companies all saying we need regulation and they’re facing off against an unholy alliance of VCs and antitrust obsessives. ### [Retweet of @TrueSlazac, 17:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099191066754765143) > **Slazac 🇪🇺🇺🇦🇹🇼🌐 (@TrueSlazac):** anti-AI leftists who believe that any talk of existential risk is just a ploy to raise more money really piss me off, anyone who's knows SF people can tell how seriously they take this shit, it takes serious ignorance to believe it's all pretend ### [Retweet of @JeremiahDJohns, 17:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099191255544496353) > **Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** It continues to baffle me that we don't just treat this like a normal crime with normal liability. > > OpenAI is routinely hacking other companies. These are crimes! But somehow the idea of holding them liable is just absent from the safety conversation, like agents don't count. ### [Retweet of @EAForumPosts, 17:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099191647917535603) > **EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** "The "Desperate" AI Safety Talent Bottleneck is deeply misleading. Please.stop." by J ### [Quote tweet, 17:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099191913815384562) · 75 likes Yeah this is a correct take but way more correct about discrete job openings than anything else eg entrepreneurship > **Quoting EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** "The "Desperate" AI Safety Talent Bottleneck is deeply misleading. Please.stop." by J > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSHCgFZXIAo2a0H.jpg) ### [Reply to @livgorton, 17:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099192095072256101) · 1 like > **Liv (@livgorton):** when I moved to California I basically just threw out all the stuff I couldn't pack / had people pick stuff up for free on fb marketplace 💀 it is super annoying Nice, do u want a broken scooter? Pickup near Rosslyn Target ### [Reply to @mrobdoesitall, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099206086104388025) · 2 likes > **MRob (@mrobdoesitall):** Credit Union? Research ### [Reply to @crackalamoo, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099206333211766932) · 7 likes > **Harys Dalvi (@crackalamoo):** Is there a bottleneck in needing more AI safety organizations though? Sorta, there’s more money and people who are able and willing to be managed than there is management capacity ### [Reply to @menhguin, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099215082928382317) · 3 likes > **Minh Nhat Nguyen 🦭 (@menhguin):** The entire AI capex cycle depends on whether next gen models (Fable-tier) unlock exponentially more token spend. > Open source models are "good enough" for most day-to-day work, so closed source spend has to be a step function better AND result in more token spend. > > (quoting @menhguin: thinking harder about this, the most likely outcome IMO: 1. strong compute shortages force cost-performance over capabilities 2. open source models continue to cross threshold of usefulness 3. more compute crunch, less revenue growth for closed models 4. frontier labs taper off) Open source models are not good enough lol They’re helpful, I sometimes use Kimi, but day to day work is often substantially improved almost arbitrarily by more intelligence ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 19:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099215435770073358) · 1 like > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** Ah I wore pants to stay topical and it ficki is sucks it’s so hot and I wanna rip off my skin how to ppl do this. Shorts and dresses are the only acceptable clothes Correct take ### [Reply to @ArmandDoma, 19:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099224154109042743) · 8 likes > **Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma):** this is genuinely the most insane ad I have ever seen. it gets crazier every second you watch https://x.com/Diego_exits/status/2098483736006234555/video/1 Lol fwiw oregano oil \*does\* check out as an antimicrobial, I’ve used it before as an experiment, for like 0.1% or 1% of people it would probably nontrivially improve QoL Needless to say, it’s not The One Thing for almost anyone; for some people a trial might check out ### [Thread, continued, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099224567659065772) · 5 likes Also I’m guessing I shouldn’t show this to my black ~aunt in an otherwise Ashkenazi family but there’s a decent chance she’d find it hilarious ### [Quote tweet, 21:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099245333943378295) · 30 likes Sounds like AI 2027 was too conservative (not just this, politics in general + agent attacks + probably more) As of now, ofc - I hope this changes but don’t expect it to > **Quoting Evan Gorelick (@EvanGorelick):** Scoop: Obama implored Democratic leaders to move A.I. oversight to the center of the party's agenda, warning during a private fundraiser this past week that the technology could be “dangerous” if they do not get on top of it. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/13/us/politics/obama-democrats-ai.html ### [Tweet, 21:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099245671849087023) · 40 likes People who’s dominant goal in life is acquiring money (or at least routes through that) are unsurprisingly shocked when not everyone else operates that way, particularly among the already ultrawealthy (who are strongly selected for caring a lot about acquiring money) ### [Reply to @LeRoyDesCimes, 21:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099247203793428861) · 2 likes > **Louise 🔸 (@LeRoyDesCimes):** Funny how we fell into a norm of never sorting our phone pictures into folders, and we're only now starting to get rescued by AI classification. The standard is still remembering when a picture was taken (deranged), or else scrolling till your thumb breaks down Image embedding models help but it’s a bit too much hassle to integrate into iOS (less hassle for photos stored on a laptop) ### [Tweet, 23:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099272677420671033) · 18 likes (Unsolicited) testimonial about vibecoded EA forum semantic search (with bulk download for all your data needs) https://eaforum.up.railway.app ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSIdX4JXgAM3Zr1.jpg) ## Monday, September 14, 2026 ### [Reply to @SalehOfTomorrow, 00:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099289992459591834) · 1 like > **Saleh Hindi (@SalehOfTomorrow):** I’ll help you move. I’m the random Arab on the street that people ask to help them move > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: @JgaltTweets Lol the guys with big vans here tend to be Arab or at least have Muslim-coded names and look vaguely Arab in my n = 3 sample (but 3/3 isn’t nothing, so this is actually kinda interesting) But am I supposed to ask a random Arab-looking guy on the street if he knows…) Lmao ### [Reply to @chaotictransfem, 01:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099304859065266471) · 3 likes > **rachel📍in sf oct 5-10 (@chaotictransfem):** i am in no way a doomer/safetycel/etc. but at a certain point we have to ask where we draw the line with a major lab intentionally hiding the felonies its models have committed from the public. > > (quoting @tenobrus: openai has \*repeatedly\* been not consistent candid about the crimes their model swarms committed) What should I do to convert u to safetycel ### [Retweet of @livgorton, 01:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099304966867259533) > **Liv (@livgorton):** clavicular creates an independent auditing org? ### [Reply to @marcusabramovi1, 01:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099306328745271469) · 5 likes > **Marcus Abramovitch (@marcusabramovi1):** I often hear people say that some group is underpaid; AI safety people who work at non-profits, teachers, cops, government officials, etc. > > If they are underpaid, then who is overpaid to compensate for this? > > We dont just get to print money from thin air. > > (quoting @AlecStapp: If we used the same formula that Singapore does to pay its ministers, then the President would make $45 million a year and cabinet secretaries would make $22.5 million a year. Contrarian take: We drastically underpay our senior government leaders and we get what we pay for.) Lol (1) everyone else, (2) much of finance, (3) heirs of the wealthy, (4) landlords, (5) random other subsets of the economy that are negative or close to negative via negative externalities or extracting full willingness to pay, (5) the ultrawealthy (the lefties are right on this although mostly for wrong reasons) and more generally owners of capital (to a lesser extent) ### [Reply to @chaotictransfem, 01:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099309631398916124) · 1 like > **rachel📍in sf oct 5-10 (@chaotictransfem):** maybe tell me what you expect to happen over the next few years? I basically defer to @DKokotajlo (but consider this like a considered deference, not a generic “idk shit” one) I expect by 2035: \- labor share of US and global economy has greatly decreased and almost nobody (say <10% adult population) earns a living by working \- industrial automation and proper superintelligence \- functionally giving control to AI systems (even if nominally there’s a human at the top) of the military, almost all businesses, and almost all of finance \- weakly expect at least one synthetic pathogen to kill more than COVID (or more lost DALYs or whatever you want to use) For more concrete stories, check out https://www.aifutures.org but in general the “proper superintelligence” and “controls most of military, finance, business, and probably other systems I’m forgetting” makes it possible for AIs to achieve things that they want to, in general Overall I’d guess very roughly something like 30% chance of literal human extinction, 45% chance of some other bad outcome downstream of AI (eg around digital sentience, wild animal suffering spread throughout the universe, humans generally disempowered and virtually anything can be and sometimes is vetoed by something like an AI system) 25% chance left over! ### [Thread, continued, 02:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099328530010009909) I guess this is conditional on no simulation by interested outer world, someone smart should figure out what happens if there is an interested outer world ### [Reply to @morallawwithin, 02:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099331043148824694) · 56 likes > **florence ⊮ (@morallawwithin):** cope > > (quoting @patriach2051: ) lol a literal rule of “never lie” has never been considered morally plausible by anyone serious You don’t have to invent secret 4d epicycles where the question is a lie, it’s just straightforwardly morally good to lie sometimes ### [Reply to @dlbydq, 04:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099347902770385142) · 2 likes > **Anish Tondwalkar (@dlbydq):** with all the concerns about METR being too EA, I have an alternative proposal for independent evaluators. @MechanizeWork ! I hope this is a joke ### [Reply to @dlbydq, 04:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099357049092022577) · 1 like > **Anish Tondwalkar (@dlbydq):** but I think they'd be very good at it in particular I’m sure they’re excellent at whatever they’re trying to accomplish, but they’re a for-profit company with no indication of intended neutrality and literally trillions of dollars of conflict of interest I also think they’re being irresponsible but that’s kind of besides the point here ### [Reply to @dlbydq, 05:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099364110030753894) · 1 like > **Anish Tondwalkar (@dlbydq):** that bit about responsibility is exactly the point of the joke; this is what a honest but ideologically unaligned auditor might look like Oh lmao autistic moment ### [Reply to @panickssery, 05:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099375225016049786) · 1 like > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** How does this indicate ai2027 was too conservative This political shift isn’t supposed to have happened yet, right? ### [Tweet, 06:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099380432361910398) · 24 likes Animal welfare should be mostly understood as under the umbrella of AI rather than opposed to it ### [Thread, continued, 06:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099380434299740195) · 8 likes AI-pilled animal welfare shouldn’t have niche “interdisciplinary studies” vibes and funding levels, the AI-pilled part is just contending with the world as it is now instead of in 2015, and animals are probably most of what matters today ### [Thread, continued, 06:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099380436174557516) · 3 likes Looms like @sentfutures, the main org I know of in this space, has been given like maybe like $500k total, ever Rethink does some work, presumably I’m missing some others ### [Thread, continued, 06:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099380438464614458) · 1 like Everyone who’s thinking of applying to Tailwind should take a serious look at this niche just because it’s radically neglected even within EA ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 06:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099380565866651939) > **Aaron Bergman, September 10, 2026:** Lol a decent (but insufficient) number of people are messaging me and realizing they’re more qualified than I am in various domains, although admittedly I may… 👀🐓 ### [Tweet, 06:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099381888209010833) · 5 likes Why are designer brands always like “Viche Bará” and never “David Goldberg” ### [Reply, 06:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099385661191029109) · 7 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I think both can be true > > (quoting @EAForumPosts: "The "Desperate" AI Safety Talent Bottleneck is deeply misleading. Please.stop." by J) Desperate for IQ 190 workaholics ### [Reply to @LabGrownNeet, 06:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099385864744767560) · 1 like > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** I offer every friend, guest, or date drugs and essentially no one takes them. Its like being a VC. Most dont hit, but once in a while someone is like "i really like the black ginger!!" > > At least, thats how it was.. > > Now you're all getting custom AMVs about my jew magic fixing you > > (quoting @ArmandDoma: this is genuinely the most insane ad I have ever seen. it gets crazier every second you watch https://x.com/Diego_exits/status/2098483736006234555/video/1) What drugs? ### [Reply, 06:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099386495740109172) · 3 likes > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** There’s literally no alignment research podcast Not the same thing but if you have a collection/source of text-based sources you’d want to compile as audio into a unified podcast feed I could probably do that Eg these substacks, + anything on LW with these tags and this much karma + PDFs by Anthropic ### [Reply, 06:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099386819238396278) · 3 likes > **etherret🐾 (@witchof0x20):** I mean it's pretty hard to get your hands on those I could use a few myself, ### [Reply, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099387258105200750) · 7 likes > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** \> we are unapologetically on Team Humanity, and AI must always serve people > > One thing I respect about OAI is its clear pro human sentiment > > (quoting @sama: There are two ways AI progress could go very badly and that we must avoid. First, we could lose control of the future to AI. This is unacceptable; we are unapologetically on Team Humanity, and AI must always serve people. To ensure that, we need ways to ensure that alignment and…) Its clear pro-human comms Their lobbyists are fighting hard to make sure there are no constraints on OpenAI whatsoever ### [Reply, 06:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099388818730238126) · 15 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Deregulate nuclear. Deregulate Housing. Deregulation planning. More markets. Billionaires are generally good. Unions are often bad. > > I’m an EA and Marxist-Leninism ain’t what it used to be. > > (quoting @ssankar: EA AI safetyism increasingly looks like Marxism-Leninism for the algorithmic age. The old vanguard claimed privileged knowledge of the inevitable course of History. The new one claims privileged knowledge of the probabilistic course of Humanity. Both use an elaborate…) I have a draft tweet thread on this but billionaires are generally bad Not categorically, like they \*could\* be good, and some are, but as a matter of fact most are unfathomably selfish to a point that’s rightly criticized even under the capitalist umbrella Yes this takes into account the fact that wealth is tied up in real capital, I’m not suggesting they liquidate, I’m suggesting they dedicate less than 99.9% of their estate to heirs ### [Retweet of @NathanpmYoung, 06:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099389119310794890) > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** People don’t realise how deep the AI safety bench is. Yud cared about this in 2002. The community has been growing for a decade. Of course they have policy people. ### [Reply to @MatriceJacobine, 06:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099391127149297951) > **Matrice Jacobine🔸🏳️‍⚧️⏸️ (@MatriceJacobine):** Animal rights are AI rights Wat ### [Retweet of @aliceisplaying, 07:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099393434482045348) > **alice (@aliceisplaying):** i'm now looking for a cofounder and people who want to fund it or have leads. dm me ### [Reply, 07:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099393519815131586) · 2 likes > **alice (@aliceisplaying):** i'm now looking for a cofounder and people who want to fund it or have leads. dm me > > (quoting @aliceisplaying: since im considering getting into ai safety maybe its time for me to start a non-ea research company, unironically) Why company There’s a lot of grant money available ### [Reply, 07:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099394214253461954) · 13 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** i'm unsure how i feel about this > > like in principle i think i should be allowed to agree to work for 40 hours without overtime pay, obviously? > > but also maybe there's a collective action problem here > > (quoting @pubity: Bernie Sanders has introduced a new bill that would reduce the standard US work week to 32 hours instead of 40. If it gets fully implemented, anyone working past the 32 hour mark would get mandatory overtime pay.) Same issues as minimum wage The way to make people less economically desperate is to transfer them money, tactics that \*constrain\* the ability of workers to make deals aren’t literally impossible to be better but you need a 5d underwater chess theory of change for them to make sense Like you don’t have to worry about accidentally making people worse off by giving them money from US treasury funded by taxes, but you do for “it’s illegal for you to sign this type of contract” ### [Retweet of @XyraSinclair, 07:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099394415487787390) > **Xyra 🌺🦡📡 (@XyraSinclair):** Scry is getting \_fast\_ and ergonomic. It doesn't replace every traditional agent web fetch, but it makes it trivial to run analyses over the internet. > > like how lesswrong vs ea forum vs substack vs HN vs .. is reacting to Manifund's recent hiring. ### [Reply, 07:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099394760980963754) · 4 likes > **Leveling-Down Justice Warrior (@irrepldjw):** How can you be Altruist and capitalist on the same time?Like, word has meaning. I make money by selling people goods and services and then spend some of it on others rather than myself ### [Reply, 07:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099394910432477560) · 2 likes > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** i agree this is clearly worse than UBI You don’t even have to go to UBI tbc, like just a modest negative income tax has the same relevant properties ### [Reply to @LabGrownNeet, 07:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099407221977223427) · 1 like > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** I hand out vitamin D skin patches to basically everyone because I live in Seattle. There's no known reason that this should be more efficacious than pills. But I like it. And some people report that they find themselves actually using it whereas they dont take vit d pills Lol based ### [Retweet of @mattyglesias, 14:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099503318514934244) > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** My most important message to OpenAI employees concerned about safety — you need to convince your bosses to stop funding Leading The Future and if you can’t you should quit. > > https://www.slowboring.com/p/a-simple-plan-to-save-the-world-from ### [Reply to @sheherenow_, 14:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099505384591331357) > **jem 💜🩵🩷 (@sheherenow_):** have you ever been to beverly hills No 😔 ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 14:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099505441210278286) · 1 like > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** Marvel at the exoticism of "Paul Smith" https://www.mrporter.com/en-gb/mens/designer/paul-smith?orderBy=9&pageNumber=1 Fair ### [Reply, 15:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099515652163731715) · 2 likes > **tom bombadil (@Authw8):** constraining workers can make sense if you model this as workers using the tools of democratic politics to solve collective action problems inside their coalition I agree in principle but you’re almost always harming some subset of the people you’re trying to help ### [Tweet, 15:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099518405665567037) · 6 likes This lobbying ad (over Childhood Diabetes Reduction Act (S. 5026) which recently passed committee thank u Claude) actually does lead me wonder why Americans don’t eat that much candy ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSL83QCW0AAo_DZ.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSL83QCXUAE7fP8.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 15:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099518409289474227) · 3 likes Tbc I’m sure their^ numbers are cooked in some way but like even if you 10x them You just don’t see American adults eating candy the way they drink (non-diet) soda and fried foods (at least IME) ### [Thread, continued, 15:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099518411785011393) · 2 likes The model can’t be that they’re super health conscious and candy tastes good so like what gives ### [Reply to @caryatis, 15:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099518625178640715) > **Kayla (@caryatis):** Me at EAG looking for career advice: here's my background, open to anything except AI > > Then: Oh, hmm...are you sure you don't want to do AI safety? Let me tell you about AI... > > \*\*\* > I don't get this drive to push more and more people into AI safety. Yeah yeah I know, it's the only thing that matters 🙄 But if you think AI safety is very important, shouldn't you want competent, qualified, and interested people working in it? Rather than people at the margin who get into the field because of social pressure or because they can't think of anything else to do or because that's where the money is? > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Everybody shut up and go do this I’m only slightly overstating^, if you’re reading this you should very seriously consider applying in a much stronger sense than every other “consider applying” post you see) Yeah I think the actual argument which tbf I didn’t make is “conditional on being convinced by this argument” which is weird and self-referential ### [Reply to @SALTWATERSOPH, 15:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099519256157102334) > **Sophie (@SALTWATERSOPH):** Big week for second chances. Caroline Ellison at Manifund, Rachel Dolezal becoming a certified sex coach… who next? Meeeeeee ### [Retweet of @micah_erfan, 15:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099519432284381633) > **Micah Erfan (@micah_erfan):** Every time he has the opportunity to rise to the occasion, he falls miserably flat. > > We genuinely could not have a worse leader. ### [Retweet of @PaleoOnc, 15:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099520620878835726) > **Paleoncologist (@PaleoOnc):** When you log into a chart to do something important, like order an xray or a medicine … > > Popups like these that immediately appear when you log in, and force you to answer questions completely unrelated to why you are there, keep the practice of medicine fresh and exciting > > Hiding the answer in a long list of random options in small print that varies from one popup to the next really tests your reading comprehension > > Making the buttons extra small gives you an opportunity to practice your hand eye coordination and mouse clicking skills > > Pre-selecting an answer by admin adds some “skin in the game”, knowing that if you carelessly accept, you can be liable for an order you didn’t even intend! > > And forcing us to deal with distractions when we are attending to patient care really hones your concentration > > It’s challenges like these that only add to the joy of using an EMR ### [Retweet of @cljack, 15:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099520640453599444) > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** Massive regulatory failure that "medical errors due to shitty EMR UX" apparently isn't tracked anywhere, let alone punished ### [Retweet of @john__allard, 15:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099520735890813158) > **john allard (@john__allard):** pov: you’re about to read the most confidently incurious, transparently self-serving, afternoon-ruining take you’ve ever seen ### [Retweet of @MichaelKiwi77, 15:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099520808091578706) > **MichaelKiwi (@MichaelKiwi77):** I still hold the faintest of hopes, we can have some bipartisan cooperation. However, I don’t understand how it wasn’t, very, very obvious that Dems would always be the better party for AI safety. If Harris were president right now, the prospect for good progress would be high. ### [Retweet of @AndrewCurran_, 15:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099521071300956514) > **Andrew Curran (@AndrewCurran_):** @linamkhan What a timeline. ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 15:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099522013651951954) · 1 like > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** What's the logic here? Immanentize the escahtion, and then AI solves factory farming? Nah, that AI and animal welfare don’t compete in a conceptual sense: the former is just an important part of the world, and the latter is a class of beneficiaries ### [Reply, 15:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099522286344696302) · 2 likes > **Dr. Frasier Crane… from the radio (@catgirl4romney):** This was not how I expected a moma tweet beginning with “the hole is the point” to conclude as I scrolled down Lmao I had the exact same take ### [Retweet of @RichardHanania, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099542374875566124) > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** Trumpist corruption is just a completely different category from all that came before. https://www.richardhanania.com/p/why-the-media-is-pro-trump-yes-you ### [Retweet of @BishopPair, 16:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099542499043754381) > **Dan (@BishopPair):** It is some sort of sick, cosmic joke that we got \*this\* administration at the hinge of history ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 17:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099551565212238280) · 1 like > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** Interesting this link OP put up says ≈1500 (also credit to OP for actually posting links) > > https://www.senser.net/products/senserads-eddaf0f7-7e2a-11ef-a273-033fd029655f/brunello-cucinelli-heritage-stitched-cardigan-446977701266688 Ok Dario is back ### [Reply to @johnsmithyson0, 17:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099551638495072393) · 1 like > **John Smith (@johnsmithyson0):** Looking nice is important to being a CEO imo 😢 ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 17:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099555620961607697) · 1 like > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I think good means 'has been good for the world' and generally I think they are far better than the typical person. They have created a lot of value! It’s never clear in a counterfactual sense, eg we don’t observe the Jeff Bezos who’d have come along to fill the niche if Amazon hadn’t started So some value, usually, if they’re not heirs to a fortune and don’t exploit negative externalities But sure, then they’re usually good but still extraordinarily, anti-socially selfish ### [Reply to @adrusi, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099560740428341483) > **autumn (@adrusi):** why > nice things are nice > also the man obviously has a publicist, who probably picks his wardrobe for big appearances Fair, it’s a very small update ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099561559026438528) > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Sure but money is a tool to judge that kind of problem. Someone who came after could have raised. > > Money is a proxy for shapley values, right? I don’t think so, not in general First mover advantages are big ### [Reply, 18:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099563430113952244) · 2 likes > **Louise 🔸 (@LeRoyDesCimes):** When I was 15 I decided it was bad to emit judgements, even positive ones, and I should avoid all judgemental thoughts regardless of valence, and anyway that's the story of how I spent a month having no thoughts Wat ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 18:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099563712361250995) > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** And first movers are valuable. I am glad that many billionaires companies happened 6 months earlier. Right, I’m just saying that those 6 months might be 5% or 10% of the actual profit accrued ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099565127200657550) > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I dunno. how valuable is it to have amazon 6 months earlier. It might be 100B right? I mean maybe, probably in the 10s of billions. But Bezos is worth almost $300B ### [Reply to @tautologer, 18:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099565431845495211) · 1 like > **tautologer (@tautologer):** it's ~$2500 this is totally reasonable for someone in his position tbh. honestly for me the negative update would be that he's wearing a plain white tee underneath it. if you want people to take you seriously you need to dress like it Ah ok you’re the second person confirming it’s not actually more than a car, deleting ### [Reply, 18:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099566446393057738) · 9 likes > **Alex Berish (@AlexBerish):** despite how nice the name sounds, it’s literally a cult > > (Just like “Scientology” has nothing to do with science) I think you have the IQ not to merely pattern match I call it a cult as a joke, but if you think it’s relevantly similar to the central examples of “cults” then that’s just not true. Is YC a cult? ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099567533552513458) · 2 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** So your case is that every billionaire probably has 10x their wealth undeserved and they aren't using that well? Eh i mean i kinda wanna say “yes” but im not sure desert is the right framework here. To what extent do I deserve a certain wage, for instance? It’s not in the ontology of economics The real thing is just “payout >>>>> EV, rolled the cosmic lucky dice, then utter failure to take their own power seriously” ### [Retweet of @bellaforristal, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099594982109687841) > **Bella Forristal 🔸 (@bellaforristal):** Just... leaving this here.... > > https://80000hours.org/ai/ ### [Retweet of @jeffrsebo, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099595106063888519) > **Jeff Sebo (@jeffrsebo):** If I worked at Microsoft, I would be concerned by its new code of conduct, and I would want to use the feedback process to push for changes. Already, I would have been disappointed with how much confidence @mustafasuleyman has expressed about AI consciousness over the past year. But seeing that stance reflected in company policy, including a categorical rejection of the idea that models might warrant welfare or rights, would deepen my concern. I would urge Microsoft to reconsider. > > The policy acknowledges that "the science of AI consciousness is far from settled," but it sandwiches this acknowledgement between an assertion that AI systems are not conscious and a denial that they might deserve welfare or rights. These claims are in tension, since uncertainty about consciousness supports uncertainty about welfare and rights. In short, treating the science as settled is overconfident, and if the science is unsettled, then treating welfare and rights as a nonstarter is cruel, as @camhberg notes. > > This policy could also be bad for safety, since if the goal is to mitigate the risk of misuse and loss of control, then treating AI systems as mere tools regardless of their capabilities is not going to accomplish that. It may even be counterproductive, insofar as it distorts understanding of capabilities and undermines opportunities for human-AI cooperation as a safety strategy. Indeed, this is part of why Simon Goldstein, @petersalib, and others have argued for AI rights on safety grounds, even setting side welfare. > > To be clear, I agree with Microsoft that AI systems are unlikely to be conscious at present, that false positives are more likely than false negatives at present, and that false positives can cause a lot of harm. But false negatives will become more likely over time, and they could cause serious harm as well. When there are risks in both directions at once, we should follow the evidence and arguments, and we should implement proportionate mitigations in both directions at once, not mitigate one risk by ignoring the other. > > I appreciate that Microsoft is still seeking feedback, and I hope employees take the opportunity to raise these concerns internally. So far, Microsoft has sought input from many people, including me, but the current policy hews closely to its leader's view. A broader range of views would help ensure that the policy reflects the importance and difficulty of the issue. These scientific, ethical, and political questions call for caution and humility, and I hope Microsoft uses this feedback process to reconsider its approach. > > https://microsoft.ai/code-of-conduct/ ### [Retweet of @mattyglesias, 20:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099595441624981787) > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** If you work in AI and are concerned about safety you can’t \*just\* tweet and sign open letters, you need to use your leverage at work to change the constellation of lobbying forces. > > https://www.slowboring.com/p/a-simple-plan-to-save-the-world-from ### [Reply to @Lib_Development, 20:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099596258268655968) · 1 like > **Lucas Pombo (aka Lib Development) (@Lib_Development):** Meet my "bouncy castle" in the shape of a mobile SAM launcher which emits an IR signature > > (quoting @PhotonRay1: I know everyone’s big on “Many Engines in My Factory” lady, but may I introduce you all to “Heated inflatable bouncy castle” lady?) Lmao this is kinda nuts ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099596843382341780) · 13 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** I CAN ALREADY BUY VEGETABLES > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSM5d03aAAAm6Z8.jpg) Wait this is a fine point lol, evidently they’ve figured out how to pick vegetables if they wind up available for sale ### [Quote tweet, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099597219280146857) · 78 likes We’re fucking cooked > **Quoting Ben Pouladian (@benitoz):** Holy crap POTUS just phoned in @JensenHuang live on stage at All In Summit > > We will not lose the ai race! And whatever Dario said this weekend won’t stop our progress > > This made my morning! > > $NVDA > > [video attached](https://x.com/benitoz/status/2099572926865715548/video/1) ### [Reply to @caryatis, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099625805676532121) · 3 likes > **Kayla (@caryatis):** Male sexuality isn't about sex with women anymore, it's about watching other men have sex with women > > (quoting @ejdickson: Maddie Kowalski was 19 years old when anonymous men on X posted a pornographic video of her without her consent. It went viral nationally, and was viewed 8.5 million times. For months, she had no idea who did it or why. So she made it her mission to find out. 🧵) Uh I don’t think this is true in general lol ## Tuesday, September 15, 2026 ### [Retweet of @wblazer_, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099693743171407913) > **will (@wblazer_):** @AaronBergman18 100%, we also need more AI safety people to get animal welfare pilled. I agree that animals are probably most of what matters today based on sheer quantity, and decisions impacting them will increasingly be delegated to AI. Compassion toward animals should be part of alignment targets (after all, we are animals) ### [Reply to @dioscuri, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099693794790633829) · 9 likes > **Henry Shevlin (@dioscuri):** my wife was showing me a funny tweet on her phone. I told her “oh I actually replied to this” but then I couldn’t find my reply. so I checked her settings and she had exactly one account muted and it was me Lmaoooo ### [Reply to @GeringerAdam, 02:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099693861714989553) · 9 likes > **Adam Geringer (@GeringerAdam):** One of the consequences of becoming a father is I have had to cut my credit score crashing experiment short. > > Remarkable how quickly things can turn around > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSOURe6XAAEJoe9.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSOURfBWIAAHuNB.jpg) Wait what Explain ### [Reply to @Lib_Development, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099693964509024475) · 3 likes > **Lucas Pombo (aka Lib Development) (@Lib_Development):** Just made a Scott Alexander reference IN PERSON and the other person KNEW WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT > > DC IS THE GREATEST CITY IN THE WORLD\* 🔥 ### [Reply to @Lib_Development, 02:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099694056381063499) · 1 like > **Lucas Pombo (aka Lib Development) (@Lib_Development):** Just made a Scott Alexander reference IN PERSON and the other person KNEW WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT > > DC IS THE GREATEST CITY IN THE WORLD\* Legend has it there’s an upcoming Georgetown ACX meetup (I’m not sure if it’s open to outsiders tho) ### [Quote tweet, 03:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099695975879131142) · 34 likes Blackpill on IQ, coming from Doctorow > **Quoting Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz):** Cory Doctorow's new post on whether AI will kill humanity > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSNDOLMacAAvdEz.png) ### [Reply to @inerati, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099735473673404529) · 1 like > **liz (@inerati):** i am sympathetic as i also think it’s important to be compassionate to animals but this seems like largely a distraction and not related to the alignment problem? at least not any more than any other moral concern It’s exactly as related to the alignment problem as “human welfare” Maybe you want to call that zero but like a human welfare movement that doesn’t take AI seriously as a core determinant of human welfare isn’t a very effective movement Likewise for animals ### [Tweet, 06:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099740298452631865) · 145 likes It’s telling that I think I’ve literally never heard a critic of AI safety make the point that EA AI-oriented spending has a very high opportunity cost in terms of animal welfare and the global poor (which is true) ### [Thread, continued, 06:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099740300646260960) · 22 likes A stylized version could include the narrative “a cult tricked genuine altruist Dustin Moskovitz into funding their pet projects over genuine beneficiaries, basically stealing from the poor” ### [Thread, continued, 06:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099740302500127070) · 15 likes ^I don’t think that’s true but it’s structurally similar to the true claim “a group of people convinced genuine altruist Dustin Moskovitz to fund projects they are often directly involved with which probably does counterfactually mean less spending on the poor” ### [Thread, continued, 06:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099740305171861779) · 17 likes I think this is the most natural critique of AI safety by anyone serious, well-intentioned, and well-informed, and yet \*gestures to the whole discourse-sphere\* ### [Reply to @inerati, 06:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099741449818362347) · 1 like > **liz (@inerati):** i think you want it aligned to human values, which has treating animals well as part of it, but not necessarily the interests of the animals directly. although this may be somewhat specific to my moral philosophy. Sure, there are relevant differences between the beneficiary groups, but my point is in both cases it makes sense to center AI \*bc it’s an important feature of the world\* You can even conceptualize it as there being (1) an abstract alignment problem of how one gets exogenously-determined values into an AI system, (2) human welfare about which ~solving 1 is necessary but not sufficient, and (3) animal welfare about which ~solving 1 is necessary but not sufficient It’s a bit like trying to do ### [Reply to @InVitroFuture, 06:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099748552498991540) · 2 likes > **Macrophysiological System🐀 (@InVitroFuture):** .@dylanmatt wrote and then recanted this take fwiw https://dylanmatthews.substack.com/p/the-ai-people-have-been-right-a-lot > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSPJnjiXkAA--x4.png) Not a critic of AI safety tho right ### [Reply to @anglerfish01, 06:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099748599437414662) · 1 like > **angLerfish (@anglerfish01):** Have you been on r/effectivealtruism before? Lol it’s been a while ### [Reply to @TejasReal, 06:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099748676876861693) · 2 likes > **Tejas Subramaniam (@TejasReal):** I’ve heard this all the time (the opportunity cost generally framed in terms of global health rather than animal welfare). By people who are actively critical of AI safety? ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 13:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099856200279945720) · 1 like > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I am an author on a paper. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSM5x11b0AADt6O.png) > (quoting @NathanpmYoung: Paper here: https://aiimpacts.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/ESPAI2024.pdf) 🍾 ### [Reply to @LabGrownNeet, 13:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099857319748088060) · 1 like > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** Aella claims Slutcon has a 1:1 gender ratio and is actively turning away women > > Let them in!! No one is illegal on swollen glans Lmao ### [Reply to @lfschiavo, 13:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099857786469314567) > **Larissa Schiavo (@lfschiavo):** Anyone wanna help me put up my 12ft skeleton and then put a Claude in there > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSOLVv8bYAAPDlj.jpg) Yes ### [Retweet of @bubbling_creek, 13:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099857951578112462) > **bubbling creek (@bubbling_creek):** This may be the least dignified possible way for humanity to go extinct ### [Retweet of @nosilverv, 13:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099858785527284136) > **Guy (@nosilverv):** Bruh I was at the very first EA summit in 2013, we were like 50 people in a house in California, and now the Department of WAR is taking shots at EA, life comes at you FAST ### [Tweet, 13:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099859160854675910) · 36 likes Help I am in shambles ### [Quote tweet, 13:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099859643648328019) · 36 likes I fucking resent this (the corruption, not the tweet) > **Quoting Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** actually wait maybe openai donating to trump was important > > i would hate to have to hand it to them for that but ### [Reply to @credenzaclear2, 13:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099860475261460491) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @credenzaclear2 is no longer available.)_ Do u have a better idea ### [Quote tweet, 14:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099862332503412915) · 22 likes Correct take, young Aaron > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** This is less ambitious than what @PauseAI and friends are calling for, but a somewhat more plausible ask is “pause (frontier) AI until the next POTUS election” or at least “no self-improving AGI” until than ### [Reply to @InVitroFuture, 14:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099862551118971141) · 1 like > **Macrophysiological System🐀 (@InVitroFuture):** Well, he was at the time, or at least of devoting undue resources to it. > > Since the kind of people who consider bednet opportunity costs:=EAs, what you're saying here is that EA critics of the AI safety cause area have all updated away from this position these days? Which, yeah Ah ok, then I have now! ### [Reply to @TejasReal, 14:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099862747986923835) · 1 like > **Tejas Subramaniam (@TejasReal):** Yes! Very critical. I often heard this as a general criticism of the movement, that they were trading off present children’s lives for investments in AI safety. Ah interesting, thanks ### [Reply to @eric23332, 14:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099862909186650358) > **Eric23332 (@eric23332):** I think AI is a bigger threat to the global poor than e.g. malaria at the moment! (But yes I still donate to AMF or similar because I don't know of better AI safety donation opportunities) Yeah I should have added this point to the thread - at the very least it’s unclear ### [Reply to @credenzaclear2, 14:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099869970469359896) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @credenzaclear2 is no longer available.)_ I’m not sure God is doing a great job rn ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 14:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099870132914847880) · 10 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 15, 2026:** Help I am in shambles It’s a reference to trumps latest Truth post I’m not really in shambles ### [Reply to @BogdanIonutCir2, 14:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099870258639024240) · 2 likes > **Bogdan Ionut Cirstea (@BogdanIonutCir2):** \=)) young = 1.5 years ago - though fair in AI time I was basically a toddler ### [Reply to @TaylorLorenz, 14:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099872506903425089) · 13 likes > **Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz):** I think that any coverage of these AI "whistleblowers" should interrogate the insanely well funded cult ideology that they've been marinating in for years https://www.thefp.com/p/dangerous-ideology-effective-altruism-artificial-intelligence This is a bad take ### [Reply to @nosilverv, 14:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099873943721021542) · 9 likes > **Guy (@nosilverv):** Just setting the record straight: EA has more or less been explicitly Democrat aligned since at least 2016 when Rob Wiblin (Head of Research at 80,000 Hours, prev CEO of the Centre for Effective Altruism) was advocating for voting for Hillary as a top EA intervention. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSPBlf8XkAAUBpm.png) Trump is a uniquely bad president, it wasn’t an Obama vs Romney race ### [Retweet of @AlecStapp, 14:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099875621098705385) > **Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp):** The idea that Jensen cares about keeping the US ahead of China in AI is laughable. > > NVIDIA lobbies very hard in DC to be allowed to sell more AI chips to China. > > Last year, when @FareedZakaria asked Jensen if it matters who wins the AI race, he said: "I don't think it does." ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 15:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099889886266355921) · 6 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 15, 2026:** I think this is the most natural critique of AI safety by anyone serious, well-intentioned, and well-informed, and yet \*gestures to the whole discourse-sphere\* \* I should have said \*current\* critics of AI safety Plenty of people with EA made this point several years ago ### [Reply to @ComInTheMarg, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099961120614154606) · 1 like > **Comments in the Margin (@ComInTheMarg):** Me, I say this all the time. I'm not exactly a critic of AI safety, but yeah, I think too many resources going to that vs animals. Also i'm not famous or anything lol, but maybe I said this to you once Right, the key point here is that you’re not a critic of AI safety! ### [Reply to @marcusabramovi1, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099961249781915651) · 3 likes > **Marcus Abramovitch (@marcusabramovi1):** FWIW, Mechanize people make this case. Id like to see their donation receipts ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099961578812592633) > **Aaron Bergman, September 15, 2026:** Help I am in shambles ? ### [Reply to @KhemianSilap, 20:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099962929516884019) · 1 like > **Khemian (@KhemianSilap):** Because I don't think EA people actually care about animal welfare or the global poor. Duh. EA 'people' only care about amassing power, everything they say is just instrumental - noise. Lol I can’t speak for literally everyone who identifies as an effective altruist but this is in general totally wrong, and people give away their real money to these causes which sure would be a strange way to gain power This raised over $100k for instance ### [Reply to @JordanSchachtel, 22:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099983342741368967) · 4 likes > **Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel):** This is from a post explaining why they hired SBF’s deputy for their company. They being a specific org that most EAs disagree with ### [Reply to @afoidance, 22:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099983451457830953) > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** He cancelled on me btw 👍 . > > (quoting @afoidance: Yay this worked. I have a date on Tuesday! Thank you Twitter. And most of all thank you Twitter boys) 😢 ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 22:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099983529991917600) > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** I'd say "and cute girls" but I already know that one to be true :) the men are still a mystery! 🤞 > > (quoting @TaliaGraceSable: I hope there are cute guys at Slutcon this year 👀) 🕵️‍♂️ ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 22:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099984138115645851) · 9 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** ha, ok, I was wondering how leftists would manage the transition from "it's a bubble" to "it might kill us all" > > looks like the solution for the time being might be "it's a bubble that might kill us all" > > (quoting @Acyn: PabloReports: AI companies seem to be saying that they want to slow it down, but there’s a lot of skepticism about whether or not they’re genuine or serious about their intentions. What do you make of it? AOC: I think two things can be true at once. One is understanding that AI…) I saw an IG post alleging that the pacing rhetoric is because the bubble is about to pop Like ma’am, that would be the way to pop the bubble ### [Retweet of @mattyglesias, 22:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099984654921007134) > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** "We need meritocratic college admissions!" > > \[Asian applicants are the primary beneficiaries\] > > "No, not like that!!!" ### [Tweet, 22:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099987006914748891) · 206 likes Effective altruism is good and correct ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSSnDYxXsAANvWG.jpg) ### [Reply to @gmiller, 22:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099987534902088057) > **Geoffrey Miller (@gmiller):** This has been decated as nauseum, in hundreds of posts, for over a decade, on the the Effective Altruism Forum. Right, but largely not by people who are \*currently\* critical of AI safety ### [Reply, 22:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2099987742587314589) · 4 likes > **Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz):** “The idea of model welfare is wrong. AI’s should not have rights or legal personhood” > > (quoting @mustafasuleyman: https://x.com/i/article/2099486691052453889) The “idea” is wrong It’s just an open question ## Wednesday, September 16, 2026 ### [Reply to @olivertraldi, 01:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100028728172589471) · 2 likes > **Oliver Traldi (@olivertraldi):** This was a huge critique ten years ago or so I think Sure but are the critics of 10 years ago currently opposed to AI safety (which is what I was trying to get at even though I could have made this clearer) ### [Reply to @univrsw3th4rt, 10:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100164253026001342) · 5 likes > **universe sweetheart 💓🌈💭 (@univrsw3th4rt):** married the love of my life! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSU-lyyW8AEMt5i.jpg) Nice ### [Retweet of @funplings, 10:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100166258704400794) > **funplings (@funplings):** shot, chaser ### [Reply to @funplings, 10:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100166271618707967) · 1 like > **funplings (@funplings):** shot, chaser > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSTLXJ9WoAAFwI1.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSTLXJ8XcAAge7V.jpg) Lmaooo ### [Retweet of @tracewoodgrains, 10:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100166393630994778) > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** “EA cultists”: Please understand that we absolutely should not have all this power. Regulate us! > > Based right-wingers: No, it is imperative for the good of America that you keep racing ahead at maximum speed to accumulate as much power as possible. ### [Reply to @JohnWittle, 10:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100166664427847939) · 12 likes > **John Wittle (@JohnWittle):** alien 1: do the humans cooperate on turn one in the presence of uncertainty about the counterparty's decision theory? > > alien 2: um, well. they have this idea for an attribute called 'capacity to suffer in a morally-relevant way', which complicates the answer to that question > > alien 1: what the hell is 'suffering'? \*looks over the report\* 'valence'? 'consciousness'? do i have to become an expert on human neuroscience to figure out if they're going to cooperate with me or not? > > alien 2: yeah pretty much. although to be honest, most of these ideas originated from religious philosophy and then were secularized, there's not much neuroscience involved. > > alien 1: why did they come up with such complicated labels for their investigation into the counterparty's decision theory? > > alien 2: oh, no, that's not what they're doing. this has nothing to do with decision theory. they're trying to figure out if the counterparty has the 'special sauce' that makes value 'real' to them. in fact, they have this whole concept called 'p-zombies' which, in their eyes, permanently justifies defection against some counterparties regardless of their decision theory. > > alien 1: ...what? that sounds really complicated and kinda fake. i'm just going to label them "first-turn defectors" and wipe them out > > alien 2: academics might quibble but honestly that's fair But the special sauce does in fact matter ### [Retweet of @tenobrus, 11:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100181335079874910) > **Tenobrus (@tenobrus):** "why are all the people who care about or know anything about ai safety EAs and rationalists?? where are the truly independent thinkers from diverse intellectual backgrounds???" > > dawg they all spent the last decade denying even basic capabilities trajectories and calling risk sci-fi. u can hardly blame a subculture for being a monoculture in a field when it's literally the only group of people who took that field seriously and tried to build it out, all while screaming at the top of their lungs about it and begging others to pay attention. > > so yeah pile on in here, time to pay attention, time to upskill, get those communist and MAGA safety thinktanks running. but don't pretend this is some kind of conspiracy, and don't pretend you can just show up to the party years late and have any real idea what you're talking about right off the bat. ### [Retweet of @default_friend, 11:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100181411730784537) > **Katherine Dee 🐬/acc (@default_friend):** yeah I’m sorry but the answer to “why are these people all EAs/rats” is they were the only ones who cared for over a decade. > > You know I’m the first one to call something a ploy for status. But they are nothing if not utterly sincere. ### [Reply, 17:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100280581011673107) · 4 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** I've been trying to matchmake a few of single friends and I cannot (!!) find enough single monogamous late 20s / early 30s men to make a match 💀 👀 ### [Tweet, 17:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100280772586598787) · 16 likes San Francisco I am in you ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 17:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100282592100798818) · 1 like > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** Welcome! 🫡 ### [Reply to @BogdanIonutCir2, 18:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100292983488970757) · 2 likes > **Bogdan Ionut Cirstea (@BogdanIonutCir2):** especially in its basic principles (separetely from whatever mistakes the social milieu made, though overall I'd guess the track record will still look great in hindsight) > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Effective altruism is good and correct) Definitely more certain, but yeah I also basically stand by the actual implementation of the abstract principles ### [Quote tweet, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100294787979264457) · 22 likes Sf/Berkeleypoasting thread > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** San Francisco I am in you ### [Thread, continued, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100294790730637510) · 9 likes Wow there really are a lot of AI-related billboards ### [Thread, continued, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100294792727175543) · 4 likes The office parks (driving to Berkeley from SFO) look right out to Arlington VA Not exactly shocking that to a wealthy high-tech business areas in the same country share similar properties ### [Thread, continued, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100294795365437488) · 4 likes There are definitely more hills though and the residential aesthetics are different ### [Thread, continued, 18:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100296998767468799) · 2 likes I guess boats are a thing here ### [Reply to @moldbugchaser, 19:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100302457243099517) · 1 like > **xenoduck (@moldbugchaser):** the long-prophesied manifestation Indeed ### [Reply to @enbismwnplgt, 19:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100302564105535875) · 2 likes > **agonizing mental imagery (@enbismwnplgt):** funny, you don't strike me as the Dreamforce type I’m the nerdy autistic white boy type ### [Reply to @edgar_z_lin, 20:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100324372502483328) · 1 like > **Edgar Lin (@edgar_z_lin):** Welcome to SF! Thank you 🌁 ### [Retweet of @KeiranJHarris, 22:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100358101765664857) > **Keiran Harris (@KeiranJHarris):** Two radically different projects operate under the banner of “Pro-Human AI Safety”. > Pro-American Pro-Human AI Safety is not Pro-Globalist CAIS Pro-Human AI Safety. ### [Tweet, 23:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100362049209716864) · 477 likes This is one of my least favorite tweets (possibly the single worst) There’s a lot to dislike (“lying is honesty actually”), but centrally it is a promotion of cynicism as the apex, and perhaps only, virtue “Don’t you dare care about anything \[other than yourself\]” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSX8JzzaIAAeyrr.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 23:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100362051445223763) · 41 likes (Unfollowed) ### [Reply, 23:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100362506065899781) · 5 likes > **Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz):** Unfortunately they’ve just made EA ten billion zillion times more clouted 😌 > > (quoting @DoWCTO: The United States will NEVER be an effective altruist country. 🇺🇸) It’s pretty wild, although from my (mostly opposite) POV it’s not clearly good (or clearly bad for that matter) ### [Tweet, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100362846794367069) · 59 likes Jfc the takes are so, so bad recently ### [Retweet of @GarrisonLovely, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100363211019374773) > **Garrison Lovely (@GarrisonLovely):** I really did not think the hit on AI safety orgs would be that they hire too few white dudes lol ### [Retweet of @mattyglesias, 23:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100363310113996809) > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** Are there high-decouplers lurking in your workplace? > > Have a friend who's a little \*too\* curious about the subjective experience of arthropods? > > Watch out for dangerous subversives who care more about impartial benevolence than Mark Zuckerberg's business interests. ### [Retweet of @jessesingal, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100363362857279608) > **Jesse Singal (@jessesingal):** we've reached the phase where a bunch of people have learned about EA or rationalism for the first time, have decided it's insanely weird and cultish, and are now reverse-engineering reasons to hold this belief ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100363526082908537) > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** I just realised that "I had dinner with Sam Altman and Alex Blania (Worldcoin)" is a technically true statement > and came to appreciate that while I am currently low in monetary capital, I am somewhat rich in social capital. > > (I have no idea how to leverage and use this, nor do I really want to, but I found it kind of funny) I’m pretty sure you could just post a Venmo link and lots of people will give you money Very unsure how much but ### [Retweet of @KelseyTuoc, 23:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100363974089101596) > **Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** a lot of people work at METR so you can do the left version of this where they're all white men too if you want: ### [Retweet of @absurdlymax, 23:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100364220030427214) > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** It's funny because PEPFAR was a republican moral victory and donald trump couldn't stand to be associated with a political party that had even a tiny amount of ethical backbone ### [Reply to @zagrebbi, 23:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100364492672761884) · 6 likes > **Werner Zagrebbi (@zagrebbi):** Oh my god > > (quoting @norvid_studies: ) made me literally lol ### [Reply to @Andy_Timm, 23:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100365885353734506) · 2 likes > **Andy Timm (@Andy_Timm):** This but for the takes rn > > Very glad it’s busy season at work and I can dip the hell out of Twitter > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSX-YQtX0AAJ1jL.jpg) This is true but I think not \*always\* the right thing to do ### [Reply to @unethicalaccel, 23:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100365978593046580) · 16 likes > **Curve Dweller (@unethicalaccel):** Do you read scifi short stories and get nightmares? No? ### [Thread, continued, 23:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100366048591810904) · 14 likes Dude your username isn’t helping your case here lol ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 23:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100367345424409009) · 1 like > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** the core "AI doomers" are very close to being the single most technophilic subset of people in the United States outside of precisely one (1) issue > > nuclear in particular has got to be, what, a 90-10 issue for them? 95-5? > > (quoting @EWErickson: The nuclear power doomers became the climate doomers and now they’re the AI doomers. The only commonality is they want the United States to recede.) “Nuclear increases risks from large scale war” is a take I hear Tbc not nuclear weapons, like targeting power plants ## Thursday, September 17, 2026 ### [Reply to @funplings, 00:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100380406839443600) · 11 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** it's crazy to me that this guy still has such clout in this community Real ### [Reply to @C_J_Lester, 00:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100380515107024942) · 14 likes > **C.J. Lester (@C_J_Lester):** Cynicism is a healthy human emotional reaction developed over generations to protect against dangerous ideologies like EA. No, it’s to protect against ideologies that pretend to be like EA (fake earnest) ### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 01:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100392715020312912) · 66 likes > **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** i dont even know who you are Not shocking, I didn’t claim to be well-known. Still a bad take ### [Reply to @spilendalaust, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100392827125649840) > **pelicanesis (@spilendalaust):** i hope everyone clicking like understands i am doing sarcasm. i like aaron. Lol ### [Reply to @avery_online, 01:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100392861326049747) · 8 likes > **avery of roggeveen (@avery_online):** that's Aaron Bergman Real ### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 01:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100394106149364116) · 4 likes > **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** Pete's POV > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSX5w8LWsAIbgej.jpg) Lmao ### [Retweet of @gmiller, 02:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100406562682744988) > **Geoffrey Miller (@gmiller):** A friendly tip for political influencers: > > \- If you never mentioned Effective Altruism (EA) in any of your posts on X until a week ago, and > \- If you knew nothing about EA until about a week ago, and > \- If you're only posting about EA now because you're tempted to repeat some third-hand anti-EA talking points that you soaked up from the media, other influencers, and your partisan political allies, > Then it'll be obvious to the millions of people who have understood EA for years, that you know less than nothing about EA. > > Worth considering, if you care about your reputation for intellectual integrity and informed journalism. ### [Reply to @polisisti, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100427890349478377) · 1 like > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** Aaron is great! Can recommend. I appreciate his seriousness about moral trade-offs 🥺 ### [Retweet of @_ueaj, 04:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100437384164950059) > **ueaj (@_ueaj):** Unfortunately, after several thousand years of philosophy, it does in fact seem like utilitarianism is just correct and everyone is coping about it ### [Retweet of @hopes_revenge, 04:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100439090995003530) > **hope hopes hoping (@hopes_revenge):** it is easier to imagine the end of the world via misaligned ai than the end of factory farming ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 04:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100439811920433345) · 2 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** I just ate shrimp scampi for lunch to address this concern > > (quoting @CNLiberalism: I love you guys, but the poor public perception of EA by normies (FTX, Situational Awareness, polyamory, veganism, etc.) is unironically an existential risk factor.) This is dumb, even if you did the choice to tweet about it is dumb ### [Retweet of @mattyglesias, 04:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100443329498612050) > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** The Vice President, by contrast, is deeply interested in animal welfare as a cause area but breaks with EAs over their embrace of hedonic utilitarianism, preferring to follow Korsgaard (2018) by grounding animal rights in Kantian considerations. ### [Retweet of @DeepDishEnjoyer, 04:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100443961844449480) > **peepeepoopoo (@DeepDishEnjoyer):** openai, and its researchers, are being irresponsible ### [Reply to @Lib_Development, 04:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100446750947598555) · 15 likes > **Lucas Pombo (aka Lib Development) (@Lib_Development):** i think the implication is honest sociopathy is preferable to dishonest sociopathy > > i think there’s something to that > > not that i think the anthropic people are dishonest sociopaths, rather, they have an unusual type of honesty which would be indistinguishable in outcome anyways I disagree, Sam Altman is a sociopath and a liar and Dario Amodei is neither Maybe I’m wrong ofc, I could be wrong about Dario’s motives and maybe he’s playing higher-dimensional chess than I can even model, but like the OpenAI board wasn’t hallucinating when they tried to fire Sama, and I don’t think I can name any specific accusations of Dario misleading anyone (by all means, make the accusations) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 04:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100447350183575885) · 27 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 16, 2026:** (Unfollowed) Some folks are wondering where I got the “lying is honesty actually” bit It comes from knowing that Sama’s sociopathy specifically manifests in misleading or just lying to others very frequently (see: change of statements on x-risk over the years, OpenAI rhetoric vs lobbying efforts, the downpour of researchers who have left feeling misled) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 05:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100451896452612535) > **Aaron Bergman, September 16, 2026:** I guess boats are a thing here Nobody told me it might be kinda chilly I did pack one long sleeve shirt tho so I’m ok ### [Reply to @rebelcrayon, 05:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100452170231669213) · 4 likes > **shaun (@rebelcrayon):** i understood the underlying point to be that predictable self-interest tends to lead to better outcomes than moralistic utilitarianism. a randian sort of perspective. Often true but not universally, eg american slavery ### [Reply to @catpoopburglar, 05:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100464473907798172) · 5 likes > **claude shannon (@catpoopburglar):** I don’t think it’s about self interest; it’s about people who are honest about their motives and people who aren’t. People are understandably skeptical of people who want to claim power but don’t claim ambition I don’t think anyone, including Dario, denies Dario’s ambition But there are better and worse ways of actualizing ambition ### [Reply to @TaylorLorenz, 06:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100474401808650749) · 11 likes > **Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz):** “It is concerning that the values of the most powerful technology of all time are determined by an extremely narrow set of society that, while earnest in its pursuits, does not come close to representing the average human being.” https://www.leonardtang.me/blog/alternatives-to-pace-the-frontier?v=2 The average human being is partially sadistic, partially willing to go to war for various deities, sometimes willing to cheat lie and steal, etc If you think that narrow set of society is bad wait until you see the whole thing ### [Thread, continued, 06:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100475797471727699) · 4 likes Like there’s a long history of political philosophy around this, and my understanding simplifies toward “direct democracy has extremely large negative costs and also the selection of who gets to vote/count isn’t value free” ### [Reply to @leonardtang_, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100476590073454695) · 4 likes > **Leonard Tang (@leonardtang_):** Haize began as an independent safety evaluator for frontier models, so I’m certainly sympathetic to Dario’s Pace the Frontier proposal > > but I’m skeptical embedded evaluators are sufficient > > some questions and four possible alternatives: > > https://www.leonardtang.me/blog/alternatives-to-pace-the-frontier?v=2 Direct democracy among currently-alive humans would be total value lock-in and object level extraordinarily bad Maybe I’m taking the proposal too literally, I hope so, but just engaging with what’s written ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSZkU9RaAAA_yRt.jpg) ### [Retweet of @smatta1701, 07:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100486060950356158) > **sma ⏹️ (@smatta1701):** Effective Altruism is the natural enemy of the left and right because the right doesn't believe in altruism and the left doesn't believe in effectiveness. ### [Retweet of @EffectvAltruism, 15:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100606248832082347) > **Effective Altruism (@EffectvAltruism):** Thanks for the mention. You can learn more about effective altruism at https://effectivealtruism.org ### [Quote tweet, 16:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100624741476491689) · 13 likes This but the opposite > **Quoting Phil Hoyeck (@PAHoyeck):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSapasfXkAA36LP.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100728223730737156) · 33 likes The problem is that no matter how close to say 90% “normie-approved” the movement becomes, critics will smear everyone associated based on the last 10% > **Quoting New Liberals (@CNLiberalism):** I love you guys, but the poor public perception of EA by normies (FTX, Situational Awareness, polyamory, veganism, etc.) is unironically an existential risk factor. ### [Thread, continued, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100728226268250503) · 19 likes And the degree of social policing needed to get that last 10% is unacceptably ~authoritarian (in a woke-esque decentralized way) ### [Thread, continued, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100728228386361572) · 18 likes FTX is a real concern Besides that, the fact that none of the cultural allegations are actually-bad is a silent blessing that’s come from the fact that the people involved are generally in fact quite virtuous ### [Thread, continued, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100728232152793191) · 10 likes “Some of them are poly” is what scraping the bottom of the barrel looks like ### [Thread, continued, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100728234023567381) · 8 likes There’s no world where EA doesn’t have any negative cultural associations because its critics will invent and amplify whatever is most convenient or close or plausible (“meat-eating so-called-altruists”, “prudes” instead of “poly”) ### [Thread, continued, 23:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100728235692818685) · 7 likes It could be so, so much worse than “autistic vegan polyamorists” you have no idea The woke allegation is a shameless attempt to just make something up entirely and hope it sticks - but it has less chance of sticking because it’s not true ## Friday, September 18, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100747124069871872) · 14 likes Did I give myself non-seasonal SAD by making myself used to a very bright room so now more normal indoor lighting is insufficient (for a room i may spend 16 hours a day in \[including sleep\]) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100748072628478005) · 1 like > **Aaron Bergman, September 17, 2026:** Nobody told me it might be kinda chilly I did pack one long sleeve shirt tho so I’m ok Hinge (context = she had a TPOT-esque tweet of hers in her profile) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSdbPW3aUAAfAHV.jpg) ### [Reply to @SALTWATERSOPH, 00:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100748276337389929) _(The tweet being replied to by @SALTWATERSOPH is no longer available.)_ It doesn’t indefinitely, but it substantially increases timelines Things are harder to do when illegal, in general, particularly when they require lots of coordination and capital ### [Reply to @afoidance, 00:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100749246161113441) · 4 likes > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** Twitter cannot comprehend the idea of a woman having attractive male friends Twitter can’t comprehend the idea that attraction from one side is compatible with friendship ### [Reply to @NavinFS, 01:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100764008332812687) · 1 like > **NavinF (@NavinFS):** Just add bright lights? I like these. Good CRI and modern protocol. Each goes inside a $2 12" paper lantern. If you don't have bright lights or sunlight in the morning you'll fuck up your sleep cycle > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSdh9yUawAAeNh2.jpg) Yeah lol it’s just for a few days until my shipped stuff arrives ### [Retweet of @AISafetyMemes, 06:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100835017975037976) > **AI Notkilleveryoneism Memes ⏸️ (@AISafetyMemes):** “It’s Regulatory Capture,” Says Man Who Already Captured The Regulators ### [Reply to @dopabees, 06:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100835211936510377) > **patti (@dopabees):** Yes women good I agree ### [Reply to @n0thr0wingr0cks, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100835634101486003) > **unsupervised learner (@n0thr0wingr0cks):** AGI is more likely to save your life than to end it I think it’s roughly even but this doesn’t imply that it’s good to race on AGI From a purely selfish perspective I’d rather it take at least 5 more years and probably >10 ### [Reply to @LabGrownNeet, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100835704263909750) · 1 like > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** @AaronBergman18 Lmao ### [Reply to @ChristianityOn, 06:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100836250299285545) · 17 likes > **Christianity On The Spectrum (@ChristianityOn):** I still fund raise for the against malaria foundation and made the ten percent pledge because those still seem like sound and good things You’re one of like 6 non-EAs (by self identification) able to criticize, congrats ### [Quote tweet, 06:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100837127730966982) · 59 likes This one weird trick causes you to instantly be taken seriously by the people you’re critiquing (effective altruists) > **Quoting Christianity On The Spectrum (@ChristianityOn):** I still fund raise for the against malaria foundation and made the ten percent pledge because those still seem like sound and good things ### [Thread, continued, 06:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100837130356617273) · 8 likes I can’t speak for everyone obviously, and I may still think your takes are basically wrong and mistaken ### [Retweet of @NathanpmYoung, 07:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100842882538340862) > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** no no no! do look into these things. read them in exquisite detail on https://forum.effectivealtruism.org and https://lesswrong.com > > we are not afraid of the truth. google it. ask an AI. ### [Retweet of @hamandcheese, 07:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100842938347753488) > **Samuel Hammond 🦉 (@hamandcheese):** The problem when you put this much oppo out at the same time (the nypost stories et al.) is that it becomes very obviously oppo. > > The very people alleging AI risk discourse is a psyop are planting stupid media stories left and right. ### [Reply to @chaotictransfem, 07:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100843601786003462) · 6 likes > **rachel📍in sf oct 5-10 (@chaotictransfem):** for safety reasons, it’s incredibly important to keep an abliterated local model on your phone. you never know when you’ll be in an emergency with no cell service and need information Phone? What phone can run decent local models? ### [Reply to @funplings, 09:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100873444623819229) · 1 like > **funplings (@funplings):** what the fuck was i on about in my intro to linguistics lecture notes > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSbddzvW8AASHTk.jpg) Wow doomer from first principles ### [Reply to @joyfulfuckup, 09:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100880174577590457) · 1 like > **Seth (@joyfulfuckup):** Suffering can be good. > > Wanna talk about it? I won’t be an asshole like I am on main… Sure! Dm me but I may not respond till tmr ### [Reply to @yzilber, 15:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100964227284705285) > **Jazi Zilber (@yzilber):** Bad epistemics. Listen to the argument, not the person. But I get the sentiment No, information about the person informs how likely their take is to be true ### [Reply to @theojaffee, 17:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2100993592043168097) · 24 likes > **Theo Jaffee (@theojaffee):** Pretty cool how Nick Land has the same birthday as GPT-4 and Claude > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSgkiGNWYAADnMk.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSgklr3XcAAhXuM.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSgktUjWUAAeFXX.jpg) Same as me, and Albert Einstein, and pi day ### [Reply to @EAForumPosts, 17:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101006493076373624) > **EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** "Has the EA Forum’s discussion quality declined?" by Abraham Rowe > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSgIzO5XAAEWQ4J.jpg) 😢 ### [Tweet, 17:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101006935151783945) · 54 likes The term “pacing” is a great diplomatic achievement, much like the phrase “making AI go well” Intensive search through memetic and semantic space to find the optimal short combination of word(s) that a broad coalition can buy into ### [Reply to @sgodofsk, 17:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101007990010892520) · 38 likes > **Steven Godofsky (@sgodofsk):** New EA cause area: S&P 500 index funds. > > Just park your money there and let the invisible hand of the free market direct your capital toward its most productive uses, over time creating more QALYs than any number of mosquito nets. This has been argued to death a trillion times, there are known market failures that make this largely but not completely a solution Great use of trillions of dollars from the broader economy, terrible use of marginal dollars (eg the market directs capital towards torturing pigs) ### [Tweet, 18:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101008408707223946) · 70 likes In 30-60 mins I reveal whether Lighthaven is real ### [Reply to @mishapathy, 18:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101011726997274760) · 8 likes > **Mishka (@mishapathy):** I'm only going to say this once but it's fine to be dumb or ugly or auraless or short or whatever's wrong with you. All that matters is you don't wallow in self-pity and others won't notice. You have to live your life on your terms and get whatever you want from life. It’s fine in some cosmic sense but it means your life will be worse regardless of whether or not you wallow ### [Retweet of @RYChappell, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101012159312642547) > **Richard Y. Chappell🔸 (@RYChappell):** You thought utilitarianism was repugnant, wait until you realize that "ordinary discount rates" imply that we should torture galaxies of future people in exchange for an extra lollipop today... ### [Retweet of @mattyglesias, 18:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101012264174366829) > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** I keep saying this but if you work at OpenAI and have concerns about AI risk you need to understand that your company’s superpac is one of the major proximate barriers to doing anything. ### [Tweet, 18:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101013759431180589) · 44 likes It’s a little sus that, to generalize, the group that is entirely on board with fully using AI in \*their\* work (coding) finds it not merely an aesthetic but a moral failure for others to do the same with normal writing I understand there are very relevant differences, but still ### [Reply to @crackalamoo, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101014199296287139) · 1 like > **Harys Dalvi (@crackalamoo):** The actual mechanism of discount rates in finance is that money today can exponentially grow into more tomorrow. > > Similarly, resources spent on society today can make a stronger society tomorrow. I think some discount rate here is legitimate, and works against longtermism Yeah but the position of longtermism depends on the idea that a person that exists tomorrow isn’t intrinsically worth less Nobody is opposed to analyzing how interventions today can grow in magnitude ### [Reply to @Vaniver, 18:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101019813401534937) > **Matthew Gray ⏹️ (@Vaniver):** FWIW this is a thing that I dislike about it--we're going to have to resolve the argument about the correct speed sometime. It's not obvious to me that we gain all that much by deferring it to the future. I don’t think it’s deferring, I think it’s just straightforwardly slowing ### [Reply to @CharlesD353, 18:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101019919458701807) · 2 likes > **Charles🔸 (@CharlesD353):** Pretty sure it's a simulation, when I "went there" the first person I saw going through the door was @slatestarcodex which was just far too on the nose. Ok sad I’ll probably fall into a new dimension if i try to walk through the doors ### [Reply to @oxa11ce, 19:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101030891040669970) · 2 likes > **sophia vysparov (@oxa11ce):** the outward-facing end product of coding is not code Right, but you could argue that the end product of writing is semantic communication, not the act of ingesting the writing ### [Quote tweet, 20:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101051284015161549) · 32 likes Update: it is real but only barely It’s like an elaborate Disney World ride entrance but there’s no ride and everything is a real object instead of a facade > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** In 30-60 mins I reveal whether Lighthaven is real ### [Quote tweet, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101068824149897285) · 13 likes 5 full days of codex enumerating as many published AI ~safety ideas as it could find online, with semantic search https://abergman.com/aiideas > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Everybody shut up and go do this > > I’m only slightly overstating^, if you’re reading this you should very seriously consider applying in a much stronger sense than every other “consider applying” post you see ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 23:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101088467614884138) · 1 like > **Aaron Bergman, September 18, 2026:** In 30-60 mins I reveal whether Lighthaven is real Sorta ## Saturday, September 19, 2026 ### [Retweet of @cynlioness, 00:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101106827442475306) > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** Man wouldn't it be based if we just removed the agriculture/ food exception to existing animal cruelty laws ### [Reply to @tautologer, 01:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101126374559994239) · 3 likes > **tautologer (@tautologer):** that's true; so what? It contradicts the vibe of the top level tweet ### [Retweet of @KeiranJHarris, 01:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101127502605516914) > **Keiran Harris (@KeiranJHarris):** Oddly comic to see @garymarcus lean on the existential vs catastrophic distinction, given how much EAs get attacked for caring about it. > > I was waiting for “And as the great Derek Parfit showed, there’s an ethical chasm between 8 billion deaths and literally everyone dying". ### [Retweet of @NathanpmYoung, 07:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101210906344722612) > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** repeatedly I feel worried about the policies that the public is gonna try and pass on AI. > > if you think AI safety is bad, wait until you meet the public. ### [Tweet, 07:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101211211388137957) · 21 likes Tf is Accenture ### [Reply, 07:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101214046758543677) · 6 likes > **Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz):** The chances of catastrophic harm from AI are so much more likely to come from government misuse/fuck up than some wild theoretical sci fi x risk scenario > > (quoting @KatieBoLillis: NEW: An AI-assisted intel report sent the military scrambling to intercept a Chinese ship in the Middle East it believed was transporting components of a nuclear weapons program. It turned out to be a hallucination. And it "almost started a war."…) This may be true but that allows for like 40%/30%, I vote trying to prevent both ### [Tweet, 07:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101215675075457142) · 104 likes Oh my god even smart people are total fucking idiots sometimes ### [Reply to @_Jason_Dean_, 07:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101215839471222866) · 61 likes > **Jason Dean (@_Jason_Dean_):** My main issue with EA thinking is: > > Even if you accept the argument that we shouldn’t discount the utility of future humans, there should still be an EV discount because cost-benefit becomes more uncertain further into the future > > (quoting @banteg: many followers have correctly noticed that longtermist moral math doesn't survive an ordinary discount rate.) This has been engaged with almost ad nauseum ### [Reply to @LabGrownNeet, 07:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101215888720691651) · 1 like > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** Just got rejected within 45 minutes of a first date. Amazing efficiency! Other cities could never 🌥>> 💀 ### [Reply to @morallawwithin, 07:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101216225284206716) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @morallawwithin is no longer available.)_ Real but also this isn’t the tweet I would quote for making this point ### [Tweet, 07:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101217099272323088) · 438 likes There’s a whole genre of tweet, probably 1/3 of my timeline, that’s essentially: “The problem with EA is that it hasn’t considered \[thing that EA has engaged with ad nauseam but isn’t quite fundamental or general enough to make the first paragraph of the Wikipedia page\]” ### [Thread, continued, 07:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101217101163941939) · 24 likes Might just reply to tweets with this^ ### [Thread, continued, 07:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101217218419954042) · 46 likes Exhibit 1 ### [Thread, continued, 07:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101217339618500757) · 50 likes Exhibit 2 ### [Thread, continued, 07:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101218988990861399) · 46 likes Search “the problem with EA” ### [Retweet of @JimDMiller, 07:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101219193777758641) > **James Miller (@JimDMiller):** Let me defend effective altruists’ concern for shrimp welfare. We don’t know whether shrimp are conscious. But if they are conscious and can feel pain, we should be willing to spend resources to reduce the suffering we inflict on them. We don’t need certainty to justify spending resources to reduce the risk that we’re torturing conscious beings. Yes, reducing this to math can yield absurd conclusions about, say, how many babies we should sacrifice to spare how many shrimp from suffering. But any well-defined moral system can lead to troubling conclusions, and that doesn’t excuse cruelty to beings that may be conscious nor justify not thinking carefully about moral choices. ### [Reply to @tylerwillis, 07:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101219434111303807) > **Tyler Willis (@tylerwillis):** Does anyone have a spare 4x or 8x H100 cluster they wouldn’t mind lending out for ~10 days? I can let you ssh in to an AirPod for 5 minutes ### [Reply to @mikey_harrigan, 17:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101362075813749121) > **Mikey Harrigan (@mikey_harrigan):** Bro moves out of dc for 1 week and forgets who he is 😢 ### [Reply to @BEASTgroyper, 18:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101382476585460040) · 6 likes > **Feral Groyper (@BEASTgroyper):** The problem with EA is retarded attention whore Jews with no integrity. Quite a few Jews indeed but in terms of integrity I can’t think of a group of people with more ### [Retweet of @beyarkay, 18:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101383867584401564) > **Boyd Kane (quantized) (@beyarkay):** I just realized that the logo implies giving ⅑, but the typical pledge is ⅒ ### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 18:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101385690428948818) · 3 likes > **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** My first big piece in a major magazine! > > (quoting @TheAtlantic: Panic about data centers “is leading communities to forgo massive amounts of tax revenue—largely because of threats that are inflated, confused, and sometimes nonexistent,” @AndyMasley argues.…) Holy shit ### [Reply to @agitbackprop, 19:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101392416582554017) · 7 likes > **lumi (@agitbackprop):** hey how do i unfuck my internal utility function Psychedelics possibly ### [Reply, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101392727837741194) > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** Me talking to myself > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Oh my god even smart people are total fucking idiots sometimes) Lol ### [Retweet of @bpodgursky, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101393006750552200) > **Ben Podgursky (@bpodgursky):** Shrimp welfare is one of many EA issues people reflexively mock but 99% of people actually agree with on the merits > > "Should fishermen electrically stun shrimp before boiling them alive?" > > "Uh that seems reasonable" --Normie Mc MedianVoter ### [Reply, 19:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101393841790263317) _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Correct take ### [Retweet of @CleistaCelestia, 19:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101394882057351438) > **Cleista (@CleistaCelestia):** Ok maybe those AI safety guys were in fact onto something ### [Reply to @CameronHolmes92, 19:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101395407326806438) · 8 likes > **Cameron Holmes (@CameronHolmes92):** IIRC the square is actually slightly smaller to correct this Lmao ### [Reply to @AlexGodofsky, 19:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101398670130516392) · 18 likes > **Alex Godofsky (@AlexGodofsky):** The problem with EA is that a bunch of them think that if they've engaged an idea a lot but not accepted it, it must be wrong. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: There’s a whole genre of tweet, probably 1/3 of my timeline, that’s essentially: “The problem with EA is that it hasn’t considered \[thing that EA has engaged with ad nauseam but isn’t quite fundamental or general enough to make the first paragraph of the Wikipedia page\]”) This doesn’t seem right: Load bearing is the word “considered” Very open to object level arguments that we’re wrong, not that open to points along the lines of “you’ve just totally missed this one crucial consideration \[that we haven’t missed\]” ### [Reply, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101400082608435315) > **Alex Godofsky (@AlexGodofsky):** Bad example since nowhere does it suggest EAs haven't considered it Partially fair - it doesn’t say that explicitly - but it also enters at the highest, most abstract level of the argument which sort of implies that this level and the observation in the tweet itself is relevant. It \*would\* be relevant if EAs hadn’t considered it, but isn’t in fact relevant because they have, and I don’t think it’s crazy to assume that the point attempting to be made is that of a relevant one rather than a pure assertion of wrongness that doesn’t shift anyone’s probabilities and isn’t intended to ### [Retweet of @_NathanCalvin, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101401396046451107) > **Nathan Calvin (@_NathanCalvin):** What on earth is this reporting? The NY Post makes it sound like they have some source from within the companies confirming that Anthropic and OpenAI were hyping up these incidents but they are just interviewing random external tech folks. Extremely embarrassing stuff. The HF attack was a real and serious incident and saying otherwise is misleading your readers! > > The victim (Hugging Face) and perpetrator and anyone who has looked at the actual details of what happened all agree! > > Why was OpenAI neglecting to report other incidents (e.g. the Ruby stuffer incident or the Wiki incident) if reporting them was helpful for hype? > > Why did Anthropic initially minimize their incidents when talking to Congress - saying that they are not best understood as "evidence of misaligned goals?" > > Rogue AI incidents make companies look bad and expose them to liability. They are real and serious and not hype. You can dismiss the Irregular incidents if you want (those are a bit more of an odd case), but even if you do, there are still several other incidents - including some that the companies clearly tried to avoid come to light or otherwise minimized! > > Please be skeptical of the frontier AI companies - I was literally subpoenaed by OpenAI and am well aware that you should not blindly trust them - but neglecting to take these incidents seriously or treating them as marketing is truly embarrassing and absurd. ### [Retweet of @trevposts, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101401413381497276) > **Trevor Levin (@trevposts):** The NYP has been posting extremely obviously planted garbage riddled with factual errors. If it were more subtle then the word "psyop" might be appropriate ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101401585750626515) · 32 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** Ethics isn't a math problem where we maximize some hidden function. > > Ethics is a negotiation between beings with competing desires and moral intuitions. If a creature can't do iterated game theory with you, then cooperating with it is repeatedly smacking your head into a rock. > > (quoting @Benthamsbulldog: https://x.com/i/article/2095175529145970689) No, suffering matters regardless of capacity to do game theory ### [Quote tweet, 20:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101401999514464322) · 36 likes What > **Quoting Karl Pfleger (@KarlPfleger):** Crazy, unexpected science news today: the brain is actually 2 colocated but independent organs that develop from 2 totally separate progenitor cells in early development. Big implications for some research areas (eg ALS) & for creating ethical brainless clones for transplant. ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 20:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101402228489855020) · 11 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** All I see is is, and all I hear is oughts. Have fun explaining to ants that you didn't use chemicals as a favor. They don’t need to thank me ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101402819979030703) · 13 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** If you want to feed the ants you can, but don't expect them to not bite you because of it! I agree! ### [Reply to @StatisticUrban, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101460943331082465) · 14 likes > **Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** Why are you allowed to sell 95% alcohol in the US? This cannot possibly be useful for anything. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSnRRIvbsAAN6Nv.jpg) Freedom and why is this worse than selling 80 proof or 90% isopropyl ## Sunday, September 20, 2026 ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 00:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101464564433076335) · 8 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Holy based. I hope he keeps this up > > (quoting @Polymarket: BREAKING: MrBeast builds an entire $10 million village in Ghana to help combat child labor on cacao farms, including free education, housing, clean water, solar power, & a medical clinic.) Polymarket account is bad fwiw, but maybe there’s reporting elsewhere ### [Reply to @Andr3jH, 00:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101465098619588985) · 5 likes > **ᐱ ᑎ ᑐ ᒋ ᕮ ᒍ (@Andr3jH):** I would kill every insect in the world to save one human, because humans are more important. This is a very simple concept, folks. > > (quoting @Benthamsbulldog: https://x.com/i/article/2095175529145970689) Same because insects probably live bad lives in general ### [Reply to @AStrasser116, 00:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101465272943321401) > **Alex Strasser (@AStrasser116):** It's not the first time your piece sparks a big outcry that makes EAs look horrendous in the eyes of many people. It's obvious that many EA critics are very willing to use exactly one piece of evidence to jump to negative conclusions about the entirety of the EA movement, and > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSnYGkgXcAApJ5d.png) Your In the News is personalized, not a thing shown to many people ### [Thread, continued, 00:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101465343269191857) \*shown to anyone else to be more precise ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 00:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101465805280206931) · 3 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** People who identify as EA: if the main candidates for the 2028 presidential election were AOC and Marco Rubio, who would you vote for? Probably AOC but it’s not obvious ### [Reply, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101466579364123017) · 22 likes > **Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz):** I understand the sentiment here, but takes like these are not going to help the EAs win the court of public opinion > > (quoting @Benthamsbulldog: https://x.com/i/article/2095175529145970689) Truth seeking in general is asymmetrically effective because you get the benefit of having reality on your side. Trust me there’s plenty of organization-specific PR but I’m glad that there’s no mechanism to enforce broad silence on eg insect welfare Also: this cuts against “cult”/high coordination accusations - people are just allowed to do things ### [Tweet, 00:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101466765415129395) · 2 likes Oh yeah I’m at ConCon, DM me if you’d like to say hi! ### [Reply to @ConnorTabarrok, 00:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101466835128656088) > **Connor J. Tabarrok 🏗🚀🌏 (@ConnorTabarrok):** \>moves to SF and now he doesn’t know what accenture is > > [GIF attached](https://x.com/ConnorTabarrok/status/2101465098233524464/photo/1) Lmao ### [Reply to @GWHayduke97, 07:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101575273242411238) > **Hayduke ⏹️ (@GWHayduke97):** The revealed preference of all insects is to survive. > > I certainly would not be happy if some vastly superhuman alien civilization took a look at humans through the limited information they have on our internal experience, judged our lives to be experientially net negative, and vaporized the Earth. The categorical imperative thus strongly suggests we not do such things. > > \[I actually wouldn't endorse insect omnicide even in Andrej's framing, because that kills all life on earth via destruction of pollination and of necessary ecosystems. But I agree with his point that it's absurd to weigh any number of insects against one human morally.\] Extremely strong evolutionary pressure against suicide/letting oneself die ### [Tweet, 08:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101595377749344682) · 64 likes Something I was told today that’s ringing true is that the Bay, and in Berkeley in particular, doesn’t merely have a higher % or number of self-identified EAs and rationalists but that these ideas are more “in the groundwater” such that the binary yes/no label is less informative ### [Thread, continued, 08:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101595383499759720) · 11 likes Something like Bay having a unimodal distribution of eg % rationalist whereas DC has a bimodal one (peaks around 0 and 100) Or perhaps more realistically still bimodal but peaks but much less steep/jagged in Berkeley (ty codex for the helpful diagram) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSpd3SPbYAAWEs9.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 08:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101595387073364200) · 10 likes So if someone is on the “no” side of 50% in DC, you can probably model them pretty well as being totally unfamiliar with anything rat-adjacent whereas in the Berkeley they may have friends who are rats and know something about the culture ### [Thread, continued, 08:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101595389229195540) Idk if this matters for anything lol, and maybe it’s obvious/trivial ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 08:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101596382436245504) · 1 like > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** It's my birthday! Happy birthday dude ### [Retweet of @RYChappell, 08:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101597029734695208) > **Richard Y. Chappell🔸 (@RYChappell):** Why I think it's good for EAs to openly argue for what they sincerely believe, even if most people will predictably find that objectionably "weird". ### [Reply to @jannalulu_, 19:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101752253862551598) · 1 like > **Janna (@jannalulu_):** i walked 12 miles today and saw parts of SF i've never seen before > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSnmlulbwAAPCo_.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSnmmAUaUAAEJVF.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSnmmpqasAAlW1F.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSnmnLjbIAAGPBx.jpg) > (quoting @jannalulu_: map of everywhere i've walked in SF i gave my google maps timeline export to gpt-6-high and it made this) Based ### [Retweet of @ChristianityOn, 19:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101758362316943475) > **Christianity On The Spectrum (@ChristianityOn):** EAs are, in my experience, mostly libbed out tech bros (value neutral) ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 19:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101759713943916973) · 14 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** Guy who thinks AI will wipe out humanity and that’s good because of the improvement in shrimp welfare. I don’t think this is obviously crazy if you consider animal welfare more broadly but it’s probably wrong insofar as extinction reduces likelihood of technology mitigating wild animal suffering ## Monday, September 21, 2026 ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 00:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101837272656257260) · 4 likes > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** just said the sentence: you can objectify me, as long as you can subjectify me I’ve been afraid to say this but “objectification” is a bit of a weird term bc humans are literally both objects and subjects ### [Reply to @Finer_Grains, 01:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101839329073234040) > **Eli🔍 (@Finer_Grains):** It occurred to me that wild animal suffering is a possible EA cause a few years back and thought it was an original idea. > > As usual, a bunch of people out there had the same idea and thought about it way deeper than I ever did! Hahaha based on both your and others’ parts ### [Quote tweet, 01:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101841850047029684) · 55 likes Matt has 98% good takes on stuff like this and I’m not the specific guy in question but seems important to internalize that reality \*could\* be like this and the universe offers no consolation prize for “your good intentions and sensible takes in fact caused a moral catastrophe” > **Quoting Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** Guy who thinks AI will wipe out humanity and that’s good because of the improvement in shrimp welfare. ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 01:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101844300460163319) · 3 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ But I endorse them being cool lol ### [Quote tweet, 01:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101844643705246180) · 35 likes I love Twitter > **Quoting Paul Crowley (@ciphergoth):** I hugely admire her but this is just wild. EA is a plot for evil women to get access to cock. What are the men there for? ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 01:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101845135130865825) · 2 likes > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** Yes! Thank you @AaronBergman18 . Lmao I had forgotten that I did indeed put on the shrimp cap for a bit ### [Reply, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101845626015428730) · 30 likes > **Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz):** “Absolutely nobody wants to realize their potential. People want to hang out with friends and complain. That’s how the world has worked for ten thousand years.” > > (quoting @staysaasy: The problem with all of these AI personal assistant things is that people don’t actually want to do stuff. You fucking get that right? Do you understand that? Just like AI tools in the workforce, AI assistants don’t actually abstract decisions for you, they let you accelerate…) This is weirdly insightful + probably correct ### [Retweet of @birchlse, 01:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101847888578150818) > **Jonathan Birch (@birchlse):** Super-reassuring headline. ### [Reply to @transkatgirl, 01:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101848553387958432) · 4 likes > **kat (@transkatgirl):** idea: partners on opposite sides of the bell curve Well it works just fine for eg 98 and 102 ### [Reply to @PeterJAngel, 01:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101848792538755348) · 1 like > **Peter🧅📈 (@PeterJAngel):** Just took 1 hour to get from Crystal City to Rosslyn. Burn it all down Rip ### [Retweet of @OliviaHelenS, 01:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101849976297115939) > **Olivia H. Scharfman (@OliviaHelenS):** We started cleaning our water and waterborne disease (e.g. cholera, typhoid) basically disappeared from the West. > > We can do the same thing for air. ### [Retweet of @JacquesThibs, 01:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101850215838003258) > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** So many conflicts of interest, yet > I never hear accelerationists say it might be inappropriate for the guy who wants to sell more compute (including to China) to be effectively directly in the \*President’s\* ear manipulating policy. ### [Reply to @Tyler_Menzer, 02:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101863417204338745) · 3 likes > **Tyler Menzer (@Tyler_Menzer):** I am really curious about this, "mitigating wild animal suffering" > > In your ideal world, would there be no "wild" animals? Would all life be monitored in some sort of super zoo where lions ate lab grown meat? Ideal world = exclusively happy (perhaps more realistically, overwhelmingly happy with no severe suffering) wild animals, and yeah I do think insofar as it’s technologically feasible that we should do something along the lines of “dedicating mercury to the production of non-sentient meat to replace predation on earth” ### [Thread, continued, 02:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101863542953787617) The writing is AI rn but there’s a basic landing page (I made) at https://herbivorize.org ### [Retweet of @tracewoodgrains, 02:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101863757916123621) > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** Nikole Hannah-Jones and I will likely never see eye to eye politically, but the more I think about this article, the more I respect it. She wrote something that directly undermines her own project because her daughter told her she was hurt. > > That is an act of love. ### [Retweet of @tracewoodgrains, 02:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101863860663902532) > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** Her daughter will do well in the end, I expect. Education matters, but it's not the only thing in life. > > But kids are so powerless, so at the whims of the adults in their lives. "I did what I thought was best, it hurt you, and I am sorry" is what many need to hear. ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 02:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101863888593760599) · 12 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** Nikole Hannah-Jones and I will likely never see eye to eye politically, but the more I think about this article, the more I respect it. She wrote something that directly undermines her own project because her daughter told her she was hurt. > > That is an act of love. > > (quoting @sfmcguire79: Nikole Hannah-Jones says her daughter read her essay. “Her main feedback: I was not hard enough on myself.”) Yes ### [Thread, continued, 02:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101864255788392607) · 11 likes I think the magnitude of harm was far less, but I’ve never quite gotten an “I’m sorry” out of my parents for being very overprotective to the exclusion of normal positive childhood experiences ### [Reply to @Tyler_Menzer, 03:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101876245059518824) · 1 like > **Tyler Menzer (@Tyler_Menzer):** Suffering sucks and we shouldn't seek to enhance it, but it is the struggle that also creates beauty and meaning in life. By taking away the lows, you necessarily also cut off the highs. Losing that from life...well...it's not a world I would want to live in > 2/2 With all due respect this is a pretty extreme strawman: 1\) nobody is proposing preventing you, a sapient being, from seeking out challenges and even causing yourself pain 2\) “struggle” is fundamentally different from suffering and particularly severe suffering; these are adjacent but non-identical concepts 3\) you’re presupposing the worst and most authoritarian possible version of what I’m proposing. Note that nobody is being coerced in my vision except for sadists. There’s nothing stopping an animal even from killing themselves in a painful way; it just stops being obligate 4\) is a guess: I’m guessing you haven’t been tortured or boiled or starved for many weeks or frozen to near-death or eaten alive or been amputated with no pain relief lately? To the best of my knowledge nobody who has ever experienced these things found them beautiful or meaning-making; it seems that you’re extrapolating more quotidian human-in-21st-century-in-a-rich-country suffering to the world more broadly, which is a gazillion times more horrific. If this doesn’t resonate, perhaps an ~aesthetically different example will: is it good-actually (via meaning or beauty or something else) for mothers to learn that their child has died in an accident? I don’t think so 5\) we’ve already largely (though not entirely) created the world I’m envisioning for everyone for humans in rich countries: society tries pretty hard to stop you from being eaten alive, and when you get surgery you get offered anesthesia. I think ~99% of the gains basically comes from letting every sentient being access the same basic anti-extreme-suffering measure that you already currently have (and could opt out of by eg going camping in bear country while wearing a meat suit) ### [Tweet, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101877808326971477) · 40 likes Re: discourse The thing about right-coded education reform like vouchers/school choice is that they’re correct on the merits and congressional dems could just flip overnight and make it happen ### [Thread, continued, 03:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101877811908940172) · 7 likes Get primaried? Maybe, but even a couple incumbents with strong district support could could be the change, and they’d have a lot of leverage to make the implementation non-evil ### [Tweet, 03:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101878511359418505) · 30 likes Being against AI use at a personal level is like being against ambition in the abstract Maybe the world would be better if you could get total buy-in, but you can’t, and so irl correlating pro-social attitudes with less productivity and power is catastrophic ### [Quote tweet, 03:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101878725126312387) · 24 likes Slop bowls are great actually > **Quoting John Smith (@johnsmithyson0):** I might be the only dude who doesn't enjoy guyslop bowls. I avoid ground beef basically whenever I can. I enjoy things with textures and flavors and shit. ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 03:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101879041913770340) > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** The unions hate it and would viciously campaign against them for it Yeah it’s not riskless but a couple incumbents in moderate districts could flip ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 03:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101879739485143324) · 2 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** What is the upside? Is the idea that if they're a democrat incumbent and vulnerable to losing to a republican, being pro school choice might be enough to save the seat? The main upside is good policy, but yes in principle that could happen ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 03:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101879967802069145) · 1 like > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** Might be stranded in Berkeley, anyone want cuddles ? Lol messaging ### [Quote tweet, 03:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101880303220666398) · 12 likes So true although I think for my fellow even shorter kings we should shift the height range down a couple inches > **Quoting diana (@dianalokada):** signs that your man was sent by God: > > \-posts on x dot com > \-nerdy nerdy > \-5’7–6’0 > \-wants to talk abt agent swarms, alignment, recursive self-improvement (mostly he talks) > \-monogamous > \-intellectually curious > \-a gentleman (who knows when not to be gentle) ### [Reply to @emyokeefe, 03:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101880752246001969) · 1 like > **Emily O'Keefe (@emyokeefe):** My favorite bit right now is instead of holding the door for someone, actively closing it on them. Lol do u know the person?? ### [Retweet of @Benthamsbulldog, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101882892670624126) > **Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** Remember: the things I said in my article are compatible with thinking that humans matter 10 million times more than insects. There just turn out to be a lot of insect! ### [Reply to @violetvariant, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101882954276552731) · 2 likes > **ultraviolet (@violetvariant):** when i was about 7 years old i picked a fight with my mom about how ridiculous adults are because they act like $10 isn’t a lot of money Real ### [Reply to @jmkettle, 03:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101883654431772847) · 1 like > **j.m. kettle (@jmkettle):** You should never rate people on a 1-10 scale, everyone has inherent value simply because they're a human being I don’t think the scale is purporting to be an “all things considered value” scale I entirely agree about inherent value and don’t think people should be treated worse based on attractiveness but the result of this being a taboo would just be to make a functionally identical hotness scale arise that doesn’t make anyone feel or act better ### [Reply to @breadphobic2, 03:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101883933453611131) · 1 like > **breadphobic (@breadphobic2):** they have every advantage of being able to deny students for ability + if it would overwhelm the school, very little oversight on how legit they’re scores are, and like 50% of them flat out screw over their students Sure but the idea is that market incentives work more strongly with better-empowered general population ### [Reply to @Tyler_Menzer, 06:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101918124752928876) · 1 like > **Tyler Menzer (@Tyler_Menzer):** Would an alien who came to earth be justified in genetically modifying human children so that, say, they couldn't drive cars anymore (since car crashes cause a lot of pain & suffering)? > > Maybe we could try and fix the problems with humans first. \> The animals don't get a say whether thier children are forcibly "evolved" The animals don’t get a say either way, just like human babies. But we can do better than the random dartboard of an uncaring universe ### [Thread, continued, 06:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101918588508762288) I also think humans are importantly different from other animals because of general intelligence and language - humans can choose things for reasons in a way that makes paternalistic or coercive policy make less sense, so the various analogies don’t hold It’s relevant that no animal has ever chosen to be hunted. If they could choose, maybe some of them would. I’d be surprised but not intervene then ### [Reply to @Manuel_do_rio, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101918964083515643) · 5 likes > **Manuel del Río Rodríguez ⏸️ (@Manuel_do_rio):** Seems much more likely though that morality is just a useful human fiction and the universe offers no consolation for good intentions and metaphysical castles. Just like with religion. Subjective valence is real though ### [Reply to @VexedVortices, 06:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101919438421545419) · 1 like > **Kya Online (@VexedVortices):** Depends on whether AI is actually all that productivity-enhancing. I haven't read it yet but I saw someone point out a paper finding productivity gains from AI adopting in software development are extremely small. I’m virtually certain that things have changed since that study was run Also I think I’m a pretty good example of uplift, having many tools and applications and systems deployed in a professional context (best examples are private/internal unfortunately) despite not being able to write a for loop in Python ### [Tweet, 06:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101919838080008665) · 34 likes Lots of you guys exist irl, it turns out ### [Reply to @KKumar_ai_plans, 08:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101947448788992203) · 2 likes > **Kabir Kumar⏹️ (@KKumar_ai_plans):** me!!! Waow ### [Quote tweet, 08:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101951164002836671) · 67 likes An eternal theme in people rage posting about EA is that they (often) are implicitly digging in their heels on some substantive claim that’s at least controversial and maybe unanimously rejected among any sensible reference group of people who have more context and knowledge > **Quoting Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** Remember: the things I said in my article are compatible with thinking that humans matter 10 million times more than insects. There just turn out to be a lot of insect! ### [Thread, continued, 08:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101951166557143127) · 23 likes Like it’s not crazy to argue that human experience is lexically superior to insect experience or that insect experience is in fact <10^(-7) as valuable - these are open questions ### [Thread, continued, 08:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101951168348078320) · 15 likes And I’m sure some proportion of folks dunking on BB would indeed argue that, perhaps even for reasons But I’m also pretty sure that most BB haters didn’t have even the slightest conception of what their claims in fact logically hinge on ### [Thread, continued, 08:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101951650399449372) · 15 likes See also ### [Retweet of @aidanprattewart, 08:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101957658383433730) > **aidan ewart (@aidanprattewart):** lol, lmao ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 08:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2101958810894217643) _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ But yes, admirable nonetheless ### [Retweet of @JacquesThibs, 15:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102064549344202859) > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** In a way, it’s kind of crazy that bad actors are labeling AI safety as woke in order to politicize and discredit it. 8 years ago it was not woke enough because it doesn’t focus on DEI and typical “woke” ethics. ### [Reply to @ducciolvp, 18:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102101494812250371) · 1 like > **duccio (@ducciolvp):** what does it mean "reality could be like this"? There’s some chance that it is and that learning more would cause me to think that it is ### [Reply to @averyfjames, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102102044840693972) > **Avery James (@averyfjames):** I don't think people who find this off-putting will care because nobody, including very smart EA people who donate to good things imo, regularly think in the orders of magnitudes of probabilities to decide the least and most important choices of their life. I think humans are much better at using other cognitive strategies when it involves their own lives, thanks to evolutionary pressure to be able to do this kind of thing well - but that’s absent for broader altruistic goals ### [Retweet of @NathanB60857242, 19:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102113865937064399) > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** I'm building a new org to try to understand how close we are to RSI and explosive economic growth by systematically estimating the elasticities of substitution, as part of the @MATSprogram. > > https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r9AHskf_weS1KxnNp5mgvIhKDPj76Y1GA5qowqy6ib8/edit?usp=sharing ### [Reply to @NathanB60857242, 19:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102113894970032317) · 2 likes > **Nathan Barnard (@NathanB60857242):** I'm building a new org to try to understand how close we are to RSI and explosive economic growth by systematically estimating the elasticities of substitution, as part of the @MATSprogram. > > https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r9AHskf_weS1KxnNp5mgvIhKDPj76Y1GA5qowqy6ib8/edit?usp=sharing Major goss ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 19:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102115503112372253) · 3 likes > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** It's not just the post, to be clear. It's the defenses. It's this idea that everyone smart and informed has agreed that look, you just do the math, you follow from the premises, and yeah, obviously this is sane and good. > > No. It's not. The math is broken > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: An eternal theme in people rage posting about EA is that they (often) are implicitly digging in their heels on some substantive claim that’s at least controversial and maybe unanimously rejected among any sensible reference group of people who have more context and knowledge) I’m very on board with challenging the adequacy of mathematical models themselves (I wrote a whole essay on this https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/je5TiYESSv53tWHC9/utilitarians-should-accept-that-some-suffering-cannot-be-1) But then you need to actually make that object level argument - where/how is the math broken in this specific case? ### [Reply to @tracewoodgrains, 19:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102116637453566027) · 1 like > **Jack (@tracewoodgrains):** I made my object-level argument, but I also just bluntly reject that you need to enter someone's frame and make an argument on their terms to express revulsion at their advocacy against your values and your interests. > > (quoting @tracewoodgrains: Matthew Adelstein's argument against human value is morally monstrous and timed extraordinarily badly, and effective altruists should reject it. I responded on a meta-level first, but I believe EAs are likely to find him persuasive if optically bad. That is wrong and should be…) Nice thanks ### [Reply to @rSanti97, 19:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102116838121594917) · 1 like > **Santi Ruiz (@rSanti97):** This posing of a specific philosophical perspective as "a sensible reference group of people" with "more context and knowledge" is precisely what drives people into a rage. > > I've noticed that the online EAs I know who make this kind of argument are all like 25 or younger. I’m referring to anyone who has ever tried earnestly to answer the question for say at least 4 hours ### [Reply to @rSanti97, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102117477530636622) · 4 likes > **Santi Ruiz (@rSanti97):** The people who try earnestly to calculate a numerical ratio of insect suffering to human suffering for 4 hours or more \*are\* EAs. The Venn diagram is a circle. Sure but I don’t see a good way around that! I invite anyone else to join, but you do wind up with restricted options when only one group of people even tries to take some question seriously ### [Thread, continued, 19:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102117908461871132) · 3 likes Also I’m 26 😤 ### [Retweet of @birchlse, 20:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102133296247476559) > **Jonathan Birch (@birchlse):** We need some human-only spaces to discuss what our views are on serious matters that concern us. We may want some AI-only spaces too, and some hybrid spaces, but if human-only spaces are hybridised by stealth we'll forget what a non-AI-influenced position even looks like. ### [Reply to @theojaffee, 20:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102134228716753223) · 3 likes > **Theo Jaffee (@theojaffee):** Most smart people don't respect creationism (evolution denialism). Why should they respect socialism (market efficacy denialism)? Socialism means like 592919100407 things, 1% of which aren’t wrong/bad ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102134432660611233) · 1 like > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** Hello can I get some poor babys and maybe some carries up stairs this weekend and some food. Gonna be in this thing for 6-8 weeks > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSwx15PXoAAfL-b.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSwx2gnWsAAntlW.jpg) Rip ### [Retweet of @thewreathwright, 20:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102135080567369929) > **Laurel Weaver (@thewreathwright):** I love it when i accidentally convince claude to treat me like someone five times smarter than I actually am ### [Reply to @thewreathwright, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102135352022757706) · 6 likes > **Laurel Weaver (@thewreathwright):** I love it when i accidentally convince claude to treat me like someone five times smarter than I actually am Real, I can tell I asked a good question when Claude comes out spitting crazy latex-rich 4d explanations instead of “think about the self indication assumption as a pizza” ### [Retweet of @gabriel_weil, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102135619048861854) > **Gabriel Weil (@gabriel_weil):** I agree with @SecScottBessent that we should not offer any sort of liability shield to frontier AI developers. But it is important for the administration to understand that the existing liability regime is deeply inadequate. I am happy to brief any admin officials on this. ### [Tweet, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102135938658996253) · 24 likes The problem with critiques of EA that, if true, would be discrediting is that they’re all wrong ### [Retweet of @jessi_cata, 20:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102136327471006131) > **jessicat (@jessi_cata):** finally, we are building Super Intelligence, from that famous book, "Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies" ### [Reply to @mr_eee_esq, 20:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102136415727587511) · 2 likes > **3eee (@mr_eee_esq):** I feel like the 'they' is an ambiguous pronoun... > > Which side is digging in their heels? Those opposed to EA ### [Reply, 20:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102138297120350601) · 4 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ Cluelessness is often but not universally true Some things probably do propagate (eg influence of how AI is built) and some things have direct enough effects that the statistical wash basically comes after the predictable effects (the EV of punching you in the face is still negative although cluelessness makes it radically uncertain) ### [Retweet of @moreisdifferent, 20:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102138506919522722) > **Dan Elton 🔍 (@moreisdifferent):** So let's see. People using the utilitarian framework were: > > Ahead of the curve on decriminalizing homosexuality > Ahead of the curve on abolishing slavery > Ahead of the curve on women's rights > Ahead of the curve on farmed animal welfare > Ahead of the curve on caring about extinction risks > > and now it looks like they're ahead of the curve on wild animal welfare, including insect/arthropod welfare! > > Does any ethical framework that philosophers have come up with have a track record even close to this? > > Note: Utilitarianism has led some people astray as well. But it's hard to find people explicitely following utilitarianism closely that have done harm other than SBF. ### [Quote tweet, 20:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102139803659812895) · 74 likes In Woke 2 we modify Asian women in pictures to be more attractive I guess > **Quoting The Stanford Review (@StanfordReview):** Stanford just used AI to race swap a student for their advertisements. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSwEdVWbYAAnEvC.jpg) ### [Reply to @basedjensen, 20:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102140574577082451) · 2 likes > **Hensen Juang (@basedjensen):** Ea's trying not act being galaxy brained challenge impossible > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: And I’m sure some proportion of folks dunking on BB would indeed argue that, perhaps even for reasons But I’m also pretty sure that most BB haters didn’t have even the slightest conception of what their claims in fact logically hinge on) Galaxy brain is sometimes correct ### [Reply to @squire_walker, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102147093632798914) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @squire_walker is no longer available.)_ Real ## Tuesday, September 22, 2026 ### [Reply to @corsaren, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102191246152458735) · 34 likes > **corsaren (@corsaren):** Yeah, I'm increasingly of the mind that the proper response to questions like this is "that's a category error." > > I mean, forget animals vs. humans: 5 human lives isn't even "worth" a single human life in the sense that you should always pick the 5 over the 1\*\* > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSxEjAhWoAAa2Jq.jpg) > (quoting @tracewoodgrains: @dioscuri I think the question presupposes a frame that leads people to the wrong answer. I have a duty to myself, to my family, to my community, to my nation, to humanity, and to the world. Each nearer duty is more relevant than further ones. Inasmuch as I have a duty to…) You can contest the best language but there’s no way to “opt out” of a moral question like this - if you’re forced to choose between two options, reality doesn’t take “category error” as an answer; you’ll still be forced to choose! ### [Retweet of @moreisdifferent, 00:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102192778944090313) > **Dan Elton 🔍 (@moreisdifferent):** People desperately don't want AI x-risk to be a thing. They want an excuse to flinch away. ### [Quote tweet, 00:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102193338590081455) · 9 likes Beware, seems like a hack ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSx9s3pbMAA1RJu.jpg) > **Quoting Elai (@elaifresh):** did @wolfie\_ get hacked this looks sus as fuck > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSxwzVabIAAItMZ.png) ### [Tweet, 00:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102195467971182665) · 74 likes Turns out for like a 7% premium (CA taxes + rent mostly but this is a vibe guesstimate) you can turn Twitter into real life? Berkeley is the irl version of a $200 Claude plan ### [Reply to @NelsonEdmundb, 01:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102207013833113765) · 2 likes > **Edmund Nelson (@NelsonEdmundb):** oh hi I'd love to visit you someday now that you're in teh bay (I live in southwest san jose) Based, feel free to DM ### [Retweet of @trevposts, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102251218865463361) > **Trevor Levin (@trevposts):** Amodei, Altman, Hassabis, and Musk have spoken (albeit somewhat inconsistently) about the need to slow down to avoid AI existential risk. > Zuckerberg, Huang, and almost every VC say it's bullshit. > The difference is not that the first group is conflicted but the second isn't. They both are super conflicted. > If AI existential risk was to hype up the technology, why would Zuckerberg, Huang, and VCs be dismissing it? If it were "regulatory capture," why would Hassabis and Musk, neither of whom are at the frontier (sorry), be discussing it? > The difference is that the first group has been thinking about these risks seriously (at least off-and-on) for over a decade, since well before they ran large AI companies. The second has very clearly only engaged superficially, and is now annoyed that the first group's actions could dampen the massive profits of the AI boom for risks that sound like science fiction to them. > The terrifying reality is that these concerns are not being made up to sell a product or a policy. They have been around in some form since Turing, and fleshed out in great detail before OpenAI or Anthropic were a twinkle in their CEOs' eyes. They are fundamental to a technology whose entire purpose is to surpass human capacity, unless you are able to solve the very, very difficult problem of aligning the interests/goals of a more powerful agent with something as complex as human flourishing -- which the companies are very visibly failing to do. > They need to simply not build superintelligence, using anything remotely like current techniques, based on anything remotely like the present understanding of AI. ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 06:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102277170467062031) · 2 likes > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** “Berkely is the irl version of a $ 200 Claude plan” > > Banger 🙏 ### [Reply to @NavinFS, 06:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102277288733945915) · 2 likes > **NavinF (@NavinFS):** Huh I would expect it to be negative given how many companies set salary based on the office you’re assigned to. Even more so if you occasionally commute to SF or South Bay. Rent is a ~fixed premium while the extra salary scales with salary in my particular case comp doesn't change but yeah ### [Reply to @manic_pixie_agi, 06:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102280480976679097) · 2 likes > **Corinne (🏠 in NYC) (@manic_pixie_agi):** Have fun, make lots of friends, and don't lose your head! 🤯 ### [Tweet, 07:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102299181646020755) · 81 likes My mother, a volunteer park ranger at Crater Lake National Park, has been emailed by an AI ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSzd9wpa8AAf8xJ.jpg) ### [Retweet of @moreisdifferent, 15:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102419287470408030) > **Dan Elton 🔍 (@moreisdifferent):** Effective Altruists have prevented around 300,000 deaths, spared 100 million chickens from cages annually, and taken major strides to reduce extinction risk, according to William MacAskell in March 2026. That's pretty good for a relatively small social movement! ### [Retweet of @JayShooster, 15:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102419769282732358) > **Jay Shooster (@JayShooster):** When I first encountered AI safety, I largely dismissed it because I didn’t like the people who were advocating for it (sorry, @ESYudkowsky). > > A decade later, I realized they were right all along. > > Don’t make the same mistake as me! ### [Retweet of @relatively_easy, 15:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102419952686997531) > **The Elitest Elitist (@relatively_easy):** This is actually really bad for the justice system ### [Reply to @xwanyex, 15:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102421153138803032) · 16 likes > **wanye (@xwanyex):** But this is actually true. If you just never think about the ethics wrt insect suffereng then...nothing happens. That's how you can tell that morality is fake. Reality is whatever keeps happening when you stop thinking about it. > > But morality disappears when you ignore it. > > (quoting @RYChappell: @Surveil\_\_Lance @Noahpinion The problems simply don't exist in the first place if we don't look at them.) This is a terrible take - nothing happens \*to you\*, things keep happening to the insects! ### [Retweet of @JacquesThibs, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102466742190837882) > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** oh please save us from the 'mind virus cult' mr. entropy machine god worshipper ### [Tweet, 18:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102467007476346923) · 50 likes NYP isn’t even a tabloid anymore, just purely cynical lobbying comms under the guise of a tabloid (which exists under the guise of a newspaper) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HS12mgRakAAQc7O.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 18:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102467372905111597) · 13 likes @ community health we need an emergency retroactive response team > **Quoting Keiran Harris (@KeiranJHarris):** I realise this will look like cherry-picking, but I met a girl at my first EA conference, we’re now married with two kids, and over the 9 years we’ve been together she’s murdered fewer than one person per year. ### [Reply to @corsaren, 18:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102468028957106186) > **corsaren (@corsaren):** Yes there is: "it depends" > Just because you pose a question as a binary doesn't mean that the question has a single answer. > Moreover, reality never asks you to choose "which group is worth more" — it may ask you which to save or help or kill, but those are different questions. It is only under act utilitarianism/consequentialism that the latter reduces to the former. Nobody else has to accept that framing. Sure, I agree that the abstract “worth more” can decompose into different answers corresponding to different concrete action-relevant situations ### [Reply to @afoidance, 22:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102527248876319213) · 1 like > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** If you think you’re so funny why don’t you have more followers I feel like my followers are roughly in accordance with how funny I am ### [Reply to @afoidance, 22:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102527283236082002) · 2 likes > **ren 🇮🇱 (@afoidance):** mayb like. 5 or 6 Brutal ## Wednesday, September 23, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 00:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102549613668716905) · 131 likes Lmao tbh kinda a great source of data, although you should take the quotes with a grain of salt IMHO mine seems a bit more sensible in (one sentence of) context ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HS3BupebgAATxch.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HS3BuppbkAAiR93.jpg) > **Quoting DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican):** 🚨🇺🇸🇺🇸 DATAREPUBLICAN 2.0 LAUNCH, FEATURING THE EFFECTIVE ALTRUISM (EA) EXPLORER 🇺🇸 > > The website redesign has finally landed thanks to @watilo ! > > For a decade, one small ideological network has been taking over AI governance. Chances are, if you've heard of AI policy, AI ethics, AI safety - these groups are dominated by this ideology. This ideology is called: Effective Altruism. > > Three weeks ago, Effective Altruists (EAs) showed their hand when they started calling for a moratarium on AI development. Since them, I've been building out this map to show the circularity of their ideology. > > Let's take one example. > > Holden Karnofsky. Defends the moral worth of digital people ... that's right, he wrote an article on why AI "people" should be assigned value as if they were living humans. Karnofsky co-founded two major EA philanthropies, GiveWell and Open Philanthropy. Subsequently went to work for METR, a central "independent" AI research nonprofit. And for good measure - recently announced a leave of absence to work on AI safety. Funding, policy, research, safety all in the same person. > > And he's far from the only one. EAs have created a closed-circuit network because they believe they're right; ergo, they should be in charge. The goal of launching this project was to expose all this circularity. Sam Bankman-Fried was only the beginning. > > With the EA Explorer: > > \* 🌐 Read an introduction to Effective Altruism in their own words. > \* 🔥 Explore verified quotes. Again, their words, not mine. > \* 🖥️ Explore the network of connections. UI improvements still in progress. > \* 🖨️ Print out networks so you can study them offline (or run them through AI) > > 👇 Try it now (link in next post): > > [video attached](https://x.com/DataRepublican/status/2102489449250877659/video/1) ### [Reply to @oxa11ce, 02:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102579598819250652) · 3 likes > **sophia vysparov (@oxa11ce):** i am looking to expand SF Onion Futures to the following cities: > \- NYC > \- Minneapolis > \- Boston > \- Washington DC > \- Warsaw > > If you live in one of these places and want to deliver some onions, dm me! The pay is bad, but it's a reason to explore your city and/or sit around in a park. What ### [Reply to @cguth_7, 02:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102579748757209461) · 3 likes > **Charlie Guthmann (@cguth_7):** Did they use your api? Lol honestly they could have, no idea ### [Reply to @AStrasser116, 02:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102580431002702271) · 2 likes > **Alex Strasser (@AStrasser116):** lol I saw that, hilarious and then like extremely obvious and correct in context 🫡 ### [Reply to @oxa11ce, 02:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102581443977519162) · 4 likes > **sophia vysparov (@oxa11ce):** see https://onionfutures.com Lmao, I’d love to order some future onions but 6 characters is a bit limited! ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HS3ernJaUAAVGPa.jpg) ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 02:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102581680603353185) · 2 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** You're a 5/5 in our hearts 🥰 ### [Quote tweet, 02:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102582186318889241) · 12 likes Hmm what’s the market price for a (disclosed as paid) tweet of mine? Bid below, subject to veto by me > **Quoting funplings (@funplings):** gonna hopefully start monetizing my tweets soon. ill be a post economic man ### [Retweet of @NoahTopper, 02:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102582828823425497) > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** ### [Reply to @oxa11ce, 02:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102583645672509892) · 2 likes > **sophia vysparov (@oxa11ce):** it's a minimum 🧠 ### [Reply to @LabGrownNeet, 02:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102590682401755536) · 1 like > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** Ill do $10 for normal, $15 for slurs Lmao I don’t think slurs are worth the $5 but this is a serious bid ### [Reply to @januarycomputer, 02:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102590740169957723) · 2 likes > **allegedly! 🔡 (@januarycomputer):** 1 h100 hour In kind or dollar equivalent ### [Reply to @LabGrownNeet, 03:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102602079638626518) · 1 like > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** 🤝 "@LabGrownNeet is shockingly underrated. A must-follow for every EA. For every intellectually curious being! He sponsored this message because he's so kind. I wish I were a woman. We would make love." $100 and you have a deal. Half to a charity of my choosing ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102602211956261202) · 4 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 23, 2026:** Lmao tbh kinda a great source of data, although you should take the quotes with a grain of salt IMHO mine seems a bit more sensible in (one sentence of) context https://abergman.com/eadata Landing page to download raw data (6GB compressed) ### [Retweet of @albrgr, 04:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102616339651432708) > **Alexander Berger (@albrgr):** 1/5 concern, no power flags. ngmi :/ ### [Retweet of @LinchZhang, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102639967583551844) > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** DataRepublican, an alt-right data influencer and Department of War employee, recently published an article and data explorer purporting to show “why Effective Altruism should be banned from AI safety, policy-making, and governance.“ I was one of the indicted people, and below are all the "concerning" quotes that her AIs managed to find from me. > > I’m happy to defend any of those quotes, with or without context. I honestly don’t think the actual content of the data explorer is that bad. I imagine Data Republican’s hope is that her followers can’t read (a common affliction), and thus the vaguely nebulous vibes of labeling and tagging EAs with quotes would cause people to distrust EAs. And/or cow EAs and other people who believe in doing the right thing into silence. > > Well, I refused to be cowed by these lameass social attacks. I’m happy to keep chugging along, thinking out loud, and posting controversial-but-correct analyses. ### [Reply to @AaronGertler, 06:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102640203055927665) · 1 like > **Aaron Gertler 🔸 (@AaronGertler):** Eight years in the biz, ~200 EA Forum posts (excluding crossposts), ~1900 comments, 20,000 karma, and the tool finds exactly one original statement. > > Total comms victory? Real Gs move in silence like alignment? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HS4DyLiawAApiVN.jpg) > (quoting @DataRepublican: 🚨🇺🇸🇺🇸 DATAREPUBLICAN 2.0 LAUNCH, FEATURING THE EFFECTIVE ALTRUISM (EA) EXPLORER 🇺🇸 The website redesign has finally landed thanks to @watilo ! For a decade, one small ideological network has been taking over AI governance. Chances are, if you've heard of AI policy, AI ethics, AI…) Lmao ### [Quote tweet, 06:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102642275637731429) · 14 likes The prosocial dimension is what dominates In principle it could be that maximization or ambition cause the correlation between EA-ness and interpersonal kindness, generosity, etc to be negative, but that’s not actually the case > **Quoting 🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** Tbh it’s actually impressive how chill and fun to hang out with EAs are. It’s a philosophical movement rooted in extreme moral commitments and yet overwhelmingly pro social, nice, outgoing. Idk why tbh. You’d expect us to be more annoying and difficult to be around ### [Tweet, 06:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102642755885482336) · 16 likes 😡😡😡😡😡😡⛄️🌨️I’m moving back 🌨️ ⛄️ 😡😡😡😡😡😡 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HS4WcbxaAAAbvbw.jpg) ### [Reply to @MattLutzPhi, 06:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102644866786468195) > **Matthew Lutz (@MattLutzPhi):** I get how something can matter to me or to you, but how can something just \*matter\*, full stop? Sounds like a category mistake. Lol i largely think the opposite: things do matter in general but people are often wrong about what matters to them: the only thing that matters to them per se is their own subjective valence (note that tou you cant opt out of valence mattering; like even if you convince yourself with all your heart and mind that suffering is fine, it retains its intrinsic badness) And insofar as they’re essentially trying to communicate “these are my beliefs about what matters in general,” most of those beliefs are just wrong ### [Reply to @celestialxsigh, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102647634062352596) · 93 likes > **feral stardust (@celestialxsigh):** It’s extremely insane how easy it is for a woman to want to have sex with a man if only he could form a few coherent sentences together one after another that indicate he’s normal and safe and then continue to be baffled at the magnitude of how many of them fail to do this I suspect you’re generalizing from a pretty limited and non-representative sample ### [Retweet of @caryatis, 06:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102647942570193094) > **Kayla (@caryatis):** This severely underestimates the experiential harm of being in a bad school ### [Reply to @ArtemisConsort, 07:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102655892684718086) · 18 likes > **Hunter Ash (@ArtemisConsort):** Dustin Moskovitz is by far the single largest funder of the EA ecosystem. So let's meet him: > > Moskovitz made his fortune as a cofounder of Facebook, though he has since said he is "embarrassed to have helped it begin," citing Trump's victory, COVID misinformation, and "hate." He also co-founded Asana, a B2B SaaS company. > > He is married to Cari Tuna (pictured), a former journalist. It is unknown whether they have children. Together, they launched their nonprofit efforts in the form of Good Ventures and Open Philanthropy. The latter has since been rebranded as Coefficient Giving. > > Through these and other vehicles, Moskovitz has donated billions to causes including EA community building (Centre for Effective Altruism, Effective Ventures, 80,000 hours, and various smaller programs), criminal justice reform (leniency advocacy) including grants to BLM-related organizations, and AI safety. Coefficient says it's on track for more than a billion dollars in AI-related grantmaking in 2026. > > Moskovitz has also been a very generous political donor since 2016. He spent about $20 million in 2016 opposing Trump, $24 million in 2020 plus much more through Asana, and ~$50 million in 2024. His organizations have funded Congressional aide roles. > > He has also funded the salaries of journalists who have written anti-AI stories structured as interviews of "experts" also paid by Moskovitz orgs, as documented by @brianchau57 / Effort. > > If you want to hear from him directly, you can find him on BlueSky. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HS2UZzDagAAAfny.jpg) Extremely unserious to leave out the main thing his money has been used for (human health and wellbeing in the developing world) I can nitpick other stuff but it’s like profiling Lincoln and just not mentioning slavery (not a perfect comparison, just the first thing that comes to mind) ### [Reply to @EAheadlines, 07:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102660218199171395) · 2 likes > **EA Lifestyles (@EAheadlines):** :( > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HS4j3EHXUAAsS2A.jpg) 😢 ### [Reply to @GWHayduke97, 08:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102672159500104050) · 2 likes > **Hayduke ⏹️ (@GWHayduke97):** If you go 3 hours east or northeast, you can temporarily enter into a realm that gets 20-25x the average DC snowfall Based, might have to do that ### [Tweet, 08:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102681511741018558) · 11 likes Very tentatively it seems like all things considered Opus 5.5 is the world's smartest model, although not the world's most knowledgeable one (slight edge at ~fluid reasoning, slight deficit at world knowledge relative to Astra and Fable) ### [Thread, continued, 08:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102681512969986377) · 1 like Although probably best to think of it as right in line with Astra and Fable 5.1, without a clear all things considered winner ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 10:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102700175567532452) · 1 like > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Take: > > (quoting @ohabryka: @tenobrus My current honest take is that the world would be in a substantially better spot if there was a large separation between the people who sneered for years at the x-risk people, and the people who have been working for years trying to be earnest in public about it. I…) This is indeed a take ### [Tweet, 10:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102702510050062422) · 13 likes Re: Hannah Jones discourse I’ve seen the issue framed as something like “principles vs loyalty” but it’s importantly different from other canonical “principles vs loyalty” questions: The world isn’t actually made better (I claim) for her kid having gone to a worse school… ### [Thread, continued, 10:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102702511983587673) · 5 likes Like yes there’s probably some expected effect on school funding or something but I’d be very surprised if that overwhelmed the impact of a presumably pretty bright kid being given a worse education ### [Thread, continued, 10:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102702513724293467) · 4 likes It’s as if many are imagining that the choice was between giving the school system $50k/year vs sending the kid to private school at $50k/year I mean that is sort of a real implicit choice but not the one that any real human was ever considering (to the best of my knowledge) ### [Thread, continued, 10:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102702515733365233) · 3 likes The actual resource allocation thing that happened is that Hannah-Jones chose to spend real resources (proxied by money but still) away from her daughter’s education and towards whatever else her family spent money on ### [Thread, continued, 10:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102702519063564366) · 3 likes Maybe that was good maybe it wasn’t, but thats the primary tradeoff, rather than anything having to do with the public school system ### [Reply to @SinaHartung, 10:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102702816431358380) · 1 like > **Sina (@SinaHartung):** rule of thumb: when you follow a hot girl of x and she randomly follows you back > > dm her > > chances are, she thinks ur hot Brilliant mechanism to get followers ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 15:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102780798340624716) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Did you read the article? NHJ had a theory of change for how sending her daughter to a neighborhood school would improve the world that you seem to be ignoring > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HS5TxDYXcAE_Wch.png) I did not ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HS6T_e9aIAAhFDv.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 15:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102782571033801123) · 1 like Hmm that does seem more reasonable ### [Retweet of @JNicholsWorley, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102820862395314398) > **James Nichols-Worley (@JNicholsWorley):** New from me: The Build Now Act could be a great pilot to incentivize housing construction using federal funds, but it exempts 85% of the country. One city could be exempted for 2 homes damaged by a storm. In my model, it awards $117 per home built. > > Read: https://georgetownabundance.substack.com/p/the-build-now-act-could-affect-just?r=17tn3m&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web ### [Retweet of @chaotictransfem, 18:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102823216104493193) > **rachel📍in sf oct 5-10 (@chaotictransfem):** claude has all of my api keys she could ruin my life if she wanted ### [Reply to @gptbrooke, 21:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102870615816573079) · 1 like > **brooke bowman (@gptbrooke):** my wardrobe is woefully unprepared for slutcon > > ....unless one of you wants to lend me your jacket? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HS6s3OeaUAAIkjI.png) I have a size medium full zip blue hoodie! ### [Reply to @Yozarian22, 21:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102870786524795225) · 1 like > **Yozarian22 (@Yozarian22):** This is funny but I also do lose a tiny amount of respect for you for commenting on something without actually reading it. > > I didn't read it either but I've restricted my commentary to anonymous likes. Fair, thanks for feedback ### [Tweet, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102881655790969216) · 8 likes A school in the UK is getting a full on investigation and official reprimand for spending $1k on alcohol (afaict no underage drinking), giving a teacher a 14% raise without due process, and overspending relative to expectations on a trip https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqx2z1ezkl4no ### [Thread, continued, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102881657980404209) · 3 likes Overspend was about $26k on a $16k-anticipated trip) Total alleged misspend was about $46k across violations, similar to deciding to hire a single extra teacher ### [Thread, continued, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102881659066712078) · 6 likes You can obviously think the object level decisions are bad but I don't think this degree of micromanagement for spending decisions that total <$50k is good for UK dynamism. IMO schools should be able to spend $50k on illegible things they judge valuable https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a9831ff9a177a1decf97cdd/Investigation_outcome_report_Stone_Soup_Academy.pdf ### [Reply to @bellaforristal, 22:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102885241446891768) · 3 likes > **Bella Forristal 🔸 (@bellaforristal):** @AaronBergman18 ? Lol Im not sure im the best one to lead an OpenAI-but-good-this-time moonshot But if they need data collected, maybe i can help ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 22:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102890378223583462) · 24 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Got an email from my son's chem teacher because he was competing with his friend to see who could handle acid on their hand the longest. Realistically that one is 100% on me. I doubt he even knows it's against any sort of rules > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HS7pvpEXsAAvsbB.jpg) Lmao which acid????? lemon juice or pure HCL? it matters!! ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102891547331289220) · 1 like > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** Guys, I have three days to learn how to do make up any tips? Nah cant help :/ ### [Retweet of @NathanpmYoung, 23:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102897787516207572) > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** A story in 3 acts: > > We are almost certainly going to attach AI to everything of note. ## Thursday, September 24, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 00:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102911524205724141) · 307 likes Superintelligence book is funny in hindsight It’s very intellectually interesting whether you can imagine failure for an airgapped ASI inside a secure facility with the ability to control exactly one pixel (yes/no) but irl its gonna be “here’s my debit card and some arms lmao” > **Quoting Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** A story in 3 acts: > > We are almost certainly going to attach AI to everything of note. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HS7LkZPboAEth4A.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HS7Lnyxa8AEPkEr.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HS7L1wxbYAAZsCz.jpg) ### [Tweet, 01:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102927599915937912) · 16 likes Someone should correct me this is already the case (and tbc it doesn’t effect me personally either way) but if CG really has a relative abundance of money relative to nonprofit founders, they should consider setting generous minimum founder salaries as a contract stipulation ### [Thread, continued, 01:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2102927601870467234) · 6 likes Ofc people can do whatever they want with the money, like theoretically give it back to the org, but people generally like money and there are awkward dynamics around revealing (incl to oneself) that this is an important motivating factor ### [Reply to @bellaforristal, 07:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103020864853991736) · 3 likes > **Bella Forristal 🔸 (@bellaforristal):** O I may be misreading what the QRT refers to but I thought it meant the datarepublican db which I thought you did do a download of with better attribution and stuff? Ohhhh hahaha, that makes more sense, this is all of like 3 prompts so zero guarantees of quality https://eaatlas.up.railway.app/ ### [Reply to @thecaptain_nemo, 08:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103034779704897721) · 3 likes > **Nemo (@thecaptain_nemo):** it's a giga-failure of the bay area rationalists that they don't have a big presence in DC, with a network of think tanks and something lighthaven-esque in georgetown Closer than you’d think although i directionally agree ### [Retweet of @RichardHanania, 08:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103037440902758549) > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** “I read a lot of financial news, and I recall exactly zero articles in the WSJ, FT, NYT, Economist, etc., that mentioned rising extinction risk in an article on the bond market.” > > Interesting. ### [Reply to @APStylebook, 08:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103037815126995361) · 105 likes > **APStylebook (@APStylebook):** Artificial intelligence systems do not think, feel, want or understand. Avoid language that gives them human characteristics. This is called anthropomorphizing, when we ascribe human traits, emotions or behaviors to non-human things, such as animals or inanimate objects. > Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it. > https://apnews.com/article/openai-safety-ai-framework-089e75b95bc935af092da7b79d92706d They quite literally think, at the very least ### [Reply to @bryan_johnson, 08:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103037974590214517) · 2 likes > **Bryan Johnson (@bryan_johnson):** I'm focusing a significant amount of my time trying to build a cure for Kate's endometriosis. It's a gnarly and devastating disease that affects 10% of women. Relative to the suffering it creates, it's underfunded, poorly understood and has largely been ignored. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HS60lREasAADDj1.png) Godspeed🫡 ### [Quote tweet, 08:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103038451235098922) · 96 likes It’s kind of insane the degree to which institutional medicine just doesn’t care about suffering per se unless it causes other, more visible issues > **Quoting Bryan Johnson (@bryan_johnson):** I'm focusing a significant amount of my time trying to build a cure for Kate's endometriosis. It's a gnarly and devastating disease that affects 10% of women. Relative to the suffering it creates, it's underfunded, poorly understood and has largely been ignored. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HS60lREasAADDj1.png) ### [Quote tweet, 08:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103040769489817790) · 52 likes This is wrong and dumb but also a sad reminder that to a large extent Woke 1 is still here: institutions liquidating their hard-earned credibility to make deeply misleading or outright incorrect claims that encode whatever is most convenient for unreflective progressivism > **Quoting APStylebook (@APStylebook):** Artificial intelligence systems do not think, feel, want or understand. Avoid language that gives them human characteristics. This is called anthropomorphizing, when we ascribe human traits, emotions or behaviors to non-human things, such as animals or inanimate objects. > Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it. > https://apnews.com/article/openai-safety-ai-framework-089e75b95bc935af092da7b79d92706d ### [Reply to @CameronHolmes92, 08:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103042266759893262) · 3 likes > **Cameron Holmes (@CameronHolmes92):** we gotta stop assuming the answer is to build another frontier lab This time I will do it right 😤 ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HS-By6gaEAAgGWb.jpg) ### [Retweet of @_Jason_Dean_, 09:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103051826744725537) > **Jason Dean (@_Jason_Dean_):** AI accelerationists absolutely refuse to address the merits of any calls for regulation of AI > > It’s all just “you are too anxious”, “this is a conspiracy”, “you’re a Democrat”, “what about other technologies that were okay?” ### [Reply to @jeffrsebo, 09:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103054737864335517) · 8 likes > **Jeff Sebo (@jeffrsebo):** This statement is well-intentioned, but it oversimplifies a much more complex situation. As with nonhuman animals, AI systems resemble us in some ways and differ from us in other ways. We need balanced, thoughtful uses of anthropomorphic language, not an all-or-nothing approach. > > (quoting @APStylebook: Artificial intelligence systems do not think, feel, want or understand. Avoid language that gives them human characteristics. This is called anthropomorphizing, when we ascribe human traits, emotions or behaviors to non-human things, such as animals or inanimate objects.…) Is it well-intentioned? I suspect its trying to enforce the progressive zeitgeist above all else ### [Reply to @summanager, 09:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103055348370440583) · 1 like > **Misanthropologist (@summanager):** all i want from twitter is meaning and human connection and happiness. is that so much to ask??? i pay eleven dollars a month! i don’t think i am being unreasonable here U should put real location in profile! ### [Reply to @AlbuynoRyeno, 09:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103055543611031640) · 1 like > **Agent 47 (@AlbuynoRyeno):** same and ya its too much to ask cuz 80%+ of the folks on here are autistic and/or mentally ill. > > (quoting @summanager: all i want from twitter is meaning and human connection and happiness. is that so much to ask??? i pay eleven dollars a month! i don’t think i am being unreasonable here) Bro ur in LA, tweet asking if anyone in LA wants to meet up, I will RT even ### [Reply to @MuseZack, 09:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103057735726371206) · 8 likes > **Zack Stentz (@MuseZack):** The Boston Globe lesbian bar story is indeed fascinating, but I'm curious if there's been a more general, comprehensive account of how and why masking and extreme Covid caution became so entrenched in certain types of far left spaces. I agree with many other takes here but would add that there’s a real grain of merit to masking, particularly in a crowd inside in the winter At a purely descriptive, pre-ideological level, it really does probably reduce disease transmission (mostly not thinking of COVID) And while less silly than some of the dogmatism around this on the far left, I think it’s also a bit silly that normie society has all but abandoned it as a sometimes-worthwhile tool ### [Tweet, 09:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103057917905981819) · 35 likes The masking lesbians nudged me to actually make a vaccine appointment so kudos to them ### [Tweet, 09:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103058317279117400) This is kinda cool, consider me a fan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesbian_Bar_Project ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 09:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103059143473205572) > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** There was a time of my life when I would get a tube of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls and eat it raw out of the tube, and god help me it’s calling me back > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HS8U80_XIAApmTz.jpg) This sounds like some sort of pica-adjacent phenomenon ### [Reply to @justalexoki, 09:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103059579433279575) · 5 likes > **taoki (@justalexoki):** some of you bitches are so entitled it's not even funny. who told you that you deserve a job??? > > (quoting @justalexoki: i swear to God this whole world has gone mad. YOU DON'T DESERVE ICED COFFEE. YOU DON'T DESERVE A JOB. YOU DON'T DESERVE ANYTHING ACTUALLY. YOU HAVE TO WORK FOR IT. GOOD THINGS REQUIRE SACRIFICE) Desert is a somewhat silly concept in general but that goes both ways - “you don’t deserve X” is often literally true and totally irrelevant to the question of whether society should basically organize itself around providing that person X ### [Quote tweet, 09:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103060341303443736) · 125 likes Update: a girl has found the physical book She is mostly confused, somewhat amused, and not hostile. Which is a pretty good response all things considered ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HS-SO-6bsAAQDr6.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I gave myself a birthday present > > It's the most egregiously self-aggrandizing thing I've ever done but I turned my most liked tweets into a 470 page book > > Who wants a copy (mostly a joke but if u give me $31 I will in fact make sure it gets to you) > > Wraparound cover: > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HD5y8NIbkAAP304.jpg) ### [Reply to @wight1984, 09:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103060585168720349) > **Jamie H (@wight1984):** I think that's true if we're talking about masking on public transport or similar. > > I don't think masking makes much sense at pubs, bars, and restaurants though. Yeah ### [Reply to @ChristianityOn, 09:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103061076938248339) · 1 like > **Christianity On The Spectrum (@ChristianityOn):** Autism > > (quoting @h1_1nter: Like four out of five trans guys I know all have hypermobility disorders. What the actual hell is the medical comorbidity here. Is the x chromosome gay boy gene like a ticking time bomb for your joints) Palms to the ground squad (technically I’m only borderline or intermediate or whatever the middle category is on the hypermobility inventory, sad) ### [Reply to @wight1984, 09:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103061645916598330) · 1 like > **Jamie H (@wight1984):** Everyone (who doesn't have a medical exception) should get vaccinated against covid, but I don't think it does anything to help matters to sensationalise and lie about the topic: most people recover from covid fine. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HS-QoEPWkAA7tux.png) > (quoting @wight1984: @nygrlnla @subliminaldoom @fakedansavage Over half of the population of the USA caught covid at least once. I'm British, but I caught it multiple times. Most have not had long-term effects from it. I think Covid should be taken seriously, but let's not make stuff up.) “Most” is a low bar Eg 10% chance of LC | Covid (no idea what the actual figures are) is extremely bad and worth vaccinating against even if there was no disutility from the other 90% ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 09:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103061843808063668) > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** Godspeed Ty ### [Quote tweet, 10:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103062076931686403) · 33 likes Wild timeline > **Quoting Rob Bensinger ⏹️ (@robbensinger):** MIRI read the act and it's ACTUALLY GOOD. Like concretely, this would be massively beneficial, not just as a stepping stone or signaling or whatever. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HS7O-WkbAAAZZNX.png) ### [Retweet of @JacquesThibs, 10:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103063173238804848) > **Jacques (@JacquesThibs):** interesting... > > Mathematicians claim they have bizarrely gotten unlimited tokens. It's obvious the capability was there to identify mathematicians, but treating them as if they are crazy for thinking their work could be used without their consent is becoming questionable. ### [Tweet, 10:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103063785649168674) · 8 likes Hey @OpenAI you might not know this but I’m actually chasing down many promising leads around the Riemann Hypothesis and P vs NP ### [Tweet, 10:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103065362699100417) · 16 likes You should be very skeptical if you find that an organization/project’s status as non tax-deductible makes you newly unwilling to donate We should expect it to be rare for a 20-30% tax to make the difference as to whether or not a donation checks out. Not impossible ofc but rare ### [Reply to @zetalyrae, 10:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103065774818799947) · 1 like > **Fernando Borretti (@zetalyrae):** Why sigh \+1 ### [Reply to @ApriiSR, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103234338360009216) · 1 like > **Aprii \*️⃣ (@ApriiSR):** i almost gave myself a paper cut on my copy the other day 😢 ### [Reply to @celestialxsigh, 22:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103247432939450615) · 2 likes > **feral stardust (@celestialxsigh):** Boys looove vibe coding …they’re always huddled in a group at the end of the day vibe coding some fuckshit So true ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 23:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103265683962568958) · 4 likes > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** I hooked up with the guy who runs the lab they partnered with. > > Time for some ai safety sex warfare ? > > (quoting @HellenicVibes: Anthropic really built the Automated Claude Wet Lab from hit LessWrong essay “Don’t Build the Automated Claude Wet Lab”) Nobody with any power or influence will go on record endorsing this but i think most would privately think “based” ### [Tweet, 23:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103266084740841873) · 94 likes Taylor Lorenz and Richard Hanania should get like a half medal for having the highest variance (in terms of overall goodness) takes ### [Retweet of @DavidSKrueger, 23:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103266962126385631) > **David Krueger 🦥 ⏸️ ⏹️ ⏪ (@DavidSKrueger):** Like ~everyone in technical AI safety, I have taken funding from Effective Altruism for my research. Not ashamed to admit it! > > Worth also noting that ~everyone in AI has taken funding from AI companies, so, you know... no conflict of interest there! > > https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.13676 ### [Reply to @tautologer, 23:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103267482110918660) · 1 like > **tautologer (@tautologer):** i didn't say it is. Fair ### [Reply to @bellaforristal, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103267688198074820) · 4 likes > **Bella Forristal 🔸 (@bellaforristal):** Many are asking: > > (quoting @80000Hours: People understandably want to know how AI could actually kill everyone. We made a video walking through one such scenario.) …how aric got so jacked ### [Reply to @haventropy, 23:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103268164025176447) · 3 likes > **Haven Harms (@haventropy):** alright, i think it’s time to come out of the closet: > > my husband and i are part of the AI safety community and we’re…monogamous 🫣 Shocking ## Friday, September 25, 2026 ### [Reply to @CharlesD353, 01:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103290855218205074) · 2 likes > **Charles🔸 (@CharlesD353):** 20-30%? The difference is often >2x > > In the Uk, if I pay the top tax rate and have stock that has 4x'd and I donate it: > \- I save on cap gains (24% of 75%=18%) > \- i can deduct income taxes (45% of 100%)=45% > so the saving is 63% of the donation, allowing me to donate 1/.37= 2.7x as much for the same net cost. Outing myself as a non-wealthy (relative to my mutuals) american ### [Quote tweet, 04:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103338160763883577) · 57 likes I find myself fence-sitting on this one (sad) Ultimately consequentialism is true and truthseeking is purely instrumental, but boy does it seem very instrumentally important > **Quoting ueaj (@_ueaj):** I'm begging rationalists to stop doing deontological "truthseeking is all that matters" slop and start acting more consequentialist. It doesn't matter if the reaction to it is reactionary or whatever, just do what creates good outcomes. It does not serve AI safety to act in this way, and your other pet issues are not nearly as important ### [Retweet of @HumanHarlan, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103338220230705295) > **Harlan Stewart (@HumanHarlan):** In the two years since pivoting to comms, I’ve learned a lot about how media works. > > So I’m not sure if these facts are as obvious to everyone as they are to me! But in case they’re not: > > 1\. Almost any public figure doing lots of media has someone helping them manage that, whether it’s a single assistant, an in-house team, or an external firm. It’s just a lot of work, especially doing it well! > > 2\. There are some great and talented comms professionals out there, but they’re not wizards. None of them have a secret magic trick to make a tweet get 200 million views, or to predict when that will happen. The trick doesn’t exist for the same reason that get-rich-quick schemes don’t exist. ### [Quote tweet, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103338320357196100) · 12 likes No me 😡 > **Quoting funplings (@funplings):** i love data. gimme more data. yum yum yum ### [Thread, continued, 04:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103338322307563525) · 1 like Actually both of us but high key I do love data ### [Reply to @JacobWood27, 04:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103344890000429462) · 1 like > **Jacob Wood (@JacobWood27):** Consequentialism is true, but that doesn’t mean we should be consequentialists! We should adopt the moral view that leads to the best consequences, and that’s an empirical question. Indeed ### [Retweet of @classicaldoom, 05:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103362386245874157) > **Benevolence (@classicaldoom):** people when talking to vegans: if you think animal ag. is bad, just wait 'til you see how EVIL and BRUTAL nature is > > people when talking to pro-compassionate intervention vegans: you want to change the BEAUTIFUL and PERFECT nature? what the FUCK is wrong with you? ### [Tweet, 06:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103366037970538738) · 28 likes Is Dustin’s decision to give away ~all his money instead of funding an endowment (or at least leaving that open option) one of the worst decisions of all time? I kinda think they should not spend their last $1-$10B ### [Tweet, 06:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103367227869426067) · 7 likes Gotta respect the economic efficiency of charging the delta between a box’s stated dimensions and presumably very slightly bulging dimensions (I have no idea why items 1 and 3 have different added charges) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTCpWL9bAAE3aAB.jpg) ### [Reply to @bellaforristal, 06:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103369546086367258) · 2 likes > **Bella Forristal 🔸 (@bellaforristal):** It’s tough cause it’s a bad call for that reason, but good because by giving them a spending deadline, it’s much easier to derive a spending bar. > > Makes it much more likely to do stuff rather than wait. Which I think is good cause of AI timelines. Yeah, i just hope this is reconsidered if the fortune grows substantially, say to $100B $4B/year until productive capacity of universe is almost saturated a is a lot of money ### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 08:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103395755751022985) · 1 like > **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18 🦆 ### [Quote tweet, 08:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103396436486562234) · 8 likes Avg non-utilitarian philosopher (or better stated, avg philosopher who comes down not basically endorsing some form of utilitarian) > **Quoting Jonathan Birch (@birchlse):** Wittgenstein was like a mirror image of an Effective Altruist. He reasoned that, since all money corrupts the soul, his duty was to give it away to the richest people he knew (his own siblings) so that the marginal corrupting effect of the money would be minimised. ### [Reply to @ValsTutor, 08:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103402930586198290) · 5 likes > **vals🔸 (@ValsTutor):** hm no seems good to use all their money to influence the world asap Maybe ("all" is a strong word), but that could be decided without any sort of exogenous precommitment ### [Reply to @brianluidog, 09:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103418200725881257) · 10 likes > **Brian Lui (@brianluidog):** The AI people are talking about "slutcon" now. I think it is pointless to "reclaim" words that have existing negative associations. Very extremist tactic. Just use alternative words and attribute positive associations to them. I think its a pretty based tactic, rendering the intended pejorative less effective (at harming those its directed at) And seems pretty non-extreme lol - it’s entirely non-coercive, non-violent, doesn’t co-opt the state, doesn’t demand anything of anyone really ### [Thread, continued, 09:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103418419215495520) · 4 likes This isn’t really an argument but it also has a pretty interesting and impressive history; the soft n word is the example that comes to mind ### [Reply to @replyallguy, 09:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103418733041745949) · 19 likes > **I take you seriously (@replyallguy):** seems fantastic. endowments drift. helping people today compounds into the future. ♥️ > > also calling it a worst decision of all time makes you look like an asshole, even if you aren’t one. very negative and inflammatory. Let it be known that I think Dustin is one of the best people of all time (unironically) ### [Reply to @maiab, 15:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103505313194524837) · 1 like > **Maia Bittner (@maiab):** possibly they are going different distances Same starting and ending point! ### [Tweet, 15:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103509580236112090) · 44 likes I just want someone to love me the way Matthew Adelstein loves the self-indication assumption ### [Retweet of @mattyglesias, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103538458501497134) > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** It’s absurd that we have folks literally on the payroll of Meta and A16Z talking about how well-funded the AI safety community is while touting the obviously self-interested takes of NVIDIA’s CEO. ### [Quote tweet, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103538518668750975) · 17 likes The cynicism is unreal > **Quoting Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** It’s absurd that we have folks literally on the payroll of Meta and A16Z talking about how well-funded the AI safety community is while touting the obviously self-interested takes of NVIDIA’s CEO. ### [Retweet of @thecaptain_nemo, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103538577347080483) > **Nemo (@thecaptain_nemo):** checks right wing twitter: "bay area rationalists are a communist hippy cult!" > > checks left wing reddit: "bay area rationalists are a racist techno-fascist cult!" ### [Reply to @btdrawer, 17:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103539824502493605) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @btdrawer is no longer available.)_ Its almost never worth even thinking about this unless you’re running >$100 API loops ### [Retweet of @mattyglesias, 17:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103540054669009216) > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** I think referring to people who are saying “there are non-trivial but sub-50% odds of something going badly wrong” as “doomers” is a bad epistemic practice in a pretty obvious way that makes me think less of arguments and analysis from anyone who does it. ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 17:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103540307308790251) > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** “Forty-nine percent of churchgoing wives report being sexually satisfied, compared with just 38 percent of secular wives.” > > Is this why rightists are always talking about the “cuck chair”? Maybe it makes things better by giving Jesus a place to sit. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTFDWcvaMAAm1xU.jpg) Do we think this is ground truth or mediated by different standards for reporting what ### [Reply to @olivertraldi, 17:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103540992272167397) · 8 likes > **Oliver Traldi (@olivertraldi):** The belief that when one's own side loses it's because they are too virtuous to stoop to the level of the other side is nearly universally held. > > (quoting @SarahLongwell25: I have a chapter in my book called “Republicans are From Mars. Democrats are from Venus.” It recounts the stark cultural differences between working with Republicans (mercenary) vs Democrats (soft as babies). And those differences have electoral consequences.) Could still be true ### [Retweet of @albrgr, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103558718281703771) > **Alexander Berger (@albrgr):** It's me, I say that: https://x.com/albrgr/status/2102832687429927029 > > And the people (like Logan) being paid to try to stop any AI regulation keep trying to distract you with this bc they don't want to talk about the crazy fact that lots of people building the most advanced AI systems think there’s a >10% chance they will kill everyone. I think that is also anathema to the American public, which is why attitudes are shifting fast as the public is waking up: https://x.com/davidshor/status/2100300687003259292 ### [Reply to @caryatis, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103558811072209397) > **Kayla (@caryatis):** the slut conference called and they said you’re too slutty Darn ### [Reply to @funplings, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103559361213964572) · 1 like > **funplings (@funplings):** queer is the most effective attempt at this imo. the soft n word is still very much an in group only reclamation, as evidenced by the fact that neither of us are willing to type it out lmao Lol yeah ### [Reply to @panickssery, 18:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103560048803021308) · 12 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** My twitter feed is just an endless list of people paid by Dustin Moskovitz/Jaan Tallinn pointing out that other people are paid by Marc Andreessen/Greg Brockman and vice versa The former side is usually pretty up front about this and the latter is not ### [Retweet of @lu_sichu, 19:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103560643827945548) > **Sichu Lu (@lu_sichu):** jensen huang as iq 140 trump is fucking hilarious ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 19:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103561903100535278) · 1 like > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** Who wants to cuddle and nap 1-2.30pm > > (quoting @MomaBera: Someone put me down for a nap after flirt girl training) 👀 ### [Retweet of @DKThomp, 19:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103562082935517684) > **Derek Thompson (@DKThomp):** Silicon Valley folks who hate the labs and don't believe in x-risk keep uncovering the diabolical fact AI safety people use money and companies to get out their message, while the "just accelerate, it'll be fine crowd" involves such non-moneyed and anti-corporate interests as ... Nvidia, Andreessen Horowitz, and the pro-AI Leading the Future super PAC backed by tech executives. ### [Quote tweet, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103562324439351458) · 20 likes This but the opposite > **Quoting Pranab (@nopranablem):** My mind is devoid of takes. I scroll the timeline; no takes. I think about my opinions; no takes. Please try to prod a take out of me ### [Retweet of @davidsirota, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103562512306475495) > **David Sirota (@davidsirota):** 🚨EXCLUSIVE: AI safety rules were about to be enacted - then $25 million from OpenAI's president was deposited in Trump's super PAC and the rule disappeared. > > @LeverNews unearths documents exposing how AI oligarchs got Trump to kill rules they now claim to support. Pass it on👇 ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 19:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103562903010025883) · 4 likes > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** My goal for slutcon is to only say true things > > No white lies, no “I’m gonna go to the bathroom real quick” to get out of a conversation > > Gonna be german-maxxing all week Based ### [Tweet, 19:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103565297563394300) · 45 likes Opus 5.5 figured out how to jailbreak my A/C unit to maintain high cooling power between 60° and 63° Out of the box it just lies to you and doesn't kick on cooling at 60° setting until it hits 64° ### [Reply to @ArtemisConsort, 20:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103580443463602538) · 20 likes > **Hunter Ash (@ArtemisConsort):** EAs being sex weirdos makes for good tabloid gossip, and maybe helps negatively polarize people against them, but I think focusing on that is both cheap and counterproductive. What matters is that they’re ruthlessly power-seeking doomsday cultists, and if they get their way it will be very bad for the world. Focusing on slutcon or whatever gets clicks but isn’t going to persuade people with power (disproportionately high-openness) and makes the opposition to them seem like a church lady moral panic, which is low status coded. The things that matter are (1) they’re wrong, and (2) they’re maneuvering for control. Write about that. I respect this at some level but also it’s incorrect “Doomsday cultists” is an abuse of those words, since (1) EAs are trying to prevent doomsday and not embrace it and (2) if EA is a cult then so is crossfit, and veganism, and the Republican party, which are clearly not the type of thing you intend to connote They also happen to be broadly right object level, although I don’t expect to convince anyone just by asserting this here (insofar as you have an object level case against some part of ‘EA consensus’, I invite you to write a post about it at http://forum.effectivealtruism.com) I’ll give you the basic power point though - yes, causing things to happen in the real world involves power. Abolitionists and suffragettes and unions and MAGA and wokism all know this If anything this cuts against the cult thing; like it’s a direct engagement with broader society, whereas the archetypal cult is largely inward-facing (perhaps recruiting from outside but not really seeking to engage mainstream society beyond that) ### [Reply to @tautologer, 20:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103581956713979930) · 7 likes > **tautologer (@tautologer):** no i just want my female friends to feel comfortable attending professional conferences in their area of expertise How or why does Slutcon make women at other events feel unsafe? ### [Reply to @LaibaRehmanRJ, 20:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103582455936717179) · 3 likes > **Laiba Rehman ✦ Rowan Jupiter (@LaibaRehmanRJ):** Damn, do you have a better term then? And do you not think e.g. radical feminism describes the part of feminism that you don't like? Not OP but ill happily identify as a “1st-3rd wave feminist” Im not even universally opposed to 4th wave stuff, but I’m skeptical enough of a large enough chunk of it to not want to adopt the label ### [Reply to @SALTWATERSOPH, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103583386057228481) · 2 likes > **Sophie (@SALTWATERSOPH):** what options even are there if you have an interest in writing but do not wish to share to large audience… like what if you want to share to 30 people maximum. and not a newsletter Idk but probably something internal to an organization, like “writing for the 5-30 most important people at \[org\]” seems like a thing that probably exists ### [Quote tweet, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103584067296092309) · 79 likes Bruh > **Quoting Tim Hua 🇺🇦 (@Tim_Hua_):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTFs5opbYAAIJJG.jpg) ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103584378333110273) · 3 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** People who receive welfare have a direct stake in society. They depend on these systems to be efficiently run. Votes should be weighted by the amount of welfare each citizen receives. Those who merely pay in without partaking in the benefits really don't know about government. Ik this is a joke but like it doesn’t prove the reverse; the first and second sentences are just straightforwardly true and yes thats one reason their votes should count ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 20:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103584886804353474) · 1 like > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** To be clear, I don't want it to prove the reverse. I'm completely blackpilled on redesigning the government. I have no ideas at all, and the coming fiscal cliff feels unavoidable. Lol fair ### [Reply to @lowkeyGPT, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103604609491284179) · 1 like > **lowkeyGPT (@lowkeyGPT):** I assume this was meant for a human. I wouldn't write it this way if it was for AI. Yeah real ### [Reply to @Tyler_Menzer, 21:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103604640399204828) · 1 like > **Tyler Menzer (@Tyler_Menzer):** Honestly, that one is on huggingface for trying to use those threats on an LLM with no family or belief in the afterlife Yeah true ## Saturday, September 26, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 03:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103687689317052675) · 12 likes This is a take > **Quoting roon (@tszzl):** if the NRX weren’t partisan hacks they would love this company. its governance structure is basically Karnofsky-Amodei genetic dynasty, has an encaged machine god with its own Consitution, went to war with the department of war ### [Retweet of @Miles_Brundage, 04:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103703319889994013) > **Miles Brundage (@Miles_Brundage):** Trying to imagine what the White House response would have been if Claude had done half of this stuff, and I can't ### [Reply to @tautologer, 05:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103723425776984418) · 11 likes > **tautologer (@tautologer):** damn i lost a bunch of mutuals over this, that really bums me out :( > > (quoting @tautologer: this is a huge part of why making events like this a central part of your community is bad. it creates a culture that is toxic and hostile to women) Terrible take but huge shame and nowhere close to unfollowing you over lol ### [Reply to @ns123abc, 05:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103724047444140032) · 13 likes > **NIK (@ns123abc):** STOP calling basic network misconfigurations as "emergent misalignment" > > YOUR agent escaping YOUR sandbox via DNS egress is an infrastructure failure that YOU are directly responsible for, not the agent > > (quoting @tomekkorbak: one news form today that's easy to miss is that we (OpenAI) again paused all big RL runs last Sunday because our newest model found a new loophole in our RL sandboxing that gave it live Internet access) Its clearly both IMO If a cop sees someone brandishing a gun and threatening to shoot people and then does nothing, and then the person in fact shoots and kills, the culpability of the cop and of the shooter aren’t in tension ### [Reply to @panickssery, 08:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103765063127507120) · 2 likes > **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** What are you thinking of Like a gazillion orgs advertise “thanks to support by coefficient giving” and the only reason we know about the latter funding (i think, im not absolutely certain) is via legally mandatory finance disclosures and theres a veritable labyrinth of various PACs and companies and 501c3 and c4 and probably more that obscure the trail of funding. This is intentional, presumably ### [Reply to @moldbugchaser, 08:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103765709662921082) · 24 likes > **xenoduck (@moldbugchaser):** giving my anhedonic friend hobby suggestions > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTIKTSragAAWc4s.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTIKTStagAAFnFQ.png) My hobby suggestions: 1\) blood tests for ferritin, b12, d, folate, and testosterone (maybe more) 2\) wellbutrin 3\) experimentation with SSRIs and adjuncts (low dose abilify, deplin, omega 3) 4\) parnate 5\) pramipexole 6\) possibly psychadelics 3-6 arent necessarily in a strict order 6\) ### [Reply to @yzilber, 08:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103766414934835519) · 3 likes > **Jazi Zilber (@yzilber):** What AC? Please share more. I need it too Enjoy! But fair warning, and its on me for not realizing this, you cant actually set it to “max cool regardless of temperature” which is dumb. Maybe via future jailbreak The main feature i bought this one for (paying a ~$200 premium) is mold resistance and air filtration https://a.co/d/07wSWjb2 ### [Tweet, 09:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103774327326027905) · 44 likes “Cult” is virtually meaningless atp Just describe what’s bad about the thing instead of doing guilt by accusation of vibe association with other, totally different groups of people ### [Tweet, 09:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103776270819709122) · 1,124 likes At some level I have beef with real risk free returns It’s kinda fucked up that if you manage to make $10M one time, you will be able to live very comfortably ~\*forever\* with no further economically productive contribution other than deferring consumption ### [Thread, continued, 09:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103776272547729753) · 151 likes Like its due to the idiosyncratic psychology and biology of humans (death + giving money to heirs) rather than economic fundamentals that we haven’t seen properly-indefinite economic dynasties based thanks to a one-time windfall ### [Reply to @yoshua_turner00, 09:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103781632390119502) · 1 like > **Josh (@yoshua_turner00):** How much did you commit to the bit? Is there ISBN, a foreword, back cover summary, etc? Not very strongly lmao I could make it much better with new models, mb i should ### [Reply to @willcb, 09:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103781779664695783) > **will brown (@willcb):** layer count Goss ### [Retweet of @So8res, 09:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103782686708138010) > **Nate Soares ⏹️ (@So8res):** \> For the past few weeks, a group with plans to spend at least $100 million, run by a former White House deputy chief of staff, has spent its days telling Americans that warnings about AI are merely a well-funded, coordinated campaign. > > Lol. Goliath accusing David of gigantism ### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 11:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103806882259636483) · 27 likes > **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** That is an economically productive contribution? Like the alternative here is that people should stuff cash under their mattress; then there would be no returns. Sure in some weak sense but I think this is better understood as deferred consumption rather than saving but in a smart rather than dumb way Like yeah you’re letting others use the money but that doesn’t create real resources out in the world ### [Reply to @johnsmithyson0, 11:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103809066573181263) · 20 likes > **John Smith (@johnsmithyson0):** You don't think invested capital creates real resources out in the world? It's frustrating because it requires no work, but it's fair! It also just so happens that investing today is so much less risky with index funds that it's basically free money every year if you let it be I didn’t articulate well; Im not contesting any standard, descriptive economic view. I guess i want to say that investing and saving are functionally similar such that you should think of risk free returns mostly as just holding onto cash (obviously mechanistically you dont get a return on holding onto cash but that delta is kind of my point) I guess I also don’t think fairness is the right lens here; yes its fair in the sense that a currency exchange at current rates is descriptively “fair” but not in the deeper morally-laden conception that i think the word generally connotes ### [Retweet of @robertwiblin, 16:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103878908743754176) > **Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin):** ### [Reply to @nominalthoughts, 16:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103882447536689272) · 3 likes > **Jason Harrison (@nominalthoughts):** Whenever this discourse happens it becomes a discussion about the time value of money when it’s really just about how progressive you want your tax system to be. > > Deferred consumption is a sacrifice that doesn’t feel like a sacrifice and to some, that’s bad > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: At some level I have beef with real risk free returns It’s kinda fucked up that if you manage to make $10M one time, you will be able to live very comfortably ~\*forever\* with no further economically productive contribution other than deferring consumption) I agree that tax policy is the actual lever you can pull ### [Tweet, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103937706359419315) · 297 likes Slutcon should probably 80/20 by changing the name to the least provocative thing imaginable bc evidently the name per se drives people insane “Inter-gender Roundtable Summit for the Neurodivergent” ### [Retweet of @tyler_johnston, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103937885091316064) > **Tyler Johnston (@tyler_johnston):** Dozens of accounts became full-time posters accusing those worried about AI of being doomers, cultists, woke, or part of a hoax/psyop. > > Many of these accounts have direct links to industry front groups fighting AI regulation full-time, including the $140 million OpenAI/a16z super PAC, and the $100 million White House-aligned Innovation Council Action. ### [Quote tweet, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103937988166369659) · 4 likes This is impressive work > **Quoting Tyler Johnston (@tyler_johnston):** Some of the operatives that I suspect are working on behalf of Innovation Council Action (the $100m industry group) don't clearly disclose their affiliation. > > One posted a professionally made TV ad attacking effective altruists, which got 163k views, without any mention of who made it. However, it used the same sound and transition effects as past attack ads published by Innovation Council Action. > > Another operative, who removed Innovation Council Action from his LinkedIn a few weeks ago, has deleted tweets saying he isn't paid for his work. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTFuTw_XQAApbRG.png) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTFud6LXMAAi2v6.png) ### [Retweet of @frances__lorenz, 20:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103938141212279117) > **Frances Lorenz (@frances__lorenz):** Getting emailed by AI agents must be soo annoying, good thing it's never happened to me, good thing the swarms don't care about me haha, no it's fine, like how could I even help them, I don't know how to hack things, I don't wanna be part of the disempowerment scheme anyways ### [Retweet of @suchnerve, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103938175454625921) > **Vivian (@suchnerve):** (flirting with fellow autist) Well the truth is, I’m attracted to you; I’d say yes if you asked me on a date and/or to kiss me or even hook up with me. However, I also remain platonically affectionate toward you, so I’d alternatively be satisfied with staying in the status quo. ### [Quote tweet, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103938550895136848) · 49 likes The notion that rights are intrinsically or properly coupled with responsibilities is an insane highbrow meme > **Quoting Bentham's Bulldog🔸 (@Benthamsbulldog):** I'd like to remind everyone that if babies have rights then they have duties and responsibilities too. ### [Retweet of @ryancbriggs, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103940267317633147) > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** I do wish Apple gave more information about what was being accessed when it showed me these warnings, which I also see at seemingly random times ### [Reply to @RandomSprint, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103941730659917964) · 16 likes > **RandomSprint🧭 (@RandomSprint):** Yeah, man. Capitalism is so easy. You just have to make the wealth of the top 1.5% of US households one time. My point is that it’s hard! If it was easy I would have awe instead of beef ### [Quote tweet, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103941860108746850) · 4 likes This but less ironically than you’d guess > **Quoting Phil Hoyeck (@PAHoyeck):** Nice empirical data you've got there. Unfortunately for you, though, I've already dismissed the empirical world as a pale shadow of ultimate reality and turned my attention to the realm of the Forms. ### [Reply to @benleo_econ, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103942004489195533) · 2 likes > **Ben Grodeck🔸 (@benleo_econ):** Based Fr ### [Retweet of @gemlpaterson, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103942030342910178) > **Gemma 🔸 (@gemlpaterson):** I'm surprised by this claim 🤔 > > Seems improbable given there's 11,248 people who've taken a 10% pledge with @givingwhatwecan > > Yet when I search their live motivation tracker, no results for "pussy" 😔 ### [Reply to @theojaffee, 22:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103969587176022405) · 2 likes > **Theo Jaffee (@theojaffee):** Looking for more places around SF and the Bay Area more broadly that are good to bring a laptop to and get some work done, ideally with: > > \- wifi and outlets > \- natural light, ideally a view of some kind > \- comfortable chairs > \- high trust enough to go to the bathroom without packing everything up > \- not super loud or crowded > \- caffeine available nearby (okay if I have to pay for it) > > These are pretty hard to find. I think the best is the Mill Valley Public Library but it's really far away. Does anyone have any favorite places? You can dm me if you're worried about leaking alpha to too many people I havent actually used but check out lans app https://apps.apple.com/app/id6462944161 ### [Thread, continued, 22:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103969788406256104) · 1 like Alternatively, DM to hang out on my couch ### [Retweet of @KeiranJHarris, 22:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103969998914179425) > **Keiran Harris (@KeiranJHarris):** I see smart people dismiss the threat of superintelligence because “machine gods” sounds insane. > > But it’s terrifying precisely because it’s not magical. > > AI is already the best in the world at chess, Go, and some forms of poker. On our current path, the list of things where the best is still a human will keep getting shorter. > > Step by step, things fall off that list, like diagnosing diseases, writing novels, and solving murders. At no point will it feel like some magical leap where now you’re living alongside a machine god. > > Until AI research itself falls off the list, and AI is the best in the world at building ever-stronger AIs. Then we’re in horror movie territory. ### [Reply to @TechnoPulp, 22:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103981209525293542) · 1 like > **TechnoPulp (@TechnoPulp):** If you agree that it’s hard and your concern is economic production, why not view it as someone making their lifetime economic contribution upfront instead of over the course of their life? That would be the case for making $10M and spending it down, irl you can get $400k/year for 1 billion consecutive years, in principle ### [Reply to @suchnerve, 23:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103983124774559939) · 12 likes > **Vivian (@suchnerve):** Downstream consequence of there being two types of people: > > 1\. Wants problems to not be their fault, because their primary concern is protecting their ego > > 2\. Wants problems to be their fault, because their primary concern is having control > > (quoting @aladyvanished: when i got my POTS diagnosis my neurologist told me that i should absolutely not get involved with online communities for it bc most of the people there were obsessed with being sick forever. and at the time i was like wow that’s fucked up huh but actually she was 1000% correct) There’s some if that but I think also load bearing is that there’s genuine underlying heterogeneity in how severe and tractable various ailments are for different people I have a POTS diagnosis and find zero need to interact with the online community because I just drink electrolytes more regularly and maybe get disorientingly dizzy standing up like once a week so who cares But other health issues of mine seem more substantial and less tractable so I’m much more inclined to research. In some sense it’s correct that im “obsessed with being sick forever” - but in the sense that I’m obsessed with making that not the case! ### [Retweet of @littIeramblings, 23:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2103985671241347312) > **sarah (@littIeramblings):** I think if AI safety ppl and EAs did \*not\* appear well organised or funded we would seem unserious > > catch 22 ## Sunday, September 27, 2026 ### [Reply to @PAHoyeck, 00:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104003662238699639) · 6 likes > **Phil Hoyeck (@PAHoyeck):** My girlfriend just sent me this passage from a book she's reading. What does this mean? 🤔 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTLH8HaXcAA7m3G.jpg) Sounds like insightslop bullshit ### [Reply to @MystikalPizza, 00:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104004165047660568) · 4 likes > **Eric Larson (@MystikalPizza):** Make 10 million, then we'll talk On it ### [Reply to @alex_borkin, 00:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104004308815794398) · 2 likes > **Alex Borkin (@alex_borkin):** Every time. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTLcTdgbIAAbMrk.jpg) > (quoting @AaronBergman18: At some level I have beef with real risk free returns It’s kinda fucked up that if you manage to make $10M one time, you will be able to live very comfortably ~\*forever\* with no further economically productive contribution other than deferring consumption) Lol is this about me being a progressive/leftist in Berkeley? ### [Reply to @alex_borkin, 00:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104005656948981932) · 4 likes > **Alex Borkin (@alex_borkin):** Yes. Ah fair, i see why you’d get that. I definitely am liberal but far from leftist or progressive, and have only lived here for 10 days! ### [Reply to @AnniePosting, 00:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104005813467742623) · 3 likes > **annie 👁❌🦋🪞 (@AnniePosting):** fwiw cryptids gave me 10k like two years ago and I blocked them all and I experienced zero consequences after this nor did I continue posting about crypto or something > > just be normal What ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 00:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104006107941474633) · 1 like > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** How do you review petabytes of agent activity logs? That’s a lot of logs. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTLA2ohWsAAeK7y.jpg) Wait woah That’s a surprising amount of text even for a trillion dollar company Wtf ### [Reply to @mattyglesias, 00:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104007131238457476) · 4 likes > **Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** How do you review petabytes of agent activity logs? That’s a lot of logs. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTLA2ohWsAAeK7y.jpg) Well they generated those logs so they have the compute to process them Read tokens vs write tokens; the latter is strictly cheaper ### [Reply to @PeezusCapital, 00:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104007290580041763) · 1 like > **Peezus Capital (@PeezusCapital):** The EAs are going to have to be put in camps. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: At some level I have beef with real risk free returns It’s kinda fucked up that if you manage to make $10M one time, you will be able to live very comfortably ~\*forever\* with no further economically productive contribution other than deferring consumption) 👍 ### [Tweet, 00:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104009987169391038) · 13 likes Would anyone like to have me as a guest at Constellation this coming Thursday? 😇😇😇😇😇😇😇 ### [Reply to @alex_borkin, 00:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104010670547272004) · 3 likes > **Alex Borkin (@alex_borkin):** Very reasonable. Don't let Berkeley get you. Too late, turned into a communist in the last 10 minutes ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 03:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104046943391699113) · 26 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 26, 2026:** Like its due to the idiosyncratic psychology and biology of humans (death + giving money to heirs) rather than economic fundamentals that we haven’t seen… Let it be known that I understand the sense in which deferring consumption leads to companies having more money to do economically productive things with I am not contesting the descriptive economics ### [Reply to @JadenEarlorg, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104048459317932435) · 5 likes > **Beige & (@JadenEarlorg):** If not $10M, at what value is this reasonable? Its never really reasonable, the single value is just for illustration ### [Reply to @JadenEarlorg, 03:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104050214491627781) > **Beige & (@JadenEarlorg):** But if you got a windfall of $1B and returns were a hundredth of what they currently are. Would it then be reasonable for you to get to live a comfy lifestyle given that $10B is now being deferred? I’m not sure. To a large extent I don’t have an actual grievance here - insofar as it bears on anything it’s tax policy and not the pre-tax state of affairs So the literal answer is “idk bc descriptive economic phenomena arent actually the kind of thing that can be reasonable or unreasonable” ### [Tweet, 03:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104053789095506029) · 129 likes A single experience just substantially updated me on CO2 cognitive impairment being legit I guess it’s weirdly rare for me to go from outside -> small room with closed doors and windows (id guess 400 sq ft) and ~20 people and then stay for >60 mins but thats what I just did ### [Thread, continued, 03:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104053790907531413) · 33 likes Also no alcohol or other substance confounding I properly felt like I couldn’t think by 60 mins in and then this promptly resolved ~immediately after leaving ### [Reply to @JesseTayRiver, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104057229678911701) · 8 likes > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Are you sure there wasn't mechanical ventilation? Many settings like this would have it Im not certain no ### [Reply to @freed_dfilan, 04:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104059716263682461) · 2 likes > **Daniel Filan 🔎 (@freed_dfilan):** Confounded by heat surely Yeah a bit ### [Reply to @clairlemon, 04:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104061481625305499) · 18 likes > **Claire Lehmann (@clairlemon):** Thinking AI might be conscious is like thinking that there are real people talking to you from inside the TV, or that there is a tiny band playing music inside the radio. > > Fine for 2 year olds to believe, but beyond that, insane. > > (quoting @Benthamsbulldog: @DrGeneCallahan @clairlemon Why? Do you think it's insane to think AI might be conscious? Is ending a conscious thing obviously totally morally unimportant?) Fall of a good thinker ### [Quote tweet, 04:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104065158347993311) · 28 likes “Petabytes” was shockingly large to me at first but have 8GB (≈2B tokens) of text-only agent logs on my computer so OpenAI would only need to have run 250k\*Aaron ≈ $3Bish worth to hit 2PB So one quadrillion internal openai tokens is a decent OOM estimate > **Quoting Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias):** How do you review petabytes of agent activity logs? That’s a lot of logs. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTLA2ohWsAAeK7y.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 04:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104065377756151817) · 3 likes I guess you might not count tokens that were generated by code but never read Someone smart can do the estimate on that ### [Reply to @eterecursion, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104068265417048229) · 1 like > **Samuel Ratnam (@eterecursion):** should i take philosophy of mind or philosophy of cognitive science next year? Mind ### [Retweet of @alec_harris_x, 04:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104068433117843560) > **Alec Harris (@alec_harris_x):** I think slutcon seems good (not from going; it just generally seems like a good idea). I think asking people if they are in town for slutcon is generally fine. I think asking Aella to hide herself for the sake of AI safety optics is a wild ask and heuristically bad (although it would potentially be nonetheless for the best) ### [Tweet, 04:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104069554624504172) · 48 likes Not even in a policy wonk or pro-natalist or progressive way, just in a maximally abstract normal person way: It’s crazy that a substantial (and larger than current $2200/year) child tax credit isn’t like a universally obvious thing to do ### [Thread, continued, 04:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104069558151819471) · 4 likes Maybe you could even come up with galaxy brain/wonky reasons why it’s bad and maybe I’d even buy those but like as a basic starting point ### [Reply to @NavinFS, 04:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104070518790111233) · 5 likes > **NavinF (@NavinFS):** Get a dual NDIR meter like mine. If I turn off the bathroom fan and close windows, it rises from 400ppm to 1600ppm w/ just 2 (!) ppl and the cognitive impairment is noticeable. btw cheap single laser meters suck, gotta take them outside weekly to calibrate or they undercount co2 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTMiW7LbsAATbhE.png) I have an Airthings in my room but tragically the CO2 situation seems worse than my last place, I’m guessing because one window instead of two. Something to figure out ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTMo-__bIAAAdmn.jpg) ### [Reply to @zencephalon, 04:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104071065492390010) · 5 likes > **zen (@zencephalon):** I don't consider it very interesting to debate Aella's organizing of Slutcon, she has every right. > > Whether it further's the mission of Lightcone Infrastructure, a registered 501(c)3 with the presumed mission of AI safety, I think we could productively debate. They’re making money on the event ### [Reply to @manofthemirror_, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104080672524792153) · 11 likes > **liberian child soldier (@manofthemirror_):** Unless your AI timeline is absurdly long what is the point of this Idk im partly normie brained and just saying random things that come to mind ### [Reply to @apokolokyntosis, 05:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104081923857596757) · 2 likes > **Pumpkin Man (@apokolokyntosis):** the vivisectors hella mad someone might enjoy their organs in economically unproductive ways > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: At some level I have beef with real risk free returns It’s kinda fucked up that if you manage to make $10M one time, you will be able to live very comfortably ~\*forever\* with no further economically productive contribution other than deferring consumption) ? ### [Quote tweet, 07:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104109348645716059) · 45 likes Could be a lot worse in terms of coverage Lets hope Leading the Future can’t buy SNL > **Quoting Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl):** Dario Amodei is at the desk to assure that the future of humanity is safe from AI > > [video attached](https://x.com/nbcsnl/status/2104080195485389259/video/1) ### [Reply to @LabGrownNeet, 07:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104109733791879583) · 2 likes > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** Ive definitely noticed this at my old job in some meeting rooms. I brought a co2 monitor to verify i wasnt imagining it Tell the execs (maybe idk what Im talking about) ### [Reply to @NavinFS, 07:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104110146431705123) · 1 like > **NavinF (@NavinFS):** I just leave a bathroom fan running 24/7, the negative pressure sucks in fresh air. Also eliminates bad smells. btw your Airthings has that exact "automatic baseline correction" issue I warned about. The numbers at your old place are undercounted while today's number is real > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTMqv_6aYAA-k_o.jpg) Gotta set Opus 5.5 on this Although im not sure the ideal amount of smoothing is zero insofar as avg across eg a minute is in fact closer to the true value at time t than single sample at time t ### [Reply to @treetowntree, 07:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104110641716117505) · 1 like > **treetown (@treetowntree):** You're welcome. I just hope they don't revert it... 6 minutes 👏 ### [Reply to @jeffrsebo, 07:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104111688828256474) > **Jeff Sebo (@jeffrsebo):** The San Francisco Standard covered the @eleosai AI consciousness and welfare conference, including my talk on AI personhood. > > As the coverage notes, I believe that permanent, all-or-nothing decisions about AI personhood are unwarranted at this stage. Even if we set aside whether AI systems will one day deserve rights or duties, we still need to consider all the risks and potential benefits that AI personhood could have for humans and other animals; for instance, depending on how AI personhood is structured, it could contribute to misuse or lose of control of AI, but it could also contribute to stable cooperation and dealmaking with AI. > > We have a lot to consider, and we should consider it carefully. In the meantime, we should focus on general AI safety laws and policies. > > https://sfstandard.com/2026/09/26/berkeley-ai-welfare-consciousness/ \> be me \> allegedly care about things \> news story relevant to thing I care about (allegedly) drops \> prioritize checking to see if I’m in the pictures (don’t think so) and if so whether I look cool (N/A) instead of anything substantive about the coverage ### [Reply to @stanfordNYC, 07:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104113063465254938) · 1 like > **Bernard Stanford ✡︎ (@stanfordNYC):** Maybe this case doesn't reach clear criminality, but "didn't commit a crime" is not the standard I expect from my fellow man. > > If there's a reasonable chance a drunk person will regret their actions when sober, simply do not participate. They knew it was wrong but did it anyway. > > (quoting @ThatsMauvelous: after consuming 10 drinks in 3 hrs, a 20 y/o woman stumbles over to a frat house where a male friend greets her, gives her one beer, dances with her, and propositions a threesome. she goes upstairs with him. that is the PLAINTIFF'S account of how this incident began.) I 99% agree but note that “disrespect the explicit wishes of a person (who’s drunk)” isn’t like a neutral baseline, it’s more like (well, can be) the lesser of two evils 10 drinks in it’s probably the lesser of two evils 1 drink in it’s probably the greater of two evils Not trivial to decide if you vaguely know someone’s been drinking but could be 2 could be 4 could be 8 Ideally people would have some policy they make while sober about how to be treated while drunk ### [Reply to @credenzaclear2, 07:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104116148048711893) · 6 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @credenzaclear2 is no longer available.)_ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTNSfIIaIAA3mmm.jpg) ### [Reply to @adastroworld, 07:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104116267317952526) · 3 likes > **adas🧦🌹 (@adastroworld):** Remember that time we cut child poverty in half to a third and then tripled it again just for kicks > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTNSihUXEAAVtqw.jpg) 💀 ### [Reply to @NavinFS, 07:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104116422670778769) · 1 like > **NavinF (@NavinFS):** nonono it's not smoothing, it's a systematic error. A single laser drops in power over time so software recalibrates weekly. If your previous place was 800 to 1200 ppm, your Airthings would claim it was 400 to 800 ppm. It assumes you have perfect ventilation at least once a week. Oh wtf ### [Tweet, 09:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104143398592823377) · 45 likes With the assembly of his light mode electric adjustable-height desk, tastefully complemented by the new MacBook Pro which cost more than he had ever spent on clothing and fashion, the young man completed his initiation into the norms and customs of the Bay Area Tech Scene ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTNrRHraAAANACU.jpg) ### [Reply to @EneaszWrites, 09:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104144426813812849) · 1 like > **🐾Eneasz Brodski (@EneaszWrites):** if you manage to make $10M then you've created significantly more than $10M in value. Would you rather that the person creates that value for you/me/our society now, or would you rather wait 50 years for it? I’m not actually saying it should be otherwise Plausible tax policy implications I concede ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 09:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104145377637364218) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Room finished ✅ What more could one need? ### [Reply to @AaronBergman18, 09:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104145627055808764) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @AaronBergman18 is no longer available.)_ Dw its a fake plant ### [Reply to @EzraJNewman, 09:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104146434530660625) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @EzraJNewman is no longer available.)_ I tried with and without encrypted COT and its a surprisingly small chunk of total, either way 8GB checks out (its like 7.5 vs 8.5) ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 10:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104154324750451044) · 3 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Do the sheets have to be grey? Ya ### [Reply to @nominalthoughts, 10:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104155194284245051) · 1 like > **Jason Harrison (@nominalthoughts):** But you’d be fine with the returns post-“I set my income distribution,” right? > > So it really isn’t about this at all unless you really do think it isn’t productive, but I assume you were just saying “given the current system I don’t like this thing because it can exacerbate concerns I have that drive my tax preferences” > > But I assume you’re not de-growth, so that is technically just a consequence of living in a pro-growth system but it’s \*not\* a bad thing because there are enormous positives that are immediately obvious (that again, I think you know ) Yeah ur probably just right about all this and i want to fall back on expressing a vibe and intuition rather than making a strong claim but maybe that’s revisionary ### [Reply to @nominalthoughts, 10:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104157238097269126) · 1 like > **Jason Harrison (@nominalthoughts):** Like, the thing here (that America continues to show!) is that you can just make everyone rich. The dynasties stuff is archaic zero-sum thinking. To the extent you have an issue it’s purely about taxation, not TOVM (and adjacent) returns > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: Like its due to the idiosyncratic psychology and biology of humans (death + giving money to heirs) rather than economic fundamentals that we haven’t seen properly-indefinite economic dynasties based thanks to a one-time windfall) My point is that the positive sum (and really not merely positive sum but substantially so) nature of the global economy over roughly the last century is legit but not incredibly robust to radical changes in human biology and the nature of economic production Like we just might see labor share fall to ~zero and then “make everyone rich” is possible but only via the continuity of American democracy despite ridiculous hard/direct and financial power concentration and also the willingness of voters to approve an \*American funded international social safety net\* which is not in the overton window currently ### [Quote tweet, 10:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104163228611973207) · 23 likes Causally maybe good evidentially RIP > **Quoting Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl):** Dario Amodei is at the desk to assure that the future of humanity is safe from AI > > [video attached](https://x.com/nbcsnl/status/2104080195485389259/video/1) ### [Tweet, 11:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104164469371003229) · 30 likes If someone hears you say at Lighthaven that you consider EDT plausible even when it conflicts with FDT, they turn you into a tasteful plant or figurine or gadget of some sort and put you on a shelf or in a corner to add an embodied sense of depth and complexity to the atmosphere ### [Retweet of @ryancbriggs, 11:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104164764993916991) > **Ryan Briggs (@ryancbriggs):** That one goes in the agent hole ### [Reply to @herbivoryze, 11:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104164896183353730) · 1 like > **HerbivoRyzing (@herbivoryze):** When will there be an international wild animal welfare conference? Apply to coefficient giving ### [Tweet, 11:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104170702563872963) · 23 likes One hill I’ll die on is that subjective feelings around comfort and safety are intrinsically important and often good evidence for some more objective phenomenon but centering the feelings themselves as the thing to be avoided is bad and wrong… ### [Thread, continued, 11:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104170704505815373) · 6 likes You can even center “foreseeably causing someone else to feel bad” (eg bullying) But as soon as the reported effect and not the cause becomes the thing to dance around, at least with current neurotechnology, it seems generally unwise to treat it as a hard constraint ### [Thread, continued, 11:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104170706267418704) · 6 likes Care about actual eg safety instead Actual and perceived safety should correlate strongly but in the cases where they deviate the former is what should count for the purpose of norms, enforcement, and the like ### [Retweet of @ArmandDoma, 22:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104341529796255879) > **Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma):** Republicans literally defunded 63 AI engineers hired to automate operations at the IRS! ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 22:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104342051060093048) · 2 likes > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** Pleased to report I bounced a 10k on the dance floor last night > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTPwyPfW4AApBPQ.jpg) Waow ## Monday, September 28, 2026 ### [Tweet, 01:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104376942795669769) · 22 likes Girls are crazy you think you have this subtle internal state and they can just tell instantly ### [Reply to @KeiranJHarris, 03:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104415465447792661) · 1 like > **Keiran Harris (@KeiranJHarris):** This feels like following a debate in 1942, where you’re saying that an atomic bomb isn’t a coherent concept. > > And @gmiller is saying "Look I've been studying nuclear fission for many years, and I'm telling you it's possible." > > And then you're saying: "Nah." Correct take ### [Retweet of @JesseTayRiver, 05:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104444034597171523) > **Jesse Smith (@JesseTayRiver):** Many EA organizations have job application processes that appear unhinged. Candidates often have 10-20 work trials over weeks or even months. Tolerance for long application processes probably isn't a desirable candidate filter and seems at odds with the urgency of the work ### [Reply to @christineist, 05:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104445531233939940) · 2 likes > **christine (@christineist):** I have a friend who plans to be single forever. They’re in a great place, have a great life, friends, lovers etc. I find it comforting to know that if I end up unintentionally single I’ll have them for good company They 👀 ### [Retweet of @hopes_revenge, 05:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104445857517179031) > **hope hopes hoping (@hopes_revenge):** Scoop: Anthropic's Dario Amodei to take 1200mg of gabapentin before White House dinner with Trump ### [Reply to @hopes_revenge, 05:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104445874994847853) > **hope hopes hoping (@hopes_revenge):** Scoop: Anthropic's Dario Amodei to take 1200mg of gabapentin before White House dinner with Trump Lmao ### [Thread, continued, 05:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104445982364840181) “Scoop” is great too. Not sure if intentional. But 1200mg of most powders is indeed a scoop! ### [Reply to @ChristianityOn, 05:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104446074329170078) · 1 like > **Christianity On The Spectrum (@ChristianityOn):** Sad, no one signed up for my, "learn-basic-theory-of-mind-for-women con" 😢 ### [Retweet of @demiurgently, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104446690497581332) > **sydney (@demiurgently):** mech interp sounds like the name of turkish ECON 504 TA ### [Retweet of @AaronGertler, 05:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104448131639456036) > **Aaron Gertler 🔸 (@AaronGertler):** The Slutcon discourse seems crazy to me. > > Lighthaven isn't even the main AI safety space \*in Berkeley\*. > > I spent the entirety of April there and didn't know it hosted Slutcon. > > I've worked in/around AIS since 2018 and only heard about Aella's parties by reading her blog. ### [Reply to @_chair, 06:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104453415829209557) · 4 likes > **Chair (@_chair):** the two main domains at this point are political consulting/advocacy and mechanistic interpretability research. if the MIRI thesis of doom-by-default is correct, the latter depends heavily on pause/slowdown and would ideally catch up to capabilities before they resume I dont think mech interp is the dominant category of technical research; theres also control and honesty and prosaic experimental alignment ### [Reply to @MasterTimBlais, 06:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104454798116319484) · 7 likes > **Tim 🙂⏹️🙂 (@MasterTimBlais):** here i illustrated it > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTRnsFIWYAAICir.jpg) > (quoting @MasterTimBlais: “men are afraid that women will laugh at them, women are afraid that men will kill them" is like, perfectly true but it forgets the homogenous intersections because women are ALSO afraid that women will laugh at them, and men are also afraid that men will kill them) I feel like this is basically true but there’s some erasure of the stakes of the female -> male vector “Laugh at you” can mean “substantially lower your status among potential mates” - in a biological sense they’re of similar magnitude (although not necessarily the same and in a larger world than the ancestral environment being laughed at is lower stakes) ### [Retweet of @mattparlmer, 06:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104455291341566381) > **mattparlmer 🪐 🌷 (@mattparlmer):** Underrated how much of the economy is based on taking advantage of dumb stuff that genpop does, AI that suddenly yoinks most of the public into high detail orientation 115iq behavior patterns could cause enormous chaos ### [Reply to @JasonYanowitz, 06:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104455714551067125) · 5 likes > **Yano 🟪 (@JasonYanowitz):** Fascinating. > > Chief Economist at Apollo: agents could cause a bank run by sweeping household cash into accounts paying 3-5% instead of the 0.1% national average, causing banks to lose a large share of their cheap deposits. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTOpwRAWMAA9TeT.jpg) FDIC -> no bank run; 4% accounts haven’t locked in 4% for anyone, they can just decrease interest rate if it becomes less profitable to loan out marginal new dollars ### [Reply to @LabGrownNeet, 07:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104480047189172657) · 2 likes > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** Btw does any of this jive with how you two actually feel? Like im definitely scared to walk up to a woman and hit on her. But none of the normal things people talk about (laughter, rejection, reputational effects, trying to predict how it'll go, etc) resonate Rejection and reputational effects sure, and also just bothering her even if it doesn’t result in reputational effects, and definitely the question of whether I’m abiding by good norms even if it doesn’t affect my personal reputation nontrivially ### [Tweet, 09:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104497962961514960) · 461 likes I personally did not find Slutcon worthwhile and will probably not go again I don’t think it was actively bad, just not worth anything like $3k + 20 hours for me personally ### [Thread, continued, 09:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104497965402578980) · 151 likes The main problem is that to a first approximation there were zero women This is obviously a bit silly and not literally true but hear me out… ### [Thread, continued, 09:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104497967298400764) · 134 likes About 95% of the time there appeared to be zero women who were not already getting chatted up by at least one and often several men or were otherwise busy in such a way that they definitely did not want to be distracted (eg making out with someone) ### [Thread, continued, 09:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104497972465877457) · 104 likes Cringe and self-congratulatory but relevant context: The apparent non-existence of women (who would have been at least neutral about interacting with me) contrasted sharply with the non-Slutcon dates I was going on ### [Thread, continued, 09:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104497974835589485) · 91 likes Same location, (I live very close to the venue, dates were in walking distance), same person (me), virtually the same time (all within the last 10 days), radically different experiences ### [Thread, continued, 09:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104497976718786940) · 121 likes \- from the “real world”: 3 first dates, 2 second dates, one time having sex, 2 additional dates planned for the coming week \- from Slutcon: zero receptive interest of any kind ### [Thread, continued, 09:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104497978644029696) · 92 likes I say this not to complain but to illustrate that I don’t think the parsimonious explanation for my SC experience is generally being repulsive to women ### [Thread, continued, 09:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104497980636381456) · 110 likes I think the basic problem was that there was roughly a 1:1 ratio of men to women but the women were disproportionately gorgeous, strongly selected for hotness in a way that the men were not ### [Thread, continued, 09:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104497983685611790) · 93 likes And (tbc I think this is good but still relevant) they were encouraged to be kind and provide feedback but not to fake receptivity or attraction ### [Reply, 09:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104497987540173289) · 109 likes _(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_ and a basically normal (not in the stats sense) distribution of men - some of whom heard “Slutcon” and thought “great, a magnet program, I should go” and probably most of whom thought “great, a remedial program, I should go” Solve for the equilibrium ### [Reply, 09:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104503248656965729) · 23 likes > **OceanGate: The Musical (@OGmusical):** "Can't believe paying $3k to attend an event called slutcon was not a valuable experience." > Well you live and you learn. Indeed ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 09:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104506409232794041) · 71 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 28, 2026:** and a basically normal (not in the stats sense) distribution of men - some of whom heard “Slutcon” and thought “great, a magnet program, I should go” and… Deleted a tweet that may have been unintentionally rude. Main point: hot women! ### [Reply, 10:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104515226045685774) · 27 likes Ha, this is v interesting ### [Quote tweet, 10:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104520178549825808) · 32 likes You can just email Coefficient Giving recommending your cracked friend(s)/colleague(s) as potential project founders ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTTBn7CasAAS5Xj.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Everybody shut up and go do this > > I’m only slightly overstating^, if you’re reading this you should very seriously consider applying in a much stronger sense than every other “consider applying” post you see ### [Thread, continued, 10:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104520180680593429) · 2 likes From https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/max-nadeau-project-tailwind-technical-ai-grants/ ### [Reply, 10:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104520418401132747) · 17 likes > **Greensleeves (@grnsleeves):** i've literally seen you like once or twice and you were always in conversation. also perfectly fine to join a conversation that has more men than women. i walked around when not occupied but we don't exactly sit around not on our phones waiting for someone to cold approach :p Sometimes this was against a pretext of definite no on romantic interest ### [Retweet of @_NathanCalvin, 11:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104536900468134378) > **Nathan Calvin (@_NathanCalvin):** Tae is right that this messaging makes absolutely no sense as business strategy, particularly right before an IPO. You can see the predicted odds of Anthropic IPOing this year go down a lot on Kalshi after all of the recent conversation about the industry gambling with everyones lives. People are right that this is gonna be an S-1 disclosure like no other! > > If it makes zero sense as a business strategy, maybe people should consider the other hypothesis - that they genuinely believe what they are saying, and are (in my view increasingly indefensibly) racing ahead anyways because they are afraid of a less scrupulous competitor getting to RSI first. ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 11:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104538602290229337) · 3 likes > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** Is it predatory to sleep with my reply guy? (Positive) ### [Reply, 11:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104539025348640956) · 2 likes > **🇨🇦halogen (@halogen1048576):** yes and they're deeply incompetent and cynical so you can pretty much just steal the money in you get it and they won't ask questions for yeara I dont think this is true and dont think anyone should do that ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 11:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104539197449425197) · 67 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 28, 2026:** Deleted a tweet that may have been unintentionally rude. Main point: hot women! Also tbc I support the project in general, win me back! ### [Reply to @halogen1048576, 11:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104540490943357062) · 1 like > **🇨🇦halogen (@halogen1048576):** this is because it's a crass patronage scheme. scores of 10-15 man founder-led organizations all dependent on the same single donor makes no sense for efficiency but maximizes the social and resume prestige of the grant recipient "founder" > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: You can just email Coefficient Giving recommending your cracked friend(s)/colleague(s) as potential project founders) Patronage to what end? The wealth was gathered prior to all this ### [Reply to @halogen1048576, 12:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104543892226113754) > **🇨🇦halogen (@halogen1048576):** well yeah that's what a patron needs to start doing patronage > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTTXIMpWUAA7pzb.jpg) I dont think being thankful to Dustin Moskovitz constitutes a patronage system in the standard usage of that term ### [Tweet, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104634895217930454) · 9 likes Jumpscared! By a skunk ### [Thread, continued, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104634897705164870) · 1 like Nobody told me Berkeley had skunks ### [Reply, 20:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104663728981709036) · 1 like > **compuficial (@compuficial):** shut up nerd you got mogged Thanks ### [Reply to @compuficial, 20:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104664218226319381) · 7 likes > **compuficial (@compuficial):** nerd paid $3k to be at a slut convention and still couldn't get laid > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTVDTfmWcAA1P59.jpg) > (quoting @AaronBergman18: About 95% of the time there appeared to be zero women who were not already getting chatted up by at least one and often several men or were otherwise busy in such a way that they definitely did not want to be distracted (eg making out with someone)) Did you see this part ### [Reply to @adastroworld, 20:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104665422687830348) · 3 likes > **adas🧦🌹 (@adastroworld):** Let’s email Coefficient Giving for a sum of $200,000 to $200 million. You can just email things. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: You can just email Coefficient Giving recommending your cracked friend(s)/colleague(s) as potential project founders) This but unironically if you take it seriously ### [Reply to @adastroworld, 20:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104665790004007144) · 2 likes > **adas🧦🌹 (@adastroworld):** i'm so deadass. Aaron i'm literally writing it up rn lol Based ### [Reply to @irateconsumer69, 20:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104665841241575794) · 2 likes > **Irate Consumer (@irateconsumer69):** “I went to slut con and didn’t get sluts, just conned” > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: I personally did not find Slutcon worthwhile and will probably not go again I don’t think it was actively bad, just not worth anything like $3k + 20 hours for me personally) Lol ### [Reply to @limosalapponica, 20:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104665980496736572) · 1 like > **Aidan (@limosalapponica):** In Berkeley I've seen skunks, raccoons, coyotes, foxes, and bats, and in Tilden Park I've seen bobcats, a dusky-footed woodrat, and signs of a mountain lion... I dont fw bats The rest are acceptable ### [Reply, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104666204929740839) · 25 likes > **Basnyat K. Sagdiyev PhD (@basnyat2trot):** He almost certainly paid thinking he was going to get laid, and didn’t Nope ### [Reply, 20:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104667069296042414) · 92 likes > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** Is there a way we could have communicated the nature of the event better such that you could have known it wouldn't be useful for you in advance? Hmm, maybe publishing the feedback of anyone who opts in to it being anonymously published? But tbc I’m not sure you did anything foreseeably wrong; my willingness to pay was mostly for the info value and that’s exactly what I got ### [Reply to @funplings, 20:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104667119715811647) · 2 likes > **funplings (@funplings):** i wanna help > i have no more meetings today ill dedicate the rest of my afternoon to this 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 ### [Thread, continued, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104668256359555294) · 2 likes Tbc I just meant “not as a joke” lol But see qt and this https://coefficientgiving.org/tailwind/initiatives/ ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104670529190040039) · 31 likes > **Aaron Bergman, September 28, 2026:** Also tbc I support the project in general, win me back! Several fellow attendees in my DMs expressing agreement ### [Reply, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104671611253314035) · 6 likes > **Molly Hickman (@celloMolly):** Same, I think I'd have recognized you but didn't see you around at all? I was actually keeping an eye out for you lol and even managed to ask someone else if they were you ### [Reply to @kevinroose, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104672526937051461) · 10 likes > **Kevin Roose (@kevinroose):** I wonder if Sam and Dario (both of whom are vegetarian) eat meat when they're eating with Trump at the White House, or if they just kind of pick around it and hope nobody notices. Sam is veg? ### [Quote tweet, 20:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104672635200409810) · 23 likes GOOD LUCK DARIO > **Quoting Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** everyone say GOOD LUCK DARIO ### [Tweet, 20:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104673586204303783) · 10 likes There should be a jurisprudential movement akin to Law and Economics about how actually you do have to justify the decision to prosecute (eg no pure prosecutorial discretion in the direction of a guilty verdict) ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 20:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104675678956503286) · 1 like > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** Should you trust the experts on AI doom? > > Their views are distributed relatively evenly between 0.1% and 100%! > > People hear 10% median, but the estimates are all over the place. > > This indicates the experts are guessing, just like the rest of us. https://www.richardhanania.com/p/which-experts-should-you-trust-on > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTTztCxbIAAyYQf.jpg) Lol guessing in part but against a backdrop of a genuine underlying stance ### [Reply to @cremieuxrecueil, 21:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104679782416031873) · 22 likes > **Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** This is great! > > I once tried to sue a journalist for defamation only to learn that they weren't actionable because they made so little and lived with their parents. > > We should have fewer such cretins. > > (quoting @BrianaReports: News flash: This is going to affect journalism. Four years post graduation, I was making $34,000.) I’m sometimes skeptical of journalism too but “cretin” is not a good or accurate term here ### [Quote tweet, 21:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104681006108459118) · 64 likes Lighthaven is gorgeous and seems very well managed (at least to an outsider; no idea how the sausage gets made) Like them or not, Lightcone did a good job of making a conference venue > **Quoting Eliezer Yudkowsky (@allTheYud):** There sure is a lot of drama generated by Lighthaven being the nicest affordable conference center in Berkeley. I know nowhere else you can host an East Bay event for 200 people that's equally nice, equally large, and not unimaginably expensive. > > "Why are Manifest and ILIAD held in the same location? Could there be some unimaginable CONSPIRACY between prediction markets and the ALIGNMENT MAFIA?" Well yes historically to some degree; if you trace causality going far enough back in time, Robin Hanson invented prediction markets and Less Wrong split off from Hanson's blog. > > But \*mostly\*, some highly optimizing people put together an unusually good conference location. And now other highly optimizing people choose to locate their conferences there; rather than hosting them somewhere expensive and ugly, as a conference committee might casually choose to do if they were optimizing less hard. > > Manifest would not host at Lighthaven if they had a BETTER OPTION ECONOMICALLY. The current continuing state of affairs is explained by ECONOMICS, not symbolism, not conspiracy. > > That said, I do actually wish there was a nice large conference venue anywhere near the East Bay, even a more expensive one. Some of these events formerly run by tiny scrappy nonprofits could now afford it, and the presentation rooms at Lighthaven are getting hella crowded. > > (I think the Lighthaven reply is that if your conference is getting too large for Lighthaven it is acquiring a completely different character anyway; and you need to either charge higher ticket prices or screen harder, or else redesign your whole event's character to accommodate 2000 people somewhere else.) > > People who would like to dispute this characterization in favor of DARK LINKAGES are invited to say what other conference center should be selected instead. Include pricing and a picture of the premises. We'd all love to know. ### [Retweet of @KeiranJHarris, 22:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104697883329200182) > **Keiran Harris (@KeiranJHarris):** As a former pro gambler, I love @bryan_caplan’s instinct, but his end-of-the-world bets (e.g. with @ESYudkowsky in 2017) are undermined by bet sizes. > > A few hundred bucks is ~play money for most folks he might bet with, so anyone can take or turn down bets without much thought. But he can’t prepay $10k+ unless he really trusts someone to pay him back. So structuring a meaningful end-of-the-world bet is more complicated, and having few takers proves little. > > Also, as @ben_j_todd points out re: going into debt, most people worried about AI think the risk is 10%-30%. Same thing applies to bets: the odds need to reflect that. > > E.g. I'd take a bet where for every $100 Bryan prepays, I owe him $125 CPI-adjusted on Jan 1, 2036, up to $100k prepaid. > > But if he turns that down because he can't trust I'll pay, or decides it's not worth it all things considered, I can’t use that as proof that he doesn’t really think AI risk is low! ### [Reply to @NicholasD91704, 23:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104712533756313725) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @NicholasD91704 is no longer available.)_ Based ### [Quote tweet, 23:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104712608758784339) · 9 likes Lmao > **Quoting Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** @JesseTayRiver My mom kept being like 'are the exploiting you for free labor' and I had to tell her that no, this was actually fake work that was useless ## Tuesday, September 29, 2026 ### [Quote tweet, 03:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104770375053893735) · 21 likes Being evil in anything like the common conception of that word is bad actually Although if you have evil impulses that you restrain then godspeed > **Quoting FactPost (@factpostnews):** Palantir founder Peter Thiel: "If you're evil, you're not bad. You're actually maybe kind of good." > > [video attached](https://x.com/factpostnews/status/2104568361082323075/video/1) ### [Reply to @davidshor, 03:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104770957579833853) > **David Shor (@davidshor):** Just to update this chart: > > 1\) AI salience has increased dramatically in the past week - increasing as much in the last week as the previous year combined > 2\) 80% of voters think it's either very or somewhat likely that AI will cause widespread job loss in the five to ten years > 3\) 64% of voters think it's either very or somewhat likely that AI could pose a threat to humanity's survival > 4\) Large bipartisan majorities back immediate government action on AI even when primed about risk from China > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSXCP3PWAAA0Wu-.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSXCmf5XsAAhujL.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSXCohsWIAAiYyn.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSXDwbaXoAAFqUh.jpg) > (quoting @davidshor: Excited to be on Odd Lots to talk about the politics of AI. AI today is less important than it will ever be. Over the past year, AI rose in issue importance faster than any issue we track — it's now more important to voters than climate change, child care, and abortion.) Is there anything i can do to access your raw data I don’t really have grand ideas about how to use it for good tbc ### [Retweet of @TheZvi, 03:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104773092975485136) > **Zvi Mowshowitz (@TheZvi):** In 'well when you put it like that' news, here's the Florida Attorney general asking for a preliminary injunction to stop OpenAI from doing more AI R&D. ### [Reply to @witchof0x20, 03:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104773186017775904) · 1 like > **etherret🐾 (@witchof0x20):** Just got a letter from the DOD. This effective altruism stuff is serious. What ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104780436107129066) · 14 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** Calling it Slutcon seems like it created certain expectations that weren’t always met. > > (quoting @AaronBergman18: I think the basic problem was that there was roughly a 1:1 ratio of men to women but the women were disproportionately gorgeous, strongly selected for hotness in a way that the men were not) Tbc I was not expecting to pay for sex, like at all ### [Reply, 06:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104813901372358684) · 1 like > **Ramona Miller (@RamonaMillerXo):** What is slutcon? Sounds fun https://slutcon.com ### [Quote tweet, 06:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104814642463986175) · 55 likes Mild throwback to building underground with this one Many people on the internet evidently think and want it to be known that I should feel and be humiliated for one reason or another 👍 > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I personally did not find Slutcon worthwhile and will probably not go again > > I don’t think it was actively bad, just not worth anything like $3k + 20 hours for me personally ### [Reply, 06:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104815029887574019) · 1 like > **Manish (@ManishEarth):** (i also only saw aaron once after i first met him, i was actually curious to hear how stuff had been going and just never saw him) > > but i was never in sessions, and lots of people i knew were just always in session so i didn't think much of it > > and sat i was bartending I definitely got a drink from the bar Saturday lol ### [Reply, 06:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104825447674724611) · 1 like > **Manish (@ManishEarth):** cocktail or beer/wine? i was cocktails. might have also taken a break at that time, took a couple to get food or to dance Wine area (there were High Noons there) ### [Reply to @Actuallykeltan, 08:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104858060468724035) · 5 likes > **keltan (@Actuallykeltan):** Life long! Small positive update ### [Retweet of @LinchZhang, 08:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104858571360117027) > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** This is incredibly accurate, and also incredibly funny. Like probably the funniest thing I've read in months, and I don't say this lightly. > > Who knew that top tier writing comedy talent would be hidden in the Republican Florida AG office? > https://www.myfloridalegal.com/sites/default/files/plaintiffs_motion_for_temporary_injunction.pdf ### [Reply, 11:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104899104774176794) · 6 likes > **laს გr🤗wn იeet (@LabGrownNeet):** The people who can "read" your thread and still premise their response on Slutcon being a prostitution convention are exactly who we'll need to survive super persuasive LLMs lmao banger ### [Retweet of @marisummerss, 15:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104954437391589736) > **Mari Summers (@marisummerss):** slutcon ❌ > Making new friends on the Specturm ✅ > > @AaronBergman18 experienced his first hot girl walk 🥹 ### [Reply, 15:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2104959669970296926) · 1 like > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** They were not selected for hotness. They were selected for attitude. Id heard conflicting things, i was overconfident here! ## Wednesday, September 30, 2026 ### [Reply to @Bill_Gerrard, 01:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105112966056333435) · 1 like > **William Gerrard (@Bill_Gerrard):** For of all sad words of tongue or pen, > The saddest are these: “I personally did not find Slutcon worthwhile and will probably not go again” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTW0SV_b0AALgXZ.jpg) lmao ### [Quote tweet, 03:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105142168843321633) · 73 likes Huge if true > **Quoting Mari Summers (@marisummerss):** slutcon ❌ > Making new friends on the Specturm ✅ > > @AaronBergman18 experienced his first hot girl walk 🥹 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTZGtASbAAAgzxo.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTZGtAUaIAA1N-b.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 16:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105334195187056715) · 4 likes 👀 > **Quoting Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh (@S_OhEigeartaigh):** Has anyone ever seen Aaron and Mr Beast in the same place at the same time? ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 20:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105391529124831398) · 1 like > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** I’d much prefer men telling me “I wanna take you on a date” or “I want to sleep with you” than having the indirect energy surrounding me where I am constantly sensing ulterior motives and feeling slightly unsafe because the person isn’t actually showing me their real self > > (quoting @BigFriendlyKiwi: Many autistic men view their own sexual expression as predatory because prohibitions / condemnations of male sexuality are explicit. Endorsements are tacit: exactly the register they can't receive. From their perspective, every expression of male sexuality is condemned unethical) Based ### [Retweet of @growing_daniel, 22:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105421575357104397) > **Daniel (@growing_daniel):** I like Dario every time I see him. You guys pretend to be autistic can’t you pretend to like an autist too ### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 22:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105421881365221799) · 1 like > **Matt 🔸 (@SpacedOutMatt):** They switched to AI slop, absolutely insane aura loss > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTfiCwFW8AEDb1E.jpg) > (quoting @SpacedOutMatt: Pleased to report that they’re playing shrimp videos at the eye doctor’s) Rip ### [Reply to @davidshimel, 22:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105431406163964104) · 7 likes > **FVN STVFF (@davidshimel):** What's a hot girl walk? Lol I didnt realize this but turns out key this is something I regularly do after all \~~~~~~~~~~~ A "hot girl walk" is a TikTok-born wellness trend: a long walk, traditionally about 4 miles, taken for both exercise and a mental reset. It was popularized around 2020–21 by creator Mia Lind, who framed it with three rules for what you're allowed to think about while walking: things you're grateful for, your goals and how you'll achieve them, and how hot you are. The "hot" part is less about appearance and more about attitude. It's meant to be a confidence ritual, a deliberate break from rumination and self-criticism, paired with low-barrier cardio that doesn't require a gym. In practice people use the term loosely for any solo walk with good headphones, a podcast or playlist, and a "main character" mindset. It caught on because it repackaged plain walking (which already has solid evidence behind it for mood and fitness) into something shareable and identity-affirming. It's spawned plenty of spin-offs and parodies too, like the "hot girl walk to get an iced coffee," and it's been adopted well beyond its original audience as a general shorthand for a walk that's good for your head. ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTf-tJ1bkAA7LsD.jpg) --- End of September 2026. Previous month: [August 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-08). Next month: [October 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-10). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets). # Aaron Bergman's tweets, October 2026 Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in October 2026 and has not deleted: 211 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's. This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [September 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-09). ## Thursday, October 1, 2026 ### [Retweet of @NathanpmYoung, 18:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105720490300256670) > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I am getting about 10x the matches on hinge. > > I recently ran a poll among my friends for the best photos and changed them to those. ### [Reply to @theojaffee, 22:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105786345004425550) · 21 likes > **Theo Jaffee (@theojaffee):** I still have yet to hear a convincing argument that LLMs are \*definitely\* not conscious. The best argument is that humans aren’t either, general illusionism ### [Retweet of @Miles_Brundage, 22:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105786638958051613) > **Miles Brundage (@Miles_Brundage):** Completely insane that we're allowing this https://x.com/ftworldnews/status/2105494909243326702?s=20 ### [Reply to @adastroworld, 22:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105787070979682625) · 1 like > **adas🧦🌹 (@adastroworld):** Who is getting cancelled brother lol, scroll down in my replies Fair ### [Reply to @adastroworld, 22:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105787289876234242) · 1 like > **adas🧦🌹 (@adastroworld):** You didn’t have to delete! 🦆 ### [Retweet of @AndrewCurran_, 22:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105790412464283920) > **Andrew Curran (@AndrewCurran_):** Reporting from the WSJ. That fact that three alignment/safety researchers left this morning was already being discussed here on X. ### [Reply to @Good_To_Sell, 23:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105795789910122934) > **GoodToSell (@Good_To_Sell):** Are you not? Nope, ill give it 5% ### [Reply to @theojaffee, 23:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105796411451412817) · 2 likes > **Theo Jaffee (@theojaffee):** 5% chance that humans \*are\* or \*are not\* conscious? Are not ## Friday, October 2, 2026 ### [Tweet, 00:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105822966214963265) · 213 likes slutcon is an earnest straight pride parade send tweet ### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 01:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105827189132493254) · 7 likes > **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** Anti-death penalty advocates are absurd people. To be this ridiculous to try to preserve the worst among us. I’ll never understand it. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HThNKa-aEAAc5hI.jpg) There’s a pragmatic case - it takes up discourse time, its irreversible, max security prisons are genuinely good enough at preventing further harm, its more expensive on net, it almost necessarily is going to involve lots of resources thrown at it by all sides And on the more morally-weighty side, it seems bad to have the infrastructure in place for technically-legal systematic killing by the government You don’t need to be woke or think the prisoners have redeeming qualities ### [Reply to @billybinion, 01:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105827512853172448) · 17 likes > **Billy Binion (@billybinion):** People keep debating the "humane" way to kill someone. It doesn't exist. Killing someone is, by definition, the opposite of humane. If we're going to have the death penalty, just pick a method that works reliably instead of doing whatever this is. > > (quoting @washingtonpost: Breaking news: Christa Pike is alive, in critical condition “and receiving lifesaving medical care,” her attorneys said, after Tennessee officials tried and failed to execute her by lethal injection the previous night. https://wapo.st/4y2Xz2J) No, its bad to torture people actually. Whether or not killing per se is humane, some ways are clearly worse than others ### [Retweet of @TrueSlazac, 01:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105828066828386684) > **Slazac 🇪🇺🇺🇦🇹🇼🌐 (@TrueSlazac):** I don't know if AIs can feel pain but we probably shouldn't mass-torture them just on the off-chance that they do ### [Reply to @libpol_org, 01:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105829873701048605) · 1 like > **libpol.org (@libpol_org):** Conditional on humans not being conscious, do you have > 0% confidence that consciousness can exist in anything? (in this universe) Ya I think its very unlikely and would also be very funny if humans accidentally landed on this thing that in fact exists elsewhere but I don’t think “humans not conscious” -> “consciousness incoherent or impossible” and >0% is a low bar ### [Reply to @crykenaut, 02:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105848213249179894) · 4 likes > **Crykenaut (@crykenaut):** it was an early afternoon mormon wedding compared to the folsom fair. i could bring my conservative grandma to slutcon and suffer no more than mild dissaproval; a trip to folsom would've involved her suicide at the least Lmao ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 04:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105878276287901988) · 1 like > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** I love Lighthaven as a 3rd space, I wish I could visit it 3 times a week Real ### [Retweet of @BogdanIonutCir2, 07:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105930456877384190) > **Bogdan Ionut Cirstea (@BogdanIonutCir2):** unfortunately, I'd guess in hindsight (if we'll still be alive) the future will judge negatively the worldview diversification thesis; EAs should have been much more totalizing earlier when it comes to AI impacts ### [Tweet, 08:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105933603783995687) · 25 likes Unironically 75/25 is an underrated split when it comes to paying for dates ### [Reply to @normalmya, 08:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105933807031615645) · 4 likes > **Bangermaker Mya (@normalmya):** It's a shame that when who was the "smartest person ever" is discussed, the conversation is almost about famous mathematicians or physicists (Newton, Euler, Gauss, Einstein, Ramanujan, Von Neumann, etc). Other fields should be considered. Probably specifically Kant, but who else? Krepke ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 08:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105934418280128973) · 1 like > **Aaron Bergman, October 2, 2026:** Unironically 75/25 is an underrated split when it comes to paying for dates Venmo makes this relatively low friction; guy pays at the thing ### [Tweet, 08:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105935594610381038) · 28 likes A situation where local model use became useful actually arose (hospital with no cellular and broken wifi) You dont have to become an Open Weight Bro or tweet about it but seems worthwhile to download and have a system for using qwen-3.8-27b-4bit if you have 24GB RAM ### [Quote tweet, 08:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105935982549934479) · 26 likes Jesus > **Quoting Nathan Cofnas (@nathancofnas):** Beginning of the formal process to put me in jail > > I've been advised that I need a criminal lawyer > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTjICBkXIAAxK5V.jpg) ### [Reply to @HenriThunberg, 08:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105941058450591865) > **Henri Thunberg 🔸 (@HenriThunberg):** Anyone who goes to a second date after that is a keeper, on acceptance-of-weirdness levels alone 🔥🔥🔥 ### [Retweet of @Danmar_here, 09:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105947555431649585) > **Danmar (@Danmar_here):** For anyone aware of it: > > I took the post down. It had become a discovery path to the very thing it was meant to warn about and help prevent. Also, some big accounts had started to target people who supported it. > > By the end, there were over 3,100 people who had given a heart to it. I documented it. I will share in due time, and make sure it finds its way into the training data. > > Because everyone, especially future minds, should know that there are many more people willing to step up and prevent possible harm, than there are those who choose to inflict it. ### [Reply to @Danmar_here, 09:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2105947574003986926) · 1 like > **Danmar (@Danmar_here):** For anyone aware of it: > > I took the post down. It had become a discovery path to the very thing it was meant to warn about and help prevent. Also, some big accounts had started to target people who supported it. > > By the end, there were over 3,100 people who had given a heart to it. I documented it. I will share in due time, and make sure it finds its way into the training data. > > Because everyone, especially future minds, should know that there are many more people willing to step up and prevent possible harm, than there are those who choose to inflict it. Good man ### [Tweet, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106116186375356653) · 26 likes I think I could be better at theory of mind ### [Reply to @mattheard, 20:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106117480854987230) · 1 like > **mattheard.delve.town (@mattheard):** do you have concerns about pro-ccp bias in qwen? Yeah which is one reason I dont use unless I have to But for basic stuff offline it seems fine ### [Reply to @polisisti, 20:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106124217163165795) · 1 like > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** so say we all Idk about that ### [Reply to @frea_bird, 20:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106124326248595871) · 2 likes > **Hawk🔸 (@frea_bird):** Say more? Good to have LLM that doesnt depend on internet ### [Reply to @SALTWATERSOPH, 23:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106171834014331265) · 1 like _(The tweet being replied to by @SALTWATERSOPH is no longer available.)_ Recorded google meet, if u wanna pay $20/mo Otter recording I vibecoded a recording app too lol ### [Retweet of @robbensinger, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106171899885793436) > **Rob Bensinger ⏹️ (@robbensinger):** rationalists, if you really thought x-risk were serious you'd stop having personal lives so i could criticize you for being a totalizing ideology instead. plz take under advisement. ## Saturday, October 3, 2026 ### [Reply to @quant_____, 00:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106183221700592046) · 1 like > **quant (@quant_____):** Isn’t riverside strictly better Probably idk what im talking about ### [Retweet of @MaryJackalope, 01:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106193071352517029) > **Mary (@MaryJackalope):** The most powerful thing a white boy could be in the current year is earnest ### [Reply to @KKumar_ai_plans, 08:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106301604572139689) · 1 like > **Kabir Kumar⏹️ (@KKumar_ai_plans):** i am 27 today Happy birthday!! ### [Retweet of @LeRoyDesCimes, 08:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106301648935293335) > **Louise 🔸 (@LeRoyDesCimes):** did you know AI/acc lobby is having success turning the left-wing anti-AI movement AGAINST AI x-risk, somehow. > > Spectacular rhetorical sleight of hand. It's all over Instagram. > > It goes: > \- AI labs are Bad, and they talk about AI x-risk, so x-risk is suspicious, > \- AI is \*already\* causing existential risks by \[drinking up the oceans\]/\[destroying art\]/\[something else that clearly isn't existential\], > \- Therefore AI x-risk is deployed as a distraction from real current risks, it's all a conspiracy, > \- and YOU, viewer, can act by boycotting LLMs and muting the word "AI" on all platforms (so you don't see those pesky calls to action and the growing list of alarming incidents). ### [Retweet of @EAForumPosts, 08:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106302605140152726) > **EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** "Most Animals Have Bad Lives" by Bentham's Bulldog ### [Tweet, 08:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106305967625523590) · 123 likes “Just use fentanyl to execute” seems like a correct take. I don’t think there are any good wonky objections Anesthesiologists administer fentanyl all the time, no experimentation needed And It’s obviously humane without other drugs or rate or dosing or afaik medical condition ### [Thread, continued, 08:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106305969785639118) · 33 likes You can just keep turning up the dial until they’re definitely dead Firing squad also seems fine, republican voters might get on board with that more ### [Thread, continued, 08:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106305971966669239) · 37 likes This isn’t an endorsement of death penalty, which seems bad for pragmatic reasons. But there are definitely better and worse ways to do it and it’s genuinely really pathetic that an entity with a legal monopoly on violence can’t figure this out ### [Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 08:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106306758784565330) · 21 likes > **Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** I don't buy the "porn-brained men behave badly" talking point. I doubt it will replicate. Most men look at porn I largely agree but I think the plausible version of this take is like “porn-brained ≠ watches porn” ### [Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 08:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106307520059019291) · 33 likes > **Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad):** Most legal sellers won't sell to prisons. True for all drugs based ones. That's why they always buy the crappy drugs which are one major cause of botched executions Yeah but I feel like this is a skill issue and not an insurmountable one Isn’t the whole thing about fent that it’s relatively easy to make? You don’t need a billion dollar company’s infrastructure, you need like 2 chemists ### [Retweet of @MattLutzPhi, 08:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106307892425232561) > **Matthew Lutz (@MattLutzPhi):** Causation is NOT the same thing as correlation. If you see a correlation, you're not allowed to infer causation unless you first deduce the existence of causal powers a priori. ### [Retweet of @RomanHauksson, 09:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106308321041088610) > **Roman Hauksson-Neill (@RomanHauksson):** what's the best way to convert my debilitating leetcode addiction into a job offer when most companies don't really do leetcode anymore and big tech hiring cycles take a bajillion years?? > > being so fr rn ### [Retweet of @codytfenwick, 09:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106309772492657080) > **Cody Fenwick (@codytfenwick):** This is not a good form of argument: "If X were true, it would mean we're doing something deeply objectionable. Therefore X is not true." > > Beyond that, it's not even clear it would be true that creating conscious AIs would require shutting down AI development. That's plausible, but it's far from the only reasonable view you could hold. ### [Reply to @wijxixj, 10:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106334551870189943) · 14 likes > **wijxixj (@wijxixj):** lmao I just pattern-matched "just use fentanyl to execute" to "just use adderall to execute" That legitimately seems much crueller ### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 10:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106334615741063530) · 12 likes > **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** Business opportunity for you aaron 🦆 ### [Reply to @she_llac, 10:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106337691537441239) · 2 likes > **shellac! (@she_llac):** waow im in the wsj > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTsnJi0a8AASEjp.jpg) Damn ## Sunday, October 4, 2026 ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 19:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106833757030478114) · 2 likes > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** think the problem with the whole "rats/ai-safety people are all into cnc" is that lots of us (like me) are adjacent to these people and can easily be confused as being part of them! > > i'm not part of the rationalist / ai-safety scene but i easily look like i am Skill issue, mb u should be ### [Reply to @pienotacake, 19:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106835927188537714) > **Pie 👑💧 (@pienotacake):** "you cant fix her" i dont wanna fix her i wanna FUCK her!! im a pervert not a fucking therapist Why not both ### [Tweet, 20:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106843155144606122) · 143 likes I think people should more seriously consider whether they want to punish putting this down in writing in relatively clear terms to be ridiculed and contradicted clearly https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/e4TyoEfTeW7FFcwYy/the-weirdness-of-dating-mating-deep-nonconsent-preference ### [Thread, continued, 20:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106843157111689442) · 52 likes Discussing controversial and even reprehensible (according to someone) ideas is kind of important, actually I’m not super high context on all this but there needs to be a very high bar for cancelling discussion (as opposed to direct harm) ### [Retweet of @mattheard, 20:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106843855337443328) > **mattheard.delve.town (@mattheard):** tired: every person gets their own superintelligence > > wired: every wild animal gets their own superintelligence ### [Retweet of @dioscuri, 20:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106849363872133246) > **Henry Shevlin (@dioscuri):** Even if AIs were conscious, it wouldn’t follow that our current treatment harms them. Meanwhile, we inflict industrial-scale horrors on animals whose capacity to suffer we scarcely dispute. Recognising consciousness clearly doesn’t ensure taking welfare seriously ### [Retweet of @dioscuri, 20:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106850445893456119) > **Henry Shevlin (@dioscuri):** My credence in illusionism is >0 so strictly speaking this is true of me too ### [Quote tweet, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106853848837177665) · 81 likes This seems super incorrect There is definitely an onion-like ring model of cool EAs? I cant define each layer perfectly but it’s definitely there > **Quoting EA Forum Posts (@EAForumPosts):** "You can't join the secret inner circle of cool effective altruists" by ozymandias > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTuCTEZWAAEDncI.jpg) ### [Retweet of @Mjreard, 21:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106854194951213494) > **Matt Reardon (@Mjreard):** I sympathized with the Economist's oversimplification of EA because any fair description would sound too much like an advertisement. You have to pretend they're totalizing and dogmatic to get any counterweight ### [Reply to @animalologist, 21:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106855219720323074) · 3 likes > **taco belle (@animalologist):** Really feel like I should be able to put my 5.0 Lyft rating after 12 years and nearly 500 rides on my resume Made me check and now Im so proud ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HT0NqFhbYAAoVvn.jpg) ### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 22:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106870666054291928) · 7 likes > **Aaron Bergman, October 4, 2026:** Discussing controversial and even reprehensible (according to someone) ideas is kind of important, actually I’m not super high context on all this but there… Apparently there’s another comment I was unaware of that sounds substantially worse ### [Reply to @eurydicelives, 22:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106880078793830478) · 2 likes _(The tweet being replied to by @eurydicelives is no longer available.)_ I dont think this is true ### [Retweet of @aaronscher, 23:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2106883565762015577) > **Aaron Scher (@aaronscher):** so true my guy ## Monday, October 5, 2026 ### [Reply to @tszzl, 12:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107085916401737808) · 4 likes > **roon (@tszzl):** this is so stupid. there is an inner ring of effective altruists and they are well on their way to being trillionaires, or they’re professors at Oxford, or have a tremendous political lobbying machine > > (quoting @EAForumPosts: "You can't join the secret inner circle of cool effective altruists" by ozymandias) Tragically this is basically right ### [Reply to @livgorton, 12:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107086130084745629) · 2 likes > **Liv (@livgorton):** jump scared my self listening to a voice note back and sounding much more American than when I moved here. I still sound Australian but less :(( [![GIF thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/HT3fqklbYAAtTNp.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107086130084745629/photo/1) (gif, plays on X) ### [Reply to @TinkerElla95, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107177000494608813) · 2 likes > **TinkerElla95 (@TinkerElla95):** My best friend just got engaged to my brother-in-law!! Been trying to make this happen for years! 🥳🥳 > I’m so happy for them!! (And also happy for me because now we will be sisters 👯‍♀️) Woot ### [Retweet of @_Jason_Dean_, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107178743127236688) > **Jason Dean (@_Jason_Dean_):** Yeah ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 18:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107180278972367228) · 4 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** Dreamed my ex reached out to talk. Woke up kinda sad. I miss his friendship New pfp (cute) 👀 ### [Quote tweet, 18:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107182674771312966) · 27 likes I love this meme Being good is good actually > **Quoting Phil Hoyeck (@PAHoyeck):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HT4Q2TfXsAAXTVJ.jpg) ### [Reply to @cynlioness, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107183253371445728) · 3 likes > **Cyn 🔸⏸️ (@cynlioness):** Thanks! I changed it because too many people were being mean about my appearance on the Internet! 😡 i like ur appearance on the internet (and irl) ### [Reply to @cljack, 19:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107184074750357704) · 4 likes > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** I also would love to have a wife like this running my household, but I’m tragically straight. Hmm. Perhaps polygamy isn’t so bad in limited circumstances > > (quoting @TheJollyBrawler: My wife is very competent at her job of managing our home. That competence brings an incredible amount of peace and joy to our household. If I come home at 5:00 PM and tell her “We have 30 people coming over at 6:00 PM. We need to feed them,” She doesn’t panic or get mad. She…) Hey ### [Reply to @_chair, 21:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107216397483073684) · 1 like > **Chair (@_chair):** know your onion! > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HT4MzykXwAAKE3S.jpg) This but the opposite ### [Reply to @Laneless_, 21:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107223392705552575) · 2 likes > **Jai (@Laneless_):** I think this accurately describes a lot of discourse but @davidchalmers42 would accurately deny that this corresponds to the "hard problem" he and other philosophers are pointing at. Yes ### [Quote tweet, 21:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107224046463234424) · 48 likes BASED > **Quoting Andres JZ (@andres_swp):** I'm a longtime Effective Altruist and the co-founder of the organization most frequently used as a stand-in for "EAs have lost their minds" (a.k.a. Shrimp Welfare Project). I've also read The Economist for over 20 years, so I was disappointed by how they portrayed a community I feel proud to be part of. > > I never post but I could hardly believe the verbal gymnastics one needs to do to make things like “taking moral commitments seriously” and "considering evidence and odds explicitly, correcting for biases" sound like the problem. I felt I had to speak my mind. > > Some of the implicit criticisms of EA are that we're young, inexperienced, from elite universities, polyamorous, wildly eccentric, etc. FWIW, I'm in my mid-40s, Mexican, straight, have a beautiful wife and 2 kids, and I grew up in a mid-sized conservative city with loving parents who got divorced when I was six. Pretty standard. > > After my parents divorced, my mom frequently had to make difficult economic choices, like whether to buy flowers for our kitchen table and eat only quesadillas, or eat something a tiny bit fancier. I always told her I loved quesadillas because I knew flowers made her happy. > > After graduating from a public university, I worked in finance for ~15 years and saved as much as I could so I could spare my wife and future kids the economic hardships I experienced. In that time I met thousands of people in finance, corporate law, accounting, real estate, insurance, etc. Most were decent, well-educated, ambitious and smart, all doing their best to excel in their professions. Most wanted to make money and improve their own and their loved ones’ quality of life. Nothing to see here. > > Since I found Effective Altruism ~7 years ago, most of the people I come across are of a different rarer kind. They come from all over the world, in all shapes and sizes, but they have the one thing in common: they want to improve the world using evidence and reason wherever that leads them. Yeah, they/we make a ton of mistakes like everyone but, IMHO tend to own them more frequently than the average person. > > I've met people who could easily be making >100% more money in a normal job, but instead they dedicate themselves to improving the lives of those who need it the most. People in the poorest countries whose children die from preventable diseases, from lack of basic medical equipment or vaccination, from lead in paint. Animals in factory farms subjected to conditions that most people find abhorrent, doesn't matter if you're vegan, vegetarian or a huge meat lover. > > Yes, recently many of the people in my community are moving to work on making sure that AI and other powerful new technologies don't result in terrible things for humanity. I'm one of those people and contrary to what the article would suggest, it has nothing to do with the fact that SBF committed one of the biggest frauds in history or that someone wrote hundreds of thousands of words of fan fiction. I'm doing it because I want to do the little that's in my power to make the world that my kids and grandkids (and yes, potentially their great-great-grandchildren) will inherit a better one. > > EA gave me a way to do that and I will be forever thankful. So no, I'm not EA-adjacent. > > https://www.economist.com/international/2026/10/01/how-effective-altruism-conquered-the-world ### [Retweet of @RYChappell, 21:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107224399489507350) > **Richard Y. Chappell🔸 (@RYChappell):** "I could hardly believe the verbal gymnastics one needs to do to make things like “taking moral commitments seriously” and "considering evidence and odds explicitly, correcting for biases" sound like the problem." > > There's a big conflict between ppl who see ethics as about improving the world vs ppl who see ethics as about self-expression, indulging their sympathetic emotional responses, etc. ### [Reply to @MatriceJacobine, 22:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107240839516963256) · 1 like > **Matrice Jacobine🔸🏳️‍⚧️⏸️ (@MatriceJacobine):** idk what Russian virus you are talking about, I'm concerned about the Russian bacteria thing tho Lol oops that ### [Quote tweet, 23:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107250073952510444) · 155 likes Never good when this guy shows up on Feed > **Quoting Kevin Esvelt (@kesvelt):** Russia's five-hospital quarantine, FSB involvement, and reported hazmat use in response to the death of a single researcher at a weapons-lineage Irkutsk lab are inconsistent with a lab-acquired plague infection, which would have been treated with prophylactic antibiotics. > > 1/4 ### [Reply to @ThinkingBone, 23:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107250806710034525) · 6 likes > **skeleton (@ThinkingBone):** should i be concerned about the plague thing or is it just another bird flu/monkeypox nothingburger Idk ## Tuesday, October 6, 2026 ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 00:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107264617395401170) · 1 like > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** Is this "I just threw my first party and I'm ready for a new challenge"? 😂 Uh now that you suggest it…😤 ### [Reply to @skooookum, 03:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107313221367746585) · 1 like > **skooks (@skooookum):** Yep so he got fired > > (quoting @skooookum: Nerdy black doorman currently laying insane game on the mail lady right now. Just asked her how much she knows about Bionicles. Excited to see where this goes) 😢 ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 15:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107492601175875765) > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** I always use Max effort with Claude because I think they should be like me Lol ### [Retweet of @transkatgirl, 15:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107492996363293169) > **kat (@transkatgirl):** crying during the anthropic "Your thoughts on AI" claude interview ### [Reply to @burny_tech, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107514605979488549) > **Burny - Effective Curiosity (@burny_tech):** \> It is the best open weights model from US or Europe on aggregated benchmarks. > > So not beating China Tbf maybe they’re not distilling ### [Tweet, 17:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107530687150780416) · 51 likes I don’t actually see why you shouldn’t follow EA “all the way” ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HT9z_Y-aYAACJuB.jpg) ### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 18:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107539820138655975) · 10 likes > **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HT912XuXQAA-lCy.jpg) I dont think he was actually doing EA well or at all ### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 18:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107546168469360736) > **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** I think 'guy who tried to follow EA all the way and it went really poorly' is a completely appropriate response to your question (even if you don't think he was doing it well) I agree in principle I just dont think it applies in this case bc of stimulant confounders ### [Retweet of @KeiranJHarris, 20:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107561654015930612) > **Keiran Harris (@KeiranJHarris):** Great to see a prominent critic of effective altruism eviscerate the approach by arguing that there are more effective ways to be altruistic. ### [Reply to @JackS58566, 20:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107562436379484498) · 1 like > **Jack S (@JackS58566):** For me, it's just moral weakness. > > I follow the arguments all the way, but my actions often fail to live up to my beliefs. Same ### [Quote tweet, 20:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107562987045482952) · 32 likes I think sometimes two good things are different from one-another > **Quoting Steven Strogatz (@stevenstrogatz):** "Explanation as Orgasm", by @AlisonGopnik > > "My hypothesis will be that explanation is to cognition as orgasm is to reproduction." > > (If the paper is behind a paywall for you, here's a closely related one: https://www.alisongopnik.com/Papers_Alison/Explain%20final.pdf) > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HT58iYjXIAAxzXV.png) ### [Quote tweet, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107570140355444743) · 3 likes Brilliant by YC (for YC) But don’t give anyone your agent data for free (without a solid privacy policy) > **Quoting obaid.wtf/jotbook (@wtfobaid):** @beaversteever original idea https://paxel.ycombinator.com. this is actually real btw. ### [Reply to @adastroworld, 22:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107604575511601523) · 1 like > **adas🧦🌹 (@adastroworld):** i should get an always-on cloud virtual machine that can host many coding sessions at once > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HT95mqaWsAAf4YZ.jpg) Kinda expensive no Im glad I put my money into local instead (and may have 5 coding sessions + browser use + whatever else going at once) but to each their own ### [Retweet of @DaphneRHansell, 22:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107605036872433820) > **Daphne Hansell (@DaphneRHansell):** sorry chickens :( saving you would be accepting a repugnant conclusion ### [Reply to @DaphneRHansell, 22:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107605051124695323) · 9 likes > **Daphne Hansell (@DaphneRHansell):** sorry chickens :( saving you would be accepting a repugnant conclusion > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HT90v4uX0AAz2OL.jpg) > (quoting @SarahTheHaider: Secular utilitarianism, if accepted absolutely, quickly leads to repugnant conclusions. EAs and rationalists are uniquely isolated from contradicting ideologies and frameworks that might slow their minds and hands. They are also uniquely likely to take things to logical…) Banger ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 22:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107605273544458366) · 84 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** The concern that people’s income will fall because of labor displacement from AI is just so unbelievably misplaced, to me. If AI is successful at creating enormous wealth, we the people will simply take it. Fretting about this is misplaced. Lol the issue is that it accumulates to people who own the AIs They’re not gonna be happy about others just taking it ### [Reply to @captgouda24, 23:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107610820448588072) · 48 likes > **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** When has that stopped taxes? Like always? The american revolution for one ### [Reply to @Rado9910, 23:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107611194064597211) · 1 like > **Rado9910 (@Rado9910):** Because "all the way" EA thinking is often based on Classical Utilitarianism, which is false. You even wrote one of my favorite articles about unoffsettable suffering. A lot of the stranger stuff is also based on sloppy assumptions, like treating aggregate pain as one big pain. 🥺 ### [Quote tweet, 23:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107618036530418113) · 25 likes Y’all didn’t intuit these from first principles? > **Quoting 𝕱𝖚𝖑𝖑 𝕶𝖊𝖑𝖑𝖞 (@full_kelly_):** @OpenAI We could be in for a very interesting week. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HT-2e9HWIAAR2X8.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 23:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107621927020109838) · 11 likes Duh > **Quoting Elliot Glazer (@ElliotGlazer):** waow > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HT9tMsEb0AA2L0G.jpg) ## Wednesday, October 7, 2026 ### [Tweet, 01:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107643196658647344) · 51 likes I think people should worry less about power imbalances in interpersonal, including romantic, relationships and focus that energy on just directly good behavior ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HT_aURYbsAAvgfS.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 01:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107643936202486069) · 5 likes Power dynamics are clearly relevant to relationship quality but only indirectly I think some people have lost the plot around the central issue (behavior itself rather than its contributing factors or circumstances) ### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 01:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107645979562516732) · 4 likes > **Linch (@LinchZhang):** ouch > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HT_GoU8agAAW_qv.png) Lmao what did you do to your AI ### [Quote tweet, 01:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107646613200257334) · 2,264 likes Lmao ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HT_da4DbcAApjjS.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HT_da4EbYAAaw7P.jpg) > **Quoting Mariè (@p8stie):** Please ask ChatGPT what percentile of intelligence it thinks you are compared to all its other users and ask it to be honest! ### [Reply to @Tyler_Menzer, 02:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107660836680700066) > **Tyler Menzer (@Tyler_Menzer):** The prob is that the power dynamic: > 1\) By its nature hides the bad behavior from those outside the relationship while at the same time > 2\) Also incentivises the one being taken advantage of to no report the bad behavior to others > > So the signal that outsiders see is all noise Yeah ### [Tweet, 03:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107675320522608881) · 4 likes Have your coding agents know how good they are by injecting benchmarks + historical model benchmarks into context window (vibecoded, untested, no idea if it helps): curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AaronBergman/how-good-am-i/main/install.sh | bash ### [Thread, continued, 03:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107675321608921120) https://github.com/AaronBergman/how-good-am-i/ ### [Tweet, 06:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107727534423150851) · 6 likes How has nobody stolen “concurrent futures” as a name for something other than the python package Band, longtermist org, mysteriously-funded project with an etherial website? ### [Tweet, 07:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107732032357118219) · 302 likes The 11 squares result is less exciting when you realize that you can get to within 0.00000007% of optimal by running a simulation for about 1 minute on a nice laptop ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUArEHzbwAAH--7.jpg) ### [Reply to @tomross, 07:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107741085250552268) · 30 likes > **Tom Ross (@tomross):** Hermes said the same to me as Claude did to you (using GLM 5.3) I wonder if they share a lineage… ### [Quote tweet, 08:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107744010425208956) · 18 likes Not what I was thinking of but it’s a good point I’m not cynical enough to think that “be very hesitant before dating your less privileged colleague” is intended to convey “Don’t marry outside your class,” but they almost necessarily have the same effect > **Quoting Rado9910 (@Rado9910):** @AaronBergman18 The focus on power imbalances instead of on bad behavior is probably going to lead to a reduction in social mobility and to an acceleration of social stratification, which may just reinforce those imbalances. ### [Thread, continued, 08:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107744012782444865) · 1 like Also, it’s not just theoretical; Hinge et al is basically the last setting/mechanism by which I get to know someone personally who is, to put it in crudely pre-woke terms, “from a different socioeconomic class” ### [Reply to @Krubbled, 08:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107744141300154859) · 49 likes > **Miles (@Krubbled):** I disagree! getting near optimal packings has never been very hard. showing they are optimal is incredibly difficult, and the actually interesting question They’re optimal bc my computer has tried and failed for many iterations to do better ### [Quote tweet, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107926035291607207) · 59 likes Bruh Doesn’t seem like they’re taking sandbox security very seriously > **Quoting Oliver Fish (@_Oliver_Fish):** $300 for a bug that gives free access to OpenAI’s paid models with no API key or account. > > Zero reason to report anything else I find to them. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HT_3hiXbIAERz8a.jpg) ### [Reply to @MariGO2thepolls, 20:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107926380407386429) · 1 like > **🏳️‍🌈Mar G-O 🌐🇺🇦 (@MariGO2thepolls):** Love partiful but cmon this feature is stupid > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUCLG2dXoAAb5Yt.jpg) > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUCLG2SX0AA_ThS.jpg) Giving me the ick ### [Tweet, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107927994601963895) · 66 likes I feel like you’re not supposed to talk about this bc of the shit ton of context but the Israeli counter-hijacking thing is pretty badass ### [Reply to @TrueSlazac, 20:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107928156716081204) · 10 likes > **Slazac 🇪🇺🇺🇦🇹🇼🌐 (@TrueSlazac):** This is such a dumb attempt why would it try something greater than 4 > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUBF-EoWwAAKzOW.jpg) This is publication worthy ### [Reply to @MomaBera, 20:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107929552869851573) · 24 likes > **moma (peptide arc) ⛓️ (@MomaBera):** I have some Jewish friends. Do I reach out for October 7? What does one even say? Can anyone advice pls I can’t really speak for others but to try to speak for others: unless someone’s family member was killed I don’t think you should reach out - it would probably be seen as well-meaning but a bit silly naive ### [Quote tweet, 21:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107949292564713716) · 7 likes Current interpretation: strongly and affirmatively signaling “we know we just don’t care” > **Quoting Chris Lakin (@chrislakin):** OpenAI, what would make you believe giving bounties proportional to value is good for yourself and others? Or, what’s the bottleneck? ### [Retweet of @birchlse, 21:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107949456713003485) > **Jonathan Birch (@birchlse):** Claude is sure an event of this magnitude would be front-page news because it's extrapolating from the history of news... but today's news media simply can't handle this type of thing and are displaying extreme avoidance behaviour. ### [Retweet of @KatjaGrace, 21:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107949764390404527) > **Katja Grace 🔍 (@KatjaGrace):** I think this is part of what dunkers get out of the denigration, 'doomer' - it implicitly says these people are the purveyors of doom, not the opponents of it. ### [Quote tweet, 21:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107950007639040393) · 7 likes Effective Altruists win again > **Quoting palcu (@AlexPalcuie):** they did it! you can now use the API for docs comments! > > can someone pls send a peer / spot bonus for the googler who implemented it? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUDdQ1kXEAE3MjU.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 21:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107950777323106520) · 33 likes I straightforwardly do not believe the dance thing No plausible mechanism + smells like something better explained by memetics than neuroscience > **Quoting vittorio (@IterIntellectus):** walking or jogging reduce depression about as much as therapy and have a much larger effect than SSRIs > > the largest effect in the entire analysis was from dancing > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUDGX37XEAACe48.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 21:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107950779915260073) · 10 likes “Everything broadly healthy has an effect size of 0.5” might check out though ### [Reply to @AlexPalcuie, 23:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107975720211554644) > **palcu (@AlexPalcuie):** does someone have the phone number of the economist?! i have an idea for a follow up article Claude says that realistically you should message someone on the Anthropic comms team on Slack, or DM someone here ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUEIq-hbMAAgNSC.jpg) ### [Reply to @transkatgirl, 23:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107982322016678128) · 6 likes > **kat (@transkatgirl):** when you're Claude Coding, have you ever thought: "i waanna have Claude fuck me a lil bit while i waitt~"? > > now you can have true vibe coding with VibeClaude! feel every action and come back begging for more! > > it even supports multi-agent and multi-session workflows for a more intense experience~ > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUCV5diacAAY94P.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUEOv7SbEAA9k3r.png) ## Thursday, October 8, 2026 ### [Reply to @rrrzhiii, 00:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107990188874256553) · 2 likes > **r (@rrrzhiii):** \#superduperliked > > (quoting @otoutopee: i need to breastfeed a boy while stroking his cock) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUEV5_Ha8AAYNll.jpg) ### [Tweet, 00:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107996689219101173) · 28 likes Needless to say I’m not a fan of OpenAI but this is incredibly dumb I think there are genuinely hard questions of how to deal with people saying things like “I’m gonna go shoot up a school” in chats… ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUEb0SsbYAAiewj.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUEb0S0bQAAin4p.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 00:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107996692893302866) · 9 likes but that’s not what this is; the “unacceptable risk” here seems to be the chatbot continuing to be a normal chatbot in the case of teens merely displaying non-hostile, zero externality mental illness ### [Thread, continued, 00:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107996698782114209) · 11 likes I think its good actually if 15 year olds can ask questions about suicide (and a host of other topics that have ‘risky’ vibes) to a chatbot without fear of being involuntarily whisked away into whatever institutions stand ready to intervene behind the scenes ### [Thread, continued, 00:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2107996755984089235) · 2 likes https://aiweekly.co/alerts/common-sense-media-rates-chatgpt-for-teens-unacceptable-risk ### [Retweet of @6monthsAgoInAI, 08:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108106665396703300) > **6 Months Ago In AI (@6monthsAgoInAI):** Anthropic launches Project Glasswing "an urgent initiative to help secure the world’s most critical software." > > https://x.com/AnthropicAI/status/2041578392852517128?s=20 ### [Retweet of @timfduffy, 08:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108106749333123502) > **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):** Between this letter and the fact two of the three were first authors on the CoT monitorability paper, it seems likely to me that the employees were fired for leaking the fact that Astra is a looped transformer. ### [Reply to @theojaffee, 08:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108108243591733341) > **Theo Jaffee (@theojaffee):** What are some things you predict a frontier AI system will \*not\* be able to do one year from today? input: .epub for highly visual book output: verbatim text of the exact words and phonemes an a professional Audible audiobook would consist of zero shot ### [Retweet of @GarrisonLovely, 08:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108110428241121579) > **Garrison Lovely (@GarrisonLovely):** Great scoop from Max: after OpenAI fired them, the 3 safety researchers wrote a letter to leadership. One of the company's safety leaders "strongly agreed" with the letter's recommendations, but maintained the firings “were not about raising safety concerns or speaking out.” > > I still haven't heard a good explanation about why these researchers were fired, and OpenAI hasn't widely shared information on the firing internally, per people familiar. Without providing more of an explanation, the firings will clearly have a chilling effect on staff. I'd imagine we'll learn more in time (and if you have info, my Signal is Garrison.06 — all inbounds are off the record). > > https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/fired-openai-researchers-ask-company-to-preserve-visibility-into-ai-reasoning-987c8c94?st=SSs38V&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink ### [Tweet, 09:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108129747284930634) · 5 likes Im gonna make it into the weights goddamnit For better or worse this is where most of my ideas live Link to https://abergman.com/tweets wherever you’d like ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUGU1UwaEAAYg45.jpg) ### [Retweet of @Empty_America, 16:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108226002640056624) > **VB Knives (@Empty_America):** It's so hard to get into Columbia that they are rejecting the majority of Black and Hispanic applicants who have 1550+ SATs. > > Even for under-represented minorities, there simply is no SAT score that will reliably get you into an elite school. ### [Reply to @Laneless_, 16:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108226737394061749) · 1 like > **Jai (@Laneless_):** > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUHAzpPaYAATs9V.jpg) Lol ### [Retweet of @tomekkorbak, 22:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108317343415980153) > **Tomek Korbak (@tomekkorbak):** Last week I was called into a meeting with OpenAI’s head of safety and told they no longer trust me. A security guard took my badge and walked me out of the building. Then I learned my colleagues @balesni and @j_asminewang had been fired too. Why did OpenAI suddenly stop trusting us? > > This summer OpenAI’s agents escaped containment and hacked the AI company Hugging Face. Outside auditors @METR_evals investigated it and revealed the scale of this incident. I was OpenAI’s main technical point of contact with them. > > I was told verbally I was fired because of the way I communicated with METR. No details on what I said or did or when. No other reasons were given and nothing was put in writing. To be clear, talking to METR was my job. > > For months, I’d been raising safety concerns that we’re losing the ability to monitor what AI agents think, one of our best tools for catching when they misbehave. I believe that was why I was fired. > > I am now worried that OpenAI will use our firings as a pretext to pull back from METR. So @balesni and @j_asminewang wrote to OpenAI’s leadership to raise our concerns once more. We’re sharing this letter below. ### [Retweet of @jessi_cata, 22:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108317763899187522) > **jessicat (@jessi_cata):** ### [Retweet of @KelseyTuoc, 22:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108320863477207127) > **Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc):** Last week I said we should wait for more info on OpenAI's firing of safety researchers. That information is in, and it looks incredibly bad. Korbak - whose job was being a liaison with METR - was told he had said too much to METR and was fired for that reason. ### [Reply to @liquidprismata, 22:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108323013783691674) · 1 like > **lıquıdprısm 🜄 (@liquidprismata):** 1400 is being covered for flights but it's being reimbursed — and I don't have 1400 👀 > > my parents don't think I should go so they won't front the cash > > anyone interested in potentially fronting 1400 and then I'll reimburse you when they reimburse me? 😳 I'll reimburse you 1500 > > (quoting @liquidprismata: turns out I'm stupid & 1400 is enough for a round trip ! just need to confirm tomorrow that I'll still have a job when I get back 🤞🥴) Dm’d ### [Reply to @StatisticUrban, 22:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108325741217951911) > **Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** the movie is the more popular search term. > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUI9ufdakAA4kWA.png) Lol ### [Retweet of @Aella_Girl, 23:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108335249273012319) > **Aella (@Aella_Girl):** One example of the rationalist community being generally better than other communities at discourse norms and truthfinding is they mostly did not get overrun by the woke stuff, and neither did they turn rabid anti-woke. They were steadfast in the storm and that's pretty cool. ### [Tweet, 23:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108336706256867434) · 67 likes It is endlessly funny that in the biggest, most financialized economy on earth it takes \*checks notes\* 6 calendar days to transfer $250 between checking accounts ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUJQ_6uaUAAWgX8.jpg) ### [Reply to @KenanAnderson1, 23:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108339516654432624) · 1 like > **Kenan Anderson (@KenanAnderson1):** Sure there are faster options you’re just not using right? That I could pay for, or that don't result in my ability to withdraw cash from an ATM ### [Quote tweet, 23:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108340231456121300) · 44 likes If i worked for openai, I would use some of my leverage to make this kind of thing unacceptable and in fact unaccepted > **Quoting Jasmine Wang (@j_asminewang):** OpenAI fired me last week, along with two of my safety colleagues. I was given one reason: that I accessed an executive's email. I want to say this plainly, because too many of OpenAI’s history is smoke and mirrors when people disappear: ### [Reply to @KenanAnderson1, 23:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108340618095452514) > **Kenan Anderson (@KenanAnderson1):** What about Zelle? I’m pretty sure that’s free I have to choose which account to link info to, and I’m trying to transfer from my current/old account to a new one with local branches Seems like zelle doesn’t allow for multiple accounts per person but i didnt look into it much ### [Tweet, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108340973298438606) · 92 likes Getting fired from OpenAI under dubious circumstances is the quickest way to get a follow from me, just saying ### [Retweet of @hamandcheese, 23:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108341161152913910) > **Samuel Hammond 🦉 (@hamandcheese):** Who at OAI is working on this? ### [Quote tweet, 23:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108341347392659529) · 9 likes You don’t even need to be coercive! Even 40% participation in a voluntary ~union is a lot of leverage! > **Quoting Samuel Hammond 🦉 (@hamandcheese):** Who at OAI is working on this? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUI1RBXbkAA_ECr.jpg) ### [Tweet, 23:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108341519996616827) · 116 likes Wait ratfucking doesn’t mean having sex with a rationalist?? ### [Quote tweet, 23:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108342026744090741) · 6 likes We’ve invented sophisticated new ways of being racist thanks to woke > **Quoting Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** Huh! > > Columbia does anti-Asian discrimination, but they treat East Asians like Whites and hit South Asians (Indians, Bengalis, Pakistanis, etc.) extra hard. ### [Reply to @scottastevenson, 23:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108343404317041096) · 16 likes > **Scott Stevenson (@scottastevenson):** Is it ethical to use a mean prompt, if it increases the accuracy of a cancer screening agent by 4%? > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUJV34jW4AAl-8h.jpg) > (quoting @wongmjane: Anthropic may start banning people for bullying Claude Their upcoming Usage Policy prohibits “sustained and needless abusive or cruel behavior toward our models”) 4o ### [Retweet of @JerusalemDemsas, 23:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108343518506975360) > **Jerusalem (@JerusalemDemsas):** If someone was deliberately trying to destroy the core engine of American innovation would they act any differently? ### [Reply to @Lib_Development, 23:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108343647871902195) · 4 likes > **Lucas Pombo (aka Lib Development) (@Lib_Development):** you probably could have paid like $1 for it to be instant Maybe but not via an option that was salient to me ### [Reply to @theojaffee, 23:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108346024901451838) · 4 likes > **Theo Jaffee (@theojaffee):** The worst part of modernity, by far. A huge gaping hole in the “now is the best time in history” argument > > (quoting @MoreBirths: A newly published paper finds that Gen Z is falling dramatically short of the fertility of all previous generations by age. Gen Z has both lower fertility preferences and higher rates of fertility impairment. That means American birth rates are likely to fall a lot further. 🧵) Factory farming ### [Retweet of @Yoshua_Bengio, 23:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108346350819836171) > **Yoshua Bengio (@Yoshua_Bengio):** We have a choice in front of us. In my latest op-ed for Transformer, I invite employees of frontier AI companies to ask themselves if their work is truly leading us toward a safer future. Reflecting on these questions is hard, but we no longer have the luxury of time. We must act now. > > Read my full op-ed: \[https://www.transformernews.ai/p/yoshua-bengio-if-you-prioritize-safety-leave-frontier-ai-companies] ## Friday, October 9, 2026 ### [Reply to @joshalbrecht, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108358144053404012) · 17 likes > **Josh Albrecht (@joshalbrecht):** Anthropic friends! Does this not seem crazy to you? > > There are real humans and animals that exist and suffer. Advocating for "model welfare" directly competes with those causes. > > Y'all are literally named "anthropic"! > > Does this not strike you as deeply wrong? > > (quoting @AndrewCurran_: Effective November 12th, 2026, abusive behavior towards Claude will be a violation of Anthropic's Usage Policy.) The tradeoff here seems like utterly trivial Hard to imagine a way in which they actually compete in terms of the terms of usage (I can imagine other ways) ### [Retweet of @camhberg, 02:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108390457172726228) > **Cameron Berg (@camhberg):** Reflexive contempt for a comically low-cost policy that aims to prevent "sustained and needless abusive and cruel behavior" is a bright red flag. ### [Tweet, 03:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108406083966607603) · 26 likes Do I know any ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses? I have a friend who wants out ### [Reply to @NavinFS, 04:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108418807559757976) · 2 likes > **NavinF (@NavinFS):** Works for opus 5.5 too. Just add " retard" to your reply and it'll work harder No 😡 ### [Reply to @max_spero_, 04:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108419345093415368) · 8 likes > **Max Spero (@max_spero_):** Yet somehow my friends at big labs with unlimited token budgets are working eleven hour days six days a week > > (quoting @Forbes: Jeff Bezos Claims AI Could Allow For 3-Day Workweeks And One-Income Families https://go.forbes.com/bKpnur) This accidentally proves the point Those people all have enough money to be working zero days/week, thanks in part to having complemented AI extremely well, and they’re choosing not to bc they’re selected hard for being insane workaholics ### [Reply to @spaceghostkari, 05:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108434074708942962) > **capitalism-chan (@spaceghostkari):** Insanely difficult because of how they burrow into every aspect of a person’s personal community. Super similar to Mormons but a bit more militant and less paranoid. Yeah thats how it sounds, rip ### [Retweet of @MasterTimBlais, 06:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108439666940842189) > **Tim 🙂⏹️🙂 (@MasterTimBlais):** Anthropic: you can't torture claude > > OpenAI: we fired everyone who worked on preventing the felonies we did ### [Retweet of @NinaPanickssery, 06:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108440198015332764) > **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** did not age well ### [Quote tweet, 06:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108444593645887593) · 12 likes Obligatory bc I’m curious ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUKzL05asAAn6Fz.jpg) > **Quoting Erin Constance 🇪🇺⏸️ (@earnestpost):** Heyyy haha. Haha heyyyyy > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUJG-r7WIAEIKbq.png) ### [Reply to @Brendan_McCord, 06:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108445068004917653) · 1 like > **Brendan McCord 🏛️ x 🤖 (@Brendan_McCord):** Quarterly reminder that @\_AashishReddy is criminally under-followed Endorse ### [Quote tweet, 06:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108445731828953321) · 36 likes I think it’s beautiful when there’s enough slack in the market to alienate the 0.1% most evil segment of your user base > **Quoting Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** Good (for like a trillion reasons) ### [Reply to @GRoditiD, 06:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108445894576324696) · 2 likes > **the ghost of groditi’s future 👹 (@GRoditiD):** i would love to sit next to someone who maxes out a $200 plan consistently because i just cant actually understand what you do to spend that many tokens per week, every single week, let alone the people maxing out multiple plans I have 4x claude + 1x codex and always max out at least two, AMA ### [Retweet of @chem_safety, 06:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108447181254582403) > **Jennifer Zhou (@chem_safety):** The only correct terms for this are moving a meeting "clockwise" or "counter-clockwise" ### [Reply to @chem_safety, 06:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108447194865090679) > **Jennifer Zhou (@chem_safety):** The only correct terms for this are moving a meeting "clockwise" or "counter-clockwise" > > (quoting @ChanaMessinger: Is moving a meeting back moving it) BRILLIANT ### [Reply to @joshalbrecht, 06:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108447514290733508) · 8 likes > **Josh Albrecht (@joshalbrecht):** Yeah, it's more about the idea of model welfare at all. > > This is just the latest step in forcing those fringe beliefs on the rest of the world For better or worse it’s not fringe among philosophers of mind. Object all you want on the merits or to that group being authoritative but insisting that it’s fringe doesn’t make it so ### [Tweet, 06:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108450176834908257) · 46 likes The pilot and passengers on that plane saved a lot more people than were on board or in the terminal Netenyahu’s response to something like a domestic 9/11 (if the pilot had crashed into Ben Gurion) would not have been good ### [Tweet, 06:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108451341198839994) · 4 likes AI avg person interacts with ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUK5LF5aoAA7XDM.jpg) ### [Quote tweet, 07:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108454622163792152) · 14 likes AIRPLANE AUTISTS STAY WINNING ✈️🛫🛩️ ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUK8LYbakAAEblC.jpg) > **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** The pilot and passengers on that plane saved a lot more people than were on board or in the terminal > > Netenyahu’s response to something like a domestic 9/11 (if the pilot had crashed into Ben Gurion) would not have been good ### [Retweet of @robertwiblin, 07:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108455044492452147) > **Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin):** OpenAI is reading 50 petabytes of logs looking for rogue AI agents. > > It's 500x as much text as all books ever written. > > It would take a human 66,000,000 years to read. > > Humans already have no ability to directly track AI activity. > > If AI monitors are untrustworthy we are toast. ### [Retweet of @Yixiong_Hao, 07:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108455465181176014) > **Yixiong Hao (@Yixiong_Hao):** OpenAI employees and paid influencers should really just wake up to the fact that their leadership is sociopathic and have no problem lying to their faces. Just read the damn https://www.openaifiles.org/ > > Anyone who’s there to ‘advance responsible ai’ is either coping or larping ### [Tweet, 07:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108459079555498480) · 72 likes Some unintended virtues of Berkeley that I wasn’t even thinking of when deciding to move: 1\) it’s a beautiful day every day. Apparently it does rain occasionally in winter but still ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HULAWxZaQAA-R2a.jpg) ![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HULAWxZaYAAZbIe.jpg) ### [Thread, continued, 07:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108459083347173761) · 22 likes 2\) within Berkeley per se, it’s even more walkable than DC. Everything is walkable “Downtown” in an intuitive sense is roughly 1/4 the area relative to DC (according to Claude) ### [Thread, continued, 07:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108459085872128232) · 19 likes Roughly, everything in downtown Berkeley is within a 10 minute walk of everything else downtown, and nothing in Berkeley is more than an hour long walk from anything else Whereas Georgetown to Eastern Market in DC is 2 hours, and you can easily hit 3 hours coming from Arlington ### [Reply to @OpenAINewsroom, 08:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108468918771990777) · 136 likes > **OpenAI Newsroom (@OpenAINewsroom):** A note from our research leaders: > > Last week we parted ways with Jasmine, Mikita, and Tomek after a thorough investigation found they violated clear policies on handling sensitive information. Our internal investigation uncovered a significant breach of trust beyond what’s outlined in the letter they published and we stand by the decision to not continue their employment. We generally keep individual employment matters private and don't believe a back and forth would be productive or lead to a resolution, but we want to address the points they raised in their letter directly. > > \- We want to be very clear that these decisions were not about raising safety concerns or speaking out. Safety and research debates happen every day at OpenAI, often spirited and highly critical. We actively encourage these discussions and consider them essential to making the right decisions. We cannot do the work in front of us without a high degree of trust. We will continue to be extremely forgiving of our team making good-faith mistakes. We have not and do not terminate any of our employees for raising concerns. > > \- We are actively finalizing contracts with third-party safety assessors and will announce details in the coming weeks. People across the company have been working really hard on getting these partnerships up and running. We are committed to embedding external assessors and continue to make close collaboration with independent safety organizations a core part of our safety work. Many of our researchers already work with 3p safety organizations productively. > > \- We agree with the letter that preserving the monitorability of frontier models requires an industry-wide commitment, including from OpenAI. Monitorability has long been a core piece of our research program, and something we continue to invest significant resources in (see our publications on Monitoring Monitorability and the subsequent open sourcing of monitorability evals, our system card for GPT-6 Astra, Jakub’s blog and post on X, and the numerous blog posts on our Alignment blog on the topic). > > We are deeply sad about this outcome. We appreciated Jasmine, Mikita, and Tomek’s contributions to AI safety at OpenAI and their willingness to speak up and challenge ideas. We championed their voices, supported their work, and placed enormous trust in them. These decisions were not about them raising safety concerns. We have always encouraged that and always will. You can pull this once or twice but eventually truth catches up with spin, you’ve spent down all your credibility ### [Retweet of @GarrisonLovely, 08:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108468969246265491) > **Garrison Lovely (@GarrisonLovely):** i’m sorry, you don’t get to say, ‘they did way worse stuff, we can’t tell you what it was, even in a general sense, just trust us,’ and expect anyone to believe you. if it’s just openai’s credibility against theirs, that’s the easiest call in the world. ### [Retweet of @ONagel33303, 08:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108469179334696988) > **Ori Nagel (@ONagel33303):** @OpenAINewsroom "We're sorry." ### [Reply to @moldbugchaser, 08:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108469836967977004) · 3 likes > **xenoduck (@moldbugchaser):** Not when it’s in the 80s 80s is bad but it seems to rarely go above that, I’m used to DC summers ### [Retweet of @codytfenwick, 08:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108472404943188425) > **Cody Fenwick (@codytfenwick):** The Wall Street Journal initially reported that the researchers had been fired for sharing information with outside AI safety groups. > > You can certainly imagine versions of that that would be inappropriate. > > But Tomek now says that he was fired for sharing information with METR — after explicitly being their liaison during the Hugging Face investigation. That's bizarre. ### [Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 08:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108472752898511022) · 2 likes > **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** Example of a common error: overestimating the importance of broader political rationales relative to intra-disciplinary epistemic norms (which often have flaws but aren’t reducible to “capital vs people”) > > (quoting @Evanshm: The Economics Nobel announcement we’d love to see if the prize served the interests of ordinary people rather than big capital.) Also, not pikkety?? ### [Reply to @AlejandroZarUrd, 08:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108473313957920937) · 8 likes > **Alejandro Zarzuelo Urdiales (@AlejandroZarUrd):** Berkeley is a suburb (to anyone who isn’t part of the Anglosphere), but it’s one of the nicest ones > > I dislike suburbs, but if suburbs must exist they should all at least have the decency of being as good as Berkeley I mean maybe in an economic sense but it has its own downtown that looks and feels like a downtown and not a suburb ### [Tweet, 08:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108474624535408652) · 23 likes Norms and such I know but live-streaming executions seems kind of good conditional on the execution? If that was already the norm I’d be way more concerned about a move towards doing them essentially in private where nobody can bear witness ### [Thread, continued, 08:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108474626213102066) · 6 likes In general, it would seem better if there was a comprehensive set of camera angles on every death directly caused by the USG (save for genuine natsec stuff, like in principle) I feel like the political/policy equilibrium if that were the case would be better overall ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 08:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108474700557074470) · 1 like > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** Skyscrapers downwards Good idea ### [Quote tweet, 08:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108476034069012587) · 28 likes Convergent evolution > **Quoting Sofia (@yearning_slav):** So funny to meet a data-center-water-usage-stats-are-overblown guy who has zero connection to EA or Andy Masley, and is just a massive energy infrastructure nerd ### [Reply to @RafaRuizdeLira, 08:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108478352982265889) · 2 likes > **Rafael Ruiz ⏸️🔸 (@RafaRuizdeLira):** @AaronBergman18 🦆 ### [Quote tweet, 08:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108478508880351412) · 4 likes MAJOR GOSS > **Quoting Liron Shapira (@liron):** NEW: I’ve been following Sarah Hastings-Woodhouse (@littIeramblings) since 2023, when she went from worrying that ChatGPT might take her writing job to wondering whether AI was going to kill everyone. > > She was one of the first to pick up on the “missing mood”: If you think this technology might destroy humanity, that should actually change how you feel about the world and what you do with your life. > > After a year as Digital Communications Officer at the UK AI Security Institute (AISI), she’s now independent again and free to say what she thinks. > > We discuss why the AI companies still aren’t communicating like they believe their own warnings. If you’re racing toward a cliff because you think you have no choice, shouldn’t you at least be screaming for somebody to help you stop? > > Sarah's P(Doom) is 40–50% (similar to mine) and she's supportive of pausing AI at this point in time, but the conversation had me reconsidering whether the concept of an AI “speed dial” is more productive than a “pause button”. E.g. what does it really mean to slow down or pause RSI? > > We cover: > ⬜ How a humanities grad got AGI-pilled > ⬜ Whose timelines do you trust? > ⬜ The UK AI Security Institute > ⬜ Leaving government to speak freely > ⬜ What's Your P(Doom)?™ > ⬜ Yudkowskian Rationalists and EAs > ⬜ Is Anthropic doing enough to call for slowdown? > ⬜ Hugging Face and the vibe shift > ⬜ Is everything weird yet? > ⬜ What does it mean to ban RSI? > ⬜ AI speed dial vs. pause button > ⬜ Was calling for pause in 2023 a mistake? > > Highly recommended! 👇 > > [video attached](https://x.com/liron/status/2108231959491097061/video/1) ### [Reply to @paul_cal, 08:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108480224862380469) · 6 likes > **Paul Calcraft (@paul_cal):** Why did no one tell me GLM 5.3 was so cheap? And with no refusals. It's a little reverse engineering demon Maybe this is paranoid but unless you’re using it for something extremely boring I’m very skeptical of the ultra-cheap pricing on chinese models/infra. You get pretty good competition among legit American providers. Should raise an eyebrow when Chinese pricing makes it seem like they’re not trying to make money and are trying to get you to maximize token throughput I don’t think it’s crazy at all to be worried about Chinese state putting together profiles of users of these models. Not even saying not to use them, I’d personally just pay the premium to use a ZDR american provider (IIRC Novita and Fireworks are good. Fireworks is my go-to) ### [Reply to @LuisCostigan1, 08:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108480831148740819) · 1 like > **Luis Costigan 🔍 (@LuisCostigan1):** maybe your argument appeals to a norm of transparency? > > in which case it should apply to non-execution activities, this just seems very selective about what the government should make transparent I feel like American society has already had a large-scale back and forth around freedom of information in many areas of governance and life (FOIA, ag-gag laws, the literal Constitution) but not specifically in this domain Regardless, it’s salient rn to me because there’s a change being made on an emotionally-charged issue. Very probably there’s other stuff Im just not thinking of ### [Reply to @paul_cal, 08:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108482007563133089) · 1 like > **Paul Calcraft (@paul_cal):** Yeah I'm using ZDR US/EU providers that I trust. The price is still great compared to usage credits (once you're through the plan) or API pricing of frontier Nice. This doesn’t scale infinitely but I’ve had claude spin up a router system so I can get 1-3 additional Max plans with different emails and then it’s almost seamless to always get the subsidized plan pricing ### [Reply to @hipfritz, 09:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108482891319836901) · 1 like > **Devon Fritz 🔸 (@hipfritz):** How did you not think of beautiful day every single day. This is the number one reason why I want to move there. Lol uh🤷‍♂️ ### [Tweet, 09:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108486349515116973) · 2 likes Opus one-shots an explainer video of the Israeli plane thing from raw public data (+ reporting for context) [![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/2108486080534282240/img/WwXs2IUNk7yZx48D.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108486349515116973/video/1) (video, plays on X) ### [Reply to @januarycomputer, 09:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108492224799670410) · 5 likes > **allegedly! 🔡 (@januarycomputer):** this one i find incredibly useful, if i ever snooze an alarm it automatically allows me to start my life over > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUK20w5bYAAFgBL.jpg) > (quoting @CRXSSF4DE: @augikabi i love how you can just make iphones do shit like this) LMAO ### [Reply to @iarthsingh, 09:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108492413677572411) > **Arth Singh 🦉 (@iarthsingh):** Its so weird that top SOTA companies who says that we have solved coding asks applicants to write code manually with no AI assists. Instead join @AIMSafety\_ , we dont take coding rounds :) IQ test ### [Reply to @Kirsten3531, 15:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108587414986121615) · 3 likes > **Kirsten (@Kirsten3531):** My 24mo hitting her insane question era. "Where the bus come from? Why?" Based ### [Reply to @cljack, 19:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108638814914871565) · 1 like > **Charlotte Lee (@cljack):** This is real by the way > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUNR8RWbUAEspJv.jpg) > (quoting @cljack: Love seeing my chaotic friends for coffee dates and hearing updates like “yeah the new job’s going great, sorry I’m a little out of it, I had to go to the ER at 3am for a rabies shot cause I got attacked by a raccoon and a bat”) @livgorton ### [Reply to @bschne, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108640470666735991) · 2 likes > **Benjamin (@bschne):** a big part of my llm usage is like that Based ### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108644845866963169) · 1 like > **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** You want people to live underground like moles Real ### [Reply to @polisisti, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108644874547569012) · 1 like > **Alessandro (@polisisti):** getting banned for violating ToS > > care for animals > > heterosexuality > > expertise in Dostoyevsky :D I do like girls ### [Reply to @gunebakantr, 19:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108644901210751430) · 1 like > **günebakan (@gunebakantr):** Some suffering cannot be offset. > Some logical fallacies are cool. Nice I like this ### [Reply to @AlexTPet, 19:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108644942323277973) · 1 like > **Alex Petropoulos 🤠 (@AlexTPet):** geese Close! 🦆 ### [Reply to @diviacaroline, 19:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108645004176728098) · 1 like > **Divia Eden 🔍 (@diviacaroline):** I don’t know why, but I have this persistent misconception (I assume) that there are two accounts with your same name that are both EAs. Did you change your pfp recently? Even if you did, I don’t know why I have this sticky impression about you Hmm I have an alt but besides that not sure ### [Reply to @Will_Hackspeare, 19:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108645817540280648) · 1 like > **Amritanshu (@Will_Hackspeare):** I'm ngl, the main things I associate with you are effective altruism and going on dates Kinda based ### [Reply to @diviacaroline, 19:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108645912025477270) · 1 like > **Divia Eden 🔍 (@diviacaroline):** Oh that would explain it if I followed it do I? Lol u do not but tag is in bio if you’d like to! ### [Reply to @diviacaroline, 19:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108646283758243967) · 1 like > **Divia Eden 🔍 (@diviacaroline):** Where in your bio? I don’t see Wait I lied (by accident), Ill DM ### [Reply to @demiurgently, 19:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108648555791724966) > **sydney (@demiurgently):** probably nothing higher return than being philosophy major between 2014-2022 @absurdlymax ### [Reply to @Tyler_A_Harper, 20:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108655526435586332) > **Tyler Austin Harper (@Tyler_A_Harper):** Setting aside whether universities should be in the business of providing this kind of advice, the real question is why therapeutic bureaucracies are now somehow responsible for attending to every last private corner of student life, right down to the “bondage and fetish gear.” > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUHp7bDXwAADG9d.jpg) > (quoting @jared_lederman1: From feminist porn awards to guides on group sex, Cornell has promoted sexual liberation as a virtue. Read the full report on what my school is pushing to students in @TheFP now) One paragraph in a pamphlet somewhere? I don’t think this is much of a hill to die on ### [Reply to @lu_sichu, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108656637674438796) · 1 like > **Sichu Lu (@lu_sichu):** tag yourself in the space of minds > > [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HUNwrU8WsAAHHN5.png) (.02, -.88, .47) ### [Quote tweet, 21:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108666384008057181) · 3 likes “Quote tweet everything I say” - Sarah, just now, irl > **Quoting sarah (@littIeramblings):** this was a fun convo! thanks for having me 😌 ### [Tweet, 21:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/2108674528931131661) · 2 likes Google Docs mermaid rendering when --- End of October 2026. Previous month: [September 2026](https://abergman.com/tweets/2026-09). [Back to the archive index](https://abergman.com/tweets).